Crypt of Crimson Stars OOC [Full]

Crypt of Crimson Stars

Rumors of an Eberron dragonshard of enormous size and power have reached the ears of Tophran Damilek, one of Sharn’s wealthiest citizens. Unfortunately, the shard seems to be concealed within a trap-laden temple-tomb, a tomb itself located below a village of cruel halfling nomads and their dinosaur pets.
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I'm now recruiting for this, the first of the 3-part "Shards of Eberron" campaign arc which will be running for the next couple of months in Dungeon Magazine.

I'm looking for four 7th level characters, although I might be persuaded to take five, if the quality of submissions is high. Rather than make this a first-come, first-served type of affair, I'm going to hold the thread open for 3-4 days just to solicit character ideas. Just a paragraph or two will suffice, detailing your ideas for race and class, personality, description and so forth (a detailed background isn't necessary). I'll choose my four (or five) players from the mix, based on creativity, Eberron 'flavor', and party balance. Just stick to a write-up for now, I don't want any character sheets...we'll go over those details once we know who's playing.

I'll consider ideas from any WOTC published book, although I may ask for more detail as I don't own them all.

edit: The game will open in the city of Sharn, under the presupposition that the characters are already acquainted and an established adventuring company. If you do choose to write up some backstory, please keep this in mind.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate...I'm sure I forgot something.

Looking forward....
Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy

Just a friendly lil' bump

I'm interested, but I don't have any eberron material, or know much about it, is this something I could pick up on the fly?




YOUR MY NORGAY!

cool hand luke said:

I'm interested, but I don't have any eberron material, or know much about it, is this something I could pick up on the fly?

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Well, it's a pretty detailed setting, so it might be pretty difficult to create a character with the right 'feel'.

There is quite a lot of supplemental material on the WOTC site, with some reading you could probably pick up enough to put together a character.

(As an aside, you get 1 bonus fictional xp for catching the name reference )

Here's an idea I have for a shifter druid:

Kershalt hummed to himself as he watched the village below, idly stroking Mershalk’s fur, being careful to avoid his spikes. Golden brown eyes under bushy brows regarded the place cautiously, and his thickly-bearded face showed faint curiosity. Despite the fact that his shifter heritage cried out to him to be in the wilderness, away from civilization, he repeatedly found himself drawn to towns and cities. The reason, he supposed, was the Last War.

Everyone had been affected by the Last War, himself as much as anyone. A native of the Eldeen Reaches, he had been recruited as a scout and skirmisher. Though young, he gained experience quickly, for those that did not, died. He became known for his tenacity and ferocity when taking out enemy scouts, and more than once crawled back to the base camp with wounds that would have killed a lesser man. Five years he spent fighting in the war, before the treaty was signed. Suddenly free of his responsibilities, he found himself with little to do.

Even as a young boy, Kershalt had been drawn to the creatures of the woods; not at all surprising for a shifter. His parents raised him kindly, taught him to respect both the wild woods and the more cultivated lands. But shifters have many characteristics of beasts, and pushing their younglings into the world when they’re mature is one of them. At nine years of age, Kershalt was encouraged to leave his homestead. His parents had a new baby to care for, and it was high time for him to depart. Kershalt walked into the woods, and did not emerge for another three years.

During that time a Warden of the Wood, a human druid named Inshen, took the young shifter boy underneath her wing. She taught him druidic magic to go along with his wild instincts, and helped him find an animal friend to share his life with. With her guidance, he rescued a young dire rat and nursed the animal back to health. At twelve years of age, Inshen died when a battle raged through their woods. Running and hiding, his new friend in tow, Kershalt fled from the battles that had slain his mentor. It was another three years before he had gained the strength, courage, and skill to emerge from the woods.

The Wardens of the Wood began to seek out solitary druids and rangers, to recruit them to help protect the villages, towns, and woods. Kershalt’s solitary nature and skill in the wilderness made him a natural scout, and he willing fought and killed those that would defile those places in his charge. In his mind, each death helped return life to the earth, life that had been robbed when Inshen died.

Now he worked with the Wardens of the Wood again, helping protect villages and forests again, but this time his cause was not necessarily lethal. Now he warded off large predators, helped with the harvests, rounded up stray livestock, and discouraged bandits. There was a curious freedom in that, and one that allowed him plenty of time in the peaceful and prosperous towns.

