All right, here it goes. The first part in the story of our campaign and the way it and our ways of gaming developed over the years.
Dungeons & Dragons in Five Decades: The Tale of A Campaign
by Ville LähdeAll Good Things... our 35+ years old campaign is drawing to a close
The Subject line says it all. In 1988, during my first year of high school/upper secondary school (Finnish "lukio", or "gymnasium" in the European tradition, which may sound funny for English speakers), I finally managed to get a proper D&D campaign going, with my trusty Red Box. It has been going on continuously, albeit with some slower periods, for 35+ years: two original PCs, strong continuities of storyline, arching from the release of a dreadful deity towards its destruction, or the destruction of the PCs and their allies – time will tell.
And now it looks like that 2024 will be its final year. It's not about growing old, not about losing our commitment. The storyline has an organic endpoint, and we are fast approaching it. (Also, at very high levels, the OD&D system simply tends to break down a bit, as the players have fine-tuned their skills in utilizing their magical resources to the utmost. Interesting challenges are getting harder and harder to devise, and I feel I have used up most of the tricks up my sleeve, and I don't want things to get redundant.)
Some loose threads may remain, and perhaps some interesting sessions can be built upon then. Still, mainly things are drawing to a close. This is the biggest thing I have ever been engaged with. In my real-world life I have written a few books and hundreds of articles, but still I think that this campaign has engaged about half of my brain capacity all these years. It feels strange to see this alternative world slowly becoming wisps of smoke scattering into wind.
I won't be leaving the Mystara community, as I currently run another campaign with Cyclopedia rules in the Northern Wildlands, Wendar & Braerj area around 800AC. That will endure for some time, barring a TPK (we play a hard game in that campaign).
I was wondering: would people be interested in reading a series of essays about running a long campaign like this? I am not thinking about a campaign journal or such, more something of a "meta-level" series that investigates how the spirit of the campaign changed over the years, how the Mystara Mailing List and its later incarnations helped me, how inconsistencies between historical layers of writing were resolved etc, how official products were tailored to home-brewn stuff etc.
Part I: And So It Begins
Prehistory: Wax Crayons and Dice
For me, it all started during the summer of 1985, when I finally got my hands on the Red Box. I was 12 years old. A small Finnish mail order firm had started to import all kinds of RPG stuff. Finally, it was possible to get to know what role playing games were about! I had read about them, in a couple of articles in two Finnish computer game magazines. I had seen “Mazes and Monsters”, and even noticed the intriguing quasi-RPG played in E.T. On our Commodore 64, I had immersed myself in “Gateway to Apshai”. And of course I was an avid reader of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Le Guin and Susan Cooper. My walls were plastered with fantasy maps. Still, for the life of me, I could not get my head around the concept of role playing games. I tried my hand at drafting my own, but they were merely paper and pen versions of text-based adventures.
All that changed when I opened the Red Box, looking puzzled at the strange dice and the wax crayon. I was supposed to fill the grooves of the dice myself? (I remember that I learned the words “die” and ”dice” doing this – I had a Finnish-English dictionary by my side. “Missile” soon followed.) I got to work, and I can distinctly remember how this simple act was infused with meaning and anticipation. A twenty-sided die, wow.
So, I entered the cave, met Aleena and lost her, and vowed revenge on Bargle. I knew instantly that this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The simplistic storyline tutorial, the choose-your-adventure-introduction, it all clicked. And I knew I would want to be a Dungeon Master, just as I in knew I wanted to be a fantasy author. Eventually, I succeeded in the former and failed in the latter. (Even though in the following years I managed to get one novel and a few short stories published, in the end that part of my life sputtered out.) But for now, the trouble was, I was alone. Nobody I knew was interested in such matters. I posted an invitation for prospective gamers on the notice board of our school. Nobody called me. Nobody.
In the end I found a friend who was also interested. But although two can tango, it is not enough for D&D. However, the first Finnish role-playing game “Secret Treasure of Raguoc in the Acirema Dungeons” was published in 1985, and the author started to write about his sessions in a computer games magazine. The game was written for one game master and one player. We acquired it and played out hearts out. (The author of Acirema would create a fuller RPG system in 1987, and much later we ended up playing in his group, but that is another story.)
I bought a lot of D&D stuff, first from the mail order shop, then from their first real shop in the Finnish capital Helsinki. The first Finnish RPG zine “Seikkailija” (the Adventurer) started in 1987, and it would play a key role in this story. Playing Acirema with my pal was fun, but I longed for more. I remember playing the solo “Ghost of Lion Castle” alone in my room over and over again, until I succeeded – this would feature largely in our campaign much later on.
Our first attempt at creating a Dungeons & Dragons group failed miserably. We tried with the model adventure in the Red Box. Man, I must have designed at least three different versions of the second and third levels of the dungeon, just out of sheer frustration at not getting to DM them to anyone. Finally, we had a group of characters, and they entered the ruins. It all fell apart, partly because some of the guys found the whole thing a joke, partly because I did not understanding how fragile first level characters are.
Origins: New School & Friends for Life
After another summer without gaming, and rereading all the cool gaming stuff I had, I was anxious to try again. I was 16 now, moving to Finnish “lukio” or “high school” (three years, circa 15–19 years old). Everything changed in the sense that in “lukio” you could in choose your friends more, and meet people from a wider area and though your choice of school topics. During the first year, I quite quickly managed to find my posse. One of them was my old pal from way back in primary school, with whom I had written a lot of superhero comics. Three were new acquaintances, and two of them are still part of the ongoing campaign and among my closest and dearest friends.
Not only that, their characters are still with us, after 36 years! Their names, wow… We wanted to emulate the greats, so the magic-user became Radagast. “Dragonlance” stories had just arrived, so the dwarf became Flint Fireforge. There were two fighters, Sledge (from “Sledge Hammer!”), and Thorgg played by my superhero comics friend, who was always a tad more creative.
However, our first adventure was not in Mystara, nor was it any commercial D&D product. I chose to run an excellent adventure from the aforementioned zine “Seikkailija”. It was based in a generic homebrewed fantasy realm, and originally I planned to write my own adventures there. The characters managed to save a kidnapped noble girl, and in the second part of the adventure they foiled the plans of evil clerics but ended up unwittingly releasing an imprisoned dark deity Aphastes, lord of underground rivers. That would not be the last we heard from Aphastes.
My plans to graft my own campaign world were eventually foiled by the sheer avalanche of ready-made material available. “In Search of Adventure” (B1–9) was the key here. I had the Blue Box already, of course, and it had tantalizingly hinted at the wider world and introduced me to Grand Duchy of Karameikos and to Threshold. I wanted to go there, really bad. “In Search of Adventure” offered me a way in. The Protector, Thendara, appeared to the characters, warning that Aphastes would like nothing more than enslave and torture them, and whisked them away to Haven in the mountains of Karameikos. Hey, it’s a kind of magic.
Some sidenotes: During these origin years, the game shop “Fantasiapelit” (Fantasy games) opened another branch to a city closer to us, Tampere, headed by the designer of the Acirema game. That was a boon to my game acquisitions, in addition to the fact that I had some “serious money” now from working part-time at a grocery store. Soon I had all the Boxed Sets and dozens of modules. In addition to this, a friend of my older brothers had been playing D&D for years and years by this point. I think he was not very active at this stage, but he gave me many pointers and photocopied several adventures that were no longer in circulation: “Castle Amber” and “War Rafts of Kron” at least, and he told me stories about the Nomad War and the adventures in Norwold. He really explained to me the breadth of the world that I later would much later learn to call “Mystara”.
The four adventurers entered the Palace of the Silver Princess, battled Catharandamus and freed Ellis and Ariksbane. Sledge died, and the merry halfling Sam Flowerfoot from Haven joined the group. Thendara again whisked them away, this time to a remote logging town called Threshold.
The Basic Years: Four Becomes Five
The transition to Threshold really marks also the beginning of the Mystaran years. I had acquired the first three Gazetteers at this stage, I think, and I had of course read them many times over. (Fun fact: Tanita Tikaram’s “Ancient Heart” came out at this time, and every time I read “Emirates of Ylaruam”, I can hear the songs in my mind.) My old friend with whom we had played “Acirema” joined the group with his cleric character Kiril Petrevich, part of the Cult of Halav. Yes, the first character with a proper backstory! Five would remain the number of players and the characters of our group from that on. Some people would leave, some would return, some new ones would join us. But five PCs plus the Dungeon Master, that fit us.
The Threshold adventure was also my first ever proper home-made scenario. I got the idea from the plot hooks in the Expert Set: undead being used in a logging camp. I stole an undead deity Chemos from the Dragonlance books and created the evil cleric Grafoula (that name came from the Alix comics). The adventurers foiled his plans, destroyed the undead and earned the gratitude of Sherlane of Halaran. But as B1–9 offered the round-trip of modules, there was no more of Threshold this time. Really, at this time I was still following the Boxed Set script: as there were no rules for wilderness travel et cetera, so the PCs would just arrive at their next adventure. Simpler times.
Some sidenotes:
The name “Mystara” did not exist at this time, of course. In any case, I would learn about it much, much later, perhaps as late around 2000–2001 when I started reading Mystara Message Board, later Mystara Mailing List, later Vaults of Pandius and Piazza. For the first 12 or so years I would rely on the Boxed Sets, the official modules and the Gazetteers. I never acquired the Hollow World set, although it was available, and I learned about “Wrath of Immortals” and the “Princess Ark” quite late. As for example there was a relative of paucity of information on the religions, for example, I ended up doing a lot of homebrewed stuff on them, as can be seen later in the series.
There was a lively RPG fandom, but even though D&D sold pretty well in Finland (the Finnish version of Red Box came out in 1988, but the series never got very far and the translation was atrocious), in the fandom Dungeons & Dragons was a tad looked down on. The key RPG zine “Magus” focused quite a lot on Runequest, the zine of the key fandom society emphasized GURPS. Rolemaster was becoming big in the scene. Over the years I managed to get quite a lot of D&D articles and scenarios published in the zines. But there were few others writing about our game.
The next adventure was “Rahasia”. For some reason, my recollections about how that went are a tad hazy. I know I was still learning the ropes as a Dungeon Master, trying to find the balance of pulling my punches and not mollycoddling the PCs, avoiding total party kills and not creating a sense that the threats are not real. Fortunately, Rahasia included some friendly allies that the PCs managed to free, and thus they avoided a disaster. Still, another of the original PCs, the fighter Thorgg, was killed by Rahib.
After saving the Siswa monastery, the PCs were hired by Sascia of Luln, a friend of the elves, to spy on Black Eagle Barony. In the traditional railroad fashion, they were captured, and in their cell they met the new PC, the fighter Ivan Ivanovich of Verge. They escaped, and fearing retribution of Black Eagle, Sascia helped them to travel to Specularum, just in time for the millennium celebrations of 1000 AC. Actually, I am not sure whether I originally replaced the Festival of Lucor with the millennium celebrations or if I did it retroactively when placing the campaign on the Mystaran calendar later on.
I was running “Veiled Society” from B1–9, so I did not have the model houses or the cutout characters. That would have been so cool. (Actually, later on, the aforementioned older pioneer showed me his original copy of “Veiled Society” with the different pre-Gazetteer-era map of Specularum, with much lower population figures. I really liked the map.) If I remember correctly, I enticed the players to originally take different sides in the conflict, as the module suggests, and it worked pretty well. Veiled Society was destroyed, but Cartha and Antonito Radu fled, only to return much later. Estaish was saved, and he would become an enduring ally in many future events.
The Basic Set era was drawing to a close, and it ended with a homemade scenario called “Täysikuu” (Full Moon) that was published in a Finnish RPG zine. A minion of Bargle called Galla (the name was again taken from the Alix comics) tried to assassinate a merchant that the PCs were escorting from Specularum to Luln. An attack by a werewolf complicated matters.
In Luln the adventurers met Stephan of Sukiskyn and set out on a new kind of journey.
Part II: The Iron Ring
This phase of our campaign represents not only moving from the Red Box to the Blue Box, from the brief Basic sojourn into the much longer Expert era. It was also during this transition that I really started learning what being a Dungeon Master was all about. Until now I had run a series of unrelated modules, with barely a glance at the wider world. What facilitated this learning was of course the excellent, unique, trailblazing module “Night’s Dark Terror” (B10). I really think that had I not had the good luck of finding it in our local gaming store, my D&D life might have been much different, and perhaps even brief.
These were still our “high school” years (in the somewhat different Finnish system), and our group was gaming like hell, and not only Dungeons & Dragons. I have no exact recollections, but two games a week may have been the rule at times. Alongside D&D we had extensive and immemorable campaigns in GURPS and Shadowrun, involving most of the people in our D&D group. One of our group started an AD&D 2ed campaign in the Realms, and it would run for years and years. It is most likely permanently mothballed now, but I still have my necromancer’s sheet on my computer. I ran Paranoia at times, and some of the others were doing MERP, Rolemaster and Twilight 2000, at least. Heady years. But always we had time for some serious D&D.
“Night’s Dark Terror” opened up with clashes with Iron Ring and the cinematic battle of Sukiskyn, which we all loved. The halfling Sam Flowerfoot was killed, due to his rash decision to go scouting among the goblinoid hordes. After the battle, the Callarii elf Meadil the Silent joined the group. There was another PC change when the player of the cleric Kiril Petrevich left the group for a while, and was replaced for a while by Alexander Penhaligon, from Church of Traladara. Kiril’s player would return fairly soon and take over Alexander – both have remained with the group ever since.
The search for Stephan was just what I had been anticipating from the Blue Box: the thrill of discovering new places, the hardships of wilderness travel, the role of weather, exploring new towns and cities. End even though this stage of the module has a clear beginning and an end, a mystery to be revealed, so an inherently linear structure, the route taken is fairly open-ended. Of course, as the route is formed by breadcrumbs of clues, there is not much real freedom of exploration for the PCs yet. But the feeling was great.
At this point I was also making executive decisions about the future. Karameikos as described in B10 is somewhat different from the one in the Gazetteer. Settlements are smaller and fewer in number, and the nation seems less established. I ended up toning down the Gazetteer version of Karameikos towards the rougher frontier-like country, with the aim of developing it towards the more settled one during our campaign. This was a fine decision, I think, and it formed the backbone of one key threads of the campaign during the later “solo phases” when the PCs would separate into their own domains. For now, I needed a more mysterious Karameikos, with dangerous roads and dark forests outside settlements and smaller cities.
After many adventures, the adventurers finally found enough clues to lead them to the Wolfskulls. It was a tough fight, but they managed to free the prisoners. Stephan was not there, of course, so they sought Loshad’s help in order to find the ruins of Xitaqa. Despite the whole Xitaqa affair being inherently railroaded (Golthar has to escape), I really liked it, and the adventurers really had it in for the magic-user Golthar at this point.
Meadil the Silent left the group after the player decided to end gaming. Five became four, for a short while. (Much later, Meadil would return as a recurring NPC.)
After the predetermined conflict-ridden travel north, the PCs returned finally to Threshold. This was the second city-based adventure after “Veiled Society” and much freer in form, and I was a tad more experienced in running such matters now. Here the group was joined by a new PC, the thief Yuri Turambar. Originally Yuri came from a small human settlement outside Highforge, but this son of merchants had been alienated from his family and been taken up by the Callarii elves. So culturally he was in between elves and humans, but his lust for lucre and inclination for mischief had eventually forced him to move to Threshold.
So now the group that was later fondly named “The Fab Five” was together. All these PCs are still alive – of course in later years they would die and be resurrected multiple times, but that is high-level D&D for you. And only one player change would take place from here on, as Ivan Ivanovich’s original player would leave the group. But that would be far into the campaign future.
Golthar was finally killed. It was a great memorable battle, the first engagement with a high-level magic-user ever in the campaign, and the first troll too, I think.
Then the group headed into the mountains, searching the Lost Valley. In the Valley things became again more open-ended, as the PCs could engage in diplomacy and intrigue among the two competing groups, Traldar and Hutaaka. This phase of the module worked excellently, and Kartoeba was a terrible opponent, a proper final monster.
In Lost Valley, I also set up some key homebrewed elements of our campaign – elements that diverge substantially from Mystaran canon. For some reason, I had an antipathy towards the concept of Immortals at this point and wanted to flesh out more traditional deities. (As I mentioned in the previous post, the paucity of material was a contributing factor.) So I decided that behind the Traladaran trinity there was a unity, a deity that had looked after the Traldar since the Nithian times and led them into their new lands after the fall that was caused by the hubris of Thanatos. I took the name of the deity from Susan Cooper’s novel “Seaward” and named her Taranis. Taranis, with the aspect of a maiden, was a bitter enemy of Thanatos. In the Lost Valley, Alexander Penhaligon learned the truth behind the legend, that it was the Hutaaka who taught Traldar higher crafts and used to be their masters and the masters of present-day Karameikos before abandoning them. Alexander suffered a crisis of faith and had a mystery: where did his spells and other powers stem from?
After “Night’s Dark Terror” I ran my first extensive campaign-level scenario, after the B10 plot hook “Sukiskyn Calls”. I called this scenario “Wrath of the Iron Ring”. The slavers had attacked Sukiskyn, burned it down and captured all their friends. A veritable roundtrip of Karameikos ensued, as the PCs destroyed one Iron Ring cell after another, trying to learn more about the organization and the fate of their friends. During their travels they met Retameron and Halia Antonic, foreshadowing “Skarda’s Mirror” (X12) in the future. The meeting was not amicable, as Ivan Ivanovich, also from Verge, is not a nice man. They also met an Ethengarian magic-user Eztar, the inheritor of Sargon, the only initiate to solve the riddle of the Lion Castle (yes, the solo PC I mentioned in the first part of this series). Eztar was travelling the world, aiming to gather the knowledge and the resources that he would need to gain control of the Lion Castle. He had several companions, and all of them would figure heavily in the future of the campaign, after many years. There was a cleric of “the Lion God” – I did not have specific plans about this yet, but as we can see later during the “Sage of the Shadowlord”, a big part of the campaign would cohere around this seed. This foreshadowing was part of my long game in campaign-building.
Among all this was interwoven Alexander Penhaligon’s religious quest: in Krakataos, the PCs fought a green dragon, their first dragon ever, and found the Tomb of Halav. Taranis appeared to Alexander, revealing the truth about his religion and making him the first “real” cleric of Taranis in ages. This was connected to the fate of one old PC, Kiril Petrevich, who was now an NPC and was living in Sulescu. Patriarch Sergeyev had died, the Cult had fragmented, but with his final prophecy, Sergeyev had sent Kiril to stay in Sulescu, to await the appointed hour.
The PCs learned that Iron Ring was planning a slave raid on Sulescu with the forces of the Black Eagle. They traveled to Sulescu in a hurry and manage to take part in the battle. This was the first mass combat I ever tried, but we did not use any mass combat system. Instead, we ran the battle as episodes where the PCs took part in combat in various parts of the city, separate from each other and together. During these events Alexander Penhaligon learned the true nature of Lord Zemirov Sulescu but accepted that he was a good guy or at least a valuable ally despite his undead nature. Kiril learned the truth about Taranis and became a friend of Alexander – fittingly, as Alexander was played by the original player of Kiril. Kiril would become a recurring NPC or even a secondary PC later on.
Now the PCs knew enough about Iron Ring to strike at the heart of the organization. A series of adventures in Black Eagle followed. They killed another Master of the Iron Ring, who was none other than Antonito Radu, one of their old enemies. This was the second battle the PCs had with a severely higher level magic-user. In Antonito’s HQ they learned about an alliance of Iron Ring and the Cult of the undead deity Chemos, known to them from their first Threshold adventure. They travelled to Blight Swamp, gaining along the way the help of the halfling Striker team led by Nipa Greatheart. Nipa would become an important recurring NPC. In the middle of the swamp, they found the temple of Chemos and fought yet again with the dark cleric Grafoula, who had been resurrected by his patron. To their great sadness, they also encountered some folks of Sukiskyn as undead.
The final battle took place in a small village, in the castle of an Iron Ring High Master, an evil dwarf. The PCs were victorious and released a bunch of prisoners, including the Ylari magic-user, Mizra Amalisah (future wife of the PC Radagast Emry). In the castle, they found a host of information on Iron Ring and delivered it to Sascia of Luln, who had helped them before after “Great Escape”. As the remnants of the Iron Ring would surely try to avenge their comrades, Sascia helped them to escape to Selenica and wait there until Sascia would send the word that it was safe to return.
Part III: From the Manic Mansion to the Abyss
This chapter covers a longer period of real-world time and in-game time than the previous ones, including big changes in the lives of both the players and the PCs. The PCs entered the wider world, Karameikos was no longer the hub of all their concerns, and eventually they would go their separate ways, all across the Known World. In our Mystara, this covers the years 1002–1008. “The Fab Five” would not regroup until after two years, in 1011, when something was brooding in Akesoli… but let’s get back to that in a later chapter. In real world too, high school ended and we scattered all across Finland for a while, but the bond of friendship and adventure was never broken.
In my mind, the scheme of an overarching campaign story had already begun to form. Some seeds had already been planted earlier (the deity Taranis, the mage Eztar, the silver dragons, Kitiara), and although at this stage the campaign still consisted mostly of commercial scenarios, other things began to happen in the world, heralding future events, and eventually the PCs put down roots.
Trying to stay out of sight in case Iron Ring was trying to get their revenge, the PCs holed up in Specularum for several months. This downtime included several important events. The overt Dragonlance influences, which do make me blush a tad now, continued. Ivan Ivanovich met the female warrior Kitiara and began an on-and-off relationship that endured many years. Following the ideas in the novels, this was meant to be a tragic tale of love and betrayal, and it was that too: the finale was reached in 2023. But luckily over the next real-world years, this simplistic idea morphed into something more complex and real, mostly down to the player(s) of Ivan infusing their own personal touch.
The magic-user Radagast Emry took his “wizarding test”, another Dragonlance-inspired idea. We played a nice solo session together, and it included some serious foreshadowing of the future campaign. “Silver Dragons” and their human form were introduced – again an idea stolen from Dragonlance, but I am happy to say that in the coming years I would develop it into something more original and more interesting, I think. Also, the wizarding order that Radagast joined would be developed much more deeply later and be interwoven deeply into the history and mythology of our version of Mystara.
I think it was during the wizarding test that I devised a cool stack of handouts, a book of mysteries written in coffee-browned “parchment” and written in ink with “a magical alphabet”. It gave Radagast Emry the basics on elemental opposition and domination, the structure of the planes, mandragora from GAZ3… and the legend of the Dorfinian Realm. Yes, that “Dorfin” from the Master Set map! Most of the continent was still terra nullius for me (remember, I had not even read “the Princess Ark” series). I had an idea that the realm was a secret because it was inhabited by isolationist psionics, so only a vague legend existed. I just tucked this idea in my pocket and thought that one day I might be able to use it. I did, in 2021, roughly 30 years later! Talk about playing the long game. But during those decades, the original idea became much more complex.
The third key Selenican event was a meeting with a soothsayer who gave all the PCs a personal prophecy. These were fragments of the future of the campaign I had in my mind. Some of them would be realized fairly soon, some of them very late (even as recently as 2023), and many of them would never be realized at all, or if they did, in a transformed form. This represents the many changes, and mostly improvements, that took place in my thinking and skill as a Dungeon Master. My campaign ideas were originally much too linear and railroading, but they evolved over the years. Instead of rigid structures they became more like complex flowcharts of alternative futures, the tumbleweed of which would evolve constantly due to the events in the campaign and the decisions by the players, and as I decided to skip earlier bad ideas. However, I always tried to avoid retconning stuff too roughly and really gave myself a hard time in order to make the changes seem legible from in-game perspective. This would resonate eventually to the metaphysics and the theory of history of the whole campaign. Sure, I could have made it easier on myself, but this work challenged me in an interesting way for decades.
The prophecies were written on small pieces of paper, and the players paperclipped them to their character sheets. I think all of them still have theirs.
“Castle Amber” (X2) was next. It was no longer available in stores when I began my career, but as I mentioned, an older friend photocopied his. The PCs were captured by the magical mist and had crazy adventures in the manic mansion, entered quasi-France and rescued Etienne. So, in our campaign Etienne would not be an Immortal, as that notion did not fit the timeline, and in any case I never really liked that idea. (Accordingly, Radiance does not figure much in our campaign.) My memories about running this module are very hazy, especially as I recently ran it for my other group and spent considerable time and effort with it. So the newer layer covers the old.
Next the PCs were approached by Ivan Ivanovich’s sister Andrya, who worked as an apprentice for Lady Halia Antonic in Verge. So obviously this was a tie-in to “Skarda’s Mirror” (X12). After the short adventure in the Antonic tower, Ivan’s player continued to infuse his personal touch to the character, and Ivan’s troubled relationship with his father ended up in a violent separation. Ivan, a wealthy man after his adventures, gave his mother and sister enough money to relocate to a bigger town and live comfortably. If I remember correctly, the attack by Skarda’s minions took place in Luln. The PCs were captured, they led the insurrection and ended up saving Duke Stefan. One of Skarda’s officers was Cartha Radu, so the last old enemy of that family was killed.
After the fight, the PCs were given the status of Court Lords, and Specularum became a temporary hub for them. Yuri Turambar met Flameflicker and formed his first Thieves’ Guild connection. Kitiara left the group: she wanted to explore the world. Radagast Emry and Mizra Amalisah, whom the PCs had rescued from Iron Ring, formed a relationship.
Sidenotes:
Sometime around here, high school had ended, and people were beginning their higher studies, and going to the army – mandatory in Finland – or its civilian alternative. This scattered us geographically for many years, so the frequency of games was lower, especially as the lively AD&D 2ed campaign was competing for scarce gaming time. In addition to that, in 1993 I became part of another gaming group that played intensively, once a week almost through the year, for the next decades. That group is still active and the frequency of play is almost as hectic, although I cannot attend as frequently. Most importantly, this gave me a chance to be a player instead of a Dungeon Master after a long pause. We have played a huge number of long campaigns with Harnmaster, Warhammer, Call of Cthulhu, Rolemaster, Warpworld, Millennium’s End, Paranoia, Blue Planet, FATE, Adventurer Conqueror King, Burning Wheel and a host of other indie games (e.g. Poison’d, Dogs in the Vinyard, Lacuna, 3:16, Universalis). Mystara has been a substantial part of that life too! I ran my Specularum Series of adventures with FATE. Originally, I had written them for the Finnish RPG zine Claymore and had never played them, so it was great to do that finally. I have also rewritten them for the Vaults of Pandius. In the Vaults there is also some material on my Caravan Campaign involving the great Shadowelf conspiracy (originally run with HARP). And currently I am running a long OD&D campaign in Wendar, Denagoth, Braerj around 800AC. My experiences with this group, with different rule systems and various approaches to game-mastering and playing, have been invaluable in developing my Dungeon Master abilities and making this campaign more nuanced than it would otherwise have been.
Now, it was time for the PCs to enter the wider world. The ambassador of Thyatis in Karameikos hired the PCs to solve a mysterious pirate problem. “Drums on the Fire Mountain” (X8), despite including some seriously problematic racial and cultural descriptions, is a well-written dungeon crawl with some wilderness and seafaring frosting. There were some close calls, and I nearly killed off the whole group due to my still inexpert dungeon mastering and had to insert some deus ex machinaesque elements to save the situation. But in the end the experience was a rewarding one. During the sea voyage I inserted another bit of foreshadowing, as Radagast Emry met the Hydra, and ancient sea creature that prophesied his return to these waters. (The notion of the Age of Hydra, explained in later chapters, was forming in my mind.)
Next it was time for another large-scale homebrewed adventure that took even more work than the earlier “Wrath of the Iron Ring”. This was “Saga of the Firelord”. (Much later, I wrote a scenario based on this for the Vaults of Pandius and later edited it for Threshold, Issue 3.)
I had drawn a map of Thanegioth archipelago years ago, coming up with the names of the islands. One of them was the Isle of the Firelord. I got the name from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Earthsea” novels, and one of the islands was even named “Farthest Shore” (a novel as old as me, incidentally). I needed a Firelord and created a high-level magic-user on the orange commercial character sheets meant for high level play (AC5 or AC6). But he was of course much too powerful to use in play, yet, so I tucked him and the map away in my archives. Now it was time to bring them into the light. I remember preparing this stuff in Oulu, a northern Finnish city, during my long alternative civilian service in a refugee center. This was during the Bosnian War in the real world.
Some word on technology: although I had had a clunky PC for some years, with a matrix printer producing faded script, I had done most of my stuff with pen and pencil. I still do a lot of it that way. But I think at this stage I started to write gaming stuff on my (new) PC and print handouts on a proper printer. “Saga of the Firelord” included a lot of handouts. Lovecraftian influences were strong, due to the work of the late S. Albert Kivinen, a Finnish Mythos writer, and due to some great campaigns I had the pleasure of taking part in my other gaming group (“Masks of Nyarlathotep” especially). I also tied Firelord strongly to the legends of Nithia, as I had decided to use them substantially later on in the campaign.
I won’t go into the details of the Firelord saga, as anyone interested can read the Threshold article. I just want to pick up some essential elements for the overall campaign. The elf Cymoril Stargazer, a NPC, joined the group after forming a relationship with Yuri Turambar. Cymoril is with us still, practically a secondary PC. Ivan Ivanovich reawakened the dormant spirit of Rak’Asta, the great paladin of the Lion God (remember that deity was introduced when they met Eztar from “Ghost of the Lion Castle”) and was fundamentally altered. Fittingly, Ivan would also soon get a new player, as my old primary school pal left the group. After this change, the current constellation of players was formed.
The PCs defeated Firelord’s troops and allies across the western and central archipelago, saving the elves and the Sea Dragons, and infiltrated the Isle of the Firelord. They managed to break up the Ritual of Ascension, so the Firelord Daricus did not become the next Nexus of Rathanos. Daricus escaped but he would return later in the aforementioned Nithian phase of the campaign.
The PCs brought news of the Firelord’s fall to Thyatis, and in the coming years, Thyatis invaded and conquered the islands. This was the first part of a long and complicated backstory of Thyatian and Alphatian relations, which some of the PCs would end up influencing fatefully.
Then, Thyatians asked them to help their far northern Wendarian allies. Again, as I did not have “the Princess Ark” series, nor was I connected yet with the international fandom, our Wendar and the northern lands were formed fundamentally by the scarce material in the modules. Wendar would be a less settled nation, and of course seriously weakened by the previous Wizards’ War and the plague. Heldann was the Freeholds, Freiburg an independent trading city.
Basically, I ran the adventure as written. The only major alteration was that the PCs learned of Aphastes’s rise and arrival on Brun. The PCs discovered an alliance between the Shadowlord, the cult of Idris and Aphastes, the deity freed from imprisonment in the beginning of the campaign. They learned that Aphastes was conquering vast tracts of northern Brun. I also introduced the silver-haired healer Ariannaid, with whom Ivan Ivanovich formed a relationship. Radagast Emry knew that she was a silver dragon but kept silent. In the Wraith Lord part of the adventure, I made a connection between the Blackstick and the undead deity Chemos and linked both to Nithia, continuing to lay the foundations for the future Nithian phase of the campaign. Now I had a “triumvirate” of Nithian deities, Thanatos, Chemos and Rathanos to work with later.
After the PCs defeated Landryn Teriak for the second time, Bensarian gave them some helpful comments on their old prophesies. I was already devising material for the coming solo phase of the campaign, and this was part of the groundwork.
After a short tussle with the remaining Dark Lancers and Brulefer in Yuri Turambar’s new dominion by the western borderlands, the PCs headed north towards Ghyr. Cymoril Stargazer remained behind to take care of the dominion of his new husband. I liked “Quest for the Haertstone” (XL1) on paper, but it really was not that memorable. However, the master thief Danakhriss became Yuri Turambar’s enduring nemesis, for good story value in the future.
“Crown of Ancient Glory” (X13) was next. It of course conflicts a lot with the Gazetteer, so I had to make some choices. I decided to make our Vestland a hybrid of both. The Forsettian faith was dominant, and the social system was not so “Viking”. As I wanted to enforce the role of the Forsettian religion, I decided to drop the whole Asgard mythology. I transported those religions to the past (around the middle of the millennium) and started to develop my idea of “the Time of Withdrawal” – more on this in the next chapter on “Twin Campaigns”.
The module is strictly railroaded, a linear sequence of encounters and events, but the atmosphere is great. The group liked it very much, and the module ran nicely. After the destruction of Vana Cullen and the coronation of Tenitar, Ivan Ivanovich became the Duke of Estine. But the new king allowed him to take part on one more adventure with his friends, as Mindrothad approached them on the basis of their earlier work against the pirates and the Firelord. There was trouble again in the sealanes.
It was time for “War Rafts of Kron” (X7). I really like this module, as it offers a novel environment, interesting political intrigue with no predetermined paths and an excellent Boss Fight. It ran very well for our group. After the Ierendian princess was rescued, Radagast was invited to take possession of the Isle of Hydra, fulfilling the prophecy he heard years earlier.
The group gathered one more time in Specularum to divide their loot gathered during so many years and to celebrate Radagast Emry’s and Mizra Amalisah’s marriage. Alexander Penhaligon was anointed as a Patriarch. So now most of them, except Flint Fireforge, had a place of their own. Alexander stayed in Karameikos, Yuri returned to Wendar, Radagast and Mizra moved to their island, and Ivan returned to Vestland, taking Flint with him to aid in the renovation of the Estine Keep.
Next, we would see a long solo adventure phase, with the PCs adventuring alone or sometimes in pairs. But before I move on, in the next chapter I have to talk a bit about “the Twin Campaigns” and the complicated historical and religious patterns of our version of Mystara.
