A New Journey, Leads Immediately to Disaster.

Well I started a new campaign today, with new players, new environment, and new technology. It's quite a change. A laptop will now be my main tool in DMing because saving that paper is honestly going to be a huge benefit, especially when I'm paying for everything. That and it means I can look up all monster stats pretty much instantly, as well as obscure rulings and other things of that kind. So that's the new technology, and it's working pretty great, with notepad documents for all the little notes I need to make in play.

As for the new environment, because going backwards through lists is cool, I discovered our dining room table is small, tiny really, and it's quite a change from the enormous white folding table we used to play at. We have space for about 3 players, and that's it, and luckily that's all we have right now. So that's the other thing, a much smaller party. Right now it looks like it's a Kobold Bard, a Goblin Shugenja, and a Dwarf Barbarian. It took a couple of hours to get all these characters set up, but that's usual for first time players. It's such a contrast setting up 3.5 characters with people who simply don't know the game, I mean they didn't know what the basic stats where, it was just quite a contrast.

In terms of players I won't do names, but we have someone who has never played before who's fairly into roleplaying as the Bard, a semi-experienced player who is playing a Thog Smash Barbarian, very simple, and a moderately experienced player playing the Shugenja, somewhat the force of order for the party, especially the Bard who never knows when to back down. The game is D&D 3.5, with a few little modifications like using the Color system for alignment and a number of smaller changes, including a uniqueish homebrew world.

On to the story though, we start with the Barbarian and Shugenja arguing over how many elements there are, 4, 5, or 118. These characters have never met before, but are newcomers to the small fishing village. The Bard then steps in to mediate the argument, and immediately finds a companion in the Shugenja, though they both agree that staying away from the Barbarian is for the best, as he is quick to anger and not to be trusted. With that they head to the nearest tavern for adventure, because they don't have any other ideas.

After a small confrontation with some Elves, as well as some confusion about what role Goblins and Kobolds play in society, they go to the barkeep and ask about any local news. A note should be made here, there are no humans nor any human-offspring type races, with them all dying out many years ago. Anyway it turns out Merpeople had been attacking local fisherman and stealing their fish, and no one was sure why, given until a few weeks ago they had been at a comfortable peace.

So the brave duo set out to go murder some Merpeople, who are clearly evil and need to die. They do actually try diplomacy first, after some knowledge checks and research, and after the bard delivers a stunning monologue to the water a few Mermen pop out and tell about the terrible dire eel that had killed their leader and ravaged their people. Not in that way. This seemed like a job for brave adventurers, but first they need supplies, and some poor sap willing to tank for them.

While walking back they stumbled upon the Barbarian and decided here is a man who we can use to take hits and not complain about it. So with that found, they go to the local fishing store and buy a net, which they figure they will wrassle the eel with, and done will be done. So they go to sleep just outside of town. Unfortunately they wake up to the sound of footsteps, and they run outside to see what's going on. They find the elves from earlier, and confront them in a very direct and violent way.

They win the fight, because the elves were weak and they were strong, but unfortunately they have two bodies to dispose of. Maybe 3 given one of them was cleanly bisected. They decide to give them a shallow burial and take the heads for bait, then move onto the other side of town. The next day they prepare for the assault, and rush towards the location of the Merfok's village. After some initial surveillance, namely some failed spot checks they charge in haphazardly.

The Barbarian takes all the impact, with the eel latching onto his leg and continuously biting him almost killing him, if not for the healing of the Shugenja. The Bard provided inspiration from the shore, not wanting to get wet. This was also where the Shugenja's guard dog who he had bought came into play, assisting very little but providing motivational support. With that done and the eel fully looted, getting a trident and an eele eye they head back to town and the Merfolk to claim their rewards.

They gain some minor magical accoutrements from the Merfolk, and some praise from the townspeople, free inn stays and other perks like that. They then investigate around the town selling some things and buying some things, until they find out that there is a black market arms dealer who meets during the night, who can provide them with some sneaky weapons. After an extraordinary performance from the bard during the day earning some extra coin they decide to see what is available illegally.

They go to the prerequisite location and have a little talk with the dealer, do some basic diplomacy, and get an instrument blade for the Bard. The Bard however tries to stiff the man, saying he made the instrument out of tune, this does not go over well. Though it doesn't immediately resort to violence, it costs the Bard some extra cash, then everyone is prepared to go away happily, but not the Bard, no he makes a snap decision and casts a spell to make the dealer and his guards sleepy. Again, bad things happen, but this time it is immediate violence.

