| Quouar |
My DM converted the campaign to 4ed rules, and the two of us ran it together. There were some changes, but eventually, I got to the actual campaign. Enjoy!
The PCs
Gorash Dûn – Lawful Good Minotaur Warden. He initially worked as a bodyguard escorting important people from one city to another. His charge at the beginning of the campaign was to escort Mr. Sparkles to Hollow Mountain.
Crusher the Unfriendly – Chaotic Good Orc Bard. Crusher had been exiled from his orc tribe, and so was travelling the world, trying to make a living singing orcish folk songs. The problem was that no one but orcs found these songs even remotely endearing, and Crusher was down on his luck.
Smeri – Lawful Neutral Doppelganger Cleric. She had come to Sandpoint as a cleric of Pharasma three years before the campaign began, but also worked as a barmaid in a local inn, The Rusty Dragon. She usually took the form of a female dwarf, and told no one that she was a doppelganger.
Nathaniel – Chaotic Neutral Goblin Rogue. Nathaniel was a goblin from the nearby Birdcruncher tribe. He had left his tribe because they couldn’t appreciate his unique gift of being able to steal everything they owned, and so went to human settlements in the hopes that they would have better things for him to steal.
Mr. Sparkles – Chaotic Neutral Genasi Sorcerer. Mr. Sparkles was an utterly insane genasi not firmly understanding what this whole “reality” thing was. She had been told to take a drug-laced pie to “Grandma” in Hollow Point; however, this pie was rapidly eaten as she had entirely forgotten what it was for. Gorash was unaware of this fact.
Vipmur – Neutral Evil Goblin Invoker. Vipmur joined Nathaniel and Crusher after the two of them were thrown out of Sandpoint for rescuing Ameiko Kaijitsu. He was a goblin from the Licktoad tribe, and decided he was better off following Nathaniel and Crusher than he was taking orders from the leader of all the goblins. In retrospect, no, he wasn’t better off.
Mordecai Entreri – Chaotic Evil Human Warlock. He was a human who had been granted immortality by a demon. Though he looked like a normal nine year old boy, he was in fact a two hundred year old servant of Alaznist, a runelord rival to Karzoug. He joined Smeri in utterly annihilating the population of Sandpoint for initially unfathomable reasons which remained totally unfathomable to everyone but him.
The campaign started in the small town of Sandpoint on the first day of fall and the town’s Swallowtail festival to celebrate the opening of a new cathedral. Smeri served food to the guests and townspeople as first Nathaniel, then Gorash and Mr. Sparkles, and then Crusher entered the town.
The ceremonies began with feasting and butterflies as many people said a large number of very boring things that were probably important. Halfway through the speeches, however, goblins attacked, but through the intervention of the PCs, they were repulsed.
The whole group met back at the Rusty Dragon to celebrate their victory with large quantities of alcohol. During the reveling, a local wealthy person named Alden Foxglove proposed that they all join him for a hunting party the next day, but only Nathaniel and Crusher agreed. Smeri had to stay and work, and Gorash was not desperate to get sidetracked from delivering Mr. Sparkles safely to her destination. However, during the night as Smeri was wandering the town, she heard the screams of a townsperson named Martin being killed by a goblin, widowing his wife and leaving their baby father-less. Unwilling to accept that bad things do happen, Smeri offered to take Martin’s corpse to the nearby city of Magnimar in order to get him resurrected. She talked Gorash, Mr. Sparkles, and Foxglove into accompanying her. They left a note letting Nathaniel and Crusher know the hunt was cancelled, then left on a week-long journey to Magnimar.
In the morning, Nathaniel and Crusher awoke expecting to go hunting, but instead, were confronted by the sheriff of Sandpoint. He wanted them to see if there was any truth to the rumours of tunnels under Sandpoint. With the promise of a lucrative reward, they set out to find them, eventually arriving at a glassworks. The two of them came across a pair of goblin sentries whom they convinced to join them. In the glassworks, they found the innkeeper of the Rusty Dragon being held captive by a half-elf and a bunch of goblins. The intrepid heroes defeated the goblins with the half-elf fleeing for his life as they escorted the innkeeper to the town, demanding a reward the whole way. Once they returned to the town, they received their reward, and were told that if they can map out the caves, they would receive an even bigger reward. Being lazy but greedy, they agreed, and camped outside the town for a few days, eventually scrawling something vaguely map-like and returned, still demanding a reward. Shockingly, no one believed they explored anything, and an elven goblin hunter named Shalelu was sent. Fearing their promised wealth would disappear if Shalelu returned with the news that they were lying, they chased her through the tunnels, encountering monsters and a demon, and ultimately pursuing her out through the lighthouse and into the town itself. They were told to leave the town and never come back. They left.
