DnD Campaign 2 Notes - The Shadow Over Innistrad

Characters

Lasair – Dragonborn Barbarian (Dylan Thompson)
Dochas – Half-Elf Sorcerer (Dylan Thompson)
Goblin Ramsay – Automaton Artificer (Shivay Singh)
Chad – Half-Orc Barbarian (Shivay Singh)
William Steig – Half-Orc Barbarian (Shivay Singh)
Balliuus – Changeling Warlock (Sylvain Bechet)

Plot Summary

100 years after The Lost Mine of Phandelver, the town of Phandalin had flourished and became the central hub for trades in the region. From this boom ushered a new technological advancement for Phandalin which in turn led to new and eager adventurers exploring Phandelver. One mission attracted a rather peculiar set of travellers; an artificer and chef in the making: Goblin Ramsay, a half gnome half dragon with a prestigious history: Lasair Snagairean, and an intellectual warlock with a knack of ruffling up people’s feathers: Ballius Dedicatus. Sister Gararele, the Grand Archmage in Phandelin and the client for this mission told the party of new and exciting worlds they would explore and endless encounters they would face. But without consent or any form of agreement, she threw the newly formed party headfirst into the well journeying to the plane of Innistrad.

The party found themselves in a forest, later known as the Ulvenwald, and met with Sir Delandel Hyth who had rescued them from their first sudden encounter with werewolves under the oversized yet alluring Silver Moon. Dely (the nickname given by Grandmama Trissala) then escorted the party to the safety of the nearby village which would become the party’s haven after terrorizing and ultimately killing their neighbour and stealing his pots.

From there, the party took on many quests which had often led to unravelling other mysteries and trauma on Innistrad; they went on a quest to slay a large frog who had thrown the nearby village into disarray, confronted many special children and their neglectful parents (RIP Wilbur and father of the decade, Olgar) and loss an inspiring chef to a hoard of frog minions (Death count in the party = 1). After another unfortunate soul in the form of a half-Orc named Chad was plunged onto Innistrad by Sister Garaele, the party somehow found themselves on a quest which resulted in the party leaving the Grady Twins in the care of the house butler and helped their mother find peace in the afterlife by usurping the house ring from a Darwinist ruler, becoming the Head of the Mauer Lineage.

One of the party’s earlier quests required them to follow a kor named Nahiri to the plane of Zendikar. She informed the party that she was the self-appointed warden and protector of her plane and had recently fought back the Eldrazi hoard that were bounded on Zendikar for thousands of years. She was on Innistrad to find her friend and mentor who helped her a long time ago imprison Eldrazi on Zendikar but had also expressed that she wanted to return to her home plane as soon as possible for she didn’t know how long much longer the temporary binds would’ve hold the Eldrazi hoard. Nahiri persuaded and high key bribed the party with fishes from a distant lake in exchange for the party to travel with her and investigate why or how the bindings momentarily loosened on the Eldrazi.

On Zendikar, Nahiri goes off by herself to check whether her brief departure to Innistrad cause any opportunities for the Eldrazi to escape, leaving the party to wonder aimlessly until they encountered several mutated humans. The mutated humans were covered in a black latticed ooze-like substance which leach out of their every flesh wound and orifice. These beings often muttered incoherent phases like a chant or battle cry as they battled with the party: “Em…er… …Emmmm….raaa”. This infection was later nicknamed as BOOBS by the party with the party deducing that the BOOBS seemed to be somewhat sentient as if an unknown parasite was taking over their bodies by first infecting the brain of their hosts. After fighting their way through the hoard of mutated humans, the party finds a mystery dungeon and convinced the devoted acolytes there they were in the dungeon to pay their respects to the shrine. The party now reunited with Nahiri approaches the altar noticing the header: ‘Ula, Emeria, Kozi. The forsaken gods of Zendikar’. After Nahiri realised the significance of the shrine, she becomes noticeably irritable and gestures to the party they would need to quickly go back to Innistrad as she would need to talk with her old friend

Back on Innistrad from the party’s travels to Zendikar, the party finally talks to Sister Queeny. Sister Queeny informs the party that she is a part of a secret faction within the church of Avacyn who had kept their faith not solely in the church, but the values and strength vacyn provides to the humans on Innistrad. She tells the party of the unusual events that have occurred recently on Innistrad and might be somewhat linked to a vampire named Sorin Markov, heir to the Markov lineage. Sister Queeny gestures to “Markov Manor” on the party’s map and so the party travels to their new destination.

