At the end of last summer's campaign, the South Group party had (1) escaped from the dark elves in the Underdark into the Saberstrath, (2) captured a small stone beacon-tower containing an intricate clockwork mechanism, and (3) allied with one camp of pirates (the Styxx) in order to eliminate the camps of all their various rivals and liberate several hundred of their prisoners.
This is a great time for new players to jump in, or for old players to roll up a fresh character. Of course, anyone with an existing character from last summer will be eligible to continue. New starting characters will be at the "Adventurer" tier of power, with 20,000 experience points and 16,000 gold pieces of wealth, which may be exchanged for starting equipment or a henchman in accordance with the ACKS rules. Only your first character of the campaign gets starting wealth; if that character dies, then you'll have to leave an inheritance yourself to provide for the next one! However, any new characters will get the full 20,000 xp.
If you already have a copy of the rules, feel free to roll up a character in advance. As usual, the method is the strict "roll 3d6 in order", but you can generate 5 sets of stats and pick your favorite. You can also trade stats at 2:1 to adjust your prime requisite stat upward. The Autarch set will quickly roll new sets of five stats for you at this link and then email them to you.
The Current Situation
It's the middle of October, and the Saberstrath Valley is deep into autumn. The air has grown cold, and the few deciduous trees among the evergeens have shed their leaves. You are camping at the old clockwork watchtower located at the top of the great cliff that overlooks the valley road to the south and west, a superbly defensible position of great tactical value.
Unfortunately, the hundreds of men you've liberated from the pirates are unable to all live inside the tower. You now have a small domain of conquered territory north of the road and south of the river, such as it is, and with that comes responsibility. Daily and hourly, the men come to you with concerns and fears about their safety and the winter ahead.
Here are some of the most pressing concerns:
- You have managed to deeply offend most of the Great Houses of the dark elves in Emru-Marol, both by disrupting the Spider Festival and by slaying many of their pirate allies. They will not quickly forgive the wrongs you have done them. While a substantial blow was dealt to the City of Spiders itself, there is a vast underdark domain that will repopulate its losses and seek to avenge them!
- The Styxx crew's pirate camp to the west is well-fortified, and still runs a steady stream of slaver caravans along the road. Thus far they are greatly pleased with your elimination of their rivals. But pirates are treacherous by reputation.
- The men have thus far managed to subsist on foraged and plundered foods, but in the winter ahead, this will be more difficult. Unless a reliable trade route can be opened to purchase consumables, they fear starvation. A rich assortment of plunder from the pirate camps is packed away in crates and barrels, but it does little good this far in the wilderness unless it can be transported by caravan to somewhere more populated for sale or trade. (The Styxx pirates would happily take it, but only at absurdly unfair prices, knowing full well your desperation.)
- Even foragers are now reporting that the area around the tower is insufficiently pacified, and that various monster lairs are still present within a few miles of the tower and need to be exterminated.
- The young white dragon you rescued, Namazu, continues to eagerly seek knowledge and has been angling to learn any spells offered by mages in the party. Yet her heart is ever dragonish and she has begun to lust after treasure as well. She is willing to perform some light reconnaissance and to help defend the tower during her visits, but any greater services will require compensation. She is also ever-hungry for fresh meat.
- The pirate captives you liberated from slavery are mostly men, and they report that their families have been taken onward into the Underdark -- either to be sold to the dark elves or to be carried onward into the Undying Lands beyond. There is much grief over their possible fate given the ill reputation of the City of Spiders and its ever-hungry brood of sacred giant arachnids. Rumors of dread arcane experiments and the sacrificial rites of necromancers have set no one's hearts at ease. Morale is low, and some of the petitioners are demanding that you send a team back into the city to rescue their wives and children -- if they yet live. Barring this, the men would at least find satisfaction in any grim revenge you might exact for their loss.
- Opening a path out of the Saberstrath would serve many purposes: Diplomacy and trade with the Savage Reaches to the west (if there are any non-monstrous inhabitants to be found there), and the ability to communicate with the seat of human civilization in Durnovar. This, however, requires one of two things: (1) Capture of the high mountain pass held by the dark elves, or (2) locating the deep passage under the mountains. The captive men you liberated tell grim stories about the fortifications and defenses of the former, and will barely speak about the latter out of a lingering sense of terror. "The darkness -- weeks of darkness, and the mad dreams within" is all the details you can pry from them.
- The return of the dread lords of Nerigos, the Dead City of sand-deluged Hyperborea, is never far from your minds. Lord Varghoulis, awakened by Piper from the barrows of Balewood, is marshaling long-interred armies out of forgotten tombs to conquer the Undying Lands. In time his attention will begin to pass through the mountains to your small domain, and then to the fragile civilizations beyond. Even now already, you have heard rumors that creatures who fall in battle will rise again of their own accord and continue the fight beyond natural life.
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