The Imminent Doom

The Imminent Doom is a period in Arath starting in 1521. It is mainly marked by the war between the biggest realms the Democracy of Cahemelle, the Dwarven Republic, the Thanate Empire, the Orcish Diarchy and the Draconian League.

In the centre of this period of war an unlikely group finds its way together. These are the stories of this groups adventures. Though if you want to read what else unfolded during the time and what they might have kick started in other places of Arath then you might want to read the Backstory of The Imminent Doom.

Prologue

The players are drafted into the armies of the Dwarven Republic and the Democracy of Cahemelle.

On the Sea

The rain is pouring down. The winds blow colds and all around you are cursing dwarves, gnomes as well as other races.

“The elves have us cursed. They know of our intentions and called the rains to stop us.” Next to Aluwyn curses. They were sent by the Gnome Academy to support the dwarven engineering corps. The corps is trying hard to free the ballista and catapults from the mud they are stuck in.

Hand over to Aluwyn

The wind catches strong in the sails and whips the waves high. Porof's sits in the crows nest with his trusty weapon and a bottle of grog. He hears the shanties from his sailor comrades down below. They were hired to bring Cahemelle to the shore. An easy task, no fighting was to be involved. The coastline slowly comes into sight.

Hand over to Porof

Varis is glad that he is not stuck in a big trading vessel, most of his men are hanging over the railing, seasick from the high waves. He is sitting still in his place, uncomfortable wearing his polished and shiny plate armour of the protectors. He is wetting his arrows, making sure that the fletching looks nice and clears the nock with a dagger.

Perception role from Porof

They now start to see each other, preparing the spells and siege crafts and getting ready to land or repel the landing.

The Approach

During the approach, Porof will get pushed into fighting with the elves, as they are attacked. At least that is what the elven commander on his ship is saying.

Varis ship gets hit, he is forced to drop his plate armour and heavy shield, to swim the rest of the way to shore.

Aluwyn has to contempt with a continuous barrage of magical spells cast against their position.

The Landing

As Varis lands on the shores, he has nothing but his quiver and bow and his undergarments. He strips a dead Militiaman from his armour and picks up his rapier.

Aluwyn has to dodge an incoming fireball and rolls down the hill onto the battlefield.

Porof’s longboat lands ashore uncontested and can disembark all its soldiers under heavy arrow fire.

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Recap

After a tough and indecisive skirmish between the Democracy of Cahemelle and Dwarven Republic, the party emerges still living.

Porof expertly avoided the elves to hide in the crows nest, as he did not want to join the battle. This plan did not work so well as the ship landed he got flung into a bunch of elves, which break his fall. He still tries to stay out of combat, desperate to play injured he thinks he uses his glaive as a crutch, but everyone else would think he walks like a wizard with a staff. During the skirmish, he keeps on praising his weapon and cuts down a few of the dwarves.

The platoon Captain Alloro takes care of his weapons and ready his platoon to disembark. But a neighbouring ship loses some of its oars and rams his transport. He loses most of his heavy gear and must make sure he makes it to the land. Swimming with all his might and dexterity he makes it to the shore soaking wet, seaweed hanging on him and quite pissed of. He calls back his weapons with his magic. This sight scares some of the younger dwarves and they run away. He tries to organise the troops as good as he can, and even inspires the commanding brigadier to charge into the last dwarves that stand.

Aluwyn is an enlisted gnome from the academy, meant to bolster the ranks of the dwarven engineering corps. She had a crash course in dwarven siege machinery and is now in charge of a little group of gnomes to man a 10m wide ballista. One of her crew is a little gnome, that is a little craven. Her position got shot at and she tumbles onto the battlefield, where she tries her best to help out the faltering dwarven phalanx. This does not end well for her, as she gets knocked out by a dwarven shield-bearer, who first shoots then asks questions. The only reason she is still alive is that the little gnome pulled her to the side of the battlefield.

After the skirmish, the elven captain and the human sailor captured the gnome engineer and make their way inland away from the red coloured beach.

New Lands

Aluwyn und Porof (Passive Perception), they might notice that Alloro has been visited in his mind.

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As the group travels the near lands they find some Tiefling Thugs harassing a young noble-looking man, who is trying to defend himself.

This man is called Reimar, he is trying to make a name for himself by serving his dwarven lords in the battle. He will tell them where his father's hold is and promises them a good reward for his rescue and escort back there.

On their way to Marymar they might encounter some Bandits or Dire Wolfs.

