The first part of our Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert campaign has concluded. Now, the player party has other designs and far grander plans than any that have come before. With ships and soldiers, they intend to make their mark on the Sea of Dread!
This log covers June to early October, 2014. Since we've had major format changes this week, we decided to experiment with a new template for campaign logs and updates. Stay tuned, and check out Part II's campaign log as well!
The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, 1000 A.C.
In the lands of the Known World, peace is never known for long. Furtive whispers of gathering darkness drift across the realm like the shadows of darkened stormclouds. A sellsword's steel is good currency here, and indeed all across Thyatis. Where strife holds sway, our adventurers always tread.
Our heroes are chance companions met upon the road, yet it seems all share one common goal: to seek out adventure! The road is rife with tales of strange and haunted places, guarded by things outside of civilization. Everywhere treasure and magic are to be had, if only one possessed the means.
In pursuit of this glory, our adventurers will risk all. Can they brave the gauntlet of the Known World and arrive at their proper destinies? Or will the gibbering insanities of Mystara break their wills, casting them into obscurity forever?
The Face of Mystara is a Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert campaign that will progress through the various levels of the 1980's era basic sets as the players rise in level. In addition, we'll be using most of the printed modules for Basic/Expert D&D from the same time period, in an effort to recreate the zeitgeist of a bygone era of adventuring.
At times, players may control more than 1 player character. In these instances, players are limited to one demihuman class among the allowed total. All a player's characters gain the same amount of XP. As characters level up, they will access more and more of the rules until finally the Rules Cyclopedia is made available.
Current Player Characters
Total Party Levels: 8
- Wickwar Davis - Halfling: 4 (L)
- Blaneth Grigix of the Light - Magic-User: 4 (C)
Total Party Levels: 2 (+10 Normal Men)
- Captain Ioran Barlowe - Fighter: 2 (L)
- The Drake (Small Sailing Ship)
- 10 Sailors - Normal Men
Disbanded Player Characters
- Modai Valius - Elf: 2 (L)
- The Red Fox - Thief: 1 (N)
- Lucian Talbot - Fighter: 1 (L)
- Spiel Von Hechtinburg - Thief: 3 (N)
- Xan-Dar - Fighter: 2 (N)
- Vorenus - Fighter: 1 (N)
- Bastian Schweinwächter - Cleric: 2 (L)
- Corpus Bin Jesse - Magic-User: 2 (L)
- Cornelius Swift - Fighter: 3 (L)
- Gwendolyn - Thief: 3 (N)
- Siyr Neski - Cleric: 3 (N)
- Gengis Schweinwächter - Fighter: 3 (L)
- Gareth Ironhand - Dwarf: 3 (L)
- Nuaoo the Islander - Thief: 4 (C)
- Sven Svensgaard - Magic-User: 4 (C)
- Gorgiana Longtree - Cleric: 3 (C)
- War Dog (2 HD)
- Phineous Longfellow - Cleric: 4 (L)
- Elessa Astraya - Fighter: 4 (L)
Campaign Log
Total Time: 66.5 hrs (10.12.14)
- Horror on the Hill (6.1.2014 to 8.7.14) Total Time: 42.5 hrs - No one knows what became of the Hill, but everyone at Guido's Fort knows that something terrible looms over the River Shrill. The adventurers meet at the Inn in the small community, and prepare to set out in search of treasure and glory.
- The PC's introduce themselves upon the road to Guido's Fort and become fast friends, intrigued by the notion of what could be upon the dreaded Hill. After plying an old timer with many drinks, the party hits the sack and sets out for the river at first light. After buying a boat and crossing the river, the party explores the Hill for almost two days, running into Driver Ants, Giant Horned Chameleons and even Neanderthals. Avoiding most of these encounters, the party finally talks to the Neanderthals, and ask for directions. (4 hrs)
- Confusion is the watchword of the day as the party follows the neander-fellows to a sheer cliff. Exploring the hill and avoiding monsters, the party spends close to three days going in circles. However, they soon gain their bearings and begin to map the trails on the hill. On the evening of the last day, the party's camp is attacked by ghouls, skeletons and a strange visitor named Priycyk. However, it' the giant rats that steal in among the party late that night that claim the lives of four of the intrepid adventurers. (5 hrs)
- The party backtracks once again after burying their dead, and happen to rescue a distraught maiden who joins the group rather than be left on the hill. After visiting the strange sisters Rosalinda and Rosabella, the party scales the western cliffs on the hill to investigate the caves and slay the bullyish ogre. After swaying the Neanderthals to help rid the caves, the party wipes out the southern ogre lair. (5.5 hrs)
- The party makes it's way to the old monastery, and begin to explore the inner halls. Much of the searching proved fruitless, however. After losing a member to hobgoblin hostilities, the party returns to the Sister's meadow to recuperate. Afterwards, the party climbs the hill to the ruins of the monastery, getting inside and into a torture room crewed by goblins. The characters free Cullen DeFilch, but lose one of their own as well.(5 hrs)
- The upper level of the monastery is explored, and the complex is mapped out by the adventurers. Bugbears, goblins and hobgoblins abound. The party befriends two starving war dogs, who take to Georgianna quite well. (5 hrs)
- The entrance to the dungeon is found, and the party descends within. The players rescue a dwarf held captive by the monsters in a smith for over a year. After defeating the hobgoblin king through spellcraft and trickery, the party springs a trap that plunges half of them down a 300 foot chute into a room with many doors. One of them sprung open, and Vorenus caught a berserkers' sword to the belly.. (7 hrs)
- The second level of the dungeon is revealed to be a maze of tunnels that intersect at the hub point where the players entered. After learning how the trap works, the party holes up in the hobgoblin king's chambers to rest while they explore the lower level. During the return part of such a trip to the second level, the party encounters Priycyk again, who offers to spread rumors among the humanoids in return for a cut of the treasure. However, one of the spellcasters attempted a charm on him, which did not work. Thankfully, his anger was abated by the offer of 300 gold, which he took and promptly left. The exploration of the lower level continues. (4 hrs)
