Post/Author/DateTime	Post
GoriceXII 02-07-07, 03:46 PM	This is more of a campaign entry than it is about a world per se. However I'd be interested in what people think. Basic information: New Edom is a Republic made up of people of a variety of human types with some nonhumans as well. Currently it is in the grip of war. Two large armies have invaded. One is striking for New Edom's fertile interior. The other has captured the coastal port of Harbourtown and marching on land and moving by sea advances to the city of Fineberg. Fineberg is a fortified city located between a small river, the Erken, and a larger one (about the size of the Mississippi) the Silver River. There are fortified bridges leading into the city and to the north of it. The Silver River meets the sea just a few miles south. Because the Silver River is navigable the city has a port. Across the river is the wild country of goblinland. Recently a victory over the Goblin Confederacy resulted in re-fortification of the ruined city of Highport and placement of a garrison there. It is now mid autumn. The forces of Duke Anderman (one of the enemy king’s marshals) must achieve victory over the coastline so that they can join with the armies of their king and complete the conquest of New Edom before winter comes. If not then the conquest will have to wait until they can campaign in the field again. What I'm trying to put together is a set of playable adventures for my players involving this siege. They are currently in command of a group of their own henchmen and some soldiers, and are mostly doing unusual jobs, scouting missions and intelligence gathering and the like. (which amounts basically to adventures) I'd be appreciative of any feedback or added ideas. I had started this brainstorming in another forum but it occured to me to try it here as well. I have the following questions for people reading this: 1. Do the adventures and setting seem potentially enjoyable? 2. Do you have anything you would if you were writing it add to my setting or the adventures? 3. What suggestions do you have for an end to the war? Part I: The Government The Great Council of New Edom The Great Council consists of several councils that together agree on matters of law, taxation, defense, and other affairs of state. They are: 1. The Council of Lords (Consisting of High Lord Jetheh, Lord Magdiel, Lord Tybalt, Lord Aholibamah, Lord Dunsinaine) This is the main executive branch of government. It is an office elected for life (until sanity, health or criminal behavior demand resignation) and is elected by the general body of the rest of the Council from persons who are New Edomite citizens, known for honesty and just behavior, proven patriots (by serving at least five years in the Army of the Republic), literate and at least thirty years of age. The Lords have the power to protect orphans and the poor, to command the military, Council Police and to also command the militia in times of emergency. They may direct the other branches of government according to already agreed upon matters of law. 2. The Council of Guardians consists of seventeen Guardians of Justice, who are the supreme court of the land, and judge all cases that are High Court cases. This office is served for ten years. They must be at least 40 years of age and practiced in law. They are elected from among the city magistrates. Three Guardians of Justice are assigned to each major city (Touchstone, Harbourtown, Glasstower, Lookinghaven, Fineberg) and two are assigned to ride circuit through the rest of the country. 3. The Council of Ministers who are chosen by the Lords and Guardians from among a body elected by the Council of Representatives. These carry out direct offices such as Ministry of Culture, Controller of Mines, Collector General of Revenues, First Prefect of the Archives, Minister of Public Works, Minister of Outer Lands. This office is served for four years. 4. The Council of Representatives represent the major towns and cities of New Edom, and are each elected by the appropriate voting population. (which is usually the Commune of the city) In particular this group has the duty of revision of existing and proposed laws before proposing them to the general body of the Great Council for voting. 5. The Council of Guildmasters represents each Guild that exists in New Edom. 6. The War Council, consisting of 4 Generals each commanding an army of approximately 5,000 troops including militias in the regions to which they are assigned, a Quartermaster-General and an Inspector of Fortifications. 7. The Nocturnal Council. This is a council within the council and does not vote but does advise. It consists of: The 10 oldest Guardians of Justice, The Minister of Culture and any living predecessors, examiners (officials who check and audit those who are elected to office) certain citizens who have traveled abroad under official auspices and are invited to join, and also each of the above is entitled to appoint one person approved by another member to join, being required to be of an age between 30 and 40. The Nocturnal Council meets between dawn and sunrise, hence its name. It is largely an advisory body but may carry direct appointments and commissions from the Guardians or the Lords. The Council Police This is an organization headed by Abishai Kohath, a long faced rather solemn man who is rarely seen to smile and has a reputation for a ruthlessly efficient style of command. He is the protege of Lord Magdiel, one of the Council of Lords. (the Council of Lords is the highest rank within the Great Council, its members are elected for life only after proven service to the nation) It consists of four main branches: administration, enforcement, investigation, training. The training branch operates from the remote grim fortress of Stonehaven, where the members, regardless of class, are trained to deal with interrogation, physical endurance, code writing and interpretation, languages and in loyalty to the state above all things. Following this they are apprenticed according to aptitude within the appropriate branch. Council Police are also chosen for a rare ability to resist magic or at the very least deal with it well. Administrators are basically clerks, but they must be close mouthed, loyal, attentive to detail and methodical. They can be of any class but are most often recruited from the commoner class's ambitious types. Enforcers are basically toughs but they must be more than thugs, though some appear so. They have to be loyal to a fault, determined and quick on their feet. It is often they who have to burst into the hidden chambers of a cult or accompany troops head first into a warren of possible assassins. Most of them are noncomissioned officers of junior rank. Investigators are recruited mainly from rogue classes and magic using classes. They must be fiercely loyal, determined, ruthless and intelligent. Invesitgators may be put to work as spies, interrogators, and investigators who assist the Guardians and the Nocturnal Council in dealing with matters of state law. Magical Laws All Mages must be bonded, and must be tested by the three master magicians of New Edom (Lord Aholibamah, Lord Magdiel and Mistress Ravel). All practicing clerics must belong to a noted temple or faith recognized by the state. Both must be available to help protect the state, heal, or offer information gathering spells when the interests of the nation are at stake. (Note: this is not lightly abused because ultimately most magic users and other spellcasters are either patricians or in the direct service of the state in some fashion)
GoriceXII 02-08-07, 08:36 AM	The Forces Army of Eastern New Edom General Carmel (12th level fighter) Lord Aholibamah (18th level wizard) High Priestess of Ishtar (12th level cleric) High Priest of Osprem (9th level cleric) Prince Mane Andoe (Elvish commander, figher/wizard 9/9) Nestor Khalkimedes (9th level wizard) 1200 heavy infantry 400 crossbowmen 133 scouts (barbarians, rangers, rogues) 250 elvish longbowmen 400 medium cavalry 680 sappers/miners/artillerists 25 cooshee 25 hippogriff riders 125 lizardfolk marines 33 Locathah sea scouts (mounted on giant eels) 14 combat capable clerics of Osprem 15 combat capable clerics of Ishtar 8 low level wizards Major Personalities Lord Aholibamah Is a powerful wizard of some prominence magically and socially, being one of the oldest members of the Council of Lords. He is the founder of the Magician's Guild of New Edom and is also the founder of the concept of bonding all spellcasters. While he is generally a decent honest man he is also ruthless when it comes to the security of the country. Aholibamah was one of the original founders of the New Edomite Republic and has never forgotten the tyranny of King Obed. Austere and ascetic in his habits, his only affectations are a strangely twisted staff of pale wood that is said to give him a great many more spells than even he should be able to cast and the blue robes and black sash of his office. While he does not stand on ceremony his sense of authority is stern and uncompromising. Lord Aholibamah is more likely in fact to be friendly and down to earth with ordinary folk like innkeepers, shopkeepers, huntsmen, farmers and the like rather than with officials and officers of state, among whom he has a reputation of being very particular and sharp. While this is the case, and while he is capable of intriguing with the best, he is certainly known to place his country even before his own life. Spellcasters who are not patriots get very short shrift from Lord Aholibamah. He is usually accompanied by his assistant, Nestor Khalkimedes, who is a vain and proud magician who thinks highly of his own intelligence. Nestor being much younger than the venerable Aholibamah is often sent on errands and missions for him. He is also accompanied by a brownie named Nox who is a sly mischeivous creature that some refer to as "Lord Aholibamah's spy". In appearance he is a very old but hale and hearty man in his eighties with very little hair remaining on his head but a short aggressively jutting white beard. His hands sometimes tremble slightly but this may be an affectation as he has no difficulty mixing magical materials or casting spells. He wears azure robes with a black fringed sash and boots of black felt. General Sarai Carmel is both a prominent warrior and one of the keenest strategists in the New Edomite Army. As a soldier she has a fine reputation among her soldiers for fairness, sterness and cleverness. She has gathered a staff to her that are very good at gathering supplies, making and breaking camp, organizing marches and planning. Carmel has a good reputation among the elves, having fought alongside them in preserving their borders from hobgoblin and giant raids, and thus was a prominent figure in winning an alliance with them. Among the elvish settlers in Fineberg she is very welcome. The General is married to a rather clever engineer and builder named Stephen, who is admired for a number of inventions including a bread oven that can be transported by wagon, reassembled and baking bread in under an hour; the linkable chains that can be drawn between the two towers that guard the harbour mouth in Fineberg; a form of crankable ram that can be manned by only