simon dumais's page

I'm the DM of this overly long campaign. We started playing more than a year ago with first level elves. They are now 12th level and they just exited a mysterious prison who travels backward through time. After freeing one of the 800 most dangerous demon on their world, they encountered a Marut inevitable waiting for them. "You messed with the time-space continuum and you must face the justice of Mechanus." Fortunately for them, the inevitable was waiting for Cerval's father; Futor Branchkikrak upon his sortie of the tomb. As a punishment, they were sent 6 months in the past. At this time they were fledging adventurers on a quest/trap for an archmage of Néyicitte. 3 months before the terrible orc invasion, this will give them time to change some unfortunate events that took place:

-Take revenge upon the Archmage traitor: Edilbo McCallister
-Stop as much slavecart filled with elves that the orcs will gather on the eve of the new Tarmon'Gaidon.
-Retrieve Jorinne Liliandrin D'Ghallanda, promise of the Bard Soulglow after he gave a jeweled MW2 rapier to the young king/puppet of the elven kingdom.

Over the time i have run an all dwarf campaign that was a real success. I'm presently dming an all elf spellcasting campaign. No martial classes were authorized on character creation. They are now level 13th and many of my players tells me it's the best campaign i've runned. Of course the challenge are different from a group with paladins, rangers, fighters and monks but at 13th level, they can handle much more difficult challenges with their powerful magics. The first adventures were role-playing encounters and problem-solving more than combat. Instead of just wizards, i allowed every spellcasting classes and none of the martial ones. Here's the party composition:

-elven Druid lvl13
-elven conjurer lvl12/archmage lvl1
-elven cleric lvl3/wizard lvl3/ mysthic theurge lvl 7
-elven bard lvl13
-elven cleric lvl 9/ hospitalier 4
-human barbarian lvl1/ rogue lvl3/ cleric lvl 8

The last one is a player who got killed 7 times and plays a new character again...sigh!

A special thanks to orc.ca for awesome reference, classes and weapons for orcs.

Three zombies, including a little girl charge the Paladin of Corelon and all miss him or break some nails on his halfplate armor. Charles swings at the first one, being ready for them, then cuts through it with is second thrust. He finally cleaves through another one, sending dead flesh everywhere while singing a prayer for the fallen. The last zombie charges Jhul who is occupied with lever, attacking him from behind. But few can surprise the exeptionally aware Aasimar, He deftly dodges to the side and rolls a few feet away. The rest of the party enters the room aand attack the zombie near them. He's impervious to the arrows of Akila and Edouard, but the sword of Anatole and the flames of Lucien make quick work of him. Everybody swarm the last zombies who fall in one round, leaving them longing for vengeance against the shaman who created such abberations. They quickly starts to loot the room and search for clues of what happenend here. Lucien goes up the stairs to check on the women and his wolf and returns with the prisoner. As Edouard Looks into every nooks and crany to find something of value, Jhul and Charles bind the orc under the cage with their sets of MW manacles. They raise him up until his toes touch the crimson pool. As he opens his eyes with growing fear, Jhul tells him that the interrogation will begin for real. Edouard and Lucien find the following:

-In a secret compartment on the throne is a journal accounting the quantity and quality of souls sent to Acererak, lord of the whriting rotting flesh(as nothing to do with tomb of horrors, i was out of imagination). There is more than a hundred entries. They also find a wand of cure light wounds hidden there.

-On the altar they find a pair of MW manacles with the keys, 20' of chain and a sacrifcial dagger+1

Sir Charles gathers them around the door and ask Edouard to check for traps. He gives the ok and then starts working on the lock while Lucien tries his new wand on any injured party member. They position themselves in a half-circle around the door and wait for the signal of Edouard.

