>>23386536
It started, the DM now laments to remember, in a tavern. The city of Springholm – a huge, bustling metropolis – was abuzz, adventurers pouring in and out of the main gates. A Spot check later had us noticing that those coming into the city were looking far wealthier than those going out, decked out in finery of all kinds – fancy clothes, magic items everywhere, some even carrying mundane stuff just made out of precious metals. One of the party, wanting to get in on the loot, stopped a passerby who was all too happy to explain.

A local lord, Forsythe Lachrymord, had passed away with no apparent heir – his only son had long since denounced his noble title and disappeared. Without an heir nor even any relatives to claim his belongings, the adventurers of Springholm were descending on the nearby Lachrymord Manor like vultures, gutting it of anything valuable— before his death, the lord had been a contributor to the city’s museum of unique magic items, leaving behind not only the wealth of a noble but a metric fuckton of enchanted gear. We took that to be our first quest hook and set off for the manor, hoping to scavenge whatever remained by the time we got there.

>>23386559
>The party
We would later come to write extensive backstories for each member of the party – and gain quite a few more members along the way – but going into things, this was our troupe:

File: 1361847719258.png-(56 KB, 84x75, Tenyn.png)

56 KB PNG

>>23386573
>Tenyn
A human cleric of St. Cuthbert born and raised in Springholm, intent on travelling to and studying the Threshold – a massive rip in the fabric of Prime Material, far out to sea. The scholars of the Opal Columns, a city of wizards near Springholm, had chosen the site long ago for their more volatile and destructive experiments – and after a particularly powerful spell, the land was unable to bear the assault, cracking and creating an archipelago of islands known as the Shards. After several years’ further reckless experimentation, a summoning spell meant to pull a powerful demon from the Abyss backfired, a battle ensuing and resulting in a cataclysmic clash of magic both arcane and diabolical – ripping a permanent hole in Prime Material itself. The result was a massive, solid black portal in the middle of the ocean, the Threshold, to which Tenyn had dedicated his life to studying. None entering the Threshold have ever returned – and those who even touch it are subject to any of a thousand magical effects, quite a few of them lethal.

File: 1361847777930.png-(4 KB, 95x82, Calvin.png)

4 KB PNG

>>23386581
>Calvin
A hellbred dread necromancer, once a petty thief before his resurrection. At the time of Lachrymord’s death, he was working at the behest of a group of celestials to carry out the life expected of a hellbred – to do good through characteristically evil arts, holding necromancy up to as moral a code as can be given it.

Adventuring for the wealth to build his phylactery and ascend to lichdom. Though we didn’t know it when we were starting out, Calvin’s player is known for optimizing his characters pretty brutally – he would be the cause of a lot of encounters suddenly cut short by a Charnel Touch or five.

File: 1361847826147.png-(55 KB, 52x66, Faerra.png)

55 KB PNG

>>23386593
>Faerra
A young half-elf ranger (in my previous storytime of a moment from the game, I accidentally labeled her a rogue – sorry, there) recently escaped from her controlling father, the human parent, who – as his wife and daughter seemed to stand still in time while he only got older – grew more and more abusive, eventually imposing near isolation on her. With her newfound freedom and a warped sense of reality, her first foray into adventuring ended in her betrayal and subsequent rape (yes, I know, I have no idea how this flew under the radar) at the hands of a bandit clan. The next night, she returned and slaughtered their whole number.

Now deciding how to go forward, she wandered into Springholm and joined up with the group headed for Lachrymord Manor.

Chaotic evil. Yes, I know.

File: 1361847925585.png-(59 KB, 88x71, Lampen.png)

59 KB PNG

>>23386603
>Lampen ("Lamp")
An aging sorcerer – already past forty at the time of Lachrymord’s death – who grew up as the sole human in an village of elves, sent there as a boy to learn carpentry from the elven masters of the craft. Succumbing to the romantic attentions of one particular elf, he married and sired a daughter, living in relative peace with his family for about a decade until illness took his wife – at which, despairing, he took his daughter and fled elven lands altogether to escape his grief. Barely able to look at her without the pain coming back to him, he left the girl with a friend of his in the Opal Columns, intent on developing his power as a sorcerer and adventuring to build her a comfortable life. It’s been nine years, and he hasn’t been back.

(I’ve told Lamp’s story on /tg/ before; I know the screenshot is floating around somewhere. It's in the thread I linked in the OP, at the moment, along with a story from my DM.)

Those are the most noteworthy, and long-standing, of the initial party. Joining them – but less noteworthy if only because their players left after only a few sessions – are the wizard Schn, the gnomish rogue Philipe, the soldier Laoch, and a ten-year-old girl named Caitlin we sort of just picked up somewhere. She didn’t stick around long.

>>23386629
So off we went, but the passerby had a warning to gives us – not everyone who went into Lachrymord Manor was coming out wealthy, or even better off. One of his own friends had emerged – he shuddered to remember – with his skin flayed clear off his body, prompting the sudden rush of people away from the manor and back into the safety of Springholm, leaving the unfortunate treasure hunter to whatever fate he’d fallen to. With that in mind, we proceeded carefully, fighting off a pair of bandits along the way – two against eight, but hey, it was our first combat encounter and they had a surprise round – until we reached the manor grounds.

Lachrymord Manor was run-down and in ruins, and its surrounding grounds were even more so. Figuring the house would be well looted and cleared out by that point, we started to canvass the grounds for missed items and left-behinds, eight people making a fairly quick sweep of the place – and for our efforts, we got our first piece of what could only be magic loot: an expensive-looking box labeled "House Lachrymord’s Brightbolts," left behind by a fleeing looter.

File: 1361848047577.jpg-(11 KB, 250x250, shepard.jpg)

11 KB JPG

>>23386645
We upended the box and found what you’d expect from the label; a full quiver’s worth of enchanted arrows came tumbling out. Being a level 1 party, we didn’t have an easy means of Identify on hand, so Faerra fired one off into the sky – it promptly flew out of sight, only to completely bury itself in the ground on returning earthwards.

>Me: “Extra range, looks like?”
>Faerra’s player: “I can use these.”
>Tenyn’s player: “I take the box. On to the manor?”
>Me: “Sure.”

We didn’t realize for another three fucking sessions that we’d upended the box. We took a fancy crate and left a pile of twenty-nine goddamn magic arrows sitting in the dirt.

This is among the less grievous mistakes we've made.

>>23386665

Your GM sounds like a shithead who rules-lawyers your sessions into dust.

File: 1361848357981.jpg-(52 KB, 349x273, puzzlebox.jpg)

52 KB JPG

>>23386699
And you sound like a judgmental asshole.

This started, at any rate, what would eventually become Tenyn’s collection of magic item boxes. He carried around at least six or seven of them by the end of the campaign, all inside each other Russian-doll-style.

File: 1361848490684.gif-(2 KB, 89x80, Algeric.gif)

2 KB GIF

>>23386728
Lounging on a tree branch in front of the door, however, was this guy. Algeric. We assumed him to be one of the looters, equipped as he was with a fancifully engraved shield and broadsword, but he denied even knowing what the commotion around Lachrymord Manor was about. Suspicious – and already aware that something in or near the manor had killed a man – Faerra fired off an arrow at him.

If that arrow had hit, the entire campaign would have gone in a very different direction.

Fortunately for Faerra, it zipped harmlessly toward his shield and clanged off the metal, producing a pout from Algeric, who – up to that point – had been chuckling and smiling to himself incessantly like a Cheshire cat, claiming the party and our questions to be “amusing.” With a dramatic sigh, he declared he saw where he wasn’t wanted, and gave the half-elf a simple metal ring, saying that he would “be watching.”

>”Why?”
>”Because you’re interesting.”
>still wearing a shit-eating grin

Thoroughly weirded out and a little suspicious, we watched him slink off (“HE’S A DRAGON, GUYS,” I was certain), then detected magic on the ring as soon as he was gone. Yep, that thing was magic – Divination, as far as Lamp could figure out, which meant he literally WOULD be watching us.

>>23386750
So, uh, is anyone reading except >>23386699 this guy?...

>>23386777
Yes.

>>23386777
im here keep goin
i got comfy...

File: 1361848809205.png-(230 KB, 1432x1416, Tenyn fsjal.png)

230 KB PNG

>>23386777
>>23386793
>>23386798
Carrying on, then.

Filled with questions but unwilling to just leave behind something that we might be able to sell for a pretty penny, Faerra took the ring and we made our way inside, only to be greeted by an absolutely ruined and emptied Lachrymord Manor.
We’d been RPing together for a while at this point— Lamp’s mission, in those days, was to get Faerra to not be QUITE so huge a bitch (read: impossible), and the Lachrymord Manor arc was just about the only interaction they got before, well, Calvin got fed up with her and killed her.

Yeah. That was a fun session, in as loose and sarcastic definition of the word “fun” as can be applied to the word. The getting her to not-be-a-huge-bitch part didn't work out so well. Any attempts at redeeming her ended in her declaring that She Was A Monster and that was that, but that didn’t stop him from being a bit fond of her. If nothing else, a half-elf girl his daughter’s age being around sort of compelled him to default back into the Dad role.

