I'm including this as reference/introduction/context for other pieces I'll be uploading.

Essentially, I ran a trilogy of Ironclaw campaigns (furry renaissance-era fantasy tabletop RPG) over a series of 7-8 years, and after all that time, I wanted to immortalize all of the really memorable characters in a themed sketchbook that I could take to cons, as well as including biographies, quotes, and other plot-related flavor text goodness as part of the uploads. The intention here is to provide some general background summary to support the character portraits.

The Setting - Govorya

Govorya (often referred to as 'the mainland') receives brief mention, a couple vague paragraphs, in the core Ironclaw rulebook, which is set primarily on the continent of Calabria. All of the great houses of Calabria (Rinaldi, Avoirdupois, Bisclavret, etc) are loosely based on the old nations of Europe (Italy, France, Scotland, etc). In some earlier games, it became something of a random cliché to have any encountered Govoryan NPCs to have a Russian accent, so in my campaign, Govorya is based largely on Imperial Russia. The continent is vast, with rolling plains, high mountains, sprawling wilderness, and a vast and desolate northern tundra.

The Ancients

Long ago, the continent was the home of the Nejiri, an ancient race of draconic mage kings, who ruled over the 'lesser peoples', who were little more than servants and slaves. The Nejiri oversaw a magic-driven society, ruled by a council of elders, of arts, music, magical science, arcane machines, and their own natural powers. In time, they grew ambitious, and decided that only they were worthy to rule, and embarked on an attempted conquest of the rest of the world, clashing with the Autarchs of Calabria, the Celestial Bureaucracy of Zhongguo, and many others. Had their arrogance not been so severe, they may very well have succeeded, but in fighting a war on so many fronts, this campaign collapsed, and they were forced to gradually retreat back to their homeland, though not before pushing many of the other ancient cultures they clashed with to the breaking point. While the defeat itself was bad enough, soon after, a plague swept through their society, killing 90% of the Nejiri afflicted with it while leaving the lesser peoples untouched. With their population decimated, Nejiri society collapsed, the few survivors infighting between isolated kingdoms, dealing with slave uprisings, resource shortages, and a host of other problems. Their majestic island city of Suraxis vanished, seemingly consumed by the seas. Within a century after the plague, the Nejiri society had all but vanished, leaving the lesser peoples to form the Govoryan Empire over the next few thousand years. There remain rumors of surviving Nejiri, hidden away in the quiet corners of the world, but these are dismissed as fantasy. Elements of civilization and do still remain, if one is adventurous to go looking for these ancient artifacts, and what is found can be any combination of powerful, dangerous, and enlightening. All factions of Govorya consider recovery of Nejiri artifacts and ruins a top priority, as reverse engineering this knowledge could tip the scales of power.

The Govoryan Civil War

The Govoryan Civil War began as a result of a botched coup... the present Emperor was thoroughly unpopular with just about everyone, a foolish, arrogant, drunkard dandy, so elements of the court conspired to remove him, with the blessing of the Govoryan Guard. Among the conspirators were Lord Mischavek, an ambitious noble who found the throne just always out of reach, and Lady Katherine, the Emperor's niece, who always appeared a quiet outsider in court society, but privately planned her own schemes. The actual assassination, while successful, went poorly. Rather than having his throat cut swiftly in his sleep, the Emperor ended up collapsing, screaming, in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the palace great hall. To further complicate matters, Mischavek, unwilling to share power, attempted to betray Katherine and eliminate her as well, and she had the audacity to not only see it coming, but try to eliminate Mischavek as well. Neither of them was successful, and this feud spilled out into the open. While Mischavek had the backing of the Govoryan Guard and held the capitol, Katherine had been busy forging alliances amongst the lords of the outer provinces, and was well prepared for war, consolidating her holdings in these territories. Mischavek, now leading the Imperialists, had a substantial numerical advantage, and the Govoryan Guard was both well trained and well equipped. However, there were few routes into Katherine's Loyalist realm, mainly via narrow mountain passes that had imposing fortifications built on them. While Mischavek assured his supporters that the Loyalists would be easily dealt with, this was disproven quickly as Loyalist troops kept Imperialist forces bottled up in bloody chokepoints. Even blockading Loyalist ports with the Govoryan Navy was ineffective, as Katherine's territory included much of the agrarian food producing regions of the content. With the war turning to a stalemate, Mischavek began to become increasingly desperate, knowing full well that the longer this dragged on, the more likely the possibility of the Govoryan Guard deciding to throw their lot behind someone else. In that desperation, he began resorting to measures that might come back to haunt him...

