Building up to a great first session

Priest_Sidran

First Post
The 1st session in the next major campaign that I will be DMing is on its way.

The Players are as follows

1. A Giant (Arcana Unearthed), Heavyhand/ Rogue still medium sized.
2. A Elven Primordial shifter/ Rogue
3. A Halfling Ranger/ Rogue with an awakened animal (Ferret)(Npc)
5. A Dwarven Priest of Llander/Justicar (NPC)
6. A Human Explorer from 19th Century England out of place in his environment.

All of the below is a pre-game session that was woven together last week.

I will be keeping them in the city for another session at least and during that time I need something to fill the session in. I thought about running the party through a large old Gunship known as the Guardship which was abandoned by the navy and then bought by a Smuggler who now uses the old ship for his base of operations. Tharm and his bandits having had a previous run in with the crime boss must sneak in and free their friend, and cohort who was captured by him all the while doing so without letting the Justicar on to who they are and what they do. Iram who continued with them out of a necessity to at least be understood by someone has begun to learn the language common to the area (A dialect of common not so far away from english to be to difficult. Also they have bought him an ear ring which translates three chosen languages (Giant, Halfling, and Elven) when he rubs it.

THE QUESTION IS

1. What monsters/ minnions of the Smuggler Boss might appear in a large (as in the size of a small air craft carrier) sailing ship. The average party level starting out is 4th.

2. Any advice on how to integrate D20 modern (Explorer) advanced class into the fantasy setting as a core class would be nice. (I made Iram who is my character when the Co-Dm takes precedence out of the D20 Past supplement book

Any idea of plans for a set of plans for the ship would be nice. And does the setting sound intriguing enough at least so far for a long term campaign or should this be a stand alone 10-12 session ordeal.

Session 1: The Fault is Mine: Episode 1

In the first episode of the game we find our heroes going about their business, each one having found his/her way into the Port of Gyrfallon Tyr on the storm filled and miserable day of April the 7th 953 DA Player 6 is the first to be seen dressed in a mens victorian style suit with a derby and a pair of round rimmed spectacles Iram Slade is uncomfortable in his skin clutching his leather briefcase to his chest, haunched over it to keep it from the rain. Bumping into a large oaf dressed like what Iram imagines Robin hood must of have dressed like he says " Excuse me sir can you..." Player 1 of course cannot understand the alien speach of 19th century english, and thus brushes him off going about his way.

Shift of focus from Iram to Tharm (Player 2) Tharm doesn't even think twice about the strangely dressed babbler as he makes his way around the back end of Hrull the Money lenders where he positions himself at the back door. We see him nod towards a slim elven man stationed atop the roof.

Change Focus: From Tharm to Ealonde who changes into the shape of a swallow and wings to the top of Hrull's shop where he lands and then hops into the chimney. A little while later we see the door by which Tharm stands open and Out comes Ealonde with two large bags of money. He whispers the words " A chest, mate" At which point Tharm steps around the side of the buidling and comes back with a horse and wagon. The horses name is Poliander he looks stuborn, Tharm curses and shrugs at Ealonde before going into the building and returning with a large chest which by the look of his face is very very heavy.

From under a tarpaulin on the cart a halfling with a streak of white hair down her left side squirms to get out of Tharms way her ferret chittering away and nibbling on her leather purse. " Stop it Neech," Feather says quitely to the ferret to which it replies " then feed me you oaf"

At about this time the human named Iram comes around the corner looking for Tharm..
Tharm cursing to himself reahes for his sword, but the man says something which reminds the giant of the words of the old race which he only barely remembers from his childhood.
Using his ability to Discern Language (Variation from the AU book) Tharm begins to further understand the man.

" $#9@)_ Me, Good sir, I..." Iram then notices the sword, and more aptly the hand on the sword " Oh my, no I am sorry sir I must have made a wrong step" and thus the man begins to slink away from the dangerous situation.

" No, no" Tharm says removing his hand from the sword blade " Its ok, m'lord" After all the giant thinks this has to be a man of noble birth " How can I help you"

" Well, sir I was wondering if you could tell me how to get back to bombay"

Seeing the confused look on the giants face.

