These campaigns and groups usually ran for a short period of time then fell apart for one reason or another.
This defunct Galon campaign, set in the Gregoran city of Mirago in the year 680 PD, was once an official group and included many creative and interesting characters. Check out the Third Group Page for more information on this unique campaign.
Paul and Justin, upon hearing stories of Krynn's infamous death knight, told me that they thought their thieves could rob him blind. I contended that even Alidin and Bono would be unable to escape his clutches with both valuables and their lives. The two of them issued me a challenge: I would set up an out-of-continuity adventure in which Alidin and Bono attempted to break into Nedragaard Keep, steal Lord Soth's two-handed sword, and get it out of the castle with both of them still alive. Success would be rewarded by raising each of them a level. This unique scenario was never played out, although I still contend that Soth (now a lord in Ravenloft) would win, and I would be happy to set up the adventure if Paul and Justin are still up to the challenge…
Paul and Steve conceived this one during a summer afternoon several years ago when we had nothing else to do and it occurred to us that (at that time) no one had ever played a female PC on Galon or Kaerith. The campaign was going to be set in Mirago on Galon. Characters were created for it; I no longer remember their names [Paul or Steve, if you know them, let me know], but both were elven females, and one was a cleric of Aphrodite. The campaign never actually began, and the character sheets vanished somewhere into my archives, where they probably languish still.
The Florida Groups were begun when Paul, Chris, Justin and I felt like gaming in our hotel room one night while on a band trip to Disney World after the day's activities were done. Everyone involved took advantage of the opportunity to create strange and disruptive characters for the occasion. Paul produced a dark, moody human assassin; Chris played an exceptionally delusional cleric of Azathoth who cast all spells randomly; and Justin introduced his former Airship Group character, Beetle , to Galon. Florida Group, in both its incarnations, was characterized by a free, humorous approach with few game statistics involved, few deaths, and a great deal of cheerful chaos and disorder. Unfortunately, I no longer clearly remember the activities of the first incarnation of this group. If anyone involved recalls what they did, let me know.
In 1997, Florida Group picked up under circumstances similar to where we left it in 1995. The party was the same except for Justin's character; Beetle was replaced by Myron the Bum , a one-time soloist who has made his way into several campaigns and a few other solos as a cameo player. The activities of the group in its second incarnation are somewhat better documented; they wreaked havoc in the streets of Deldar, and ran afoul of Deldar's incompetent guard captain, who shall forever after be known in that city as “Captain Crank.” Chris' mad cleric went through several delusions, concluding with the belief that he was a werewalrus. The group fled the city in a stolen cart, with big plans to turn it into a war wagon dubbed “The Shitmobile,” but the campaign never got that far, and the characters now await our next trip for a new round of chaos.
This campaign met once when Chris, Paul, Steve and I decided to experiment with powerful (9th level) characters. It was set on Galon, at the borders of Bragenmere and Gregora during the Black War, and the characters were elite commandoes attempting to fight Markiran agents and frustrate their efforts. Paul played an abjurer, Sebastian Blackwall; Steve a cleric of Circros (name forgotten); and Chris an acrobatic warrior with mastery of the dagger, Telimar. The group entered a Markiran-held city and Paul was killed by its defenses, only to be raised from the dead by a necromancer who turned out to be Skedlin's father. They later stalked Markirans on the front lines by night, and were attacked by a greater vampire, which drained Steve down to 4th level. The vampire escaped, and the session ended shortly thereafter. The campaign has not been played since.
This one-shot campaign met when Justin and I visited Melissa at Kenyon College one weekend in 1998. The campaign was a self-contained Galon adventure set in the city of Highmoon. The players included the three of us, and two gamers Melissa knew at Kenyon. Melissia, who were they? Characters included Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group , whose presence on Galon was never fully explained; a seductive female human assassin played by one of Melissa's Kenyon friends, who attempted to get friendly with a vampire and ended her portion of the campaign wandering naked through the streets of the Craft District after hastily leaping out a second-story window; a clueless young female human mage played by another of Melissa's friends, who insulted a half-ogre in a tavern but used a charm spell to befriend him when he grew angry, winning the party a valuable ally in the adventure; and Melissa's gnome Cappie, who has since visited other campaigns, including 1st Group . The small party was discreetly hired by the city watch to rescue a prominent merchant sold into slavery in the Shambles. The adventure was significant to future campaigns, as it introduced two important Highmoon NPCs: Captain Silvereye, chief investigator of the city watch, and the notorious slaver Stovepipe Jack, who escaped the adventure alive.