Meanwhile, Smeri, Gorash, Martin, and Mr. Sparkles arrived in Magnimar, Foxglove having been eaten by a giant worm on the way. Smeri was informed that she needed 500g of diamonds in order to complete the raise dead ritual, which she did not have. So, the three characters split up to search for diamonds. Smeri went to a ritual shop to try and buy the materials, but because she didn’t have money, she was turned away. Instead, she used her doppelganger ability to change form in order to scam drunken men out of all their money. Gorash wandered the city, looking for a boat that would take him to Hollow Point, eventually finding one that would leave in a week. Thinking everything was set, he returned to the temple of Pharasma where Smeri was waiting. Mr. Sparkles, on the other hand, took an entirely different view of this whole “search for someone to help resurrect Martin” thing, and blew up a random person. She was arrested, put on trial for murder, and hanged, all in a day. Smeri and Gorash were briefly arrested, but when it was realized that they did nothing wrong, they were released. Gorash was not overly bothered. They resurrected Martin and headed back towards Sandpoint.
Crusher, Vipmur, and Nathaniel headed to the main goblin citadel, Thistletop, seeking to figure out why the head of the Thistletop clan was killing everyone. Along the way, Crusher kidnapped a random peasant girl named Katrina and made friends with her. She came along with them. Upon reaching the citadel, they ended up being lead around by a bugbear trying to kill Shalelu. They all went back to Sandpoint and demanded she be thrown out so they could kill her. Instead, the guards arrived to kill them. Fighting back, the goblins killed the guards while the bugbear charged through the town looking for the explorer, leading Katrina. Crusher followed him out of concern for Katrina while the goblins charged into the cathedral, still looking for Shalelu. By this time, more guards had arrived, and the goblins fled to a house to hide. They killed the inhabitants – a woman and her baby – and hid there. Crusher chased the bugbear through the town, trying to rescue Katrina. When the bugbear tried to kill her, Crusher attacked him, allowing the guards to arrest them both. The guards also found Vipmur, but not Nathaniel, who escaped to Magnimar unscathed. The bugbear was beheaded, Vipmur was hanged, and Crusher was placed in prison, the guards being unsure of what to do with him.
The day after the attack on Sandpoint by Nathaniel and his company, Smeri, Gorash, and Martin returned to Sandpoint. Martin discovered that his family had been killed by goblins, and was rightfully mad. He went and got ridiculously drunk. Smeri realised that the orc who had taken part in the raid on Sandpoint was being held in the jail, and demanded he be handed over so she could exact justice upon him. The guards said no, and she went crazy, insisting that they were all evil and collaborating with murderers. It was at this point that Gorash decided it would be best if he left, and went to Magnimar. Smeri, on the other hand, began harassing the keepers of the law to the point where Crusher was moved to the safety of the tunnels under Sandpoint. Smeri followed, chasing him through the tunnels and killing his guards. Crusher fled to the Sandpoint jail, Smeri in pursuit, both followed by Mordecai, who had arrived in Sandpoint early that morning. When they reached the town, Crusher told them what had happened in the tunnels while Smeri insisted that Crusher was responsible. The guards tried to arrest Smeri, who transformed and hid in the town. Mordecai went to the guards and confessed to all the murders, getting thrown in jail himself. However, he quickly broke out and stole a book with a seven-pointed star on the front that the guards had taken from Crusher. He killed all the guards in the prison as he escaped. By this time, the citizens of Sandpoint were fleeing en masse from Smeri and Mordecai, so they followed the fleeing survivors, killed them all, then went back to Sandpoint. Here, Mordecai killed whoever was left while Smeri reflected on her actions by praying in the cathedral. Martin confronted her here, asking if the death of all these people was worth revenge for two deaths, and she ended up comatose with guilt. Mordecai kept killing people.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel was making an honest living as a merchant in Magnimar until Gorash came and warned him that a crazy doppelganger might come looking for him. Deciding that being dead was no fun, Nathaniel and Gorash left Magnimar and headed east where they came to an archaeological site. They were hired to dig out a giant statue, but Nathaniel ended up having a bounty placed on his head by the other diggers instead. He and Gorash formulated a plan to infiltrate the group of diggers (who were actually mercenaries). Gorash brought Nathaniel to the leader, who then tried to convince Nathaniel to go and get a password from the dwarf, Morose Bladenfist, who was funding the dig. Morose refused to give up the password, instead asking for help in not being killed by the mercenaries. Nathaniel agreed to help by bringing a letter to the Pathfinders’ Guild in Magnimar while Gorash stayed to try and gain the trust of the mercenaries. He ended up standing guard duty with a mercenary named Orfan, and they became friends.
