Sick of this Shit/The Story So Far

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

This is a log of sessions in the Sick of this Shit Campaign.

Season 1: Welcome to Quelmar!

Game 1: Swamp Pirates

Players: Brad, Thomas

Game 2:

Swamp Pirates ends, Anema+Zugs meet Doraleous and Reelo

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, Zach

Game 3:

Zugs and Anema are arrested, Doraleous and Reelo expore a haunted house

Players: Brad, Matt, Zach

Game 4:

Zugs, Doraleous, and Reelo travel through the undercaverns and find Kleckless on Hashding Island

Players: Brad, Matt, Zach

Game 5:

The Kleckless Battle Finishes, Anema saves the day with his giant Centipede

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, Zach

Game 6:

Reelo’s uncle’s will is read, they discover his cousin, Istan, lives nearby, and they depart, ultimately winding up at Minetown.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, Zach

Game 7:

Leaving Minetown, the gang finds the Hobgoblin hideout where Istan is conspiring with his hobgoblin associates, a couple of illusions, and the gang are on their way home. (Reelo departs)

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, [Zach]

Game 8:

An earthquake traps the players underground, they fight through the abandoned Ottaman ruins. They encounter a dragon.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 9:

The gang escapes from the Ottaman dungeons and arrives back safely in Rwendia, the Draco-Orc siege begins.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Season 2: Journey Through Fire and Frost

Game 10: The Siege of Rwendia.

The group fights until they arrive back at Hashding island.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 11:

The group finishes the war on Hashding Island. They discover Rwendia is quarantined now, and the citizens are being shipped to nearby Rashtan, Anema plays a concert and meets Gustavo.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 12:

The group (now including Gustavo) is assigned to take out the Dragon beast that is assaulting the nearby church of Pelor.

Players: Brad, Matt, Quentin

Game 13:

The Dragon’s attack has destroyed the church and the players must make their way to the old church of Pelor in order to appease the god. (The old church is overrun with werewolves)

Players: Brad, Thomas

Game 14:

The werewolf attack fails thanks to Doraleous and Gustavo’s last minute intervention. As they leave, they realize their minds have been switched. A friendly sailor invites them on a quest to Breme. They arrive and ultimately fight a Remorhaz and a couple of polar bears.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, Quentin

Game 15: Zilrus the Immoth

This entire adventure, Enal carried Anema's body on her back while Enal's body slowly froze to death and scoured around following Anema (Gus's body). 

Woke up. Completely out of survival essentials. Go outside. See the remaining 6 mules. Decide to kill them all and skin them. 2 get away, the other 4 are turned into a coat and a pair of earmuffs. 

Zugs wore the coat and scouted out the immediate area, deciding that he wanted to head down river, he got the gang together and they went that way. Crossing down river, they came to a sabre tooth eating a slightly frozen whale carcass. They swiftly killed the sabre tooth, mostly thanks to the new Shadow Mastiff.  

So once they had access to the whale, they stored as much blubber as they could carry. Then hid inside for a bit, then after really trying to skin the whale (They only managed to make a hat out of one of his fins) they set fire to all the blubber on the inside, using the flaming whale carcass to melt some of the surrounding river bed, and salvaging as much warm clear water as they could. They went back home, now full, hydrated, and mostly warm, and slept for the night, which brought them up to full health. The next day, they went back to the river, headed up stream in the opposite direction, and hit the continental shelf where the ice met the ocean. Not wanting to delay themselves anymore, they decided the best place to go was up the cliffside. 

Nobody fell, which was very lucky, the only 1 rolled was when one of them was already at the bottom.  

So they easily scaled the cliff, commenting that it was lots of fun and they want to do more mini games.  Upon reaching the top of the cliff, they realized they couldn't swim across the icy water to get to the massive ice fortress in the middle, so they scouted around for a bit under they spotted a bridge, which had Agathar trying to make his way inside while arguing with some steam mephits. So they ran to the bridge. 

Doraleous (as zugs) snuck up behind Agathar while he was distracted and stole the bag of holding back, only to realize it had been disenchanted, and a good amount of the material lost (including all of Agathar's equipment). This of course enraged Zugs, who loudly proclaimed "FUCK YOU", he ordered Doraleous to sneak inside and follow Agathar.   Once inside, Doraleous (who then telepathically communication with the dog, who then communicated to the others via Anema's "Speak to Animals" spell) eavesdropped while it became clear that Zilrus, the big wizard that Agathar was working for, was actually trying to lure not only the misc equipment, but also 6 bodies. It became clear this wizard was more than just man, as he talked about eating knowledge. However, when the bag of holding broke, Agathar lost all of the wares that he meant to deliver to Zilrus. It was also revealed that Zilrus had a pet frost salamander which he was about to feed Agathar to.  