The Ardanian Uprising

One of the far eastern provinces of Govorya, Ardania is a frontier wilderness, rich in resources but lacking in development (likened to a sort of fantasy-setting version of Alaska). The citizens consider themselves to be hard workers and made of tough stuff to endure the cold winters and hazards of the wilderness, but were generally exploited by the more 'proper' and 'civilized' central provinces. Despite the amount of material wealth drawn out of the region, Ardania tended to get the short end of the stick most of the time, and was generally treated like a bunch of backcountry rubes.

Marcus Ironheart, a disenfranchised noble and mercenary captain from Calabria, settled into the region and quickly came to view it as his adopted homeland, finding the treatment by the central provinces to be thoroughly distasteful. He befriended the local ruling nobles (who were equally unhappy with the arrangements), and began asking questions and making informal plans for what it would take to get out from under the Empire's thumb. Quiet plans were drawn up, organizations were formed, supplies were cached, but Ironheart cautioned against moving too quickly. Any local uprising would not stand a chance in an open fight against the Govoryan Guard. They needed to be patient, and wait for the right moment to move.

When the civil war broke out, Ironheart advised that the time had come. In these opening days of the war, the Imperialists represented the far greater threat from geography alone, but diverting troops to suppress an Ardanian uprising would take pressure off the Loyalists, who were still securing their footing. The plan was to secure the borders before the fall of winter and dig in, much like the Loyalists. The Imperialists would tire themselves out fighting their primary foe, and give the Ardanian rebels time to prepare, at which point it was doubtful that the Imperialists would fight a war on two fronts any time soon. Giving the Loyalists any sort of breathing room would greatly strengthen their position and was tactically foolish.

The uprising began in earnest, and the few remaining Imperialist strongholds in Ardanian territory were swiftly overrun by the militias. The border forts were quickly captured as well, with winter only a short time away. Everything seemed to be according to plan. Unfortunately, the plan assumed that the Imperialists would make the right tactical choice. Instead, the Imperialists wheeled around and sent a horde of troops into Ardania to put down the uprising immediately. Little did the Ardanians know that a number of other frontier provinces were considering similar breakaway actions in light of the war, and rumors of this reached Mischavek, who decided that an example needed to be made, particularly one whose resources he could not afford to lose in a time of war. The new Emperor gambled that if he committed enough troops, he could deal with the rebels quickly enough to return attention back to the Loyalists before they would be ready for him.

To their credit, the Ardanians, even under-supplied and badly outnumbered, made a strong fight of things, making the Govoryan Guard fight their way through every mile of the frozen passes, laying ambushes and booby traps, and using the terrain and the season to grind down their adversaries. An entire contingent of troops was forced into besieging the rebels all winter in the abandoned, but well-stocked mountain fortress at Manastare after losing all of their artillery in ambushes. When Guard troops finally broke through the gate come spring, they found that the rebels had already escaped days earlier through mountain caves (leaving behind only a few pieces of broken equipment and some jeering messages), and the entire action had been to keep Imperialist troops tied down and freezing.

But with the spring thaw, the Imperialists were able to rapidly gain ground, especially once they were free of the mountains, and the rebels were forced into a fighting retreat all the way to the capitol at Aradon, a port city ill-suited to an assault. At this point, they knew the fight was lost, for the time being anyway. Ironheart gathered what remnants he could and commandeered several ships in the harbor, vowing to return, and ran the blockade of Imperialist frigates, while other elements melted away into the wilderness. Imperialist retribution was swift and brutal, with the occupation settling in. But it was a costly victory, both from soldiers and materials lost fighting over the winter, and because the distraction was all the Loyalists could've hoped for. They were well entrenched, and any chance of an easy Imperialist victory over them was long gone.

Ironheart and his surviving forces retreated to Calabria and spent a year rebuilding, quietly procuring new supplies and allies, as well as planning their next move. They discretely began slipping back into Govorya, a small group here, a single ship there, and established a new headquarters beneath the old ruins at Volden Castle, where the plan became less about open warfare and more insurgency tactics, expanding their operations beyond Ardania and making life difficult for the Imperialists during their stalemate with the Loyalists. It is here that each party finds themselves, making their way into hostile territory in the name of the Ardanian cause.

Factions and Organizations - The Good Guys

Ironheart's Legion

The underground Ardanian independence movement, a core group of soldiers, scholars, adventurers, and outsiders. While still scavenging for supplies, their return to Govorya after the first Ardanian Uprising seems to have gone unnoticed by the powers that be, which is preferable. They also bring with them a number of technological/arcane advantages, including a (somewhat rickety) ancient Autarch submarine salvaged from ruins off the broken coast. Most of their deep-cover cells are made up of adventurers, as Marcus has found them to typically be well-capable of working independently for long periods and thinking 'outside the box'.

