Religious TIER Campaign

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

We started a new campaign yesterday and it was amazing. Our party consists of players that are devoted to specific gods. My character, Balder, is a male half-orc who has healing/strength magic and fights with a greatclub for Tinkerton, the god of technology. Skulker is a kobold hunter of Crowshun, the god of survival. Frida is a female wood elf who has healing/defense magic and fights with a large shield for Dalania, the goddess of peace. Narcacuga is a male human shapeshifter who transforms into monsters and fights for Freelandra, the goddess of rebellion.

We are an adventuring group in the Faerun world and our 1st session was retrieving rare ingredients at a swamp for the bartender. There were swamp giants and deadly tree monsters that we had to fight to complete the quest.

Next session, the players will find out the following: there is a comet flying towards earth. It is months away, spotted with technology and magic. Religious people all over the world have different beliefs and explanations about how or why this comet is coming to earth. The world goes crazy and religious groups begin blaming and attacking each other, sacrificing their own people, or doing a variety of good and bad things to appease the gods and prevent the comet from destroying earth. You also have people who hate the gods and believe they are punishing us by bringing the comet to Earth. Every religion is publicly doing crazy things at different levels and alignments, and every religion has a secret dark cult doing even worse things.

It will be very exciting to see how players react to the comet and what decisions they make throughout the campaign. Will they save the world? Or will they create more chaos and havoc amongst the already panicked people? If you want the full campaign details, download the attachment. Religious Tier Campaign.docx (19.46 KB)

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 2nd Tier session for religious campaign:

Party went to the bar and received an easy/funny quest to clean out a basement full of dire rats. Balder got mauled by 4 dire rats, Frida killed them and helped Balder, then Narcacuga transformed into a huge gelatinous cube and swallowed all 19 remaining dire rats.

We returned to the bar and a kid ran into the bar throwing newspapers and screaming "We're all gonna die!" We all read the newspaper headline and everyone also began receiving magical messages confirming the news that a comet will crash into Earth in 6 months and destroy the planet. As a result, everyone in the bar began to panic and riot. Narcacuga tried using diplomacy to calm people down, and it initially worked well, but then he said some dumb stuff and pissed everyone off, restarting the riot again. They all attacked us, so Balder protected Frida and fought alongside her, but Narcacuga nearly died, actually hitting -9 HP! We barely saved him and defeated the rest of the rioting warriors in the bar.

After healing and cleaning up, we left the bar and saw the entire city of Palischuk rioting. There were 3 main areas of concern: residential, business, and civil services. We decided to go help the civil services area first. We found a school with teenaged students rioting, destroying the school and harming teachers. We put them down pretty fast, knocking them all unconscious with non-lethal damage. We also checked on the nearby church and other services, but the City Guard got them under control very quickly.

Next we went to the business sector. Frida and Balder performed healing and rescue operations while Narcacuga used intimidation and his huge transformations to scare away and break up small groups of rioters. Eventually, we found the center of the riots, hundreds of people destroying shops and robbing merchants. We fought them long and hard. Narcacuga transformed into a giant Griffin and intimidated and attacked rioters. Frida organized and reinforced the City Guard, helping them establish defense lines to combat the rioters. The rioters suddenly became super racist and hateful, literally 20 of them directly charged and piled on top of Frida! The City Guard tried to help her, but Balder got pissed! Balder had already knocked out 14 rioters around himself, but 5 more surrounded him, so Balder provoked attacks from all 5 enemies as he leapt away toward Frida and knocked out 8 enemies around her. Frida and the City Guard managed to clear the rest off her and Narcacuga scared off the remaining rioters.

