The Last Fantasy Campaign

"The skies of the world were always meant to have dragons.
When they are not there, humans miss them.

Some never think of them, of course.

But some children, from the time they are small,
they look up at a blue summer sky and watch for something that never comes.

Because they know.

Something that was supposed to be there faded and vanished.

Something that we must bring back, you and I."

- Robin Hobb, "Golden Fool" 

WHAT BE... "The Last Fantasy Campaign"?

"The Last Fantasy Campaign", dedicated to the memory of Dave Arneson and Richard Snider, and consisting so far of "The Grim Winter", "The War of the Thieves", "The Road", and "The Promised Land" aims at bringing the tale of Blackmoor's struggle against it's many enemy, as begun by Dave Arneson and continued by many others, to a coherent ending. By the end of "The Company of the Maiden's" and their companions' adventures, the Blackmoor we have known for forty years will cease to exist. - At least in our campaign's own continuity...

HOW TO... Join campaign?

An invitation to join "The Last Fantasy Campaign" and "The Company of the Maiden" comes by personal invitation only. This is not because we would be a bunch of arrogant bastards, but because our group was established in 2005/2006, and the players have the same right as the DM to decide if someone new will join us, or who in particular. If there ever are free spots and we don't know whom to offer membership we will make a public rolecall.

HOW TO... Create character?

In 2005, this started as a d20 game, and remains so until today. Base for character creation is, essentially, everything ever published for D&D 3.5, by any company, as long as the character makes sense in our campaign environment. - Though I, as the DM, specifically encourage players to use either the material put out by Zeitgeist Games for Blackmoor, or by Necromancer Games, for Wilderlands of High Fantasy, for the creation and later, advancement of their PCs.

WHAT BE... "The Grim Winter"?

Started in December of 2005, and ended in March of 2009, "The Grim Winter" was the Company of the Maiden's first adventure and told the story of the Third War of Ten.
By the end of the campaign, the forces of Blackmoor had overthrown the evil Afridhi, albeit suffering great losses due to the treachery of the dread Bascom Ungulian. On the climax of the campaign, that later would have been called "The Battle of the Longest Day" by northern historians, King Uther, who had ruled and defended the Kingdom of Blackmoor since the days of the first war with the Egg of Coot, was said to have been severely wounded and to have later been abducted by the infamous lich-wizard Ran. The Company of the Maiden is said to have been among the last ones who saw Uther alive.

WHAT BE... "The War Of The Thieves"?

Starting in summer of 2006, and ending in spring of 2008, this was a side campaign to The Grim Winter, but advancing more slowly than the main game so players who couldn’t post as regularly as the rest didn’t have to quit our game. The War of the Thieves essentially told the further adventures of the thief Rowell and his companions, a group of NPCs the party had met during the first chapters of The Grim Winter, and featured an adventuring party participating in the Coven’s (the Blackmoorian Thieves Guild’s) conquest of the abandoned city of Mondburgh (based on Ernie and Luke Gygax’ lost city of Gaxmoor for Troll Lord Games’ setting of Erde). Though relatively short and admittedly not very coherent, the game had a huge impact on the development of our campaign and touched some of the topics that will alter be detailed in The Promised Land.

WHAT BE... "The Road"?

No relation to the famous book and movie. Running from March 2009 until December of the same year, "The Road", previously called "The Road to the Promised Land", was a collaborative writing effort by the players of "The Company of the Maiden" and chronicled the years after the Third War of Ten, and until six months before the beginning of "The Promised Land". On their quest to rebuild the war-ravaged lands of the Northern Marches, the split-up members of the "Maiden" survived a multitude of adventures, but ultimately could not prevent the second, and successful invasion by the Egg of Coot. By the end of this tale, many Blackmoorian cities had fallen to the enemy, while the Free People, led by Uther's and Risa Aleford's illegitimate son Mordred, had established to bring the front line to halt between Newgate and Vestfold.

WHAT BE... "The Promised Land"?

