This campaign was set in a heavily modified version of The Frontiers of Alusia, a very minimal setting (with a rather nice map) published by SPI^[2] for their DragonQuest roleplaying game.

I originally ran this using SPI's DragonQuest (DQ) rules, of course. Eventually I switched it to GURPS 3^rd edition. (See Section 5.27, “Monsters and Merchants Under Seagate”.)

The players have varied slightly over the years.

I ran another short campaign using this setting while I was in college. The players (who included at least Steve Willis) in that campaign called their adventuring group BAMF, Inc., and that campaign had a slight overlap with this campaign. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find most of my notes for that campaign, so I don't have any more details than that. (I do remember that the bit about eating the heart actually happened.)

The party traveled to Crystal Springs, where Gim Torson gave Vlad Sharp-knife, a retired merchant and adventurer, a letter of introduction. Vlad suggested that the Mayor of Crystal Springs might hire them. The mayor, Kesdra, hired them to get rid of two ogres who had moved down out of the Fastness of Girwyllan and were way-laying travelers and outlying farms. (The guards of Regir's Keep were occupied to the south, hunting down several large bands of outlaws in the Sweet Riding.) While the party searched for the ogres, the ogres ambushed them on the road. When the party proved more than the ogres could handle the ogres fled to their nearby subterranean lair. The party followed and killed them. Among the debris was a map the party could not read.

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up two potions of healing and one map in an ornate bone scroll case. The potions have been used and the map has been followed.

The wealthy merchant Rasson hired the party to rescue his son, Turon. Three months before, Turon had been abducted by an enemy of Rasson's, a mage. The mage drove Turon mad and turned him loose in the Wilderlands of Gilarni, a forest territory claimed by Elves. When Rasson found out he sent his men to bring his son back, but they were ambushed and massacred by the Elves, for Turon in his madness had attacked and killed an Elf, and the Elves in turn were killing any humans in the forest in retaliation. After this Rasson hired the party because one of them was an Elf.

On the way to the Wilderlands of Gilarni the party stayed at the inn at Arn's Ferry, where they were attacked by an assassin who (as they found out afterwards) carried a strange coin: it was a large gold coin, not one that any of the party had ever see, and was obviously carved rather than minted. They survived the attack, but were thrown out of the inn and could only find lodging in a strange tower inhabited by an even stranger old man, Balour Shaw, who habitually spoke in a most enigmatic manner. The next morning they found three more assassins frozen to death outside the tower; each carried one of the strange gold coins.

Once in the Wilderlands of Gilarni, the party was accosted by Elves, but Gim Torson convinced the Elves that allowing the party to complete their mission was something to be desired by all involved (expect The Mage, of course) and that Turon was not responsible for his actions. The party rescued Turon from the riverside cave where he was living (battering him somewhat in the process), disposed of some of the mage's henchmen who attacked them, and returned Turon to his father Rasson. Gim Torson later revisited Balour Shaw and began learning magic from him.

Rasson recommended the party to Tomon, who was looking for a group of adventurers to investigate the rumors that something was living in the burial crypts near Stonesboro. The crypts turned out to be inhabited by various ruffians, sub-humans, and undead, most of which were in the service of a necromancer, though the party only figured this out later, near the end of the adventure.

Bytor was killed early on. Barlow Smythe was killed while bravely and selflessly holding off some of the monsters in an early retreat, and was replaced by his friend Kalo Bibkins, a choice that had a dark and significant impact on the party's future.

During the clearing of the caves, the party met the Ghost of Harmon, who asked that one among them take up his sword and clear the crypts of Undead; Basgoot accepted, and was Geased to kill all the undead in the crypts and their maker. The sword, a magic bastard sword, was named Narung. Later the party met a madman in the crypts, who offered them a drink from his wineskin. Basgoot again accepted, and was drunk for days.

Finally the party killed the necromancer after an epic battle with all of his remaining undead servants, among whom, alas, Bytor was now numbered. Afterwards they freed a group of Dwarves who had been captured by the necromancer and were being forced to build tunnels for him.

At some time before, during, or after this adventure, the party was summoned to a warehouse where a menacing figure warned them that they had crossed him once, and must never again do so. The crates in the warehouse were marked with the sign of Suliman Trade.^[12]

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up five books and one box of mysterious powder from the from the necromancer's library, one wand of Fire and Brimstone, and a small pouch of red balls that expanded and then exploded. The pouch has been emptied and the books sold.

The party contracted to defend a religious community of healers in the hills south of the Brastor Holding and the South Lending. The community had angered Polam Wesved, a powerful and unscrupulous merchant, by offering shelter to Rayesta, a beautiful Horse Nomad warrior that Wesved had tried to abduct and enslave. She beat off the kidnappers, but was severely injured; fleeing into the southern hills, she stumbled into Blackstone Chapel, a small religious community, where she was taken in and healed. Wesved told the community to return her to him, and when they refused gave them three weeks to change their minds, threatening violence if they did not.

Since they were basically pacifistic and did not have the skills to defend their community and Rayesta from Wesved's thugs, the Chapel sent one of their most trusted men, Tychel, to complain to the authorities in the South Lending. These, however, told him it was out of their jurisdiction, since the Chapel was beyond the borders of the Brastor Holding (perhaps acting under the influence of Polam Wesved). Desperate, Tychel sought out a group of adventurers, on his own, to bring them back to protect the community. On the way to Blackstone Chapel they were ambushed, but most survived, and even the fatalities were resurrected.^[13]

After a furious debate, the community decided that it was morally permissible for them to hire the adventurers to defend the community. There were several attacks, which were beaten off at the cost of several party members (including at least Gim and Cormac). However, the party members were resurrected by the grateful community's deity, and eventually gave up this approach to regaining Rayesta.

When they returned to the South Lending, the party was arrested since they had been accused by Polam Wesved of stealing a valuable slave (Rayesta) and killing his henchmen who were (he claimed) in lawful pursuit of her. Unfortunately for Wesved, the judge whose compliance he had bought was replaced at the last minute by the new Laird of the South Lending, and the final decision was against him.

(This scenario was a solo adventure for Gim Torson.) Gim Torson was summoned to Balour Shaw's tower by a talking owl to repay some of the debts Gim had incurred as a student of Shaw's magic. After the usual confusing preliminaries, Balour Shaw sent Gim out searching for Jomanal, an adventurer fairly well known in Seagate, who disappeared while working for Balour Shaw some time before.

