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murph04
2013-09-05, 11:30 PM
So after a two-year long 4E campaign my players were ready for something new. So I downloaded the new D&D Next playtest packet and went through the arduous task of teaching them a new system. We're going to do a mini-campaign with Next before doing a sequel campaign in 4th Edition.

But I digress. I've always wanted to do a campaign journal and this seems like the perfect time to do it with the start of the new campaign.
So sit back and enjoy!

The World
My campaign world is mainly homebrew while taking something from each setting. When I first started DMing I didn't know that places like "Eberron" or "Neverwinter" were meant to be different worlds, I just assumed they were different continents and drew the map as such.
The campaign itself takes place in the desert continent of Athas, for years it's been in a constant state of turmoil. Every few years someone thinks they have the brass to conquer all of it and maintain an empire. these attempts usually end in failure. Currently Athas is divided into four nations.

The Holy Empire of Pelor: A very small nation that has lost much of it's territory to wars with the Empire of Scorched Blades. They're a theocracy that believes Pelor is the true supreme deity and the other gods are merely exarchs of him. Their military is small but devoted and wuld lay down their lives in the name of Pelor

Emeraldalen: The north most nation that borders with the elven lands of Faerun. Long ago a exiled prince attempted to muster an army in Athas to seize the Elven throne. He and his army were promptly beaten down and constantly raided by barbarians. The Elven soldiers eventually mixed with nearby human settlements, creating a nation of Half-Elves. The nation's original intentions have been mostly forgotten and today Emerdalen is mainly a mercantile nation. So far it has been untouched by the Empire of Scorching Blades

Staldune: The second largest Athesian nation. Established as a collection of Lizardfolk villages, Staldune grew as more and more tribes joined it's borders. Not just Lizardfolk mind you, but Razorclaw Shifters, Dwarven mining communities and small, independent cities. Today the nation holds many major cities and is the most "modernized" of the nations, having a functioning Oligarchy and a strong military comprised of many races. Unfortunately they share a border with...

The Empire of Scorched Blades: Found at the bottom of the continent the EoSB has very few resources at it's disposal. The Blistering Mountains to the back of it hold no valuable ore, the seas that border it on both sides contain few edible fish, the soil is infertile and yields few yearly crops. So it produces it's wealth through war. Sieging wealthy cities in Staldune and the HKoP, and selling the survivors of their terrible raids as slaves to other countries across the ocean. They are an empire built solely for war.

The Party
Hunter the Wild: A human druid. Once lived in a peaceful community of fellow druids. Once. Civilization found them and destroyed the tribe. Hunter now uses his druid magic to be bounty hunter in the nation Staldune.

Drew, Son of Parr: A human rogue. Worked for a Thieves Guild in the HKoP where he was renown for his ability to steal from people in broad daylight with relative ease.

Shagwire Bilkins: A Halfling hailing from the human lands of Platima. He lived the majority of his life in a community comprised of fellow halflings. He ran the local chapel and was widely regarded as a kind, if not sometimes eccentric, priest. He traveled to Athas as part of a Holy journey to learn the teachings of fellow priests in the HKoP. His cleric domain is Life.

Paelias the Sage: A scholarly Elf well trained in the magic. Born and raised in the Faerun he traveled to Athas in hopes that his superior intellect would pay well among the "dismally stupid barbarians" (his words, not mine). His mage school is Evocation.

Firion Pogost: A woodelf who spent much of his life wandering the wilds of the Faerun. He picked up every trade he needed to survive, marksmanship, herbalism, tracking, just about every skill a good ranger possess. He journeyed to Athas in hopes that a change of terrain would give him new challenges and the chance to learn new skills.

NPCs
Xarn Viscous: A half-dwarf whose spent his whole life in Athas. His background is a mystery, but his fighting expertise points to him being a high ranking soldier at one point. His body is riddled with nasty scars and his eyes show a quiet rage hiding just behind them.

That concludes the set-up for our campaign. Now for our first quest!

Chapter 1: Time to Seize the Day
Our story begins in a forced labor camp run by the Empire of Scorched Blades. One way or another the individual members of the party were captured and sent to the camp. This is where they met, albeit some had been there longer than others.

The camp is a horrible mining operation. The workers work in the mine during the night when it's cooler. During the day they sleep in large, animal hide tents that barely keep the constant dust storms at bay. The prisoners rarely ever see the sun due to this system as the guards let no one out of the tents during the day. All prisoners, no matter how old or young, are expected to work all night and fill a mine cart with any useful ores they find. The warden, Marklar, is a sadist who enjoys beating slow workers with a quarterstaff.