The dealer rushes in and stabs the bard, and his bodyguards immediately put down the Shugenja, with the might strength of orcs. A surrender is immediately negotiated, with the party becoming indentured servants to this arms dealer who may have connections all over town. This could get interesting.

The Greatest Adventure

It has been quite some time since I've written a journal entry. Our party has stormed a castle and plundered its depths since then. We have also picked up some new and rather interesting allies. Now I believe we are truly invincible. We have established ourselves as a significant threat on the world scale, but with all enemies defeated I think we may truly conquer it all. Then maybe they'll understand why I did what I had to.

After resting for a time we decided to investigate the next room. Inside was an enormous and truly destructive creature, an Aboleth. Normally fiercely intelligent creatures this one in particular acted more like a pet, flailing with its tentacles instead of using its psychic abilities. The warrior with me and the other side of our party quickly demolished the beast, though its mucus had adverse effects on some members of our party, enabling them only to breathe water, and not air.

I had no problems of that sort. After dealing with the beast and a few of its, or maybe its master's underlings we proceeded onwards to the next chamber. Unfortunately we had to wade through sewage and mucus to get there, where we encountered yet another Aboleth. Again we were able to defeat it, though it was more difficult due to the water and our druid's crocodile turning feral.

Arriving at the next chamber we find one of the most impressive beasts in this citadel, an enormous three armed troll. Luckily I had magics to counter a foe of this kind, and using a few strength draining spells he was soon rendered utterly incompetent. After the combat we investigated around and determined it was a relatively safe place to rest, and prepared for the inevitable battle with the master of this place.

Upon setting out with full spells and health we were ready to take on whatever was ahead. Our foe turned out to be a mind flayer, though not a particularly nasty one. He had with him yet another three armed troll but that was all, and with the sheer numbers we had he could not take it and went down quickly, though he severely damaged the warrior part of our party.

Once his beast fell I was able to intimidate the mind flayer into surrendering and joining our crew. He would be given brains occasionally, and bring with him a vast amount of expertise as well as crew members. He brought a number of abominations, and one Aboleth who will soon man our submersible boat, giving us surprise and tactical advantages.

We also learned there is another realm, a Far Realm where the abominations dwell, perhaps an area of conquest once I have amassed a greater collection of knowledge about these creatures. Numbers will not outweigh the sheer strength of fear, not in the hands of a mster like me. Before too long they will all realise what should happen.

So I imprinted the new members of our crew, if necessary I will destroy one to show my power, then they will all fall in line. The Mind Flayer truly believes we are working in his best interests however so I believe he will follow along willingly, at least for awhile.

A Typical Day

So far the day has been eventful. I couldn't say what a typical day is like for adventurers, but most don't involve fighting zombie pirates as well as mimics and gargoyles. A whole range one might say, and one that I'm not particularly fond of, especially mimics, who's adhesive is simply impossible to get off. I'll start from where I left off last time. We were setting off for parts unknown, and I enchanted my armor and the warrior's weapon. I am now wearing a mithral twilight chain shirt, of admirable quality. Before the end of this it shall be fearsome too, but for now it is merely protection.

Coming to an island we know little about and we find a few seemingly wrecked ships. Naturally our small fleet goes to investigate but are attacked by cannons from those ships. An unexpected predicament, but given what we've been through we are prepared. We set the flagship for ramming speed, and crashed into the first ship while our other two, more heavily armed vessels proceeded to take apart the other two ships. Upon closer inspection there were some strange undead folk aboard the opposing ships, not unlike me though far less intelligent.

The party still does not know of my condition, though I believe the Inquisitor suspects. As of yet it has not been a problem, but sometimes they arise with something like this. I will have to be careful of who reads this diary. Nevertheless my master of necromancy allows me some degree of control over the non-living, forcing them to cower in fear before me. The rest of the crew, including the new shipwright who doesn't seem to know the first thing about building ships, but is a veritable minotaur in a fight, clean up the rest with little difficulty, though the ship slowly sinks from both our cannons and the defeat of her crew members.

Luckily our druid friend has the ability to transform into animals, and once the battle is done he descends to the bottom of the sea and returns with a chest of treasure. This however turned out to be false, and I was glad we had the warrior try to open it, because it sprung up and attacked him. I quickly cowed it into submission, and as it was cowering the shipwright smashed it across the deck, breaking it apart. This done we set up for the island and came upon a wondrous sight.

