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View Full Version : Let's devour the world, one soul at a time! [4e evil campaign journal]



Arraxis
2012-01-29, 10:05 PM
A player in our group has been talking about running an evil campaign for a while now, and we finally managed to play the first session of it yesterday. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and I thought it would be fun to post up what happened, both as a record of what happened for myself, and to hopefully entertain other people here.

Setting
Many years ago, the gods were active and well, and the world was whole. However, people being people, wars were an all too frequent occurrence, and caused much suffering. The gods, fed up with the behaviour of their creations, gave their people one last chance to live together. The language barrier between people was lifted, so there was only one common tongue. With that, they were tasked with building a tower to the gods, and if successful, everyone would live a life of peace and prosperity. Before the tower was halfway complete, however, conflict broke out yet again, and construction halted. No more chances were to be given, and so the gods divided the world by cultural lines and abandoned their creation. The result of this is the Shear, an impenetrable barrier separating nation states from contacting each other. But war... war never changes.

Our characters are all residents of a nation in the west, though to call it that would be pushing it. In reality, it is a collection of city states and villages with no central authority. The land is poor in metallic resources, and due to the Shear, cannot trade for more. Peasants are forced to make do with wood and stone implements. Just before the start of the game, each of our characters, all nobodies, were separately approached by a Dark Emissary. To each of us he offered us the chance to be greatly rewarded in the service of his Lord, if we did a task for him. Sprinkle some black powder in the water supply of a village. After accepting, a True Rune was branded onto our right hand. Whether by coincidence, by fate, or by the pull of the True Runes, we were drawn to each other on the road towards the reservoir.

Runes
In this setting, there is no divine magic. However, there still exists arcane magic, and Runes. Think Suikoden in style. There are two different types of runes - normal ones, and True Runes. Normal runes, while not common, are able to be reproduced. They possess powers that range from creating fire to amplifying physical prowess. True Runes, on the other hand, are unique, and possess power far beyond that of ordinary runes. They are all tied to each other in some way, and also have a corrupting influence on the person it is bound to. Runes appear as a kind of tattoo on either of a person's hands or upon their forehead. Each of us chose a True Rune from a list the DM had shown us before the game started.

True Runes encountered - spoilers
Beast Rune: Lainn's Rune. It grants her the ability to launch a single massive attack. However, if this attack misses, she goes berserk, attacking friend and foe alike. Also, rolling a 1 on a skill check triggers the miss effect.

Soul Eater Rune: Zero's Rune. It eats souls. Also, whenever he uses it, a d20 is rolled, and the number rolled is recorded by the GM. We are assured that this does nothing [/blatantlies]. At the DM's discretion, certain enemies and NPCs are immune to it.

Front Gate Rune: Mandible's Rune. When used, a d20 is rolled, and a creature is summoned depending on the number rolled. Thus far a chimera has been summoned. There have been no negative effects seen to it as of yet.

True Holy Rune: Frank's Rune. This rune provides a speed boost to the person who it is attached to. Also, at the start of the day, a coin is flipped - if heads, 2 actions points are available instead of 1.

True Fire Rune: The Red Wizard's Rune. Grants mastery over fire. Even when suppressed, it is capable of great destruction.

Sovereign Rune: Flesheye's Rune. Grants the ability to suppress the powers of other Runes, even True Runes.

Characters - True Name/Alias (will be updated once I get more information from the other players)
Lainn Bordeaux/Cerra[my character] - A female half-elven Warlord. The daughter of an innkeeper, she ran away from home when her father turned to alcoholism and became abusive. She returned years later after being contacted by her mother in a letter, only to find that she had been killed by her father. She killed him in a fit of anger, and fled with her younger brother, Liam, only to run into the Dark Emissary. Though her brother refused, she accepted his offer, feeling resentful towards her village for allowing the abuse to continue, and so that she can protect Liam. She possesses the Beast Rune. As a player, I'm also quite new to 4th edition D&D.

???/Zero - A male warforged Blackguard. He was formerly a low ranking knight in the service of the king of a city state, but he lost his standing, his land, his wealth and his blade due to corruption within the court. Forced into exile,he has vowed revenge, and so accepted the offer of the Dark Emissary. He possesses the Soul Eater Rune, and was the only person warned to not use his rune unless it was necessary. The player is not familiar with the Suikoden series, and is our normal GM.

???/Mandible - A male(?) thri-kreen Ranger. As far as I know, he was an outdoorsy type with a dog and a sadistic streak, and accepted the Dark Emissary's offer just because. He possesses the Front Gate Rune. He was invited to the game last minute - literally a few hours before it started - and although he has played with the group before, as well as been the GM, it is my first time meeting him.

Frank/Pass - A male dwarf Runepriest. I know even less about his history, I hate to say. He's quiet and mysterious, and the player is a bit quieter than everyone else, but he definitely has his moments. He possesses the True Holy Rune.

Prologue - An Unexpected Party
After summarising the history of the world, the DM started us off on our quest towards the village reservoir. Also, we were all human commoners, basically - no class levels, attributes of 10, improvised weapons only... and each of us with a True Rune and an unknown black powder. I had been travelling at the time, so was not aware of this, but a nearby village had been struck by a plague that drained the will and initiative of everyone, leaving them capable of following only simple orders.

Soon after, we were set upon by a rabid dog. Zero and I were both bitten before we managed to put it down. At that point, a party of adventurers showed up, apparently drawn to the sound of fighting. There was a large knight, a female half-elf, a dwarf, and a weedy looking ranger with a wolf. At this point most of us laughed - the only other game our DM had actually run was two sessions of Shadowrun, where clones of the players featured in key moments. After bandaging us and praising us as true heroes for fighting off that dog, they proceeded to ask us about a dark castle in the region. Mandible mentioned something about some ruins to the east, and they went off on their way.

It sucks being treated like an NPC.