Second session:

The paladins secure their rope and wait for the rest of the party to make a distraction. In the dark stairway, Anatole is the first in line with Akila, lucien and Edouard. At the bottom of the stairs, there's a wet orc behind a gate of rusty metal bars. He starts to shoot his crossbow as soon as he sees them. Anatole takes a shot to the chest and kneel. Akila take a shot with her longbow and kneel. Lucien call a produce flame spell, bringing light in the stairwway and bringing pain on the orc. At last but not least, Edouard throws an alchemist's fire, burning the orc to death. On the other side of the gate, there is a lever 10' from it. Thinking it will open the gate, Anatole ties the orc's crossbow to a rope and swing it over the lever, bringing it down with a smile of victory for his cleverness. Instead of opening the gate, a score of heavy rocks fall down from above, burying under and wiping the smile of his face.

(Here is the map: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/march2006/03_MarMAW2006_72_ppi_ vn212op.jpg They entered by the top right)

Hearing some comotion down below, team paladin drop their ropes and quickly slide. They enter a vast circular room with scarred walls of roughly hewn stones. Two corridors blocked by rusty gates goes off to the east and west. Just under them is a large font filled with blood red waters that bubbles gently. There's also an iron throne of jagged metal pieces and weapons of elven manufacture flanked by three brazier of tortuous iron with red continual flames. Next to it lay an altar of black obsidian crusted with blood with a sacrificial dagger on it. On the north wall is a winch holding a chain to a rusty cage hanging on a complex contraption allowing it to be lowered into the bassin. The cage is made of on beam of iron bent multiple times. On a stage to the south are 4 sarcophagis from which a rotten slow moving family of elves emerges. Behind them stands a door in the image of a vampire skull with the enormous canines acting as handles. It's all made of tarnished green copper. As team paladin swing and land near the bassin, Anatole gets up from under the rocks with the help of his friend and lover Akila while Edouard covers them with his shortbow and Lucien complains about their uselessness. Hidden from the party in the stairs is a lever on the wall near them. There's is one also near the other gate. Without a word, The paladin look at one another and spring into action. Being the fastest in his ranger's leather armor, Jhul sprints to the lever and opens the gate for his friends. Charles whips his sword out of his scabbard and with tears in his eyes, prepares to meet the zombies.

As Sir Charles Finally makes his way up to the farm, Edouard runs to him and tells everything he saw down the secret passage. They pass near the well and they can hear brutish voice down below, but the echo prevents them from discerning anything. Sir Charles heads for the door, dragging the orc behind. Edouard in a fit of vengeance tries to cut the throat of the unconscious orc. Charles stops his hand quite roughly saying he wont tolerate this kind of behavior and menace the rogue of martial court. Suddenly, cries for help comes from inside the house, Jhul is barely holding the door to the master bedroom as huge mandibules taers through it. Jhul gets on one knee and the next time the mandibules chew apart a piece of the door, three arrows strikes true. On the other side, you hear something really big trashing around and green ichor spills from under the door. With the return of their leader, Charles nod to Jhul who opens the door and team paladin rush in. A huge fiendish centipede bites into the armor and the flesh of Jhul shoulder. He fights the poison and they both chop at the thing, cleaving it in three. All this time the women are screaming at the top of their lungs, including Akila who hates insects and spiders.

Outside, A huge beam of blood red light shoots forth from the well and into the sky, heading north. Bewildered, the party starts to think there is more than it seems in here. Lucien calls back his wolf to protect the women, while the others interrogate their prisoner. He tells them nothing, fearing the wrath of his shaman Igwiz more than the adventurers. They knock him unconscious, loot the corpses and devise a plan to assault the underground complex. Everybody will go through the secret stairs while both paladin while drop into the well with silk rope, very swat team like.

