The New Campaign - Chronicles

The First Session - a Beginning - March 12, 2011

The campaign began where the eighth dream left off.  The players had each touched one of the bodies lying on the byres and had lost consciousness.  When they regained consciousness they found that the bodies in the armour had turned to dust.  Hawk was the first to try the armour on but the rest soon followed.  (He also kept a pouch of the dust left behind by the warriors).  They found that the armour fit perfectly.  Along with the armour they found themselves equipped with a pair of swords (short and long), a heater shield, a great axe, a long spear and a bow made of bone.  Each helm had an Eldren rune above the visor with a name: Hawk, Lion, Stallion and Bull.  They checked the tomb for any markings but found nothing.  They returned to the mouth of the tomb where they saw that it was dawn and that tendrils of black smoke were coming from the village.  They climbed back down and made their way to the village as quickly as possible.  

By nightfall they were approaching the village and could see that most of the buildings looked damaged and that an off fence had been erected around the village.  When they got even closer they discovered that the fence was made of poles lashed together in the shape of crude eight pointed stars and on each was tied the mutilated corpse of a Eldern.  They quickly checked for survivors and found that everyone was dead except the most senior of the Elders.  They cut her down and gave her some water.  She coughed and told them that she had known they would be back and she had used magic to cling to life until she could talk to them.  She told them that they had been missing for a week and the day after they had disappeared a swarm of winged reptiles like the creature that had slain Affrica had flown over the rim and descended on the village.  They had been accompanied by large bipedal winged reptiles that wore harnesses and wielded weapons.  They had shown the Eldren no mercy and had slain everyone in the village including the animals.  Most had been dead when they had been tied to the stars but eventually everyone who had survived the attack had succumbed to their wounds.  Only she had clung to life so that she could talk to the party.  This is what she told them...

"Our people were once the champions of Law in a great struggle between Law and Chaos on this world.  The main champions of Chaos were a race called the Mabden.  Superficially like the Eldern they were coarser and the males grew hair on their faces.  The struggle between Law and Chaos went on for centuries with first one side and then the other gaining an edge.  Finally though we had been reduced to a small group and decided that we had suffered enough.  We grouped our magic and summoned an enormous Earth elemental.  We ordered it to create the Vale.  After we released the gnome vowed to give up gods, war and magic. We vowed to forget the past and we used the last of our magic to forget what we had been and live in the present.  Only I and my four brothers kept our memories in case would know of the past.  But my brothers couldn't let their warrior ways go so easily so they created a haven and vowed that they would sleep there until they were needed again.  I never saw them again until now.  (She smiled at them).  Besides flight there is one way out of the Vale.  You must return to my brother's haven and touching the rear wall say the correct trigger word.

Having told them the word the Elder apologized about saying nothing until now but the creature had looked nothing like the forces of Chaos from her memories so the centuries of peace had helped lull her into a false sense of security.  With that apology she died.  The party spent the next two days taking the bodies of their kin down from the stars and laid them down in the stable together.  They had sought their memories for burial practices but no one had died in the Vale in hundreds of years.  They searched for supplies and collected enough to last for a few days.  The morning that they left the Vale for ever they torched the stable and walked away.

They returned to the tomb and opened the magic door as instructed.  They walked down a long tunnel through the rock.  Half way through they felt a weird sense of dislocation by continued on.  They found themselves high up on a valley slope above a paved road.  They descended down onto the road and started walking along when a group of ten humanoids emerged from the bushes.  They were led by a larger version of themselves mounted on a donkey who demanded that they turn over a blue crystal staff.  They found that they understood the language that was being spoken.  The rider didn't wait for a response and told his followers to kill them and bring the crystal staff to him.  The creatures didn't prove to be much of a challenge and the survivors were questioned before being dispatched.  

The Hobgoblin's Tale

(Only one of the creatures was capable of coherent speech.  This is what he communicated before dying).

"We iz da hobgoblins.  We keep away from hoomans cuz they hate us and always treat us bad and cheat us!  Stinkin' hoomans keep their animals greedy-like and don't share with us!  We always follow themz dat iz strong but der's always someones stronger who bonks our guy on da head and steals hiz guys and takes over.  Until he meets somebuddy tuffer.  No, wats da word?  Plannin'  But dat all changed when he came!  Him and 'is army.  He told us dat we wuz destined for greatness and we'd get to eat anyting and anyone we'd like if we swore to follow 'im.  So we figured, what da fuck, let's do it.  And da eatin' is good!

The creature expired from his wounds at this point and none of them would tell you anything about their so-called leader.

Last updated March 21, 2011