When I started posting on the Mystaran Message Board way back when, my pseudonym was “Twin Campaigns”. That was a reference to a sub-campaign that we had played in Mystara with three guys from our group. Eventually that campaign was integrated into the same timeline and was heavily interwoven with the main campaign, as we can see when I explain “the World Cross”. In real world time, this sub-campaign was mostly played during our early Expert Years described in the previous chapter, in late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In Mystaran time, it happened in the 440’s AC.
I purchased the one-on-one module “Blade of Vengeance” (O2) very early in my gaming career and loved it: the artwork, the maps, the denizens of Emerlas, and the tightening timetable. So sometime during the early Expert Years, I asked one member of our group (Yuri Turambar’s player) to try it out with me. We enjoyed the module so much that we wanted to continue Erystelle’s exploits. As in the main campaign I was still mostly running commercial scenarios, moving from one distinct adventure to the next, writing a more continuous storyline of my own was a nice change of pace and good practice.
Being an actor and a director, my pal created a wonderful personality for Erystelle, with warts and all. He continued to battle against the remnants of Khordarg’s hordes. Dorneryll and Emerlas were fleshed out even more, and eventually we asked two other guys to join us. There was Isenthain, a cleric of Thor (or Tyr, a Darokinian variant of the name) – as I mentioned in the earlier chapter, I used the Asgardian deities in this campaign that took place centuries before. Later on, this spawned the idea of the Old Gods that would disappear during “the Time of Withdrawal” (see next chapter). The third PC was Priam Stuka, a human fighter but really a golden dragon who suffered from a kind of amnesia. A terrible madness was afflicting the golden dragons, and his dragon essence had hidden itself in the human form. In times of great danger and stress, it could still appear.
After I had scoured “Blade of Vengeance” of all usable material, I decided to improvise a bit. In our gaming sessions, I created encounters on the fly, with a story emerging out of it. I took the idea of Snow Pearls from “Mystery of the Snow Pearls” (CM5), which I had played a bit, and ran with it. Basically, nothing remained of the original module. I created a legend of my own for the Snow Pearls and I actually still have the original printout from my clunky matrix printer! The three PCs were hunting for the pearls, and I came up with other interested parties: shadowelves, “black mages” (servants of Barimoor), and strange “white demons”. Erystelle gained some of the snow pearls, and their powers grew as their number increased. Some events took place in Oberon’s lands so I got to use “Tall Tales of the Wee Folk” finally.
As you must have gathered from the previous installments of this story, these were the heydays of Dragonlance influences for me. So, it is no big surprise that draconians appeared on the scene. They attacked Alfheim from the northern mountain, with magically enslaved dragons on their side. There were many battles: the PCs were active especially near Corunglain, and they were joined by the NPCs Deorhelm, a bard, and Greenhair, a character from my old fantasy stories (one of them got published in the Finnish zine “Seikkailija”). At the heart of the incursion from Krynn was a huge magical crystal that facilitated dragon control, and in the end the PCs managed to destroy it. The war was ended, but the draconian threat remained.
To combat the threat, Isenthain was given a quest to locate Mjöllnir, the legendary hammer of Thor/Tyr. I wanted to try something new in campaign creation, so instead of locating clues the PCs initially followed magical leaves, blown in the winds of fate. This took them first to Rennydale, where they fought doppelgangers, and then to Itheldown Island to help the owl-people Hsiao against strange demons working as a collective intelligence. In this adventure, Erystelle & co gained a strange magical knife, a key part of the quest. I had stolen that idea from the French comic “Rahan” that was published in a couple of Finnish papers. The idea was simple and wonderfully silly: after every adventure you roll the knife around on the ground and see where it points you.
It was around here that the PCs also learned that luck was draining away from the world. All professions where luck was a key factor were deteriorating, and I introduced catastrophic fumbles to the game system, and they would become incrementally worse. The reason for this all was that a deity, a manifestation of luck, had been captured by the White Demon of Sind (see below) and broken into pieces to roam the world. They took the form of ten mad beggars. (I can remember the inspiration for this clearly. During our university excursion to the newly independent Estonia in 1992, we had an evening in the opera. The experience was touching, but I understood nothing of the story. Thus, I began crafting my own.)
The Quest Knife led Erystelle and his companions into Atruaghin, where they were pursued by agents of the Draconian Council, joined by a shadowelf assassin. This is the only time we have adventured in Atruaghin, in either campaign, although in the coming Nomad War the country would play an important role.
Next stop was Pramayana, where the PCs were involved in a mystical struggle between “white and black demons” (inspired also by a dance in the Estonian opera). Some elements were taken from the movie “Warlock” that I had seen a couple of years before. The black demons were the underdogs in the struggle against the white demons of the Sind Desert. The PCs learned to communicate with the black demons: they had to do it via drawings, learning to interpret distorted images and drawing their own in a distorted form. This was a fun experiment!
They beat back the white demons using salt as a weapon (this was the Warlock element), but they also learned that sometimes the White Demons would consolidate into a more powerful form able to leave the Sind Desert and wreak havoc in the world. One was out and about somewhere in the west, but the mythical Salt Sword could help them defeat it.
A sidenote: I took elements from this experience and wrote the scenario “The Daemon With a Saddened Countenance” for the first issue of the Finnish zine “Claymore” (1993). And in 2002 I wrote an English version for the Mystara Mailing List – you can find it in the Vaults of Pandius.
To find the Salt Sword, the PCs had to enter deeper into Sind. “Creature Catalogue” (AC9) had just come out, so of course the PCs fought Sis’thik, Xytar and Desert Ghosts. They also witnessed the madness of the desert dragons for the first time. Finally, they discovered the Salt Sword, and along with it a mysterious cross in a huge glass crater. This was the “World Cross”. What was that?
We were somewhere in the mid-1990’s, and our main campaign was in the first “solo phase” (see the next chapter). It was around here that the idea of a meeting of the two campaigns began to take form. I created the idea of “the Age of Forgetting” in the main campaign, caused by a piece of “the fabric of the world” breaking off and flying away into the past. (I am pretty sure that Star Trek Next Generation finale “All Good Things…” was the inspiration here.) I got pretty metaphysical here: the adventures of both “the Fab Five” and Erystelle & co resulted from the world trying to heal itself! Many important things in the campaign, even emerging coalitions of deities, would simply be byproducts of this.
In possession of the Salt Sword, the PCs learned that the White Demon had occupied faraway Hule and was “controlling luck” and creating all the trouble. They travelled to Hule and were aided in their quest by a clerical society working underground: the Cult of Hosadus. I wanted to create some backstory for the coming Nomad War in the main campaign, so I decided that there was an earlier Nomad War, which took place after the Erystelle years around 500AC. “Hosadus” was not just one villain but a mythical figure who would be reborn, a Muad’Dib of sorts. Having an earlier Nomad War was also key for devising the mythology around the Crystal Dagger and the Soul Gems, and explaining why the places were where they were. Why, for example, was one in the tomb of an elven king? Let’s get back to that in a later chapter.
Erystelle & co managed to destroy the White Demon and bring Luck back into the world, and in the process, they helped along the ascension of the next Hosadus, but that would take many decades. Next, they travelled to Adri Varma to solve the mystery of the madness of the golden dragons. (I called it “the Plateau of Gods”. As I had never seen the B3 map, I had to devise something myself).
The Eldest Golden Dragon was enslaved by the Chaos Dragon, a rainbow-colored near-deity I had devised. Erystelle and his friends managed to drive it off, but the blade of Scorbane was left in a wound, and the Chaos Dragon flew off with it, bleeding “chaotic blood”.
This was actually linked to a key invention in the main campaign. I had decided for some time now to ditch the Dragonlance influences and leave them in the Erystelle era. But I needed a unique type of intelligent monsters to act as the most loyal troops of Aphastes in the future. Thus, I created “the Scaly Ones of the Rainbow”, strange creatures emerging from the dripping blood of the Chaos Dragon. Slowly they would appear in the main campaign. The Chaos Dragon would be seen much, much later, in our session in 2022.
To heal the tormented Eldest Golden Dragon, Priam Stuka gave up his dragon essence. Isenthain found Mjöllnir. And suddenly something happened: they were whisked away to a Neverwhere, a Neverwhen, to help in the healing of the world. But more about that and “the World Cross” and “the Time of Withdrawal” in the next chapter.
I was always meaning to return to the story of Erystelle and his friends: to finish the fight against the draconians, to witness “the Time of Withdrawal” when the nature of our Mystara was altered, to see how their lives turned out. But a lot was happening in the main campaign, as the first solo phase was going on, and I was preparing for the Nomad War. There simply was no time. However, this was not the last time that Erystelle was seen in the campaign. But he would return much, much later, after nearly a quarter of a century in the real world.
Part V: Going Solo
The next stretch of the campaign was a long one. In Mystaran time, the PCs spent the years 1009–1010 and the first few months of 1011 mostly separate in their respective dominions and strongholds. In real world time this took substantially longer, better part of the 1990’s, I think.
The in-game reasons for playing an extended solo period were to allow the players to experience the dominion rules, to flesh out their home countries and in general to make the whole Known World a much more real place in preparation for the coming Nomad War. The war would feel like a tangible threat when it was aimed at lands and people the PCs knew well.
The main real world reason was the fact that our group was geographically separated, with different life situations. I was heavily engaged in both my studies, teaching at the university, writing book reviews, and in environmental activism – especially editing and publishing a political magazine. My other gaming group was playing weekly. It is a small wonder that our campaign stayed alive during those years, but we would always find time for it. And playing solo games made it easier to fit sessions into the calendar. Sometimes players would visit each others’ solo games, either as NPCs or as their own PCs.
The grand “meta-plot” of this era was the same as in the latter part of the Erystelle sub-campaign. The world was directing each PC towards the same goal, to the moment and the place when “the World Cross” broke away from the fabric of the world. As that time approached, “the Forgetting” grew stronger. The fabric of the world was fraying, towards the past and the future, driving sages and soothsayers temporarily insane (for example Bensarian of Kevar, their friend).
However, the main point was of course to develop key features of our campaign world, to create a host of new locations and personalities, to immerse ourselves in Mystaran politics, diplomacy and religions. Another key element was to reveal to the PCs that Aphastes was active on Brun. Aphastes’s agents were central in the solo campaigns of Flint, Ivan and Yuri. Aphastes was still taking over the northern parts of Borea, but he was already reaching south and preparing ground for a future invasion. (Although with the onset of the Nomad War he would pause his invasion, not wanting to tread on Thanatos’s turf. He did not want to disrupt the activities of the PCs either, because actually he hoped Thanatos would fail, but could not reveal or act on this openly.)
On the game system:
I think “Rules Cyclopedia” appeared around this time. That did not change much. We took on the skill system, even though it never fit the structure of the rules that well: too many skills, too few skill slots, and some too powerful skills like Alertness that break fundamental mechanics of D&D (not to mention Detect Deception or Danger Sense). Some house rules were established, but not much. We never took on the Weapon Mastery rules.
On campaign design:
The actions of the PCs, and the decisions and the inclinations of the players, began to affect the structure of the campaign more. All in all, the process of writing became slowly more interactive. Our Mystara was fermenting over time, but as was my modus operandi, I did not want the changes to show as ruptures and retconning but as events with reasons and explanations. (The whole notion of “the Time of Withdrawal” and the whole “World Cross” business emerged from such considerations. More on this at the end of this chapter.)
The solo games also created a massive number of handouts, in which I scattered vague hints about the future, red herrings, historical knowledge and just plain ambience. Thus far I had handled my material pretty haphazardly, and now it was time to get more systematic. I was in danger of forgetting key elements of the plot and historical events. The first iteration was written by hand and stored in a binder file – I still have that! As things got ever more convoluted, I slowly computerized my work, but I have never left pen and paper completely behind. Most often I still prepare material for a session on a notepad with a pencil and only write down important stuff in a word file after the session. At this point, internet did not play a substantial role in my Dungeon Mastering. It was getting more important in my studies and in my activism, but it was really only in the beginning of the augths that I found the Mystaran community and gained access to the modules and other material that I had been missing all these years. I may have already found some maps, though.
It would be mad to try to run through all the events during the solo period, because there we so many adventures and encounters. I will focus on big outlines and stuff that is important for the campaign in general.
Alexander Penhaligon: Karameikos
I have written a campaign scheme called “the Division of the Five” based on Alexander’s adventures, so more information can be found in the Vaults, if you are interested. This was an extensive sub-campaign in its own right. At the heart of everything was the ancient Nithian lich Hazar, the high priest of Chemos, who had taken control of the remnants of Iron Ring. His master plan was to summon an avatar of Chemos, split into five parts, and possess key individuals in Karameikos with them. Those five individuals would lure the forces of law and order into a dreadful ambush. Baron von Hendricks and Bargle figured in this also, but they thought they were in cahoots with Iron Ring only – pawns of the undead lord.
The secondary plotline was Alexander locating the artefacts of the Traladaran Three (see “Traladaran Magic Items” in the Vaults). The tertiary plotline handled the growing tensions and conflicts between Thyatians and Traladara, and a looming civil war. Partly those tensions arose organically, partly they were stoked by Hazar. Radicalized Order of the Griffon and Traladaran militants led by the former PC Kiril Petrevich were key actors.
During the opening rounds of the campaign, the internal schism of the Torenescu clan exploded. Valdo Tizsa and Magda Marilenev hatched their own plans, aiming to overthrow the duke, and the Order of the Griffon ran amok. Oderbry died during these events. Alexander managed to save his friends but had to go underground, as he was declared outlaw for helping Kiril and his cronies.
Alexander had further adventures in Castellan Keep, Sulescu, in Korizegy Keep and in the Riverfork area, eventually gaining all the three artefacts and finding out the location of Hazar. Joined with his old friends and allies, the Antonics of Verge and the Striker Nipa Greatheart, they managed to destroy Hazar in his lair in Shire – learning about the possession plan at the same time. Havar had imprisoned the five souls in magical crystals.
A grand battle took place around Luln, and all of Karameikos’s best troops were about to be annihilated, driven into doom by their possessed leaders. In the nick of time, Alexander arrived and reversed the possessions by releasing the souls he had found in Hazar’s dungeon. The climax of the battle against the huge Bone Avatar of Chemos was grand.
Karameikos and Black Eagle declared a peace treaty after this, and Iron Ring was eliminated or driven out of the country. Luln was destroyed, and Sascia was given Rugalov as her dominion. No longer of course an outlaw, Alexander was named Protector of the Realm, Krakataos as his dominion, and most of the key NPCs in the country were in his debt. Alexander’s player made a decision to use his influence for the unification of the country, to alleviate the ethnic tensions, and would continue to do so in the future. Thus the civil war, which was always a possibility in my notes, never took place. Valdo Tisza and Magda Marilenec had one last desperate attempt, but it failed, and they were executed.
Alexander also took part in eradicating the remaining Frost Giant threat from the Castellan Keep area, which was made a dwarven dominion. The final session took place in Kelven, where ancient Traladaran ruins had been found. An undead horde arose to re-enact ancient battles, but Alexander and Desmond Kelven beat them. Alexander discovered a statue of Taranis, and upon touching it, disappeared without a trace.
Yuri Turambar: Freiburg, Wendar, Denagoth & the Northern Wildlands
Yuri took a ship heading for Freiburg from Specularum and arrived into that bustling, rich, dirty and alluring free city. There he immediately got into a conflict with the minions of Danakhriss, who had moved his HQ into Oceansend after his defeat in Ghyr. Yuri gained some allies from competing local thieves. He also ran into Kitiara, now an agent of Aphastes, who was trying to take over the city. Kitiara escaped by smashing a Mirror of Life full of Scaly Ones of the Rainbow – this was the first time this monster breed was met. Yuri also gained a couple of new friends, prisoners of the mirror.
Upon reaching his dominion in Wendar, Yuri consolidated his rule and began forming trade connections with his friends in Freiburg. During his battles with bandits he ran into Olaf, former servant of Eztar, the Ethengarian wizard. Olaf told him that Eztar had claimed the Lion Castle as his own but turned on his old friends, imprisoning most of them. Yuri and Olaf travelled to Vestland to meet Ivan and took part in the Lion Castle expedition (see below). With him, Yuri brought home young Matvey, originally a denizen of the Karameikan farm Sukiskyn. Matvey had joined Eztar and become a promising young thief.
Worried about the unstable situation in Denagoth and Wendar’s northern borders, the sage Bensarian contacted Yuri and told him to locate Henadin’s lost symbols, his shield and amulet. The PCs never found them in Drax Tallen. With these items in hand, Yuri should search Henadin’s original tribe in the Northern Wildlands. In Denagoth, Yuri destroyed a new incursion by the Cult of Idris and found Henadin’s heirlooms. Together with Cymoril and his underlings, Yuri headed into the Wildlands.
They battled a dangerous cult of beholder worshippers and the ancient beholder Azaziel, and Yuri found the Sword of the Master Thief, a powerful artefact. He was attacked by Danakhriss’s minions repeatedly, trying to steal the sword. Finally, Yuri located Henadin’s people and convinced them to take over Drax Tallen.
Later the old PC Meadil the Silent, who had heard about the destruction of Lothenar and the plight of Geffron, arrived with settlers from Callarii and Alfheim, intent on repopulating those forests. Yuri joined them and had the final confrontation with the servants of Idris, breaking up their alliance with Aphastes. Denagoth would not be used as an invasion route in the future. During the battle, Yuri died, but Asterius resurrected him and layed on him a Quest to travel to Freiburg and test his strength against Danakhriss.
Asterius had tipped off Danakhriss, wanting to see an interesting fight. Yuri successfully destroyed Danakhriss’s guild branch in Freiburg, and after an aspect of Asterius forced them to negotiations, Yuri gained Wendar, Heldann and Freiburg as his turf. Danakhriss retained Norwold and Helskir.
Since Kitiara had the previous pirate representative of Freiburg’s ruling council killed, Yuri helped the council by liberating the pirate lord Otto the Sabre from the Alphatian prison in Ostwald. Thus, Yuri and his main man Ethrigan became extremely powerful in the city, and a permanent Wendar-Freiburg caravan was organized.
The child of Yuri and Cymoril, “the Star Boy” was born, as was prophesied years and years ago.
Sent by Asterius on another quest, Yuri headed to Adri Varma to search the lair of the Crystal Mage. From there he began a long climb to the plateau and disappeared.
Flint Fireforge: Vestland, Heldann, Rockhome & Broken Lands
It was at this point that I decided that Flint must belong to a distinct dwarven people, “the silvery dwarves”. After all, he came from the faraway country of Larta, in “the Sea Kingdoms” area of the Master Set map (where I located their first adventures and the release of Aphastes). Stealing the idea of mithril and transforming it into something else, I decided that they worship the Moon, and believe that “Living Silver” is formed by the teardrops of their deity. Flint was definitely feeling alone and isolated.
But lo and behold, a group of silvery dwarves who had escaped the slave mines of Aphastes had braved the arctic ice and sailed for years, following “the Call of the Silver” and arriving finally on the coast of Vestland. They were followed by powerful agents of Aphastes. Flint was staying at Ivan’s castle in Estine at the time. With Ivan, they fought against the agents of Aphastes, who were trying not only to kill the refugees but also to establish Aphastes’s religion in the area. The jarl of Scaniscost was in cahoots with them. Later Flint saved his kin from the mysterious caves of modrigswerg. The priest Dalin brought him a powerful artefact, the Living Silver Axe of Naoh.
Dalin had received a vision that “Tears of Moon” lay under the Red Fangs, and the dwarves travelled to Heldann. They were joined my Ivan’s beloved, Ariannaid, who was also a moon-worshipper. This is when I changed the whole idea of the silver dragons: Ariannaid was not a silver dragon, she was a human. But her silver hair was a symbiotic being, a life-form of the Living Silver that manifested in the form of a silver dragon. Adopting these symbionts was at the core of her pacifist healer order. Flint and Ivan had no idea of this.
Flint conquered Gyl Erid and the caves under the Red Fangs from strange fire-worshipping trolls, servants of Rathanos. There was even a balrog, because why not. Ariannaid’s true nature was revealed. They located a great vein of Living Silver and Ariannaid found a strange “fetus” in it, taking it with her.
Now Flint had a dominion, but Heldann was a dangerous and fragmented realm. At this point I did not have much to go on, just a couple of names of settlements and the mention of destroyed Hayavik in the Ethengar Gazetteer. So I had to do a lot of work in fleshing out that area. (I am a bit unsure whether I already had Geoff’s map at that time. It is possible.)
Flint fought against servants of the minotaur deity Gylgarid all over the Freeholds. It became apparent that the cult had formed a pact with Aphastes. Their plan was to create a magical gateway for transporting Aphastes’s troops from the far north. Flint joined a strange group of primitivist dwarves (see “Sons of Rock” in the Vaults) and destroyed the passage. Later there was a civil war against a rogue western lord who was allied with the remaining Gylgaridians (a powerful priest would escape to trouble the PCs in the future), and a complex series of battled including Uighurs, Sliktor orcs and a Heldannan anti-Ethangengarian extremist society called the “Heldann League”.
In the modrigswerg caves, Flint had found a strange artefact, the Ring of Dark Elves that was a powerful source of ancient lore. What the Dark Elves were remained a secret to be revealed much later, but Flint learned that centuries ago shadowelves had lived under the Broken Lands (see the earlier chapter and notes on “the Time of Withdrawal” below). Flint decided to learn more and travelled to Rockhome. There he befriended Thoric Redhand, who knew of old legends of an invasion from Broken Lands through the now ruined city of Jhyrrad.
Flint’s expedition braved the long tunnels and emerges in Kol, where they battled the kobold legends and located a passage to the lost realm of the shadowelves. This was a long and fun scenario: they travelled the abandoned realm, met strange monsters and learned about the lost elven culture. They stopped an incursion of Aphastes’s agents who were trying to locate an underground invasion route. After a difficult battle with an ancient shadowelf Guardian, they reached the City of Stars. Seeing a mystical reflection of the Moon in a magical pool, Flint disappeared. He would spend time “Living in Silver” among the original form of his people, in an aspect of the Moon (an Outer Plane).
Ivan Ivanovich: Vestland & Ethengar
After battling the agents of Aphastes, the new Duke of Estine decided to do some trading in nearby Ethengar. On the way there I ran the scenario “Otkel’s Stead” from the Northern Reaches Gazetteer. In Ethengar, Ivan fought the Mad Hakomon in the Land of the Black Sand and rescued “the Lion Shaman” who became his ally. The shaman felt a close affinity with this manifestation of Rak’Asta (see Chapter 3, Saga of the Firelord).
Yuri arrived with Olaf, and Radagast was visiting, installing his “magical telephone network” (that was a nice idea from the player and it became a cool plot device later). The three of them decided to locate the Lion Castle and rescue Eztar’s prisoners. So, Ivan returned to the Land of Black Sand. Eztar was killed, and the Lion Castle was revealed to be an avatar of the Lion deity. It woke up and walked into the Spirit World. The cleric of the Lion deity joined Ivan.
Continuing his trading activities in Ethengar, Ivan struck up a friendly relationship with Batu Khan and aided him against Kadan Khan. Ivan and his allies, including a hakomon, destroyed Kadan Khan (Jaku the Render), and Bortaks invaded and annexed the Kiyat lands. Ivan learned that Aphastes’s agents had tried to contact Jaku. In fact, they had also been in contact with Batu Khan, but this would remain unknown for many years.
I did not have “Curse of Xanathon” (X3), but I drew from the plot hooks in the Gazetteer and created a scenario on Rhoona. Ivan destroyed the cult of Cretia and gained a firm ally and friend in Stephen.
Then it was time for some viking raiding and trading, during which we used the stuff from the Minrothad Gazetteer a lot. Landfall and Helskir were fleshed out. In Helskir, Ivan was contacted by the Ostman Clan of Ostland. Originally, he got in business with them, but after learning that Ala the Seawitch was influencing their actions, he turned against them. He prevented an assassination attempt of King Olaf, and when Olaf’s army attacked the Ostman’s, Ivan helped them avoid a crushing defeat.
It was time to settle the score with Ala. Ivan had already had some contact with underwater elves around the coast of Estine, and he sought their help. Ala’s magical throne in Narvendul had actually been stolen from “the Old Man of the Sea”, an important servant of Protius. The people of the sea helped Ivan to locate Narvendul, where he killed the witch and gained the underwater boat. As a final gift, the sea people moved Narvendul near Estine as an extra keep for Ivan. (Susan Cooper’s “Greenwitch” was a key influence here.)
Then, one day, Ivan felt the Call of the Lion, went off running into the Spirit World and disappeared.
Radagast: All around and across the Sea of Dread
After installing “the magical telephone” in all his friends’ strongholds, and taking part in the Lion Castle expedition, Radagast was contacted by his wizarding order.
Years ago, Radagast had had his Wizarding Test, but it remained vague what that was about (except youthful enthusiasm with Dragonlance). I decided that Radagast had joined an ancient order of “the Stream Mages”. They worked their magic around a global network of ley lines, being dominant around 2000–1500 BC, but since then their power had been diminishing. The Glantrian Cataclysm threw the ley lines out of whack, and “the magical axis” of the world, according to which their main towers were aligned, was lost. The knowledge of ley lines had been lost in the cataclysm and the later persecution by Alphatians, who did not want competition. The order believed that Radagast and his wife Mizra Amalisah could locate the ley lines again.
This was a long and multifaceted sub-campaign. As Radgast searched for old Stream Mage ruins, the Glantrian Cryptomancer Jorge Berenger (after the character in “Name of the Rose”) was seeking the same thing, and Radagast fought with him repeatedly. The search took him to Pramayana, across the Sind Desert, to Slagovich (where he heard about the new Hosadus!), across the Serpent Peninsula and Thanegia Island. There he again had a confrontation with Jorge, who managed to escape.
Following the leads, Radagast travelled to Hinterland, where he helped the locals to overcome and to drive out their Thyatian overlords. In Ochalea, he and Mizra finally killed Jorge Berenger, who was however not himself anymore. Due to a botched teleport, he was killed, but a Neh-Thalggu took over his body with a brain parasite and was preparing for a dimensional invasion. That plan was foiled. This was all very Lovecraftian, practically a Call of Cthulhu scenario.
Radagast and Mizra had nearly located “the magical axis”, but they had to make final measurements, this time in Thanegioth Archipelago. Since the destruction of the Firelord, Thyatis had conquered some island and was in the process of invading others. Radagast’s friends the elves of the Children of the Swan clan (Cymoril’s tribe) and the rakasta of the Isle of Dread were in danger. So, he decided to fight the Thyatians again. Joining forces with an ancient green dragon, they drove Thyatians away from the western and central archipelago. They also disrupted Thyatian operations in the Firelord Isle, aided in this by a group of Sollux. Radagast’s identity was luckily not revealed, and instead the Thyatians suspected Alphatian involvement. And indeed, Alphatian agents were there and immediately took advantage of the situation. A slave uprising drove the legions from the islands. At the same time, Thyatian agents fomented a rebellion in Quodhar. (I ran the intensifying Alphatian–Thyatian conflict in the background.)
Radagast and Mizra discovered the new magical axis and used it travel to the opposite side of the planet. Surprisingly, there was a tower there: his global counterpoints had located their ley lines already. Another tower was established in the Sea of Dread, and the Order of the Stream Mages was back in business.
Radagast returned home. Meanwhile, Oran Meditor had been assassinated, and Minrothad was disunited. (In this I lay ground for the coming Nomad War and Radagast’s future solos.)
Radagast learned that there was a disturbance in the ley lines, somewhere in the Plateau of Gods. He travelled there to investigate. Mizra did not join him: she had been away from their son Kalim for too long. Radgast arrived on the Plateau just in time to witness the break in the fabric of the world.
Neverwhere, Neverwhen, the Limbo: Fixing and Healing the World
All the five PCs arrived in the place and the time when “the World Cross” broke away, and the fabric of time and space began to fray in all directions of spacetime.
In this non-moment the PCs are stuck, witnessing this. Everything is present, past and future. They have to reconnect the frayed lines of spacetime, battling manifestations of history that emerge. However, something seems to be missing. They are unable to connect the final four threads.
In that non-moment arrive Erystelle, Isenthain and Priam Stuka with “the World Cross”. The four manifestations that they battle offer important clues about potential futures for the PCs (unfortunately the players mostly forgot them on the coming years).
As the structure of the world was damaged, it needed healing, especially in “the Plateau of the Gods”. This is where the statue of Taranis came into play, as did the Lion Castle and the strange “Living Silver Fetus”. They were used to reconstitute the connection of those deities to Mystara. (Through Yuri Turambar, Asterius also managed to sneak in a power boost for his followers.) The future tripartite alliance of deities – Taranis, Lion and the Silvery One – was formed because of this disaster and the healing. The PCs realized how they have been instruments of fate. “The Time of Forgetting” was over, and sages and soothsayers begin to recuperate.
Erystelle and his friends return to their own time. After the world had been healed, “The Time of Withdrawal” had come. Mystara has been altered fundamentally. The Old Gods (the Asgardians) withdraw, and the Shadowelves left the world.
Leaving Limbo, the Fab Five found themselves in the outskirts of Akesoli, where their deities revealed a threat is emerging. Soon the Nomad War, the great project of Thanatos, the attempted Ascension of Hosadus, would be upon the Known World. But before that, something strange was afoot in Akesoli… can you hear the sound of clicking mandibles? The Hivebrood is afoot.
Finally, it was time for the Nomad War. I had dreamed about this at least for a decade since I purchased “Red Arrow, Black Shield” (X10) from our local games shop. My older friend and D&D mentor had told me about the experiences of his group in the Nomad War, and I was anxious to try it myself. But it took many years to get there.
In our Mystara, it was the spring of 1011. In real world time, we played the module for a couple of years, during 2001–2003. My life had changed quite a bit. My environmental activism was fading with the downturn of the movements of the 1990’s, but I still edited the zine until 2002. I also became a member of the editorial collective of the philosophy journal to which I had been writing for years. Teaching gigs at the university continued, and I joined the editorial board of a scientific publishing cooperative. All that, and my work on the doctoral thesis (that would take a long time to complete) made me incredibly busy. But as always, RPGs were high on the priority list. As I often joke, I must have used enough mental energy for this campaign to write three dissertations. Most likely, that is accurate.
Despite its problems, “Red Arrow, Black Shield” (X10) was a great way to introduce the PCs to the Known World. The PCs visited many countries for the first time, and in our campaign, this would lay ground for future adventures… if they survived. Because at this stage the campaign really moved to the stage when a total party kill and the end of the campaign was an ever-present threat. It had always been possible, but during the Basic and the Early Expert years I had been purposefully pulling my punches, really just wanting the story to go on. Often this must have been transparent, as the players used to say that I gave them “strawberries” when I was too lenient.
During the solo phase, each PC had a potential replacement (Cymoril, Mizra, Kiril, and Ivan’s and Flint’s various followers). Death of a PC would have altered but not ended the main story currents. Also, during the first solo phase I had one Deus ex machina up my sleeve for each PC, one possibility to be saved from destruction by divine intervention. In part I just wanted them to reach “the World Cross”, the hinge point, but now there was also an in-game rationale: the world was directing them towards the historical hinge, and the acts of the deities were part of that. Still, for example during Yuri’s battle against the beholder, the death of not only him but of all his potential replacements was very close. Yuri succeeded over 20 consecutive saving throws, all of which would have killed him, and all his followers and Cymoril had been incapacitated! The campaign would have been very different had they died. But with the Nomad War, all of the PCs entered much more dangerous territory.
As I mentioned however, there were some serious problems with X10 that had to be resolved before I could run it.
It had always bothered me greatly how vague the backstory of the module is. What is Hosadus doing with the Soul Gem of Thanatos and why? What or who is Cymorrak, and why is the Crystal Dagger of Cymorrak the only thing that can defeat the Soul Gem of Thanatos? Why are the pieces of the Dagger where they are? I devised answers to these questions, tailored to our campaign. This was actually the main reason that I decided to locate the First Nomad War after the Erystelle era, around 500AC (X4 and X5, but I never ran them). I had mentioned the old Nomad War in a few handouts given to the PCs over the years, and Radagast had heard about the rise of the next Hosadus during his solo adventures. There was a deep history of the Nomads and Hule, but the details regarding the first war had been largely lost in the turmoil of the Time of Withdrawal. That explained why nobody knew how to use the Dagger (well, Laran found out but the readers of X10 know how that turned out).
My history was like this: during the First Nomad War, the kings of Darokin were helped in their struggle by the elves and the halflings, and the ancient adversaries of Thanatos, the Cult of Cymorrak. I had introduced Cymorrak briefly: Flint had found the tomb of a paladin of Cymorrak during his underground adventures. This history explained why two pieces were secluded by the elves and the halflings. The third, the Soul Gem of Light, was in Malpheggi, held by Lizardman priests of an ancient civilization. They had also helped the alliance against the forces of Thanatos, but that memory had nearly been eradicated, and the priests had retreated from the world into “the Land of the Monolith”.
And what was Hosadus’s plan with the Soul Gem of Thanatos? Literally, it was about souls, namely sacrificing them. As the Nomad armies progressed, they would capture as many high-level characters as possible and sacrifice their lifeforce for the Soul Gem. The object was to help Hosadus to Ascend, to become a higher servant of Thanatos on Mystara. Winning or losing the war was actually immaterial if this succeeded. That created a rationale for the fact that the Nomad troops really are not up to the task that the scenario proposes. If Glantri and Alfheim join the war early on, which is most likely, it is very hard for the Nomads to win, even with the bonuses I gave them (see below). It is possible, as we can see from the tight spots of the coming war, but the Allies are in no way hopelessly outmatched. This was Thanatos’s greatest gamble since Nithia, as the deity would be if not breaking the divine rules at least skirting their limits.