After healing and cleaning up again, we ventured lastly to the residential area. We never imagined nor predicted the outcome...the residential area was completely destroyed! There was evidence of typical civilian protests, but there were also scorch and claw marks everywhere. We also saw a scary huge dragon flying away with a big sack of stolen loot. We spent the next few days rescuing about 50+ survivors, but the rest were all dead corpses. In total, 1,000 citizens died in the City of Palischuk and our efforts saved 211 people from death. The total population of the city is now 8,211.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 3rd Tier session for religious campaign:

The third session was wild, but very straightforward. Our party heard a rumor that followers of Hulgoth, the god of war, were planning on destroying a forest next to Suzail, the capital city of Cormyr. They wanted to destroy all vital resources of Suzail to weaken the city before going to war with them. We went to the forest and found 200 orcs with torches! We knew that we could not defeat 200 orcs in a normal fight, so we started with gorilla tactics. Skulker has the Dimension Door spell, so he kept moving us to different hiding spots while Frida and I (Balder) were grabbing and throwing trees at the orcs! After killing about 40 orcs with these tactics, they had lit most of the surrounding trees with fire torches and we had no more safe hiding spots, so we fought the remaining 160 orcs head-on. We took out another 40 orcs, but they eventually surrounded and piled on top of us.

We thought we were certainly doomed against the remaining 120 orcs, but then the Purple Dragons (paladins of Cormyr) came to our rescue. They charged in on horses and dealt great damage to the orcs. They gave us the distraction we needed to hide and heal our near-fatal wounds. Afterward, we went back into battle and fought more orcs. By the end of it all, we had defeated 100 orcs ourselves while the Purple Dragons also defeated 100 orcs. The forest was still burning down, so all the Purple Dragons began throwing lots of dirt onto fires and doing everything they could to help. I have strength magic, so I enhanced many paladins with extra size and strength so they could be more effective. Skulker worked with a Purple Dragon spellcaster to use Dimension Door repeatedly to reach a lake far away. Then they used bags of holding to collect lots of water and brought it back to the burning forest. Lastly, they poured all the water onto the fires and everyone's efforts together saved the forest. That session ended with the Purple Dragons inviting us to the city of Suzail to reward and praise us for protecting their city and nearby forest from the orcs.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 4th Tier session for religious campaign:

Our party hungout in Suzail, the capital city of Cormyr, for a week. It's a huge metropolis with riches and opportunities. We made friends with people in Suzail, performed religious duties, and worked for gold. I (Balder) follow Tinkerton, the god of technology, so I crafted items for customers and donated some gold to the church of Tinkerton.

Frida donated some gold to the church of Dalania, goddess of peace, and prayed for a while. During her prayer, the altar began glowing and a few followers and priestesses of Dalania praised and surrounded her. Frida tried to be modest and calm people down, claiming she was just a normal follower like everyone else, but Dalania actually spoke to Frida and told her she was more valuable than that. Then Frida's hair began to glow and everyone flipped out! I noticed that Frida was feeling overwhelmed, so I began talking highly of Frida and spoke about all of our party members as heroes, trying to take pressure off of her. Eventually we left the church and continued our business in Suzail.

Narcacuga used his high charisma to visit all the churches in the city and convince people that Freelandra, goddess of rebellion, is good and helpful to the world. Everyone agreed with Narcacuga and granted him permission to build a nice shrine to Freelandra in the city. Narcacuga asked Frida for help to build the shrine and Frida did an amazing job. When the shrine was complete, it began to glow and Freelandra briefly spoke to Narcacuga, telling him that he's done an excellent job spreading her good name in Suzail, which will allow Freelandra to gain more followers.

Skulker found 17 homeless, lonely, and needy people in Suzail and trained them to be hunters and followers of Crowshun, the god of survival. He also asked me for help and I gave a sermon to his 17 new followers, teaching them all about religious knowledge related to Crowshun. Skulker eventually enlisted the help of 4 followers to build a large shrine to Crowshun in the nearby forest. After completing the shrine, it began to hum a beautiful sound that attracted various wildlife. Then the remaining 13 followers, who were hiding, attacked all the animals and hunted them gruesomely. Skulker spent the rest of the day teaching his followers how to hunt in a more efficient and humane way, which led to Crowshun speaking with Skulker and congratulating him for his hard work.

At the end of the week, our party was invited to a lavish banquet at the castle to praise and reward us for protecting their city and nearby forest against the 200 orcs. Everyone had fancy clothes except Frida, and she had spent the last of her gold recently on magic items. So I invited Frida to go out shopping and paid for her dress. The next day, we prepared for the banquet and arrived at night. There were two guards at the entrance who were being total dicks, insulting our party and not letting us into the banquet. Thankfully, Narcacuga has incredible diplomacy skills and convinced the guards to let us in.

