The Shadows of the Sundering Campaign – Start

First off I would like anyone reading this to refer to the actual D&D page for character bios. Each character has a unique background that has brought them into the campaign.

We start off in Kyrador, which is situated in the western portion of the Calveth Continent which is in turn the continent that is furthest north and is centrally located between the other two continents (that are situated to the south east and south west). Originally the area was part of the Calveth province of the Therostian Empire, but that was before the Sundering. Afterwards the people here did what they had to in order to survive, and eventually became nomadic tribal people. They eventually gathered under the banner of one leader, Marcus of the Gryphon tribe, and his wife Kyra of the Drake tribe, forming the beginnings of the kingdom. Kyra would become a renowned figure, healing the sick and wounded, even in battle, and eventually becoming a mortal raised to the status of godhood (she is now the goddess of healing). She is one of the patron gods of the kingdom, and, obviously, the kingdom is named for her.

Kyrador is a benevolent kingdom,  very much like the legendary Earth kingdom of Camelot, ruled by a kind and wise king (currently Marcus Gryphon V). This was not always the case. In recent history there has been a mad and paranoid king who outlawed all magic and had many innocents executed. His own son left Kyrador and traveled to the fabled lands of Aerinvale so that he could practice his art without persecution. There was also the Silver Knight and the War Wizard who had forsaken their vows and built a kingdom of the undead known as Shadestone to the east. But, for now, the kingdom is peaceful and quiet. though the king married his first wife early, she died in childbirth and the king eventually remarried, though not to a young Drake princess like was expected, but instead a half-elf of singular beauty from the neighboring realm of Duania.

Albrecht found himself here, answering a bulletin he saw while in Port Kyra. The flyer was put out by one Baron Drakclar from the trade hub of Syris. We start with him traveling alone down the road towards the eastern portion of the kingdom where the village of Appledale, supposedly under attack by goblins and bandits, was located. Soon enough Albrecht was attacked by goblins who wanted his money or his life. Albrecht chose to not give an inch to the goblin scum and attacked them, though he was outnumbered. Soon enough he felled a couple of the creatures and found that several others had been killed as well, some by tiny black arrows, others by normal sized purple fletched arrows. A brilliant bluish-silver streak of light scorched another one, causing it to fall. And a roar of rage followed by a streak of a large human felled several more.

After the battle was over Krysta, Kyrsta, Moonshadow, and Lightning Fangs all made their introductions, each also answering the flyer from baron Drakclar. together they traveled to Appledale and sussed out the situation. After speaking with the villagers and the mayor (himself a War Wizard of some power), they found out that the village, and indeed the entire kingdom was is dire straits. There was a food shortage as the goblins were attacking crops and food carrying caravans specifically. The group quickly found where the goblins were attacking from and followed their trail back to their den. They made quick work of the goblins and found several storage caves filled with the stolen produce and goods.

They also found out that the goblins were working for a mercenary group called the Iron Shadows, led by one Helrath Solomar. They also found a map with the main goblinoid lair situated south of Port Kyra along with plans to attack the port city, hopefully while the kingdom was worried about the crowned prince who was supposedly to be kidnapped by a bandit group known as the Exiled Brotherhood. The group informed the  mayor of Appledale where their supplies could be found so that they could make their way back to their rightful owners, and also made the imminent attack plans known, as well as the plans to kidnap the prince.

The group then traveled to Syris to retrieve their payment from the baron so they could rearm and get more supplies. They reported all of their findings to the garrison of the Silver Knights there as well. The baron paid them as promised and also gave them an official charter recognized by the League of Questing Companies (a world-wide adventurer’s guild in Eldritch Empires). This allowed them to take on jobs from the League and gave them treasure rights and informed the local authorities that what they did was legally recognized by most countries and their governments. Without this charter the group could be legally liable for any adventuring activities that inadvertently broke local customs and laws.

With this in hand the group traveled to the goblin lair in the Reflection Hills south of Port Kyra in the far western portion of the kingdom. They found that the goblins were actually holed up in an old dwarvish complex, much to the consternation of Albrecht who took offense to goblins being in a dwarven home. He led the group through battle after battle with the goblins (including hobgoblins, bugbears, and even a couple of ogres!) within and eventually foudn that the dwarven tunnels ended and a more natural set of caves connected to the old dwarven hold. The natural caverns eventually led to an opening into the ocean and that is where they came face to face with Captain Bloodhowl, leader of the goblin efforts and lieutenant to Helrath. They defeated him and saw that while the attack on Port Kyra was imminent, the city would hold well enough… if it weren’t for the four goblin ships with cannons headed the city’s way right now!

The heroes found a tied up skiff nearby and while the goblins were off storing supplies from the nearby ship, the players took the skiff and started towards the ship anchored several hundred yards away. The ship saw them and knew them to not be goblins and opened fire with their cannons! The group barely managed to avoid the cannon fire as the goblins in the caves came back and found one of their skiffs rowing its way to the ship. They made it to the ship and Moonshadow managed to convince the  “acting captain” of the ship (really Bloodhowl’s navigator, as his first officer was with him during the battle and died as well) to relinquish command to her. He obliged, not wanting to have his face perforated with a fae blade. Moonshadow had the cannons turned against the goblins that were chasing them in the other skiffs, and once they were dealt with, she had the ship go after the other three that were moving in to attack Port Kyra. The other ships did not expect their own people to fire upon them so the group caught them by surprise and quickly found themselves destroyed and under the waves. The group came into Port Kyra and were welcomed as heroes. They decided to help the town rebuild as they rested and took stock of the situation.

The goblins were defeated, but there was still a shadowy mercenary group apparently trying to bring about the downfall of the kingdom. And there was the Exiled Brotherhood still out there, causing problems within the kingdom, though the group did hear that their kidnapping attempt on the prince had failed, though one wonders, what made them so bold. With two weeks of off time, they have plenty of time to plan out what they should do next…that is if Moonshadow can ever stop complaining about how the port authorities confiscated the goblin ship from her after the battle.

Category(s): Dungeons and Dragons, General

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