airwalkrr
Adventurer
Recruitment Thread
Rogue's Gallery
IC Thread
[sblock=Player's Background]
The Village of Hommlet--or merely "Hommlet," as it is commonly called--is situated in the central part of the Flaness, that portion of western Oerik Continent which is known and 'civilized.' The hamlet-sized village (local parlance having distinguished it with the greater term) is located some 30 leagues southeast of the town of Verbobonc, or thereabouts, on the fringe of the territory controlled by the noble Lord the Viscount of Verbobonc. It is at a crossroads.
To the north is the mighty Velverdyva River, along whose south bank runs the Lowroad. Many days' travel to the east, on the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths (Nyr Dyv), is the great walled city of Dyvers. The village of Sobanwych lies about halfway along the route. Below that to the southeast and east are miles and miles of forest (the Gnarley), beyond which is the Wild Coast, Woolly Bay, and the Sea of Gearnat. The road south forks a league or so beyond the little community, one branch meandering off towards the Wild Coast, the other rolling through the lower Kron Hills to the village of Ostverk and then eventually turning southwards again into the elven kingdom of Celene. The western route leads into the very heart of the gnomish highlands, passing through Greenway Valley about a day's travel distant and going onwards to the Lortmil Mountains far beyond.
Hommlet grew from a farm or two, a rest house, and a smithy. The roads brought a sufficient number of travelers and merchant wagons to attract tradesmen and artisans to serve those passing through. The resthouse became a thriving inn, and a wheel and wainwright settled in the thorp. More farmers and herdsmen followed, for grain was needed for the passing animals, and meat was in demand for the innfolk.
Prosperity was great, for the lord of the district was mild and taxed but little. Trade was good, and the land was untroubled by war, outlaws, or ravaging beasts. The area was free, beautiful, and bountiful--too much so, in the eyes of some.
Whether the evil came west from Dyvers (as is claimed by one faction) or crept up out of the forestlands bordering the Wild Coast (as others assert), come it did. At first it was only a few thieves and an odd group of bandits molesting the merchant caravans. Then came small bands of humanoids--kobolds or goblins--raiding the flocks and herds. Local militia and foresters of the Waldgraf of Ostverk apparently checked, but did not stop, the spread of outlawry and evil.
A collection of hovels and their slovenly inhabitants formed the nucleus for the troubles which were to increase. A wicked cleric established a small chapel at this point. The folk of Hommlet tended to ignore this place, Nulb, even though it was but 6 miles distant. But its out-of-the-way position was ideal for the fell purposes planned for this settlement, as was its position on a small river flowing into the Velverdyva. The thickets and marshes around Nulb became the lair and hiding place for bandits, brigands, and all sorts of evil men and monsters alike. The chapel grew into a stone temple as its faithful brought in their ill-gotten tithes. Good folk were robed, pillaged, enslaved, and worse.
In but three years, a grim and forbidding fortress surrounded the evil place, and swarms of creatures worshiped and worked their wickedness therein. The servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil made Hommlet and the lands of leagues around a mockery of freedom and beauty. Commerce ceased, crops withered; pestilence was abroad.
But the leaders of this cancer were full of hubris and, in their overweaning pride, sought to overthrow the good realms to the north, who were coming to the rescue of the land being crushed under the tyranny wrought by the evil temple. A great battle was fought.
When the good people of Hommlet saw streams of ochre-robed men and humanoids fleeing south and west through their community, there was great rejoicing, for they knew that the murderous oppressors had been defeated and driven from the field in panic and rout. So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon. The place was ruined and sealed against a further return of such abominations by powerful blessings and magic.
Life in Hommlet quickly returned to a semblance of its former self, before the rise of the temple. For five years afterward, the village and the surrounding countryside have become richer and more prosperous than ever before. A monstrous troll which plagued the place for a time was hunted down by a party of passing adventurers. Carrying the ashes and a goodly fortune as well, the adventurers returned to the village. Before going elsewhere to sek their fortunes, the adventurers also returned a portion of the villagers' losses. Other adventurers, knowing of the evil that had once resided in the area, came to seek out similar caches, and several did find remote lairs and wealth--just as some never returned at all.
After a time, adventurers stopped coming to the area. It seemed that no monsters were left to slay, and no evil existed here to be stamped out. The villagers heaved a collective sigh--some pained at the loss of income, but others relieved by the return to the quiet, normal life--and Hommlet continued its quiet existence for four years more.
