4U 28-35: Ryali v Shar

The RPG Saga continues in the 4th Universe with the Dream Team of:
Kori the aasimar fighter-cleric,
Aegle the winged elf kensai monk,
Page in a Book the tabaxi rogue, and
The Flake Bros (Wally the Wizard and Cham the cleric) -
with appearances by Puff the gnome/dragonborn druid and Malath the half-elf bard.

4U 28: Aegle returned to Waterdeep with Wally’s body. The team got him resurrected and were going to head into Skullport when the Phoenix rose from its egg and the team had to defeat it at the port. Page bought the sailing ship “The Bull Frog” with a mostly elf and half-elf crew. They sold the Phoenix egg to the Xanathar and then the team (Kori, Aegle, Page, Cham, Wally, and the barbarian King Slayer) planeshifted to the Shadowfell, to the palace of Orcus…

29: The team joined the assault on the palace of Orcus, defeating an army of undead that included minotaur skeletons, bodaks, a lich, a vampire lord, shadows, and a zombie beholder (in addition to the swarms of zombies and skeles). The Skull Lord joined the fight, but S’dothian (Malath’s shadow dragon patron) came and helped the team. The group ended with just Kori, Aegle, Page, and the shadow dragon alive. Cham’s body was destroyed/sent to the Astral Plane along with the destruction of his bag of holding and Aegle’s portable hole!

30: Kori, Aegle, and Page had S’dothian take them to a cave where they were able to get a safe rest. S’dothian told them about Malath, back at home, having impregnated Shalendra Floshin being faced with the decision to marry her. Malath also told S’dothian that the green wizard had been captured by Klauth. With the Raven Queen’s forces now controlling the palace, Kennara was there in charge wearing the Paradox Pendant and guarded by two shaman sisters. The team allied with a hag who helped them defeat the shamans. Kennara teleported out to safety. The team arranged for Malath and Shalendra to have a proper wedding with Lady Faenya presiding in her Feywild palace; the archfey blessed the couple so that they could have an eladrin child. Puff showed up at the wedding reception.

31: Kori, Aegle, Page, and their hag ally teleported into one of Klauth’s treasure caves, where they battled: kobolds, dragonborn, half-dragons, and vetern lizardfolk. They rescued the Green Wizard (GW), though they accidentally spread a bunch of Klauth’s treasure across the Astral Plane (with a bag of holding/portable hole accident). The hag left the team because she was an enemy of GW. GW revealed that Klauth took his TREEdis to Mystara, where it was trapped behind a powerful magical barrier. Klauth’s mistress gave the team some grief before finally letting them have some cursed magic items.

32: The team was assaulted by a tarrasque (from another world), a powerful fire giant lord, and some weird canoloths; Aegle died in the battle. When Kori and Page teleported out to save themselves, they went to Waterdeep to hire an elven cleric, the tarrasque and fire giant also ended up in Waterdeep pursuing them. The team hired Mortimer the monk, a bounty hunter, to join them. The griffon-rider guards finished off the tarrasque, but the fire giant escaped. Meanwhile, the team went to the elven Temple of Elemental Evil, where they fought off some dragons and elementals that had been attacking Puff’s gnome girlfriend. She revealed the truth about Puff – that there were 2 of him because of a simulacrum spell.

33: Kori was teleported away from the others (Page and Mortimer) to participate in a game hosted by the ancient power known as the Quiz Master; he also brought Aegle from the afterlife (who had been in a primordial realm because Lady Faenya is actually the primordial god-being Akadi), the Green Wizard, both Puff and his simulacrum, and Kennara. They were put on 3 teams (Kori & Kennara, GW & Puff, Puff & Aegle) and forced to play a version of Jeopardy. GW sacrificed himself and the Puff simulacrum since one of the teams was going to have their souls devoured. Kori and Kennara won, getting all of the magic items from Puff and Aegle. Aegle had a chance to tell Kori what he had learned from the primordials before getting the Quiz Master to send him to Corellon’s realm in the afterlife. Kennara went back to Waterdeep, where Puff persued her. Kori returned to Page and Mortimer, who had been defeating the remaining elementals coming out of the ruins of the elven TOEE. Kori used her new knowledge to seal the elemental nodes there.

