Introduction
The last few hundred years of relative peace between the nations of the world has been silently attributed to something only the ruling elite know of - a secret proxy war that is conducted completely at the expense of the orcs.
Every nation backs an orc tribe, providing them weapons, magicks, training, and more. The orcs are then pitted against each other by means of careful manipulation. Through the outcomes observed in these engagements, military strategists are able to infer how a full scale war might go. This informs diplomatic stances, and helps allocate appropriate research and funding to military forces.
Lately though, a tribe of orcs has risen quickly above the rest, sporting weaponry far beyond anything the world has seen before. Some are calling this “artifice”, and an actor named “Jerry the Joblin” is the mastermind behind this.
The party is sent to learn of Jerry’s motives, and potentially stop Jerry.
Characters
Aarion Valor
Aarion Valor is the patron of the party. He says he works for an unofficial group of nations who don’t like what’s going on with Jerry the Joblin. His goal is to ascertain Jerry’s exact level of involvement, goals, and possibly stop Jerry.
Aarion has hired each member individually. His monetary rewards have been generous. He also has hooked each party member with something he knows will interest them about this quest.
Aarion is an older human, with a gaunt appearance. He limps on a metal cane, and wears a greatcoat.
Berb Minesworth
An artificer consultant who travels with the party representing Nomasgard. Berb has given the PC party consultation, and has offered to exchange information if they should bring back some devices.
Amaya Dungees
A priestess of the Raven Queen and under the employ of Aarion Valor. Amaya hails from the city of Monrithon. She carries a porcelain mask that she uses when calling upon the Raven Queen’s power. The mask appears to have been shattered at one point, and then reassembled using gold leaf.
While Aarion doesn’t get too involved in the inter-party dynamics, he has warned that Amaya has some sentimental value to him and he’d prefer if she stayed alive.
Edric Varnell
The owner of Varnell’s Arcane Provisions.
Thalendra Silverbranch
A high elven magic user who leads the entourage from Bel’Aheldan. They have come back after some time (long by most species’ standards - decades) to check on their handle at an orc fortress, only to find they can’t reach their handle.
Vaelis Duskthorn
A high elven, former moonstone researcher for Bel’Aheldan. Vaelis was rescued by the party on the way to Gazgren as part of the slave trade. His enslavement was the sentencing he was given by his nation because of his research.
The party gave Vaelis a handsome amount of walking around gold. He said he would stick around in the Vellmarch Outpost to assist his liberators with anything they need.
Locations
Known Locale
With the capture of drones and a drone operator, the party is able to maintain a map of the nearby area. This represents the party’s current understanding of immediate location surrounding the orcs and the party’s pursuit of Jerry.
Vellmarch Outpost
A border town between nations of Gazgren and Nomasgard, roughly near the tri-nation area where the Tribes of Egalstan meet. It is west of Monrithon.
This is the last settlement of Nomasgard before entering Gazgren.
Monrithon
The largest nearby city on the Nomasgard side of the border. Monrithon is known for the home of the heroes that stopped the invasion of Orcus during the last Sque Valan (a world-impacting cosmic event).
Smooth Dragon
The local inn and tavern. The tavern is upstairs. Usually there’s a few locals around, but travelers also stop by.
The sign has a dragon on it, but no scales. It’s a pretty simple sign though - just an outline of a dragon.
Magic Items
Arcane Magic Items
Purchasing Chart:
| Rarity | Value |
|---|---|
| Common | 50 |
| Uncommon | 200 |
| Rare | 2000 |
| Very Rare | 20000 |
| Legendary | 1000000 |
| Artifact | Priceless |
Consumables for half price (potions, spell scrolls).
This is half the amounts listed in the D&D 2024 DMG (page 217), to represent a high magic campaign.
Artificer Infusions as Items
Artificer infusions that are items are treated as the rarity based on the tier that the item becomes available to the Artificer (Tasha’s). Assign a rarity based on that tier, and from there you can determine pricing.
| Tier | Rarity | |
|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | Common | 50 |
| 5-10 | Uncommon | 200 |
| 11-15 | Rare | 2000 |
| 16-20 | Very Rare | 20000 |
| 20+ | Legendary | 1000000 |
Organizations
Nomasgard
A mostly-human nation, but also a melting pot. The capital, Duranae, is situated far to the east.
Gazgren
The land of the orcs. Not really a nation in a strict sense, but the orcs know the boundaries well.
Tribes of Egalstan
The loose territory and name given to the tribes-people of Egalstan. Egalstan is not a nation but the collective name given to the human and giant-blooded peoples living in that area. The boundaries there are not strict, but the stone markers that vaguely identify the area are unmistakable.
Varnell’s Arcane Provisions
A magic and potion shop run by Edric Varnell located in the Vellmarch Outpost.
Varnell’s General Provisions
Edric Varnell is expanding his business and with it now runs the general store in town.
Recaps
Session 1
Aarion Valor, an older man on a metal cane, recruited the party. Rashel was given the offer of vengeance against the orcs. Vladimir was granted the promise of power and freedom. Freedom was immediately granted in a real sense - Aarion immediately unlocked the magic muting collar. He held up a large, triangular but smooth cornered stone with a hole in the middle. He bid Vladimir put his hand through it. Vladimir did, and from it his power increased.
Aarion explained that the orcs of Gazgren play out a sort of dress rehearsal for war. The various nations have orc tribes that they back - specifically providing weapons, teach magicks, and provide other resources. The orcs fight each other. From that, the nations get an idea of how a full scale war would play out, to some degree of accuracy they are happy with. This then informs diplomatic postures, research into magic, and how much to invest in various armaments. This has been going on for some time, and in high positions of government, the various nations (except Gazgren) attribute this half-proxy half-dress-rehearsal war to the last several hundred years of relative peace between the nations. There is also belief that if the orcs are too busy fighting themselves, they won’t be busy fighting their neighbors.
