Alexander had a map of Roesone that is identical to the one that comes with the Roesone Player Secrets (TSR 3104). Alexander noticed a small set of ruins in the province of Fairfield. Those small ruins would become a major part of the campaign and serve as the adventure zone for many levels. Underneath an old fort, down many flights of stairs, through some twisting tunnels lies the Underground Forest. I have always been a fan of the Underdark and decided to ad a weird almost surreal subterranean jungle.

The adventuring party was very large, as many of the people going are regents and need bodyguards. Alexander Roesone took a handful of elite bodyguard and clerics along with his brother Sir Arvour and his cousin Sedrie Bellamie. Trogdor was a solo rider. Lady Deathstrike was accompanied by the rest of the Royal Flush Gang (we always got great amusement that Karem’s henchmen were more famous then him). Raphael Saberstrike was accompanied by his loyal bodyguard, Axe-man Bones, an Orog fighter. This put the adventuring party at about sixteen people with several characters doing what we called “clanking.” Fighters like Alexander, Lady Deathstrike, Arvour, Trogdor, and Axe-man Bones were all wearing some version of plate mail, leading them to “clank” were ever they went. This distraction allowed the thieves to get into flanking positions very easily.

The Underground Forest proved to be very menacing and dangerous for the low level characters but after a few days and many pitched battles, the adventures started to handle themselves very well. This lead to over confidence and mistreatment of their opponents. The thieves tripped a trap left by some gnome miners. When the miners’ guard team of two gnomes and four badgers showed up, the party attacked without question. The party then tracked the gnomes back to their mining pit and laid waste to the rest. The loot was very fat indeed but the War Clerics of Cuiraecen and Sir Arvour could not stand the fact that the party was outright killing everything that moved and were doing things like keeping “gnome eyes” to be used later. This set the party down the path of evil and Alexander Roesone quickly learned that he needs to separate his public image from his private. The War Clerics of Cuiraecen and Sir Arvour would not come to the Underground Forest again, but sometimes the party would travel out to a temple of Cuiraecen to heal or raise dead a fallen comrade.

After awhile in the Underground Forest, the players were ready to stretch their legs and see a bit more of the world. Trogdor had been coming and going from between Roesone and the mountains in Bhielne, hiding his drake in the swamp of Elvenmeres. One day, Trogdor sees that the weather is super crazy over the swamp and nothing seems as it should. The party gathers and goes to investigate, where they discover the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga. It was a very weird encounter for the players, Baba Yaga was standing outside her hut stirring her cauldron. The magic rich world of Birthright gave Baba Yaga lots of power and vitality, asking her a question did not age the questioner.

Baba Yaga pretty much sealed Alexander’s fate by telling him that a paladin of Haelyn was in possession of a Tighmaevril weapon. Alexander hunted down the paladin in question, killed him, and claimed a blood silver weapon or so he thought. The mission involved Raphael Saberstrike and Trogdor. Upon further inspection, the Paladin’s main weapon, a two-handed sword, was not the blood-sliver weapon but rather a humble spear. A humble spear that Trogdor claimed from the loot. This lead Alexander Roesone to plot against the mercenary Trogdor, to forge a copy of the spear, and replace the spear so Alexander could start committing blood theft.

The killing of the paladin was the last straw for Cuiraecen and sent an avatar to beat up Alexander and strip him of his cleric powers. The 2nd edition Birthright source book made clerics of Cuiraecen to have lots of warrior traits, so when Alexander’s god stripped him of all divine power, all he was left with were his blood powers, hit points, saving throws, and THAC0. Alexander would have to choose a new class and start leveling as, and Alexander seeing that choosing fighter would be redundant for many levels choose to train as a thief.

Alexander needed someone to train him to be a rouge so he hired Otto the Rake, a professional assassin from Brechtur. This also became about the time were all the players started to develop aliases for their characters (expect Trogdor, this was about the time he stopped playing full time). Alexander Roesone thought about going by the name Two-Face but thought that would give away the fact that he is trying to hide something. Alexander would latter settle on the title Duke Nightmare, a step up from Black Baron. Raphael Saberstrike starts to develop the identity of the Red Hood to hide his evil deeds. Karem the pirate was already known as the King of Spades.