Forgotten Realms Campaign NEW (UPDATED 7/17/06)

[Ranger5]

Red Hand of Doom - Part 4 (continued)

Chaos would not begin to describe what the companions found as they came into Cathedral Square. Amidst the pouring rain, they could hear shouts and see people scrambling towards to the Temple of Lathander. They could see several bodies laying on the ground on the far side of the square from the temple, a single arrow in each one. The quickly made their way to the temple and there found Lord Jarmaath laid out, with an arrow wound in his chest. The clerics quickly explained that just minutes before a sniper, hidden somewhere in a building across the Square from the temple, hit Jarmaath with an arrow and he fell weakened to the ground. Then several more arrow shots came and several more fell to the ground. That is when everyone broke and ran for the temple instead of regrouping for the oncoming push of the horde.

After helping where they could, Lady Kaal arrived and implored the companions to find and neutralize the sniper. Lord Jarmaath's poisoning would eventually be cured but the blow to the soldiers' morale was an even greater threat. The Red Hand horde was gathering and would soon be making a final rush to end the war. If the soldiers, who were still outnumbered, were also demoralized, the outcome would be disastrous.

So with this new assignment and time running out, the companions set out immediately. Their first problem was where the sniper was exactly. They knew the sniper was in some building across from the temple, nearly 250 feet away. Unfortunately there was just a lot of open space between the temple and the buildings across the way. So the companions devised a plan to have Aslan use of his few remaining spells and call forth a wall of wind on the far side of the square between the temple and the opposite buildings. This would at least protect them from the sniper's arrows and get them close enough to perhaps spy where the sniper was hiding.

As the companions approached the wind wall several arrows in quick succession came flying out from the second floor of a building. The companions had figured out where the sniper was. They made for the door to, ironically, the coffin maker's shop.

Grull was first and burst the door down. As he stepped inside though, two bolts of lightning shot out at him. he dodged a bit but still took some damage from the magical lightning. Entering he saw two hobgoblin war adepts readying their next spells. He charged one and dealt it a telling blow with his greatsword. The rest of the companions quickly followed and the battle was joined.

As the rain poured outside, the flashes of spells and the clash of swords could be heard inside the coffin maker's shop. Within a few moments the two hobgoblin sorcerers were dead and the door to the upstairs was located. The companions rushed up with everyone but Grull avoiding the caltrops that had been set on the steps. Aslan was first upstairs and through the door. And with his haste came an vicious attack from a barely seen opponent. Aslan got a glimpse of his attacker has he ran off deeper into the second floor and seemed to fade form view. His attacker was one of the dragon men they had faced just a few weeks ago for the first time. This one though seemed to have incredible powers of stealth though. His surprise wore off quickly when he continued to feel the sting from the sniper's sword strike flow into his veins and cause him to lose significant strength. As the poison ravaged though him, he fell back while Tala, Mishka, and finally Grull made their way into the room trying to spy out the sniper. Barros came to the aid of his friend and helped neutralize the poison and heal his wound.

The battle with the sniper was difficult at best due to his ability to fade from view. However, the companions finally were able to gain an advantage byt locking the only door to the room they were in and boxing the sniper into a corner. Finally in a last desperate attempt, the sniper made a move and the companions were they waiting and cut him down. As a matter of course, they bashed open one of the windows and threw the sniper's body out. The cheers of the soldiers were all they need to hear to confirm that morale had been restored.

Several minutes later, after some healing and going through the sniper's equipment, Captain Ulverth, bloodied and battered, arrived with word that Wyrmlord Hravek Kharn was on his way here with a contingent of his best soldiers to personally cut down the companions. Ulverth and his men were no match for Kharn so the companions once again prepared themselves for what was surely the last fight of the battle. If they survived they may actually win the war. Failure most likely meant bloody death at Kharn's hands at best, unending torture or other unimaginable horrors at worst.

The companions then went out into the streets flowing with both human and goblin blood and marched forward to meet this Wyrmlord Kharn head on with the little resources left to them after a night's worth of battles.