But then, a year ago, the bandits begain to ride the roads again--not frequently, but to some effect. To the good folk of Hommlet, this seemed all too familiar, so they sent word to the Viscount that wicked forces might still lurk thereabouts. This information has been spread throughout the countryside, and the news has attracted outsiders to the village once again. Who and what these men are, no one can be quite sure. All claim to be bent on slaying monsters and bringing peace and security to Hommlet; but deeds speak more loudly than words, and lies cloak the true purposes of the malevolent.[/sblock]
[sblock=Campaign Rules]
This campaign is a conversion of the classic adventure to 3.5. I will accept 4-6 players, depending on the quality of submissions. In any event I will accept at least one character from each of the four traditional fantasy archetypes of warrior, mage, thief, and priest. I will choose among the entries characters that I believe have the potential to work with each other. Keep background brief and simple. Allow it to develop more during play. There are many opportunities for roleplaying in this campaign.
Character Creation
Roll ability scores on invisiblecastle using your enworld screen name and Airwalkrr's ToEE as the subject. If you do not have at least one score higher than 13 and a net modifier total of at least +1, you may reroll.
Characters begin at 1st level and may be of any class or race described in WotC-published materials excepting those specific to other settings. You may freely use such materials to create your character, but see Training, below, for the implications of choosing an unusual character concept. Also note that monster races are treated with contempt at best by the civilized peoples of Greyhawk. Even variations of the more common races, such as grey elves, differ sufficiently in appearance to be treated with disregard at best; choose your race judiciously. The default starting attitude of other NPCs towards monster races is generally hostile while that towards unusual subraces is generally unfriendly. In areas of greater racial prejudice, starting attitudes may be worse.
All characters begin at adult age. Otherwise, details of character description must simply be within the norms for that character's race. Regarding religion, see the attached document for a conversion of Greyhawk deities, including special guidelines for clerics.
Training
Characters are required to spend a certain amount of time in training, practicing the fundamentals of new abilities, each time they receive experience points sufficient to rise in level. Characters spend years practicing the skills needed to arrive at 1st level, while developing those skills once the foundations are laid is easier, it still requires practice to master those new abilities. Put simply, experience points alone do not earn a new level.
Training requires appropriate facilities and time spent in consultation, study, and practice, plus an instructor of higher level in the same class to teach the basics of class abilities. If such a character cannot be found, the time spent training is doubled. Improving skills that can only be used trained also requires an instructor with higher ranks in the skill or the training time is increased by 1 week per rank. Learning a new feat or spell also requires an instructor who knows that feat or spell; otherwise it must be researched (see below).
In many cases this training can be glossed over, especially in the case of abilities found in the core rulebooks. Instructors with more unusual abilities are respectively more difficult to locate. Because of this, characters wishing to learn unusual abilities like psionics are likely to require more time training. This gives the forces of evil more time to recuperate, and possibly even time to launch a counterattack...
Research
Research can be done to see if a certain ability, spell, feat, or magic item is possible in the campaign. Research time and cost varies according to the item, but you must consult with non-player characters or libraries to gain guidance on how to correctly proceed with research.
House Rules
You will need access to a copy of Unearthed Arcana for this campaign. I use the following variants.
-Automatic Hits and Misses (DMG 25)
-Massive Damage Based on Size (DMG 27)
-Weapon Equivalencies (DMG 27)
-Softer Critical Hits (DMG 28)
-Upkeep (DMG 130); you must select an upkeep at the beginning of each month, including during character creation; note there are potential penalties for selecting an upkeep less than standard
-Weapon Group Feats (UA 94); but exotic weapons require the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat
-Death and Dying (UA 121)
-Magic Rating (UA 135)
-Spontaneous Metamagic: Daily Uses (UA 151)
-Test-Based Prerequisites (UA 210)
-Level-Independent XP Awards (UA 213)
-Magic Item Creation: Rather than costing XP, magic item creation involves a Complex Skill Check (see UA 81) using the Craft (magic item) skill and requiring the relevant feat. Note there may be penalties for failing a magic item creation check.
-Wands and Scrolls: Both use the caster's caster level and save DC.
-Power Attack: This feat applies a -4 penalty to your attack roll and doubles the damage dice of your weapon, even a light weapon. Bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit.
-No skill synergy bonuses.
-Team initiative: I will roll 1d20 and apply every PC's inititiative modifier to that roll individually. The same will be done with enemies. (This speeds up play in pbp.)
