Opelenean Nights IV

General ACKS Forums Actual Play
21

SESSION FIFTY-EIGHT
Slowly wading through the mud, Amur-Sin’s undead army encircled Ber-Gathy from the west in an arc that extended from the middle of the city’s north wall to the middle of the city’s southern wall. The army halted outside of bow shot, their cadaverous masses dimly visible through the rain. Terrible chanting filled the air, and ten black wyrms rose above the army – dragons summoned to the service of the Thrassian sorcerer-priests. Then the very walls of the city began to shake as the earth itself moved beneath the foundations, insects swarmed the gates, and lightning began to crash down upon the troops on the walls, forcing them from the walls. Hidden in the rain, the enemy was using powerful magic.
The Dragons of the Desert and the magicians and priests of Ber-Gathy responded as best they could, resulting in a magical duel that lasted an hour and a half. 70% of the available spell power of the city’s forces were expended dispelling the enemy’s enchantments. Almost one hundred lightning bolts crashed down on Ber-Gathy. Senef began to call down lightning onto the enemy dragons, and succeeded in destroying one, and possibly its rider. The enemy responded by flying out of sight, then unleashing another swarms of insects, and opening up passwalls through the gates.
As Ber-Gathy’s defenders worked to dispel the passwalls, Amur-Sin’s army began its inexorable advance. The dragons remained out of bowshot, an ominous but as yet unused weapon. The defenders rushed back to man the walls and unleash arrows on the approaching skeletons and zombies. As the undead came closer, the defenders could see they were equipped with bone ladders, graven with ruins… magical siege ladders forged by Amur-Sin’s magic. The undead came closer, inexorable beneath pelting archery fire.
As the skeletal ladders touched the walls, the dragons attacked. The soaring charge of nigh a dozen dragons was a sight no man living had ever seen. Dragon-fear gripped the hearts of men, and the bravest of soldiers abandoned his posts and fled. For a moment, it looked as if the undead might take the walls of Ber-Gathy unopposed.
Then Ethlyn sounded the Trumpet of War. Its clarion echoed through the downpour, drowning out the fear and filling all who heard it with the courage of the kings of old. The defenders rallied. They would fight to the last. But as the sounds died, Ethlyn gurgled up blood from her lungs – to blow the Trumpet in battle was to court death. She had barely survived. But this deed would be recorded in the annals, for it had saved a city!
As the troops raced back to the walls, the city’s spellcasters dealt with the dragons. Suad, Zerika, and Senef quickly dispelled three wyrms. With a word of power, Shikra crushed the spine of a fourth, and Suad managed to paralyze a fifth, sending it crashing down onto the spears and rubble below. Bellona and Shikra slew a sixth with magic missiles, while Suad summoned a chimera that slew the seventh. Waves of defensive archery fire killed the eighth dragon, and a lonely band of light infantry managed to catch the ninth dragon coming through the south gate and dispatched it. Shikra petrified the last and cackled evilly as its stony form plummeted from the skies.
The dragons had served their purpose, however; many of the defenders had been brutalized by their toxic breath, and by the time the tenth fell the undead were already fighting at the walls. Melee was joined!
At the western gate, Mahmud and Rakh led the elite Mamelukes from the front, cutting down skeletons like scythes during harvest team. Responding to the threat, the Thrassian mummy lord commanding the unit charged to counter-attack. The defenders watched in horror as Rakh was torn apart by the cadaverous claws and fangs of the undead lizard-tyrant. Mahmud held off the mummy lord while Senef rushed forward, and used his shamanic powers to dispel the mummy lord.
Meanwhile, at the southern gate, Ethlyn had transformed herself into a lion and was hotly battling an impressively powerful mummy lord, called Shemush, vizier of Amur-Sin. Ethlyn and Shemush fought tooth and nail, claw on claw. Then the tide turned as a sinister human mage appeared to assist Shemush. Even as he unleashed magic at Ethlyn, the bard recognized him as Mustafa, a sorcerer once in the employ of the bandit chieftain Yasir al-Achmed that they had fought two years before! Yasir al-Achmed’s bandit band must have been enslaved by the vile Thrassians…

