[The Campaign] [Other Personas] [AD&D Rules] [The Dungeon] [Kline Syndrome] [Transcript] [Roleplay Ramble] [The Banana Zone]
Judas' Campaign was based in the AD&D Forgotten Realms setting, but I don't know when because he played with the timescales a bit... The characters all began in Zhentil Keep, on the Moon Sea - a wretched hive of scum and villainy if ever there was one - and in the company of one Nos'Lothar, priest of Cyric.
At the moment this page is still under construction, so please forgive any omissions and mistakes. It'll all be up and running soon.
[Characters] [History] [Current scenario]
The main reason for constructing this page is because the page that Judas himself wrote was closed down when he converted to a Magic the Gathering (TM) site. As a result, I have decided to do a page on the campaign as it was a lot of fun and worth telling people about.
At this time, all the work on this page is mine alone but hopefully there will be contributions from the players themselves in the near future.
Scrag: A Zhentil Keep merchant with ambition.
Amandara: A female elf thrown out of Evermeet.
Theah: A thief with a temper.
Gereth: A half-elf with burning hands.
Dante: The world's craziest priest.
Friend: Not the friendliest friend in the world.
Taz: An unlucky elven assassin.
Sobrae: A female non-evil drow priestess.
Gallax: Dwarven sword-swinger.
Lerissa: Short-lived wizardly woman.
Chiane: A fox-woman with a katana.
Arentherelthas: Elven bladesinging bloke.
Description: Scrag was always an entrepeneur, and this quality did not fade when he was forced to work for old Nossy (as we like to call Nos'Lothar). He was a getting-things-done kind of guy but decided to stay behind when the others went to Ravenloft. He seems to have done alright for himself in the meantime, although things are never easy or simple when Scrag is around. He's very fond of his cutlass and is happy to take a fist to a guy's face.
Description: Amandara was a female elf with a really big sword. Having been kicked out of Evermeet without explanation she had ended up adventuring to stay alive. Her experiences in Zhentil Keep were not good and that's where she died, at the hands of the so-called Men in Black.
Description: A pretty human girl, Theah was very thiefy in the beginning and became very unthiefy as time went by. She had the same rough experiences as the others but reacted worse due to her temper. She favoured twin short swords to fight with but a dagger generally did in a pinch. There is more about Theah available here.
Silly nicknames given: Thee-thee.
Description: Gereth was a half-elf with a friendly attitude when the party first formed. By the end the friendly bit was still there but he was more of a half-vampire as well as half-elf. He was effectively unkillable for ages (which spared the party's useless healing potions for a bit) but in the end immortality had it's end. He liked his short sword, did Gereth, and had quite a few of them in his time.
Silly nicknames given: Gezza.
Description: An ugly son of a bitch, Dante was a priest of Tyr whose soul had been accidentally given to Cyric (Cyril). As a result Tyr was being REALLY nice to Dante and giving him more spells than normal. Despite this, Dante was a complete psychopath who got the party into loads of trouble regularly. He used any bludgeoning weapon he could get his hands on. Of late, though, some of his horrific ugliness has faded and he has been given new eyes and a new hand (they were missing before).
Silly nicknames given: Dants.
Description: Friend was the mysterious party NPC that kept herself covered up in sunlight and never really explained herself. She was some kind of vampire, and a priestess of Raal (an evil god) and generally quite hard. It later transpired that she was Lady Bethra VoRune, from Ravenloft, and last time seen she was in the process of ruling part of the Demiplane of Dread.
Description: Male elf assassin, not too bright and incredibly unlucky: over time he lost 2 points of comeliness due to accidents (fire and bowstrings). He wasn't part of the original party but tagged along anyway, being exceptionally hard with his daggers. Unfortunately, he came to a sad end in an assassination attempt.
Nicknames: Taz. Often mistaken for a girl (by players only).
Description: A female drow worshipper of Eilistree who infiltrated the party but managed to live because she was cool. She had a vicious streak, mainly directed at male persons, but she was hard with her longsword and few chose to fight her. She died in a dungeon and was taken away by her goddess.
Her disguise was of a drow called Duras and the party wrote a little ditty about him which went: Duras, Duras, he takes it up the ass...
Description: Gallax was a psycho dwarf who ran around hitting things for a while with the party until he got killed by Ladislas. When resurrected, though, he was in fact, the elf Arentherelthas...
Description: A pretty Zhentil Keep mage who lasted about 20 minutes with the party. Her death came as a result of her choice to attack a Tanar'ri. However, in death she nearly killed the party with the exploding runes on her spellbook.
Description: An oriental foxwoman from Ravenloft who wielded a katana and got naked a lot. Quiet and niaive, she tagged along with the party to keep tabs on Gereth, who smelt bad. She managed not to die, but failed not to meld with her sword.
Silly nicknames given: Chee-chee, Foxy.