There have been previously no-named orc tribes rising to prominence, and they are using weaponry never seen before: Firearms and mechanically assisted melee weapons. This seems to be a rapid advancement in the school of artifice. The only name they have to attribute to this is “Jerry the Joblin”. This has been rather disruptive to the proxy wars. Jerry’s affiliation and motives are not known. Aarion has been contracted by a loose coalition of nations (the specific nations were not disclosed) to ascertain affiliation and motive, and potentially be ready to stop Jerry.
Aarion suggested for their first mission that they attack a stronghold for the Tharkhun tribe. It was a middling tribe that perhaps represents the most pure form of Orc ideology - Might makes right. They were recently bested in combat by one of the firearm wielding war bands, and are just now starting to recover. Aarion thought it would be a good point of initial information, as well as a good way for the party to work together while the stakes could be kept relatively low. It was about half a day’s travel from the Vellmarch Outpost they were at.
The party set out. The early summer weather made for an easy walk. The land around here is characterized by grasslands atop rolled hills, with patches of dense trees frequently sprouting up. The stronghold itself was a fort built of raw lumber and rope. On each corner, a look-out tower (though the front left one was destroyed). Only one of the towers seemed to be stationed. The party waited until night fall, and came in on the side furthest from the watch tower. They quickly discovered the orcs kept goblin slaves. A little too much noise was made - two orcs jumped over their stronghold wall to attack them on either side. The two orcs were quickly dispatched. They made their way around the fort, though not as stealthy as Rashel needed her lantern to see in the dark. The orc shaman stood in the open inside the fort. Two other warrior orcs, more strongly built than the first two they dispatched, were at his side, kneeling in the direction of the fort opening.
The shaman stated to the party that he yielded to their superior strength. The party would have rights to claim spoils. He introduced himself as Grakgor Bloodfist - a keeper of the old ways.
The party used this as an opportunity to gather information. In addition, Rashel wanted all of the slaves freed. The slaves were freed with the understanding that the shaman could keep his remaining warriors.
They learned that the fort had recently been attacked by orcs wielding Jerry’s weapons. The weapons were very destructive, and the shaman’s forces really didn’t stand a chance. The shaman also gave them the location of the attackers. The attackers should still be roaming around, attacking other strongholds and riding off of their victory. Their current stronghold would be stationed with a skeleton crew. The party took the chance to examine some of the damage done to the fort. They found a wad of smashed metal - possibly lead. The party said they may return for more questions, to which Grakor was happy to accommodate.
The party quickly returned to Aarion and showed the metal to him. He paid them 50 gold for their trouble, and offered 75 for bringing back some weapons. The party set out again, this time on horseback using their newly acquired money.
Upon arrival, it was a somewhat similar scene - raw lumber and rope erected forts, and neighboring clearing so anyone approaching would do so in the open. Someone was stationed in one of the watch towers.
The party approached on the far side during daylight, and made it there without issue. They scaled the fort walls and found goblin slaves working a mill of some sort. There were many orcs there, as well as one watching the goblins. The orcs in the courtyard were doing target practice. The boom of their firearms was thunderous, and their aim terrible. The party managed to lure out the slave driver and kill him. Vladimir used his magic to lure the courtyard orcs out of the fortress. Rashel freed one of the goblins, but the watch tower orc spotted them, and fired some explosive ballistic at them, killing one of the goblins. The fight began in full. The party was able to fend off the orc in the watch tower and the orcs coming back in from over the wall were taken down with the hold of the recently freed goblins.
In the exchange, Rashel took a nasty blow from one of the mechanical melee weapons - a sort of axe with moving teeth where a blade would be. Vladimir studied what appeared to be a cannon of sorts below one of the watch towers.
The goblins were thankful, and fled into the wilderness.
The party brought back all of the weapons they found. They provided these to Aarion and Vladimir produced an illusion recreating the cannon. Aarion was both impressed with the party’s work, their haul, and what he referred to as a rapid advancement in the artifice, even if it was a bit crude by his standards. He even mentioned something about how this was an early version of something, but didn’t elaborate further.
Aarion paid them more than agreed - 100 gold each. He said he would need time to come up with a next move for them, and said they should meet again in a week’s time.
Total, the party gained 1750 XP.
Session 2
Aarion visited Vladimir and introduced Amaya Dungees to the party. Amaya’s family is close to Aarion, and he called her in as a sort of repaid favor. She had recently completed her training in the priesthood for the Raven Queen. She would be providing support to the party.
Rashel spotted orcs transporting slaves. They were being transported in broad daylight, and the town guards didn’t seem perturbed by this. Amongst them was an elvish magic user (identified by his magic muting collar). Rashel attempted to free the slaves by sneaking up and picking the lock, but was unsuccessful. Rashel ordered oil of slipperiness, and gave her wand of pyrotechnics as collateral. It would take a day to brew. Later, at night, Rashel snuck up and tried picking the lock again, this time breaking a pick off inside the lock. The next day, Rashel picked up the oil and managed to throw it to the elf. The slave wagon departed some time later. A day later, the elf returned to express thanks.
He introduced himself as Vaelis Duskthorn. He specialized in moonstone research. He’d done some things to make himself a political problem, and was disappeared from elvish society via imprisonment and later sold into slavery to orcs. He told them that one of the long term projects with moonstone was to use it to prolong the elvish life - to achieve true agelessness. He didn’t get into his specific area of research. Rashel gave him 40 gold. Vaelis said he could stick around and be of help to them, especially with that kind of money. The party entertained the idea of introducing Vaelis to Aarion, but Amaya cautioned that it would put Aarion in the position of having to betray his employers, and while Aarion can be very generous, he also has a ruthlessness to him as well - so Aarion’s stance of being able to help or turn Vaelis back in was not known.
