The Old Scarred Lands Campaign - Year 3

For 2007 the party was largely the same crew:

• Aden Hornmantle, Human Cleric of Corean 
• Rukan, Human Paladin of Corean 
• Gotar, Half-Orc Fighter 
• Simone, Human Ranger/Rogue
• Cressa, "High Elf" Wizard 
• Caldon Greyleaf, Spellthief  - gone
• A new human Fighter/Rogue joins up later in the year
• A reformed Gnoll Barbarian with  a no-doubt complicated backstory joins during the big ocean expedition

Sessions 33-38
In Amalthea two of my characters get married on the 25th day of Vangalot! The Cleric and the Ranger, after much discussion and flirting for the last few months of game time end up married while Gotar the Half-Orc fighter has become devoted to the "Elf" Wizard. Fortunately the Paladin remains commitment-free and so has a clear perspective on things.

A short time later the party heads back into the dungeon and ends up in an even bigger brawl in the Temple of Orcus (level 4, room 15 mainly if you have the adventure). At one point there are 45 skeletons on the map plus zombies, ogres, ghouls, acolytes, and priests of Orcus - it's one of the biggest fights I have ever run and epically appropriate for wrecking a major temple of the demon lord of undeath!

A short time after that the cleric is getting raised from the dead at the temple. The wizard spends 3 days "identifying" all of the loot.

Heading back they end up in some flooded levels and finding their way through another section full of purple mist. Returning from this last investigation they find that a dragon has attacked the town, part of the city is wrecked or on fire, Karnov is hurt, and Rastan the Champion (another NPC they've encountered) has set off after the wounded draconic attacker.

DM's Notes: This was another "let's break up the big dungeon crawl" side trek which involved a short travel through the wilderness to a smaller dungeon with a different theme. It also helps to remind players every once in a while that there is other stuff going on in the world.

Sessions 39-40
These two sessions were spent going through Goodman games "Temple of the Dragon Cult" which is a cool little drop-in adventure featuring cultists, some half-dragon type people, and a wounded red dragon. Our heroes triumphed, eliminated the cult, rescued a wounded Rastan the Champion, and slew the evil red dragon.

Sessions 41- 42
These two sessions are spent in training, prepping, and then traveling to the city of Mithril, a 600+ mile journey. This is mainly driven by the Cleric and Paladin as this is the center of Coreanic worship on Ghelspad. Once in Mithril the Paladin joins the Mithril Order, becoming a Knight. The Cleric joins the Gold Order, the militant religious arm of the church. Gotar the Fighter visits his father's grave in the city. They also meet up with an old friend of theirs, a swashbuckler who is in town as well - this was an old player returning to the group.

While in the city taking care of business they end up learning of a quest in search of Bloody Jack's gold, a legendary pirate hoard. Someone has discovered an old map, and, well, you know how these things go. Soon enough they are sailing the Blood Sea on the Darkmaiden's Dance.

Sessions 44-48
A sailing voyage to a lost island full of nastiness followed by a delve into a trap and monster-filled dungeon ends with a sizable treasure found. It takes quite a while to loot the place and to load that much coinage but the party is very wealthy after this adventure.

Sessions 49-51
Returning to Mithril the party has a few days to expend some of their loot and ponder their next move. Then word comes in - Ordocar Abbey, a stronghold of the Mithril Order, is under attack! Our heroes can hardly refuse a call for aid from their own allies and so the group heads north to lift the siege. They teleport directly to the front gate only to find the undead attackers have already broken through the defenses and a fight rages throughout the castle! They manage to destroy the invaders and defeat the leader, an undead fallen Paladin looking for revenge.  Though victorious, they are concerned that this may have been a diversion to allow other forces to break into the Iron Crypt, a remote underground fortress where the most evil of artifacts, things that cannot be destroyed by mortal means, are kept hidden away from the rest of the world. They resolve to investigate ...

Sessions 52-54
...and this is where it all comes crashing down.

The entrance to the crypt is guarded by two stone golems who prove to be very effective guardians and the Cleric is killed during the fight. Teleportation magic makes things easier and he is soon raised at the High Temple in Mithril and the party is ready to crack open the vault. Fighting their way through traps and undead they sense a powerful and growing evil.

Finally, while fighting in a cavern full of undead driders, Aden (the Cleric) falls. Though the party fights on, he rises again on his own but with a new look in his eyes and beckons to his wife (the Ranger). As he embraces her, she "turns" as well and now a new fight is on - an intra-party fight as those who die here rise quickly as evil undead versions of themselves. Sensing the danger, Cressa (the Wizard) dimension doors to a clear area, teleports Gotar to her side, and separates them from the battle with a wall of force. As they watch, the rest of the party falls, then rises with that new light in their eyes. Deciding that it's over she drops her disguise, revealing herself to be a dark elf, then teleports herself and her loyal follower to Dier Drendal, the city of the dark elves, to begin a new life.

DM notes
So after three years the campaign ends in while not a TPK, certainly a down moment, especially for my Paladin player. It's a nasty dungeon with traps and level-draining undead but I felt my players were up to it. I still think they were, but one part of the dungeon is basically radioactive with evil from one powerful artifact and dying in that part is a bad thing. Once the cleric was dead I took him aside and told him what was going on and he decided to have fun with it while he could - naturally his first target was his character's wife and she played it well - cautious but concerned and that led to her being drained and raised and then it got really hairy and once the wizard punched out and took her pet fighter with her it was over. 

There are still some sore spots when this ending comes up, even years later. I still feel like I handled it right. Not all stories have a happy ending, and it was not a TPK. People were playing their characters true and not in that "I'm a jerk" kind of way. Choices were made and consequences were suffered - that doesn't make it "fair" but it's how this tale turned out. I admit I was disappointed that it ended because I had a lot of plot threads hanging and more adventures to run, including a quest for the paladin to get his holy sword. 

Ah well. If at all possible I will be touching on some of the events of this campaign in my new one, which is one of the reasons I wanted to recount it. I also wanted to show how easy it is to drop in published adventures over the course of a campaign and how certain ones just seem to fit as a group develops. This was my next-to-last 3E campaign and hopefully the leftover material from it will find a new home in that new game. More to come - this time in 5th Edition!