The Begining of the End
Also known as, how I came to this decision.
At the time I was getting very burned out of 5e and wanted to try something different to recharge as it were. I don't think it worked and so I decided one week that we would wrap up what we were doing in Spelljammer - having played through a few adventures to get a taste for it. I was ready to call it quits on 5e all together, each passing week feeling a little miserable to run a game I didn't like anymore. Again I'll make a separate post about this later.
As the final week of 5e spelljammer fast approached, I kept thinking about the other campaign we never finished and how I have never finished a campaign I started as a GM. I've also only ever finished one campaign as a player over the last 28 years and that was the very first one I ever played in. So I really wanted to finish this one but I don't want to commit to continuing to using 5e just to finish it. Honestly, I kept waffling on this because I feel like for the first time as a GM I had a sold campaign and storyline that I really thought was worth seeing to the end. I ever played with the idea that we could transfer the characters over to another game system and continue that way, but I didn't like that idea because I wanted to finish the campaign and not wait for months for that to happen. Even cutting out all the extra fat from the final chapter of the campaign it would probably still take a year. Honestly, if combat didn't slow the game down so much we would probably be done.
Then it hit me two weeks ago. It's a roleplaying game. you don't need to use the rules. We could still use the same character sheets, hen needed I could roll a D20 and the task or action would successes if it was under the character's ability score. And to speed things up I could narrate chat with no rolling needed; that way we cut out all the hours that the group tends to lose in combat sessions. So with that, all worked out and Spelljammer wrapped up, this past Saturday we Returned to a long campaign with the objective to wrap it up before moving on to try out Runequest : Glorantha.
The Recap
But it had been a while since we played last and the group had found a bunch of clues pertaining to the main plot a few sessions before we switched to spelljammer; I needed a way to remind them of everything that came before so that they knew of where we were and what was going on. Plus, as a GM, I needed this refresher myself. So I wrote up a Campaign recap as a way to remind them of things that they may have missed or forgotten and to help the players who started in the middle of the campaign of what came before. At some point, after the Campaign is over, I'll write up a post covering the full Campaign, with notes and highlighted sections that show the process I used to create this campaign. This way anyone can look at what I did and get some clear insight into how they too can easily start a campaign running and have a successful and fun story to tell.
When Approaching "How to Write" a campaign recap, its important to cut out a lot of details and just stick to the events that most stick out. When players appear, acts that had an effect on the game, and the key plot points. When I first sat down to write this all up, I realized after I got through a third of the recap that I was adding too much detail and that it would easily turn into a short story if I didn't just stick to the basics.
When Approaching "How to Write" a campaign recap, its important to cut out a lot of details and just stick to the events that most stick out. When players appear, acts that had an effect on the game, and the key plot points. When I first sat down to write this all up, I realized after I got through a third of the recap that I was adding too much detail and that it would easily turn into a short story if I didn't just stick to the basics.
So I present to you the long recap I read to my players in all of its glory. I am happy to say they really liked, giving me a round of applause and cheers. Several thanked me for the little quips and inside jokes, I added. I was happy it wasn't a giant fail on my part and it was well-received.
The Journey Thus Far:
This journey is coming to a close as your brave group sleeps out under the stars. Spring slowly awakes the valleys of Sembia, new life growing where snow piled high only weeks ago. Snow and Ice still hold sway back in the mountains where, what feels like years ago, your journey first started to unravel the mysteries you now pursue. Only months ago, Kalenner, Ariyanna, and Auster defended Ridgedale from a raid of goblins and bandits as a Gold Knight riding a Red Dragon rained flames down on the village Ridgedale. Only to discover when it was over that it was all a ruse. While the village fought their attackers and the flames, others came to steal away the children of the village, including one clever halfling child who had grown close to the companions over the last few days.
