This is the main thread for the short term 4e game I'll be running.
The EnsembleAlthea, Eladrin Swordmage - YesNoMu
Targotyll "Tarmygirl", Dwarf Bard - REG Rysk
Allece Myrmecia, Human Druid - Mordroth
Bresued, Halfling Sorcerer - Mithrandir86
Askwen, Githzerai Avenger - ironzerg
...and others....
Meeting time will be Monday or Tuesday at 8:30 PM EST. We'll be using PA's Vent Channel for OOC discussion. We'll be starting in another week or so. I have the first session's material completely done but I want a buffer in case I get sick or something.
Time Has Passed...
It has been two years since last you heard from Magister Reginald Berkley. Having each received your reward, you parted company to return to your own lives. Some of you returned to the front, battling Ark'veth soldiers for the freedom of the glorious empire. Others returned to their people to continue their training, preparing for the day that Fate might call upon them once more.
That day is today, the one hundred twenty third day of the Year of Engulfing Shadows.
Just like two years ago, you receive a letter marked with the Coda Veda, carried by an elite Imperial Guard and protected by powerful magical sigils. It reads:
"An audience is requested at the behest of the Imperator Cenaeus to investigate the disappearance of his High Wizard. You are to be in attendance on the one hundred thirty fourth day of this year. You will meet with the one in charge of the investigation at Magister Berkley's tower, where you met previously. Come alone.
Signed,
Elial Devoncy, Chief of the Secretariat for Imperator Cenaeus"
You have eleven days to return to the city of Carthusal and make your way back to the home of your old friend, Reginald Berkley. Whatever life you had been crafting for yourself you must now put on hold once more, for destiny has called. It would be impolite to turn him away at the door.
World Timeline:
all times in reference to the founding of the Elysian Imperium, Before Elysian Imperium (BEI) and Post Elysian Imperium (PEI)
~10000 years BEI: The Primordials are born of the Elemental Chaos.
~9000 years BEI: The Astral Sea is formed by unknown forces. The first Gods are born.
~8500 years BEI: The Gods unify for the first time. Using ancient and unknowable magics, they open a portal between the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. The sea bleeds into the chaos and forms the world.
~8499 to ~7000 years BEI: The Primordials and Gods fight a war over ownership of the Material Plane. At the end of the war, an ancient superweapon is formed by the Gods that obliterates half the remaining Primordials and ends the war. The Primordials cede the Material Plane to the Gods, who take the plane and begin to shape it. The crater left by the superweapon becomes The Abyss and the evil, destructive magics it used create the first demons.
~5000 years BEI: The Gods finish their design upon the world and name it Solea, meaning "The Great Project." They create ancient, powerful spirits in charge of maintaining the world's balance. Then they depart for the heavens and their alliance begins to shatter.
~4000 years BEI: The Eladrin first appear on Solea, establishing colonies while keeping the majority of their land on the Feywild.
~3900 years BEI: Dwarves first appear on Solea. Created by Moradin, these beings are meant to be a complementary species to work with the Eladrin in peace.
~3500 years BEI: The Eladrin and Dwarven kingdoms begin a great and destructive war that lasts centuries. Pelor posits that a third species must be established to keep the balance between the two species.
~3000 years BEI: Humans arrive on Solea, formed by Pelor, Ioun, and the Raven Queen. The Raven Queen establishes the Shadowfell as her dominion and chooses to watch over the dead.
~3000 to ~1500 years BEI: This period is marked by the arrival of dozens of new species, made by different Gods for the purposes of demonstrating to their rivals what they consider to be ideal creations.
~1500 years BEI: Lolth's teachings corrupt a group of Eladrin, creating the Drow. Other Eladrin decide that arcane magic is not for them, and depart to live in the wild. The first Elves are born.
527 years BEI: The establishment of a universal language by the Humans allows widespread trade across much of the known world. This leads to a period of expansion and prosperity aided by an extended period of long summers and mild winters. The language spawns an alphabet and a written word, beginning the period of well-documented history.
245 years BEI: The long period of growth and prosperity ends. The plane enters a period of general cooling. Long, bitter winters cause widespread famine and result in more frequent wars.
15 years BEI: A group of Orc barbarians, tired of starving to death at the world's fringes, unite under a powerful chieftain known as Gur'don Greatdeath. He launches a massive campaign against the civilized tribes.
5 years BEI: As Greatdeath nears victory over the civilized world, the Humans turn to the Eladrin and Dwarves and propose an alliance. Led by a Human general Scipio Siensus, the united armies turn back the Orc's incursion.
0 PEI: The victorious armies under Scipio celebrate the death of Greatpain and the annihilation of his hordes. It is proposed that the wartime alliance be made permanent, and the Elysian Imperium is formed, and Scipio becomes its first elected Imperator.
25 years PEI: Scipio's death leads to the election of Magnus Stoneskin, a Dwarf, as second Imperator. He begins organizing an attack to eradicate the remaining threats to the Empire, most notably the remaining Orcs and the Goblins.
50 years PEI: The Drow offer the remaining Orcs and Goblins refuge, forming the Kingdom of Ark'veth in opposition to the Elysian Imperium. The new union is sufficient for the Eladrin to call for the war's end, and Stoneskin relents, ending the First Great War.
51-312 years PEI: The Elysian Imperium enjoys a period of relative peace despite the growing power of Ark'veth. The empire expands its boundaries and conquers local species, offering them protection and prosperity as part of the empire. Ark'veth does likewise.
337 years PEI: The Kingdom of Ark'veth breaks the delicate peace between the two superpowers, beginning the Second Great War for unknown reasons.