We spoke with each other for a bit afterwards, which was when we discovered we were all travelling to the same destination. I found it suspicious, as going directly to the reservoir for water was unnecessary, since it was brought directly to the village, but kept this to myself. Soon enough, we arrived at our destination, but were stopped by a redneck guard with a cheap metal dagger, who tried and failed to read a note issued to him by the magistrate of the region forbidding people who aren't on official business from directly approaching the water source. Frank started to say something, before Zero slapped him on the back of the head and rose up to his full height, claiming imperiously that he was on official business with his servants, and was only dressed like this to avoid being waylaid by bandits. The guard, apparently smarter than he looked, asked for a chit of identification, at which point Zero confessed that bandits had waylaid him and stolen the chit. "I see that that disguise is working out REAL well for you, then."

At this point Mandible decided that force was the best approach, and ordered his dog to sic the guard. He was taken completely by surprise, and fell to the ground as they wrestled each other. Frank used his True Holy Rune at this point, the ability of which is to greatly increase his speed. However, the strength of it was too much for him, and he injured himself on the way. He was almost at the reservoir. I guessed that we were all here for the same reason and thought about 'helping' the guard with the dog, instead trying to make things more difficult, but decided instead to run after Frank to fake a citizen's arrest. After all, I wasn't certain, and what if I didn't get the reward if I didn't put my powder in?

And then it was Zero's turn. I remind you again that he was the only person warned to not use his rune unless it was absolutely necessary. He raised his right hand at the guard, and activated it. He rolled a dice, which came up as a 4. "Don't worry!" Said the DM. "This is good for you! And I assure you that those numbers mean nothing at all. Honest!" At which point a dark pit opened beneath the guard and black tendrils grabbed hold of him. He screamed in agony, but slowly they petered out as if the someone were turning down the volume of a radio. He was drawn into the pit, which closed up. The dog didn't escape unscathed, either. It tried to scrabble out, but it didn't make it in time, and its back half simply disappeared when the pit closed up. It looked pitifully at Mandible before dying. Zero's left hand began to feel numb after this, and it felt like it was spreading to the rest of him.

All of us just watched this, stunned at what had just happened. My rune began to throb when Zero's activated - things had become a whole lot more obvious. "So, I guess we're all here for the same reason?" I said as I poured the powder into the reservoir. Frank followed suit, although he only poured in most, and Mandible picked up the front half of his dog and tossed it into the water. This is when things started to go bad.

The water turned black and appeared to become more viscous. Ripples started to form on the surface, and the sky became dark. The Dark Emissary was suddenly with us, and cursed. "You fools, what have you done?!" "Exactly what you told us." Zero and I said, as the corrupted water became more violent... more... alive. He told us to get close, and he erected a shield. The darkness lashed out at it, and even though the shield held, the strain was very evident on his face.

At that point, I saw my brother standing at the entrance to the reservoir. Apparently he had followed me after I had told him to stay where it was safe. He stood there with a look of horror on his face as the darkness turned towards him, and struck him with a black tendril. He fell to the ground, unconscious, possibly dead. "I've got to save him!" I cried out as I started to run towards him. The Dark Emissary grunted again, and there was now a small shield protecting him as well. At the very least he wouldn't be hurt any more.

The Dark Emissary then teleported us to a clearing and gave us his name for the first time - Chade. There was a massive castle in front of us, and behind that a mountain. However, looking at it closely, it appeared to be carved into the mountain, going inwards, instead of outwards. "You used the Soul Eater Rune, didn't you? We must hurry, otherwise you will die." He said to Zero as we made our way towards the castle. He dragged the unconscious Liam along with a rope, but I quickly picked him up and walked alongside.

The castle was dark and forbidding, and we were taken to a throne room. Upon the throne was a dark, armoured figure wearing a strange symbol. It seemed almost like a statue. In front of him was a jester of some sort, and chained to the walls were the adventurers we met at the start. The dwarf was screaming incoherently, and the half-elf had had the tops of her ears cut off. The ranger was unconscious, with his wolf cowering at his feet, and the knight... well, he seemed to have been torn apart while inside his armour. The pieces were still twitching, however.

Then the jester greeted us in a high pitched, Gollum like voice, congratulating us on our achievement. He went on to say that the Dark Lord was pleased with our success, and that it was foretold that some individuals like ourselves would bring him great success in his endeavours. We were also to be rewarded appropriately, and since our present bodies were too weak to serve appropriately, let alone bear the power of the True Runes, that would be our reward.

The Dark Lord moved for the first time, to raise his right hand. Frank and I then had our souls forced out of our bodies. It was described as incredibly painful, and the image of a bubble trying to fit through a small hole was used to describe the process of soul extraction. We found ourselves chained to the wall where the half-elf and the dwarf were, looking out at our bodies as the collapsed to the ground, apparently lifeless. However, we could still feel a connection to them.

We got off lightly.

The Jester turned to Zero, and told him that not even the knight could bear the power of the Soul Eater Rune, and that his body was useless. However, there was an alternative. At which point Zero's body began to disintegrate. He rolled an endurance check, and succeeded. He was simply too strong to be lucky enough to pass out from the pain, and had to endure it all. All that was left of him was his right hand, with the rune glowing brightly. It then flew over and embedded itself on the right hand of the knight's plate armour. The knight inside began to melt, and the suit of armour turned black. Zero's soul was now affixed to the armour. All that was left of him was his hand, which was collected up. He too could feel a connection to it, although it was much stronger, on the level of phantom limb syndrome... except it was the rest of him that was a phantom.

Then it was Mandible's turn. The Jester also claimed that the body they had found was unsuitable, but it would serve fine as nourishment. The ranger's eyes opened up wide, as his chest burst open and an insect like beast ate its way out. His soul was then ripped from his body much like Frank's and mine, and implanted within the thri-kreen. The wolf, too, seemed to be torn apart from the inside, and now there was something that was merely wearing its skin. All of us could feel on an instinctive level things that our new bodies had known - in Zero's case he could feel the memories of the armour - and then we were told to rest. All of us fell asleep where we were instantly, except for Zero, who stayed awake long enough to hear a few words shared by the Jester and Chade. At which point the prologue to our campaign ends.

