Topic: Our Campaign Adventure 312 Preview

[Zedul]

Just sharing something here that the ICE community may find useful or not, depending on whether you have a similar campaign setup.

At the end of May we kick off our quarterly four day gaming weekend.  The plane tickets have been purchased and the guys will be flying into Tucson from across the United States.  We've been doing this for almost a decade now, ever since myself and a few of our other friends moved away from the Seattle area.

Our campaign is approximately 30 years old and since I started writing them down on the computer in the mid 1990's this particular game session will be #312.  My guess is that it's actually number 500ish to 600ish but there is no way to be certain.  Back in our high school and college days it was not uncommon for us to game every weekend.

The current party has been together through five years and approximately 23 adventures.  The characters started at level 15 and each player was required to write a 1,500 word short story to introduce their character.  The current party contains 7 players, 4 of whom will be sitting out this session.  Our average attendance is 4 players per session, last time we had 6 and it was a bit cramped!

Each session takes approximately 30 to 35 hours of actual play time to complete, and I have been working on the adventure for a month already.  At around this time I will begin sending "adventure prologues" to the players via email, rather than just unload an adventure preamble the moment they show up.  It gives them time to think about the situation and get an idea of what they are up against over the weekend.  My players are veterans and the scope of the campaign has become quite epic.  I will be dusting off my old War Law (PS if any of you know of a better fantasy mass combat system let me know!) book as the second part of the adventure involves the players defending their beloved free city from the hordes of evil.

The following is the first prologue of the upcoming adventure. 


Melvin Trask opened the secret entrance to his lower chambers and let the stranger pass.  The two men descended the stairway into the gloomy darkness of the vault.  He clapped his hands and the chamber burst into light.  It was dusty and full of cobwebs with beakers and bubbling cauldrons but most prominently the room was filled to the edges with tall cylindrical storage tanks.  Within each thank was an anthropomorphic shaped with long jagged claws curled into a fetal position.  There were thirty six such tanks neatly organized into groups of six each tied to a strange machine in center of the room with rods and electrodes protruding from within.

“They are complete then?” asked the stranger.

“Yes, yes!” nodded Melvin.  “It took me years but they are made to the exact specifications you ordered.”

“So the special alterations worked?”

Melvin chuckled.  “It was touch and go and took some doing but you came to the right man.  These shards will be Elf slayers.”

“Excellent, and the leaders?”

“Five greater shards and one master shard just like you asked.  But there is a problem…” Melvin trailed off.

“What problem?”

Melvin sighed.  “The master is perfect but according to the formula he won’t work in the absence of a lord shard, and even if I was capable of crafting a lord I don’t have the resources or the time to make a hundred eighty more of these things.”

“It’s not necessary.  Do you have the activation matrix?”

Melvin nodded and pulled it out of his pocket.  “Right here just liked you asked.  When do I receive the rest of my payment?  You promised an additional thirty million if I completed the batch on schedule.”

“You will receive the rest of your payment very soon.  But first I need to see if they operate.”

Trask frowned.  “I told you the master won’t work but I can engage the rest if you like.”

“Do so.”

Melvin walked to the central device and inserted the matrix.  The rods of the machine began to pulse and then glow with arcane power and the wires crackled with electrical current.  The tanks bubbled and hissed and within their occupants begin to stir to life.  From the largest tank in the far portion of the room retching sound came and the vessel burst open spilling green sticky fluid all over the chamber.  Its former inhabitant emerged; unfolding its glistening monstrous limbs and stretching to full height.  Its head nearly made contact with the eight foot ceiling.

“Gods of __________,” gasped Melvin, “the master shard has animated!”

“Yes” nodded the stranger.  “It hears the call of its lord.”

Trask turned round in shock.  “What do you mean?”

The stranger smiled.  “The others were completed some time ago.”

Melvin turned pale.  “I see…” he gulped.  “That’s a formidable army you have right there.  You going to take down an empire or something?” he asked while laughing nervously.

“Or something, “the stranger said as he turned and began to walk up the stairs.

“Hey!” Melvin shouted after him.  “When do I get paid?”

There was no answer but he heard something approach from behind.  He spun round and looked up at the master shard that towered above him.  Its brilliant gemstone eyes flashed with power.  The golem grinned, barring its four-inch fangs that dripped with very special black venom.

“Oh no” he said quivering as he lost control of his bowels.

Melvin Trask screamed in horror for nearly five seconds as he was torn limb from limb.