Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

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Kurzel
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:22 am

Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Kurzel »

So here's a campaign transcription I found. Seems my username was a corruption of 'Kerzel'.
Might make for a good read since you are very probably never going to play this campaign!

*spoilers*

The players began in the mining town of Duvik's Pass.
They won a tavern in a game of dice with a nobleman and set out to claim it.
As they exited the gambling inn the town was shut down and quarantined because of a terrible plague inflicting the inhabitants.
The miners were the first afflicted so the party searched the mines.
They found kobolds, but the kobolds were not the problem they had fled to the mines after a group of orcs and driven them from their homes to the north.
The kobolds were slain and the group continued on to find an evil orc cleric named Jakk was performing a profane ritual to afflict the town with the disease.
He was killed and the town reopened, the plague cured. However, the party also learned from Jakk that this was merely the first act in the revenge of the Torn Claw Clan.
They once were a huge horde in the mountains around Duvik's Pass and the wildlands nearby, but when silver was found in the mountains the Human Kingdom that holds the eastern half of Kular (the massive island continent were the first part of the campaign occurs),
The Kingdom of Tarcala set up a massive military campaign to rid the mountains of the Torn Claw Clan so mining can commence safely.
They thought they had killed all the orcs, but apparantly some fled north including many of the Torn Claw's feared Shamanistic Leaders.
There is more to this in the deatailed account.

The party took little notice of this and traveled north to their won tavern, the Silda Hisse.
They encountered a few important groups and NPCs including a gnome named Bubbleybrew and a group of Wild Elves how were fighting a northern orc clan, the Frozen Eye.
They comented on the sudden aggression of the orcs and their new magic weapons of disease and beasts.
They also confirmed that there were once kobolds in the hills and mountains but the Frozen Eye orcs attacked them first.
Some Kobolds got away.

The group finally made it to the Silda Hisse to find kobolds had broken past the long abandoned gate and taken up residence.
This second group was from the same clutch as the one that fled south; however, they had not been so successful.
Several of them were captured by the orcs and only escaped by the skills of their sorcerous leader Kerzel.
Some came back with mutations and severe changes.
Kerzel was frail and crazy but had impressive magical skill, his brother grew bigger than an ogre and smashed the party up a little before they killed him.
Kerzel explained in his book that they were exposed to powerful magical energy the orcs were calling Klodh.
When he was killed by the party he exploded in magical energy that flew into the symbol of his clutch, the Blackspear.
they party did not know that the spear not only was magical but had Kerzels conciousness in it as well, developed later on in the story.

Time passes. The tavern is successful, but as the party are relaxing in their tavern they are framed by an unknown force for teaching arcane witchcraft.
This part of the campaign world is highly anti-arcane magic because of the world history, a topic that will not be talked about inthis rough story as it is very complicated but it will be covered in the long version as it is very important to the story later on.
While in prison they find the King of Tarcala is in the cell next to them, captured on his survey of the kingdom.
He was surveying the kingdom in preparation for his ascendence to the throne in the next few months as he is finally old enough.
In his place is a regent set to rule for him after his father died in the war on the Torn Claw Clan.
The king suspects the regent is trying to get rid of him so he can rule the throne.
They help the King escape the prison while a horde of Frozen Eye orcs attacks it.
The players get a taste of the new magic of the clan as fallen berserkers rise from the floor as zombies to continue the fight.
The party gets away with a few of the guards and support staff for the prison and of course the king.
The prison burns behind them as they travel farther north-east to the capital of Tarcala.
Along the way they learn from loyal knights that a caravan from the church is on its way to coronate the regent.
The caravan is intercepted and eliminated.
The party find a mysterious note signed M. Congratulating the regent on becoming king and offering him continued support.
A crown sent with the note turns out to be a powerful intellegent item meant to bend the will of the new king.
The king learns that the plans of this M. fellow involve a massive raid on Tarcala by the Frozen Eye Clan.

The party and the king are able to sneak into the palace disguised as the coronation priests, and kill the guards while the King, his name's Syrone by the way, chanals the divine power to make himself the Tarcalan king.
This has to do with another history thing involving how the palace, called the Throne of Light, and the line of kings have divine ancestory and celestial power.
Again very detailed and complicated, to be expanded upon later.
The king gets wings and latern archons and some divine magical powers.
The regent flees to his chambers where he consults with some magical personage called Morbane (huh M., Morbane what'd ya know) through a smoking scrying-like image.
Morbane laments the existence of the party as he kills the regent for incompetence his failure.
It is hinted and is confirmed later that he had the party framed, because of their actions in Duvik's Pass.
He summons a demon to kill them before the scry visage disappears.