Chapter 1 - First Left, Second Fire
Wake up... wake up and smell the ashesWe woke up in the same, dark room, in beds, feeling better than we had ever felt before. It wasn't long before Chade walked in, with a broken arm. I should probably describe his appearance a little bit - asides from the Obviously Evil black cloak he's wearing, he actually looks pretty good. Heroic, even - blonde hair, strong body, chiselled jawline, that sort of thing. I made a comment about how the Dark Lord apparently doesn't reward failure, but his reply seemed to indicate that his broken arm was for something other than the blight we had created. Interesting. He also told us we were being put to work immediately, and to report to the briefing centre. "Just keep going left. Always left."

We thought about exploring the castle a bit, but eventually decided to simply report in. We made 4 lefts, each turn at around 5 metres, and we were where we were meant to be. There were two men there - the boss was a man with a raspy voice, and his underling stood behind him, wearing a red jacket and repeating everything he said, except much louder. First we had to provide suitable names. Frank passed when he was asked for a name, so he was listed as Pass. I provided Cerra. Zero looked at himself and said "I am empty. I am nothing. I am Zero." After Mandible have his name, we were given our task. We were to go to a nearby town and subjugate it in whichever way we saw fit. It was clear that neither of those two had any respect for us, and we certainly didn't help matters by annoying them, until eventually he just pulled a lever which apparently opened up a pit... in the left wall. We 'fell' through it, and were told we could either walk the reasonably short distance, or perform a task for the Mistress of Portals, who would teleport us there. We ended up walking.

As we walked towards the town, we stumbled upon a burnt out wagon in the middle of the road. The inevitable random encounter while travelling! Mandible sent up a hawk to scout out the area for ambushes, but it became clear it wasn't bandits when two fire beetles and an imp emerged from the wagon. My experience with fire beetles is from Neverwinter Nights, so I was expecting a much easier fight than what actually happened. Our party is very much strength focused, and we lack a controller, and I'm told that this isn't optimal, but we decided to go with it, and if it wasn't, a retcon to another class would be fine.

I don't know how much detail you want for fights, so feel free to ask for more or less. Zero, Frank and I went after the fire beetles, while Mandible and his insect/zombie/wolf thing engaged the imp. I chose the Barbarian power Howling Strike for my Dilettante ability, and I have resolved to try and open up with it and a charge in every battle. However, before my turn, three bright lights showed up on the battlefield, prompting perception checks from all of us. I rolled the highest, and one of them flew towards me and blew up in my face. Fortunately, I saved versus the ongoing damage. With my glaive, I was able to engage enemies from a short distance away, but it didn't save me from the blast attacks of the fire beetles.

Mandible took a serious beating from the imp, however - as we found out that day, the GM dice aren't discriminatory when it comes to who is running the game, and rolled lots of criticals against us. Wolf Pack Tactics helped Zero disengage from the beetles so he could help against the imp, and the wolf managed to knock it prone. Zero would have missed with his big attack if it hadn't been for this. Meanwhile, the rest of us dealt with the fire beetles - I succeeded on another perception check and ate another fireball, and would have been knocked out if it weren't for Frank's damage reduction. Ultimately, we won, and learned valuable things, like double checking to make sure you are getting all the pluses you can get.

Welcome to Corn... Emberglass!
We took a short rest and came upon a town in a valley, whose name I unfortunately can't remember, so I'll call it Emberglass. We made a few knowledge checks here, and learned some interesting background information. We learned that there was a legend that just before the Gods left the world, five pieces of the Tower to the Heavens were broken off and taken to separate places by five brothers. As a Runepriest, Frank noticed that the way the town was arranged was similar to the way the True Fire Rune looked. Instead of telling us this, however, he simply said "Best to dress for warm weather." Sure enough, as we approached the town, it began to feel warmer. At the gate, we ran into an old man who apparently recognised us... well, the half who weren't horribly transformed and disfigured. He seemed completely fine with it, however - a religion check informed us that there exists a group of people who believe that the gods will return if all people can live together in harmony and rebuild the Tower... and their symbol is used by the Dark Lord. More interesting...

He asked us about our quest to defeat the Dark Lord, and I told him that we were successful, but unfortunately suffered greatly, gesturing to Zero and Mandible. He seemed dubious, but pressed on, worried about other matters. A large band of kobolds - the furry, not scaly kind - led by a powerful chief named Flesheye have been raiding them, and the wizard in the tower refused to help the town. He also mentioned having helped us in the past, and that he'd be eternally grateful if we would help. We decided to confer amongst ourselves as to what we should do.

Zero and I thought that if we dealt with the kobolds, we'd be able to convince the town to join the Dark Lord willingly - naturally we'd present him as a Lord of Light, and by the time they realise, things would be too late. Mandible was in favour of going to the kobolds and helping them take over the village, again having them pledge allegiance to the Dark Lord. "If the townsfolk need our help, they are weak." He said in a pseudo-Russian accent. Frank, on the other hand, suggested going to see the Wizard, and learning more about what's going on. Ultimately, we decided on this, and though the old man seemed scared of the wizard, one accidental intimidation check from Zero later led to him profusely apologising and agreeing to take us to the wizard's tower himself, as his family had worked with that of the wizard since the town's formation. On the way, we saw a tavern full of what looked to be the adventurous type. We ignored them.

The Wizard's Tower looked ancient in design, but remarkably well preserved. Fire was the prevailing theme here, and lots of it. The wizard himself seemed incredibly flashy and pompous in his red robes and imperious voice, but quickly dropped the attitude when we didn't cower like the rest of the peasants, and sounded rather annoyed. A young boy watched us partially hidden in a doorway as we asked him why he refused to help the townsfolk. He dismissed the old man before levelling with us: He knew that we all possessed True Runes, and that he possessed the True Fire Rune. Also, he had tried to fight the kobolds, but the chief had been able to nullify his attacks, forcing him to retreat. Naturally, he couldn't tell the townsfolk this or else he'd lose face. From the description, Frank was able to determine that Flesheye likely possessed the Sovereign Rune, whose ability was to suppress the power of all other Runes. He promised that if we dealt with the kobolds, he promised that he'd help us convince the villagers of whatever it was we wanted, so long as he could maintain his independence in his pursuit of knowledge.