Shortly they saw the commander of the horde striding down the middle of the street flanked by four ogres and two hill giants. He wore what appeared to be red dragon scale full plate and held a large shield in one hand and a wicked looking heavy pick in the other. As the two groups saw each other, they sprung into action. Kharn, calling out to Tiamat, cast a spell ti infuse himself with divine power. The giants themselves rushed forward to engage the companions.

Tala opened with a hail of arrows at Kharn seriously injured the Wrymlord. The rest of the companions moved to engage the giants. Kharn then enacted his own wall of wind to protect himself from the ranger's deadly bow. As the companions dealt with the giants, Kharn cast healing as well as enhancement spells upon himself. Tala and Aslan made their way through the side streets hoping to get into a flanking position and past the wall of wind so Tala could continue firing at Kharn. Finally the giants were all but defeated, but Grull, Barros, and Miskha were worn down to the point of exhaustion. Aslan was out of spells and Tala was attempting to get to higher ground past the wind wall.

That was when Kharn entered the fray and landed a critical blow on Barros nearly killing the cleric. Grull charged the wrymlord and hit with a vicious blow himself. Finally Tala got into position and with sent three arrows into the wrymlord, two into his chest and one though his skull.

Wyrmlord Hravek Kharn fell to the cobblestones with a thud as his own blood and the rainwater swirled about and flowed down the street.

A visible shockwave went through the troops of the horde was the news of the commander's death was passed along. That was when the horde broke and ran for the hills.

The cheers of the humans, elves and dwarves rose above the pelting of the heavy rains as they continued to route the forces of the horde. At long last the companions felt they could finally breathe. The horde had been routed and the forces of Elsir Vale were victorious.

The next day, after much healing and rest, the companions were the guests of honor at a victory celebration. Lord Jarmaath, recently healed of his wounds, spoke at length of the Heroes of Elsir Vale and how their actions had been instrumental in turning the tide of battle in their favor. Runners had been sent to Dennovar with the news of victory. The celebration feast lasted most of the day. Near the twilight hours, Lord Jarmaath called the companions aside and asked to speak with them on a matter of grave importance.

He had recently learned from his scouts and spies, and from recovered documents, the reason why High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul was not present at the battle of Brindol. Apparently he is performing a month long ritual to open a permanent portal to Tiamat's Court in Avernus in a place called the Fane of Tiamat. This Fane is located somewhere in the Wrymsmoke Mountains. If Azarr Kul is successful he will have an army of devils that will be all but unstoppable. Jarmaath calls upon the companions once more to find this Azarr Kul and stop him before he completes the ritual. He has secured the help of Immerstal the Red to teleport the companions to Drellin's Ferry where this all began to start what is hopefully the last battle in his bloody war.

So the next morning, the 21st of Flamerule, the companions found themselves in the burnt out remains of Drellin's Ferry and set out for the forbidding Wrymsmoke Mountains.

(To be continued with Part 5 of the Red Hand of Doom)

 

[Ranger5]

Red Hand of Doom - Part 5

With the help of Aslan's magic, the companions were able to travel as swiftly on foot as if they had horses, which they did not. With a rough map of the area, along with Tala's knowledge of the region, they knew the Old Forest Road became a trail that lead into the Wyrmsmoke Mountains near the ruins of Vraath Keep. Within four hours they were approaching the ruins when they met up with a Red Hand warband.

The companions quickly engaged the enemy and within a minute had killed all the hobgoblins except one. They managed to capture one and keep him alive. They then interrogated the creature on the whereabouts of the Fane of Tiamat. In typical religious fanaticism, the hobgoblin did not give anything up. That is until Grull decided to handle the interrogations himself. A few punches to the head and gut and a cut off finger later, the hobgoblin was extremely compliant with answering Tala's questions about the location of the Fane which turned out to be just over three days journey into the Wrymsmoke Mountains along the trail that was the Old Forest Road.

So armed with this, the companions set out for the Fane. And on the morning of the 25th of Flamerule they found themselves approaching what could only be the Fane of Tiamat. The structure was in the shape of a rearing five-headed dragon that was seemingly coming out of the stone of the mountain itself. The companions could see a large stone door near what was the belly of the huge dragon. The door itself was also surrounded by five stone-worked rearing necks and heads, each the color of a chromatic dragon. And high above the door was the opening a large cave.

