Jade Regent Background

[Bella]

This is a semi-sequel to Rise of the Runelords, which was the adventure I first DM'd. It is a sequel in that it has some of the same important NPC's and it starts in the same town of sandpoint. I am including here the adventure summary from your Rise of the Runelords campaign that we never got to finish as a reminder of what happened. I can post the summaries for the final two books if you want (we never got through the final two).


Chapter 1 synopsis

The PCs arrive in Sandpoint to attend the Swallowtail Festival (a ritual to consecrate the town’s new cathedral) and end up defending the town from a goblin raid. In the days to follow, the PCs come to terms with their newfound local fame, making friends and contacts among Sandpoint’s citizens. As rumors of massing goblin armies build, the disappearance of a local tavern owner leads the PCs to uncover treachery within Sandpoint Glassworks and the existence of an ancient catacomb below the town.

An investigation of these discoveries reveals two things; that monsters dwell below the city and that the goblin raid on the town is but the first. In order to save Sandpoint, the PCs must travel to Thistletop, the lair of the most powerful goblin tribe in the region, where they can confront the woman (Nualia) whose madness and wrath presents such a menace, yet who is herself the tip of a much larger conspiracy that
will soon threaten all of Varisia.

Nualia’s Story

The following is for informational purposes and not really important to catch up to the main story line.

The primary villain of “Burnt Offerings” was a bitter aasimar woman named Nualia. A foundling raised by Sandpoint’s previous religious leader, a man named Ezakien Tobyn (whose body was stolen during the Sandpoint raid), Nualia’s childhood was lonely and sad. Her unearthly beauty made the other children either jealous or shy, and many of them took to playing cruel jokes on her. The adults in town weren’t much better—many of the superstitious Varisians (a group of people, like gypsies and nomads) viewed Nualia as blessed by Desna (a goddess), a sort of “reverse deformity.” Rumors that her touch or proximity could cure warts and rashes, that locks of her hair brewed into tea could increase fertility, and that her voice could drive out evil spirits led to endless awkward and humiliating requests over the years. Poor Nualia felt more like a freak than a young girl by the time she came of age, so when Delek Viskanta, a local Varisian youth, began to court her, she practically fell into his arms in gratitude.

Knowing that her father wouldn’t approve of a relationship with a Varisian (he wanted her to remain pure so that she could join one of the prestigious Windsong Abbey convents), they kept the affair secret. They met many times in hidden places, a favorite being an abandoned smuggler’s tunnel under town that Delek had discovered as a child. (this tunnel was close to the Catacombs of Wrath BTW) Before long, Nualia realized she was pregnant. When she told Delek, he revealed his true colors and, after calling her a slut and a harlot, fled Sandpoint rather than face her father’s wrath. Nualia’s shock quickly turned to rage, yet she had nowhere to vent her anger. She bottled it up, and when her father discovered her delicate condition, his reaction to her indiscretions only furthered her shame and anger. He forbade her to leave the church, lectured her nightly, and made her pray to Desna for forgiveness. In so doing, he unknowingly nurtured her growing hate. When the runewell in the Catacombs of Wrath flared to life, Nualia’s own anger was a magnet to its magic.

Seven months pregnant, the wrathful energies suffused her mind and she flew into a frenzy. She miscarried her child later that night, a child whose monstrously deformed shape she only glimpsed before blanching midwives stole it away to burn it in secret. As the child had been conceived in the smuggler’s tunnels below town, in close proximity to a hidden shrine to Lamashtu (the goddess of monstrous births), the child itself was deformed and horrific. The double shock of losing a child and the realization she had been carrying a fiend in her belly for seven months was too much. Nualia fell into a coma. As Nualia slept, she dreamed unhealthy dreams. Fueled by the wrath from below and the taint of Lamashtu, Nualia became further obsessed with the cruel demon goddess and the conviction that her wretched life was inflicted on her by those around her. She came to see her angelic heritage as a curse, and the demon-sent dreams showed her how to expunge this taint from her body and soul, replacing it with chaos and cruelty. When she finally woke, Nualia was someone new, someone who didn’t flinch at what Lamashtu asked of her. She jammed her father’s door shut as he slept, lit the church on fire, and fled Sandpoint.

