[OOC D&D 5E] The Sundering of Vi Eltera: Drifting Ruins of Yalish
mrpaku
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
WHO: Myself, @AustinP0027 @Denada @Glal , and possibly other worthy Contenders and Survivors from the (soon-to-be) Sundered Lands
WHAT: A New D&D 5E Homebrew from the Wild Bunch of the Whispered Curse Adventure! : The world of Vi Eltera has enjoyed a long period of relative calm after prior centuries of war and strife, but a series of increasingly ill omens all culminate in the "Darkest Day": an event which begins the companionship of an unlikely group, and changes the lands of Vi Eltera forever
The world of Vi Eltera will be heavily influenced by the games "Bloodbourne" and "Final Fantasy 6"; the children's show "Pirates of Dark Water"; and the movies "Waterworld" and "Mortal Engines"; hopefully balanced out by a heavy dose of humor and romanticism, and "A Quiet Year" like storytelling to help build a mutual world from the ground up
WHEN: Tentative start date for the IC thread would currently be September 1st
WHERE: Critical Failures forum PbP; involvement expectation would be roughly once a day, weekends off
WHY:
Welcome back, Adventurers!
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- Starting Class and Race - The lands and peoples of Vi Eltera hold old grudges and bitter divides from the dawn of time. However unfairly, many NPCs you meet in this world will make knee jerk judgements based on your appearance or assumed heritage, be you one of the brutish "Primeval", a flighty "Fey", a sinister "Shadow-touched", or, even worse, one of those irritating races which make claims at an even "greater" lineage...
- In Medias Res - The start of your journey will find each of your PCs in the capitol city of Merton, a burgeoning civilization situated between lake and hill...but for what reason? To claim a bounty? Consult an elder? Rob the fiefdom? Learn from machinists?...
- Starting Equipment - Your characters will all be starting at Level 3, and can be assumed to already have some history/put some skin in the game/taken on some adventures before we meet them in story. Accordingly, each PC will begin the game with the following:
- Standard Class Starting Equipment
- 100gp (+ Class Based modifier, Example: an additional 5d4 x 10gp for a Cleric)
- One Uncommon Magic Item of choice
You will all be given the opportunity to spend your gp in the beginning chapter, as part of world building the city, and getting to learn your PCs priorities (unless, of course, one of you chooses something fun for your starting situation such as "Captured Prisoner" or "Active Anarchist", in which case I'm sure we can discuss something in private to help meet your character's needs! )
- x 3 NPCs - Maybe a father, teacher, or mentor. Maybe a jailer, rival, or close friend. Maybe simply a different set of eyes watching history unfold from nearby! However you'd like, as part of your backstory, please involve three NPC-type characters who can ideally: be a part of the greater journey (either directly or indirectly), help to teach us a side of your character that may otherwise remain private/unexplored, and most importantly, could in the worst of circumstances be used to assist in saving the life of/possibly even fully-replacing your PC in the event of death. Any questions about how you'd like to address these characters and your backstory, please send to my PMs for now, unless you wish to tease out future reveals!
- Does everyone feel good about the starting level/character death opportunities/once-a-day-off-on-weekends-schedule?
- We'd discussed adding a fourth Guest PC- is that a role you all would like taken on at the very start of the game, after you had all chosen classes, or did you want to hold off until after the story's first chapter to get a feel for things first?
Let me know your thoughts on what you want to play. I may need some filtering to happen to actually be able to make a choice....
@mrpaku - could we get some lore on the city we're meeting at? I'd like to think up a suitable reason my character would be there. Also, do we need to think up why our characters would choose to adventure together, or will that be part of the storyline?
I'm kind of leaning toward Ranger, Rogue, or Wizard, but I'd have to dig into their subclasses more to see if anything grabs me.
All the technical details work for me and I'm good either way on the 4th PC slot.