four soldiers. However Stephen is an often distracted introvert and at times exasperates his more outgoing wife. Carmel as a commander prefers to trick or evade her enemies, forcing them to use their own strengths against themselves. She despises unecessary casualties and will deeply resent senior members of the Great Council trying to force her into action for either political reasons or out of their own sense of panic. As a warrior she is known to be rather the same, confident, competent and decisive, avoiding flashiness and unecessary daring. Among Goblinoids Carmel and her officers are loathed and despised, since she recently forced a humiliating treaty upon them following the destruction of several towns and fortifications. Those goblins and hobgoblins and orcs who joined Duke Anderman's army are very aware of being under sentence of death merely for setting foot on New Edomite soil. Anyone they capture in turn will doubtless if they have their way have a slow and agonizing death or at the very least a swift and violent one. Carmel has a gracious and easy confidence about her that readily wins most over to her. While she is known to have a terrible temper it is usually kept in check and is more expressed with an icey blue eyed glared and frigid courtesy than with shouts and blows. Her personal tastes are usually fairly simple but her armor is of excellent dwawrvish craftmanship and her mounts are always of the highest breeding. She has a magical sword called Frostbite (in the New Edomite soldiers' parlance) and a black hippogriff called Slasher. The Temple of Ishtar Nala Livian The High Priest of Ishtar is one of the handsomest men in Fineberg. He is athletic, devoted to hunting several times a year, and practiced in arms, particularly the arms of Ishtar which are the spear, axe and mace. Dark haired with almost black eyes and a calm but authoritative manner, he is also highly charismatic and shrewd. The Livian family have long provided candidates to the priesthood and those accepted by the goddess are trained in the arts of rule, war, healing, prophecy, administration and erotic love. This last is required so that they may be candidates for the Sacred Marriage to the High Priestess, who among worshippers is still the Queen of Fineberg, the Princess under the Heavens. In the present case Nala is older by nearly fifteen years than the current High Priestess, being thirty six. The case for his rule of the temple is a curious one. The former High Priest, Talamand, was on a quest for relics lost during the people's legendary trek across the mountains to the land that would become New Edom. He and the party he was travelling with were set upon by Hobgoblins and Bugbears. Though they fought them off, Talamand was wounded by a battle axe wielded by a Bugbear chieftain that bore a curse upon it against those whom it struck. This wounded him deeply in his manhood. There was little time in which to save his life from the rot entering the wound and so his male parts were amputated. Subsequently the goddess rejected him as her High Priest and the sacrifices (which are of animals or of carefully crafted items) were clearly refused, the armor and arms upon the altar rusting immediately and the prize goats and sheep revealed to be rotting and diseased within. Talamand, though still a capable cleric in many ways, was forced to abdicate. He remains an advisor to Nala but often prefers to be away from the city, travelling and offering his services to people on journeys or to the state for various purposes. The former High Priestess, Shakatis, was a grand and imposing woman of great beauty at the prime of her life, but was found to be involved in a plot to reinstate royalty in New Edom and was also forced to abdicate. She was informed that the Great Council preferred her to join a communit of anchorites in the north, and rather than this she took her own life. Nala's first act as High Priest was to urge the appointment of a new High Priestess. The appointment of a senior cleric requires the performance of miracles before an assembly of known worshippers of rank, and the most capable was a beautiful young Hierodule called Hereka. It was not unheard of for a Hierodule to be so appointed--their office normally was something between a communicant of dreams and a sacred concubine, whose charms were only enjoyed by heroes and kings as well as the High Priest--but her youth was also considered a great surprise. Nevertheless she was clearly capable of the most important rites and therefore was wedded to Nala in the proper steps of descent and worship on the ziggurat temple, the marriage consummated before a small audience of select worshippers. Because of all this Nala's rise to High Priest is considered to be somewhat suspect by cynics outside of the temple and even whispered on occasion within the temple. Since assistance by elvish and gnomish magic and dwarvish ingenuity more than worship of the old gods has brought about a richness of agriculture and mineral wealth in New Edom it is hard for sceptics to say whether the worship of Ishtar, Osprem and other old gods is worth it. However tradition dies hard, and while some clerics seem to be more ceremonial than others there is no denying that healing, dream interpretation, blessing of crafts, goods and crops and livestock take place successfully in the Fineberg temple at the very least. And certainly the goddess herself was known to be cunning and ruthless when she had to be. Nala controls a lot of wealth as well as the authority over the temple directly. All taverns in Fineberg owe the temple a tithe, and along with tithes of worshippers and the temple's own rented lands roughly fifty wagonloads of food can be expected every harvest for the temple alone into Fineberg. Nala posesses as high priest certain regalia: the periapt of Ostara, which detects good and evil and protects against outside evils; the Lapis armor, which worn in battle is capable of absorbing a death blow once per day; the Table of Destiny, which is actually a series of ivory tablets that are used to reveal the future. As a man he is known to be warm in manner, winning over most people with an outstretched hand and a keen eye. He is a good orator with an authoritative voice. It is also said that he can be coldly vengeful if every crossed. It is said of Nala that he is the one man in Fineberg who can do a miracle no one else can: go down the street two ways at the same time. This is not said to his face or to those known to be his adherents, since while he is not the law he certainly can influence it and is one of the most powerful business interests in the city. What it refers to is the fact that he has clerics everywhere, including as advisors to the city council, serving on the watch and the town militia, volunteering service as Wine Criers and assistants to Market Wardens, as truth tellers to magistrates. All this is helpful. It cannot be denied that clerics are useful in all these capacities. It also gives him eyes and ears everywhere. He has a personal network to rival the Council Police. This has also been noted by higher ranking officers in that organization. Nala's closest henchman is the chief administrator of the temple, Olor, a quiet, neat man who is dry in manner and slavishly devoted to the High Priest--and genuinely is as well. Olor has no inherent charisma, bright manner or art of seduction in him. Nala is genuinely admired by him. For Olor, to serve the High Priest is to serve all that he cannot be in life. The only other man Nala trusts implicitly is Aramon, the Captain of the Temple Guard. This is a difficult office to have. There is constant talk about disbanding it forcibly by city councillors. The Council Police find infuriating the idea that what they refer to as a private organization can require them to state their purpose at the gates. It has been severely reduced regardless to a mere fifty. However Aramon in spite of this manages to keep temple property secure, to be loyally devoted to the High Priest no matter what. He was a former officer in the Army of the Republic but when badly wounded in the first Goblin War his life was saved by a young priest called Nala. Since then he has been his devoted friend. Aramon is often the pragmatist with Nala and is one of the few people who speaks to him bluntly in private. Hereka the High Priestess, the Princess under the Heavens, is a dark haired woman recently twenty one, with an excitingly curved but trim figure hinted at but never vulgarly reveled by the flowing layers of cloth she wears, embroidered beautifully but in certain light briefly transluscent. Her voice was described by a bard as being a caress of velvet. Hereka was seen to be gifted in ways that led her to be trained as a Hierodule. She had no desire for adventure in the wilds but rather preferred to devote herself to learning temple secrets. In older times Hierodule priestesses would dance on flowers in diaphanous gowns greeting the arrival of kings and heroes. For the most part in the last generation or so they have often been merely symbolic, and have often been the bored concubines of the High Priest, meddling in petty temple intrigues. Hereka was different: she sought to know the power of the goddess. This was not without risk: it involved her undertaking vision quests and stealing into parts of the temple which required her to overcome dangerous puzzles and spells. A precocious girl, she began her intent quest for power at the age of fifteen and by the time she was twenty she had learned a great deal in secret, including a promise from Ishtar that should she agree to restore the temple to former greatness she would become the next High Priestess. Hereka is also a profoundly sensual person. She enjoys life but much the way a cat does, not demonstratively but with a quiet absoluteness, from lingering in a bath to lovemaking. She and Nala see eye to eye in many ways. He found that far from gaining a puppet High Priestess he gained a true partner, who in some ways had a startling amount of insight into the ways of the other worlds. Unlike himself however Hereka is rather unworldly and thus they balance one another as well as a coin. Hereka has few female friends, the only solid one being her long time personal attendant, Minyanda, a handsome woman in her late forties who practically raised her. Minyanda is not a priestess, but is from a minor landed family and is thus a good observer of political matters and an able household administrator, which is largely her current function. Hereka posesses two particular artifacts as High Priestess: the Sacred Diadem, her crown of office, which enables her when wearing it to perform clerical magics at higher levels of ability than she would normally be able to; the Stone Lion, which is a winged lion that will at a command word animate once per day for a limited time but long enough to transport her or defend her. To the public, Hereka is gracious, regal, beautiful and magical, mostly seen during processions and public rituals only. Hereka in fact makes sure that she never if possible has to do any dirty work in public to maintain this reputation, using other clerics to gather information about supplicants or complaints in order to make sure that she always appears