Campaigns

This page tracks information about current and past campaigns.

Campaign 1: Automaton menace - 2020

Location and year

In and around the Khapeshan city of Faiyan in Y9975^*.

Hook

Strange brass automatons have begun terrorizing the communities around the Khapeshan city of Faiyan. The nomarchs of Faiyan have hired the party to investigate and protect the citizenry.

Resolution

The automaton menace is defeated - Faiyan is now safe, minus a few straggling automatons that still wander aimlessly, now without control or motivation.

The ancient site is heavily damaged, with automaton production halted. The status of the skeletal lich is unclear - as far as the party is aware, it is still dormant and now isolated in its demiplanar lair.

Zamanth is imprisoned, leaving Mereruka sole nomarch of Faiyan.

Campaign 2: Missing monarch - 2020-2021

Location and year

Across Khapesh in Y9976^*, including ancient sites, the hidden palace complex, and the cities of Faiyan and Sakha.

Hook

The ruler of Khapesh, Menes II, has disappeared. Though frequently absent during his almost 300 year long reign, he has not been seen or heard from at all in a year.

Resolution

Using her religious connections, Talibah consults Tarhaqa, chief paladin of Osiris, at the main temple of Osiris in Sile. The paladin consecrates the throne room and returns the soul of Menes II to the afterlife. Menes’ body is interred in a tomb outside Apis - the exact location is a closely guarded secret, to prevent him from being raised again.

In the absence of the normal line of succession, and having proven himself capable, Clearsilence takes the position of king, starting the 38th dynasty - the first tengu dynasty of Khapesh. Talibah takes a role as advisor.

The petrified advisors are also freed from their predicament. Distrustful of the former king’s inner council, Clearsilence dismisses them from their positions, giving them other roles within his government where they can be comfortable but closely watched.

As ruler, Clearsilence begins his reign in a much more active manner than Menes II, frequently seen in public in the cities along the Aur River. Continuing in his intellectual interests, Clearsilence begins sponsoring scholars and archeological expeditions across his realm, in order to locate artifacts of the distant past to be documented, studied, and housed in a new Grand Museum of Khapesh.

Though the kingdom thrives in the beginning of Clearsilence’s reign, those privy to the thoughts of the high priests and priestesses of the lands can hear some grumbling of discontent that the new monarch does not pay them what they expect to be the proper deference.

Electing to continue the ancient traditions of Khapesh, Clearsilence adopts a “dynastic name”; in addition to his previous name, he is also known as Chephren. Owing to his early aims and ambitions, he also becomes more frequently known as Chephren the Learned.

Campaign 3: Trouble in Treivica town - 2021

This section refers to people and places that do exist in the setting in the same forms as they did at the time. The broad strokes remain canon but the same is not necessarily the case for all the details.

Location and year

In and around the small town of Treivica in Nionegrast in Y9976^*.

Hook

Letter from the Silver Falcon Company.

Resolution

The party discovered the creatures were involved in an experiment by agents of the company, who met their deaths for their roles. Further, the party uncovered that the company was fully aware of the situation and was using the townspeople and player characters as test subjects. The party retrieved the experiment’s notes and logs, containing detailed anatomical, physiological, and behavioral notes, with the intent to distribute them to the broader world. The party did not concretely determine the Silver Falcon Company’s intentions with the creatures, except for noting that the experiment was designed to test their combat abilities.

Only one townsperson, Umul Kahma (the town’s blacksmith), died during the events of the campaign.

The remaining townspeople were evacuated safely to Nionegrast after an inspiring speech by Clara Lemlich. After reaching the Silver Falcon Company regional headquarters, the townspeople and others picked up along the way proceeded to riot and storm the headquarters. This situation gripped the city for days, as the townspeople from Treivica found popular support and were joined by other disgruntled workers.

Artin Warder teleported away safely, and was next seen in Tirione, in the continued employment of the Silver Falcon Company.

News of this event spread quickly throughout Nionegrast and Tirione, shocking the companies and rousing up popular support for the rioters (and Milani) in other towns.

As the creatures were not defeated, multiple other towns went silent before news spread back upriver and other surrounding towns were evacuated. The area has since gone quiet again as the creatures have reentered hibernation. The companies have been strongly affected by the abandonment of many of the Nionegrast logging and mining towns. Remaining company towns now struggle with either discontent or strong armed crackdowns.

Lilac Anders teleported away from Treivica to a small town in Ashnan, and from there made her way back to her native Khapesh. She wrote a book about her adventures with the creatures, minus identifying details, which quickly became a bestseller and gave rise to her popularity in the Khapeshan literary community. Silver Falcon Company administrators noted the similarities in the story to the events at Treivica, and sought out Lilac for questioning multiple times - she moved to a new city after each interaction. Lilac did not return to Nionegrast for her reward.

