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Curriculum of Chaos

2026-05-26T12:44:33Z

Psuvillager: Included the date

{{Worldbuilders}}
<spotify>
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7CsIdRxt9ZkvNCMmbh1KWp?si=6b8p6W-eRzGLeoR3eYYzxQ
</spotify><blockquote>A YouTube Version of the above playlist can be found [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9iVLsYasbjg4GtSrN0WidjV17_uftoS&si=f_hPHEP-SwMild3_ here.]</blockquote>

<spotify>
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3vFYN12Al6k35WDDaggUOK?si=a13b4c622cee4e7b
</spotify><blockquote>A YouTube Version of the above playlist can be found [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9iVLsYasbgxPG3Fx2C-mKRdZsnKsrT0&si=WY5nfUc1YO8nW91F here.]
</blockquote>
[[File:Curriculum of Chaos.png|thumb]]

'''{{PAGENAME}} '''is an open-table D&D 5E Campaign that began on 11/23/2025.

The campaign takes place in 830 [[BR]] and involves balancing academic life with the looming threat of necromancy taking over.

Unless otherwise mentioned, this campaign is the official ''Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos'' module''''',''''' written by the Wizards RPG Team and published in December of 2021''.'' Apart from name changes and small changed within the bounds of the book, '''''it is not an original creation, and Quelmar does not take credit for its writing.'''''
== About ==
30 years after the events of ''[[The Court of Bloom and Blade]]'', [[Clematis Starmello|Clematis Starmello's]] old Alma Mater, the Deroulex Select Conservatory of the Arcane, is ready to begin a new school year anew. Students from far and wide are ready to travel across the planes and into Deroulex Academy's private demiplane in order to further their study of magic as a core. But little do they know, as they enjoy their student life, a truly wicked threat is on the rise...will a group of bright-eyed first-years be able to grow and evolve in time to cope with the unknown threat?

Deroulex's Select Conservatory of the Arcane features five distinct colleges, coming together to create the overarching university campus.

'''LOREHOLD - THE COLLEGE OF HISTORY'''

Students of Lorehold specialize in studying the histories of magic and the marks that it has left behind on the world, hoping to find ancient relics or learn from the past in order to prevent it's reoccurence.

'''PRISMARI - THE COLLEGE OF CREATION'''

Students of Prismari are the closest thing you'll get to a casting school - they focus on learning how to wield and refine raw elements in order to create true works of art. They tend to shy away from a combative lifestyle, but have the power to immolate people as needed.

'''SILVERQUILL - THE COLLEGE OF PERFORMANCE'''

Students of Silverquill are masters of everything oratory; acting, debate, verbal and song performance, and a general mastery of popularity. They always know just what to say, how to say it, and the perfect opportunity to speak in order to subtly influence others.

'''QUANDRIX - THE COLLEGE OF THEORY'''

Students of Quandrix take the deepest dive into magical theory that Deroulex has to offer, poking apart the very foundations of magic and math and bending it to their very will to progress the intersection between magic and science.

'''WITHERBLOOM - THE COLLEGE OF LIFE'''

Students of Witherbloom examine the effects that magic has on the nature around it, pushing beyond the limits of normal wizards in order to cause the flourishing of plant life, or take it away with a decaying hand, far beyond the reach of a normal wizard.

== [[Curriculum of Chaos / Player Roster|Player Characters]] ==
Above is a list to the roster for this campaign. Be sure to check out everyone's wiki pages!

== [[Curriculum of Chaos / NPC Roster|NPCs]] ==
Above is a list to the roster for this campaign. Be sure to check out everyone's wiki pages!

== [[Curriculum of Chaos / Shops|Shops]] ==
[[Deroulex's Student Store|'''Deroulex's Student Store''']] - A campus store in the Biblioplex that sells a plethora of Deroulex-themed memorabilia.

[[Deroulex's Live-Action Roleplaying Guild|'''Deroulex's Live-Action Roleplaying Guild''']] - A student-run club on campus that sells historically-accurate adventuring gear to interested parties. Within it are two shops, the Damellawar Guild (which sells weapons and common magical items), and the Wuzzfeddlims Guild, which is currently withholding goods as their team is playing the villains of the campaign.

'''[[Wildemere & Grojsh]]''' - An up-and-coming student-run business selling potions.

'''[https://quelmarwiki.com/wiki/Lorehold's_Dragonsguard_Honor_Society Lorehold's Dragonsguard Historical Society]''' - A historical society that works in tandem with Lorehold College, collecting rings and other artifacts and preserving them.

== The Story So Far ==
[[Arc 1: Campus Kerfuffle|CONDENSED SUMMARY FOR ARC 1: CAMPUS KERFUFFLE]]

[[Arc 2: Hunt for Mage Tower|CONDENSED SUMMARY FOR ARC 2: HUNT FOR MAGE TOWER]]

[[Arc 3: The Magister's Masquerade|RUNNING SUMMARY FOR ARC 3: THE MAGISTER'S MASQUERADE]]

FUTURE SUMMARY FOR ARC 4: A RECKONING IN RUINS

== House Rules ==

* The ''Daylight'' spell works as it does in 2024, but follows the 2014 spell (As in, it actually creates Sunlight.)
* Backgrounds that provide feats are banned except for ''Lorehold Initiate'', ''Prismari Initiate'', ''Quandrix Initiate'', ''Silverquill Initiate'', and ''Witherbloom Initiate''
* If you Crit on an Unarmed Strike, the Strength Modifier is doubled for damage.
* In the case of a tie on a contested check, nothing changes.
* If you have a level of exhaustion, all rolls you make have a debuff equal to your Exhaustion Level times 2. If you reach 6 levels of exhaustion, you still die. You can refresh exhaustion during a downtime, but if it is voluntary, you must attend a session before you can (to prevent people skipping sessions to cheese exhaustion-based benefits.)
* All directions of movement (INCLUDING DIAGONALS) are 5 feet.
* Ammunition/carrying capacity is not tracked, but should stay within reason (I normally only track gun ammunition, but guns don't exist at this time!)
* Basic spellcasting components (for spells that do not consume components or have components within a certain cost) are assumed to be readily available.
* Heroic Inspiration points can be used to de-inspire (force a reroll for ability check, attack roll, or saving throw). Beloved Inspiration (Yes, there is a difference) cannot be used in this way.
* Flanking is in play (although you may want to specify specific conditions, like whether you can draw a line through the creature or size limitations).
* If you crit, double all the dice rolled.
* Spell scrolls can be used by anyone regardless of spell list with an Arcana Check (the scroll is not consumed on a failed check)
* You can consume a potion that has a rolled variable effect as a bonus action, rolling as normal, or still as a full action, to get the max amount. You cannot administer a potion in this way as a bonus action, and potions with a fixed effect must always be consumed as an action.
* ''Context for the following rule: You can only cast one leveled spell per turn.'' Casting a leveled spell as a reaction counts as the leveled spell that you can cast on that turn. (i.e. if you cast Fireball on your turn and someone succeeds on the save, you are not able to cast Silvery Barbs on the person who succeeded on the save. However, if you had cast a leveled spell on your turn, but it is now someone else's turn, and they do the Fireball exchange, you are able to cast Silvery Barbs.)
* Familiars share your initiative, and go directly after you. They can be commanded as a bonus action.
{{CampaignNavbox}}
[[Category:Campaign]]
[[Category:Curriculum of Chaos]]
{{Worldbuilders}}

The Court of Bloom and Blade

2026-05-26T12:41:18Z

Psuvillager: Included the date

[[File:Bandbbanner.jpeg|center|frameless]]

'''{{PAGENAME}} '''is an Open Table hybrid DnD 5e [[campaign]] that began on December 17th, 2024.

The campaign takes place in 800 [[BR]] and involves [[adventurers]] and fey creatures attempting to save the fey court from their fungal enemy, The Court of Decay, that is attempting to turn them into floral [[dragons]], inspired by ''The Field Guide to Floral Dragons'' by Hit Point Press.

== About ==
In a hidden oasis in [[Pteris]] is a Fey Court all its own, The Court of Blossoms, but someone is terrorizing the court, attempting to turn their members into [[dragon]] to destroy the oasis from the inside.

== [[The Court of Bloom and Blade/Player Characters|Player Characters]] ==
Click the Link Above for the [[Player]] Table!

* PCs in this campaign fall into one of three categories: A '''Fey Oasis Dweller,''' '''Desert Wanderer,''' or '''Wastelander'''
* PC Levels depend on the table you are attending as the levels escalated at each table. This is a fast paced, fast level campaign.
* The first two sessions will be Level One, so you are encouraged to create a level one character for now.
* Published material is preferred for character creation, Homebrew must be cleared with the DM Mercedes
* The DM encourages characters influenced by desert life, fey races, flora, vegetation
* Stats should be rolled (4D6 drop one, use point buy, or standard array)
* No Backgrounds allowing free feats
* You can submit your character here: https://forms.gle/jHJRXEKYPfeoPaSq5

== Stores ==

=== [[The Acqua Junction Tiangius]] (click here for shop lists) ===
Mundane supplies, armor, tools, weapons, a few oddities, mounts, and a candy bin from [[the Desert Dollar General]]

Fortuna's Augury and Oddities has fortunes and a grab bag of magic items

Odessa's Ink and Piercings is home to magical tattoos and rings of attunement!

=== [[The Oasis Markets]] (click here for shop lists) ===
Mundane and Magical armors and weapons by request are bought through Saffron Teakwood, a wood elf (he/him)

Robes, capes, belts, and other magical clothing is purchased through Cashmere, a dower [[fairy]] (she/her)

The local potions dealer and magic consumables are procured from Flourish, a fey-touched [[tiefling]] (she/her)

== NPCs ==

=== [[The Oasis|The Fey Oasis]] ===
'''[[Archfey]] Cherise''': The beloved and benevolent Queen of the Court of Blossoms, she is all things chaotic and good and pink!

Other Members of [[The Court of Blossoms]] can be found by visiting their page!

=== Acqua Junction ===
'''Constable Wicket''': The authority of the closest desert town, Acqua Junction. He's firm and doesn't enjoy the nearby fey as much as others, but he knows they're helpful and any distress on the queen is gonna be trouble for him and his town eventually.

=== [[The Wastes]] ===
'''Granny Capella''': After slaying Cherise's sister, this hag took hold of her [[myconid]] kingdom and turned it into a wasteland after it was cut off from it's main source of newly dead creatures and plants; the fey oasis. She now is intent on reconnecting to [[the Oasis]] and expanding her rule.

'''Tamzu:''' The Dread Empress of Floral Dragons, she once ruled the Oasis until the fey arrived in the domain and their population began to grow. She attempted to destroy all the fey creatures but working together, Cherise, Amanita, and Sakura were able to overcome here and destroy her aspect. Sakura banished her essence to Wastes, where Granny Capella awoke her after she overthrew Amanita. She has joined forces with Capella to take back the Oasis.

'''Zarya:''' The [now deceased] Harbinger of Tamzu, she was a powerful [[warlock]] working with Granny to distribute the Floral Dragons that have been created to disrupt the Court of Blossoms. She used the Great Maze to resurrect her mistress' draconic form, the Aspect of Tamzu. In this ritual, she sacrificed herself.

== The Story So Far ==
A record of the adventures of The Court of Bloom and Blade

==== [[The Court of Bloom and Blade/The Story So Far: Online|ONLINE BRANCH]] ====

==== [[The Court of Bloom and Blade/The Story So Far: In-Person|IN-PERSON BRANCH]] ====

== House Rules ==

=== Wiki Gold ===
Like Rumpelstiltskin, you can spin your threads into gold using the WikiGold system! For every 10 words you write on your characters' or a relevant wiki page, you earn 1 GP in store credit at Desert Dollar General, home of all your mundane and magical item needs.

On each Sunday during the campaign, Frida tabulates how much you've earned in Wiki and sends a roadrunner out with that week's credit. So get to typing!

=== Floral Dragon Marks ===
''Each dragon recaptured/slain rewards the players in that [[session]] with a [[dragonmark]] of some kind and a special reward. Player rewards escalate as the dragons are progressively harder to recapture or defeat. Below are the rewards those playing in The Court of Bloom and Blade can look forward to. The specific rewards (cantrip, spell, or feat) are determined by the DM and based on the dragon encountered.''

Levels 1-4: Bonus Cantrip

Levels 5-9: Bonus Cantrip & One-time Use Spell

Levels 10-14: New Spell & Special Ability

Levels 15-20: Bonus Feat

=== Inspiring Shirts! ===
If you wear any [[Quelmar]] shirt to an online or in-person game, you will receive a point of inspiration for that session.

=== Inspiring Cosplay! ===
For the three finale sessions, any player who wears at least one item of cosplay or one prop connected to their character to the final game or posts a photo (for online players) will receive inspiration for the finale. Anyone in full costume or has a photo in that full costume (for online players) will receive inspiration AND 10 temp HP.
[[Category:Campaign]]
[[Category:The Court of Bloom and Blade]]
{{Worldbuilders}}{{CampaignNavbox}}

Deroulex's Select Conservatory of the Arcane

2026-05-25T23:32:55Z

Psuvillager: Made full college names obvious

{{Infobox location|title = {{PAGENAME}}|type = [[List of Educational Institutions|Magic Academy]]|location = Located in a public demiplane 15 minutes south of [[Seglock]].|image=derouleximage.jpg}}Deroulex's Select Conservatory of the Arcane is the premiere [[List of Educational Institutions|magic academy]] of [[Isonhound]], with a special emphasis on applying the theories and practices of magic to everyday life as opposed to a standard magical school that might instead teach students how to wield magic. Despite its advertisement as a magic school, people with no magical ability will thrive just as much at Deroulex as they would any other student.

== History ==
In 730 [[BR]], there was a man. An imaginative man, and a scorned man. A man named Captain Deroulex Dapplewing. Recently having dropped out of schooling, he wanted to create a place where magic was made more approachable for anyone, attempting to do away with the modus operandi of the traditional magic academy, and instead of teaching magic itself, he wanted to show how magic at all levels could be woven into academic study, and therefore, daily life. He travelled the world, searching for assistance in his dream, and eventually made friends with the five [[Dragon|Swirled Dragons]] who helped found the school.

The first dragon he found was Velomachus Lorehold, a red-and-white swirled dragon, whose thunderous breath could put people in their place - literally. She had mastered the magical styles of order and chaos, and who wanted to encourage growth and exploration while keeping a direct conduit to the past. She offered up her power to Captain Dapplewing to be that conduit, founding ''Lorehold College of History''.

In order to further round out the colleges, Captain Dapplewing sought to unify science and art within the university's walls, leading him to lead a relationship with Galazeth Prismari, a blue-and-red swirled dragon and prominent public figure in the artistic world. A firm believer that magic should not be relegated to the realm of practicality, it was initially hard to get Galazeth on board with Captain Dapplewing's plan, but time spent together creating, perfecting, and inspiring others led them to realize that their mission was more alike than they thought, and with that, ''Prismari College of Art'' was formed.

To round out the school (and his theming), Captain Dapplewing attempted to seek out another dragon, which was not easy, as many dragons had not mastered magic's core in a way that he desired for his school. However, years of learning, study, research, and adventure eventually led him to discover Tanazir Quandrix, a green-and-blue swirled dragon with a mastery over physical reality and theoretical abstraction. Though Captain Dapplewing thought that recruiting someone so theoretically based to a school of magic, but she was the most eager to join of all the dragons. Firmly believing that knowledge should be learned for the same of learning, she eagerly supported his plan to intertwine knowledge with every day of life, forming the ''Quandrix College of the Natural World''.

With that, Deroulex was ready to open, and some fellow friends and colleagues from his old school joined him in forming the First Guard of Deroulex, dividing themselves amongst the three colleges equally. Heading the Lorehold College of History was Xanneiros Kollema, a no-nonsense professor who specialized in Order, but was apt at teaching Chaos as well. Prismari College was led by Qirora Conjurot and Quetrana Grandloft, two people locked in a constant struggle to out-ostentatious the other, leading them to lead the college handily. And finally, covering the wide breadth of magical science to be experienced, were Grahorn Torus, Sylvoril Widdershins, and Halynoa Wiltroot, who covered the wide breadth of subject material, allowing Deroulex's Select Conservatory of the Arcane to open its doors to its first year of students in 734 BR. However, as the years progressed, both internal and external forces at Deroulex began to realize the limitations of the subject material, which came to a head when Shadrix Silverquill invaded the school. His demands were simple. Separate Prismari College of Art into two, and form a new college that focused on the art that was not quite physical, the words that had power, presence, and leadership. Despite his takeover, Shadrix Silverquill was peaceful, and amicable, and together, he and Captain Dapplewing formed ''Silverquill College of the Oratory'' (Renaming Prismari to the ''Prismari College of Fine Art'' in the process). In order to staff the department, Quetrana Grandloft joined Shadrix Silverquill, happy to have a chance to spread her wings into the world of performing art.

Captain Dapplewing sought to keep up this improvement, setting his sights next on Quandrix College of the Natural World, which took up a grand majority of the school's programs. He sought to equal out the playing fields between the schools as much as possible, and set out for a dragon to divide Quandrix into divisions of nature and theory. On one of his adventures, he met a lonely and despondent green-and-black swirled dragon, who was so shy that they wouldn't even give him their name, hiding from the world due to their terrifying appearance and deathly powers. It took some time, but Captain Dapplewing was able to become close friends with the dragon, who introduced themself as Beledros Witherbloom. As thanks, they joined on the college staff, being flanked by Sylboril Widdershins and Halynoa Wiltroot as protection in order to form the ''Witherbloom College of Nature'' (renaming Quandrix to the ''Quandrix College of Theory'' in the process). And with that, in 749 BR, Deroulex was complete.

== Current Staff ==

=== '''NON-DEMONINATIONAL''' ===
'''Captain Dapplewing''' - General Founder

'''Director Taiva''' - Deroulex Principal

'''Professor Orvio''' - General Studies Professor

'''Professor Sharpbeak''' - General Studies Professor

'''Ms. Isabough''' - Head Librarian

'''Professor Le Donto''' - Campus Lab Administrator

'''Professor Dramitia''' - Head of the Stage

'''Ms. Zoei''' - Student Life Administrator

'''Ms. Yedora''' - Gardener

=== '''LOREHOLD College of History''' ===
'''Captain Velomachus''' - Lorehold Founder

'''Dean Tullus''' - Lorehold Dean of Order

'''Dean Plargg''' - Lorehold Dean of Chaos

'''Professor Ghostforge''' - Lorehold Professor

'''Professor Losheel''' - Lorehold Professor

'''Professor Deepfinder''' - Lorehold Professor

'''Professor Langning''' - Lorehold Professor

'''Mr. Osgir''' - Lorehold Assistant

=== '''PRISMARI College of Fine Art''' ===
'''Captain Galazeth''' - Prismari Founder

'''Dean Mistcoiler''' - Prismari Dean of Perfection

'''Dean Nassari''' - Prismari Dean of Expression

'''Professor Veyran''' - Prismari Professor

'''Professor Rock''' - Prismari Professor

'''Professor Zaffai''' - Prismari Professor

'''Professor Minexes''' - Prismari Professor

'''Ms. Ahkwa''' - Prismari Assistant

=== '''QUANDRIX College of Theory''' ===
'''Captain Tanazir''' - Quandrix Founder

'''Dean Kianne''' - Quandrix Dean of Substance

'''Dean Imbrahim''' - Quandrix Dean of Theory

'''Professor Adrix''' - Quandrix Professor

'''Professor Nev''' - Quandrix Professor

'''Professor Deekah''' - Quandrix Professor

'''Professor Ruxa''' - Quandrix Professor

'''Dr. Starmello''' - Quandrix Assistant

=== '''SILVERQUILL College of Oratory''' ===
'''Captain Shadrix''' - Silverquill Founder

'''Dean Talonrook''' - Silverquill Dean of Radiance

'''Dean Lu''' - Silverquill Dean of Shadow

'''Professor Breena''' - Silverquill Professor

'''Professor Nils''' - Silverquill Professor

'''Professor Blackstone''' - Sillverquill Professor

'''Professor Fain''' - Silverquill Professor

'''Dr. Smart Mouth''' - Silverquill Assistant

=== '''WITHERBLOOM College of Nature''' ===
'''Captain Beledros''' - Lorehold Founder

'''Dean Lisette''' - Witherbloom Dean of The Root

'''Dean Valentin''' - Witherbloom Dean of The Vein

'''Professor Willowdusk''' - Witherbloom Professor

'''Professor Tivash''' - Witherbloom Professor

'''Professor Lang''' - Witherbloom Professor

'''Professor Gyome''' - Witherbloom Professor

'''Dr. Islesong''' - Witherbloom Assistant

== Notable Places ==

=== '''GENERAL STUDIES CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''THE BIBLIOPLEX''' ====

==== '''THE ARCHWAY COMMONS''' ====

==== '''FIREJOLT CAFE''' ====

==== '''DEROULEX'S STADIUM''' ====

==== '''BOW'S END TAVERN''' ====

==== '''AEROJAUNT FIELD''' ====

==== '''CAPTAIN DAPPLEWING'S MANOR''' ====

==== '''THE DRAGON BRIDGES''' ====

=== '''LOREHOLD CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''KOLLEMA HALL''' ====

==== '''PILLARDROP''' ====

==== '''EFFIGY ROW''' ====

=== '''PRISMARI CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''CONJUROT HALL''' ====

==== '''OPUS WALK''' ====

==== '''FURYGALE''' ====

=== '''QUANDRIX CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''TORUS HALL''' ====

==== '''THE ARITHMODROME''' ====

==== '''THE CULTIVARIUM''' ====

=== '''SILVERQUILL CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''GRANDLOFT HALL''' ====

==== '''THE ROSE STAGE''' ====

==== '''THE DRAMARIUM''' ====

=== '''WITHERBLOOM CAMPUS''' ===

==== '''WIDDERSHINS HALL''' ====

==== '''WILTROOT HALL''' ====

==== '''SEDGEMOOR SWAMP''' ====

==== '''THE DETENTION BOG''' ====

== NOTABLE CHARACTERS ==

[[Category:Location]]
[[Category:Curriculum of Chaos]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-05-25T10:02:18Z

Psuvillager: Links

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

=== Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25) ===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek and Stanley|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Garret]], [[Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

==== <big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big> ====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

==== <big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big> ====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

==== <big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it they spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

=== Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25) ===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

==== <big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big> ====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

==== <big>Hold the Line</big> ====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

==== <big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

=== Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]]

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Sukki]], [[Brandran]], [[Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Dapple, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''What happened:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitcwal]], ''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|the Shabby Scales]]''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|The Shabby Scales Posse]], Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|the Osteomancer]], Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], "Sandra Sanderson", Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Those Who Wallow|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

=== Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26) ===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''What happened:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

=== Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26) ===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a [[Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

== Book 2 ==

=== Session 36: New Figures... or an Old Enemy (4/22/2026) ===
'''Guest DM: Sean'''

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Dallas]], [[Leonard]], [[Skelly]], [[Ichake Asaku]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Arboretum Marketplace|Lord Pavan]]

=== Session 38: Vice and Virtue (5/15/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Zasheir]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Ichake Asaku]]

'''NPCs:'''

featured: [[Vice]], [[Xalyth]], [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Kardyl Starkmark]]
- (mentioned): [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Viscount_Liestralo|Viscount Liestralo]], Lieutenant Moss, [[Toi'Viral]]

other: Saltique Petra, Yuru, Dallas, Misfit, Garret, [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], Bright Patch
- (mentioned): [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Duke_Solon|Duke Solon]], [[https://quelmarwiki.com/wiki/Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Lord_Pavan|Lord Pavan]]

'''TLDR:'''
* Got Kardyl to point them to the thieves (& she explained some Arrafell politics)
* Vice (a smooth, NB tiefling/demon) offered info re: contacting Toi'Viral -- if the party would forget the thieves and pursued cultists instead (including rival demon Xalyth)
* Slew cultists

'''What Happened:'''

