So began the siege of Diemed: Trogdor’s raiders pillaged the mountains of Bhliene while the Roesone forces would finish off Diemed’s forces in Ciliene and Aerele. Alexander ordered the pillaging of provinces and destroying of anything that belonged to the Duke of Diemed. Medoere pulled out of the alliance as news spread of an evil warrior killing the Duke of Diemed while riding a nightmare.

The news of the nightmare rider stared to spread so Alexander just rolled with it and began to raise taxes while militarily occupying the lands of Diemed. The odd rule of Alexander continued by allowing new immigration of the provinces of Roesone (game terms: Alexander used the Rule action to increase most of the provinces of Roesone from 3/2 to 4/1). With the new girth of people, the taxes raised even further until the end of his rule when paladins would come and seek out the evil regent.

Alexander had the service of the efreeti Firebeard Blackaxe for one year and one wish left. This year would be the last for Alexander Roesone; his death would become public knowledge by years close. Firebeard Blackaxe told Alexander about an infernal bazaar that is held in the City of Brass once every ten years and that it was coming up by the end of the year. Alexander set up his last year as regent of Roesone to rob the coffers for all their worth before faking his death and escaping to the outer planes to use his ill gotten gain at the infernal bazaar. But before that all could happen, Alexander and the other adventures would have a few more memorial encounters.

Karem the pirate sought to expand his holdings and the best way would be to take over someone else’s holdings that were of like mind. The Eoele of Mieres was the target and the adventures headed out to the colony. Karem and a the adventuring party headed into the port of Seward aboard the stolen caravel, while a few of the Royal Flush gang would stay out of port on the xebec. After paying the docking fee, the adventures headed out to their various points of interests.

Karem, Trogdor, Lady Deathstrike, and Duke Nightmare headed off the ship and into the city. When the city guard demanded a fee of 25gp per weapon and set of armor that anyone wanted to pay to get into town, Trogdor reacted badly and refused payment. Duke Nightmare quickly handed over the gold and proceeded into town by himself. Trogdor declared that he was going to cut one of the guards in half and rolled very well. Quickly more guards appeared and Trogdor cut them down too, Lady Deathstrike might have attacked but that was not really important, the deaths of so many guards caught the attention of the wizard Mhistecai.

Mhistecai magically appeared in the sky above the adventures and demanded they lay down their weapons. Trogdor did not want any of that and used a ring of jumping to try and slash at Mhistecai but the wizard used some mass effect spell that immobilized the aggressors. Trogdor, Lady Deathstrike, and Karem were arrested and placed in the governor’s castle. The wizard inspected them, found Karem’s black dagger (holy symbol of Eoele) and Trogdor’s sword (the sword was taken from the paladin that was killed to get the Tighmaevril spear). The black dagger was enough to get them imprisoned and the sword of a paladin was enough to get them the death sentence.

Duke Nightmare disappeared into the city and let the distraction of the murder on the docks allow for him spread some gossip. Duke Nightmare traded gossip for information that led him to a gambling den. As sly as possible Duke Nightmare insisted that he was an assassin and was looking for gainful employment. The thieves of the gambling den quickly learned of the disturbance on the docks and that one captured had a black dagger but was not part of the local Eoele. And then some assassin comes looking for a job, the thief’s smell what is up and set Duke Nightmare up.

Duke Nightmare is given an assignment to kill some dude at midnight in some graveyard. The dude shows up and Duke Nightmare kills him but then a lot of people show up and find the murderer and victim. Duke Nightmare eluded authorities and made his way back to the thieves den, were he was jacked my more thieves and a wizard. When Duke Nightmare realized that the numbers were against him summoned his magical steed and fled all the way to the xebec.

Duke Nightmare would eventually make his way back to the caravel and meet up with Josef the Kid, the Ten of Spades. Josef informed Duke Nightmare about what had transpired and that Trogdor, Karem, and Lady Deathstrike were being held in the castle and that the port was closed, no ships could come or go. Josef came up with a plan to get arrested for a petty crime, be placed in jail, use his thief abilities to escape and check out the jail, find and release the captives, and escape with them all too where they could meet up with Duke Nightmare who would go and get the xebec.

