Since I wrote most of this stuff, Paul asked me to do the honors and reveal what was going to go down.
After leaving the city, we were going to leave it open to y'all whether or not you killed Ulli and his trappers, or simply out-maneuvered and left them somewhere. Finding Mudlip, you beat his men, and him, only to discover he has a substantial bounty on his head, and after taking him down, find he has a hefty bag of Mentredan Boars, a gold-painted wooden coinage once found in Caphelar ruled Mentreda (Quentin and Chevan Caphelar were the brother patriarchs of the Caphelar House, a once powerfull Merchant House that catered to powerful nobles by getting them in contact with, and arranging the deal with, mercenary companies. Quentin used his contacts to become Merchant Duke of Mentreda, while his brother ran the family business in Matorca. Mudlip has the bounty because he murdered Chevan in his carriage just outside town. About a year ago, all contact with Mentreda was severed, and no one known why, nor has returned from expedition to that city. As you already know, in fact the city was conquered by a mad vampire in the night, but one of the vampire's disciples, Bartok Stielsing, chased down the fleeing remnant of Quentin's army, in order to ensure they didn't escape, and slew them. Bartok kept Quentin though, breaking his mind over time until he was a willing slave. Quentin used his remaining contacts in secret, forming together a band of retired adventurers, once some of the greatest in the Border Princes, now some of the wealthiest men therein. Each of them believed that Quentin has chosen them for Bartok's immortality because he deserved a new shot at their younger lives, a second run through the dungeons they onced delved in. After a lot of indoctrination, Quentin brought them to Bartok, where they pledged themselves to him. Walther van Patrooner was a clever thief and mountebank, Ulli was a tracker and ranger, Ethred a proud knight, Janos a magician, and Quentin acted as their priest. After a while, Quentin began to transform into a lich, under Bartok's tutelage. While the others were horrified, they were in too deep by this point, and Janos at least delved deep into the lore of necromancy, eager to join Quentin. Ethred cared only for his life, and was too scared to let go, his pride and fear driving him to any lengths to keep what he had, and to gain more. Ulli just did what others told him, and regrets it, but he believes deeply in his vow, and would never break it on purpose. Walther was all together the only one with no stake in the venture. He was in good health, had a less than healthy independent streak, had wealth beyond his dreams, which weren’t so large, and was quite content to die. However he was an incorrigible narcissist, was really quite insane, and believed truly that if one could cheat death, one’s god hood was assured.) After killing or capturing Mudlip, you travel, according to the clue you found in the now defunct Mentredan Boars, to Quentin’s barrow. There you find an empty tomb and no bodies, except for the ones that surround you when you arrive, led by Quentin and Bartok who explain the rest of the plan to turn Matorca into the new Mordini, to match his master’s masterpiece at Mentreda. After winning the day, you celebrate and are dubbed heroes of the city by Guilbert, who in the chaos named himself Chief Executor of Matorca, and essential ruler, as he had gathered enough support in the other houses, and not even the founding houses of Scaramati and de Percelli could stop him. However the city is in good hands, as he is a capable administrator by any standard. During the celebrations, you are all drugged and taken to a tiny room, where Councillor Enzus of the Onoran Kingdom has a deal. After your exploits, he has deemed you the only men that can guard his “diplomatic convoy” to Bieres in the Switzer Cantons. The Cantons are a vital trade route to the Empire from the Border Princes, as the long series of small, interconnected valleys, bridges the Vaults without having the monopolized control of the larger passes. The Diplomatic convoy are actually a band of assassins, as they plan to kill the leaders of Bieres during the Meet in the Canton’s largest city of Bieres. They want this done because the current First Citizen of Bieres (all the Cantons are oligarchal democracies in theory ruled by tyrannical dictatorships in practice), Leopold Ozko, has secretly begun deals with the Bishop-Prince in order to eventually join his confederacy ( and with Bieres goes the rest of them). This will not only destabilize the economic balance in the region, with the Solterra now controlling the cheapest way to trade goods to the Empire from the B.P’s, not only break the terms of vassalage between the Solterra and Onore, but it would invite multiple catastrophes. Emperor Joachim II Sigmarus would almost certainly invade, if there was a