just, kind, generous and merciful. Prince Mane Andoe is the leader of the elvish military force in Fineberg currently. He is a fully mature elf but young by the standards of many. As nephew of the High Prince of Lioslinn (Prince Findi Lamat) he has a great deal of status but even more of it was earned as Commander of the Southern Border where he was in charge of the Tower Rannach, the main elvish fortress facing the Goblin Confederacy. Mane Andoe is the eldest of four brothers and has along with that a strong sense of responsibility. While he is capable of enjoying beauty, repose and celebrations with other elves something grim entered his spirit during his border duties, and he is always aware of the presence of evil in the world. As such he sometimes is rather imposingly dour company. Raven hair would fall well past his shoulder and his faintly golden skin colour makes him look exotic, especially as that hair is often elaborately braided in the elvish martial fashion. A beautiful figure, he is sometimes referred to by humans as "The Statue". Mane Andoe always wears silver, blue and black, his armor superbly linked elvish chain, his demeanor courteous but grave. Other elves find him puzzling save for his few closest friends. Among his closest friends are a few humans, including General Carmel and Nestor Khalkimedes. The Prince would prefer to be in his homeland if he were honest, breeding hippogriffs and talking to those elves who are able to lighten his heart with their music and tales. Possibly it is this side of him, the young poet-warrior who went so gladly to help defend his lands, that he is protecting by his brooding silence. As a magician he is specially skilled in such arts as lend themselves to war. He firmly believes that goblins and evil men and other such creatures plan to make foul bargains with demonic creatures from Outside and conquer all that is good using them. The unavoidable evidence of this, which he has shared with those he trusts, fills his dreams and he realizes that only if some human nations will join with the elves in defending the good will good survive. Unfortunately there are elves and there are elves. Many elves do not share his concern, having ages ago decided to slowly fade from the world regardless. Others hate and loathe humans. Both share a common sense of the reason for this. Elves believe that the world is alive, that the world sings, and that there are creatures that dull or even still this singing. For instance to elves goblins and orcs hate themselves and all life, and want it made dour and dark and hateful. Humans are in a way worse: for all their gifts they appear deaf to it. By turning all nature increasingly to the fires of industry and commerce they are drowning the singing of life. Mane Andoe desperately does NOT want to believe this, but he believes as well that he must hope for the best. It is for this reason principally that he is aloof with humans, because he does not dare let their sometimes considerable charm woo him from discovering the truth. In the meantime, due to his sworn friendship with Carmel, he has come to defend not just the elvish community in Fineberg but his personal allies as well. Those who followed him are in many cases admirers from the border service but also those who are following his reputation. Prince Mane Andoe has elvish chain that for all its lightness is remarkably strong, able to withstand the blow of a battle axe (though probably if directly hit he would be knocked unconscious) and a magical spear that can fly unerringly to twelve targets in a day and return to his hand each time. Army of Deva Duke Anderman (12th level fighter) Kalikazan (21st level lich--disguised as a man) Mog Agorn (9th level cleric) 10 giant trolls 1 Wyvern 2200 barbarian infantry 600 barbarian light cavalry 2700 mercenary heavy infantry 600 archers 600 goblins (miners and light infantry) 264 hobgoblins (elite heavy infantry) 2100 medium cavalry 1000 Orc archers 20 orc shamans 14 hobgoblin shamans 22 goblin shamans 8 human clerics (Major Personalities to follow later)
GoriceXII 02-08-07, 08:37 AM	Adventure Plots 1. Hold Until Relieved: An outdoor adventure. The players are sent to help evacuate local villages and their goods. I will have someone (probably the pseudo dragon that is the companion of one of the characters) alert them to the fact that a group of hobgoblin raiders are approaching the village they are helping. They must find a way to delay the hobgoblins long enough for the villagers to escape. The players will be aware of the possibility of contacting a medium cavalry company for help, but they will be at least a day away. 2. Reluctant Allies: an outdoor adventure. As the enemy forces draw nearer, the commander of the defending forces is concerned about them making fortifications upriver to control resources and possibly send attacks by that means. Apparently there has been no sign of one of the key allied groups, the aquatic elves of the House of Mannan. The players (who in a previous game helped obtain this alliance) are sent to find out what is happening. It is discovered that a group of Koalinth raided the House of Mannan and kidnapped children of the leaders, and are holding them hostage. If the House of Mannan elves are so much as seen near the Koalinth lair they will kill a hostage, brutally. (I should add that this elvish tribe is becoming increasingly neutral and isolated, fearing attack by other powerful creatures. They need to be convinced that their allies are truly concerned about their welfare) If the players succeed in rescuing the children the water elves will promise to help protect the river. (Note: the Koalinth are normally not that much concerned with surface affairs save for the occasional raid, but were basically bribed by the hobgoblin warlord's agents) 3. The Siege Begins: I was planning on having the players involved with at least one escalade attempt of the enemy. This would partially be a hack and slash affair but also to give them a chance to defend a mini fortress as the enemy try to take one of the fortified bridges leading across the smaller river into the city. This fortified bridge has a small tower on either end of the bridge and a raised wall in the center with a couple of murder holes to defend the river itself. The players will command their own followers plus a company of city militia. I was thinking that because of the lack of field experience among the city militia commanders that people who were locally known for heroics would raise morale by being given at least temporary command. While barbarian infantry lead the assault goblin engineers attempt to destroy the fortifications. (Note; because of the fortified bridges it is very difficult to just send boats over the river. Once landing they would face a steep slope of the opposite bank followed by being fired upon from the city walls and towers) 4. Respite: this is some time I will give players to do training/buying and other stuff like that, and some roleplaying stuff if they want to do that. Essentially the enemy give up on the assault (unless something weird or disastrous happens in the previous adventure) and it is down to engineers on either side. The players are given a bit of a rest but are warned that it is expected that the enemy will start to fortify a camp nearby and they may be needed. It is also a chance for me to introduce key NPCs in the city that they don't know yet. 5. Urgent Fury: until now the defenders' militia and the regular forces of the Republic have been destroying the enemy attempts at counter fortification but two factors are inhibiting this. The first is that large numbers of the enemy have been arriving and the raids are becoming difficult. The second is that while magically both sides are fairly even a new enemy wizard seems to have arrived. She must have a wand or staff or ring of spell storing because she hurls lightning bolts like there's no tomorrow. To make matters worse, the hippogriff rider scouts are being attacked by both a wyvern and a dragon, which makes things difficult: the city's mages can't do intelligence and fight off the enemy wizards and clerics at the same time. The pcs are called upon to help defeat these problems. However there are two major hurdles: the wizard seems to pretty much appear out of nowhere and the dragon seems to fly away from the camp altogether during the night. While one group of heroes from the city promise to take out the wyvern and the wizard riding it, the players will be asked to take on the other problems. (Note: this will be used for foreshadowing of the truth about the enemy lead wizard, who is really the lich in disguise. The attackers will all be killed or captured) (part of the mystery here is that the dragon and the wizard are the same person) The players will have to sneak past enemy sentries, track down this dangerous enemy going into territory overrun with raiders, some hapless refugees and bandits and brigands who are in some cases deserters or malingerers from both sides. 6. Assassin's Knot: a murder mystery. (based on the old TSR adventure) A grim wait has settled upon the city. With one of their big guns taken out (again, barring disaster or weirdness) the enemy are resorting to the following tactics: dismay (now and then sending magical attacks or siege weapon attacks into the city) engineering (using magic as well to speed things up, since goblins are competent but lazy engineers. This is countered by dwarvish engineers and city spellcasters, and is kind of an ongoing duel the players will be aware of but not part of) However one of the city councillors has been murdered. The players are known to be clever and are asked by the Prefect of the city to investigate the matter, though they are given no powers of arrest. They find themselves competing with a city watch captain who is suspicious of them and believes the jurisdiction to be his. In fact he is being manipulated by someone who has much to gain from the murder. The conspirators are not traitors, they are merely power hungry and removing a rival. 7. The Autumn Feast: normally the autumn feast is a celebration of the late harvest and of plenty. It is normally a time of one of the three seasonal markets of the city as well. Because of the lack of plenty and the grim awareness of rationing one of the city patricians decides to hold a party that will have distractions, entertainments and games. The players are invited to the party. (I'm partly basing this adventure on two others: Masque of Dreams from Dungeon Magazine by Matthew Conklin III, Michael Kaluta and Rob Lazaretti, and "Murder Most Magical" from the Four from Cormyr module) Originally it was to be a masqued ball but because of paranoia from the murder of Councillor Grellus recently it will be costumed but not masked, though faces may be painted. However a traitor is at the party. The plan is to discredit the city leaders by giving them a wine with a hallucinogen in it to make them behave ridiculously. The players have the chance to find out who the traitor is and also to discover that there is an enemy agent who has a secret lair in the graveyard where a force of undead are being created. 