>>23386728
Eh, s'a fair assessment, it was literally my first campaign too and I had no idea what the hell I was doin'. Uh, DM here.

Got a little better, I think.

>>23386777
Please continue good sir.

File: 1361848960945.png-(129 KB, 512x512, godsymbol.png)

129 KB PNG

>>23386813
At any rate, Lord Lachrymord himself, it turned out, had risen as an undead, and Faerra declared it the group’s responsibility to help him find rest. We accomplished this by retrieving his dead wife’s wedding ring to reunite their ghosts, and he zapped his whole mansion – along with his resurrected wife – into the Astral Plane. That in itself wasn’t the difficult part, seeing as everything we needed to solve the puzzle was inside the mansion itself. After collecting quite a bit of magic swag from the grateful lovers’ spirits, we returned to Prime Material and set about figuring out what to do next.

Instead of a new dungeon to go and conquer, however, we came back to a faceful of Algeric.

Algeric, as it turned out, had in fact been in watching the whole time through that ring— and was the servant of a water goddess aptly named Sea. By that point, we had been introduced to several others like him— Calovon, Riranuche, and Taumnion, the fire, wind, and earth emissaries, respectfully, all of whom were just about as vaguely cryptic and all throwing rings at us like everyone was getting married. The only helpful one in particular was Taumnion, who explained why the group had caught their eye:

The ancient elemental gods of water, air, earth, and fire – Sea, Aer, Urd, and Hët, in order – were weakening in power, rapidly losing worshippers to an over-deity claiming to be the one, true god: Omnis. Apparently, we’d proven ourselves to be trustworthy enough to catch the dying gods’ notice, and they were coming to us as their last hope – to be their mortal champions.

File: 1361849065509.png-(54 KB, 795x572, emissarywdesc.png)

54 KB PNG

>>23386849
The task set before us, a ragtag group of – at that point level 3 – adventurers, was simple: restore the Four to power, and, if possible, get them an audience with Omnis to determine if he was even aware of the repercussions of his rise to godhood. After some deliberating, we agreed to help (because there was no way this could at all be dangerous), and specific party members became the champions of specifics gods.

The first was Faerra, who championed Hët, but thaaaat didn’t turn out so well for either of them. We travelled to Hët’s extraplanar realm so she could take Hëtsgift – a magical mark on her palm that would identify her as his champion – and were summarily hit in the face with the realization that, even though they were fading, these entities were still –gods-. Calovon took us before Hët himself, and we were promptly dwarfed by a giant figure composed of flame, the only physical thing about his person a dragon’s skull where his head ought to be. Laying claim to Faerra’s soul, he gave her his Gift and promptly shoved us out the door again, apparently loath to collaborate with mortals. “Vindictive” and “petty” are laying it on a bit thin.

File: 1361849415934.png-(60 KB, 200x78, Almainy-1.png)

60 KB PNG

>>23386867
specific*, rather.

Oh, before I go on, I should definitely mention this guy. Almain. Omnis’s high priest in Springholm – for the servant of a god who was supposedly killing off the rest of his pantheon, he was remarkably good-natured and pretty much the best bro we could ask for, to the point where we couldn’t bear to tell him the reason we were interested in the Omnisian faith to begin with. There’s quite a bit of the story to do with him, as well, especially toward the endgame.

Good NPC. Best friend.

On the right is Marius Lachrymord-- Forsythe's estranged heir. He Hates Everything. Almain was paired against him in an arena match in the Springholm and used it as an opportunity to display Omnis's power-- the kid got his ass handed to him pretty handily. Ashamed and inheritance-less (not that he would have claimed it to begin with, he absolutely DESPISED his family), he wandered for a few years, and ended up working as a privateer and sailing directly into the Threshold.

He came out the other end in an entirely different plane. Namely, the setting of our other ongoing campaign, which I DM. Kicking Marius around the universe has since become something of a running gag.

File: 1361849935716.gif-(4 KB, 200x75, whoarethesedouchebags.gif)

4 KB GIF

>>23386946
Well, he got what he wanted some time later, after Faerra’s death. While Calvin took her skeleton for necromancy purposes – which almost incited Lamp and Tenyn to physical confrontation against him – Hët took her soul and didn’t let go of it.

We picked up two more party members around this time. First was Kyrissan, a water shugenja in the service of Nimué – the primal water goddess before Sea, long since disappeared and missing for millennia, and the second was Theras, an Illumian paladin and warblade out in search of a Knightly Quest™ to undertake. Most of the rest apart from Lamp, Tenyn, Calvin, and Faerra’s player had already dropped from the campaign, so this gave us a nice party size of six people.

Well, closer to ten. There was a bit of a body count by the end. Mostly Faerra’s characters.

Aaat any rate, we met the remaining gods and got their angle on the Omnis situation – Lamp took Urdsgift, Theras took Seasgift, and Faerra’s successor (a kender bard named Ven) took Aersgift. I can go into detail on the individual meetings with each of the gods, if you guys want. Each one had a few sessions of adventuring leading up to it, so they’re each storytimes in their own right.

Each of the gods’ descriptions from the DM, at any rate, are as follows—

File: 1361850000150.png-(43 KB, 480x319, Deitymeeting.png)

43 KB PNG

>>23387053
>Hët
“Ancient god of fire. Violent and sadistic, he takes pleasure in the party's suffering, and amuses himself by attempting to turn them against each other. The party will occasionally notice evidence that he may have something of a softer side - however, he has little patience, and these moments are few and far between.”

>Sea
“Ancient goddess of water. Gentle and kind, except when it comes to Hēt - around him, she becomes impatient, irritable, and imperious. Her mother, Nimue, died long ago, leaving the post to her. At times, she seems somewhat discouraged in her abilities, believing herself to be weaker than her divine compatriots (being the youngest of them all.)”

>Aer
“Ancient goddess of the wind. Seems to alternate between a childish, young form and a regal, dignified older form. Rira's presence seems to draw out the child form more often. Aer is capricious and playful, and will often demand to be entertained before anything productive occurs. Her older form, inversely, is gracious, demure, and polite.”

>Urd
“Ancient god of land. Takes the form of a huge, perfectly spherical boulder. In his dealings with the party, he has exhibited complete honesty, and strives to be directly helpful rather than speak in obscure riddles (like many of the other contacts of the party.) He seems to be the paternal force of the four deities, often being the only one who can calm everybody else down.”

File: 1361850116837.gif-(946 KB, 312x213, nUIEk.gif)

946 KB GIF

>>23387066
So we travelled around to the shrines of each god and collected their Gifts. After that point, things get a bit less linear.

CHOOSE AN ADVENTURE:
>Jesus Christ Everything is Spiders
>The Century Seed
>Dragons, Dragons Everywhere
>The Clusterfuck Opera (with accompanying narrowly-avoided magical apocalypse)
>They Want to Know What My Eyes Taste Like
>Faerra’s Other Characters (Plural)

>>23387095
"The clusterfuck Opera" Please.

>>23387120
Seconding Apocalypse Opera

File: 1361850471407.png-(3.07 MB, 1007x2683, loxosceles.png)

3.07 MB PNG

>>23387095
You know what, for the sake of avoiding repetition, here's Spiders as told by Tenyn's player.

>>23387120
>>23387125
Can do.

>>23387195
Heh, nice story for a guy with a silly name.

While I'm writing, I found the suptg link to Lamp's previous exploits, in case the thread with the screencap 404s.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15875747/

>>23387195

>look up loxosceles
>first result is recluse spiders
>????

>>23387095

>They Want to Know What My Eyes Taste Like

what in fuck

>>23387648
We're not good with the internets. You may (or may not) have noticed that all the emissaries' names are acronyms. Don't worry, we had to be told that too.

>>23387894
Fuck, anagrams, how do I words too.

File: 1361853416777.png-(157 KB, 3252x772, Program_M%26C.png)

157 KB PNG

>>23387359
Alright. This one came pretty late in the game— the Springholm arena had undergone renovation, and was now a theatre featuring the opera “Marcas and Claraina.” It was obvious the DM was well-prepared for whatever was in store; he even created a program for the opera itself, which piqued our interest. Pic related.

It was a famous piece – a centuries-old opera about a human/elf couple, published long before the idea of that kind of union or even half-elves were common. By that point, Elyre (Lamp’s daughter) had joined the party in her father’s place, and she was interested in seeing the show.

Ohhh, we saw the show alright. And got a hefty dose of Springholm’s political intrigue in the process.

Some backstory: Theras was, prior to joining the party, a member of a knightly order – The Order of the Steel, a police force he trained in under the direction of his mentor, an aging knight by the name of Alex. One of Theras’s first assignments under the Steel was to track down an assassin and thief named Gareth, with whom he would clash multiple times over years to come, building a personal feud with the seemingly master criminal at each near-miss and daring escape.

It didn’t end well for the Illumian. Gareth killed Theras some time later, apparently bored of the years-long grudge.

File: 1361853502691.png-(2 KB, 78x73, colossal douchemuffin.png)

2 KB PNG

>>23387966
Fast-forward five or six years, and Theras has long since been resurrected, retired from the service of the Steel and now adventuring with the party. One of the closest in the party to Elyre, he went along to see what the opera business was about – only to discover that Gareth was, in fact, alive.