Aarion returned somewhat early to Vladimir, and gave him a map to his next stone of power. He produced a map and warned him to be careful. The map placed this stone about 4 days travel into Gazgren.
The party noticed quickly a small dot flying overhead - seemingly stationary to them. If they listened carefully, they could hear a steady but faint buzzing. They also noticed another dot like it in the distance, moving perpendicular to their present course. The dot would cross their path in some hours. They noticed their own dot would lose them if they crossed into a forest, but would quickly find them again and resume following.
The party continued, and decided that maybe the other dot also had someone traveling under it. They stopped and hid when the other dot was getting close. In this location, they were before a break in the tree line. This clearing provided great visibility to another stronghold - this one seemingly made of scraps of metal. Under the other dot, crossing in front of them was a part of 10 or so orcs, brandishing weapons. The orcs were oblivious to the hidden party. They were on their way to the metal stronghold. A slit opened up on one of the stronghold’s walls, and it boomed with a glittering smoke coming from it. There was immediately an explosion amongst the orcs. Several of them were gone. Some were dazed or confused. A few others charged. Another boom left about three orcs left, and they fled.
The party decided to give the stronghold a wide berth to continue their journey. After they broke one a later tree line, they found the sky was now filled with more of these dots - some stationary and some slowly moving.
They came across some area where an engagement happened near two small hills. They found a bloody scrap of clothing - someone had been killed here and their bodies removed. By the time the party had an idea of what was going on, the orcs sprung their trap. Seven orcs charged them, with one with a larger tubed weapon. The party fought hard, with Rashel and Vladimir losing consciousness at some point (and sometimes more than once). Each member was brought near death. The orc in the back with the large gun lowly lobbed incredibly destructive shots at them. Though they managed to defeat all of them.
Afterwards the party went back into their knot of trees and hid and rested. Orcs passed by looking for them during the night, but the party wasn’t discovered.
The party arrived at the location on the map. It was in a larger cluster of trees. As they explored deeper, the air became frigid. As they continued, it got colder. Ice formations were on the pine needles and bark. Later it turned to snow. They spotted the stone of power floating, but something passed in front of it - nobody was able to make out what it was in the distance, but something was there. They got closer and discovered it was a white owlbear, walking around the stone. The owlbear seemed to sense them even though they were well hidden. It approached them. Vladimir cast a spell that didn’t really work on the owlbear.
From the owlbear came a stern female voice, saying this was Vladimir’s challenge. They would engage in a non-lethal fight. If he passed, he could have the stone.
Vladimir consented, and they started their fight. Vladimir was able to hold back the owlbear with the clever use of magic. Rashel tried to sneak around to get the stone, but the owlbear cautioned that he would fail the test if others intervened. The owlbear had superior might to him, but was only able to attack him once.
The owlbear was defeated, and collapsed into a druidic elven form. She healed Vladimir, and gave him the stone as promised. She said sometimes the best use of magic isn’t from its raw power but its clever application, as was demonstrated here.
Session 3
Aarion gave the party a mission to capture some drones, a drone operator, and any related equipment. One of the strongholds they thought would be good to take was the one they came across earlier that they witnessed drones coordinating a cannon strike on an orc raiding party.
The party snuck in at night, and was able to quickly dispatch the orcs defending it. One orc got away. They did capture a goblin calling himself Jerry, and frightened him into submission. They were able to take back quite a haul, including the drones, drone control equipment, the intact equipment on the operator, and the operator himself (Jerry).
Session 4
Ganvur was tasked with discovering the recent orc incursions into the sacred wood, <name>, and put a stop to their ferocious weapons that cut down and maimed trees with ease. When he was asking around in the Vellmarch Outpost, Aarion quickly found and recruited him - promising better results since they had common cause.
The first activity for Ganvur was to locate Vladimir, who had not been seen that morning. Amaya and Ganvur set out with a bucket to locate Rashel. Rashel wasn’t passed out drunk in a gutter somewhere, but instead was working studiously on some potion brewing. Amaya and Rashel exchanged some verbal jabs.
They went to Vladimir’s room at the inn. The door was forced open. The bed sheets spilled to the floor. Vladimir’s belt was slung over a chair and other belongings left the table next to it. Ganvur transformed into a dire wolf and picked up the scent: Orcs. Perhaps two. There was also a grappling hook still hanging from the window. Ganvur and party went to the rope downstairs and fro there, they picked up a scent. They followed it out of the outpost.
About two hours out, they came across a grassy butte. They could see a lookout just barely at the top of the butte, but details were too distant to make much out. Rashel snuck around the foot of the butte and found there were many lookouts around the top, somewhat evenly but distantly spaced.
They snuck closer and were able to determine it was a skeleton. Rashel used her darkness to approach and was able to destroy the skeleton without it even fighting back, as it could not see her. From there the party headed to the head of the butte. That’s where they saw the altar. Ganvur sent his raven familiar over.
Amongst several skeletons standing guard, there were two orcs there proceeding with the ritual, and a person meeting Vladimir’s description laying atop the altar. They had just sprinkled cinnamon. Ganvur knew of this ritual - an offering of atonement by sacrificing the object that presented the “excuse”, and cinnamon meant the ritual was nearing its end, which would mean a very dead Vladimir.
The party ambushed the orcs. The ritual casting orc and the scout that popped out later attempted to flee, but all were felled including the skeletons.
They were able to revive Vladimir and bring him back.