8. Too Quiet on the Front: for a disturbing amount of time there has been no enemy mining detected. Not by dwarves, not by city engineers, not by magic. What are they up to in the enemy camp? Scrying seems to detect little but illusions are suspected. The players sent to find out what is going on. This involves dodging sentries and outposts, sneaking across the river, possibly disguising themselves to get through the encampment and figuring out who is where and what is what. What they will discover is that the enemy wizard is gathering power into a magical device that can summon a super earth elemental that can ideally just burrow through the mines and break down city walls. (note: because the lich is so busy focused on this and fairly well guarded they can with stealth and cunning attack and destroy his device without him just being able to blast them easily to oblivion--he will only have lower level attack spells memorized because he is so focused on his research. He will not face an attack himself in any case but will retreat if surprised and call for guards) 9. Dark Winter: as winter sets in it becomes grimly apparent that the enemy can float supplies by sea to the ruined town of Korthering just a few miles to the south. While encirclement is not complete (the city can still float a few supplies down the larger river but they are constantly attacked by enemy raiding parties) people are afraid that if the enemy don't leave they will not be able to plant come spring. What will they do then? This is an interlude in part but also the players will be sent to escort an envoy upriver to several places to find out how much food and possible reinforcements can be sent. This is sort of a mini campaign phase I thought of, but my ideas are not complete about this yet. Any help would be much appreciated. What I had as the bare bones were visiting two other towns of the republic as well as an elvish town called Lioslinn that is on an island in a lake. This is where their elvish allies originally came from but most of the elves there are reluctant to become involved. It was in fact their more passionate fellow countrymen who went to join the defenders and these others are wary of humans. 10. The Parley: Frost is on the ground, and the clouds are dark in the skies. All the leaves are fallen. The enemy duke is reluctant to continue fighting into winter and would prefer to not have to keep his armies in the field. Added to this some of his forces (orcs, goblins, hobgoblins) are now grumbling that the loot they took from the few areas they got to before the evacuation forces did was not enough. The tribesmen want to go home, they feel there is no glory in a siege. Only fear of standing up to the duke (who is a fearsome warrior) and his wizard ally keeps them in check. He wants to see if he has intimidated his opponents enough for them to either treat with him or outright surrender. In the city, debate is the result of the offer of parley. People who have family members that might have been captured or enslaved, people weary of the fighting and the rationing, members of the upper classes who identify more with the duke than their own citizens will all want to parley, while the commanding general and her advisors and the lord wizard don't really think there is any point. There is also this complicating point: is the city allowed to negotiate in its own right or does it have to go along with what the leaders of the Republic say? The general is a member of the Great Council (equivalent to a Roman legate being a senator) and so insists that the city has no right to conduct its own foreign affairs. The city leaders are severely divided on this issue. This is sort of the main background to the adventure I was planning, which is more about intrigue than hack and slash or dungeon delving. Essentially in the midst of all this planning (the parley is to take place in a week) one of the principal concerns is over how much food, animal feed and potables remain in the city. The General orders the Quartermaster-General to investigate this. The players are instructed to help. However while things seem fine on paper they are not in reality. The players discover a black market conspiracy, but it involves some people of the highest quality: guildmasters and merchant leaders as well as clerks attached to the council and members of the city watch. These people if need be are prepared to kill to keep their secret, fearing that the general will have them killed and their property confiscated. (note that the discovery of the location of the held back stores of food and grain will enable the General to refuse to give concessions to the enemy) 11.Land of the undead: this camps to keep the city defenders from roaming freely but many of their forces retire to bivouacs in abandoned villages and manors. Winter sets in. The city celebrates somewhat quietly, more of a collective sigh of relief than anything else. However some of the outlying towns to the north have sent a request for aid. They are being attacked by living dead and the people are terrified. They seem to come out of nowhere and then, horribly, drag away those they kill, who sometimes reappear then, former loved ones with a malign hunger to tear living flesh. They are different types of undead too: ghouls, shadows, wights, zombies. The outlying towns and villages expect that in exchange for their help in promising food next year that they will receive military aid. This is promised but it will require careful preparations and in the meantime the players are sent ahead to find out why this is happening, where the undead are coming from. What is happening is this: the lich realizes that winter campaigns are tough on the living, but needs to be able to send out forces that will not tire nor require warmth to harass the northern villages and towns that support the city. During the warmer months raiding parties were foiled by the general's scouts and riders. Once a certain number of undead are created, they can really replenish themselves by killing. One of the riddles here is that a local enemy agent was actually a double agent and betrayed the lich, failing to deliver this area to him. In exchanged he was cursed, made a zombie that creates others by killing. Discovering this and rewarding him for his courage will break the curse. (if the players fail to discover this, which can be learned by investigation, then undead continue to wander the area, making people afraid to venture out unarmed and never at night. The region will be reluctant to send out the food because of this) 12. Hungers: It is deep winter, and stomachs are growling. Weaker pack and riding animals are reluctantly killed for food. It is rumored that people are eating rats and worse in poorer areas of the city. Faced with pleas by some on the council and their backers to consider a surrender or second parley, a group of fanatics decide to root out those who lack faith in the Republic. If someone has a cool adventure idea for this it would be great but what I was more thinking is that this is a roleplaying interlude in which the players may have an opportunity to somehow use their influence to oppose the fanatics. Otherwise they may prove their usefulness to the General, who is distracted with other concerns. The fanatical faction contains city leaders, army leaders and the like and they will hold public rallies, urge a witch hunt against those who would betray the city. They will publically demand that all rationing and housing be equally available to win over the lower classes and those who are not part of the commune charter of the city. (it is not exactly a disaster if they gain influence but it does have a grim effect on life in the city. They will become an acknowledged power group and have a lot of say in things) 13. Black and Red Doors: A plague called the checker plague (which involves both black body issues and skin bleeding) has struck the city. Houses that get it are painted with a black and red stripe crisscross and people in them forbidden to leave. The fanatical faction if not halted quickly gains control over this, offering themselves with false humility to lead in this dangerous work. No one knows what is causing it, though both the Temples of Ishtar and Osprem begin to investigate. (both of whom are held suspect by the fanatics because they are 'aristocratic and factionalist') In the meantime a witchunt is begun against immigrant peoples who the fanatics claim are the cause of the plague. The players have an opportunity to look into this and will ideally discover that it was in fact caused by a traitor within the Temple of Ishtar. If the fanatics discover this it will give them fuel, but if handled discreetly the plague will simply stop. However they will in the midst of this have to prevent a fanatic led riot from destroying a settlement of the immigrant people. (f anyone has any cool ideas on who they could be I'd be very happy--I was just thinking of making them a rather poor folk who are normally fishermen and have some odd but harmless religious practices which require them to isolate themselves from others outside their community sometimes) the players may have to decide about the lesser of two evils here. If they can persuade the Temple of Ishtar authorities to make a public statement and stress their own cooperation with city authorities then the fanatics will be made to look like fools. 14. Ice Storm: a scout reports that the enemy supply ships are trapped by ice in Korthering! The players along with other raiding parties are sent as a foray to destroy them. However the lich and other spellcasters are busily working to free the ships. This is a deadly battle on ice that may become unstable, with ships that can still act as wooden fortresses. The lich has prepared to conjure creatures that can fight specially in winter conditions. The trick is that the players and their allies must strike fast swift and hard to avoid being surrounded as the half ruined town is the main bivouac of the enemy reserves. The players are instructed to capture one ship and use its war engines to destroy the others while the lord wizard and his escort do battle with the lich. The wizard and city spellcasters summon weather to cloak their arrival and the General leads the main attack force. The players are expected to sneak aboard one of the ships while the main force strikes at the enemy units and summoned creatures defending the spellcasters. 15. As spring approaches, rumors and intelligence come of a fleet being sent from the enemy home port of Deva to reinforce their invasion forces in Harbourtown. An all out attack is planned via the Silver River which will enable them to entirely encircle the city of Fineberg. They still outnumber the defenders too much for them to take to the field. The Temple of Osprem has some news however. Studying old legends and comparing them with tales told by the lizard folk allies they have discovered that an ancient bronze dragon lives at the bottom of the sea off the coast of the Republic. It might be possible to appeal to this old heroic warrior and gain him and possibly any descendants as allies. The priests have discovered an ancient artifact in their vaults which may be of service, known as the Apparatus of Kwalish…by means of this device the pcs should be able to descend safely and reach the lair of this old dragon.
