Difference between revisions of "RPG:Campaigns/Iwaku Shardscape: Mistforme"

Revision as of 15:09, 21 February 2016

The Iwaku Shardscape: Mistforme campaign takes place ca. 30087 Y.D. in Di'Termalttë, a few miles to the north of the border between the Dominion and the Silvered Realm and is participated in by members of the Iwaku roleplay community. The story begins at a Tretalleri warcamp in the aforementioned location, and characters recurring in the Shardscape canon, Garidë a'Zo-Hanyll, Talus a'Rendë, Dur-Uk Whitefang, d'Adlan Nyrë, d'Loren Vysellë, and The Lady Veýs appear in this particular campaign as well.

Plot Summary

On the sixth Day of the Third Length of the Middling Moon of the Season of Light in 30086 Y.D., Garidë a'Zo-Hanyll decided that it was time to send a group of individuals on a mission to find and rescue, or recover, three scouts that had not only failed to appear on the appointed day, nine Days(one Length) after they left for their scouting mission, but still seemed entirely absent three days afterward. However, things do not seem to be so straightforward, and an event that had occurred only the previous night has Garidë worried.

The First Session

Held: 30th January, 2016

At the beginning of the first day of the mission, five Dominion soldiers set out on their mission to find the missing scouts, headed by Talus a'Rendë, a notable figure for the service that he provided to one of the heirs presumptive, the nephew of Garidë, a young man now 67 years of age, Zavyrr a'Zo-Hanyll. These five soldiers were Ellendë a'Zo-Hanyll, a child prodigy adopted into House Zo-Hanyll; Setirana, one of Di'Mârrë who cast aside his House's name upon embracing the Stranger's Gift; Jorezi, a trained assassin who, for his dark past, distanced himself from the name of his House; Lucinë a'Perida, a glorified thief whose skills were picked up by the military and put to better use; and, finally, Algor Burdik, a diminutive Dwarf fighter from the West, who likes alcohol almost as much as he dislikes discussing his past and the circumstances that surround his presence in the Dominion Warcamp.

No sooner than the party had entered the woods that surrounded the warcamp, they encountered two large bears. Upon further inspection, the bears turned out to not only be heavily injured but were also Elledyn'ni Warbears. The party dispatched these bears rather quickly and after warning Garidë of this state of affairs, proceeded deeper into the forest where they encountered a larger Warbear, presumably that of a commander, and after killing it, discovered that its wounds came from weapons that are likely of Elledyn'ni make.

Spurred on by the possibility of dissension in the Elledyn'ni ranks, the party proceeded deeper into the forest, happening upon a clearing where three Faeren, anthropomorphic wolfmen, had gathered around a small stream that flowed from a spring that emerged from a strange formation of stone in the heart of the clearing. After a tense few minutes, the party, thanks to Ellendë's quick-thinking, avoided combat with the Faerên and ended up in a tenuous alliance with the Fareni leader, Dur-Uk of the White Fang clan. Dur-Uk led the party in the direction, seemingly, of the Elledyn'ni warcamp, but half an hour into their sojourn into the forest, Dur-Uk stopped and disappeared in a raucous cacophony of snapping twigs and branches.

The party happened upon two Elledyn'ni Swordsmen, both of whom looked heavily injured and bandaged haphazardly, blue blood leaking through the coarse cloth they'd used to bind their wounds. The two Elledŷnnë swordsmen wore porcelain masks over their faces and begged for mercy as soon as they saw the party. The seemingly less-injured of the two swordsmen invoked the ancient covenant that was the Mercy of the Prophetess. Ellendë attempted to attack the two, but was stopped by Talus, who ordered her to stand down.

The party then asked the Elledŷnnë questions that they thought pertinent to their mission, finding out that the masks were worn in order to hide the brutal mutilations that had been inflicted on the swordsmen as a result of their being "ugly." Before anyone could speak, when Talus left with the two Elledŷnë in tow, Dur-Uk dashed off into the forest, presumably to find the Elledyn'ni camp.

The Second Session

Held: 6th February, 2016

The party, with a renewed vigour and hatred toward the Elledŷnnë, decided that it would be best to follow the path that Dur-Uk left through the forest, if only for a little while due to the damage that they had sustained from the battles they had just fought. The party discovered that the two Elledyn'ni swordsmen had left behind a pair of swords, one gilded and the other silvered. Once the party was able to discern the magical nature of the items, a lengthy argument was sparked between Algor, Setirana, and Ellendë over ownership of the new weapons, which ultimately ended with the prodigy gaining the weapons.