It was then that Amur-Sin revealed himself. The terrible Thrassian tyrant seeming erupted onto the battlefield to a towering height of over 20’, charging at Mahmud. “My awakener! Welcome to oblivion!,” gloated the monster.
Bellona, rushing to Mahmud’s aid, unleashed her obsidian blade at Amur-Sin. She blanched as her spell bounced harmlessly off Amur-Sin’s powerful protections. “We’ve got to dispel his defenses!” shouted the spellsword…but there were no magical resources remaining to do so.
Senef blasted Amur-Sin with dispel evil, but the creature’s implacable will resisted the spell. It turned its baleful attention onto Senef. “I admire your courage, shaman. You will serve me well as an undead.” Soon the shaman was being rended by Amur-Sin’s savage claws. He went down in a heap of blood. “For Imran!” shouted Mahmud as he charged the terrible Thrassian mummy. True Death carved past Amur-Sin’s armor and cleaved deep into his cadaverous breast. For a moment, victory seemed possible. Then Amur-Sin’s shattering blows crushed both of Mahmud’s legs, and the general went down! Bellona grabbed Mahmud’s body and fell back, even as the last of the Mamelukes died to Amur-Sin’s Thrassian zombies.
With Mahmud down, Ethlyn would have to assume command. At that very moment, the bard was hard-pressed at the south gate. Covered with wounds, she had disengaged from Shemush. Dornethan had covered her retreat with a volley of arrows, but the assassin was now reeling backward, his head soaked with blood from where his ears had been torn off. Things might have collapsed had Suad not swooped in on his flying carpet and paralyzed Mustafa with a blast from his wand, forcing Shemush to dispel him.
Even so, Shemush was unchecked, the dragons had lost Mahmud, Rakh, and Senef, Ethlyn was cripplingly injured, and Amur-Sin was in the city…

