Our Heros
A group of heroes are coming together in Sandpoint for many different reasons but in the end it will be to stop The Rise of The Runelords.
Let us introduce each hero to you.
First there is Nar Shar born on the plains of Varisia in the Churchain hills. Nar Shar was son of the tribe’s shaman Bishop Binaliel the Dreamrunner a cleric of Desna. The Catfolk are nomads that travel up and down the Varisian Gulf hunting and trading. They are on peaceful terms with most human areas, they go to Sandpoint quite often to trade, and it is the largest town they deal with. Binaliel and the Chief are in good standing with the mayor and the priest of the church within Sandpoint. Nar Shar has been to Sandpoint on a few occasions and enjoyed the discoveries within the town.
Benaliel knows well of his sons wanderlust and gives his a simple mission go to Sandpoint, Binaliel knows of the coming Swallowtail festival in Sandpoint and wants the tribe to be represented at the consecration of the new cathedral of Desna. This is Nar Shar’s first solo mission to Sandpoint and wants to do his father the chief proud. The chief likes the idea of the good will it could bring for the tribe to go to this festival and would like to send a larger group, but the tribe is at war with a pack of werewolves so he cannot spare any more of his men. So this is Nar Shar’s chance to become more than just Binaliels son.
Nar Shar is a cleric of Desna and next will become a Battle Sorcerer and then will combine his magic and become a Mystic Theurge
Then there is Inya was born in the Nar-Voth portion of the Darklands. His family was a very powerful force within the Svirfneblin community. While Inya was very young a tribe of Darkland Giants discovered the Svirfneblins and had begun a war against the community. The Svirfnevlin outpost was destroyed with Inya’s family leading the last group of survivors away to safety (15 of over 100). As they ran through the Darklands they finally found a passage to the surface. Only 6 had survived Inya his father and 4 other Svirfneblin’s.
They found the town of Sandpoint about 20 years ago. Inya has grown up most of his life in Sandpoint and believes it to be his home. Inya’s father and the other adults began work at Two Knight Brewery. He is now the assistant manager of the brewery. Inya helps transport the beer from the brewery as far as Magnimar. He is somewhat of a guard of the transports, he wants more out of life but for now he will enjoy the Swallowtail Festival.
Inya Deep Gnome is a Swashbuckler who will take some levels in Thief and Fighter and finally go into Blade Bravo
Another member of this group is Kordicon or as his associates know him Proxy he is very different than most people, he was once human over 10,000 years ago. He was young servant in Thassilon, where he worked for a local mayor; this mayor was a powerful wizard like most leaders in Thassilon. He was mixing transformation and conjuration magic. He opened a portal to an unknown outer realm where he pulled forth some sort of servitor race. He bound this thing to Kordicon and transformed him into a perfect spy. But within a week Thassilon fell to a great cataclysm by pure luck Kordicon survived. The Wizard was trying to save himself; he trapped Kordicon in a simple Sepia Snake Sigil spell. For thousands of years he just sat there frozen in time.
Until about 2 years back a group of adventures found him trapped within the Sphere and they freed him. The adventures took him to a former party member Ameiko Kaijitsu. She was now a bar owner in the local town of Sandpoint. She taught him how to speak the common tongue as well as many basic things of modern times. He left after a few months and has slowly wandered through parts of Varisia. He has returned to Sandpoint on the eve of Swallowtail Festival to see both his favorite person as well as his favorite town.
Proxy is a Dopple from the Dragon Star campaign he is a Rogue Fighter who is going into Warshaper
The face of the party Darius Gray is the eldest son in a family of three sons and one daughter. Is half of a set of twins (his sister being the other), and the only Aasimar in the family -- much to his twin sister's consternation.
Childhood was easy, thanks to the favors lavished on him by his wealthy Magnimar family. This special treatment was due in large part to his being the oldest son, and the rest was due to his father being a high-ranking cleric in the church of Abadar -- and Darius was born with a birthmark in the shape of the Ragathiel’s holy symbol (the patron of the Order of Illumination).
In spite of his upbringing in the church, he did go through a short period of what his father called "youthful rebellion", which resulted in his first class level being Rogue. Even though he never indulged in any sort of outright thievery or malicious criminal activity, he interacted with people who did.