In Sandpoint, an elf, a half-elf, and a purple woman showed up to destroy the town, but were greeted by Mordecai saying he had already done it. Unsure of how to respond to this, they took Mordecai and Smeri prisoner, and headed to Magnimar to kill the survivors that had made it there. Along the way, the random elf left, tried to kill them, then left again. They arrived in Magnimar and checked into an inn. Here, Mordecai contacted his patron, Alaznist, and mocked her for being mad at him. She told him to return to Sandpoint. He didn’t. Instead, he, Tsuto (the half-elf), and Nuallia (the purple woman) split up to search the town for the survivors, not knowing that Smeri had escaped and told the guards what they were planning. Tsuto got arrested while Mordecai tracked a survivor to one neighbourhood. He and Nuallia made their plans, but before they could go and exact revenge, Smeri warned the survivors about the impending doom. However, since Smeri had been killing them all earlier, the residents of Sandpoint were loathe to believe her, and only one group of the survivors fled. When Mordecai and Nuallia arrived at the neighbourhood, there was no one there but guards, whom Nuallia promptly annihilated. Convinced she was protected by the goddess Lamashtu, Nuallia stormed from place to place, demanding to know where the people of Sandpoint were. She and Mordecai found a map of the city with the location of the survivors marked. They went to one of the marked neighbourhoods, but because Smeri had warned the guards, the two of them fell into an ambush. Nuallia was killed by arrows while Mordecai barely escaped with his life. He fled to a temple where he fell, badly injured, and was finally arrested and taken to jail.
Smeri was briefly questioned about the murders in Sandpoint, but because some of the survivors were lying for her, she was not arrested. Instead, she stayed at the temple of Pharasma doing cleric-y things and being good.
Nathaniel arrived in Magnimar just in time to watch the Pathfinders’ Guild get sacked by the mercenaries looking for the password to the statue. He decided to ride back to the archaeological dig to let Morose know that his life was in danger. Once there, he rescued Morose, Gorash, and Orfan, and they all set off for Magnimar.
Mordecai was put on an unfair trial where he was found guilty of 34 counts of murder, 58 counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and 72 counts of attempted murder. While this would usually mean he would be hanged on the spot, because he was a little kid, the judge refused to do it. Instead, he sentenced Mordecai to spend the rest of his life in the dungeons of the Order of the Nail, or the Hellknights. This was an unpleasant fate, but Mordecai really didn’t have much of a choice. He was chained up and put in a wagon bound for the Order of the Nail’s citadel near Korvosa, another city. Along the way, the wagon stopped and a strange woman entered the wagon and made him an offer. He could either ride in the wagon for another half hour and get killed by the Hellknights guarding him, or he could agree to serve her for the rest of his life, and she would free him. After some consideration, Mordecai decided it was probably a better idea to live than die. He was placed under a geas, or magical shackle that forced him to do whatever he was told. The mysterious woman also carved a seven-pointed star into his shoulder. He was then sent on his way to Harper’s Ferry to meet a woman named Lanya.
Nathaniel, Gorash, Orfan, and Morose arrived in Magnimar unharmed. Morose convinced the Pathfinders’ Guild to fund an expedition to talk to gnomes in order to learn more about the Thassilonian Empire, which they might have been alive during. Nathaniel, Gorash, and Orfan were hired as bodyguards, and they all headed to Bitter Hollow, which was near Harper’s Ferry.
Smeri was called to a meeting with the mayor of Magnimar where she was hired to go check on Fort Rannick, which was near Harper’s Ferry. She decided to take Martin with her, mainly to keep an eye on him as well as so they both would have company.
Mordecai had nearly arrived at Harper’s Ferry when he was met along the road by a mysterious woman. She revealed herself to be Lanya, and that she was in the employ of Xanesha, the one who had put the geas on Mordecai. She told him to go into the town and stay at the inn there. She put additional limits on him, such as being unable to tell anyone about the geas or about her, as she was supposed to be dead. He went into the town and was greeted by a priest. Sensing a potential way to get out of the geas, Mordecai tried to gain the priest’s trust by telling him about the geas without triggering it, as well as telling him some things about himself. The priest said he would pray about it, so Mordecai went to the inn. There, he contacted Alaznist, who was utterly thick and had no idea what the problem was, but really was quite annoyed at him for getting distracted from the mission she had given him. Mordecai was once again ordered to bring the book to Sandpoint, even though he couldn’t as he no longer had the book. So, he decided to just stay in his inn room. In the evening, however, a “partner” joined him, someone whom he had been told not to harm. This someone was Tsuto, also under a geas, and they were equally unhappy to see each other. It was thanks to Tsuto that Mordecai had been sentenced to prison at all, and Tsuto held Mordecai responsible for Nuallia’s death. After hilarity about not being able to kill each other ensued, the two went to their separate rooms, resolving not to speak to each other more than they had to.
The next day, he and Tsuto met Lanya outside the town, and were sent to Hook Mountain and the stronghold of the Kreeg clan of ogres. There, they delivered a message to King Breakbones, a giant, telling him to move his forces to Jorgunfist. They almost got eaten by the giant as they delivered their message. Then, Mordecai and Tsuto went to Skull Crossing, a dam which, if broken, would flood a substantial portion of the land. Ogres were busily trying to smash it. The two of them relayed this information to Lanya, who then finally let them sleep. Mordecai reflected on his day and came to the conclusion that the ogres just might be evil and that he just might be working for the villain. This did not overly bother him.