Also, in the context of the broader campaign, Thanatos’s failure in this war would mean a great loss of power and prestige. When that happened, Thanatos would join forces with Aphastes and consent to follow that plan, as a part of a “triumvirate” with Aphastes and Chemos. A victorious Thanatos would never have submitted to such a role. Accordingly, Aphastes had paused his conquest for the duration of the Nomad War, as not to step on Thanatos’s toes.
As this was a conflict in which Thanatos put all counters in play and activated all available forces on Mystara, I devised an extra obstacle for the PCs and their allies. Spells like Commune and Contact Outer Plane would not work during this conflict. Instead, trying to inquire about Hosadus, Thanatos, Cymorrak, the Dagger or the Soul Gems would create disasters (earthquakes, insanity et cetera). This made secular means of information gathering more important: consulting sages and archives instead of relying on the spell shortcut. There was a great moment for example when Cymoril was consulting Ilsundal (in the shape of a giant tree) with Contact Outer Plane, and a gigantic form of Thanatos appeared on the horizon, driving her insane for a long time.
In the beginning of the war, the players took the role of Darokin and allies in the tabletop war game. But it took too much game time, and the players felt it detached them from the PC perspective. So I ended up gaming the whole war myself, which also allowed actions that perhaps were not strategically optimal bur reflected the politics and the morale of the armies. I house-ruled the module extensively with the help of an old friend who was knowledgeable in tabletop war games. I won’t go into the technical problems of X10 here, since you can find articles in the Vaults: “War Machine Modifications for X10” and “More Thoughts on X10”. You can actually find other material and detailed war journals under the heading “Twin Campaigns”. All in all, it was during this time that I began relying more and more on this fine community to enrich our campaign. I got a lot of advice on running X10, and our Mystara became much more detailed with your help especially during the Second Solo Phase (see next chapter).
(Incidentally, it seems that during these years I also translated for the Mystaran Mailing List my “Specularum Scenario Series” that was originally published in the 1990’s in the Finnish zine “Claymore”. The series has six scenarios, four of which I revised in 2009. In mid-aughts, I ran them for my other gaming group using FATE.)
I devised a lot of extra encounters for the diplomatic missions, and beefed up the Nomad Agents substantially, as you can see. On the other hand, the Darokin Diplomatic Corps offered logistic and informational support throughout the adventure, in countries where they had a presence, and the PCs could externalize some work for them (especially on the Atruaghin issue). Some of the stuff that I wrote around the diplomatic quests laid foundations for future events, especially in Glantri and in Minrothad.
One thing that boosted the efficiency of the PCs as diplomats was the fact that I had given them all Glowing Horseshoes either during “Saga of the Shadowlord” (X11) or later when Yuri confronted the evil dwarf Rollo again in Freiburg (I think the latter is the case). In the module, there are enough for four horses, but I decided to add enough for the fifth. In a sense, the war was won or at least Corunglain or even Darokin City was saved with these items, as they made it possible for Glantri and Alfheim to mobilize sooner, by a week or two. Perhaps the war might have been more interesting without this advantage, but the Glowing Horseshoes would be a good plot device later on, allowing swift reactions by the PCs, so all in all I am happy with that choice.
I made some decisions about events in the world during the war. Barring the final weeks of the war, the tribes of Broken Lands would stay out of the fighting. The PCs were confused and nervous about this, expecting the humanoids to enter the fray any moment. “Urk Vaath” was of course active and urging Thar to save his forces for the future invasion of Rockhome. (Meaning: I was saving them for the Dwarven Civil War scenario much, much later during the Aphastes War.) Alphatia and Thyatia would have a serious border war over Helskir, the Quodhar rebellion was continuing in Alphatia, and Thyatis would have its own revolt in Hattias – instigated by Thanatos of course, to keep the imperium out of the war. That would not work fully, but a bulk of Thyatian forces was still engaged elsewhere (to reflect the relatively weak army in X10, which I still beefed up with a sizable Aerial Corps).
Before I move to the campaign events, I have to mention one crucial plot device: the book of prophecies of Mad Hosbaum. The PCs would gain possession of it during the war. At this stage, I was rethinking many core ideas of the campaign. I was systematizing my notes better, abandoning some ideas, reworking others and bringing in new ones. I wanted also to get less linear. As I have explained before, I had moved from the linear sequence of separate scenarios towards a more adaptive and interactive form of storytelling, creating something like flowcharts. However, I wanted to take a step further and give the players more narrative power (my other gaming group was experimenting with a new generation of game systems that facilitated such matters, so this must have been an influence). So, I wrote the book of prophecies: a stack of handouts. It was a collection of fragments that made oblique yet still decipherable references to potential future events in the campaign. I had ideas that might become true, key events that would happen necessarily and things the shape of which would be fully developed by the choices of the PCs.
When the PC Radagast would decrypt the book, slowly, his player would be able to pull a random text fragment blindly from an envelope. Thus, the order in which the prophecies would be received was a key factor. With good luck, the players would be able to anticipate events and be proactive, preventing or altering important events. In future chapters handling the Aphastes War, good examples of this are “the Abandoned” and “the Traitorous Prince”. Other fragments would be received too late, after the events had passed or eclipsed by other alternatives. On the other hand, three fragments would be received at a set time, as they would be hinge points of the campaign: the Quest for the Beast of Forgetting and the “Time Travel” to Nithia, the beginning of the Age of Hydra and the Aphastes war, and thirdly, the Quest of the Sylvan Rainbow (although the last fragment had already been pulled before the event, as Radagast finished the book early). All in all, I think the Book of Hosbaum was one of my better ideas. It gave structure to the campaign without making things predetermined; instead, it was a consciously made obstacle to myself, against enforcing linearity in the story. However, it handled mostly events after the war, and during the hectic diplomatic tournee, Radagast did not have much time to read it during the Nomad War.
Prelude: Trouble in Akesoli
My pal had shown me the Dragon #13 scenario “Of Nests and Nations”, and I loved it. I had the “Creature Catalogue” (AC9), but I had never used the Hivebrood. They also reminded me of the classic Shadowrun scenario “Universal Brotherhood” (1990) which Radagast’s player had run for us. I adopted elements from both and placed my version in Akesoli right before the Nomad invasion. I also wanted the PCs to get to know the city and have a relationship with it, before the city’s destruction.
I think it worked nicely. There was a hivebrood plot hidden behind a religious façade, and “City Spirits” trying to combat the insectoid threat, potential allies for the PCs but still fundamentally alien. The PCs managed to drive the hivebrood away, but they would return with a vengeance much later during the Aphastes War. Behind were left numerous “Abandoned”, vagrants and other city poor damaged permanently by attempted but failed insectoid possessions. The City Spirits formed them into a collective intelligence, “the New Collective” (an idea taken directly from the Star Trek Voyager episode “Unity”). From the memories of Flint Fireforge, who had been partly possessed, they learned about the abandoned shadowelf lands and would travel there in the coming years, adding to their number people who had been dispossessed, oppressed and pushed into destitution. They would become “the Abandoned” in Hosbaum’s book. But for now, they left the stage.
Events of the War in 1011
I will describe the events of the war month by month, first looking at the activities of the PCs, then activities at the multiple fronts of the war and thirdly, if applicable, some general events in the world. If anyone is interested in more details, they can be found in the Vaults, in articles ”The Geopolitical situation before the Nomad Invasion”, ”The Cast: the future Darokinian wartime ambassadors”, ”War Calendar for the Great Nomad War” and ”Geopolitics of Known World after the Second Nomad War”.
Yarthmont
The PCs fought in Akesoli and retreated by ship, rescuing some NPCs friends they made during the Hivebrood adventure, including a wizard teacher who remains an important ally. In Akorros, Laran and General Winter approached and recruited them. Riding fast, with the help of their Glowing Horseshoes, they arrived in Glantri. They met Etienne after many years. This was a key advantage: Etienne was already an ally, as the PCs had rescued him during X2. They helped Etienne against dangerous monotheists from Old Averoigne, including a strange “Angel” creature, and then aided the Erewan against a wood imp threat. After giving valuable magical gifts to Jaggar and promising future help against Ethengar, and with Jherek already onboard, Glantri’s alliance was secured.
The war: The Nomad armies conquered Akorros quickly and raced towards Darokin city and Courunglain. Darokin mobilized to defend both cities and moved their central command to Favaro. The town would become a key marshalling area. Darokin aimed to tie the Nomads to the two sieges and gather enough forces in Favaro for a counterattack.
Klarmont
The wartime ambassadors, the PCs, met General Winter in Favaro. Radagast suggested that DDC’s special ops teams would keep an eye on Atruahin. Ivan met Ariannaid after a long time – the healer was travelling the fronts, helping all victims of the war. Then the PCs travelled to Alfheim – their first visit to the elven forest. I ran some diplomatic intrigue in Alfheim City before they gained an audience with the king in Elleromyr. In Alevar’s tomb, they killed the dragon, found the Blade of the Dagger of Cymorrak, and Alfheim agreed to join the war.
Then they decided to head for Ylaruam. On their way they received a heroes’ welcome in Selenica: Radagast’s intuition about Atruaghin had proven true. Some tribes had joined the war on the side of the Nomads, but the DDC managed to prevent a total disaster, as some of the tribes declared neutral for now. (In Selenica, the thief Danakhriss, who had stolen the treasures of the Darokin Trade Guild, sent the Book of Hosbaum to Yuri. He had found it in the vaults and had a feeling that Yuri was meant to have it. The book, written in the early 800’s, had been stored and forgotten among the Guild’s other antiques.)
In Ylaruam, the ambassadors were attacked by assassins and learned for the first time about the Crystal Dagger of Cymorrak. However, despite this crime by the Nomad envoys, the leader of Ylaruam decided to declare war on Darokin. He would not ally with the Nomads though, and promised that Selenica was his only territorial demand. His casus belli was that Selenica was harboring the “traitors” of the House Al-Azrad. I had laid groundwork for this earlier on in the campaign, by spreading news about the Kin faction gaining power and important Preceptors fleeing to Selenica. (In X10, I think it is necessary to have Ylaruam as an enemy that threatens Darokin with a two-front war. It creates a sense of urgency, ties up Darokinian forces and perhaps even some elves.)
Next, the PCs travelled towards Rockhome.
The war: Corunglain and Darokin were besieged. Darokin gathered forces in Favaro and protected the roads towards Athenos and Selenica. Approaching under magical cover, Glantrians managed to surprise the Nomad army besieging Corunglain and routed it. The Glantrians chased the escaping Nomad units and eradicated them completely but suffered heavy casualties. Meanwhile, Atruaghinian hordes crossed the Streel plain and attacked the encampment of Favaro, but other Glantrian units made it in time to help their Darokinian allies. Both sides suffer tremendous casualties, but it would have been much worse for the Allies had all tribes of Atruaghin joined the frey (this was a great example of an intuitive PC idea really influencing the course of the war). Contemporaneously with the Favaro attack, the first elven units that were approaching Favaro were attacked by a Nomad Army Group freshly sent to the front. It was a disaster for the Nomads who were trying to break the moral of the supposedly isolationist and timid elves. Still, it was the largest number of casualties the elves had suffered in decades or even centuries. Over time, this would engender the kind of rage, zeal and xenophobia not seen in the Alfheimers for ages, perhaps ever. Ylaruam attacked the mountain passes of Selenica and destroyed the Darokinian troops.
Felmont
In Rockhome, the ambassadors were again attacked by agents of Hosadus, and they very narrowly avoided a disaster. Flint Fireforge had contacts in Rockhome from his earlier excursion to Jhyrrad, especially the minister Thoric Redhand, which allowed them quick access to the king and a favorable first impression. The dwarves however were extremely reluctant to ally themselves with the cruel Glantrians and “the long ears”. King Everast promised the Allied Unit and the right of passage to all other Allied Units it the PCs helped him against the giants. He also gave his word to pressure the Ylari, with whom Rockhome had warm relations, to give up the war on Selenica. As we can see, he was too optimistic about a peaceful resolution. The ambassadors made a commando strike on the giant camp and eliminated their leaders, so the big battle was relatively easy. They learned more about the Dagger and the Soul Gem.
Then the PCs decided that it was time to split the party! If they travelled together, it would take much too long to gain all the needed allies and prevent the activities of Nomad Agents. Alexander Penhaligon and Yuri Turambar would go to Karameikos (by teleport, since they had a safe targt location in Krakataos), and the rest would go to Northern Reaches. Their “magical telephones” in Ivan’s Seaforth Tower and Alex’s Krakataos would facilitate contact if needed.
Alexander & Yuri – Karameikos: Upon arrival, they were attacked immediately by doppleganger assassins and learned a bit more about the Soul Gem of Light. Their friend Nipa Greatheart, the halfling Striker, had sent word about Nomad armies in Black Eagle.
The PCs of course had a long history in Karameikos, so I wrote new and more complex story here. In a nutshell: Baron von Hendricks was increasingly suspicious and wary of Bargle, who had instigated the alliance with the Nomads. With good reason, Hendricks was expecting a coup attempt, so he was making diplomatic overtures to the Grand Duke. The PCs advised Stefan to seek peace, since internal conflict was not needed now. As the diplomatic negotiations (long distance: I did not have the Baron visiting Specularum initially) went on, the PCs travelled to Sulescu. From previous experience, they knew that Lord Zemirov was ancient and could help them learn more about the Crystal Dagger of Cymorrak. Again, a great idea from the players. Eventually, they would gain a cryptic clue about the location of the Soul Gem of Light.
When they were returning towards Specularum, they learned accidentally (really, just blind luck!) that Baron von Hendricks’s retinue was approaching the capital. These PCs were the most unscrupulous ones of the group and decided to make an ambush. They attacked and killed Bargle and the Nomad Agents – von Hendricks joined them in the middle of the battle, switching sides. Negotiations followed, with the Baron using imprisoned Traladara as leverage, but Yuri just poisoned him. Bargle’s and von Hendricks’s bodies were incinerated. These PCs really meant business.
Yuri and Alex intercepted messengers on the road and sent forged messages to Specularum and to Black Eagle. “The Baron” was asking Stefan for help against the Nomad coup, and ordering his troops to attack the Nomads (boosted by a Quested follower of the Baron). The latter plan failed, but Stefan immediately mobilized for war.
In Specularum, Yuri and Alex had to tackle a group of Traladaran extremists who were following an insane “prophet”. Cymoril joined them, teleporting to Krakataos from Wendar. They travelled to Black Eagle and made commando strike against Black Eagle and Nomad commanders, killing most of them. A wholesale slaughter of locals ensued, as the Nomads and the Black Eagle mercenaries ran amok.
Flint, Ivan & Radagast – Vestland: Ivan had good relations with king Tenitar, who agreed to join the war if all three nations of the Reaches agreed to do so. This would not happen, but Tenitar would attack Ylaruam, and he gave the allied unit. Flint was attacked by mercenaries in Norrvik. In Soderfjord they met the most experienced and powerful Nomad Ambassador, the high-level mystic Weyhoon (modelled after Weyoun from Star Trek Deep Space 9). If it had come down to diplomatic skill, Soderfjord would have joined the nomads, but in the context of our campaign, that made no sense. If would have brought king Ragnar into conflict with Tenitar, and by extension with Ivan and Flint, both powerful local lords with experienced troops, and in any case Soderfjord would have been isolated from Nomad support. Weyhoon demanded trial by combat, and Radagast lost. But Ragnar decided to act against this by finding a backdoor and forming a “blood brotherhood” with Ivan. He could not honorably act against his family. A bit transparent, but he had to find a way out. Weyhoon was furious. (Weyhoon’s plan was to have the Soderfjordians attack Vestland, by the way, but he had no idea how credible threat the PCs were in the eyes of Ragnar, nor did he know that Ivan had the gratitude of King Olaf of Ostland. His mission was doomed beforehand. The idea here was that the previous adventures of the PCs would really affect the course of events.)
On a sea voyage to Norrvik, Flint was attacked by Weyhoon’s cronies (Flint was carrying the Blade of the Crystal Dagger of Cymorrak). Flint and Radagast began to look for Weyhoon’s retinue, believing rightly that they were aiming towards Ethengar. Ivan visited home and got a message from Batu Khan: he wanted to talk.
The war: Most of the Nomad Armies were tied up in the siege of Darokin City and protecting the approaches to the city, and the northern flank in Corunglain had been decimated. At this point, the Nomad plan was to force surrender of Darokin City while waiting for the fruition of the Karameikan and the Ethengarian plans. Meanwhile, their fresh troops on the center of the front continued attacking the Glantrians and the Afheimians, still trying to demoralize them and to delay relief attacks on the siege of Darokin City. These attacks were disastrous failures however, even though the elves suffered again great losses. Darokinians chased the remaining enemies from the Favaro and Corunglain battles and destroyed them.
The Nomads failed in delaying the Allied attack on the Darokin City. In the latter part of the month, first attacks on the Nomad troops protecting the siege took place. The Nomads has fortified positions and got some fresh troops into the fight, and both sides suffered terribly. But the elves managed to clear the eastern approach to the capital.
Note: The siege of Darokin City had been long, and in War Machine terms, the Nomads had gathered substantial bonuses. Had the Nomad delaying attacks succeeded, the capital most likely would have fallen. So, it was really close.
Meanwhile, in the east the Ylaruamian troops were besieging Selenica, and the Rockhome Expeditionary Army travelled towards the mountain passes, hoping to cut the Ylaruamian supply lines and force them into peace.
Other events: Ostland joined Thyatia in the war against Alphatia and attacked settlements on the Isle of Dawn. Battles continued in Helskir, as they did in Quodhar and in Hattias, where Thyatians were falling back.
Fyrmont
Alexander & Yuri – Karameikos, Shires & Darokin: The PCs continued commando attacks on the Nomad and Black Eagle troops, and Yuri negotiated in secret with the BE mercenary leaders. The Karameikan army arrived, and the Nomad units were decimated, as the mercenaries switched sides in the middle of the battle.
Alexander sent his best followers to search for the cult of Cymorrak in Thyatis, where they had learned the cult was active some time ago (this would be a separate gaming session). After the war, there were significant political changes in Karameikos, laying ground for Alexander’s future solo adventures. Lord Zemirov sent them more knowledge on the Crystal Dagger and the Soul Gem, and the players guessed right from few clues that the Gem was Malpheggi swamp. But first they travelled to Five Shires, where they met Nipa Greatheart again. They fought the spectres and a manifestation of Thanatos, the Grim Reaper. The hilt of the Crystal Dagger was found. The halflings agreed to join the war.
After that, they travelled first to Athenos and then to Darokin City, which had been recently liberated. High command had been relocated here. During a war council, cultists of Thanatos attacked. The PCs hunted cultists who were sabotaging the war effort and finally killed their leader, a vampire priest. They decided to wait for their friends, as Jherek brought word that they were travelling towards Darokin.
Flint, Ivan & Radagast – Vestland, Ostaland, Ethengar: Weyhoon’s retinue was located and the PCs attacked their camp, killing all but Weyhoon, who escaped. Later, they approached king Olof of Ostland. Ivan had done him great favors in the past, but Olof’s armies were tied up elsewhere, so he could not join the war. He offered some elite bodyguards, though. Following Batu Khan’s message, they travelled to the lands of the Bortaks. Batu told them that he opposed Chanai of the Murkits and asked for help. (Batu’s connection to Aphastes remained a secret.) The PCs travelled to Chagon-Nah to talk to Chanai, but Weyhoon was already there, and Chanai had formed an alliance with the Nomads against the hated Glantrians. Agents of the Heldannan League contacted Flint and proposed an attack on Chanai, and the PCs agreed. In the battle, Chanai, his most powerful followers and Weyhoon were all killed, and Jherek’s agents helped the PCs to escape.
This of course had a huge effect on the war. Even if Chanai had had to fight Batu, he still could have threatened Corunglain via Broken Lands and cut the Glantrian supply lines. Brotherhood of the Bolt, Chanai’s allies, would have been valuable in blocking the mountain passes. This would not have prevented breaking the siege of Darokin City, but most likely Akorros could not have been liberated before the winter. And after the winter, the Nomads would have had new troops to send to the front.
Batu declared himself the Great Khan, boosted by his previous victory against the Kiyats, and was joined by Sliktor Orcs, Hooplak Hobgoblins and crack Makistani radicals who had travelled here from Ylaruam. Ethengarian civil war began, and Glantri prepared to take advantage of the situation.
The war: The battle for Darokin City began, as the Darokinians and the elves attacked the besiegers. After two weeks of battle, the siege was broken. At the same time fresh Nomad Troops attacked the Favaro compound, preventing the troops there from joining the battle. The Nomads collapsed but cause great casualties. The number of military dead in these battles was around 18 000, with a huge number of civilian casualties.
The Ylari attacked Selenica and took the city after a long and bloody battle. The Rockhome troops sent them an ultimatum, but the Ylari declined negotiations and attacked the dwarves from the east. Two dwarven units were destroyed, but two others managed to fortify the mountain passes. Another Ylari attack on the dwarves failed. Meanwhile, the Alfheimians made a surpise attack on the Ylaruamians west and north of Selenica. Karameikan troops attacked Ylaruamians from the south. In the Ylaruamian coast, Vestlandian units raided the coast. It was a tough time for Ylaruam, but worse was yet to come.
Ambyrmont
The PCs gathered in Darokin City and headed for Malpheggi swamp. They had learned more about the First Nomad War in Darokinian archives, and had a better idea where to search. They battled Nomad Agents in the swamp. They located the mysterious Monoliths of the ancient Lizard Men and had to fight their powerful guardians. (Here I was inspired by several Call of Cthulhu adventures which my friend had run in the other group.) Eventually they convinced the Lizard Men that their cause was true and got the Soul Gem of Light.
In Darokin City, Laran helped them to assemble the Crystal Dagger and died, as Thanatos prevented him from giving a crucial piece of advice. The PCs had the dagger but no idea how to use it.
The Allied Expeditionary Force was being assembled in Athenos. The PCs and General Winter agreed on a direct attack on Hosadus. But they needed more transport ships, so the PCs would have to contact Minrothad and Ierendi. Also their armies would be of great help on the Akorros front.
In Minrothad, Oran Meditor had been assassinated just before the war, so the situation was “post-Gazetteer”. Astra Meditor was nominally leading the country, but really the situation was fragmented and unstable. Truth Greenton had been forced underground. The situation was complex, but in a nutshell, under orders from the Verdiers, Marden Bailey and his cronies attacked the Darokinian ambassadors in the hope of framing the Corsers. The PCs repelled the attack and squeezed the truth out of Marden – Marden agreed on the condition that they would teleport him to a safe location. (The PCs did not stay true to their word and teleported Marden to Ylaruam City just out of spite. We would be met much later.). With the knowledge of Verdier involvement, the PCs pressured that house to agree to the alliance, and Minrothad joined the war.
The war: Allied armies began the siege of Akorros. Halfling armies arrived to block the path of an approaching Nomad Guards army group from the south. Another Nomad Army Group was also approaching Akorros from the north.
The Ylaruams in Selenica were in desperate straits, surrounded by Afheimians, Glantrians and Karameikans. Rockhome troops did not join the siege, as they did not want to fight alongside the Glantrians. Eventually the Ylaruamians surrendered on the condition that they could return home to fight against the Thyatians who had just invaded their country. Yes, Thyatis opportunistically attacked Ylaruam City while the Ylari armies were tied up in Selenica and defending the coasts against the Northmen. There were horrible battles around the capital, as the Thyatians were both besieging the city and defending against arriving Ylari troops (a bit like the siege of Alesia). The Thyatian attack was made possible when the rebellion of Hattias was ended with the help of Alexander’s followers and paladins of Cymorrak. Thanatos’s avatar was banished.
In Ethengar, Batu Khan was victorious against the Murkits. Glantrians attacked in the west and were partly successful but eventually ended up being ambushed and suffered huge casualties. This would be important in the coming Aphastes War.
Other events: The war in Helskir ended in a victory for the Alphatians who gained control of the city. Danakhriss’s guild had to retreat, as Alphatian competition arrived (more on this later). The Quodhar rebellion was finally quashed.
Sviftmont
The Darokinians had a heroes’ welcome in Ierendi: after all, they had years earlier saved the princess (during “War Rafts of Kron”). They killed the Roc, and Ierendi joined the war. The Allied Expeditionary Force gathered in Athenos, and after some frictions between dwarves and the Glantrians were resolved, an armada sailed towards Pramayana. The final Nomad Agent attack took place, supported by dragons. The Agents tried to capture the Crystal Dagger but failed.
The war: The Nomad Guards army attacked the halfling armies south of Akorros. The Shireans were nearly routed but stand their ground, saving the siege. The battle of Akorros began and would continue next month.
In a surprise move, a combined Alfheim–Karameikos-Rockhome army took over the Ust-Urt valley. They did not want Thyatis to control a key trade route.
Moghul Khan’s armies from Yellow Orkia joined the war in Ethengar and destroyed a Glantrian army with the help of local humanoid tribes. Bramyra was torched. Batu Khan’s armies destroyed another Glantrian unit. Boosted by his victories, Batu was declared the Golden Khan. Batu gave Moghul Khan the western parts of the plains, and the humanoids formed a buffer zone between the Ethangarians and the Glantrians.
In Ylaruam, the Thyatian legions were facing destruction, as Ylaruamian armies attacked them from within and without the city. However, a large Northman army arrived in time to turn the tide. The Northmen received humongous amounts of loot, and Ylaruam became once again a colony of Thyatis. Al-Kalimism was banned and driven underground.
Eirmont
The PCs destroyed the beach fortifications of Pramayana in a commando strike, and the AEF landed without any trouble. The army moved towards Sayr Ulan, and the PCs attempted a commando strike on Hosadus’s camp but without any significant results. The armies met in the desert, and the AEF was severely crippled by the Mass Fear effect. Still, the Allies were victorious (this was a really close call). Alrethus was killed.
Following Hosadus into Sayr Ulan, the PCs attacked him during a sacrificial ceremony. First they tried to use the Crystal Dagger directly against Hosadus but finally figured it out and destroyed the Soul Gem of Thanatos. Hosadus was killed, and the PCs fled the city.
The war: In a second battle against the Nomad Guards, the halfling armies were utterly broken, but the Nomad Guard were destroyed by Minrothad and Ierendi forces just then arriving on the front. The final fresh Nomad Army Group, attacking from the north, tried to break the siege, but Darokinian Reserve armies blocked their approach and sacrificed themselves. As General Winter stated: “These men of Darokin drew a thin blue line against the darkness. Into the shadow of Death’s Scythe marched those 2000.” These two sacrifices bought enough time for the allies to attack Akorros after a sufficiently long siege. The end was horrendous. The remaining Nomads sacrificed themselves on the walls of the city, fighting to the last man, and burned the city down. In the final week of the war, retreating Nomads also torched Akesoli, but they were attacked and destroyed by Atruaghin troops recruited by DDC.
Kaldmont
The PCs managed to return home before the onset of the winter storms. A grand peace conference took place in Darokin City. You can read a more detailed account in the Vaults, in articles “War Calendar for the Great Nomad War” and “Geopolitics of Known World After the Second Nomad War”.
The Republic of Darokin was crippled with two major cities destroyed, three others severely damaged, many towns razed to the ground, farmlands burned and tens of thousands of people dead. The republic was in crisis, with the power balance between the Houses disrupted. General Winter, revealed now to be Alasdair Mauntea, became “the Vocator”, in effect a dictator of the country in order to rebuild it. This would result in a civil war against the borderland nobles, the effects of which would be felt dearly during the Aphastes War.
Selenica was declared an independent Free City, protected by the Selenican League of Karameikos, Alfheim and Rockhome. The League would also protect the Ust-Urt Valley. Thyatis protested.
The East Sindian Trade Company of Minrothad and Ierendi bought Pramayana from Darokin. The Company would become a powerful competitor to Darokinian trade interests, hurting the former Republic even more.
Batu Khan promised peace and prosperity and the construction of new trade routes across the plains (actually to facilitate future transport of Aphastes’s troops).
In the Winter Congress Ball, Stefan Karameikos told Alexander that he would be crowned king during the coming year.
Finally in Specularum, at the turn of the year, the PCs met and partied together for the last time before separating. The campaign would move into the Second Solo Phase in 1012 AC.
Part VII: The Second Solo Phase
Playing out the Nomad War had been a great effort, and it was fun, all around. But now we were all war-gamed out for a while. I knew and the players knew that the threat of Aphastes was looming in the north, but for the sake of variety, and in order to familiarize the players even more with the wider Known World, and for the purpose of deepening the stories of the individual PCs, another solo phase was needed. However, the PCs would visit each other’s stories much more than in the first solo phase, so the style of gaming was markedly different in that sense.
One additional in-game need for the solo phase was the Book of Hosbaum. Radagast needed time to read it and gather some clues about the future. He would not be able to read all of it during this solo phase, as it was slow going (one in-game month per handout) and he had other things going on, as we can see. But had we moved straight into the Aphastes war, the “fuzzy” narrative function of the Book of Hosadus would have suffered. So a balance had to be struck so that the idea of the Book would work. It depended on pure luck what pieces of the puzzle the PCs would have at hand when the Aphastes War would be upon them.
In Mystaran time, the Second Solo Phase took up the whole year 1012 AC. In the real world, it was played during 2004–2006. Notably, I was busy with another extensive campaign at the time, with my other regular gaming group that played almost weekly. This was “the Caravan Campaign”, played with heavily house-ruled HARP system. That campaign took the PCs on a round trip around the Known World: Darokin, Ylaruam, Soderfjord, Vestland, Heldann (with the Heldannic Knights, as opposed to the Freeholds version of this campaign), Ethengar, Glantri, Darokin, Alfheim and into the lands of the Shadowelves.
You can find material on this campaign in the Vaults under headings such as “Ideas for a Caravan Campaign”, “The Conspiracy Within the Corun House”, “Shadowelf Adventures”, “Questions on Rafiel, Atzanteotl, elven history…” and “The End of the Caravan Campaign”. This was a big effort, and the material produced by the fandom was invaluable to me. It also allowed me to utilize a lot of material that would have been impossible to use in our campaign, especially the wonderful Shadowelf culture and the idea of a shadowelf conspiracy. I also would utilize some ideas from that campaign in this one, albeit in a changed form. For example, the whole Nifhleim adventure in the next chapter was originally designed for the Caravan Campaign.
In addition to this, I was still working on my dissertation, writing continuously for our philosophical journal and involved in an international book project. I really don’t know how I handled all that alongside two hectic RPG campaigns. Life will find a way, perhaps.
There is also some material in the Vaults that was created during this Solo Phase: “A Thiefy Plotline in Helskir” and “Death of Oran Meditor”.
I was wondering how to write this, chronologically or thematically, and decided on the latter. It messes up with the chronology a bit, but events are easier to follow as thematic wholes. Some key observations first: much more than before, events stemmed from PC actions and decisions. Our campaign had slowly become more interactive, as I wrote earlier, but this was another phase shift. The actions of Yuri and Ivan are a case in point. Their surprising decisions, mistakes, failures and successes created a whole new thread of world events for the campaign. Alphatia took advantage of their actions and began to gain upper hand in the north. Eventually this would lead to the destruction of Thyatis, which I had not originally considered. But now I am getting way ahead of myself.
The traces of the Nomad War were evident. There was the Darokinian Civil War between old nobles and Vocator Mauntea. Thyatis had conquered Ylaruam and would go on and attack Soderfjord. Elsewhere, Karameikos was ascendant. Let us begin there, and with Alexander Penhaligon.
Alexander Penhaligon: Karameikos
Patriarch Olliver Jowett died of old age, and Duke Stephan asked Alexander’s opinion on the suitable successor – he was from the other church, of course, but the Duke trusted him and wanted to avoid tensions in the realm. Alexander ended up supporting Desmond Kelven who centralized the power of the church, taking over the whole Order of the Griffon and pushing especially the Halarans to the sidelines. Aleena would form her own “Order of the North”.
As was mentioned in the previous chapter, Stephen wanted to become a king. A magical crown was crafted in cooperation between the Church of Karameikos, Teldon, the Gnomes of Highforge and the Callarii. Alexander was part of the entourage that escorted the crown towards Specularum. However, on their way they were attacked by the ancient red dragon Argos, who stole the crown. Alex, joined by Aleena Halaran and the Antonics of Verge, hunted Argos and traced her to her lair in the northern mountains. The dragon and her offspring were killed, and Alexander revealed Argos’s plans to enslave several humanoid tribes with magical swords in order to destroy the northern lands. Something would have to be done about the humanoid tribes later. The crown was retrieved and Stephan was crowned King of Karameikos. Thyatis protested, but it had been weakened by the loss of Thanegioth and Helskir, and it was embroiled in other matters in Ylaruam and Soderfjord. Stephan did not like where things were going and wanted to distance his realm from Thyatis.
Radagast came to visit and offered to help Alexander with problems in the old Black Eagle Barony, now Halag. (At this point Alexander and Radagast also removed Ivan’s boosted Alphatian Geas, see later.) Ethnic tensions were on the rise again, as late Hendricks had been replaced by a blatantly racist Griffon fanatic Portan Salasar. (I must have been reading Harry Potter during this time.) The new baron Marius Thrakius was looking the other way while Portan was suppressing the Traladaran religion. Alexander and Radagast managed to deal with the problems for now and destroyed a doppelganger gang, remnants of the old Sulescu cult. Thus, Radagast gained reagents for his new invention, a magical Mask of Disguise.
Next, Alexander had to hurry north to gather an alliance to fight Argos’s humanoid coalition. An army of Callarii, gnomes, the Order of the North, Antonics, and Alexander’s “Mountain Battallion” were victorious. Argos’s magical swords that had possessed the humanoid leaders were destroyed.
Later on, the troubles in Halag continued between Traladaran separatists and Griffon fanatics. Portan Salasar was making demands about declaring marshal law and attacking the Church of Traladara more directly. Rallying the help of Yuri Turambar, Alexander discovered that Marius Thrakius and his brother were behind it all, using the merchant Kavorkian as a front and Salasar as a puppet. Yuri broke into the Thrakius mansion and captured Marius into his Mirror of Life Trapping, but his raid in the Kavorkian house was a disaster, ending in the death of one child and desperate kidnapping of another. Alexander was not pleased.