'''Catching a Ride'''
* Outside the Arboretum, Sir Anthony briefed the party about a spate of **robberies** of Arrafell estates
* During Dallas' nearby trick-riding lessons, the horse bolted, but Ichake grabbed the screaming child and Zasheir calmed the animal
* Shepherds Saltique Petra and Yuru showed up late (w/ trade goods on a floating disc) because Yuru had teleported them off-target. After Garret and Gnash exchanged supplies with them, they teleported the party to the city

'''Asking Around'''
* At Arrafell's merchants' guild, the party consulted Bright Patch (Sir Anthony's sugggestion)
* Wary of sharing too much, the tabaxi suggested talking to Kardyl Starkmark, the dwarf proprietor of The Bubbling Well

'''Ale and Some Tea'''
* At the tavern, they identified **Kardyl** by her vitalago, and Zasheir handily convinced her they were trustworthy
* Kardyl had heard that an entrance to the thieves' den could be found in the artisans' guild, in a storage closet adjacent to Chrissie's office
* She also expressed some feelings about Vicount Liestralo and Lieutenant Moss
:(See below for "Kardyl on Local Politics")

'''Warm Welcomes'''
* At the artisans' guild, Ichake's charms won VIP treatment for the party, and they strolled confidently past various makespaces and meeting rooms to the back-hall closet
* Ichake picked the lock with his bare claws, and Patches found a pivoting wall inside
* At the end of a downward-sloping corridor, they were expected in a speakeasy

'''Can't Argue with That'''
* In the thieves' den, Patches could tell **Vice**, an alluring, androgynous tiefling, was actually a fiend. They admitted to being a demon
* They argued the party should ignore the thieves' property crimes and focus on the very dangerous cult, including a demon called Xaltyh
* As incentive, they offered information about contacting the legendary, unlikely hero **Toi'Viral**. This would involve acquiring her demonic amulet -- once they had prepared to keep demons from sensing it.
:(See below for "Vice's Pitch")

'''Fight Scene'''
* Pragmatism led the group to agree to the demon's proposal, and Patches led the way to the old sewer entrance
* The party found three masked cultists, one of whom immediately dissipated into mist and disappeared into the ceiling
* Fighting alongside the remaining cultists, an unusually dangerous demon nearly killed Ichake. Once it finally fell, the cultists were easily dispatched

'''A Private Meeting'''
* When the adventurers had returned to the Arboretum, it seemed as if the robberies had ceased after all -- until a tenday later when they resumed in full swing
* Sir Anthony called the group to a meeting where he showed them an unsigned letter that, among other things, thanked them for their discretion and named Chrissie as the person to contact about "security measures before recovering the amulet of the Demon of Virtue"
* He told them "I won't ask what you did to establish this line of communication, but if its implication is real, I'm personally interested in what may come of it"

<big>–Appendix–</big>

'''Kardyl on Local Politics'''

'''Viscount Liestralo'''
* took power after cultists, allegedly including Lord Pavan, stabbed Duke Solon to death
* claims the Duke led the cult and they betrayed him
* publicly prioritizes eradicating the cult, which "threatens Arrafell's very way of life"
* alledgedly secretly leads the cult himself (unverified)

'''Lieutenant Moss'''
* one of the Viscount's unquestioning loyalists, who treat his claims like scripture
* appointed as the director of Liestralo's special task force within the city guard: ''the Immediate Cult Elimination Directorate''
* uses the I.C.E.D. to target Liestralo's political enemies (possibly honestly believing it's for the greater good)
* conducted shakedowns of, for example, a dwarven merchant called Grolsh, who had been affiliated with Lord Pavan (including gratuitous inspections, undocumented confiscations, and rough treatment)

'''Vice's Pitch'''
* "I like senseless violence as much as the next demon, but I'm not so short-sighted. I have more important priorities: power -- power in the Abyss when this is all over. Everyone thinks the party will last forever, but it never does. And when we all fall down, I intend to land on top"
* Redistributing aristocrats' resources is mischief. Forget this place and target rival demon Xalyth. "She plots destruction that your realm would feel for centuries were it to succeed"
* "I offer you a far greater incentive. Tell me, what do you know of Toi'Viral?" -- The reformed demon who single-handedly turned the tide of the Holy War against the dragons
* I know where to find Toi'Viral's demonic amulet, usable to seek her aid ..and how to prevent demons from sensing it. "Think what good could come of simply looking away from our little band of thieves"

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard

2026-05-24T21:04:25Z

Psuvillager: Spelling

The Junkyard is the home of the Scrapper faction in [[Bedlam in the Badlands]]. It is ruled by Raegina, the cambion, and her three minions that breakdown the abyssal scrap to recreate infernal machines to battle the incoming demonic forces.

== Notable NPCs ==

<onlyinclude>

=== Raegina ===
Cambion leader of the junkyard, Raegina was sent by her duchess to find the remnants of infernal weapons left in the Pteris desert to face the incoming invasion of demons on Quelmar. She settled in the Western Badlands when she found some old war machine remnants there and a small uptick in abyssal attacks. She worked to kill any demon in her path and collected everything she could along the way to build the Junkyard, a place of destruction and creation.

=== Baftzmyr ===
(In Common: Butcher)

Once the daughter of the leader of a lorekeeping tribe, Baftzmyr, a high elf, was the lone survivor in an abyssal attack, hidden among their tribes writings. When she emerged from her hiding place, all she saw was a large woman with red wings, slaughtering the demons that had killed her people. She took Raegina's offer to come under her wing and dissect demons as an act of vengeance for her kin. She keeps her tribes traditions alive by keeping the lore of the events of the Demonic Infiltration in Pteris and wearing her father's headdress and cloak.

=== Kicyr ===
(In Common: Baker)

Sent by an underground city that feared the presence of Raegina and her growing Junkyard in the desert, Kicyr was to assassinate the cambion, but was caught by Baftzmyr's keen detection. The two wrestled and when Baftzmyr was on the verge of killing Kicyr, Raegina made the half-elf an offer: abandon your city and come be my poisoner. Simply looking not to die, the girl accepted and was given her infernal title of Kicyr, as do all of Raegina's hell-touched.


=== Cilvdywzutca and Picyr ===
(In common: Candlestick and Maker)

An undead human woman that Raegina continues to bring back time and time again, Cilvdy's primary purpose is to tinker with bombs that will draw the attention and then the destruction of demons. She just-- isn't very good at it and has a tendency to blow herself up in the process. She often makes bombs out of little origami animals, the one love she's carried with her from when she was alive. Often close by to Cilvdy is Picyr, a crow that was nibbling on Cilvdy when Raegina found her corpse and is still waiting around for his snack. He's protective of his meal though, so watch out for your eyes!

=== Jictwal ===
The junkyard dog, this friendly desert vulpine runs the scrap shop in the junkyard's entrance and can be found there to buy and sell what the adventurers of the Arboretum are looking for. He sells the scrap for double its value to make money for the Junkyard.
</onlyinclude>

== Notable Events ==

=== The Destruction of the War Rig ===
During the first siege of the arboretum, an olliphant carcass being piloted by a group of demons t-boned into the War Rig, flipping it and causing it to fall to pieces, trapping Baftzmyr underneath. Raegina tossed the war rig off of Baftzmyr and beheaded the olliphant in retaliation for destroying it.

== Scrapping ==
During the course of Bedlam in the Badlands, players are able to buy and sell scrap to build infernal enhancements to improve their characters. In addition to buying and selling, players will also be invited by DMs to scrap enemies, machines, and other items to get their own scrap. When asked, players roll on the table below.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!SCRAP TRACKER
!TEMPLATE
!
!
!
!
|-
!BIOLOGICAL
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|2
|3
|4
|5
|6
|-
|BLOOD
|SMALL BONE
|LARGE BONE
|HORN
|EYE
|HIDE
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!MECHANICAL
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|3
|5
|6
|7
|8
|-
|GEAR
|COIL
|COUPLING
|BELT
|CHAIN LINK
|FLYWHEEL
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!COMPONENTS
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|3
|6
|8
|9
|10
|-
|CRYSTAL
|IRON FILINGS
|INCENSE
|MERCURY
|GOLD
|RUBY
|}

== Infernal Enhancements ==
Once a player has collected enough scrap, they will be able to use a downtime to enhance their character.

With the Conservatory restored, Players will be able to enhance their characters up to TWO (2) TIMES.

''The Scrapper Enhancement does not count toward your TWO enhancement limit and is able to be created by a player, even without the Conservatory. You just need to visit The Junkyard shop on the Discord.''
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Enhancement
!Description
!Location
!Bio Required
!Mech Required
!Comp Required
!# of Times You Can Create
|-
|Scrapper
|Add an additional die to any scrap roll to any applicable category
|Junkyard
| -
|2 Gears
|2 Crystals
|2
|-
|Force
|Add +1 to your damage
|Conservatory
|3 Blood, 2 Eyes
|4 Gears
|1 Gold
|2
|-
|Guard
|Add +1 to your AC
|Conservatory
|3 Lg Bones
|2 Belts, 2 Chain Links
|3 Crystals
|2
|-
|Converge
|Add +1 to your attack rolls
|Conservatory
|4 Sm Bones, 2 Hides
|5 Flywheels
|3 Incense
|2
|-
|Amplify
|On a successful attack, roll an additional damage die and drop the lowest
|Conservatory
|4 Hides
|4 Couplings
|4 Gold
|1
|-
|Extend
|Increase a melee weapon's range by 5ft
|Conservatory
|5 Horn
|3 Coils
|2 Crystal, 2 Incense
|2
|-
|Scope
|Increase a ranged weapon's range by 10ft
|Conservatory
|5 Eyes
|3 Belts
|2 Iron Filings, 2 Mercury
|2
|-
|Deny
|Add +2 to your AC
|Conservatory
|6 Sm Bones, 3 Lg Bones
|2 Coils
|4 Rubies
|1
|-
|Target
|Add +2 to attack rolls
|Conservatory
|10 Lg Bones
|7 Flywheels
|5 Crystals, 5 Iron Filings, 2 Rubies
|1
|-
|Split
|When you make an attack, target a 2nd creature within range PB # of times per long rest
|Conservatory
|12 Blood, 5 Eyes
|15 Gears
|8 Mercury
|1
|-
|Fix
|When you hit with a critical success, you may roll a Hit Die
|Conservatory
|6 Sm Bones, 4 Lg Bones, 1 Hide
|5 Couplings, 5 Belts
|7 Mercury, 2 Rubies
|2
|-
|Scare
|When you hit with a critical success, the target is frightened of you except those immune
|Conservatory
|6 Horns
|9 Gears, 8 Coils
|10 Incense
|2
|}
''The Scrap and Enhancement mechanics are attributed to Darrington Press' Daggerheart from their Motherboard setting''
[[Category:Location]]
[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-05-24T01:02:49Z

Psuvillager: Session 38: Vice and Virtue

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

=== Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25) ===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek and Stanley|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Garret]], [[Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

==== <big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big> ====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

==== <big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big> ====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

==== <big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it they spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

=== Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25) ===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

==== <big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big> ====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

==== <big>Hold the Line</big> ====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

==== <big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

=== Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]]

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Sukki]], [[Brandran]], [[Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Dapple, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''What happened:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitcwal]], ''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|the Shabby Scales]]''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|The Shabby Scales Posse]], Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|the Osteomancer]], Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], "Sandra Sanderson", Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Those Who Wallow|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

=== Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26) ===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''What happened:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

=== Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26) ===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a [[Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

== Book 2 ==

=== Session 36: New Figures... or an Old Enemy (4/22/2026) ===
'''Guest DM: Sean'''

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Dallas]], [[Leonard]], [[Skelly]], [[Ichake Asaku]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Arboretum Marketplace|Lord Pavan]]

=== Session 38: Vice and Virtue (5/15/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Zasheir]], [[Patches]], [[Ichake]]

'''NPCs:'''

featured: [[Vice]], [[Xalyth]], [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Kardyl Starkmark]]
- (mentioned): [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Viscount_Liestralo|Viscount Liestralo]], Lieutenant Moss, [[Toi'Viral]]

other: Saltique Petra, Yuru, Dallas, Misfit, Garret, [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], Bright Patch
- (mentioned): [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Duke_Solon|Duke Solon]], [[https://quelmarwiki.com/wiki/Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Lord_Pavan|Lord Pavan]]

'''TLDR:'''
* Got Kardyl to point them to the thieves (& she explained some Arrafell politics)
* Vice (a smooth, NB tiefling/demon) offered info re: contacting Toi'Viral -- if the party would forget the thieves and pursued cultists instead (including rival demon Xalyth)
* Slew cultists

'''What Happened:'''

'''Catching a Ride'''
* Outside the Arboretum, Sir Anthony briefed the party about a spate of **robberies** of Arrafell estates
* During Dallas' nearby trick-riding lessons, the horse bolted, but Ichake grabbed the screaming child and Zasheir calmed the animal
* Shepherds Saltique Petra and Yuru showed up late (w/ trade goods on a floating disc) because Yuru had teleported them off-target. After Garret and Gnash exchanged supplies with them, they teleported the party to the city

'''Asking Around'''
* At Arrafell's merchants' guild, the party consulted Bright Patch (Sir Anthony's sugggestion)
* Wary of sharing too much, the tabaxi suggested talking to Kardyl Starkmark, the dwarf proprietor of The Bubbling Well

'''Ale and Some Tea'''
* At the tavern, they identified **Kardyl** by her vitalago, and Zasheir handily convinced her they were trustworthy
* Kardyl had heard that an entrance to the thieves' den could be found in the artisans' guild, in a storage closet adjacent to Chrissie's office
* She also expressed some feelings about Vicount Liestralo and Lieutenant Moss
:(See below for "Kardyl on Local Politics")

'''Warm Welcomes'''
* At the artisans' guild, Ichake's charms won VIP treatment for the party, and they strolled confidently past various makespaces and meeting rooms to the back-hall closet
* Ichake picked the lock with his bare claws, and Patches found a pivoting wall inside
* At the end of a downward-sloping corridor, they were expected in a speakeasy

'''Can't Argue with That'''
* In the thieves' den, Patches could tell **Vice**, an alluring, androgynous tiefling, was actually a fiend. They admitted to being a demon
* They argued the party should ignore the thieves' property crimes and focus on the very dangerous cult, including a demon called Xaltyh
* As incentive, they offered information about contacting the legendary, unlikely hero **Toi'Viral**. This would involve acquiring her demonic amulet -- once they had prepared to keep demons from sensing it.
:(See below for "Vice's Pitch")

'''Fight Scene'''
* Pragmatism led the group to agree to the demon's proposal, and Patches led the way to the old sewer entrance
* The party found three masked cultists, one of whom immediately dissipated into mist and disappeared into the ceiling
* Fighting alongside the remaining cultists, an unusually dangerous demon nearly killed Ichake. Once it finally fell, the cultists were easily dispatched

'''A Private Meeting'''
* When the adventurers had returned to the Arboretum, it seemed as if the robberies had ceased after all -- until a tenday later when they resumed in full swing
* Sir Anthony called the group to a meeting where he showed them an unsigned letter that, among other things, thanked them for their discretion and named Chrissie as the person to contact about "security measures before recovering the amulet of the Demon of Virtue"
* He told them "I won't ask what you did to establish this line of communication, but if its implication is real, I'm personally interested in what may come of it"

<big>–Appendix–</big>

'''Kardyl on Local Politics'''

'''Viscount Liestralo'''
* took power after cultists, allegedly including Lord Pavan, stabbed Duke Solon to death
* claims the Duke led the cult and they betrayed him
* publicly prioritizes eradicating the cult, which "threatens Arrafell's very way of life"
* alledgedly secretly leads the cult himself (unverified)

'''Lieutenant Moss'''
* one of the Viscount's unquestioning loyalists, who treat his claims like scripture
* appointed as the director of Liestralo's special task force within the city guard: ''the Immediate Cult Elimination Directorate''
* uses the I.C.E.D. to target Liestralo's political enemies (possibly honestly believing it's for the greater good)
* conducted shakedowns of, for example, a dwarven merchant called Grolsh, who had been affiliated with Lord Pavan (including gratuitous inspections, undocumented confiscations, and rough treatment)

'''Vice's Pitch'''
* "I like senseless violence as much as the next demon, but I'm not so short-sighted. I have more important priorities: power -- power in the Abyss when this is all over. Everyone thinks the party will last forever, but it never does. And when we all fall down, I intend to land on top"
* Redistributing aristocrats' resources is mischief. Forget this place and target rival demon Xalyth. "She plots destruction that your realm would feel for centuries were it to succeed"
* "I offer you a far greater incentive. Tell me, what do you know of Toi'Viral?" -- The reformed demon who single-handedly turned the tide of the Holy War against the dragons
* I know where to find Toi'Viral's demonic amulet, usable to seek her aid ..and how to prevent demons from sensing it. "Think what good could come of simply looking away from our little band of thieves"

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-05-24T00:33:17Z

Psuvillager: Session headers formatting

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-05-23T23:53:39Z

Psuvillager: Consistency in session subheaders

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek and Stanley|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Garret]], [[Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it they spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]]

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Sukki]], [[Brandran]], [[Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Dapple, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''What happened:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitcwal]], ''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|the Shabby Scales]]''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|The Shabby Scales Posse]], Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|the Osteomancer]], Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], "Sandra Sanderson", Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Those Who Wallow|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''What happened:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a [[Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

== Book 2 ==

=== Session 36: New Figures... or an Old Enemy (4/22/2026) ===
'''Guest DM: Sean'''

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Dallas]], [[Leonard]], [[Skelly]], [[Ichake Asaku]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Arboretum Marketplace|Lord Pavan]]

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-05-18T04:14:24Z

Psuvillager: XP from 5/15 game +1760 Ichake/Patches, +2024 Zasheir; and 846 words for Ichake (to 10,282 words); and added Patches' Cleric class ... new XP totals: Zasheir 13,360; Patches 18,914; Ichake 19,724

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,867
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,616
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,576
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 17,486
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,282 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,724
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,775
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,360
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) / [[Cleric]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,914
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-15T05:23:55Z

Psuvillager: reverted my erroneous grammar edit

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Sir Anthony ===
A tall, dignified bugbear paladin devoted to [[Pelor]], Sir Anthony (he/him) serves as the alliance's formal leader -- chosen by the factions, after the initial attack on the Arboretum, for his equanimity and gravitas, but most of all for his impartiality. He reach the Badlands and took Pelor as his patron after fleeing [[Troverth]], where he'd served all his life until disillusionment with his homeland's reliance on Abyssal magic led him to turn away from his emperor and his ''Oath of the Crown'', and to take up a new solemn ''Oath of the People''.

=== Jerbo ===
The Arboretum's head arcanist, the gnome Jerbo (he/him) oversaw the restoration of the magical artificery known as the Conservatory after its destruction in the initial demon attack.

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the Shepherds' end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the Arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on their bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under their care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon ===
The Duke was the political leader of the Shepherds in Arrafell until his assassination by demon-allied cultists, after which Viscount Liestralo assumed his office.

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's son, and his right hand man before his death, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands-on with the happenings in the badlands than the Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

Lord Pavan went into hiding after being accused participating in his father's murder.

=== Swordmaster Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsmen. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Viscount Virtumal Liestralo ===
Viscount Liestralo assumed Duke Solon's office after cultists murdered him. Liestralo holds the position that Duke Solon was a cult leader who was betrayed by his own people, including Lord Pavan and several adventurers from the Arboretum.

=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherds' fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==

=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yuan-ti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuck in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aide, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wished for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.

== Other Recurring Characters ==

=== [[Erland Nimz]] ===
The elf ruler of [[Jewelspar]], Archmage Nimz (he/him) visited the Badlands several times in his fabulous sandship, Shimmerwing, hiring adventurers to assist in his quest for a powerful weapon against the demons assaulting his city. On one occasion, he had a number of them accompany his Right Arm, Lirizel, to [[the Moon]] via [[Ta-Shedet]] to earn [[Eros]]' approval to craft ''Alchemical Frost'' there as part of his quest. He engineered other bleeding-edge alchemical tools, ''Theriac Effluvium'' and ''Galanodite'', to breach a vault nested inside a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field -- and in the end, the "weapon" he sought turned out to be a [[Mutated Chimera]], regarding which he had been explicitly warned by the Osteomancer, "You cannot wield it. None of us can."

=== The Osteomancer ===
A [[loxodon]] diviner residing in a desert bunker northwest of the Arboretum, the Osteomancer (she/her) has been in contact with alliance adventurers on several occasions. In one instance, she allowed a party to see each others' memories, tasked them with sealing a wound in reality, revealed how [[Swikedom]]'s Blood Law explained [[kobold]] involvement in the initial demon attack, and prophesied [[Erland Nimz]]'s release of the [[Mutated Chimera]]. Her kobold contact Eddarux (he/him) once guided a party into Swikedom to seize infernal weapons, and he helped another group gain entry to the lost dwarf hold of the Blazeforge clan.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-05-15T05:12:36Z

Psuvillager: Ichake: +1,219 words; to 9,436; 17,588 XP

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,867
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,616
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,576
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 17,486
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,436 || style="text-align: right;" | 17,588
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,775
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands

2026-05-13T21:34:45Z

Psuvillager: Grammar

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''{{PAGENAME}}''', [[Quelmar]]’s eighth [[Community Campaign|community campaign]], which is based in central PA, began in September 2025.

==About==
The year is 136 [[PR]], and three major factions control the Western Badlands of [[Pteris]]: the Federation of Commerce and Trade, the Scrappers, and the Shepherds.

:'''Federation''': Run by the reclusive Hektor, this organization operates businesses of recreation, exploiting people's desires for gambling, fighting, and other vices. They focus on bringing life and culture to the Western Badlands. Their base of operations is located in the base of the eastern mountain range.

:'''Scrappers''': Led by the Cambion devil Raegina, this group of hell-touched, undead, and vagabonds gather scrap and junk including remnants of demonic weapons and vehicles to rebuild them into infernal arms and machines, preparing for a coming threat. Raegina was sent to Pteris to find the infernal weapons from the [[BR]] era left buried in the sands, and instead found raggedy junkers willing to do her work for her in exchange for knowledge of how to make bigger and better gadgets.

:'''Shepherds''': Ruled by Duke Solon and led by Vettik Herbert, the two sides of the "shepherds" work hard to maintain the life and wellbeing of those who live in the northern/central Badlands. They specialize in agriculture and overseas trade. They are located principally on the coast and in nomadic tribes all across the Badlands.

The three factions have banded together to face a threat that endangers them all -- escalating demon incursions into the Badlands -- and negotiations settled on the bugbear Sir Anthony, a paladin of Pelor, as the head of their shared base of operations, [[the Arboretum]].

==[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters|Player Characters]]==
<big>Here's everything you'll need to know when making your new player character for the campaign.</big>

:Submit your character information using the form below, and find play opportunities [https://discord.com/channels/611193875805110291/1392303972244521133 on Discord]

:See the House Rules, Code of Conduct, and Player Resources for more about participating in games, earning rewards, and interacting with other players.

:'''Source Material'''
:* Bedlam in the Badlands uses the [https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014/step-by-step-characters '''D&D 5th Edition (2014)'''] ruleset
:* Only the latest versions of official WOTC sources are permitted. This excludes Unearthed Arcana material.
:* Any official character Background is permitted, but a background that normally provides a feat does not grant your PC that feat.

:'''Character Options'''
:* Player characters begin at 3rd level with 900 XP and basic (level 1) starting equipment.
:* No child characters or evil characters are permitted.
:* Many of [[:Category:Quelmar Races|'''Quelmar's unique races''']] are playable in this campaign, although any race that doesn't exist in 136 PR [[Quelmar Timeline|'''on Quelmar's timeline''']] (e.g. warforged, automs, vanara) are unavailable, as are some others. Check with a Bedlam in the Badlands DM to confirm whether a particular Quelmar-specific race is permitted.

:'''Stat Generation'''
:* Rolls for stats ''MUST be verified'' by either having a DM present or using the Discord #dice-rolling thread.
:* Any stat below 8 becomes 8.
:* ''If you don't like your rolls'' (or don't care to roll), you may use the Standard Array or Point Buy instead.


