Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
I couldn't agree more. Oh man, oh man, oh man!Arbiter of Wyrms said:
Ptolus - Six Days Early!
- Thread starter Arbiter of Wyrms
- Start date
Arbiter of Wyrms
First Post
The next question is this:
Which of the Ptolus related products do I need from the partner companies?
I'm thinking about getting certain minis, like some litorians
I definately want the cool maps (from Skeleton Key? I don't remember)
That's all that springs to mind, but I'm sure I'll get suckered in by other stuff. I remember that one of the maps is available for large scale printing, like that produced by the plotter at the school where I worked this last year. It would be awesome to fill a whole wall of a game room with a map of the city where the campaign takes place.
Which of the Ptolus related products do I need from the partner companies?
I'm thinking about getting certain minis, like some litorians
I definately want the cool maps (from Skeleton Key? I don't remember)
That's all that springs to mind, but I'm sure I'll get suckered in by other stuff. I remember that one of the maps is available for large scale printing, like that produced by the plotter at the school where I worked this last year. It would be awesome to fill a whole wall of a game room with a map of the city where the campaign takes place.
DaveMage
Slumbering in Tsar
Arbiter of Wyrms said:
I don't like unpainted minis so I'm not going there. Instead, I'm going to get the Ptolus Counter Collection from Fiery Dragon. I'm also going to get the vinyl map (though not the limited huge one) from them as well.
I'm also getting every map/tile set tie-in from Skeletonkey Games. Ed does great work.
Mark Hope
Hero
The city map package contains pdfs that you can print out and assemble to wall-size (either page by page, or by printing out 4 plotter-sized maps). There is also a single map that is designed for viewing on your computer screen, scrolling about the place as the PCs move around.Arbiter of Wyrms said:
(I also ordered the limited vinyl version, which should be turning up sometime in the next couple of weeks, I think...
)
Stormborn
Explorer
In so far as you can say w/o the book in hand: What do you plan on doing with Ptolus?
1.Running it as is w/ adventures found in the text.
2. Using it, the City, as a setting for published/homebrew adventures.
3. Using it as part of an existing setting.
4. Using the World of Praemal as the setting, with Ptolus as a component in it.
5. Other.
I am likely going to go with 2. Everything I have read about the setting so far is intriguing, and for some reason has captured my imagination to run a camapign in it more than most.
To that end, for those interested, I have begun to talk to my players about PC possibilities and from the direction they are going I have started to work up the following background for them:
In the early days of the Empire in the city of Nayrd, located in the extreme north eastern Prustian Peninsula, Bal Urbanus (LN demigod), the city’s legendary founder, was worshipped as the primary deity. Nayrd prospered under the god’s protection until a corrupt lord, Lord Lestian Von Tessel, came to power and establish an oppressive state. Lestian was a distant and minor cousin of the Imperial family who was charged with making the north-eastern boarder safe from barbarian incursion. He immediately began a series of oppressive taxes to fund the building of outpost across the river, conscripting and enslaving any who could not pay or who broke his increasingly stringent laws. Meanwhile few of the outposts were constructed, and far more often the enslaved debtors were put to work on expanding Lestian’s private holdings. The people cried out to their god but Bal Urbanus refused to listen. Lord Lestian’s claim to rule was legitimate in the eyes of the god and even if he was a corrupt ruler he was still the legal one. However, after several years of tyranny the chief of his angelic host petitioned Bal Urbanus to be allowed to intervene. Instead, Urbanus freed the angel from his service, saying that it was free to do what it wished.
The angel immediately manifested to a LG order of priests of Bal Urbanus, even though she knew it meant remaining in Pramael forever. She explained what was happening and why they had not received any answers from the Heavens until now. She took the form of a human female Paladin and swore that she would free the people of Nayrd and protect them from all harm. The priests called her Adaljour or "Noble Protector." She taught that the people owed allegiance to the "True Law" that governed civilization rather than the temporal peculiarities of local law and governance. They began to fight back against the tyrant in two ways.
The first way was subtle. A group of monks began acting as protectors in the streets. These monks went about as commoners, disrupting the Lord’s men as they gathered taxes and pressed people into slavery for petty crimes. They robbed from those nobles who supported Lestian and gave what they took back to the people. They remained devout to the law of their vows and to the True Law taught to them by Adaljour.
The second way was more overt. A small band of fighters, paladins, and clerics organized an open revolt in the countryside with Adaljour as their leader. After several years of fighting they threw off the chains of the tyrant and replaced him with a more popular and wiser noble. The worship of Adaljour replaced that of the god that had abandoned the city.