First Home

As they help or choose not to, Reimar they will find their way to his father's mansion. He is the Governor of the local region (Dostrait) and serves the Dwarven Republic. He has some smaller issues with trolls, taxes, bandits, dire wolfs and will ask them to help him out. The village (Marymar), near to the mansion, has some trouble with the battle. Bandits extorting them, and monsters pressuring them. Almost all able fighting men have been drafted there.

Proving their Steel

The Governor of Dostrait will not listen to them or his son for long, as he is a very busy man and must not be disturbed by his failure of a son, maybe he is more useful in domestic situations. After a while, Reimar will come back and ask them for help for one more time. He will tell them what they want to, they did save his hide. He is tasked to clear the coast of the Sea Hag and the crawling Sea Spawn. As some tinkerer has found a way to extract salt from the sea water. This sounds all a little shady to him, he is not the brightest torch on the porch.

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Recap

The rest gave the three survivors some time to calm down. Still, Alloro does not trust the little Gnome Aluwyn and casts a mysterious ritual on them. She does not allow that without a fight and draws the attention of a little disoriented Kylin, she had a tough time during the battle of yesterday and has been washed up on the shore. But she was not the only one listening to a ranger noticed them and investigated the scene. Yet only Kylin decided to show herself.

She quickly recognised Porof, as her old mate she used to sail with. So she joins the group. They soon take off west to find a village Kylin knows about. During the first few minutes of their travel, they hear a dwarvish war horn. Only Aluwyn knows that it means that everyone has to get ready to march. Scared of it they up their pace to be ahead of them, though later they figure out that the horn was not triggered by them.

As they rested from the morning of their fast walk they hear fighting close by. They find a tall strong and fierce looking man is standing alone against four opponents. He wields his battleaxe in his full plate armour and knows how to defend himself. Still, the group and Ruven decide to help him. The fighting is fierce and Kylin impresses the defender quite a bit. Now that the group meets Ruven and get to know Reimar, the son of the local governor. He leads them to Marymar the capital of Dostrait. Marymar is nothing more than a big poor village on the coast and it is apparent that they have little what could interest any of the big countries. The village itself is getting a palisade build and all the buildings except one are build of wood.

At the gates, Porof meets an old guard that might know his father from old fights down in the Darkwoods. He tells him to wait for him in the Tavern of the Old Lass Inn, but he never shows up. The governor's mansion is the only stone building in the village and contains quite a collection of old weapons. Unlike like the village or the countryside the governor has everything a heart desires. They meet this governor and his two advisers a slim man holding a big book and a fat one, which takes little care of his hygiene. The governor seems to have some use for this odd group, so he invites them to a feast and offers them a contract for a little problem of his. He also gives them living quarters in his mansion for them to rest. During the wait time, the group sets out to visit the Old Lass Inn, where Aluwyn gives her best to have the worst performance of her life. All while Alloro learns that there are no boats he can rent, buy or steal for a journey home.

Alloro is the first of the group to join the feast and tries to get some information out of the governor. Later all but Porof joins the feast as well. They learn little, except for a Dire Wolf, that troubles the Direward Village. After the governor leaves the feast Alloro organises a drinking competition between the fat adviser Ralf and Aluwyn, which she wins because of her hesitation to drink fast.

The next morning Alloro tries to gather more information and hears about a missing boy, the help needed on the fields, the troubles of the Sea Hag they are hired to take care off and that a smart man wants to make salt out of water. He is disappointed not to hear more and returns to their room.

During that time Kylin starts looking for Porof, as he did not return to their quarters. She looks for him in the Old Lass Inn where she finds out that he drunk three guards and two dwarves under the table. After that, he left the inn with a girl called Berta to swim in the sea. She meets him perfectly fine on his way back to the village.

The Sea Hags Lair

Alloro and Ruven have to roll a stealth check to see how good their disguise is for this session.

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After attending a feast in their honour the group has agreed to kill a Sea Hag. This will result in Reimar telling them of his father's plan to liberate Dostrait and introduces them to the man who plans to make salt out of water, Rigalis. He is a mad tinkerer that tries many different things in his workshop.

The Cave

As they travel north they will find a cave at the shore that gets flooded by night. Outside of the cave they find 4 Sea Spawn crawling around looking for some food. After they have defeated them they can enter the cave where they find a Sea Hag taking care of two of her spawn.

The Ship Wreck

After they have killed the monsters a kid runs up to them and thanks them for rescuing him. He tells them that further in the cave is a shipwreck in which he hid.

