Earlier in the summer a gathering was held of a unique nature. The Great Dark Swamp that borders both Therendry and Blackstone was found to be growing at an alarming rate. The nobles of both duchies assembled both their military and all able bodied adventurers to mount an expedition to discover the source of the natural catastrophe. No previous expedition had ever returned from exploring the Great Dark Swamp, so the matter was not undertaken lightly.
The first few days yielded little in the way of clues as to the cause of the expanding swamp. Adventurers from both Blackstone and Therendry, as well as lands as far off as Fengate, Ravenholt, Ashbury and beyond explored the surrounding area and fought all manner of swamp creatures and undead. There were also several battles involving strange elemental creatures of shadow and fire.
The first real challenge come in the second night of the gathering when reports came in of a large dimensional portal being discovered. The adventurers assembled and marched out to investigate, and found the portal surrounded by large number of the fiery shadowy elementals. The adventurers battled their way through the creature and reached the dimensional portal and found a large frozen demon-like figure which seemed to be holding the portal open. After some difficulty the demon was destroyed and the portal closed.
The Great Dark Swamp had long been rumored to be the home of Zimmerman the Necromancer. Zimmerman was a long time foe of the local adventurers. He was sighted off and on by a few people, and on the third night of the expedition his fortress was finally found. The opportunity to once and for all kill Zimmerman was cause for much anticipation and excitement.
Zimmerman’s keep was surrounded by a large courtyard that was full of undead. The Ducal Armies made an assault on the main gate to draw away the bulk of Zimmerman’s forces. The plan was for the adventurers to enter the courtyard through a small side gate and to battle through to the keep and destroy Zimmerman. Zimmerman was protected by enchantments that made him nearly safe from permanent destruction. One of the adventurers named Draelin was the only person who was able to kill Zimmerman permanently, so all the adventurers to were strongly warned against delivering the final killing blow to Zimmerman.
The attacking force found Zimmerman very quickly but had a very hard time bringing him to bear. The bulk of the adventurers spread out in the courtyard and fought the seemingly endless numbers of undead minions. A small force of the stronger adventurers would attack Zimmerman, but when he would get weakened he would just rift away. He had a circle of power set up in his keep where he could barricade himself and heal his wounds in safety.
This continued for quite some time before the adventurers were finally able to overcome Zimmerman when he left his circle. In a very emotional scene, Draelin delivered the final killing blow to Zimmerman and fulfilled a quest that had consumed several people for several years. A great blast of light exploded from the body of Zimmerman and washed over the keep and the surrounding lands. This release of Zimmerman’s magical energies destroyed his remaining undead creations and cleansed the lands to some degree.
A curious event occurred after the battle when everyone had returned to the encampment in order to rest up and distribute treasure. Ramsus Belmont arrived on scene to nearly everyone’s surprise. A month or so earlier Ramsus was killed by vampires and widely believed to be lost to the world of the living. Various tests were administered to Ramsus and all confirmed that he was in fact a living breathing being.
This turned out to be a deceitful ruse. Well into the night after nearly everyone had gone to bed it was discovered that Ramsus was a vampire, and that his undead nature was concealed by a powerful fae spell of some sort. When he was discovered, Ramsus rifted out of town with several of his former friends, only to return a short time later with his companions under the effect of a charm.
The vampire and his thralls moved from the tavern and went out into the town looking for the living. Several unfortunate people who were caught outside of wards were overcome, but Ramsus stabilized most of those they fought. Eventually the adventurers managed to get organized and under the leadership of Baron Mithrilmist they chased down the rampaging group and brought them down. Death and life spells released the charmed adventurers, and Ramsus rifted away.
Once Zimmerman’s former keep was cleared out the decision was made to use it as the new base of operations from which to explore deeper into the swamp. Many people expressed some misgivings about using the former home of a necromancer, but the evil taint appeared to have left the building.
Adventurers once again fanned out into the swamp looking for clues as to why it was expanding. The next interesting item to present itself was a troop of seemingly undead Evandarrian soldiers. They were humans with grey skin who wore an old style Evandarrian uniform. They acted like soldiers, but seemed to live in some sort of delusional state where they viewed all adventurers as some sort of monster or undead. No amount of reasoning or explanation could convince them that they were not monsters.
The first large battle with these soldiers ended in frustration. A large force of them was discovered in the swamp. The force of adventurers assembled to go out and meet them. Once they arrived they discovered the soldiers arrayed about a large circle of power. Inside the circle was their regimental banner, and some scholars hard at work on casting a formal magic ritual.
All efforts to either reason with or fight with the soldiers proved futile. They would not listen to reason, and no way could be found to break into the circle of power. The battle continued until the formal magic ritual was completed and the entire regiment of Evandarrian Soldiers spirit walked out of the circle.
It was eventually reasoned out that these soldiers were the spirits of the last great expedition into the swamp headed by the Queen of Evandarr Katherine I over 200 years ago. No one ever learned the fate of this regiment. Apparently they were overcome by undead, and were doomed to spend eternity acting out their last futile attempt to escape the swamp.
