I've started a 4e campaign with my real-world group. We'll post up some stuff as we go along. In the meantime, here is some background I did for the guys to detail the setting.

The land

The campaign will take place mostly in the Southern Hinterlands. This is an area of mountains, broken foothills and scrub heading further south to desert. The mountains are high and snowy, effectively blocking rainfall from the north, and are covered in thick pine and azalea cloud forests on their upper flanks. Lower still, species adapted to the increasing lack of water predominate – cacti, yuccas and other succulents as the mountains turn into hills and then out into the dry plains.

The area is fairly thinly settled, with most habitation centred around water sources and the few trade routes to the north. There is one main centre of civilisation, the City of the Five, but it seems to have little interest in dominion and most settlements are small self-governing towns and villages. In addition, there is a significant population of nomadic humanoids – in particular, goblins, gnolls and dragonborn – who wander the region. Ruins of unknown provenance dot the desert, and are mostly avoided as cursed.

The areas to the east, west and south are relatively unexplored and unknown. North of the mountains is the wreckage of the Hajputene Empire, which collapsed amid failed military adventurism, civil war and orcish invasion about a century ago. It is a fertile land, but now most comprises warring petty bandit kingdoms and orcish warbands.

The inhabitants

Humans

Most humans are descendants of Hajputene émigrés who headed south following the trade routes while the Empire still stood. They make up most of the population of the towns and villages in the region, and are generally self-sufficient and open-minded individuals, hanging on to a mixture of Hajputene culture mixed with more local customs.

In addition, the inhabitants of the City of the Five form a distinct human culture in the Southern Hinterlands. Worshipping five living deities, they claim that the city has existed “for ever”, certainly predating any other historical empires. City-dwellers tend to be cautious and insular, rarely stray from their homeland, and are dismissive of other cultures as “inferior”.

Dragonborn

The majority of dragonborn are nomadic herders, roaming across the region with their herds of reptilian herbivores, though a few have taken up a settled life in the human towns. The dragonborn split into different bloodlines, which reflects their different breath weapons, though an individual band or tribe will often comprise members from several blood lines. The tribes themselves vary in how they deal with outsiders; some a relatively friendly, while at the opposite end of the spectrum some are actively hostile and attack trespassers in what they regard as their territory.

Every few decades, the aggressive tribes gather together under a charismatic leader and attack the established settlements, particularly the City of the Five. Such assaults are normally rebuffed with such terrible dragonborn casualties that it takes several generations for the nomad populations to recover.

Dwarves

Most dwarves live in small settlements in the hills and mountain passes, eking a living as traders, bandits and miners. Their civilisation was largely destroyed by the orcish hordes that ultimately destroyed the Hajputene Empire, though with their longer lifespans and memories the dwarves cling bitterly to their old ways with greater tenacity that the more adaptable humans.

Only one of their “deep delves”, or underground cities, remains occupied by dwarves, the redoubt of Zarrenkar. While retaining a shadow of the grandeur that once filled the halls with dwarven artifice and industry, it is now an insular and xenophobic kingdom falling into decadence, its cavernous spaces now mostly empty.

Eladrin, elves and half-elves

The fey races inhabit the cool mountain forests. The elves live in their rustic villages and patrol the woods, challenging or waylaying intruders as they see fit. The eladrin form the hereditary nobility, though they lack an interest in oppressing their elven subjects and largely leave them to their own devices. They inhabit mist-cloaked towers and engage in their own inscrutable interests.

Trade or other contact between the fey races and the other inhabitants of the region is rare, as the townsfolk and the nomads have virtually nothing the eladrin or elves want or need. Occasionally, a curious elf ranger or eladrin noble may stray into the lands of their neighbours out of curiosity, and may even stay for a few decades. Half-elves often result from such sojourns, though they are nevertheless extremely rare. Their fey parent almost never takes them back to their homeland, seemingly out of embarrassment, and they are instead brought up in the towns where they are left.

Halflings

Halfling caravans ply the trade routes across the region, from the City of the Five, though the mountain passes and across the wreckage of the Hajputene Empire. Traders, tinkers, irrepressible thieves and bearers of the latest news, the visit of a halfling band to an outlying village is both eagerly anticipated and dreaded. The larger settlements often have shantytowns where halflings live semi-permanently, often despised for their larcenous ways, though few individual halflings will actually reside there for more than a few months.

In addition, a substantial minority of halflings have integrated more fully into the societies in which they live, giving up their itinerant ways and settling down. Most blend in fairly imperceptibly, though some still suffer prejudice due to the activities of their less conventional cousins.

Tieflings

In its latter years, the nobility of the Hajputene Empire began to mix its bloodline with extra-dimensional entities, such as fey, demons and devils. This was intended to strengthen lineages which had grown increasingly effete, decadent and inbred and forestall the collapse of the empire they commanded. While the experiments failed to prevent the ultimate collapse, they did result in the creation of a new race: the tieflings.

Reaction to tieflings varies, with some considering them abominations, others treating them as just another exotic race amongst many, and all shades in between. They can vary in appearance from fairly monstrous to barely perceptibly different to their human forebears, though all carry a whiff of otherness about them which causes them to stand out. A few attempt to retain the airs and graces of the nobility from which they are descended, though most are just normal individuals trying to make their way in the world. Few in number, most tieflings live amongst the other races in the larger towns.

Goblins

The desert goblins form small wandering tribes or live in semi-permanent camps near water sources. They are generally peaceful, being small and relatively weak, and live by hunting nocturnal small game and gathering grubs and roots. However, a tribe will often engage in low-level thievery and occasional banditry if they think they can get away with it (and their naturally cautious nature means they will rarely attack a target capable of offering resistance without overwhelming numbers). Consequently, goblins are little trusted, though some trading between them and the other races takes place on an infrequent basis. Desert goblins are between three and four feet tall and have large bat ears, hairless wrinkled skin, pug noses and jet back eyes with long lashes.

Gnolls

Gnolls are generally rapacious hooligans, travelling in bands and attacking outlying villages and nomad encampments for food and booty. Gnolls might trade with a well-armed and numerous party, but more generally they will attack anyone they come across, shooting with their bows from afar and sending their hyena hunting packs to engage in melee. Gnolls are generally unwelcome in civilisation, and are generally attacked on sight.

Orcs

Orcs are creatures of the mountains, and rarely stray into the desert. After defeating the dwarves, and with their numbers swelled by a series of mild winters, they broke over the already ailing Hajputene Empire like a wave, bringing it to an end in a tide of blood. Fortunately, the orcs have spent the remainder of the last century fighting with the human successor states and with each other. This has acted as a check on their numbers and prevented them from eying the Southern Hinterlands for possible conquest. A few orcish chieftains have attempted to establish petty kingdoms for themselves, but these rarely last beyond the death of the founder. Most orc leaders lack such vision, and simply spend their days in a haze of internecine violence and death.

History

The Southern Hinterlands existed at the southern border of the Hajputene Empire. The mountain chains that divided the Empire from the lands beyond acted as a fairly secure barrier, and the dried-out scrub and deserts beyond provided little incentive for conquest. As a consequence, the Empire was content to ignore the area as it concentrated on richer territories further north. The only settlement of any real size was the City of the Five, and as its unfathomable divine rulers showed very little interest in extending their influence beyond their immediate environs the Empire did not initially feel a need to concentrate on its southern borders. Enterprising Hajputene merchants headed through the mountain passes to trade with the City, establishing way stations that turned into towns and villages. However, the status of these new settlements was left fairly vague, and the imperial military presence within them was light.

The status quo changed about one and a half centuries ago. The Empire was suffering from senescence, with its further-flung provinces were becoming restive and the loyalty of its governors suspect. Meanwhile, the Imperial Court was mostly engaged in vicious internal politicking and the quality of the imperial administration suffered as factional loyalty was elevated over competence. In order to stamp his authority and gain prestige in order to wrest more control to himself, the new tiefling Emperor Gajeshnan VI decided he needed a quick show of force.

As a consequence, he decided upon the apparently simple task of annexing the City of the Five to the Empire. Marching south through the mountains at the head of his army, with the royal household in tow, Gajeshnan confronted the tiny army of the Five a few days ride north of the City, hoping that a show of force would cow its rulers. Instead, in a titanic display of magical power, the Five obliterated the imperial legions almost to a man (and leaving a blasted place plagued by undead to this day known as the Bonefields). With the leader of the empire dead along with his key advisors and heirs, the Empire proceeded to distract itself with a series of civil wars over the succession to the imperial throne and breakaway provinces. Unable to properly defend its borders, the rising orc menace in the southern mountains eventually broke what was left of central authority about a century ago. The orc horde of Skrarg Bloodeye killed the last emperor, Gajeshnan XI, in the final battle for the imperial capital, Hajput.

Following the collapse of the empire, refugees from the chaos headed south towards the relatively safe havens of the Southern Hinterlands. The hundred years has been a relatively quiet period of consolidation under the disinterested suzerainty of the Five.

And here's some more.