GoriceXII 02-09-07, 10:15 AM	My version of Lizardfolk will not so much be reptile-men but dinosaur-men. I was thinking about what they would be like, and I liked the idea that perhaps they are more like roughly human sized velociraptors that have more handlike front appendages (though still with claws) whose feet are somewhat splayed and less for running really fast than for swimming well, whose tails are able to help them balance and swim as well. They would of course look 'lizard like' to humans and other more human like races, but in fact would not be. They would be warm blooded creatures that need to eat regularly (as opposed to reptiles which eat rarely) they would be social creatures and would rear their young to adulthood. It would also be easier for saurian type creatures to speak a humanoid tongue, since they are somewhat related to birds. These are some of my thoughts on the physical side of things. Basic Society Socially, Lizard-Folk are clans based around a chieftain and advisors. While the females tend to be a bit more stay at home the chief female is responsible for the eggs and young which is considered very important. It is also she who is responsible for deciding where they live, what is good to eat, and the daily rituals of home life. Unmated females are as likely to explore and hunt as the males. At home Lizard-Folk have hierarchy based on leadership alone; they tend actually to rather affectionate with members of their own clan, and are very protective of the hatchlings. Other clans are regarded warily but can be worked alongside if there is common cause, otherwise they avoid one another. Religion The worship of Semuanya, their ancestral deity, is partly racial memory and partly precepts and laws handed down generation to generation. Whether it is actually contacting the spirit of Semuanya or not is irrelevant; the shamans are able by focusing on their ancestor to learn things about the land and manipulate it to their use, to tame dangerous creatures and have them as guards and scouts, to heal, to find food and many other things. (In effect a form of druidism as far as the kind of spells they get) Basic Culture Lizard-Folk do not wear clothing; their genitalia are concealed except during times of mating and they are oviparous. However they do wear pigments, decorations and will also wear hide or leather straps to hold weapons and pouches and the like. During special ritual times, or during mating ceremonies or hatching ceremonies they paint their bodies striking colors. They have a number of different percussion type instruments, playing streched hide drums of different types, xylophone like instruments made of hollow rods or other such things, and so on. Their own throats can produce very interesting sounds as well and they can 'sing' in their own way producing some sounds that are hard for humnans to hear. They do not cook; food is rendered into a semi-gelatinous state if they have time to do so; otherwise it is consumed raw. The processing of food requires certain herbs and spices to be rubbed into it, then it is sealed in a container. To non-Lizard-folk this is a repulsive way to eat. They will eat just about anything, including food that others might consider carrion. Because they are mostly marsh creatures they eat: birds, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, and if need be a variety of insects and invertebrates. They will also eat slain humanoids, demi-humans and humans if they have them on hand, but they don't seek them out. Survival is the main thing: that which is killed is eaten unless it is poisonous to them. The Lizard-Folk have every few years a grand gathering of the clan lodges. This requires the clans to have auguries and predictions done for the best time, and messengers sent and an auspicious gathering place (always impermanent) picked for this. In my campaign nearly all Lizard-Folk (concerned in the present campaign) that remain live in the Great Swamp anyway, so perhaps there might be fifteen clans altogether there. (there may be more in other remote areas of the world) At this time, the different clans engage in a sharing of knowledge through tales and songs and dances, there are matings (to keep the breeding from stagnating) and hunts and other such things. There is rarely a proper great leader or chief, since each clan is autonomous, but now and then in their history a sort of high war chief has been chosen from among existing leaders in time of war or great emergency. However it must be an emergency that affects all the different clans. Now and then conflicts will emerge between clans. Between one another warfare tends to be rather ceremonial and more based upon intimidation and face gaining rites, but it can burst into totally brutal violence if it is over a place to live or a hunting area, resulting especially during hard times in possibly a lodge being destroyed, eggs smashed, dominant males and females killed. In the case of the clan my campaign is focused on, they are very much an isolated group, living as they do so close to humanity. Living Space and Technology Lizard-Folk live in moundlike dwellings that are almost in a way like huge beaver lodges. They weave branches and sometimes the bones of larger animals together, packed with mud (ideally laced with clay) to form roof and walls. At least half of this lodge is partially underwater and there are likely to be at least one or two entraces that are submerged. In the warmest and safest chambers are the egg clutches and nesting chambers. These lodges are in marshy areas, either outright swamps or salt marshes and the like. They are made to be difficult to see by casual viewers, and they will often plant small trees on such mounds. If they have lived in an area for some time a shaman (druid) will direct the growth of the trees so that their roots support the structure rather than destroying it. Within as well there are chambers for food storage and preparation, ritual rooms for the shamans, and a number of communal rooms where they live. Lizard-Folk view privacy as a function of meditation, leadership or nesting and not as a necessity for personal reasons; they take comfort rather in the company of one another and regard being alone as a matter of necessity or sorrow. Even the Chieftain, Chief Female and Shaman are always with others, the first two at the very least with one another and the latter with acolytes. (this is not to say that they are never found alone; scouts for instance may be found alone, and some meditative and ritual practices require aloneness as a test of character) Lizard-Folk use a limited amount of furniture; they mostly use it to hold things on, since they themselves are able to crouch quite comfortably using their tails to balance. Most of this is made of wicker or of solid objects like carved stumps. Regarding weapons: the lizard-folk use javelins, short spears (which are used for fishing/hunting and for war) axes, clubs, spiked clubs (morning star type) and daggers. The points for weapons are often made of things like shells, stone, or bone, but the clans that are closer to human civilization often pick up more sophisticated weaponry either through trade or through picking them up from dead humans who bothered them. Classes and Normal Traits Lizard folk may be druids, barbarians, beast-riders, fighters, scouts and bards if they have the statistics for it. While the bardic idea may seem strange in fact their strong sense of oral tradition and the curiousity that would prompt any lizard-folk to adventure at all makes it in my opinion a plausible option. In fact those rare individuals among them capable of being bards are often emissaries since song is a universal language as is storytelling. Beast riding Lizard-Folk are likely to be riding giant lizards, giant turtles and other such creatures if tamable. Because of their anatomy it is difficult to adapt to riding such animals as horses, camels or griffons.
