Year of the Flood (Age of Iron - DoD Online Campaign - Session 1)

Campaign Intro

    This is the start of an online-through-Discord campaign I’m running for some people I know through "Dads of Destiny" (DOD), a clan for the video game Destiny 2. They wanted to dive into TTRPGs, so we’re playing my personal fantasy heartbreaker, Age of Iron, which is mainly a mashup of Mythic Bastionland and the GLOG. We’re using the “Tristhmus” setting from Michael Prescott’s excellent Trilemma Adventures series.

Setting Intro

    The Martoi were the first wielders of magic, but they are long dead, poisoning the Earth in their hubris and lust for immortality. Much of the strange things now on Earth were once theirs, places of wonder and of horror.

    The Seree came after: an empire of sorcerer kings, and the mark of imperial rule still shapes the world today. Eventually they fell though, by the hand of the gods it is said, after attempting to seize power from the heavens.

    In the long wake of that collapse, many places once off limits or inaccessible are being picked through by various mercenary companies, knights-errant, and so called adventurers…

    This is no longer the age of empire, but the Age of Iron.

Deep Carbon Observatory Intro

    We’re playing in the OSR style and the PCs are free to go wherever they wish and pursue self directed objectives. The first lead towards adventure they are pursuing is a rumor about an ancient dam…

    As the book tells it:

“Once there was an Empire of unspeakable wealth that traded in secrets, dark wonders and death, and many of the strange things now on earth were theirs.

They drew their power and magic from a gate within the earth.

But, as their kingdom slowly died, they locked away their treasure with a lake, and set there sleepless and indestructible guards.

Everyone knows where it is, on the Lock, upriver of Carrowmore.

No-one who goes there has ever come back.”

    The Empire was the Martoi, and the dam, a wonder of the world and feat of engineering unreproducible today, is in the southwest of the tristhmus, near to the cursed land of Once Martol.

The High Uttvelt region of the Tristhmus

    Enormous stone golems patrol the lands near the dam and smash any that attempt approach, and the steep slopes and highly active wyvern populations in the High Uttvelt mountain range make approaching the lake from other directions a similarly suicidal enterprise. Even during the time of the Seree, it was considered not worth the risk to face the golems just to investigate the rumor of there being treasure beneath the lake, and the area was simply marked as forbidden and ignored.

    Recently however, adventuring companies have been aflame with the rumor that the golems seem to be slowing down, and a thief from Haverlow is claiming they slipped passed them and crossed the dam, braving the mountains on their return. No one would believe such a claim if it weren’t for the melon sized mass of silver they returned with: a thing of impossible craftsmanship, woven from wire thin strands of pure silver into a form almost like a cage or a globe, its purpose uncertain. They claimed they found it washed up on the shores of the lake.

    Now there is a rush of adventurers towards Carrowmore; everyone wants to launch expeditions upriver, and see if the dams defenses have truly waned, and if the way to this pristine, unplundered ancient site is truly beginning to open.

PCs:

• Alina Ivanov
• Rogue lvl 2
• Horse: Raisin
• played by: Mags
• Fal’lane
• Berserker lvl 1, Order of the Fang lvl 1
• Assault Ursine: Fang-Rot
• played by: Synergy
• Fintna'al
• Geometer Wizard lvl 2
• played by: Wingnut
• Kaelenna "Kael" Tidewhisper
• Weaver lvl 2
• threads: The Sea, The Woods, Winter
• played by: Black Canary
• Lance Royale
• Knight lvl 2
• "The Trail Knight", knighted by: The Welcomed Seer
• Horse: Fistula
• played by: Velvet

++Session Notes++

• The party crosses the Uttvelts at the Wolip pass at the behest of a mercenary band that employs Fintna'al as a “Wizard Ordinary” (War Wizard). They travel with Lance Royale, an old adventuring companion, and current bearer of the mantle of “The Trail Knight”. With them are several more companions who have proven reliable in the past, and are up for the challenge of investigating the great dam of the Martoi: a rogue, and two vislae (a Weaver and a Fang).

• When the party approaches the environs of Carrowmore, they find the worst has occurred. The river has swelled its banks and the region is heavily flooded. Bloated, pale bodies of human and livestock alike drift past, and the shattered remains of trees and buildings litter the black mud like scattered matchsticks. Surely then, the dam has burst!

• The party takes in the scene of chaos: people are scattered everywhere in scenes of distress, many calling for help or simply crying out in despair.

• The party sets to work assisting a woman struggling to keep a makeshift raft full of children and the elderly from being pulled away in the current. She is barely holding on. Lance and Fal’lane swim out to assist her in getting it under control and bringing it back to the shallows. After an exchange with the woman, they learn her name is Callao and she tells them to seek Stary Hrad in Carrowmore, who is what passes for a civic leader and is trying to organize recovery efforts. If anyone has boats to spare it will be her.

• A child whispers a curious tale to Fal’lane about a witch in a well they seem very concerned about, who apparently cannot die the same way twice. Only the children seem to have ever seen her, and the adults do not believe in her.

• The party assists Callao and the refugees on her raft back across the river towards Carrowmore by lashing the raft to Fal’lane’s bear as well as the two horses to pull it, and then having all the party members push from behind and tread water. A weave of life and stillness from Kael assists in keeping the children calm.

• On the other side there is more devastation, death, and human tragedy, and the party decides to shoulder on towards Carrowmore with all haste. Fintna'al does plunge into the river once more to help a different group of children retrieve the body of their deceased mother, much to their gratitude.

• Upon reaching the ruined town, the party encounters Lady Hrad in the middle of a tense exchange with another group of adventurers (the party is not the first it seems!): The Eagles. Their leader “Afredo Jahn” is a blonde, bearded giant of a man with a broadsword and a bronze eagle on his chestplate, and he delivers a pompous introduction of his party, which includes himself, the wizard Veshtoroc, a crazed mystic known as “The Durmitor”, some porters, and some dark clad scouts.

• Several of the party engage Hrad in conversation, who seems happy to have some less self important adventurers to deal with, and is very pleased to hear they have found and assisted Callao. She also seems quite relieved that an actual Knight is on the scene, ready to protect the realm. She states that she is willing to pay up to 300gp (plus one due to shrewd haggling!) for a full and accurate account of what is going on upriver and why this tragedy has befallen them. Is it safe to rebuild or is Carrowmore lost forever?

• She promises the party the use of a skiff

• Meanwhile a drama is unfolding on the roof of the church. The Bishop, Tham Ruesie, stands at the precipice in an apparent moment of despair, gazing towards a plume of steam rising upriver and ranting about being abandoned by the holy light. Alina climbs up to the roof and talks him down, suggesting that he and his congregation find new purpose in investigating this tragedy.

• The “Church of the Optical God” become hirelings of the party!

    Will the party succumb to horrors from the ancient world? Will they come into conflict with “The Eagles” or others seeking to capitalize on this opportunity for fame and treasure? Will they defy the odds and look danger in its cold dead eyes?? Find out next time!