# Eriador: Dominion



## ForceUser (Jul 14, 2010)

*The Setting*
The game is set in a reboot of our 3rd edition campaign world. Enough has changed that we have simply agreed that the 4E version of things is an alternate reality or something. Whatever. Not important. What follows is information for the players to differentiate the old setting from the new one. The original campaign began at 5th level in 2005 and ended with the PCs at 13th to 15th level in 2008. Anyone who can find all the Easter eggs referring to popular fantasy novels can have a cookie. Good DMs are scavengers of fantasy lore, stealing whatever is cool and awesome to throw into their games.


*Eriador: Dominion*

*Welcome to the Imperium *
The Tiamni Imperium has conquered Eriador, but rules through satellite governments. Durmstrang is the seat of their Northern Prefecture, which includes the former kingdoms of Mordengard and Arbonne. Hereditary rule is abolished in these subject states; instead, each is governed by a ruling body; in Mordengard, a Court of Lords, and in Arbonne, a Synod presided over by the deposed Dauphin. The seat of the Southern Prefecture is Veruccia. All prefectures across the world of Fionavar are governed from Xul-Vora, the Emerald City, far to the south of Eriador across the Sea of Serpents. The leader of the Imperium on this world is _Imperatrix-Major Shaea’la Xer-Ulum ap Vora_, Herald of the Claw, Farseer of Xum-Alor and Signer of the Ninefold Prophet, May Her Name Be Ever After Sung in Praises. 

*Dominion over time/space*
The Tiamni use warp-gates to transit rapidly across their domains. Each gate allows for travel wherever the Tiamni wish, provided a Navigator is present. This includes across neighboring realities. The gates are artificially-constructed tesseracts powered by quintessence, which is distilled from ley line convergences in each reality. Thus, the Tiamni seek to control the ley lines of Eriador. This makes them the enemy of the druidic sects.

*The Covenant*
The Tiamni have subjugated or put to death all powerful practitioners of magick that they have found, and have outlawed the use of any magick that can raise the dead, move creatures swiftly across vast distances, divine the future or the past, bind outsiders, or commune with immortal powers. Furthermore, all practitioners of magick must be registered with the _Conventus Servitium _(lit. “covenant of slaves”), more commonly called the Gray Covenant or simply the Covenant. The Covenant actively pursues rogue magick-wielders.

*Gods 1, Magick 0*
By decree of the Primate of the Celestine Church, no member of the laity, the pastorate, the Temple or the Magistratum may practice any form of magick, divine or otherwise. According to Celestine doctrine, this decree applies to members of both the Orthodoxy (the church) and the Heterodoxy (heretical sects). This is regulated by Imperial law and enforced by the Covenant.

*I miss my Fiery Avenger*
Anyone caught possessing or wielding magicked items or devices without express authorization from the Conventus Servitium will be punished under the full authority of Imperial law. Anyone caught dealing in black market trade of magicked devices will be swiftly executed by the presiding authority. 

*What gnomes?*
The world-hopping tinker gnomes never arrived here— dramatic necessity and all that. I know you are all deeply saddened by this. 

*Hail to the king, baby!*
Cluracan, the Troll King, is a lord in good standing among the Unseelie Court. He answers only to the _Queen of Blades_, Syrania, who is the ruler of all Faerie. Cluracan's dominion includes twilight, dusk, the moment before dawn breaks, and any place of transition in the mortal world. In this reality, all of Faerie is a bleak, harsh realm, a twisted reflection of mortal passions and a breeding ground for immortal terrors. 

Time passes normally for mortals within Faerie, as long as they do not eat, drink or partake of the hospitality of its denizens. The fey, therefore, resort to trickery to entrap mortals within their realm.

*Funny, she didn’t look Druish*
The adherents of the Old Faith are a broken caste, divorced from their ancient glory and pushed into the remote places of the world. The craggy foothills of the mountains bordering the deep Hagenwald have become the final refuge of the most unswerving of this displaced people, though a druidic diaspora exists throughout Eriador.

The Hagenwald, as ever, is a buffer from the world beyond. Even the Imperium has thus far failed to establish a toehold in this most elder forest, but they will continue to try—beneath the canopy, deep in dark territories forgotten by all but a few druids, sages, witches and fey, rests a powerful convergence of ancient ley lines. 

*The Aelfborn*
In the 4E version of the setting, elves, eladrin, tieflings, wilden and half-elves are all considered to be aelfborn by the general population. They can come from a variety of backgrounds but the following things are always true: they are few in number, they are discreet individuals born of the human population rather than members of a race, they have some sort of immediate and visually apparent fey lineage, their appearances and invidiual talents vary wildly and they are considered to be demonic in nature, outcasts or throwbacks to a savage age. 

*Something, something, something DARK SIDE*
Vangals. In _Vvardenfell_. Vampires vengeful and vice-wrought. All very hungry.


