A 1000 Year Old Grudge

A 1000 Year Old Grudge was the eleventh campaign played by Team 21 and the first full game ran by Lazarous. It ran from July 5th of 2022 to September 12th of 2023, making it the longest on-going campaign played by Team 21.

## Plot

### Ariaris-Mal

Kalino Kahale (along with his Ar-Terar Terror And Reckoning and his Kaynon Timbus), Koda DiEssal, and Sid Falcone all met in Ariaris-Mal during a gathering of Monster Care Squad recruits. Here they met a man named Trent Fisher who everyone called Fishman, and Fishman introduced them to Victor Crane and Catlin Sol, a married couple who were a powerful mage and a physical powerhouse, respectively. They told the group about a vague illness called the False Gold and Victor made the mistake of explaining Forbidden Magics to Koda, including gravity and soul magic, of which they immediately attempted gravity magic to make Sid float, succeeding to do so. Victor and Catlin instructed the group that they would be testing them before leaving for their first mission, and that they should go out and search for information about the two of them to 'cure' them as 'monsters'.

While doing so, the group discovered that Victor had been to jail for an extended period of time and had been part of a group called The Black List alongside Catlin and four other men: Allen Hurst, Kasen Meja, Lawrence Walker, and Lionel Hearth. They also discovered a location called The Black List, run by a person named Allen, who was adamant he was not the Allen from the group. During this downtime, Koda attempted to use soul magic on themselves while looking in the mirror and ended up bringing their reflection to life for a moment.

The next day, the group had set up an ambush for Catlin and Victor, and used a combination of gravity magic and a numbers advantage to 'cure' the two mentors by forcing them to surrender. Following this, they boarded an airship and left for Aldura-Umal.

### Aldura-Umal

After nearly arriving at their destination, a sudden failure in the airship's mechanism caused the group to spring into action: Kalino went about directing civilians to a location where they would be less injured in the event of a crash while Sid went to go attempt to fix what was broken. Though doing so did slow the fall, Koda's use of gravity magic was the major factor in the ship not being destroyed on the desert sands.

After the successful crash-landing, the group left to wander on their own, finding a canyon and meeting a young man named Ali Khouri who rode a Steamray. He lead them into the town of Aldura-Umal proper, where they gathered some information about two monsters, one called the Zhora and the other called the Saens-Saens, and learned the Zhora was sick. Sid went out into the desert to find a plant to cure the Zhora of Pulsating Blood Crystals, and found the sanguine cactus. After creating an aerosolized version of the cure, the group went back out to the canyon and used it to cure the Zhora after employing Ali as the bait to bring it out of its cave. During the fight Koda was hit with a laser and severely burned, but ended up being fine. Later, the group would learn Ali was a ghost who possessed the desert sands and also that he captured Catlin in a glass cocoon before she could lose control of her powers. Victor freed her from this cocoon after her powers had come back under control.

### Culium-Mal

After dealing with the Zhora, the group would travel a large distance using the interdimensional train-city known as Culium-Mal. In Culium-Mal, Kalino was approached by a woman who offered him an 'artificial monster gift', which he was going to accept before she was informed of him being part of the Monster Care Squad and refused to allow him to have one. After raising his suspicion, Kalino chased down the girl and took the box of artificial monster gifts from her. After some thorough study of the False Gold contained within these monster gifts alongside Koda; including finding the six special ones slotted away: Zhora, Shirin, Lockni, Aejeja, Hatto, and Selma; Kalino drank the Aejeja essence and contracted the False Gold while also gaining the ability to light on fire when his emotions ran high. Catlin offered to teach him to use the Aejeja gift more effectively, but Kalino's adoption of apprehension towards Catlin caused him to refuse.

Later, a group of Golden Guard attempted to retrieve the box from Kalino, who reacted with violence and the group ended up killing the three guards and throwing their bodies into outer-dimensional space.