34: Kori, Page, and Morty discussed everything, realizing that Kennara was behind much of what had happened in her plot to ascend as the new Raven Queen; also, Shar was trying to destroy Mystara which was why it was behind a barrier – with the elemental lords actually protecting it, not “imprisoning” it for nefarious purposes. They walked to Tholme and got Brexi to tree-port them to Waterdeep, where they found out Puff’s cult forces had taken the Shaman Supreme after raiding the church of the Raven Queen. After resting, they paid a wizard to teleport them near Elvenport, where the elemental cults were.

While infiltrating the cults of the Steam Lord and Storm Lord, the team found out Puff was going before a tribunal; when they went into the palace of the elemental lrods, it brought forth a repressed memory from Kori’s childhood and she realized being here was her destiny so that she could return to her own universe and help save her own Mystara with this same plan of having the elemental lords (which Ryali has power over) seal the world away from Shar. The team saved Puff, who suggested they go steal the TREEdis and take it home.

Their plan worked. They got the TREEdis, saved Prince Mursalin, put in the dial from the universal tree, and used the TREEdis to return to Kori and Puff’s original universe. There, they met with the church of Ryali and gave them the info needed to save Mystara from Shar.

35: Kori, Prince Mursalin, Puff, Page, Morty, and the team’s hired fighter had saved Mystara and had to decide what to do with themselves; they didn’t want Kennara to get away with things so they made one more trip into the 4th Universe, this time with a Semuanya cleric and a gold dragonborn paladin of Ryalia (named Malia) with them. They gave the orb of transference to Kennara and tricked her into thinking they were on her side; they got her into the ancient frog temple from the Mere of Dead Men and took it to Shar’s domain. They got Shar and Kennara both trapped in the temple, along with Shar’s lover Cyric.

After trapping the god-beings in the temple, they shrunk it down and took it back to Waterdeep and – eventually – Semuanya’s realm, where they gave the sealed temple to the goddess of survival; the cleric they brought with them chose to stay there. They communicated with the elemental princes so they could free Mystara in 4U. They had also spoken to Klauth and his dragon council, making sure they wouldn’t go on a rampage; Kori gave the silver dragon there the book of elemental power that she had been carrying around. In the end, the team returned to Kori and Puff’s original universe.

Epilogue
For retirement:
*Puff went back to his Old Gnawbone, after removing the dial (destroying it) from the TREEDIS;
*Page was living a new life on Toril, in a universe that was new to him (but similar to where he came from);
*Mortimer, like Page, was also living a new life on this version of Toril;
*Kori & Prince Murselan finally got a chance to settle down and have a family, on her Mystara;
*Malia stayed on Mystara as well; and
*Malith was the only one from the core group who stayed in 4U, raising his family with his wife Shalendra Floshin.

4U Update 17-27

Note: I suppose it’s time to reveal that the heart of this campaign was an adaptation/reworking of the adventure The Emerald Spire (from Paizo, made for Pathfinder), but disguised as “The Obsidian Fang” instead. The green/emerald stuff became purple/obsidian. Also, the players didn’t want to do a huge dungeon crawl, so parts of what would have been levels of the Emerald Spire just got moved around to other locations.

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe

The team: Kori the aasimar arcane archer, Aegle the winged elf monk, and Malath the half-elf rogue-bard

4U 17: After dealing with the Umberlee-worshipping sahuagins, the group returned to Waterdeep. They recruited the NPC cleric Nesmira (a half-orc from Nesme). They ventured back to the swamp, where Klauth had destroyed the Bayou Brigade fortress. They fled and ended up getting a coin from Koil.

18: Lady Faeyna’s agent brought the group through a portal to her palace in the fairy plane. The group received info about the Floshin family, who were guardians of an old elf temple with a portal that could go to the plane of Shadow. They had a run in with the temple guardians and Koil. They went to the plane of shadow, did the Shadar-Kai rituals – turning Malath and some NPC hirelings into Shadar-Kai.

