For April I’ll just do a 5e campaign update, probably the second to last one as they are rapidly approaching level 20 and the end of every major and minor plot in the game. Will do a final write-up after the campaign ends in the summer/autumn of 2022 most likely. Hopefully I’ll finish Dark Souls 1 one day soon!
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Last time I updated in October they had just defeated a huge army of demons and were level 13. Now they have just ticked over into level 16.
While they were fighting the demon army they were made aware of the fact the so-called Dwarflake had started to grow and was now a Dwarfsea, covering miles and miles of the countryside with sterile water. Demon and human alike were drowning though thankfully it was a slow, gradual flow of water and much of the savannah here is lowly-populated at the moment.
In order to get to the bottom of this lake and figure out what was going on they needed a certain magic boat which the wizard in the nearby town had built for just this purpose. Problem was they were being held hostage now by the evil Queens’ armies in the town so they resolved to break in there and take it back.
It was quite impressive how the wizard flew about on his broomstick blasting squads of soldiers, the rogue went about stealthily trying to scout out the boat’s location and the barbarian and paladin and NPCs waited patiently outside the walls. Eventually the wait got too much and the barbarian hopped over the wall and got stuck in!
They managed to find the boat and hostage wizard in the big tavern in town which the Queen’s representative Xara had taken as her HQ. They fought their way in and managed to secure the wizard and the boat and left so it was a sort of tactical draw and retreat. There were a lot of regular soldiers but also a dozen veterans and various heavy hitters, such as an Archmage, a chief assassin and his buddies as well as Xara herself and her Shield Guardian.
Before leaving, the Second Queen, the Queen of the West, appeared before them as an Astral image and declared she would march up and slaughter them all for killing her younger sister, the Third Queen of the East, many moons ago. Fair enough. They left and made their way to the Dwarflake.
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It was a breeze crossing the Dwarfsea, they managed to dodge most of the random encounters though they did investigate the ruins of Andarr, one of the first cities hit by the Confederate-Demon armies. All seemed quiet there until they bumped into the Goristro, a living demonic siege engine. Attempts to parlay failed and they once again skilfully retreated but the wizard player managed to cast Banish successfully and sent them back to their home plane - and they were grateful!
Submerging into the underwater source of the flood, a great Dwarven underwater city, they fought a Dragon Turtle. Once again they tactically retreated but bumped into a Marid and his gang of weirdos. They fought for a brief period and then a three-way fight ensued when the Dragon Turtle got involved. The Marid and his boys fled with the boat and the Turtle made friends with the party.
^The wizard set the vegetation here on fire. Of course. And the rogue hopped on the DT back. Of course.
What followed was a journey into a gigantic Dwarven city under a lake that was filled with magical cannons that would shoot fire, acid, frost and so on at the party if they opened certain doors. They partially smartened up and used mage hand to open it and looked into rooms at angles but they frequently found ways to get shot anyway! This was a recurring source of amusement and rage.
Crabs, lobstrosities, hydras, giant crocodiles… the place was filled with various aquatic enemies. Many fights were had, some were close-run affairs. They also found loads of treasure as well, most of it water-related some not. They had found numerous ways to breathe underwater and walk on water and so on. There was a month-long hiatus here for Christmas and so on but in 2022 we got back to it. They befriended a Naiad who guided them through the city a bit.
They fought a Merreonoloth/Wastrilith/Vargouille alliance only to make so much noise a Lizard army appeared behind them and the Morkoth-Marid-Balhonnoth Trio reappeared too. The barbarian, rogue and wizard along with paladin, sorcerer and archmage NPCs managed to destroy them all.
^The Crystal of Water from the Doomstones Warhammer Fantasy first edition game.
They finally reached the end of the dungeon after 9 sessions, and a great ritual was taking place in the grand chamber led by a Water Genasi. The rogue managed to find the Crystal of Water and ended the flooding of the world. The party then proceeded to absolutely destroy the Water Genasi’s entourage but then something happened when the wizard player went from slinging spells into the chamber and misty stepped inside. The whole world went red and the Flames card of the Deck of Many Things activated. He had drawn it many sessions ago and finally a Pit Fiend emerged along with an Ice Devil. The sorcerer NPC betrayed the party as well, aligning with the devils. Despite all this they managed to defeat the various threats and win the day. The paladin player had returned for the recent sessions but decided to retire her character and gave the Crystal of Earth to the barbarian, which gave him even more HP. Fun!
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Now with 3 crystals in their possession, all crystals seemed to ‘point’ strongly toward the west, Steel Mountain, where the Fire Crystal was. It had been stolen from them in Session 33 when the gunslinger artificer shot and killed the fighter of the party in an arena match. Now at Session 57-59 they began to climb Steel Mountain and fought their way through a slew of Giants and machinery. Some sort of civil war is going on here, the Stone and Cloud Giants have split from the Hill, Fire, Frost and Storm Giants. The Stone and Cloud Giants don’t like all the new technology they were using and the alliance with the Queens so have rebelled. The players sided with them and are now carving their way up the mountain to get the Crystal of Fire.
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Scorch used his last wish to revive Ephrim the barbarian from death; Ephrim is currently vulnerable to lightning and a Storm Giant Lightning Sworded him to instant death.
Their experience points have just ticked over to level 16.
Just noticed they have an elite kill number as of session 59. Session 60 is going to be a special one...
I keep track of the days as certain things are dependent on it and its fun. For example the ring that summons berserkers will recharge on day 53 and indeed on day 52 an Acid Phoenix they control was reborn from an egg.
You can see above how they transition from attacking Moonwheat garrison to assorted water themed foes and finally back to the giants on Steel Mountain. The future is full of more giants and mechs, assorted humanoids and elementals and hopefully if they make it to the end celestials.
Almost every session is violent now. We are near the end of the road, the final quarter, so it will be a series of fights with less enemies overall but way more powerful. I am very excited to see what happens. I am particularly interested in the end of the Giant saga, the resolution of the Second Queen's challenge and how they deal with the final Queen. Also there is the small matter of the Crystals of Power, the Doomstones, which may pop off in some fashion...
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Session number versus what level the party were at the time:
Obviously I'm using experience points and a less combatative campaign might see players roleplaying for hours and go through multiple sessions at certain levels. Still interesting to see how the progression went; they remained at level 14 so long there because they were stuck in that darned Water Shrine. They still have a ton of fights coming up but they should make it to level 20 at just the right time.
I don't know how many more games are in this, I was hoping to be finished by summertime. Not that I'm in a mad rush to end it but would like a little break followed by a second campaign hopefully. 6th edition might be gracing us by 2024 or whenever so would be cool to get another long campaign in before then.
I'd love to run another tournament in the game but I think they just don't work at most levels, the various classes are too different. Maybe in the next campaign.
