This was a campaign set in the world of Ravenloft, which is undoubtedly my favorite campaign world ever. For those of you unfamiliar with the world (with I believe many will be), it is themed around gothic horror. Characters are rewarded by faceless gods known as the Dark Powers (out of character, most of the worlds inhabitants are blissfully ignorant of their existence) for evil deeds, and at the same time given a curse to punish them.
The world is split into various kingdoms ruled by, either openly or in secret, Darklords, individuals who have caught the attention of the Dark Powers on a recurring basis. Again, most inhabitants are unaware of this. Clusters of these kingdoms, called Domains in game terms, are grouped together and surrounded by a misty border with strange powers and traits.
The campaign was driven players at first, and the whims of the DM later on, who, when he thought of a domain he thought would be cool, transported us there via the mists.
Now for the basis of the campaign, the PCs. There were six of us in the very beggining, and we gained and lost some as the campaign progressed. The first six characters were as follows:
Simon Dilisnya, my PC, and my favorite one to date. He is a chaotic evil bard, driven by revenge. He is part of the wealthy and widespread Dilisnya family, who in addition to being almost proffessional nobles, are also nearly all assassins, with a special touch for poison. He comes from the domain of Borca, where most Dilisnyas hail from. He is haunted by the ghost of his mother, who was killed by the rest of the family when she wanted to get out of the assassin bussiness, along with the rest of her immediate family. Simon was the only survivor of this masacre, at the tender age of 11, and his mother's ghost is spuring him on to vengeance. Now in his mid 20s, he has taken on an assumed name and set himself up as a noble, with the intent of tracking down and killing every last Dilisnya, whether they were involved in his family's murder or not. He is a schemer and a master of words and lies. He quickly rises in status in the party and becomes one of the driving characters and the primary diplomat, as well as a backup stealth character.
Hugh is a skeletal rogue that poses as a human, wearing several layers of cloths and a skeleton mask. His undeath began when he was set out into the city of Necropolis to steal a great treasure rumored to lie within. What he was not told was that all who cross the threshold of the city are immediately slain and re-animated as intelligent undead. He now searches half-heartedly for a way to become human again, but he is very apathetic and cares more about the acquisition of wealth. All in all, he is a thug and petty thief. Probably the most statisticly effective character in the party, he ends up becoming the primary stealth character, and, suprisingly, the tank. With a d12 hit die, damage reduction, and fast healing, he typicaly flanks with Simon in battle to get sneak attack damage.
Wolfenhiem Von Zarovich is the party's wizard, and like Simon, of noble birth. He is part of the illustrious Von Zarovich line, the first family to establish itself in Ravenloft. Like many members of the family, he is a necromancer, and very, very arrogant. He refuses to even speak with those not of noble status, and his ultimate goal is to become the right hand man of the family's reclusive patriarch, Count Strahd Von Zarovich. Later, when Simon's true identity is revealed, there is some tension between him and Wolfenheim, as there is a long standing rivalry between their families. Wolfenheim becomes one of the driving characters of the party, and his boasting of his noble birth alternately gets the party what they need, or into a lot of trouble.
Finch is a druid (I can't remember from where) of a small tribal society that worships birds. He was once a spiritual leader of his community, but left for reasons unspoken. He is the first character in the party to fail a madness save (a new type of saving throw introduced in Ravenloft), and becomes paranoid of birds, believing that his tribe is stalking him and plotting his downfall. He eventually ceases to reveare his winged totem animal and adopts the worship of cats in their stead. His command of nature proves helpful to the party on several occassions when they become stranded in the wilderness, and his madness allows him to see certain spirits the other party members cannot. He eventually comes to believe that he is at the center of a conspiracy and the rest of the party is in on it.
A short lived character was a sorcerer whose name eludes me. He is a pyromaniac and has little motivation but to burn things. Early in the campaign he suffers from nightmares for weeks and becomes unable to prepare spells, rendering him largely inneffective.
A character that didn't last the first adventure was a barbarian who never even got a chance to introduce himself. He picks a fight with the rest of the party and ends up storming off. His player will often pick such fights, leading to many new characters for him and many failed Dark Powers checks for the rest of the party.
The party's first adventure isn't terribly impressive. A fence (the kind that buys stolen loot, not the kind around a yard) named Toothless Perry has the party clear some dire rats out of his basement. The party accomplishes this task with minimal effort, as the rats aren't even capable of penetrating Hugh's damage reduction. As a reward, the party is given a club, which is detected as magic by Wolfenheim, and both him and Simon mistakenly identify it as a cursed item. The party never comes to realize the weapon is not cursed, nor do they ever discovere what exactly the magic of the club does, but it is undeniabely effective in combat, and for some time the only magic weapon. All in all the adventure served little purpose but to bring the party together.
The second adventure proves far more interesting. The party happens upon a lecture by a man named "De Pennible." He claims that nobles must strip themselves of their trapping of wealth and suffer along with the peasants and the homeless to gain salvation. The party hears of women who go missing, often after being seen with De Pennible. Simon follows De Pennible after the lecture, hoping he might know something of any Dilisnyas in the area (he does know a lot about the local nobles), and Hugh follows Pennible home with the intent of robbing him. The rest of the party follows later in an attempt to save a young girl that left the lecture with him.
The house of De Pennible is in the slums of town, with nothing remarkable to it. Simon and Hugh, both unaware of each other, decide to stake out the house. The rest of the party arrives, with a new addition named Brock, as well as a cleric (again, whose name I cannot recall. He didn't last long). Brock is a fighter, and a calliban. Callibans are twisted creatures, humans exposed to foul magic while still in the womb. He is brutal and savage, and not well liked by the rest of the party. The cleric perishes during the following adventure, and doesn't do much of anything.