### The Dales

The group departed Culium-Mal and entered The Dales, a city set in the valley with massive skyscraper buildings full of gardens which should have been bustling and making food instead zombified and only planting flowers. The people worshipped Koda as a god alongside the Shirin. After some exploration, Sid found a man who explained that the Shirin had released some kind of pollen into the air to hypnotize people into worshipping it, and Koda met the Shirin first-hand after summoning it with a song. While attempting to find a cure to the hypnosis, the group encountered Valo Lehtola and Yesper Aune. Yesper assisted in the testing of a medicine called Kymera that Kalino had made by combining several of the essences within the box to overload the False Gold for a moment, meanwhile Valo and Koda were learning illusion magic and using Valo's ability to turn illusions into real things.

After a forest fire broke out, the group went into the forest to find the Shirin and did so easily. Koda used illusion magic to create non-lethal bombs with Valo's power and Sid used them to create a distraction while Koda connected with the Shirin by using their powers of emotional manipulation. While this was happening, Terror And Reckoning used his bladed horns to slice the thorn growing from the Shirin's rose-tail and cure the Shirin and unhypnotize the citizens of The Dales. Here the group first met Lawrence Walker and learned that Victor and Catlin feared him, as well as learning the woman who had owned the box before Kalino was named Lucy Walker and was Lawrence's daughter. After this encounter, Kalino was body-snatched by Lawrence who attempted to find and return the box to Lucy but was ultimately stopped by Terror And Reckoning. Sid took Lucy's side in the ensuing argument and Kalino harbored a grudge for that.

### Tinaris-Mal

The party left The Dales to head for Tinaris-Mal, Sid's home, and along the way Koda further trained in magic alongside Valo while Kalino went out looking for supplies and found a blue Lokni scale. That night Kalino also learned that Catlin and Victor were not married, and that Catlin was actually closer to Victor's parole officer. The next day, the group found a way up into the floating city of Tinaris-Mal and met a large portion of Sid's family who ran a perfume business. Valo used his soul-sight to learn that Sid's entire family had False Gold, and Koda used their magic to heal Kalino of his False Gold before attempting it on Sid's family. The group informed Sid's family that the perfume they had been selling was giving people False Gold, and they recalled it immediately.

Sid later met Lawrence Walker again at a diner, and learned that "Lawrence Walker" was just the name adopted by the sentient False Gold who wanted to destroy the world. Sid was able to save two different timelines as he employed his friends to take specific measures, such as having Kalino circle-talk Lawrence to cause him to fail to escape the city he intended to crash into the ground as well as using Valo to attract Lokni's attention instead of allowing Lokni to attack the city. He also made sure to inform Catlin to not use her powers, as that is what caused the biggest issue in the first run of events.

After these events, Kalino relinquished the box to the group, who destroyed it, and Lucy Walker disappeared. Before leaving for Petris-Mal Kalino revealed he did not leave his family on the best of terms.

### Petris-Mal

The group headed up into the mountains and trekked through the Iron Woods to get to Petris-Mal, Kalino's home, where they discovered something had damaged the Iron Wood trees, which even the people of Petris-Mal hadn't figured out how to cut down. The group arrived at the house of Kalino's family, and Kalino's mother accepted them graciously with a hearty meal fit for the snowy cabin town. That night, a flaming comet nearly struck Petris-Mal and the group went out to discover it was actually a fallen Aejeja. Though the group originally tried to extinguish the flaming bird, Kalino realized it needed assistance in fighting off an illness and instructed them to stoke its flames instead. The Aejeja, eventually strong enough to move on its own, fled into the Iron Wood.

The Iron Wood was cordoned off, and Kaimana, the Elder Of The Outside World and one of four elders governing Petris-Mal, employed an Armormeister from Enteris-Mal named Hammerfel to keep people out of the Iron Wood. The group was able to get past Hammerfel by staging an argument, and upon further investigation discovered the Aejeja had been altered on a genetic level, and Kalino went to the Black List and acquired a radioactive meteorite which was then dubbed "the rock". During this time, the rest of the group came to the conclusion that the Aejeja had not been the thing harming the Iron Wood, and discovered the Golem. After returning to Petris-Mal, they were confronted by Kaimana who attempted to charge them with a crime, and later Hammerfel would threaten Kalino's family. After bringing these things to light with the Elders of Home, Magic, and Nature, they voted to remove Kaimana as the Elder Of The Outside World, and banish Hammerfel. Enraged, Hammerfel revealed the Golem was her creation, and the group dealt with her and the Aejeja, who had been drawn by the commotion.