This resulted in a complex series of negotiations and battles between Alexander, the other Thrakius brother and Kavorkian. Marius was removed from the Mirror by an intervention of Taranis, which changed the Baron’s disposition radically. Eventually Kavorkian was made into a scapegoat, and Portan Salasar was sent to do missionary work in Selenica. He would be met again, much later.
Later on, Alexander joined Radagast in Munrothad. Let us move there next.
Radagast: Minrothad
As I discussed in the previous chapter, the death of Oran Meditor had created a complex situation, in the middle of which Radagast now found himself. In the previous solo phase Radagast had been mainly travelling the world, so this was the first phase of the campaign that would ingrain him into his political and social surroundings. This was one of my favorite scenarios ever: an intense time full of secrets and revelations, surprises and epiphanies. Deeper background can be read in the Vaults under the heading “Death of Oran Meditor”. The key element was Eluna Kelar’s complex plot using Taymoran “Death Spirits” and the pirates, but at the same times plots by the Verdiers and the Corsers were in motion.
From the outset, Radagast decided to ally with the widowed Astra Meditor, and he stayed faithful to her, through thick and thin. Initially Astra wanted him to locate Truth Greenton and Alf Shadower, who had been forced deep underground by mysterious attackers, plus renewed and aggressive enforcement of the Death to Thieves edict by the Guild Council. He managed to save both Alf and Truth from assassins and mercenaries, hired by unknown parties. At the same time there was a “failed” assassination of Ginol Meditor. In truth, Ginol was now possessed by one of Eluna’s spirits, so all the plans of Radagast and Astra would be known by Eluna.
After visiting Alex (see above) and researching his Mask of Disguise, Radagast began infiltrating the Corsers, as he had agreed with Astra. The Corsers welcomed an accomplished wizard and asked him to join the Judicial Department of the Tutorial Guild. Thus the Corsers could influence coming important council voting sessions. Radagast also made a lucrative deal with the Corsers: all the PCs had been given mansions in Darokin as rewards for their services during the Nomad War, but they could not take care of them. The Corsers agreed to keep the mansions in a good shape, always ready for a visit of the PC, and they in turn could use the tax benefits of the PCs for covert trading. Radgast would receive a hefty commission.
The biggest item on the agenda of the next Guild Council session was to decide on the procedure of electing a new Guildmaster after Oran. During the meetings, an assassin attacked Eluna Kelar. In fact, Eluna had arranged this herself and was protected by a Death Spirit “shield”. With his Stream Mage special powers, Radagast found out that some strange form of magic was present and warned Eliz Blanceer – just the guy who had been already possessed by Eluna’s Death Spirit. Thus Eluna learned of Radagast’s special powers, which worried her greatly.
When the vote was made on the leadership of the Successor Committee, Ulard Forster was the surprise choice. He was as surprised as anyone, as Rewen Verdier had effected this with a Wish branch of the Carven Oak. Dead (charmed) user of the branch was found, but only Radagast, with his Stream Mage connections, learned about the possible use of Wishes. However, he did not learn about the Carven Oak itself. He kept this quiet and shared the knowledge with Astra and Ginol, and by extension with Eluna. As Astra knew about the Carven Oak, suspicion fell on Ulard and the forest elves.
With his divinations, Radagast had learned that Oran was “not really dead but not alive”. In further studies he discovered legends about Taymora, and about the Death Spirits. Still, the tracks left nowhere. At the same time, Eluna’s allies Linias and Hamilvar Kasan began attacking shipping, hurting rival guilds – some false flag attacks on Eluna’s shipping were made too.
Radagast negotiated with the Corsers, and as the main suspect was Ulard Forster, the decision was made to assassinate him. Radagast would be joined by the fearsome Murl Vlaardoen. They attacked Ulard’s heavily fortified mansion and got very close but had to flee. The assassination had failed, but to their surprise they learned soon that Ulard had been assassinated by two mages, and Rewen Verdier took over the clan. Of course, Rewen had finished the job and blamed outsiders.
Radagast finally realized that there must be nested conspiracies. He suspected Rewen Verdier and decided that there must be a possession (and a leak) within Meditor ranks. Ginol was confronted, a Death Spirit emerged and killed Radagast. Luckily Alf and Truth prevented the Spirit from desecrating the body, so Radagast could be Raised from the dead.
Eluna Kelar “disappeared” Eliz Blanceer, along with the Guild funds, so now the army and the navy could not be paid. Radagast realized that the main conspirators were making their final moves and called Alexander to help. With Alf Shadower’s aid, they investigated Pirates’ Cove and captured Hamilvar Kasan. They learned of Linias Kasan’s involvement, but could not act on that immediately, as the next Guild Council was approaching.
During the Council meeting, despite strict security measures, Hildric Corser was killed by a Wish Branch by one of Rewen’s charmed cronies. A similar attempt was made on Eluna, who was saved by her Taymoran Spirit Magic. Eluna took advantage of this, called for swift measures, promised to pay the army and called for an attack on the Verdiers. Eluna was now firmly in control.
Radagast and Alexander rushed to attack Linias Kasan in order to know who was behind all of this, although of course by now they suspected. In Linias’s hideout, Death Spirits were waiting for the breach of defenses and managed to kill Linias before he could be interrogated. Still Radagast learned that it was Linias who organized attacks on Alf and Truth. With document evidence, Radagast could have confronted Eluna in the council, but it was too late. Eluna had taken over, supported by the dwarves and the halflings. Harbortown of the Corsers was blockaded, Astra was in “protective custody”, and Radagast was declared a traitor to the realm.
Things were getting desperate, and Eluna’s troops were moving towards Radagast’s Isle of the Hydra, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He had asked his triton friends in Suthus for help in defending the isle, and the Corsers had sent Murl to help. Even though Radagast was killed by a Death Spirit on the attack on Radagast’s Isle of Hydra, Alex was there to banish the spirit and resurrect him. Tritons, and pirates once again under Alf’s control, helped repel the assault. Meanwhile another attack was aimed at Verdun, but those ships were sunk by Carven Oak Wishes.
Radagast finally made the connection between the legends of Taymora and the ruins of Colhador, where he had visited all those years ago. He guessed that Eluna must be doing her Spirit Magic there. Aided by the tritons, Radagast and Alexander and their allies confronted and killed Eluna in Colhador. They discovered the souls of Oran and Ginol Meditor and all the others in terrible “Flesh Jars”, and knowing they could never be returned to their bodies, they asked to be killed.
In the end, when Eluna’s blockade was broken, a Corser fleet sailed to the capital and forced negotiations. The post of Guildmaster was abolished and a federated model took its place. The Verdiers seceded from the federation. Radagast was now a power to be reckoned with in Minrothad.
Yuri Turambar: Freiburg, Helskir, Oceansend, Landfall, Wendar, Darokin
After leaving Specularum, Yuri booked a sea voyage to Freiburg. It had been a while since Yuri visited his guild branch in the free city the last time, so he did not make his presence known at first. He spied on Ethrigan and the rest of his cronies. On the one hand, he learned about the betrayal of a couple of his thieves, who were in cahoots with the former Minrothad Blue Eel “Uncle Fedja”. On the other hand, he had Ethrigan’s account books checked by an expert who just happened to be a local SAS agent (Seaborne Alphatian Security). SAS had formed a network of spies among the guild of courtesans, amongst whom Yuri was hiding during his covert investigations. Thus, SAS became interested in Yuri, purely by accident.
Ivan visited the city, and together the two friends decided to visit Helskir in order to find new recruits for Yuri’s thief network. They did not exactly keep a tight lid on their plans, so SAS quickly learned about this and laid a trap for them.
In Helskir, they had a conflict with a local lycanthropic thief guild. The conflict was fostered by SAS – the agency wanted the guild gone and used Yuri and Ivan as tools to achieve this. I introduced “Janus”, a skillful agent, as a recurring foe during these events. In the end, forced by the SAS, Ivan and Yuri attacked the thief guild. The battle was nearly disastrous for them, but in the end, a SAS strike team saved them, mopped up the thief guild and placed a powerful form of Geas on Ivan, in true “Machurian Candidate” style. Ivan learned about this but could not get rid of it by his own means. Ivan was well and truly pissed off and left home.
Yuri decided to try again in Oceansend. Danakhriss had previously controlled the underworld there, but during the Nomad War, the Master Thief had retired after his great Darokin Guild Hall heist. So there might be good pickings in the city. Yuri soon learned about the divided local thief scene and the presence of Thyatian agents in one of the rival guilds. Janus appeared also and urged Yuri to attack the Thyatians, blackmailing Yuri with the knowledge of the Freiburg accounts. A complicated to-and-fro battle ensued, with Yuri playing both sides against the middle but finally killing the Thyatian agents. SAS then hired him to assassinate king Yarvik, and Yuri obliged. Using the Drums of Panic (taken from Bargle’s body during the Nomad War!) he breached the castle, killed the king, captured the prince and handed him over to the Alphatians. Eventually he had to leave the city, but SAS allowed him to recruit a large number of thieves. Soon after this, Alphatia invaded Oceansend. As we said back then, “Yuri the Chaos Ball” was rolling around in the north.
Upon returning to Freiburg, Yuri was once again embroiled in the battles between Thyatian and Alphatian agents. Thyatians wanted to make an alliance with Freiburg, and SAS wanted to prevent this and hired Yuri to another assassination job. This one failed however, and Yuri’s reputation was damaged – he would also be responsible for the safety of new the Thyatian embassy.
Yuri’s next step was to try to take over the criminal scene of Landfall. The first attempt was a mix of success and failure. Yuri killed the local crime lord but was ambushed by other powerful factions and had to agree to pay a huge ransom. Of course, he intended to return with additional forces and exact his revenge, but his enemies anticipated this and forced a sit-down with several factions of the underworld. Yuri’s enemies managed negotiate an escape into Alphatia and an additional hefty pay-out. On the other hand, Yuri gained new followers and a foothold in the city.
After all these criminal exploits, Yuri visited his dominion in Wendar after a long pause. His child “The Star Boy” was markedly older, and Cymoril was surprised to see that Yuri looked a lot younger. He did: he had recklessly quaffed a Potion of Longevity and was physically 18 again. This did not endear Yuri to his elven wife. Yuri also managed to mess things up a bit with king Gylharen who learned about Yuri’s criminal enterprises. There was also one overdosed scion of a noble family and a shallow grave at some point. A day in the life of an underworld boss.
Then it was time to pay a debt to Ivan (see below), and from there yuri Teleported to Krakataos to help Alexander (see above) and from there he travelled to Darokin. Vocator Mauntea had asked for help against those pesky royalist rebels. The Vocator had a simple ask: assassinate the rebel leader Conwan Elendsa. (The name was taken from an earlier Hârnmaster campaign played in my other gaming group.) Yes, quite a few assassination jobs during this Solo Phase!
Yuri infiltrated the rebel camp in the southern Canolbarth forest. Some elves, traumatized by the Nomad War and fed misinformation by a magically disguised Agent of Aphastes, were supporting the rebellion. However, Yuri’s own magical disguise was revealed by the Truesight spell of Elendsa’s cleric, and he had to flee the scene.
Yuri wanted to have another go and convinced the Vocator to organize a bait, a fake military operation against Fenhold. The weak troops were destroyed by the rebels, allowing Yuri to track them into their base. He attacked Elendsa’s HQ and although he managed to kill many key NPCs, but the leader again eluded his grasp. His final attempt to track the movement of the fleeing rebels in the mountains nearly succeeded, but in the end he had to report failure to the Vocator. This would have big ramifications in the future, as the civil war would continue, weakening Darokin further and straining relations with the elves. Thus, during the coming Aphastes War, Darokin had much less troops to work with.
Ivan Ivanovich: Vestland
Just like with Radagast in Minrothad, Ivan’s solo adventures in Vestland gave birth to a very detailed and complex political scene. Key nobles of all dominions were created, many of them became real personalities, and their relationships formed a complex moving pattern according to Ivan’s actions and those of multiple other actors.
From the get-go, Ivan’s player wanted to play politics, so Ivan embarked on a diplomatic tour of the region, forging alliances. Rival power groups were emerging, one around Ivan, another around Rhorvald Ivarsson, his very personal enemy. Ivarsson was aiming for a war with the southern Soderfjord. Arnulf Burison of Landersfjord had secret connections with the Alphatians, and king Tenitar was trying to keep the peace. Thyatian agents were involved too. Ivan was basically loyal to king Tenitar but was still playing his own game too, as we can see.
As was mentioned before, Ivan had visited Alexander and Radagast after his exploits in Helskir. His friends helped him to get rid of the Alphatian Geas, so it was not activated when agents of SAS tried to get Ivan to murder Thyatian ambassadors. Ivan imprisoned the SAS agents and revealed the plot to the king, but still he urged also against an alliance with Thyatia.
But now it was time for me to act on a story seed that had been created during the Nomad War. As you may remember, Ivan had become the “blood brother” of King Ragnar of Soderfjord, and now his brother was calling for aid against the Thyatian invasion. Ragnar was besieged in his castle. Ivan was true to his word and joined Ragnar, using his underwater boat (taken from Ala the Seawitch). Together they broke the siege, and Ivan killed a huge number of Thyatian soldiers and trashed many siege machines.
Later on, there was a great battle between Ragnar’s forces and Thyatian legions. The situation was dire, since Rhorvald Ivarsson had attacked from Vestland, tying up some Soderfjorders. Still, Ivan’s presence could have tipped the balance in Ragnar’s favor, had not the army of Ostland arrived on the scene to bolster the Thyatians. The situation was hopeless. Ivan had a strong friendship with king Olof and could use that to escape, despite the Thyatians wanting him dead, Ragnar asked Ivan to adopt his son Thor, so he at least could be saved. The Soderfjorder army was annihilated, but Ragnar and his closest followers fled into the great marshes and began a guerilla war.
It was time for Yuri to repay his debt from the Helskir debacle, so Ivan asked him to visit. Ivan himself would go on a foray against local bandits, to help a neighboring lord, while Yuri would assassinate Rhorvald Ivarsson. As I said, despite being loyal to the king, Ivan did not play nice. The assassination was truly nasty business, as Yuri chased a fleeing naked Rhorvald in the streets in the middle of the night and beheading him. Elsewhere, Ivan found out that the bandits were supported by Thyatians with the aim of eventually attacking Ivan.
King Tenitar confronted Ivan and accused him of the murder, and Ivan confessed but invoked the security of the realm. Ivarsson and his allies had attacked Soderfjord without royal sanction, after all. Tenitar forgave him, for now. The crown Sorona reveled to him that Ivan, indeed, was fiercely loyal, despite being somewhat reckless and dangerous. After Ivarsson’s death, Rotolf Karlsson from Bornbank became the leader of his faction, so the internal tensions were not resolved.
Ivan had forged an alliance also with Rhorvald Burisson but discovered the Alphatian connection. Ivan did not of course like this, having a bone to pick with the SAS, but agreed to continue working with Burisson. Still, he immediately warnes Tenitar that SAS was working in the country.
Finally, Ivan decided to continue his trade in Ethengar and asked Flint to join him and meet the Great Khan Batu. At this point, Ivan and Flint were also increasingly worried about the threat of Aphastes and wanted to learn where Batu stood. Ivan suspected, with some evidence, that Aphastes’s agents had been active in Ethengar and asked Batu about this. Batu admitted having been in contact with Aphastes but said that he had not yet chosen sides in the coming war. Perhaps Ivan could do him a favor? (Really Batu was pretty much decided on supporting Aphastes, but he wanted to profit from the situation.) Ivan and Flint were asked to track down the remnants of a rival clan and kill them. They agreed and traced the movements of Batu’s enemies into the tomb of an ancient Flaem Mage in the southern mountains. They had already been killed, and so were Ivan and Flint very nearly, as the ghost of the Flaem Mage was a fearsome enemy. They survived, earned the gratitude of Batu (that did not amount to much, as we can see later) and learned about the history of the Flaems and the Alphatians. Then Ivan and Flint travelled to Heldann to continue their preparations for the coming war.
Flint Fireforge: Heldann, Rockhome
Flint’s solo adventures began in Rockhome, as he arranged an expedition to recruit more people for his Gyl Erid colony. In Rockhome, he ended up helping the Syrklist clan against the dreadful beholder Kruagg (the scenario in the Rockhome Gazetteer: it worked wonderfully). Flint formed a strong alliance with the Syrklist clan, marriages were arranged, and Flint’s clan built a trading base in the capital of Rockhome.
In Kruagg’s lair, Flint had discovered an ancient Kogolor artefact and from his friend Thoric learned about the pre-Denwarf dwarves and the legends about the Morkwarfs and the Svartalven. (I used Giulio’s and Jacob’s “History of the Dwarven Race” extensively here. Thank you!) Together, Flint and Thoric decided to organize an expedition to investigate the lost Morkwarf lands in the northern mountains. They destroyed a strong troll tribe in an abandoned Morkwarf fortress and learned that the beholder Kruagg had visited the place years earlier. The beholder had messed with an ancient sealed portal to Svartalfheim, and it was slowly destabilizing. An invasion of the Dark Elves was imminent. Note: instead of making the Dark Elves an elvish race, they were something different, a demonic gremlin-like race of otherplanar creatures. Flint repelled the invasion and Thoric managed to reseal the portal.
Having cemented his good relationship with Rockhome, Flint returned home. He had become increasingly worried about the threat of Aphastes and wanted to make Heldann stronger. In the earlier solo phase, we had already created a cast of Heldanner characters during the wars against the servants of Gylgarid (e.g. Heinz Thorbringer, Hermann Budendorf and Olsen the Leveller – some names were picked from our old Warhammer “Enemy Within” campaign played by my other group years ago). Now the land of Heldann was enriched by new characters, as Flint toured the land and arranged a meeting with the Free Lords. They agreed to fortify the Kevar Pass, and Flint promised to help the western lords to pacify their lands.
First Flint destroyed a strong bandit group (they had grown rich by taking part in Yuri’s drug smuggling operations, incidentally). After joining Ivan in Ethengar (see above) they returned to Heldann together and killed a local green dragon, destroyed a large humanoid tribe and eradicated some troublesome lycanthropes. They also learned that the priest of Gylgarid who had fled the disastrous battles during the First Solo Phase was still active in the area, but it was too late, and the priest went into hiding.
Finally
It was the New Year’s Eve, year 1013 was soon beginning. Ivan and his new “son” Thor were both having the same nightmare. Ragnar the Stout was lost in a blizzard somewhere. Then, he was chained to an iceberg, with vultures pecking his innards.
In the morning, Ivan opened the Magical Telephone and called his friends…
Part VIII: Niflheim and Nithia
Now for something completely different. This transitional period of our campaign involved some of the most experimental elements thus far, including jumps to different game systems in order to reflect radical changes of atmosphere or different narrative stances. The core element, campaign-wise, was the lost Nithia. I had known since the early 1990’s that I would bring Nithia and “the Forgetting” into play at some point – it had been referred to in the prophecies given to the PCs way back when, when they were moving from the Basic to the Expert Era. Alexander Penhaligon’s solo phases had included a lot of stuff that laid foundations for the Nithian adventures. He had learned about the Nithian origins of Traldar and had found some mystical ancient artefacts, the mystical Suit and Rod.
But the form this phase took was radically different from my original ideas. Much of this can be traced to the experiences I had had in my other gaming group. There, we had tried out a host of gaming systems that fostered storytelling and interactive world-building, gave players narrative power et cetera (e.g. FATE, Burning Wheel, Lacuna, Universalis). I wanted to try something like that with this old-school group too, and such radical qualitative leaps would work very well for the kind of themes I had in mind.
The frequency of play was remarkably slower than during the preceding Second Solo Phase. Those complex and intertwined scenarios took 2–3 years to play, whereas this phase, which we played mostly together, began in 2006 and ended in 2010. These were the years of finalizing my dissertation; intensive voluntary work in our philosophy journal, including a long series of movie essay translations; several book editing gigs for our publishing cooperative; essay writing – and I also wrote quite a few sci-fi book reviews during those years. Also, in addition to D&D, our group played a lot of boardgames during those years, which took up quite lot of gametime.
In addition to those everyday distractions, I ran an extensive campaign for my other gaming group, again in Mystara. This was “the Specularum Series” that I had translated for the Mystaran community years ago. They had originally been published in the Finnish RPG zine Claymore. The original series included the scenarios “Coloured was the bay, bloodied the streets”, “Omens and portents”, “Stuffed heads and lethal weddings”, “Lament of the Wavering Bard” and “The War Conceived”. I also ran my module “The Monolith Adventure” that was originally published in the Finnish zine Magus. You can find all of these in the Vaults. New additions to the campaign were a thoroughly reworked GAZ 1 plot hook “Davinos’s Complaint” (a draft can be found in the Vaults) and a totally rewritten “Veiled Society” which included much more stuff on the Radus and the Torenescus, plus a short adventure involving the Iron Ring and the catacombs under the city. We used FATE system for this, and it worked wonderfully. This campaign required a lot of work and ate into the time I could allocate into our old D&D campaign. (By the way, some of the stuff that I devised during this campaign found its way into the Specularum issue of the Threshold magazine. And I benefited immensely from the work people were doing. Thank you, especially Agathokles and AllanP!)
Despite the slow pace of play, for me this was a memorable phase of our campaign, and the fruition of ancient campaign ideas in a new creative form felt nice. All in all, this was a major hinge point for the campaign, since after this we would move into the Aphastes War era.
Looking for Ragnar in Niflheim
Year 1012 ended with Ivan and his adopted son Thor dreaming about Ragnar the Stout in peril, as we saw at the end of the previous chapter. Ivan contacted his friends via “the magical telephone”, and they agreed to search for Ragnar. As the telephone network included safely researched Teleport sites, they could assemble as speedily as Avengers. But where to start? Ivan and Thor had seen otherworldly icy wastes, and combining esoteric knowledge from various sources they learned about Niflheim and the legend of Carrah of the Great Marshes (NOTE: I had used Carrah in my “Caravan Campaign”, but the PCs missed the Niflheim adventure there, so I wanted to revisit old ideas.)
They travelled to Soderfjord, avoiding Thyatian occupiers, and found the camp of Ragnar’s allies around the Red Rock. From them they learned that in his desperation, Ragnar had sought the help of Carrah but had disappeared. They performed the summoning ritual and were taken by Carrah into Niflheim, there to rescue Dunedhel.
At this point, I told the PCs that we would be using a hybrid of D&D rules and an abstract storytelling system that followed “the Logic of the Sagas”. (More information on this can be found in the Vaults in the document “Niflheim Adventure”.) Basically, every time the players wanted the PCs to act according to the style of ancient sagas, to follow the genre, they would more likely succeed. Acting “realistically”, trying to stick with the laws of D&D rules, would work against them. I gave some broad outlines, but they had to work most of it out themselves.
The events followed classical tropes in sagas and quests. For example, in order to survive a blizzard, they had to negotiate or compete with Old Man Frost.
Their first main stop was the fortress of the Frost Giant King Båhren who had imprisoned Ragnar. Ragnar was being pecked to death by vultures yet constantly regenerated, living in a loop of agony. Båhren wanted the spear that had been crafted and was being held by Niflung/Niebelungen/Modrigswerg in the mountain Gratogel. (This name came from the excellent computer game Albion by Blue Byte – I was obsessed with it during those years. The name of the king was adopted from a German ambient–jazz band.) Båhren knew that the spear had been made to kill him and wanted it for safekeeping.
In Gratogel, the PCs fought against modrigswergs’ clockwork people and a dreadful organ player (this idea was swiped from a Yoko Tsuno comic) before gaining the spear. Back in the frost giant fortress, they traded Ragnar for the spear, but Båhren turned on them, and in a great battle they killed the king with the spear, fulfilling its purpose.
From the remaining giants they learned that Dunedhel was trapped at Yggrasil, the World Tree, under Niddhog’s claw. They could not kill the great serpent, since that could happen only during Ragnarök, but they tricked it long enough to snatch Dunedhel. Carrah appeared and took them back to Mystara.
Carrah’s Gift of Knowing was a key thing for the campaign. Carrah told the PCs how prophecies worked: potential futures in a world that is affected by free agents, as opposed to the Logic of Sagas. Thus nothing was written in stone, even though Hosbaum had written things that had come to pass. The future was always in flux, but they could use prophecies to navigate the waters, to prevent and foster events, to use “the spice of freedom” mentioned in Hosbaum’s writings. This was important, as on a meta-level the players still had assumed that the prophecies reflected a strict linear narrative structure. From now on, they would begin to use them more to their advantage instead of waiting for them to pass.
They also learned more about Aphastes. The dark deity was trying to bypass Immortal limitations by using a portal that was open to his outerplanar realm. Closing the Portal (located in Larta, the original home of Radagast and Flint) would weaken but not destroy Aphastes. Aphastes could still become more powerful through his conquests, by getting more and more underground waters under his control – he was the Master of Underwaters, after all. His aim was to subjugate all of Brun, and absorb its vitality to launch himself to a higher level of divinity. Closing the portal would be necessary in order to destroy Aphastes, but some unknown power would have to be found to actually defeat him. What it could be, Carrah did not know. So the challenge was tripartite: stop Aphastes’s full conquest of Brun, close the portal and locate the power to best him.
After that, Carrah and Dunedhel disappeared.
War against Thyatians and the Alphatian Surprise
With Ragnar saved, the PCs decided to help the former king to attack the occupying Thyatians. There was a great navy assembling in Zeaburg, and Ragnar had learned that the plan was to attack Freiburg! The Alphatian northern surge, the takeover of Oceansend and Landfall – stemming from Yuri’s actions – was getting a response. The PCs used their well tested tactic of commando raids, first killing the commanders and then sinking the fleet. Ragnar stayed behind to continue the guerilla war against the Thyatians, and Thor was reunited with his real father.
Yuri returned to Freiburg and learned that two key politicians had been assassinated and that the harbor fortifications had been damaged in a commando raid. He investigated and learned soon about the Alphatian SAS connections with the guild of prostitutes (see previous chapter) and attacked their HQ. Janus, the devious SAS agent, was there but got away. Still, Yuri learned about an imminent Alphatian attack and called all his friends to help him. They arrived just in time, as a huge Alphatian invasion fleet, including Flying Dreadnoughts, arrived. Thyatian ambassadors fled the city.
The PCs engaged in negotiations with the Alphatians. I had expected a brazen PC attack on the Alphatians, as Freiburg was invaluable to Yuri and would be vital in the coming Aphastes war – which the PCs were anticipating. Instead, they “sold” Freiburg in exchange for knowledge about Aphastes that I dangled in front of them. That surely would reverberate in the future.
The negotiations also allowed me to present Alphatians as a fuller culture. I drew a lot from Iain M. Banks’s Culture books and the history of European self-justifications for imperialism for this. The Alphatians saw themselves as “planetary civilizers”, and since they were aiming soon to take over the whole Isle of Dawn, the Pearl Islands and Ochalea, they had generations of “civilizing” to look ahead to and no time for Brun. “My” Alphatians were methodical in their conquests. All conquered lands would have to become fully Alphatian, to adopt the civilizatory model, before the Empire moved on. They were playing the long game, looking centuries or millennia ahead. In their negotiations they promised that their holdings in Brun would remain mere footholds and that they had no plans to continue there for a long long time. In effect, they were also remaining neutral vis a vis Aphastes.
Below the Sands of Ylaruam
As I mentioned in the sixth chapter, although the Book of Hosadus worked more to give “a narrative edge” for the players, it had a dual function too. At a few hinge points during the campaign, it would direct the PCs to the right place. As they would learn later, at the end of this chapter, this time it was the work of Al-Kalim, who was travelling in time – “he had always been here” (in true Babylon 5 Vorlon style) – and was meddling with time in order to become an Immortal – which he from the perspective of the PCs “already” was. The metaphor for this was that Al-Kalim was weaving a beautiful rug, both being involved and watching the pattern from the outside.
So, at this point, Radagast received a bonus prophecy. It was cryptic, in true Hosbaum style, talking about “the heralds of history” travelling to the depths of the Dry Land and looking for the Beast of Forgetting, who held lost memories of not only the Grim Reaper but also the orphans [Traldar] and many others, and how many factions would be looking to resurrect their memories. The players had learned enough to be able to interpret most of the prophecy and decided to embark on the quest for “the Beast of Forgetting” that had eaten away the memories of Nithia. (Yes, I changed “Bead” into “Beast”.) Alexander realized that the ancient artefacts which he had found, the Suit and Rod, would be needed – they had been brought from the Lost Homeland by the first Traldar who arrived into latter-day Karameikos. (That discovery took place during the First Solo Phase, so this had indeed been a long game for me.)
Despite the warnings of Al-Kalim (manifested by “coffee eyes” taking over random people and talking to the PCs) they travelled towards Surra-Man-Raa. Over the years, they had gathered bits and pieces of knowledge about Nithia and new that something strange was there. After a timely warning from Taranis, Alexander was wearing the Suit and was immune to the loss of memories. But all the other PCs suddenly remembered nothing about Nithia and the quest they were on! For a time, Alexander would become their leader.
Note: at the same time, other factions were seeking for the Beast and aimed to reverse the Nithian Forgetting: servants of Chemos and Thanatos, and their old nemesis, Daricus the Firelord! All of them wanted to resurrect memories selectively, not to fully reverse the erasure of Nithia but to gain something for their deities. All of them also represented the old Nithian Triumvirate, the alliance of Than-Athos, Rath-Anon and Khemos.
In Surra-Man-Raa, the PCs learned about the legend of the lost Black Mage. This was Barimoor, who in this campaign had been active and had disappeared soon after “the Erystelle era” (see Chapter Four). Since the prophecy talked about things being hidden under the sands, they began looking for a way into Barimoor’s realm. They met a strange group of “Otanist” clerics (Otan – Wotan – Odin) and battled servants of Chemos in old Alphatian ruins from the colonial era. In the ruins they learned a lot more from the archives of an Alphatian mage that had been bested by Barimoor. (The name of the mage, Oglamar, was from Star Trek Voyager.) They also fought a fearsome Soul Dagger, which was heavily influenced by the Knife Missiles in Iain M. Banks’s Culture books.
They finally found their way into Barimoor’s old realm which had been taken over by monsters, conjurations and constructions running wild. They battled tribes of Garl and met an old nemesis once more – Marden Bailey! Remember, the PCs had teleported Bailey to Ylaruam during the Nomad War, and during the Thyatian invasion the devil swine had fled well and truly underground. Bailey had recruited gatormen and darkwings and charmed a few Thyatian warriors.
But these were only the starters, because the true enemy at this stage was the lich Eraan, a servant of Thanatos. The battles against Eraan’s undead minions were dangerous and multifaceted, and it was only in the castle of Barimoor that the lich was finally destroyed.
In the castle, they saw fiery footprints and follower them into a Time Portal. Daricus was ahead of them, and since this was time travel (of sorts), he had always been ahead of them. The PCs entered the portal and everything changed.
Nithia and the Beast of Forgetting
Although in a sense the PCs travelled to the ancient Nithia, this was not “time-travel” in a proper sense. “Soul-travel” would be a better term. Instead of being transported physically into Nithia, the PCs manifested as persons of that era, in new bodies, without being conscious of their “present-day” selves except in a vague sense.
This was done in practice by a switch into the FATE RPG system that facilitates spreading the narrative responsibility between the GM and the players. We used the most epic version of the rules, as opposed to the more toned-down version I used in the Specularum campaign for the other group. In a sense it was the PCs who were “playing” their soul-doubles, not the players, or that is how we conceptualized it.
You can find some material on this phase in the Vaults under “Nithian adventures”. The main idea was that the soul-travelling PCs could not change the main course of events. Nithia would be destroyed. They were observers of history. But at the same time, they brought “the spice of freedom” that Carrah had talked about. They could affect the world by the decisions they made as their soul-doubles. A crucial example: Alexander took on the role of the Hutaakan warrior “Mur” and decided during the adventure that Mur wanted to protect the Traldar. Because of that decision, it came to be – “it had always been so” – that the Hutaakans never were the overlords of the Traldar/Traladara but their protectors. Pflarr had never been a potential part of Aphastes’s alliance as was my intention originally. This would affect the Aphastes War significantly. Something similar would happen to Rathanos, as we can see.
In drafting the ideas about the coming Aphastes War, I had been using the notion of “the Age of Hydra”, when metaphorically, four divine heads would battle four, one led by Aphastes and one by Taranis. Aphastes’s four would have Chemos, Thanatos and either Rathanos or Pflarr. Taranis would be joined by the Lion God, the Silvery One and Thendara, Protector of Haven (but only if the PCs furthered this alliance). Foundations for this were laid during the World Cross and the Healing of the World (see Chapter Five). These changes during the Nithian Phase changed all this – Aphastes would be stuck with two allies, and Taranis had the possibility of gaining more! The deep structure of history had been changed – I had always been thus.
In addition to Alexander’s “Mur”, the group consisted now of Radagast’s “Bratak”, an Ethengarian shaman-fighter; Ivan’s “Rasui”, a Thothian mystic; Yuri’s “Osorkon”, a Vanyaite zealot; and Flint’s “Denon Samuel”, a trader from Salonikos.
(1) Court of the Rival Pharaoh
In western Nithia, a rival pharaoh had rebelled against the ruling pharaoh Thanoris and taken the name Otan-Anon, combining the worship of the northern deity Otan and the Sun Deity (Ixion). Several envoys from distant lands had gathered in his court, including the PCs. Their first task was to convince the pharaoh to send help to besieged Djaer Amon. (I used James Mishler’s map as the basis here.)