That night, Gorash, Nathaniel, Orfan, and Morose arrived in Harper’s Ferry and decided to stay in the inn. Nathaniel decided to sleep in Tsuto’s room, much to Tsuto’s displeasure and Mordecai’s amusement. However, after Mordecai left the next morning to go fishing, Tsuto approached Nathaniel with a proposition. He would give Nathaniel more wealth than he could imagine if Nathaniel would kill Mordecai. Even though Nathaniel was tempted by the wealth, he had doubts because he had issues with killing a child. He hadn’t liked doing it in Sandpoint, and he didn’t want to do it now. However, in case he changed his mind, Nathaniel was told to meet Lanya at 2:00 and talk to her about it. After a brief discussion with the rest of the group, it was agreed that going to meet Lanya was a bad idea, but that they should at least warn Mordecai that Tsuto was trying to kill him. They did so, and invited Mordecai to come with them, but he refused. Nathaniel, Gorash, Orfan, and Morose then left him and headed to Bitter Hollow.
Mordecai and Tsuto met Lanya outside town at 2:00. Mordecai “accidently” let it slip that Tsuto had tried to hire Nathaniel to kill him, so Lanya instructed them to carve a 7-pointed star somewhere onto Nathaniel, somehow. The two of them headed back to the inn.
Nathaniel, Gorash, Morose, and Orfan arrived in Bitter Point, where, much to everyone except Morose’s displeasure, there was no inn. They headed into the forest, but because it was creepy and enchanted, they turned around and left, instead heading back to Harper’s Ferry, and the inn.
Smeri and Martin arrived in Harper’s Ferry that afternoon. They walked around the town, ate lunch, then went to the inn. There, Smeri saw Nathaniel and went into a murderous rage. She chased him into Gorash’s room, screaming at him. Mordecai came to see what was going on, but instead managed to distract Smeri from Nathaniel by just existing. The two of them then tried to kill each other while everyone but Tsuto escaped. Upon realising that Smeri was winning the fight between them, Mordecai turned and fled, at which point, Smeri realised the guards were coming. She turned into a half-elf and hid while the guards attempted to chase Tsuto. Once they were gone, she and Martin hid in the temple. There, they talked to the priest, Jerris, who told Smeri that Mordecai was under a geas. Realising she could help him, and believing this would explain his actions in Sandpoint, she chased after him, following him to Bitter Hollow.
Mordecai went with Gorash, Nathaniel, Orfan, and Morose back to Bitter Hollow to hide from Smeri. There, they stayed in a random guy’s house. About half an hour after they arrived, Smeri came to the door and was let in. She went to Gorash’s room where Mordecai was hiding, convinced Gorash to let her take him, and left with Mordecai. Nathaniel chased after them, and Smeri let him come along, knowing that it was really the only way that she could get either of them to co-operate.
They arrived back at the temple where Martin was still awake and praying. While Smeri went to wake up Jerris, Mordecai and Nathaniel sat down behind him, and started to make small talk when Martin realised that Nathaniel had killed his wife and child. Martin attacked, but Mordecai stood in the middle and protected Nathaniel. Martin fled into the night. Smeri came down and with Jerris’s help, lifted the geas from Mordecai, then asking him if it had been in effect in Sandpoint. He said yes. She believed him, and so let the two of them go back to Bitter Hollow. Smeri went looking for Martin, and found him passed out in the inn. She carried him back to the temple, and there they fell asleep.
After getting back, Mordecai told everyone that Tsuto would be hunting Nathaniel, as well as the fact that ogres were attempting to destroy a dam. They all pondered this for a moment, then decided it was late. They all went to sleep. The next morning, Mordecai contacted Alaznist who informed him that his soul would be harvested if he ever died, as would the souls of anyone who had the seven-pointed star on their arm. This was a bad thing.
Smeri and Martin headed off to Fort Rannick, meeting Shalelu along the way. She was looking for someone in Fort Rannick, so the three of them stuck together. However, when they got to the fort, they noticed that there was a hole in the wall, that the doors were crooked, and that it was on fire. This boded ill, but Smeri nevertheless entered the fort via a secret tunnel that led to the basements. There, she met a woman named Lanya, and rather than automatically attacking each other, the two of them had a lovely conversation about the state of the world. Lanya knew that Smeri had freed Mordecai from the geas, and stated as much, reassuring her that Mordecai had in fact been lying about being under a geas at Sandpoint. Lanya also told her Mordecai was a sort of demon doing the bidding of Alaznist, an evil bloodthirsty wizardess who wanted to re-enter the world so she could subjugate it. Lanya said that she had tried to use Mordecai against Alaznist, but had failed because the geas broke before she had intended it to. She tried to petition Smeri’s help, and Smeri agreed to help kill Mordecai, but at the same time, she was suspicious. Lanya had called her an unequivocally good person, and Smeri knew full well she was nothing of the sort. Still, she and Martin headed to Bitter Hollow intending to find and kill not just Mordecai, but also Nathaniel.
