Non-discourse.

It has felt like an insanely long week, but looking back at it now, I am not sure where all the time has went or why I have not posted this sooner.

Oh well, it is all good.

The session opened with the party resting and recovering at the hospital. While they were doing that, Ricco's new character was introduced. Perhaps unaptly named with Sherlock Holmes, he had the past of being captured and tortured by a mage. Through various means, he managed to escape. Finding another mage to train him in that esoteric knowledge, Ricco's character, at the beginning of the game, was beginning the process of following up leads to get revenge. Obviously, one such follow up lead to the PC party at the hospital, where, after some dialogue, the party decides that, though they can not trust him, that he could be useful to have in their employ.

After the dialogue, a telegram is received from Captain Crunch (the police officer whom Jesse helped with interrogating the "witch woman") that Jesse should come immediately, with all of his friends. Naturally, the party embarks off to the old ruined house located in the suburbs - the actual house of this police officer. Here, they were informed by the Captain that action must be taken against the cultists that he has been investigating. He had stopped going to work for the last several days, out of suspicion that he was being followed and closely watched after the transpired events.

Captain Crunch's plan was to simply storm the Cult's headquarters, a isolated house near a swamp. There was some arguments as to how to go about doing this, or whether or not they should wait and scout things out - Ricco's character hinted at having supernatural abilities to see and experience without the burden of flesh. A compromise was made, but then the Captain brought to everyone's attention the need for additional cars. Needless to say, Tyler, Jesse, Logan, *and* Ricco all went out and stole a car. Ricco's encounter was innovative - simply calling a cab. However, knocking out the cab driver proved troublesome, and after a lot of mucking about, the party discretely disposed of his corpse.

Once everyone was ready, Captain Crunch doled out some weapons, two revolvers and a shotgun, and they headed out.

When they reached the house, they allowed Ricco to enter his trance-like state. While Ricco begins scouting around the cabin, the rest of the party is approached by what seems to be an individual. Failing to bluff their way out of the situation, a firefight commences. In the spirit world, Ricco notices the house begins to glow from the inside, slowly getting brighter by the moment. He finds he can not approach the house within a certain limit. The house gets near blindingly bright, before a form explodes from the middle. Ricco's character, awed by its power, submits himself - and his soul is promptly eaten.

His body then transforms into a zombie, which begins to attack Captain Crunch while he is attempting to drive away. After the initial firefight, attention was attracted from the house, and people began running all over the place - though not necessarily at the party. When the house began to glow, and something horrible burst forth from it, massive sanity damage was sustained - and discretion was decided to be the better part of valor.

After returning to Captain Crunch's home, the party rested. Some were clearly affected by the previous night's encounter - notably Captain Crunch, who seemed catatonic. Kami and Brandon then left for the hospital, in an attempt to do basic bloodtests for Captain Crunch, while the rest of the party decided to goto Madam Curry's shop to ask questions.

At Madam Curry's, little was discovered, other than that "they had failed" and that they should try to run as far they can. Someone then noticed that a cultist was looking in through the front shop's glass - Jesse, far beyond driven at this point, immediately threw a dagger into the cultist's chest.

The session ended when the party, attempting to quickly seize and hide the body, saw the streets filled with more cultists.

Non-Euclidean

Dear sweet lord of mercy, I do not even know where to begin.

Non-Euclidean has, unofficially, been decided to be the term for this whole campaign, as there have been so much nonsense in so many ways that it is almost hard to keep track.

I suppose we begin with Andrew* having to leave us, and Kami taking his place. She rolled up a Weapon Master with a background of being a Physician. This brings up one of the weak points of such a campaign - how to accuracy translate such an interesting choice in creating a character. After some back-and-forth discussion, it was decided on that her basic backstory was as follows: her father was well off, and provided her with a good education. Ultimately, this ended with her succeeding as a nurse practitioner. For her major hobby as a privileged person, her character preferred something a bit more visceral - fencing. Thus, the party gained not only a potential melee fighter, but finally good means of healing.