They would have never guessed how that one night would change their lives. Soon after, while pursuing the kidnappers, they would find themselves fighting evil blight creatures summoned by an ugly Hag into the fae to poison the forest. A witch who even now schemes to avenge herself against the party who foiled her misdeeds. After freeing the Dragonborn Kriv from the tortures of the Green Hag, they discovered and freed the village’s stolen children after being spirited away to the ancient fortress of the Falcon’s Peak. Finding out in the process that there was more to the kidnapper’s plans - a theory furthered by the news upon their return. All across the Dalelands, and places beyond, similar raids had happened all in the same night, each sharing the same tragic result.
They followed rumors of dragon sightings deep into the mountains to find clues to the whereabouts of the other missing children. Between two frigid peaks, at an old monastery called the Temple of the Fire Opal, they made a deal with an Abyssal Red Dragon, Thalax Tor. He had a score to settle with the same Red Dragon that attacked the village. Their lives spared only to be the weapons that Thalax Tor would use for his revenge. During this time, they also meet new companions, though one of these would come to betray them.
Luc, a runaway noble and a novice wizard of the Cormyr Kingdom, sought to escape his past. The Companions saved his life, and so he repaid the life debt owed by joining them on their quest for answers. During the trip back to Ridgedale, Kalennar lost an arm to his arrogance and ill-placed faith. Only to receive a new, strange replacement from an old enemy who once again escaped before any of them could finish her off for good.
Mod betrayed them, the other companion they picked up in the mountains, turned on the group, trying to remove the Druid who protected this area. If it wasn’t for the Heroes, who knows what would have happened. In the end, they discovered that someone was controlling Mod through a ring he wore. These green rings of stone were away for the people who were behind all this to possess and enslave people from afar— taking over their bodies to commit evil acts and enact dastardly plans.
In a dream, Auster was called home to Highmoon, and along the way, they met an odd Dragonborn named Freya, who was more than she appeared. At his monastery, the monks gave Auster a relic of the order. A staff wielded by the first master said to be the ban of the unholy and undead. He was to take it with him, for there would come a time when he would need it to end a great evil in the world.
Using the information gained from Thalax Tor, they traveled to High Castle before pushing onward into the southern mountain range. On the road to High Castle, they met a bard who was seeking to write an epic and, upon hearing of the companion’s journey, decided to join them, following her intrinsic bard sense of a tale worth telling. But even at this leg of the trip came with hazards. The companions were stopped on the way to High Castle by a Human Knight, Dragonborn Paladin, and their companions. These bounty hunters sought after an outlaw, with a wanted poster in hand. The wanted poster had an all too familiar face on it, exposing Luc's secrets to the group. Fortunately for Luc, his friends never gave him up, and the bounty hunters never suspected a thing. They rode on without looking back, leaving the quarry far behind.
Once equipped, the party had to get to the other side of the Wyvern’s peaks, a deadly region, especially during winter. An old mine passage was the only way to avoid many of the snowed-in passes, and deadly Wyvern attacks the peak was well known for. But this path turned out not as safe as it first seemed. Having been diverted off the trail by purple worms that had made the old mine their home, they soon found themselves lost deep in an underground world of tunnels, chambers, and deadends. Down in the deep and dark, a familiar environment for Kalennar, they sought out a way back to the surface. After deadly battles, chance encounters, and unwanted experiences with eldritch beings, They only found a way out by making a bargain with an elemental creature that hungered for gems and ore.
At last, they tasted the frozen air of the mountains above. They had come out of their underground experience much changed. Kalennar had received word from a newly made ally that even the drow communities had suffered a similar attack to what was experienced in the Dalelands, throwing the Underdark into confusion and disarray. Luc reflecting the most considerable change amongst them, marked on his flesh and in his occasional bursts of red hot anger that blinded him when encountering enemies. It would be some time before they discovered that the stars and darkness that now played across his skin acted as a window to a place far off in space. While they were looking into that space, other things could look back through. It would be some time before they noticed the red point of light that got closer and closer by the day—an ill omen for sure.
