(Thank you, Siona! )

Deirik, Eirik, and Ygvard decide it's time for them to head home and see their family. They'll deal with the Shadow training werewolves another day.

Before they leave, they meet up with an Erenlander named Cedric (new PC from Boldulf's player) who is connected to the Baden's Bluff resistance. Cedric's handler in the resistance, Sir Trystan, has told him he should accompany the Men and integrate himself with their tribe. The Men have become a powerful force against the shadow, and the Badens want to maintain a relationship with them. The Men agree this sounds beneficial to both sides and welcome Cedric to their team.  Additionally, Cedric has a bone to pick with Torvald the Betrayer, which ingratiates him even more.

With that, the Men (including Cedric) along with Lyra, baby Yakob, and Natiri head North to Rulla to meet back up with their family. They cautiously approach Rulla, and learn that there is a contingent of orcs living within the town to help maintain a patrol - even though it's within Lord Krogan's territory it is still a border town with Torvald the Betrayer, so that makes sense. The Men wouldn't be surprised if these orcs are also here to keep an eye on their family and keep them within Krogan's grasp.

The four of them sneak into town to Winter there, making sure very few know of their presence. It's good to spend time with Lyra and baby Yakob, and Eirik and Natiri take the opportunity to get married! They have a ceremony that honors both the Northern ancestors as well as the Southern gods in the stars above.

While the Men believe Rulla is a good enough place, they'd prefer to find a better place for their family. One that's out of reach of both Krogan and Torvald. They take off to search for this "better place". Cedric mentions a town he spent some time in a few years back, one he refers to as Cedreville, which was just off the Fa'rantha River, a tributary of the Be'neeya. While it was in ruins back when he was there, it did save his life in the harsh Northern winter he spent in the area.

The Men go to this "Cedreville" only to find there are a few families already living there now. The elder of this group is named Jerome, and he welcomes the men to a place he calls "Valhalla", after his late wife Valha, and indicates it is unruled by the shadow. The Men know this territory is still Lord Krogan's, but it appears Krogan and his forces have not yet discovered this town and its inhabitants. This sounds perfect! The Men work it out with Jerome to bring their family here, and he appreciates them not just taking over but allying with him. With that, the Men start working on the nearby ruins and buildings to bring this town to a level that could accommodate the 150+ remaining family they wish to relocate.

While they're renovating, the men fall into a sinkhole under one of the houses in town and clear out a nest of giant wasps before discovering the nest leads to a gigantic cave complex underneath the town and behind the waterfall. This reminds them of the Cave of Mjarn, only this complex is much bigger and was apparently used as a smugglers hideout in the past based on the remnants of supplies and storage they found - along with the skeleton of what appears to be an elf deep within the caves. Perhaps it was elven smugglers? Either way, a cave complex beneath a hidden town? This place just got even better!

The Men kill the orcs in Rulla and try to frame it as if they were attacked by another troupe from Torvald's territory, then move their family to Valhalla just in time for Natiri to give birth to her and Eirik's daughter, Rhiann (named after Eirik's beloved grandmother and sister). Along the way, they also meet up with a group of Dornish nomads, led by a man named Rainn, they convince would be better off living in Valhalla as well. While the native Valhallans (Jerome's people), the nomads (Rainn's people), and the Mjarn Clan have some internal strife and struggles learning to live together, it's nothing the Men cannot handle.

Now that they're more established (read: "older") in their lives, the Men believe their time may be best spent not only building up Valhalla for their family, but also teaching the next generation everything they've learned to be as effective as the Men have been at enacting a positive-ish impact on their own lives and those of the family. Even Cedric gets in on it and mentors a group as well.

(GM Note: This means each PC takes on a group of 4 young members of their new town and mentors them to make four new groups of 4 PCs, ex: Ygvard will teach 4 new characters who show some aptitude for magic that the 4 original players create and play - yes, doing the math that means there will be a total of 20 PCs played by our 4 players. The idea being to keep things fresh, better define the world/NPCs, and give the players a sense of the world being bigger than their original characters. However, they will still have their original characters available to them as those quest lines advance)

To tag onto what Luiniel has said - my answer is "it depends on what information you already have."

If you're not super familiar with the D&D 3.5 ruleset, you should probably read up on that. If you are, but aren't super familiar with Midnight as a setting, the world and ways within, as well as how it alters the 3.5 ruleset, you should probably read up on *that*.

