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Xevo
Acolyte
USA
35 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Sep 2010 : 15:24:08
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Back in 1999, I ran an adventure named: Sword and Scroll. The setting was a small town located in the Coldwood just south of the Spine of the World. There were three settlements in the forest, New Coneyberry, Roots, and Callebry. It was in New Coneyberry that all this began.
In the town was a school of sorts named Sword and Scroll. It consisted of Spires (a wizards’ tower and home to the headmaster of the school: Joldilox Fiefling), a small fort that trained warriors and rogues named the Coliseum, and a church (which actually housed a plethora of different shrines to the various deities) named Pantheon.
This town, unbeknownst to its inhabitants rested three miles above an underground city that had been devastated by worshippers of Kiranshalee. The leader of those priestesses was a drow named Estrielashee Laeraszhee from Chad Nesed. She needed only a few more ingredients to complete her lich-potion. As a way of getting these and eradicating the town, she and her second-in-command, a dwarf vampire, Arkov Darkstone, planted a doppelganger plant only a mile away. This small act happened exactly one year before the beginning of the adventure.
Estrie’s ultimate goal was to become a lich and then steal an artifact known as the Kinnimore Scrolls. Kinnimore had been a very powerful lich of yore who had devised a way to harness additional souls that would become his own. Plus, he had figured out how to make any object (no matter how mundane) into a phylactery. At the time of his final death, Kinnimore had no less than six souls that needed to be destroyed. All the info for doing this was written in the Kinnimore Scrolls.
Now a list of the characters in no particular order…
Kalitia Aeveron - Human mage from a small noble family out of Cormyr. She fled to Sword and Scroll not only to learn under Joldilox, but to avoid an arranged marriage. Affable, tomboyish and a genius when it came to magic.
Akyra Hayabusha - Human kensai (bo staff) from the infamous Hayabusha clan of Shou Lung. He sought out the school because one of its teachers was a master martial artist and Akyra wanted to learn from the best. Btw, Akyra was blind and had been his entire life.
Delmair Agathione - Human fighter from Neverwinter. He had never known who his father was, though his step-father instilled in him a strong sense of honor. His mother was born and raised in Sigil. Delmair came to school because he wanted to get out of his stepfather’s shadow (the man was a retired adventurer and well known along the Sword Coast).
Gavin de Bauss - Human fighter from Sigil. Like Delmair, he never knew his father. Gavin was a jolly, mischievous fellow who loved nothing more than having a good time and expensive halfling tobacco. For all his life, he had always been bald. He never really knew why he had traveled to the Prime and then to Sword and Scroll, but he didn’t really care.
Lailiel Auriel - Half-elf female from Amn, she traveled at the request of Pantheon’s headmaster, an elf named Vivaldi Taequetil, to study the word of Lathander under his tutelage. She was naïve, likable and a serious flirt who did not know where to draw the line.
Mathieu Silverberg - Tallfellow halfling born and raised in New Coneyberry. He had always dreamed of attending the school and when he hit his 16th b-day, he enrolled to become a ranger (in the footsteps of his storybook hero, Drizzt Do’Urden). When he was ten, he had interfered with a traveling magic show and his hair was turned a bright purple. Not even Joldilox could reverse it.
Some NPCs who were close to the players….
Jem - Human bartender of the Broken Mug and retired (?) Harper. He became the characters’ closest confidant and advisor. Only Kalitia knew of his past. He was a terrible cook as was evident when Lailiel asked for a salad and Jem inquired as to whether he put the dressing on before or after he cooked it.
Bob Connorsborough - Mathieu’s closest human friend from New Coneyberry and a student studying the subtle art of a berserker. Good heart/small brain.
Kia Aerabus - Human girl aged 8. She had a big crush on Delmair for which the party heckled the crap out of him for. She was born an illithid hunter and her psionics were far from under control. In fact she was in New Coneyberry as a form of sanctuary from her unintentional crime in Waterdeep (she leveled half a city block with her powers).
Rodeci - White Fang (think living vampire) who was Kia’s protector and parole officer. He would eventually be the man to break-up Lailiel and Delmair’s growing love interest when the half-elf developed a thing for him. Despite this, he remained a close friend to all of them.
The PCs and this quest had been prophesized and when stuff began to happen, they stumbled upon this prophecy. When the bad-guys found out about the prophecy and the people involved, the PCs fell into the thick of it. Many friends died before Mathieu succumbed to the doppelganger plant. It tore the party apart having to kill him when it became apparent they could not save him. Kalitia, who had fallen in love with the quirky Halfling, took it the hardest since she believes she delivered the killing blow. The wizard took Mathieu’s pillow sword (a form of soldier’s short sword) and vowed revenge.
Eventually, the PCs were forced to flee New Coney berry and hunt Estrie and crew. In this time, Akyra had formed a dangerous obsession with Arkov and his ability to defeat the dwarf. Each day that the dwarf remained “alive” Akyra fell more and more into the drink. The heroes traveled to nearby Roots and helped save the town from a Zombie Lord that had been one of Estrie’s minions.
Following that, they traveled to Callebry only to find the entire city empty of people. No corpses and no signs of struggle. The only evidence they had that people had actually lived there was a lone zombie wandering the streets with a sign that read: All dead here - wrapped around its neck. The zombie did not even attempt to attack the heroes and they were so freaked out that they refuse to kill the thing.
