The Land of Exilis

Campaign 3 - Sam DM
Story - Technical - Sessions - Calendar - Secrets

Lights Dwindling

The party all arrive in the wrong place at the right time, each one joins Captain Delta's crew for their own reasons. setting sail for the new world. the ship comes under attack but is easily defeated by the crew. in the dead of night the ship is attacked by a kraken dragon and destroyed sending the entire crew into the ocean. our party wakes up on a train in a strange and sinister new land as they try to understand where they are as gears of fate start turning.

Robert and Ravi leave Ferrabreeze on a ship bound for Ostrov, but the never make it

Johm and Saphira chase a foe out to sea during a terrible storm, they never retrun

Legkalo's Shipment never arrives at its destination

Zonatar goes missing at sea trying to get a cure for her partner's ailment

Venenum is sacrificed as part of a dark ritual to their patron however they don't die and wake up on Exilis's shores.

Waking up on a shore of fine pale sand our party from all different walks of life and time have been pulled together by forces beyond their comprehension. All of them groggy like a night of heavy drinking was interrupted by a babbling goblin band.

Robert, the Cleric was first to rise, a Human man in his early thirties, His face stained with tragedy, tired eyes, unkept beared and hair, brown as like a tree's bark with just as brown eyes, Dressed in Coroner's attire, a Coroner who does not care about being one any longer. pulling up to his knees to have a look around, though as things came into focus he felt his stomach turn as the previous nights drink came back up in a broil of bile and fermenting yeast. Heaving over on all fours as his body expunged the poisons used to drown his sorrows.

The heaving sound helped bring the rest back into the waking world. Zonatar, a Half-Orc barbarian, as tall as an ox and built as a barn with short wild black hair dressed in sturdy tribal attire mean for long travel or wilderness exploration. She came over to Robert to offer aid. a complexation of pale turquoise and yellow eyes. her strong hands and bare feet show signs of someone working on the land.

On alert as soon as they came too, a rare DragonBorn with wings and tail, Far larger and more draconic that your typical DragonBorn. A Dragon Knight, not so common today. A Ranger it seemed armed with multiple weapons. His White scales decorated with blue edges dressed as a warrior but coated in a signina unfamiliar to the rest of the party, holding no relation to any faction of the other eras. He seems nervous. despite his intimidating appearance it seems the current situation is far outside his comfort. he seems to be struck by confusion as speaks with a small true dragon, not paying much attention to the others.

Bursting out of a pile of sand, “Venenum Amicis in your presence.” he proudly, or smugly announces out loud.

There is knocking from a crate half buried on the shore, inside a warforged well soaked but functioning. It introduces himself as Unit N11, but after hearing it said back he decides on a more personal name, Lekgalo.

Robert scans the shore for the familiar blazing red of Ravi, confirming she is not here, Did she go on ahead? was she lost? did she een end up on the shore to begin with? however his questions are quickly answered when he finds a thick notebook tucked in his bag, no mistaking its Ravi's book he had seen her write in multiple times. It details a few things about their location.

With the party up and about the group take in thier surroundings. a starless sky blazed with luna light of a shattered moon. Te ocean black as the abyss, and as still as a mirror. tossing a rock in shows it behaves like water as the rock splaces and sinks. but te ripples disipate quickly and the water returns to its still silence. The land before the is familiar, coated in dark green grass, rocks and roads carved from frequent foot traffic. the shore seems to be covered in footprints much like thier own. a warm light off in the distance reveals some sort of settelemnt. thats the first stop.

Town of begining

After spending their time in town getting their bearings and learning their situation. the party spend some time amongs themselves planig their best course of action.
Running blindly into the unknown seemed like a poor choice but time was an urgency. Yet coming to realise that time may not work as fairly as it did being them all from different areas of the world.

Their supplies low from what ever brought them here, some didnt bring anything, some lost much of what they had during the event that brought them here. But normal gold coin was worthless here to most. so they would have to trade something else

Some things were familiar at least, Finding a tavern and Job board in this town seemed rather straight foward. Two tasks jumped out to them, a missing child and a beast prowling the outskirts.

to find the child the party journeyed into the nearby woods, yet just approaching them felt unsafe. like passing an invisable border te temperature drops sharply but not enough to snow, the trees They rustled and swayed in the wind, only there was no wind they could feel.
Getting closer the trees didn't seem normal, the canopy of the woods made sight difficult but closer inspection revealed humanoid shapes witin the trees. Dread washing over as the party realise the trees were people that had somehow grown into the trees of these woods. Amicis remembers stories of such a forrest found in Aethien. Mishapen Forest, but how could it be here.

