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My 4e Campaign Log

832 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  CaptainSarathai 
#1 ·
Well, I could have started a blog, but considering that I don't really feel like doing "between the games" type stuff, I doubt that I'd get the same/more reads in a blog rather than here on LO. No problem - this section is pretty dead, so consider this my attempt at doing something relevant in this section.
Anyways, if you guys read my other thread from a week or two ago, I started up a 4d campaign for three players (maybe more later, never sure). Anyways, we've decided to take the characters from Lvl5 to Lvl15, at which point we'll slow down and see where we're headed - maybe continue, maybe not. This arc of the story however, will have definitely concluded.

So what is the story? Well, it's based on the Faerun setting, but only loosely. It's operating on some of the ideas that I've had rattling around in the past, and I'm really playing with a few different styles of DMing and trying to broaden my player's horizons (1 newbie, and 2 veterans with some nasty habits) as well as make myself into a better DM. Not to mention I'm playing with all sorts of software and other goodies meant to make DMing a bit easier.

So far, this is what we've got for the setting:
The gods are dying, the Shadowfell is bleeding into reality
Before the rise of humankind, the "good" gods led by Corellon (Sun deity) forced the "evil" gods into an alternate realm known as the Shadowfell. There are whole campaign packs for the Shadowfell, but for me, it is a system of pocket dimensions lorded over by the evil gods. Decades ago, a cleric of Corellon was decieved by the Shadowfell and caused a great weakening of the gods. With many of the good gods weakened, dead, or dying, the barriers between reality and the Shadowfell are blurred, creating dense banks of unnatural fog. Creatures from the Shadowfell can find their way through the fog to reach reality.

The Humans
The humans live in a growing city to the south, and are a rising power in the world. Their priests can feel the disconnect from the gods, but are unaware of the cause. They (through agents in the starting town) are the ones who employ the PCs on their quest to find the cause of the unnatural fog. As the PCs give them more information, the humans steadily become more militant in their faith, and adopt more extreme elements such as an Inquisition and witch-hunts, as well as becoming a bit genocidal towards the other races - particularly the Elves who will not convert to the worship of the "new" human gods. Basically, they're not quite the "good guys" that the PCs might want to hang out with for the whole campaign.

The Elves
They were alive when the evil gods were pushed into the Shadowfell, and they know what's happening. They are in decline, and concentrated mostly in a sprawling forest on the border of the human territory. They know that the Cleric PC (only character I have a background from the player for thus far) was the one who caused the suffering of the gods in a past life, and that this life therefore is a penance, but will not tell the character the exact details of what they did or why. The fear the encroachment of the technologically-based humans into their forests, and warn that destruction of sacred places such as their home will undo the magic of the world and cause further injury to the gods.

The City of the Dead, and the cult of the Hellfire Lanterns
Far to the north, across 500mi of desert wasteland, lies a city of once-humans. An entity from the Shadwfell offered them immortality and they became Vampires, and their subjects became lesser undead. The entire city is not evil, but there it harbors a secret cult of elites called The Hellfire Lanterns who seek to guide the Shadowfell into reality and hasten the return of the darkness. As the evil gods fuel Dark Magic (including necromancy and the control of Undead) they plan to create world of Undeath and rule over it (typical badguy Vampire behavior). The Hellfire Lanterns have agents in every culture. They are the campaign's recurring bad guys, and the plot that the PCs are trying to uncover.

The Floating Bastion of the Dragonborn
A massive chunk of the earth raised into the air. Many mistake the round bottom of the Bastion as an ever-present moon hung in the sky. The Dragonborn race are share their blood with Dragons, who ruled the earth before the gods (good and evil). Many of the Dragonborn embraced the gods as an alternative to the chaotic rule of the dragons, and became their preeminent clerics. After nearly destroying their race in the war between the gods, those Dragonborn who sided with the gods of good have now become wardens of the world. In absence of the gods, the Dragonborn become starkly Lawful Neutral, and will reawaken the Dragons - as they feel that a chaotic and imperfect rule is better than no rule at all. However, they do know what steps must be taken to restore the power of the gods, and if the campaign progresses far enough (past L15) they will likely become the main employers of the PCs.

The Crater and Kobolds
The Kobolds are degenerate descendants of the Dragonborn left behind when the Bastion was raised from the earth. They life in a hemispherical crater in the mountains, and have a functioning (albeit rather "third world-y") kingdom. They are not inherently evil, but they are easily swayed by the forces from the Shadowfell, being very low on Will-power. It doesn't help matters that they have a racial terror of Dragons, and by extension the Dragonborn, the remainder of whom are sided unanimously against the Shadowfell gods. The Kobolds seek the destruction of the Dragonborn as they are the only ones who possess the knowledge to awaken the dragons - however, the Kobolds lack the means to do so and consider it a lost cause or nothing more than a sincere wish. The Shadowfell races/gods also seek the destruction of the Dragonborn, as they are one of the primary sources for the good gods' powers.