At the banquet, I ate lots of food from numerous servants walking around with appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. Skulker is a small kobold, so he hid and climbed around to get vantage points and observe everyone at the banquet. Thankfully, Skulker kept a close eye on Narcacuga and helped him a lot. Narcacuga used his high charisma to attract everyone's attention and do lots of networking. However, he also attracted two beautiful women who proceeded to hit on him and wanted a threesome. Luckily, Skulker was observing everyone and noticed that one of the two women were related to a rich and powerful nobleman. Narcacuga tried to get with the single girl, but the married one wouldn't let them go, so Narcacuga pretended to be sick and abandoned both women.

Frida used charisma boosting magic and attracted more attention than she wanted; three rich bachelors approached and tried to court her. I sensed that she felt uncomfortable, so I stepped in front of the three men and told them she was spoken for. Two men backed off, but ironically, the ugliest one would not back down, and I was very close to knocking him out. Thankfully, Frida grabbed my arm, pretended we were dating, and pulled me towards a servant to eat more food. I smiled and enjoyed this, as I secretly like Frida a lot, but I don't know how to tell her. She doesn't seem to be interested in romance with anyone and I sense there's something important that she hasn't told me yet.

The grand feast began, and we all sat down at a very long dining table with many important nobles and all members of the royal family. Multiple people offered a toast, and the king spoke highly of our party for being heroes, but almost everyone was whispering under their breath about how we were from the small weak city of Palischuk. Narcacuga tried using his oratory skills to make a toast and impress everyone, but it mostly fell on deaf ears. Then a rich and powerful nobleman gave a toast about doing his best to help Suzail, mentioning his successful business and family. Most people supported/cheered for him and Skulker realized this was the same man eyeing Narcacuga when the two women were hitting on him.

After the toasts and pleasantries, we all enjoyed a wonderful meal. However, a priestess of Dalania was sitting next to Frida and whispering in her ear. I was sitting next to Frida and overheard the priestess talking about a plot to have assassins murder all rulers in Cormyr! She explained how all rulers have failed to protect us from the comet and are too busy being greedy and corrupt, fighting for money and power instead of planning to stop the comet. Ultimately, the priestess wants to murder all rulers in Cormyr and replace them with followers of Dalania who will help protect our planet from the comet, all for the greater good. Frida obviously disapproved and tried hiding her feelings. The priestess wanted Frida to join the cause and champion it, even offering her 24 hours to think about it and make her decision, but she knew Frida would not join after seeing her hesitation and body language. Therefore, she told Frida as a final ultimatum to either join the cause or stay out of the way, then the priestess stood up and walked out of the dining room.

Frida was very surprised by that situation, finding it impossible to believe that followers of Dalania, the goddess of peace, would want to murder all rulers in Cormyr. She asked me what we should do, and I stood up and said, "time for us to be heroes". I took her hand and we walked out of the dining room, the rest of our party followed us, and we began chasing the priestess. She was quickly joined by 5 other assassins, and they all disappeared! They turned invisible and I used my survival skills to track their footprints. Narcacuga used his Scent magic to follow them as well. The assassins quickly jumped out windows and began climbing up the outside castle walls!

Our party quickly followed; I threw Frida on my back and used my awesome jumping and climbing skills, Skulker used spider climb magic, and Narcacuga transformed into a bat for flight. We kept pace with them until they jumped through windows on the 4th floor. We continued chasing them and then they split into 2 separate groups! We argued about strategy and concluded that they were trying to kill the king and queen (who were together in the dining hall) and the oldest son/heir to the throne (who we saw flirting with a noble girl during the party). The party argued too long and could not decide what to do, so I took charge and yelled, "Frida and I will go after the king and queen, you guys go find and save the son!"

Frida and I reached the king and queen just before the assassins and told them what was happening. Frida and one guard with blindsight went to protect the king and queen while the rest of the guards and I stood vigilant and ready for a fight. Within seconds, ranged attacks came in from three different directions. Since the three assassins were invisible, it was very difficult to attack and defend against them. One guard cast a Glitterdust spell and one assassin became visible, so I charged and stunned him with my greatclub. The other guards quickly killed the stunned assassin, but there were still two assassins left and they managed to critically wound the king and poison the queen! Thankfully, Frida is a fantastic healer and saved both their lives from poison and death. The two assassins failed their mission, so they ran away.