If you have that already under your belt and are looking to start DMing a Midnight game, but have never done so, the one shot in the book or Crown of Shadows is a great place to start. You don't have to write the story, you just have to read the adventure and make it suit you and your players.

If you and your crew prefer unscripted adventures, my preference is to start with the players. Get them involved in the planning stages of it and let them tell you what they're interested in playing. Halflings who are tired of ducking not only the Shadow from outside, but the demons infesting their forest? Cool! Humans who are just trying to make a living as traders in the midst of a super-restrictive Shadow political/social landscape? Awesome! An Elven strike team who gleans spy information and takes out Shadows R&D projects to prevent them getting any sort of edge in the ongoing war? Wow! - Let them help you get the ball rolling, then think of how you want to get them started. Once you've gotten them started, the ramifications of what they do and have done will help you continue planning ahead.

Personally, I'm in that last category there and I find there's not a lot of prep necessary anymore now that the story has really gotten rolling as much of how the world reacts to the players (which is my responsibility as the DM) is logical based on what the players have done to the world.

Also, again reiterating what Luiniel said, nothing wrong with running one of those scripted adventures and then going unscripted from there if everyone's excited to keep going.

It may sound like a lot, but it's so fun once you get the hang of it.

Hello Kreel, welcome to the boards.

To adequately prepare for the game well... there's something of a rub. It really depends on what you want out of your game. Already in the 2nd edition core book there is a pre-written one-shot adventure and another book Crown of Shadows that is a full blown introduction path.

If you are looking to ease into running a game those are good places to start. Other books give you a ton of information about the world to help breathe life into it and also help to give you ideas with suggestions. I would say a few weeks of preparation time should go into it. Primarily reading over the core rule-book a few times will really help you get a feel for what you are getting into.

The history and setting of Midnight, the world of Aryth is a vast, rich world with lots of places to explore and things to do. I find it's best to get to know the setting, understand what the world events currently are, discern how the worlds primary magic systems interact within it, understand what the Fell Undead are, and then finally decide where the PC's initially fit into it.

Crown of Shadows campaign is a good way to do a continent spanning adventure that gives the PC's a taste of life for all the different races and what to expect. It then ends with them, hopefully, in a decently safe environment where they are now strong enough to help alter the world events as they desire.

some time ago a friend sent me a link on kiji that someone was looking sell all their Midnight game source books.  ALL OF IT!! including the box set, I didn't even know there was one,,, but I  digress.  I want to start a new group  but I haven't DMed in along time, tell you the truth I cant say I was good at it.Time to move out of my comfort zone.  How much time is required to adequately prepare? Do I need to have a full story before I start?  I'm looking for insight from this community

Thanks for all the effort LB. I definitely understand how hard these are to run.  It was a fun ride, and I'm glad I could be part of it.

Thank you for your efforts - and for checking back in.

I know from experience how heavy the burden of running a game via PBP can become.  I hope that you enjoyed it!

Hello again folks. I know it's been a while but I'm popping back on, although it is not with any good news, so to speak.
Clarion Quietus was a great game when it started and I tried to keep it going back when Doomed Hero left, and to some extent I did. But after a time the weight of the game was too much for me when added in with everything else I was doing too. I thought I might be able to pick it back up but I have failed to do so for over a year now.

As I have already written down on the other side of this game, I am going to be officially ending this campaign, at least as far as I am concerned. My last act as Steward of this game is to allow free rain with it to be used as you would. People can feel free to pick up the game, or just borrow characters, ideas, notes, items, etc... and with that I bid you all farewell with future game endeavors.

- Luiniel.

Thanks you guys, you really were great and devoted players, particularly you Jester, since you were around in the beginning of the game. Thank you for joining when you did, Siona. It helped quite a bit. Well I hope you guys find yourselves some great games to join in later.

The Against the Shadow forums are pretty quiet these days. I find that the Paizo forums are much livelier and, more recently, when used in conjunction with the Discord site make for a much faster paced and easy to interact forum for role-play. Just some tips I found recently.

Thank you for your great efforts LB. It was great fun.

That is  okay, Luiniel. If  a hobby becomes a chore then its´s time to let go. If anyone is picking up i´m in. I f anyone speaks german as a first or second language and wants to play im offering to dm. My englisch is not good enough but as my mother language it would be okay.