Scourge of the Slave Lords
A1 – Slave Pits of the Undercity
A Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition PBP game
Recruitment Threat.
So I have lurked here on EN for many, many years and only recently joined (don’t know why, partly due to WOTC closing their website) and thought I would try my hand here.
As this is my first attempt at PBP here I want to start a bit slow and maybe only 4-5 players, all whom would be willing to post at least one a day during the week (a bit less during the weekend is ok). I don’t want to say first come, first serve but that might be the best to start.
Here is a bit of background about the setting and how to make a character. The game will be set in the World of Greyhawk (pre-Greyhawk Wars, but I not much of a purist, just like the overall setting).
Questions, comments, thoughts? Post em here also.
[sblock=Background]
The setting is Greyhawk pre-Greyhawk Wars.
Once a minor jewel of the barons of the Pomarj, Highport was the center of a bustling shipping and trading industry. But a dark tide of death swelled out of the hills - murderous bands of humanoids. Highport was too rich a target to be ignored, and although it resisted, five times repulsing the attackers with bloody losses, it could not stand. A whirlwind of destruction entered the town: fires, lightning, and hail mixed with the savagery of the attackers. Highport burned and its few remaining citizens were slaughtered.
Much of port today remains in ruins dating back to "The Night of the Bloody Spear," a legacy of that great conquest. But slowly the city is being rebuilt and repopulated. It is now ruled by a coalition of humanoid tribes, split by factions and blood-feuds. Humans and demihumans have slowly returned: none of the original inhabitants, but evil men with evil reputations. Half-humans mix freely with full-blood humans and humanoids. Justice is unknown and the laws are simple: a strong sword-arm is judge and executioner, a dark alley the execution ground.
Still, the lure of trade and profit brings many here. But it is a much different trade than what it once was - an evil trade dealing in misery and hardship. Many slaves pass through this port to stand on the block in its dark markets. Many come to buy. And all are under the eyes of the slave lords.
===
For years now, the dark humanoid races that shacked the old city (now called Port Fury by most residence and sailors of Wooly Bay and the Wild Coast) have made a living by raiding the coastal towns around them. They descend quickly and ruthlessly; pillaging, killing and carrying off innocent citizens into the night. Feuding amongst the lands of the north and lack of funds (and the growing threat out of the lands of the Horned Society and Iuz) have prevented all but an occasional naval battle with the villains and the slow fortifications of coastal towns. Bribery was often a more effective method of protecting one’s lands from incursion of these avaricious sea-wolves.
Recently, however, the attacks have become more frequent and vicious and the raiders venturing farther than ever before; from the Azure Sea all the way north onto the waters of Nyr Dyv (the Lake of Unknown Depth), A new organizing force has sprung up amidst the pirates and reavers. Calling themselves the Slavelords, the Nine and the Pirates of the Yellow Sail, they have burnt entire villages pulled down the walls of towns. Women, children and whole families have disappeared; and through bribes are accepted, the agreements of old are now ignored. Vast tracts of coastline have been reduced to ashes, left barren except for packs of wild dogs.
The free cities of Greyhawk, Dyvers, Hardby and Safeton, along with the nations of the Kingdom of Furyondy, and the County and Duchy of Urnst have finally become determined to take action against these raiders. Through information gained from escaped slaves, and those fortunate enough to have been found and bought by family and friends, the alliance has determined that the slavers are using Port Fury as a major hub of their illicit trade between the lands of the south and parts of the Old Kingdom.
While many have advised taking a fleet and crushing the port once and for all, no one is will to commit such a force. Instead the alliance has chosen a plan of stealth, and gathered several bands of adventures to infiltrate the settlement and find out where the slaves are taken and by whom. Caution is recommended, for the true strength and extent of this slaver ring is not known, but they seem stronger and better organized than the humanoids whom nominally rule the city appear.
As unknown ships are generally attacked on sight at Port Fury the group that the players are a part of have hired a captain of ill repute to take them the free port-city of Elredd, itself a vile cesspool of barely tolerated scum and villainy that still does some trade with the free cities. The twisted streets of Elredd are lined with taverns, brothels, gambling halls, and other vice dens. Its teeming market squares do a brisk trade in all manner of stolen goods and contraband, such as exotic silks, spices, poisons, and dark relics. From there they are to make their way south to Port Fury and the supposed lair of the Slavelords.[/sblock]
[sblock=Character Creation]I don't much care about your character sheet format, as long as it's complete and legible.
Level: 5
Ability Scores: Standard 27-point buy or array
Alignment: This goes for personality as well, but I would ask for your character to be heroic. They can be selfish or conceited, but when the chips are down, they need to want to do the right thing. With that in mind, please no evil characters.
Hit Points: take the average for your class given in the PHB for each level after 1st.