Upon arriving at Markov Manor, the party saw rocks and tombs jutting from the ground in front and around the manor and old relics which looked somewhat newly risen from the ground. As they make their way through a magical blanket of fog that shrouds the mansion and suicide puppets, the party finds themselves within a ruined castle, different to what they had seen from the outside. A corpse in the corner of the room caught the party’s eyes and Jenrik’s Journal. On brief examination of the journal, there were entries that documented the writer’s journey to explain the recent shadow that had fallen over Innistrad. As the party moves through the hallway lined with vampire encased in granite, they finally meet the white-haired vampire, Sorin Markov. After antagonising and duelling with Sorin to a standstill, Ballius tells Sorin why they were on Innistrad and mentions both Avacyn, and Nahiri planeswalking onto Innistrad. Upon hearing the mention of both Avacyn and Nahiri, Sorin becomes noticeably alarmed and flees from the manor and the party.

Stealthily making their way through the Ulvenwald and back to Hallowhedge with the Ed team, the party finds Hallowhedge overrun by human infected with BOOBS, much like those that they’d encountered on Zendikar. After dealing with the BOOBS-infected humans, they discover Dely guarding the few surviving villagers who had bunkered in the town inn. Dely tells the party how upon trying to find his missing grandmama, he had pass by the shores of the Drownyard Temple and seeing a large hoard of zombies all working together towards one goal but didn’t know what it was. Dely tasks the party to figure what they were building and so the party departed for the Downyard temple leaving the Ed team to provide additional reinforcements if Hallowhedge would be attacked again.

During their journey to the Drownyard temple, the party opens Jenrik’s Journal and read the passages that described the occurrence of cryptoliths and of a significantly large body that warps the flow of mana though the region, potentially having severe effects on beings of raw mana. The party then notices the crytoliths were all bending as if they were gravitating towards or pointing to something in the distance, all the while seeing moving thunderstorms and low pitched thunder coming from directly above the shores of the Drownyard Temple.

Soon after defeating the zombies on the shores of the Drownyard Temple and deducing the thunderstorms were in fact angels fighting one another, the party encounters angels from 3 different flights as they reach the bay (the cakes, the axolotls and Exodia) battling 2 of the 3 angel factions. After the encounter, the angel nicknamed Exodia introduces herself as Sigurda, Host of the Flight of Herons. She tells the party that she was searching for clues to explain the sudden behavioural change in supernatural beings on Innistrad after meeting with her sisters Bruna and Gisela, and Avacyn. She suggests to the party that they should go to the human capital of Tharaben as there is a magical cryptolith at its center which might stop the madness and so the party made their way to Tharaben.

On their way to Tharaben, the party first meets Bruna, Host of the Flight of Alablaster, who was terrorising a small group of humans which include Mia from the Gitrog quest. The party makes quick work of Bruna, who then tied her up and kept her hostage. Soon after, they encounter Gisela, the Host of the Flight of Goldnight, and who killed Sir Delandel. When the party proceeds to fight her and her flight, both Chad and Lasair met their doom at the hands of the Warrior Angel. (Death count in the party = 3). Upon seeing the death of his comrades, Ballius quickly uses a smoke technique blinding Gisela and her guards and made his way back to the campsite where they encountered Bruna.

Soon a portal above the campsite’s fire pit opens but no one falls out. Instead, Ballius sends his companion, Cawcaw to enter the well and to retrieve his new comrades. These new comrades were a half orc Barbarian named William Steig and Draconic sorcerer named Dóchas Draíocht. After exchanging pleasantries and their mutual hate towards a certain sister near a well in Phandalin, the party equips their makeshift Bruna backpack and tries to confront Gisela again only to find two angels of Goldnight (cake) in her place. Making quick work of these angels, the party continued their journey to Tharaben choosing the path through the Voldaren Estate, killing its ruler to also become the Head of the Voldaren Estate and lineage.

Upon entering through the first gate of Tharaben, the party saw the flight of Goldnight with their host, Gisela purging the human capital of humans strays and BOOBS abominations. Gisela lunges towards the party after seeing her sister used as a backpack by William only to have the party remove her and Bruna’s brains from their heads before moving towards the second gate.

