Anything But Normal, Sailing the Endless Falls... Characters Selected!

Isida Kep'Tukari

Adventurer
Supporter
The Endless Falls is a world of great extremes, of mountains that don't just scrape the sky, but pierce it, and if you care to climb, you could find yourself knocking on the door to the gods' realms, of plains that hold grass that nourishes animals of astounding size and power, and occasionally grass that eats the animals, of vast cities that span not just continents, but the transitive planes between, and all manner of creatures and knowledge can be found.

You are the crew of to-be-christaned isle-ship, a sailing vessel wrought of earth with living trees for masts, flowing with pure water, a well of fire in its heart, and its own breeze to follow it. Such a prize, however, doesn't come without price. Your deeds of daring and heroism won you the ship from a greatful omnielemental prince, but others of his court protested giving it to mere mortals. A violent coup took place, your prince was slain, and you were suddenly on the run, a high price on your heads.

You've sailed into the Sea of Fire and Ice, a treacherous near-ocean filled with currents of salt and pure water, stretches of ice and rimefire, flows of stones and desert waste, and waves of all sorts of elemental matter. Amongst this place you may find allies, as sure as your enemies will find you!

For everyone: I have a special prize for each character chosen. If you describe a part of the Endless Falls, a place where you lived, visited, fought, or what have you, or perhaps a person, a mentor, guardian, friend with some detail, I shall craft an item specifically for your character, something you received from your Prince as payment or gift for your duties.

I also have some additional information about the backstory and campaign type. Your omnielemental prince was named Taala. He had four brides of the four greater (read classic) elementals, and children of all conceivable elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental type. Taala oversaw the Kingdom of Knowledge, a small but powerful country no more than a few hundred square miles. It contains the massive Iceangel Lake and the twin mountains Ironguard and Stonemaw. There are environments here to satisfy nearly elemental.

There are two main exports of Kingdom of Knowledge: pure elements and prophecy. The great elemental weirds, keepers of knowledge and oracles without peer, reside in unusually high numbers in the kingdom, and Taala controls access to all of them. Those seeking their counsel pay homage and tribute to Taala or fumble through on their own wits.

The coup against Taala happened when he presented you with the isle-ship, though it was only an excuse to ignite resentment that had been brewing for years. By Taala's own laws, only greater elementals, omnielementals (MMIII), or tempests (MMII) could assume positions of power in his kingdom. He feels only a quartet of greater elementals or a single omnielemental or tempest can have a fair and balance viewpoint to rule the Kingdom of Knowledge.

This caused great resentment from the other elementals. The paraelmentals often had minor positions, as their duel-elemental nature gave them some insight, but could not ascend higher. But the quasi-elementals, with their smaller spheres, could not possibly be fair, and are barred from any kind of powerful position. Acid (ToHII), lightning (ToH), obsidian (ToHII), and storm (MMIII) elementals, along with other elemental creatures like the immoth (MMII), living holocaust (FF), and chraal (MMIII), grew terribly resentful and angry at their powerlessness. However, their resentment may have simmered forever, had it not been for the time and psionic elementals (both ToH).

Powerful beyond measure, but forbidden power over others as well as personal power, the royal time elementals, the leaders of the rebellion in progress, bided their time, waiting for the correct moment, for they knew the value of patience. When one of the rare, powerful, newly-complete isle-ships was given to fleshy mortal servants instead of any of Taala's deserving elemental brethren, that was the single spark that was needed to begin the coup.

The reason the royal time elementals are now on your tail is because you carry Taala's regalia with you. The crown, scepter, and orb of the Kingdom of Knowledge are bound to the soul of the land, and without them, no one can command the loyalty of the land's fey and weirds. Without this, the Kingdom of Knowledge cannot keep the lock on their goods, and the small but powerful kingdom with dissolve.

Your characters can try to find allies to do one or more of several things:

1. Hide the regalia and let the kingdom dissolve. The weirds will go their own way and be much harder to find as a result. You will still be hunted by the time elementals though.

2. Get someone to help retake the kingdom by force. If that's accomplished you can either:
2a - Install a quartet of Taala's children, or another related omnielemental or tempest on the throne.
2b - Install yourselves on the throne, changing the rules to suit.
2c - Put a third party on the throne, perhaps a pair of paraelementals to represent all four elements, or even some other entirely different elemental.


