Most epic campaign you ever play in

[Harry]

What was the most badass epic campaign you ever play in? The most epic campaign I ever played in ended with thousands of ninjas vs thousands of pirates vs thousands of solars vs the nazis vs the far realm the pcs where flying in a giant half celestial ship shooting miracle covered cannon balls at everyone the ship was in the stomach of the leviathan the heavens were set on fire then all the archdevils evil deities and demon lords fused together then they almost destroyed the multiverse then ao came and empowered the pcs then they killed all evil then the multiverse rejoiced and drinked vodka and rum then they started fighting again then the pcs went home and lived badassly ever after

[legomaster00156]

I'm playing in it right now. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235276) :smallbiggrin:

[Emperor Tippy]

By Right of My Might, started at level two ended at level 70 with the party overthrowing the gods of the settings multiverse and replacing them.

It between they fought a galaxy spanning war against the Illithid Empire that saw over seven hundred trillion sentient beings dead and destruction of nearly 300 million stars, fought a full on time war, and a few hundred other things.

That game took 4 years to play with twice weekly gaming sessions lasting hours at a time (sometimes more often) and saw everyone playing insanely optimized characters. Pun-Pun and Divine Rank Ice Assassin tricks were about all that wasn't allowed.

[Aegis013]

The most epic one I was in involved my over-the-top killer gnome taking the reigns when god-like enemies appeared, and the DM giving up halfway through. It's pretty sad. I've had better games in other systems, but I would pay money to play in something crazy and fun right now. I'm really itching for my RPG fix.

[gallagher]

some friends of mine from highschool and i started a play by post game when we all went to different colleges 6 years ago. we started at level 1. we have only had one character death and got a ressurection that took a month to get in that time, and taught us caution, but also the valor of bravery.

we are right now at level 18 and i will probably write up the story when we finish it all up. suffice to say that my human spellthief/bard/sublime chord/unseen seer is doing quite well.

[Acanous]

OK, this is going to take a while.

The most epic campaign I ever played in had 12 players and 3 DMs. It ran for somewhere between 3-5 years, depending on how you look at it. It was set in Eberron, one of only two times I've managed to play in the setting.
Due to my lack of a refference guide to Eberron, and the years it's been since this campaign (3 or 4 since it ended) I will not be name-dropping cities or important NPCs. I don't remember them, I only remember the adventure.

Arthur's Tale
Part 1

The campaign began before I joined by about 2-3 sessions. I never got the specifics on how it started or where, but the gist of it is that the abnormally large player party was a mercenary group under one of the players as leader.
the first few adventures that took them from 1-3 I wasn't there for. When I joined, it was as a lv 2 Bard.

The company had hit a port city to resupply and charter transport for their next job, which was to investigate some old manor house and help settle, with force, issues regarding it's ownership. My character joined up with the group looking for a way out of the city, as he owed certain guild members money due to gambling debts.
The group wasn't too enthused to have a bard asking to hitch their ride, but after sweet-talking a steam carriage driver into giving the company discounted fare if they acted as bodyguards along the way, the leader and burser were both alright with having me along. So long as I paid my way, of course.

It was an interesting ride through marshy wetlands, overgrown in most places. We had to make occasional stops to rest, maintain the equiptment, and check maps.
At one of these stops, we ended up face-to-exoskeleton with a giant crab monster. Ancient, broken weapons stuck out from chinks in it's chitinous armor, and it stood about the size of a house.
I cowered in the back while chanting encouraging words like "Make it go away!" and inspiring my companions.
The leader of the group, a Warforged Barbarian named Tor, ended up getting the death blow. It was a rough fight.

Afterwards, I picked through the old weapons looking for anything important or noteworthy. It turned out some of the weapons could be recognised as about 80-100 years old, but they were mundane and the forgemarks had been worn over time.
The Sorceror of the party, a Halfling named Schmee, came over to investigate why I was picking through the weapons. We had a discussion about how Arthur loved old war stories. His father was a military man, and regaled him with tales of courage and honor.

The corpse of this giant monster was otherwise entirely useless, the meat even tasted horrid.

So we continued on, meeting up with a band of highwaymen which we made short work of.
Eventually, we got to the manor house. It was a big, run down affair. Looked like it used to be impressive, but now it was catching rainwater.
Following our contract, we were to clear the place out, investigate it for dangers, and bring back any documents we found.

Well, it certainly was dangerous. The place was trapped, locked with a series of gem-studded doors, only two of which could be open at any given time. It must have played havoc with the servants back in the day.
We found an alchemical laboratory, fought some oozes, and upon investigating further, we were attacked by ghosts.
Third level party, Ghosts. I spent the encounter cowering.

Tor managed to save the day again, his +1 axe one of the few things that could damage a ghost. Schmee helped out with blasts, and we had a Cleric as well, but his turn attempts sucked.

So we kill off the oozes and the ghosts, search the lab for clues, and find a very complicated pattern with magical notation and some technical writing. It's a document, so we pack it up to take back with us.
Investigating the place further, we find it had it's own Barracks. Adjacent to that was an armory, which we looted. Hey, nobody told us about the ghosts, so we're not telling them there was stuff here. We found it like this.
I picked up a Masterwork Chain Shirt here, which was very finely crafted, kept in oilcloth, and looked very fancy. It's a little important, I'll get back to it in about 50 pages.

