Dungeons and Dragons

Magnus came charging into the living room from his most recent trip to the Library. He had a large hardcover with him, but it didn't look like an actual reading book. Stopping in front of the Emperor, Magnus presented the book with a wide grin.
"Look what I found, Father!" Magnus said. "It's called 'Dungeons and Dragons'. It seems to be a game system where people make characters and act out stories."
"Yes," the Emperor said, taking the tome from Magnus.
"Can we play it?" Magnus asked.
"We could play Pathfinder instead," the Emperor said. He had lost all track of the official Dungeons and Dragons set up around 30th edition, they were on the 128th edition now. Unless they had slipped a new one out without him knowing.
"Is that like Dungeons and Dragons?" Magnus asked.
"Yes," the Emperor said. "It was just made by different set of people than Dungeons and Dragons."
"Is it easier?" the Lion asked, the other Primarchs had gathered around to learn what Magnus had found.
"Not necessarily," the Emperor said. "Pathfinder has remained much more consistent, so that makes it easier to keep up with."
"That makes sense," Mortarion said.
"Would we be one big group?" Roboute asked.
"That would be a bad idea," the Emperor said. "I'll talk to Malcador and Valdor about assisting me in running stories for you."
"That should be interesting," Magnus said excitedly.
"How do we make characters?" Alpharius asked.
"For the most part you come up with them yourselves," the Emperor said. "There are a variety of classes, races, and specialties for you to choose from. There is also an alignment system to show your characters morals."
"We could create characters based on ourselves," Horus suggested. "At least at first, that should keep things fairly simple."
"That's not a bad idea," the Emperor said. "It will help familiarize yourselves with the system before going into more complex characters."
The Emperor pulled up information about the different races and classes for the Primarchs to look at first. He said that they should work on those two things before they got into anything more complex.
"There's a race called 'gillmen'," Sanguinius said to Roboute.
"Your character could be called Robert the Gillman," Lorgar added. This earned him a scowl from Roboute. There were others who giggled.
"I'm going to be a tengu," Corvus said after a moment.
"What are they?" Vulkan asked.
"Flightless bird people," Corvus said. "They seem to be sneaky as well."
"I'm going to be a Oread," Vulkan said. "They're a rock like people."
"That's awesome," Corvus said. "There's cat-people for you, Lion."
"Can I look like a lion?" the Lion asked as he pulled up the information on cat people.
"I'll be an Ifrit," Magnus said.
"Not surprised," Leman said. He was looking for something wolf-like. He currently wasn't having any luck.
"There's angelic people," Horus said, pointing it out to Sanguinius. "They even get wings at tenth level."
"That's awesome," Sanguinius said.
"I want to be a barbarian," Angron said. He had gravitated towards classes, and wasn't so worried about race.
"I want to be a barbarian though," Leman said.
"You could be a druid, Leman," the Emperor suggested, working to diffuse the argument before it got too intense.
"That sounds like magic though," Leman complained.
"They do use magic," the Emperor allowed. "However, it is the magic of nature. You can also have animal companions and have the ability to turn into a specific animal."
"Like a wolf?" Leman asked.
"Yes," the Emperor said.
"I'll be a druid then," Leman said. He paused, thinking a moment. "Can I have two wolf companions?"
"I believe there's something set up for that," the Emperor said.
"And that means that I can be the barbarian," Angron said.
"I'll be a paladin," Sanguinius said.
"You could be a swashbuckler, Fulgrim," Ferrus suggested.
"That sounds like a pirate though," Fulgrim said.
"But it's very you," Ferrus said. "Look at that picture, it's you to the letter."
"His hair is wrong," Fulgrim said. "But you are right about it being the class for me. Hopefully elves can be swashbucklers."
"I don't see why they couldn't be," Ferrus said.
"I can be a sorcerer," Magnus said as he turned to classes. The Emperor inwardly cringed as that announcement, but reminded himself that it was a valid option.
"I'll fight with a rapier," Magnus continued, oblivious to the Emperor's discomfort with his class choice.
Vulkan determined to be a blood brawler, a form of barbarian, then go for a prestige class called dragon disciple. Corvus went for a rogue unchained possibly going into a class called shadow dancer for the increase in stealth. Konrad was going for a class called slayer.
"I can use a whip and a claw," Corvus said, having chosen his class he moved on to weapons.
"There's a hammer called the earth breaker," Vulkan said, looking excited.
"This is going to be fun," Roboute said. He was planning on being a strategist, who granted party bonuses when the group worked as a team.
"Can I be a cleric that believes in a god based on you?" Lorgar asked.
"No," the Emperor said. "We will be using the standard gods for the game. No creating any."
"I could be an atheistic cleric," Lorgar suggested.
"You would have to stay an atheistic cleric," the Emperor said.
"I can be that, if I don't find a standard god that is close to you," Lorgar said.
"Very well," the Emperor said. He knew that he couldn't get Lorgar to not find some way to worship him, if the option was there. It went against the way that he wanted the Imperium to be run.
"I'm going to be a ranger," the Lion said.
"That's about as surprising as Magnus being a sorcerer," Leman said.
"How many weapons are you taking?" Perturabo asked Rogal.
"As many as I can carry," Rogal said. "I want to be prepared for anything."
"That's getting a bit crazy," Perturabo said. Rogal grunted, but kept all the weapons that he had listed on his character sheet.  "Do you have a dorn-dergar?"
"No," Rogal said after checking his sheet. He quickly chose a weapon to replace with the dorn-dergar and made the swap. "Thanks."
"No problem," Perturabo said with a bit of a chuckle.
Others chose weapons as close to their own chosen weapons as they could. Angron was a bit annoyed that the tech-level of the game prevented him from having proper chain-axes. He was going to duel-wield a pair of normal axes.
"It's close enough," Angron said.
"Where are we going to get all the dice that we need?" Roboute asked after a moment.
"I should have enough dice," the Emperor said. "They're probably buried pretty deep in the storage areas though."
"Why would you have a lot of dice for this?" Horus asked. He was going to be a bard, which amused the Emperor to no end.
"I used to run campaigns in this system," the Emperor answered. "Malcador used to play along with several others."
"What about Valdor?" Fulgrim asked.
"No, he hasn't actually played," the Emperor said. "I will likely have to teach him some things before he can run any quests."
"Well, that should be interesting," Konrad said.
"Indeed," the Emperor said. "Don't use it against him, Konrad."
"Alright," Konrad said with a fake pout, followed by a smile.
"I should find Malcador and Valdor to talk to them about this," the Emperor said as he stood. "You can continue working on your characters."
"Alright, Father," the Primarchs chorused. The Emperor then headed out of the residence.