19: [This was a re-visiting of part of the module Scourge of the Sword Coast] The team left their hirelings at Elvenport, with enough training to continue advancing on their own. Nesmira and Doth accompanied Kori, Aegle, and Malath to the Floshin family estate. The team fought the possessed Shalindra and a green dragon; they saved Shalindra, who then romanced Malath (which might result in a child). The team reported back to Lady Faeyna, who told them about Ryali’s goal to vanquish Tharizdun; Malath left the Koil coin with Faeyna.

20: The Green Wizard recruited the team to go fight some devils in the 9 Hells, which resulted in a huge battle. An Erinyes surrended to the group and romanced Aegle (which could result in some children in the future). Malath communed with his shadow dragon patron (named S’dothian). The next day the team killed the mummy lord druid dragon while the Erinyes made plans to start an uprising and free her people from the ice devils.

21: Malath went off wit the Green Wizard, but Puff arrived with a mission for Kori and Aegle on the fire elemental plane; there is an artifact that they could get that can transfer energy and could help them in their future battle against Klauth. In the City of Brass, they almost got tricked in a tavern called The Blue Leprechaun, but they eventually made their way to battle the palace forces of an evil prince and princess so they could get the orb of transference. They took a portal to Kalibruhn, where they made a resting silver dragon champion of Bahamut.

22: The team finished off the servants of the prince and princess from the palace in the City of Brass. After looting the place, they once again spoke with their new silver dragon friend. He took them to a secret kobold temple in the sewers of Waterdeep; Puff trained to transform into a bronze dragonborn of Bahamut. They spent a month of downtime.

23: Puff needed to go work for some nobles to pay off his debts. Malath returned with news from the Green Wizard. A tiefling woman (who seemed to be working for Kennara) came with a warning that a group of fiends was about to try to assassinate the team, but offered that if they gave the orb of transference to her mistress that she would stop the fiends for them. They refused the offer and there was a huge battle in the Yawning Portal. Nesmira’s soul was devoured, but the team defeated the assassins.

24: Durnan (of the Yawning Portal) suggested the team recruit Wally Flake, the wizard – who needed the team to help him rescue his cleric brother Cham. The team accepted, went through Undermountain, fought some Shalathel worshippers, and went through a portal to fight the Erut (alien plant people). Malath had to keep submitting himself to some bloodsucking vines to get the team through secret passages, but they defeated their foes and overcame the traps. After rescuing Cham, they took a bunch of dwarven artifacts they collected back to a temple in Neverwinter.

25: The Green Wizard showed up in Neverwinter and took the team to the planet Yarth, to trade magic gear with the wizard lord of Blueberry Farms; unfortunately, he also brought news that Prince Marsellan (of Elvenport) had been petrified and was in the Green Wizard’s portable hole. In fact, Elvenport had been attacked by the Skull Lord and other servants of Orcus (who went there in retaliation for Ryali trying to take over the part of the plane of shadow that Orcus controls). The team went to Elvenport and fought the forces of the Skull Lord, defeating all but the Skull Lord himself (who teleported away).

26: Kori, Aegle, Malth, and the Flake Bros were at the ruins of Elvenport when the ground exploded and the phoenix – along with several fire and air elementals – were released; a rift to the steam elemental plane had opened up along the edge of the river, going through the center of the village. Wally and Kori were both killed. Malath managed to teleport himself and Cham away with Kori’s body. Aegle saved Wally’s body, but had been split off from the core team. In Waterdeep, Malath had Kori resurrected and then said he was going to retire from adventuring. He offered to recruit a replacement for himself.

27: Kori and Cham met Malath’s replacement, the tabaxi known as “Page in a Book.” Durnan told the team there were “Barbarians at the gates of Waterdeep” and the city leaders needed a team to go find out why there were there. The group agreed to deal with the problem, but found out these barbarians believed Ryali had sent them to take over the city and convert it to Ravendeep, a city of Ryali followers. They also saw Puff, who claimed to have infiltrated the Steam Lord and organized a parade before flying off in airships. After coordinating with Lady Silverhand, the team convinced the barbarian King Slayer and Shaman Supreme (who called Kori “The Conduit”) to stand down and accept a temple and manor instead of trying to conquer the city. King Slayer also agreed to go with the team when they try to defeat the forces of Orcus on the plane of shadow.

Meanwhile, Aegle should be flying back to Waterdeep with Wally’s dead body in his portable hole…

4U 1: Tholme, Sweet Tholme

The RPG SAGA continues with new characters, in a new campaign...