22

SESSION FIFTY-NINE
The situation was dire. The enemy was everywhere on the walls, and though their ranks had been savagely thinned by the defender’s determined resistance, retreat seemed the wisest option. Bellona, Shikra, and Suad began to evacuate the fallen. Mahmud’s body was carried back to Ber-Gathy’s citadel on the flying carpet, while Bellona invisibly moved to where Senef and Rakh had been dispatched.
Ethlyn was preparing to sound the general retreat when Shemush’s zombies charged her formation. Her men were overrun and the bard found herself isolated. Mustafa and Shemush unleashed arcane blasts that struck her head on, and she fell, her face a gory ruin of its former beauty. She might have been captured had Androcles and Umar not just been arriving with reinforcements to the south gate. Umar pulled Ethlyn’s fallen body to safety while Androcles charged at Mustafa and Shemush. The centurion quickly cut down the malevolent mage, but Shemush’s riposte in turn felled Androcles. Umar quickly entered the fight to assist his friend, and with great courage actually struck a blow against the tyrant! “How dare you injure me,” raged the mummy lord, as he felled Umar, too.
While these dark events were underway, Bellona had managed to bring Rakh and Senef back to the care of Suad and Shikra. The shaman and gladiator were alive, though barely; Suad stuffed them into his portable hole over their feeble protests.
With Mahmud and Ethlyn both incapacitated, command of the increasingly-desperate defenders now fell to Pasha Abaddon al-Hamza, pasha of Ber-Gathy. “You’ve got to sound the retreat,” urged Bellona. “We can’t win this!” “I will never abandon my city to these undead monsters,” said the pasha. “I would die first.”
And he did. In the first rank of his elite camel lancers, Abaddon led a charge across Ber-Gathy’s plaza and into the advancing ranks of Amur-Sin’s Thrassian zombies. Sharp lances carved through the ranks of the dead, thundering animals trampled the fallen. And then Amur-Sin crushed Abaddon’s skull like an egg.
Much to her surprise, the thief Zoya now found herself in command of an army. She was going to order a surrender when Bellona and Shikra suddenly announced they had a plan to destroy Amur-Sin. Taking up Mahmud’s blade True Death, Bellona enchanted herself with haste and invisibility. She then drank a potion of polymorph and assumed the form of a mighty storm giant.
As the invisible, gigantic, hasted, undead-slaying spellsword approached Amur-Sin, Shikra shape changed into a bat and flew overhead. And then the warlock transformed herself into a leviathan and dropped on the mummy’s head. As 30,000 pounds of flesh smashed downward, sending Amur-Sin careening, Bellona charged! Her blade bit deeply into Amur-Sin, hewn forward by her gigantic size and strength. The lizard-king might have died had Bellona’s next blow hit, but it did not. With preternatural power, the lizard-king recovered himself and then … vanished.
Thinking that Amur-Sin had turned invisible, Bellona began to search for the mummy lord. Instead, she found herself surrounded by hideous oozes and slimes, summoned by Shemush. The gigantic elf crushed several homes and dozens of innocents in a mad scramble to evade the oozes. She had almost made good her escape when Amur-Sin revealed himself – above Bellona, having teleported up and taken flight. The vile lizard-king sent a fireball hurling downward, and Bellona fell, instantly slain by the incinerating flame.
Suad had meanwhile gathered up the bodies of Ethlyn, Androcles, and Umar into the portable hole, and taken them back to the city’s keep. There the local imam, Farouk al-Raziel, was doing what he could for the fallen. Zoya had managed to rally the remaining defenders and thrown them back into the fight against the undead. While fearless and implacable, the undead forces were by now greatly thinned. If Amur-Sin couldn’t be killed, perhaps he could be made fearful enough to retreat? Perhaps by slaying his right-hand minion? Perhaps one last push? She sounded the attack!
The enemy seemed to similarly have decided the path to victory lay in killing the enemy leadership. Thrassian mummy lords took flight from their units and began to advance towards the citadel at the center of the city. The party needed to strike hard! In bat form, Shikra few over the Thrassian Shemush’s head, and shapechanged back into a leviathan. Her obscenely bulky form fell from 60’ up onto the mummy lord and pinned him down.
A moment later, the airborne Amur-Sin incinerated Shikra with another fireball, allowing Shemush to rise. Dornethan and Zoya charged into the fight. The assassin and thief both hit, leaving Shemush staggering. The enraged mummy lord struck out at Dornethan, and the assassin went down.
With Thrassian tyrants about to enter Ber-Gathy’s citadel, Suad had relocated to the northern wall. That stretch of the battlefield was under assault by human zombies under the command of none other than Yasir al-Achmed. The enslaved bandit chieftain was hacking his way up the walls as Suad arrived. The mage had planned to fight Yasir, but the fighting against Shemush was going so badly he knew he had to make that his priority. Suad, now unleashed a spell he had researched in secret: fist of stone. A massive blow of elemental stone smashed into Shemush.
The mummy lord was staggeringly damaged and took wing to flee. Suad showed now mercy and hurled another fist of stone. The Thrassian tyrant fell, destroyed. Suad exulted in his victory. Once the lowly utility mage, brought along to detect magic and open doors, now he was the slayer of a millennium-old mummy lord. “I’m the one who knocks!” he shouted triumphantly, as he raced away on his magic carpet, tossing a contemptuous shoe at Yasir al-Achmed for good measure. Zoya waved him off and then hurriedly looted the body.
Shemush’s destruction seemed to unnerve Amur-Sin. He hurled a fireball in Suad’s vicinity, but the mage was long out of range. “They have slain Shemush and revealed themselves to have an archmage with heretofore unseen magicks,” the lizard-king muttered to himself. Rather than expose himself to continued fighting, he instead moved to where Mustafa had fallen, and collected the mage’s body. He was content to let his troops continue the battle while he supervised from behind the lines.
The Thrassian tyrants had by now reached the citadel of Ber-Gathy. Farouk al-Raziel, aged imam of the city, died fending them off to give time for the rest of the party to flee. Majid, Suad’s apprentice, used the moment to hastily cast magic carpet on a stolen rug and fly away. The palace wizard, Jafar the Resplendent, attempted to jump on board but missed and was last heard shouting oaths and obscenities. “How dare you leave me behind you miserable cur! I am Jafar the RESPLENDENT, by Imran!” Majid was not being selfish in abandon Jafar, however, for he swooped downward and seized Dornethan’s body before racing off.

