My Campaign Recap

[Ocule]

Decided to actually run a campaign and just finished up with A Life Choice. A couple of things I noticed about the scenario, I found it very difficult to actually get them to meet mardacht and uncover that plotline regardless of how hard I tried and they found the village very very frustrating. They complained alot of the dcs were too high. The traps in the forest did a little too much damage. 2d10 could be immediately lethal with poor luck. After a few sesions in Mudan they were ready to be done with it. Not done with the campaign but thats where we are at now. They just put Mudan behind them with both Trine and Eidan in tow. On the upside I found most of the adventure a very human experience that made them really question a few times if what they were doing was the right thing. One player told me the village was "her hell." Despite missing most of act 3 with mardacht they told me they were satisfied with the way it ended and loved the interaction with Thomas and his artifact. Which im still trying to come up with details for, im thinking about letting him have a spirit mentor or plaything that helps him learn sorcerous arts. As a first sorcery after that i was thinking about givin him a version of Visions of Limbo as a first spell. We still have the occultism book and black moon handbook so didn't want to power him up too much as not to trivialize upcoming scenarios but at this point I think he earned a taste of power.

[Cast]
Thomas - Occultist from Reihz with a dead daughter turned to occultism and gained an unhealthy fascination with death. Out of character wants to learn sorcery, im inclined to let him under careful observation.
Rael- A disgraced and exiled Taelkeride knight whose family was murdered and he was made a criminal. Currently in the service of Thomas with his identity mostly a secret.
Diarmid - A rogue from Reihz who is looking to travel.

[A Life Choice]
We started out in Bald-Ruoch where the party, consisting of the magientist Finn and an occultist named Thomas were approached by a contact of renowned magientist and physician Anais where they were offered a job but were not yet given details of the nature of the the work. Only that she was a magientist of some renown and that they promised they would help her out. So the party agreed to meet with Anais and discuss terms of an arrangement where she told them all about her son, and her plans to rescue him from his father who previously had faked his own death and gave up his life for one in Mudan, among fanatical traditionalists and was looking for help getting her son back. She chose to ask the magientists for help where she was certain she would have allies, and intelligence on her side rather than brute force mercenaries. Of course Finna and Thomas both agreed they needed a bodyguard so they went out recruiting. A few referrals later and they came to a mercenary named Rael. Strangely a mercenary who claimed skill with a blade but a rusty blade was all he actually owned beyond some rags on his back. His payment was simple, in exchange for entering into the service of Thomas he would be fed, clothed and properly equipped for any tasks regarding bodyguard service. You see, Thomas had a bit of money to his name and he viewed this as a bargain deal. They then set out to find a way down so they bought a beast to help them carry their equipment and found a merchant heading to Kalvernach to travel in number. After some preparation the party was set to depart the industrial city of Baldh-Ruoch.

[Night of Fright]
The merchant required to make a pit stop in a small village in the mountains between the two cities, only a short detour. A day or two tops he said, they agreed to follow if only for the ease of traveling in such a group and refusing to spend money to hire a professional guide this would have to do. Upon arriving in this village the and finding it deserted suspicions grew as to what had transpired here and why no one was actually here. The merchant kept a few employees around as well but they were hardly warriors. They find the closest thing to a town hall and seek refuge there. Each noise outside made them paranoid as to what they were hearing and what could have caused this. Feonda? Bandits? No one new. There weren't enough bodies around, their investigations around town only revealed that everything seemed to be untouched. They spotted a man several times but when they went to investigate, he was gone. They ran into one building they found trapped after enterring, not very lethal but would have not ended well for anyone involved. After they decided it was best to just stay in the town hall for the night. They heard a banging at the door for a while, but it subsided. They had a small fire pit burning as they waited out the night but during their stay someone had dropped a lamp filled with oil down the chimney and into the fire, causing the fire to spread as the room filled with smoke and they were forced outside.

They found themselves outside and unprotected by the walls of the town hall and now they were being attacked by the madman using hit and run tactics, this of course drew the attention of the Feonda lurking in the village. Ambushing Finn when he went to investigate a sighting, nearly killing him in a single blow he thought himself lucky. They tried to flee but the Feonda had Finn cornered (A few bad die rolls later....) The Feonda was surrounded by the players and cornered it had no choice but to fight its way out. The trio were resilient when it came to the toxins the Feonda let out so it resorted to trying to chew its way out. After a rather horrific battle the creature died to Rael's blade. They found and chased down the madman but didn't kill him and turned him over to the villagers after they found out they were away for a cermony. They continued their journey to Kalvernach.

