[Coldforged: Tabletop Campaign]2: Prophecies of Hope

[Ancient Gamer]

Ok. This will be the second prequel campaign to the "Dark War". The first prequel is "The Prophecies of Redemption"

This time the perspective will be that of the humans of the Valdenoor Village in the western Cyllerean Mountains. Their lives have always been quiet, and the only real dangers have been wolves eating their sheep, lack of winter supplies and the avalanches common during spring.
 
Fate has a surprise in store for the sleepy village of Valdenoor, and when the ancestors deliver a dire warning through the dreams of the shaman, the villagers are deeply concerned. Several seasons pass and nothing happens, the warning is forgotten and life is tranquil. And then one winter, a handsome man pass through the village, his face angelic and his personality winning. He stays for a while, and is quickly accepted. He hunts with the men and they return with deer and moose, mountain bear and salmon. During the evenings, he tells stories of strange nations and even stranger beasts. The men admire him and the elder's daughter, Marian, falls in love.

After one night of burning passion, the stranger departs before dawn, leaving behind a heartbroken, pregnant girl of fifteen. As her belly grow, so does the rumours of war. The southern empire has invaded and their scouts are asking for directions to a village called Valdenoor.

When the campaign begins, Marian has just given birth. Her son is much like his father, with an unearthly beautiful face and silvery blue eyes. Marian and her baby are happy and her father very nearly forgets that she is not wed.

This campaign is about hope. It is about love. It is also about danger, flight and human growth. In this campaign the PCs will perform great heroics and feats of legend.
It will last longer than The Prophecies of Redemption and it will begin as "low to mid level" campaign.

The Characters:
(Purposely short in description, to leave room for player interaction)

Iraedus. The Mountain Shaman Apprentice
He is the son of the Mountain Shaman and the spiritual leader of the group. He is 25 years old and wise for his years. But the burden of leadership rests heavily upon his shoulders and jealousy gnaws from within(jealous of Maethir, the warleader of the group). He has also dreamt of the baby boy of Marion, and how he is in danger.

Maethir. Templar Knight of Fhalgharod?
Maethir is the black sheep of the village, a drunkard thrown out of the village in dishonour. One year ago he returned gloriously to the village, a Templar Knight of Fhalgharod. His clothes were stained with blood and his wounds grievous. He has since been elected guardian of the village and sits on the left side of the elder during village council. But he guards a dark secret, an awful truth that is threatening to destroy everything he has attained. He is 44 winters old.

Untha. Huntress of Valdenoor.
Untha is a young girl, 19 winters, and already a promising huntress. She is skilled with bow and spear and eager to prove her worth. But her family history is haunting her and she is judged by her lineage. This has made her vow to redeem herself in the eyes of the elder.

Misha. Holy Guardian of Fhalgharod
Misha is a young boy of 17 winters. He is the new Holy Guardian of Fhalgharod. He has been entrusted with the safety of the newborn as they begin their sojourn through the mountains. His vows of chastity will be put on test as his desire for Marion grows on the journey.

Juergen. Warrior
Juergen is a big man, by any standards. At 18 winters, he is the youngest champion the village has ever known. His pride is great and his arrogance even greater. He has no use of the old and weak. He already knows everything there is to know and he has come to know that age is weakness.

Note: This is the situation before the first scenario begins.

[Ancient Gamer]

Objectives of this campaign:
-The baby boy must survive and be delivered to the elves in their sanctuary.
-The PCs will follow Marian and witness her despair. It is important that they sympathize with her plight and that they get doubts concerning the purity of the Sun God.
-The PCs will be confronted with several dangerous situations in which they have a chance to save the day. Their actions in these instances will be important later*.
-The PCs will hear of and encounter the Mercenary Captain Stefan Karro, a soldier who will earn both their respect and love. Stefan will, possibly alongside the PCs, become a hero of the people. Someone that will make the PCs breathe a little easier each time they meet him.
-The PCs will witness many, many omens and signs of things to come.
-They will get their first clues as to what is really going on.
-The PCs will fight alongside comrades, meet very nice and loveable people and get a reprieve from the dark atmosphere of the previous (and following) campaign.
-The PCs will grow up. (I aim to make this campaign run for the next couple of real life years and even more years in the setting)

*In this campaign I will use a table to keep track of the PCs actions. Every action, noble and ignoble, will count and have consequences partly in this campaign and primarily in the third. The action will be recorded  along with the location where it was performed, the number of witnesses and the groups that will take notice.

This campaign will determine which alliances might be available in the future and how well loved the PCs will be.