3. Get someone to help take the kingdom by trickery or deceit. This will have a longer time-span, and once accomplished, you could achieve a result similar to those above.

4. Some other wacky scheme that I can't even think of, but you might be able to.

As for some mechanics on the adventure itself... Your DM is inordinately fond of oozes, fey, elementals, aberrations, golems and other constructs, along with some vermin, odd giants, odd dragons, and magical beasts. I swear there is an ooze, dragon, and golem or construct for every occasion!

You will be less likely to see outsiders of any stripe, hordes of monstrous humanoids, or undead. I favor deceptive creatures, things that aren't always what they seem, things connected to nature, quirky things, and things that are very, very hungry. The ability to swiftly assess what you see would be an asset. Barring that, a way to cover all contingencies would be nice. Both a quick tongue and a quick blade will be useful.

~~~

This shall be my third and final game (as in I'm not starting any more until I finish another, to keep myself from overextending, not like I'm quitting or anything, heavens forfend!).

However, this one has a twist. Those of you who played in or read my short-lived epic game might remember the Endless Falls... and that I destroyed it to kick off that adventure. Needless to say, this will be a pre-destruction era.

You will be 8th level characters, 32 point-buy, standard wealth, hit points max at 1st, 75% +Con thereafter, round up.

BUT, here's the fun part, the classes and races from the Player's Handbook are banned. Yup. Banned. I want people to bust open their other books and play something weird and bizzare! Or at least, very unique. Below is what I own, but here is what I don't have: Spell Compendium, DMGII, Races of the Dragon, MMIV, or Complete Psionic.

I own and will allow people to draw from:

From Wizards of the Coast
PHB, DMG, MM (as necessary)
MMII, MMIII, Fiend Folio
Expanded Psionic's Handbook, PH II
Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness
Unearthed Arcana (alternate races/classes, 2 flaws allowed)
Frostburn, Sandstorm, and Stormwrack
Savage Species, Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes
Draconomicon, Arms and Equpiment Guide
Complete Adventurer, Arcane, Divine, and Warrior
Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, Song and Silence, Masters of the Wild
Miniature's Handbook, Ghostwalk, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness
Races of Destiny, Stone, and the Wild
Weapons of Legacy

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Player's Guide to Faerun, Magic of Faerun, Races of Faerun, Faiths and Pantheons, Monsters of Faerun, Champions of Ruin/Valor, Lords of Darkness, Lost Empires of Faerun, Underdark, Silver Marches, Shining South, Unapproachable East, Serpent Kingdoms

Eberron Campaign Setting
Races of Eberron, Magic of Eberron, Explorer's Handbook, Player's Guide to Eberron, Five Nations, Secrets of Xen'drick, Sharn City of Towers

Oriental Adventures

Dragon Magazine #277-346

Malhavoc Press
Arcana Evolved, Transcendence, Legacy of the Dragons

Book of Eldritch Might I, II, and III (I don't own the Complete Book of Eldritch Might)
Book of Hallowed Might I & II
When the Sky Falls, Requiem for a God
Hyperconsciousness
Chaositech

Fantasy Flight Games
Dawnforge, Age of Legends
Traps and Treachery I & II

Sword and Sorcery Studios
All things from this company are subject to nit-picking
Relics and Rituals, Creature Collection II, Psionics Toolkit

Green Ronin Publishing
Book of the Righteous (use Holy Warrior 3.5 update), Unholy Warrior's Handbook, Shaman's Handbook.

Necromancer Games
Tome of Horrors I & II

AEG
Subject to nit-picking
Dungeons, Dragons, Wilds

Bastion Press
Subject to nit-picking
Arms and Armor
Alchemy and Herbalism

Citizen Games
Subject to nit-picking
Way of the Witch

Goodman Games
Monsters of the Boundless Blue
Monsters of the Endless Dark
Primeval Groves

Place all potential here, in my Temporary Rogue's Gallery. Read the first sentence of the first post carefully please!

Also I would like people to use, as little as possible, things from the DMG and MM. I understand some feats are nearly necessary for prereqs, and some equipment is so basic it's hard to stray from the DMG and PHB, but I think you people can find something suitably fun after you've gotten your basics in!

