After 67 sessions spread over 3 years and 5 months, Adam and Greg completed the H-P-E series of D&D 4E adventures, slaying Orcus in a titanic final battle, saving the Raven Queen and accomplishing their personal goals – Greg's dragonborn revealed her true majesty as Io, Ruler of all Dragonkind, and Adam's wizard went off to create his own plane – a land of endless winter.
And, their loyal goblin companion, Splug the Mighty, has become immortalized in goblin lore. And human lore. And all the free peoples of the world.
My thanks to the players who have participated in this campaign over the years: especially Josh and Nathaniel, but also Sarah, Dylan Ben and Lily. We started it when D&D 4E was new and just released, and we ended it well.
Looking forward, the Sunday campaign needs to rebuild its player base. With Real Life stealing Nathaniel and Josh from us, about 3-4 new players would be great… finding them will be the trick. We'll have a break for a couple of weeks (as anniversaries and exams take precedence), but after that will come the time of rebuilding. It might be an idea to play a few one-shots before we get the next campaign underway.
I'm hoping the next campaign will be a Viking-themed one in the north-east of Greyhawk's world – the system we use might bounce around depending on how it goes. At present, I want to start it with AD&D, so we can get a good comparison to the 3E and 4E systems we've played so much of, but I will change it if it proves not to be enjoyable.
If there's any game you'd like a one-shot of before we get back to campaigning, let me know! (And also when is a good time to restart).
I'll ask around at Good Games this weekend to see if there is anyone who would be interested in joining the game.
To my players: Thank you once again for playing this campaign with me – I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
HEROIC LEVEL: 25 sessions (Jun 2008-Jun 2009)
Keep on the Shadowfell – 8 sessions (2008: Jun 8, Jun 22, Jul 6, Jul 20, Aug 3, Aug 17, Aug 31, Sep 14)
Thunderspire Labyrinth – 7 sessions (Oct 12, Oct 26, Nov 9, Nov 23, Dec 7, Dec 21, Jan 4, 2009)
Pyramid of Shadows – 8 sessions (Jan 18, Feb 15, Mar 1, Mar 15, Mar 29, Apr 12, Apr 26, May 10)
Interim adventure – 2 sessions (May 14, Jun 7)
PARAGON LEVEL: 23 sessions (Jun 2009-Aug 2010)
King of the Trollhaunt Warrens – 7 sessions (Jun 21, Jul 5, Aug 2, Aug 16, Aug 30, Sep 27, Oct 11)
Demon Queen's Enclave – 8 sessions, (Oct 25, Nov 8, Nov 22, Dec 6, 2010: Jan 31, Feb 14, Feb 28, Mar 14)
Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress – 8 sessions (Apr 25, Apr 11, Jun 6, Jun 20, Jul 4, Jul 18, Aug 1, Aug 15)
EPIC LEVEL: 19 sessions (Jan 2011-Oct 2011)
Death's Reach: 8 sessions (Jan 9, Jan 30, Feb 20, Mar 6, Mar 20, Apr 3, May 1, May 19)
Kingdom of the Ghouls: 6 sessions (Jun 12, Jun 26, Jul 10, Aug 21, Sep 4, Sep 18)
Prince of Undeath – 5 sessions (Oct 2, Oct 9, Oct 16, Oct 23, Oct 30)
Congrats!
I had a good time running my own campaign, but it was a definite relief once it was over.
I think I saw you has some dissatisfaction with Kingdom of the Ghouls. I recall some of the killer auras on the ghouls, particularly after the ruling came down that damage auras stacked. Or course, that might have been the only place that damage really happened- I tired modifying the creatures in E2 and E3 on the fly and still didn’t seem to threaten the PCs.
E3 had some pretty interesting encounters, but as with E2, undead heavy encounters reacted badly when mixed with a cleric and the original Turn Undead.
I was luckier to reach E2/E3 so late, so I was able to use the newer resources and errata. E2 just felt so pointless. E3 worked a lot better, though the difficulty was still too low.
I’ve been running Logan Bonner’s Lost City for my other group, and that’s very dangerous.