Silver Hellstar Campaign Log

[Human Paragon 3]

Yes, I am running the Silver Hellstar as a full scale campaign! This thread is going to be my campaign log, as well as a peanut gallery for the playground. None of my players use these message boards so everything is game.



The Characters

Half-orc Warblade (fluffed to duelist)
Human Wizard (with an eye on the Wild Mage PrC)
Dwarven fighter angling toward dwarven defender
Human Monk DROPPED
Human Barbarian with a penchant for knocking stuff over and smashing the remains


AKA A wizard and his friends who like to hit stuff. Very weird party make up. Only one caster, no cleric, and no ranged attacks to speak of. Gurga has a composite long bow for emergencies, but he has the shaky flaw, so -2 to attacks with it.


The Setting

Spoiler

Show

The setting is a homebrew world called Eth Dunla. In many ways it is especially well suited for the hellstar. The plane exists in within a self-contained crystaline sphere, which floats on the cosmic sea near the edge of the prime material plane.

One of the main conceits of the world is a set of powerful artifacts known as "The Great Machines." These divine artifacts were forged by the gods and entrusted to the setting's powerful archmagi to safeguard the realm. Any creature attempting to planeshift or otherwise forcefully enter the setting is instead entrapped inside the nearest great machine, where they are indefinitely held at the whim of that machine's archmage.

As the campaign begins, the great machines (not unprecedentedly, but unsettlingly) are starting to malfunction...


Monstrous Campaign setting info dump!



Eth Dunla:


---------------

Asgillian

*The Great Spire - The Three


Emora (LE) (Medieval)

Human 95%
Half Elvin 3%
Elvin 2%


Emoraan 99%
Common 75%
Asgil 5%
Elvish 3%

Expansionist Empire Ruled by The Triumvirate. Emora started out as a small human city state on the Asgillian continent after the Orcs had driven the elves from it completely. The Emoran settlers started out at the location of current day Emor, and expanded outward, eventually driving Orcs from Asgillian, as they had driven the Elves. After becoming something of a power, Emora traded extensively with the Macchurian Empire, and eventually annexed much of its Ramadakan territory after the Macchurian ruler was killed by the forces of Anuk as Anuk expanded into Ramadakan. Emora eventually was able to reclaim some of the Macchurian land taken by Anuk, but not nearly all of it. Westward expansion also resulted in the annexation of two colonies on the Mos Jorland subcontinent after a brief and somewhat successful war with Ekimara. Emora is, and has always been, ruled by a triumvirate of Sorcerer Priests who head the Drash school of Magic and worship Craven Idolocast. These mages serve for life, or until retirement. The remaining two Triumvirs select a replacement for him from a list of candidates the retiree (or recently deceased) composes. Although the three Triumvirs are equal in many matters, the Gray triumvir is considered the Head of State and Emperor of the Emoran Empire as well as Emperor Asgillian. The color of a Triumvir is based on seniority, the Black Mage is the newest of the three Triumvirs, the Gray Mage is the middle member, and the White Mage is the eldest. The White Mage is considered the head of the Drash School itself, the Gray Mage is considered the head of the Emoran Empire, as well as the city of Emor and the Black Mage is in charge of the Church of Craven Idolocast. The colonies are administrated by Viceroy's, one for each colony, who have status similar to powerful Dukes, such as the Duke of Praxis.


Tech Restrictions: None

Elite Military Units:

Battle Mages (Very Rare)
Elite Longbowmen (Uncommon)


Capitol: Emor

Key Cities:

Ports- Kent, Victa

*-Elvos

Gate City-Dacet



Major Gods:

Craven Idolocast
Maeval
Avad
Solamahol
Freya



The Mos

Mos Jorland

*The Watchtower- Raub Zellman



Ekimara (NG)(Grecco-Roman)

Human 93%
Dwarven 4%
Elvin 2%
Half Elvin 1%


Ekimaraan 98%
Common 85%
Dwarven 5%
Elvin 5%
Jorlandine 2%


Ekimara is ruled by a Republican system, comprised of a Senate and two Consuls. 100 Senators are chosen from the Elders (former Consuls, generals, and magistrates) and are appointed for life. Consuls and Magistrates are chosen by general election by the Citizenry. The head of the senate, given the title of High Elder or Princeps (first citizen) is the most powerful position in the Ekimaran government, as they control what matters are brought before the Senate and when votes are called. Consuls are elected every year, and can searve no more than two years in office. Consuls have veto power over the senate, which cannot be overturned.

Ekimara is considered to be the center of learning, philosophy, literature and culture in Eth Dunla. Ekimaran art and construction are the most advanced in Eth Dunla, however the Ekimarans lag behind Anuk and Emora in military technology. The Ekimaran military is primarily comprised of Hoplite soldiers. Gladiatorial games are incredibly popular, especially among the Denizens of major cities.

There are three major classes in Ekimara, Citizens, Denizens and Slaves. Denizens make up the majority of Ekimaras population at around 50%. Another 40% of Ekimara is made up of Slaves. Mostly from Isilia, Emora and Macchuria through the Emoran and Isilian slave trades, though many poor Ekimarans and criminals are also enslaved. The remaining 10% of Ekimara is the actual enfranchised Citizenry. Only citizens may own land, slaves, and vote. They also can become officers in the military and are entitled to run for elected office such as magistrate and consul. All children of free Ekimarans (citizens and denizens) are born as Denizens.

In order to become a citizen, an individual must have been born in Ekimara or lived there for at least 5 years. They also must arrange to purchase or recieve enough land to live on, have a citizen sponsor, be able to speak, read and write Ekimaran, and be able to pay a 50 gp fee. All denizens who voluntarily enlist in the military for a 5 year term are granted all of the above upon completion of service, thus granting them their citizenship. All slaves are identifiable by a metal bracelet on each wrist. All citizens are identifiable by a special citizenship ring given to them at the time of their induction as a citizen. If elected to a public office, a citizen is considered to be an Elder, regardless of age, and is entitled to wear a toga with a purple stripe.


Princeps: Clarance Ward


Tech Restriction: The longbow, composite bow, longsword, broadsword, bastard sword, crossbow, and most types of iron armor are virtually unknown in Ekimara, but can be imported at a greatly increased cost. Bronze plate and even full plate have been manufactured, but are incredibly rare. Gunpowder has not been introduced to Ekimara.


Elite Units:

Hoplites (Common)
Greek Fire Artillery (Uncommon)
Elite Slinger (Uncommon)
Fire Arrow Archer (Rare)


Capitol: Halen

Important Cities:

Port- Pirton

*- Silas



Major Gods:

Indred Cold
Eklisdi Entorathi
Britaanus
Maeval
Solamahol
Trau
Reah
Chell
Freya


Demistan (LN)(Renaissance)

Human 35%
Halfling 30%
Gnome 20%
Elvin 13%
Dwarven 2%


Common 99%
Halfling 60%
Ekimaraan 50%
Elvish 35%
Jorlandine 30%
Gnomish 30%
Dwarven 10%



Demistan is a confederation of Human and Demi-Human city states. It began as a mutual protection alliance between some human settlers in Ur and Halflings in Jillian who bonded together to keep the Orc tribes at bay. Over time, the city-states of Zili, Ostil, and Furar joined and they were eventually unified by a parliamentary government in the neutral city of Bosil. Demistan is major agricultural state, but also engages in a great deal of trade with its neighbor Ekimara, and Demistanians can often be found in many far-flung regions trading their native races goods. Despite its original purpose as a mutual protection league, Demistan relies on a close relationship with the Elvin nation of Thonnas for military security from other nations, and allows Ekimaran military forces to roam deep into their territory to help keep their roadways safe from bandits.


Prime Minister Edgar Frellin


Tech Restriction: None


Elite Units:

Halfling Cavalry (Rare)
Psionicists (Very Rare)



Capitol: Bosil

Important Cities:

Sub-capitols-

Ostil (Elvin)
Ur (Human)
Furar (Dwarven)
Jillian (Halfling)
Zili (Gnomish)


Thonnas (LG)(Elvin)

Elvin 98%
Other 2%



Jorlandine 100%
Elvish 95%
Common 95%
Ekimaraan 75%



After the fall of Jorland and the Jorel line of Elvin Kings, the Elves of Mos Jorland fled to the heavily forested region of Thonnas. Sindar, a prominant governor of the region took command of the reminants of the Jorlandine Armies and managed to fight off the Orc hoards and secure the borders of the enormous forest. Following this victory, Sindar was elevated to King of the new nation. Thonnas decided that, unlike its brothers in the North, that they should abandon any hope of reconquering their continent, and chose to abandon the name of the Jorel nation, and begin anew as Thonnas, with the Sindar line as their perminant monarchy. After the fall of Asgillian, many Elvin refugees fled to the new Thonnasine nation. Most elves in Thonnas suffer from the Elvin homesickness for the city of Elvos, and will attempt to visit the city at least once every 50 years or so. The Thonnasine military is fairly elite, though not quite as elite as the elves of Chalas. The highly pri!!!zed Elvin Catalogue is primarily produced and compiled in Thonnas under the direction of the Royal Elvin Catalogue Administration.



Monarchy- King Rumael Sindar VI and Queen Uridel Sindar


Tech Restrictions: No Gunpowder

Elite Units:

Elite Elvin Archers
Elite Elvin Swordsmen (Two Handed Swords)


Capitol: Rumir


Major Gods Worshiped:

Indred Cold
Reah
Fesarius
Trau
Eklisdi Entorathi



Rumesh (Emora) (LE)(Medieval)

Human 98%
Other 2%



Emoraan 99%
Common 97%
Ekimaraan 49%



Colony of Emora- Viceroy Tanis Carcain

Rumesh, once known as Ravella Province in Ekimara, was annexed by Emora after the second Eki-Emoran war. The majority of the population is ethnically Ekimaran, however after several generations of occupation and foreign rule, most of the population now sees themselves as Emoran, rather than Ekimaran, although many cultural traditions persist, including the worship of Indred Cold. Rumesh is a major outlet for the Emoran slave trade, however slave ownership is illegal in Rumesh. Trade of certain items, namely weapons and armor, is forbidden, and Emora proper monopolizes the majority of Rumesh's non-slave related trade. The Viceroy is typically an Emoran, often times a Drash Wizard, who is selected to serve, usually for life, by the Triumvirate of Emora. The Viceroy then rules in their name over Rumeshine affairs with the aid of a local council, usually made up of prominant citizens from Cor and Tic. The name Rumesh, is taken from the Gray Triumvir of the same name who rul!!!ed at the time of its annexation.