Description: After Gallax was resurrected as Arentherelthas, he explained that he had been cursed into dwarven form by the wizards of Thay. He stuck with the group and made Gereth really jealous because he could use magic and armour at the same time. He was generally called Arenther for ease.
[Characters] [History] [Current scenario]
The original party consisted of Theah, Gereth, Scrag and Amandara. They met because each had managed to get themselves arrested while in Zhentil Keep. Scrag, who was known to dabble in smuggling, was caught red-handed by the town guard who I believe had set him up. Theah was falsely accused of attacking a priest of Cyric when they couldn't prove she had been thieving. Gereth returned to the city to find his mother dead and one of the Cyric priests gloating over the fact, and was justifiably arrested for attacking said priest with burning hands. Amandara probably assaulted a priest when he attempted to rape her.
Anyway, the four of them all ended up naked in the stocks awaiting their punishment, which was going to be death. However, none of them were going to take this lying down and by hook and by crook they managed to escape the stocks, steal some clothes and flee through the city. Ultimately, all this brought was pain as each character was caught by the guard and taken to see a priest of Cyric called Nos'Lothar.
Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the Forgotten Realms setting, perhaps a little history is needed. Zhentil Keep is not a nice place to live. In fact, it's scummy and the main reason for this is the fact that the main influence on the people is a religion of evil, deception and lies. Up until ten years before this campaign is set, the priesthood that ran the city belonged to a god called Bane. Bane was your typical dyed-in-the-wool evil god with all the sacrifices and injustice that that entails. However, ten years ago, a new god came into power, fighting Bane for his position and eventually winning. This god is called Cyric, lord of lies and all sorts of other nastiness. The change in gods just made Zhentil Keep worse. In addition, the clerics of Cyric were zealous and power-hungry, which is where Nos'Lothar comes in. the people of Zhentil Keep do not like their priest oppressors, and would do almost anything to over throw them if they had it within their power to do so.
Nos'Lothar took the four characters and basically told them that they had to work for him, and as long as they performed well, their lives would be spared. The work was probably going to be unpleasant and against the morals of most people, but it was either that or death. Everyone chose a chance at life, harbouring not-so-secret plans to get away from the priest as possible.
The first 'mission' was for the four to head to a hill just outside the city where there was an encampment of priests and soldiers. The group was to enter the camp (preferably unseen) and seize hold of a book that was there. They were to turn this book over to Nos'Lothar. Well, the four went reluctantly, although the people they had to take the book off were evil, which was a big bonus. They may even have been other priests of Cyric - it seems that these evil folks were not above killing each other in the name of self-advancement.
The book was called Drakkar's Book of Prophecy, which the group quickly headed back to the city to get shot of. However, the journey back was not without its surprises - one of which was the horrendous first appearance of Dante, who suddenly flashed into existence naked and covered in blood. He was already incredibly and revoltingly ugly, so the blood and lack of clothes were not good. After a few misunderstandings, the group finally made contact with Dante, who turned out to be a priest of Tyr, the god of law and justice. His incredible ugliness and dramatic appearance were due to the fact that Cyric had possession of his soul, and thus free reign to practise whatever foul arts he chose upon Dante's body. As a result, Dante had been trapped in hell for a decade or so and was lacking in the normal social graces. As a 'joke', Cyric had chopped off his right hand and torn out his eyes, so that he 'could be closer to Tyr', who had suffered the same fate at the hands of Fenris Wolf.
Tyr told Dante that the book we were carrying was important and that he must go with us. Dante was very happy to, keen as he was to get some vengeance upon Cyric, who he called Cyril, for the mutilations to his skin and soul. However, it turned out that a) Cyric's hold on Dante was not altogether gone, and b) that there a great deal of self-advancement conflict going on within the priesthood of Cyric.
Dante was taken away by Cyric - he vanished in a sizeable explosion, while the rest of them tried to find Nos'Lothar. Instead they were found by a different priest of Cyric who took the book off them and locked them in cells. Well, they weren't going to stand for that and promptly broke out of the cells and rampaged through the building, killing the guards and the elite 'men in black' guards. They lost Scrag, but the remaining trio managed to locate the priest, kill him, defile his little altar, and regain the book. Unfortunately, Amandara got critically injured by some men in black, and with nothing they could do to help, Theah and Gereth tried to hide while a patrol went by, hoping that they would think Amandara was dead. Fortunately, they did think she was dead. Unfortunately, they stuck a sword through her 'just for good measure' and so the group lost their first member.
Invisible, Gereth and Theah managed to sneak out, although the explosive reappearance of Dante when materialised inside another man almost gave them away. They couldn't find Scrag, but they did give the book to Nos'Lothar, who had mixed feelings about the whole escapade. However, the tasks were not over there. The next thing for the group to do was to travel to Shadowdale with a crystal, which they were to give to a Drow Overmage called Kuristan. Nos'Lothar had arranged for a Drow associate of Kuristan's, called Duras, to accompany them to make sure they completed their task.
