White Boar Campaign.
I once had a competition with a friend, where we would build two towers for rivaling high level wizards (2nd Edition AD&D rules) with level adequate g.p. value to spend on magic items. I made a necromancer and used all the tricks I could think of for him to protect himself -- magic jar, having a clone ready, contingency spells. I created a map of the countryside and placed it on the Darlene Map, between Bright Desert, Celadon Forest, and the Gnatmarsh, where the Necromancer lived. The province was a sleepy backwater behind the enchanted forest. This became a campaign that we played over a couple of annual retreats.
The premise of the campaign was that, after years of quiet the necromancer was stirring again, black riders were scouring the land for him, and people were worried. They sent group of adventurers with 10,000 g.p. to Greyhawk City for guidance and help. (The secret part of the story is still waiting to be played, 20 later).
The players first were not in a hurry, and started out exploring various points of interest in the province. They freed the home village of the wizard from some menacing ogres. Then they encountered a ghost in an abandoned tower in the woods, and decided (hair more white now) to get on with their quest.
The first milestone was to reach Greyhawk City. They trekked through the enchanted forest North towards Leukish, met Sir Karll of Urnst in the woods, made it "Through the Night" (Dungeon #29), solved the riddle of the Goblin stone fairy tale from the Greyhawk boxed set, explored a burned down wizard tower in "A Wizard's Fate" (relocated to Greyhawk, a fantastically fun adventure for low levels, by Chris Perkins, Dungeon #37). Then they got side trekked back into the forest by "Nymphs Reward" (Dungeon #29) and hunted the "White Boar of Kilfray" (Dungeon #37) for the thane of Woodwych, another fantastic adventure that played great -- I really liked the work of Willie Walsh. They loved the keep and because the wild wood elves were their allies, decided to make it their home base, and hence forth called themselves the "White Boar Group". (First retreat, which was one of the best times we ever had with D&D).
On the way out of the woods, the ranger died to giant spider poison (a random encounter). Still in Norse country, they salvaged the "Cauldron of Plenty" (Dungeon #21) before continuing on to Leukish, corpse of the ranger in tow. On the road, they freed "The Vineyard Vales" (Dungeon #23) from a terrifying "black dragon" who fled, and made friends with the Whiteheart mercenaries. They were robbed by a six fingered brigand leader with two hundred men (another wilderness random encounter straight out of 2e and low point of the campaign). In Leukish, they took a pirate ship over the Nyr Dyv to Greyhawk. A storm standed them with their dead ranger in a barrel at "Wards of the Witching Ways" (Dungeon #11), where the wizard polymorphed all of them into vermin. Lucky for them it was all a bet, and they were put ashore. (This second retreat sucked for the players, and I learned for good that being pummeled by overly powerful opponents is as little fun as getting robbed of your magic items. They were down to gallows humor and joked of playing on in polymophed form Maya the Bee-style).
They trekked along the Nyr Dyv, when an angel of Pholtus appeared to them. Holy relics had been stolen and had to be rescued in "Arms of Nagrash-Tor" (not a dungeon magazine adventure, but one a friend had recommended). They did so, and finally made it to Greyhawk, where the grateful clergy of Pholtus raised their ranger from the dead. Unfortunately, neither the priests, nor Otto the Mage whom they consulted with could divine any information about the necromancer or the black riders, which was very unusual. A setback. The next milestone was to go back home. Demoralized, they traveled the Abbor Alz, when they saw a shooting star in the sign of Pholtus. They followed where it had fallen, and stumbled upon the library of the gods that you can never find if you search for it and that contains all the knowledge of the world, in "Ex Libris" (Dungeon #29). There they found a scroll that revealed the black riders were signs that the thing that had created the bright desert was to raise again if they were not stopped. (Here ended the retreat).
They made their way through the bright desert, where they freed a princess from an efreeti in "Telar in Norbia" (another adventure from Willie Walsh, Dungeon #31) and reunited the thief with his family of desert elves and hunted a behir with them. On returning, they found their home overrun by the undead forces of the necromancer, only the town still held fast. The next milestone was to collect enough armies in support of the town to mount a counter-offense, and defeat the invaders.
First, they sent envoys to the desert elves and the wood elves for support. While these were on their way they looked what could be done in the province to turn the tide. The necromancer had hired the Whitehall mercenaries. Because they were friendly with them from back in the vinelands, the mercenaries agreed to an ordeal in single combat to win their support.
Next, they traveled to Mount Hammer and retrieved the axe of the dwarf king from the lost city to make the good thane king so he could send help (this was self-written, here is the map of the city, the ventilation shafts, and key. This was a caper/heist where you had to get in and retrieve the crown before the undead overwhelmed you, or a crew sent by the evil rival clan got to it first - that clan was willing to cooperate with the necromancer. Here is that NPC crew along with the genealogy of the competing houses. (End of the retreat).
Then they went on a "Hunt for a Hierophant" (Dungeon #63) in the enchanted forest that had been overrun by the necromancer's bullywugs, to raise the forest creatures and weaken his army.
Finally, a venerable priest of Pholtus, "the lowest of his servants" (of course, the pope), showed up and used the 10,000 g.p. as material component to create an ark that radiated daylight in a large radius and made shadows and wraiths powerless. The delegations of the desert elves and the grugrach also arrived.
At long last they led the united armies of mercenaries, wood elves, desert elves, mountain dwarves, the remaining town militia and even the hill giant Bert into an epic battle against the necromancer's undead, lizard men and black rider ring-wraith masters, the lord of which rode a black dragon. They routed them. We used the narrative battle system from Pendragon for this, where characters duel with opposing leaders, to influence the outcome and turning fates of the battle. Greg Stafford was awesome. Thus ended the retreat, and the climax for this campaign arc.
The heroes now were important personages and had time to attend to their research, or administer their domains, but they felt the urge to once more head out for adventure. They did not want to confront the necromancer himself, which might have been suicidal. Instead, they explored an old ruin in the enchanted forest, "The Seventh Arm" (Dungeon #88), and after a short trip to the Underdark, the tower of the mage on the lake, who tended to turn people into frogs and collected fey to extract their essence. They agreed on a stalemate with him in exchange for him teaching that spell to the party wizard.
After that, we started a new group, and did not go back to play in this campaign, as we would not get the same players back together, and the player of the mage, who had died in the last adventure when he could not play him for a short while, and lost a point of constitution in resurrection, did not want to continue playing him.
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