The Black Puddings
(Placeholder name, pending group approval — taken from the goblins’ safe-passage codeword, and from certain events involving a poisoned pudding. The page will be renamed if the group picks something else.)
The protagonists of Campaign II: an adventuring company based in Bastion, first assembled at The Icehouse to chase the reward for curing Count Vurnor Leng’s magical illness. The original crew was nearly wiped out in the Sunless Citadel; the company that rose from that disaster has since cured the Count, brokered peace between goblins and kobolds (approximately), and begun making a name across the Borderlands.
Active roster
- Vierath (“‘Rath”) — Drow Trafficker and de-facto leader; shadow-touched scout, younger brother and sole surviving kin of “Lord” Espada, aspiring antiquarian, and the party’s voice in parleys (and threats).
- Fenmyra — Gnomish Precisionist and survivor of the original crew; warhammer-wielder, mapper, and student of the healing arts.
- Cresilde — Dwarven Omenspeaker and surgeon, with an owl familiar; famously bit the poison apple and lived.
- Vezhka — Orcblooded Savage; wielder of the magic hammer, and “One-Punch Vezhka” to fight fans in Teryk.
- Mireya — Throdenite, student of Throden’s path; fights with khondas and war-rings, at home in the streets and the underworld.
- Zydell — Valerian Reiver and master of disguise; acquitted, for the record, of all charges.
Henches and companions
- Grath — Orcblooded Savage and aspirant to the ways of smashing; Vezhka’s sidekick.
- Lirra — Venturer, peltmonger, and caravanner, driver of Kerowyn’s cart (gravely wounded as of Session 18).
- Tiberros (Tibor) — attendant of Talavosh, hired as a camp guard and healer; has not accompanied the group since they left Bastion.
Retired: Jan the mendicant of Numilvara (crippled knee), Arelle Vashti the “tortilla lady” (mangled arm), Orrin the cantinakeeper (rescued from the kobolds; not re-hired), Snorri Gnosebiter (lost his legs; pensioned by the mercenary chapterhouse).
The fallen
- Ander — slain by skeletons in the murder-hole chamber (Session 2).
- Cassion — throat slit by kobolds (Session 2).
- “Lord” Espada — twin-bladed, door-kicking glory-hound; lost covering the retreat in Session 5.
- Migs — reforged mapper; lost in the same rout, her remains found in the compost below (Session 12).
- Ren and Terminos — lost in the rout of Session 5.
- Mexiffeles — gladiator of Metrol; devoured by rats (Session 10) and given a heroic funeral.
- Hedda, Jannis Roel the lyrist (twice left for dead, twice recovered — but never a third time), and Vaelor the astrologer — fallen to the bugbear’s wolves (Session 12). Vaelor’s last omen: “woe!”
Allies and patrons
- Lady Kerowyn Hucrele — merchant sponsor of the Citadel expeditions.
- Count Vurnor Leng of Bastion — cured, and quietly in the party’s debt.
- Belak — reached terms with Vierath; provider of the healing apple.
Session log
- Get This Party Started — down the ravine to the Sunless Citadel.
- A Good Day To Die — first treasure, first deaths.
- Oil and Alarm Bells — goblin barricades meet military oil.
- Catching a Dragon Napping — a dragon slain, a party humbled.
- The Fall of Lord Espada — the rout; only two walk out.
- Back With a Vengeance — Vierath rebuilds the company.
- Double Dip — two assaults in one day; parley at spearpoint.
- The Black Pudding Gambit — the apple, the ring, and the poisoned pudding.
- Orrin’t You Glad We Came Back? — Orrin rescued; the five orbs.
- The Daughter’s Greed — the dragon door opened; Mexiffeles falls.
- A Sign of Things to Come? — the festival of Crya; Zydell’s incident.
- Woe Below — twig blights, the bugbear, and Vierath taken.
- A Good Apple — Belak’s terms; the Count is cured.
- Hammer Time — downtime, then the Ancient Academy.
- The Lady in the Mine — the road to Teryk; ‘Tracy’ rescued.
- One-Punch Vezhka — Teryk days; first descent into the Hole in the Oak.
- Gnome Mercy — the spectral hunter; regrets in the gnome kitchen.
- Ogre? I ‘ardly knew ‘er! — the ogre slain; Lord Huggles found; Lirra maimed.