The Umbral Flood was the name given to the Asar Ogalas festivities in 826 PR that then turned into a unimaginable disaster.
It marked the explosion of the The Shadowfell energies that had been growing under the Northern Snowy Mountains by the Shadow Dragon known as The One That Waits. The cascading of the explosion activated and connected shadow-y breaches located all over Isonhound, eventually culminating in pulling Isonhound completely into the Shadowfell, giving way to Umbralhound.
Results[edit | edit source]
- Countless (10,000s? 100,000s?) infected with Shadow Sickness
- Uncountable casualties including:
- Silent
- Markoth
- Kennandra the Dread Flame
- Crew of the Bonny Roberts
- Zugs McFlair.
- Feredemius was released.
- Lord Belovaar was released
Timeline[edit | edit source]
Slow Breaches[edit | edit source]
At least one breach was found inthe Northern Snowy Mountains at least 3 months before the flood, detected by a large presence of Gloomwings in the area by scouts sent by The Order of the Watchful Eye. These early breaches would show three dimensional space being warped around it, as if the material plane and shadow planes were intermingling, pushing and pulling into each other. This expedition found Carrion Crows and Shadow Mastiffs in the presence of the breach, which were disposed of, and eventually the team fell back, fearing that more breaches would be opening soon.
Another breach was found that same month at a Fey Crossing in Isonhound, where the shadows had actually seeped from Isonhound into the crossing, where fairy creatures were attempting to hold it back. This particular breach was closed when the fey crossing energies were swallowed, nullifying the dark with the light.
Yet another breach was found in a mineshaft owned by the Pradassis Mining Conglomerate, shortly followed by one in a Fellstone mine in the northern snowy mountains. This discovery made the affected parties realize that the number of breaches is much higher than anticpating, but most of them were underground, waiting to emerge, only being discovered by chance thanks to the mineshafts.
The Wold Order believed that the cause of the breaches was actually BECAUSE of the mining being done by the dwarven companies and other groups in the north, and believed that they weren't "stumbling" upon the breaches but accidentally somehow causing them. This led to a brief period of tension between the Elves and Dwarves.
Gammelgard's Asar Ogalas Interrupted[edit | edit source]
- The Asar Ogalas day in Isonhound was in full swing. Several members of the Hawks were in the Gammelgard parade that went through the whole city. When the parade concluded the Hawks mingled with the dwarves with same games. Dur'kalak started a pie eating contest while Tristram and Delphi rolled some dice. It wasn't long before all was thrown into chaos. A massive explosion was seen from the direction of the docks and the sounds of alarm bells filled the air.
- A wave of darkness quickly enveloped Gammelgard during the festival. Falgrim orders the immediate evacuation of the city and asks any adventures to drive their way threw the darkness to his workshop carved into the side of a hill. Falgrim warns the adventures that the structure of the workshop may have been compromised in the quakes and urges them to be sure to turn the steam reactor housed in the building off. If not, the reactor could go critical and take out a good portion of the city.
- After fighting there way threw shadowy abominations, the players noticed unrefined areocrystals breaking threw the walls of the building. They fought threw the workshop to find a aerocrystal refinery in the basement of the workshop. The quakes had indeed compromised the walls causing massive cracks in the structure. The players reinforced the walls with wood after creating refined aerocrystals for the airship and successfully turned off the reactor
Seglock's Asar Ogalas[edit | edit source]
The festival of Asar Ogalas starts in Seglock with some fun at the Midway. Players participate in Ring Toss, a Extreme Pie Eating Contest, and a little bit of Tug-o-War. Adventurers trickle into the area and participate in events like an extreme pie eating contest. Then the mountain explodes, ensues, and the players are called on to literally put out some fires spreading in the (part of the city opposite of where Echamus is being lead too). Once there the players find that a numbers of kobolds, including some that can cast spells, are setting the fires and attacking (but not killing) civilians. The players split their actions between putting out the fires and trying to stop the kobolds. Some Kobolds are killed, but most escape. One kobold is captured and questioned where they reveal that they were paid to cause a distraction. It is at this moment that the party noticed that the protective Anti-Dragon forcefield barrier around Seglock must have been taken down, because kobolds should not have been able to get into Seglock otherwise. The Curator arrives, briefs the party about what is happening around Isonhound, creates the Fey Gates, and then disappears.