The Ziggurat of the Plains Tribes
Gnolls inhabit the vast wasteland steppe in the center of the continent. They are not particularly unified, and travel in marauding packs like stereotypical fantasy Mongols. The Ziggurat is their only permanent structure, a Dungeon/City complex. Whichever tribe can attack the Ziggurat and claim it for their own, claims dominance of all the other tribes. It is currently held by the Crooked Tooth Tribe, who went from underdogs to kings almost overnight thanks to their leadership by a Rakshasa from the Shadowfell named Skarro. If the players attack the Ziggurat and defeat Skarro, they have the opportunity to claim leadership over the Crooked Fangs and/or by extension the entire confederation of the Plains Tribes (Gnolls are naturally Chaotic Neutral in my campaign, rather than Evil as they are in most settings). This will be almost necessary to cross the wastelands safely. Skarro might also become something of a macguffin "big-bad" early in the campaign. Skarro also holds the secrets of exactly what the Cleric did to harm the gods, as he was an ally in the effort many years ago.
And the map:

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to label the Hexes, or how to insert location names directly on the map. I'll try to walk you through it as the characters move about. Hex scale is 1:30mi, or roughly a day of travel. It's worth noting that there are random encounters - I've been working on decks that I can modify as the party advances, and I use different percentage likelihoods of trouble in different terrain regions (the players are aware of this, and understand that it is more dangerous to travel in dense mountainous woodlands, than in the grazelands outside of towns).

The Characters
Ashur (Genasi Swordmage) - a pretty solidly built Pursuing Swordmage class. As there are no Genasi on this continent, Ashur was called to the lands by order of the human king of Naethir (southernmost red city). The reasoning behind this calling was vague, but as a seasoned adventurer, Ashur was given instruction to investigate a series of disappearances and reports of a strange fog along the borders of the kingdom. It was Ashur's arrival at the town of Windhaven (following the river/road, north from Naethir) which spurred the other two characters into action.

Samdum (Human Sorcerer) - Samdum is played by the other veteran, who has little care for backstory or particularly deep roleplay. With lack of a backstory, and only a smart-aleck (and crude) response for a name, I stuck him with Samdum and the character has become comedic relief ever since. Raised in the town of Greyhaven and having lived there for his entire life, Samdum was a simple "farm sorcerer". It's not that he didn't have a repertoire of battle-spells, but in these times of relative peace, he made a living by making the corn grow, the fields turn themselves, and making life on the farms more bearable. With the arrival of Ashur, Samdum sensed a chance for adventure, and struck out to finally make a name for himself as an adventurer.

Rhiyenne (Deva Cleric|Avenger) - this is the newbie (and my awesome gf). She was the one who wanted to play, but the technical aspects make her eyes glaze over. Together we determined the type of character she wanted to play, fit that into the party, and I worked on optimizing a character that could fit that role nicely. We ended up with a hybrid class, because the original playthrough with the Cleric seemed a bit lackluster to her (no solid healing powers, and never dealt much damage) - the hybrid has answers to all of that. No playing favorites here though, in fact, she's the first character NOT receiving a major treasure item as part of the first level parcel.
The character herself can't remember much of her early life. She knows that she woke up on a mountainside one day, and began a life of wandering - occasionally finding refuge in small towns or in temples. She was always drawn to the god Pelor, undertaking stringent oaths of self sacrifice in his name. With the arrival of Ashur, Rhiyenne has found an ally to aid in the fight against what can only be an encroaching evil.
 
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#2 ·
The Story So Far

A stranger arrives in the town of Windhaven, late at night. Obviously an outsider, the man towers nearly a head above the humans who make up the town's population. He seeks out the inn, and negotiates for lodging before beginning to ask the locals about current events. Ashur - the stranger - has been requested from a distant continent, by order of the King of Naethir, to investigate rumors of disappearances and strange, otherworldly mists along the borders of the kingdom.

Watching from her table, the Deva Rhiyenne sees the newcomer going from patron to patron and bothering them with questions of disappearances and odd mists. Windhaven is located on the banks of a major river, and a series of marshes lay to the East - fog is nothing new to the residents. Attempting to aid Ashur, she introduces herself and leads him to the town "know-it-all", an elderly man by the name of Valthrun. Through a bit of diplomacy, the pair get the cantankerous old man to agree to tell them what he knows of the mists, provided they meet him at his home - a tall tower in the town. All the while, the soon-to-be adventurers are watched by a pair of elven eyes in the corner of the tavern.

