Into the Void

This week was a tad bit of a hassle. We had a good number of players coming and going, with some new additions.

Nathan "Biodragon" Niznik took on the role of John; a Sorcerer who can blast things into oblivion at his beck and call, but can just as easy sit back and watch his friends make asses of themselves.

Jesse Monroe joined the group as John, a cutthroat Thief with experience in smuggling.

In the game, briefly, was John Petkus as ... Yo Mama... A barbarian. Nothing else needs to be said.

Adam, as Father Pavel, joined us again half-way through the session, and brought with him a certain degree of much-needed gravity.

JT and Garrett ("Sadamamuel" and "Toledo Hanes" respectively) did not attend the session, due to previous obligations.

The session started off with the party discussing things more in depth with Patrick. Crase Hanes decided to be the recipient of the new scroll. This ritual would take several hours, so the rest of the party decided to look into finding some of Jeremiah's father's (Joseph's) studies. They check the master bedroom first, and discover a small journal. This journal was one of the last Joseph kept over the last years of his life, and in it he made mention of a prank Jeremiah told him about. Apparently, when Jeremiah was 12, he took his siblings out to the isle of the Standing Stones and read from one of his father's books on the Occult. What was meant as a prank turned into a horribly frightening ordeal for all the children, as waters churned and boiled, and the skies blotted out the stars. Since then, Joseph idle curiosity in the occult turned into an obsession, as he sought to find out what Jeremiah had done. In the bedroom, unsent mail is discovered from the mother of the family to her own parents, stating her growing discontent with the marriage - Joseph was turning into too much of a squint and bookworm, failing to pay her even the least bit attention.

William Badass also experiences an eery vision. When entering the bedroom, he hears the cries and screams of a baby as the sheets on the bed become covered with gore and ichor.

When the party returns from their reconnoiter, Crase Hanes is finished with the ritual; He is now imbued with the ability to temporarily control fresh corpses to fight for his cause. The party then sets out to retrace its steps to the Mausoleum, then continues onto the Old Church.

The old church is near-indescribably old, reduced to mere ruins. To make a story brief, the party finds an underground level to the church which leads to a more secluded area. Battling through skeletons which seem to spontaneously raise from the dead, the party finds various components with mixed clues suggesting a way to time travel into the past. Beholding a vision of the Abbot, long ago, locking up a magically sealed door with a special golden key, and finding notes and journals about the destruction of a great and powerful weapon, the party manages to combine the components to leap back into time. Violently, they take the key, and the weapon - a scythe.

Returning to the present (Back to the Future!) they carefully make their way back home to rest, recover, and share their finding with Patrick. While working their way home, Cid, the Thief who took the scythe from the Old Church, slowly gets influenced by the Scythe until finally he snaps and attacks Alexander. Patrick stops the outbreak before it gets out of control - beyond what it already has. Father Pavel steps up to action here, rebuking Patrick with his use of force (he almost managed to kill Cid) and advocating destruction of the weapon. An exchange is had, and it is figured that while the artifact has a corrupting affect, it is also a very powerful weapon. A bit of research revealed that the weapon once belonged to a great warrior, a champion of the people. Perhaps the weapon itself was corrupted by an outside force... The party uses holy water on the weapon, which hisses and boils to little other noticeable effect. After this, William Badass decides to take the weapon as the burden, and finds he can readily stave off the corrupting affects of the weapon-artifact.

The party then decides to rest for the night, and call it a session. However, on an end note, William Badass is visited by haunting visions and dreams in his fitful sleep:

"In the vision, you feel and *know* you are in a time and age far gone. Despite the vividness of your dream, you are not in control of yourself. It seems as if only your sight is present, as you flow through the breeze with thoughtless ease. You are being shown something. It is dark. Abysmally dark. And raining. You can barely make out your surroundings; a small island with looming monoliths. Nearby you can make out several figures. They are huddled over something. As you are pressed in closer you can see the figures, cloaked and hooded, collectively lowering a body into the earth. The body bears an iron crown on top of its head, and is otherwise richly dressed in vibrant clothing, despite the horrid conditions. Upon the face is a metallic mask, bearing a grotesque face. Nothing is visible of the features, except for the eyes, which open in slumberous awareness. He tries to move, but finds himself bound. He tries to say something, but finds his mouth gagged. Eyes now wide with panic, darting to and fro, he screams in desperation as the figures finish lowering him into his grave, and seal him to his fate."

