It has been a very long time since I have updated the other
campaign. It did continue, it hasn’t ended. The last update contained their efforts to
build a keep of each of their own. It was
also a time to build a little adventure around the characters so they could
expand slightly on there own in their own directions. Vistra gained control of the Dragon that
adventured with mostly because their alignments coincided and because she set
up her domain outside the boundary of the Realm and that was as far as it could
approach. The others got something that
they were looking for, if not everything.
They all got troops that were their own and they all attracted people
that were interested in settling under their banner and building a town. And then they discovered, they all discovered
that the vast pile of wealth they thought they had, was not enough.
The last chunk of change that they got from the treasure
trove needed to be processed. The throne
was silver and vastly expensive, but the gems encrusting it were even more
valuable and together they were an extremely valuable artwork with one
problem. The gems were all cursed. The curse would cause innumerable acts of
evil to spread wherever they sold the gems to, so they had to be disenchanted
first. The gems totaled nearly 500,000
gold pieces and the throne another 50,000 but together it would be worth
600,000 gold pieces and there was the other problem: no single realm nearby
could afford that price, hell, the number of nations that could afford it would
number less than the fingers on one hand, and the characters knew none of them.
They did learn a few things during the mini solo adventures,
like that the throne was a gift to the hierarchs of the Temple of Elemental
Evil from the Empire of Gutral Mastekeena, so they knew one nation that could
afford to buy the throne and they knew that they would never willingly sell to
that empire. They asked the First One to
put them in contact with people who might purchase it, and he told them that it
was possible without him, they just had to find a broker to expedite the
situation. The other option was to break
up the artwork and sell it for the maximum of 90% its full value. And then that was only if they got lucky;
they would be lucky getting 50% of what they were looking for. 275,000 gold pieces is not a small sum and
who ever spent that money would be looking at decades before they saw the true
value of the purchase. The characters
could have done that, but they were trying to liquidate the money to build bigger
castles and bigger towns, so that was not an option.
Adventure resumes
They are informed about a buyer. The bard tells the party that he found a
buyer and the buyer will pay 400,000 gold for the throne intact but needs to
see the throne before he will buy it. He
did not tell the party that he got closer to the full price and is hoping that
he can skim the remainder from the top. The
problem is that they need to bring the throne to Jarda, the local regional
capitol and thus the only city thereabouts that is connected to the larger
world. The city of Greysteel has a
teleport circle to Jarda once a week, because the regular cost in other worlds
of making a teleport circle permanent do not apply in this campaign world for
reasons (the human year is 432 days long but the sidereal year is about 24
years long making the cost of building a permanent circle the kind of cost only
undertaken by a long lasting Imperial power).
Once a week the Jarda teleport circle opens in one of each of nine
destinations, mostly colonies from the expansionist period, so one opens in Greysteel
once a week. And the Duke knows who is
using it and he can see what is transported and what is leaving his realm untaxed. Also, if someone knows where an when a
teleport circle is going to be used and if the cargo was worth more than an
entire Kingdom it is easier to ambush and take by force. So, two problems with taking the super convenient
teleport circle. So, the group decides
to travel over ground, which will take two weeks. They do it anyways and are ambushed twice for
their troubles. Trolls, from the end of
the Temple. Loose end wrapped up. Upon entering the city, they made their way
to the Bard’s second home in Jarda. They
contacted the representative and they set up a meeting. The representative was renting a wing of the Old
Royal Palace, once part of the Jardanese Royal apartments before they were
rebuilt across the plaza. The apartments
are often used by visiting nobility or the very wealthy merchants that have
travelled to Jarda, but they usually get a room or an apartment, a wing
suggested to the party that the representative represented a lot more wealth
than Jarda was used to seeing. The representative
introduced himself as a Lowlander Dwarf from Dhewtudum and his client needed
proof of his purchase before he could make the purchase on his behalf. He also required as much of the history of
the item that they could provide. They asked
him why that was important. He replied,
his client wanted to know the story of the item so that when he showed it off
to others, he could explain the history, and history is a part of the
value. He then told them his client has authorized
to pay them between 2,000 and 20,000 gold pieces in addition to the asking
price depending on the completeness of the information. The party discussed this and agreed to it and
set up a time to show them the throne.
