The Set-Up
Long ago, a small but mighty humanoid kingdom existed in what is now the Storm Coast. Bugbear and ogre warriors fought brutal wars of expansion, earning great fame and amassing considerable fortunes from their predations. Those who died in battle were buried in large tomb complexes dug into hillsides and honored as patrons of the living. Among these tombs was the large tor known as Hightower. Though it was neither the largest nor the most famous of the kingdom's tombs, Hightower did represent a typical example of this kind of structure.
The cruel humanoid kingdom eventually fell to the Sea Queen. Her armies razed all its cities and outlying fortifications as the Lady of the Waves carved out her new realm. Of the tombs, only Hightower escaped destruction -- largely because it was an unimportant monument in a modestly remote location. A few tribes of humanoids that survived the devastation tried to use it as a fortress, but the humans with whom they clashed defeated them soundly. Since then, Hightower has served as a landmark for travelers in the know, but it has otherwise been largely forgotten.
You and your comrades are travelers in the know. Hightower looms atop its tor just to the west, which means you are the right road to reach Seawall, a small but prosperous trading town. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate. Dark clouds roil in the sky, lit from within by near constant lightning. The electrical storms that give the Sea Queen's realm its name have plagued the area in recent days, and they have been quite severe. Neither man nor beast is safe out of doors during these storms. The first heavy, cold drops of rain start to fall. Hightower stares down at you, the only shelter for miles around.
Characters
I'm taking four players for an adventure set in and around the Storm Coast, a setting I'm pretty much making up as I go along.
Characters start at 1st-level with 450 gold to buy equipment (regardless of class).
PH, PH2, Spell Compendium, DMG, Complete Adventurer, Complete Arcane, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, Expanded Psionics Handbook, and the variant classes and races at
d20SRD.org only are allowed. If you want to use an LA +1 race from
ExPsiH, go for it. LA +1 is worth ignoring.
Use the elite array for ability scores: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. Don't forget to apply racial adjustments. Maximum hit points at 1st level as normal. Characters start with 500 XP, none of which can be used for item creation before the game starts.
Good-aligned characters only.
House Rules to Pay Attention To
1. Armor bonuses do
not add to AC. Instead, armor bonuses
only convert lethal damage to nonlethal damage. For example, a chain shirt (+4 armor bonus) would convert 6 points of lethal damage into 2 points of lethal damage and 4 points of nonlethal damage.
2. Magical and psionic healing work differently. The variable heals only nonlethal damage. The fixed bonus (if any) heals only lethal damage. For example, a 1st-level cleric's
cure light wounds heals 1d8 points of nonlethal damage and 1 point of lethal damage.
3. Turn undead works according to the
Variant Turning Rules: Destruction of the Undead on p. 87 of the
Complete Divine.
4. Add BAB to AC as a dodge bonus.
5. We use
Invisible Castle for dice rolls.
N.B. This isn't necessarily first-come, first-serve, but you'd really have to be obtuse to not get considered (e.g., insisting on source material not listed above counts as obtuse). Also, the party will consist of five PCs. One slot is reserved for my son Giant Boy.
Players & Characters So Far
Giant Boy: aasimar divine bard
Rhun: wood elf ranger
HolyMan: human wizard
Sphyh: human fighter