An encounter with a fae on the following day left one of the adventurers with a crucial clue. BunBun vonWhiskers was give a magical flagpole standard top. It was thought that if this was placed on top of the Evendarrian spirit soldier’s standard it might release them from their curse.
The Evendarrian spirits attacked off and on throughout the following evening until once again their encampment was found. The assembled adventurers once again made battle against the spirits, but were once again frustrated. They could not find a way into the spirit’s circle of protection where the standard was being held.
After a long and futile battle a general retreat was ordered. Once the bulk of the adventurers had left the field, the Evendarrian spirits’ commander came forth and demanded a representative to step forward and offer a surrender. Sensing an opportunity, the nobles pushed forth BunBun. The Evendarian commander was still deluded into seeing Bun Bun as an undead creature, but he took him into the regiment’s circle of protection in order to accept BunBun’s surrender.
Once inside the circle BunBun placed his flagpole topper onto the regimental standard. A wave of confusion passed over the spirit’s commander, and he suddenly saw BunBun not as an undead but instead as an Evandarrian soldier coming to relieve him and his regiment. BunBun summoned forth the lingering adventurers, who were now seen to the spirits as reinforcements coming to relieve them. Finally relieved of their command, and free from their curse, the spirits formed up and marched out of their circle of protection, and dissipated into mist leaving only their standard behind.
A day earlier a mysterious visitor warned that three vampires of considerable power were lurking in the area. They could only be defeated if their names, nature, and weaknesses were known. The adventurers were set to various tasks and tests in order to win over this information. Two of the tests were passed, but the third one ended in failure. The mysterious stranger gave over two parchments which listed the information needed to kill two of the three vampires.
An expedition set out to destroy the vampires once night had fallen. Once the vampires and their minions were engaged Viscount Simeon Silvercord began to read forth from the scrolls he was given. This caused the named vampire on the scroll to scream in agony and become vulnerable to the adventurers. Unfortunately it became necessary to read the scrolls over and over again because even with the vampires screaming in agony it was difficult for the adventurers to pick them out in the darkness and confusion. Eventually the two vampires whose scrolls were read were defeated, and the third escaped.
On the seventh day of the gathering an ancient and powerful graveyard was discovered wherein it was hoped that some clues could be found. This graveyard proved to be far more challenging than was first suspected. The expedition started off on a bad note due to ill weather. The night was cloudy and rainy, and this deep in the Great Dark Swamp it was dark as a cave.
When they arrived at the graveyard they found it surrounded by a stout wall. The one gate was barred with a strange door. The door was found to be unlocked by inserting several glowing crystal keys that people had been finding on golems and elementals throughout the day. Once the gate was opened the layout of the graveyard could be observed.
The graveyard was very large. The numerous gravestones gave off and eerie blue glow, and on the rainy moonless night this was the only light by which to see. A glowing red path led a few feet from the gate before splitting in two and forming a wide circle that met up again on the other side of the graveyard at a large tomb. Restless spirits moved about among the gravestones. Move aggressive undead immediately attacked the adventurers.
Two things immediately made it very difficult for the adventurers. The first was that it was found that stepping off the pathway led to an almost instant magical death effect. This meant that the adventurers had to stay tightly bunched up on the narrow red pathway. It was extremely difficult to maneuver in this small space, and the undead attackers had a much greater freedom of movement.
The second problem was that in addition to the undead, there were two immense stone guardians in the graveyard. The problem this caused was that in the near total darkness if was difficult to tell which monster was undead and which was a stone guardian. There was a great deal of confusion when undead harming spells were found to be ineffective until it was realized that the target had been the stone guardian, and vice versa.
The adventurers chose to stay on a single side of the circular path. They fought their way down to the stone tomb in good order and managed to retrieve a book. The order to withdraw was given and things immediately started to go badly. The undead had moved to block the exit, which bottled up the adventurers in a narrow stretch of the pathway. The rear of the adventurers were strongly attacked, which forced them into the back of the fighters trying to force their way back out of the gate. Adventurers got packed together so tightly they could not even move, and casualties were beginning to pile up very quickly.
Just as things seemed lost the vanguard managed to force a path back out the gate. In a mad rush people were simultaneous trying to rush out of the graveyard to safety as well as trying to retrieve those that had fallen in the rear. After a few mad moments of back and forth everyone managed to make it back out of the graveyard. Somewhat to everyone’s surprise the undead and stone guardian pursued outside the gate, and this led to a long slow fighting retreat all the way back to the encampment.
This battle may well have been what led up of the next evening’s crisis. Late in the following evening it was learned that a large force of undead under the command of Malak Bane was marching on the encampment. The assembled nobles put Danrick in charge of organizing a defensive position. Under his direction the adventurers were organized into teams of front line fighters, healers, offensive spellcasters, and so forth. Barricades were constructed to strengthen the defense, and a minefield composed of traps was set up to hold one of the flanks.