The prisoners do have one person to thank for keeping their spirits up, Xarn Viscous. Since he arrived he's been having secret meetings with willing prisoners, planning a breakout. For the most part the plans have gone unheard of by the guards but the Warden has his suspicions.

The day of the breakout came. Xarn and the party were all working in the same mine, along with a few other prisoners. Xarn was hammering away at the rock wall with his pick creating such noise that the three guards on duty took notice and watched him with interest. Eventually Xarn's rusty pick gave out and the handle broke right off, leaving the head still in the rocks. One of the guards burst out laughing.

"What's the matter Viscous, broke your pick? Well that's a damn shame. You know the other guards talk about you all the time. From what they say you've done just about every job there is to do in Athas. And here you are now, a slave with a broken pick. Pathetic"

The guard started to walk back to his position. He was unaware of Xarn following behind him. Without a word Xarn swung the handle of his former pick at the guard's head. He hit with such force that the handle broke. The guard let go of his spear in surprise. Xarn snatched it up and, with one swift motion, stabbed the guard right through the heart.

After pushing the guard's lifeless body off of the spear Xarn turned to his fellow prisoners and shouted to them.
"My fellow slaves, do you wish to spend each day toiling in these dark caves, working till your body and spirit are broken? Do you wish to see the sun again? Do you wish to walk the dunes of Athas as free men once more? Then join me in chasing out these...pathetic...men who have kept us here! Let us fight for our freedom or die trying!"

It was here that the group finally got control of their characters. Drew descended on one of the two remaining guards, using Xarn's speech as a distraction so that he could sneak in a deadly blow with his pick. Xarn then tossed his spear to Firion who took it and leaped down from the ledge he was working on. Shagwire and hunter began to move in on the final guard, but not before the Nightmaster, the head guard for that quarry, walked in wondering what all the noise was about.

The remaining guard explained that Xarn was rallying the prisoners to riot. The Nightmaster chuckled and spoke out to the prisoners.
"Those of you who assist in the capture or killing of these rebels will be looked upon fondly. I can see to it that you get transferred to much more...lenient camps"

At this a rather elderly slave swung his pick at Shagwire, being old he swung to slowly and Shagwire dodged it with ease. Other prisoners also began to move in on the party and Xarn.

Paelias had been watching the whole thing from a rather high ledge. The Nightmaster was the reason he was in this place to begin with. He had come to the camp thinking his skills would earn him a job as a planner or accountant. Instead the Nightmaster shoved him into one of the tents and told him he could use his magic to blast away rocks. Now that he was in his sights Paelias wasn't going to let him get away. He fired a bolt of frost which hit the Nightmaster squarely in the chest. The Nightmaster was so taken with this sudden blast of coldness that he didn't see Firion preparing to throw his spear. The spear pierced the Nightmaster in the shoulder but he pulled it out with one yank.

Meanwhile Hunter did battle with a another traitorous prisoner. Hunter was badly injured and was only save through the combined efforts of Shagwire and Xarn. Shagwire healed Hunter back to health but this caught the attention of the Nightmaster who ordered for all the prisoners to focus their efforts on the halfling. Without Shagwire the party would be without their only healer, a situation that would've been deadly since the party was still outnumbered.

More guards arrived but they were cut down by Paelias and Drew. Eventually Marklar himself arrived. He said nothing and pulled out a wand made of a ridged chain. He fired a purple beam at Xarn which froze him in place. After several failed knowledge checks the party deduced it was a wand that held Hold Person in only two charges. Paelias went to work dispelling the spell while the rest of the party finished of the remaining guards and prisoners.

Drew attempted to sneak attack Marklar but rolled a pair of natural ones and his attack missed by a mile. Instead he hit a large boulder and broke his pick on it. Marklar equipped his quarterstaff and went to town on Drew, beating him within one hitpoint of death.

Hunter came to Drew's aide, but his attacks barely registered on Marklar. Shagwire came to Drew's side and healed him back to full health. Xarn was also freed from Hold Person after a successful dispelling from Paelias.

Firion grabbed another guard's spear and threw it at Marklar. This attack did some significant damage and left him with only 7 HP remaining. Xarn sauntered on over to him and drove his spear straight through Marklar's head.

