To Restore a Kingdom
Running exactly two years (Oct. 22, 2024 to Oct. 19, 2024), this campaign began with only two players and an NPC as a trio of adventurers who find a treasure map pointing them to the Crown of Kings. This powerful artifact could be used to unite the kingdom of Alamayne under an authentic ruler instead of the puppet regent (the so-called “Black King”) installed by the Church of Deem to legitimize their oppressive theocracy.
Through adventures that took them as far as Elfland, the Inverted World and the Skyrealms above the clouds of the kingdom, the adventurers learned that the Black King was, in fact, a Vampire working in concert with a Lich who was secretly running the Church of Deem. Meanwhile, Modrons would interfere from time to time, abducting characters seemingly at random and for inscrutable purposes.
(That last one was actually a way for me to narratively justify player absences as the Modrons could control time to the point where it looked like characters were just blinking out and back in again with no sense of time having passed. As for what they were really up to, how can mortals expect to understand the motivations of beings who exist outside of spacetime as we know it?)
This was my first campaign with an actual end goal. Just about everything I’ve done before has been open-ended, which is the style of play I prefer. There were times when this campaign meandered a bit too much, perhaps, but I was very happy to have it conclude in so many satisfying ways. And I think it’s especially cool for the characters to finish a campaign at 9th level as lords of the realm.
There is plenty of room for a sequel or spin-off campaign, for sure. Even though we ended with the death of the titular Black King and Nihl crowned the first Dragonborn King of Alamayne, there is still the matter of the Lich who has been pulling the strings of the church for a century and a new war in the south with Orcs running amok. Also, Nihl made some problematic promises in order to become king which will surely come back to bite him.
The highlight of the whole thing was having Natasha come back and reprise the role of Zabrina. That was a fun little crossover from another campaign!
The players
- Jake – The Dude
- Kasey – Nihl
- Mark C. – Maran, Akram
- Mark M. – Gilbert, Argual
- Martin – Wyll
- Natasha – Zabrina
- Ross – Villitch
- Sarah – Rosetta
Campaign History
- Round 1: Rescue Mission
- Round 2: The Wolf of Wexam
- Round 3: The Bard and the Monk
- Round 4: Adventures in Elfland
- Round 5: The Fortress – Part I
- Round 6: The Fortress – Part II
- Round 7: Stranger Danger
- Round 8: Into the Skyrealms
- Round 9: In the Dungeon
- Round 10: A Dungeon and a Dragon
- Round 11: Dragonslayers
- Round 12: Modrons
- Round 13: Pelifree Pays the Price
- Round 14: Exit Lord Villitch
- Round 15: Tomb Raiders
- Round 16: Giant Problems
- Round 17: Mine of Monsters
- Round 18: More Giant Problems
- Round 19: Dragon’s Den
- Round 20: King Against King
Campaign Log
Alamayne
The isle of Alamayne is a land ruled by the oppressive theocracy of the Church of Deem. They came to power a century ago in a crusade that swept away King Olaf the Old and replaced him with Virigoth, the Black King, a seemingly immortal figure who still rules to this day. Only the independent city-state of Ludinium on the south coast remains as the lone hold-out, an oasis of enlightenment amidst a land in a Dark Age.
Before the Dark Age of theocratic rule, Alamayne celebrated a pantheon of gods who were multivarious in form and function. Chief among them was Vatael who identified closely with the spontaneous energy of Chaos. The Church of Deem, obsessed with order and control, swept away the old gods, assimilating those they could, erasing those they couldn’t, and setting up Vatael as the ultimate villain.
Alamayne is a cold, dismal place of rugged terrain, lakes and forests, about 800 miles north-south and 600 miles east-west. The overall style and flavour of the setting is Northern European, Celtic/Norse of the 12th-14th century. Only the southern tip of the island is in the temperate zone, the rest is sub-arctic, so lots of wind, rain and snow.
Ludinium
The campaign begins in the independent city-state of Ludinium. Home to about 25,000 people, it covers an island just off the southernmost tip of Alamayne connected by a bridge with a large fortress gatehouse. The surrounding countryside is soft marshland which discourages any attack by land forces.
Ludinium has been around for centuries but became an independent city-state shortly after Virigoth was coronated, when the most wanted man in the kingdom, Temvorian the Sorcerer, formed an alliance with other magic-users and took the palace of Ludinium in a swift coup that ended the reign of Duke Durand. Temvorian had a special relationship with Ozeiza the Bronze Dragon who helped repel the avenging armies of the Black King long enough for the magic-users to turn the surrounding land to intractable swamp which claimed many an enemy soldier.
The city-state is governed by a council of eight guildmasters who are selected from the dozens of trade guilds in the city, serving for two years before being replaced. Presiding over the council with veto power is the Sorceress-Lady Marade, the latest in the line of Temvorian’s descendants to take the leading role. As long as Ludinium has a ruling Sorcerer of the line of Temvorian, Ozeiza will be its patron and protector.
Ludinium has a sizeable University Arcanum where magical tomes from across Alamayne have been collected. There is a population of Wizards, Warlocks and Sorcerers in Ludinium which puts it on the map for travelers from the Skyrealms. The University Tower even has a dock for skyships which come to visit on a semi-regular basis.
