Spent all day writing out a full campaign story recap for my MTG themed DND game. I've posted it below because... maybe people would be curious to give it a read? Hope you enjoy!
SET 1: RIDDLES IN RAVNICA
Four planeswalkers; Signora Luna de la Cruz, a Soratami cleric and adventurer initially claiming to be a vampire. Kaneis, a Nyxborn wanderer seeking a place in life. Rodna, a vampire warlock secretly working for the Dimir. Wistralaxa, a Naga sorceress with an uncanny ability to not die. Each found themselves in possession of a letter requesting they head to a Ravnican café at a specified date. Upon doing so, they met with an Azorius arrestor with a mission that required finesse, strength, and secrecy.
The mission was, initially, to find the Goblin mob boss known as Krenko and bring him to justice. However, a mixture of “actually fuck the cops” attitudes, secret dealings, and sensing of foul-play being afoot lead our heroes to instead side with Krenko (after roughing up some of his men) and help him in taking down the Azorius instead. In doing so, a conspiracy of sorts was discovered, as well as Rodna retrieving a package from her Dimir handler, Etrata- a mysterious tome.
After the mission, the party has lunch and decides to keep in touch- they seem to work well together, after all. And so, each return to their lives; Rodna receives her next mission. Kaneis finds a letter placed on their bed labeled “A Friend”. Signora Luna’s inn-room is bombed. Wist encounters the mysterious Mr. Taz, who gives her an invitation to Eldraine- seemingly the mastermind behind all the goings on.
Our heroes reconvene to discuss what happened and what their next task will be. After some discussion, it is decided to tackle the bombing Luna narrowly avoided- seemingly caused by the Shattergang Brothers, goblin rivals of Krenko, their “new friend”. After some investigation, they head to the Undercity’s Golgari Markets to stock up, complete a task for an ally, and then rest for the night.
Our heroes then storm the Rakdos Cult nightclub the Shattergang Brothers are held out in, fighting through the twisty-turning pathways. Guards and goblins, but also at least one creature from Amonkhet, Wist’s home plane, something that should be impossible. This all comes to a head with our party successfully capturing the Shattergang Brothers… only for them to be found dead, slain when no one was looking. The truth of the matter is then revealed; Rodna is a Dimir assassin, unknown even to herself. Her true task, to hunt down Dimir agents who have gone rogue, and the link to all of these events is one said rogue agent; Ivreyla, and the “Friends of the Multiverse”, led by Mr. Taz Dranos.
A dark truth revealed, our heroes support Rodna as she breaks her pact with Rozumu, leaves the Dimir, and after recovering head off to Ivelya’s hideout, lead by a former guildmate of hers. Unfortunately it is a trap, and our heroes must fight their way through the hideout to save Rodna’s friend- captured by Ivreyla- and bring an end to her Dimir cell once and for all.
Strava, Rodna’s friend, is saved- though turned into a vampire to do so. The Dimir cell is destroyed, all members killed. Ivreyla herself seems to escape as her spark ignites and she planeswalks away, but a cursory inspection of the plane she ended up reveals she is likely to have been ripped to pieces by a werewolf. A satisfactory ending, that in the end leads our party- through Kaneis- to make actual contact with the so-called “Friends of the Multiverse”, an organization of Planeswalkers who seek to assist each other in various… endeavors.
The party categorically refuse, for understandable reasons, and instead head to Kamigawa- an old friend of Wist’s may be able to help with their current problems…
SET 2: THE IRON SCROLL
The Story Circle- a loosely connected band of Planeswalkers that share information and stories, a friendly group that is connected by faint threads more than the bond of battle and bloodshed. Wist is a friend of the ‘leader’ of that group, Tamiyo, and heads to her home on the plane of Kamigawa in the hopes of fulfilling their goals. Rodna needs to learn what is going on with her body- breaking the pact has seemingly unlocked some sort of mutation that is happening to her. Luna wants further adventures, and exploring her home plane is something of an interest for her. Kaneis has a want for connection, to more firmly define themselves through others. While some of this is accomplished something all-together more important pops up. One of Tamiyo’s Iron Scrolls have been stolen.
The Iron Scrolls, she explains, are three very powerful stories she has collected through her time traveling the multiverse- stories that MUST be recorded, but in the recording have been granted overwhelming power that befits their very import. Plane shattering stuff. So our heroes head off in pursuit of the thief, reaching a nearby Nezumi village. Assisting the locals and entreating the local kami-god Nezu-kyo- and telling each other the stories of how their sparks ignited as payment- our heroes are pointed in the right direction, heading to a city on the edge of civilization.
