Homebrew Campaign set in a modified Forgotten Realms
Back on Sept. 28, 2016 some of us came together to start a new campaign DM'd by AMC. I created a half-orc druid (with a criminal background) named Thok Darkvale. JW made a human ranger named Regnar Thalik who had lost his memories about his past. GD created Magnus, the human barbarian. We were all working in the Calimshan region as caravan guards for some merchants, but the starting story was that the caravan was attacked and we were captured...
[Above: Thok]
Session 1: Escaping Sapphiraktar's Lair
Thok, Regnar, Magnus, and the main "human merchant" woke up naked in a cage hovering over some magical energy. The group broke out, killed 2 bandits (taking their equipment), and explored. In fighting out of the lair, the group killed: 16 crawling hands, a minotaur skeleton, 9 guards, 2 human skeletons, and a wraith. They also set off a magical explosion and stole some magic items (that turned out to be cursed); Regnar took an oath bow, Magnus grabbed a totem that turned him into a werebear, and Thok put on some demon-shell armor (and took 3 random books from the library). The merchant (who turned out to be a lich) obtained the hand and eye of Vecna before thanking the group and teleporting away to his lair in the north. They found out they had been in the lair of the blue dracolich Sapphiraktar.
[Above: Regnar]
Magnus ran off at night as a rampaging werebear, leaving Thok and Thalik alone in the swamp/woods. Because Regnar's cursed oath bow demanded a sacrifice each day, they killed a faerie dragon and rested. The next morning they helped Var the fire genasi wizard and Hector the dwarf fighter defeat 2 shadows and a spectre before finding a fortified human village.
They befriended Talindra the elf druid (who suggested they clear out undead from the nearby cemetary), Stool the frogman cleric of Semuanya (who wanted them to go clense a monster-filled temple), and Mayor Garval (who needed them to stop his evil bandit brother). Regnar acted as town executioner so he could get his kill for the day. Thok took the 3 stolen evil books to the local sage and left them there for the old man to study. They stayed at "The Goblin's Cauldron Taver-Inn."
[Above: Var]
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Hector decided to call their group the Federation of Explorers. They found out about a missing 12 year-old boy named Brandol and agreed to go find and rescue him. They found the cave where he was held prisoner, killed the slavers (4 regular lizardfolk, 2 enhanced lizardfolk, 1 human bandit, and 1 human captain); they saved Brandol and 2 human adults.
When the group returned to the human village, they met with Talindra who explained that Regnar had been marked by Malar and they needed to kill a black dragon (who was the son of a dragon that had brought Tiamat back into the world in the past).
Session 4: Clearing the Graveyard
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Hector decided to take out the dangers in the graveyard before going on the dragon slaying quest. They destroyed: 9 zombies, 3 skeletons, 1 skeletal minotaur, 1 wight, and a flameskull. One the way back to the village, the flameskull reformed and they had to keep destroying it until they got some holy water to finish it off.
Session 5: Introducing Son of the Sun
Hector told Thok, Regnar, and Var he wouldn't adventure with them anymore because of Regnar's evil Malar mark. Luckily, Son of the Sun (the half-elf monk) showed up and offered to join the group with their questing because he was hunting a necromancer that had destroyed his shop. The group went and cleared out the bandit keep led by the mayor's evil brother; FOE killed 5 gnolls (2 regular, 2 lords, and 1 "Fang of Yeenoghu"), 1 orc berserker, 1 human scout, 10 bandits, and the bandit leader). They donated everything back to the village, except for 1 wagon with horses that they kept for adventuring.
Session 6: Slaying the Black Dragon
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Son were about to leave to go find the dragon's lair when a half-dragon and 4 kobolds showed up to collect the dragon's "tax" from the village. The group killed the enemies, hired a wagon driver, killed 3 slavers (rescuing a captured gnome), and proceeded to slay the black dragon; the dragon's soul was captured into the oath bow, getting rid of the curse and altering the magic item into an acid bow. The group allowed the 3 surviving kobolds to become paid servants working for FOE.