So we keep clearing the place out, finding little more than mold and some ruined paintings, until we come to the central room. It's a big, skylit room with a Huge Fire Elemental in the center, hooked into some giant war-machine. It's going nuts. The machine is a stationary seige engine of some sort, the controls are along the opposite wall. The party wizard casts Spider Climb, trying to get past the thing by walkinga long the roof. Our melee go head to head with it in a torrential battle that took two sessions to resolve. Arthur snuck past, meeting up with the wizard on the other side. Was a good thing I was there, as it required Use Magic Device to operate.
One of the controls was to open the skylight. Another raised or lowered the platform. There were firing controls, and one to eject the power core.

It didn't take much to figure out the elemental was the power core. We opened the light, raised the platform, and freed the elemental while the party was still inside the building. It was a 50/50 affair weather it would come back to kill us or not, but we couldn't beat the machine otherwise.

Luckilly, it just wanted OUT, so we finished clearing the building and made to leave.
Outside, we were ambushed by a vampire, who apparently our Paladin had run into before. He said something about giving him the "Schema", but instead we just hit him 'till he poofed into mist, then left.

The ride back to the city was fairly uneventful.
When we got there, we had to wait for an appointment with the noble lady who contracted us. Some of our members didn't like being made to wait, and decided to cause trouble instead. Tor came down on them for making the company look bad in front of a client, and two of our member were ejected from the party.

We gave our client the papers we'd found, which turned out to be what she REALLY wanted all along. We collected our pay and were referred by her to another person who had need of our services.
Another nobleman, who had a runaway servant- someone who had sold him out, stolen something, and run off with it. He wanted us to prove we could take down targets non-lethally while engaged in deadly combat before giving us the contract, so he had a druid summmon up some bears. Tor relished teaching bears what pain feels like.

We had a brief "Recruiting" period, picking up some new hired thugs, and rode the lightning rail to where our employer *Thought* his wayward servant was off to.

We arrived in a new city, bought some supplies, and paid off some members of the guard to inform us if somone matching his description came into town.
They said nobody looking like our nobleman's servant had made town recently, but that we could have a look around in case he found new clothes. We decided to have a couple of our member in the city to investigate, the majority of us would out to gnab him if he was just arriving VIA Horse.
We encountered some highwaymen, made short work of them. Then we encountered a pair of Hill giants.
Normally, they'd be no problem. We still had most of our resources, and most of the party was level 6. We didn't really take them seriously, letting the melee just go eat them if they wouldn't let us pass. Which they did. One of the giants was down in the first round, but the second got a Raging, power-attacking x3 Large Greataxe critical on Tor, and rolled max damage.
Even for a 6th level barbarian, 105+ damage was enough to kill him outright.

Arthur was in shock. This wasn't how the stories go. The hero doesn't die in some ditch because of a pair of highway robbers, even if they ARE big. Not when the quest is't finished, not when the fight isn't over...
Arthur died a little inside. He watched blankly as the last Hill Giant was dispatched, kneeling in the dirt beside the broken body of his hero.

With the giants dead, and Tor with them, the party immediately broke down into bickering. Morale floored, and the only unifying thing for the party was looting the Hill Giants and their nearby camp.
Arthur wouldn't leave, trying desperately to cure the warforged until he'd expended all his remaining spells. He refused to give up while there was magic in the world. Struggling with the larger parts of Tor's body, Arthur stored him, peice by peice, in his Bag of Holding.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had finished taking inventory of the Hill Giant camp, and had looted the holy hell out of it. By the time the Druid managed to talk Arthur into coming to the camp, the only unclamed treasures were a Wand of Fireball and a strange deck of cards that detected as unbelievably powerful magic.

Arthur was given the wand, and spent a minute or two by himself trying to figure it out, the challenge occupying his mind for a few precious moments.

Meanwhile, the party had begun drawing cards.

One person was showered in jewels, got a magic sword, was enligtened and skyrocketed in level, then lost all material posessions.
Another fell prone, his soul severed from his body.
The third gained a considerable ammount of knowledge and skill, then vanished as he was imprisoned somewhere.
This went on for quite a while, until the Glaivelock drew Death. The factotum let everyone know that the duel was one-on-one, and to interfere was to invite another avatar of death to attack you. Arthur didn't care. Death would claim no one else this day.
Directly before the Glaivelock's initiative, he interrupted the combat, taking a surprise round. A second specter appeared. Arthur threw his wand of Fireball, attacking a square of terrain with it, 5 feet from one specter and 15 from the second, 25 feet from himself.
With a bitter, hateful glare at the reapers, he grit his teeth and told the Warlock "Shoot the Wand."

The following Eldritch Blast dealt more damage than any warlock has ever dealt short of theoretical optimization. That wand had 36 charges, 5d6 fireballs. Each had a 50% miss chance, but the average damage alone would vaporize both reapers, and glass the forest in a 20 foot radius, the intense magical fire burning away the very ground to ash 20 feet deep.

Then Arthur walked over to the deck and drew three cards, the last party member to try. He was showered with gems, gained a keep "Somewhere to be determined later in the story", and a magical weapon.
He desperately wanted the wish, but it wasn't to be.

In the end, after the bickering, the party split up. The four people who gained enough levels to put them over 10 went off to save the Imprisoned ally and restore the comatose one's soul, the five remaining people under ten continued on the mission to retrieve the Noble's servant.