*****************************

The Emperor found Malcador and Valdor together. They were having a conversation, and the Emperor chose to not listen in. He approached them, causing the conversation to come to an abrupt halt.

"My lord," Malcador said by way of greeting. 

"My king," Valdor said with a bow.

"Magnus discovered Dungeons and Dragons," the Emperor said. Malcador chuckled at the announcement, while Valdor looked confused.

"He wants to play doesn't he," Malcador said. 

"Yes," the Emperor said. "The other Primarchs have also gotten on board with the idea."

"That's a large party," Malcador said.

"I was thinking to split them into three parties of six," the Emperor said. "Each of us would run a group."

"I do not even know what we are talking about," Valdor said. "I am unsure if I can lead a group in this."

"It's called a role playing game," the Emperor said. "They are currently making characters based on themselves."

"In the D and D system?" Malcador asked.

"No," the Emperor said. "Pathfinder."

"Good," Malcador said. "That's the only system I have experience with."

"Pathfinder is different?" Valdor asked.

"Yes, but not terribly so," the Emperor said. "Pathfinder is essentially the same system as Dungeons and Dragons, but made by a different company. It has remained a more stable system than Dungeons and Dragons."

"I believe I understand," Valdor said.

"The game requires a game master, often called a dungeon master," the Emperor continued with his explanation. "They come up with scenarios for the players to interact with as their characters. This often takes the shape of quests and campaigns. Campaigns are longer, connected quest lines."

"Like in video games?" Valdor asked.

"Yes," the Emperor said. "There are role playing video games that are like this."

"Interesting," Valdor said.

"I'm just annoyed that you won't be a player," Malcador said. The Emperor chuckled.

"Why is that?" Valdor asked.

"My experience with Pathfinder is as a player," Malcador said. "The Emperor was the game master, and he kept killing my carefully made characters in their first sessions."

"I never did it on purpose," the Emperor said with a smile.

"Like I believe that," Malcador said. "You just don't want to admit that you were targeting me."