Our heroes reach the Painted City, a beautiful place of neon paints and colour. A Soratami planeswalker- known as Eshi- lives here, and Nezu-Kyo has pointed them towards him to find that which they seek. Going to see Eshi however involves them finding a strange diorama of a tall tower… that our heroes then find themselves within! Strange puzzles and antics are has… as well as one of Wist’s cooking knives being drawn in as a massively powerful yokai that our heroes must run from.
Eventually, our heroes locate Eshi’s painting room within this strange diorama. An enigmatic sort, with paintings of various lands in Kamigawan style- most relevantly, a scene from Theros, and a painting marked with the symbol of an Innistradi cult that Rodna found in that cursed tome of hers. This turns out to be relevant, as whatever mutations Rodna is undergoing, something similar is happening to him, and he provides some information about it- as well as pointing them towards how they can contact the Friends of the Multiverse and locate that scroll.
Eshi lets our heroes leave after he finishes Signora Luna’s painting- a strange thing, that seems to shift as one looks at it, and perhaps more questions than answers, especially with regards to the Tide Star Seer, something that Luna finds familiar… but that’s brushed off as they further explore the city looking for Sen the Silent. Our heroes engage in Sen’s fight club, learn of some leads, and after some shenanigans involving a shadow kami end up getting the information they need- though not before said kami puts on a little show for Luna, taunting her about something she doesn’t quite understanding.
With information in hand, our heroes journey through the old wilderness of Kamigawa… and find themselves changing. Rodna grows stronger, fiercer, in defense of her friends. Wist grows impatient and reckless as the worry of what this Iron Scroll could do weighs on her. Luna starts to welcome in the power of her home, dragon-cries echoing in her dreams. Kaneis starts to define themself, a whirling dervish of blades and tendrils and jellyfish dresses. The old magic of the plane, the conflicts they encounter, turn our heroes into Heroes, befitting the quest they’re on. Little do they know what this could mean…
Partway through, they encounter the Tiger Claw bandits, and end up storming their fort through stealth and guile and absurdly intense power. The honestly quite pathetic leader of this crew and his minions are dispatched quite easily by our heroes, but in the doing they discover some oddities- the leader’s Dominarian armor, a Zendikari elemental trapped within a room of the hide out as a digging tool. More things that suggest the Friends of the Multiverse have been here, twisting lives for their own gain.
The confrontation draws near. The planeswalkers reach the mountain where the Friends’ hideout is, and explore it in search of their enemies. With some assistance from an old kami known as Night’s Reach, our heroes find it- in exchange for taking a mask representative of her power with them, to bury on another plane at a later date. Our heroes reach the hideout of the Friends of the Multiverse… and reality crashed down upon them, as words echo across them- echoes of Dominarian history.
They are reading the scroll. There is not much time left. Our heroes rampage through the undead samurai and Innistradi spirits and other would-be monsters defending their lair, and all the while echoes of magic ring out across the pagodas. The world reverberates and rattles.
In tackling the pagoda fortress, our heroes split up. Kaneis on their lonesome, the rest together facing the undead hordes- and faltering. Luna is unconscious, Wist is being hounded by spirits, and Rodna is doing her best. It is here, at a tea room positioned between pagodas, that Kaneis runs into another kami- though this one is not a servant of their enemies. She asks if they need assistance, and Kaneis says yes… in exchange for a favor. Kaneis has a beast to hunt, and will know when the time is right to repay this debt. With a golden hand, the spirit plucks the remaining heroes from their rooms and places them in the tea room, where our heroes take a moment to breath before confronting their foes.
Within the final chamber are the twins of the Friends of the Multiverse; Seele, a Geistspeaker, and Corpus, a Ghoulcaller, both from Innistrad. The twins and their servants (plus the animated remains of the ninja Higure) ready themselves to fight, and our heroes charge to meet them. Corpus continues his reading, the magic crackling through the very fabric of the plane itself, reality starting to shift.
The battle is chaos incarnate. Luna fights Seele, having previously fought her in Sen’s fight club. Wist provides support. Rodna engages Corpus directly with her strange powers and her katana. Kaneis whirls and carves and kicks and fires off spines in defense of their allies. It is break-neck, frenetic, and our heroes are pushed to the limit. Finally, it happens! Rodna slays the ghoulcaller and he dies with portentious words; “It’s the wrong scroll”. Followed by a hideous, hissing roar as a behemoth of a black dragon, scales metallic and shiny, tendril lord cords lashing out from its hide steps through a smokey rip in reality. It screams “THERE WILL BE SILENCE.”
