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.

The Iliran Revolt

In 707, the military genius Coriandas the Magnificent finally overreached himself and fell in battle against the inhuman tribes of the Great Grass Sea. In the absence of an heir worthy of this colossal figure, the Bathuran Empire fell into a protracted series of internecine conflicts now remembered as The Wars Of The Successors. The decay of central power which this caused inevitably allowed other disruptive forces also to come to the fore, seizing their opportunity while Imperial forces fought amongst themselves.
One such group were the Ilirans, the native people of the province of Valkania. Though occupying an important position between Bathura and the great city of Parsantium, this had never been a province that was easy to govern. The Ilirans had a reputation for savagery and truculence, and also for unsavoury religious practices which had only been forced underground, rather than eradicated or assimilated, under Imperial rule. In 713, encouraged by the withdrawal of much of the Imperial garrison to fight wars on behalf of one or other of the generals squabbling over Corandias’s throne, the Ilirans rose up in open revolt against the Empire.

Bloodthirsty Ilirans

Their first act was to recover control of their ancient fortress capital of Samseg, which had been turned into an Imperial garrison. From within its daunting defences, they ranged forth to massacre Bathuran settlers and raze the lowland cities, giving the unfortunate people of Valkania a foretaste of the utter devastation that would later be visited upon them by orc hordes in the Years of Darkness. The Ilirans were led by a man who is remembered as Ygron - a Valkanian dialect term meaning “The Beast” – though his real name was undoubtedly different, and who was said to command strange magics, particularly in the summoning of monsters.

Eventually, after a decade of horrors, reports concerning the nature of Ygron’s terror alarmed even the venal self-seekers who styled themselves emperors in the long shadow of Coriandas. An Imperial force under the devout Theophilus (known as “The Monk” for his excessive asceticism) was sent, along with a contingent of magicians led by the Wizard-General Carataxas to counter Ygron’s occult threat. After a couple of years of indecisive manoeuvring, clever tactics by Theophilus combined with subterfuge engineered by Carataxas (who bribed a Diomatic hill giant clan into changing allegiance), so that the Ilirans were flushed out of their mountain fastnesses into open battle. A serious of vicious encounters ensued as the rebels apparently attempted to flee towards Parsantium, their intentions unknown. The final, climactic confrontation occurred in mid-725, on the road from Trimontis to Parsantium where it crosses the Druba Gorge – a spot now known as Ygron’s Bridge. That battle culminated in a massive magical duel between Carataxas and Ygron, from which neither emerged alive, and which released  magical energies which have lingered unpredictably in the area ever since.

Theophilus then mopped up the shattered remnants of the Iliran forces, and retook their capital at Samseg. What he found there so disturbed him that he declared an anathema against the place, ordering the city utterly destroyed and its very location struck from the records. Deep mountain forest reclaimed the site and it is lost to mundane knowledge.

Theophilus; a possibly fanciful detail from a later Lorantan painting

The Iliran Revolt is not now remembered as perhaps it should be. It occurred during a chaotic period of history and its major participants did not leave powerful descendants to sponsor hagiographic histories. Theophilus, notoriously, was blinded and sent into exile a few years later by claimants who feared that he would also seek Imperial glory*. Furthermore the catastrophe that Theophilus and Carataxas sought to avert – the separation of the Eastern and Western Empires – occurred anyway, for other reasons, so the war was not remembered as a heroic success. Miklos Cassio’s History of the World (Part I) is the only commonly known chronicle that covers the conflict in any detail.

* “He who cannot see, cannot turn his eyes to the throne.” – Quaestus Preceptor, Duke of Ancora, self-styled Emperor Argentus

Episode 4a - It's All Over For The Wizard

The demise of Open the tiefling wizard at Ygron's Bridge had as its immediate cause the dreadful Death Save rolls that Alex was unfortunate enough to make. Another, earlier, bad roll -  a very low initiative - had an important influence as well, as it left Open acting after the enemy, while his fellows were before them. This left him exposed and distant from his comrades at a critical moment and meant that when he went down, he had to start making death saves before any one else could act.