As the companions approached, five booming voices bellowed out of the five large dragon heads. "Who seeks entrance to the Fane of Tiamat? Only the faithful may approach and pass. All others will be destroyed!"

However, something did not ring true. As they listened to the voices, the companions were able to realize that it was in truth one voice and not five. So they continued forward along the pathway, a stone bridge flanked by a hundred and fifty foot drop, towards a ledge and the stone door.

As they approached the ledge, they heard the words, "So be it" come from the five dragon heads. A moment later, a large blue dragon leapt out of the cavern high above them and moved to attack.

The companions readied weapons and spells but the dragon flew out level with the bridge and ledge but thirty feet from them and hovered. It then let loose with its breath weapon doing serious damage to those caught in its blast. The companions, not prepared well for a ranged assault - besides Tala that is - could do very little at first. And even Tala, with her deadly bow, found it difficult to penetrate the dragon's hide and do any real damage. Meanwhile, the dragon, with the advantage of the air, blasted at the companions with both his breath weapon and a wand of fireballs. Aslan was able to deal some damage with his spells when he could defeat the creature's resistance to magic. Both Grull and Mishka had little in the way of ranged attacks. And Barros was attempting to heal his companions after the devastating initial attacks of the dragon.

Finally Barros cast a targeted dispel magic at the dragon and was able to strip away one of its magical defenses. With that gone, Tala was finally able to score some devastating hits on the creature with her bow. In the flow of the battle though she found herself somewhat separated from the rest of the group. The dragon, knowing he could not damage her with his breath weapon or wand - she always seemed to jump out of the way unscathed - flew down for a melee assault on the ranger and scored some viscous hits upon her. She fell back but that one moment was all Grull needed.

Charging the now within reach dragon, his sword bit deeply into the creatures flank. The dragon howled with pain, attacked back and then moved out of reach. Bloodied and gravely wounded, the dragon flew off into the mountains, disappearing behind a far off ridge.

It was during the battle, Mishka, unfortunately learned the stone door was trapped. If the door was opened the five smaller dragon heads breathed their various breath weapons upon those in front of the door and then the door slammed shut. As the companions healed, and Aslan flew up to the dragon's cave with the use of Tala's potion of flying, they formulated a plan to get past the door. After much discussion it was decided that Mishka would again open the door but this time instead of diving out of the way, he would take the damage and hold the door open. With his natural immunity to electricity, he also donned Barros's red dragon plate armor, which gave him some resistance to fire, and wore a ring that afforded him minor protection against cold damage. So all that was left was the acid damage. He hoped it would not be so bad.

So with all the preparations in place, Mishka opened the door, held on tight and took the damage. Once the blast was over, the rest of the group leapt through the door and Mishka quickly followed. Just inside the door, they found themselves in a long wide hall that ended in stairs going up and that ended in a pair of double doors. After returning equipment and healing Mishka, the companions set out and went through the doors. They found themselves in a large room with several side doors and two more double doors opposite the ones they just entered through.

They also found a pair of undead wyverns and two blue abishai guarding the room. The creatures leapt to the attack and the companions answered in kind. After a fierce battle, the companions realized that even though the abishai were dead they were not defeated. The creature’s natural regeneration kept them coming back. So while they creatures were regenerating back to consciousness, the companions braved the trapped door once more while Mishka dragged the bodies out to the ledge outside the Fane and threw the two devils over it. The figured it would be awhile before they came back from that despite their regeneration.

The companions deciding that time was of the essence, opened the side doors from the large room and found only small hallways and more doors. The two large double doors revealed and long hallway that ended in stairs leading down. They took that route deciding it must be the most direct to where their enemy, Azarr Kul, was.

At the end of the hall, and down the stairs, they found a massive chamber that was obviously the main worship room for the Fane. There were pews setup in front of a massize stone altar to Tiamat. Five large alcoves in the far wall and sixty feet above the ground were just big enough to hold dragons they noticed. Upon entering though, dragons did not fly out of the alcoves, but five live wyverns did. The wyverns’ employed fly-by attacks while the companions scrambled to get into position to get hits on them as they passed by. The battle was fast and furious but soon enough was over. As the companions took stock of what was in the chamber, they realized there was no High Wyrmlord chanting to Tiamat to open a gate to Avernus here. They did a quick search of the massive room but found nothing. So they decided that Azarr Kul must lay somewhere behind them. They turned back and began exploring the corridors of the Fane.