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*The Player Characters*
We play 4th edition D&D. This campaign reboot begins at the beginning of the paragon tier at 11th level. Most of our first session was just spitballing---agreeing on specifics, reintroducing the PCs, fleshing out NPCs and the general situation, and then starting the party on its path. 

*Waljan*, a wilden druid, is an outsider. He was an aelfborn foundling, abandoned by his parents in the forest to die. Found by a brownie, the infant was stolen away to Faerie where he was raised in the court of the Troll King, Cluracan. He eventually escaped and made his way back to the mortal world. He has difficulty relating to mortals, as for most of his life he simply watched them suffer as pawns in the intrigues of his master. He is opposed to the Troll King and mistrustful of fey in all things. Waljan is played by Marcus, an actor and music teacher.

*Wanda*, a half-elf cloistered cleric (Divine Oracle paragon path), is the leader of a small community of refugees, and is known as the Sibyl of Leaves and the Oracle of the Mountain. Divinely touched, she is the sole surviving member of the Anamite sect of the Celestine heterodoxy. The Anamites believed that all the gods are merely aspects of a greater being. To the church this is a heresy. Wanda is played by Pierre, a chemist.

*Bjarne*, a longtooth shifter warden (Winter's Fury paragon path), is the leader of the Children of Winter, which is what the remnant peoples of the Old Faith living in the Hagenwald call themselves. He is a rebel commander and a freedom fighter against the Tiamni who seek to eradicate his people and their Mord subjects seeking to encroach upon the forest. He will do what is necessary to defeat his enemies. Bjarne is played by Andy, a dive instructor.

*Melnir*, a human Dark Pact-Fey Pact bard/warlock (Hexer paragon path), is a man as deceptive as any fey lord. A landed gentleman by birth, he is bound by blood pact to both a Faerie master and some shadowy thing beyond. He exists in a world of intrigues within intrigues, and his true motive for helping the others is obscure. Even his true identity is in question. Melnir is played by Chris, an undergraduate majoring in anthropology.

*Einrich*, a human avenger (Radiant Servant paragon path), is a wandering scholar of history and theology and sometime mendicant. He is the bearer of a powerful weapon and is seeking a person worthy to be its wielder. Einrich, a small and unathletic man, is a skeptic and something of a detective, and does not consider himself a warrior. At times, however, he is filled with the divinity of the Bright God and fights in the cause of righteousness. Einrich is played by Clay, a computer engineer. 

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*The Plot*
After we reimagined the PCs and how they fit in with the revised setting, we slowly worked our way through the burgeoning plot, much of which was created on the spot in reaction to things the players were saying and doing. Luckily, I was able to end the session with a cliffhanger, which is always gratifying to a DM:

The northern viceroy of the Tiamni Imperium, _Magistrix Varaela of the Sixfold Senses_, to whom both the kindgoms of Mordengard and Arbonne answer, has left her fortified position at Durmstrang to make a grand procession through Mordengard to distant Eisenberg, the seat of the Court of Lords. (After deposing the king of Mordengard, the newly-conquered aristocracy created the Court to manage the state for the Dominion.) Her procession clearly signifies two things: one, that she intends to remind the Mord people who their masters are, and two, that she is displeased with the government of the kingdom and intends to make changes. 

In anticipation of the Magistrix's arrival, _Arnora_, the Baroness of Binden Ford and a ranking member of the Court of Lords, commits suicide by drinking poison. Melnir, intrigued at the death of one of his mortal lieges, discovers that she had given orders to ship the bulk of her wealth, in the form of gold boullion, out of the kingdom and into neighboring Richtenheim. Arnora's personal wealth consists of roughly 1/20th the wealth of the entire country, and its loss would weaken the Tiamni's grip while bolstering their opponents in Richtenheim. Realizing this, Melnir allows the boullion to pass from the kingdom. 

Meanwhile, Bjarne decides that the Magistrix's procession is an opportunity to kill the enemy viceroy. He is wary, however, and suspects a trap. Enlisting the aid of Waljan, the two seek out the Sibyl of Leaves for advice. Wanda agrees that it is a dangerous but rare opportunity, and after consulting the leaves decides to join them on the venture. They decide to scout the procession while Bjarne's rangers assemble, and ford the River Eisen south of Melnir's estate of Rochfurt. They choose a high, wooded knoll atop the Eisenmark plain to view the inbound enemy, and they are not disappointed---four squads of Ascension Knights, a cadre of Covenant mages, a host of hangers-on and a grand palanquin come into view, born on the backs of fourscore servants. Atop the palanquin rest five figures, one sinister and shadowy. The Magistrix herself is shaded but in clear view sitting amongst her handmaidens. The squad of Imperial Guardsmen said to never leave the Magistrix's side, however, are nowhere to be seen.

That is, until a rustle of dry grasses and invisible blades against the necks of Wanda and Bjarne catch them by surprise.


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