Gim followed his trail and found out that Jomanal disappeared in the mountains near Crystal Springs, about a month before the party killed the Ogres in that area, apparently in search of a treasure. It turned out that the map that the party found amongst the ogres' loot belonged to Jomanal, and was the map to the treasure for which Jomanal was looking. Balour Shaw also thought the map would lead to something for which he had long sought.

The party set out to find the treasure Jomanal thought lay at the end of the map, and Balour Shaw asked them to keep an eye out for a particular book in which he was interested.

They ran into some slight problems on the way out, because Kalo Bibkins had stolen the purse of an extremely important, not to mention malicious and wealthy, nobleman (committing the infamous and almost legendary grand theft pickpocket) slightly before they were scheduled to leave. He was vigorously sought by the town guards, but with the help of the Thieves Guild (for which he paid dearly) he was smuggled out of town in the carcass of a slaughtered animal and joined the rest of the party on their trek into the wilderness, although they made him travel downwind for several days, until the stench subsided. Following the hints on the map, they finally discovered a hidden stronghold at the head of the Tiana River, east of Carzala.

When they tried to enter the stronghold, they were attacked by a Water Elemental in a pool beside the entrance. Kalo's pony was frightened and fell into the pool with Kalo astride it. Gim attacked the elemental with a lightning bolt since that was the party's most effective magical offense, and badly damaged the elemental, but it also damaged Kalo and the pony, both now involuntarily swimming in the pool. The blast electrocuted the pony, but by some miracle Kalo survived, barely. After searching around some more, they found another entrance, an rock-lined shaft down into the ground. Boswt slipped from the slime-covered hand and footholds while climbing down the shaft and died.

The stronghold had been deserted for centuries, during which various foul creatures had moved in. After a few amusing incidents with hallucinogenic mushrooms and fungi, the party found a large room, in the center of which was a large pentacle and inside that a silvery but semi-transparent dome. Under the dome was a beautiful young woman, apparently asleep, and the book which Balour Shaw sought. The dome was impenetrable to all their efforts to open it.

They returned to Balour Shaw, who accompanied them back to the stronghold and opened the dome. The woman remained entranced. On the way back to civilization they were twice attacked, once by six men led by an assassin (who turned out to be carrying a strange carved gold coin) and once by a necromancer who led six other men. With the help of Balour Shaw they survived. During one of the attacks Basgoot's sword, Narung, began to hum; the person he had just struck screamed, then shriveled up and was seemingly absorbed by the sword. Basgoot's eyes turned completely black, the blade of the sword glowed blindingly, and then Basgoot's eyes closed, he said “oh”, and he dropped to the ground. He was unconscious till the party returned to civilization.^[14]

When they left Balour Shaw he was researching how to wake the woman. When Basgoot finally awoke, his eyes were normal again.

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up a massive book, which Balour Shaw claimed, six unreadable books, which were sold, a ring, a horn, a rod of lightning, eight vials of healing potion, and two vials of invisibility. All of the vials were used up rather quickly.

Alas, Kalo brought his past crashing down upon himself and the rest of the party. Upon returning to Seagate, Kalo sent a taunting letter to the nobleman whom he had pickpocketed. Unfortunately for Kalo, the nobleman had no sense of humor, and hired a bounty hunter to track Kalo down. The bounty hunter did, and delivered Kalo to the local dungeon and an eagerly awaiting torturer.

Under torture, Kalo incriminated the party in his earlier escape from Seagate, and the party was arrested by order of Amur Gibbetsmaster. The party was forced to watch Kalo's beheading, a singularly botched exhibition, since the executioner was blind drunk. It took him six blows to kill Kalo, and even then Kalo's head was not completely severed from his body. The surviving party members were themselves offered a choice: death, or a geas to scout out a caravan trail across the southern desert to the semi-mythical kingdoms of the Five Sisters.^[15] They choose the geas, of course.

Two other prisoners, Jamie Molson and Tekhadun, were also sent south with them. Jamie was betrayed to the Seagate city guards by a rival thief, and Tekhadun had killed a nobleman's son in a tavern brawl. (Incidentally, the ruler of Carzala was out of the country during this whole affair, and the punishment was the idea of Amur Gibbetsmaster, the hanging judge of Seagate.)

The party took the plains route to the South, but were forced into the ominous Thornwood Forest by the Horse Nomads. In the forest they stumbled upon a clearing, in which there were several statues and a tiny hut. The wizened old woman who lived in the hut introduced herself as Mother Thistle (“Mother Thistle Knows!”), and invited them inside. Surprisingly enough they all fit.

Once they were inside she spoke obscurely of three mages who had touched the party: The Mage, The Necromancer, and Balour Shaw, saying that they had angered the first two twice each. She then went on to say that the Hand of the Otherworld had touched all of the party, and had possessed one of them. She warned that the dead could help them, but could also destroy, and that the desert's most powerful dangers were also the least obvious.

When they left her hut the next day, they found they were on the southern edge of the forest, though there was no way they could have traveled that far before finding the hut.

South of the Forest was the Vale of Morin, once the site of fierce battles against the Horse Nomads. During their first day in the Vale the party saw the Horse Nomads who had chased them earlier, but the nomads, though they obviously saw the party, did not enter the Vale. Later, the party was accosted by a group of Ghosts, who asked about the state of their city, Korsepolis. Upon learning that Korsepolis had been in ruins for centuries, the Ghosts traded the party a promise of safe passage across the Vale in return for the party's oath to reestablish trade with the Kingdoms of the Five Sisters and resettle Korsepolis. Since the former they were already Geased to do and the later was a matter for the future, they agreed, as the best bargain in the situation. The Ghosts also told the party that Korsepolis had the best roads through the mountains to the desert, and so would be the easiest route to the desert.^[16]

The party found Korsepolis in the mouth of a valley that led up into the mountains. They snuck through the city after dark, almost blundered into a war between orcs and hobgoblins, and then followed the road out of Korsepolis into the mountains. The road crossed the mountains and ended at a tower overlooking a one thousand foot drop to the desert: this was the Mountain Wall from which these mountains took their name.

