Avlis Campaign 0
Introduction
This is a bit of a treat. I managed to find some of the old adventure notes from the campaign I ran in 1996-ish as an undergrad, years before Avlis Campaign 1. Unfortunately, some of the notes remain lost to this day, probably forever, but I will try to fill in what I can remember. The notes will also not be as detailed as the other campaign notes you see here. Sad
Nevertheless! Be prepared for some treats regardless. The campaign takes place about 50 years before Avlis Campaign 1, which takes place 50 years before server time started. So this stuff is a century before the server stuff started here.
Around that time, the M'Chek-T'Nanshi War was pretty new. The humans and Titanians had not made any deals yet, and folks were pretty sketchy about who's side they were taking. Also gotta realize that some famous feuds like the Angadar-Valok one had not started yet. Avariel elves are in full swing and Toostan is in perfect condition.
Also, you will notice 2 things:
1) Many of the themes you see on Avlis servers today came from this campaign
2) Many of the themes in this campaign were re-hashed in Avlis Campaign 1, because I thought these adventures were lost and needed to be reasserted.
So without Further Ado.....
Chapter 1: Fairies
Leilina: a beautiful elf maid of unknown parentage, a studious wizardess
Lotar: a mysterious changeling rogue, though that these aspects are not commonly known
Leviatha: a half-nymph warrior maiden from the seas
Orleron Sunmar: a fairly young half-dryad cleric of O'Ma
The adventurers met in a tavern... where else? The city was Le'Or T'Nanshi, on a cool spring evening. Shortly after meeting, they saw another patron walk... half-flying... into the bar. It was a downtrodden fairy in her large form, very sad, and by the looks of her, a follower of O'Ma.
Being followers of O'Ma, Orleron and Leviatha went over to her and asked what was wrong. The fairy explained that her wand had been stolen, and without it she would soon die. Upon questioning her, she told them it was taken by a Titanian fairy not too far from here.
After more coaxing, they got directions and clues from the sad fairy on where they might find the Titanian villain, and they immediately set out together to right this wrong.
After searching, they came across the thief.... holding two wands, of course. One was the wand of the Titanian Fairies, the gold wand. The other was the silver wand of the O'Ma Fairies... the stolen one.
When they pressed the Titanian fairy, they soon realized that all was not what it seemed. The fairy transformed into a drangonari elf!! He was disguised by an illusion. A battle ensues, and the party barely beats him down and recovers the wand.
They then take the wand back to the sad fairy who is immediately brightened up! She rewards each of them with an O'Ma Sigil as a mark of O'Ma's favor and a good luck charm in its own right. They then part company.
Chapter 2: Avariels
Upon exiting the bar, the group is immediately accosted by three avariel elves. It turns out the avariel are bounty hunters looking for a drangonari elf named Arcarel. Apparently, the PC's had lucked out and killed Arcarel the drangonari just minutes ago, and as soon as the avariel in the area heard of it, they had to go see. Arcarel was wanted in the avariel home city of Toostan for crimes against the city.
Toostan was about 1900 miles to the northeast, and the avariel said that if the PC's were to accompany them on the long journey, they would receive the reward that was on Arcarel's head. Thinking that the prospects of a reward from a city's leader were interesting, they agreed and set off on the journey.
About 2 days outside Le'Or T'Nanshi, the avariel are sleeping in the trees and the PC's on the ground during the night. Suddenly, they are surrounded by a group of 6 ghost elves who took the party to be a platoon of M'Chekian soldiers that they had been chasing. When their identities become clear, the two suprised groups back off their hostilities and make up, but as soon as they do that, they are attacked by the real M'Chekian soldier platoon.
After the battle, the surviving ghost elves tell the adventurers that a few M'Chek patrols have been spotted in the area for reconnaissance, supposedly. They tell the heroes to be careful.
One day later, the group is approached by a Titanian dryad. She informs them that there is a hidden M'Chekian base nearby her oak tree, near a pond that has a rather large subterranean cave housing about 35 soldiers. They had been operating from that cave and the Titanians were assembling a small force to attack them becaues the humans were cutting down too many trees, and consequently killing some titanian dryads when they did that. She asks for the PC's help in the matter, and they agree.
The dryad leads them to the base and points out its major qualities to them. Apparently, there is some sort of party going on inside the cave, but the group cannot tell why. The party is getting a bit rowdy and noisy and there were only 2 sentries posted.
Just outside the camp, the group meets up with ten more titanian fairies, and they prepare the attack. The fairies transform into their small form and become invisible. They then fly into the cave and become large and start attacking. The PC's job was to kill anyone trying to leave the cave to escape the fairy attack.
