Closed - 3.5 D&D adventure - Dangerous Legacy

[Vendetta]

“THE RUNNER RETURNS!” Comes the cry from the top most parapet above the gate of the great human city of Enberton. All in the city rush forth from their homes at the cry, anxious to hear the news that this runner brings. Quickly the streets fill with the city’s population and the gates fly open as the young man sprints past the guards who turn and follow.

The young man must not go far to deliver his message, for the King himself, Promus, has come from the safety of his hall and into the courtyard where the runner collapses at the King’s feet.

“Water! Get the boy water!” King Promus orders and kneels by the boy. “Easy son… breathe.” He tells the lad in a calm and soothing voice. The boy looks up into the eyes of his King and a tear streams down the boy’s cheek.

“M’Lord… The rumors be true. It were a Dragon.” A gasp rings out among those crowded around close enough to hear the boy’s breathless words and murmurs immediately fly through the streets and back alleys, everywhere people stand and strive to hear the boy. In seconds, everyone in the city of Enberton knows that, for the first time ever, a Dragon has come.

“The elves…” The boy continues. “It attacked the elves. It flew straight into the heart of their lands and attacked Thel’Lorean, their capital city. Burnt it to the ground, M’Lord and flew away. The elves tried to fight it. Even the mighty Kendrian and Tandra’var…” The boy chokes on his tears.

“Yes… did Kendrian and Tandra’var, Heroes of Enber and slayers of the Dark Lord Rox’Voroth chase off the dragon?” King Promus asks, a note of pride filling his voice as he mentions the legendary elven heroes. Again, another murmur flies through the crowd, this one of satisfaction.

“No!” The boy cries and silences the crowd. None dare breathe nor even allow their own heart to beat for fear of missing the boy’s words. “The dragon has killed Kendrian. His body lay charred upon the ashen field that once was Thel’Lorean. And the dragon carried off Tandra’var when it left.”

The good King stands slowly as he looks over his people in the courtyard before his palace. Fear fills their eyes… a Dragon. The King clears his throat and in a voice that is both commanding and caring, addresses his people. “Citizens! Fear not this Dragon! Though the races of Enber have little regard for each other, we will hunt down this Dragon and in the Name of Kendrian and Tandra’var, we shall slay it! And we shall honor our fallen heroes…”

The King looks down on the boy who tugs softly on his coat. “M’Lord…” The boy says, rising, still in the grip of fear. “There is more…”

“More?” Promus replies, aghast.

“While the Dragon battled Kendrian and Tandra’var, she spoke of her children… half breed children whose father was…” The boy’s words are lost in his throat.

“Yes.” The King prompts the boy, “Dragon children?” He asks, with some trepidation, wondering if he heard correctly.

“Their father is none other than the Dark Lord himself, Rox’Voroth!”

The King’s vizier, Dean Belhander, steps forward to the King’s side. “You Highness, what are we going to do?”

The King turns to him, a fire in his eyes. “This is bigger than Men alone can handle, my friend. Summon my scribes. We must send a missive to all the races of Enber. We must meet and discuss what must be done.”


Greetings noble adventurers!

I’ve been running the Dangerous Legacy adventure since the first month of the year. There has been some fantastic RPing and, I hope, enjoyable times for the players in it. I know I’ve enjoyed running the game.

But as all PbP games do, there comes a time when people have to leave the game for various reasons due to life things and what not. There are still several people in the game but I think that adding 3 or so more might be a good idea, infusing new blood and all that.

The adventure is set in the world of my (hoped to be published) novel, in a massive valley called Enber. This valley is 800 miles east to west by 600 miles north to south, with a massive lake sitting in the middle of it.

Characters will be created using the standard races from the PHB 3.5, using any base class from the PHB, Expanded Psionic Handbook, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior and Complete Arcane. Prestige classes can become available as characters level up.

Amended Character Creation: (amended from character creation at the start of the adventure)
Only races from the PHB
Any base class from the PHB, Expanded Psionic Handbook, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior and Complete Arcane. Prestige classes can become available as characters level up.
Level: 3
Point Buy: 35 points.
Max gold for class. (this is first level gold… thus far in the adventure, the characters have not done much where they have been awarded treasure… though that is about to change)

Alignment: Characters SHOULD be of good alignment. While a character of another alignment could work out in the adventure, there will come a time down the adventure where it will be VERY advantageous to be good and you will wish you were of good align at that time.