The Brotherhood of Mercurial Sight

A reclusive guild of Alchemists and Scholars, the Brotherhood was initially neutral in the war, working with the Legion on a limited basis, mainly in a magical consultancy role in exchange for new knowledge. However, when it became clear that the Imperialists were stealing knowledge from the brotherhood (as evidenced by the arrival of rifle bullets with colorful magical tracer effects), they decided to form an alliance, and worked to provide support and equipment to the Legion where possible. The Brotherhood maintains three official underground enclaves, and is overseen by a council of 8 elder scholars and includes a few hundred acolytes and scholars.

Factions and Organizations - The Bad Guys

The Imperialist Regime

Lead by Lord Mischavek, and headquartered in the Govoryan capitol at Kuskov. Mischavek sees himself as the start of a new bloodline, but his plans for ruling in a broader capacity have thus far have been stymied by the war, and he privately worries that if things drag on too long, someone is going to put a knife in his back. Mischavek is followed by his two sons, Vasily, who fancies himself a general, and the younger Alexi, who is barely into his teenage years.

The Govoryan Guard

The real power behind the Govoryan throne, the Guard has grown from its roots of serving the monarchy to existing as an entity of its own. While most of its commanders would be wary of openly assuming power, they have made of habit of emphasizing to the current ruler (whoever it may be) that their cooperation is contingent on what is best for the Guard. After all, there HAVE been other coups over the years, and strangely enough, the only ones that tend to succeed are the ones that the Guard considers to be a positive one. The guard itself is well equipped, with modern firearms and artillery, as well as incorporating martially trained magicians into their ranks. The Govoryan navy is a vast armada of well-built ships, and should not be taken lightly. Still, all is not perfect within the ranks. Many commanders have attained their rank through bloodline, nepotism, and status rather than competence, and the drive for personal glory is a widespread motivator.

The Black Dragon

The Black Dragon was originally created more than a century prior as a joint effort between the Govoryan Guard and several scholar groups, with the blessing of the Emperor at the time, with the goal of reverse engineering (and possibly weaponizing) Nejiri magics and artifacts for the service of the empire. While this objective worked well enough initially, the secretive organization began to grow more and more independent, as well as more powerful in its own right. With the discovery of a vault of Nejiri souls held in magical stasis containers, the Black Dragon experimented with fusing the very essence of the ancients with test subjects. Perfecting the instilling process took time, and proved to only work on individuals with an especially strong connection to old Nejiri bloodlines. Also, rather than just producing magically enhanced soldiers, it tended to fuse two minds, usually with mixed results, ranging from entirely new personalities to full on insanity. The more 'stable' fusions became the agents of the Black Dragon, bearing powerful innate magic as well as enhanced mental and physical capabilities, though they still bore the appearance of their original form, save for a striking change in eye color, which now indicated the color of the Nejiri bloodline they'd fused with. The agents were backed up by special contingents of Black Dragon soldiers trained in the use of conventional and magical weapons, making them dangerous opponents even without instilled magics.

The Black Dragon's new independence and powerful knowledge unnerved most of the Govoryan ruling class, especially given that they were one of the few outfits that the Govoryan Guard could no longer claim total influence over. While the Black Dragon insisted that they were, of course, fully loyal to the Govoryan throne, most privately believed them to have their own agenda, and suspected that there was more happening in the shadows of their headquarters at Kallador Keep than was generally known. Even the true leadership structure of the organization was kept a secret from outsiders. As such, most Govoryan monarchs made a point to keep the Black Dragon on a short leash, restricting resources and installing close oversight to keep an eye on things.

With the civil war dragging on in a stalemate, Emperor Mischavek made the fateful decision to let the Black Dragon off their leash and provide them with whatever they might need to win the war for him, an arrangement they were all too happy to support, quickly working to provide magic weapons and the tactical capabilities of their enhanced agents. However, the decision to grant the Black Dragon the latitude to work freely would prove fateful...