A few miles away, the heroes stumbled upon an abandoned druid’s grove. Here they encountered another of Estrie’s agents; a kiranshalee (spell-using banshee) named The Wychlyn. After the battle concluded to a draw, the characters were forced to allow The Wychlyn to escape, but learned of Estrie’s plan to become a lich. They also learned that she had all of the components needed and intended to imbibe the potion atop the Mountain of Skulls in the Spine of the World. It should be noted that the fact the drow was looking for the Kinnimore Scrolls was still unknown to the PCs.
After entering the mountains, Lailiel was kidnapped by Arkov while the heroes slept. When the PCs finally found her, Akyra did battle with Arkov one-on-one while the others did what they could to stop Lailiel being buried alive in the stone. Akyra lost and nearly died. Frustrated that the kensai had failed to kill him, Arkov roared in anger and vanished into the stone.
With the heroes together again, they traveled on. They had to pass through Bloodcloak Valley (the sight of the final battle with Kinnimore’s Army. The valley was only about a mile long and a quarter mile wide, but it was filled up to knee level with the still-liquid blood of all those who died there. Needless to say, Bloodcloak Valley was, and still is, the most haunted place on my Toril). When the heroes arrived at the Mountain of Skulls their efforts to stop Estrie were hampered by more of her minions. The drow drank the potion and the resulting display of necromantic power blended with the latent desecration of the mountain itself, tearing a planar rift that sucked the PCs in.
When they awoke, they found themselves in a large stone house devoid of furnishings. What they did find was writing along the walls telling the history of the place. They had been transported to the Outlands, within fifty miles of the Spire. The house was the safe hold of the Kinnimore Scrolls. The players discovered that Delmair and Gavin’s fathers had been Guardians tasked with protecting those scrolls in the name of all that is good. The two men realized the strange connection they shared when it came to combat* and understood why the rift had spit them out here. Since the two skeletons near the front door were the remains of their fathers, Delmair and Gavin had assumed the mantle of Guardian. This mantle is what made it possible for the PCs to survive this close to the Spire.
They did not have long to rest though. Taking advantage of the power that brought the party to the house, Estrie and Co. showed up to take those scrolls. All was looking good for the heroes until Gavin fell victim to a Charm cast by The Wychlyn. Gavin was forced to disengage the final set of protective wards around the Scrolls and the bad guys escaped with their charmed victim in their clutches.
By activating a gate located in the back of the house (which could be done only w/ a Guardian), the PCs returned to the Prime and New Coneyberry in time to save it from a small army of Estrie’s undead. The heroes discovered that the force came from the nearby mausoleum and were able to find a path into the underdark from there. As they were getting prepared to traverse that dark passage, another small undead force came up with Gavin (now turned undead Shade under Estrie’s whim at its command). After a pitched battle between Delmair and Gavin, the latter fled having lost an arm to Delmair’s new Scimitar +5 of Sharpness. Hot on his tail, the heroes descended below.
They found the ruined city on an island near the center of a massive underground lake. Before they got to the island, Akyra made a fervent plea to the Celestial Bureaucracy that they grant him the strength to defeat Arkov and in return they may claim his own life. When the heroes arrived, they split up to take on Estrie’s officers in their own way.
Akyra found Arkov and the battle between the two was epic. In the end, Arkov was impaled upon a stalagmite and his head was severed by his own axe wielded by the blind kensai.
At the same time, Kalitia engaged The Wychlyn. Only a few spells were exchanged before Kalitia got close enough to finish off the banshee with Mathieu’s enchanted pillow sword.
Delmair did battle with Gavin as Lailiel plunged into Estrie’s inner sanctum. The battle was fierce and we all (players and I) knew that Gavin would win. But Gavin’s player had handed me a note before the battle saying that when the time was right, he would impale himself on Delmair’s scimitar. In the final moments of his unlife, Gavin gave Delmair his last healing potion and told his dearest friend which objects were Estrie’s phylacteries. Delmair then entered to join Lailiel who had not been so well. After they found and destroyed Estrie’s vessels (her altar and tiara), they managed to finally kill the drow lich.
The island was still filled with undead and worshippers and the PCs knew they could not just leave it, but also knew they had not the strength to kill all the baddies. Lailiel then made a final prayer to Lathander.
Three miles below the surface of Faerun, the sun rose on the underground lake. Its rays burned away the evil on the island and consumed Lailiel’s body a brilliant flash of white light.
When the heroes reached the shore, the Celestials came to collect. Akyra, his destiny fulfilled, died in the arms of his dear companions. Kalitia vowed to return his staff to his family. She and Delmair carried the kensai body back to New Coneyberry where he was buried next to Mathieu in a quiet grove. They also made a small monument to Lailiel beside the graves.
Kalitia and Delmair parted ways with the promise they would meet again in five years. It was a bittersweet farewell.
*Throughout the entire campaign and with no manipulations at all, whenever Delmair and Gavin sparred, they would alternate who won. This was not planned; it was simply how the dice rolled. It was infallible, if Delmair won, then Gavin would get the next fight. Yes it was eerie.
Additional Notes:
This adventure took 1 year (real-time) to complete. In that time, we would have 3-4 sessions a week; each session was about 8 hrs. And the first two months (real-time) were spent just role-playing. Seriously, I did not have anything significant happen until my players and I fully understood the characters.
There was so much emotion invested that the death of Akyra, Gavin and Lailiel brought tears to just about everyone. Plus the hatred that the players felt for Arkov and Estrie was palpable.
I left a lot of the finer details out, but I am sure folks got the gist of it all. Eleven years later and some of my players still speak fondly of that adventure and I have never been able to top its greatness, though I have come close at times.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
-Terry Pratchett |
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