They were near the place Thalax Tor’s old lair, stolen by Vrentorix, the dragon that attacked Ridgedale, but between them and the dragon’s lair was a ravine cloaked in fog year-round. Here a guardian spirit warned them away, for none had ever passed through the ravine to return to the living again. The Heroes would not stop now when they were so close to the answers they sought; thus, they fought off the spectral knight and entered the ravine undeterred. Little did they know but later find out that there was another path that would have led them around this accursed place. But maybe destiny was closing their minds to any other option, limiting their view so they could be where the universe needed them.
Shadowed voices whispered to them as they walked deeper and deeper into the ravine. They found themselves in a cursed place where the ghosts of a long-forgotten war still languished and disparaged with no release from the wicked spell that scared the very stones. It was here, as foretold in his dreams that Auster carried out his sacred duty and used the relic of his carried to bring an end to the curse of this haunted place. When Auster struck the Black Alter with the holy staff, each artifact destroyed each other, freeing the spirits of those who died in this place over the centuries.
Once the fog cleared and each of them was awake and healed after the destruction of two equally opposed artifacts, they made their way to the end of the ravine, and from there, they looked out across a chasm to an old dwarven complex. The only way across the chasm blocked by an ancient dwarven fortress that guarded the pass. Here a companion of Thalax Tor waited. She came on behalf of the Abyssal Red Dragon to make sure the deed completed, or the party had died in the trying. She gave them no guidance and did not wish them luck. She was impartial as the dragon who sent them.
The Dwarven ruins were once the home of the kobold servants of Thalax Tor, but now new occupants had taken the fortress as their own and added to its well-planned defenses. The party’s hope of sneaking past the many guards and sentries of the fort, to make their way to the dwarven complex on the other side, was short-lived. A fierce battle ensued, and two of the companions fell as a White Dragon’s deadly cold breath overtook them. The others survived long enough to escape, taking their fallen with them, retreating into a corpse of alpines to lick their wounds and hide. The Bandit, Goblin, and Hobgoblin search parties were sent out for them as the white dragon circled above. During this time, too wounded and tired to weep for the fallen, the party watched as color returned to dead flesh. Once again, Ariyanna and Freya breathed, fully restored to life. Kalennar's raven companion refused to be carried by any now save Ariyanna or Fraya. The Raven Queen gave him a voice so he could act as a guide for the once deceased companions. The goddess of death had restored the two, but only if they put an end to a great cosmic injustice - the clues to which they would find inside the dwarven complex they already sought entry.
After resting, again, they sought to find a way past the fortress, but the sudden appearance of the White Dragon stopped them in their tracks. One that Fraya knew upon seeing from her time when she was a dragon herself. They were never friends, but this afforded the company a chance to speak with the White Dragon, Geldren, and strike a deal. From Geldrin, they discovered that many dragons were bound to obey the enemy by cruel spells sealed into the collars like the one he wore. The Heroes freed Geldren from his enslavement, and in return, he helped them and himself, get a little revenge against those who thought they could control him. With the dragon’s support, they were able to throw the fortress into disarray to defeat the leaders before continuing to the main complex.
The doors to the ancient mine were heavily barred from outside, keeping the doors from being opened. Why the doors were bar as such, they did not know but were soon to find out. Inside were the secrets they sought, and so nothing would stop them in this duty. Geldren had told them that Vrentorix was not here, called away some time ago, so finding other clues was crucial. Thalax Tor’s revenge would have to wait another day. The secrets they found in the dwarven complex again sent waves of change through their lives. The complex was an old dwarven foundry, its dusty hallways lined with melted and partially destroyed suits of armor on wooden skeletons. The same people who masterminded the kidnapping of tens of thousands of children were harnessing the power of a fire node, used initially by the dwarves to power their forges. Now it powered dark magical experiments that twisted the meaning of life. One of these experiments went out of control and killed many of the members of this plot. Their battered corpse, many of which still wearing green stone rings, littered the halls and chambers. It wasn’t until they were nearly on top of the greatest secret hidden with this place that they came face to face with the twisted creation that had been born within this facility to bring death.