A little ways down the path, the party encountered a fork in the forest. To the east, the party was able to discern the sounds of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of blades rasping and grinding against each other. to the west, there was nothing of the sort. The party, nursing its injuries, began to journey to the west, except for Algor, who had noticed that there were no voices among the blades and wanted to eliminate any threat, if there was one, that could come up behind them. After a brief battle with a strange creature that looked like a tiny horse whose body was made of a steel frame and had a mane made of thousands of razor sharp steel blades, where the creature, defeated, dissolved into a single mote of grayish-white light, the party discovered a campsite that they could stay in to nurse their wounds before continuing on their journey.

As the party rested, Dur-Uk returned to them, rather distraught. He had found the Elledyn'ni camp, but it was empty. After being lured into a game of dice where he lost one platinum piece, Dur-Uk grew violently ill. Despite the party's best attempts, the only things they could find that could point to Dur-Uk's condition were droplets of liquid metal on his paw. Dur-Uk and the party decided to bed down for the night, with Lucinë taking the first watch. Lucinë's watch proved uneventful, and Ellendë took the next watch.

Halfway into Ellendë's watch, three large hulking wolves padded into the camp without Ellendë noticing. A brief fight broke out between Ellendë, Jorezi, whom she had woken up, and the wolves. Talus, the two Elledŷnnë swordsmen, and another soldier, Ifan a'Dorivë, entered the battle. Just as Ellendë was about to strike the final blow on one of the wolves, Dur-Uk awoke and stopped the fight, revealing that the wolves were not simply wolves, but were the bestial ancestors of the Faeren. There was a brief attempt at recruiting the wolves to the Tretalleri cause, but Dur-Uk made it clear that the Fen Primals, as they were called, did not know the meaning of allegiance.

After this, the party spoke with Talus to discuss his return. It became quickly clear that Talus had come with a change in the objective of their mission. They were to find the Elledŷnnë and put an end to whatever plot was brewing. The two swordsmen, who revealed themselves to be Adlan and Loren, had come with Talus in order to aid the party because they wanted revenge. Ifan was an arbalest that Garidë assigned to aid in the new mission. By the time that everything had been settled, the party discovered that the three Fen Primals had already made away with some eight pounds of bear meat between them.

The party settled down again to sleep, with Jorezi taking the watch. Talus, who was not sleeping, walked up to Jorezi and cryptically asked after an item that Jorezi had in his possession. Talus, mysteriously commented that Jorezi should keep the object safe for it would come in handy in the next few days. Overhearing the strange conversation, Ellendë pursued the topic with Talus, who took her and Jorezi aside to talk. Talus revealed that he was not the same Talus as the one that was born in this world and timeline, for he was born in another place and another time, and the Talus of this world had died 10 years prior to the beginning of the mission. Talus related some of his story to Ellendë and Jorezi but did not tell all of it.

While the conversation was happening, the rest of the party was attacked by bubbles of quicksilver that poisoned them upon contact. The battle was fierce but quick, the motes destroyed with single attacks. When the ordeal was over, the party settled down again, deciding to face whatever it was that they needed to face in the morning. The next day, the party debated whether to head east, where the motes had come from, or west, where Dur-Uk had found the Elledyn'ni camp. In the end, the party decided to go east and discovered a large swathe of forest either ill, dying, or dead.

The party fought more of the quicksilver motes and conquered them rather quickly. Moving forward, the party discovered a large rift in the fabric of reality through which a horse some sixteen feet tall, made entirely of steel, bearing a mane of blades, emerged and attacked. After an arduous battle, the party was able to fell the beast. The party took a brief rest after the battle, during which Setirana approached the portal and was whisked away to some other time or place, and saw a disturbing vision of the Tretalleri Warcamp. At Talus' behest, the party rode back to the Warcamp, only to find that what Setirana had seen had already come to pass and that the dust was only just settling.

Fortunately, it seemed as though Garidë and some of his men had survived, but before any discussions could be had, three Elledŷnnë emerged from the ruins of the Warcamp, weapons at the ready.

The Third Session

Held: 13th February, 2016

Surprised by the sudden arrival of two Elledyn'ni Swordsmen and an Elledyn'ni Tallbowman, the party was unable to act before the Elledŷnnë launched an attack against them. Fortunately, there were two individuals that had been alert: Garelantë, a battlepriest of Di'Khitêýfë, a sect of the Faith of the Nine that revolved around the worship of the Darkness, the Rider, and the Maiden, and Lucian, a druid that had been wandering in the nearby area when he heard the sound of earth shifting and the screams of men.