Character Options: Feats, Variant Humans, and Multiclassing are all okay. Dragonborn don’t really exist in Greyhawk and Teiflings are rare and seen as pretty evil and untrustworthy. I am inclined to say no unless you have some great backstory.
Starting Gear: As 5th level characters, assume that you start with pretty much any basic gear you want, along with your choice of armor (and a backup set if you want to carry it), weapon(s), etc. plus 500gp that you spend that on common consumable magic items--potions of healing or 1st-level spell scrolls--for 50gp each.
Background: The game starts with the PCs on the ship The Ghoul under the captain known only as ‘The Mad Elf’. He and his crew of privateers hired out of Hardby. The crew and the captain are all dirty and ill-tempered and the party had been warned not to trust them overly much as they are not above raiding those they have not been ‘commissioned by Hardby’ to. The game starts as the ship is pulling into the port of Elreed with the following description (that will be repeated in the IC part of the game)…
The port of Elredd is a dark and reeking place. Garbage and dead fish float on the surface of the brackish harbor. A battered fleet of fishing smacks are lashed to the moorings, and a few broken-down cogs lumber at anchor. Ramshackle huts and buildings lean precipitously over the stone quay. For all its decay, the port pulses with activity with shouts and cries from various taverns lining the quay and spilling out onto its filthy streets.
The Mad Elf bids the party farewell, able to spare just a few words of caution given the tremendous profit he has made from them: “ ’Tis a wicked place, I tell ye. Aye, a leaking bilge o’ rat-water, or me Ewe’s nae the swiftest o’ this coast.”
“If’in ye wants to do some pokin’ around here, I would suggest the Broken Rubber just over yonder. But I would keep a hand on yer weapons and not sleep ther’ were I ye."
Notes: I will probably grant each character a starting magical item or two BUT you don’t get to choice it per-say. Give me a list of 4 or 5 minor Uncommon items and I will determine what you get either randomly or chose what I think would fit best in the game. [/sblock]
[sblock=House Rules]I don't have much, except these two…
Most of the time I will allow you to roll your own dice but for Initiative (just to get any combats going as fast as possible), or certain secret rolls I will make them
Also I think that I am going to use some kind of Group Initiative for PBP game. Everyone will still get a roll, but if the group of characters wins they all go first but if the set of bad guys wins they all go first, etc.
If we need to add some later ok we will.
Maybe a suggestion for a good online die roller would be helpful
[/sblock]
A1 – Slave Pits of the Undercity
A Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition PBP game
Recruitment Threat.
So I have lurked here on EN for many, many years and only recently joined (don’t know why, partly due to WOTC closing their website) and thought I would try my hand here.
As this is my first attempt at PBP here I want to start a bit slow and maybe only 4-5 players, all whom would be willing to post at least one a day during the week (a bit less during the weekend is ok). I don’t want to say first come, first serve but that might be the best to start.
Here is a bit of background about the setting and how to make a character. The game will be set in the World of Greyhawk (pre-Greyhawk Wars, but I not much of a purist, just like the overall setting).
Questions, comments, thoughts? Post em here also.
[sblock=Background]
The setting is Greyhawk pre-Greyhawk Wars.
Once a minor jewel of the barons of the Pomarj, Highport was the center of a bustling shipping and trading industry. But a dark tide of death swelled out of the hills - murderous bands of humanoids. Highport was too rich a target to be ignored, and although it resisted, five times repulsing the attackers with bloody losses, it could not stand. A whirlwind of destruction entered the town: fires, lightning, and hail mixed with the savagery of the attackers. Highport burned and its few remaining citizens were slaughtered.
Much of port today remains in ruins dating back to "The Night of the Bloody Spear," a legacy of that great conquest. But slowly the city is being rebuilt and repopulated. It is now ruled by a coalition of humanoid tribes, split by factions and blood-feuds. Humans and demihumans have slowly returned: none of the original inhabitants, but evil men with evil reputations. Half-humans mix freely with full-blood humans and humanoids. Justice is unknown and the laws are simple: a strong sword-arm is judge and executioner, a dark alley the execution ground.
Still, the lure of trade and profit brings many here. But it is a much different trade than what it once was - an evil trade dealing in misery and hardship. Many slaves pass through this port to stand on the block in its dark markets. Many come to buy. And all are under the eyes of the slave lords.
===
For years now, the dark humanoid races that shacked the old city (now called Port Fury by most residence and sailors of Wooly Bay and the Wild Coast) have made a living by raiding the coastal towns around them. They descend quickly and ruthlessly; pillaging, killing and carrying off innocent citizens into the night. Feuding amongst the lands of the north and lack of funds (and the growing threat out of the lands of the Horned Society and Iuz) have prevented all but an occasional naval battle with the villains and the slow fortifications of coastal towns. Bribery was often a more effective method of protecting one’s lands from incursion of these avaricious sea-wolves.
