At the campaign start, Hal was living in Talmak, the next city in his path that follows just ahead of the Empire's invasion force. He and the other members of the party, plus one NPC, an elf named Selena (who got really mad at me when I tried to flirt with her in Elvish. Apparently it's rude to talk in front of others in a language they don't understand), were hired individually to deliver a package from Talmak Port, down south to Senolon and then East to Voth. On the way to Voth, in the mountains, we encounterd a Blue Dragon in a cave, who had just laid waste to most of Senolon, and some Empire people. Apparently he was paid by the Empire to attack Voth. We killed him, fortunately he was inside, and couldn't fly, and was stuck by some doors, so couldn't breathe on us. He died in only two rounds. When we got OUT of the mountains, we encountered some Empire scouts, and discovered that this particular unit they were from, the one surrounding Voth were an ELITE unit, where the Privates, the lowest rank, were level 5. And each rank above THAT they went up by TWO levels!!! Needless to say, we were pretty freaked, since the 5 of us were all level 6, and Selena, who we have NO idea what she is. She appears to be a Bladesinger, but not really, since it was a low-magic world.
When we arrived (after much delay) at Voth, we found the city under siege, and after eventually getting inside, discovered that the government of Voth had been infiltrated by agents of the Empire. Well, after watching the others fight this bizarre Stone Golem who was the Govenor's guard, we ran down a passage, and I got lightning bolted, the rest of the party was chicken and hid around a corner while I rammed into the door (It was in character, I had to do it because of what he did to us.), well, he fragged up and his bolt came back and hit me again, AND him. So I ran up and did the last 2 hitpoints and gored the room with him. Hal is vengeful, what can I say. Well, before we left Voth, we did a little decieving and got one of the three parts of the Empire's army that was outside the city to attack the other two parts. We succeeded in getting about 8000 of the Empire's troops killed. I was happy, because I like massive human tragedy for the Empire, but the others were dissappointed because the fight didn't go on as long as we had planned. Being pessimistic, I was happy enough that they DID fight. The original plan hoped that one entire army unit, about 15,000 troops would be almost completely destroyed, but not before that unit inflicted some nice damage on the other two. Didn't work that way, but I was still happy. Selena left us then, we don't know where she's going, since we had fullfilled our original contract to deliver the package to Voth, and we got paid and she left us.
When we left Voth and headed south east to Clandestar Reach. The mountain city guarding the gateway to Aconia. In the mountains we were tailed by an assassin (personally, I believe there was evidence of being two of them, though we only killed one. They seemed to work together, but only attacked one at a time, but whenever we argue about it, the DM just grins evilly. That's never a good sign). The assassin was an elf. And invisible. Improved Invisibility, apparently, because after he died, he was visible. Anyway, the first night, we spent the night in a hotel in the mountains, and in the morning, there was a dagger in the door with a bounty list on it, each of the party members names was there. It was stuck there with a finely crafted black dagger. When we killed the Elf, we found two more daggers, identical to each other, but different than the first one. Well, after I tied the elf's head back on, I attached him to a tree in a crucifix (there Hal goes being vengeful again), and with the first dagger I found, stuck a note to him.
After Clandestar Reach, where nothing really happened, we moved on to Aconia City (which bears a striking resemblance to New Reno. One of the ruling families is the Mordinos!), anyway, the city was having some trouble, and our thief was unknowningly to us, captured by someone. He (so we thought) was released shortly after we raided the Mordino house to get two paintings and a letter. We accidentally had to kill everyone, and fought Lord Mordino. Early in the fight, magic came back to the world in an extremely dramatic fashion. Not really unlike the explosion of Mt. St. Helens in SR, except there was an odd pressure on the world, and then massive waves of magical force washed over everything in existence, KOing David with it's sheer magical force, but not before it forced him to learn a few spells. Mordino, when we got upstairs to his room, turned out to be some wierd freakish demon with an evilly intelligent sword, and (possibly also evil) armor (the DM hasn't actually decided on what it is yet, but with NO dex or other magical bonuses, he had an AC of -5!! So anyway, he escaped, and then our truant thief came back, and told us he'd been kidnapped. The next day we fought Mordino AGAIN (or, I fought him. Dean and David killed the archers and one mage, and then had to konk out Hong, the thief. (I'll explain)). So Mordino died, and so did the thief, accidentally, and thier bodies warped and shrank back into their true forms. Doppelgangers.