[Acanous]

Arthur's Tale
Part 2

So, the party was down to a Bard, a Druid, a Warmage, a Warlock, and a Paladin.
They had failed in their mission in a most spectacular manner, and were at under half strength from when they set out.
the walk back was mostly silent, with every conversation ending in the question "What do we do now?"
As the city gates grew near, Arthur finally stopped and answered. "We do what Tor would have done."

The players were unsure how to proceed, so Arthur said he'd handle the mercenaries. He'd manage the contracts, talk to the clients, and handle the treasury. They'd be told about the deck, and how half the group went off to rescue people spirited away by potent magic, but would not be told about Tor's demise. Given how it had caused such derision, it seemed to be the most practical thing to do, if they were to complete the mission.
The other four wouldn't HELP with the ruse, but they wouldn't reveal it, either.

Upon returning to town and going over the accounts, Arthur was appauled at the sorry state of mismanagement the band had been running under. He spent his gems re-equipping the men, increasing their pay, and making a few arrangements.
A merchant caracvan was contracted to keep the mercenaries supplied and well fed. A local smith released two of his apprentices to Arthur as journeymen, to keep the weapons and armor in good order.

Arthur also bought himself five scrolls of Shout, caster level 10.
Contacting his employer, instructions were to stay in the city and wait for the mark to show. Arthur spent his time working through the city, talking to the soldiers of the noble houses, to the city guard, to other hired mercenary groups. He'd find out who felt underappreciated and who was truly skilled, take them out for a drink, talk shop and rumor, and make job offers.
It was surprisingly effective. Many did not wish to sign on until the band left the city, for fear of reprocussions, but of the group of people Arthur considered, a quarter of them were willing to sign on.

The band began drilling, sparring and field practice. It was partially to keep them sharp, partially to get the new recruits comfortable and competant with the veterans. Arthur was surprised it wasn't the standard procedure already, but it would be now.

The other members of the party crafted magical items, did research, and kept an eye out for the mark.

It was three weeks later that he finally showed. A member of the city guard reported a man matching the description the party had given entering in the company of a foregn noble, who was attending a party at the Duke's palace. He had arrived last night. The party was tonight.
Arthur took it upon himself to ensure he as invited. His time among the rank and file buying drinks and talking shop helped, as the door guards didn't check his forged invitation very carefully.
The party headed into the ball, while the band stayed outside and covered the exits.
Arthur worked the room, gathering information, flirting and chatting. The rumors he'd picked up in the taverns were a hit. It was the Druid, however, who noticed the mark first. In the company of a very familiar figure.

The "Foregn Noble" was the vampire from the abandoned mansion.
The group huddled in a corner, casting a few easilly consealed buff spells. When we'd finished one round of it, ending with a spell to allow telepathic communication, we heard a scream.

It turned out the Vampire had made us before we'd made him. He'd been working his way closer to the Duke, trying to ensurewe wouldn't have a clear shot at him. While we'd been buffing up, he abducted the Duke's daughter, and now he was heading for the exit.

The party gave chase, except for Arthur, who headed for the raised stage.
Battle broke out. The two lovely women with the Vampire were his spawn, and the manservant opened up a can of psionic power on us. The party responded with flashing steel and sparking energy, and the nobles began to panic. That's when Arthur started talking.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Please do not be alarmed, our gracious host has gone to great lengths to provide you with the finest entertainment this side of Khorivare. Please give our performers room to move, and enjoy the show!"
The crowd immediately went from paniced to jovial. Space began to clear, and area-effect spells hit the field.
"The dastardly vampire has abducted the Duke's only daughter! It is up to the heroic Paladin of the Silver Flame to save her! Watch closely, as he cuts a path to the beautiful maiden through the menacing servants of the Undead!"
Each round, more bardic buffs stacked on the party, and while the Vampire had used Children of the Night, the wolves called were outside, occupied with a well-armed, high-spirited fighting force. Soon he had no recourse but to poof, and while the manservant had snuck away while the band was occupied with wolves, the two spawn ended up staked once outside.
Inside, the Duke's daughter had been saved from a real vampire, although only the Duke knew it. He was being congratulated by all manner of his guests for giving them a "Lively show to stir things up", though, so we took advantage of him being too occupied to scream for the guards to make our way out of the ball.

Tracking mist in the dark is hard. Instead, we went to find out where the "Foregn noble" had been staying. It turned out he was booked at a hotel near the airship docks. We made our way there, but of course he was already gone. Too quickly to pack all of his things, though, and we found a letter from "Tank" with instructions to meet once he had retrieved the "Schema". The location marked was in unclaimed territory, far from any human city.
Putting two and four together, we rushed to the airship dock. There was a flight that just left, maybe half an hour ago. We attempted to talk one of the captains into giving chase, but at this hour of the night and without notice, it just wasn't going to happen.

The next day, we used our remaining gold and some very good diplomacy rolls to charter a ship for our needs. We set out that afternoon, luke-warm on the tail of our recurring nemesis.
Sadly, not all of the band would be able to fit on the ship. Instead, Arthur arranged for a seperate contract with some of the nobles who had enjoyed the "Arms demonstration" from the party. The band would be self-sustaining and could actually bring money in, provided Arthur kept up daily messages.

Arthur selected a few of his men to accompany the party, and we were off.
It was a grating couple of days worth of ship travel. Was almost a relief when the first cannonball hit.