This unique band-bus campaign happened one night when Justin wanted to play his thief, Bono, and I was too tired to DM. Bono was in Ghantra City while the rest of 2nd Group was in Irelia, due to a hasty escape from authorities using a handful of dust of disappearance. LAZ took the helm, becoming the only other person ever to DM Galon or Kaerith, and led Bono through an adventure which involved a break-in to none other than Baron Randolph's mansion. He was caught by the baron and would certainly have been killed had he not foiled several other attempted criminals in the process, exposing enemies to Randolph which he had not expected. The baron let him go, teleporting him back to the location of the rest of the party.
This Kaerith campaign, which ran during lunch hours in the cafeteria of Thomas Jefferson High School in 1995, was set in the villages of northern Ghantra. Its players included Justin, who played his only mage ever, Beranek Naslund(1); Brian Bayich, who played a cleric of Sarox; and Tim Bonura, who played a Blade bard. The ragtag band of adventurers met when Beranek, falsely accused of demon-raising and carrying a damaged spellbook, fell in with the traveling Blade. When Tim attempted to raise money by sword swallowing, and failed critically, the group met Brian at the temple Tim was taken to for healing. The party spent a great deal of time fleeing authorities from one village to another, and ended with the group parting ways after surviving an encounter with a half-orc mercenary in an abandoned tavern.
When a lunchtime conversation in 1997 over which PC characters were the most powerful in combat became too intriguing to leave theoretical, we decided to put them to the test. Completely outside of campaign continuity, Steve, Chris, Paul, and Justin each brought two characters to pit against one another in a series of elimination-style battles. The participants, if I remember correctly, were: Chris Tone Emberbrake of 1st Group , Rondax of 2nd Group , Justin Belinar Stoanskinn of 1st Group, Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group, Paul Alidin Chiherrs of 1st Group, William Strongarm of 2nd Group, Steve Jean-Luc Stormslayer of 2nd Group, and Tychonderoga Sampsonite of 2nd Group. I no longer remember the individual battles, but a few details survive in living memory, namely that Rondax was the finalist, exhibition matches were fought against Mrs. Lloyd (a substitute teacher we had for Spanish; not the actual person), and Vince Costanzo made his single brief excursion into gaming by standing in for an absent fighter with a hastily created human warrior. For the final prize (a free nonweapon skill in unarmed combat), Rondax was pitted against the infamous Buppo, and defeated him in the third round with a critical punch which knocked him flat.
This campaign, intended to be a Kaerith group set in Estivinia, was conceptually begun in fall of 1997 but never actually met. Stacie and Jason were the sole members, although Paul created an esper who might have eventually found his way there. Characters included the first version of Natalia Angell, who was a cold-hearted highwayman, a far cry from Stacie's eventual sylvanborn bard; Paul's nameless esper, a specialist in telekinetic powers; and Teslo, a bard created by Jason. Teslo eventually joined the later incarnation of Nat in Faerie Group.
This campaign, begun by Steve, Paul and I during spring of 1999 and played once, received its name because of the minor earthquake which hit Erie during character creation. The group of two included Avenue Boulevard, alias Samuel B. Dalton, Steve's imposter illusionist; and Austin Knox Dimmsdale, a Doc Holliday-like bounty hunter of Paul's. The two traveled briefly through the swamps of Tedrox as part of a test of their skill by Baron Strongwall. They encountered antherion frogmen in the bogs, as well as an old druid and a ruined bullywug temple. The campaign ended with the two of them in the swamps talking to the druid, and has not met since.
Planet Hollywood (Justin's campaign)
History records little of what went on in this brief adventure in 1997, when LAZ visited Mercyhurst and Teslo Rankoot, a long way from the cowboy he'd later become in Faerie Group, met Aragon Saramon in Ghantra (presumably while Teslo was en route to the Whitelands). I do recall them invading a Plonite church, and escaping by crashing through a stained-glass window when the priest proved too powerful for them to handle. Jason or LAZ, if either of you remembers more, let me know.
