I've recently decided to get my kids into D&D, a fun activity that covers a range of artistic, creative abilities and hopefully keeps them away from video games for a while longer. With that said, I haven't played myself since I was a kid, and even then I wasn't the DM, so this new project starting completely from scratch buying source books and materials etc, has had quite a learning curve for me. The kids seem to be enjoying it and always beg me for more at the end of each of our weekly sessions, so I'm pretty happy so far.
Up until now I've been running them through a "beginner adventure" designed for new players & DM's called the Lost Mines of Phandelver, while on the side writing a new campaign of my own that's meant to run off of the end of it, which the kids just started tonight. The campaign I'm writing is called "The Battle for Hell Well" and it starts with this bit of exposition to set the stage:
Quill swirls his brandy inside his crystal goblet and seems to ponder some inner mystery, or dilemma, as if wondering how much information to impart upon you. Finally he sighs, tosses back the drink with a quick jerk of his gullet and begins to speak:
"My story begins on the continent of Greater Andreal, which I'm to understand that none of you have ever visited firsthand.
The origins of the legend I'm about to tell you dates back to deepest antiquity, a time when the first civilizations were just beginning to form on the Faerunian and Greater Andrealen continents. Some five thousand years ago, when the Mezo-Andrelean flourished in the southern climes of that continent and the Uzians were first known as a part of the mighty Arcturian Empire that stretched from the Middle Kingdoms all the way to the land of the Giant Peoples in the far north. A truce between the Arcturian's and the Andrelean's had been arranged and adhered to for several brief centuries and generally there was peace between the two empires. In part the peace was insured by self interest--there seemed little advantage to be had by the Arcturians attacking a kingdom of comparable size and strength, while the Mezo-Andrelean had little stomach for a war of conquest with a nation so far removed from their own interests--but also and arguably more importantly, by simple geography: the two empires were separated by the vast swampland of the middle kingdoms on their north-western border, and on the north eastern border of Mezo-Andreal the savage mountain range known as the Death Spires, while in the middle lay the strange and unpredictable lands friendly to no humans, dwarves or elves known as the Faewild. In both cases marching an army in either direction would be a dangerous and costly affair, and either empire that attempted the feat would be giving ample warning to their enemy and opportunity to prepare.
"At the time of my story, the oldest son of the Emperor of Arcturia had just wedded the eldest daughter of the High Padishaw of Andreal, a seemingly political move to further the interests of peace and prosperity between the empires, but apparently (to the surprise of both parental groups) even though the marriage was an arranged one, both of the young people actually fell in a deep and abiding love for one another. For the first years of their marriage they were inseparable, and over the years the Princess gave many sons and daughters to her husband the Prince.
"Nobody knows how the darkness began, only that after long years of happy marriage and family building, the Emperor of Arcturia became feeble with age and his son was poised to take his place as ruler of all the Arcturian Empire. It was at this point that a shadow seemed to enter their house...the Princess became ill with some kind of lingering fever that seemed to have no cure, and soon after it followed suit that one by one their beloved children began to fall ill with the mysterious sickness as well.
"Nobody else in the palace was so afflicted, only the family of the Prince and Princess. Though all the healers, physicians, mystics, priests and clerics throughout the land were summoned, nobody could find a cure for the malady.
"Such was the desperation of the Prince to find a cure that he offered a reward of 100,000 gold Imperials to any man or woman who could find a solution to his problem. Days and weeks went by and many con artist and poser visited the palace with promises of a cure, but all were found to be charlatans and promptly executed. The Prince had nearly given up hope...until one day a strange visitor arrived in his court. The stranger was dressed most flamboyantly in exotic finery of a type never before seen in the court, and he doffed his hat and bowed, announcing himself as Durgwallah the Locutator. He told his lord the Prince that he alone could save his family from their affliction, and that as his price he would claim his first born son as his only payment. Reluctant to agree to such terms, the Prince argued and tried to persuade the stranger to accept a different reward, but the stranger would not be dissuaded and at last the Prince gave in and accepted his demands.
"And true to his word, this unusual gentleman went to the royal apartments and in a strange and mysterious ceremony he did indeed lift the cursed sickness from that household...or so it seemed at the time. The sickness had no more then been cured when Durgwallah the Locutator seized the firstborne son by the scruff of his neck, slung the frail lad over his shoulder and with a fiendish grin clicked his heels together once, twice, thrice and vanished in a puff of sulpherous smoke through a hole in the floor....