The young rogue thinking he can get away with some jinx while everybody else is occupied elsewhere, starts to go down in the completly dark stariway. Dark red light pour from the bottom of the stairs and a orc in bone armor with a skull helmet painted red and wet orc come into view. Seeing the young man, he stays there mouth open, losing precious seconds. Edouard Dashes back into the bedroom yelling:"Wet orc ,skeleton down!!"
Nobody understand or take care of his babbling nonsense. Behind him, the closet in engulfed in darkness and something's making it's way up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Sir Charles is hot on the tail of the fleeing orc. Both are slowed by their armor, but the paladin is more fleet of foot and knows it's way into forested area. As he closes in, deftly avoiding any hazards, the orc in front of him stumbles in all of them as he looks behind in fear. Charles:"Surrender orc, we want informations from. Surrender and will let you live!" Orc:"Never, Igwiz will have my soul!"
Charles:"OK then, you brought it on yourself." Using the last of his strenght, the paladin charges and tackle the orc hard on the ground, evading a blow from a greataxe. They roll on the forest floor until only the paladin stands up, dragging his unconscious quarry behind. He heads back to the farm as fast as he can, flanked by the druid's old wolf until he reaches the hill.

From the kitchen there is two wooden doors leading to other rooms. The party gets in after instructing the women to scream if anything's wrong. Jhul, having seen the orc in breastplate enter the far door heads this way, while the others open the closest. Jhul find the door blocked by something heavy and then hear glass being shattered on the other side. Edouard an Lucien enter what was the master bedroom, desecrated by orc filth, seems they used this place as sleeping quarters. Everybody's offended by the stench exept Lucien who finds it no different from wet wolf fur. Jhul tells Sir Charles about the sound he heard while banging his shoulder on the door. After three failed attempts, he finally gets the door to open . He stumble in a small room with the bed blocking the door, there is glass from the window everywhere and the curtains floats gently into the evening's breeze. No trace of the fleeing orc. Sir Charles didn't waste any moment and rushed out of the farm, looking for a glimpse of silver in the sunset. Running down the hill, the orc in silver breastplate is running for his life. Taking up after him, Charles the paladin tries to reach him before he gets into the cover of the trees. From the courtyard, Anatole as also seen the fleeing orc and invoke a spiritual longsword after him, hitting twice before it disapears. Seeing there are no more hostiles, the women are moved into the kitchen where the clerics gathers some rations for them. Lucien search the whole farm and declare the place empty and safe with no loot whatsoever. Not thrusting the old fool, Edouard wraps a scarf on his face and enters the orc bedroom. Ther after some searching he finds a broken chest with 4 javelins, 44sp, 4gp and 2 alchemist's fire. Opening the closet on the wall facing the courtyard, the rogue finds weird that there is no windows and the room is smaller inside than outside. On a hunch, he push the back panel of the closet, opening a secret passage to a steep set of stairs...

As ready as you can, Sir Charles takes the lead naturaly. He ask Edouard to go further down the road and then scout the east flank, while they will aproach openly from the north 10 minutes later. The young rogue goes around the hill following the road flanked by tall spruce trees. When he cannot see the party anymore, he heads for the farming manor in a stealthy manor greatly enhanced by is dark leather armor. The fields have been neglected for a while and tall herbs grows between the crops. The farm is surrounded by a small rock wall of no more than 3' high. As the young lad gets nearer, he can discern a large covered well and a cage made of rusted metal. Inside it are half a dozen of helpless dirty wounded elven women. From where it's placed, nobody can see it from the road. Silently, he climbs over the wall and starts to make is way toward the cage. As loud as an orc can be, the door to the farm opens and a drunk filthy orc steps in courtyard. Edouard as a reflex activates the cloak clasp of the house Corbonazis, becoming invisible. The orc as a scale mail armor and a spicked shield covered with several hands nailed to it. He draws a cruel looking dagger and heads toward the cage with a wicked smile. The women start to sob and pray as fast as they can. In their brutish tongue, the orc says:"Mmm mmm mmm, time for another trophy for the migthy Bratak."

Meanwhile, the rest of the party has made it's way up the hill and are behind the farm. Staying far from the windows, they circle the manor slowly, trying to be silent clad in their heavy armors. Lucien lokks up to the sky and complains about the inefficiency of this party he was forced to work with.

