fissionessence
First Post
Author's Note: So, I've never written anything like this before, or even kept a campaign journal . . . but I've regretted it. Here's me trying to rectify that. I'm starting several weeks behind, but our sessions are short, so it should be easy to catch up.
The players are starting out at level 3, for reasons not having to do with the campaign itself really, and I'm running a heavily modified and pared down version of Keep on the Shadowfell to start off.
EDIT: Added some updated information and hyperlinks to resources.
Here are the players. As this is a Magic universe, some are color-aligned. Some are from familiar planes, while others are from planes of their own devising.
Grrda: Gnoll Rogue — Brutal Scoundrel. What Grrda knows about her home plane doesn't extend past the area she's from. She lived on a continent pretty much controlled by gnolls who kept humans and other races as slaves. She tried to help said slaves, becoming an outcast herself.
Murgatroid: Catfolk Rune Soldier — rune of inferno, rune of vigor, rune of mystery. The catfolk race is a modified shifter; the rune soldier class (download the free heroic tier playtest) is one I'm working on for Silent7Seven Games, and the player thought it sounded interesting and wanted to play one (yay, playtesting for me!) She is a calico-striped leonin from the green-red-and-white plane of Naya; each of her runes represents one of the plane's colors. (The rune of inferno is red, rune of vigor is white, and rune of mystery is green; in the write-up it's more blue, with mind-control effects, but she re-flavored it to be mind-affecting spores.) The character learned of these magic runes and how to wield them by studying the Obelisk of Naya.
Whisper: Dauthi Witch Doctor. The dauthi are a race of shadowfolk living in a shadowy demiplane-type-thing off Dominaria. It used to be between Dominaria and Rath, until those two planes merged. Many dauthi entered Dominaria, but some remained in the shadow-plane, and Whisper was one such individual. She and her [twin?] brother, Windows, were 'seers' of the tribe, Whisper having the ability to hear her ancestors, and Windows having the ability to see them. Whisper has a very eccentric personality. The player described her as a combination of Drusilla from Buffy/Angel and River from Firefly/Serenity. He's very good at coming up with creepy and weird things for her to say. He's playing the witch doctor class from One Bad Egg, but with lightning powers replaced with necrotic; he chooses those powers along with psychic-based ones, and uses the mask of the ancestors. For the dauthi race, he used shadar-kai (Dragon Magazine 372), with modified ability score bonuses.
Empath: Saproling Artificer. This small saproling character from the Selesnya guild of the Ravnica plane developed a personality that didn't totally mesh with the 'hive mind' type mentality of the guild. It was interested in magical artifice and things of the sort, and kind of went its own way. It stayed in the guild, but remained misunderstood. For the race, the player used the oakling, one of the Remarkable Races line. However, with the release of the Tvari, he's rebuilt his character (nothing is wrong with the oakling, but the saproling is more of a fungus like the Tvari, plus the racial stuff is a much better fit).
Tars: Minotaur Barbarian. Tars is a proud minotaur (Dragon Magazine 369) warrior from the plane of Dominaria. He is a descendant of Tangarth of the Skyship Weatherlight, and as such is far more familiar with the concept of the 'multiverse' and the 'planes' than the other characters. However, this knowledge can only take him so far, as he is still a barbarian.
One of the first things I realized was that none of these characters was human, or even pink-skinned. We have three furry characters (gnoll, minotaur, leonin), a mushroom, and a black shadowy form of a young girl. The first adventure, being filled with humans, doesn't really mesh well with this concept, but it's something I've taken into account somewhat for future adventures. The multiverse is a big place, so I'll try to find places where you don't have to be human to fit in.
Part 1: Keep on the Æthark — Session 1
As the morning dawns on the town of Winterhaven, five beings from across the planes awaken to find themselves in cozy, yet completely foreign environments. For the gnoll and the minotaur, the human-sized bed is an awkward fit. The leonin purrs herself awake, having discarded the blanket to enjoy the warmth of the sunlight pouring in through the window. When she opens her eyes, the indoors is an entirely unfamiliar sight. She has seen the stone buildings of the ancient leonin city . . . but she has seen nothing such as this place.
Whisper, too, is disoriented by her surroundings. She finds herself sleeping several feet above the ground on a strangely soft surface. She quickly realizes the folly of this and escapes under the bed, where she can be much more comfortable. However, she remains confounded by the utter lack of shadowy wisping of everything around her. Why is everything so stable, and where is her brother Windows?