Since the party’s actions were coming back to bite them, Aarion decided they should join him in his keep. Aarion opened a large metal door behind his chair with relative ease considering it’s perceived weight. Aarion showed to the right was a hallway that contained his library - mostly journals in a series of closet-like rooms filled with books. He asked the party not to go in there, but he’d be happy to reveal it in time. To the left were rooms. The party members staked out their own rooms. Here there were no windows. Rashel left her things in a room but slept in the hallway.
At night, Amaya nudged Rashel awake. In just a night gown, Amaya looked much smaller as opposed to her armored form. She said she was a little disappointed that Rashel hadn’t gone in the library yet. With a quick glance they both snuck into the library.
In the first book-closet, they found the books were numbered - by their guess, year markers. They found one that was dated for next year. Amaya grabbed that book and quickly thumbed through it. One entry stated that Rashel had perished due to an orc artifice cannon of some kind, and there wasn’t enough of a body to restore. It also stated that Amaya was devastated by this, and that the author would have to help her.
Amaya suddenly regretted this excursion and returned the book. Rashel grabbed it and found that entry along with other entries about orc movements and battle plans - nothing of much substance with more digging more could be found. Rashel took the book back to her hallway corner and read under a blanket with candle light.
Shortly afterwards, the hobbled footsteps and tink of a cane were heard. Rashel cast darkness on herself but it was too late. Aarion said there were to be no spoilers yet. Rashel fearfully slid the book back. Amaya blamed Rashel for the hijinks and Ganvur checked in, only to see it was just madness and went back to bed. Aarion took the book and returned it.
Session 5
The party members individually awaken without a sense of time of day, due to lack of windows in the rooms. But the smell of breakfast tells them it’s time to rise. The desk in Aarion’s office has been pushed back, and a larger table setup to accommodate the party. Plenty of food has been set, and it was still hot. Members would dig in as they came.
Eventually, Aarion arrived and unfurled a map. This is a map of the surrounding region. Aarion said it was produced from the information gathered from the drone and drone operator. With more drones and operators, Aarion claimed he could provide even more information such as individual movements, details of the orc fortresses, and resolve details that couldn’t be seen before.
The party decided to go to one of the closer orc strongholds. First, Ganvur sent out his familiar to gather intelligence. Along the way he got to see a drone in operation. It paid his familiar no mind and moved at a somewhat slow walking pace, but he had no indication if this was its full speed or it. It did not struggle in the wind.
The stronghold itself had many orcs there, and there seemed to be a sort of rhythmic sound coming from it.
When the party was about to gather some more intelligence from the tavern in the Vellmarch Outpost, they heard a commotion in the streets. A gang of orcs had arrived, and they were making their presence known by being noisy and belligerent. The orcs spotted one of the town guards and their leader stated they were here to settle a feud under the border accords, and the orc pointed at the party as indication of the target of the feud. The town guard thus acquiesced, but remained to observe. People had already cleared the streets.
Rashel snuck around the buildings in the back while the party approached. The orcs explained how the party had made a name for themselves in orc territory, and if orcs brought down the party, it would do much to show how orcs were still the best warriors. The party had been identified by a single survivor made from one of the strongholds the orcs had attacked. The orcs had taken away his pepper box and mechanical axe and given him traditional orc weapons. This orc was able to identify some members of the party.
Rashel’s sneaking with her darkness up spooked some shop owners, whose shop she was sneaking through to flank the orcs. The orcs picked up on the commotion and Rashel dropped the attempt, and rejoined the party.
The party had almost gotten the orcs to believe the witness-orc was a liar, but they were there for a fight to prove themselves, and so at the slightest agitation they attacked.
The fight ended and the party was able to take down the orcs non-lethally. The captives were brought back to Aarion’s office, where he setup a room to keep the orcs in.
Session 6
Kyrix Saint Hubbins joined the party!
The party went to the Smooth Dragon to seek some information. There they learned of a party from Nomasgard sent to investigate the goings-on with Jerry the Joblin. One member stood out from the rest - some kind of tinkerer. He introduced himself as Berb Minesworth, an artificer brought to act as a consultant and knowledge expert in the field of artifice. The party was able to entice him with illusions of artifice devices discovered by the party.
Berb agreed that knowledge sharing would be helpful, and offered his services to the party should they discover anything new. He mentioned that this kind of artifice seems to stand on its own - it doesn’t rely upon magic to operate. With that, the artifice could enjoy much greater reliability. The party could test this by placing it in an anti-magic field, but those can be somewhat hard to find.
Berb also mentioned the Nomasgard party he arrived with had been here for only a day so far, and should be venturing out soon.
The party set out to the orc stronghold they scouted from afar earlier. Along the way, they found a drone just above the Gazgren border sign. It was struck down, and its parts salvaged.
Later along the road, the party encountered some dead orcs, who seemed to have been destroyed by a vicious beast. Upon further investigation, they found dragon-prints the size of wagons. They also found humanoid footprints heading towards Vellmarch Outpost, then disappearing when encountering the orcs, and reappearing again to continue the trek to the outpost. There were also faint signs that a robe might be getting dragged along the ground.
The party salvaged several bombs from the orcs, and took some for themselves.
Later the party encountered an ambush set by some elves. They spotted the ambush in advance and so were able to mostly sneak up on the elves. Things quickly turned into a parlay. Their leader, Thalendra Silverbranch, said they handled the orcs of this fort, and bade them to leave. Thalendra has heard of some of the exploits of a party who is attacking orcs and decimating them, and suspected it was this party. She hadn’t heard of their group outside of that in any official capacity.
The party enjoyed an uneventful trip back, destroyed and picked up another drone, and entered Aarion’s keep.
Aarion handed one of the large books to a robed human man, and a pouch of gold. The robed man left. On his way out, Ganver noticed the spine of the book had today’s date on it.