Factions and Organizations - Neutral and Other Parties

The Loyalists

In preparation for her play for the throne, Lady Katherine had not been idle, and had developed an extensive network of allies and connections through the western provinces, particularly families of the old kingdoms in the region that had been more or less annexed by the Empire over the centuries, promising them improved status in her new Empire in exchange for soldiers and support. While nowhere near as powerful as the Imperialist Govoryan Guard, the Loyalist army is still substantial and well organized. This, coupled with strong defensive positioning, has allowed them to hold off the superior numbers of their adversaries. The Loyalists lack any organized navy, with few serviceable ports, though the ones that exist are so well fortified that any hostile landings there would be a bloodbath for the invaders. As such, the Imperialists have established a naval blockade, though it's effectiveness has been limited given the region's abundant natural resources. Katherine, operating from her temporary capitol at Bel Halla, has proven herself a shrewd and patient tactician, intending to fight a defensive war until the Imperialist regime collapses into infighting or makes a mistake.

The Torchbearers

A secretive alliance of Imperialist nobles, the Torchbearers are nominally loyal to Emperor Mischavek, but privately consider his decision to give the Black Dragon a free hand to be a grave mistake, fearing that once the war ends, these magically augmented fanatics will turn on their Emperor and take power themselves. While the possibility of eliminating Mischavek and replacing him with someone more 'sensible' has been considered, the Torchbearers worry that the opportunity to reign in the Black Dragon through regime change may already be past, and their main goal is to develop both their own weapons and a means of countering the power of their potential adversaries. This is done by conducting research in secret, scavenging artifacts and texts before the Black Dragon can reach them, and conducting discrete acts of sabotage and theft. While the Torchbearers are not great fans of Katherine and her Loyalists, they've begun to consider her the lesser of two evils.

The Ishari

Far from the civilized center of Govorya, the nomadic snow foxes have existed on the great northern tundra for as long as anyone can remember, somehow weathering the harshest winters and moving amidst the snows like ghosts. Long ago, the Ishari would venture into the more temperate regions within the borders of the northern provinces, often wintering here and generally keeping to themselves. However, the younger Govoryan Empire decided that it was unwilling to share space with these 'primitive savages' and made a concentrated effort to drive them out. While the nine Ishari tribes originally were only loosely aligned, this forced exile unified them in their hatred of the Govoryan Empire. A series of direct Ishari incursions against the northern provinces produced mixed results, but longer term, Ishari raiders would become a constant risk along the northern trade routes, with small bands of riders ambushing caravans and isolated settlements before vanishing back into the swirling snow without a trace. Concentrated efforts by the Empire to properly root out the Ishari have proven futile; these nomads are too familiar with the terrain and the climate to be pinned down in conventional battle, and direct campaigns out onto the tundra tend to find little more than abandoned campsites and frostbite.

To the few that know them well, Ishari culture is well developed and complex, incorporating both their own tools and techniques as well as those learned from their Govoryan adversaries, along with their ability to scratch out a flourishing existence with what they find on the tundra. They share an almost mystical connection with the cold and the snows, and are said to read omens from the great sky-filling auroras overhead. While almost exclusively nomadic, it's rumored that they have a permanent city somewhere far to the north, beneath a great solitary peak called Chassovey, loosely translating to Lost Mountain, where 'the great Ishari Matriarch holds court'. If any of this is true, few outsiders have ever seen it and lived to tell the tale.

Mr. Finch and the Crew of the Kestrel

An esoteric foursome that tends to turn up in the most unexpected places, traveling via an innocuous rowboat that transforms into a full-sized flying ship. Lead by the dapper and charismatic Mr. Finch, their role is to protect existence (and the denizens therein) from tampering with anything too dangerous. Initially assumed to be affiliated with the Zhongguese Celestial Bureaucracy, Finch answered as thus:

"Ah, the bureaucracy. I suppose you might draw that conclusion, and we do have some loose ties... they know of us, and we know of them. I guess you could describe the organization I work for as 'same floor, different department'. See, the bureaucracy is very good at the day to day running of things. Making the sun rise, the seasons change, the cycle of life and death, and so forth. What they're not good at is reacting quickly to problems, stuck in their routines and procedures as they are. For instance, speaking in celestial terms, if a baby started playing with an explosive, the bureaucracy would first have to fill out the 'take explosive away from baby' paperwork, submit it, review it, update it, circulate it, and so on... long enough that there isn't going to be much left of that baby and everyone around it by the time they actually act. Our organization is considerably more proactive, and simply removes the problem as soon as we hear about it... be that the explosive or the baby, paperwork be damned. The bureaucracy certainly doesn't like our way of doing things, but, interestingly, they don't take any measures to stop us beyond stern lectures. There are limits to what we're permitted to react to, and there's a line that has to be crossed, but rest assured, we're keeping a VERY close eye on this little war of yours. The baby doesn't have the explosive yet, but they're starting to reach for it, and that makes the people I work for nervous."

