Spilling Royal Blood
The fiftieth Birthday of the King of Nerinthar is not supposed to be a time of chaos, panic and bloodshed.
All across the wealthy, powerful and peaceful Kingdom, people gather to raise a glass in honor of their King, Olden III, who has continued the wise and peaceful policies of his father and grandfather. Trisdor, the capital, has become a center for the arts and letters, and even the arts of Wizardry, long shrouded in Nerinthar by suspicion, prejudice and the shadows, with only court wizards and the occasional wandering hedge wizard to match against the untrained, but more trusted magic of sorcerers and bards, has started to come out of the shadows, with completion of Olden's great Collegium Arcanum.
But in the palace itself, darkness reigns in the heart of Prince Jarrok, eldest son and heir to the King. Ambitious, power-hungry and jealous of his father's closer relationship with his second and third children, and possessed of a cruelty long kept hidden. The celebration of fifty years of life should be a time of celebration.
Instead, Jarrok and conspirators from across the realm and beyond launch a bloody assault, killing the King, Queen and even the King's youngest, his daughter Katrina. Aided by magic-users of dark allegiance and their fel minions, Jarrok is determined to reign supreme over Nerinthar, and march its armies to glorious victory over all its neighbors. He will give birth to a new empire, founded on war, conquest and dark magics.
There's just one small problem. The second child of King Olden escaped the bloody purge of the palace, and remains at large in the countryside, perhaps rousing rebels, or seeking aid from the nearby lands. Or perhaps simply running. But as long as such a threat remains, can Jarrok ever rule in security? Or will he stop at nothing to complete his heinous crime with one more murder?
Spilling Royal Blood is an campaign set in a world of my own design, with a group of 4-6 characters starting at level three. The characters represent the second child of King Olden and those friends, allies or retainers who managed to escape with their lives together, as they seek to survive, and maybe even more, in a world gone horridly, terrifyingly wrong.
