Introduction to Cursed Earth
Since a few other people have introduced some material about their campaigns, I thought I would also. Any comments are very much welcome.
Welcome to the CURSED EARTH Campaign, a post-apocalyptic techno-magic D20 D&D 3rd edition game. This is a world where the forces of Light and Darkness collide in the remains of a once great, highly advanced techno-magic civilization. A world where appearances can be decieving, with Good being forced into the shadows and the greatest Evils striding openly about. A world in which your greatest ally and civilizations savior may in fact be its' worse enemy. A world dying under the slow, seemingly enevitable corruption of the Taint of the Shadow.
Ok, that was dramatic enough. What I basically am trying for in this campaign is to achieve some of the same flavor and atmosphere as White Wolf's WORLD OF DARKNESS games (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, etc). Game mechanics will be D20 3rd edition D&D (now 3.5 ), using the technomagic suppliments ARSENAL and FACTORY, some stuff from DRAGONSTAR (which is a futuristic intergalactic D&D with magic and technology being used side by side), and a lot of material from the new ORIENTAL ADVENTURES and ROKUGAN sourcebooks (heavily modified and mutated, of course). As strange as this mix of sources seem to be, it so far has been gelling together surprising well.
Let me start by defining "techno-magic" as it applies to the CURSED EARTH Campaign. This world is NOT like DRAGONSTAR or the more familiar SHADOWRUN, which has both mundane high tech (computers, cybernetics, laser guns, etc) and magical spells, creatures, and items living side by side, enhancing each other, but basically remaining seperate. In such a game, you may have a magical firearm, but it is a laser gun or .38 revolver first with some magical ability or enhancement grafted on it, the inner workings being of completely mundane origin and working fine within an anti-magic field of some sort (although the item would loose any magical enhancement, at least temporarily). Technology upon the CURSED EARTH is completely magically based, with only a minimal reliance on purely mechanical (i.e. gears, levers, etc) systems. A techno-magic computer handheld uses miniturized rune carved tablets in place of silicon chips. A technomagic firearm is basically a highly advanced and complex form of wand that can be used by anyone who can point and pull the trigger. A technomagic robot is a fifth generation golem. Technomagic cybernetics is called "dweoware", and is implanted into the body through the use of very specialized etheric surgery (i.e. turning the piece of dweoware ethereal then carefully grafting to the inside of the subjects body). A technomagical society would never have really developed or even really researched anything as inherently dangerous as steam power (excepting maybe the occasional obsessed Gnomish tinkerer), or even electricity (except for basic concepts like conductivity, etc). Instead, motors would be powered by specialized mage hand, unseen servant, telekinesis or like spells, rather than spinning electromagnets or internal combustion engines. This should give you a general idea of how an advanced technomagical civilization would look at the world and deal with its engineering and technical problems.
Also, a highly advanced technomagical society is not likely to spend much time or resources on space travel. I don't doubt their there was their version of Apollo some time in their history, but such a program would be more for the glory then any real value. Besides, why bother with satellites when you can tap into the ley lines of the planet and untilize them as both a GPS system and telecommunications net. Instead, a technomagical society would turn to teleportation and planar gate research, as they have proof from their earliest history of the existance of other such realms and that these magics work. They would always think Star Gate, not Star Trek. And this led to the eventual downfall of my world.
More then a millenium and a half (but less then two millenia) before our game starts, Armageddon comes about suddenly and causes the nearly complete anihilation of this civilization. Any records of what percipitated this dread event were lost in the chaos that followed, and there are only a handful of surviving eyewitnesses to this terrible time (naturally, mostly elves, and they ain't talking). Two things are known to have occured about this time: the coming of the elves and the release of the Shadow. Nobody knows the origins of the Shadow, whether it was the cause of the Apocalypse or merely a horrific side effect, but it seaped into the very soul of this world, Tainting the very source of magic. The Taint of the Shadow spread quickly accross the planet, for technomagical items are especially vulnerable to being corrupted. The larger and more complex a device, the faster it fell under the influence of the Shadow. Within a matter of days, every robot, vehicle, major household appliance, and most especially heavy weapons (cannons, mortors, missiles, ICBMs etc) was possessed by demonic energies and went on an orgy of destruction. Ancient or "old-fashioned" magic items seemed more resistant to the taint, and by raiding collectors and museums, some small enclaves were able to hold their own against the forces arrayed against them. But heavy short term usage of even the most "basic" (i.e. standard D20 magic arms, armor, and other items) also attracted the Shadow, usually resulting in the item becoming somehow cursed (one of the more unique manifestations of the Taint was a Wand of Fireballs that became cursed so that, while it would work as normal, it also had a "backblast", which usually resulted in the death of the user and any nearby allies).
Even wizards and other arcane spell casters were not immune to the effects of the Shadow, as they also would acquire Taint as they cast their more powerful spells, their darker and more bestial impulses being brought to the forefront until they too could no longer control themselves and turned upon those they had been protecting. As for most divine spell casters, they had been rendered mostly powerless by another after affect of the Apocalypse, the complete loss of contact with the Higher Realms. Clerics were cut off from their Gods, the source of much of their power. Even Evil Clerics were impotent, as they could no more contact the beings of the Lower Realms then their collegues, for the nature of the Shadow was something very primal, a manifestation of Darkness and Nothing. Outsiders (angels, demons, avatars, etc) that were upon the material plane of this world that had become the CURSED EARTH were also cut off from their native plane, leaving them greatly weakened in power and unable to return home (many were reduced to the level of mortals, and have subsequently died. Others retained their immortality and basic nature, but lost all memory of who they were and what they had been). Most paladins lost their spell casting abilities (and even some of their gods granted powers) just like the clerics of their faith. But a few Holy Orders did not swear themselves directly to a divinity, but instead to Mortal Champions of Light, i.e., Saints (some of whom may actually have been Angels who had Fallen from having been caught in the Apocalypse), and they retained ALL of their powers, including their ability to cast divine spells, spells that seemed immune to the corrupting influence of the Shadow.