The Fane seemed strangely quiet, even with all the noise they were making. They finally came upon the resting chambers of a group of hobgoblin clerics and warpriests of Tiamat. The hobgoblins themselves seemed exhausted but fought fiercely. The companions tried to once again capture one but in the confusion, all were eventually slain. The companions then came across what appeared to be the kitchen of the Fane and it was not empty. Busily cooking away, the companions found a night hag. As they entered, she asked, "What is it you want? Dinner is not ready yet. And make sure that Azarr Kul eats this time!"

It was obvious to the companions that the night hag was not aware they were intruders. Jumping at the chance, Aslan asked if she knew where they could find Azarr Kul. His bluff worked as she asked, "Well did you go through the concealed door at the back of the worship room? The one on the far wall?"

He said they had not, thanked her, and the companions made their way back to the worship hall. Once there, they did a more detailed search of the far wall, and Mishka eventually found the concealed door. Opening it, they found a rough passageway leading into darkness.

(To be continued next post...)

 

[Ranger5]

Red Hand of Doom - Part 5 (The Conclusion)

The darkened passageway, lit by the light of the Eye of Night, ended in a large three-tiered cavern. On the north side of the cavern there was an opening that quickly became the worked stone of a wide hallway. However a field of stalactites populated the cavern floor. On the southern end of the cavern a deep, dark pit opened up.

As the companions made their way across the cavern, three creatures leapt to the attack. They were the same kind of creature as the one that nearly defeated them in the swamps of the Blackfens. However, the companions were much more versed in the ways of the creatures' tactics and in just a few short moments all three creatures were dead.

Once down the corridor the companions came across quite a scene. There were seven hobgoblin clerics all in the midst of a ritual. There were also 4 undead wraiths about the room as well. The room itself was round with a raised dais in the center. There was a large whole in the roof, from which light could be seen streaming down. As the clerics were caught up in their ritual, they did not see the approach of the companions. Tala let loose with her bow, while Aslan summoned a dire lion in the midst of the clerics. During the midst of the carnage one of the clerics happened to cast invisibility and slip out through a secret door.

As the companions finished off the last of the clerics and wraiths, suddenly two erinyes appeared in the altar room now littered with dead hobgoblin clerics. The immediately used their innate summoning powers and brought forth eight bearded devils. The erinyes then retreated a bit while the bearded devils engaged the companions in melee combat. The companions, now quite hard-pressed due the recent battles, had to fall back and attempt to regroup due to the bearded devils’ onslaught. Unfortunately Tala had been immediately surrounded by the devilish creatures and was trying to fight them off with her sword having dropped her bow.

The companions began laying into the bearded devils trying to get to Tala but they were not fast enough. She fell to their wicked glaives. Fortunately for her, Barros had cast a protection spell that kept her from immediately dying from her wounds. However, the magic would not last forever. Meanwhile, the eirnyes had retreated further down the hall and back into the cavern, taking to the air, while using their spell-like abilities or flaming longbows against the companions.

Finally as the bearded devils were falling before the attacks of the worn out companions, Grull made it to the erinyes position and dealt one a devastating blow as she had gotten too close to the ground. The other one then cast a charm spell at Grull and his will crumbled in the face of the devil's magic. She then telepathically told Grull to put up his weapon and rest in the cavern while she tended to his wounds. Sounding reasonable enough, Grull complied. That was then, behind the companions back in the altar room, a figure appeared. He was a blue-scaled, seven-foot tall hobgoblin wearing draconic full plate, a draconic heavy shield, and wielding a wicked looking heavy pick.

It could only be Azarr Kul.

The companions immediately turned their attentions on this new threat. Aslan was the first to attack Azarr Kul by summoning another dire lion. However, none of the dire lion's attacks were able to connect. Mishka was next to attack and he too could not connect. Barros was finally able to heal Tala back into consciousness and was also able to free Grull from the effects of the charm spell. Grull then went after Azarr Kul and he too found his attacks completely missing the target. Tala then fired her bow at the hobgoblin and missed as well. Finally Mishka made it to the half-dragon hobgoblin and as his own attack missed he suddenly realized what was happening. The figure before them was an illusion. He cried out that Azarr Kul was not real.