Capitol: Cor

Important Cities: Tic


Major Gods Worshiped:

Craven Idolocast
Avad
Indred Cold
Britaanus
Chell



Samu (Emora) (LE)(Medieval)

Human 99%
Other 1%



Emoraan 99%
Common 80%
Ekimaraan 71%



Samu, formerly Ledaerforn and Posca Provinces

Colony of Emora- Viceroy Grachus Tiban



Capitol: Wah


Major Gods:

Craven Idolocast
Maeval
Avad



Thora (LN) (Underground Dwarven)

Dwarven 100%



Dwarven 100%
Common 50%
Elvish 5%


Dwarven Kingdom- King Theogar


Capitol: Thora

Major Gods:

Chell
Trau
Britaanus
Fesarius



Mos Chalas

*The Guardhouse- Corvar Bellisarius



Chalas (CG) (Elvin)

Elvin 98%
Half Elvin 1%
Other 1%


Chalasine 100%
Elvin Common 99%
Common 98%



Monarchy- Queen Arvel Orodel (King Celeborn Orodel assassinated, no heirs)



Capitol: Orodel

Important Cities:

*-Fesaria


Major Gods:

Fesarius
Indred Cold
Reah
Freya
Trataanis
Chell
Solamahol




Griskinash (Dark Age Medieval)

Kobold 30%
Goblin 30%
Orc 20%
Ogre 10%
Hobgoblin 9%
Overseer 1%



Racial languages as population

Common 90%



Collection of Demi-Orcs ruled by the Overseers- The Shadow of Earth



Capitol: Orok

Important Cities:

Port- Keck


Major Gods:

Craven Idolocast
Maeval
Avad
Britaanus



Darsalim

*The Gatehouse- Horus Hal Hannah



Isilia (LE)(Feudal Japan)

Human 60%
Half Elvin 14%
Elvin 13%
Dwarven 10%
Other Demi-Human 3%



Isilian 90%
Common 85%
Elvish 29%
Dwarven 14%



Rigid Class System- Princeps Marcus Veii



Capitol: Alexandria

Key Cities:

Ports- Vandenburg



Castes:

Rex-King/Royal Family

Wanax-Princes, Lords, Courtiers

Divinatio-Priests

Praetoria-Ninjas/Royal Guard

Centuria-Military Officers

Veneficus-Wizards/Sages

Patriciana-Wealthy Landowners

Legionaria-Military Soldiers

Mercantillos- Merchants

Guildia-Craftsmen

Plebiana- Landed Peasants

Peganus- Landless Peasants

Servus-Slaves


Major Gods:
Craven Idolocast 50%
Trau 35%
Britaanus 10%
Avad 4%
Other 1%



Dima (CN) (Dark Age Medieval)

Orc 90%
Misc. Demi-Orc 10%



Orcish 100%
Common 53%



Loose Alliance of Orcish Tribes- Head Chief Fendakar


Major Gods:

Maeval 45%
Britaanus 30%
Avad 20%
Other 5%



Capitol: Gretus



Repoblia (CN) (Middle Ages Medieval)

Half Elvin 97%
Other 3%



Elvish 100%
Common 100%
Chalasine 50%
Jorlandine 45%



Parliament- Prime Minister Frank Unduril

Capitol: Sciria



Fesarius 35%
Britaanus 30%
Maeval 23%
Indred Cold 9%
Other 3%



Doland (Dolahon) (LN) (Feudal Japan)

Human 93%
Elvin 3%
Dwarvin 2%
Gnomish 1%
Other 1%



Dolandian 99%
Common 90%
Elvin 5%

Dwarven 3%
Gnomish 3%



Monarchy- King Soba the Red (Assassinated) currently a power struggle between General Gao, Lady Do, and Shogun Udon (victorious)

Emperor

Shogun

Shikken

Daimyo

Samurai


Major Gods:

Trau 45%
Avad 16%
Indred Cold 14%
Craven Idolocast 14%
Reah 4%
Eklisdi Entorathi 3%
Britaanus 3%
Other 1%



Capitol: Durma

Key Cities: *Sopha


Anuk (LG) (Medieval)

Human 95%
Elvin 2%
Dwarven 2%
Other 1%



Monarchy- King Zathras the Mighty


Capitol: Anuk

Important Cities: Proxima (Ramadakan)

The Barren Wasteland Of Doom (Ramadakan)



King/Queen: Zathras the Mighty

Prince/Princess

Duke: Duke Backman

Count:

Baron: Cecil Noname, BWOD

Knight

Peasant



Indred Cold 50%
Reah 20%
Fesarius 20%
Trau 7%
Other 3%




Ramadakan

*The Overlook- Thomas Samuel Invisabo



Anuk (LG)

SEE DARSALIM ENTRY



Lagu (LE) (Emora)

Human 97%
Elvin 2%
Other 1%



Emoraan 100%
Common 55%
Ramadakaan 3%
Elvish 2%



Protectorate of Emora- Governor Trieze Fnkada


Capitol: Jur

Important Cities: Gate- Hiloch



Xiah (NG)

Elvin 95%
Half Elvin 4%
Human 1%


Ramadakaan 99%
Elvish 100%
Common 99%
Anukine 75%



Monarchy- King Ezar Xiah and Queen Lesath Xiah


Major Gods:
Reah 40%
Indred Cold 40%
Fesarius 15%
Other 5%



Capitol: Indres



Elvin Hierarchy:

King/Queen

Prince/Princess

Lord

Common Elf



Wizard Levels-Titles-Robe Colors (Not used by the Drash Sorcerers or the Wu Jen)

0-Junior Apprentice-Brown

1-Senior Apprentice-Khaki

2-Hedge Wizard-Orange

3-Concoctionist-Green

4-Prestidigitator-Yellow

5-Transmuter-Red

6-Quest Wizard-Light Blue

Dark Blue:

7-Wizard 3rd Class-Purple Cuffs

8-Wizard 2nd Class-Red Cuffs

9-Wizard 1st Class-Light Blue Cuffs

10-Grand Wizard-Black Cuffs

Purple:

11-Alchemist 3rd Class

12-Alchemist 2nd Class-Skull Cap

13-Alchemist 1st Class-Cyclono

14-Grand Alchemist-Brimmed Cyclono

15-Master Alchemist-Wide Brimmed Cyclono

White:

16-Sage 3rd Class-Purple Shawl

17-Sage 2nd Class-Blue Shawl

18-Sage 1st Class-Red Shawl

19-Grand Sage-Light Blue Shawl

20-Master Sage-Black Shawl



Wizard Schools:

Lai-Cesp of the Watchtower of Mos Jorland



Headed by Raub Zellman



Each student must specialize in a field of magic and abide by the standard specialist mage rules



Drash of the Great Spire of Asgillian (Sorcerers)



Headed by The Three



Each student must posess the shard of a dead god within them (Eth Dunla Sorcerers all do)



Suk of the Overlook of Ramadakan



Headed by Thomas Samuel Invisabo


(Must PrC into Wild Mage when possible, or "Graduate" from the Suk School)





Wu Jen of the gatehouse of Darsalim



Headed by Horus Hal Hannah (Deceased)



All schools allowed, Conjuring/Summoning, Alteration, and Invocation/Evocation preferred.



At 4th Level, he can cast, for free, any one spell 3 levels or more lower than his own at maximum effect once per day



Every 5 levels (start at 1) the Wu Jen gains a taboo he must follow, spellcasting is impossible without following all of them. (e.g. may not cut nails/bathe/kill insects)



Battle Mages of the Guardhouse of Mos Chalas



Headed by Corvar Belisarius



(Use Battle Mage Class)







The Gods





Eth Dogo Degos

LG Indred Cold, Male- Wisdom, Inspiration, The Sun, Light -Seven Heavens -Bow -Owl

NG Reah, Female- Compassion, Healing, Medicine, Craftsmen -Elysium -Staff -Dove

CG Fesarius, Male- Stone, Justice, Crusade -Olympus -Sword -Lion



Eth Lartune Degos

LN Trau, Female- Freshwater, Order, Bridges, Diplomacy - Nirvana -Pike -Dog

NN Eklisdi Entorathi, Male- Balance, Death, Twilight, Nature, Earth -Limbo -Scimitar -Treant

CN Britaanus, Female- Saltwater, Storms, Passion, Love -Gladsheim -Swordwhip -Cat



Eth Liev Degos

LE Craven Idolocast, Male- Power, Darkness -The Abyss -Warhammer -Serpent

NE Avad, Female- Cunning, Advancement, Thieves, Wind -Hades -Dagger -Rat

CE Maeval, Male- Havok, War, Fire, Madness -Nine Hells -Axe -Bull



Eth Dade Degos

Orcos, Female- Power, Darkness -Nine Hells -Warhammer -Serpent

Elvos, Male- Intellect, Light -Seven Heavens -Short Sword -Hawk

Druvos, Female- Twilight, Nature, Death -Limbo -Scythe -Dragon




Church Hierarchy

Pope/High Priest 20

Cardinal 16+

Archbishop 13-15

Bishop 9-12

Abbot 5-8

Prior 3-4

Friar 1-2



Church Orders:

Indred Cold- Priests must be of Good Alignment

Wisdom-Inspiration-Light

-Order of Light

* “Light Of Indred Cold” (Light+ Bless Spell)

* Continual Light

* True Seeing



-Order of The Enlightened

* Meditation for insight

*Scrying Rings (Place in water to create a reflecting pool, similar to crystal ball)



-Order of The Muse

*Bardsong

*Can Boost Int or Wis of a character by 1/4 their level (Minimum 1)



Reah- Priests must be of Good or Lawful Neutral Alignment

Compassion-Healing-Craftsmen

*Absorb Burdens (Transfers lethal damage of other character to non-lethal of PC)

*Can cast one extra healing spell/day

*Reincarnation 1/day at level 10

*Resurrection 1/day at level 15



Fesarius- Priests must be of Lawful or Chaotic Good Alignment

Earth-Justice-Crusade

-Order of Justice

*+1 Wisdom for purposes of Justice/Law

*Detect Lie/Truth

*Detect Evil



-Order of the Rightious

*Will not work with characters of evil alignment

*Berserker Rage

*Remove Fear

*Protection from Evil

*Detect Evil



Trau- Priests must be Lawful

Water-Order-Diplomacy

-Order of Peace

*Charm Person

*Hold Person

*Friends



Eklisdi Entorathi- Priests must be True Neutral

Balance-Death-Twilight

-Druids

*See PHB



Britaanus- Priests must be Chaotic

Storms-Passion-Love

-Order of the Storm

*Call Lightning

*Call Storm



-Order of Joy

*May not be Chaotic Evil

*Bardsong

*Create Food+ Water

*Emotion: Love, Lust





Craven Idolocast- Priests must be Evil

Power-Darkness

-Order of the Shadow

*Shadow of Craven Idolocast (Darkness with Bless Spell)

*Continual Darkness

*Summon Demishadow Monsters (at 10th level)

-Order of Power

*Power Strike (Double STR for 1 rnd)

*Domination

*Command



Avad- Priests cannot be Good

Cunning-Advancement, Thieves, Wind

*Charm Person

*Clairaudience

*ESP

*Whispering Wind



Maeval- Priests cannot be Lawful or Good

Fire-Havoc-War

-Order of Havoc

*Chaos

*Fear



-Order of Fire

*Burning Hands (2nd level and above)

*Fireball (5th level and above)

*Wall of Fire (15th level and above)

__________________________________________________ ______________________

*Priests may use their granted abilities 1/day/3 levels, round up (one at 1st-3rd)

*All Priests save Druids may Turn Undead

*Once per day, all Priests at or above the 10th level may attempt to contact their deity. The Priest has a 5% chance/level starting at level 10.