Meanwhile, shortly after the mountain had exploded, news of a dragon approaching the city begins to circulate. The city guard begin to organize a force to murder said dragon. The party jumps into action and heads to the edge of the city to investigate. When they arrive they are met with a group of Lunarens and a crazy Echamus flying erratically overhead. The Lunarens explain Echamus’ affliction and that nothing will get in the way of them escorting the dragon to the moonwell, deep inside the city.
Sneerwell's Asar Ogalas[edit | edit source]
- Players celebrate Asar Ogalas in the city park of Sneerwell among friends. They do a few activities such as visiting a very poor fortune teller, participate in a tree climbing contest, and more. But as Airavata is about to buy another pet rock from last year's rock selling gnome, the unthinkable happens. EXPLOSIONS down near the harbor at the Pendergras Workshop.
- Tolme Pendergras leads the players through the streets until they come to a barricade set up by the Purple Warforged-Centaur, whose darts will teleport people on hit. He does not get aggressive but as players try to pass or get close to him, he tries teleporting them 30 feet back. - Airavata, Durian, and Trina recognize these guys, and talk to the centaur, saying they are with MSDOS and want to help whatever crazy plan they must be doing. The centaur lets them pass. - At the Factory, the warforged and centaur have locked down the place as they steal and take Wovenstone out of a back entrance. From the roof, the Topaz Warforged sees Tolme and threatens him to back off. The players side with the Topaz, and Pot'tu teleports Tolme 90 feet on the other side of the city wall. They then cross into the factory carefully avoiding a train and beging to help steal wovenstone. - Tolme tries to stop them a few times, running back and firing off his own artillerist's gun at them from a distance, but Pot'tu keeps getting a vortex warp on him to take him out of the encounter. - The team discovers that inside MSDOS also has a massive construct dragon that has taken down most of the factory's defenses. - Players take lots of Unrefined Wovenstone, and give some of it to DOS along the way. They save a centaur from certain danger, but eventually it all stops when Kennandra appears in the city.. Vessel table hops after casting suggestion on the DOS Dragon, telling her to go fight Kennandra with him (that doesn't go well).
Seglock's Bubble Pops[edit | edit source]
There were some suspicions of Echemus and the Lunarens motives/morales and a fireball was thrown into the group of moon worshipers. The battle kicked off with some of the party engaging the Lunarens, some trying to save a dog that was trapped in a crumbling building that Echamus had left in his wake, and some preparing to slow the Seglock guard that would surely be arriving soon. The party eventually ground Echamus and knock him unconscious. They reach an agreement with the Lunarens and rush Echamus to the moonwell.
The action shifts to a large library in the middle of Seglock where the Moonwell has been relocated. Echamus arrives and is cured of his insanity. He in turn cures the arriving players of their corruption from being on the NSM. Attention turns to the Moonwell and it is soon discovered that the Moonwell cannot be re-activated until the full moon is at apogee (5pm). Stories of the spreading shadows from the NSM are swapped, and the librarian wonders if the Moonwell will protect Seglock from the corruption. Research is completed, and by combining information from multiple sources the party discovers that the Moonwell is one of five “Artifacts” that have been keeping the corrupting energies at bay in the NSM. The five artifacts were placed around the NSM in a circle trapping the energy inside and keeping it from escaping. There is a realization that all five artifacts have been removed allowing the energy (and TOWIE) to escape. It is also mentioned that the five artifacts need to be activated but the five members of the Court of Sardior to start the summoning ceremony. The party then works to find out what the five artifacts are, but they can only figure out one more of them, The Astrolabe. The party then must decide which cities to activate the two artifacts in to protect them from the incoming corruptive energies.
Kennandra Attacks Sneerwell[edit | edit source]
- They fight the dragon for 2 hours. That's it. Pot'tu goes down a couple times but gets saved, Delphi nearly goes down. The usual fight that most of us did. I let them hop around the city, placing it in a couple of cool varied-height battlefields including the roof of the city palace. - Eventually shadows start to finally appears from the mountains, and Kennandra flies away somewhere else.
The Mountain Erupts[edit | edit source]
- The ship and crew of the Bonny Robert requested The Protectors of the People to throw a celebration for Asar Ogalas for a large excavation crew of Order of the Watchful Eye dwarves who had just unearthed a small outpost fortress in the Northern Snowy Mountains. Ensign received a strange visit from The Curator who gave the artificer a Steller Navy Rebreather and advised Ensign to read up on his readings of the Bonny Robert.