I did the number wrangling on the subject of death saves, and if you leave a character on 0 hit points without healing or further damage, the figures come out as follows after 5 rounds (by which time the injured party must be either stable or dead):

• Conscious with 1 Hit Point: 18.1%
• Unconscious But Stable: 41.4%
• Dead: 40.5%

The chance of dying after only two rounds, as Open did, is 4.25%, so he really was rather unfortunate. Any other result would have allowed Kam to stabilise him, but the vanara was just too far away to get to him in one round.

Here are some other thoughts, though:

The battle at Ygron's Bridge demonstrated that the mechanism in 5e for measuring encounter difficulty is a fairly vague instrument, and that a difference in tactical situation can make a huge difference to the lethality of the combat. It might surprise the players that the second part of the encounter - the fight against the Followers of Ulur in the derelict tower - offered on paper a lower level of threat than the preceding battle with the animated items on the bridge itself.

To wit:
1. Animated Armour (CR1, 200xp) + 3 Flying Weapons (CR 1/4, 50xp) = 350xp
    --> Encounter Budget = 350 x 2 (3-6 opponents) = 700xp
2. Minor Priest* (CR1, 200xp) + 3 Cultists (CR 1/8, 25xp) = 275xp
    --> Encounter Budget = 275 x 2 (3-6 opponents) = 550xp

For a 2nd level party of 5 (4 PCs + 1 NPC) this makes Part 1, Hard; Part 2, Moderate. Clearly, that's not the way it played...

The opponents in part 1 were in plain sight, in the middle of a bridge, and simply attacked the nearest opponent within 60ft. They had no situational advantages and employed no co-operative tactics. The opponents in part 2 were in a building, with good cover, had observed the first combat without joining it, and had a leader exercising tactical control.

The animated weapons and armour were pure melee combatants. The armour took a while to grind down, but there was never any feeling that anything was happening that was beyond the ability of the PCs to control. The animated objects did however achieve something that was valuable to the next set of opponents - they soaked up most of the Wizard's firepower. If the combats had taken place the other way round, the tower would have been rather less challenging.

The Followers of Ulur, on the other hand, were all equipped with missile weapons, and had cover (behind arrow loops or on the roof). Having observed the progress of part 1 their leader, Hauska, cleric of Ulur, had a good picture of his opponents. In particular he had identified the spellcasters, who were then prioritised as targets**. Furthermore, he was himself a spellcaster, with guiding bolt prepared (4d6 damage on a hit, so 4-24, avg 14). Things could actually have been a lot worse - if he had hit more than once with this spell, this easily could have resulted in Kam getting taken down as well.

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that tactical considerations can make a big difference to combat lethality, but it does serve to illustrate that purely book-keeping methods of measuring encounter difficulty aren't necessaily particularly reliable.


I like the Death Save mechanism, which avoids the situation where the other PCs metagame the amount of time left till a character bleeds out, which you get in Pathfinder, and makes immediate support for downed characters more imperative. Occasionally it will get nasty very quickly, though, as it did here.

* a scaled down version of the NPC "Priest" in the MM. I took 2 levels off him, so fewer HP and no 3rd level spells. But it was a 1st level spell that did the real harm, and no-one did him any damage till they got into melee with the half-orcs, so the hit points didn't come into play at first either.

** Let's call this the "No Sleep" tactic. When the defenders have low hit points (as is likely in low level encounters) and are in a confined area, it's entirely possible for a well aimed sleep spell, of the kind available to any 1st level arcane caster, and giving no saving throw, to render the whole lot inoperative for a whole minute. So, effective spell as it is, sleep has a double edge; any opponent who understands how dangerous it is, will inevitably aim to remove enemy arcanists from the battlefield as quickly as possible, at the furthest possible range. In this combat, the half-orcs' concentration of attacks on Open was actually largely a waste of resources, since he had burnt his 1st level spells already - sleep was no longer at the table. But they weren't to know that.

