The unofficial fourth campaign in the Make Cinematic Universe. It takes place off the coast of Make Country, near the City of Spring and the City of Winter. It follows Cinnamon, Vasily, and King Toli as they make their way through the Keplinger Isles and uncover the various schemes and plots that are brewing throughout the land. lol. lmao.
Note: the sessions so far have been prewritten one-shots that have been placed in Make Country for convenience. They’ll probably be officially incorporated in the future, however.
Synopsis
Part 1: The Wild Sheep Chase
(adapted from the one-shot adventure of the same name from the Dungeon Master's Guild)
CHAPTER 1: Introductions
Cinnamon, Vasily, and King Toli meet at The Drunken Roach, a small tavern in Keplinger Isles. They introduce themselves, with Vasily explaining that he has connections in the local area and with King Toli revealing that he is an exiled king with like. ghost hands. Vasily, with the aid of his friend Benji Frogwater, learns about a wizard on the island that has been influencing trade at the docks. Benji disapproves, as it causes wages and sales to be unpredictable. Coincidentally, King Toli is searching for a magic item rumored to be located on the island, giving the user unimaginable riches and fortune.
CHAPTER 2: BAAAAA D NEWS
As the party chatters, they suddenly hear the sound of clattering hooves, surprised yelps, and frantic bleating. A sheep bursts through the doors of the tavern, making its way directly towards Cinnamon. The completely normal looking sheep holds a scroll in its mouth, and frantically bleats for Cinnamon to take it. Cinnamon casts the spell on the scroll, Speak with Animals, and learns that the sheep is Sal Mon who is in dire need of help. He explains that an insane wizard has stolen his precious and super extremely powerful magical artifact and needs help retrieving it.
CHAPTER 3: Shepherds and Crooks
Before he has a chance to explain the full situation, the streets outside are filled with treacherous howling and angry yells as a Guz the Half-Orc barrels through the tavern doors. Guz is led by a trio of collared wolves, and followed by a brown bear in a cloak. Guz demands that the party returns Master Noke’s sheep. The party is met with hollow, mirthless laughter at any attempt of negotiation. When the party refuses, combat begins.
CHAPTER 4: Aftermath
After Guz, the bear, and the three wolves are brutally scorched and murdered, Sal Mon pleads with the party and explains the full situation. Up until a few months ago he owned and worked out of a tower in the nearby forest. He had come from the City of Autumn before its collapse two years ago, and had arrived at the Keplinger Isles to learn more about transmutation magic. His most prized possession and key to his research was the incredibly rare Wand of True Polymorph.
One fateful night, he ended from his meditative trance to find his apprentice, Ahmed Noke, standing over him, clutching the wand. Sal demanded to know what he was doing with it, but the only sound that came out was “baaaaaaah”
Sal was trapped for two months, before Noke left the tower without locking the door. Sal was able to sneak inside, grab a scroll, and make his way to the tavern. In order to return to his original form, he needs another dose of True Polymorph. Noke still resides in Sal’s old tower, and keeps the wand on him at all times. Sal offers to lead the way. In exchange, Sal promises money and magical items.
CHAPTER 5: The Tower in the Woods
When the party arrives at Sal’s Tower, they are met with four sturdy oak trees, with 3 platforms at various heights off the ground. Three Apes are scattered across the yard, with another Brown Bear shitting (and pissing) in an outhouse. The party approaches, with Noke explaining his reasoning for transmuting Sal into a sheep:
Noke used to worship Sal Mon and served as his apprentice for many years. As decades passed, Sal still treated Noke as a child, expecting him to cook, clean, know any and every answer to any question by memory. When Noke pressed him on it, Sal simply explained that that’s how apprentices are taught. Noke couldn’t get it through his head that, as a human, he cannot spare a century to serve out an apprenticeship.
Noke then came to realize that most of Sal Mon’s achievements here were not from any abilities, but from the Wand of True Polymorph that he wielded.
He eventually cracked and betrayed Sal, however since then he has become increasingly paranoid that someone will attack him like he attacked Sal. This paranoia led him to transmute loyal guards into stronger, bestial forms.
After this exposition. He asks “wait…if youre here….did you kill my man guz :( “ and appears visibly upset when revealed they have.
CHAPTER 6: Forest Battle
When the party refuses to return Sal, he is forced to have his men attack. Noke casts Enlarge on the Brown Bear, then hides in the tower to keep up concentration. The various apes begin to attack, but run away once they go below half health. I think most of them ended up being brutally gored to death though. Brown bear definitely got got. Once the fight is clearly lost, Noke casts Expeditious Retreat and runs to the uppermost platform to lock the door. Cinnamon chases Noke, and King Toli attempts to unlock the door with his sick rogue skills. As soon as they are able to get through the door, they see Noke transform his bedframe into a Bed Dragon Wyrmling, with Noke riding on top of him. After a prolonged battle, the party destroys the flying Wyrmling, causing Noke to plummet to his death. With his last breaths, he attempts to use the wand to transform himself into a terrifying beast, but the overused Wand seemingly malfunctions and turns Noke into a Gibbering Mouther. The aberration escapes, leaving the party to recover and talk with Sal.