The following is a partial list of those factions that will be affected by the PCs actions(will be expanded):

Factions:
-The people of Silmaroth
-The people of the southern Empire
-The Caliph-Emperor of the Southern Empire
-The crown of Silmaroth
-The royal advisors of the High King of Silmaroth
-The mountain tribes of the Cyllereans
-The church of Fhalgharod (The sun god)
-The knights and church of Sil'Durhon (The imposter god)
-The Mherakian Knights (The god of War)
-The cabal of the Caarthian
-The sisters of Th'eresh
-The elves
-The dwarven clan of Khor-Urkhil
-The Holy Order (The Hexenjaegers)
-The sleeping wyrm of Asdarien Vale
-The Asdarien Coven
-Stefan Karro's Black Hawk Mercenary Company
-The K'Horune

[Scrasamax]

Awesome AG. I dont think I will get two pages behind before following this thread. Plus i think that the concept of love and hope are much better than the normal bash and grab.  Keep it up.

[CaptainPenguin]

Ditto.

[Ancient Gamer]

In work...

Pre-mainsite release workshop

Intro:
Deep under the bowels of the earth dwell the K'Horune, the withered offspring of man and troll. For ages they have lived there, their hearts filled with an eternal rage, blaming their captors of old for their misfortune. Countless years ago they were banished for their wicked ways, the Priests of Fhalgharod sealing the entrance to their subterrenean pit with the Seven Holy Sigils of Sanctity, and fusing the doors shut with the soul-essence of five maidens, willingly sacrificed for the greater good.

Once again they stalk the earth, for mysteriously the sigils have been broken and the light sensitive half trolls now stalk in the dark corners of the Herschal Valley, a normally serene place nested in the northern part of the Cyllerean Mountains. Not only that, but the City of Dogs, Gethrensburg, is in the very heart of the valley and they are troubled enough as it is. They refuse to open the gates for vital reprovisioning and once again the adventurers are between a rock and a hard place.

Can the party survive the raids at dawn, or will the murderous beasts tear them limb from in their barbaric savagery? Furthermore, will they discover the irony in their predicament; how saviours sometimes turn out not to be quite what one would imagine?

[Ancient Gamer]

Appearance:
The K'Horune appear as twisted humanoids, their skin grey and their hair long and black. They are human sized, with frail arms and legs. Appearances deceive however, for there is strength in these appendages; strength that could rip an adventurer apart. In the shadows of the depths these hunters are silent and cunning. It is likewise on the surface and few are those who can spot a host of K'Horune wanderers moving from tree to tree in the midst of night.

The faces of these wretches mirror the horrors they have become. They look human, but their skin is wrinkled and grey, their teeth are sharpened and their facial features are distorted and displaced in the manner of some trolls. They didn't wear clothes in the depths and this has caused some to freeze to death in the icy wastes of the valley. The K'Horune learn quickly however and now they have been killing families and sacking outlying farms. They rob the fallen of their clothing, and with every looting yet more K'Horune can exit from their place of exile.

Diet:
It is not easy to survive in the depths, and when an entire race is cast into unknown darkness with limited or no supplies, cannibalism becomes the order of the day. To put it simply: In K'Horune society the weakest is not only on the bottom of the social ladder. The weakest are eaten. With their re-emergence into the realms of light, that diet has changed somewhat. Patrols from the Gethrensburg now report that where corpses were simply undressed before, they are undressed and gnawed upon now. The K'Horune are particular however and only cheek and abdominal flesh is eated, the rest they leave be.

Sleep:
The K'Horune retain some of the sleep patterns of their ancestral parentage; the Trolls. This means that they enter a form of mild hibernation during winter. This means they would normally be asleep now, but the unlocking of the gates have awakened the young and lightest sleepers. This also means that the old, cunning and powerful of their society are still safely asleep kilometers below the surface. Time is of the essence and this precursor invasion is nothing compared to what would come on snow melt, mere weeks away.

Magic:
Magic is preserved for the elders and but one such elder has awakened to ascend from the darkness below. Her name is Ankhol-Anakhol, or "Witherfrost" among her kind, and her domain is the Magic of Frost. With her mastery of the icier aspects of magic, she is able to encase an unfortunate adventurer in ice or even call upon the skies to deliver a vast storm of sleet and ice. Her magic is taxing however and after a particularly tiresome conjuring, she has to rest to regain her strength. In times of need she is able to cannibalize her own stamina to keep going, but this is unhealthy and not something she does willingly.

