If you're reading this, please know that it will spoil about 70% of the content in the Emer III adventure book.
This is a summary of a campaign I GM'ed during 39 adventures, for a total of 98 sessions, each lasting between 5 and 8 hours, almost once every week or so, for almost 3 years!
The characters started at level 3, reached the finale at level 14, and the total final experience left them at level 15.
I'm writing this as a reminder of what happened, and to share with any other GM who wants to know "how do other people play in Shadow World?"
The rules
The ruleset is basically RMFRP, with RM2 Smoothed Stats, RM2 Innate Stat Abilities, RM2 category level bonuses adapted from RMFRP fixed category bonuses, we don't allow category development (all skills use standard progression, but cost is double/halved from restricted/everyman), and Combat Companion weapon styles, but RMC Arms Law attack tables and criticals.Another important factor are the fate points. Each character starts with 2 fate points, can have a maximum of 3 at any time. I give 1 fate point after the end of adventures that are significant to the characters. They can use a fate point to re-roll a non open-ended roll, or add to the total of an open-ended roll. Important bosses have 1 fate point, and people in the Shadow World books get 2 or 3 fate points. In the special case of the campaign finale, the final boss had 4 fate points. A fate point can also be used to block use of a fate point by another.
The characters
Now, I present "The Party" (in alphabetical order):Elemmir: the language freak
A Loari elf, born and raised in the Port of Izar, but her parents were typical Namar-Tol snobs. She even got an invitation for a distant cousin wedding, while stopping to check for mail after some weeks adventuring in the jungle.She is first and foremost a scholar, and in game terms a priest of Valris. Combining the Wisdom priest template from Channeling Companion with Combat Companion styles, she had the highest OB of the party, and the lowest DB, which got her the "glass cannon" nick during battles.
Since the player was really interested in a character that was harvesting languages from the world, I removed all language interpreting spells from this campaign. No one could understand a foreign language without learning it from the local populace. This got her to even chat with defeated enemies, and offer freedom in exchange for a lesson of their native languages.
Navii: the navigator wannabe
A Jineri from the Port of Izar, and niece to a navigator, she was trained in different ways to "reach people" in her role as a summoner of Teris. We changed a lot of the base spell lists, to accommodate for the idea of "reaching". The combo of base lists was: Channels, Nature's Summons, Path Finding (from RMC Spell Law II), Summoning Circles, Teleportals. She also designed her own companion spell list based on Familiar Mastery, called Distant Focus, which gave a special arrow some familiar like abilities.The focus of the adventure for this character was helping people get places, as a self designed training to someday get the attention of the navigators. She knew that they didn't have any specialist in the Khum-Kaan region, so she set out to become one and then offer her services. Her language hunting friend was happy to join the party as an interpreter.
Tilo: a peaceful shaman in-training
An Erlini elf from the island Talaen near Izar. He is an animist who started a herb-dream-induced friendship with an unknown shaman, who ended up being a Kuluku, and from his friend got the great idea of learning all about the herbs in the jungle. So he went to the Port of Izar to get some info before venturing into the jungle. Lucky for him a caravan was getting ready to start an expedition into the region!Tilo is an animist by profession, with the Tree Mastery spell list from the Channeling Companion. A pacifist (flaw) wielding a spear, and insane bonus for stalk/hide and foraging. Also a great rejection to people forcing their way into his mind (he walked out of the scene every time someone mind-talked to him).
Uruloki: the fire martial artist healer who looks like a monster, later also a Jinteni archeologist
A Muadani from the Vajaar domain, and member of a resistance group that opposed the war against the Komaren Cluster. Combining a healer profession with Combat Companion weapon styles, and some well chosen backgrounds, this was essentially an indestructible martial artist, who could also patch up the whole party. Also, a mysterious encounter in his past with a weird underground installation, got him the power to copy the characteristics of other living beings (a background spend on access to Construct Companion Changeling Mastery spell list, restricted to self).Since his Channeling side was dedicated to a Phaon/Cay combination, he spent some points on researching fire based spells to aid him in combat, and some other tricks.
He had met Elemmir during a scholarship she did in Vajaar, and arrived at the Port of Izar while laying low because of a failed revolt in the Domain, thinking about traveling to the Khum-Kaan region to learn about the wildlife there, and the possibilites that might add to his power. Also, he has been having visions about a green (jade) dragon, that turns into a green skinned clawed/fanged child who is defeated by an evil shadow.