They were invited into the tower by a elderly, pleasant seeming if somewhat quirky Fire Giant, Slehad He told them about the tower, and the track that descended to the desert, and mentioned that he left Carzala three hundred years ago, soon after it was settled by humans. However, during the night he attacked the party, and it was only with the greatest of struggles that they defeated him. They explored the tower and found that his larder was stocked with human and elvish corpses.

In the tower they also found a curious clay ball, a chest, and a small box. The small box proved to contain a moderate quantity of an unknown drug. Jamie broke the ball, releasing a strange shadow-like creature, and found that the ball also enclosed a key. When Jamie used the key to open the chest the key bit him. Later, Jamie ingested some of the drug from the box and experienced strange hallucinations and euphoria. Cormac summoned the Giant's spirit back to explain the strange contents of the chest, but the Giant's answers were obscure at best, and not of much use.

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up a scroll with three spells inscribed upon it, broke open one small clay ball which turned out to have a biting key and a shadow creature in it, and ten other clay balls, one of which was later broken when warring against the Queen of the Thri-Kreen and released another shadow creature.

The party left the watchtower and climbed down the cliff to the desert. Once out upon the desert they were attacked by strange insect-like humanoids, but managed to defeat them. They came to an oasis, but found it inhabited by the Kaval-tu-Ata, a tribe of Auhaami, the nomads of the Gatar Shey (the Southern name for the desert). According to the customs of the tribe, they were allowed to enter the oasis after the party's champion (Basgoot) defeated the tribe's champion, Harun. They found out that the insect-like humanoids were the Thri-Kreen, a race found in many places on the desert. The party stayed with the tribe for a while. The sheik, Yavidi, hired them to retrieve some religious items, the Cup and the Talisman, from Batik-al-Yazum, a local wizard, who had stolen them from the tribe. In return, the sheik offered to outfit them for their journey over the desert and to supply a guide, and told them Batik-al-Yazum and most of his servants were absent.

The party accepted, and set out for Batik-al-Yazum's tower in Sumaldi, a ruined city and oasis a few days travel away. They were attacked by a party of ghouls in the city, and during the fight Basgoot's sword again began to hum. This time, both Basgoot and the ghoul screamed, at the same pitch, and Basgoot changed his armor turned black, his skin became the color of yellowed ivory, he grew half a foot taller, and the ghoul shriveled up and blew away. He and the sword killed five more ghouls, absorbing each one, and then Basgoot attacked Jamie, the nearest member of the party, slicing through the magical Wall of Force with which Cormac had encircled the party. Basgoot tried to resist the influence of the sword and the rest of the party managed to pull him off Jamie, whereupon he collapsed.

The party continued with its mission, and succeeded in reclaiming the Cup and the Talisman, killing several of Batik-al-Yazum's servants in the process. They returned to the nomad camp, where they continued learning how to live in the desert, how to ride the lizards that were the desert's most common form of transportation, and how to speak the language of the South.

The Thri-Kreen, the insectoids who had ambushed the party when they first ventured upon the desert, attacked the nomads in force one evening, carrying off fifteen men and thirty women, along with one-hundred thirty-seven herd beasts. The party agreed to accompany the nomads on a raid to Tuath's Rest, where the Thri-Kreen were living in caves in the hills, to recover the captives before they were eaten.

The party helped scout and plan the attack, and Gim Torson called up a storm as a distraction, but he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, and it became a race to defeat the Thri-Kreen and recover the prisoners before the caves in which they were imprisoned flooded. Winther, who summoned a fire elemental to attack the Thri-Kreen, was also successful, but ended up with an intelligent, self-willed, and very independent, if immature and brash, fire elemental, who assisted in the assault only for the chaotic fun of it.

During the assault on the caves, the Thri-Kreen Queen was on the verge of defeating the party and the nomads with her magic and guards, when Basgoot in desperation surrendered himself to the control of the sword. The sword killed the Queen and then cracked open the mountain, starting an earthquake that collapsed the Thri-Kreen caves. Luckily, all the party and the surviving nomads escaped the cave-in, carrying Basgoot, who had again collapsed into unconsciousness.

Basgoot had again changed, and now had pointed ears, hardened talon-like nails, an inhuman look to his face, deep crimson skin slightly scaled, black hair, and completely black eyes. He was seven feet tall, and weighed 400 pounds. His skin had also become incredibly tough.

During the attack Jamie broke open one of the strange clay balls from the chest they had found in the Fire Giant's Tower, releasing another of the shadow creatures.

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up fourteen semi-transparent resinous jewels in nine colors. (These turned out to be ten point powerstones, and each of the following people have one: Gim, Shay, Basgoot, Winter, and Derendeth.) They also got twenty semi-transparent, flexible bladders full of viscous liquid in eight colors, all packed into a small box of smooth, reddish, slightly grainy material.

The nomads moved to Tuath's Rest after the water subsided, partially to prevent another hive of Thri-Kreen from moving in. The party finally left for the south, taking with them a chest of treasure that the nomads had found in the ravine, which they agreed to trade for various things the tribe wanted in return for a share of the profits. Their guide was Dahlil, who had visited the Kingdoms of the Five Sisters before. They took a road he was not very familiar with because the more familiar road led to two kingdoms currently at war where the party would not have been welcome. Along the way they encountered sand-storms and various unfriendly denizens of the desert.

One of the oasis they found was surrounded by nomad tents, but the inhabitants (the Lakal tribe) and all their animals had been beaten to death by blunt instruments, and the well had been fouled with their bodies. Desperately in need of water, the party headed south to the nearest oasis. Along the way they were constantly harassed by creatures made of sand. They finally reached the oasis, which was located in a small range of mountains; while they were at the oasis they were attacked by a Roc, and some of their pack and riding lizards were killed.

Fleeing south, they found that their way out of the mountains and onto the desert was blocked by a huge sandwhip, a creature that lives under the sand and entangles any animals that walk over it in its many tentacles. This one was huge, over three hundred feet in diameter. Unable to return the way they come because of the Roc and other monsters, they first tried to poison the sandwhip.^[17] When that was unsuccessful, Gim Torson summoned the Roc, although he was unable to control it; the sandwhip attacked the Roc, and in the ensuing battle the party slipped by.

Crossing a huge salt flats, the Salt Sea, they came to an inhabited oasis, Sev-a-kalam, where they stopped briefly to rest and recuperate.