Although the party failed to save the child, the job was complete, returning for payment the 'father' seemed unphased by the news, whitteling away another of the same figure, a malformed scarcrow in fine detail, Payment was taken but nobody felt good about it, aside from mayve amicus.

The party decided to bury the feelings of dread by tackling the next job, an unknown beast stalking te outskirts, They were ready for a fight

The sky seems to move then they all catch a glimpse of it. something unspeakable.

Taking a few jobs

• Missing child, Reality of the trees
• Beast on the Border, Introduction to Zyllis
• Rewards, leads to nabhilhime

The Party have learned the gravity of thier situation, in a strange unforgiving land shared by ancient evil and old gods alike. the party work in thier boot taking a job or two. otherwise failing the job they do learn of a lead and make for the capital. the journey is tense but uneventful as they meet bandits and have a first look at an old God. they arive in the city of Valefor after a few days trip.

City of Nabilhime

The Party head off to the capital following their strongest lead. they eventually end up in the city of Nabilime

Their journey was interrupted when coming to a river crossing. like before it seemed as if there was an invisible border they crossed as the grass changed and the temperature also. the path changed from dirt to stone, Robert recognised this bridge, it was the same small bridge he would cross every day when journeying in and out of his home town when e was still a child.

The Bandits appear normal at first, a breath of fresh air for the party but some were suspicious, which was founded when their first attacks phased through the bandits and their true forms were revealed.
Humanoid bodies hung on nooses that stretched high into the dark sky vanishing into nothing, hairless, sunken strangled eyes, missing teeth and shrivelled limbs.
Bodies impaled on a large stake and tied to it, heads replaced by a horses. they moved uncanny, hopping on the stake of wood like a pogo stick as they grumbled and roared in horrid horse noises.
spectre like figures, a heavily rotted dress tattered at the ends, no limbs visible bellow the material, the head shattered like a glass mirror but all the fragments floating around the neck of the spectre. yet the fragments make no sense, too many eyes, too many mouths. it utters a shriek that chills to soul.

During the camp, during Robert's watch his head is filled with whispers once again. the rest of the party asleep or in rest mode. this time they are louder and Robert turns around to see a figure in the dark, His eyes wide and his hand grips his weapon sub-consciously, a primal fear deep in his gut says to run, but the whispers are starting to make coherent words, he approaches.

Robert had herd of this city before in his home land, but it had been destroyed millenia before his time. Venum had also herd of this place but it was a small town not the huge city that layed before them, Zonotar and Johm had also herd the name but it was the name for a forge of the Fire Jotun.
Though the town was here it lacked its original inhabitants it seemed, The people here having mad makeshift alterations to various buildings and locations to suite what ever their needs were, It seems the location is it its physical representation alone and not the culture of te people who built and lived here.

Journey to Nabilhime,

• Bandit encounter? The hung and impailed bandits
• Camping time for personal discussion
• sights upon the watcher old god

reaching town, rest, supplies, information, beholders, lead on Ravi

Robert has encounter with Dominion

Great Sea Spire

The parties time in Exilis leads them to track down a goblin who seemed to have been with a Red haired tabaxi some weeks ago.

Robert recognises the goblin as one of the crew members on the ship, they interrogate the goblin and learn on Ravi's location as well as a few more bits of information including some stuff about Parker, the old gods church

The lead on Ravi brings the party to what the Goblin referred to as 'The sea Spire' yet when the party get there its less of a spire and more of a ruin. however a drowned Beholder seemed to be on guard so there was something up. The party manage to sneak past the beholder with a few clutch movements, when getting inside sure enough the stairs up stopped were the rest of the tower had crumbled away, but there was a set of stairs leading bellow.

There isn't much time to survey the area, with the Drowned Beholder still nerby and could still catch them if they don't move quickly the party hurried down the stairs. Journey down into the spire, something is watching

Find and Ruin Stem's office searching for information, find some, kill baby terasque by accident, Find documents relating to people trafficking, a contact named 'Knight' supplies stem with test subjects for payment. as well as some plans written in a language none of the party can decipher.