Our upcoming campaign, starting in February 2010, reuniting the old cast of characters, and set shortly after the events of The Road…, beginning with “the day on which Vestfold felll”… Word is that this will be the final stage, the last battle, and the end of days for the Kingdom of Blackmoor, as we know it…








Posted by Rafael 
(Edited by Havard)

Introducing Rafael

I am Rafe, the Judge of the “Grim Winter Winter” and “The Promised Land” campaigns Havard mentions on here from time to time, and since I am pretty jealous of him for having such an extraordinary blog running so successfully, I thought , “if you can’t beat’im, yield”, and sent him a few of my scribblings on Blackmoor and related topics that will probably appear around here in the next few months.


While I probably won’t be able to write too much on the Blackmoor game itself, in order not to give away too much on the games I run, I thought it might be worth sharing some of the impressions and experiences I take from running those games, if for nothing else than to remember them some day.



I hope you readers will like my ramblings, and find them at least somewhat of use.

Yours,

Rafael

PROMISED LAND PREVIEW

Rafael asked me to post the intro for the upcoming new season of his legendary PbP:

21th day of Asum in the year 1032 of the Northern Calendar. Night.

Four years and two days after the conquest of Starmorgan by the forces of the Free Nations.





The kingdom of Blackmoor stands surrounded by enemies.

To the west, Westryn raiders and demons roam the plains of Hak.
Though they haven't yet dared to attack the rebuilding cities of New Duchy,
it's only a matter of time until Tenlish blood will be spilled again.

To the south,the forces of the tyrannical Great Kingdom have taken advantage
of the Free Nation's sudden weakness and are lying siege to Blackmoor's southern cities.
It might not be long, and even mighty Dragonia will fall.

And to the north, an icy stormwind over the sea, The Egg of Coot lets its armies advance.
The town of Blackmoor, destroyed.
The town of Glendower, burned by a raing of black fire.
The city of Maus, sunken into the sea and its citizens eaten alive by mermen
from the darkest depths of the shallow ocean.

A high prize is paid for the freedom of mankind.
A prize so high in blood that it seems unsure if the brave people
of the Northern Marches will be able to pay it much longer.

Blackmoor is in need of heroes.
Now more than ever.





The "Company of the Maiden" is summoned to the Kingdom of Blackmoor's
ancient capital, the city of Vestfold, by the prince regent himself.
Members of the old Imperial guard, the best of the North's remaining knights,
all cled in red armor, lead you into the great dining hall in the old king's
ancient city house, first erected by the time Vestfold's most perilous enemy
was not the Egg of Coot, but the devil-worshipping followers of the Id.

In the dining hall, lit only by the dim gloom of fresh candles,
three men sit around a big round table, made of the Druj Forest's best wood.

The red knights order you to remain standing and bring big and burning coal pans
to the table, so you can see who awaits you at this late hour.
However, you are surprised to find that none of the men sitting in front of you
is actually Prince Mordred:


Instead, you behold, from left to right:

Dressed in black, leaning backwards with his big boots on the table,
as if this wasn't the very royal throne room, but some wayside inn,
the famous rogue Rowell, called "The Blade".

Next to him, grinning from one ear to the other, Zuki,
your loyal travelling companion, and, so is the word, second one behind Rowell
in the criminal organization known as "The Coven".

On the higher seat usually reserved for the king of the Marches alone,
his face pale, yet his eyes narrow in anger and discomfort, bishop Garamond Bolitho,
highest-ranking cleric among the civilized people north of the Misauga river.

To the bishop's right, his hands weaving an invisible web into the thin air as he watches you
with the same fascination a spider would watch a fly approach its nest,
a figure paler and ghastlier than even Sir Garamond at this nightly hour.



It's seems it takes more to kill me than just the wrath of a bearman and two magic blades...



The figure next to bishop Garamond chuckles maliciously, as it leans forward its horned head,
and for a moment your blood in your very veins seems to freeze:

The fourth man sitting there on your own king's table is none but your old enemy,
the Westryn sorcerer Gorileth!


TO BE CONTINUED ON FEBRUARY 1st, 2010!