Kingmaker #26: Spriggan Season

Our founding fathers trek east to investigate the loss of contact with Varnhold… (–GM)

20th of Kuthona, 4684 AR

All the people in Varnhold were gone. Not a single person was to be seen in that village…

At first, things in Espur were looking great. We had established a trade route with Varnhold, I finally got the funds to build a castle in Litador… it couldn’t be better. Well, except for that guy who said he was King Irovetti of Pitax and wanted to establish an embassy. He was obviously a phony. Later he built a “mage’s magnificent mansion” and then left a few days later. That guy was weird.

One day, this messenger bird flew over with news that Brevoy had lost all contact with Varnhold, and they wanted us to investigate. Of course they had to tell us just as I was digging into my bee-bread toast.

We went past a bunch of hills, saw a few centaurs, and before we knew it we were in Varnhold. It’s supposed to be the capital of that area but it was really just a village. The whole region was rather arid and there wasn’t much room for anything to grow. I’m glad we were assigned the Greenbelt instead of that dry place.

Overall, Varnhold was basically a bunch of purple- there was something more important going on, wasn’t there? Let me think… stinky smelly Varnhold… horse people… needs to import food from Espur just to compensate for all that dry dirt they’re sitting on… says they want to to be friends but then refuses to talk to us without even leaving a- I remember now! All the people in Varnhold were gone. Not a single person was to be seen in that village. We decided to go into a fort we found because it looked like the government operated from there.

When we got to the fort, we saw this little blue guy with big ears. He saw us and grew to about 12 times his size. He was our first spriggan. There were also a bunch of wolves that attacked us. Most of them charged me, and of course didn’t make a dent because of my defensiveness. I took most of the wolves out one by one, Dogmuncher cast a fog spell, and the fighting really started.

More big spriggan came out and mostly tried to hurt me, all in vain of course. There were also these snipers shooting at me, but I blocked them with my amazing defense. When the fight was over, we heard these giggling noises in one of the bug houses. The reasonable thing to do would have just been to go in and investigate, but nooo, Dogmuncher and Dahish wanted to burn the whole place to the ground so the people giggling would run outside. I’m glad they didn’t get their way; what if the gigglers had a back door or something?

I was going toward the door when I fell into a spiky pit trap. It hurt a lot. I tried to climb out but I ended up falling back in and getting stabbed again. After 6 tries, I finally managed to get out. It might seem like I was clumsy, but you try climbing up pit slippery with your blood while wearing plate mail, carrying a tower shield, and suffering from several puncture wounds.

He saw us and grew to about 12 times his size. He was our first spriggan…

We went in. There were some murder holes and I think I heard someone try to cast a spell, but overall there was nothing eventful until we got to another door. More spriggan were behind the door attempting to ambush us. We mopped the floor with them.

At the top of some stairs, there was room with a dozen spriggan; it was clearly the base of all this spriggan stuff. One by one, the spriggan came for us, and one by one, we ended their lives. They were all focused on hitting me for most of the time, which was good because it is near impossible to hit this block of steel. In short, I defensed the purple flowers out of them.

We examined the entire fort, but there was not a trace of human life to be found. Apparently the spriggan had done a thorough job. I bet the spirit of Maegar Varn wishes he had a master of defense on his side. We found a lot of potent items and resources, including some of the food we had exported just for them, but sadly there were many things we did not have room to carry back to Corff.

So Varnhold is gone and the dry Tors of Levenies is an anarchy once more. Oh well. Part of me is glad that there is less competition, but I can’t help thinking that a raid like the spriggan incident could just as easily happen to us. Well, it’s a good thing we have Litador to rely on if things get tough. With our new castle combined with our walls, moats, and watchtowers, Litador will never fall!

-Neskaghir (Nate)

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Kingmaker #25: The Plains of Varnhold

After dealing with the owlbear and trolls, the party attended a nobles’ party hosted by the Swordlords of Restov in their sponsoring kingdom of Brevoy. There, they parleyed with rulers from neighboring kingdoms and concluded a few agreements. Takahashi relates what happened… (-GM)

6th of Arodus, 4682 AR

Of course, the brutish and thankfully departed Apollo Creed decided to run at the centaur while shouting, ‘Have at thee!’