The party lets themself in when no one answers their knock, and find a doorway to the basement. Simon and Hugh follow and meet up with the rest of the party. The basement has chains hanging from the ceiling, and Pennible is in the back with the young woman who was recently seen with him. She is gazing at a strange hoop, chained to the groung with several hooks piercing her skin. Pennible becomes enraged and attacks the party, animating the chains to attack them. The sorcerer flees in terror (he failed a fear save), and the rest of the party takes a beating, but comes out on top. Hugh becomes the first character in the party to fail a powers check when, in an attempt to rescue the girl, tears her free. The hooks rip through her flesh, and, already weakened from her previous hook-inflicted injuries, the girl dies.
Fich looks into the strange hoop and sees an image of hell, then fails a madness check. His resulting paranoia becomes a major theme of his character. It was revealed out of character that Pennible had been possessed by a Kyton, a chain devil, and was attempting to allow a fellow devil to possess the young girl. The party, having technicly murdered De Pennible, skips town, with the famous elven detective Alanik Ray hot on their heels.
Fleeing the city of Port aLucieune (the city party began in), the party makes their way towards the border of Dementlieu (the domain we began in). The party stops in a nearby town. This is wear the campaign really starts to pickup. Stories are told of children dissapearing, and Finch sees a strange looking man with a soul-chilling green playing with a group of youngsters near the sewer. The rest of the party sees the children, but no man, only a wierd mist.
Simon gets word of a Dilisnya woman who resides in this city. He asks around town and finds where she lives, breaking off fromt he rest of the party. He goes to the door, and the moment the woman answers, his mother's ghost commands Simon to kill her. After taking a moment to assess the woman, he determines that she possesses physical traits that match a typical Dilisnya, and he does as his mother's shade bids. During the brief struggle, the woman mentioned her husband, and so Simon waits for the man to come home, and kills him as well, failing his first Dark Powers check. He is granted a stronger will, but his eyes glow purple in the dark (purple is the color of death in his homeland of borca).
Wolfenheim and Brock have been looking for Simon, and are drawn by the sounds of this minor struggle. The find Simon standing dead over two bodies, and demand to know what is going on. Unable to quickly think of an excuse, he reveals to them his true identity, as well as his plan to kill his family. Brock remains impartial, while Wolfenheim is at first enraged at learning the Simon belongs to the Dilisnya line. However, they realize they are both enemies of that family, and they form an uneasy alliance.
That night, Finch is attacked by the strange man he saw earlier, with Hugh nearby. A struggle ensues, and Finch is nearly pulled up a tree by this mystery assailent. Hugh ties a rope to Finch's leg, affixing the other end to a horse. The horse, spooked by Hugh's skeletonliness, bolts. The beast of burden proves stronger than Finch's attacker, but only by a small margin, and Finch is drug along the ground by the horse. Hugh manages to cut the rope, and the two of them return to the party.
The next day, after the story is recounted, Simon's bardic knowledge tells him that this mystery creature resembles a fairy tale monster known as Crocodile Lenny. He lures naughty children into the sewers and devours them. He also knows that a rare few of these "fairy tale fey" become real when enough people believe in them, and only those people who are insane can see them.
That night, the party is attacked by Lenny while they sleep. He makes himself fully manifest, and the party finds their weapons ineffective. Wolfenheims magic is the only thing that saves the party from destruction. After being injured, Lenny flees, leaving the party badly wounded, and the party's sorcerer suffers from nightmares of the traumatic experience.
Simon at this point recalls that according to legend, Lenny can only be harmed by weapons of cold iron, and the only way to truly destroy him is to press a fresh flower to his nose. The party seeks treatment for their wounds at a local temple, and spends the night there, with several of them concealing fresh flowers by their beds. Lenny attacks again, and various party members attempt to grapple him so they may press a flower to his nose. He puts up a fight, but flees when he realizes half of his opponents are brandishing the lethal blossoms.
The next night, the party is given a respite, as Lenny stays beneath the sewers to nurse his wounds. The next night, however, he strikes one final time, and after a climactic battle, one of the party members (I think it was Finch), manages to administer the fatal flower.
Severly injured during the battle, Wolfenheim seeks healing at a temple, telling them that he is a member of the Von Zarovich line and he was just attacked by Crocodile Lenny. He is quickly committed to an asylum. Simon and Hugh see the crazy cart taking him away, and manage to climb atop it when it stops. Wolfenheim begins threatining to raise an undead army to free from the cart and eat the souls of the jailors. Simon and Hugh colaborate for a bit, and decide to pose as Wolfenheims undead minions. Simon uses a "disguise self" spell to make himself appear as a skeleton, and Hugh claims that he posseses similar magic (he in fact does, as "disguise self" was the power given to Hugh by the Dark Powers). Hugh makes some bogus gestures and removes his mask, claiming the skeletal form beneath is the result of his minor spell (by the way, the party, throughout the campaign, never once discovers that Hugh is a skeleton, and not from lack of the players trying).
Simon and Hugh reveal themselves to the jailors, with Wolfenheim making threats the whole time, and demand they stop and release their "master." The guards flee in terror, and Hugh easily picks the lock on the cart, freeing Wolfenheim and gaining a new vehicle for the party.
Simon, Hugh, and Wolfenheim head back to the town and collect everyone else, and they are forced to hop town again, now being labled as escaped convicts.