However, when they arrived in the town and found where Mordecai, Nathaniel, and Gorash were staying, Smeri tried to attack them. Instead, she was utterly over-whelmed. She was knocked out, tied up, and then interrogated. They found out where Lanya was, knowledge which elated Mordecai. Gorash, however, was sick of being woken up at odd hours by one fight or another, and made Nathaniel and Mordecai apologise to Smeri. Nathaniel apologised for ruining someone else’s life rather than hers. Mordecai apologised for not killing her. Smeri just fumed, but everyone went to bed. Gorash stayed in the room with Martin and Smeri, keeping an eye on them.
The next morning, Mordecai brought Gorash and Smeri into the pentacle with him as he contacted his patron, hoping she could persuade Smeri that she and Mordecai were not the most dire evil facing the world. Instead, Alaznist gave Mordecai the ability to put someone under a geas, albeit a weak one.
Gorash, Nathaniel, Orfan, and Morose went to see the gnomes while Mordecai was left to guard Smeri and Martin. He used this opportunity to geas her by threatening to kill Martin. He commanded her to not speak a word, as well as to not harm him in any way. In the forest, the trees tried to eat people, and the gnomes were very annoyed about all this, telling the group to leave immediately. Morose was heart-broken, but they all left. Once they were back in Bitter Hollow, Mordecai persuaded them all to help him capture Lanya, so they all went to Fort Rannick. They tried to sneak in through the tunnels, but instead were attacked by shocker lizards. After those were defeated, they tried to sneak inside, but everyone was very noisy. When they opened the door to Lanya’s bedroom, they saw a pile of coins. Nathaniel was entranced, but Mordecai pulled him away and went up the stairs. Lanya spoke to them from places unknown, trying to lure them all into her traps, but once again, Mordecai was sufficiently distracting. While they were being attacked by an ogre, Lanya and Tsuto attacked them from a side room, Tsuto almost strangling Mordecai before he could wriggle away. They blasted the ogre and Tsuto into oblivion, then captured Lanya and carried her out to the forest where they tied her to a tree and waited for her to wake up. When she finally did, Mordecai attempted to threaten her, but instead, she told the entire group he had wiped out Sandpoint, had been convicted as a murderer in Magnimar and was an all-in-all pretty evil guy. Gorash attacked Mordecai, and while the two of them were trying to kill each other, Lanya tried to persuade first Nathaniel and then Smeri to let her go. However, rather than let her go, Nathaniel just stabbed her, utterly traumatised by all of this.
The group tied up the unconscious Mordecai and took him to Bitter Hollow where they tied him to a chair and waited to see what would happen. Gorash told him to remove the geas from Smeri, but Mordecai lied and said that he couldn’t do it. Not knowing what would happen to Smeri if they killed him, they left him tied him up with a guard standing over him at all times. The next morning, furious at Mordecai’s refusal to let Smeri speak, Gorash cut off the warlock’s arm, but before he could do more, Nathaniel rescued Mordecai, taking him to Harper’s Ferry where he could be healed. Gorash, Smeri, Orfan, and Morose went into the gnome forest, but before long, they were attacked, and left. Instead, they all decided to go back to Magnimar, but before they could get far, the dam at Skull’s Crossing cracked, causing a massive flood. Orfan was killed, and Harper’s Ferry was flooded. Smeri and Gorash went to investigate the dam, clearing out the ogres and coming across a demon in the basement. Morose found this fascinating, and accidently helped the demon lower the water level behind the dam. The demon then died. Deciding that something like this should be investigated further, Smeri and Gorash decided to go to the ogres’ lair in the mountains to see if Lanya’s death had had any effect on their activities.
Nathaniel and Mordecai headed for Magnimar, but along the way, they encountered the mercenaries who had placed a bounty on Nathaniel. Mordecai was captured and held because he knew what the seven-pointed star meant. However, Nathaniel rescued him and they continued on their way to Magnimar.
Smeri and Gorash arrived at the Kreeg Clanhold where Smeri turned into Mordecai so they could get in without dying. It worked, and though they aroused Barl’s suspicions, they found out where the ogres were supposed to go and under whose orders. They decided it would be a good idea to go there and investigate. On the dam, they were attacked by Magyar, but they defeated him easily, getting a boat, and rowing up the river.
Just before reaching the gates of Magnimar, Mordecai placed Nathaniel under a geas not so he could control him, but so Nathaniel couldn’t be geased by Xanesha. They then split up, Mordecai going around the wall to a less guarded place and Nathaniel to the front gate. However, at the gate, Hellknights were interrogating everyone who entered the city. Nathaniel managed to get past them, though the whole city was crawling with them, and got a room at an inn. Mordecai turned himself into a smoke monster and flew over the walls and into the city, materialising in Nathaniel’s room. Nathaniel hired a bounty hunter to find Xanesha. The next morning, he bought a hat of disguise for Mordecai, and then the two of them wandered the city looking for information. Mordecai found nothing of use, and so contacted the entity whom Xanesha had instructed him to contact when she first geased him. This entity turned out to be Karzoug who was highly entertained by the fact that Mordecai was contacting him and asking for his soul back. Karzoug said no. The next day, Mordecai found Xanesha by following Justice Ironbriar around. He confronted her, but she called the guards, forcing him to flee. However, the Hellknights now knew that not only was he in the city, but he was also wearing a hat of disguise purchased by a goblin. Fearing that the Hellknights would close in on them very soon, the duo decided to lie low at the inn and wait for the bounty hunter to come back.