*No good priest will wish to use necromancy spells other than those used to restore life permanently

*Druids have access to the Sphere of Death
























Limited Chronology of Eth Dunla



1: Eth Degos Create Eth Dunla



2: Eth Degos Create Animals on Eth Dunla and in Eth Naeoc



3: Druvos and Maeval Create Dragons, Elvos and Reah Create Titans, Fesarius and Trau Create Guardian Angels



4: Druvos and Elvos Create Dragons, Reah and Fesarius Create Titans, Maeval and Avad Create Bataazu



5: Druvos and Fesarius Create Dragons, Elvos and Britaanus create Immortal Nymphs, Maeval and Orcos Create Bataazu



6: Elvos Creates Elves, the first Taegr Efli (Non-Demigod with a Soul) First Elvin Kingdom in Asgillian Begins, with it the first Golden Age of Eth Dunla



7: Elves begin to spread with the aid of Elvos and the Titans



8: Elves reach Ramadakan and begin the Kingdom of Ramadakan



9: Elves reach the southeastern shore of The Mos



10: Elvin Kingdom of Mos Jorland begins



14: Elves cross the Vedran Mountains and enter Mos Chalas



16: Elvin Kingdom of Mos Chalas begins



20: Elves from Ramadakan reach the southern shore of Darsalim (Dar at this point)



22: Kingdom of (Southern) Dar begins



24: Elves cross the Tocadrian mountains into the north of Darsalim (known as Salim)



25: Kingdom of Salim begins



26: Elves discover and underground pass beneath the Tocadrian mountains, effectively removing it as a geological barrier



29: Queen Salim is wed to King Dar, United Elvin Kingdom of Darsalim Begins



34: The Great Bridge of Elvontaris connects Asgillian and Ramadakan



45: The Great Bridge of Ankurus connects Ramadakan and Darsalim



107: Elves reach Eth Tsea Dnalis from Darsalim, but largely abandon it. Eth Tsea Dnalis is declared the furthest landmass to the East



152: Elves reach Eth Tswe Dnalis from Mos Jorland, but largely abandon it. Eth Tswe Dnalis is declared the furthest landmass to the East



207: The Great Bridge of Kentawah connects Asgillian to Mos Jorland



476: Druvos creates Druids to help uphold the “natural order”



890: Sect of Elves called the “Drow” pledge their alligence to Orcos and the moon godess Avad, they are shunned by their Elvish peers and are driven underground.



1000: Northern Darsalim Elves are captured by the Drow and transformed by the Dark Gods into the Orcs. The First Orc War, also known as the Dego Rwa, begins.



1010: All elves are driven from the former lands of Salim



1045: Drow descover the subterranean pass benieth the Tocadrian mountains and send Orcs into the former kingdom of Dar.



1067: Orcs purge the last of the Elves from Darsalim and destroy the Darsalim bloodline.



1092: Orcs cross the Ankurus Bridge from and move into Ramadakan



1095: Orcs cross the River to Mos Chalas



1110: Orcs cross the Vedran mountains and enter Mos Jorland



1345: Orcs purge Mos Jorland of Elves



1370: “Ramadakan” Orcs reach Elvontaris bridge, the siege of Asgillian begins from all sides.



1380: With help from Elvos and other Dogo Degos, the Elves begin to repel the Orcs from the areas around Asgillian,



1400: Druvos betrays her brother Elvos, declaring Elvin exemption from Natural Death to be in violation of Eth Wla Lfol Eth Degos and helps Orcos slay Elvos with the Great Machines. Druvos also commands the Druids to aid the Orcs and Drow in their extermination of the Elves.



1402: Asgillian is captured by the Druids and Orcs



1403: With the defeat of the Elves imminent, Eth Dogo Degos collect many of the shards of Elvos and merge it with the body and soul of the Elf Inder. Indred Cold is created from this union.



1404: Britaanus and Trau ally themselves with Eth Dogo Degos and slay Orcos with the Great Machines



1405: Indred Cold and Fesarius use the Great Machines to slay Druvos



1406: Lead by Indred Cold, The Orcs are driven from Ramadakan by the Xiahn Elves and from Mos Jorland by the Thonnasine Elves



1407: Craven Idolocast "The Shadow of Heaven" reveals himself from the Chaos and eners the Heavens, taking control of the forces of Orcos



1408: Britaanus, Reah, Trau and Avad call for a truce and Eklisdi Entorathi is created to administer the truth and take control of the forces of Druvos.



1410: All fighting in Eth Dunla temporarily ends as the Dego Rwa comes to a close.



1411: Dwarves are created in the Mountains to keep Elves and Orcs from crossing



1420(1): Men are created from Druids, mixed with the essence of the other Degos, to fill the lands destroyed by the Dego Rwa.

Kingdom of Entorathia is established in Asgillian under King Eredon

Kingdom of Macchuria is established in Ramadakan under King Macchur

Empire of Dolahon is established in Darsalim under Emperor Do

Kingdom of Ekin is established in Mos Jorland under Rex Ekis

Mos Chalas is left untouched by Man


1420 - 1520: The Pax Magus- The Kingdoms of Man and Chalasine Elves are ruled by Philosopher-Kings of Legend and advised by powerful Archmages of the Towers. This is considered to be the Second Golden Age of Eth Dunla.


1520 (100) The Second Great War of Heaven and Dunla splits the unity of the Council of Nine Mages. Communication between the original Kingdoms of Men is broken.



1592(173): Demistan is formed between Thonnas and Ekin to searve as the land of the Demi-Humans, (Gnomes, Half-Elves, and Halflings) which are born through interbreeding between Dwarves, Humans and Elves, who also are invited to live there.



1806(387): The minor Ekin noble Isil moves to northern Dolahon and begins the Isilian rebellion.



1823(404): Isilia becomes an Ekin colony in Darsalim



1920(501): Three powerful mages found the Drash school of Wizardry in Asgillian and conquer the Kingdom of Entorathia with help from The Shadow of Heaven. The new unified Asgillian state is renamed Emora, after the city where the Three Mages founded their school of Sorcery.



1932(513): Kingdom of Anuk is founded in Southern Darsalim by a band of exiled Entorathians



1990(571): Kingdom of Macchuria goes to war with Anuk for the fertile lands of Southern Darsalim



2030(611): Macchuro-Anukine War ends as the forces of Anuk conquer most of Ramadakine Macchuria.



2074(655): Emora goes to war with Ekin and begins its period of expansion. First Eki-Emoran War.



2111(692): Emora aquires Ledaerforn and Posca Provinces (annexed as Samu Province) in the Treaty of Kent.



2134(715): Second Eki-Emoran war begins.



2151(732): Treaty of Silas ends second Eki-Emoran war and cedes Ravella province to Emora, renamed the Colony of Rumesh.



2159(740): Popular uprisings against the Ekis family begin over resentment from the treaty of Silas, and other causes



2161(742): Ekis Royal Family is executed and Republican system of government is established. Ekin is renamed Ekimara.



2172(753): Second Macchuro-Anukine War begins as Macchurians attempt to retake lost territory.



2176(757): Isilia declares its independance from the Republic of Ekimara.



2190(771): Treaty of Tic ends the second Macchuro-Anukine war, ceding more Macchurian territory, including the Barren Wasteland of Doom, to Anuk. Emora annexes the remainder of Macchuria as the Protectorate of Lagu.



2334(915): Bonan the Merciless conquers Eth Tswe Dnalis and founds the Empire of Bonania







-----------------------------------

The Great Machines
When it came time for the original nine gods to make Eth Dunla, they each created a celestial tool. After the creation of Eth Dunla, the Great Machines were cast down to Eth Dunla and made into great tools to protect the fledgling world from the dangers of the Other Realms (Demons, Devils, etc.). Each race was charged with controlling three of the Great Machines, three to the Elves, three to the Orcs, and three to the Druids. When the War of the Gods raged, each race was able to combine the power of their Great Machines to slay a rival God. When the Great War ended, it was decided that all of the races had proved themselves unworthy of protecting the Machines.

Nine Great Towers were crafted, one for each continent, one to float in the skies above, and one to dwell in the earth below. One powerful Wizard of a new race, Humans, was charged with using a tower to protect one of the Great Machines. The Machines were re-purposed to protect Eth Dunla and to link the regions together. Their powers, at the height of their use, were as follows:

1. The ability to transport people to or from other realms.
2. The ability to prevent invasion from other realms, by rerouting extra-dimensional travelers to one of the Machines.
3. The ability to block teleportation between continents (originally between Kingdoms, to prevent invasions)
4. The ability to block mind altering spells in a 100' radius

Some of these Wizards became the earliest Emperors, and were considered to be Demi-Gods by their people. The Do (Dough) family of Doland lost power to a betrayal by one of his feudal lords. The Ekimar family of Ekimara was overthrown because of their harsh and tyrannical rule. The savage Macchu people were displaced by the more organized Emor clan. Slowly, the Wizards of all the towers were overthrown or slowly forgotten as war and time diminished their prestige and power. The Great Tower of the Overlook was laid to waste during the wars that would lead to the establishment of the Kingdom of Anuk. The land around the Overlook was so badly scarred and corrupted by dark magic, it became known as the Barren Wasteland of Doom, although the dark magic has long since faded, and the land recovered, the name endures. The Tower in the Sky, the Crystal Palace, was abandoned by its keeper, and lost for centuries. The Tower of the Deep was forgotten as its keeper became a hermit, and died without taking an apprentice.

So peanut gallery: has anybody attempted to run the silver hellstar? Has anybody actually completed it?

I'm very much open to suggestions on how the adventures should be structured, since Afro's campaign outline only includes a skeleton of the story, though I am excited to fill in the blanks.

I am considering starting at ECL 5 instead of 3 to help speed things along, but I think the starting adventure Afro outlined may be a little low key for ECL 5. Any thoughts?

[Human Paragon 3]

Session 1:

What Afro put in the campaign guide-

• EL 3 In a quiet farming village, a local farmer has burned his crops to the ground, slaughtered his livestock and killed his family. The madman is being unknowingly aided by bandits who have taken the attention of local law. The farmer has been possessed by a probe, which will leave the scene after the village is destroyed.

Filling in the blanks:

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This story starts in the hamlet of Greengrass, which is as of late in the province called Gallow. I say as of late, because as recent as 11 years ago, Greengrass was a part of Wheatland.

The two provinces of Gallow and Wheatland were founded by feuding brothers three generations ago, when they split their father's land. Nearly 100 years later, the feud has gotten more intense if anything. Lord Gallow sent his knights to occupy the fertile land of Greengrass Hamlet, and has held it for the past 11 years despite occasional forays. Recently, the Hellstar's probe has arrived and begun to fulfill its function.

