This is amazing, as usual. This ought to be collected and distilled on some kind of testimonial page on this site, so when I want to pitch ACKS to somebody, I can just send them there.
On another note, how do you name your plots of land? Do you name every 6-mile hex that is conquered? Do the players name them? How do you come up with the names?
I wouldn’t mind if that was done (I like ACKS quite a bit, and wouldn’t mind seeing more ACKS players out there), but I don’t think I could make myself go back through the archive and distill it, myself. I think I’ve mentioned how lazy I am (grin).
Naming: I name six-mile hexes only when I need to.
If the PCs are going to interact with the hex in a meaningful fashion, I name it. If they’re just rolling through, or doing the “automated hex clearing” roll, I don’t. I also named all of the hexes with a static point of interest, because it helps me remember what I was thinking when I marked it down.
I usually name the hex for a prominent feature, which is prosaic, but memorable. Galaufchulis was named for the giant tree in that hex. The hex in which Atanung is located is named after the city. Red Meadow was named for the rust mushrooms.
Sometimes I am more inventive than others: Utena’s Shadow was a hill and cliff in the shadow of the cloud giant castle.
Sometimes the PCs come up with a name. I usually go with it - they’re powerful and important people! Galswintha named Pegasus Mountain. Shadagrunde named Bone Temple Hill. Vulfelind also took that name for her city and named the hex just north of it Bone Temple Gate.
We’re taking two weeks off, so there won’t be any updates.
Things are getting bigger faster, and I don’t have enough detail prepped (I was focusing my efforts on the catacombs, so of course the PCs are planning war with Greuthungi, the Parisian criminal guild, and the Thervingi Church of the Lady, all semi-simultaneously).
Also, how do I put this? … I’m really nervous, and I need some time to feel comfortable with where the campaign is going.
There are five kingdoms (principality-sized) within the regional map (the rest is wilderness): Greuthungi, Thervingi, Ionia, Crimea, and Scythea; plus the Paris city-state which is supported by the populations of all five, and answers to none. Somewhere past that are Huns and a failing, degraded Empire. But I don’t have enough detail on any of those, and I think the PCs have reached a point where they could conceivably - in bite-sized but growing chunks - start conquering all of it.
I’m facing the fabled end-game of would-be world conquerors … and I’ve never run a campaign to this point before. Ever. Heck, I’ve never had PCs who had lands that felt as real as Galaufabonne does - it’s in my mind like an actual place that I can almost touch, and I’m pretty sure the players feel the same. I don’t want to screw that up when the scope expands.
I kind of wish Alex had started his campaign log about a year earlier, so I could see how he did it.
I kind of wish I had walked this road at least once before.
So … two weeks. I’m going to write up a summary of the cities and realms of Crimea and Scythea. I’m going to fill out the missing duchies in Greuthungi, and finally sit down and really work out the two Chaotic duchies in Ionia. I’m going to brainstorm ways to make it all scarier and more dangerous than anything they’ve done already, so they have to up their game to win.
And I’m going to take a deep breath and try to not screw it up.
You’ve done such amazing work so far, just go into the endgame with an aura of confidence (even if you have to pretend that confidence) and I’m sure your players will follow enthusiastically. I’m sure you’ll do it all justice. Good luck! Looking forward to seeing it play out.
Two words: dragon cavalry.
Lets see how we’ll they fare against a coalition of kingdoms where some of them got wyvern riding orcs, or knights/wizards on dragons.
Warder
Session 41 and 42
Year 1309, Winter, Months 1, 2, and 3
The Grim Fist meet in the throne room, a handful of close friends and advisors accompanying. They talk long into the night, and come away with something like a plan.
OOC: Galswintha is performing research and building her twin cities throughout most of this, and sent some of her higher-level mage companions to assist the various war efforts. The player ran those mages, since the war efforts were far more interesting than a single research roll.
Paris
Vulfelind leaves for Paris, taking the slightly longer route through Orléans and Thervingi. She directs her flying canoe in fox form, along with Chadalinda (one of her two top henches) and three of Chadalinda's trusted henchmen, plus a single squad of the Bone Temple Flying Cataphract Cavalry. The trip takes a mere two weeks.In Paris, the King of Thieves, Ermenulfus de Paris, greets them at the gates. Or at least someone who looks like him: the King of Thieves is reknowned for his disguises.
