stonegod's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Ch. I [OOC]

[stonegod]

Here is a link to BrandingOp's vignette ideas: Here

So, the idea is that we would have three, something like this:

Vignette 1: The Last War (pre 994 YK). These are the mostly separate ones (before you all met), so I'll let you flesh them out. Crossovers or first meeting during this time might be apropos.

Vignette 2: The Aftermath (996 YK). After you have known each other for a short time and are still getting to know each other.

Vignette 3: Prelude (998 YK). You've been working with each other on and off for a few years.

I can give some suggestions for the vignettes later. Gotta work now.

 

[GwydapLlew]

Hrm. I like the concept. I may steal it for my own games.

Maarit, Jarrith, where do y'all want to intersect our characters?

 

[Doomhawk]

How about the Day of Mourning, or the aftermath? With two Cyrans, Selase in Karrnath, and the three Flamers fighting on Karrnathi soil (I think? I believe Karrnath's actions were mostly defensive by the end of the war, but I'm not certain) and suddenly with their route back a hideous wasteland, it might be a good excuse for groups to mingle that otherwise wouldn't.

 

[stonegod]

How about the Day of Mourning, or the aftermath? With two Cyrans, Selase in Karrnath, and the three Flamers fighting on Karrnathi soil (I think? I believe Karrnath's actions were mostly defensive by the end of the war, but I'm not certain) and suddenly with their route back a hideous wasteland, it might be a good excuse for groups to mingle that otherwise wouldn't.

I left out the Day of Mourning as one of the vignettes as the real effect of it would not be felt until after for the survivors; confusion always reigns immediately afterwards. I think elements of that could be felt in the Second Vignette. But it is a decent idea of how folks initially met (at least some of them).

 

[stonegod]

Vignette 1: War is Hell

[Lvl 1-2 Characters]

Khensu, Jarrith, and Marot
In the Burnt Wood, a fire was burning. Far away, across Scion's Sound, battle were being raged amongst great armies, but here, a different sort of battle was being fought.

The orders from the Cardinal were clear. For the Order of Illumination's first task for the two Templars Khensu and Jarrith was to investigate and report on the sightings of Khyber cultists in the Burnt Wood. They were to Olath to meet a warrior for the Church---not of the Church, the Cardinal was clear to point out---who knew more and then determine the level of the threat. They had done so, met the strange Marot, and now found themselves huddled in the shadows of a bonfire around which masked, war-clad forms now danced.

But the forms were not human. They were something... else.

Suddenly, one of the masked forms stops, and looks directly at the hidden trio. Their heart pounding in their ears, the three hunters hear the masked form cry, "Watcher! Intruders! The Ceremony is interrupted, brothers!" With mad menance, the others turn their way.

What did the neophyte inquisitors do?

Janis, Daellin, and Selase

Those the ir'Sandals did not support the crown's efforts, they supported Cyran troops who needed assistance and tending. This is how Daellin's outfit found themselves, billeted at some noble's estate across from Vurgensley near the border with what called itself Karrnath. They had fought a skirmish with the undead forces two days prior, suffered heavy losses, and now regrouped at the estate. He had seen little of the Lord ir'Sandal that owned the manner, but he was content to have his men tended.

Janis was visiting her uncle's kin this fine day when the troops had arrived, bedraggled after their battles. She had been in conversation with an itinerant priest of that odd faith that was supposedly connected to the undead across the border. This Selase had been tending to some sickened farmer tenants of her uncle's kin, and thus been brought to her attention. Selase was certainly... different... from the few clergy of the Sovereigns she had encountered in and about Metrol.

Suddenly, over the hills, a cry could be heard! A family of farmers were running madly, clutching their young as best the could, fearing for something that chased them. And over the hill, their pursuers appeared---a Karrn raiding party! Six riders on mounts that were no longer living; four of the riders themselves could no longer claim life either. And they were bearing directly on the ir'Sandal estate, filled with unknowing bystanders and 29 heavily wounded soldiers.

Who won the day?

 

[stonegod]

Vignette 2: Unusual Circumstances

[Level 3-4 Characters]

On the Day of Mourning, everything had changed. Daellin, caught in the battle on the Karrn border was stranded from hearth and home. Janis, "asked" to take an extended vacation in Breland had seen it as a sign of Wyngarn's incompetence. But when Khensu, Jarrith, and Marot has been caught in Karrlakton chasing a lead and a supposed Lords of Dust agent, they felt that their lives were threatened. The mass of confused Cyran refugees desparately trying to find safe ground made the life of any non-Karrn at risk. It was only through Marot's chance encounter with a sympathetic follower of that abhorrent religion of 'undead-worshipers' that they survived. The priestess Selase had smuggled them out of town with no apparent alterior motive. Not even the normally suspicious Jarrith could find fault with her. This day.

