Alright soon I'll have time to run a second game in my bit of spare time.
This will be an adventure that was recently published in Dragon Magazine, because I kinda want to check it out. If you want to play, please to not be reading that particular adventure article.
However for those who are subscribers
this article has information about the setting and it seems fine for players to read. If instead you want to keep more of a sense of wonder about things or you are not a subscriber, the setting info below will do you just fine.
Man, life is crappy. And not in the ordinary peasants digging through filth for turnips crappy, like a comet smashed the shit out of your homeland crappy.
Yeah. This big ass meteor ruined life for most people even as it passed overhead, THEN crashed into the earth and blew out everyone's eardrums... then lit up the sky with an ominous red glow. Then it vanished. Fucking meteors, they think they can do whatever they want.
Anyway, this nice little wild uncivilized circle-of-life-with-hugs-and-bunnies place (well probably not but people like to remember it that way) got a big massive valley carved in it. It is now known locally as The Chaos Scar. Nice ring to it, that. This wound in your once-verdant homeland is over a mile long and hundreds of feet deep. And we're not even to the best part: things got even worse after that. Bad shit started happening for no reason at all, people turned on each other, killed one another over slights, probably crapped themselves something fierce, and so in a short amount of time... the biggest assholes around became very powerful and influential.
Sure, some folks tried to make it better. A guy who called himself "king" for a while (we're not sure if he was really a king or he was an Emperor Norton kind of guy and people just figured it was worth a shot to go along with it) built a big wall thinking that this could prevent the tide of fiends that live in and around the Scar from coming into civilized territory. This was unfortunately and predictably ineffective. The wall didn't last long, and it has a lot of holes in it.
And sure, some brave souls said, "well fuck that noise, let's take the fight to them!" Sadly, people who go into the Scar tend not to come out... and there are no shortage of stories about its weirdness and the potential treasure that beckons adventurers. Which of course means people keep going in. It might just work and result in fantastic wealth and power... or at least less crappiness. It might even be you!
Welcome to your crappy world, adventurers. There's nowhere to go but up!
Looking fer:
- 1st level adventurers.
- Builds of said adventurers may feature content as it is now in the Character Builder. No monster races please. Goliaths are encouraged... for some reason. It's the very early morning right now so I just kinda said that without thinking much about it.
- A bit about your character and how they might think of themselves in this wild wild west of deep forests, festering swamps, pastoral grasslands, aaand... a very scary foreboding place that looms on the horizon and purportedly contains horrors that will kill everyone ever forever (probably). Like... a background, I guess. Only limitation I would impose would be that you've haven't yet ventured past the "King's Wall" into the lands of the Scar, and its surrounding areas where bad things happen.
- Just a suggestion, but maybe to be tending away from glitz and glamour on your characters. Even if they're dignified and austere, rub some dirt on 'em. Or you could surprise me by doing the opposite! There's really no telling with me sometimes.
- How often you tend to post. Don't lie, I can look it up in your profile. Liars.
- You could gimmie a quote. Like example dialogue. Like something your character would have said recently, regardless of content or context. What does your character sound like?
- Please submit characters sheets via http://4e.orokos.com/sheets/ in case you have character builder. It's a very nice page that our own Infidel made and I'd say he did a damn good job. Failing that, a statblock or http://www.myth-weavers.com/ character sheet. Please don't just post the text output of character builder, it looks ugly to me.
Also, my favorite line from the author of this setting is:
"One of the goals of this campaign is to reduce the workload of DMs running it." Well, hot damn. Get to work! Name some names, maybe some important NPCs around. Name some places, maybe your crappy mud village. Come up with a bit of history to which your character is attached, like maybe your grandfather was the first one to figure out not to drink downstream of where you wash the crappiness outta your clothes. Have fun with it. Allow me to be lazy.
So I'll take submissions and answer questions until... well until I don't feel like it I guess. I'll play it by ear.
Oh yeah this will be a play by post. I don't have the schedule nor inclination for IRC/Maptools at the moment.
Posts
edit: i will post every day like a good arc. character concept(s?) to follow
Judging from the pic in the OP, it looks like bullywugs, or slaads (or a freakish combination of both !o_O)
By monster races, does that include races like revenants, githzeria and wilden too (AKA DDI only races)?
And any alignment constraints? thinking on posting a warlock here.
http://4e.orokos.com/sheets/1184
Background:
I post pretty constantly. Definitely more than is healthy.
"I don't know much about magic, but I know this comet is bad news for everyone. Now, most people with a voice in their ear are crazy, but if I'm doing crazy things to stop whatever it is that's down there, is that so wrong?"
Like Kobolds and Orcs, or are Dragonborn in that list, or...
Kharnor the Bold "Have a drink and let me tell you about the time I killed a dire boar with my bare hands!"