Narcacuga and Skulker arrived just in time to find the oldest son/heir having sex with a noble girl in his bedroom. They quickly explained everything and tried barricading the bedroom door, but the three assassins came through the wall using magic. They were invisible, but Narcacuga used his Scent magic to find and attack them. He killed one assassin, but the other two managed to critically wound the son/heir. Skulker tried to help, but the assassins hit him with poisonous ranged attacks that put him to sleep. The noble girl panicked and ran out the window and climbed along the ledge, yelling for help and signaling castle guards. Narcacuga miraculously killed one more assassin and the 3rd one escaped, then Narcacuga used Polymorph magic to temporarily transform and heal the son/heir. Eventually, the noble girl and guards showed up at the bedroom and properly healed/helped the son/heir. In the end, we all succeeded in protecting the royal family and foiling the assassins' plans, but three out of the six did escape and there could be more of them plotting to kill other rulers in Cormyr.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 5th Tier session for religious campaign:

Our group took a 3-week hiatus to work small jobs and help the city of Suzail. We also took care of personal matters and conducted an investigation to find out who tried to kill the royal family. We found out that the assassins from the Temple of Dalania, goddess of peace, escaped the city and went to their secret hideout in a cave about 25 miles away. Our party found the location and ventured out there. Riding horses and using magic, we avoided all troubles and made it there in half a day. There were two enemies guarding the cave entrance, so Narcacuga had the brilliant idea of transforming us into bats and flying inside past the guards. One guard was scared of us, but the other one was vicious and cast Burning Hands fire spell at us. We took some damage, but we successfully entered the cave without alerting other enemies. Since we were bats, they figured we belonged in the cave and did not suspect us to be humanoid enemies in disguise.

Once inside the cave, we traveled down a straight-forward path and avoided traps thanks to Frida's sharp elven eyes. We soon found all the assassins at the end of the cave in a large open area. They were alert because even though we avoided all traps, we did trigger a few along the way which made noises. We healed our wounds, cast a few buffing spells, and charged into the room. Frida and I were in the front, Narcacuga and Skulker were in the back. 2 archers fired arrows, 2 spellcasters launched Fireball spells, and 4 shield warriors readied their attacks against us. We took a bit of damage, but we made it into the room.

Once inside, I (Balder) leapt over the shield warriors, provoked a few attacks, and landed between all the bad guys. Then I threw my greatclub in a large circle, hitting 4 out of the 8 enemies with good damage and stunned them! All enemies who weren't stunned, however, crowded around me and attacked. Thankfully, Frida is a great defender and shared my space to shield me from heavy damage. She also attacked enemies and healed us throughout the battle as well. She's the best girl I know, and I want to marry her one day.

Skulker hid in different areas of the cave. He was supposed to deal heavy damage with his archery skills, but an enemy spellcaster had a contingency spell that set off a Wind Wall spell that created heavy winds throughout the cave! The enemy archers had the Force magic ability on their weapons, so they could continue attacking within the Wind Wall spell without any problems, but Skulker was rendered useless for most of the fight. Eventually, he remembered that he had the Confusion spell, so he cast it multiple times in battle and successfully confused 1 archer and 1 spellcaster. Skulker also used Teleportation magic to rescue me from Quicksand created by an enemy spellcaster. He also used Teleportation to get Narcacuga right next to an enemy spellcaster.

Using Polymorph magic, Narcacuga transformed into a powerful werebear hybrid warrior and dealt significant damage to all the shield warriors and successfully killed 1 spellcaster. He did well throughout the battle, until an enemy spellcaster used Baleful Polymorph and changed Narcacuga into a helpless squirrel! I shouted at the squirrel to run away and hide, but he decided to jump into the pants of the enemy spellcaster to continue fighting! Eventually, we gained the advantage in battle and killed 6 out of the 8 enemies. The last archer had run away due to Confusion and the last spellcaster teleported away, ending the fight.