Zoya, last commander on the battlefield, gazed around at the ruin and realized there were no remaining undead formations… all had been destroyed or dispersed in her force’s last attack! But Amur-Sin and the Thrassian tyrants were still in the air, and it was not clear how they could be dealt with, given there were no more heroes to fight them. Zoya sounded the retreat, then crept away hidden by her elven cloak.
The battle was over. It was hard to know who had won. Amur-Sin’s undead army had been destroyed. The Dragons and their army had slain Shemush, 10 summoned dragons, 210 Thrassian zombies, 616 zombies, and 5760 skeletons. The Thrassian tyrants could ravage the city, but without an army they could hardly hold it. Yet the Dragon’s own casualties were a staggering 2,919 dead out of 6,090. The heroic leadership of Mahmud, Ethlyn, and Zoya, along with the desperate situation and the incredible power of the Trumpet of War, had kept their army fighting lost past the point when any normal fighting force would have broken.
Moreover, their personal situation was bleak. When they rallied at the oasis north-east of Ber-Gathy, the only full members of the party still standing were Suad and Zoya. Mahmud had been restored to life, but would be exhausted for two weeks. Senef had a broken hip. Ethlyn was incapacitated with pain and gruesomely scarred by a lightning bolt. Rakh was only dimly conscious, having suffered a cracked skull from the melee, and was seemingly brain damaged. Shikra’s left arm had been burned off by a fireball. Dornethan and Umar were likely dead, and Bellona certainly was, a grisly ruin.
Rarely had the crows feasted so well.

23

Wow! Seems like a fairly solid test of D@W. Great stuff!

24

It was about as extreme a test of D@W as I can imagine! It was a Battalion-scaled assault on a walled city with about 12 heroes on each side, featuring undead units, flyers, and more. Madness!

25

Of the best kind!

26

I think my brain would be leaking out of my nose a little trying to manage that kind of scenario.

27

The sane thing to do would have been to run it using the Campaign rules with heroic forays. But I wanted to try the insane!

