The Tower of the Domains
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The Middle World Campaign

 

Set in a world loosely based on Western Asia, Arabia and Northern Africa of 600BCE, this campaign has been running since 2020. The world is not merely one of mortails, but of spirits and the progeny of the two.

This page links to write-ups of the various sessions. They used to be on my blog, now putting them as static pages, in order to return my blog to be more about my random thoughts, reviews and games

 

Latest episode

Write up 6th February 2025 - The Ghost Ship Part 2

Finding a log detailing the last days of the lost crew of the "Wave Ruler", the group decide to explore further, to see if they can find further clues to the fate the ship, believed sunk but seemingly beached but how did it get here. Recovering the documents of the merchant Roya was obviously important, though perhaps the share of salvage was a more pertinent motivation for some.

Our cast

  • Utana – Noble of the Rule of Haraxa, Agent and Acting-Databdara (Magistrate) of the nation

  • Farshad – Merchant of the Rule of Ishtir, musician and Agent of the Rule of Haraxa

  • Smersh – Larcenous Priest from long time ago, and a nation long gone, Databdara (Magistrate) and agent of the Rule

  • Fetnah – Shaman from a long time ago, and a forgotten and lost land, and agent of the Rule

  • José Juan – Foreigner from the far west, warrior, healer and Agent of the Rule

Absent

  • Jalabu – Noble of Dilmun, Merchant-Adventurer and agent of the Rule.

  • Arpaesis – From the far western land of Ta-Khemet, student of Arcane Lore, and agent of the Rule, currently studying books of Lore

  • Dhran the White – of humble origin in Ishtir, warrior, agent of the Rule, currently studying in the capital and trying to unionise

The group headed down a hatch towards the stern of the ship, finding on one side, a ruined storage area, though, disturbingly manacles were crudely affixed to a beam with two skeletons, the flesh stripped from them, lying underneath. Later Fetnah found a jewelled ear-ring under one skull.

On the other side side partitions were filled in by a barricade of fury it urge and detritus, with more of the solid organic strands adding to the barrier. Smersh peered through the gaps, the others behind him. Suddenly a nauseating terror, seemingly coming from some netherworld devoid of hope or joy permeated them, causing them to flee, painting in fear on thr top deck. Smersh had to visibly restrain himself from flinging himself into the sea.

As they regained their composure José Juan, worried about what had been happening, climbed aboard from the boat sent out from the "Drink of Virtue". Seeking guidance, Fetnah decided to reach out to the spirit of the location, a tall order given that the sea is a place of impermanence.

However she prepared herself as best she could, invoking the assistance of her ally Ilbalkia, calming herself and taking a short time to cleanse herself but, more importantly, taking a valuable Pearl received from the Keteaorum allies met near Eshtaband, can with prayers, casting it into the sea.

Sending her spirit forth, Fetnah detected two sprits close by, aetherically speaking, a dolphin that seemed more spiritually present than normal, and a being both mortal and immortal combined, not a Paira like herself, but a Dugan, one whose ancestry included a spirit mortals consider evil.

Given that choice, who would be of more use, the sea creature, or the half-immortal. Her thoughts touched the minds of her companions, somehow receiving the advice that dolphins are prone to evil, violence and deviant sexual practices. The child of a Dugan need not, themselve, be evil.

She contacted the half-immortal, on the grounds that they were more likely to be on the vessel, and found herself mind to mind with the being who had filled them with fear. A mistake on its part, as the effort had nearly killed them. Their name was Liang Joong, who claimed to be a child of the goddess Xhi-hun and they, and their two giant crab-spider guardian pets were brought on the deck, Clad in light armour and with sword and buckler, they looked as if their whole body had been bruised at once.

Liang Joong is from the Zhau Empire, beyond the lands of the Zhuezhi. He and his companions found the ship where it had been beached, and managed to effect some repairs. They needed a ship to find an artefact belonging to the worship of his Mother-Goddess, and the ship seemed brought to them for the purpose.

However, three weeks ago the vessel was attacked by tentacled creatures from the sea, ridden by sea-serpents, Keteaorum. They killed or captured his companions, leaving Liang Joong here alone since. Liang Joong was near to death, the effort he put out to drive away the group had taken most of his life force.

Leaving Liang Joong propped up to recuperate, they split up to explore the lowest, cargo deck. Farshad, Utana and Fetnah to the rear, Smersh and José Juan to the bow. Without Jalabu, who was doing some investigation on his cousin Hamid absconding with the "Farshad's Bounty" and his magic shields of light, they had to make do with clay lamps.

At the stern, they went down steep stairs and found a ruin, the listing ship was flooded at the port side, urns floated about in the water, some bales were soaked or hidden under water.

The panel at the base of the state where the box was hidden had swollen with the water, Farshad was unable to remove it Utana yanked it out, narrowly avoiding backhanding Farshad. The box inside was covered in intricately decorated metal plates and was very heavy. Farshad and Utana passed it to the deck above, where Fetnah started dragging it towards the upper deck.

José Juan lowered a lamp on a rope, peering below to the water under the hatch, two arms seized the rope, and tried to drag José Juan down. He resisted but he undead thing leaped up, served him and dragged him down.

Farshad and Utana also found themselves under attack from two of the Unliving, corpses inhabited by hungry spirits. Farshad was injured, and retreated, Utana managed to behead one with the edge of his spear blade, and after a struggle, despatch the other.

On the other side, José Juan struggled, grappled by one Unliving, another was trying to claw his face off. José Juan twisted, putting the body of his assailant between him and the attacker, unfortunately this left him nose down in the cold water seeping into the ship.

Smersh jumped down to his rescue, seizing the assailant and trying to pull it off José Juan, but instead pulling two handfuls of rotten flesh off the moving corpse.

At this point José Juan's player was having connection problems. And it was really tempting to call a cliffhanger ending there, JośJuan fighting for his life, but the player got back in touch and though he was reliant on someone else rolling this dice, play continued.

A change of hand rolling the dice proved beneficial to José Juan, he was able to throw off the assailant and with Smersh's help despatch one and cause damage to another, though it was the spear of Utana that finished it off.

Injured and confused, they retired to the top deck, to look at the wounds of Farshad and Liang Joong, and to dry out a bit.

And there we left it

Writeup 23rd Jan 2025 - The Ghost Ship - Part 1

Writeup 12th Dec 2024 -I've changed the deal, pray I have changed it further