As they investigate the wreck they find:

• 1 Bag of Holding
  • 2 Potion of Healing (2d4 + 2)
  • 1 Small Barrel of old Whiskey
• 100 Gold Pieces
• 2 Platinum Pieces (DC 25)

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Recap

A map of what the group thinks their surrounding looks like, after session 3.

After a healthy breakfast the group set out to find the Sea Hag, they are tasked to kill. Aluwyn stays behind to cure her hangover, as she had way too much to drink.

Though first Lin had to stop by the Old Lass Inn to refill her flask, there she learns about a few things that are going on through out the province. A child is missing, a Dire Wolf is plaguing the Village of Direward and a mad man is trying to make salt out of water.

After that quick pit stop she joins the group and they start walking north. On the northern gate a guard is very impressed and shows great respect to Porof, because of his feat last night. Still they carry on further north. While walking up they find a isolated hut, from which a loud explosion comes from. While they try to check it out they only find a frighted alchemist, which tries everything to get rid of them.

Finally reaching the Sea Hag's lair they try to sneak closer, but on the wide open beach they are easily spotted by the Sea Spawn in front of the cave. The fighting is fiece but quick. Shortly after they enter the cave and find it too dark for the two humans. So they light a torch. Entering the cave they find a old modding boat, which Lin tries to ignite but fails, Alloro freezes it, to show how casting is done. Frustrated Lin casts lighting Bolt on it to prove that she can cast good spells too, this has great effect as they hear a painful bubbly scream from behind the scream, the fighting begins. The Sea Hag poses a little challenge to the group but still they surpass the worst and win the fight.

While searching for loot they find an unconscious child in the wrack, which they used as target practice before. They revive it and carry it out, while Alloro continuous to search the cave. He finds a Bag of Holding and some gold coins.

Tax Evasion?

Now that the coast is clear the salt production can start.

Meeting Rigalis

After the group victoriously returns and the group gets their pay they get shaken off by the governor. As they leave the mansion, Reimar approaches them and asks them to follow him. He leads them to the hut outside of the palisades, north of the village. Where they meet Rigalis. A mad tinkerer that currently works on making salt out of water. He believes that this would make Dostrait rich and a nicer place. If he does not blow it up, as in his cellar he has many tones of gunpowder, crafted by the command of the governor.

The Council Meeting

After the governor has consulted with his council, including the crocked man. He orders the group back to him. As they come to him he tells them that he needs the taxes to be collected from the other villages. He offers 10% of the collected taxes as payment for the group.

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Recap

After the group meets up again Reimar introduces them to Rigalis. As they approach he is again experimenting with explosives and gases, that was a smelly welcome, which puts off Alloro and Porof turn back to rest in the village. As they see the inventor and alchemist they discover that he has a whole room full with black powder. After some time he Rigalis warms up to Aluwyn and he gifts her his old tinkering kit. As a little reward she shows him how to make fireworks with salt and black powder.

After some time they created five rockets. Very excited they must try them out, so the take a short walk towards the sea shore. After launching the first rocket it becomes clear that the black powder is not ordinary, as it explodes with a might and a deafening sound the group. But Rigalis is so excited that he had to fire the other ones as well, this caused tumult in the village, as they think they are under attack. The last rocket did launch and explodes right at the beach, leaving a little pond where it once stood.

The next day, they meet the governor and his new metal machines guards. He pays them for their complete task and asks them to go out and collect the taxes from the other two villages. The group agrees and sets off south to Direward. On their way they discuss how they want to ditch the task and leaving Dostrait behind. Soon they see the Direwoods, which frightens some of the group and to keep them self save they almost start a forest fire (as some are rather trigger happy with their spells).

A Fightfull Day

The village of Direward is rather small. With many residential huts and a central marketplace. Soon the group finds their way to this place and see a temple, a grain storage and two other buildings stand out. The tavern and the mayors hut.

After entering the tavern they find some humans and dwarves in a pup brawl. This annoys Porof as the inn keep refuses to give out food and drink until the brawl has finished. So he takes part in it breaking it up and then challenges the oldest of the dwarves. After a hard and honourable fight Porof wins the encounter and earns the respect of the other dwaves.

After entering the tavern Aluwyn recognises the dwarves as part of the Engineering Corp and tells the elves to hide in the forest.

The next day the non elves meet with the mayor they learn about the the Direwolf and the situation in Dostrait, the ongoing rebellion and his dislike to the situation. At least one of the two must be finished off.