It was then the two erinyes looked at each, shrugged and teleported away to heal their own wounds. A moment later, the image of Azarr Kul faded away.

With no more enemies in sight and very low on spells the companions decided to reluctantly retreat, rest, and try again tomorrow if they could. Aslan cast one of his last spells that allowed him to fly and he went up the whole in the ceiling hoping it was a way out. However, it was not. In fact, before him he saw what could only be the real Azarr Kul, enmeshed in the casting of some dire spell with four abishai looking on. Above the half-dragon was crease in the air through which Aslan could see what could only be Avernus, the infernal realm of Tiamat.

Aslan quickly retreated without being seen and the companions made their way out of the Fane without too much incident. Finding a spot several miles away, they rested for the night and planned their assault on the Fane. This time their plan was to use invisibility magics to bypass the Fane's guards and make their way straight to the inner sanctum where Aslan would fly up once more with a grappling hook and a knotted rope and attach it to the top of the opening so the rest of the party could get up there. And that is what they did.

After getting into the Fane once more, they found themselves standing in the inner sanctum, Azarr Kul still in the midst of his casting and the abishai still looking on; all unaware the companions were there. All had gone according to plan for the companions. Unfortunately, they did count on the unhallow spell cast on the inner sanctum that affected all non-worshipers of Tiamat with a silence spell. The spellcasters could not cast their spells!

Forging ahead though, Grull, Mishka, and Barros surrounded Azarr Kul while Tala and Aslan hung back. Then in a surprise attack Mishka swung his weapon at the half-dragon, but missed. Grull then followed suit along with Barros. Tala fired her bow as well. Aslan discovered the silence only affect those in the room not in the whole that lead to the altar room below. So using his flying spell, he hovered over the pit and cast his spells.

Azarr Kul, surprised and wounded, cast invisibility on himself and fell back while the four abishai rushed forward to attack. While Azarr Kul remained invisible, the companions took on the abishai. One was able to summon another and while the abishai fell before the companions’' attacks, their regenerative powers kept bringing them back into the fight. And meanwhile, Azarr Kul was somewhere in the room, casting spells to both heal himself and buff himself up.

Eventually, Barros went over to the whole and climbed onto the rope, carefully while holding onto a rope above a 100' drop, cast invisibility purge. Suddenly, Azarr Kul appeared near the back of the room. Grull charged but was stopped by some protective barrier. Aslan and Tala both blasted the half-dragon with spell and arrow doing significant damage. The half-dragon followed with his own attack spell, and cast a flame strike on Aslan, Tala, and Barros. All were able to resist most of the damage, however, the rope that Barros was hanging on incinerated instantly, causing the cleric to plummet 100' to the altar room below. Barros barely survived but had no way to get back up.

Finally, Tala was able to get a clear shot at Azarr Kul and filled him with arrows. The cleric fell dead to the ground.

For a brief moment the companions breathed a sigh of relief. However their relief was short lived as a roar bellowed throughout the room. And just as suddenly, the five chromatic dragon heads surrounding the raised dais breathed their respective breath weapons onto the dais engulfing it in fire, acid, cold, and electricity. And Grull was still standing on the dais. He managed to dive off but still taking grievous damage from the magical elemental energy.

Then the portal above the dais opened and to the companions' horror it seemed as if Tiamat herself appeared. A huge five-headed dragon stepped onto the dais and in one bite from the blue head, gulped down the crumpled body of Azarr Kul.

This was not Tiamat herself but an Aspect of Tiamat. Still an extremely dangerous foe, the companions took the fight to the creature. It bellowed in rage and spewed fire from one of its heads with the rest attacking the other companions not caught in the blast.

The battle raged with Grull, fully healed by Mishka, slashing at the Aspect, while Tala fired her bow with deadly precision. Aslan kept casting spells at the Aspect. The Aspect, spewed elemental energy once again, this time a line of acid at Tala. Caught off-guard she nearly fell as the acid ate away at clothing and skin.

Finally, Aslan cast his own spell at the Aspect and the creature fell before the magical onslaught.

The battle was over.