28

SESSION SIXTY
What remained of the Dragon’s army retired from Ber-Gathy in good order, encamping for the night in an oasis a few miles distant. Red plumes of flame and black, billowing clouds of smoke were visible through the night as the Thrassian tyrants savaged the remainder of the city.
Come the morning, Senef had recovered enough to work his healing magic on the party’s dead and wounded. Bellona and Ethlyn were restored with no immediate ill effects, but it would be weeks until they could fight; Mahmud, Rakh, and Suad also would need weeks of rest. Shikra’s restoration was even more ill-fated; so battered was her frame that she could not even be made fully human, and she emerged from the spell with vestigial bat parts. Androcles was too far gone for restoration to have effect at all, and Senef was forced to reincarnate him. Androcles returned as a fit Celdorean male, but the new Androcles wanted no part of the life of the old. “Whatever burdens of duty lay upon me in my prior life are lifted. I am a new man, and I will pursue a new destiny,” he said, departing for Hissar.
The party was aggrieved at Androcles’ departure, but they could not spare much time to persuade him. A divination by Senef had announced, “a city is on its knees, lacking a ruler’s decrees.” The Dragons interpreted this to mean that Ber-Gathy needed their leadership, and marched directly there. Arriving at sunset on the 4th of Froelen, the party found Ber-Gathy still intact, the flames extinguished. Zoya snuck forward to reconnoiter. She learned that only about 10% of the city had been destroyed, with the Tower of Knowledge having been utterly pillaged. There were still about 1,000 people in the city; but the dead outnumbered the living by three to one. The citizenry were working to deal with the corpse-strewn rubble but no one seemed to be in charge.
The Dragons entered at the head of their army and seized control. Senef was appointed the new pasha of Ber-Gathy. Behrouz, the Dragon-Slayer, head of the heroic light infantry that had slain a dragon, was made new Agha of Bab al-Djebel. The young hero was overcome with honor: “Never did I expect Imran’s blessing to be so great, to receive such a gift from such a gift,” he murmured to his new pasha, Ethlyn.
On the 5th, scouts reported back with sad tidings from the west. “Hundreds of prisoners are being herded to the southwest, into the Howling Emptiness!” These could only be survivors of Ber-Gathy, being taken back to Amur-Sin’s lair for his sinister rituals. The Dragons were desperate for vengeance, but to attack Amur-Sin in their weakened state would be certain doom. Instead, they put a call for aid: “The Shields of the South are looking for mercenaries, henchmen, and marshals!” Over 100,000gp flooded the guildhalls, caravanserai, and ports of Southern Opelenea sending word of their need.
While Senef devoted himself to rulership, Zoya began to receive word from her spies. Bartini wrote in, “As you know, I keep close tabs on the palace through friends in the scullery. The Council of Wisdom has been in session non-stop for days. It must be very pressing business because they aren’t even letting the kitchen staff leave the palace!” Karim wrote, “I saw a military map in a merchant’s guild hall. There were two army tokens near Pyros, but one of the tokens had been knocked over as if it had been defeated.”
Reports from army scouts continued to trickle in over the following days. The enemy’s prisoners-of-war were last sighted between the Al-Baki Hills and the Blasted Hills, heading south-west into the Howling Emptiness. On the 8th of Froelen, Senef decided it was time to commune. “Will Amur-Sin have a new army?” No. “Does Amur-Sin have a phylactery?” No. “Is the Council of Wisdom currently planning to betray us?” No.
On the 15th of Froelen, word arrived from Besherab nomads that the Thrassian slave caravan had been spotted near the southern oases of the Howling Emptiness. This prompted further communion from Senef. “Is Amur-Sin’s lair within 18 miles of the south-western oasis on our map?” Yes. “Is Amur-Sin raising another undead army within the month?” No. “Does Amur-Sin have other minions we haven’t seen?” Yes.
With these insights, the Shields of the South decided that they would attack Amur-Sin when their strength was regained. They would use the intervening weeks to finish spell research and continue to explore the powers of the Cup and Talisman.