He always tried to present a good front when entering a town, brushing his beard and hair, making sure his clothes were clean, and combing Mershalk’s fur and polishing his spikes. The rat suffered the simple leather leash Kershalt put on him, treating it as a game, because it made the townsfolk feel better about the dog-sized spiked rat. Chortling softly to himself, Kershalt made his way down the slope to the village.

I'm going to see if my nieghbor has the book, if so, I'll read up on it tonight, and throw something together. I'd like to try to play a skill monkey type character, would you say this would be more outdoor (for scout) or dungeon (dungeon delver) or city (higher CHA) type campaign?

cool hand luke said:

I'm going to see if my nieghbor has the book, if so, I'll read up on it tonight, and throw something together. I'd like to try to play a skill monkey type character, would you say this would be more outdoor (for scout) or dungeon (dungeon delver) or city (higher CHA) type campaign?

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The first chapter has nice mix of outdoor and dungeon encounters. I'm not sure what the next two installments will hold, but I'd guess a healthy amount of dungeon-crawling throughout.

Isida Kep'Tukari said:

Here's an idea I have for a shifter druid:

Kershalt hummed to himself as he watched the village below...

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Hi, Isida!

Good concept here, the only thing I would mention right now is that the adventure will actually begin in Sharn, but that's really just a launching pad. I think I'll add a little something to the intro post to clarify.

I'm very interested in an Eberron pbp. I was involved in one a while back that just barely got off the ground before it stalled, and I'd like to revive the character I played in it. Is that done? Reusing a character? Anyhow, she was just first level, so she'd need some serious work, but the basic idea remains the same.

Her name is Aalin Ranohrel. She's a human artificer (and given her love of stories, probably with a level or two of bard by this point), originally from Aundair, though she relocated to Sharn. Here is what I wrote about her when I first created her:

"Aalin is a farm girl with a dream, and it isn’t to be a blacksmith. But then, apprenticing with the local smith, Maril, was just a cover. In fact, Maril wasn’t exactly what he appeared to be, either.

Aalin met Maril at age 11 when she accompanied her father to the workshop with a plough blade that needed to be repaired. The older man and the child struck up a friendship which lead to an apprenticeship in more than just blacksmithing.

In Maril, Aalin felt she had found an intellectual equal (such was her ego, even at that age) and he knew things...he knew about faraway places and strange creatures.

And magic.

Maril was not just a blacksmith. He was an Artificer, long since retired from a life of adventuring across Khorvaire and beyond, and now settled just outside the village of Bluevine in Aundair to live the quiet life of a smith.

He recognized the girl’s talent for magic almost immediately and realized that he might now have the chance to pass down some of his knowledge to someone else. He could also see that Aalin was not like other girls her age. She was pretty, charming and well-liked, but not well-understood. Maril knew Aalin would not be able to find a place for herself in the small community. It would have been different had her parents the resources to send her to school. But this was not to be.

Thus, she spent the next six years working in Maril’s workshop. There, she learned blacksmithing. She also listened raptly to his stories about exotic locations - the Pond of Shadows, Taer Sadaen, Dreadhold - and studied the languages of distant peoples and creatures.

And she learned about magic and began to dream of an adventurer’s life. The farm would no longer do. When she wasn’t at Maril’s, she was in her own workshop, in the hayloft of the family barn, where she practiced and worked on her own magical creations. Her parents despaired and the townspeople continued to talk.

Though he was clearly advancing in age, Maril had always seemed healthy and strong. So it was a shock to Aalin when, after a minor accident in the shop, her master fell ill. Local healing and Maril’s own skill with magic were not enough to overcome the infection, which continued to spread. Maril eventually died."

At this point, Aalin left her village to seek fame and fortune in Sharn. I imagine that between first and seventh levels she had some great adventures, lost a little of her naivete, became more worldly and probably more arrogant...but I'd like to think she's also retained a little of that sense of wonder at the workings of magic.

I can add more about her later (specifically what has been happening with her for the last several years) but right now I am at work and will have a meeting any second!

eabha said:

I'm very interested in an Eberron pbp. I was involved in one a while back that just barely got off the ground before it stalled, and I'd like to revive the character I played in it. Is that done? Reusing a character?

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Absolutely...you just did! Good concept, btw.