Pass the second gate, the party witnesses a rally in the square with Church Lunarch Mikaeus at the podium preaching about a new order within the church. His speech denounced and villainised the church idol and her winged kind as he listed the many fallacies all supernatural beings had on Innistrad. He stated the church was better off believing in humankind and with himself at the helm, humans will no longer be hidden but feared instead.  As the rally continued, the party was separated and tried. Dochas was among the ones chosen, accepted, and blessed by Mikaeus to join the new church order while Ballius and William were both rejected. As the rejectees fate were to be executed, William and Ballius fought the church guards as well as Mikaeus, slaughtering them and freeing the rejected from their deaths. While this was happening, some of the chosen few accepted in the new church order slipped out behind the building and out of Tharaben.

Finally, the party proceeded to the innermost section of Tharaben only to see a large silvery crytolith and a single albino angel who seemed unaffected and unaware of the events that had occurred so far. After the party had moved closer and interacted with the central crytolith known as the Helvault, the albino angel revealed her name was Avacyn and she had once been imprisoned within the Helvault. She recalls to the party her time within the Helvault and the one friend that had kept her company during her time in the silver prison. She then told the party of her friend affecting the minds of those Avacyn was sworn to protect in hopes that Avacyn would notice and play with her after they both were released from their imprisonment. As Avacyn was recounting her stories, the party could see the angel’s madness building up before them and without notice she had lunged at the party causing a battle to ensue. Amidst the battle, Sorin appeared and tries to calm Avacyn down revealing to Avacyn and the party that he created Avacyn and that he could rectify the situation. As the battle continued, Avacyn no longer saw Sorin as her creator, bypassing the safety measures Sorin had installed in Avacyn. Knowing she was beyond all hope, Sorin had to put Innistrad’s protector and his creation down which released Avacyn from her madness long enough for her to apologise to her creator for the damage she had caused to his world. Soon after Avacyn’s death, the true form of an Eldrazi Titan emerges from the horizon, a large purple mushroom-like being with numerous tendrils acting as legs and a single purple light radiating from the centre where an eye would naturally be frantically searching of her now deceased friend. Her appearance attracted the whole party’s attention as they remembered the name of the titan from the entries in Jenrik’s Journal, Emrakul. The party then looked back to where the fallen angel and Sorin should’ve been only to see Sorin holding Avacyn in his arms and planeswalking away.

Post-Campaign

Interlude: Goblin Ramsey’s Birthday Nightmares

Dwyfol could’ve sworn there was a knock at the door. Except it sounded more like a … whack? He couldn’t place it, but there was definitely something at least a little bit … off about it.
Nobody had knocked at his door in years. He supposed that was what happened when you lived with a dragon.
Opening the door slowly and carefully, he realised that a) the door was far too heavy to reliably do that with, and b) he really needed to oil the hinges.
He saw, standing before him, a dragonborn that looked like he’d rather die.
“Our healer tried to help and the priests said you liked to tinker. Here’s some money …” The dragonborn thrust out a hand, then withdrew it – realising with a start that, instead of the hand holding some money, he’d extended an arm full of robot artificer parts. Dwyfol assumed that was what he’d used to knock on the door.
“Very well, give me the parts.”
Metal was then exchanged, as well as the cash required to fix them.
“How are your brothers?”
“They still do all the songs.”
“They’re hymns, not songs. You never learnt respect …”
“Well, no, Dad; you were never particularly bothered to teach it.”
“But you do … remember them, right?”
“… yes.”
Dwyfol leant back, surveying both the collection of robot pieces in front of him, and the son that he’d clearly decided a while back would only be worthy of respect if he were somebody else.
“Show me.”
“What if I don’t?”
Dwyfol looked down. “There’s not enough money here anyway …”
Lasair sighed. “Fine.”
Dwyfol set to work with the robot, barely watching his son stumble through the complex religious ceremonies he had been taught since birth.
After about ten minutes and two bruised knees, Lasair looked over at his father.
“So are you going to tell me what it is that you’re doing?”
“Hmph. If you want to help, go grab a frying pan and all the bolts you can find.”
Lasair managed to pull Goblin Ramsey’s special pan from somewhere within the pile of – Dwyfol was certain this was the technical term for it – goblin junk. He then set about removing the bolts from the table legs and light fittings.
“Hmph. Two short.” Again, without even looking up.
Lasair was at a loss. Nothing else in the house to take apart.
After a brief deliberation, he took the hinges from the door. The dragon’s reputation was as good an alarm as any.
“Okay, so first we need to use the pan as the main body, like this,” Dwyfol did something and then somehow the pan was cylindrical.
“The bolts are just to keep the whole thing together, and most of the pieces are still here…”
He mucked about for a bit, just sitting and hammering, while Lasair looked around the room at the life he could’ve had. All in all, not missed much.
After about half an hour, Dwyfol stood up, and robot seemed … complete, but not quite ready yet. Something was still missing. He muttered several incantations, then the robot moved.
Goblin Ramsey straightened up, as if awakened from a bad dream.
“So what’d I miss … and what did you do with my frying pan?”