The two arrive at the foot of the tower, but are followed by an uninvited local sorcerer called Samdum. Valthrun nearly refuses them for this fact alone. Again, after some smooth talking, it is agreed that Samdum could be an asset. Valthrun feels a bit of a soft-spot for the sorcerer, having been an arcanist himself, in his younger days.
Valthrun relates a tale of a Tiefling burial site in the marshes, marked by a crumbling old tower. Recently, a man by the name of Lorvas traveled through Windhaven, barely stopping for the night, and questioning Valthrun incessantly about the old tower. Thinking nothing of it, Valthrun shared the rumor of the Tiefling royal burial chamber, and the tales of ritual sacrifice and depraved acts which had been carried out in it's depths during the height of the Bael kingdom.
Valthrun now fears that the fog, disappearances, and Lorvas might be linked, and advises that the newly-formed party of adventurers begin by searching the ruins three days north east of Windhaven. The party retires for the night, with Ashur returning to his rented room at the inn, Samdum finding sympathetic locals to take him in, and Rhiyenne returning to the local temple.

The next morning, Ashur finds himself being watched once more by the Elf from the night before. The three adventurers meet outside the tavern, and get an early start on their travels into the marshes. The first two days of their trip are clear and uneventful. Indeed, it is almost more mysterious that the mists seem strangely absent - even natural fog refuses to rise from the moors.
On the second night however, Ashur is on second watch when fog begins creeping through the willow trees of the swamp. Even the foreigner realizes that this is unnatural, but Ashur chooses not to act, instead waking Samdum for third watch and warning him of the fog.

A shrill cry splits the air, and suddenly Samdum's campfire goes out. While trying to light it, a Wraith bursts from the fog, followed by another, and four shambling skeletons. The wraith's initial attack knocks Samdum prone, and robs him of his vitality. The other two adventurers are quickly roused however, and together they manage to fight off the encroaching undead before the dawn.

Pressing on, they arrive at the ruined tower. The whole of the structure seems unstable, crumbling, and aged - save for the door. The brass door is still gleaming in the midday sun. A duo of locks stand in the center of the shining face. One larger lock at the top, and a second, smaller one below. The characters begin fumbling with their lockpicks (with 3 characters, I'm worried less about trained/untrained) and Ashur manages to spring the first lock. As Samdum works on the second, Rhiyenne notices that with each botched attempt, the upper lock is moving back towards 'locked' position. Finally, the top lock pops shut again, prompting Ashur to pick it back open before trying his hand at the bottom lock. With both locks opened, the door swings open. A would-be trap surges to life but quickly passes, having been disarmed by the second lock.

A sloping entryway leads down below the tower, into an expansive burial system. The party is first greeted by a wave of skeletons in a room trapped with slowly-filling poison gas. They adventurer's avoid triggering the trap through sheer suspicious movement, and fight their way through the skeletons. At the next juncture, two more skeletons await them at the bottom of an icy pathway. This second fight is much harder, but the party is still alive and well when they open the final door to the burial chamber.

Within they find Lorvas, hovering over the still-living body of his latest abducted victim. More terrifying yet, is the enormous undead construct chained to the floor. With the push of a button, Lorvas loosens the chains, and the massive zombie tears across the room in pursuit of the adventurers. A brutal flurry of blows is nearly enough to slay Ashur, and Samdum is quickly bloodied. Rhiyenne soon follows them, eating up healing powers left and right to keep both herself and her comrades in the fight.

Throughout the battle, Lorvas taunts the party that it is simply too late to stop him. Even if they were to slay him, the Hellfire Lanterns have already come too far in their plans to be outdone by three lowly treasure-hunters. But slay him they do, and the trio rescues the prisoner and returns him to the safety of the town to recover. Tracks and messages around the tower point to a slave-smuggling operation taking place in the next Easternmost town of Greyhaven, but the PCs follow their priorities and return the villager before deciding on where to go next.

Together the group decides to rest in Windhaven for a time, before setting off with Ashur to claim any reward offered in Naethir for discovering the cause of the disappearances.
 
#4 ·
Huge Wall of Text for Pilot

Sorry to disappoint Pilot. There didn't seem to be much interest in the log, so I sort of dropped it and just kept chugging along with the actual gaming.

We actually finished this campaign to completion, or at least, to a definite stopping place with options to either continue on either of two paths, or to just drop it and walk away. At the moment, since RL has gotten so hectic for everyone, it looks like we're all leaning towards walking away as Lvl15 characters. If we come back to RPGs, I have a feeling that we're going to run either 3.5 or Pathfinder, or start up an L5R game. A lot of the problems that my party has, seem to be exasperated by 4th. The two veterans are able to powergame 4e more easily, because the game is very much a card-building game now. Meanwhile, the RPing cues fall to the wayside with the simplified character sheets. The newbie (my GF) slows down the combat because she wants to be able to just go with the "swing my axe or heal them" approach to attacking, rather than having to stack combos and plan a finicky strategy. The whole group seems fairly interested in L5R, as my GF is very into Wuxia films, and the guys are both big fans of Samurai settings. I'd like to run it, because the system mechanics reward and encourage RPing equally with combat, so it will be better for teaching everyone the ins and outs of playing to character.