After leaving, again the group argued over the best course of action. This was really enjoyable, as everyone was presenting different arguments to support their own agenda. This time, Frank sided with Mandible that the kobolds were probably a better option - the mage's demand to remain independent was a tricky one. With an open objective like 'subjugate the town', it was tricky to determine precisely what the 'best' option was. In this time, we learned a few extra things, like the town's primary export being high quality glass, and that the old man was a respected elder of the town and refused to compromise with the kobolds. Frank scored high on a roll to remember something his body knew, which was that the elder had had a wife last time the adventurers had been here. Naturally, he keeps this to himself. Unfortunately, attempts to speak with the townsfolk failed due to them being scared of us. Regardless of what we decided, our next stop was the kobold tribe.

Flesheye's Heroes
The region of Emberglass was semi-arid, which I'm assuming is due to the influence of the True Fire Rune. However, as we walked towards where the kobolds dwelled, there appeared to be more greenery. Finally, a dense forest with a path leading in was before us, and next to it there was a woman impaled on a spike. A close examination of her revealed that she was still alive, if only barely, and likely wouldn't survive, even if one of us knew a lot about healing. Mandible quickly killed her, which I approved of, and then allowed his wolf to feed on her corpse, which I did not approve of. Regardless, it was clear that this was a warning. Expecting an ambush, we shouted off challenges to the forest after a knowledge check revealed kobolds respected strength. We did not receive a response until Frank mentioned that we came to negotiate on behalf of the town, at which point three stepped out and told us we had to prove our might to enter.

I promptly charged the nearest kobold with Howling Strike, and failed to hit anything. This becomes a trend. The others faired much better, and two of the kobolds were killed. Two more came up behind us and successfully poisoned and dazed Frank and me. Frank saved, and I didn't. In that fight, I didn't achieve anything more than muttering Inspiring Word to myself so that I wouldn't die. When it was clear that we had the upper hand, a voice called out for us to stop. It wasn't in time to save one of the ambushers, though, who received a mighty blow from Zero that ultimately led to the kobolds finishing him for weakness. We had won our audience with the chief.

It was clear from what we saw that the kobolds had the advantage - there looked to be about as many kobolds as humans, if not more, and all of them were fighters. Flesheye's name turned out to be apt, as he wore an eyepatch crafted from human skin. We also confirmed what Frank has suspected - he possessed the Sovereign Rune. Mandible decided to test him by activating his Front Gate Rune, and he and the chief engaged in a brief test of wills. Satisfied, Mandible backed down before it could intensify. We learned that what the kobolds wanted were slaves - in particular child slaves. Children were more malleable, and so made better slaves. Flesheye also wanted the bearer of the True Fire Rune killed - when asked why he couldn't do it himself, he seemed reluctant to answer, and wouldn't speak about it.

Again, the group conferred, and this time I was the only one in favour of siding with the townsfolk, despite citing the advantages of having the town's infrastructure and trade intact. I was also beginning to understand just how deep I was now in. The rest of the party are crazy and bloodthirsty! Overruled, we stated our plan to the chief - to lay an ambush for the wizard while his tribe sacked the town. He refused, apparently preferring the tactic of simply attacking the town in one large charge and storming the wizard's tower. He'd nullify the wizard's rune, and we'd finish him off. Apparently this was fine with the group, too, so long as Frank got to keep the wizard's boy. Flesheye had also agreed to serve the Dark Lord in exchange for our services.

Souls Devoured: 2
We skipped past the butchering of Emberglass's citizenry, partly because it was senseless violence and partly because we'd been gaming for about 5 hours straight, and went to the battle against the wizard. For the record, I did not participate in the killing of peasants except in self defence. He had come out to meet us in front of his tower, along with 4 other wizards, each clothed in a different colour robe to represent the other elements - Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning. We learned that they seemed less... substantial than the wizard. We also learned the reason Flesheye hadn't killed the wizard himself - he couldn't suppress his powers completely, as the ramp to the tower suddenly had lakes of magma impeding progress.

Mandible used his Front Gate Rune in order to summon aid. In this case, he rolled well enough to summon a manticore. I charged at the nearest wizard - the wind user - and used Howling Strike... and missed yet again. See what I mean? At this point I was annoyed both in and out of character with failure, and used an action point to gain another standard action, and activated my Beast Rune. This gave me an attack with massive bonuses to hitting and doing damage, and I killed the wizard outright, the wind of my glaive cutting it before the blade itself did... although I admittedly thought that it had nullified my attack initially.

The Red Wizard used his True Rune as well. It created a massive blast area which caught half the party - who were spread out, I might add - in it, and dealt a large amount of damage. Keep in mind that this is what it does when it is being suppressed.

Then it was Zero's turn. He proceeded to walk forward slowly and raised his right hand at the Red Wizard. He used his Soul Eater Rune to devour his soul. This time the number he rolled was higher - I'm looking forward to finding out what this totally-not-dangerous diceroll ends up doing. The wizard was drawn in to Zero's chest instead of the ground like before, where there was a black vortex that consumes everything. As he disappeared within him, the illusory wizards gasped in horror, and Zero's formerly empty suit of armour now sported a set of flaming eyes within the helmet. We were asked to roll perception checks at this point to notice the True Fire Rune flying off towards to tower, and I rolled a 1.

This triggered my Beast Rune's other ability. If I roll a 1 on a skill roll, I lose control of the Beast Rune, and go into a rage. I gain bonuses to attack in exchange for my sanity as I attack everyone around me, friend or foe, until I make a save. I'm surprised it took until now, actually. Keep in mind that the illusory wizards did not seem to be tied to the Red Wizard, as his death did not cause them to fade away - rather, they redoubled their attack on us, with lightning striking everyone and water magic reviving the wizard I had killed, albeit badly injured. The closest person to me was the earth wizard, who created defensive bubbles for the rest of them. The unfortunate thing was that he was hovering over one of the magma pools, and while they were cooling, were still damn hot.

