Campaign Summary

## The Korathi Irregulars Campaign

The Korathi Empire, bastion of law and order, has been at war for decades, a war which will not stop until the Korathi Empire has united Artorum under one banner. While the Empire has made great gains, the Imperial Army has become bogged down in sieges (both offensive and defensive) and stretched thin. As a result, the Empire is beginner to show signs of corruption, decay, and disorder. Enter the Auxiliary Corps.

The Korathi Auxiliary Corps is an irregular force composed of volunteers, conscripts, and, in some cases, criminals. These troops are given basic training and surplus equipment, then dispatched across the Empire to restore order wherever they are needed. Anyone who survives a two-year term in the auxiliaries is granted Imperial Citizenship, pardon for their crimes, and/or the rights to any treasures they may have found during their service. At the start of the campaign, the first legion of Auxiliaries has just finished training and are being dispatched to their first assignments; the success or failure of these teams will determine the future of the Auxiliary Corps, and perhaps the Empire itself.

The party is one such squad of Auxiliaries. Specifically, they are in Second Company, 4th Platoon, 3rd Squad of the Korathi First Auxiliaries. Led by Sgt. Argus, the party sets out to help restore order in the name of Emperor Theridion I, long may he reign.

## Adventure 1: Hobnobbing with Goblins

For their first deployment, the party was dispatched to the town of Sardis in the province of Lydia. While Sardis was once a mining boomtown, the mines dried up around fifty years ago, and now Sardis is little more than a gathering place for trappers and travellers. Goblins had recently massacred a group of militia on patrol through the area; the party was tasked with rooting out and destroying the vile beasts. The party entered a nearby forest and found a hobgoblin encampment, which the promptly eliminated by killing the hobgoblins and burning the camp to the ground (motivated by a desire to restore the forest and remove the blight of the hobgoblins). They also found one of the mayor's sons, held ransom by the hobgoblins; additionally, a search of the hobgoblins' leader's notes revealed that they were prospecting in the mines and searching for an artifact called the Bloodthirst.

Theo returned to Sardis with the mayor's son; the rest of the squad pressed on to the mines. There they battled goblins led by a hobgoblin wearing an ornate demonic mask. The goblins were slain, but the hobgoblin escaped. The party found the mayor's other son, a cartload of electrum ore, and the Bloodthirst, an enchanted dagger that drives its wielder to murder anything in sight. They presented this to the mayor, and learned that the mines were shuttered when the last wielder of the Bloodthirst was trapped in the mines; the Empire closed down mining operations so it would not be unleashed again. Ultimately, Sgt. Argus was given the Bloodthirst for safekeeping, and the party was paid handsomely for the electrum ore and their silence about the mines. However, there was concern that the hobgoblins might be back, and in greater numbers....

## Adventure 2: Fly Like a Hippogriff

After three days of no hobgoblin activity, Sgt. Argus deemed it safe to head to a nearby garrison to reinforce Sardis and hunt down the hobgoblins. However, those plans were interrupted when a wounded Korathi messenger stumbled into town. He had requistion orders for the nearby Rolling Rock Farm, but his horse was attacked and eaten by a hippogriff. Sgt. Argus continued to the garrison, but sent the party to the farm with the dispatches. There, the party learned that hippogriffs had recently returned to this area and were preying on the horse herds. The party travelled into the nearby Wanderlust Forest and encountered a wounded hippogriff. Lenny communicated with it and discovered that the hippogriffs had been driven out of their nests by a horrid beast. Theo healed the hippogriff's wing, and then the party flew into the mountains to battle a manticore and reclaim the hippogriff's nesting grounds. They then returned to Rolling Rock farm and purchased horses (heavily discounted as a favor for dealing with the hippogriffs) and triumphantly rode back to Sardis.

## Adventure 3: Brothers of the Vine

Upon returning to Sardis, the party heard that the local tavernkeep had died from drinking tainted wine. The party was asked to travel to the Grapevine Abbey, where the wine had been brewed, to check on the halfling priests that dwelled there. Arriving at sunset, the party found the vineyards overgrown with weeds, including plant blight that rose up to attack them. After destroying the blight, the party ventured inside the abbey. There, they found much of the clergy had been turned to zombies. The party sent them to Yondalla, then ventured upstairs, where the remaining priests had locked themselves away. Father Gewurztraminer explained that whatever evil had befallen the abbey came from beneath the wine cellar. The party ventured below and found a hidden crypt. WIthin, the shade of a long-dead evil had begun to spread its tendrils once more. The party destroyed its tomb, and Theo banished the spirit in the name of Ilmater. The party was assured that the halflings would destroy their tainted stock, and returned to Sardis as heroes once more.

## Adventure 4: Journey to Stormhaven

Reuniting with Argus, the party learns that their warnings of hobgoblins have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, they were reassigned to the nearby town of Stormhaven, where an Imperial tax collector has gone missing. En route to Stormhaven, the party encountered bandits in a mountain pass using an overturned wagon as a trap for passerby. After defeating the bandits, they tracked down a lair and rooted out their leader to find what had happened to the apothecaries that owned the wagon. The learned that the apothecaries had been taken to "the Boss" in an encampment. Sgt. Argus took the wagon, full of captured bandits, onward to Stormhaven. He sent the party, with the bandit leader in tow as a guide/prisoner, to investigate "the Boss"'s camp and rescue the apothecaries.