Weakness:
The K'Horune is sensitive to light and afraid of fire. After years upon years without neither, they see poorly in daylight and are terrified of torches. If Witherfrost is nearby she will magically extinguish torches, but she is normally not, so a single torch could save the night. An adventurer can use a torch or bonfire in much the same way as a cleric would turn undead. The hissing K'Horune would circle an unfortunate victim, clawing at the air, but they would not dare approach if the PC is convincing enough in his threatening gestures (Some kind of willpower check OR, lacking that, turning "undead" as per a cleric of the same level).

At day they retreat to dark caves, or even to their place of exile, but at night they re-emerge.

Foreshadowing:
#1: The first clue as to what is happening is a pair of fresh corpses, half eaten and undressed in the snow. Oddly enough their clothes and armour is gone, but their swords are left behind - still clutched in their frozen hands.

#2: Several kilometers away, during daytime, a flock of ravens circle, often diving from the skies unto the ground. Should the PCs check this out, they will discover a truly horrible scene: The previous night the half-trolls struck and an entire village was butchered. The attackers cared naught whether they slew man, woman, child or elder. They are all dead, stripped bare and half eaten.

#3: Movements in the night: After the adventurers have found some corpses and understood that something evil is underfoot (literally), they will have the final pre-encounter experience. As they assemble around the bonfire, ready to partake of their limited supplies, something stirs in the dark of the forest. A hissing sound will be heard, yet nothing happens. Should they explore they will find footprints akin to a human with terribly long and sharp nails on their foot.
 
Adrenalin Kicker:

Cinematic Sequences:

Rebirth and Betrayal:

The Greater Picture:

On the Trail of Friends Thought Lost:

Epiphanies and Revelation:

Optional Ending #1: Fleeing (Cowardly)

Optional Ending #2: Slayers of the Wild (Epic Heroism)

Optional Ending #3: Sealing the Gates to "Hell" (Heroic)

Optional Ending #4: Long Live Diplomacy (Normal, but beneficial in the long run)

Optional Ending #5: For the Price of your Soul (Easy, but extremely stupid (involves Long Man Death)).

[Ancient Gamer]

Hmmm.... Drow... Hmmm...

Must differentiate.

[Chaosmark]

Not being used to Drow, I can't make a surefire comparison, but these seem to be quite a bit separate from those abominations.

[Ancient Gamer]

You think so? Good!

Addition: Allies!!

In this valley, the half-trolls are a menace, but inside the now locked city of Gethrensburg is an even greater menace: The caretakers of Long Man Death, and the great convergance that will take place after his heart is inside its new host (for further information on the Long Man Death, search for "The Stairs of Kienor" on the main site).

1. The Ashen Druids of Longwaithe
This is an age old cabal of fallen Druids, their hearts no longer beating and their flesh long dead. Even in death they keep vigil over the valley, like they did before their fall. Their Great Temple is in Longwaithe; an ancient village nestled in the slopes of Mount Kadrhorn and the peak called Kardhan-Karthak, where the dwarves of old once dwelled. The trail leading up to Longwaithe is steep, winding and long, and at the very top of the path is a snow draped village. There is a huge monolith in the village square, and due north of the monolith is a single story temple, with only supporting pillars, a roof, a stone fundament, but no walls. The altar is in the middle of the construct, and above the altar there is a square hole in the roof, allowing rain and snow to fall upon the altar. Bushes grow around it, and it is here that the Ashen Druids pray to Ghaunar, the human God of Nature. The buildings in the village are made of stone with brown wooden support beams and with grass roofs.

The Druids were undone centuries ago by Myythien the Thrice d**ned; a lich which has later been buried in the halls of the dwarves, which abandoned their mountainous fortress over a millennium ago. Despite their unlife, these Druids still believe in the path of life and the living. If the PCs come before the remaining cabal of eight druids, led by the Arch-Druid Finifiel of the Crooked Yew, the druids will offer whatever aid they can. This will hopefully even out the odds somewhat. While the druids won't directly enter battle, they will send Greynack Owl-Rider with the PCs and his magics and mastery over nature is spectacular and useful.

2. Al'Chrand the Cursed
Al'Chrand was a Paladin of Old and was the Paladin Lord in charge of sealing the tunnel to the nether realm and the banishment of the K'Horune. For this feat he was rewarded with a divine curse, cast by the K'Horune Council of Elders itself.

For your effort,
for your feat,
for your diligence.
And our defeat.