After the meeting the group went shopping and met up at the edge of the woods. From where they went to the pasture, where the last life stock has been slaughtered by a Direwolf. Ruven finds out that this was not done by a Direwolf but by a Worg and follows the tracks to their camp.

Hoping not to fight to many goblins at once they sneaked around the camp taking out the goblins one by one. This works fine the first time. But fails miserably as they trigger a trap and alarm all of the surrounding goblins. The fight goes well in the beginning until two massive Hobgobilns join the frey. But seeing their friends being slaughtered they retreat to fight another day.

At Deaths Door

The group found a crudely drawn map in the goblin camp.

With the party just calming down after the encounter with the goblins, they found them self enchanted by wonderful music. All of them except of their hearty sorceress fall victim to the enchanting music. But there was no time, the world turned and the colours of the forest mixed and blurred, ore bright colours are added to the mix. As the world stopped spinning they find them self in the Realm of Milil.

Only now they realise the death of their companion Varis Alloro. In front of them stands a ghostly elvish woman, she looks sad and in grief, Varis recognises his sister Aurae Alloro. She takes a step and a deep breath and in elvish she resides a poem, that moves almost every heart. And there the elven lord now stands realising his own death.

Not giving the group time to adjust to the new situation Milil steps forward and offers them the task to save the World from evil from the west. After some hesitation they agree and are gifted with some magical items and a Direwolf Pup for Ruven. After getting these parting gifts they find them self on their last battlefield.

Advancing to the goblin camp they hear fighting. As they sneak closer, they find the dwarves taking care of the last of the goblins. They find out that they are planning to go west, to fight the goblin hoards that live in the mountains there. So the two groups agreed to join forces for the march west.

Going back to Direward they seek out the Major to tell him about their Goblin hunt and to receive their pay. But he was busy at that late hour and the Guard did not allow them to pass. Until they persuaded him that the matter was urgent. So the group, with the exception of Porof, march in on Putin having fun with two rather young girls. Unimpressed the group tells him about the goblins and asks for pay. Also they told him about their plan not to collect taxes for the Governor and head south. On these news Putin changed his mind and told them what trouble this would put him in. If they left here without finishing their task he will suffer from it. So he asked the group to come back the next day, that is when Aluwyn decided to play her charm and join the next rumble with Putin and the girls.

The next morning Varis left early to burn his wagon full of charcoal to summon his familiar. While the others enjoy a hearty breakfast at the tavern. All but Porof, he seeks out the smith to fix his newly found Hobgoblin Armour to his size. On his way back he finds the Tavern surrounded by a number of armed men and soon finds himself arrested and shoved into the tavern, where he finds most of his friends arguing with Putin. As the argument gets more heated he shoves back one man and closes the door behind himself.

A new Friend

Dimly is the room lit and the air is filled with tension, all one can hear is the heavy pant of Porof holding the door shut best he can. The rest of the party, except Alloro, stand there ready to fight the mayor of Direward. He stands just centimetres away from Lin his weapons ready, just like her. Ale flowing down a beard and dripping on the table and the table manners of hungry dwarves interrupt the silence. Annoyed of the shouting and threats of death the oldest of the dwarves, Havarast Stoneaxes stands up and tries to calm the emotions. But Putin and Lin are determined to fight and only escalate the situation more, by casting spells and throwing insults. Never the less, Havarast manages to calm the situation and negotiates a deal, where the group is bound to his and his men by the Brother Oath and they will take care of the task, the group does not want to honour to finish.

Unaware of the trouble inside the village, Alloro is casting a ritual to find his familiar again. But he is interrupted by some guards, that ask him to follow them to the village centre. Though on their way they find his companions escorted by a much larger force. As they are escorted out of the village they are then told never to return or face certain death. The group cares little about this threat and wants to continue their travels, but the group will not let them, as they are still to swear the oath. Most of the group do not hesitate, Ruven is hesitant to do so as he fears the pain of the burning coal and Alloro outright refuses to swear it as he had no say in the matter and he has other oaths to up hold. In the end he is almost forced to take it under protest.

Trusting their new brothers little the dwarves decided that Havarast will join the group and scout ahead west. While the other dwarves finish the business. They are to meet in two weeks time at the eastern goblin mountains.

Without any more delay the party is eager to get some distance between them and Direward, so they set out west. After a days travel they find the ferry dock and book passage over to the other side of the river Bland. The young fery man called Lubin tells them about the dwarven city in the south. Having some free time and little interest of inland cities Lin insects her new horn. As she blows the horn the ferry picks up speed and the clouds start to take a shape.

