| |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The PCs were generated at 5th level, so as to get a slightly more developed character for players used to Traveller. This became a standard for 3e. |
The first campaign started in a more "standard" version of Alair in 730 as a simple crawl, at the end of which the PCs were petrified by a trap in the cellar of an abandoned elvish tower. When they woke up, they'd been dug up and restored in 1600 and the Dragon was in control of half the world. Humans were downtrodden slaves and the lizardmen who served the Dragon referred to the dwarf as "vermin" which was a great start to the PCs quest for vengeance. Enlisted by the free humans to quest for the elvish sword that could threaten the Dragon, the PCs explored the wasteland left by the Dragon's extermination of the elves, then the lost dwarvish forge where it had been lost. Equipped with the sword they aided the dwarves in defending their cities and finally tracked down where the elves had fled to. The elves, now grown strong again, were persuaded to invade the Dragonrealms. Accompanied by the elven king the PCs assaulted the Dragon and defeated him.
The second campaign picked up the same characters (less Kobort), now incredibly rich and in nominal possession of the Dragon's capital in Vorsand, confronted with a dire prophecy. An alliance of vampires and dark elves - the Fae Mhor - threatend to tear apart the fragile post-Dragon peace by means of magically influencing rulers of the surface world to endless war. The PCs tracked the conspiracy across northern Alair, creating what was to be the Kordasa by accident on the way - unseating Kin rulers as they went. Then they descended into the Underdark and discovered a Fae Mhor noble house was behind the magical influence using a crystal called the Kingmaker. Allying themselves with that house's enemies, they delved even deeper into the Underdark and took the Kingmaker from its' guardians and destroyed it.
Returning to the surface, they tracked the vampire part of the consipiracy to the Erlyid Empire, where they unmasked and foiled a plot to corrupt the Imperial family and release Cain, the first vampire. A casual gift of a magical item to Skuffuss (a Kin ally) inadvertently led to the creation of the kingdom of Tarlanor and enslavement of most of Alair's dragons. They arranged for the Sword of Law to be placed beyond the reach of any vampire to prevent another attempt, and journeyd to Sigil, the City of Doors, to deal with a planewalker assassin who was hunting them.
Six months later they unravelled a plot to trigger a war between Tarlanor and the elves of Belamir, identifying the King of the Orcs as the cause and stopping the plot by removing him - though not before Skufruss had created the Elf Hammer, a massive construct. Finally they tracked the vampire master strategist Cullinan to a complex in the Fens of Korvux where the he and Torunn Yalistair were raising an army of the dead. The lich Tersoal they did not find.
The next spring, investigating the sudden disappearance of the entire population of the Dwarfcastle Nisur, the PCs discovered a Gate through to a sealed plane where a colony of Mind Flayers were served by the Githmorein - the Gith who Stayed. With the aid of Githyanki allies, they travelled to this plane and discovered the Mind Flayers had captured the dwarves and were torturing them for the energy to try and resurrect an ancient Elder Brain from the vanished Mind Flayer Empire. Leading an army of Githyanki to assault the floating monolith, the PCs broke the Mind Flayers and rescued the dwarves.
Five years later, an invasion from the unknown East revealed the existence of the Shadowkami, elves from the east tainted with shadow magic. Calling once more on their Githyanki allies, the PCs turned them back in battle and followed them back to their place of origin, where they discovered a Kin lich from years before controlling the Shadowkami empire. Erasing him by taking him to the Plane of Ultimate Good, the PCs broke the structure of Shadowkami society and the whole region collapsed into civil war.
After this, the PCs settled into some empire-building, got married, and generally meddled with politics as they passed (largely) into retirement. Several occasional PBEM games followed on from here, and are technically still "live".