In Sev-a-kalam, the party was warned that the southernmost reaches of the desert were plagued by bandits, so they joined a Auhaami caravan leaving for the next oasis, ten days away. Five days out, they were attacked by maniacs, and several people on the caravan, including Tekhadun and one other character,^[18] were captured, and several loaded camels are also stolen. The caravan master, Djavh, identified the attackers by the eight-pointed cross tattooed on one of them as Arakanisi, worshipers of the demon Arakan, King of Chaos, who requires human sacrifices.

Following the Arakanisi, the party and the warriors from the caravan found a series of caves in the Salt Sea, but alas! only guards remained: the captives had already been taken elsewhere. Investigating, they killed the guards and found several corpses. In one room, apparently formed from the ribs of a huge skeleton, they found an altar in front of a statue of beautiful artistry but unsettling aspect. Behind the altar was a huge red vertical stone block across the room, in the center of which was a vertical whirlpool of flame. Tracks in the blood and dust of the room showed that this was where the Arakanisi and the remaining captives had gone.

The party and several Auhaami crossed through the flames, and found themselves in a strange place: the sky was green, the grass blue, and a river was red; a miniature sun, moon, and stars circled in the sky, and the clouds were white, blue, red, brown, and black, and in constant rapid motion. This was Makad-al-Arakan, the world of Arakan. Cormac drank from the red river and began to praise Arakan. (Cormac experienced these fits intermittently thereafter for a long time, until cured by Mordraug.)

Following the tracks the party came to an amphitheater, in the center of which was a throne. Basgoot sat on the throne and was blasted by lightning, but survived. The party then went back along the road and took the other fork, which led them to a steep-walled valley containing a heavily guarded prison-like structure, which turned out to be where those abducted from the caravan were being held.

While attempting to bypass the guards along the road to where the prisoners were held, Basgoot called upon Narung, his cursed magic sword. A huge demonic figure burst forth from the sword, breaking it into pieces, and grew until his head touched the sky. Basgoot fell into a coma and his body became rigid, but he lost some of his more demonic exterior characteristics. He shrank to six foot four and a mere three hundred pounds, his skin returned to the color of yellowed ivory, and he lost most of the scaled areas on his skin and completely lost his talons. The sky cracked open and another huge demonic figure stepped in and the two figures began to fight.

In the confusion and destruction of the ensuing battle the party rescued the prisoners, who included many not from the caravan. They all then fled through the rapidly disintegrating world back towards the entrance, carrying their wounded and unconscious, with Basgoot still clinging to the shards of Narung. Alas, upon reaching the entrance they found it closed. An ancient man, one of the prisoners, said that it could only be opened by sacrifice, and offered himself: Gim Torson, one of the few still conscious and capable of making decisions, instantly, without the slightest hesitation or remorse, accepted the old man's sacrifice and chopped his head off, leaving the corpse spouting blood over the altar. The entrance opened and they all passed through to the caves in the desert.

There was not enough water with the caravan for all the prisoners, so some were left in the caves while the caravan headed for Akhisar, the closest city, to report the actions of the Arakanisi and arrange transportation for the other prisoners. Alas, by the time they had returned to the cave with transport and Akhisar's warriors, those they had left behind had been smashed against the sides and ceilings of the caves. Basgoot remained mind-burnt, and Cormac still had fits frequently.

The characters were interviewed by the captain of Akhisar's city guard about the events in the caves and beyond. Impressed, he suggested they seek work with the city guard, or as warriors of the Bey, the local ruler. The party stayed in Akhisar for a while, getting Cormac cured by a sorcerer and resting up. Basgoot, unfortunately, remained mind-burnt.

However, one day they met a ragged old man, seemingly a water or wine seller, who quoted poetry (not to their taste) at them, offered them a drink from his skin, and spoke to them most familiarly and obscurely, saying that he came to help a follower fallen on evil times, and asked them to lead him to their fallen comrade. When they did, he gave Basgoot a drink, and Basgoot became roaring-and-falling-down drunk. Winther asked for a drink, which the old man gladly supplied him, but upon drinking Winther fell into stupor and unconsciousness. Basgoot remained drunk for a day, but when he sobered up he had recovered from his mind-burn.

After a few days in the city a merchant invited them to visit and talk of their journey. Also impressed, he told them they might easily find work for him or for the merchants' council.

They eventually went to work for the city guard. After a few weeks patrolling in the city, the captain of the guard sent them out to kill some monsters that were troubling caravans along the trade route. Along the way they rescued a Jann^[19] from a group of Brigands. The grateful Jann gave Basgoot an amulet. Tracking the monsters down, they found three Chimera. After a fierce battle the party killed the monsters, but Tekhadun died (bravely, of course) in the fight.

Two weeks later the party left Akhisar for the nearest of the Kingdoms of the Five Sisters, and traveled with a caravan through the Saddyahi-Ashban, the mountains between the desert and the Kingdoms of the Five Sisters. The caravan was attacked twice by bandits during the trip, and every second night a member of the caravan was found dead, apparently killed by someone in the caravan. A Jann war party also accosted the caravan; they were raiding in retaliation for bloody, savage attacks by human bandits, but when they found out Basgoot had saved the life of their sheik's son (from who came the amulet), the Jann allowed the caravan to pass, after the party gave their oath to track down the bandits who killed the Jannee. Finally, they reached the Castle of the Desert Gate (sometimes called Castle Ashban by the hasty), at the pass out of the mountains into the plains of the Five Sisters. There the killer was discovered: one of the caravan guards was a were-tiger, who went on a rampage through the castle. In the ensuing fight the were-tiger was killed, but several party members were infected and Korbel Noir died.

The party left for the nearest city of any size, Marv Dashlam, hoping to be cured. There they visited the Mages' Guild, but the cost of a cure was beyond their means. The next morning they were visited by old, shabbily dressed man who informed them that if they wished freed of their curse they could visit a particular house that evening. During the day they spoke with the merchants of the city to fulfill their geas, but the merchants were not interested in trade along such a risky route as through the Gatar Shey. The merchants seemed very complacent and unaggressive.

That night they visited the house, where a mysterious man (who told them to call him Albad, though this was obviously not his real name) of obvious authority offered to have them cured if they would kidnap a certain holy man named Hajj and take him back with them to their homeland, under no circumstances allowing him to come to harm. Albad said they had until the next evening to consider. The next day they were approached by a priest of the local religion, who spoke of an evil heretic, a fiend in human form, and asked them to rid the city of this menace. They did not accept, and the priest left angrily, hoping the gods would send them their reward.

