Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 11 Sep 2002 to 12 Sep 2002 (#2002-239) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 13/09/2002, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 8 messages totalling 426 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. The War Conceived - part I 2. need to know... 3. Where to host big maps???? (3) 4. 3e classes (3) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 16:02:27 +0300 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ville_V_L=E4hde?= Subject: The War Conceived - part I Hello, this is the first part of the final adventure in my "Specularum series", and also the last published adventure left to be translated. I hope you found them useful, at least as a source of ideas. (There's actually one more adventure left, "the Guild Wars", but it is in no way Mystara-related, and perhaps wouldn't fit there well. It describes a series of conflicts in a feudal state, when a local burgher starts the first manufacturing plant, challenging the established practices and the prestige of the crafters' guilds.) Ville ---------------------------------- Specularum series V "The War Conceived" by Ville Lähde This adventure was originally written in Finnish and published in the RPG zine Claymore, issue 2/95. It is the last part in the series of City-adventures, designed as a generic adventures with only bracketed refrences to Mystara, but the intended location is still Specularum in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. "The War Conceived" is like its predecessors, loosely linked to this context, and can easily be adopted to some other. The events of the adventure have been written quite loosely, so the DM must work a little to make is playable. The details of the NPCs haven't been included. The DM can draw them out to suit the levels of the PCs. THE OVERALL STORY "The War Conceived" is a loose framework for a longer story. It's main themes are drifting to war and instigation of war. The adventure describes intrigue between various power groups of Specularum, the intent of which is to instigate a war between Karameikos and some neighbouring country. If the DM likes, she/he can link this story with the adventure "the Might of Rock and the Heavens", which includes possibilities of diplomatic conflict between Karameikos and Ierendi. One noble family, the Thyatian house of Thrakius, has been gaining power and influence during the last few years. It has bought a large amount of weaponry, recruited mercenaries and made contacts with various other power groups. The leader of the house, Marius Thrakius, despises Stephan Karameikos and his "lenient" government, and sees it as his opportunity to seize power. Marius thinks that Stephan has given the Traladaran population far too much rights, and on the other hand loosened the reigns on the local borgeoise (the emerging city merchants and entrepeneurs, who are beginning to disrupt the old semi-feudal order - for some ideas on the Karameikan political system, look at earlier adventures). The nobles know however, that they can't pull a coup on their own, so their aim is to intentionally increase tension between Karameikos and Ierendi by machinated provocations, and to turn the popular opinion in favour of war. To achieve the latter the Thrakius house is trying to take advantage of a new religious group, the cult of Ruul the Rapist. A member of the house, Flavius Thrakius, has inflitrated the cult and has gotten close to its leader. The noble house is however not the only group which is seeking war. A few years ago the Traladaran movement for liberation broke into two factions. The other one is more politically and diplomatically oriented, and it is supported by some of the richer Traladaran houses, like the Torenescus. Their methods are restricted to founding neighbourhood watch militias, political speeches, lobbying etc. The other faction is comprised of a group of militants, who broke away after the pacification of the movement. They see that along the more public and legal action the original goal, liberation, has been forgotten. These militants are actively and violently opposing the Thyatians all over the country. The leader of the movement is convinced that a war against a neighbouring country could divert the attention of the Thyatians and open a window of opportunity for a full-fledged rebellion. The militants have some more influential supporters, especially lady Magda Marilenev. Thus the militants reel a certain attraction to the cult of Ruul the Rapist, at least as far as the immediate goals are concerned. The neighbouring state (Ierendi, is the DM doesn't decide otherwise) has of course an embassy in Specularum. The embassy has access to many trained employees and a lot of cash. In addition to that they have some covert contacts to the Foreign Quarter (Tegell's gang from earlier adventures?). Ierendi does not desire war, and the embassy people will do anything to stop it, after thay find out of the above mentioned plans. The ambassador of Ierendi has also some allies in the city, most important of those is a local club of some powerful bourgeoise (not a part of the official merchants' guild). The Club and the embassy have been angaged in some illegal and profitable trade for many years now, and a war would be devastating. But unknown to the Club, one member has been blackmailed to serve the house of Thrakius. Thus the Thrakius family will learn of the actions of the Club, and also might get to know how much the embassy people know. In the beginning of the adventure Stephan Karameikos is happily ignorant of this powder keg. The loyal noble houses like the Vorlois support him, but when the trouble starts, most of his powers are tied to keeping up public order, preparations for war, and controlling other power groups like the Veiled Society, Baron von Hendricks etc. ON THE POWER GROUPS The Cult of Ruul the Rapist This is a very young religion, and possibly it doesn't have any foundation in reality. At least it isn't founded on any established pantheon or theological tradition, so the existence of Ruul the Rapist is very questionable - read: up to the DM. The cult was founded by the former herald, scribe and loremaster Selver. While he was still working in his profession, he stumbled upon