Empath feels the uncomfortable rays of sunlight as they awaken him. He much prefers a dark, damp place . . . and why is he stuck in a pot, his tendrils dug into the soil? He pulls himself out; whoever has placed him here is decidedly ignorant, and Empath is offended.
The five misplaced invidividuals exit their rooms, meeting almost simultaneously in a shared hallway. They share awkward glances.
"Has anyone seen Windows? I haven't seen him; he is the one who sees."
The minotaur, gnoll, saproling and leonin look at the shadow-girl.
"Who is Windows?" asks the leonin.
"He is the one who sees," says the girl. "I listen."
"I see."
"He sees. Have you seen him?"
"No."
A moment more passes, and the gnoll and minotaur share furtive glances. Neither is much for talk, nor for talk with strangers. Though they share no words, they are of like-mind. They immediately begin to leave the awkward scene and gain their bearings and whereabouts. Just as they approach the stairs leading down, they are interrupted.
A pair of elves — one male and one female — have acended the stairs. The male has green hair to his shoulders and wears a bow and quiver on his back. The girl has stark white hair to her lower back and wears a blank expression and white tattered robes.
"Ah, I see our guests have woken up," says the male elf.
"Your guests?" The minotaur raises an eyebrow with a huff.
"Ah yes," the elf smiles. "We found you all unconscious last night just a few yards out from the town. We brough you here and paid for your rooms." He glances at his companion, who nods solemnly.
The minotaur lifts his head to reply, "And ju—"
"No, no," interrupts the elf. "Don't worry, we've paid for it and all is taken care of; no need to thank us."
"And just who are you?" the minotaur continues.
"Ah. I am Ninaran," says the green-haired elf. "And this is Palreah." Palreah smiles briefly at the mention of her name. "And who are you?"
The minotaur huffs again, and glances at the strange bunch behind him. Something about this elf seems off, and though he has just met these others, he feels more kin to them than the swift-talking green-haired elf. Regardless, he answers.
"I am Tars of Talruum."
"Have you seen Windows?" Whisper steps through the narrow hallway, past the gnoll and minotaur to ask.
"Uhm, ah, well. There are windows downstairs, and there's a window in your room, if I recall," Ninaran says. "And who are you?"
"Windows let outside come inside," Palreah says excitedly. Ninaran gives her an angry glance, and Palreah glances toward the floor.
"I am Whisper, but I am looking for my brother Windows. Have you seen him?"
Ninaran curls his lip, and looks back up at Tars. "Well, Tars of Talruum, welcome to Winterhaven. Palreah and I had better be going, but you all enjoy your stay." The two elves begin to turn back toward the stairs.
"Winterhaven?" Tars asks. "Where is that?"
Ninaran replies, explaining the location within the kindgom and describing a merchant route along which the town lies. Tars seems to remain confused.
"Well then," Tars asks, "where do we go from here? How did we get here?"
"I don't know," Ninaran says. "We just found you. You could always go to the keep. You all look tough; plenty of treasure and fame to be gained at the keep."
With that, the elves turn and descend the stairs, leaving the characters in silence.
* * * * *
The five lost adventurers descended the stairs together, making brief introductions, all while Whisper continues to ask for her brother. They ask the innkeeper of the validity of Ninaran's story, and he says it's true; the elf paid him last night for all five rooms, after dragging their bodies into the inn where several townsfolk had seen them lying in the road outside town—seemingly from nowhere.
With not much to go on except the advice from their seeming-saviors, the characters head out toward the keep, following the innkeeper's directions.
Not a half mile outside of town, out on the road curved around a copse of trees, they encounter several rat-men scavenging the remains of a merchant's wagon. Lying strewn around the scene are a couple dead merchants with arrows in the backs, and one whose face and body have almost completely collapsed, dessicated. The nezumi look up from their pillaging task as the minotaur and gnoll charge forward.
[This encounter is the Wagon Ambush encounter on page 94 of Dungeon Magazine 155 from the 'Shadow of Kalarel' article. The kobolds in this encounter are described as ratfolk instead, and their numbers are reduced to make for a simple, fast fight.]
Some ratfolk hide behind the collapsed wagons, firing sling bullets from their hiding place, but Tars enters directly into their midst and begins cutting them down. Grrda as well slides into the fray, digging into their weak spots with her claws.