342 years PEI: The events of the last game take place.
344 years PEI: The events of the game "A Time to Kill" begin.
Copy-pasted background/race information from my previous campaign:Dragonborn are effectively a powerful merchant group. They believe in honor, but more in the way of making a fair deal and a fair profit than fighting honorably.
Halflings, Goliaths, and Elves do not officially belong to the Imperium. They are considered friendly, but uncivilized. Expect to be treated like a backwater hick. Half-Elves are effectively granted dual citizenship; they're equally welcome in either the Imperium or within Elf culture.
Half-Orcs are effectively the remnants of the interactions between Ark'veth (whose citizens include Orcs) and the Imperium. Established treaties (that remain mostly intact despite the war) grant citizenship to the Imperium only if the Half-Orc's mother is Human and the bloodline contains no more than 50% Orc. If the baby is more than 50% Orc or the mother was an Orc, the child belongs to Ark'veth.
Tieflings still came from Bael Turath or whatever it's called, but Bael Turath was never destroyed; it was absorbed into the Imperium via conquest and assimilation. This is the typical modus operandi for the Elysian Imperium (as it was with the Romans, hint hint) of conquest and integration of neighboring tribes. This happened half a century prior, so there's still some animosity between Tieflings and the rest of the Imperium.
Orcs, Drow, and all forms of Goblins form the core of the Kingdom of Ark'veth. Among their followers are Minotaurs, Gnolls, Shadar-kai and all the other unsightly "evil" races from the MM and the rest. The exception are Dopplegangers/Changelings, which are spies hiring themselves out to both sides.
This is a short Maptools campaign. I'm expecting about 4-6 weeks of playtime, in the 10-12 encounters range.
Post your characters with Orokos or Mythweavers, please. In the post, please include a couple of sentences talking about what your character was doing for the last two years. If you're making a brand new character, include a paragraph or two of background, including how you know Magister Berkley.
Rules:
1. Level 5 characters, standard point buy. Starting items for higher level characters as normal, except replace the Level+1 with a Level+2 item. This is mostly because it'd be lame for everyone to have a +2 Magic Implement.
2. PHB1, PHB2, FRPG, EPG races allowed. Ask in the thread if you'd like more information about a race's origins. I'll handle PHB3 on a case-by-case basis. If you want to do a monster race, let me know, but I reserve the right to say no.
3. Background Traits: Everything but Scales of War allowed.
4. Classes: No exceptions.
5. Every character gets a single Expertise feat for free.
If you don't understand something or would like me to clarify or something, let me know.
Mission Objectives:1. Locate and return Magister Berkley - COMPLETE2. Re-stabilize the Timeline - COMPLETE (more or less)3. Counteract the Temporal Resonance
Posts
EDIT: Curse you Rysk!
Anyway, I liked Althaea, so I might well play her again. Shame about Enlarge Spell, though...
btw, nice avatar/sig combo, Terrendos. I just got up to speed on Homestuck myself, damn that's a good webcomic.
EDIT: Here's a first concept of how she looks now:
Althaea, level 5
Eladrin, Swordmage
Swordmage Aegis: Aegis of Shielding
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Heavy Blade)
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Light Blade)
Background: Birth - On Another Plane (+2 to Arcana)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 16, Dex 13, Int 20, Wis 12, Cha 8.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 15, Dex 11, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 8.
AC: 24 Fort: 16 Reflex: 18 Will: 17
HP: 55 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 13
TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +12, Arcana +16, Insight +8, Diplomacy +6, History +14
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +3, Bluff +1, Dungeoneering +3, Endurance +7, Heal +3, Intimidate +1, Nature +3, Perception +3, Stealth +3, Streetwise +1, Thievery +3, Athletics +2
FEATS
Level 1: Intelligent Blademaster
Level 2: White Lotus Riposte
Level 4: Rose King's Shield
Feat User Choice: Versatile Expertise
POWERS
Swordmage at-will 1: Sword Burst
Swordmage at-will 1: Booming Blade
Swordmage encounter 1: Sword of Sigils
Swordmage daily 1: Sweeping Frostblade
Swordmage utility 2: Channeling Shield
Swordmage encounter 3: Dimensional Vortex
Swordmage daily 5: Swordmage Shielding Fire
ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Bottle of Wine, Footpads, Potion of Healing (heroic tier), Amulet of Life +1, Longsword of Arcane Bonds +1, Leather Armor of Aegis Expansion +2, Phylactery of Action (heroic tier)
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Are we playing tonight?
Over the last two years, I imagine her taking a more serious look at her life, and possibly enlisting as some type of arcane enforcer. She'd want to try to suppress and prevent the misuse of magic, partially inspired by what happened last time.
Also, body odor is now a problem.
I'm going to put it to a group vote:
1. Keep waiting until we hear from him to start
2. Replace him
3. Play with 4 people, and rebalance encounters appropriately.
Just an FYI - Wedding is on the 31st and I'm super busy from now until then getting shit organized, so I may have to duck out of a few sessions.
Game on tomorrow night, people. Monday night, 8:30 PM EST.
How is Tuesday for everyone?
This is because of my working some OT today as well, so it's from both ends.
That's what she said.
Tuesday should be fine.
Let me introduce Askwen, Avenger of Ioun!
So we'll be going tonight (Monday) at 8:30 EST? Tomorrow night (Tuesday) works for me, as well.
be bothered.
And believe me, there are a lot of those.
As for tonight, I gotta see an apartment.
Feel free to play without me.
!ready