- Ensign joined members of the PotP on the deck of the Bonny Robert where they arrived at the excavation site. But soon into their excavation the mountains exploded with shadow and dark rifts formed all around the excavation site.
- At this time The Curator opened a fey gateway which allowed the players to travel between the Northern Snowy Mountains, Seglock, Gammelgard, and Sneerwell.
- After once again defeating the Hags of the Mother’s coven and discovering a still alive Joshua who got sucked back into the rifts by a Shadow Giant, the heroes attempted to escape on the Bonny Robert with what dwarves they could save. But the shadow energy overloaded the engine and the ship crashed.
- Beyond the shadows the heroes beheld a massive ruby citadel and a massive obsidian dragon atop it. Few remained to protect the ship against the minions of The One Who Waits which included a turned Marekoth, a turned Asger, and later a Shadow Legionnaire.
- All of the remaining dwarves were slaughtered along with all but one of the crewmates of the Bonny Robert, but Silent’s interference saved many of the adventurers' lives and prevented all from being lost.
- The heroes managed to fix the engine of the Bonny Robert but as they left, they beheld Silent shaking the hand of Markoth and giving themselves to the shadows.
(Longform Summary)
Members of the PotP were requested by the crew of Bonny Roberts to throw a celebration of Asar Ogalas for a company of Order of the Watchful Eye dwarves who had just finished a large excavation in the mountains and who had not seen their families for a long while. Ensign joined the ship as well as he had gotten an ominous warning from The Curator. The players arrived and began to set up the festivities when the mountains burst with shadows. The players had to save as many dwarves as they could, shield themselves from the elements and the chaos of the exploding mountains, as well as fight against the Hags of the Mother’s Coven as well as many other undead shadow monsters.
Since their last encounter with the hags, the Mothers had each changed in a strange way. Mother Joy’s head was separated from her body and was only held on by a few threads, Mother Peace was covered in scars and wore a Phantom of the Opera like mask, and Mother Love was drenched in water and had the face of a turtle. The players also found a beaten and broken Joshua who attempted to help the players. But he was soon incapacitated, and after repeating the prophecy spoken at Stollblossom Island, was pulled back into the rift by a Shadow Giant who attacked the players. Silent summoned their avatar of Flame who helped to fight the giant. The players only managed to save nine dwarves before escaping on the ship.
But the shadow energy overloaded the ship's engine and it quickly crashed. The players were then engaged by more of TOWIE’s minions which included:
- Apostle, who was a disguised Asgar and who preached the word of the shadow lord
- Tyrant, who was a disguised Markoth
- The Hound of Morkenshire, a massive 12ft tall black furred wolf humanoid who desired to fight strong combatants
A creation and former servant of the hags
- Umbra, a large creature with the bottom half of a wolf, the top half of a woman, and the tail of a scorpion
A creation and former servant of the hags
- Dr. “Morum” Mortimer, a figure dressed in the garb of a plague doctor who wielded a small firearm he used to fire potions.
Had been working to replicate some of Horatio Cheshire’s work
- The Many, freed from Silent’s grasp by the Apostle, forming a massive titan made of soul
But due to an initial lack of adventures all of the dwarves were slaughtered, but Ona the Owlin artificer was able to prepare all of the Caeruleum for installation. Eventually though more players showed up bringing Aerocrystal with them, including Vessel on a large mechanical dragon. During this time Silent gained four souls and used all of their power to protect players and to manifest to separate Deathlock avatars. But without the Wovenstone no progress could be made on the ship. Vessel lost their concentration and the mechanical dragon broke free of their grasp. The dragon continued to fight TOWIE’s minions which had been attacking it, but as soon as TOWIE’s minions were pushed back, it prepared to fly away. SIlent sacrificed their Deathlock avatar and much of their remaining points to possess the clockwork dragon so Vessel could charm it once again before both they and the dragon left. Out of TOWIE’s minions in this phase only three were truly defeated, Markoth who was cut apart and slain by Drang, Dr. Mortum who when near death set off a bomb in an attempt to take out those around him, and Asgar who was eviscerated by a cloud of daggers.
The Hound, Umbra, and the Many were called back by TOWIE as the Shadow Legionnaire was sent out to finish the job. Once again there were few players to fight back against this titan, and after Silent used the last of their power to summon another Deathlock to stall it, it made its way onto the boat and slaughtered the crew of the Bonny Robert, leaving only Karyna LeChamp alive from the original crew.
