Midgard Timeline

Place - Event

Short Hair Tribe - A Lesson In Diligence. The Goddess Idun curses the orc tribe to find and raise a human child.

Bald Head Clan - Idundaug LongHair is found and the long task of raising her is begun.

Aggersborg - Hagbard's Betrayal. The Adversary Hagbard deceives the Council Of Spirits and destroys them. This allows the destruction of Aggersborg by a Goblin Horde soon after.

Fallersholm - Founding. The great fall from the Falling Tunnel. Settlement founded by Lodbrok.

Asgard - Sigurn chosen by the Norn Urn to be a Valkyrie.

Svartmorder - Killing Spree. The nomadic Dark Elves kill everything in sight, mostly orcs. Katveig is trained under Lofn's tutelage during warfare.

Yggdrasil Grove - Hela's Scrivening. Hela spends hours scribing a powerful spell onto the corpse which soon becomes BlackRune.

Skull Cracker Clan - Wiped out by the Red Swords at the direction of Gisla.

The Killing Pact. A band of skilled fighter assassins ask for haven in Fallersholm in return for training elite warriors. The Killing Order is formed and monastery built.

Hill Giants. Several Hill Giants wander into Fallersholm and wreak havoc. One is slain by Kelmain.

New Dimensions. The two interplanar travellers Eleanor TigerFang and Khrul appear in Midgard wanting to speak to Loki.

Era of Exploration. The MAP is created and given to Elga, who becomes SilverFist. All the major paths around Fallersholm are explored. The Exploratory Order changes focus from pure exploration to aiding Elga.

Undead Legions. Tamer Hjaldeig drained by wights while defending Thrain The Weaponsmith.

Death Skull - Wiped out by Red Swords.

Greipyulf - Corpse Raid. The human nomad camp is destroyed by Red Swords. Sigurd personally leads the mission which liberates several hundred corpses from the battlefield; a similar number falls into Gisla's hands.

Near Fallersholm - The paladin Ingjald Brunarson discovers an electrum mine.

Fallersholm - Eleanor's friend and companion, the mouse Khrul, disappears.

Joggle County - Raging Waters. The halfling haven (and home to the Power Drill) is threatened with destruction by moving watercourses.

Draupcleft - Exile. Thorgrim WildEyes exiled from the Protectors of Draupcleft at Vagn's behest.

Near Fallersholm - Ingjald sweeps the area around the electrum mine and then sets up the mining operation.

Red Eye Tribe - The most powerful orc tribe wiped out by the wizard Snotra in her quest for immortality.

Yggdrasil Grove - The first pile of iguana bones are found, after the lizard was missing since yesterwake. Many more are found in the next couple wakes.

Lorg GarmSon deals with some upstarts.

Island Of Colors - Desperate for more purine several Defenders are sent to Midgard to search.

Fallersholm - LEVEL ONE BEGINS! - All the children in Fallersholm gather in front of Jarl Sigurd's high seat, which overlooks all of the settlement. He announces their adulthood and new responsibilities. Tells them the cold law: "I speak, you listen; I command, you obey." Kills heckler. He also says, "You shall not attack another under my protection."

The huge group is then split up into subgroups, which follow the various lieutenants of the city and are given assignments.

Party meets Elga, and Haldor Egilson, Sigurd's right hand man. He tells them: Fallersholm must prepare for a move. All the open tunnels lead to dead ends, and thus Serpent Tunnel must be explored to see if it goes anywhere useful.

Party equips. Elga arbitrarily makes Astrid party leader. "She speaks with my voice, I speak with Haldor's, and he speaks for Sigurd."

Serpent Tunnel - Elga casts Earth Walk and the entire party walks through the rubble blocking Serpent Tunnel. They travel the better part of a wake down the huge passage. They take the first small passage offshoot.

Small Offshoot - Encounter a pack of slithering lizard men, with an almost upright one. The party attacks them, but they hold back and ask, "Who do you worship?" Uther again blurts out, "Thor!" and combat ensues. Party easily prevails.

Meet another pack later in the wake, of basically the same composition. Astrid holds the party back from attacking, the serpents pop the question, and the cleric responds, "Frigga!" The lizards again attack and are decimated.

INTRA-PARTY COMBAT #1: Ragrydd complains that the bitch females are not pulling their weight in combat. Katveig pisses him off. He kill Katveig in a shot. Ehoredarm attacks in retaliation. Elga kills both of them with a pass of her silver hand. Combat ends.