GoriceXII 02-10-07, 09:07 AM	I've figured out the climax to the siege part of my war campaign at last! Rumors come: the giants are coming. They have swept over the forest of Carnmag and the hills of Nibelheim, and are coming into New Edom to the assistance of the Celtic king. Worse than their mere size and strength is the principal leadership in the form of a connected group of Cloud Giant islands which are used to level attacks on the ground dwellers. Desperate for some solution to this, knowing that the elves can only spare so many windriders, the war council in Fineberg clutches at a straw. According to their aquatic allies (lizardfolk, sea elves, locathah, merfolk) there exists a great bronze dragon under the sea, resting and sleeping. However this old heroic creature lives in an area now occupied by the Sahuagin. I'm envisioning this adventure involving obtaining a device or magic to enable the characters to go under the water. It makes perfect sense for them to be the ones, since their first adventure was the one that secured the alliance with the aquatic creatures and helped drive off a previous sahuagin incursion. I'm also picturing that what they really obtain from the dragon is a horn or something that will summon him when they truly need him. Thus when the cloud giants lead in their attack there will be a force that can meet them. I also thought that perhaps there might be a couple of younger ones so that the players perhaps could get up to the cloud to join in the attack. (I'd rather not have an aerial campaign so this would be a perfect way to do that without simply robbing them of their mounts--obviously the 'mounts' would be consenting to a brief alliance not becoming steeds) I am not entirely sure what everything on a cloud giant's island would be built out of, but I was picturing that if the island broke apart it might very well shatter elements of the enemy force and ultimately drive them off, freeing Fineberg from the siege. (I was listening to the 1812 overture and the image came to mind, hence this post)
taradusis 02-14-07, 04:26 PM	Off the top of my head I have a few comments.The cloud giants might be opposed by other cloud giants or storm giants.A storm giant could gather players up in a net and fly them to the island?Hot air ballons could fly up and crash onto the islands?If you review the cloudwalk spell you see that a cloud giants castle could be built on a solid cloud,the castle is hewn stone and could crash to the ground if the cloud is dispelled?In tolkien the giant eagles were always showing up to help,perhaps the king of the eagles will allow his people to carry an army?Perhaps the giant owls would be willing to carry a small force in for a night-time assault?RANDOM THOUGHTS
GoriceXII 02-15-07, 10:23 AM	Some good thoughts there, thank you. The Enemy Part One: Duke Anderman Of all King Cleothas' greater vassals, Duke Anderman is among the most ambitious. He is in a curious position. As ruler of the great city of Deva and its surrounding lands he is one of the richest and most powerful men in the Kingdom of the Northern Celts. He is also in a precarious position...where he could fall fast or rise high. Anderman's grandfather was essentially a pirate, albeit one with a title. The small chain of islands (called the Falcon Islands) that he ruled were essentially rocks, with little more than kelp and seabirds and a few shaggy goats to make a living from. It is possible that initially his people became pirates by plundering wrecks, since the area is notorious for them...though it is also possible that they caused the wrecks, since the area is also notorious for a dark druidic cult that worships the more violent forms of the elements. At the same time the Yasg city of Deva was increasingly under attack by humanoids and barbarian tribes--perhaps not directly but its trade routes were increasingly becoming risky. Yasg was in the stage of a dynastic war and Deva and other outlying areas were essentially cut off from Imperial support. The only possible protectors were the house of Nuath--a celtic tribe to the north along the Sinan river, and the MacLannad family whose pirates had hit upon the shrewd idea of charging protection of Devan trade ships. Soon the plaids and seal furs of highlander and pirate were swaggering openly in the streets of Deva. A marriage between the two families produced Anderman's father, Conderan. Conderan's first great act was to prepare regular escorts for trade, and to enact harsh penalties for those who attacked caravan or flotilla. He gathered together warriors, the dark druids of the Falcon Islands and other advisors to enable him to rule the area. Deva was officially independant of this, but in fact was totally dependant upon Conderan (whose style was "the Warlord") with one exception: the Arcanum. The Arcanum was an organization of Psionicists of various types who were the official protectors and advisors of the city, but whose ranks had grown thin and whose ways were isolationist by tradition. They often acted as healers, truthtellers, and warriors but had grown involved with internal politics. The city of Deva itself had long been internally ruled by princely merchant families whose great wealth and ties to old aristocratic families in Yasg was their chief concern. The Yasgs regard themselves at any rate as a wholly superior people in culture to nearly everyone except possibly ancient races such as elves and their Yuan-ti forbears. The Arcanum saw their danger too late--they attempted to play the intimidation and political game with Conderan and in fact had largely succeeded when he unexpectedly was drowned when visiting the Falcon Islands. Ironically, the rocks he came from claimed him. Anderman rose to power and for a time simply ruled as his father did. He managed to tame a number of humanoid tribes and gave them resources (carefully controlled) in exchange for their services. In addition he made an alliance with the King of the Northern Celts, Cleothas, and in fact was his strongest ally on the borderlands. However he was coming under threat from the Yasgs who by now had ended their war, with a princely Yuan-Ti descended clan claiming protection over a new puppet monarch, a child of three. To prevent war he agreed to become the vassal of the land greedy King Cleothas, and in exchange was able to marry one of his daughters to the recently bereaved king and became Admiral of the Royal Fleet to boot. Some longer standing vassals grumbled at this, a man little more than a warlord and pirate becoming part of the king's council and of such high rank as well... Two events marked his life following this. The first was his purge of the Arcanum. Haunted by dreams and fearful of mental powers being used to influence him, he was persuaded by his dark druids to order a fearful sending to the Arcanum, whose might they could not withstand. It is certain that some fled but others were captured while still unconscious following the attack by dark elementals upon their estate in the city. These were placed in captivity using carefully magicked collars that inhibited their abilities. In addition Anderman demanded that the city leaders acknowledge him as the ruler of Deva as a demonstration of loyalty. This they did with alacrity, with only a few made brutal examples of. With their heads decorating pikes outside the commons Anderman received their fealty. In congratulations of this King Cleothas ackowledged him as Duke of Deva. The other significant event was the war. Anderman was pressured into leading the main coastal attacks himself by rivals at court, and could hardly refuse. His only favour was that any lands he captured he would be able to hold in fief of the king. Anderman is thus in a position while besieging Fineberg of trying to be patient while he constantly worries about what is happening on his borders, whether the Yasgs will try to pay off barbarian tribes to attack him whether his rivals are stabbing him in the back and so on. His main hope is his daughter's influence with the king. He knows the king is using him, playing his more traditional courtiers off against him and keeping them all from genuinely having power and influence. He also knows that if he controls the New Edomite coast he will truly be the most powerful noble in the kingdom. He fears that the king invited the giantish help precisely to curb this... Anderman the person is now middle aged, with a somewhat thickened but still powerful body. His father bade him never to forget the ways of his two peoples and so he has remained a good rider and a good sailor, known among his followers for being willing to stand at a tiller or lead an attack if need be. He has dark hair salted with grey and a face somewhat dark for a celt's, due to his father's marriage to a merchant prince's daughter of Deva. Anderman is wary and sometimes savage towards magic using folk he does not trust. He is always accompanied by at least one magical advisor, and every one of them is in debt to him in some way. He can be good humored and magnanimous, as befits a ring giver and prince, but also brutally ruthless towards his enemies as demonstrated earlier. He has a magical bag that is sealed by a spell known only to a wizard who is now dead, which contains the various amulets and other devices that control his personal advisors, druid or wizard. He also posesses a rare horse that is of Sidhe descent and can ride over water or even climb the air, though it can only do this as fast as a normal horse can move. However it is very tough and can run twice as long as a normal horse can.
taradusis 02-16-07, 09:17 PM	Do your lizardfolk use tridents....tail spikes or club from savage species....how about a stegosaur as mount?Suppose there were yuan-ti infiltrators in fineberg and they were trying to draw a map of various buildings and the players caught on.Could this lead to a "snakehunt" in part 12)hungers?RANDOM THOUGHT
GoriceXII 02-17-07, 08:33 AM	They do use tridents though I call them 'fish spears' in my game. I hadn't thought of tail spikes but it's an interesting idea. Are you suggesting these Yuan-Ti as allies or followers of Anderman?
taradusis 02-17-07, 09:13 AM	If I understand the internal politics the yasg have yuan-ti forebears?If some still exist or if there's a new migration that would make them available as foils and villains?As psionists would the yuan-ti join or oppose the Arcanum,the yuan-ti are capable playing on all sides simultanously as well.
GoriceXII 02-17-07, 09:57 AM	Yes, that's right, the Yasgs have Yuan-Ti forbears and in fact there are still Yuan Ti secretly among them. It is a neat idea, i'll have to consider that one.