Recorded by a servant in the keep of Corff and dictated by His Majesty King Malqazar the Magnificent:

“You know, my reign has been quite interesting. The first real event of note was that masquerade ball in Brevoy. It was quite an experience, I shall tell you that much. The ruling council and I decided after the ball to set up trade relations with the neighboring kingdom of Varnhold, much to the dismay of that blithering idiot Takahashi. He was too busy spouting his grand plans of taking my rightful place on the throne and laying waste to all those who surrounded us. He is truly incompetent when it comes to courtly etiquette and proper royal conduct.

But I digress. On our way to Varnhold, we encountered a great beast known as a peluda, and while it was mighty, it was no match to my sheer power.  We were also asked by a noble named Edrist Horwoki to find his brother Temrin who travelled to Varnhold to meet with the town’s gemcutter.

When we had approached Varnhold, we saw a centaur off in the distance, galloping towards the town. Of course, the brutish and thankfully departed Apollo Creed decided to run at the centaur while shouting, ‘Have at thee!’ The centaur drew her bow and when he would not relent his charge at her, shot him with it.  A brief melee ensued, in which the centaur was the victor.  Apollo and Dahish were up in arms about the whole matter, when Apollo had clearly committed an act of outright violence against the centaur, who turned out to be a close confidante of Maegar Varn, the ruler of Varnhold. When it was decided that the matter would be settled with a wrestling match, Apollo, being the coward that he was, chose to end his own life rather than answer for his crimes.

While we were setting up the trade route with Varnhold, we decided we should answer Brevoy’s request to sort out the problem of the Nomen Tribe of centaurs. The centaurs decided that I should be the one to negotiate with their leader, as none of the other members of that expedition even had half the social graces I had. I managed to work out a truce with the centaurs, as was to be expected. We then returned home to handle economic matters in preparation for sending surplus food to Varnhold.

However, we heard that Brevoy’s contact with Varnhold was lost. I have yet to find out what the meaning of it is, but I am sure that Takahashi will want to kill it, and Nolgrin will want to espouse his foolish philosophy of goodliness to it. Now where’s that spiced wine I requested?

-Malqazar the Magnificent (Simon)

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Our Kingmaker campaign characters!

The official story — that most of Esper’s rulers were recalled to Brevoy to attend to urgent matters in their mother country — did little to quell the rumors and gossip that soon arose among the people. In their stead, a new crop of rulers, many from Brevoy have assumed their place. The new High Council is as follows:

Apollo Creed

Cavalier With No Name

Dahish

Helios

Malqazar the Magnificent

Neskaghir

Nolgrin

Takahashi

Zatqualmie

-Grandmaster

 

Kingmaker #24: What Really Happened

After dealing with the owlbear and trolls, the party attended a nobles’ party hosted by the Swordlords of Restov in their sponsoring kingdom of Brevoy. There, they parleyed with rulers from neighboring kingdoms and concluded a few agreements. Takahashi relates what happened… (-GM)

6th of Arodus, 4682 AR

We outnumbered them ten thousand to one. An endless sea of soldiers stretched as far as the eye could see. The people of Esper fled in terror, all in vain. We had them surrounded, the soldiers’ infinitely strong black adamantine armor clanging as they thrusted their infinitely sharp black adamantine spears into the people’s oh-so-fragile bodies.

Atop her battle-trained griffon, Dahish sat cloaked in a shining silver adamantine armor, shouting orders and beckoning our indestructible army forward. Adamantine golems moved forward behind us, controlled by lesser generals.

I carried no adamantine; it was not needed. I was the most powerful man in this army, ruler of a thousand nations, smiter of a thousand demons. I had long ascended past the realm of man. Then I saw them, engulfed in fear and damn near dead, a few of my men lay lifeless at their feet. A great skeletal dragon battled one of my golems, barely winning. When they gazed upon me, my familiar smile, my sneering expression, they gritted their teeth with fury and lunged at me, the strix being the first. One by one, I defeated them without a second thought. As they lay upon the ground in terror, the old man, the one that didn’t fight me said:

“Takahashi, before you kill them, before you destroy everything we have, I want to ask you, WHY? What could you possibly want from us? Look at how feeble we are to you.”