"Why would I target you?" the Emperor asked. The expression on his face was very similar to Konrad's innocent expression. 

"Because you were testing me," Malcador said. "You wanted to see how far you could push me before I threw something at you."

"You never did," the Emperor said.

"Not truly," Malcador said. "I may have imagined it a few times though."

"You wound me," the Emperor said with a chuckle.

"Not very hard," Malcador quipped.

"Clearly," Valdor said.

"This also means we need to take a trip to the storage areas," the Emperor said.

"What for?" Valdor asked.

"Dice," the Emperor said. "Much of the game is spent rolling dice to see how things work out."

"I see," Valdor said. 

"We will also need them so the Primarchs can finish their characters," Malcador said. "They are needed for various stats on the sheet."

The three headed down into the deeps of the Palace, looking for the Emperor's very large collection of dice.

**********************************

"How are we supposed to represent our characters in the game?" Fulgrim asked after a bit.

"There's references in here to small models that can be used to represent characters," Magnus said after looking in the Pathfinder information a bit.

"That's a great idea," Fulgrim said. "We can paint the models to look like us."

"Perturabo, Ferrus, and I can make the models themselves," Vulkan suggested.

"I like this idea," Ferrus said. He was looking forward to making the model for Fulgrim's character and giving it insanely long ears that looked silly.

"I as well," Perturabo said. He wanted to make Rogal's character and then he could make it look silly as well. 

"Can whoever makes my model make it so that I can add wings when we get to level ten?" Sanguinius asked. They were making their characters at fourth level at the suggestion of the Emperor. He had said that it made the game easier to balance, and everyone had agreed. 

"That should be doable," Vulkan said. He already had ideas for that. It would be possibly more difficult to just keep track of the wings until they were needed. However, if Sanguinius held on to them, they would be relatively safe from the black hole effect that happened in some of the Primarch's rooms. 

"I can hold on to the wings until we need them," Sanguinius said, almost as if he had read Vulkan's thoughts. Vulkan didn't think that Sanguinius had actually done that however. It was far more likely that Sanguinius had seen it as a possibility.

"That's probably for the best," Vulkan said. Perturabo, Ferrus and Vulkan headed out to make the models that they would need. 

They returned most of an hour later with the completed models. They were a plain gray color that the plastek had become when they created it. They doled out the models, Fulgrim made a sound that was part dismay and part laughter when he got his model from Ferrus. 

"What are these things on his head?" Fulgrim asked, knowing the answer.

"His ears," Ferrus said. "I thought that was obvious."

"But why do they look like that?" Fulgrim insisted.

"Mostly because it's funny," Ferrus said. "He is an elf after all. They have long pointed ears. I went for an exaggeration of the Aeldari ears."

"You succeeded then," Fulgrim said with a smile. He still liked the model, and actually found the ears funny now that he had had a chance to look at them longer. 

Leman actually had ended up with four models, as he needed one for each of his two wolf companions, one for his dwarf/skin changer form, and one for his specific wolf form. He looked very pleased with all of them. The Lion's model had a spectacular mane that he found quite pleasing. Corvus was also quite pleased with his tengu model, which had its whip out and in mid-snap. 

They pulled out painting supplies, also grabbing a tarp so that they wouldn't get paint on the floor. Brushes, water cups, pallets, and paints appeared from various sources in the residence. They all set up and began to paint. 

"I'm done," Angron announced well before anyone else. His model was just a mess of red paint over a black primer. 

"You should at least put a highlight on that," Fulgrim insisted. "And possibly some silver on the axe blades, otherwise they'll look un-cared for."

"Alright," Angron sighed, and began to add the highlight and silver aspects that Fulgrim had suggested. 

Fulgrim himself was working very carefully on his elf model. He was determined to get every detail, and Ferrus had given him a lot of details to paint. Jaghatai was painting quickly, but still trying to make it look as nice as possible. Several of the others were choosing simple paint schemes. 

******************************

The Emperor returned with a servitor in tow. It carried the large container that held the Emperor's dice collection. The Primarchs were quite pleased about this as it meant they could properly complete their character sheets. Those that were finished painting their models put their painting supplies away and looked through the dice. 

"I like the colors on this set of dice," Magnus said, holding up a die that was a swirled mix of blue and gold. 

"They are quite pretty," the Emperor agreed. 

