A Hell of a Campaign

[Mikeydanuke]

...................................HOUSE ASTYANATH...........................................

As the party was relaxing and enjoying a few brews at the local Iliaster Shop, they were approached by Bronco Billay, who brought them a round of drinks, and asked if they might be willing to accompany him on another expedition to "retrieve" an artifact from the Mortal World. The player party, Takeron (Fiend) Aldaris (Hulk) Zaebros (beast) Tazmuth (Fiend) and Leabeth (Deceiver) agreed, and set out shortly the next day.

[GM's Interlude: Unbeknown to the party, Billay was leading them into a trap. Billay suspected that the rumor about the Mortal Artifact was a fake, but his greed got the better of him. The Oblurett had in fact started the rumor and laid a trap, heavily seeded with guards. They were not going to allow one of their lords to be attacked with impunity, and Billay's distictive garb had been recognized. ]

The party had not been gone on their journey very long when they encountered a band of bandit demons. The bandits had gotten word about the Oblurett-Billay affair, and hoped to capture him and sell him to ther Oblurett. The bandits attacked, screaming at the party to surrender, however, the party promtly counter attacked, and the poorly armed bandits were very shortly fleeing the scene (except for a few that weren't fleeing anywhere.

The party procceeded on. A couple of days later, while they were encamped, Leabeth noticed some bushes moving towards the camp. As she shouted the alarm the bushes materialized into vague shrouded humanoid forms (Brokenlander Soldiers) that attacked.

This time discretion proved the better part of valor, after it quickly became apparently that they could only hit the Brokenlanders* with the greatest of luck, and the party turned and ran away by heel or by wing.

All except poor Billay, who had missed seeing his supporters run away, and was happily blazing away with his six guns. The last the party saw of Billay (alive) was of him surrounded by six Brokenlander soldiers. Then having lost one of their number, but killed one demon, the Brokenlanders departed.

The party promtly looted everything Billay had had on him, and then headed back for their base, thereby avoiding the Oblurett ambush waiting for them further down the road. So, in a sense, they lucked out.

After returning to their base, they were eventually ordered by their commander to investigate why miners were disappearing from the enarby Iron Mine. The party set out, Zaebros now sprouting a Pearl Handled Revolver, while Tazmuth used the less fanciful demon reproduction.

The party descended into the mines. As they left the last guardpost the guards wished them luck, better luck then the last group had had.

Eventually, after houtrs of wandering around, the party found themselves in a large room with the sound of moving machines off in the distance. As the party entered the room, two large mechanical forms turned to great them**

[ GM's Interlude: I like to use what I call a Critical Miss table, basically, anytime a character rolls a 1 on a d20 attack, he has the chance to do something nasty like drop a weapon, slip, shoot a friend, etc.]

The party attacked and proceeded to hack and smash the Ragwrats, who proceeded to hack and smash back at the party. Aldaris, the hulk was up at the front, but Leabeth had also joined up. Takeron, Tazmuth, and Zaebros were blazing away with rifles and pistols. This went on for a few rounds, with the decision as to who might win still up in the air.

Then Aldaris leaned to far forward when trying to bite one of the Ragwrats, and by overcompesating, fell backwards and landed on his posterior. One of the Ragwrats promtly smashed Leabeth (2 HP's left) and she turned and ran, at which point Zaebros shot Aldaris (for 11 out of possible 12 damage)

Aldaris regained his feet, and the party brought down the first of the machines.

The second machine smashed Aldaris for 2 hits, 20 damage total, and caused a -12 breech***. Zaebros dropped his pistol and charged in with a shortsword, Tazmuth attacked with a pitchfork, and Takeron tried to help Aldaris by pouring a bottle of Agony down his throat. Aldaris failed the fortitude check, and was in really serious trouble when his turn came up again (He died).

As the battle raged, Zaebros slipped and fell, Tazmuth dropped his pitchfork, and Takeron had to reload his rifle. Tazmuth finally turned and ran, at whcih point the machine turned on Zaebros, and after several in effective swipes, finally connected. (Zaebros has a really high AC, but once you hit him, he's gone). Zaebros turned and ran!

Takeron proceeded to fire into the advancing machine, and finally did enough damage to cause it to disassemble. The party now rejoined, mourning the loss of their Hulk ("How do we get out of this place without a tank?")

And then they heard the sound of footsteps in the close distance........



* In retrospect, tossing 7 Brokenlander Soldiers at the party probably was too much....

