A little while ago my Hill Cantons campaign ended after nearly two years of weekly adventuring due to yours truly having to move away. This game marks the longest campaign I've ever ran or played in the nine years i've been playing TTRPGs. I can now happily say I've seen a B/X party from their lowly beginnings as 1st level rat-catchers to their heroic ascent to 9th level. Calling the experience anything but wonderful would be an understatement.
I've recapped major events since the last campaign report more than a year ago, including a slightly more detailed description of the campaign finale. I hope you can excuse some of the blurryness of the images at the end, I think candles are allergic to being photographed.
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From left to right: Sir Duke, Luka, Natalie, Lasryn, Maula, Frankopan, Puddles, and Nosewise, by William Seaton. |
The Campaign Thus Far
Since the last session report a year and a half ago the characters fully explored
the undertower of the plangent mage. The party are joined by the trident-toting
gullygug Puddles, who becomes a core member of the party. Eventually the group travels back to Marlinko only to find themselves exhonourated of the crimes against lady Szara due to Luka's budding friendship with the nobleman Sir Leopold. Lady Szara herself is nowhere to be found, seemingly (un)alive and having left the city some time ago.
Later as some among the the group are busy clearing out
Willowby Hall with the intent of eventually claiming it themselves, Marlinko is attacked. Eld airships batter the city, seeking out and slaying all the council members they can at the behest of Lady Szara, now allied with the strange elves. Eventually the eld retreat, leaving the city severely damaged. The party quickly retaliate by slaying some of the eld's dragon allies
lairing in an underground complex near Mount Voormidreth.
The party—joined by Glamdalf and Frank the cleric—then spend some time in the northern land of Hoimatbuch, fighting off an army of giants and pursuing a treasure map. The map leads the group into a tower atop one of the nearby alps, acting as an entrance into an ancient dwarven realm. The tower is not uninhabited however, as the party are chased into the underground by the ancient white dragon Sleet.
While underground the party manage to avoid capture by the locals, partly thanks to Frankopan's arrow of location, as well as aid from a friendly troll. When they return to the surface the group once again attempt to claim the dragon's treasure only to fail as Lasryn is killed and thrown from the mountainside.
Returning to the hill cantons the party reunite with Pearl who had joined the group on their adventure with the Godfish (alongside her now adult black dragon Arraksis). Luka also reappears seemingly unscathed after having been captured by Sleet. The group decide to join forces and investigate rumours of the slumbering ursine dunes being occupied by the eld.
While there the party align with the centaurs and strike an alliance with the remnants of the crew Ondrj, now under the command of his (daughter?) niece. Together with the party's own troop of soldiers—the merry men—they all assault the glittering tower and save Medved from being slowly drained of all his divine energy.
As a thanks for their aid against the eld, the party also clear out the glittering barge and gift it to the pirates. The group spend some time exploring the magical portals found within the ship, taking them to the enchanting realm of Elysium and the planar city of Sigil.
Realizing that no one will ever remain safe while the eld remain allied with lady Szara they prepare an expedition to the misty isles. Luka is especially motivated as he soon celebrates the birth of his firstborn son. Jarno Ironbraid also arrives to help his old buddy Pearl.
Puddles travels north and enlists the aid of her boyfriend—the prince of the dwarves of Hoimatbuch—who reveals that the pair are now the parents of about fourty half-gullygug half-dwarf children (puddles having laid several eggs during the groups last visit to the area).
A second delve is made into the frog temple, this time successfully recovering the staff of the raygigi. Glamdalf who alongside Frank had left after the groups escape from the underground now rejoin the party after being gifted the staff (their reasons for leaving being not reciving any treasure themselves).
Sir Leopold and soldiers from Marlinko and the surrounding countryside also join the party, seeking revenge for the attack upon the city. Finally Stumpy—having been lost during the attack on Marlinko–returns, now sporting mechanical limbs and a faux-hoimatbuch accent.
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The glittering barge, by David Lewis Johnson |
The Expedition to the Misty Isles
Using star charts given to them by the daughter of Ondrj the mists are navigated and the party arrive on the isles, driving of the eld-men and undead opposing their landing. The group help Frank free his god—the fifth town-god of Marlinko—and are granted a wish which they use to give themselves additional experience.