Funding the opera was a man named Parrenza – a foppish nobleman and wizard from the Opal Columns, who, as far as we could tell, had poured most of his money into the production of the show. Gareth innocently played the part of a government agent, sent by the Governor of Springholm – one Lord Cormorant – to act as his man in all things. Unable to bring proof against Gareth for who he really was in front of Parrenza, Theras left in confusion, determined to get to the bottom of whatever the assassin was planning.

Trusting in Theras, we proceed to split up and monitor the opera – the business side of things, the rehearsals, whatever might give us a clue. As an aside, watching rehearsals gave me one of the most satisfying natural twenties I’ve ever rolled:

>>23387996
Chatlog from watching Claraina’s protector Marcas have their climactic duel; Parrenza himself has stepped onstage to fill in for a missing actor:

>" 'You say you have taken everything from me, blackguard. But as long as I have one thing left to defend, I will stand against you. You lay claim to all I have, but I say this now; I still have my honor... And in its name, I will stop you HERE!' "
> The fellow in white draws a similar rapier, hissing through clenched teeth, " 'Then we have no more use for words, villain. I will speak with my sword, for...' "

>His eyes glaze slightly.

>" 'For...'... line?"

I ask the DM if I can roll a knowledge check on the line.

Natural twenty.

> Elyre draws her rapier and sheds her pack, advancing on Parrenza. "I will speak with my sword, for that is the only language you know; and pray be silenced!"

>He grins, eyes agleam. " 'Then commence the rhetoric of steel!' "

The two proceed to duel in theatrical style, dancing around scenery and using tables and chairs as obstacles. As scripted, Elyre eventually lands the “mortal” blow, taking him to his knees.

>"Hnnngh!" He grunts, falling to his knees. " 'Curse... you... son of... man... but I told you... that you could never take my honor...' "

>... " 'I die... with it...' " He sags.

>" 'And with YOU!' " He lunges one last time, passing his sword between Elyre's arm and body.

>Elyre grunts and staggers as she takes the blow, shoving Parrenza off of her with mock weakness.

>"D-damn you..." She begins limping dramatically offstage.

>"Why couldn't you see? Had we met in a different time... a different place... we could have been comrades..."

>Then, suddenly realizing her character, her face reddens as she adds:

>"Claraina... I will be there soon..."

>>23388031
>She flops down unconscious just as she reaches the edge of the stage.

>Parrenza, groaning, crawls to center stage, and takes hold of the rope, pulling himself up on it and tugging the rope.

>A magically-reproduced sound of a belltower chimes from above.

>Parrenza clutches his chest. " 'May all hear this, and know that today, two fought, and two fell... and that no man won... let all who hear this bell know... the danger... of true... love...' "

>He finally collapses.

>And in the silence, from the stands, the director's voice.

>"FUCKING."

>"SCENE."

File: 1361853720972.png-(2 KB, 84x82, trollgeric.png)

2 KB PNG

>>23388046
Self-indulgent greentext stories aside, Theras, meanwhile, was approached by Gareth – no Parrenza, no Cormorant, just the criminal and the policeman with no pretexts. Picking up the personal grudge right where they left off, he gave the Illumian a broken spear haft bearing the name Alex – his mentor.

I should probably note that the DM had no hand in the creation of Gareth. He just worked with the material he was given, and he did so brilliantly.

One of the pivotal magic items of the game, up to that point, had been the Arcane Nuclei –curious magical artifacts contain staggering degrees of magical power, as you might guess from their name. Each one was an entire wizard’s worth of magic compressed into a single crystal, used in experimentation with the Shards and the Threshold. Though the crystal's surface is suitably firm, breaking an Arcane Nucleus often causes cataclysmic events – among them, in recent history, was the creation of the Threshold itself when several of the crystals exploded violently.

Now, bearing that in mind, what we soon discovered was that the opera featured a scene of a chandelier falling and shattering across the stage dramatically.

Gareth was involved in the fabrication of the chandelier somehow.

Yyyeah, shit was fucked if that thing ever dropped.

>>23388080
that* contain. I can't into words either tonight.

File: 1361853965434.png-(6 KB, 299x276, hetjal.png)

6 KB PNG

>>23388096
More coming shortly. I need to go get dinner. Back in a few!

>>23387880
Theras here, we'll get to this one next, I s'pose

>>23387996
Just to clarify, he didn't retire- that was just a bit of bad writing. To be fair, this was my first campaign and I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing with myself, so his goal was quite literally "Knightly Things."
Since then I've fleshed it out a lot more, and he has an actual reason for getting out of the order for a time; namely his grandfather, Maximillian Draelm, who is the head honcho of the Steel- but all of the details of that are staying quiet in the event that we ever get around to finishing our miniature character-specific endings..

>>23387880
They wanted to know what his eyes tasted like. I don't see the confusion here.

(Back, busily writing more)

>>23388627
Geh. Schoolwork's getting in the way of me writing anything more productive for this tonight. I know multiple players from the campaign and the DM are monitoring the thread, so if they want to pick up the storytime, they're more than welcome.

Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to pick this up another time. Thanks for reading so far, folks.

narratively blueballed

>>23388851
I, personally, would like to see this story brought to completion. Hopefully we can get everyone to chip in their own stories as well.

>>23388960
Seeing as this IS effectively Theras' story, I'll take over from here.

Lemme get my thoughts and notes in order, and I'll pick up where dear Lamp left off.

>>23388988
I await patiently.

File: 1361857998746.gif-(1.54 MB, 315x179, YCzMI.gif)

1.54 MB GIF

>>23388988

>>23388988
A couple seconds was all it took to get the collective gears turning in the party. We hightailed it up to the chandelier, and surprise surprise, there were two (2) nuclei embedded within, obviously rigged to smash as the chandelier did, and those were easily removed. However, higher up, on the chains of the chandelier, there was another one, caught in the mechanisms- Theras, on his tippy-toes had to reach up and pry it free, and as he makes the check the dice came up giving me the dreaded worst possible result.

There was a collective panic attack as we anticipated the world ending on the spot. (The Threshold, for the record, was caused by 5 of them breaking, and we currently had 3.) The chandelier dropped a couple feet, accompanied by a loud *CHUNK*.. and..
Nothing.
Spared, in what could've and by all rights, should've been a TPK, the nucleus embedded in the machinery simply dropped onto a lower tier of glass, making it harder to retrieve, but after some more panic dice, we managed to get it up and to (relative) safety. Feeling that the threat was through for the moment, we turned the nuclei over to the government- but of course, knowing Gareth, the problem was far from solved, and a consensus was reached that we would attend the opera, watching for Gareth in case he got into any more nasty shenanigans on the day of.

>>23389240
A session of shopping for dresses and other finery (as well as some of us decking out our otherwise unwieldly suits of armor with the Called enchantment), and we were ready to attend. Knowing that Cormorant AND Parrenza were somehow both in cahoots with Gareth, but not sure which was the problem, we had Lamp's daughter and Kryissan keep watch on them (read: date) as they sat in the audience and attended.
The rest of the party, however, was set backstage, watching the performers as they came and went, under the veil of an invisibility spell, in case Gareth was deciding to disguise himself as one of the people therein (as the chandelier was still scripted to fall on people, and if anyone was holding a nucleus when it happened, bye-bye Ilaii.) Everything went smoothly, but tensely, with high spot checks being made all around, not so much as a movement either on or behind stage happened without our notice.
One could not help but notice the parallels going on onstage as the play started to draw to a close, midway act three, when a particular blue-armored knight (Captain Mazarell, in the program) was beaten by a swift swordsman (Herris.)
It was then, with minute before the chandelier was going to fall, that Gareth made his play.

>>23389538
Wow, terrible formatting, sorry. Will make sure to space more diligently for next post.

>>23389538
The strange thing about Gareth coming in through the back door was that everyone in the party saw him coming in through the backdoor. With so many people flitting in and out (most everyone was onstage at this point), nobody thought much of the one man just walking in, but to us, we noticed that shit, he is literally just traipsing in here.

A quick check revealed that we were dead wrong.

A couple skill uses later revealed that it wasn't actually Gareth, it was Alex, who had been held in captivity for gods knows how long, under Gareth, meant to distract us, and he had done his job perfectly, because while all eyes were on the disguised knight, that asshole had made his way back up to the chandelier.

Without a moment to spare, everyone bolted up there, Kryissan and Elyre (Lamp's daughter, going to use her name as her name from here on out) excused themselves from their seats and made haste to the rest of the party. In moments, we had assembled atop the swinging instrument, with the rounds until it fell literally able to be counted on both hands.

The real problem was quickly revealed when someone took a swing at Gareth and there was a nasty *crack* noise- a quick inspection revealed he had conspicuous bulges beneath his clothing- nine of them in fact, and a detect magic from waaay in the back had a clusterfuck of colors that screamed "NUCLEUS".

The man had literally strapped them to himself, in full suicide bomber mode.

File: 1361860845414.jpg-(26 KB, 220x293, Squirreth.jpg)

26 KB JPG

>>23389656
In what was one of the single best moments of the campaign, however, Favonius- Calvin's player's current character, had a stroke of genius.