** Ragwrats = ~ 1/2 values of Ragbodies..., less powerful stats, less damage on attack, CR of 5.

*** Simple math, if Aldaris hadn't of been shot by Zaebros, it would have only been a -1 breech....

 

[Mikeydanuke]

............................HOUSE STURRACH..........................................

[ GM's Interlude: various unfortunate events in my so-called-real-life have caused House Astyanath to miss their weekly session, through unconfirmed rumor has it that they might be starting their own campaign up soon, and further pertubations in the schedules of members of House Sturrach (as we switch from a Thursday night to a Monday night) have caused some of them to miss this evenings festivities

In the meantime, I have managed to acquire a copy of Book 3, and have been poring over it as I try and design a more detailed campaign world. Some of the things I had in mind do not quite fit into the "normal" set up, (as per book 3) so I have decided to cheat a little. I am still working on trying to finalize everything and maybe come up with a detailed map of a single hex (~25 square miles).

For my campaign purposes then, the Fortress of Fangs of Victory, is actually a County (Viscouty?) held by House Sturrach. Viscount Saggoroth is in charge of it, but he has been away since the party's adventures started, attending to important matters at Sturrach's Hold. He's trying to get a new draft of Demons for his hold, since losses have been a bit high lately, and he needs replacements.

The Fortress of Fangs of Victory is actually then a Keep, but it is built over the ruins of a Zethu large fortress. It's primary purpose is to serve as a guardian of the rich mines in the area, mines that House Sturrach dare not put into full production lest the House's enemies decide that the county is a rich prize, worth taking, and Sturrach re-inforcements are far away. House Sturrach then has adopted a policy of mining at a much reduced level, making the entire County appear less valuable then it actually is, and therefore more trouble than it would be worth to it's enemies (Oblurett) to take.

Recent earthquakes have damaged the mines and surrounding area further. Following the earthquakes miners and damned soul slaves have disappeared from the mines (occassionaly). But the earthquakes have also opened up access to some of the old Zethu mine shafts, catacombs, dungouns, and what not. ]

....and now, on with the show.....

 

[Mikeydanuke]

..........................HOUSE STURRACH........................................

The party has returned from their first exploration of the mines under the Fortress of Fangs of Victory, where Mimic died. They did retrieve his corpse and returned to the fortress.

Once there they were promtly ordered to report to Captain Argonnes, who had received word that the recent earthquakes had uncovered a ruined Zethu facility in nearby "Lord" Drica's territory, and he wanted them to go check it out, and return with any artifacts or docuements they could uncover. [GM: there were none, it was just a rumor, nothing was there]

The party set out, and crossed into Drica's territory, but along the way they were attacked by a group of Demon's from House Astyanath. The House Astyanath demons were heading for the same ruins, saw the House Sturrach, and decided to attack.

The less said about the battle, the better. As House Astyanath, I did score one hit, and did successfully possess the Sturrach Beast character for one turn. The Sturrach characters killed all of the Astyanath noble's escort, captured him, and ransomed him for 100 crowns.

[GM: The Astyanath noble did accomplish his mission through, which was to investigate the same ruins, and the party was obliging enough to take him along with them, so he was able to determine, and report back, that there was nothing there after all]

The Party then returned to FoFV. Draco decided he wanted to take Mimic's body to the spawning pits as a tribute to his friend, and after accidently dropping 10 crowns at the feet of Captain Argonnes, received permission.*

After a brief delay caused by the Captain deciding to send a report along, (and Messanda and Kas enjoying a tete-a-tete farewell,) the party set out.

[GM's interlude: I then had to draw up a quick map through parts of the 5th level so that the party could reach there. For my purposes I specified there was a House Spawning pit at Sturrach's Hold. I'm not sure if their is supposed to be one there or not, but in my campaign, there is now.]

The journey was relatively un-eventful. The only encounter that might have gioven the party a run for their money consisted of a group of mercenaries, mostly artificers, that would have been glad to attack the party, but knew they couldn't catch them, so didn't bother trying to attack.

Then the party encountered a brand new Damned Soul, which they took along with them, and after a rather prolonged discussion at Sturrach's Hold, decided to present as a gift to Duke Vandor (the person Captain Argonnes had instructed them to deliver his message too.).

Two other non-hostile demonic groups were encountered, but neither showed any intrest in interfering with the Party, and the Party decided not to try and push the issue with either group.

