Also, for those of you that have made it this far, I welcome questions or comments! If you're confused as to why I ran something the way I did or the story doesn't quite add up to you, let me know! I might've misremembered something (my notes are bare bones, so this is all from memory), omitted something, or may have just made it up on the fly - my players tend to keep me on my toes.
This is my favorite setting, one I have a really good feel for so I've enjoyed running this for my friends and they're happy to play it!
Once you've completely read up on the individual session write-ups, including that last one, this covers the next several sessions of The Men of Mjarn - The Corruption Saga:
Knowing that Lyra was pregnant, Deirik decided to step up and marry her, and asked Ygvard to perform the ceremony. Ygvard was having his own problems though. Ever since he'd arrived in Baden's Bluff, his clerical magic wasn't working. His prayers were only being answered by visions. Visions of 3 young children he'd seen in different parts of the city in the short while he'd been there... visions of him leaving them dead on the alters of Izrador as sacrifices? No, as proof of faith. Ever since he'd left his legate armor and astirax behind and denied his calling to fit in with others, he's been living a life away from the Shadow. Now the Shadow needed him to show he was truly worthy.
Meanwhile, Eirik met up with "Lily", the Sarcosan prostitute again at a nearby unarmed fighting tournament, where she proved an intelligent and wily foe who ultimately bested him. Afterwards, she showed genuine affection towards Eirik, and he towards her, and told him her real name was Natiri and a relationship was sparked.
Boldulf was having a hard time staying in the city, and went out to hunt and be free with his companion wolf, Sergei, as much as possible to remain in touch with his primal side.
Ygvard struggled with this test from Izrador, talked it over with Deirik, and ultimately decided he couldn't do it. He instead decided to go out into nature, with some guidance from his grandfather, Boldulf, and try to reconnect with the source of his channeler power - his ancestors. They answered, but there was an issue, Ygvard's connection with them wasn't as strong as it used to be. There was a touch of wildness to his magic (he now uses a wild magic chart when he casts), one that he would just try to live with. With him now reconnecting to his ancestors, he was more willing to conduct Deirik's wedding, and Deirik and Lyra were wed.
Deirik was torn, he wanted to stay with his new wife, but also couldn't live life as the half-undead aberration he'd become and wanted to be his normal self for his child's birth. Having shown Lyra the insignia from the bottom of the poisoned dagger that caused the undead overtaking the town of Rulla, she mentioned it likely belongs to a man named Octavius who lives out in the Plague Hills to the SouthEast of Baden's Bluff. She told him to be careful, the Plague hills are dangerous, but that he can go - there's still some time before the baby comes.
All four men went forth and traveled into the Plague Hills. Had a few encounters with incorporeal undead intent on making the men join them, but they ultimately made it to the desolate town in the midst of the Plague Hills that they'd been told housed Octavius. Octavius turned out to be a powerful undead himself, capable of casting magic sourced by the Shadow, but he was intrigued by Deirik's state and agreed to avoid hostilities while the Men were guests at his house as long as he was given a month to study Deirik. This studying turned out to be torturous for Deirik as he was put through different tests and trials - for example, Octavius learned that he could Rebuke Deirik by channeling his faith in Izrador.
While killing time during these studies, Ygvard read a book from Octavius' library written by an Elven scholar regarding the power of an ancient Dwarven Spirit Court over life and death. He wondered how much was fact and fiction, but when Octavius' tests ultimately revealed that Deirik's spirit was stuck between the worlds of life and undeath, he thought that perhaps this court was the answer. Apparently, the court decides the worthiness of the person's soul and sentences them to life or death. Deirik, being an assassin, was a bit concerned about this judgement and what Dwarves consider "worthy", but also can't stay the way he is either - especially if he intends to continue his path of revenge against his cousin Torvald, the Legate.
Also in their downtime, Octavius also had no problems telling the Men that he murdered the town of Rulla on behalf of Lord Xariel, Legate mentor to Lord Voldash (whom the men captured and handed over to Lord Krogan, their prior Legate employer). Apparently, Lord Xariel was trying to get Lord Krogan and Torvald to fight each other. The Men were disappointed the culprit was not Torvald, as they were hoping to gather evidence against him, but had no reason to doubt Octavius either. With all questions answered on both sides, they all honored their agreement of no hostility between them and parted ways.
The Men have a few harrowing experiences on the way out of the Plague Hills, but make it out to a town just outside Baden's Bluff and camp out for the night in a farmer's barn. The next morning, they awake and find Sergei the wolf growling and cowering from Boldulf, his master, who has an absent stare for a moment before shaking his head as if clearing the cobwebs - at which point Sergei bounds over, sniffs him, and lays down next to him again. The rest of the group thinks it strange, questions Boldulf who remembers nothing of the previous night, and eventually tries to track Boldulf's whereabouts - eventually losing his tracks in a nearby wheat field. They speak with the farmer though who says he had to chase off a wolf last night which ended up biting him on the arm and then running away.
The Men thought that it might've been Boldulf, but didn't want to alarm the farmer. Eirik also rationalized that even if it was Boldulf, the farmer is alive and unharmed. He'd been bitten by Boldulf in the past and had no ill effects, so why worry? What could go wrong?
They all eventually returned to Baden's Bluff in plenty of time to attend the birth of Deirik's new baby boy, whom he named after his father, Yakob.
I'm quite honestly delighted to hear that there's a Midnight game going strong. Getting past 20 sessions is pretty good for any setting, let alone a decidedly unconventional one like this.
I'll take some time to write up a readable summary (so it's not just a big block of unformatted text) in the near future. FYI, this game is still going strong and a lot has happened, so I'll catch you up and then post the occasional summary follow-ups as I have the inspiration and time.
Some of us check in from time to time! And yes, I'd be interested in reading a summary. From painful experience, I know how much effort can go into detailed write-ups, and how rarely players trouble to even glance at them!
Belatedly... yes, this does look very promising as a starting point.
For direct relation to the great war, anywhere to the East of the Sea of Pelluria could work, so long as it has ready access to human-settled lands. Do you want them to be involved in the betrayal of a great lord, the heroic resistance of another, the development of some shared resistance between dwarves and men to the new regime? Pick a clan that suits, and post the PCs close enough to have that one be the 'old ally' to whom they are sent to renew bonds.
This forum has gotten even quieter than it was a few months ago, so I'm just curious if anyone's still reading? I was originally doing this to log the game for my players and thought it'd be fun to put them here for your entertainment and inspiration but 1) I'm really far behind and it's a lot of work to catch up and 2) my players aren't reading them - mostly counting on me to remind them of what's happened in the past.
If anyone here's really interested, let me know and I'll summarize what's happened since and skip the intricately written session-by-session posts. If not, I appreciate you reading and once again hope what I've given so far gives you some ideas for your own games.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
June 19, 2019, 10:18:06 PM