So that's about it for the party. Short summary, huh?
The story
Now I want to tell you how it went, from a language/fauna/flora expedition to saving the world.1) Reach
The party travels with a caravan from the Port of Izar to the barrier at the Spine of Emer. Eventually the barrier disperses and the can pass. Was that the prayer to Teris? or just good timing? Guided by a vision from Valris, they unearth a strange five pointed star (a Kuluku kuvis). They reach the town of Libris where a former guide tells them of flora and fauna, and the legend of the Kuluku people in the jungle. The continue with the caravan to its destination in Ardan City.2) Ardania Rules
The law of Ardan City is imposed to the party in the form of legal papers and the need to testify for an attempted theft in which they assisted the target.3) Hard Rock Diplomacy
After the animist travels to the mountains in the west searching for herbs, he learns from the animals there that the Murlogi are displacing the fauna. The party gathers to oust the Murlogi, but end up helping defend them from the Trogli further into the mountain. They take as a prize the famed Gagar, a large cristal club (really a Jinteni battery). The healer loses a leg in the battle.4) Search and Repair
Back in Ardan City, a powerful lay healer offers a temporary solution to the party healer's leg in the form of a wooden prosthetic. In exchange for a real flesh and bone repair, they must obtain for him crystals from a mine across the bay.The ship that takes them there is attacked in the night by "ninjas" that attempt to murder one of the passengers. The party defeats them but not before the enemies severely damage the ship. There is a side quest that was never explored here. The merchant is really a student from the Temple of Nûr, in search of his former Hirazi lover that was captured and sold to slavery in Ardan City. The assassins were sent by the Kortri Ta Shiin to keep the merchant from investigating.
Before proceeding to their destination, the ship stops to make some repairs at Gull Island, where the party finds the old home of Kimul Khama, and only salvages an old wooden Kuluku statue that includes a depiction of their five pointed star. A chance encounter with a giant dragonfly (which we call Bowabak) lets them know that star is used by the Kuluku as a weapon.
5) Darkstone
The party reaches the mine in the Green Mountains, defended by a group of savage garks, lead by a crazy old gark with a magical statue. They shatter the statue, which restores the magical energies of the mine, and make off with large chunks of the requested crystals.6) Grab the goods
With promise of good money for good herbs, which they wanted to search for anyway, the search into the jungle begins. The first unexpected stop is at a mysterious town (Misty Vale) surrounded by standing rocks, and people that don't want to leave it. The party suspects of everyone there, but eventually leave without understanding what is going on there.The summoner, in her eagerness to map the region, gets a vision from Teris where the town explodes after she installs a road marker indicating its location. They enter the jungle and start interacting with the different animals there.
7) Pick a fight
A group of Conquerors of Agoth finds the party, and after the battle they realize they've been watched. They finally make contact with the Kuluku, and thanks to the kuvis and the statue from Kimul Khama's home, they start on good terms.8) Trials
The local Kuluku shaman asks the party to travel to three different villages to gain recognition from each shaman, so that they can present the party as a friends to the rest of the Kuluku groups further east.More fauna interaction ensues (having an animist in the party is crucial!). The also start interacting with spirits that serve as local gods to some shamans.
9) Steps to Destiny
The last shaman (Utmo) turns out to be a little out of his mind. He tricks the party into a dartspore field where they find his dead monkey assistant, then convinces them to drink a tea that will "open up their destinies".Then came a set of dreams that make no sense (I described to them visions that mixed up the destinies and abilities of the party, this was not all that clear to them at the time, but they still contained some foreshadowing, only for the wrong character). Some good poison resistances allow the party to awake in the middle of being dragged unconscious to who knows where by the shaman.
They confront him and trap him, but not before he rolls his dice. The effect is dreaded by the players from them on: they had to roll to avoid losing a fate point, most of them failed.
10) Wild Stance
The Kuluku accept the group and offer them to join a skirmish against the conquerors. They defeat the enemies occupying a magical glade and recover some evil items.11) Going Around
While the Kuluku shamans deliberate about the party and their good intentions, they are offered the chance to travel to "Luguru Munutu Uju", a shunned cave where the shaman Utmo is said to have entered before going crazy. They know it is related to an ancient civilization, and they tend to avoid those places.The party travels to this cave in the Spine of Emer, hidden behind illusionary rocks that are not created with magic, and find a holographic woman that answers in a very robot like way. The place is a reservoir of items from different civilizations, and the party gather some in exchange for others they carry, and they promise to return them in the future.