With healing mentioned, I do not think I have yet mentioned some of what makes The Black Company setting so gritty and brutal. Healing in the mode of the standard 3.5 DnD way is not accessible until a Wizard reaches 4th level, and even then it is not the same. When healed by the healing spell, the lethal damage is converted from lethal to non-lethal damage. It is also fairly costly on the caster himself, as Wizards will take nonlethal damage as he casts spells. The Physician background allows people, in a limited way, to use the heal skill to also convert lethal damage to nonlethal. While it helps, the main benefit comes from giving people long term care. Treating people for 8 hours of rest grants them three times the standard heal rate, while a full 24 hours grants six times. (This includes ability score damage!) While the usual sword-swinger DnDer might find this hindering and tedious, I like it since it allows for other gameplay mechanics to shine through - like crafting. Finding time to craft in a DnD game can be difficult, and this this system it is more readily available. Another benefit is that it makes players consider the consequences of their actions more, before doing something potentially disastrous.

So, uh, anyway. Going back. The events can be summed up into the party starting around the house, where they are split up as some go with the police (after questioning) to the hospital and some go off on their own. This is actually pretty much the theme of this last session: the party breaking up into pairs, or even individually, to go off and do their own thing. This was not a bad thing by any means, as often times significant strides in the plot were made. It was just maddening because, when everything was said and done, we had to made sure the timeline added up.

After the first time of visiting the hospital (which became a strange sort of base of operations) Kami was introduced to the party. Everyone was questioned further by the police, and a doctor. They discover that the police are on a special investigation after being shown an idol. The police reveal no more information, other than that they trust the party to use discretion.

What happened next is confusing. Tyler managed to find his way back to the party after having split off from them at the beginning of the session. Brandon and Jesse left the hospital early, to find an underground club for some drinks. While there, Jesse spotted the woman who led him into being kidnapped - he secretly took vengeance, throwing a dagger into her chest without being scene. Brandon, with a great amount of wit, managed to escape with her dying body and dispose of it. (Do not ask. It just happened. The dice roll that way sometimes.) Ricco was still guano-pyschosis in the hospital. Andrew stole pharmaceuticals from the hospital.

The next big step was when the party followed leads - Logan used his Knowledge (Local) paired with Gather Information to route out who a good source on such things would be. This led the party to Madam Curry's Voodoo shop. Where, during a bit of haggling and interrogation, the woman that Jesse and Brandon had thought they had previously disposed shows up. Not everyone participated in the following fight, as she bumped into Ricco when he was (almost successfully) getting away from the party. That said, only Ricco and Brandon participated for the most part. Ricco ended up fainting from a failed sanity check (the woman cast a spell!) and Brandon succumbed, after putting up a valiant fight, to the power of her magic. While she continued to approach the store, distracted from conjuring up another spell, Tyler whipped a dagger into her throat after peering out the door.

Chaos reigned supreme in the following events. All nearby bystanders ran and screamed to and fro. Madam Curry ejected the party from her store. The Police began to arrive on scene, and some of the party ran (namely Logan) but not before some of the paranoid characters chained the woman up, packed in a garbage can, and secured the lid. Some of the party then runs, others are taken in for questioning, and some are taken to the hospital.

Ricco and Andrew are questioned. Ricco, seriously affected by madness, is checked into a sanitarium. Andrew is beaten during questioning, and then turned/blackmailed into a lackey of a police captain.

Kami and Brandon are returned to the hospital.

Tyler, Jesse, and Logan try to hide. Logan takes off outright, and Tyler remains in hiding. Jesse, however, is caught by another set of police that show up on the scene as he tries to make off with the garbage can with the dead woman in it. While being arrested, the can begins to move and shake. An officer inspects the can, and when he opens it, he gets a blast of fire in the face, at which point both officers riddle the can with holes. The unhurt officer (who was named "Captain Crunch") looks in the can and exclaims, "It's her! We have to bring her somewhere for questioning," and uncuffs Jesse. From there, they goto a seemingly abandoned house on the outskirts of town, where they meet up with Madam Curry, and then secure the dead woman's body to a chair. At Madam Curry's direction, they cut off the woman's hands, and pluck out her eyes. Later, the dead woman revives, and Madam Curry questions her in a strange tongue. When done, they cut off her head, and burn her body.

