Starting a new campaign and this is what I've penciled in so far -
There is a backstory down below that describes their world -
The spring harvest celebration is about to take place. This is where the younger folk gather at beautiful glade along the headlands where there's a nature temple dedicated to the god of the sea and the goddess of the land. Since their bounty comes from both they offer thanks and all that to both. The celebration is really a way for the younger people of the town to get to know each other under the watchful eyes of chaperons of course so they can start to pick out a potential suitor.
A slaver raid is going to occur during the celebration and the party along with others are going to be picked up in the fighting, this will be told by story, not tactical game play.
The party will wake up in the hold of a slave ship manacled to the wall, bloodied both literally and figuratively but the blood has dried and obviously it's been at least a day or three. They'll have queasy stomachs and headaches, symptoms of the drugs the slavers use to keep their prisoners unconscious. Even if they lose 1 in 4 from the drugs it's just safer for them all around.
Some NPC prisoners will have woken earlier and if questioned will tell the party they heard ghastly screams and cries of pain from the ship a few hours earlier but haven't heard anything since. Anyone with sailing experience in their character background story (or a NPC if no one has it) will be able to tell the ship seems to be currently drifting at the whim of tide and wind. A good result on a nature check will let them know the prevailing winds and tides are pushing them north.
There'll be about 20-25 people in the manacles. Perhaps 5-6 have succumbed to the drug and are hanging lifelessly.
Of the NPC's there's one of import, Doan, a pit fighter, he's proud of his record, "I've entered the pits 26 times and I left'em 26 times without help. Ain't many can claim that little girl."
It's going to take them two days to get free, I need the ship to drift for 2 days. Doan is going to be the one that frees himself and his three cronies and then helps others get free.
They'll search the ship and find the slavers all dead, contorted with ghastly grimaces of pain and agony. Bloody bile will stain most. Each will have a circle with a slash through carved in their foreheads. Those with sailing knowledge will see that one of the ship's boats is missing. All the rum on board and the meal still in pots on the galley stove and in the plates splashed everywhere is filled with a horrible poison that kills by dissolving a person's stomach lining and increases the potency of their own bile that then kills them by destroying them from the inside out. No one will know what the symbol means without a seriously hard History check. Many decades earlier a group took on the slavers and almost wiped them out. Their symbol was the sign of a manacle / slave collar with a slash through it. aka no slavery.
As they're equipping themselves with gear from the weapons locker and such Doan is going to declare himself, "I'm the bleepiin' captain of this ship and these are my officers. You bleeps do what they tell you and maybe I'll get your sorry asses back to a town alive."
This will trigger a skill challenge where the party can try to 'persuade' doan that perhaps that's not going to fly, or they can go along with it, or they can say "nuh uh" and a fight will ensue.
During the discussion (or the fight preferably) a band of sealies will swarm over the side of the boat along with a large crystal ooze. The ship has drifted into sealie territory, which is why I needed it to drift for a couple of days. This is going to result in Doan getting killed saving people and trying to save more, he does have a good heart, just misplaced ideas of who's best for the leadership role. His cronies will probably also die along with a lot of the other NPC's.
This will leave the PC's in charge with just enough 'crew' to keep the ship moving. The ooze (or oozes depending on how I stat them out) will have damaged the boat.
They'll spot a foreboding island where they can heave to to make repairs. A large keep will sit atop a tall plateau visible as you get closer to the island.
They'll visit the keep I'm sure. Fighting will ensue as the guardians of the keep react to their presence. As they sweep the keep clear they're going to find an airship. Stories tell of the airships of the long gone days.
Because no one dares sail in the seelie territory all knowledge of this island has passed on and the seelies don't live above water so it's been sitting for a very long time.
They're going to figure out how to get it going but it's programmed to deliver the ship back to Darkmith. Unfortunately Darkmith has sunken into the swamp and it's going to be a bit of a battle to get back out. The temple of Ari'nor holds texts though that tell of the airships and how to control them, they were just thought lost, the airships forever with the decline of magic and power in the world.
While they're trying to figure out what to do at the mooring point, some creatures are going to capture several of the NPC's left. So now we have a rescue mission as well as a fight out of the swamps.
I kind of plan on them getting control of the airship, perhaps they'll have to seek out a control override rod deep in the bowels of darkmith's sunken city. Then they can use the airship to find out where the slavers are sending their captives, where the slavers hang out and work to destroy them. Or maybe they'll just tour the world feeling safe from the dangers below. At least until they stray into the territory of dragons....
That's as far as I've kind of thought things out and all is subject to change.
(This is what I sent everyone)
A little backstory -
The world is a dark place. Towns typically stand alone against the dangers that fill the darkness just out of range of their lights. Lights that have gradually faded and in many cases flickered and gone out as year rolls after year and the darkness claims more for its own. A darkness filled with hungry eyes and sharp steel and claw.