Also, they battle a thorned demon to help repair some cables underground, which allows them access to a Matrix-like chair that uploads knowledge from ages past. They learn a bit of Iruaric and region lore from the Interregnum (as they develop the skill, sometimes they will know the original Jinteni name of some locations).
The truth is this place is from the time of Kadaena, but was last visited by Andejaan before disappearing, so it has some Jinteni trinkets and knowledge she gathered while exploring the continent.
12) Iterative Hopping
The party reaches the region of the Tukal Kuluku, interact with some Jinteni ruins and a local spirit (Om'Urud) that can only express itself through smells. They end up beneath the temple of Om'Urud, where the conquerors of Agoth are excavating some ruins.13) Down the old ways
After a battle in the ruins, the party starts to understand the way the Jinteni door portals work, and also rescue a pair of slaves that need to be sent back to their native regions.14) Rerouting
On the way back to the surface a battle against demons, and once outside they travel to the floating village Kalumi. Here they meet Kiku Makhala. I presented him as a bed-ridden Kuluku with whose opinions are no longer heard by the other shamans. He explains a the reasons behind the Kuluku retreating from the world.15) Chatting Up
With the help of Kiku Makhala, the party once again tries the vision trance trick, but this time the information is correct for each character. With this and the interpretation by the shaman about their previous visions, they start to create a version of what their gods might be telling them.Here I must make it clear that since the party were all at least part channeling users, the priest even having access to dream spells, and the animist getting a hold from around this point on some trance herbs, they relied a lot on asking for quests and explanations from visions. I never really intended for the campaign to take that direction, but only provided some metaphoric scenes, and the players interpreted and guided the campaign from that. Eventually they saw themselves as the envoy from their gods to stop the spread of evil in the jungle. I was more than happy to oblige.
Kiku Makhala asks them to spread the word of union and coordinated effort in fighting the invading conquerors of Agoth. They start traveling south now, towards the other villages.
In Kulakaan the animist finds the shaman that was chatting with him via trance herbs from years ago. The also get magical animal tattoos that increase their most relevant skills (+5 to the skills with the higher bonus at that point).
Also, this long adventure includes the party reaching the mountain village of Kulakara'an, unintendedly turning off some old Jinteni symbols preventing the earthnode in the cave from being detectable, which in turn causes a battle against a very big earth demon and some demonic creatures.
16) Parties
The battle in Kulakara'an results in the death of one Kuluku. The party is used to people not dying on their watch, with their jack of all trades healers always ready. So to avoid counting it as a loss, they decide to try a Divine Intervention maneuver, with the help of the rest of the village. They succeed, but I ruled that Iloura is the one watching over the place, and she can't raise the dead, so instead she takes the soul of the fallen soldier and turns it into a guardian spirit protecting the cave. After some research in the village they learn that their kuvis star, found at the beginning of the campaign, belonged to a lone Kuluku who once lived here, and was lost to them when he went east investigating the evil in the forest after the jungle (Rulaash).They start east, reach the town of Rhembis, which is almost inexistent at this point since Kuluku trading is a thing of the past. It turns out to be most of the villagers are slowly disappearing (a man in town is betraying his neighbors to be taken as slaves by the Ahrenaek). They don't delve into this, but are scared by this man, and decide to get out at first light.
They continue east, and with some luck since they were flying to avoid touching the forest floor (the Kulukus were sure it is totally evil) they come upon a fortress in the mountain. They slowly explore it at a distance, and eventually find an unsuspecting guard on a tower. Once the animist casts Detect Evil on the guy and gets a positive, they speed up before being detected and continue east.
17) Inside the thunder
The party reaches Thunder Falls, meet the Hirazi, and venture into the old tunnels to find lost lore. They return to the Hirazi after they found a dead one with some items.18) Honor the living
The dead Hirazi turns out to be a traveler that once traded with the Malaqani to the east, and the party is allowed to stay in his old room in exchange for "putting his things in order" which should eventually imply traveling to Malqanar to return a trinket.They meet up with Kedron in his village and exchange information on the Jinteni and the Kuluku. I made Kedron an old cowboy with a lot of knowledge on old things, mostly because I figured he would have taken the best loot in the ruins here, so he could be long lived, detect magic, and some other stuff.
