The Chaos of Ages Campaign Journal (On Going)

[PikminToo]

Hi everyone! I hope this is the right spot to be posting this. My group has been playing for awhile now and I wanted to share the adventures with you all!


The party is made up of seven players, though most nights only five or six are able to play. They all began their adventure at level one. It is important to note that none of the players know each other's backstories. Their characters are as follows:

Shamash Ophanshtalajiir (Paladin): Shamash is a dragon born paladin from the Knights of the Golden Dawn. A devout worshiper of Pelor this holy knight tries to do the best in all he can, seeking out evil and doing his best to destroy it wherever it may be. While strong of body and heart his mental facilities are sometimes lacking leading to tactical decisions that are less than optimal.

Vaynick (Infernal Warlock): Vaynick is a homebrew hybrid race of half vampire. Essentially he fell in love with a mortal who didn't want to become a vampire and so Vaynick made a deal with a devil to begin turning him human and make her immortal without the vampirisim. As it is Vaynick is unhappy being chained to this devil and losing many of his vampire powers in the process and is looking for a way to regain his power while making sure he isn't in breach of contract.

Harric Dunhill (Rogue): Harric is a halfling who fell in league with some bad people for awhile, a group called the Avrandichi Syndicate. While trying to get out he runs into another halfling who is trying to track down his superior to kill him so Harric and Piddles join forces to go searching for their mysterious figure known only as Faust.

Finlay Piddleton III [aka Piddles] (Rogue): Piddles is also a halfling rogue who came from a rich merchant family. After the mysterious death of his father and the destruction of the family business Piddles has taken an oath to find out what happened and find the man responsible for it. He runs into Harric and the two set out to find Faust, supposedly the man behind the misfortune. This character has a very excitable personality and believes himself to be invincible, running into dangerous situations over and over so that he can fill the idea of hero that he believes himself to be.

Itcomon of Bitney (Druid): Itcomon is a human druid who is against the expansion of cities and villages. While not against them enough to destroy and of civilization him and his order believe that stopping the spread of cities across the land will stop any further problems the world is having. He is traveling north on a quest to find out why communication with a group of druids has suddenly gone quiet.

Garinuk Silvershield [aka Garry] (Paladin): A dwarven paladin of Mordian Garry served in the king's guard for many years alongside his sister. But when giants attacked and separated his people he became a slave for several years. Finally after escaping his main goal is to find his way home to find out what happened to the kingdom he loved and his last remaining family member. While more stoic then the rest of the party Garry has the strongest moral compass of them all, aware that principals sometimes need to be sacrificed for the greater good.

Flynn Liadon [aka Jerome] (Celestial Warlock): Flynn is an odd character, being a half elf (drow). Descended from a long line of celestial warlocks who want nothing more than to break the blood pact with the heavens, Flynn does everything in his power to resist using the magic granted to him by his patron. His father, a disgraced drow noble, was never really in the picture for him. He has searched his whole life for a way to escape the pact his ancestors made and free himself of what he sees to be a curse.

The world the party is adventuring in is limited to a single continent. Some great tragedy occurred roughly 600 years ago and has been lost to time, not even the elves or dwarves can remember what happened that so drastically changed the world. The continent is split in half by a long chain of mountains with a single valley running down the center. To the north of the mountains is doing but burning fields and lakes of ash. The land south of the mountains is still teeming with life. The Khelson Empire makes up the majority of the eastern split and is the most powerful of the nations. East of them hugging the mountains and the coast is the Dulhadar, the great dwarven nation. To the west are several city states in a loose alliance to prevent the Khelson Empire from taking everything over. The valley, while technically a part of the empire, is mostly ruled by local lords. Settlers have been traveling the region trying to escape the overbearing Empire and find a new start in the Valley.

[PikminToo]

I will update this as much as I can. It is worth noting that I am the DM for this game. Some posts will be plot lines and not individual sessions.

Our story begins with the party traveling in a caravan. It has been traveling west in the Khelson Empire then north into the Valley for about a month now, though each of the party members have joined at different spots. The party knows each other exist since the caravan is only 65 people but they do not know each other well. Sitting around the campfire about a days ride from their destination, a small town named Ruther, a flash appears in the sky. A blood red comet streaks across the stars, leaving a red streak in its wake. The caravan driver, Matmose, makes a sign over his chest and spits over his shoulder, a common warding gesture by dwarves. Uneasy with this sign in the air the party begins to chat with one another and get a feel for each other's characters.

