Campaign 2 ¶
Preamble ¶
Where We Left Off ¶
Katarina was defeated. And thus, The Diabolist's reign has ended. Her relics, bodily and otherwise, either destroyed, captured, or missing. Spread to the winds.
In the process, Foothold and Forge as it was known had been destroyed. The mountain it was settled in went volcanic, and Forge became Caldera, of little use for Dwarves and Dragons alike. Underneath Caldera, the great gears of The Factory spun into motion.
How Things Are Going ¶
It's two years later, and new factions are springing up to fill in the power vacuum. From the Iron Sea come the Deepwater Emissaries, and from beyond the sky comes the Outer Sphere Contingent. The Outlander Blue Mages resettle, and whispers and murmurs tell of the terrible Fiendeater among their tribes. The mummies and vampires of The Lich King grow in strength, The Crusader grows bolder with his dark rituals, and The Prince of Shadow plunders freely.
And finally, The Seculars, fed up with it all, cry for freedom from the puppetmasters above and below.
The Jump ¶
Your party has been asked by The Seculars to retrieve an item from the Northeast badlands of the empire -- tucked between The Frost Range and Moonwreck lays and aberrant hellhole, Pearl Gate, one that The Crusader has taken a marked interest in. You're to beat him to the punch, plunder the place, and leave it to crumble without its locus. To help with the cross-dimensional navigation, an arcanist has been assigned to help with the journey.
You'll convene in the shadow of the Northern Colossus, and meet with your contact with The Seculars. You'll prepare for a day, and move out on your mission. The stakes are high -- even if you beat The Crusaders to the punch, there's no telling how far they'll go to follow. To say nothing of the dangers within Pearl Gate.
Session 1, March 9th ¶
Duncan, Elara, and Dirk all met up in Cailan, and then found Bishop and Jared in Jared's tent. They went into the mountains, slept the night under the stars, and Elara saw a great White on the horizon. Bishop produced a drilling-rune and bored an eight-mile hole up through the mountain.
When they emerged, Elara started a fight with an intellect-devourer controlled Hill Giant, and its two owlbear friends. Duncan lost a leg, which Dirk reattached. Jared led the party the rest of the way to Pearl Gate, and carved a passage sigil into the stone near it, forcing the hellhole to permit entry and exit to only kin. With the dragon bearing down on them, they all entered the gate.
Session 2, March 23rd ¶
The party entered the plasticky hell and advanced through the chambers, through autumn forests to clear lakeshores. The cavern taunted them with easy retreat and ways out into their other lives, but the group and Jared plunged down into the arena facsimile, fighting blood combatants, ancient statues, and a virtuous watcher.
They descended further into the pit, through the world of flesh, aided by the Lesser Spirit of Portals and the High Druid's charmic seeds, landing in a vast golden desert. They destroyed more foes and another ring of eyes, only to be warned by a skull in the sand that this fortress was not for them, and that Brightness Kaelyn would visit terrible wrath upon them. They advanced to a desert oasis, trapping an invading Clockwork in a race towards the finish, stepping into the oasis tunnel into the whorling ocean, where Kaelyn called out to them: Turn back now. They press on.