"At once overjoyed at the restoration of his beloved family and despairing at the loss of his son, the Prince sent his most trusted spies to the four corners of the land in search of the boy and the stranger. After many, many months, all of his spies returned to the palace with news of failure...all except for one man named Arthrik Beumor, the most deadly and gifted of his men. On a stormy night on the 60th day since his son was taken from the palace, Arthrik threw open the doors to his lord's apartments and rushed to his bed and fell to his knees. His hair was unkempt and dirty and his eyes were crazed. As he told his tale to his lord and master his breath ripened and stank of the grave.
"He told of following rumor and innuendo into a bewitched forest near the northern border of the kingdom, a place where it was said that evil Fae dwelled and the peoples of the land did commerce with fiends and hags. Being an orthodox, God fearing man of the church he scarcely believed such superstitious nonsense, so he stole into the forest in the dead of night and made his way to a hollow deep inside. He witnessed many strange things that night in the hollow, perched and hidden as he was in the limbs of a tree overlooking the affair. As a bloody moon arose a bonfire was lighted and dark cowled figures began to arrive. The music of panpipes and horns wheedled and the figures began to dance and cavort, a true witches sabbath. At length another figure made his way into the clearing leading another on a leash who was made to crawl at his side on all fours like a dog.
"At once Arthrick realized that he was looking down upon the frail, frightened figure of the Prince's first born son, and none other standing over him with a crop in one hand and the end of the leash in the other was the fiendish Durgwallah the Locutator. Durgwallah handed the leash to one of the cowled figures and leapt up onto a stump near the bonfire, and as the flames wavered and danced, so too did this man begin to caper and prance as well. As he kicked up his heels he blew on his panpipes and told his constituents about how he had fooled the Prince and the rest of the kingdom of Arcturia, how in reality he was an arch devil and in fact the very brother of the infamous Asmodeus who dwelled in the Nine Plains of Hell. How he had been the one to visit the strange malady upon the Prince's family, and how was working with the kingdom of Andreal to overthrow the Arcturians...
"He told of his plans to use the son of the Prince, to twist him into his own progeny and make a devil of him, a rite to be performed at the rising of the next full moon...and it was at this point that Arthrick's courage broke and he fled through the night to where he had tethered his horse, and then through the days and nights in a mad dash to bring news of the terrible truth back to his lord...
"The Prince was enraged. He ordered a council of war to avenge his honor, but his father, feeble with age but still the ruler, forbayed the council and said they would not march on their neighbors until more information was gathered, more proof. Such was the Prince's grief and anger that he visited his father's apartments that night in order to persuade him to change his mind, and during the night the old man succumbed to death in his sleep and the next morning the Prince was no longer a Prince but the ruler of the land, and within a fortnight the armies and navies of the entire kingdom had been whelmed and sent against their neighbors the Andrealens...
"The ensuing war was a thing of terror and dark majesty--the entire continent was consumed by it and both of the formerly majestic kingdoms were layed to ruin and death. In the final battle it is said that Durgwhallah the Locutator himself arrived on the battlefield pulled on a chariot of bones by a train of giant rats and that the Prince and he did battle and though the Prince fought most valiantly he was eventually cloven in two upon that battlefield.
"As the Arch Devil Durgwhallah stood over his sundered body, a slim, frail shape leaped from the confines of the chariot and ran to the fray, and as the Arch Devil through back his head and laughed over his fallen enemy the Prince, the Prince's first born son took his father's sword and drove it through the Devil's spine, killing him instantly.
"As the peoples of the two kingdoms, those who survived, wept at their betrayal by this terrible devil, the Prince's son rose up in that place and holding his father's dripping sword told them that there would once again be a time of peace between them, but that they must make sure that the vile devil known as Durgwallah the Locutator must first be bound and imprisoned because they had only killed his mortal avatar, and that in order to keep his soul from escaping back to hell to do more mischief strong magicks must be done upon him.
"So, the people's of those lands built the Hell Well and placed the Arch Devil's mortal remains inside and then sealed it forever. It was built in a location thought to be deep in the mountains of the Death Spires, or perhaps the Great Swamps, and all who worked on it and could tell of it's exact location or secrets were executed upon it's completion. The Prince's son, Lothrick Ull of Uz, claimed his father's place as ruler of all the northern kingdoms and lands, and when they were eventually rebuilt to their former glory he renamed the land "Uz." Years became decades, decades became centuries, and eventually the millenia buried the entire legend in the dusts of time...until now.
"Because now, the Hell Well after all these thousands of years, has been re-discovered...."