HellflameArcanite 02-17-07, 05:15 PM	I read most of your first post. I check out all of my books except the core books from the library, so I get a rather varied selection. Anyway, my advice is to look in "A Warrior Campaign" or something like that, in Chapter 4 of Complete Warrior. It has potential missions and complications and such.
GoriceXII 02-19-07, 12:16 PM	Hm. I don't know if you read my post titled "Adventure Plots" but I'd appreciate people taking a look and seeing if the adventure hooks there are interesting.
taradusis 02-19-07, 01:30 PM	I'm wondering how this war ends?I mean every war ends sometime and I think this feels like a less than 2 year campaign?I beleive this war should end with fineberg becoming independant and the players having to destroy and rebuild the republic of Edom(politically speaking).This could be an epic quest I suppose.
GoriceXII 02-19-07, 01:38 PM	Now that's an interesting twist...I've been debating with myself about that. Whether for instance the sister cities of Touchstone and Glasstower should fall or surrender perhaps? I have two general ideas. One is that Fineberg throws off the siege and liberates the rest of the country. The other is that Fineberg in essence BECOMES the country, with Touchstone perhaps destroyed and occupied by giants while Glasstower surrenders to the Celts and becomes part of that country, essentially forcing Fineberg to decide what to do but also making it possible for the players to determine that, the length of the siege and so on.
taradusis 02-19-07, 01:49 PM	My idea would be fineberg repulses the seige,one of the other cities is burned,players help lead a rebuilding force to burned city?Establish a brickworks,maybe get firbolgs,gnomes and such to help?Picture the players given funding and having to recruit skilled workers?Perhaps a lottery could determine who goes to burned city as replacements?RANDOM THOUGHTS
GoriceXII 02-19-07, 06:32 PM	That is a very intriguing possibility. I'd like to seriously weigh that one in. If that were the case the enemy would still hold a third of the country. The war would not be over and the players would have that hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. So it would hardly be boring I would think. Are you suggesting that in a way it would be 'their' city? I'd kind of like that, especially if they gain a better idea of how to lead and use the diplomatic skills that seem to be one of their big advantages.
tiercel 02-19-07, 09:22 PM	Wow... it looks like you have some great stuff. I'm going to throw out a number of general, *mechanically*-focused thoughts, from experience I had in running a major war in one of my campaigns (and at high level!). Probably one of the most important things I found, from a game-mechanic and military-structure point of view, is the prevalence or even existence of magic and class abilities. The most obvious example is fireballing wizards -- if area of effect spells are accessible to even a very small fraction of an army, they become a potent "artillery" force. Likewise, in a world where the enemy has access to such "artillery", either you will tend to see more skirmish-line/trench warfare (e.g. modern-style warfare, for smaller army sizes and/or higher relative AoE lethality) and/or Grand Army masses to overwhelm potential impact of incoming "artillery fire" (e.g. Napoleonic style warfare). Either way you will see significant magic/mundane combined-arms warfare. Additionally, on a battlefield with magical artillery support you will have magical countermeasures -- illusionary regiments to draw enemy fire, literal "fog of war" to occlude incoming magical and mundane fire. Speaking of areas of effect, the importance of druids to armies is pretty amazing. Druids get the biggest area-of-effect spells -- at high levels, sunburst is nearly a tactical nuke and control water, control winds, and control weather affect huge areas. Heck, starting even at 1st level, entangle hits a mighty radius, slowing movement and shutting down incipient charges in their tracks. Add to this a mid-level druid's mobility and near-undetectabilty as an animal scout and weapons platform and you have a King of the Battlefield in game-mechanics terms. Any army that can reasonably entice even a small number of druidic auxiliaries will absolutely gladly do so, going so far as to minimize the environmental impacts of its warfare when possible to win such aid. If churches have a significant presence in your world, as it seems they do, having clergy beyond church leaders along is a pretty obvious call -- even if 0.5-1% of your army can consist of low-level clerics you can drastically reduce combat fatalities; a wand of cure light wounds for the company cleric costs less than full plate armor for a heavy cavalryman and may well have greater impact over the long run. If dragon shamans (PHB II) exist at all in your world, armies will do whatever they can to get even a few. The vigor aura running on the battlefield is so good it is sick -- it prevents nearby casualties from ever being fatalities unless your soldiers take their hp + 10 in damage (which doesn't generally happen in normal melee or arrow fire, though it may result from monstrous foes or large AoE spells). Along the same lines, every regiment should have an attached bard. Buy those bards some masterwork drums or horns and watch the efficiency of all the War1 grunts go through the roof. Perhaps even more importance than the prevalance of low-level magic and PC classes is the availability of even a few higher level spells/characters. A single high-level wizard can move an army halfway around the world in a short time at no risk to himself with teleportation circle. Control weather or earthquake can rewrite a battle with a single spell. A high level War Chanter (Complete Warrior) can give an entire company of archers +15 BAB, allowing the quick elimination of single monstrous-foe threats. If a battle is large or important enough, how will the encounter change because the enemy lich is personally overseeing the effort, or the High Priest of Ishtar is available (even if neither trudges directly onto the battlefield in person)? I mention all of this because while your PCs should have a special place in any D&D campaign, including a war campaign, personally I don't feel they should be totally unique. As PCs rise in level they will single-handedly have a larger and larger effect upon the battlefield, and this is fine -- but they shouldn't be facing a foe (or among allies) which are wholly unprepared for and ignorant of such possibilities. Unless the campaign world is genuinely so low-magic that the PCs are literally the first to display given magic/class abiliteis, the military arms of that world will have already embraced/prepared for such consequences to the extent possible. (Much like real-life militaries both embrace and drive advanced technology, one can assume that fantasy militaries would necessarily embrace and drive advanced magic, or be conquered by those that do.) The question of magic level/power level is always a concern for a D&D game -- how much magic or power is available, and how special will the PCs because how quickly compared to the rest of the world. In a war campaign, though, these questions become even more pressing because the background level of magic/power is, in this story, part of the foreground. If there are significantly large-scale structural changes to be made to the face of war and the military because of AoE spell artillery, weather control, teleportation, illusions, concealment, divination and druidic scouting intel, magical healing and buffing, then these structural changes should be visible (or at least prepared) from the onset of the campaign and not have to specifically evolve to match the PCs' experience progression. --------- As for the planning, I think having a *sketch* of the campaign progression is a good idea. I wouldn't hurtle toward trying to fill in too much beyond the first few scenarios or having a fully-developed endgame just yet because so much can and will change depending on some of the things the PCs pull. The ideas you've listed sound good to me -- they sound fun and challenging to play. While it's a good idea to have an overall endgame trajectory in mind, something might come up that changes the course of the game (or just a recurring theme that your players latch onto so much that it might be more worth developing it rather than introducing a new element for endgame). The campaign background you have supplied so far looks both extensive and well-designed in personal and politic-driven motivations. What I've been posting here is more mechanically driven, but this is in part because there can be an extent to which mechanics inform the politics and structure even of the background situation. In terms of the actual story, it is the *why* that is more important -- who the persons are, their motivations and ambitions, the background political situation, all of this that drives the current conflict and defines the current aims of the nations and ultimately of the PCs. In terms of *playing out* the story, the *how* is just as important -- the level and availability of "technology" shapes the face of how the conflict on the battlefield actually plays out -- and the structure of the military and politics in preparation for it. ...and as a practical matter, no matter how much your players appreciate your excellent campaign world you're developing, when it is battlemat time they will be more interested in what sorts of enemy forces, attacks, and countermeasures they will be facing (as well as their own side's capabilities and any possiblity of calling in "air support"). I hope some of this has been helpful or interesting and good luck to you -- sounds like your players are a lucky bunch to be in a game like this!
taradusis 02-19-07, 10:37 PM	I was thinking a re-building force of 200-400 humans.Fineberg should be able to devote up to 15000gp a month in financial support with the PC's using diplomacy to get "specials" like gnomes or firbolgs.A percentage roll to see how much of the 15K they get each month could be based on diplomacy as well.How will people in Fineberg react to Pcs taking a colony and resources away?