Adaljour continued to champion the land. In her time she protected the city from both demonic servants and an undead invasion. Eventually she fell in love with a man and bore him three half-celestial children. These three founded a new order of Paladins known as the Children of Adaljour. Adaljour fell in an epic combat (with a demon? dragon?) but at her death she was transfigured into a goddess, slew her foe, and ascended into the heavens. She left her descendants to continue to protect the people in her name.
The centuries that followed, however, have not been kind to the followers of Adaljour. Although the Children remained strong for several generations, without Adaljour physically present her worship faded and her followers became Lothianites.
During the Edict of Deviltry (560 IA – 641 IA) her followers were persecuted, as many of her descendants displayed sorcerous powers. The monks and paladins that still acted in her name protected Sorcerers and others touched by arcane magics during this time. Missionaries founded a small shrine in Ptolus around 615 IA and used it as the end of an underground railroad for arcane casters. Protected by the government in Ptolus the followers of Adaljour are spared the attacks of the Inquisition that almost destroy the remaining faithful in Nayrd and northern Prust. The faithful of Adaljour in the region suffered further when the Eastern Hordes cross the Molone River in 700 IA and sack the city of Nayrd on their way to the capitol in Tarsis.
Today there are but a handful of known or suspected Children of Adaljour, and only one small congregation of the faithful in Nayrd. The Shrine of Adaljour, in Ptolus’ Street of One Million Gods, is the only other known center of her worship, and it is much on the decline since the days when it served to organize the protection of arcanists in the west. However, the Eldest of the Faith, Childe Albert Erlicher, dying words were “I have seen the up-thrust spire which the land rejected and I have seen the City at its base. It is there that the Blood of Adaljour will find its purpose. It is there….” It is unclear if the Eldest had more to say or not for it was at that moment that he drew his last breath and went to be with Adaljour in the Hall of the Just. The remaining leaders of the faithful, however, have decided that the Faith at Ptolus must be reinvigorated. Unfortunately there is little in the Faith’s coffers and even fewer to carry its word. Most of those with the strength to make the journey are in fact Errant, questing in the name of Adaljour in distant lands, and so the task must fall on the youngest of the Faith.
My plan from there is to give them a few encounters on the road to Ptolus, and thus a brief glimps of the Empire while testing the new PCs out. Once in Ptolus I plan on having the fate of their faith being a long term issue while I throw in things like ratmen/wererats spreading disease in the warrens; a secret alliance between some of the Malkuth and Fallen; and a quest for some lost holy relics.
What are your plans?
1.Running it as is w/ adventures found in the text.
2. Using it, the City, as a setting for published/homebrew adventures.
3. Using it as part of an existing setting.
4. Using the World of Praemal as the setting, with Ptolus as a component in it.
5. Other.
I am likely going to go with 2. Everything I have read about the setting so far is intriguing, and for some reason has captured my imagination to run a camapign in it more than most.
To that end, for those interested, I have begun to talk to my players about PC possibilities and from the direction they are going I have started to work up the following background for them:
In the early days of the Empire in the city of Nayrd, located in the extreme north eastern Prustian Peninsula, Bal Urbanus (LN demigod), the city’s legendary founder, was worshipped as the primary deity. Nayrd prospered under the god’s protection until a corrupt lord, Lord Lestian Von Tessel, came to power and establish an oppressive state. Lestian was a distant and minor cousin of the Imperial family who was charged with making the north-eastern boarder safe from barbarian incursion. He immediately began a series of oppressive taxes to fund the building of outpost across the river, conscripting and enslaving any who could not pay or who broke his increasingly stringent laws. Meanwhile few of the outposts were constructed, and far more often the enslaved debtors were put to work on expanding Lestian’s private holdings. The people cried out to their god but Bal Urbanus refused to listen. Lord Lestian’s claim to rule was legitimate in the eyes of the god and even if he was a corrupt ruler he was still the legal one. However, after several years of tyranny the chief of his angelic host petitioned Bal Urbanus to be allowed to intervene. Instead, Urbanus freed the angel from his service, saying that it was free to do what it wished.
The angel immediately manifested to a LG order of priests of Bal Urbanus, even though she knew it meant remaining in Pramael forever. She explained what was happening and why they had not received any answers from the Heavens until now. She took the form of a human female Paladin and swore that she would free the people of Nayrd and protect them from all harm. The priests called her Adaljour or "Noble Protector." She taught that the people owed allegiance to the "True Law" that governed civilization rather than the temporal peculiarities of local law and governance. They began to fight back against the tyrant in two ways.
The first way was subtle. A group of monks began acting as protectors in the streets. These monks went about as commoners, disrupting the Lord’s men as they gathered taxes and pressed people into slavery for petty crimes. They robbed from those nobles who supported Lestian and gave what they took back to the people. They remained devout to the law of their vows and to the True Law taught to them by Adaljour.