Sir Gemry, a high ranking knight has left Gallow's service and joined/organized a group of bandits, using his knowledge of the lord's inner workings to cause chaos throughout the small realm. The probe follows Gemry to Greengrass, where it works its magic on Elijah Greengrass, compelling him to murder his family, slay his livestock and burn his crops before joining Gemry's pack of bandits.

Gallow's men find oil jugs at the scene which are manufactured in Wheatland, some of Gemry's pelf. Convinced his cousin is behind the destruction in Greengrass, he hires the PCs to A) get to the bottom of things, B) eliminate foreign agents in Greengrass and C) force a confession out of Gemry, who Gallow is convinced is now working for Lord Wheatland. Once he has proved his case, Gallow can petition the king to turn over all of Wheatland to Lord Gallow, and execute his cousin, ending the feud.

Now, when the PCs investigate, they'll learn that the truth is much more complicated. Gemry's is merely running interference for Elijah, and while the PCs are busy dealing with the bandits, Elijah is returning to the scene of the crime to set another, larger fire that will consume the rest of the village.

Sir Gemry

Human Knight 4/Rogue 1
Medium Humanoid
HP: 43
BAB/Grapple +4/+6
Attack: Masterwork Longsword +7 (1d8+2) or Shield Bash +7 (1d4+2)
Full Attack: Longsword and Shield Bash +5/+5
Armor Class: 20/21 (10+ 8 Armor + 2/3 Shield) Touch 10, Flat Footed 20
Saves: Ref +3, Fort +4, Will +5
Feats: Improved Shield Bash, Shield Specialization, Agile Shield Fighter, Mounted Combat, Track
Special Abilities: Knight's Challenge 5/day, Fighting Challenge +1, Test of Mettle DC 15, Bulwark of Defense, Armor Mastery, Medium, Sneak Attack +1d6
Skills: Spot +4, Sense Motive +4, Ride +8, Know: Royalty +9, Survival +8, Escape Artist +5

Before he was charmed by the Silver Hellstar's control probe, Gemry was a noble knight who honorably served his lord. He valorously faced down enemy warriors and helped orchestrate the taking of Greengrass Hamlet eleven years ago, and has served as its defender and vassal for the past five years. Once corrupted, he began doing the Hellstar's work. He left the service of Lord Gallow, abandoned his duty as protector of Greengrass, and instead vowed to sow chaos, bringing misery and destruction to the people by any means necessary. He organized a troupe of bandits who, under Gemry's direction, have been making life difficult. Trade is at an all time low, the town is having difficulty exporting the food they grow, and no goods have been able to make it into the hamlet for months.

Interestingly, he still considers himself an honorable man, one who is doing what is right given the circumstances, not unlike the Hellstar itself. As such, he has learned to bend his Knight's Code when necessary, but still acts like a true man of honor in combat, shouting out his challenge and fighting bravely and chivalrously... for the most part.

Advancement: An extra rogue level would do Gemry some good, and if the PCs are level 4 or higher when they face him, he should be advanced to ECL 6 and given the spell deflection alternate class feature.

Possible Encounters:

Bandits on the Road:

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As the PCs travel down the road from Greengrass toward Wheatland (either to track the farmer, seek out Gemry, or go to Wheatland to do some detective work), they run into an ambush the bandits have set. There is no warning and the bandits do not give the option for those traveling the road to submit peacefully. They simply attack. A spot check of DC 17 reveals the bandit with the worst hide check.

If spotted, the bandit will emerge from his hiding spot and run uproad, hoping for chase. A second bandit who has total concealment waits to spring a trap.

If he is not spotted, the bandits will allow the PCs to pass by and walk into the trap. DC 21 spot or search will reveal the trap before it is sprung.

The trap is a system of falling logs that will block the road. Anyone caught in the area of the trap will take 4d6 bludgeoning damage, reflex save dc 12 for half. The area of the trap (20 feet x 20 feet) becomes difficult terrain thereafter, and any bandits not yet spotted (up to four) will emerge from hiding now to cut off retreat and create a killing zone for stationed archers (two).

Sword and board warrior type bandits do their best to keep the PCs occupied while the archers take potshots with poison arrows (d4 dex damage primary, d4 dex damage secondary, DC 12 fort save negates). Weakened enemies can be netted by the warrior type bandits for a potential coup de gras.

The warrior types have an AC of 15 and 15 hit points. The archers are in trees twenty feet off the ground, and have an AC of 15 and 1 hit point each. Warriors attack at +3 and archers attack at +4. Applying the poison requires a move action for each arrow.

Although the bandits are not likely to kill the higher-level PCs, the encounter is designed to show the killing intent of the bandits, and would probably be lethal to level 1 or possibly even level 2 characters.

All equipment is non masterwork and mundane, but the poison may be of some value to the PCs.

The last bandit standing will attempt to flee into the woods, and may be tracked by the PCs to the bandit's layer, a converted inn that once served wayfarers on the road between Greengrass and Wheatland. Its owner and the guests have all been murdered by Gemry and his cohorts, and now serves only to shelter the villains and store their ill-gotten goods.

Stopping Farmer Greengrass

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The PCs may have a chance to stop Farmer Greengrass from getting back to the hamlet and burning the whole place down. If they travel down the road, they will likely meet him driving a horse and carriage on the way to the village. The carriage contains the beacon probe as well as enough oil (i.e. alchemist's fire) to level the entire village.

Greengrass will act naturally and make small talk, warning the PCs about the bandits on the road, etc. PCs can sense motive to detect something amiss, the compulsion he's under or the like. If Greengrass thinks he's been found out, he will open up combat by lobbing alchemist's fire at a PC getting splash damage if possible, then drawing his scythe and fighting hand to hand.

The horse is a trained war horse (light) and will lash out at any strangers the moment combat starts.

The Beacon Probe will use its magic as support during the fight, but will flee if Greengrass is defeated or if he detonates the carriage (see below).

Farmer Greengrass (Human Expert 5)
HP: 26
AC: 11 (+1 dex) FF 10, Touch 11
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +8
BAB/Grapple: +3/+4
Attacks: Scythe +4 Melee (2d4+1 x4) or Alchemsts Fire +4 ranged touch
Skills: Spot +11, Sense Motive +11, Know: Local +8, Profession: Farmer +11, Bluff +7, Craft Carpentry +9, Appraisal +8, Handle Animal +11

Greengrass is under the effects of a charm person spell and the constant harassment of the Beacon Probe, which makes him a homicidal maniac. He prefers to fight hand to hand with his scythe, but does dearly enjoy watching things burn, too.

If he thinks he is about to die, he will spend his last round throwing alchemist's fire onto the cart, which catches it on fire, making a suicide run if necessary. Two rounds later, the oil in the cart detonates, dealing 6d6 fire damage in a 30 foot burst centered on the cart. There is a 100% chance that he will mutter about the coming apocalypse, the world being consumed in fire etc. etc.

Siege on the Bandits' Layer

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The PCs will inevitably find the bandits layer if they pursue it. They can track bandits from the ambush, or simply stumble upon it. It used to be a wayfarer's Inn, but the owners and customers are now all dead or converted to the bandit's cause.

An organized watch is in place around the Inn thanks to Gemry, but sneaky PCs (Do I have any of those? No, I don't think so) could probably infiltrate it. A head on assault would result in a peppering of arrows, breaking through a barred entrance, fighting their way through the homicidal bandits inside and facing down Gemry himself. Difficult, but far from impossible. Bandits use the same stats from the ambush encounter.

Parlay is also possible, where Gemry may try to get the PCs to join his side, or may try to position them into a trap through brinksmanship. He may well honor a challenge to a duel, which is not at all out of the realm of possibility given my Duelist Warblade. However, as a 5th level NPC with class levels, he will be a very tough opponent one on one.

[Human Paragon 3]

Session one was a rousing success! Wall of text spoilered below.

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First session went as good as I could have possibly hoped. The PCs were briefed in the vacant house of Sir Gemry, where Lord Gallow informed them of the situation, and expressed his opinion that his cousin Lord Wheatland was at fault.

Investigating

They began investigating the scene of the crime and learned the full scope of the devastation by sifting through the rubble of the old farm manor and surveying the miles of destroyed crops.


Their next stop was a visit with Gemry's manservant, who spoke of the man as a god and explained that his abandoning of post was an extremely out of character act. They learn that he acted strangely in the days before he left, becoming hyper focused on the organization of the knights. They did not yet realize the reason for this: that he was under the control of a beacon probe and was drawing up plans to systematically destroy the hamlet.

The Plan, and the Road That Followed

They decided that the best course of action would be to attempt to draw out the bandits by posing as a caravan and heading to Wheatland. The goal is to reach Wheatland and investigate things from that end, but if they meet some bandits on the way, perhaps a lead will be uncovered there. Overall a solid plan, IMO.

The road from Greengrass to Wheatland is a 20 mile journey, which has been made impassable by bandits. The first person they met on the road was Elijah Greengrass (see encounter in above post). The road was so narrow that one caravan actually had to pull into the ditch at the side of the road to let the other pass.

The monk posed a question: if the road is so dangerous and bandit-ridden, how is this lone traveler able to make it through unharmed? Unfortunately for the party, nobody else felt this was worth investigating, so they let Elijah go, totally unaware of who he was, with a cart full of alchemists fire headed to Greengrass.

Bandit Ambush

A few miles later they encountered the ambush described in the above post. None of them were able to spot the hiding bandits, so the warriors leading the caravan were caught in the log avalanche. The monk and barbarian both made their reflex saves, and thanks to evasion, the monk got out unscathed. The barb, however began the encounter injured. The road was effectively made impassible by the logs.

The half-orc warblade was the sole rear guard, and therefore took the brunt of the surprise round. He was netted by two of the bandits and surrounded. Entangled and outnumbered, he began to panic. It took a round for reinforcements to reach the back of the caravan, and he took some serious damage.

The trap worked perfectly, as intended. The PCs were trapped in the kill-zone and peppered with arrows, but they eventually overpowered the bandits and knocked one of the archers out of the tree. The second, seeing which way the wind was blowing, ziplined out of the tree and ran for it. The PCs gave pursuit and the barbarian took him out with his longbow. They stabilized him and tied him up for later questioning. With no cleric, they'd have to wait for the bandit to wake up on his own, (hours or possibly days. He was brought to -8HP).

The Wayfarer's Inn

Further down the road they came to a side path with the sign for Wayfarer's Inn. The monk, with some quick thinking, triangulated the route that the fleeing bandit was taking and determined that his rout would have led him to the Inn itself. With this in mind, they cautiously approached the bandits lair. The mage's familiar Orestes the Owl acted as reconnaissance and rolled a natural 20 on his spot check. When he returned to the party, he informed them that maximum caution should be used, because the Inn was heavily guarded with archers posted in the windows and spies in the woods. Injured and running low on spells, the party decided to retreat to a safe distance and set up camp for the night.

Unfortunately for them, the bandits trailed them, and under Gemry's direction planned a second ambush.

