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Five Spheres of Mystara - The Grand Duchy of Karameikos

Mini Campaign Introduction

• D&D - Five Sphers of Mystara - 5th Edition D&D
• Group: Wednesday (D&D Week)
• Session Session 1 to 32 (32 sessions)
• 14th January 2015 to 18th May 2016
• Players: David B – Boris (31), Annette – River (28), Jeremy – Dmitros (27), Jeff – Van Halen (27), Shannan – Daimos (1) / Buliwwf (6) / Saurian (22), Mel – Umbra (3) / Penelope (15), Mitchel – Sordren (5), Stuart C – Sherman (3), Joshua – Morgran (1)

The sessions involved in this post ran from the 14th of January 2015 to the 18th of May 2016; a total of 32 sessions. This is a storyline is used as an introduction adventures for the Wrath of the Immortals based in the Grand Ducy of Karameikos.

• Gazetteer – Karameikos
• Timeline - AC 1000-01-01 – Introduction to Karameikos – The mini campaign introducing Karameikos and its locations.
• Session Recordings - AC 1000-01-01 (W) – Introduction to Karameikos – Audio Only Rocordings

The Setup

Six players, each having backgrounds that fitted into the setting or changing the setting slightly to allow for the backgrounds to work.

• Language: When assigning Common to the character sheet, this becomes Thyatian (as Alphatian is not spoken here).
• Starting location: Threshold, spent last year training to become a hero of the town reaching 1st level at the start of AC 1000.

Concept: This is a basic region where characters are part of an the Adventurer's Guild of Threshold and have just graduated to trainee (levels 1-5) and will be tasked with various jobs as needed by the Baron of Threshold and Patriarch of the Church of Karameikos. By the end of the introduction, characters will have connections and resources at their disposal linked to Threshold and Karameikos. Potentially with a commission in the army and memberships with one or more of the guilds and regions. For the intro section of the story they are expected to interact with the following:

• Bargle: You know you want to kill him... The wizard from the Basic Red Box set introductory adventure.
• Black Eagle Barony: Cousin to the Duke and with a region cut off from the rest of the nation, bad things are said to happen there.
• Callarii Elves: Wood elves (earth) in the centre of the nation are visible as part of the ducal guard.
• Church of Karameikos: A child branch of the Church of Thyatis with a more tolerant view on other religions.
• Church of Traladara: The local church based around hero's of legend who fought the Gnoll invasion of the region.
• Duke's Road Killer: A serial killer that kills randomly in the first month of Spring each year since the road was commissioned.
• Iron Ring: A group of slavers operating in the region, believed to be linkd to the Black Eagle Barony.
• Kingdom of Highforge: A Gnomish kingdom in heart of the lands of Karameikos and home to a clan of Stronghollow.
• Order of the Griffon: A chance to join this prestigious group requires that the characters invest in raising their own griffon and expect to be diplomatic messengers till they are fully grown and trained.
• The Kingdom of Thieves: A group of thives operating out of the capital city of Specularum.
• The Magician's Guild of Specularum: This is a basic magic guild that is helping to train new wizards of the region. Not a particularly prestigious school like the Great School of Magic in Glantri, but its local and accessible.
• The Veiled Society: A superstitious group of thieves oprating across the nation.
• Vyallia Elves: Spooky elves (season) on the Eastern borders of the land.

The Campaign

There is a story progression in the book, and I tried following XP advancement, with downtime activities required for levelling up and after 32 sessions in the one Gazetteer 1 I realised I had gone a little to far in one setting. Characters made it to level 6 and had done two of the modules from the Expert Rules set.

I first ran this book in 1989 amongst a group of friends in my first year of high school when I was 12 years old. Was bought by one of the group and traded around till it found me and like most other books at the time I traded, or bought it from the previous owner so I could learn its secrets and run it better.

There is a story progression in the book, and I tried following XP advancement, with downtime activities required for levelling up and after 32 sessions in the one Gazetteer 1 I realised I had gone a little to far in one setting. Characters made it to level 6 and had done two of the modules from the Expert Rules set.

Notable changes to the setting during the story:

• Dragonborn – Black in the Blight Swamp, Red in the Wufwolde Hills, White in the Altan Tepes Mountains, Bronze along the cliffs of the Eastern Road.
• Goblins, Grey – In the Altan Tepes Mountains north of Castellian Keep is a tribe of advanced goblins using Brilliant Energy weapons.
• A Elder Red Dragon claims the Wufwolde Hills region as his own and demands payment and supplication from groups passing through the area.
• Cult of Halav is run by both Hel and Odin opposing each other with reincarnation.
• Church of Karameikos is the mainstream religion, and offshoot of the Church of Thyatis. Each has a similar pantheon of gods.
• Church of Traldar is the backward religion focusing on the last king of Traldar Halav, his queen Petra and their friend Zirchev.
• Order of the Griffon is a group of people serving the Church of Karameikos as griffon riders and knights of the realm.

Timeline

Referenced Publications
• D&D BECMI - B1 - In Search of the Unknown, B1-9 - In Search of Adventure