***My opinion is that guiding bolt is too powerful for a 1st level divine caster - the arcane equivalent, chromatic orb, does comparable damage but requires a 50gp diamond as focus, and has no follow on effect. I don't like seeing clerics being as effective as "blasters" as wizards. But I'm trying not to house-rule at this early stage, and it's there for the players, so inevitably the enemy will be using it as well.

Episode 4 – It Gets Serious: Crossing the Bridge

Played 16 March 2015. All players were present, though some might wish they hadn't been...
NB: From now on the pseudonymonous NPC Amira will be known by her real name of Vanessa to avoid confusion with the similarly named PC, Nymeria.

Taking their leave of the druid Erdas, the travellers cautiously approach Yrgon’s Bridge, pausing in the cover of the trees to observe the valley below.  Each end is closed off by a ramshackle looking gate. On the other side sits a thin tower, from which a pair of narrow windows overlook the bridge. Careful observation suggests that there is someone hidden behind the remains of the spire on the tower roof, but otherwise nothing is stirring. In the middle of the bridge lie three humanoid bodies, along with what appears to be a wolf or large dog, above the body of which a shifting haze suggests a cloud of flies.

People from all over the Sunset Lands are just dying to take a trip across Ygron's Bridge

The guards leave Lucinius, Lodvik and Aris with the mules in the cover of the trees, and approach the bridge with caution. The gate at the near end is a flimsy affair, but they chose to bypass it by climbing around it. Kam, who has now learnt to produce an illusory duplicate of himself, summons it into being and sends it ahead of the group, approaching the corpses. There is no reaction to its presence, so the characters move forward. Suddenly, once they get to within about 60 feet, there is a stirring....

I don't want to suggest that the bridge is dangerous, but have you seen the last guy that tried to cross it?

Three weapons – a flail, a sword, and a morning star – rise from the ground by the bodies and fly forward to attack. One of the bodies staggers upright and lurches towards the group, but it appears that this is not undead, but that it is the armour it wears that is moving. All the animated objects ignore Kam’s illusory double and attack the flesh and blood characters. The weapons are dispatched relatively quickly but the armour takes some grinding down; nevertheless, before too long the broken remains of the animated equipment lies on the roadway and the characters loot some small change and a couple of healing potions from amongst the grisly remains of what looks like a small adventuring party. From the tower there is no reaction. Cautiously the group move forward again, on the lookout for traps such as cheese-wire strung across the roadway at ankle height – but the bridge is clear of such ruses.

When they get within about a hundred feet of the tower, however, it is clear their presence has not gone unnoticed. A bolt of magical energy – a guiding bolt - shoots from one of the windows, aimed at Kam, followed by a volley of crossbow bolts, also directed at the vanara cleric. Fortunately the magical attack misses, but Kam is wounded by the bow shots. Leaving Vanessa and Open with Kam on the bridge, Nymeria and Olrik dash forward, climbing the parapet to get round the gate, in order to assault the door of the tower, but in the meantime Open is pounded by another guiding bolt attack from the tower and is forced to use his only healing potion. Kam attempts his own guiding bolt in return, but without success. As Nymeria and Olrik smash away at the door, Kam and Vanessa elect to rush the tower to follow them up. But before the unfortunate Open can join them, further crossbow attacks - and a sacred flame from the tower - strip away his remaining hit points, and his first Death Save is a disastrous 1. Kam is out of magic apart from cantrips, but if he can get back to Open before he fails another death save, he can at least use spare the dying to stabilise him. Unfortunately, even a Dash leaves Kam just out of reach of Open, and the tiefling's next Death Save is ... 2. It’s all over for the wizard.

If this is what you can see, something has gone wrong...