'''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters|List of current PCs]]'''

<big>[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyPiaX9TVPLZmq9OIEsWjIa3pt7Mv-KHOYrIuRQAZ39UVqFw/viewform?usp=header '''New PC submission form'''] ⬅️⬅️</big>

==[[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs|NPCs]]==
The badlands of Pteris are home to a wide variety of individuals the players characters may encounter across their adventures, ranging from the kindest of allies to the most vile of villains. Those characters most significant to the story will be listed on the above page.

==[[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far|The Story So Far]]==
The above page will keep you apprised of the adventures the PCs have had during the campaign.

===[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps|Player Session Recaps]]===
Players can write out their own record of each adventure at the above page.

==[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Resources|Player Resources]]==
See the above page for more about the campaign and to find links to forms for Downtimes, Wiki XP, etc.

==House Rules==

===Adventuring and Combat===
*Certain '''inventory''' items are not tracked, including mundane ammunition, as well as spell components with no listed cost.
*'''Carrying capacity''' limits aren't strictly followed, although players will be asked to keep their inventories realistic.
*Moving in any direction including '''diagonally''' costs 5 feet of movement.
*The "'''flanking'''" variant rule is in play, allowing creatures to gain advantage if they attack an enemy from two opposing sides.
*Taking a critical hit while making '''death saving throws''' causes 1 automatic failure, not the standard 2.
*Creatures of medium size or smaller do not provide half-'''cover''' against ranged attacks by default, although the standard rule for cover may be applied on a case-by-case basis.

===Magic===
*Casting '''a''' '''spell as a bonus action''' does not impose the standard restriction that any other spell cast that turn must be a cantrip.
*A character must have a '''spell scroll''' '''in hand''' to activate it. (This is a clarification.)
* '''Any PC''' can activate a spell scroll using this alternative method:
**For their casting ability, the character can choose any class whose spell list includes the spell and use that class' spellcasting ability.
**They must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check, DC = 10 + Spell Level, or their attempt has no effect (and the scroll is not consumed.)

===Miscellaneous===
*An '''Inspiration''' point can be used to force a hostile creature to reroll an attack, saving throw, or ability check.
*After each session, the players can vote to give one player a '''role-playing''' '''award''': an inspiration point to use in their next session.
*Player characters may take the following '''custom feat''' whenever they would normally gain a feat:
:'''Hell-Touched''': Your exposure to the Hells' power has changed you, granting you the following benefits.
:* Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
:* You learn the Pyrotechnics spell and and one 1st-level spell of your choice from the Evocation or Conjuration school of magic. [''The "area of fire" needed for Pyrotechnics is Hellfire produced by your character casting it.''] You can cast each of these spells without expending a spell slot. Once you cast either of these spells in this way, you can't cast that spell in this way again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using spell slots you have of the appropriate level. The spells' spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.

==Code of Conduct==
All participants (players, DMs, and organizers) are automatically expected to adhere to the following [[Code of Conduct]], and consent to the use of the X-Card, when playing a Bedlam in the Badlands community table.

#All community campaign participants are here to have fun and should feel safe and included at all times. Fun at others’ expense is no fun at all.
#Participants must conduct themselves in a manner that is conducive to the enjoyment and safety of others at the event. Bedlam in the Badlands is a public, community campaign open to all Pennsylvania players ages 18 and up. Please avoid excessively vulgar, sexual, or overly mature themes when requested.
#Follow the DM’s lead, try to avoid extended arguments with the DM or other players over rules, as time is limited at these events. The Dungeon Master has the right to remove a disruptive player from the table. Disruptive behavior includes (but is not limited to):
#*Speaking over other players
#*Excessive cross-talk that is not relevant to the adventure being played
#*Not sharing the spotlight with other players
#No tolerance is given for aggressive behavior, and are grounds for immediate removal from the game.
#*Aggressive behavior includes threats of or actual physical aggression against another player, disrespecting pronouns, using slurs, and otherwise harassing participants.
#Any player who oversteps a boundary, whether explicitly set or not, should be held accountable with the use of the X-Card. X-Carded behaviors will immediately be halted and discontinued at the present table.
#If a participant feels uncomfortable bringing an issue to the attention of the table via X-Card, the participant should notify a Dungeon Master or Quelmar representative as soon as comfortably possible.

{{CampaignNavbox}}
[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]
[[Category:Campaign]]
[[Category:Community Campaigns]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-05-13T03:03:31Z

Psuvillager: Lots of link corrections (more to go)

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek and Stanley|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Garret]], [[Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it they spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Ter]], [[Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]]

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Sukki]], [[Brandran]], [[Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Dapple, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''Events:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitcwal]], ''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|the Shabby Scales]]''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Shabby Scales Posse|The Shabby Scales Posse]], Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|the Osteomancer]], Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], "Sandra Sanderson", Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Those Who Wallow|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Junkyard|Raegina]], Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a [[Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-13T02:43:41Z

Psuvillager: NPC name format

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Sir Anthony ===
A tall, dignified bugbear paladin devoted to [[Pelor]], Sir Anthony (he/him) serves as the alliance's formal leader -- chosen by the factions, after the initial attack on the Arboretum, for his equanimity and gravitas, but most of all for his impartiality. He reach the Badlands and took Pelor as his patron after fleeing [[Troverth]], where he'd served all his life until disillusionment with his homeland's reliance on Abyssal magic led him to turn away from his emperor and his ''Oath of the Crown'', and to take up a new solemn ''Oath of the People''.

=== Jerbo ===
The Arboretum's head arcanist, the gnome Jerbo (he/him) oversaw the restoration of the magical artificery known as the Conservatory after its destruction in the initial demon attack.

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the Shepherds' end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the Arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on their bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under their care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon ===
The Duke was the political leader of the Shepherds in Arrafell until his assassination by demon-allied cultists, after which Viscount Liestralo assumed his office.

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's son, and his right hand man before his death, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands-on with the happenings in the badlands than the Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

Lord Pavan went into hiding after being accused participating in his father's murder.

=== Swordmaster Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsmen. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Viscount Virtumal Liestralo ===
Viscount Liestralo assumed Duke Solon's office after cultists murdered him. Liestralo holds the position that Duke Solon was a cult leader who was betrayed by his own people, including Lord Pavan and several adventurers from the Arboretum.

=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherds' fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate a few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==

=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yuan-ti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuck in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aide, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wished for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.

== Other Recurring Characters ==

=== [[Erland Nimz]] ===
The elf ruler of [[Jewelspar]], Archmage Nimz (he/him) visited the Badlands several times in his fabulous sandship, Shimmerwing, hiring adventurers to assist in his quest for a powerful weapon against the demons assaulting his city. On one occasion, he had a number of them accompany his Right Arm, Lirizel, to [[the Moon]] via [[Ta-Shedet]] to earn [[Eros]]' approval to craft ''Alchemical Frost'' there as part of his quest. He engineered other bleeding-edge alchemical tools, ''Theriac Effluvium'' and ''Galanodite'', to breach a vault nested inside a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field -- and in the end, the "weapon" he sought turned out to be a [[Mutated Chimera]], regarding which he had been explicitly warned by the Osteomancer, "You cannot wield it. None of us can."

=== The Osteomancer ===
A [[loxodon]] diviner residing in a desert bunker northwest of the Arboretum, the Osteomancer (she/her) has been in contact with alliance adventurers on several occasions. In one instance, she allowed a party to see each others' memories, tasked them with sealing a wound in reality, revealed how [[Swikedom]]'s Blood Law explained [[kobold]] involvement in the initial demon attack, and prophesied [[Erland Nimz]]'s release of the [[Mutated Chimera]]. Her kobold contact Eddarux (he/him) once guided a party into Swikedom to seize infernal weapons, and he helped another group gain entry to the lost dwarf hold of the Blazeforge clan.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard

2026-05-13T02:40:18Z

Psuvillager: Links

The Junkyard is the home of the Scrapper faction in [[Bedlam in the Badlands]]. It is ruled by Raegina, the cambion, and her three minions that breakdown the abyssal scrap to recreate infernal machines to battle the incoming demonic forces.

== Notable NPCs ==

<onlyinclude>

=== Raegina ===
Cambion leader of the junkyard, Raegina was sent by her duchess to find the remnants of infernal weapons left in the Pteris desert to face the incoming invasion of demons on Quelmar. She settled in the Western Badlands when she found some old war machine remnants there and a small uptick in abyssal attacks. She worked to kill any demon in her path and collected everything she could along the way to build the Junkyard, a place of destruction and creation.

=== Baftzmyr ===
(In Common: Butcher)

Once the daughter of the leader of a lorekeeping tribe, Baftzmyr, a high elf, was the lone survivor in an abyssal attack, hidden among their tribes writings. When she emerged from her hiding place, all she saw was a large woman with red wings, slaughtering the demons that had killed her people. She took Raegina's offer to come under her wing and dissect demons as an act of vengeance for her kin. She keeps her tribes traditions alive by keeping the lore of the events of the Demonic Infiltration in Pteris and wearing her father's headdress and cloak.

=== Kicyr ===
(In Common: Baker)

Sent by an underground city that feared the presence of Raegina and her growing Junkyard in the desert, Kicyr was to assassinate the cambion, but was caught by Baftzmyr's keen detection. The two wrestled and when Baftzmyr was on the verge of killing Kicyr, Raegina made the half-elf an offer: abandon your city and come be my poisoner. Simply looking not to die, the girl accepted and was given her infernal title of Kicyr, as do all of Raegina's hell-touched.


=== Cilvdywzutca and Picyr ===
(In common: Candlestick and Maker)

An undead human woman that Raegina continues to bring back time and time again, Cilvdy's primary purpose is to tinker with bombs that will draw the attention and then the destruction of demons. She just-- isn't very good at it and has a tendency to blow herself up in the process. She often makes bombs out of little origami animals, the one love she's carried with her from when she was alive. Often close by to Cilvdy is Picyr, a crow that was nibbling on Cilvdy when Raegina found her corpse and is still waiting around for his snack. He's protective of his meal though, so watch out for your eyes!

=== Jictwal ===
The junkyard dog, this friendly desert vulpine runs the scrap shop in the junkyard's entrance and can be found there to buy and sell what the adventurers of the Arboretum are looking for. He sells the scrap for double its value to make money for the Junkyard.
</onlyinclude>

== Notable Events ==

=== The Destruction of the War Rig ===
During the first siege of the arboretum, an olliphant carcass being piloted by a group of demons t-boned into the War Rig, flipping it and causing it to fall to pieces, trapping Baftzmyr underneath. Raegina tossed the war rig off of Baftzmyr and beheaded the olliphant in retaliation for destroying it.

== Scrapping ==
During the course of Bedlam in the Badlands, players are able to buy and sell scrap to build infernal enhancements to improve their characters. In addition to buying and selling, players will also be invited by DMs to scrap enemies, machines, and other items to get their own scrap. When asked, players roll on the table below.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!SCRAP TRACKER
!TEMPLATE
!
!
!
!
|-
!BIOLOGICAL
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|2
|3
|4
|5
|6
|-
|BLOOD
|SMALL BONE
|LARGE BONE
|HORN
|EYE
|HIDE
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!MECHANICAL
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|3
|5
|6
|7
|8
|-
|GEAR
|COIL
|COUPLING
|BELT
|CHAIN LINK
|FLYWHEEL
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!COMPONENTS
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1
|3
|6
|8
|9
|10
|-
|CRYSTAL
|IRON FILINGS
|INCENSE
|MERCURY
|GOLD
|RUBY
|}

== Infernal Enhancements ==
Once a player has collected enough scrap, they will be able to use a downtime to enhance their character.

With the Conservatory restored, Players will be able to enhance their characters up to TWO (2) TIMES.

''The Scrapper Enhancement does not count toward your TWO enhancement limit and is able to be created by a player, even without the Conservatory. You just need to visit The Junkyard shop on the Discord.''
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Enhancement
!Description
!Location
!Bio Required
!Mech Required
!Comp Required
!# of Times You Can Create
|-
|Scrapper
|Add an additional die to any scrap roll to any applicable category
|Junkyard
| -
|2 Gears
|2 Crystals
|2
|-
|Force
|Add +1 to your damage
|Conservatory
|3 Blood, 2 Eyes
|4 Gears
|1 Gold
|2
|-
|Guard
|Add +1 to your AC
|Conservatory
|3 Lg Bones
|2 Belts, 2 Chain Links
|3 Crystals
|2
|-
|Converge
|Add +1 to your attack rolls
|Conservatory
|4 Sm Bones, 2 Hides
|5 Flywheels
|3 Incense
|2
|-
|Amplify
|On a successful attack, roll an additional damage die and drop the lowest
|Conservatory
|4 Hides
|4 Couplings
|4 Gold
|1
|-
|Extend
|Increase a melee weapon's range by 5ft
|Conservatory
|5 Horn
|3 Coils
|2 Crystal, 2 Incense
|2
|-
|Scope
|Increase a ranged weapon's range by 10ft
|Conservatory
|5 Eyes
|3 Belts
|2 Iron Filings, 2 Mercury
|2
|-
|Deny
|Add +2 to your AC
|Conservatory
|6 Sm Bones, 3 Lg Bones
|2 Coils
|4 Rubies
|1
|-
|Target
|Add +2 to attack rolls
|Conservatory
|10 Lg Bones
|7 Flywheels
|5 Crystals, 5 Iron Filings, 2 Rubies
|1
|-
|Split
|When you make an attack, target a 2nd creature within range PB # of times per long rest
|Conservatory
|12 Blood, 5 Eyes
|15 Gears
|8 Mercury
|1
|-
|Fix
|When you hit with a critical success, you may roll a Hit Dice
|Conservatory
|6 Sm Bones, 4 Lg Bones, 1 Hide
|5 Couplings, 5 Belts
|7 Mercury, 2 Rubies
|2
|-
|Scare
|When you hit with a critical success, the target is frightened of you except those immune
|Conservatory
|6 Horns
|9 Gears, 8 Coils
|10 Incense
|2
|}
''The Scrap and Enhancement mechanics are attributed to Darrington Press' Daggerheart from their Motherboard setting''
[[Category:Location]]
[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-13T02:36:30Z

Psuvillager: Link stuffs

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Sir Anthony ===
A tall, dignified bugbear paladin devoted to [[Pelor]], Sir Anthony (he/him) serves as the alliance's formal leader -- chosen by the factions, after the initial attack on the Arboretum, for his equanimity and gravitas, but most of all for his impartiality. He reach the Badlands and took Pelor as his patron after fleeing [[Troverth]], where he'd served all his life until disillusionment with his homeland's reliance on Abyssal magic led him to turn away from his emperor and his ''Oath of the Crown'', and to take up a new solemn ''Oath of the People''.

=== Jerbo ===
The Arboretum's head arcanist, the gnome Jerbo (he/him) oversaw the restoration of the magical artificery known as the Conservatory after its destruction in the initial demon attack.

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the Shepherds' end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the Arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on their bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under their care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon ===
The Duke was the political leader of the Shepherds in Arrafell until his assassination by demon-allied cultists, after which Viscount Liestralo assumed his office.

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's son, and his right hand man before his death, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands-on with the happenings in the badlands than the Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

Lord Pavan went into hiding after being accused participating in his father's murder.

=== Swordmaster Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsmen. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Viscount Liestralo ===
Viscount Virtumal Liestralo assumed Duke Solon's office after cultists murdered him. Liestralo holds the position that Duke Solon was a cult leader who was betrayed by his own people, including Lord Pavan and several adventurers from the Arboretum.


=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherds' fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate a few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==


=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yuan-ti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuck in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aide, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wished for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.

== Other Recurring Characters ==

=== [[Erland Nimz]] ===
The elf ruler of [[Jewelspar]], Archmage Nimz (he/him) visited the Badlands several times in his fabulous sandship, Shimmerwing, hiring adventurers to assist in his quest for a powerful weapon against the demons assaulting his city. On one occasion, he had a number of them accompany his Right Arm, Lirizel, to [[the Moon]] via [[Ta-Shedet]] to earn [[Eros]]' approval to craft ''Alchemical Frost'' there as part of his quest. He engineered other bleeding-edge alchemical tools, ''Theriac Effluvium'' and ''Galanodite'', to breach a vault nested inside a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field -- and in the end, the "weapon" he sought turned out to be a [[Mutated Chimera]], regarding which he had been explicitly warned by the Osteomancer, "You cannot wield it. None of us can."

=== The Osteomancer ===
A [[loxodon]] diviner residing in a desert bunker northwest of the Arboretum, the Osteomancer (she/her) has been in contact with alliance adventurers on several occasions. In one instance, she allowed a party to see each others' memories, tasked them with sealing a wound in reality, revealed how [[Swikedom]]'s Blood Law explained [[kobold]] involvement in the initial demon attack, and prophesied [[Erland Nimz]]'s release of the [[Mutated Chimera]]. Her kobold contact Eddarux (he/him) once guided a party into Swikedom to seize infernal weapons, and he helped another group gain entry to the lost dwarf hold of the Blazeforge clan.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-13T02:29:18Z

Psuvillager: Tryna fix links

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Sir Anthony ===
A tall, dignified bugbear paladin devoted to [[Pelor]], Sir Anthony (he/him) serves as the alliance's formal leader -- chosen by the factions, after the initial attack on the Arboretum, for his equanimity and gravitas, but most of all for his impartiality. He reach the Badlands and took Pelor as his patron after fleeing [[Troverth]], where he'd served all his life until disillusionment with his homeland's reliance on Abyssal magic led him to turn away from his emperor and his ''Oath of the Crown'', and to take up a new solemn ''Oath of the People''.

=== Jerbo ===
The Arboretum's head arcanist, the gnome Jerbo (he/him) oversaw the restoration of the magical artificery known as the Conservatory after its destruction in the initial demon attack.

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the Shepherds' end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the Arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on their bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under their care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon ===
The Duke was the political leader of the Shepherds in Arrafell until his assassination by demon-allied cultists, after which Viscount Liestralo assumed his office.

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's son, and his right hand man before his death, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands-on with the happenings in the badlands than the Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

Lord Pavan went into hiding after being accused participating in his father's murder.

=== Swordmaster Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsmen. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Viscount Liestralo ===
Viscount Virtumal Liestralo assumed Duke Solon's office after cultists murdered him. Liestralo holds the position that Duke Solon was a cult leader who was betrayed by his own people, including Lord Pavan and several adventurers from the Arboretum.
{{Anchor|Kareek}}{{Anchor|Tradesman Kareek}}
=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherds' fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate a few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==

{{Anchor|The Shabby Scales}}
=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yuan-ti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuck in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aide, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wished for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.

== Other Recurring Characters ==

=== [[Erland Nimz]] ===
The elf ruler of [[Jewelspar]], Archmage Nimz (he/him) visited the Badlands several times in his fabulous sandship, Shimmerwing, hiring adventurers to assist in his quest for a powerful weapon against the demons assaulting his city. On one occasion, he had a number of them accompany his Right Arm, Lirizel, to [[the Moon]] via [[Ta-Shedet]] to earn [[Eros]]' approval to craft ''Alchemical Frost'' there as part of his quest. He engineered other bleeding-edge alchemical tools, ''Theriac Effluvium'' and ''Galanodite'', to breach a vault nested inside a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field -- and in the end, the "weapon" he sought turned out to be a [[Mutated Chimera]], regarding which he had been explicitly warned by the Osteomancer, "You cannot wield it. None of us can."

=== The Osteomancer ===
A [[loxodon]] diviner residing in a desert bunker northwest of the Arboretum, the Osteomancer (she/her) has been in contact with alliance adventurers on several occasions. In one instance, she allowed a party to see each others' memories, tasked them with sealing a wound in reality, revealed how [[Swikedom]]'s Blood Law explained [[kobold]] involvement in the initial demon attack, and prophesied [[Erland Nimz]]'s release of the [[Mutated Chimera]]. Her kobold contact Eddarux (he/him) once guided a party into Swikedom to seize infernal weapons, and he helped another group gain entry to the lost dwarf hold of the Blazeforge clan.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Swikedom

2026-05-13T01:51:51Z

Psuvillager: Redirect to Swikedom Kingdom

#REDIRECT [[Swikedom Kingdom]]

Erland Nimz

2026-05-13T01:45:34Z

Psuvillager: Redirect to Archmage Nimz

#REDIRECT [[Archmage Nimz]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-13T01:40:49Z

Psuvillager: Added Sir Anthony, Jerbo, Vicount Liestralo, Erland Nimz, and the Osteomancer; Updated Duke Solon and Lord Pavan after the assassination; Fixed spelling

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Sir Anthony ===
A tall, dignified bugbear paladin devoted to [[Pelor]], Sir Anthony (he/him) serves as the alliance's formal leader -- chosen by the factions, after the initial attack on the Arboretum, for his equanimity and gravitas, but most of all for his impartiality. He reach the Badlands and took Pelor as his patron after fleeing [[Troverth]], where he'd served all his life until disillusionment with his homeland's reliance on Abyssal magic led him to turn away from his emperor and his ''Oath of the Crown'', and to take up a new solemn ''Oath of the People''.

=== Jerbo ===
The Arboretum's head arcanist, the gnome Jerbo (he/him) oversaw the restoration of the magical artificery known as the Conservatory after its destruction in the initial demon attack.

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the Shepherds' end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the Arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on their bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under their care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon ===
The Duke was the political leader of the Shepherds in Arrafell until his assassination by demon-allied cultists, after which Viscount Liestralo assumed his office.

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's son, and his right hand man before his death, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands-on with the happenings in the badlands than the Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

Lord Pavan went into hiding after being accused participating in his father's murder.

=== Swordmaster Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsmen. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Viscount Virtumal Liestralo ===
Viscount Liestralo assumed Duke Solon's office after cultists murdered him. Liestralo holds the position that Duke Solon was a cult leader who was betrayed by his own people, including Lord Pavan and several adventurers from the Arboretum.

=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherds' fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate a few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==

=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yuan-ti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuck in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aide, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wished for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.

== Other Recurring Characters ==

=== [[Erland Nimz]] ===
The elf ruler of [[Jewelspar]], Archmage Nimz (he/him) visited the Badlands several times in his fabulous sandship, Shimmerwing, hiring adventurers to assist in his quest for a powerful weapon against the demons assaulting his city. On one occasion, he had a number of them accompany his Right Arm, Lirizel, to [[the Moon]] via [[Ta-Shedet]] to earn [[Eros]]' approval to craft ''Alchemical Frost'' there as part of his quest. He engineered other bleeding-edge alchemical tools, ''Theriac Effluvium'' and ''Galanodite'', to breach a vault nested inside a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field -- and in the end, the "weapon" he sought turned out to be a [[Mutated Chimera]], regarding which he had been explicitly warned by the Osteomancer, "You cannot wield it. None of us can."

=== The Osteomancer ===
A [[loxodon]] diviner residing in a desert bunker northwest of the Arboretum, the Osteomancer (she/her) has been in contact with alliance adventurers on several occasions. In one instance, she allowed a party to see each others' memories, tasked them with sealing a wound in reality, revealed how [[Swikedom]]'s Blood Law explained [[kobold]] involvement in the initial demon attack, and prophesied [[Erland Nimz]]'s release of the [[Mutated Chimera]]. Her kobold contact Eddarux (he/him) once guided a party into Swikedom to seize infernal weapons, and he helped another group gain entry to the lost dwarf hold of the Blazeforge clan.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Ether

2026-05-12T20:50:17Z

Psuvillager: Spelling

{{Infobox_item|affilliation=affiliation|name={{PAGENAME}}|powers=powers|type=Potion}}

'''{{PAGENAME}} '''is a rare and hard to create substance that is pure concentrated arcane magic. It is used by spellcasters to increase their spell output and regain lost spell slots.

== Description ==
Ether is a thin liquid with a powerful arcane glow. It comes in many varieties, with the most common being green ether created in the kingdom of Glendoveer. When it comes into contact with a magical object, it begins to spark and fizz. Ether is created by harvesting strands of the Weave and refining it by injecting it with low level magic over a long period of time.

=== Unrefined Ether ===
Unrefined ether is the pure substance harvested by the Weave. In some cases it appears as thick webby strands, and in others it appears as shifting, glowing crystal. Unrefined ether is highly reactive, and even the smallest bit of force can cause it to erupt into a massive arcane explosion.