Merton- Fifty Years Ago- “Gateway to the Rachis Range”
The southern garrison city of the Uldari Alliance during the Last War. An ancient but solid dwarven fortress carved into the southernmost hills of the Rachis mountain range. Military outpost/civilian encampment. A site of safety for common peoples during the “Destruction of Dumant” and the ensuing floods
Merton- Today- “Trading Post of the New World”
Capital city of (newly formed) South Uldari. A major port city, melting pot of peoples and cultures, and a famous (possibly the main) crossroads location in the New World. The once solid military installation has been slowly replaced by a flooded and overgrown ruin, becoming gradually built upon to the point of over-development with an abundance of unique, flood-salvaged-wood structures, constructed by a heavy mix of opposing cultures. Though half the ruling faction of the Uldari Alliance, the Uldari Council’s influence is (mostly) felt much less here than in the lands further to the North, up and along the Rachis Range
The city is under the primary purview of Judge Sylvas, a former Elven general and a holdover from the Last War, who runs the city with a light but firm touch. The city is currently being visited (and heavily renovated) by the famous dwarven Inventor Kikoroc
Merton enjoys an abundance of churning wealth from the world over, an acclaimed and cavernous library, world-famous gardens, a burgeoning nightlife, and markets (of the legal and far darker varieties) to meet your every need!
South Uldari comprises the southern half of the Uldari continent:
ULDARI: Central Lands of Vi Eltara. Home of the Uldari Alliance, a “ruling” faction composed mainly of High Elves, Hill Dwarves, Humans, Black Orcs, and Stout Halflings. A land of lush forests, deep mines, and great high hills. “Winner” of the Last War
As a major port city, Merton is often a first stop on the journey to and from the surrounding continents:
GILLIUM: Western Lands of Vi Eltara. Once verdant moors from which the Rebellion sprang, now a place of rising waters and chaos. The continent worst hit by the Destruction (save Missing-Dumant itself), Gillium was once rival to Uldari in its lush beauty and growing civilizations, but the continent has now been utterly flooded, and transformed into a land of rushing rivers and boggy swamps. Loser of the Last War
HARENA: Northeastern Lands of Vi Eltara. The Badlands, home to a loose Coalition of Grey Orcs, Badlands Dwarves, Humans, and “The Lost” (a rebellious branch of the Dragonborn-people). A land of great contrasts: barren emptiness for miles broken up by valleys of plenty. A land of desert, air, and stone. Grudgingly joined the cause of Uldari during the Last War
EZO: Southeastern Lands of Vi Eltara. The Forbidden Lands. Exiled “home” of the Primordial Races, Dragonborns, Wild-Kind, and fled-Tieflings. Little is known and less is asked. A land covered in burning hills and lush rain forests. Ezo briefly joined the Last War on the side of Dumant and Gillium, but immediately after the “Destruction of Dumant”, retreated back within their own borders
DUMANT: Former Southern Lands of Vi Eltara. “Missing-Dumant”. The Last War was ended the day nearly the entire continent and everyone on it was destroyed by a flash of light, flooding the lands and bringing the Ooze. No one sane “goes” to Dumant anymore. Loser of the Last War by immediate and utter disqualification
The fortress of Merton also houses one of the entrances to THE UNDERDARK within its depths, although the way is hidden, and the descent is long and treacherous. Home of Drow, Deep Dwarves, and Deep Gnomes, the Underdark’s involvement in the Last War is largely unknown- whether they were completely uninvolved, or personally helped orchestrate it will largely depend on who you ask
If during the course of cooking up your character concepts you guys hit on a common thread you want to explore and choose to come to town already together, great and you should absolutely go with that! But if not, I feel confident I can push you guys together by circumstance in fairly short order!
Thinking a Warforged Hexblade Warlock. Still have some work to do to figure out how to incorporate Warlock and Robot together, but it's a non-squishy melee (Sword and board plus robot defense means I should be up in the 19 range for AC).
If anyone wants to have a background with her, I am down for thinking something up! She's generally good natured, but down for mischief if suitably enticed.
If Denada does not make an arcane caster, I will do so (probably a wizard). If Denada does go with a caster, I'll likely make a fighter or ranger.
Race will depend on class, and story will depend on race - but I have a few rough sketches rolling around in my head.
For now I'll just say hi, and wait to see what direction everyone else is going so I know where there might be a gap to fill.