As the disaster unfolds on the bridge, the melee fighters are into the tower and amongst the enemy at last, and the fight swings in the party’s favour as they dispose of a priest and three cultists, all half-orcs. But it has been a hard won victory, with Open fallen, and Kam and Vanessa badly beaten up. The party badly need a rest, and the tower is the only obvious place to do it. A search of the area throws up some interesting discoveries:

The corpses on the bridge appear to be several weeks old, except for the wolf, which is rather fresher and still accompanied by flies. From their appurtenences the bodies appear to be an elf and two humans, one of them a priest of Martek. A couple of healing potions and some small change are gleaned from the grisly search. The wolf has injuries suggesting it ventured onto the bridge to scavenge the corpses and was cut down by the animated weapons.

The tower has four storeys including a basement. The third floor is largely unsafe, but allows access to the roof, where one of the crossbowmen had been shooting from. The inhabitants are all wearing pendants depicting a coiled serpent, which Kam recognises as the symbol of the obscure god Ulur, also known as the Father of Monsters, a Chaotic Neutral deity who is regarded as the progenitor of strange hybrid monstrosities such as the owlbear and peryton. He is occasionally worshipped as a member of the Bathuran pantheon, for instance by those who supply beasts for the combat arenas, but his cult is largely historical, and associated with the Iliran people who ruled Valkania before the Empire. Ulur’s main point of curiosity is that he is said to live on the Prime Material, rather than one of the outer planes.

In addition to the pendants, the search turns up some further healing potions, a little cash, and a rather nice looking ring worn by the leader, which turns out to be a ring of evasion.

On the roof, they find a strange ovoid stone wrapped in strips of rune-inscribed fabric, about four feet across and roughly shaped out of something like basalt. Its surface is irregular and, from certain angles, gives the impression of hands and faces apparently trying to escape from the interior... It seems to be magical and Kam attempts to attune to it, but is almost knocked unconscious by a psychic blast in response. There are traces of blood on the plinth upon which its sits. It is too big to fit in the party’s bag of holding, and too unwieldy to transport otherwise. The party don’t want to leave an apparently evil item lying around here in the wilderness for anyone to find, so after a bit of debate pitch it first off the roof and then off the bridge into the water below, though they worry whether this might contaminate the river. Tethered nearby in the woods is a rather ill-kept mule, along with the broken remnants of a wood and fabric drag, which suggests that the stone was brought here by the followers of Ulur, rather than already having been in place.

In the basement they find a rude temple containing further symbols of Ulur. Here also there is a collection of papers, written in a rough Orcish scrawl, which unfortunately no-one can read, and a few pages apparently razored out of a larger book, which are in Bathuran. This is a section of Miklos Cassio’s History of the World (Part One), dealing with events shortly after the death of Corandias the Magnificent in 707, when the Iliran inhabitants of Valkania took advantage of the ensuing succession struggle to rise in revolt against the Empire.

In addition to the temple there is a makeshift cell containing a single captive, of whom we shall discover more next time....

Credits: the location for this session was taken from The Forge's "Ygron's Bridge", available at RPGNow.

A Character From History: Miklos Cassio

Miklos Cassio was born into poverty to lowly servants of the Megaris clan in 1099. However his intelligence was quickly noted by his parents’ employers and, under their patronage, he rose rapidly first through the Scholasticia and then as an administrator in the Prefect’s office. In 1135 he was put forward as a compromise candidate for the vacant position of Prefect to end a damaging political impasse between the squabbling noble families, and rather to everyone’s surprise was accepted. He proved an able and dynamic Prefect, who recognised that the fate of Rezana – recently sacked by orcish armies – would also befall Parsantium if neglect of its defences continued. However, his determination to actually spend all the money allotted for military construction and defensive repairs, on the works for which it was intended - rather than letting it be diverted into the pockets of corrupt nobility - inevitably made him enemies. 