Deeper into the spire things are getting horrific, creatures parts incased in jars of liquid, rusted medical tools, needles and mysterious glowing fluids. constant groans and cries from the walls, rooms and deeper bellow and the rattle of metal above them like something was following them but every time they looked up there was noting they could see.
The party find a large double door during their decent with a concerning amount of noise from behind. still unable to see te bottom they decided to enter to see if they can find out more information.
Its a active medical ward with several beds lines up in two rows, many of them had humanoid figures tied down to the beds wit various intencities, most were still, some were breathing and mumbling phrases or words repeatedly, some were thrashing, twisting and screaming not in pain and insanity. Some had become mutated from whatever they once were and some lay deathly still, having died on the table who knows how long ago.

At the back of the medical ward is a room is a monstrous figure of oceanuric description, octopus tentacles and many eyes, yet hey did not give off any meancinging aura, she had not noticed the party yet and they took the opportunity to hide, this deep in unknown territory against unknown foes the party agreed an outright fight would not be the best move before knowing more.
Ize Losefka
After the figure leaves the party get a better look, it seems the creature is feminine in nature, possible once humanoid that has mutated though she seemed rather intact as she held a medical plate with several tools and bottles of potions or samples. the room she came out of was left open as she disappeared down a hall.
inside the room was another figure tied intensely to a chair chair with a horrible wrinkled bloated head covered in slumbering eyes and space small tendrils.

Meet Professor Stem

Free Ravi who is captured

Piss Stem off

• Freeing Ravi
• rummaging in his office
• killing his test subjects

Stem sicks a terrifying nurse creature onto the party. Its too strong so the party flee being chased.

Loose Amicus is lost to the spire.

Escapoing the sea spire with knew leads, knowlage and am inert Ravi who is barely able to stand after whatever expirements were beforemd on her. the party make a beline back to the nabilhime city.

They had lost Venenum to the creature in the sea spire but the ordeal was done, they had no reason to return and finish the job but some feel like there is more to the tower.

Spending a few days restocking and talking about thier next move, talking about the loss of venenum. with the knowledge they learned Robert reconis its connected to his brother and they should persue it. Zonatar reckons the cult may have a way out from what was learned in the tower. arguments are had about the best course of action. but they do agree to spend time trying to Get Ravi back on her feet.

This time is spent doing some odd jobs and learning a bit more about the area.
Ravi becomes better but still not fighting fit and it seems something is changing in her body.
Johm starts to talk about the power of the virus, seeing it first hand in the tower, he desiers that power be living that's the way to escape.

Lekgolo is mostly along for the ride with no urgency to get back home he is mainly there to help the others how he can, though he preverse voilence so any plan involving a fight he is openly agreeing too.

Eventually the party decide to go to the church. Venenum mentioned that he reconised the name when it was mentioned

During thier journey they have to pass through a forest where they quickly find themselves drenched in thick mist. hours of looking around in the mist and the confirm they are lost. they start running into the creatures they have learned are lost, sprites of black huminoid shape with swirling white eyes and outline. They seem passive but the party have encountered them before and know to stay away and not provoke them.

They catch a glimpse of themselves in the mist, from an hour or so ago it seems, Lekgolo approches and interacts with them causing a ripple in space time as the party suffer imence pain from the laws trying to correct themselves, the party agree not to do that again.

Zonatar realizes this is the same forest as the one near her homeland. she reconises a carving she made in a tree. and it all clicks but is also muddled with confustion. knowing how to escape she tells the party to simply walk backwards for a while without looking back and they should find themselves out.

Restock, rest, reevaluate. Gather information

Learn about the crawler church may have a way out using the power of old gods.

Learn about traffiking people

Curch of the Crawler

Robert has another encounter with Dominion

Plot of the church to end the watcher using livion virus.

Talk of traffiking people with a familiar name at the head front

Broken Promise

The church agrees to arrange a meeting with Robert's brother but the party must escort a pregnant maiden dressed in white to a set of ruins known as 'Starstrike Loft'
There are immidient red flags flown and the party mostly disagree on the spot, aside from Jhom who tries to convince them to go along with it.
“would you rather leave her here with the creepy cult?!”
There is a huddle as the party discuss this weigh the situation, the possible outcomes and the morality of it all. The cult leaders are being rather cryptic about the actual reason for the maiden's escort and the maiden herself seems aloof and in her own world.
Ravi only adds that she dosnet see another option right now, but there may have been something she missed as she is still groggy, but ultimately its the parties decision.

