Burning Sky's campaign

[Skyscraper]

Since my short online name has been "Sky" for many years now, I feel entitling my campaign posts as the Burning Sky is suitably evocative.

Since I've already gotten a lot of information from the kind people on this forum, I'll try to post thoughts about the game I'll be running based on War of the Burning Sky.

We started playing yesterday. There are five PCs:
- Eladrin rogue
- Eladrin Avenger
- Goliath fighter
- Dwarf cleric
- Deva wizard

I've changed the map a bit to make the setting an island called the Dawn Island as it fits well into a portion of my homebrew, striking a shoreline north of the northern ragesian mountains to circumscribe the area with water.

Short version of PC backgrounds: both eladrins decided that they come from Shahalesti, the dwarf piggybacked along the way; while the wizard is from Gabal's and the Goliath is a constable in Gate Pass (I renamed the entire militia members in Gate Pass "constables", inspired by on one of them being named as such in the module IIRC.)

I started with a rather lenghty historical and socio-political background of the game world and the Dawn Island, interspersed with very specific player questions that I was not really prepared for such as: how it the Ragesian Empire structured, what is its hierarchy, ... - that I answered vaguely for the time being, emphasising the military structure with the four legions, the navy and the inquisitors.

Then the game started. I changed the opening a bit: the PCs fooled around with being regulars at a pub, so I made that the Poison Apple. They found out about the pub being closed due to the note on the door and were met by a fellow named Piedmont, a member of the Resistance who tries to recruit able bodies for the Resistance. Learning that Trehan Finner had been taken into custody for possible collusion with the Resistance, they however became very wary of a trap and didn't really trust their new contact, afraid of enrolling and then being taken away immediately for collusion. They started snooping around, tracking Piedmont and investigating with the constables, before finally deciding that the meeting with Torrent was not too risky. This episode side-tracked the adventure before the PCs returned to the Poison Apple pub for their meeting and was quite a bit of fun, especially when the Goliath player put our bladders to the test with fantasticly funny roleplay as he tried to "subtly" question one of his constable friends to determine whether he was a part of the Resistance or if he supported it, without ever naming the Resistance but rather referring to "it".

At the pub, the players again went into uncharted terrain when suggesting to Torrent that, instead of moving South to Seaquen to reach the Lyceum, they (the Resistance) should contact Shahalesti to strike a deal to defend Gate Pass. Shahalesti is, after all, a closer, more powerful ally who will obviously be interested in blocking the advance of the Ragesians through Gate Pass. I had Torrent explain that Ragesia and Shahalesti are both would-be enemies of Gate Pass, getting one to save them from the other was out of the question, people here were too independent; and getting Shahalesti soldiers into Gate Pass meant that they would not leave afterwards. Thinking about it, I should have answered that they already had emissaries in Shahalesti but that things weren't moving forward. It's not too late, I might add that information later and the two explanations are not mutually exclusive.

The first session finished on a cliffhanger as they heard the second storey floorboards creak, and we're seconds away from the Black Horse bounty hunters bursting into the room. The funny thing is, they had two PCs scouting outside the pub for most of the meeting, before one of those inside said "let's get the others, if something was to happen, it would have happened by now" and the sentries entered the pub. Five minutes later, the second storey floor boards creaked and the avenger, raising his eyes, saw a bit of dust fall from the ceiling.

I'm glad for the start of this adventure, off with a fun role-play intensive session. Next time: battle against the Black Horse bounty hunters (and more)!

Sky

 

[RangerWickett]

Cool start.

As written, yeah, Gate Pass is wary of the Shahalesti, since they want to retain their independence. But to keep the city from appearing unsympathetically pig-headed, I would have Torrent (or someone) mention next session that they have people with actual courtly diplomatic experience trying to contact the Shahalesti, but they're being stonewalled. With a more rough and tumble group like the PCs, it would be a better use of their talents to contact the Lyceum Academy at Seaquen for help.

Now, regarding the structure of Ragesia, um, I didn't have it figured out that clearly myself. Here's something off the cuff:

The seat of power is Ragos, and there would be 4 or 5 surrounding nations that got conquered and absorbed over the past century or so. I think they're named in the GM's or Player's Guide - Chathus, Latia, . . . I don't recall the others.

Each of those places would have regional governors, each of whom have access to a military regiment (a few thousand soldiers, some trained magical beasts, inquisitors -- most of them low-level, but a few high-ranking), and enough wealth to bribe the local politicians to play nicely. Different provinces would have different levels of integration with upper Ragesia, with retired soldiers often receiving payment in the form of farmland in the provinces.

So while there might be seeds of resistance in each of those provinces, there's enough constant Ragesian presence -- not to mention reliance on Ragesian trade metals and military protection -- that those lands were effectively 'loyal' to the emperor. Of late, though, more people would be grumbling because while they respected Coaltongue, they fear Leska.

