Mark Krumholz's Scenario

The Setup #

I ran the Leo armies which ravaged monster-kind for most of the Con. Their secret was that General Kavanagh, High Priest-Marshal of Leo, had asked for divine intervention to help fight the monsters. In response, Leo blessed the armies sent to fight the monsters. To receive this blessing, the army had to perform an elaborate ritual at dawn on any day battle was expected. The ritual required 3 priests, one at least 7th level, to perform, and required an elaborate carved stone altar and a pair of ornately worked swords. When completed, the ritual gave every soldier in the army Fight Like a Lion IV, Enhance Weapon, and several other benefits for the rest of the day. With these magical effects, the Leo armies were crushing the monsters in their path.

Run 1: "We Ran Into a Little Trouble..." #

The party was summoned by Tarkath, a powerful skull warrior whose tower occupied a crucial mountain pass at the edge of monster territory. He instructed them to investigate a small human army gathering at the base of the mountains. The party did so, and found maps showing several more armies on coming on the heels of this one. They also managed to find the altar and swords used in the ritual. Unfortunately, in the process they also set of some wards and got tracked back to their camp by some members of the Order of the Red Sword encamped with the army. Rather than standing and fighting, most of the party fled and two of their number were killed. They retreated back to the tower, where Tarkath instructed them to go watch the camp and find out something useful. The party watched the ritual at dawn, and convinced Tarkath not to leave his entire army at the tower. This turned out to be a good decision, since the half of it he left was utterly annihilated. This victory did, however, open up monster territory to the human armies.

Run 2: "Fire! Fire! Fire!" #

To slow the onrushing armies, the party is ordered to sneak behind enemy lines and destroy a human supply depot. Fortunately, this party included enough flying creatures (two drakes plus a sphinx) to make get the entire party airbone. They got within ten miles of the depot by stealth flying at night, and then flew in at high speed. The vaikral kept most of the soldiers occupied with darkness spells, the beholder and the werewolf kept the officers occupied with long-range spells, while the drakes and the lich burned the whole depot (which was made of wood) to the ground. However, it took them nearly a week to approach the depot by stealth and scout it out. By that time, the next phase of the human invasion had already taken place.

Run 3: "There's 'Nary a Creature in the World That Can Outrun a Greased Vaikral" #

The Leo armies conquered Castle Bloodspire, and staked its vampire master Duke Morden. They were using it as a base of operations and storage sight. There was a three-day window when it would be manned by only a small garrison of 250 men. The monster party was ordered to get the gates open so a monster force could retake the castle. They were also ordered to find Father Arujah, the Samwise cleric who staked Morden, and bring his still-warm heart to one of Morden's progeny. The party snuck into the Castle, and managed to bluff their way almost to Arujah's bedchamber by a combination of invisibility and a clever doppleganger.

Unfortunately, the doppleganger couldn't prove he was supposed to be on the second floor of the castle, and was arrested by the guards there. The commander of the army and the head Leo cleric took the doppleganger away to interrogate him, leaving the invisible party alone on the second floor of the castle with Father Arujah and a mage. Using a silence spell for cover, they attacked those two, a battle which included a ridiculously ineffective attempt by a fey and a lich to grapple between the Good Sam cleric. In the end the PCs killed the Sam and the mage, but then had to escape past the guards, who were now on alert.

The party decided to try and get up onto the roof rather than going back through the castle. They finally got out a chimney, after have the vaikral take off her armor, greasing her, and having lich and the bughieman push her out the chimney from beneath. The party then summoned the zombie army (using an item they had been given), and proceeded to the gate. Using a magic hand and a quick assault, they opened the gate and overwhelmed the gate-guards. Before the rest of the humans could cut them to pieces, the zombies rushed in and re-took the castle. They found the captured doppleganger being interrogated, and freed him. They also find a stockpile of altars and sword like the ones seen by the first party.

Run 4: "Lust Can Be a Powerful Weapon" #

To replace the altars captured in run 3, the humans have sent a shipment of altars from their high temple at Hack'n'Sack to a large army encampment at Hack'Its'Town. The PCs are ordered to go into human territory, intercept and destroy the caravan, and return its Leo priest escort alive for questioning. The party managed to kill a human patrol enroute to meeting the caravan, but got there before anyone found out. Then the party's two succubi went to work.

Disguising themselves as brother and sister, they attached themselves to the caravan, while using the vampire in bat form to relay information. When the caravan camped for the night, the succubi arranged to go on third watch. During the watch, they... err... distracted the two people (one man, one woman) on watch. Taking advantage of the distraction, the rest of the party got close to the camp and managed to blow up large sections of it before the humans could organize a resistance. The party dispatched all the humans who weren't killed in the initial attack, and destroyed the altars. They also managed to knock out the Leo priest rather than killing him, and then sneak him back into monster territory.

Run 5: "Death From Above" #

The Leo priest from run 4 revealed under interrogation that the only way to end the Jihad was to kill General Kavanagh, the Leo High Priest- Marshal. The party had enough flying creatures to get to the High Temple of Leo in Hack'n'Sack without being spotted. They took up residence in a local barn, after making a light snack of the farmers. After the sphinx cast detect protection on the temple itself, they party decided that it was probably not the optimal place for the battle. Instead, they watched from above the cloud and waited for the priest to take a trip outside the temple. When they did, the dive-bombing began.

Covered by an illusion of a cloud and movement hasted, the party descended at high speed. The sphinx picked up the Leo priest, while the drake breathed on everyone else. The remaining party members kept the mages from getting any spells off. The party flew away, leaving the bodyguard of fighters and clerics on the ground. Unfortunately, they also left the naga on the ground, and he was cut to pieces by the bodyguard in short order. Meanwhile, the Leo priest managed to do a ridiculous amount of damage to the sphinx, which kept aloft only because the fey on its back spent an equally ridiculous number of spell points curing. In the end, the combination of implodes, lances, and manticore claws thrown at General Kavanagh finally wore him down. With a triumphant slash, the manticore disembowled him and sent his entrails raining down over Hack'n'Sack.

Afterword #

With General Kavanagh dead and the Blessing of Leo gone, the Leo armies were not even close to a match for the monsters. Those in monster territory were quickly overwhelmed, and boy did they taste good. The rest quietely went back to their farms and resumed paying tribute to the monsters. And all was (un)well...

PrinceCon 23 Summaries & Run Recaps: #

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