Ermenulfus: This is how you repay my friendship?
Vulfelind: I paid you. You sent someone to do the job.
Ermenulfus: I let you pick a guild-member target!
Vulfelind: That you wanted dead, yes.
Ermenulfus: Do your companions know? Do they know what you are?
Vulfelind: What am I?
Ermenulfus: A lycanthrope! A changer! An infectious rot in the purity of our guild!
Chadalinda, to Vulfelind: Friendship, he says!
Ermenulfus, shaking his head: It saddens me to end you.… and then he disappears. Not invisible - gone!
Vulfelind laughs, “Cat and mouse? I think not.”
Instead, she ignores the cagey assassin and marches into his hideout to inform his lieutenants that she is replacing him. When they scoff, she sets down a bounty on his head: 28,000 gold and 100% of their hijinks earnings for the first season after he dies.
Between her winning smile and courtesy, she manages to persuade most of them to at least hesitate. The one who doesn’t is an old pirate who hates lycanthropes: he draws his sword and attacks.
Unarmed and alone, Vulfelind disarms him, knocks him down, pins him to the floor, and then beats his head against the floor until he is unconscious. “His loyalty speaks well of him. If any of you are his friend, escort him to the city walls. He is exiled.” One elderly thief steps forward and carries the unconscious pirate off.
After that, a week passes while Vulfelind settles in and oversees the remaking of the local syndicate … and then, while she is apparently alone in her office, Ermenulfus and three of his “former” lieutenants walk in, plus the old pirate.
Ermenulfus: I think you’ve played at this quite long enough.
Vulfelind, to the pirate: Mercy is only given once. Leave or die.
Ermenulfus: I don’t think you have any room to be giving hRRK.From behind, an invisible thief stabs the former guild leader in the side, and Vulfelind draws and stabs with Wordthief almost simultaneously. Chaos erupts, and Ermenulfus tries to grapple her.
Chadalinda invisibly sticks him again, while Vulfelind turns the tables on the grapple and bashes his head into the desk. Within moments, the guild leader is down, just before the invisible thief and werefox dance death among the lieutenants.
Vulfelind ponders briefly, “Merideth would urge pity and forgiveness.”
Then she grimly twists their heads off and sets them into bowls to bleed out. The bowls, she sets on the decorative table just outside the office.
When they arrive later that morning, the two remaining lieutenants swear undying loyalty, and Vulfelind puts Chadalinda in charge of Paris.
And the next two months are spent meeting and acquiring fealty from the 3,000 assassins, thieves, and merchants who were Ermenulfus’ followers. For the most part, it goes well, with Vulfelind overseeing but letting Chadalinda lead, before Vulfelind jets back home.
The Church of Orléans
Chlodomer speaks with the Governor of Orléans to explain the shifting tide of the Church's leadership, and then asks permission - humbly, no less - to bring military aid to the rightful leaders of the Church. The Governor, awed and unlikely to be capable of stopping the hooved warlord, agrees ... at least on the surface.Chlodomer and Merideth march with her Church Knights and his Personal Guard … and three thousand Galaufabonne soldiers, and arrive to find their Patriarch allies under siege at each of the five major temples.
By the combined forces of the former Grand Patriarch, the treacherous Governor, the Dukes of each sub-realm of Thervingi … and King Dagobert II of Thervingi himself.
They are grossly outnumbered and - as they check the route home - outflanked.
Chlodomer: The way out is through?
Merideth: Preferably through that bastard’s smug face.
Chlodomer: Indeed.Stealthy runners are sent home to ask for reinforcements. Maps are reviewed. And Chlodomer and Merideth take their army and march hard on Orléans, bypassing the sieges to cut off the central supply lines.
The enemy realizes too late that they are not fast enough to intercept, and two of the Dukes leave their own sieges to pursue and prevent catastrophic supply issues.
The first of the three chasing armies is a mere two days behind Chlodomer and Merideth; the second, three days; and the third, five days. Unfortunately for all, the Siege of Orléans lasts but a single day - the paltry standing forces falling almost immediately to the hungry army - and on the second day, the forces are well-fed and well-entrenched.