Some of the court intrigues, including the traitorous mage and the wife of the pharaoh, were taken from the movie “Mummy”, and others were rehashed from my Caravan Campaign – especially a Serpent Spirit inhabiting nearby ruins. Struggling with the Serpent, the PCs were confused by dreams about Taymoran times, about the even more ancient lizardman realm, about battles between the Makistani and Thyatian colonizers. But “to coffee eyes” helped them to navigate in dreams and best the Serpent.
(2) The Battle of Djaer Amon
The relief army and the besieged forces battled the armies of the pharaoh Thanoris, undead hordes of Than-Athos, followers of Rath-Anon (the Fire Worshippers) and a dark cloud sent by Khemos. Inside the city, and apocalyptic cult had taken hold, led by a mad worshipper of Otan, who was opposed by followers of Amon (Ixion), Sollux. The PCs defeated the cult and rallied the defenders, and the battle was won.
(3) Mission in the Pyramid of Kheptar
In my Nithia, the pyramids were not tombs but control devices of the empire, weapons of mass destruction. Any attack deeper into the realm of Thanoris would be impossible without disabling the pyramids, one by one.
The Pyramid of Kheptar was strongly connected to the Plane of Fire. The PCs breached the pyramid and entered a pocked dimension of Fire and got involved in and efreeti vs. helion struggle. From the helions they learned that Daricus had created this world and was the leader of the Fire Worshippers! They freed enslaved elementals and convinced phoenixes to join the rebellion, overthrowing the efreeti king Amir. Back in the pyramid, they confronted Daricus, but the fire mage fled, confounded by their presence. A Soul-Traveller recognized his kin. The pyramid was disabled.
At this time, the PCs met a group of Traldar who were led by a man in a mysterious Suit, wielding a divine Rod. They were the same followers of Taranis whose remains Alexander would find in another time! “Mur” vowed to protect them, and history was altered, as was mentioned earlier.
(4) Humak and Outer Beings
At this stage, Lovecraftian elements got more evident. Thanoris was growing desperate and was resorting to dangerous means, contacting Outer Beings. Things were careening towards calamity.
The armies of Otan-Anon were approaching Munak, and their Vanyaite allies were coming from the south. The nearby pyramid had been eliminated by the latter. The PCs were sent ahead to scout Munak and to disrupt Thanoris’s armies. During their mission they saw hordes of strange monsters being recruited. They also met with Daricus again. The Fire Mage agreed to leave Thanoris’s side, seeing that the pharaoh would lose. Daricus just wanted to share in the resurrection of memories, and he said that his goals would be in the far future (the next potential Nexus point), so he would not interfere with the PCs in their own time. A truce was made – and as we can see in the coming Aphastes War, this would benefit the PCs immensely. They also learned from Daricus that the Black Mage Barimoor had tried to time-travel himself but had been “lost in time”. Daricus really wanted to avoid that fate and warned the PCs of that danger: do not become too invested in these events!
The PCs managed to turn some of the mercenaries against Thanoris weakening his forces. From afar, the PCs witnessed the battle of the armies. It ended suddenly, surprisingly and terribly. As Thanoris’s forces were losing, the pharaoh summoned an Azatothesque manifestation of tentacles that destroyed both armies, leaving only a huge depression of blackened glass.
Suddenly, the PCs were without allies, and they decided to travel to Osorkon’s homelands of the southern barbarians, to seek help of the Vanya-followers.
(5) Dreamlands
On their way south, the PCs had to pass dangerous lizardman-infested swamps. But during their trek, strange things began to happen: the ground grew dry and grey, and the stars in the sky became unrecognizable. They had passed into the Netherworld, the Lands of the Dead.
Another switch in the game system took place. Now we would be playing Lacuna, an interesting indie RPG that features adventures in a collective dream. It facilitates narrative control for the players radically more than FATE. On meta-level, the players were told that their “present-day” Mystaran characters became more aware: they were now a mix of their two “souls”.
In the City of the Dead, the PCs met many dead friends and adversaries throughout the campaign, as the dead from all times, not just the Nithian past, existed there. They conversed with late Partiarch Sergeyev, for example.
The PCs learned that the Black Mage lived in the City of the Dead. He was imprisoned in a “Möbius strip” -style impossible library, guarded by Archons. It was revealed that the Black Mage Barimoor was none other than Hosbaum, the arcane prophet! In his failed time travel, he had seen everything, all times at once, and gone mad. Or rather he was not physically Hosbaum, but his tortured soul had for a time inhabited the body of the Darokinian Seer Hosbaum. Now Barimoor sent the eternity rewriting his cryptic prophecies which were archived by servants of the archons, insane librarians.
The PCs managed so sneak a peek at Hosbaum’s book and gained two free handouts from the Book of Hosbaum, and Radagast learned to read the book faster (two weeks per handout instead of one month).
Soon, this dream ended, and they were back in Nithia, across the swamps.
(6) Kheberet and Onwards
A new rebel army was being assembled in southern Kheberet: Vanyaites, Vyalia elves, Minroth elves, Thothians and the Traldar. The PCs helped alleviate some tensions between new allies, elven schisms and problems with Vanyaite ideas of racial superiority.
But terrible news arrived. A group of Vanyaite holy warriors had infiltrated another pyramid, near Nithus, but something had gone wrong. The pyramid had exploded, destroying the capital, “when the sun had come to Earth” and black winds spread disease and death across the central valley. The pharaoh had retreated to Ranak (Surra-Man-Raa, of course) with hordes of undead and Outer beings, as his other allies were abandoning him.
The army moved towards Ranak immediately. Among the army were the Traldar with the mysterious being in the Suit, carrying the Rod.
(7) Endgame at Ranak
At Ranak, things had degenerated badly. The pharaoh had lost any tenuous control he had over Outer forces, and he had been assimilated into a huge mass of unholy writhing and pulsating life, a seething sea of chaos. Terrible creatures (Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, essentially) stalked the land, and things were very Azatothesque in general, insane pipers and all.
The battle of the armies was played out this time by symbolic encounters fought by the PCs. They fought undead, the Dark Young, Nightgaunts and finally “the Pharaoh”. Daricus the Firelord joined the fray on their side.
But it was not possible to kill the pharaoh or win the battle. The Immortals had lost their patience. The skies were sundered apart, and “a Dark Star” descended – the Beast of Oblivion. The PCs saw how Archons escorted the Suited Traldar who imprisoned the Beast in a dark energy dome using his Rod, and how the waters of Nithia began to recede, how the Outer Beings were torn apart, and how “the Pharaoh” was torn apart by Archon hordes. The Beast began eating away all memories of Nithia.
And then they were back in their own time, in their own bodies.
(8) Back in Kansas
The PCs, joined by Daricus the Firelord, were in Surra-Man-Raa, below the protective dome of the Beast. Alexander was protected from the power of the Forgetting (as was Daricus, by other means), and with his Rod, freed the memories of Taranis and Rathanos, making both more powerful. All clerics of the Church of Traladara gained one level and slowly became aware of Taranis and the truth – the disguise of the Traladara Three was no longer needed. Daricus stepped back into time, travelling to the future in order to attempt the Ritual of Nexus again.
The Beast was laid to rest, the PCs left the Dome, and on the sands of Ylaruam, they met “the coffee eyes” that had guided them – Al-Kalim. This had been the final part of Al-Kalim’s quest for immortality, and he was looking contentedly at the finished pattern. He told the PCs that the Age of Hydra was upon them, that the old triumvirate of Nithia was assuming a new form, with Aphastes at its head now that Rathanos had left the group. Thanatos and Chemos had failed in their attempt to avoid becoming minor partners in Aphastes’s plans.
Radagast got another handout from the Book of Hosadus, heralding this hinge point in history.
Civil war was raging in Darokin, and tensions with elves were again growing. Thyatia was fighting the rebellion in Soderfjord with genocidal intent. Alphatia was taking over the Isle of Dawn. Things were falling apart.
And Aphastes was on the move, approaching Wendar from the north.
Part IX: The Aphastes War – Breaking the First Wave
The first phase of the Aphastes War was played around 2011–2015. The frequency of play in our group had by now stabilized to a level of, oh, something like 4–6 games per year, I guess. People had kids, houses, jobs, firms, other hobbies (gasp!), the usual stuff. An added complication was that I had moved to another town: very close but still a commute away and closer to our family garden, which would blissfully eat more of my time from now on. Otherwise, all of the group had moved back to the same city, Tampere. As the game narrative shifted to war-mode, it also required more planning and coordination by the players, as the PCs were making major decisions, and finding the time to do that proved often a challenge for the group. In retrospect, “the inherited structure” of the campaign was very heavy for this lower level of involvement, but it would have been very hard to change the nature of the campaign at this stage. And of course the roots ran deep.
My life had become very hectic too. During 2010–2012 I would be the chief editor of our philosophy journal, and besides that, I was the editor responsible for the refereeing process, the editor of a few books and the translator of one, and the chairman of our organization – these responsibilities would carry on much longer. That involved a lot of travelling to book fairs and other cultural events. I had also begun another volunteer work with the Red Cross. I wrote a book and lectured around the country, and began writing another book that would be published in 2015.
Still, a substantial, nay, major part of my brain was working with the intricacies of the Aphastes War the whole time. Priorities, people.
One note on the war: as Aphastes was ascendant and his powers were spreading via the underground waters of Brun, information gathering via Commune spells became more difficult. Nothing could be learned directly about Aphastes – and the PCs were protected similarily by the alliance of Taranis, the Lion and the Silvery One. A fog of war descended on the Known World. Commune spells and similar means would have to be used, but only by skirting “forbidden” topics.
Yarthmont 1013
“The Fab Five” had learned that Aphastes was on the move. He had conquered the Northern Wildlands northwest of Wendar and was about to invade that kingdom. Soon there were news that Ghyr had been swallowed, and the Heartstone, once retrieved by the PCs, was captured. (Aphastes would be gathering key artefacts of the Known World in order to boost his powers and make it possible for him to feed and protect his army far from steady supply lines. He could summon “manna” from heavens and call forth fresh water for the whole army, if needed.)
Yuri began retreating his troops and the population of his dominion from the Wendarian borderlands. Sensing disaster, he dismantled his thieves’ guild and sent his cronies to Gyl Erid, and from there towards Specularum. Remember, he had already lost his business in Freiburg, and by extension, Landfall. It was time to move into the old stomping grounds in Karameikos, where he had an amiable relationship with Flameflicker. Selenica, the new free city, promised to be a fruitful trade hub, and after the brief Ylari occupation during the Nomad War, it might be ripe for plucking. More on that later.
Yuri and Cymoril scouted north, using Fly and Invisibility spells and Yuri’s long rogue experience. They were horrified by what they saw: the army of Aphastes was grand, 100 000 strong. It included seasoned fighters in “living silver” armor (all of that metal had been looted from Flint’s enslaved kinspeople) led by Thanatos’s main general; undead led by high priests of Chemos and Thanatos; hordes of Scaly Ones of Rainbow and Borean veterans led by none other than Kitiara, Ivan’s old sweetheart; varied tribes of humanoids led by an ogre general; Hyborean barbarians led by a barbarian general; and minotaur troops led by a minotaur general. Flights of dragons were over the army, and there were a lot of mages and priests present. This was an army with only one purpose: to destroy the realms of Known World.
And of course: among the army was the living and walking god Aphastes, 100 meters tall, with the Heartstone visible in his crystalline chest. It was clear that Wendar alone could not repel this assault, and not enough friendly armies were near enough nor readily available. Yuri met king Gylharen, and a decision was made to evacuate the west of Wendar and fortify the capital. Gylharen would of course be there, using the power of the Elvenstone. Or so they thought at the time.
Meanwhile, Flint tried to mobilize the Heldanners, with mixed success. Some Freelords were not willing to commit, not believing that the threat was so dire, and many had suffered greatly during the conflicts of the recent years. Flint also tried to contact Ariannaid and the Silver Dragons through his priest of the Silvery One, Dalin, and sent trusted followers to beg king Everast for expeditionary forces. They would succeed, but the expeditionary army would not be large – Rockhome had lost a lot of troops during the Nomad War. Flint also contacted the strange isolationist dwarves he had met during his solo adventures. At this time, Radagast also sent word to the order of Stream mages, asking for assistance.
Alexander, Ivan and Radagast finally managed to destroy the Darokinian rebels and end the civil war. However, the agent of Aphastes, a Scaly One of Rainbow magically disguised as the elf “Sylidair”, managed to escape. Vocator Mauntea was grateful and promised to be active in war. Clearly, he could not help Wendar and Heldann in time, due to the vast distances and the presence of the Great Khan Batu. But he agreed to help Glantri if needed and to coordinate efforts with them. The three PCs also visited the king of Alfheim, with similar results, and send diplomatic messages all over the Known World via DDC.
Klarmont
Alexander, Ivan and Radagast travelled to Glantri and negotiated with their friend Etienne and other nobles. They helped Jaggar against an insurgency of Free Fundamentalist Farmers who were aided by People’s Spellcasters’ Company and Ten Thousand Fists of Khan. Internal tensions within Glantri were growing, and suddenly Radagast realized something very important. The Book of Hosbaum mentioned “the Traitorous Prince”, and that figure had also appeared during the strange “World Cross” episode. It might refer to one of the Wizard Princes? (And of course it did.) Radagast warned Etienne and Jherek, their closest allies, that someone might be working with Aphastes, and his suspicions were on Brannart and Morphail. (Again, right on the money.) This was one of Radagast’s greatest flashes of insight, similar to the one concerning the Atruaghinians during the Nomad War. Without it, Glantri would have fallen quickly or been fatefully weakened, unable to offer any resistance to Aphastes later on. That would have been most likely fatal, and the campaign could have ended much earlier.
Pretty soon it was confirmed that Brannart and Morphail were secretly allied with Aphastes, and Scaly Ones of the Rainbow had been transported to Boldavia via secret passes in the Wendarian Ranges. (Actually, during his solo adventures, Yuri had found a handout that hinted at this, but it had been forgotten.)
The three PCs sent word to the others to Wendar that they were needed – a pre-emptive strike on Brannart was in the cards, and the whole Fab Five would be needed for that.
Meanwhile in Denagoth, Yuri gained a small number of excellent troops and two golden dragons for the allied army. Things were looking up, but upon his return home, he discovered that special troops of Aphastes’s army had attacked Wendar City, killed Gylharen and captured the Elvenstone. This was a huge boost to Aphastes’s powers.
A tough decision was made. As much of the population as possible would be evacuated to Denagoth, to Meadil Silent’s elven forests and Murrogh’s Drax Tallen, the realms repopulated during Yuri’s solo adventures. Half of the army would go with them and man the Mengul passes, the other half would travel to Kevar and make a stand there. Their hope was that the main thrust of the enemy would not be directed at Denagoth, and the people would be safe. Also the Mengul passes were much narrower than Kevar and more easy to defend, not to mention the Naga river and the steep rise to the Denagothian plateau.
Meanwhile in Selenica, Ethrigan had arrived with Yuri’s best thieves to take over the city. But they immediately ran into an established “elven mafia”. (It was led by “Sylidair”, the agent of Aphastes – Sylidair was trying to foment ethnic strife in the city.) Ethrigan & co would have great difficulties.
The Fab Five assembled in Glantri and tried to assassinate Brannart. It was close, but the lich got away. Their second attack managed to disperse Brannart’s undead horde, which would be vital in the coming battle, but again Brannart escaped. By the end of the month, the PCs met the Glantrian army.
Felmont
The Glantrian army was victorious against Morphail, and the Aphastian expeditionary forces were wiped out too. Brannart managed to get away, wresting a key magic item from the PCs, and he would join Aphastes. But there were bad news on another front. The humanoids of Ethengar had attacked Carlotina, and boosted by the Ten Thousand Fists of Khan and a rebellion of mercenaries, they managed to destroy her troops. Carlotina was dead.
Vlaardoen was also dead, and after this brief civil war, Aendyr and Malapietra returned to their respective home countries. Etienne, Jaggar, Jherek and Carlotina remained to defend the country against Aphastes, when the inevitable invasion would come, and they started negotiations with Vocator Mauntea, asking for military assistance.
With Glantri taken care of, for now, the Fab Five rushed back to Kevar to prepare for the coming battle against Aphastes’s armies. They were joined by the Golden Dragon Raknaar from GAZ 3 – he had lost beloved Juliana during the fall of the Flaem house.
The PCs learned that half of the army was moving towards Kevar, and the rest (including Aphastes) were moving slower and mopping up any resistance. Flint and Ivan suddenly remembered the escaped Gylgaridian priest during their second solo phase. What was he up to? With the help of the isolationist mountain dwarves, they discovered that the priest was lurking near with an undead horde, preparing to attack Kevar from behind during the coming battle. This threat was eliminated, but the priest escaped.
Some remarks on rules: For the battle or Kevar, I developed a new battlesystem that would better reflect the world that D&D rules create. Stark differences in experience levels and hit point counts et cetera did not matter enough in my mind in Battlesystem and in War Machine, and the kind of high-level magic that we would see in this battle was not properly modelled by those systems. This system, was tailored for the precise needs of the battle of Kevar, so I won’t bother trying to explain it. It was cumbersome to use, but it reflected better the kind of damage that a defending army could make on the enemy in those circumstances.
The allied army indeed inflicted huge casualties on the enemy, but only on the weaker parts of the army. Aphastes’s generals fed their weaker forces into the churn, knowing that they could break the defense without sacrificing more valuable troops that would be needed in future battles. Near the end of the battle, when the magical powers of the defenders were running out, dragons were sent in and a massacre ensued. The PCs however managed to retreat the most valuable parts of their army in good order and covered by Mass Invisibility. They did not have a large enough army left to make another stand – and of course not another fortified mountain pass, so they retreated deeper into Heldann.
During their retreat, the army gathered some additional Heldanner troops, now that the penny had dropped. They also received valuable reinforcements: a flight of Silver Dragons, led by Ariannaid, and some battlemages from the Order of Stream mages. They also sent word to Batu, still hoping for an alliance with the Great Khan, but Batu had already decided, as we will see.
Now the PCs had enough magical power to try a counterstrike. They made a powerful Fireball ambush on the enemy army and fled, luring a great number of enemy dragons and battlemages into an ambush. They killed a many of them but unfortunately had to retreat, leaving two of their dead golden dragon allies on the field (Raknaar survived). The enemy could now recover and resurrect most of the fallen dragons. This was a huge setback. However, the advance of the enemy was delayed, as they waited to resurrect the dragons and expected another attack that did not come. (At this stage the PCs noted that the army’s leadership stayed overnight in portable Magical Fortressess, so they could not use their tried and tested commando raid tactics during nighttime.)
The allied army retreated further, aiming to gather more forces from Northern Reaches and possibly Rockhome.
Sidenote: At this stage, the PCs started to wonder about another thing in the Book of Hosabum. It referred to “the Abandoned Ones” that might come to their aid in dire circumstances. Who or what might they be? They used a lot of Commune spells and with the help of the Sage Bensarian of Kevar (who was evacuated with the army) finally they learned that the Abandoned Ones were somewhere in Broken Lands. But still, who were they? They also sent warnings to Rockhome, as Flint realized that one of Hosbaum’s prophecies referred to the sleeping Denwarf and his madness, and he remembered fighting a manifestation of Denwarf during the World Cross event.
Ivan visited his home, “Ivanslott” in Estine and received word that Count Burisson wanted to talk to him. First he visited Tenitar and warned the king about inner discord in the realm. In Landesfjord he was met not only by Burisson but by the pesky SAS agent Janus! Alphatians offered the Fab Five political sanctuary if they would join them in the war against Thyatia. They would also secure Landesfjord as a free city. Ivan said he would think about it and immediately told everything to Tenitar. The gentle kind was surprisingly hard: he commanded Ivan to kill Burisson and any other noble who was trying to foment internal division. War was coming, and he needed the country united. Ivan readily agreed but said he would have to get back to that a bit later.
Ivan joined his friends at Gyl Erid, where sad Flint was evacuating his dwarven colony. From their scouts they learned that a large cavalry army had separated from the main enemy army and was wheeling north, decimating Heldanner holdings. This was a calculated ploy by the army’s commanders. They rightly feared Fireball ambushes and other tactics and wanted to draw the PC’s attention elsewhere. This worked. The PCs took a flight of Silver Dragons north and attacked the cavalry armies multiple times, leaving the main army to advance in peace.
Fyrmont
After multiple massacres of cavalry troops, the PCs negotiated their surrender near Pflanzen. (Note: I used Geoff’s map.) The cavalry could travel to Freiburg and sell their services to the Alphatians, but this war was over for them. Then the PCs returned to their army near the river Isar and marched towards Gyl Erid. Meanwhile, Aphastes’s special troops and dragons laid waste to Heldanner cities and settlements, one by one.
Cymoril contacted Ilsundal with Contact Outer Plane and found out the missing pieces about the Abandoned Ones – they were the “the New Collective” that was born out of Hivebrood rejects and City Spirits in Akesoli (see Chapter Six). Flint knew that they had learned about the Shadowelf realm from him. They also learned more about “the Mother Tree” that was mentioned both in Hosbaum and Yuri’s old prophecy handout from ages ago. It also mentioned “the Star Boy”, the child of Yuri and Cymoril. They would have to visit the South Pole (rather, Evergrun) at some point! But we will get back to that much later.
Now it was time for some killing, and filling Tenitar’s orders. The first to fall was the insubordinate Jarl Heimdall Larensen. Then Burisson and Janus met their end in Landesfjord, and after that they wiped out the remains of late Rhorvald Ivarsson’s faction (see Chapter 7) by killing Rotolf Karlsson and subduing the other rebel jarls. Vestland was battered but united, and the army was mobilized in Norrvik.
By mid-month the PCs returned to Gyl Erid and learned that Aphastes’s army was moving towards it! They decided to arrange an ambush in Flint’s caves. They managed to kill valuable specialists but retreated surprisingly quickly. This might have been a lot bloodier for Aphastes’s troops, fighting in the confines of dwarven tunnels – a missed opportunity. (By the way, there had always been a potential from an undergound attack to the colony via an underground river, but Flint had realized this early, and powerful magical defenses were constructed to prevent that.)
Meanwhile, Aphastes’s commandos, supported by a huge green dragon, attacked Norrvik. Tenitar and many key NPCs were dead, and the crown Sorona was captured. Now Aphastes had three powerful artefacts to boost his power. Amongst the confusion, imprisoned Alphatian agents escaped, and quite a few jarls defected to Ostland. Tenuous control of sorts was restored after that.
In the wider world, Thyatis was retreating from Soderfjord and from Ylaruam, as Al-Kalim’s second rebellion had started. On the Isle of Dawn Alphatians were advancing quickly.
The PCs also learned that Batu Khan was invading Vestland, and they rushed to exact their vengeance. Batu and most of his key followers were killed in two surprise attacks, during which the Fab Five perfected their Travel Spell -powered surprise attack tactic. The Ethengar Horde was broken. The PCs travelled to Norrvik, asserted control and put Stephen of Rhoona in charge.
With their newly discovered Travel Spell Tactic (a combination of Travel, Fly, Haste, Invisibility and Truesight spells, and striking via Ethereal), the PCs decided to try a daylight on a selected leader of Aphastes’s army. The High Priest of Chemos was chosen, in order to eliminate the powerful resurrection ability (the Hight Priest of Thanatos was with the other half of the army, still in Kevar). But it took a while to track the army, as they had gone to Blauendorf and were trading with Alphatians for supplies. The PCs also sent their family and friends for safety to Radagast’s Isle of Hydra in Minrothad.
Ambyrmont
The assassination of the High Priest of Chemos failed. He had Permanency & Detect Invisilibity, so he could see the Fab Five transitioning from the Ether (I have ruled that this takes one full round, as opposed to the immediate transition of the Potion of Ethereality, which makes that potion a coveted rare prize). The priest Word of Recalled the hell outta there.
Dejected, the Fab Five decided to split the party. Flint and Radagast would travel to Rockhome to ask for help and to warn the king – the Book of Hosbaum led them to (rightly) deduce that Aphastes, with his control of underground streams, would awaken the mad Denwarf. Alexander, Yuri and Cymoril would travel to the Broken Lands and try to find the Abandoned Ones, but first they would talk to King Stefan Karameikos. Ivan would make a stand with the army in Vestland. Let us look at that now and return to the adventures of the others in the next chapter.
Allied armies retreated to Norrvik. With the help of the sea elves, Ivan sunk the magical isle of Narvedui, where his most prized possessios would be safe. Ivanslott was evacuated. The country was mobilized, and Ivan urged ruthless politics on the civilians safeguarding supplies for the army. This strained his relationship with Ariannaid greatly.
More news from the world: an Alphatian surprise attack had taken over Ostland, and the king was dead. No help would be coming from there. This was a terrible blow, as Ostland had the best army of all the Reaches nations.
Ivan and his special troops made several destructive Fireball attacks on the approaching Aphastes’s army, as his own army prepared an ambush in the forests north of Namsen. A terrible battle took place in the 21st of Ambyrmont. Most of Ivan’s army was destroyed, but that was a calculated sacrifice. The battle was mostly a bait: a pretext to kill as many enemy dragons and mages as possible, and this was a huge success. Most of the dragons were killed and their bodies destroyed sufficiently to prevent resurrection.
Ivan also managed to retreat his most valuable magic-wielding troops and other specialists, and in order to cover his retreat, he continued the Fireball attacks. In the end, he managed to turn the enemy army back, and Aphastes’s generals decided to abandon the attack on Rockhome. They turned towards Ethengar, aiming to connect with the main army (which was right now preparing to turn against Glantri). Most of the humanoids, mainly orcs, were released from the army and given free looting rights of Vestland and Heldann. The lesser undead were released towards Soderfjord as a mindless horde of destruction.
Ivan took his army to Rhoona, aiming to join his friends in Rockhome. There was a final ambush by Aphastes’s specialist troops that caused a lot of casualties, but nearly all of the enemies were killed too. The army reached the border of Rockhome and received terrible news…
Part X: Rockhome, Glantri & Broken Lands
The events in the previous chapter stretched into the early months of 2016 in the real world. The events in this chapter were played through in 2016. In Mystara, it was still 1013. But according to my email archive, it seems that in 2016 the frequency of play quickened substantially for a while – most likely because the party had been split, so we had more events to play and smaller groups of players were easier to get together. Still, in retrospect it is a tad surprising that I managed this: my second book (on politics and rhetorics et cetera) had been published and I was lecturing about it around Finland. I had also begun working in a new research collective, which would become my permanent intellectual home. That was a real life-changer. The year 2016 was one of the most intense periods of writing and learning new stuff in my life. But I guess it is a testament to the lure of Mystara that we played more frequently than in years.
Radagast, Flint and Ivan: Rockhome, Karameikos, Glantri
Radagast and Flint travelled from Vestland to Rockhome and arrived in Dengar in mid-Ambyrmont. They conversed with the king, warning him about Denwarf’s awakening and madness, but since one can hardly have hard evidence on such matters, and the PCs referred to cryptic prophecies, ”waving the Book of Hosbaum”, the king was understandably sceptic. However, they had the wisdom to warn the king about a potential attack from the Broken Lands. This was intuition, but with some reason: 1) Thar had been silent during the Nomad War and had clearly saved his armies for something else & 2) from his earlier adventures in Jhyrrad and beyond, Flint knew that there were underground routes to the Broken Lands. The king sent scouts to keep an eye on the western borderlands.
Pretty soon, Dengar was rocked by a terrible earthquake. (So now we are into the Dwarven Civil War scenario of the Rockhome Gazetteer. In this campaign, it was Aphastes who awoke Denwarf and who had increased his madness.) Denwarf appeared, and Everast immediately sought Flint’s and Radagast’s help, taking their warnings more seriously now, of course. The heroes of the Nomad War added to Everast’s credibility, as did Flint’s other services to the realm.
The first battles of the Civil War took place on 22nd–23rd of Ambyrmont, and Denwarf’s forces were initially beaten back. Then there was an interim scenario where Radagast, Flint and certain key NPCs had to save Duris, Belfin and Gilia from a besieged fortress, where they travelled with a Rockship (their first time). After their success and return, the two dwarven armies were locked in battle again, suffering tremendous casualties – and of course in the middle of this, scouts brought news of the invading Thar’s Legions from the Broken Lands. A temporary truce was made.
Led by Radagast and Flint, and facilitated by Radagast’s spells, the most powerful dwarven heroes made a surprise attack on the humanoid leaders. Thar and most of the other leaders were massacred. However, the humanoid hordes were still rampaging in the western valley, and the battered realm lacked troops to drive them out.
In the first day of Sviftmont, Flint dueled with Denwarf and killed him. It was a day of mourning for all dwarves. The xenophobic zealots were driven into exile and Everast was reinstated as one true king.
At this time, Ivan and the remains of the allied army reached the border. Everast allowed them entry, and with the help of Ivan and the key NPC allies with him, the Silver Dragons, the Golden Dragon Raknaar and Stream Mages, quick work was made of the humanoid armies. Everast gave some troops for the allied army, and the army would travel to Selenica.
Next, the three PCs decided to find Haven. Just recently they had (rightly) interpreted some fragments of the Book of Hosbaum as referring to a potential alliance with Thendara. They were really delving into the Book now. Sage Bensarian suggested that they contact Vyalia elves: as a sage of all things elven, he surmised that this mystic clan might have connections with Haven. And indeed, by visiting the Lake of Lost Dreams – the previous time was in 1001 AC – they learned where the secret valley of Haven was located. This was a nostalgic moment: for Radagast and Flint, Haven had been the place where they originally escaped Aphastes in 998 AC! Princess Argenta and Ellis greeted their saviors warmly and promised an army when the time would come. Ellis offered a flight of White Dragons immediately. Thendara joined the alliance of Taranis, the Lion God, and the Silvery One.
Then they continued towards the Secret Valley of Hutaakans, which was also referred to in the Book of Hosbaum. They were surprised to find not the scholarly Hutaakans of B10 but the great canine warriors thar resembled “Mur” from their Nithian soul-travels! (The PCs had retained memories of the history that never was, because they had been “outside time”.) The Hutaakans promised and “Army of Mur” to help the children of Traldar. Pflarr joined the divine alliance too: now it was five against three – Aphastes, Thanatos and Chemos.
In mid-Svifmont they received an urgent message from Etienne: Aphastes’s army was attacking Glantri! The opening salvo had been a destructive attack via underground rivers to Glantri City, where the Great School of Magic had been ransacked – Aphastes gained a couple of more powerful artefacts. (They also learned from King Stefan that an Alphatian invasion of Ochalea seemed imminent. The Thyatian empire was collapsing.)
The three PCs Teleported to Radagast’s mansion in Darokin and continued to Glantri from there. They arrived just in time to prevent the destruction of Erewan – the elves were attacked by the Ethengarian humanoids, the Brotherhood of Bolt (they had survived Batu Khan’s fall), the remains of Batu’s Keshak and strong specialist troops from Aphastes. The route to Darokin was thus kept open, and the elves could join the war against Aphastes. However, Beumory-Moorkroft, in cahoots with Aphastes, arranged a nasty surprise and blew up his tower while elves were passing by. The elven army was crippled and could not help in the coming battles. Beaumory-Moorkroft himself escaped, joining Aphastes’s army.
Etienne told the PCs to retreat to Corunglain and prepare for Aphastes’s attack after the winter. The war was lost, but Jaggar and Jherek wanted to make the enemy pay dearly. Taking part in the coming Glantrian battles would be too dangerous for the PCs, with high level mages battling each other, dragons and stuff added to the mix. Etienne told them that he was leaving after the battles, taking his people back to Averoigne. To Radagast he gave a powerful gift, a Staff of Radiance. (Remember, in this campaign Etienne is no Immortal: he had just been released in X2 relatively recently, so there would not have been time for his ascension to take place.)
The war in Glantri was costly to both sides. Aphastes’s armies lost 10 000 Scaly Ones of the Rainbow and a great number of dragons. Remember, had the PCs not caused the earlier victory in the Glantrial Civil War, all these troops would have been available to Aphastes later, plus some troops of Glantri! Jaggar killed Brannart and Beaumory-Moorkroft in battle, but was himself killed.
The remains of Glantri’s armies retreated to Darokin: Jherek and Carlotina, Quenildor, Nyraviel Aliana and her griffon riders, Franz Lowenroth, Margaret Hillsbury, an assortment of mages, a few hundred troops and the remains of a Darokinian expeditionary force. Carlotina would travel to Alfheim, but Jherek would be a main ally for the PCs in the coming months.
Alexander, Yuri & Cymoril: Selenica and Broken Lands
On their way to the Broken lands, Alexander, Yuri and Cymoril stopped in Selenica. Alexander met Portan Salasar, the Order of Griffon zealot who had been sent there during the Second Solo Phase. Portan was up to his old anti-Traladaran tricks again, so Alexander just killed him. No discussion, in broad daylight. And got away with it, somehow. I am still puzzled how.
Yuri learned that Ethrigan & co were in trouble, harassed by the elven mafia. So he torched his own buildings in the city, luring the elves and following them back in their HQ, killing their leaders – especially “Sylidair”, the agent of Aphastes who had caused so much mischief. Ethrigan could now assume full control of the city’s criminal scene, which would make him and Yuri rich beyond their dreams. The ethnic tensions within the Selenican league, fed by Sylidair, would slowly abate.
They had a meeting with Vocator Mauntea, briefing him about the war and getting some decent mercenaries for their expedition in Broken Lands. Then they rode to Corunglain, and from there into the Broken Lands. They had Flint’s old maps from his old expedition to guide them, and some old Corunglainian scout reports.
There were some tough encounters on their way to Sun’s Anvil – manscorpions and such – where they found their way underground to the deserts of South Gnollistan. Alexander, with his ancient hatred of “the Beastmen”, went on a rampage among the gnoll population. It was brutal.