Everyone worked at a fever pitch to get the defenses set up before night fall. Once everything was in readiness, people had to endure a seemingly endless wait which frayed everyone’s nerves. Once night had completely fallen the pickets rushed in reporting the undead army had arrived. The defenders crouched and waited in silence as the sea of glowing eyes slowly shuffled into view and approached the ramparts. At the last moment the order was given to attack and the silence was shattered by the scream of spells and the clang of weapons.
The front line initially held off the first wave of undead. The shield wall stood firm and unbroken and those undead that engaged them suffered from a withering barrage of harm undead spells being cast from a chorus of earth casters stationed right behind the front lines. Some of the undead moved around to try one of the flanks and disappeared in a flash of flame and smoke as the traps in the minefield went off.
As the battle wore on things got a little more dicey. With the minefield blown and no longer providing an effective defense the left flank of the adventurers began to get pushed back. The barricades constructed at the rear of the defensive position were never threatened, but scattered undead managed to sneak in from the weakening flanks and started to cause confusion and casualties among the healers stationed in the middle. This disrupted the frontline as fighters were forced to break formation and deal with undead in the rear and to the flanks. Malak Bane himself pressed forward at this point and the tide of battle appeared to be turning.
In the end the strength of the defensive position proved to be too great. The undead had suffered too much attrition in their initial assaults and were unable to keep up their advantage. The scattered undead in the rear ranks were repelled and units formed back up and began repulsing the undead in force. The undead’s assault collapsed so quickly that what had moments earlier been a near defeat turned into an advance as the undead’s retreat resulted in adventurers streaming forward out of the defenses in pursuit. Danrick and the other leaders immediately saw the danger in this and wasted no time in shouting people back into some semblance of order, and the pursuit was done in an orderly and organized fashion.
The next day saw the final culmination of the campaign. Various clues that had been gathered over the last week were finally pieced together. The source of the expansion of the Great Dark Swamp was found to be the work of three brothers. Each was a dragon mage of immense power. The site of the final battle was to be at the foot of the great pillar of red light that could be seen shining from the center of the swamp.
The dragon mages had a large army of elemental creatures composed of fire and darkness. Duke Mikhail Blackstone himself took command of the assembled armies and led them along with many of the senior adventurers on the initial assault. Before he left he once again appointed Danrick in charge of the adventurers who were gathering for a follow up attack. Danrick lost no time in organizing the adventurers into well balanced teams and showing them the formations that he wished to use.
Finally the time had come for the final assault. The Duke’s force had met heavy resistance, but eventually managed a pyrrhic victory. They cleared a path through the dragon mages armies to the dragon mages stronghold. At the time all that the adventurers knew was that the way had been opened for them. It was later learned that the duke and all those that had accompanied him had fallen in the battle and ressurected.
The adventurers formed into their ranks and marched to the stronghold of the dragon mages. When they arrived they found the dragon mage’s forces arranged into three separate armies, each surrounding their own dragon mage and his personal standard. Each side took only a few moments to survey their foe, and then the battle was joined.
It became apparent that the dragon mages forces were nearly endless. As soon as one of their minions was defeated a new one would materialize at the base of the general’s standard. The three generals we immensely powerful. They commanded not only spells of both the earth and celestial schools, but were also capable of casting formal magic obliterations. One was stronger with the sword, another with spells, and the third was balanced between the two.
The adventurers made very little headway. They could hold their own fairly well against the minions, but when the generals would step forward things often went badly. Danrick had organized their attacking force into several blocks of adventurers. This proved useful, for when one block would get overrun the neighboring block was each time able to reinforce the position.
The turning point came when it was realized that the minions were reforming using some sort of magic from the general’s standards. Spellcasters quickly began casting destroy spells at the banners. The minions leapt in front of these spells to protect the banners but soon all three of the banners were in ruins.
This was not the end of the minions or the fight. The minions began to reform at the base of a large central banner within a circle of power that held the column of red light. However, they did so much slower rate than before, which allowed the adventurers to regain the upper hand and the concentrate more on the generals. Against the combined might of all the assembled adventurers the generals began the falter. Without their minions to screen them and heal them they began to take frightful damage.
First one fell, and shortly thereafter the second succumbed. The third retreated within the protection of the circle of power in order to heal, and then rushed forth in one final grand charge. It was a futile effort. His store of defensive magics was exhausted and he was magically imprisoned not two steps from the circle, and at long last the battle was over. The circle of power dropped, the column of red light was extinguished, and the fiery shadowy minions all vanished.
With the destruction of the dragon mages and the red tower of light, the expedition into the Great Dark Swamp came to an end. Nine days and nights of battles and hardship were finally over. The swamp ceased to expand, and the campaign was declared a success. After a short period of rest, the assembled adventures bade each other farewell and everyone returned to their own lands once more to attend to their normal affairs.