THE SUNSET LANDS CAMPAIGN

Campaign Summary: Part 1

This blog has been moribund but the campaign which it is meant to support has been trundling along happily for a couple of years, played every two weeks with the odd interruption for illness and a couple of short bouts of working overseas... so it's probably time for a summary, since there is a plot, and it might be difficult to remember everything that has happened and who it has happened to or with.

THE PLAYERS AND THEIR CHARACTERS

Richard Green:
- Kam, vanara cleric of Hanuman
Lucy Mounsher:
- Nymeria, human (Urskovian) barbarian
Alexx Snax:
- Open, tiefling wizard (deceased)
- Aust, half-elf wild sorcerer
Wayne Furmidge:
- Olrik, dwarf monk (retired)
Wayne had to drop out for work reasons and was subsequently replaced by
Jeff Zaltman:
- Oggle, halfling monk (retired)
Unfortunately Jeff is no longer living in the UK, so we’re back down to 3 at the moment.
Regular NPC:
- Vanessa (a.k.a Amira), human fighter (semi-retired*)
- Felix, human (Ferengian) fighter, currently cursed with cat form
At various times Vanessa has been played by guests, such as Jenny Donne and Chris Mounsher.
Theo Britton also made a cameo appearance while visiting from oop north, as the annoying bard Aris.
[*Vanessa is still with the party but since the meeting with Markus Wolff (see below) is not a member of the "away team", focusing more on protecting the survivors of the shipwreck.]

These are the images I'm using for the character standups. Nymeria and Aust are the work of the awesome Claudio Pozas, Kam is lifted from 3e Oriental Adventures, Vermiss is a "brigand sorceror" from the original Steve Jackson Cardboard Heroes, and Felix is, well, Puss-in-Boots ;).

1. FROM PARSANTIUM TO ARAFILIS

Having hired on as caravan guards for a merchant called Licinius, the party set out from Parsantium for Loranto. A violent encounter with bounty hunters at Lubzug's Wayside Inn revealed that the NPC Amira was on the run from an arranged marriage and had a price on her head from the Pavone family. However, she wasn't the only one - Licinius and Kam both had reasons not to want to tangle with the Pavone, both involving larceny. So as to avoid the city of Koinepol, where there would inevitably be Pavone agents, the caravan made a detour north to Ygron's Bridge, a less used crossing of the River Druba, but this proved traumatic as they were attacked by members of an obscure cult, worshippers of a dark aspect of the chaotic neutral god Ulur, creator of monsters. The wizard Open was killed and his place in the party was then taken by the sorceror Aust, rescued from the cultists.

At Trimontis, the party solved a haunting (and discovered an entry to The Land Below, i.e. the underdark) but then found themselves abandoned by shiftless Licinius, who had been concealing his real purpose - smuggling stolen White Lotus, which he sold to the hoodlums who run Trimontis. The PCs soon had to flee as Pavone agents arrived in pursuit, but these followed Licinius south and the party then escaped along the Via Bathura.

At Scopra, they had a further run-in with the followers of Ulur, rescuing a blind, mad old man who was preaching against them in the market place. This turned out to be a wizard called Sio Godollo (along with his apprentice, Vermiss), who had been serving a sinister person called Grodias until he tried to flee his employer, leading to horrible punishment. They could not help the dying Sio Godollo, but took on Vermiss as their guide, since he knew the region.

Heading west they encountered increasing signs of unrest, including refugees from villages which had been sacked by the followers of "False Ulur". Some came from a village called Arafilis, previously protected by a boon granted in ancient times by the wizard Arafil. The Lady Melagrea told how Grodias, Sio Godollo’s tormentor, had visited them in search of magical sites; he and his agents had blinded and later killed her husband the lord, and were probably connected to the disappearance of local druid Halmas. Grodias seems to have broken the blessing protecting the village before disappearing into a forbidden sacred cave. The village was later visited by his agents, including Sio Godollo, who took a group of gnoll sellswords to the cave and came back without them. With the enchantment broken, the village came under orc attack, began to be troubled by monster, and its harvests failed, until finally the people were forced to abandon their once idyllic valley.