The party asked about the other parties they encountered. Aarion confessed he wasn’t forthright about everything. He is not the handler for a series of nations interested in Jerry the Joblin. Instead, it is a personal mission of his to find and speak to Jerry the Joblin. He left one of his hand picked books to read, and said he couldn’t be there to hear it read or read it himself. He left the room.
The party read the book. It seemed to be a journal of sorts, but strangely dated almost a year to the day in the future. It described orc troop movements. It also mentioned a party member they’d never heard of, and there was no mention of Ganver. It described how Rashel was outright destroyed by an orcish disintegration cannon, and there wasn’t anything left to revivify her. Amaya was distraught from this.
They summoned Aarion back in the room. He offered his metal cane to Kyrix and asked him to bend it. Kyrix tried but could not. Aarion took it back, and showed a slight but noticeable bend. He said he could bend it further, but didn’t wish to damage it. He said he is a golem from their future, or their past, depending on how you look at it.
Aarion described how he was in the far north - an icy uncharted region. His squad was destroyed, and he fell into a pit. When he awoke, he was surrounded by dead bodies that all resembled his. He used these bodies to make some repairs, and set out to return to the continent. He walked the ocean floor to get there. When he arrived, he found a world of magic and with diverse species - not just humans. He expected to find the void born - his sworn nemesis. But there were none.
He mentioned that as part of his history, creatures called the void born arrive en masse. Only the strongest heroes could best them, but the void born were far too numerous. Humanity retreated to a dwarven “gifted” underground city called the Light Hold. There are portals from the Light Hold that allow them to operate missions across the world. Magic, in his time, was a thing of the past.
His golem kind were created to fight the void born and drive them back.
There was mention too of how he’d run into Vela-3, and how that resulted in his injuries. He’s gone as far as he can with field repairs, and now needs a real repair center to fix his limp. Vela-3 was a mass produced (or “jigged”) golem, and at some point she betrayed humanity for power.
He had come across his own journals from prior iterations of himself. Some events seem to always happen, but there are also variations all over the place. As far as Aarion could tell, history seemed to keep repeating itself.
The destroyed orcs and foot prints was brought up. Kyrix knew these were the signs of an ancient dragon. Older dragons are able to take the form of humanoids. The dragonborn of Vyxt have an agency called Dragon Hunters who seek to expose immortals such as dragons because of the enormous influence that immortal creatures have over the nations. Their past with ruling dragons is soured for them.
The party then set out again for the fort and to speak with the elves. They acquired another broken drone. Near the orc bodies, they found a silver string and bell, and signs of the alarm spell. With some detect magic spell, they found the alarm area and circumvented it.
The party snuck up on the elves and learned the elves couldn’t reach their inside orc at the fortress. They needed to think out their next move, but they noticed the fortress is clad in scraps of metal. The party revealed themselves and approached peacefully. They agreed it would be good to attack the fortress and capture their leader. But there’s only one way in - the main gate. There is likely an escape tunnel somewhere that only the leader knows about, and it would be very difficult to find on the outside.
Thalendra Silverbranch agreed to ally themselves with the party for this attack.
Dusk is upon them.
Session 7
The party planned out their means of infiltrating the stronghold. Among them were searching for the escape tunnel exit they were sure existed, but did not know where, sneak past the patrols, into the stronghold via scaling the walls, and open the gate. More scouting was needed before making solid decisions.
As the party was about to scout the stronghold out further, they spotted a dragonborn waiting at the edge of the of the tree line, just outside it, flanked by a few other dragonborn and some orcs. The figure was dressed in colorful finery, and introduced himself as Scale, a magical minstrel. Thalendra Silverbranch knew of this individual as being from a group representing Vyxt interests, but found the what was happening to the orcs to be unbearably distasteful. He’d broken his ties with the dragonborn nation and has been wandering ever since as a vigilante helping orcs in various ways. Scale agreed with the assessment. Silverbranch regarded him with some suspicion but no outward hostility.
Scale determined that the flow of music had brought him here. He claimed the current leader (and would-be contact of Bel’Aheldan) of this fortress is also his greatest protege. Known currently as the Bombard, the orc had great music potential, but also great ambition to be more than one with his music. His people had drank “the grog”, and had resorted to abominable noise-making contraptions used to create music. All for power.
Scale couldn’t stand to see the direction of his creation, and would aid the party in taking him down. He would show them the location to the escape tunnel in the stronghold, which would take them directly into the stronghold itself. But before that, he wanted to see if the party was ready. He proposed a duel. Scale and his allies against the party and their allies. Keep the combat serious, but non-lethal.
The party managed to scratch by a victory. Scale yielded, and gave the party some riches and magic items for their trouble.
With night upon them, everyone setup camp and, in the morning, planned to set out for the escape tunnel’s exit.
Session 8
The party set out with Scale and the elves. They went around the stronghold and just beyond its view past some small hills. There the party encountered a ruined temple of sorts, but just a corner left of it. In the corner of the temple was a statue of an ancient but renown orc shaman who, long ago, raged a campaign across the land. This orc’s battle prowess didn’t translate to logistics though, and the campaign faded.
Scale played a song and the statue slid over to reveal a staircase entrance. The exit of the escape tunnel to the stronghold.
The tunnel was long, but the party advanced cautiously. They found traps and disarmed them. They found a large nugget of stellarium discarded in the tunnel. Silverbranch indicated the amount there was preposterous, and could break economies. Normally, stellarium is understood to be incredibly volatile and care must be taken with it, and this amount doubly so. In a pit trap, they managed to spot a sentinel shield at its bottom. The pit trap was re-armed with a rope of their fashioning. The party also found a small sampling of “the grog” on a broken tankard.
Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, Ganvur turned into a rat and scouted the stronghold. No orcs were found, and a strange darkness seemed to be covering the inside of the stronghold. From the outside, the stronghold seemed to be enveloping by a fog. Ganvur was still able to learn about the two buildings inside the stronghold, and that they housed war machine vehicles. The roofs of the two buildings were particularly obscured, strangely.
The party waited for a while. Industry around the area resumed. An orc was sent down to investigate the disturbance - the party thinking it to be rats. The orc was captured. They didn’t learn a lot about the orcs at the stronghold from interrogation, but they did get the orc wanting to work for them as an assistant to the “surveyors”.
With a plan that the elves spring out if anything happened, Vladimir used his invisibility and telepathic connection to individually move each party member into one of the buildings - the one with the piped vehicle in it. There they found an orc with a musical instrument in a chair, writing down musical lyrics. They understood this to be the Bombard. The party ambushed the orc, but he was quick on his feet. Battle ensued and his backup dancers arrived quickly. The Bombard was prevented from boarding his vehicle. The elves came out with Amaya and they engaged the other orcs outside.
As the Bombard came close to death, he activated an object he was carrying and discarded it. The sound of a horn blast filled the stronghold, and it seemed to carry indefinitely. When the party looked outside, they saw large amounts of stellarium along the ramparts of the stronghold exposed, held in place by some kind of contraption. These stellarium pieces were perhaps a foot in diameter. A glowing number came from a panel on the building opposite to the party. The number seemed to be decrementing about once every second, and it was on 52.
The party contemplated running or disarming the bombs. But there were too many, and Thalendra Silverbranch said going on foot wouldn’t get them far enough, even in the tunnel. With Vladimir at the reigns (although it was more like a rigid set of rods), the party hopped aboard the piped vehicle, along with the elves. The vehicle reached an absurd speed, and in a very short time the Stronghold was but a dot on the horizon, but Silverbranch seemed unconvinced this would be enough.
With a flash, the vehicle was enveloped with a series of painful colors. First red (which burned of fire), then orange (which burned, but like acid), yellow (electrifying), green (poison), blue (cold), indigo (force), and violet (headache). As each wave passed over, elves and party members alike collapsed from the abuse. Vladimir lost consciousness as the last wave passed over them.
Session 9
The party awakened slowly to the vehicle crashed and on its side. The elven scouts lied on the ground - some groaning and trying to rise, others remaining still. Silverbranch got up and held a smooth gemstone over one of the fallen elves, and a blue mist seeped out from the body of the elf and entered the stone, making it blow faintly blue. She put the gemstone into a pouch and pulls out another clear gemstone and moved to the next non-moving elf.
The party heard the sound of one of the rumbling vehicles in the distance. They quickly started to heal themselves and made to prepare for a fight.
The vehicle was another one of the orc war vehicles. It skid to a halt in front of the party. A voice bellowed to kill the spell casters, for they had no shackles for them, and take the rest. A couple of orcs disembarked and began to make their way over. The main cannon of the vehicle trained itself on Silverbranch. The protector in her group (Rhaebecca Thornfield) knocked Silverbranch aside. The cannon fired, and the protector quickly disintegrated. Though a green mist could be seen seeping into the stone that Silverbranch was holding, and the stone began to glow a faint green.
The sound of horse galloping could be heard.
The party tried to attack the vehicle but it seemed impervious to any harm they could give it.
The vehicle was about to sight itself in on the party, but directed itself instead to the approaching wagon. A cargo cart, carried by four horses, was charging in from behind the party. Driving it was Thalor. As Thalor stepped out of the cart while it was at full motion, the vehicle’s collective weapon fired at the cart, obliterating horses and disintegrating the cart, including Thalor’s signature cane. Thalor’s greatcoat was open now. With a rotation of his shoulder, a strapped object swung out from his backside. It appeared like the firearms of the orcs, but it had keen angles. Glyphs etched in key areas, and bright gemstones were encrusted above the trigger area. It had two barrels and was longer than the single handed pepper boxes used by the orcs.
Thalor pressed someone on the weapon with one hand, and in the other scooped up two small cylinders from the rainbow of cylinders lining the inside of his coat. A stark blue cylinder and a clear one. The firearm split in half on a pivot. He placed the two cylinders into the back of the barrel and closed the firearm again. He braced the stock against his bicep and fired once. The orcs approaching, the grass around them, and the front half of the vehicle all froze in place, with streaks of icicles pointing away from the blast. The orcs were frozen solid. Thalor clicked another part of the firearm and pulled the trigger again. The next blast was so loud that it was felt in the lungs more than heard. The orcs shattered into thousands of shards of dark ice, and the entire front half of the orc vehicle broke into much larger pieces. It’s engine, crew, and weapons were silenced.
A mass of vehicles could be seen coming down the hillside in the distance.
Thalor did his reload again with a single, purple cylinder and fired it at the vehicle’s upward sticking side. This impacted the vehicle without seeming to do much damage to it, but it caused the vehicle to tip over such that it was now back on its tracks. The living quickly boarded, and with Vladimir at the controls, they drove off - away from the approaching vehicles and towards Velmarch Outpost.
The vehicles gave chase, and were able to eventually catch up. Some fired weapons in front of the party’s new ride. Vladimir had to steer around them, causing difficulty for the passengers atop the vehicle. It also cost them some speed. So the orc vehicles were able to catch up in an attempt to knock the riders off or disable the vehicle.
Kyrix lobbed their acquired bombs at them, which didn’t seem to do much to the vehicles but took out the orc drivers. The elves were able to make use of their bows to try to hit the orcs as well. Amaya fired her divine magic at them. Vladimir even worked to aim the main gun in front of the orcs in attempt to cause them the same steering problems. Thalor waited for them to approach, and would destroy the vehicle outright with his weapon. Ganver climbed inside the control area and took the back, which appeared to be a multi-layered piano of some kind, with glowing rectangular glass that faintly glowed. Ganver was able to make sense of this being a location readout from the vehicle, and the piano must have been part of aiming apparatus. Ganver was able to play some music and it caused bombs to fire out of the great organ pipes of the vehicle, and rained down on the orc vehicles.