The session ended with everyone making it back to the hospital. Thank god.

Inclusion

If memory serves correctly, it has been over a year since the last post on here. Even then, the last campaign mentioned was a repeat, which, in retrospect, was a bad idea to follow through on. Thankfully, this campaign is new, but with seeing them side by side now, it is apparent that on some levels there is not much difference.

Similar to the previous campaign, this campaign takes place in the 1920s. Instead of the players' characters being inter-planar adventurers that bumble their way into the "real world," they are instead immersed directly into the setting. For better or worse, they will be victims to their own vicarious choices. (No mercy!)

For this campaign I am using, what now is, my standby: The Black Company Campaign Setting. While others seemed to have progressed from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 onto other platforms, such as Pathfinder, or other homebrews, I have latched onto this gem. I love it, and I wish that more people within our collection of local gamers would give it an actual try. Sadly, it seems like I am the only person willing to run a game utilizing this system. I used to wonder why, and I have discovered two big reasons: Flavor, and complexity. Let us face it, when we game, we are there for fun and escapism. High fantasy is great for that, and other systems (I will use Pathfinder for comparison) provide that in spades. In addition, Pathfinder has simplified rules and spells - it is something much more friendly to the new and old gamer. The Black Company Campaign Setting, on the other hand, hovers around the opposite end of the spectrum. It is made for those people who like low fantasy, with some gobs of gritty realism. The 3.5 Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is already rather cumbersome with it rules, so having some additional cogs to add to all that clockwork is a burden for the casual gamer - not to mention a beginner. (A third reason can be named, but it is tied in with the complexity: the overhaul of the magic casting system. While once you the system down, you can quickly and proficiently cast spells, learning the system takes a degree of dedication that a lot of people just do not want to commit when it comes to having fun. I can not say I blame them much, but those who do put in the effort seem to rather enjoy the innovation and freedom that new magic system provides.) The saving grace, by far, for the Black Company system is its modularity - you can mix and match aspects and rulings to fit other settings as you see fit.

In the past year, I have seen a lot of different games run and ideas get thrown around. I even had the honor of playing in a few. One involved the D20 Modern Campaign Setting and hunting monsters from the Monster Manual for a company as a living. There also has been numerous zombie campaigns (well, "campaigns") trying to recreate some movie or game (Left4Dead). Lastly, that I can recall at the moment, there has been short campaigns run in history settings in the early modern era of Western culture. Some of these also used the D20 Modern system, while the rest used Pathfinder with some minor modifications. I have picked up a fear of using firearms in my games; I feel they are not properly represented, as well as they usually ruin the game in some form or another. Usually, everyone wants to get their hands on one, which ends up making things boring for all players involved. If that does not cause the eventual downfall of a game, another thing that happens is a player or two goes gets disgruntled because of past experiences with firearms have left a bitter taste in their mouth. (If you are there for fun, why would you put up with something you think will ruin it?) Babbling aside, I decided to conquer this fear, and try to find something that works - using the Black Company system, of course.

I wanted something relatively modern, and so I set out for a wide scale research scope. I had to delve pretty deeply into a lot of different areas, and pool together the knowledge I had gained from handloading my own ammunition and hunting, as well as historical studies. To prevent this post from turning into a novel, I ultimately settled on the nebulous time frame of the "late 1920s." Why? There were a lot of interesting aspects to this time frame that easily stood out and were very identifiable with aspects of the Black Company system. It was also an era where modern still commingled with the old - one would not have to go out of their way to fit in something like a tribesmen, hunter, or a hermit. Paired with that is technology - cell phones and GPS are tricky elements to deal with, so the 1920s has the old familiar DnD ways of doing things (Ham Radios aside). From a legal standpoint, there are a lot of interesting gameplay elements as well. The 1920s is the decade where people sought to improve society from the "old model" which caused the horror of The Great War, and so laws were passed to ensure general betterment. This is where women's suffrage, prohibition, and personal firearms laws come from. (As for firearms, metallurgy was truly being mastered, as well as other technical mechanics. Revolvers were still in their height, with semi-automatic technology being mastered, but not quite yet perfected.) In terms of magic, the late 19th and early 20th century was a prime time for the occult - the prime age for esoteric circles such as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with Aleister Crowley. Lastly, from what I can remember, it was in 1929 that global market began to crash, and the world all but knew it.

