The
Winterfrost Campaign
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A DRAGON'S WISH
The Story
First, a bit of background... A Dragon's Wish actually began as a basic (as in "version zero softcover books that sometimes came in boxes basic") D&D campaign. It was our gaming group's first return to basic D&D in many years (probably at least 6, and at least double that since our last serious D&D campaign). Why did we go back? Well, we were looking for something simple. A new player had joined our group who didn't have a lot of role-playing experience. We had played some Warhammer FRP, but this player had never really played D&D or AD&D, so we thought we'd go back to basics for a little nostalgia. Well, surprisingly, the adventure continued and became increasingly more fun. More than a year after we had started, we were still playing the same campaign (which is highly unusual for our gaming group which usually switches gaming systems every 4-6 months at most). As the PCs neared "Name Level" we decided it was time to up the ante a little. The newest player was familiar and comfortable with the D&D system, so we migrated the characters and campaign to AD&D 2nd Ed. where we played out the final story arcs of the campaign and ultimately continued the campaign as a game based on the Birthright system: Queenmaker...
Warning: This page is under heavy editing/construction and will probably not make a lot of sense to anyone for a long time. Please don't tell me it's gibberish. I know. I wrote it. The paths of a group of adventurers had crossed somewhere in the Duchy of Karameikos. Hoping for greater fortune by pooling their efforts, the party banded together and went in search of adventure.Their skills were great, yet still unproven. That day, a group of reknowned Heroes united: Darkstar Erendyll, the quiet, but fierce elven fighter-mage; Donovan, a thief whose quick-fingers also made him a swordsman worth watching; Gorett Jistri, a saucy rogue known for his skill with the whip; Halfdan "Tornado" Ivarson, the brash, take-charge human fighter; "Fling", cleric of ?, who favoured adventure over the dreariness of the convent; Licinda of Leatris, priestess of ?, and a devout defender of her faith; "Mad" Max Millerson, the berserk halfling warrior; Rankin Pelamon, the mage with endless ambition; and Thurn Gurntson, a stoic dwarven warrior.
If I recall correctly we did two modules to start: King's Festival, then Queen's Harvest.
KF had to do with cleaning out the wizard Kavorquian's basement at the behest of his one-armed son. This precipitated the death of my whip-wielding thief, Gorett. Ah, it still hurts deep inside when I think of him...
QH was the follow-up and involved the abduction of the town cleric by some evil broad. The "Queen" responsible was possessed by some ancient evil spirit and was building an army to continue an ancient conquest or something. Her henchmen were Tarrayo and Merkul, who would plague the group for a long, long time. It ended with the assault on the Queen's fortress, highlighted by Max's "mad" oil-bombing-while-levitating tactic, and Rankin's very first "wander-off-by-himself" adventure... where he stumbled into the ogre prison warden and wisely followed the suggestion that he climb into a prison cell voluntarily. Max bit it, though I don't recall exactly how. Halfdan also ate it after a trademark player-charging-through-the-door met its trademark DM response -- a swift sword-swing to the midsection from the fellow hiding beside the door. He was raised, but Max wasn't for some reason.
Then we actually started into the "A Dragon's Wish" bit. The would-be thieves you encountered in Kavorquian's basement were busted out of jail. Max's grave was subsequently robbed and his corpse had a finger swiped. One of the thieves, Sarrah, turned up dead and her partner, Erren, had apparently run off. You pursued her to try to figure out what the hell was going on...
The next part gets a little hazier. On your travel you fought off a demonic wheatfield that was demanding a blood sacrifice and defeated a wizard who was turning sheep into monsters which were plaguing the countryside (in patent-pending DM fashion, this same wizard... V... something... later returned as one of the would-be-assassins of Licinda at Genivie's coronation ceremony).
Along the way you began to receive visitations from the spirit of Kavorquian who was quite insistent that your help was needed with.. something, though he dare not say what, and only offered enigmatic clues.
Some of this happened while accompanying a caravan for Omizar, the merchant, who happened to be heading your way. A group of intelligent (and if I remember, mexican-accented) Phase Spiders were pillaging caravans, and you fought them off, finding a clue to Erren's whereabouts in the process.
Something else you discovered was of interest to Omizar, who requested your help in finding a magical artifact. This artifact was in the Broken Lands, I believe.
You discovered a cave in the broken lands where you found evidence that Erren was working for Tarrayo and Merkul, and that they had conducted a strange ceremony with the finger before betraying the thief, who barely escaped. This lead to discovering that Max had be resurrected as a gremlin and was leading a pack of lizardmen. You went underground and had your first encounter with the Shadowelves including finding an abandoned baby which survived a lizardmen attack.
After completing Omizar's quest he was revealed to be a Polymath on his way to becoming immortal. Recovering this artifact was one of his final tasks. He and Fling (can't remember her real name... my cleric), took the Shadowelf baby and left for the east to complete his quest and care for the child.
And much later... the death of Luminac.
Followed by the Trial of Rankin..
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