As far as the fog seeming like Ravenloft, it's because the fog comes from the Shadowfell, which is the setting Wizards created when they broadened Ravenloft. I really like gothic storytelling. Not so much the over-the-top craziness, but a lot of the subtle things, like questionable gods and a blurred sense of good and evil.

And for the campaign, I can give a quick run-down of what happened, and if you want details on any particular section, I can try to sift through my campaign notes to provide them as more of a narrative.
It's important to note that we picked up another player. The guy playing as Samdum also respecced his character as an Elf "Bow" Ranger named Samnir, and I rebuilt the GF's Avenger/Cleric build to focus more heavily on Avenger combat powers, making her much more of a striker with Healing abilities. By the end of the game, the combos she could run were ludicrously good, and her character was nearly impossible to kill, once per day.

1. The Road to Naethir
The group returns from the tower to rest in Windhaven before deciding to head off to Naethir. Samdum decides to stay behind, feeling that the dangerous life of an adventurer is no more rewarding than a pastoral life of using his magic to improve the harvests. This is fine, as Ashur (the Genasi) says that the guide who brought him to the king was nearby. Thus, Samnir joined the party.
Together, the group headed down the road to Naethir. Along the way, they find an overturned merchant wagon, with the contents looted and the driver slain by three purple-fletched arrows. They weather a bandit ambush, and track the bandit leader (a Shadar'Kai, though the party doesn't figure that out) to a clearing in the forest, where he has two of the merchants hostage. The bandit is not really a bad guy, and is willing to barter the lives of the merchants for gold. The group talks him down from 1k to just 300 gold, but then renegs on the deal with disastrous consequences. One of the merchants is killed, Samnir is nearly dead, and the bandit leader Geriesh, escapes.

2. Naethir, capital of the Humans
The party arrives in Naethir and go to tell the king of what has happened. The king is indisposed, but the Arch Deacon presses the party for more information. The party is reluctant, and mistrusting of the Deacon because "he seems like a creep".
Upon leaving the upper city, the Rhiyenne (the female Deva) is attacked by a pickpocket. The chase the vagabond down, only to find that he has reverse pickpocketed a message to her.

The message is from Valthrun, at Windhaven. A longtime friend of his, Hallomak Strom, has died and his estate in Naethir is being willed to various people. Valthrun wants the PCs to be present to collect some of the things which he feels Hallomak may have bequeathed to him.
Upon arriving at the site of the reading, the master of ceremony makes a speech in which he thanks the PCs and awards them a large gemstone each for "services yet to be rendered". Shortly after, the stage bursts into flames, and as the crowd flees the party sees that the master of ceremonies has been replaced by a hooded figure, and that several Flame Zombies are terrorizing the crowd. The hooded man escapes and the fight goes below ground, in the cities beneath the sewers. Eventually the party reaches a large door which the identify as the entrance to the vaults of the city's Temple of Pelor. A riddle to unlock it identifies Strom.

Inside the vault they find Strom's body arranged for a funeral, clutching his sword as a Knight's burial. He is surrounded by mountains of gold and treasure. The PCs find one very important looking artifact, but as soon as they touch it they are blasted with a blinding light. They wake up some amount of time later, all unharmed except for Rhiyenne, who has a huge sigil of Pelor branded onto the skin of her back (Boon of Pelor). The room fills with fog, and as the party readies their weapons they hear the voice of Valthrun.

2. The Order of the Raven
The fog in the room clears and the party finds itself, along with Valthrun, in the center of a large room. A group of inviduals tells them that they have been transported through the Shadowfell by ritual, and are now in the basement of the very large Duskmoor Estate. The group identifies itself as follows:

"Brothers" Sheridan and Bregaire Faneu
Owners of Duskmoor estate. Bregaire is actually Sheridan's great uncle, but is a Revanant, having been trapped in the Shadowfell. Together with Sheridan's father, Bregaire had intended to steal treasures from within the Shadowfell. When Sheridan's father was killed, and Bregaire trapped, he is aware of the events between Orcus and the Raven Queen, and the "God Plague" which is killing off the other gods (though he's uncertain of the cause). For his part, Sheridan is the reluctant financier of the Order, and a bureaucrat through and through. Bregaire and Sheridan maintain the "brothers" disguise for a long time during the campaign.

Valthrun - admits to his involvement in the Ravens, and explains that he resides permanently in Duskmoor estate. He remains an open and earnest ally.

Alfaire - not actually a member of the Order, he is a butler of the estate and the last remaining member of the household staff. He carries on his duties out of loyalty, as Sheridan cannot afford to pay him his wages any longer. Alfaire remembers Bregaire's return from the Shadowfell (Alfaire's father remembers Bregaire's departure), but he keeps this a secret.

