Anything But Normal, Sailing the Endless Falls

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!

~~~

Here is 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.

~~~

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

Temporary Rogue's Gallery.
Recruitment Thread
Rogue's Gallery

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!

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.

In addition, I have a special prize for each character. 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.

Those Who Are Anything But Normal
Shayuri with Trebuchet, LN Neuter Warforged Warmage 8
Erekose13 with Brightstar Vaukriel, Angel of Splendor, CG Male Illumian Unfettered (Clever Blade Saint) 5 / Duskblade 3
D20Dazza with Tempest Wintersquall, N Male Half-Air Elemental Hadozee 'Winged Deck Ape' Spellthief 5
Kelleris with Lupaz, the Hound of Ill Omen, N Male Blink Dog Hexmaster 5
Rystil Arden with Ianissa, daughter of prophecy, CG Female Nereid Beguiler 2
Voidrazor with Oobobooboo, CN sentient ooze

Well, I guess I'd better finish things up now. Isida, do you want Bluegorge's write-up here, in with my character sheet, in your e-mail box, or somewhere else? I shall get started on it tonight.

Oh, and Rystil, since we were both chosen I guess I should mention - it looks to me that we have different takes on the weirds. Yours are essentially nobles who also happen to be prophets, while I envisioned them as more detached, with no particular loyalty to the Kingdom beyond the influence of Taala's regalia. Some of that can be explained away just due to our different manners of approach to them (me as a supplicant and off-the-books lackey and you as one of the aristocratic elite, more or less), but I still think we should hammer out some more convergent details and fiddle with our backgrounds so they mesh together better.

Shouldn't be too difficult, really - I noticed you left an empty section of your background for filling with details regarding your meeting other people's characters anyway.

I'm here! As mentioned in the other thread, I'd like to try and interweave Vaukriel's background with someone so that his return and changed personality will be more apparent.

The weirds are born as they are, their prophetic powers set them apart from all other elementals. They are literally a breed apart. They don't participate in court or other aspects of Kingdom life, they only dispense their knowledge of the future to those who seek them out and give them tribute. Of course, because the Kingdom of Knowledge controls access to the weirds, people have to pay twice, once to the Kingdom and once to the weirds themselves.

Part of Taala's insistance on the heirarchy of elementals has to due with the fact that the elemental weirds are of the four "greater" elements. There are also ice and snow weirds, but Taala obstinately counts them as forms of water weirds. Ice paraelementals would protest this, but they would be in danger for crossing their Prince if they did.

Isida Kep'Tukari said:

The weirds are born as they are, their prophetic powers set them apart from all other elementals. They are literally a breed apart. They don't participate in court or other aspects of Kingdom life, they only dispense their knowledge of the future to those who seek them out and give them tribute. Of course, because the Kingdom of Knowledge controls access to the weirds, people have to pay twice, once to the Kingdom and once to the weirds themselves.

Part of Taala's insistance on the heirarchy of elementals has to due with the fact that the elemental weirds are of the four "greater" elements. There are also ice and snow weirds, but Taala obstinately counts them as forms of water weirds. Ice paraelementals would protest this, but they would be in danger for crossing their Prince if they did.

Click to expand...

Uh, hmm...what should I do about Clymene, then? Is she okay as-is? She didn't significantly contribute to court, but she did have her own circle of aristocratic friends from many courts as the prophetess of Fame. The idea is that she pretty much started out as one of the austere weirds who lived apart and gave knowledge to all supplicants and then she got lost along the way (well, you saw what happened to her, anyways). Is she okay, or should I change her around?

Oh sure, there are always those that decide they like the glamour of their calling more than the calling itself (you could probably name any number of actors, singers, or athletes that fit that bill). So Clymene is fine.

Okay guys, time to write our recent history together (and I'm going to make little notes of what Nissa thinks of each other character).

So, if nobody protests, then according to my history of Miera (which I can rewrite if people don't want to have this), we at least defeated a water elemental crimelord, though what he was doing and how he did it are up in the air. We'd probably more importantly want to figure out how we met (I saw that some people's histories, don't remember if it was anyone here, had them just coming to Taala and going on the isle-ship because they thought it was, but we were supposed to be heroes who were awarded it, so we must have met earlier).

Isida Kep'Tukari said:

Oh sure, there are always those that decide they like the glamour of their calling more than the calling itself (you could probably name any number of actors, singers, or athletes that fit that bill). So Clymene is fine.

Click to expand...

Cool, that's what I thought

So the way to explain the difference in the weirds between Kel and my histories is that the only weird in mine was Clymene, and Clymene was full of herself

Oh, for the special item, if you have an idea for a neat extra item, that's cool, but if not, Nissa already has several items that probably could have extra powers added instead (her shawl, Miera, and the cloak are probably the best candidates)

I did have a couple of logistical questions about Nissa's stuff Rystil. One was how she could have both a magical shawl and a magical cloak. The second was if you want a transmutation effect on the shawl itself. You're doing it like the changling minor change ability, yeah?

Isida Kep'Tukari said:

I did have a couple of logistical questions about Nissa's stuff Rystil. One was how she could have both a magical shawl and a magical cloak. The second was if you want a transmutation effect on the shawl itself. You're doing it like the changling minor change ability, yeah?

Click to expand...

I didn't actually buy a shawl--this is the coalescing sea foam that surrounds her like a shawl from the Stormwrack description (which can only be removed while she is pinned and then once removed, if it is then destroyed, she dies). I decided to give it some magic properties too from Proteus, since it seemed more special if he infused her shawl since it is actually a part of Nissa herself, although if you think that would be unfair, I can easily rearrange what I'm doing there (if you'd like to let me keep it but are worried about my possibly having an extra chakra slot, we could take away the face chakra slot if you like, for instance, so no goggles or masks and such).

As to the shawl, yeah, it gives her basically a Hat of Disguise as a Transmutation effect (like the Changeling). So it changes appearance as well as clothing, etc, but it only does similar humanoidesque forms and gives no abilities or such.

Edit: Oh, I forgot her father's mysterious bracelets on the list of good items to possibly have extra power with those other three