Something to note about the nuclei is that they are HIGHLY unstable. Spells that were cast around them had about a 10% chance to set them off on the spot, and another 20 that the caster's work ended up fizzling harmlessly.

First, he cast Know Fate, allowing to take the dice roll of two that he preferred, actually saving him from a detonation in one case (which, again, would've ended the campaign on the spot.) Then, he cast Baleful Polymorph, which, much to Gareth's distaste, he failed the save for, immediately turning him into a harmless squirrel, his clothes (and the nuclei he held) collapsing around him safely, pic related.

With hardly a moment to spare, everyone grabbed an armful of nuclei and booked it out of the opera house just as the chandelier came plummeting down, taking the caught Squirreth with us.

It was then that Tenyn, for the first and I think only time in the campaign, cast Miracle.

Cuthbert himself figuratively stepped in, taking the nuclei and removing them safely, as well as repairing the cracked one- and keeping it for later use, something that would come back around full circle at the end of the campaign. With the threat of the Nuclei gone, we were free to beat Gareth to a pulp.

But something wasn't right. He just stood there. Didn't fight back, spat at the ground Theras was standing on. It wasn't the climactic confrontation that it should've been- no good assassin (and Gareth was a good one) would be caught, especially considering that he had so often pulled crazy stunts like literally teleporting away from the party before with some magical gear stolen from the rebuilt museum of magical artifacts in Springholme.

File: 1361861663734.jpg-(18 KB, 400x281, lentopls.jpg)

18 KB JPG

>>23389779
Probably worth noting that we turned Gareth back into a human so he could be given a chance.

Laughing that he could never be truly killed, Gareth drew two knives and nearly brought them to his own throat, until K'balt (Faerra's player's current character) stepped in and disarmed him. With nothing else to do, although it was bitter beyond belief, Theras took up his lance and drove it right through Gareth, who fell limp unceremoniusly.
Rain began to gently fall.

With everything apparently in the clear, Theras thought to turn Gareth in, and was about to do so, but the tricky assassin had one last ace in his sleeve. From the top of the opera house, a nondescript box opened up, revealing a magically produced second body (there's a spell for it somewhere, can't remember which) of him, in prime condition, with full armnament and everything.

Kryissan and Elyre, who had stayed behind, were the first ones there, starting the fight with him, but it was clear that without help, especially considering the arsenal of magical gear he had on him, it was going to be a very rough fight.

Having been teleported a good distance away from the opera house to conduct their fight, Theras, with only one magical means of transportation, called out his horse, and drew Blackbrand, a magical spear.

About here, I'm going to take a moment to lay out a couple of important notes about the horse and Blackbrand.

File: 1361863251962.jpg-(61 KB, 400x300, swedish-handgun.jpg)

61 KB JPG

>>23389930
Beep beep, don't make me use this gun waiting for you man.

File: 1361863316450.jpg-(153 KB, 656x740, Pegasus_Rising.jpg)

153 KB JPG

>>23389930
>>23390199
Right, sorry. Didn't think anyone was watching, but here's the next chunk.

Argo, Theras' horse, was his gift from the goddess of water, Sea, who he had completed a quest for, involving one particular skeletal pirate captain, who became a minor recurring character (and had a feat of badassery so hard I think it was the best thing I ever did in any of our games to date.)

The thing about Argo is that when he's summoned, he always emerges from a body of water- big or small. Usually, Theras would do so from a waterskin, which would burst open into a full-grown horse. However, on the night of the opera, it was raining, and so all he had to do was literally sit back as Argo materialized under him.

Normally, Argo is just a regular Paladin's mount, but the level before, the DM had allowed me to take a feat that would transform Argo into the form he was during the Pain god fight (see above), during any time that Theras was greatly emotional- which namely, was possessing of both wings and a horn, instead of being just a run-of-the-mill (albeit extremely handy) horse. Pic related, again.

Second manner of business is Blackbrand. After Gareth "gifted" Alex's lance to Theras, we scried on him, and found.. well, darkness. A dark room, to be specific, and heard Gareth talking from somewhere.

There was the glow of metal being heated, and Gareth told the party he was going to "leave Alex a little something to remember him by." After a sudden scuffle, though, there was a hiss and a scream of pain, and it was pretty obvious that Gareth got his "gift" used on him, explaining the burn mark on the face in the Squirreth picture. When we found Alex disguised as Gareth, he had the spear on him, with the handy magic effect of making anyone struck with it unable to escape through magical means.

Gareth was about to be on the business end of it.

>>23390208

Nah, you got lurkers all over the place, man.

>>23390246
everywhere, in fact

>>23390208
It is rude to try and speak over the storyteller, after all.

>>23390257

OH GOD GET THEM OFF ME

Seriously though, storytime must be go.

>>23390267
This.

Sorry, our bad. DM and other players in the Skype call distractin' him.

File: 1361864053359.jpg-(96 KB, 900x675, you wa dead.jpg)

96 KB JPG

>>23390208
With his newly winged mount and a scream for vengeance, Argo shot off towards the opera house, with the rest of the party runing to catch up. Gareth, locked in combat with Elyre and Kryissan, turned, and his grin only widened as he watched the blue-clad knight speed towards him.

Nobody could really say what was going through his head at the time, but Gareth kept right on grinning as he managed to get a shot in at the approaching paladin. It was charged with some sort of nasty magical energy, and did a stagerring hundred and nintey points of damage, something that would've killed anyone on the team but Theras or K'balt outright.
Theras kept riding. Gareth's grin vanished as Blackbrand took him square in the chest.

Charged with righteous fury, the spear literally cut right through Gareth, emerging on the other side, and incinerating him in a big ball of holy fire. Theras, in the single digits of HP, toppled from the saddle of his mount onto the roof of the opera house, exhausted, but more than anything, pleased with himself, having finally ended a conflict spanning years of his life and meaning the near-death of his beloved mentor.

Everyone kept watch for a while as Theras was slowly healed back up to full by the team, and we made our way back down, just in time to catch the very ending of the opera.

Argo, thankfully, stayed in that form for every fight afterwards, something Theras was greatly pleased with.

Everyone was a bit disappointed that I incinerated his loot along with him, but in the end, it was a satisfying conclusion, I think, overall.

>>23390349
And that's the story of the Clusterfuck Opera (and Narrowly Averted Magical Apocalypse.)

Next up, I believe is
>They Want to Know What My Eyes Taste Like
Unless anyone has anything they want to interject with.

>>23390429
Nope. That's the story I wanted to hear next.

File: 1361864775821.jpg-(91 KB, 537x720, piggy cheetos.jpg)

91 KB JPG

>DM again
When I get back to my apartment, I'll probably be able to share any of the other stories, along with certain little tidbits of the campaign that may tickle tg's sensibilities, including but not limited to

>Where are all the goddamn orcs in this campaign
>he has a breath weapon of WHAT
>The Saga of the Gastrognome
>Nass Kaj Lauchaim, Necrobard Extraordinaire

>>23390429
Honestly, that title has me on the edge of my seat already. Lay it on us.

File: 1361865556182.jpg-(6 KB, 126x200, Fazel.jpg)

6 KB JPG

>>23390456
Done. And appropriately enough, this is the story of the aforementioned skeletal pirate.

Unfortunately, before we get to him, we have to go aaaalll the way back to the original idea of the quest. And seeing as there are three instances of the guy in our quest, I'm gonna have to actually take a break in between each one,

If you remember, the whole point of this was to strengthen the dying gods so that they can resist Omnis' influence as he grows stronger. To that end, we were given an item, the Auspice Contract, which could be used to take on little sidequests from the various gods. As the emmisary of Sea and Nimue, both water goddesses, Theras and Kryissan respectively went on one for her, and it went as follows.

First off, we were teleported straight into the cargo hold of a big sailing ship, filled with food and the like. The quest instructions from the contract were pretty vague- help the residents of the domain- so we had no idea what we were getting into. And when we opened that door right into a deck full of chanting, working skeletal pirates, both of us practically flipped shit.

There was the requisite moment of silence between both parties before Theras drew his trusty lance and Kryissan started firing off heals like mad.

>>23390482
All of those, I hope.

Those are in perfect order already.

File: 1361866092380.jpg-(55 KB, 500x377, i dunno lol.jpg)

55 KB JPG

>>23390610
We had chopped his crew down to the last man before the captain stood out in front of us, glaring us down, and, probably our biggest surprise right then was the fact that he didn't immediately attack.

In fact, he stopped to talk.

He asked us why the hell we were cutting down his crew, and, puzzled, we both considered for a moment, having assumed them to be the enemy. It's important to note Theras is a Paladin, and at the time being, was LE, and thus sworn to destroy any nongood undead, etc etc. With a brief break in the combat, Theras took a moment to detect evil, as he should've done, and found nothing came up. Solid CN at worst, looked like.

The captain, Fazel, although a bit annoyed that we relieved him of his crew, insisted they'd be fine after some rest, and proceeded to tell us his purpose- he was hunting down his archnemesis Duolo, a pirate with fabled gemstones for eyes. Being a skeleton himself, Fazel had big chunks of gold as his eyeballs, in fact. Realizing that we were PROBABLY put there to help the guy, we agreed to help Fazel snatch up the eyes of his enemy.