They continued down to Kol and saw Oenkmar, making the connection with a fragment of Hosbaum and witnessing the city preparing for war. My original plan had been that Oenkmar would take advantage of all the confusion and attack Corunglain during the winter, using a terrible mass destruction spell of Atzanteotl to help their army. The fragment in the Hosbaum had been a long shot, as was the fragment about “the Abandoned Ones”. It was truly surprising that the PCs were here, now, in this crucial moment. They scouted Oenkmar, trying to do some damage, but failed and had to flee dangerous enemies into the old Shadowelf tunnels. For now, it seemed that they had failed to stop the Oenkmarian hordes.
The trek through abandoned Shadowelf lands took a long time, but on the 19th of Sviftmont they made contact with the New Collective by the Dragon Lake. The Collective agreed to help them against the Oenkmarians – their “swarm” would attack the legions while the PCs would assassinate Xilotchli. It was a good plan, but it failed. Xilotchli’s Spectral Hounds warned about their attack via Ether (again the Travel trick), Alex succumbed to Hold Person, and Xilotchli seemed invulnerable. Yuri and Cymoril had to flee, carrying their friend. The Collective had to retreat from battle.
Back at camp, Alexander, Yuri and Cymoril wondered about Xilotchli and his “empty heart”. At this point, Alexander was able to cast spells of the highest level, and although normally he would not be able to use Wish spells, Taranis had granted him one for this adventure as a special boon. Now it was time to use it: Alexander summoned Xilotchli’s heart! It came in a locked chest with four chained Death Demons, and Xilotchli soon followed, but they were victorious in this terrible battle.
Oenkmar’s armies had retreated back to the city, and the Collective was keeping guard. The PCs investigated the temple and discovered the Nightwing (Yuri lost a lot of potions due to the monster’s corrupting presence). The monster begged to be released, but Yuri declined. Alex damaged the temple with an Earthquake spell.
So Oenkmar remained, although weakened, but Corunglain was saved. For now.
The New Collective promised to block the underground rivers, so Aphastes could not use them as attack routes towards south in the same way he had attacked Glantri City. Cymoril Teleported them to Corunglain, where Ivan, Flint and Radagast were waiting for them. It was Eirmont 1013, and winter was coming.
After playing mostly split party sessions, the group reconnected by the end of 2016 (the Fab Five met in Corunglain). According to my notes, the events in this chapter took place during 2017. The frequency of games seems to have been decent, 5–6 sessions a year.
Eirmont 1013: Sabotage in Corunglain & Terrible Surprise
The Fab Five spent the winter 1013–1014 in Corunglain. Instead of rest & recuperation, or even activities against the Aphastian forces in Glantri, they were distracted by attacks and sabotage against the city. Nearby farms were burned down, the fortifications of the city were Fireballed sporadically, weapons depots were torched et cetera. This freaked the PCs out, and they tried all kinds of things to track down the culprits but failed. Corunglain would thus be severely weakened during the winter. (This was a successful diversion by agents of Aphastes. More than the actual damage, they kept the powerful PCs from inflicting casualties on Aphastes’s army by commando raids which would have been very hard to prevent and predict – as we can see – especially if done by high-level seasoned adventurers.)
Before the spring, the sabotage attacks had slowly petered out, as city defenses were boosted by the PCs (and the countryside had been thoroughly disrupted), and the PCs scouted Glantri. They saw that the remains of the army that had retreated from Northern Reaches had united with the main army. Aphastes’s horde was still formidable: circa 50 000 strong left from the original 100 000 (also, circa 15 000 troops had been left garrisoning occupied lands, plus the scattered looting orcs in Heldann and Vestland and the undead hordes in Soderfjord). Despite their grievous losses in the Glantrian war, the enemy still had 38 assorted dragons, a few Juggernauts and a substantial number of mages, clerics and other specialists. The situation remained grim.
Bad news come in twos: a message arrived from Darokin City. A mysterious enemy had attacked the city with tremendous magical power, and the key locations of DDC and the Merchants’ Guild et cetera had been destroyed! The PCs rushed to investigate and saw that the Hivebrood of Akesoli had returned, with a vengeance. During the Nomad War and the Civil War, the Queen had bided her time, hiding in Atruaghin, assimilating new people and gathering magical potential in order to use it in a massive attack. Hundreds of Fireballs had devastated the city.
This possibility had been mentioned in Hosbaum, and the PCs had come close to connecting the dots many times. I had bet that they would investigate this, but no. So the whole course of the war was changed: after this, Darokin would slowly cease to function as a state. From the outset it was clear that Crounglain would be abandoned, as Darokin would not be able to supply the city with troops and resources to make a stand there. The PCs ordered their armies to stay in Selenica.
The Fab Five made two attempts to destroy the Hivebrood in their tunnels, but eventually they failed. The Queen escaped. The Hivebrood, when they have access to sufficient magical potential, are a terrible enemy on home ground. Total Party Kill and the end of the campaign was very close here!
The former Glantrian Prince Jherek agreed to hunt down and to destroy the Hivebrood, but this meant that he would not be available to the PCs for a while, which impeded their efforts to hurt Aphastes’s army further.
Vocator Mauntea made a tough decision: he would evacuate Darokin – or rather, its remaining wealth, its armies and most “valuable” citizens and relocate to areas in the western coasts leased from the East Sindian Trade Company. A huge number of poorer citizens would be left behind, to be ground under the millstone of war. Vocator however agreed to leave substantial troops to boost the army of the PCs. (Oh, I have forgotten to mention this before: the term “vocator” was taken from Babylon 5 – it was a Centauri title.)
There were also news from Minrothad. An Alphatian surprise attack on Verdun had killed the Keeper/Clanmaster Rewen Verdier, and the Carven Oak had been captured. All of the Wish Branches were now in the hands of the Alphatians – and as Radagast new from his experiences in Minrothad, using the branches made covert attacks eminently possible, as no powerful mage would have to cast the spells themselves and be vulnerable to divination spells. Things might be done with them, even hidden from the eyes of the Immortals. And they would be. In Minrothad, Astra would be reinstated as the clanmaster of the forest elves, but the process of reintegrating them into the federation would be slow.
During the rest of the winter, Radagast was reading the Book of Hosbaum, hoping to finish it soon, and learned new spells. (He might have reached level 18 at this point, as we would have the Travel spell available in the coming adventures, if I remember correctly.) The others spent time in Glantri, making commando raids and whittling away at the enemy armies.
Kaldmont 1013: Diplomatic Overtures
It was clear that the PCs needed more troops in their army, and more clerics and magic-users especially. It was time for some diplomacy.
They Teleported to Radagast’s Isle of Hydra with the golden dragon Raknaar, Ariannaid and the other silver dragon who we decided to call “Pooh”. They negotiated with all the great guilds and helped Astra against a terrible vengeful Gakarak and its Actaeon and Nature Spirit allies. That was a tough fight: Flint was turned into a beaver by the Actaeon! The Gakarak is one of my favorite monsters, and overcoming it in its native forest proved a tough challenge even for the Fab Five.
Minrothad contributed troops, and they gained some mages through Radagast’s connections in the Tutorial Guild.
In Ierendi, the PCs learned that a ferocious attack from the Elemental Planes had devastated the wizard sanctuary of the Honor Island. They fought the Kryst and Plasms and managed to close the wormhole that had appeared at the heart of the sanctuary. They never learned who was responsible, though.
Nuwmont 2014: Shireton, Dreams, Alfheim, Selenica
Next, they held negotiations in Shireton. Although the halflings had suffered greatly during the Nomad War, they were ready to join the alliance. They also gained some help from Alfheim, although the elves were mostly concerned with preparing to defend the great forest – although attacking tens of thousands of elves in their home forests would be a tough challenge even for Aphastes.
While in Alfheim, the Fab Five found themselves in a collective dream – in the Dream Realm that was ruled by the Dreamlord Jherek. (I drew a lot from the Sandman comics here.) Jherek had taken care of the Hivebrood and now offered Dreams as a safe location where the PCs and their commanders could plan their next moves. Remember, this was way before our current Zoom times!
The PCs debated where to make their stand. Selenica was an option, but eventually they deduced that Aphastes would not likely move there, as his army would be very vulnerable to elven interception on the Selenican road. Darokin was out, and Karameikos was the only allied country left with substantial armies – and it had not suffered great losses in the Nomad War. Karameikos also had elven troops, which Aphastes did not have, two powerful churches, closeness to Minrothad and Ierendi support and Teldon’s magical school. The decision was made to gather the armies in Krakataos. The decision on the exact place where to make a stand was deferred.
They travelled to Selenica to meet their army. Agents of Aphastes were lying in wait and tried to assassinate them but failed, although Alexander had to Word of Recall himself home. The orders were given for the army, and the rest of the army Teleported to Krakataos.
The next morning, there was a terrible sight in the eastern horizon, and the earth trembled…
This chapter is markedly shorter than the others. The events in this chapter represent a fairly short period of time, both in Mystara and in the real world. In Mystara, things happened mostly in Vatermont 1014. In our world, we played these sessions from November 2018 to February 2018. Personally, the biggest change in my life during this time was that I succumbed to inevitability and had to get glasses. “Stranger Things” was a new thing, and suddenly “everyone” knew D&D. Ursula K. Le Guin died.
Of course, during 2018, but in the autumn, our campaign would celebrate its 30-year anniversary! As a celebration, we would replay the original Aphastes scenario from the RPG zine “Seikkailija”, the one where all this began. Also, during this year I began another OD&D campaign with my other regular RPG group. We had actually tried OD&D before, perhaps in 2016, with B10, but that petered out. Now I started running classic adventures for them: Keep on the Borderlands, Palace of the Silver Princess, Rahasia, Horror on the Hill, Journey to the Rock, Chateau d’Amberville. That campaign is still going on, by the way, involving events in Wendar, Denagoth and the environs in the late 700’s and early 800’s. Perhaps I will do a write-up about that some day. There is some material in the Vaults: “The Lost Dwarven Mine”, “Experiences in X2: Chateau d’Amberville” and “Experiences in X11: Saga of the Shadowlord”.
But let us get back to the matter at hand.
Disaster in Thyatis
I was Nuwmont the 27th of 1014 in Krakataos, and the Fab Five were together again, except Radagast, who was still engaged in spell research. Suddenly there was a tremor of the earth and a great flash of light in the east. It did not take long to find out (remember, Crystal Balls and stuff) what had happened: Thyatis City had exploded! It was said that “a mountain” had fallen on the city, obliterating it and the environs. A dark cloud of dust spread in the air. Refugees spoke about a great mushroom-shaped cloud.
The PCs hurried to Specularum, arranging Radagast to meet them there. They met with King Stefan and agreed that the allied army would be mobilized at Riverfork, where the country could be defended against an invasion using the rivers as barriers. Joined by Radagast, they returned to Krakataos and, riding silver dragons, they flew east towards Thyatis.
The Fab Five arrived at the Thyatis Crater on the 2nd of Vatermont. They saw huge black worms emerging out of the ground, “Eating the World”. Burrowers had been released!
A familiar figure was sitting on a rug on a nearby hill: Al-Kalim. Just like after the Nithian Soul-Travels, Al-Kalim was examining his rug, the pattern of spacetime. It was time to get involved. He told the PCs that nobody knew who had guided the mountain to fall from the Void, but he suspected Alphatians. No Immortal was behind it, he was sure, and perhaps Alphatians had means to mask their involvement (Carven Oak, remember). And those great alien mages knew about travelling in the Void, of course. They were not of this world, as Ivan and Flint had learned during the Second Solo Phase. Normally Vanya would have been able to protect Thyatia, but the Alphatian war had her fully engaged, and her powers had diminished as a result of all the setbacks. Djaea had prevented further damage to the planet, but Al-Kalim had agreed to do the local damage control. History had provided the PCs as perfect tools. The Burrowers had to be eliminated and the rift closed, lest more powerful and distant Immortals decide to “cauterize” the wound. It would be effective but terrible. Remember Nithia.
Al-Kalim bestowed on them a powerful version of Survival to protect them from the effects of the World Shield, a double-strength Bless and some additional shielding. They were given a stored spell with which to repair the breach in the Shield.
The battle against the Burrowers and an Azatothesque Piper of Chaos was brief, fierce and victorious. Al-Kalim thanked them and rewarder them with Attribute and hit point raises.
The Giants Attack
The PCs spent the next few weeks crafting magic items, training troops and reading the Book of Hosbaum. Cymoril tried Contact Outer Plane but went insane for a while. Karameikos was busy helping the Thyatian refugees.
In the 24th of Vatermont, another call for help came from Thyatis. An army of Mountain and Storm Giants had taken advantage of the situation and attacked Retebius, and the city was about to fall. Flying with Hasted Silver Dragons, the Fab Five arrived in time to repel the giants who were led by a Hephaeston.
The Lion Cometh
The next night, Ivan Ivanovich dreamed about the Lion Castle, running in the Spirit World, and he had a great sense of urgency: he must be at Riverfork soon! The PCs hurried home, using Teleports and dragon mounts, and arrived at Riverfork in time.
The Lion Castle, the mighty artefact of the Lion God, stepped out of the Spirit World. Two hundred rakastae emerged, but not in the form the PCs had met them, but in the original form of the people of Rak’Asta, whose manifestation Ivan now was. The Lion Castle settled on the ground, offering itself as a powerful fortress against the coming attack. Perhaps there was some hope, yet.
Part XIII: The Gathering, Bombardmend & Assassinations
Playing the following events in real world time took us from early 2018 to late 2019 according to my archives The frequency of play was not great, but still, that adds up to quite a few sessions, even though many in our group were having hectic times. The campaign events were also varied, and the PC had quite few wicked problems to solve, which took up a lot of gametime for planning, discussion and investigation.
Thaumont
The allied armies were being gathered in the Riverfork area. It would take a couple of months for all of them to arrive. The Fab Five toured Karameikos, meeting the nobles, the leading priest and other nobles, recruiting extra forces for the army. They visited Kelven, Highforge, Penhaligon, Threshold, Specularum, Sulescu, Halag and the Dwarven Dominions (the area of Castellan, see Chapter Five)
Alexander, Ivan and Flint rode Silver Dragons and were moving towards the Lost Valley of the Hutaakans, when they were suddenly attacked by Planar Spiders. That encounter was very nearly fatal, but they managed to escape. (I channeled China Miéville’s book “Perdido Street Station” and the figure of the Weaver.) In the Lost Valley, Alex, who still had the soul of “Mur” in him from the Nithian adventure, was received as a hero. “Mur’s army” would join them in Riverfork.
They continued the tour, meeting nobles, but they were attacked again by the Planar Spiders. So clearly this was not a random encounter but something targeted. After a couple of more attacks, they learned to best the spiders and drove them off after killing two of their spellcasting leaders. Their Divinations revealed, that the spiders were Kitiara’s private project. They also learned that Aphastes’s army was on the move, faster than expected. Aphastes had cleared the passes of snow, facilitating an early start of the campaign. Radagast finally finished reading the Book of Hosbaum.
At this time, Al-Kalim’s holy war captured Tel Akbir.
Flaurmont
The PCs left their army under heavy guard in Riverfork and travelled with select specialists to conduct commando raids on Aphastes’s army. They located it south of Favaro, witnessing firsthand how Aphastes caused “manna” to rain on his troops and called fresh water forth from the ground.
The co-ordinated Fireball attacks did terrible attack to Aphastes’s army, but the powers of the Walking God, boosted by the Heartstone, the Elvenstone, Sorona and two Glantrian artefacts, proved formidable. Aphastes could “zap” his enemies from afar, Disintegrating them without a Saving Throw – however, the PCs seemed to be protected from this. They had the blessing of the divine alliance. Still, the attacks were costly, as they lost two battlemages to Disintegration.
They shifted to using Delayed Blast Fireballs, dropped from far above by Flying and Invisible Yuri Turambar. Yuri also harassed the army, using his Drums of Panic. Aphastes’s army marched on, under constant bombardment.
Then Jherek, communicating via Dreamlands, told them that Patriarch Nikelnyevich had been assassinated in Specularum. It was once again time to split the party. Yuri, Radagast and Cymoril remained to do mischief on the enemy, others Teleported to Specularum.
In Specularum, they first dealt with a protest movement or a cult that called for peace with Aphastes. They learned about the involvement of agents of Aphastes and traced them to the catacombs, where they were ambushed by the Order of Rippling Waters, Aphastian mystics. The PCs were very nearly all killed but were saved by a divine intervention. However, there was a price: they lost their personal protective shields against Aphastes, which Yuri soon discovered. He still had enough –ridiculously lot of –magical protection to evade Disintegration, but continuing the Drums of Panic attacks became too risky. So it would be only Delayed Blast Fireball bombardment from then on, much more inaccurate and less effective. (The enemy army had soon learned not to march in so tight a formation.)
In Karameikos, the assassinations continued: the bishop of Church of Traladara in Kelven, Lady Penhaligon and the king of Highforge. The PCs were investigating these events closely and finally were able to track the assassins to their lair, an old Dwarven mine. Alex scouted the place using Travel and Truesight, and the enemy proved to be much too dangerous for them. The whole Fab Five were needed, so they contacted Radagast. (The system was ingenious: a message was attached to an animal that was Teleported to the Isle of Hydra, where Mizra, Radagast’s wife, placed the message on a predetermined location. Each evening, Radagast would check that space with his Crystal Ball.) A rendezvous was arranged in the ruins of Xitaqua, which Radagast knew well and could fairly safely Teleport to.
The battle against the agents of Aphastes was dangerous, especially as the demon Arashat joined the fray. But the demon was banished back to Aphastes’s realm (not destroyed), and most of the assassins were killed. A handful of them, Scaly Ones of Rainbow, escaped. Instead of continuing with the assassinations, they started sabotaging Karameikan supply lines, namely harbors. The PCs eventually surmised, combining good guesses and Communes, that Halag would be a target. When the enemy attacked, they managed to drive them off, followed them and killed them in their camp.
Yarthmont
Joined by specialists, the PCs decided to continue attacks on the enemy’s army. They found it, south of Darokin City, or rather the smoking ruins. There was a nasty surprise: Aphastes had summoned a large pack of Spectral Hounds. Radagast had experience of these faultless trackers, and the PCs did not dare to make an open attack, lest the hounds track them and lead Aphastes to them. They decided to stick with the Delayed Blast Fireball bombardment tactic, which they continued for a couple of weeks, as the army continued towards the Five Shires. Marching under constant barrage must have been dreadful, but if your commander is a 100-meter-tall Walking God, desertion perhaps is not an option.
For a while, the Fab Five returned home to make sure nothing dangerous was happening in the home front, but everything was well. On the 20th, they located the army – it was moving through Five Shires, looting and burning. Following their traditions, the Hin had retreated to their secret warrens. Bombardment of the enemy continued, and Radagast added Invisible Stalkers to the mix.
Klarmont
I took a tad over two more weeks for the enemy to move through Five Shires. Most settlements had been burned down, and lesser troops (goblin wolfriders and less experienced barbarians) were released from the army. Their reward: free looting rights of the Hin lands.
As Aphastes’s army was nearing Riverfork, the PCs retreated to plan the defense. Aphastes’s army had shrunk, but it was still huge: 10 000 elite guard (2000 cavalry, 1000 archers), thousands of undead, including a flight if 50 spectres, over 8000 Scaly Ones of the Rainbow, 4500 elite Hyborean cavalry, 1000 ogres, 400 trolls and 40 hill giants, and a tad below 8000 veteran barbarians. Much less than the 50 000 that left Glantri, but still quite a few.
Next Chapter: Battle of the Riverfork.
Part XIV: The Battle of Riverfork
This was the big one. I had been thinking about this battle, or rather something along these lines, literally for decades. Now, it would come to pass. In our world, it was February 2020, just before the scale of the pandemic became evident, before we were in lockdown mode. We arranged a whole day for the Battle of Riverfork, in a conference room, with flipboards and ample table space. I don’t think I had seen our group so involved and energetic in years. This is one of my fondest memories with my beloved friends.
The crappy battle of Winterfell was still fresh in our memories. But GoT was never a significant influence in this campaign. The roots ran much deeper. My earliest inspiration when I was considering an eventual showdown between Aphastes and his personal enemies, nearly three decades ago, had been the battle of Nirnaeth Arnoediad in Silmarillion. But as I have described, the nature of the campaign changed over the years, becoming less pre-scripted and linear and much more complex and interactive in its structure. The ideas about the battle altered accordingly. Other cultural influences came along too: I have mentioned DS9 and B5 many times, but I must especially point out the last battle between Vorlons, Shadows and Sheridan’s alliance in B5 as an aesthetic influence, albeit the resolution of these two battles were very different.
But during the previous few years, I had been troubled. It was clear by now that we would not be using Battlesystem, or even a tailor-made system of similar level of abstraction. We had had enough of those: the battle of Hinterlands with Radagast, and the battles of Sayr Ulan, Kevar and Namsen, at least. It had been fun for some players and less so for others, according to personal inclinations, and as the players had to direct the overall battle, it somewhat alienated them from their PCs. It was clear that so powerful and fateful PCs would need to have a significant effect on the battle and not be lost in the abstraction of such systems.
In addition to that, this battle would involve unprecedented amounts of magic, action on three dimensions, the Walking God Aphastes et cetera. No Battlesystem-type thingie could model this and do justice to the sheer “epicness” of it all.
I returned to an idea from the Battle of Sulescu, in the early Expert years (see Chapter Two). The main course of the battle would be drafted by me, based of course on the amount and the quality of allied forces and the preparations the PCs had made, and the damage they had wrought on Aphastes’s army. I compared the number and the type of troops to each other (how much cavalry and archers, how many spellcasters, what healing resources, how many flying corps et cetera), and counted other factors, to chart a likely course of events but keeping the draft loose enough to allow changes on the run. Thus, the battle could have been lost beforehand, had the PCs not been able to narrow the troop gap (missed “the Traitorous Prince” in Glantri or the threat of Oenkmar, for example). Or the battle could have been easier, had they done more damage on the enemy (or prevented the Hiverbood attack on Darokin, for example). The rough idea of the battle had been constant, but no details were predetermined.
Before the drafting, I asked the players to make crucial decisions. Especially: what specialist troops would be dedicated to defending their HQ in the Lion Castle, as opposed to joining the overall battle? The players knew that the enemy had a large number of spellcasters free to act on the battlefield, so this was a balancing act. Losing the HQ would break the morale and the command structure of their army. The overall position of troops on the battlefield would be decided by their NPC commanders and scripted by me. Both armies had very competent commanders, so no big tactical mistakes would be made. Divine and magical “Fog of War” (remember Jherek’s Dreamlands “conference room”) meant that neither side had crucial knowledge of the other side’s plans.
As in the Battle of Sulescu, the individual actions of the PCs would determine the course of the battle crucially. (Now that I think of it, this structure resembled also the final battle in “the Division of the Five” – see Chapter Five.) If the PCs were killed, the enemy would of course win, and the campaign would be over. This was, truly, crunch time. But the PCs could still lose even if they lived through the battle, if they failed to prevent their army being destroyed or routed. If that were the case, the whole rest of the campaign would be lurched on an unknown track.
Dramatically, the battle would progress by stages, and the PCs would have one or two major encounters at each one.
This was not enough. I wanted the long history of the campaign to be present at the battle, to bring in key elements, the divine alliances and so on. The grand effects of the PCs on the world would be a determining factor, not just the tactical level. But how to do this? Everything clicked into place when I was rereading the wonderful Swamp Thing album “The Murder of Crows”. The battle against the Darkness was an epiphany. I highly recommend it, if you haven’t read it. Again, the ending would be very different indeed, but the structure of grand dramatic stages came from there.
The end result was not modelled in a detailed way after Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the B5 battle or the Swamp Thing battle, but all of them brought some key dramatic elements. There was also a sprinkling of spice from Gladiator, Braveheart and Mummy Returns (the aesthetics of the Hutaakans from the last one). Winterfell was present merely by its glaring absence.
The Armies
As I mentioned at the of the previous chapter, Aphastes’s army was still huge, circa 37 000 strong with a lot of Scaly Ones of the Rainbow, powerful undead including wraiths and spectres, juggernauts, battlemages and dragons – and of course the Walking God Aphastes. In the army HQ Aphastes had his most trusted and highest-level commanders, thus a lot of extra magical power. These individuals would not risk themselves in combat, though, so their powers would be present through “boosting” and summoning a lot of creatures, as we can see.
The allied army was markedly smaller, circa 22 500 strong. However, they had a lot of elves and some Glantrian magic-user units, which meant much more magical power (if counted as individual spells). The enemy had nothing like this. The PCs had also invested heavily on training and equipping archers, and they had focused their Fireball bombardment on enemy archers, so they had a substantial lead on that, which is of course especially valuable when defending prepared positions. In addition to archers, they had gnome war machines from Highforge, with great range and power, whereas the enemy lacked war machines, having marched long and fast for weeks. Finally, the allied army had special units such as “true rakastae” from the Lion Castle; Hutaakans; Centauri and Chevall led by the werebear “Pooh”, Alexander’s old friend. Halfling Striker teams were also present. Ivan had a few Cave Bears, which had been trained to fight under Growth of Animal, Haste and Bless. Ivan had also created a tactical unit of F12 fighters from the Northern Reaches. They were supplied with ample magical items, had a lot of experience and high morale, were supported by dedicated clerics and had learned to fight together in Vestland and in Rockhome.
On the “battlemage” (any mages 5th level or above, meaning they could Fly and/or cast Fireballs) front, the armies were pretty evenly matched. Aphastes’s followers had higher average level, but the PC arcane spellcasters included high level elves, who were formidable also as melee fighters and had better hit points – and thus could being the fight directly to the enemy mages.
On the aerial front, the army of the PCs was in an inferior position. They had Raknaar, Silver Dragons, White Dragons from Haven and some dwarven and elven Griffin riders, but they were no match for Aphastes’s larger dragon horde. Their main task was to keep the enemy occupied and prevent the dragons from making “strafing attacks”.
The allied army was thus smaller, but on the other hand, they were defending against an attack across a river, and they had fortifications. Unfortunately, the better fortifications had been nullified by Aphastes: the god cleared a route through thick forest, allowing a final surprising change of marching direction. Still, new fortifications were hastily prepared by prodigious use of Stoneform and Woodform. They also had the Lion Castle, so their HQ was well fortified against attacks – invaluable, as we will see.
Finally: Flint had a Banner of the Silvery One, an artefact given by his high priest Dalin. Alexander had a Rod of Victory, loot from Hazar’s lair, if I remember correctly. It was one of those “Hey guys, I just remembered that I have this item” moments. Both of these artefacts were crucial in the battle, and without them, their army would have routed, undoubtedly.
Epic Ambience
As the battle was beginning, a spectacular sight emerged in the heavens. Alongside the physical Aphastes, emanations of Thanatos and Chemos appeared. Behind the allied army appeared the forms of the Five Gods: Taranis, the Lion God, the Silvery One, Pflarr and Thendara. The opposing divine alliances were betting all on this great confrontation.
A great rift opened in the skies, guarded by heavenly hosts of Archons. Within the rift, the figure of Hosbaum was visible. The mad prophet paused writing, put down his quill and gazed upon the battlefield. History held its breath.
Aphastes spread his arms, grinning triumphantly, and the river between the armies was emptied. A key defense was lost in an instant. There was a great blaring of horns. And so, it began.
The First Stage: Artillery Barrage, Charge of the Heavy Brigade, Tank Attack
As Aphastes’s armies prepared for their assault, a nasty surprise rained on them. The Highforge war machines had much greater range than expected, and alchemic ammo exploded within the ranks of Aphastes’s troops. (This was the influence from the Gladiator, the anachronistic WW1-style bombardment.) The generals quickly retreated their more valuable troops and ordered the rest into a hasty attack: Scaly Ones, Hyborean infantry, ghouls and mummies.
Accordingly, the allied army responded by hails of arrows and raining Magic Missiles and Sleep spells on them – the PCs had knowledge of the Spell Immunities of the Scaly Ones, so critical resources were not lost on wrong targets.
Aphastes’s cavalry charged across the dried-out river bed and attacked the flanks of the allied army, and was met by smaller cavalry forces, centaurs, cave bears and “Pooh”, and the beastly rakastae and Hutaakans. The fight reduced instantly into a chaotic melee due to the presence of “monster” units.
Aphastes started blasting the Highforge war machines, one by one: he pointed his crystalline fingers, and a geyser would burst under a war machine, shattering it. The horde of Spectral Hounds that had been straddling him charged at the Lion Castle.
Four Iron Juggernauts, covered by flying Gargoyles, thundered at the allied lines. This was very WW1: the juggernauts aimed to break the center of the line and roll over fortifications. They were met by Ivan’s Northman Fighters (the F12 unit), who fought bravely. The Fab Five engaged the Iron Gargoyles, but there was a nasty surprise. Each Juggernaut had an invisible Summoned Beholder on it! The PCs were met by a barrage of spells, and Flint at one point was petrified. (They did not have Stone to Flesh spell memorized, but Etienne had given a Ring of Wishes as a parting gift. That was emptied during this battle, unsurprisingly.) But their Saving Throws were so good that nobody was Disintegrated. The Juggernaut attack was stopped in its metaphorical tracks.
In the sky, circa 100 dragons and griffin emerged out of Invisibility and engaged each other. Magic exploded everywhere, and soon it was impossible to follow what was happening. Something like 150 mages were flying and blasting each other and raining spells on both fronts. The key aim of the allied mages however was to protect their defensive infantry lines, so most of their fire was aimed at the enemy mages. Flying elves, Hasted and Mirror Imaged, charged the enemy wizards. Thus, the PCs noticed that they were at the moment shielded by a protective umbrella of friendly mages and dragons, able to concentrate their efforts where they were most needed.
The Second Stage: Nightmares, Spiders and Monsters
Aphastes was blasting away at the war machines, and two thirds of them were already gone, when a rift opened in reality, opening a doorway into the Dream Palace of Jherek the Dream King. An army of thousands of nightmares descended on Aphastes, and the god screamed in anger and terror. Dreamers around Mystara were thus recruited into the battle. Gnomes rallied and continued their barrage, keeping the rest of Aphastes’s army at bay for now.
Spectral Hounds had been repelled by the forces manning the Lion Castle, but Kitiara’s Planar Spider allies emerged from beyond reality and stormed the battlements. A terrible battle ensued within the Lion itself.
The Fab Five could not come to their aid, as they were engaged by monsters summoned and boosted by the most powerful spellcasters of Aphastes’s HQ: a Drolem, two huge Rocs, a Gargantuan Gargoyle and two Greater Phoenixes. It was a testament to their capability (and the hardness of finding any good opposition at these levels of OD&D) that they dispatched them quite handily.
There were huge casualties in the infantry front of the allied army, and they had had to retreat to the secondary line of (lesser) fortifications, but the line had not broken nor had any units routed. The Rod of Victory and the Banner of the Silvery One were crucial here. But their cavalry and “monster” forces were on the verge of collapse. Spellcasters all over had nearly exhausted their spells, and Aphastes’s forces were starting to dominate the airspace.
Then, Aphastes screamed in anger and directed a tremendous blast of energy at the Dream Palace, destroying it and killing Jherek. The nightmares dissipated, and all the dreamers of Mystara awoke screaming.
But within Aphastes’s crystalline chest, the Heartstone broke apart. Aphastes grimaced with pain.
The Third Stage: Demons and Magical Help
Free to act again, Aphastes summoned a huge Screaming Demon to entangle the PCs and finished of the gnomish war machines. That deterrent removed, the route was open to his more powerful and valuable troops. The Ogre Guard, one thousand strong, pushed forward, as did wights and wraiths. The allied army mercifully had a lot of priests, but as they were bogged down Turning the Undead, the enemy priests were using Hold Persons, Cause Fears et cetera.
Aphastes was once again engaged, however. The Tower of the Stream Mages appeared – unmoored again from its anchoring at the Magical Axis (see Chapter Five) – and a radiant ray of magic struck Aphastes. The god blocked it with his palms, straining all his muscles, and the artefacts within his chest glowed brightly. Fresh Battlemages emerged from the tower to fill the depleted spellcaster ranks of the allied army.
The PCs managed to banish the demon quickly, so they could intercept the cloud of 50 spectres that was on its way to the Lion Castle. It was unbelievable: none of the PCs were drained during that fight, and they could help against the larger force of wraiths, too. The undead horde was at last repelled.
Meanwhile, the enemy cavalry had been victorious, and they regrouped in order to charge the flanks of the allied army. In the air, the allied forces buckled.
Aphastes, with grim determination, sent a blinding blast of energy, and the Tower of Stream Mages exploded – as did the crown Sorona in his chest.
The Fourth Stage: The Silver Dawn
Enraged by the loss of two artefacts, and clearly seeming to be weaker for it, Aphastes began Disintegrating the battlemages of the allied army. Many of them were already gone, when there was a true surprise, a blast from the Nithian past. The Firelord Daricus, who in the distant future had successfully become the next Nexus of Rathanos, travelled back in time to help the Fab Five, paying back the debt incurred when Alex returned the memories he needed. (See Chapter Eight). Daricus sent a great host of Fire Vampires (familiar from Call of Cthulhu) to attack Aphastes: frightful burning clouds of ever burning sparks of celestial fire.
The PCs were at this time battering away at the charging Troll and Hill Giant troops of Aphastes.
Then a great shout of joy was exclaimed by the allied armies, as from the south came more Silver Dragons, escorting the Lightships of the elven clan Children of the Swan from Thanegioth Archipelago. Alongside the Elves the Lightships carried centaurs and other faery folk. In the sky, the figure of the Silvery One was weeping, as his peaceful healer people were forced to commit to battle.
The arrival of the relief forces evened out the situation in the sky for a while, but Aphastes’s commanders sent forth a cloud of Scaly Ones of the Rainbow (yellow and green types) to counter them.
