I'm just so happy I "gotta" tell! I just started a DS campaign yesterday! Were starting slow since there are new players to DS and 3.5 but they seem pretty enthusiastic. A little bit of knowledge (converted) should introduce them pretty well. I plan on running the 3.5 converted original adventures. I have 4 players playing an elven fighter, a pterran telepath, a human water cleric and a human druid.Well, that's it. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
Anyhow, happy weekend everyone
My players are Bardax, a mul gladiator, Cyrus, a human druid (without the knowledge (nature) skill which makes it easy to make them eat inedible food), Jallonah, a human preserver and Vicsek, a human water cleric (which pretty much takes care of the water problem). An elven fighter died trying to do the druid's job of handling an inix (by throwing rocks at it
); all that was left of him when his friends found him was a blotch of red and scattered bones next to the basking inix. The druid handled it nicely... so much for rushing elf handlers.Not saying you should disallow it, just make the player aware and get him to RP how this happened. If done well, it could make his character feel special right of the bat.
If you are playing the original campaign, how did the Pterran get to Tyr? I was under the impression that up to the big earthquake that made the gap in the Ringing Mountains, very few beings made the perilous journey from the Hinterlands, past the halflings, over the mountains, into Tyr. For this reason my party hasn't encountered any yet.
Not saying you should disallow it, just make the player aware and get him to RP how this happened. If done well, it could make his character feel special right of the bat.
Well, savage pterran tribes were present before the earthquake and the player was aware of all of this but since he dropped out before the game started...
A few weeks ago they had attacked a small caravan who happened to be a decoy with nothing but a few weak kanks, a little bit of food and water. Last night, they attacked a Tsalaxa caravan. They had 50 men of the tribe with them and 10 Water Hunter elves. Did they win? Far from it; they lost half their men before fleeing into the night. The Free have still accepted the PCs for acts of bravery in their last battle. The PCs do have a bone to pick with the caravan's defiler and they have decided to go back to Urik to try and infiltrate the very caravan they attacked and kill the wizard. The elf archer got ticked at getting 22 and 25 rolls with the Rapid Shot feat to hit him only to hit an invisible wall (and a special challenging smile from the defiler has his only reward); the priest of water only seems to want defilers wiped out from the face of Athas... and seems to want to be the one to do it; the mul galdiator just wants to kick rear ends.
The plan not working, they tried to infiltrate the caravan by killing a guard and taking his place. Unfortunately, this was done impulsively and although they managed to enter the argosy, they were arrested. The nice defiler put them back into the slave pen (right into my trap). The mul had stayed behind and learned the rudiments of how to enter Urik on Modekan day. There and without a penny, he tried not to get caught in the streets after hours and managed to get hired by Tsalaxa; a mad dash at rescuing his friends. Of course, the defiler had his description and with his most generous heart, let the mul be reunited with his friends... in the slave pen.
Now, it's back to Tyr for the Freedom adventure.
Later,
PB
The mul bully also left the PCs alone once they humiliated when the group's gladiator grappled and pinned him and the priest commanded him to urinate. That priest almost died in the pits and the gladiator eventually became quite a good overseer (so the templars say) when he found the invisible preserver and brought him to the guards.
Lots of fun until now!
The mul gladiator found his way to the gladiator pits and brought his elven "friend" with him. There, they met a halfling bard slave (from the new noble character's player's tree) who produced poison for special matches and not one but two pterran "monsters" fresh in for fodder (2 new players to the game). Of course, there was the whole introduction when the characters realize the pterran are not the savages they thought them to be (they were taken from the egg by a psion who felt it would be a challenge to rear them).
Most of the players almost bought the farm trying to get out of the gladiator pit. It was also funny to see them try to climp in the bleachers while all the slaves were trying to get down. The lone halfling player tried to convince the three half-giants guarding the stone block at the entrance that he was the one pulling the strength out of them (and failed). Other than that, they sort of managed to wait out until the "true" heroes killed off Kalak... or have they really...