All characters get an extra feat. This feat is limited to general feats and should be described as a feat that the character gained while growing up.

Additionally, all characters may choose 2 skills that will always be considered “Class skills”. These skills are considered to be something the character has always been, and always will be, interested in. However, if you chose something that is “Trained only” then you must be a class that has that skill on its skill list. ((This is a great way to add a couple extra skills to your character or to ensure that at least two skills can always be increased for those who chose to multi-class.))

There is additional information in the rogue gallery (here; Dangerous Legacy’s Rogue Gallery) regarding “Luck Dice”… this is something that is worked out on my side and that you will rarely even consider (In fact, I bet the players in the game have forgotten it exists… but it is a useful tool for me as the DM) and it is detailed in the first post in the rogue gallery. (I’m not going to bulk up this already lengthy post with that info)

If you are interested, feel free to look at the Role-play thread ((As of this posting, the last post was #573)) and the OOC thread. ((last post #161) Please post your questions and interest in this thread until you are accepted in the game.

For those of you interested in joining a game that wont die away quickly (as so many tend to do then I can only attempt to assure you that this game doesn’t actually NEED new players as we currently have four active players and has been running now for 7 months. I’ve run the adventure several times with face to face groups and consider each edition of the game invaluable research for my novel as each new player brings new ideas to the game, which in turn, asks new questions of my world and helps me develop it more and more deeply. I am dedicated to running this semi-epic adventure… and considering the length of PbP gaming vs. FtF gaming, I’ve got enough information right at this moment to run the game for 3 more years.

Likewise, I’m looking for people who are dedicated role-players. As mentioned above, I’d like to run this adventure for a long time and would like to see how the characters evolve throughout. Obviously, life happens and there is no accounting for that… but I’m hoping to add players who at least intend on playing for a while

 

[Pebele]

I'm interested in creating a character for submission, but I have a couple questions.

First, I'm interested in possibly creatng a cleric, so I was curios about the dieties of the campaign. Are they laid out in detail somewhere? I didn't notice any specifics when I looked through the various links you provided, but I could have missed it.

Second, do you have a deadline for submissions? I'll probably be able to have a character posted by tomorrow evening, but if you plan on taking submissions for awhile I may be able to draw up two for you to choose from. Or make my decision on the best to post.

Hopefully I can create something useful and interesting. My only other game just died and I am quite disappointed.

Thanks!

 

[Yeoman]

Hi, I'm interested in creating a character as well. I'd like to create a rogue type character, but I would like to know a little bit about the campaign world so that I may write up a background. Also I would like to echo pebele's question about a submission deadline. Two other questions for you if I may. Is Complete Adventurer allowed as well, and also would you like the mechanics posted first for you to review?

Thank you

 

[Ferrix]

Since I had been someone expressing interest in the initial game, I'll toss my hat back in the ring. What's the existing party look like?

I still like the idea of my halfling rogue/cleric of luck.

Would you allow the cloistered cleric from UA? It can be found here.

 

[Bobitron]

I'll read over the threads tomorrow and let you know, 'Detta. Both Tor L’tha and taitzu have pimped it to me now, so something good must be going on.

 

[hbarsquared]

I would like to express my interest as well, if possible, and can create any type of character that might help round out the party. I enjoy spellcaster, but hey, whatever you need.

 

[Vendetta]

jeremy_dnd
Bobitron
Ferrix
Yeoman
and
Pebele...
You're all IN if you still want to be after I answer your questions... Just wanted to post that real quick before addressing your specific questions so that, if others read it in the mean time. ((Though, alternates are welcome if a few drop out from this list))

 

[Vendetta]

oof - a big one coming...

First, I'm interested in possibly creatng a cleric, so I was curios about the dieties of the campaign. Are they laid out in detail somewhere? I didn't notice any specifics when I looked through the various links you provided, but I could have missed it.

Somewhere in all that mess I had stated that we’d be using the PHB deities just to keep things simple. There were a couple of specific deities mentioned, I think; Thorus Odara, a Founder God and father of Thel’Loreen, the god who created the elves. As well, I mentioned Oberon, another Founder God of the Dwarves and Gnomes (though they each have radically different views of Oberon) If Dwarf, Elf, or Gnome interests you as a race, then I can give you information on those gods or you could use the PHB versions.