Trade exists between towns but requires heavy guards and even then convoys disappear. Most trade is done by river as the waters make a natural hazard to anyone trying to take the goods. Few individuals ever get more than a few miles of the place they were born in and fewer still travel more than a few hundred miles. Or those rarely return to tell their tales.
The story starts with a moderately sized fishing town located in a protected cove on the west coast of the world. Barges haul the fish up the river that feeds into the cove where they're sold and grains from the inland farm towns is purchased along with other essentials.
You've grown up in this town, or have set roots here, blown from someplace else in your restless youth. Perhaps you act as part of a fishing fleets guard force. Or maybe you were drawn by the fabled temples of Ari'nor that hold religious teachings of many gods as well as tomes of ancient lore recovered over the decades from the ruins of Darkmith. Perhaps you're merely the son or daughter of a shopkeep, yearning for something more than to follow in your father's footsteps. Your beginnings are for you to decide, your future is in the hands of fate and the forces of the universe.
South along the coast the land gets swampy, the remains of an ancient city slowly sinking into the muck and mire. East inland the lands go from rolling hills to vast expanses of tundra with some small towns dotted along it primarily in good places where terrain provides some natural protection. North along the coast the world grows more mountainous until it reaches a place of thin air, deadly cold and creatures that defy sanity.
The fishing town has been here for centuries although more than once they've come close to being wiped out.
Their small fleets harvest the shoals of fish within a few days sail of the waters west of the town. They work in fleets as the waters are as dangerous as the lands. Pirates raid the ships for their goods but most fishermen welcome pirates as the least of the dangers of the waters. There are other darker forces scouring the waves and lands.
Slavers in their low slung swift ships make lightning raids on the smaller coastal towns to carry off captives sold to none know where. Fleets of reavers descend on the fleets or make raids on the land, their sole goal to kill and destroy and sacrifice the living to their foul dark gods. A few days sail north the waters and territories of the sealies start, humanoid aquatic creatures that live in the cooler waters and defend their areas with carnivorous glee.
The lands are not better in terms of safety. Goblinoid's descend from the northern mountains when the winds grow cold and drive them forth in search of food. Bandit tribes roam the lands taking what they can from those that can't resist them. Dark creatures escape from the swampy south, released as some fell ward falls prey to the encroaching dark swampy waters as ancient stone and mortar degrades to the point of failure.
This is the world you were born in, will live in, and ultimately die in. But hopefully not too quickly.
There is a backstory down below that describes their world -
The spring harvest celebration is about to take place. This is where the younger folk gather at beautiful glade along the headlands where there's a nature temple dedicated to the god of the sea and the goddess of the land. Since their bounty comes from both they offer thanks and all that to both. The celebration is really a way for the younger people of the town to get to know each other under the watchful eyes of chaperons of course so they can start to pick out a potential suitor.
A slaver raid is going to occur during the celebration and the party along with others are going to be picked up in the fighting, this will be told by story, not tactical game play.
The party will wake up in the hold of a slave ship manacled to the wall, bloodied both literally and figuratively but the blood has dried and obviously it's been at least a day or three. They'll have queasy stomachs and headaches, symptoms of the drugs the slavers use to keep their prisoners unconscious. Even if they lose 1 in 4 from the drugs it's just safer for them all around.
Some NPC prisoners will have woken earlier and if questioned will tell the party they heard ghastly screams and cries of pain from the ship a few hours earlier but haven't heard anything since. Anyone with sailing experience in their character background story (or a NPC if no one has it) will be able to tell the ship seems to be currently drifting at the whim of tide and wind. A good result on a nature check will let them know the prevailing winds and tides are pushing them north.
There'll be about 20-25 people in the manacles. Perhaps 5-6 have succumbed to the drug and are hanging lifelessly.
Of the NPC's there's one of import, Doan, a pit fighter, he's proud of his record, "I've entered the pits 26 times and I left'em 26 times without help. Ain't many can claim that little girl."
It's going to take them two days to get free, I need the ship to drift for 2 days. Doan is going to be the one that frees himself and his three cronies and then helps others get free.
They'll search the ship and find the slavers all dead, contorted with ghastly grimaces of pain and agony. Bloody bile will stain most. Each will have a circle with a slash through carved in their foreheads. Those with sailing knowledge will see that one of the ship's boats is missing. All the rum on board and the meal still in pots on the galley stove and in the plates splashed everywhere is filled with a horrible poison that kills by dissolving a person's stomach lining and increases the potency of their own bile that then kills them by destroying them from the inside out. No one will know what the symbol means without a seriously hard History check. Many decades earlier a group took on the slavers and almost wiped them out. Their symbol was the sign of a manacle / slave collar with a slash through it. aka no slavery.