Kharnor the Bold is a large human man with a large appetite for drinking, women, and plunder. He tells everyone he was sired by giant orc-bred demon bears. His black hair is caked with dirt and grime and hangs over the many animal skulls tied to his furs.
He has journeyed to the Chaos Scar with his trusty wineskin and great maul to see what these girly-men are so afraid of.
Hilda Silverhammer "Under the radiant sunlight, all good things must flourish."
A paladin of Pelor and heiress to the small mining clan Silverhammer, Hilda is a robust and comely dwarf maid with silverspun hair and shining green eyes. A gentle soul, Hilda prefers to settle situations through words rather than steel; when the weapons come out, however, Hilda will gladly crack the skull of the aggressor with her hammer.
She has been sent to the Chaos Scar by the church to investigate the mysterious cult known as the "Brotherhood of the Scar."
Doran of the Closed Fist "Your techniques are strong but the soul that wields them is weak. I will put them to better use."
Doran is a wandering warrior dedicated to perfecting his dark art. The Closed Fist travels the lands, seeking out skilled warriors and deadly monsters to test his techniques on. He prefers duels with those skilled in the martial arts so that he may kill them and incorporate their techniques into his own; however, recently he has discovered that groups of adventurers can often overcome challenges well beyond the reach of one man, challenges that yield great reward.
Doran has come to the Chaos Scar upon rumors of a potent killing style being developed within the heart of the valley.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Stats:
Tavar, Deva Avenger
Concept:
Now he has crossed great distances (which I will elaborate on in an effort to help Horseshoe out) to come and help confront the evil of this meteor... confident in his abilities to fight the corruption, and to prevent it from consuming him this time.
i should have said monster manual races
meaning no orcs, bugbears etc
so things like revenants and wilden are cool with me.
like arc
i will probably never say this again but... arc did a good thing
That being said, this sounds like fun, I'm totally in.
d&d has bone crunching craziness and horror and stuff but ultimately it is a fun and silly little diversion
having characters that were made with some silliness in mind is not a bad thing to me
in fact i will give it a thumbs up
like this
:^:
I am reserving this spot for a character post when I get some time
like Monday probably!
How can I assert my nerd dominance if we allow fun :<
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
hi5
but ah swear after ah git outta trailer prison we'll buy somethin' nice fer ya wit' the money we got from bein' on that episode of Cops
but you better not touch my cigarettes while i'm gone
Maybe a drow druid or something... unusual.
I am all about the dwarves
stock and stone earth and bone motherfuckers
also Fiaryn is right, there is no room in this the manliest of games for any fun, there is only numbers and winning Dungeons & Dragons
Vimak the Mighty, Goliath WarFighter (hybrid fighter/Warlord)
Vimak was the chief of his small tribe until the comet came and ruined everything. Well, that's what he says, anyway. Vimak was really the chief's son and his second whilst the chief and the tribe's more capable warriors were down in the plains trading, so technically Vimak was in charge of the tribe's main body when the comet hit, but only because his father was down in the lowlands trading shiny pebbles for meat and good hides with the village of Rounder's Bend (no-one in the tribe ever figured out what the strange folk did with the pebbles, but then they didn't much care as long as they got their food). After the comet hit, though, none of the trading party ever came back, so Vimak set off to find them and deliver the headwoman's admonishments to his father as loudly as they had been delivered to him. Or pretty close anyway; unfortunately the shouting and the aftermath of the big explosion have left Vimak slightly deaf, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?
Marilyn Rounder (half-elf, all crazy ranger, mostly self-taught)
Marilyn is crazy. Oh my is she ever crazy. But that's pretty understandable given the circumstances. I mean, the world has gone to hell in a hand-basket, after all, and then the handle came off too...
But for Marilyn, most of this hasn't happened: she's still stuck in the fields around her village of Rounder's Bend (named for a distant ancestor, allegedly) staring into the inferno that used to be her home. The creature that still answers to the outside world calls itself Marilyn, but it isn't really her; it is a creature of mostly rage seeded with a little animal cunning and just enough honest intelligence to know not to try to kill people without cause. Mostly though it wants to kill the fireball that hurt Marilyn so badly. Whether it hopes this will simply bring Marilyn back, or somehow undo the annihilation of Rounder's Bend is unclear, but also largely irrelevant; if you are between "Marilyn" and the Scar, you are in grave danger of being spitted upon her blades.
Uthal Thalai, Goliath Warden
Uthal was studying the arts of the Warden in the mountains when the comet hit. The impact so disrupted the natural order of the world that her teacher, the great Kordak Stonefist, was nearly killed by the reverberations in the web of primal energies that cross the land. Even now, he is only occasionally concious, describing at these times the great battle the World itself is fighting against the un-nature brought by the comet and his need to help. Uthal, for her part, was also affected by the disruption, but not nearly as much as her mentor. In fact, her connection to the world seems to have become even stronger in the aftermath of the impact and she has set out from the hidden training camp to locate the heart of the disruption and destroy or contain it if possible and so save her World and her Master.