After the demon is called King Syrone appoints the party as his personal guardians sent by the gods to ensure his rule.
He gives them their party name (choose from topic title or invent your own as long as it sounds regal and light god oriented).
He then sends them to the frozen mountain peaks of don't-have-my-map-with-me to take out the leadership there (this was pre-milk bandits epiphany).
The party learns that a major military battle is taking place at the same time.
They go to what they are told should be the leader's compound, a magic fortress left over from the war of Metal and Magic.
Highly historically based as I said, spelled out in the full summery.
On the way they fight white fur clad orcs flying magically altered white dragons.
They use green magical energy as a breath weapon, it causes mutation.
As they get closer they find magic is highly unstable in this region and sudden pulses of green magic energy fly through the canyon with deadly results.
They find that the Torn Claw leadership took over the Frozen Eye clan with help from this Morbane fellow, who wanted kobolds to test the Klodh magic on.
They fight some of these klodh kobolds. They vary but in general are nasty, evi,l and beastial. They also pass on mutations to those they attack. They look kinda nasty too.
The shamanistic leaders have already left except for one once the party arrives. That one remained to kill the party. Morbane took them away with him as they knew the Frozen Claw Clan was about to lose the war.
The mountain was some type of magical energy storage device they use to power a device they called the manipulator.
Kerzel's personality reveals itself in the staff offering to show them how he escaped for their promise to destroy the shamans and Morbane for what they did to him and his compatriots.
They escape to the summit as the mountain is falling apart imparting its magical energy to an invisible, inverted pyramid that floats above it, the manipulator.
The manipulator fires a blast of magic at the capital of Tarcala enveloping it in smoke and flame. It then blasts the party, killing them.

Syrone uses his divine power to revive the party, now marked with a strange symbol on some obvious part of their body like the top of the back, hand or face.
Syrone says they have won against the orcs but that the city is all but lost.
A huge canyon incredibley deep runs through it and over half the population was killed.
The Throne of Light protected itself however.
He then finds that other nations of the world are worried about this sudden new threat and many what to meet at the island of Tollona.
There is a lot of history for this part and global dynamics.
While recuperating at the palace the party stops a group of minotaurs from murdering the king. T
hey were sent by their leader, who we'll meet later.
Strangely they do manage to stab the king with a dagger before they die. The dagger teleports away...

On the Island of Tollona the party serves as the king's bodyguards and entourage as well as witnesses to the attack.
The manipulator disappeared in a flash of blue light after the attack so it could be anywhere...
They met a pleasant historian named Garef, important NPC also part of the King's entourage.
They are riding up to the summit, where the meeting is their horses mysteriously die and they fight a bad ass wizard minotaur, who severely injures Syrone.
Garef takes him to the priests at the summit while the party fights the Minotaur and his draconic minions.
The party go to the summit afterwords, knowing via exploding note Morbane hired the Minotaur.
Syrone blames them for the attempted murder and orders their execution as traitors garef tries to explain but just ends up flying down the hill with you on a cable car and taking the minotaur's boat with you to get the hell away.
Yeah chase and fighting, enter Ercaia, the oceanic magical wasteland no one dare enter.
The party got away!!!! And a surge of magical energy and a storm knock the boat to the interior shore (you really need a map).
There Garef reads some old inscriptions in a forgotten tongue that lead them to a temple.
The Temple is to a god no one except Garef had heard of called Aurik.
His symbol is the symbol on the party. He has comlicated history the party hasn't found out yet.
The temple serves some mystical purpose, and Garef finds out how to activate it.
As he does an ettin emerges with eyes shrouded in mist and speaks in a surprisingly educated way telling the party to go and not to activate the temple.
He attacks as Garef turns it on knocking him into the trees. The party kills him as they are enveloped in a magic field.
They are then levitated some distance into the air before they see the manipulator on the horizon.
There is some kind of flash and everything turns black, the party wakes up...

*cough*
Moltor
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Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:01 pm

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Moltor »

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Moltor
Developer
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:01 pm

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Moltor »

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Moltor
Developer
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:01 pm

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Moltor »

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Kurzel
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:22 am

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Kurzel »

My complements to your high level of accuracy in this epic fan-art portrayal, Moltor. 5 stars!

Edit: As a reward for your awesome, and again, *highly* accurate, fan-arts, have one of the maps I found / scanned.
Last edited by Kurzel on Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Kurzel
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:22 am

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Kurzel »

Map of the local area where we began our quest:

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As you can see, we clearly labelled the **** out of that bridge we burned-down / exploded.
Moltor
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Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:01 pm

Re: Backstory! *spoilers* /o/

Post by Moltor »

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