Redbadge's Campaign (there will be spoilers)

[Isklexi]

Nightmare's Last Stand

As the constables climbed the last rickety stairs onto the deck, they heard a faint, wretched noise echoing up from the hold. Looking back down the gaping hole left by the boiler's explosion, they were greeted by a terrible sight illuminated by their sunrods and starlight. The maimed malice beasts shambled to their feet once again and abruptly began vomiting forth a stream of viscous black slime. The noisome black ooze formed ropy tendrils that pulled in and ripped apart the corpses in the hold as it began surging up the ragged hole to the upper decks. The constables fled to the ship's aft as the monstrous thing shaped limbs and heads from the mangled remains of the malice beasts.

The towering horror blasted the constables with a cloying black mist from its many mouths, bringing several of them to the brink of consciousness. The monster also assaulted their minds with constant whispering and despair. Even the dead Eschatologists bent to the creatures whim as its dark ooze seeped into the bodies, turning them into scrabbling terrors of claws and teeth. Irony quickly moved to bolster her allies and fend off the beast's psychic assault. Several of the other constables moved to the ship's bow to flank the monster. Kaea focused his magic towards striking down the animated corpses while the other focused their efforts on the the beast itself.

Just as the constables were moving to engage the terrible monster, an other twist unfolded. A massive crustacean breached from below the water and latched onto the Cherno Bezna's hull. To the party's consternation, a hatch on the creatures shell opened, and a team of fey warriors wearing featureless black masks joined the fight. Irony quickly recognized the masks as identical to the one worn by the Archmage Cornell in Nalaam. She realized these warriors must be associated with the Endless Vigil. The vigil captain immediately ordered his subordinates to engage the monster saying, "Our quarry has revealed itself at last. Move to flank and destroy it. It shan't escape us again."

With the help of the unexpected reinforcements, the constables were able to vanquish the final horror of the Cherno Bezna. While the Vigil mystics ritually purged any remains of the nightmare beast and burned all of the remaining bodies on the ship, Irony briefly questioned the Vigil captain. The Satyr revealed that they had been hunting the nightmare monster for some time. It had eluded their hunt by possessing the malice beasts that the Eschatologists had captured. According to the Vigil captain, the boundaries between Lanjyr and its reflections, the Dreaming and Bleak Gate, are weaker in the Malice lands, and things will occasionally slip through.

With the threat ended, the constables towed the heavily damaged Cherno Bezna to the docks for impounding. Tomorrow the A-team will need to meet with Gale while the B-team must escort a group of diplomats. For now, Irony decided to keep B-team in the dark about the Endless Vigil, but Calaphax's influence is becoming harder to ignore. The constables still have work ahead of them, and none can say what tomorrow will bring.

GM: I added this last part of the encounter myself. It made for an impressive fight scene and helped reveal a few more details about what Cal's allies do in the world. Their decision to explore the ship out in the bay also spared the lives of many of the police officers they left back on the docks. The fight serves as a bit of foreshadowing for plot points later on in the adventure that I intend to add.

 

[Isklexi]

Glad to see this is still going on. Dare I assume there are monsters on the loose?

Yep, we're still going. We try to get a session once a week, but how much we accomplish depends on how focused everyone is for the evening.

 

[Isklexi]

Spring 11

Morning
B-Team
The constables picked up Brakken early in the day for his next attempt to warm relations between the delegations. Brakken took Kian Doherty, Risur's Minister of Agriculture, and Pierre Riquier, Danor's Minister of Magic, for a pleasant breakfast at a cafe in the Cloudwood district. The breakfast didn't stay pleasant for very long though. A young girl ran past the cafe shouting that she was being chased. The girl's pursuer was a woman in a sundress wielding a rolling pin. The woman quickly retreated when the girl began crying for help. Carlao and Kaea got up to see if the girl was alright while Serena followed the woman back to her house.

As Carlao tried to calm the girl down, a crowd quickly began to form in the streets. Circe, the girl, claimed the woman had attacked her, and she feared for her life. Discontent rapidly spread through the crowd, threatening to turn it into a mob. Brakken and Pierre both thought that the party should return to the embassy, but Kian and the constables were determined to stop the crowd from devolving into a riot. Serena managed to convince the woman to talk to her. The woman's name was Relle. She claimed that Circe had thrown a rock through one of her windows after she had yelled at the child to get out of her yard. Relle had then chased after the Circe.

