This is the Heroic Tier of my Campaign:
It started off when veteran undead hunters Norid Shadowcarn, a Human Ranger,(that’s me) and Dreet, a Dragonborn Fighter, woke up one morning in the inn to the sound of combat. Rushing outside, we saw corpses lying on the ground near walking skeletons and a young Necromancer. Leaping into the fray, we took out the skeletons and pinned the helpless Necromancer to the ground. Before we could kill him, however, the town’s Wizard, Strool, arrived, claiming that the Necromancer was his son and was under the influence of a spell gone awry. He took his “son” back and gave us a magical black box, which he said was the Paladin Stone, a powerful weapon against the Undead.
Soon afterwards, I realized that I had been tricked when I found that I could not willingly surrender the Stone and that if anyone tried to take if from me I would instinctively attack them. A strange celestial being called the Seer appeared, telling us that this black box had the power to summon an Undead army if activated, and we had to gather its antithesis, the white box, and place the white box in a socket in an ancient altar to destroy the black box. This altar was in a demiplane that could only be reached through a portal drawn with a circle of Strool’s blood. He also said that Strool was a powerful Lich, who had to be destroyed. Finally, the Seer gave us some glass vials which we could use to occasionally
We travelled to an island where we found the white box, which Dreet picked up, then went on to the lair of Strool. While fighting a Skull Lord, Siranov Jaylor (a Halfling Rogue), Arrokai (an Elf Cleric) and Bella (a Human Vampire Wizard) rushed in and joined forces with us to defeat the Skull Lord. We then tried to kill Strool, and although we did manage to get enough blood to draw a circle with, he escaped. I threatened to kill Bella, seeing that she was Undead, but she explained that she was part of a small faction of Vampires that were working against most Undead. Also, Siranov reminded me that she had saved my life.
We drew the circle of blood, opening the portal, from which emerged dark, warped and empowered versions of Dreet and me. We destroyed them when Siranov used a vial of acid to collapse the dungeons ceiling, but Bella didn’t make it out in time. Just at the last minute, a Death Knight emerged and saved Bella. He agreed to clear the rubble to the portal and then hunt down Strool with the rest of Bella’s faction.
Upon entering the portal, we found ourselves confronted by a complex trap made of flame jets and an electrified floor. Overcoming this we were challenged by three Guardians: an unknown Lich, Strool, and the Seer. We satisfied the Lich by telling him an Arcane secret about the Seer, upon which the Lich gave us an ancient key, got Strool to leave us alone by giving him one of the vials given to us by the Seer, and finally had to face the Seer in single combat.
The Seer threw off his cloak, revealing himself to be a mad Angel, then began to fight. He trapped Arrokai in a glowing cage, then nearly killed all of us with his wings. In desperation, and feeling that the Seer’s words no longer mattered, I used the key to open the black box. In a brilliant flash of light, the Seer died.
Inside the box was a ring, which I put on. Upon examining the ring, Bella was sucked into it and destroyed. Angry, Dreet went up to the altar and activated the white box, creating a small stone with a slot for a ring. He demanded that I take off the ring and put it into the slot, destroying it. I refused and instead stamped on the stone, smashing it instead. Meanwhile Arrokai discovered that the Angel’s touch gave him new powers as an Invoker. We then travelled on to the nearby town of Fallcrest.
With Siranov’s growing distrust of me and the ring, I agreed to destroy the Bleak Academy in the hills as a sign of my commitment. Dreet found a secret entrance to the Bleak Academy in a cave, guarded by an ancient passcode, the only clue to which was a riddle. We cracked the passcode - 913 - then entered into a very old library. After reading many books about our foes, we discovered the Soul Gems. The Soul Gems were eight ancient gemstones - scattered across the planes - created by Nerull, which, when gathered together, had power over all undead, whether to destroy them all or bind them all to the gatherer’s service.
Indeed, one of these Soul Gems was in this very library! I took the gem, and placed it in the book next to it. That was the book which, if all the gemstones where placed in, could bind the undead. Next to the book was a wand, topped with a skull. This wand, which I also took (having multiclassed as a Wizard) could use Dispel Magic and could also open or close any door in the Bleak Academy.
Upon going to explore the rest of the Academy we encountered the Acererak Construct, the guardian of that Soul Gem. Using my ring, I pushed the Construct into a doorway, then used the wand to crush him with the sliding stone door. We continued on throughout the Academy.
At this point I attempted to use Sending to contact Bella’s faction, but there was no response. After bypassing a rather wicked trap - a grid of glowing squares which, after you found the safe path, hit you with necrotic damage as soon as you left the grid - we entered a room where we found the Death Knight. His Soul Weapon was bloody and the corpses of Bella’s faction lay around the room. He threatened to adventurers at the wall: Caune, a Half-Elf Bard and Kriv, a Dragonborn Paladin. We rescued the adventurers, ran out of the room, then sealed the doors with the wand, imprisoning the Death Knight. We returned to the safety of the library to camp for the night.
The following morning we resumed exploration of the Academy, encountering Strool, who turned out to be the Academy’s Headmaster, and several other Necromancers. Strool gave us a choice: return to Fallcrest or die. We chose the former option.
We returned to Fallcrest to find it in ruins. Aghast, we rushed back to the Bleak Academy only to find it utterly deserted. Following a trail of clues, we journeyed to the Necromancers’ secret underground lair, only to find that the Necromancers had been killed by the lair’s original inhabitants: Korit Shadowbane and Darkness, the embodiments of the ancient gods Afflux and Nerull, Undeath and Death (me and my DM’s old characters back in 3.5, respectively).
Shadowbane and Darkness told us much about the Soul Gems, then told us to leave this place. Before we left, however, Shadowbane took my ring, claiming that it was “rightfully his”.
We travelled to the neighbouring town of Winterhaven, investigating a raid on a paladin keep which held many dark and powerful artifacts. We defeated monsters, overcame Doomspores and gained items here before encountering the Lich from the Demiplane again. He agreed to tell us the location of Strool’s phylactery in exchange for the wand from the Bleak Academy. We accepted this deal, and discovered that the phylactery was deep in a vault in the paladin keep. After descending to the vault, we encountered a shadowy likeness of Vecna in the chamber before the vault. The likeness promised doom to us, then disappeared. We defeated the Dracolich guarding it while Siranov opened the vault with his acid. When the phylactery was destroyed, Strool appeared and died. We also found the real Paladin Stone, which Kriv picked up, and anoher Soul Gem, which had been stolen from the Elemental Chaos.
When we returned to Winterhaven, we found that it was under siege by an undead army led by a powerful ghoul. Just before the battle, Shadowbane appeared to me. He informed me that Vecna had attempted to destroy him and Darkness, but had been warded off, although all parties had been heavily damaged. He said that he realized that the ring was now rightfully mine, and returned the ring to me, telling me that I must cast it into the purple fire to unlock its true power. We defeated the army, then faced off against the ghoul. Siranov leveled his crossbow at the ghoul’s face and fired, destroying it. The ghoul erupted in a pillar of violet flame. I threw the ring into the inferno, then, as the pyre rapidly burned down, I snatched it back up again, watching it shine ruby and ebony with a new glow.
