He's great when you need to present a new force in the campaign or when your players want to acquire an exotic item or need a job done.
My last group were (unwittingly) responsible for Kalak's fall (by getting him cursed Defiler scrolls, and for aiding in the empowering of the Heartwood Spear), and when Tyr descended into chaos after Kalak's death, they brokered deals between the nobles and the city to allow the buying of food (the Nobles had basically barricaded themseves in their estates and weren't coming out; meanwhile the city was starving), which actually made them minor but important players in the newly free city...
Mul Bru 3 / Gla 3
Elf Dru 7
H-E Psi 5 / Rog 2
H-E Wiz 3 / Cle 2 / Psi 2
They were slaves and managed an escape together. I will tell the story soon, my brain hurt, I will go sleep I think ...
Originally posted by xlorepdarkhelm
One was Meda-Uth
Cool name! One of mine is Deto-Um, modeled after the names for Raamin citizens.
Care if I steal the name?
Originally posted by Pennarin
Cool name! One of mine is Deto-Um, modeled after the names for Raamin citizens.
Care if I steal the name?
Sure, it was a ame that the player came up with. Both names were pretty cool. The guy playing the Thri-Kreen made his character's name mean"Hunter-Killer" (or something close), which is "Tik'la".
Flaxir - Tiefling Ranger (imported by Dregoth, cast off and left for dead)
Lagoon - Dray Defiler (again, cast off by Dregoth and left for dead)
Engus - Half Giant Gladiator (later changed to Fighter when converting to 3e because there was no suitable gladiator conversion)
Jillean - Human Psychic Warrior
And. . Benny. Human Bard.
We started as memory-wiped slaves that were being sent to Urik to fight in the arena, and to make sure that we died.
We discovered hints about our previous memories, went to Giustenal, tracked down what had happened and then found the guy who mind wiped us and convinced him to restore them (Viola, 2 instant levels - but it was set up for the epic progression)
We discovered that Benny and Jillean were agents of the Veiled alliance, Engus was just a half giant slave sent along for extra protection. Flaxir and Lagoon were discovered there, and lumped into the pile when minds were wiped and the decision was made to send them to their deaths.
Flaxir was a selfish, incosiderate ranger. Any time we found a mafic item, he felt that it had to pass through his hands first, the rest of the group would get his cast-offs.
Lagoon was very evil, but he understood the nature of survival, and since he was mindwiped and lumped with us, he knew the strength of sticking with us.
Engus was my character. He became the champion of the downtrodden. Despite the fact that the rest of the group picked on him, and he could handle most any challenge, he would often go out of his way to make sure that innocents/bystanders and the like were taken care of before himself. In battle, he often waded from one end of the field to the next making sure that his party survived the encouter, regardless of the damage he took in battle. He spent the majority of the game at 50% HP or less.
Jillean was played by someone new to the game, and new to roleplaying in general, so there was little story behind her.
And Benny. Despite the simple, perhaps comedic name (As far as in a Dark Sun game that is), and a starting lack of originality. Despite the fact that he was the weakest character physically (Yes, even the Dray wizard could dish out more damage in hand to hand because of his claws). Despite that Benny always hid behind Engus, he became the mascot of that campaign. Being a Bard, he was a master of poisons. the game originated in 2nd edition - so the poisons were the old list. He became the mascot when we made our escape from the arena. We managed to get outside of the building to find ourselves surrounded by the city guard and a captain. Our first actions are basically to duck and cover, get into position. Benny, however, throws his dagger at the captain of the guard. Hits, does a meager 3 points or some such. BUT, the Guard fails his save vs death/20 poison and falls over.
AND, Even after that fine display, the selfish Tiefling Ranger has the audacity to look Benny in the eye and say he's useless because he can't dish out the damage like the Half Giant can. Yep, thats when Benny the Bard became the mascot for that DS campaign.
Even later when we adjusted to 3.0 poisons, he was always on hand with something that would knock off 2d6+CON, and he killed several of our opponents by getting their CON to 0.
Thudmaj -- Mul Gladiator
Anavis -- Half-Elf Rogue/Sorcerer/Arcane Catburglar (custom Prestige class)
Quan Libro -- Halfling Monk/Psion
Geoffrey -- Human Earth Cleric/ Elemental Champion (antother custom Prest Class)
Forge -- Dwarven Preserver
In the beginning of the game we tried to have Dregoth attack the Tablelands and take over the world, but he failed (Thanks to the group)
Now they're major enemies of Daskinor and Dregoth, Nibenay's gone to another plane to advance as a DK, Lalali-Puy is looking to repent and become an avangion and Hamanu's just plain using them.