Finch and his crew have a habit of turning up when least wanted and/or most needed, calling it 'a trick of fate'. They have a broad knowledge of ancient magics and technologies, and have shown to be plenty capable of doing their jobs, be that through subtlety, brains, or brute force.

The Watchtower Guild

With the Imperialist naval blockade of Loyalist territory, a thriving network of black markets and smugglers has developed, ferrying people and supplies in and out of the besieged territories. Competition between the various smuggler groups is vicious, but the Watchtower Guild was formed to offer all of these groups something new. With an established network of coast watchers, thaumaturges, and other magicians, the Guild was able to secretly track the movements of the various ships in the blockade as well as weather patterns and smuggler movements, providing intelligence on which courses to sail and what schedules to keep in order to avoid contact with Imperialist vessels... for a small fee, of course. At the core of the Guild are two partners. Khassar, a foreigner, has a singular mind and a talent for taking all of the individual 'threads' of observations, reports, and patterns, and then weaving them into concrete predictions to track the patterns of the blockade. His partner, Vadim, a former black marketeer, knows the business and the people in it, and handles the dealings with clients. The group operates out of the ruins of an ancient offshore fortress (referred to simply as 'The Watchtower').

While this would seem like a lucrative and stable business venture once established, temptation can threaten everything. With the fates of so many smuggler groups in the hands of the Guild, and the full knowledge of the blockade, it would be easy to steer their clients into ambushes, clearing the board of competition and allowing the Guild to directly take over the smuggling operations directly should they choose to do so...

The Nejiri

Despite the collapse of their empire long ago, remnants of the ancient Nejiri who survived the plague do still exist in one form or other. Some simply slept through the centuries, some hid, some bound their spirits to places or machines, and some learned to transfer themselves to new bodies. They have no real unification with their numbers so few, and their motivations vary from person to person. Regardless, they typically still retain most of their inherent magical powers, though unleashing its full potential openly would likely garner more attention than any of them might want. While the powers of Govorya assure the population that the Nejiri are little more than myths and legends, bedtime stories for children, they privately show keen interest in any rumors that would indicate the location of a living Nejiri, treating it as a possible ally, a threat, or a resource to be exploited. The Black Dragon in particular has shown a keen interest in this sort of recovery, though it's unknown how successful their efforts have been.

General Summary of Each Campaign (Spoiler Alerts)

Chapter 1 - Back to Work

Introductory game where the party is dispatched into Imperialist territory, starting with a number of simpler assignments (recovering assets, reconnaissance, making contact with local observers, and so forth). Fairly early on, there are a number of cues that the Black Dragon is ramping up magic weapon construction, including something big. Along the way, the alliance with the Brotherhood of Mercurial Sight is formed, thanks largely to the party discovering a plot within their ranks to turn over their research to the Imperialists in an attempt to curry favor. They also find out that the Imperialists are hunting for a secret storehouse from a past emperor which is supposedly full of weapons and artifacts. They manage to find the storehouse first, but also find that most of the important materials have long since been removed, save for a number of horrendously dangerous and unpredictable research projects, and the ancient Nejiri general Morridax imprisoned in a mirror-like prison. With their enemies closing in, they release him as a distraction before triggering one of those dangerous artifacts and bringing down the place behind them.

Later, the party supports the first strike operation, with the Legion planning a surprise attack with their magic submarine on the large number of Govoryan warships anchored for winter in the harbor at Khorratan. The attack goes off successfully, but the Imperialists are now fully aware that a new faction is in play, since the Loyalists could never pull off this kind of operation. This strike is also a demonstration as part of secret negotiations with the Loyalists, in an attempt to offer an alliance in exchange for Ardanian independence at the conclusion of the war.

The party was then dispatched into the region where most Imperialist arms (magical and mundane) are being manufactured as part of a larger sabotage operation, which is partially successful, though they are confronted by Black Dragon agents for the first time, and are cut off from their escape route, forced to retreat deeper into enemy territory, eventually crossing paths with the Torchbearers and forming an uneasy, temporary alliance. The Torchbearers have more information on the Black Dragon weapon, which is a massive flying fortress capable of raining down substantial firepower which travels under the cover of a large thunderstorm. They don't know where this fortress is, but they do know where it's secret dock site is, and figure that by destroying it, the Imperialists will be more hesitant to risk their new toy. The party and the Torchbearers launch a joint attack on the port and destroy it, though there are significant casualties all around. They manage to escape afterwards, commandeering a much smaller, and incomplete, flying ship before returning to base.