" Ah well I see them, perhaps then you could simply show me the way to a wireless telegraph operator so that I can send a message back to the post"

Again a confused look.

" Baawmbay," the giant pronounces the word awekwardly " telegraph operator?" " Neither thing exists as far as I know, m'lord, are you sure you haven't hit your head or something"

" No, No I haven''t...hrm" Iram sees the elf, and halfliing who until recently have been hiding " What in the name of God and all that is holy is that" he shrieks so loudly that the giant covers his mouth with his big hand

" Your going to be calm?" Tharm asks the man who nods

He removes his hand.

" Maybe I did hit my head, or perhaps its one of those Indian Fevers they talk so much of in England" " Oh my"

To shorten the narrative

The party comes together and then is pursued by the dwarven Justicar, and Priest of Llander who mistakenly joins them not knowing that they are the bandits he has been pursuing. Hrull a money lender for the king of the City is in dire straits and has hired the Justicar to find the theives without much knowledge of what they looked like.
 

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Here is something else I would like to discuss in this thread. First I want to wrap elements of a Mystery Novel into a session within this campaign. I don't meen anything as cliche as a gum shoe novel but moe along the lines of a dark fantasy version of mystery like Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

I already plan on putting some Cthulu elements, and Silent hill elements. The reason for starting the setting in April was for the ability to have gloom and rain. What other resources should I add, or literature should I read to get ideas.
 

Heroes of Horror is pretty cool for dark atmosphere... I suspect that the upcoming Complete Scoundrel will have stuff appropriate for the intrigue half of the flavor that you seem to be after.
 

Priest_Sidran said:
1. What monsters/ minnions of the Smuggler Boss might appear in a large (as in the size of a small air craft carrier) sailing ship. The average party level starting out is 4th.

* Usual rogues and sailors.
* Rats, swarms of rats, and perhaps even dire rats, fiendish rats, or otherwise diseased/cursed/mutated rats who have come into contact with some smuggled evil cargo.
* Ghosts, particularly of sailors or (in a Silent Hill/horror kind of theme) the angry ghosts of slaves carried in some previous travels of the ship
* I couldn't tell from your description if the ship is still "in service" or if it is permanently in port. If the ship never leaves port anymore, then it could be rotten and perhaps sinking. It could be resting in port, sitting atop something, so that it is no longer seaworth or bouyant, but it does not sink any further either. In that case, a hole in the bottom of the boat through which an octopus or giant squid can stick a tentacle and try to pull out a quick meal would be nice.


Priest_Sidran said:
2. Any advice on how to integrate D20 modern (Explorer) advanced class into the fantasy setting as a core class would be nice.

Check out Classically Modern for some ideas. (It is more for converting fantasy classes to d20 Modern, but it might be useful. Plus it's free. )
http://www.freewebs.com/merlinsworkshop/CMsap.htm

Beyond that, I don't have d20 Past in front of me, so I am completely guessing what kinds of abilities an Explorer would have. I would probably base a converted class on a ranger, removing the spells, weapon styles, and animal companion and replacing them with appropriate explorer abilities.

Or just keep him as an Explorer as is, and bump up the HD and BAB a little so that the class is balanced against the traditional fantasy classes. (In general, modern classes are weaker than the fantasy base classes.)
 

Thank you for your replies,


I have decided to start a little before this point and then build them up more to it than I had orriginally planned.

Also the ship is way larger on the inside than the out due to a number of magical additions to the ship including pocket plane storage bins, and phantom decks. I love the idea of the ship being held up by something else, and I plan on yanking that Idea. As for a tentacle based creature I have one in mind that will most likely already be looking for revenge against my players for a previous defeat.

I plan also on a Covey of Sea hags, an Aboleth mage (Polymorphed), and Dagon (thanks to Dragon Magazine for that one)

Still looking for your Ideas on things.
 

I agree with Jester on Hero's of Horror. I started to use it in my game and the dark ideas it can give you will be awsome, as you can expand on them 10 fold.
 

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