Two years later, and fate finds the our heroes meeting once again under serendipitous circumstances. Thaliost was an odd place for two Cyrans to find themselves, but there they were, Daellin resting after escorting some Cyran ex-pats from New Cyre to their relatives in the ex-Aundair city, and Janis disguising herself amongst the human throng. Selase was seeing to some disillusioned Aundarians who found themselves trapped on the Thrane-side of the border, while the two Templars and their demon-touched companion were recuperating after an investigation into a sect of changeling assassins. But all six of them had common ground---they were going to other places.

Six lives came together at the Thaliost lightning rail station that day. The day that the gang of Lord of Blade sympathizers attempted to sabotage the railcars. They day that the gang's summoned air elemental went rogue and rampaged against warforged and innocents alike. They were six, but they were the only once who were able to stop the carnage.

How did the Korrenberg Chronicle right up the story the following Far?

 

[stonegod]

Vignette 3:

[Level 5-6]

Bonds were formed that day in Thaliost, and though they did not see each other every day afterwards, the Thaliost Station Six did find each other in the same paths again and again. The undead lyncanthrops under Lessyk, the plague of the living spells in Vathirond. Each of these events tied the group together more. While they all may not have gotten along, they knew when they could count on the others.

Selase knew this that fateful day in Rekkenmark. She had sent for the others of the Thaliost Station Six via message stone. She did not knew whom else to turn. The Peasant District was under quarantine, but the disease was not natural. It had the tinge of darkness to it, and she knew she alone could not find its source. She waited impatiently for the others to arrive.

How did the intrepid six track down the mysterious nature of the disease? Once found, how did they breech or infiltrate the former Jorasco compound where the disease originated? And how did they deal with the insane halfling Jorasco heir who created and spread the disease through undead rats?

 

[stonegod]

Okay, I've posted up the three vignettes. Feel free to write out how you feel your characters reacted to the situation and the others there. Hopefully this will be a good background building exercise.

 

[drothgery]

Okay, I've posted up the three vignettes. Feel free to write out how you feel your characters reacted to the situation and the others there. Hopefully this will be a good background building exercise.

Actually, I was going to suggest that at least for the first couple of encounters, it's quite likely that the characters would be at rather disparate levels; Daellin was already an experienced officer long before the others (humans, planetouched, and shifters being much shorter-lived than elves) were born.

 

[drothgery]

Janis, Daellin, and Selase

Those the ir'Sandals did not support the crown's efforts, they supported Cyran troops who needed assistance and tending. This is how Daellin's outfit found themselves, billeted at some noble's estate across from Vurgensley near the border with what called itself Karrnath. They had fought a skirmish with the undead forces two days prior, suffered heavy losses, and now regrouped at the estate. He had seen little of the Lord ir'Sandal that owned the manner, but he was content to have his men tended.

Janis was visiting her uncle's kin this fine day when the troops had arrived, bedraggled after their battles. She had been in conversation with an itinerant priest of that odd faith that was supposedly connected to the undead across the border. This Selase had been tending to some sickened farmer tenants of her uncle's kin, and thus been brought to her attention. Selase was certainly... different... from the few clergy of the Sovereigns she had encountered in and about Metrol.

Suddenly, over the hills, a cry could be heard! A family of farmers were running madly, clutching their young as best the could, fearing for something that chased them. And over the hill, their pursuers appeared---a Karrn raiding party! Six riders on mounts that were no longer living; four of the riders themselves could no longer claim life either. And they were bearing directly on the ir'Sandal estate, filled with unknowing bystanders and 29 heavily wounded soldiers.

Who won the day?

Nowhere to run, and not the greatest set up for a fight. If his men had been in better shape, there'd be no problem -- he was sure the thirty of them could take on any six Karrn would send on a border raid of a manor of no particular importance. As it was, though... nothing for it but to try.

"Get everyone up that can hold a bow." He'd ordered. His men were wounded, but they were archers and scouts by trade. They'd be able to get a shot or two off. Would it be enough? If he was lucky...