As punishment, though, we had to man the ship.

Theras took to the rigging and Kryissan, despite being a backrow healer with no strength, was put in charge of the vaguely magical ship-motion device; to get the ship going fast, you had to give it a good push. (We really didn't think that through.)

Of course, though, that strength check HAD to have been the roll she got a nat 20 on.

>>23390695
You mean LG?

>>23390704
Hur yeah. Forgive me, it's kinda late. He was LG, eventually became CG, much to the chagrin of our only other LG party member, Tenyn. (at least until K'balt joined.)

Fazel was one of the deciding factors in that; Theras never really knew -why- the code he was following had to be adhered to, and thus once presented with a couple situations in which he found were outside his knowledge for the rules, he gradually came around.

Broke my build for the sake of alignment change, but it was worth it in the end.

>>23390482
>Breath Weapon
> A million times breath weapon

File: 1361866965754.jpg-(14 KB, 400x300, YOU GOT THE TOUCH.jpg)

14 KB JPG

>>23390726
Anyway, with the nat 20, that boat took off like a rocket through the water, going probably faster than it was meant to. Within minutes, we were closing on Duolo's ship. We were pretty quick to close in, and boarded even faster.

Fazel jumped across the decks, engaging the enemy captain himself while we dealt with the lackeys. Things went pretty smooth all around- just more skeletons in the end. Being still fairly low level, after fighting so many enemies, we were getting pretty worn down, though, so the fighting got harder as we trudged on.

Still, emerging victorious in the end, eventually Duolo's ship became a ghost ship in occupants in addition to name, with all the skeletons on it collapsing into piles of bone, save for Fazel alone, just about to deal the final blow to Duolo.

We watched as the captain split the skull of his nemesis with a quick downward slash, the man's head toppling from his bony shoulders and rolling back off of the ship. With a prolonged "NOOOOOOOoooo," Fazel dove off after the gem slipping away from him as we faded from sight, being teleported back out of Sea's plane and onto the Material.

Thus began Fazel's penchant for catching falling gems, something that would come back into play MANY months later, much to the surprise and amusement of our party.

A long time passed until we had time to undertake another auspice quest, and at that time, we agreed it would be better to do it as a team.

File: 1361867463232.jpg-(52 KB, 555x640, Might as well be Kbalt.jpg)

52 KB JPG

>>23390820
Here's the best time to take the first break, and take a headcount of the party- Ven, one of the quickly-mentioned members, the Kender Bard, was phased out (he left on a quest of self-discovery, only to return MUCH later.) in favour of a big, beefy Knight named K'balt, one of the Knights of Wyvernstone.

The guy could literally not be seen save for his huge beard beneath his massive suit of armor, and he had the AC to match.

It quickly became a running gag that whenever Wyvernstone was mentioned, it had to be screamed WYVERNSTOOOOOONE at the top of your lungs, as it was the battlecry of the order.

Hell, he even had a little stone wyvern pet named Wrath, given to him after one quest.
So, at this point, the party stood as follows:
Theras, Kryissan, Tenyn, Lamp, K'balt (new addition), and Calvin.

When we next used the Auspice Contract, and opted for Sea, we were stuck right onto the deck of Fazel's ship once more, and the shenanigans began anew.

>>23390726
Tenyn was a LN cleric of St. Cuthbert, bro. Go to bed after this story.

>>23390929
>>23390899
So nice to see a whole party telling the story without much detail bitching, hahaha.

File: 1361868677840.png-(72 KB, 775x743, gg no re.png)

72 KB PNG

>>23390899
Well, thanks to the wonders of automated moderation, Jupies apparently tried to post banned text and is now banned from /tg/. Shared router means no reset, unfortunately. See you all tomorrow.

>>23391047
Damnit, Modbots! Why must you ruin our storytime! The most sacred of /tg/ events!?

>>23391122
If he can figure out what the fuck the banned phrase was before he or I go to sleep, I'll have the rest of it up. However, since it's arbitrary shit, I wouldn't get your hopes up.

File: 1361870107518.png-(146 KB, 300x300, 1330722715547.png)

146 KB PNG

>>23390899
>>23391135
Hold on to your butts, here comes the slightly revised post. inb4 I get banned.

Alright, well, when we entered Sea's domain once more, we were on Fazel's ship, but another ship was docked alongside us, preparing to board. There was an AWFUL clamour coming from it, the unintelligible screams of many, many lizardmen, all hungry for their favourite food.
Gold.
Like the gold currently in Fazel's skull, serving as his eyes. (Hence the title.)
Although the party (save Kryissan) was lost as to why Theras, of all people, was addressing an undead pirate as 'Captain Fazel,' it quickly came to terms that he was going to be needing their help against the horde of chittering, yelping lizards in the ship opposite.
We decided that we'd get the jump on them.
Fazel, like any good underwater pirate, had cannons all along his ship, loaded and ready to bring to bear on the lizards alongside us. However, K'balt had different ideas.

File: 1361870188705.png-(16 KB, 836x290, K'annonball.png)

16 KB PNG

>>23391190
Although most of the party was against the idea, the stubborn knight loaded himself into a cannon, and with a glorious cry of WYVERNSTOOOOONE was blasted out, and, to everyone's relief, we made a nat 20 on the attack roll, sending him careening straight into the lower deck of the lizards' ship. Pic related.
Following him went Lamp, using a flight spell to 'hover' through the water, and Theras, riding along Argo, who could walk on and through water. (Go figure.) Kryissan rode behind him, and before long, the entire party was engaged in fighting the tumultuous lizards while Calvin's imp familiar and Fazel bombarded the enemy ship with cannonfire.

>>23391190
Remember, if you get trouble with text and modbots, screenshot yon text and post as an image.

>>23391047
I wonder if he posted text that started with a "J" and ended in something that sounds like "Off It".

>>23391227
Original post doesn't seem to have anything that starts with a J. He's currently composing the next textwall as I type.
>Hetty gookmas
Oh, gee, so CAPTCHA can get away with whatever it likes, but banned phrases?

File: 1361871246133.jpg-(53 KB, 350x246, Exalted_2nd_Ed___Elementa(...).jpg)

53 KB JPG

>>23391200
The lizards were quickly silenced as we gave a tremendous group effort to fry, slash or otherwise disable the lot of them. A quick celebration was had by all, especially Fazel, now, who considered himself in our debt. A debt that was not to be collected on until the literal end of the campaign.

Here's a good place to take the second break, and explain exactly WHAT the endgame ended up being.

Omnis, of course, as you readers may have guessed, was NOT benevolent, and turned out to be a plane-hopping demon, who had locked away Algeric, and taken his place; quite convincingly, too. The betrayal at his reveal was a pretty big thing, but I'll leave that big story for another time. His siphoning of the power of the gods ended up giving him control of these massive elemental monsters- four creatures of overwhelming size, all guarding the location of the final battle; a huge tower he built using the help of a fifth god, Med, smack dab in the middle of the Threshold.

When it came down to it, the party needed to bypass the massive things so we could actually get into the tower- and at that point, if you recall from the tale of Lamp, we had the army of Half-dragon godlings at our backs, and they dealt with some of them.

Almain, following us still, and all of Omnis' believers came with him, because we were determined to show them who their 'god' really was, and they took on another colossus.

With Kryissan's Shugenja mentor's help, we controlled the third colossus, the one of water, and used it to fight the others, leaving one more.

Theras, from time to time, as bore sea's mark, had been hearing strange things from his palm. As they neared the colossi, he finally caught an audible portion of what was coming from it; cackling. A mad "yar-ha-har." And then a weight suddenly pressed against him.

Field too fucking long, one more paragraph.

File: 1361871356256.jpg-(19 KB, 300x300, shopoke.jpg)

19 KB JPG

>>23391323
Or just kidding, he says he'll make it the top of the next post. Sorry this is slowing down so hard, all.

File: 1361871732396.jpg-(15 KB, 380x285, grinch.jpg)

15 KB JPG

After much struggling and pulling from the entire party against Theras' seemingly mad palm, Fazel's ship burst from beneath the sea, seamingly pull from it's home plane to assist the party in their fight against the monoliths- and not a moment too soon. I (Jupies) got control of Fazel as we waged war both inside the tower and out.

We fought our way up the tower (something I'll leave to another storytime, as it was a pretty lengthy thing in itself) and engaged the endgame boss with our party standing tall and strong.

Lamp, to note, had a familiar- a white raven, known as Sophocles. A foul-mouthed bird by any measure of the word, which proved to be a problem- during the fight, while Omnis had us all trapped inside forcecubes, Sophocles remained free, and was mouthing at the evil god non-stop.

Summarily pissed off, Omnis turned Sophocles into a white gem with a snap of his fingers, who then rolled off of the side of a tower, while everyone watched, horrified.

The call in skype got pretty quiet about then, because it was really, really miserable. Sophocles was pretty much some of the best comic moments we've had in the whole campaign, including setting the hair of the Elven leader on fire, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Anyway, we're all sitting around pretty bummed- and then I have an idea. A wonderful awful idea.