After her defeat, Catlin killed Hammerfel, but Valo captured her soul and made her the snow around Petris-Mal, similar to how Ali was the sand around Aldura-Umal. Before leaving Petris-Mal, Kalino was named the new Elder Of The Outside World and established a new tradition where should any of the elder be found lacking in their position they are tied to a post and hit with sticks.

### The Voices And Yorkis-Mal

The group arrived in The Voices, Koda's home, only to find that the Monster Care Squad had been banned. After attending a rally in an attempt to stop the spread of the False Gold through The Voices, Kalino, Sid, and Koda were attacked by a group of Armormeisters who eventually captured Koda. The person who had employed the Armormeisters to capture one of the group was actually Koda's father Zimri DiEssal, who held Koda prisoner until rescued through the efforts of the others, and though their stealthy rescue went off without a hitch, Koda threw a brick through a window and alerted all of the guards. After this it was deemed that the people of The Voices did not want the help of the Monster Care Squad, and the group left for Yorkis-Mal, Valo's home.

In Yorkis-Mal, the group finally learned that Valo had been hiding a secret, and knew of a prophecy that said the world would end in two weeks. Yesper also began to see visions through time, and he revealed that Hatto was moving towards The Voices. Employing the Armormeisters who had previously attacked them at the rally (and a large mirror for lasers), the group redirected Hatto from The Voices to Yorkis-Mal and during the fight Valo summoned the Eight Dead Kings using necromancy. Koda connected emotionally with Hatto and learned that he had been a young boy who had been turned into a weapon by a military in the past, and was only acting out in pain. Koda eased his pain, and Hatto left of his own accord.

After that Valo got shot with a gun by Lawrence and the group left for Enteris-Mal.

### Enteris-Mal

Beneath Yorkis-Mal, the city of Enteris-Mal was one that Catlin allowed the group to sneak into. Overrun with False Gold, the group entered the Labyrinth to attempt to wish the False Gold away, only to spend nearly a full day wandering in circles through physical space and time before being spit back out into the street. Koda was once again abducted by Zimri and the rest of the group returned to the Black List. Valo went out to find Koda and ran into Owin Razik, who joined the group along with his pet Croc. Owin commited an act of terrorism on the Sol Manor to attract the guards and ran away while Valo slipped inside and learned Koda was not being held captive and was actually a guest of Catlin, who lived in Sol Manor. Owin met up with the rest of the group and together they went to Sol Manor and were invited in by Catlin, where they made a plan to stop Victor's execution via nuclear explosion. Yesper used his time eye and learned that the monster they would be facing was a combination of every monster they had faced previously, and the group immediately set out to gather the supplies to redo every single cure they had done previously.

At some point between that conversation and the execution, Owin met up with Sun Jhin, one of the Armormeisters from The Voices, and they mutually beat each other in the street and created a manly bond of respect. After revealing this to the rest of the group, it was decided to go and try to convince the Armormeisters to assist in saving the world, and they did. Lawrence Walker turned into the monster from Yesper's vision, and after several cures done on him to relieve him of his ill-gotten monster attributes, the False Gold was cured, and the world was saved.

## Important NPCs

* Ali Khouri
* Lucy Walker

#### Armormeisters

* Captain Carrin
* Catan
* Catlin Sol
* Damian Price
* Hammerfel
* Sun Jhin

#### The Black List

* Allen Hurst
* Kasen Meja
* Lawrence Walker
* Lionel Hearth
* Victor Crane

#### Monsters

* Aejeja
* Ar-Terar
* Croc
* Golem
* Hatto
* Kaynon
* Lokni
* Selma
* Shirin
* Zhora

## Important Locations

* The Black List
* Sol Manor

#### Cities

* Ariaris-Mal
* Aldura-Umal
* Culium-Mal
* The Dales
* Enteris-Mal
* Petris-Mal
* Tineris-Mal
* The Voices
* Yorkis-Mal