Shortly afterwards, the party encountered a blind Tiangaon woman with an extraordinary magical sedan chair, who spoke in someone else's voice. The diviner Lady Chua was seeking Grodias, and particularly some small silver boxes in which he had secreted things taken from her and her husband, the governor of the distant city of Nashvak-Veen, to steal his magical power. She had managed to escape but needed the boxes to free her husband -  one of which Kam had stolen from Grodias's Pavone agent in Parsantium. He sold it to her and it turned out to contain her tongue, allowing her to recover her own voice. Chua, believing that Grodias had hidden another box somewhere in the vicinity of Arafilis, asked the characters to seek it for her, as she must be cautious about revealing herself to Grodias. 

Travelling to Arafilis the PCs fought a contingent of half-orcs, part of the Ulurian raiding forces, that had taken control of the vllage when the people fled. They then entered the sacred cave, defeating a wyrmling dragon and mud-men before passing through a portal to another place...

2. THE HIDDEN VALLEY AND BEYOND

The PCs found themselves in a small valley in the Feywild, unseasonably icebound. Helped by the giant talking weasel Mr. Flinch, they defeated a night hag and her allies, who had moved in there after Grodias disrupted Arafil's enchantment and enslaved or frozen the local fey. Here there was a further portal which had many possible exits, though only one of these was working. This took them to a desert land where they encountered demonic beasts and grim, amnesiac warriors before reaching a lone tower. This was garrisoned by gnoll mercenaries led by the yak warlock Chohhot. Defeating these and other guardians, they travelled further into the depths beneath the tower, finding and freeing a number of prisoners that Grodias had transported, petrified, to the a "sculpture gallery" in the tower. These included: the missing druid, Halmas; Sunella, a teacher from the Scholasticum in Parsantium who had vanished several months previously; a centaur warrior; a Doitescan barmaid; a Lorantine merchant; and a Ferengian thief. A further captive, the cambion demon Ha'dirl, obliged to answer one question truthfully in return for his freedom, manipulated the party into asking who Lady Chua really was, and gleefully told them before disappearing that she had once been a succubus called Jazenza.

In the lowest levels the encountered the placid but powerful "Gardener", who had been left by Arafil to tend the greenery of the lowest caverns. He told them that the tower itself was very ancient and had been through a number of hands since its construction by Arafil. In the effects of the yak man on the upper levels they found that he had been researching some stolen texts for Grodias, looking for information about the legendary lost city of Samseg, centre of the Iliran revolt in Imperial times, and also for information about a mysterious being called by the dwarves the Stone Thief, rumoured to be able to swallow entire cities. Hidden amongst the "statues" of Grodias's prisoners, they found the second silver box sought by Lady Chua. Finally, They also found the magic staff which Arafil had buried in Arafilis, and whose removal had provoked the collapse of the village’s magical protections. By now they had determined that Arafil's Tower was situated on Acheron, the plane of endless conflict, and that this, not Tiangao, was also the location of the city of Nashvak-Veen, from where Lady Chua had originated.

Returning through the Feywild to Arafilis, the party assisted Halmas in reburying the staff to re-establish Arafilis’s protections, then sought out to the Arafilis refugees to persuade them to return  home along with Halmas. The rest of the freed captives they sent back along the road to Parsantium, entrusting Sunella with various papers to bring to the notice of appropriate authorities, and stolen books to take back to their rightful owners.

