[4e] Campaign discussion thread (Full)

[Mathew_Freeman]

Naedur is the city... The City. Carved from the stone of the mother mountain, Naedur is the shield that protects his citizens from the darkness of Outside. His echoing halls, his chill caverns, his thrumming bellows, his hissing cataracts, his close chambers and firelit hearths... these sights and sounds are not just constants in the lives of the City's inhabitants, they are the whole world. Unmoveable, unchanging, stalwart.

Naedur changes only slowly. And then begrudgingly and with great complaint. In the time of Legends, before the great war there were other Cities. Other Cities were rumored to have been livlier, more agile, more daring than the staid and stalwart Naedur. Other Places. There was Outside.

No one in Naedur was living when Outside fell into Darkness. It was many generations ago. And though Naedur's recordkeepers are dutiful, the stories scribed and re-scribed generation after generation seem with each transcription more fanciful and more improbable to all but the youngest of children. Or those whose vocation it is to believe the improbable. Or those who have come from Other Places...

---

Very briefly, everyone will start out in Naedur (this is the short version of the city's full name, it means, roughly, 'Stone Shield') as a citizen of some kind or other. The city is entirely shut off from the outside world. It is entirely self-sufficient and relatively stable at the moment IF nothing changes dramatically (say a population increase or a crop failure - even a small one could have dramatic effects).

@Tallarn, I've got nothing for you at the moment beyond what we already discussed about Zlatan being an apprentice of the Adversary. Naedur's church will focus on Moradin, Erath and Bahamut and will mostly be centered around duty and keeping order in a carefully balanced community. Zlatan himself has adopted (or been adopted by) the patron saints Murn and Brackan.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion of the various elements mentioned above, with Given the above food for thought, PM me a short sketch of a day in your PCs life in Naedur. Be sure to include:

1. How any elements described are usual/unusual
2. The names of one to three important NPCs and who they are
3. What your PC thinks about his or her life in Naedur

It doesn't need to be long, just a sketch and some hooks for me to grab on to.

A day in the life of Zlatan, Cleric of Moradin and apprentice to the Adversary:

Rising early, he eats a small, sparse breakfast in the privacy of his own room - one of the minor perks of being an apprentice for such a respected figure as the Adversary. With food production only managable at a stable level, it is vitally important that each Dwarf and Citizen of Naedur controls their intake, and this normally means communal eating for greatest efficiency. However, Zlatan has a small platter delivered to him.

After eating, he checks the tools of his work - meaning he hones his mind working through several mental exercises, loosens his voice and spends five minutes in prayer to Moradin, asking for assistance in his work today. Zlatan also takes a moment every few days to pray for his family, who are miners and work in a dangerous area of nearby tunnels on the fringes of the city, trying to locate new sources of ore.

The morning is spent researching in the Adversary's library. Currently, Zlatan is looking into the words of Piotr Shieldbreaker, a notable Adversary from around 100 years ago, who was one of the first to speak for rejoining the surface world through a small trade delegation. The work is hard and boring, reading through scrolls and texts for useful information, but potentially vital.

At lunch-time Zlatan leaves the library and goes to a nearby small community foodstore for lunch. The cook there, a female Dwarf named Karla Stouthaft, has become a friend. She is a quiet radical, despite her elder years, and approves of Zlatan's work. As such, she makes a space for him every day to preach and speak about reintegration - so long as he remembers to bless the food for her!

Finishing his lunch, Zlatan composes himself and climbs onto the table to begin speaking about reintegration and the reasons for it. It's a familiar theme, one that he comes back to every few days when he's learnt something new about the past, and most of the regulars participate only fitfully. However, the young noble Mikkal Goldhelm is in attendance, and his own powerful voice rings out in counter-argument. The Goldhelms are a rich and traditional family, and Mikkal seems to have taken it upon himself to make Zlatan's life a misery - he shows up every time Zlatan speaks to oppose him, seemingly on principle sometimes. The two have the tiniest flicker of grudging respect for each other, but only the knowledge that attacking Mikkal would bring shame upon both the Adversary and himself (in that order) has prevented Zlatan from launching himself at the arrogant young braggart on occasion.

The afternoon is again spent in research, apart from a short break towards the end. Zlatan bows to the Adversary as he is visited in the library, and the two converse. As is his habit, the Adversary leads the conversation, asking many difficult questions of Zlatan regarding his research - the abruptly shifting to an antagonistic mode and trying to provoke an angry or emotional response in him. Zlatan, on this day, keeps his cool and argues back skillfully, earning a small grunt of congratulations. It's not always the case, and it means that some nights Zlatan goes to sleep hungry.

Today the Adversary is pleased, and Zlatan exits his work-place in the early evening with a few coins in a pouch. He heads to a nearby tavern, the Troll's Head, and keeps a low profile, listening to the views of other Dwarves around him and dropping in a few small comments here and there. Unnusually, the conversation is a little muted - apparently there was another postponement to the Wordstriving* between the Adversary and the Council on the subject of Reintegration, and the tension is slowly, but surely, starting to rise.