Chapter 2 - Getting Some Answers

A different party is dispatched about 3 months after the last campaign to the far west frontier of Govorya on rumors that an ancient Nejiri installation is being looted by locals for materials. They find this to be correct, and go undercover amongst the looters, only to have a massive (and insane) Nejiri golem dig its way out of the lower sections and start rampaging across the countryside, on a course towards the large underground city in the region. Still undercover, they actually team up with the Imperialist contingent sent to deal with it, and manage to cause enough damage to destroy the golem, being thanked by the Imperialist commander for "their service to the region and the country".

From here, they head northeast, aiming to meet up at a festival where trade between the locals and the Ishari happens once per year based on an old custom, to rendezvous with a diplomat who has been gauging the possibility of an alliance with the northern snow foxes. They participate in the festival, though the party necromancer is briefly possessed by evil spirits and blows a hole in reality (Don't play with black magic kids!) and dumps the party into the shadow realm between life and death, though they manage to extricate themselves.

Afterwards, they are tasked with recovering an ancient artifact that is part of a rich noble's collection, though the fact that he's planning to use it as part of a decorative sculpture indicates that he doesn't know what he actually has. Still, they team up with a local thief and go undercover to the grand unveiling party and manage to liberate it from the vault, though their thief 'friend' reveals that she was also tasked with stealing the artifact by a different party and makes off with it. They catch up with her, but find out that she's being blackmailed into this job, and offer to help, allowing the handoff and then following the buyers.

The buyers turn out to be rogue elements of the Watchtower Guild, and the party finds themselves at the headquarters right in the middle of an intra-guild civil war. They ally with the side not trying to steal their artifact and put down the insurrection, though they find out that the rogue elements were going to hand the artifact to the Black Dragon, and the handoff is imminent, so the headquarters are evacuated. As part of this, they uncover elements of the Torchbearers working undercover in the Guild in order to salvage Nejiri equipment from the hidden portions of the complex beneath, but opt to keep this quiet from the Guild 'as a show of good faith'.

The party evacuates from the Guild's island by submarine and head back to base, but are intercepted shortly thereafter by a giant underwater iceberg, actually a Nejiri warship still running on automatic, which can hear the call of the artifact they recovered. They board the warship to try and disable it from within, but find that, in addition to being in a state of disrepair, it's also dealing with an 'infection' of its previous crew being turned into zombies. With the help of the warship's un-infected Nejiri commander Selenic, once awakened from his stasis chamber, they managed to access one of the weapons platforms (originally intended to amplify a mage's elemental powers in order to throw anti-ship fireballs at enemy targets) and use it on the cleric, sweeping the entire ship in a wave of white magic that removes the zombies (speaking as the GM, this wasn't the original outcome that I'd planned, but when the players came up with this plan, I kinda went "Huh. That's actually a way smarter idea than what I'd intended.") While the ship was cleared, it also surfaced, and began broadcasting the equivalent of a Nejiri distress call... a call that the Black Dragon could hear from far away, and it wasn't long before a couple of Govoryan frigates arrived and boarded the ancient warship. Fortunately, the distress call was also heard by Mr. Finch and company, who showed up to aid them in dealing with the boarders. Ultimately, they ended up converting the reservoir of water magic that powered and circulated through the warship into raw elemental fire, which was assuredly not doing the damaged vessel any favors, and it swiftly began to sink and break apart as it's ice shell mounted off. In the final chase, they ran into the last remnants of the boarders, led by a Black Dragon agent, at which point the party necromancer once again poured on all the black magic sauce, which killed her, sending her flying over the side and sinking to the ocean depths... something that would have consequences later. They managed to evacuate the warship onto their submarine and escape, returning to base. Afterwards, it is revealed that the recovered artifact is a guidestone of sorts, left behind when the Nejiri city of Suraxis vanished, as a means of telling any survivors the way home. Unfortunately, it will only activate when taken to a specific place, which nobody knows the location of.

Chapter 3 - The Path of the Ancients

The final chapter opens with the party serving as caretakers to a quiet safehouse deep within Loyalist territory in the midst of winter, far from the front lines. The calm is broken by the arrival of a Loyalist spy arriving in the dead of night, carrying a wounded soldier named Myrmazil with him, pursued closely by a group of Black Dragon assassins. He explains that Myrmazil, an ordinary quartermaster, is the target, as he apparently once knew a Nejiri in disguise in his youth, a Loremaster who supposedly jumps bodies every few centuries, and the Black Dragon are desperately trying to find this Loremaster to find their own way to Suraxis without the guidestone. The party is tasked with getting him to safety and ushered off into the snowy night. Along the way, they hear rumors that something old, dark, and powerful has crawled out of the ocean and is making its way overland, and sounds decidedly similar in appearance to the Black Dragon agent dispatched via potent black magic at the conclusion of the previous campaign.