So the group headed off with the Drow watching over them at all times. They made various plans to dispose of him, but as it turned out, things weren't going too well for Nos'Lothar... you see, Duras wasn't actually Duras at all. The REAL Duras had indeed headed for Zhentil Keep, but on the way a good Drow priestess of Eilistree called Sobrae had despatched him and taken his place. Nos'Lothar was none the wiser and all of a sudden the group had no policing from their enemy, and an additional ally. More allies joined a little later when Scrag showed up again, followed by a mysterious cloaked figure known only as friend, and her elf bodyguard, Tazmin.
The journey to Shadowdale was not without its excitement. There were the Red Plumes on the road who wanted to take Tazmin with them because he was an elf and it was their job to kill them. For that one, Theah pretended to be a travelling lady with Tazmin as her slave. This wasn't completely effective, so Dante blinded one with magic to get the point across. Needless to say, Theah and her 'sorcerer husband' walked clear of that one with their 'slave' in tow. There was also an odd incident in the town of Voonlar, when a kirre, or Athasian tiger (a tiger from a desert planet) appeared suddenly in the town square. In destroying the threat, the group managed to destroy the Temple of Chauntea, goddess of the earth and farmworkers. This had two bug problems: the first is that the cat's mate was also around, very angry, very hard and also invisible for the most part. This was very inconvenient and indeed resulted in Scrag's arm getting broken. The second problem was that Chauntea was really annoyed about her Temple's battering and came and told Dante off in person. She beat him up a bit and yelled a lot. It was generally baffling to all involved. The most significant thing to happen, however, was when a bulette attacked a tree and sent a huge branch sailing towards Gereth. When it hit him, it killed him outright, but Friend mysteriously took him away and when she returned with him, he was alive. She kept whispering to him, and kept him close to her, always covered up from head to foot. Perhaps Friend thought she was being clever but all she did was sow a seed of mistrust in the party. Everyone knew Gereth had to be a vampire, and they didn't trust Friend because SHE had to be a vampire and she was keeping both facts a secret from everyone. In the end, the group had a very big argument with Friend, which forced her to own up to what was true, and explain what was going on. As it turned out, Gereth was only a half-vampire, able to regenerate a little and operate in sunlight, although as soon as he should drink even one drop of someone else's blood, he would become a full vampire.
Eventually, though, the group reached Shadowdale, where they heard that the Drow had been active for the first time in hundreds of years. They volunteered to venture into the Drow caverns under the city to have a look... and to kill Kuristan, of course.
The tunnels were deadly, filled with nasty spiders and the Drow, who had a tendency to poison their weapons. In this way Sobrae was killed, and her goddess arrived to take her away, under the watchful eye of Tyr. Despite this, the group managed to work its way through to Kuristan, who Theah shot with her crossbow and so he teleported away. The group raided his treasure, and found that the crystal fitted onto his throne in a certain way - when it was attached, it vanished and was replaced by Drakkar's Book of Prophecy.
Well, the group was hailed as heroes by Lord Morngrim of Shadowdale, and spent a little time in the city, relaxing and trying to decide what to do next. It became quickly apparent that they needed to do something fairly serious with this book, and with Gereth to prevent him becoming a full vampire. The solution, helpfully provided by Friend, was for the group to enter the Demiplane of Dread (Ravenloft) with the book to keep it from the Priests of Cyric and from the Drow. This was also a sensible plan because Friend, who was from there, had heard that there was a Fountain of Eternal Life somewhere there, which could potentially restore Gereth to full humanity, assuming he was still only a half-vampire when he got there.
Scrag decided that he would go his own way and head down into Cormyr to avoid Nos'Lothar while Gereth, Theah, Dante, Friend and Tazmin would enter a dungeon that Friend had heard of nearby which held within it a portal to transport the group to Ravenloft. So they went off to find this dungeon, which had been sealed by 7 strange symbols. Upon investigation, Theah touched the symbols and one of them (the Aries symbol) scorched itself into her hand, but the door opened...
[Characters] [History] [Current scenario]
Since they returned to the Forgotten Realms, they haven't really done anything, but there are plans on the part of Scrag, Dante and Theah to do something with the Book, such as return it to its author. Arenther is thinking of heading off to return to his homelands in the south since there are rumours that stuff is happening at Mythdrannor again and he wants to look into it. Chiane is currently the property of Elminster since she fused personalities with her sword.
The Future…?
It's a possibility that the party, or what remains of it, will be back, although the likelihood is that it will be a 3E thing. Watch this space (but not too closely or you'll get bored).
[Characters] [History] [Current scenario]
[The Campaign] [Other Personas] [AD&D Rules] [The Dungeon] [Kline Syndrome] [Transcript] [Roleplay Ramble] [The Banana Zone]