They encountered 4 elves who took them to a nearby elf village; there, they befriended the high cleric of Corellon and paid magic-smiths to turn the black dragon's hide into acid-resistant cloaks with "FOE: Federation of Explorers: Out to Kill the Forces of Evil" imprinted on them. The group then returned to the human town, where they found out the sage had run off with the evil books and they paid 100 gp to buy his abandoned 2-story home.
Session 7: Clearing the Semuanya Temple
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and the 3 kobolds brought Stool Deevi along in their wagon to go clear out the monsters in the Semuanya temple. On the way, they killed 2 will-o-wisps and 4 spined devils. Inside, they killed: 3 purple bearded devils, 1 barbed devil, and 7 imps; they rescued a human, an elf, and a lizardfolk. They clensed the temple and did a ritual that turned Thok's cursed demon armor into "Champion of Semuanya" treebark armor. Stool said they would collect frogfolk and lizardfolk from the swamp to come keep the temple secure.
When the group returned to the human village, they found out an army of undead had been spotted heading that way. Thok sent as many villagers as possible to head toward the Semuanya temple for shelter while the rest of the town prepared the defense.
Session 8: Defending the Human Village
Hector, who was helping defend the village, told Regnar how they originally met; Regnar's forgotten backstory included working for Malar in the past, killing dwarves, but Regnar had refused to kill Hector and was punished with memory loss.
When the undead army showed up, FOE took on the enemies coming from the back of the town while the mayor led the front defense. FOE destroyed 3 skeletons, 3 zombies, and 1 ghast before the front invaders joined in: 1 necromancer (the old sage possessed by the book, thus the same spirit Son was after), some flameskulls, more skeletons, and more zombies. The town won the battle, but Talindra and Hector were killed (along with many of the human guards). When Thok had tried to destroy the evil necromancer book, it summoned a spectre to defend itself and Son had to finish it off. Var used magic missiles to destroy the book. Talindra's male elf assistant took over protecting her grove.
Session 9: The Orbs of Denial
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and the 3 kobolds (Kriv, Shamash, and Nala) took along a lizardfolk to go to the elf village and form a human-elf-Semuanya alliance for the swamp and forest. The elf high cleric asked FOE to go into an abandoned elf village, into the underground, and retrieve the lost Orbs of Denial so the elves could put up magical protections from the undead. Son negotiated sending elf supplies to help the humans. Thok hooked up with the elf barmaid Sarael.
[Above: Sarael]
[Above: Shamash]
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, Kriv, Shamash, and Nala took the loot from the elf ruins and returned to the elf village to rest. The baelnorn's journal told them about the Twisted Rune Society members: the merchant lich from the 1st adventure, the dracolich Sapphiraktar, and someone else). The high cleric agreed to the political alliance and said they would work on setting up the magical defenses with the orbs.
Sarael agreed to continue the romance with Thok; they bought a nice elf carriage and hired an elf driver. When the group returned to the human village, they accepted a quest to clear out a nearby mine in exchange for 10% of the mining profits to go to FOE. At the mine: Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and the driver stayed with the wagon and carriage while the rest of the group went in and cleared out: 5 giant spiders, 6 violet fungi, 3 gas spores, 2 piercers, 1 roper, 1 basilisk, and 1 grick; Son was petrified by the basilisk and turned into a statue.
Even though there were more mining tunnels to clear out, the team brought the Son statue back to the human village and used all of the money to pay Talindra to reincarnate him; Son came back as an air genasi.
[Above: Son]
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and Shamash (with support from Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and their elf driver) travelled back to the abandoned mines. They burned away the glowing fungus and continued into more tunnels. They killed: 1 hook horror, 3 ettercaps, 1 phase spider, 2 giant spiders, and 2 spider swarms, 2 gelatinous cubes, 1 shambling mound, 2 yellow ocre jellies, and 1 hydra; 1 phase spider escaped and Shamash died.
Session 12: Into the Wizard Maze
Thok, Regnar, and Var (with support from Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and their elf driver) brought the loot from the mines back to the human village after the surviving phase spider killed Son and took his dead body into the Ethereal Plane. At the village, the group met Zen Bloodmoon (who was another half-elf monk, but obsessed with dead bodies instead of the Sun). They spent their new loot reincarnating Shamash as a human. Regnar made some money training people as rangers while Thok and Sarael continued their romance.
