Marshford Campaign¶
Contested
This page is named in the open question Gorefiend's fate after Narlhaven. The Sovereign Assembly notes both destroy Gorefiend and keep him at Kosh-Tuul's side; both readings are given below.
"Kosh-Tuul has 'gone to ground'. Betrayed by Tserrerak (which he expected) and nearly destroyed." — the campaign's notes on the Sovereign Assembly (S359)
A campaign of the Fourth Age, played from January to June 2026, centred on Marshford, a town in the kingdom of Arnyr that "began as a fishing village, with a population around 250" and had grown to some 1,500 before plague struck it (S361, S359). Its company beat back a sea invasion, looted a pirate lord's treasure, fought a green dragon, crossed the Westmarches to the ruined imperial mint of Vaal'Dunak and the fungal Pits of Turis, and sailed to drowned Acadia to free the imprisoned wizard Tserrerak. Freeing him set loose the man behind the Sovereign Assembly, and the last arc pitted the company against his apprentices, a demon plague sweeping Arnyr, and the demon Kosh-Tuul of the Demonlands Mini Campaign.
The party¶
| Character | Notes |
|---|---|
| Orrias | Priest of Kalar; aged ten years in Acadia, to forty-five (S358); by the last arc High Priest at the Temple of Kalar in Marshford and the town's diplomatic representative (S359). |
| Brok | Carried the Dragonhorn warhorn and a Rotting Grimoire of illusion spells from the dragon arc (S361). |
| Dingly | Druid; wore the Thorn Mask, which "whispers random truths" (S361); by the last arc keeps a druidic circle outside Marshford (S359). |
| Kjell | Bore the Black Gem holding Tserrerak's spirit (S361); challenged the Krag'Durn chieftain to single combat (S360); later taken over by Kosh-Tuul (S359). |
| Yagur | Also written Yagun. Carried the Eye of Amar and the Amarin trade ledger (S361); given an amalgamated skeleton by Tserrerak, who foresaw that he "will eventually become a full-time lich" (S358); died "to contain the Eldtrich Hungering Dark" (S359). |
| Finn | A spellcaster (S361); later carried aurumite daggers (S359). |
| Flytar | In the Krag'Durn ambush (S361). |
| Draven | Also written Drav. Joined on the voyage to Acadia (S358). |
The Acadian outline's gear list also names Chardie, armed with "bow, arrows, sword" (S358), and the Krag'Durn notes a ranger "Chardingly" (S360); whether this is a further character or a name for Dingly the sources do not make clear.
Arc¶
The surviving documents are gamemaster notes from January to June 2026. The first four arcs are known only from the campaign's own summary sheet of "Plot Arcs so far" (S361); later arcs are reconstructed from prep and from play notes left in it.
The first four arcs¶
The summary lists them in order (S361):
- The Shahaugin Invasion: a shipwreck, lizardfolk and an ancient fire temple, a young kraken, an island battle with scouting, and an aboleth.
- The Pirate Lord's Treasure: Skullport and the lich Koltric, "lich pirate lord wizard", one of the seven lords of Azmeran, who "now resides in Marshford".
- The Elves of Elarin'Thalas: the druid Thalmyr, the arc's antagonist, "gave his life to restore Guardian Circle".
- The Green Dragon, Orphux, with his father Thraxis and the witch Cereldine. The company's trophies included a dragonscale shield, a dragonhorn and a wyvernhide cloak.
Among the spoils were a Black Gem holding "imprisoned spirit of Tserrerak (Acadian High Wizard)", an Eye of Amar ("Compass, dials allow locations to be set"), Amarin imperial platinum bars and an Amarin trade ledger pointing to the Pits of Turis (S361).
The road to Vaal'Dunak¶
With the ledger as their first lead, and the advice of an Amarin expert named Durham, the company travelled six hundred miles west, through Irystwaite, toward Vaal'Dunak, "Amarin Market Town, Vaults" (S361). Three days out they met an orc hunting party of thirty on wargs led by Mok'Thorn; the play notes record the Dragonhorn sounded at three hundred yards and an ice storm at twenty (S361). The orcs were the Stonesplitter tribe of the Krag'Durn, whose chieftain Mokkar'gul, "Voice of the Plain", Kjell challenged to single combat. The company came away honorary members of the tribe, with Krag'Durn pendants and a quest to recover the Orc Bone Headdress from the corpse of a previous chieftain in haunted ruins to the south (S360).
Vaal'Dunak, "destroyed in the Second Demon War", is a sinkhole city of green ghosts and green mist. In its districts the company fought hellhounds and plague spitters, and found that the Mint had become "a Daennelgin Outpost … building a host machine for him", guarded by demons and run by an impish demonic engineer; one of its guards wore the missing orcish headdress, and the demon Kozzal-gun "likes his new hat" (S360).
The Pits of Turis¶
Sixty miles on lie the Pits of Turis, a dark volcanic pit of aurumite, "Titan's Blood", perpetually filled with white spores that drift "like falling snow" and make those who breathe them "hear music" (S362). An orc, Vograg, sought his son Zek'roh, who had gone to join the Children of the Choir, cultists twenty years in the pits. The company consulted the Black Gem about the fungal titan Thraazul and so met Tserrerak, who gifted them amulets of fungal protection; below lay an ascension ceremony of some 250 people, the grove-keeper Irbod, and a fungal giant of titan-essence fed by myconid thralls (S362). The company refined sixty-two ounces of aurumite from the pits (S359). The note that closes the arc: "HEADING TO ACADIA to release Tserrerak" (S362).