A few days later at a neutral location, the dwarf viewed the
throne and looked at the original documents and he told them that he has been authorized
to pay 20,000 gold pieces in addition to the asking price of 600,000 gold
pieces, and with that he told them that told them the meeting would be at the
abandoned graveyard south of the city, out in the open with no obstruction
nearby, away from the city, but within sight of the city out on the plain, in a
week. He then turned and left.
The other players looked at the bard, saying 400,000 gold pieces
eh?
They checked out the location of the trade and it seemed to
be a quiet place. There was no undead in
the location as far as the Paladin could tell.
There was an old scaffold as gallows.
It seemed good. The day of the
exchange was overcast, the party showed up early. The ranger stealthed in from afar and took up
a position in a tree at the extreme range of the quarry, bow at the ready. The party rode up with the throne in a crate on
a cart and the dwarf and two others were standing on the gallows. As the characters rode up a flash rose from
behind the gallows and six slaves carrying a large chest with long handles
appeared, a minute later another flash and another group of identical slaves
with an identical payload appeared, there appeared to be a teleport circle inscribed
on the ground behind the gallows. The Dwarf
spoke up, “I am gladdened that you have arrived early to get the trade over and
done. On my left is the 89th
King of Gutral Mastekeena, and on my right is his court mage.” As he introduced
the dignitaries they nodded to the group.
The king was dressed in full plate mail with a helm that covered his
face. His court mage stood in a ready
stance. The dwarf held a silk cushion with
a crystal ball upon it. The Characters
balked at the idea that their client was the king of Gutral Mastekeena, the
gifter of the throne originally. The players
wanted to back out of the deal. And questions
flowed, like why did the king want it back now?
The players voiced these questions and the Dwarf handed the crystal ball
to the king and spoke to the characters.
He stated. The 89th
king of Gutral Mastekeena ruled three hundred years ago, and it was he that
lead the invasion of Jarda, and when he failed, he was sentenced to live with
his failure, and therefore he was right here now. The 101st King of Gutral
Mastekeena was the one that authorized the gift of the throne, to undermine
Jarda from within. But that attempt was
a failure. And the Emperor does not like
to keep his failures in to open for others to see, and that is why he is
offering full price for the throne, when it might be more expedient to just
take the throne by force. 620,000 gold
pieces is a lot of money and the characters thought it out, but the paladin was
not having any of it and he decided he was out, and he turned to leave. To which the King told the group that no-one could
leave until the Emperor gave them leave to do so. And the mage cast a spell. The paladin flying on his summoned mount
discovered the weakness of using summoned mounts; it vanished, dispelled. He fell.
The twelve slaves moved forward carrying their burdens and
the PCs started charging the gallows and casting spells at the trio there. The mage cast another spell and all the
attacks bounced off the air around them.
Six of the slaves vanished as they dimension doored right up to one of the
players and began to attack them while the dwarf began to observe how the
characters fought the slaves. The observations
made it clear that he was telling something the weaknesses of the character’s
fighting styles. The characters quickly
killed the slaves and advanced on the King and the group on the gallows. The King waved his hand and the dead slaves
rose from the ground and advanced on the character that killed them, each slave
appeared to be rotting fast than normal.
The remaining slaves dropped the last burden and picked up the throne started
running back to the gallows and the teleport Circle. The characters began looking for a weakness
in the wall of force. The King jumped
down among the players and began to fight them.
The Bard had circumvented the gallows and the combatants so he could disrupt
the teleport circle but one of the slaves understood what he was doing and so
he was rushed and blindly attacked. The Dwarf
and the Mage leapt down into the circle and teleported away with the rest of
the slaves and the throne.
The King fought valiantly but was clearly about to be bested
by the Characters, until he took a knew and drove his fist into the ground and pulled
the life out of all the vegetation around, healing himself as all the plants
died in the area. Then he joined the
fight again all renewed and it was clear that this was no regular advisory, he
was a Deathknight. He fought with his
sword and he pulled purple lightning out of the air and everyone who stayed
near him had lifeforce sucked from them to heal him. The sky darkened as the fight progressed and
soon it was impossible to see in that darkness.
The characters finally reduced him to nothing, and he died.
The crystal ball rolled to a stop near the characters.
I voice came from the ball and commended the characters on
the excellent entertainment that they provided.
