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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DanotheSlender" data-source="post: 6063381" data-attributes="member: 6703724">Grummish's coming horde...The one eyed god of orcs has long sought to conquer the world, unbeknownst to the kingdoms of light (human, elf etc..) he has done so...in another realm. now after centuries of dominance on his conquered realm he seeks to open a gate, and flood this world with hoards upon hoards of his minions, intent on enslaving all other races. in the wildlands at deserts edge he has set up his gate, a grand mystic construction of earth and stone,blood and bone as a permanent link between worlds, gathering his forces together into armies that will march to war...In the hinterlands near the realms of men and elf there has been a noted decline in the usual raids of orcish warparties. Some beleive it to be that they have actually beaten back the orcs for the time being, perhaps they have withdrawn to their lands to lick their wounds and rebuild...until a lone hermit comes stumbling out of the woodlands, into a small village on the very edge  of the civilised lands. Thin and weak with a wild look in his eyes and gibbering of the horde that comes..."they are gathering, they are hiding, but they are coming...so many...so many..." . Town elders, frightened by the mans continual urging and near madness from his fear, send runners to the larger settlements to alert the king through his governors, requesting scouts and protection. High atop his tower, one of the lands greates masters of magic has felt a strange pulling of power from the eldrich ley lines of the world. His curiosity piqued he begins scrying along the ley lines, searching for what could have caused this flux...days later he is found by his apprentiss. One of his eyes burned from his skull, his hands blackened and scarred, the crystal ball shattered, it's shards embedded in the corpse and strewn through the rest of the room...only one clue as to his demise, traced in blood from the tip of the dead mages finger a single word full of portent....GRUMMISH...Gather your party as ye may, for adventurous souls only need apply to search the realm for the cause of these ominous tidings. Created many years ago from a fever dream i had while suffering a bad bout of the flu. I left many specifics out so it can be integrated into virtually any campaign world. I ran it in the forgotten realms setting...gave my group a hell of a ride from 4th level all the way to 17th over the course of a year and a half, gaming nearly once a week on average. easy peasy to stretch out that long cause of the sheer number of enimies available, and the fact that the group had to go there and back again, several times before they actually figured out / saw the structure of the active gate itself. I beefed up the basic orc for leutenants, assigned higher levels and hit die for higher ups and made the generals equal to 12- 15th level warrior classes. Didn't use old one eye directly against the party, though it was an option if they didn't destroy the gate before the orcs pretty much conquered the lands. which they did. There were several dungeon crawls to destroy advance troops and underground supply stockades, one led to an already conquered small drow settlement where the roleplay was fantastic between the enslaved drow and the group, who eventually freed them so they could join the frey against the common enemy. Side quests also included finding lost ancient ruins which were infested with standard level appropriate beasts, where many nice, and a couple unique magic items were placed which tied into the story arc and improved the groups survivability. Even had them stumble across an ancient prophesy of the orc invasion, which led them to a unique item created to destroy the gate. If i remember correctly i actually set a time limit on the party to destroy the gate before Grummish...a couple in game years while the plans and armies came together. At one point the group finally had the lords of waterdeep convinced of the threat and even Cormyr mustered their armies along their boarders.Game On!</blockquote>

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