We all congratulated each other, healed our wounds, and collected the enemies' loot. But we soon realized that Narcacuga was gone! He was inside the pants of the enemy spellcaster when he teleported away! We had no way of finding them as they could be anywhere in the whole world, so Skulker teleported us back to the royal family in Suzail. They rewarded us for defeating the assassins and gave us information about another quest to complete in the near future. Then Frida requested that we go to the Temple of Dalania to get help finding Narcacuga.

When we arrived at the temple, followers of Dalania thanked us for hunting down the evil assassins who were ruining their reputation. Then Frida sat down in a candle-lit ritual space and began praying to Dalania. Dalania did not answer her prayers and the priestesses were unable to help us find Narcacuga, the squirrel. We all came to the sad conclusion that Narcacuga was dead and lost forever, most likely killed by the last enemy spellcaster since he was a harmless squirrel. We did not have revival magic nor any means of bringing him back to life. Frida was sad and desperate, offering gold and her eternal servitude as gifts to Dalania, but Dalania did not answer her prayers. I felt terribly bad for Frida, knowing she would blame herself for his death, and had a heart-to-heart conversation with her.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 6th Tier session for religious campaign:

I (Balder) convinced our party to go on a vacation as a means of helping them get over the death and loss of Narcacuga. Luckily, there was a beautiful and extravagant beach resort located along the coast and part of the capital city Suzail. The vacation cost a total of 3,000 gold, so I kindly paid 2,000 gold and both Frida and Skulker each paid 500 gold. This allowed us to eat, drink, and stay in a luxurious suite by the sea for 3 days. It was a spectacular vacation, but the most exciting part involved competitions they had on the beach and in the ocean.

Skulker participated in a major aquatic hunting event. The waters had various dangerous exotic creatures, big and small. Skulker was one of the best hunters, but there was also a female halfling performing equally well. They competed neck-and-neck, until they came across an aquatic chaos beast. Skulker harmed the creature with his aquatic arrows, but the monster then bit Skulker and transformed him into a useless sponge! Thankfully, the female halfling managed to kill the creature with her daggers and brought Skulker to safety. A magical lifeguard working for the resort successfully transformed Skulker back into his normal Kobold self. Despite Skulker losing the competition, the female halfling extended her hand and helped Skulker stand up proudly. She was impressed by his hunting prowess and admitted that most people would have died against the aquatic chaos beast. Skulker asked her to join him for dinner and fun at night, which she gladly accepted.

Frida and I participated in various strength-related events. We raced against other contestants pushing and pulling giant boulders along the beach. We had piggyback races carrying people, high jump and long jump, tug-of-war, and tree tossing battles. In all those events, both Frida and I were neck-and-neck, the top contenders drawing lots of attention. People adored us for our heroic reputations and charmed looks. The last event, however, demonstrated a clear victor. It was a swimming event where Frida and I had to swim down to the sea floor, grab a treasure chest, and bring it up to the surface. At the beginning of the race, Frida had a terrible start, and I actually swam back to grab her and pull her alongside me because I wanted a competitive match, not an easy win. In the middle of the race, she kept up with me. In the end, however, I pulled ahead in heroic fashion. We both reached the treasure chest and grabbed it simultaneously, but then I proved to be the faster swimmer and pulled both her and the chest up to the surface. I was swimming so fast that she had to hold on for dear life! Eventually, I leapt out of the water and landed on the beach with her and the chest. I presented us as a tie holding the chest together, but the audience understood that I was the clear winner and cheered for me.

For all the competitions, I was awarded 600 gold and both Frida and Skulker were given 300 gold for earning 2nd place. We all happily celebrated together at a fancy dinner, eating great food and drinks. Frida held my hand throughout the night, a silent agreement that I finally had a chance to be with her as I've always wanted. Skulker introduced his female halfling friend, Kendra, and we all had a great time together. Kendra was a spicy girl with a fiery spirit. Balder made a dumb joke and Kendra immediately pulled out her dagger and threatened to kill Balder if he said it again. Balder respected her, then laughed and said, "I like her! You found a keeper Skulker!" As a result of winning the strength competitions, many attractive girls at the dinner were coming up to our table and fighting for my attention. After all the interruptions from adoring fans, we asked for a more private location and the waiter cast magic and teleported us into a secret dinner location. We enjoyed the rest of the night sharing stories about Narcacuga and our vacation adventures. At the end of the night, Skulker brought Kendra to his suite and had all the fun. Frida and I shared a suite together as well, but she opted to snuggle instead of doing more. I happily accepted, but I knew she was still holding back her feelings for me, and I sensed it may have something to do with her mysterious past that she's never spoken of.