"Can I take the skill craft alcohol?" Leman asked.

"No," the Emperor said reflexively.

"But, Allfather," Leman said, looking up at the Emperor with what the Lion called "puppy eyes". "It would only be in game, I won't actually get drunk while we play."

"Alright," the Emperor said. It was hard to resist Leman's puppy eyes.

"Does craft firearm mean that I can make a cannon?" Perturabo asked. Inspired by Rogal, he was trying to get as many guns as he could. His biggest goal was to get up to having his own personal cannon. 

"Yes," the Emperor said with a chuckle.

"Did Uncle Malcador and Valdor agree to help?" Magnus asked.

"Yes," the Emperor said again. "However, I will have to teach Valdor about the system in general, and both about how to make and run a quest."

"So we can't play right away," Jaghatai said. 

"True," the Emperor said. "However, you'll get a better experience for having waited."

"I guess," Jaghatai said.  

******************************

It was two weeks before they had their first session. Valdor had picked up the system quickly. Malcador's training in being a game master was very focused around not aiming for total party kills. 

"You should let them survive their encounters," the Emperor insisted. "They'll appreciate it."

"You're probably right," Malcador said. "I'll get back at you someday."

"What was that line about us not being Klingons?" the Emperor asked.

"Maybe we are, just a little bit," Malcador said.

The Primarchs were quite excited for their first sessions. It was a bit hard to keep them from setting everything up very early. They would be using the chairs from the dining room so they had to wait until after dinner for some of their set up. 

Finally, they had eaten dinner, and it was time to finish set up. They quickly got their chairs out, and worked together to bring the Emperor's chair to one table, followed by Valdor's chair to another, and lastly Malcador's to the third. The Emperor went around and placed dice near each of the chairs for the DMs. He also placed screens at those spots so that the Primarchs couldn't peek and see what they were going to encounter. Each screen was also inlaid with anti-psionics so that Magnus especially couldn't get around them.

Before they separated into their initial parties, the Primarchs introduced their characters to Malcador and Valdor. This also meant showing off the models for each of them. 

"A lot of you are dwarves," Valdor said.

"Dwarves have good options," Perturabo said.

"I'm actually not a dwarf," Leman said. "I just look like one. Technically I'm a skin changer. It means that I work differently from a dwarf while having some of their better traits."

"I think I understand," Valdor said.

"I like the clockwork arms, Ferrus," Malcador said, indicating the model.

"Thanks," Ferrus said with a smile. 

"What are the quests?" Jaghatai asked. He was very excited to get to start.

"My quest is to find an important person and bring them back to the starting town," Valdor said.

"Mine is to find a mysterious object and bring it to a person for identification," Malcador said.

"My party will be investigating a mine that has suddenly stopped delivering supplies," the Emperor said. 

After he said that the three adults sat at different tables. The Primarchs were allowed to pick their own parties. The quests were part of a campaign, and therefore were all in the same world. This meant that the parties could pass each other, influence quests, come together for larger fights, and shuffle if things got crazy. They chose their quests in number order.

The Lion went to Valdor's table, followed by Fulgrim. Perturabo went to Malcador's table. Jaghatai and Leman went to the Emperor's table. Rogal surprised a few of the others by choosing Malcador's quest, despite Perturabo being in the party. Konrad chose Valdor's quest. Sanguinius chose the Emperor's quest. Ferrus considered a moment before joining Fulgrim.

Angron chose Malcador's quest. Roboute went to the Emperor's table. Mortarion sat next to Konrad at Valdor's table. Magnus looked a bit torn, he wanted to be with Jaghatai, but not with Leman. He ended up going with being with Jaghatai instead of going to Malcador's quest. Horus quickly took the last spot at the Emperor's table. Vulkan and Corvus filled out the last two spots for Malcador's party. This left Alpharius with Valdor. 

"Be careful around me, fire man," Leman said in a pitched voice to indicate he was speaking as his character. He was speaking to Magnus's character.

"What for?" Magnus asked as his character.

"My shield's wood," Leman said. "Don't want it to catch fire from you."

"I guess that makes sense," Magnus said. "You're wearing poor armor."

"I'm a druid," Leman said. "I don't use metals, messes with my connection to nature."

"Oh," Magnus said. As himself he was aware of the ban on druids using metals as a game rule, but his character hadn't known that before. 