So that's where we are now, trying to figure out what's going to happen in New Re.. er Aconia next. Chris is retiring his character, Wong the monk, because he's decided he can't play Lawful/Good, which REALLY sucks, because once a day, he could heal 15hp, and he was the only healing we could get, so now we're at the mercy of our two DM's to provide us with healing. Nobody wanted to play a Cleric, and Chris was the only one in the party who wasn't at least partially neutral (which I suppose is kinda odd in a party devoted to fighting an evil force.)
Done looting bodies now, Aris-Dean ran off to find Laura, the girl he's been hitting on since we arrived in town, and Evers wandered off and got involved in a game of wits that eventually led him to burn four sailors to death in the middle of an open street. I managed to not add to our mounting death toll in Aconia by, apparently, staying near the warehouse and fiddling with the armor I took from the Doppelganger. We went to find Lenimer, which Laura had brought to a healing house, but he was in no condition to travel, but promised to catch up to us soon (ie; Nobody could contact Hong the day before, and nobody thought to do it until about an hour before we were playing, and he was busy.), so we left this town, but not before I pointed out something about Laura, which Aris-Dean then asked about, and she kinda blew him off. I hate when girls do that.
Well, we left Aconia, Evers now a fugitive there, presumably, in addition to all of us being wanted for killing the majority of the Mordino's. We left, and encountered a lone Halfling dressed in rather flambouyant clothing fighting 3 soldiers and a large cleric defending a wagon and merchant trader. He dispatched the soldiers with amazing flair using a weapon currently unknown to us. The cleric, after healing himself, took down the strange halfing with a lucky hit to his head, knocking him out. We approached, and after talking to the cleric and trader for a moment, we noticed that their cargo was, oddly enough, thumping and moaning. I moved to the wagon and opened the doors, Aris-Dean and the cleric going toe to toe, but Aris just a bit faster, and cleaved the cleric quite messily. I looked into the wagon then and there was a white robed man bound and gagged on the floor, with some armor and a nice axe, and a very finely crafted and bejewelled sword inside. I went to free the man, and the caravan master ran off, and Evers, now mentally "better" it seems from his encounter with this odd mage that he met last time we played, cast a FIREBALL on the fleeing man. Now, the average fireball does 25 to 30 points damage, and the average 0-level merchant has, ooh, say, 4 hitpoints. Pre-cremated merchant.
Well, so we now have an overly flambouyant road pirate, and a strange Cleric of Mercy of some sort, a kind and goodly man, it seems, who is accompanying us out of Aconia, since due to his generosity, is a wanted criminal in Aconia. It's a wierd place, just don't ask, alright?
Well, now on our way from Aconia, we were semi-directionless, so being bored, I pointed out that the Empire was laying siege to Aconia in the mountians just north of us, to the west, as far as we know are Barbarian lands, and I don't particularly want to go there. South of us was the sea, so that only left east. Clarence, our new halfling agreed with this, as he'd gotten word from a friend about something going on beyond the silver forests in Northern Shires Path. Not too many details forthcoming. So we took the merchant's wagon and went east and found a forest beyond the mountains.
The entire forest glimmered with silver. Trees, rocks, uh, not the animals, though we didn't see many of those around. Following the path, we found a big rock lying across the road, appearing to have fallen from the short rock ledge to one side of the road. Naturally suspicious, we stopped and wandered around the rock for a while. The falling appeared to be natural, of course, when has THAT ever happened? Anyway, we couldn't find anything, so we continued on. Well, a while down the road, we saw this peasant man in one of those japanese cone kinda hats(personally, I thought he really looked like the guy from ninja scroll, I can never remember his name. The hero guy, who had to keep killing Gemma), so we stopped and looked a moment, and then Evers edged off into the forest, and the rest of us jumped down from the wagon. Lenimer and Aris-Dean walked towards him, and the peasant man stood up, and threw a stone heart on the ground in front of them. They looked at it, and then Aris flipped it back at the man and it just bounced off him. He didn't react. When Lenimer got within range, the peasant struck Lenimer in the chest, doing 20hp damage. Dang. Bare-handed attack. Not shaken by this, Aris still tried to talk to him, but the man only responded, "You name is on the heart," or something like that. I forget the wording, but it was like that.