Qom

The town of Qom is the largest settlement along the main trade route from the old Hashputene Empire to the City of the Five. It marked the furthest official southerly extent of the Empire, where the old Imperial Road from the north ended and the City Way continued south. While trade is lower than in the Empire’s heyday, Qom nevertheless remains a busy trade town, mainly shifting goods such as salt, residuum, minor magic items and exotic foodstuffs from the City to the barbarian kingdoms north of the mountains in return for grains, cloth and ores.

Qom also acts as the unofficial capital of the foothills region of the Southern Hinterlands, being easily the biggest community between the mountains and the City. As such, it is a relatively cosmopolitan place, with people from several races and regions visiting or living there. The majority are Hashputene humans, though halflings and dragonborn are also common, with an additional smattering of City merchants, dwarves from the hills, forest elves and haughty tieflings.

The town is run by a descendant of the last military governor of the region under the Empire, who retains the title of Tribune. Tribune Darshastha is generally considered a canny and just ruler, his main focus to ensure the security of the trade road and maintaining peaceful relations with the City of the Five. He has little formal sway over the more outlying settlements but has influence through the wealth borne of trade, his grasp of diplomacy, and his control of the Qom Lancers, a relatively small but highly-proficient cavalry. Nevertheless, beyond the near stretches of the Imperial Road and the City Way, the Tribune’s authority is only absolute within the town itself. Any attempt to expand through force could meet with the fatal displeasure of the Five, which limits the Tribune’s ambitions.

The town is mostly composed of mud brick dwellings with baked shingle roofs, clustered behind a wall of timber and earth. The wall is about 10’ tall and, while hardly impregnable, acts as a reasonable deterrent to the disorganised tribes which are the main threat to the community. There are two gates: Imperial Gate to the north and City Gate to the south. These two roads meet in the centre of the town at Temple Square, the main open space in the settlement where there is a vibrant market full of haggling vendors hawking their wares. Above the town, on a promontory of red stone, sits the Garrison, home to the Tribune and the barracks for the Lancers.

Outside the walls by Imperial Gate is the caravanserai, mostly filled with grumbling camels but also the occasional tethered skywhale. Nearby is Halfling Town, a slightly ramshackle collection of huts and wagons for the itinerant halfling community. Beside the town runs the Springflow, which alternates between a raging torrent as the winter snows thaw to a stony streambed in the dry season. However, the water still flows underground even in the driest periods, and deep-dug wells and cisterns of rainwater keep the town from thirst at these times. Around the town are orchards, dusty fields and a few outlying hamlets and farmsteads, giving way to scrub and cliffs. The Springflow heads south and down into the desert where it eventually disappears.

Imperial Road

Imperial Road heads north from Qom, winding through foothills towards the high mountain passes. It is an impressive testament to Imperial engineering skills, being in relatively good repair even a century after the Empire’s collapse. It is cobbled, cambered to ensure water runs off it, and crosses a series of rivers and valleys on sturdy stone bridges. Along its length it has regular way-shelters, and among the foothills of the Southern Hinterlands there are villages and fortified inns serving passing travellers. South of the mountains it is patrolled by the Qom Lancers, but up amongst the high mountain passes trekkers must provide for their own security. The main dangers on the road are highwaymen and large predators. The first town of any real size along its length after Qom is Varata, formerly an Imperial border town north of the mountains and now the capital of a petty kingdom ruled by a bandit prince.

City Way

City Way is not an Imperial-built road, but was made long before to facilitate trade with the City of the Five. The City is twelve days’ ride south along the road from Qom, but only the portion immediately below Qom is patrolled by the Lancers. Instead, a series of small fortresses have been built along its length, manned by troops from the City. There are four forts in total, equidistant from each other, and these also provide facilities for travellers. The soldiers have little interest in the lands beyond the road, which remain wild and contested, but attempts to disrupt traffic on the road are greeted with deadly force. The usual hazards are undead that wander from the Bonefields, gnoll and dragonborn raiders, and thirst.

The City of the Five

The City sits on an escarpment above the northernmost extent of the Salt Rift, protected on all sides by steep cliffs. The City itself comprises a large temple/palace complex of marble walls and golden domes, surrounded by garden plots, orchards and modest housing for the rest of its inhabitants and arranged around a central oasis. As such, deific splendour mixes surprisingly with the mundane lives of its citizens.

While the City is home to five living deities, they are remote from the general population, only seen from a distance at major festivals. The edicts of the five are disseminated through the High Priest of the Five, and City is administered by a council of clerical Regents reporting to him. The main trade is in salt and residuum, both of which are mined from the nearby upper reaches of the Salt Rift, which are used to buy foodstuffs and other basics hard to obtain in the desert.

Most of the inhabitants of the City seem happy with their lot, living unremarkable but cosseted lives away from significant danger, and virtually all are enthusiastic followers of the Five. The worship of deities other than the Five is not permitted within the City. Worshippers of other gods may freely honour their own deities in private, but attempting to convert a local, proselytise or establish a temple is strictly forbidden.

The Salt Rift

South of the City of the Five, the ground begins to fall away in a series steep cliffs and barren white plains, plunging deeper and deeper into the earth until it flattens out into an immense shimmering salt pan almost two miles beneath the general level of the surrounding desert. The heat is even more oppressive and the sparse signs of life disappear almost completely. Here, strip miners from the City, often felons serving their punishment, carve out blocks of salt and ply the thin veins of residuum.

The complete extent of the Salt Rift has not been accurately surveyed, but it is a roughly star-shaped depression perhaps two hundred miles or more across. The City sits at the north-eastern extremity of one of its out-flung arms. The mines occupy only the nearest portion on the Rift, and the deeper parts are almost entirely unknown, as the generally unliveable terrain makes exploration extremely hazardous. Rumours abound of strange creatures twisted by prolonged exposure to residuum, lakes of boiling mud or caustic pools of water tainted with poisonous minerals, and odd ruins projecting from the white crust as if they were half-buried.

It is possible to circumnavigate the Rift, but the regions around it are claimed by some of the most murderous dragonborn tribes in the Southern Hinterlands. Many consider it a religious duty to execute any non-dragonborn found in their territory, and they also raid the mining camps of the City looking for captives to sacrifice.

Session 1

Our heroes gathered at the caravanserai at Qom, strangers united only by their need for work. They were:

Fluxx (Matty), eladrin noble and cleric of Corellon. A dissatisfied wanderer, aesthete and dabbler in the arcane, he had settled in Qom and was looking to found a temple to his god. But temples require money, and he didn’t possess much. Hence his interest in mercenary work.

Kravis (Nick), paladin of the Raven Queen and trainee executioner. While his attempt to join the ranks of the sacred executioners of the Lady of Destiny was thwarted by the sabotage of his rival, Orris Gar, Kravis was left at a loose end and low on funds. But a big axe can do more than sever the heads of the condemned, and so he sought out the promise of a wage.

Dumpling (Tim), a happy-go-lucky gourmand and (incidentally) light-fingered halfling rogue looking for lost relatives, her father wanting to gather the clan one last time before he died. Following on the trail of errant cousins, she found herself in Qom, but the lure of the road and paid passage to the City of the Five saw her looking to join a caravan.

Klondike (Mark), a human ranger with his faithful wolf companion, Kuki. As a boy, Klondike’s family were killed by orc raiders. Living a feral existence since then, Klondike had come down from the mountains to trade and looking for a brief job to tide him over.

Little did they know it, destiny had chosen these four for greater things (dun dun DUN!).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Having seen the tattered notice in Temple Square, the party headed to find the cleric of the Five, Hapnar Izvis, who claimed to be looking for guards for his slave caravan. However, when they arrived, the jobs had already been taken by none other than Orris Gar and his cronies – a pair of tiefling siblings of ill-repute and haughty manners, Dazmitra and Ashkoram, and a brutal dragonborn mercenary, Skullface.

However, Fluxx’s silver tongue managed to elicit a grudging introduction to Red Cloud, a dragonborn caravan master. Red Cloud’s men had been attacked just outside Qom by kruthiks, repugnant hive-dwelling insect/reptiles, and four were carried off. While the men were doubtless dead, Red Cloud wanted the group to recover their shell amulets. In dragonborn tribal religion, each dragonborn retains a fragment of shell from the egg from which they were born. This is fashioned into an amulet which is necessary for proper funeral rites, to prevent the soul of a dead dragonborn from wandering after death. Red Cloud wanted those amulets recovered from the kruthiks’ lair so his men could be properly put to rest.

The party picked up the trail of the kruthiks at the caravan’s last stopping point, south of Qom on the City Way. Tracking the kruthiks was tricky but in the end, after a tiring march through the hot sun of the Hinterlands, they found themselves at a sinkhole by a rocky ridge just as the sun was setting. Initial examination indicated that the place was, or had been, a goblin warren, but the kruthik tracks clearly led inside and down the stairway/ramp that circled the cleft and descended into darkness. Scouting out the hole, Dumpling and Klondike found three kruthiks on guard duty, two smaller specimens and one larger, at a wider landing about 50’ down.