All went to plan but meeting up with the xebec, the port was truly shut down to ships coming or going. The escaping prisoners had to hide out on the caravel locked down in the port. The governor began to search the city and the port to find the escapees and it was just a matter of time before they would be caught. While talking over what to do, a messenger approaches the ship and delivers a message.

The message says it is from the Vos of Mieres and would offer shelter to the Vos escaping the law; Trogdor and Lady Deathstrike. The two Vos decided they got nothing else to lose and check it out, they are led to the gambling den were Duke Nightmare was at earlier (but I made the players role-play that they did not know this and they hated me for it). Basically Trogdor and Lady Deathstrike were taken to a back room and killed, their bodies given to the governor to curry more favor with him.

Karem the pirate waited and waited, but the Vos never came back and Karem decided to check it out himself. Sleuthing around the city was hard as the guards were out in numbers and not taking bribes. Eventually Karem found the same gambling den and was dealt with as well.
Two player characters were killed (Trogdor and Karem) and one of the most prized henchmen (Lady Deathstrike, we still sing her praise). Trogdor’s body would be displayed for awhile to show what happens to evil people and the paladin’s sword sent back to the proper church. Trogdor’s body would disappear one night, a night the locals say that was filled with unusual weather (Trogdor’s body was taken by Baba Yaga and raised back to life; Trogdor was always her favorite from the adventuring party and had raised him before, so Baba Yaga felt a little insulted that her work was undone).

Karem’s body would be taken by somebody quite different. It was determined that of the three deaths each would be dealt with differently. Trogdor would be brought back the quickest, Karem would return eventually, and Lady Deathstrike was killed right out. Karem was killed by the Eoele of Mieres and dumped into the sea were it was salvaged by the vampire/cleric from Storm Tower.

The vampire/cleric worshipped a new dark god and saw an opportunity with Karem. Karem felt betrayed by Eoele when the clerics of Mieres killed him for being a threat but to be fair Karem’s plans were the same. The vampire/cleric offered new dark shadow power but it would take time to train Karem. From a player’s aspect, I killed Karem and allowed him to play as his henchmen for the year led up to the Infernal Bazaar.

Salim the Sailor was promoted to King of Spades, Josef the Kid was promoted to Jack of Spades, and the Mystery Man remained the Ace of Spades. The Royal Flush Gang was devastated by the Eoele of Mieres but still had all their tangible assets; temple holdings in Abbatuor and Albiele Isle, a few pirate vessels, and the support of the other player characters. Everyone loved the idea of a tri-class, so for the new Ten of Spades a half-elf fighter/thief/wizard was hired and brought aboard.

I guess I should have mentioned it before now, but when Alexander Roesone hired Otto the Rake, Alexander also hired several clerics from Karem. Karem allowed five level one clerics to serve Alexander while in the guise of Duke Nightmare sought to explore more of the Underground Forest. Duke Nightmare reported that all the clerics of Eoele were killed and it was very believable that low level clerics would not survive long in a dungeon. Duke Nightmare lied to Karem and one cleric was still alive; a young Khinasi woman, Alyza, whom Duke Nightmare kept secret from the rest of the players (it was attempt to gain clerical power apart from known sources to allow Duke Nightmare to go on solo adventures). But when news of Karem’s death eventually reached Alyza, she escaped Duke Nightmare’s confines and rejoined the Royal Flush Gang as the new Queen of Spades.