HOWEVER, outside, the rest of the team struggled to get by a very studious steam memphit who played by the rules, and refused to give in to the team's lies and stories that they were requested by the wizard. After numerous, repetetive, and frustrating arguements, they convinced the steam mephit to go inside and fetch Agathar. Upon entering the lair, the mephit interupted what was about to be feasting time, exciting Agathar, who had thought that the gang came to save the day and deliver the wares (and themselves) to Zilrus. Upon discovering that they had no wares (except a ladle, which was enough to keep Zilrus from immediately killing them), Zilrus decided it would be best to switch their minds back, as humorous as it sounded, before devouring them. Zilrus had Agathar go out and fetch his "secret" device.  

Doraleous (as zugs) sneakily followed Agathar, watched him fetch a wand from Zilrus' room (a room which also had a peculiar set of enchanted boots on the table). But before Agathar had escaped, he managed to hold him hostage, and interrogated him into giving away some vital information about Zilrus. This information was transported telepathically to the dog and to the group, who then had some knowledge of who Zilrus was and what he wanted. They used this knowledge to perk Zilrus's interests, and once they revealed that they knew these things about him, he rustled off to his room to get the wand (which was really just a paralyzing spell he would use to make sure that they weren't trouble). On the way to the room, the word "Immoth" came up (from Doraleous's interogation) and Zugs unsuccessfully used it as a way to pretend he knew more about Zilrus, assuming Immoth was a place. However, Zilrus, an Immoth beast, immediately knew something fishy was up. 

Upon getting to his room, Zilrus asked for the wand, but Doraleous snatched the wand and hid in the shadows. Unfortunately for the team, Agathar wanted his wife more than his friends, and immediately tattled on them all. Tensions got high as the wand was nowhere to be found. In an attempt to keep Zilrus calm, Zugs tried to recall more information about why a frost wizard would have a special wand. This brainstorming made him realize that Immoths were monsters! Not places! Upon calling Zilrus out on that, Zilrus immediately revealed his true form and readied for battle. When it seemed like everything about to tip into Initiative zone, Anema ingeniously jumped into the fray. Proclaiming that he himself was an Immoth.  

This caught the Immoth off guard, and he request Anema reveal his true immoth form. In a strikingly genious move , Anema reveled that he couldn't prove his true form because he had swapped bodies. This new information immediately pushed the immoth to swap everyone's bodies back. Which he then did generously.  

Now back in his own Body, Anema faked his immoth form with a disguise self spell. However, the limitations of the spell created a bastardly short imperfect immoth form. Enough to throw the real Immoth Zilrus off guard, who then questioned how legit this immoth would be. Declaring himself a seperate race of Immoth, this contradicted Zilrus's own knowledge of his own race. The Immoth and "Immoth" immediately had a "Knowledge-off", each one asking questions that the other knew. The Immoth's questions were difficult, but with a mixture of the team's knowledge skills, and sometimes pure luck, they pulled it off long enough. The immoth easily answered each of the team's own questions from his immense knowledge banks.  

The Immoth forced the team now to think on their feet as he asked "What is love?", a question that no knowledge check could cover. In an attempt to answer the question, and with the combined efforts of Enal's awakening, Anema's passion grew and grew as he flew into a HUGE monologue about the true meaning of love. However, he mistakenly told the Immoth that everything he needed to know about love was found in Enal. So Zilrus attacked her in an effort to know all about Love. Anema's disguised form wasn't agile enough to prevent the attack, and all he could do was catch Enal's dieing body in his immense Immoth-like arms.  

As she died, Anema sang her an old familiar song, and she felt at home in his arms. Recalling that shortly after the mind swap, the last promise he made to her was to get her back into her own body. She reminds him that he fulfilled his final promise, and as she disappeared into a pile of memory dust, Anema wept, tears falling onto a corpse that faded in and out of existence.   

Now having imbibed Enal. Zilrus recalls that there he learned nothing new about love by ingesting her knowledge. However, being the first full magic user he'd ever enjoyed, Zilrus suddenly felt the knowledge of the inherit arcane filling his mind and body. Snapping his fingers, he realized he could now cast magic without the use of a wand. As he turned to the shambled Anema, realizing that it was all a ploy, he called out his salamander, and began an attack.  

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 16:

The immoth battle continues ferociously until they are rewarded with the boots of teleportation. They teleport to Isonhound, where they discover the weather is seriously messed up.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 17:

Traveling through the isonhound forests, the gang eventually finds Kleckless once again, Doraleous’ mother [later father] is murdered. Kleckless is imprisoned [later fed to the plant monster].

