Altered Realities

After talking it over with my players, I am actually ending the AD&D campaign here. If you’ve been keeping up on things, you know that the group just stepped through a portal to Sigil, the City of Doors. Well the long and short of it is they find their way back and find out that the Cult of Nexara has gone silent, and it is believed that the Drakenblades got too close too soon.

When we play again, it will be a fresh new campaign that will also follow up this last one – in other words the current characters will be treated as heroes throughout the lands and could show up as NPCs in the next campaign.

There are several reasons for this change of heart – first off is the fact that we lost a player, and we also had people switching characters so we didn’t really have our core group anymore. The second reason is I felt that my overall story lacked coherency and was hard to follow. There is a two-fold reason to this. One was my lack of giving out information that I should have, the second is because the players did not pursue threads that I had left open for them to go after. This is not their fault though, I was too vague on those threads being possible avenues of exploration.

I am hoping that the next time I tackle this campaign, that I can do a better job and give the players a better overall story and make it clearer as to what is going on.

So now it will be Star Wars as I stated before, and I plan to run a single story arc for it, and then we may continue on with Star Wars depending on how I am feeling about it, or we may switch to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay so I can finally run the 3 book long adventure I had picked up when I originally got into the game, going back to Star Wars on occasion as a break.

This post will be a shortened synopsis of the last two games –

The heroes were infiltrating the sahuagin lair when we last left off. They continued on and managed to clear even further into their den and found some prisoners, including on of Kordan’s older brothers. He told Kordan that their brother Morek was missing.  Continuing on, the group eventually found a tunnel that led up to a huge cavern that housed what looked to be a small section of the ruins of an elven city left over from the Sundering.

The group fought various monsters within the ruins including displacer beasts, trolls, a roper, and a couple of cloakers. They found out that the strange creatures aiding the sahuagin were actually troglodytes, and they made a deal to destroy the sahuagin leadership so the troglodytes would no longer be indentured to them. They were then directed to the western portion of the cavern where it plunged back into the depths and eventually led to a huge temple to the elven gods, though it was defaced and re-purposed to be a sahuagin temple. At the temple entrance they fought a vicious sahuagin general and his personal guard. They defeated the general and moved inside. As they did so a sahuagin priest and two magi assaulted them along with two summoned water elementals. After a long, hard battle, they defeated the priest and his magi, only to be left facing the results of the sahuagin’s final words – their goddess, one of Nexara’s titans. Though it nearly cost several of them their lives, they managed to bring down the massive manifestation of evil.

They celebrated for a short time with the sea elves and merfolk, and then were returned to the surface. Once there they made their way quickly to the city of Aerinvale. They were guided to meet with one Magistrate Ian, who told them that a meeting with the Council of Magi would not be possible for a few days. He then directed them to an inn to stay in. While there they were almost attacked by assassins while they slept. It seemed that the assassins were followed by a half-elven bard and a desert gnome wizard. The bard, Lyra, informed the group that the cult was at work within the city, and that the assassins were tied to the cult and that Magistrate Ian was a cult member. She also mentioned that Councilor Chandler was missing, the same Councilor that the gnome, Ne Hupo, had been sent by her people to find in hopes of getting a cure for her emperor. They joined the group in hopes of eliminating the cult within the city together and finding the Councilor. Later that evening Lyra told Moonshadow that she knew her parents and confirmed that they were dead, but that her older sister (which she had no knowledge of previously) was not.

They quickly found the lair of the assassins, werewolves led by a vampire. The fight with the inner circle of the assassin’s guild was brutal, with the vampire charming Kordan into attacking and slaying his comrade Arthurius. After the fight they were escorted by the Marshal of Aerinvale to the council chambers. Arthurius’ body was taken to a temple of Merous where he was raised from the dead so that he could continue serving the cause of light.

The council revealed that a strange lizard creature had been found at the borders of their nation, near death with an army of ogres and giants at his heels. The army had since camped at the nation’s borders and seemed to be awaiting something.  The creature was brought in, and Ne Hupo revealed that he was one of her people, and she change din front of them, revealing herself to be a hornhead saurial (think large two-legged triceratops), the royal form of the sisarials (think highly intelligent oriental lizardmen). Apparently the sisarial had stated something before he died – that the emperor was dying, and not just any emperor, the Gold Dragon Emperor. Apparently Councilor Chandler had been researching using inherently magical creatures such as dragons, fae, and elementals to power magic in order to bypass using eldritch crystals. Knowing that her liege was in trouble, Ne pressed to return home, and the group agreed to accompany her.