== Powers and Abilities ==
Ether comes in varying concentrations from levels 1 to 9. When a creature who can casts spells ingests a vial of ether, they gain a spell slot equal to the ether's concentration level. If they cannot cast spells of that level, they instead gain a level of their highest spell slot. They keep this spell slot until they cast a spell with it or until they take a long rest.

[[Category:Item]]
[[Category:Phantoms]]
{{Worldbuilders}}

Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs

2026-05-12T20:35:43Z

Psuvillager: Gnash's role in security and leadership style

<big>🚧 Under construction</big>

'''Significant characters the PCs encounter will be listed here.'''

==The Arboretum==

=== Gnash ===
A stout half-orc with a history as a mercenary, Gnash (she/they) wears a short, well-kept mohawk that fully reveals the burn scar covering the left side of her head and the nub of an ear remaining there. She arrived at the Arboretum in bad condition in 134 [[PR]] and stayed on out of gratitude after Dulfri and Misfit patched her up.

When the initial demon attack on the trade hub united the factions, she stepped up as a combat trainer and as the de facto security director during the convalescence of her friend Sheriff Gooey. Possessing a clear devotion to the well being of the Arboretum and its surviving people, she soon proved a surprisingly effective leader in spite of her serious attitude and gruff mannerisms.

=== Dapple ===
With the curling horns and the woolly flanks of a bighorn ram, Dapple (they/them) the satyr is the current stable-master. Originally from the shepherd's end of the desert, they agreed to become the stable-master after a nasty falling out with the "policies" of Duke Solon. Now they live happily in the arboretum.

It's hard to tell how old they truly are, but they've been caring for the mounts and animals of the stables of the Arboretum for nearly a decade. They are outspoken and stern to those who would rent or buy the animals, but overall a caring soul. However, wary be the traveler who gets on her bad side by hurting or losing one of the mounts under her care.

=== Steven ===
Steven (he/him) is a bearded dragon styled lizardfolk merchant in the Arboretum. He has a slight build, medium height, and has dusty brownish scales. He will not talk about his sordid past, nor about his sawed off tail stub. But he will talk to you freely about trade goods and payment plans. In fact, you can't really get him to shut up about the mundane goods he is selling in the marketplace. He's pretty shrewd, so talking him down from his set prices is pretty difficult. However, he loves talking smack and appreciates good gossip.

==[[The Junkyard]]==
{{:The Junkyard}}

== The Shepherds ==

=== Duke Solon (The Duke) ===
Not much is known about The Duke (he/him) at this point. However, it seems most of the decisions regarding trade come from him. Stay Tuned for more details!

=== Lord Pavan ===
The Duke's right hand man, Lord Pavan (he/him), is far more hands on with the happenings in the badlands than The Duke. He is the go between for relations between the Arboretum, the political side of the shepherds, and the agricultural side of the shepherds. He is constantly trying to find commonality between the factions in order to promote trade and facilitate cooperation. He is of medium height with short military styled hair and a slightly overgrown beard. His sweeping cape, regal demeanor, and faithful retainer Krispin, make him easy to spot in a crowd.

=== Krispin ===
Lord Pavan's faithful retainer and bodyguard. Though he might sound impressive, Krispin (he/him) is actually not that good with a blade. In fact, he harbors some resentment towards those who are better swordsman. Nevertheless he does his job to the best of his abilities. He can almost always be found two steps behind his lord, quietly observing those around him. He is only slightly taller than Lord Pavan and is soft spoken. If Lord Pavan is not able to go on a quest or job posting, he usually sends Krispin in his stead.

=== Kareek and Stanley ===
Though shifty by nature, Kareek (he/him) was brought into the Shepherd's fold after some trouble with the Federation. If pressed about it, Kareek won't say anything more than "It wassss a nassssssty businesssssss". The hissing lisp doesn't seem to be because he's a lizardfolk, but rather something he developed after a mouth injury. He is of medium build with yellow tinted scales and looks to be more like a spiny lizardfolk rather than a smooth scaled one.

Now Kareek works as a trader, carrying goods across the badlands with his beloved mount Stanley. Stanley is a giant monitor lizard that was hand raised by Kareek. Naturally bad tempered and suspicious of others, the animal really only seems to tolerate few apart from Kareek.

== Recurring Antagonists ==

=== The Shabby Scales Posse ===
A gang of lizardfolk and yu'anti that have banded together to take bounties, steal supplies and be a general nuisance in the Badlands. They have a hide out to the East of the Arboretum, along the road to the mountains under a couple of fall rocks. They are led by a powerful bard who calls herself "Sandra Sanderson". Her sisters Solange and Sybil are also a part of the gang.

=== Those Who Wallow ===
The Baron of Filth was a huge demon who one day found himself stuff in a sinking pit of sand. He sent out lesser demons to find the best way for him to get free and even sent news back to his partner that he'd gotten caught, but before she could send aid for him, he was found by the Scrappers. They killed him and destroyed his lantern, leaving only an empty crater in the sand for the Baroness' aid, Leiloni, to find. With this discovery, the Baroness wishes for the Scrappers and those associated that slayed her husband, to be brought down into her grime.
[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-05-11T00:44:39Z

Psuvillager: Spelling

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,867
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,616
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,576
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 17,486
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,217 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,978
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,775
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-05-10T19:34:53Z

Psuvillager: XP from Sean's 4/22 game: Skelly:+1219=8775; Ichake:+1036=16978; Avel:+1,036=19,867; Leonard:+1,585=3,616 (level 4); Ollie:+1,219=11,576; Dallas:+1,036=17,486

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,867
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,616
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,576
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 17,486
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,217 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,978
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,775
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Troverth Dynasty

2026-04-27T02:58:41Z

Psuvillager: Spelling

{{Worldbuilders}}{{Kingdom_Template|image1 = TroverthDynasty.PNG|caption1 = The Dragon's Funeral|years_active = Early BR - 390PR, 12CR - ???|type_of_govt = Feudalism|allies = Bugbear Tribes, [[DolmHarm]], [[No Man's Kingdom]]|enemies = [[Champerty]], [[LaCroix Kingdom]]|primary_races = [[Human]], [[Bugbear]], [[Genasi]], [[Kenku]]}}'''The Troverth Dynasty '''is the longest lasting and most far reaching of all [[human]] based [[Quelmar]] societies. The dynasty itself ruled in [[Osugbo]] before and during the [[Holy War]] and continued to fight in [[Realm War I]] and beyond, eventually ending (with the other kingdoms of Quelmar) in the [[The Cavalry Rush|Cavalry Rush]]. The [[CR|CR era]] however would see the [[Troverthi Restoration|restoration of the dynasty]] and the return to imperial rule for it's denizens.

== About ==
The name '''Troverth '''itself comes from the [[common]] tongue, and is a portmanteau of the phrase "''Travelers of Oath''". Honor-bound by ancient rites and rituals, the Troverth Dynasty is a far-reaching community of soldiers, [[samurai]], and knights who have given countless lives over the course of [[the Holy War]] to keep Troverth standing in the face of the realms biggest threats.

=== Beliefs ===
The Troverth [[Humans]] are notoriously clever, and perhaps the most skilled at the art of war—their mantra of “All Warfare is Based on Deception” has allowed them to not just trick the [[dragons]], but also seize most of the continent quickly and easily in the dawn of the new era. They were key in converting many neutral and peaceful regions in joining the Holy war through philosophical persuasion. Now at the start of a personal war for themselves, they vie to squash all neutrality. War, to them, is not just inevitable, but the greatest honor and strongest way to achieve any goal. Avoidance is fatal.

=== [[Troverth Honor|Honor]] ===
The entire Troverthian culture revolved around a concept known as '''Honor''', which was a social ranking score based on one's behavior, as well as the behavior of one's ancestors.

=== Food and Drink ===
Troverthians had a variety of unique tastes, including '''Dragonscale Tea''' and '''[[Aarakocra]] Nest Soup'''.

=== Bugbears ===
The Troverthian people held a terse partnership with the native Bugbear tribes of the north Osugbo hills, admiring their natural strength, and appreciating how quickly they fell in line behind good leadership. Troverth believes that its only equals on the stage of combat are the savage bugbears, some which they train and fight alongside on the field of battle. Most Bugbear tribes in Osugbo have been claimed this way, and the bugbears now find themselves under incidental rule of the Emperor. Many of these tribes were later forcefully subjugated during the later years of [[Realm War I]].

=== Magic ===
The Troverth Society saw the use of magic as a danger to the realm, and were strictly against the more magically inclined societies in the realm. Troverthians believed that their human nature was the most powerful force in the realm, and magic tampered with the "natural" human form.

However, even though Troverth culture looked down on magicians, that does not mean they did not have their own magic. Typically called '''Shamans''' or '''Spirit Masters''', mages for Troverth tapped into dark magic, such as creating [[Gorgon|gorgons]], almost always in attempts to turn the tide of war.

==== Demon Binding ====
Their cultural beliefs against magic were slowly bent during the long years of the first Realm War as the Troverth empire began to experiment with [[The Abyss|abyssal]] energies in hopes of winning the war. The catalyst of this change was the discovery of an underground demonic temple under the capital city of [[Quixing]]. While the cult inside the temple was destroyed, Troverth learned how to use their knowledge to summon and bind [[Demon|demons]] to serve as weapons of war. This process of demon binding would later be refined into the DISC method. Unknown to Troverth though was that their earliest attempts at demon binding secretly allowed the influence of the [[Demon Lords|Demon Lord]] [[Yeenoghu]] to leak into Troverth.

== History ==

=== Holy War ===
The only major Kingdom to stay standing during the entire Holy War against the Dragons, Troverth has staked a claim that it “deserves” the rest of Osgubo thanks to its impact in saving the world.

=== [[Realm War I]] ===
The Champerty Region to the northwest was originally formed as a penal colony of Troverth during the Holy War, where those who exhibited strange and illegal powers, including many psions and mages, were kept away from the traditional fighters, who felt inadequate or intimidated by the supernatural. However, Champerty’s “freaks” have been attempting to get back to Troverth and prove their dominance, and war now wages against them in the rivers to the north, a war that they have enlisted the alliance of the river faring [[DolmHarm Regality]] to help fight. The skirmishes and battlefields involved in this conflict would become part of the growing [[The Phantom Front|Phantom Front]].

To the east, Troverth is also on the offensive, as a new breed of sharp toothed humans, have bested many attempts to take [[LaCroix]]. Troverth, however, accepts the challenge and now fights the LaCroix to preserve its honor. Troverth in this case has also taken advantage of the weak-willed and easily dominated No Man’s Land, a faction that fights a war that they refuse to acknowledge as war. To them, this is the greatest dishonor of all. Yet in spite of this, they have proved a valuable ally in the LaCroix pressure point, and the alliance stands.

In 10 [[PR]], Troverth was one of three kingdoms in Osugbo to fall prey to [[The LaCroix Conspiracy]], though it had little effect on the already Champerty-Warring Troverthians, it did influence small decisions on whether to fortify the eastern lands (which were closest to LaCroix).

Troverth was known for weaponizing [[Demon|Demons]] during the war, using them as elite and dangerous soldiers (or bombs) against their supernatural enemies of [[Champerty]] and [[LaCroix Kingdom|LaCroix]].

They caused a major blow to their enemy Champerty during an operation known later in history as [[Realm War I#Breakwater's Bamboozle|Breakwater's Bamboozle]].

After the collapse of Champerty and its absorption into [[Glendoveer]] in 25 PR, Troverth's ambitions would only grow, leading to a new campaign of aggression expansion across Osugbo. Alliances between the kingdoms of Osugbo would crumble as the Phantom Front reignited and Osugbo fell back into all out war. To maintain their war effort, Troverth began purchasing weapons from foreign merchants as well as vastly expanding their demon summoning operations.

But Troverth's aggressive war efforts would quickly wear their armies thin so the entirety of the continent would quickly turn against them. Things came to a head with the creation of [[Project Dominion]], a large arcane weapon built under the capital city of [[Quixing]] that had the ability to forcefully pacify creatures. But Troverth's overreliance of demon summoning allowed abyssal influence to taint the project, and a small strike team of soldiers sent by the city of the Delvin managed to destroy Project Dominion and the city of Quixing in a massive explosion.

With the destruction of Quixing and the death of the emperor and many higher ups in the dynasty, the empire of Troverth was left fractured. The empire was then successfully pushed out of the continent of Osugbo and into northern Amusa during the year to follow by other kingdoms in Osugbo, struggles between separate factions in the empire, as well as a series of half-orc revolutions in Troverth territory.

=== [[Realm War II]] ===
Ever since the [[The Cavalry Rush|Calvalry Rush]] and their expulsion from Osugbo, Troverth had been plagued by constant internal conflict. Hoping to distract from their own domestic conflicts, Troverth accepted a call for aid from the people of [[Gulfithorp Isles|Gulfithorpe Isles]] to help fight back the invading gnomes of [[Levinkan Dynasty|the Levinkan Dynasty]], in return for Troverth getting to use the vital trade routes of the isles. Troverth would join the battlegrounds of the Storm Front and begin a land invasion of Levinkan in 872 PR. During the war, Troverth is nearly successful in capturing the Levinkan capital of [[Zobeck|Zoebeck]] but are forced back by Levinkan's autom armies.

As the war continued, civil and economic unrest in Troverth grew and Troverth was forced to pull out of the war to instead focus on stomping out a number of growing rebellions within their borders. In 886 they would sign a formal peace treaty with the Levinkan Dynasty, ending their participation in the war.

Troverth's attempts to force peace within its nation would fail as revolutionary activity only grew. Eventually these skirmishes would conclude with a major riot in the city of [[Warukami]] in 888 PR, and years later in 896 PR, a failed coup which would lead Troverth to fracture into 7 provinces.

=== CR ===
Following the disasters faced by Troverth in the PR era, with the Cavalry Rush ending imperial rule, and [[Realm War II#The Storm Front|civil war splintering it in 888 PR]], the people faced an uncertain (and more importantly humiliating) future. Their luck would turn around however with the [[Fracturing of the Weave]] and the beginnings of a new era. With a culture unshackled from a reliance on the arcane arts, they were able to spearhead into this new age with a leg up. Rallying behind the charismatic - and equally dangerous - [[Empress Keiokki Troverth|Keiokkii Troverth]], the broken provinces brought themselves back under imperial tradition, [[Troverthi Restoration|crowning Keiokki their new Empress]] in 12 CR.

After some years of rebuilding and rearmament, 20 CR saw the Empire initiating their return to glory. The [[Great War of Troverth]] began as they stormed the beaches of their former lands in Osugbo, fighting their way to the Great Imperial Capital of [[Qiuxing]]. Their conquest would help set the stage for further conflict, eventually becoming a leading member of the [[Eastern Pact]] and participating in the [[Realm War III|Third Realm War]].

== Society and Government ==
Troverth is led by 9 central figures: the emperor himself and 8 other lords of the land. The Lords in 10 [[PR]] included:
* '''Lord Troverth''' (junior) of the [[Land of the Owlbear]]
* '''Lord Psuedu''' of the [[Land of the Crane]]
* '''Lord Mane-Lin''' of the [[Land of the Lion]]
* '''Lord''' '''Itali''' of the [[Land of the Spider]]
* '''Lord Kiyoni''' of the [[Land of the Phoenix]]
* '''Lord Khyadamri''' of the [[Land of the Scorpion]]
* '''Lord Wepus Zhu''' of the [[Land of the Unicorn]]
* '''Lord Hyotsu''' of the [[Land of the Monkey]]
<nowiki> </nowiki>Troverth has a very distinct form of societal structure based on both following and respecting those above you while also serving those below you. All efforts of the empire ultimately boil down to protecting the common and keeping them happy. However, within the military, the common people, and the royal courts, many distinct levels of honor and power exist. [[File:TroverthSociety.PNG|left|thumb|271x271px|A diagram of Troverth's heavily reliant and branching societal structure]]Ultimately the entire Troverth culture is based on 30 grades of power, which starts with the Emperor at the top, and the most lowly slave on the bottom. In general, the courts lay above the military, and the military lay above the common folk. However, because of the intertwining powers of Troverth, most never understand their true grade of power, and only those in the Emperor's most inner circle see how the pieces stack up.

Creatures at the top of the power grade have the most [[Troverth Honor|Honor]] while those at the bottom have little honor.

=== Emperor Troverth ===
The ruler of the kingdom, passed on through the blood of the land's earliest leaders, is known as '''Emperor Troverth'''. The emperor is expected to continuously rule his whole life, and then pass the title onto one of his (many) children. Occasionally, there have been rebellions to upset the bloodline, and historically, the instances when this occurred have also been covered up in conspiracy, changing the ACTUAL bloodline of the leader several times in history, though the feudal monarchs keep face by keeping the title. These rebellions occur when the public deem the emperor's [[Troverth Honor|honor]] is too low to lead.

Beginning around the start of the first [[Realm War I|Realm War]], the current bloodline of the Troverth Emperor was clan Yuhan, a family of generals and warmongers who had over the years integrated into the Troverth Bloodline, While the emperor was still called Emperor Troverth, some of his offspring still used the Yuhan name, including the [[Prince Feng Yuhan]].[[File:TroverthHonor.png|thumb|285x285px|Honor was of utmost importance in Troverth, a more detailed breakdown can be found at [[Troverth Honor]]]]

=== Empress Troverth ===
The wife of the emperor is said to "serve heaven, serve the emperor, and serve the realm". The empress was considered the model mother and wife for the women of Troverth. The Empress ran the royal Harem, leading the other royal women of the kingdom, who were all ALSO considered wives of the emperor, even if they live and rule from the far corners of the kingdom. In addition to the wife harem, the Empress ran a "Puppy Harem" where the royal dogs played, bred, and lived in luxury. These royal puppies typically had their own quarters in the emperor's palace.
== Laws and Traditions ==
During wartime, it was customary for parties traveling into Troverth to stop at any of the countless keeps on the borderlands to register their party and their reasons for traveling to or through the kingdom. These writs may be denied on the basis of honor, [[race]], suspicion, or other political matters. The Keep Masters typically had final say on the matter, and while some were more forgiving and allowing, others may keep a strict rule over their lands, not allowing any race other than Human past the border.

== Locations ==
[[File:TroverthLands10.png|thumb|268x268px|A map showing the 8 lands of Troverth as they existed in the year 10 [[PR]]]]
=== Land of the Owlbear ===
* [[Qiuxing]] - The Imperial Capital
* Ulzud sy vuy [Until the End]

=== Land of the Crane ===
* [[Senshi no Rakuen]]
* Chin Saigo
* Yunoshu
* Juzha, notable for a civil conflict in which the alpine town did not pay taxes to the emperor for 10 years.

=== Land of the Lion ===
* Okarthel di Arytiss [Warrior's Kingdom]

=== Land of the Spider ===
* Xihuuliup Zaneunisal [The Worthy's]

[[File:LocalMountainTroverth10.png|thumb|245x245px|A map of a few select locations in the eastern Troverth mountains]]

=== Land of the Phoenix ===
* [[Balabag]]

=== Land of the Scorpion ===

=== Land of the Unicorn ===

=== Land of the Monkey ===

=== The Chitian Vale ===

== Notable Troverthians ==
* [[Kel]]
* [[OathWielders/NPCs#Master Shama|Master Shama]]
* [[OathWielders/NPCs#Kichio|Kichio]]
* [[Ichake Asaku]]
* [[Prince Feng Yuhan]]
* [[Mae Tadako]]
* [[Quelmar_PHANTOMS/NPCs#Chief_Gnarlvrock|Chief Gnarlvrock]]

== Notable Factions ==

=== The Order of the Vivisectors ===
The Order of the Vivisectors, also known as the Way of Vivisection [[Monk|Monks]], are a sect of warriors who combine the monastic arts with teleportation magic. This secretive order trains in the art of conjuration, learning how to teleport both themselves and their adversaries with extreme precision. They are so precise in their ability, that with only a few concentrated strikes, they can teleport away the body parts of their opponents, which is where they get their name from. They wear orange robes and cover their entire bodies in greed wrappings marked with glowing yellow runes.

Their abilities make them the perfect assassins, and many Vivisectors serve as agents for the Troverthian Military, sent out on black ops missions to eliminate their enemies with extreme prejudice, never leaving any survivors. Many were deployed on missions during [[Realm War I]].

[[Category:Osugbo]]
[[Category:Amusa]]
[[Category:OathWielders]]
[[Category:Phantoms]]
[[Category:Emerald Front]]
[[Category:Troverth]]

The Cavalry Rush

2026-04-27T02:52:16Z

Psuvillager: Removed autolink

{{Worldbuilders}}'''The Cavalry Rush '''was a paradigm shift that ended in '''390''' [[PR]] where masses rose up around the realm to overthrow nobility and royalty. It is the historic watershed that led to the end of the [[List of Kingdoms|Kingdoms]] and the beginning of the [[List of Domains|Domains]].

== Notable Events ==

* [[The Slaughter of the Rubies]]

==Behind the Screen==
The above information is all that is known about the Cavalry Rush, as it has never appeared in any [[Quelmar]] games so far. Perhaps fertile ground for your next adventure?{{Quelmar Navbox}}

Demon

2026-04-27T02:40:46Z

Psuvillager: Spelling

{{Worldbuilders}}
[[File:Demons1.png|right|frameless|400x400px]]
A '''Demon''', sometimes also called a '''Yokai''' or a '''Spirit''', is a manifestation of destruction spawned from [[The Abyss|the abyss]]. Their ultimate goals are to spread chaos, murder, and mayhem across all the planes. They are the chaotic counterpart to the lawful [[Devil|Devils]] on the [[The Ten Hells|Ten Hells]].
== Creation ==
[[File:Vrock1.png|right|frameless]]True to their chaotic nature, there is no one way for a demon to be born. Many demons are formed from the Abyss itself, born from the realm's natural chaos and mutations. Many [[Demon Lords|lords of the abyss]] create legions of demons in their image, but other demons are spawned haphazardly from cursed or shunned [[souls]]. Soul-shunned demons are often born in the [[Ethereal Plane]] and spend much of their life there, causing mischief and danger from behind their veil of etherealness. Sometimes, a demon under stress can manifest other demons, manifested as copies of their madness. These summoned demons often times live very brief lives, symbiotic to their summoner, but others grow in strength and perpetuate through the planes.

== About ==
The more chaos a demon causes, the more powerful it becomes. The quickest way to disrupt life in the [[Material plane]] is to kill something, and murder is often a high priority for demons who make themselves known to mortals. Many times demons who grow in power also grow in size and shape, even mimicking the form of stronger demons they may have encountered. They do not do this as a compliment, but as a challenge, as demons almost always war with each other when crossing paths. While many demons may appear similar, you will never find two that are exactly alike; whether they be from different layers, of different ages, or just born of different forms of chaos. The best demonologists can do is to categorize types of demons, tracing similar paths of changes taken by demon types or by demons molded by the influence of particularly powerful Demon Lords. Demons that serve under Demon Lords of carnage may appear for bestial with animalistic features, fanged maws and long clawed hands while demons who serve under Demon Lords of madness may appear strange and ethereal, looking alien in nature.

== Death ==
Demons can be destroyed only when killed in their home [[plane]], [[The Abyss]]. A demon vanquished in any other plane or realm will be reformed and trapped in the abyss, where they must wander until they once again find a portal to the outside.

== [[The Blood War]] ==
The Blood War is an everlasting planar conflict between the chaotically aligned Demons of the Abyss and the lawfully aligned Devils of the Ten Hells. Devils are bound by the pact primeval and the Lord of the Hells, Asmodeus himself, to hunt down demons wherever they arise and to send them back to the Abyss. Many regions of the lower planes are consumed by the Blood War, with fronts raging from the layers of the Abyss up to the first layer of the Ten Hells, [[Duumal]]. These conflicts will even spread to the Material Realm. When demons manage to breach into the realm of Quelmar, the Hells will send its devilish agents who often conscript mortals to do the work for them.
[[File:Demogorgon1.png|thumb|The Demogorgon]]

== [[Demonic Infiltration|The Demonic Infiltration]] (120 PR - 138 PR) ==
During [[Realm War I]], to boost their war efforts the kingdom of [[Troverth Dynasty|Troverth]] began experimenting with summoning and binding demons in order to use them as weapons of war on the battlefield. The kingdom's Wizards and Warlocks would soon pioneer a ritual known as the Demonic Infiltration Summoning Circle (DISC) that could allow anyone to summon and control a Demon. As more and more demons were pulled into the realm via the DISC method, the nature barriers between Quelmar and the Abyss began to weaken, as did the magic that was controlling these demons. Yet Troverth was undeterred as they continued to summon demons to aid in their war efforts.