They do not bother to stay within the shattered walls of the city: the Galaufabonne forces sally out and crush the now-hungry and tired forces of the first Duke with minimal losses, and then erect hasty fortifications to face the second, larger force.
When the second, larger force demonstrates greater prudence as well - having procured its own supplies, and waiting on the third force - Merideth loses her patience entirely.
The Church Knights, backed by heavenly and arcane fire, pick the largest, toughest, meanest group of the enemy they can see … and charge. The Duke and his accompaniment of mid-level spear-wielding berserkers set for the charge, and horrible, horrible carnage results. Both sides suffer grievous injuries, and the Church Knights retreat from battle before the Duke’s other armies can be brought to bear. Both sides lick their wounds and heal what they can.
… with one small difference: the Church Knights are at full health in seconds - even those who seemingly fell in battle.
They charge again, with the same elan and vigor as before, and this time they smash the berserk troops to flinders and capture the Duke. They withdraw to cover once again as the enemy marches on them … and Chlodomer’s forces, rested and ready, take to the field against all of the second- and third-best troops.
They then rest and further extend their fortifications for the scant days before the third force arrives. This time, the battle has little room for maneuvering and few grand charges: it is forceful and direct, and has no clear victor, save that Chlodomer and Merideth’s side maintained their morale until the enemy finally fell apart.
Giving the enemy as little time to respond to the news as possible, Merideth force marches to the nearest Patriarch and assails that enemy from behind. She loses two knights, and promotes the most experienced squires into their roles in the next breath - she can weep later - and ends the day triumphant as the Patriarch’s forces charge out to assist and crush the enemy between them.
A hurried conference reveals the primary threats, and Merideth’s information on which Dukes abandoned their siege gives hope. She sends a single knight, stripped to minimal gear, to race back to Orléans and tell Chlodomer where to strike next, and then begins her own march there, bolstered with some of the Patriarch’s limited forces.
Chlodomer rallies his soldiers with the full force of his personality, and they split into three forces: one to march and take the last Duke, two to recover reinforcements from the two unsieged Patriarchs.
They leave the King for last … a grave error.
As all of the Galaufabonne forces meet at the last Patriarch’s temple, the King’s forces have already won, and posted the Patriarch’s head on a pike along the highway. And indeed, there are a lot of pikes, and a lot of heads.
And no King or his forces.
Chlodomer’s trackers find the trail clearly in the fresh snows … heading straight for Galaufabonne.
There is no way to beat the King to their home if the King force marches, and there are not much in the way of troops left to defend anything in Galaufabonne. One of the mages with Chlodomer can teleport, and she does so to warn Galswintha of the incoming force. Chlodomer splits his forces in half: Merideth remains with half to consolidate the Church, while Chlodomer races home with the fastest troops.
At home, Galswintha sighs, takes her army and gathers what troops are on hand to meet the enemy before they can reach the city …
… and brings the last cylinder seal wish.
When the King’s forces arrive, she goes out to meet him. And then the meeting goes something like this:
Galswintha: Your realm is falling apart. Why are you here?
Dagobert: You are misinformed.
Galswintha: You miraculously rescued your five dukes when I wasn’t looking?
Dagobert: …
Dagobert: Once I am done here, I will return and crush your friends.
Galswintha: Did you know? This grants me one wish.
Dagobert: Are you going to bribe me away?
Galswintha: It could cataclysm your domain, or teleport your army home.
Dagobert: …There follows a brief tussle. Dagobert, with ogrish strength and various bonuses and quite a bit of combat skill, trying to grapple an elf maid and take her seal. Or rather, trying to grapple an elven spelldancer while her pet fire elemental, Sandalwood Dawn, begins to sear his flesh from his bones.
He backs down quickly.
Galswintha, breathing heavily, asks, “So you’ve decided on cataclysm? Because once I do that, I won’t win this battle, but I will tear as large a chunk out of your army as I can. I will spare nothing.”
King Dagobert III drinks a healing potion, wipes his mouth, and stares at the spelldancer’s arrayed forces. They are small, but potent. He would win, but she’s right: she could make him pay dearly for the win.