We returned to our normal city lives in Suzail and I spent a few days crafting and upgrading items for myself and Frida; Frida kindly kept me company during that time. Eventually, we began investigating a new quest for the royal family. They also provided us with a new companion named Saraphi, a depressed dwarven arcane summoner, to help complete our new quest. Followers of Dunkoon, the god of nature, were taking citizens on nature tours, but occasionally people were dying, and we were tasked to find out why and stop the deaths. We spoke with the nature guides, and they showed us their travel maps with 3 different paths that they usually take. We went on a trip with them and nothing bad happened. We also investigated the paths independently and dealt with monsters and natural dangers, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. We all felt that nature guides would be expected to protect their travelers from such dangers, right?

We ultimately reasoned that something fishy must be happening during the nature tours, so we decided to stealthily follow a nature tour. Skulker and Saraphi were both very stealthy, so they followed the tour on foot. Frida and I were both not stealthy and quite loud, Saraphi summoned a magical flying horse so Frida and I could ride it above the forest trees and out of sight. Saraphi also connected all of us with a telepathic bond so we could talk, share intel, and respond to danger. About halfway through the tour, a tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur was sighted and began chasing after the tourists. Saraphi cast Web and Solid Fog spells to slowdown the dinosaur, and most tourists escaped, but Skulker noticed that a nature guide cast quickened entangle spell to catch one of the tourists! Skulker tried to rescue and teleport away with the tourist, but Skulker got stuck in the entanglement too! Thankfully, Saraphi was able to reach them both and teleport safely back to Suzail.

Frida and I flew into action and attacked the two nature guides. They were powerful druids and summoned plants and animals to attack us. They also cast Quicksand spells to trap us in the ground! Eventually, Skulker and Saraphi caught up with us and helped win the fight. One heavily damaged druid used a tree and magic to teleport away while the other druid used a magic horn to summon a stampede! The druid tried running away with magic afterward, but Saraphi dispelled his escape spell! The druid fell down and ran out of time as the stampede trampled him and we narrowly escaped thanks to Skulker teleporting us out of danger. We found the druid and he survived the stampede, but he had broken bones and was unable to move. Frida and I healed his wounds and we arrested him. We brought him to the royal family, and he explained why Dunkoon followers were getting people killed on nature tours. The druid blamed humanity for the comet and future destruction of the world, so he felt humanity must be punished by nature. The royal family rewarded us with gold and reminded us to look into the Tinkerton quest, which entails Tinkerton followers traveling to the Plane of Earth to collect gold and valuable gems by any means necessary (killing earth elementals who may get in their way) in order to fund their crafting of a huge weapon to destroy the comet. We also received a magic message explaining that the small city of Palishuck (my hometown) was attacked again by the same powerful evil red dragon.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 7th Tier session for religious campaign:

We decided to take on the Tinkerton quest to obtain gold and gems from the Plane of Earth. The followers of Tinkerton wanted to go there as conquerors and take everything by force, but our party had a different plan. We convinced a priest of Tinkerton to send us to the Plane of Earth before the rest of Tinkerton's followers. We appeared in the middle of nowhere and used our skills to find a safe path to the leader of the Earth Elementals. We spoke with him and explained the danger of the comet that will destroy Earth in a few months, as well as the Tinkerton church needing gold and gems to fund their goal of building a massive weapon to stop the comet from hitting Earth. The Earth Elemental leader understood our situation and said that we could excavate 75% of the Plane of Earth and his people will not attack the Tinkerton church.