The party is joined by two more characters: Al Gore who appears from a patch of steam, and Eigrand who was pursued by some wolf-hounds.

INTRA-PARTY COMBAT #2: BlackRune hears the voice of the death goddess Hela, which whispers the sweet destruction of the party to him. He waits until everyone is asleep, and then coerces Mordfjarn to help him slay the party. The two are fantastically successful, killing half the party. Mordfjarn slept the group and BlackRune used Uther's 2-handed sword (which one? The Big One) to butcher them. Only Sigurn, Glum, and Elga are left unslain.

BlackRune makes up a story of a creature blazing quickly through the camp, a swift wind of death. But he doesn't cover all his tracks...

While the killing happens, Sigurn has a dream of the black foot of Hela squishing the party. She relays this dream to the others, and Glum becomes intensely suspicious. He watches BlackRune for the remainder of the sleep.

After awakening, the party is almost immediately attacked by a green slime. The slime can move freely through the coral around them, and consumes Mordfjarn before they can react. They run.

INTRA-PARTY COMBAT #3: While running, the party is checking under their feet, and Glum notices that BlackRune's feet are caked in dried blood. That plus other inconsistencies in his story enable the barbarian to figure out the monk's perfidy. He slays BlackRune by surprise in one brutal stroke. The body is then consumed by the green slime.

Curtain Call. The party runs until exhaustion. They stop and check under their feet, meanwhile being surrounded by a group of lizard creatures. The lizards ask their standard question, to which Glum answers <We mean you no harm> in Orcish. The lizards attack and cut down Sigurn. Realizing he faces hopeless odds, Glum drops his weapons and falls to his knees...

END SPUR ONE

Fallersholm - LEVEL ONE BEGINS! - All the children in Fallersholm gather in front of Jarl Sigurd's high seat, which overlooks all of the settlement. He announces their adulthood and new responsibilities. Tells them the cold law: "I speak, you listen; I command, you obey." Kills heckler. He also says, "You shall not attack another under my protection."

The huge group is then split up into subgroups, which follow the various lieutenants of the city and are given assignments.

BEGIN SPUR TWO: The second party's timeline. They are, as you have guessed, another group from the big orientation group.

Party is led away by Laradr, another of Sigurd's lieutenants. The good elf breaks the large group into smaller strike teams; the party is assigned to the paladin Ingjald Brunarson. Their mission is simple: go to the site of a recently discovered electrum mine and return with the electrum they've mined. Ingjald naturally assumes leadership and begins issuing commands. The party spends the rest of the wake getting equipment.

Later in the wake the party comes across a group of gnolls pursuing Idundaug and Gracor. Ingjald plays a crucial part in saving the entire party, which is joined by the two newcomers. Ingjald indicates another that another wonderful formation is up ahead, namely a splash formed by a waterfall hitting a piece ahydride. The splash is gone but a waterfall is in its place; he is gravely concerned as it looks like the watercourse has moved.

Electrum Mine - After some more travel the party encounters the mine, and discovers that it has been wiped out in a huge battle; there are several gnoll corpses as well. They conclude that a small group of gnolls stormed the mine and made off with all the mined electrum. There is still a considerable amount as yet unmined which needs defending.

Party Splits. Ingjald heads back to warn Fallersholm and bring reinforcements. He leaves Valodinain in charge in his absence. The Chosen then begins a cleanup operation, to clear the battlefield of corpses and place them safely in the mine, and also starts setting up a defense.

Halfling Cameos. During this time, the halfling Pethru stumbles upon the group, which immediately treats him as a hostile threat. Half the party races to engage him, while the other half covers with range-fire. During this unfortunate split a pack of wolf-hounds attacks the party. With some severe difficulty the party overcomes them, and discovers they are the same pack! Gracor then tells them unless the bones of animals are broken they will fully regenerate. The party breaks the animals and buries them for good measure. The group is concerned because the pack emerged from the same tunnel Ingjald went down; did he make it through?

Waterfall - Meanwhile, Pethru slinks away. He comes upon the waterfall and out pops the halfling Leifen. Pethru tells Leifen about the party who just tried to attack him, and invites the lost one to join him on his quest. The new halfling declines, saying that he'd rather join people who killed stuff. Pethru bathes in the refreshing water, and Leifen strangles him to death, taking his equipment.