Ambush Redux

Now, in my mind, an ambush is never quite as effective as it should be, so I designed this one to really take advantage of the surprise round. Right at the end of first watch, the bandits made their move. The party didn't have a tent, so a few of them were sleeping in the cart and the rest were sleeping on the ground next to the cart. During the surprise round, the bandits lobbed four bottles of alchemist's fire into the cart, injuring the PCs in the cart and hitting the rest with splash damage. The PCs' prisoner was also tied up in the cart, and was burnt to death during the surprise round.

The bandits then won initiative, emerged from the forest and took their normal attack actions. The PCs, now roused, rushed the bandits. Now, the PCs are all melee types except for the mage, so naturally he stood in the back for spellcasting. This is normally a good tactic, but in this case it backfired for two reasons.

First, the mage was practically out of spells from the prior encounter and hadn't rested enough to recover them, so he had to just lob fiery bursts (the reserve feat) at the bandits.

Second, he was completely unprotected when Sir Gemry road in from the other direction on horseback.

Once Gemry showed up, the combat took a turn for the worse. The party split into two fronts (the warblade was compelled by Knight's Challenge to break away and engage Gemry). With the line broken, the bandits, including an optimized ECL 3 dagger thrower and an optimized ECL 3 chain tripper ripped into the PCs, bringing the monk down to -7.

While the dwarven fighter and the warblade tangled with Gemry, their allies were bleeding out. The mage crossed the battlefield with a healing potion to bring the monk back up, but this put him in the range of the dagger thrower, who proceed to hit with two daggers and critical hit with a third, reducing him to -8 HP. Now two PCs, including their wizard, were bleeding out, and the unconscious mage had the only healing potion.

Gemry reduced the dwarven fighter to 8 HP then rode around for a charge. Being a fully armored knight on horseback, only one PC managed to land a blow on him thus far, the dwarf, with a critical hit that brought Gemry down to about 10 HP. Sensing the oncoming charge, the dwarven fighter took full cover behind his tower shield and faced down the mounted knight.

Meanwhile, the mage's player remembered that his owl had actions! Luckily, he rolled to stabilize himself, and had the owl feed the monk the healing potion while he was at -9 HP, right before his bleed-out initiative. While this was happening, the barbarian brought down the last ECL 3 bandit, and sited Gemry readying his charge.

In possibly the most improbable overrun attempt ever, the barbarian actually ran at the mounted knight and successfully bowled the horse over, unseating Gemry and knocking both of them prone. When Gemry stood to face him, he provoked an attack of opportunity which allowed the barb to drop him to negatives.

Aftermath

They stabilized him for questioning and learned about his plan to destroy the Hamlet. It was too late to stop it, however. They also determined that he was under a magical compulsion, but couldn't pinpoint the source (Beacon Probe). The remaining bandits burned the Inn to the ground, destroying all of the plunder and evidence of their actions. The fire soon spread and became a full fledged forest fire. The PCs had to move, so they continued on to Wheatland where they received healing from local clerics, and now ponder their next move.

[Human Paragon 3]

I'm beginning to plan out the next session. For this one, there is no guideline in Afro's original write up, so it's going to be 100% me. There are some loose ends from the last session, which are:

1) The PCs haven't reported back to Lord Gallow to give him the bad news. He probably knows some of it, since Greengrass has now been destroyed.

2) Farmer Elijah Greengrass is still on the loose, which is weird. I may end up with a recurring enemy who just has NPC levels.

3) Gemry is their prisoner and they know he has been effected by a magical compulsion. They now want to cure him and need to hire an NPC caster to do so. In the mean time, they have a raving lunatic on their hands. He's tied up, but what they don't know is that I gave Gemry a rogue level... and Escape Artist ranks. They may choose to throw him in a jail instead, which could be interesting. Whether they purge the enchantment or not, eventually it will just run out and Gemry will have to come to terms with what he's done. This will be a pretty dramatic event, possibly ending in Gemry's suicide. If they do decide to put him in a jail, I'm thinking he should use his blood to paint the Hellstar's symbol (the sunburst) over and over on the walls of his cell.

4) The PCs must also come to terms with what they've done. They passed Greengrass on the road, under very suspicious circumstances, and even mused about how strange it was, but did nothing. By not acting, they are indirectly responsible for the destruction of Greengrass Hamlet and the deaths of hundreds of people.

[afroakuma]

If they do decide to put him in a jail, I'm thinking he should use his blood to paint the Hellstar's symbol (the sunburst) over and over on the walls of his cell.

I advocate this. I should also point out that the beacon probe is very likely to instruct him to self-terminate if his use has run out. Also, there's a beacon probe still lurking in the vicinity...

I hope you have access to Elder Evils to apply the Seal of Binding when the time comes.

[Human Paragon 3]

OK, the session is in a few days, and I haven't done anything on this in weeks! Time to buckle down.

I have a few more ideas about the session in general.

1. Lord Gallow keeps a lot of knights under his service. I'm thinking the knights who were in the area of Greengrass, tasked with taking out the bandits, will become sort of a roving lynch mob. They may hold the PCs responsible for what's happened, accusing them of being double agents for Lord Wheatland. After all, not long after the PCs were put on the case, the village was burned down, and instead of coming back to the village, the PCs went to Wheatland.

The knights could try to exact revenge, or try the PCs in a kangaroo court. Alternatively, the PCs could convince the knights of their innocence, but a more extreme splinter group of knights could try to murder them anyway.

2. Lord Wheatland may approach the PCs and offer them a job. This will mesh well with point 1, making them look more suspicious. Possible jobs:

Become spies for Wheatland
Turn over Gemry to Wheatland's spy master for interrogation
Help defend against the oncoming forest fire, which threatens to spread to Wheatland's territory
Visit a nearby shrine of Britaanus, god of water, to get a cleric of Britaanus to put out the forest fire

3. Gemry Escapes. This could happen a few ways. First, the PCs could just wander around with Gemry tied up on horseback, and the knight could escape in the night. Alternatively, Gemry could commit suicide, but be resuscitated by a cleric. From there, he could either pretend to be dead, or be aided by the cleric and escape. Once free, Gemry will covertly kill one or more of the roving knights to re-arm and re-supply himself. There are a few options at this point. I could have Gemry insane but no longer under the power of the beacon probe, seeking revenge, blaming the PCs for letting Greengrass destroy the village. Or, I could have him still under the control of the probe, as a rogue agent seeking to sew mayhem.

4. I have a vague notion of giving Lord Wheatland a spymaster cohort called Culpepper, who is tasked with spying on the PCs. I think I'll just keep this on the back burner, and introduce it if it feels right.

[Human Paragon 3]

Over on another thread I've developed my roving lynch mob of disenfranchised knights.

Here's their stats:

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OK, here is the "Leader Knight's" Stat block.

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Leader Knight

Human Marshal 6

36 HP
AC 21 (+8 Armor, +2 Shield, +1 Dex)
BAB +4 (Grap +6)
Attack: Masterwork LS +8(9 mounted) d8+2

Saves: Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +5

Feats:

Martial Study: Vanguard Strike
Martial Study: Leading the Attack
Martial Stance: Iron Guard's Glare
Martial Study: Tactical Strike


Marshal Abilities:
Minor Auras:
Motivate Str (Str Checks)
Over the Top (Charge Damage)
Watchful Eye (Ref Saves)

Major Aura:
Motivate Attack (Attack Rolls)
Motivate Urgency (Land Speed)

Grant Move 1/day

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Local) 9 ranks each for +12 on all (15 dip, 11 ride)

The Outdoorsman Knight

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Hunter Knight

Human Ranger 4

HP 32
BAB +4 (Grap +6)
AC: 17 (+4 Armor, +3 Dex)
Attack: Masterwork composit LB (+9, or +7/+7, -2 if mount is double moving) d8+1

Saves: Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +3

Feats:
Flaw (Slow) Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Track (Bonus)
Rapid Shot (Bonus)
Mounted Combat
Mounted Archery

Abilities:
Favored Enemy, Human +2
Distacting Shot
Wild Empathy

1/day CLW

Skills:
Climb +9
Handle Animal +10
Heal +8
Stealth +10
Survival +8
Search +7
Spot +8

Tank Knight

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Tank Knight

Human Knight 4

HP: 47
BAB +4 (Grap +7)
AC: 21/2 (+8 Armor, +2(3) Shield, +1 Dex)
Attack: Masterwork Long Sword +9 (10 if mounted) d8+3

Saves: Fort +5 Ref +2 Will +4

Feats:
Mounted Combat
Martial Study: Crusader's Strike (Heal d6+2)
Martial Stance: Martial Spirit (Heal 2 each successful attack)
Stone Power

Abilities:
Fighting Challenge (+1 attack, damage and will save vs. target)
Test of Mettle (DC 14)
Bulwark of Defense

Rank and File

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Calvery Chargers

Human Fighter 2


HP: 19
BAB: +2 (Grap +5)
AC: 19 (+8 Armor, +1 Dex)
Attack: Masterwork Lance (+5, 7 if charging) d8+7, 3d8+21 if Charging

Saves: Fort: +5, Ref +1, Will +0


Feats:
Mounted Combat
Ride-By Attack
Spirited Charge
Power Attack



Trampling Chargers

Human Knight 3

HP: 26
BAB +3 (Grap +4)
AC: 20 (+7 Armor, +1 Dex, +2 Shield)

Attack: Lance +4 (d8+1)


Feats:
Mounted Combat
Trample
Combat Reflexes
Stand Still (Ref save DC 10+damage)

Abilities:
Bulwark of Defense
Armor Mastery (medium)
Fighting Challenge)

OK, Now I am a little worried that these guys will destroy my 3rd level party.

And here's how I intend to use them:

This could go down a couple of ways.

First, the PCs could return to the burned out village. They'd encounter virtually the entire force of 30 or so knights, attempting to bury the dead and get their affairs in order. When the knights encounter the PCs here, they will be angry and heart broken, and start hurling accusations at the PCs.

The players should know they have no hope of facing down 30 armed knights, especially since they fought one knight last session and almost died. They will be forced to engage the knights on an intellectual level, which should be possible since not all of them are bad people, and the PCs really didn't do anything wrong. They merely made the same mistake the Knights did.

Once they convince the leader of the knights of their innocence, they can warily part ways. From there, I am thinking a splinter group of more extreme knights can sneak away at night and ambush the PCs/trying them in a kangaroo court by bonfire light.

Another way this could all go down involves the PCs staying away from the village. In this case, an organized lynch mob of five or so knights might come to the PCs specifically to air their grievances. This could end in combat, or not, but I certainly will put the PCs fates in their own hands.

I do intend to make the band of knights a recurring "character" as the campaign goes on, perhaps even up to level 10 or so.

More details in the thread.

Between the stuff with Gemry, the stuff with these guys, the stuff with Lord Wheatland and his spymaster and the forest fire, I think I'll have a pretty full session. I will probably run this sandbox style, since I have a lot of elements ready to go and no idea what my PCs will do!