Recently, however, the attacks have become more frequent and vicious and the raiders venturing farther than ever before; from the Azure Sea all the way north onto the waters of Nyr Dyv (the Lake of Unknown Depth), A new organizing force has sprung up amidst the pirates and reavers. Calling themselves the Slavelords, the Nine and the Pirates of the Yellow Sail, they have burnt entire villages pulled down the walls of towns. Women, children and whole families have disappeared; and through bribes are accepted, the agreements of old are now ignored. Vast tracts of coastline have been reduced to ashes, left barren except for packs of wild dogs.
The free cities of Greyhawk, Dyvers, Hardby and Safeton, along with the nations of the Kingdom of Furyondy, and the County and Duchy of Urnst have finally become determined to take action against these raiders. Through information gained from escaped slaves, and those fortunate enough to have been found and bought by family and friends, the alliance has determined that the slavers are using Port Fury as a major hub of their illicit trade between the lands of the south and parts of the Old Kingdom.
While many have advised taking a fleet and crushing the port once and for all, no one is will to commit such a force. Instead the alliance has chosen a plan of stealth, and gathered several bands of adventures to infiltrate the settlement and find out where the slaves are taken and by whom. Caution is recommended, for the true strength and extent of this slaver ring is not known, but they seem stronger and better organized than the humanoids whom nominally rule the city appear.
As unknown ships are generally attacked on sight at Port Fury the group that the players are a part of have hired a captain of ill repute to take them the free port-city of Elredd, itself a vile cesspool of barely tolerated scum and villainy that still does some trade with the free cities. The twisted streets of Elredd are lined with taverns, brothels, gambling halls, and other vice dens. Its teeming market squares do a brisk trade in all manner of stolen goods and contraband, such as exotic silks, spices, poisons, and dark relics. From there they are to make their way south to Port Fury and the supposed lair of the Slavelords.[/sblock]
[sblock=Character Creation]I don't much care about your character sheet format, as long as it's complete and legible.
Level: 5
Ability Scores: Standard 27-point buy or array
Alignment: This goes for personality as well, but I would ask for your character to be heroic. They can be selfish or conceited, but when the chips are down, they need to want to do the right thing. With that in mind, please no evil characters.
Hit Points: take the average for your class given in the PHB for each level after 1st.
Character Options: Feats, Variant Humans, and Multiclassing are all okay. Dragonborn don’t really exist in Greyhawk and Teiflings are rare and seen as pretty evil and untrustworthy. I am inclined to say no unless you have some great backstory.
Starting Gear: As 5th level characters, assume that you start with pretty much any basic gear you want, along with your choice of armor (and a backup set if you want to carry it), weapon(s), etc. plus 500gp that you spend that on common consumable magic items--potions of healing or 1st-level spell scrolls--for 50gp each.
Background: The game starts with the PCs on the ship The Ghoul under the captain known only as ‘The Mad Elf’. He and his crew of privateers hired out of Hardby. The crew and the captain are all dirty and ill-tempered and the party had been warned not to trust them overly much as they are not above raiding those they have not been ‘commissioned by Hardby’ to. The game starts as the ship is pulling into the port of Elreed with the following description (that will be repeated in the IC part of the game)…
The port of Elredd is a dark and reeking place. Garbage and dead fish float on the surface of the brackish harbor. A battered fleet of fishing smacks are lashed to the moorings, and a few broken-down cogs lumber at anchor. Ramshackle huts and buildings lean precipitously over the stone quay. For all its decay, the port pulses with activity with shouts and cries from various taverns lining the quay and spilling out onto its filthy streets.
The Mad Elf bids the party farewell, able to spare just a few words of caution given the tremendous profit he has made from them: “ ’Tis a wicked place, I tell ye. Aye, a leaking bilge o’ rat-water, or me Ewe’s nae the swiftest o’ this coast.”
“If’in ye wants to do some pokin’ around here, I would suggest the Broken Rubber just over yonder. But I would keep a hand on yer weapons and not sleep ther’ were I ye."
Notes: I will probably grant each character a starting magical item or two BUT you don’t get to choice it per-say. Give me a list of 4 or 5 minor Uncommon items and I will determine what you get either randomly or chose what I think would fit best in the game. [/sblock]
[sblock=House Rules]I don't have much, except these two…
Most of the time I will allow you to roll your own dice but for Initiative (just to get any combats going as fast as possible), or certain secret rolls I will make them
Also I think that I am going to use some kind of Group Initiative for PBP game. Everyone will still get a roll, but if the group of characters wins they all go first but if the set of bad guys wins they all go first, etc.
If we need to add some later ok we will.
Maybe a suggestion for a good online die roller would be helpful
[/sblock]
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