Taitzu52 requested specific gods. He is playing a paladin and wished for something different. The human mythology in my world is something akin to Greek Mythology (and dwarf to Norse) in that there are a plethora of gods and deities… far too many for me to go into… but I can provide more info if you know what you would like. So, taitzu chose to worship “The Twins” (from the human pantheon), Evradar and Omadon.

Halflings worship a goddess similar to Yondalla from the PHB, so I generally just say worship her… but in the world of Enber, Halflings tend to worship gods of convenience. (often pulling from the human pantheon of gods) and their goddess has several “aspects” from which a Halfling priest might worship. Regardless of which aspects are worshipped, she is universally referred to by Halflings as “The Provider”.

So, you can make it easy on yourself and just go with PHB, or if you would like to dig into something more specific to my novel’s world, just ask. I WONT be offended if you chose to just go PHB… I sort of encourage it for sake of ease. (Of course, I don’t mind digging into the details of the pantheons in my book… after all, it’s nice to dig into all that work )

Second, do you have a deadline for submissions?

Nope. I tend to dislike the “Create a character and I’ll pick from the best” mentality. I’m not big on character creation… especially all the extra writing involved in trying to make “the best” one. I understand the reasoning behind those who use it and I think that for the most part, it works very well as intended… but since I don’t like doing it, I won’t make others do it either. So, no deadlines, no trying to make the better character, no “you have to be this class to fit group dynamics” and all that. I do a couple of things to try to ensure I don’t get fly by nighter gamers. First… your reading it… I’m kind of long winded. I think that if you plowed through all of the jibberish I have to say, then you’re already showing dedication. Second, I usually take a couple extra people than needed. The adventure is easy to scale for a larger group but when the inevitable person or two drop out, no need to go rushing off looking for new blood. It just happens to be a good time to do it right now as the adventure is really getting ready to kick off into high gear (at least, that is my hope).

So, no deadline. It would be nice to get the newly added characters involved soonish, though. There are so many jumping off points in which new people can join that it isn’t a problem if you can’t join for a month. (That would suck though ) I just tend to write my adventures that way… makes life so much easier when adding new characters for the variety of reasons that you might need to.

As far as I’m concerned, you expressed interest, I say you’re in and now you just need to confirm that you are still interested. (which may take a dozen or so more questions, but don’t feel like you can’t ask. I have no problem answering them. I rather enjoy it and talking about my world and DMing)

That was kind of vague, I guess… did it answer your question adequately?

I didn't notice any specifics when I looked through the various links you provided, but I could have missed it… My only other game just died and I am quite disappointed.

The only place (I think) that I went into the deities was in the character creation post, which is the first post in the Rogue Gallery down in the race descriptions where you find information about the “Luck Dice” that I had previously mentioned. I give very, very brief descriptions of each of the races (There is some note for half orcs there) as they are in my world… so it is easy to miss

Anyway, I’m sorry your other game died. PbP games tend to do that, unfortunately. In my two years, I’ve now got 22 characters that are lost to dead games… very sad indeed So… I feel your pain. However, hopefully you like what you see here and in the threads previously linked and maybe we can remedy that problem for you, sir.

I'd like to create a rogue type character, but I would like to know a little bit about the campaign world so that I may write up a background.

I love rogues
Boy, do you ask a big one, there. There is SO much to tell… what to tell, eh? Well, the basics… Enber is this huge valley where there is a lot of magic and wealth. Surrounding it is a HUGE mountain range, so big and nasty and impassable that the people of Enber just think that there is nothing else in the world but that valley. (I’m going to withhold information about the “beyond” for the later stages of the adventure… if you stick around for three or more years MUWAHAHAHA *cough cough choke gasp* excuse me, sorry)

Being a rich land, it seems there is always someone trying to conquer the whole darn thing. Every few hundred years there are some major war over something or other. But for the last 1,000 years or so, the races have steadily grown further apart, having less and less contact and just coexisting in the valley from their own little corner. This has created some strife, to be sure… but there has been peace.

Except for this one time, about 300 years ago when a very powerful elven wizard named Rox’Voroth nearly crushed and enslaved the entire valley. All of the heroes of each race came together and somehow managed to stop him… then they all just sort of went back to their homes and all the races went their own way once again.