This crossover campaign, one of many small sessions played en route to a football game for band, had Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group and Tone Emberbrake of 1st Group meeting in the Outer Planes. Tone was already there due to 1st Group's astral adventures; Bono got there when he insulted a tiefling visitor to Highmoon. Accompanied by the tiefling, the pair managed to offend a fiend and wreck some of its plans. It eventually caught them, and, left with no choice, they prayed to a demonic idol for aid. Dianaubis, who has taken an interest in Bono, heard the prayer and transported them back to where they came from. Presumably, he may someday come to exact his price for this boon…
I ran this sesion for a group of older campers when I had the opportunity to lead a theme campout as a counselor in training. About nine kids joined up, most of whom had never played before, and we went to a spooky clearing out in the woods which contained an abandoned pair of covered wagons. There, I briefed them on the game, helped them create quick characters from templates, and ran a solo adventure which pitted the kids against a hobgoblin warlord bent on conquering the border city of Tarnsta in Glasia (on Galon). The kids loved it, and several of them asked for the titles of the books they'd need to play on their own at home. Remember, it's important to our own survival to pass on the gaming tradition to the next generation.
This campaign came two years after the Blackhawk campaign. It consisted of Paul Lampley's elementalist, Butane, who escaped from prison and fled into Bluetree's wilds; and Larissa Mueller's character Sa'shi, a chaotic-neutral elven teenager with a weak grip on reality who met him in the wilderness and followed him. The campaign was fairly humorous, and largely consisted of Butane trying to rid himself of the young elf. When scare tactics, leaving her at a church, bribing her, distracting her, turning her over to the city watch, casting spells on her, and selling her to a brothel all failed, he simply fled into the woods. The elf followed him, and the two were attacked by a snake falcon. This, unfortunately, was where the campaign ended. But Butane's career was not over yet…
Two years after the first LT campaign, Pitt and Butane (who we decided left Sa'shi in the woods after she adopted the snake falcon as a foster child) were reunited outside of Bluetree. Still fugitives, they sought refuge at the temple of Selene, where the high priestess sent Matt Pepper's character, a Selenite cleric/mage named Leglas, to accompany them and reform their evil ways. Leglas failed miserably, however, as the other two soon discovered a demon-worshipping cult in the city's Old Quarter and enthusiastically attacked it, intent on gaining its unholy relics. They succeeded, and found themselves in an audience with a balor (the most powerful tanar'ri), whom they petitioned for great powers, cheerfully offering to sell their souls in exchange for control over fire (Butane) and the powers of a dragon (Pitt). Leglas, too, was tempted by the demon, but unfortunately insulted it after he had accepted its bargain (for 9th-level spellcasting powers). The angry creature attacked, and Leglas betrayed Butane and Pitt, surrounding himself with a protection from evil while leaving them to be consumed by the tanar'ri. However, as he laughed at the demon which was unable to touch him, Leglas felt a tingle from his holy symbol and watched in horror as it disintegrated. Abandoned by his goddess, Leglas' spell failed and the demon carried him off to the Abyss, promising a special immortal fate as befit a traitor. The three of them were surprisingly cheerful about their demise and wanted to continue the campaign in hell, but we never had the chance to do so. It remains the only campaign I've ever run where the entire party succumbed to the temptations of evil en masse and died as a result of one player's treason.
Footnotes:
Beranek Naslund's story did not end with the Lunch Group campaign. His life after leaving the others is detailed in Justin Cryder's short story “The December Snow”, found on the Fiction Page.
Third-Group
This defunct Galon campaign, set in the Gregoran city of Mirago in the year 680 PD, was once an official group and included many creative and interesting characters. Check out the Third Group Page for more information on this unique campaign.