That night they returned to the house and accepted the mysterious man's offer; he had them cured by a master mage, then Geased to kidnap the holy man. They were joined the next day by Jubad, who somehow knew of their errand and offered to help them find Hajj. With his help they did find Hajj, who was hidden in the magic garden of one of his followers, but when they went to abduct Hajj, Jubad attacked them and attempted to kill Hajj. Hajj was injured, but they managed to save him. Jubad escaped, and soon the city was up in arms, looking for the villains who had attacked their holy man, and perhaps killed him in the process.

The priests, of course, still wanted Hajj dead.

Magic.  Albad gave the characters some magic items to assist them with their task and to pay them for doing it. They received a knobed cane three feet long that was invested with Enchanted Sleep, a chain one-and-a-half feet long invested with Binding, and Winther, Basgoot, Cormac, Jamie, and Gim received scrolls, each with two spells.

After the botched kidnapping of the prophet Hajj, Tesla, Jamie, Winther, and Gim went into hiding with the unconscious and badly wounded prophet, while the others returned to their lodgings. Two days later Hajj regained consciousness, and agreed to leave the city with the party, more concerned with defusing the continuing riots than with his own preferences. The party left before the guard found out where they had hidden, but had to fight their way out of the city. Surprisingly, they did not seriously injure anyone in their flight. They fled across the mountains towards Akhisar, where they were well regarded and where they hoped they would be safely out of the jurisdiction of both the priests of Marv Dashlam and the city's ruler.

After traveling across the mountains, fleeing with the prophet, they entered the gates of Akhisar at dusk and were greeted by Abu Darruh one of their friends in the city guard. He told them of the exciting recent occurrences in Marv Dashlam, and suggested they put up at the Prophet's End, an inn of good quality and reasonable cost with a reputation for discretion. Despite the ominous name, they decided to do so, as the desert was not passable at that time of year, not to mention their ill health and general exhaustion. As it turned out they remained in Akhisar for about six months, speaking with the local merchants about trade, and working for the city guard. They were visited by a Jann, who told them that the bandits who murdered the Jannee had been killed by an Akhisar patrol, so they were freed of that oath.

Half-way through their stay, one morning they found an eight-armed cross of blood on the floor of the common room of their suite at the inn. During the day they learned that other crosses had appeared in many houses throughout the city. Later they were visited by the captain of the guard, who told them that the crosses were threats from the Arakanisi. Later, a message arrived from the Albad, the mysterious man who had hired them in Marv Dashlam, warning that the priests of that city were still looking for them.

Several nights later, Shay Uvall, another resident of the inn and sometime merchant and mercenary, saw a stranger coming down the stairs from the party's rooms. The second time he saw this happening, he warned the party they were being observed. A few days later, an assassination attempt was made on Hajj in the market, and two days later an assassination attempt was made upon all of the characters while they slept, unable to wake because of an enchantment. Shay Uvall heard the intruders and came to the party's rescue. He struggle with the assassins until his efforts to wake the party succeeded, and together they managed to kill the assassins. During the attack Jamie Molson died, but he had enough money with him to be resurrected. It was decided that Shay Uvall will accompany them North.

They left Akhisar one day after the second assassination attempt, accompanied by Shay Uvall and escorting Hajj and three merchant emissaries to the north. The party encountered no serious problems in the southern Gatar Shey, and reached Sev-a-kalam without trouble.

There the locals warned them that the monsters of the Salt Sea were restless. Nonetheless they set out, and one day as they were traveling across a salt flat a huge worm-like beast suddenly broke up through the ground in front of them, arched over them, and broke back into the ground behind them.

The salt surface between the two holes cracked open and dropped the party twenty-five yards into salt water, where the huge worm swam leisurely towards the party, obviously congratulating itself on the fine breakfast it had found. Just then, however, several small boats loomed up out of the dark and one of the creatures in them threw an object into the water in front of the worm. The object exploded with an impressive noise, blinding flames, and a truly foul stench, and the worm left quickly. The party wished it could too.

The creatures in the boats seemed much like goblins, only nicer, and immediately entered into a heated conversation amongst themselves. When the party figured out the debased dialect of Auhaami the creatures were using they discovered that the creatures were trying to decide whether the party members were intelligent, in which case they should be saved, or not, in which case they would provide breakfast and lunch, and maybe supper. After some initial difficulty, the party convinced most of the creatures, or Jetaleem as they called themselves, that they were indeed intelligent. (Several Jetaleem remained unconvinced, not surprisingly.) Gh'yal, the leader of the Jetaleem, told the party that he would resupply them and lead them to the northern edge of the Salt Sea if they would depose Moghu, the evil sorcerous tyrant that was oppressing them. (Imagine a clean goblin. Imagine a clean goblin spouting Marxist rhetoric. Imagine a clean goblin spouting Marxist rhetoric at you as you float in a salt lake infested with huge worms that have shown a distinct interest in having you for breakfast.)

The party, of course, agreed, took the oath, and snuck into the despot's underground stronghold, where they were pestered by an imp and nearly killed by Sand Golems. They succeeded, however, in destroying the despot's magical talisman, driving both the despot and his Sand Golems mad. The Jetaleem leader kept his word and escorted the party safely to the northern edge of the Salt Sea.

The party headed north to the nearest oasis, hoping that the Roc and the Sandwhip that they had found there last time would have killed each other off. However, when they reached the ravine where the Sandwhip lived they found the bones of the Roc, and further up the ravine the tell-tale depression in the sand of a Sandwhip in residence. Luckily, there was a twenty foot wide area between the outermost reach of the Sandwhip and the wall of the ravine that our heroes could squeeze through before the sandwhip could move to grab them.^[20]

Heading north again, they found that the well in the next oasis (which had been filled with the corpses of the Lakal tribe the last time they passed through) had been cleared and cleaned. When they reached Tuath's Rest it was obvious that their nomad friends had prospered in their new location. While the party was in the south, several of the nomads had scouted the trails up over the Mountain Wall, and found that only the one from Korsepolis (over which the characters had originally traveled) was passable by animals, and that only barely. Five of the young warriors had decided to seek fame and fortune, and the party agreed to take them north as they go. The sheik of the tribe also mentioned that some of his warriors had seen strange creatures seemingly formed of shadow, and on a few occasions had been attacked by these creatures.