File: 1361872193581.png-(204 KB, 512x444, FAZEL.png)

204 KB PNG

>>23391368
Being in control of Fazel, given to me by the DM, I had only one thing to say.
>Fazel, noting a glint at the corner of his eye, reaches out and catches a falling gem. "Arrr? What be this here beauty?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxNGMvNIvP8
I swear I could hear this song playing in the back of my mind. It was glorious.

There was a moment to consider what I had just done from the DM, and then he ruled it went through, after a hand from Faerra (who had come back). I reasoned, "why not? Fazel's entire thing is catching falling gems, right?"

For the next couple minutes, I think everyone, myself included, was rolling around in the skype chat, in tears from laughing so hard.

That concludes the story of Fazel the undead pirate captain- and how lizards wanted to taste his eyes.

File: 1361872309956.jpg-(32 KB, 400x300, Sonicwut.jpg)

32 KB JPG

>>23391414

>>23390482
Hey y'allfolks I'm back

these topics are now up for grabs too

>>23391257
>gookmas

Oh my sides

>>23391443
In order, 1 by 1

>>23391443
Orcs!

File: 1361873640498.jpg-(1.56 MB, 2400x1600, tower.jpg)

1.56 MB JPG

>>23390804

so I see this one slipped through the cracks

Back when the party had been hurled into the Shards - an archipelagic set of wilds created from the explosion of a mass of Arcane Nuclei - they had been kind of at a loss for what to do next, given that Loxosceles had kind of wrecked their respective weekends and stranded them on a literal deserted island. Of course, the island was not as deserted as advertised.

An exploration of the island uncovered a vast illusion of a lava lake – below which, in vast caverns, hung the brilliant, chandelier-like cities of the Acos; a group of lizardman-like creatures whose race had literally been created in the surge of arcane power from the explosion that created the Shards. It was an entire civilization that had simply just sprung into being – but, as such, the magics that had created them were volatile enough that they could be destroyed at any moment.

The party was informed that alongside the city, there lay a great tower of trials, at the top of which lay the core of the island’s generation – an orb of raw arcane power that needed containment and restraint. The forces of magic – and, I stressed, chance – surrounding the orb meant that they would face quite a bit of trouble reaching it, but hey. Adventuring party. They can handle a little chance.

File: 1361874489794.jpg-(527 KB, 800x571, dragon_fire2.jpg)

527 KB JPG

>>23391524

After getting to the tower, and dealing with some (hopefully) interesting scenarios involving the reversal of gravity and the realization that the tower went as far down as it did up, they went through a number of bizarre tests to reach the top of the tower. Highlights included one floor requiring them to spectacularly fail at a given task before allowing them to proceed, one floor requiring them to lie to one another, and a floor full of volatile explosives… which the party “solved” by frantically funneling them all through a “Merchant’s Portal” to the group bank account, possibly resulting in the worst day of the teller’s life. With this resolved, the group reached the top of the tower with a giddy sort of confidence, having handily taken care of most of the tower’s challenges thus far.

At this point I reminded them that the magic of the island and the tower had taken on a life of its own. Magic based on chance.

They didn’t seem to have a problem with this, so I continued. The swirling arcana of the orb gradually took shape into a familiar form – a dragon. The party was excited – after all, it was most peoples’ first campaign, and we hadn’t fought a dragon yet. While someone excitedly shuffled through the web SRD, I was asked what color it was.

File: 1361874798147.jpg-(21 KB, 350x350, d20.jpg)

21 KB JPG

>>23391600

I replied, "Black resin."

As I described the monster further, the group's reactions turned from excitement to disbelief.

What I had described as a Dragon of Chance, it soon became clear, was in fact a dice-gon. A hissing behemoth of jagged d8, crackling joints of d10, each polished eye turning to gaze furious 20s upon the intruders.

I recall there was only time for a quick post of "metaaaaa" before it opened its jaws.

File: 1361875629011.jpg-(357 KB, 1600x957, dice.jpg)

357 KB JPG

>>23391619

I can only imagine that the roaring torrent of sharp d4 spraying forth would have qualified as force damage. The onslaught had initially outright killed Lamp before we realized he was standing in a different place; the ignominy of being crushed to death by a roaring mass of d4 was thankfully a fate he was spared.

Each cut and smash lopped more and more arcane dice off it - which could then be rolled in-game for single-use magic attacks, to varying degrees of success.

When finally they had whittled it down to tottering submission, the final blow revealed the core - now revealed to be less spherical, and more dodecahedral. With numbers on it.

It was pretty clear how the fate of the island and the containment was going to be decided.

I believe Tenyn was the one who cast the die in the end; when the light faded, the tower was gone, the group was outside, and the Acos were there to welcome them with magical gifts and expressions of goodwill.

Maybe next time I'll make a beholder made of splatbooks.

And now orcs, then? It isn't so much a story as just... a factoid, but it still might catch your fancy.

So throughout the game, a certain player had continually taken Orcish as a bonus language on his multiple characters as the story gradually progressed and the party travelled.

Grassy plains; no orcs. Metropolitan cities; no orcs. Arid deserts; no orcs. Elven forests; no orcs. Treacherous mountains; no orcs. It got to the point where we reached the end, finished the climactic final boss fight, all had a lovely time, and nobody had encountered a single orc. The player wasn't upset about it or anything, but it was clearly eating at him - after a little bit, he had to ask:

>Where were all the goddamn orcs in this campaign?

To which I replied: "Remember those elven forests?"

File: 1361878173455.jpg-(213 KB, 1024x683, tree orc.jpg)

213 KB JPG

>>23391820

The elven lands in the setting were comprised of a vast miles-tall forest - none of the elven cities were on the ground; rather, strung together between trees in rope-bridge and tree-trunk bound tiered cities, protected from above by a thick canopy of leaves. The purists and nationalists were predictably entrenched in elven racism and superiority, and prided themselves on the lack of outsiders they allowed into the elven cities most of the time.

Now, as it happened, most of the party's excursions into the elven country involved the same little border town where people were a little less Blatantly Racist. And I figured the campaign was over, so I could spoil it.

I wish I could have seen their faces when I told them that the orcs were the most lightfooted, stealthy rangers in the game.

The canopy above, a thick underbrush of green and sunlight, was actually teeming with silent orc tribes - surging through the forest above the elves, unbeknownst to those below.

>"So the High Elf just would walk out onto his balcony, gesture out at the forest, all 'Ah, behold the grace and wonder of the natural home of the elves, surely this serene land is out birthright and claim as the true chosen children of the gods -'"

>"And then a Tree Orc shits on them"

Excuse me while I resurrect this thread.

File: 1361907011379.png-(99 KB, 306x265, Picture 4.png)

99 KB PNG

>>23395199
>mfw I go to sleep at the end of Breath Weapon, and wake up to see the orc story about to begin.

File: 1361908150680.png-(157 KB, 605x594, ElyreRage.png)

157 KB PNG

>>23396316
Sorry to disappoint but that's all there is to the orc story; like the DM said it was more a factoid of where the orcs were all along.

That being said, the prior topics are still up for grabs.

>>23391619
>I recall there was only time for a quick post of "metaaaaa" before it opened its jaws.
I don't know why, but this tickles me for some reason.
And the Necrobard seems interesting. Let's go with that story.

>>23397449

The good news is, this thread is archived on suptg.

Better news would be it continuing to be awesome.

>>23397822
Well, so long as it sticks around long enough for them to get back, there should be no worries about that.

File: 1361912330251.png-(155 KB, 736x1114, hoIZmjY.png)

155 KB PNG

>>23397449
According to the rest of the party, Necrobard was posted in another story-time thread some time ago - here's the screenshot to it.

>>23397920
That's fabulous.
How about the Gastrognome?

>>23397920
DM, that is freaking gold. I want your babies.

File: 1361913149627.png-(13 KB, 282x347, Schoolgirlthrone.png)

13 KB PNG

>>23397969
Well damn, that's the one encounter I was actually absent for. It seems both the DM and Theras/Jupies are absent at the moment, so it might take a bit to get to that one.

Please accept Tenyn the Cleric on a throne of schoolgirls as mild compensation.

>>23398199
...Is there a story to that, or is the Schoolgirl Throne just a joke?

>>23398199
There a story that goes with this one?

>>23398260
>>23398252
I actually have no idea. This was years ago. Someone else in the party might spark our memories when they return, though.

>>23398252
>>23398260

Yea, I'm trying to figure out what caused it but can't remember. I draw some of the amusing parts of the campaign whether they be in or out of character, and all I remember is this one was definitely OOC.

>DM again hi guys how'd you sleep

Lauchaim's brainwashed platoon of zombie dances were usurped from a local bard school, and once they had defeated Lauchaim (by engaging in a dance fight with him, his cronies, and two Funk Dragons with the voice of Barry White), most of the schoolgirls and fellas were brought back to their senses.

They went back outside to set Sudsy free, and he promptly led them to Lauchaim's basement, where all the loot was. Quite a bit of it was excitedly claimed by the rest of the party, to the point where it looked as though Tenyn would be left with no loot at all. When this was pointed out, an acceptable alternative was reached OOC: he could have all the schoolgirls he wanted.