I gave a cold, crooked smile and said, “You know, I didn’t ask for much. I didn’t want your power, your wealth, your popularity. All I wanted was the title. To be the king. One without power, one without wealth, one whom everyone hated. But you couldn’t give me that. And now” — I raised my hand as I said this — “You’re going to die for it.”

This incredibly pleasant daydream was so rudely interrupted by a cheering crowd. It didn’t take a detective to realise who that was for. The king of crappiness, the emperor of a******s, the god of goody-two-shoes himself, was making a performance at the foot of my palace. This particular time he was fake-fighting the animated skeleton of a troll, who was being controlled by another council member backstage. All the while giving a speech about what he’ll do when he’s king.

Standing next to him was sidekick, Nolgrin, looking starry-eyed and nodding vigorously to everything he said. What’s worse, he’s talking about making changes that I would’ve already made, had the other Council members let me make them. Soon I’ll have them at my mercy, all of them. There’s an international nobles’ party we’ve been invited to. Maybe there I could make some allies…

-Takahashi (Makael)

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Kingmaker #23: This Land Is Our Land

Meanwhile, the Founders cleared out a troll cave southwest of their capital. The trouble with trolls did not cease, however… (-GM)

18th of Desnus, 4682 AR

Trolls, trolls, trolls. Who doesn’t love these cute lil’ fellas. However, after they butchered the local population over the course of a few months, one begins to get sick of even these lovable creatures.

We set out early in the day in order to explore a claimed hex and prepare it for future buildings. After trekking to the zone, we set up camp and began exploring. Soon though, we found some of our favorite friends. Quite a lot of them, to be exact. I immediately commanded vines to surge from the ground and wrap around our friends, in order for them to be able to sit comfortably while we had a little chat. They weren’t bothered too badly by the thorns on said vines. The rest of the group also tried to make them feel more at home, casting some fireballs for lighting and ramming some swords through their chests, all in good fun of course. We all had a really good time, as each time the trolls tried to run or move away they were impaled from all sides and roped to the ground; in my personal opinion it was just simply marvelous. However we all know that nothing good ever lasts, and these trolls proved to be no exception. They tried to ask for mercy! From Us! I laughed politely at their truly clever joke before telling them that they would get their mercy soon enough. We lit most of them aflame and I made puppets out of their corpses, although to tell you the truth they were a real bore once they died. I brought one live one home to put to future use; you never know when you’re gonna need a good ol’ troll!

We got back to our capital and decided to commemorate the the event with some new holidays, and we set about choosing our favorites. I came up with Reckoning Day, a day on which criminals and trolls alike are subjected to judgement from their glorious leaders, us! We also came up with multiple holidays regarding the start, middle and end of winter, including Merrymead and others. Overall it was a jolly good time. We decided not to claim any more land for the time being, as we had everything sort of stable at the moment and we wouldn’t want to get too over our own heads. What could go wrong!

-Helios

Oi, I’ll tell ya one month later things started to go real wrong real fast. We came back from another scoutin’ trip and what do we feast our eyes upon? A big bloody fire and some folk yelling about a bear and a bird or something. T’ be honest, I wasn’t really listenin’ to em anyway. Next thing ya know we racing off to fight the bugger, and I haven’t even gotten to settle down yet!

Once we got to boyo’s house, things really went to hell in a hand basket. Captain Ugly comes lumbering at us from a cave, and all I can do is try and not get ripped ta ribbons. I get hit straight in the kidney, but my pally the paladin comes over and lets me recover. Good guy that man is. Anyway, we smacking this beasty up but it just gets more and more angry. I tried to grab it but I couldn’t even reach the bloody thing’s waist! However, my mates were more than prepared for this kiddo and it was over in no time at all. We found some weird wizard hibbity bibbity but I didn’t know what to make of it. Leave that kind of thing to the blabber mouths ey?