The enemy cavalry attacked the flanks of the allied army, but here was the Braveheart moment prepared by Ivan, planned for years and years. When he had fought against the Ostman Clan of Ostland (see Chapter Five), he saved and recruited their Pikeman trainer specialist. The specialist had trained the allied army, and now its otherwise weakest troops formed a pike-wall against the charge. That bought same time. However, despite the new help, the situation was turning against the allies. Their archers were low on ammo and their mages had spent their spells, and even though the infantry front was still standing, it was badly depleted.
Aphastes destroyed the Fire Vampire by summoning a huge geyser upon himself – and expending the Glantrian artefacts, which exploded. Only the Elvenstone remained, but it was to most powerful of them all. With a disdainful wave of his hand, Aphastes Disintegrated the ancient gold dragon Raknaar and started shooting at griffin and Silver Dragons. The allied flying corps panicked, broke and fled.
Horns were blasting, and the Guard of Aphastes, thousands strong, with shining Living Silver armor, began marching forward. Doom seemed certain.
The Fifth Stage: The Lion Awakes
The five divine figures of Taranis, the Lion, the Silvery One, Pflarr and Thandara all entered the Lion Castle, which again came to life, growing in size. It regurgitated the confused allied HQ on the grass, roared and began running towards Aphastes. The Aphastian Guard scattered, and many of them were trampled to death. The Lion Castle, nearly as large as the Walking God, attacked Aphastes.
The Fab Five engaged the enemy dragons, which were threatening to bear down on the beleaguered allied army. Ivan Ivanovich, the reincarnation of Rak’Asta, grinned with deadly delight: slaughtering Red Dragons! This was what it all had aimed at! He flew into battle, Ariannaid at his side. Even the most powerful Reds turned and fled before them, but then General Kitiara’s Black Squadron charged: her most powerful Blacks, against whose acid spray the PCs had no special protection. It was a terrific battle, and in the end the dragons had been either killed or driven away. Some PCs had died, but none had been maimed beyond resurrection. Kitiara fought the PCs ferociously, and she very nearly bested them. But only nearly. Just before the PCs managed to land the killing strike, spidery arms emerged from nothingness, grabbed and pulled her away. The Spider Queen had claimed her final payment for services provided, and the scream “Ivan, help me, please!” faded into nothingness.
But even the combined power of the five deities could not best Aphastes, and he tore the Lion Castle apart. And the Elvenstone shattered.
The Sixth Stage: The Incredible Shrinking God
With the Elvenstone gone, Aphastes began to shrink. 100 meters became 50 meters, then much less. Aphastes had expended his stored power, and the artefacts were gone. He had not managed to break the allied army, nor kill the PCs. His Guard was still strong and could very well beat the allied army, but even victorious, his forces would be in the middle of hostile territory without his magical water and “manna” supply, and without the awesome powers with which he had protected his army.
Nothing the PCs had could hurt Aphastes, as Carrah the witch had told them, but the PCs and other powerful NPCs could harry his army endlessly, whittling away at it. Aphastes could not finish his conquest here and now. Of course he could walk around, destroying one town after another at his leisure, but that would not realize his goals.
Not only that, the waters of the river rushed back, trapping part of his armies on the other shore, and most of his dragons were fleeing, as his hold on them seemed to be breaking. The dragons perhaps realized that they had bet on the wrong god.
Aphastes sounded retreat. He gathered his most valuable troops around him and Mass Teleported them to Glantri, expending his powers further. The rest of his armies broke into small units and scattered, either deserting or trying to find their way to Glantri.
In the sky, the prophet Hosbaum picked up his quill and started writing again. The archons closed the rift in spacetime. It was all over.
Aftermath
The PCs and their most powerful allies hunted down and killing a huge number of retreating enemies. They surmised that eventually 10 000 troops out of 37 000 managed to escape to Glantri. The allied army had lost more than half of its strength in killed – it would have been much worse without the Rod of Victory and the Staffs of Healing the PCs had.
Allied dead who were killed by level drainers were burned in bonfires (okay, one nod to Winterfell there).
Alexander and the other high-level clerics resurrected and restored those whom they could. Some were lost. Lady Halia Antonic had been taken by the spiders, and Retameron was mad with grief. Aleena Halaran had been killed irrevocably, also Lord Sulescu and Lady Nyraviel. And of course the great dragon Raknaar was now only dust in the wind.
Further Developments
In the coming weeks and months, refugees were streaming into Karameikos, and a serious economic crisis ensued. The realm had spent hugely on the war, the Thyatian explosion was hurting crops, and trade proceeds were squeezed between ascendant Selenica and the Minrothad-Ierendi alliance. There was famine in Thyatis, as well as strange diseases brought by “black rain”.
Eventually King Stefan decided to take over Machetos and parts of Kerendas, incorporating them into his realm. War refugees needed new lands, as did the troops from Wendar, Heldann and the Reaches. With the added production from those lands, and with economic assistance from Ethrigan’s Selenica (profitable loans, that is), the economic crisis would slowly subside.
Minrothad occupied Terentias, and Alphatia claimed the eastern Thyatian islands but did not touch Hattias for now at least. Ylari armies took more Thyatian lands. It was also rumored that it was raining in the desert (and raining less over Alfheim, some said).
Yuri negotiated with Alphatians: Alphatia opened trading posts and embassies in Selenica and Specularum and promised to provide humanitarian aid. Yuri would gain access to his houses in Freiburg, and he was given a luxurious mansion in Selenica.
Vocator Mauntea sent word that beyond Sind, in the land of Hule, another Aphastian army was victorious.
Part of the allied army demobilized, but the core remained in Halag and continued training. The army was circa 7 000 strong. The Silver Dragons remained as protectors, but they vowed never to fight again. Ariannaid ended her relationship with Ivan, and Ivan with her. It has always been impossible.
With the Tower of Stream Mages gone, Radagast’s Isle of Hydra became a new hub of learning and research.
… and on the 18th of Felmont, word arrived from Alfheim: the forest was burning. Thousands of Scaly Ones of the Rainbow had mysteriously appeared at many points around the forest and were attacking elves and burning their homes. Where had they come from?
The Fab Five remembered an old prophecy: “When the forest burns, seek the rainbow.”
Our group got back to gaming after a pause of six months, when the first intense lockdown period was over in Finland. It was August 2020. Having a longer pause was kind of fitting, since now we were moving into unfamiliar territory. The Battle of Riverfork had been the crux at which I had been aiming for, well, three decades! Now we would be moving into the final stages of the campaign. They would still take years, but some kind of end was already in sight for me. The campaign had always been meant to have an endpoint.
It was not terra nullius but terra rather incognita. I had gathered ideas and threads for years, like interesting trinkets in a box, jotting them down on random pieces of paper and stuffing them in a folder file. In later years, I had begun collating them into potential timelines. Some ideas were created already when I gave the PCs their first prophecies before X2 (see Chapter Three), others when I was writing Hosbaum, many others along the road. Others were created during the Erystelle campaign. None had remained in their original form. Some would be abandoned.
But it was always radically uncertain whether the campaign could survive showdown with Aphastes’s armies. In earlier phases, there was always the possibility to continue with the allied NPCs if the PCs died irrevocably: Mizra for Radagast, Cymoril for Yuri, Kiril for Alexander – Flint and Ivan had multiple choices. The campaign after such a radical shift would have been harder and less powerful, less infused with Fate, so to speak. Most likely Aphastes would have been victorious. But in the Battle of Riverfork, there was a possibility of wiping the table clean. All the eggs were in the same basket.
That is why I had not developed any of my ideas for the later campaign any further. I knew what might happen, and what would need to happen in order to beat Aphastes, but most of the details were missing. Now I needed to do a lot of hard work without the earlier superstructure of existing NPCs, countries, diplomatic relations, army rosters et cetera. We would be leaving the Known World and travelling much further than ever before (with the exception of Radagast’s brief sojourn across the Magical Axis, or Flint’s time in the Moon). That was a tough design challenge.
The first part of the story would revolve around Sylvan Realm and the Tree of Life. The module (CM7) would not work, of course. It was written for elven PCs, and in any case I did not like how it was structured even though I loved some core ideas. I would have to rewrite it totally, and in any case, there were other key things to happen before we got to the ancient elven forest. However, I need to explain how Sylvan Realm fit into the context of our campaign and its alternate history.
I had decided long ago that Mookroft would be an ally of Aphastes: not subservient but rather approaching some sort of equality of terms. Mookroft remained the unquestioned lord of Sylvan Realm, but he had offered his assistance for Aphastes in order to destroy Alfheim and especially the Feadiels. The Silvery Ones had been delivered around Alfheim by using the Magical Rainbow, which Mookroft was in control of. He had occupied most of the realms within the Rainbow, making their inhabitants his subjects. (See more in the Vaults under “Highly Non-Canon Take on the Rainbow Bridge”) As Moorkroft was in full control of the Bridge, he could “align the portals” between the realms, making passage easier and safe. The PCs would have to do it the hard way.
A few notes on the structure of the story: before, things had become more and more complex, interactive and constantly reacting to PC actions. From now on, for a while, the structure would be much more linear and predetermined, “railroading”, to use the familiar term. There simply were things the PCs had to achieve, more traditional “quests”. We would get back to more freeform structure later, but the next few chapters will handle this more linear stage of the campaign. For example, this chapter could end only by the PCs dying (and the campaign ending) or ending up in the Tungushka forest, in the Village. They could not get directly at Moorkroft, as he was in full control of the Rainbow Bridge.
Felmont 1014: Flying to Feador
When the Fab Five heard about the burning forests of Alfheim, they remembered a mysterious fragment from Hosbaum, one of those they had not been able to interpret: “When the forest burns, seek the rainbow.” Luckily, they had evacuated Bensarian of Kevar, the famed sage of all things elven, so interpreting the prophecy was easy. Bensarian knew that the first colonizers of Alfheim and later the Feadiel Clan had arrived on a mythical Rainbow Bridge, reputedly from an old elven homeland. At this stage they also realized the meaning of another fragment, an Alfheimian lament in the Book of Hosbaum:
Did you hear the tale / From our lost land
At the shores of a distant sea / Where the waves strike from the west
There we fled the Fire / There we travelled fleeing the Ice
Seeking a new home / Finding new forests
Following our Lord / Who brought us the Tree
To our new land / Tranquility of a thousand years
But the Children of Man multiplied / The forests did not suffice
It was time to leave home / We trod the Rainbow
To a new homeland / Created by our craft
We built a New Life / Under the protective leaves
Forgot the old home / By the new miracles
Until the refugees arrived / With stories of horror
A twisted branch of the Human Tree / Seeking knowledge and power
Lusted after our secretes / The roots of our Lord’s Creation
Songs ceased in the woodlands / The music faded
Beasts stalked the trails / Our forest roads
Lost is the land of Sanctuary / Lost the home of our Lord
By the Western Seas / At the bosom of the shielding mountains
They flew into Feador, using the Lightship of the Children of the Swan. The Fab Five were joined by Cymoril, Ragnar (Flint’s mage follower) and the Lion Shaman, Ivan’s follower. They arrived at Feador in time to save the Treekeeper and the Clanmaster from a relentless attack of Scaly Ones, Wyverns and Athacs.
From the Treekeeper, they learned more about Ilsundal and his creations the Trees of Life, which were fashioned from a branch of the original Mother Tree that was left in the ancient original homeland of the elves, “lost in ice”. (The idea of the Mother Tree detracts from canon, of course. The Children of the Swan in Thanegioth had a Tree of Life, but it was also an offshoot of the Mother Tree, not one of Ilsundal’s creations, as that clan had not been part of Ilsundal’s migration.) They were told about Mealiden’s migration, the coming of Moorkroft and the exodus of the Feadiel.
Feadiel would be able to summon the Rainbow, using ancient rituals. But they could not control it, so travel would be unpredictable and dangerous. Heeding these words of warning, the PCs entered the Rainbow Bridge.
The Violet World
It was violet everywhere. No ground, no sky, no directions, no landmarks, no gravity. The PCs could breathe, but that was about it. They needed Fly or Travel spells to move at all. But move where? The portal through which they came through was visible, hanging in the violet void, so they could at least perceive their movement in relation to it, but that was it.
Gradually they started to hear strange whispers in their mind, and their sanity was on the verge of collapse. Finally, Ragnar the mage succumbed to the madness, and in his ravings he learned about Gardens of Ollul. Ragnar raved about it, and Alexander was able to use Find the Path to direct them. (Had nobody succumbed to the madness, Lore of some spell like that would have been the only alternative. One could be lost forever in the endless Violet.)
Ollul, the lone Kryst, was tending to his crystalline zen garden. (This I think was influenced by Iain M. Banks’s “Surface Detail”.) Ollul told them about Essior’s Rest, a place of healing, and warned them about the banshee guards of Grelial’s Fortress which held the second portal. At Essior’s Rest, Ragnar was healed, and the group header for Grelial’s fortress. They destroyed the Three Banshees and entered the second portal
The Indigo World
This place was an endless sea! Most PCs began to drown and drift to the depths immediately, but they managed to save everyone, retreat back and cast the necessary protective spells such as Survival and Water Breathing. They also needed magical light and Fly/Travel to move. The armies sent by Moorkroft did not have this problem of course since he could align the two portals. (By the Way, China Miéville’s “Scar” was a clear influence here. I had just recently reread it.)
In the Abyss, they soon began hearing strange sounds. (I played whale songs in the background.) They met a huge white whale and managed to communicate with it, using Speak with Monsters. The whale told them:
“I have been here a long time. I left the world when I was still young, invited to live here by the Creator of the Rainbow. Just recently, the elves of Feadiel travelled here, and a while ago someone forced the world to bend and the portals to meet. I don’t know where the second portal is. Perhaps the Octopus knows more.”
They proceeded to Octopus’s Garden, a free-floating area of self-illuminating plants and corals. The octopus was an alien mind that “attacked” the PCs with its tentacles, wishing to communicate. Luckily the PCs realized what was going on and did not kill it! The attempts at communication drove the Lion Shaman and Cymoril temporarily insane, but finally the Octopus succeeded with Ivan. It agreed to lead them to the second portal if they helped with the Leviathan. The huge beast of the depths had been angered as someone was “bending the world” (Moorkroft), and it caused damage to the Garden. They should not kill Leviathan, only drive it back into the depths.
The PCs and their allies lured the Leviathan and fought it, but killed it accidentally. Alexander resurrected it however, and they gained access to the next portal.
The Blue World
This was a Skyworld: there was no ground, and light was “everywhere” without a visible point of origin – no shadows then. Winds were howling.
A bridge spanned the sky, from one portal to the next, but an endless Wall blocked the path. Most of the group had to walk on the bridge, and because of the winds, they required a Fly spell even for that, or else they had to make repeated Dexterity Checks. For flying, one needed a Travel spell or a “natural” flying ability (Polymorphing for example).
There was a Castle of Cloud Giants guarding the wall. The leader of the giants was the great wizard giant Atorox (the name came from a Finnish sci-fi story from 1947). Atorox and his family were paid by Moorkroft to block illegal traffic, so “None shall pass” was the order of the day. The giants also had a flight of Thunderheads and machines that summoned storms.
It was a tough fight, but the PCs and their friends prevailed. Atorox was killed, bound and resurrected and then interrogated. After promising to Raise Dead the other family members, the PCs gained more knowledge about Moorkroft. Loot from Atorox allowed Radagast access to some badly needed higher level spells.
The Green World
This world was inspired by “Swamp Thing” and the idea of “the Green” as a separate dimension of existence. The idea of the Green would be used extensively, as you can see in the later Chapters. A portion of Mystara’s Green had been transported into this pocket dimension by the Creator, and it was inhabited by an impossibly old Gakarak. This was Mirkwood in steroids.
The Gakarak attacked the group repeatedly, and it was practically impossible to kill it here. In the end, the group began torching the forest and blackmailed the Gakarak to lead them to the next portal.
The Yellow World
This was an eternal desert, with an artificial Sun blazing in the sky. There was no night. It was hot and dry, so dry that any water- and weather-related spells did not operate here. Without Survival or Resist Fire, this was tough to endure.
The PCs and their allies fought manscorpions and finally found a great pyramid guarded by Sphinxes and Bronze Golems. After the guards were destroyed, they could enter the next portal.
The Orange World
This uncanny world was an intellectual puzzle. They found themselves in the middle of an orange mist, with orange roots, tendrils or mycelia all around them. Weird orange balls, filled with tentacles, were travelling across the mycelia. (The aesthetics came from the Immortal Set.)
Th tentacled balls attacked them immediately, and a touch of a tentacle made them disappear, one by one. They appeared somewhere else, in an endless orange space with strange phantoms just at the edge of their senses. It took a while for them to realize that they were in the mycelia, and they had to find each other. They could not perceive motion and so could not realize whether they hit a mycelium wall or travelled along one. Finally, Truesight and an old Minrothad Fog Bottle that Radagast had saved helped them to navigate. They found the nexus of the mycelia and the portal to the final World.
The Red World
As the PCs had assumed, this was a pocket of the Elemental Plane of Fire, so they had defenses prepared. They entered the portal at a huge Bazaar inhabited by Elementals, Efreeti, Helions, Phoenix, Fundamentals and Salamanders. They were of course perceived as aliens but not attacked straight away. They managed to talk their way through, as they knew some languages known here (e.g. dragonspeak).
The leader of the Bazaar was “the Sheikh”, an Elemental Ruler, one of the most powerful beings the PCs had ever encountered and an opponent beyond their means at this stage. For example, they did not have weapons that could hurt him! But they arranged a meeting and attempted to purchase passage through the Stargate-like locked portal out of the Rainbow Bridge. The Sheikh decided to consult with “the Master” and opened a conduit to Mookroft. The wizened, strangely elfish mage, corrupted by the use of his Elixirs, immediately ordered the Sheikh to kill the intruders.
Had the PCs remained to fight stubbornly, they would have died without question. But they managed to parry the attacks of the Sheikh and his minions long enough, and stole the key to the portal, opened it and jumped in. Screaming with rage, Moorkroft twisted “the Ball of Stars”, the device that controlled the Rainbow Bridge. The Bridge lurched and threw the PCs and their friends back into Mystara, over dark forests. Suddenly the PCs were in the air, falling down, and before they could act, everything went dark.
The next time: “Where am I? – You are in the Village.”
Part XVI: “You are in the Village”
Yes, this episode of the campaign was inspired by “The Prisoner”. I had just rewatched it before I wrote this scenario. And yes, things got a bit weird. We’ll get back to regular old D&D after this break.
The origins of this scenario are complex. Way back when, like many others, I had wondered about “The Empire of Dorfin IV”. What was it? As I have mentioned, I did not have access to any of the material that developed Brun further. So it was up to me. I think the idea came to me when I was watching the pilot episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. There were the Prophets, otherworldy beings that took a human form. I came upon the idea of “the Dorfinians”, a telepathic people living a secluded life in Western Brun. They had erased most knowledge pertaining to them from the world, preferring their isolation. But Radagast’s first “magical book” (written in early 90’s) included a page on the Dorfinians, with expressions riffing Kai Opaka in DS9: “Look for answers from within.”
I did not know if I would ever use that idea, though. It was just sitting in my pile of story fragments for years and years. But the idea of the Rainbow Bridge and the Sylvan Realm was there from early on, and the notion of the Egg of Chaos (see next chapter) came along, and the Dorfinians would fit there, somehow, as a point of transition. But how? Then one day, I ran into Francesco Defferrari’s map of Brun and the name of the forest “Tunguska”. That led to the Tunguska Event, to the memory of the X-files episode “Tunguska”. Aliens! The Dorfinians were the Grays! They had fled the Alphatians to Mystara and were hiding from their old enemies, isolated by their telepathic abilities. They spent their lives living in simulated telepathic worlds, where time passed differently.
I had that idea in my mind when I was writing the Book of Hosbaum, because it includes a section on the Tunguska forest, with an allusion to Twin Peaks:
You who wander in the deepest forests of the world.
You who look for ancient secrets without knowing it.
You who flee a great danger.
You who seek the Weeping Blade.
Do not become lost in the dim forests.
Do not acquiesce to eternal waking sleep.
Do not listen to inaudible whispers.
Do not fall under thought.
Because the cats are not what they seem.
(Note: “the Weeping Blade” referred to the broken blade of Scorbane that we previously saw in Chapter Four and will meet in the next one. Radagast’s player had actually made the connection! He sometimes has a marvelous mind in such matters.)
The final piece of the puzzle came as I was watching “the Prisoner” again, maybe for the third or the fourth time. When the PCs ended up among the Dorfinians, they would forget their previous existence and selves and take new personalities in the Village. In essence, they could “fall under thought” and continue to live in the Village forever.
The Dorfinians provided a simulated strange Village for them, offering puzzles and challenges to engage their minds and learn about their visitors. The Grays could thus amuse them for centuries, keeping the PC and NPC bodies alive artificially.
There was only one way out, the phrase provided by Hosbaum: “the cats are not what they seem”. Note: the PCs, or their dreamselves, could never remember that. The players, represenging their unconsciousnesses, would have to do that, and they would have to talk about it explicitly. One of them would have to say out loud: “the cats are not what they seem”. The impetus for this would be provided by the Cats, the form the Grays took in the village. The latent knowledge of Hosbaum allowed the PCs to see the cats, but any time their dreamselves reacted to the cats, the simulation would “rewind” and begin again. The Grays would not understand what was going on, as the dream-victims should not be able to see them! Once the players had triggered the memory of Hosbaum, their real-world selves would re-emerge, and the dream would be broken. Yes, very high concept, and lots of fun!
(By the way, I must credit my old friend, a seasoned GM from my other gaming group. I stole this idea of the Cats from him.)
All of this was played using the FATE RPG system again, tailored to fit the abstract nature of the Village.
The Village
First of all, the Village does not make any sense. It is not supposed to. Still, it has an internal logic of its own, and belief systems and culture that the PCs could relate to. Or rather, these would be enacted and created by the players and me, as we went along. The world of the Village was not there in order to be discovered, it would be created together. I had drawn a map of the Village and placed it in front of us, and we would act it out.
The Village was surrounded by a deep forest into which nobody ever ventured. It was literally unthinkable. A river ran past the village, but it was used only for powering the Mill, for fishing, washing and of course for getting water, not travelling. On the other side of the river, there were key ritual sites, such as the Ossuary, The Crying Grove, the Hill of Winter’s Refuge, Hatred Pond and the Monolith of Resentment.
Key ritual sites on the Village side of the river were the tower called Death, the Hill of Summer’s Guardian, No One’s Cottage (surrounded by a palisade), the Pit of the Frog, the Cage of the Scoundrel, the Fallen Megalith and “the Bear”. Yes, the Bear. I did not explicate whether it was a place or a being – I did not know! (One of the players was convinced at this point that I had been influenced by the movie “Midsommar”, but I had not seen it yet.)
The PCs and the NPCs became the brewer Alume (Radagast), the fisher Blewit (Ivan), the statue maker Straw (Alexander), the smith Sickle (Flint), the little boy Messi (Yuri) and his mother Aster (Cymoril), the tar burner Leo (the Lion Shaman) and the stargazer Bruin (Ragnar). Other inhabitants included e.g. the compost maker Knaapio, the furrier Stoat, the beekeeper Immi, the twins Jacob and Jacobus, the ropecrafter Ronkea, the miller Sankia, the potato farmer Rassi, the rainmaker Esther and the keymaker Misa, and Habiter grew apples.
There was also a pigyard, a birdyard, a herb garden, the Party Clearing and a few other houses with named inhabitants. So clearly, too few people for this to be a viable village with such a vibrant ritual life, and very few children, but nobody thought about it. It was, again, literally unthinkable.
What happened in the Village?
I must say, that really does not matter. But anyway.
The first day in the Village, where they had “always been”, opened with the realization that summer was coming and the Summer’s Guardian had to be led into the Party Clearing. Usually Aster’s husband, Messi’s father had felled the Summer Guardian and identified the right one, but he had died. The players deduced/decided that the Summer’s Guardian was a tree.
It was up to the players to fill in the details of the ritual, and they rose gleefully to the challenge. It was decided that “an angry tree” had to be found, taken to be purged at the Monolith of Resentment and calmed at the Crying Grove. Only then could Straw sculpt the Guardian. Sickle had to repair Messi’s father’s axe and so on. There was also strife to be smoothed over: one of the villagers had hidden themselves into the Pit of the Frog, because a friend had been unkind. Beer was needed. In the end the Summer Party was began successfully, and the Cats were seen for the first time, and because of the reaction of the PCs, time was “rewinded”.
Now it was two weeks before the Summer Party. There were pests in Alume’s hops garden, and a bear had been robbing the beehives. It was all very weird. Because Straw (Alexander’s player, his unconscious) decided to see a strange dream, Messi’s father came back from the Ossuary, half-man, half-tree, and things had to sorted out at the Ossuary. Stoat eventually owned up to hunting down a bear, which was forbidden. But with the appearance of cats, things were rewinded, and it was winter.
At this point Radagast’s player started mulling about the fragment of Hosbaum but did not say it aloud. Still, the phrase “The cats are not what they seem” started ringing in Alume’s mind. Some people had died during the winter and needed burying, but the person responsible for the winter rites was sick. After he had been healed, he gave instructions for finding the key to Death… you get the picture. It was all insane. The players were really trying all they thought, attempting to find “the key to the mystery” when it did not exist. Finally, Radagast’s player said that they would have to focus on the cats “because they are not what they seem”, and Radagast’s personality resurfaced. Soon the awareness was spread to all of the group, and the Grays had to abort the simulation.
Negotiating with the Greys
The Greys were bewildered about this: how could the PCs see through the simulation? How did they know the name “Dorfinian”?
A deal was struck: The PCs would lose all knowledge of this, and Radagast would surrender all the notes referring to the Dorfinians, the Cats and so on. In return, the PCs would know important things and retain the knowledge: they learned the location of the Sylvan Realm and a route through the mountains, and learned that along that route in the mountains, the Scaly Ones were breeding “where the Weeping Blade was pining after its lord”. They also learned that a city of Aphastians lay on the coast.
Nex morning, they woke up outside the Tunguska forest. It was Ambyrmont the 5th – they had been in the forest a month. It was time to head over the mountains, because the travel through the Rainbow Bridge had been interrupted. Noe of them wondered how they knew what they knew… it too was unthinkable.
The travel via the Rainbow Bridge and the time in the Village took us from February to October 2021. Real-world life was alternating between lockdowns and releases and vaccination programs, where I was helping as a Red Cross volunteer. My work in our research collective was particularly intense at this time, and it was my final year as the chairperson of our philosophical publishing society. During this time I had the honor of translating Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction“ into Finnish.
After the Village, I needed to design a lot of new material for our campaign, especially concerning the Sylvan Realm. But there was just one more story stage before that, and we played these events one session during the Spring 2022 – after postponing it a couple of time when contracted the coronavirus for the second time. And of course during that spring, the real world took another turn for the worse.
Some background: as I mentioned in Chapter Four, Erystelle and his companions wounded and drove away the Chaos Dragon at the Plateau of Gods. The blade of Scorbane was left in the wound, becoming “the Weeping Blade” of prophecies. The Chaos Dragon fled into the western mountains and hid there, nursing its unhealing wound in everlasting torment. It could not die, nor could it live.
From the dripping chaotic blood, a new race slowly emerged, the Scaly Ones of the Rainbow. It took centuries for them to develop fully. For a long time, they remained a chaotic savage breed that spilled periodically down from the mountains harassing the peoples west and east of them. Eventually four beings, “Guardians of the Breeding”, emerged out of that chaotic experimentation of twisted life. They began to mold and direct the creation, giving rise to distinct breeds of Scaly Ones.
The Reds were the footsoldiers, disgusting in appearance and smell. The Orange were the low-level commanders and shock troopers, thickly armored strong creatures able to paralyze opponents and shoot bone spikes. The Yellows, “the knights”, could fly and were formidable fighters with poison spit and a tail with sweeping attacks. The Greens were the scouts and the assassins, another flying breed, great archers and stalkers. The Blues formed the officer corps, the diplomats and the agents. Their eyes could confuse the enemy, they had Charm abilities and their breath caused terrible mutations. Finally, there were the Indigos, the priests and the mages with natural Dimension Door ability and a terrible scream full of existential horror. (Their bodies also twisted reality around them, making it seem like Munch’s “The Scream”.)
All of the breeds had immunities, growing with the progression of colors: starting with Sleep Immunity for the Reds up to six immunities of the Indigos.
The race bred slowly but was immortal, barring injury or other accidents, so their numbers grew. But the Guardians of Breeding did not know why they existed. It was an aimless, purposeless life. Then Aphastes found them and gave them a purpose. The Guardians of the Breeding and their people became Aphastes’s most trusted and zealous followers, apart from the Mystic order of the Rippling Waters. Aphastes helped them to create a civilization, and he constructed the floating Chaos Egg to house and protect the suffering Chaos Dragon.
In Autumn 1014, the Guardians of the Breeding were creating a new army. Most of their people had been sent first with Aphastes to the far east, then through the Rainbow Bridge to Alfheim. Another army would follow via the Bridge in the next spring.
The Destruction of the Egg
After their time in the Village, the PCs travelled north for many weeks. They had a stroke of luck and captured and Charmed some hippogriffs, which speeded their travel. They fought terrible nekrozon and some rocs before finally they found the pass through the mountains.
The pass was protected by Aphastes’s Frost Giant allies, but the PCs simply bypassed it, as they did the guard posts of the Scaly Ones further in the pass. This speeded things substantially. Had they got into fights early on, the main Scaly One force would most likely have been alerted, and their task would have become immeasurably harder. Instead, they stayed hidden and located the mountain valley of the Scaly Ones, where they saw an army of thousands being prepared, and the immense floating Chaos Egg. (The appearance of the Egg came from the Elfquest comics.)
It was over very quickly. The PCs had saved one rare Speed potion, and with it (the doubled speed effect with Haste) they made a lightning strike at the heart of the Egg. They managed to destroy the powerful Guardians of Breeding before other guards were able to react – another perfect tactical achievement.
Then they killed the Chaos Dragon, and Aphastes lost his most important resource. There would be no new Scaly Ones from now on.
The Silver Ship
After the destruction of the dragon, shining rays of light punched through the Chaos Egg, and it began to crumble. Something utterly unexpected happened: a flying Silver Ship emerged through the cracks, with the elf Erystelle at its bow. It was a silver ship of the faedorne Karelia!
What had happened to Erystelle after the World Cross event in Chapter Four? With his friends, and with the Hammer Mjöllnir acquired, they managed to stop the draconian incursion into Mystara. The Time of Withdrawal was coming, and the age of sagas ended, and it was time for Erystelle to find rest. Karelia offered him eternal life in her floating island, and Erystelle accepted. But he missed his friend Scorbane terribly. Now that the Chaos Dragon was dead, Erystelle came to retrieve Scorbane’s Blade, and his friend was repaired. Erystelle rewarded the Fab Five with some items from his travels.
Karelia knew about the destruction of the Sylvan Realm and agreed to help. She would transport them in secret to the edge of the forest, by the river that would lead to the Tower of Light.
It was Sviftmont 17th, 1014. Elsewhere in the world Aphastes was licking his wounds in Glantri and making new plans. He still had a lot of forces available, but he was unsure about the fate of the Fab Five. They had not been seen since Moorkroft threw them off the Rainbow Bridge. Had they died? If so, Aphastes could begin a new assault, come next spring, and overcome his enemies. Alfheim was already burning and sure to fall when the next Scaly One army arrived (or so he still thought).
After conquering Tel Akbir, Ylari forces took Retebius and stopped. Al-Kalim declared that now it was time to end the holy war and begin to realize the Dream of the Desert Garden. It was raining in the desert.
Battles were raging still in Alfheim, going on over three months now. The Scaly Ones were doing terrible damage to the forests and their spell immunities hampered the elven efforts. Rains were weakening and were unable to put out the fires fast enough. Thousands of trees and treefolk were dying.
In the lands of Darokin, there was famine and disease among the few survivors, but nothing could be done for them. Karameikos was struggling with helping the Thyatian refugees and the Five Shires.
Our adventures in Sylvan Realm were played in three sessions in August, November and December 2022. For our present gaming frequency, that is a lot of games in a short time. Working life was absolutely hectic during those times, and I had my second bout with the coronavirus. But when half of your brain seems to be working in Mystara anyway, there seems always to be time for designing the next sessions. With a complex campaign like this, the simultaneous events and the plans of various parties would be running in the background of my mind, activated at least once per day during my constitutionals, in the garden or in the middle of the night, when sleep would not come. Thus it has been for years.
By the way, with my second RPG group we had finished the second part of Saga of the Shadowlord (timed circa 800 AC) in May – see “Experiences in X11: Saga of the Shadowlord” in the Vaults – and in the autumn we had begun a campaign of reconquering the old elven realms of Nimbeth and Thalion. That campaign had thus far been mostly classic commercial modules, but from now on everything would be designed by me. So, my workload on the RPG front became heavier, especially as I wrote Nimbeth as a complex “megadungeon” or sorts, the first one I have ever designed.
As I mentioned in Chapter 15, the module “Tree of Life” (CM7) was of course the background for our sessions in the Sylvan Realm. It had the basic elements: Mookroft, the Tower of Light, the Tree of Life, the map of the forest and the idea of the elves hidden in trees. But otherwise, I changed everything.
The main design challenge here was that the PCs were about to fight with an extremely high-level mage only for the second time in their career (Brannart had been the first one). But even if high-level mages of OD&D are powerful, they are also brittle. Alone they are no match for sufficiently high-level PCs, and the system really has a very limited number or protective spells. All in all, I must say that at this time the game system was approaching its breaking point. As the PCs became increasingly powerful and resourceful, with access to Travel and Survival spells, it was harder to create sufficiently interesting challenges for them. In a sense, that too forced the narrative structure to become more linear. Encounters could no longer be designed on the fly, and adapting to surprising situations was harder for the DM.