And so, after an uneventful 4 week journey, the Party arrived at Sturrach's Hold, where the message was delivered, Kas found another Malcubi girlfriend, and it suddenly dawned on the party that Argonnes had only provided them (as requested) with enough iliaster for a one way trip. To buy iliaster for the trip back would cost them 56 crowns, which the party no longer had, having spent the bounty from their ransoming on frills and assorted knick-knacks.

And thus it was, that on a cool morning in Hell, the three adventurers presented themselves to Lord Vandor's headquarters and asked:
"Have any missions we can do?"

................................................................................................

* "What, me try and bribe an officer of House Sturrach? Never! Honestly, Captain, it was sheer co-incidence that my purse developed a hole in it at that particular instant!"

 

[Mikeydanuke]

.....................................HOUSE STURRACH.................................

[ It was a long session.....]

PART 1: The Battle of the Stairway

The evening's adventure began with the Player's Party receiving a simple mission to investigate why communications had been lost with a remote milling site that Lord Vandros owned part intrest in. The party's numbers were supplemented by two House Hulks (Lvl 4's), and Kas had brought along his current girlfriend, a malcubi named Solune (lvl 4). The party had also been given enough iliaster to carry them through the 12 days journey that would be required for a round trip.

The first few days had progressed uneventfully, but while resting one night the party (7 strong) was attacked by a group of Warghosts, also 7 strong. The ensuring fight went fairly well for the party, except for the point when one of the NPC Hulk's rolled a 1 on an attack, stumbled, and fell at the feet of the Warghosts. He never stood up, and the first casualty of the evening was down!

After resting and recovering from a few minor wounds, the party prceeded on, and arrived at the Mill the next day.

Nothing moved. Dead bodies littered the ground. A ruined tenament building smoldered.

The party sent Bathin, their stalker, in to investigate. He could not discern anything in particular, through he heard the sound of murmurring coming from some of the buildings, but on looking inside, could not see anything alive. He did note that the bodies appeared to have been torn apart by other demons, not slain by mortal Knights of the HArrowing as had been suspected.

On receiving his report, the party proceeded down to the mill to investigate. Several trap doors had been noted in the buildings, and the party desicded to investigate the one under the Barracks. They got lucky in that they selected the untrapped trap door. They got unlucky in that they selected the "Basement" that had the largest group of hostiles at the facility.

They lifted up the trapdoor, and proceeded down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Kas and Solune found themselves facing a big group of Fiends and Hulks, who promptly, and wordlessly, attacked.

In proceeding down the stairs, Kas and Solune had gone first, followed by Draco (fiend) and Ganthor (Huge Hulk) and Hulk#2 (huge Hulk). The stairway was narrow, and the huge hulks could only move through it, and the door ways, with great difficulty. This made retreat difficult for anyone trying to squeeze past them. The BAttle of the Stairway began!

Kas initially did well, fighting the fiends and a hulk that was attacking him also, but in trying to back up to make room, a gap was opened up between him and Draco, into which the opposing fiends poured, thereby getting more attacks in.

[Basically, I needed to roll a 20 to score a hit on Kas, the more attackers I could get in on him, the more 20's I got..]

The Battle of the Stairway was a long one,m and Kas began to take damage. In desperation, Ganthor knocked down the side wall of the stairway, but all that accomplished was to allow more enemy hulks to get into the fray. Kas and Draco were still trapped on the stairway, blocked by Ganthor, with Fiends and Hulks clawing and biting them for all they were worth.

[In one memorial turn, out of 3 attacks on Draco, 2 were natural 20's, causing him to be breached. By now Kas was in serious trouble too, through he still had a few hit points left.]

Finally the party retreated up the stairs, and now it was the opposing fiends and hulks who were trying to attack through a narrow opening. Without being able to use their numbers, the opposition was soon dispatched with little difficulty.

The party had suffered some considerable damage in the fight. A decision was made to head back for a nearby village to purchase some iliaster, and then to return.

[At which point, a real life provision run was made, various pit stops taken care, the dog got walked, etc, etc...]

 

[Mikeydanuke]

........................HOUSE STURRACH.......................................

Part 2: The Death of Bathin

The party ahd returned to the Mill site and entered the barrack basement where the BAttle of the Stairway had taken place. There were only 2 doors there, one small one, and one huge one. Given the inability of the Huge Hulks to even squeeze into the samll doorway, the party decided to go whereever the huge doors led.

Into a passageway 20' wide, 10' tall. Passable for the two huge hulks.