With some bumps they managed to clear out most of the orcs that were catching up. Thalor peeked in and pointed out they might be running the fuel out too quickly at this speed, but they also noticed more were coming.
A massive black dragon swooped on the line of vehicles and blew some caustic green fluid on them. The vehicles either stopped or violently exploded. The dragon kept going on its path, and eventually flew out of view.
With the threats gone, the party was able to let off the throttle a bit and go to more of a cruising speed. Ganver used his Pass Without Trace spell to conceal the tracks of the vehicle. Thalor directed them to a hidden vehicle-stable, which he called a garage, a 20 minute walk outside of Velmarch Outpost. The garage looked able to stock at least two of these vehicles. Thalor explained this had happened before, and concealing it was far better than just parking it in town.
On the return, Thalor explained the situation to Silverbranch, who strangely didn’t seem to balk at the claims but followed along with concern. From overhearing the discussion, the party also learned that Thalor’s issued weapon was called a caster - his specific kind a scatter caster - a weapon that fired a single “caster shell” at a time, and it applied incredible force. His golem body was engineered to essentially be a mobile firing platform for these kinds of weapons. The recoil could seriously injure a normal humanoid attempting to use the weapon.
Thalor gave the party 400 gold each for the find of the vehicle. The party decided to go shopping. While there, the party learned that Varnell’s Arcane Provisions bought the shop space adjacent to it, and in moved Zap Crackle Pop. Edric Varnell’s cousin, Steef Varnell, runs the Zap Crackle Pop. Edric doesn’t seem terrible fond of Steef, but this was the partnership that helped add a teleportation circle to Velmarch Outpost.
There even seems to be a skyport being built in the outpost.
Various restaurants are also under construction. It’s like a gold rush has hit the outpost.
Session 10
Back at Thalor’s keep, the party learned of pipeline to the north. The thought was that’s where fuel for the vehicles is coming from, as well as the orc “grog”. They set out on horseback. They swung past the crater left behind from the Bombard’s stronghold.
The crater was absolutely huge, and cut almost a perfect hemisphere into the ground. It could’ve easily been a mile in diameter. On the far side, one could make out, like looking upon an ant farm, the layers of sediment give way to clay, and then give way to bedrock. Tunnel systems had been exposed. Though most notably was a sphere floating where the epicenter of the stellarium detonation would have been.
The sphere was a shimmering orb of light. It looked like a lens of a massive telescope, pointed at some distant but glowing pattern of colors, and the lens was slowly panning between colors. One bright but distinct color would wash in, and then after a second would wash into another color. It rotated between distinct red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet colors.
After moving west past the crater, they opted to go into the nearby northern forest instead of sticking to the roads. Their plan was to take the forest to the hills, and then break from the hills to the terminus of the pipeline as it entered the northernmost forest.
The party was eager to bypass orc patrols. When entering the hills, they could hear the engines of vehicles out in the distance. They closed in on the sound of one patrol that seemed to be maintaining a distance. There, they discovered a racing ring of sorts. Orcs were in their buggies, running laps! The party had also come up behind the score keeper, who was standing next to their own parked buggy. They quickly, and non-lethally dispatched the orc, and left him buried to his neck in the earth, asleep. They took his buggy and piled into it. It was uncomfortable seating for four when the buggy only seated 2, but they made it work.
They tried entering the track as a means of getting through it, but they wound up getting tangled with the orcs and fighting ensued. The party’s magic wrecked mayhem on them (sleeping drivers have trouble driving), along with other means of interference. From this they were able to acquire an additional buggy to where everyone got one (with Ganver as a mouse), and they were on their way.
They did pass another group of buggies going towards their old location. But by the time the orcs could realize the party weren’t other orcs, the party had already gained considerable distance.
The party was able to make it to the pipeline on open ground after that without much issue.
At that pipeline, they noticed lots of fungus growth around - mostly a wide, magenta colored moss carpet that followed the pipeline into the forest. It was notable that there seemed to be multiple kinds of fungus coexisting, not something considered typical. They followed the pipeline into the forest canopy. This let them reach the end of the pipeline quickly. There they found two orcs, unaware of them. One was talking about Bombard’s survival. The party decided to try talking with the orcs. The other orc didn’t take kindly to their arrival and considered the hostile. The one talking about Bombard knocked out the belligerent orc and tossed him in the fungus, which quickly started eating the orc alive. The remaining orc introduced himself as Frig.
Frig said he is still working for them and has been a spy in the ranks of the orcs since they last met. He took their talk before of hiring him very seriously, and he presented his achievements in hopes of a good performance review.
Frig gave them some information about the fungus, the pipeline, and how it’s also going to make grog and fuel the burgeoning orc war machine. Down below awaited the main extraction system. Frig hadn’t been there and wasn’t equipped for it, and posited he was better off continuing to infiltrate the orcs. He could explain the other orc perishing due to stupidity pretty easily. He did also warn it was pretty lethal down there. Notably, Frig referred to them as the Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau decided to head back. Patrols did spot them along the way but it was easy to out pace them.
Session 11
Census Bureau was not sure where to go next. They headed to the crater with intent of exploring the dungeon-looking areas exposed from the explosion.
At the crater, they hid their buggies and formed a stairway down to the dungeon they found along the side. They did spot drones near the sphere, seemingly studying it. They also noticed there weren’t any drones that followed them as they entered orc territory. There were orcs on the other end of the crater, repelling down with ropes to explore their own cave or dungeon networks.