These words were uttered by Aldershine, the K'Horune Prophet Seer and chosen of the Council, as he died by Al'Chrand's sword. Days thereafter Al'Chrand was forever changed and unable to die of old age. He believes in Fhalgharod, the Sun God, and is thus unable to take his own life. His form is now that of a great, black Cave Bear with patches of silvery fur. While his strength is legendary and his resilience epic, he cannot speak the language of men anymore and only the Druids of Longwaithe know of him now.  If the PCs meet him without knowing his true nature, they may well decide to slay him in an epic battle that might cost them dearly. If not attacked, Al'Chrand will simply observe the PCs as they pass by. If the PCs are in need, or they request his aid (he understands human speech), he will try to help them. If the PCs are accompanied by one of the Ashen Druids (or speak animal tongues themselves) they may freely converse with Al'Chrand.

Next post: A focal point (somewhere beside the forest and valley in which most of the action will take place).

[Ancient Gamer]

Nopes. The focal point has to wait. Instead I present myself with: "A grand encounter table... stub"

1. The Lost Lord of Sinuthawal

A haunting melody draws the PCs to a forest glade. Atop a mossy boulder is a man wearing silvery chain mail, with a long, white tattered cloak and a white sash with a green emblem resembling a rearing wolf on it. A bow is beside the boulder and a quiver on his back. A the jeweled hilt of a lordly sword is hung in its sheath from the belt.

The man, whose hair and ears are hidden beneath the silvery chain hood, is playing a long wooden flute. It is easily the longest the PCs have ever heard. Aware PCs will notice how the pleasant breeze makes the trees sway back and forth, and how there seems to be an eerie atmosphere in the forest.

As the PCs approach, the man stops playing his flute and looks at the PCs with a wary gaze. Attentive persons will notice old blood stains on his sash and cloak and the many scars upon his hands and face. While his beauty is almost womanlike, there is steel in his eyes and voice. He presents himself as Argand Wilhelm, a mercenary from Ardamien. He is on his way to the war in the south, where he will hire his services to the Kingdom. He will not come with the PCs, except in the odd chance they should blurt their entire life saga to the adventurer, and tell him of their intended goal: The Unkaralth Citadel of the Northern Elves. In that case he will become angry and tell them they are liars, for the elves are no more. If the PCs are able to convince the angry man of their honesty, he will change his heart, and the PCs will have an extremely skilled companion for the rest of their journey north to the Citadel.

GM's Info:
His name is not what he tells, for he is an Elven Lord of the Mir-en-Tarnil, the fallen realm. He was the High Lord of Sinuthawal, but after the fall of the elves he awoke trapped inside the burning wood. As he has been trained in the arcane arts of a mage, as well as in the finer points of sword play and the bow, he did not perish with his brethren. In the centuries that followed he has walked among men in disguise. He has had fifteen human wives, and watched them all grow old. He has sired a number of half-elves, the only ones on the continent not under the control of the Church of Sil'Dhuron. The High Lord is an expert flute player, and can charm animals and plants alike with his fey melodies.

If the PCs behave particularly badly, mocking the memory of elves and praising the God Sil'Dhuron, they will face him in battle. He will flee if hurt, using his mastery of short distance teleportation. After that he will harry the PCs at every opportunity. He will stay with them as an unpredictable foe for the reminder of the month, until his elven ire has calmed, or everyone is dead.

2. Kknarrokhs - Cave Troll
- Will be enslaved by the K'Horune, to be used as a war machine, if they can find him
- Fond of meat (shocking surprise!)
-  blahblahblahblah

3. blahblah... Okay. To be continued

[Ancient Gamer]

Okay. It is official. The fever has temporarily destroyed the grammar center of the brain.

[Ancient Gamer]

Will play this today. Have added Bluethon ruins in the valley. Keywords: Ancient City, Tombs in which the dead lie in blocks of salt, the salted undead, gateway mandala (see main site "Teleportation and Translocation" system submission), ceramic urns sealed in wax that contains ointments and salves of sorts, it was the K'Horune that destroyed the Bluethon civilization, the lost lord will dream about ages past when he visited the Blueth in this city (once called "Sagalwan of the Valley").

Other ideas: The Dogs of Gethrenburg run in the forest at night, and the shadows cast by these dogs are long and dire. Entire packs of shadow dogs will attack both K'Horune and humans alike, their shadow breath stealing the life force of men. These dogs are normal by day, but shadow dogs by night. In the city of Gethrensburg these dogs are bereft of their powers, except when the Long Man comes. The dogs are sometimes called the spawn of the long man.

[Chaosmark]

*poke* How'd the game go?

[Ancient Gamer]

One of the best sessions we ever had. Of course: I merged it with another scenario called "Gerthrensburg - The City of Dogs". I was so happy after that session! It is not every day you can get jaded gamers to believe in the magic.