Alidin and Bono versus Lord Soth
Paul and Justin, upon hearing stories of Krynn's infamous death knight, told me that they thought their thieves could rob him blind. I contended that even Alidin and Bono would be unable to escape his clutches with both valuables and their lives. The two of them issued me a challenge: I would set up an out-of-continuity adventure in which Alidin and Bono attempted to break into Nedragaard Keep, steal Lord Soth's two-handed sword, and get it out of the castle with both of them still alive. Success would be rewarded by raising each of them a level. This unique scenario was never played out, although I still contend that Soth (now a lord in Ravenloft) would win, and I would be happy to set up the adventure if Paul and Justin are still up to the challenge…
Airship Group
Chris and Steve's co-DMed one-shot campaign.The Female Group
Paul and Steve conceived this one during a summer afternoon several years ago when we had nothing else to do and it occurred to us that (at that time) no one had ever played a female PC on Galon or Kaerith. The campaign was going to be set in Mirago on Galon. Characters were created for it; I no longer remember their names [Paul or Steve, if you know them, let me know], but both were elven females, and one was a cleric of Aphrodite. The campaign never actually began, and the character sheets vanished somewhere into my archives, where they probably languish still.
The Florida Group - 1995
The Florida Groups were begun when Paul, Chris, Justin and I felt like gaming in our hotel room one night while on a band trip to Disney World after the day's activities were done. Everyone involved took advantage of the opportunity to create strange and disruptive characters for the occasion. Paul produced a dark, moody human assassin; Chris played an exceptionally delusional cleric of Azathoth who cast all spells randomly; and Justin introduced his former Airship Group character, Beetle , to Galon. Florida Group, in both its incarnations, was characterized by a free, humorous approach with few game statistics involved, few deaths, and a great deal of cheerful chaos and disorder. Unfortunately, I no longer clearly remember the activities of the first incarnation of this group. If anyone involved recalls what they did, let me know.
The Florida Group - 1997
In 1997, Florida Group picked up under circumstances similar to where we left it in 1995. The party was the same except for Justin's character; Beetle was replaced by Myron the Bum , a one-time soloist who has made his way into several campaigns and a few other solos as a cameo player. The activities of the group in its second incarnation are somewhat better documented; they wreaked havoc in the streets of Deldar, and ran afoul of Deldar's incompetent guard captain, who shall forever after be known in that city as “Captain Crank.” Chris' mad cleric went through several delusions, concluding with the belief that he was a werewalrus. The group fled the city in a stolen cart, with big plans to turn it into a war wagon dubbed “The Shitmobile,” but the campaign never got that far, and the characters now await our next trip for a new round of chaos.
High-level Group
This campaign met once when Chris, Paul, Steve and I decided to experiment with powerful (9th level) characters. It was set on Galon, at the borders of Bragenmere and Gregora during the Black War, and the characters were elite commandoes attempting to fight Markiran agents and frustrate their efforts. Paul played an abjurer, Sebastian Blackwall; Steve a cleric of Circros (name forgotten); and Chris an acrobatic warrior with mastery of the dagger, Telimar. The group entered a Markiran-held city and Paul was killed by its defenses, only to be raised from the dead by a necromancer who turned out to be Skedlin's father. They later stalked Markirans on the front lines by night, and were attacked by a greater vampire, which drained Steve down to 4th level. The vampire escaped, and the session ended shortly thereafter. The campaign has not been played since.
Kenyon Group
This one-shot campaign met when Justin and I visited Melissa at Kenyon College one weekend in 1998. The campaign was a self-contained Galon adventure set in the city of Highmoon. The players included the three of us, and two gamers Melissa knew at Kenyon. Melissia, who were they? Characters included Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group , whose presence on Galon was never fully explained; a seductive female human assassin played by one of Melissa's Kenyon friends, who attempted to get friendly with a vampire and ended her portion of the campaign wandering naked through the streets of the Craft District after hastily leaping out a second-story window; a clueless young female human mage played by another of Melissa's friends, who insulted a half-ogre in a tavern but used a charm spell to befriend him when he grew angry, winning the party a valuable ally in the adventure; and Melissa's gnome Cappie, who has since visited other campaigns, including 1st Group . The small party was discreetly hired by the city watch to rescue a prominent merchant sold into slavery in the Shambles. The adventure was significant to future campaigns, as it introduced two important Highmoon NPCs: Captain Silvereye, chief investigator of the city watch, and the notorious slaver Stovepipe Jack, who escaped the adventure alive.
