Rise of the Rahib, Session 4

• Razul and Hakim, with their new quarry the nomad Nara, and her son Qubi and daughter Elmi, continue to travel through the steppe searching for a settlement. 
• Give wide berth to a Ash'Hassim that passes by, expressionless and moves on.
• Push through a thunderstorm and encounter 3 slave traders, carting along 9 slaves in a caravan who greet them with friendly intentions, seeing the weapons by their sides.
• Try to negotiate the sale of slaves to the party, but Razul refuses.
• The slavers point them in the direction of the nearest settlement, Alahamara, a small town.
• The party arrives by nightfall to Alahamara, the town which is currently hosting a festival called the Day of Tahmet's Ablutions, a 9 day affair during which and idol of the god of Tahmet, the reputed warrior god who fought back Akkai himself during ancient times, is worshipped.
• The town of a few 100 people otherwise sits tense as rumors of a stronghold of  the Black Legion to the north swirl through, even breaking the jubilation of the festival.
• Nara and her children take their leave of the party, but promise to keep in contact as they attempt to find work and settle into the town.
• Razul and Hakim go to the market to buy rations, and also recruit vagabonds to help them against the tyrant lizard in the dormant volcano to the south.
• Manage to recruit 9 vagabonds with the promise of gold, and with light rain the next morning, head back south to the dormant volcano. 
• On their way, they discover a strange settlement with scattered corpses - no undead are present, but the banner of the Black Legion flutters over the small hamlet with a few dozen people - suggesting cult is indeed gathering in strength. 
• The contingent enters the dormant volcano, heading through the rooms, encountering just some wolves which avoid the large number of warriors walking through the dungeon.
• Arrive at the Kuyu room, and manage to convince the 8 Kuyu to join them to create a massive force to take on the tyrant lizard, and plot a surprise attack.
• Unfortunately, this is not enough as the tyrant lizard faces off against them, managing to kill all but Razul, Hakim, 2 of the warriors, and 1 of the Kuyu who are forced to flee and barely survive. 
• The warriors abandon the party, saying no money was worth this, and hightail it out of the dungeon to return to Alahamara. 
• The Kuyu curses the duo, saying that his people would still be alive if they hadn't convinced them to do such a foolish action, and abandons them as well, deciding it was better to test his luck in the wilds.
• Razul and Hakim leave the dungeon as well, managing to hide from a giant snake that slithers through, and camp for the night.
• However, their night is interrupted, as 3 wolves - seemingly having followed the trail of blood out of the dungeon - attack them.
• Hakim's leg is shattered by the wolves and he is knocked unconscious, and Razul is forced to carry him, abandoning their rations which the wolves consume, and fleeing.
• They rest fitfully for the rest of the night, Hakim whose leg is splinted and who comes in and out of consciousness, and Razul who realizes without rations, they will be forced to forage in the morning.

Current Level: Razul 2, Hakim 2

Rise of the Rahib, Session 3

•  Razul and Hakim explore the ruins and travel down the hallway which the Sons of Akkai had cleared the rubble from earlier. 
• They discover a set of Black Legion mercenaries doing training exercises, intentionally crowding around a strange sphere that seemed to be dripping black ichor and sending shadow creatures towards them.
• Hiding from the Legion, they turn back and explore the rest of the dormant volcano, sneaking past spiders and wolves.
• Discover a set of Kuyu cavemen who are friendly, but fear a strange door leading deeper into the Volcano.
• Arrive at the lava boiling center of the volcano, urging on scared Kuyu to guide them in, and discover the source of their fear - a Tyrant Lizard, sleeping on a pile of treasures.
• Leave the room and head back out of the volcano, intent on finding some more warriors to help deal with the Tyrant Lizard and get their hands of the treasure - which may or may not have the Nagha scrolls.
• Face off and kill a ghoul they run into, and flee from some spiders and a giant snake out of the volcano.
• Rest at camp for the night, during which Razul is awoken by a demon emissary who tells him his pact granting demon is dissatisfied that he has not used any spells. He prepares a spell called Doctrine of the Subservient Path for the next day sacrificing some blood, and the emissary notes the master is happy for now.
• Travel through a heatwave and run into a fearful nomad family, whom tell them they are fleeing the crumbling of their former settlement which was betrayed to the Black Guard who have taken it over. They refuse offer to help, instead choosing to continue fleeing.
• Continue to travel and forage through thunderstorms, and two days after finding the nomad family, find the mother and two children of the family, a son and daughter.
• The Nomad mother tells how her husband, as well as his mother and sister, were mauled by lizard beasts in the steppes. Now given that she is alone with her child son and daughter, she requests their aid. 
• Razul promises to escort her to the nearest settlement and drop them off - resulting in more mouths to feed every day.