The drunk orc walks up to the cage and play with the rusty padlock, while the women are backing up against the far wall. Many of them sports bloody stumps instead of hands. As Bratak curse the Stubbron padlock, Edouard makes his move, plunging his elven made shortsword in the back of the orc all the way through his sternum, spraying blood on the already traumatized women. He gets visible again and silence the girls with a smile and a finger on his lips. As he begin to hide the corpse behind the well, the door opens anew and a bigger orc clad in silvery breastplate yells to who he thinks is Bratak:"Bratak you bastard, are getting on with the b!~$@, Igwiz is losing patience and the ritual must be done before sunset. If you've been drinking without me..." Surprised to see a human instead of his underling, both pause for a moment. The orc is quicker and jumps back inside, closing the door and yelling orders. Edouard drops the corpse and draws his short bow. Then, he sees the rest of the party on both side of the farm, ready to ambush anybody that comes out. Several tense second pass and the door is suddenly ripped from it's hinges and drop on the grass, while 4 orcs in scale mail armed with greataxe belch warcries and strom in the courtyard. Three of them smile at the puny human standing in the middle of the courtyard, while the fourth one squirm in pain from the arrow stuck in his leg. Sir Charles gives the signal and jumps over the wall charging straight into an orc closing on the rogue. Using his mighty strenght (for an elf), he bullrush the brute into the well. the orc screams like a girl all the long way down and finish flat on his face in the water below. Jhul gets to the front line facing the three remaining orcs. Swinging his elven bluesteel longsword, he wounds one and gets hit by another. The clerics stand up from behind the wall and pepper the wounded orc with arrows. Only Akila's hit as Anatole is more of a melee fighter. Meanwhile, from behind the house, lucien orders his old wolf companion to scout the area around the hill. The orcs savagely maul Jhul who staggers from the blows, but still standing, cleaves into his wounded opponent, killing him. Edouard and Akila shoot and down the orc already wounded by arrows who falls after being by 3 of them(in total). Sir Charles seeing his brother in arm Jhul being hit like that, rush to his side thrusting his sword through his opponent, not having enough, he swirls around, cleaving in the last orc with a beheading slash. As the head rolls in the courtyard, the fence is opened by a fuming druid:"You didn't leave any for me right!?Ah the youngs brashness, you'll see when you will be my age." The clerics with the help of Edouard open the door of the cage made of rusted beam of iron bent into the likeness of a cage. The wounded women are grateful, but shocked. They are being taken care of by the soothing voice of Akila and the healing provided by Anatole. Sir Charles not seeing the orc clad in breastplate, gathers it's troop except the clerics and after healing Jhul, ask for him to go first. As soon as Jhul enters the dark kitchen, he hears a door slam in the back of the room and a low growl on it's right. Jumping from the darkness, Jhul is attacked by a worg and tripped to the ground. Backing up his friend, Sir Charles down slash his sword on the back of the beast and stand aside for the archers. Three arrows and a dagger thrust from the prone paladin end this evil. Again Lucien chimes in:"If you would have let me the time to do so, i could have charmed him to our cause." Jhul:"Evil is evil and should rightfully exterminated. As a disciple of St-Cuthbert i believe in the death penalty... At sword point that is."

The players are:

- Sir Charles David the third, Elven Paladin of Corelon
- Jhul, Aasimar Paladin of St-Cuthbert
- Lucien, Old human Druid of the Gatekeepers sect
- Edouard, Teenage Human Rogue
- Akila Kissessa, Elven cleric of Corelon
- Anatole, Elven cleric of Corelon

First session:

As recent news of a major Orc invasion reach your ears, The whole company under the commandment of the centaur Eronafieldur packs their gear for the long journey to Silvriel. The party travels light on their feet, acting as scout on the left flank. You are quite relax as you are still within the protected estates of the Crimson Knights. You can see multiple patrol of the red armored horsemen patroling the region. As cultivated fields let place to a major forested road, you start to see more and more refugees. People who lost hope with grim face and all their possessions on themselves. They wander slowly toward the safe haven of Neyicitte. On the top of his warhorse, Your sergeant Blake speaks lowly of them as the future beggars of the capital.It's getting late in the afternoon and you get the dull duty of finding a refuge for all the 300 men of your small army.

