The Four Masters

The Four Masters is the name of one of the two campaigns I ran last year. It was, sadly, short lived, but had a pretty fun run while it lasted. There were many shenanigans on the parts of the players, yet it all ended too soon.

Dramatis Personae (Players):
A nameless dwarf; fighter; female.
Ronald; human; paladin; male.
A nameless half-elf; cleric; female.
Keth; half-orc; barbarian; male.
A nameless halfling; rogue; female.
"Aladdin"; human; rogue; male.

This party got up to all kinds of shenanigans in the setting, in one particular city, the city dedicated to peace and diplomacy between the Four Masters.

First off, the campaign setting. I let my players help me design this, each one suggesting parts of the world until it was designed. As best I remember, their suggestions are as follows:

• Dwarves are a proud race
• The world is ruled by four evil dark lords
• Dragons are all extinct
• It is a low-magic world
• There is a rebellion group

The Four Masters themselves are as follows:
Alnar: The crazy artificer type who builds golems and is secure in his insanity.
Marrow: A former sailor, he is now a slimy, watery man who oozes foul slime everywhere he goes. He has pacts with Those That Must Not Be, and other foul denizens from the deeps.
Dhalia: The Winter Cleric, a cold and cruel woman who rules her icy fortress in the North with an iron fist.
Cantras: A lich, formerly...something. Not quite sure what, in fact, no-one is. Cantras has raised an army of undead.

Each of the Four Masters is powerful, evil, and immortal, each controlling a quarter of the landmass. There is one central city, called Citadel, that none own, set aside for diplomacy. This was where the action of the campaign took place.

Notable events in the campaign:
Four party members taking on thirty guardsmen with crossbows (while still 3rd level) and somehow surviving long enough for their reinforcements to arrive.
Using a wish to unleash a vengeful Glabrezu on the city.
Setting out to raid a caravan, before the dwarven fighter fell in love with one of the guards, the paladin sided with the obviously evil guard-captain, the party split itself up, the paladin and rogue tried to kill one another, and then they all failed to actually raid the caravan.
Setting fire to the paladin's boss (the captain of the town guard), and then letting him fight it out with the rest of the party's boss (a crazy half-orc dragon shaman named Kree).
Repeatedly taking on "boss" NPCs by themselves, without backup, after using most of their spells for the day.
Melting my campaign into a molten sloshing puddle before it even really got started.

Dramatis Personae (NPCs):

• Kree, half-orc Dragon Shaman, and Resistance Leader (CR 5)
• Captain Hannah Dravail, human Marshal, and caravan guard captain (CR 4)
• Hannah's Hammers Infantry, human Fighter (melee) (CR 2)
• Hannah's Hammers Archer, human Rogue/Fighter (archer) (CR 2)
• Meera, halfling Warlock, Local sneak-thief and sewer-explorer (CR 1)
• Seeg'hara, elf Barbarian, mad-murderer and crazed cannibal of the southern district (Cr 5)
• Kellin, goliath Sorcerer/Fighter, Bounty Hunter and Glorious Bastard (CR 6+)
• Durrak Bladebreaker, hobgobling Fighter, Captain of the Town Guard (CR 7)
• Nostrus Marglan, doppelganger Rogue/Chameleon, Citadel's Spy Master (CR 7)