In the Rogue Gallery, on the first post toward the bottom is a brief description of the races as they are in Enber. When you decide on a race, I can give you more specific information, O.K.?

Also I would like to echo pebele's question about a submission deadline. Two other questions for you if I may. Is Complete Adventurer allowed as well, and also would you like the mechanics posted first for you to review?

Firstly, I hope you read the answer to that above and it works for you. To save space, I’m not going to copy it all here (This thing is long enough as it is)
Second; Complete Adventure is absolutely accepted. I LOVE that book. Both the scout and Ninja classes kick a whole lot of tail in the coolness factor in my book. So feel free to use it.
Third; No need to post mechanics. I’ve got the book and can look stuff up as needed. No need to waste time typing it out. (Though, if you buy a weapon for your roguey type from it, you might mention that it is from the CAdv because I tend to space out on stuff like that)

Since I had been someone expressing interest in the initial game, I'll toss my hat back in the ring. What's the existing party look like?

Half-elf Sorcerer
Human Paladin
Elf Swashbuckler (From Complete Warrior)
Human Warlock (From Complete Arcane)
And a Human Psychic Warrior/Barbarian (This player doesn’t post too often, kind of rare, so perhaps he might fade away, which would be a shame)

I still like the idea of my halfling rogue/cleric of luck.
Would you allow the cloistered cleric from UA

When I’ve run this game in the past, there was a Halfling Rogue / Cleric of luck and travel run as an NPC… he was a ton of fun (and I actually made the players pay him for healing… he was a shifty little bugger… but he eventually grew in loyalty as he got to know them and stopped charging them… of course, by then, they had a lot more money and it wouldn’t have hurt as much :evil

So that would work. And… I don’t have the UA, so I don’t like to allow things that I don’t actually own. But it looks like that adds some pretty minor changes, giving only the advantage of the Knowledge Domain as a free, third domain and the Lore ability, which is like bardic knowledge. (Less hps, less weapon and armor proficiency, better skills… actually, this is somewhat closer to what I have in mind for clerics in my world I think… is there anything else about them that I should know about? The main reason I don’t allow stuff from books I don’t own is that I can’t prepair for surprises… and even if I know about things ahead of time, months down the line, I’ll forget that detail because it is not in a book that I flip through time to time… so I very well might allow the cloistered cleric variant, because, as I said, it reminds me of how I wanted to work out clerics in my world (they have more domains to chose from, more than two usually and have access to feats that allow them to spontaneously cast spells from their domain lists… but that’s not official so not in this game yet.

I'll read over the threads tomorrow and let you know, 'Detta. Both Tor L’tha and taitzu have pimped it to me now, so something good must be going on.

Bob, I’ve heard such good things about you as an RPer that I couldn’t possibly turn you down if you wanted in. Especially since we lost out on that opportunity to play in the old west as the Sharp Brothers. Man, that would have been a hoot.

I would like to express my interest as well, if possible, and can create any type of character that might help round out the party. I enjoy spellcaster, but hey, whatever you need.

The only thing the group might need would be a cleric. If we are lucky, two of those who expressed interest were interested in playing a cleric… so one should be a go… Two is always great for the survival rate of a party. I’ve run this adventure with two clerics and it went very nicely! The group is rounded out decently… so unless the new batch of players all decide to go with a spell-flinger of some sort, you should be ok with one. Likewise, it looks like players can pretty much choose whatever available class they wish and the party will work out.

Thanks for your interest and I’ll be looking forward to getting confirmation in your desire to join the game. Feel free to continue asking questions here if you need (or you could email me if you like; rahjr2k@hotmail.com) . I enjoy answering them.

Sorry I’m so longwinded

 

[Bobitron]

Bob, I’ve heard such good things about you as an RPer that I couldn’t possibly turn you down if you wanted in. Especially since we lost out on that opportunity to play in the old west as the Sharp Brothers. Man, that would have been a hoot.

Thanks, 'Detta. I'll post something more substantial tomorrow. Yeah, that game might have been a blast. If you are interested, I will probably run a new Sidewinder game once my current one winds down. Might be a while, but I'll keep you in mind.

 

[Ferrix]

I agree about clerics, to me the cloistered cleric fits the standard cleric role that much better, unless you see clerics as crusading righteous warriors of their faith.

Odo the Rogue 1/Cloistered Cleric 2 is on the way.