Senef soon learned that the Cup could pour cure wounds with a drop of holy water, and also that if the Talisman was immersed in a Cup full of holy water, it could create a miraculous potion. Bellona learned dispel magic. Suad made little progress in his own research, but Bellona managed to learn the valuable dispel magic.
On the 22nd, a flight of eagles was spied circling above the citadel of Ber-Gathy. This was a good omen, for eagles are sacred to Imran. This same day, word reached Ethlyn that her long-sought dire lion was being imported from Alakyrum and would arrive at Khaibar at month’s end. Suad took another opportunity to commune with the spirits. “Can Amur-Sin innately see invisible?” No. “Is Amur-Sin aware of our portable hole?” No. “Is Amur-Sin making specific preparations against our shapechange trick?
By the 26th, the Shields of the South were ready to depart. Mounted on camels, they set off. After a day of riding, they reached the oasis of Tuat…the ruins of it. The casbah was a pillaged ruin and the lush oasis was scorched and burned. Senef blessed the land before the party departed.
That night, Rakh and his minion Ubakhi got into a argument over the merits of eating Mahmud. Rakh was still chastening his minion when a strange figure shrouded in dark robes stumbled into their camp, seeking to join in the feast on man-flesh. Mahmud quickly slew the creature, which turned out to be a white-skinned troll. Shikra insisted they allow the troll to regenerate so she could interrogate it. “Why is your skin so weird?” asked the weird hybrid bat-witch. “Cursed by the gods at birth,” the sad creature said. “Ah…an albino,” said Shikra. “That’s all I needed to know.” At a signal, Mahmud beheaded and burned the thing, leaving some of its rubbery white flesh as reagents for the warlock.
On the 27th, the party reached an unnamed oasis near the Howling Oasis. Wide white curtains were visible hanging between the palm trees. Zoya quickly scouted ahead. “giant spider webs,” she reported. “Burn them.” Bellona was eager to oblige and a nest of giant spiders was soon roasted from afar.
Later that day, the party neared the path to Krak al-Shidda, their one-time base. On that path the party espied seven desert nomads, in dark brown robes, mounted on dark brown camels, standing near a sandy berm. The nomads were eerily motionless, even as Mahmud, Umar, and Wazir hailed them. At 20 yards, Senef suddenly remembered – a gorgon had lived near Krak al-Shidda. Mahmud, Umar, and Wazir barely retreated in time as the gorgon charged from behind the berm. A moment later, the monster was dead to Senef’s finger of death.
The next day, 28th Froelen, the party reached the Howling Emptiness. No marker or signpost marked the border of that dread region; but as they camped for the night, a strange and terrible howling filled the air…

29

Looks like a typo…what was the answer to, “Is Amur-Sin making specific preparations against our shapechange trick?"

…not that I’m rapt, or anything…

30

Sorry, that was a typo! The answer is “no”.

31

This is a really lovely campaign journal. Thanks for sharing it, Alex.

Is there any way you could post an “allegiance tree” or something showing who the main characters, who their henchmen are, and so on. It would be interesting to see how large an organization your players have right now.

Also, when you play, who primarily roleplays henchmen? The player of their master, or you?

32

SESSION 61-63

The Dragons of the Desert confronted Amur-Sin in his great pyramid in the Howling Emptiness and were defeated. Mahmud died holding off 5 Thrassian Tyrants and his body was left to Amur-Sin’s necromantic arts. Rakh was ensorcelled by Amur-Sin and enslaved. The rest of the party were slain or fled, and even with magic most came back unable to continue adventuring.

The Council of Wisdom awarded them for their heroic effort with grants of land throughout Opelenea. For unknown reasons, Amur-Sin did not attack Opelenea again. There are some who believe he was slain by Navana. Others believe he bides his time in the bleak desert, readying an army to destroy all mankind. Whatever the case… it will not be the Dragons of the Desert who decide the fate of Opelenea. Their story is ended.

33

Since the campaign ended (painfully!) I won’t post an allegiance tree - too much time to invest.

The players control the henchmen of their PC in most situations. During circumstances of failed morale, I control the henchmen. The player also roleplays the henchmen of their PC, except when the henchmen is interacting with the PC himself.

34

That is an epic ending to an awesome campaign, to be sure. Sometimes, defeat makes great stories.

35

Yikes! What an abrupt ending to an amazing story!

I’ll chalk it up to a finale too painful to recount. :wink:

Thanks for spinning the yarn Alex it was a fun read.

36

Oof. A postscript sounding as told by a character who was there, and doesn’t yet have the heart to share the full story.

Sounds like you’re already back in the saddle on a new horse, though. Always the journey, not the destination.

37

Alex, I’m curious.

When you wrote up the final encounter, knowing the party’s capabilities, what percentage chance of victory did you give them?

Was the party reaching a bit too far in attempting to take down Amur-Sin at their power level, or was it a fair fight and the dice just didn’t go their way?

38

Amur-Sin was created at the start of the campaign, along with his minions. So “the final encounter” had been written almost a year earlier.

As for whether they could have won, they might have slain him with Dispel Evil, among other things. Certainly it would always have been a very hard fight but it wasn’t unwinnable. That said, he was a much tougher foe than the other villain in the campaign, Navanna…