He said that seeing them here he was willing to halt his aims to take
the kingdom of Jarda under his rule for a generation or more depending on the
deal they wanted to make with him. He then
stated that he recognised the blade that the Ranger was carrying, it was the
Sword of Conquest he said. He would wait
until the characters died of old age, he was patient, but if they would
negotiate with him, he would be happy to leave Jarda alone in perpetuity, all
they needed to do was to discover secret knowledges and share with him six that
he did not himself know now. If they
agreed to that, Jarda would be safe. They
did not need to answer him now, they could answer him later, but if they did
not answer him, he would be keeping tabs on them and as soon as they lost the
sword, he would resume coming toward them.
They opened the chest and they saw that there was another
chest inside and a bag of 2,000 platinum pieces on it. Inside the chest, after picking the lock they
found crisp new cloth paper notes with the amount of 100 gold pieces value
printed on them, some sort of Mastekeena trick, their money was paper or
something, completely useless outside the Empire. They resolved then and there that they would
go to Gutral Mastekeena and kill the Emperor or get gold coins, which ever was
easier.
They headed back to Greysteel to gather supplies before they
headed out and although they only left a month ago, the town had changed
drastically. Outside the city was an
armed camp, thousands of troops were camped ready to go out on a campaign
against the Orc Nation to the North. The
call had been made and the characters were required to raise levies and lead
their people and their armed units to Greysteel and from there to war. The Characters were not having any of that.
They had stepped through the portal in Jarda at dawn, but
were back in Jarda again just before noon, looking for the Duke’s older sister
whom they rescued from the Temple of Elemental Evil. She was in the Temple of Jard, Goddess of
Protection when they found her. She told
them, that her Brother was the Duke for the last fifty years and his rule could
not be undone unless it could be proven that he had acted unjustly to get the
throne in the first place and if they found this information she would help
them, but until then she could not help them.
Near dusk when the Teleport circle traffic was the lowest, they arrived back
in Greysteel and began looking for the best lead they could find.
They had nothing as far as they knew. They took all the information that they had
and tried to piece it together looking for a clue to start. There was nothing that they knew that would
help. Then Phil the Half Orc suggested
that if they knew the date of the attack and the place, the Temple of Elemental
Evil when it was built and location, he might be able to draw up a chart that
could in theory point in the direction where a clue might be found. It was a lot of ifs, theories, and mights, but
it was the best that they had, so while he did this the rest of them sent word
to their fiefs for the troops to be raised, but not to head to Greysteel
without them; they had two weeks. The chart
was done, and a destination was discovered, Moolooite’s Fief.
Much of the area of the old town had not been explored. There were old temples in ruin and there was
a large town of ruins all over the place.
But so far only the two parts had been explored and made safe, the old castle
where Moolooite had build his stronghold and the site where he had fought and
destroyed the evil that threatened his townsfolk. There was a lot unexplored, over two square
miles of ruined buildings. They consulted
the gods as to where they should start their quest. The results suggested that inside the cave under
his keep was not where they should begin, but it was all that they had so they
did so anyways. Inside the cave they
found a large cavern and a lake. The lake
was smooth and shallow and as they moved through it, they found that it deepened,
and the roof sank under the lake surface.
Delving under the water they encountered two shafts, cracks in the roof
that lead upwards. They were too small
for even the gnome to enter them. One was
the source of the water and the other was something that putrefied the
water. Later, the water hit a drop off
and a water fell off a waterfall. They did
not want to head over it until they had found out if there were no other clues.
They sealed up the two cracks and left the cavern. When they left the cave, they asked around to
all the people and they said that they were very uncomfortable with all the
ghosts that were in the ruins. That there
was nothing they could do to get them to go away. The characters went out to investigate the ghost
problem. The found a ruined smith’s shop
with a ghost of a smith working his ghost forge. The players addressed the ghost and he
answered their questions about the town and even dropped some gossip that he
had heard about a special ceremony being held at the temple tonight, but not knowing
anything else. The party questioned
several other ghosts but found no other information. They even were belligerent towards a lippy
child ghost to no effect. They investigated
a fallen temple and discovered a new dragon and they befriended it. Around sunset, they noticed a behaviour
change to the ghosts; they were organizing in long lines and heading to another
destination. They followed them and soon
saw that the line included thousands of ghosts.