My kids are pretty young, so I was a little worried that bit of story telling would be boring to them, but I turned down the lights and performed the narration using my best sinister reading voice by candle light and they ate it up! Anyway, that was pretty random to tell everyone, just felt like sharing
Up until now I've been running them through a "beginner adventure" designed for new players & DM's called the Lost Mines of Phandelver, while on the side writing a new campaign of my own that's meant to run off of the end of it, which the kids just started tonight. The campaign I'm writing is called "The Battle for Hell Well" and it starts with this bit of exposition to set the stage:
Quill swirls his brandy inside his crystal goblet and seems to ponder some inner mystery, or dilemma, as if wondering how much information to impart upon you. Finally he sighs, tosses back the drink with a quick jerk of his gullet and begins to speak:
"My story begins on the continent of Greater Andreal, which I'm to understand that none of you have ever visited firsthand.
The origins of the legend I'm about to tell you dates back to deepest antiquity, a time when the first civilizations were just beginning to form on the Faerunian and Greater Andrealen continents. Some five thousand years ago, when the Mezo-Andrelean flourished in the southern climes of that continent and the Uzians were first known as a part of the mighty Arcturian Empire that stretched from the Middle Kingdoms all the way to the land of the Giant Peoples in the far north. A truce between the Arcturian's and the Andrelean's had been arranged and adhered to for several brief centuries and generally there was peace between the two empires. In part the peace was insured by self interest--there seemed little advantage to be had by the Arcturians attacking a kingdom of comparable size and strength, while the Mezo-Andrelean had little stomach for a war of conquest with a nation so far removed from their own interests--but also and arguably more importantly, by simple geography: the two empires were separated by the vast swampland of the middle kingdoms on their north-western border, and on the north eastern border of Mezo-Andreal the savage mountain range known as the Death Spires, while in the middle lay the strange and unpredictable lands friendly to no humans, dwarves or elves known as the Faewild. In both cases marching an army in either direction would be a dangerous and costly affair, and either empire that attempted the feat would be giving ample warning to their enemy and opportunity to prepare.
"At the time of my story, the oldest son of the Emperor of Arcturia had just wedded the eldest daughter of the High Padishaw of Andreal, a seemingly political move to further the interests of peace and prosperity between the empires, but apparently (to the surprise of both parental groups) even though the marriage was an arranged one, both of the young people actually fell in a deep and abiding love for one another. For the first years of their marriage they were inseparable, and over the years the Princess gave many sons and daughters to her husband the Prince.
"Nobody knows how the darkness began, only that after long years of happy marriage and family building, the Emperor of Arcturia became feeble with age and his son was poised to take his place as ruler of all the Arcturian Empire. It was at this point that a shadow seemed to enter their house...the Princess became ill with some kind of lingering fever that seemed to have no cure, and soon after it followed suit that one by one their beloved children began to fall ill with the mysterious sickness as well.
"Nobody else in the palace was so afflicted, only the family of the Prince and Princess. Though all the healers, physicians, mystics, priests and clerics throughout the land were summoned, nobody could find a cure for the malady.
"Such was the desperation of the Prince to find a cure that he offered a reward of 100,000 gold Imperials to any man or woman who could find a solution to his problem. Days and weeks went by and many con artist and poser visited the palace with promises of a cure, but all were found to be charlatans and promptly executed. The Prince had nearly given up hope...until one day a strange visitor arrived in his court. The stranger was dressed most flamboyantly in exotic finery of a type never before seen in the court, and he doffed his hat and bowed, announcing himself as Durgwallah the Locutator. He told his lord the Prince that he alone could save his family from their affliction, and that as his price he would claim his first born son as his only payment. Reluctant to agree to such terms, the Prince argued and tried to persuade the stranger to accept a different reward, but the stranger would not be dissuaded and at last the Prince gave in and accepted his demands.
"And true to his word, this unusual gentleman went to the royal apartments and in a strange and mysterious ceremony he did indeed lift the cursed sickness from that household...or so it seemed at the time. The sickness had no more then been cured when Durgwallah the Locutator seized the firstborne son by the scruff of his neck, slung the frail lad over his shoulder and with a fiendish grin clicked his heels together once, twice, thrice and vanished in a puff of sulpherous smoke through a hole in the floor....
