seasong's Light Against The Dark (FEB 06)

[seasong]

I have started a new thread for Part II and now Part III. Read through this one, then start on that those, and enjoy!

Here is the Theralis website. It contains information on the setting and the d20 house rules in use.

Those of you just arriving might be interested in catching up with the PDF Narrative version, with all of the commentary editted out. It's about 29 pages and 13,000 words currently.

In brief summary, this campaign is starting in the city-state Theralis, which is located on a mountainous peninsula. Most of the peninsula is wilderness - Theralis is a grape vine valley that has been largely civilized.

The PCs start as young (16 year old) soldiers of Theralis, near the end of their one-year term of Service (all citizens serve a year as part of adulthood). All three have a birthmark of a circle with four lines around it, the symbol of Allas (goddess of the sun, and of prophecy), and will eventually become great adventurers.

 

[seasong]

Adventurers are reasonably well known as a social phenomenon. There are plenty of ruins from past Ages hidden in the wilderness, and every generation sees its share of runaways who want to find it. Since the wilderness is honestly dangerous, most don't make it.

Edit: the below changed - the players are starting the campaign as soldiers as the adventure starts.

The PCs are a group of young friends from Theralis and its subject valleys who have banded together to just such a purpose. They have, or tell themselves they have, a bit of an edge over the typical adventuresome child, however... richly symbolic birthmarks. Each of them has a birthmark that strongly resembles Allas' sun sigil (a circle with four rays stretching out from it).

The campaign will be starting in Theralis, where they have just finished purchasing what they can with their saved coinage.

 

[sparhawk]

woohoo new story hour

Hey this sounds good so far, the back ground of your world sounds great. Are you going to post anything on the characters?

 

[seasong]

As I receive the characters, I will be posting them here.

 

[seasong]

Merideth of Southbottom: A pale, willowy girl with an unruly shock of short black hair and dark eyes. Still awkward looking, but reasonably pretty. Has the birthmark on her left calf.

Merideth was born in the backwater, southernmost valley of Theralis, to a servant's family at a vineyard. As a child she alternated between washing other people's clothes and taking walks among the ancient trees, before apprenticing to a mindworker at age twelve. She spent three years studying to be an esper, and is now ready to spend her obligatory term in the Theralis military.

Merideth tries to hide her low birth origins, but still has a hint of backwater accent.

System Notes: Merideth rolled one high stat (WIS 17), but is pretty average (9-12) everywhere else. She is a mixed spell caster, learning healing and esper spells in roughly equal measure.

Healers: Cure and inflict spells, primarily, with a smattering of other stuff like delay poison. The most common type of spell caster, with 1 in 500 people being one. Healers higher than 5th level are exceedingly rare, and things like raise dead are the stuff of legends. Healers are reasonably useful in combat, as they usually have no components other than touch and concentration. Combat healers typically learn the quicken metamagic feat early in their career, as well.

Espers: Lots and lots of sensory, divination, intuition and similar such spells. Some telepathic stuff (including charm and sleep). Espers are thematically related to healers (they draw on the same inner source), but are far rarer. Espers are not well known or well trusted... and most people find their agressive powers icky.

I have other two characters ready, but they have not yet been named, so I'm just waiting on that. One is a wannabe warrior hero and the other is an arcanist (the "real mage" type).

 

[seasong]

Greppa of Tartwater: A tall ellini (at 5'2") with dark caramel skin, close-shorn auburn hair and dark eyes. Scrawny even for an ellini, with a half-grown look about him. Has the birthmark on the upper right area of his chest, below the collar line.

Greppa was born to an upper class family in the northernmost part of the valley, the youngest child of seven. As a talented, intelligent young man, he has spent most of his life studying to be an arcanist, as well as competing in youth quarterstaff competitions.

System Notes: Greppa has two unusually high stats (WIS 18, INT 16, including ellini bonuses to each), and is generally good everywhere except musclular development (STR 6, including ellini penalties). Greppa is a skilled arcanist and mediocre with a quarterstaff.