With their leader dead, the remaining denizens of the Fane fled. The companions did find Azarr Kul's personal bedchamber on their way out of the Fane. In it they found an interesting note. It read:

"High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. It pleases me to hear of your latest conquests and I am glad the forces I sent could be of use even though your assassin did not complete his task. Though I did hear from some sources that one of the original five meddlers has been killed. But despite your assassin's failure, I am pleased we could come to a different, yet just as mutually helpful, solution to both our problems.

I look forward to seeing you once your conquest of Elsir Vale is complete. And once my goal has been completed I am sure we will be seeing more of each other.

Once again, I wish you the best of luck and may Tiamat smile upon you. If you need to reach me for any reason, please send any communications to my servant, Chundag. He is currently at the Dunerain Mines completing a task for me.


-Skullshank"

Realizing that this Skullshank was the same one they were looking into almost two months ago before the invasion of the Red Hand horde, they took the note to ponder their next move. However, they needed to get back to Brindol with the news of what had happened.

In the days that followed their return to Brindol, the companions were hailed again as heroes. They also found that life was beginning to return to the Vale. Already the displaced refugees were returning to rebuild what they had to and continue on, such was the spirit of the Valefolk.

Each of the companions were presented with gifts from Lord Jaarmath and the rest of the High Council including the Tiri Kitor elves. Then Grull decided to look into some personal business in the mountain village of Red Rock. Meanwhile, Aslan, Tala, Barros, and Mishka awaited their friend's return and relaxed for the first time in months, in the city of Brindol.

(While some companions go on personal quests, others will find more even more adventure to be had in Elsir Vale. All that, and the search for the mysterious Skullshank, will continue.)

 

[Ranger5]

Remnants of the Red Hand

The four companions awoke in cells, stripped of all equipment, with Aslan and Barros additionally bound and gagged. Freshly healed wounds could be seen and felt on all their bodies. Memories come flooding back.

It was on the night before Midsummer Holiday, just seven days ago, that Tala had the most vivid nightmare of her father, Jorr Natherson, being captured and tortured within the Fane of Tiamat. She could not see who was torturing him but she was so shaken by the images when she awoke, that see had to do something about them. She decided to approach her friends and told them of the dream. She explained how real it felt and that she still had a foreboding sense of dread. She then made the decision to travel to the Fane and see if there was anything to her dream. Her companions of course agreed to go with her.

It just so happened that the regiment of Tiri Kitor elves that was still in Brindol needed a favor. They had more giant owls in Brindol than they had riders. And since the elves and the owls all trusted the companions, the elves said that Tala and her friends could use the owls to travel to the Fane as long as they headed to Starsong Hill once they were done. The companions agreed and left the next morning on the 1st of Eleasis, 1373 DR.

On the third day before they broke camp for the final leg of their journey to the Fane, the companions were caught by surprise and ambushed. The attackers were swift and brutally effective. All of the companions were swiftly neutralized and knocked into unconsciousness.

Images of days of torture at the hands of some kind of infernal creature also came back as well. This was punctuated by the sight of the torture chamber just outside their prison doors.

Suddenly, the sound of the main door could be heard. The companions looked up and instead of their torturer; they saw the familiar face of Jorr. He signaled them to remain silent and made his way to Tala's cell. While using his lockpicking skills to open her door, he explained that he had found the giant owls and was able to track the companions and their captors back to the Fane. He had spent the last two days scouting the Fane and was able to determine that it was currently being occupied by several kind of infernal beings, a night hag, and human female sorceress with red hair. The sorceress seemed to be the leader.

He also knew where their equipment was being held and he could lead them out of here. He explained that some kind of catastrophic event occurred here just three days before that caused some of the corridors to collapse. With that he led the companions to the room where their equipment was.

Just after donning their equipment a shot could be heard echoing through the halls of the Fane.

Shortly afterwards the doors to the room they were in, opened and there stood an infernal creature covered in barbs. It immediately attacked. After the few seconds the first devil was joined by two others, these with long beards and glaives.

The battle did not go well for the companions. Both Barros and Jorr died in the melee.

