Campaign Overview: The Story So Far

A narrative account of the Riders of the Storm campaign, from Session 1 to the present.

Part One: How It All Began

Session 1 — The One Shot

The campaign began as a one-shot, a dip of the toe into the sea of D&D. A group of strangers found themselves caught in a sea battle, fighting their way through chaos until their ship ran aground on the black shores of a volcanic island. With an army of enemy dwarves in pursuit — over a hundred of them — the party fled into the island's depths.

What followed was a crash course in who these people were. ToooAh, the Aarakocra monk, stayed behind to trigger a rolling log trap on the pursuing dwarves before flying to safety. Ser Pas Rata, a sailor-turned-ranger, was the kind of man who would swing out over the open ocean on a rope to reach a ship's ballista. Joneyentee the Unknown, a wood elf wizard, who would stand before a problem, consider every angle at length, and still manage to get it wrong.

Deep in the mountain they found a temple. A statue. And a horn.

Joneyentee looked at the horn, considered the most efficient way to retrieve it, decided to climb the statue rather than use his Mage Hand spell, fell, and took damage. Ser Pas Rata climbed the same statue without incident, retrieved the horn, and blew it.

The mountain shook. The island erupted as a volcano. A massive dragon — The Bane — rose screaming from within and flew free into the world.

The party escaped on a captured enemy ship, steered by Captain Short Jane Goldie who had taken command after the original captain fell. In the chaos of departure at Canathalas they remembered one of the two horses in the hold. The ship sailed before they could return for the second. Joneyentee chose to stay aboard when the party disembarked. Paul switched to playing a new character.

That was the one-shot. The campaign has now been running for thirty-five sessions.

Part Two: Finding Their Feet

Sessions 2–5 — Canathalas & the Early Tournaments

The party landed at Canathalas, a major port on Odessia's western coast. Their new companion, Ser Tessell Highfrost, a half-elf life cleric devoted to Ilmater, joined them here.There was a tournament on. Ser Pas Rata had earned a small fortune gambling.

Ser Tessell Highfrost won the archery competition despite being a crossbow user who had never held a longbow. He used it sideways, and was awarded a warhorse for his efforts.

Elik'r Stormswallow, a seventeen-year-old gold dragonborn paladin of impressive height and limited subtlety, needed a horse for the jousting. He attempted to steal one from the Canathalas stables. Being six feet and eight inches of gold-scaled dragonborn in heavy armour, he was escorted away from the premises almost immediately. He later entered the joust anyway, used a Command spell on his opponent (the word "feint," which the DM interpreted as "faint"), and was disqualified when a squire reported him for using magic in a nation where chivalry is sacred.

Ser Pas Rata entered the joust with Ser Tessell Highfrost as his squire. Tessell secretly provided Guidance on every single tilt. Pas Rata won. The duchess formally knighted him "Ser Pas Rata" — though his armour was so battered by that point it had to be cut off.

Lady Odonia of Galantri, a human ranger of noble bearing and questionable impulse control, shot a gnome in the eye during the "friendly" melee event. This gnome — known as Barry — has not forgotten.

In between tournaments, the party cleared smugglers from the woods outside Canathalas. ToooAh discovered a doll in a chest on a captured smuggler boat and decided to keep it. She had no idea what it was. This would matter enormously later.

After Canathalas, the party rode to Sylobelle, where Elik'r Stormswallow won the archery competition. A small victory. The town itself was about to become the scene of something much darker.

Part Three: The Doll and the Dead

Sessions 6–8 — Sylobelle, the Castle, and Stormhold Keep

Sylobelle had been raided. A man named Professor Gabriel Emms found the party with desperation in his eyes and a story about his missing four-year-old daughter — lilac hair, answers to Kendara. The villagers had never heard of her nor the man found murdered at the farmhouse, Ryvenien Berg, who had been pinned to the wall with a spear and left a torn letter warning that "He is coming. He knows about her."

There was no daughter. "Kendara Elley Aloison" was a cover identity, invented to protect a magical doll — the very doll ToooAh had been carrying since the smuggler boat. The Professor had kept the secret to his last breath, dying in an underground atrium with a sword through him, managing only: "They took the doll."

In the next room, Elincia Flowers — known then only as Thalas, the Black Knight — had already begun the ritual. Three magic circles on the floor. Minions sacrificed. The doll, placed at the centre. The party arrived in time to witness what they could not stop: the doll became a child. A girl, four years old, with long lilac hair, who would come to be called Avicia.

