nogray
Adventurer
Wow; long delay. Sorry about that. I'll try to not disappear. Just getting behind on other things. At least I'm playing the actual campaign. We are about halfway through level 28. But this story has some catching up to do. Here's a small dose. I hope readers enjoy it.
Level 11 (in my notes, subtitled "Warnings") saw the characters receiving dire portents of what was to come. It was a time for flexing my foreshadowing, laying out the various potential allies of the characters as well as the troubles they would be facing.)
Freshly advanced to their Paragon Paths, the characters decided to venture to Veronia (the barony that Lucretia's player created for the intent of her eventually ruling) to cement Lucretia's position as nobility therein. North of Fallcrest, they were set upon by a catoblepas that was itself being pursued by several fey hounds that attacked their prey and the party indiscriminately. (DM Note: this was an attempt to have a battle with more than two "sides." It went pretty well, though it wasn't particularly memorable.)
When the Huntsman (a Winter Court fey) approached, the characters were able to talk their way out of a direct battle thanks to some quick Diplomacy on Lucretia's part. (This was a nudge towards the idea that the fey might be allies or enemies to Veronia, depending on how they were handled. The diplomatic path set them towards the "ally" option.)
Later in their journey, they passed by a frozen-over lake from which a "Deathbringer Dracolich" burst, its rest being disturbed by the nearness of Lucretia. (DM Note: as one of the unresolved "three troubles" was the Orcus cult, I knew I needed to ramp up the undead factor, so I took it to eleven. This was planting the seeds for how that "trouble" was escalating due to not being prioritized in the heroic tier.) The party attacked it, but it fled, flying towards Veronia. I repurposed a disease as "necrophage" that attacked the spirit and life force of the afflicted, and the Dracolich infected (or tried to infect) the characters with this contagion. They were able to fend off the pseudo-disease, however, with no lasting effect.
As the party crossed into Veronia, they began inspecting the border fortifications (a skill challenge, though one that was poorly run). As part of this inspection, the characters fought off several "random" encounters. A group of Verbeeg (a lesser giant-folk) raiders were driven off, with a warning to the survivors to never raid Veronia again. A squad of doppelganger assassins attacked the party, clearly with the intent of replacing them and infiltrating Veronia. A "Shadow Company" consisting of the named NPC Naramus and his retinue of "shadow knights" and a "shade witch" was found to be troubling some of the outlying towns and were pursued and captured. A cyst (my collective noun for any aberrant creature) of foulspawns was found harassing some dwarven traders, so the characters moved to intervene, slaying the monstrous alien beings (like the undead thread above, these foulspawn harkened back to the unresolved "trouble" that the characters had yet to resolve, though with lesser urgency and drama than the aforementioned undead.) Three devilish "sisters" hunted down the party, attacking them in a few encounters one harrowing night (one hag with each of a pain devil mounted on a griffon, a manticore bearing a kyton, and a bearded devil riding a nightmare; a squad of legion devil guards supported each wave). Most troubling was the encounter with a set of "phage zombies" that displayed the end results of the necrophage disease.
(These were foreshadowing an upcoming conflict between Veronia and some giants to the north, political intrigue in Veronia, and military attacks against Veronia from other sources. The devils were a call-back to the party's earlier encounters with that sort of foe and a foreshadowing that the devils would sometimes act to disrupt the Hell's Keeper in the party.)
I also dropped information that Bomire had been the target of an attack by a large (not the game term) greenish humanoid who burst forth from the center of the town, rampaged as it moved north, and eventually disappeared. The figure was a "Tulgar," though the party did not find out more about it until much later.
Up next: Giants Attack! Fey Involvement!
Level 11 (in my notes, subtitled "Warnings") saw the characters receiving dire portents of what was to come. It was a time for flexing my foreshadowing, laying out the various potential allies of the characters as well as the troubles they would be facing.)
Freshly advanced to their Paragon Paths, the characters decided to venture to Veronia (the barony that Lucretia's player created for the intent of her eventually ruling) to cement Lucretia's position as nobility therein. North of Fallcrest, they were set upon by a catoblepas that was itself being pursued by several fey hounds that attacked their prey and the party indiscriminately. (DM Note: this was an attempt to have a battle with more than two "sides." It went pretty well, though it wasn't particularly memorable.)
When the Huntsman (a Winter Court fey) approached, the characters were able to talk their way out of a direct battle thanks to some quick Diplomacy on Lucretia's part. (This was a nudge towards the idea that the fey might be allies or enemies to Veronia, depending on how they were handled. The diplomatic path set them towards the "ally" option.)
Later in their journey, they passed by a frozen-over lake from which a "Deathbringer Dracolich" burst, its rest being disturbed by the nearness of Lucretia. (DM Note: as one of the unresolved "three troubles" was the Orcus cult, I knew I needed to ramp up the undead factor, so I took it to eleven. This was planting the seeds for how that "trouble" was escalating due to not being prioritized in the heroic tier.) The party attacked it, but it fled, flying towards Veronia. I repurposed a disease as "necrophage" that attacked the spirit and life force of the afflicted, and the Dracolich infected (or tried to infect) the characters with this contagion. They were able to fend off the pseudo-disease, however, with no lasting effect.
As the party crossed into Veronia, they began inspecting the border fortifications (a skill challenge, though one that was poorly run). As part of this inspection, the characters fought off several "random" encounters. A group of Verbeeg (a lesser giant-folk) raiders were driven off, with a warning to the survivors to never raid Veronia again. A squad of doppelganger assassins attacked the party, clearly with the intent of replacing them and infiltrating Veronia. A "Shadow Company" consisting of the named NPC Naramus and his retinue of "shadow knights" and a "shade witch" was found to be troubling some of the outlying towns and were pursued and captured. A cyst (my collective noun for any aberrant creature) of foulspawns was found harassing some dwarven traders, so the characters moved to intervene, slaying the monstrous alien beings (like the undead thread above, these foulspawn harkened back to the unresolved "trouble" that the characters had yet to resolve, though with lesser urgency and drama than the aforementioned undead.) Three devilish "sisters" hunted down the party, attacking them in a few encounters one harrowing night (one hag with each of a pain devil mounted on a griffon, a manticore bearing a kyton, and a bearded devil riding a nightmare; a squad of legion devil guards supported each wave). Most troubling was the encounter with a set of "phage zombies" that displayed the end results of the necrophage disease.
(These were foreshadowing an upcoming conflict between Veronia and some giants to the north, political intrigue in Veronia, and military attacks against Veronia from other sources. The devils were a call-back to the party's earlier encounters with that sort of foe and a foreshadowing that the devils would sometimes act to disrupt the Hell's Keeper in the party.)
I also dropped information that Bomire had been the target of an attack by a large (not the game term) greenish humanoid who burst forth from the center of the town, rampaged as it moved north, and eventually disappeared. The figure was a "Tulgar," though the party did not find out more about it until much later.
Up next: Giants Attack! Fey Involvement!