However, the next afternoon, Hellknights came to the inn looking for them. Mordecai forced Nathaniel to disguise himself as Mordecai and get arrested, providing enough distraction for the actual Mordecai to turn into smoke and vanish. Nathaniel was taken to the guard tower and interrogated. After being freed from the geas, he was locked up and told he would be released when Mordecai was captured or killed. Meanwhile, Mordecai went to Justice Ironbriar’s house and waited in a tree. Once it was night, he tried to get into the house, but it was protected by a ward. Alerted as to where he was by the ward, Hellknights descended around him, but he escaped, hiding in a chimney. After shadowform wore off, Mordecai was stuck in the chimney. However, the bounty hunter Nathaniel had hired, Batman, found him, pulled him out, and agreed to help find a way to get around the ward. The two of them also put their knowledge together to come to the conclusion that Xanesha had in fact killed the mayor and was responsible for a great deal of the crime in Magnimar. What they could do with this information, though, was beyond them, but Batman said he would contact his connections and they would meet the next morning. Rather than meeting Batman the next morning, though, Mordecai was rudely awakened by Hellknights coming to blow up the house where he was sleeping. He hid under a floorboard, and so escaped them until Batman came back. Batman admitted that he had betrayed Mordecai, but that he had no choice as his family was being held hostage, and if he didn’t co-operate, his family would die. Mordecai still talked him into helping him get into Justice Ironbriar’s house with the lie that Batman’s family would be safe. They made their plans for later in the day.
Nathaniel, meanwhile, was still very annoyed that he was in jail, so he offered to help the Hellknights capture Mordecai. Instead of trusting him implicitly, Xanesha showed up and marked his face with a seven-pointed star, claiming his soul for Karzoug. This made Nathaniel even more not happy.
Mordecai’s plan for getting into Ironbriar’s house went off without a problem. At 4:15, as Ironbriar was walking home from the courthouse, Batman – disguised as Mordecai – attacked his guards, distracting them long enough for Mordecai to turn into a smoke monster and fly up Ironbriar’s nose. From there, he commanded Ironbriar to tell no one he was there, and to go straight home, letting no one else in. Ironbriar did so, and as soon as it was safe, Mordecai re-materialised and put Ironbriar under a geas, commanding him to behave completely normally. However, when Xanesha came home, Ironbriar was unable to act normally, and so was killed by the geas. After a brief conversation with Mordecai, Xanesha attacked, with Mordecai eventually winning. He tied her up and was going to attempt to place her under a geas, but was interrupted by the arrival of Hellknights. Instead, he beheaded her, and left Magnimar. Later that night, he flew to the bell tower where Ironbriar had said Xanesha lived. There, he found her journal as well as his book. He left the journal in a shop where it would be found by a responsible person, then took the book and left Magnimar, bound for Sandpoint. The next day, Nathaniel was freed after swearing an oath to hunt down and bring Mordecai to justice.
Smeri, Gorash, and Morose arrived at the Jorgunfist with Smeri disguised as Lanya so they could get in. They tricked the giants into letting them into the fort. There, they accidently killed a giant clan lord, but before they could get in trouble for it, they were sent to the pit to meet with Mokmurian, the leader of the giants. They got ridiculously lost while trying to find him, killing a lamia, and giving themselves away. However, they found Mokmurian in an absurdly large library which they promptly destroyed, nearly giving Morose a heart attack. They managed to kill Mokmurian, though, took all his secret notes, maps, and documents, then escaped through a series of side tunnels. After reading the notes, they discovered that Mokmurian was trying to cause chaos throughout the world so that it would be easier for Karzoug – whom he had awakened – to return. There were also directions to Xin-Shalast (Karzoug’s fortress), and the Runeforge, a source of great power. They learned that Karzoug was a powerful runelord from the time of the Thassilonian Empire which had collapsed 10,000 years ago. However, through arcane magic, Karzoug and the other runelords had managed to extend their lives that they might be awakened at some later time. If Karzoug were to return to the material plane now, though, he would be able to take over the world in a matter of months, returning it to slavery and the worship of greed that had existed under his rule. They decided going to the Runeforge would be an excellent idea as it would give them a way to prevent his return.
Mordecai made it to the cathedral under Sandpoint unscathed and used the proper ritual at the orange glowy pool, or runewell. This let Alaznist return to the world, but be bound to the runewell. As a reward, she gave Mordecai lots of power and marked him as her champion with black runes all over his body, but during this process, Nathaniel came in. Sensing that giving Mordecai oodles of power was probably a bad thing, Nathaniel attacked and almost killed Mordecai, but died instead. Alaznist gave Mordecai a new silvery arm, then Mordecai left the cathedral, bound for the Runeforge so he could get tools that would allow him to kill Karzoug.
