It has been 375 years since The Rupture. Nearly all of mortalkind was laid to waste, countless innocent lives were lost to the armies of the Demon Lord. The forces of demons were brutal and ruthless - but that’s not all they were. Even more important than their own bloodthirst, was the eradication of knowledge and the crippling of mortals. To tear apart civilization from its roots, sabotaging it from the inside out. That was when the shining pillar of scientific and magic understanding, the expansive island city Arkannon, fell to rubble and ash. In the centuries past, the island and secrets locked behind its gates were all but forgotten.

That was until The Holy Vitkatzi Empire laid their ears to the rumor mill of gossip amongst the Southlanders. Where they heard tell of powerful weapons, mass industrialization, and sentient robots lurking just inside the mountains of the Isle Arkanna. They have been on the prowl, noses up, ears straight, and claws extended searching for adventurers either desperate, brash, or stupid enough to brave the island’s dangers and reap the rewards. The following is just one story, from one of those many groups of adventurers.

Goodbye, For Now

The party settles down for sleep. After the tense combat encounter, the camp is silent. Jessie and Helen speak in hushed whispers near their bedroll. Nero grumbles their claim on the first shift of the night while the rest prepare to catch as much sleep as possible. A few hours later, Ashton is pulled out of sleep by the gentle noise of the door clicking shut. He looks around and, not seeing Nero, quietly gets up to follow. He catches up to them just outside the courthouse doors. He attempts convincing them to stay, but their choice is made. Ashton is able to convince them to leave a message for him at his inn so he can know they made it home safe. He watches them walk off into the darkness, their black feathers fading quickly into the shadows. Ashton returns to the party, deciding to go ahead and begin his own shift. A few hours later when he awakes Jessie and Helen, he asks if they knew anything about Nero’s plans. They deny it. Holly rolls over in his sleep with small embers glowing in his eyes. He heard everything.

“Are you surprised? After what happened yesterday?” “No, of course I’m not surprised.” Holly grumbles.

The following morning Holly explains his worldview to the party. He clarifies, despite the things he’s done in the past to get him to the point he is now, it wasn’t done out of malice. Yes, his soul is probably destined for Hell - or at least it will be once he’s paid off his misery debt to the hag. But he doesn’t do anything for no reason. It’s usually easier to get through life if you do the right thing. People don’t like traitors, they don’t like being betrayed and they don’t like snitches. Honesty is good because it means you’re reliable, and people are more likely to do what you want if you are reliable and can hold up your end of the bargain. While he isn’t the most morally pure person out there, he is trustworthy. He swears without so much as an out of place twitch from his shadow that he has no intentions of needlessly harming any members of the party. And if that isn’t enough for the party to trust him, then at least confront him face to face without sneaking away in the night. The rest of the party see this as understandable and agree to at least stick with the group for the remainder of the job. With everyone in agreement, the group is ready to face the abandoned city.

Push and Pull

After a long trek through the dusty cube shaped warehouses, the party witnesses the city swiftly transform from empty factories and storage facilities to once bustling taverns, open air markets, magical shops, and most pertinent to them, are able to locate the city’s teleportation circle. A large slab of white marble etched with black sigils take up the city’s square surrounded by tourist trap markets. The party circles around the slab while Holly casts Translate Anything over the runes etched in the marble. Upon cursory examination, the runes consist of both dwarven and elvish script. The dwarven runes reading: Space, Push, Pull, Air, Faewild, and Hell. The elvish script surrounding the dwarven runes say much similar things, but in small poetic phrases with much longer and flowery language. With the help of the party and a casting of Legerdemain, Holly creates a faithful sketch of the well preserved portal in his notebook. On closer inspection, they find that the marble wasn’t etched or sculpted. The black lettering is perfectly flush with the marble. The marble was magically altered permanently to contain this writing. While looking at the surrounding area, they identify large marble pillars where the wizards of old would have stood around the clock powering the portal.

Black and white illustration of 7 unknown runes around a circle. Swirly script in an unknown language is also within the circle.

The party doesn’t stop themselves from looting the various stores nearby, finding some items that could sell for a pretty penny if they can make it back to Ptolonox. They give themselves the goal of finding some magical storage equipment, hoping to make their load a little less heavy.

After a productive day, they make camp and plans for the next day. Between the mercantile and upper class districts, they realize the tower they were once hoping to loot is much farther than they had anticipated. They realize the scale is completely off and decide to aim for a much more manageable goal for their remaining days on the island and will set out for the tunnel system throughout the island’s mountain range. These are man made tunnels, so while not as intriguing as the tower, are sure to hold something. Almost certainly so, as Dandy says the other adventuring parties often spend a lot of time there. Through this discussion, Holly finds a way for Dandy to repay their end of the favor to the rest of the party. He asks them to find an in tact warforged body that’s not yet been inhabited. They agree and say that once the party leaves the island, they will begin their search and will not stop until it’s found.

Author’s Note

Hi! I won’t be doing this very often at the end of these, but I felt with how long of a gap between sessions it was important to state. The campaign is still going, in fact we’ve already played another session since this one! I was just struggling with some stuff and found it hard to get the motivation to fully type this out. That’s also why this session was so short, I just ran out of steam after a couple hours. Obviously I find running games fun, but my mind and body hit a wall and it was just too much. But I’m finally doing better. There should be more session notes posted shortly.

Shout out to my amazing players Sam and Kalyn (with special guest audience member, Emory) for sticking it out with me. There will be many more of these!!