Empath and Whisper fire from their initial vantage as the leonin moves in, attacking the ratfolk with her spiked chain, drawing flaming runes with her strikes. Whisper conjures ancestor spirits to attack the minds and bodies of the nezumi.
After a brief and hopeless attempt at defending themselves, most of the rats have been defeated. One, though, sees his opportunity to escape, and runs off down the road. Grrda is quick to follow.
After a seconds-long chase, the gnoll rogue catches up to him and knocks him to the ground.
"Please," he says, begging for his life. "Please don't kill me!"
"Why should I spare you, when you didn't spare those merchants?" Grrda asks.
The nezumi's eyes widen. "What? We didn't kill them! We just found it like that and so we were . . . you know, finding stuff."
Grrda narrows her eyes, then turns toward her companions to garner their opinions. A whir and a thunk from the nezumi causes her to spin back toward him, where she finds an arrow set deeply into the skull of the now-dead ratfolk. Leaves from the nearby forest rustle and Grrda heads toward them to find the wielder of the bow.
Having heard the nezumi's last words, Empath, Tars and the leonin discuss whether the shifty ratfolk is to be believed. Whisper begins dragging the dead bodies into a pile, ignoring the conversation. Empath points out that none of the nezumi had a bow, or even arrows, and yet two of the dead merchants have arrows in their backs. That and the fact that another arrow flew from the forest to kill the rat lends credence to his story.
Whisper requests that the bodies be burned so that the spirits can leave and she doesn't have to hear them, and the characters turn her corpse pile into a pyre.
Grrda returns from the woods shortly after, disappointed from her failure to find the bow culprit, but now excited at the prospect of all this treasure left by the now-dead merchants. However, a closer investigation into the merchandise reveals that it is mostly a thrift shop on wheels, with very little worth its weight. They are happy to find a bag of holding; however, they also find a parcel marked for one 'Douven Staul' who seems to dwell in Winterhaven. Feeling compelled to fulfill the last few steps of the parcel's deliver—and also have words with this bow-wielding green-haired elf, Ninaran—the characters track back their steps into the town.
* * * * *
~ fissionessence
The players are starting out at level 3, for reasons not having to do with the campaign itself really, and I'm running a heavily modified and pared down version of Keep on the Shadowfell to start off.
EDIT: Added some updated information and hyperlinks to resources.
Here are the players. As this is a Magic universe, some are color-aligned. Some are from familiar planes, while others are from planes of their own devising.
Grrda: Gnoll Rogue — Brutal Scoundrel. What Grrda knows about her home plane doesn't extend past the area she's from. She lived on a continent pretty much controlled by gnolls who kept humans and other races as slaves. She tried to help said slaves, becoming an outcast herself.
Murgatroid: Catfolk Rune Soldier — rune of inferno, rune of vigor, rune of mystery. The catfolk race is a modified shifter; the rune soldier class (download the free heroic tier playtest) is one I'm working on for Silent7Seven Games, and the player thought it sounded interesting and wanted to play one (yay, playtesting for me!) She is a calico-striped leonin from the green-red-and-white plane of Naya; each of her runes represents one of the plane's colors. (The rune of inferno is red, rune of vigor is white, and rune of mystery is green; in the write-up it's more blue, with mind-control effects, but she re-flavored it to be mind-affecting spores.) The character learned of these magic runes and how to wield them by studying the Obelisk of Naya.
Whisper: Dauthi Witch Doctor. The dauthi are a race of shadowfolk living in a shadowy demiplane-type-thing off Dominaria. It used to be between Dominaria and Rath, until those two planes merged. Many dauthi entered Dominaria, but some remained in the shadow-plane, and Whisper was one such individual. She and her [twin?] brother, Windows, were 'seers' of the tribe, Whisper having the ability to hear her ancestors, and Windows having the ability to see them. Whisper has a very eccentric personality. The player described her as a combination of Drusilla from Buffy/Angel and River from Firefly/Serenity. He's very good at coming up with creepy and weird things for her to say. He's playing the witch doctor class from One Bad Egg, but with lightning powers replaced with necrotic; he chooses those powers along with psychic-based ones, and uses the mask of the ancestors. For the dauthi race, he used shadar-kai (Dragon Magazine 372), with modified ability score bonuses.