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Season 3: Politics and Portal Tricks

Game 18:

The gang is split, and Zugs and Anema alone find themselves at the front gates of Sneerwell, they fight off the Council of Wrath for the first time. Zugs is assigned to assassinate the king.

Players: Brad, Thomas

Game 19:

Doraleous finds himself grieving at his mother’s grave, he meets Colin Pendergras, and the two go on a magical adventure with leprechauns, fairies, and unicorns. Upon their return to Sneerwell, Doraleous breaks a door and terrorizes everyone.

Players: Matt

Game 20:

Doraleous is called to court and the three are reunited through the legal process. Zugs has killed the king, and the search for a new heir is required. Cue massive treasure hunt. (Zugs and Montane win)

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 21:

Montane sends zugs out of town to fetch the first Phylactery, meanwhile Zugs, Doraleous, and their friends begin an anarchist movement to uproot Montane, the C.I. is formed: their first act being the rescue of Samuel Pendergras from jail. Anema proposes to Lora.

Players: Thomas, Matt

Game 22:

The C.I. begin their first assaults, first blowing up the Autom factory and stealing a few Automs for Colin to dissect, Meanwhile, Zugs turns in the phylactery and plants a bomb in the marketplace to frame the mages. Colin unleashes “Awe-Tom” in the city, but Anema and Lora are arrested and Colin is kidnapped by Zugs, the automs are returned to C.I. Headquarters.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 23:

The uprising seemingly failed, Montane lays his new plans for the city, magic is to be banned. The C.I. decides to rescue Anema. With help from Diphel and Rhonda, somehow everyone is disguised as Zugs. Anema undergoes his werewolf transformation in the jails. Meanwhile Zugs deals with Darrius and his backstabbing, falling into his trap and getting stuck on the slave camps (where he soon escapes).

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 24:

Anema now finds himself in the slave camps, the werewolf emergence causing the high-containment transfer. He befriends “Arc”, and the two of them work with Diphel to save some of the mages in hiding, transferring them all to the C.I. headquarters. The game ultimately comes down to a battle with Darrius, after which Montane has meanwhile set up all the phylacteries and enacted a massive antimagic shield.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 25:

The antimagic shield was in fact a massive source of magic, and summoned the Chimera. Cue ultimate chimera battle!

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 26:

In the aftermath of the battle, Doraleous and Zugs undertake some serious adventurer training, going into the “Tomb of Horrors”. Two team members undergo sex changes.

Players: Brad, Matt

Game 27:

Anema returns back to town, and he and Doraleous set out through the sewer portal to track down the lich, Anema is accidentally turned wolf and he and Doraleous duke it out until they find their way to Kiston and ultimately, the Tovag Baragu.

Players: Thomas, Matt

Game 28:

Zugs, back from Diphel (who he consulted in an effort to research his sudden Gender change), finds out his compatriots have fled to the Tovag, and uses Dragon to track them down. Suddenly the three of them now find themselves facing a giant turkey. Eventually, more portal jumping takes them to Quelmar in the far, far, far, far future.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 29:

The “Last Guardians of Mr. Equal” (Mr. Equal of course being an anagram of Quelmar) fight it out with the players, who are also dealing with the emergence of more Zugs and Anemas emerging. Introduction to the Editionals. Dragon dies.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 30:

The Editionals wind up Gestalting, and the new characters that emerge enter “The Adytum”

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt, Dan

Game 31:

Zugs and Anema explore the Adytum, discovering new lore about Vecna and exploring some of their new powers along the way. They get royally screwed over by Saranay.

Players: Brad, Thomas

Game 32:

Doraleous awakens, and he and Anema reenter the Adytum to search for an apparently very vengeful Zugs. The robot master is revealed to be Colin.

Players: Thomas, Matt

Game 33:

Doraleous and Anema enter into the Demiplane of Dread, where Vecna is being held hostage. A lot of wibbly wobbly stuff goes on and Vecna wins, the Liches lose, and everyone’s back at Sneerwell!

Players: Thomas, Matt

Season 4: The Oppidan War

Game 34:The Return

The gang enters their new lives. Some things seem different, some things very similar, and some things quite new. They accept their first delivery for “The Pendergras Workshop”, in turn re-encountering both the Council of Wrath, and the Red Dragon they slayed 26 games ago.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 35:Minetown!