Dima noticed a child watching the crowd from across the stream. He quickly realized that the "child" was actually a gremlin. Though the sudden escalation of tension in the crowd was strange, Dima didn't think gremlins possessed any magic that would stoke a crowd's anger. The gremlin fled when it realized it had been spotted. The constables decided to let it go and focus on defusing the crowd.

In the end, Kaea had to incapacitate several zealous peasants with magic missiles before the crowd dispersed. The constables had to deposit several would-be rioters to the local police before taking the diplomats back to their respective embassies.

A-Team
The constables gathered the entire police task force as well as soldiers recruited from Cauldron Hill to assault the Theater of Scoundrels. With a show of overwhelming force, the constables were able to force the remainder of the Kell Guild to surrender with minimal violence. They recovered a great deal of contraband from the guild, including some items that came from the guild's Ob contacts. Unfortunately, they discovered that the guild's leader had fled during the night after the other strongholds had fallen. While the constables were preparing to leave the scene, some of the police brought forward an injured thug.

The man was missing several fingers and an eye. He told the constables that his name was Dester Rathtine, and he claimed to be a mole for Morgan Cippiano. The hysterical thug told them that when the leaders of the guild prepared to flee last night, he spied on them in an attempt to learn the new guild leader's identity. He babbled about barely escaping with his life from none other than Lorcan Kell himself back from the dead. He railed about how Kell had come back from hell to get his revenge on the city. The constables weren't sure what to do with this information. They left for the Cloudwood to meet with Gale while they processed it.

GM: I'll post the rest of the session later

 

[Isklexi]

The Dorchester Street Massacre

Midday
B-Team
The constables were escorting Brakken back to the Ber consulate when the diplomat stopped suddenly saying something was wrong. A group of half a dozen people emerged from the alleys on either side of the constables, blocking the way forward and back. These foes were led by Lorcan Kell himself. The crime lord had come back from the grave but at a cost. His left arm had been replaced by a mechanical claw and his eyes burned red with unnatural life. He had come to exact vengeance upon the RHC for destroying his thieves' guild. He was joined by a cadre of elite Kell Guild thugs and his lieutenants, the necromancer Kate Glenn and his bodyguard, Nick Reder.

The constables were trapped with Lorcan Kell and Kate Glenn blocking the way forward while Nick Reder and several thugs blocked the way back. Kell immediately charged and brought Carlao down with his opening flurry of machete slashes. He then grabbed Dima and started to throttle the life out of him. Gaethan quickly moved to open a path for Brakken to flee. He pushed past Reder so Brakken could slip by. When Reder moved to pursue them, Serena jumped onto his back, slipping her garrote around his neck and pulling with all her might. The gasping giant jerked backwards to headbutt Serena, sending her staggering backwards where one of the thugs impaled her with his machete. Serena covered Brakken's escape with her life.

Seeing the opportunity, the constables attempted to flee from the overwhelming ambush. Kaea broke off his magical combat with Glenn to teleport past Reder and followed Gaethan and Brakken. Josiah brought down the weakened Reder with a well placed shot and attempted to flee as well, but he was gunned down by the other thugs. Unable to break Kell's iron grip, Dima used his healing powers to revive Carlao. His efforts were in vain because Kell casually hacked off Carlao's head to ensure there wouldn't be an encore performance. He then did the same to Dima.

B-team had succeeded in protecting Brakken, but they lost over half of their members. Gaethan and Kaea took Brakken and ran back to the RHC headquarters without pausing. The Duke of Slaughter had escaped, and the constables would certainly see him again soon.