I find that this module (first time I run it), makes it hard to keep all the players together without losing much of realism (all characters getting caught at the same time or lets say a group of five slaves all winding up in the gladiator pits). Other than that, we had fun.
speaking of new games, hello.
I've been lurking for a bit since my last post but have decided to start up another campaign. BTW, thank you all for your hard work on this project. It has drawn me in again with its rich detail and solid mechanics and real flavor.
Starting Setting: Greyhawk
Endgame goal: bring about Darksun
This is not as crazy as it sounds. I promise.
Basic story of Dark Sun (please correct any errors): the world was once a green, happy place that became war-torn and oppressed through the emergence of defiling and several strong personalities able to make it work, chief among them Rajaat. Races were hunted to extinction. The next bits I'm a little fuzzy on, but the upshot is that the major players turned on their leader and eventually claimed geography of their own.
Greyhawk similarities in broad strokes: Iuz the Evil has taken over most of the world already and has begun systematically oppressing various lands/people. Iuz has established a band of high level magic users under him known as the Boneheart. Iuz has a habit of experimenting with magic, limitless ambition, unbounded hate, and has been around for centuries.
Iuz has a history of taking on names from mythology in order to further his plans (Vatun in order to dupe the northern barbarians into following him). Iuz, taking the name Rajaat and some "new" magic theory, is going to rename some of his Boneheart as his champions, dub them with new names from manufactured prophecy to both confuse his opponents and lend the champions power from the superstitious, and teach them how to harness the energy of life itself.
What would have to happen for Iuz to convert the world to Dark Sun? Glad you asked!
Step 1. Get rid of the other gods. This can be done in one of two ways. One way is to reduce the followers' faith to the point where the gods are too weak to intervene. A campaign to turn the hearts and minds of the populace is right up Iuz/Rajaat's alley and well within his capabilities over the course of 100-200 years. He's manipulated most of a planet for centuries; this is nothing new to him.
Another way would be to rip the world (or a portion thereof) out of the current cosmology into a space where he could reign without the influence of other deities. This too fits his personality and fits better with the DS cannon. Over time, people searching for help against Iuz could find "holes" where access to the elemental planes could be exploited.
well, really there is only 1 major step. The introduction of defiling will take over the transformation of the rest of the planet as the power hungry exploit the landscape and the devastation cascades. The introduction of the pristine tower could be part of retaliation against Iuz or the method by which he removed the planet from the cosmology.
From the DM perspective, the cities, trading houses, landscape, and all the rest that are so pivotal in capturing the feel of DS can be morphed from existing cities within Iuz's lands. (There are uncounted cities that can be slowly grown into the DS cannon cities over time)
The purpose of this is to slowly introduce the players to DS and give them the opportunity to shape the world as it forms. They will be "chosen heroes, called forth from the mists of time" yadda yadda yadda in order to influence events. Based on the success or failure of their tasks they will have a say in how the world evolves. Eventually, as they are called back time and again they will see the long term consequences of their actions and be able to look back and say how the world was formed.
None of the players are terribly familiar with DS and would have no way of interpretting what is happening over the course of our campaign. Unless they are reading this and then I'm screwed.
Ideas, comments? Other than "be less long-winded".
Hi guys, long time no see. I can see much has hapenend since I'm gone.
Well, my game is still running and here is a quick look at where my players are at.
They survived through Road to Urik and I had them following Rikus to his defeat with Hammanu. From there came Arcane Shadows which agin they managed to survive. I tried running Beast of Burden from Dungeon #100 as a side adventure (one new PC, an aarakocra rogue). I used a githyanki scouting party for the upcoming Black Spines adventure and giths instead of gnolls My aarakocra player got petrified by flying to close to the basilisk (and smashed itself on the ground, she replaced her character with an elven bard), the water cleric got killed by his own shield otherspell and the druid also got petrified. They went back to Desverendi's Valley to lick their wounds and where the cleric was reincarnated as a jozhal. For this reincarnation, the Spirit asked him to find the lost soul of a druid who, at his death, was supposed to meld with it. This will lead the party to the Crater and then Altaruk.