His life changed at age 19 when his sister was kidnapped by the very people with whom he had been slumming around with The Hightown Boys. (A group Varisian criminals known as a whole as Sczarni.) It was clear that they took her in order to obtain a ransom, which they got. However, the kidnappers did not hold up their end of the deal and failed to return her. At this point they turned to Magnimar’s city guard and law enforcement they failed. Darius' father had ties to the Order of Illumination and asked them to go in and retrieve his daughter.
First to go in were the Stalkers, to find out exactly what they were up against and where Merilee (Darius' sister) was being held inside the villains' hideout. After a short while they returned with their report; Merilee was being held deep inside an abandoned section of the Magnimar’s sewer system, along with several other missing persons and all under heavy guard. The leader of the group expressed doubt they could all be retrieved before the kidnappers could act and harm at least a few of the victims.
After a short round of resumed negotiations, the kidnappers offered to exchange Merilee and the other victims in exchange for either Darius as a hostage (their reasoning for this was never made clear), or for something they called "the Gray Portrait" (rumored to be a powerful artifact that could defeat the forces of aging) that had been in the Gray family for many generations, though Darius has never seen it. Darius' father outright refused, and determined that the only way to resolve this situation was with force -- and so the Shadowbane Inquisitors marshaled their strength and breached the kidnappers' hideout.
After a short battle, the Inquisitors and Stalkers emerged with five of the seven kidnapping victims as well as Darius' sister. However, in the battle Merilee was burned by an acidic substance that had been infused by the powers of corruption and evil -- the priests informed Darius' father that the damage to his daughter's face would never heal. But still, this was certainly better than if her life had been lost or she'd been sold into slavery. At least that was the rationale of The Order of Illumination.
In the aftermath of the incident, Darius came away believing that it was better to do a little evil if it means accomplishing a greater good. Because even though two innocent people died and his sister was scarred for life, an evil organization was destroyed and would never sell another innocent person into slavery again.
Unfortunately, Merilee never forgave Darius or their father for "choosing Darius over her", and she has harbored a deep and seething hatred for the family ever since. She vanished two weeks after the battle in the kidnappers' lair and has not been heard from or seen since.
In the last year since his sisters disappearance Darius has fully joined the Order of Illumination as a minor member within Magnimar. The order has been investigating a powerful evil within the city; they have already lost multiple comrades during the investigation. Comrade Rector Veron has a mission for Darius, sending him to Sandpoint looking for any leads on The Mistress, Wanton of Nature’s Pagan Forms that is the only name they have to go on currently. This mission is to be very secretive they have already lost two comrades that were looking into this name. Veron sent him with a cover as a caravan guard; he arrives in the town the day before the Swallowtail Festival.
Darius is a Rogue Paladin who is going into Shadowbane Inquisitor and a small amount of Pius Templar
Next is the goblin Dudad born 13th son to the Whisperwood Clan shaman, the Most High Shroomsayer Xorb, and so he was to take over the reigns as his clan's spiritual leader. Unfortunately for the clan Dudad was born with a keen intellect and a strong curiosity... at least by goblin standards. Weather due to a gift of heritage or perhaps the touch of destiny he was shunned by the clan even as he was trained in the beginnings of his craft. It wasn't so much that he had any special affinity for longshanks, merely that he thought it would be better to learn what they knew before killing and eating the ones that entered their caves. It was one longshank in particular that was of interest to him. This longshank was different, he didn't rush in swinging sword or axe, nor did he try to sneak past the traps and guards along the entrance to the main tunnels. He walked purposefully into the caves and invoked words of power that called forth forces of magic that Dudad had never even heard of. He was still taken down, but it was an impressive fight he put up and Dudad was singularly impressed, and intrigued, by his display of power. It didn't stop him from rifling through his things and later that day eating the meal that was comprised of his body, but he did break one tradition that day. Instead of handing over everything he found that day he kept something, a book filled with symbols and glyphs that, although he couldn't read, he understood held some sort of magical meaning.
When the rest of the clan discovered that he had stolen, and something that should have been destroyed no less, it was the last straw. Only with the application of all his cunning was he able to avoid death as he was chased from the caves. It was that night that he realized why they must have wanted the book destroyed. It was the longshanks magic. The clan had no problem with the gobbo magic that the Shroomsayer line practiced, indeed he was well on his way to becoming a master of that craft and they didn't seem to care about it. But when they learned that he wanted to study the longshank magic they had tried to kill him. Longshank magic must have been very powerful. And it was decided, he would become a master of both magic’s and with his new power he would return and reap his vengeance on his old clan.