[Acanous]

Arthur's Tale
Part 3

How an Airship got the drop on us is something I'm sure only fighter pilots really understand. Maybe it hid in a cloud, or perhaps we got closer than we thought at night, only to have their crew be the first to shake the sleep from their eyes. Who knows.
They DID get the first shot off, though, and most of us woke to the ringing of a bell and cries of "All hands on Deck!"
The ship was rocking in the wind, but still holding steady as a second volley ripped through the sky and crashed into our hull. The captain had a spyglass to his eye, and as we exited the ship's innards and spilled out onto the deck, he cried out "Prepare to repel Borders!"
Arthur immediately started passing out items to other members of the party. one scroll to the Warmage, one to the Warlock, and one for himself. The boarding craft latched on to the ship and initiative was rolled. For once in the campaign, Arthur went first.
"Blokes on the boarding craft, Five rounds, Rapid!" he shouted, and a horrible creaking cacaphony enveloped the scoundrels and their torpedo-like craft.
Then the Warmage went. 10d6 in an AoE that catches every enemy currently on the field, doubled from Creaking Cacaphony. It was like a Fireball, only without the risk of setting our ship on fire.
Then the Warlock went. Another 10d6 sonic, doubled, hitting every enemy on the boat. It was enough damage to empty the field. Another boarding craft would hit next round, so the Paladin held for when they were in range. The druid buffs himself and his animal companion.

Two boarding craft hit at once. Another Cacaphony, and a move action to draw another scroll in each hand. The Warlock goes, moves to Arthur, taking the scroll and casting it. Then the Warmage goes and does the same. Two boats down, one to go. The men on it begin spilling onto our ship, and two more boats are launched from the enemy ship. Looks like this is the last of them, though. The Paladin charges, smites, cleaves. The Druid casts another buff, and his four-armed bear on fire joins the melee.
Arthur draws the final scroll, and casts it, dealing considerable damage to the men on the boat. The Warlock chains. The Warmage casts an energy-substituited Fireball to finish the job, while the Paladin moves to where one of the new boats has latched on to our ship, and holds his action to smack the first man to come aboard. The Druid buffs himself and his animal again, and it does the same as the Paladin, but on the other side of the boat.

Now people actually make it onto our deck, some mauled by bear and others by Blade. The enemies target casters first, but they were full up before this, so even after a round of focus fire from the four men with crossbows, they're still OK.
Arthur casts Haste. The Warlock chains again, and the group by the bear isn't looking very healthy. The Warmage Fireballs again, and a few of them go down. The Druid's bear reaps and mauls to finish them, the Paladin downs his target and cleaves. The men from the Paladin's boat make it far enough on deck to kill a deckhand and fire on our casters again. The Warmage goes down, but isn't dead. Arthur heals him back to the positives. Warlock chains, Warmage balls, Paladin attacks. There's five men left standing, and the Druid finishes them off with a Flamestrike.
Exactly five rounds from the start of combat, the enemy runs out of men.

The captain starts turning to broadside the enemy vessel, and our warmage is cackling gleefully at the prospect of Fireballing something 'til he's out of spells. But the enemy ship has it's own ideas. a few rounds later, pumped full of shot and on fire, it *Rams* us.
Both ships start careening from the sky. Two Feather Falls go off, both on our side. One was mine.
Our total casualties that fight were one of the crewmen. After we finished searching the wreckage of our ship and looting the bodies of our attackers, we find fifty rings of protection and an assortment of other goodies.
The ship itself is salvageable, it just needs a *Lot* of repairs.
Talking to the Captain, Arthur pays out enough gold to cover a year's wages for the dead crewman, and personally writes a letter to his family letting them know he died nobly, saving the lives of his shipmates from pirates.
Arthur takes his first level of Legendary leader.

The party begins investigating the area in which they crashed. It's a swamp, murky and dark. A Knowledge: Nature/Geography lets us know we're a few days from anything resembling civilization.
With nothing better to do, we go off foraging and looking for any trouble in the area.

After a couple days' scouting, we find where the Vampire has holed up, apparently he had been using an ancient temple as a waypoint and temporary base. The doors are sealed with an adamantium, but there's an artificer who was researching the place while the Vamp was gone.
She introduces herself as Joira D'Cannith. Arthur and Joira spend a while negotiating, and she agrees to join on with the Mercenaries and supply magic items in exchange for fair coin, protection, and occasional research material and supplies.
She joins up as my Cohort.

The group still has problems getting past the front door, until Joira uses her Dragonmark to Fabricate the door into little Humunculi bodies.
The dungeon isn't really all that special. Twisty and trapped and full of undead, with Acid and Unholy Water sprinkled about. But in the end, we get to the vampire, kill him, stake him, and burn him.

All finished with this guy, we look for clues about where our man went off to. From what we can tell, it looks like he took off to the Rendezvous point while the Vampire was stuck here for the day. Two days ago.
Tiredly and with an adequate ammount of grumbling, we head off for the rendezvous point with "Tank", as it's our only lead.

The going is slow, and there's a couple random encounters before the swamp gives way to hilly grassland and we see a *Huge* city in the distance.
It's not marked on any map. Not any *Human* map anyhow. When we get there, it turns out that's because it's full of Hobgoblins.
We aren't exactly welcomed with open arms, and our money's no good there.
However, our magic items are, and we sell some for local currancy. We're ripped off, but at least we can get by.