In the center of an enormous waterfall stood a castle, enormous in size and equally mysterious, it floated over a graveyard of ships, so many drowned at the bottom of the waterfall. Had we not some experienced crew members it may have been us as well, but we landed safely at a small docking platform, though the tower was not unattended. We unfortunately had to leave two of our ships behind, but they will be safe with a good number of crew and cannons.

Just outside of this building was two gargoyles, imposing but not particularly deadly, until they rose up and attacked. Using one of my newly acquired spells I summoned an enormous skeleton to saw through one of their bones, and it did so magnificently, quickly silencing it. The other was quickly dispatched by the party and we quickly moved on. After breaking through several doors we were faced with an obstacle, a bridge filled with holes.

Luckily several of our party were trained enough to leap the gap, and pull the rest of us along. With that done we blew through the wall to the next room and faced a Bulette. A fearsome beast, with four legs and enormous plating, luckily it was not so study on its feet when a patch of grease appeared beneath it, and was quickly felled while it lay on the ground. Unfortunately it had company, and several orcs, and another Bulette arrived in the room.

By this point I was running low on energy, only able to cast the most basic of spells, though my aura of intimidation still scared some of the foes. The orcs quickly retreated, and we stood victorious. Now there were multiple paths, so we split up to cover more ground quickly. The warrior, mercenary captain, and warlock came with me to pursue the fleeing orcs, and arrive in a large ballroom lavishly decorated. The orcs refused to listen to diplomacy, and fled again.

We followed and found an aberrant being, part man and part far realms creature, who we were able to defeat with relative ease, though he was a spellcaster who summoned an ape to defend himself, I must investigate that further. Unfortunately I must leave off now, I will write more when I have time.

Jail Break

Have you ever woken up and seen the world in an entirely new light? Now I have, as I opened my eyes and saw everything as it truly was. The world is made of fools,  fools who live until they die, and that is that. I have defeated this, and though it was a painful experience, and difficult, now I defy all those who believe in a life span. My life is endless, and I will never let anyone attempt to do otherwise. They will all fear me, especially if they find out what I truly am. But they always fear what they don't understand, so some day when they all realize the superiority of the undead they will submit.

We recently acquired a few new members to our small party, as well as a new ship. But as I left off in the last entry we were fleeing from a large number of guards who refused to retreat even when shown true fear. The warlock, the warrior and I ran from the mob, while the druid flew overhead providing aerial information. Unfortunately when we reached the gate to enter the dock our boat was in we met with the apparent ruler of this island, a vice admiral. He stood towering above all of us, and demanded we hand over our prisoner, this was not in the plan, and I had run low on spells, with only weak magics left.

What I did have however was a scroll of mists. As we ran up to the gate I unleashed the power within and we were able to escape, though unfortunately the druid's pet was grappled by the man so we had to abandon it. We ran again from the mob but before we got to the ship the druid arrived and reformed into his human shape. He informed us that our crew had been incapacitated and that the Vice Admiral had already arrived on our ship, a most unfortunate situation. We then slept in one of the nearby buildings, and undignified condition but unfortunately unavoidable.

Upon waking we decided the best course of action was to go to the boat where we met up with the inquisitor who had been searching for heretics throughout the night. I don't trust that one, he seems to be adventuring with us only in the belief that we will eventually be adversaries, a precarious situation. As it stood though most of the crew had been taken to prison, with only our mercenary companion still with us. For the next few days we began preparing for the assault on the prison. Prior to actually assaulting the prison we had the inquisitor gain the bounties for both Travis and the warlock.

During that time was when my eyes were opened, as I discovered the city had a substantial underground population, who with the right motivation were able to grant we what I had been searching for. I have not surpassed my master in knowledge, and will not have until I can raise him, but I will outlive him, one way or another. For now however it has granted me unholy resilience, much greater than before, as well as access to a new line of spells, which will allow me to keep an eye on both the party and the crew.

The assault on the jail went much better than expected. We picked the lock on the back door and quickly shut down all resistance through intimidation, leaving not a trail of corpses but merely unconscious guards who would then fear us, and also remember that we spared them. Mercy is not the domain of the weak, but of the intelligent. Upon arriving at the actual cells I created an enormous web disabling almost all of the guards who had bunkered in the room, and intimidating the rest into giving up their weapons.

