Main Campaign

Timeline
Hired as assassins by Lord Gregor of Jivynyt | Fight with tax collectors within Jivynyt | Disastrous visit to dwarven trade post | The First Dungeon (drow porn, minotaurs, a cyclops, and a certain hallway of certain doom) | Visit to a podunk blacksmith, and his strange apprentice joins the group (hello Lefty!) | The Assault / Infiltration of Sharnhold (capital of Vewaquia, until I find its real name again) | Paid 5k, and mission 2. | Leaving Vewaquia quickly | Brief jaunt through Ogreland (or did they fly over?) | Welcome to Morrick, and Thinwik's Emporium | Group decides against mission 2, hooks up with Garrett and Mr. Tahnk | Attacked by assassin assassins on the road south | The Three Dungeons (n00b, 1337, and pwned) Mr. Tahnk is released | Meet Naladin Thorin and Dabrien Dh'lambrek in dungeon, assisted them | It gets a little fuzzy after this part, and the sessions start losing their order for me...

The Saga Begins, or some equally cheesy title
May 1st of 2001 (wow, has it really been that long?) a campaign was began in a roleplaying system based on GRAMPS (which is, itself, based on GURPS) called TOMAGOMB (Thoughts On Making A Game Of My Books). The makeshift title, and bastard-child game system, were created by me, Mark Burton. The system began flawed, and ended flawed, although it improved during gameplay constantly.

But this article isn't about TOMAGOMB (thank Rumfish!), its about the campaign.

It all began in Zinovi, capital city of Jivynyt (jev-IN-et), a country on the continent of Safeev, on the planet of Sert. A group of characters who had never before met came together before the central keep, Jivyn's Stand, each with a special letter in their hand. They had come from the four corners of Safeev seeking one thing: money.

Not any normal job; they would be working for Lord Gregor, ruler of Jivynyt, a man none of them knew anything about. And not any normal salary, to have brought them this far: the pay was 5000 gold. At level one, that's enough to bring almost anyone.

But there were not crowds of willing or would-be adventurers with such letters; no, there were only four. Milian Tyralious, Half-Elven Ranger, Prince of the Wood Elves, second in line to rule half of the elven forest Pithamos, was one of the four. But it had not been a royal summons; he had chanced upon it, in his wanderlust travels far from home, without fanfare or handservants. To this day, he still remains part of the group. He is played by Frank.

D'jumi Ooomboulos was another of the four. Few had seen one of his kind away from home, and certainly very few in Jivynyt. He was a bedkip, a race of tree-dwelling humanoids thought to be related to both halflings and fey. Although naive, he was well-trained, and ready to bring in much-needed funding and metal to his home in the Sinesteene Forest. And, aptly enough, his training was as... an assassin. To this day, he also remains part of the group. He is played by Ray.

Tordek (a name you may recognize from somewhere) was a grumpy cave dwarf, extremely uncharismatic but a reasonable fighter. By accident the letter had fallen into his grubby hands, and only because of the rich rewards had he come forth. His fate shall be detailed in a few posts. He was played by John.

Last, but not least (damn, I used another cliche), was a centaur wizard, Ravornel. Drawn by the power the money could bring and intrigued by the vagueness of the letter, he had come to begin his rise to power. He was far from being normal among centaurs, although he was indeed a powerful character. His fate I will leave vague for now. The player was James.

Wow, that was a long post. I'll try to speed it up a little more in the future.

Thus was the intro of the beginning.

First Session and on
Imagine you are chronicling your life. How well do you recall the age of 2? Or 5? or 7? Or, even 4 years ago? Such are the difficulties here.

The four went in the main gate and were soon shown to the king's grand hall, where he greeted them from the throne. Soon, though, Tordek asked, "Why are you wearing a dress?" in reference to the king's robe.

But this was not where Tordek died, although the king became very cross with him. Instead, the mission was handed out: the assassination of the king of Vewaquia, whom Lord Gregor made out to be a very wicked and overbearing ruler. Given the amount of gold, and the good nature of their mission, they accepted.

Captain of the Guard, Vlad, was also sent on the mission. He was a bitter veteran of war, loyal to his country but harboring grudges too numerous to list.

Before the group left the city, though, two events took place. One, Ravornel made a deal for 50 gold to make Vlad's rival in the knightly order look like a fool, and set up a brilliant plan to send the man toppling out of his saddle during a joust with a squire, which succeeded.

Less successfully, Milian and Tordek argued and bickered until they decided to have a duel outside a tavern. The fight went pitifully; neither was really able to hit or damage the other significantly. Finally, Ravornel charged in, kicking one into the wall of the tavern, and knocking the other unconscious with his staff, because he was tired of watching the fight.

So it was with much misgivings that the group set out from Zinovi.