The Burning Words (Campaign)

Chapter One: The Burning Lady

The team is hired to stop a massive “yard sale” by well-known supervillain the Burning Lady. Turns out, the “yard sale” is a massive trap - everyone attending is locked inside an ampitheater, to be offered to the gods as sacrifices so the Burning Lady can ascend to godhood. The team intervenes, and the existing gods don’t allow the Burning Lady to ascend. Everyone escapes alive, including the Burning Lady.

Chapter Two: The Hall of Dead Parcels

Zeleny, Old Yotun region. The gang is quarantined underground after contracting a deadly curse back in Arkalay (home base of the Burning Lady). There, they meet Oates! They eventually encounter Amity, an old friend of Bryant’s, newly turned into a necromantic nightmare queen, who’s long sought her revenge against him (Bryant accidentally killed her sister). Bryant is turned into a zombie. The PCs find a cure by entering a long-held time loop, in which an ancient magician has been feverishly working for years. Upon

Interlude: Peter Ant-Eater’s All-Ages Family Fun Zone

Chapter Three: Longest Light

Travel montage. The team travels to Esranos, a port city on the White Sea. During their travels, Asrond befriends Tully, a young gold dragon. In Esranos, Oates discovers that the city is celebrating a religious festival of the goddess Halka - her family’s patron. Oates has a flashback to her sister Hall stealing a locket from an antique shop, only to find the exact same antique shop (the Double Fox) and the exact same locket (the Twin Hare locket) within. That night, a black acorn (the Live Iron) falls out of the locket.

Chapter Four: White Sea Rumble

The gang buys a ship (one of my homebrew items, a ship in a bottle that grows to full-size), and hires a crew! Upon hearing about a mysterious cult on the island of Finback, they investigate and soon find the Crane Wives, a vicious and birdlike bunch of killers. Bryant dies like a bitch on account of barnacles. The Crane Wives attack the team with magic water, which causes them to lose one level per in-game day. The gang eventually makes it to their headquarters and battles their master, a twenty-foot baby with a crane head, before defeating him and ending the curse.

Interlude: Peter Ant-Eater’s Family Fright Fest

Chapter Five: Brutal Mortal Bodies

Lujo receives a mysterious letter from a note in a bottle, asking him to “come help”, so he and the gang head to sea. They discover a mysterious flotilla of boats lashed together, and weird, edgy, forgetful people within. They realize they can’t leave. Gesh remembers her youth, and hangs out with Jazzy, an orphaned young gnoll who grew up on the flotilla.

Jazzy throws herself overboard in a fit of holy ecstasy. To follow her, the PCs seek counsel from the local witch, a weird animatronic lady who offers them “what they seek”, or “escape”. Mandy chooses “escape”, which is a cloak embroidered with stars - they put it on, and their soul instantly vanishes into the Astral Plane. Their body is unharmed. The remaining PCs offer to pay for “what they seek” in precious memories. The witch chooses Asrond’s precious memory, which is the first time he chose to be a hero, but instead of taking his memory, she plucks his eyes out of his head. It’s the Burning Lady, and she’s been keeping an eye on them.

With the protection they bought from the Burning Lady, the gang heads under the sea. There they fight an Aboleth, and inside its guts, they discover a bone shard from Yeenagu, Gesh’s chaos god. Gesh chooses to forsake her friends and become the new avatar of Yeenagu, saving Jazzy’s life at the cost of her own.

Chapter Six: Fainsbracken / The Long Walk

After their miserable experience at sea, the PCs drag themselves ashore to lick their wounds. They encounter Ypsi, a strange dwarf withpowerful magic and a connection to the Burning Lady. Ypsi owns a magic mirror that allows the team entrance to the Astral Plane, where they lose Jazzy, fight a massive Chain Devil in a coliseum, see a massive, frightening spirit, and rescue Mandy’s soul.

While on the road towards Lujo’s quest, the gang runs into Ines, the Burning Lady’s secretary. She offers to trade Oates her acorn for a planchette that seemingly allows fast-travel, but Oates turns her down. Ines is tired, despondent, and apparently not their enemy. She vanishes.

The gang also encounters Arlowe, a weird stringy drow guy. They steal his stuff (precious medals that belonged to his fallen friends) and he’s mad about it.

The gang finally makes it to Helma, mysterious gnome utopia project, to solve Lujo’s quest.

Chapter Seven: The School of Seven Bells