Of course, I'd imagine the reason he looks so grumpy is that doesn't mean a whole lot to a cleric.

>>23398847

*dancers, that should be.

So, what next? There's... other stories, of course. And I've got the animations I made for the endgame of the campaign around too, although they're far from what I would call professional.

>>23398952
EVERYTHING. ALL OF IT.

>>23398952
Well, these haven't been done, I think.
>The Century Seed
>Dragons, Dragons Everywhere
>Faerra’s Other Characters (Plural)
So let's just go down the list, then.

>>23398952
Let's go with the story about the Spiders

>>23399013

Spiders kinda got covered
>>23387195
here, for the most part. As for the Century Seed...

We had reached the final part of the game, literally the interim before the party infiltrates the final dungeon (which turned out to be literally a god itself, but that’s another story), when I found out OOC that the plot had been apparently so demanding and urgent that the players felt they hadn’t had the time or luxury to go investigate sidequests, or indeed, explore much of the world beyond where the main quest demanded they go. This was a little bothersome, so through a favor called in from a past victim of Omnis, I gave them an in-game week to do as they please. And they were maybe level 17 at this point, so you know, what is travel time.

And mother of god. Talk about a week that lasted a year. They packed enough sidequests and character moments into that week that it seemed for a while that the campaign wouldn’t end for another several months. In that time… they did the opera, they took care of Lauchaim, they hunted down an assassin of knights, they met and helped Loxosceles’s wife, they brought a rogue scion to justice, they restored the temple of the setting’s equivalent of the Chinese Zodiac – a whole ton of stuff. The Century Seed was the focus of one of these quests.

Elyre, as was stated, is half-elven. And they hadn’t really gotten a chance to go visit the elven lands up in the northeast corner, so they planned a trip, sure that something questworthy would come up. And, unsurprisingly, there WAS something for them to do there.

File: 1361917222845.png-(2 KB, 81x76, Elodivis.png)

2 KB PNG

>>23399497

I mentioned earlier that the elven lands were essentially a colossal forest, with trees large enough to build cities on and string buildings between on complex pulleys and bridges. Nothing at all on the ground. Everyone seemed to be okay with this, but I noticed, never asked why this was the case.

They appeared in a border village, where the policies on non-elves were a little more lax, but, unfortunately, was hosting an emissary from the central cities – one of the Highers. And it became clear very quickly that this elven elder – Elodivis – was not on their side. Once he found out about Elyre’s mixed heritage, the words out of his mouth literally had almost half the party rolling initiative right then and there. His reason for being there, however, was a little more interesting;

Every hundred years, one of the birthtrees of the elven forest drops a seed. You might be able to gather its name from the title of this story – the Century Seed. This can be used to either plant a new Birthtree, or it can be crushed to give those in the surrounding area great powers. For centuries, the elven council had been systematically collecting these seeds, and destroying them in private – giving their political leaders greater and greater powers with each successful collection. The fact that nobody knew where the seed would drop, however, meant that emissaries like Elodivis had to spread all over the country, to be prepared when the Century Seed finally made its appearance.

Roughly an hour later, one of the Birthtrees suddenly and spontaneously emitted a massive pulse of light and leaves. Three guesses as to what had just happened.

>>23399775

Elodivis immediately began forming a ground party to go and search the grasses for the seed. As a pulsing, magical nexus of arcane power, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to spot.

At this point, Elyre and the rest of the party decided they had had enough of this wrinkly old chucklefuck, and damned if they weren’t going to find it first. The party assembled, and with the help of the wizard who replaced Calvin, they were shortly on the ground and hunting down the seed. They circled the base of the tree – with Elodivis’s party hot on their heels, searching furiously one step behind them. Unfortunately, the noise attracted the attention of some escaped denizens of Hët’s now-collapsing plane… Ash Horrors.

The elven party was beset by a mob of mantis-like, magma-vomiting creatures from the Plane of Fire – a problematic fight, you can probably imagine, to take place at the base of a giant tree. As the party paused, wondering if they should aid the elder or not, someone noticed that their foot was literally going through the grass. There was an uneasy pause before Elyre’s player stated, “I disbelieve the ground.”

>>23400007

Thankfully, the entire forest floor didn’t shimmer and fade – only a wide gap just before the roots of the giant tree, leading down into a strange chamber of stone and moss. With no sight of the Seed aboveground, the party immediately rushed down into the chamber – finding (what else?) a series of traps and puzzles to impede them. As the fray of Ash creatures and elves locked in combat grew closer and closer, most of the party charged down to find their quarry, while Tenyn stayed behind – maintaining a bubble of Repulsion, keeping them from endangering either the group or the tree.

When they reached the bottom of the strange pit, they found a large stone door, with a handprint. Immediately wary of traps, the group checked it, but found no danger. Setting one’s hand in it, however, accomplished nothing either… until Elyre set her hand against the stone.

The door elevated… to reveal a massive abandoned city, laid out before them and strewn with skeletons – the roots of the Birthtree winding and twisting down in a dome over it. (This was one of my favorite moments of the campaign, if only because it seemed to affect my players the most.) They walked through the dead city for a long time – finding collapsed piles of bones, skeletal figures in a position of meditation, skeletons holding each other close. And as one party member found a dessicated old journal, they realized; not all the skeletons were elven.

File: 1361918763052.jpg-(12 KB, 138x200, journal.jpg)

12 KB JPG

>>23400208

Log:

>This journal is largely illegible until near the very end of the page.
> "...will die first. We knew even before the betrayal that our parents would move on to the next world before we did. And yet, I do not grieve. For we, against all the Highers say, are the children, the recipients, and the proof of the truest love, a love that sees nothing else but its reflection in others."
>"We are the ꀆꇐꃓꂰ."
>"We are the 'half-elves' and the 'half-humans'."
>"We are the loved."

File: 1361919382618.jpg-(94 KB, 650x799, ElvenHatred.jpg)

94 KB JPG

>>23400272

The OOC room was silent, for the first time in a long time. The party rose - Elyre heading the party with memories of Lamp crowding her thoughts - and made their way to the end of the city, towards the knotted, jagged walls of the root-dome surrounding the city - moving faster once they saw a telltale flicker of light coming from a strange seed-like object embedded in the roots...

Once they got close enough, however, the wall shifted and groaned - wracking from side to side as they approached, until finally a scowling elven face rose to greet them.

The journal had said that the Highers had sealed this city in with their hate. As it hissed and spat the same words Elodivis had said hours before, it became clear that that was not a metaphor. The colossal creature was a festering manifestation of the fury, hatred and spite of the elves from so long ago - a roiling malignance writhing and seething in the rooted walls ever since.

A successful check revealed that it was indeed the Century Seed lodged in its chest, but from their words I believe they would have gladly fought it even with no reward.

>>23400444

The creature spat magic, flailed, and even split completely from the wall, crushing Elyre under its bulk for a worrying moment, bringing her down into single digits of HP. They whittled it down, though - cutting and jabbing at it, harming it little by little, Elyre most intently of all. In the end, though, it wasn't steel that destroyed it - but an ice spell hurled from the darkness by an unknown assistant. The creature crackled, froze, and shattered - the Seed among the shards of ice on the ground.

As Elyre was helped to her feet, the wall where the Malignance had once rested was aglow with green light; the roots gently shifting to take its place. The city was filled with warmth and light, and when the brightness faded, each skeleton the group had passed was gone; replaced by young, strong saplings, sprouting out of mounds of vibrant green grass now occupying the ancient cobblestones.

With the seed in hand, and the city reclaimed by nature, they made their way outwards - the elven militants and the Ash Horrors driven off by Tenyn's Repulsion. When they found out who their mysterious ally in the darkness below had been, a giddy celebration in OOC stopped the game for a couple minutes.

File: 1361920449682.png-(8 KB, 66x70, lamp-aspect.png)

8 KB PNG

>>23400657

Urd, the god of land, had given one final gift.

Lamp had returned for his daughter.

File: 1361920940748.jpg-(53 KB, 270x240, babybirthtree.jpg)

53 KB JPG

>>23400789

That would be the end of the story, save one minor detail. They asked what could be done with the Seed, now.

I informed them that crushing it would give them, and the rest of the party, 50,000 XP.

Planting it would bring another Birthtree into the world, in enough years' time - the symbol of the elven race. The absence of the trees in the rest of the world was one of the linchpins of the Highers' claims that the other lands were inferior - were one to exist outside their bounds, they could no longer culturally justify their hate to their people. It wouldn't mean anything for likely years, and it wouldn't guarantee peace, but it'd be a step towards harmony and reconciliation.

There now exists one more sapling in the world.

I'm proud and thankful to have the players I have.

>>23400942
I don't think any party would have chosen to take the experience. If not just to stick it to the elves, anyway.
But yeah, you had a good group.

>>23400942

...I guess it's difficult for me to attempt to sound dignified when the story just prior to this was about a throne made of schoolgirls.

But yeah. Hope y'all enjoyed it.

>>23400942
>>23401047
I know some of my group would do it without a second thought. At least, if they weren't playing half-elves, and actually roleplaying correctly.

Oh, and uh, Joop thinks you guys ought to know he's playing the estranged daughter of the necrobard in postgame adventures.