"Trueshot" Aelar, Elven trick-shooter (seeker)
Aelar used to be a wandering showman of a sort, going from village to village impressing the locals with the range and power of his bow and performing stunts for small coin, as well as accepting contracts to hunt particularly recalcitrant wildlife if the village headman was fed up with complaints about wild boar destroying crops or some such. When the comet landed, he was heading to the village he called home, Rounder's Bend to visit with his daughter and her mother (whom he had once impressed a little too much with the "reach" and "power" of his "bow"), but got caught in the blast that followed in the impact's wake. When he recovered from the blast, he found that he had changed subtly; he could feel the grass beneath his feet reaching toward the sun and the insects around him searching for pollen, and when he fired his bow, he discovered that it burst into flame when he thought about it...
Now, racked with grief for little Marilyn, he wants nothing more than to end the corruption brought about by the comet, but first he has to figure out what happened to him.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Murg, Exceptionally Pissed Off Avenger
"Fuck. This."
Murg was a really lazy Githzerai. Somehow, probably because he was good with a sword, he got drafted into a war band, going around to different planes, stabbing mind flayers. The stabbing part wasn't bad, it was the planar travel, and having to do it on other peoples' timeframes.
So, the war band came to this nice little plane to clean out a small mind flayer encampment. It was quiet here. Also, giant monsters and random elemental storms didn't try to kill you every time you went outside. It was way better than living in the elemental chaos. So, when the war band was prepping to go back home, Murg slipped away and didn't go with them. Yeah ok maybe they'll be pissed and come looking for him one day, maybe they won't.
So here he was, free, in a place that wasn't awful. He soon realized that his green skin didn't go over great with the general public, but man, whatever, still better than giant lightning beasts roaming around. He even took up with the church of Ioun where he was pretty well accepted.
Then everything went to shit. This giant fire rock fell from the sky and smashed everything up. Big old ugly monsters started showing up. Total flashback to back home. So again he took up the sword, this time of his own free will, to help protect the church that had helped him out. One day he wants to go down to that hole, and stab the giant fire rock right in its eye for fucking things up for him.
Potential characters you can use:
Gith that're looking for him
The priest at the temple he worships at
The mayor of the town that really hates having a green skinned dude with a huge sword living close by
Total Posts: 36,806
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
I just need to figure out a good class for it.
Oh, also, Horseshoe, how do you feel about tweaking of damage-type? Like, changing something that does fire damage into something that does psychic so that it fits a character concept a little better?
"You will tell me where to find him, or you will find your head impaled on a pike. Choose wisely."
Mika Sorban, Human Paladin
"This land is broken. So naturally, someone must un-break it. I wish I could say it more elegantly."
From then Mika's mind was made. No longer would she be the heir-in-waiting. She would bring change upon this scarred land by taking on the fiends of the Chaos Scar... perhaps she could unite the land in the process.
Mika is generally a good person, though not exactly following what everyone expects a paladin to be. She's witty, wise, and not keen to fulfill a 'woman's' role.
I post fairly frequently, and have not played a PbP or D&D before.
William "Shrike" Flynn is the one of the best of his trade. Thief, opportunist, grave robber, and overall champion of all causes lucrative in merry olde Inoa. Or rather he was before, like most of his ilk, ambition led him to get in over his head. An attempt at plundering a well known (and well feared) barrow several miles away from the city led to him taking a knife in the lungs and his "partners" making off with his share of the loot.
That was not to be the end of him, however for his flickering spark of life was too useful to be wholly extinguished. The spirits of the barrow ached to live again, to be free, and in William...they had a way. He has risen again as a host to many spirits, his mind a flurry of conflicting desires and ambitions with only one unifying focus: The Chaos Scar. He knows not why the Scar is so important, only that seeking it is vital to his continued unlife. His very identity oft endangered by being drowned out in the sea of voices in his head, he is nevertheless unwilling to give in to death.
Indeed, he is still possessed of many of the self-preservationist tendencies of William Flynn, if not many of his memories. He remembers not his name, only his former "call card" which may well draw unwanted attention in the days to come. Few would recognize the gaunt frenetic features of the reborn Shrike as the master thief of Inoa, however.
I probably post on these boards too much
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
i'd love to get to see a few seekers, interested how the class will play
Buuut I tend to only post a character application if the concept really grabs me, otherwise my interest would probably peter out mid-game and that's no good.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
There is a really limited power and feat selection right now, unfortunately, so they're all going to be nearly identical.
Character-wise, I'm leaning towards submitting a warlock, but if there are roles that need filling, I'm up for pretty much anything.