The Order works for the Raven Queen, and fights a secret war against the Hellfire Lanterns, who are attempting to install Orcus as the new ruler of the Shadowfell, and breach the gap between reality and the Shadowfell. The Order suspects that the Arch Deacon in Naethir is secretly a member of the Lanterns.
The Order tells the party the cautionary tale of Hallomak Strom, who had been a Paladin of Pelor in his youth. He was wary of Bregaire (they will not say why - Valthrun does not even know) and hated Sheridan's mizerly ways. He kept many of the relics he recovered secret from the brothers, but Valthrun eventually returns them upon Hallomak's death. Always stubborn and headstrong, he adventured into his old age, and was killed fairly recently in Thay, leading the Order to believe that the Thayans are somehow connected to the Lanterns.

The Order also tells them that they can use rituals to transport people and things through the Shadowfell. They have been fencing goods to a 'Doctor Hesselius' in the port city of WhiteSpire, but they fear that something has slipped through one of the created tears in the fabric, and is now terrorizing the city. They transport the party to WhiteSpire to solve the mystery.

3. The WhiteSpire Lich
The party goes to WhiteSpire where they get to the bottom of a "Jack the Ripper" style series of gruesome murders in the poor Watersend District of the city. Through sheer coincidence they arrive at the scene of the most recent murder, and are taken into police custody for questioning. This serves to give them some bearing on what's going on. The PCs bluff their way through questioning, but unwittingly provide a great deal of evidence that the PCs and/or Doctor Hesselius are responsible for the killings.
The group stays at the Crown Pub and eventually contact with the Vigilance Committee headquartered there, which is a group of concerned citizens in the Watersend who are searching for the killer themselves, against the orders of the police. In fact, the police are even working on creating a case against their leader, Bricker Lusk, as a possible suspect of the murders. The group is told that they can find Doctor Hesselius at "The Lilly House", which is a local brothel. All of the murder victims have been working girls at the house. The find the Doctor drunk and lounging about with two of the girls. He proves to be of little help, and when the PCs leave early and arrive at his house before them, they become suspicious that he has been possessed by something from the Shadowfell.

The events finally culminate with the party going on patrol with the Vigilance Committee, all very suspicious of Hesselius. A heavy fog rolls in, and Ashur finds himself separated from the group. As Rhiyenne and Samnir attempt to find him in the fog, they come across a figure in the shadows, seeming to kill a young girl. They attempt to fight the creature, but a powerful attack knocks them unconscious. Meanwhile, Ashur returns to the Crown, but finds the Lilly in it's place, horribly contorted to fit into the space where the Crown once stood. The building looks much older and run down, and a lone girl stands in front of it, terrified to enter. She is scared of a contract that she signed with the headmistress. A light shines out from winder, and the girl is lifted from the ground towards the building, before disintigrating. With a snap, the building returns to the Crown Pub, and the fog rapidly recedes. It becomes apparent that several hours have passed.

The following day, the police move to capture Doctor Hesselius. Ashur attempts to tell them that this all has something to do with The Lilly, but they refuse to believe his wild tale. Finally, the party goes to the Lilly to get to the bottom of things.
It turns out that the reclusive headmistress of the Lilly is far along the path to becoming a Lich using a new method of Lichdom, called a "living phylactery". Through the contracts, she has imparted a measure of her soul into each of the girls working for her. Doctor Hesselius knew of the Lilly's double existence straddling reality and the Shadowfell, and tracked down the Mistress. As he closed in on her, she summoned a Mindflayer known as 'The Collector' through the frequent breaches in the Shadowfell. The Mindflayer tracked the girls and killed them to reclaim their souls for the Mistress, so that she could create a traditional phylactery and flee to the Shadowfell before the Doctor could find her and kill her.
The players kill the Mistress, and then seek out the Mindflayer in a secret room in the basement of the house. They discover that the creature has fled into the Shadowfell however.

The humans of the world no longer believe in the Shadowfell, and so the party's testimony seems like insane babbling. Unable to persuade his jurors (which even include members of the Vigilance Committee), Doctor Hesselius is found guilty and hanged for crimes which he did not commit - largely due to the misconceptions held by the PCs earlier in the case.

