A dwarf in time- OOC

Forgefly said:
As things are looking good, I am going to fill you in a little more on what is going on in our little section of Khorvaire.

As I mentioned in the initial post this is a mission to find a new source for Khyber dragonshards. By the time the regular campaign starts in ECS it is rumored that the gnomes have a private source for these shards that allow them to bypass House Tharashk. This may or may not be that story. For reasons only the heads of your two Houses know, they have decided to ally in their end run around both House Tharashk and the Council of the Twelve. What you do know is that some researchers at Korranburg University discovered several passages in a Dhakhaani song cycle, which seemed to indicate a Dhakhaani outpost built to control a passage into Khyber. The passages describe the section of Khyber as filled with shining crystals. One thing leads to another and here you all are out at the far western edge of Aundair poking around ruins trying to find out which Dhakhaani outpost the legends mention. After almost a month digging through these sites at the edge of civilization, many of you are beginning to wonder if you aren't on a golden thoqqua chase.
We are looking for some Dhakhaani (the old goblinoid empire) ruins that has a passage into Khyber, that's what Vonval was referring to. Forgefly might be able to provide more details we got before going on the mission.
 

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A little backstory

In the libraries at the great university of Korrenburg, there are vaults of documents, some of which date from before the humans arrived from Riedra. A gnomish student of history working on his dissertation found reference to a Dhakaani fortress in the foothills of the Byshek mountains in what is now Western Aundair. This fortress, which was called Alev'karanlik, seemed to be a great oddity to the researcher, because it was referred to as both a fortress and a temple, though there is no mention of who or what was worship there. When he published his dissertation about Alev'karanlik he included the following quote which he had pieced together from the scraps of ancient manuscripts.

"The flame bound into the darkness, stands sentinel against the Mad Ones, by the strength of Khyber's blood in crystal found."

From this and other clues the young student concludes that Alev'karanlik held an artifact of great power that had somehow bound flame into a Khyber shard, and that it seemed that the Dhakaani of Alev'karanlik had a near inexhaustible source of the shards and used them in their both their worship and their wars.

Unlike most dissertations which moulder in libraries, this came to the attention of a group of gnomish Artificers who work with and for House Sivis. House Sivis was very interested in this source of dragonshards, and with the help of House Kundarak put together an expedition to find Alev'karanlik and to secure these shards for themselves.

That is what happened, this is what you know.
Each of you was contacted by someone from either Kundarak or Sivis, when possible it came through channels that made it hard to resist. Each of you were chosen for a particular reason, skills that you brought to the expedition. A mighty warrior, a scout with deadly accuracy, a miracle worker whose connections to Khyber would prove invaluable in any descent into Khyber. House Sivis sent two scholars to both represent their interests and to round out the party. A young and vivacious dragonmarked heir of Sivis was sent with the means to communicate with her superiors in Zilargo as well as for her talents as a cartographer, Ulzim, who recommended himself for the mission is there to evaluate the shards and their potential as well as to give the party the sort of flexibility that only a wizard can bring.

When your band was commissioned in Korrenburg it was explained that you were looking for an ancient Dhakaani fortress in the foothills of far western Aundair. They explained that although technically in Aundair, it was no longer patrolled by Aundarian forces and that only forces of note are some bandits which are taking advantage of the vacuum caused by Aundairs pull back.
Karienna was given the best maps they had and told they had several researchers looking for any other clues they had to help you discover which ruins in the Byshek mountains might be the one you were looking for. Karienna checks in every couple of days to report and get new suggested locations from the researchers at the university.

Thus far each of the ruins you've found have been small and completely stripped of any thing of value. Each new site brings you closer to the Shadow Marches and farther from what is left of the Five Nations.
 



Forgefly Dwarven DM lvl 2

I made all this up in order to understand what was happening to you as a group, and figured it didn't hurt anything to let you know a little about what is going on in the back story.

Forgot to ask, anyone want to use any of the 4th Ed. stuff we've been hearing about? The feats or the death and dying rules?
 
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Thanks for the additional info. It clears up a few things nicely.

I haven't read much of the 4E articles, so I don't really have any preferences either way.

Lastly, about the game itself, is there anyway we can follow the poney and wolf track without the track feat?
 


Sure. You will want to detail the specific rules that you are referring to here so that we all are on the same page.
 

Forgefly Dwarven DM lvl 2

Anyone have anything else they want to do in the current scene? Otherwise we will move onto scene 2, "The Mountain Pass"

Here are the death and dying rules from the Design and Development Article on the same topic. Hopefully we won't have to use them often.
Code:
Try It Now!

If you want to try out a version of this system in your current game,
 try the following house rule. It’s not quite the 4th Edition system, 
but it should give you an idea of how it’ll feel.

1) At 0 hp or less, you fall unconscious and are dying.
Any damage dealt to a dying character is applied normally, and 
might kill him if it reduces his hit points far enough (see #2).

2) Characters die when their negative hit point total reaches 
-10 or one-quarter of their full normal hit points, whichever is 
a larger value. This is less than a 4th Edition character would 
have, but each monster attack is dealing a smaller fraction of
the character’s total hit points, so it should be reasonable. If 
it feels too small, increase it to one-third full normal hit points
 and try again.

3) If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll 1d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. If you get this result three 
times before you are healed or stabilized (as per the Heal 
skill), you die.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to 
one-quarter your full normal hit 
points.

4) If a character with negative hit points receives healing,
 he returns to 0 hp before any healing is applied. In other 
words, he’ll wake up again with hit points equal to the 
healing provided by the effect—a cure light wounds spell 
for 7 hp will bring any dying character back to 7 hp, no 
matter what his negative hit point total had reached.)

5) A dying character who’s been stabilized (via the Heal 
skill) doesn’t roll a d20 at the end of his turn unless he 
takes more damage.

We could also use the critical rules, Natural 20 is a critical, no need to confirm, Criticals are free maximize (not double damage). This means criticals happen more often but are generally less devastating. A x3 multiplier adds a bonus die (so if I understand it correctly a battle axe will do STR Modifer+8(1d8 maxed) + 1d8) A x4 is the same with 2 bonus dice.
That might be too complicated to implement for the expanded range weapons though.

Regardless lets hear what you think
 
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