a scroll upon which an old prophesy was written. Interpreting and explaining the prophesy became an obsession for him, and very soon he began to neglect his previous duties as the personal herald of a Traladaran noble. He couldn't find a working interpretation, even though his position opened doors to the archives of the churches, the palace and even the Magicians' Guild. Finally he had to leave his job - officially he was sick - and one night he disappeared from his home. His remaining friends tried to find him for a few months, until reluctantly they declared him dead. In reality Selver had fled to the Nest, carrying some tomes of lore that he had stolen. The theft of the books was unnoticed, since very few people ever read them. In the Nest Selver's sanity began to crumble, but in his own mind he thought that he was approaching a solution. It may be that the interpretation was a figment of his imagination, or perhaps he was led by some sinister force. In any case one night he had a revelation: Ruul the Rapist, a sadistic patron of uncontrolled wars, the conceiver of street brawls, riots, fires and mass psychosis appeared for him. Ruul declared that he would adopt Selver as his son on Mystara and the instrument of his will in Karameikos. Whether this was a real thing or not, Selver now interpreted the prophesy. According to it Ruul would manifest himself in Specularum, filling the streets with blood and fire. The exact time could be interpreted from the poem - of course by Selver. Selver renamed himself the Strifespawner and began gathering a group of followers around him. He was a good orator, and his interpretation of the prophesy seemed plausible. He started writing strict commandments for the new religion. In the commandments Ruul is described as a misty man-like being, towering up to the clouds, smiling a cruel smile that reaches his ears. He has long blond hair and walks naked. No paintings or statues are made, as this is considered blasphemy. However, the imagery employed in the commandments is higly sexual to the borderlines of twisted perversion and beyond. Ruul is described descending on the cities of men, mounting them and ejaculating the seed of insane war and strife into them. His servants are supposed to prepare the ground for this dark intercourse. Their reward shall be a satisfaction beyond measure when the war breaks out. The commandments forbid all sexual relations, even self-satisfaction, from the cultists, as this is seen to denigrate Ruul's power and sanctity. An of course, the work of Ruul's Son (Selver) must be obeyed, even at the risk of death. As said before, the DM must decide whether Ruul is a real entity. The decision will not affect the actions of the cult, even though a few clerical spells could spice up the opposition the PCs meet. Then again, maybe some other celestial power is feeding the cult… But Selver's interpretation of the prophesy may be right. If the size of the cult reaches "a critical mass" and its actions are successfull, Ruul might manifest over the city. This would cause all underlying conflicts to burst into flame. The noise of fighting and the screams of death would be accompanied by his orgastic insane laughter. In the beginning of the adventure the cult has maybe twenty members. Most of them belong to the lowest class of citizens, but some mercenaries and free-lance thieves have joined too - they aren't so much into the religion, but the mayhem sound nice. And as was mentioned, Flavius Thrakius has infiltrated the cult too. Flavius keeps in contact with his uncle Marius through a courier who lives in the Inn of the Knight of Griffon at the harbour area. Since Flavius is an ex-apprentice at the Guild of Bards, he has managed to gain new members with his silver tongue. This has won over Selver's trust. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 10:02:25 -0700 From: Joe Kelly Subject: need to know... I need to know, some of this may be out of your territory but being land = based you all would or might know.=20 In my city of Freeport, there is going to be an invasion. Scro in about 30 = ships (see Ships of the Goblinoids) about 300 troops per vessel) are going = to launch an invasion on Freeport (Which has 6 ships) So how long would = this attack last? Freeport's navy has 6 vessels and many merchants have = vessels as well. Would the Scro (Orcs) attack more likely be at night? And = what if any success would they have against a town which is essentially a = pirate haven? I will be posting this question to the Spelljammer list too, = so sorry to those who will get this twice. Any help would be appreciated.= =20 JK Wolf ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 19:08:29 +0200 From: Thibault Sarlat Subject: Where to host big maps???? hello everyone i am facing a a big problem. My new computer allow me to make bigger maps of mystara than before. yet my providers don't allow files bigger than 1 meg. Is it a standard?Do any of you know a place where i can host my big maps??? thanks thib PS: i have some gif maps about 8 meg big!!!! Thibault Sarlat. ICQ 16622177. homepage http://www.mystara.fr.st Join me at:thibault.sarlat@wanadoo.fr;clenarius@hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 13:53:28 -0400 From: SteelAngel Subject: Re: Where to host big maps???? On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, Thibault Sarlat wrote: > i am facing a a big problem. > My new computer allow me to make bigger maps of mystara than before. > yet my providers don't allow files bigger than 1 meg. Is it a standard?Do > any of you know a place where i can host my big maps??? I can host them at steelangel.com, provided that you don't mind the server being a bit slow, and you zip them up for download, not for displaying on the web. (Thumbnails are OK.) Ethan -- Kinard 210 Linux Guru Webmaster www.steelangel.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 13:53:55 -0400 From: SteelAngel Subject: Re: Where to host big maps???? Sorry.. that was meant to be a private mail. Ethan -- Kinard 210 Linux Guru Webmaster www.steelangel.