They proceeded down. Bathin was scouting ahead. He came to another huge door and went up to investigate. As he moved forward (Silently) his foot caught on a jagged piece of metal lying on the floor that was kicked forward, and banged into the door with a ringing sound.

[GM's interlude: I rolled a 1 for his Move Silently attempt....]

"Go on!" shouted Draco, and Bathin obediently did so, pushing trhough the doors, and right into the charge of 9 slavers.

Because the slavers had heard the bang of the metal on the door, they had moved towards it, and won the initiative, so Bathin found himself fighting alone for a brief moment, before Kas moved up to help. The Hulks were trying to manuever forward, but the slavers had caught them before they could fully enter the room, and consequently they did not have room to deploy.

Kas and Bathin were quickly in trouble. A couple of lucky 20's (one of the slavers was high enough to actually be able to hit Kas without needing a 20) and a few other hits and Kas's player was muttering about having to roll up a new character. Bathin was in even more trouble, because of the layout of the room, there was more open space on his side, and the slavers curled around his flank.

Bathin died after a flurry of hits (didn't need a 20 to hit him) opened up a -8 breach in him, followed by the next round to a -12. His sacrifice allowed Draco and the two hulks to enter the room, but in trying to move to engage the slavers, one of the hulks misjudged his velocity and distance to be traveled, and ran into a wall. Nonetheless, with the two huge hulks in the room, and several of the slavers dead, the fight was soon over.

The party exited from the basements to recover. To their surprise, there was a small caravan of guards and labour spawns in front of the mill. After eyeing them carefully, the party determined they were from House Sturrach and went forward to meet them, and to see what they knew.

Which wasn't very much. The caravan was making it's usually routine stop at the mill to pick up barrels of iliaster, and had found dead hellkin everywhere, and the ruins of the tenament. They had no idea what was going on either, and had sent a fiend back to report.

[At which pioint, being fairly late, we called in a night, and will resume the adventure next week...]

Toodles all.

 

[Mikeydanuke]

...........................HOUSE STURRACH........................................

Mondays session ran a bit late, and invovled 2 somewhat large battle. The first one was against 10 Hulks, similiar to the previously encountered demons at the facility. No serious damage was done and the party just had to spend some iliaster recovering wounds. And some time healing.

[GM's Interlude: The time healing presented a problem. Since a fiend had been sent back to Sturrachs hold the previous week, I had to make allowances for the fact that re-inforcements (another investigating party) might be sent. While the party slept, the second party of investigators arrived. I now had to keep track of two parties, randomly rolling to see which direction the 2nd party went..]

Proceeding on down a narrow passageway, the Player's party came to another room filled with Hulks. Confident in their ability to handle mere hulks, the party charged forward, Kas, with the highest AC, the beast in the lead. Draco (fiend) was following him (2nd highest AC) with the two huge hulks behind them, and finding it very difficult to squeeze through the narrow passageway.

Kas was immediately hit, and hit hard. After taking damage for two turns he called for a retreat, which immeduiately ran into problems, what with the anrrow passageway. The deranged hulks were only large (except for 1), and could fit through the 10' wide passageway. The Player's party hulks were huge, and didn't.

Kas contiued to take damage, and was in serious difficulty, when GAnthor, the player huge hulk behind him, tripped and fell. This had the advantage of giving Kas a chance to escape (climbing over Ganthor's body) but then left Ganthor facing the enemy hulks. They could hitm him, and he started to take damage. Fortuneately, he had a lot of hit points.

Finally, there was only Ganthor, and the huge enemy hulk facing each other. The enemy hulk had a lot of HP's...

Second or third swing, Ganthor got a critical hit, he did 91 pts of damage (record for this game), and the hallway was clear.

The next room had some beasts, a deceiver, a malcubi, and an Artificer. They rpresented no real challange to the party, who walked away with some material found in the room, particularly a notebook, that Draco tried to read.

On the way out, the party found a stack of slaver and stalker bodies in front of a small passageway (5' wide) that hadn't been there when they went by earlier. They decided to investigate, and leaving the two huge hulks behind, Draco, Kas, and Solune entered.

They emerged into a huge debris filled room, and found themselves face to face with 3 House Sturrach Fiends, with leveled rifles pointing at them................................

(at which point I knew I had to perfect a Sturrach House FAction write up I had been putting off for over a week, ever since I realized I had gotten my House Sturrach and House Astyanath plot lines confused....)

 

[Mikeydanuke]

...................................HOUSE STURRACH..................................

