The 1,000 Mile March (campaign)

The 1,000 Mile March was a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition campaign that ran for 299 days, from July 8th 2018 to May 3rd 2019. The dungeon master was Iggy, and the original cast was composted of 6 players: Ben, Mini, Ron, Scott, Spark, and Stevie. By the end of the campaign there were only 4 players: Medic, Scott, Spark, and Stevie. The campaign was the first to take place in The 1,000 Mile March setting, laying the foundation for another two campaigns and several one shots.

## Premise

The 1,000 Mile March campaign depicts the quest of a group of adventurers through the 1,000 Mile March, a mystical trail that seems to change every time it is traversed. The environments within the trail vary wildly, as well as its inhabitants both sentient and non-sentient. The trail is something of an attraction for adventurers, who often flock to it looking for glory. Criminals also use the territory as a method of escape from the law, setting up elaborate hideouts and black markets within. A large military force uses the trail as a method of experimental weapons testing, and have naval blockades on both sides of it. The trail links two continents, and is often used by merchants to travel between them without having to confront the naval blockade. There is also a group known as the Broadside Rangers that occupy both entrances to the trail, and have set up various "safe houses" throughout, selling food, goods, and shelter to travelers.

## Plot

Several hours travel from the southern entrance to the 1,000 Mile March, a group of adventurers who decided to camp out together for the night find themselves ambushed by a group of wandering undead. After fighting alongside, the group decides they will remain together in their shared goal to traverse the 1,000 Mile March. The group consists of Delmuth Magfir, Drago, Johnny Kritz, Luthis Hawkfist, Roug, and Stanfal Kental, as well as a tamed zombie named Uncomfortable. The group finds themselves having to deal with ever increasing problems such as dehydration, starvation, disease, wild animal attacks, bandit ambushes, and military patrols.

After slaying the renown criminal The Dagger and defeating a land frigate commanded by Col. Briggs, the party enters a swamp where the dangerous duefons roam. Stanfal and Drago are killed by duefons, and the remaining party forms an alliance with a native tribe of lizardfolk who are about to be attacked by a fleet of experimental land frigates. A domesticated Gnoll named Rraarr Fizzlestick is introduced to the party by the lizardfolk as they prepare for battle, and Johnny is given a magic box that only he can open by the lizardfolk shaman. Delmuth is killed and Luthis is captured in the ensuing fight, and the group retreats in a commandeered land frigate. The Nobleman - an armored figure commanding the army - leads the pursuit, attempting to steal the box from Johnny.

The party plows through a swarm of duefons and escape the swamp. Meanwhile, Luthis makes friends in captivity with an armored figure named Rust, and they help one another escape. The reunited party avoids detection within a criminal hideout where they meet Merlin Magfir, Dick, Trench, and Blue. They all agree to join the group, with Dick, Trench, and Blue leading them to ancient ruins they found to loot from. The party is ambushed by rats occupying the ruins, killing Dick and Blue and scaring off Trench. Johnny uses the magic box to turn the sword from a statue into a real sword, which is enchanted with powerful magic. The Nobleman arrives with an army to steal the sword, and decapitates Rust, who somehow survives and pushes the Nobleman off a cliff. Both sides are attacked by tabaxi that were protecting the ruins, and the party manages to escape as the distracted army fights the tabaxi.

Suspicious of Rust's ability to survive decapitation, the party speculates his true nature. Roug then experiences a time loop after interrupting the ritual of a cult that was worshipping a god of time. After witnessing two timelines where the military nearly defeats the party, he uses his knowledge of the future to distract the military and be captured while the party escapes. Roug meets the Nobleman, who reveals themselves to be a woman as well as a previous clanmate of his. She decides to let him go and return to his group in exchange for information about her past, which she seems largely unable to remember. Later, a spirit that compels a person to murder and possesses whoever kills that person interrupts a military ambush intended for the party, and Merlin succumbs to it. The group then outsmarts a giant two headed troll guarding a bridge, and makes a deal with two rival gods, defeating one of their avatars in combat in exchange for safe passage.

The group then travels down a dark forest path for many days, encountering a mimick, an oni, gargoyles, and a gelatinous cube that kills Rust and Uncomfortable. Its revealed that Rust is actually two people: Ezra, a gnome wearing the armor, and Rust, an animated suit of armor that could telepathically communicate with whoever was wearing him. Only Rust is killed. Luthis temporarily suffers from madness that causes him to become mute, and after escaping the dark forest, Roug abandons the group out of grief from the loss of Uncomfortable. The other side of the forest is a cursed land teeming with undead, and the party meets a gnome named Beret that joins the group. They decide to take refuge in a mansion owned by a seemingly benevolent person named Dracula. There are other occupants either living there or spending the night, a human merchant named Cain who delivers supplies across the trail, a hobgoblin doctor named Srack that lives there, and a human butcher named Mr. Dinklepus with his human companion Bud who seems to only be on the trail due to a series of mishaps. As night falls, the ghosts of Dick and Blue haunt the party, and a werewolf attacks them as well as a revived part-construct part-undead Delmuth that was built by Dr. Srack. Luthis kills Dr. Srack and they leave the werewolf, who is actually Cain, to fight Delmuth. The mansion is attacked by the military, who have to contend with both Delmuth and the other roaming undead while the Nobleman engages Dracula. The party escapes with Bud and Mr. Dinklepus and continues down the trail.