Current Level: Razul 2, Hakim 1

Rise of the Rahib, Session 2

•  Razul is lead into the volcanic caldera dungeon in ropes by the Sons of Akkai.
• They arrive at a carved ivory sculpture of Akkai, which the Sons of Akkai take for their own. 
• Two exits - one blocked by rubble, the other a staircase down. 3 of the Sons of Akkai left to clear rubble, as 5 with Razul head down. 
• A treasure hunter encountered, who is quickly slain by the Sons of Akkai.
• A magical darkness serves as a portal to the next room - Razul is tied with some rope and shoved in. 
• A historian studying the ruin looks to Razul, and through some non verbal communication, cuts the rope to make it seem like Razul was lost. 
• Multiple Sons of Akkai are led in via rope and quickly slaughtered - but not before the historian is slain and bleeds. 
• The leader of the Sons and the rest barge in - only for Razul to sneak off to another room and lure some wolves out to fight the Sons of Akkai as he frees himself.
• 3 of the Sons flee - and Razul leaves the wolves to feast of the corpses of the slain Sons of Akkai when he is ambushed by the 3 fleeing Sons of Akkai, who blame him for their misfortune.
• He manages to rush back to the wolves, but is impaled in the onslaught of the wolves, which manage to kill the remaining Sons of Akkai.
• He stumbles in the room but finds a secret door which he falls into and passes out.
• He awakens outside in a tent, and sees a figure, one historian Hakim who was researching the ruins with his slain partner. Hakim informs him he was in the secret room looking at decaying tombs when Razul stumbled in. 
• Hakim kept them hidden until the wolves left - the creatures which had been preventing him from delving deeper into the dungeon - and then taken Razul to heal - a process taking 6 days.
• The rubble had been ruined from one of the entrances, and Razul and Hakim decide to go exploring the ruins. 
• Razul loses a permanent hit point, but advances to level 2!

Current Level: Razul 2, Hakim 1

Rise of the Rahib, Session 1

I recently got Kal Arath after hearing the hype around it. And to be honest, I was initially skeptical - but boy did it blow me away. I did a couple test sessions, so now I want to try it out longer term. I thought about going in blank slate, but then I had a better idea - telling the story of the rise of the Rahib, the villain within whose prison Badger - the PC from my previous game Lonesome Wanderings - had died. 

I created a character, a magus by the name Razul, but the story of who would actually become the evil Rahib was going to be left to fate based on who survived in my playthroughs of the game. Perhaps it would be Razul - or perhaps another companion picked up along the way? And eventually, the timeline of the game would catch up to Lonesome Wanderings, once a stronghold had been established of course. But first, a character must survive the wastes of Kal Arath to get to that point.

So without further ado - session 1 of the Rise of the Rahib.