Eventually, the demonic summoning caught the eye of Demon Lords, who had long been prevented from entering Quelmar due to the magic of the Pact Primeval. These Demon Lords were able to enter Quelmar for the first time in untold centuries by either tricking lowly wizards into summoning them or by slipping through the growing cracks in reality. As the years continued, more and more demons covertly entered the realm and began to sow the seeds of chaos. Eventually, the barriers between the Material Realm and the Abyss became so weak that Demons no longer required the DISC method to break through as plane shifting explosions began to occur all across Quelmar, bringing in waves of new demons in unprecedented numbers.

The demonic Infiltration was masterminded by the twin mad minds of Demogorgon, arguably one of the strongest Demon Lords and holder of the title, "Prince of Demons." They had been using a powerful artifact known as the Black Pearl which was being used as an anchor to pull the madness of the Abyss into the Material Realm. In 137 PR, Demogorgon and the source of the infiltration were destroyed by an unwitting group of heroes sent on their covert operation alongside the combined holy and unholy forces of [[Pelor]] and [[Asmodeus]]. The heroes successfully destroyed the Black pearl, sending Demogorgon and his forces back to the 88th Layer of the Abyss. But the destruction of the Black pearl is not without its consequences as many Demons are left stranded in Quelmar and many mortals are left stranded in the Abyss.

Over the next few months, the Demoninc Infiltration would wind down as the remaining demons and Demon Lords were slain and banished back to the Abyss. The Demonic Infiltration would officially end in with a clash within the scar of [[Amusa]] between the Demon Lord [[Orcus]] and his minions, and the mysterious warrior [[Esau]] who summoned powerful Devils to aid him after making a pact with Asmodeus.

This era is the setting for the 5e D&D Community Campaign [[Bedlam in the Badlands]].
<blockquote>''There is something so...demonic...about presenting abyssal creatures as normal in the way that the Troverth Dynasty has. Countless years that I presumed to have spent learning the culture of a great nation, only to learn time and time again that its ambition, greed, and ruthlessness will eventually be its downfall. At least, having grown up speaking the tongue of the demons has made me better equipped to bring peace to Pteris...if anything, it brings me comfort amidst the darkness of being able to understand the foul things they say.''

''[[Ichake Asaku|一明・朝来]]''</blockquote>

== The Demon Disappearance (925 PR) ==
In 925 PR the Demon Lord [[Ratatrosk]] with the aid of [[the Ordained]] kills the ferryman of the [[The River Styx|River Styx]], [[Charon]]. Ratatrosk then uses Charon's oar to stem the flow of the River Styx. This has the side effect of banishing every demon across Quelmar except for Ratatrosk back the Abyss and by cutting off all planar access to the planes of chaos.

A year later a team of heroes called the [[The Hellraisers|Hellraisers]] restored the Abyss' connection to the realm through the creation of [[the Passage of Souls]].

== Types of Demons ==
[[File:Demons2.jpeg|center|frameless|900x900px]]''Note: Demons marked with a star are unique to Quelmar*''

=== [[Demon Lords]] ===
Demon Lords are the greatest and most powerful of all Demons. A lord gains their title by claiming dominion over a layer of the infinite Abyss, and as there are infinite layers, scholars assume that there may be near infinite Demon Lords. Those that make themselves known to Quelmar tend to be the most powerful of the bunch, able to pierce the vales between the planes to exert their influence in the Material Realm.

=== [[Abyssal Dragon|Abyssal Dragons]]* ===
Abyssal Dragons are born when draconic magic meets demonic chaos. These beasts look like mutate dragons that vomit corrupted demon ichor and exude an aura of maddening chaos. Most are either born of dragons who get trapped in the Abyss, or when a dead dragon's spirit is drawn to new life in chaos.

=== Manes ===
Manes are the weakest of all demons. Created by souls denied by all the other planes, Manes look like stubby and bloated rotting corpses. They are loathsome creatures misshapen and distorted with the overwhelming urge to harm other beings.
[[File:Abyssal Chicken.png|thumb|388x388px|Abyssal Chicken]]

=== Abyssal Chickens ===
Abyssal Chickens are strange and carnivorous bottom feeders inhabiting the Abyss. Closer in behavior and temperament to a mangy rat, these tiny fiends run in small flocks in eager search for their next meal.

=== Dretches ===
Among the most common of demons in the Abyss are Dretches. They are small monstrous mongrels covered in matted fur, parasites, and boils and their reeking packs fill vast demonic hordes.

=== Abtere ===
Abtere are winged humanoid demons covered on coarse fur with razor sharp teeth and claws. They gather in large flocks and like carnivorous vultures they circle the skies, swooping down on any poor creature that catches their eye.
[[File:Abyss Hound.jpg|thumb|Abyss Hound]]

=== Abyss Hounds* ===
Abyss Hounds are rotting wolf-like creatures that prowl in packs across the Abyss. These packs are led by an alpha dog who will lead their packs across chaotic wastelands in search of their next meal. And when they do find their prey, they will clamp their vertically split jaws down upon it and cover it in flaming drool.

=== Quasits ===
The demonic counterpart to imps, Quasits are tiny green fiends with a penchant for mischief and sabotage. They pathetically desire approval from greater demons, and will commonly reach beyond their means to cause pain and chaos.

=== Bulezau ===
Bulezau are humanoid demons with goat-like heads and barbed tails that reek of a foal putrid odor. They embody the chaotic violence of nature and many serve as foot soldiers in the armies of greater demons. They are eager to kill and fearless in the face of death, welcoming it even.

=== Dybbuks ===
In their natural form, Dybbuk's appear as ethereal floating jellyfish coated in a black slime. At their first opportunity, they will possess the corpse of a creature and twist it in horrifying ways to terrorize their victims. In one such case, it twisted a horse by giving it fingers and making it vomit black blood.
[[File:Shadow Demon.png|thumb|Shadow Demon]]

=== Shadow Demons ===
Other than in the lairs of demons who court night and darkness, Shadow Demons are not born naturally. Rather they are made when a demon is slain and is unable to properly reform in the Abyss, causing the remnants of their spirit and their evil to coalesce into a newly born Shadow Demon. These demons thrive in darkness, able to slip through walls like a spirit and disappear when the lights go out. The best way to fight a shadow demon is to expose it to bright light.

=== Barlgura ===
Barlgura's most often manifest as massive ape or bear-like demons coated in thick, matted red fur. Their brutality is famous across the realms and make their lairs in dense jungles or treacherous cliffs, climbing and swinging about with ease.
[[File:Tanarukk.png|thumb|Tanarukk]]

=== Tanarukks ===
Tanarukk are the result of summoning demons using the body (live or dead) of an [[Orc]]. The most notable instance of Tanarukk in the realm came during [[Realm War I]] when the [[Troverth Dynasty]] found out they could create "Super-Soldiers" by killing the feral orcs in their lands, and then summon demonic yokai to inhabit the corpse. However, Tanarukk summoning backfired when the blood of the Tanarukk seeped into the water supply of [[Balabag]], causing the [[Balabag#The Balabag Plague|Balabag Plague]].

=== Chasme ===
Chasme are large horse sized mosquito demons, with a droning wings and a proboscis that will suck mortals dry of all their blood. The sounds of their wings can be deafening and even disorienting to creatures who fight them unprepared.

=== Vrocks ===
Vrocks are large rotting vulture-like demons that inhabit the skies of the Abyss spreading slaughter and ruin. They carry an untold number of diseases and toxins which they are eager to share with their victims.

=== [[Vitrionette]]* ===
Vitrionettes are pale and unnerving puppeteer demons draped with black string. They possess the horrifying ability to force their will over other creatures by turning them into the demon's living puppets using their strings. They are chaotic and conniving puppet masters that seek to dominate and control the weak and sane alike.

=== Hezrou ===
Hezrou are fat and bloated frog fiends. They are violent and gluttonous, quickly devouring anything they kill. They dress themselves in the rotting flesh of their victims and their stench can make even hardy warriors wretch.
[[File:Glabrezu, Barlgura, and Mane.png|thumb|A Glabrezu, a Barlgura, and a Mane]]

=== Glabrezu ===
Glabrezu stand out from most demons as they possess the ability to strategize and think ahead. They are cunning and intelligent, wielding arcane magic and devising traps to lure in their prey. Glabrezu prefer to cause chaos and pain through deception and betrayal rather than brute force, though, with massive crab-like pinchers for hands, it isn't afraid to get its claws dirty when need be.

=== Yochlol ===
Yochlols are shifting demons made of flesh and toxic slime that possess the ability to take on the forms of other creatures. They will serve as spies and saboteurs for their demon overlords, with most serving at the behest of the Demon Queen of Spiders, [[Lolth]]. Though not all Yochlol are tied to the Queen of the [[Drow]], with others serving in the courts of other Demon lords like [[Mother]] or [[Mother|Ozythra]].

=== [[Babi Ngepet|Babi Ngepets]]* ===
Babi Ngepets, also known as Boar Demons, are fiendish spirits of greed. They do not possess their own physical form and will instead make pacts with willing mortals and possess their bodies. Then next time the mortal goes to sleep, The Babi Ngepet will then take control and the body will transform into a large boar monster. The Babi Ngepet will then go on a nightly rampage, and whenever it scratches its claw along something that contains wealth or valuables, say a home, a box, or a vault, all the wealth inside will be transferred to the home of the mortal the Babi Ngepet is possessing. The pact between the Babi Ngepet and the mortal is bound to an enchanted candle. If the candle is to ever go out, the Babi Ngepet's spirit is banished back to the Abyss.

=== [[Rakshasa]] ===
Rakshasa, unlike most demons, did not originate in the Abyss. Rather they were the first creations of the Sun God [[Pelor]] and were made to be his chosen people, looking like humanoid tigers with backwards hands. But sometime in the far past, they became cursed with fiendish magic, turning them into demonic creatures. With a heavy heart Pelor called for a crusade against the Rakshasas', bringing the species to near extinction. Only a few now travel the realms on the fringes of Pelor's light, dealing in dark magic and cruel secrets.

=== Nalfeshnee ===
Nalfeshnee are bestial ogre-like pigheaded demons that serve as brutal Abyssal warlords and commanders. They are dripping with pride, forcing other demons to bend the knee to them with many either serving as leaders in the armies of Demon Lords, or seeing themselves as "prospective" Demon Lords.
[[File:Marilith.png|thumb|A Marilith]]

=== Marilith ===
Mariliths are demons with the bottom half of a massive serpent, and the upper half of a six-armed warrior. They wield multiple cursed swords at once and are some of the most skilled warriors in all of the Abyss. The most famous Marilith was the reformed demon [[Toi'Viral]], a Marilith who was able to break away from the cycle of chaos in the Abyss. Seeing the threat posed by [[Dragon|dragons]] to the realm, Toi'Viral crafted the legendary [[The Seven Arms of Sin|Seven Arms of Sin]], and used the artifacts to wish the dragons away.

=== Goristros ===
Goristros are towering horned demons capable of singlehandedly bringing cities to ruin. With strength on par with most dragons, these abyssal minotaurs seek to bring low great structures and to turn kingdoms into piles of rumble.

=== [[Corpulith|Corpuliths]]* ===
Corpuliths are massive obese demons with expansive wings and large bellies. Instead of a face, they instead have a massive gapping maw. They are demon spirits of gluttony and are driven by an insatiable hunger for anything they can get their hands on. Many see themselves as demonic aristocrats, slovenly ruling over putrid banquets and demonic halls.

=== Balors ===
Balors are some of the strongest demons in the Abyss, second to only the Demon Lords. These demons made out of fury and hatred wield weapons of elemental power and command vast demonic hordes, their wings casting dark shadows across the battlefield. If a Demon Lord is to fall, it is not uncommon for a Balor to be the one that takes their place.
[[File:Balor.png|center|frame|A Balor]]

== See Also ==
[[Underdark Old Ones]]
[[Category:Monsters]]
[[Category:Demon]]
[[Category:Wicked Wilds]]
[[Category:Infernal Invasion]]
[[Category:The Paragon Protocol]]
[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T23:34:55Z

Psuvillager: Fixed link

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''Events:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a [[Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T22:38:00Z

Psuvillager: Corrections to "You Cannot Wield it"; TLDRs, etc. for "Nimz's Moonshot" and "Ghosts of Blazeforge"

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''Events:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

'''TLDR:'''

Traveling with Lirizel and engaging in a web of favors, the party accessed Ta-Shedet's Moon Portal, dispatched a coven of Hags in the realm of the archfey Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, and retrieved an enormous egg for Nimz's "eladrin" contact on the moon. As part of the bargain, Dallas sacrificed a bit of her vitality for the egg, winning a boon from the eladrin, and Lirizel was allowed to remain on the moon to manufacture Alchemical Frost. Dallas bargained further with Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned, doubling her sacrifice in exchange for mitigation of her debts.

'''What Happened:'''

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

'''TLDR:'''

Using The Scarlet Shadow's intel, the party reached the lost dwarf hold of clan BlazeForge in search of a rumored diamond press. But they soon discovered that [[Swikedom Kingdom|Swikedom]]'s House Tazrikarn already had a presence there, including a ward in the diamond press chamber against the hold's territorial ancestors. The adventurers killed many of the dragonborn taking advantage of poor tactics, and they fared well against the ancestors themselves until they were forced back by sheer numbers. They left with what turned out to be a Hellfire Lantern but as well as some Blazeforge regalia.

'''What Happened:'''

'''Lost and Found'''

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

'''Melee à Trois'''

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

'''The Incongruous Lantern'''

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members had seized months earlier from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, Part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, Part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Sargent Galanodel, Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used bleeding-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was [[a Mutated Chimera|bound horror]]!

'''What Happened:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascended the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Saltique Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second, while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere, which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued.

Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!" The thri-kreen surrounded the sphere. Lirizel cast Gust of Wind.

An elf wheeled forward a strange contraption: a large bellows was affixed to a covered, copper basin resting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

After a moment, in perfect synchronization, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere.

Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter.

By now the maurehzi had killed Grymos' steel defender, and the party had killed the maurehzi right back. When Leonard stood bloodied and Ollie lay dying, Lirizel had provided healing. Finally, the bloodied and overwhelmed draegloth fled.

The sputtering in the Prismatic Sphere's green layer continued for several seconds until sections of it began to go dark.
And as if by magic, though the Antimagic Field precluded any such thing, the moment came -- The green, blue, and indigo layers all fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers.

Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped through the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear. "Stay focused, Sargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded.

The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before she exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then she moved about, affixing the tube with paste.

Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere.

Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The Mutated Chimera Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raised weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devastating damage but, fortunately, taking no lives.

Ozmir had time to injure the grotesque creature with psychic blades, and it began glowing red, but before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For a moment they said nothing, but the engineer who'd been briefly trapped under the metal plate had some feelings to express.

"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can,'" he shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either ... He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals the party could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect them, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with the treasure as if the powerful abjuration wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress.

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T04:46:49Z

Psuvillager: Added TLDR for session 8; Included Petra's title; Formatting

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

'''TLDR:''' Following up on a report of many unusual tracks to the east, the party learned a tribe of thri-kreen nomads were responsible, and they were forced to slay a group of thri-kreen scouts when diplomacy broke down. Nearby, they attacked a motley group and captured their leader, the righteous tiefling ex-scrapper Velza, who had split with Regina after repeatedly prioritizing the wellbeing of Badlands residents above Raegina's mission.

'''Events:'''

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and Saltique Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Saltique Petra

'''TLDR:''' The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]] Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T03:26:49Z

Psuvillager: whitespace

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred) (11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''
'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]] Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T03:24:51Z

Psuvillager: Added missing session date

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (2/19//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''
'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]] Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T02:49:42Z

Psuvillager: Whitespace and session subsection title edit

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.
===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.
===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''
'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]] Wakes'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T02:43:11Z

Psuvillager: Added basic info for missing sessions; Fixed a session number, spelling, links

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley line, the voice of Bonnet rang out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 16: TBA (12/3/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Mezzi]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Polvo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 21: TBA (1/23/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Lenore]], [[Dallas]], [[Suyuka]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 25: TBA (//2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Avel]], [[Voscaera]], [[Suyuka]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing up at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: TBA (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Himo Nilo]] (RIP), [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (RIP), [[Mezzi]] (RIP)

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 28: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 29: TBA (3/5/2026) ===
'''DM''': Mercedes

'''PCs''': [[Stix]], [[Voscaera]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Delaiah]], [[Suyuka]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 30: TBA (3/11/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Avel]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Patches Vanderburg]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 31: TBA (3/13/2026) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Ichake Asaku]], [[Demir Malchan]], [[Syl Vipershade]], [[Lenore]], [[Skelly]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 32: TBA (3/25/2026) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Patches Vanderburg]], [[Grymos]]

'''Important NPC'''s: TBA

TBA

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurrected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:'''
With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]]'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-25T01:45:57Z

Psuvillager: Added my Part 2 table from Megagame 2

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley lien, the voice of Bonnet rung out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing down at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, The Osteomancer (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:'''
With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts in light of a recent warning, the party evacuated a [[vulpine]] village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of [[thri-kreen]] aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''

Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the [[Pteris#Kharmaja Dune Sea|Kharmaja Dune Sea]], whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

===Session 35: Megagame 2, part 2 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>You Cannot Wield It! (Or: A Prophecy Fulfilled)</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir]], [[Leonard]] (daughter of "the girl bard")

'''NPCs:''' [[Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:'''

The party held off demons while Nimz & company used cutting-edge alchemy to destroy all but one layer of a Prismatic Sphere within an Antimagic Field. They watched his people brave the final layer, risking planar banishment, to to open the box inside -- only to discover that the "weapon" he'd been after all these months was a bound horror.

'''Events:'''

'''Buying Time for the Archmage'''

The party stood guard for the dozens of passengers aboard Shimmerwing at the foot of the scarred mesa while elves and psi warriors ascending the cliff face and entered the dungeon. When two demons followed several minutes later, Petra teleported the adventurers in to help.

From the hallway outside the vault, the party could see that the Prismatic Sphere nested in an Antimagic Field was still there, blocking access to the huge metal box inside. Nimz told them to expect the demons any second while elves removed layers of wool covering a large ceramic sphere which opened to reveal a steaming core. Moving as if carefully choreographed, each of twelve [[thri-kreen]] pushed in a short rod that came out with a lump of Alchemical Frost on the end.

A familiar draegloth rounded the corner with a battered maurezhi and announced, "Nimz! I will have whatever it is." Nimz merely glanced up briefly before returning to his work as combat ensued. Grymos promptly blinded the demon, who countered with Darkness. Ollie, her beast companion Freddie, and Grymos' steel defender all closed for melee.

Nimz bellowed "Stations!", the thri-kreen surrounded the sphere, Lirizel cast Gust of Wind, and an elf wheeled forward a strange contraption. A large bellows was affixed to covered, copper basin sitting above a lit brazier. It gave off a medicinal, slightly nauseating odor.

Perfectly synchronized, the psi warriors jabbed their Alchemical Frost sticks into the red layer of the sphere. Suddenly -- just like that -- the red, orange, and yellow layers all disappeared!

Amid others' cheers, Nimz barked "Bellows!" As an elf worked the bellows, a nozzle on the far side of the basin produced an amber-brown stream of mist. And as the fight continued, the mist built into a sustained cloud directed at the green layer.

Two elves set tight bundles of torches at the edge of the sphere and lit them. Lirizel cast Daylight. A few seconds later, the green layer began to sputter. After several more seconds, sections of it began going dark. And as if by magic -- though the Antimagic Field precluded that -- the green, blue, and indigo layers fell as one!

Nimz indulged in an uncharacteristic bit of celebration in the form of a fist-clench accompanied by a quiet "Yes!"

The fight had ended with the maurehzi slain and the draegloth routed. Although Lirizel had provided healing to Leonard and the unconscious Ollie, Grymos' steel defender lay dead.

'''The Indestructible Layer'''

With only the violet layer remaining, Lirizel cast Resistance on elven soldiers. Nimz gave the first soldier a formal salute followed by a nod. She stepped though the violet layer, then exclaimed in fear eyes. "Stay focused, Seargent! Fortify your mind," Nimz commanded. The soldier seemed to lock in... Then she vanished, and the room went silent.

After a few seconds, Nimz turned to the next soldier, who met his gaze and nodded. She observed the semi-transparent violet barrier briefly, and stepped through. Two tense seconds went by before exclaimed happily, "I can see!" Several people exhaled without realizing they'd been holding their breath.

An elf gave a push to the second cart, sending equipment through the purple light. The cart held a tub of paste with a spackling knife, a grappling hook with 20' of knotted rope, a breathing mask, a tinderbox, a length of cord, and a coil of unusual rope sheathed in cloth.

The soldier climbed the box to drape the cloth tube down either side along the front edge, then moved about, affixing the tube with paste. Nimz announced "The emerite will henceforth be known as Galanodite in memory of Sargent Galanodel."

The soldier donned the mask, attached the 20-second fuse to the tube, and climbed down and stepped back out of the sphere. Lirizel was already casting Resistance as the soldier said, "Oh shit!" A few heartbeats later, she exclaimed in relief, hugged Lirizel suddenly, and stepped back awkwardly.

'''The [[Mutated Chimera]]'''

When the fire touched the cloth, there appeared a bright point of searing white-orange light, which spread in both directions, tracing the seam of the container and turning the nearby metal to mercury.

"Ready!" Nimz commanded, and the elves all raise weapons or wands. The searing light reached the floor and went out. A second later, the front of the box flew forward, trapping one of the elves underneath and revealing a huge, grotesque, three-headed aberration, viscerally disturbing to look upon, which moved forward out of its prison.

Its goat head glared. Its lion head growled. Its dragon head exhaled. A line of lightning shot down the hall, doing devasting damage but fortunately taking no lives.

Ozmir damaged the beast with psychic blades, and it began glowing red. Before anyone else could act, it took wing. Many of those assembled in the hall swung melee weapons as the creature flew over their heads, injuring it a bit more. It flew quickly down the hall and out of sight, seemingly immune to any attacks hurled at it.

Nimz looked meaningfully at Lirizel. She grabbed his arm, and they both disappeared.

'''Pros and Cons of Hubris'''

In the relative calm, the party asked the remaining elves if Nimz had known what was inside the box. For only a moment they said nothing, but one of the two engineers had some feelings to express.
"She told him, he said. "'You cannot wield it. None of us can.'" He shook his head. "But he just said this won't be her first false prediction, or probably her last either. He's not a humble man."

Before leaving, Ozmir took it upon himself to acquire the precious metals they could see were still inside the box. He walked through the dangerous violet layer of the sphere to collect the treasure, suffering no ill effect. He walked back out with it as if the powerful wasn't there, and the thri-kreen warriors named him Spherewalker.

Nearly a month later, a courier arrived at the Arboretum with bespoke tokens of appreciation from the archmage: A Collar of Shared Resilience, Master Artisan's Gloves, a Resonance Circlet, and an Amulet of the Vigilant Sorceress

==Book 2==

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-24T02:13:01Z

Psuvillager: Typo

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley lien, the voice of Bonnet rung out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing down at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Erland Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]] (mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts, the party evacuated a vulpine village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of thri-kreen aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''
Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the Kharmaja Dune Sea, whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/The Story So Far

2026-04-24T02:03:27Z

Psuvillager: Added my Part 1 table from Megagame 2

{{Worldbuilders}}
<center>
'''<big>This page is the [[campaign]] synopsis as told by the DMs. To read more intimate retellings of the PCs' adventures told in their own words (and those of their players), see '''[[Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Recaps]]</big>
</center>

==Book 1==

===Session 1: Kickoff Megagame, part 1 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Trading Route Troubles</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Pryderi]] (she/they), [[Chanterelle]] (she/her), [[Koro]] (he/him), [[Silgr]] (he/him), [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]] (he/him), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Rimsa]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Tradesman Kareek|Tradesman Kareek]] (and his monitor lizard Stanley)

Seven brave souls took the Duke’s job to escort a trade caravan across the Badlands. They traveled with the caravan, meeting the traders and the leader of this specific caravan, the Lord Pavan and his bodyguard Krispin. They also met a peculiar lizardfolk trader named Kareek, and his semi-tamed monitor lizard Stanley, who were pulling a covered wagon filled with mysterious cargo.