The second way was more overt. A small band of fighters, paladins, and clerics organized an open revolt in the countryside with Adaljour as their leader. After several years of fighting they threw off the chains of the tyrant and replaced him with a more popular and wiser noble. The worship of Adaljour replaced that of the god that had abandoned the city.
Adaljour continued to champion the land. In her time she protected the city from both demonic servants and an undead invasion. Eventually she fell in love with a man and bore him three half-celestial children. These three founded a new order of Paladins known as the Children of Adaljour. Adaljour fell in an epic combat (with a demon? dragon?) but at her death she was transfigured into a goddess, slew her foe, and ascended into the heavens. She left her descendants to continue to protect the people in her name.
The centuries that followed, however, have not been kind to the followers of Adaljour. Although the Children remained strong for several generations, without Adaljour physically present her worship faded and her followers became Lothianites.
During the Edict of Deviltry (560 IA – 641 IA) her followers were persecuted, as many of her descendants displayed sorcerous powers. The monks and paladins that still acted in her name protected Sorcerers and others touched by arcane magics during this time. Missionaries founded a small shrine in Ptolus around 615 IA and used it as the end of an underground railroad for arcane casters. Protected by the government in Ptolus the followers of Adaljour are spared the attacks of the Inquisition that almost destroy the remaining faithful in Nayrd and northern Prust. The faithful of Adaljour in the region suffered further when the Eastern Hordes cross the Molone River in 700 IA and sack the city of Nayrd on their way to the capitol in Tarsis.
Today there are but a handful of known or suspected Children of Adaljour, and only one small congregation of the faithful in Nayrd. The Shrine of Adaljour, in Ptolus’ Street of One Million Gods, is the only other known center of her worship, and it is much on the decline since the days when it served to organize the protection of arcanists in the west. However, the Eldest of the Faith, Childe Albert Erlicher, dying words were “I have seen the up-thrust spire which the land rejected and I have seen the City at its base. It is there that the Blood of Adaljour will find its purpose. It is there….” It is unclear if the Eldest had more to say or not for it was at that moment that he drew his last breath and went to be with Adaljour in the Hall of the Just. The remaining leaders of the faithful, however, have decided that the Faith at Ptolus must be reinvigorated. Unfortunately there is little in the Faith’s coffers and even fewer to carry its word. Most of those with the strength to make the journey are in fact Errant, questing in the name of Adaljour in distant lands, and so the task must fall on the youngest of the Faith.
My plan from there is to give them a few encounters on the road to Ptolus, and thus a brief glimps of the Empire while testing the new PCs out. Once in Ptolus I plan on having the fate of their faith being a long term issue while I throw in things like ratmen/wererats spreading disease in the warrens; a secret alliance between some of the Malkuth and Fallen; and a quest for some lost holy relics.
What are your plans?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Already underway with #4.Stormborn said:
The Barony of Midwood is in the Hotash Mountains, north of the border with Kem. One group of player characters (criminals and would-be criminals) are on the run now, and are heading into the Duchy of Southerly (which runs from the Hotash Mountains to the eastern coast along the border) and from there into Kem, where I'll unleash Conan-style fun on them for a bit. After that, I believe they plan to head west around the mountains and up to the dwarvish/human seaport of Vidor and find a ship that will take them to Freeport, which I've placed in the middle of the Southern Sea.
Meanwhile, the good guy player characters are remaining in Midwood, for now, although they will soon start to uncover prophecies of the chaos cults about the coming Night of Dissolution, which will probably prompt them towards Ptolus and that adventure. After that, they'll either stay there or boomerang back to Midwood, where I have more adventure hooks laid all around.
On another topic, is there a Delver's Guild entry up this week, or is it still St. Laphest's Open Arms?
Mark Hope
Hero
Sort of all of the above. My homebrew features a series of connected parallel worlds and Praemal will be one of these (possibly merged with either Serran or the Wilderlands - I'll wait to see what the AE conversion notes on the CD are like before I decide). I'm not sure when Ptolus will feature in the game, but when it does I'll be using it pretty much as written from the book, depending on player wishes. The stuff in Ptolus about Praemal being a closed world with a demonic/chaos war in its past fits pretty well with stuff in my homebrew (as does the heavy "living spirituality" of Serran) so I am finding it really easy to adapt Monte's stuff to my homebrew.
Jaws
First Post
I'm going with where Praemal and Serran (The Lands of the Diamond Throne) are both halves of the same world.Mark Hope said:
Same but still separate worlds. The Giants (Hu-Charad Titans) are the key ingredient for the connection.
The three main books then will be: Ptolus, Arcana Evolved, and Beyond Countless Doorways.
I'll have to read the whole book of Ptolus before I decide on a starting point.
Peace and smiles
j.
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