Ensign rigged the engine to explode and fled with Karyna, but Sly managed to defuse the engine which was repaired last minute by Grandmush, Feyjin, Drang, and Kacilius who had brought refined Wovenstone. Silent was approached by a reformed Shadow Markoth in his golden armor and Silent agreed to give themselves to the shadows. The players then managed to escape on the Bonny Robert.
If it hadn't been for Silent this table would have been a complete wipe. They made three summons over the course of the game including Flame and two Deathlocks which served mostly as distractions and meatbags to protect the players. In addition they used a number of Death Wards and I doubt Silent walked away with any remaining power. The arrival of refined Aerocrystal and Wovenstone only came near the end. We had the reveals of both Markoth and Asgar as well as players having the chance to behold the Obsidian Dragon and the Citadel. The fact that the ship made it out, even though all of the dwarves died as well as most of the crew, excluding Karyna LeChamp, is a miracle.
The Flood Reaches Seglock[edit | edit source]
It is decided to save Seglock with the Moonwell and Gammelguard with the Astrolabe. At this point the Shadowy energies reach Seglock and the players defend the Library and the Moonwell from shadowy creatures that have arrived with the clouds. Just as the last shadowy creature is dispatched, the moon reaches apogee (5pm).
As a wave of darkness rolls across the river the party heads to the north of the city to meet it head on. When they arrive they find several NPCs have taken shelter in a church and that three large shadowy monsters have stepped out of the dark mist. The shadow creatures both attack the party and begin assaulting the church to get to the NPCs inside. This was a brutal fight and the entire party was almost wiped multiple times. Unfortunately all the NPCs in the are were killed. The smaller shadow beasts were killed prior to the start of phase 3 but the shadow giant remained. Luckily more players arrived just as phase 3 began.
The Astrolabe Reaches Gammelgard[edit | edit source]
With the arrival of the Astrolabe to Gammelgard, it was chosen to have a last stand at the docks protecting the ships with survivors of the Kendra attack. The Astrolabe was put in the lighthouse before one last push by shadow creatures to prevent the activation. The attack was thwarted and the astrolabe was successfully activated.
The Flood Reaches Sneerwell[edit | edit source]
- In the streets, the team encounters Shadow Corrupted Warforged-Centaurs, the ones from phase 1, now one with the shadows. They pack a wallop and the players watch desperately as it also absorbs citizens fleeing in the streets, turning them into additional shadow monsters. - Eventually the shadow encounter becomes overwhelming as players fail to save enough citizens on the board that they have to fall back, retreating to the factory. - Now a completely different set of 6 players, they are confused why the factory looks randsacked, and meet a VERY mad Tolme Pendergras, who assumes they're back to steal some more. They talk him down, explaining that there's no excuse for the behavior of the Phase I team, and that they want his help to try to save the city. - A few players (Satch/Anna) show up DEMANDING WOVENSTONE just in time while the team is talking to Tolme. He explains that they can refine it in the factory, which they take the time to do. The wovenstone leaves with Satch/Anna/Jon - Tolme says he'll work on something to push back the darkness but they have to try to save whoever else they can before the city is swallowed by the darkness. - The players manage to rescue 8 survivors and usher them back to the lab (including 1 dog), but Tolme is unable to find a solution in time. They hop in a cart and drive out of Sneerwell like a bat out of hell, taking whatever wovenstone they can along the way.
Kennandra is Trapped in Seglock[edit | edit source]
Phase 3 ignited with the arrival of the Dread Flame. Kendra was fresh and ready to reek havoc on Seglock. Unfortunately for her, shortly after she arrived, the shadow giant was killed and the Moonwell was turned back on, trapping her in the city. She began to billow fire through the streets and engage the party while staying safely in the sky. During the fight Echamus swooped in and assaulted Kendra in the sky. The party began to work with Echamus to stop Kendra before it was too late.
Moments before the Moonwell is activated and the dragon-forcefield restored, the Dread Flame and her Draconian forces arrive. The Dread Flame is unable to escape Seglock, so she sends her forces to find the Moonwell and deactivate it. The party defends the Moonwell from waves of Draconians until all of them are dispatched or are severely injured and run away. With the combined forces up against her, Kendra lasted one and a half rounds before dying. She got to nearly kill Vadath after recharging her breath weapon, but somebody Healing Word'ed him and he got back up then Reckless Attacked twice and critical hit her twice in a row.