I rolled to save versus Beast Rune when my turn rolled around, and rolled a 20. Damn. Still, there's a minimum of one turn of being insane. So, in a rage, I charged out onto the lava and attacked the wizard. And rolled a 1. Critical fails on attacks do not activate my rune. Why couldn't that have been reversed?! Anyway, the rest of the fight went well as we proceeded to kill off the illusionary wizards one by one. At the end of the fight, we spotted the wizard's boy standing on top of the tower. He held up his right hand, and emblazoned on it was the True Fire Rune. "You... now you will witness the full power of the True Fire Rune!" He bellowed out from atop the tower, and it lit up almost as bright as the sun.

And then he burned to a cinder. He fell from the tower, and his ash scattered across the battlefield. The tower suddenly began to break apart. It looked as if time had sped up around it as it aged at a rapid rate, with cracks and erosion wearing it away. We had achieved the objective of the Dark Lord, but at what cost?

Again, Chade appeared to teleport us, and we were back at the front of the castle, along with Flesheye. My brother was also up and about... although half of his body was covered in darkness. It looked as if it was warring with the other half of his body. The Jester was there as well, and he seemed pleased with what we had done. Chade attempted to take credit for the victory, to which we promptly spoke up and corrected. He received a jolt of pain for his insubordination, but then he turned and congratulated us for not remaining quiet. Apparently our task was also a test of our ability to be flexible and independent. Unfortunately, the death of the townsfolk meant that glass production would need to be re-initialised - the glass was needed in order to make alchemical tools - but we had successfully taken the town, and brought a True Rune under the control of the Dark Lord. The chapter finished with Flesheye being taken into the castle, and the doors closing behind him.


That turned out to be longer than I expected. I'll be posting Chapter 1 later. If there's any feedback you could give in regards to anything - campaign, writing style, etc - that would be appreciated. Am I being too wordy, or do you want even more details? I'm also willing to answer any questions that you might have, especially since I'm sure to have forgotten things that happened or else had things about the game told to me while not in session.

This area will be updated with further information as it is posted.

Vixsor Lumin
2012-01-29, 10:30 PM
Sweet merciful stars above :smalleek:..... that was AWESOME!!!!! I love campaign logs and yours looks very interesting :smallbiggrin: I loved it and look forward to more!

Arraxis
2012-01-30, 11:54 PM
Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Anyway, here's chapter 1, and I'm going to update the Runes list as well, since we're going to be seeing a lot more of them from now on. I also told my group about this, so maybe they'll pop on to give their own feedback on things.

Chapter 1 - First Left, Second Fire
Wake up... wake up and smell the ashesWe woke up in the same, dark room, in beds, feeling better than we had ever felt before. It wasn't long before Chade walked in, with a broken arm. I should probably describe his appearance a little bit - asides from the Obviously Evil black cloak he's wearing, he actually looks pretty good. Heroic, even - blonde hair, strong body, chiselled jawline, that sort of thing. I made a comment about how the Dark Lord apparently doesn't reward failure, but his reply seemed to indicate that his broken arm was for something other than the blight we had created. Interesting. He also told us we were being put to work immediately, and to report to the briefing centre. "Just keep going left. Always left."

We thought about exploring the castle a bit, but eventually decided to simply report in. We made 4 lefts, each turn at around 5 metres, and we were where we were meant to be. There were two men there - the boss was a man with a raspy voice, and his underling stood behind him, wearing a red jacket and repeating everything he said, except much louder. First we had to provide suitable names. Frank passed when he was asked for a name, so he was listed as Pass. I provided Cerra. Zero looked at himself and said "I am empty. I am nothing. I am Zero." After Mandible have his name, we were given our task. We were to go to a nearby town and subjugate it in whichever way we saw fit. It was clear that neither of those two had any respect for us, and we certainly didn't help matters by annoying them, until eventually he just pulled a lever which apparently opened up a pit... in the left wall. We 'fell' through it, and were told we could either walk the reasonably short distance, or perform a task for the Mistress of Portals, who would teleport us there. We ended up walking.

As we walked towards the town, we stumbled upon a burnt out wagon in the middle of the road. The inevitable random encounter while travelling! Mandible sent up a hawk to scout out the area for ambushes, but it became clear it wasn't bandits when two fire beetles and an imp emerged from the wagon. My experience with fire beetles is from Neverwinter Nights, so I was expecting a much easier fight than what actually happened. Our party is very much strength focused, and we lack a controller, and I'm told that this isn't optimal, but we decided to go with it, and if it wasn't, a retcon to another class would be fine.

I don't know how much detail you want for fights, so feel free to ask for more or less. Zero, Frank and I went after the fire beetles, while Mandible and his insect/zombie/wolf thing engaged the imp. I chose the Barbarian power Howling Strike for my Dilettante ability, and I have resolved to try and open up with it and a charge in every battle. However, before my turn, three bright lights showed up on the battlefield, prompting perception checks from all of us. I rolled the highest, and one of them flew towards me and blew up in my face. Fortunately, I saved versus the ongoing damage. With my glaive, I was able to engage enemies from a short distance away, but it didn't save me from the blast attacks of the fire beetles.

Mandible took a serious beating from the imp, however - as we found out that day, the GM dice aren't discriminatory when it comes to who is running the game, and rolled lots of criticals against us. Wolf Pack Tactics helped Zero disengage from the beetles so he could help against the imp, and the wolf managed to knock it prone. Zero would have missed with his big attack if it hadn't been for this. Meanwhile, the rest of us dealt with the fire beetles - I succeeded on another perception check and ate another fireball, and would have been knocked out if it weren't for Frank's damage reduction. Ultimately, we won, and learned valuable things, like double checking to make sure you are getting all the pluses you can get.