[/sblock]
Rogue's Gallery
IC Thread
[sblock=Player's Background]
The Village of Hommlet--or merely "Hommlet," as it is commonly called--is situated in the central part of the Flaness, that portion of western Oerik Continent which is known and 'civilized.' The hamlet-sized village (local parlance having distinguished it with the greater term) is located some 30 leagues southeast of the town of Verbobonc, or thereabouts, on the fringe of the territory controlled by the noble Lord the Viscount of Verbobonc. It is at a crossroads.
To the north is the mighty Velverdyva River, along whose south bank runs the Lowroad. Many days' travel to the east, on the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths (Nyr Dyv), is the great walled city of Dyvers. The village of Sobanwych lies about halfway along the route. Below that to the southeast and east are miles and miles of forest (the Gnarley), beyond which is the Wild Coast, Woolly Bay, and the Sea of Gearnat. The road south forks a league or so beyond the little community, one branch meandering off towards the Wild Coast, the other rolling through the lower Kron Hills to the village of Ostverk and then eventually turning southwards again into the elven kingdom of Celene. The western route leads into the very heart of the gnomish highlands, passing through Greenway Valley about a day's travel distant and going onwards to the Lortmil Mountains far beyond.
Hommlet grew from a farm or two, a rest house, and a smithy. The roads brought a sufficient number of travelers and merchant wagons to attract tradesmen and artisans to serve those passing through. The resthouse became a thriving inn, and a wheel and wainwright settled in the thorp. More farmers and herdsmen followed, for grain was needed for the passing animals, and meat was in demand for the innfolk.
Prosperity was great, for the lord of the district was mild and taxed but little. Trade was good, and the land was untroubled by war, outlaws, or ravaging beasts. The area was free, beautiful, and bountiful--too much so, in the eyes of some.
Whether the evil came west from Dyvers (as is claimed by one faction) or crept up out of the forestlands bordering the Wild Coast (as others assert), come it did. At first it was only a few thieves and an odd group of bandits molesting the merchant caravans. Then came small bands of humanoids--kobolds or goblins--raiding the flocks and herds. Local militia and foresters of the Waldgraf of Ostverk apparently checked, but did not stop, the spread of outlawry and evil.
A collection of hovels and their slovenly inhabitants formed the nucleus for the troubles which were to increase. A wicked cleric established a small chapel at this point. The folk of Hommlet tended to ignore this place, Nulb, even though it was but 6 miles distant. But its out-of-the-way position was ideal for the fell purposes planned for this settlement, as was its position on a small river flowing into the Velverdyva. The thickets and marshes around Nulb became the lair and hiding place for bandits, brigands, and all sorts of evil men and monsters alike. The chapel grew into a stone temple as its faithful brought in their ill-gotten tithes. Good folk were robed, pillaged, enslaved, and worse.
In but three years, a grim and forbidding fortress surrounded the evil place, and swarms of creatures worshiped and worked their wickedness therein. The servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil made Hommlet and the lands of leagues around a mockery of freedom and beauty. Commerce ceased, crops withered; pestilence was abroad.
But the leaders of this cancer were full of hubris and, in their overweaning pride, sought to overthrow the good realms to the north, who were coming to the rescue of the land being crushed under the tyranny wrought by the evil temple. A great battle was fought.
When the good people of Hommlet saw streams of ochre-robed men and humanoids fleeing south and west through their community, there was great rejoicing, for they knew that the murderous oppressors had been defeated and driven from the field in panic and rout. So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon. The place was ruined and sealed against a further return of such abominations by powerful blessings and magic.
Life in Hommlet quickly returned to a semblance of its former self, before the rise of the temple. For five years afterward, the village and the surrounding countryside have become richer and more prosperous than ever before. A monstrous troll which plagued the place for a time was hunted down by a party of passing adventurers. Carrying the ashes and a goodly fortune as well, the adventurers returned to the village. Before going elsewhere to sek their fortunes, the adventurers also returned a portion of the villagers' losses. Other adventurers, knowing of the evil that had once resided in the area, came to seek out similar caches, and several did find remote lairs and wealth--just as some never returned at all.
After a time, adventurers stopped coming to the area. It seemed that no monsters were left to slay, and no evil existed here to be stamped out. The villagers heaved a collective sigh--some pained at the loss of income, but others relieved by the return to the quiet, normal life--and Hommlet continued its quiet existence for four years more.