Sprinting ahead of the slow moving troops, you reach a small hill of abandonned fields by the main road. On top of it is a small manor house of a farming noble. There is no light in any windows and looks abandonned. Blake the ever opportunist orders:" This is the perfect spot for our weary troops, secure the area and light a bonfire when it's safe, i shall return to our commander to press them forward. Oh and don't forget, you owe me 30% of anything you find, so good looting!" With those words, he bolts his horse around and return the way you came. You look at each other and get your weapons ready. This is not a protected territory anymore...

Damn after a immensely long post, it did not save it and went into limbo. I don't feel like writing it all over again for now. I hope it won't happen again!

Introduction: 18 000 years ago, an elven fleet of war galley fled their continent from a threath lost in history. They came to a new continent surrounded by a ring of coral reefs and whirlpools. Losing more than half of their ships they settled in a small creek, unable to get back through the reefs. The elven conquistador led by their king Gastroenteriel, they went exploring the volcanic island. They founded at the confluent of two rivers, a cove of gigantic trees inhabited by peaceful orcs. Using their tactical and military advantages, the elves exterminated the orcs pushing the survivor into the vocanic mountain range of dragonwall. They settled in the gigantic trees and built a city in the branches, naming it Neyicitte new capital of the elven kingdom.

The elven civilization prospered until 500 years ago when the orcs from the volcanic mountains came back to exact revenge upon the elves. They burned and pillaged everything form the mountains to the door of the elven capital of Neyicitte.

The elven kingdom almost fell, but an alliance with the humans from the steppes and dwarves from the hills came to their rescue in exchange of magic teachings. Their contribution was pale in comparison of the archmage Faxanadu who weaved a necromantic mythal which animated the dead elven soldiers and mages against the orcs. The archmage infused enchantments after enchantments, strenghtening the mythal until it was quasi alive. Protected inside the capital, no orcs could enter and a wave of vengeful undead washed over the orc hordes driving them back into the dragonwallmountain. The last battle took place at the feet of the dragonwall beyond Shaengrene; the lava river. The battlefield expanding from the river to the mountain id tho this day known as the great devastation of the plain of fuldead because of the millions of cadavers piled onto the barred land.

To thank the dead for saving them, Faxanadu allowed them to stay in the cliff flanking the noble quarter in Neyicitte. to this day the elven civilization is built around the veneration of their deathless ancestor and necromantic magic.

From this day the elven kingdom lives under the oppression of Faxanadu the necromancer who lives in his floating darkstar tower. Nobody as seen him since 300 years. The king is a puppet and the real power is behind two council, The 13 masked archmages with their secret police: the crimson knights and the undying court of the deathless. Nobles are vain and only seek power and wealth. The twelve dragonmarked houses are supposed to look after the protection of the kingdom, but they are mostly composed of petty nobles. Since the mythal protects them from the ocs, people in Neyicitte are almost cut off from the rest of the kingdom, leaving the rest to themselves.

In the darkness there is hope, the thirteen dragonmarked house has come back. House Corbonazis take the protection of the kingdom very seriously after witnessing orcs crossing the shaengrene river in whole platoons without opposition. Their leader Fellanwe Khoradris d'Corbonazis is a direct descendant of Gastroenteriel and while adventuring, gathers fund and support to create a army to oppose the orc hordes.

You are new recruits of this army. Training under excellent warriors, all elves, humans and dwarves are equals and nobles loose their ranks. The pay is good and you get the chance of kicking some green butt along the way. After training in the Cobonazis hospital and fighter academy, you're sent along with 300 fellow as reinforcement for the front. You are all under the orders of the centaur captain Eronafieldur. Divided in smaller company, you end up under the irregular of Blake ir'Celovalis. Your company serve as scouts, shock troops or special ops. You get the respect of the other soldiers as you likely saved their life more than once. You often get special favors from them or their officers even tough nobody is very fond of your leader. Recently the orcs have invaded more than a third of the elven provinces. In reaction, most nobles and merchants took every possession and headed for Neyicitte leaving only the poor and delusional behind. Your first mission is to get to the city of Silvriel to meet with a company of priest of Corellon who united peasants and stragglers into a improvised militia.