prospect of threatening his control on the larger passes. With the relatively weak Solterra suddenly in so much money and economic power, for the B.P’s, the armies of the unscrupulous Casper il Magnifico of Silence might invade, also changing the dynamic to above-Averland Invasion levels. So you travel to the Mountains (Quest is called, At the Mountains of Madness), and when you reach them there is a hilarious Monty Python-esque bit with one of the Merchant lords of the farthest South Canton, Zizers, Master Notz, then his younger brother Master Notz the Younger, and his father Master Notz the Elder and all these guards bumbling about trying to give messages between the three, saying things like, “Master Notz would like such-an-such.” “Master Notz already has that, sergeant.” “No the old one!” Any ways they eventually let you in. Then you enter Zizers, however, but afte crossing the empty wasteland between Maggia and Zizers, you have to cross the border between Maggia and Bieres, and only merchant caravans are allowed through there by the imposing fortresses of Castle Redhall in Bieres, and Fort Kelling in Maggia, owned by feuding lords who fight all the time. This quest is called ‘Wooden Walls and Iron Men’ and mainly involves getting Duke Vierez of Redhall and Baron von Kotzbue of Kelling to stop shouting at eachother with ship horns from atop the walls they have blocking the pass. To do this, you get them to work together to stop the Orc Warlord Klud Oyon’ose from conquering both fortresses. In this part you meet the hilarious character, Lord Pabst, a local brewing king who is secretly an imperial spy in place to keep the status quo. After fighting Klud and his henchman Nitwig Feetzroasta off you are allowed to the Meet in Bieres, as the Meetlands (a neutral area set aside for Meets) are snow-bound (white painted walls packed with a little snow by Onoran forces [no one but Merchant Lords are allowed there]). Then comes the best named quest in my opinion ‘Bieres Today, Gone Tomorrow’ in which you finalize the assassination plans, only to discover that Lord Pabst and his accomplices, including the Halfling Tofter Tallowfoot and his Imperial Contact, Frederick Wurstneit, are in disguise as entertainers to stop them. During the day you realize that Ozko has a lot of enemies, both General Dracov of Bieres (Greatest military leader in the Cantons) and Duke Vierez (already know him and his castle) are planning on assassinating the (now that you’ve met him) visionary Ozko and taking the land for themselves (one or the other, not both of the traitors, they loathe eachother). That night, ‘The Night of Long, Pointy Intruments’ Not only do all the assassination and couter-assassination attempts occur, but so does a small Chaos Incursion, the Four have joined, and they have designs on each other as well as on the Cantons. Salemor Silkfire, The One, Perisitis, and the Khornegor Koth Ironhoof all try to kill eachother during theinvasion. Long story short, Pabst, all the Merchant Lords except Hans Dreitiker, Duke Vierez, and Gen. Dracov, the assassins you brought, the chaos lords except the One, and others, die in that night. The last quest ‘The Light from Over the Mountains’ is the final madness of the whole situation. The One leads his army, which is side-swiped by Klud’s new and way bigger army, which are both attacked by the armies of Duc Francois de Semblancy of Quenelles (the Bretonnians, while forgotten in earlier plans, did not forget their own part of Cantons trade, and wanted a piece of the pie themselves) and Rittermeister Heinz von Tappendorf from Averland (he did invade after all, Pabst sent word about the upcoming treaty with the Solterra) who did not know of each other. Meanwhile, Dracov marshals the Cantonese, and leads them to assist fighting the evil forces. He is aided by Councillor Vasiliev of Onore, Sanjarr Khan of Monte Castello, and Templar-Master Tulio Feranza of the Equites Auric. All these armies clash no matter what you do, and a bloodbath ensues. At the end, the Tzeentchist is dead, and his army broken, Klud is alone and wounded, and you are led to believe eaten by Nitwig, The Bretonnians and Imperials are too scared of each other to try to conquer the Cantons now, Vasiliev and Khan return to their lands, their job done, Feranza stays to help rebuild and to build a Chapter-House of the Equites Auric in Bieres. Dracov and Vierez bow to Dreitiker, who was before the weakest of the Merchant Lords, but Dracov and Vierez know neither of them can rule while the other lives, and neither can seem to manage to kill each other (Vierez is good at grudges) so Dreitiker will just rule and listen to their advice. Hope you enjoyed what you had, and hopefully Paul can draw up something shorter than this campaign and y’all can play again.
Check out his Solterrra Art at his photobucket page, but he'd thank you kindly to not peek into his personal stuff.