But then, a year ago, the bandits begain to ride the roads again--not frequently, but to some effect. To the good folk of Hommlet, this seemed all too familiar, so they sent word to the Viscount that wicked forces might still lurk thereabouts. This information has been spread throughout the countryside, and the news has attracted outsiders to the village once again. Who and what these men are, no one can be quite sure. All claim to be bent on slaying monsters and bringing peace and security to Hommlet; but deeds speak more loudly than words, and lies cloak the true purposes of the malevolent.[/sblock]
[sblock=Campaign Rules]
This campaign is a conversion of the classic adventure to 3.5. I will accept 4-6 players, depending on the quality of submissions. In any event I will accept at least one character from each of the four traditional fantasy archetypes of warrior, mage, thief, and priest. I will choose among the entries characters that I believe have the potential to work with each other. Keep background brief and simple. Allow it to develop more during play. There are many opportunities for roleplaying in this campaign.
Character Creation
Roll ability scores on invisiblecastle using your enworld screen name and Airwalkrr's ToEE as the subject. If you do not have at least one score higher than 13 and a net modifier total of at least +1, you may reroll.
Characters begin at 1st level and may be of any class or race described in WotC-published materials excepting those specific to other settings. You may freely use such materials to create your character, but see Training, below, for the implications of choosing an unusual character concept. Also note that monster races are treated with contempt at best by the civilized peoples of Greyhawk. Even variations of the more common races, such as grey elves, differ sufficiently in appearance to be treated with disregard at best; choose your race judiciously. The default starting attitude of other NPCs towards monster races is generally hostile while that towards unusual subraces is generally unfriendly. In areas of greater racial prejudice, starting attitudes may be worse.
All characters begin at adult age. Otherwise, details of character description must simply be within the norms for that character's race. Regarding religion, see the attached document for a conversion of Greyhawk deities, including special guidelines for clerics.
Training
Characters are required to spend a certain amount of time in training, practicing the fundamentals of new abilities, each time they receive experience points sufficient to rise in level. Characters spend years practicing the skills needed to arrive at 1st level, while developing those skills once the foundations are laid is easier, it still requires practice to master those new abilities. Put simply, experience points alone do not earn a new level.
Training requires appropriate facilities and time spent in consultation, study, and practice, plus an instructor of higher level in the same class to teach the basics of class abilities. If such a character cannot be found, the time spent training is doubled. Improving skills that can only be used trained also requires an instructor with higher ranks in the skill or the training time is increased by 1 week per rank. Learning a new feat or spell also requires an instructor who knows that feat or spell; otherwise it must be researched (see below).
In many cases this training can be glossed over, especially in the case of abilities found in the core rulebooks. Instructors with more unusual abilities are respectively more difficult to locate. Because of this, characters wishing to learn unusual abilities like psionics are likely to require more time training. This gives the forces of evil more time to recuperate, and possibly even time to launch a counterattack...
Research
Research can be done to see if a certain ability, spell, feat, or magic item is possible in the campaign. Research time and cost varies according to the item, but you must consult with non-player characters or libraries to gain guidance on how to correctly proceed with research.
House Rules
You will need access to a copy of Unearthed Arcana for this campaign. I use the following variants.
-Automatic Hits and Misses (DMG 25)
-Massive Damage Based on Size (DMG 27)
-Weapon Equivalencies (DMG 27)
-Softer Critical Hits (DMG 28)
-Upkeep (DMG 130); you must select an upkeep at the beginning of each month, including during character creation; note there are potential penalties for selecting an upkeep less than standard
-Weapon Group Feats (UA 94); but exotic weapons require the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat
-Death and Dying (UA 121)
-Magic Rating (UA 135)
-Spontaneous Metamagic: Daily Uses (UA 151)
-Test-Based Prerequisites (UA 210)
-Level-Independent XP Awards (UA 213)
-Magic Item Creation: Rather than costing XP, magic item creation involves a Complex Skill Check (see UA 81) using the Craft (magic item) skill and requiring the relevant feat. Note there may be penalties for failing a magic item creation check.
-Wands and Scrolls: Both use the caster's caster level and save DC.
-Power Attack: This feat applies a -4 penalty to your attack roll and doubles the damage dice of your weapon, even a light weapon. Bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit.
-No skill synergy bonuses.
-Team initiative: I will roll 1d20 and apply every PC's inititiative modifier to that roll individually. The same will be done with enemies. (This speeds up play in pbp.)
[/sblock]
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