The adventure ended after the party tried looting unexplored areas in Zal-jinak and release a Jinteni prisoner in eternal stasis. He was a very powerful sorcerer-wraith, and became an interesting antagonist for some sessions, as he escaped trying to reclaim his old power and the party followed trying to recapture him, first looking for help in Shanish.
19) The time is now
While they tracked the escaped ghoul, the clock struck twelve, and 6053 started. The players had never been presented with this subject in previous campaigns, they don't know what it means. They just know that the world shooked, hard. After some jarring earthquakes and finding no power points for one or two days, they tried to find out what had happened. The campaign ended and they never found out, but it was not my focus anyway. Eventually they decided it was not completely related to their quest.20) Following changes
As they went back to the places they knew, they found the aftermath of the event. News of demons roaming the Kuluku jungle were the most disturbing, as was the death of Kiku Makhala during the shaking storm that ravaged Kalumi. I figured he was old and the party was starting too many quests at once, so this rerouted their focus on helping the Kuluku, who had been left to themselves while the party was so far east. But he left them a legacy, the right to enter the tomb of his friend Kimul Khama.And everything changed again. Remember the party has a navigator wannabe, specialized in transport magic and location. And she got the Nazarian Compass.
21) The Council
With the increasing number of Jinteni portal keys, and the enhanced teleportation powers of the Compass, they started thinking big. They teleported to the Ahrenaek and sneaked into the slave caves, rescued some and took them to a coast near the Kuluku, and gave them tools to start a town of their own (they love doing that in as many campaigns as possible).22) Butterflies
So they could teleport in, rescue slaves, and teleport out? Then they would do it a again, and this time ATTACK THE FORTRESS. They gathered some Kuluku fighters and got to it.Of course, it's the Ahrenaek, so Sigirus is there to stop them as soon as they start making a noise in the first balconies. Only, I didn't expect, some good rolls, some good use of the Jinteni artifacts they had collected, and the priest casts Absolution on Sigirus, and it hits home (fate points were spent on both sides). In hindsight, I didn't have it prepared as well as I could have. But he was Sigirus, and they were just some meddling children. But the absolution spell took his soul out, and a lot of demons come rushing to defend his inert body. So the party escapes via teleport.
They leave the wounded Kuluku on a distant outcropping on the mountain, and after less than a minute decide that their best shot is now, so they teleport back to finish the job! I prepared a chase throughout the Ahrenaek forges, with the residents not knowing what was happening, and chaos all around.
They followed a demon carrying the body, battled some soldiers, and eventually reached the demon before he in turn reached the forest were he was taking the body. They had a little help from a Thonis demon, who was reacting quickly to the power struggle that this event would cause. They dismembered Sigirus and teleported the parts to different regions of the world.
23) Visiting Hours
To take some time out, they teleport-bounce between different locations asking about news, and find out through a Kuluku seer that there will be a reckoning for their actions. At this point I was preparing detailed defenses for the Ahrenaek, because A'kesh was making some inquiries. But they went back in. Before being discovered and chased out by a pack of Sentinel Demons and afterwards by A'kesh himself in dragon form, they got inside the room holding the Raathtruliik (at this distance the Riig Pronaa was detecting it) and took it.I had never meant for the campaign to take this turn, but now they held the Riig Shaang, so I could start steering things towards the big challenge.
24) Save the rainforest
The warnings about a revenge against them strike true when the jungle is assaulted by explosive fires in the night. The party teleports to one place after another and douses the fire (the animist has the convenient Smother spell) and eventually face a very big fire demon, which kills a Kuluku during the fight.Again, they don't want to be seen as losers, so Divine Intervention it is, asking to resurrect the dead one as a spirit, which gives them a resurrected but totally scarred Kuluku who is magically bound to his home village.
After this, an unknown shaman offers them a way out of the anger of their vengeful enemy: find a pile of already charred corpses and distribute them in the jungle, then lay low for as long as possible. This is in fact no other than Voriig Kye, who gives them a Jinteni key to an underground outpost in Silaar, where of course there are a lot of dead bodies because he killed them with his army a long time ago (these ones are preserved in an old Jinteni storage facility).