Luring these kruthiks up to the rest of the party, they were kept bottled up at the entrance to the lair and killed with relative ease. Coming down to the landing they had occupied, a brief check found a ladder carved in to the stone leading up to a narrow ledge, where they found the sole survivor of the goblin tribe which had lived here. The goblin, Gok, was weak from hunger and thirst and initially incoherent with fear, until Kravis’ timely intervention with his a cold scowl and his proffered axe concentrated his mind.

Gok described how the kruthiks had arrived about a week ago, led by strange humanoids the size and shape of men but with the faces of goblins. (Were these the hobgoblins of fable, rumoured to exist in remote places on other continents and worlds? pondered Fluxx.) The kruthiks slaughtered the tribe, only missing Gok where he hid at his lookout post. From there he saw a big black flying lizard arrive from above and descend through the sinkhole to its depths. Too scared to try and escape, he was busy dying of thirst when the party arrived, and he scampered to safety once they had dealt with the kruthiks at the entrance.

The group decided that the best course was to descend swiftly and deal with the dragon in the depths as the priority. Ignoring the tunnel on this level, they delved further, following the circling stairway as it led down and deeper into the caverns. At the next level down, they met two more large kruthiks which they battled on the stairway. They nearly spilled one over the edge, to fall to its doom in the dark, but it managed to cling to the edge. Kravis held the line, standing between their gnashing jaws, while Dumpling, Klondike and Kuki harried them and Fluxx inspired their attacks and healed their wounds with Corellon’s grace.

After that combat, they found themselves in some sort of throne room, presumably the chieftain’s audience chamber. However, the copious bloodstains showed how the goblins had met a grisly end. With further cautious scouting, the party found a branching corridor, one branch ending at a ladder down deeper into the complex, the other in a room containing three of the strange man-goblins and their kruthik guard dog. Also in this room was a peculiar apparatus, seemingly comprising a framework of bent metal and arcane glowing crystals, upon which were suspended twitching inhuman viscera.

The group decided to lure these enemies into the throne room and despatch them there. However, they discovered that these hobgoblins fight well in unison, forming a phalanx that was hard to penetrate. They killed the kruthik and the hobgoblin sergeant, expending themselves mightily to put a quick end to them. But they allowed the hobgoblin foot soldiers to escape down the ladder. Following along behind at a slightly slower pace, the party descended to find four more hobgoblins, including the two escapees, lined up behind a shield wall in the next room, a hobgoblin sorcerer backing them up from behind. However, the party fell upon them in a rain of steel and divine power, finally punching through their defences, isolating the fighters and cutting them down. But the hobgoblins fought with bravery, cunning and puissance, with the battle-caster landing several telling blows with a staff imbued with the power of thunder. But they could not prevail, and finally all fell.

Beyond this chamber, they party found themselves at the bottom of the sinkhole. At the far end of this large chamber a pool of water lay still and silent, while mushrooms grew about in profusion. Cautiously stepping forward, and expecting a dragon attack, the group spread out and, where possible concealed themselves. They were not disappointed, as a dragon the size of a warhorse burst from the pool and doused Kravis with its acid breath. By this time, the party’s reserves had largely been spent, and the fight turned into a desperate battle to hack through the dragon’s defences before they fell themselves. Blossom attacked it from hiding, then engaged it in hand-to-hand combat, while Klondike peppered it with arrows. The dragon invoked its dread majesty, stunning most of the party with fear as it moved about the cave attacking at will. Then Kravis laid down his challenge to the beast which it ignored at its peril, and soon the beast was surrounded by implacable foes. Sensing that it was in genuine mortal danger, the dragon surrounded itself in a cloud of black cloying darkness and, using this as cover, it burst into flight and headed straight up, out of the sinkhole and to escape in the night sky.

The second instalment, written by Tim, Dumpling's player.

SNR – 15th February 2009

A great victory for us, we could pick our fill of a lovely selection of juicy mushrooms. Before long my sacks were bulging. Fluxx suggested we did not stay too long lest the dragon returned. The others searched in vain for its vast hoard and found but a few gold and potions. Not to worry though, we had the mushrooms.

After a short rest, we had breakfast of bread, cheese and cold meats. My mouth drooled at the thought of fried mushrooms but a fire was not popular with my friends.

Once more we went into the tunnels. I scouted around in the darkness. ‘What madness that Halflings were not blessed with night vision.’

With some lovely sneakiness, a unique ability of Klondyke the Ranger to smack anyone who so much as looked at his doggy Kuki, party co-ordination much helped by Fluxx and Kravis appearing to have one brain (Matty playing them both), and we had soon slaughtered three more batches of kruthiks, collected up the four shells amulets, a pittance of treasure and then stopped for lunch. Fried mushrooms hmmmmmm.

Our wonderful leader suggested we haul the control contraption back to town and sell it. I presumed so that we could buy some more food.

Back at Qom we bumped into a nice Arcane posh bloke called Terim Arkamar who gave us lots of money for the contraption and asked us to escort it to the ‘City of the Five’ to a man called Regent Clargius. Interestingly his favourite food was date and walnut cake, but unfortunately my many sacks of food did not harbour such specialities, so I planned to get them from the City.

With my sacks full, my friends and I, the contraption and the nice bloke, set off towards the City of Five on a skywhale (hydrogen-monster). Everything went well until some Southerners (dragonborn warriors mounted on pterodactyls) blasted us with fire arrows, the hydro-monster exploded and we all fell to the sands below. Fortunately I had already prompted the pilot to make for the land and eaten my fill.

I was extremely annoyed that the Southerners had interrupted lunch and a lot of it had been wasted. They would get a severe telling off next time we met. (The crew and Terim were killed in the fall, which the party miraculously survived.)

Fluxx had a quick check on water and provisions and realised that with my sacks, we probably had enough for a few months, although he didn’t really factor in my appetite. Fluxx cast a spell to make us all cool in the sun so we picked up the bits of the contraption to take with us.

We trekked our way across the sands and wilderness. It crossed my mind that we were in dire straits having not stopped for elevensies but we pressed on. Kravis and Klondyke appeared to be walking with their eyes closed and we soon got lost.

On the second day, having eaten a good wholesome breakfast (hmmm more mushrooms), we bumped into a patrol of gnolls. They were tough. I stuck one from the side with blows that would have felled even Kravis but the gnoll stood firm. They pelted Kuki the wolf with arrows and he ran behind the rocks wimpering, with Klondyke close behind. With some brave and commendable strategy, our leader positioned us so that we could quickly take down one gnoll at a time. With their morale shattered, the last two turned and fled.

A quick search turned up the usual minimal treasure and no decent food. We had a few currant buns from the ‘sack of plenty’ and continued through the sands until at last we had a way station in sight - a fortress along the City Way. But as we approached we noticed something was wrong……..

Part the Third, by Matty.

A reminder of our heroes:
Fluxx (Matty), eladrin noble and cleric of Corellon.
Kravis (Nick), paladin of the Raven Queen and trainee executioner.
Dumpling (Tim), a happy-go-lucky gourmand and (incidentally) light-fingered halfling rogue.
Klondike (Mark), a human ranger with his faithful wolf companion, Kuki.

Extract from Flux’s personnel memoirs

Having been shot from the sky and crash-landing in a very hot desert, which we trudged through for 3 days, I was finding it a little uncomfortable - especially with my endure elements ritual spell ingredient running out. Our water was also running out, but our little cook did a sterling job and kept our spirits up with her larder of food & drink.

Eventually we came across the main road and also one of the many ‘City of the Five’ small forts dotted along it. Saved we thought, but no: the large doors on the gate house were open and no sign of life with smoke coming from the inside.

We sent Dumpsey and Klondike on a stealthy scouting mission to make sure it was safe after a very brief look see they called me and Kravis over. We then all went inside the courtyard. Halfway across, “Lookout” shouted Klondike and he ran back towards the gatehouse with Dumps hot on his heels. Me and Kravis looked around to see the former fort guards rise from the earth in the form of undead skeletons; some of them were on fire, presumably the ones causing the smoke, and these proceeded to throw fire balls at the two of us while some of the others drew bows . After the exchange of fire we were both badly wounded (our two so called companions escaped unscathed inside the gatehouse). I then managed to get to shelter but Kravis, being a fearless paladin of the Raven Queen, stood his ground (or, some might say, stayed in view) and was knocked off his feet by a lethal barrage of missile fire and melee attacks from some bigger Skeletons.
Klondike and Dumps proved to be ineffectual inside the gatehouse so I decided to lead a charge to save Kravis.

