An Alliance Forged in Blood

Summary

Much has happened in the main campaign: A Danger in Darkwood. The players have accumulated significant knowledge of the game world, the factions working both for and against them and the sort of challenges they will face.

For the Alliance Forged in Blood campaign, the players pick up in the middle of a great conflict between those that protect the people who live near and within Darkwood Forest and an undead sorcerer who intends to use the locals for his own dark purposes.

The story begins with Oso leaving the Darkwood Six after he agrees to help the The Darkwood Rangers with a critical mission. He and several others must push through enemy lines to reach the south shore of Starfall Lake. There they will try to convince a tribe of lizard folk to join the cause against the Lich that is plaguing the people in and around Darkwood Forest .

GM Introduction

Since you are reading this, it is likely that you are familiar with old school tabletop role playing. For those that are not, it involves gathering around a table with your friends with pencil, paper and some fancy dice to play through a shared adventure narrative. OSR (Old School Revival) role playing games were created between 1970 and 1980.

I was seven years old when I first played these sorts of games and was immediately hooked. The fact that these games are still played forty years later is a testament to just how fun and well thought out the rules were. Games like this unleash collective creativity and bring people together socially. There is nothing quite like it. The roots of these sorts of activities date back to the shared verbal storytelling of ancient tribal societies. This narrative represents a side adventure that was part of a much larger campaign spanning 2019 and 2020. The total number of players in this campaign fluctuated as the story changed. This created many side quests, a need for alternate player characters and very dispersed and fluid plot lines. I was the Game Master (GM) for all of these campaigns. The main campaign, titled Danger in Darkwood started player characters at level 1 and allowed them to grow into local heroes known as the ‘Darkwood Six’. Player Characters that joined the main group as the campaign progressed were not part of the original six but ended up sharing in their adventures and renown. This story is about Oso, one of those newer characters and the people that supported him on his quest to build an alliance with an unlikely ally.

Both A Danger in Darkwood and other side campaigns will also be published at some point to complete the overall campaign story. An Alliance Forged in Blood was not part of my original plan as Game Master. One of my players lost his first character part way through the Danger in Darkwood campaign. A new character was rolled up named Oso who joined the main group for several battles and encounters gaining experience along the way. This side campaign was spawned when Oso decided to leave the main 'Darkwood Six' party and strike out on his own for several weeks. The player who played Oso was joined by several others who agreed to play alternate characters over the course of several game sessions. The result was a series of events that helped to drive some key plot elements forward. It also added additional plot elements to the main campaign in preparation for the final act.

All of this was part of the original character’s ‘coming of age’ quest line. The intent was for the character to learn what it takes to stay true to one’s convictions and see the world without racial or religious bias.

I was happy to ‘re-tool’ this quests line to split the role of the hero between Oso and Lyssa. This ensured that the original player of Tristan would have a chance to play his new character with several other players while remaining central to the story line. I think it worked out well overall.

It’s also worth noting that the 'Darkwood Six' group ends up doing a lot of ethically problematic things due to the dubious moral character of some key party members. By splitting off from the main group, Oso is a little less tainted by the 'murder hobo' mentality. This side campaign offered improved role playing opportunities and was a nice reprieve from the chaos caused by the other characters.

I hope you enjoy reading this adventure narrative as much as I enjoyed guiding my players through it. OSR rules force players to endure a very high degree of realism. Death and defeat is one bad dice roll away.

Note: The content has been scrubbed of all DM notes to prevent spoilers and reduce metagaming.