Roughly halfway to their destination, the party spotted a group of shadowy figures on the horizon. Together, they used the wagons and trade goods to form a barrier surrounding the people and animals. They were beset by several flesh hounds and an abyssal hound. However, despite the hard battle, the demons were killed and the caravan protected. Most of the pack animals ran away in the midst of the battle, but minimal life was lost and only a few trade goods were destroyed.

After they'd successfully defended the caravan, a flare shot high into the air from the Arboretum. Lord Pavan urged everyone into one of the remaining wagons and rushed to their aid.

==== <big>Out of the Pot</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]] (they/them), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (they/them), [[Sixsplitter]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Garret|Garret]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

The crew received orders from Ter to go investigate a nearby [[The Shend|Shend]] camp. They met up with a caravan on its way to HQ. They made it a point on the trade route where they split and went into the uncharted Badlands. They easily found Vinaash Oasis. They looked around the oasis and found an unguarded cave. They noticed strange black ichor splattered about and Shend and prisoners massacred. The only prisoner alive could only convey to watch out for the bugs and bats. The party's curiosity got the best of them and they delved in too deep and discovered a hidden storage room where they were ambushed. As they escaped with their newfound friend Brandran, they looked back towards the Arboretum as they noticed the signal for help.

====<big><s>Grind</s> Sparkburn, Smash, & Cleave</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]] (they/them), [[Razzadrog]] (he/him), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Delaia]] (she/her), [[Demir]] (he/him), [[Caesana]] (she/her), [[Jynx]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

Raegina called for <s>victims</s> volunteers to come and try out her cohorts newest set of scrap golems. The seven volunteers prepared themselves and handily destroyed the bots in record time, earning Raegina’s three goons looks of derision. Raegina offered to teach those adventurers who beat up the golems how to scrap and then rebuild the bots, each player adding an infusion of their own power. With bigger and better golems and a betting pool in place, the two teams of adventurers and the team of Raegina’s henchgals battled their golems until only the noble Sparkburn remained, earning their team a prize of 66 gold. The call for aid then came from the Arboretum and Raegina loaded up the adventurers (and Sparkburn) into her war rig to answer the call.

====<big>Quasits Can't Hurt Ya</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Larry]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>The Sheriff and the Storm</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]] (he/him), [[Grymos]] (he/him), [[Pearl]] (she/her), [[Voscaera]] (she/her), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Lyrina]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Inguza ("Gooey")|Gooey]]

The Arboretum -- a remote trading hub sheltered within a petrified, stadium-sized tree that towered above the Pteris wastes -- was missing its sheriff. The plasmoid public servant, named Inguza ("Gooey", they/them), had gone out to investigate the latest and closest in a string of peculiar sandstorms.

"Inguza's in trouble," the no-nonsense, half-orc warrior Gnash said to no one in particular, "Follow me." She was heading for the northeast exit, a quarter-mile passage that had been dug through one of the tree's great, petrified roots. A rescue party mustered in her wake and hurried to catch up.

The group soon reached the unnaturally sharp edge of the half-mile-wide tempest, where Gnash located a crooked staff protruding from the sand and announced, "They entered here." She touched a large ring of bone to the staff and plunged into the storm, leaving the party to hustle after her again.

The wind inside whined unsettlingly; flying sand restricted everyone's vision and lashed their skin. But they all searched systematically until an angry bellow audible above the wind guided them to a two-headed tentacle demon, which they battled and slew. Behind it th

ey spotted the barely conscious Gooey, who had absorbed a devastating amount of sand into their amorphous body. The companions tended to them briefly before carrying their semi-solid form back to the Arboretum's infirmary.

Some of the party had sustained minor lacerations from the storm's slashing sand, and while the injuries themselves appeared insignificant, the curious gold flecks that had appeared in their eyes afterward brought a nagging sliver of apprehension.

===Session 2: Kickoff Megagame, part 2 (9/6/25)===

==== <big>Aggression from Above</big> ====
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs*:''' [[Pryderi]], [[Chanterelle]], [[Koro]], [[Silgr]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Demir|Demir (he/him)]]; '''*'''Reinforcements: [[Toots]] (he/him), [[Pearl Dust|Pearl]], [[Larry]] (he/him)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Lord Pavan|Lord Pavan]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Swordmaster Krispin|Swordmaster Krispin]]

Rushing towards the Arboretum, everyone was greeted by a desperate scene. Demons everywhere, being fought off by people from every faction. Lord Pavan lead the seven brave souls through one of the root entrances and up to the top of the Arboretum. The open roof was being swarmed by hordes of flying demons bent on taking out the ballistas on the top of the battlements. A fight began.

They fought back the demons, saving all but one of the ballistas. The battle was harsh, knocking out several fighters before it was won.

==== <big>And into the Fire</big> ====
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Sixsplitter]], [[Caesanna]], [[Jynx]], [[Lyrina]], [[Dallas]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Ter|Ter]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]]

As the party returned safely to the Arboretum, they were met by the others and Ter. He tasked them with an operation for espionage. He turned tail with Gobbo and Brandran (the prisoner from the Shend camp). The party spotted a moving caravan of creatures with two ballistas. They easily wiped the creatures out and dismantled the ballista.

====<big>Addressing the Oliphaunt in the Rig</big>====
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Delaia]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdywutc|Cilvdywutc]]

As they sped forward, approaching one of the entrance roots, a large undead oliphaunt t-boned the war rig, completely turning it over and destroying both vehicles in the process. An infuriated Raegina beheaded the oliphaunt and commanded the adventurers to stand and destroy the demons in their path to clear the way into the arboretum.

Facing Pustuloids, Capra demons, Incultis and Lesser Rage demons, the party worked diligently to keep each other safe and get the demons out of the way. They pushed the oliphaunt off the entranceway and watched in awe as Raegina flipped the war rig off of Baftzmyr who had been pinned underneath.
After harvesting from the demons, the adventurers heard the loud boom of the Conservatory’s destruction and after facing a wave of wild magic, faced a final wave of fleeing demons as well, but claimed another victory!

====<big>Hold the Line</big>====
'''DM:''' Guest DM Caleb

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Kex]], [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Diana Belkacem]]

'''NPCs:''' Unknown

Engagement not documented.

====<big>Wait.. Kobolds?</big>====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Pearl]], [[Voscaera]], [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]], [[Larry]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

Just west of the Arboretum, the party hurried into position to wait uneasily for the inevitable demon incursion. What eventually came was kobolds. Dozens of light-blue clad kobolds scampered forward, several yards in advance of a single goat-like fiend, which they seemed very leery of. They made non-lethal attacks and spoke in Common, some invoking the name of the deity Kurtulmak, some issuing orders, and some asking for permission to use lethal force once they saw the party felling their allies left and right. The last one alive tossed down her dagger and cried "Sanctuary!" before being unceremoniously dispatched.

The goat demon's very presence rotted the flesh. Its sting immediately raised boils and took off patches of skin. It gave Ozmir a coughing fit that somehow produced a swarm of flies, for which he repaid the fiend with a blade through the throat.

While Grymos looted corpses, Pearl, Toots, and Larry rushed up to the tree's battlements to help defend against airborne threats. The enemy withdrew in the end, but not before staining the sand on all sides of the Arboretum with the blood of the allied forces of the Badlands.

===Session 3: The Tower That Wasn't (9/21/25)===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]] (they/them), [[Diana Belkacem|Diana]] (she/her), [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]] (he/him), [[Dallas]] (she/her), [[Himo Nilo|Himo]] (he/him), [[Polvo]] (she/her)

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sir Anthony|Sir Anthony]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple|Dapple]], The Osteomancer

In the partially rebuilt Omnichapel, Sir Anthony, the bugbear paladin of Pelor who was now the formal leader the Arboretum, memorialized the recently fallen. Afterward, Jerbo, the gnome arcanist who once managed the magical Conservatory, told the adventures he hoped a loxodon known as the Osteomancer could explain why kobolds had joined the demons, so the group rented horses from the satyr stable keeper, Dapple, and rode to her hidden bunker.

The Osteomancer required them first to visit a "'negative tower' made not of stone but of Absence, a sealed wound in reality visible only in reflections," to re-seal the tear before its influence eroded meaning in the nearby area. "The longer something is exposed to it, the more it forgets what it is," she told them. When Davin asked about protection, she showed them a seven-foot, rune-inlaid, humanoid skull that allowed them to share memories to anchor one another in reality.

Near the "tower" all was still. The inside was a photonegative of itself. Himo began using the loxodon's magic to reseal the wound. White shadows drained the party members' senses of identity, bringing them closer to catatonia with each touch, while a faceless Custodian tried to erase them from reality entirely. They battled until the spell took hold, and they escaped the shadowy structure before it faded away.

In payment, the Osteomancer explained that in dragon-worshipping Swikedom, "the divine Blood Law relegates kobolds to the Thrall caste, below all save Warmbloods like us," but that kobolds who revere Kurtulmak above Tiamat may try to escape their thralldom, denying that the Blood Law is divinely ordained. "One such group," she revealed, "led by Snizz the Fortunate, used the demons as a way out of bondage, but their freedom -- such as it was -- ended when your comrades cut them down."

And she issued a warning, purportedly from a vision of a fire-scarred mesa: "The Beast of Cinderspire will roam free."

=== Session 4: Werevultures by Night (9/24/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind|Dee]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Davin Dunefoot|Davin]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sukki|Sukki]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Brandran|Brandran]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Hektor|Hektor]]

Asked by Sukki, the head of the casino, to deliver a recently rescued Shend prisoner to HQ. They began their 7 day secret journey along which they were spotted and attacked by these strange shapeshifting vultures. During the battle that ensued, the maddened deep gnome Brandran became cursed and began to flee. The group captured the two werevultures and Brandran and delivered them to Hektor at HQ.

=== Session 5: Bombs (and how not to make them) 101 (9/27/25) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Syl]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Koro]], [[Mizuka]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwutca|Cilvdyzwutca]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Baftzmyr|Baftzmyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kicyr|Kicyr]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]]

'''Keywords:''' Demons, Junkyard, Crafting, Scrapping

Invited by flyers hung in the Arboretum, our adventurers headed the three hour trek across the desert to [[the Junkyard]] to help clear it out of the left over demons that had been hiding in their after the siege. Cilvdyzwutca (Cilvdy) was put in charge of these recruits to have them help her build bombs to draw the demons out and then exterminate. Half of the party arrived already exhausted, but prepared to do their best on Cilvdy's patent-pending origami bomb assembly line.

Syl and Koro folded the paper frogs, Ollie and Avel filled those frogs with black powder, then they were fitted with the fuse and dipped in wax by Gloria and Mizuka. This went about as well as you would think it would, several of the bombs blowing up during the wax dipping process from exposure to the heat, causing panic and quite a bit of damage to Gloria and Mizuka.

Eventually Syl and Koro switched around their roles on the assembly line to ensure Gloria didn't die. Of the 12 bombs assigned, 7 were successfully made. Cilvdy tried to keep up her best encouragement while the other two of Raegina's minions just teased. From a distance, Koro noticed Raegina herself watching over them from her watchtower.

They then headed deeper into the Junkyard where they both found and were found by a horde of abyssal chickens and leeches. The adventurers had plenty of leech wounds by the time they managed to slaughter everything, but they all survived and none of them had any eggs laid inside their wounds! They then scrapped the demonic creatures for biological parts and were paid for their service!

=== Session 6: Find those Animals! (9/30/25) ===
'''DM:''' Amanda

'''PCs:''' [[Leonard]], [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Avel]], [[Mezzi]], [[Demir]], and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Dapple]|Dapple], Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Kareek|Kareek]] (and Stanley)

Upon seeing a new job hung in the central marketplace, the adventurers gathered together around one liaison to hear the details of the job. They were tasked to bring back the missing pack animals (or whatever animals they could find and bring back) that were lost during the demon attack on the arboretum. They were directed to one Dapple, keeper of the stables. together, they rented out one horse and cart from the stables and headed into the desert to search for the runaway animals.

It took a total of 3 days, but the party managed to find some animals. They managed to find and capture one wild dustrunner, rescue one camel beset by dust mephits, and one horse caught in the bottom of a giant ant lion pit. They fought off a demon possessed horse and managed to find one of the traders lost from the demon attack. Kareek and his monitor lizard Stanley were found on the side of a cliff, trapped beneath a broken cart and unable to move. However, as the adventurers descended to rescue them, a monstrosity made of half giant snake, half giant spider appeared from the gorge and attacked!

They defeated the spidersnake, saved Kareek and Stanley, and safely transported them and all the animals found back to the Arboretum. They were paid by the man who had offered the job and received a bonus for each animal returned.

=== Session 7: Tracking Demons 102 (10/13/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Ozmir]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Koro]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Baftzmyr]]

Baftzmyr put out a call for adventurers to assist her in tracking and taking down a very large demon that was under the sand.

She tells of how it sends out smaller creatures to aid it or search for something, so they must work with stealth and caution as she worries the creature under the sand is too large for any one of them to handle.

Baftzmyr leads the party and Sparkburn out into the desert and has them prove their worth at tracking down the demons, waiting until they find one of the small ones and waiting for someone to pick up it’s trail. Ozmir had eyes on the moving mound of sand first, leading the party into the desert even further east from the junkyard when they realized it was going to suddenly pop out of the ground. Recognizing this, Ozmir warned the party and they were able to prepare for the creature emerging. They found a strange looking Dretch, seemingly mutated in some way and with ease. It only took two party members to slay it. Would that mean the task ahead would be simple?

They continued forward into the desert and realized more dretch-sign was visible! Stix led the group now, tracking down 3-4 different sand mounds until they got to a large divot in the sand that was moving slightly, as if something very large was struggling beneath.

Stix took a very large bomb made from a origami pig by Cilvdyzwutca and put it in the center of the divot, quickly running away because Baftzmyr had already lit the fuse, and then the whole party watched as the explosion pushed all the sand away and revealed a huge demon in armor with a large lantern in it’s chest, struggling to get it’s legs out of the sand.

Having to balance to keep from falling in the pit of sand that kept pulling into the giant’s struggle, the adventurer’s did their best to slay the demon, but found mutated dretches at their sides to antagonize them. Himo, Koro, Steady Wind, and Razzadrog all found themselves down in the sand pit by the end, too close to the demon who pummeled them at every opportunity and the sand pulling them down underneath where sight and breath was impossible. Koro and Steady Wind kept finding themselves victim to the demon’s massive claws, losing consciousness over and over, leaving the others to call on Baftzmyr for aid.

Stix and Ozmir fought from above and did what they could to keep the dretches busy.

Razzadrog got the final blow, aiming for the lantern and then its eyes, but at that the lantern began to pulse with an abyssal light. The fight wasn’t quite over yet.

Himo attempted to free himself from the sand but couldn’t manage, and as the lantern finally blew, the fight ended with Koro and Steady Wind left in the sand, bleeding out. Thankfully Razzadrog was able to heal Steady Wind, Stix stabilizing Koro and then healing him so he could take part in scrapping the massive creature.

What was left of the creature was drug back to the scrapyard by Baftzmyr and her horse, and she received an earful from Raegina for not preserving the lantern, but the adventurers had slain it and were paid for their work.

=== Session 8: The Righteous and the Rootless (10/14/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Mezzi]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Gnash|Gnash]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jerbo|Jerbo]], Kaelen, Velza

The half-orc ex-mercenary Gnash was worried again. Scouts 100 miles east of [[the Arboretum]] had lost the trail of a large group of unknown humanoids with peculiar footprints who had been moving toward the tree. At her request (and with some difficulty), the [[gnome]] arcanist Jerbo used a Wind Walk scroll to expedite the party's investigation. Their landmarks for navigation included the rotting carcass of a giant worm as well as the distant Mount [[Toi'Viral]] -- named for the renegade demon whose [[Wish]] had essentially ended [[the Holy War]] against the [[dragon]]s more than a century earlier.

In the hamlet of Drywater just beyond the great salt flat, the party met the [[vulpine]] druid Kaelen, through whom they would be able to relay any time-sensitive messages back to the Arboretum. At the end of the trip east, aerial scouting easily identified their destination, where the the Scarlet Shadow deduced that the mysterious tracks were those of dozens of insectoid [[thri-kreen]] who had burrowed into the sand where the tracks ended. The adventurers pursued four thri-kreen who had continued west toward the crumbling Fort Thurirlak. A brief parley failed, the alien humanoids attacked, and the party dispatched them before proceeding to the fort.

Among the ruins were two dead Federation personnel, apparently slain by the group of people who were occupying the chamber beneath the structure and trying to repair an unstable Infernal power core in order to operate a miniature war rig. This time the party shot first. When only the group's tiefling leader remained alive, she set the unstable core to explode, and fell to Mezzi's Sleep spell while attempting to flee. They bound her, recovered useful parts from the destroyed rig, then cast Detect Thoughts and interrogated the captive.

The adventurers learned that the tiefling was an ex-scrapper called Velza who'd wanted to power the rig to defend a local tribe against demon incursions, and who'd repeatedly locked horns with Raegina about prioritizing projects like this over the mission. They traveled back west to hand the captive over to Raegina and to report their findings to Gnash.

=== Session 9: Corruption Runs Deep (10/15/25) ===
'''DM:''' Chris

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[CB]], [[Grymos]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sha'Kon|Sha'Kon]]

A new face from the federation, a thri-kreen named Sha’Kon had tasked a simple plan to set up a new Federation outpost in the Vaneesh Oasis. While there, the party killed many shapeshifted creatures. They followed the secret path deep under the oasis, setting up a safe passage down. At the bottom of a seemingly endless passage, they found an open entrance to a dark and damp tunnel system. In this web-covered tunnel, they encountered a wolf-spider and some prey. After killing the spider and disarming a hobgoblin prisoner, the group collapsed the entrance using some bombs and scurried away back to the Arboretum.

=== Session 10: Problems in the Port Town (10/21/2025) ===
PCs: [[Lenore]], [[Syl]], [[Lyrina Moonshadow]], [[Bob Celestio]], [[Voscaera]], [[Delaiah]]

NPCs: Krispin, Bright Patch, Kardyl Starkmark, Chrisanthemum (chrissy), Brior Windward

A team of brave adventurers turned investigators were sent to the port city of Arrafell to investigate a series of disappearances. People and trade goods had gone missing over the past two months. Lord Pavan, on behalf of the duke, sent for help in the form of the team from the Arboretum.

Upon arrival to the port city, Krisipin, Lord Pavan's swordmaster, met with them. He informed them of the situation and pointed them to different locations they could investigate.

First they traveled to the Tradesman's guild. There they spoke with a number of tradespeople and with the head of the guild, Bright Patch. They learned more about what had been happening and who could potentially be responsible.

Then the party split.

Lenore and Syl went to the craftsman's guild, hoping to find a hinted at thieves guild somewhere within it's walls. They didn't find anything, but Lenore became a member of the craftsman's guild.

Delaiah and Bob went to the tavern; the Bubbling Well, and spoke with the barkeep, Kardyl Starkmark. She spoke about new ships coming in and people disappearing, goods vanishing, and who could be behind it.

Lyrina and Voscaera went to the warehouse where the trade goods were being stored. They attempted to break in, but were caught by the guards and taken to the barracks to speak with the captain of the guard, Brior Windward.

The team reconvened at the guardhouse after things were sorted out and Lyrina and Voscaera were released. Everyone then went back to the warehouse for further investigation.

=== Session 11: The Ballad of Sandra Sanderson (10/22/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Delaiah]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[Ozmir]], [[Leonard]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|Sandra Sanderson]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdyzwucta|Cilvdyzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitcwal|Jitcwal]], ''The Shabby Scales''

A [[yuan-ti]] textile worker named Sandra Sanderson requests the aid of local heroes to help drive out a Gnoll and its pack of hyenas from her tent!

The adventurers headed out to the west and found themselves at Sandra’s tent, currently inhabited by a [[gnoll]] warrior, four hyenas and two giant hyenas. They killed one of the hyenas immediately and it simply disappeared. The work of a conjugation spell. No matter! The party made quick work of the hyenas and the gnoll, which then, against Sandra’s protest, they skinned and gave her the skin for her textile work.

While the others took a short rest from their fight, Himo Nilo and Ozmir did a quick look around, finding a smuggler’s stash nearby and, inside, all of Sandra’s textiles.

She gave each of the adventurers a gift of a piece of clothing she’d made, but something seemed very fishy to Ozmir. He warned the others that he though they needed to get back to the Arboretum as soon as possible.

Leonard and Himo stayed behind in the smuggler’s cache to watch Sandra carefully, as she had invited Stix to be her guest for the weekend.

The others got to the Arboretum and discovered Sandra set them up! While they were away, a band of “gnolls” had attacked the Scrappers’ cart, and Cilvdy and Jitcwal were taken! With a closer look, the tracks left behind seemed more like lizardfolk and yuan-ti than gnolls.

Back at Sandra’s, Himo and Leonard watched as the Shabby Scales wagon pulled up, packed up Sandra’s things and Stix, and took off to the west.

=== Session 12: The Vulpine, the Doll and the Corpse Girl (11/8/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PC:''' [[Steady (Dee) Wind]], [[Koro]], [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]], [[Rhazzdrog]], [[Diana]], [[Demir]]

'''NPCs:''' The Shabby Scales Posse, Sandra Sanderson, Leiloni, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Cilvdzwucta|Cilvdzwucta]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Jitvwal|Jitvwal]], [[Stix]]

Using valuable information gleaned from Koro, Syl and Himo's downtimes, our adventurers set out on a pack of horses sent to them by the Scrappers, all bearing the Scrapper brand. They left for a rendezvous point where the Shabby Scales would apparently be trading over Stix, Cilvdy and Jitcwal to a party representing the [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|Baroness of Filth]], who in her anger of losing her husband, the Baron, had put out a reward for the handing over of any scrappers or anyone who had been there when her husband was killed.

The party arrived at the meet up place, Triton's Terrace, a small oasis to the East of the Arboretum by a few days. They scoped out and found a single body guard standing out front, Farrier, a large snakefolk. Deciding not to waste time, a fight ensued, soon enough Slim, Tim and Jim, a trio of lizardfolk joined as well as several demons. Steady Wind, Gobbo, and Demir struggled to stay up as the fight continued, but just as a demon was about to change Steady Wind's body into a new abyssal being, Froggy defended him and saved him from a terrible fate. Seeing Koro had the Abyssal Lantern of Filth, Sandra attempted to take it back, but missed and after being thoroughly beaten, Dimension Door-ed away, as did her companion, Leiloni.

When the sand cleared, only our heroes stood tall. Koro quickly abandoned the Lantern of Filth, as it had been echoing in his mind and causing him disadvantage against fighting demons. Froggy attempted to lift it, but found itself blown up in the process. They left the lantern outside with Leo to watch it, but when they emerged from the cave later, it was gone. Inside a booby-trapped cave, the adventurers were able to find our trio of missing friends as well as contracts and bounties between the Baroness of Filth and the Shabby Scales. Now all that was left was to face the Baroness in her lair!

=== Session 13: Give Jewelspar the Weapon (Or: A Prophecy Deferred)(11/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ozmir]], [[Grymos]], [[Avel]], [[Stix]], [[Ollie Ollivine|Ollie]], [[Polvo]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]] (he/him), Lirezel (she/her), Alinar (he/him), [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/NPCs#Sir_Anthony|Sir Anthony]]

A few hours after two enormous, colorful sails in the distance caught people's attention, a simple, elegant sand ship sailed up to the Arboretum. The three nobly clad elves disembarked: Erland Nimz of [[Jewelspar]], his right hand, Lirizel, and his guardian, Alinar. Nimz told Sir Anthony he required volunteers to help retrieve a powerful weapon, long safeguarded in the desert, which he would wield against the demons in defense of his city.