With my holy symbol held high I ran into the middle of the undead and spoke Corellon’s name which smote and afeared some of the bony undead. My actions rallied the troops and they also charged into the fray. Kravis got to his feet and helped me to heal the party through the battle. They proved to be a tough match and and it took time to kill just one of them. With some luck blows and with most of us on fire due to fire ball attack Me, Kravis and Dumps went down, knocked unconscious. I cannot say what happened then, but the next thing I knew Klondike was ramming a potion down my neck. My health restored, I managed to revive Dumps and Kravis. We them gathered our momentum and started to make short work of the flaming skeletons. Klondike, after his brave rescue, fell unconscious too with the pain of the burning flames. We eventually defeated the skeletal force and rest the night in the gatehouse before we explored anymore of the fort.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast from Dumps, we opened a door to one of the towers which turned out to be a prison. Inside we found a very interesting apparitions which turned out to be a very dangerous. One of the former guards had been split in three (with very powerful magic, I believe) to form a skeletal ghoul (the "skinned" we called it), his flayed skin (the "skin" ) and his spectral spirit. We fought in close combat and found the skin to be a smoothering type of monster, with it trying to envelope his opponent. We soon found the best way to deal with these creatures was to retreat a little and let Klondike fire his newly found fireball bow into the tower, it nicely toasting the evil inside to a fine crisp.

With the winds of victory pushing us on we decided to turn our attention to the stables. We found inside a horde of undead rats of various sizes which swarmed out and attacked us, I managed to vanquish some with my holy "turn undead" power and Klondike again proved useful with his bow of fire. Dumps found a Dagger of the Duellist which she seemed very happy about (maybe our cook will be more than useful being a cook).

We then looked at the main keep and saw two entrances: an upper and lower one. With the use of some rope we managed to get to the upper one and entered the dimly lit keep. Kravis booted down the first door he came across - it turned out to be a small shine/temple to the Five. Standing in the middle of the room was a ghostly apparition of the former City of the Five priest. We started to converse with him and tried to put things on a friendly footing but our insight and arcane skills let us down and he turned on us with undead fury. Luckily, during our conversion we had surrounded him and once the battle started we brought down our full offensive force, and after a few hard rounds of combat he tried to escape through the wall. But he was to late and disappeared under our sword and axe blows.

There is more to this keep to explore; I do wish we find water soon I need to bathe and rejoin polite society, my new friends are friendly bunch but there conversation is some what limited.

Part the fourth and fifth, by me.

Having defeated the shade of the priest, our stalwart heroes set out to further explore the keep, still looking for precious resources of food and water. On the same level as the small chapel of the Five, they found a common room for the fort's sergeants and the office of the fort commandant - all empty. In the office they discovered his log - while comprising mostly rosters for the men and other administrative details, it included a comment concerning an increase in gnoll and undead activity. Its last entry, entirely routine, was about three days prior to the arrival of the party - whatever it was that struck the fort came without warning and with deadly swiftness.

They headed further up the keep and on the next level found the living quarters of the commandant, as empty as the level below. Dumpling found a jewel box and, after disarming the routine trap, pocketed the contents (for future party funds, she said). The next level up was the keep roof. Again, it was deserted, but they had a panoramic view of the area. To the west was the desert they had come through, and eastwards were the Bonefields. The road stretched away south and north. On the roof itself was a stable for the wyverns the couriers of the City of the Five use, though it had no occupants.

Heading back down, with Klondike and Dumpling scouting ahead, at the entrance level they found the castle refectory. Unfortunately it was occupied by zombies and their deathlock wight leader, former guards blasted dead by whatever had assaulted the keep. One zombie was lured up the stairway and slaughtered in its confines, but the deathlock was sufficiently savvy not to fall for such a ploy and mustered its troops back downstairs. The party descended to take the battle to the enemy and the remaining undead were swiftly despatched. Still finding no water, they headed down into the castle basement.

Scouting ahead, Dumpling found that here were the kitchens and, through the larder door, she could hear a vile chomping and slobbering noise as something large was munching on the supplies. Creeping in and then making a bold assault, the party found the hideous bloated undead remains of a gnoll the size of an ogre, so grotesquely swollen that its skin was splitting under the strain in places, as it gorged upon the castle's rations. With several deft blows they swiftly brought it low - though not before Klondike took a huge punch from its meaty fist. But as they fought, they themselves were ambushed by swarms of undead severed hands which had lurked in the fireplace. And as these clawed flesh and clung to clothing and hair, to their horror the vile giant gnoll rose up once more to battle, weakened but still with deadly carnivorous intent in its piggy eyes. But with trenchant hearts and gradual attrition, the gnoll-thing was downed once more and with finality, and the swarm of claws eventually stamped out. And - joy of joys - the kitchens had a well. They had found their life-giving water at last.

They swiftly explored the rest of the fort but found no more inhabitants, living or undead, and then bedded down for the night. The next morning, refreshed and reinvigorated, the party set off down the road towards the next fortress, several day's walk away. Fortunately, as Fluxx had refreshed his supplies of residuum at the chapel, he was able to cast his ritual to ameliorate the effects of the desert heat. As the morning passed, they spotted the dust of approaching riders coming towards them. Squinting against the sun, they realised that they were in fact undead riding skeletal steeds and swiftly took to cover at the side of the road. As they riders passed, the party ambushed them, pelting them with missiles while Kravis marched out stoically to meet them. The leader wore the insignia of a captain of the City of the Five, but his cohorts were dressed in ancient armour dating back to the Hashputene Empire. Irrespective, the undead cavalry were swiftly brought to a permanent rest, and among the spoils of victory were recovered the ancient Hashputene armour, which Fluxx recognised as being eminently collectible and therefore valuable, while Kravis obtained from the captain's corpse bracers to increase the power of the blows with his executioner's axe.

After a trudge of two days and one night, the party finally arrived at the next fortress along the City Way. This was fully garrisoned and had already received the alert of the undead menaces lurking to the north - from, of all people, Kravis' rival and nemesis Orris Gar and his cronies, who had arrived the day before after fighting past the fortress of undead. Kravis immediately stated that he thought that Gar was behind everything, to which Fluxx sarcastically replied that Gar the Evil Overlord was obviously working as a lowly caravan guard just "to keep his hand in" if the Evil Overlord racket ever fell through. Notwithstanding, the fortress commander, Captain Lymflava, immediately engaged the party to scout out the Bonefields and find out what was causing all the recent undead activity. They sold their booty, re-equipped and reprovisioned, and as the sun rose the following day set out.

The captain had given them some guidance as to the lie of the land in this section of the Bonefields. He explained that a streambed running east dipped into a twisting gorge which eventually ran out on to a broad, empty plain covered in strange crystals. Beyond, further to the east, is a low range of hills upon which, it is thought, the Hashputene army was encamped before its destruction by the Five. In a shallow bowl between these hills is the Bloodstone Rock, generally considered to be the epicentre of undead activity in the Bonefields.

The party found the dry riverbed as described and soon the walls of the gorge rose above them. Tracks, gnoll and humanoid undead, could be found at intervals. Dumpling carried out reconnaisance and, as the party marched behind her, found a small encampment of gnolls and undead blocking the way forward. Dumpling returned to her comrades and, as she explained what she had seen, a group of two gnoll berserkers accompanied by skeletons dashed round the corner of the canyon - obviously Dumpling's skills of concealment lacked somewhat on this occasion. The gnolls charged forward, getting ahead of their skeletal cohorts, and immediately plunged into the fray. Fluxx tried out a new trick he had been perfecting from his study of arcane magic, and summoned a cloud of flying daggers. While this hindered the gnolls very little, it despatched one skeleton that entered the cloud immediately and hindered the approach of the others. Dumpling climbed up a nearby boulder and attacked with thrown daggers, but one skeleton held back and fired back with its bow, inflicting several cruel wounds. Kravis hewed mightily and Klondike and Kuki worried their flanks, and eventually the gnolls fell and the skeletons were smashed to flinders.

However, this only dealt with some of the forces arrayed in the gorge. Dumpling crept back, to find more skeletons and two gnoll archers. Hoping to lure more back to the jaws of death, she attacked and destroyed one skelton to get their attention, then took up a concealed position behind some brush to ambush more as they came past. This they duly did, with one powerful skeleton surrounded by lesser types, the gnolls hanging back to snipe. Again Fluxx unleashed his cloud of daggers and the fury of Corellon, but the skeletons barely noticed it on this occasion. But Klondike and Kuki unleashed a series of brutal attacks on the lead skeleton, and as the shards of bone flying round destroyed its own followers as well as inflicting grievous wounds on the party, they destroyed it in short order. Dumpling and Klondike moved in on a gnoll archer, taking it down, but the other fled back up the canyon. So swift was it that only Kuki had a chance of catching it. Kuki gave chase and the pair soon disappeared from sight. But Klondike rounded a bend in the streambed to find Kuki standing over the fallen gnoll, its windpipe in his jaws. To add to this victory, the party recovered an amulet to fortify the wearer, which Kravis took as his due.

Eventually the walls of the gorge dropped away and the group found themselves on a desolate plain, across which swirled dust devils and a foul stench. Dotted about were strange, man-sized dark purple crystals but otherwise there was no sign of life, animal or plant - just shifting sand and scoured rock. Fluxx examined the crystals and asked Klondike to obtain a sample. Klondike chopped with his axe and knocked of a chip, but also was hit by a necrotic backlash and received a minor injury. Fluxx theorised that the crystals might be the remains of plants, struck and transformed by whatever magics the Five had unleashed in destroying the Emperor's army, and that they might be converting the desert sun into necromantic energy. He further surmised that the crystals might be perpetuating the Bonefields as a region of undead activity by providing a constant influx of necromantic power.