If you remember, the cleric was the made-noble by Kalak in Freedom... He had married the replaced-noble's daughter (who is now pregnant). This is now problematic to the jozhal priest. He has decided to ''play'' dead and watch his family from afar.
The mul gladiator (whose player left the game) has opened a gladiator school (he wanted to keep the dying sport alive in Tyr). Two new arrivals were initiated last week to an antloid nest (on the way to the Tarn, West of Tyr, they took an exterminator's job for an aprig farmer of the region); a half-giant fighter, who could hardly fit in the nest and an elven archer. The small nest was cleared but geez did I love seeing them falling down vertical passages and getting stuck in deep pits. The cleric found a room with a pool of water he now wants to turn in a shrine/headquarter.
That's it for now... hope you enjoyed.;)
to steal three bits from one farmer's pouch. They also had their first encounter with dark spiders... hee hee, spiders throwing fireballs.At the tarn, the water cleric communed with an elder water elemental and by bringing information of the dark spider sighting, managed to get information about the druid's soul they are looking for. This information sent them on the way to Altaruk.
On their way back to Tyr though, they met with Mingon of Asticles and started the Asticlian Gambit adventure (the half-giant player dropped out). I've added a few more encounters to the adventure and had them visit the forts between Tyr and Gulg (Skonz, Amber, Altaruk and Kalvis). In Altaruk they met with the supposed contact of the lost druid (who's actually the one who sold the druid to a powerful defiler) and managed to wrest the location of the druid before the informant escaped (they have to reach a tower made of bones on the edge of the Ivory Plain SE of fort Kalvis; the defiler will be waiting since he was informed).
On the road again, the elven archer croaked from the poison stung into his system by a wyvern attack. In fort Kalvis, the jozhal water cleric met an old enemy defiler of the Tsalaxan caravan, but decided better to bide his time before attacking (and the defiler had the whole fort to protect him). They also met with a new PC (replacing the dead archer); a human preserver from Balic.
Finally, they got to Gulg, beating Semponius and his raiders. I made Gulg as colorful as I could and I think I had my best overall roleplaying night of my life. I gave them a few extras like the meeting with an albino man who had visions about helping them, a visit to the palace menagerie where they saw a 2 700 year-old stuffed aaracokra chieftain and a general vision of my version of the Sunlight Home (which is a little more grandiose than what little drawings we had of it). The water cleric was paranoid at being present in the palace and only took minimal pleasures (like eating dates and not drinking any water coming from the queen's fountains), the elven bard took as much as she could (baths, manicures, clothes, courtisans and more), the thri-kreen kept trying to catch Spunt and the mage got way to friendly with Habban-Puy for the party's own good... which landed them in the queen's dungeons.
When I left them last night, the characters were starting to run for it in the Crescent Forest.
Can't wait to see what happens next!:D
They met with Yandor, who unfornately fell from the tree he was in by rolling a 1 on the Will save to resist the hold person the readied preserver sent his way when he spotted him. Yandor fell from the tree (I had given him the Brachiation feat), missed his next save and so was killed by a coup de grace from the tiny jozhal cleric's mace right after his retinue arrived. The party made jelly out of the club weilding slaves.
I had the half-giant get attacked by Tovrils "army" in a clearing the PCs were watching but other than a briar web cast on the muls, the PCs didn't help.
Then, they met with Dufrok, the headless dwarven banshee. They fled from him and the frenzied thri-kreen who somehow survived.
A little later on, they met Warakari who wrestled with the kreen, brought him down and would've gotten them all if the mage hadn't put a well-placed slow spell on him.