[GM INTERLUDE]


HOUSE STURRACH: Factions and Powers

House Sturrach is currently ruled by Blackwing (Bk 3). He is ably assisted by 6 Ministers (rank equivalent to Grand Dukes, these are:
.....Minister of War, in charge of fielding troops to the 3 Sturrach armies currently in the field
....Minister of the Interior, in charge of Iliaster production, shipment, taxes, tithes, roads, etc
.....Minister of Sorcery, in charge of Technological and magical fields of expertise
.....Minister of Defense, in charge of placement of fortresses, keeps, etc,
.....Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of treaties and dealings with other houses
.....Minister of Justice, in charge of Spies, and catching spies....

The Minister of Sorcery is currently slplit into two sub-ministries, Sorcery and echnology, each of which considers the "other" branch to be the true enemy. The Sorcery favors the old time magics, while the Technologists are trying to emulate the Zethu and create bio-mechanical type troops for House Sturrach.

The Ministry of War is in charge of supporting 3 armies:
.....Army of Slaughter, which is currently besieging Dis, and accounts for 70% of the troops House Sturrach fields
.....Army of Toil. (at the start of my campaign I did not want to deal with an active war, so I stressed that House Oblurott and House Stuirrach were not Technically at war, but were involved in low level border skirmishing.) Maintained of the 4th Circle, accounts for 20% of House Sturrach forces.
.....Army of Punisment, on the 5th Circle, charged with finding and destroying the Knights of Harrowing, accounts for a meaqger 10% of House Sturrach Forces.

(Sad to say, House Sturrach fortunes have fallen so low, that it is all they can do to support these forces, and cannot field more without crippling their own economy. None of the armies are really strong enough to win decisively in any of their areas through. at least, not at this time)

But the true powers behind control of House Sturrach lay in the major factions or parties that vie for control of the forces and resources the house possesses. These are:

THE ANTI-HERETICAL PARTY (AHP) led by Grand Duke Macrogh (Bk3) and enjoying the support of Blackwing. This party is dedicated to destroying the city of Dis, and other "free" cities. It is the strongest of the parties accounting for some 44% of the Grand Dukes of the House.

THE WAR PARTY (WP) led by Grand Duke Zarov (bk3), desires nothing more than to relive the glories days of the Bloody Army. Most of the strength of this party is located on the 4th circle, and is engaged in border warfare primarily with House Oblurott. Vicount Saggeroth, lord of the Fortress of Fangs of Victory, is a member of the war party. The WP is supported by about 28% of the Grand Dukes of House Sturrach

THE ALLIANCE PARTY (AP) led by Grand Duke Icewit (a deceiver) is trying to build allainces with other houses to build up House Sturrach's strength before engaging in warfare with other houses (allied or not).
The AP controls a mere 17% of the Gfrand Dukes of the House.

THE ANTI-MORTAL PARTY (AMP) led by Muckwing (22nd lvl fiend) considers the Knights of Harrowing to be the main threat against House Sturrach, and is trying to mount a major effort to find and destroy the Knights lairs. The party enjoys only a paltry 11% support of the various Grand Dukes.

There are some other individuals that I have had to generate character sheets for, but because I do not wish to state exactly what faction they support (for the main storyline purposes), I'll have to hold off on that for a while.

Toodles

MDN

 

[Mikeydanuke]

............................HOUSE STURRACH........................................
................THE BATTLE OF THE GREY HILLS..............................

( "After eyeing each other carefully the two groups advanced and talked. The three fiends said they had been sent by en last we lwft our intrepid adventurers, three of them had just squeezed through a narrow passageway and found themselves facing 3 rifle armed fiends...")

The three fiends were from House Sturrach and said they had been sent by Earl Angrialias (Department of Technology, Ministry of Sorcery) and were part of a larger party that was on the way there. The players party admitted they had been sent by Earl Vandross (Ministry of the Interior) and had been investigating the destruction inside the mill facility. The two parties combined forces and the the players party escorted them through the parts of the facility they had already cleared. Then after exchanging observations, the two parties went their seperate ways. The players party returned to Sturrach's Hold and made their report.

(Forgetting to mention any reference to the notebook that they had all probably seen Solune take from the room where the dead Artificer was...)

They were then informed that the next day or so, Saggeroth, Viscount of House Sturrach, Lord of the Fortress of Fangs of Victory, would be returning to the 4th Circle with a fresh draft of some 700 brand new demons, and that the player's party would accompany him back.

