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[Let's Read] The Adventurer's Guide to the Bible
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8774837" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Y9NSFQd.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>The Story Begins</strong></p><p></p><p>Although the meat of this campaign is an open world sandbox, the adventure starts with a more controlled funnel. The PCs have been hired by Tobit to escort his son Tobias from the Kingdom of Ninevah to the city of Teredon in the south. Tobit is unable to work anymore due to blindness and old age, and intends to make a withdrawal of an investment from a bank in Teredon to help live the rest of his days without worrying about financial troubles. As he cannot make the trip himself and a blood relative is required to vouch for his presence, Tobias must make the trip down the Tigris River. In addition, the PCs are helped by Tobias’ pet dog Ava as well as a guide known as Azarias, who in reality is an angelic messenger in disguise by the name of Raphael.</p><p></p><p>There is more to this plot at first glance: Tobias is secretly in love with a woman named Sarah who also lives in Teredon, happily exchanging letters with her. But Sarah has fallen sway under Naamah, the Archdemon of Lust, masquerading as an Egyptian woman by the name of Seraphine. Naamah couldn’t help but seek to ruin their relationship out of sadistic desire, and used a combination of mind control and threats to coerce Sarah into writing a letter breaking off the relationship. Tobias is troubled by this sudden turn of events, and if the PCs can get him to open up about his concerns he will show them the letter. This is one of the first puzzles of the campaign, where certain letters are bolded more than others, forming a secret message of “she is watching please help me.” The Guide even has handouts for such puzzle handouts as its own PDF, and there are options for solving the puzzles manually from player skill as well as good old-fashioned in-character skill checks.</p><p></p><p>As for Azarias/Raphael, he is on a mission from God to find and root out whatever dark forces are trying to separate Tobias and Sarah from each other. He has lost much of his power in keeping up human form, and will not voluntarily share his true nature with anyone until the time is right. Using magic to find out his celestial heritage will have him just dodge or brush off any questions.</p><p></p><p>Sailing down the Tigris is a skill challenge combined with random encounters, with the PCs able to take on different roles with their own skills and failures imposing their own consequences. There is one mandatory encounter in the form of a Deepmaw (giant carnivorous fish) who despite having half HP can still be a challenging encounter for a level 1 party. But Azarias will make use of his divine powers to protect the group and thus may tip the party off as to him being more than he seems.</p><p></p><p>Upon arrival at the docks in Teredon, Tobias will ask the PCs to accompany him to see Sarah, but will otherwise head off on his own if he doesn’t trust them at which point Azarias/Raphael will start looking for him in the city. Sarah and Naamah can be found in the Temple Gardens, a scenic park overlooking the nearby sea cliffs. Naamah is disguised as Seraphine, whispering thoughts of self-doubt and despair to Sarah, but the young woman’s faith in God and love for Tobias has helped shield her from the worst of the demon’s magic. Appropriate skill checks and/or role-play during the interactions can help determine that Sarah is afraid of the woman and that Seraphine is casting a spell upon her, but regardless of the outcome Azarias will lose patience, loudly declare her demonic status, invoke the name of God, and use a magic item (Censor of Atonement) to harm her simulacrum which is made of pure sin.</p><p></p><p><strong>Content Warning, Attempted Coerced Suicide</strong></p><p></p><p>[spoiler]One nasty tactic Naamah will pull off will be to order Sarah to throw herself off the nearby cliffs. While this pushes the boundaries of her enchantment in being directly dangerous and thus is only half-effective in making her merely move to the cliff’s edge, it can still be used to divide the party’s attention and resources.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>Naamah will take on her true demonic form once her simulacrum is destroyed, teleporting away in anger via Word of Recall. With Sarah and Tobias realizing their love for each other, Azarias will come clean to the party about his angelic nature. He will also tell the PCs about Naamah’s status as one of the seven archdemons disguised in the world, and although he doesn’t know where her lair is or the identity of the other demons he knows that Naamah is somewhere in Egypt where he intends to go and defeat her. PCs willing to help him are gifted with a magic Staff of the Messenger that lets them cast Message and Sacred Flame at will and are told to find him in Egypt once they’re ready.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/u4iN09L.