It should also be noted that, with this campaign, I am using the rules for full brutality: hits on the surprise round go straight to the Constitution (Con) score, and grievous injury threshold is equal to just the PCs Con score (instead of Con plus Hit Dice). Infection rules are another inclusion, as well as the Sanity system. I almost feel sorry for my players just in terms of everything they have to keep track of and remember.

Speaking of players, I have a total of seven for this campaign. More than what most any Dungeon Master (DM) would care for. (Why do I keep saying DM even when it might be a misnomer?) Several of them are relatively new, but, at this point in my gaming experience, I am starting to see that as a boon rather than obstacle. Yes, it is unfortunate that they are subjected to all of these rules and expected to keep up with the more experienced players, but I am finding that the fresh perspective can help out a lot when trying to solve a situation. Perhaps it is because I am trying to run campaigns that are more than just dice rolling and kicking down the door. Perhaps the system just simply has a weakness against out-of-the-box thinking. Either way, here is a list of my players with their characters' background and class.

Jessie - Prostitute Thief (Yes!)

Logan - Thug Thief

Andrew* - Engineer Scout

Ricco - Criminal Fighter

Tyler - Criminal Thief

Andrew - Con Artist Noble

Brandon - Soldier Zealot

I will make a following post about their background write ups, for the sake of being concise.

The first session opened up with going around the table, one by one, introducing characters, and playing through the PCs' arrival at New Orleans and their encounters shortly afterwards. Most everyone attended Mardi Gras with the slanted intentions - stealing and other underground activities. Oddly enough, Ricco perhaps had the most pure intentions; he arrived in New Orleans simply by happenstance while doing a cross-country hike. Brandon and Andrew* buddied up in being war veterans, and were doing light "watch-my-purse" guard duty for a dilettante who was enjoying the festivities. (Well, Brandon was. Andrew* gathered as much beads as possible.) Some heard of odd happenings going on, mostly involving creepy people who act weird; standing outside people's windows, and sorting through trash. There was not much to follow up on, and being caught up in the ebb and flow of things, most of the party ended up captured. The closest to escape was Tyler, who, over the course of several days, managed to escape traps, encounters, and even the police while visiting every corner of the city. One such avoidance involved hiding the in sewers. At the end of an epic stretch of evasion, Tyler's freedom ended in the outskirts of the city, in a hotel over the swamp. After successfully defending himself against two assailants in the dead of night, the hotel owner, a furious "ragin' Cajun" swamp queen, pummeled him with a lamp when she awake and came to the scene.

After introductions, the party woke up in a dark room, in individual cast iron cages with tin buckets provide for (and with) waste. Others were in the room with them. The situation looked grim. Some tried digging and discovered that the wood of the room was undergoing a state of petrification. Probably the high light event was when a man, described as tall, dark, and handsome, walked into the room to direct some masked lackeys to take away two of the unfortunate prisoners. Logan gave the man some lip, and for that he was rewarded with a "scan" - grubs which were tossed on him that quickly burrowed into his person and caused him to pass out. Later, when the man returned, he harvested the grubs and ate them. Both events caused those had witnessed these to roll a sanity check. Other unfortunate events occurred, such as Jessie's character going through a memory wipe for supposedly learning bit of information that he was not supposed to. Finally, after Logan created lock picks from his tin can, he managed to pick the lock to his cage, and then subdue both the guards left in the room.