The heroes are applauded and celebrated. This game mostly consisted of trying various drugs and alcoholic beverages when the mayor wanted to talk about the insurgency.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 36: Minetown Part II

The Mayor's Kidnapping has led the party to once again round up a bunch of angry citizens and move forward into the mines themselves, which wound up being a deathtrap of an idea. The assassins on every side, new traps and tricks and hidden passages surrounded the players, who ultimately succumbed to the dangers of the dungeon. Total. Party. Kill.

Players: Brad, Thomas Matt

Game 37: Minetown: Corvair's Return

Escaping from their cages, the party finds Corvair in the mines, having set up a massive battle arena developed solely for the purpose of kicking their asses. He's researched them well through his connections at the Council of Wrath, and has taken on aspects and clothing iconic to each of them. However, he still loses and Zugs collects his head.

He did give this monologue first:

"You think you saved the day?   

You think those men were thankful you put them out of their jobs? A few headed north, most of them just wound up fleeing to Lunas, where the rich get richer and the poor suck dirt. I myself have witnessed their wives sell their bodies just so that they could afford a small box in the shanty towns of Lunas. I've seen their children go into the labor business. I never made children work, I'll tell you that. I may have been cheap, but I knew how to keep them alive and healthy. Pelor knows how many have died from starvation now that you've taken away their cheap housing, beer, and food. It's called doing business. Something you will never be any good at, if your shipping company is of any indication. 

Not that you'll ever returning from that delivery anyway. You already lost one of your crew in these caves, I've been told. And apparently you flew an airship here. An airship that is now in my possession. It wasn't hard to take. 

Poor Barty. He never saw it coming. 

I've been told there was another crew member too. Motto? Was it? Well it looks like Killus and his men are on Motto's tail, and I've told them that when they find him, to pay him off. We'll see where his loyalty lies then. The men who tricked him into going on a dangerous mission of revenge while on the clock, or the business man who will repay him for his lost time and emotional damages. 

After all, how many people have you REALLY saved, Sick of this Shit? 

When the council of wrath first reported their progress on you, they said you were trying to save a Temple of Pelor from a band of werewolves. Just trying to get into the temple's cursed gate you sacrificed 4 innocent lives. Aren't heroes the ones who are supposed to step up and face the danger? Instead you and your team just throw bodies at the problem until it solves itself. The old man you dragged along into these mines was evidence of that. Maybe in another parallel universe, you can actually save the day. But for over a year now you've been having delusions of heroism when those smart enough around you realize you're the essence of pure evil. Passion and selfishness have never looked as good together as they do on your Sick of this Shit. 
You're no heroes. You're a band of dangerous marauders. I don't care what the people of Sneerwell think of you. I know they've erected statues and made you rich. Twice you've managed to completely escape the tracking of my men. If you creatures have managed to elude the best assassins money can buy TWICE, there isn't a policing district out there that would think you to be anything other than dangerous men. Think of how many times you've already been behind bars. Jailbreaking is not the hero's business. It's the villain's.  

In any case, I've been doing some business of my own. When the electrum mine was shut down, and the electrum piece inflated beyond belief, you wound up doing me a morbid favor. You destroyed my house, you ruined my company, you destroyed the only thing I've ever worked for. But I never needed to work again. Using my own personal stash of electrum pieces, I suddenly found myself worth one hundred and twenty-seven times more in a single month. I've gone from millionaire to billionaire. Unfortunately I've spent more than a few million gold to arrange the council of wrath deal.   Most of them wound up being duds. But Killus here was a real genius. Setting up a false Minetown and waiting for the day you'd return, was a truly spectacular trap. With some of my other riches, I've been building up a special surprise. I do hope you like it. "

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 38: The Shadow Man

The players reach Oppidan to repair their sabotaged airship, only to find that Lunas is having some severe class segregation. They inadvertently wind up becoming either enemies of the state or important allies. Hilarity ensues as everyone takes the name "Tunt".

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 39: Ashes to Ashes

Zugs pays for threatening the home city of the Council of Wrath, and he learns that magic and money are easy to underestimate. In the end, his rash actions have left the party penniless, shipless, and Zugsless. Zugs gets his first taste of the Shadowfell as his allies work hard to make the money needed to resurrect him. The expedition brings a new fondness for each other. But Anema is blind as shit now yo.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 40: Spooking a Pook

The group, now all alive, work together with the city of Dardin to spook some Lunas nobles in an effort to make the city double down their protection-based economy. It suceeds, and Dardin is made a bit richer, but at the cost of scaring the Lunas citizens further. The double agent Saendra causes difficulties in the mission as her true loyalties are still a mystery. In the end, the group befriends the leader of Jewelspar, impressing him with their massive resume, put up against a serum of truth telling.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 41: Stopping Time in a Bottle

With Zugs having been seemingly kidnapped, Doraleous and Anema fufill their promise to the Archmage and discover the magic of creating new spells via the "Chronospheres". While they succeed in a forming a new spell of leprosy, they are given the task of capturing a "betrayal" in a moment for the Archmage's secret plans. Meanwhile...they almost get arrested, Doraleous loses a hand, and then they sell him to the Zoo.