Epilogue: My Funeral Rules

Balliuus discarded the journal. “Fucking Markov journal.”
“Damn incomplete research. He was probably thinking he’d be able to get free labour.”
“He’s literally dead.” Dochas interjected
“Well, yes. But we sustained losses too.”
“Oh, right …” Balliuus looked down at the crumbled, split journal, and picked it back up – handling each piece like the soul of a friend.
Chad noticed the change in the atmosphere. “We should have a funeral.”
“Well,” Balliuus looked over at the shadow in the distance. “Likely we’re dead anyway. So why not.”
“You’re the only one that actually knew them … you speak first.”
“I’d literally rather die. And will almost certainly run away.”
“You could swap places with me, then.”
Balliuus looked up at the unexpected voice. Well, a reply had been expected but not one that sounded like … that. He hadn’t heard that voice since …
“Goblin? How did you come back?”
“A guy called Dwyfol and his son stitched me back together like six months ago.”
“Oh! Lasair! But when – we were in the same party for the whole time?”
“During a long rest, or three, we went to the dragon’s lair and I got fixed.”
“That explains the pot-belly.”
“Yes, quite literally.”
“So, you want to speak; then go for it.”
With a clank, Goblin Ramsey spoke. “So I guess first we’ll remember Lasair. Sadly taken from us by …” He trailed off, clearly the limitations to his knowledge would cause some issues during the speech.
Balliuus spoke up. “The vampires.”
“Oh. Well, I liked being in a party with him, before I, yeah …” Goblin looked down at his belly, which creaked.
“Yes, you got git, by the Gotrogg. Or so I’ve been told.” Chad, just doing his best.
“Other way around – got by the Gitrogg. And it was the minions that got you.” Balliuus corrected the errors in the speech so far (most of it).
“The yellow buggers?” Goblin.
“No, the angels that looked like cakes came later.” A retort from Dochas, which left Goblin confused.
“Okay lets do this in order, and …”
“Yes, yes, I’ll do the bloody speeches. This is causing me physical pain.” Balliuus took over.
“Lasair was a hard man to get to know. He must have taken a risk on us at some point at the beginning …”
“And the end.”
“Will you let me finish, Goblin? You’re the one that didn’t want to do the speeches. Anyway, he took a risk on us and I am glad I knew him, even if at the beginning he was standoffish and made the dinners in Hallowhedge awkward.”
“Okay, next is …”
“Stop trying to MC. I’ll move on when I’m ready, thank you very much. Goblin Ramsey was the next to die.”
“I’m right here.”
“Sometimes I can still hear his voice …”
“I’m right here.”
“He liked stealing pots and always bragged about all the cool equipment he had, not that we ever saw any of it.”
“Fair. Next?”
“I’ll disassemble you if you try and cat-herd me again. Next, Chad died and he was very direct, but should take some hits in a fight. Just not enough. Pleasure to have in class.”
“In class?”
“Well, obviously only I actually have class. But in the classroom, which is … like, the world. Chad always attacked the stuff in wells. As I recall, his logic was ‘fuck Sister Giraele’. Which was fair enough.”
“And the monsters?”
“Why the hell would I eulogise the monsters?” asked Balliuus, brandishing a screwdriver, “also what did I tell you?” Caw Caw prepared himself for the seemingly inevitable feast on eyes.
“But my wings though?” Chad spoke up.
“Eh. They can have their own funeral. I reckon we’re done here. Now, let’s get inside before that shadow gets to us.

 

Post-Script

1: New Capenna (14-06-2022)

The Halo is a source of energy and there’s a party to uncover its source. The party get information at a bar then sneak in and kill the source of Halo, a fallen angel.

2: Lover’s Paradox (05-07-2022)

“You built your time machine because of Emme’s death. If she had lived, it would’ve never existed. So how could you use your time machine to go back and save her? You are the inescapable result of your tragedy.”

