Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Diary #1

I thought it would be fun to write down the adventure as we move through the story we currently running.

Some Back Story

So the campaign setting is a homebrew setting I made. You have probably seen the images for the map on this post here.

There 4 main landmasses and 3 are inhabited by various cultures. First there is the western continent of Harome. Think of medieval Ireland prior to the English invasion were polycentric law is in place and the various clans and villages highly value their freedom. Think of that, mixed with some of the cultural elements of the vikings. That is who lives here. There are elves, dwarves, haflings, and gnomes, but they are rare races. Humans are the dominant race.

There was an old empire about 1000 years prior called "The Second Amantian Empire". They emulated themselves after an even older and ancient empire known as the Amantians. Not much is known about this first empire, but the second one took much of their heraldry and iconography in order to make their own imperial claims appear more prestigious. This second empire fell due to corruption and monetary manipulation. It eventually broke in to various clans and baroneys that dot Harome now.

To the east there is Malmuk. On this desert continent live the dragonborn. Think of them like a very Arabic influenced culture of dragon men. They have a sultan and worship a great dragon. They were once a major rival of the Second Amantian Empire but peace was eventually found. The sultanate itself has weekend over time and cannot sustain any expansionary policies. Especially with the slave kobolds and various rebels rising up against the sultan.

In the middle we have the island of Thyris. This island is full of many advanced greek like city states. They are the center of magical knowledge and have the best academies and places of learning in the world.

To the south is Tetocoyan. This is a hot tropical jungle littered with ancient ruins and pyramids (like Aztec Pyramids). The jungles are hot and relentless here. Monsters and other unknown horrors stalk the jungles. Expeditions from the Malmuk Sultanate and Harome frequent here in search of gold and riches. Some find it, most find death or are never heard from again.

This is the world I created that our adventure takes place in.

The Characters

We have the following characters in our party:

Kiarin the Human Rogue
Worgrax the Dragonborn Barbarian
Abadin the Human Wizard
Borir the Dwarven Cleric in service of the god Hilmilstor
Belfanas the Half-Elf Druid

The Campaign Thus Far

We started the campaign with the heroes locked up in cave guarded by a small band of goblins. The heroes were travelling from the southern Barony of Reolm to Zhost Loch (pictured below). They were travelling with a caravan of weapon shipments that were destined for Zhost Loch.

Goblins, lead by orcs and a vicious bugbear named "Gregek" attacked the caravan and captured the heroes. Now they have found themselves far to the north in a cave, caged. The goblins were not every thorough in their confiscation of equipment and did not take the thieves tools off of Kiarin the Rogue. They did, however, take everyone's weapons. Kiarin was able to pick his lock and hid behind some sacks of loot and barrels. The loot just so happened to be their own loot. Goblin guards entered the area were the cages held the heroes and at that, Worgrax used his acid bread to burn one to death and Kiarin grabbed his rapier from loot and stabbed the other in the back while it was distracted.

They took the keys from the dead goblins and freed everyone else. Once free they re-equipped their gear. One of the survivors of the ambush, a peasant farmer named Gallagher, joined the party as well. He looks something like this:

Gallagher armed himself with a simple club.

They forced their way towards the exit and easily handled the remaining goblins though one goblin escaped the melee and ran away. Exiting the cave they realized they were far north of Zhost Loch. They could see a village to the south and decided to make their way towards it before nightfall. Upon arrival they understood they were in the small town/village of Fishdaughter, a small fishing community on the edge of the lake. They decided to stay the night at the Rotten Turnip Inn the care of Constance. Late in the night goblins attacked the village looking for the heroes. Constance and the village elder Leopold tasked Kiarin with escaping the the town and heading east towards a Zhost Loch outpost in order to get reinforcements. The rest of the heroes stayed behind and helped the villagers defend the town. Unfortunately in the melee, Constance was killed by the goblins.

The heroes that remained in the village battled the goblins back. Gregek was there but retreated with a mysterious and cloaked figure. He vanished with her in a mist. The rest of the Goblins retreated to their hideout at Skull Cave. The heroes ventured in and found themselves dealing with giant spiders which almost wiped them out. Belfanas and Abadin were bound by spiders and carried off deep into the cave. Worgrax, Borir, and Gallagher, pursued the spiders further into the cave and found themselves engaging with strange creatures, one being a black gelatinous mass (a Black Pudding). They found a goblin bound by the spiders and freed him. The goblin was named Nubz and he informed the remaining party that Gregek moved in and subjugated his tribe. His tribe didn't want to attack t he humans but Gregek has made them. He says that he can lead them through the dungeon to Gregek. Unfortunately, Borir "accidentally" vaporized the goblin with a spell in combat (We all know it was on purpose, Borir hates goblins). They continued their way into the dungeon searching for Belfanas and Abadin.

Meanwhile, Kiarin arrived at the watchtower only to find that there were two towers. One was the watch tower, the other, a crazy floating magical tower. Kiarin was levitated up to the floating tower and met a shrouded figure with a glowing seven pointed symbol on his back. He informed Kiarin that he must retrieve a relic for him before his rival, Nezrild, obtains them. The first relic being "the Breastplate of Numerious". He also vouched for Kiarin to the watch below and sent him back to fish daughter with 30 men from the encampment. He arrived back at fishdaughter in the early morning and had a skirmish with some fleeing goblins and dispatched them easily. Arriving in town, he learned his friends recklessly charged after the goblins on their own. He plans on leading the 30 men towards Skull Cave in order to attack Gregek. The people of the village have been impressed with the heroes, and 50 able bodied men want to join Kiarin and the 30 soldiers with him on their assault on Gregek.

This is where we are now in the story, on the verge of a battle, which is kind of cool. I'll make another post once we figure out what happens. We plan on playing again on the 24th and I plan on bringing the party back together somehow for this fight that is about to break out.