Cold Harbor
The players receive a message from the Order telling them that the Temple in Naethir has taken over control of the crown. They are planning to attack and wipe out the Elves. The Elves are among the very few who still believe in the Old Gods, and their extinction would bring about the fall of the last gods holding Orcus at bay - without the Elves and the Gods they support, Orcus would be free to turn the world into a realm of Undeath. The players must go and warn the Elves. However, the Elves have recently set up wards against the Shadowfell, and thus the Order/Players cannot use the Shadowfell to travel there as they had with WhiteSpire. The players will have to work out their own transportation.
The PCs decide that rather than taking the long voyage around the bay, they will travel by sea to the outlaw/border town of Cold Harbor. The city lies outside the sphere of human influence - it is the remains of a failed colonization of Elven lands. Elven outcasts and Humans live there together, and Cold Harbor is considered the home of nearly every Half-Elf on the continent. Surviving as pirates and merchants, Cold Harbor is ruled over by a sort of "Godfather-esque Mafia" Pirate Guild, who are at war with a small sect known as 'The Witches of Cold Harbor'. A new PC is introduced in Cold Harbor:
--Salhaine: Drow Rogue/Warlock
This player is a friend who had DMed a few campaigns which I participated in in the past. We'd been talking about DMing methods, and campaign writing, and he wanted to sit in on one of my campaigns. I wrote this character however, as I wanted something which could fit into the story easily, but also because I love to make characters. We respecified that 'Drow' in this setting were actually Elves who were born and raised in Cold Harbor - more cosmopolitan than the more common "nature happy" Elves. The character is also based heavily on the Pathfinder "Spell Slinger" - a type of gun-mage character. The player turned out to be an awesome addition to the party, capable in combat, but more willing to RP - balancing out the table 50/50 with RPing (alongside my GF) and fighting.
Sal'Haine is the son of the reigning Pirate King, but has no interest in taking up the family business. When the player asked what Sal's motivations were, I told him, "think Alex, from 'Clockwork Orange'". The player ran with it. Sal carries a pair of repeating handcrossbows, as is tradition with the Drow. He can focus spells through the weapons, and in battle lays down a barrage of magically charged bolts. The character is optimized within the role, and in many cases put the Bow Ranger build to shame when it came to shooting. He is also plenty capable of dueling the enemy in close combat, and the rogue/warlock skills went together perfectly. Outside of combat, he made a good alternative to Rhiyenne as party 'face', making a cruel and wicked foil to her religiously stoic character.

The Elven Nation and Tower of the Silver Moon
The PCs enter the dense forest of the Elf territory and find a beautiful young Elf hiding from her kin. She tells them that she doesn't want to grow up. They take her in but deliver her back to the Elf's main camp. They discover that she was afraid because the coming of age ceremony involves ritually scarring the youth's face. The Elves tell the party that they do this to protect themselves from the Tower of the Silver Moon - a group of evil Elves living in the Shadowfell. The denizens of the Silver Moon are truly immortal, and are obsessed with physical beauty. To keep their ranks full and fresh, they abduct Elves from the outside world. Therefore, the Elves scar their faces to 'ruin' their beauty, making them worthless to the Silver Moon.

The players deliver the message, and the Elves return the favor by telling them that they have information regarding the Thayans involvement. They tell the PCs where to go, and who to speak to in Thay, but warn that they'll first have to cross the desert. The party decides to stay in the Elven lands for a few months, until spring sets in and the desert is slightly more survivable. During this time, Samnir is abudcted by the Silver Moon.

The party searches for Samnir for several weeks with no luck. Eventually, the Elves suspect the Silver Moon as the last possibility, and tell the PCs that they can find "the Hag" out in the wilds of the forest - a refugee from the Tower. They track down the Hag. She is a vampire (all residents are), and is over 6,000 years old. She seems almost insane, and warns the party that Rhiyenne has committed terrible, evil deeds in her past. The Hag was once a consort to the lord of the Silver Moon, but wanted her daughter to live a normal life away from the madness and debauchery. She fled the Tower, but the Elves would not take her in due to her nature. She scarred her daughter's face, but to no avail - the girl sought out the Silver Moon herself, seeing them as her only family, and her mother as a traitor. The Hag eventually tells the PCs how to find the secret path to the Silver Moon Tower through the Shadowfell. They set off to rescue Samnir.

Meanwhile, only two days pass for Samnir. He awakens in a strange realm of leafless trees. A massive silver moon hangs overhead, and occasional raindrops fall on him. A veiled Elf maiden (the Hag's daughter, hiding her scar) silently leads him to the tower. She tells him the reverse story of the Hag, casting her mother as a villain and a fiend, who scarred her face out of spite - and praises the Tower for it's ideals and perfection. Samnir is aware that she is attempting to woo him. As they walk, Samnir realizes that he is in the inside of a sphere, arriving at the tower he sees that what he thought was the "moon" is actually a lake, magically reflecting a moon which isn't actually there. The tower seems crooked and twisted - disproportionate to the surroundings. Inside, the tower is larger than it appears, and filled with the most beautiful creatures that Samnir has ever seen. They offer him the gift of life eternal. Samnir accepts the Vampirism (in actual secret, at the table). At that moment, the PCs burst in to rescue him. Samnir attempts to tell them that he does not wish to be rescued, but the PCs tell him that the veiled maiden is actually the daughter of the lord, rather than a mere consort (cue debauchery "ewwww") and the Vampires blame the intrusion on her and kill her, Samnir solidifies his loyalties with the party and they fight their way clear of the Tower. Samnir never tells the party that he is a Vampire, although they obviously notice differences in his activities (we explain that he can go out in daylight and cross "live" water because his transformation was interrupted) and abilities. They do eventually come to suspect him, even going so far as to say that they are "pretty certain he's a Vampire, but if he ever confessed to it, they'd be forced to kill him on the spot".

