UniversalMonster
Explorer
Since DDXP some friends and I have been working on this "all Drow" campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms. Actually, we set it up in the Living Forgotten Realms- we are using MyRealms adventure templates to build the individual adventures, and share some DMing responsibilities.. and then the structure that we use to bond the players together is LFR Adventuring Companies (which can be used to create player-driven organizations.. in this case- a drow house). Plus, the MyRealms templates have a very easy to understand treasure and XP budget, and they are just easy to work with.
We put together a plan for it, which includes certain IC standards for admission into the Adventuring Company (you have to play a drow or one of the slaves of the drow, more on that later).. and "colored in" some of the background of the Underdark region we are using (Great Bhaerynden from the 4e Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide).
The original plan is to center the campaign around an exiled drow house, but because one of my key collaborators is unavailable for a couple of weeks, I went ahead and kicked off a "prequel" adventure that happens when the house is still a ranked house of the drow city of T'lindhet.
So the characters for this spur of the moment first adventure were:
Dravanna, female drow warlord (and slave-wrangler)
Her backstory is that she manages many of the non-drow guards of the house. Played by Amanda. She has only one eye, and some horrible scarring. Specifically, female drow have a higher social ranking than male drow, we are playing that up.
Bjorkus, minotaur fighter ("magically bound into servitude")- a sort of musclebound gladiator that acts as Dravanna's 'pet' and bodyguard. Played by James (James and Amanda are married in RL).
Tebrynn, male drow assassin. Tebrynn is a younger male character who has become something of a favorite amongst the high-ranking priestesses. Played by Mark.
Lady Cyntelle, female drow cleric. Female drow priestesses have the highest rank in drow society, and Lady Cyntelle is meant to be a "middle aged" and sweet motherly type on the outside who is actually cruel and dangerous. Played by Joe.
One of the main themes we wanted to use in this campaign was "the sensuous nature of the drow". Both romance and rivalry were meant to be somewhat highlighted from within drow society. So I wanted to create a way (for plot purposes anyhow) to set up a sort of web (pun intended) of relationships that would affect things.
For Dravanna, there's the obvious relationship with her "pet minotaur", but when I offered to set her up with either a romance or a rival, she said "could it be both? the same person.."
So we used an NPC from a rival drow house (The Dark Weavers of Veltran) as her romantic/rival- a male drow dilletante known as Aethl'yss. We decided they had been in and out of a (forbidden) relationship in the past and doublecrossed each other on previous occasions.
For Bjorkus, we skipped him, because he's a minotaur. (ha!) But eventually I may have something for him set up. Anyhow, he and Dravanna sort of come as a unit.
For Tebrynn we had already established a connection between him and another female drow PC that was not going to be present. But I couldn't let that stand, so even if Tebrynn were interested in a certain Lady Ardulae, one of my wickedest NPcs (Mistress Iliamyrna) was interested in him. So I told him she was always calling him into her chambers to re-arrange furniture and inviting him to various drow social functions and such. It's hard to refuse one of the high ranking members of society.
For Lady Cyntelle, we had talked a little bit about a connection, but couldn't settle on anything better than a rivalry with Mistress Iliamyrna herself as well. Joe (the player) had a pretty good plan for keeping the rivalry undercover- she wanted to be outwardly friendly (Iliamyrna is her superior, after all), and then secretly working against her.
Once we got all of this out of the way, we began...
(to be continued...! Comments and criticism welcome)
We put together a plan for it, which includes certain IC standards for admission into the Adventuring Company (you have to play a drow or one of the slaves of the drow, more on that later).. and "colored in" some of the background of the Underdark region we are using (Great Bhaerynden from the 4e Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide).
The original plan is to center the campaign around an exiled drow house, but because one of my key collaborators is unavailable for a couple of weeks, I went ahead and kicked off a "prequel" adventure that happens when the house is still a ranked house of the drow city of T'lindhet.
So the characters for this spur of the moment first adventure were:
Dravanna, female drow warlord (and slave-wrangler)
Her backstory is that she manages many of the non-drow guards of the house. Played by Amanda. She has only one eye, and some horrible scarring. Specifically, female drow have a higher social ranking than male drow, we are playing that up.
Bjorkus, minotaur fighter ("magically bound into servitude")- a sort of musclebound gladiator that acts as Dravanna's 'pet' and bodyguard. Played by James (James and Amanda are married in RL).
Tebrynn, male drow assassin. Tebrynn is a younger male character who has become something of a favorite amongst the high-ranking priestesses. Played by Mark.
Lady Cyntelle, female drow cleric. Female drow priestesses have the highest rank in drow society, and Lady Cyntelle is meant to be a "middle aged" and sweet motherly type on the outside who is actually cruel and dangerous. Played by Joe.
One of the main themes we wanted to use in this campaign was "the sensuous nature of the drow". Both romance and rivalry were meant to be somewhat highlighted from within drow society. So I wanted to create a way (for plot purposes anyhow) to set up a sort of web (pun intended) of relationships that would affect things.
For Dravanna, there's the obvious relationship with her "pet minotaur", but when I offered to set her up with either a romance or a rival, she said "could it be both? the same person.."
So we used an NPC from a rival drow house (The Dark Weavers of Veltran) as her romantic/rival- a male drow dilletante known as Aethl'yss. We decided they had been in and out of a (forbidden) relationship in the past and doublecrossed each other on previous occasions.
For Bjorkus, we skipped him, because he's a minotaur. (ha!) But eventually I may have something for him set up. Anyhow, he and Dravanna sort of come as a unit.
For Tebrynn we had already established a connection between him and another female drow PC that was not going to be present. But I couldn't let that stand, so even if Tebrynn were interested in a certain Lady Ardulae, one of my wickedest NPcs (Mistress Iliamyrna) was interested in him. So I told him she was always calling him into her chambers to re-arrange furniture and inviting him to various drow social functions and such. It's hard to refuse one of the high ranking members of society.
For Lady Cyntelle, we had talked a little bit about a connection, but couldn't settle on anything better than a rivalry with Mistress Iliamyrna herself as well. Joe (the player) had a pretty good plan for keeping the rivalry undercover- she wanted to be outwardly friendly (Iliamyrna is her superior, after all), and then secretly working against her.
Once we got all of this out of the way, we began...
(to be continued...! Comments and criticism welcome)