Anyway problemo solved and we all get home for dinner. Well, if you count trail rations as dinner that is.

-Apollo Creed (Zack B.)

The owlbear also had an elven corpse next to it, wearing a ring of animal control. Curious, isn’t it? (-GM)

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Kingmaker #22: Trolls and Diplomacy and Trolls

After a long hiatus during which some of the rulers of Esper mysteriously disappeared, our dependable, rock-solid Nolgrin continued his stewardship of the kingdom. He continues the nation’s chronicle… (-GM)

11th of Pharast, 4682 AR

Hargulka, leader of the trolls

Who knew there were so many trolls in the Greenbelt? I certainly didn’t. We were scouting the troll den with the help of Munguk, the hill giant, when a ton of trolls showed up. They swarmed us and almost killed my earth elemental Elliott. This troll problem was worse than we expected.

Meanwhile, back at Corff, big riots started. People complained about have nothing to farm because trolls had been stealing their crops. Also, Dahish’s house burned down and people were blaming it on her brother, Takahashi, who happened to be the current ruler of Esper. This is ridiculous. Why would someone burn down his sister’s house? I can’t imagine a family feud going that far, and even if one does, wouldn’t a carefully planned assassination be more fit for a king than just recklessly burning a house? *sigh* This never would have happened under John Snow’s rule. No one would suspect a benevolent paladin of burning a house. Sadly, John and many others disappeared one night… I can’t seem to remember it… something to do with my amulet. And sahuagin. Brevoy sent in replacements, like Takahashi, but I still feel that something is missing.

All this was moot, by the way, because I sensed no evil in Takahashi and arson with intent of murder is so an evil act. It was much more likely that Dahish just knocked over a candle or something. Or maybe it was trolls. In those days you could blame almost anything on trolls.

We organized a speech to try to calm the people down. At first, the council members went up and said things like “everything’s under control” and “we’re working on finding a solution.” It didn’t work. Then, before anyone could stop him, Takahashi stepped up. He launched this big, intimidating fireball into the sky.

“If I wanted to kill my sister,” he shouted to the awed crowd, “do you really think I wouldn’t succeed? I have the power to do anything here, anything! Believe me, if this fire was of my doing, then Dahish would already be dead. For I am much more than an arsonist. I. Am. Your. RULER!!”

There was a shocked silence.

We organized a speech to try to calm the people down. Then, before anyone could stop him, Takahashi stepped up…

“Oh my god!” one of the people in the crowd shouted. “Takahashi’s a devil!”

Everyone started rioting again. It seemed that this speech was only making things worse. But there was still hope. Amidst all the shouting, I stepped up to the podium.

“People of Esper!” Despite all the chaos, my voice rang loud and clear. “We stand at a turning point in the history of the Greenbelt. We could either descend into a bunch of petty squabbling groups of villagers, just like all the others before us. Or we could unite! We must stop accusing our leader of groundless claims of violence and start facing our real problem. The trolls! If we do not join together to fight these wicked beasts, then Esper will crumble. We must band together to exterminate the trolls!”

People started cheering. It seems the speech was a success after all. Unrest died down after that, and we started to get back down to business, such as making decisions on new buildings. For example, having paved streets in Litador would be a big improvement. It’s only a suggestion.

Signing off,

Nolgrin (Nate)

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Kingmaker #21: The Consequences of Sap (Uncensored)

The dryad, Tiressia, was willing to give Oasin the acorns but needed an evil scythe tree to be killed first.

2nd of Rova, 4681 AR

“While wandering through the woods in exploring the territory, our fearless leaders run across men entranced by a nixie. Through the thicket our band of fearless champions emerge, and say, “Halt! Who does bring these trees to a doom of great evil, and challenge this nixie to a brawl?” And the men turned with a malicious look in their eyes to…”

Oasin walks towards Illirus and says, “You weren’t there, bucko. Stop trying to glamorize the story.” Illirus the Androgynous glares at Oasin.

“Fine, if you won’t tell it right, Sissario will, you little foxman,” Oasin says.

Illirus sticks his or her tongue out and says, “Fine.”