Welcome to Corn... Emberglass!
We took a short rest and came upon a town in a valley, whose name I unfortunately can't remember, so I'll call it Emberglass. We made a few knowledge checks here, and learned some interesting background information. We learned that there was a legend that just before the Gods left the world, five pieces of the Tower to the Heavens were broken off and taken to separate places by five brothers. As a Runepriest, Frank noticed that the way the town was arranged was similar to the way the True Fire Rune looked. Instead of telling us this, however, he simply said "Best to dress for warm weather." Sure enough, as we approached the town, it began to feel warmer. At the gate, we ran into an old man who apparently recognised us... well, the half who weren't horribly transformed and disfigured. He seemed completely fine with it, however - a religion check informed us that there exists a group of people who believe that the gods will return if all people can live together in harmony and rebuild the Tower... and their symbol is used by the Dark Lord. More interesting...

He asked us about our quest to defeat the Dark Lord, and I told him that we were successful, but unfortunately suffered greatly, gesturing to Zero and Mandible. He seemed dubious, but pressed on, worried about other matters. A large band of kobolds - the furry, not scaly kind - led by a powerful chief named Flesheye have been raiding them, and the wizard in the tower refused to help the town. He also mentioned having helped us in the past, and that he'd be eternally grateful if we would help. We decided to confer amongst ourselves as to what we should do.

Zero and I thought that if we dealt with the kobolds, we'd be able to convince the town to join the Dark Lord willingly - naturally we'd present him as a Lord of Light, and by the time they realise, things would be too late. Mandible was in favour of going to the kobolds and helping them take over the village, again having them pledge allegiance to the Dark Lord. "If the townsfolk need our help, they are weak." He said in a pseudo-Russian accent. Frank, on the other hand, suggested going to see the Wizard, and learning more about what's going on. Ultimately, we decided on this, and though the old man seemed scared of the wizard, one accidental intimidation check from Zero later led to him profusely apologising and agreeing to take us to the wizard's tower himself, as his family had worked with that of the wizard since the town's formation. On the way, we saw a tavern full of what looked to be the adventurous type. We ignored them.

The Wizard's Tower looked ancient in design, but remarkably well preserved. Fire was the prevailing theme here, and lots of it. The wizard himself seemed incredibly flashy and pompous in his red robes and imperious voice, but quickly dropped the attitude when we didn't cower like the rest of the peasants, and sounded rather annoyed. A young boy watched us partially hidden in a doorway as we asked him why he refused to help the townsfolk. He dismissed the old man before levelling with us: He knew that we all possessed True Runes, and that he possessed the True Fire Rune. Also, he had tried to fight the kobolds, but the chief had been able to nullify his attacks, forcing him to retreat. Naturally, he couldn't tell the townsfolk this or else he'd lose face. From the description, Frank was able to determine that Flesheye likely possessed the Sovereign Rune, whose ability was to suppress the power of all other Runes. He promised that if we dealt with the kobolds, he promised that he'd help us convince the villagers of whatever it was we wanted, so long as he could maintain his independence in his pursuit of knowledge.

After leaving, again the group argued over the best course of action. This was really enjoyable, as everyone was presenting different arguments to support their own agenda. This time, Frank sided with Mandible that the kobolds were probably a better option - the mage's demand to remain independent was a tricky one. With an open objective like 'subjugate the town', it was tricky to determine precisely what the 'best' option was. In this time, we learned a few extra things, like the town's primary export being high quality glass, and that the old man was a respected elder of the town and refused to compromise with the kobolds. Frank scored high on a roll to remember something his body knew, which was that the elder had had a wife last time the adventurers had been here. Naturally, he keeps this to himself. Unfortunately, attempts to speak with the townsfolk failed due to them being scared of us. Regardless of what we decided, our next stop was the kobold tribe.

Flesheye's Heroes
The region of Emberglass was semi-arid, which I'm assuming is due to the influence of the True Fire Rune. However, as we walked towards where the kobolds dwelled, there appeared to be more greenery. Finally, a dense forest with a path leading in was before us, and next to it there was a woman impaled on a spike. A close examination of her revealed that she was still alive, if only barely, and likely wouldn't survive, even if one of us knew a lot about healing. Mandible quickly killed her, which I approved of, and then allowed his wolf to feed on her corpse, which I did not approve of. Regardless, it was clear that this was a warning. Expecting an ambush, we shouted off challenges to the forest after a knowledge check revealed kobolds respected strength. We did not receive a response until Frank mentioned that we came to negotiate on behalf of the town, at which point three stepped out and told us we had to prove our might to enter.

I promptly charged the nearest kobold with Howling Strike, and failed to hit anything. This becomes a trend. The others faired much better, and two of the kobolds were killed. Two more came up behind us and successfully poisoned and dazed Frank and me. Frank saved, and I didn't. In that fight, I didn't achieve anything more than muttering Inspiring Word to myself so that I wouldn't die. When it was clear that we had the upper hand, a voice called out for us to stop. It wasn't in time to save one of the ambushers, though, who received a mighty blow from Zero that ultimately led to the kobolds finishing him for weakness. We had won our audience with the chief.

It was clear from what we saw that the kobolds had the advantage - there looked to be about as many kobolds as humans, if not more, and all of them were fighters. Flesheye's name turned out to be apt, as he wore an eyepatch crafted from human skin. We also confirmed what Frank has suspected - he possessed the Sovereign Rune. Mandible decided to test him by activating his Front Gate Rune, and he and the chief engaged in a brief test of wills. Satisfied, Mandible backed down before it could intensify. We learned that what the kobolds wanted were slaves - in particular child slaves. Children were more malleable, and so made better slaves. Flesheye also wanted the bearer of the True Fire Rune killed - when asked why he couldn't do it himself, he seemed reluctant to answer, and wouldn't speak about it.