CHAPTER 7: Somber Moments
Seeing Noke’s new form, Sal realizes how brutally he treated his former apprentice. He probably realizes something about himself and takes a moment to recover. Despite the risks, he is still willing to risk his life to in order to be turned back into an Elf. The party agrees so that they can have their rewards. Sal reveals he was partially lying, as Noke used up all of his money when he was busy tanking the local economy, but he offers a newly opened apprenticeship position to Cinnamon and provides Vasily with his last remaining artifact: The Trident of Fish Command. King Toli steals 100gp of agate marbles and 400gp of exotic oils from the tower.
Part 2: The Secrets of Keplinger Lighthouse
(adapted from The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse from the DM's Guild)
Timeskip a couple months after Part 1. Cinnamon has learned new spells from Sal Mon, while Vasily has continued his job as a whaler and trading at the docks. King Toli has been making Keplinger Isles his new home.
CHAPTER 1: Rumors in the Harbor
One day, Benji Frogwater approaches the party (citing their reputation since Part 1, also a close friend of Vasily), offering 200gp each if they’ll investigate a missing merchant ship, the Jade Lion, that was last seen near Keplinger Lighthouse. He’s worried about rumors of a monster lurking the seas near the shore, and offers an additional 200gp each if they are able to return his crew (including his son Raf) and the cargo.
Similarly, captain Sheila Coppertree seeks out the group saying she witnessed a massive wave grab the Jade Lion and drag it against the tide towards Keplinger Lighthouse. A friend of hers, captain Aryn Hest, was on board. She offers free transport to any harbor of their choice after the adventure if they go with her to help the ship.
CHAPTER 2: Scurvy Dogfight
The party prepares for their new adventure, and make their way to the docks. There, they meet up with two bandits: Gaspar and Neeno. Vasily is familiar with them as gamblers and pirates that frequent the dock. The party attempts to negotiate, but fail spectacularly as Gaspar pulls a knife. King Toli flees to the ship, leaving Cinnamon and Vasily to take care of the bandits. After combat, the party takes off on the Annabel Lee towards the lighthouse.
CHAPTER 3: what if his head just did that
As the party gets comfortable aboard the ship, Sheila Coppertree suggests to the party that they take a short rest before they face the trials that await them at the lighthouse. Before they fall asleep, Toli pauses, and graces Cinnamon and Vasily with the kindest words they’ve heard from the king:
“I just wanted to let you guys know how much you mean to me, and that these past two months have had a great impact on my life. Our time together has been truly unforgettable.”
DM note: It was revealed this session that Cinnamon was too busy training with Sal to have any contact with King Toli, and that Vasily was purposefully ignoring his calls.
The sun sets across the sea of western Makovia, and the party quickly falls asleep.
Cinnamon and Vasily wake up to the sound of someone sobbing, and the commotion of a crowd in the halls outside their rooms. They arrive to see a crewmate crying on Sheila Coppertree’s shoulder, and a goblin in cleric’s robes in front of King Toli’s room.
“Back up. Back up. Make room please. Everybody please take a step back. My name is Doctor Dirt. I promise that i will do everything within my ability to see to the matter at hand.”
Cinnamon immediately bolts for the door, easily getting past the cleric despite his attempts against it. Vasily and Sheila follow behind the two. They all arrive to see a gruesome and traumatic scene laid out before them. Two ghostly hands, still alive, wrapped around King Toli’s neck. His own spiritual hands choked him to death in his sleep.
Sheila explains:
“Room service found him like this a couple hours ago. We wanted to get the official diagnosis from the doctor before letting you guys know. Try to make it easy on you guys. I didn’t mean for it to happen like this, I am so sorry for your loss”
Cinnamon attempts to check his pockets, but finds nothing.
Doctor Dirt checks King Toli's pulse.
"Yup. He's dead."
Vasily throws his trident against the floor. He screams uncontrollably. why. why. why.
The doctor asks everyone to step back, and casts Animate Dead. King Toli’s body immediately sits up. Doctor Dirt gives his first command:
“Speak.”
The zombie gives its first guttural cry:
“raauughhaaaagghhh”
“Wow i could have sworn he was dead a second ago” sheila coppertree exclaims as she gets a nat 1 on an insight check. “I knew it was the right choice to call you!”
“Empty your pockets” Doctor Dirt commands. And his new zombie servant obeys as Doctor Dirt gains 100gp in agate marbles and 400gp in exotic oils.
“King Toli? Is that really you?” Vasily asks, still sobbing.
“No. No thats definitely not him. Hes definitely dead and very different now.” explains Doctor Dirt. “His name is Toliver”
“His name is KING TOLI. what have you done to him. What have you done to my friend”
Sheila Coppertree conveniently ignores Doctor Dirt’s statements and recommends that he joins the party on their adventure. Theres always room for a cleric!
Doctor Dirt accepts the invitation after hearing there's a reward involved for saving the crew of The Jade Lion, as well as Benji Frogwater’s son, Raf.
Sheila shows Doctor Dirt to his new room, which is better than everyone else’s room on account of him saving so many lives.