Sissario continues…

 

Kingmaker #20: Sumptuous Keep of the Dancing Lady

Since we left off our tale, the Founders of Esper spent the winter improving their nation’s economy. Also, Azkarth Selturiel arrived at Madman’s Rock and joined the High Council upon Pellius Wintrish’s recommendation. Then they set their sights on expanding their kingdom westerly and southerly, into the wooded Narlmarches. On the way, the helped a group of gnome explorers rescue their wagon from a river, and exchanged maps with the now-famous Jubilost Narthropple. His map spoke of a dragon lairing in the south, and an abandoned tower to the west. The party explored the tower, which seemed to be ancient and of Elven-make.

This archive is from Elliot, the earth elemental companion of the legendary Dwarven Stonelord Nolgrin.

I hate quicklings.

30th of Gozran, 4682 AR

I hate quicklings. They’re just so… quicky-quicky. We were just exploring the building, minding our own business, when a quickling dashed up to me, poisoned me, and ran away, just like that. Luckily I’m immune to poison. We eventually killed the little bugger, and I wanted his dagger but Gobario was saying something I couldn’t understand so I gave in and followed Nolgrin up the tower that he was investigating.

Nolgrin, for some reason, was dancing with this weird elven lady. I was about to yell at him to stop when I suddenly felt in the mood to dance. The lady was so pretty, dancy prancy, I lost control of my own body, prancy dancy, my spirit began to melt away and my brain turned into a sludgy goo and I knew that if she kept at it for another second I would become a mindless zombie   with   no   soul   and   wouldn’t..   that..   be…   the…   best…     thing….     ev-

 

Kingmaker #18: Lizards and Money

I was being stealthy when that stupid will-o got in my way and electrocuted me till my invisible hair stood up.

Gobario Alcos, the once-maligned goblin who somehow weaseled his way into the ranks of Esper’s High Council, continues our tale…

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2nd of Rova, 4681 AR

Bombs, bombs everywhere, burnin lizard scum, a weepy kid and the will-o-wisp that attacked me fun fun fun (except for the last one, that one almost killed me). I was being stealthy when that stupid will-o got in my way and electrocuted me till my invisible hair stood up. But i was a brave goblin (even though I ran for my life). We tried to kill it but it retreated beyond the lizard camp and then we dealt with that EVIL!!!!! lizard man Vesket. We killed lizard man oh we killed him good and we looted his hut and tackled his masseuses. We got a huge trident and some stupid bear’s fur who wandered into a stinkin trap and got killed, STUPID FURRY BEAR!!!! Anyways we got Tig home and he was TRAUMATIZED by all the lizard scum we stabbed, slashed, hit and burned to death. But it all paid off because now people think we’re even “better” and so they’re loyal to us [people are so easy to trick]. Anyways the kingdom got bigger blah blah blah we decided to let a boggard keep his land in one of the places we expanded to and some weird rich guy from that other country Brevoy built his mansion in our capital Corff. And we all kissed his butt with gifts. I made him a grizzly bear fur belt and i think that made him feel appreciated (not).

Signing off,
Gobario Alcos

—————————-

XP so far:
Gobario Alcos – 23,540
Illirus – 23,285
John Snow – 25,097
Neskaghir – 29,897
Nolgrin – 24,325
Oasîn – 26,122
Pellius Wintrish – 23,217
Skia Canticum –  21,902

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Kingmaker #17: Old Man Blue

Grace regales us with an awesome epic, as the Founders of Esper follow the trail of a missing boy, revisit the haunted tower in the lake, and trace the boy to a lizardfolk village…

-The Grandmaster

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31st of Erastus, 4681 AR

THE Will-o’-the-Wisp is out on the marsh,
And all alone he goes;
There’s not a sight of his glimmering light
From break of day to close;
But all night long, from dusk till dawn,
He drifts where the night wind blows.
The Will-o’-the-Wisp, he has no roof,
Yet he seeks not hut nor hall;
He will not wait for a friendly foot,
But starts if a shadow fall;
And never a voice can make him turn,
But the far off winds that call.