The Desert
The party leaves the Elf lands and sets off across the desert. I ran a pretty difficult skill challenge to test their journey, and they did appallingly bad at it (none of the actual PCs having much knowledge of desert survival skills). They eventually have to stop, and seek refuge with one of the dangerous bands of Gnolls who reside as nomads in the desert. These Gnolls tell them that all of the desert tribes are ruled over by a 'King' residing in a huge city-sized ziggurat in the middle of the desert. Normally, the gnolls fight for control of the ziggurat, the ruined city being the only stable source of water in the whole desert, but none could claim in. Then something "else" came and took control, and by nomad custom/law, the Gnolls had to bend to it's will. This tribe -the Red Fang- wishes to free the Gnolls from what they feel is an oppression, and employ the players to attack the ziggurat.
The battle for the ziggurat culminates with the players facing off against a powerful Rakshasa. Rakshasa are what happens when a Deva turns bad and is reborn as a being of pure evil rather than good. This particular Rakshasa was an ally of Rhiyenne many hundred years ago, and lays bare what happened between them.

-Rhiyenne and her fellow Deva grew powerful enough to kill a god, and were set to do exactly that. They had the world at the fingertips, but Rhiyenne lacked the 'conviction' to the "pull the trigger". This momentary lapse was enough for the gods to kill both treacherous Deva, but the damage was done - the God Plague had begun. Rhiyenne had her mind stripped bare, even by the standards of a Deva, and wandered as an amnesiac for 200 years (forgetting every yesterday) until now. Because he had continued in his vile ways, the other Deva was reborn as a Rakshasa - saved from destruction by Orcus and allowed to keep his powers.

Suddenly able to remember her life, Rhiyenne knows that neither of them were allowed to keep the full measure of their powers. The Rakshasa was betrayed by Orcus, his memory also altered. The two duel it out and Rhiyenne is victorious. The ziggurat is captured, and the Red Fangs promise to rule over it as beneficient leaders. Rhiyenne redoubles her efforts to do Good, in light of her past transgressions.

Thay
The party arrives in Thay for the final epic conclusion of the story. Already a city of Undead, the Hellfire Lanterns have opened a rip into the Shadowfell and the domain of Orcus, spewing raw power over Undeath into the world. They hold the Undead lords of Thay in their grasp, but themselves remain elusive. The PCs think they are doing good by killing off the ruler of the Thayans and breaking the spell, but it only results in total and utter chaos. Fighting through the ensuing riots and madness in the streets, as the Shadowfell bubbles and rips itself in and out of reality around them (cameos of the Lilly and Silver Moon Tower occur) the players track down the Hellfire Lanterns. Seeing the leader duck into a building, they open the door and find themselves in Duskmoor Estate - home of the Order. The place is ransacked and blood-soaked. Bregaire is dead. Valthrun is dying, and uses his dying breath to say that they were found by the Temple and attacked in full force by the Lanterns, and that Alfaire may have escaped alive. He tells them to find Sheridan.
They locate Sheridan, who seems to be pleading for his life with the hooded leader of the Lanterns. Sal makes a successful Perception and realizes that Sheridan is bluffing, trying to lure the Lantern close enough for a desperate attack with his dagger. They can't tell if the Lantern realizes the ploy or not, but it fails either way - the Lantern leader catching the blade and seeming to vaporize Sheridan with a powerful psychic attack. Noticing the PCs, the leader turns to look at them, and they recognize Rhiyenne's unmistakeable features within the hood. She then blasts them back out through the door into the hallway behind them.

Landing back in Thay rather than the hallway, the party is confused and disoriented. They look for a place to regroup and possibly rest while they figure out what to do. They open a door and duck into a small pub.