DM Note
Technically, this log is for the RPG SAGA’s session number 1501 - but I’ve realized that’s a lot of numbers and it’s easier to go ahead and restart my counting since we have a new campaign going on. 1501 - wow - that’s a lot of roleplaying over the years! We've had so many wonderful characters, stories, and adventures. I'm going to be trying out new things. I love low level play and decided to homebrew my own village and quests, setting aside the premade modules and returning to my roots as a storyteller. Here we go again…

Side Note: Tholme is an anagram (sort of) of Hommlet; I’m paying my respects to Gargy Gygax and the old T1/T1-T4 modules.

New Campaign Character Backstories
The aasimar arcane archer Koriel Andrast, follower of Ryali’s love domain, was born on Mystara but spent years travelling through the Feywild. Her divine visions told her about a sacred tree that could unlock a portal, allowing her to go quest; the vision included a berry pie, a barrel of darkbrew ale, a widow mourning her lost husband, and an 18 year old miller’s son. Her divine contact took her to the Forgotten Realms, where she went to find the sacred tree in a forest...

The winged elf kensai monk Aegle had been helping the air spirits fight off dragons in the elemental plane of air. After a victory there that left a magical wound on one of his arms, he was returned to his winged elf clan in the hills to the east of the Graypeak Mountains. The clan hosted a party, celebrating the return of their great hero.

The gnome Davic Eldon Bevins “Greenscale” “Puff” Schepper had been spared by a green dragon, who decided to mentor him in the ways of the dream druid. To honor his mentor, once he was on his own as a druid in the forests to the east of the Graypeak Mountains, he had been secretly sending back treasure to his dragon mentor. He had befriended the nearby winged elf clan and was invited to their party. They called him “Puff” because of his trinket (a pipe with smoke that came out in the shape of skulls).

4U Session 1 Log:
Puff met Aegle at the winged elf party and revealed his hermit epiphany about a sacred tree in the forest that had the ability to open up a magical portal. Happy to provide some muscle to help Puff check out the sacred tree, Aegle agreed to come along. When they arrived at the tree, they found Koriel standing there. She and Puff shared the stories of their dream visions, which were similar. Aegle helped them find a magical device on the tree with a number tumbler and a letter tumbler, realizing that they had to put in a special combination to unlock the portal.

Kennara, a blue-haired eladrin woman, appeared from the leaves of the tree and claimed to be the guardian of the portal. Aegle doubted her. The team decided to exclude her as they figured out the riddle on their own and kept her from going through the portal with them (by pulling out the number tumbler on their way through, thus closing the portal behind them).

Puff, Koriel, and Aegle appeared at a tree near a bridge, just outside of a village called Tholme. They went into the tavern “The Singing Sword” and found a tiefling woman named Vivacious delivering a barrel of darkbrew ale. Hilarity ensued as they ate pie, drank ale, and found out about the locals; the party also saw a large community bulletin board with various wanted ads (quests, land for sale, etc.).

First, the "Dream Team" went to the brewery owned by Vivacious and discovered her to be a succubus in disguise (after Aegle and Koriel became inebriated and Puff had to quickly make them some detox potions to save them); Vivacious escaped into the woods and her human servants were happy that she was gone.

The Dream Team's adventures in the village also took them to a half-elf widow (mourning the loss of her husband), to the treehouse of the “Gnomes for Hire” (who happily adopted Puff into their group, with official contracts signed), to the arrogant Miller’s son, back to the tavern (where they met the angry goliath owner Jafferton who wanted his stolen singing sword found and returned to him), and to the young necromancer’s tower (where they needed the notes of the dead old wizard to give them clues about restoring the soul of the widow’s lost husband).

Aegle and Koriel rested overnight at the tavern while Puff stayed with the gnomes at the treehouse. At the necromancer’s tower Puff was almost trapped in a magic circle, but they got the old wizard’s journal and convinced the young necromancer to destroy his undead zombie and skeleton guards. Aegle (whom the necromancer thought was a fiend he had tried to summon) had fun taking the magic wand of scorching ray from the necromancer, over and over again. Aegle thought he heard the air spirits calling out to him...