Asking around about Tank, we find out he's the city's champion in the local gladitorial games. There's only two ways to meet with him; in single combat if you register for it at the Arena, or by winning one of the group combat challenges. We decide to register twice, one group for the normal tourney (Paladin, Druid, Warmage) and one group for the two-against-the-world survival match (Athur, Glaivelock). That last one was stated by the DM as being "Don't go into this actually expecting to survive", and well, I just love a challenge >.>

The tournement is split up. We can't watch eachother, but Joira can, and she bets most of the cash on the 3v3 party every round, making some decent coin. While that tournement goes on every day for a week, the survival tournement goes at the end, unleashing a steady stream of gladiators, monsters and death machines at the challengers until they eventually succumb. Bets are about how LONG they survive.

The week passes, and information is gathered. Tank has made a habit of inviting the winners of tournements to a feast. After which, they usually go work for him. Nobody sees them again in the city, but that's not uncommon- most of the gladiators are transient anyhow.

The 3 player demiparty finishes as champions of their challenges, although the Paladin did not survive, and are indeed invited to dinner with Tank.

Meanwhile, Arthur and the Warlock are up for combat, and Arthur's been spending the week preparing something.

The gates open. The monsters take the field, dust hanging in the air as they're whipped into a frenzy by their handlers, before those handlers retreat to the safety of the pens.
A trapdoor opens. A platform raises two warriors to the field, and the Hobgoblin announcer makes use of a voice-enhancing spell to proclaim the foolish champions who would throw their lives away braving the gauntlet of death.
The noonday sun glints splendorously off of dark green polished adamantium as the names of those heroic fools are proclamed for the crowd to jeer;
Arthur and Tor.


After talking with the DM for a while, and with Tor's player (Who now plays the Warlock), I've been told that in this campaign, Warforged cannot be ressurrected. Arthur knows due to bardic knowledge. He's known for weeks. But he's been working on something, with his smiths. With adamantium he's bought. With Joira over the last week, investing gold and XP and time into a very special project, and it just completed the previous day.
He had a Legacy item created. One the Warlock is now using, and spent the last 24 hours completing the least ritual for.
A Suit of Adamantium Full Plate fashioned from Tor's body.


Prior to being raised into the arena, Arthur used a ton of his buffs on the Warlock and himself. The first encounter doesn't last two rounds, and the DM is legitimately imprssed with the damage we can dish out and the incoming damage we can flat out ignore.

He sends challenge after challenge, encounter after encounter, with one round in between to heal up or buff. We take on the Hobgoblin Tank. The Dinosaur stampede. The group of enemy Warlocks. After the Wyverns, Tank himself makes an appearance, to cut loose the final challenge personally.

The prize for actually surviving the gauntlet's 8 back-to-back encounters is a million gold.
The last encounter is five adult dragons of varying types.

As they take the field, we're finally low on resources. No more charged magic items, no more healing spells. Just a couple Marshal auras, the bonus from Legendary Leader, the DR5/- from the Regalia of the Hero (Which helped. A Lot) and the Warlock's invocations.

The dragons have been tortured. They're crazed with rage and pain. Initiative is rolled. Two of them go, and we're close to dead. Arthur goes, and *Diplomacies* at the dragons to turn on the handlers instead of us.
It works on the White, who goes last.
The Warlock manages to take to the air, while Arthur goes invisible. One dragon casts a spell, the other flies after the warlock, but only gets one attack.

The white goes, and breath weapons the handlers. They freak and lose control of the other dragons. The dragons start beating on the handlers, us, and eachother, targetting at random by roll of the die.

The crowd goes wild, and Tank uses the commotion to steal the prize money, killing a number of arena officials in the process. Wards blaze, handlers move in to subdue the dragons. The rest of the party in the stands uses the commotion to come to our aid, and through a little luck and a lot of magic, we come out of it alive. The White flies off, expecting a hefty payment in the near future for his aid.

The entire party levels. Twice. We are denied our million GP reward, but the 3v3 tourney reward is already ours.
The arena officials are not happy. They're not happy with the handlers for losing control of the dragons, and VERY not happy with Tank.
Oh, and during the fight, the magical Dagger of returning I got from the deck of many things? I was tossing it around. I nat 1'd after double-20ing a dragon, the DM ruled it critted the dragon, then came back and cut me as well. We took the same damage, but it's important later.

From the arena officials, we learned where Tank's base of operations is. Deeper into the foothills, near the base of a mountain.
We're WAY too hurt and tired to go after him today, though. Tonight, we eat, drink and be Merry. TOMORROW we die.

[Acanous]

Arthur's Tale
Part 4

So, we go off to the mountain to find Tank and get our million gold.
When we get there, we find a bridge guarded by soldiers, followed by a camp full od more soldiers, then a keep presumably full of soldiers, and that's guarding some giant doors set in the side of the mountain.
Which is probably full of soldiers.
Given our success against chains of encounters, it seems the DM wants us to go around slaughtering armies. We decide to hold off for now, and come back with a plan.
Joira picked up "craft Portal" last level, so she can build a gateway, teleport elsewhere, and connect it. We have her do that and bring the rest of the army back with her in a couple days. Until then, we scout the area, watch patrol changes, and notice a few oddities with the soldiers.
They seem mechanical. Not like Warforged, but they don't joke, laugh, slouch with boredom, or even speak unless relaying orders.