Suddenly, during the fight, a group of O'Ma fairies comes out of the woods and joins in the fray. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell which side the group is fighting for. They seem to be trying to accomplish something.
As the PC's rush into the cave after the O'Ma fairies, they see what is going on. Inside, there is a human soldier being guarded by an O'Ma nymph. She is pleading with the titanians not to kill this man.... he is her newly wed husband. This only enrages the Titanians because they cannot stand the site of interbreeding between humans and O'Ma fairies. Briefly, they try to parley.... most of the humans are dead by now and the situation between the Titanian and O'Ma fairies is getting intense.
Then all hell breaks loose as both sides dive into battle. The PC's come to the aid of the O'Ma fairies to save the newly married couple, and then retreat off into the woods with the avariel.
Chapter 3: Sylphs
After a day of travel through the woods, the group is approached by an O'Ma sylph. The sylph informs them that a certain cleric of O'Ma in the area witnessed their role in the fight the night before, and the cleric wishes to meet with them. Looking for some answers, the group agrees to go with the sylph to her village to see the cleric. After waiting a couple days in the settlement of sylphs in the trees, the cleric approaches them. He says he witnessed the disaster from a distance, and he believes there's some other type of adventuring party behind the tension between the Titanian and O'Ma fairies in the area.
For example, he believes that the other adventuring party tipped off the Titanians about an O'Ma nymph in the area that was marrying a M'Chekian Captain. The Titanians got enraged and hired the PC's to wipe them out. The resulting battle wound up being a battle between the two fairy types, instead of a battle between human invaders and fairies that live in T'Nanshi. Other incidents of the same type were occurring, seemingly orchestrated.
Another example is that some Titanian fairies had been found killed by lightening, such as that which comes from an O'Ma fairy's wand. He didn't know how this was done, but he offers to hire the PC's to bring back at least two of these adventurers alive.... for justice. He suspects they are still in the area and they will need to be tracked or have their whereabouts found out through the network of fairies in the area.
After agreeing and setting out to find this evil crew, the PC's and avariel encounter more dead Titanians, killed by lightening. They also find areas where the trees had their positions changed through illusions, which is always inconvenient in a forest because you wind up bumping into the real trees, which are invisible. They also got attacked by some crazed, or charmed, wild animals along the way.
Finally, a Titanian fairy cleric attacked them with some more wild animals.... she seems to think that the heroes are this other evil party that was behind the attacks, but she is eventually lulled into ceasing her attack in giving them some more information.
She informs them of a dispute happening not too far away between some Titanian fairies and O'Ma sprites. When the PC's find the disputing group, they find out that the Titanians are arguing with the sprites over a body of one of their comrades. The fairies said the sprites knew who did the murder but weren't talking. The sprites denied it and said they had no idea who did the murder.....
Suddenly, an arrow flies out of the forest and imbeds itself in the lead Titanian fairy's chest... its acidic bolt eating into her. Looking to the source of the arrow, everyone sees a sylph laugh and disappear. The Titanians go ballistic and attack the sprites immediately in the name of their goddess. More sprites join the fray and all hell breaks loose. The PC's spot a group of humanoids leaving the battle and yell out to the fairies who pursue.
The adventurers are too far ahead of the heroes but the fairies are faster. Eventually, the PC's catch up but they are too late. The fairies are dead.... the sprites are nowhere to be found, and neither are the adventurers.
Distraught, the heroes make camp for the night. The next morning they begin their search again, hoping that the whole forest does not break out into war. Just then, they spot a diminutive but VERY beautiful female fairy carrying a diamond tipped sceptre instead of a wand. She informs them in a queenly voice that she fears the fairy races are about to clash again, and that she does not want that to happen. She tells the PC's they must help in order to stop the death. She then informs them that the foes they seek are just over the ridge.... she said she would take care of them herself, but she has more serious matters to attend to in a far away land. Then she disappears.
Sure enough, over that ridge, the PC's encounter a group of five: a drangonari, a human female, a half-orc wearing a symbol of Maleki, an O'Ma fairy cleric of Valok, and a human male.
The battle is fierce, but the heroes triumph and save the day.
Chapter 4: A Conversation
After a little more than 4 weeks of travelling towards Toostan, the party hears voices one afternoon coming from over a hill to the side. They creep up to see the same beautiful fairy woman from a few weeks ago talking with a pale haired elf dressed in blue carrying numerous pouches and a glass shortsword.
Elf: Come on! Are you still fed up with that little battle we fought in Elysium? Get over it! Or are you that much of a sore loser? *the elf smirks*
Fairy: Angadar, you had better watch your tone iwth me, for you know I could destroy you with but a thought.