During the battle, one of Garidë's men attempted to attack Adlan, but before that man could even deal damage to Adlan, he met his gruesome end, exploding in a shower of blood and viscera that Talus noted as the price of violating the Mercy of the Prophetess. Eventually, with the help of Garelantë and Lucian, the party was able to defeat the Elledŷnnë. Garidë approached Ellendë, having noticed the blades that she wielded. Garidë said that he would allow Ellendë to keep the weapons on the condition that she, eventually, sanctify them to the Stranger. Garidë also indicated that he wished to take his men to the nearest town, Thirë Gallethar. To that end, he asked that Algor and Lucinë accompany his troop in case they encounter any difficulty on the way.

Talus was torn between going with the general and the party, but Garidë told him that perhaps it was for the best if Talus accompanied the party instead. Garidë gave the party two options: to continue on their mission or to go down into the ruins of the camp to rescue the survivors that Garidë had been unable to save, and then left, saying that it would be best if they got on their way before the sun set. Dur-Uk arrived shortly afterward, while the party was taking a brief rest and expressed great interest in hunting down the Elledŷnnë that had initiated the camp's destruction. The party decided to descend the seven-foot drop into camp and after a comedy of errors on the part of a few party members, managed to enter the camp without much injury.

Upon doing so, the party encountered a wolf made of glass that popped into existence in front of them, and then disappeared moments later. The party decided to pursue the wolf, and, in doing so, wandered deeper into the camp. A preternatural mist began to flood their surroundings, and the Flickerwolf engaged the party in a battle that saw yet more spectacular failures from party members—such as Garelantë striking at the wolf's head only for the warhammer to bounce off and hit him in the face. After the Flickerwolf was disposed of, the party proceeded deeper into the mist, where Dur-Uk's keen sense of smell led the party to two more Tallbowmen that they quickly dispatched.

As the preternatural mist thickened, the party noticed that Talus was beginning to become more and more unsettled. He expressed that perhaps they should not have come down into the camp, and that this mist phenomenon could not be good. The party argued about staying or hunting the Elledŷnnë that remained, during which Lucian heard the sounds of executions all about him but did not say a word to the party. Impatient, Dur-Uk left the party to venture deeper into the camp. Eventually, the party came to realize that Talus had disappeared, only footprints and a massive claw-mark in the ground remained where he had been standing mere moments ago.

Garelantë, standing to one side of the party, noticed a glowing wisp dancing in the mist, and was enthralled by its appearance. He managed to shake off the wisp's influence, but not before Ifan was struck by it, and then Ellendë after him. The two managed to snap out of their trance, but by then, Loren had been caught. By the time that the party managed to get its bearings back, they had travelled quite a ways into the west. They came upon Dur-Uk, looking at his paws with a distraught look, and Talus, bleeding and unconscious at his feet. Dur-Uk claimed that he did not mean for what had happened to happen, that he had thought Talus was Elledyn'ni, but did not get much time to argue his case as Ellendë heard the sounds of a child screaming for help.

Without wasting time, Ellendë dashed toward the sound, while Garelantë attempted to stop her. When Garelantë caught up with the prodigy, he too heard the sound and could not resist the impulse to protect. Together, the two launched a blindingly-fast assault on the Elledŷnnë that were tormenting the child and two other Tretâllë, the party right behind them. During the brutal battle, one of the Elledŷnnë, a Bowmaster turned to the child and launched a volley of three attacks against it. Adlan, fortunately, was able to get in the way, taking the three arrows and immediately falling unconscious from the severe pain caused by the attack.

Jorezi brutally decapitated the Bowmaster, ending the violence. The party decided to take a brief rest to gather their bearings and to discuss what they needed to do with the child, who had just revealed that there were other children, each potentially in danger, in the camp.

The Fourth Session

Held: 20th February, 2016

Thanks in no small part to a prayer of healing from Garelantë, the party was able to head out from their small fortified position to seek out the other children, but not before Algor, the only dwarf in the party. Algor had been given an order to return to the party by Garidë, whose men had encountered another troop of survivors from the camp. Garidë had been confident that they had the strength in numbers needed to reach the town safely, and had thus sent Algor back to aid the effort at the camp.