The sessions progressed. Everyone was feeling themselves out as their characters. Fulgrim was having his character be very snobbish towards Ferrus's character due to the clockwork arms.

"There is a small welcoming display on a shelf," Malcador was saying. Describing the room in an inn that his party was staying in. "Part of that is a bar of novelty soap, shaped like a bear."

"I take the soap from the display and put it in my pack," Corvus said. 

"Roll to see if anyone notices," Malcador said. No one did.

"Why are you taking the soap?" Angron asked out of character. 

"The Raven Guard like to take items from the battles that they have fought in. They keep it in their central hall on the Ravenspire," Corvus explained. "I figured since the main trait of a rogue is to steal things, I could take the novelty soap, as a similar thing."

"I like it," Vulkan said with a chuckle. 

The three adults shared a quick glance. Malcador resolved to include novelty soaps in all the inn rooms that Corvus stayed in. The Emperor and Valdor nodded, silently agreeing that they would slip soaps in for Corvus if he ended up in their parties. 

They finally got the actual encounters that were part of what was prepared for the sessions. Ferrus ended up grabbing a tree branch as in improvised weapon. 

"I swing the tree branch at the closest enemy," Ferrus announced. He then looked to Valdor to see what he should roll.

"Hold on," Valdor said. He didn't know how to run the improvised weapon. He looked to the Emperor, but found him fully engaged in his game. Turning to Malcador, he had the same luck. He sighed, and dug out the rule book for the system. He held it in one hand and flipped the pages with his other hand, going as quick as he could to minimize the disruption to the game. 

"Found it," he said after a moment. He then told Ferrus what to roll.

"NAT 20!" Ferrus shouted as he rolled.

"You swing the branch around so hard that you cave his skull in," Valdor said.

"Brutality," Fulgrim said. 

"Yeah," Ferrus said. They had both spoken out of character. "Did the branch survive?"

"No," Valdor said.

"Did we level up, Father?" Leman asked. He was looking forward to getting to level six when he could get ironwood armor. It was wooden armor that was fireproof, and functioned like steel armor for most purposes. However, he was allowed to wear it because it wasn't actually steel. 

"Not this time, Leman," the Emperor said. "You did just start."

"True," Leman said. 

"I'm excited to level up as well," Sanguinius said. He wanted to get to level ten so he could get his wings. 

"We'll get there," Horus assured his brothers. 

"Indeed," the Emperor said. They were wrapping up the sessions, with Valdor's group being the last to finish. 

"That's the end for today," Valdor said closing his screen with a neat snap.

"Alright," the Lion said. He had had a lot of fun with the session and was eager for the next one.

"We'll pick this up again next week," the Emperor said and encouraged the Primarchs to begin putting the chairs and tables away.

******************************

Pathfinder became a weekly event. It happened on the night after movie night. It also replaced the monthly game night while they worked through the campaign. They learned that the person that Valdor's group had saved was needed to use the magical orb that Malcador's party had found. This was all to fight the large villain that the Emperor's group had learned of during their investigation of the mine. 

"You see a party of six people going the other way," Malcador said

"I wave at them," Lorgar said. He was the face of Malcador's party, with Vulkan filling the role when Lorgar wasn't with the group. That had been somewhat accidental, as Corvus had a higher charisma score. There was a lot of tension in the party however, as Perturabo and Rogal were both dwarves who didn't like Corvus. Vulkan found himself having to protect Corvus because of this. There was also the fact that Corvus's version of "talking" Vulkan into coming at all was by stealing something of his. Corvus had said that he wouldn't return it until the quest was done. 

"I wave back," Fulgrim said. It was Valdor's party they were meeting on the road. No one was surprised that Fulgrim was that party's face. 

"We are seeking a man," Lorgar said. He provided a description of the man that Valdor's party had just dealt with.

"You're on the right road then," Fulgrim said. "However, you might want to encourage the moving rock to pick up the pace. He was saying that he couldn't stay for very long. There are people after him."

"We will catch up with him," Lorgar said. Corvus scowled at Fulgrim. He and Vulkan tried to work together to stave off the worst of the jibes at their characters. Usually it was the other way around though. Tengus were rather unpopular in Pathfinder. Oreads were better tolerated. 

"Be quick, as I said," Fulgrim answered. Valdor's party continued on, without saying what they were doing.