While such studies were doubtless fascinating, the party still had a job to do. The range hills described indeed squatted across the plain to the east, and they trudged off in that direction. With the featureless plain offering few clues by which to judge distance, what looked like a march of a few hours to the hills eventually required an overnight stop in the crystal field. The party set camp, lit a small fire and Dumpling rustled up some victuals. They set watch and settled back. The plain was a eerie place at night - the wind howled and the crystals gently sang, while seeming half-heard whispers at the edge of hearing murmured softly. The sky was bright with stars and a half-moon, and a thin rime of frost coated the rocks. But soon more urgent whispers made themselved heard and trudging across the sand came a troop of spectral soldiers, drawn by the life forces so rarely present here. The group attempted a half-hearted parley but the outcome was never really in doubt, as the translucent warriors surged forward, maddened at the intrusion. Their leader, dressed in the uniform of a Hashputene officer, surrounding himself with a deranging aura of horror that infested the brain with insane and deathly impulses, plunged into the fray with his men. He reached out and with a touch inflicted a momentary madness upon Kravis, forcing him to attack (but fortunately miss) Klondike. But the miasma of madness was broken as Fluxx smote him with the radiant power of Corellon, and the rage of the Raven Queen further harried them as Kravis' axe hacked into their insubstantial bodies. The officer was swiftly put to rest and slowly the fight turned the way of the party, holy power against deathless abomination. Finally the last soldier gave a banshee shriek as he attenuated into scraps of ectoplasm and vanished, and the party were alone one more on the plain.

Unsettled but determined, they settled down once more for the next day's assault on Bloodstone Rock.

Part Six by Mark, Klondike's player.

After a disturbing night fending off more undead – or was that more indigestion from Dumplings cooking - we set off once more towards our destination. Once more bolstered by Fluxx’s heat enduring spell, we had a scare at one point it – the hills seemed as if they were moving towards us but it turned out to be an optical illusion. /Phew

We spotted numerous dust devils swirling around across the landscape as we continued towards our goal. Whilst marvelling at our surroundings we once again almost failed to notice the threat when 3 whirling and swirling masses of sand, bone and rock attacked us. They turned out to be mighty quick and before we knew it they had charged into us and knocked some of the party many feet away leaving them prone on the ground.

After the initial shock we regained our footing and initially opened up from range and melee.

Klondike hit two with the flaming burst from his bow, Kravis through his Javelin. It was at this point that Fluxx discovered whilst trying to grant Dumpling Combat Advantage that standing close to them left you blind and confused. Ummm this wasn’t going to be easy. In true style we then spit the DPS as we tried to dispatch the enemy. Klondike and Kuki engaged with one enemy at close range and proceeded to activate his strongest powers to dispatch it quickly. Kravis meet with one in a successful attempt to show it who was boss. Fluxx and Dumpling engaged the other culminating in a manifestation of Fluxx’s mighty power as one of the undead air monsters briefly fled the combat. Klondike received a mighty push and landed many feet away not getting up. Kuki bravely carrying on the attack. Eventually the monsters went down one by one as the radiant damage from Kravis and Fluxx seemed the most effective. Fluxx once more demonstrated an awesome amount of healing power as the party recovered from the ordeal.

As we neared what we believed to be our objective we spotted a number of Gnolls with Hyenas guarding a cave entrance. We crept closure and managed to surprise attack them. We had prepared ourselves for a coordinated assault which although initially successful with Dumpling almost single handedly downing the first Gnoll. Klondike partially surrounded received a number of close hits and went down under the onslaught. Kravis engaged the closest Gnoll whilst Dumpling and Fluxx engaged the Hyenas, the remaining Gnoll went to range to use his bow on us. Fluxx used abilities to there full and managed to partially heal Klondike so that he could return to the combat. Kravis’s Gnoll and one of the Hyena’s were dispatched with ease but the remaining Gnoll archer tried to make a run for it into the cave. Unfortunately for it Kravis and Fluxx were quicker as they blocked its path. Subsequently surrounded by the remaining party members it was easily dealt with. The remaining Hyena fled. Once again Fluxx called on awesome healing powers to restore the parties health.

Dumpling and Klondike crept into the cave, one moving quieter than a mouse. Across a bridge they spotted a cluster of Skeltons, a powerful looking Gnoll and what we shall call ‘The Lich King’. Spotted they quickly withdrew back to the entrance to await the attack. After a few minutes of nothing but the rumbling of some like clouds we decided to take the fight to them. We entered the cave and found two of the Skeletons blocking the bridge. A quick shot of the flaming bow dispatched them. Kravis engaged the Gnoll who was standing in the middle of the bridge. The Gnoll tried to push Kravis off the bridge into a mist cavern below. But Kravis was like a block of granite. Dumpling and Fluxx momentarily stayed at distance whilst Klondike and Kuki joined Kravis on the bridge fighting the Gnoll. The remaining Skeleton’s shot bow’s and then blocked the exit from the bridge. The Lich king used a wand to attack and weaken the party. Dumpling and Fluxx both used minor but effective AOE to clear the Skeletons from the bridge end before engaging with the Lich King. Fluxx invoked the power of the Gods and caused the Lich King to flee over the cavern edge whilst we despatched the Gnoll, although he did try and push more of the party over the edge. /Cheer

We looked over the edge searching for signs of the King. Fluxx heard climbing noises but instead of the King more undead was climbing out of the mist from below. With Fluxx, Klondike and Kuki forming an impenetrable wall Dumpling and Kravis manoeuvred for position. We engaged and dispatched the majority of the climbing undead as the King rose from the mist. Fluxx manoeuvred to allow Kravis a prime King bashing position. The King knowing that he had met his match unleashed a stunning force affecting the complete front rank of the party, then moved to a central position in the combat. Unfortunately the party were unable to resist its effect until Fluxx used an ability to enable Kravis a second chance at resisting it effect. Those of the party who were able to, attacked the King at close range. The quick thinking Fluxx who by now was basking in the knowledge that they were a master of their arts utilised an ability granting Klondike also a second chance at resisting the stunning effect. Thankfully Klondike (and may he forever bow down at the magnificentness of Fluxx) resisted and quickly dispatched the Lich King. /Victory

We searched for treasure and were somewhat rewarded /Sigh. Hopefully that will be the end of the undead menace and vengeance for the deaths at the fort.

Part Seven, by me.

The party emerged triumphant from the cave, having smote the gnoll witch doctor and the undead king. Their journey back to the fortress was uneventful and, after a few days, they returned. After resting up and receiving their richly deserved reward, they hired horses and set off down the City Way for the City of the Five to conclude their business with Regent Clargius.

After a journey of two days and one night, the group finally arrived at the City. It sat on a high hill or mesa above the northern extremity of the Salt Rift, the sun shining off the golden cupolas of the Temple of the Five, a huge palace complex. The architecture was mostly composed of rounded, circular buildings with few straight lines in evidence. Apart from the temple, most of the common folk were living in modest farmsteads dotted closely across the mesa and clustered around a central lake, and entry to the city was by a well-defended, narrow road that wound up the side of the hill the the city proper.

The City guards were fairly cold with "heathen outsiders", although a caravanserai and inn near the entrance to the proved more welcoming. The locals seemd healthy and well-fed, but hardly rich, and they seemed to share an insular attitude that didn't welcome strangers. The party stabled their beasts and headed off in search of Regent Clargius, the nearby guards grudgingly pointing the way to the Temple.

The Temple itself was magnificent and huge, a series of building occupying the whole of the southern portion of the City. Temple guards in magnificent golden armour stood impassively by the gates, beyond which lay extensive gardens. A few more enquiries led to Regent Clargius being found in the Temple Library, where they were greeted by one of the librarians, Julian. Once the party explained why they had come, he led them to the Regent.

Clargius (and Julian) seemed much more friendly than the other locals that had been met so far. When Fluxx explained about finding the kruthik apparatus, he became quite intrigued and gladly took up Fluxx's offer to assist in researching the item, meanwhile offering the rest of the party a place to stay in the Temple guest quarters. There they rested for a week or so, until they received a summons to see the High Priest of the Five. Word of their derring-do to defeat the undead menace had spread and the High Priest wished to meet them.

Meanwhile, two other pieces of important news came to the party's ears. Firstly, Orris Gar and his cronies were also in the City, having taken the patronage of Regent Sartorius, in charge of the residuum mines. The other was that Dumpling's cousin, Pudding, had been resident in the City. However, he had been arrested for stealing (surely not!) and sentenced to the self-same residuum mines in the Great Salt Rift.