LAZ Band Bus One-Shot
This unique band-bus campaign happened one night when Justin wanted to play his thief, Bono, and I was too tired to DM. Bono was in Ghantra City while the rest of 2nd Group was in Irelia, due to a hasty escape from authorities using a handful of dust of disappearance. LAZ took the helm, becoming the only other person ever to DM Galon or Kaerith, and led Bono through an adventure which involved a break-in to none other than Baron Randolph's mansion. He was caught by the baron and would certainly have been killed had he not foiled several other attempted criminals in the process, exposing enemies to Randolph which he had not expected. The baron let him go, teleporting him back to the location of the rest of the party.
Lunch Group
This Kaerith campaign, which ran during lunch hours in the cafeteria of Thomas Jefferson High School in 1995, was set in the villages of northern Ghantra. Its players included Justin, who played his only mage ever, Beranek Naslund(1); Brian Bayich, who played a cleric of Sarox; and Tim Bonura, who played a Blade bard. The ragtag band of adventurers met when Beranek, falsely accused of demon-raising and carrying a damaged spellbook, fell in with the traveling Blade. When Tim attempted to raise money by sword swallowing, and failed critically, the group met Brian at the temple Tim was taken to for healing. The party spent a great deal of time fleeing authorities from one village to another, and ended with the group parting ways after surviving an encounter with a half-orc mercenary in an abandoned tavern.
The Lunch Tournament
When a lunchtime conversation in 1997 over which PC characters were the most powerful in combat became too intriguing to leave theoretical, we decided to put them to the test. Completely outside of campaign continuity, Steve, Chris, Paul, and Justin each brought two characters to pit against one another in a series of elimination-style battles. The participants, if I remember correctly, were: Chris Tone Emberbrake of 1st Group , Rondax of 2nd Group , Justin Belinar Stoanskinn of 1st Group, Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group, Paul Alidin Chiherrs of 1st Group, William Strongarm of 2nd Group, Steve Jean-Luc Stormslayer of 2nd Group, and Tychonderoga Sampsonite of 2nd Group. I no longer remember the individual battles, but a few details survive in living memory, namely that Rondax was the finalist, exhibition matches were fought against Mrs. Lloyd (a substitute teacher we had for Spanish; not the actual person), and Vince Costanzo made his single brief excursion into gaming by standing in for an absent fighter with a hastily created human warrior. For the final prize (a free nonweapon skill in unarmed combat), Rondax was pitted against the infamous Buppo, and defeated him in the third round with a critical punch which knocked him flat.
The first Mercyhurst campaign
This campaign, intended to be a Kaerith group set in Estivinia, was conceptually begun in fall of 1997 but never actually met. Stacie and Jason were the sole members, although Paul created an esper who might have eventually found his way there. Characters included the first version of Natalia Angell, who was a cold-hearted highwayman, a far cry from Stacie's eventual sylvanborn bard; Paul's nameless esper, a specialist in telekinetic powers; and Teslo, a bard created by Jason. Teslo eventually joined the later incarnation of Nat in Faerie Group.
The Mercyhurst Earthquake Group
This campaign, begun by Steve, Paul and I during spring of 1999 and played once, received its name because of the minor earthquake which hit Erie during character creation. The group of two included Avenue Boulevard, alias Samuel B. Dalton, Steve's imposter illusionist; and Austin Knox Dimmsdale, a Doc Holliday-like bounty hunter of Paul's. The two traveled briefly through the swamps of Tedrox as part of a test of their skill by Baron Strongwall. They encountered antherion frogmen in the bogs, as well as an old druid and a ruined bullywug temple. The campaign ended with the two of them in the swamps talking to the druid, and has not met since.
Planet Hollywood (Justin's campaign)
The Teslo and Aragon One-Shot
History records little of what went on in this brief adventure in 1997, when LAZ visited Mercyhurst and Teslo Rankoot, a long way from the cowboy he'd later become in Faerie Group, met Aragon Saramon in Ghantra (presumably while Teslo was en route to the Whitelands). I do recall them invading a Plonite church, and escaping by crashing through a stained-glass window when the priest proved too powerful for them to handle. Jason or LAZ, if either of you remembers more, let me know.