Seele turns her remaining soldiers about the creature, but it simply isn’t enough. A stream of caustic acid bellows forth from the dragon’s maw, and the Geistspeaker is washed away in a sea of glowing liquid. Luna barely survives this, but falls unconscious. Rodna does her best to carve into it. Wist is worn and weary, attrition taking its hold. Kaneis’s spines clatter against its metallic hide- but then, a solid blow! A hammer-shaped spine shatters one of the dragon’s eyes, and the second, sharper spine enters the gap in the creatures skull. It unleashes a horrid screech, worse than anything they’d heard before.
And then, Silence. The dragon’s flailing roars, their own haggard breathing, all of it blanked out. They can barely even hear themselves think. The dragon’s head twists upside down and unfurls into a cylindrical device… and starts glowing, light flooding from the hairline fractures that open up into it.
It is, quite clearly, a bomb. Our heroes run, Luna managing to wake up in time- though not before seeing a vision of nine stars slicing through the sky in formation before scattering to the winds. She and Wist each other as support as they run, Rodna chasing after, and Kaneis quickly passing them all as they rush ahead- the healthiest of them all, trying to clear the way. But all the spirits and undead that remain seem frozen. They run, footsteps silent, hearts pounding, the impending doom behind them glowing fiercer. Rodna falls, out of breath. Wist and Luna try to pull her to her feet. Kaneis doubles back to help. They feel as though they’re running in sand, and then- vision gone white, a massive explosion piercing the silence.
Our heroes awaken on the front yard of Tamiyo’s home, each in a pile of pristine white sand, soft and gentle. Luna has a golden ring marked with a face in her hands, she does not know from where, with a message held between the teeth. She looks at it, a mystery. Wist collapses in the sand, crying from exhaustion. Kaneis sits there, shaken. Rodna just lays face down. They have barely survived.
Then, a faint glow. A woman in gold robes, the kami Kaneis met, appears. A silver dragon perched across her shoulders. She introduces herself as Michiko and Kyodai, the Sisters of Flesh and Spirit, the patron gods of this plane- higher than any other, but bound by the metaphysical rules of their domain, as they explain in the wake of Wist’s anger at what has transpired. They apologize for what has happened, for as much as that matters, and after some discussion reveal that Luna is the Tide Star Seer- one of five blessed by the dragons of Kamigawa, and the strange visions and dreams are her future sight manifesting.
With that, the Sisters grant our heroes each a boon. Wist uses hers to task the Sisters with restructuring society upon the plane, so no one is powerless to shape their own fate. Rodna asks them to rid her of the corruption stemming from her palm, and is given a wolf shaped amulet that will absorb the power of that which changed her, ridding her of that corruptive force. Kaneis simply asks “Why am I?”, and they answer that they hold within them an intensely beautiful soul- to return to Theros with their companions will answer the questions they seek, and Kaneis receives a compass to guide the way. Luna, meanwhile, does not know what boon she will ask- but when she does, the Sisters will act.
In the aftermath of all this, our heroes return to Tamiyo’s home- not difficult given they’re on her front porch- to regroup, recover, and inform the poor Soratami of what all happened. Luna inspects the ring she found in her hand, the note telling “Those who fought the Black Dragon, seek out the One Made Five”, but decides they’ll handle that later. As well, much to Tamiyo’s horror and the concern of our heroes, the Iron Scroll casings are now each marked with a symbol that they swear was not there before- an upside down pyramid with a ruby in the center.
But those mysterious will have to wait. Instead, our heroes have made a decision… Rodna is too important to them to leave in a lurch like this. Next stop, Innistrad.
SET 3: LIGHT OVER INNISTRAD
Innistrad is an awful place at the best of times- always cold, often dark, the wilderness full of all manner of creature with a desire to kill you. And that was before the Trevails, when the ancient eldritch creature known as Emrakul came to the plane, corruption in her wake… though a different set of heroes solved that problem well before our heroes ever met. But it is in that aftermath of a world that Rodna, Luna, Wist, and Kaneis find themselves, on the hunt for information about Rodna’s mark, and how to cure it.