The maiden is no mere uman. she seems close to 12ft tall

The party notice some similarities to the maiden and the aberration woman they encountered in the research hall depths of the Sea spire, But those similarities are brushed up to coincidence or perhaps they are long lost twins?
When the cult leaders had left the room the party ask the maiden some questions such as her name and family. however she is so aloof that its difficult to et strait answers and the cryptic answers she does give just raise more questions. Not getting anywhere the party drop the questions and begin preparations for travel.

Arriving at STarstrike loft it seems it was a massive curche with high towers however a meteor has struck through the building reducing most of it to rubble. however the location the cult mentioned was visable. yet percarious.
Jhom attempts to fly te maiden however her shear size make that impossible.

Zonotar tries to save the sacrificed maiden but Ravi stops here out of regards to Zonatar's safety.

The party return to the churche with heavy hearts,

Returning to the curche they find a majority of the cult members horribly disfigured with heads stretched to impossible lenghts, mouths agape as they all are on their kneews in pained positions forzen. only one remains in the middle of the room, thanking the party for carrying out thier task, and that a meeting has been aranged in the stock house a little outside the church

Robert kills parker of his own choice not Dominion.

Leaving the church area the party catch a glipse of something happening in the far distance, like water running through a dry riverbed a cepping pink & purple mass slowly spreading along the land heading right for a major settelemnt, the major settelemnt in the land they had been able to see the light from since they arrived in Exilis.
With Remington freed from Parker and Saphira back in flying shape the party decide to take the trip by air to see whats going on. only a few hours of flight that would have taken days by foot.

the head of the spread was a creepign mass of rithing flesh and infection, anything organic it toched was convereted into some alien-like form of itself, trees became stalks of pink flesh baring strange fluid filled fruit. creatures would be absorbed into the land or become the smae insectoid like creatures they had encountered a few times. however there seemed to be no sign of the cause. flying further back they found a large draconic alien figure slowling making its way through the already infected land. as soon as they approached from the air the party feel a pressure in thier mind as something begins probing and serching it

End Game

Return to the sea spire

Deeper into the spire the party encountered much of the same things however they are able to avoid all combat. reaching where they once stood when they were here last, rescuing Ravi, now part of the lab had opened up leading down even deeper.

decending down into a pitch black area with nothing but speck of light floating around like dust. stairs lead down but they were diccult to see in the blackness, a lit torch allies easier sight. lower and lower until the light from the above entrance disaperead, soon after a new ligth appeared bellow, some sort of door way.

Going through the door way the party find themselfs on a coulourless shore, similar to when they awoke but the ocean was grey, the sand was colourless, and cloud covered the sky in bright overcast. it seemed to stretch on forever in both directions, the sea was unlike the Abyssal lake, this gently lapped at the shore and was naturally wavy and disturbed like a normal ocean. Looking into the ocean it was abnormally shallow, only reaching ankel hight and never getting deeper. but looking through the water the party could see glipses of Blue sky and clouds, and in other places night sky with the twin moons of felwind and constellations of stars they recognized. it seemed this place was a border of some sort.

Zonatar and Delta fight.

Portal is opened.

So, this is it? Our Heroes have finished this story of twisted fates and impossible odds, but it lets recap one last time.

Our Heroes made it to the sealing shore, the space between the abyss and the mortal realm, something created by the Old Gods existence to keep thy Nameless contained.
There in the place of Dull white sand, a great deep black abyssal lake in place of the sky and grey murky lapping water washing up lost memories on the shore they found where they had started and where it would all end.

Captain Delta and Professor Stem stood at the edge of a lonely old dock as Stem prepared to open the portal back to the mortal world using the seals Delta had collected. the party confront Delta but non-more than Zonatar who has lost all she cared about due to Delta's actions. with nothing left to lose Zonatar attempted to attacked Delta without quarter.

Delta managed to push Zonatar's rage with her own, Delta knew exactly how unfair and how much hurt she had caused her crew especially Zonatar and so offered a honourable one on one fight, Either Zonatar will burn her rage out on Delta's death or she will be cut down.
“I Have family of my own Zonatar, I choose them over you, and as horrible as it is if I had to do it again I would. I will not die so close Zonatar but I know nothing else will satisfy you.”