I've decided to give my PCs a couple options for NPC casters to hire to dispel Gemry's compulsion. I have a witch called Laurana and a mid-level wizard named Armand Dulac, who has a something of a feud with my PC Wizard's master.

The fun will come when one casts arcane sight to realize that Gemry is merely under the influence of charm person. 50 castings worth. I figure since the beacon probe can cast it at will, there's no reason not to spam it ad nauseum in case Gemry shakes one or two castings.

[Starbuck_II]

That first big battle was great. I loved that the owl saved the monk's life with that potion.

[Abd al-Azrad]

The fun will come when one casts arcane sight to realize that Gemry is merely under the influence of charm person. 50 castings worth. I figure since the beacon probe can cast it at will, there's no reason not to spam it ad nauseum in case Gemry shakes one or two castings.

I can't believe I've never thought of that before. Of course! The probes can only interact with others via Charm Person, it is their only ability, so it strikes me that they'd use it a lot just to combat the boredom of being a probe. The extra benefit of having a shield against dispelling or mental resistence, well, that's just gravy.

Or maybe they're designed to feel something akin to pleasure when they succeed at charming an individual? Hehehe... that would be even funnier.

[Human Paragon 3]

@Abd:

Have you run the hellstar before?

[Abd al-Azrad]

I've run a game that was based on the Hellstar idea, yes. It really ran off on its own rails shockingly fast. I'd be happy to trade game notes, but I doubt my own would be useful, given how quickly a campaign evolves. For instance: My players ended up pre-empting the death machine and moving their own world, while convincing it to run on its course and not modifying its programming. They basically teleported their world a few miles and sent the Hellstar off into oblivion, while Diplomancing that the Material Plane had a potential future. Really good ending, all in all. There was a ton of extra stuff, of course, but that was the basic summary.

[Human Paragon 3]

BOO! We didn't play this week because I had 3 players cancel on me. Hopefully next Saturday. In the mean time, any suggestions on how to run an encounter with my knights that won't just kill, embarass and anger my players?

I'm thinking maybe an encounter where they don't have their horses.

[Human Paragon 3]

Had a brilliant idea on the train today for a unit type that will add a little meat to my knight encounters without making them too deadly. I give you... the squire!

Spoiler

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Squire

Human Fighter 1

HP 11

Attack: Long Spear +3 (d8+3) OR Short Sword +3 (d6+2)
AC: 17 (+5 Armor +2 Dex)
Saves: Fort +4 Ref+2 Will +0

Feats:
Combat Reflexes
Vexing Flanker
Adaptable Flanker

The idea is to have 4 or so of these guys in an encounter with 1 spirited charger and/or 1 trampling charger and/or 1 higher level knight. They will always use Aid Another action to help a higher level npc if possible, and will always flank.

If unable to aid another knight, they will work together, flanking for +4 to their attacks, netting a total attack bonus of +7, very respectable for a 1st level NPC. If necessary, they can even aid eachother (so they can actually hit my dwarven defender player). But they don't deal too much damage, and usually don't attack, which is good for my needs. Also, I think it will be fun (for me) to position them around the battlefield, almost like a chess game with the players.

I've decided to attach 40 or so squires and 50 or so horses to my roving lynch mob of knights, as well as a few other servants, making the force quite formidable.

We'll see how this goes on Saturday.

[Human Paragon 3]

So we finally got to play session 2. It was short session because we started late and ended early, but an interesting one. I honestly had no idea what my players would do, but what they did end up doing really surprised me. Click on the spoiler tab below for the wall-o-text session.

Spoiler

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The Prisoner Dilemma

You may remember from last session that the players have Sir Gemry, the knight-turned-servant of the hellstar-turned-bandit leader as a prisoner, tied up and raving. They started the session by arguing on the steps of the Temple of Mercy about where to break his legs. This understandably alarmed Gemry, who started yelling for help. The PCs knocked him out, but not before he attracted a little attention. Obviously they weren't going to break this guy's legs in the middle of town square, so they needed a place to take him. They were thinking an inn, but couldn't decide on what type. They ended up asking a priest "Where is a good place to take a prisoner around here?"

"Prison," the priest replied.

"Oh. Why didn't we think of that?"

So they took Gemry to the town guard and had him locked up. Now that their prisoner was secured, they could finally go to an inn and sleep. You might remember they were ambushed in the night and then went on a forced march to the next town over to escape a fire. Everybody except for the monk went right to sleep, but the monk stayed downstairs and ordered a big breakfast since he was hungrier than he was tired. He also wanted some time alone to think about the events of the previous day.

Meeting Wheatland

Just before the monk retired for a well earned rest, Lord Wheatland and his man-at-arms showed up and asked to talk to the party.

Who is lord Wheatland? For those that forgot:

Spoiler

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This story starts in the hamlet of Greengrass, which is as of late in the province called Gallow. I say as of late, because as recent as 11 years ago, Greengrass was a part of Wheatland.

The two provinces of Gallow and Wheatland were founded by feuding brothers three generations ago, when they split their father's land. Nearly 100 years later, the feud has gotten more intense if anything. Lord Gallow sent his knights to occupy the fertile land of Greengrass Hamlet, and has held it for the past 11 years despite occasional forays. Recently, the Hellstar's probe has arrived and begun to fulfill its function.

Wheatland is the Lord of Wheatland, and the cousin of Lord Gallow. Lord Gallow favors an aggressive strategy built around knights, while Lord Wheatland favors a more cerebral strategy that involves an information network and sheer numbers of simple conscripts.

The monk went upstairs to get them, but they were so exhausted that they told the monk to send the Lord away and ask him to come back later. Lord Wheatland was pretty upset at this, but he wants something from the PCs and knows that aggression isn't the best way to get it. He leaves and the monk goes to sleep. Four hours later they meet in the dining room of the inn. Wheatland has stocked the room with his agents and summoned his spymaster, but the PCs are unaware of this.

Wheatland tells them he has an offer for them: 50gp each for a little information. He wants to be briefed on the events of the previous night, and Sir Gemry's condition. The PCs agree and spill the beans. They tell him the whole story, about Gemry's compulsion, the bandits, the razing of Greengrass, everything. They know from an information check that Wheatland prides himself on being well informed. After the tale, Wheatland makes them a second offer. Defect to his side, turn Gemry over to him, and agree to spy on Lord Gallow (the guy who hired the PCs). They turn this second offer down, and Wheatland doesn't push the issue. He leaves on friendly terms, and let's them know that he will keep them on file as people who might want work in the future.

Return to Greengrass

The PCs now have a few options. They can't get rid of Gemry's compulsion on their own, so they need a NPC caster. Wheatland gives them "The name of a good wizard," Armand DuLac. The PC mage has heard of him before, a mid level hedge wizard who once coveted the mage's apprenticeship with the Archmage Tom Invisibo. They could seek him out, but they decide instead to go back to Greengrass to confirm for themselves Gemry's claim of its destruction and help any survivors. They reason that by the time they find DuLac and get Gemry's compulsion dispelled, any survivors would probably be dead.

The trip back to Greengrass is eerily quiet. Most of the wildlife has fled from the forest fire and the bandits that plagued the roads are nowhere to be seen.

When they arrive at Greengrass, they find it devastated. Miles of farmland have been burned to the ground and not one structure still stands. The village is a burned out ruin. The only living people are knights, the ones that Gallow tasked with clearing out the bandits and were away during the fire. They are sifting through the ashes in search of corpses and piling the bodies of the dead for a mass burial. A grim welcome.

One of the knights spots the PCs and sounds an alarm. Uthar, the captain of the guard, rides up with a few squires at his side. Soon Curan, Uthar's distrusting and cruel lieutenant rides up with his retinue. They immediately accuse the PCs of spying for Wheatland and orchestrating the disaster. Emotions are running hot on both sides, and the accusations devolve into an argument, both sides hurling insults at the other. I have been dreading this encounter because of the lopsided odds. I even made a thread about it here. There are 30 armed knights on horseback and 40 squires. If the PCs elect to fight the knights it will lead to a TPK. The PCs know this.

However, the barbarian has a short temper and Int 6, and he roleplays both. One insult too many sends him off the handle.

"I rage," he announces, "and charge the guy that said that."

The rest of the players start to panic. I start to panic.

Roll initiative.

Knightly Encounter

I elected to give neither side a surprise round since things were pretty heated and the knights had swords drawn already. The warblade and the dwarf fighter both rolled higher than the barbarian in initiative and used their actions to try and stop the barbarian. The warblade moved and grabbed him, but failed his str check and the barbarian kept on going. Then the dwarf stepped in front of him and dug in his tower shield for full defense, electing not to make an attack of opportunity on the bullrush. This action would save the barbarians life, even though the dwarf failed his strength check, too, and was bowled over by the raging barbarian.

Curan and Uthar had their actions next. I statted them both as level 6 marshals. Uthar used his action to grant everybody else a move action. This was HIGHLY effective and I look forward to making use of this ability again. The troops formed up and got ready to attack. Curan attacked the barbarian using vanguard strike (martial study), and hit.

The wizard had the next initiative. He backed away from the squire that was threating him and cast mage armor. "Have you all gone mad? You dare attack the apprentice of a great archmage?" Nobody took this warning very seriously, though.

Next initiative a bunch more knights showed up. A tank knight leveled a fighting challenge and most of the PCs failed their will saves, ensuring that they could do nothing but attack the tank. "Which one of you cowards wants to die first?" Half Orc Warblade: "Urg-lak not coward. Will gladly duel you in fair fight!"

Things weren't looking good, and then one of the knights laid in a spirited charge on the barbarian dealing 39 damage and bringing him to about 1 hit point. I think this was a wake up call to him. Seeing his allies being overwhelmed by knights, he stuck his sword into the ground and surrendered. "Take me prisoner and do what you want, but let my friends go."

Uthar decided to take him up on his offer and spare the rest of the party, sending them away. The rest of the party made passionate pleas for Uthar to let the barbarian go, but his honor wouldn't allow it. The barbarian also begged the party to go and leave him. "Gurga put you in danger, now Gurga save you. GO!"

Prisoner Dilemma Redux

Eventually Uthar offered the PCs this agreement: The knights would keep the barbarian as collateral. If they committed any more seditious acts against the knights, the barbarian's life was forfeit. But if they could prove their innocence, the barbarian would be returned to them unharmed. Realizing this was the best offer they would get, the PCs left their friend behind.

Uthar has one of his knights tend to the barbarian's wounds, then put him under the command of Curan.

"Since you're here, how about you make yourself useful and help us?"

"Gurga come here to help."

Curan put him to work stacking up bodies and cleaning up wreckage, all the while harassing him from horseback, insulting him, tripping him with his lance etc.

Where's Gemry? Or: A Knight's Advice

Dejected, the PCs headed back to Wheatland to check on Gemry and get his compulsion removed. They reasoned that they could use Gemry to prove their innocence once he was cured and vouched for the PCs. They returned to the guard house and learned that "The prisoner has been moved to the royal dungeon."

