Campaign Journal: Final Entry

Who made it through all this nonsense:

• Jax-barbarian
• Slick-thief
• Frederick-thief
• Rondel-elf

This will be a long one. Buckle up.

We set the scene:

The smoke cleared from the battle. Forces bandaged up and counted their dead. Militia dispersed, back to protect their own town walls. The Acroria forces considered their situation – their city destroyed, their people refugees, their leadership dead or scattered. Out of this, the Librarian offered to help them solidify this new network, and journey to the Ha-Tak Pyramid to connect it to the Barrier.

Half the Khanate cavalry was returning north, and would escort the Librarian against harm.

That left the party, half the cavalry, and a handful of knights. There was still the root of the Chaos to be eliminated. Dukan Dildran and his contingent of cavalry would join, as well as Benedikt. And Serafina, who has been spending some time with Slick, will join on this final crusade. Oh yeah, and Kavderac, because dragon. After all, dragons may sense another dragon's horde location and size. It is how they assess the strength and age of their potential competitors, and whether it is wise to confront or give them a wide berth.

West toward the mountains and the blighted lands. First, the lair of Eorvalth, the doomed dragon. Consistent with the elven rangers' report, the lair was found to have been the site of a battle, with the dragon missing, as well as their loot. Kavderac sniffed around, disappointed. The dragon equivalent of couch cushion change was found, as well as a couple of overlooked scrolls. The company rested and considered next steps.

While they paused, Kavderac scouted the foothills and mountains for Eorvalth's missing hoard. Successful, he returned.

The dragon guided the party and their cohort into the mountains, with assurances that Eorvalth's hoard was found, and the mutant stronghold assumed to be close by.

Sure enough, they found themselves set upon by a large mutant force, surrounding and threatening.

A brief council. Benedikt and Durkan proposed to force a wedge, allowing the party to escape to the true goal. Rondel remembered his “mutant horn,” altered by Grancet and other rune-magics.

With a blast from the horn, a portion of the mutant forces were stunned, allowing the cavalry to punch a hole through their encirclement and begin to roll them back. The party charged through, their allies holding their rear.

Plowing a road

Time for reckoning.

Kavderac led them to a cavern network – seemed like the place. Especially with all the grey, twisted vegetation...

The monologing vivimancer proved it. As Slick flew in to assess, a dragon stepped from a second cavern. A clone of Eorvalth? Not quite. This beast slumped and staggered, with flesh seeming to drip from its body. The dragon scanned the hillside with cloudy eyes, trying to sense its foes, before unleashing a gout of sickly flame. The party dodged, taking damage, but avoiding death. The malformed dragon, spent from its effort, collapsed into a mound of fleshy ooze.

Yes, this was the inspiration 

The vivimancer threw up a wall of thorns and retreated.

Hacking and burning through the thorns, the party pursued.

Slick invisibly scouted ahead, finding forces laying in wait. He signaled the party, and crept in for some backstabbing. A fast, desperate battle with vivimancers and chaos knights. Then a second, as another group barricaded themselves behind crates and fired at the party.

A pause. Which way to proceed in the caverns? Suddenly, Jax was backstabbed, and two more individuals separated themselves from where they were concealed, chameleon-like, against a wall. Another pair of fanatical chaos knights.

Somewhere in this, Kavderac slunk into the cavern, sniffing about. Ah, hoard this way.... The party passed a shrine to Medeg, and a few took a bane from its influence before Henry Cee blew it to splinters using his relic gauntlet.

Kavderac led on, and blinded by hoard-greed, was ambushed by a vivimancer with a blast of green slime. Fine, I'll burn it off, and you bad guys too. Kavderac now sat among several dead baddies and a slightly melted loot pile. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on it. You go find the bad guys...

Farther on, and the cavern opened to a pair of finished staircases, each with a threatening vivimancer. Wait, there are two?

One incapacitated Jax with a flesh blast, leaving part barbarian writhing in pain as their flesh swelled and twisted. Slick managed a backstab on the second. Rondel blew his altered chaos horn, and stunned the first, managing to halt the spell's progress. A guardian chaos knight waded into the fray, attacking Jax and Goober. This will not do. As Jax swung back and the party managed to slay the combatants.