The Tinkerton church brought an army of 100 members to the Plane of Earth with the desire to conquer, but we explained the deal we negotiated with the leader of the Earth Elementals. Sadly, the Tinkerton army general did not care and still wanted to conquer the Plane of Earth and kill Earth Elementals for their weight in gold. We argued a lot and eventually I (Balder) challenged the army general to a duel. The army general was powerful, wielding a mace and shield and casting arcane magic. I did well for half the battle, but then he got serious and began casting multiple spells that could defeat me in one hit. My friends used invisibility and stealth tactics to secretly help me, casting healing spells to help me fight longer, but the army general eventually defeated me and discovered the cheating. Thankfully, my friends made a final desperate plea to spare the lives of Earth Elementals and the army general agreed. Despite our diplomatic victory, I was disappointed that I lost against the army general. Frida felt bad and consoled me by holding me close in silence. She made me feel better and inspired me to get stronger.

We stayed in the Plane of Earth to keep the peace between earth elementals and Tinkerton followers. After a week of successful excavation, we all left the Plane of Earth and returned to the city of Suzail. The king rewarded us for a job well done, but then we received a dire message from the city of Palischuk...they had been attacked again by the same evil red dragon! We felt terrible about this and immediately teleported to Palischuk. They had an army of orcs and half-orcs preparing to attack the dragon head-on at Castle Perilous. Thankfully, we convinced them not to attack the dragon, promising that we would kill the dragon ourselves. They laughed at us and believed we would probably fail, but they did not mind giving us a head-start.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 8th Tier session for religious campaign:

We played a full game session, but the explanation is short and sweet. We killed a dragon!!!

We went to Castle Perilous and finally killed the dragon that kept attacking the city of Palischuk. He had an undead army patrolling the area, but we got past it nearly unscathed and found a secret portal leading to his dragon lair. This was straight out of Legend of Vox Machina. It was an epic battle; the dragon performed vicious physical attacks and launched magic spells like Sound Burst and Wail of the Banshee! The dragon became desperate and opened a portal, allowing the undead army to flood into his lair! Multiple people almost died, but we won and made it out alive with as much gold as we could carry.

When we returned to the city of Palischuk, the people were all shocked by our success. It was a big moment for everyone, but more for me (Balder) and Frida than anyone else. Palischuk is my hometown, and I dealt the most damage to the dragon, so I fulfilled my duty of protecting my people by killing the dragon and preventing future attacks, all of which solidifies my future of becoming a Racial Paragon (the strongest member of the orc & half-orc races). Frida provided healing support and defended me and our party against multiple attacks with her large shield, all of which helped us kill the dragon and solidify her future of becoming a Half-Dragon.

Hopefully we can help Skulker and Saraphi achieve their transformations in the future too.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 9th Tier session for religious campaign:

We spent a few days resting and helping the city of Palischuk, whom had recently been attacked multiple times by an evil red dragon. We killed that dragon and felt victorious! As a fun side-note, Frida woke up the next day as a Half-Dragon! I (Balder) also woke up as a Racial Paragon, having proven to be the strongest of my half-orc brethren after killing the dragon. My god, Tinkerton, also improved my unique spell to Mage's Magnificent Mansion! So now my friends and I can all live happily and luxuriously.

We also spent a few days celebrating the defeat of the evil red dragon. Palischuk threw a large outdoor fiesta for us. Dancing, music, food, competitions and games entertained everyone. Skulker and his girlfriend both tied for a win in a shooting contest where they both ended with a bullseye. Balder and Frida competed in an eating contest and Frida won! Saraphi gathered vital information and found out that the capitol city of Suzail was recently placed under Martial Law! Saraphi said that the royal family sent him a message promising a reward if we "End the tyranny of the Church of Leo."

Our party rested that night and teleported over to Suzail the next day. We gathered information and spoke to citizens to find out that a few people have been killed by the Church of Leo (god of justice) in order to maintain peace and stop all protests and crime that were resulting from news of the incoming comet. The city also follows a strict 9 PM curfew. We visited the temple of Leo, spoke to the head priestess, and discovered that the church has divided itself. Half the people do not support the Martial Law and continue their normal duties. The other half are enforcing Martial Law and using the royal family castle as their headquarters. Our party decided we would go to the castle and takedown the guards enforcing Martial Law. The head priestess agreed to use her guards to keep civilians away from the castle during our attack.

