Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yenrak" data-source="post: 7548918" data-attributes="member: 6888829">Let's Start in a Tavern[ATTACH]104104[/ATTACH]Hail and well met, travelers!This is Faerun, a vast continent on the world of Toril. It is populated by many cultures and races but dominated by human lands, be they kingdoms, city-states, or carefully maintained alliances of rural communities. Interspersed among the lands of humans are old dwarven kingdoms, hidden elven enclaves, the shires of halfings, and glades of gnomes. It is a land of rich history,wondrous tales of adventure and magic, and mystery. Running along the Sea of Swords from north of Amn to the Sea of Moving Ice, the Sword Coast is a narrow band of territory dominated by city states that largely use the sea for trade. The names of the cities are well known—Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, Neverwinter, and Baldur’s Gate.We start our story in Luskan, the City of Sales. Luskan is the northern most of the the free cities of the Sword Coast.  Each of you once held a romantic image of Luskan as a magnificent port metropolis where bright sails of majestic merchant galleons greeted the dawn, and dashing swashbucklers met their rivals with a wink and the tip of the hat.And then you came to Luskan. It’s a dirty old town. Filthy streets, squat buildings, ramshackle docks, creaky old longships, and crass pirates barely disguised as sea traders. The city’s most prominent building is the Hosttower of the Archane, which stretches above the filth, fog, and stench of Luskan to corrupt the very sky. It branches into spires near its top, like some twisted, lifeless tree or a claw bursting out of the earth to choke the heavens. It is home to the Arcane Brotherhood, a league of wizards whose greed is exceeded only by their hunger for power.Just a few years ago, the Arcane Brotherhood returned to the city. Their tower, which had toppled ages ago, seemingly sprang to life again, as if the ancient artifice had been brought forth from the depths of time. The Brotherhood cleansed the city of undead that were plaguing its ruins and fought off a dragon that attacked. They became heroes to the populace. And since they foreswore politics, the Captains saw them as no threat.  There are a few Luskan folk, however, who worry about this powerful clique of allied wizards who have taken up residence among them.Anyone who spends time in Luskan knows that it is controlled the Ships. The Ships are sometimes described by people who known little about Luskan as nothing more than bands of pirates. But they are much more. They are the thread and fabric, the warp and woof, of Luskan. The term Ships is a phrase of art. These are not single vessels but vast organizations owing allegiance to their fellow Shipmates and to their Captains, who are elected for life. Twenty years ago, the Captains rose up and overthrew the gangs that had run wild in the city, reclaiming their roles guiding the ship of state. They are the law, they are the sources of prosperity, and they are what makes Luskan what it is.On this particular morning in spring, you make your way down the stairs of a seedy inn called the Cutlass. Seven of you—Sabrina, Walker, Arche, Jade, Zuckey, Goldina, and Silver—have been sharing a squalid room on the second floor. It only has one bed but money is running short and each night you draw high cards to see who will get the bed. Walker and Arche, for some reason, always win. Your fortunes, however, may be about to take a turn for the better. Merchants are hiring guards for caravans to run up to Icewind Dale. In a city of pirates, sailors, and sea men, there is something of a shortage of folk willing to sell their sword to guard wagons of trade goods and migrants on the roads. Especially when those roads lead to Icewind Dale, where they say the wind goes right through you and the dead are left as icy statues on the plains because the frozen ground is so hard no graves can be dug.Your friend Landon—who isn’t bad for a priest, to be honest--has secured for you an interview with one of the merchants who is running a caravan north. A wizard from Waterdeep named Valindar. He has agreed to buy you breakfast at the Cutlass. You are grateful for the free meal but you cannot help but wish it were coming from a better kitchen than what the Cutlass offers.Landon is sitting with two other men in a booth in the far corner of the inn’s common room. Both are older than you thought they would be. One looks stronger, more rugged than you expected from a tradesman. The other, weirdly, looks softer, thinner, and more bookish than you thought a tradesman would look.</blockquote>

Verification