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Welcome to Teredon</strong></p><p></p><p>By now the party is 3rd level (they became 2nd level upon defeating the Deepmaw), and while the next progression of the story is at the Zoroastrian Temple of Fire we get a taste of sandbox gaming with a variety of locations and sidequests the party can do to get more loot. As an overview, Teredon is a city that is technically under Parthian control, but its relative remoteness in the eastern Arabian Peninsula means that the populace can still live as though they’re independent. While in town, the PCs can book passage on a merchant ship to other ports, buy supplies to cross the Arabian desert to the nearby Kingdom of Sheba, do a request for Tobias to help his parents travel down to Teredon to live with him and Sarah if the party’s heading north, buy a variety of magic items at a local emporium (some of which are beyond the party’s price range at this point in the campaign) or magic jewelry from Sarah’s boutique (which have very affordable discounts if they helped her out), search for missing children who were killed by giant snail-like monsters known as Murex in a cliffside cave-dungeon, accept a quest from a rabbi at the local synagogue to find a missing traveler taken hostage by the Shadow of the Beast cult in the ruins of Ur, find Naamah’s private letters in Sarah’s house detailing financial transactions in Thebes, and take a job by a shady guy in a tavern to rob the vault of a roman colosseum in the town of Malgium. In the final case, the employer is secretly plotting to frame the PCs and abscond with the gold himself.</p><p></p><p>The Murex caves are a detailed mini-dungeon, where the tide can affect the water levels as a potential hazard and a +1 gladius can be found on the body of a dead Centurion who was sent to find the missing children. Murex as monsters are able to produce a purple mucus highly prized for the rarity of such a color and is used in fabrics. The monsters are slow yet well-armored creatures with a bite that can poison and potentially paralyze targets, and deal a greater amount of damage to paralyzed creatures.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/v52Pmqe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Once it comes time to advance the plot, sending the PCs to the Temple of Fire is in order. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways by the DM, but in the end a Magi by the name of Wu Mei will meet the PCs in the archives of the temple. While there she will share notes with the party: the 3 Wise Men, esteemed Magi by the names of Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior, were researching a prophecy of great import. Their findings so far are that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, an invincible beast with seven heads (one of whose heads is named Naamah) may be powerful enough to make God bleed, and that the Darkness may be overthrown by one conceived of a virgin birth. The Wise Men all went missing during their travels for further research, and concerned for their own safety as well as their findings Wu Mei wants the PCs to help find the 3 Wise Men and aid them against the forces of darkness. She even has a magic Staff of the Pilgrim to give the party as some incentive, and its charges can be spent to cast various divination spells.</p><p></p><p>The PCs can derive additional information: Wu Mei can explain the various Magi’s areas of expertise and where to likely find them, show them star charts indicating some link between the Messiah and the Kingdom of Judea, and that the beast with seven heads is more likely to be seven individual creatures as demons who gained entrance into the physical world. At this point the adventure opens up greatly, with some generic sandbox gaming advice and page references for encounter, treasure, and research information later in the book for filling in the gaps. That being said, the geographic placement of Teredon most likely means that the PCs will likely travel across the desert to Sheba, given that is where Balthazar’s likeliest location (the other two have vague location descriptions from Wu Mei) is and Egypt and Judea are northwest from there.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The opening questline in the Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible give a pretty strong first impression. While it is not a pure sandbox, it opens up with a strong hook and has enough wiggle room to give PCs a taste of things. My most immediate concerns are the fight with Naamah and the Deepmaw. Naamah overall doesn’t have a lot of dangerous attacks, and several elements serve as a sort of “tutorial” for the later fights with archdemons. However, she has a recharge-based AoE which may one-shot some weaker PCs if she rolls high enough on damage. As for the Deepmaw, even at half health it can be dangerous, but Tobias’ dog has a special action where it can self-sacrifice by taking a blow, and the Deepmaw attempts to attack Tobias first. This is intentionally designed so as to demonstrate Raphael’s powers if the need comes to revive someone. Although Raphael can deal a lot of damage to tip the scales in both encounters and even revive PCs if need be, not all gaming groups may be happy with feeling bailed out by an angel ex machina.