• Razul makes a pact with the Demon of Domination, a shadowy entity which requires blood sacrifice to be able to cast spells, with the cost of part of his vitality (1 HP) per spell prepared.
• He has the goal of gaining the Nagha Scrolls, hidden in a monastery and lost to time - which makes sense as they have arcane knowledge many would do anything to gain, a worthy goal for a magus.
• Razul's hut is devastated and destroyed by a tornado, but he manages to avoid getting sucked into it himself - though he is only able to salvage 2 days worth of food from the rubble.
• He forages for food the next day, finding just enough berries and nuts to get him one more meal, despite the light rain fall and pleasant summer weather.
• That night, he comes across 3 Sons of Akkai - Akkai being the demon lord ruling over the steppe of Kal Arath. They immediately proceed to attack to subdue and possibly kill him.
• Despite his best efforts, he is subdued and goes unconscious. He awakens tied to a log over a fire, with cultists chanting with him as their human sacrifice to Akkai.
• He yells out that he knows where the Nagha Scrolls are - the leader of the Sons of Akkai halts the ceremony and questions Razul.
• Razul tries to convince him - and while the leader does not believe him, seeing through his lies, he is convinced by Razul's logic that there is only a benefit to letting him live and lead them to the scrolls, and gives Razul 7 days to produce this lost location - as a prisoner in chains leading the Sons to said location of the scrolls.
• As Razul and the Sons of Akkai, who have him tied up, travel north, they become lost. Frustrated, they at least are able to forage for plenty of food.
• They arrive at an ancient large volcanic caldera - and the cultists prostrate before it, seeing sacred symbols of Akkai on its surface near an entrance.
• Razul decides to gamble given no chance of escape from the Sons of Akkai in the daylight - but perhaps a better chance in the dark of the caves beneath the volcano. He tells the Sons of Akkai the Nagha scrolls are within the caldera.
• The Sons of Akkai buy into this as they and Razul, still in chains, descend into the bowels of the ancient volcanic caldera.

Current Level: Razul 1

Tales from the Whitebox, Session 20

 In which the party...

• Sets out to find the Bastion against the Red Mist. 
• Travels through various locales, including 7' tall plains, rugged hills, and deep valleys.
• Fights off wolves, in which Grubz shatters his right arm and skull, passing away.
• Are forced to camp out with a raging tornado ripping through the lands for nearly 3 days, staying barely alive and running low on rations.
• Encounter a poor straggling innkeeper who requests aid to fight off Red Mist zombies at their inn, which have taken over the Inn.
• Forage for food after the tornado, picking berries and hunting rabbit to stay alive on their way to the Inn.
• Head to the inn and formulate a plan - since the inn rests on the edge of a cliff, and there are 6 zombies, each party member will push a zombie off the edge of the cliff and the remaining will be fought till they get pushed off as well.
• The plan immediately goes horribly wrong as one 1 zombie is pushed off the cliff. Tom and Millie both are turned, having been bitten into zombies and Thumb, Ophelia hide in the Inn with the innkeeper against the zombie hordes.
• However, this victory is short lived as the Red Mist Zombies break in, and despite their best efforts, both Thumb and Ophelia are slain and turned to zombies themselves. 

And so ends Tales from the Whitebox. A shorter story, where time and time again the party, and notably Thumb survives by the skin of its teeth. But in the end, the harsh world managed to bury them as well.

Tales from the Whitebox, Session 19

 In which the party...