They make their way out, eventually tracking the Loremaster to the Loyalist city of Zlanya, currently formed as a rabbit and serving as an assistant to a wealthy collector. He's none too happy to see anyone who knows his secret, and would prefer to just lie low as he's always done, but when the Black Dragon sky fortress appears over the city and unleashes it's bombardment, he changes his tune. The party is extracted under fire from the city outskirts via the flying ship salvaged at the end of the first chapter. However, they find out shortly that they've taken damage, and the supply of aether that fuels the ship's flight is all but gone, leaving them stranded deep in Imperialist territory.

With the fuel they have left, they hatch a daring plan to steal more from the Black Dragon headquarters at Kallador Keep... this would normally be a suicide mission, but reports indicate that just previously, something powerful essentially kicked in the front door of the Keep and made a mess of the place, forcing the survivors to retreat to safety. The party sneaks into the battered fortress, finding great swaths of it covered in black ice that radiates a blend of water and unholy magic. Inside, they find multiple victims impaled and encased in this ice, as well as strange frost zombies that have been reanimated by the jagged chunks. They sense that something powerful has laired itself in the grand library, and make a point of steering clear. They find the aether refinery in the lower levels and are able to acquire full canister of a blend that will fuel their ship for the flight home. On the way out, they are faced with the fallen agent, appearing normal but radiating that same flavor of unholy water magic, as well as the sensation that there is definitely more than one mind riding around in that head. It calmly asks if any of them know the way to a place called Zirkala, which none of the party do, so the entity calmly lets them pass... though it does discretely establish a link to them, just for future observation.

On the flight home, they meet up again with Mr. Finch once more, who has been monitoring the situation at Kallador. He fills them in on the fact that the entity is called Bezedan, an ancient spirit of the depths that loathes the surface world, banished to the deepest reaches of the sea for attempting to drown the entire world. Some fragment of its power has 'somehow' escaped, and is wandering the surface world. Zirkala is an ancient lake, far to the north, and is supposedly the source of all water magic in the world, and, needless to say, Bezedan getting access to that would be bad for everyone. He's currently at a loss for how to destroy the entity, as it's powerful, and not stupid enough to be lured into any obvious trap. He's able to temporarily suppress the link, and says that he'll be in touch once he knows more.

On returning to base, the Loremaster agrees to ally with the Legion for the sake of keeping the Black Dragon away from Suraxis, and while he knows of the guidestone, he does not know where it must be taken to activate. He does, however, know someone who might. Ever since being released, the former Nejiri general, Morridax, has been on his own in a world he no longer knows, and has returned to his old training grounds for guidance. Unfortunately, he's been mistaken for a marauding beast and an entire sport hunting event has begun to try and slay him. The party infiltrates the event, managing to find Morridax and make contact with him, and while the former 'proud soldier' considers them thoroughly beneath him, he begrudgingly admits that his vision quest told him that this was his path.

Morridax states that the guidestone must be taken to an ancient spire to the far north, a refuge constructed to house the Nejiri leadership in the event of a crisis. From there, the guidestone will point a safe path through the great northern vortex to the floating island of Suraxis. An expedition is planned, but is interrupted by a shock attack on Legion headquarters, which is repelled at great cost. It is quickly determined that the Brotherhood of Mercurial Sight and the Torchbearers were similarly hit, and that something big has gone down in the Imperialist capitol. The consensus is that Black Dragon are making their move, and are throwing up a smoke screen to distract anyone who could be a threat to them. Further rumors come in that their great sky fortress has been seen departing to the north at great speed.

The Legion, the Brotherhood, the Torchbearers, and Mr. Finch scrape together an expedition and head north by air, making their way first to the Ishari city beneath Lost Mountain, where they are able to win some small favor with the Ishari Matriarch, who grants them safe passage, and then on to the great spire in the north. They find the spire in somewhat disarray, malfunctioning, with signs of some internal conflict long ago, and unstable temporal magics causing time to pass slower and faster in certain sections. The spirit of the spire's builder, Volskelios, still inhabiting the place, has been corrupted, but the expedition is able to purge the debilitating influence and restore some measure of order. While they are able to activate the guidestone, they also decide that this could be a good place to dispatch Bezedan, as the spire is built atop and powered by an underground magma vent... luring the entity here and then uncapping the vent should be enough to fry it, but the catastrophic structural collapse should help seal the deal. Finch removes the scrying blocks and it doesn't take long for Bezedan and its army of corrupted water elementals to arrive and lay siege to the spire. They manage to lure the entity inside before releasing the magma and beating a hasty retreat. The resulting eruption is indeed catastrophic, but the effect of the temporal magics is also felt, and the spire seems to flicker, the detonation replaying over and over, forward and back, seemingly caught in a loop. While Bezedan's true fate is unknown, the general consensus is "good enough" (than and nobody wanted to get anywhere close to the tower that was repeatedly skipping back and forth through a short window of time).