The Tone and Bono Band Bus One-Shot
This crossover campaign, one of many small sessions played en route to a football game for band, had Bono Fosbury of 2nd Group and Tone Emberbrake of 1st Group meeting in the Outer Planes. Tone was already there due to 1st Group's astral adventures; Bono got there when he insulted a tiefling visitor to Highmoon. Accompanied by the tiefling, the pair managed to offend a fiend and wreck some of its plans. It eventually caught them, and, left with no choice, they prayed to a demonic idol for aid. Dianaubis, who has taken an interest in Bono, heard the prayer and transported them back to where they came from. Presumably, he may someday come to exact his price for this boon…
Wildlife Camp Group
Blackhawk campaign
I ran this Galon campaign many years ago back when I was a camper at National Wildlife Camp in North Carolina. The three players were all guys from my cabin, and the campaign met three or four timed during the two weeks of our stay. Paul Lampley played Butane Flameston, a manic fire elementalist; A kid named Matt (last name unknown) played a mentally ill half-ogre named Ugh who was irresistibly drawn to shiny objects and sweets; and Jason Schnieder played Pitt, a short, fat, mean assassin. The three adventured in Bluetree, where they caused great chaos in the farmer's market, accidentally killing animals by trying to steal them and then trying to weasel out of trouble with absurd tactics. (“This duck is defective,” said Ugh, holding it by its broken neck. “I want to return it.”) They were arrested by the guards after Ugh put his head through a shop window to get at a cake, Pitt killed the mayor's cat, and Butane set a dwarf on fire. The campaign ended with them languishing in a cell under the city.Campout Seminar one-shot
I ran this sesion for a group of older campers when I had the opportunity to lead a theme campout as a counselor in training. About nine kids joined up, most of whom had never played before, and we went to a spooky clearing out in the woods which contained an abandoned pair of covered wagons. There, I briefed them on the game, helped them create quick characters from templates, and ran a solo adventure which pitted the kids against a hobgoblin warlord bent on conquering the border city of Tarnsta in Glasia (on Galon). The kids loved it, and several of them asked for the titles of the books they'd need to play on their own at home. Remember, it's important to our own survival to pass on the gaming tradition to the next generation.
1st LT campaign
This campaign came two years after the Blackhawk campaign. It consisted of Paul Lampley's elementalist, Butane, who escaped from prison and fled into Bluetree's wilds; and Larissa Mueller's character Sa'shi, a chaotic-neutral elven teenager with a weak grip on reality who met him in the wilderness and followed him. The campaign was fairly humorous, and largely consisted of Butane trying to rid himself of the young elf. When scare tactics, leaving her at a church, bribing her, distracting her, turning her over to the city watch, casting spells on her, and selling her to a brothel all failed, he simply fled into the woods. The elf followed him, and the two were attacked by a snake falcon. This, unfortunately, was where the campaign ended. But Butane's career was not over yet…
2nd LT campaign
Two years after the first LT campaign, Pitt and Butane (who we decided left Sa'shi in the woods after she adopted the snake falcon as a foster child) were reunited outside of Bluetree. Still fugitives, they sought refuge at the temple of Selene, where the high priestess sent Matt Pepper's character, a Selenite cleric/mage named Leglas, to accompany them and reform their evil ways. Leglas failed miserably, however, as the other two soon discovered a demon-worshipping cult in the city's Old Quarter and enthusiastically attacked it, intent on gaining its unholy relics. They succeeded, and found themselves in an audience with a balor (the most powerful tanar'ri), whom they petitioned for great powers, cheerfully offering to sell their souls in exchange for control over fire (Butane) and the powers of a dragon (Pitt). Leglas, too, was tempted by the demon, but unfortunately insulted it after he had accepted its bargain (for 9th-level spellcasting powers). The angry creature attacked, and Leglas betrayed Butane and Pitt, surrounding himself with a protection from evil while leaving them to be consumed by the tanar'ri. However, as he laughed at the demon which was unable to touch him, Leglas felt a tingle from his holy symbol and watched in horror as it disintegrated. Abandoned by his goddess, Leglas' spell failed and the demon carried him off to the Abyss, promising a special immortal fate as befit a traitor. The three of them were surprisingly cheerful about their demise and wanted to continue the campaign in hell, but we never had the chance to do so. It remains the only campaign I've ever run where the entire party succumbed to the temptations of evil en masse and died as a result of one player's treason.
Footnotes:
Beranek Naslund's story did not end with the Lunch Group campaign. His life after leaving the others is detailed in Justin Cryder's short story “The December Snow”, found on the Fiction Page.
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