Up the stairs, into finished rooms and the heart of the vivimancers' laboratory. Toxic, molten metals bubbled in a trough, causing several of the party harm. Further on, massive vats with half-formed chimera and other mutants incubating within. Henry Cee and Jax proceeded to destroy these with prejudice.

Slick explored another chamber, finding the vivimancers' library (boring books...) and a cool hat. The nerd stuff was handed over to Rondel.

Someone summoned Kavderac to finalize the destruction of the vats and lab with dragon fire. The molten metals cooled, revealing nickel-iron of the accursed meteorite that had crashed into the Blighted lands generations ago.

Source

Kavderac had thoughtfully split the loot pile in half. One half for his own burgeoning hoard, half for the party. It was still enough to set them up well.

They emerged back out into the light. Their allies had mopped up the remaining mutant forces and were stacking bodies for pyres.

Someone glanced to the east to see a vision of the goddess Khador emerging over the horizon, accompanied by her three massive great cats.

By Sidney Sime

As everyone gazed, she began to shed the layers of veils covering herself as she strode westward. Khador gestured to the party and their allies, and a voice was heard saying that her sister Medeg was in retreat, but never gone... But anyway, its springtime, and enjoy. The grey vegetation surrounding the vivimancers' lair began to turn green. 

With that, the image continued westward, disappearing over the crest of the mountains.

Epilogue:

Slick: Well, he settled down with Serafina, who is convinced that Slick, under all that thievery, has a noble heart... She's studying the old books with Victor and his knights and sages, with the recent return of Khador to her aspect as a spring goddess. And since Victor's keep is not far from the trade road, well, things do fall off wagons now and then.

Frederick: Acroria will take time to rebuild. And with such a disruption, there will be need for a charity to watch over those without families and in need of odd jobs to do. A new chapter of St. Vivinna's Home for the Wayward has been opened in memory of Brother Sigeric.

Rondel: Well, he has years of study in those vivimancer volumes. But elves have that kind of time. He will continue to travel, experience the world, attempt to be an ambassador. He returns often to the Chained Library of Athenard, where he manages a close relationship with Grancet and his peers. Deep in the library, they protect and seal away those accursed volumes, and he gets to peek at other books of ancient magics.

Jax: This adventuring has gotten tiring, and it's time to find a place to settle down and live peacefully with Goober at their side. Maybe they'll find a mate for Goober and raise wardog puppies...

Fulvus: The ale house in Neuforde has been a success. So much so that perhaps he'll open more taxidermy-themed ale houses in the western lands. And the local halfling mafia always needs a good front.

DM Notes:

I never expected a campaign to emerge from a batch of one-shots around three years ago. But here we are. I'm forever grateful that I had several players who soldiered on with me roughly every other week as we explored the western lands along the Maranan Sea, met a number of factions and groups, discovered some old fortifications, and built something.

Also thanks to Gavin Norman, who both revisited B/X D&D through Old School Essentials, and prior to that, wrote up Theorems and Thaumaturgy and The Complete Vivimancer, who inspired the vivimancers, mutants, and chimera opposing the party.

In gratitude, I commissioned a party portrait from Fagner Mathias Art. Suitable for framing.

Yes, Jax is the tallest (see below)

And the yahoos themselves (“Fulvus” missed the last few sessions, and was disappointed to have a schedule conflict for the last hurrah).

Slick, Rondel, Jax, Frederick 

I've learned a lot through this process, even though I still consider myself a novice gamerunner after all this. After all, I'm crap at killing off the PCs. Ok, that's not a prime requisite, but setting up an honest challenge or conflict is still a work in progress.

Well, now I have some Sunday evenings free... Will probably continue on the pickup game path, perhaps a SHORT campaign. Been talking with another local brewery about setting up a table at their game night. Still have a pile of maps in the transcription process to be made suitable for prime time.

Thanks also to those twelve readers who have skimmed my turgid play reports. I hope there might have been a glimmering of entertainment or process to glean from them. Looking to compile my world info and make an info somewhere for others' use and abuse.