They approached the temple where the ghosts were headed and were surprised
to see it was mostly intact. Also, they
were surprised to see that it was guarded by fast moving zombies that charged
out to fight the characters. A small
battle was fought, and the zombies were beaten off. They then resumed entering the temple. They found terrified ghosts being forced into
the temple by the pressure of other ghosts.
In the temple the found there were crystals high on the walls that lit
the halls with bright light, that cast eerie shadows everywhere. On the floor there were more bones than they
had ever seen in their collective lives, although the ceilings were about sixty
feet tall, the bones were in large piles that almost reached those
heights. The floor of the temple was
littered with them and stained with the blood of thousands. There were six zombies waiting for them and
these attacked the only living things in the temple, the characters. They did not turn like zombies and they were
immune to most magic that was cast at them, but still they fought and destroyed
the undead. Behind the throne in the
main room they found a secret door with a ladder down into a basement level,
the ladder was coated with slime that the paladin only discovered while climbing
and falling. The room was empty but
filled with a vast pool of slime that looked more like mucus than slime. The characters minus the bard, who was not
going to chance his fancy threads getting damaged, dove into the mucus and swam
to the other side. While exiting the
pool they were attacked again by another set of super zombies and destroyed
them too. The discovered that the mucus
was dripping from a great relief statue of Zugtomony and they decided that it
must be destroyed, the battered the bas relief until it shattered, and they
uncovered a box in the ruin. It contained
a dried heart which they crushed. As they
crushed it a long-held sigh was released from the temple and when they returned
to the surface, they found the temple lights had been extinguished and the ghosts had been released. After exiting the temple, they heard a
tremendous crack and the temple fell into itself in ruin.
When the Party arrived back at the Paladin’s Keep, there was
a jubilant feeling in the air, the village folk were ecstatic that the creepy
ghosts had been finally put to rest. One
of the older folks approached the party and told them that he was not sure that
the party was a force for good until they released all those ghosts. Now he was sure. The bard distracted the Paladin and the
others realised that this guy was going to give them information contingent on
them being morally good, so the Bard impersonated the Paladin so he would not
offend him and lose the lead. The party realised
that the Paladin was not actually a force of moral goodness, but a force of
extreme lawfulness only. The Old man
related a story of when he was running through the forest ahead of a royal
visit by the duke and his family to Hommlet.
He was a couple kilometers along the road inside the trees when he saw
the old Duke’s train come through and then he says the Old duke was attacked
and murdered by other people. the man,
as a boy, did not know what to do, so he froze and did not make a sound until
everything had stopped. Then after the
killing was done a waited in shock and fear for them to find and kill him. He says that it was then the present Duke, a
teenager then came down the road and greeted the assassins and told them they
would soon be rewarded. He then tells
them that he ran back to Hommlet where his parents told him they had some
horrible news; the duke had been butchered by a group of traitorous Orcs. He said that his parents must have taken his
protestations as denial of the loved Duke’s death. The Bard as Moolooite asked the man if he
could guide them back to the site of the ambush, and he assented. He said that every time he had to travel that
way; he avoided the road there because it made him ill.
The Party used the swiftest means to reach the site of the
battle, bypassing the village of Hommlet.
They looked around and their ranger and their Druid found sites that
suggested mass burials; the trees were all the same age and the area outside
was of older growth. They dug down and
found a skeleton garbed in a sur-coat of the old duke. They cast a necromantic spell, speak with
dead and paid Xeric’s cost with a blessing and questioned the corpse. Satisfied that this was one of the men of the
old duke and not an enemy they performed a powerful Necromantic right that
brought the man back to life, flesh and all, paid for by another Blessing of
Xeric. The Man woke up tired and
shocked. They clothed him and gave him
the rest he needed, but he was able to confirm, there were no orcs in the force
that attacked them, but there were Orcs in the fight, the duke was entertaining
the ambassador of the Orcish Confederacy, his close ally. When he discovered that the Old Duke’s eldest
daughter still lived, who had been in stasis for fifty years he expressed great
interest in serving her again. The Party
thought that his testimony might be enough to sway her that her Brother acted
unjustly to seize the throne from their father.
But that would have to wait, the duke had discovered their
attempt to get rid of him and had acted to limit their power and issued arrest warrants
for the entire party.
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