In his first weeks of trying to juggle all the tasks that were now part of his survival he did have one good turn of luck. He befriended the half-orc Druid Ibach who had somehow learned some of the gobbo magic of his clan. Ibach even became the young goblins mentor and source of advice about the longshanks that lived nearby. He told them how they felt about the goblin clans and how they were likely to feel about one showing up and demanding anything. He said that it would be easier if he tried to help them at first and possibly tried to hide who he was until they got used to him. It was this last piece of advice that prompted the idea of reinvention to the young goblin. And when he asked what would be a good name to take as a new moniker that would inspire a sense of mystery and fear he took the advice of his mentor to use "something clever" very much to heart. From that day onward the gobbo Dudad was no more and the Shroomsayer Sumtin Kleva was born.
Sumtin Kleva uses his goblin heritage to an advantage and has learned about a goblin raid on the town or Sandpoint lead by a group of Longshanks. Ibach told him that he must save the town without his help to prove to all that sometimes it’s not something’s race but their spirit that drives them to do things.
Humans won’t listen to him because of his race but somehow he needs to stop the raid from destroying the town, he arrives outside Sandpoint the night before the Swallowtail Festival.
Sumtin Kleva is a Druid Wizard who is going to become and Arcane Hierophant and finish off with Mystic Theurge
Our last member to the group really has no name. He was an orphan found at a very young age by the Sandpoint authorities. He was raised at Turandarok Academy as an orphan he befriended very few children because of his odd appearance for he was not human no he was a Kilgoran a strange race from the spirit of the forest. He lived well in the Academy he even was training as a monk in The House of Blue Stone by Sabyl. He has gone through life never really excepting a name, someday he hopes to figure out what he wants to be called. The Academy has told him it is time to move on with life.
No Name is a Monk who is going into Dragon Descendant as well as a Fist of the Forest
This group of strange heroes hopes that it will be able to prevent THE RISE OF THE RUNELORDS.
Rova 22, 4708
The Swallowtail festival began right on schedule with the four speeches from the leaders of Sandpoint. The day is very uneventful the only thing out of the ordinary was an ugly boy ridding a huge gecko warning about a goblin raid.
Father Zanthus beginning the consecration at dusk sounded a thunderstone at the same time the goblins attack the town.
Our 6 heroes charge through the people trying to stop the goblins at this time Inya realizes that a range weapon would have been useful. Our six heroes route the first band of goblins they encountered with barley a scratch.
As our Heroes discuss the next plan of action it becomes apparent with the large explosion sound and a few flaming goblins flying through the air as they run off for the explosion they come upon a large group of goblins around the burning wagon
Our heroes begin a barrage of missile weapons upon the goblins as they charged into melee. The heroes were making short work of the goblins till the commando landed a critical blow on Proxy luckily Nar Shar’s prayers to Desna helped restore Proxy from near death.
After they routed these goblins they were catching their breath and receiving more healing from Nar Shar they heard a cry for help coming from the front of the White Deer.
As they come upon the White Deer they see a goblin armed with a Man Chopper and a Pick atop of something somewhat dog like standing over the body of a dead dog. Buncle the head jailer of the Thistletop goblins charges off his goblin dog towards the group, they engage Buncle his mount and the few goblins watching Buncle in mortal combat. Inya at this time thinks that the dog thing could make a good mount till he bit a huge chunk out of the no name monk’s thigh and gave him a horrible rash. Buncle was having a hard time hitting Darius through his armor and shield so he began his offensive on other heroes dropped the no name monk with little effort before he fell from the combined attack of the heroes. The heroes are thanked by the young nobleman they saved Aldern Foxglove who took interest in the heroic deeds of Darius Grey. The heroes loot the bodies of the goblins where they find a magical necklace and a few potions, Darius begins to show some distain towards Inya as he searches every last crevice of the downed goblins. Sumtin’s giant gecko companion ate his fill of dead goblin while everyone was recovering from the raid.
