Friday, April 28, 2017

The Sack of the Emerald Citadel

Campaign: The Situational Heroes (Scarabae, 5e D&D)

Characters:


  • Edmund Folderol, wood elf hunter ranger (background: outlander). Edmund Folderol says nothing about his past because he is super paranoid for reasons we don't yet understand.
  • Jester, hill dwarf thief rogue (background: entertainer). Jester is a renowned juggler who can't help but steal things. Bit of a klepto, really.
  • Grayson, dragonborn battle master fighter (background: mercenary). Grayson is the disgraced son of a famous family of dragonborn mercenary captains; daddy issues.
  • Miranda Lowe, air genasi storm sorcerer (background: noble). Miranda is a noblewoman from a far-off country. She's on the run from something, but she doesn't want to talk about it.
  • Mulga, half-orc valor bard (background: acolyte). Mulga believes that the world would be better if we all joined in a drum circle and really felt the cosmic connection, maaaaaan.
  • Pharasmos the Abjurer, human abjurer wizard (background: criminal). Pharasmos insists that he is not an arsonist; rather, his experiments just get "out of hand," sometimes.
Objective: Obtain the other half of a treasure map.

Events:
  • Miranda had previously discovered that the other half of the treasure map was in possession of a fey lady inhabiting a mystical citadel deep in the forest at the center of the island. The fey lady, Mistress Marigold, was said to be an enchantress of remarkable beauty.
  • As the crew ventured through the forest to Mistress Marigold's they were set upon by brainwashed creatures whose minds had been bent to the fey lady's will. The opposition was a smattering of gnolls, orcs, ogres, and humans. The charmed minions put up such strenuous resistance that the party was forced to fall back and make camp and lick their wounds.
  • After a night of rest, the party pressed on. They encountered more enchanted creatures ready to make war on their Mistress's behalf. Ultimately, though, the party managed to break through the forest and reach the citadel--a gleaming emerald tower.
  • The interior of the tower did not exist on the material plane--entering it brought the crew into the feywild, and the "architecture" was suitably bizarre. It also proved dangerous; Mistress Marigold's abode entangled the party with vines, subjected them to sudden hailstorms, and confronted them with a cunning trap consisting of mirrors and doppelgangers.
  • And still, the crew went onward with guile and skill, until they reached Mistress Marigold's throne room. Despite the crew's obvious prowess, she would not surrender her half the treasure map without a fight. Battle was joined!
  • As she died, it was revealed that Marigold was not the comely eladrin maiden she presented herself to be; rather, she was a hag who had consumed the rest of her coven to gain their evil strength. 
  • Her tower was ransacked, her mind-controlled minions set free, and the needed half-a-map was located.
Downtime:
  • Pharasmos checked in on his gambling enterprise; verdict: more money, more problems.
  • Mulga again tried to get a drum circle going, again attracting few interested parties.
  • Miranda and Grayson both caroused; they woke up with more money in their pockets than they started with.
  • Jester and Edmund convalesced from injuries and illnesses acquired in the sack of the Emerald Citadel.