[GM's interlude: It had been decided at a meeting of the War Party, that something needed to be done about expanding the House's holdings on the 4th circle, with that in mind, a plan had been developed for dealing with some of the minor "bandit" lords on the 4th circle, Lord Drica in particular, the plan would be put into effect upon Lord Saggeroth's return]

The group set out the next day. It consisted of some 30 Labour Spawns adn Wagon, 200 Slavers, and 65 (each) of Artificers, Beasts, Deceivers, Fiends, Imps, Hulks, Malcubi, Stalkers, all level 1 demons, and an additional 20 or so lvl 2 - 5 demons, plus the party, and Lord Saggeroth himslef, a 15th lvl demon.

The return trip went well for the first week, then ran into a party of Oblurett stalkers the second week. The Oblurett saw the Sturrachs first, and avoided them. I rolled to see what they would do next, and they followed the Sturrach party.

Then two days later I rolled another encounter with House Oblurott.

It seemed obvious to me that House Oblurett had decided to try and ambush Lord Saggeroth while he was away from his Fortress, and they were not intimidated by a large force of lvl 1 demons. They had sent out a force of Light Cavalry (borrowed from Bk 3...I made them lvl 4 Oblurott demon cavalry instead of lvl 5's per the book).

.............................The Battle of the Grey Hills.................................
The Oblurott cavalry advanced over the crest of a low ridge. They were divided into 5 groups of 40 each. To meet them, Saggeroth deployed his forces into a line, from left to right, Malcubi, Imps, Hulks, Slavers (100) and Fiends, with the Beasts and Stalkers protecting the sides of the caravan, and the Artificers and Deceivers bringing up the rear. Lord Saggeroth was with his guards in the middle of the caravan.

The Malcubi, Fiends, and Imps opened up a missile fire that inflicted a few casualties on the enemy, but with lowered lances the Oblurott chraged home. The Imps avoided the confrontration entirely by taking to the air. This "freed" up one of the cavalry units, and they swung into the flanks of the Malcubi, who were already being chraged frontally.

The malcubi rolled badly and got slaughtered. The Hulks halted the Oblurott, as did the Slavers. The Fiends made an attempt to halt the Oblurott and got decimated. Next turn they, and the surviving Malcubi took wing.

The Beasts moved up to replace the Fiends, and the Stalkers moved up to replace the Malcubi. Saggeroth ordered the Artificers and Deceivers forward also.

The next round was indecisive, except for the Stalkers, who were hit by the Cavalry units that had routed the Malcubi's, and were hurt badly too. The Hulks and Slavers were holding their own.

The two Oblurott cavalry units, fresh from routing the Malcubi and Stalekrs, now charged the Artifcers and Deceivers. About this time, the Imps, flying above the caravan, caught sight of the Oblurott Stalkers apporaching from the rear, and alerted Lord Saggeroth. He led his guards to meet them.

The Deceivers rolled badly, and were routed. But the Artificers (surprisingly) rolled well, and heaped up dead cavalry men in front of them. The survivors of that unit routed. The cavalry fighting the Slavers finally broke.

With Oblurott cavalry finally starting to peel off, the Sturrach groups were able to concentrate and eventually defeat the Oblurott. Lord Saggeroth and party met the Stalkers, and through the fight went on for a few rounds, finally routed them.

(I then had the party members roll to see if they were part of the Dead from the group they were with, but they all turned out to be part of the living. I also gave them a chance to see if their fighting abilities had been noticed, but they all failed that. I had also given the Stalkers a chance to have killed Saggeroth, but they failed that.)

House Sturrach had lost ~300 (lvl 1) demons, House Oblurott about 100 (lvl 4s) and 30 (lvl 1s). With the way cleared, the now diminished Sturrach Force proceeded on, safely to the Fortress of Fangs of Victory.

 

[Mikeydanuke]

Hi All!

Just couldn't help noticing, that when I logged on today, that the number of reads for "A Hell of a Campaign" was at 666.

Seemed kinda apropo...

Toodles

MDN

 

[Mikeydanuke]

........................HOUSE STURRACH...........................................

--------------------GM's INTERLUDE--------------------------------

Various complications with schedules, work, football practices, etc., have caused the House Astyanath Party to miss several weeks worth of adventuring. This situation may not be able to be corrcted until January of next year. Reality sucks sometimes.

In the meantime....................