Unearthing

Since I managed to snag all the DMs as players for my game, Ian was kind enough to step out and run a game for the poor lost souls I had cast out. In his place stepped up Adam, who I had originally invited but was initially out of commission for various reasons. Adam managed to create Father Pavel, a Cleric who's heart and mind sought transcendence, but hands and eyes remain firmly within the earthly realm.

Like the rest of the party, Father Pavel was apart of the Two-Brothers-Adventuring-Troop. Sometime in the past, he made the decision to stay behind and place his help where he saw it was needed most; a small budding community. It was here, after an indeterminate amount of time, that a messenger, sent from Jeremiah and Patrick, managed to find him and deliver the message for help. Using his knowledge and wit, Father Pavel, like the party before him, managed to gain access to the portal to Sigil, and then find his way onto Jeremiah's plane. Greeted by the same servant, and discovering the same horrid horrid horrid truth about not having the proper means of communication, Father Pavel is shown to Jeremiah, caught up on the situation at hand, then shown proper quarters.

Next morning, he runs into the rest of the party, on the way to question the Gardener.

The party reaches the Kitchen, the way to the inner cloister of the Gardens, and find it locked. Apparently the only one with the key is a maid, who is off cleaning a guest room - a guest by the name of Keisinger. At this news, Patrick is enraged. It is found out that Patrick is actually an outlaw to this area; framed for the murder of his wife. Keisinger is the man responsible for this. This is actually Patrick's backstory for how he became apart of the Two-Brother's-Adventuring-Troop. Jeremiah is promptly confronted with this information, and is found to have no knowledge of Keisinger, except that he may have been a temporary guest of Bethany's. (Keisinger, the party is told by Patrick, dabbles in magic.)

The party continues to Keisinger's room, and discover an interplanar portal to Oreinos, a dreamscape realm. (They promptly report this to Jeremiah.) The sky is dark and morose, constantly bleeding red. As one looks up or down - or what seems up or down - the sky transitions into a whiter color until eventually you're left staring into a bright, illuminating, sun-like phenomenon. It's almost like looking at galaxy from far away. Despite these bright points in the sky and under-sky, lighting appears to be dim. Ruins, rock formations, and architectural fragments tumbled through the ether as the players step out onto an outcropping. Where they stand has stone-tiling, but all that they see seems to be in a state of decay. They traverse through this realm over several rock formations littered with the remnants of architecture, battling an elusive creature they have never seen before, a creature with the ability to meld and move through the terrain. Escaping over a bridge which forms out of the ether, the group captures a fist-sized Golden Dragon's Head, then dive through another portal that manifested in a well.

After traveling through the portal, the players find themselves back in the closet, with the Maid's body. She is dead, key clenched in her hands, and bleeding upwards towards the ceiling for no explainable reason. They take the key, head down to the Gardens through the kitchen, and question the Gardener. The Gardener has an important bit of information; He's seen Lizbeth! It was just the other day that he was walking towards the estate, when he saw her on the hillside, watching him. The party has the Gardener lead him to the place where he saw Lizbeth, and the inspect the area, then move on to family Mausoleum.

While approaching the family Mausoleum, they run into unexpected company. As the party heads up to the main gate which allows entrance to the Mausoleum grounds, the are caught unaware by Lizbeth, who taunts Father Pavel, the first of the party leading them up to the gate. "You're more of a meal, than a man!" she says, then chortles as she runs off at a fast pace around the Mausoleum. Father Pavel recognizes her new form; a wight, and also takes the bait. In a flurry of righteous wrath, he kicks through the gate and gives chase. The rest follow suit. They lose her, and are ambushed by two "Howlers." After the combat, they inspect inside the Mausoleum. Despite years of layered dust, there had been activity in the area recently. They discover the two primary sarcophagi of the Mausoleum (progenitors of the family line in this area.) They are defaced, and one is shattered. The other contains another Scroll of Power. The party also inspects the open wing of the Mausoleum, and discovered two open graves; Lizbeth's and her mothers. Both graves are empty. While the Mother's grave looks carefully opened, Lizbeth's looks violently rended open - from the inside. Through careful inspection and time, the party deduces that Lizbeth was actually buried alive, and tried to claw her way out. Ultimately, she was successful, but only after she had died and transformed into a wight was she able to escape.