As they're equipping themselves with gear from the weapons locker and such Doan is going to declare himself, "I'm the bleepiin' captain of this ship and these are my officers. You bleeps do what they tell you and maybe I'll get your sorry asses back to a town alive."
This will trigger a skill challenge where the party can try to 'persuade' doan that perhaps that's not going to fly, or they can go along with it, or they can say "nuh uh" and a fight will ensue.
During the discussion (or the fight preferably) a band of sealies will swarm over the side of the boat along with a large crystal ooze. The ship has drifted into sealie territory, which is why I needed it to drift for a couple of days. This is going to result in Doan getting killed saving people and trying to save more, he does have a good heart, just misplaced ideas of who's best for the leadership role. His cronies will probably also die along with a lot of the other NPC's.
This will leave the PC's in charge with just enough 'crew' to keep the ship moving. The ooze (or oozes depending on how I stat them out) will have damaged the boat.
They'll spot a foreboding island where they can heave to to make repairs. A large keep will sit atop a tall plateau visible as you get closer to the island.
They'll visit the keep I'm sure. Fighting will ensue as the guardians of the keep react to their presence. As they sweep the keep clear they're going to find an airship. Stories tell of the airships of the long gone days.
Because no one dares sail in the seelie territory all knowledge of this island has passed on and the seelies don't live above water so it's been sitting for a very long time.
They're going to figure out how to get it going but it's programmed to deliver the ship back to Darkmith. Unfortunately Darkmith has sunken into the swamp and it's going to be a bit of a battle to get back out. The temple of Ari'nor holds texts though that tell of the airships and how to control them, they were just thought lost, the airships forever with the decline of magic and power in the world.
While they're trying to figure out what to do at the mooring point, some creatures are going to capture several of the NPC's left. So now we have a rescue mission as well as a fight out of the swamps.
I kind of plan on them getting control of the airship, perhaps they'll have to seek out a control override rod deep in the bowels of darkmith's sunken city. Then they can use the airship to find out where the slavers are sending their captives, where the slavers hang out and work to destroy them. Or maybe they'll just tour the world feeling safe from the dangers below. At least until they stray into the territory of dragons....
That's as far as I've kind of thought things out and all is subject to change.
(This is what I sent everyone)
A little backstory -
The world is a dark place. Towns typically stand alone against the dangers that fill the darkness just out of range of their lights. Lights that have gradually faded and in many cases flickered and gone out as year rolls after year and the darkness claims more for its own. A darkness filled with hungry eyes and sharp steel and claw.
Trade exists between towns but requires heavy guards and even then convoys disappear. Most trade is done by river as the waters make a natural hazard to anyone trying to take the goods. Few individuals ever get more than a few miles of the place they were born in and fewer still travel more than a few hundred miles. Or those rarely return to tell their tales.
The story starts with a moderately sized fishing town located in a protected cove on the west coast of the world. Barges haul the fish up the river that feeds into the cove where they're sold and grains from the inland farm towns is purchased along with other essentials.
You've grown up in this town, or have set roots here, blown from someplace else in your restless youth. Perhaps you act as part of a fishing fleets guard force. Or maybe you were drawn by the fabled temples of Ari'nor that hold religious teachings of many gods as well as tomes of ancient lore recovered over the decades from the ruins of Darkmith. Perhaps you're merely the son or daughter of a shopkeep, yearning for something more than to follow in your father's footsteps. Your beginnings are for you to decide, your future is in the hands of fate and the forces of the universe.
South along the coast the land gets swampy, the remains of an ancient city slowly sinking into the muck and mire. East inland the lands go from rolling hills to vast expanses of tundra with some small towns dotted along it primarily in good places where terrain provides some natural protection. North along the coast the world grows more mountainous until it reaches a place of thin air, deadly cold and creatures that defy sanity.
The fishing town has been here for centuries although more than once they've come close to being wiped out.
Their small fleets harvest the shoals of fish within a few days sail of the waters west of the town. They work in fleets as the waters are as dangerous as the lands. Pirates raid the ships for their goods but most fishermen welcome pirates as the least of the dangers of the waters. There are other darker forces scouring the waves and lands.
Slavers in their low slung swift ships make lightning raids on the smaller coastal towns to carry off captives sold to none know where. Fleets of reavers descend on the fleets or make raids on the land, their sole goal to kill and destroy and sacrifice the living to their foul dark gods. A few days sail north the waters and territories of the sealies start, humanoid aquatic creatures that live in the cooler waters and defend their areas with carnivorous glee.
The lands are not better in terms of safety. Goblinoid's descend from the northern mountains when the winds grow cold and drive them forth in search of food. Bandit tribes roam the lands taking what they can from those that can't resist them. Dark creatures escape from the swampy south, released as some fell ward falls prey to the encroaching dark swampy waters as ancient stone and mortar degrades to the point of failure.
This is the world you were born in, will live in, and ultimately die in. But hopefully not too quickly.