The party climbed the Mountain Wall and traveled through the mountains without incident, but when they entered Korsepolis they stumbled directly into another battle amongst the local humanoids but escaped without serious injury. Crossing the Vale of Morin they were again accosted by the ghosts, who demanded a status report. When they left the Vale they were attacked by Horse Nomads and driven into the Thornwood Forest, where they soon stumbled into the clearing with the tiny hut and Mother Thistle. They spent the night there, and she told them of the many changes in the North since they left, all bad.

When they left in the morning they found themselves on the North edge of the forest. When they reached Arn's Ferry Balour Shaw warned them that there had been an increase in disorder in Carzala and that the party's journey would disrupt the power structure. Gim agreed to become Balour Shaw's apprentice.

Upon reaching Seagate they were ushered into the Count's presence, where he congratulated them, and restored to them their property which had been seized illegally by the court when they were exiled. He also explained that there had been many irregular legal aspects to their arrest, trial, and sentencing, and that he had reversed their sentences for that reason.

He rewarded them for their journey by giving each of them dwarven armor, and arranged a meeting of the major merchants to hear about the journey and the prospects for trade. At the meeting they were heckled by , whose low opinion of them found ready favor with some disgruntled members of the court, though not with the Count. During the meeting a mysterious explosion in Arn's Ferry was mentioned; it had destroyed the ancient Giant's tower where Balour Shaw lived. (Gim was dismayed: of what use was his apprenticeship now?) After the meeting Wesved sent men to kill the party members, but the party dispatched the assassins with ease, and Wesved's head ended on a pole when the Count investigated his actions.

The party found that it had returned after four years to a country in disorder: bandits and outlaws were everywhere, travel had become difficult, pirates were ruining trade with the North, smuggling had increased dramatically, drug use had run rampant (and not just in the cities, causing many to worry that the work-force of Carzala would be ruined), people were disappearing from cities and farms, and a group of Barons, including the Baron of Seagate, opposed the Count in everything he did. No one was able to understand why the country had deteriorated so rapidly. How had things come to this? Had the gods looked on Carzala with disfavor? Was the whole land cursed?

One evening not long after their return to Seagate, the party was relaxing in their house^[21] when one of them heard a knocking on the shutter of his window. Upon opening the window, he found Derenedeth hanging from the roof. He swung in and said that it was best that he was not seen with the party. When the whole group had gathered, he asked them if they were interested in revenge against Amur Gibbetsmaster, the judge who forced them into the journey to the south. They were, and agreed to meet Derenedeth later in an abandoned warehouse. He then left by the same route he entered.

At the meeting, he showed the characters papers that proved that the judge wanted to send a group south for his own purposes, and chose the party because they were convenient. Other papers indicated that Gibbetsmaster was involved with smuggling and perhaps the drug shipments that were so devastating the cities. Unfortunately, the papers were not legal proof of Gibbetsmaster's involvement, but they did mention a possible landing of smuggling ships, and the party decided to investigate that in hopes of finding out more. Amazingly, Kalo Bibkins also showed up at this meeting and behaved in a very eccentric manner. He offered no reason for his continued existence, and no one felt brave enough to ask.

Arriving at the cove where the landing was scheduled the party found that the ships had already arrived, and were about to be unloaded. Using stealth, distractions, and the help of the unnerving Kalo Bibkins, they killed the lookouts and wiped out most of the smugglers before the smugglers realized what was happening. During the fight a large crate was dropped on Tesla from a cave fifty feet up a cliff, breaking most of the bones in her body. One of the ships turned out to be a pirate and the other turned out to be owned directly by Amur Gibbetsmaster; both were packed full of drugs to be smuggled into the country and had recently been fitted with slave chains. The ships carried papers incriminating Gibbetsmaster in slave trading, drug running, and smuggling valuable goods out of the country. Three hidden caves on the cliff side turned out to be full of smuggled goods.

Following leads from the few surviving smugglers, the party found the two hundred slaves Gibbetsmaster intended to ship out this trip, guarded by twenty-five ruffians. The party freed the slaves and returned to Seagate to inform the Count of Gibbetsmaster's treachery, having left the uncanny Kalo to guard the ships. On the way they were attacked by a group of ruffians roused by a guard who had escaped the slave coffle, but the party survived the attack and wiped out the ruffians, leaving no one to warn Gibbetsmaster.

Upon reaching Seagate they immediately warned the Count of Amur Gibbetsmaster's perfidy. The count asked them to discretely abduct Amur Gibbetsmaster from the Baron of Seagate's country castle. He hoped to prevent the civil war that would undoubtedly result if the Count were to ask for Gibbetsmaster's head and the Baron were to refuse.

The characters' succeeded, much to everybody's surprise, and brought Gibbetsmaster to justice in Seagate, where he was interrogated by the Count's chief Mage. It was revealed that he was part of a conspiracy to weaken the count and had been for several years. Unfortunately, he did not reveal the names of any of the other leaders, although he did reveal that the conspiracy was led by a powerful mage, and listed many of the landing places of the smugglers and pirates and his contacts with them. Amur Gibbetsmaster died after making a signed confession.^[22]

The characters were greatly rewarded for their services. First they were given the captured ships and cargo. Next Derenedeth and Kalo were pardoned for any crimes they might have committed in the past. Finally the party was given Korsepolis, the Vale of Morin, and the Mountain Wall to hold, clean of danger, and rebuild for trade with the south, as a new barony. This latter proved especially unpopular with some of the court, who were sure they were more deserving and better fitted for this honor and responsibility: after all, who were the adventurers but a bunch of jumped up thugs? Tesla started the long road to recovery, but decided to give up active adventuring, at least for the time being.

After the abduction of Amur Gibbetsmaster and its aftermath, the party returned to the cove to claim the ships, which the Count had awarded them. The Count sent along a crew for each ship and a few marines to help and to make sure that all the deadly drugs were destroyed (and to make sure he got his eight percent of the treasure). When the party started taking goods out of the caves they were attacked by a Phantasm in each cave. Later they were attacked by huge spiders, which captured several of the crew and Cormac and Winther.^[23] The spiders retreated into tunnels hidden beyond false walls at the ends of the smugglers' caves and the party followed, leaving the majority of the marines and crew to continue loading the ships.