"At once overjoyed at the restoration of his beloved family and despairing at the loss of his son, the Prince sent his most trusted spies to the four corners of the land in search of the boy and the stranger. After many, many months, all of his spies returned to the palace with news of failure...all except for one man named Arthrik Beumor, the most deadly and gifted of his men. On a stormy night on the 60th day since his son was taken from the palace, Arthrik threw open the doors to his lord's apartments and rushed to his bed and fell to his knees. His hair was unkempt and dirty and his eyes were crazed. As he told his tale to his lord and master his breath ripened and stank of the grave.
"He told of following rumor and innuendo into a bewitched forest near the northern border of the kingdom, a place where it was said that evil Fae dwelled and the peoples of the land did commerce with fiends and hags. Being an orthodox, God fearing man of the church he scarcely believed such superstitious nonsense, so he stole into the forest in the dead of night and made his way to a hollow deep inside. He witnessed many strange things that night in the hollow, perched and hidden as he was in the limbs of a tree overlooking the affair. As a bloody moon arose a bonfire was lighted and dark cowled figures began to arrive. The music of panpipes and horns wheedled and the figures began to dance and cavort, a true witches sabbath. At length another figure made his way into the clearing leading another on a leash who was made to crawl at his side on all fours like a dog.
"At once Arthrick realized that he was looking down upon the frail, frightened figure of the Prince's first born son, and none other standing over him with a crop in one hand and the end of the leash in the other was the fiendish Durgwallah the Locutator. Durgwallah handed the leash to one of the cowled figures and leapt up onto a stump near the bonfire, and as the flames wavered and danced, so too did this man begin to caper and prance as well. As he kicked up his heels he blew on his panpipes and told his constituents about how he had fooled the Prince and the rest of the kingdom of Arcturia, how in reality he was an arch devil and in fact the very brother of the infamous Asmodeus who dwelled in the Nine Plains of Hell. How he had been the one to visit the strange malady upon the Prince's family, and how was working with the kingdom of Andreal to overthrow the Arcturians...
"He told of his plans to use the son of the Prince, to twist him into his own progeny and make a devil of him, a rite to be performed at the rising of the next full moon...and it was at this point that Arthrick's courage broke and he fled through the night to where he had tethered his horse, and then through the days and nights in a mad dash to bring news of the terrible truth back to his lord...
"The Prince was enraged. He ordered a council of war to avenge his honor, but his father, feeble with age but still the ruler, forbayed the council and said they would not march on their neighbors until more information was gathered, more proof. Such was the Prince's grief and anger that he visited his father's apartments that night in order to persuade him to change his mind, and during the night the old man succumbed to death in his sleep and the next morning the Prince was no longer a Prince but the ruler of the land, and within a fortnight the armies and navies of the entire kingdom had been whelmed and sent against their neighbors the Andrealens...
"The ensuing war was a thing of terror and dark majesty--the entire continent was consumed by it and both of the formerly majestic kingdoms were layed to ruin and death. In the final battle it is said that Durgwhallah the Locutator himself arrived on the battlefield pulled on a chariot of bones by a train of giant rats and that the Prince and he did battle and though the Prince fought most valiantly he was eventually cloven in two upon that battlefield.
"As the Arch Devil Durgwhallah stood over his sundered body, a slim, frail shape leaped from the confines of the chariot and ran to the fray, and as the Arch Devil through back his head and laughed over his fallen enemy the Prince, the Prince's first born son took his father's sword and drove it through the Devil's spine, killing him instantly.
"As the peoples of the two kingdoms, those who survived, wept at their betrayal by this terrible devil, the Prince's son rose up in that place and holding his father's dripping sword told them that there would once again be a time of peace between them, but that they must make sure that the vile devil known as Durgwallah the Locutator must first be bound and imprisoned because they had only killed his mortal avatar, and that in order to keep his soul from escaping back to hell to do more mischief strong magicks must be done upon him.
"So, the people's of those lands built the Hell Well and placed the Arch Devil's mortal remains inside and then sealed it forever. It was built in a location thought to be deep in the mountains of the Death Spires, or perhaps the Great Swamps, and all who worked on it and could tell of it's exact location or secrets were executed upon it's completion. The Prince's son, Lothrick Ull of Uz, claimed his father's place as ruler of all the northern kingdoms and lands, and when they were eventually rebuilt to their former glory he renamed the land "Uz." Years became decades, decades became centuries, and eventually the millenia buried the entire legend in the dusts of time...until now.
"Because now, the Hell Well after all these thousands of years, has been re-discovered...."
My kids are pretty young, so I was a little worried that bit of story telling would be boring to them, but I turned down the lights and performed the narration using my best sinister reading voice by candle light and they ate it up! Anyway, that was pretty random to tell everyone, just felt like sharing