GM: The players had killed Kell on their own initiative in an earlier adventure. Kell had already been established as a very nasty bad guy, and I didn't think I could develop a good replacement for him with the limited contact the players would have with this replacement before actually killing him. For those reasons, I decided to bring Kell back. I couldn't just bring him back though. I had established in my campaign that bringing the dead back to life wasn't as simple as casting a low level ritual (raise dead can only be cast by epic tier characters), so I brought him back as a cyborg revenant! To go with the change, I re-flavored Kate Glenn as a necromancer, changing the name of her support power to "bolster undead". This encounter was also pretty dramatic. The players knew immediately that B-Team was outgunned. The star performance has to go to Serena. Her poisoned garrote attack allowed Brakken and Gaethan to escape, and she did enough damage for Josiah to bring down Reder. I'm sure the players will look forward to destroying Kell again at the adventure's climax.

A-Team
The constables joined Asrabey Varal in the Cloudwood to meet with Gale. They hiked up to the switchback trail where Gale contacted them using her ability to speak through the wind. She begged them to abandon their quest to stop Ekossigan. They discovered that Gale had been deceived into swearing allegiance to the fey lord, magically compelling her to serve him. Asrabey was leery of engaging Gale in combat because she was an Eladrin woman. However, the constables were determined to press forward, and Gale swiftly moved to attack.

Gale conjured powerful winds and whipped up dust devils to stymie her foes. She hurled arcs of lightning in an attempt to subdue the constables. Maddox gave a surprising reminder of his adherence to Risur's druidic traditions when he conjured a magical root gate, allowing everyone to slip past Gale's whirlwinds and force her onto the defensive. Asrabey attempted to bring her down with his magical lion shield, but Gale teleported away from its gnashing jaws. However, Gale's protective windstorm had little effect on the generous spread of Maddox's shotgun, and she was forced to ground by the combined firepower of Maddox and Bellicose. Irony managed to knock Gale unconscious with a final well placed spell.

The constables must now return Gale to their headquarters and find a way to sever Ekossigan's control over her. Sadly, the constables will be receiving very bad news about B-Team when they finally get back to headquarters...

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm a bad person, but I always love hearing about Kell wreaking havoc. How did the players take it?

 

[Isklexi]

Overall, they thought it was a pretty awesome fight. The B-Team didn't have a chance of winning, but they still managed to shine. There was some grumbling over Kell getting away from A-Team, but their chances of cornering him were pretty small because they turned Cippiano down and captured all three strongholds in one day (skipping past the "hide" phase and straight into "run away").

 

[Isklexi]

To Catch a Gremlin

GM: I’m going to be making a series of updates to this thread. This actually covers several sessions we’ve had. I just failed to update this thread in a timely manner. Better late then never, on with the show.

Afternoon
A-Team
The party had two options for helping Gale. They could seek the aid of Minister Harkover Lee, one of Risur’s most powerful wizards, or they could risk owing Calaphax a favor. After some internal debate, the constables decided to get the help of Minister Lee to sever the connection between Gale and Ekossigan. Lee was moderately disapproving of how the constables were fraternizing with a minor terrorist but stopping Ekossigan’s threat was more important. Lee managed to remove Gales connection to the rogue fey, but the ritual severely taxed her. Gale was too weak to help directly, but she was able to reveal some useful information. Gale told the constables that Ekossigan was employing gremlins to gather offerings made by local peasants to use the latent spiritual energy as part of some nefarious ritual to access the Bleak Gate. If the party could capture a gremlin, it could lead them back to Ekossigan. Furthermore, Gale was able to reveal the location where a gremlin named Ellik rested during the day, an abandoned bar called the Nutgarden.

GM: I presented the players with a choice in how to help Gale. The players weren’t confidant they could remove the pact without killing Gale from the ritual’s backlash. I presented Minister Lee and Calaphax as two options for them to choose from. Lee could break the pact, but Gale would be bedridden for the rest of the adventure (and they pay for the ritual). If they asked Cal for help, Gale would be well enough to aid them in facing Ekossigan, but they would owe Cal a favor. They decided against owing the fiend a nebulous favor.

Evening
A-Team
The constables decided there wasn’t enough time to hunt down Ellik in the morning, so they left for the Cloudwood District to catch a gremlin. They left Gale in the custody of the RHC. Asrabey told the party he would wait for them at the RHC HQ for when they returned with news. At first, Kirk tried to lay a trap for the gremlins using a fake offering. While Kirk’s trap didn’t pan out, the team still managed to spot a gremlin and give chase.