Oh yeah, and we decimated the Tablelands. Besides some barbaric types who wanted to stay in Gulg only Tyr and Urik remain.
The whole thing started before we heard the prophesy on athas.org (they do bangup work by the way) about Dregoth taking over, but we tried to run with it -- As my evil half would say "There's always some heroes in the way."
Right now our Party roster is:
Silk - Male Half-Elf Bard/Wilder, my character
Fjarul - Male Human Psycic Warrior/Wizard (preserver)
Yaballa - Female Half-Giant Cleric (Earth)/Egoist
Riddil - Mul Gladiator
Originally posted by The People
I'm about to start writing up my groups first DS campain! Gillard, I'm going to nick you DM's idea of the mind-wiped slaves. Hats off to him! (if he has no objecions).
I'm beginning to wish I hadn't started my latest campaign yet, just so I could nick it too :D
Elf - Traako
Mul - Brihack
H-E - Amonn (twin brother)
H-E - Erionn (twin brother)
In the game before this one :
Dwarf Fire cleric - Agraff
Human Rogue - Athanor
Human Preserver - Rufulda
Elf Ranger - Freyja
Halfling - Moura
Another cool name from another DS game
Human Fighter-Defiler - Gazorth Guzak
Ambrik the Pick - Mul Gladiator 2
Chauld - Half-Elf Psychic Warrior 3
Kraai - Aarakocra Rain Cleric 2
Haven't started yet, but Amrik and Chauld are arena fighters who's master mysteriously was killed. Kraai was hard to work in, but I settled on him aiding Ambrik and Chauld secretly after dark by bringing extra food, water, and healing in exchange for inside tips on arena match advice. Kraai then uses the money he makes on his bets to survive and preach his beliefs to the masses, as well as bribe the many templars who charge him for using their street corners.
There are no heroes. Simply those who bring the brief glimpse of hope to the masses, only to be slaughtered at their peak, turning that very hope into a plague of despair.
Do they have an impact on the world? Of course, for the are in the end all the pawns of the Warbringer and all serve his purpose, fullfilling his plans without even knowing it. Even the greatest of champions who manage to elude Rajaat's manipulations will in the end ultimately fall to the most foul and dreaded den of tembo.
Originally posted by Mach2.5
Even the greatest of champions who manage to elude Rajaat's manipulations will in the end ultimately fall to the most foul and dreaded den of tembo.
In the words of Peter Nuttall: a champion's "changes on Rajaat's handiwork are trivial and irrelevant."
Our current party is currently:
Tectico H Gladiator 1 / Wizard 5/ 1 (Eldrict Knight)
Raa HE Ranger 5
Bob/ Mul Fighter 1/Gladiator 1/ Ranger 1
^ He has btw 3 in CHA :D
-
We also played in a campaign before that, Jon still was our GM, But we had 2 characters each. He actually saved Nibenay's life :D
I played Aklar H Cleric 7/ Elemental(something) 5
and H Fighter 3 /Ranger 2/ Elite Sniper 7
Both Rocked . . Jon can fill in the rest
Salvador Bonecraft h PW/Rog- The heir to the Bonecraft Tribe (a non-slave tribe) but after a mysterious attack the tribe is scattered. With the help of the group he has been tracking down relatives and members.
Grimbold ? C(fire)- Adopted by the Bonecrafts, everyone including himself believe him to be a half-elf, but not until he discovered he was something else far more powerful but with a dark side. He finally discovers his name is Gram Archabald and is a royal blooded Faran (a fire race who were created by very powerful Fire-Elementals; and the race only uses As as their vowel.)
Daltos h Defiler (summoner)/Psion- A mysterious individual trying to run from his past and create a future. So far he has made a deal w/ the Bonecrafts to be their magician, but who knows when and where he can find some new power.
Sayyida- e Ranger- She has been exiled from her tribe becuase of her failing to protect the tribes relics. Now she is on a quest to find them and in doing so discovered her destiny is intertwined with the Bonecrafts. Her abilites as a Battledancer have defeated numerous enemies including Daltos' former mentor.... oops.
So its been great hopefully I can piece together the story and get to my epic ending before the Summer ends and everyone goes their separate ways for Grad school.