Acadia¶
The company crossed by giant eagle and ship to Septnest, capital of Kyzall, a trade city ruled by the wizard Rythaemenias, and lodged their magic items in the Bank of Kyzall's vault before landing on Acadia, guided by the Acadian expert Eoriast (S358). The outline gives the island's history from the Acadian side, the splintering of the Acadian Order from the Nexa-Vinians and the failed Fae Conjunction that destroyed the nation; that history is told on those pages. The island is overrun by fae factions and by the Netherworm, "the tear from the failed conjunction", which had eaten most of Tserrerak's tower on its volcanic rock (S358).
The company freed Tserrerak, the "High Acadian Wizard (secretly a Nexa-Vinian … this is why he was imprisoned)", after three hundred years in an Acadian imprisonment crystal for necromantic experiments, and reconnected him with the library he had hidden in a subplane (S358). They read the Rolls of Acadian Justice & Punishment of 1388, which charge him with the murder of 15,678 people by necromantic blight. Tserrerak "is NOT a servant": he offered them vassalage in his coming empire and a few gifts (S358). The Acadian notes also record a White Fire coin and a "Nameless Agent", a middle-aged man who says "you know my name" (S358).
Plague and the Sovereign Assembly¶
The last arc's notes (S359) are a working document, and the order of its scenes is not certain.
A demonic plague, "Pig-Pox", was moving "through much of Arnyr": three days to symptoms, "death in 5-7 days". Marshford lost 150 of its 1,500 people. The priests of Tuulish, "Lord of Health and Vitality", sold an inoculation made in Dueneport; several of the company took it. The inoculation "is a fragment of Kosh-Tuul", and Kosh-Tuul had an "understanding" with Tserrerak. The company traced the plague to the Temple of Tuulish outside Dueneport, to the Greater Demon Lord Huln at Ulguran, and to Kosh-Tuul himself, "deep in sewers, God of Rats, Plaguebringer" beneath the dead castle-town of Narlhaven north of Wysann, with Noxidia, a frost spider, in the outer sewers. Kosh-Tuul "isn't really killable … he just reforms among other rats", and the notes have Kjell, who "drank a full dose of blood inoculation", taken over by him (S359). The inoculation house in Dueneport burned to the ground with its twelve workers and six guards.
At court, King Aderik Tugard had been displaced by an imposter: his son was imprisoned for treason, his daughter vanished, and the high councillor Serevon Ashmark, "actually one of the Sovereigns", ran things (S359). The company freed the king. Arrested as "an enemy of state, danger to society" by Interrogator Yashin, some of them were shipped to the Darkhold, an Acadian prison five hundred miles south, where a broken goblin prisoner, Nelluk, freed them; Yagur kept Nelluk's key (S359). The same notes record Yagur dead "to contain the Eldtrich Hungering Dark", without saying where.
What changed¶
All of the following fall in the Fourth Age; the documents give no year in any calendar.
- Tserrerak freed from three hundred years' imprisonment on Acadia (S358). In the notes that follow he has become the hidden power of the Sovereign Assembly, whose Triumvirate is two of his apprentices and an ex-Nexa-Vinian, and of the Collegium of the Amber Sun, which he co-opted; the notes title the arc "Empire of Tserrerak" (S359). See Tserrerak.
- The plague broken in the west. "Plagues in the west are petering out with the destruction of distribution mechanisms and Kosh-Tuul's absence", and "the Tuulish religion seems to have collapsed" (S359). See Arnyr and Tuulish.
- Kosh-Tuul driven east. Betrayed by Tserrerak and nearly destroyed, he has "travelled to the east out of the sphere of influence of Tserrerak" with Noxidia and "is now a bitter enemy of Tserrerak" (S359).
- Yagur dead, containing the Eldritch Hungering Dark (S359). Tserrerak's foretelling that he would become a lich (S358) is overtaken by that death.
- Marshford lost a tenth of its people to the plague (S359), keeps the lich Koltric as a resident (S361), and gained a High Priest of Kalar in Orrias and a druidic circle under Dingly (S359). See Marshford.
- Elarin'Thalas's Guardian Circle restored at the cost of Thalmyr's life (S361).
- The Krag'Durn made the company honorary members (S360); under their new chieftain Grish'nak the tribe sent the company with a message to the king of Arnyr that "Orcs want Western Provinces" (S359). See Krag'Durn.
Planned ending¶
The notes give the campaign's intended end: King Aderik Tugard, once his kingdom is recovered from the imposter, "will grant the 'players' titles in the newly formed Duchy of Westmarsh, with Marshford as the the Ducal seat, and funds to erect as suitable castle and temple for the growing town/city" (S359). This is recorded as planned, not as played. See Marshford.
Gorefiend's fate¶
The Sovereign Assembly notes give two readings. One says "Gorefiend betrayed him and is destroyed"; elsewhere the same notes list "Gorefiend - Giant Snake" among Kosh-Tuul's demons in the Narlhaven sewers, and say that he "is charmed, thinks Kosh-tuul tried to kill him", with his scale's resistances given for a fight (S359).
Gap
No play log exists for the first four arcs, which are known only from S361's summary. The order of scenes in the last arc, who was imprisoned in the Darkhold, and how the campaign ended are not recorded.