Angadar: Well, begging your pardon, Lady Titania *much sarcasm in his voice*. But remember, HERE it is *I* that can destroy you with but a thought... or should I say, with the influence held by my thoughts, and remember, even if you did manage to defeat me in the Nine Hells, you would still have to deal with Valok. *feigns sadness, sort of like the Emperor in RoTJ* And I'm afraid that you are not the favored bet on that one. *smirks*
Titania: In any case, you have no right to bring my people to war---
Angadar: ----And you had no right getting in my way when I was dealing with Toostan!!!!
Titania: You were attacking a people as a whole when only one single individual of that race ever did anything to you! You have already perverted some of the avariel into that putrid monstrosity of a race you call drangonari ELVES! Of course I'm going to get involved when I see such an injustice!!
Angadar: Psshawww.... you are as blind to injustice as any fairy. *smirks* The only reason why you chose in involve yourself was because I was a member of that party that beat you in Elysium when you tried to kill O'Ma!! And because I personally dispatched Skerrit's avatar. Don't play your games with me! I will make your whole race regret it!
Titania: Threats, will get you nothing but killed, Agnadar. *adopts a regal pose* I am a defender of fairykind and the Queen of the Selie court. The avariel are in my favor even though they are not one of my races.
Angadar: Well, if ever another one of your puny races gets in my way again, I promise you I will eliminate it! Understood?
Titania: Fine, if it's a war you want, Angadar, then it's a war you've got. I can see where you will go with this.
Angadar: *smirks and holds out his palms* All the better to me! We'll see who comes out of this with an intact following!
Suddenly, both avatars disappear.
At this point, the PC's are a little unsure of themselves. The followers of O'Ma: Orleron and Leviatha feel disgusted with Angadar but also know their god is grudgingly allied with him. The avariel leading them to a reward are allied with Titania in the sense that she favors their race and their city. A sort of uneasiness creeps up between everyone, except for Lotar and Leilina whose motivations are not affected by this.
The rest of the adventure was basically just random encounters to fill the space on the way to Toostan. The group begins to build up some loot and experience.
Chapter 5: Shaahesk
About two weeks outside of Toostan, the party's luck takes a turn for the worse. They are ambushed and captured by shaahesk... after all, they were travelling through Drotid, what else would you guess?
In prison, they meet a couple of female human warriors from Jechran who tell them not to worry... they have a large group of their sisters coming to the rescue. Sure enough, the next day, the party awakes to some high-pitched hoots, hollars, and war cries. A large group of nearly 100 jechranian women riding on jecheras begin to invade the compound.
The PC's gain their stuff back and take up the fight against the shaahesk which is about even now. A little while later, a woman on a Sandstone dragon flies into the fray and starts eliminating shaahesk left and right.
After the battle, she approaches the group, seeing that they were travelling with some avariel. She introduces herself as Jadwiga Sunstreamer, aka Jade. The juvenile sandstone dragon she rides is named Grux. She had raised Grux from an early age when she found him abandoned as a hatchling after succesfully coming to the Prime Material Plane for the first time. She explained to the heroes what that meant. Soon after arriving, she met an elven village which became liek a family to her for years. Then one day she was banished back to her own plane when a group of drangonari elves intruding into T'Nanshi wiped out the village. She never got to say goodbye to her adopted family.... That made her a bit angry with her father, Angadar.
Now, she managed to get back to the Prime once more and she was on her way to the city of Grantir to besearch her father to make the Prime her home plane somehow. She put fly spells on the party and they set out together, since the two cities were very near one another.
Suddenly, a limestone dragon came out of nowhere and fried Jade before she had a chance to get onto Grux.... she was incinerated. Grux and the dragon began to fight, and the PC's retreated as fast as they could. They were pretty sure Grux wound up as lunch, at least they hoped, because then it meant the limestone dragon would not be coming for them.
Chapter 6: Toostan
Finally! The group makes it to the tree city of Toostan, haven of the avariel. Immediately, the avariel who are with them usher them to the King's palace where they are taken to a direct audience with King Alanerix. He thanks them and gives them a chest filled with 2000 gp. Originally, he says, the reward was 1500 gp, but his advisor, Jeminix, convinced him to up the reward because of the length of time that Arcarel went uncaptured. He then gave the party free roam of the city and set them on their way. They parted with the avariel bounty hunters that had been with them on the journey.