Finally leading their forces to the pagoda city the party assault the location from several sides, defeating several clones of the eldish overcaptain Kliax who had manned the defenses of the glittering tower. The undead forms of Sir Eld and the checkered mage—associates slain during the attack on Marlinko—are also confronted and defeated.
Taking to the skies to destroy the final Eld airship, Pearl and Luka come face-to-face with Lady Szara riding upon the back of Sleet. The icy breath annihilates both Luka's tarn and Arraksis who plummet to the ground. Pearl herself is also slain but is brought back by divine miracle as Lasryns spirit performs her final act of service for the party. Sleet himself is shortly slain thereafter, leaving the group questioning how he could have appeared on the misty isles.
The remaining party members storm the main eld tower seeking to finally defeat lady Szara before she regenerates. However they are too late and face off against her at the pinnacle of the tower. Lady Szara reveals that Sleet himself was acting under mind control as she activates Lukas sleeper signal, both the dragon and the wizard having been captured by the eld and made into agents. Luka throws a fireball into the midst of the party almost killing them, after which an undead
Ace strikes from the shadows, tears in his eyes. Miraculously the party manage to hold on as Pearl uses a scroll of
daylight and as Szara is stabbed in the heart with a silver stake, destroying the vampire forever.
As the battle still rages below the party charge to the bottom of the tower. Fighting their way through an eld bunker hoping to stop the portal trough which the eld are able to enter the cantons. Hearing voices calling to him, Frankopan enters the cold hell and finds his way into a complex of vats filled with people. Finding the voices and smashing the vats from whence they come, Frankopan frees hundreds of copies of himself before attempting to lead them back into the cantons.
At the portal the group hold back waves of incoming eld troopers. As Frankopan and his clone siblings arrive they realize the portal must be destroyed from both ends simultaneously. Luka volunteers to stay behind on the other side to make the world safe for those he loves. As the portal closes the party sees wizard ready himself as a platoon of eld soldiers come rushing towards him.
An earth-shattering sound is heard as the tower begins collapsing around the party. They manage to escape and find the previously grey and cold misty isles transformed into a lush and pleasant land. The group gather the dead—chief among them Stumpy—and light a pyre as the night passes into the dawn.
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A fortress in an icy wasteland, by Rodney Matthews |
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye
I can confidently say that this has been the longest running campaign I've managed to get together. Considering that this group had a brief stint where we played Night Below before getting into the Hill Cantons, we have been a fairly stable gaming group for more than two years. Under other circumstances we might have continued, the players certainly expressed interest in other things in the world (the new continent they created as a result of their shenanigans in the undertower for example).
Of course the majority of what happened during the campaign has been left out from the recap above. Things like Luka's flirting with Natalie, the doomguard and the expeditions to the planes, Puddles romance with the dwarf prince as well as her constant attempts to retrieve the pineal glands of defeated enemies, the kindly grandmother-bearling Vhelma Pesko and her grandchildren, Captain Kun and his turn to good, and the return of
Huldovic Klyballe at the eleventh hour of the campaign, etc. It has been a joy to see the world react and change due to the actions of the players. Even as we played through adventures and a setting made by folks we've never met, it all belonged to us in the end.
I do bemoan the fact that the wrap-up of the campaign happened over only about three sessions. Originally I had planned the crawl across the misty isles as an affair lasting the whole summer. Alas our combined schedules thought otherwise. Still it ended up being a great final session, continuing late into the night. Using home-made counters and a simple system for mass combat it still felt truly epic.
Writing this some time later, I can't help but feel an immense sadness at the end of the campaign. I think it's easy for us who engage with RPGs online to forget how joyous playing them can be. At least I don't think it's emphasized enough. Sitting at the end of the session—snack crumbs and miniatures scattered about the table, watching as the candles burn out—it struck me that I might never again have this experience. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this campaign and
those which came before. There is no thing which continues to bring me as much joy as my compadres.
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Luka throws spells as Natalie throws hands |
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Obligatory pre-action group photo |
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Worried about something i bet... |
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After all, are they not half the name of the game? |