Back At The Mine - The party tries to prepare the mine shaft for an impending attack by stacking coral into a rough channel. The work is slow and unfinished by sleeptime. Other experimental highlights: Idundaug dissolves a human corpse using a Ceremonial Burial spell, and Skuld and Thorn figure out how to use dynamite. The party rigs a simple dynamite trap in front of the Gnoll Tunnel, and then sleeps. Leifen sneaks up on the group, observes them, and decides to join, predicated on them killing lots of things.

Gnoll Tunnel - Valodinain has a strange portentious dream. He sees a vast battlefield littered with unidentifiable bodies, and in the center of the carnage a huge black-armored bone-spiked creature standing over a fallen body. The creature (named Bariaur) has a conversation with two smaller, but apparently more powerful, creatures who banish him to Midgard. In addition to exile, they link his life force to an unknown frail mortal creature, rip away his power and possessions, and place him under Word Law.

Bariaur Appears. The Chosen is then awoken by the ruckus of the Bariaur appearing. After much confusion, which Valodinain straightens out, Bariaur reluctantly joins the party. After all the Threll reasons, if one of these puny squishy things die, then he will as well. At one point it appeared that a conflict would break out between Bariaur and the party, but when Valodinain told everyone to stop, Bariaur seemed compelled to obey the command.

Undead Attack!. Later that sleep calamity strikes the party. They are attacked by an undead horde of skeletons and zombies, which they barely defeat. Three critical factors to their slim success: 1) Bariaur saved two party members from death, by taking their damage unto himself 2) the liberal use of hematite during the combat itself 3) Idundaug turning almost half of the legion. (Curiously, when Valodinain turned the undead rather than fleeing they instead dropped to their knees, waiting and expectant.) The party sleeps uneasily until the wake, being repeatedly attacked by the returning turned undead, until all are destroyed.

Uncovered Capabilities. The party then uses half the dynamite to collapse the Gnoll Tunnel. In reality, they only weaken the tunnel with the dynamite, enough that Bariaur can collapse it himself. They discover that the Threll has immense strength, capable of tremendous feats.

Valodinain and Sigfinna also discover another aspect of their Chosen Bond. When touching they were able to transfer strength between one another; they believe they could do so with all their abilities. This, in addition to the apparent stun reducing effects of instantly transferring hit points, makes their bond even more powerful than they had previously known.

Within a few hours the entire tactical situation changes. Valodinain orders Bariaur to collapse all but the Fallersholm tunnel, and Bariaur does so with ease. The huge threll then rips all the electrum from the walls in about an hour. He then begins separating the electrum from the coral stuck to it.

Great Wyrm Sighting. The entire cavern shakes and is breached by a gigantic scaled worm. The 30ft wide miles long beast plummets from the ceiling, crashes through the floor (incidentally consuming Leifen), burrows deep underneath, bursts through a different place in the floor, and then exits through the wall several hundred feet up. Despite its fast speed, it takes few minutes before the tail appears and several more minutes before it is gone, leaving behind four new tunnels.

Fallersholm Tunnel - After discovering that Bariaur can carry all the unseparated electrum chunks and still be unencumbered, the party departs back for home. Along the way they meet a large gnoll war party heading in the opposite direction. They book back to the cavern, but while they keep the gnolls at a distance they are outpaced by the leaders: 4 Ogres and a Hill Giant. The party, near exhaustion, decides to stand and fight.

It was a blast. A brief but spectacular combat ensues. Bariaur tries unsuccessfully to collapse the tunnel, and is cut down by the enemy. This gives the party time to set up the remaining dynamite. Unfortunately, a gnoll shaman accidentally triggers the explosion prematurely with a spell. The blast wipes out most of the party and the gnolls, as well as wounding the ogres and giant.

From the adventurers, only Idundaug and Gracor survive. Gracor picks up his small elder and runs down the passage. They are pursued closely by three Ogres, all the way back to the mine cavern. The two gamble on jumping down the newly formed tunnel in the floor, but it is thousands of feet deep, and they plummet to their death.

END SPUR TWO

Fallersholm - LEVEL ONE BEGINS! - All the children in Fallersholm gather in front of Jarl Sigurd's high seat, which overlooks all of the settlement. He announces their adulthood and new responsibilities. Tells them the cold law: "I speak, you listen; I command, you obey." Kills heckler. He also says, "You shall not attack another under my protection."

The huge group is then split up into subgroups, which follow the various lieutenants of the city and are given assignments.