25) The other sides
When they explore outside this new region, they are greeted by Carctira (one of the Keepers of Buir Dom) sent by Voriig Kye to warn the party about the powers of the staff, and the importance of laying low (to avoid Schrek from knowing about the party). They take this suggestion to heart, and from this point on make an effort on not returning to any previously visited place unless absolutely necessary and never staying for long.26) Do as Staff says
To stay out of known places, they decide to venture into Silaar. To unlock the powers of the Riig Shaang they had to follow the instructions of a voice coming from the stomach of the wielder, with increasingly complex quests for each. Worst, each character had to get the achievements to access each power, so they started helping themselves out to complete the challenges.27) Jaded
After learning that their allies where being hunted by their vengeful enemy (A'kesh) they decide to go really far to hide for a while: to the Isle of Jade. Through their adventures it was becoming obvious that the green dragon girl would be found there.They make friends with the Vorloi, mostly because they are fighting a different version of the conquerors of Agoth, and the party loves defeating agothians. Unbeknownst to the party, the Mystic appears as different Vorloi at different times to guide them to a quest that would test their skill.
28) Power of three
The quest takes them underneath an old temple, where they close the access to a demonic plane left from another era. With this they are granted an audience with the Triumvirate.Next come a number of sessions where they are tasked with deploying a squad of Vorloi in the region controlled by the Green Brotherhood. While the Vorloi create a distraction, the party finds a special place in the jungle (Gedalbass) and enter an old vault that holds an outdated memory copy of Andejaan.
The healer learns that his Changeling powers might be a way left by Andejaan throughout Emer to create creatures that can help her children in times of need. They are also lent a Portal Key Orb.
29) Defensive mindset
To help gain more tools against their enemies, they turn to knowledge. They can teleport anywhere, so they go to Nomikos. Here they are confronted by the navigators and accused of illegally using teleport to commit crimes in the Ardania region (A'kesh and Schrek both want them brought out in the open, so they push their influence in the region to make them into fugitives).They give a good defense and are allowed to leave, but decide they now have to avoid returning to SE Emer. To avoid being detected, they don't use the Nazarian Compass to teleport, but in Kulthea that is not safe, and they end up in an old magic cage in the middle of the way, and are helped along by Elor, who happened to be there.
After experimenting with Gorthops to get an interactive trip, they end up setting up camp in the south of Falias. Here demons come chasing (the Thonis who helped them is bored of waiting and tries to take the staff by sending minions).
And also, Tar-Esiir shows up to let them know that the investigation found no guilt on them, so he offers some guidance and teleports out.
Finally, a different navigator shows up (they are supposedly hiding in another continent, but people keep finding them). She comes with a lady (and her comatose son) from Rhakhaan, where a seer said they were the only ones who could help the boy wake up. In exchange they were instructed to give the party a set of crowns, which she had gotten from a tomb, at the cost of the lives from several of her soldiers. This was to join up loose ends, the party had been given the map to the crowns some time ago, but the didn't trust anyone at the point, so they avoided that quest.
The crowns were clearly designed for them, as each was adorned with the symbol of their gods (they were made by Oran Jatar at a request from Voriig Kye, to help conceal the party from Schrek). The crowns also had a message when worn: seek out the artificer Leidir, to hide the staff from his rightful owner.
30) Under Ashes
Leidir turned out to be an old dyar elf living in relative isolation, but he did know how to work the Riig Shaang enough to change its description, making it harder to detect. He also made a fake copy, which the party teleported to a distant location in Thuul, increasing the distraction. With their protections increased, they returned to the Isle of Jade to use the Portal Key Orb, and eventually succeeded in detecting an overgrown platform.They used it to travel east and met with the Velquiri and the Malaqani, and came back to the Isle of Jade, only to find that using the platform triggered a small demon invasion each time it was activated (the agothians could never destroy it completely, so they cursed it).
This set of sessions ended with the party entering a set of tunnels in the island, which reached almost to the Ash Lairs, and found the conquerors were coming all the way from the mainland for a large scale assault.
31) Green Clash
With the knowledge of the attack, they petitioned the Triumvirate for troops, and faced the invasion with minimal losses. They even got to face with an agothian warrior mage loaded on Jinteni artifacts and knowledge of the Changeling spells (so he was like a personal nemesis for the healer).Since I felt they were overstaying their time in this region, the Mystic appeared to give a gift to each party member: notes on Iruaric for the priest, some K'Ta'Viir blood to feed the Compass, access to strange animal shapes for the animist, and a dragon breathing item for the healer. Then he insisted on the fact that they had done all that could be asked of them, and urged them away from the island.