The castle itself was a ruin held by Logrin's bandits. The party cleared it — Ser Tessell Highfrost fell over during the initial charge before reaching the enemy, then rolled a Natural 1 with his mace and spent the entire combat failing to hit anything except Ser Silvar Glinnan by accident — but cleared it nonetheless. A magical portal inside, opened using the elvish word for "friend" (and assisted by ToooAh's tea causing a three-day thunderstorm), led to the underground dungeon where the Professor had died.

The reward for all this came from a figure known as the White Falcon: two thousand gold coins, royal permission to operate as knights of the realm, and a deed to the castle. The party renamed it Stormhold Keep.

They rode northwest to Ulvenora, a mining town, to arrange repairs. The negotiations went well — twenty thousand gold for stone, five thousand for stonemasons — until the town asked them to deal with an orc problem. The party went into the mountains, found a family of orcs, and killed them all. At least two party members spoke fluent Orcish. The thought of attempting communication did not arise.

The stone and stonemasons were secured. Stormhold Keep began its slow restoration. The garrison grew to forty-five footmen.

Part Four: The Capital

Sessions 9–14 — Travel to Belendar and the Grand Tournament

Belendar is everything a capital should be: an elvish city of all nations, nestled in deep forest among intertwining rivers, dominated by the multicoloured Mages' Tower that rises above every roofline. The party arrived for the Grand Tournament.

The tournament was enormous. Jousting, melee, archery, chariot racing, a competition of wits, and — unexpectedly — dancing. Ser Tessell Highfrost won the dancing competition. He also won the chariot race, despite Emperor Vladier Drakonhart — ruler of the hostile Immortal Draconic Empire — deploying a grappling hook and rope to drag competitors off course. Tessell caught up through what can only be described as dice-assisted fortune, overtook the field, and caused several crashes. The Emperor was imprisoned. He holds a grudge.

Elik'r Stormswallow placed second in the dancing. Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian, a seven-foot-eight goliath barbarian who arrived at the tournament looking to force a military alliance contract with the kingdom, placed third. Nobody expected that.

The royal feast that concluded the tournament's opening phase was disrupted when every competitor in the hall — including the Crown Princess herself — fell unconscious simultaneously. Someone had drugged the food. The party woke in darkness, with five riddle-rooms standing between them and answers. Elik'r Stormswallow solved them all and finished second overall. Ser Tessell Highfrost took catastrophic damage in every room and his fate was briefly uncertain.

When Elik'r Stormswallow completed the final puzzle, a portal opened. Ser Alvar Flowers emerged. He looked at Elik'r and said: "I knew you would succeed. This is only the beginning."

Nobody fully understood what that meant yet.

Part Five: The Conspiracy Revealed

Sessions 15–17 — Elvva, the Warehouse, and the Siege

A summons arrived from the Crown Princess. The party gathered in a private room with Eldrin Oakenhart (the royal advisor), an old wizard from the Mages' Tower who introduced himself as Patriarch Siegfried Wildner, and a drow elf named Elvva Beltavar, who had apparently been waiting for exactly this moment. Shannon joined the campaign.

The briefing was simple: suspicious deliveries at the docks, hooded figures in the warehouse district, something is wrong. The reward was a large bag of gold.

Elvva Beltavar conjured dancing lights to distract the guards. Lady Odonia of Galantri and ToooAh slipped inside unnoticed. What they found confirmed that the tournament-time unease was not coincidence: a note declaring that "the war between the Leaf Eaters, Dragon, Falcon and Eagle has almost begun." Boxes of arms and armour. Blue and white liveries bearing a twisted royal crest. A piece of correspondence, in code, mapping the four main gates of Belendar — Silven Embrace, Glimmering Vale, Silverdew Crossing, and Eldergrove Arch — to four letters. The Silverdew Crossing entry was signed with an ornate 'B' on paper bearing a blue crest.

When the siege came, it came on all four gates at once. The party took Silverdew Crossing. Ser Balthazar Thornwood was waiting for them — and then he wasn't: he transformed into a wyvern and the battle became something else entirely. Lady Odonia of Galantri delivered the killing blow. By morning, she was the most famous person in Belendar. The gnome she had shot in the eye months ago watched from the crowd.

The loot from Balthazar's body was extraordinary. A massive iridescent scale for Elik'r Stormswallow. A book of crossed-out names for Lady Odonia of Galantri — the final five still legible were the original Riders of the Storm. Permanent lockpicks for Ser Tessell Highfrost. A small book called Tales of the Lost Princess for ToooAh. And for Elvva Beltavar: a diary. In it, death certificates for every party member, dates left blank. And one dated certificate — accurate — for Ser Pas Rata, who had died roughly one month ago.

