After a long hiatus, we started a new campaign, run by ChrisJ, with the usual cast of players in our group. This is the first post of the campaign (I get xp for posting the summaries!), so it's going to be a bit long. 

There were six playa's in our group and ChrisJ offered an idea for rolling up characters, as he's seemingly been inspired by OD&D: 3d6, in order, with the chance to swap out one stat with another. If the modifiers were cumulatively negative, the playa got the chance to reroll. 
We went with this and most rolled what would be considered blah characters in most corners. I think most players tried to branch out a bit and try new classes.
Our intrepid band of adventurers for the campaign:
Arkum - Half Pict Warlock
Aristophanes - Atlantean Ranger
Vilograax - Hyperborean Priest
Vindex - Pictish Fighter
Miases Spakos - Ixian Assasin
Kallistos - Amazon Paladin

The group started the campaign in the town of Dust, located along a caravan route in the Zakath Desert. The Witch Queen of Yithorium has called adventurers from all around to find fortune and fame in desert! 
We started in the watering hole of Mog's, drinking fermented camel's milk. Two dusty, weary caravan guards named Vaan and Qaan dragged themselves into Mog's, talking about being ambushed by hyena-men and a large chest full of gold the caravan was guarding being dragged off. 
Hearing the siren's call of gold, the group forsook details from Vaan and Qaan and boldly followed them to where the ambush happened. The fresh corpses and abandoned wagons gave the unspoken confirmation of the ambush while the heavy chest that was dragged was easily told us the route the hyena-men went.
The group followed the trail to an opening of an subterranean lair, without any door or gate. We entered and found the layer to be constructed of smooth, white sheen walls. Soon we encountered a wolf, followed by several hyena-men. While the fighter types were dispatching our enemies, the paladin and priest were immediately waylaid by 2 additional hyena-men, with the priest immediately falling victim to the attack from the rear. 
After the hyena-men and wolf were dealt with and items of value were taken from the priest, a Viking berserker, Lodmundr, came upon the group from way of the entrance. It seems that Lodmundr had been in the privy whilst the group had left and finally caught up with them.
Inspecting the corpses of their foes, the party discovered the hyena-men to be diseased! Bravely the party continued on, pushing deeper into the underground lair, soon entering into a room with 9 more hyena-men, a hyena-man chieftain and a bound man who clearly was a captive from the ambush, along with a large yellow colored stone.
Unable to control himself, Lodmundr went into a murderous berserker rage, slaying many hyena-men and their chieftain. After the battle was over, Lodmundr became languid while the party unbound the captive, who was clearly diseased and proceeded to call out Vaan and Qaan as cowards. After naming those two craven, the captive gave a crumpled map to the Amazonian Paladin and then expired.
The map revealed a simple map of a "Mount Rendon", which didn't ring any bells for the group but there was a mention of "the sick rock is the key!", which the group thought to be the yellow stone that probably diseased the captive along with the hyena-men. 
The group collected a gold necklace from the chieftain and decided to explore a little more. Soon we came upon a hallway with a lever in the wall. The Ixian assassin pulled the lever down, which raised a floor entry, revealing a short passageway down leading into a room/cavern. Upon further inspection by Miases the assassin, the chest of gold had been dragged there but he also discovered 2 large spiders laying in wait in the ceiling. Smartly retreating, Miases came back to the group and told them of his findings.
Arkum, the half Pict warlock, came up with a plan to cover his shield with lantern oil and then take his torch to it when he drew the spiders down, whilst the rest of the party savaged the spiders.
When approaching the entry, Arkum suddenly flew upwards to the ceiling, taking damage. With Arkum being magnetized to the ceiling, unable to get himself out of his armor, Miases pushed the lever upwards, closing the entry and causing Arkum to fall to the ground, landing on his head, a fatal blow.
Correctly concluding the magnetizing field being activated only when the lever was down, the group decided to have those wearing non metal armor offer the spiders the corpse of the captive as distracting food for the spiders. So the ranger threw the corpse to the spiders who came down for their meal. The Atlantean then decided to attack the spiders, which led to his death.
Eventually the group vanquished the spiders and got to the chest, which was revealed to have 500gp of gold inside.
Licking their wounds, the party decided to return to Dust. Seeking healing, the group came to a temple of Apollos, where a chaplain named Xennen gave the group needed information about Mt Rendon. An argument followed, with Vaan and Qaan demanding a much larger portion of their share of wealth than originally negotiated. Things deteriorated rather quickly after they called the paladin an oathbreaker. Demanding satisfaction, the paladin slew Qaan, while Vaan beat a hasty retreat after being given a "fair share" by the paladin. The authorities got involved but were paid off to look the other way and avoid some bothersome paperwork. 
The next day, the group was joined by Vigmar, a Viking shaman and Mani the Viking barbarian, brother of Lodmundr. Their ranks swelled, the group went off to Mt Rendon, where the yellow stone was indeed the "sick rock" and allowed the group access into the mountain. The group found itself in an octagonal room, with 3 doors. The west door was marked "Barracks", the northeast door was marked "Generator for research facility" and the east door was marked "Sub surface research facility". 
Sensing fun, the Vikings urged the group to head west to the barracks, where they eventually encountered 8 robots with shivs. Before the barbarian and berserker brothers could give peace offerings, the robots, who apparently had some anti-viking programming, attacked. With Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" playing in the background, the Vikings regretfully took up arms against the robot aggressors.
After the bloodthirsty robots were put down, the peace loving berserker failed his calming roll and turned his rage upon the group. His initial gaze fell upon Vigmar the shaman, who wisely ran (rnd 1). The raging berserker's gaze next fell upon the Kallistos, the paladin, who deemed it wise to stand his ground against the Viking. Winning initiative, Lodmundr immediately took the Amazonian to -19 (rnd 2). 
The peace loving berseker's bloodlust satiated by the death of the paladin, the group finds a trove of gp in the room. While the group collect the loot, 3 robots with some human parts walk into the room and start collecting parts that could potentially replace their human ones. Curious, the group follows them when they leave.
Eventually, in the bowels of the mountain, the group is led to a collection room with 12 more robots. Sensing no good would come of them being the collection room, the group explores more, finding a room with a bluish white sphere. The barbarian tenses up, sensing vile sorcery and through experimentation, the group decides messing with the sphere is a bad thing. In the process, the group is joined by a Hyperborean Warlock named Villemall, who had been sent by a vengeful Vaan to murder the Amazonian paladin. With the paladin already expired, thus his mission complete, Villemall joined the group.
The group also discovered 10 coils of gold wire. Sensing a jackpot, the group decides to make it's way back to Dust, where the loot is cashed in and carousing took place. The Pict figher was caught pissing in the well, the berserker lost his gp gambling, the Ixian lost a fight, the barbarian had nothing of note happen to him and the Hyperborean infuriated someone, was beaten severely, losing literally everything as a result.
There we leave off for the next session!

It was great to get the band back together and get another campaign going. We all had a lot of fun and laughed our asses off. 6 playa's, 4 deaths! What an awesome start!



  

Last edited by Ar'Pharazon (6/04/2017 10:25 pm)