Ragesia is in the process of annexing Sindaire. They're sort of a protectorate, in that they supposedly maintain their own independence, but many of the people in charge wanted to become part of the empire officially, as protection against Ostalin. There's still a lot of political resistance, though, and an open revolt broke out a few months ago. That's what prompted Coaltongue to teleport his army there. They conquered the fortress the rebels were hiding out in, and then a few days later the emperor was assassinated.

(That's more thoroughly detailed in adventure 6, I believe.)

I hope that helps.

 

[Daern]

Awesome! Sounds like you have some great players. I wasn't brave enough to run a fight-less session until module 5!
My own vision of Ragesia is that it has a massive cult of personality around Coaltongue who is worshiped unto a god. The officials of Ragesia are generally half-orcs. They have a messianic sense of entitlement as formerly downtrodden peoples. I think of Ragesia as always surprising people with how well ordered and logical their government is, despite the orcish influence. Basically Stalinist Russia I guess. Maybe that's some food for thought!

 

[Bercilak]

Sounds like a good start, Sky. Glad to see your players are getting involved in the setting right away.
-Berc

 

[RangerWickett]

Basically Stalinist Russia I guess. Maybe that's some food for thought!

Oh yeah. I definitely had Stalinist Russia in mind for the Ragesians (Coaltongue as Lenin, Leska as Stalin). And, well, Shaaladel's a more handsome Hitler (because face it, elves are all Nazis).

 

[Daern]

Or are the Elves the Italians? going for the easy pickings? heh

 

[Skyscraper]

I imagine the Ragesians as similar to Romans. A couple of things make me think of that: ruled by an emperor, army organised into legions, mitilaristic people, expansion through military conquest, once conquered the nations are annexed to the empire as provinces, once conquered the provinces are not entirely discontent to now be part of the empire (I get the sense that the now dead emperor was respected throughout the empire), the empire legions appear very organised and disciplined but they are ruthless, ... Well I guess most of this description could fit more empires than the Roman one, so it must be the legions then

By the way, thanks for the replies and suggestions, to RangerWickett in particular. I understand that you are one of the designers of the original modules or campaign, is that right?

Sky

 

[Skyscraper]

Session 2

The black horse bounty hunters burst into the inn from three different doors (I used another map for the pub) and battle ensued. The PCs were never really troubled by the small group of opponents and they kept the situation under control. With a balcony overhanging the common room of the inn, it was fun to see the PCs jump and climb all over the place, making good of their acrobatic and athletic skills. Heck, the goliath even threw one of the scouts through the window towards Kathor!

Speaking of which, the avenger peeked outside during the battle and saw Kathor on his warhorse (I uppped the horse a bit...) with his three hunting dogs, and the PCs never really had it on their mind to parley with him: "he wants to kidnap our townsfolk and sell them to the invading Ragesians? DIIIIE!" Hehe. They cut him down, fair and square. Just after they threw his ally at him through the window. The avenger landed a daily for 28 damage or something, bloodying him off the bat; he tried escaping, but they intelligently concentrated fire on his horse before ganging up on him.

I might be veering away from the trillith at this point, I'm not sure yet. Instead of a misty form escaping Kathor when he died, I had an ugly red-veined purplish larva come out of his ear. I'm not sure about the entire dream-creature angle and I'm juggling with the idea of going towards more concrete creatures of a creepy kind, I'm thinking either Cthulhu-inspired, weird aliens, mind flayers, ... Not sure yet, I'll let those ideas tumble about a bit and see what comes out later on. I want that part to be out of their control, something they won't fight with sword and shield, at least not yet. Something to throw them outside of the comfort zone and get their blood pumping a bit.

The session was just about that one battle, which took more than three hours to get through with a bunch of players that are new to 4E. It was still fun I think, if a bit too easy which is not a bad thing for a first battle. Though to be fair the players played well, together, using their powers efficiently.

We also had one new player in replacement of another that won't be playing, so now the group has a female elven cleric instead of a male dwarven cleric.

Sky

 

[Drazulfel]

I enjoy seeing how other DM's run through adventures that I'm planning on running, myself. I'm teaching a 1/2 semester class this autumn. It'll be finishing up by the 2nd week of October. As that time approaches, I'll be hitting the forums to recruit some players for a weekend game group to play WotBS using FG II.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

I also made a Ragesian cult of personality around Coaltongue, but in my world, there are no hybrids: Half-orcs are an ethnic group of orcs, which had been oppressed by both the orcs and humans of the region and now basically rule Ragesia.
In fact, the whole "half-orcs are born of humans and orcs" is a blood libel.

Similarly, the Eladrin, Elves and Half-Elves are ethnic groups of elves in a caste-based society.