Part Six: The Bane Watchers

Session 18–19 — Dragon Blood and the Tournament of Wits

Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian found them at last. The goliath had been competing in the tournament for one purpose: to win a formal military alliance with the kingdom, so that when The Bane returned in force, he would have an army at his back. He was the leader of the Bane Watchers — an ancient, dwindling order devoted to hunting the corruption that Ser Pas Rata had unleashed on Session 1.

He offered the party initiation. They drank tainted dragon's blood. Everyone collapsed.

The visions were shared. They saw an ancient war. A purple dragonborn, twelve feet tall, cutting through enemies — until a woman's voice turned him instantly to stone. They saw Elvva Beltavar's childhood: her father dying with a spear through his face, a Black Knight with a hammer walking away. They saw a girl on a palace balcony, and then the same girl on a ship, turning a pursuing vessel to stone with a single gesture. Through River's eyes, Lady Odonia of Galantri saw a gnome army watching from the treeline. The petrified purple dragonborn called out a name: Elik'r Stormswallow.

Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian told them what he knew. The Bane was living. It was, in some sense, the earth itself. It fed on chaos. It corrupted its hosts slowly, then completely. He did not trust the Crown Princess. He trusted Emperor Vladier Drakonhart, who was imprisoned. He disappeared for a week.

To help pass the six days before the next tournament event, the party took on additional tasks. A riverside side quest produced a shack on stilts, journals full of indecipherable notes, hostile cactus plants that poisoned Elvva Beltavar on only her second session, and a human skeleton under the floorboards clutching blue and white heraldic paper bearing an Eagle symbol. The threads were connecting.

The Tournament of Wits and Wisdom followed — five riddle rooms, each one painful for those who answered wrong. Only five competitors total completed all five rooms. Elik'r Stormswallow solved them swiftly and finished second overall. Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian came third. ToooAh overthought the village riddle, calculating hundreds of people through several generations, before realising only one person was going to the village at all — she finished fourth. Lady Odonia of Galantri completed fifth. Ser Tessell Highfrost suffered catastrophically, answered "engine" to a riddle set in a medieval world, and was knocked unconscious before completing.

Part Seven: The Grand Joust and the Coming Storm

Sessions 20–21 — Revelations in the Arena

The Grand Joust. Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian faced Duke Vallandor Firebloom — who led four to zero after striking the goliath in the head twice. Co'narr removed his helmet for the final tilt and rolled two Natural 20s. The Duke was obliterated. The crowd erupted.

Ser Tessell Highfrost unhorsed Emperor Vladier Drakonhart in a single pass after the Emperor rolled triple ones. The crowd was stunned. Lady Odonia of Galantri defeated the Eagle Knight in the jousting final — only for the Eagle Knight to remove her helmet and reveal herself as Crown Princess Eilrora Everglade herself, before a shocked arena. Odonia immediately dismounted to help the Princess up. They walked off together holding both horses.

Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian beat Ser Tessell Highfrost in two tilts, then carried him off the field: "I was hoping you'd last more than two rounds."

A former bandit leader, Ali, warned Lady Odonia of Galantri that his new gang had very powerful people — people who could keep others alive. He refused to elaborate. She was too young, he said. Not grown up enough yet for those things.

Elik'r Stormswallow and Ser Tessell Highfrost ended up sharing a cursed lovers' ring. The only way to remove it was to kiss. They sneaked away from the palace party to deal with it privately. Elik'r gave his ring to Ser Anfalen, the pompous young lord of Sylobelle, who looked at it with disdain and told a servant to take it away.

Part Eight: War

Sessions 22–23 — Death, Resurrection, and the End of the King

The attacks came from everywhere at once. In the town square, Guy, Elik'r Stormswallow's squire, spotted an assassin in the crowd, fought him, and was stabbed. He died proving his worth. Elvva Beltavar was fully healed, charged back in, was stabbed unconscious, and failed all three death saves. Her last words were "I can take it."

The Crown Princess picked up a captured assassin by the collar and drowned him in the town square fountain without breaking her stride. Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian knocked Elik'r Stormswallow unconscious from behind and carried him away fireman-style, prioritising his survival over his grief.

The High King was assassinated by Thalas. Civil war erupted across Odessia.