Many weeks ago, on the spur of the moment, I needed to come up with an adventure for the House Sturrach party, and I didn't have one prepared, so I hurried drew upon my limited knowledge of the 3 source books for Infernum, and remembered reading soemthing about "The Red Mists", so I sent them on their way to investigate loss of communication with a village that I figured would have been hit by the Red Mist.

After I had a chance to sit down and read a little about the Red Mists, I realized my original intention wasn't going to work. (i.e. a village full of insane demons intent on killing anything that got in their claws). However, mention was made of experiments being conducted in trying to make Red Mists into a weapon of war, so, borrowing heavily from movies like "Resident Evil", "28 days", "Dawn of the Dead", and the Game/movie "Doom", I postulated a secret weapons experimentation facility where an accident occurred, and anyone infected with the "experiment" turned into a slavering brainless 'hungry' demon that would auto attack any demons not so infected.

The adventure went fairly well, though none of the House Sturrach party members noticed the similarities until after I pointed them out to them.

The it was time to return to Circle 4. I was redy for House Sturrach to begin a major effort to expand their holdings on that circle, and the first order of business would be to attend to "Lord Drica" a bandit chieftan on that circle of some strength. I was going to present the party with orders to try and captured him, so that he could be forced into a covenant with Argonees, all in secret, until such time as Sturrach was ready to make it's major effort.

Buit Viscount Saggeroths adventures, and losses, on the way back may have upset that plan a little. Even more importantly.....

Prior to rolling up the two Oblurott encounters (which I determined meant the Oblurotts were trying to ambush Saggeroth), I had also rolled up an encounter with some mortals. I didn't see how a party of mortals would be interested in attacking a body of 700+ demons, so, since the mortals had seen the Sturrach group first, they were able to avoid the encounter.

But now that I have had a few days to think about it...I am wondering if the mortals might have been part of the ambush attempt also, but having seen the size of the force that they were supposed to help ambush, in conjunction with ther Oblurott's obviously, had had second thoughts and decided that they would get "lost" on the way to rendevousing with the Oblurott's.

The Oblurotts were actually operating quite a ways from their own territory, in fact in Zethu territory, and would have mustered what forces they could (and that the Zethu would have allowed in their own territories) and a band of human mercenaries would be quite probable.

So, the Oblurott attack failed, through they did inflict considerable casualties on House Sturrach.

Upon arriving at the Fortress of Fangs of Victory, the Player's party found their way to The Ravaging Beast, and had a few drinks with Gizmos (Carthenay Imp. He joked that it sounded like their was a spy in their mists.

The next day, Saggeroth pursued his plans to expand Sturrach's holdings at the expense of Lord Drica, and Captain Argonnes dispatched the Player's party, along with a few novice's, to raid Drica's tterritory and bring back a few prisoners. To accomplish this, the party was to swing wide around Drica's holding and come in from a counter-clockwise direction.

Three days later the party ran into a group of mercenaries that were 1) heading towards Drica's territory (25% chance) and 2) very hostile (10% chance). The party succeed in killing the mercenaries, or causing them to run away, and that was where the adevnture ended for that day.

But now I am firmly convinced that there is a spy somewhere in the Sturrachs upper works. After all, Oblurott obviously got the word that Saggeroth was on his way back (not their fault they were unable to muster sufficient force on a short notice to take him out) and possibly they have passed this information on to Lord Drica, who now seems to be mustering his own forces, and what ever mercenaries he can get, for the upcoming clash, and now the "accident" at the research facility looks less like an accident and more like deliberate sabotage.

I will just have to figure out who the spy is working for...the Oblurott's seem the most likely choice, followed by any of the other house, (carthenay being last I would think), but the spy could just as well be a member of House Sturrach. The Anti-Herectical Party would probably love to see the War Party(Saggeroth's party) fall on it's face, while the Technologists support the War Party which would mean the Sorcerers would enjoy them failing, and lastly, any dropping in staute of the war Party, would no doubt mean an increase in the importance of the Anti-mortal party.

...complications....complications....complications......

 

[Mikeydanuke]

............................HOUSE STURRACH...................................

[GM INTERLUDE]

The Group has had some difficulty getting together over the last few weeks, due to personal injuries, work, lack of sleep, and other problems. The campaign has not been abandoned, just put on hold for a spell.

The "breathing space" thus afforded has given me a chance to draw up a few very intricate strategic (1 mile square) maps, and set up a few possible choices for group activities.