The heroes are thanked by both Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zanthus as he heals the party of their wounds. At this time the heroes notice that the ugly kid warning people of the goblin raid was really a goblin himself but the two leaders of Sandpoint except him for what he was that day a hero who protected the town. After this they all retired to where they were staying for most of them it was The Rusty Dragon
Rova 23, 4708
This was a busy day with people cleaning up after the goblin raids luckily there was only 2 residents died during the raid. Most of the party each had individual things to do that day
Nar Shar went to find someone to Identify the magical necklace during his travels he was stared at by multiple young ladies until Shayliss Vinder approached him about helping her out with a rat problem. (This got a few laughs since he is a catfolk) He went back with her to the basement and he was happy to help her with the other problem she was having until Ven Vinder started coming down the stairs. After some quick talking about how in his culture this was a great honor and a show of respect he got his pants back on and left the establishment (natural 20 on his Diplomacy with a 20 Charisma). Nar finally found that Ilsoari Gandethus at the academy could ID the necklace but it would take him the entire day and to comeback tomorrow and pick it up.
Proxy was very curious about the church and wanted to go to its consecration he was asked by Father Zantus to round up his associates he had something he wanted to talk to them about.
The No Name Monk was cleaning his stuff out of the academy and moving out to become an adventurer.
Inya checked to see if his father had any work for him and after he realized he didn’t he went to the Rusty Dragon.
Sumtin wanted someone to show him how to do Humie magic and use the magical tomb he had so he went around the town and found Issoari Gandethus who could help him learn humie magic. He had also taken the head of Buncle and was trying to make a talisman out of his head and continually got stopped throughout the town.
Darius stayed in the Rusty Dragon looking for Aldern to reward the party for saving his life in the raid the night before. Aldern was very happy to see Darius he gave him 50 gp to share amongst his fellow party members. Aldern invited the entire group to join him on a Boar Hunt in the Tickwood; Aldern accepted the invite and said they would leave at dawn on Oathday.
Proxy by late afternoon had gathered the party to speak with Father Zanthus. Zanthus took them to the Boneyard where they met up with Naffer Vosk the caretaker. He informed them that last night during the raid two graves were desecrated. Father Tobyn and his Daughter Nualia’s graves had been disturbed Fathers grave had been dug up his remains stolen and Nualia’s head stone had vanished. Sumtin was able to find tracks from about 6 to 8 goblins and two humans leaving over the Boneyards wall.
The party decided to stay around the cathedral for the consecration ceremony then went to retire for the evening the night at the Rusty Dragon. The night was uneventful besides for Darius attempted to get to know Ameiko a little better.
Rova 24, 4708
This was a very uneventful day they had told Aldern they would meet him for his boar hunt later in the week.
Nar Shar did get a chance to go and speak with Ilsoari and realized it was a Necklace of Fireballs
Rova 26, 4708
This was the morning they were to meet Aldern for the boar hunt, they all went down to the Goblin Squash stables where he purchased each person besides Sumtin who was scared to death to even approach the stables a light horse with tack.
The ride out to the Tickwood was filled with questions from Aldern he was really fascinated with Darius. Aldern had brought along two manservants to help with preparing the boar bodies. As they had made it into the forest the two manservants’ were out in front looking for signs of boars when all of a sudden a pair rushed out of the brush and killed one of the manservant’s and his horse. The group of heroes easily dispatched the boars but one interesting thing they noticed is that Aldern who was scared of a few goblins gutted a boar with his spear like it was nothing. The remaining manservant prepared the two boars to be taken back to the Rusty Dragon to be prepared for a feast tonight.
The feast was going well Shar invited his female friend Shayliss Vinder to join them at the Rusty Dragon, Darius was talking with Ameiko as the door burst open as Amele Barrett came running into the establishment crying and holding her two children after explaining her troubles to the group rushed to her house where once they went into the boys room they found Alergast on the floor of the closest, when they pulled him free they saw his face had been chewed off and a goblin jumped out of the hole and attacked them. They made short work of the goblin and tried to stop Amele from seeing her dead husband on the floor, the sheriff showed up just in time to stop a scene from happening.
Our group of heroes returned to the feast only to realize that the host had disappeared claiming he had to run back to Magnimar for an emergency laying a little suspicion on him for being involved with the goblin raid on Sandpoint. The rest of the night went well with Shar and Darius getting to know their female friends better.