While this was going on, other prisoners in the other mines were also rioting. All the guards were eventually killed on Xarn's orders, he wanted none to report back to the Empire. The camp now belonged to the prisoners. They celebrated by raiding the guard's food storages and watching the sunrise.

Two days later Xarn met with the party.
"I'm leaving. I've had enough of this hellhole. You want to come with me?"
"Sure, I'd be dead if not for you"
Hunter said.
The rest of the party nodded in approval. Xarn got a small smile on his face.
"Good. Now I've got some long-term plans in mind. Can I count on you to stand behind me on them?"
The party gave another round of nods.
"Alright, there's a town not far from here. We'll pick up supplies there and then head out"

The party gathered some weapons from the guard's tent, bid farewell to their fellow, former prisoners, and then joined Xarn at the entrance to the camp. After one last check of their gear they headed out into the great desert of Athas.

I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.

Mr Beer
2013-09-06, 12:30 AM
Please tell me "Xarn Viscous" is so named in mockery of the widespread inability people have to spell "Vicious" correctly?

murph04
2013-09-06, 12:50 AM
Please tell me "Xarn Viscous" is so named in mockery of the widespread inability people have to spell "Vicious" correctly?

You're close actually. When I was in second and third grade I wanted my name to be Zack Vicious. It just sounded like the most awesomely badass name I'd ever heard of. Only, because I was in the second grade, I always spelled it "Zake Viscous" which the teacher would make always point out and make little jokes about. It's so funny to me in retrospect that I name random characters Zake instead of Zack. Xarn was my way of playing off of the other half of my made-up name

Doorhandle
2013-09-08, 05:40 AM
You're close actually. When I was in second and third grade I wanted my name to be Zack Vicious. It just sounded like the most awesomely badass name I'd ever heard of. Only, because I was in the second grade, I always spelled it "Zake Viscous" which the teacher would make always point out and make little jokes about. It's so funny to me in retrospect that I name random characters Zake instead of Zack. Xarn was my way of playing off of the other half of my made-up name

Ha! that's amusing.

The campaign seems to be shaping up to be interesting as well, but Time will tell.

murph04
2013-09-10, 10:14 PM
Glad you like it

Chapter 2: A Legion of Our Own
After leaving the labor camp the party stopped in the town of Sutch. There they purchased any supplies they could afford with the cash they found at the camp. Xarn asked about the quickest route out of the Empire. He was directed to a courier who traveled in and out of the Empire regularly, delivering messages to Empire Legions in Staldune. He was a lonely man so my players decided to bribe him with a prostitute. For some reason I allowed this. The courier marked a spot on the map named Carcass Pass.

My Players were not amused.

As the courier left Drew decided he was a rouge for a reason and rolled to steal the sack of packages the courier had. He rolled very well and snatched the sack while the courier was distracted with the hooker. In the sack he found a rope ladder, an engraved dagger, and 4 letters of citizenship to the Empire of Scorching Blades.

After this Drew's player had to leave, so we were without our rogue for now.

Once they were done in the town of Sutch the party journeyed (on foot) to Carcass Pass. Now what the Courier hadn't mentioned was that the pass was a security checkpoint. As the players arrived they were pushed into a long line and told to have their papers ready.

For a while my players discussed laying siege to the checkpoint until Firion remembered the four letters Drew had stolen from the courier. Using a disguise kit he purchased from Sutch, he hastily whipped up a series of disguises for him and the rest of the party. Xarn didn't get a disguise as there were only four letters. He said he had a plan.

Firion rolled rather poorly on all the rolls for disguise, so the party were still prepared to assault the checkpoint if need be. They walked up to the guard, and presented the papers. The guard rolled a natural 1 on wisdom, so he let the party through without a problem. Xarn walked to the guard and presented a badge he stole from Marklar's body back at the labor camp. The guard thought he was a high ranking officer and let him pass without a second's notice. The party was slightly disappointed they didn't have to fight the guards, but hey that's PCs for you.

They traveled through the continent of Staldune without further problems.

In two days they reached the continent of Emerdalen. They visited the first city they came to, the city of Dusva. As soon as they entered the city gates a thug appeared at the shadows.
"Ah, always good to see new faces in Dusva. I take it you paid the toll?"

"The toll?"
Shagwire asked.

"I'll take that as a no. The toll for entering the city, of course"
The Half-elf replied.

"And if we don't pay this toll?"
Hunter replied.