Smeri, Gorash, and Morose arrived there first, and after several hours of sitting around a cave trying to figure out how to get in, they discovered the ritual that would open the door. Initially, it summoned a dragon, but after convincing the dragon to not eat them, they went inside the Runeforge. There, they saw statues of the seven runelords set up in a seven-pointed star, each with a path behind it. Each of the runelords was also associated with one of the seven deadly sins, with the chambers being named for the sin. They took the path behind Karzoug, going into the Greed chambers. After opening a set of heavy golden, gem-encrusted doors, there was a green flash, and Morose vanished. After opening another set of golden doors, they came to a room with bookshelves, three pools of fish, and a man made of metal named Ordikon. The man greeted them, told them Morose had been turned into a fish, then asked what they were doing there. When Smeri told him they were looking for a way to kill Karzoug and would he please turn Morose back into a dwarf, Ordikon got angry and attacked. Gorash and Smeri beat him unconscious, then kept demanding he turn Morose back into a dwarf, but he just ignored them until they threatened to burn all his books. Then he turned Morose back into a dwarf.
After that, Smeri and Gorash decided it would be best if Morose did not explore all the random corridors with them. Instead, they left him in the central room while they explored other corridors. They first went down the Pride corridor, but found only a dead body and a journal written in Thassilonian. They gave the journal to Morose to translate while they explored the Envy corridor. This area was utterly annihilated, and it looked like a battle had taken place there. However, when they went back to the central room, they found no Morose, and a few claw marks in the floor. They followed the claw marks to the Pride corridor where they found the aforementioned dragon wreaking havoc. The dragon informed them that Morose had gone to the Gluttony corridor. So the intrepid adventurers went there where they found a lich who demanded a different body in exchange for Morose. Smeri and Gorash brought him Ordikon, rescued Morose, then went to sleep after a long and completely productive day.
The next day, Mordecai arrived, and though initially, the two groups did not see each other, a meeting was inevitable. Smeri and Gorash explored the labrynthian (but empty) Sloth corridors while Mordecai went to the Wrath corridors. In Wrath, he discovered thirty-something people, but only one of whom who actually knew anything about what he was talking about. Dahlia was the only one who knew what he was talking about, and told him that they had nothing that could help him, but that he should check Pride as that was home to the most powerful wizard. He went to Lust and was once again told to go to Pride, so he did while Smeri and Gorash went to Wrath. In Wrath, they killed all the soldiers and took the queen captive, carrying her back to Envy to try and get information out of her. Mordecai found nothing useful in Pride, and so went to Envy where he ran into Smeri, Gorash, and Morose trying to communicate with the queen. Mordecai set her free, then translated the journal they had found in Pride, saying that they needed the essence of Pride and the essence of Lust in order to destroy the runewell to which Karzoug was attached. Unbeknownst to Mordecai, Smeri and Gorash already had the essence of Pride, so they informed him they were going to get the essence of Lust. Mordecai didn’t tell them the residents of Lust would kill them on sight, and let them go. When Morose tried to warn them, Mordecai grabbed him, and took him with him to Pride. However, on the way, Mordecai noticed that the dragon had gone in Wrath, and decided to take a detour there instead.
Morose got away from Mordecai and went into Lust to warn Smeri and Gorash that it was a trap, but the succubus, Delphaphine, had already informed them that she had been told to kill them. While Smeri tried to convince Delphaphine that no, they were not there to kill her, Mordecai burst in, followed by a zombie dragon, zombified Ordikon, and Kazavin, the lich from Gluttony. Everyone tried to retreat into the pavilion, but couldn’t because Delphaphine was being a jerk. Instead, they all fought Kazavin, Ordikon, and the dragon. Smeri nearly died twice, but thanks to Gorash, she didn’t. They killed the enemies, and Delphaphine was so ridiculously grateful that she gave Smeri the essence of Lust. She also told them that Smeri, Gorash, and Morose had no way out of the Runeforge as the only door had sealed behind them. Mordecai helpfully pointed out that he, and only he, could activate the portal because he was Alaznist’s champion, thus ensuring that Smeri and Gorash still couldn’t kill him for stabbing them in the back. Using the essences of Pride and Lust, each of them enchanted their weapons to be able to kill Karzoug. Mordecai let first Delphaphine out of the Runeforge, then everyone else. The four of them (Smeri, Gorash, Morose, and Mordecai) stuck together on their way to Xin-Shalast, much to Smeri and Gorash’s displeasure as they were still convinced Mordecai was going to kill them in their sleep. Two weeks later, they arrived at Xin-Shalast to find it crawling with guards. So, the group crossed the glacier above the city, arriving in the city at night. They snuck up to the fortress, but only Mordecai could enter because only he had a sihedron medallion, or a medallion with the seven-pointed star on it. He shadowformed and infiltrated the fortress, materialising in a bedroom with one sleeping giant. He stole the giant’s medallion, killing it. At this point, Karzoug began to speak to Mordecai via the medallion around Mordecai’s neck. He congratulated him on not being completely incompetent, then yelled for everyone in the entire fortress to kill Mordecai. He ran helter skelter for the main exit, managing to grab a medallion from a giant as he escaped.