32) Wisdom in the Waters
To start checking off old quests, they re-visited the Bay of Songs but this time finally delivered the trinket from the dead Hirazi (it was almost a year in game time and more than a year in real time since that already!).They asked for assistance against the demons assailing the jungle, and got to meet with Lon-Sheg, a magical sea serpent that told them of the metal Bazurt, which could be crafted by the Malaqani and had demon-slaying properties. Cue to quest retrieving components for the craft of metal spears, axes and arrows.
33) Talk A-Way
In the middle of their crafting they were mentally contacted by the old kuluku shaman that sent them to Silaar. She said the staff should have specific powers for those who complete their attunement (I gave each a special power enhancing the final passing effect, the healer could heal by passing into a person so less PPs involved, the animist could pass into plants and animals and control them, the summoner could use the passing for groups of people at a time, the priest... never found out because she never completed the attunement).Afterwards they decided to travel using the portal door keys that lead to outside the Zaen region, but Schrek found them there as soon as they arrived. He tried some powerful spell, but the Riig Shaang was armed, so they passed their RR. Then he activated a Jinteni artifact of his own to burn all the batteries in possession of the party, thus canceling their tricks. But again, Absolution. No two rounds had passed, and the priest rightly decided it was required (she was really careful not to use it on unworthy enemies, this was the second time in the whole campaign she casted it!). What are the odds? BAR Roll: 00 (as in 100, UM 100!). Well, a fate came and went on each side and then I though: He'll resurrect in a few days anyway, I'll let this go, it's good luck and a fun exciting moment for them.
34) Rounding Up
After the encounter, I made sure by means of hints, visions and outright outrage from Voriig Kye that they had set out the timer for the final bomb. Once Schrek returned (and Voriig was sure he would return) he would start by killing all that was dear to them.Since I didn't want the party to be left with the empty body of Schrek after the absolution, I ruled that his body teleported back to his room in Zaen and the countdown for his regeneration would begin, to give the campaign a time limit. The dice said 15 days.
The party started teleporting throughout the region, checking old quest clues trying to find more Jinteni items to help them, and maybe some additional information on Schrek and his whereabouts (they had never seen Zaen!).
Eventually they found a portal into an old Jinteni corridor underneath Zaen, which in turn had a portal access to an experimental lab under the House of the Elder Seer.
35) Flying Organic Material
They explored the place, found a lot of weird stuff: mind controlled paintings, hazmat suits, kuvis accessories (detailed in http://www.rolemasterblog.com/advanced-technology-shadow-world/#comment-538).But they also rescued, inside a holographic Jinteni shop, an escaped Kuluku prisioner. She was sent a long time ago by Utmo (the crazy shaman, before he went crazy) to investigate the whereabouts of Banditari Shenni, and found out he was indeed working for the conquerors as feared. But she got captured, then escaped, then got trapped into the weird statis holographic shop.
36) A Map to the bottom
After running out with the recovered Kuluku they tried to warn the Malaqani of the impeding danger, then set off to investigate another leftover quest: a Jinteni place that no one knew about (Legrala). Even outside, before going into the underground ruins, it was obvious that something strange had happened here, and also that this was not a Jinteni ruin.They rescued an Ahnasai and his Kith, who had a map to the center of the place. After avoiding some traps they opened the innermost vault, which held a vicious presence, that tempted them to enter his many portals to many places (all twisted versions of the promised locations, all located in a demonic plane).
The healer got a glimpse of a request for help from the portal that supposedly went to Votania (from the green dragon girl?). Instead of entering he requested the summoner to use the Nazarian Compass to take them specifically to Votania (in the "real" world).
37) Proving Grounds
There was obviously nothing to be found in Votania (not on this campaign at least) so they went back after a vision reminding them that time was running short. Voriig showed up and for the first time introduced himself, and showed them the different faces he had used during the campaign.He offered the party, as a way to enforce their belief in their gods, to seek out the lost town of Radenlania, and recover the artifacts related to each of their religions. This was a small detour I prepared, since I had been wanting to use the Tomb of Lord and Lady Radena and didn't get a chance before. Also, before the campaign ended, I wanted to give each character character-specific gift from their gods to enhance some of their most used skills.