The party briefly takes refuge in a town populated exclusively by ogres, who are surprisingly accommodating and benign. They then encounter the heart of the trail, the fabled Emerald Tower, rising from a large lake in the middle of a circular valley. The military has set up a blockade in the lake and installed a structure/vessel around the tower called the S.S. Battlestation. Lizardfolk tribesmen from before encounter the party, and together they form a plan to defeat the military and enter the tower with the aid of Trench, who has also returned. Johnny is made aware by the tribesmen that he is likely a figure from their legends that is destined to use the sword he found in the ruins to unlock the tower, and complete a series of trials to bring about the beginning of a new age.

They decide to form two groups. One group disguises as military officers and infiltrates the structure surrounding the tower where they will free prisoners and sabotage land ships and siege weapons from inside. Another group leads a distraction assault with the lizardfolk on one of the military camps. While Johnny is disabling one of the siege weapons, he is ambushed by the Nobleman, who takes him to the top of the tower to open it so she can get inside. He fights back, and is nearly defeated before being rescued by Col. Briggs, who kills the Nobleman and orders his forces to withdraw. The party then enters the tower.

Inside they meet with the Grim Reaper, one of the gods of death. He explains the purpose of the tower in protecting the world from the avatars of the gods, and that in order to end the captivity of the gods within the trail, he must pass a series of trials to prove the world is ready. The party goes through a series of trials where they are forced to sacrifice all of their gold and valuables, sacrifice Ezra, and then fight the Grim Reaper himself, resulting in Bud's death. After defeating him, they are visited by a group from the ancient past that struck a deal with Father Time to speak to the future party that passes the trials. When they confirm that the world is indeed ready for avatars to manifest again, the party is returned to the outside of the tower, with Ezra and Bud returned to life. The mystical properties of the trail have seemingly ended, and the party continues north to whatever future awaits them, except for Johnny, who having fulfilled his personal purpose, heads south towards his home.

## Cast

### Original Cast

* Ben as Stanfal Kental, a half-orc champion fighter that wanted to find strong monsters to kill on the trail.
* Mini as Drago, a white dragonborn fighter.
* Ron as Delmuth Magfir, a wood elf druid ranger.
* Scott as Luthis Hawkfist, a human fighter looking to prove their superiority by triumphing in an adventure on the trail.
* Spark as Roug, a goliath rogue barbarian that was exiled from their tribe and befriended Johnny.
* Stevie as Johnny Kritz, a fire genasi fighter that felt an unseen force pull them towards the trail and motivate them to travel along it.

### New Characters

* Ben as Sariel Tarel, an aasimar oath of devotion paladin.
* Medic as Rraarr Fizzlestick, a gnoll barbarian that was tamed by lizardfolk and befriended by Roug.
* Ron as Merlin Magfir, a kenku warlock.
* Spark as Beret, a gnome gunslinger fighter.

## Creation

### Conception

The 1,000 Mile March was conceptualized during the runs of the Dungeosn & Dinguses and Farsides campaigns, the first two campaigns ever run by the group involved in the 1,000 Mile March. The original intent of the campaign was to provide a semi-structured yet fluid adventure that gave the players a large and diverse world to explore while also giving them a clear goal, such that there would be no moments of confusion about what to do. The idea of having the entire campaign focus around arriving at a particular destination was inspired by traveling segments in other campaigns, and virtually everything about how the dungeon master of the campaign ran it was learned from Scott and Stevie, who ran the Dungeosn & Dinguses and Farsides campaigns respectively.

### Development

The development of the campaign mostly consisted of brainstorming interesting encounter ideas, fleshing them out, creating assets for them, and cataloging them in a large table that would later be used during the campaign to determine how the story progressed. The majority of the assets were made using GIMP and various free images from the internet.

### Writing

Initially, very little writing was done to determine what would happen during the campaign. Instead, the first few random encounters set a foundation for the rest of the story, with NPC's being more developed in between sessions as well as planned encounters acting as follow ups of random ones.

## Impact

The 1,000 Mile March set the stage for a larger setting that would be vastly expanded upon through various campaigns and one shots. During the 1,000 Mile March's run, the one shot Gurosmeth was run with Spark to flesh out Roug's backstory. After the campaign, a PvP focused one shot titled OOPS (One Off Pvp Session) expanded up on the origin story of Ezra.

The campaign S.S. Gourd was the first major follow-up to the 1,000 Mile March, taking place an unspecified number of years after the 1,000 Mile March. The campaign starred an entirely new cast, but had a few cameos from the 1,000 Mile March such as Delmuth Magfir and Cain.

Blair Ablaze was the second and final major entry to the 1,000 Mile March setting, taking place congruently with the latter half of the S.S. Gourd campaign. This campaign had many more cameos and connections with the 1,000 Mile March, establishing characters such as Bronze Cursemore, Sarlin Backwater, and Zearm Troc within the lore of the march. During its run, two one shots involving Luthis explore his future after the events of the 1,000 Mile March, as well as a two session campaign exploring what happens to Johnny.

While The 1,000 Mile March was running, an alternate version of the continents depicted in the setting were featured within the Dungeosn and Dinguses campaign, establishing an ongoing theme of interconnections between the two settings and eventually several others.