I'm a veteran DM since 15 years. during this time i played in dragonlance before switching to homebrewed campaigns. I created a high level apocalyptic world, a wilderness barbarian game, an all dwarven underdark campaign and an orc war against the elves. The dwarven one was by far my favorite. After going through the planes, through all type of terrains and dungeons, i realized my games were way too complicated and often lost my players in multilayered plots.The decision was taken to go back to the classics and simple. With my friend who designed the orc campaign, i submitted an idea. Since i hate elves and wanted to get a chance to appreciate them, i created a world using the orc campaign base and setting. Using Eberron and wrath & rage supplement i came with a cool design that litterally enthralled my players.

The setting is based on a giant island (like australia) much like aeranal from eberron. The bottom third of the island is populated by the waning elf civilization. the island is separated in two by a river of lava coming from the dragonwall mountains inhabited by orcs. There is a beachead of humans vikings in the north westernmost part of the island, they call themselves the nordaghs. Beyond a great desert of red sand in the north part of the island, is an old empire of human on the verge of disapearing, it's the rich imperium tremense. In my campaign there is no halflings nor gnomes and orcs are lawful evil. The players were to create only spellcasting elves for this game. They were following the leader of a minor noble house: the Corbonazis. The campaign went on for 1 year and a half until recently when the leader of the company went to europe. In the meantime, i started a new small side-campaign with the rest of my players. They are part of the Corbonazis's new army, they're recruit and irregular under a vain selfish sergent, Blake Ir'Celovalis. They had to chose PC from a list of 12 irregulars starting at level 3.5. On the list were just race and class, they had to build the rest.

I woul surely be a dwarf brewer/favored soul/warmage/mystic theurge. So i could blow things up, heal my dwarven companions and finish the day drinking beer and eating mushrooms. I could complain about anything and still be a typical dwarf like all the others. Favored soul of moradin and warmage so i can be a lazy spellcaster who never has to pray or memorize spells.

What a great story. Your DM really got the feel of Eberron. I DMed the first quest a the end of the campaign book myself and can identify with your group. I too have been gaming for 18 years now and love the maturity of older players like myself.
You definenately have talent for story-telling, continue posting.

I'm currently Dming a strickly elven game in which they recently founded an abandonned mine belonging to a stone giant.
Their leader bound to retake the lost mine of his ancestor leads the way inside. After a straight corridor two of them arrive in a room full of old broken wooden carts in one corner.
There is two parralel lines of dust on the floor leading to a fla stone wall. As they are searching for an obvious secret door, the giant which is a half demon-stone giant elder-Ftr2 spying on them via meld to stone, springs his trap. Rock to mud on one wall and a fat advanced rust monster rush in the room. At the same time a stone block fall on the exit, cutting them off from the rest of the group. They fight a ranged skirmish, the bard turns invisible but is quickly found by the hungry rust monster. As they lose weapons and armor, the giant comes out and kills the bard. The leader is flanked by the giant and the rust monster and screaming like a girl for help. The giant trigger a pit trap under the leader and his pet, dropping them 60 feet in a shallow pool below. He returns into the wall (meld to stone), release the stone bolck and waits for the others to come in. I had the group in two different rooms to play this encounter. The other group was facing some orcs and ogres bounty hunters looking for the deserting giant, when they prevailed and came into the mine, all they saw was a stain on the floor looking very much like a naked bard and no trace of the leader. Meanwhile, their leader was trying to kill the rust monster with his bare hands and teeth. My players never expexted a side quest to recover a gold mine to be so costly, and i never tought i would enjoyed so much relieving my players of their dearest magical weapons.