They march down the road to Ulm, the town nearest their arrival. A simple town, with more than a few problems, and our heroes feel the need to do as heroes do and help out. There’s a murderer on the prowl, the town is down to the last dregs of humanity who wish to survive here, and it is only through helping solve this case that Ulm will be saved.
The investigation begins, the party splitting up to cover more ground. Kaneis bonds with a small child. Wist examines the four victims. Rodna infiltrates secret areas of the local parish. Luna makes friends. Far too much happens in far too much detail to properly set up in a recap in any reasonable length of time which is wild because look at how big this document is already dear lord.
Fact is, our heroes discover some of the many secrets of Ulm, and end up finding the murderer- a cultist and his son, who they swiftly dispatch after exploring his strange, haunted hideout. Within, they discover something far more important; a portrait of Rodna, from before she was turned into a vampire. Turns out, the cult has ties to her origin… and someone in town has seen a woman who has the same fiery red hair as she does.
Journeying through the woods to find said person, the planeswalkers encounter a tribe of strange were-panthers- previously encountered during the investigations. They are led to meet the leader of their tribe, to negotiate a peace with Ulm. Said leader is a tall panther-man with a deep, strong voice and a penchant for speaking in metaphor- Kaneis matches wits with their own poetry, Wist strikes to the heart of the issues, Luna is less than thrilled, and Rodna is wary. The man, calling himself the Sage, leaves them with cryptic comments and a singular warning; the shadow of a Planeswalker leaves a long shadow. He does offer to make peace with Ulm as Wist requests, and our heroes leave to continue their search.
It does not take very long; in a clearing of the woods, far enough from civilization to be reasonably called idyllic, they find a simple log cabin. A woman with fiery red hair, working her day. It is Rodna’s mother, and the reunion is terrifically sad. Not least of which because… reunions often mean departures. Rodna is oh so very tired, and this is the first sign of something stable and comforting in a long time. She opts to stay, for now, to learn of her history and why she became what she is- the attempt at revitalizing a dying house of vampire nobility, mutating for reasons still unclear save for being marked as some grand Matriarch of import.
Rodna would rather not have to deal with that, so she rests, and our heroes leave with heavy hearts. They know they may see her again, but for now it is goodbye. Their next task; learn the truth of that mysterious symbol. And so they leave for Dominaria, to investigate the mighty libraries of Tolaria…
SET 4: THE PAGES OF TOLARIA
Wist, Luna, and Kaneis find themselves on the plane of Dominaria. Not the first time for any of them, though Tolaria’s coastal locale is a new one. School is currently out for the upcoming autumn season, and the library should be mostly empty. But other mysterious faces roam those storied halls…
Splitting up to cover more ground, Luna heads off and encounters two such faces- Myfanwy, a Faerie wizard from Eldraine with many a secret of her own, and Linessa, a local Human wizard. Seeking the adventure most likely to be found within this school, she joins the two of them in their quest to access the so-called Forbidden Texts. Myfanwy thinks all knowledge should be free, Linessa has a thesis to write, and Luna sees this for the adventure it truly is.
Wist and Kaneis meanwhile scour the shelves for books pertaining to the strange mark, and find a mysterious face of their own; Linessa, a human wizard local to the plane. The mystery of these same-named folks obscured for the time being, they assist her in hunting down tomes, eventually finding a handful of promising leads; a book on demons and a diary of an extremely ordinary, dull man.
The diary is so boring that Kaneis nearly falls asleep reading it… only to pierce the veil of this illusion and receive a strange poem of a riddle. Before they can bring it up, disaster strikes as Wist pries open the demon book with a blast of magical ice, unsealing one of the demons from within; a demon from her own home plane. They fight it tooth and claw and tail, but only thanks to the appearance of Myfanwy (who has completed the exam and gone exploring) that they manage to survive the beast.
Myfanwy then leaves again as our heroes recover, reuniting with Luna and the Linessa she met to reach the Forbidden Texts room, guarded by a delightful talking door. Gaining access, they pore over the books inside to find something, anything, that may give them the answers they seek. Myfanwy finds a book on the stars of multiple planes, Luna finds an old scroll on the history of Kamigawa, specifically regarding the Dragon Stars, and Linessa… finds what she is looking for, before vanishing in a gust of wind.
The Linessa with Wist and Kaneis vanishes as well, having satisfied her curiosity with the two planeswalkers, just in time for Luna and newcomer Myfanwy to return. They reconvene, and if you’re reading this right now that means you’ve caught up! If you’ve got any questions please ask me! I'd love to ramble about this (but no spoilers some of my players follow me)
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