One unfortunate day Trogdor was killed in the Underground Forest, the adventuring party was going to take him to a temple and pay the fat gold to raise him, Trogdor insisted (which is weird because he was dead) that they take him to Baba Yaga instead. When the adventuring party gets to the Hut of Baba Yaga, they find that her young servant girl has run away. The adventures fan out and quickly cover the swamp, finding the young girl and not listening to her pleas; they return the girl to the witch. Baba Yaga agrees to bring Trogdor back from the dead somehow (I do not know how but the Wish spell solves DM problems). Baba Yaga then decides to allow them to tempt fate and draw from her Deck of Many Things (it should be noted that the deck would work different in the Hut, but each time the adventures dealt with Baba Yaga it was outside of her Hut, within her skull fence barrier).

The adventuring party had to hand over a lot of their loot for a chance at a draw; Baba Yaga had no need for any type of coin but would take jewels, magic items, and spell components. Trogdor drew the King of Hearts (18 CHA and a small keep), it was decided (by me the DM) that Trogdor married a noble lady in the province of Ciliene in Diemed. Karem drew the Joker and opted for two more draws; the Jack of Hearts (level 4 fighter) and King of Clubs (body functions, soul trapped else where). I do not quite remember what Alexander or Raphael drew; I will ask and might post it later.

Karem wanted to get his soul back for whatever selfish reason and it was decided by random fate that it was controlled by some Slaadi in Limbo. Trogdor paid off Baba Yaga to summon, bind, and negotiate with the outsider for them. The Slaadi wanting to escape quickly accepted the soul of the level 4 fighter that was drawn off of the Jack of Hearts (basically both Karem and Trogdor lost loot to Baba Yaga on that three card draw). This was also the point where most of them realized how evil they were actually being when they negotiated with a witch to barter souls with an evil outsider. The phrase, “a soul for a soul,” started to get used a lot; with other variants, “a sword for a sword, a favor for a favor.”

After a few months of adventuring it was time to get domain turns underway. Trogdor secured permission from Alexander to raise a mercenary army within his kingdom but then unexpectedly moves the army to Ghoere and works for Baron Tael for his invasion of Osoerde. This leaves Alexander a little sore because that depleted the source of mercenaries in Roesone; meaning that Alexander could only raise standard units. Alexander would get the last laugh on Trogdor though, by stealing Trogdor’s Tighmaevril spear and replacing it with a forgery.

Karem the pirate secured rights to hire more sailors, train marines, and have docking access along the Spider River. Karem used the town of Greatbridge as his center of operations and Alexander started construction of a real great bridge to connect Roesone with Medoere (which would be key if Alexander sought to invade Diemed). Somewhere around this time Karem was given permission to start a thief’s guild in Abbatuor by Raphael. Karem assigned his Jack of Spades, Salim the Sailor to start operations with the Ten of Spades, Josef the Kid acting as lieutenant. What was interesting about this level zero thieves guild was how it operated; the thieves would meet in eight different alley ways every day (one for each day in Birthright). The Queen of Spades, Lady Deathstrike, was used to train up marines while the Ace of Spades, the Mystery Man, was used primarily as Karem’s personal bodyguard (all players had fear of Alexander and his Tighmaevril weapon and unstable personality).

Raphael Saberstrike proceeded to mass units and navy vessels for an assault on Albiele Isle. Alexander Roesone added a few caravels, Trogdor had a few longships that were used for additional grappling, and Karem offered up his xebec to Raphael’s armada. The pirates from Albiele Island are quite strong on the wiki with several galleons and lots of caravels. Raphael secured some realm spells from Hermphedhie, court wizard of Medoere, to aid in battle once it started. Raphael had a realm spell of his own prepared for the battle as well.

A strong pirate force crashed with Raphael’s armada and the loses were great, for one side. Mass Destruction spells where unleashed, outright destroying some ships and catching others on fire. Karem’s fast moving xebec, allowed the adventuring party to maneuver around to allow Sedrie Bellamie and Raphael to unleash spells that would damage other ships. The pirates were routed and Raphael was able to land hundreds of soldiers and supplies on Albiele Isle.

