No worries mate, we're still happily plodding along here.
For my lovely players, I would ask at least 2 things to help make this a kickass setting and story.
1.) Try and come up with a piece of setting detail. A Guild, a City-State, an important NPC, a landmark, a piece of history, a famous ship or building, something to help add some life and therefore stuff we can use in the adventure. It can be someone connected to your PC or not, just something out there to be discovered in-game.
2.) My favorite thing, and I know several of you are already working on this: Connect yourselves to the other PCs, at least 2 links. I don't really care how ... Okay, I do care if the connection is "This PC is my arch-enemy and I will kill them the second I get the chance", but try and work out ways you know each other, or at least have heard of each other (our Pirate may have a bit of an advantage here). Basically, give me some things to focus on that can draw the group together (as well as establishing that "We are a party" rather than "We're just co-workers").
Some things I have been positing:
1.) Slight Clockwork Technology. This is Fantasy, after all, so on top of things like Wheelock guns, there may be some other elements I want to include (like maybe 1 or 2 of da Vinci's crazy freaking designs, or some of the stuff in Talhoffer's books). This would not be wide spread, but may certainly be discussed in certain Scientific Guilds and circles, or Nobles may be willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to develop something as wild as a self-powered ship or a flying machine.
2.) Balancing Contrast. The Renaissance is a wild time period in history. You have philosophical and artistic enlightenment right alongside one of the most violent time periods in history, with constant wars, rampant piracy, and near open-conflict between Guilds and Families in the streets. Fun-Fact: that's actually where the Rapier even comes from; people needed a weapon that could be used in the tight-packed battlefields of Renaissance streets, so long thrusting sword suddenly became king. I want to play this up, so you will be involved in philosophical debates with the Church as likely as you are to be embroiled in walk-by stabbings on the docks.
3.) The Mystery of Magic. I want The Harrowing to feel like this big, legendary event because ... well, it kind of was. But I also want the rebirth of intellect and knowledge to be tempered by the idea that the arcane and esoteric really are just ... strange, and unknown. People understand that the Undead exist, but ask 1,000 people and only about 7 will ever actually claim to have seen one, and out of them, only 1 may be telling the truth. The lay person understands what "Wizard" means, but only the Guild Arcane and certain Noble Houses / Prominent Families can really claim to have seen magic with any frequency. You may get a street performer with various cantrips, or people that have witnessed a miraculous healing in a Church, but realistically The Harrowing crippled magic to the point where wild rumors abound of what Sorcerers are capable of, or that Druids are really just moving husks inhabited by spirits of nature. Much like Eberron, I also want to have some instances of where Magic just ... goes wild. Living Flaming Sphere spells, or permanent illusions that people swear are real, out there in the Silver Mountains.