We figure something is Very Wrong Here.
Arthur wants to capture and interrogate one. The Druid agrees, but the rest of the party just wants the badguys dead and out of the way. It's agreed that if Arthur can capture one on the field, he can interrogate them later.

The company comes marching through the portal a couple days later, fresh and ready for a fight. We get a new Barbarian to replace the Paladin.
Arthur and the Druid sneak into the camp with magic, while the rest of the party and the mercenaries assault the bridge guardhouse and take the direct route.
Finding an officer's quarters, Arthur casts Major Image (Red Dragon) and has it "Set the building on fire" while he and the druid sneak in.
Nobody should be bothering us for a while.

Meanwhile, the main party is trading spells for seige shot, Eldritch Blasts for Arrows with the camp. The main body of the enemy is pulling a fightingretreat into their keep, dealing us considerable damage in the process.

Inside the Officer's quarters, Arthur and the druid are meeting with more resistance than they bargained for with the soldiers. They're tight-lipped and we don't want to resort to torture.
Eventually, the druid comes up with the idea to try casting Mind Blank on one of them.
Surprisingly, this works. The officer doesn't remember anything that happened after entering a gladitorial tournement. He certainly didn't enlist in an army.

Outside, the fighting is getting worse as the soldiers have barricaded themselves into the keep and are still firing arrows and siege shot, as well as spells, now, at the party. We are forced to withdraw.
Using a series of Fog spells for cover, we take our prisoners back over the river and rendezvous with the group. After retreating some distance, the Druid starts casting Move Earth and Stone Shape to wreck the walls and divert the river into the buildings outside of the keep. We go all the way back to the Portal, and use it to return to the human city. Finally, a chance to sell our loot and buy new things!

We invest in mental protections, seeing as the enemy appears to favor mind control. Arthur takes his prisoners out on the town, buying them a good meal, some ale, and the services of some courtesans if they desire.

After healing up and making our purchases, we return to the mountain. A casting of Prying Eyes, Greater lets us know where everyone is, and despite Arthur's insistance on handling this with a minimum of casualties, the party's bloodlust will not be sated 'til the soldiers all burn for taking them so close to death.

Solid Fog, Cloudkill, and Sleet Storm all make an appearance in the enemy camp. Followed with Wall of Fire to prevent the ones outside the keep from running in, and then the casters begin mopping up. Arthur keeps the band out of this slaughter, he'll have no part of it.

After the enemy is broken and burned, the party advances upon the gate.

This thing is massive. Mechanically shut and locked, impossible to pick without a mecha, and Shatter does nothing to it.

So we disintegrate the stone next to it and walk in that way.

Greater Prying Eyes maps some of the dungeon for us, and it lets us get surprise rounds on most of the encounters on the top floor.
This dungeon was huge, full of psionic humans, a few undead, and the boss was a Mind flayer Psion/Thrallherd, backed up by five warforged, each identical to "Tank".

We took a beating, and it required three sessions to complete that dungeon. At the end of it, we found the man we were looking for, along with the "Schema", and a portal to nobody knows where, which was rapidly closing.
Arthur ran through the portal, trying to put an end to this evil organization that wipes people's minds.
On the other side, there was a Froglike, gaunt humanoid, dark in coloration and exceptionally menacing, along with a pair of larger compatriots. The portal sealed behind Arthur, and he had to face the Slaad alone.

It was a rough fight, but I managed to pull off a win by going intangeable, using the Regalia of the Hero for DR, and pewpewing with a wand of magic missile.
There was an entire dungeon on the other side, complete with traps and encounters. I ran it solo after session with the DM, just so I wouldn't get written off as Dead.
After finding yet another "Schema" in the dungeon/mansion, and figuring out the place was the extraplanar vacation home of a psionic demilich, Arthur made to leave the area..only to find out he was trapped on another plane entirely, one of pure chaos. Not even the Greater Teleport gained from levels in Heir of Syberis could get him out. So he cast Tiny Hut once a day, ate from an everlasting ration bag, and waited for rescue.

It took about a week for the party to locate him with Contact Other Plane, then rescue with Plane Shift. By that time, the bizzarre nature of the place had bleached Arthur's hair white, and he now had a white Syberis Dragonmark of Travel. The fever dreams about the end of the world sucked.

Getting back on track, the party re-boarded the Lightning Rail to finally finish the job, but the train was attacked mid-transit by demons.
We battled up the train to the engine, where Joira had to tinker with it in order to prevent us all crashing into a thin glue on the other side of the track.
Someone still didn't want us to finish the quest, my guess was the Lich.
But we'd had enough fighting his numpties. We gave the manservant back to the noble, along with the Schema. Joira took the other one we'd found, and went to studying it.
We all got a year of down-time to play with.

Arthur took Joira and the Druid and went back to the swamplands, talking to the Keepers and establishing a network of portals to give the Orcs a neutral trading site that any could access. He governed it, and put his free keep there. Further, he went on to build eight other keeps, with the help of Joira and the Druid, and a lot of paid labor.
To each of the orc tribes, Arthur gifted a keep and a portal. Each tribe would be responsible for the behavior of it's members within Arthur's new city. Anyone thought too leniant on troublemakers or not upholding peace and public safety would have their portal turned off and be evicted from the town until that tribe had changed leadership.