Empath: Saproling Artificer. This small saproling character from the Selesnya guild of the Ravnica plane developed a personality that didn't totally mesh with the 'hive mind' type mentality of the guild. It was interested in magical artifice and things of the sort, and kind of went its own way. It stayed in the guild, but remained misunderstood. For the race, the player used the oakling, one of the Remarkable Races line. However, with the release of the Tvari, he's rebuilt his character (nothing is wrong with the oakling, but the saproling is more of a fungus like the Tvari, plus the racial stuff is a much better fit).
Tars: Minotaur Barbarian. Tars is a proud minotaur (Dragon Magazine 369) warrior from the plane of Dominaria. He is a descendant of Tangarth of the Skyship Weatherlight, and as such is far more familiar with the concept of the 'multiverse' and the 'planes' than the other characters. However, this knowledge can only take him so far, as he is still a barbarian.
One of the first things I realized was that none of these characters was human, or even pink-skinned. We have three furry characters (gnoll, minotaur, leonin), a mushroom, and a black shadowy form of a young girl. The first adventure, being filled with humans, doesn't really mesh well with this concept, but it's something I've taken into account somewhat for future adventures. The multiverse is a big place, so I'll try to find places where you don't have to be human to fit in.
Part 1: Keep on the Æthark — Session 1
As the morning dawns on the town of Winterhaven, five beings from across the planes awaken to find themselves in cozy, yet completely foreign environments. For the gnoll and the minotaur, the human-sized bed is an awkward fit. The leonin purrs herself awake, having discarded the blanket to enjoy the warmth of the sunlight pouring in through the window. When she opens her eyes, the indoors is an entirely unfamiliar sight. She has seen the stone buildings of the ancient leonin city . . . but she has seen nothing such as this place.
Whisper, too, is disoriented by her surroundings. She finds herself sleeping several feet above the ground on a strangely soft surface. She quickly realizes the folly of this and escapes under the bed, where she can be much more comfortable. However, she remains confounded by the utter lack of shadowy wisping of everything around her. Why is everything so stable, and where is her brother Windows?
Empath feels the uncomfortable rays of sunlight as they awaken him. He much prefers a dark, damp place . . . and why is he stuck in a pot, his tendrils dug into the soil? He pulls himself out; whoever has placed him here is decidedly ignorant, and Empath is offended.
The five misplaced invidividuals exit their rooms, meeting almost simultaneously in a shared hallway. They share awkward glances.
"Has anyone seen Windows? I haven't seen him; he is the one who sees."
The minotaur, gnoll, saproling and leonin look at the shadow-girl.
"Who is Windows?" asks the leonin.
"He is the one who sees," says the girl. "I listen."
"I see."
"He sees. Have you seen him?"
"No."
A moment more passes, and the gnoll and minotaur share furtive glances. Neither is much for talk, nor for talk with strangers. Though they share no words, they are of like-mind. They immediately begin to leave the awkward scene and gain their bearings and whereabouts. Just as they approach the stairs leading down, they are interrupted.
A pair of elves — one male and one female — have acended the stairs. The male has green hair to his shoulders and wears a bow and quiver on his back. The girl has stark white hair to her lower back and wears a blank expression and white tattered robes.
"Ah, I see our guests have woken up," says the male elf.
"Your guests?" The minotaur raises an eyebrow with a huff.
"Ah yes," the elf smiles. "We found you all unconscious last night just a few yards out from the town. We brough you here and paid for your rooms." He glances at his companion, who nods solemnly.
The minotaur lifts his head to reply, "And ju—"
"No, no," interrupts the elf. "Don't worry, we've paid for it and all is taken care of; no need to thank us."
"And just who are you?" the minotaur continues.
"Ah. I am Ninaran," says the green-haired elf. "And this is Palreah." Palreah smiles briefly at the mention of her name. "And who are you?"
The minotaur huffs again, and glances at the strange bunch behind him. Something about this elf seems off, and though he has just met these others, he feels more kin to them than the swift-talking green-haired elf. Regardless, he answers.
"I am Tars of Talruum."
"Have you seen Windows?" Whisper steps through the narrow hallway, past the gnoll and minotaur to ask.
"Uhm, ah, well. There are windows downstairs, and there's a window in your room, if I recall," Ninaran says. "And who are you?"