BEGIN SPUR THREE: The third party's timeline.

The party is collected by wizard Fafnulf, leader of the Order of Understanding and most powerful magic-user in the city. She specifically collects Grenard (a spelunker from the Order of Exploration) and Orm (a lizard herder), while the rest of the party accrues randomly. She advises the party to equip light, and then tells them the scenario.

Corpses in Danger. Small vermin (rats, bats, insects, etc.) are a constant nuisance to the Yggdrasil Grove, as they gnaw on the corpses as they are rebirthing. Small fast lizards called iguanas are used to keep these pests under control. Orm (aka The Deformed, as his face was partly eaten away in such a manner) then describes the recent peril: some larger predator has entered the area, and is consuming the lizards. Worse, it appears to strip the flesh from the bones, preventing the reptile from using its natural regeneration ability. About half of the lizards have been lost forever.

But the situation is even more dire. Just recently several hundred bodies were liberated from Greipyulf, a nearby city which was recently destroyed. Thus, the grove is filled to brimming, and this influx of corpses could represent the largest population increase that Fallersholm has ever had, or its greatest loss if the corpses cannot be protected from the vermin. The wizard charges the party to find out what is consuming the iguana, destroy it if possible, and if not return immediately with the information.

A Boring Time. Fafnulf leads the party to the grove, and points out several small (1-2ft wide) tunnels in the back wall which appear to be recently clawed from the coral. Curiously they all lead to the grove, and no others have been found in the other caverns. Orm requests bringing the lizard Iggy along, and Fafnulf agrees. She then casts Fly and Coral Bore on Kargil, allowing him to create man sized passages in the walls. The wizard warns the party the effects will lasts for 2 hours, and that time is of the essence. Single file behind a bobbing Kargil they set off; for the first time the party must employ winchets squeezing luminice in order to light their way, as the newly formed passages are unlit.

Rats.... Within a couple turns Kargil stumbles upon some rats feeding upon a corpse. He swoops back to the party, and they decide to fight them. They vanquish the rats with minor difficulty, and then examine the corpse. The half-consumed corpse seems to be of a very large rat, about the right size to have dug the tunnels. Could this Rodent Of Unusual Size (ROUS for short) be the culprit killing the iguana?

Bat Cave - ... And Bats.... A half hour later the party comes upon a medium sized (50ft wide) cavern filled with bats. Many small tunnels converge on this "batcave", and the party decides to clear it so they can pass freely. A large combat ensues, and while the party is victorious, they use up much of their hematite. Throughout all, Iggy demonstrates his usefulness by a) vanquishing many of the rodent foes and b) sniffing a trail which guides the party at tunnel forks.

However, more bats flutter into the cavern, replenishing those which had been killed. Kargil instead tunnels around, intersecting the tunnels without entering the bat cave. The party follows the tunnel further, when it opens into a larger passage. This area is like nothing the party has ever seen, with stalactites, stalagmites, vines, and vegetation.

A Hot Time. Most importantly, the party feels hot. Fallersholm is mostly cold, and except for Dotsig (who hails from the Island of Colors), none of the party have ever experienced heat. As they move forward, small swirls and vortices form in the air, as the heat and cold collide. Eventually heat dominates, and shimmers form in the air. The igneon items the party is carrying melt (among them their bows) and their luminice disperses in a flurry of vortex and storm.

Fire Swamp - However, light is not a problem. Up ahead the tunnel is lit by intermittent bursts of flame. Grenard scouts ahead and discovers a huge, oddly shaped cavern filled with a fire swamp. Sand and vegetation sits atop slowly moving lava, which gives off a dull red glow. Gouts of flame occasionally break through the surface, illuminating the area in flickering light. Grenard returns and reports, and he is sent back again to see if he can see a) any large vermin or b) a way across.

Fallersholm - Search And Rescue. Meanwhile, Eleanor has been searching for Khrul in vain. A few wakes ago the aged elf started having compelling dreams about his missing mouse. The last one had a clear image of the tunnels in the Grove, and he feels that they are a guide of some kind to finding Khrul. He sets off a few hours after the party makes the tunnel, and then catches up with them.

Fire Swamp - While Grenard is scouting, Eleanor joins the group. The spelunker returns with some more info. Both spellcasters perform some interesting experiments. Eleanor discovers that Light + Heat = Wood, and that Dark + Heat = Coal. Dotsig casts illusions and sensations into the swamp, which attracts some insects, which the party trivially overcomes.