This got the PCs worried. Maybe the knights had a point, and they had acted stupidly leaving Gemry behind with Wheatland, the enemy of Lord Gallow. They reported to Wheatland and asked to see their prisoner, and Wheatland agreed. Down in the dungeon, they found Gemry locked up in a cell, being treated poorly by his captors. The interrogator is nowhere to be seen. He's gone, but the abusive guards have continued beating Gemry. The party starts to question Gemry about his treatment, and why he's done what he's done, but Gemry is not at all helpful. As they turn to go, Gemry shouts "Wait!"

The PCs stop to listen. "There is a cliff, five miles north of here. The tallest cliff in the region. At the bottom is a raging river, arrayed with jagged stones..."

"Yes..?"

"Jump off it."

"We'll take it under advisement."

The players ask Lord Wheatland if they can take Gemry to the wizard DuLac, but Wheatland argues that it will be safer to leave him here in prison. The wizard asks if he promises to give Gemry back to the party once they return and Wheatland replies "By the time you get back with DuLac, I won't care what you do with him, so yes."

DuLac

The PCs uneasily journeyed north to the residence of DuLac. Luckily, DuLac owed the mage's master a favor, so he agreed to help them with no charge. He's also trying to impress the apprentice mage and make a good impression for his own reasons, but the result is the same. The rest of the party doesn't like DuLac's foppish, over-the-top style. I played him sort of like a cross between Gildroy Lockhart and Dr. Orpheus. The PC mage takes a shining to him though, as was DuLac's intent. They teleport back to Wheatland and so DuLac can use arcane sight on Gemry.

When they to the dungeon, the find Gemry alone and unguarded, staring off into the distance. Again, the players are uneasy about this. DuLac casts arcane sight and is shocked to see no fewer than 50 instances of charm person on Gemry, and says as much to the PCs. He manages to dispel 45 of them through repeated castings of dispel magic, but 5 remain. The players decide they can't afford to leave Gemry here with Wheatland any longer. DuLac pens them a scroll of Arcane Sight so they can check on the Charm Person spells later. They want to see if somebody is recasting it, or if they begin to fade, or what, and they need Arcane Sight to track the auras.

Teatime with a Madman

DuLac leaves, and the PCs go up to see the Lord and ask him to release Gemry. The monk stays behind and starts a conversation with Gemry.

This is a very good scene, where the monk confesses to agreeing with Gemry's motives, calling him noble and wishing to be enlightened like him. Gemry asks a favor of the monk. "The fat guard with the dark beard... he keeps a dagger hidden behind that gray stone, the one that is darker than the rest. Give it to me, so that I might use it to end my suffering and join my god. Or, if you prefer you may use it to assist me into the next world."

The monk thought about this for a moment, then said "But your work is not done yet. There are survivors in Greengrass."

"Oh..." said Gemry. "I'm sorry to hear that." He is silent for a while, emotions showing on his face, then he finally says "Very well. I'll come with you. Once we get back to the village I can complete my work."

This is essentially the end of the session, because we had to end early. Next session I know that the PCs will be returning to Greengrass trying to prove their innocence and getting their barbarian friend back from the knights who captured him. I didn't get to run most of the encounters I wanted to, but they were really just put off until next session. As you can see, this was a meaty roleplaying session, so I'm still happy.

[Dust]

Will the Barbarian be changing characters for the third game session? It seems Gurga will be out of action for some time.

[Human Paragon 3]

I am thinking that I will cut back and forth between the party and Gurga. When Gurga overhears Curan organizing a lynch mob to track and kill the PCs, he can escape and "rescue" them.

Just one idea.

[Human Paragon 3]

Looking Forward to Next Session:

If anything, the PCs are in worse shape than they previously were. They have a group of angry knights to contend with, and utterly failed to win favor from them, or convince them of their innocence. They are down one member, the barbarian, who has been captured by the knights and is now being held as collateral. And, perhaps most dangerously, they now have to transport Gemry, a shrewd and dangerous prisoner who is under the influence of a beacon probe, and likely to snap at any moment.

Their number one goal for next session will be to deliver Gemry to Lord Gallow as promised in order to prove their innocence and get back their ally. This could get sticky, however.

Some things I have planned:

They knights have sent out a scout to get a sense of their tactical situation, an old club-footed ranger named Hunter. I plan to have him bring back intelligence implicating the PCs in the disaster, namely that they conferred with Wheatland and shared information with him-- which is true and doesn't look good at all.

This will prompt Curan to organize a lynch mob to execute them, without the knowledge of his superior Captain Uthar.

I am hoping the barbarian will catch wind of this, and escape to warn or aid them, performing the rare reverse-rescue maneuver. If not, the rest of the group will be in a heap of trouble.

They also have Gemry to deal with.

I made a small mistake with the charm persons, inadvertantly extending their duration for weeks. Back in 2e this is how the spell worked, but in 3.5 it lasts hours/level. This put up a red flag for the players, who realized this, and they are now trying to figure out why the charms are lasting so long. I could say that the probe used some more powerful and long lasting version of it, or that the probe was re-applying the spell even while Gemry was in prison. I think I will opt for the latter, because it puts the probe in the PC's path. They have yet to encounter it, and Afro put the probe in the first session.

I can have this remain the case and have the probe continue to re cast charm person, thereby giving itself away. Or I can have the probe retreat, which will cause the charm persons to lapse. When the charm lapses, Gemry will have to come to terms with what he's done. The guilt will drive him mad (for real this time), which will complicate things even more for the party.

Right now, Gemry is acting crazy, but some of it is an act. He still possesses most of his faculties, and is about to turn on his considerable charm. He thinks the monk could help him fulfill his missions: to "save" the people of Greengrass by killing them. If he wants his plan to work, the PCs need to drop their guard and the monk needs to truly sympathize with him, which is possible.

He is working on a plan to escape, but if the charms wear off, it all goes out the window. I am secretly hoping that the charms will wear off while he is alone with the monk, mostly because it would be an amazing RPign scene, but also because I'd like to see the rare "double rescue" two party members being rescued in one session.

I'm leveling Gemry up to 6 by giving him another rogue level. He'll have the spell reflection alternate class feature, which should be amusing and surprising. The party's wizard does use touch attacks.

The PCs all leveled to 4, which will make them a little more capable to deal when the sh.t hits the fan in two weeks.

[afroakuma]

So how's this holding up? I'm curious to see the PCs react to their very first beacon probe.

[Human Paragon 3]

The last session was the last session I recorded here. Annoyingly, it has been very difficult to get people together to play, especially during the merry month of May.

However, we do plan on getting together and playing very soon, the first weekend of June at the latest, at which point we'll surely get some beacon probe action.

Any thoughts on the action of the campaign so far, such as it is?

[afroakuma]

Seems rather good so far, though I'm eager to see the probe get found and the first part of the encounter thread concluded.

Your roving band of lancers, incidentally, might be another suitable target at a later date for a beacon probe hijack, or even a master probe.

Have you laid any plans yet for the transition to the ECL 5 adventure?

[Human Paragon 3]

I have given some thought to the transition, but not laid any specific groundwork in game.

The cultists are supposed to be raising an army, and I thought my knights would make good mercenaries after the current plot arc ends.

I have a bit of concern about the cultists themselves. The campaign world uses a homebrewed mythology, so "Cultists of Asmodeus" aren't really a thing here. Introducing cultists of a foreign entity, a devil from another plane, may tip my hand a little early. Eth Dunla (the setting) is a crystaline sphere that floats on the outskirts of the Prime, and is supposed to be totally cut off from the other worlds in the PMP etc. The gods devised a system specifically to keep encroachers out.

I could have the cultists claim to be worshipers of Orcos, one of the setting's dead, ancient gods. Or I could have them follow a "mysterious, unknown god." Either would actually be a front for Asmodeus. This might be a good reveal up around ECL 8 or so.

As for getting the PCs into the mix, that shouldn't be too difficult. The defacto party leader is an apprentice to the world's most powerful archmage. I am thinking of having the archmage cut his apprentice loose and instruct him to "go out and do something useful."

The Barbarian used to be a slave, and he is thinking of going into Paladin of Freedom, so if I have the cultists enslaving the populace, the Barb will definitely want to step up and take them down. The rest of the party will probably agree to help him because he recently sacrificed himself for them (surrendered so the could go free) and I'm also setting up a crowning moment of awesome where he shows up at just the right moment to help the PCs when a small band of knights ambush them next session.

[afroakuma]

I mean, realistically, it doesn't even have to be Asmodeus. You could have them actually be Orcos cultists.

[Human Paragon 3]

I think the best solution is to have them as Orcos cultists, and then later have it revealed that the source of their divine power is the devil, where applicable.

[afroakuma]

I'd go with that. Devils are a big part of the Hellstar experience, especially in the later stages.

[Human Paragon 3]

Official next session is this Saturday!

Look out, it's gonna be a hot one.

Aside from general peanut gallery comments, I'm also interested in advice on the campaign log itself. This is the first one I have ever done, and tips on making it easier to read and digest and/or thoughts on which bits readers find interesting are as appreciated as campaign advice.

[afroakuma]

So, how did the latest session go?

[Human Paragon 3]

Update is on the way.

It was sort of a strange session that involved missing players, the first encounter with a beacon probe, and an utter rout of the PCs. Full recap will be forthcoming, but right now I am shutting down due to a thunderstorm.

[Abd al-Azrad]

Can't wait to hear how it went.

[Human Paragon 3]

OK, so first of all I was missing two of my players for this session, the barbarian and the monk. This was really regrettable, as I had large roleplaying encounters planned for both. However, it had been so long since our last session that everyone else was itching to play, so we went ahead anyway with just the wizard, dwarf and orc duelist present.

If I had to put a title to this week's session, I'd probably call it "Tactical Withdrawal." You'll see why if you click and read the spoilered text.

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An Experiment in Treason

After a brief recap to help everyone recall the situation, we jumped right into the task at hand. They wanted to bring Gemry back to Greengrass to prove their innocence and get back their barbarian friend, but he is still under five enchantments. They knew the duration of charm person, and wanted to figure out if somebody was recasting it somehow, such as through a scrying device, or if they would go away.

Admittedly, I was using the second edition of Charm Person and had the duration wrong myself. I thought it lasted days, not hours. To make up for my mistake, I retconned in that the beacon probe was recasting Charm Person onto Gemry during the night through the window. Not that the PCs knew this. But it was important for ME to know it, because they intended to run an experiment. After discussing their options, they decided to wait a day before leaving with Gemry. During those 24 hours, they would put Gemry under a constant watch to observe his behavior and check on the status of his enchantments.

The half orc and the monk (not present) had the first watch. They found the knight weirdly lucid, acting fairly normal, asking when they could leave, asking for a change of clothes and a shave, that kind of thing. He is anxious to return to Greengrass so he can finish the job he started, but he doesn't want to alarm the PCs. He wants this operation to go as smoothly as possible.