… and something in her confidence shakes him. She’s not bluffing about the seal. If she was … how could she offer to teleport his army home?
Dagobert, sighing: This isn’t over. But please, teleport us home.
Galswintha: Of course! Wording is important, so where do you wish to appear?One used seal later, King Dagobert III and his entire army vanish. And mere days later, Chlodomer arrives.
Chlodomer: What in hell?
Galswintha: Oh, I sent him home.
Chlodomer: Right. Don’t hurt the pegasus.(OOC: Waaaay back, there was a hill. Three wyverns were crowded around a pegasus corpse. Galswintha and Vulfelind killed them in the first round: the wyverns didn’t have the opportunity to act before the wrath of elfmaid descended upon them. “It’s a rule - don’t hurt the pegasus” has been something of a running joke since, whenever Galswintha abruptly turns into a (very, very temporary) badass.)
Yay, carnage! Also, yikes the decorative table was a nice touch.
Cameron, it's great to see your campaign reaching the fabled end-game! I am sure you'll do a kick-ass job.
If you haven't already, I hope you'll check out Domains at War. It has a lot of helpful tools you can use for what's to come.
Email me at alex at autarch dot co if you want to chat in more detail Judge-to-Judge.
I downloaded the free starter edition to prep for these sessions. It’s been very helpful! When you publish the PDF for the more complete system, I’ll definitely be buying it - everyone here is very interested in having a more detailed and complete system for “the important battles.”
And the players seem to feel that I’ve done pretty good by them for the last two sessions. I didn’t pull any punches, and planning and supply lines mattered a lot … and they did pretty good, although they lost a LOT more people than they’re used to recently.
Galswintha was the only one to achieve a bloodless win, and as Merideth commented, she soooo cheated for it.
Session 43
OOC: Note from last session that I forgot to add: Galswintha levels. Everyone is now at maximum level (13th for the werefox and elf, 14th for the humans). Also, this session reads short, because I’m skipping a lot of details that I couldn’t make sound interesting: most of what happened this session was consolidation and accounting.
Year 1309, Spring, Month 4
Thervingi falls apart at the seams.
Galaufabonne has invaded two-thirds of the lands (the eastmost third is still held by King Dagobert III and remains uninvaded), but only at the Duke level and above, and a horde of counts, marquis, and barons declare their independence and hole up in their forts.
Half of those invaded lands consist of the lands owned by the Church of the Lady, originally split between the Grand Patriarch and five Patriarchs … and now a big old mess of Grand Knights, High Priests, and more squabbling and fighting. Two realms within the Church remain fairly steadfast: the two Patriarchs who were both loyal to Grand Matriarch Merideth and survived the war. One realm - led by the False Grand Patriarch and now overtaken by his foremost vassal - remains cohesive enough to declare its independence and hole up with intent to regain their former glory.
The Duke of the Orléans region is dead and his vassals have declared their independence, but the 24-mile hex surrounding Orléans itself is fully invaded and conquered.
In all, Galaufabonne has acquired almost twice its size in lands, and Thervingi has fractured into a pile of tiny holdings.
Vulfelind
The werefox continues to aggressively extend her grip over the syndicates of nearby cities, and by the end of the month, her takeover is complete. Bone Temple forms the center of the new Beggars' Guild, where she rules as Governor, Baron, and Beggar Queen; and styles herself the Beggar Empress where other syndicates are concerned.Chlodomer gives her Orléans and the six-mile hex surrounding it, and she assigns Grizzba as the Governor, Baron, and Beggar Queen of Orléans: possibly the first goblin baron in history, and definitely the first goblin governor.
In Paris, she gives the Governor and Marquis of Paris a choice: retire peacefully to the coast, or retire forcefully as an example to others. He retires peacefully, and Chadalinda is given the role of Governor, Marquis, and Beggar Queen of Paris.
In Atanung, Ustitia becomes the Beggar Queen of Atanung, but not any other form of rulership: Vulfelind has plans, however, and the Grim Fist wants those lands, as well.
