The Original Escaped Slaves
The Crew of Captain Cole Esterol's Ship
From Stromboli Island
From Fortune Cookie Island
Forgotten Heroes
As the campaign opens, the player characters including Oswald are a group of slaves who managed to break free from Slaver's Island with the help of an individual named Lady Blight. Upon the stolen slaver ship, they fought a fire-breathing serpent at sea. While the beast was killed, their ship was aflame. Captain Cole Esterol swooped in with his ship and saved them in time to watch their ship sink.
Captain Cole's ship is a trade ship. On the ship, the heroes are joined by Harry Holisack, a blacksmith. They were on their way to the island of Baguette Island to retrieve a shipment of sugar. While on the island, a group of former slaves and some of the tradesmen from the ship ventured out to explore the island. They came across a cavern with a large pool in it. A great shark like beast was protecting a stopwatch that could halt time. This device had only twelve charges to begin with, and two had already been used. This artifact went to Divari, which was only used in the final battle.
After the escaped slaves secured the sugar, they went to Stromboli Island where they traded the sugar for “agavala,” which is used to make tequila. They were commissioned to clear a path through the mountains to make a road from Newtown to Oldtown. In the mountains, they met a horde of goblins lead by GiggleSnort. Together, the escaped slaves cleared the path through the mountain, battling trolls in the process.
Once they emerged on the other side of the pass, there was a battle happening in Newtown. The Magocracy Navy cut off a ship of slavers as they were attacking from the rest of their fleet. The Navy made short work of them and were cleaning up the battle in no time. When Grand Admiral Nelson saw Cole Esterol, he deemed the captain a deserter. In exchange for his freedom, the captain had to take his crew on a special quest.
They were to go to the island of Mold to retrieve ingredients to mass produce healing potions. Then, they had to go to the island of Fortune Cookie to have the local monks actually produce the potions. Then, Captain Cole was to return to the fleet with the potions.
At sea, they found a large stone afloat. It enchanted Captain Cole, and he insisted on keeping it aboard the ship. Meanwhile, fearful of the captain's obsession with the mysterious stone Lady Blight began quietly recruiting crew members to stage a mutiny.
Once they got to Mold, they encountered a house of horrors, Wereboars, and eventually, Efreeti. These Efreeti hatched from the stone and brought a fiery army of devilish winged soldiers, fire giants, dragon lions, and foot soldiers made of embers that waged battle in the city of Penicillin. Later, the party would realize that this stone was in fact an arcane prison from an earlier time. The party collected and the Efreeti using a magical ewer. The party used this artifact to protect the city in a crazy, extended battle.
With the city of Penicillin in ruins, they left the citizens to rebuild while they took the ingredients for the healing magic to Fortune Cookie. At sea, Lady Blight challenged Captain Cole's authority and took over the ship. She didn't even make it to the next island before she was executed by one of the party.
With Lady Blight dead and Captain Cole responsible for the slaughter of hundreds, they decided to take over the ship as a kind of union. They were going to finish their quest and hand Captain Cole over to the Magocracy of the Seven Emperors.
Once they got to Fortune Cookie, they met Prince Bradley of the Istuban Basin. He had fled his city because his older brother took over the country when he was twelve or thirteen. He was being trained by a powerful demi-god named Sir Bartholomew and the monks of Fortune Cookie.
So, the party was on the East side of Fortune Cookie Island and the Slavers garrisoned the West end. The Magocracy Navy cut off the slavers retreat from Stromboli, which is why they landed on Fortune Cookie. The slavers took a small city with a wizards tower at the center. At sea, the ships on both sides prepared for an epic naval battle.
On the sly, the Magocracy Navy send a bunch of green recruits to the monastery to train until the potions were done. Prince Bradley was among them and trained under Trip Greenfield. At some point during that time they killed a dragon on the island and recruited a tribe of Dragonborn.
They had a demonic visitor that took one character to their patron and foreshadowed psionic brain worms. Then that demonic visitor took an orphan named Colin and disappeared. This orphan later killed Grandmaster Gwen, leader of the Fortune Cookie Monks.
Grandmaster Gwen had an artifact that is known as a Mirshum Painting. This powerful magical artifact imbued her with healing powers and draws its magic from plant life.
Then, the former slaves marched to war alongside the forces of the Magocracy of the Seven Emperors.
In the middle of Fortune Cookie Island a rift in the fabric of the material plane that linked to the Feywild ripped open. Within this tear in reality the very air was hallucinogenic. Very silly things happened and the former slaves defeated a psychedelic demi-god. Then they joined forces with an old conjurer lady and her mud men.
There was a Goliath Sorcerer who was learning the ways of monks. He was too powerful to control, but Oswald Nutbuster convinced him to be his student. He was helpful in the battle.
There were two battlefronts. There was one at sea and the other on the island. Sir Bartholomew lent his sword to the cause and Prince Bradley went on to become a war hero. It was a crushing victory on both ends as even the Seven Emperors themselves (Disco Wizards) came to their aid in their airships. In the center of the city a wizards tower had VIPs on the top floor. As the PCs battled their way there, victory was secured. They had to apprehend whoever was in charge.
I planned out quite a bit of drama as they ascended this tower… but they all managed to have the ability to fly. So… they skipped all that stuff and went straight to the penthouse where they met Mirshum himself, a wealthy ambassador from the slaver nations named Craig, and his demigod bodyguard named the Dark Silent.
Diplomacy is how their interaction began. It lasted maybe 30 seconds before violence ensued. Divari finally used the stopwatch from the beginning for the first time and kicked some serious ass. Before the fight hit a point of no return, diplomacy resumed.
Craig surrendered and became captive to Admiral Nelson. Mirshum left through a portal, and the Dark Silent was thrown out a window.
Admiral Nelson essentially gave everyone what they wanted for their help crushing the slavers. Divari doubled back to the monastery to try and steal the Mirshum Painting and kill Grandmaster Gwen for her patron, so that characters ending was pretty ambiguous as to the fate of the monastery.