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we explore this Biblical sandbox in the World Map, Adventure Atlas, and Tools & Tables chapters!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8774837, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Y9NSFQd.png[/IMG] [B]The Story Begins[/B][/CENTER] Although the meat of this campaign is an open world sandbox, the adventure starts with a more controlled funnel. The PCs have been hired by Tobit to escort his son Tobias from the Kingdom of Ninevah to the city of Teredon in the south. Tobit is unable to work anymore due to blindness and old age, and intends to make a withdrawal of an investment from a bank in Teredon to help live the rest of his days without worrying about financial troubles. As he cannot make the trip himself and a blood relative is required to vouch for his presence, Tobias must make the trip down the Tigris River. In addition, the PCs are helped by Tobias’ pet dog Ava as well as a guide known as Azarias, who in reality is an angelic messenger in disguise by the name of Raphael. There is more to this plot at first glance: Tobias is secretly in love with a woman named Sarah who also lives in Teredon, happily exchanging letters with her. But Sarah has fallen sway under Naamah, the Archdemon of Lust, masquerading as an Egyptian woman by the name of Seraphine. Naamah couldn’t help but seek to ruin their relationship out of sadistic desire, and used a combination of mind control and threats to coerce Sarah into writing a letter breaking off the relationship. Tobias is troubled by this sudden turn of events, and if the PCs can get him to open up about his concerns he will show them the letter. This is one of the first puzzles of the campaign, where certain letters are bolded more than others, forming a secret message of “she is watching please help me.” The Guide even has handouts for such puzzle handouts as its own PDF, and there are options for solving the puzzles manually from player skill as well as good old-fashioned in-character skill checks. As for Azarias/Raphael, he is on a mission from God to find and root out whatever dark forces are trying to separate Tobias and Sarah from each other. He has lost much of his power in keeping up human form, and will not voluntarily share his true nature with anyone until the time is right. Using magic to find out his celestial heritage will have him just dodge or brush off any questions. Sailing down the Tigris is a skill challenge combined with random encounters, with the PCs able to take on different roles with their own skills and failures imposing their own consequences. There is one mandatory encounter in the form of a Deepmaw (giant carnivorous fish) who despite having half HP can still be a challenging encounter for a level 1 party. But Azarias will make use of his divine powers to protect the group and thus may tip the party off as to him being more than he seems. Upon arrival at the docks in Teredon, Tobias will ask the PCs to accompany him to see Sarah, but will otherwise head off on his own if he doesn’t trust them at which point Azarias/Raphael will start looking for him in the city. Sarah and Naamah can be found in the Temple Gardens, a scenic park overlooking the nearby sea cliffs. Naamah is disguised as Seraphine, whispering thoughts of self-doubt and despair to Sarah, but the young woman’s faith in God and love for Tobias has helped shield her from the worst of the demon’s magic. Appropriate skill checks and/or role-play during the interactions can help determine that Sarah is afraid of the woman and that Seraphine is casting a spell upon her, but regardless of the outcome Azarias will lose patience, loudly declare her demonic status, invoke the name of God, and use a magic item (Censor of Atonement) to harm her simulacrum which is made of pure sin. [b]Content Warning, Attempted Coerced Suicide[/b] [spoiler]One nasty tactic Naamah will pull off will be to order Sarah to throw herself off the nearby cliffs. While this pushes the boundaries of her enchantment in being directly dangerous and thus is only half-effective in making her merely move to the cliff’s edge, it can still be used to divide the party’s attention and resources.[/spoiler] Naamah will take on her true demonic form once her simulacrum is destroyed, teleporting away in anger via Word of Recall. With Sarah and Tobias realizing their love for each other, Azarias will come clean to the party about his angelic nature. He will also tell the PCs about Naamah’s status as one of the seven archdemons disguised in the world, and although he doesn’t know where her lair is or the identity of the other demons he knows that Naamah is somewhere in Egypt where he intends to go and defeat her. PCs willing to help him are gifted with a magic Staff of the Messenger that lets them cast Message and Sacred Flame at will and are told to find him in Egypt once they’re ready. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/u4iN09L.png[/IMG] [B]Welcome to Teredon[/B][/CENTER] By now the party is 3rd level (they became 2nd level upon defeating the Deepmaw), and while the next progression of the story is at the Zoroastrian Temple of Fire we get a taste of sandbox gaming with a variety of locations and sidequests the party can do to get more loot. As an overview, Teredon is a city that is technically under Parthian control, but its relative remoteness in the eastern Arabian Peninsula means that the populace can still live as though they’re independent. While in town, the PCs can book passage on a merchant ship to other ports, buy supplies to cross the Arabian desert to the nearby Kingdom of Sheba, do a request for Tobias to help his parents travel down to Teredon to live with him and Sarah if the party’s heading north, buy a variety of magic items at a local emporium (some of which are beyond the party’s price range at this point in the campaign) or magic jewelry from Sarah’s boutique (which have very affordable discounts if they helped her out), search for missing children who were killed by giant snail-like monsters known as Murex in a cliffside cave-dungeon, accept a quest from a rabbi at the local synagogue to find a missing traveler taken hostage by the Shadow of the Beast cult in the ruins of Ur, find Naamah’s private letters in Sarah’s house detailing financial transactions in Thebes, and take a job by a shady guy in a tavern to rob the vault of a roman colosseum in the town of Malgium. In the final case, the employer is secretly plotting to frame the PCs and abscond with the gold himself. The Murex caves are a detailed mini-dungeon, where the tide can affect the water levels as a potential hazard and a +1 gladius can be found on the body of a dead Centurion who was sent to find the missing children. Murex as monsters are able to produce a purple mucus highly prized for the rarity of such a color and is used in fabrics. The monsters are slow yet well-armored creatures with a bite that can poison and potentially paralyze targets, and deal a greater amount of damage to paralyzed creatures. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/v52Pmqe.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Once it comes time to advance the plot, sending the PCs to the Temple of Fire is in order. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways by the DM, but in the end a Magi by the name of Wu Mei will meet the PCs in the archives of the temple. While there she will share notes with the party: the 3 Wise Men, esteemed Magi by the names of Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior, were researching a prophecy of great import. Their findings so far are that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, an invincible beast with seven heads (one of whose heads is named Naamah) may be powerful enough to make God bleed, and that the Darkness may be overthrown by one conceived of a virgin birth. The Wise Men all went missing during their travels for further research, and concerned for their own safety as well as their findings Wu Mei wants the PCs to help find the 3 Wise Men and aid them against the forces of darkness. She even has a magic Staff of the Pilgrim to give the party as some incentive, and its charges can be spent to cast various divination spells. The PCs can derive additional information: Wu Mei can explain the various Magi’s areas of expertise and where to likely find them, show them star charts indicating some link between the Messiah and the Kingdom of Judea, and that the beast with seven heads is more likely to be seven individual creatures as demons who gained entrance into the physical world. At this point the adventure opens up greatly, with some generic sandbox gaming advice and page references for encounter, treasure, and research information later in the book for filling in the gaps. That being said, the geographic placement of Teredon most likely means that the PCs will likely travel across the desert to Sheba, given that is where Balthazar’s likeliest location (the other two have vague location descriptions from Wu Mei) is and Egypt and Judea are northwest from there. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] The opening questline in the Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible give a pretty strong first impression. While it is not a pure sandbox, it opens up with a strong hook and has enough wiggle room to give PCs a taste of things. My most immediate concerns are the fight with Naamah and the Deepmaw. Naamah overall doesn’t have a lot of dangerous attacks, and several elements serve as a sort of “tutorial” for the later fights with archdemons. However, she has a recharge-based AoE which may one-shot some weaker PCs if she rolls high enough on damage. As for the Deepmaw, even at half health it can be dangerous, but Tobias’ dog has a special action where it can self-sacrifice by taking a blow, and the Deepmaw attempts to attack Tobias first. This is intentionally designed so as to demonstrate Raphael’s powers if the need comes to revive someone. Although Raphael can deal a lot of damage to tip the scales in both encounters and even revive PCs if need be, not all gaming groups may be happy with feeling bailed out by an angel ex machina. [B]Join us next time as we explore this Biblical sandbox in the World Map, Adventure Atlas, and Tools & Tables chapters![/B] [/QUOTE]
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