Merideth finishes building the new Grand Temple of the Church of the Lady in Utena's Shadow, and uses up the last of the rubble of the fallen cloud giant castle. Utena's Shadow becomes the new center of the Church.She adds the two loyal Patriarchs as vassals, and leaves them in charge of their lands, bringing her hench/vassal number up to eight, her maximum.
She promotes her two most charismatic knights to Matriarch, and sends them to the lands where two of her loyal Patriarchs died, to attempt to heal the rift within the Church and bring the vassals under the central authority again.
Her strongest knight, she lends the majority of her forces to, promotes to Matriarch, and sends to take the lands of the False Grand Patriarch by force, one temple at a time.
Then she takes her remaining knights, and goes to the former Grand Patriarch’s lands to talk sense into them. Some declare their loyalty to her and return to the fold; the remainder … she leaves alone for now.
Chlodomer consolidates those lands he can in Thervingi, spends money like a madman trying to rebuild his badly damaged military machine, and commissions additional fortresses throughout Galaufabonne.A few small clashes with King Dagobert III’s forces also make one decision easier: he withdraws his forces from the majority of the invaded lands … and lets Dagobert deal with them.
Galswintha hands over control of most of her personal lands to her apprentices.Over the prior four months, Galswintha has focused on a dangerous bit of research, with a bit of time “off” spent visiting the efreet city and making contacts there, and a brief diversion when the King of Thervingi thought to invade her homeland and she was forced to take a few days to send him away.
The mad, elemental whispers in her head guide her path somewhat, and she makes significant inroads in trade—enough so that she ends up funding her own caravan fleet.
But her primary focus is the research: pursuing lesser wish with dangerously pioneering research methods.
The research succeeds, but not sufficiently for her purposes … and she begins again!
Amazing! Usually I’m not very interested in campaign write ups, but I could not stop reading this one! Can’t wait to see how the end game goes.
Awesome stuff! Just spent the last few days reading the whole campaign at every available opportunity. Definitely inspirational, and I will be liberally steali- er, borrowing a lot of material.
I’ve just caught up with your play reports. They are fantastic! I’m totally going to steal some of your ideas! I love the creativity and ‘out of the box’ ideas you have. Did you make those excel sheets…I’m a bit intimidated by how much work it sounds like it will be at that level…
I’m curious about the elf class you made. I’m not clear how it was built…is it Elf 1 or Elf 0? I mean, do they have more spells than mages? If it were built with 7 build (elf 0), wouldn’t that limit their class level to 10 + the three trade offs for max level 13?
I love custom classes (as you may know if you’ve seen my blog!) so I’m always looking for new interesting options.
So many nice words makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
I am sick at the moment (as in, you don’t want the details, sick) and although we had a game this past weekend, I haven’t felt up to writing it up. So I will be writing it up next week.
So far, so good!
I am glad it has been useful. And borrow away. I crib a lot from others, too. Steal from enough sources and it’s “collating”.
As above, please steal away.
Which excel sheets?
The spelldancer is HD 1, Fighter 2, Mage 1, Elf 3. I wrote that poorly in the initial post, but meant that it was a total of (elf+mage) 4, not (elf) + (mage 4). Spells per day is same as a mage. Maximum level is 10th; and I let Galswintha burn three custom powers to get maximum level 13 (Heroic Spirit, taken three times).
I see now that I wrote maximum level 14 in the initial post. Augh. Anyway, no, Galswintha and Vulfelind both have max level 13.
Hey Cameron!
I’ve just registered here to say thank you for the awesome and inspiring campaign chronicles of yours. I devoured everything you wrote so far and now I feel like I need to run an oldschool game of hexgrid-exploration right now. I mean RIGHT NOW. Really looking forward to the next chapter.
Also, while I like all main characters so far, Galswintha has become my favourite. I eagerly await her future exploits! 
Cameron said: Which excel sheets?
Apparently I’m too lazy to go back through and find the reference, but I was also under the impression that you had built a spreadsheet(s) for tracking domain details and calculating costs/revenue…
Just checking to make sure you’re still around. Please don’t take that as a rush—I’d rather you got well and wrote more when you felt like it—just a bit of concern that you posted that it was some kind of awful sick and then we don’t hear from you for two weeks.