Rova 27, 4708
The morning was quite the buzz around Sandpoint it was market day, the merchants from Magnimar had come back to sell their wares the party was especially interested in the magic dealer from. But the big news was that Shalelu Andosana was in town and meeting with the sheriff and the mayor. Sheriff Hemlock sent out a runner to gather our group of heroes to also speak with Shalelu. After introductions Shalelu explained everything they needed to know about goblins, Sheriff Hemlock told the heroes his idea to go to Magnimar to try to gather assistance. The party was very receptive to staying and watching the town except for the No Named Monk he wanted to know what his compensation would be for doing the sheriffs job. This started a large argument between the proud sheriff and the greedy monk. This party of heroes who were not from this town wanted no compensation but the orphan that the town had been taking care of for years wanted money for protecting the city. By the end of the argument No Name was kicked out of the meeting and asked to move out of the academy by the mayor. (this was one of the funniest points of the game night)
After they were done talking; Hemlock left for Magnimar, Shalelu and the heroes went to the Rusty Dragon at this time Shalelu said she would look around and report what she found but she couldn’t stop laughing at the argument between the No Name Monk and Hemlock. At this time Darius commented that the argument never happened and he didn’t want anyone to talk about ever again.
Rova 28 4708
Waking up at the Rusty Dragon things were different you couldn’t smell Ameiko making breakfast the morning fire was not going. So the heroes were questioning what was going on as the gathered in the main hall. Bethana Corwin approached the Heroes and told them that she feared for Ameiko’s life and gave them a letter from her brother that led the heroes to the Glassworks.
Proxy found a way to get the door open when some of the locals started questioning what was going on Darius told them they were on business for the sheriff. As the heroes entered the Glassworks they could hear something going on in the main Glass working room. When they entered the room it was filled with goblins all doing unnamed things to the dead glass workers trying to copy the masterpiece that their leader had made of his father. Our heroes got the drop on the goblins and the battle was fast and furious with the goblins main offensive was trying to thrown Sumtin into the fires. Tstuo stormed into the room saw the goblins had no chance and fled with a few goblins following him. They headed down to caves and out onto the beach and back to the Thistletop. Our heroes were worried about healing themselves and Ameiko to give him any real chase.
They found the tunnels down under the Glassworks and realized that there were another set of tunnels going deeper under the town and decided to research Tstuo’s journal and a few other things before they head down into the Catacombs under Sandpoint.
Rova 29, 4708
The heroes woke that morning and were prepared to go into the Catacombs Sumtin had spent the previous day after they had defeated the goblins training with Ilsoari and now could do some of the humie magic that he wanted to do so much. As the heroes went down into the Catacombs they were assaulted by these strange beings who were filled with Wrath, the heroes handled these 2 spawn easily. The heroes followed one of the tunnels to a chamber that had an altar to a god that Shar couldn’t identify. (his own gods arch nemesis Lamashtu) The heroes opened a set of double doors within this chamber a tiny flying creature screamed at the heroes for disturbing her and intruding in her domain. She cut her hand and summoned another spawn of wrath from the fire and turned invisible. There were three spawns in the room and they charged the heroes. The Quasit Queen was a problem for the PCs until she came visible after attempted to magically shatter Darius’s sword, Sumtin cast Fairy Fire on her and Inya called upon his magical heritage and blinded her. She became very ineffective and could do very little Sumtin’s Gecko climbed up the wall and grappled her in his mouth and killed the Quasit queen. The heroes had spent all of their resources in these two battles so the heroes returned to the Rusty Dragon and rest till morning.
Rova 30, 2708
The heroes returned to the Catacombs of Wrath having already slain the queen of this realm went through and made short work of most of its inhabitants. The only encounters of any consequences was in the Ancient Prison while Darius charged down off the stairs to be attacked by 4 Sinspawn with 2 of them getting critical hits and almost killing him. Then during the battle in the prisoner pits the mutant goblin Koruvus critically hit himself with his magical sword and almost killed himself. As a further development the party witnessed Proxy grow to a large size as they killed the Vargouille’s guarding the Washing pool
So far I have learned a major thing about doing these story hours, first off make sure to do them soon after you are done playing you forget alot of things from the game table to the computer.
I have a question for anyone reading this is this worth reading or is it total crap?
I for one am really enjoing it. I am considering running the Runelords campaign next for my group and this information is great. I say keep it up! Could you also post the level and classes of each party member.
Thanks
Bandit of LV
Really you are enjoying this? Well I will write it up next week then since at least someone likes it
Usually there are a a lot of people who read and just don't comment. Just make sure you are enjoing it as well. :)
Bandit of LV