At the changing of the guard, the wizard cast detect magic and counted only 3 instances of charm person remaining, an indication that it was not being recast. He and the dwarf took over watching over the knight while the half-orc and the monk went back to the inn. Near the end of this second watch, things started to go to hell in a handbasket.

The beacon probe had given up on Gemry and begun to go to work on the townspeople. Meanwhile, the bandits (remember from Episode 1) had devised a plan to bust their leader (Gemry) out of prison. Here was the setup:

1) A few bandits sneak into the Church of Mercy while the high priest is away. They slit the throats of the priests, lock the door to the temple, and climb up to the steeple with quivers full of poison arrows.

2) Elijah Greengrass (remember him? Also episode 1) would then set fire to the inn/tavern where the PCs and dozens of innocent bystanders are staying. When the tavern goers run out of the public house and into the square, the bandits in the steeple would open fire and cause as much mayhem as possible.

3) During the confusion, a separate team would blow open the prison with explosives and get him out.

Hell in a Handbasket

The half-orc warblade and the monk were in the tavern when the fire broke out. They immediately leaped into action trying to get everyone out safely. The warblade secured a safe bath out while the monk, with his slow fall ability, went up to the second floor and tried to get the people staying upstairs out safely.

The warblade and many of the tavern's occupants stepped out into the square and were immediately hit by a hail of arrows. 1 arrow is enough to kill a commoner, so they dropped like flies while the warblade took a couple hits (and some con damage from the poison). He shouted to take cover, but hadn't yet spotted the bandits in the steeple (100 feet away and 30 feet up).

The alarm bell sounds and the wizard and the dwarf go running to help their friends leaving Gemry alone in his cell. They arrive on the scene next round and spot the archers in the tower, calling out their position.

Next round another hail of arrows rains down on the confused populace, dropping several more, including members of the bucket brigade that had formed. The fire is now raging out of control, and spreading to nearby buildings. The monk throws a table out of the second story window and slowfalls down, advising as many people as possible to take cover behind it.

The warblade sprints to the rear of the temple, ignoring the locked entrance. He plans to A) Draw the archers' fire away from the people and B) get up to the steeple via grappling hook. Over the next two rounds he manages to do just that, though only one of the three archers concentrates fire on him. Once he reaches the top of the steeple, he easily dispatches the three low-level archers (especially because they were 1hp "minions" to borrow 4e parlance), but they did manage to drop 10 or so people with their poison arrows before being taken out. The last one actually jumped out of the steeple to avoid being taken alive. (This was a suicide mission, after all)

While this was going on, Elijah Greengrass makes his appearance with his scythe, sewing chaos and beheading people indiscriminately in the crowd.

The beacon probe also shows up now, using its confusion spell on the dwarf to (what else) sew confusion in their ranks.

Thankfully the dwarf manages to make his save, and make his way over to Elijah, a level 5 commoner with 26 hp, who was dropped two rounds later. As this is going on, though, the PCs hear another explosion, back at the prison. As soon as it was convenient, the warblade and the dwarf ran to see what happened to their prisoner, leaving the wizard alone to do crowd control. A woman had run out of a nearby house that had caught fire, yelling about her husband and son. They are in the burning house, and won't leave. They have been charmed by the beacon probe to lie down and die.


The wizard then bravely ran into the cottage to save the man and his son, who resisted his efforts. He knocked the father out with a flaming burst and managed, with the help of the wife, to pull them to safety. Then, he used a couple charges from his wand of Cure Light Wounds to bring them back from the brink of death.

The beacon probe then made its escape. The PCs had no way of following it, and did not attack it during the combat. They seemed perplexed and annoyed at its appearance, though they did pinpoint it at the source of the confusion.

When the Warblade and Dwarf arrived at the prison, they found most of it reduced to rubble. Some guards could be roused and pointed the PCs in the direction of the fleeing prisoner. They followed the trail to the city wall where a grappling hook was still in place for the escape. The half-orc climbed over the wall and saw the bandits (rescuers) dead on the ground, their heads bashed in by Gemry, who made his escape on his own so he could return to Greengrass and execute his plan.

Return to Greengrass a'Finale

There was no time to waste, so the PCs grabbed their cart and headed out to Greengrass right away. They hoped to recapture Gemry before he got there. The reasoning behind this was sound: if Gemry returned home to the village he helped burn, they figured, the angry knights would summarily execute them, and they would lose their one witness to their innocence.

Unbeknownst to the players (but knownst to us) the knights were already organizing themselves to hunt down the PCs.

If the Barbarian's player were present, this would have been roleplayed out, but instead it all had to happen behind the scenes. Hunter, the knight's ranger, had gone to Wheatland to gather information, and discovered that the PCs had taken money from Lord Wheatland (see episode 2) in exchange for information. This was enough to condemn them in the eyes of some of the knights.

A lynch mob was organized and they rode out. This is also when the Barbarian made his escape to carry out the rare reverse-rescue.

The wizard sent out his familiar to scout ahead, finding Gemry if possible. That night as they were making their way, the knights set up their field of execution, a bonfire next to a concave stone that would leave no escape for the PCs. They then rode out to capture them. The owl saw all this, and flew back to report (though he didn't know they planned to execute the players). The party decided to parlay with the knights rather than hide, so they wouldn't look suspcious. The knights then strongarmed the PCs into coming with them to the execution field (although the players thought they were going to Greengrass). When they arrived, the lead knight ordered them to drop their weapons and submit to the mercy of their court. Instead, the PCs elected to fight.

More specifically, they elected to RUN!

Flight into the Forest

Here was the tactical situation: All four PCs were in a cart, which was covered. Armed knights on horseback were at the front and the rear of the cart, cutting off avenues of escape. The players had little room to maneuver, and faced down a band of 4 high-level knights and 4 level 1 squires. It looked grim.

The wizard used another flaming burst to blow/burn a hole in the side of their cart, which I allowed cause it was cool. The players managed to escape through the hole, into the forest where the terrain made it difficult for the horses to travel.

The barbarian showed up at this point to provide some cover before joining their tactical withdrawal. Even using full withdraw actions, the players still took heavy damage from Hunter's mounted archery. However, they managed to get into the thickest part of the woods and the knights abandoned their horses, evening the odds slightly.

Then, Gemry appeared! He had been hiding nearby in a special underground alcove that his bandits had dug previously during their campaign of terror. The wizard unleashed a flaming sphere in the dense undergrowth, igniting the brush, spoiling the knight's night vision, and creating a suitable distraction for them to duck into the well disguised hole.

Catching up with Old Friends

They were now rescued by their former prisoner, who had managed to secure armor, shield and sword. Armed and armored, Gemry is a man not to be trifled with with and an uneasy friend. Detect Magic revealed one last weak enchantment remaining on the knight. Soon the last charm person would wear off.

Gemry explained his plan about returning to greengrass and taking control of as many of the knights there as he could. From there he would ignite infighting that he hoped would claim the lives of most of the knights. The PCs tactfully agreed to this plan, even though they intended to capture Gemry and turn him over to Lord Gallow instead (remember episode 1).

They set three watches that night. The third watch consisted of Gemry and the NPC monk (sort of a weird choice IMO since it was an NPC and a guy who is under a compulsion, but hey, it worked for me!). I had the last charm run out during this watch.

Returned to his faculties, Gemry was immediately driven mad (legit mad!) by grief and guilt at what he had wrought while under the beacon probe's enchantment. The PCs woke up when he began screaming, lamenting his fate and blaming the PCs (as usual) for the disaster.

"How could you let this happen? I was under a spell; what was your excuse?"

As the scale of his crimes sank in, he was overcome by the weight of it, and turned his sword upon himself. The orc warblade was nearby, however, and was able to wrestle the weapon away. However, Gemry had other plans. He bit open his wrists and began wailing against the cave wall. The Orc wrestled him to the ground, and once pinned, Gemry lost consciousness, overwhelmed by the stress.

The PCs then noticed an uncanny similarity between the beacon probe's sunburst symbol and the pattern of the blood that Gemry smeared on the wall. For them, this was a smoking gun that proved the beacon probe's connection to the mayhem that had besieged the hamlet.

Soon, the wizard was contacted by his master, Tom Invisibo. Seeing the grizzly scene, he asked if the party was in trouble. "Sort of..."

At Thomas Invisibo's Tower

Invisibo teleported them back to his tower and got the whole story out of them. He was disturbed and disappointed by the tale, and decided to bring Gemry to Lord Gallow himself in order to smooth things out. The players got a little down time to enjoy themselves in the splendid tower before Invisibo came back the next morning, looking tired. He had straitened things out, but he feels bad about what happened.

The players feel bad about what happened, too! "We sort of shat the bed on this mission, huh?" remarked the warblade's player.

Invisibo has some news of his own for the Dwarf, however. The dwarf's backstory is that he is looking for his lost son, and Invisibo is helping him do it. In return, the dwarf is protecting the wizard, who is Invisibo's apprentice. The archmage has done some digging over the last few weeks and has narrowed the son's position to one of three places:

1) He's on another plane
2) He's too close to a Great Machine to be scryed upon (see OP for details)
3) He's under Orcus's backbone, a mountain range that is unscryable due to its high lead and cold iron content, a drow stronghold, essentially a scry-proof segment of the underdark.

Invisibo also has some choice words for his apprentice, and takes him aside when he gets the chance.

They have a fairly lengthy discussion, but it boils down to this: Invisibo is releasing his apprentice from service, sending him out into the world to gain practical experience, since lab experience has not fully prepared him for the wide world of wizardry. He explains that he, the great archmage, gained his power by traveling the world doing good, not by staying home in his tower, and advises that the apprentice do the same.

They agree that in one weeks' time, the PC wizard will go off on his own into the world, accompanied by the Dwarf, who will remain his bodyguard until Invisibo has found the Dwarf's son.

Devil in the Basement

Before leaving, Invisibo gives out some trinkets to the players. The PC wizard asks for a rod of wonder, since he is intending to become a wild mage, and Invisibo agrees to give him one as a parting gift. The one he wants to give him is in the sub basement, however, a place he is loathe to go.

The PCs all go down because the basement is a dangerous place. They encounter a lot of weird stuff between the entrance and their goal, but one encounter in particular is of note. An encounter with a wily devil.

This is an ancient devil who has been trapped in the tower for thousands of years inside a reinforced magic circle. She has been trying to escape this entire time by tricking whoever ventures below. Today, she takes the form of a bruised and battered Tom Invisibo, begging for help, saying that the man upstairs is an impostor who took over the tower and locked him in the circle.

The wizard saw through this, and was about to leave, when she raised up her hand and called "Wait!" On her palm was the symbol of the Hellstar. This was enough to buy her a few more minutes of bargaining with the PCs. She warned of a coming time of trouble, and that the PCs were blown upon by fate's strongest winds. And that she could help them and advise them... if only they would let her out of the circle.

The PCs decided NOT to take the fiend up on her offer, and left her in the basement, though they were sorely tempted. So the session ended with one last tactical withdrawal.

[afroakuma]

Nice use of the probe, overall. Curious to see what's going to happen the first time they get a chance to take one down.