Patriarch Siegfried Wildner led the party into the ethereal plane to resurrect Elvva Beltavar. What followed was harrowing: the party witnessed every fragment of her traumatic history — her father's death, her captivity and torture, the village she had accidentally burned to ash, the centuries of watching everyone she loved age and die while she remained unchanged. They brought her back.

The cost was significant. Bane commands were planted in party members' minds — dormant, waiting. Elik'r Stormswallow was forced by the Bane to drive his longsword into Elvva Beltavar's heart in a vision. Her last words in the vision: "This is your fault." The words now echo in his own voice, constantly. The Patriarch said: "There's only one choice to save her now. One of us has to take the Bane." He went still. No vital signs.

Part Nine: The Siege of the Palace

Sessions 24–26 — Avicia's Secret, the Throne Room, and the Triple Identity

Avicia had been growing rapidly. Before the palace mission, the Patriarch — barely conscious, propped against a tavern wall — revealed what he knew: she was the rightful heir to the throne of Odessia. Her parents, the High King's second son and his wife Verona, had been transformed into the doll centuries ago when their ship was attacked at sea. She had been protected ever since. ToooAh had been carrying her unknowingly since the smuggler boat. The party swore secrecy.

The throne room battle was a masterclass in chaos. Ser Tessell Highfrost kicked the throne room doors open dramatically and face-planted through them. He caught Thalas's necrotic dagger through his palm to protect the Crown Princess. Elik'r Stormswallow's flame breath killed approximately twenty-five soldiers on the palace ramparts, roughly half of them allied. Elvva Beltavar was temporarily petrified mid-combat by a traumatic flashback, recovered with a Natural 20, and returned to the fight.

The Patriarch rode an elk onto the battlefield and destroyed a siege wyvern with a single beam spell. His power had increased significantly during his unconscious state. Nobody has explained why.

And then Thalas was unmasked.

Not just Thalas: Lady Alysanne, the White Falcon, and Elincia Flowers — the same woman, three identities, the architect of everything. She escaped via fire teleportation. "The war," she said, "has only just begun."

The aftermath was formal and significant. Crown Princess Eilrora Everglade sat the throne for the first time. Ser Tessell Highfrost was knighted: Sir Tessell Highfrost, Knight of the Storm Riders. Lady Odonia of Galantri was elevated to Lady of Sylobelle and appointed Royal Advisor. The Riders of the Storm were commissioned as Marshals of the North, given 636 reinforcements, a war chest, and a mission: rally the northern territories before the kingdom falls.

In a private meeting that the other party members know nothing about, Crown Princess Eilrora Everglade thanked Lady Odonia of Galantri for performing the assassination of the High King.

Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian arrived, broke down a door, looked at a room full of corpses, and asked: "Right, where's the baddies?"

Part Ten: The Road North

Sessions 27–31 — Carnival, Dream Temple, and Seraphine

Fizwidget Spindleflash, a gnome of erratic and powerful magic, teleported the party mid-journey to a carnival. Nobody had summoned him. Nobody particularly wanted him. He seemed delighted. The rewards for completing his challenges were varied — ToooAh received a magical rope, Elik'r Stormswallow ended up accidentally married to Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian through an alternate reality effect. Some items from this visit remain unidentified.

At Stormhold Keep, the party found Ser Silvar Glinnan very much alive (there had been uncertainty), conducting a mock battle in which his forces defeated the party soundly. Twenty more footmen were recruited. The garrison stood at 732. Belendar celebrated the party's arrival with a parade: Ser Tessell Highfrost's elk was difficult, Elik'r Stormswallow's cape caught fire.

A shared dream vision pulled the party into a temple of mirrors. Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian appeared as a guide — he had been there many times, he said, and always got stuck. He introduced them to Steve, a boulder with a face painted on it, in a cave accessed by jumping off a ledge over an endless chasm. He did both voices himself. He left them to solve the puzzles.

The Khorrak encounter — a minotaur boss battle — left Lady Odonia of Galantri crushed under falling debris, unconscious for the entire fight. When the party lifted the rubble, her body was covered in green ooze and whisped away in green smoke. She gained the Warg ability. She was absent with illness. Elvva Beltavar solved the forgiveness riddle, told Elik'r Stormswallow she forgave him genuinely, and a dragon shed a single tear that became the Dragon's Tear gem — the only item from the dream that remained when they woke.

Co'narr 'Banewatcher' Hyborian revealed, eventually, that the entire experience had been intentional Bane Watcher training. "Every Bane Watcher has to learn to control their hidden abilities." He gave Elik'r Stormswallow a painted rock as a parting gift — Mini Steve — and departed for Nolunia.