"Wonder where they're going in such a hurry," Perturabo said.

"It doesn't matter," Lorgar said. "We're close, we should keep going." They were able to catch up with the man before he left the town that Valdor's party had left him in. 

***************************

Meetings with the other parties became more frequent as they began to learn of the greater story that was happening in the world. Finally they came together in the same town. Corvus had gathered five more novelty soaps from his travels. 

"What do you think is going on?" Sanguinius asked. 

"I don't know," Horus answered. "There's two other parties here. Maybe they know something."

"I can ask one and you can ask the other," Sanguinius suggested. They were essentially the co-faces of the Emperor's party as they had nearly equal charisma scores. 

"Hello," Horus said, turning to the Lion. "Any idea what's going on here?"

"There's some big thing happening," the Lion said. "I don't have much information myself. We started by having to find a man with special magical powers. We've been doing things for him ever since."

"What kind of things?" Horus asked. 

"Things he wants kept secret," the Lion replied. 

"Interesting," Horus said. "So you can't tell anyone?"

"No," the Lion said. "It's not just you, he has many enemies it seems. He's also a bit paranoid."

"Why do you work with him then?" Horus pressed.

"Because he pays us well," the Lion said simply. "Also he thinks this big thing is tied to the potential end of the world. I like this world, so I'll do my part."

"He might be right on the potential end of the world," Horus said. "My party's encountered several pockets of a cult trying to bring an apocalypse god into the world."

"That sounds like the people that my employer's always worried about," the Lion said. "He wasn't sure what was going on with them, so I'll go tell him what you told me."

"No problem," Horus said.

"Hey, you two," Sanguinius said. He felt a bit bad about being so rude to both Vulkan and Corvus, but that was how his character behaved, especially towards things like tengus. "What brings you here?"

"The rogue brought me here," Vulkan answered. "He has my most prized possession."

"You'll get it back," Corvus said. "It'll even smell better than when I stole it."

"Are you keeping it in the same pouch as the soaps?" Vulkan asked with mock dismay.

"Maybe," Corvus said with a chuckle and a Konrad worthy smile.

"So what brought you here, tengu?" Sanguinius asked.

"Bad tidings," Corvus answered. "We started by finding a magical orb, then we had to bring it to the one guy in the realm that can use it." 

"What have you been doing since then?" Sanguinius asked.

"Learning about the apocalypse god, mostly," Vulkan answered. "We've been answering calls for aid from various towns leading up to this one."

"Interesting," Sanguinius said.

"What brings you here, shiny knight?" Corvus asked.

"The apocalypse god," Sanguinius answered.

"So we're on the same side," Vulkan said to Sanguinius. To Corvus he added, "Don't steal any of this one's armor, he's a buddy. He also probably doesn't have any novelty soaps for you."

"Novelty soaps?" Sanguinius asked.

"It's his tengu tick," Vulkan explained. "He takes them from the inns that we get to stay in. It doesn't make much sense to us either."

"They're pretty," Corvus said. "It makes perfect sense."

"If you say so," Vulkan said. 

"What do you know of the apocalypse god?" Vulkan asked Sanguinius.

"Not much," Sanguinius admitted. "We know that there is a large cult spread throughout the realm that is trying to bring him into this world."

"We know that too," Vulkan said. "It seems to require a lot of sacrifices, these cults keep taking the children from the towns that we've been going through."

"Interesting," Sanguinius said. "I'll have to consult with the rest of my party to see if that helps at all."

"Have you guys spoken to the party with the elves?" Vulkan asked.

"One of my friends is speaking to that party," Sanguinius said. "What kind of elves?"

"Strangely enough a normal elf and a drow," Corvus said. "Must have as much tension problems as our party. There are two dwarves in our party."

"Wait," Horus said suddenly, out of character. "Are we just mercenaries?"

"I once heard the term 'murder-hobo' tied to the members of an adventuring party," the Emperor said.

"'Murder-hobo'?" Valdor asked. 

"Homeless people who kill people," the Emperor explained. Valdor raised an eyebrow, and Malcador chuckled. The Primarchs also chuckled after a moment. 

They returned to the sessions at hand, and soon got the main encounter with the apocalypse god. They nearly all died, and the session ended with them being swallowed by a great flash of light. 

"That's where we're ending?" Horus asked, startled.