Originally posted by The People
I'm about to start writing up my groups first DS campain! Gillard, I'm going to nick you DM's idea of the mind-wiped slaves. Hats off to him! (if he has no objecions).
Originally posted by Korvar
I'm beginning to wish I hadn't started my latest campaign yet, just so I could nick it too :D
I am pretty sure that he wouldn't mind. It all started when we went out and saw Gladiator, and we all just got into the DS mood.. thats when he decided to have us start in the arena.. but how to get everyone in the arena.. I mean, Mages aren't gonna want to step into the arena.. and neither are some others.. so how do you get them into the arena? YOU FORCE THEM!!!
Anyway.
here's how it started. We awoke in a mobile cage, with the rest of the party members, and our new owner's pet halfling champion gladiator. He jabbered at us, and despite being a slave himself, the Halfling did have a little authority over us because he knew what was going on.
The generic plot was, we were sold to Praxis, with orders to make sure we were dead before the messenger arrived. We had heard snippets, but we didn't know that the messenger was the comet instead of just some dude with a message.
If you would like a lay out of the game itself (from what I can remember, since the game started early 2000, and the last game session ended when I moved from Socal to Vegas in late 2002, so the beginning of the game was a long time ago. I do remember quite a bit though) Let me know and I do a write up and mail it out to ya.
I know I have listed tidbits of the game on various threads on this board though, so there are bits floating around. (Either under this username, or as the sig says, under the Agonar username)
If you would like a lay out of the game itself (from what I can remember, since the game started early 2000, and the last game session ended when I moved from Socal to Vegas in late 2002, so the beginning of the game was a long time ago. I do remember quite a bit though) Let me know and I do a write up and mail it out to ya.
That would be brilliant if you could, but only if it's not to much trouble.I'm probably going to have them wake up either when their being found by the slavers, or in the cages. Where not to kean on gladatorial stuff, so I'll keep it to a minimum.
If anyone has a good way to encorage the players to stay together, It would be much appreciated.
Oh, and one of the players wants to play a templar (unknown to the others), this is the first time that any of us will have played dark sun.
P.S. how did your DM handle memory loss and levels?
My campaign is set in the Year of Priest's Defiance, a few months before "stuff went down" at Kalak's joint. The party is working to expand the profits of merchant house Ianto. So far we've been doing a lot of classic DS stuff (one of the adventures was an expansion of the "Year of Priest's Defiance" module out of Dragon magazine, turning it into a full blown dungeon crawl) as the players, most of them at least, are DS neophytes.
Our group uses a character tree system, with the option of having up to 4 characters on a tree each. Most of the players only have 2, and the newest has one:
(We also still use the 3.0 conversion, as we did not make the switch to 3.5)
Player 1:
Elem, an Elf Bard/Preserver who is a master of all sorts of poisonous stuff. he is working towards the assassin prestige class right now, and is the team's archer...
Goatsy, a Half-Giant Brute with a really bad attitude and a big mahaquitl (sp).
Player 2:
Bokum, a Dwaf Psion (Savant) who has insanely incredible stats, so he doubles as a fighter sometimes with his psionically enhanced staff.
Surke, a boring Human Cleric of Water who has proven quite useful in the Water Temple that the characters have been exploring.
Player 3:
Rax, a Pterran Trader/Preserver (Enchanter), who I thought was gonna be a boring character, but through the really great Trader core class off of the Silt Skimmer's site (THANKS MAN!!!), he is an economic powerhouse to be reckoned with.
Catharsis, a Half-Elf Rogue/Psion, not much to say, a new character who likes to run away.
Player 4:
Ta Chaa, a Thri-Kreen Psychic Warrior who has made me believe that under 3.0 rules, this combination is very, very powerful.
Player 5:
Bjorn (unofficial name, as this is a brand new character) a Dwarven Artificer (Fighter/Preserver), this guy uses a progression chart out of the Dwarves Dragon Magazine edition for 3.0, and his entire deal is making great weapons and armor for the group as well as himself. Right now a 1/4 fighter wizard, with +18 in his Craft skills. Next level he gets Create Magical Weapon feat!
Happy gamin'!
TheJim
And if you want heat, go to Death Valley.
Originally posted by xlorepdarkhelm
There's sand dunes in California and Arizona... Where do you think all the on-location shots of Tattoine came from in Star Wars?
And if you want heat, go to Death Valley.