Gimme a Mulchman (Primeval Groves) Swamp Ranger (Wilds) with the Scorpion's Grasp feat(Sandstorm) casting animalistic power (PHBII) on his water-adapated reed wolf companion (Stormwrack) so he can aid in the battle against his most hated enemy, a shadesteel golem (MMIII)!

I would request no feats or whatnot that are terribly world-specific - No FR regional feats, no Eberron Dragonmark feats or whatnot, y'all know what I mean.

This won't be first-come first served, I will be picking 4-6 in about 10-14 day's time depending on response. And it should go without saying, sources must be listed for everything, with page numbers! Please give me a good character concept and story, in addition to a few basic character mechanics (class choices, possible feat or feat trends, types of spells, basic kinds of skills, etc).

In addition, I have a special prize for each character chosen. If you describe a part of the Endless Falls, a place where you lived, visited, fought, or what have you, or perhaps a person, a mentor, guardian, friend with some detail, I shall craft an item specifically for your character, something you received from your Prince as payment or gift for your duties.

So... who's ready to be... Anything but Normal?
 
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Bront

The man with the probe
I'm in (Yeah, I know, like I need another game). I'll let you know exactly what soon, but I've been looking at a Spirit Shamen for a while.

Edit: Darn, my Stormwrack is at home. I'll probably take a race out of that, though I was pondering a Shifter too.

You mention UA, does that mean that variant base classes are ok?
 
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Phoenix

First Post
Bront said:
I'm in (Yeah, I know, like I need another game). I'll let you know exactly what soon, but I've been looking at a Spirit Shamen for a while.

Edit: Darn, my Stormwrack is at home. I'll probably take a race out of that, though I was pondering a Shifter too.

You mention UA, does that mean that variant base classes are ok?

That's it! If Bront's in, so am I, someone has to show him up. Once I beat my Metro players around a bit tonight I'll look into creating the character with the most toes in the world...muhahaha...

Actually I think the digit-hydra is banned in 3.5, i'll just get something else...let me work on it. Any alignments a particular hindrance (I'm speak LG and CE here, some people jus' don' like the paladins).
 


Fenris

Adventurer
Phoenix said:
That's it! If Bront's in, so am I, someone has to show him up. Once I beat my Metro players around a bit tonight I'll look into creating the character with the most toes in the world...muhahaha...

Actually I think the digit-hydra is banned in 3.5, i'll just get something else...let me work on it. Any alignments a particular hindrance (I'm speak LG and CE here, some people jus' don' like the paladins).

Well if Bront AND Phoenix are in, I guess I may have to consider joining as well. If I can come up with something wierd enough :)
 

Isida Kep'Tukari

Adventurer
Supporter
I thought for a minute I didn't think I had the Shaman's Handbook... but it turns out I do. Huh... I have so many books I forget what I have! So yeah, that's cool.

Varient base classes and varient races from UA are cool. Flaws are also cool, up to 2 if you're inclined.

And I'm glad to see some interest, this should be extra funtimes!
 

Bront

The man with the probe
Cool, I'll probably propose a few different characters then.

One's likely a shifter with a fighter varient (I'll detail it up, something similar to the Thug, but more natureish skills, likely calling it the Shifter Warrior) and the Waretouched Master PrC

One using one of the Stormwrack races (You have Stormwrack, right?)

And one Spirit Shamen (May end up being with the above)

We'll see. I don't have the book here.
 

Isida Kep'Tukari

Adventurer
Supporter
Yup, I have Stormwrack.

Alternatively, you can just be a single-note-Nancy. If you want to make an Azurine Soulborn with more feats-with-a-blue-name than you can shake a stick at, Incarnum away!
 

Phoenix

First Post
Isida Kep'Tukari said:
Yup, I have Stormwrack.

Alternatively, you can just be a single-note-Nancy. If you want to make an Azurine Soulborn with more feats-with-a-blue-name than you can shake a stick at, Incarnum away!

I'm looking at either a Marshal, something from Incarnum, or a little of both. And I'll have better everything than Bront and Fenris, cause all my magic items will have red racing stripes!
 

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