"This is only the halfway point of the campaign," the Emperor said. "We'll start the other half next week."

"Alright," Horus said.

***********************************

The next week came and the Primarchs weren't allowed to set up. The three GMs had split up the parties, and shuffled people around. Valdor's party now consisted of the Lion, Leman, Sangunius, Angron, Corvus, and Apharius. Malcador's party was Fulgrim, Rogal, Roboute, Magnus, Horus, and Lorgar. The Emperor had Perturabo, Jaghatai, Konrad, Ferrus, Mortarion, and Vulkan. They knew it would be funny to split Vulkan and Corvus due their character interactions.

"You wake up to find that you are with an entirely new party," the Emperor said. "Some of you recognize members from your previous parties."

"At least I'm no longer with the elf," Konrad said. 

"Where's the tengu?" Vulkan asked. "I need to find the tengu."

"He your slave or something?" Konrad asked.

"No," Vulkan said. "He has something of mine. I want to make sure he doesn't do something like sell it."

"I need a drink," Leman said. He then made a roll for drunkenness. 

"At least there's only one dwarf in my party this time," Corvus said.

"I'm only sort of a dwarf," Leman said, slightly slurring his words.

"Better a dwarf than a drow," Fulgrim said.

"Better an elf than a tengu," Rogal replied.

They settled into the sessions. It quickly became apparent that there was interesting contrasts in the Emperor's party especially. This was especially apparent with Jaghatai and Vulkan.

"Hurry up, rock man," Jaghatai said.

"I'm descended from an earth elemental," Vulkan griped. "I'm not made for speed."

"You can try, right?" Jaghatai said.

"I'll try," Vulkan said.

**************************************

They continued their campaign. Corvus stole soaps from the inns, and refused to sell the thing that he took from Vulkan. It was actually quite valuable, but Corvus swore that he wouldn't. 

"I promised him that he would get it back," Corvus explained one time. 

One time, Leman got very drunk on his home brewed alcohol. Sanguinius determined that Leman needed to stop.

"No," Leman slurred.

"I try to take the alcohol from him," Corvus said. He rolled low however, and Leman managed to retain the alcohol.

"I take a swipe at Corvus with my claw attack," Leman said.

"I swipe back," Corvus said. This began a small fight between the two. Valdor sat at the head of the table, and looked at a loss for how to resolve the situation. Malcador glanced over and chuckled. The Lion finally broke up the fight, and Corvus got the alcohol from Leman while that was happening. 

***************************************

It turned out that the apocalypse god came in two pieces. They had only fought one of them before. That meant that they still had a chance to defeat it. If they could prevent the other half from manifesting they could prevent the end of the world. There was also a chance if the other half manifested, because the two halves needed to merge in order to become unstoppable. 

As they were discovering this, they began to encounter the other groups again. The first two groups to see each other were the Emperor's and Valdor's. It was an interesting encounter for Vulkan and Corvus.

"You see a group ahead of you on the road," the Emperor said. "Vulkan, you recognize one of the members of this group is a tengu."

"TENGU!!!!!!!!" Vulkan shouted.

"Oread?" Corvus called back.

"Do you still have my heirloom?" Vulkan asked.

"Of course, I do!" Corvus said. "It smells even better now."

"You have more soaps don't you," Vulkan said.

"Of course," Corvus said. "I'm up to nine now."

"That's impressive," Perturabo muttered. 

"You better keep it safe," Vulkan said to Corvus.

"I will," Corvus said. "I promised you that you would get it back, and so you will." It was true, Corvus had actually profusely refused to sell Vulkan's heirloom two sessions prior when they needed money. He was very much of the idea that he could be an honest thief. 

****************************************

Once again they found themselves all gathered in the same city. This was where the second part of the apocalypse god was to arise. They were at a much higher level than their encounter with the first part. 

"Hopefully we can beat it," Fulgrim said. He had had his character meet back up with Ferrus when they spotted each other.

"Hopefully," Ferrus agreed. He was quite happy to have Fulgrim's character back.

"I guess I should probably give you your heirloom back," Corvus said to Vulkan. 

"I thought you were going to give it back when we got home," Vulkan said.

"I was, but just in case we all die here," Corvus said. "You should have it back. You've made it this far."

"Fair point," Vulkan said. "Dying here would be the end of the adventure."

"Not the end I had in mind when I was trying to talk you into this," Corvus said.

