The Second Age - Introduction to the Campaign

Many years have passed since the world of Draegor received its now famous arrivals from another world. For long, much was clouded and secret. But from the tales of Simon the Humble and later from the gods themselves, we know now that the Swords of Drahar were fighting for a better world, a world were the true gods could guide us. Alas they failed, and met their demise in the Church of Kord in what are now the ruins of Drahar.

No one knows for sure what happened then. But word of the original gods about the story of what the Swords fought for spread amongst the general populace, not just in Drahar, but everywhere in the world. Slowly, at first, without attracting too much attention, followers of the original gods became more numerous and the original gods (at this time still exarches) began to amass power. Not all of them understood fully why this was happening, but eventually, even they heard the tale of the Usurper gods, as discovered by the Swords and chronicled by a humble priest of Kord named Simon. They were not pleased, because they started to remember what they once had been, and wanted to be so again.

At some point around 501, the original gods transcended to real gods, and thus began the War of the Gods, 483 years after the Swords died. At first, it was a silent war in the shadows of civilization, a war fought between the faithful. But after only a couple of years, it had become a full-blown, world-spanning war between empires, kingdoms and city-states, but also in the dark corners of the world and in every small village..

The war continued this way for around 14 years, slowly depleting the humanoid resources, and yet, there was no clear advantage to any of the sides. Then somehow, in 515, the real disaster struck. The Ancient Compact was broken, and once again the gods (both new and old) walked the earth again, without restrictions. Without being tempered by the primal spirits who had guarded the world since the Dawn War.

The world was sundered. Cities were destroyed, empires fell, mountain ranges were leveled, seas raised and even the weather was affected. Entire kingdoms worth of people were killed, and it looked as if there would be no one left to worship whoever would win the war.

Fortunately, the war did come to an end. Whatever had kept the primal spirits in check vanished around 521, and suddenly the gods found out what kind of fury and power the World Serpent and the other spirits have. The Usurper gods were all killed, and the original (and new) gods were once again banished from walking the mortal world and sent into the Astral Sea.

So the original gods won. Once again the gods are called Kord, Bane, Pelor, Asmodeus etc, but not much was left to rule, not many people were left to worship them. Draegor is a broken world, filled with smoking ruins where there once was might empires and cities.

The Auran Empire, gone. The Empire of the Keeper (also known as the Ebon Empire), destroyed. Drahar a shattered ruin, etc, etc.

And a lot of those left behind share an arguably strong distrust of the gods and those that still worship them. After all, they did almost destroy the world. Instead, people have come to worship the primal spirits to a larger degree. To them, the Swords were misguided fools who brought on a cataclysm, but to those of us who believe in the gods, the Swords of Drahar are the greatest heroes to ever walk the mortal world. They are the ones that freed us from more than 10.000 years of deception. They are now exarches and saints, standing at the side of the gods (Gnoguh and Saint Carric are exarches of Kord, Gork is an exarch of Moradin, Torn is an exarch of Ioun, Truxas is an exarch of Melora and Tagron is an exarch of Asmodeus). Saint Carric is even attracting quite a following.

It has now been 78 years since the second banishment (the year is 599), and the world is still licking its wounds. People live in villages and small towns, and to my knowledge, no man rules over territory much larger than what you can ride in a day. Monsters are everywhere, and the ruins after an apocalypse hold treasure beyond our wildest dreams. If there ever was a time for heroes, this is it.

Hubertus Maximiliam, Bard Extraordinaire of Laketown, in the year 599

Swords of Drahar - R.I.P

5th Apryyl, Year 27

64th session

As the Swords were heading towards the palace of the Djinn, Carric suddenly received a sending from Trevor.

Demons have assaulted and overrun Drahar, Entrance portal in church destroyed, Church will soon fall, Heart not safe. Hurry or there won't be anything left.

Blowing 40k in residuum opened a cross-planar portal in matter of minutes, and soon the Swords found themselves in the small palace of Torn's father. As Truxas opened the door to exit the portal room, a demon tossed the head of Torn's father at him. A short battle followed and soon the Swords were running towards the church of Kord. On the way a building was dropped on them, they ignored the pleas from a mother whose baby was getting ripped apart by demons and were ambushed by a nasty marilith and her minions.

Finally they arrived at the church, and found a goristro in the middle of killing Trevor. A short and furious battle finished with one dead goristro and the Swords hurried on to stop the demon that was fleeing with the Heart.

Unfortunately, he proved too strong, and everyone died in an epic battle that saw Gnoguh almost managing to kill him alone...

Game Over

63rd session

After returning from the cold fortress of the rebel Githzerai, the Swords of Drahar wasted little time. They researched about the Mad Dragon, found out where it had it's lair, and hired Captain Morgan again to fly them out near the area where the Mad Dragon lived. As it turns out, it was a nightmarish place, full of lava, geysers, firestorms and in general a lot of nasty terrain and hazards. Luckily for the Swords, Torn's Phantom Steeds can fly, so after a rough arrival where Gnoguh got tossed around by some geysers, the Swords took the arial route to the 3 volcanoes further inland, where the dragon should have its lair.

They didn't quite make it all the way though, because about halfway across the rocky island, they were hit by an imploding thunderstorm. That turned out to be quite painful, and Truxas ended up dieing to a weather phenomenon.