It is at this point that the party hears another howl, with sounds from the roof. William "Badass" takes the lead to leave the Mausoleum, and upon exiting is pounced on by another Howler - except for this particular one is large sized. Toledo Hanes launches a volley of arrows at the beast and does damage, and in retaliation the beast lunges at him (reminiscent of the first encounter with a howler) and severely wounds him. The beast is eventually slain, but not before dealing out its fair share of damage.

The party makes it's way back to Jeremiah's estate, arriving near midnight. They inform Patrick and Jeremiah of their findings. In turn, they are told a little about the past of this area, more specifically, an old church and nearby catacombs, as well as a small island with some Standing Stones. They are also told a bit about Jeremiah's father, who apparently took up an interest in the occult.

It was then recommended to call it a night for DnD, and everyone decided to end this session early.

Emulation

I have decided to try my hand again at attempting to run another campaign. This one is intended to be short, but we'll see how things pan out. While this is my third major creation (though hardly a creation, hence the title,) it is my second major endeavor as a DM. So far only one session has passed, and it was a strong session. All things considered, it seems as if it will continue to go strong.

Character creation was an eclectic affair. Base classes were taken from The Black Company Campaign Setting handbook. However, because The Black Company utilized a different magic system, which was considered a bit cumbersome given time and resources available, the decision was made beforehand that spellcasting would be handled the old, familiar, 3.5 edition way. That said, any spellcasting class (Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer) would be selected from the 3.5 Player's Handbook from the original Greyhawk setting. A dice-pool system was used for generating stats, and in addition to selecting the classes from The Black Company book, players were also expected to choose a Background. More on those later, perhaps.

Other than that, players were given two more conditions with which they were to make their characters. Their characters were to have known each other well. They have been an adventuring party for at least a couple years now, and furthermore they are something like the "last generation" of a general association of adventurers. This "association" was originally started by two brothers who took on the world by storm, and gained followers and friends. Even after the two brothers left, or retired (no one is really sure which,) the group persisted, and has been around since, changing in its composition of fellowship. The current PC party represents the current state of this fellowship. The second condition was that the party was required to know and remember the names of two former fellowship-members: Patrick and Jeremiah. Both are almost like living relics, as well as being known as stand-up guys

All this said, here's the party, and what they managed to produce:

Ross - "William Badass" - Dwarf Zealot geared towards taking copious amounts of damage.
JT - "Sadamamuel" - Human Noble who is knowledgeable in all bits of esoteric knowledge.
Ian - "Mad Jack" - Human Berserker that is not afraid to get his hands dirty.
Tyler - "Alexander Sebastian VonLichtenstein" - A literal and figurative Jack-of-all-Trades with an Aristocratic background.
Garrett - "Toledo Hanes" - One of two brothers; a veteran Ranger utilizing ranged attacks to fell foes.
Markham - "Cras Hanes" - The second of the two brothers who also uses ranged attacks, but, as a Scout, depends more on guile.

The beginning of the game starts off with the players coming across a cliche Den of Evil populated by Goblins, which they handedly slay. Once the cave is cleared out, and they beginning exploring and looting the corpses for treasure, they are approached by an inter-planar messenger who arrives via portal. The messenger brings a letter for the party regarding their friend Jeremiah; a frantic letter that makes little sense in its babble and has only one thing clear, he's in need of help back on his estate.

The messenger leaves through a portal, which the players manage to figure out and mimic - though they end up in Sigil, not their friend's estate as hoped. In Sigil, they manage to find a planeswalker who is able to figure out where the party has to go, and how to get there. They are informed, by the planeswalker, that where they are going isn't like other places.

