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Yesterday saw the finish of our Shackled city campaign. Time to share with you guys how the campaign went. I made significant changes, some of which have been posted on these boards in the past. Time for a little ‘recap’.
- First of all I added quite a number of adventures to the path (mostly Dungeon adventures), filling it out to a full 30+ number. I placed all these adventures in Turmish, a country in the Forgotten Realms setting. The PCs were devout followers of Ilmater, the FR god of suffering, endurance and perseverance, who is also the patron deity of Jenya and Sarcem. Cauldron became Gildenglade, a city nestled in the mountains.
- Secondly I fleshed out the background, based on the Christian tales about the fall of Lucifer. Adimarchus was the champion of Ilmater, who rebelled against the gods when he was ordered to serve mankind. His rebellious thoughts were fuelled by the angel Layah and tore him away from his old celestial love Nidrama.
The conflict ended in full scale war which ended with the gods tearing away part of Celestia and throwing in into the Abyss, where it formed Occipitus. Saureya, one of the good angels who accidentally fell down as well, was made into Adimarchus’ torture toy, but the new demon prince kept the angel alive mostly because he represented a glimpse of hope at redemption.
Layah, now in beautiful demonic fallen angel form kept on poisoning Adimarchus’ mind and lured him into war with Graz’zt an his demonic host. During the battle Layah was swept away by enemy demons and put in a cage in Skullrot. Adimarchus followed her and took her place, only to discover that she was the daughter of Graz’zt, who had been fooling him all along.
This background story was presented to the PC priest in his dreams, after he received the sign of the Smoking Eye in Occipitus.
- The Cagewrights, simply known as the Thirteen in my campaign, became an organization whose goal it was to free Adimarchus by opening a gate to the Abyss and summoning his cage through it. All the demons who would come along would form the army Adimarchus needed to get his revenge on mankind, since he considered man to be responsible for his fall. He would prove to the gods that man was inferior and deserved only death.
- The leader of the Thirteen, Dyr’ryd, was also one of the fallen angels, a former general in Adimarchus’ army. He also bore the sign of the Smoking Eye and had a cancerous growth on his right shoulder which was imbued with a twisted aspect of Adimarchus’ mind.
The other members of the Thirteen were mostly totally different from the original SCAP. Vhalantru obviously became one of the Thirteen, as did the Glabrezu Nabthatoron; Lady Rhiavadi, Fetor Abradius and Gau Kleeoch stayed on the team, all others were new. The PCs encountered most of the members of the Thirteen in one way or another before the final run of the campaign, giving the Thirteen a real presence in the campaign as a whole.
- Throughout their early level adventures, the PCs became true servants of Ilmater, the fighter became a champion in the arena and without realizing it, the PCs had their first run-ins with the Thirteen or their plans. There obviously is the rescue of Terrem in the Malachite fortress. But the PCs also get involved with Duergar (who replaced the Kuo-toa in the Zenith episode), who were stealing away all the mithril from the market to build cages for the Thirteen.
- The first time the PCs learned of the Thirteen was when they came across the image of Penfavasta, a mariltih member of the XIII, whose reflection was frozen in a mirror somewhere (based on ‘The Seventh arm’ in issue 88)..
The first member of the Thirteen the PCs fought was Viela, a succubus in the guise of a priestess of the goddess of beauty, who was trying to restore her petrified glabrezu ally to flesh (based on ‘The Iron Satyr’ in issue 108). Both demons got away and the PCs faced and killed Nabthatoron in the Demonskar Legacy and Viela in Occipitus (where she was also trying to obtain the Sign of the Smoking Eye). The final fight in the eye socket of the giant skull was also one of the highlights of the campaign.
- Upon returning from Occipitus the PCs ended up in the mountains, where they helped one of the PCs’ father a powerful beheading killer (based on ‘Headless’ in issue 89). The brains behind these killings were two members of the Thirteen, a death slaad and an elven sorceress, who were using the heads to fuel a demonic construction that was meant to instill evil power into the cages of the Thirteen. The enemies got away and reappeared in the temple of Kelemvor (Wee-Jas), where the PCs managed to slay the death slaad.
- In Karran Kural the PCs encountered Fetor Abradius, who escaped as well and became a recurring villain with the elven sorceress. The PCs also found a trace to another member of the Thirteen, the mage Markosian, who was planning to release another of his colleagues from imprisonment: Nyxthseht the White, a demon who was captured in an iron flask (based on ‘Strike on the Rabid Dawn’ in issue 111). Markosian is killed, but the demon escapes.
- In Lords of Oblivion the PCs thwart the evil plans of Lady Rhiavadi to enlist allies in the coming demon war. Both the noble woman and her close friend an XIII associate Vhalantru meet their end at the hands of the PCs.