Anyway, after that they gave up talking to him, and we started bashing. Evers came out of the woods then and polymorphed him (took more than one try, the peasant man apparently, is not human, he just takes human guise) into a baby seal. Well, Evers had seen another invisible person in the forest, and then he was sure of it, because somebody hit him with an Acid Arrow spell. The others took off after it, and I hacked the seal a bit, pretty much gooing it. Next round everyone got fireballed, Clarence went down, and Lenimer died. (the cleric (I really have to remember his name...) healed Clarence, then dragged him and Lenimer away from the fight, and yelled at me, just starting to go to Aris, that the goo was, well, moving!) (Hong's had bad luck recently....) Knowing now where the casting guy was, Aris went to hack. I turned back and went to go look at the gooey pile of seal that was now moving away from me.
I dropped a greek fire on him, and now had flaming moving goo. I hit him again, and then he started to grow wings and fly. Meanwhile, Evers and Aris dispatched the mage, and I took a shot at the now flying, slightly flaming chunk of seal goo with one of the bolts that I can hang from (those ones I had to pay 1gp each for!), well it apparently almost killed him, but the crossbows can only do 1d4hp. The flying, extinguished goo kind of formed around it, and it dropped the bolt to the ground. It got away. I hate when there's people who want us dead out there that I can't kill. It makes it hard to get things done when demons keep trying to kill you.
So, from the mage, we found a scroll for Evers, and a letter, addressed to the mage, calling him "age Orthofilous of Dark" and asking him to kill Evers, Aris-Dean, and Hal, with the help of that other guy, X'Callin. The letter warned him that Evers was a former Darkmage, and Aris-Dean (or, actually, it just refers to the warrior, but I know it's not me....) is rumored to be a former soldier from Mia Propria (part of the Empire), but finally, I now know dead solid sure that they both used to work for the empire. Finally.
Anyway, after that, we continued on until we reached the Northern Pass, and saw in the distance an encamped Empire army, slightly larger than one of the army units that attacked Voth, so I'd vote for around 20k soldiers. Anyway, after a while, we reasoned out why they were there they're going to flank the Aconian army that was delaying the Empire in the mountains, after grilling Clarence on the subject, since he knows a lot more than he's letting on. But, knowing why they were there, brought us another question. Why are they still here? I mean, it didn't look like they were preparing to break camp, so they're planning on staying a while? So what are they waiting for?
Well, after much debate, we decided to leave here for now, and continue to the Northern Shires. Before we could leave, a scout party of light cavalry came running past us, we stopped them, killed them and took their horses, and THEN we went.
Well, a ways down the road, we saw an old farmer walking, well, moments after I made the comment, "Ok, the next innocent looking pilgrimish poor people we see are going to get killed on the spot." The farmer pipes up, "I should have killed you the first time." And hammers Evers. It's our friendly X'Callin again. And he brought some friends. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water all stood against us in what would be our final stand. Fire and Air, with X'Callin made short work of Evers and Lennimer, knocking them (or so it seemed... ^_^) unconscious. X'Callin and Water moved to join Aris Dean, Clarence and I in our fight against Earth and Water. Well, Lennimer grabs our ring of wishes, and makes the elementals attack X'Callin, who falls and plays dead. The elementals, thus freed, returned to their home planes.
X'Callin, now free to move again, attacked us. After one round, I knew where this was lead. I was down half my hitpoints from two hits, and Aris Dean wasn't much better. Lennimer jumped down to join the fight with our great demon, and I gave up my semi-defensive tactics and went full out, getting in one last hit before X'Callin hit me with three strong strikes, bringing me into the area of -30 hp. Aris Dean and Lennimer lasted one more round before Aris went to -21, and Lennimer went unconscious. Us dead, and the others unconscious, X'Callin presumably killed the others, since we all died there.
As an epilogue, the DM's told us what would happen eventually in our world. The Empire would expand to conquer almost all of the northern continent, except for the elves, and then move south through the barbarian kingdoms. When the great southern kingdoms, they were driven back across the lands, and an uneasy peace would presumably settle over the lands.
We did very well for a small party against the looming force of an entire nation, but in the end, a dark demon brought us to our fate. And though we died, our passing, and our lives, did not go unnoticed, and, in the end beyond our deaths, good overcame.
Oh, a final note. You remember Selena, right. Well, I found out tonight something David suspected from the start, and I kinda wondered about after I saw her fight. She wasn't an elf. She WAS an elf originally, who was altered by a god she pissed off due to her attitude about life in general, into a dragon. She lived several thousand years in this form, and now apparently can revert back and forth.
I think our game has a high potential for being very violent.