Our party first tried teleporting into the castle, but discovered that it was protected from planar travel by magic. Then we arrived on foot at the castle gate and fought our way through multiple outside guards. A prismatic wall began to form around the castle and our party rushed inside the castle, but Saraphi decided to stay outside the castle and use his army of summoned monsters to fight off and prevent guards and outsiders from entering the castle. Once inside, our party defeated 15 guards at the entrance, then we rushed into the throne room. The royal family was not there, but 10 guards and the leader of the Church of Leo were there.

The leader wore black breastplate armor and constantly emitted smoke. Skulker and Frida spoke up, claiming to be heroes coming to end Martial Law and save the city. However, the leader spoke to us in a dark calm tone, "You've killed more guards today than I've killed people in a whole month. Are you really the heroes in this scenario? I've brought peace to this corrupt city and you all try to kill me? I hate people like you!" This made Skulker question why we were even here. Then Frida asked me to speak up and I said, "So what if people are protesting and causing trouble in the city? Either let them do as they please or enforce the normal punishments, but you don't need to kill anyone or place the whole city under Martial Law. What you're doing is wrong and we're here to stop you!" I began motioning to throw my greatclub at the leader, which sparked the beginning of battle.

Next session will fully describe the battle and aftermath.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Summary of 10th Tier session for religious campaign:

The leader of the church of Leo was clearly possessed by some kind of evil entity. His body constantly let out smoke and when fighting up-close, we could hear 2 different voices. The man was a monster! He flew past all of us, grabbed Skulker, and slammed him through the castle wall! Thankfully, Skulker was able to teleport himself out of the enemy's grasp, but now there was a large hole leading to the prismatic wall outside. 10 guards of the church of Leo continuously attacked us, along with the leader overwhelming us. Eventually, the leader grabbed me (Balder) and threw me out of the castle and through the prismatic wall! Fortunately, I smashed through the prismatic wall with my weapon and successfully blocked its effects, but I still fell to the ground. Saraphi was outside and just finished dealing with all the outside guards. He asked me if I was okay and then he jumped onto my back, so I leapt three stories up and back into the castle battle.

While I was outside, however, the leader and his guards killed Frida! Skulker had been hiding in the room and sniping enemies, but he was unable to save Frida. I became enraged and continued fighting all the enemies by throwing my greatclub and heavily damaging and stunning them. The leader was immune to stunning and had blind-fighting, so he was a pain in the ass. After I whooped ass for a while, the leader eventually grabbed me again and body slammed me outside and into the prismatic wall! This time I took significant damage and barely survived the full effects of the prismatic wall. We both hit the ground hard and I healed myself, but the leader flew back into the castle to keep fighting Saraphi and Skulker.

Once again, I leapt back up into the castle and we all continued to fight. Saraphi kept summoning monsters to help us fight and we all eventually killed the leader and all his guards except for one. The last guard dropped his weapons and begged for his life. As the leader died, an evil spirit evacuated the body and screamed in rage as it dispersed in front of us. Saraphi wanted me to kill the last guard as revenge for them killing Frida, but I knew I was better than that, and I had bigger priorities.

I picked up Frida's corpse, walked to the 1st floor, and screamed for the cowardly royal family to come out of hiding. Moments later, the royal family came out and the king tried giving me some prepared "Thank you" speech, but I told him to shup up and revive Frida. He wasn't happy with my disrespect, but he owed me big time for killing the baddies and ending the Martial Law, so he took out a magic item that opened a portal and summoned a mysterious priest. The priest looked at us all, grinned at the king, and held his hand out. The king reluctantly handed over 50,000 gold to the priest and he spent 10 minutes casting a True Resurrection spell that brought Frida back to life. Saraphi demanded the king also reward us for our work and he reluctantly handed our party an additional 12,000 gold.

As soon as Frida was breathing again, I picked her up and walked out of the castle without saying a word. I opened up the magical door to my Mage's Magnificent Mansion and took her straight to our bedroom. I helped her eat, shower, and sleep. The next day, we had a conversation that would forever change our future. I told her "Your death was the scariest moment of my life and it will never happen again. We will help stop the comet from destroying our planet, then we'll retire from adventuring. I only care about you and my friends and family. I will not risk our lives again to solve the problems of strangers...we can let other heroes do that." Frida did not speak, she simply hugged me tightly and agreed.