The next morning the caravan makes it to the outskirts of Ruther, reaching the fields that surround the city. A man comes sprinting up to the party, out of breath and asking for help or a way to get into town. Shamash and Garry step forward, ever the good paladins, and ask what the matter is. The man, a farmer named Ruben, tells them his friend was kidnapped and whisked away into the Whispering Woods by the tribe of goblins that live there. Normally the tribe is peaceful and work with the druid living in the forest and this was very unlike them. The paladins turn to the rest of the caravan and ask if anyone would like to volunteer for the search party. Naturally the players all agree and while Matmose takes the caravan to town to get more help the party race to the farm to find tracks.

After a brief search the party picks up the tale and goes crashing into the woods. The rogues sneak ahead and do some scouting and after a little while find a clearing with the woman in question tied up in front of a cave, several goblins sort of bowing down before it. The rest of the party catch up and they decide to wait and see whats in the cave before coming to the rescue. A moment goes by and a large brown bear comes out of the cave, growling and frothing at the mouth a bit. The party immediately notice something is wrong with this bear. Patches of its fur are missing and these small rock like protrusions are coming out instead with the flesh kind of green in color. At this point Piddles jumps out from behind cover and rushes to the action, targeting the goblins. Shamash and Garry team up and target the bear, trying to draw it away from the tied up woman. After a quick and brutal fight the party finishes slaying the bear and goblins and rescuing the woman. Upon examining the bear further they realize that it was sick, but what disease it had was anyone's guess. Flynn (who has currently told the party his name is Jerome) makes a perception check and notices there is someone or something watching them from the shadows. Spooked the party heads back to town for a night of eating and drinking as a reward for saving the woman.

At this point I let the party level up to 2 because this was more a test system of 5th edition for us. We had played 3.5 for several years together already but I wanted to give them a chance to get comfortable with new mechanics before we hit the ground running.

The next day the group splits up to do different things. Garry helps the caravan being to settle down in their new section of town, Shamash and Piddles go to talk to the local priest of Pelor, a man by the name of Makroth, while the others do a little exploring. Flynn makes a point to stay as far away from the church as possible as does Vaynick. Around mid morning Ruben comes rushing back into town looking for the group and asks them if they would like to take on another problem for some coin. Since they have nothing better to do they all agree and head out to his farm.

As they approach the party can see these large black vines spreading from the forest towards the windmill on Ruben's farm. They have red spikes protruding from them and they have wrapped themselves up and around the windmill preventing it from turning. Ruben requests that they find a way to get the vines off and the windmill working again. Shamash boldly steps forward with his sword and takes a big swing at the fine. As his sword pierces the vine and leaves a deep gash a red liquid shoots from it, dousing him in the sticky content. Piddles, curious, walks up and tastes the liquid and spits the blood from his mouth. After a few more hacking and burning attempts, all unsuccessful, the party decides to follow the vines to their source. Covered in blood the party treks into the Whispering Woods once again.

They follow the vines for about two hours before the forest finally clears a little. In the clearing they can see a very large tree surrounded by a grove of its own, the black vines they had been following extending from the tree's roots. Another set of vines creeps northeast through the forest in a different direction. The trees in this grove are all dead and the largest one in the center seems to have a knot in it about 20 feet up that is emitting a red pulsing sort of light. A brief conversation ensues that went something like this:
Shamash: Okay so we are burning down the dead trees and cleansing the forest with fire right?
Garry: Um maybe we don't need to go that far
Piddles: No but we do need whatever that shiny thing is
Shamash: But can I still smash things?

The group approached cautiously but failed their perception rolls to see the gnome in the shadows until the wolves were upon them. Initiative was rolled and at the top of the round the tree sent out a pulse of negative energy that damaged the nearby players. At this point Harric points out to the party that the wolves have the same bone like protrusions coming out of them that the bear did. Piddles, who had run right up to the druid to engage them, noticed the same marks on gnome as well. The fight was rather uneventful though the pulsing negative energy brought those closest to it pretty low health wise. Once the druid and wolves were defeated the group ripped a glowing and gnarled nut looking object out of the tree. As soon as they did they noticed that the black vines began to wither and die while the clearing itself began to have life return to it. The party rested their for a bit before heading back to Ruther to collect their reward.