In 1146 Miklos’s aristocratic opponents conspired to have him accused, however absurdly, of embezzlement, and he languished in prison for five months without trial as they fruitlessly sought evidence for even more serious charges. He was eventually released only to attend his father’s funeral, when he seized the opportunity to flee to Cervenna. There he lived simply for the rest of his life in a rustic setting, keeping goats and making (apparently rather excellent) cheese, though he was also periodically visited by important people seeking his advice, and kept a library rather in excess of that which might be expected of a simple herdsman. When he died in 1171, his son-in-law found, whilst sorting out the old man’s effects, a huge work entitled History of the World (Part I), which was posthumously published in 111 volumes. Since this work delineated a history from the earliest legends to the point when Miklos departed Parsantium, no-one is quite sure what he intended for Part II, no trace of which has ever been found. Cassio’s History has been a popular reference ever since, being erudite, opinionated and witty, though sometimes of questionable accuracy and even occasionally scurrilous.

Hook: Rumours are sweeping the Scholasticia that a fragment of Cassio’s legendary History of the World (Part II) has been unearthed, and the lecture halls are abuzz with speculation as to what it might contain. But the scholar who was supposed to be authenticating it has disappeared – along with the priceless text. Adventurers with contacts in the academic world may be contracted to join in the search...

Episodes 2 & 3 - Black Masks and Angry Trees

Better late than never: Sessions 2 (played 16 Feb 2015) and 3 (played 2 Mar 2015)

Dramatis Personae:

• Kam (Male Vanara cleric of Hanuman – Richard Green)
• Nymeria (female Urskovian human, barbarian – Lucy Mounsher)
• Olrik (male dwarf monk – Wayne Furmidge)
• Open (male tiefling wizard – Alex Hegazy, absent for Session 3)
• Aris, male Bathuran human, bard (NPC)
• Amira, female Bathuran human,  fighter (NPC)
• Lucinius, male Bathuran human rogue, merchant (NPC)
• Lodvik, male Urskovian human fighter, Lucinius’s bodyguard (NPC)

Lubzug’s Wayside Inn

Following Sarjan the bounty hunter’s cryptic ultimatum, the party decide to take matters into their own hands. Their attack on Sarjan’s quarters initially yields mixed results, as the outer guard goes down but attempting to pull the curtain of the bay aside provokes a volley of arrows. Nymeria and Kam go down briefly but are rescued and resuscitated by Amira and Aris, though at the cost of Amira's precious healing potion. A second assault is better co-ordinated and another of Sarjan’s thugs falls, while the bounty hunter and his remaining injured sidekick are captured. The proprietor, Lubzug, intervenes to insist that there is no looting of bodies or brutality towards prisoners; Sarjan admits he was hired by Iacomo Pavone to bring Amira back to Parsantium where she will be forced to marry.

The next morning the caravan continues along the Via Bathura towards Koinepol, the chief town of Etressia.

Black Masks

As the road passes through woodlands, an attempt is made at ambush. Bowmen attack from one direction – though a well-placed sleep spell from Open silences them quickly – but this is revealed to be largely a distraction as a trio of masked attackers pounces on Amira from the rear and attempts to carry her off. Their attempted kidnap is inept, however, and they and the bandit leader are killed while the bowmen are captured. The bandits are members of the Black Masks, a long-standing bandit group which once ranged largely unopposed in this area; recently however their activities have been curtailed by the increased confidence of the Counts of Etressia, especially the current incumbent, Timitos. It is with surprise that the party discover that the masked leader is none other than Lubzug, landlord of the Wayside Inn! In his tunic they discover a parchment, presumably originally carried by Sarjan, commissioning the retrieval of Amira for a handsome reward of 250 gp. It appears that the innkeeper has disposed of the defeated bounty hunter and taken it ypon himself to complete the commission, with no greater success.

The awakened bowmen are released after being stripped of their weapons, but Nimeria and – less predictably, Lucinius – don’t accept this decision and follow them into the woods, returning a little later apparently now happier with the situation ...

Off-Track

A party conference follows. Whilst there some of the group cast glances towards the now rather valuable person of Amira, others – in particular Kam and Lucinius – seem less than keen on the idea of interacting with the Pavone to collect the reward, and the caravan continues on its way. Lucinius, however, thinks it is now unwise to consider visiting Koinepol. In such a large town, there are bound to be Pavone agents, and they are a distinctive party. He suggests leaving the main route of the Via Bathura and bypassing Koinepol, travelling through the Vasta Hills to get to Trimontis, where the Via Bathura and the Via Diomantica (the coast road) part company. There they can further consider their options, though Lucinius has business in the wilderness caravanserai of Torbruck, which rather rules out the coast road. The diversion, however, is agreed upon and the caravan shortly takes a side road to the west of the main route.