It was a remarkably effective system, and the orcs loved having a trade hub within walking distance from any tribe.
Arthur made this new city his base of operations. All three hundred of his men were given a small home, or time and material to build a larger one should they wish. The place was amazing. The only parts that touched the ground were the 9 keeps. The rest of the city was on stilted walkways or tree-built houses well above the waterline.
Arthur had not built it just for his own practical use, but to give the orcs a fast means to mobilize against the aberrations from Khyber.

meanwhile, the other party (The ones who passed level 10 VIA Deck of Many Things) completed their quest, and built a flying castle.
After a year of diplomacy, construction, and mercenary contracts, Arthur finally heard word from Shmee. They were in trouble, and needed help.

[Acanous]

Arthur's Tale
Part 5

Picture an idyllic day in a swamp. People are passing through the gates conducting trade. Work is being accomplished making the place a real city. Patrols are done by fighters in shining armor. Arthur is in his keep, in the planning room. He's surrounded by maps, piles of paper litter the table and writing desk. His hands are stained with ink, and he's chewing on the back of a pen, looking at a spread-out map with tacs and notepapers posted all over it.
It's a map of another country, and the notes are about jobs, logistics, troops currently deployed. Estimated enemy strength is in red, band locations in green.
Joira is there with him, going over construction reports while Arthur shifts things around on the map experimentally. She sighs in frustration.
"No, go ahead, I'm listening. You were saying you're waiting on new supplies?"
Just then, there's a flash, and a familiar voice starts speaking;
"Arthur, We completed our mission. Have a problem. Lich is planning to kill thousands. Meet in (City we seperated last), at (Tavern we stayed at) to discuss, be there tuesday. -Shmee"

Joira cranes an eyebrow, tilting her head at Arthur inquisitively. "Who was that?"
Thinking his reply through, Arthur says he'll be there with a force.
He ensures construction won't be halted without him there, deals with a few legal issues, tells the band to make ready and be prepared for teleportation in the town square Tuesday and each day after around mid-morning. Then he gets the Druid. The three Teleport to the city, with three days to spare. Arthur uses the time to find the Warmage and the Warlock. (And the barbarian, despite us not getting along IC.)
Turns out the Warlock's been using her share of that million gold to buy/build something from Dragonmech.
Tuesday goes by, but no sign of Shmee.
Wednesday, the group starts trying to find him by magical means. They get a location on where he lives, then teleport there.

Upon arrival, the group sees massive numbers of zombies and skeletons constructing a fortress, with a city full of people inside it. The whole place is a mile in the air.
When they go to assault the undead, a tall, pale man in robes of office stops them, saying this construction force was approved by lords Shmee and Glib.
Arthur asks the man some questions, like "who is Glib" and "Where is Shmee?" but he's evasive. They're "Somewhere to the south" on an "Important mission".
Gathering information and blowing a Scry, we eventually find out HOW far south, and that the other group is walking into a trap full of demons.

Arthur and Joira pop back to Arthur's city, blow a bunch of Teleport charges from magic items, and have 20 cavalry archers(Mounted Archery Rangers), 20 light horse (Think Mounted Fighters with Chain Shirts and Javelins), 20 medium horse (Platemail Flail-using tramplers with tower shields), 10 heavy lance (Adamantium Full plate, Heavy Lance wielding Charger fighters)
Pop to the field a little ways north of the ambush.

Sadly, the fight has already started. Giant, multi-armed snake demons that fight like a whirlwind, flying casters, teleporting roguelike things, and one really big Bad Balor in the middle of it.
The other party is holding their own surprisingly well against all of this. They have a Ranger, a Binder, a Sorceror, a Wizard (Cohort of the Sorc) a Cavalier, and a Radiant Servant (Of the Silver Flame). Spells are flying, explosions can be heard. Arthur orders his archers to get in range, then rides ahead to the Heavy Lance and Haste's all the horses. We ride.

The DM of Party 2 had me roll initiative, and each round, we got closer. He didn't tell his group that it was me, just that during the fight with the demons, a dust cloud in the distance gets closer and closer.

Arthur is riding with his Heavy Spear, popping AoE buffs every round.
Five rounds later, the jester demon and the Balor are still up, the party split up and half went for cover. hree of them remain in the courtyard. One's in the negatives, two are still fighting. The Balor takes the Binder to 0, and will kill him on it's next action.
Then, breaking through the approaching sound of trampling thunder, they hear the sounding of a horn. Warhorses vault the rubble, and the ten heavy lance Power-attack-Spirited-Charge the demons, ride-by attacking and ending up 110 feet from the battle, with room to turn around. One of them picked up the Binder on the way through.

The DM starts describing the situation, waving me over to the second group (We played together in a rather large basement, each party in a seperate room)
The Jester demon pops. The Balor is barely still up, but arthur hucks his Dagger of Returning, and pops the demon. The Balor explodes messily, and Ruin Delver's Fortune helps Arthur survive the blast.
The second party, mostly strangers by this point (Due to the 'no ressurrection' rule for the campaign), look on wondering what the heck just happened.
Arthur removes his helmet, looks at Shmee (Who is hovering on a magic carpet) and says "The Cavalry's here."