"Then my friends there..." He said pointing to a pair of rooftops, where the party spotted a pair of elven archers with notched bows at the ready "...Will make sure that I get the toll off of your arrow riddled corpses"

The party debated back and forth how to deal with the situation. They decided to have Shagwire challenge the thug to a game of dice, winner got to walk away.

The Thug and Shagwire both rolled. Shagwire rolled a 3, the Thug rolled a 5.

"That's too bad" The Thug said. "But I'll give you one last chance to pay the toll before I-"

The party attacked. Paelias cast Grease on the rooftop the elven archers were on, causing them to slide off of the slanted roof. Hunter followed this up by casting Fire Seeds and tossing them at the oil covered assassins. I hadn't given the elves much Hp, as I expected my PCs to be unable to reach them, so they died instantly.

The Half-Elf panicked when he saw this and retreated to a dark alleyway. The Party cursed him and started making plans for if they ever saw him again.

They stayed the night in a tavern, and when morning rose Xarn told them where they were going. An old military fort three hours outside the city. What he wanted there he did not tell them.

After the casters prepared there spells the party headed out. On the way they encountered a pair of Basilisks (Shagwire's player prefers Basili). But the party took care of them with ease.

The fort was abandoned. rusted swords littered the courtyard, along with some buzzard pecked skeletons. Inside was a long hallway where the ceiling had collapsed, to the left was an empty barracks, and to the right was a deserted mess hall. The party cleared the rubble with the help of a grease spell and a few strength checks. On the other side they found a single skeleton that looked like it belonged to a shifter. Before them was a pair of large engraved doors, and to the left was a door marked "Armory".
I want to note that they were rolling Spot and Listen checks the since they entered the fort, but it wasn't until after they were on the other side of the rubble that anyone rolled more than a 10.


They heard a cough coming from the armory. The party readied their weapons, and deadliest spells before kicking in the door. They found a middle-aged gnome carrying a handful of swords.

"Who in the Nine Hells are you??" The gnome shouted in surprise, dropping all the swords.
"We're just looking around, who are you?" Hunter asked.
"Nobody! I'm just here to collect whatever's valuable!"
"you're a scavenger?"
"More or less? You're not here after my haul are you? Because I found these swords first!"
"That depends...what's so special about them?" Paelias asked, ever on the lookout for good gear.
"Just their age and the craftsmanship" The Gnome replied, guarding his sword pile closely.
"How old are they?"
"I'd place them at about 400 years old"

After with some more banter with the gnome than I thought my players were capable of they let the gnome go on his way. All that was left was the big pair of doors.

What my players didn't know was this was the same location the first quest of our last campaign ended in. It involved taking down a group known as "The Order of Suffering" who were devoted to purging evil from Athas in any form. Unfortunately this meant they were very prejudiced against races like Tieflings, Shifters, Hobgoblins and the like. The Party stormed the fort with military back-up and killed the Order's leader Khan Ghengis (Okay I wasn't so good at coming up with names back then). Later in the campaign, as a random encounter, a few stragglers of the Order attacked the party. They were led by a dwarf named Klard Viscous.

Xarn forced open the big doors and the party followed him inside. This room was shaped like a throne room with moth-eaten tapestries on the walls. Xarn examined the insignia on the tapestries while Hunter cast Detect Magic. Hunter picked up some mystical signals and tried to warn the party, but it was too late.

The party turned around to be greeted by the ghost of an old human in a massive set of armor. behind him stood ten ghostly legionnaires.
"I am Khan Ghengis, and you are intruding on sacred ground" The specter said.

Xarn stepped forward and spoke "I am Xarn Viscous, grandson of Klard Viscous. I've come seeking you're help"
"Oh, and what could you want with an old ghost with a failed dream?"
"I seek to have your dream fulfilled, on my terms. I'm going to conquer the Athas."
"And what do you have that I lacked in life? What makes it possible for you to fulfill this goal that countless others have failed to accomplish?"
Xarn rolled a Nat. 20 on his diplomacy check so all he had to do was look at Khan in the eyes.
"Ah...I see" Khan said. "Not even a god would get in the way of you and your goal. Very well! 1,000 of my legionnaires bound their lives to me before they died. They are yours to command from this day on"
Xarn then turned to the party. "You came with me this far, will you join me in this conquest?"
The party, intrigued by the idea of having a ghost legion to command, gave a unanimous yes.

Brookshw
2013-09-15, 03:07 PM
Interesting. I look forward to your next installment.