Elysombra:
Campaign Update

[I'm restarting my campaign after a too-long break. This is a summary of the situation. Since the leader of the Reconquest has been killed and destroyed (or taken away), and since one of the PCs is the king, the players have lots of freedom to chart their course in the campaign.]

Enemies

Vaerm, the red dragon that led the sacking of Elysombra a hundred years ago, has returned. The Sombrans, by remaining true to Primus, have thwarted her original plan. A hundred years ago, she dispersed the Sombrans not to kill them but to force them to live among the faithless people of foreign lands. Her goal was to corrupt them, to see them fall away from Primus. But the Sombrans have held true to the Creator. Her first goal denied, Vaerm has switched to Plan B—eat all the Sombrans. Primus, through a commune spell, has let the party know that they're not up to facing Vaerm head-to-head.

Hosts of dragons have come with Vaerm. A Huge blue dragon destroyed the wizards' school where Stadia grew up. Flying serpents and blue-skinned dragon-people have been plaguing the Sombrans. Sombrans who've been gathering at ports across the sea and waiting to sail to Elysombra are now being devoured by various kinds of dragons.

Krent, a child of Vaerm, has assumed the title "King of Elysombra" and roosts in Holystone, the devastated capital. Krent is a Huge red dragon, and it has some sort of "flying giants" with it. It may also have spectres at its command, or maybe the spectres are just wandering through Holystone on their own.

The Church of Hell now controls the gnome city of Vindle, on Elysombra's southern shore. Its forces are unknown, though the spirit nagas guarding it were sufficient to repel the party. Rumor has it that the low priestess who fled Vindle decades ago has returned.

A certain Medium-size black dragon has tangled with the party three times, escaping with grievous wounds each time. The last time it faced the party, it had twisted chunks of metal embedded in its head, and it had become resistant to blows.

Tsenk, the troglodyte low priestess of Nimicus, still lives, but the assault on Holystone cost her most of her forces.

The Fleet, a maritime pirate state, seems to have been taken over by devils or by people using devils as agents. They are hostile to the Sombrans, though their failed assault on Glane has cost them dearly.

Avarnala, a marilith in Elysombra's underland, has offered a deal—she'll leave the Sombrans alone if they let her stay in the Underland 101 years. She wants time to find a new refuge for herself and her people, and she's no friend to Nimicus. She's been exchanging messages with the party through a quasit, Reedorox.

Devils periodically attack or take part in attacks. Whether they're straight from Hell or merely the assets of other villains is unknown.

Friends

Eppsy (a powerful wizard) and "Mask" (a powerful rogue [illo]), former cohorts of Vanashon the Uniter [illo], are still alive and active. Vanashon himself and his cleric cohort, Fywoff, are dead and gone. (Fywoff is the woman in armor depicted on the Elysombra hub button, below. She's holding a Scripture with a glyph of Primus on the cover.)

High Priestess Lightbringer Nuna is holding together a strong contingent of Sombran combatants in Enmeka, a colony on the northern shore of Elysombra. She is in magical contact with the various Sombran communities across the sea, now under attack by dragons. She leads 300 combatants and 2000 civilians.

A force of combatants, mostly dwarves, has dispersed in the Underland and perhaps the mountains in the center of Elysombra. They await some signal that they'll receive somehow to rise up and rejoin the Reconquest.

The gnome city of Glane is solidly on the party's side after they saved it from a Fleet assault.

—JoT
August 2002

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Champagne is poured after the most powerful monster I've ever dropped onto the D&D battlemat is defeated.