Zonatar drawing her mighty war hammer as she raged and roared. “You took EVERYTHING from me! your excuses mean nothing, you will pay for what you have done to us, done to me. If I had never gotten on that boat maybe I would have a chance to see my wife once again. BUT BECAUSE OF YOU THAT CHANCE HAS VANISHED”

Johm and Robert distanced themselves from the battle that was about to take place, Robert also very angry at Delta for deceiving them however her actions had lead him to exact revenge on his scum of a brother, Johm had no Quarrel with Delta's actions feeling it was necessary and if he was in Delta's position he would have done the same.

Delta called off Remington and dismissed the Harvester as she sheathed one of her swords.

Zonatar cracked her neck, her knuckles and her restraint as her eyes flared unblinking at Delta, a raging aura flaming around the barbarian women.

The Battle was fierce as Zonatar swung with the force to shatter the skull of a Tarrasque. The pressure waves rippled the water around them as Zonatar swung with strength that some gods only dream of, fuelled by her hatred for the one that betrayed her trust and the hope that perhaps, maybe she can still save her wife.. But Delta was fast, years of experience hunting beings such as the Old gods and Orphans was a day job, managing to keep a distance from Zonatar's blows.
Delta's black blade slashed with magical force against Zonatar's hide with extreme power, her family was waiting back home, she had left them to get the power she needed to save them and get their home back, two children and a husband were waiting for her and she was not about to die so close to the end.

The two of them battled as titans trading blows as much as they traded words but in the end Zonatar fell. As Delta slashed closing her eyes unable to witness what she was doing. almost as if time had stopped Delta watched as Zonatar's body fell into the grey water below.

At this moment Stem got the portal open and Skidir had shown himself, reaching from the black ocean that was the sky of this place. Tendrils, clawed hands and a great dragon body with many eyes and layered jaws roared as it entered.

Skidir, one of the 4 Cornerstone Dragons created by the gods close to the beginning of their era.
Skidir was made to keep the forces of the abyss from straying into other realms, but as the Abyss corrupted him and he pleaded for help from his creators he only received silence.

Now Skidir was about to be freed and with the help of the professor Skidir would get to the Celestial plain and exact his revenge.

The Remainder of the party in awe saw their chance to get home. But as they were preparing a sinister voice sounded.
Destroy the seals
The party paused. Robert and Johm were not going to take any drastic actions so close to the end of this nightmare but Lekgolo had other plans.
He sprinted past everyone and took a massive leap off the dock, bringing his weapon Ordinance down on one of the seals as Stem cried out in panic.

The portal warped and became very unstable as the ground shook beneath the party’s feet.
a mass of black and eyes flu over the party in a flash and dived into the collapsing portal.

Skidir dived almost immediately after as Stem, Delta, Remington, Robert, Johm and Saphira took a ride on the abyssal dragon. The portal snapping closed leaving Lekgolo, Amicus and the body of Zonatar behind.

The next thing Robert and Johm knew was they were waking up to the soft music of a tavern. In beds they don’t remember.
When they asked the inn keeper he had this to say.

Yea it was crazy, short red head dragged the two of you in here all soaking wet from the sea. Your dragon too.
She paid for your attention and rooms then left as quick as she got here.

Back in the sailing city they started their journey in.
Johm and Robert both still had their lanterns but as normal ones now.

It’s not known what exactly they did after that, but they went their separate ways. To their shock 50 years had passed since they left on Delta’s boat.

Skidir and Stem jumped through another portal almost as soon as they entered the mortal world.

Lekgolo is cursed to forever walk those pale white beaches. Guiding those who wash up on shore to their train ride.

Amicus managed to get back into Exilis and now studies all he can about the old gods in Exilis as well as learning about the newest one.

The Sleeper was woken from its slumber, scrubbing Exilis clean. The only things that were left were a fraction of the civilian population, the sages and all traces of the virus stayed. Any unsavoury bandits, lightless, drowned or likewise creatures vanished and now many cities and towns are completely abandoned.
Its rumoured that Lady Valour keeps the horrific works of the sea spire going.

Delta headed back to Reton with the harvester at her side she was determined to clear out her home.

Zonatar’s body sunk to the depths of those grey waters along with her weapon and Lekgolo’s weapon.

Zonatar was a fighting spirit till the end, she never stopped loving you. I’m sorry your time was cut so short, but I hope to let you at least have closure. Off to bed now, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow

*Zonatar’s wife who is also now Valour’s assistant nods and tanks Valour for the tea and story as she heads back to her room*

*Lady Valour closes the book she was reading to Zonatar’s wife and takes a sip of her tea*

So that’s how this story ends, it was hectic and not everything was figured out, but you never know when the next story is going to start