The locals assumed Nualia had burned in the fire, a tragedy made all the worse by the death of Father Tobyn as well. Yet Nualia lived. She fled to Magnimar, where she enlisted the aid of a group of killers known as the Skinsaw Men (remember that Aldern Foxglove was a member of this group). With their aid, she tracked down Delek and murdered him. Yet his death did not fill her need for revenge. Sandpoint and its hated citizens still lived.

Seeing a kindred spirit in the tortured woman, the mysterious leader of the Skinsaw Men (you fought Lucrecia last time at the end of chapter 2) gave Nualia a medallion bearing a carving of a seven-pointed star called a “Sihedron medallion.” (This star has been a running theme in the campaign. The medallion is now owned by either James or taylor, can’t remember) Nualia learned that she had a larger role to play, and that her dreams were a map to her destiny. Taking the advice to heart, Nualia returned to Sandpoint, and found herself drawn to the brick wall in the smuggler’s tunnels where she and Delek had conceived her deformed child.

Nualia bashed down the wall, and in so doing, discovered the Catacombs of Wrath and the quasit Erylium, also a follower of Lamashtu (a goddess). For many months, Nualia studied under Erylium’s tutelage. During this time, Nualia received another vision from Lamashtu—a vision of a monstrous goblin wolf imprisoned in a tiny
room. In Nualia’s dreams, she learned that this creature, a barghest named Malfeshnekor (the one who made the party run multiple times) , was also one of Lamashtu’s chosen. If she could find him and free him, he would not only help her achieve her vengeance against the town of Sandpoint, but he would be the key in cleansing her body of what she had come to see as her “celestial taint.” Nualia wanted to be one of Lamashtu’s children now. She wanted to become a monster herself.

Other things that happened.

The party met Aldern Foxglove. Heidi hooked up with him.

The party meets Shalelu Andosana - (female elf - ranger/fighter). She helps patrol the regions outside the town. She helps give them information about the five goblin tribes working together which is unusual. (She is an NPC in Jade regent as well)

Bethana Corwin requests to meet the PC's. She explains that her boss and owner of the Rusty Dragon (a tavern) is missing. Her boss is named Ameiko Kaijitsu. She believes that her older brother Tsuto is responsible.

(Below is the background info)

The process of glassmaking is as much an art as it is a craft, and one that the Kaijitsu family has held pride in for several generations. After the family was exiled from Tian Xia and made the perilous journey over the crown of the world, they finally settled in Magnimar, where the family trade played a key role in their acceptance into society. When the Sandpoint Mercantile League was established, the Kaijitsus were there, and not long after Sandpoint was founded, they began construction of what would become one of the town’s most unique
and profitable businesses—the Sandpoint Glassworks.

The three main components of glass are all found in abundance locally: sand, seaweed, and salt-resistant plants (the ashes of which form an important reagent in the process), and lime extracted from stone quarried from the cliffs of Devil’s Platter and the Ashen Rise. All that remained was the technical proficiency to work these components into glass. The fact that the building’s basement once doubled as a smuggler’s base is
one of the Kaijitsu family’s best-kept secrets. Lonjiku’s more scrupulous father put a stop to the smuggling operation and bricked up the offending chambers in the basement not long after he inherited the Glassworks 34 years ago, but knowledge that the Glassworks was once a smuggling operation persisted in the town’s hidden lore.

Now the Glassworks is little more than a front for the machinations of a bitter, vengeful son. When Tsuto Kaijitsu joined Nualia’s group in Magnimar a year ago, he was already in love with her. He’d seen her on the streets of Sandpoint many times, but never had the courage to approach the mysterious beauty. So when she
approached him with an offer of a job, he felt as if fate had finally dealt him a good hand. When he learned that her plans involved burning Sandpoint as an offering to her goddess, Lamashtu, Tsuto was even more thrilled—not at the opportunity to serve the goddess of monsters (Tsuto doesn’t have much interest in religion)
but as an opportunity to get revenge on the town he blamed for his bitter and joyless childhood (Tsutos mother had an affair and he was like an outcast. His father finally was so enraged with his wife that he pushed her off a cliff. Tsuto knows this and his father was never punished for it. He is very important to the town).