Meanwhile, Karzoug sent his dragon to kill Smeri and Gorash who were waiting on a ledge for Mordecai to get back with the medallions. Gorash froze the dragon in an ice ball as it tried to land on the ledge, causing it to fall back down and smash on the ground. The dragon was angry at Gorash, and so knocked him off the ledge. However, Gorash managed to grab and climb onto the dragon, riding it as he continued to attack it. The two of them flew all over Xin-Shalast, eventually crashing on the ridge outside the city where they had left Morose. Gorash killed the dragon single-handedly, but Karzoug had alerted the giants to the fact that a minotaur was running rampant. Gorash ran for the glacier, sprinted across it and landed in the jungle on the edge of Xin-Shalast. The giants didn’t follow him in, instead forming a perimetre around it. Smeri and Mordecai decided to go and help, and began to climb down the mountain.
In the jungle, the creepy jungle, no lions slept tonight. However, Gorash did come across several giants possessed by sentient vines as well as the pool that was almost certainly keeping the entire jungle alive and hostile. Still, Gorash made it through without incident, meeting Smeri and Mordecai on the other side. They blasted their way through lots of giants, finally reaching the main golden road of Xin-Shalast. They rested there for a moment, but as they did so, a man came out of one of the buildings and started walking up the road towards them. The trio met him halfway, and while Smeri and Gorash knew he was going to attack them at any moment, Mordecai had a nice conversation with him. The man was in fact a demon named Gmirr, and he and Mordecai had met before as this was the demon had who had given Mordecai immortality. This was quite exciting for Mordecai as he had lots of things he wanted to ask Gmirr, but because they were trying to kill Karzoug, there wasn’t really time for such things. He asked Smeri and Gorash if Gmirr could come with them, re-assuring them that he knew Gmirr quite well. However, for some reason, Smeri and Gorash did not trust Gmirr and refused, causing Gmirr to tell them that he had given Mordecai immortality. This made Mordecai quite mad, and he attacked. Before the three of them could kill Gmirr, though, the demon disappeared, making Mordecai even madder.
They entered Karzoug’s citadel where everything was made of gold or some other fabulously expensive thing. They came across a rune giant and his four stone giant charges, but after the rune giant was dead, the stone giants fled, terrified of Gorash. Upon coming to a crossroads in the citadel, Mordecai thought he saw Gmirr and ran after him, leading them into a laboratory with bubbling potions of transmogrification everywhere. Here, they also found Karzoug’s chief apprentice, Khalib. As they were fighting Khalib, a woman with a golden scimitar and glittering runes came from behind them. Mordecai recognised her as Karzoug’s champion, Viorian Dekanti, and showed his own runes to reveal who he served. The two of them fought it out while Smeri and Gorash finished off Khalib. It rapidly became evident, however, that Viorian was much stronger than Mordecai, and Gorash and Smeri had to come to his rescue. Smeri ducked into a side room during the battle where Karzoug materialised, blasted her unconscious, then de-materialised. Mordecai healed her, nearly getting blasted by Karzoug himself, while Gorash cut off Viorian’s legs. The trio healed and continued up the citadel, finally arriving in a chamber with a pagoda in the center and a large gem on one wall. They smashed the gem, revealing a portal through reality. Knowing how close Karzoug was to coming back into the material plane, Mordecai stepped through first followed a moment later by Smeri and Gorash.
They were in a chamber of similar size to the last one, but this one had an infinitely high ceiling and crystalline walls with souls floating behind it. In the centre of the room was a red gem which was Karzoug’s runewell. However, between the adventurers and the runewell stood Karzoug himself. There was no time for conversation, so Gorash charged Karzoug while Mordecai darted around and started blasting the runewell. Karzoug saw what they were trying to do, and so dominated Smeri into strangling Mordecai into unconsciousness. The party was losing the fight badly when Mordecai woke back up and blasted the runewell into oblivion. The chamber collapsed around them, sealing Karzoug in another plane of existence forever.
When they re-awoke, they were back in the pagoda room. There, they agreed not to kill each other, and that they would all say Mordecai just died here so none of them would ever have to deal with each other again. Smeri and Gorash returned to Magnimar with Morose while Mordecai went back to Sandpoint.
In Magnimar, Gorash helped Morose tell the Pathfinders’ Guild all about Xin-Shalast, and stayed with him for the rest of both their lives. Smeri told the leaders of Magnimar what had happened to Fort Rannick and everything that had occurred after. They thanked her for saving the world, and she returned to the church of Pharasma, eventually becoming the high priestess.
Halfway to Sandpoint, Mordecai began to hear Alaznist’s screams of rage in his head, and when he got to the runewell, it had been destroyed. He began looking for another one, though because of her time in the material realm, Alaznist could communicate with him in his mind, but most of that “communication” came in the form of constant screaming inside his head slowly driving him mad.