Actually, most of the tatooine locations were filmed in tunisia, but Death Valley was also a filming location.
P.S. how did your DM handle memory loss and levels?
Well, we started at 3rd level like beginning characters without our memories. When we reached the point in the story where we regained our memories, he gave us the backstory of who we were and what we were doing before that lead us into our predicament, and he gave us a jump of 2 levels (some were pre-determined by him for specific story relation, but most of us were free to choose - like Benny the Bard gained 2 levels in Wizard, giving him a link to the Veiled Alliance)
I dunno if I would go with the Templar idea. . specially if it is the first DS game you are playing... Templars, IF allowed, should be later in the story when the characters are more advanced, and perhaps more dug into social/political maneuvering
Originally posted by Gilliard DeRosan
Actually, most of the tatooine locations were filmed in tunisia, but Death Valley was also a filming location.
Coulda sworn Ep. IV was in the mojave desert (or surrounding deserts). They changed locales a little for Ep. VI, and then again for Ep. I & II.
Regardless, my point still stands. There's actually a very sizeable sand-dune covered area in the southwest region of the US.
Besides Freedom and Road to Urik, they did little else except to try to open the Trade Roads. These ran thru the Ringing Mountains just south of Tyr. Lots of adventure and secrets to be found.
In 3e, I have introduced a character that is a son of a Sorcerer-King whom was destined to either save or destroy Tyr Valley. The Pyreen are unsure of the translation of the anceint scroll. So this one character has pyreen, templars and Veiled Alliance all shadowing him while trying to have him join them without alienating him to turn against them.
I am introducing two Avangions. One is a 20/20 character looking to find her first level of Avangionhood. The problem is she is rather extreme in her methods so the Veiled Alliance will not aid her and of course both the Order and the Sorcerer-Kings would like to see her dead. The other one is low level and has been a prisoner of a Sorcerer-King for a very long time.
... my wife said no to the trip ...
Originally posted by The People
That would be brilliant if you could, but only if it's not to much trouble.I'm probably going to have them wake up either when their being found by the slavers, or in the cages. Where not to kean on gladatorial stuff, so I'll keep it to a minimum.
If anyone has a good way to encorage the players to stay together, It would be much appreciated.
P.S. how did your DM handle memory loss and levels?
Okay, took me a bit to get to this, but here is a short version.
Woke up in a Slave caravan, no memories other than a basic sense of what it was that we did well (character classes etc) We came up with names then and there (some took longer to come up with a name, but the DM played it as a remembering of actual info, in that the names we came up with turned out to be what our real names were). We were on our way to a city to fight in the arena After some arena combats, our companion's wild talent of teleportation, we were able to gather the info that we were supposed to be killed before the arrival of the messenger We escaped the arena, and set out to Raam, since that seemed to be where the source of the information was coming from. We went in search of more information to our identity In Raam, we discovered some people who knew who we were, found out a little of who we were (members of the veiled alliance) went to them and were attacked, so we made our escape from there. But we learned who had stolen our memories. Now we were off to discover who had stolen our memories. This led us to Giustenal (ala city by the silt sea). We reached the undercity just as Dregoth sent forth an army of Githyanki and the like. We snuck through New Giustenal, encountered Dregoth and was chased into his library where his planar gate was.. we escaped through it to Raam, informed Abelach Re about the impending threat and got to sit and watch a battle. She personally fought Dregoth and we through them both destroyed.- Sometime in here we got back our memories. 2 levels of what we were before we lost them. Benny the Bard gained 2 levels in Wizard, and some of us were able to choose the levels, others had them pre chosen for story purposes.
Her chief Templar took over running the city, we enjoyed very good status, but then we still had a rampaging army or Githyanki and Red Dragons to deal with. So we went back to Giustenal to see if we could figure out how to send the armies backNow, here things get a little fuzzy The mirror of the gate was cracked, and non functional. I am not sure if there was another reason that we needed the planar gate as well, but we discovered (through ancient artifacts in Dregoth's libraries and trophy rooms) that the lense from the pristine tower could be manipulated to replace the planar gate.