The Edge of Perception
The name of the pub is faded, 'The Edge of Perception'. The rest of the city is in ruin - already dilapidated by Thay's decent into Undeath, and then trampled in the chaos outside. Inside however, the pub seems to be just fine. There are only two people inside, both sitting at a booth like patrons. The party recognizes one of them as Hallomak Strom. When they exclaim that "he should be dead", he reacts as though he's shocked at having died, cryptically asks them the date of his funeral and tells them that he will have to be certain to never attend. The other stranger introduces himself as Aenar Hespereaux (a PC that I use often when I'm not DMing).
The two explain to the puzzled PCs that this place only exists in Strom and Aenar's collective minds, and that they invited the PCs inside. They explain that the entire world is just a single, collective dream. The gods are not gods, but powerful Psions. Psions can control the collective dream, wishing things into existence or choosing to disbelieve things out of existence. There is a notion of "The Deadly Truth" which Psions had to protect themselves from (the notion that even the Psion does not exist) through force of conviction. When this conviction was not enough, they sought disciples who also believed in them, and when those disciples were not enough they formed religions and became gods. The "God Plague" is simply the result of the religions losing faith, weakening the Psions so that they could be disbelieved and destroyed by the others.
Aenar and Strom are collectively known as 'The Raven Queen', and claim to have ascended to godhood by pure scoundrel's luck. Having become powerful enough to learn the truth, they were afraid to "die" at the hands of the other powerful psions, and thus created the entity of the Raven Queen to gain a following. Now, the Psion known as Orcus and his cult of the Lanterns, and Anear|Strom and their faithful PCs are all that remain. The reason they both wanted Ashur, the Genasi, is that Genasi are pure elemental Chaos - they exist outside the influence of the Psions, and their essence is able to "reset the Dreaming". As only the PCs survive to continue believing in Aenar and Strom, the two psions cannot take Ashur by force, because the PCs would rally against them and Orcus would simply Disbelieve them in an instant.
When the PCs ask why they have not been simply disbelieved, I (as DM) stop them. I allow only Rhiyenne to ask the question "in character", and only very specifically as why has Rhiyenne "is still here". Aenar and Strom answer that this is "the nature of The Deadly Truth", and quickly caution the rest of the party not to dwell on the question, as only powerful Psions can survive it. This marks out Rhiyenne as a powerful Psion already. Aenar and Strom also drop hints which points to a Psion's ability to bend time and effectively time-travel, which explains how Rhiyenne was able to be the leader of the Hellfire Lanterns. The "psychic attack" which blasted them out of the Estate was actually the laws of Time forcing the two apart - as no copies can survive in the same space. This in turn forces a question of when the climax happens. The PCs wanted to know if that was Rhiyenne's darker past, or her future. I chose to have Strom and Aenar leave that part vague.

Next Campaign?
When the player helming Hal, and myself were talking about campaigns, he was having trouble writing a Psionics setting. The problem he had was that Psionics had no real limitations, and he felt that if he could not explain it properly, players might abuse it. The problem was how to explain it. I told him that my biggest issue with Psionics in D&D was that it did have limitations, and that made it no different than just another school of Magic (think: Sorcerer, Wizard, Psion). He agreed. Together, we hashed out a sort of setting where Psions were the ultimate power. A Psion could believe whatever they wanted, but if it was too outlandish, the "disbelief" of the people around them would keep it from manifesting. It's one thing to say that you have a dollar in your pocket - most people will believe that. It's another thing entirely to say that you have an entire bank vault in your pocket, but the idea was that a powerful enough psion could do that, if the strength of his belief was strong enough to outweigh the disbelief around him. Conventional weapons would be useless against powerful Psions, because they would either disbelieve the weapon, or disbelieve the wound inflicted. The only way to kill another Psion would be to find a way to disbelieve the entire Psion - perhaps by believing that their parents never existed and therefore they could not have been born, or by simply believing that the Psion never existed at all. Psions would need defenses against this - some would have strength of conviction that their parents did exist, but the most powerful would only believe in their own existence. To combat this, Psions would team up - two of them disbelieving one. The arms race would result in the need to have more followers, like Strom and Aenar did, until eventually the most powerful Psions formed religions around themselves, of people who firmly believed that they were real. On the ground, these religions would be at war with one another - constantly trying to destroy or convert their rivals. Above it all, the Psions would be fighting constant duels for their own survival, locked in a constant stalemate, leaping through space and time and eventually creating whole Astral Planes from their minds. "The Deadly Truth" is the fact that if a Psion is aware that they can be disbelieved, then they are aware that they do not actually exist - only the most powerful of Psions would be able to have the conviction to survive this, and we reasoned that it would probably drive a great many of them totally insane. The method they choose to use to cope with this fact would also largely define their actions, and what kind of god they become.

It would be no different than a regular D&D setting, until the players mastered their Psionic powers. This campaign, with the God Plague, and the eventual revelation of the "Raven Queen" as just two plucky Psions, as well as Rhiyenne's powerful Psionic abilities, would set the stage for the next campaign, which would focus on the characters unlocking their latent Psionic powers, facing The Deadly Truth, and gathering enough followers around them to ascend to godhood. Rhiyenne has already come close once, but whether the Hellfire Lanterns were her past (when she came close) or her future (when she tries again) is something that remains in flux. The other characters could grow to be just as interesting - Sal for example is already firmly rooted in the raw sensation of being alive, and could easily become something akin to Warhammer's 'Slaanesh' if allowed to thrive. Ashur is a Genasi and therefore immune to the Psionists powers, but to combat them, he will have to become a Psion himself, effectively shifting his entire existence from being Elemental Chaos, to some kind of Good/Evil spectrum. The vampire Samnir is no longer immortal, but his character obviously fears death (and therefore the Deadly Truth) more than any other - he is most likely to become paranoid and be driven mad by the ordeal.

I doubt that the current party could handle that kind of campaign though, sadly. I'd like to find players who could, but it would be one of those situations where the typical D&D rules/system goes straight out the window, and the entire table devolves into philosophical debate and occasional bouts of dice rolling.

We'll probably just play L5R.
 
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