After accepting the reward money for completion of the contract, Crispbellow also moved to Khapesh. There, he played up the similarities between himself and a character in Lilac’s novel to become a minor celebrity, enjoying a wealthy retirement and the attention of fans. After all, there aren’t a great number of dinosaur shifters in Khapesh.

Mafyxia also accepted the reward money from the Silver Falcon Company, then immediately set off for the nearest volcano, which she determined to be Mount Odarta in Eretrebus. In between years of slumber within the depths of the earth, she emerges to harass and extort the locals

Clara Lemlich accepted her reward then promptly played a key role in instigating the riot in Nionegrast. After this, she returned to Tirione where she was hailed as a hero by other Milanites. She eventually returned to Nionegrast once more, with support from the faithful in Tirione, to use her new wealth to spread the word of Milani with eventual goals of establishing a temple.

Campaign 4: Wild adventures of a little rat and a big man - 2021-2023

Location and year

Across Erenon and Barat Rkund in Y9975^*.

Hook

Dirk arrives in Erenon from the Viridian capital of Ilirnas, on assignment to find a collection of items. Simultaneously, Rissi sets out on her first adventure.

Resolution

In the early summer of Y9975^*, Dirk arrived in Erenon in search of a collection of odd items, a task given to him by his superiors in Ilirnas. Soon after crossing the border into the province, he met Rissi, who had become trapped in a graveyard by skeletons while attempting to retrieve an old amulet. After helping each other, they decided to travel together. The two adventurers had a wandering series of travels for a time, visiting first Rissi's hometown of Dalyan then the nearby town of Anamur, where they took on a handful of small quests. Dirk and RIssi rescued Reeka Ebrah, who would go on to accompany them on much of their journey, from bandits, then defeated an evil twigjack and made good friends with a group of ovinniks by offering them pie.

The pair decided to scout an old manor near Restone that Reeka believed might yet hold some treasures. Wandering the grounds of the manor, they found it in remarkably good shape, still maintained and defended by statue-like constructs. Inside, the adventurers discovered clues as to the manor's owner and their long-ago activities - it had belonged to a Viridian noble named Gavros Saekoll, and he had evidently been keenly interested in both teleportation and the plagues. Rissi gained a familiar in the manor as well, after she brought an old aeon wyrd back to life. The wyrd was creatively named Wyrd. Underground beneath the manor the pair found a ruined anchor site, with evidence that it had been the subject of some great experiment - a strongly necromantic crystal was still suspended in the middle. They also met a group of dwarves from Barat Rkund, led by Girnakan Flintheart, who were also investigating the site.

By this point strongly believing that Saekoll had something to do with the plagues that ravaged Erenon centuries ago, and more specifically that he had intentionally caused them to collect enough souls to restart the anchor site, Dirk and Rissi set off to find more. From notes left behind they knew that Auspex, a former assistant of Saekoll, had left for Lunastead after the outbreaks, and the duo wandered in that direction. After a series of encounters, including with a flock of liarbirds, an undead facsimile of a legendary hunter, and other challenges, they arrived in Lunastead. They found Auspex still alive, turned into a lycanthrope during the chaos and violence that followed the plagues. He readily helped them, informing the pair that Saekoll had intended to leave south for Barat Rkund.

Dirk and Rissi returned to the manor and rejoined the dwarves, who had continued their investigation in the meantime. Together the two groups set off south to Barat Rkund, traveling underground along the Low Road to avoid detection from Sircathe Wriys' soldiers, who they had come into conflict with before. They passed through the subterranean city of Kar-Durun, solving an undead labor dispute and aiding a construct fleeing religious persecution and servitude as they did so, eventually coming back to the surface near the dwarven city of Astakar. There, they found objects Saekoll had left behind, including a magical crystalline artifact that created portals into other planes. Activating the crystal, they saw a figure that looked remarkably like Saekoll, or at least similar to the portraits they had seen in his manor.

Rapidly setting off back to the manor, Dirk and Rissi arrived to see Wriys's forces, including the Emerald Ravens, had occupied the grounds. They attempted to first sneak through then convince the soldiers they were also in Wriys' employ - when this failed, they fought but were defeated and knocked unconscious. Waking up in a prison cell, they were met by Wriys and Saekoll, who the pair quickly deduced were working together. With additional information from Saekoll, Dirk and Rissi fully understood his plan - after the failure of the first outbreak of the plagues in powering his experiments to restart the anchor site, Saekoll intended to unleash them once more to finish what he had started. Soon after Saekoll left, however, Wriys asked to discuss the recent events with the party. He explained that he had indeed been working with Saekoll, but upon uncovering exactly what Saekoll's plan entailed he realized he could not continue to assist him. Wriys was, however, unable to act without driving Saekoll into seclusion, after which he would be much more unpredictable and harder to find. Wriys, Dirk, and Rissi worked out a deal - the two adventurers would be given an easy opportunity to "escape", and in exchange all three of them would work together to stop Saekoll.