Druids were the other exception, as they also did not lose their ability to cast divine magics, for they were never cut off from their source of power, the Earth. But what was once sacred was now cursed, and those with the strongest connection to the spirit of the world (i.e. highest level) either went catatonic or died of shock, went completely insane, or became completely corrupted. The Tainted Druids (or Lost Ones as they became later known) were the Shadows, body and soul, and became the founders of the new heirarchy of this Hell on Earth. The remaining survivors eventually learned how to purge the Taint of the Shadow from themselves and others (including from Tainted magical objects), and became able to purify and heal the land immediately around them, thus allowing them to access "clean" magic. Beyond the fact that they fulfill many of the roles of clerics in the CURSED EARTH Campaign, that is the druids true strength, they are the ONLY ones able to cleanse others of Taint (some very spiritual people are able to cleanse themselves through the use of CLEANSING SPIRIT feat and Halflings and Paladins are Immune to Taint).
Even with the handful of Paladins and Druids able to resist the ever encroaching Shadow, all would have been lost without the coming of the Elves. Like most fantasy settings, elves could be found upon this world, but were a dying race, as they were unable to adapt to the fast pace and mecurial nature of the technomagic modern world. And after all hell broke loose, it quickly became apparent that elves were even more succeptible then other spell casters to the corruption of the Shadow, literally metamorphosizing into dark monsterous versions of their former selves. They became the Drow (which did not exist until that point on this world. As an elven character acquires Taint, he also acquires the features and characteristics of a drow, i.e. skin turns black, hair white, sensitivity to light, etc). The few native elves who did not become drow (most of them being druids) knew that their race was doomed, and not wanting their bloodlines to completely disappear, joined many a band of human survivors, mating with them freely and frequently, until their seed had been spread far and wide. It is a rare WILD human that does not have at least some elven heritage, with some tribes being completely made up of half-elves.
The Elves that were to become the Saviors of the World and later Founders of the Federation were not native to this world. They arrived through huge Dimensional Portals from another world. Some say they were on some sort of racial migration, others that it was an invasion that had the extreme bad timing to arrive in the middle of a much worse invasion, and still others that they were refugees running from something. Over the centuries, the "official" explanation is that they were stalking the Shadow itself to try and purge the multiverse of it's foul presence. The Elves are mostly silent upon the subject, but seem to approve of this last reason, although they never directly acknowledge or deny the veracity of this claim. Usually they just subtley discourage any discussion of their arrival and the reason for it.
Regardless of the reason for their arrival, these Elves, while physically and genetically similar to the native elves (including an increased succeptibility to acquiring Taint), culturally, and more importantly, magically, they were completely different. First off, arcane spellcasters were rare among them, and clerics and druids non existant. Instead, they had something called Vishanti (i.e. the Shugenja from Oriental Adventures), divine spell casters who cast spells by attuning themselves to the elements around them and focusing the power of the elements through their bodies to produce magical effects. The Magics of the Vishanti were very resistant to the corruption of the Shadow, for, unlike druids who opened themselves to the world to draw power, they drew upon a very specific and narrow type of energy, which has the tendency to naturally purify the magic (the idea being that the Shadow likes to stick with itself, so if you pull a little bit off, the Taint stays with the larger piece so that it can keeps its integrity, e.g. drawing upon the fire elemental energy of an area is relatively safe because the Taint will likely remain coating the other three dormant elemental energies). During their long War with the Shadow, the Elven Vishanti had learned how to "balance" the elements within a magical object, leaving it very resistant to the Taint of the Shadow. While Balancing would not purge any already existing Taint, it would keep an object from being further corrupted (but Balanced objects are more difficult for a Vishanti to detect using his Sense Elements ability, add 5 to the DC). Thus, the Elves were armed with powerful magical weapons and artifacts that they could use freely.
But, the Elves had never developed a technomagical society, and even the most powerfully enchanted bow is not match for the firepower of a Blaster Auto Cannon or Heavy Machine Gun. But this race of elves had been forced to learn to adapt to changing situations in their eternal War with the Shadow, and they took very quickly to both technomagic weapons and armor. While they did not have many arcane spell casters, and thus were unable to produce most technomagical objects, the Vishanti were able to Balance these items and thus keep them from becoming immediately Tainted. Even better, they were able to Balance many of the workshops and technomagical tools (lathes, drills, etc), so that a certain level of mass production was again possible, and the troops at the front line were once more being supplied with new Blasters, Blazers, etc. The depredations of the forces of the Shadow were quickly stopped, and the borders of the surviving enclaves were strengthened and made nearly impregnable.
More later,
skippy
The problem is that there are so many people in the world and all original ideas have already been used. It's kinda depressing, but at least gives me an excuse to borrow ideas from others.