So we set off to the Pristine Tower with a slight stopover at some oasis where there was an injured Red Dragon from the Githyanki conflicts. We healed it outright, and then bargained with it. We would send it out of this "God forsaken plane" back to it's home if it would help us by distracting Borys so that we could get into the tower and get the lense. It heartily agreed. On the trip douthward, we encountered some Earth Druids and stuff, and the Red Dragon complicated things bny eating people we were trying to defend and the like, but eventually we made it to the tower. The Red Dragon took one look at Borys and said something like "This should be quick." and took off. The DM had played out the battle round by round the night before, so he had it all played out. So on our way through the tower, we had glimpses of the battle at different stages. Ultimately we got the lense, and discovered that the lense was the chain that kept Borys at the tower to guard the lense so that it was not used to its original purpose (thus messing with the sun any further, but since our use would destroy the function of the tower and the lense, he agreed.) He gave us his favors - amulets with his symbol, and let us go. We teleported back to Giustenal, repaired the planar gate, and in doing so pulled in the Caller in the Darkness. Had to fight it. We had all been going mad up until this point.- Now sometime here, we discovered that either Dregoth or Abelach Re (I can't remember which) had some followers that had used one of our party members (the character of one who was not playing anymore) in a sacrifice to bring them back to life. Very powerful, we decided to call on Borys for help, using the old "We know where some of your enemies are". Anyway, we led Borys there, and in payment, he made us Templars of his City, Raam. and left.
This particular session ended for a couple months, so when we got back, a little time had passed. We had set ourselves up more in the political structure of the city, given the Veiled Alliance some more power, but it still had to be hidden because of Borys' influence and the like. However, we had set up the planar gate to a secret room in Raam so that we could travel back and forth freely
- Anyway, from here, Raam came under a curse (I believe it was from Nibenay, but I am not sure, it was from a rival sorceror king) because Borys was now a plague on the land. Innocents were being killed by a "creeping Death" if you will. A messenger arrived and told us the only way to free the city from the deadly plague was by killing Borys. So. . . .
Back to New Giustenal. Hunting through the libraries, we discovered a book from a world called Krynn, detailing the legendary Dragonlances. Of course, since we had no firsthand knowledge of Krynn to focus into the gate, we could not travel there, but with more rooting, we discovered that one had made it's way to Athas somehow, so that was our quest.Anyway, to make a long story short, we found the lance, confronted Borys, and now at the very beginning of Epic Levels, we fought. And that is when the campaign ended.
Obviously from here, should I get back to CA and the gaming group, we could have to deal with The SK who set the plague, or go about freeing other towns. . . who knows.. but that is the very basic outline of a campaign that took us from 3rd to 21st levels and lasted roughly 2 years.
In one 3.5 campaign, we have
human preserver,
dwarven water cleric,
mul gladiator,
half giant psychic warrior,
halfling ranger,
and an elven barbarian
My friend Bob, however, played a LE half-elf sensei from Will and the Way, named Rein (Ree- En), a really cocky SOBwho never backed down from a fight. He never used any weapons, other than his psionics and his martial arts. The last we played, Rein decided to challenge one of Nibenay's templars, who cast a spell and hurled Rein into Baator, where he was embroiled in the Blood War for all eternity. Bob said if he never plays Rein again, its a fitting fate for the character. I agree. But he was cool.
These individuals have come together to assist a mutual benefactor, an eccentric trader who is always looking for the next big pay-off. Out of respect and fear for this man they've agreed to haul a precious piece of art from Malka to Draj. Trouble will, no-doubt, be following close behind.
So far we have four characters and we're expecting a fifth next week:
Balthazar: Tyrian Human Male, 3rd level Bard, CN
--A conniving charlatan from Tyr, Balthazar has been run out of a lot of towns and has made a lot of enemies in the Tyr region for selling forged and false good.
Ka’Ka’Kyl: Thri-Kreen Male, LN
--A young Mantis warrior who lost his clutch in a vicious attack by Elf raiders. "Kyl" was saved from certain death by Tevfik, who he has come to see as his elder and mentor. He is young and rash and often falls back on his hunting instincts at inopportune times.
Krom “The Large”: Urikite Mul Male, 2nd level Fighter, CG
--A short but stout fellow who failed as a gladiator because he lacked personality, Krom is, none the less, a combat machine who enjoys pummeling opponents into submission. He longs for revenge against his former master who denied him his chance for fame in the arena.
Tevfik: Tryian Human Male, 3rd level Cleric (Air), NG
--An outspoken abolitionist and would-be hero, Tevfik has long been forced to wander the wasteland because he too often spreads unwelcome ideas in the City-States. He longs to find the money needed to free family and friends from the horrors of slavery.
Cheers,
Maglaurus