Of course, with Revive handy, Truxas was up and running in only a few moments. Torn quickly made some new flying Phantom Steeds, and the Swords continued their trip towards the Tri-volcano-area. Once there, they quickly noticed several cave entrances, picked one, and landed in front of it. And promptly got jumped by 5 elementals. Even though they seemed to do their best to focus their firepower on a couple of targets (Torn and Gnoguh in this case), the Swords managed to dispatch them without anyone dieing.

Once the elementals were dead, the Swords searched the area, and Carric determined which entrance was the most likely to lead to the dragon's lair. And his perception didn't fail him again. Deep inside the volcano, they found a huge grotto with a lake of lava, an island covered in gold, and of course the dragon and his two pet fire titans.

And boy did they get owned. First Torn slept one of the Titans, which made Gork rip him a new one in a matter of seconds. Then Torn rendered the other helpless, which caused Gork and Truxas to rip it apart in a few more seconds. And thank god for that, because the Dragon proved just as hard as expected. For a while it looked like an easy fight, and the Swords even wounded it greatly (bloodied) but then suddenly the tide turned, and its aura became more and more lethal. But in the end, it still died.

LOOT: 350.000 gp and a Medic's Amulet +5

Medic’s Amulet

This amulet helps healers staunch wounds.

Level: 24
Price: 525,000 gp
Item Slot: Neck
Enhancement: +5 Fortitude, Reflex, and Will

Property: You gain an item bonus to Heal checks equal to the amulet’s enhancement bonus.
Property: When you use a healing power on an ally or succeed on a Heal check to perform first aid on an ally, that ally also makes a saving throw against an ongoing damage effect.

First published in Adventurer's Vault 2.

Fire Titan & Volcanic Dragon

Elementals

62nd session

After a bit of debating, the Swords of Drahar decided to heed the words of Lord Zarul and try to gain some faction with the Sultan of the City of Brass. Gnoguh wanted to kill some dragons, but he was outvoted and instead they headed out to find the Fortress of Shadow and Ice and the Githzerai rebel running things.

Before leaving, they do invest 100.000 gp into healing potions.

The Swords asks around a bit, and find out where this place is located. They track down a captain with an elemental ship willing to take them their for some gold (10.000 gp) and head out. A couple of days later, they arrive. The rock of ice upon which the fort is supposed to be is hidden inside a permanent blizzard laying on the edge of a maelstrom of lava.

Arriving at the edge, the Swords bravely jump off and head towards the center, because "that must be where the bad guy is".

A couple of hours later, the Swords are closing in on the fortress, when they are jumped by a few ShadowIce Archons. Even though surprised, the Swords make short work of the Archons.

Pressing on, they find a huge icebridge that leads to the fort. No enemies in sight and the Swords move over it cautiously. On the other side lies the fort, right on the edge to the nothingness of the Elemental Chaos. After a quick round of recon (still no enemies in sight), the Swords open the gate and are (yet again) surprised by an archon and two death giants. The Swords, except for Gnoguh (who was held by the ice magic of the archon), move in, and before they can do anything about it, the archon has raised a wall of ice and shadow, blocking Gnoguh. Fortunately, Gnoguh has little regard for pain, so grabbing his axe he started climbing the wall, despite the pain it inflicted.

With Gnoguh back in the fight, the foes were quickly dispatched, although the Swords were by now beginning to miss Carric just a little bit.

Once they were dead, the Swords took a quick breather and entered the unlocked fortress. Inside, they eventually got to a big room with a black pool and some stairs. On the stairs was a death giant telling them to bugger off, or they would die. They could still run, his master would not seek justice for what they had done so far. The Swords took that as a sign of weakness, and attacked. Out of the pool came a little surprise, a death Titan

The Titan especially proved nasty, and the fight was very tense for a while, but eventually the Swords got the best of the death dudes.

Moving on, they found a corridor full of 12 iceblocks, all but one containing an Efreet. The Githzerai was as noted earlier planning to use the souls of the Efreets to power up a portal to the Shadowfell and explode it, creating a rift which would infuse the Elemental Chaos with the necrotic energies of the Shadowfell. Or something. Either way, it never happened, because further in, the Swords found the so-called Temple, with the rebel Gith was working the portal and the magical pedestals that would serve as conduits for the efreets' souls. He and his death titan and archon, of course. The battle was long and brutal, with both Gork (finished battle with 1 hit points and 0 surges) and Truxas (bloodied and 0 surges) very very beaten up. There was some close calls (all 3 were below 0 at at least 1 point), but it all ended well. And they even found some loot.

150.000 gp

Resilience Amulet

A platinum disk overlaid with a crystalline star, this amulet repels lasting injuries.

Level: 23
Price: 425,000 gp
Item Slot: Neck
Enhancement: +5 Fortitude, Reflex, and Will

Power (Daily): Immediate Reaction. Use this power when you are hit by an attack that deals ongoing damage. Make a saving throw against the ongoing damage. On a failure, you don’t expend the use of this power and no daily use of a magic item power occurs.

First published in Adventurer's Vault.

Savage Hammer (Mordenkrad)

Cruelly shaped, this weapon fuels your courage and your alacrity.

Level: 23
Price: 425,000 gp
Weapon: Flail, Hammer, Mace
Enhancement: +5 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +5d6 damage
Property: You gain an item bonus to saving throws against fear effects equal to the weapon’s enhancement bonus.

Power (Daily): Free Action. Use this power when you successfully hit with this weapon. You can shift 1 square and make a melee basic attack with this weapon.

First published in Dragon Magazine Annual 2009.