When the sun came up, they met a group of Gulg's moth-men's People (see Gulg thread) who were brought by Karadu, the albino man from the last post. He sent them on there way with the preserver's spellbook and a guide to lead them to the Nibeni part of the forest...
From there, they go to meet with the Shadow King.
I created the dungeon (so I didn't use the random map) using some of my El'Corhial history (see Gulg [ideas] thread). They had a guided tour of Lalali-Puy's torture chambers, dungeon cells refilling with slaves and prisonners for the Levy and they passed a guarded door that lead to the Oba's metal coin minting (they unfortunately killed all the guards and templar there and so couldn't wrest the magic word to open the portal). I had a braxat prisonner/guest in a nicely decorated locked cell protect the vault. They conversed with him for a while through the door and decided against opening the door (with the keys they took from the templar). It seems they don't trust a truthful braxat who just wants to do his job (squashing intruders) and speaks three languages.
In another room, they unsealed a door which led to an excavated portion of the El'Corhial's elven citadel where they ran into a gaj. Fleeing from it and the psionically dominated thri-kreen, they came back to the braxat cell and freed him. Braxat vs. Gaj ensued while the PCs tried to grapple with their mantis buddy. The Gaj died in two rounds (it was already weakened from the previous fight) and the braxat started bashing on the PCs. The players were actually sweating.
I unfortunatly had to cheat a bit so as to not cause a TPK. See, the thing is, everybody was out of "ammo" except the thri-kreen (back in control and the only one with metal weapons gotten from the templar). So I pulled back a few punches (2 actually) and got "lucky" rolling the braxat a critical failure which made him lose his grip on his great club. Finally, the thri-kreen went down and the mage with a last ace up his sleeve sent a volley of magic missiles that brought the beast down.
They really freaked when the guards started arriving in the vault (they were CR 2) and than seeing the Goddess appear. Talk about being at the end of the rope! Nibenay saved them of course. :D
After that, they were on their own. They spent the night at the last small farming village of Kankridge before entering the Gulg part of the belt. They decided it was high time to visit the bone tower they heard of in Altaruk for the recovery of the druid's spirit. They found a guide (an old merchant who makes the run every two weeks) and left for a day's march in the salt flats.
The tower was more a skin hut atop a 30 foot-high pile of bones. A leper-style bandaged man greeted them (a thinking zombie elf rogue). The cleric saw through the disguise and attempted (but failed) to turn it. At that moment, the pile of bone became a small army of human and half-giant skeletons bolstered against turning leaving four stilts holding the hut. The necromant (the villain) made is appearance at the railing of his hut-on-stilts and palavered for a few seconds before letting his guards loose. I had in mind to only make him an annoyance to the players, using spectral hand in combination with long lasting necromancy spells as necrotic cyst, contagion or blindness and bestow curse. The mage was also protected by various spells which made him impervious to most spells and arrows. The group fought and almost fell before the thri-kreen jumped to the tower railing at which time the necromant teleported away (future recurring t'liz villain). The little cleric eventually died from the bolstered half-giant skeletons' attacks and the lack of healing skills of the elf bard (two 1s in 3 rounds) but the preserver managed to (10%) stabilize himself.
They eventually went in the hut finding it mostly empty but for a few more skeletons and a black skull on a pedestal. The skull acted as an ethealness spell which transported them to the Gray. The PC preserver and thri-kreen found themselves on the outside staircase of a tall bone tower. I had them meet the soul of their perished comrade (in is true human self) and had them fight off a few undissolved spirits. They found "soulgems" at the top which they broke to free souls trapped inside. They found the druid which "headed" toward Desverendi with the cleric's spirit (will he come back in a new form?). The PCs found a way into the tower and found another skull to bring them back.
Tower seems familiar? I know. I'm trying to go somewhere with this in my campaign. As for the necromant, I'll only make him a minion of a greater power of the Gray; that's what the soulgems were for.
The remaining PCs are now on their way to Tyr... and two of my players on their way to Ireland. I guess we'll have a three week break.