The current situation:

Viscount Saggeroth has returned to the Fortress of Fangs of Victory. He has instructions from the masters of the War Party to expand Sturrachs holdings on the 4th circle, but in such a way as to Not draw the attention of any of the other "hostile" houses. He also has come to suspect that there is a spy somewhere in his command structure, but efforts to locate the spy have been unsuccessful.

The Carthenay have revealed plans of the fortress of Lord Drica's manor/fortress to House Sturrach. The plan that the battlemasters of House Sturrach have evolved is for a select group to sneak into Drica's fortress, and capture him, then bind him to a covenant with House Sturrach, but leave him "ostensively" still in command.

However, Saggeroth has taken note that Drica haas been hiring a lot of mercenaries lately, and is concerned about a possible Drica/Oblurott allaince. Currently he is meetings with his senior captains to try and devise a course of action.

1) Send a raid into Lord Drica's territory to draw off his forces while the Player Party tries to sneak in and capture Lord Drica. With the mercenaries Drica has been hiring lately, the forces there could be expected to be strong. The downside is that the Sturrach forces aren't really in a good position to fight a pitched battle with Drica. And if the Oblurott do send forces to help, then Drica's position would turn out to be Very Strong.

2) Send a force (disguised as bandits?) into Oblurott territory to wreak havoc and destruction, thus drawing off Oblurott forces and possibly preventing reinforcements being available to Drica. Oblurott territories tend to be heavily defended, and there are numerous garrisons of Cavalry that can quickly respond to threats, (Between meals). Then, once Oblurott forces have been drawn off, send a group in to try and capture Lord Drica

3) Send a force to raid Oblurott caravans (going to and from the Minatour Line). This would draw off Oblurott forces also. Initially the Caravan Guards could be expected to be only moderately defended, but once again, there are numerous garrisons that can quickly respond to threats. Once Oblurott forces have been committed, send a group in to try and capture Lord Drica

So, baring any more unfortunate instances, hopefully we will continue the story next Tuesday.

Toodles

Mickeydanuke

 

[Mikeydanuke]

Hi Everyone.

It is with considerable regret that I have to announce the termination of "A Hell of a Campaign".

In the end, a convergence of Schedule changes, new jobs, new schools, geographical re-location, has made it very difficult to get the groups back together again, and in all probability the situation will not change for another 3 months at the very minimum.

Some comments then, on closing:

I like the premise behind Infernum, and found it an originol approach to a gaming world. Through the groups I was GM'ing for only did Demons, the possibility of running a "human" excursion into the Infernum was intriging, and might have ahppened eventually. (I was toying with the idea of a Nazi excursion, or possibly late medieval scottish....)

Running an Infernum game did entail a great deal of work, which I thiought I managed to do quite well, but it was a lot of work. I don't know if some "programmed adventures" could work, but they might make things easier for new GM's.

I suspect maybe one or two of the p[eople that started gaming Infernum, may have dropped out due to possible "religious convictions". I suspect they saw the game as glorifying demonology and did not feel willing to participate. I don't know if this might have an impact on overal game sells or not, but I think it might. My son did make the comment that "There aren't any good guys in this game" but he and his friends did seem to enjoy the sessions we held a great deal.

My plans now?

I am still toying with the idea of going to a convention and running an Infernum game. I have an idea for a scenario that I think would be very enjoyable, but ugly rumors have begun to circulate at my work about new shift re-arrangement and possible schedule changes, so I can't commit to anything right at the moment.

Anyway, for anyone who has been reading this thread, I hope you have enjoyed it, and if you are running your own infernum Game, that it has helped you.

Toodles all

Mikeydanuke

 

[Neo]

shame I enjoyed reading the tales of your games

 

[FallenAngel]

Same here, was always a ton of fun to read about your group's exploitations =)

 

[Jabberwocky]

Well, I'm in the middle of my own preparations for an Infernum campaign, so I find this thread very useful. I like the idea of various warring factions inside a single house, determining its politics.
It's a surprise for me that you just rolled randomly and then accomodated the rolled-up events into the general course of the campaign. My approach is different but this experience is interesting nevertheless.
The only objection to your campaign would be this: it seems from the reading that the campaign was a series of clashes with almost no interaction, roleplaying (save for Kas' lovestory with a few succubi) or mystery-solving. But that can be only my impression.

Thanks for sharing the details of your campaign. I'll certainly use some elements in my sessions (Carthenay lawyers arguing over the exact meaning of the word "it" are absolutely hilarious ) Oh yes, and I liked Bronco Billay very much