It appears I've opened up a whole new world of undead dance parties.

>>23401376
Do they breakdance fight?

>>23400942
>>23401047
>>23401095
This part was incredibly close to the endgame, by the by. We all knew the end was coming up, and eventually, it came down to this: If we fell in the final battle, we'd still have left a mark on the world.

Fuckin' elves.

>>23401460
I'd have done it just to spite the elves no matter what level I was. Especially if they were as big a bag of dicks as your DM made them.
So, how about Dragons, Dragons Everywhere, and no time at all to think?

>>23401512

I'll be honest, I'm not altogether sure what Lamp was referencing there. Drawback of these goofy-ass titles means we have to ask each other for clarification sometimes, and as far as I know he's off watching Robin Hood at the moment.

>>23401729
Well, any other stories you think would be amusing?

I'm not that picky.

>>23401759
Well, if the Gastrognome party members aren't back yet, there's always Faerra's characters, and their, I'm assuming, short-lived adventures.

>>23401729
I think it might be about the dragon demi-gods from what I've already heard of the story.

File: 1361928109394.png-(2 KB, 94x64, gastro.png)

2 KB PNG

>>23401839

The Gastrognome is, uh... a short-lived quest chain that I think everyone was glad that they didn't pursue.

There was a portion of the game where they were traveling at sea over a long period of time, so lots of naval random encounters.

One such encounter involved them finding a small houseboat... containing two dwarven bodyguards with the same general flair as the Blues Brothers, an inordinate amount of food, and a mysterious fellow known only as... the Gastrognome.

The 280-pound gnome promised great riches and magnificent rewards to the party if they could find and bring to him mysterious/interesting delicacies and edibles from around the world. If I had to compare him to anything, it'd be Mr. Creosote from The Meaning of Life, with a healthy dose of Hedonism-bot. His appearance and dialogue were so, uh, memorable, that despite promptly leaving and wanting nothing more to do with him, he became a long-running joke in the campaign and those that followed.

It's gotten to the point where he's an immortal plane hopper searching through all known universe in search of lunch.

Of course, everyone seemed astonished when, at the end of the campaign, I revealed that the intended climax of the plotline was to realize that he was being controlled by a cursed item - his belt, possessed of a fiendish intelligence and an insatiable desire for snacks - and would have resulted in one of the party members having to resist its savory wiles.

>>23403094
Would be kind of funny if the only way to break it is to eat it.

>>23403094
>that scene in the Meaning of Life

I'm trying to figure out a way to share the final boss animations and the NPC ending video without opening up my youtube account to potential 4channery...

>>23403729
Dropbox?

>>23403729
Convert them to gifs?

>>23403782
This. I always use dropbox

>>23400789
(squee)

Just making sure this thread sticks around long enough.

Awright. Figuring out this dropbox business now.

Including the endgame cutscenes, and a couple pieces of music arranged specifically for the game.

Hymn and Lament are the songs - both rearrangements of X-Ray Dog's "The Sorcerer", which is essentially the theme of the campaign.

To clarify, Omnis's holy symbol is a simple white/gray square, or cube. Hence the OP picture.

Video guide:
Before the battle, Miserere Mei Deus occurs, in which Omnis and Almain finally meet face to face.
Form 1 is the music to the initial battle, vs. Omnis as Algeric.
This follows into False God, in which he consumes the remnants of the other four gods in order to ascend.
He is defeated by the party; upon which, Infinitus.wmv occurs.
When the party finally destroys his final form, the somewhat transparently-titled "omnis death" displays the events to follow.

Ethris Omnis occurred about halfway through the battle, after Almain's death.

Aaaaand Panth credits is essentially an NPC ending video, in which a long scroll details the events that occurred to the important NPCs and cohorts of the campaign - with a stinger at the end involving my next campaign, which is now in full swing.

It'll be completely evident, but just so you know what to expect; I'm not an animator by any means. I just tried to use the tools I had to make good storybits.

Now lemme just figure out how to throw up a link to the dang ol' thing.

File: 1361953969284.jpg-(151 KB, 596x324, Cuube Version 1.jpg)

151 KB JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6lan7lb2hj5uexs/V59QTH44sv

Boop. Hope y'all like them.

I didn't expect everyone to pick up the narrative and take this thread nearly as far as it went.

This group, you guys. Would not trade these folks for anything.

>>23409708
what did you do these in?

>>23409894

You mean like what program? It was mostly with Vegas 9. The hardest part was honestly collating all the friggin' art. I can't do anything beyond all the pixelly Fire Emblem-style things up there, so I had to go to a lot of artist friends for a lot of the material - and even commissioned a couple pieces from other artfolk online. Herding drawfolks is a long - and at times infuriating - process.

>>23409790

M-more stories~?..

>>23409945
We'll get the endgame to you in a moment, since that's pretty much the only set of big moments we haven't covered yet.
Also, I'm back.

>>23410026
Welcome back.
Also, I don't suppose you could provide context for "Dragons, Dragons Everywhere"?

>>23410026

>we'll

>read: we're all squabbling in external chat about who's telling the story this time

PLEASE HOLD TECHNICAL DIFFICLECLECLENINETYNINETYNININETY

>>23410026

Hurray! Your ramdomban has passed!

And this was your guy's first campaign ever, right?

Do any others even hold a candle to this Majestic Masterpiece?..

>>23410047
The one currently being run by Lamp that I'm playing in, actually, is turning out to be pretty fantastic, as well as Pantheon's DM's next-in-line campaign.

Aside from that, I only taken part in one or two other -serious business- RP games, and those fell off quickly. (But weren't great. Maybe as a consequence of not being great?)

>>23410033
Dragonserrywhere is basically the surrounding setting for Loxosceles' story. We spent a good six or seven sessions running on the aforementioned half-dragon demigod race's island. I'll storytime that one in-depth when school releases me from the grips of you-have-a-paper-due-every-day-this-week.

>>23410047
His current campaign promises to. The scale of this thing has gotten so large that the group decided we needed a wiki to keep all our worldbuilding in.

>>23410093
>it needs a worldwiki
Oh, those are always fun.
How about Faerra's characters?

>>23410090

The lack of greatness does have the tendency to lead to the inability to be great.
What is Lamp's campaign about???

>>23410093
Damn mate..
You guys really have created an entire, fantastic world..

ALL FROM YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN EVER.

Masterful work..

File: 1361957785022.png-(6 KB, 291x276, kjalt.png)

6 KB PNG

>>23410103
Those I can fire off quickly. His player definitely got better as time went on -- and his character in our current campaign I'm building respect for -- but they were still... interesting.

>Ven
A kender bard of Krynn (yes, yes) who was deposited on the campaign world by Magical Rift Shenanigans. He sang, danced, had an enchanted mouthpiece that dealt burst damage when he screamed at things, and doted on -- in fact, never used any other weapon than -- his beloved hoopak.

He left the group after we fought the dicedragon to stay with the lizardfolk who were caretakers of that island, but it was mostly OOC-- he was a bit fed up with being treated like a child.

Even though he was playing a kender.

Yeah.

He eventually came back toward the endgame as, of all things, the CONDUCTOR of the fateful performance of Marcas & Claraina.

>K'balt Ironjaw
>>23390899
Yeah, uh, Jupies got him down pretty well. A dwarven defender who didn't take shit from nobody. He took this fella into the endgame, along with his Leadership-granted cohort, a goblin alchemist who -- despite being mute -- used voice-restoring extracts to somehow be chattier than quite a bit of the party. Threw bombs at things and took a similar amount of shit from people as K'balt.

K'balt's character quest turned out pretty nicely, actually. He had a longstanding rivalry with his brother, who was rejected from recruitment into the Knights of Wyvernstone, and had turned to assassinating the knights one by one -- the rest of the order, in turn, took shelter offered by the priesthood of Omnis.

Thaaat complicated things quite a bit, but we talked them onto our side after a while. The whole thing ended in an emotional duel between them, which -- while not one of the first high points of the campaign to be remembered when we look back on it -- I enjoyed reading quite a bit.

>>23410158
While I appreciate the praise I'm not the DM of Pantheon.

His posts in this topic are all anonymous. He doesn't get half the recognition he deserves, frankly.

>>23410191
Oh, doop, I misread that as "you" and not "you guys." Ignore me.

>>23410158
It's a long story, and it's still in progress. For another time and another thread. Short version: dragons abandoned Bahamut and Tiamat in favor of new gods, who widened the rift between Metallics and Chromatics so far that it caused an apocalyptic war.

Society has rebuilt, and now the dragons -- absent for millennia -- are coming back.

I wrote this about a month and a half before Skyrim came out, played the game, and cried internally.

Jesus, how long is this goddamn story?

>>23410222

Oh damn. That's rather good mate..

Welp, stories are always good for other times!

>>23410270

Longer than it has any right to be. I think we got most of the highlights, though.

>>23410300
>>23410270
Yeah, I don't have anything more to add. Sorry if we overstayed our welcome.

>>23410319
>storytellers
>overstaying their welcome
Poppycock.

>>23410330

The edges of our seats have been sat upon so much that the chair has become uncomfortable to sit in any other fashion..