That night a roaming ghoul attempts to enter the camp, but Lucinius’s alarm spell does its work and the creature is easily destroyed. The next day, the caravan is attacked by aggressive blood hawks but these also are driven away.

The Hunting Party

The road into the Vasta Hills is much quieter than the Via Bathura. Lucinius explains that this route has fallen out of favour owing to strange happenings around Ygron’s Bridge, where the route crosses the gorge of the river Drabus. In ancient times there was a great battle there, in which powerful magic was used, and the area has always had a reputation for peculiarity. Recently however this has got worse, and strange monsters have been reported plaguing the area, particularly the bridge itself. Since this is the only good way across the gorge for miles in each direction, trade has started avoiding the route.

As they travel through the hills, the party hear strange shrieking whistles from the north, and shortly afterwards an enormous insectoid creature burst out of the ground and attacks. It is recognised as an ankheg, and while the creature manages to bite Olrik they avoid lining themselves up for an acid attack. As the monster is defeated, however, a number of people appear, led by Bassedas, Lord of Vasta, who is annoyed that the party have killed his quarry. The situation is smoothed over by Halstrud, one of Count Timitos’s foresters; it is she and her assistants who were making the weird noises, funnelled into the ground to drive the ankheg towards a stone dyke where it would be forced to the surface. Bassedas had hoped to capture it for sale to the arena in Parsantium, but Halstrud is happy that it has been destroyed, and placates the lord by removing its acid sacs for him to sell to an alchemist. She invites the party to overnight at the foresters’ lodge, and next morning Lucinius does some good business selling his wares to the people of Vasta, who see fewer merchants than they once did, and celebrates by paying the guards their outstanding wages. The party get on very well with Halstrud, and rather like the sound of her job, travelling around the County of Etressia hunting down monsters. Yrgon’s Bridge is beyond the established borders of the County, so she is not responsible for keeping it clear, but she knows something of it. She tells that until recently the bridge was plagued by a bizarre, shapeless entity that she calls “the gibbering mouther”, but this seems to have gone now.

Goblins

The next day’s travel passes uneventfully and the caravan makes good progress through the hills; the road is good if a little overgrown owing to the fall in traffic recently. Early the next morning, however, the camp is attacked, first with arrows and javelins, then by a worg which charges in to engage Olrik and Lucinius, who are on watch. The merchant’s alarm spell again proves its worth, quickly rousing the rest of the encampment, which is fortunate, since Olrik has gone down after being the focus of the attack, and there are goblins behind the worg. Emerging from his tent at the other end of camp, Kam spots that, taking advantage of the confusion, a couple of goblins are attempting to make off with some of the mules, and stops them. Eventually the worg and most of the goblins are despatched, though one manages to make off into the night, and the party are left to lick their wounds.

The Angry Oak

The next day the party delay their departure to allow for proper recovery from the previous night’s exertions. Setting off again after noon, they are passing through woodland when, without warning, a large tree comes to life and begins assaulting the caravan guards. Amira finds that her twinned shortswords are not very effective against it, and there is further annoyance from an animated vine attached to the tree which immobilizes both her and Nymeria with entwining tendrils. But Nymeria, once Olrik has pulled the vines away from her, has no problems chopping at the tree with her battleaxe, while Kam’s sacred flame spell seems unusually effective against the wooden opponent. The tree is defeated, and shortly afterwards the party meet Erdas, a druidic hermit who explains that the plants here sometimes come to life, filled with anger, animated by the curdled magic of this ancient battle site. He knows this particular tree, and has attempted to help it come to terms with its condition, so he is sad that it has been destroyed, but accepts that it was probably for the best.