The “dungeon” had a dwarven puzzle that they solved by aligning gem stones according to their values.
In the underground area they found books detailing a means of measuring damage using “pints” as well as plans for golems that dated some 200 years back. They found statues that were equipped with what seemed to be standard looking but untarnished soldierly war gear. They found everything to be incredibly heavy for what it should be. They pocketed two battle axes, two shields, and four throwing axes. They decided to leave the armor behind because it was too heavy for the bags of holding.
They battled some black puddings. They found what they thought were golem bodies of dwarves, a male and female. They stood motionless, and there was some gap in their back for some kind of apparatus to connect to. It wasn’t consistent between the two of them. Their flesh felt pliable.
The remaining passage had caved in.
They left and went to a natural tunnel nearby. This tunnel opened up to a large area full of stalagmites and stalactites. It had an extremely deep chasm going through it. When the Census Bureau approached, they were attacked by a roper. They defeated it, though it was harrowing.
Session 12
5900XP, divided 4 ways = 1475 XP.
After the fight with the roper, the party noticed sort of contraption with a series of steel cables, pulleys, some of which went into a box that had some levers on it. They determined it was a kind of heavy duty lift, perhaps somewhat portable. They determined this lift could haul incredibly weight.
Inspecting the depths of the fissure, they saw faint colors of blue, white, and red shimmering below diffusely. There was also the distant sound of shouts and clangs. It sounded irregular and frantic - perhaps the distant sounds of fighting.
Ganver shape changed into a spider and crawled down the cable to find its bottom. It was a long crawl. By the time he’d gotten there, the sounds of fighting had stopped.
The rock here had been blown outwards, judging by the distribution of stone on the floor of the cave here. The floor was littered with dead orcs. Some of them had tried to defend themselves with their mining equipment. The mining equipment itself seemed to be built out of exotic materials. The most striking thing in the room was the several-barn-sized growths of stellarium, with its telltale sharp light of shimmering blue, white, and red. Berb Minesworth sat upon a larger stone, facing both the carnage and the stellarium.
To the left and right ran a mine cart rail, and both sides of the cavern had passages whose destinations could not be seen.
Three figures could be seen. An armored human man and woman, and a cowled woman. The cowled woman was instructed to handle cleanup, and they would root out any other operations they could find. The armored ones departed through the right entrance. The cowled woman went to the left.
Ganver spoke to Berb. Berb said this is where the group went. The group went directly here. They found through a crack in the wall here that there was signs of stellarium. They blew the walls in and immediately attacked. The orcs didn’t stand a chance. This party’s strength is immeasurable. There were orcs that were able to defend themselves with proper weapons. However, the might as well have been unarmed for all the good it did them.
Ganver headed back up to share the news. After a few moments, the lift started to rise. The party took hiding positions. The cowled woman is who came to the top. She confidently strode through the stalagmites without arming herself. She called out, seeming to understand the party would be around her somewhere.
Vladimir stepped out and conversed with her. She introduced herself as Ellvra. She seemed to know about the spider conversing with Berb. She did explain she would kill them.
The fight ensured. The party was able to lock her down pretty well. In the end, she had to flee. She moved incredibly fast, and jumped off the ledge of the fissure. She crashed at the bottom.
The party returned back. Thalor said she was probably a golem, and her plummet to the bottom likely didn’t kill her if her head remained intact, but her body was likely destroyed. Until they could bring her back to a facility, she wouldn’t be able to tell her tale.
The party met Darrukh, the orc leader of the party of orcs that attacked the Census Bureau and were captured. They talked about things they could send the orcs to do. Darrukh was shown the special pipe organ vehicle. He popped open a cache of gold that the party took.
The old woman intercepted Rashel and told her to ask about the chipped off mask that Amaya carries. She even provided a location on the map, in Egalstan territory north east of Lake Fortune.
Session 16
After having vanquished the battle wagon crew, the Census Bureau spent some time learning how the battle wagon worked. They learned the main cannon was a disintegration cannon. Amaya learned the gunner post, Vaentril learned the disintegration cannon, Vladimir learned the driver position, and Ganver learned also the driver position.
The party found the two goblin drone operators to be very cooperative. Ganver was shown how to operate them as well. They took time to scout out the other stronghold the party had their eyes on. There was no sign of the zepplin around anywhere. The stronghold appeared to be relatively inactive.
The party dropped off the goblins in a nearby edge of forest, and proceed to the stronghold in their newly acquired vehicle. When they got there, the found the gates open. There was a lot of scrap in the courtyard, but still no signs of activity. It looked like any other of the recent orc strongholds - scrap metal pieces haphazardly thrown together to build walls, ramparts, floors, and other things to create a both patchwork and jagged appearance. This stronghold had a garage at the back of it. Directly in front of the garage was a treasure chest, and about 20 feet to the right of it was a barrel, also up against the garage. The two objects looked very much out of place.
The party also noticed there were no foot prints on the ground, and some of the scrap looked like it belonged to a some kind of orc machine.
Vladimir inspected the barrel. It sprang eyes and vicious teeth. Pseudopods extended from its form to attack! The chest did the same and also joined the attack. These were easily dispatched by the party. Just as the mimics were falling, one of the scrap piles started to attack in the same way. The fight continued to escalate - they’d beat back a mimic only to have another sprout up in its place from the scrap pile. Then parts of the stronghold’s structure grew eyes and fangs and also began to attack. Many of them focused on the battle wagon. They tried to tied down the battle wagon. Through wit and magic, they were able to disable the mimics and retreat. One mimic retreated when it was hit with the disintegration cannon. The battle wagon and the party with it were able to flee, but it had taken some major damage.
The colony remained intact. Practically every structure in that location had sprung to life. The only building that hadn’t attacked or moved was the garage.