Echo
Warforged Hexblade Warlock
That's about all you'll get for now because I need to work out some details with mrpaku on how Echo fits into the world, which will impact the background stuff.
- Currently have 3rd Level PC character sheets and 3 NPCs for Iskra and Echo locked in: thank you both!
- From what we’ve determined about character backstories, it can be assumed fading and Austin’s PCs both are a common friend to a certain Ambassador, and Denada and Glal’s PCs (both natives to the Uldari forests up north) have at least a passing knowledge of one another to play upon as we begin
- The Map for Merton/the first act of our story is “completed”, and (more or less) ready to go! I’ll be reaching out to each of you to determine the exact when/where/why/how you begin your adventure in the city beforehand. Meanwhile, shoot me a PM if you have any private thoughts/secret questions/concerns on story/city/character progression before we start!
- Our current party consists of (and please correct me if I’m wrong): A Soul Knife Rogue, Male Harengon; A Graviturgy Wizard, Male Deep Dwarf; A Hexblade Warlock, Nonbinary (?) Warforged, “Echo”; A Forge Domain Cleric, Female Gnoll. “Iskra”
Sidenote: Just want to be the first to point out that in a game with heavily underlined racial undertones to the world, the folks of the Wild Bunch crew chose to play: a Gnoll, a Warforged, a Deep Dwarf from the Underdark, and a (to put the cherry on it) Harengon
….Honestly, I could not be prouder. Everyone understood the assignment; A+ job! I’m very much looking forward to next Thursday!
- For world-building/tone-setting/future PC establishing reasons, each of your x3 NPCs are likely gonna factor heavily into this first chapter of the story (even if they aren't necessarily a part of your PCs story to begin with). In order to comfortably "borrow" them, I'll probably be hammering out the who they are/how they act/what they want through PMs as they become presented, before putting a voice to them- I hope that's alright!
- Looking over your PC's, it seems like everyone took the, "this time the DM is coming for blood"-warning well to heart, and have each provided a suitably badass build/character! However, in a chilling response, each of you will find built into your character's racial/background strengths fears/weaknesses to overcome in turn, which I'll make you aware of via PM...
- I'll likely have the first part of the game/ introduction for each PC posted late-Wednesday evening, and be ready to play as of Thursday morning! Weekends are always off, (although, if you guys want to continue to roleplay during that time, or I'm having a slow/bored weekend, I don't mind keeping things moving, as long as we don't exclude anyone as a consequence)
- New Inspiration Rules- In our last game, "Inspiration" came from the DM upon good roleplay. Now, let's face it: I'm a big softie, and you all do real good roleplay! Subsequently, the new rule is: Inspiration is granted on a roll of "1" (Note: This is possibly game-breaking for Glal!
- As framing/exposition at the start of our game: each PC will begin in a different part of the city, and start with a different challenge (which may give them a particular Advantage/Disadvantage in Merton); each PC will begin with a chunk of local lore, and an idea of the location/plans of another PC; and each will have a "secret" (some more than others) mission to accomplish during their first day in the city
Questions/Concerns/Comments?
Geth, roll 5d40 gp
Geth, roll 4d40 for gp
Geth, roll 4d4 for GP
[edit] More pocket change!
Iskra: Say what you wish to your dear friend Kezza, and when you're ready, setup your metal-arts stall, and see how you do today in the Artist's section of the Open Air Market! (Persuasion or Performance Check to sell your wares)
Everyone has probably already noticed that each of you are gradually finding yourselves in or near Merton's City Center (Arknor from out of the North Fortress; Iskra out of the marketplace from the West; Echo from the docks to the South; and Romero, up near the rooftops of the Lower Wards to the East). Once each PC is caught up, there will be a brief "mutual" scene, before we move forward and you all get to meet "properly"...
1. Short answer- Yes, mostly! Up on metal "stilts" at the moment!
Long Answer- All of City Center (currently housed between the twin fortresses, but now sitting just below their bottom level) has been shot up between the four metal claws of the new infrastructure project, and currently seems to be stuck at a point about thirty to forty feet above the marketplace, and twenty to thirty feet between the lower Fortress railings/the Lower Wards Rooftops
2: Visually, it's roughly....well, it looks exactly like this from overhead...