Siris, the local artificer has completed his time machine: TAMEHO, and is recruiting other travellers in Phandalin to journey with him. The advertisement promises the party could each in turn choose one place to go to in all time and space as a reward. The reward would be given after he and the accompanying party completes the mission he built the time machine for.  

After winning over the party, they ask each other where they would go, when it is Siris’s turn to answer, he speaks of his desire to go back to the time when he was still infatuated with his wife who is now deceased. Emme, his deceased wife loved the attention that Siris gave her and how he was infatuated with her and all her beauty. Always faithful and always devoted. This was ultimately why she fell in love with someone so devoted to his cause, obsessed with her being in all its entirety. But as the years passed, Emme felt that their love was slowly fading away as Siris was always attending to his other interests.

“Ultimately she must've thought my love for her was too far gone and so she had left me and this world. She tried very hard to keep us from separating from one another until she took me to the cliff slide where I had proposed to her. Even though my mind wasn't completely there as I was constantly thinking of my work, her actions demanded my attention. If only I wasn't so absent minded, I would’ve seen the signs before she jumped. I was distraught after losing her. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think, couldn’t even attend to my other interests because of her death. This all changed when I came across a time traveller. He told me that time wasn't what we thought it was, it wasn’t simply a strict progression of cause and effect but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, time was a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. 

And so it dawned on me, I could have her through time travel. I could build myself a time machine and save her from myself and to retrieve her love. And so here we are”

_If the party asks whether they are the first party, Siris  could say that there have been times when he was close to achieving his goal in reaching Emme, but always fell short. That's when he realised he needed more travellers there with him to achieve his goal._

Soon they arrive at their destination. As they exit TAMEHO, the party finds themselves on an open field with a windmill in the background leading up to a cliffside peninsula with a silhouette figure sitting up on the top. There are farmers scattered among the fields, mysteriously bandaged up pretty well from head to toe. Looking upon the bandages further, the party could see a vertical scar marked behind the farmer's leg as he carries on working with equipment that looks like they are made of bones and rocks. “They are called the Anointed and they would not talk to you, I’ve tried. All they do is work”

The party realises there is no easy way over to Emme as there is a chasm and a sheer cliff up to Emme. The party could try what they could to get to her but their efforts are futile. Siris then tries to enlist the help of the workers to help them get over to her, Siris’s voice with a slight anger as the farmers are slow to move. The farmers band together and with themselves as brick and mortar, their bones of their fallen comrades as materials and a red liquid to what the party assumes as blood as a binder. 

As the Anointed finishes building the bridge over the chasm, Emme’s silhouette stands up and moves closer to the cliff expecting to jump. The party along with Siris walks over the bridge carefully, then gesturing to the Anointed to follow them across as they still require help to get over the cliff ledge. With everyone panicking with Emme’s actions, the Anointed starts forming a human staircase. The Anointed makes it a tad bit shy of the cliff ledge whilst having the party needing to make the last rungs of the ladder for Siris to make it up to meet his wife.

_The party could either let Siris pass them when they are making ladder rungs. If they do, they see that Siris has the same scar as all the Anointed. The party could confront Siris about this, but would be ignored as Siris would want to make haste to meet with Emme before she jumps. The very thought of saving her was what kept him going for the years after losing her and she was so close to it now, nothing the party would say would get in his way. Until he reaches her, but instead of gazing on his lover, he turns around the body to find another Anointed doll. The realisation then sets in, he was doomed from the start, for how could he use a time machine to go back to save the person that gave him the thought of being the time machine, he was himself the result of his inescapable tragedy. He thanks the party for their help and tells them how sorry he was and what methods he had used to get up to Emme’s shadow._

_The party could make it up at the same time as Siris which would mean they all see Emme, but instead of Emme, The person under the strawhat is none other than another Anointed doll.The party turns to Sirius, Sirius blank as a ghost. _

_The party could get to Emme before Siris and find that Emme’s silhouette is none other than a doll. Being very puzzled, Siris laughs hysterically. He has been chasing this thought of reaching her for the past 12 years just to find that she wasn’t there from the beginning. He has poured over countless nights over designs for TAMEHO and killed countless travellers just to be robbed of this one prize he thought was finally within grasp. He had become the trigger to his own tragedy. 

The thought of clinging to the past and what drove Siris to save Emme was the exact thing that stops him from saving her. For everyone he was him on this day. The lengths he had to go through just to fail miserably. There was nothing for him anymore. Based on how the party had treated him, it could be a battle or a yeet.