Players: Thomas, Matt

Game 42a: Zugs in the Shadowfell

The Shade Maiden needs Zugs' help, but her curse makes things difficult as he sturggles to even remember why he is helping her in the first place. Finding a stray dragon, he sets the beast free after some close bonding time, and "Shadespar", a shadowy echo of Jewelspar, is ravaged by shadow dragons as he makes his quick escape, hardly even remembering the adventure he just had.

Players: Brad

Game 42b: Things get Scary and Scaly

Working with a Granite adventuring group: "Clan Scale", Anema finds new life in the adventuring path, forming a new SotS with Motto and Barty, he accidentally bumps into Zugs who is still working on remembering the Shade Maiden. The 4 of them sneak into a demonic house to take on a high-priority quest as they fumble against Clan Scale, solving puzzles while letting the barbarians kick serious ass. Unfortunately, the rescue of the Jewelspar victim strikes a sour note with Dardin, who has entered the early days of full blown war with the elven city.

Players: Brad, Thomas

Game 43: How did we spend so much time in Jail?

Anema is tasked with a secret mission by Xeet of Dardin. Colin reenters the lives of our heroes as they spend most of the session in 5x5 jail cells until either escaping, making alliances, or going with Brynhild Skaldmeir. Motto and Barty's unconcious bodies are taken away to be healed, but the results are devastating.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 44:

After taking on his mission, Anema tries to learn what he can about Granite and Dardin to help forge an alliance for Xeet. However, he is accidentally side-tracked as the Library offers his lore seeking brain more than he ever imagined. He reads...reads...reads...reads...meets paulette...goes on a date...talks...and gets arrested in Lunas.

Players: Thomas

Game 45:

Anema is arrested and sentenced to life in Southern Lunas, where he meets the Red Sash, the Beggar Prince, and has a LOT of time to compile his article based on all his research. Meanwhile, Zugs and Doraleous fight off the Erinyes demon from Erissa's body, helping Clan Scales, and later building an alliance with Benny the Bard as they witness one of his concerts. Zugs dances. Anema gets his article published and everything becomes clear. However, unhappy with some questions, they decide to interrogate Archmage Nimz...big mistake.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 46a:

Saved by an unknown Shadowy friend, the 3 are revived a month later by their new friends Benny and Clan who they immediately draft in their war on Archmage Nimz. Meanwhile, they are in turn drafted to destroy Dardin's penitentiary system. With some help from Colin, the team rescues all of the innocent lackeys, victim to Nimz's ever changing laws, and recruit them to finally form Sick of this Shit INCORPERATED. Meanwhile, to celebrate their group victory, Benny and Anema have the Bard off that's only been foreshadowed for like 10 games now.

Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt

Game 46b: 

Literally an entire game's length of time later [We picked this part up at 7], Anema is attacked by Rwendian Guards. The group heads to Lunas with the winnings from the concert, only to find that South Lunas has already entered Civil War. Doing what little they can, they find themselves bickering over which side they really side with after finding Carissa overrun in the street. They abandon the street fighting and head straight to the source. Killus is to be named king! Falling again into Killus' many assassin trap, they flee to Breme, but not before revealing to both High Lunas' Lord and South Lunas' Prince what sort of person Killus really is. Taking a breather, they stop by Rwendia real fast and tie up some loose ends via AMAZING Bardic speech, turning Rwendia into the grubby money hungry city into the pioneering city of the "Transparency Age". With Rwendia, Lunas, Dardin, and Granite all having been taken care of, the group finally approaches Jewelspar and Nimz again. With the help of Saendra, Benny, and the Shade Maiden, the group of them rescue Zugs' dragon to reunite the pair again, before tackling Nimz, 6 to 1. Zugs finishes his dragon's training in just enough time to come to the rescue. He and Zierdra take Nimz into the Shadowfell as the others only barely manage to get away. Zugs is never seen again. Anema marries and Doraleous delivers his second child, having just given "birth" to his own son earlier in the game. A crying Anema mourns his wife and holds his child close, crying that he wouldn't let anything in this realm hurt him. No Klecklesses, No Immoths, No Liches, No Chimeras, No Gods, No Archmages, No Dungeons, and No Dragons.The End...? Players: Brad, Thomas, Matt