Later we would ret-con a lot of the back stories for the henchmen and Otto the Rake would become an alter identity for the Mystery Man, the Ace of Spades. It was determined that while there is no honor among thieves, one can by loyalty with some coin. Otto the Rake would train Alexander as a thief but kept an eye out for Alyza because she was property of the Mystery Man’s other master, Karem. Otto the Rake would simply tell Alyza about the death of Karem and it was on her own initiative to leave Alexander and rejoin the Royal Flush Gang. But why wouldn’t Alexander get mad about losing his secret cache of cleric power? It was determined later that Alexander got with Alyza and that they had an intimate relation ship (this was determined about the time when the players began to think that they might want children as replacements if their main characters die or act as heirs).

With the death of Karem came the revolt by the lizardmen who began to tear some ass across the countryside from Abbatuor working their way through Roesone and Arenewe eventually settling in the swamp of Spiritsend. Karem only had one unit of lizardmen but the reports came in that there were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Now the players were suppose to go on an epic adventure to rescue Trogdor from the clutches of Baga Yaga who had moved her hut to Spiritsend and summoned the lizardmen as her defenders.

Now the player playing Trogdor did not like that I just killed him in the back alleys of Seaward or that he was going to have to roll as henchmen or nothing at all until he was rescued. The player playing the Red Hood switched to 3rd shift to make a hellva lot more money (3rd shift is 11pm to 7am for you who have not worked in a factory). So that left Karem (really just the Royal Flush Gang) and Alexander Roesone, so it was decided that having an evil regent with his own cadre of thieves and assassins was enough to keep the story moving forward.

Alexander grew tired of administrative affairs, of having to play the game of diplomacy, and not being able to out right attack whoever he felt like. Alexander decided to hand over his kingdom to the Red Hood who under the disguise of Raphael Saberstrike was seen as the defeater of pirates and the people’s champion. After the death of Alexander’s clone, Raphael could be appointed the regent of Roesone but Alexander had also conquered much of Diemed but Medoere lied in the way of that too.

In the Player’s Secrets of Medoere (TSR 3106) talked about the Sword of Enlien, a powerful sword that was used to liberate Medoere from Diemed and that it is waiting for the rightful champion to claim it. Hermphedhie used her position in Medoere to get a close examination of the sword and found that it radiates good and as history goes it was a flaming long sword. Hermphedhie makes a fake up that any player can hold and when they do; they radiate good (which is good for the players who are all evil). The plan becomes that some how a switch needs to be done so Raphael Saberstrike can claim the fake sword and thus claiming regency of Medoere. The only problem, none of the players were good enough thieves to be able to steal a lawful good paladin’s sword. But the idea was laid out that Raphael Saberstrike would become regent of Abbatuor, Roesone, Diemed, and Medoere.

Alexander robbed as much gold and other treasure from his kingdom as possible and headed off to the infernal bazaar. The Royal Flush Gang (being the other active player) did not have the ability to travel to the outer planes like Duke Nightmare on his fiend’s steed, but unbeknownst to Alexander, Karem had returned and was infused with the power for a new dark god. Karem stayed in contact with the Royal Flush Gang but took on a new roll, instead of the King of Spades; Karem would be the Shadow Emperor or the Shade as the new dark god was granting him shadow magic. Karem secretly ran the Royal Flush Gang and stole the Sword of Enlien.

Alexander arrived quite sometime before the infernal bazaar would get into full swing to check out the scene and get a feel for the environment. The efreeti under Alexander’s control was named Firebeard Blackaxe and he worked for a malik known simple as Deth. Malik Deth was unlike any other noble in the City of Brass because he was not an efreeti. Deth was a demi-god, once a powerful fighter that ascended into legendary status. The Great Sheik of the Efreeti held a tournament to find the bravest warrior to defend a portal between the Elemental Planes of Fire and Air. Using some loop-hole in the rules the demi-god known as Deth entered and won the tournament, the right to defend the portal, and the title of malik.

Alexander was impressed and took an offer to worship Deth as a god in return for the ability to level as a cleric. Alexander was given some minor quest to prove his worth and spent time in Deth’s brass citadel house in the City of Brass and time at Deth’s war fort guarding the portal between elemental planes. It feels kinda lame to explain Deth and the new dark god of Karem’s so I think I won’t.