With the threat from the depths neutralized, the three ships of the expedition followed the complex path northwards through the swirling vortex, emerging into the vast eye of the storm, finding the great crystal-clear lake of Zirkala, over which floated a large green island, housing the city of Suraxis. While the grand towers of the city are still visible, the island appears to be thoroughly overgrown and seemingly abandoned... at least until some of the ancient defenses come online and force one of the expedition ships into a crash landing on the island. Despite the rocky arrival and some brushes with the resident wildlife, the expedition eventually makes contact with the island's inhabitants at a secluded haven. Only five Nejiri remain, specifically their timeless spiritual leader, the Neji, and elements of her honor guard, along with several hundred people of other species, the surviving descendants of the servants brought to Suraxis during the evacuation. All others have since died off or drifted away during the centuries of isolation, with many having attempted a ritual of ascension with unknown results. While there are many secrets and treasures within the abandoned city proper, it has become a dangerous place, with wards failing over the years, beasts and nature reclaiming the landscape, and mechanical servants and defenses struggling to obey long-forgotten orders.

While the haven itself is relatively safe and peaceful, it is clear that the Black Dragon are not far behind. Worse still, it seems that Mr. Finch has his own motives here, and is attempting to sabotage the engine that keeps Suraxis aloft, intending to make sure that none of the parties involved can lay claim to the Nejiri island. While not everyone disagrees with that course of action, the expedition does not have nearly enough ship space to evacuate all of the island's inhabitants, something that does not sit well with the party. The Neji offers a solution, and sends the party to retrieve a device from the ruling council vault, which, once charged, can draw the entirety of the haven into a pocket dimension, where it can be easily carried to safety. The retrieval is carried out, but midway through, the Black Dragon fortress, severely damaged and ice encrusted from its trip through the vortex, makes landfall, and agents and troops begin fanning out across the island, intending to secure it. The party retreats back to the haven with the uncharged artifact in hand just in time to find the place under attack by Black Dragon forces, including their secret leader, a former member of the Suraxis ruling council and sorcerer, an imposing ebon Nejiri named Akashaar, who intends to rebuild the old empire with himself at its head.

In the final battle within the Neji's temple, the party attempts to draw Akashaar's fire enough to absorb enough of the incoming magics to recharge the artifact, taking several nasty hits in the process. At the height of the battle, the Neji temporarily counters Akashaar's power, allowing Morridax to swoop in and exact his long-sought revenge against the one who imprisoned him all those centuries ago. The resulting strike sends a shockwave through the temple, initiating it's collapse, and nothing more is seen of the Neji, Morridax, or Akashaar. The party makes use of the artifact, drawing in the entirety of the haven and its inhabitants, before beating a hasty retreat from the island. Finch, as promised, carries out his sabotage and Suraxis falls, most of the Black Dragon along with it, shattering when it hits the waters of the lake below, before sinking into the depths.

From here, the Loremaster and the surviving Nejiri take the contained haven and decide to go into isolation for the time being, deciding that keeping to themselves is for the best. Finch takes custody of the guidestone and plans to have it destroyed, such that no one else can enter the vortex and find any traces of the fallen city.

On return to Govorya proper, it is determined that the Imperialists are in disarray... it would seem that Emperor Mischavek was not going to allow the Black Dragon to take the flying fortress on an end run to Suraxis, and the Black Dragon had decided that this new Emperor had outlived his usefulness. In a magically charged night of long knives, the Black Dragon had offed Mischavek, his eldest son, and most of the hierarchy of the Govoryan Guard. With the Imperialists leaderless and disorganized, Katherine's Loyalist forces had swept through the central provinces almost unopposed and declared victory, with the new Empress taking the throne. Keeping with her agreement, she granted Ardania its independence. There would still be new challenges... pockets of former Guard hardliners refusing to surrender would continue to be a problem, and it was known that not all of the Black Dragon had gone down with the forces at Suraxis. The Torchbearers were granted a charter to continue the kinds of research that the Black Dragon had originally been tasked with, though with the Empress keeping a very close eye on their progress. Would the cycle begin anew? Would the peace hold? Would the Nejiri remnant maintain its isolation? These are tales for another time.

Posted using PostyBirb