After releasing everyone else from their cages, the party then began to work on their first true encounter: a small non-Euclidean maze. Though the complex they were in seemed to be made purely of straight hallways and turns made of right angles, they would find themselves returned back to the the starting hallway if they made a "wrong" turn. Several members tripped over angles which behaved not according to perception. After a lot of time, frustration, and madness caused by failed sanity checks, small groups managed to find their way out - appearing in random places around a small cabin besieged by police.

A shoot-out occurred between the police and the NPC occupants of the household. The Police won. That is where the session ended.

Disclosure

(comments of how the session went.)

The session opened up with the party discovering the remains of Alexander Sebastian VonLichtenstein the Third in his bedroom. Crase Hanes was quick to discover tracks and tentatively find where they lead off to - predictably, to the remaining catacombs.

The entrance into the catacombs is dark, ancient stone hallway that descends into the earth. They didn't have to travel very fair into the hallways before the floor underneath them collapsed into a cavern filled with bones. Here, they battled the Large Howler which had slain their friend, and a handful of skeletons which had risen.

They find an extra which leads to a expansive hallway, and from there they follow the noise of a lullaby to a room with a raised vault. In this room there is a table with the family Matriarch, the source of the lullaby. Crase Hanes, taking no chances, launched two arrows into the animated corpse, which promptly keels over. At this point, two skeletons explode from the walls and attack the party. From the rear, Lizbeth appears, enraged that harm had come to her mother's body.

William "Badass" lives up to his name, wielding the artifact-weapon, and stands toe-to-toe with Lizbeth. Her new form as a Wight is something lithe and bestial; visible talons and fangs are an added part to her humanesque figure, so filled with hate and malice. Crase Hanes aids throughout the fight with a hail of arrows. The fight becomes something of a hideous battle of attrition, and Lizbeth manages to drop (but not kill) William the first time. Father Pavel, somewhere suck in the middle as the party fights undead on two sides and constantly healing, drags William to safety so he can be resuscitated without worry. Finishing off the second skeleton, Sadamamuel calls out to Lizbeth while casting Fly on himself and hovering over the shallow ledge with duel staircases that lead into the raised-vaulted room. Lizbeth, with her bestial strength, handily leaps over the party and gives Sadamamuel a horrible slash with one of her claws. At this point, Sadamamuel manages to limit her mobility by casting Web on her. William is resuscitated, and immediately leaps in after her, going toe-to-toe with her again. Lizbeth's fury is so much at this point, that it begins to manifest itself in a white aura around her, as she seems to move and strike quicker. William is dropped again, but still manages to survive. The rest of the party continue to aid - Cid, in desperation, even throws a crowbar at her. Finally, her fury is quelled when they light the webbing, and her, on fire.

William "Badass" bleeds out while being rescued, again, by Father Pavel.

Combat seemingly over, the party inspects the body of Lizbeth, and finds it regenerating. Hacking by conventional weapons do not seem to do anything substantial. The idea is had to use the scythe, and they behead her - this does the trick. Lizbeth's body then undulates and contracts, with visible power radiating forth and manifesting into another Scroll of Power.

From there, the party returns to the estate, arriving in the morning. They are bumped into a Gardener who is scared out of his wits, exclaiming "Something was watching me!" He runs away, and out of sight, when then two very load noises are heard, accompanied by shouts in a strange language. The party rushes around to see what the issue is, and come face to face with two strange-looking men. Brief, but brutal combat ensues, and the party takes one of the men prisoner. He has a strange note, written in a strange language. With the aid of a spell, the party can read the note, which says, "'Help' has arrived. Eliminate them." The note was signed, presumably, by Ambrose; Jeremiah's brother.

The party interrogates their prisoner, and do not find out much. Although, from Jeremiah and Patrick, they find out the prisoner was a Trsanti - a barbaric people who live for nothing else than to destroy and pillage. They bury him, alive, underneath the grave of William "Badass."

Taking a few days to rest and recover, the Party's next step will be to go into town and acquire a shipment for Jeremiah. From there, they have the options of inspection the several-times-before-mentioned Standing Stones, trying to figure out the situation with the Ghost that was initially encountered, or to look further into the matter of these Pirates.

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...