The elf village leaders send a letter asking for FOE's help; the group journeyed there and accepted a quest from the high cleric to go find the lost elf city of Faegil ("Spirit-Star") and find out what happened to the previous group that was sent there. Thok convinced Sarael to stay behind for her own safety (since he suspected she might be pregnant). Thok, Regnar, Var, Zen, Shamash, Kriv, and Nala spent four days searching the forest before finding a strange magical barrier that kept the kobolds from passing through. Kriv and Nala had to stay behind with the donkeys.
Thok, Regnar, Var, Zen, and Shamash went into a wizard maze with puzzles and traps (and dead elf bodies); they made it through a water/invisible barrier room, rolling rock trap, a dragon statue timer trap, some sphinx riddles, some poisoned darts, a mimic, and a room with 5 shadows, and an ooze trap (where Var died in the lake of oozes). The group then went through a wall portal (into an eladrin wizard's room)...
Session 13: Freeing Faegil
At the eladrin's dining room: Thok, Regnar, Shamash, and Zen were offered food (the hearts of angels) and wine by the eladrin wizard; the food refreshed them, but the wine gave exhaustion. The wizard, 2 statues, and an animated carpet attacked the group; the wizard teleported out after Zen poured the wine down his throat. As the group continued in the eladrin's lair, they killed: 1 Frankstein-like chimera, 3 zombies, and 5 intellect devourers; Shamash died again, but the group rescued an elf sorcerer and elf fighter. Together, they killed the eladrin wizard (who turned out to be a rakshasa in disguise) and freed Faegil from a magical painting enchantment.
The group realized they had been temporally displaced by 2 years when Faegil returned from the Feywild to Toril. When they returned to the elf town with an ambassader from Faegil, it was a ghost town and they realized the entire forest had been attacked by an undead army; according to the high cleric's journals a bunch of the civilians travelled north to seek shelter with the dwarves in the mountains while the rest of the town stayed to fight the undead.
Session 14: Finding Thokson
Thok, Regnar, Zen, the 2 elves, and the Faegil ambassader headed north to find the dwarves in the mountains. Along the way, the group encountered a vampire and ghost; during battle, the ambassader was killed and Thok was aged 30 years. At the mountains, a dwarf scouting party led FOE to Khemdural, an underground city with refugees living there.
Thok found Sarael (who had been working as a barmaid) and their child Thokson; Thok gave Sarael his 150 gp to buy the family a nice home. Zen paid to get a message sent to Faegil to warn them about the undead. The dwarf magistrate hired FOE to go clear out the drow from below that had taken over some dwarf underground settlements.
Session 15: Killing Drow: Part 1
[I was actually sick and missed this session. I gave the DM and group permission to play Thok in my absence. They told me what happened during the session.]
Thok, Regnar, Zen, and the 2 elves were joined by the dwarf cleric Bolder Lighthammer; they went down deeper into the dwarf underground via a shaft. In the drow-infested stronghold, they fought and killed lots of drow. They also took out a bearded devil and bone devil. They tried to rest, but enemies found them. The elf sorceress died in battle. Eventually, the group was able to successfully rest.
Session 16: Killing Drow: Part 2
Thok, Regnar, Zen, Melnair (the elf fighter), and Bolder continued their quest in the drow-infested dwarf stronghold. The group killed: 3 drow, 1 drider, and 4 swarms of spiders. They also destroyed a bunch of monster eggs. They found an exit into a huge cavern city taken over by drow, undead, and fiends. They spotted a far off palace keep and a noble estate nearby; the center of the city featured lava flows that went to undercity rivers.
FOE sneaked into the noble manor, killing 2 hell hounds. The group rested in the stables before sending Zen out disguised as a drow guard. Zen led a drow mage, 3 regular guards, and 3 elite guards back to the estate's courtyard for an epic battle with FOE that resulted in a TPK when the drow poison kept knocking people out; FOE killed most of their enemies, but the drow mage and 2 of her guards won in the end. Melnair was pushed into a pool of lava that killed him. Zen and Regnar were KO'd while Thok and Bolder bled to death from their wounds.
[Despite the TPK, we all had a wonderful time. My FOE logs will continue with updates on Tuesdays.]
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