Later that night, in the city, they were contacted by Jeminix, the advisor. The notes get a bit sketchy here. Jeminix is a drangonari agent in disguise. Orleron and Leviatha are a little horrified by that, but Leviatha takes a liking to Jeminix and gets over it. He tells the group that things are bad between Toostan and Grantir. Titanian fairies are building up within and around Toostan for an attack on Grantir, and not only that, but they have stolen an artifact that was protecting Grantir. Jeminix doesn't trust them enough yet to tell them what the artifact is, but he gives them a time and a place to meet someone: At Darmon's Wingless Orc Tavern, the group is to meet with an operative of the thieves guild who will ask, "Good day, can anyone tell me why there is no sand in Toostan?" The heroes are to respond, "No sand? We just came from the beach."
Sure enough that night, the rogue approaches them in the tavern and the passwords are exchanged. The group asks the avariel rogue about the artifact and he says he will tell him if the PC's do a favor for them. He brings them to the guildhouse where it's safer.
In the guildhouse, they are met by the guild master who is an urban sprite named Teek. The urban sprite explains to them that they will get the info if they help with an assasination first. Titanian forces are coming into Toostan to prepare for an attack by Grantir, or an attack on Grantir, he's not sure what will happen first. This is bad for business. The thieves guilds in Toostan and Grantir are heavily intertwined and do not want a war. The PC's are to take out the generals of the Titanian army housed near one of Toostan's walls on the ground.
The assasination goes off without a hitch. Orleron is a bit disgusted with it but perserveres. After the group brought proof back to Teek, he tells them the location of the artifact, which they find out is a large faceted diamond (chaotic good alignment). It has the power to protect all within a city it occupies against magic (20% resistance) and dragon breath (1/2 damage, save for none), if the source of the attack is from outside the city.
The PC's are told that the artifact is located inside a shrine to Berryn in Toostan. If they are to get it, they must not be seen. They attempt to retrieve it and succeed. However, at that moment, the Toostan thieves' guild attacks them in an effort to take the artifact for themselves.
The commotion sets off an alert throughout the city. Everyone realizes what the PC's just tried to do, and they scatter. All of them make it out ok, except for Lotar who is carrying the artifact. (He was the one who was skilled enough to actuall steal it and he was running out of the city with it.)
The PC's all head for Grantir with Lotar somewhat behind.
Chapter 7: Grantir
During this adventure, we had the addition of a couple more players. One was a human PC cleric of Angadar named Jehod, and the other was a centaur female bard named Epona, but they don't come in until about halfway through this adventure:
Leilina, Orleron, and Leviatha make it to the gates of Grantir, a huge fortress city of three levels.... an underground level, a ground level, and a tree level. After talking to the gate guards, they manage to get an audience with the catlike rogue Stephanus, the ruler of Grantir. After explaining to him that their friend Lotar was on his way to Grantir after stealing a major protective artifact back from Toostan, Stephanus immediately dispatched a band of granite dragons to intercept Lotar and make sure his pursuers from Toostan were not successful in stopping him.
Lotar, meanwhile, is hastily flying away from his pursuing dragons. A gold dragon seems to be gaining on him, and he flaps as hard as he can. Just then, on the horizon towards Grantir, appear a group of other large flying creatures. Lotar's bird form takes a huge poop after seeing that he is now caught between two groups of dragons, all coming towards him.
Then, he hears a voice in his head. It comes from one of the granite dragons headed his way. They inform him that they were sent by Stephanus to take out the good dragons pursuing him. He's relieved. Lotar flies on past the granite dragons who begin to lock into a heated battle with the gold and copper dragons that were in pursuit.
Upon reaching the gates of Grantir, Lotar is escorted up to where Stephanus and his friends are waiting. He debriefs everyone and gives the artifact to Stephanus, who rewards everyone with several interesting items. Among them are a glass shortsword for Leilina, to whom Stephanus seems to have adopted a paternal attitude, and a deck of many things for Lotar.
Soon after this, the converstation is interrupted when an Astral Deva teleports into the audience chamber. The deva draws its sword and takes a bag off of his belt and dumps it. About 15 Titanian fairies fall out of the bag, and attack. A battle breaks out right there.
After vanquishing these foes, Stephanus informs the party that this means the war between Toostan and Grantir has fully begun. He orders the entire city sealed off.
Meanwhile, the guest PC's who came into the game already knowing one another have heard of a serious conflict between the fairy races, the avariel, and the drangonari. Their mentor, a librarian of Vorin, has charged them to find out what the source of this is all about. Grantir was a good place for them to start, but they are specifically told not to get involved.
After arriving in Grantir, they start asking around. They find out that large groups of Titanian fairies have infiltrated Grantir. They've been using illusions to sneak in and pose as other races. The thieve's guilds of Grantir seem willing to help them find the fairies. Ultimately, the thieve's guilds are not in favor of the war, because it is bad for business, so the thieve's guilds want the Titanians in the city to be wiped out or neutralized.