After an escape in which the Wymoor city courthouse was set ablaze, Dirk and Rissi traveled south to Laham, following a rumor that constructs like the ones at Saekoll's manor had been spotted there. Arriving at Laham, they heard that one of the plagues, the Euphoric Insanity, had been released into the city by a construct that emerged from the cylopean ruins underground. Though the infected were being quarantined, the city did not have the resources to investigate directly. Heading underground again, Dirk and Rissi fought their way through multiple levels of the ruins, past many of Saekoll's constructs as well as other creatures and undead remnants of the cyclops' long forgotten society. Eventually they found Saekoll at the heart of the ruins. A fight ensued, with Saekoll escaping through a portal into his own private demiplane where he had waited out the last few centuries.

The adventurers then followed Saekoll into his demiplane. Traversing its odd geography, they found Saekoll again just as he was planning to use another portal to jump right into the middle of Wymoor. He and several more constructs, including one holding a sample of the Restone Plague, made it through before Dirk and Rissi could follow.

Emerging in Wymoor, the adventurers realized that the Euphoric Insanity had already swept through the city - as they began to fight Saekoll and his minions, there were parties in the street around them as careless revelers danced and drank. After a climactic battle, Saekoll was defeated and the sample of the plague thrown back into his demiplane, which was then sealed off from the Material Plane.

Dirk and Rissi remained in Erenon after the conclusion of their campaign, becoming local folk heroes. They convinced Wriys to build statues of themselves in the center of Wymoor to commemorate their achievements. Dirk stays in Wymoor to professionalize the city guard and crack down on corruption, coming into increasing tension with Wriys as he does so. The odd items he was sent to find are shipped back to Ilirnas. Rissi helps with the repair of the city and the treatment of the ill, then sets about writing two books. The first is a recounting of her adventure with Dirk. The second covers aeon wyrds, including both general information and specific details as to their construction.

Campaign 5: Birds of paradise - 2022

Location and year

Across the Soul's End Islands in Y9976^*.

Hook

The exploits of the tengu pirate Andan Cuyucha certainly brought him renown in his time - if legends are to be believed, at his height he had a fleet of two hundred ships at his command. Even as the details of his deeds begin to fade, the stories pirates tell about his disappearance endure.

Two hundred years ago, Cuyucha sailed west into the unknown with a small fleet. Some say he died to the wild and unpredictable storms, others that great sea creatures ate his ships whole, and still others that he remains out there, preying on unwary merchant vessels. Regardless, many have tried to follow in his footsteps, with very few returning.

Rocco "Three-Eye", a grizzled old captain of perhaps questionable sanity, has declared he believes he knows the route Cuyucha took, and intends to form a crew to set off after the pirate in search of the treasure it is claimed he took with him. Great wealth has been promised for those that return alive. His crew, and any others wishing to join on the adventure, will depart aboard the Apophis from Huansan, on the tengu island homeland of Meklaw.

Resolution

The party encountered Cuyucha, still alive after centuries, along with a sizable surviving contingent of his pirate fleet. Through Cuyucha, the party learned of the Refuge, a volcanic island in the archipelago that supposedly contained a spring of immortality within the mountain. Promising to reveal the location of his treasure in exchange, Cuyucha requested assistance in retaking control of the Refuge from the mutineers who occupied it. Though not fully trusting the pirate captain, the party decided to work towards this goal.

Traveling the Soul's End Islands and meeting some of its few inhabitants, the party learned more about the nature of the Refuge and the mutineers. The "spring of immortality" was actually the clear, watery blood of a nascent demon lord entombed within the island, and the mutineers had formed a cult around the creature. The party rescued Itzal, a pirate outcast who knew how to enter the Refuge and banish the demon lord, as well as met a community of leshies who previously inhabited the Refuge before they were forced out by Cuyucha and his pirates. Rocco, no longer seeing a use for the party, attempted to leave them behind on Skeleton Island, but he and roughly half of his crew were defeated instead.

After acquiring some gear and recruiting allies amongst the leshies and pirates, the party attacked the Refuge. The leshies and pirates entered via two separate routes to serve as distractions, while the party snuck in a hidden and less-used entrance. Defeating the mutineer cultists, the party assisted Itzal in banishing the sleeping demon lord back to the Abyss. Violet Akkerman, meanwhile, consumed enough of the demon blood to put herself under the same influences as the pirates. Left without their source of immortality, and seeing the Refuge in its true form for the first time in centuries, Cuyucha and his surviving pirates turned on Violet, whom they had been convinced by Burz Vultog banished the creature - they were quickly slain as well. Burz, Bog, and Azul Lazuli quickly fled, pausing only long enough to uncover Cuyucha's treasure before fleeing to their ship.