Again, the group conferred, and this time I was the only one in favour of siding with the townsfolk, despite citing the advantages of having the town's infrastructure and trade intact. I was also beginning to understand just how deep I was now in. The rest of the party are crazy and bloodthirsty! Overruled, we stated our plan to the chief - to lay an ambush for the wizard while his tribe sacked the town. He refused, apparently preferring the tactic of simply attacking the town in one large charge and storming the wizard's tower. He'd nullify the wizard's rune, and we'd finish him off. Apparently this was fine with the group, too, so long as Frank got to keep the wizard's boy. Flesheye had also agreed to serve the Dark Lord in exchange for our services.

Souls Devoured: 2
We skipped past the butchering of Emberglass's citizenry, partly because it was senseless violence and partly because we'd been gaming for about 5 hours straight, and went to the battle against the wizard. For the record, I did not participate in the killing of peasants except in self defence. He had come out to meet us in front of his tower, along with 4 other wizards, each clothed in a different colour robe to represent the other elements - Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning. We learned that they seemed less... substantial than the wizard. We also learned the reason Flesheye hadn't killed the wizard himself - he couldn't suppress his powers completely, as the ramp to the tower suddenly had lakes of magma impeding progress.

Mandible used his Front Gate Rune in order to summon aid. In this case, he rolled well enough to summon a manticore. I charged at the nearest wizard - the wind user - and used Howling Strike... and missed yet again. See what I mean? At this point I was annoyed both in and out of character with failure, and used an action point to gain another standard action, and activated my Beast Rune. This gave me an attack with massive bonuses to hitting and doing damage, and I killed the wizard outright, the wind of my glaive cutting it before the blade itself did... although I admittedly thought that it had nullified my attack initially.

The Red Wizard used his True Rune as well. It created a massive blast area which caught half the party - who were spread out, I might add - in it, and dealt a large amount of damage. Keep in mind that this is what it does when it is being suppressed.

Then it was Zero's turn. He proceeded to walk forward slowly and raised his right hand at the Red Wizard. He used his Soul Eater Rune to devour his soul. This time the number he rolled was higher - I'm looking forward to finding out what this totally-not-dangerous diceroll ends up doing. The wizard was drawn in to Zero's chest instead of the ground like before, where there was a black vortex that consumes everything. As he disappeared within him, the illusory wizards gasped in horror, and Zero's formerly empty suit of armour now sported a set of flaming eyes within the helmet. We were asked to roll perception checks at this point to notice the True Fire Rune flying off towards to tower, and I rolled a 1.

This triggered my Beast Rune's other ability. If I roll a 1 on a skill roll, I lose control of the Beast Rune, and go into a rage. I gain bonuses to attack in exchange for my sanity as I attack everyone around me, friend or foe, until I make a save. I'm surprised it took until now, actually. Keep in mind that the illusory wizards did not seem to be tied to the Red Wizard, as his death did not cause them to fade away - rather, they redoubled their attack on us, with lightning striking everyone and water magic reviving the wizard I had killed, albeit badly injured. The closest person to me was the earth wizard, who created defensive bubbles for the rest of them. The unfortunate thing was that he was hovering over one of the magma pools, and while they were cooling, were still damn hot.

I rolled to save versus Beast Rune when my turn rolled around, and rolled a 20. Damn. Still, there's a minimum of one turn of being insane. So, in a rage, I charged out onto the lava and attacked the wizard. And rolled a 1. Critical fails on attacks do not activate my rune. Why couldn't that have been reversed?! Anyway, the rest of the fight went well as we proceeded to kill off the illusionary wizards one by one. At the end of the fight, we spotted the wizard's boy standing on top of the tower. He held up his right hand, and emblazoned on it was the True Fire Rune. "You... now you will witness the full power of the True Fire Rune!" He bellowed out from atop the tower, and it lit up almost as bright as the sun.

And then he burned to a cinder. He fell from the tower, and his ash scattered across the battlefield. The tower suddenly began to break apart. It looked as if time had sped up around it as it aged at a rapid rate, with cracks and erosion wearing it away. We had achieved the objective of the Dark Lord, but at what cost?

Again, Chade appeared to teleport us, and we were back at the front of the castle, along with Flesheye. My brother was also up and about... although half of his body was covered in darkness. It looked as if it was warring with the other half of his body. The Jester was there as well, and he seemed pleased with what we had done. Chade attempted to take credit for the victory, to which we promptly spoke up and corrected. He received a jolt of pain for his insubordination, but then he turned and congratulated us for not remaining quiet. Apparently our task was also a test of our ability to be flexible and independent. Unfortunately, the death of the townsfolk meant that glass production would need to be re-initialised - the glass was needed in order to make alchemical tools - but we had successfully taken the town, and brought a True Rune under the control of the Dark Lord. The chapter finished with Flesheye being taken into the castle, and the doors closing behind him.

Anyway, that's as much as we've played for now. I realise that this is incredibly long, but I find it hard to decide what's vital and what is superfluous. And feedback on what you would like me to focus on in future updates would be greatly appreciated. I'm also happy to answer any questions that you might have!

Also, at the end of the game, we were given two choices on our next mission, OoC. One is to a citystate - I'm hoping it is where Zero is from - and the other is to the Blight that we created in the prologue, to investigate it and the spread. We've been told that we'll be able to do both regardless, but that time does pass, and the Blight will get worse over time. I'm fine with either, personally, but what do you think? I'll vote in favour of what it is that you guys would prefer.

Inglenook
2012-02-02, 12:36 PM
This is all kinds of amazing. If you can do both eventually, it seems that the blight is the more pressing issue?

I'll definitely be following this. :smallsmile:

Frosthamn
2012-02-02, 02:41 PM
Wow! This is epic :smallbiggrin: I would love to play in a campaing like this. Nice to see that not all of you are bloodthirsty maniacs :smalltongue:

As for the next mission, I'd say the city. Just because i love cities and it might force a less violent approach at reaching your goals.

Arraxis
2012-02-03, 07:32 AM
Only Mandible seems to be truly bloodthirsty, but I think it works, since there's people to balance him out. Plus, I do enjoy the way he's going with the mind being a plaything of the body. I spoke with the DM, and it looks likely that we'll be visiting the Blight first. I'm expecting the next session - which should be this Sunday - to have a strong horror element. I'm very much looking forward to learning what exactly happened.