Once more  they met Lady Chua and her retinue. The blind seeress gratefully received the second box, but could not open it, revealing it to be one of those associated with her husband, which could only be opened in his presence. Kam bravely raised the matter of her origin, and Chua admitted that she was once the succubus Jazenza, consort of Uzerich, demon governor of Nashvak-Veen on Acheron. Grodias, then known as Tsebenech'rehara, had been one of Uzerich's lieutenants but “diablerised” and replaced his master, before switching allegiance to another faction. Robbed of her demonic nature by Grodias's magic, her consort a prisoner in Nashvak-Veen, Chua has been living as a mortal on the Prime Material for some years and has come to enjoy her free will. Her aim is to destroy Grodias by freeing her husband from bondage, which will greatly undermine Grodias's power and make him vulnerable. While Uzerich is evil, and Chua once was, she points out that unlike them Grodias appears to pose an immediate threat to the Prime Material; he seems in some way to be linked both to the unrest amongst the half-orc clans, and to the activities of the cult of the False Ulur. The party therefore agreed to carry on helping her.

3. THE CASTLE OF SIO GODOLLO

Travelling further into the former province of Ilira, the party happened upon a skirmish between two groups of half-orcs. One group seemed to be bearing symbols of the False Ulur, and the PCs took a snap decision to intervene on behalf of the clan warriors fighting them. Their leader, Bayak Keyaw, explained that they had been escorting their tribal shamaness from the fortified village of Pirisht to perform annual rites at a sacred site, when they were attacked, apparently with the assistance of treachery, and the priestess borne away. As they attempted to pursue a rearguard of the kidnappers ambushed them, and they would have been overwhelmed but for the party’s arrival. It appeared that the destination of the brigands was a ruined castle taken over by an evil magician called Sio Godollo. He had been gaining power in the area for a couple of years, but had now disappeared. Bayak was surprised to find Vermiss in the company of the PCs, recognising him as a servant of Sio Godollo, and warned the PCs not to trust him. Nevertheless, he and his surviving warriors were eager to continue the pursuit and the party joined them.

Vermiss guided the group to the castle, allowing them to avoid a probable ambush site, and described to them the layout - though there were areas where he was not allowed to go, excavated into the cliffside. They successfully overcome the defenders, though it was a hard fight, and penetrated the forbidden areas. There they interrupted an evil ritual carried out by the followers of the False Ulur, and rescued the priestess Ailea Keyaw. But whole area had begun to shake violently, and it was clear that staying around was a bad idea. As they fled down the hill, a huge maw opened up around the collapsing building and the whole complex collapsed into it before the massive burrowing creature disappeared, leaving only a huge crater and a massive gouge out of the cliff behind. From what they had discovered in the yak-man's notes, it seemed that this was the fabled Stone Thief. Whether it had been deliberately summoned, or if the interruption of the ritual had provoked its attack, remained unclear.

The rescuers returned to Pirisht cautiously, owing to the likelihood that whoever betrayed the priestess's party might now be in control. Indeed, the village was the control of the late chief's murderous brother and his sidekicks - and, it turns out, a small party of black elves, drow, who seemed to be their puppetmasters. Another hard battle ensued, from which the drow leader escaped with the use of magic, but the party prevailed and Bayak Keyaw was installed as the new chief. His uncle had been seduced by the followers of the False Ulur with promises of power, but himself was then betrayed by the drow, who intended selling the villagers into slavery. The surviving traitors were executed but the future of Pirisht remained uncertain, with many of the warriors dead and the Ulurians likely to make further assaults. The party suggested that the clanspeople might benefit from an alliance with Arafilis - which was in a secure position, but short on resources, whereas Pirisht had plenty of food but was short of adult males and in an exposed location. The people of Pirisht loaded up their waggons and, with directions from the party, headed for the hidden valley of Arafilis.

The party now continued west towards Torbruck, but received a message from Lady Chua - delivered by a goose carrying a talking locket. She warned that their activities had resulted in them being actively sought by the followers of Ulur, and that the main Via Bathura had become too dangerous, She advised that they divert via the Pass of Asser, through the fringes of the Forgesmoke Mountains....

That'll do for one post. The strange goings on in the Asser Pass can wait till next time.