The party travels through the portal, and finds themselves in a tomb, which ends up being a burial mound. When they find their way out, they are greeted by a servant of Jeremiah's. A problem is immediately apparent - they do not speak the same language. Thankfully, both sides find common ground in the understanding of the word "Jeremiah," and, after a brief respite, the servant escorts them towards Jeremiah's estate.

They arrive at the estate late at night. The previous servant takes his leave, and when the party knocks on the door they are greeted by another servant who shows them the way to Jeremiah's room. This is where the party first gets a taste of what is wrong. They encounter a ghost, in the form of a man who's flesh had been flayed off. He has chains and hooks hanging from him, and lunges at the party, only to disappear the instant before contact. This rattles the party, who quickly make it to Jeremiah's bedroom. Jeremiah is bedridden, sick and feeble from a terminal illness. They are barely able to greet eachother when a scream and a howl is heard from down the hallway. The party dashes to the rescue, finding a woman slain by some terrible beast, which attacks them. The beast was not like anything they have seen before. It ran on all fours, but could stand on its hind legs like a man. The claws of the beast were almost as long as a man's arm, and its own arms are longer still. The beast itself was the color of a cold gray, like death, with a dark mane that ran down its back. Hideously rows of sharp teeth filled its maw, and two horns projected rearward. With its tremendous jumping capability, it slashed at Garrett's character in retaliation for critically wounding arrow, almost killing Garrett's character in one blow. The rest of the party was quick to gang up on it, and it was Ian's character which put it down. Before the players could examine the body closely, it faded into thin air...

The players tend to their fallen comrade, and ask questions of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, after having a fit from the scare, is too weakened to make any proper response, mumbling something about a family curse. The party is forced out of Jeremiah's chambers by his personal nurse, and they rest after being shown their quarters.

The next day, the party is greeted in the morning, one by one, by Patrick, the other former NPC party member. He informs them all of a meeting that will take place shortly after breakfast. At this meeting, some things are made more clear. Jeremiah's estate is in dire straits; all of Jeremiah's family members have either died, or gone missing over the last several years. With their disappearance, rumors run rampant about strange sightings and happenings. With the death of Jeremiah's father while Jeremiah was off serving in the war, management of the estate has gone down hill, with most of the staff leaving and looting the estate as they went. Now only a portion, those who are most loyal to the family, remain. With these strange sightings and happening occurring more frequently, Jeremiah himself almost seems half convinced of a family curse. Jeremiah ends his part in the dialogue suggesting that the party, when fully recovered, question a gardener who claims he's seen something...

From there, Patrick takes over the dialogue, discussing things of the more arcane nature. He presents a wooden box with a small crystal in it. It looks something like a rough jade, or emerald, and fits into the palm of a man's hand. There is a hole near the top of the crystal, where Patrick ran a small rope through so it can be wore around the neck. No one quite new what it was, Patrick included, other than it was a stone that contained some sort of power. Aside the box was a scroll. This scroll contains "blueprints" for a ritual, judged to be potentially beneficial to whomever it was performed on. Ross volunteered to have this ritual performed on him, and gained an interesting ability which allowed him to see things other could not. It was further discovered that the stone could be used as a sort of beacon to help find these things that only Ross's character could see. After that, the party retires to full rest up from all the ability damage they had taken from the ghost just the day before.

During this period of rest, William Badass experimented more with his ability, discovering more how it worked and seeing some disturbing sights. Alexander Sebastian VonLichtenstein (Alex, I'll use for short from now on,) procured some high-proof alcohol to make Molotov cocktails from, and while doing so had another slight encounter with the Ghost. This time, it did not take the form of a skinned man, but rather a man in a suit, with bright red hair. He was reading a book, after which he placed it down and disappeared. The book remained, and ended up being the remaining bits of the Journal of Aaron - Jeremiah's missing brother. The journal was mostly gibberish, cursing his twin-sister's name, then mentioning taking a trip to a far away land...