Before the audience, Dumpling did some research and discovered that the High Priest was very fond of walnut cake, so she whipped one up as a present beforehand. They then entered the presence of his Holiness only to find Orris Gar and his crew present as well - apparently, their actions to fight off the undead at the fort had also been recognised. The High Priest himself was a very elderly man, somewhat hard of hearing and seemingly semi-senile. Dumpling presented her cake and, after it was tested by a guard, he happily tucked in while the audience unfolded around him. A court official asked Fluxx to explain their role, which he did at some length. Then Gar began to speak, downplaying the party's role and magnifying their own exploits. The mood quickly turned ugly, insults were exchanged, and then suddenly Skullface, Gar's dragonborn henchman, grabbed for his weapon. He barely lived to draw it - Klondike and Kuki killed him in seconds - and the audience chamber erupted in uproar. Before things degenerated too far, the High Priest pounded the floor with his magic staff, and everyone was thrown flat by the impact.

"Be quiet," he said, "I'm eating my cake."

The party were bundled out of the chamber, and for a moment things could have turned grim. However, as Skullface drew first, he was seen to provoke the attack that killed him. Nevertheless, both Gar and his cronies and the party were expelled from the Temple. Gar's crew disappeared, but the party took up residence in the inn at the caravanserai. Clargius expressed a certain degree of regret that Fluxx could no longer assist him in researching the kruthik device, but nevertheless he felt they were near a breakthrough and would be in contact in probably the next week or two to take the research to the next step. Meanwhile...

While the party cooled their heels and waited for Clargius, a singular event occurred. Four huge winged beasts appeared, heading in from the west of the City. These resolved into three gigantic wyverns, piloted by hobgoblins and carrying gigantic armoured trolls, and a black dragon with a single rider. In formation they landed by the lake at the centre of the City. A crowd gathered, swiftly joined by a troop of Temple guards. It turned out that the rider of the dragon was a human, dressed oppulently and wearing a truly huge hat with a long exotic feather. The trolls formed his honour guard, the motif on their shields being a tower composed of riveted plates like those held by the hobgoblins in the kruthik cave. The black dragon also looked familiar, even sporting scars in places where the the party had hit the one they encountered previously. The human declared to the guards that he brought greeting from "the Lord of the Iron Tower" - an individual no one had heard of - and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, they were led off to the Temple.

At the same time, Dumpling traced her cousin to the South Mining Camp, about a day's travel from the city into the Rift. She discovered that she could buy Pudding's freedom from the camp commandant. The party then headed down there where, after a desultory attempt to haggle the price, the captain seemed almost glad to be rid of his halfling worker ("Never stops talking about food..."). There was a problem - Pudding and four other slaves had been kidnapped by dragonborn raiders and carried off, probably for sacrifice.

The party set off in pursuit, following the trail round the rift to the dragonborn camp. After a quick recce, the place seemed deserted, expecpt for a halfling tied across a rock and the other disspirited slaves slaves huddled together amonst the scrub. It screamed an ambush, but Kravis decided he would trigger the trap and flush out the raiders. This he duly did, and six dragonborn emerged from hiding to attack, including a lightning-toting shaman and a mighty tribal champion. Battle was joined, and while the group managed to down several of their foes they failed at first to attack the shaman, who blasted then repeatedly with elemental power. They swiftly ran low on Fluxx's healing power, and as the party members began to fall to their wounds heroic efforts were made to revive them and bring them back to the fight. But despite all this, in the end the party could not prevail, even once the shaman was killed by Klondike and Dumpling. In the end they were forced to flee, leaving an unconscious Fluxx and Kravis.

The dragonborn buried their dead and revived the two heroes who remained in their midst. They then continued their march around the rift, heading for one of their villages, all the time shadowed by Dumpling and Klondike. Fluxx was able to use his eldrin fey power to teleport to safety and hide, leaving only Kravis in their clutches. But they could not wrest him from them before the dragonborn reached their destination and the stockade gate closed behind them, trapping Kravis, Pudding and the slaves inside to possibly grisly fate.

Part 8, by Matty - who rose from his death bed after a chest infection that hospitalised him to write this.

We had to come up with plan and me being the only one with vastly superior brain decided to move us to the cliff behind the stockade, which overlooked the compound.

After observing the place for a some time we determined that the prisoners where being held in a major hut which backed onto the cliff we were on, also that it covered a cave entrance into the cliff side.

Looking down onto the top of hut we saw a possible way in through the chimney, I immediately suggested we let Dumps climb down a rope into the hut, and I would cast my very important silence spell.

We did this and managed to get all of us inside safety, but unfortunately Dumps left the rope in place, which alerted the Warlord and his Dragborn as we started to escape with the prisoners and another annoying hobbit called Pudding.

Facing most of the encampment our fate was surely sealed but the Dragon born still had some honour left and challenged us to a duel to settle the affair.

We clashed with the warlord and his cronies, we were a lot more prepared than the last time and knew there tactics, we use the large camp fire to shield our flank and concentrated our damage on the shaman to start with. Klondike fought very well and was very brave fighting at the front. Kravis also did well in pinning down the Warlord, but none of them would have survived with out expert healing skills of a master cleric, if only they knew how lucky they are to have them travel with me. Anyhow pudding showed Dumps how to kill things and we slowing despatch the dragon born one by one. After the Warlord went down and victory was ours they were true to there word and let us go.

We returned the prisoners and Pudding to the camp commandant at the South Mining Camp, about a day's travel from the city into the Rift, and Dumps brought Pudding's freedom.

We returned to Clargius at the city of the five, who had more information about the kruthik apparatus. He said a man, Charikhand the Sage, who lives over the mountains to the north could help us, and gave me a letter of introduction.

We managed to take normal transport to the town Qom before the mountain range, after that we had to ride; we decide to travel with one of the many caravans, which travelled over the mountains.

The journey was uneventful until we came across a band of raiding orcs, they also had a shaman and Orc warlord, it was a tough fight and it went down to the wire, but again my healing was amazing and kept everyone going, have I mentioned how lucky they are to have me…….

Part 9, by Tim, Dumpling's character

The Tale of Fluxies' Fluffers

After we had got rid of some nasty evil orcs, we continued our canter along the path through the woods until we came to some deserted farm houses. It looked like the farmers had left quickly and then raided by nasty evil orcs. They hadn’t left us a bite to eat, evil scum. So we made do with our carried supplies, painful I say.

Klondyke noticed some smoke in the distance and the thought of barbequed ribs and chicken was too much. I galloped my pony ahead only to see a tavern being burnt by evil orcs. We could hear screaming from inside. Fate smiled upon us since the Orcs were using a big hog to attack the farmers. The rest of the party knew what delights I could conjure up with a hog roast so they all blasted it until it was no more. Unfortunately the Orcs were not happy with us killing their hog so they left the farmers alone and charged at us. Klondyke stood his ground and let fly with loads of arrows. The surprisingly brave Flux stood at the front and distracted the Orcs whilst I snook out of the trees and poked their soft parts with my cooking knife.

We had saved the farmers, but more importantly we went back to the farm house and spent a while hog feasting…. hmm yum aaahh burp.
The farmers told us of a Durg Scarface big orc bloke who was leading his Gouger tribe to kill all the farmers. A General Supermaniac (that's actually General Subramanian - the DM) from the Army of Avadi was supposedly going to fight him. Flux decided we should go and see him to find some Charikhand Sage bloke and some apparatus thingy. He does go on a bit about these things, but what surprises me is that you can’t even cook anything with the apparatus.

The General was pleased to see us and following a delightful Lamb Korma, Flux negotiated hard to achieve a great deal whereby we would sneak into the Orc fort of a thousand evil orcs…..sneak along a stinky sewer……kill the big Orc……sneak out again without getting caught and get a reward of an unknown quantity.

Ah well, the sun was shining, my belly was momentarily full and there was a slight glimmer of chance that the big Orc had a better food store than we had.

After a brief encounter with an orc patrol, into the sewers we went. Dark, dingy, smelly, cold, just like where I used to live when I was young, before I tasted sunlight, pig, cow, sheep, bread, potatoes, carrots…………….. AAAggh. I had been so engrossed in the delights of food that I failed to see an Otyugh burst from the sludge in front of me. My brave comrades rushed to my aid, despatching the Otyuch and two rather unpleasant carrion crawlers. Flux was on form and with all of his healing it felt like he was cushioning our world in a big healing duvet. And I was lucky enough to find a stone dog. It was great, I could summon it up, it would protect me and best of all, it didn’t want feeding. More scraps for me. Life was good, but I was beginning to feel hungry again. Gaps between meals is not something to be encouraged too readily.

It wasn’t long before we left the sewers and entered the fort's back passage.

We found an Orc Shaman and two huge Ogres in a nearby room, clearly protecting a banquet table. Klondyke and me ran out at the Shaman but our volley of blows was not enough to kill him. Fortunately our leader Flux blasted him with a green ray and he dropped to the floor. The Ogres attacked us. My doggy Spot (the Onyx Dog) took a few chunks out of an Ogre and before long it was dead. “Angry Smash” grunted the other Ogre as it gave the floor an almighty bash. It wasn’t long before he was down. I was not surprised that the banquet table contained no treasure for hobbit consumption.