The Council of Magi agreed to teleport them to Ne’s homeland (after using scrying devices to find it). Once there, the group traveled to the monastery that led to the lair of the Gold Dragon Emperor with all haste. Despite the beautiful, dinosaur filled jungles, the group pressed on. They found signs of devastation all throughout, including empty or destroyed villages. Something had happened. They found the monastery surrounded by Nexara’s armies. Oddly enough, the army allowed the group to enter the monastery unmolested, and they made their way to the main lair chamber.

Within  they saw a sick and potentially dying Gold Dragon Emperor, his life-force being used to feed a portal to Baator. Even as Councilor Chandler continued his spell, he informed the group that they would not stop the inevitable now, that Selania had already been here and gone and she had what she wanted. He then stated that he would finish his spell as his guardian killed them. That’s when a pit fiend stepped through the portal and attacked the group. During the fight Morek, Kordan’s missing brother, showed up wearing a Nexaran uniform asking Councilor Chandler if he needed aid. Kordan, with grief heavy in his heart, turned and shot his brother, killing him. After a hard fought battle, the pit fiend was brought low by a concerted group effort.

Chandler then noted that he had other means of channeling magic, holding up a cage with what looked to be a twilight fae within that bore a strong resemblance to Moonshadow. She knew instantly then that her sister was within that cage. The councilor then called for aid and teleported away as an entire army moved in to eliminate the heroes. Kordan held his ground, telling the others to go through the portal to escape. Arthurius tried to stay as well, until Lyra told him that they might need his abilities should they end up in a demon infested lower plane. Moonshadow went invisible to escape with every intention of finding her sister.

Nexara’s army moved in, and the last anyone saw of Kordan was him and his rifle becoming one as he eliminated ogre, elf, dwarf, human, goblin, and orc alike as they rushed into the room. As the portal closed they saw the great Gold Dragon Emperor weakly raise his head and breathe out a great gout of flame that devoured everything in its path. Including Kordan.

As the heroes got their bearings they realized they were in a city, not one of the lower planes. And as they looked they saw that the city stretched out before them, and eventually started sloping upwards, and up, and up, until they noticed that the city was a giant ring. They didn’t realize it, but they had entered Sigil, City of Doors…

Our heroes were last seen in glass ‘cages’ underwater at the mercy of the sahuagin, also known as sea devils or shark men. After sitting in their respective cages for an indeterminate amount of time, a single sahuagin gave them masks that let them breathe underwater and then took them to an air-filled tent where they were given food. On the way they noticed a second tent next to the one they were escorted to, with most of the other ‘buildings’ being temporary seaweed lean-tos.

The group came up with a plan to cut their way through the tent they were in and go to the one that was nearby, banking that their stuff would be in there. They lucked out and figured correctly, as they were getting their equipment back on, a group of sahuagin had noticed that they were missing from the tent and found them. A battle ensued in which the group faced rough odds against the creatures in their home environment. They eventually managed to defeat enough of them to escape.

After fleeing from the sahuagin, they found themselves wandering aimlessly in a kelp forest, not able to determine what they should do or where they should go. They eventually found a coral reef and used it as a guide to go up higher to see what they could make out. They found themselves looking at a battle between sea elves and merfolk against more sahuagin, and again they were taken prisoner, but by the sea elves and merfolk this time around. They were taken to a small town of the aquatic folk and put into a large magic bubble which housed several buildings and a fresh water fountain.

Eventually a merfolk priestess came to speak with them, and explained that they would be taken  to the surface once the troubles with the sharkmen were over. Apparently the sea devils had new leadership, and an alliance with some strange lizard-like creatures and the sea elves and merfolk were losing their battle against the sahuagin. The group offered to help, and after a few days deliberating with the sea elf and merfolk council, the merfolk priestess returned and guided them to sahuagin territory after granting them items that would help them in this foreign environment.