[Blood Feathers]
They departed Kalvernach after supplying themselves for a trip without their old traveling companion. The merchant whose name escapes me at the moment and continued on. They watched a murder of crows slowly grow in size during their trip, following them and watching. Then the birds turned homicidal and tried to kill them all nearly succeeding in killing Thomas before being rescued by a mysterious stranger and miner they were led into a small cabin and afforded every courtesy. Ah yes, his name was Dorn. Dorn showed them every courtesy in the house and his wife Kynan and their two children. They felt something was off and wanted to leave but were persuaded to remain and have dinner with them. Thomas already being paranoid to begin with noticed that throughout the meal Dorn had was only pretending to drink his brandy. He subtly did the same. The man inquired about them and their journey's allowing them to brag and acting impressed. They ate their meals none the less and didn't realize Kynan had poisoned the stew, not the brandy. Before long all but Rael were unconcious bound and gagged and dragged off to the cave. Katherine, their daughter noticed Rael's resilience and led him outside telling him he had too much to drink and was taking them to the guest room. Something didn't add up and his his haze he realized something was amiss, he tried to run back to the house but suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and everything went dark. Katherine had hit him with a makeshift sap knocking him unconcious. When he awoke they were in a cave and dorn was performing some ritual. After reorienting themselves they made their way out of their restraints one at a time. It was a difficult scuffle especially since the drugs they were given were especially potent. After freeing Anais, she was able to get to her bag and take out some smelling salts for Rael to help counteract the drowsiness of the poison. After the scuffle the trio stood victorious over Dorn, who was beaten down and then executed by the party. Not before his daughter Katherine arrived trying to help, she had been holding the non combatants in the corner at knife point. Seeing the death of her father threw her into a rage, which lasted until a much more experienced warrior put an end to that, knocked her unconcious and dragged her outside. They took the skull and oghams off of Dorn then made their way to Kynan to break her the news. Tomar, their son stood came to their mothers defense. Thomas told them that in his experience, dabbling in such magic had consequences and since their offerings will not be complete they can be sure to expect some kind of retribution from the spirits Dorn was dealing with. He had no need to kill them, they were already dead. Later they burried the Dorn's stones but Thomas sensed that the skull may have a spirit bound to it. He kept it for later.