Tsuto’s primary job was to serve as the link between Sandpoint and Thistletop, since not only did he know the town the best, but he had links to one of its most important citizens—his father. After blackmailing Lonjiku (Tsuto and Ameiko's father) into aiding the preparation of Sandpoint for the goblin raid, Tsuto had his father right where he wanted him. A few days after the raid, he sent his father a note demanding a payment of 2,000 gp or Tsuto would reveal his role in the raid. Infuriated, Lonjiku decided it was time to take care of his son. He agreed to the payment, and when he arrived at the Glassworks late one night several days after the raid, he attempted to murder Tsuto. Unfortunately for Lonjiku, Tsuto had come up with the same plan. Before Lonjiku
arrived, the goblins killed all of the workers who lived on site. Tsuto and a half-dozen goblins ambushed Lonjiku as he entered the Glassworks, murdered him, and put his body on display inside.

His father dealt with, Tsuto sent a note to his sister, Ameiko, the one person in Sandpoint he didn’t hate. He asked her to meet him at the Glassworks the night after he murdered his father, hoping to convince Ameiko to join Nualia’s band. Unfortunately, he miscalculated his sister’s loyalty to Sandpoint, and when she refused to join with him, he had his goblins beat her unconscious, bound her, and locked her in an area below the Glassworks. He’s not quite sure what to do with her and plans on heading back north to Thistletop with her to ask Nualia for advice, intending to leave the Glassworks an abattoir to further throw fear in to the hearts of Sandpoint’s citizens. (you killed tsuto and rescued Ameiko).

Adventure Synopsis: Chapter 2

This adventure begins as the PCs become involved in a murder mystery, but what at first seems like an isolated incident is revealed to be the start of a string of murders plaguing Sandpoint. Following the clues, the PCs come to suspect a man they met not long ago, local aristocrat Aldern Foxglove, who has recently been attempting to renovate his old family holdings to the south (he was doing the nasty with heidi's character). Arriving at Foxglove Manor, the PCs find the mansion anything but renovated. It is, in fact, haunted by Aldern’s ancestors churned into activity after Aldern’s recent murder of his wife, Iesha. Aldern himself has become a particularly insane ghast, and now dwells in caverns deep below the manor.

After the PCs confront him, they discover he was committing his crimes at the request of a larger conspiracy based in the city of Magnimar. Following up on clues uncovered there, the PCs learn of the existence of a cult of murderers who call themselves the Skinsaw Men. The PCs strike against the cult and expose its leader as one of Magnimar’s chief justices, (judge Ironbriar, who’s dead body the party tossed into a logger to hide the evidence) yet even here the puppet strings do not end, for Justice Ironbriar is himself being manipulated by a shadowy mastermind that has moved into an abandoned clocktower in Magnimar’s most dangerous district. If they wish to see the Skinsaw Murders come to an end, the PCs must brave this crumbling tower and defeat the powerful lamia matriarch who has claimed it as her lair.

Other things that happened.

Aldern Foxglove creeped out Heidi’s character big time. (Alas poor Lia, She knew him REAL well… hope she isn’t pregnant ) She would be taking a bath and notice fogged breath and a hand print on the window from someone watching. Some of her belonings went missing (like a hairbrush).

The party found papers that Judge Ironbriar was keeping it a secret that Magnimar had lost contact with a fort out by hook mountain.

The group also discovered that the Skinsaw Men were going to assassinate the mayor of Magnimar.

Again the seven pointed star was seen multiple times. The party knows that it has to do with sin and that the sign was carved (by the Skinsaw Men) on people who were greedy in nature.

Adventure Synopsis: Chapter three (so far)

After the PCs prove their mettle to the lord-mayor of Magnimar, he assigns them a dubious task: travel halfway across Varisia to check up on the town of Turtleback Ferry, the closest settlement to the strangely silent fort. Arriving in the town, the PCs find the place on edge, with stories of increasing ogre raids and worries on everyone’s mind that something might have happened to Fort Rannick. Heading north, the PCs encounter a deformed ogrekin—a half-human, half-ogre menace—and after defeating him, they discover among his gear several items from Black Arrow

Rangers (protectors of the silent Fort Rannick). The PCs can track this ogrekin back to his nearby homewhere they find the survivors of the raid on Fort Rannick kept by a family of inbred monsters—the Grauls (anyone remember these hillbilly inbread hillgiants and their fat hideous mother who slept with her children?).