In Sylobelle, the murders turned out to be the work of an Earthbound Dire Wolf, connected to an earth shrine with Orcish runes. Lady Isolde of the Silver Rose was appointed mayor. Seraphine, a druid healer, was recruited for the keep. ToooAh's magical tea connected briefly to Joneyentee the Unknown, the party's original Session 1 companion, now somewhere in a dark library researching a Chronos Scepter.

A humanoid rider on a massive wolf was spotted watching the battle from a distant ridge. It disappeared when noticed.

Part Eleven: The Crossroads

Sessions 32–34 — Boxing Champions, Moth Queens, and Fizwidget Again

The Crossroads Inn brought new faces: the Iron Finch Company and Crimson Pike mercenary bands, both hired by Duke Alaric Thorne of Neverwinter — the party's eventual target. Elvva Beltavar won the bareknuckle boxing championship, rolling three Natural 20s across two bouts (a 0.125% probability). Elik'r Stormswallow uppercut a sixteen-year-old girl through the boxing ring and into a table. He had been placed in an impossible situation and chose violence. ToooAh sat down to play a card game having rolled a Natural 1 on understanding the rules. Bramble Porridgepot distributed trial pastries that may or may not explode.

An inscription above a cavern entrance: "Glory to the Moth Queen."

Fizwidget Spindleflash returned. The party was teleported mid-journey to a Winter Realm, regressed to teenagers, and introduced to Liora Emberveil, a temporary companion of considerable acrobatic skill. They completed a husky race (Odonia and Liora's sled was on fire by the finish line), navigated ice skating with varying dignity, and consumed magical pastries with effects including brain-freeze curses, needy shoulder-mounted polar bears, and eternal fruitcake rage. A massive creature with a fin was glimpsed beneath the lake. ToooAh was retained at the end as punishment for some infraction.

The party returned to fight the Moth Queen, who was revealed to be Oswick Porridgepot, a halfling who had disappeared three months ago claiming to search for a mythical Garlic Patch. Elvva Beltavar cast Agonising Scorcher for 32 damage, failed her third Wisdom save, and the green flames reflected the full damage back, knocking her unconscious at the moment of victory. The Bane corruption pattern was confirmed.

Elik'r Stormswallow, drunk at the Crossroads Inn, attempted to carve a potato girlfriend for Mini Steve. He rolled a Natural 1 on Performance. He cut off his own pinky finger. He was too drunk to notice immediately: "Oh, look, it's gone a funny colour. My fingers are shorter than they were."

Where Things Stand

Session 35 — Road to Thalas'Miriel

ToooAh returned from Fizwidget's Winter Realm having won a snowman sculpture competition against Fizwidget himself (Natural 20 against Natural 1). She brought with her the Horn of the Winter Gale. Lord Pompaduke the Third, an enchantment bard of theatrical disposition who had joined the party at the Crossroads Inn, revealed powerful bardic magic including the ability to create portals.

The party is currently on the road to Thalas'Miriel, a cathedral town that has sided with the Falcon rebellion. They were ambushed by a goblin warband. Elik'r Stormswallow was knocked unconscious mid-combat and revived by Ser Tessell Highfrost. The fight is ongoing.

The Threads That Run Through Everything

The Bane: Released in Session 1, corrupting Elvva Beltavar critically, with dormant commands planted in ToooAh (kill Tessell), Lady Odonia of Galantri (kill Co'narr), and Patriarch Siegfried Wildner (betray the mole). The Bane Watcher Citadel waits on an island in a central lake, urgent and unvisited.

Avicia: The rightful heir to the throne of Odessia, currently training with the Patriarch in Belendar. Her magical talent rivals the Crown Princess's. Only the party and the Patriarch know who she truly is. ToooAh adopted her. She is possibly "the vessel" from the Bane visions.

Elincia Flowers: Three identities, one agenda. She built the conspiracy, armed the Falcon faction, performed the ritual that created Avicia, killed Professor Gabriel Emms and Ryvenien Berg, and escaped the throne room via fire. She promised the war had only just begun.

The Purple Dragonborn: Petrified, twelve feet tall, somewhere in a cavern. Knows Elik'r Stormswallow's name. Has been calling it for a very long time.

The Gnome Army: Barry has not forgotten his eye. He never will.

Last updated: Session 35
See also: RotS Campaign Homepage | Campaign Reference | Memorable Moments