When the party was fully rested, they ventured forth to try to find this gardener they were supposed to question. On their way there, they came across servants all in a fluster and cleaning. Apparently Lizbeth's room had been ransacked, with items strewn about and destroyed; claw marks along the walls and floors. Lizbeth, it turns out, was the youngest of Jeremiah's siblings. William Badass takes a closer look at the room with his new sight ability, and discovers a portrait of Lizbeth with her dogs. When he looks at this painting with his ability, the dogs transform into beasts, the same type which almost slain Toledo Hanes (Garrett's character.) As for Lizbeth herself, she transforms into something bestial, near-demonic, and seemingly filled with hate and rage. Alex finds a journal, though he can't understand it. The party decides to backtrack with this new information, and as they exit the room, a beast crashes through the window and slays one of the maids. It stands up to a fight for a bit, but then retreats, as if called. The archers in the fight slay it from afar, before it can get too out of range.

The session ends with finding Patrick again, and translating Lizbeth's journal. It ends up being mostly poetry, but also idle self-discussion about her own wasting disease and going out to the mausoleum, where she was to be buried, as if to conquer her fear. The party, plus Patrick, decide to question the Gardener together.

Session two awaits...

...It lives...!

And so the time has come and gone, and a new age becomes anew.

Garrett has begun a game, and handed the reins over to me for the time being while he is over in Chinoise-country.

I plan on following through with the campaign until the end of this chapter proper, with the main objectives in mind of bringing the story of the three Hags to a conclusion. After that, if time allows, we'll all be able to test our mettle by running our own weekly mini-games of justice.

The players are many, and the campaign itself is quite interesting, as always. Joining us is my brother Tyler, and Stan, Todd, Markham, Adam, Ian and Jason. Stacy left for New York. The world, in brief, has various realms ruled in different ways and differing levels of technology, but all having the theme of a pre-renaissance medieval Europe level of culture with an ever-permeating One-God-to-Rule-Them-All church and religion.

As said before, the story thusfar has dealt with three Hags running amok. The party and it's individual members seek to thwart them for many reasons. Ian plays a driving role, having a Church Inquisitor as a character. Other members have personal motives. After spending a very long time helping an isolated logging community deal with the threat of a sudden attack of Werewolves (and other wolf-like creatures), the party finally managed to storm the Hag's stronghold and defeat her - acquiring one of the fabled moonstones.

Now the party hunts after the second Hag near a Coastal village, where Lizardfolk and the like are terrorizing the local population. The local church leader seems to be corrupted, and there is also an issue with rebelling kobolds from the nearby mine (a situation which will be explained later.) They are now holed up in one of the old Pagan temples, which is set off-limits by the said corrupted person.

Where I have come in as DM, the party had discovered a hidden underground passage to this temple as a means to get inside. Garrett had begun the beginning part of the dungeon, and it was up to me to continue on and finish it. The cave turned out to be a lair of Skum and an Aboleth, which the party managed to handedly clear out and slay.

Now they are at a large, forboding doorway...

Next Campaign.

The chances of me starting up another campaign before the end of the semester is not likely.

However, I may run a campaign over the summer. We'll see how my classe and stuff go.

Session Nine...?

Session Nine may or may not take place this Saturday.

Reasons mainly being: at this point in time when I will arrive is slightly a mystery. Of course I'm going to try to make it back Saturday, but it will probably be sometime between 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM. Big time gap difference.

After this problem, we some other issues... Will the Cisler Center be open for the use of Peacock Cove? And how the hell do we keep track of everyone and in good communication (because this Blog only does so well)? I don't expect everyone to stare at this blog.

With all that said... I submit the following plan to you guys: Assume the game will start around 5:00 PM. Or rather, try to meet at my place at around that time. From there, we will figure out where we'll play the game (and, yes, my place is an option.)

As always, I'm open to suggestions. Which reminds me, if Saturday is too much of a rush, or something, I'm perfectly willing to host a game on Sunday as well, and if people want it I may host two games this weekend.

If there is any change in plans, I'll be sure to post it on here.

Session Eight.

The Location of Session Eight will be at 317 Sheridan Drive.

You guys will be starting right after you finishing off the Pikemen and Archers, backed up by the Orc Cleric.

The Blog will be updated later; I'm currently getting ready to head out, so I can set up the encounter.