[A Life Choice]
Back on the road again putting that behind them, conversing with their companion Anais who was shaken up by the last encounter. They all were at the sight they made their way to Mudan. Somewhere in Taol-kaer on the road to mudan they found a lone flute player sitting in a tree, he was soon outed as being some kind of criminal and asked to tag along. His name was Diarmid, Anais strongly objected in total shock not trusting such an eccentric stranger but was outvoted by the players. Her reaction was along the lines of "Really? Now we are taking the thief with us" after the bandits they had met certainly was right to doubt their decision. They continued onto Mudan. On the way they found a a standing stone, the ones that the varigals use to mark passageways. Thomas spends some time with it and is able to discern some of the markings on it using cryptology. Fang. Sacred. Hostile. They opted to avoid taking of the marked shortcuts with great pains. Soon they ran into several corpses on the road as they approached lower mudan it wasn't long before they ran into a tree blocking the path with several corpses thrown about. After inspecting them carefully they discovered more or less what happened here. They were ambushed without possibility of escape and slaughtered. So they chose to avoid anything resembling straying off the road and with an impressive degree of paranoia avoided further trouble. They arrived in lower Mudan where things lightened up a bit.
In all but a day they had gone to the inn for some rest, gotten drunk and in the morning Diarmid had broken into a poor widows house and stole her panties. Successfully. They were awoken a few hours later by the sounds of angry screaming below as the widow had deduced her thief had come from the inn. None of the patrons saw a thing, despite Diarmid coming back half intoxicated and parading the panties around like a trophy. They gathered some information here and found that her son Eidan and his father were in higher mudan. They were warned to stay on the road but didn't bother to get anything official from the Ansalier. This is where the the smiles ended.
They were met with borderline hostility, and a choking distrust on their arrival it took them only a day before they were sick of the place. Anais wanted to go to the Ansaileir but the party immediately looked for the boys father. In a verbal arguement that could nearly have turned to blows Lem the Ansaileir arrived to meet the strangers, broke up the argument and after talking with the two parents decided there would be a formal trial in 5 days time. They spent the rest of the day planning and working. Diarmid kept trying to sneak away with little to no success, somehow not arrested. (I couldn't think of a decent charge to make up at the time) He was approached by Trine that night who asked to be taken from the village. She wouldn't give a clear reason as to why. After he promised to take her with him she gave him the names of the jurors and then they parted. Diarmid made his way back into the community house with no issue.
The second night in they met that poor bastard who was being punished by the village for violating a taboo. Desecrating a shrine was the reason he was sent to make peace with the spirits. Watching the hatred followed by unconditional love confused the travelers.
One by one over the course of a few days they spoke with each of the Jurors with very little success. Making good arguments but it all boiled down to "Let Eidan choose" which was a foolish sentiment because they knew who he was going to choose. He made his stance quite clear on their first meeting. In the end the managed to win 1 juror over despite Trine's repeated attempts to smuggle them information and clue them into what was going on with Mardacht and how the village was planning on sacrificing her. They were offered the spirits test before the trial, as the only way they would be allowed to speak to the jurors. No one not even Trine new the details of it, but she told them nobility or demorthens would be considered honorable. At this point Rael decided to reveal to Ansaileir Lem that it was actually Sir Rael, from a noble family. A big risk considering his background with his family could certainly put his life in jeopardy if the wrong people got that information. The rest of the party refused the spirit's test thinking it was some kind of secret brainwashing ritual. On pure speculation i might add, which i suppose is appropriate for Thomas.
The trial was a disaster, 4:1 in favor of the father. Rael by himself without the full support of the jurors was a farce. There was no point to the trial other than making it "official." The three knew Anais wasn't going to leave without Eidan, so they concocted a plan. She knew of a healer capable of dealing with such victims. So they planned to kidnap him, which really was more grab him and run. Foolishly suicidal plan but Diarmid was much more partial to Trine's plea. He wasn't about to leave without her so he arranged one last meeting with Trine in the dead of night. He managed to get the both of them out and on the main road without an issue. The others on the other hand fell right into the trap of the Pure by trying to kidnap Eidan where 4 pure warriors greeted them after attempting to club him unconcious and grab him before anyone could react. A faux meeting between the mother and son as a final goodbye they told them, Thomas grabbed a bottle of oil and his lighter using it as a makeshift incendiary before Rael grabbed the boy kicking and screaming and running out the front gate passed 2 of the warriors. Eidan managed to escape briefly before Rael took the pommel of his sword and knocked him out in a single strike. The look on Anais' face was rather priceless. They were being persued by the pure and the only thing they could do was run, Thomas knew they weren't going to get very far. So he pulled out the skull he found earlier and beseached the spirit within it for aid, promising a mutual agreement should he receive it. (He rolled over a 20) so he got it an unnatural wind picked up their hair stand on end, a howling and moaning and flock of ethereal crows manifested around him with their only direction of "Delay my attackers" they bolted straight for the pure. They only heard the screams in the distance, he does not know exactly what manner in which they were delayed but that he was successful. He felt something tug at his life force, at his spirit and very essence. (mental resistance for everyone who witnessed it including the caster)
They continued to run, freaked out but keeping it together the pure no longer behind them. Winds picked up again this time different from the one that Thomas produced, this one was nearly inaudible at first, then sounded like a thousand voices whispering in his ear their message becoming more clear with each moment. Feelings of anger, hatred, despair ran through their bones. Words like Prey, surrender, and death were carried by the wind. Thomas immediately thought he had actually angered the spirits of the forest, or they were being pursued by a magic user. I think it might be the former that actually happened but the forest itself started to fight back. Meanwhile Diarmid and Trine found the path ahead of them gone, overgrown by the forest and tried to go around the obstructions. Shortly after falling into a pit skewering his leg on the sharped spikes below. Then he heard the same vengeful winds as the others behind him followed by a howling of wolves. He quickly bandaged what was left of his wound and climbed out of the pit limping along. The party soon caught up with them and navigated the forest to lower mudan never actually running into mardacht or any of his minions.

The next morning a messenger from higher mudan arrives and they know exactly why, they are kidnappers. They are starting to feel like their actions were no better than Eidan's father all those years ago. Despite all they have done, they are now criminals in mudan. They pack quickly and leave for the monestary Anais mentioned. Diarmid wakes up drenched in his own sweat and pale as death. Anais looks at the wound she was treating throughout the night and realizes the spike was poisoned.

[End]

Thats all for now. Feedback is appreciated.