With the promise of a reward, a party soon boarded the elven sandrunner Shimmerwing, which carried them north for a day and a night using both wind and magic. Nimz cloaked the ship in an illusion, saying "Now everyone remember where we parked," before leading them up to a hidden entrance on the side of a tall mesa and through its maze of tunnels, which he appeared to navigate with ease.

After eliminating a group of guardian constructs, the team reached a giant stone door with an inscription in Elven indicating that whoever removed the weapon from the vault beyond would gain a mark of an unknown nature. Avel used a Knock spell to release the door lock, and a group effort wrenched it open. Beyond, a metal hallway led to a room that was shrouded in darkness -- to all but Stix, who was immediately blinded by the light of a Prismatic Sphere.

Nimz tried beginning the slow work of destroying the abjuration, only to discover the devastating truth -- that it lay nested inside an Antimagic Field -- a turn of events for which he was entirely unprepared. He cursed and consulted his Globe of Legend Lore for several minutes.
"Nothing," he lamented. "We won't be releasing the weapon today."

Upon exiting the mesa, the group was confronted by a Draegloth -- a type of demon created by drow elves.
"How dare she?!" Nimz exclaimed.
The demon responded, "I do as I please. Now relinquish your prize!"
Nimz laughed dryly, and the demon attacked. But Lirizel was able to Banish it before it seriously harmed anyone.

True to his word despite his failure, Nimz compensated each member of the group for their efforts with a small magic item and some coin

=== Session 14: Check on the Livestock (11/15/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]], [[Silgr Þyrikk|Silgr]], [[Mizuka]], [[Voscaera]]

'''NPCs''': Saltique Petra (she/her)

The group of adventurers requested by Lord Pavan set out from the arboretum to meet with Saltique Petra, one of the badland nomads, to check on the livestock the shepherds took care of. The Duke was worried that demons were attacking the source of the trade that had made the port city of Arrafell so prosperous.

After meeting with the Saltique, the team traveled together across the badlands, braving sandstorm and flash flood alike. Once in the wilderness, the Saltique gave them the task of collecting magic plants and herbs.. The livestock were considered "free range" and needed to be lured out with bait. In foraging for plants, the team found themselves beset by giant trapdoor spiders! A tricky battle followed, but all the spiders were slain and bait was gathered.

With the bait set in a bottleneck between rock formations, the group lay in wait for the livestock to appear. And after a time, 2 giant desert worms erupt from the earth and go after the bait. Soon after, strange shepherds appear alongside demons. The new group attacks the worms. Saltique Petra cries out in alarm, urging the party to protect the worms! A fight ensues! Silgr gets swallowed by a worm! Saltique Petra dives in after him! They both get spat out, but Rhogar gets swallowed by a worm instead! It's chaotic! The other worm swallows a demon and is slowly poisoned. It attempts to flee as the party fights off the assailants. In doing so they discover that the strange shepherds were actually corpses piloted by demons! If either worm should die, it would have become a puppet for those monsters!

It was a tough fight, but the party killed all the demons except for the one eaten by the worm. One worm escaped, but all the fighting drew in a grandpappy worm! It ate the remaining smaller worm and disappeared into the earth. Safe, but with more questions, the party was paid nicely.

=== Session 15: The Mother's Crater (11/22/2025) ===
'''DM''': Chris

'''PCs''': [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''Important NPC'''s: Sha’Kon/Sha'wok (the twins), Moxy (wayfinder pet), Bonnet.

The team met the twins, a pair of identical thri-kreen, who spoke to them about (top secret) <s>a possible spy who has been leaking information to the opposing forces</s>. They spoke of the discovery of a sand storm similar to the one at the attack on the Arboretum.

The team, guided by Moxy, traveled three days north to a what seemed like a crater. In the fairly large crater, sat the sand storm. Poking out from the center of the sand storm where 4 points of sand stone.

The team hesitant, traveled into the sand storm and discover some form of shrine from an ancient lizard race. Four monolith stood tall surrounding an altar depicting a tree. On each of the monolith had a representation of the four cardinal directions with symbology.

North: Mother

South: War

East: Nature

West: Logic

While investigating, the ley lien, the voice of Bonnet rung out threatening the party. After a party member took a shot at them from far away, the voice threatened Himo by name and left with the sand storm.

=== Session 17: The Perturbation of the Veiled Pyre (12/6/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Mezzi]], [[Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Polvo]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, the Osteomancer, Durgerd Tazrikarn (RIP)

The Osteomancer's kobold contact Eddarux had confirmed the rumors that the dragon-worshipping lands of [[Swikedom_Kingdom|Swikedom]] had unearthed Infernal weapons, remnants of [[the Infernal Emergence]] centuries ago. In particular, he knew some of these would soon be transported to Lady Tazrikarn's palace to be recharged with Infernal energies, presenting a possible opportunity to seize them.

When a party willing to make the attempt arrived at the southern edge of Shepherd territory, Eddarux led them to an obsidian cairn marking the Swikedom border, one of hundreds of markers spaced about a third of a mile apart and capped with carved symbols of [[Quelmar_Creation_Myths#The_Four_Dragons|the Four Dragons]]. This particular cairn proved to be a carefully constructed facade which the kobold unlocked to lead the party through a secret tunnel into Swikedom.

They emerged at a work camp where subservient kobolds stretched hides on wooden frames and stirred acrid pits of white liquid, overseen by copper dragonborn.

The next morning, the group traveled south to a rocky ravine, through which "Ed" had assured them the transport team would soon pass. In a carefully planned ambush, they slew several black and white dragonborn warriors whose arms bore the emblem of [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|House Tazrikarn]], along with their guard drake and their unusual purple-scaled leader. The small, ornate chest the purple dragonborn carried exploded with force when Himo opened it. Inside were eight small, intact metal calottes, each tinged with a greenish-yellow sheen and marked with an unfamiliar, jagged rune. The adventurers determined that each calotte could make a weapon nominally magical and, if first charged via something called a Hellfire Lantern, could also render the weapon more effective against [[demon|demons]].

On the road back toward the border, the party encountered a caravan of five finely crafted wagons pulled by drakes and accompanied by a large, [[Swikedom_Kingdom#Swikedom_Caste_System|mixed-caste]] group made up of:
- a few lizardfolk and wyvernborn servitors,
- a dozen black/white warriors,
- a half dozen copper/brass artisans,
- a few green/bronze scholars, and
- two nobles, one blue and one silver
The reptilians regarded the party as members of the animal caste, below even kobold thralls and hence forbidden to travel unaccompanied. But Mezzi had taken the guise of a green dragonborn and was able to usher the lowly warmbloods past without significant hostilities.

The next day, the party returned north across the border into Shepherd territory and were promptly confronted by five humanoids in familiar, metal masks. The cultists attacked with purpose, but soon used magic to flee for their lives. The adventurers then trekked back to the Arboretum with the uncharged calottes, able to provide the Alliance with only nominal magical aid, for now.

=== Session 18: The Lair of Those Who Wallow (12/9/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Mizuka]] (R.I.P.), [[Abraham Marr]] (R.I.P.), [[Glorivesh|Gloria]], [[Nid]], [[Voscaera]], [[Syl Vipershade|Syl]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Raegina|Raegina]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Sandra Sanderson|"Sandra Sanderson"]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Leiloni|Leiloni]], [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Baroness of Filth|The Baroness of Filth]]

After being given provisions by Raegina and the other women of the Junkyard, including Sunflower Flashbangs and Soul Coins [that Raegina pressed upon them MUST be returned], the six adventurers headed out on a two week journey following the map they found to go to the Mire, the home of the Baroness of Filth.

Along the way, they learned quirks about each other, bonded with their horses from the Junkyard, and discovered who was the best cook among them (and the worst).

Once they reached a small grove of petrified trees, stained red on one side, they knew they’d found the Mire.

They headed into the red tinged swamp and were first greeted with Maw demons who brought the heroes out into the open so the Baroness could line them up and cast Lightning Bolts through them.

The battle was long, painful, the threat of death wasn’t even the worst that could come as the adventurers of these badlands learned that with the very lamp Koro had carried on his hip for days, the Baroness of Filth could merely react and change a fallen ally into an immediately bloodthirsty demon.

First Mizuka, then Abraham met their grisly fate, their murderous pasts drawn out and demonizing them, now Wallows of the Filth. Sandra, one of these Wallows now too, crept along the edge of the fight, while the Herald of the Baroness, Leiloni, though stoic the whole time, missed every swing with her death blade, and it clattered to the ground when she was slain.

With efforts of Syl, Gloria, and Nid, Sandra and Mizuka were both exorcised as well, but the Baroness stood strong.

''Bane''d by Syl, and with her own Herald’s death blade now in Voscaera’s hands, the Baroness finally met her fate, destroyed, and the Incisors of Ignition wrenched from her chest to power the engine of the War Rig.

=== Session 19: A Betrayal in the Badlands (12/17/2025) ===
'''DM''': Amanda

'''PCs''': [[Markandros]], [[Nikodemus]], [[Avel]], [[Razzadrog]], [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo]]

'''NPCs''': Satlique Petra, Vettik Herbert, various unnamed encampment NPCs, Yuru the Tortle, and Nacha and Sa (RIP) the lizardfolk couple.

Saltique Petra meets the party in the Arboretum, giving them the job of routing out a traitor in the midst of a shepherd encampment. The 6 brave adventurers accepted the job and headed out into the badlands to meet up with the head of the shepherds; Vettik Herbert. It is a 2 week trip out into the badlands. Along the way they evade sandstorms and find water in hollows of cactuses. When they arrive at the meeting place, there is no sign of the vettik. However, as they go to investigate the area, Demons appear out of a cave and swoop down upon them! These Vargouilles have been forcing Vettik Herbert into hiding in a nearby ditch, for if they kiss you, you are cursed into becoming one by the end of the day. They easily rid themselves of the demon pestilence, but not before Himo is cursed to become one of them. They find a demon summoning circle in the cave, leading credence to the idea that the traitor amongst the shepherds set a trap for the party.

Vettik Herbert thanks the party and leads them swiftly to the encampment cleverly hidden in a gorge between rock formations and illusioned from the outside. He instructs them to speak with the shepherds here and figure out who could be betraying them. He asks that they do so secretly, without alerting the traitors to any investigations. In speaking to various NPCs, they discover who has been recently added to the Shepherd's fold. Markandros and Nikodemus befriend a lizardfolk couple, Nacha and Sa. They promise them a job on the next harvest if they are still interested. Himo talks to Yuru and learns more about the shepherds via the healer. Avel, Razzadrog, and Leonard interrogate various NPCs until disaster strikes! An NPC is suddenly found dead in a tent. There are traces of Demonic energy. The camp is sent into an uproar! The order is sent out. the camp prepares to leave. Himo casts a spell and suddenly, three NPCs are revealed to have illusion magic surrounding them. Himo and Avel strike and the jig is up as 3 cultists in silver masks are revealed. A battle breaks out as 3 caustic demons also drop their illusions and attack. The battle is hard won, the demons reduced to ashes, one cultist felled, and one shepherd killed in battle (Sa the lizardfolk). Two of the cultists managed to escape. Vettik Herbert was grateful to the heroes and paid them well. He also gifted them mounts to use in desert travel. Leonard found a pair of Surefoot Boots to help her in the adventures to come. Himo was able to tear off a silver mask, but it melted, ruining the face of the cultists and scarring Himo's hands terribly. Himo was also cured from the curse by Yuru!

=== Session 20: Holly Jolly Sparklemas (12/20/2025) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Ozmir Nightshade|Ozmir]], [[Ollie]], [[Mezzi]], [[Avel]]

'''NPCs:''' Raegina, Janglehop

Raegina calls together a group of adventurers because when she awoke in the morning, there were Sparklemas decorations everywhere, stockings for Cilvdy, Baftzmyr, Kicyr and Jitcwal, decorated trees, and a pile of coal sitting at the base of Raegina's watchtower. The cambion suspects this is the work of a previously dismissed Junker; a gnome called Janglehop who loved this gnomish holiday.

As the party inspected the mysterious Sparklemas decor, suddenly the Junkyard came under the attack of the gnome himself! In a sleigh built into a mecha, as well an army of toys he's developed during his time away from the junkyard: Teddy Squeez'ems, based on a living teddy bear that was rumored to hug people to death in Southern Pteris, a small clockwork dragon, tiny tin soldiers that marched in battalions. While the little soldiers overwhelmed Mezzi, Stix burned away the teddies and Delaiah and Ozmir played bait and attack with the Clockwork dragon, avoiding it's fiery breath. Avel and Ollie did what they could to help take down the big sleigh mech and when the mech had been defeated, Janglehop surrendered.

He complained that he wouldn't have to do all this if Raegina had just let him celebrate Sparklemas! but Raegina in turn explained that the reason she threw Janglehop out of the junkyard wasn't because he wanted to celebrate this holiday, but instead because he was lazy the rest of his time under her direction until this holiday came about and then he actually worked.

Raegina says she will take Janglehop back if he can put in this kind of effort always and that she's impressed with what he has created while he was gone. In his delight of being accepted back, Janglehop pulls out a holly jolly bag of hold-iday cheer and offers each of the adventurers a gift. They then have a grand celebration with all of the Junkers!

=== Session 22: Those Who Rend (1/24/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Rhogar Dreel|Rhogar]], [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[Nid]] (RIP), [[Gobbo Greenskin|Gobbo]] (RIP), [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]] and [[Razzadrog]]

'''NPCs:''' The Smog of Smithereens, the Undead Wraith Mayor of Opek

Baftzmyr, the tracker of demons for the Junkers, has found a second great relic for the war rig. Mounted inside another demon, the Smog of Smithereens, is the Manifold of Malevolence, an internal mechanism that could be used as a powerful exhaust system. It lies in wait in an underground water-mining town South of the Arboretum, called Opek. The Smog infested it with its shadows and choked the people out and poisoned the water there to then fill it with his smoke and poisons.

Raegina bands together a group of adventurers, promising them good fortune if they return with the relic and providing them with powerful boons and weapons to assist them on their quest. Using Baftzmyr's map and the Junkers' horses, they travel three days South to the underground town's opening. As they arrive there, they delve into the darkness only to find pin pricks of light floating about. The souls of the lost in the smog wander the town still as ghosts, will o' wisps and a grand Wraith, the previous mayor. When Gobbo, Nid and Himo scout ahead, they attack one of the will o' wisps and the undead of the town awaken to defend it, the Mayor calling out that they must snuff out these "new demons, come to attack again". Rhogar pleads that they may just need to explain to the undead that they are not demons, but the rest of the party lays waste to these souls, banishing them from the living realm, still discontent with what become of their home.

They search the town and while it's mostly been searched over, they find some coin, some health potion and Gobbo discovers important documents: the deed to the town, as well as the mining rights and the blueprints for the mining operation when it was last up and running before the demon took over.

After looting the town, they start to go deeper, towards the mine and a temple just before it. As they enter, a thick obscuring fog is in their way, choking them with poison and making it near impossible to see the shadow demons as they attack. These minions of the Smog of Smithereens crept their way through the smoke to try to drown out the adventurers. Rhogar succumbs a sleeping smog that passes through, leaving him apart from the group for a long period while Himo Nilo backed out into the town to catch his breath and the others pressed ahead.

Victim to the constant barrage of sickening poison smoke, Nid fell again and again despite his best efforts. Gobbo stayed close to him and together, the Greenskin crew heads into the room with the Smog of Smithereens first, doing what they can to attack the great demon themselves while the others fall over themselves to get rid of the shadows.

Razzadrog and his Mark move into the room next with Leonard close behind. Eventually Himo arrives too and together, the group is able to take down the Smog of Smithereens and as Rhogar finally awakens and finds his way into the final room to help destroy the demon, the poison from the overwhelming burst that comes from the Manifold in its demise drops all of his allies, Nid and Gobbo. With one final chokehold, the poison kills Nid and Gobbo before Rhogar can save them. He rescues the rest of the party and though they take the relic to Raegina, the party chooses to forgo payment, instead asking Raegina to raise Gobbo from the dead.

Raegina agrees, but when she casts the spell, she finds that Gobbo Greenskin's soul is unwilling to return without their brother, Nid.

In morning, the party returns to the Arboretum.

=== Session 23: Return to Drywater (2/9/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Blondie]], [[Razzadrog Eyepoker|Razzadrog]], [[Leonard]], [[Himo Nilo]]

'''NPCs:''' Riven, Kaelen (RIP)

The Fantuzzi's Follies performance troupe delivered Riven (they/them), an exhausted [[wrought]] from Drywater, to the Arboretum. They explained that the hamlet's tech-savvy guardians had vanished over two months ago -- leaving only a magic device the locals called The Pillar to defend them when the demon attacks had finally resumed two tendays ago. But the Pillar had failed several days ago, and the fiends had poured in.

Humble cactus farmers witnessed demons slaying their young first. Terror turned to horror when the children began to rise as demons and fall upon their parents, and those left alive were forced to hide or flee. Riven's elven mistress, Astrel, gave her life in the battle, and with the vulpine druid Kaelen nowhere to be seen, Riven grabbed what they could and fled for the Great Tree.

After hearing the tale, the party rode east for Drywater, wasting no time investigating rumors of "water demons" at the great salt flat along the way. A Drywater halfling intercepted the group and ushered them to a camp, where a dozen refugees were making slings from cactus fiber and Kaelen greeted most of the party by name, eager to join them to retake the hamlet.

The adventurers were able to surprise a few demons with a fireball, and were making their way through Drywater's palisade when Kaelen, possessed by a demon, turned on them. Most of the demons they slew were former townsfolk, but the hamlet was clear of fiends when the battle was over.

They found the Pillar, a black metal obelisk protruding four feet out of the ground. It had faint sigils that occasionally flickered red, overlaid with cracked holy runes and copper conduits, and it gave off a repulsive smoky odor. Those with an understanding of the arcane knew enough to know they wouldn't be able to restore it themselves, and that Drywater would remain undefended for the time being.

=== Session 24: Glare of the Gargoyle (2/14/2026) ===
'''Guest DM:''' Keller

'''PCs:''' [[Himo Nilo|Himo Nilo,]] [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Leonard]], [[Razzadrog]], [[Stix]], [[Kamon]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' Sazni, The Gargoyle, the Bounty Hunter Barr Kett, San Fortune, the Goliath Bard Sandchez, the Broodbeetle Demon

The party was gathered together by the half-orc warrior Sazni at the Arboretum. Sazni explained that the Arboretum was hoping to expand their trade routes, and to do so, they needed access to a road through the mountains called Wyrm's Rock Pass, which was under the control of a brigand known as ''"The Gargoyle."'' Weeks ago Sazni had sent three diplomats to speak with the Gargoyle and negotiate access to the pass, but they have since disappeared. The party's job would be to discover what happened to these diplomats and to secure access to Wyrm's Rock Pass.

Traveling through the desert, the party arrived at the pass and beheld a large monastery at the top of the cliff, the current lair of the Gargoyle and his allies. At the mountain's base were two bandits and a simple pully elevator. After an altercation with the bandits where one of the bandits was killed, the other bandit, a goblin named Muck, explained that the diplomats had entered the monastery, but never left. Nearby the party found the picked clean bones of the diplomat's horses.

Traveling up the elevator, the party gained access to the monastery, known as Scholar's Rest Monastery, and met with the Gargoyles assistant, a [[tiefling]] man named San Fortune, along with two goliath enforcers named Griff and Gruff. As the party was led inside, they passed some strange looking monks with brilliant green eyes who seemed to leave green beetles in their trails. Led to the monastery's central chamber, the party met more of the gargoyles allies including the bounty hunter Barr Kett, and the goliath bard Sandchez, whom Dallas owed money to. In addition, they found one of the diplomats chained up, though her eyes were a brilliant green, and she said she didn't not want to leave.

Investigating the tunnels beneath the monastery with a summoned animal familiar, Kamon discovered large slimy cocoons, more of the strange monks, and some of the Gargoyle's servants who were harvesting the slime from the cocoons. Soon after, entered the leader of the bandits, the Gargoyle, a large muscular earth genasi man with stone grey skin and short pointed horns. The Gargoyle apologized for having to take the diplomats, but offered the party 200 gold each to leave without them, and in return the Gargoyle would also give the Arboretum access to the pass. The party was about to take the deal until they pressed more about why the Gargoyle took the diplomats. The Gargoyle revealed that he and his bandits had discovered Scholar's Rest Monastery already fallen to the influence of a terrible demon. This demon sought to fill humanoid creatures with its abyssal insectoid spawn and turn them into mindless hosts for its children to control and feed on. The gargoyle and his men managed to trap the demon in a chamber beneath the monastery, but discovered that the demons secretions when treated with the right alchemical properties was indistinguishable from gold. So the Gargoyle took up positionin the monastery, capturing a few travelers a month to sacrifice to the demon, and in return the Gargoyle would then harvest its secretions and profit.

Horrified by this revelation, the party attacked, only for the Gargoyle to open a secret trap door beneath them, dropping some of the party into the demon's lair. The demon, a massive green Broodbeetle, attacked, while the rest of the party fought off the Gargoyle and his men. After the fight, the party managed to kill most of the gargoyles forces, squash the Broodbeetle, and behead the gargoyle himself. Barr Kett surrendered and both he and Sandchez were offered work at the Arboritium. The party destroyed the remaining beetle hosts and saved the last two diplomats from becoming hosts themselves.

With the Gargoyle and the Broodbeetle dead, Scholar's Rest monastery was left empty and Wyrm's Rock Pass was now open for free trade. With this, the party returned to the Arboretum victorious.

=== Session 26: Nimz's Moonshot (2/27/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]], [[Himo Nilo]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Archmage Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, Sandrew, Barry, [[Eros]], [[Sylvarra Thrice-Twinned]]

Lirizel recruited the team well before Shimmerwing's vast, colorful sails appeared to the south, announcing Erland Nimz's return. He had secured a contact whose domain could support the crafting of Alchemical Frost, his next step toward bypassing [[Bedlam_in_the_Badlands/The_Story_So_Far#Session_13:Give_Jewelspar_the_Weapon(Or:_A_Prophecy_Deferred)(11/9/2025)|the antimagic sphere]] and reaching "the weapon." In exchange for access, the party would travel a secret route to meet the contact and retrieve an item from a neighboring realm for him.

After sailing several hours south, they left Nimz aboard ship. With four small, goat-drawn carts overflowing with alchemical gear, they used a magical seed pod to Tree Stride beyond the mountains and followed a magical marker to their destination. A sphinx named Sandrew intercepted them, questioned their purpose, posed riddles, and revealed a buried stair leading to a vast complex lined with statues of unfamiliar gods. Deep underground, a hashish-smoking reborn minotaur, apathetic about his duties, answered questions about a portal Lirizel claimed led to the moon. Unable to recall his name, he was dubbed Barry. He agreed to join them and helped activate the portal, a sphere of silver light. After a brief inspection, they entered and found themselves on [[The Moon|the moon]], gazing down at Quelmar.

Though the lunar environment seemed hospitable, it slowly dealt radiant damage. At Lirizel's call of "Guardian?" a tall, silver-haired eladrin welcomed them into his quarters at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep shaft with no ladder. Noticing Nimo was "bugged," he shot out a lightning-fast hand to crush an invisible centipede, which then reverted to a dead quasit. After checking for more stowaways, he made an earnest request for them to retrieve a large and precious egg from Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, an archfey, via a portal to the [[Feywild]].

While Lirizel remained above to shield the goats and equipment from the "angry starlight" and to begin the alchemical processes, the party entered a green-glowing, elliptical portal and emerged in the Feywild, where colors were unnervingly vivid and their eyes played tricks. Escorted to the heart of the Silverveil Court, they met Sylvara Thrice-Twinned, slight yet imposing, silver-ringed irises fixed on them.