Each square is 5x5 of space/movement. I've got a Map Key ready to go, but don't want to get too far ahead of @Glal . As you can see, it's a large area!
3. ...if Arknor were to want to go to the very edge and make an Investigation Check to see what exactly is happening underneath this bad boy, you may at any time, during or after the current Crisis!
4. The Mechanical Contraption the Inventor and the Assistant were inspecting travelled up along with the rest of you when City Center shot into the sky. It's currently sitting hovering about the pair at the Monument in the center of town. Also, (Deep Dwarf stuff)
5. The Monuments are five large, blackstone obelisks , peppered around the courtyard of City Center and each currently being used as housing and support structure for the City Center's new metal "legs". They've been here since long before the Last War, but have since then been repurposed into a Memorial Park, each representing one of the five continents of Vi Eltera, with Dumant sitting at the very middle, usually surrounded by flowers and keepsakes
CURRENT MAP
MAP KEY
- Echo (E)
- Romero (R)
- Arknor (A)
- Captain Kogan (K)
- Chauncey (C)
Green Circle- City Citizen
Blue Circle- City Scholar
Red Circle- A “Child of Null”
Black-Plinths- Monument Stones. Impassable terrain. Provide Full Cover vs. ranged attacks
Blue Hatched Areas- Water. Entering or leaving this area is an immediate -10 ft. to your speed, and crossing it is difficult terrain, but it provides full cover for any sources of damage from overhead (but not from any other creatures in the water next to you) and immunity to fire damage
Green-Trees- Foliage. Considered difficult terrain. Provides Half-Cover (+2 Bonus to AC and Dexterity Saving Throws vs. ranged attacks). Too wet to start aflame at this time
Orange-Horizontal-Four-Sticks- Supplies and Equipment Stashes. Considered difficult terrain. At this location or adjacent, you can make one of two Check as an Action= Investigation (DC-14): Search the pile for any scrap of dangerous technology/explosive looking rods/whirring overhead cranes you could utilize strategically. Perception (DC-14): Search the pile for sharp things to throw/use to shield yourself from the Ooze-Rain/odd tools you could utilize strategically.
NOTES:
- Dumant Monument is currently spitting “The Ooze” into the skies at the rate of roughly once every six seconds (ie., every end of the round). To represent this, at the end of every round, I’ll roll a d4= on a 4- The Inventor manages to stopper the Machine for one turn, fully containing the Ooze; 3- The Ooze bursts into the sky, and the fallout hits 1 City Citizen or 1 City Scholar at random; 2- The Ooze blasts into the sky, and the fallout creates x2 Ooze puddles at random points around the map (considered impassable terrain); 1- The Ooze bursts into the sky, and the fallout hits one random PC (I’ll roll another d4 to determine who), forcing a Dex Save (DC-12) and a Constitution Save (DC-14) to avoid contamination
- Arknor: Your remaining entourage of Chauncey and Captain Korgan (the one competent, the other not-so-much) may be considered your temporary Companions, and will respond to (though not necessarily follow) your instructions
- Iskra: Advantage on any Charisma Checks to convince Citizens to obey your orders/run away/mount a self-defense (as a Bonus Action!), (along the lines of, Iskra’s the big scary monster they know vs. the ones they don’t, in this particular case)
- Romero: Advantage on any Investigation Checks to mess with the supply and equipment caches, from all your recent machinery experience
- Echo:
INITIATIVE ORDER
2. ARKNOR
3. ECHO
4. ROMERO
5. ISKRA
6. Mister Summerman
7. Captain Kogan
8. Chauncey
9. City Scholars
10. The Inventor
11. “Children of the Null”
12. "Ooze Roulette"
YOUR MISSION
Survive the Crisis in City Center! You’re each currently surrounded by infectious monsters, scared looking people, and danger almost everywhere you turn…you’ll need to keep eyes and ears open and make allies and fast, if you wish to survive this day…
The City Citizens will take the first move (after I've had my coffee), followed (handily!) by ARKNOR, ECHO, ISKRA, and ROMERO in whatever order you guys choose to act!
Yes!