The clouds form an elven head with a smug smile on his lips. No one but Alloro recognises him as Varos Valorien, as the clouds completely form his head his voice sunders over the river and he proclaims in elvish: "Condo Varis Alloro, Orriansonye Aravaeson, Hestonil e Orthalos Cinta Othao Dostrait, here by you are banished of the lands of Cahemelle and your live is forfeit, every elve is ordered to kill you on sight! You are stripped of your ranks and titles and are dismissed of the Protectors of the Sea." As the last word is spoken the head vanishes and the clouds turn back to normal. Soon after they reach the other side of the river.

They travel fast west as they could and only started to rest once the first sun has set. As they build their camp Alloro claims that the head must be connected to the horn and to prove he blows the horn as hard as he can, the up coming fog disorients Ruven as he was chasing after his Dire Wolf pup Ryo I of Direwoods. But the horn blow was answered by another horn far in the distance. Uneasy about the horn blow they settle for the night with guards for every hour.

In that night Alloro stands watch alone, he takes care of his bow and thinks of the things that happened that day. But movement catches his eye. He investigates and soon two arrows fly past him, he runs to the first tent and wakes everyone in it. Not knowing who their enemy is they grab their weapons to fight. Porof thinks he grabs his javelins, only to find his trusty glaive in his hands. While the others fight Aluwyn tries to wake up the other two Havarast and Lin but she miserably fails as the two of them are currently in a snoring contest. As she leaves frustrated she sees that the first enemy, a Hobgoblin, already lies slain on the floor. Getting ready to strike down the second one a flash of lightning and a loud thunder breaks through the night and the second enemy is incinerated. Surprised of what just happened they now see Havarast in full birthday suite, double axe swinging and mighty beard waving like a banner running towards the now dead enemies. And behind them they only see a foot slipping into the tent and soon after they hear a very proud snore.

Nightmares and Fiends

After the nightly ambush, the group wakes up and as Ruven goes to check on his trap, he finds a freshwater stream nearby. Everybody fills up their waterskins, the camp is broken down and the group is on their merry way. The slain Hobgoblins are left for the animals, after being searched thoroughly and relieved of some silver coins.

After the group has been walking for a while, Havarast notices a suspicious raven seemingly following them. Kylin Nelson|Kylin]] decides to shoot a fire bolt at it. This causes the bird to dive into the high grass and transform into a rat. This rat proceeds to bite Porof in the foot. Kylin enlarges Porof roughly to the size of a troll while he tries to shake off the now tiny rat. The creature transforms again, this time into a spider that climbs on Porof shoulder, only to get taken out by a magic missile shot by Kylin. As the creature lays on the ground, dying, it transforms once more to an ugly, red being, before vanishing into thin air.

The group walks on, pretty shook from this experience and sets up camp in the evening.

At dawn after an event less night, a pitch black mare with burning mane emerges from a suddenly appearing portal in the middle of a camp and attacks Alloro. It is slain with combined effort from the group, but only after injuring Alloro and reacting to a hurled insult from Aluwyn, in abysmal. This fact shows that this mare is a fiend, originating from the depths of hell.

Havarast now remembers a childhood-story about how this woods are cursed and lone travellers often disappeared without a trace. Indeed, both elves feel that the forest all around them are corrupted and deeply disturbed. This becomes clear again when Ryo suddenly dashes off into the woods, so Ruven has to chase after him.

Following Ruven, Aluwyn and Havarast make the acquaintance with yet another shapeshifter-creature. While catching his dire wolf, Ruven discovers the entrance of a cave, from which shines a light.

After conferring, it is decided to explore this cave. Once inside, the group is attacked by a creature with a seemingly alive beard that can also attack its opponents. Shortly after engaging this creature, it is joined by a second of his kind. Both were split in half by Porof and his almighty glaive, over which he seems to lose control more and more.

Exploring the cave a bit more, they find two furious caged water hags. Their prison ward is a more powerful, evil hag that engages the group in a drawn out battle and also seems to be behind the shapeshifters that plagued the group before. She calls more of her shapeshifting servants, ultimately causing Ryo to go down. Havarast, after exchanging hits with the hag, is being cut down as well, but Aluwyn heals him quickly afterwards. Ruven in turn manages to stabilise the condition of his dire wolf.

Meanwhile, Porofs mighty weapon developed a mind of its own and tries its best to corrupt Porof to go into a blood rage. Porof only narrowly keeps control over his body as his friends fight for their lives against both the hag and her shapeshifting servants.