She agreed they could take the the egg to Eros (a name they were hearing for the first time) if they would evict a hag and her companions from the Court's lands (which she could not do herself since the hags had broken no rules), and prove their commitment to their quest. When Ozmir asked, the archfey agreed the troublemakers need not remain alive. After being provided wine and fruit, they traveled to the hag's area of influence, where the terrain was difficult, the beasts hostile, and the toads legion. When Grymos and Dallas reached a door built into a hill, three hags unleashed curses and control spells, but fortune held, the party retained their faculties, and the coven was slain.

Returning with the grandmother hag's head, they learned the "proof" Sylvara had mentioned would require one of them to sacrifice a piece of their physical constitution. When Dallas proposed doubling her sacrifice for greater reward, Sylvara Thrice-Twinned offered to lend the mousefolk some magic, including the power to make creditors temporarily forget her debt by invoking the name Sylvara Thrice-Twinned in conversation. When Dallas agreed to this, she declared the bargain struck and turned over a three-foot egg that barely fit into the Bag of Holding Eros had provided. Before the party left, she mentioned that her arrangement with their employer included providing them passage home -- albeit after liberating them of any memories of how to reach the moon.

Back in his moon bunker, Eros celebrated and spoke to the egg reassuringly, then looked up at Dallas, saying "I see, your sacrifice has earned you my boon if you wish it." As she knelt, he exhaled silver light that formed a diffuse halo before settling at her neck to form a fingernail-thin crescent mark: a silvery newborn moon shedding barely perceptible light.

With Barry in tow, the party returned to the Feywild, where Sylvara Thrice-Twinned purged their memories of the route to [[Ta-Shedet]]. After a great many days of guided travel to the portal home, the adventurers returned to western Pteris, where only two days had passed in their absence. They contacted Nimz using a Sending Stone Lirizel provided and waited another day to catch sight of Shimmerwing. During the tailwind voyage back to the Arboretum, Nimz rewarded them each with a minor magic item, and some of them took comfort in being home, to the familiar perturbation of the [[Demonic Infiltration|demonic infiltration]].

=== Session 27: The New Town of Greenskin (2/28/2026) ===
'''DM:''' Mercedes

'''PCs:''' [[Delaiah]], [[Stix]], [[Avel]], [[Ollie]], [[Ozmir Nightshade]], [[Dallas]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/The Junkyard|Raegina]], Serenity, Alycia, the new residents of Gryylwcul

After trading war machines for returning the misplaced rights to the town and mines of Opek, Raegina asks the adventurers of the arboretum to come help her get the grifters and squatters who settled there after they cleared the demons out so they can put in actual workers who want to make some money while digging for water to help power the war rig and her war machines, since she uses steam from infernal fire. She offers a finder's fee who stays on as a worker and says to otherwise just throw them out of town.

Ozmir goes into a large hall and approaches a desert vulpine who calls himself Mad Dog and declares himself the mayor, saying he has papers. He does, they simply aren't the papers for the town. Ozmir picked him up and dragged him to show Raegina and immediately infatuated with the cambion, he offered to work in the mines for the chance to be near Raegina.

A lioness tabaxi called Louisa and her elderly gnome companion, Thelma, are approached by Delaiah, told that they have to stay and work or leave. Louisa agrees to work but says that Thelma cannot work, but will make cook for others in town.

Avel goes to inspect a small shack that looks something like a mad scientist's lair. He frightens the resident, a plasmoid, who polymorphs him into a frog and puts him into a glass specimen jar before hiding in a jar herself.

Ollie goes into a house, only to be attacked by a small ratfolk called Fast Fingers Freddy. She claims him as her own and carries him off to be her new ranger companion animal.

Stix goes to check in on a goblin who is cursed and has a fiddle and a heart full of song. She says her name is Alycia and when Stix tells her that she can meet up with other musicians at the arboretum to form a band! She later is followed by another resident, a tiefling called Serenity, who has no interest in mining or working for a cambion.

Dallas arrives at the last house and finds a mother gnoll named 'Raz', short for Razorjaw, who says that she would like the opportunity to stay in the town and work, so she asks Dallas to watch her son, Little Bean, who wears an iron muzzle, while she goes to make an arrangement with Raegina.

Raegina at first rejects the opportunity the gnoll seeks from her, but Delaiah and the others gather the courage to press Raegina into letting Raz and her son stay and work. She relents and lets them stay.

Eventually the others notice that Avel is missing and go look for him. They follow his tracks to the mad science shack and find the grey one-eyed frog, which Stix picks up and calls Stones, their new pet. The others discover the plasmoid scientist in the jar and when she says she doesn't want to work in the mines and won't say where Avel went, they toss the jar out into the desert, which shatters and the plasmoid runs away.

Now with the town secured, Raegina takes the others out into the actual water mines to start purifying the wells of their abyssal corruption with infernal chanting. As they begin to chant, some of the wells expel shadow demons left behind by the Smog of Smithereens. Stix's new frog suddenly changes back into Avel after an hour. The adventurers are easily able to assist one another and Raegina in destroying them and cleansing the mines! It is now ready to begin supplying water to the Junkyard as well as the Arborteum!

=== Session 33: Ghosts of Blazeforge (3/28/26) ===
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Stix]], [[Lenore]], [[Blondie]], [[The Scarlet Shadow]], [[Zasheir]]

'''NPCs:''' Eddarux, Brekka Stoneseam, the Osteomancer (mentioned), Durgerd [[Swikedom_Kingdom#House_Tazrikarn_–_The_Veiled_Pyre|Tazrikarn]], angry dwaven ancestors

Three centuries after the Amethyst Defiance of 823 BR -- the Holy War battle in which gem dragonborn lent unexpected aid to the dwarves of Karag Blazeforge and hauled away the defeated red dragon Barash -- The Scarlet Shadow learned of a diamond-making machine in the long-buried dwarf hold. After months of effort, near Swikedom he unearthed first a monument to the battle, and finally a sealed entrance to the hold itself. The following month, the adventurers -- who'd heard only cryptic allusions to the location's existence thus far -- got a more thorough briefing and set out to make entry and hunt for the purported treasure.

As they approached the site, the party was intercepted by the kobold Eddarux, who was accompanied by the dwarf Brekka Stoneseam. The kobold said the Osteomacer had predicted their arrival here and had tasked him with to helping them gain entry, for which he'd recruited Brekka.

- - - - -

The deeply buried, enormous basalt doors bore an inscription in dwarven:
<blockquote>"By the authority of the Blazeforge ancestors and the eternal law of blood and stone, let no foot fall here that does not carry the right of inheritance. These halls belong to the heirs of Karag Blazeforge until the mountains themselves have fallen."</blockquote>

At length, utilizing Blondie's strength and a magical door knocker provided by the Osteomancer, the group excavated the 12' double doors and opened them to access a corridor -- which they followed for long minutes, evading a pit trap and finding dwarven regalia including a fine breastplate, engraved with six warhammers arranged so their hafts met in the center, which Zasheir donned.

Farther in, there suddenly appeared a group of Swikedom dragonborn, black warriors and bronze clerics, accompanied by several orcs and led by what appeared to be the resurected Durgerd Tazrikarn. Most of the dragonborn headed down the corridor away from the party -- but not before Stix hit them with a powerful fireball -- to make their way past several dwarven ghosts who had flown into view beyond them. Upon reaching what appeared to be the huge diamond press the adventurers sought, the clerics raised a magical ward against the dwarven ancestors, whose full attention now fell on the party, albeit to little effect until another group of ghosts joined the fight and drove the adventurers out.

- - - - -

The group had enough time to grab the rest of the displayed regalia (against Lenore's wishes) on their way out, including an eerie lantern seemingly not of dwarven design, which Zasheir picked up -- triggering a Harm spell that very nearly killed him. Somewhat edified by their experience despite having no diamonds to show for their efforts, the party journeyed back to the Arboretum, where Jerbo identified the lantern as a Hellfire Lantern, capable of powering the magical weapon calottes Alliance members months earlier had seized from House Tazrikarn's couriers inside Swikedom.

===Session 34: Megagame 2, part 1 (4/12/26)===

==== <big>A Growing Threat</big> ====
'''DM:''' Cat

'''PCs:''' [[Ollie Ollivine]], [[Grymos]], [[Ozmir]], [[Wynnipher Winchester]]

'''NPCs:''' [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#Erland Nimz|Erland Nimz]], Lirizel, [[Bedlam in the Badlands/NPCs#The Osteomancer|The Osteomancer]](mentioned), Petra

'''TLDR:''' With Shepherds coordinating defensive efforts, the party evacuated a vulpine village in the Northern Tablelands, and the survivors all sailed north with a group of thri-kreen aboard Nimz's sandship, Shimmerwing.

'''Events:'''
Spurred by the Osteomancer's warning of an imminent surge in demon activity across the Badlands, the Shepherds offered to coordinate counter-actions, and people of the Northern Tablelands called for aid only a day before maurezhi demons struck multiple settlements, turning residents into ghouls. Evacuating a predominantly vulpine village, the party staged a fighting retreat to keep the villagers behind them until Shimmerwing could arrive and take them aboard. Though Ollie came frighteningly close to death, her allies stabilized her at the last moment.

The group held off a maurezhi and its ghoul spawn until Shimmerwing could arrive and carry the villagers to relative safety. They learned that the sandship had an extradimensional hold, where the vulpines would need to get along with those already aboard, dozens of thri-kreen refugees from the Kharmaja Dune Sea, whose warriors Nimz had special need of. They sailed for Cinderspire mesa farther to the north, where the party would provide defense for the other passengers while Nimz, Lirizel, several more elves, and a dozen psi warriors made an important acquisition.

Shepherds arrived to help transport adventurers to where they were needed. They took Wynnipher with them when they departed again, while Leonard and the shepherd Petra stayed with the the ship.

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-23T23:31:20Z

Psuvillager: Ichake words to 8,217 (15,942 XP)

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,831
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,031
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,217 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,942
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,556
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-23T19:17:35Z

Psuvillager: Trying that XP update again

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,831
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,031
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,556
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-23T19:13:46Z

Psuvillager: Undoing borked formatting

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,031
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,885
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,556
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,255
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-23T19:10:36Z

Psuvillager: XP from Amanda's Megagame2 tables... new totals: Voscaera: 15,622 (levels to 6); Avel: 18,831; Dallas: 16,450 (levels to 6); Razzadrog: 22,209; Patches: 16,890 (levels to 6); Wynnipher: 19,117

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,622
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,831
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,031
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,209
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,556
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,890
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 19,117|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-23T18:49:14Z

Psuvillager: Cleanup (Links, formatting, whitespace, typos)

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,668 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,450
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,196
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,074 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,438
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,031
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna "Cae"]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,885
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] || [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]] || [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,073
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / [[Druid]] (Shepherd) / [[Monk]] || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,556
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,600
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg]] (they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,255
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Rogue]] || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Leonard

2026-04-23T18:43:36Z

Psuvillager: punctuation

{{Disambiguations}}
''[[Player Characters]]:''
* [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard]], retired PC from [[Bedlam in the Badlands]]
* [[Leonard Jr]], daughter of The Girl Bard Named Leonard (who this PC replaced her when she retired)

Leonard

2026-04-23T18:41:50Z

Psuvillager: Changing from Redirect to Disambiguation because two "Leonard" PCs now exist in BitB

Mousefolk

2026-04-23T17:25:35Z

Psuvillager: Redirects to 'Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus'

#REDIRECT [[Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus]]

Wrought

2026-04-23T07:17:00Z

Psuvillager: Redirects to 'The Wrought (Player Race)'

#REDIRECT [[The_Wrought_(Player_Race)]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-19T00:06:26Z

Psuvillager: Corrected Razzadrog's and Patches' XP from Amanda's 3/25 game (giving them totals of 18,885 and 11,255 respectively)

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865|| style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || style="line-height: 0.9em;" | [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,669 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,190
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[The Stitched|Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[ The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,046
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,076 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,439
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]]|| [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[The Wrought|Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock|Lincoln (Toots) Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn|Riken (Gambit) Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || Leonard (reboot) (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,131
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna]] (Cae) (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus|Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,885
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bobby Celestio|Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]]|| [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry the Lizard Wizard|Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]]|| [[Wizard]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]]|| [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine (Player Race)|Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | '''8,813'''
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / Druid (Shepherd) / Monk || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347|| style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,980
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,340
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg ]](they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,255
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her)|| [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]]|| [[Rogue]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-18T23:21:18Z

Psuvillager: Actually updated Suyuka this time

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865|| style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || style="line-height: 0.9em;" | [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,669 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,190
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[The Stitched|Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[ The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,046
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,076 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,439
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]]|| [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[The Wrought|Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock|Lincoln (Toots) Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn|Riken (Gambit) Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || Leonard (reboot) (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,131
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna]] (Cae) (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus|Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,425
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bobby Celestio|Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]]|| [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry the Lizard Wizard|Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]]|| [[Wizard]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]]|| [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine (Player Race)|Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,476 || style="text-align: right;" | '''8,813'''
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / Druid (Shepherd) / Monk || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347|| style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,980
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,340
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg ]](they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,644
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her)|| [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]]|| [[Rogue]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-18T23:16:16Z

Psuvillager: Words: Ichake to 7347 (15,507 XP), Suyaka to 2476 (8813 XP); Punctuation

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,865|| style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || style="line-height: 0.9em;" | [[Glorivesh]] (she/her) || [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,669 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,352 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,190
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[The Stitched|Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[ The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,358 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,046
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,076 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,439
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]]|| [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[The Wrought|Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock|Lincoln (Toots) Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn|Riken (Gambit) Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || Leonard (reboot) (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,131
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna]] (Cae) (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus|Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,425
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bobby Celestio|Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]]|| [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry the Lizard Wizard|Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]]|| [[Wizard]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]]|| [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine (Player Race)|Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,860 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,197
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / Druid (Shepherd) / Monk || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,347|| style="text-align: right;" | 15,507
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,154 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,980
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,955 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,340
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg ]](they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,172 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,644
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her)|| [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]]|| [[Rogue]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3,130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,130 || style="text-align: right;" | 9,119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,155 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6,259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4,696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]

Bedlam in the Badlands/Player Characters

2026-04-18T22:00:06Z

Psuvillager: MG2 Mercedes/Cat XP.. approx. totals: Rhogar 23,299 (7), Delaiah 14,089 (6), Ozmir 16,155 (6), Stix 23,291 (7), Grymos 12,866 (5), Avel 14,041, Leonard (reboot) 1131, Ollie10,357, Dallas 10,913, Ichake 13,534 (6), Patches 10,644, Wynnipher 15,793 (6),

{{Worldbuilders}}
'''If you are a [[player]], please refrain from editing this page.'''

<center>
{| class="wikitable sortable article-table"
|+ Bedlam in the Badlands Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP
|-
|Keller M || K-dawg12 || [[Rhogar Dreel]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (White) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,030 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,299
|-
|Nikki || Tak231 || [[Delaiah]] (she/her) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Artificer]] (Armorer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 1788 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,089
|-
|Sam || DwarfEnjoyer || [[Silgr Þyrikk]] (he/him) || [[Dwarf]] (Mountain) || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 3511
|-
|Nin || SilentDarknes || [[Pryderi]] (she/they) || [[Hexblood]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1861
|-
|Mercedes || Jaelthejust || [[Lenore]] (she/her) || [[Kenku]] || [[Cleric]] (Twilight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2865|| style="text-align: right;" | 10,495
|-
|Talia || Talia || style="line-height: 0.9em;" | [[Glorivesh]] (she/her)
| [[Kalashtar]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Shadow) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 7669 || style="text-align: right;" | 9323
|-
|Chris || gingie22 || [[Kaman]] (tor/tel) || [[Tortle]] || [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2632
|-
|Geoffrey || epicdudex || [[Syl Vipershade]] (they/them) || [[Yuan-Ti]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) / [[Bard]] (Whispers) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 2352 || style="text-align: right;" | 12190
|-
|Sarah || BreadIsPain52822 || [[Ozmir Nightshade]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 534 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,155
|-
|Jay || lunadix || [[Stix]] (they/them) || [[The Stitched|Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Genie) || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 7,401 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,291
|-
|Archere || Archangel3024 || [[Demir Malchan]] (he/him) || [[Tiefling]] || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8399
|-
|Marcy || SlaaneshiPrincess || [[Goldmary Flutterheart]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Justin || PsychoticFury || [[Lethe Bloodhorn]] (she/her) || [[Minotaur]] || [[Barbarian]] (Berserker) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Scott S || datsadness || [[ The Scarlet Shadow]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Gloom Stalker) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1358 || style="text-align: right;" | 11,046
|-
|Westley Stiver || Person || [[Grymos]] (he/him) || [[Duergar]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 12,866
|-
|Lynn Gilliland || lintergreen || [[Chanterelle Viscaryn]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (Wood) || [[Paladin]] (Watchers) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1861
|-
|Emma || glamourpal || [[Sorvanan Dustwalker]] (they/them) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Monk]] (Astral Self) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2335 || style="text-align: right;" | 3235
|-
|Tyler || t_samps || [[Koro]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Monk]] (Kensei) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 8076 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,439
|-
|Nathan Stoner || nax24 || [[Rasheeda el-Aslam]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dean/Scarlet || scarletxskull || [[Voscaera]] (she/her) || [[Maedar]] || [[Artificer]] / [[Fighter]] || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1244 || style="text-align: right;" | 9987
|-
|Jennifer Gau || jenxzi || [[Lyrina Moonshadow]] (she/her) || [[Owlin]]|| [[Druid]] (Land) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2058
|-
|Anna Stiver || silvariaspitfyre || [[Stumpy]] (they/them) || [[The Wrought|Wrought]] || [[Artificer]] (Alchemist) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Dave Spaar || SolitonMan || [[Rimsa Pavdad]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1245
|-
|Dave Parmelee || AlchemicalLuck || [[Lincoln "Toots" Whiterock|Lincoln (Toots) Whiterock]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2303
|-
|Drew || droobius || [[Pearl Dust]] (she/her) || [[Dragonborn]] (Copper) || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] (Moon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2087
|-
|Eric Steele || ScrimpoTheConfused || [[Diana Belkacem]] (she/her) || [[Human]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4831
|-
|Kyle Harpster || hkharp || [[Riken "Gambit" Venn|Riken (Gambit) Venn]] (he/him) || [[Harengon]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Aaron Cassel || arcassel || [[Odessa De Lorraine]] (she/varies) || [[Changeling]] || [[Rogue]] (Swashbuckler) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Hunter Emigh || roastededdy || [[Avel]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (Shadar-Kai) || [[Bard]] (Swords) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 2363 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,041
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || Leonard (reboot) (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Dragon) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,131
|-
|Allie Emigh || Secrect917 || [[Ollie Ollivine]] (she/her) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Ranger]] (Beast Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,357
|-
|Rich || Sad_Robot_v2.0 || [[Jynx]] (she/her) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battle Smith) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1894
|-
|Gail McCormick || zippybluedwarf || [[Caesanna]] (Cae) (she/her) || [[Eladrin]] || [[Sorcerer]] (Aberrant Mind) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1894
|-
|Raymond || Dz7D || [[Sixsplitter]] (they/them) || [[Stitched]] (Doll) || [[Warlock]] (Hexblade) / [[Wizard]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1765
|-
|Matt || leomatt || [[Dallas]] (she/her) || [[Beastfolk_(Player_Race)#Mus|Mousefolk]] || [[Warlock]] (Archfey) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,913
|-
|Scott Allen || sirsilent || [[Kex]] (?) || [[Kobold]] || [[Fighter]] / [[Barbarian]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2243
|-
|David Bratcher || cobalt606060 || [[Razzadrog Eyepoker]] (he/him) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] (Battlesmith) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,425
|-
|James Ryan || musicalmet || [[Bobby Celestio|Bob Celestio]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]]|| [[Paladin]] / [[Wizard]] (Divination) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1144
|-
|Steve G || G+171 || [[CB]] (he/him) || [[Dragonborn]] || [[Barbarian]] / [[Druid]] || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 1575
|-
|Jayden Parmelee || Flowerblob || [[Larry the Lizard Wizard|Larry]] (he/him) || [[Lizardfolk]]|| [[Wizard]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2303
|-
|Robert || Rhobaught || [[Polvo]] (he/him) || [[Genasi]] (Air) || [[Fighter]] / [[Cleric]] (Grave) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 4311
|-
|Ali PH || aliphup || [[Zig]] (he/him) || [[Half-Elf]]|| [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Suyuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine (Player Race)|Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,860 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,197
|-
|Nick || notnicklee || [[Nikodemus]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Fighter]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2186
|-
|Marky || Thegrandmarky || [[Markandros]] (he/him) || [[Half-Orc]] || [[Warlock]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 2186
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Cal Rinero]] (he/him) || [[Human]] || [[Paladin]] (Conquest) || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 900
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Ichake Asaku]] (he/him) || [[Ursin]] (Troverthian) || [[Cleric]] (Peace) / Druid (Shepherd) / Monk || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 5,400|| style="text-align: right;" | 14,534
|-
|Manuel || infinitedice || [[Skelly]] (he/him) || [[Stitched]] (Chimeric) || [[Bard]] (Spirits) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2154 || style="text-align: right;" | 3980
|-
|Laura Leypoldt || labadah || [[Blondie]] (she/her) || [[Ursin]] (Woodlands) || [[Fighter]] (Battle Master) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 0 || style="text-align: right;" | 8148
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Zasheir]] (he/him) || [[Aasimar]] (Protector) || [[Sorcerer]] (Divine Soul) / [[Cleric]] (Life) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1955 || style="text-align: right;" | 7340
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Patches Vanderburg ]](they/them) || [[Reborn]] || [[Paladin]] (Vengeance) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 3172 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,644
|-
|Connor Schroll || Doublecheese247 || [[Wynnipher Winchester]] (she/her)|| [[Eladrin]] || [[Ranger]] (Monster Slayer) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 10,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 15,793
|}
</center>

<center>
{| class="wikitable article-table"
|+ Deceased/Inactive Player Characters
! Player !! Discord username !! Player character !! [[Race]] !! [[Class]] !! PC Lvl !! Wiki words !! Total XP !! Status !! Cause
|-
|Alex || aekdm || [[Davin Dunefoot]] (he/him) || [[Halfling]] || [[Ranger]] (Bounty Hunter) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2323 || style="text-align: right;" | 5102 || Inactive ||N/A
|-
|Lily || ms.lilth || [[Mizuka]] (she/her) || [[Vulpine]] (Desert) || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 1208 || style="text-align: right;" | 4141 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Jonathan Rowell || jontheteach || [[Abraham Marr]] (he/him) || [[Human]]|| [[Rogue]]|| style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 2230 || style="text-align: right;" | 3130 || Deceased || Demonification
|-
|Amia || pokamian || [[Gobbo Greenskin]] (they/them) || [[Goblin]] || [[Artificer]] || 5 || 9130 || 9119 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Manuel
|infinitedice || [[Nid]] (he/him) || [[Kobold]] || [[Rogue]] (Soulknife) || 4 || 2155 || 5063 || Deceased || Smog Poison
|-
|Nick Peters || NicestPerk || [[Mezzi]] (they/them) || [[Changeling]] || [[Bard]] (Creation) || style="text-align: right;" | 4 || style="text-align: right;" | 658 || style="text-align: right;" | 6259 || Deceased || Turned to slime mold
|-
|Connor Schroll || doublecheese247 || [[Steady (Dee) Wind]] (he/him) || [[Tabaxi]] || [[Fighter]] (Rune Knight) || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 4696 || style="text-align: right;" | 8477 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Sean || arongames || [[Himo Nilo]] (he/him) || [[Elf]] (High) || [[Rogue]] / [[Artificer]] (Artillerist) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 16,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 14000 || Deceased || Turned to Husk
|-
|Alaina Spates || Thunder Cartel || [[The Girl Bard Named Leonard|Original Leonard]] (she/her) || [[Half-Elf]] || [[Bard]] (Lore) || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,914 || style="text-align: right;" | 14,000 || Retired || N/A
|}
</center>

[[Category:Bedlam in the Badlands]]