Shortly after leaving the confines of the tent that they had been using as temporary shelter, the party encountered an ambush from two Elledŷnnë who weren't entirely corporeal or alive. After dispatching these creatures, but not before taking some significant damage, the party proceeded deeper into the camp, encountering another seven-foot drop that nearly all members of the party, save Dur-Uk and Jorezi tragically fell down from. They found themselves face to face with a rough stone wall that extended well beyond what they could see in the limited vision afforded to them by the mist. They followed this wall until Lucian, Ellendë, and Jorezi all heard the sounds of children subjected to terrifying things.

The party split in two, having heard cries for help from two different directions. After dispatching two flickerwolves and two Elledyn'ni Blademasters the party were able to rescue both children and a number of other Dominion soldiers that were in extremely rough shape. After some arguing about whether to continue or not, the party decided to hunker down in a nearby area enclosed by the stone walls that had risen from the ground as a result of the magic that had torn the camp asunder. Garelantë was not pleased, but the others were injured enough by the previous fight that rushing headlong into what was probably another battle was simply not in their best interests.

Begrudgingly, Garelantë and a few of the soldiers that had agreed with him made their way into the small encampment where a fire had been set up, and food started cooking. There was some sparse conversation around the campfire, the party looking through what they had managed to pick up from their fallen foes. Even with Dominion soldiers present, the party had decided that taking up Elledyn'ni weapons was acceptable, for the time being, as a desperate measure in a desperate time. Algor received a shortsword enchanted with cold fire, to add to the two daggers made of ice that Jorezi had managed to retrieve from one of the earlier, half-incorporeal foes that the group had faced.

When everyone had settled down, it was Ellendë who took the first watch. Lucian meditated in a corner, while Ifan tinkered with his crossbow bolts. Ifan took the next watch, although everything was quickly derailed when a series of visions, flashbacks, and images assaulted the party. Those who were awake found themselves gripped with an unearthly fear, while those who had been asleep woke up in a cold sweat from the insidious nightmares that had manifested in their dreams. The party talked, sharing stories about the visions they had seen to help calm themselves, and after a few minutes, Ellendë attempted to raise the morale of all those in the small camp by singing a Tretalleri warsong which, it seemed, Lucian was quite familiar with.

Jorezi was not impressed and attempted to convince the party to shut up as they were making noise that could attract unwanted attention. After a while, the singing came to a stop and those that could attempted to go back to sleep, while those that couldn't kept a close watch on the surroundings. A few hours later, unable to tell the time because of the thick mist that shrouded the party's vision, everyone came to. The soldiers that the party had rescued said that they could not, in good conscience, go further and bring the children potentially closer to even greater danger. The party agreed, and Lucian accompanied the group of soldiers and children a little ways back in the same direction that the party had come from, retrieving something that had been left behind in the tent that the party had used earlier.

When the party reconvened, they proceeded further, into a cave that Dur-Uk had discovered prior to the party hunkering down for a few hours.

It was eerily quiet within the cave. The party discovered an Elledyn'ni camp inside, but it was all abandoned. There was no sign of life, and the party was able to make it through the cave without much trouble, until they reached an area where a rather large amount of water had gathered in a subterranean pool. They came into contact with a Cave Terjaldullë, a tentacled monstrosity that resided in that large underground body of water. The fight was brief, but brutal, with Ellendë pinning the beast to the back wall of the cave with three arrows.

The party proceeded deeper into the cave, eventually coming upon what seemed to be a dead end. Walls of stone sealed the party in, and an Elledyn'ni Warmaster, d'Dalen Hyrda, seemingly materialized from out of nowhere. The mist was warded away by a single burning flame that hovered over the water of the pool that gathered in the middle of the cavern. Filled with rage because of what had happened at the camp, the party assaulted Dalen and the four other Elledŷnnë that he had brought with him.

Dalen struck down quite a few of the party, his power almost overwhelming for the Dominion soldiers. And yet, it seemed, there was a benevolent presence watching over the Tretâllë, something ensuring that they would not die that day. When the four other Elledŷnnë with Dalen had been killed, Dalen himself fled the scene, leaving the party to regroup after the arduous battle.

With Dalen gone, the party gathered its bearings, and those who had been felled, Ellendë, Dur-Uk, Jorezi, and Setirana said that they had all seen the same vision as they lay in the limbo between life and death. There was a woman, dressed in red, bathed in crimson light, just watching and smiling at them. Dur-Uk immediately claimed that it was the Lady Veýs, and mere minutes after that, the water in the middle of the cave turned red as iron-rich blood and a voice rang out, saying "Find me."

The Player Character Cast List