The party ask Erdas what he knows of the bridge. He tells them that someone has shut both ends off with gates and that, while the gibbering mouther has gone, a small party of adventurers who came this way some weeks ago were killed on the bridge. He didn’t see it happen, and doesn’t know what was responsible, but their bodies still lie at the centre of the crossing. Furthermore, there are now people living in the partly ruined tower on the far side. He has seen them from a distance but doesn’t know anything about them.

The bridge is not far away now, but as darkness is approaching, the party decide to overnight at Erdas’s cave and tackle it in the morning...

Experience

During Alex's absence at Session 3, everyone else levelled up to 2 except Open. I've made a minor adjustment to the XP awards to allow Open to be at level 2 for next session, which will be recouped next time, and which leaves the scores as follows:

- Amira (NPC), Kam, Nymeria, Olrik: 510xp

- Open: 300xp

Episode 1 - Via Bathura

Played 2 February 2015

It is autumn and the caravan season is winding down on the Via Bathura, which heads out north-west from the great city of Parsantium through the rugged lands of the former Imperial province of Valkania. Northbound caravans at this time of year risk catching the first of the the bad weather and all that brings with it: flooded out river crossings, landslides, the grinding unpleasantness of the cold and rain as a caravan crosses the orc-troubled wilderness. Few further expeditions north are planned this year, and the seasonal mercenaries have moved on looking for other work, further south or in the city itself.

So when the hiring agent Famagustas posts an advertisement in the usual hangouts, requiring caravan guards ready to leave for Loranto next morning, the response is somewhat lukewarm. After Famagustas has weeded out the usual complement of known criminals, drunkards and overambitious farmboys, the putative hirelings are down to four:

• ·         Nimeria, an Urskovian warrior woman (barbarian played by Lucy Mounsher)
• ·         Open, a tiefling magician (wizard played by Alex Hegazy)
• ·         Olrik, a dwarven follower of Herriki Veinfollower’s “Way of the Open Hand” (monk played by Wayne Furmidge)
• ·         Kam, a vanara priest of Hanuman (cleric played by Richard Green)

It has to be said that when this odd group is presented to their new employer at the Northern Caravanserai outside Victory Gate, he is not that impressed (“a talking monkey and a dwarf who throws cutlery?”). But then what did he expect, mounting an expedition at this time of year and at such short notice? He hires them on, for 1gp per day plus a 35gp completion bonus.

The employer is Lucinius, a Parsantine merchant who is taking a small mule train to Loranto, to follow up what he calls an “important business opportunity” which cannot wait till next season. As well as the PC hirelings the caravan will include Lucinius’s bodyguard, a taciturn Urskovian called Lodvik, and the muleteer Berko. Additionally, and rather to Lucinius’s surprise, a friend has asked to accompany the caravan at least some of the way – this is the bard, Aris (guest appearance by Theo Britton).

As Lucinius takes the new hirelings out to the mule train, he is approached by a young woman who introduces herself as Amira; she has heard that he is hiring, but was not in time to approach him through Famagustas. She says she has been working as a bodyguard for the children of the Marfisi family but has personal reasons to wish to travel to Loranto. While Lucinius is apologising that she is too late and he has hired as many people as he has budgeted for, a sudden commotion erupts. Two gnolls come charging through the caravanserai, murderous looks on their faces (another appears to have already got into a fight a little further away). One attacks Berko, the muleteer, as he prepares the animals for departure, whilst the other charges straight at Lucinius, ignoring Amira, who was a more obvious target.

A short fight ensues in which the gnolls are disposed of by the caravan guards (and Amira, who has joined in). Lucinius joins in with some magic, though Open does not believe he is a proper spellcaster – more likely a rogue who has picked up some tricks. However the brutes were not killed off quickly enough to save Berko, who took a spear through the neck. Lucinius, who is clearly very eager to depart, canvasses those present to see if they have any animal handling experience. To his relief both Nimeria and Amira volunteer that they have , and Amira is taken on as a replacement for Berko. Aris, meanwhile, arranges for the Guild of Mourners to collect the unfortunate muleteer and return him to his family for burial.