We continued to sneak around the fort until we found a large room with a sleeping Owlbear, a big Orc and some guards. Sneak was still an option until Cookie got under Klondyke’s feet. The guards were despatched quickly but the Owlbear was a formidable opponent. He downed Klondyke with 2 blows from his wings and an almighty peck. Flux was on excellent healing form but then said he got constipated on the ground. Poor Flux. Spot drew some deserving attention after he bit the Owlbear’s butt and soon disappeared. Eventually Flux sorted himself out and finished off the Owlbear. The big Orc had joined the fight but appeared tired, so we all gathered around him quickly and let him have a very long rest.

I was thinking of absent comrades (Kravis the Executioner) whilst standing over the big Orc and suddenly found myself with the head of the Orc in hand. Ah well, into the sack it went.

Boo hoo, it was horrible. Not an edible morsel in sight. It was time we left this hell hole and returned to see the General. Perhaps he had managed to rustle up some decent food whilst we had been away. A stewed rabbit or two, freshly carved venison, a pot of vegetables, some mulled wine………ooooh fooooooood.

Parts 10 and 11, by me.

The party returned to the camp bearing the head of the slain orc leader. General Subramanian was suitably impressed. The power of the orcs was severely weakened but, alas, not yet broken. He still had two final tasks for the group to perform in the forthcoming battle. Firstly, he needed the group to knock out the siege weapons of the orc army, and then eliminate the shamans to whom control of the orc horde had passed following the termination of their chief. The party were more than ready to help, though the issue of reward was discreetly raised. General Subramanian confirmed that they would earn the gratitude of the Avadi League, which was comforting (if somewhat vague).

However, the party found a new member, Quinn the mercenary fighter, a master of the hammer and shield. Introduced by the General, he joined forces with the group to replace Kravis, now he was back at executioner school.

So the next morning, as the army of the Avadi League met the main force of the orc invasion, the party were creeping through the woodlands heading for the hill from which the orcs were raining alchemical death by catapult. After a brief skirmish with some patrol, the group emerged above the orc artillery and proceeded to ambush them from cover. Though the orcs, including fume-maddened alchemists toting fire bombs, rushed them, the party overwhelmed them with relative ease, hewing the hapless porkers to the ground. The shamans then emerged, just as the fight was ending. Their guards, including two ogres, charged into the fray before the group could fully get their breath back. But even these assailants were no match for the group, now enhanced with the armour, shield and hammer of Quinn. Soon the orcish high command were slain, their deadly hail of missiles halted, and the soldiers of the Avadi League overwhelmed and scatters the horde.

Amid much rejoicing, General Subramanian was hailed the hero and liberator of Varata. Both the baron of Varata and Charikhand the sage were rescued and rebuilding of the town commenced at once. However, the party were not forgotten and they received magical items of puissance in thanks for the small part they played in saving the town and its ruler.

However, it was Charikhand that the party had really come to see. A few days later they showed him the letter of introduction from Clargius, asking for help in tracking down more details of the kruthik apparatus. Charikhand was able to remember a reference to a certain Droskar Ironhand, a dwarven sage of the previous century who encouraged the then-Hashputene Emperor to attack the City of the Five, claiming secret knowledge of the Five that would guarantee success. Fluxx had a vague recollection of him as possibly being connected with the cult of Vecna. However, Charikhand decided that the best way to find out would be to summon Ironhand’s shade and question it directly. However, in order to carry that out, he needed twilight berries, a magical fruit that grows where the Feywild touches the mundane earth. He asked the party to gather some, from the Vale of Flowers, a nearby region in which the fey were known to congregate.

The party set off the next day and, with uncharacteristic swiftness, managed to find some berries by a woodland pool. However, bathing in the pool was a beautiful nymph who, despite Fluxx’s most urgent flattery, would not yield her berries. Eventually she tired of his attention sna d, suspicious of his motives, attacked the party. While she attacked with magical frost and baleful green bolts, a shambing plant monster emerged from the pool and attacked with grasping tentacles. However, it didn’t last long and soon resembled a salad as the party concentrated their ire upon it. Then, the shambler dealt with, Klondike struck the nymph two mighty blow, which felt more like chopping wood than hitting flesh. The dryad beat a hasty retreat and decided to leave the berries to the party. They collected these, with enough left over after the amount needed for the ritual for Dumpling to make a magical flan of healing.

Back of Charikhand’s abode, they headed for the summoning chamber. There Charikhand completed the ritual and Ironhand’s spirit. However, all it uttered in response to Fluxx’s questioning was, “The Lord of Secrets holds me captive in the Black Library of Katheer. Free me and I will tell you all I know.” Then it faded, and emerging from the shadows came four grim figures – two dark reapers, a skeletal figure weaving bolts of force and a giant hound. Their leader uttered, “You trespass upon our Lord’s domain. It shall not stand!” as they attacked.

The reapers slashed with their scythes before flickering in and out of phase with the world, reducing the damage they received, as their leader hurled the party about with his silvery bolts. The dog chewed and slavered at its victims, but fortunately it was unable to deal much damage. As Charikhand left hurriedly the party fought back, with initial disarray but then with increasing confidence. One of the reaper’s fell, and then the bolt-throwing leader. Finally the second reaper fell and the hound was finally despatched to the hell from which it had emerged. Charikhand then returned to discuss the enigmatic comments of Droskar’s shade.

It turned out that the Black Library of Katheer was a notorious repository of forbidden lore in the capital of the old Empire, Hashput, and thought by some to be a hidden temple of Vecna. Since fallen to ruin, the city was now fought over by at least three factions: a secretive group of scholars, a vampire cult and a save tribe of shape-shifting orcs, although a town nearby also existed to service the adventurters who often sought ancient relics in the city. It would be a long journey – over a thousand miles.

The party made extensive preparations, with Fluxx learning a number of rituals to stave off the effects of disease and climate. He also found a portal that would make the journey much swifter. The others purchased valuable equipment for the journey. It was a tough and harrowing slog, with the party having to surrender bail to escape jail at one point, losing a healing potion each to the rigours of the journey, and being exposed to blinding sickness. However, after weeks of travel they had the village outside Hashput in sight, just as the sun was going down. But the howls of savage beasts surrounded them – the shape-shifters had picked up their scent….

The Diary of Quinn the Mercenary, by the Other Matt.

By all accounts I should sleep well tonight, my body aches from battle and my feet are sore from travelling but death almost found me today and it leaves me unsettled and unable to rest...oh and the taste of flan, that taste will haunt me.

The day started as usual with Dumpling announcing breakfast with her usual vigor.  The halflings high spirits, even after all this time are remarkable.  As is her ability to produce food even given the scarcity of raw ingredients.  Something I try not to think about to much.

We set off early.  Our leader Fluxx announced we should make the village outside Hashput before night fall.  The thought of a good nights sleep in a tavern was reason enough for us to quicken pace.

After an uneventful day of travelling we made it to the outskirts of the village.  The sun had set and the air was still and felt unwelcoming.  Unfortunately it was more than just the air that was unwelcoming, we were about to become the prey of a group of foul creatures of the night. Up ahead, I saw a group boar-like beasts, something was unusual about them.  Still we had fought bigger, tougher looking foes in the past with ease, there was no reason why this group should cause us issue. It's probably a good thing I hadn't seen two groups hiding by the road side, otherwise my moral might not of been so high.

Klondike, who was leading the way, charged the group and attacked with brutal severity.  Dumpling, Fluxx and I were about to follow Klondike's lead when three more beasts attacked us slowing our assault.  The numbers were growing but still I was confident I could hold these three at bay whilst Dumpling and Fluxx assisted Klondike with the main group.  I made a clean slice at the first of the three giving Fluxx a chance to break away from this group.  I had lost track of where the halfling had gone, remarkable given her proportions.

All of a sudden I was alone with the three beasts surrounding me.  In moments like these time passes slowly, it's something I've witnessed to many times before.  I knew I had to buy time so I assumed a defence posture and used my shield to keep them at bay.  For a time things went well and slowly I edged towards my party.  The three beasts started to look weak and one was clearly bleeding heavily.  It's in this moment my fortunes turned for the worse.  The bleeding beast shape shifted into a fearsome boar and with renewed energy all three attacked me with vicious blows.  Time passed much quicker now.  The last time I had been faced by overwhelming odds I had manged to flee, this time such a cowardly escape was not possible.  I was knocked to the floor, with my vision failing and the enraged beasts primed to finish their work my mind slipped into a spiral of visions, this could not end well...

The next thing I remember is an intense fruity sensation followed by the buttery taste of pastry.  Was I in heaven?  Would heaven taste of blackberry?  I then inhaled deeply and panicked as this life giving dessert started to suffocate me.  Fortunately this passed and the warmth that can only come from Fluxx's healing power filled my body. I watched as the party swiftly defeated the evil shape-shifting creatures.

My vision was still blurred and for a while I thought death was still haunting me.  This turned out not to be the case.  Our party had grown in the combat and Kravis the Paladin had rejoined the group, good timing too.  I was a little concerned that this Paladin is to replace me in the group and that my services would no longer be required.  I had failed in my role during the battle and this Paladin looked like
someone not to be messed with.