Karem acted as the cleric for an investiture that created a new realm of Abbatuor (4/5) and Albiele (1/4) with Count Raphael Saberstrike as the regent. Alexander Roeseone allowed the split to happen for many reasons; Raphael swore allegiance as a vassal and it would further along Alexander’s goals of robbing his nation for all it’s worth. Raphael’s domain consisted of the two fore mentioned provinces, source throughout holdings in Roesone, and about four guild holdings ranging from level 2 to 4. Raphael also began to establish his own spy network, the Crimson Guard, thief/fighters that were trained in disguise (upstanding citizens in the day, cutthroats at night).

Raphael also began to really distinguish his alter ego’s: Count Saberstrike and the Red Hood. The Red Hood was the leader of the Crimson Guard and the identity that was used when adventuring. Count Saberstrike was ruler of Abbatuor, defeater of the pirates, the people’s champion. Under the guise of “the people’s champion,” Count Saberstrike organized his law holdings as “the People’s Society for a Better Anuire.” This would come be of great importance as Count Raphael would rise in power along the Southern Coast.

Back to adventuring again; this time the party went to explore the forests of Abbatuor and Storm Tower therein. The Red Hood thought it a good idea to track down a unicorn and cut its horn off so he acquired a pair of exotic lions (known through lore to be the natural enemy of the unicorn). A small unit of players went into the forest and began to try and seek out a unicorn, which they eventually found with magical aid. The death of the forests protector alerted the attention of a noble ranger who summoned his allies in arms against the slayers of the unicorn. The ranger in question was simply named, Ranger Bob, a chaotic good werebear ranger along with an elf wizard, a half elf tri-class(fighter/thief/wizard), human cleric, and dwarf fighter they sought out the adventuring party and a mass melee ensued. Only the tri-class survived, swearing revenge. The players noticed a fire in the distanced and went to investigate (after looting the bodies of course).

The evil adventuring party discovered a log cabin ablaze, with a young adult standing in front of it. They found a kid named Ted, who was the nephew of Ranger Bob. When Ranger Bob was in battle, he turned into a hybrid werebear and used a variety of wrestling moves to wreck havoc on the adventures, but when Ranger Bob was slain he died with one last death roar. Ted heard that and set the cabin on fire, hoping the killers would come, so that the chaotic evil Ted could go with them. The players learned that Ted was trained as a ranger, that he is a werebear, and that his sister fled into the forest when he set the cabin on fire. The Red Hood adopted Ted and gave him the name Lil’Boozie (which looks and sounds absurd).

The adventures found lots of undead at Storm Tower, fighting their way through levels of skeletons and ghouls until they fight a vampire/cleric in the basement of Storm Tower. The vampire escaped within gaseous mist and when I went to roll some random treasure I came up with the Mirror of Mental Prowess. I am not sure if you are aware of that item but it is quite powerful. I told the players I was not going to give it to them because they would abuse it and am dicks about it, of course they got mad. Then they discovered a portal in the basement room that when cleared of dust revealed a magical way of traveling into another world. The adventuring party thought that after mopping up the undead it was time to move on to the boss fight, so they proceeded in.

The Portal (aka the Mirror of Mental Prowess) led them into a pocket-dimension created by a long past Khinasi enchanter of great power and renown. In one of the accessory books I read about a powerful gem that caused great tragedy, I believe for the Red Kings of Aftan, anyway that gem was artifact level and said that if it was the only way to kill the Gorgon; by impaling the Gorgon in the heart with it: utterly destroying all his blood power (found it, The Viper’s Eye, TSR 3126 The Book of Priestcraft). The players could see a magical portal that through it could see back into Storm Tower. The adventuring party now entered what I dubbed as the Crystal Forest and boasted it could be the next Underground Forest (as in where the players could level up at). The first guardians of the Crystal Forest they encountered where the crystal pillars that came to life to form glass golem equivalents that when slain exploded in a burst of shredded glass (doing damage to the players). The adventures barely survived and when spying a crystal drake flying around, they fled back to Storm Tower. Only Karem the King of Spades would return to Storm Tower.