After rescuing the rangers from the Grauls, the PCs learn about the massacre at Fort Rannick. Once they reach the fort, they formulate a plan to retake it from the ferocious Kreeg ogres who now dwell within. After a grueling set of fights, the party retakes Fort Rannick. Yet defeating the ogres at the fort does
not end the region’s problems.

Soon thereafter, unnatural rains flood Turtleback Ferry and the PCs must explore the ruins of an ancient dam called Skull’s Crossing, repairing it enough so that its floodgates can be opened before the entire structure collapses. After saving the town from this disaster, the PCs learn that the ogres of Hook Mountain were to blame for the strange weather. After encountering the ghostly lover of the fort’s previous (now dead) captain, the PCs finally climb Hook Mountain to end the ogre menace once and for all, only to learn that the ogres might be the least of Varisia’s problems: the giants of the Storval Plateau are preparing for war.

Other things that have happened so far

The party found a hidden seven pointed star tattoo on a local in Turtleback Ferry. He claimed to have gotten it at a local gambling ferry which recently burned down.

Stories of a mystical unkillable loch ness monster type being living in the lake by the dam (close to the fort) is told as a local legend. Always seen by a friend of a friend brother etc… (wasn’t he fun?)

Chapter 4 (so Far)
The adventure begins with the party caught in the middle of a hasty defense of the town of Sandpoint; the PCs must help turn aside a raid by a warband of stone giants.

The main assault of the town came from the west of Sandpoint, where the stone giants crossed Tanners Bridge. They started destroying buildings and placing people in sacks. As the party raced over to meet the threat head on like brave little adventurers, they started to here shouting coming from other parts of the town. The stone giants were crossing into town from various other points. It seemed like a well planned attack. The party was constantly under attack from Stone Giants. One would fall and another was there to take his place. A young red dragon soon joined the stone giants and started to set things on fire. During the battles, the party saw fire coming from Scarnetti manor ( a prominent family in Sanpoint). The giants were attacking there as well, but there was no way the party could get to them. The party took care of all the giants around them and decided to attack the dragon. With good planning the party did very well against it (teleported next to it after casting fly on themselves). The dragon was able to fly faster than the party, though, and with a flap of its wings and a flip of the bird, it raced off to lick its wounds. After the battle, the party interrogated a Stone giant they captured. They learn that the raiding party was lead by Terktinus, a general in Mokmurian’s army. The party learns that Terkinus was after a large stone from the old light. He mentions that his people can get secrets from the stones.

The PC’s also learn that this was just a scouting party. The full army is still marshalling in the mountains of the Storval Plateau, where one encampment has become a rallying point against humanity. It is to here, the fortress of Jorgenfist, that the giants return with their captives. If the PCs can strike at the commanders of this fortress of stone giants they can save Varisia from invasion. Each of the giants they killed had the seven pointed star tattooed on their body. The giants that got away made off with about 25 people from Sandpoint. One, a friend to the party, one James monk “friend”. 2 other named people were also taken, but I don’t have the list of names on me.

The PCs undertake an arduous journey into the wilderness to reach Jorgenfist-controlled lands on the Storval Plateau. Once there, they discover that the giants are readying the tribes for a massive attack on the human-dominated lands to the south. Only by defeating Mokmurian, the eldritch leader of these giants, can they disrupt these plans.

After getting to the fortress, the party rests in the surrounding mountains because they were missing like 2 spells… The fortress is surrounded by hundreds of giants, all with the seven pointed star burned on their skin. They decide to teleport into the fortress and fly down a hole that they saw in the center of the fortress. It is here that the party meets Conna, a Stone giant. They learn that her husband was the leader of stone giants that Mokmurian came from. She advices the party on the easiest route to Mokmurian and tells them that he is a powerful sorcerer. She tells them that he has a library of ancient books on the second floor, but only he has the key and she has not been in it. The party gets her assurance that she will let the party leave alive with any people they rescue from Sandpoint and they march on. They kill things and advance to the second level, There, they discover that all the walls are rounded for some reason. They also discover a 30 foot tall cauldron. Non of the party wanted to bath in it. It is here the game ended. The party is low on spells and running out of time.