The group is stunned for a couple seconds, then break out in cheers.
Looting begins, although Arthur doesn't take part. The rest of the Band catches up, and introductions are made. Only three people aside from Arthur are alive from the start of the campaign; Shmee, the Druid, and the Cavalier. The Warlock and Warmage were around from before the party split, and remember Shmee and the Cavalier, but everyone else is a stranger. It's a bittersweet reuinion, as both parties lost people.

On the ride back to Shmee's floating city, they chat about what's happened since the split. Arthur fills in party 2 with his story, Shmee and Glib fill in Arthur.

As it happens, during the quest to free the Cavalier from imprisonment, they happened upon a city being oppressed by an evil mage. He was the one who had Imprisoned the Cavalier, and they had an interesting time overthrowing him and reclaiming the Cavalier.

Fable-Style, the evil overlord was only oppressing the populace because an even Bigger evil mind-flayer-Psionis-Demilich was demanding constant sacrifices or he'd invade the dimension and kill everyone. After taking over the place, the Lich made the same demand of the new rulers. Glib's responce was to Genesis a new species that could be used for the sacrifices, leaving the regular folk to live in peace while Shmee and the Cavalier started improving their quality of life. Shmee and Glib had claimed dual kingship of the city, and set about turning it into a mageocracy.

Shmee, Glib, and the Cavalier all had Leadership. Arthur's mercenary company was, due to leadership feats, about 2/3rds the size of their entire standing army. Because of Joira and Arthur's cash, the mercenaries were better equipped. They needed the entire Band to shore up their army and stand against the demonic invasion.

Arthur quoted a price, and Glib's eyes popped. The Cavalier countered, saying they could get a thousand fighting men plus supplies and siege engines for that much, or a dragon.
Arthur stuck to his guns, saying that was the price for HIS fighting men, plus supplies and himself, and they had a giant mecha that LOOKED like a dragon.
Opposed diplomacy checks were made, and a deal was eventually reached.
The parties returned to the flying city, where Party 1 and the band were subject to alignment screening.
Arthur was miffed about that, asking what the heck it was all about.
Turns out, Glib and Shmee had passed a law saying everyone who entered the city would be subject to Detect Evil and Detect Chaos. Evil people would be killed, Chaotic people would be asked to keep their stay brief, and would be watched while in the city.

Arthur objected, saying his men were his responcibility, that the kings had asked him here, and that the band should be given special exception from the rule. He was declined, the kings had agreed to his price, making Arthur a government employee, so his men would be screened, same as everyone else.

Of course, the entire band conned Chaotic.
Things sort of went downhill from there. Glib and Arthur were engaged in a diplomatic game of Xanatos speed Chess, while simultaniously the city made ready for war against the lich and it's demonic allies.

When the attack came, things went understandably bat-crazy. The combat was intense, fighting in the streets, scry-and-die demons against magically enhanced warriors, with the party fighting the Lich and it's pet Worm that Walks in the skies above the city.
there was a lot of damage to the city, but we prevailed, and the 12-man-party chased the lich back to it's stronghold.

That dungeon was epic. Huge, magically trapped all over the place, and full of demons and demonically enhanced undead. I don't remember all of it, but I remember Fabricating a wall of adamantium into lances, and somewhere in the heart of the dungeon was a custom magical location, the "Fountain of Chaos".
It was described as a stonework fountain, built into the walls of the dungeon. It flowed with multi-hued water in ways that seemed to defy gravity, creating scintillating patterns and almost-seen images.
The Fountain of Chaos imbued anyone who drank from it with chaotic energy, causing a fortitude save against physical Transformation, another against Death, and then a Will save or lose your mind. Passing all three gets you a random effect from a table.
Arthur ended up getting "White Hair" as one effect, with a bonus to hide in snow as an aside, and a special ability to dispel magic.
A few other players drank. Shmee got dragon wings. I don't recall all the weird things the fountain did, but it was pretty cool.

Eventually we got to the Lich's sanctuary. He was talking to another tank-clone and had some female caster there with him. We entered the room, and he sarted casting a spell. The DM was about to ask for initiative when Arthur interrupted him with a Diplomacy check. "Wait! We're here to discuss terms of surrender!"

The lich laughed, the party advanced some. 'Fools! You resist this long and now you finally see the futility of your fight. I want Double the sacrifices from now on, and I'm going to kill some of you now just so you don't try this again! But I'll magnanimously accept your surrender."

Arthur cocked a brow, the player party had been using the round to still/silent/buff, and Arthur followed up with "Oh, you misunderstand, we're here to discuss YOUR surrender."
The combat was fierce and fast, spells flew everywhere, and contingeancies went off. The lich ended up dimensional anchored inside a Force Cage, and his cronies ended up very dead.

Then we spent a few rounds figuring out his immunities through trial-and-error, eventually breaking him with Shatter.

As we returned triumphantly to the city, we discussed ways to use the time he'd take reforming to find his phylactery and killing him for good. But upon returning to the city, the party was visited by Dol Dorn. Something Big was happening, and it was becomming a Problem.

[Malachei]

The most epic campaign was the AD&D H1-4 Bloodstone series, a four-part module that culminated in venturing into the Abyss to steal the Wand of Orcus.

Of course, back in the good old days, slaying archdemons was entirely manageable, so our characters decided not to run, but put an end to Orcus and Tiamat. It was a tough fight, and involved a few PC casualties, but we returned to the prime material plane, victorious.