The gremlin led the constables on a merry chase. Irony used her Vengeful Gaze power early on to ensure they wouldn’t lose their quarry. Kirk attempted to take a shortcut through an alley, but a sudden dead end knocked him out of the running. Rai and Maddox pursued the gremlin across a small lake. When the gremlin attempted to clamber up a wall, Rai used his elemental powers to fly to the top of the wall, cutting off escape, and Bellicose shot the gremlin in the shoulder, causing him to fall into Maddox’s waiting arms.

The constables dragged the squealing fey all the way back to HQ to interrogate it with Asrabey. They were able to interrogate the deranged gremlin successfully despite its rambling. They learned that Ekossigan was hiding in some sort of tree house and planned to sacrifice dozens of orphans to tear a hole into the Bleak Gate. Once the questioning was over, Asrabey drove a cold iron spike into the unfortunate gremlin’s forehead, killing it outright.

 

[Isklexi]

Spring 12

Morning
The constables gathered their equipment and prepared to set up security at the Baker Station ribbon cutting ceremony. Delft intercepted them before they left the HQ with a surprise. Lya Jierre had invited the constables to the opening ceremony of the peace summit. The party didn’t have much time to contemplate the development as they had a terrorist attack to avert.

At the station, the constables suspected the attack would come from underground through the sewer tunnels, so they patrolled the sub-rail tunnels while the police stayed topside with the civilians. Doran and Maddox stood guard at the tunnel entrances to the east, Kirk and Bellicose watched the tunnel hatches to the west, and Irony and Rai stayed at the station platform.

Kirk’s only warning was a faint clicking noise of a gun cocking before he came under assault by the Drakran terrorists. Thanks to Zubov’s magic, the dwarves had been able to travel under cover of complete darkness. Kirk dove to the ground as a hail of bullets came his way. The other constables rushed towards the sound of gunfire. Rai and Irony joined the police above ground as the ceremony came under attack from above as well.

Zubov’s fanatical followers surged forward in an attempt to overwhelm Kirk. Luckily for him, the other constables were able to sprint along the rail tracks fast enough to provide timely back up. Between grenades and swift swordplay, the terrorists’ numbers rapidly dwindled. Sensing impending failure, Zubov activated the bomb and joined the melee. The constables were able to overpower the fanatical Dwarf with only moderate injuries. Meanwhile, Rai and Irony rushed to the surface where the police were fending off a wave of gunmen. This attack was meant only as a distraction though, so the two constables were quickly able to dispatch the paltry force. The two rushed back below in time to help with the enormous explosive.

The constables quickly removed the bomb’s casing to expose the inner tangle of wires and tanks. The detailed notes left behind by the now deceased Serena proved invaluable in identifying what the constables needed to do. They had to cut all of the wires in a careful sequence to avoid detonating the bomb early. Kirk took the task of actually cutting the wires while the others aided him by watching for which wires to cut next in the pattern. Kirk suffered several nasty shocks from the live wires before Rai pointed out he should probably hold on to the grounding wire, earning Rai a baleful glare from Kirk for not mentioning it sooner. After several tense minutes, Kirk cut the final wire and safely defused the bomb.

GM: The players chose to set up guard on the subway tunnel well in advance of the ceremony. This more or less completely derailed the terrorist plot to use the train, and the whole fight ended up taking place on a generic tunnel map rather than the nice train station map. That’s players for you. The DCs for disarming the bomb weren’t that difficult; I suppose that’s to avoid unnecessary TPKs.

As the constables packed up the defused bomb for transport back to HQ, they were hailed from a nearby rooftop. A Satyr reclining on the eaves of a building congratulated them on their success and passed along a message. “Lord Califrey is quite pleased by your accomplishments on behalf of the city and requests your presence at his manor at your earliest convenience.” This gives the constables yet another thing to worry about before the day is done alongside having to hunt down a mad archfey.

 

[Isklexi]

Paragon Tier

GM: We spent a session getting everyone leveled up to paragon tier. Here are the paragon paths everyone chose.