Violet, left behind on the Refuge, continues to reside there in almost unceasing anger. Azul and Itzal retired to Meklaw with their new fortune, while Burz, Bog, and the surviving crew of the Apophis continued a life of piracy.

Campaign 6

On indefinite hold

Campaign 7: Awaken the depressed robot - 2024

Hook

Even millennia after the ancient elven kingdom of Eita collapsed, their relics still litter the landscape, the fine workmanship of their magical and technological innovations still evident yet slowly decaying. While the ruins of their old scholar-halls are now effectively emptied, the surviving ancient colossi are still almost untouched, left alone and without purpose. These giant constructs, each over forty feet tall, have responded to their abandonment in a number of ways. Some followed their old masters as they retreated west, while others went berserk until they were destroyed. Most, however, simply chose a place to rest and have remained there for thousands of years, becoming part of the scenery. 

Several centuries ago, the Idrimi people of Brightmarch encountered one of these colossi and, after much discussion and coaxing, were able to rouse it from its slumber and convince it to join them as their guardian. Since then they have attempted to awaken others as well. This is where the party comes in. The tribe has found another colossus, half-buried in the silt along a riverbank, and has put out a call for adventurers to help inspire it to rise again. They believe the keys to this lie within ancient elven ruins nearby, but these hold dangers of their own...

Or in other words, help a giant robot not be depressed.

Resolution

The party set off from an Idrimi encampment on the banks of the Ikena River after first consulting with and receiving direction from Emar, the colossus-talker of the tribe, heading north towards the crashed aerolith Nensa. Fighting their way past a pack of terror birds, a ghoulified crocodile, and tar zombies, they discovered an abandoned camp next to the base of the aerolith - they were not the only ones to be investigating the flying city.

Proceeding forward after climbing the aerolith, the party encountered a series of magical traps, further evidence that they were on the heels of someone else. They explored parts of the aerolith as they moved closer to the center, taking in the unfamiliar architecture and design and uncovering signs of long-ago violence. Along the way they found several metal birds, mirror-wings, that they carried with them. In the back of a large hall they met Wanderer of the Salt Marshes, a pacifistic Tidelord giant scavenging for coins to add to her armor. She told them of how the night previously she had been attacked by a group of elves likewise moving through the city, all with similar designs on their armor, the flying eye of Sharruma. Though she was forced to flee, she did overhear them talking about their goals, to find the memories and body of an individual they named Apru.

Wanderer informed the party that the elves had shown interest in the library near the middle of the aerolith, and so they proceeded there next, fighting a stained glass golem inside then recovering a collection of memory tablets, from which they learned more about the aerolith and its inhabitants. Leaving the library, they found themselves in an ambush by the elven group, led by an individual who introduced himself as Vilae Starseeker. He demanded they turn over the artifacts they had recovered thus far, as he claimed all relics of the city were his expedition's by their right as the successors of Eita. The party disagreed. In the combat that ensured, most of the opposing elves were slain, with the few survivors fleeing up into the central spire of the aerolith.

Finding a route to the lower levels of the aerolith, the party discovered the aerotheurge's chambers, severely damaged in a fight a great many centuries prior. From there they found the keys required to unlock the vaults of the aerolith, also on the lower levels, where they found both immense wealth and the clues necessary to begin to put together what had happened. Through memory shards, they learned of a struggle that had taken place on the aerolith in its last days in the air, between those elves who wished to maintain their cloistered existence and those who desired to reopen contact with the ground. This had escalated into a battle both on the surface and in the aerotheurge's chambers, where the master aerotheurge themself had destroyed the magical core rather than let it fall into the rebels' hands, dooming Nensa to a rapid descent and hard landing. They also learned Apru, the figure the current-day elven party was trying to find, had been the apprentice aerotheurge and a member of the rebels. Finally, the party was able to locate a collection of four precept tablets, items they would require to re-awaken the colossus for the Idrimi.

Traveling next to the top of the central spire, the party fought their way past the ancient council's guardians and to the council chambers themselves, where the survivors from the elven group had holed up. There, they were offered one last opportunity to trade items and leave peacefully, exchanging the precept tablets for the memory shards the elves had found, but the party quickly determined the other group had no intention of fully honoring this deal. A combat ensued in which the party was victorious. Afterwards, the party investigated the memory shards the elves had already found, including multiple of Apru. From these they learned that Apru was in fact the colossus they were trying to awaken, having had his consciousness transferred to keep alive his knowledge of the restricted art of aerotheurgy - this was the reason why the other elven party was so keep on finding him, for they wished to take this knowledge for themselves and carry it back with them to Sharruma.

With the precepts and memory shards acquired, the party were able to wake not only Apru, sitting partially submerged in the river near the Idrimi camp, but also Pemphetru, a second colossi who had remained for centuries on Nensa. Both agreed to accompany the Idrimi.