These tunnels led to a huge maze of crooked tunnels, infested by spiders and other strange creatures. The party rescued some of the captured marines and sailors, along with two halflings and a massive, grey, otherworldly being (Evan), but the others had been taken to a huge circular room of worship. This room was dominated by ever changing views of other places on the walls, an altar where the spiders where sacrificing their captives, and a gigantic demonic spider whose limbs spanned the room. Most of the prisoners were freed in the ensuing battle, but the walls of the room kept fading in and out, and one of the marines stumbled into one of the scenes on the wall and vanished. Ominously, the altar was marked with an eight-pointed star.

Magic.  During this adventure the party picked up 10 vials containing healing potions, three one-inch diameter bronze balls invested with Fireball, Imploding Fireball, and Invisibility, five quart jars of very powerful acid, three books on alchemy, a book on magic experimental techniques procedures (which also contained a parchment with an incomplete spell), a spell book, and three glass balls filled with an opaque mixture.

The party returned to Seagate from Smugglers' Cove with two ships loaded with treasure. Once there they investigated selling the non-drug portion of the cargo in Carzala (the Count had forbidden them to sell the drugs in Carzala). After talking with several merchants, including Vlad Sharp-knife, they decided to keep the ships and to start their own merchant company. They hired crews and officers and so forth and started the company, with Winther and Gim taking the lead in keeping track of all the details, and Vlad Sharp-knife providing occasional consulting. After Tesla recovered she began taking a great deal of interest in the business. They sold the non-lethal drugs in the North, against the wishes and vehement protests of Winther, but to the great enrichment of the party.

Gim made a trip to Arn's Ferry, where he discovered that Ilene, young woman whom the party rescued from the Force Dome in Sassym's Stronghold, was rebuilding Balour Shaw's tower with the help of some Dwarves. She had been away at the time of the explosion and believed Balour Shaw dead when she heard of it. Back in Seagate, Gim visited the Count's archives, and discovered that the tower was standing when Carzala was settled by humans, and inhabited then as well.

The party went to Dhairrhuwyth, a local mage, to get some magic items identified.^[24] The mage turned out to have known Balour Shaw, and had been investigating the explosion of Balour Shaw's tower. He had found out that a single gold coin with a eight-pointed star was found on top the rubble, that Balour Shaw had killed three assassins carrying similar coins several years ago when the assassins were after a party of adventurers, and that one of the major symbols of the Arkanian cult is an eight-pointed star. He asked the party to accompany him to the upcoming Arkanian Festival at Finn's Waste during the solstice, where he hoped to find out more about the Arkanians.

The festival at Finn's Waste turned out to be impressive, bringing thousands of worshipers from all over Carzala, and much of the preaching called on the worshipers to be ready to bring unbelievers to Arkan's Throne to be judged, on the coming Day of the Rule of Arkan. The festival took place around a huge monolith, carved at the top in the shape of a godly head. The party observed that there were caves hidden inside the monolith, and snuck inside under cover of invisibility.

Inside the monolith they found the true center of Arkanian worship and discovered it revolved around human sacrifice and demonic worship. In the main temple were two huge and unsettling paintings, one of which the characters recognized as the view from the Entrance to Makad-al-Arakan, the World of the Arakanisi and the other of which they recognized as the Hall of the Great Spider from the caves behind the Smugglers' Cove. While sneaking about the party overheard a discussion linking the Arkanians to the conspiracy of Amur Gibbetsmaster and the death of Balour Shaw. They went on to disrupt a ritual intended to call up Arakan, during which they killed a few devils, and rescued some prisoners intended for sacrifice. One of the prisoners turned out to be Gerrod, the marine who vanished from the Spider Hall. On their way out the party collapsed the access tunnel to the complex under the monolith. Returning to Seagate, they reported to the Count, who sent out troops to capture the Arkanians left at Finn's Waste and slapped stiff restrictions on the other Arkanians in the County.

Knowing the party will have other things to do, Gim and Winther agreed to subcontract the exploration of an alternate route to the Vale of Morin to a group of adventures calling themselves BAMF, Inc. The count retired Gerrod into the party's service at his request, where he quickly became an indispensable `butler'.

(This scenario was Gamesmastered by N. Alan Bond.) During the night of the first day of this scenario, the characters were awakened by a loud rapping on their bedroom doors and the snooty voice of Elbain the Small telling our heroes to gather in their common room. There the adventures met Amlach the Golden who represented the Yester. After Amlach offered a job and a reasonable price for the party's services, the adventurers agreed to undertake the offered mission. The next morning, our heroes set out on a ship provided by the Yester which traveled from Seagate to Swithan's Cove. After departing from the boat with the Yester Rabon as their guide, the party traveled across the Plain of Desai to a point in the Southern Palisades.

From here the party traveled into the heart of the mountains. Rabon guided the party along a trail that was badly deteriorated, but had recently seen some use. On the second day of travel in the mountains, the party spotted a sentinel fleeing along the trail. The sentinel escaped from the party's partial attempt at pursuit. With the Arkons so warned, the party was ambushed twice. (The second ambush occurred after the party allowed a prisoner to scream during a tortu... ah interrogation session. The party was saved during the ambushes by Gim Torson's brilliant fighting technique, of course.) After dealing with the ambushes the party found the Cathedral.

When darkness fell, Jamie and Derenedeth eliminated the sentinels on the keep's walls which allowed the party to enter the keep and ascend to the stairs to the cathedral, with Gim Torson covering the advance of the party with his powerful magics. Our heroes were thus able to gain entrance to the cathedral and close the portculius with a few encounters with the enemy. After a short rest, Rabon took a small magical “boomb”^[25] from his pack and planted it next to the entrance of the tunnel. The party then followed the corkscrew tunnel into the darkness, pausing only to deposit more of Rabon's “boombs”. At the bottom of the tunnel, the party met the eternal champion and Rabon reclaimed the sword the champion carried. Through here the party traveled through a downshaft to the private chambers of the Elite. Here the party planted more bombs, found treasure, and harassed a disembodied voice with slight telekinetic powers.