"Windows let outside come inside," Palreah says excitedly. Ninaran gives her an angry glance, and Palreah glances toward the floor.
"I am Whisper, but I am looking for my brother Windows. Have you seen him?"
Ninaran curls his lip, and looks back up at Tars. "Well, Tars of Talruum, welcome to Winterhaven. Palreah and I had better be going, but you all enjoy your stay." The two elves begin to turn back toward the stairs.
"Winterhaven?" Tars asks. "Where is that?"
Ninaran replies, explaining the location within the kindgom and describing a merchant route along which the town lies. Tars seems to remain confused.
"Well then," Tars asks, "where do we go from here? How did we get here?"
"I don't know," Ninaran says. "We just found you. You could always go to the keep. You all look tough; plenty of treasure and fame to be gained at the keep."
With that, the elves turn and descend the stairs, leaving the characters in silence.
* * * * *
The five lost adventurers descended the stairs together, making brief introductions, all while Whisper continues to ask for her brother. They ask the innkeeper of the validity of Ninaran's story, and he says it's true; the elf paid him last night for all five rooms, after dragging their bodies into the inn where several townsfolk had seen them lying in the road outside town—seemingly from nowhere.
With not much to go on except the advice from their seeming-saviors, the characters head out toward the keep, following the innkeeper's directions.
Not a half mile outside of town, out on the road curved around a copse of trees, they encounter several rat-men scavenging the remains of a merchant's wagon. Lying strewn around the scene are a couple dead merchants with arrows in the backs, and one whose face and body have almost completely collapsed, dessicated. The nezumi look up from their pillaging task as the minotaur and gnoll charge forward.
[This encounter is the Wagon Ambush encounter on page 94 of Dungeon Magazine 155 from the 'Shadow of Kalarel' article. The kobolds in this encounter are described as ratfolk instead, and their numbers are reduced to make for a simple, fast fight.]
Some ratfolk hide behind the collapsed wagons, firing sling bullets from their hiding place, but Tars enters directly into their midst and begins cutting them down. Grrda as well slides into the fray, digging into their weak spots with her claws.
Empath and Whisper fire from their initial vantage as the leonin moves in, attacking the ratfolk with her spiked chain, drawing flaming runes with her strikes. Whisper conjures ancestor spirits to attack the minds and bodies of the nezumi.
After a brief and hopeless attempt at defending themselves, most of the rats have been defeated. One, though, sees his opportunity to escape, and runs off down the road. Grrda is quick to follow.
After a seconds-long chase, the gnoll rogue catches up to him and knocks him to the ground.
"Please," he says, begging for his life. "Please don't kill me!"
"Why should I spare you, when you didn't spare those merchants?" Grrda asks.
The nezumi's eyes widen. "What? We didn't kill them! We just found it like that and so we were . . . you know, finding stuff."
Grrda narrows her eyes, then turns toward her companions to garner their opinions. A whir and a thunk from the nezumi causes her to spin back toward him, where she finds an arrow set deeply into the skull of the now-dead ratfolk. Leaves from the nearby forest rustle and Grrda heads toward them to find the wielder of the bow.
Having heard the nezumi's last words, Empath, Tars and the leonin discuss whether the shifty ratfolk is to be believed. Whisper begins dragging the dead bodies into a pile, ignoring the conversation. Empath points out that none of the nezumi had a bow, or even arrows, and yet two of the dead merchants have arrows in their backs. That and the fact that another arrow flew from the forest to kill the rat lends credence to his story.
Whisper requests that the bodies be burned so that the spirits can leave and she doesn't have to hear them, and the characters turn her corpse pile into a pyre.
Grrda returns from the woods shortly after, disappointed from her failure to find the bow culprit, but now excited at the prospect of all this treasure left by the now-dead merchants. However, a closer investigation into the merchandise reveals that it is mostly a thrift shop on wheels, with very little worth its weight. They are happy to find a bag of holding; however, they also find a parcel marked for one 'Douven Staul' who seems to dwell in Winterhaven. Feeling compelled to fulfill the last few steps of the parcel's deliver—and also have words with this bow-wielding green-haired elf, Ninaran—the characters track back their steps into the town.
* * * * *
~ fissionessence
Last edited:
It's pretty dry, I know, but then hopefully I can at least get it written for my own records. Hopefully it's an acceptable read for interested individuals. 
