To Restore a Kingdom

This campaign begins with a trio of adventurers finding a treasure map pointing them to the Crown of Kings. This powerful artifact can 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 theocracy.

The Party

Akram (Elf Rogue) – Mark C.
Nihl (Dragonborn Monk) – Kasey
The Dude (Human Fighter) – Jake

Round 15

Tomb Raiders

March 23, 2024

In the morning, Akram found an Inquisitor waiting for him in the tavern with questions, especially regarding Rosetta, whose faith was under suspicion. She was nowhere to be found, however, along with all of her gear which indicated abduction by Modrons. When the Inquisitor left, he ordered Akram and Nihl to report to the cathedral for further questioning.

Witnessing all of this from across the tavern was a Human Fighter calling himself The Dude. He needed help on an adventure into the abandoned pyramid of Tabo across the ruins of the old city. Sealed a hundred years ago with the fabled Staff of Frost inside, The Dude had come to learn the forgotten magic word that would let them in. That afternoon, after equipping themselves for the mountain trek with Harkin to come, the trio set out.

The quarter-mile of fallen buildings was populated by Ghouls which harried the party all the way to the steps of the pyramid where a Ghost haunted the entrance. After all of the undead were dispatched, The Dude spoke the magic word and they entered the musty darkness.

The Staff of Frost was submerged in a nave guarded by a Water Weird and four Wights which put up a fight against the intruders but were ultimately destroyed. The heroes gained the Staff of Frost and split the remaining treasure before leaving the dark interior of the pyramid for its snow-blanketed exterior.

Campaign History

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.

For millennia, Alamayne was the domain of barbarians and bandits with endlessly shifting lines of succession and many periods without kings at all. Many believed unified rule of the island was folly, fractured as it was by feudalism and an inablity of its nobles to get over historical slights, but then, a hundred years ago, the Church of Deem emerged in the north as a power to be reckoned with.

With a zealous and brutal pursuit of justice, the Church was able to unite people against the institutional corruption and abuse of the ruling classes. At first, the devoted were dismissed as a fringe cult, but in the span of a few years they swept to power, ousting King Olaf the Old and installing Black King Virigoth in his place. His apparent immortality is their proof that he was divinely selected to be king of Alamayne, but nobody knows exactly why he is ageless.

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/Mongolian of the 12th-14th century. Think Frazetta’s Conan the Barbarian paintings or the first 20 minutes of the 1982 film. 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 Miderran. Temvorian had a special relationship with Ozeiaza 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.

Whereas Alamayne resembles a Dark Ages European backwater, Ludinium is an oasis of culture and enlightenment more akin to Renaissance Florence. It 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 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, Ozeiaza will be its patron and protector.

Alamayne’s navy has never fared well in the waters around Ludinium where Ozeiaza loves to swim and capsize hostile vessels. The city-state, lacking any arable farmland, trades heavily with the Kingdom of Falay across the channel for everything they need, so the merchant marine class is vital to Ludinium’s survival and the Dragon is known to favour trade ships over war ships.

Ludinium has a sizeable University Arcanum where magical tomes from across Alamayne have been sequestered rather than be burned by the church. There is a population of Wizards, Warlocks and Sorcerers in Ludinium which puts it on the map for travellers from the Skyrealms. The University Tower even has a dock for skyships which come to visit on a semi-regular basis.

All races and classes are available in Ludinium, but outside the city things get a lot more restricted.

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