They fought the power couple, then explored the abandoned temples, which included some simple puzzles related to each of their religions. Once they got the items, they decided they had time enough to go face the malevolent presence in the bottom of Legrala.
They entered the fake portal to Votania there. Before that they tried some guessing spell, where Valris kinda told the priest that Teris would be able to get them out of the demonic plane.
Inside they faced grotesque evil versions of themselves: the animist was the walls of the place, the healer was a floating ball of meat, the priest was a glass figurine that casted absolution every round, and the summoner was not copied, since Teris was the natural enemy of a demon that teleports you to a place you can't get out of.
Inside that specific region of the demonic plane, trapped and weary, they found the lingering soul of Andejaan. She said time had passed outside and her body did not exist anymore in Kulthea, so she was happy to for her soul to be released and to know her children were safe. As a token of thanks, and to help with the fight against Agoth, she gave the party an artifact (a K'Ta'Viir USB stick) with a program to temporarily allow the Vorloi to travel outside the Isle of Jade, so that they could join the fight against Zaen (by this time they were already planning on storming the place with as many allies as they could).
38) Poke the eye
So they prepared. They went again to Nomikos, returned an old book they had found during their adventures and got access to the special collections, so they researched about Shar-Bu, because Voriig had told them about him.They even tried hiring some Changramai monks, but a timely 00 roll implied for me that the Nameless One was there, telling the monastery that taking on that job would mean the loss of prestige for the monks. The party confronted him, and using the Truest Sight power of the staff saw the real him, but didn't understand who he was. He teleported away, and then, hoping to get on their good graces in the future to research that interesting staff they carried, offered a bunch of Kregora arrows and a Mah-Ilari War Mattock. This was fun because the players had previously played the Xa-Ar campaign and knew how useful those War Mattocks could be to face a Shard, and he went and gave them one.
The next 4 or 5 sessions were dedicated to defeating 2 waves of conquerors, priests and other enemies as they made their way up the House of the Elder Seer. Since I wanted to get the campaign finished, the summoner could sense the evil portals to the Void up there (Schrek regenerating) and this allowed the fight outside with their allies to be just something that was happening out of scene.
They were accompanied by some Kuluku warriors, and once they got to the ramp, Utmo and other Kuluku friends appeared to offer some help (a giant tree powered by the Jinteni crystal, and magical talismans with channeling powers from their gods).
39) Ascension to nowhere
As they entered the room on the top, Shar-Bu was there waiting. They were up to their hair in magical defenses, plus they had the Mah-Ilari War Mattock, and fought defensively, so the discs never touched them. The smile was another story.After the fourth round, even with great rolls on their part and horrible on mine, the healer was with no fates left and now with no soul inside his body, so the priest did her thing. Absolution. She was ready to burn all her fate points to make her point. BAR Roll: 99 (UM 99!) It cost them almost every fate point left (he had 3!) but Shar-Bu got his soul sucked from out of him. Just to make it more ominous he warned them that he lived in every Shard and would find the way to be back.
On the back of the room was a nothing-portal to nowhere: the void. And the healer had no soul. I was thinking how to justify getting him back for the final battle, but they solved it for me: Divine Intervention. Eissa helped along this time, and sent him whole with renewed HPs and PPs. They had a small chat with each of their gods, where they gave them the power to understand the void (Valris), be kept alive there despite the lack of atmosphere (Phaon), travel into the void (Teris), and find the way back home afterwards (Iloura).
With the extra resistance of the Riig Shaang they only lost the priest for a moment when all her blood boiled (and recovered with a herb the animist was carrying) and the tentacles never were a problem with their magical defenses and defensive posture. With an open-ended roll and a spell powered attack, the priest even got a critical once with her holy weapon.
I made the spirit of Jereneth appear and reveal herself as the good part of the staff, as a memory passed from Schrek when he ate her, then to the staff when he created it with part of his essence. Since the staff did not have the heart it was a good item intent on destroying the abomination she had given life to.
She urged the party to use the banishing power, which here, on the rim of the void, would send him packing for several millennia.
So it was time for the final roll: Banish Demon. An excellent roll on the part of the healer (the only one who had developed the skill from the staff), followed by a great roll on by the summoner in a fate point use, plus the rest of the party burning their remaining fate points to counter Schrek's (he started out with 4, over the ruled total!), and the campaign ended with a bright flash of victory.