Klondike gathered some trophies of our conquest but unfortunately even after an extensive examination of all of the bodies he could find no treasure. We travelled to the village gates and with Fluxx's usual charisma we were allowed to enter with only a minimum of fuss.  Now my thoughts were firmly on finding a tavern and some ale but Fluxx had other ideas.  There was a cleric in the village, an old man who could help with our quest.  Well that's what Fluxx told me and who am I to argue?

We travelled to the temple and were greeted by a young woman.  Fluxx talked to her and explained that we needed to speak with the old man. She seemed unwilling to let us enter the temple or even wake the old man.  Fluxx grew tired of her excuses and demanded that he speak with the cleric.  The cleric appeared but did not seem amused.  From what I could make out the conversation did not go well.  Kravis was becoming weary of all the talk.  The old man ended the conversation and we were left with little new information.

The Tavern beckoned and with great relief we found lodgings there for the night.  By some strange twist of fate Dumpling met a member of her family working as a cook at the tavern.  She seems to be having a great time discussing recipes.

I sit here now with Klondike snoring away in the bed next to me, unable to sleep and the days events repeating over and over in my mind.  Maybe I should go and join Dumpling...

----------------------------------

Today was an improvement on the last.  I did manage to get to sleep last night and today I felt stronger.   I even managed to develop a new way of defending which will hopefully help in not repeating yesterdays failure.  Maybe that Flan had more than blackberries in it.

The day started with Fluxx gathering information for us.  I'm not entirely sure of the details of the conversations.  I do know I didn't enjoy having to shake the hand of a rather dubious looking scholar. The upshot of all the talking is that we were tasked with a quest.  We were to take a rubbing of an ancient artifact which was in a nasty area of swamp guarded no doubt by something foul.

After a short journey out of village we arrived at the swamp.  A number of pools of water blocked our route.

Using a combination of tracking and magic to traverse the water we quickly made our way to the ancient artifact.  We spread out to guard Fluxx whilst he began making a rubbing of the artifact.

I don't know if it was the sound of Fluxx muttering to himself whilst he worked or the clinking of heavy armour but something began stirring in the water below.

Three massive crab monsters emerged from the waters around us.

We worked as a team and engaged the first of the Crab Beast.

Klondike attacked the second with vicious blows.

Flux broke from documenting the artifact to assist in the battle. Using impressive magical mastery he blasted the third of the crab beasts.

We quickly felled all three of the crab beasts.  My new Paladin friend fought well and defended with well practised mastery.  Maybe there's room in the group for us both...

Part 13, by Matty, written from the point of view of one of the campaign NPCs.

THE LEAGUE OF SILVER
A strange band of Hinterland Southerners entered the village a few days ago, late at night. Hashput will probably not be the same again. Their leader, an arrogant Eladrin demanded to see Seth and wanted succour without even a please - I basically slammed the door in his face, so they sloped off towards the Empires End Inn. If I haven’t got enough to worry about is a bunch of Southern softies looking for treasure amongst the ruins. They looked like they’d gone through a rough time of it to get here, though. Maybe one of the roving shape-shifting orc war bands - I need to do something about that menace, we need to make Hashput a good place to live again.

Apparently one of them has a relation in the inn, another little hobbit, which I’ll have to keep an eye on, they can get themselves in all kinds of trouble.

I’ve found the name of the group from the inn keeper they’ll called Flux’s Fluffers, and they’ve made contact with ‘The Scholars’ in the form of Vilus - not a good move on their part, I think.

They headed off into the swamp maybe some errand for the Vilus (I spit when I write this). They returned with something for the Scholar leader but I could not see from my vantage point. They talked for a while but all I managed to hear was “key to the library” - I wonder if they mean the gem key I have.

They eventually came back to us at the Temple of the Sun (a little more courteous this time) and Seth decided to talk to them I stayed in the background, I wasn’t sure these folk should be trusted. Their goal was to enter the Black Library of Katheer and free a dwarf from the Lord of Secrets, Vecna. Apparently he had knowledge of some Kruthik apparatus (whatever that is - I’ve never heard of it). Maybe we can use these fellows in solving this region’s problem.

We told them of the Duke and the sect of vampires that live in the Library and if we could disrupt the flow of food (namely slaves) then it would weaken the Duke. We offered to help them by introducing them to the ‘Dragon’ and acquiring the key, which apparently I have. (Note to self: check back of cave for Gem key must be there somewhere.) If they could help us destroy Jerrek the slavers operations….

We told them of a slave caravan heading this way to the slaver Jerrek and if they could stop the caravan and bring the slaves to us in the hills they could disguise themselves as slavers and break into the compound and kill Jerrek. They agreed and set off into the woods to lay ambush to the caravan.

They returned to us later that day with the slaves in tow - a successful ambush had been instigated at the bridge. They even bragged about how many each attacking group killed it must have been a slaughter.

We helped them get into slaver disguises and told them where the slaver compound was. They managed to bluff there way into the front door and attack the main building where Jerrek was. He was a slippery customer and rogue style bobbed and weaved but this efficient band who looked like they had done this many times before cut the slavers down and returned to us in the hills with Jerrek’s head.

I revealed myself to them on there return showing I was the leader of the League of Silver and in fact the Dragon. I handed over the key and wished them luck against the Vampires

Part 14 by Mark, Klondike's player.

We returned to Vilus after our meeting with the Dragon, to be given information on a long forgotten entrance to the library. He seemed quite pleased that we had found a key. We all thought that he wasn’t telling us everything and we became very suspicious as to why he wanted to get a look within the library. Only after we left did we realise that he had a symbol of Vecna hidden under his clothes. We pondered whether to return and deal with him or go straight to the library.

Personally I thought we’d bump into him soon enough and we all agreed to visit the library first.

We found the hidden entrance and proceeded down a long dark passage, luckily we had remembered Sunrods.

With Dumpling (aka Muffin) leading the way we discovered our first room. Dumpling snook in and was unfortunately surprised by the occupants – there were three four armed skeleton warriors and a 3 headed lich-looking mage.

The Dumpster went down in a hail of blows - Oh dear we thought, not a good start. Whilst we pondered our approach, Fluffer (aka Fluxx) directed us forward to help little Dumpy.

We battled the Skeleton warriors in close combat whilst Fluffy’s mighty healing fixed the broken Halfling. The 3 headed mage attacked us with spells from range. Fluxter’s heroic turning pushed the Skeleton Warriors away enabling us to take the fight to them on our own terms.

Quimm (aka (Quinn) and Crevace (aka Kravis) tried to pin the Skeletons to the wall but we were struggling to hit these monsters and the fight seemed to be costing us dearly in encounter and daily powers. I went down but was revived by the our own little healing god. Eventually we slew one of the Skeleton Warriors and the fight began to turn our way.

A few of us broke of to tackle the mage and soon victory was ours.

Having worn ourselves down in the fight we decided to rest and recuperate. Once refreshed we continued on our quest.

Now this is where I suspected that something was wrong with the Dumpling. We entered a large cavernous area full of mushrooms. Firstly she said she wasn’t hungry and she was on a diet - OMG. Well after I’d picked us up from the floor I knew something wasn’t right. Maybe the Dumplard had been replaced by a doppelganger or Fluxx’s mighty over-healing had really fixed the broken Halfling. I decided to keep my eye on her.

We proceeded through the mushrooms but were attacked by Vampires rising from the earth. They were like a swarm of bees, swarming around us and feeding on the party to replenish healing lost in combat. After much effort we dispatched them but the whole experience was a little scary.

We skilfully negotiated the maze of rooms and tunnels using our adventuring skills until we spotted another group of creatures. We had entered a pillared room and tried to hide as the group entered the room from another exit.

Most of us managed to hide but Fluxx our self-proclaimed leader decided to make himself known so that he could challenge the group – NOT. The group comprised another human-looking mage, three Mummy’s and a large unknown creature.

Fluxx cast an illusionary fireball in their midst to get their attention. This worked very well as two of the Mummy’s and the large creature moved toward him. The rest of the party intercepted those three monsters to save the Fluffster. Crevace received a mighty blow from the large creature which made him focus what was left of his mind.

Now keeping my eye on the Dumpster I realised that is wasn’t the same Halfling. There had been no mention of food or relatives for days – thank god. She was entering combat quickly and yes, actually doing some decent damage. Well, I have decided not to alert anyone else to my suspicions as this Rogue Halfling is much better than the old one we used to have – I shall refer to the new party member as Muffin from now on. As long as she isn’t Evil then as far as I am concerned, it’s a result. I feel much less pressure to compensate for the previous Rogues poor dps.

With the defenders holding the original three attacking monsters the rest of us moved to attack the mage and after a brief struggle were victorious, although not without extensive use of powers.

We searched for treasure and were rewarded with a few items and an important letter. From what I could gather from Fluxx’s reading, we are responsible for disrupting Evils plans and must now be stopped. I’m sure someone will explain it in the near future.

Klondike