It was in this place, where they found the answers that they spent what felt like a lifetime looking for. In the main chamber where the experiments took place, they discover row after row of odd glass and metal coffins that were bound two to a group, each with a lever to pull or lift. In all the coffin-like chambers were the still and unmoving bodies of dead children, and in all but one, the adjoining coffin was empty. This single chamber contained one of the suits of armor they had seen throughout the complex, in various states of destruction. However, this one was unmarred and new. It was while trying to get the child out that they pulled the second lever, revealing the full extent and purpose of these devices. A bright flash and the door to the suit of armor popped open with steam and fumes streaming out. The suit of armor came out, brightly lit glowing spheres that were like eyes, blinking around confused. Its odd hollow voice unsure.
Here was the darkest secret laid bare before them. No well-organized group of slavers stole the children. An unknown group of Wizards and Clerics were taking the souls of the young to create an army of living constructs, bound to their masters, and requiring no food or drink. Scattered in the notes and documents left behind, they found many clues and explanations that filled in holes that they had long sought while leaving many new questions behind. Luc’s own family, imprisoned and possibly dead, were caused by the actions of people who were behind all of this. Perhaps even people his family called friends, controlled by greenstone rings like so many others they had encountered. One clue led him to believe that something even more sinister was happening back home, hidden on his family’s lands. Other documents indicated that the people who were behind all of this were amassing in Westgate, an independent city-state well known as a refuge for pirates and exiled nobles—working unseen in the city, waiting for the climax of their plans. Pinnacle, to which was the construction of a great magical gateway that was nearing completion as the season passed. All was needed as a few rare materials to finish the spell.
An ancient and forgotten temple, hidden from dwarves who once worked their forges at the heart of this volcanic mount, quietly waited. Kalennar, having been pulled by something in his family's ancient past, found a giant statue of a dragon. One that had been in this place long before the dwarves came and turned the mountain to their purposes. Using the pieces, he received long ago; he unlocked the puzzle that guarded the only passageway that led to this lost temple. Here it was revealed who it was that called to his blood. Who he gained his magic from that set him apart amongst the drow. That marked him as different. Here he The Dragon Goddess Hlal, who his family was bound to in ancient days. Now fully revealed to him, she tasked him to take up her book, having been left here for ages, and to take it back into the world. His duty was to either find one to take up the book and be the new High Priest of Hlal or take up this sacred duty himself, gaining even more power inturn.
Most painfully, Auster and Ariyanna discovered that loved ones from their past tied directly into this plot of kidnapping and evil magic. As a reward for his actions in the curse ravine, in a dream, Auster was told that at the end of this journey, he would find his long lost mother amongst the kidnappers. Ariyanna, finding out upon their return, that a childhood friend and forlorn love may have been taken and possessed by these people, and forced to play a part in the kidnappings. Last time any had seen him, he was on a ship bound for Westgate, ignoring the questions from those who knew him as if they were strangers.
Now, heading south to help a necromancer that they are unsure if they should trust, they take a small detour - looking for a star that fell to earth a few nights back. Each restless in their thoughts except the newly born Jasper, the living construct. As the morning sun rises, the companions rise with it, each falling out of sleep as if they fell from a high cliff, frightening dreams scattering with the morning light, as quickly forgotten as they were terrifying. Leaving all feeling tired after a restless night but unsure if they even dreamed at all. This experience was all too common by now, having plagued them for weeks. A demoralizing experience, especially for those races for whom dreaming was an uncommon condition and foreign concept.
Not much further, they would be where they thought the star fell. Maybe as the day progressed, they could remove this albatross that hung about them and haunted their nights.
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