The companions decided to press on and take the battle to the red-haired sorceress, whom they had encountered in the past. It was then they were ambushed in the cramped corridors of the Fane by the night hag and the two erinyes they had fought just a few days before. And this battle did not fare any better for the remaining companions. Mishka and Tala fell to the attacks of the infernal creatures though they were able to drive off the night hag. Aslan, decided that escape was his only choice and valiantly tried to save Tala's body but in the end, had to escape on his own.

So as it was, the adventures of Barros, Mishka, and Tala finally came to end on the 6th day of Eleasis, 1373 DR. Aslan himself disappeared into the north though no one knows exactly where he went. As for Grull, he returned from Red Rock, heard that his friends had gone back to the Fane and followed to see if he could find them. Once he got there though, he found the entrance to the Fane had been collapsed and could not find anyway in. He then left the Wrymsmoke Mountains in search of any clues as to where his friends might be.

He still searches to this day.

 

[Ranger5]

Campaign 180

So with the most recent post it might seem that the campaign is over. But this is not the case. Yes the near TPK was unexpected, and we even discussed as a group if the whole scenario should be a dream, but that was thrown out. The group decided to continue the fight after the first battle when they could have easily escaped.

So, we then started to discuss what to do next. One idea that came up was to play more "morally ambiguous" characters and continue to adventure in the region of Damara. After some back and forth on some ground rules, I decided to run an "evil" campaign.

The basic idea is that all the characters are a part of the Guild of Damara. Think of it like the mafia. Here is a little blurb I wrote up for the players:

The Guild of Damara, or simply the Guild, came into being shortly after the fall of Zhengyi and his army and the rise of Gareth Dragonsbane as the new king of Damara. The Guild was originally the Citadel of Assassins, who had supported Zhengyi's army, and was lead by a powerful dark cleric of Bane named Banak. With the fall of Zhengyi, King Gareth and his cohorts turned their considerable power into helping the lands of Damara cement relationships within and without. Their other goal was to bring down not only the Citadel of Assassins but the other nefarious guilds operating in the region and especially in the city of Heliogabalus. And the paladin-king and his companions were proving to be very capable in their plans of rooting out the lesser evil organizations and were beginning to close in on the Citadel itself.

Then in a surprising and bold move, Knellict, second in command of the Citadel and a powerful wizard, arrived at King Gareth's castle in Heliogabalus with two gifts. One was Banak himself, beaten and bound, and the other was a mysterious artifact of the Witch-King. In return for these two gifts, Knellict asked that the Citadel of Assassins be left alone and allowed to go on. To even further facilitate the king, Knellict offered to rename the Citadel of Assassins to simply the Guild, and move their base of operations to Heliogabalus. And finally, he proposed that this new Guild would absorb the remaining nefarious guilds into it and apply the same guidelines and strictures that would allow them to do legitimate business. As Knellict put it so aptly to King Gareth, "The past is the past. The future is yet to be written. And it’s nothing personal, it’s just business."

The king, despite some protests from his cohorts, could see the advantages of having a guild of the less than savory sorts since in business, they seemed to excel. And Damara was in desperate straights due to the recent war. Any influx of wealth to the region could only help. And his motto was "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."

So in the intervening years, the Guild has grown into an incredibly wealthy and powerful organization. It is still lead by Knellict and even though it seems that if he really did try he could overthrow the King, he chooses not to. His reasons are his own. And even though the Guild deals in legitimate business dealings, there are still the shadowy, nefarious dealings they still have their hands in as well - banditry, assassinations, etc - but never outright and in the open. Though it is unwise to cross anyone in the Guild for those people seem to disappear never to be heard from again.

The Guild has bases throughout Damara and the surrounding regions, including Vaasa. The Citadel itself has been largely abandoned due to Knellict's agreement with King Gareth. However, rumors speak of a secret base somewhere in Vaasa that is home to many of the vilest of the Guild's members. Their reason for being there is unknown.

So with that I am starting all the players off at 12th level since that is where they were almost at when their other guys bit the dust. And this will be somewhat of a sequel to the previous adventure since some of the things I did not get to will pop up in this game.

Well this will be the first time I do not run a heroic game. I am fairly certain this will work since we are all good friends and pretty mature players at that.

Anyway, stay tuned for the new campaign, appropriately entitled, "Down the Dark Path".