- In Foundation of Flame, it is not a derro sorcerer, but Fetor Abradius, Nyxthseht the White and the elven sorceress who invade the noble meeting and kill some of the council members. By now, the PCs (there were only two players) had been joined by Meerthan and Annah Taskerhill. The four of them saved a lot of civilians in Foundation of Flame, before entering the headquarters of the XIII, in an old spellweaver tomb. From this point I totally changed the existing SCAP modules. The PCs finally slew Fetor, Nyxthseht an the elven sorceress, as well as every other surviving member of the XIII (the marilith Penfavasta, Gau Kleeoch and Embril Aloustinai with her four resurrected spellweaver sidekicks). Then the PCs face (made-over) Dyr’ryd, but slaying him releases the last bit of energy required to summon Adimarchus’ cage to the Tree of Shackled Souls. The demon prince kills the priest, who offers his life to allow his companions to escape. Since he is the bearer of the Sign of the Smoking Eye, he is reborn on Occipitus, where he meets Saureya again, who teaches him how to ‘rule’ over the plane. The priest uses his power to kill all the demons who are waiting to be ported to the Prime material plane, thus putting a stop to the demon invasion.
- Next Saureya informs the priest of another test that exists in this plane, one that will allow him to enter Adimarchus’ head and help him face his personal demons. The priest summons his allies to his side, the fighter becomes the new Champion of Ilmater, taking Adimarchus’ old sword. The heroes enter Adimarchus’ head through the column of fire in the eye socket, after the priest reverses the flow of its fire.
- Adimarchus’ mind is a sort of pocket plane with six doors. They give access to different key aspects in Adimarchus’ mind and past. First the PCs restore hope to the last shred of good that remains in the fallen angel, then they slay his torturer Dark Myrakul in the Skullrot prison. Next they relive the fall of the angels into the Abyss. The priest PC, who bears the Sign of the Smoking Eye, turns into a demon and is overtaken by a murderous rage to kill his former companion, who represents one of the good angels who was pulled along with the falling debris of Celestia. The following door leads the PCs to the moment when Adimarchus betrayed his gods and accepted to lead the rebellious angels. The PCs fight Adimarchus in angel form, who has just fallen victim to pride and betrayal.
The fifth door confronts the PCs with Layah, the traitorous angel (daughter of Graz’zt), who engineered Adimarchus’ fall, right after she convinced Adimarchus to betray the gods.
Having defeated these five tests allows the PCs access to the final room, where they face the demonic Adimarchus. Slaying him returns the PCs to Occipitus, where the fire in the sky has disappeared and a ray of sunlight is breaking through the dark clouds. The PC priest finds the power to restore Occipitus to Celestia, where he and his friend are changed into angels. Apparently, the PCs have arrived right at the beginning of the Adimarchus’ cycle, the moment when the gods announce that the angels have to serve mankind. This time Adimarchus wholeheartedly agrees to do his Fathers’ bidding. At that time the PCs are approached by a beautiful angel (Layah) whose eyes burns with rebellion … (fade to black).
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Major applause! Great job my friend. I have enjoyed reading your posts over the past year and a half, and following along with progress of your altered story arcs.
I am jealous that you have had the finale already and that you and your players have experienced that climax - and jealous that I couldn't have been part of the experience. But I have a long way to go in my own campaign and I cannot wait to see it unfold - and I'm not ready for it to be over yet.
I am very much interested in learning a bit more about the backstory surrounding Adimarchus and the way in which it was related to the players? Did you use Delvespeeps dreams? or variations of them? I like the notion of making the story of Adimarchus have a "christian/lucifer" like story theme. Feel free to email me off list if you like: SirKicley(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thanks
Robert
I actually posted my dreams in one of Delvesdeep's post:
Look here .
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I actually posted my dreams in one of Delvesdeep's post:
Look here .
Oh yeah; I remember reading those. I even "borrowed" a few of them to add/modify Delvesdeeps along with my own writing to create those that are different but at least similar to each of yours.
Thanks for the link - I enjoyed re-reading them.
I guess the next part is trying to figure out just "who" is going to be the "13" using your ideas and Delvesdeeps' "New Cagewrights" topic as inspiration for that, as I too have dwindled the number of the cagewrights down - Delvesdeep was right - there are just too many of them - many of whom do not really matter or make an impact on the story.
Robert
I’ll just give you my list of the Thirteen:
- Dyr’ryd, not a demondand, but a fallen angel and former general of Adimarchus’ army;
- Vhalantru the beholder;
- Lady Thirifane;
- Embril Aloustinai;
- Gau Kleeoch, the female minotaur fighter and the only member of the Thirteen who wasn’t really foreshadowed;
- Fetor Abradius who did serious material damage to the party in their second and third run-in by using Mordekainen’s disjunction, which dispelled most magical items;
- the glabrezu Nabthatoron;
- Viela, a succubus and close ally of Nabthatoron (whom she freed from petrification);
- a marilith Penfavasta, who was foreshadowed early on in the campaign when the PCs saw her reflection frozen in a mirror;
- a death slaad, Drusalakas, who the PCs confronted after they returned from Occipitus;
- Eldrua, an elven sorceress, first encountered in the company of Drusalaks – her teleporting abilities made her an excellent recurring villain;
- a human wizard Markosian, like Fetor Abradius he is a relatively new member to the order and he wants to prove his worth by freeing another demon member from magical captivity;
- Nyxthseht the White, the demon Markosian frees from an ‘iron flask’;
I'll also include two links that outline what I did in my campaign:
Alternative Ending;
Sidetrek Adventures, which is your thread, Robert.