The rest of the PC's are charged by Stephanus to stay inside the city and look for any resistances that might pop up during the beginning battles. Thus, they too started digging around and eventually met up with the other PC's who told them of the Titanian resistance that was already in place.
Supposedly, information was gained saying there would be an attack on the temple of Valok in Grantir on the lowest level. When the PC's found out the time of the attack, they were able to intercept it and defeat the fairies.
Chapter 8: Dreams
All this time, Orleron had become steadily more disgusted with the actions of his "friends". Leviatha, being less religious, was not so upset, but Orleron was becoming very agitated. Finally, he had enough and he leaves Grantir and heads for Toostan to join their side of the battle. His faith crisis is almost too much to bear, but he believes even O'Ma may find a way to forgive him.
It takes him a day to get to Toostan.
Meanwhile, Stephanus informs the PC's that the real attacks on Toostan are beginning: he is sending out squads of dragon riders and airborne drangonari infantry against the avariel. The PC's are to take control of a dragon squad and lead it against Toostan.
Meanwhile, Orleron is told by the military leaders in Toostan that they are expecting dragon and airborne infantry attacks from Grantir. These attacks will be met wtih the same. Orleron is to be given a copper dragon mount to accompany one of their platoons out of the city towards Grantir to form a line in the sky to try to stop the drangonari advance.
All hell breaks loose.... Orleron's group makes its way to Grantir and encounters resistance along the way. The PC's group makes its way to Toostan and encounters heavy fighting too.
A journey that takes normally a day by foot and only an hour by air was unattainable after 8 hours of fighting. Bruised and beaten, both Orleron's group and the PC's group landed that night to make camp and recover before more fighting in the morning, where they would try to break through the lines. By this time, a few of the PC's dragons were already dead and they were doubling up on mounts.
That night Leilina has a dream.....
Jade appears to her. Funny, but she never really noticed how much Jade and her look alike until Jade pointed it out. Leilina never knew who her parents were. They had a long conversation and talked deeply. Leilina realized the truth: that Jade was her mother, and the was the granddaughter of a god!
Jade went on to explain that Leilina was born to the elven village where Jade first came to after making her way to the Prime. She married a man there, and on that fateful day when the village was destroyed, the man was killed, and so was Jade. The problem is that Jade is an extraplanar creature. When she dies, her body simply goes back to her home plane: Baator. From there, it can take her years to try to make her way back to the Prime to start a new life.... she can't stand it in the Hells, because she's really an elf, like her father and mother were. Being born on Baator was an unfortunate occurrance.
Nevertheless, she tells Leilina that she thinks this problem can be fixed. She needs Leilina to go to Toostan and contact Grux the baby dragon, who is still alive. Grux will know how to get them to Leilina. She tells Leilina that her part in the war between Grantir and Toostan is over... there's nothing more she can do because the fates of the cities are already sealed. She must leave. The dream ends.
Simultaneously, Jehod has a dream. He's sitting in camp by the fire. The dragons are sleeping around him, and their riders are sleeping near by. One of the dragons, however, is not like the others. In fact, he didn't remember it flying with him earlier. Even more strange, the dragon was a strange sandy color, not like sandstone, and it had no wings. It's features were more lizard-like.
Suddenly, that dragon looked at him and.... grinned at him cockily?? He realized then what it was: a manifestation of his god, Angadar. The dragon then spoke to him. Angadar told him who Leilina was... his granddaughter, and that she was currently in contact with her mother Jade. Jade wants to be rescued from Baator, but Angadar is not willing to let that happen. However, he would like to acquire possession of Leilina if possible. Soon, the party would be travelling to Baator, he informed Jehod. Jehod was to let them go, and to accompany them, and when the time came, Angadar would let him know what to do in order to secure Leilina and not let Jade escape.
Some of the PC's awoke during the middle of the night to see someone approaching the camp. It was Orleron. He was pleading with them to see reason. Leilina told him of the dream she just had, and said they were done with the war... they would leave it to the drangonari and avariel to slug it out. Orleron liked that idea very much and agreed to rejoin the party to find Jade.
Chapter 9: Sigil
The notes from this adventure are lost. Sad I do not know exacty what happened, but I can piece a bit of it together.
The PC's make it back to Toostan. They need to sneak into the city and meet with Grux. After talking with him, they learn that to get to Baator, they need to go through the planes, speciifically, a place called Sigil acts as a city with many portals to everywhere. Grux tells them how to get there.
The PC's set off on a journey out of Toostan to a portal, and eventually arrive in Sigil.