Irony: Irony’s player likes the Vekeshi Mystic theme and chose to pick up the Vekeshi Excoriant paragon path.

Kirk: Kirk’s player wanted Kirk to pick up some defender qualities and picked up the Blade Bravo paragon path. This allows him to mark foes and punish them when they miss him in melee.

Bellicose: Bellicose picked up the standard paragon path for Essentials hunters. He’s not as experienced a player as some of the others in the party and stuck to the easier to run option.

Doran: Doran’s player wanted to pick up more protection from psychic monsters and chose the Herald of Madness paragon path. I believe he’s going to be reflavoring most of it though.

Maddox: Maddox picked up the Mad Shootist paragon path for the Gunsmith. He made his shotgun the beam weapon. I chose to reflavor the Autofire power since I dodn’t think a 10-round burst from a shotgun made much sense; instead, Autofire causes the shotgun to shoot a blast of energy that explodes on impact damaging adjacent creatures (mechanically identical).

Rai: For Rai, I adapted a paragon path from Dark Sun. He picked up the Desert’s Voice paragon path. I reflavored the powers to have a volcano theme, and he gained the Ashfall Evasion racial power. This gives Rai access to Windsoul, Cindersoul, Magmasoul, and Embersoul powers. I’ve encouraged Rai’s player to go with the volcanic theme because of his character’s background (which he’ll learn more about soon).

 

[Isklexi]

Trouble in the Cloudwood

Midday
The constables left the aftermath of the terrorist attack for the police and Delft to wrap up and left for the Cloudwood District. They had a good idea of where Ekossigan was hiding, but they wanted to stop by the Mayor’s office to investigate the strange events in the district first and confirm their destination.

The constables were greeted by empty streets, shuttered windows, and barred doors as they entered the district. The party could tell things had only gotten worse since they received the reports from B-Team. The constables were especially surprised when they turned a corner and found a police blockade in the street. After a brief confrontation with the police manning the blockade, an officer that used to be on the taskforce vouched for the constables, and they were let through. As he escorted them to the mayor’s office building, the policeman explained that tensions in the district had escalated after a police officer had been murdered by a mob that morning.

The mayor’s offices were surrounded by the district’s police force. Kirk noticed that the building had also been partially painted with a mix of mulberry and chicken bone powder, which common folklore claims as a ward against angry fey. They found Mayor Idylls cowering behind his desk. The party convinced the panicked politician that they were there to help and gained the cooperation of the local police sergeant. Sergeant Langlois explained how the district’s troubles had started after the discovery of a murdered child. The constables first looked into the district’s records on orphanages and found what they were looking for, Gallo’s School for Boys. The orphanage had been established almost a century ago by an order of druids and built into the branches of an ancient tree. Langlois remarked that the victim being an orphan would explain why no one could identify the boy.

The constables chose to examine the dead boy before leaving. The victim was a young boy in his early teens. They quickly noted the contusions around the boy’s neck and the small lacerations across his body. The party determined that the likely cause of death was a hanging. Of more immediate concern were the curious runes painted onto the boy in dark green dyes. The constables realized these markings were reminiscent of ancient curses used by the fey before the founding of Risur, but they were unable to identify the actual purpose of the curse. They decided to attempt to dispel the curse despite the potential for a dangerous magical backlash. Irony performed the ritual with assistance from Rai while everyone else cleared the room for safety. Their caution was warranted as the curse unraveled in a deadly burst of energy that incapacitated both Rai and Irony. Fortunately the other constables were waiting just outside the room to render aid.

GM: The players rolled really low on their arcana checks during this interlude, but I allowed them to recognize the old runes with a history check. I didn’t reveal to them the purpose of the curse or how powerful it was. They then proceeded to roll a 1 on the arcana check for the Remove Affliction ritual. This would normally have resulted in Irony’s death, but I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of gameplay that much. Instead, I ruled that the backlash of energy was split between Irony and Rai (since he had been helping with the ritual), and they both fell to 0 HP.

With the district free from the malevolent curse, the constables began the trek out into the wilderness. They met Asrabey at the edge of the forest and proceeded into the forest amidst a cold, gloomy, drizzling rain.