After stripping the armor and weapons off all these foes we released our crew as well as the motley band of what are in all likelihood rapists and murderers who are now members of our crew. I'll be watching them very closely. But we parted ways with these criminals allowing our pirate captain to guide them safely back to the ship. From here we went to the docks seeking our other prisoner, Travis. Unfortunately once we arrived at the dock we found Reaver, the man from the first island who's boats we destroyed.

Luckily we have grown since then, and were able to utterly demolish his guards and himself. First the druid did a bombing run dropping alchemist's fire and acid destroying the boat they were on nearly completely. Then we created a windstorm forcing the guards to stay on the boat, which was now filled with fire and an inescapable web. They effectively had no chance to escape, and fear tactics destroyed the rest of them.

In the end the Admiral managed to stumble his way out of the burning web, right into the warrior and mercenary, and he was brought to unconsciousness swiftly afterwards. With that we took the fully functional boat that was in this dock and sailed out with everyone, subsequently meeting up with our other two vessels, and setting out for parts unknown.

The City of Fear

We arrived on a new island today, or more of a floating city really, a chance to further my knowledge and perhaps find a cure for this ever-present threat of death. With the first signs of a proper civilization in a while we prepared to unload a variety of ill-gotten gains. Upon docking we ran into an unkind gentleman who demanded we pay for our boats stay. After a brief discussion with just him and me he conceded to let us stay for half of his original asking price, like any proper man would.

After some shrewd negotiating with several merchants along the waters we had amassed a good amount of wealth, and I had earned several new spells. We also found out that there was apparently a bounty posted on most of our heads, for little to no reason, apparently word travels fast around these islands. After taking the posters don we retreated to the ship to discuss the next course of action. On the way however we were assailed by some so-called bounty hunters, who believed themselves better than us, because of our "small bounties".

Within seconds the leader and his comrade had fallen down, and the rest looked terrified, it is truly amazing what one spell can do to mere warriors. Subsequently the party surrounded the two who had fallen, taking their weapons, and small coin that they had on them. The locals fear me now, the very notion of me terrifies them. Occasionally I every scare myself. My group is not though, they will stay by me, even when they discover what depths I may go to.

Throughout the day we commissioned a new flag for our ship, as well as a good amount of repairs which would be needed due to our previous naval battle. I retired at the end of the day to my library, but sunk into rest after not too long, as is need for arcane preparation. I am growing increasingly worried about these pirates, though they seem to be loyal, they have little stake in our fortunes, and could potentially sail off without us, though with our wealth. Perhaps I will research a way to bring them further under control.

As of now though I set about some of our party to go on a resource gathering mission, to find the location of a man named Travis, who has a large bounty on his head. The one armed man and I went underground, also looking for leads but our primary purpose was monetary gain, through which we entered a fighting tournament. It was also a test for the warrior, and while he did perform better than his previous attempts, he still did not do well.

In the end we were of course victorious, due mostly to my fearsome magic. And with that I knew exactly how we could take out Travis, and any possible guards of his. The other members of our group had obtained the possible location of Travis, so we arrived in the unnamed tavern, and asked around. Unfortunately no one knew anything, apart from an extremely fat man who upon intimidation still knew nothing. Most of the room fled under tables and behind chairs, but one particular paladin seemed affronted by our presence.

It turned out he was a follower of Travis, and that the whole tavern was orchestrated as a trap, as paladins rushed in from all directions. A paladin's belief is so fervent that he does not shy from me, he does not believe in fear as it where. Someday I will teach them the true meaning of it, but not this day. At this point I had enacted several powerful defensive spells, so was effectively impossible to hit, aside from the rifles which many of the paladins seemed to have.

Due in part to the druid's new ability to summon a sizable amount of wolves and to fly we defeated them with relative ease, but after searching all through the tavern found nothing. With that disappointment we prepared to leave, and upon exiting found Travis sitting on top of a building, laughing. I immediately sunk a crossbow bolt into him, to initiate the conversation on my terms. After a brief discussion we round he could not be reasoned with, but with a flash of light I made him visible, rendering his traditional trick invalid.

The party slowly climbed up to the top of the building, and with enough wolves we were almost able to put him down, though a few more riflemen did nothing to help matters. He retreated off the roof, but the warrior finally showed his validity as a comrade, and managed to deliver the final blow.