"If it helps, I had fun with it," Vulkan said. "I'm actually happy you talked me into this."

"That's not what you would have said before we were split," Corvus said. "Did you have more fun without me?"

"Sort of," Vulkan said. "I did find myself missing you though."

"I missed you too," Corvus said. "Though it was nice to not be around so many dwarves."

"That's good," Vulkan said. "I agree that it was nice to be without the tension from two dwarves and a tengu."

"I see you made it, drow," Fulgrim said as Konrad's character went by.

"You survived without me," Konrad said.

"I did so much better without you," Fulgrim said.

"I doubt that," Konrad said.

"Whatever," Fulgrim said.

"I made a friend in my new party," Corvus told Vulkan. "He's a cat folk."

"He didn't try to eat you?" Vulkan asked.

"Never," the Lion said as he joined them.

"You are definitely a cat folk," Vulkan said. "I didn't hear you coming at all."

"I'm nowhere near as sneaky as the tengu," the Lion said. 

They played the final battle between the parties and the apocalypse god in two sessions. The three adults took turns controlling the various large monsters in the final dungeons. The Primarchs managed to disrupt the ritual that was being used to summon the second half of the apocalypse god. However, the ritual had been quite advanced when they stopped it.

"That doesn't look good," Magnus said.

"Agreed," Lorgar said. "I think it might be coming through anyway."

"Could it be that just a part of it comes through?" Horus asked.

"Maybe," Magnus said. "However, I don't know this ritual."

"So you don't know anything to stop this?" Fulgrim asked.

"No," Magnus said. "I have nothing."

"What if we collapsed the cave?" Rogal asked. 

"With what?" Alpharius asked.

"I have a cannon," Perturabo said. "And alchemical charges that should work with it."

"That might be enough," Horus said.

"Everyone roll a perception check," the Emperor said. Several of them rolled high, and found the scroll that he had hidden in the room so that they would have the required spell to close the portal. 

"I can use the scroll to close the portal," Magnus said after looking it over.

"How long?" Sanguinius asked. "I get a feeling that we don't have much time left."

"It shouldn't take me too long," Magnus said. "I do need to do some preparations first."

Magnus managed to close the portal, just as the other half of the apocalypse god was about to burst through. The shock wave from the closing of the portal teleported them back out of the cave where the ritual had taken place. 

"There is an aetheric wailing sound that can be heard," the Emperor said. "After a moment you realize that it is the sound of the other half of the apocalypse god losing it's hold in the physical world and returning to the divine plane."

"Does this mean that the campaign is over?" Angron asked. 

"Yes," the Emperor said. "We can come up with another campaign to play later."

"I liked this," Magnus said. Several of the others nodded their agreement.

"It is a lot of fun," the Emperor said.

"I would still have liked to get my revenge," Malcador said jokingly.

"What revenge?" Magnus asked.

"Your father ran a campaign back when we first met," Malcador said. "He liked to kill my characters."

"He thinks I was targeting him," the Emperor said.

"You were," Malcador said.

"What about creating two really high level characters and dueling them?" Magnus suggested.

"I like that idea," Malcador said. "We could do that next week, as a finale to Pathfinder for now."

"Agreed," the Emperor said with a chuckle. "Level 20 characters, I should think."

"Indeed," Malcador said. "The most powerful combinations we can make."

"That should be an interesting showdown," Leman said. Angron nodded eagerly in agreement. 

**********************************

The promised showdown came the next week. It was a very different set up for the event as the normal campaign sessions. They only needed the one table, the Emperor's chair, and Malcador's chair. They had also sent most of the dice back down to the storage silos beneath the Palace. 

"Are you ready?" the Emperor asked Malcador as they sat down.

"Are you?" Malcador asked in reply.

"Naturally," the Emperor said with a hint of amusement.

"Then let's begin," Malcador said. He had brought a wizard, which didn't really surprise anyone. The Emperor was a paladin. The Emperor's first few attack rolls were very high, causing Malcador to glower at him.

"You're cheating," Malcador declared.

"You are fully capable of telling if I'm cheating," the Emperor replied. This earned him an angry grunt from Malcador.

The duel went for quite some time, as the two characters were clearly quite broken for the game system. Malcador was victorious in the end. It made him quite happy as he called out that he had his vengeance. The Primarchs were thoroughly amused by the entire situation.