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:39:22 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: 3e classes At 07:37 PM 9/11/02 -0700, you wrote: > > You could simply reintroduce the merchant class exactly as described in > Gaz11. Except for the references to broker points and various skills, there > is nothing to prevent that, and the current multi-class system would > interact well with the merchant class. Just make the merchant a real > character but allow only money earned from trade to count toward xp, and > only xp for the merchant class - normal xp goes toward other classes of the > merchant. I thought about that, but the main difficulty I had (not tested, to be fair) is that xp progression might be too quick for the Merchant class, and I had a problem with the thought of the Merchant advancing his Base Attack Bonus and Saves too quickly due to such a thing. I think the Merchant should be able to gain xp from adventuring as well, but there should be some other sort of xp system to show the xp gained from trade. I don't know. Maybe I should give your idea another look. > The way I see it, the real problem with the merchant is all those damned > spells. I never liked that they had access to them just because "it would > be cool!" Unique skills and so is fine, but actual magic is something I'd > limit to more dedicated spellcasters. My solution was that I'd have a "base" Merchant class, no spells, just a standard progression and skill selection, with maybe some bonuses to Diplomacy and/or Appraise (sort of like the Broker Points system) that they would gain as they progressed. The Darokin Merchant (with it's spell-like abilities) and the Merchant-Prince of Minrothad would then be Prestige Classes whose requirements would best be met by either a single-classed Merchant or (in the case of the M-P) a Merchant with some degree of spellcasting ability. They would be more specialized versions of the "common" Merchant. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 19:17:19 -0700 From: The Stalker Subject: Re: 3e classes On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:39:22 -0700, Andrew Theisen wrote: > (snip my original comment= > > I thought about that, but the main difficulty I had (not tested, to be > fair) is that xp progression might be too quick for the Merchant class, and > I had a problem with the thought of the Merchant advancing his Base Attack > Bonus and Saves too quickly due to such a thing. > Hmmmm... Well, you could change those modifiers so they will affect the game less. > I think the Merchant should be able to gain xp from adventuring as well, > but there should be some other sort of xp system to show the xp gained from > trade. I don't know. Maybe I should give your idea another look. > Then let him gain xp normally. No matter what the 3e rules say, I'll never run a game where you can xp only by killing monsters since I think "Hack 'n Slash" is ultimately boring and has little to do with role-playing - I'm renowned for giving my players huge story goal xp awards. When they finished WOTI some time ago, for example, I gave the group enough xp that everybody advanced a level, and note that they were all around levels 11 to 13 in 2e rules (some with multi-classes) - that's a lot of xp! And this was in addition to what they get for killing Calor and the golem/statue of Alexander Glantri. Such xp wouldn't count toward a merchant's xp unless it's his only class. > > My solution was that I'd have a "base" Merchant class, no spells, just a > standard progression and skill selection, with maybe some bonuses to > Diplomacy and/or Appraise (sort of like the Broker Points system) that they > would gain as they progressed. > Yes, I'd probably do something similar if there were anyone using the merchant class IMC. > The Darokin Merchant (with it's spell-like abilities) and the > Merchant-Prince of Minrothad would then be Prestige Classes whose > requirements would best be met by either a single-classed Merchant or (in > the case of the M-P) a Merchant with some degree of spellcasting ability. > They would be more specialized versions of the "common" Merchant. > For the merchant-princes of Minrothad I'd agree since they actively train to combine their magic with trade and are renowned for it. Darokin is merely noted for a skill at mercantile traits, however, so while they might combine that with magical skill if they have it (see people such as Ruthera Wocken or Rezak Xygar, for example), there is no reason to assume they would have magical abilities to aid them otherwise... But as such I'd tend to make the merchant-prince a prestige class, but the merchant of Darokin I'd prefer to see as a standard class. For one thing it would remove that annoying tendency for people like Corwyn Mauntea to be thieves simply because the rules have no better class to put them in. I mean, would someone like Mauntea really have skills like Sneak Attack or Uncanny Dodge? 3e helps because the rogue class 'forces' less of the thief-skills upon the rogue, but there are still some that are automatic and not really so appropriate to what is just supposed to be a skilled merchant... [Sigh] Once again I find myself to be disappointed that 3e D&D refused to grow as a game and abandon the aged system of forced classes... I'll shut up now before it gets out of hand... :( - The Stalker ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 23:43:52 -0500 From: Aaron E Nowack Subject: Re: 3e classes On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 19:17:19 -0700 The Stalker writes: > For one thing it would remove > that > annoying tendency for people like Corwyn Mauntea to be thieves > simply > because the rules have no better class to put them in. That's what the NPC classes are for. In my revised Mauntea House post I put Corwyn as 3rd/3rd/1st Rogue/Aristocrat/Wizard. I kept the Rogue levels because, like it or not, he _was_ a thief in the PWAs, but they could just a well be replaced with levels of Expert (in fact I may do that in a future revision.) The level of wizard is there to represent the magical abilities of a Darokinian Merchant, but I may remove that in a future revision as well (particularly since I did not give wizard levels to the other merchants.) Aaron Nowack "Never let reality get in the way of a good hypothesis." http://www.geocities.com/anowack/ ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 11 Sep 2002 to 12 Sep 2002 (#2002-239) ****************************************************************