• Thumb travels west from the ruins of Stoutwall, as the Red Mist begins to slowly encroach the wilds around the city. 
• Comes to an intersection, with a northern path having some animal tracks, and a southern path having signs of battle. 
• Follows the southern path and discovers a wounded bear sitting, resting around the corpses of the Goalshine Militia. Behind the bear lies the raggedly breathing figure of Captain Ophelia Theradulin, the gnoll captain of the militia. 
• Thumb uses some rations to distract the bear, and makes it to Ophelia in time to patch her up, and quickly leaves the clearing to set up camp elsewhere.
• The bear follows, and as the party lies still in wait, sees it eat the rest of their rations before it lumbers off, leaving them unharmed. 
• A portal opens, and the duo are ushered in by one Tom Hickathift, the emissary for Queen Mab of Alphame. 
• Following him through the portal, the duo arrive in the court of Alphame, with a few other familiar faces - Millie Hnuk the dwarven owner of an inn in Goalshine, and Grubz the orc thief.
• Queen Mab tells the five individuals - Tom, Thumb, Ophelia, Millie, and Grubz - that they have been chosen from their realm as part of a prophecy to save their world from the Red Mist, an entity that travels from world to world eating entire realms and consuming them into its mist. The Good Fey entities have been fighting against it's corruption for millennia, while much evil in one way or another serves it to some capacity.
• She relates the prophecy: 
• The Knight of the Realm takes up a stand, And the Thief that mourns will slip his hand, The Ranger bends the threads of fate, The Mage calls truth—too soon, too late.  Bound in trust, the Survivor stays, And in their choice, the world will sway.
• She explains that to fulfill the prophecy, they will need to head to another realm - one nearly consumed by the Red Mist, with but a single isle with a Bastion. There, they will find the way to save their world.
• She opens a portal to this other realm, where it turns out Tom Hickathift has already started talking with an individual, and they enter. 
• They arrive in the city of Xian, where Tom's contact - a hooded figure by the name Vikthar, the scaled, a half demon cultist associated with one Shogunate - immediately attacks Tom, draining his essence stating he knew of the Fey's betrayal.
• The party attacks and kills the cultist, but not before Tom soul is nearly pulled from his form, as he goes unconscious, in and out of delirium,
• They immediately return to the portal with Tom, and wait for a week as he heals in the land of the Fey, with one of them keeping guard on the cultist's dwelling, which is uninvestigated by any authorities. 
• During this time, they learn that this world was consumed by the Red Mist - known as the Red Tide by the people of this land - and that this island, Ektau, was the only one spared from it's ravages for unknown reasons. 
• Within a week, Tom Hickathift is healed up, but the Fey tell them they cannot keep the portal open forever, and they will have to try and survive the best they can as the portal can only be opened at limited intervals, and only from limited locations due to the tenuous connection to the realm caused by the Mist's overwhelming presence.
• Reunited, the party finally ventures out of the dwelling, the cultist buried and hidden away, and into the streets of the city of Xian to learn what they can on the nature of the Red Mist.

Characters: Thumb, Ophelia Theradulin, Millie Hnuk, Tom Hickathift, and Grubz

Tales from the Whitebox, Session 18

In which the party...

• Travels to Stoutwall to seek opportunities in the city, and pass by some Geyser Springs on the way to the city. 
• Entering the city walls, are immediately accosted by a group of ruffians whom they manage to defeat. 
• The ruffians - thugs of Calibar, reveal that Calibar is part of the Crimson Brotherhood, a fringe cult looking to give a return to the Red Mist, an entity which was known as the "World Eater", by sacrificing the entirety of the city to it in stone.
• They learn that the Red Mist was the original goal of Helle, the ancient Ifrit who sought to awaken the entity before it's exile into an alternate plane.
• They learn the ritual is in fact ready to be underway, having been progressing steadily over the past few weeks.
• The party - with a wounded Flametongue in the last battle - heads deeper into the city, entering a storefront to see if they may get some healing.
• Unfortunately, the storefront is front for Calibar's cultists, with 4 cultist slavers who attack the party.
• The party manage to defeat the slavers, but not before Flametongue is severely wounded. 
• While searching for a healing potion for the dragon, the party realizes another cultist had been hidden within the store, as he casts an alarm spell.
• As he triggers the spell, numerous alarm spells in unison start ringing out, and it seems the plan has been set into motion - possibly because of the arrival of a party that managed to kill so many cultists.
•  The cultist them pulls out hidden explosions, and detonates them in a suicide bombing, shouting "For Calibar!"
• Thumb, Lap, Flametongue, and Murder are slammed against a wall...as a low rumbling begins deep within the city.
• Thumb, manages to stay conscious, as he goes to check on his friends. But much to his horror - Flametongue is dead.
• Lap and Murder are mortally wounded, with Murder unconscious and Lap barely conscious, and bleeding out, as Thumb tries to use whatever he can find to patch them up - but his attempts fail as Lap catches his hand.
• "The prophecy...leave Thumb...the city is gone...the Red Mist arrives...the prophecy..." Lap bleeds out and dies, Murder soon passes after him.
• All of his friends dead, and Thumb himself severely injured, he runs out, only to see massive red clouds with lightning and thunder gather in the distance, funneling over the city.
• Without looking back, Thumb limps out of the city walls and flees for his life, and leaves as the Red Mist arrives in full force, consuming Stoutwall...and slowly inching out of the city across land.

Current Characters: Thumb