- Further exploration of the dungeon finds the characters beset by an owlbear guarding it's drinking hole. Bastian Schweinwachter was mauled and killed by the rampaging beast before it was brought down. Burying the body in the earth floor of the tunnels, the characters find two other adventurers (one of them Schweinwachter's brother) who had been trapped in the dungeon since their party was captured more than two weeks earlier. The adventurers retreat to the surface after a grisly encounter with a gelatinous cube leaves the Magic-User Corpus bin Jesse slain. (2 hrs)
- Weeks 9 and 10 are Mystara Battles: Skirmish Playtest. (0 hrs)
- The players return once more into the hideous depths of the Hill after resting in the hobgoblin's chambers. This time, however they are foiled as the chute is closed and their ropes removed. They travel deeper in to the caverns, and eventually find an underground stream. Avoiding many dangers, they find their way into the lair of a young red dragon, who proceeds to incinerate Gwendolyn, Siyr Neski and Bastian. After slaying the beast, the survivors meet with the sisters and return to Guido's Fort rich...though they have lost many lives. (5 hrs)
- The Isle of Dread (8.24.14 to ?) Total Time: 24 hrs - After traveling to Thyatis City and taking a few weeks off, many survivors from the Horror on the Hill congregate to make a new voyage into adventure and the unknown. This time, we set sail south into the Sea of Dread!
- The adventurers spend a great deal of time recuperating from the Horror on the Hill. After traveling to Thyatis City and setting their treasures straight, the group decides to remain a group and even formalize a bit. The party soon finds a secret treasure map in the red dragon's hoard, and it speaks of a strange island to the far south, and hints there may be great treasure there. After buying a small sailing ship (the Drake), the party hires Captain Barlowe and his crew to look after the ship and see to the general upkeep thereof. The party sets sail for Specularum, then turns south following the directions on the vellum letter. 19 days after setting out from Thyatis City, the party find the so-called Isle of Dread. The party waits in the harbor until first light to step ashore. (4 hrs)
- The party makes contact with the islanders. After learning that a great wall seals the villages off from the rest of the island, the party organizes an exploratory venture beyond. They find the village of the Phanatons, and take refuge there. They find the central plateau of the island, and resolve the climb the great wall. After returning to the southern islands and sending Barlowe to the mainland to get trade goods, the party ventures back to the plateau and braves the insane climb. Inside the volcanic caldera, they find another village, and hear tales of horror regarding a temple on an island in the caldera's volcanic lake. The party arrives at the temple, ready to explore the treacherous source of the villager's dread. (5 hrs)
- The adventurer's enter the temple and after mucking around for too long in the entrance are faced with the entirety of the tribe living on Taboo Island. After a short battle ending in the deaths of Gareth Ironhand and Gengis Schweinwächter, the party has charmed all the heads of the tribe. The party heads to the strand to bury their dead, and the chieftain of the tribe (who was blinded, not charmed) dispelled the Continual Light in his eyes with a Continual Darkness and rallied the tribe against the interlopers. On the beach, the tribe is put to sleep and the party murders most of them as they lie helpless, resulting in a major alignment shift for almost all of them. Meanwhile, Wickwar is trapped in the temple on a lower dungeon level, in a dark room full of spitting cobras. (5 hrs)
- The party bumbles around in the lower levels of the flooded temple. Both Wickwar and the party in general separately managed to find some areas that had flooded, and got swept further down the ancient passages. The clerics have found that the Immortals have turned from them, and no longer answer their pleas for spells. After finding a massive, heated underground cavern beneath the temple, they decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and turn back to the surface. (5 hrs)
- Escaping to the surface of the caldera, the players attempt to escape the nightmarish land. There's many complications, however. Sven Svensgard was murdered by the islander Nuaoo, who took Sven's Potion of Flying and flew away before the party could enact retribution. The few of the party, after nearly drowning crossing the narrowest part of the volcanic lake, found some boats on the far side of the lake and attempt a rescue on the rest of the party stranded on the island. However, the celebration doesn't last as 4 pteranadons begin harassing the party. Other than Wickwar and Blaneth, there are no survivors of Taboo Island. Using Invisibility, the intredpid explorers actually make it all the way back to Tanaroa. (2.5 hrs)
- A new party prepares in Minrothad. Blaneth and Wickwar await the return of Captain Barlowe, and make plans to civilize the Isle of Dread and exploit a new set of trade lanes to Minrothad and the mainland. (2.5 hrs)
Campaign Resolution
The remaining two members of the party grit their teeth and press forward with their ambition. The plan is to open the Isle of Dread, and conquer it as their own domain. Even now, preparations are being made to bring civilization and prosperity to the tribes on the island.
Blaneth of the Light and Wickwar Davis must first find companions to aid them in their endeavor and brave the trials of the Isle of Dread. Much is to be done, and it must be done with raw money. However, if the characters are successful in creating, maintaining and defending the trade lane, money and influence may flow into the Isle's newly constructed ports.
What lies ahead? Wealth and influence, money and power? Or death and ruin, ridicule and destitution? Find out in part II of The Face of Mystara!