Before the caravanserai’s own guards arrived to deal with the aftermath, Kam searched the two gnolls fought by the party. As well as rifling their pockets for small change, he finds both are carrying small twists of parchment which retain a few grains of what he suspects to be White Lotus. This is an addictive drug, but its effects do not tally with the gnolls’ deranged behaviour. Furthermore, he suspects that Lucinius may have recognised one of the gnolls.

The caravan sets off, and after crossing the agricultural lands which lie immediately outside the city, by nightfall reaches the outer walls of Parsantium's domain. Beyond lies the County of Etressia, outside the city state’s direct control but an ally, ruled by Count Timitos, whose family has controlled Etressia for three generations and who has a reputation as a competent general. While the guards amuse themselves at one of the rough inns in the gate town, Olrik provokes a brawl for amusement (or, as he claims, “training”) while Aris entertains the crowd with coarse jokes and parlour magic. During this little interlude, Kam, who has been pressing their employer for more details of their intentions, goes to the stables with him, where he is shown a carefully wrapped package holding a brilliant blue powder – this is ultramarine, a rare mineral extract used in the preparation of the most expensive paints. Lucinius explains that this has been difficult to get hold of recently, owing to an unexplained disruption of its supply along the Silk Road, but though what he describes as “an unconventional source”, he has been able to obtain some. If he gets this to Loranto before the supply difficulties are resolved, the artists there will pay a pretty penny for it. He is wary of travelling on the Lorantine ships which control the sea trade in the eastern Corsair’s Sea, so he has mounted the mule train as to get to Loranto before the weather closes in.

A couple of days of relatively uneventful travel through Etressia follow. There is a reasonable amount of traffic heading in the other direction, as the last caravans of the season head in to Parsantium, but going north-west the traffic is light. For the third night, the mule train stops at a ramshackle caravanserai operated from a semi-ruined Imperial era temple, and known as Lubzug’s Wayside Inn after its half-orc owner.

The party hire a side chapel converted into a bay offering rude living accommodation. The other guests are some female Bathuran pilgrims and their dwarf bodyguard, travelling to Parsantium, and a group of four rather rough looking types who are outward bound like the party. During the evening meal – cooked by Lubzug’s ancient mother-in-law at a fire pit hollowed from the old altar dais – the leader of this group approaches the party. While the others look like run-of-the-mill dockside toughs, Sanjar is a smallish and quietly spoken Sampuran man with a smiley demeanour, but his conversation is rather cryptic and not exactly friendly. He describes his trade as “recovery specialist”. He displays a badge depicting a peacock – the symbol of the Pavone family – and says that one of the party (“you will know who you are”) has upset his employer and needs to return to Parsantium to sort things out. At this stage, he says, it might be possible for that to happen without causing too much pain, but if the miscreant and their friends make too much resistance, things might not go so well. He suggests that the person concerned present themselves to him before the morning, to avoid unnecessary unpleasantness, and no-one else need get involved. He then goes back to his own bay.

The guards discuss this strange incident. After a little prompting two of them admit there may be reasons why the Pavone family are after them, though several of them also think that Lucinius seemed a little shifty during the whole incident, and has made his excuses and retreated to the bay with Lodvik. Kam, it seems, has stolen some trifle from the clan, whilst Amira is a minor aristocrat who has taken flight because her Pavone step-father was trying to marry her off to his unpleasant cousin. Kam tries to engage in conversation the tough who is guarding Sarjan’s bay, to wheedle information from him, but an attempt to cast charm person is brushed aside and results in Sarjan being summoned. During the exchange that follows, however, Kam is fairly sure than Sarjan isn’t very interested in the monkey priest, suggesting that he is not the party member being hunted.

Between them, the party decides that they are not going to wait around while Sarjan plots his strike against them, and move to pre-emptively attack. They advance across the transept of the derelict church towards the bounty hunter’s bay....