Friv
2012-02-03, 09:03 AM
Cool, always good to see an evil group that behaves intelligently. Looking forwards to this continuing. :)

Arraxis
2012-02-06, 10:04 AM
Well! Had our gaming session yesterday, and things went... well, they went horribly, horribly wrong. But in a good way! Here's my writeup! Also, I've started to take notes during sessions so hopefully I won't forget anything important. Well, anything that I see as important, anyway - observational bias and all that.

Chapter 2 - It's not betrayal if you were already betrayed! (Yes it is)

Good morning henchmen! Good morning Kraze!
Before I start talking about the session, there are a couple of things I need to say. First is that the DM's laptop - and all of his notes - is currently not working. This unfortunately led to a few things he was going to introduce to us not happening. The second thing is that we were all randomly given 'Traitor' cards at the start of the session. If we committed an action that would inconvenience the party in some way, we would receive some sort of reward. For the record, my note said to push someone into a pit.

Anyway, a few days after our glorious conquest of Emberglass, we were told to report to Commander Kraze, who appears to be our defacto superior. Again, the red guy, Kanaan, was behind him, repeating his every order. This time we were to examine the Blight that we had unleashed, and somehow nullify it as a threat. Destroy it, control it, send it away, whatever, so long as it was gone. Four redshirted mooks had been sent out previously, but hadn't returned. Before heading out, however, we were to be rewarded. Each of us received a magical item of our choice - I chose Scale Mail +1, shoulderpads included. We also received a magic globe - it split into 4, one for each of us, and would summon help when broken, but if one of us broke it, all of them would break. With that, we set off!

We came upon a group of redshirted mooks, and all rolled phenomenal Perception checks. Really, we should have realised from our great roll at the start that we'd have bad luck at the end. Anyway, we found that they had had their throats clawed out and had all their blood drained of them. Frank also noted that there were five bodies, not four, and proceeded to poke them. One of them quickly changed into a boney lizard-like thing with bone sickles, and leapt back, clearly hostile.

I went first, and promptly charged the creature... and just as promptly fell into a pit lined with bone spikes. It had been dug into the path just ahead of us. This was all the confirmation I needed to know that yes, the game was still treating me as the Butt Monkey. I even failed my acrobatics roll bad enough to take a bit of extra damage, though it wasn't lethal by any means. The rest of us moved in without a problem, but the lizard surprised us with an odd whirlwind attack, attacking us as it ran past, and avoiding our attacks of opportunity. Still, Zero proved himself a combat monster as he crits it for 27 damage and 5 ongoing. Despite its speed, taking a hit like that meant it wouldn't last much longer, and we killed it shortly after.

I pulled myself out of the pit and we examined the lizard. It looked like the lizards common to the area, only much larger, contained traces of corruption, and was apparently capable of using tools. It was also clear that it wasn't responsible for killing the mooks - it just decided to use the spot as an ambush point. Perhaps it prefers living prey. I also took the opportunity to take a closer look at the pit. Annoyed at having fallen in, and not particularly fond of Mandible, I pushed him in after insisting that he take a closer look. Zero pushed me in immediately after. Neither of us took much damage from it, but I took a bit more, and almost ended up with a bone fragment stuck inside me. I did, however, find a bone ring in the pit, which I swiftly pocketed. Mandible, being a bigger man than me in more ways than one, didn't try and eat me. With our Mandatory One Encounter During Travels over, we arrived at our former village, which was now surrounded by a barrier.

Happy Happy Joy Joy
Walking through the barrier wasn't an issue, and everything seemed fine. People were walking around, the sun was still shining through the Shear... oh wait, that black temple over the reservoir is new. We speak with a local who quite clearly has no idea what's going on. We point at the temple, and while he looks at it with fear for a second, insists that it is just a watering hole and the administration building, which is "made of thatch and horror, horror... and it was built by my father 30 odd years ago." He then offers us some water, which Frank and Zero took into their canteens. It was black and viscous - clearly something other than water. The man drank some, and choked as it went down his throat. Less than a minute later, he was slumped against a wall with a goofy grin on his face.

While this was going on, we spotted a shadowy figure for a second out of the corner of our eyes. We called out to it, and she revealed herself. She was dressed like a vampire, and looked like one too, and when I made a snide comment about her being awake in the day, she mentioned that the barrier around the area was protecting her from the sun's rays. She seemed sane, so we spoke with her, and learned a few interesting things. For one, she had come from across the Shear - apparently it is flickering now, and if you are fast enough, it is possible to slip through. If not, well, her two companions became her four ex-companions. She was also apparently exiled from her vampire clan, and intends to seize the corrupt power here as her own and return - likely to do some not-so-nice things to them. I'm fine with helping her out - we just need to remove it from here. Plus, an ally down the road couldn't hurt - the Dark Lord can kill us whenever he wants. She ends up going ahead, and our party ends up deciding to simply play things by ear. On the way, Frank ends up trading one of the lizardman's sickles for a cow, apparently to send ahead of us in the Temple.

Adventurers.

Within the temple grounds, the illusion around the town lifts. Looking back on the surroundings, everything looks corrupt, sickly and twisted. The people are scrawny and skeletal in appearance, and their skin has lines of darkness traced on them. What little grass there was was black, and the dirt was flecked with darkness. We looked away from this and went towards the temple proper, with the cow eagerly leading the way.


I'll post the rest up later - needless to say that it is inside that things take a nasty turn.

Friv
2012-03-16, 02:29 PM
Is there going to be a followup? I was looking forwards to reading more...

Vixsor Lumin
2012-03-16, 04:08 PM
Seconded! This seems like a good campaign!

Doorhandle
2012-03-16, 06:47 PM
Indeed. waiting eagerly for the souls-eaten counter to rise.

Calinar
2012-03-20, 07:22 PM
An interesting read, looking forward to reading more.