Arcanist: Dimensional "tapping" spells, primarily evocations and summonings. Arcanists are rare due to the intelligence required to be particularly good at them.

 

[seasong]

A note on spells: I like spells to be personalized and themed. A character may know magic missile, sure, but more specifically, he knows lesser shadow killer. He draws an arcane circle in the air, and a sigil in the center, from which spews one or more small shadow creatures which unerringly track to their targets and deliver a chilling life force attack before disappearing back to their dark home plane. A few tweaks (affected by protection from outsider effects, not affected by shield), and I've got a lovely new spell.

Greppa, as an arcanist with a lot of variety, will be more affected by this than Merideth the esper/healer.

 

[seasong]

Athan of Little Lake: A burly farmboy with sheepshorn blonde hair, cornflower blue eyes, intense freckles. Built like a young ram and possessed of the grace of a cat, Athan is delicious to watch, whether he's heaving barrels of wine or hopping fences. Has the birthmark on his left shoulderblade.

Athan was born at Little Lake, which is really more of a stopgap in the river a bit south of Theralis. He's a good, solid kid from a good, solid family.

System Notes: Athan has excellent physical stats (STR 16, DEX 15, CON 17), but is otherwise average. He is one of the best youth quarterstaffers in the Theralis region, and has even had a good showing against a few veterans of the adult competitions. He's spent most of his life hunting with his Atmos-worshipping mother, but his current plans are to become a career soldier instead.

 

[seasong]

PROLOGUE
Merideth's Trail

At this point, the characters do not know each other. I will be giving each one an introductory space, before starting on the campaign.

It takes a full day to hike upriver out of the southmost valley, into Theralis proper. And once you get out, you're surrounded by sophisticated houses and people that dismiss you for your way of talking. Three more days of that to reach Theralis.

Merideth slept on the road the whole way, ate what she had in her sack, and then just went hungry for the last day. Still, she got her wish: no one saw her along the way, no one knew she came from Southbottom... and when she entered the military rolls in Theralis instead of Southbottom, no one ever would.

And there was an additional bonus as well: the city was beautiful. She studied it from the river banks, before ascending the steep mountainside to the gates. Brilliant white bridges and narrow towers of darker stone formed the bulk of the skyline, with huddled stone construction amassed below that. And more people than Merideth had ever seen, arrayed in all of their cosmopolitan splendor... she'd listened to stories about different peoples, of course, but so few of them ever visited Southbottom that...

She fiercely reminded herself that her place of residence was now, and ever would be, Northwood. She'd studied it carefully, and while it wasn't backwater, the people there seemed isolationist enough to not know a few neighbors.

With that reminder tucked away, she reached the gate. It was really more of a formality, really - the road passed through the gate, but there was no wall other than the minimum to hold the doors. Still, the lanky gentleman standing there, armed with sharp spear and unblemished mail armor, treated it with all seriousness for each visitor. "Good morning, lass, and good day. Business in the city?"

"Entering Service, sir, today is my fifteenth."

The gentleman smiled at her, stamped his spear, "Well then, lass, I expect you'll be paying no tax today. In you go!"

Inside the city, bliss turned to confusion swiftly. The buildings, so pristinely white or dark from afar, were a jumbled mass up close, with no landmarks recognizable to a woods-trained eye. Merideth walked slowly, incurring the wrath of a number of good people, before finally spotting a soldier.

"Excuse me, sir, but I'm here to enter Service today. Can you tell me where to go?"

The soldier, barely older than she, regarded Merideth with bored disdain for too long, before interrupting her repeated query with a gusty sigh, "Here, I'll walk you there. Why'd you come to the city for this?"

"I'm from Northwood. That's close enough that I might as well!"

He looked at her again, but didn't comment. If she was from Northwood, she was a poor example of the breed.

They walked in silence, before he jerked to a stop and pointed, "There, that building." Then he left.

Merideth, ears still burning, headed to the unmarked little tower.

 

[incognito]

good writing seaasong-san,

can you post the L1 PCs in Rogue gallery please?

You may want to post the class advancement changed there too!