I must add that a couple of house rules regarding especially Haste spells that we had made years ago, added to this challenge. Haste was much too powerful in our game, allowing interruption of spellcasting too easily. Also, the “to Hit” bonuses of Haste, not to mention the extra bonuses of Haste & Speed, were a case of unnecessary “doubling your bacon”. I would not use this optional rule in my other ongoing OD&D campaign. But in this old campaign, we were stuck with these old decisions, living in an inherited situation.
The Situation in the Sylvan Realm
Moorkroft was living in the Tower of Light, continuing his research of hundreds of years in order to discover the Sanctuary of the Tree and planning the destruction of Alfheim with the help of Aphastes. The Tower of Light was protected by a force field, a creation of Ilsundal originally but now used by Mookroft. It could not be passed by Teleport or Dimensional Door, nor could it be bypassed via the Ether or even the Spirit World (Radagast had Spirit Sending as part of his Stream Mage training). Find the Path would not reveal anything.
Moorkroft’s troops consisted mainly of Athacs and Wyverns, and they were slowly cutting down the forests in a huge clearing north of the Tower (I removed the geysers from the clearing and made it into an ugly clearcut). With terrible machines, they were pulping and burning the trees, extracting “elven soul-juice” as a reagent of Mookroft’s Elixirs of Life. In my version, Mookroft did not have clones nor did he have the corrupting disease – he was just obsessed with ways of achieving Immortality and had found a particularily immoral one. I even wrote his journal, describing his origins in Braerj/Glantri and his growing obsessions. The use of Elixirs had made him look like a wizened ancient elf.
There was also a small harbor by the Tower of Light, manned by a garrison of Scaly Ones. They were responsible for taking care of the facilities that would house the coming army that would be channeled to Alfheim via the Rainbow.
South of the forest, by the shores of the ocean, there was a great city of Aphastes, his lanfdall when he migrated from the islands of Larta to Brun all those years ago.
Adventures in the Forest
The structure of this scenario was straightforward, quest-like, partly for the reasons described above. The PCs would have first to gain access to the Tower, and from there, access to the Sanctuary of the Tree.
They travelled the river, fighting Greater Wyrds on their way. At the Tower of Light, they scouted by mundane and magical means, discovering that there was no way to get in. They decided to check out the road leading north from the Tower and quickly saw thick smoke rising to the sky. At the northern clearing, they killed a crew of Athach loggers and their Wyvern “aircover”.
They met a few sickened dryads who thanked them. From the dryads, the PCs learned about the elven souls hiding in the trees and how it was made possible by the power of Ilsundal’s Tree, evoked by the last Treekeeper. The Tree was still safe in its Sanctuary, where the great enemy had not discovered it. The Treekeeper had destroyed himself, taking his knowledge with him. But surely he had told someone? Only the Tree could wake up the elves. The dryads surmised that the undine people of the northern lake might know something.
On their way north, the PCs came across a huge monument of Ilsundal at a crossroads in the middle of the forest (in place of the Crystal Dome in CM7). They were attacked by three Banshees. Under the monument, the PCs discovered a magical “bubble” or “pocket”, similar to the force field of the Tower of Light. They could not gain access and rightly guessed that the Sanctuary of the Tree was under the monument.
At the undine lake they fought and destroyed a Hag and her minions (nuckalavees, reveners, spectres, a chimera, a cockatrice and a manticore), allies of Moorkroft. The Hag had been corrupting the lake and the marshes for all these years, driving the undine into small pockets of clear water and killing most of their people. The Hag gone, the undines could begin the slow work of cleaning their homeland.
The undines told the PCs that the lake was a holy place created for them by Ilsundal. They were to be the guardians of secret knowledge of the Treekeepers in case something terrible happened. They knew that the Sanctuary could only be reached by using the Rainbow Bridge, with special settings on the control device. The undine knew those settings, but they had no idea how to get into the Tower. There was however an ancient Treant living in the east (the hill of the “Justice Puzzle). He had been a personal friend of Ilsundal and could possibly help?
Near the Treant’s hill, the PCs were confronted by Actaeons. Luckily from their experience against the Gakarak of Verdun (see Chapter Eleven) they knew how dangerous those creatures were, and made no aggressive moves. This was good, because soon they were surrounded by an army of animated trees.
This encounter was about argumentation, not fighting. The ancient treant has retreated from the world and was resentful of the elves who abandoned the forest people – especially “the cowardly Feadiel”. It was a case of making good enough arguments to convince him: very Fangorn and the council of Ents. The treant was suspicious: Who were the PCs? Where had they come from and how? How could they know what they knew? And who was to say that they would not damage the forest or the Tree of Ilsundal, being humans after all?
Eventually he was convinced and agreed to help the PCs. All of them were given a small bottle of “Water of the Treants” that allowed a split-second access to “the Green”, the Swamp Thing -inspired dimension of plant life mentioned already in Chapter Fifteen. That was the only way to bypass Ilsundal’s Shield – and this was of course intentional. Ilsundal knew that in case of an enemy taking over his Tower, the treants would only help those who were worthy.
As his logging crew and pulping machines had been destroyed, Moorkroft knew about the invaders. He had sent a force of Amber Golems, faultless trackers, and four Yellow Scaly Ones, loaned from Aphastes’s forces, to kill them. The assassins attacked on Eirmont the 10th, intercepting the PCs as they were travelling towards the Tower of Light, but the PCs were victorious.
Battling Moorkroft
The PCs and their friends camped near the Tower and made their preparations for a classic commando raid. They boosted themselves with all available spells, all of them Flying and Invisible, quaffed the Waters of Treants and flew through Ilsundal’s Shield… and into a Spell Purge area that turned their Fly and Invisible spells off. This was another of Ilsundal’s old defenses.
The PCs fell down, some into the moat, and at the same time Mountain Giants jumped down from the parapets and Athacs and Amber Golems charged from the gate. It was a tough fight for a while, as some of them had to be saved from drowning at the same time. But they rallied, and realizing that Flying and Invisibility were off, Yuri quaffed a rare and valuable Potion of Ethereality, and using Truesight (from one of the Snow Pearls which Erystelle had given them) he would follow the others in Ether, biding his time.
More Athacs, Hasted by Mookroft, had to be killed before they reached “the Throne Room” which held the control mechanism of the Rainbow Bridge and the Portal into the Bridge. Moorkroft was inside a Prismatic Sphere, and he had summoned Beholders to kill the PCs and their allies. From the portal, from the Rad world, his Elemental Fire allies burst forth: Efreeti and Flame Salamanders.
While the PCs were fighting off these creatures, Mookroft was busy casting his other protective spells and summoning creatures to guard him when he would engage the PCs directly. In the Ether, Yuri used up a Rod of Cancellation and took down part of the Prismatic Sphere, and Radagast by sheer luck had all the other spells needed. Thus, Moorkroft could not make his preparations in peace and had to fight too soon.
Moorkroft still had an ace in the hole, a Contingency Spell that would have Teleported him to his laboratory, where Healing Potions and other resources awaited, had his Hit Points fallen below a certain level. But emerging from the Ether, Yuri managed to kill him in one strike with his Sword of the Master Thief. The great enemy of elves was dead.
The Sanctuary of the Tree
After looting Moorkroft’s laboratory and library, the PCs and their allies used the Rainbow Bridge to gain access to the underground Sanctuary of the Tree, a huge domed cave, where artificial light was keeping the Tree alive. The Tree greeted them, speaking to them directly into their minds.
The Tree said that it had been waiting for them. It was over 3000 years old, created from the branch of the Mother Tree. Via its connection to the Green, it was aware of Aphaste’s spreading corruption, which was damaging the Green, and the struggles against Aphastes.
As was already told by Carrah in Chapter Eight, Aphastes’s aim was to use up all the water and vitality of Brun in order to Ascend to a higher level of Immortality. That would create a gaping wound in the Green of Mystara. That was clearly breaking the rules of the gods, but why weren’t the other gods doing anything, the PCs might ask? They were, the Tree said: “the Fab Five” was the world trying to help and to repair itself, just like in the case of the World Cross (Chapters Four and Five) and Thyatis’s Burrowers (Chapter Twelve). Righting such terrible wrongs by direct Immortal action was possible, but as Blackmoor, Taymora and Nithia had proven, the damage to the world would be equally immense. And the Walking God Aphastes might even be beyond such divine retribution.
Aphastes’s Portal in Larta needed to be closed: only by severing the connection to his home Outer Plane could he be destroyed.
The Mother Tree as a manifestation of the Green might be the only power that could confront and be victorious against Aphastes. The Tree told Yuri and Cymoril that their fate was to seek “the Mother Tree Under the Ice”, as had been prophesied for Yuri many years ago.
Suddenly the ground shuddered and the Tree began to ascend towards the peak of the underground dome, on a magical “elevator” of sorts, but made of living soil and deep roots. The dome opened, ant the Tree emerged at the feet of Ilsundal’s monument, sending spiritual emanations throughout the forest and waking up the elves. The elves were confused, but the presence and gratitude of the Tree prevented the kind of aggression that is described in CM7.
The Tree summoned an ancient Lightship and told Yuri and Cymoril to board it. They were accompanied by a few elven knights and the Lion Shaman and began a long journey to the South Pole, to the lost Evergrun. The party was split once again. It was Eirmont the 15th.
Final Battles
The rest of the Fab Five and Ragnar the mage soon had to help the elves against an invasion from the mountains. The army of Scaly Ones that remained after the destruction of the Chaos Egg was coming, joined by the Frost Giants and the dragons of the mountain pass fortress.
With some help from the elves, the treants, the undines and a few Hsiao, the PCs attacked and killed all the spellcasters, dragons and flying Scaly Ones in the army. After that, it was just a matter of mopping up for a few days.
Upon their return to the Tower of Light, now in the hands of the elves again, they learned that an elven army had tried to attack Aphastes’s city on the ocean coast. But it was an utter disaster. There was a great Lighthouse in the city, or so they thought. Even though the attacking elves were Invisible, the tower detected them and burned all of them to cinder by a powerful beam. (This was inspired by “War of the Worlds”.) It was obvious that the Lighthouse had to be eliminated before a new attack could be made.
The PCs and Ragnar approached the tower via Ether, and were not detected. But in the Ether near the peak of the Lighthouse, they were confronted by Giant Plasms. That horrible battle nearly killed all of them, but they managed to escape to Prime, where they were confronted by other guardians, Iron Gargoyles, and Aphastes’s Mystics. It was a close call, but they prevailed.
They learned that the Death Ray of the Lighthouse was powered by an imprisoned Demon, and Flint released it by breaking “the Lamp”. The Demon escaped, and the elven army attacked the city. The PCs offered help in storming the HQ, and then it was all over.
It was the end of Eirmont 1014. The PCs commandeered a ship and sailed out to sea, heading for Larta, Flint’s and Radagast’s old homeland for the first time in sixteen years.
Part XIX: In Aphastes’s Home Turf
The party had split, and as Yuri, Cymoril and the Lion Shaman were flying towards Evergrun, the rest of the group set sail and headed for Larta. They would have to find Aphastes’s portal, travel into his home plane and destroy the portal at the source. (Because I said so, making up a “magicbabble” reason. It would be more interesting and challenging that way.)
In real world, the final battles in the Sylvan Realm and at Aphastes’s city were played during Spring 2023, and in June we continued. I can’t remember whether the events in this chapter were played in one or two sessions, but in any case, it was intense.
Reaching the islands of Larta took a month of sailing, with Radagast assisting with Minrothadian spells if needed. On the 4th of Nuwmont 1015, the main island of Larta came into view, and their ship was attacked by a huge Drolem, created as a guardian by Aphastes. Flint managed to intercept the monster before it had time to damage the ship, and he swiftly destroyed it with his Living Silver Axe, an artefact created especially against Servants of Aphastes.
After landing ashore they travelled to Radagast’s and Flint’s old hometown Aklain under Mass Invisibility. To their horror they saw that the whole land of Larta had been devastated. It was a barren land, devoid of water and vitality. Aphastes had absorbed everything here before migrating to Brun. It was sad homecoming. Flint saw that the Crystalmist mountains, the homeland of his people, had become a honeycomb of mines, every last ounce of Living Silver removed.
The old Temple of Aphastes where everything began (see Chapter One) was still standing, and it was guarded by the most powerful mystics of the Order of the Rippling waters, including their leader Afaistos. As battle was joined, the demon Arashat emerged. He had been seen previously in Chapter Thirteen. Actually, Arashat was also present in Chapter Five with the expedition to Vestland – I forgot to mention this. Arashat not only killed Flint but drained levels from him, and the PCs could not restore all of them (I have strict house rules about this). Flint was resurrected, but he had lost quite lot, since he had been around Attack Rank H-I. But Arashat and the mystics were all killed, and this would be the last hurrah for Arashat, as we will see.
Radagast knew this place intimately, so he could visit home safely with Teleport – he still only had the regular version of the spell. Back home he learned that elven reinforcements had begun arriving in Aflheim via the Rainbow Bridge, and the Scaly One invaders were being slowly corralled and killed, and damage to the forest was contained, even if a lot had been done already.
The group entered the Portal, expecting to arrive on Aphastes’s Outer Plane. Instead they emerged into “a pocket dimension” filled with cobwebs – a city of the Planar Spiders constructed to guard access to Aphastes’s Plane. Their arrival sent tremors through the webwork, and soon they were attacked by hordes of spiders. Counterintuitively, the spiders were not that powerful here, as they lacked their phasing ability, but soon the Queen arrived. Not only was she a powerful spellcaster, she had absorbed into her body the still living Kitiara! Kitiara was weeping and screaming, begging Ivan to kill her. Lady Halia Antonic was also there.
The Queen gained extra powers from Kitiara’s items, so the fight was a tough one, but eventually Ivan was able to put his old sweetheart to rest. Kitiara and Lady Halia were both irrevocably destroyed, as the Queen had made them parts of themselves. Only Wish spells could have perhaps helped them, but the PCs had only one, and for a specific purpose.
The Queen had been guarding the portal to Aphastes’s Plane, and bravely they went forth. There they were met by Aphastes’s second demon, the terrible succubus Lila and her summoned minions. Most of the PCs could not even attack her, beguiled by her beauty, but Alexander and Flint were protected from that influence by their gods. Lila was destroyed.
The PCs saw that a fetal form of Lila began immediately to grow from the “soil” of the Plane, and a fetus-Arashat was already emerging. Ivan ripped both of them apart, manifesting his Lion essence. Aphastes had lost his left and right hand.
Then they realized a conundrum that the Tree in Sylvan Realm had not mentioned. They would have to destroy the Portal, but that would also destroy the way back to Mystara. But it had to be done, and Alexander cast the Wish, a boon from Taranis precisely for this purpose. Far away in Glantri, Aphastes screamed with rage and fear, realizing that his connection to his powerbase had been broken. He was divine, yet mundane.
It was Nuwmont the 9th. The PCs knew that they could use Travel to gain access to the Astral and survive there with Survival Spells, or at least some of them. But how to navigate home? The only possibility they came up with was that Radagast would use Lore spell to gain the metaphysical coordinates.
Here was a crucial element of luck: how many days would it take? If Radagast’s spell was quick, they would get home much earlier and have the possibility to interrupt certain coming events, affecting the course of the campaign greatly. But the spell took whopping 78 days! So even though Yuri & co would take much longer to travel to Evergrun, they would return home sooner.
Staying in Aphastes’s empty home Plane, only having each other for company, was a tough time. Even though the PCs are old friends and comrades, in many ways it is a companionship of necessity. Their personalities differ radically, as do their moral codes.
In many ways it must have been hardest for Flint, the recovering alcoholic. I think I have not mentioned this dimension of the character before. Flint’s troubles with the drink have been a recurring tragic stream throughout the campaign. A clear downward spiral began during the Nomad War, especially as Flint encountered the Glantrian anti-dwarf bigotry and still had to work with them. And of course for years and years he had thought that he was the last Silver Dwarf on Mystara. And the other PCs had reacted to this in contradictory ways. If his oldest friend Radagast tried to help him and the cranky Alexander might Neutralize Poison him when he felt like it, Ivan and Yuri were consistent and somewhat nasty enablers. It had been a long climb towards the light, but especially with the help of the dwarven cleric Dalin, Flint had managed mostly to kick the habit. But situations like this were tough, especially as Ivan would spend this Outer Plane days happily swigging his fish-based moonshine, the delicacy of the servant of the Lion. With Ivan, it was a case of never recognizing such problems and always drowning your traumas. And after all these years of bloody slaughter, there were traumas galore.
Radagast was immersed in his studies, and the effects of the Staff of Radiance, the parting gift from Etienne, became ever more evident. Radagast had become slightly transparent and glowing. As Etienne had warned, prolonged contact with Radagast would become toxic, which was a strain on his family, to say the least. But the Staff was a powerful weapon, aiding him to safe Brun, and his moral compass pointed clearly here.
It was Flaurmont the 10th, when they returned to Krakataos, having travelled a metaphysically long way in Astral and Ether. In Chapter Twenty-one, we will hear what they learned about the recent developments. Suffice it to say: Aphastes was on the move.
Yuri Turambar, Cymoril, the Lion Shaman and the five elven knights from the Sylvan Realm began their long flight southward in Eirmont 1014. It was August 2023 in our world. Yuri had received his prophecy about “the Mother Tree, under the ice” and about “the choice between joy and sadness” in Selenica in 1002. In our world, that was the early 90’s, and the player had carried that small typed handout for over 30 years. He still has it. Now it was time for Yuri and Cymoril to meet their destiny.
Just now, writing this, I remembered something. I had had the vision of an elven mother, holding her child under her blouse and cloak in a blizzard, when these ideas hatched all those decades ago. The vision came from a Finnish novel “Johan and Johan” which I read as required background reading during a high school summer for a prose writing course. At the end the novel, a father and mother are hopelessly fleeing across the frozen Gulf of Finland, carrying a child. The figure of the Star Boy emerged eventually from that image. But there would be no arctic slog with an unprotected child, eventually.
I had already read “Elves of Alfheim” (GAZ 5) and learned about the lost elven homeland in “the Mystaran Antarctic”, and I knew I wanted to lead the story there one day. Later on, when I was creating Cymoril, I gave her a Ring of Protection from Cold as a harbinger of things to come.
Other influences came: the Elfquest comics were crucial. We could already see their inspiration in Chapter Seventeen with the Chaos Egg. The Gliders and the Go-Backs from “Siege at Blue Mountain” gave me an idea of elves that had retained the Blackmoorean arts and remained behind, but as you can see, that idea would morph and take on some Star Trek and Babylon 5 influences. Swamp Thing and “the Green” were of course crucial.
It was a strange feeling, being here at last, with the oldest fossil layer of narrative ideas. From now on, it would be truly terra incognita.
Ever southward
Following the continental edge south and helped by the Lion Shaman’s Find the Path spell, they travelled south on the winds of the world. To their right, the ocean, to their left, the western peaks of Brun.
As they reached the northern parts of the Arm of the Immortals, the mountains turned seriously volcanic, and they were attacked by a group of Efreeti. They were trying to capture Cymoril as a concubine for their master, but their attack was repelled.
Later on, as they were crossing the Strait of Izonda, meeting high east–west winds, a flying Cloud Giant fortress appeared and threatened them. As they could not outfly it, they parlayed. The Cloud Giant king demanded 10 magic items as a payment of passage, for these were his skies. Luckily Yuri and Cymoril had items to spare, and they paid the toll. I was half (or more than half) expecting Yuri to double back and try to heist the king’s magic hoard or assassinate him, but for once, he decided to keep his priorities straight. (The loot would have been lucrative, though.)
Moving on along the coasts of Davania, they saw deserts, mountains and jungles. As the Lightship only flew during the day, and as the stormy waters prevented landing on the sea for the nights, they stayed ashore protected by Massmorphs, Hallucinatory Terrains and Invisibilities. That shielded them for the most of time, but it was not foolproof. One hungry T-Rex wanted to take a bite of the Lightship, smelling dinner, but Yuri was on guard duty and backstabbed it. The dinosaur swallowed Yuri, and it was touch and go for a while, but the great beast was felled by a volley of Magic Missiles.
On Nuwmont 1015 they met a friendly tribe of “primitivist” Davanian elves. They did not read or write, but their oral culture held memories of the Black Moors, the sky falling and how they decided to leave Ilsundal’s migration behind and “return to nature”.
Foo Fighters
By mid-Vatermont they reached the lands of eternal ice and began exploring the lost Grunland. On a northern peninsula, they located a gigantic strange old statue. As the Lightship approached, the statue became alive, ice cracking at its joints, internal fire glowing in its eyes. A strange device strapped to the shoulder of the mechanical giant sent four gigantic Magic Missiles, trailing streams of smoke, at them. Yes, a Mech with ground-to-air missiles! They turned the Lightship around, shooting at the huge missiles with Fireballs and other means and causing them explode before they reached the ship. That was close.
Further, and much more careful, exploration of Grunland revealed strange constructions by a giant mountain of ice. There was a metal gate by the side of the mountain, with six weird gleaming pyramids and discs in a pattern before it. (I think the pyramids came from my rereading of “the Tripods” series during that time.)
On Vatermont the 22nd, Yuri attempted to scout the place invisibly, but he triggered a proximity alarm. The inhabitants of the small pyramids, hibernating cyborg-elves from the post-Rain of Fire past, rushed into their flying saucers and took flight. The discs were immune to many forms of magic and could detect invisible with their radar. Luckily their “rapid fire magic missile” weapons seemed not to be magical, which was lucky for Yuri and Cymoril: both of them had a Permanent Protect from Normal Missiles, a parting gift from Etienne (they also had Permanent Shields). But the flying saucers had terrible “cutting force fields” at their rims (this I think was inspired by a Judge Dredd “Cursed Earth” episode).
All but one of the knights from the Sylvan Realm were quickly slaughtered, but Yuri and Cymoril proved too resilient for the flying saucers, and the saucers were destroyed one by one. But the Elven Borg shot out of the wrecks on jet packs, wielding Force Swords, and the fight continued until all of the cyborgs were finally defeated.
The Mother Tree
Inside the Ice Mountain, they discovered the Greenhouse of the Mother Tree, literally “under ice”. The tree had been plugged into an ancient machine and was suffering under its corrupting influence. Magical lamps kept the tree alive but not thriving. As a homage to “the Great Machine” from Babylon 5, an incredibly old elf was integrated into the machine guarding it and gaining Longevity for himself and his cyborg minions.
The elf was guarded by two robots, and as the guardian screamed “Klaatu barada nikto!”, they attacked. Yuri and his friends retreated and managed to close the gate. They rested, regained their spells and entered again, swiftly destroying the robot guardians. The old elf detached from the machine and finally died, with a strange smile on his lips. The long tour of duty was over. Had this all been in the service of history after all and not some sinister purpose? Or both? Yuri and his friends would never know.
As the Tree was released from this technological imprisonment, the metal umbilicals detached, it greeted Yuri and Cymoril. Even through the interference of the Great Machine, the Tree had been aware of all the other trees and the disturbance in the Green wrought by Aphastes, and of course all the other great disasters of history: Taymora, Nithia, the Glantrian disaster… This was the disaster the Mother Tree was fated to help avert. It was time for “the choice between joy and sadness”.
It was all about Yuri’s and Cymoril’s “Star Boy”. As a nexus of two worlds, the first and only true half-elf in history, the Star Boy would be a bridge between the Green and the world of civilization. He had the potential to become an Avatar of Mystara, a physical manifestation of the Green. Such a being could confront even Aphastes directly.
But it was truly a choice. If Yuri and Cymoril declined, they could stay with their child. Even if Aphastes destroyed Brun, there were other continents. It would not be the end of the world. Brun would eventually recover, after hundreds of thousands of years, and rebuild its Green. The Mother Tree would not force this choice upon them.
The parents made the choice of sadness.
The Mother Tree, using nearly all of its remaining power, summoned the Star Boy from Radagast’s Isle of Hydra. In an instant, the small child grew into an adult. All of his body became green, and he grew a long dark moss-like green beard and hair. I just realized that in this instant the Star Boy became the Starman! The Starman still recognized his parents and had an inkling of fondness for them, but in a detached and semi-emotionless way. His composure was serene, a bit alien, like watching the world instead of participating in it. (A bit like the Jeff Bridges character in the beginning of the movie “Starman”, to come to think of it.)
The Mother Tree told Yuri and Cymoril that after his defeat at Riverfork, Aphastes had somehow severed his connection with the Green. The Starman could not attack Aphastes directly without that connection being re-established. The Tree did not know how the severance had happened nor how it could be reversed. It would be up to the Fab Five and their allies to create the situation in which Aphastes could be confronted.
The Mother Tree also knew that it was time to die. The greenhouse of the techno-elves was no longer working, and all the warmth would bleed out. Cymoril received a Sapling, to be planted when the time was right and when Brun was secure once again. A new tree would help heal the tortured continent.
Then it was time to go home. The Mother Tree bid them farewell, promised to help the final elven knight get home with the Lightship if possible, and opened a portal into the Green. The travel felt instantaneous, but in fact it was already Spring in Karameikos when they returned to Krakataos on 15th of Thaumont.
And Aphastes was on the move…
Part XXI: Fighting Aphastes on Two Fronts
During this chapter, the Fab Five remained split and reunited only at the end. These events were played out in three sessions in the autumn and winter of 2023. Even though a lot happened, there is not really that much to write about, since the events are fairly straightforward. The campaign is accelerating towards the end. As I am writing this in April 2024, we have not yet continued after these events, but a planning session is scheduled soon.
As Yuri, Cymoril and the Lion Shaman arrived home earlier than the others, let us begin with them. They emerged from the Green at Krakataos on 15th of Thaumont and met Kiril Petrevich, Alexander’s second in hand. He had grim news: Aphastes had attacked the allies on multiple fronts.
Here we have to remember that as far as Aphastes knew, the Fab Five had disappeared. They had severed his connection to his Home Plane on Nuwmont the 9th, and nothing had been heard of them. And of course, Aphastes knew nothing about Yuri, Cymoril and “the Starman”. So, the situation must have seemed opportune to go on the offensive again. Without the Fab Five, his enemies could not put up sufficient opposition. As Aphastes no longer had the artefacts boosting his powers and helping to supply a large army for and invasion of Karameikos, he launched a multi-prong attack:
– A crack commando force of Scaly Ones, mages and mystics attacked the army encampment at Halag. They did not go after the highest-level NPCs, as they would be well protected. Instead, they slaughtered NCO’s, torched supply and armament stores et cetera. Most or all of the attackers were killed, but the army would be out of commission for a while.
– An army of circa 2000 Scaly Ones, supported by some specialist troops, attacked Alfheim, pushing towards Alfheim city and torching it.
– Rockhome was attacked from two directions. From the east came an army of undead supported by some Scaly Ones and specialist troops and led by the high priests of Chemos and Thanatos. The priest of Chemos was riding a Huge Black Dragon, the priest of Thanatos a terrifying Nighwing. (The undead were rallied from the hordes released earlier into Soderfjord.) From the north, the Ogre General, riding a Huge White, led an army of red Scaly Ones, the ogre guard, some giants and 2000 orcs rallied from the tribes released earlier to loot the Reaches and Heldann.
– In the north, the Hyborean general, riding a Huge Blue and supported by a Large Bule, led an army or 5000 strong, gathered from the occupation forces of Kevar and Heldann, into Denagoth, and attacked the elven forests. He had some battlemages to counter the elven spellcasters
Aphastes remained in Glantri, standing inside a huge Crystal Bubble. Underground waters flowed up from the earth and around the bubble, seeming to “feed” Aphastes in some way. A grand Crystal Palace had been constructed alongside the bubble. Spies estimated that Aphastes still had his Guard and some elite Borean troops left, some 6000 strong, plus an unknown number of mages, clerics and other specialists. But very few dragons seemed to be left.
In Denagoth
Since Yuri and Cymoril had friends in Denagoth, they decided to travel and help on that front. With them, they took Meadil the Silent (the old PC from way back, remember) and a high-level Heldannan cleric Olsen the Leveller. The Silver Dragons agreed to transport them, but they would not take part in battles.
It was Flaurmont the 4th when they reached Geron in Denagoth. The village had been burned to the ground. On the Denagothian plateau, near the edge of the forest of Geffron, they saw Aphastes’s troops methodically destroying the forest. Some battles seemed to have taken place: there was a body of a golden dragon on the ground, for example.
After some failed scouting, Yuri and his companions decided to look for the elves and met them at the Shrine of Enoreth. They gained some elven allies with sufficiently high spellcasting abilities to plan some ambushes on the enemy army. On the night of the 6th of Flaurmont, they managed to destroy both Blue Dragons in the camp by luring them into combat by using Yuri’s Drums of Panic and a concentrated Fireball barrage. The enemy HQ was protected by one of the Magical Fortresses, so they could not get at them, however.
Another attempt was made to lure the enemy commanders into battle, and it was successful albeit near-disastrous. Meadil and the Lion Shaman were ambushed and killed by the Barbarian General, but the general’s Ring of Spell Turning and Ring of Safety were also exhausted during that engagement (I use the old version of rules regarding Ring of Spell Turning where it has a limited number or charges and not daily uses.)
After that, the enemy commanders and most powerful specialists abandoned their army, as constant Drums of Panic and Fireball attacks made the situation untenable. The Magic Fortress was left as a successful decoy, and they managed to slip out before Yuri and the others noticed. The enemy army began retreating towards Wendar after losing a lot of troops.
Meadil the Silent remained behind, aiming to rally the forces of the elves and their allies in Drax Tallen and continue the fight in the north. Yuri, Cymoril and the Lion Shaman flew back south, arriving in Selenica on the 24th.
In Rockhome
The rest of the Fab Five arrived in Krakataos after their Astral sojourn on the 11th of. The situation had become even more dire: most of Rockhome had been conquered and Dengar was besieged, and in Alfheim the enemy was pushing towards Elleromyr, leaving Alfheim City in ruins.
They decided to help Dengar, especially as the civilians of Flint’s tribe were there. They gathered some NPC allies to help them, including Ragnar the Stout, the ex-king of Soderfjord, and his court mage Astur Ragnare and priest Stefan Thorgild, Lady Hillsbury of Glantri, Flint’s mage Ragnar, and Ivan’s hakomon Tedmusin. As Radagast knew Flint’s colony in Dengar intimately, he could Teleport all of them there safely. They met king Everast and Thoric Redhand and parlayed with them.
Upper Dengar had been overrun, as had the mountaintop fortress of Kagyar’s pillar. The dwarves had caused the mountainside fortress to collapse, destroying a lot of enemies, and they had blocked the access tunnels to the mountainside keeps and all the escape tunnels, lest the enemy Find the Path them. But it was only a question when the city would be breached. Undead troops were excavating the route to the city night and day, and the high priests of Chemos and Thanatos were guarding from the ruins of the mountainside keeps with their flying beasts. The Huge White was guarding their Magical Fortress in the marketplace of the city. Some troops were manning the city, some were the crossroads in the mountain valley.
Taking a huge risk, the PCs attacked the high priest of Thanatos, coming at him from the Ether. They managed to kill him and snatch his corpse. The Nightwing followed them into the Ether and very nearly killed them all, but the undead horror was eventually banished. Alexander felt a rush of triumph, as Taranis informed him that Thanatos had seceded from the alliance with Aphastes. This was truly a great victory.
The high priest of Chemos hightailed it out of there with a Word of Recall. The PCs attacked again, killing the two dragons and a bunch of mages and Scaly Ones. Rest of the enemy’s specialist troops fled, leaving the Magical Fortress as a successful decoy, just like in Denagoth. The army at the crossroads, led by the Ogre General, began retreating, leaving the Ogre Guard as another decoy, a willing sacrifice.
When the PCs realized that the Fortress was empty, and that the most powerful part of the army had escaped, they commandeered the Rockships present in Dengar, gathered all the most powerful fighters and made a surprise attack on the retreating army of the ogre general. Its leadership was easily killed and the army broken.
However, it would take time for the dwarves to root out the remaining enemies and locate their people hiding in mountain caves. Rockhome would not be able to help in further battles. The dwarven people were patient, though. It might take centuries or millennia to recover, but they had time. But did Brun have time?
Reunion
The Fab Five reconnected in Selenica on the 24th of Flaurmont. News from Alfheim were grim: Elleromyr had been overrun and the elven king killed! The enemy was surrounded and would be eventually destroyed, there was no doubt of that, even though the senior commanders seemed to have escaped. The Scaly Ones from the previous attacks had been eradicated with the help from the Sylvan Realm, but Alfheim had been spent. They could not offer help in the coming battles either.
This is where we are now. The Fab Five has managed two parts of their tripartite quest:
First, they have blunted Aphastes’s invasion, the southern parts of the Known World are safe for now, albeit largely ruined. But they know that there is another Aphastes’s army in the far eastern Hule, and it has been called here. That will take time, and its strength is unknown, but in any case, they do not have resources left for mobilizing a large army. Aphastes has retreated into his strange bubble, cut off from the Green, as the Mother Tree said, and the PCs have divined that access to the bubble is not possible by the magical means they have. And Aphastes still has a substantial army, even though he has suffered terrible casualties and failed to destroy Denagoth, Rockhome and Alfheim.
Second, they have severed Aphastes’s connection to his Home Plane, so he can really be destroyed.
Third, they have the Starman, the power that can confront Aphastes. But how to bring those two together?
Answering that final question is wholly up to the players, and the campaign has been on hold for a few months now as they have been pondering this conundrum. We will meet in April for a quick session where they have to make the decisions that give the form for the rest of the campaign. We will see whether the end will come sooner or later.