Campaign journal
by atzanteotl/katana_oneAn interesting twist ...
Just thought I would share the events of the last few sessions of my Mystara campaign. I am using the Wrath of the Immortals timeline, so be warned there may be spoilers ahead for people who might be playing through this timeline in their own campaigns.
I've just about wrapped up the events described in Phase II: The Build Up from The Immortals' Fury book. The first few sessions went as planned - Rheddrian hires the party to investigate the strange occurrences on the Isle of Aegos. The party journeys to Aegos and joins the army in order to infiltrate the work site at Pittstown. The fight side by side with Kelter Zerben, Torkia, Stryll and Scupper when they are ambushed by three Hook Horrors (instead of trolls - I just wanted an excuse to use the three Hook Horror minis I have <grin>). They question Kelter (who is a paladin in my 3.5 version) about his mysterious new patron Immortal. Then they arrive at Pittstown and go down the shaft.
That's when the players throw me for a bit of a loop.
When Scupper tells them what will be expected of them when they arrive in Haldemar in the Hollow World, they scowl. They wait for Scupper to fall asleep, and then they inform the other NPCs that they do not intend to subjugate any natives of the new world and begin forming plans of rebellion. An insanely high Diplomacy check by the party warlock manages to sway the NPCs to either help, or at least not interfere. Of course, Kelter already has his own plans, but the party does not know that.
So after a few days in Haldemar, Kelter, instead of disappearing mysteriously to set his plan to free the Nogai in motion, recruits the like-minded party into helping him. The party agrees that they will be the ones to contact the Heldannic Knights while Kelter remains in Haldemar to organise the escape of the Nogai and sabotage the shaft to the surface.
The rest of the events of the module ended up going pretty much as scripted in the original adventure - the Heldannic Knights launch a surprise attack on Haldemar, and Captain Marakaz and the crew of the Typsy Tyrant being the only capable defenders. Except the PCs are on the Heldannic side, riding in on the deck of the lead Warbird, firing down on the Alphatian camp. The party ends up being on the Warbird that Captain Marakaz chooses to engage, and suffers her fireball and lightning bolt attacks, before the party is able to shoot her down.
Once Marakaz is down, they suggest to the Heldannic Captain that they manoeuvre to get above the Tyrant (which is engaging another Warbird) so that they may featherfall onto her deck to take over the vessel. The captain agrees, and soon the party is busy clearing the deck of the Tyrant of resistance.
Then the Alphatian reinforcements show up, the treacherous Heldannic Knights retreat - abandoning the party. This leaves the party - who have no appropriate skills for sailing a skyship, nor a crew - on the Tyrant, trying to figure out how they will outrun four Alphatian skyships and their experienced crews.
Man, what a fun session that was.