During their search through the Elite's chambers, the party discovered a secret exit which they followed to a cave that led to the sea. Rabon activated his bombs and the party then sailed in a small boat back to Swithan's Cove and rejoined the ship of the Yester which took them back to Seagate.

BAMF, Inc. finally returned to Seagate from their exploration of the route through the mountains, with a report (see Appendix A, Report from BAMF, Inc.) of the route, a rough map, and three Auhaami bearing a message from the sheik at Tuath's Rest. BAMF, Inc. traveled through the mountains, picking up a old spellcasting hermit along the way. While they were crossing the Vale of Morin, they were stopped twice by ghosts asking about the re-establishment of the trade routes. In Korsepolis they had to sneak through the continuing war between the orcs and the hobgoblins, but found out that the humanoids were building crude forts and towers there. They finally reached the Giant's Watchtower at the edge of the Mountain Wall, where they found a number of Auhaami camped. When the Auhaami learned for whom BAMF, Inc. was working, three of them decided to accompany BAMF, Inc. on the return journey.

On the return trip, they traveled through the plains, where they were attacked by Horse Nomads and forced into the Thornwood Forest, where they were found by an old woman living in a small hut, who said they could call her Mother Thistle. She and the hermit healed the injured, bickering viciously all the while. When the party reached the Brastor Holding the old hermit left them.

The Auhaami reported that the road from the Mountain Wall to Angbar was better than the Korsepolis road^[26] (though the trail down the cliff was worse), that the castle in Angbar was only partially in ruins, and the Gatar Shey terminus of the Angbar road was farther from Sumaldi, which was important because Batik-al-Yazum was increasing the number of his servants, both alive and undead, and had been raiding the nearby nomad tribes. They also reported that a nomad from the Southern Desert reached them with tales of mass murders in Akhisar, in the fashion of the followers of Arakan.

The characters were invited to meet with a group of merchants on 9 Sawtes 848 to discuss opening trade with the South. At the meeting they discussed the characters' plans for the trade route and what needs to be done. All the merchants seemed very interested, and perhaps even willing to help defray the costs of opening the route. They invited the party back for another meeting on 25 Sawtes 848.

On 15 Sawtes 848 as the characters were walking back from a restaurant, a young man burst out of one of the expensive homes along the street, yelling for help and saying someone has just abducted his father and brother. The characters recognized him as the son of Tyrrell, one of the merchants at the meeting, and approached him, but he fell to the ground and died, a crossbow bolt in his back. Entering the house, they found and killed one of the kidnappers and discovered a hidden passage leading to the sewers.

Following the trail through the sewers, they discovered beggars in the sewers, and then a city beneath even the sewers, inhabited by a race of rat-like humanoids called skaven by the beggars. Some of these humanoids had captured humans and used them as sacrifices in their unholy worship, at which they were joined by some depraved humans. The party rescued the captives and escaped into the sewers, collapsing the tunnel to the Undercity behind them.

One of the captives turned out to be Balour Shaw! Alas, he was incoherent most of the time, and it was clear he had been driven insane and could not remember any of his previous life. The party decided they owed him enough that they would try to get him healed.

At the second meeting with the merchants all went well, with the merchants agreeing to contribute to the building of the road through the Atrusian hills, in return for reduced taxes on the goods that pass through the party's barony.

On 2 Patluf 849 the count summoned the characters to discuss their plans for their barony; the count offered to retire some of his soldiers to the area to provide it with a core population. He also contracted with the party to take a ton of silver to the south and exchange it for gold, which the exchange rate would make very profitable.

The Frontiers of Alusia really was minimal, consisting of only the 22"×24" map, a description of the general area on the inside of the coversheet (a thin 11"×17" sheet of thin cardboard, folded over to be an 8½"×11" folder), the map key on the back of the coversheet, and a 4 page “Travel Guide for the Frontiers of Alusia Adventure Map” (an 11"×17" sheet of paper, folded over to be two 8½"×11" sheets, making 4 pages) with a short paragraph for each of the most important map features.^[38] The area was a frontier, relatively recently settled (or resettled, as it ended up in my campaign's backhistory), surrounded by wilderness and strange creatures, with little bits of the past, ruins and such, appearing here and there. I think the sparseness of the setting was actually helpful: you could easily know everything about the setting and could mold it however you wanted.

In any case, like the other campaigns featuring The Frontiers of Alusia I've since found on the net, I added many features of my own to the area, including a new area to the south, off the map, where the player characters ended up spending a significant portion of their time. I also went back and forth on the size of the area a number of times, rescaling it to have a larger area and adjusting the population upwards.

I have a description of the DragonQuest rules elsewhere. I'm glad I started this out in DragonQuest (DQ); I liked the DQ rules much more than AD&D, as they allowed much more flexible and detailed characters and more interesting tactics, as well as allowing every character to have some magic. It gave a much different feel to the campaign. I had previously used DQ to play a moderate length campaign using the wonderful DQ adventure The Enchanted Wood, written by Paul Jaquays and published by SPI, and had been very pleased with how DQ played, and it was a good fit for the campaign.

Eventually, however, I became dissatisfied with DQ, probably due to the number of independent forumulas that I had to calculate when updating major NPCs and the players had to calculate when updating PCs.

Eventually, however, I began to want something that was even more flexible than DQ, which had few skills outside those explictly part of the professional skills (Alchemist, Mechanican, Troubadour, etc.) and the combat skills. I also became dissatisfied with the many independent formulas that had to be calculated when updating characters. These formulas were scattered through the rulebook so it was painful to find them and then painful to actually do the calculation.^[39]

In some ways then it is ironic that the next system used was GURPS 3^rd edition, from Steve Jackson Games. (See Section 5.27, “Monsters and Merchants Under Seagate”.) It has lots of skills, which also need to be calculated when characters gain experience. However, at least in GURPS all skills (which includes magic) have costs that are figured off one table, and it is the actual skill number that goes up, rather than the skill rank and then some other number figured by a (often) unique formula.

In any case, I converted^[40] all the characters from DQ to 3^rd edition GURPS (they ended up around 350 points, and were probably a little more powerful and considerably more well-rounded) and important NPCs over (the chief villain of the campaign ended up at well over 1000 points), and the players were able to adjust pretty quickly. (They were already used to a detailed tactical hex-grid combat system from DQ, so adapting to GURPS wasn't that much of a stretch.) All in all, it worked out very well.