The party are met at the Amran docks by a refugee from the empire and guided to meet with two invididuals: an elf named Elimelech and a gnome named Nadab. Elimelech explains that he has been in Amran as an intelligence officer for the Sunward Emperor for five years and Nadab has been working as a merchant, but also passing information to the imperial navy.

A lead takes them to a proto-industrial slum outside the city walls, near the river which, along with the sea port, is the other half Amran’s mercantile dominance. After a few days of surveillance, where they also learn that other, interested parties are also watching them, the party makes their move.

They’re a little late, though. Someone had been minting currency in the name of non-existent empire and using that currency to hide involvement in paying for the invasion of the Sunward Empire. Oh, and the ringleaders transform into humanoid snakes. So, there’s that.

Part I
Part II

I’m just going to keep on recording the events of my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. You will probably keep on not reading it, but… I don’t know. Maybe someone will. Or no one will. Or just me.

The party took a boat, along with a helpful gnome named Peleg and an obnoxious, arrogant elf named Aelat, to the capital city of Hazakis. Inside the city, Teague, the cowardly, but also passionate, venal, cruel, and impulsive bard, managed to insult the emperor by suggesting that the Sunward army was doomed. Fortunately, after the party was summarily thrown into prison, some wiser heads prevailed and smuggled the party out and sent them to mainland to determine what was behind the invasion. The invaders had already been determined to be the Hoshen, a warlike nation of humans not normally known to be seafaring; as well, a strange symbol had been found on an amulet worn by some leaders: three parallel, vertical, wavy lines.

Teague, Regdar, and Finian set off for the prosperous and tricky city of Amran, the Sunward Empire’s main trading partner, hoping to meet up with an agent of the Sunward Empire who had been stationed in Amran for many years…

So, today is being celebrated as the fortieth birthday of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a bit of an approximation because the nature of the game is that its creation was a process. But, what the heck. Happy birthday.

In honor of this momentous day, I am going to subject anyone who bothers to read this to a lengthy description of the campaign I have been running. Suck it, reader. Or don’t. Click away. That’s what free will is all about.

A halfling thief named Finian, a human warrior named Regdar, and a human skald named Teague were serving in the military of a small, peaceful, multi-cultural kingdom that called itself the Sunward Empire. The king is a gnome and is the spiritual representation of the sun god. His consort is a human and is chief priestess of the wind goddess. Primarily supporting itself on a combination of trade between the eastern and western continents of Loe and Goa, respectively, as well as some mining and tropical agriculture.

The party is part of the small garrison of the Throughward Isle, which is the easternmost island and also has the largest iron mine in the Sunward Empire. After a quick introductory fight between the characters and some giant crabs in the shallows, there was an alarm sounded and the party ran to the main docks.

A group of well organized, well drilled human soldiers disembark in quick order. After a few minutes (’rounds’ in D&D parlance), it became clear that the small garrison would soon be overwhelmed and the garrison commander sent them to escort one of the island’s leading citizens and part of its ruling council to go to the fortified island/city of Hazakis to warn the emperor. They were lead to the entrance to the mines by a gnome named Peleg (who would remain with the party for a long time, before Finian cut off his scrotum and left him to bleed out on the street, but that’s another story).

In the mines, they are ambushed by some humanoid frogs called bullywugs and first see a symbol consisting of three vertical, wavy lines (which would reoccur throughout the campaign).

They emerged on the other side of the island and took a boat to the see the emperor.

So blaming Dungeons & Dragons is still a thing, huh?

I guess I’ll go play Black Ops or one of those kinds of games. Assassinating civilians appears to be okay, provided you don’t use magic to do it. And If John Yoo says he’s ‘cool’ with it.