The group has found the main lair of the sahuagin, and have successfully cleared the first room, but will they be as successful in clearing the rest of the lair? If they are successful, the sahuagin have a  surprise that awaits the heroes at the end…

So now our heroes are on their way to Aerinvale after a Silver Knight by the name of Arthurius has joined them. The group managed to find passage on a merchant ship out of Aerinvale called the “Crystal’s Boon”. The group boarded the ship and met with the bosun, a bubbly halfling bard named Aralira, the first mate, an ex-Valkyrie named Brynjar, and Captain Farley, the human who runs the ship. Brynjar also has a rather interesting companion – a Helarin (think intelligent minotaurs, but they hate being compared to them), warrior from Maerrheim. Neither were very forthcoming on why they left the raider nation, but it seemed that, for now at least, they were fine with serving the captain of the ship.

Their voyage was to last for roughly four or five days given favorable conditions, but Lord Rivan (the Eldritch Empires god of water) is often fickle and piracy was on the rise. On the third day of travel, the ship was in fact attacked by pirates. The group managed to help fight them off, even managing to defeat the captain themselves. It seemed that the cult’s reach was long indeed, as the pirates had been sent to kill the Drakenblades and were paid plenty to do so.

A few days later the ship lurched to a stop, and as the group tried to figure out what was going on, the ship was swarmed with starnge fish-like (or even shark-like) humanoid creatures called sahuagin. They all fell prey to the sahuagin’s poisons and fell unconscious one by one. When the group awoke, they found themselves captured, and devoid of their equipment. But worse yet, the cages they were in were clear glass and they could see that they were now deep underwater…

We last left the Drakenblades facing off with several hundred orcs as they fell upon one another in civil war due to their leadership being defeated. The group managed to escape and then moved on to the fortress-monastery that had gone quiet of late. Once there the heroes realized it was overrun with gnolls, and that they had a pet hydra. The group brought down the hydra and liberated the keep from the gnolls and their leader a werehyena.

They returned to Syris where they were tasked by Baron Drakclar to take a very important missive to the Lady Helaena Silverclaw in Woldsend. They arrived and the lady told them that the missive included funds for her to siphon to the bandit group known as the Exiled Brotherhood, who were actually the nobles who were thought missing or dead by the public at large. Turns out the nobles were displaced by their siblings who were secretly part of the Cult of Nexara. The Iron Shadows as it turns out, is actually the inner circle of another mercenary company called the Iron Protectors, a reputable and honorable company. The Iron Shadows was primarily a group of assassins and bounty hunters under the pay of the cult.

Armed with this knowledge they are informed that the queen of Kyrador, Selania Moonfrost, wishes to acknowledge and honor the heroes with a ceremony and feast. They are told that the Exiled Brotherhood wishes to strike during the ceremony, when everyone’s guard is down and that they would have help from within the castle to get them in quietly.

The group agrees and attends the ceremony. Part way through the ceremony, Duke Relar Hunter along with Duchess Karlina Bearov, two of the “missing or dead” nobles burst through the doors. They accuse the Duke’s sister, and the Duchess’ nephew of being a part of the Cult of Nexara. A fight breaks out in the throne room and Duke Grag Rider and the Sun’s Grace (the head of the temple of Merous) gather around the queen along with twenty of her royal guard.

The heroes fight off corrupt house guards, priests, and wizards and notice that Duke Hunter had disarmed his sister and Duchess Bearov had killed her nephew. The queen seems pleased that they survived and asks them what was going on. The prince (thought to be shirking his duties by wenching and drinking every night) come sin wearing the full regalia of a trained Silver Knight (all thought he had dropped out of his training). He explains he had started putting on airs that he was irresponsible and not training because he noticed the queen had begun acting strangely of late. He found out that she too was part of the cult, and in fact was the leader of it!

Exposed, the queen opened a portal to the Feywild to flee, along with Duke Rider and the Sun’s Grace. The heroes followed after, and in the Feywild saw a huge tree with what looked to be several opening that look liked windows with balconies and a large one in front that looked to be a door.

The heroes entered through one of the balcony openings, and found a juvenile green dragon and Helrath Solomar within, arguing about killing the adventurers that had the queen so riled. They attacked Helrath and his dragon Ashenclaw and after a very hard fought battle that saw the death of not only Sythaeren, but also of Larissa Drake they prevailed. Afterwards they found Helrath’s quarters and found plans that involved Aerinvale, including a possible attack from the vampires of Justavia.

They have since gained honors for their victories in Kyrador, attended the funerals of their comrades and a ceremony which saw Cyrus Drakclar elevated from Baron to Earl, gained more adventurers that will fight by their side, and now await passage to Aerinvale so that they can continue to take the fight to the Cult of Nexara.