The ante is upped when people start entering the swamp itself, briefly running out and back. Dotsig and Kargil discover that the flame spurts are preceded by a "pfft-pfft" sound, and thus might be avoidable. Dotsig and Grenard discover the danger of the Lightning Sand, which swallows Grenard whole. They also discover that merely being in the swamp itself gradually causes damage from the heat.

Storming The Swamp. The paladin Val The Cursed pushes for exploration of the swamp, in order to fulfill their mission. The party decides to make for another large tunnel leading to the swamp cavern, a mere twenty minutes away at a brisk walk. Within a few minutes into the swamp, Val is blown up by an errant flame burst. Midway there the remaining members become surrounded by a couple dozen ROUSes, which apparently intended to box them in. Can the party survive?

The party tries negotiation, using Eleanor's ability to speak with mice. This confuses several of the ROUSes, who mention the elf having appeared to them in a dream. They then avoid attacking Eleanor, but the rest of the party is viciously assaulted. The party counter-attacks to little effect, and looks as if they will be quickly dispatched next round.

What happens next begins a grand adventure. The party is rescued in the nick of time by Thundarr The Barbarian, and his compatriots, the witch Ariel and the proto-wookie Ookla. Also currently serving Thundarr is Knutt. They easily stun / restrain the ROUSes, and bring the party back to their lair. Returning seemingly from the dead are Grenard and Val, who saved themselves with an application of sticky and godlike healing, respectively.

Thundarr's Lair. The party learns of dire peril. One of Thundarr's arch-nemeses, the warlock Sogar, has recently taken control of the normally peaceful ROUSes and turned them to his dastardly plot. Thundarr would gladly stop him, except a) he doesn't know the plot and b) he doesn't know where Sogar is. The party is skeptical, becoming increasingly incredulous at many of Thundarr's statements, to which he replies, "You don't know the kind of life that I lead."

At which point, a huge purple worm erupts from the floor and consumes Thundarr. Within moments Ariel and Ookla are in action to rescue their comrade. Another worm leaps from the same hole, promptly consuming Black Three, and then turns on the party. The party holds off one worm by themselves, whereupon Thundarr cuts his way from the worm and stuff the remains down the hole to plug it up.

Thundarr then conscripts the party to help him defeat Sogar, which is in their best interests, since almost certainly the evil warlock will destroy Fallersholm with his newfound power. The party learns that witches / warlocks use similarity and dissimilarity (S & D) as the basis of their powers. Ariel is confused, because the apparent skill that the ROUSes exhibit means the focus must be a) both S and D and b) highly intelligent. But where could Sogar have found an intelligent rodent which was somehow not a rodent?

Eleanor speaks up, and the party adjourns to another chamber to try a scrying procedure to find Khrul. During the middle of the scry, the group is assaulted by Perytons under the direction of Morag, another of Thundarr's many enemies. The power-staff wielding weeny kidnaps both Ariel and Eleanor, trapping them within bubbles of force and carting them off with the Perytons. Unbenownst to anyone Iggy hitches a ride and follows him back to his aerie.

The party does their best to follow the flying beasts, but soon loose them because of the difficulty scaling some of the passages. Iggy soon appears, and after being berated by Orm for running off, reveals Morag's location. The party quickly follows the lizard, by the light of Thundarr's sun sword. After a brief scouting expedition by Grenard, the party assaults Morag's lair (leaving Dotsig behind, of course).

Morag's Aerie. Meanwhile, two things occur. Eleanor, bereft of light inside his force bubble, drifts off to sleep and has a moving vision that Khrul is beyond a narrow bridge floating in darkness. Morag, with gleeful delight, prepares to make a super-Peryton from Ariel's still beating heart.

Ookla protects the party from the Perytons, while Thundarr frees Ariel from the force bubble. Ariel then springs to action, repelling the Perytons with a feather stuck in her hair (despite what Dot Sig might tell you). Morag power-staff throbs with energy, which is discharged when Hjaldeig attacks, slaying him. He mounts his huge Peryton, intent on escape.

Which is denied him. Ookla pins his mount, while Thorvald grabs the power staff from his hands. Thundarr destroys the power-staff, and Ariel sticks the Peryton feather into his chest. Whereupon the magical beasts return to feed on the heart of their former master.

Sigh. That's about it for this campaign...