*Wordstriving - in Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia books, the Dwarves settle matters by this method. In it, each Dwarf speaks not to the Council, but to the assembled Dwarves who are committed to silence as they listen. The Council then reads that silence and uses it to come to their conclusion. I would like to introduce this, or some variant on it, to the game as it's very dramatic. It's also two (or more) long monologues which is good for pbp play!

 

[Redclaw]

My suggestions (and only suggestions). Lemme know whatcha think.

• The Dragh beat the Balash in iconic battles in ancient times, but now the Balash are in the more enviable position, having allied themselves with dwarves during the time that the Dragh fled to their caves. (How long for the Balash/dwarven alliance? 100 years?)
• I think uneasy relations between the two dragonborn clans sounds interesting. No longer at war, per se, but some ancient prejudices and suspicions remain, and integration remains contentious.
• I think the Dragh clan is quite a bit smaller and more tribal in nature, and thus unified. Balash could go either way.
• I think the Dragh contacted the dwarves/Balash within the last few years, and are working on hammering out diplomatic agreements.

Even when they were not fighting, as during the time of Arkhosia, the two clans had very different outlooks on life. The Balash were devout followers of Bahamut and the other gods, disdaining the decadent (at least in their eyes) lives of the Dragh.

The Balash were all but destroyed defending the Egg from the warforged, and in fact so few remained that they were desparate, and gladly accepted the home offered by the dwarves. They feel that the honor of the clan rests on them staying true to the dwarves. They have fully acclimated to dwarven society, if not to living underground, so they see the Dragh as outsiders. In fact, there is some concern among the Balash leaders that the Dragh will disrupt the harmony that they have built with the dwarves.

What there is of the clan is unified. They cling to the ideals of honor and duty, first to the gods, then the clan, and then their dwarven hosts.

I agree that the Dragh arrival is recent, and that the alliance is still unsettled.

 

[nerdytenor]

Good stuff, rc!

Do you think the balash and the dragh were attacked by the same group of warforged? Perhaps the dragh were driven out of their city first, and then the balash were the next target? Or something else?

Even when they were not fighting, as during the time of Arkhosia, the two clans had very different outlooks on life. The Balash were devout followers of Bahamut and the other gods, disdaining the decadent (at least in their eyes) lives of the Dragh.

The Balash were all but destroyed defending the Egg from the warforged, and in fact so few remained that they were desparate, and gladly accepted the home offered by the dwarves. They feel that the honor of the clan rests on them staying true to the dwarves. They have fully acclimated to dwarven society, if not to living underground, so they see the Dragh as outsiders. In fact, there is some concern among the Balash leaders that the Dragh will disrupt the harmony that they have built with the dwarves.

What there is of the clan is unified. They cling to the ideals of honor and duty, first to the gods, then the clan, and then their dwarven hosts.

I agree that the Dragh arrival is recent, and that the alliance is still unsettled.

 

[Redclaw]

Good stuff, rc!

Do you think the balash and the dragh were attacked by the same group of warforged? Perhaps the dragh were driven out of their city first, and then the balash were the next target? Or something else?

Sorry, I forgot that you weren't party to that discussion between myself and Sparky. Yes, my take was that the warforged drove the Dragh out of the city, then decided to take the Egg, a religious token that they resented because they didn't have souls. The Balash, at Rhoskan's (my epic PC) urging, stood between the warforged and the Egg, and were all but crushed in the process.

 

[nerdytenor]

Sorry, I forgot that you weren't party to that discussion between myself and Sparky. Yes, my take was that the warforged drove the Dragh out of the city, then decided to take the Egg, a religious token that they resented because they didn't have souls. The Balash, at Rhoskan's (my epic PC) urging, stood between the warforged and the Egg, and were all but crushed in the process.

Got it. Sounds good!

 

[Steve Gorak]

Update!

Hey Guys,

Sorry I disappeared from the face of the earth.
My business trip + RL (illness, exams...) have taken their toll, so I couldn't keep up.

I hope y'all have a great game, and I have to bow out.
Cheers!

SG

 

[Sparky]

Daggum! I understand. Hope to see you around.

 

[Sparky]

I'm jazzed about the work you all have been putting together. The dragonborn clan tension, the factions in the dwarven city, the now-marooned-in-the-City-refugees... good stuff. I've been talking to eoghan offline and he swears he's gonna get a PC to me soon.

I'm not waiting on him (or garyh, say... garyh, where are ya?), if you wondered. Campaign start will be next week, with apologies to folks who are ready to go (all of you, really).

In other news: The OOC thread is up. The IC thread is too, but don't post into it yet.

 

[garyh]

Sorry, I never could get my head around creating that epic character, and I'm out of the loop of all the planning that's been going on. I'll have to take a pass. Have fun, though, everyone! .It looks to be a great game!

 

[Sparky]

Sorry to hear that garyh, the catch-up shouldn't be too bad when I get everything up on the wiki. Would you be up to joining when D&Di releases the epic info? If so, get me Resolute turned in and I'll work you in.