GoriceXII 02-21-07, 10:22 AM	Thanks guys for posting. I'll respond point by point just to maintain clarity. 1. I appreciate a frank talk on the mechanics, which is one of the main things I've been hashing out too, and your ideas have been clicking with me nicely. For instance I've been working out how many clerics both main temples could add to the defenses, healing areas and so on, as well as doing prediction spells and that sort of thing. How many low level wizards could aid in defenses. Spells like clairaudience and clairvoyance, even simple spells like a wizard lock on a door can be of huge benefit. I'm trying to see magic in a way like technology--I think a siege is still possible, because you wouldn't risk mages or clerics lightly, but it would have a slightly more modern feel, as you put it with air and artillery support. So I appreciate that you are giving me ideas about how to make it work, not on how it could not work. 2. I agree with you about having a sketch, but part of what seems to be working for me so far is having a lot of ideas already so that when the players come into the mix I'm ready to be adaptive. I know some people can be very spontaneously creative but I tend to work better if at least I know what would have happened if the players were not involved. I like to have a campaign have a life of its own so that in fact the players become more important and more dramatic. questions: 1. One question that I have is on tunnelling: I wanted to have a sort of tunnelling battle in which the defenders are trying to use both magic and skills to determine enemy tunnelling versus the attackers' efforts. Both sides have races that are known to be experts (hobgoblins on one side, dwarves on the other) and both sides have magic using people. I was thinking that various scrying spells might also be used. Any thoughts on how this could work? 2. Spying. I have the following ideas on spying: invisibility is an obvious one, as are some of the wizard spells like as I mentioned clairaudience, clairvoyance and so on...any other ideas on game mechanics for this? 3. Giving my players an area of control: I am debating doing this. When I had them defending a section of wall during the earlier part of the siege they took the initiative to make a sortie and destroy a siege tower. I think this might be a cool way to let them take more initiative in their sector of the city--perhaps even making the one playing the Council Police officer in charge of local investigations. They are still mid level but this might be a fun primer for higher level stuff for them. Thoughts? I had thought of giving them say a gate and wall section with the adjoining area of the city to be in charge of patrols in or something--obviously leaving the grunt and more boring duties to the city militia but having them receive the reports and such.
krichaiushii 02-21-07, 02:42 PM	2. Spying. I have the following ideas on spying: invisibility is an obvious one, as are some of the wizard spells like as I mentioned clairaudience, clairvoyance and so on...any other ideas on game mechanics for this? Shapeshifters (natural ones like dopplegangers or via magic like polymorph self or even a high disguise skill) provides an interesting option for spying. Druids talking with animals and wizards sending their familiars off to gather information also provide information. You've stated in one of your threads that Fineberg has access to an assassin's guild. What is to stop the powers that be from utilizing some assassins to take out opposing leaders? As I read some of these posts, I had visions of Fire Giants and Hobgoblins with the Marshal class. Low-level area affect spells will take out low level troops handily, but may not be enough to take out the giants and larger troops in the giants' army. I suspect there will be more giants than there are area effect spells per day available, even with superwizard and his magic stick (I am bad with names). At some point, I can see the wizard's apprentice (Nestor?) summoning something and cutting a bad deal for its assistance, leaving the PCs to clean up the mess - and a moral quandary. Something devilish and powerful that asks for sacrifices - another way that the Boatmen become useful, acquiring sacrifices, or taken straight from the prisons. A case of someone (wizard's apprentice) believing that the ends justify the means. Just some random thoughts.
GoriceXII 02-22-07, 02:45 PM	I've depicted the wizards and the dwarves in my game preparing for the giants' arrival by making giant sized spears and war hammers that can be wielded at the very least by people subjected to an enlarge spell. Butyes, the polymorph is a great idea as is the familiar one. It may also encourage the one player to get her pseudo dragon companion to do the same thing. As for Nestor doing that...I may not have him do it but perhaps someone else. I've depicted thus far that in the New Edomite wizards' guild anything but the most temporary or harmless kind of summoning is frowned upon. What I might do instead is have someone who is an unknown quantity do that--and by the same token alert the players to the idea that there may be spellcasters no one knows living in the city.
krichaiushii 02-22-07, 05:33 PM	As for Nestor doing that...I may not have him do it but perhaps someone else. I've depicted thus far that in the New Edomite wizards' guild anything but the most temporary or harmless kind of summoning is frowned upon. What I might do instead is have someone who is an unknown quantity do that--and by the same token alert the players to the idea that there may be spellcasters no one knows living in the city. IT could be a known spellcaster operating in secret with the belief that he knows best. Alternatively, the Boatmen may know of this mystery wizard; either they smuggle him into the city or they keep him hidden to use magic to help with their crimes and to foil attempts to find stolen goods.
taradusis 02-22-07, 08:35 PM	Is the assassins guild available for missions,perhaps capture an enemy commander for info?Have you drawn up the bronze dragon yet?
GoriceXII 02-23-07, 11:21 AM	Some thoughts on the Boatmen's Guild: 1. I was thinking that there are three main groups: the original smuggling ring, a group called the marketers who are basically pickpockets and cutpurses and beggars, and the dodgers, who are forgers and fences. 2. The leader is called The Ferryman. He is a shadowy figure seldom really seen up close, who literally is a broad shouldered figure in a chair in shadows that is all that nearly everyone sees of him within the guild. How old he is no one knows, who he really is no one knows. What no one really realizes is that this mystery figure is actually Enzo Drogo, who was once a 'wharf rat' and later apprentice to a cunning smuggler who taught him the tricks of the trade. Through a series of strange adventures he became very rich and bought himself legitimacy. Enzo Drogo is known to be a well to do merchant, but elocution and etiquette lessons have gone a long way towards disguising him. Town merchants after all have some connections to the underworld for self protection, and hardly anyone suspects him. To all appearances he is a stoutish, amiable but cunning man who enjoys collecting fine furniture and always has a pretty mistress. As leader of the Boatmen he runs the operations cohesively. He avoids putting his fingers in every pie but rather makes it clear that all have to work together. The very mystery of his existence is used to make people worry about every crossing The Ferryman. 3. The guild tries to be very discreet. Punishments are either fines or else 'accidental' looking deaths. I haven't finished the details on the Bronze yet, still working on that. As for the assassin's guild...it is more the pawn of a faction of the Temple of Ishtar than generally available for hire. Its fate partly depends on the players but possibly one of the recently captured assassins might offer a deal?
taradusis 02-23-07, 05:05 PM	I was thinking about the enemy forces.Will the lich be revealed and to what effect?Is it possible to keep the giant trolls fed all thru a rough winter?Barbarian hordes tend to break up easy,how will they last thru a long war?RANDOM THOUGHTS
GoriceXII 02-25-07, 07:27 PM	What I was thinking is that as with some of the Crusades and such both barbarians, household troops and mercenaries have been brought with the idea that they will conquer the land. So yes, while grumbling that it is not the season for war, they are perhaps made up of many younger sons or daughters who want to establish themselves. However what I had also decided for my next adventure is that it will be about a second escalade, this one involving a goblin built tunnel principally. (think of the siege of Richmond but with ladders) Possibly tunnels plural, maybe with an occasional mage sent along to use illusion type spells to confuse enemy engineers as to where the diggings are taking place. I'd like also to possibly give my pcs a place to 'govern' on the wall, with the immediate area around it. Since they have some of their own troops I thought it might be interesting to also give them command of an extra NPC unit or two (whose job would simply be to patrol/maintain).
taradusis 02-25-07, 08:35 PM	A counter-tunneling effort could be mounted?Perhaps a listening post with a large brass cone designed to increase listen checks of the PCs.A brass tube designed to pour alchemical fire down a tunnel like a flamethrower?RANDOM THOUGHTS
GoriceXII 02-26-07, 04:52 AM	I was thinking of a counter tunnelling operation, that the players are aware of at the very least. However I wasn't going to put them in charge of it necessarily...not sure what to do about that.
tiercel 02-26-07, 10:02 PM	1. One question that I have is on tunnelling: I wanted to have a sort of tunnelling battle in which the defenders are trying to use both magic and skills to determine enemy tunnelling versus the attackers' efforts. Both sides have races that are known to be experts (hobgoblins on one side, dwarves on the other) and both sides have magic using people. I was thinking that various scrying spells might also be used. Any thoughts on how this could work?Mundane means are certainly possible -- good old-fashioned Listen checks would probably let you detect the sounds of busy, loud tunnelling crews digging and propping up the tunnels. As with most other things about the tunnelling, this will depend on the type of material being tunneled through / depth of the tunnel (how well sound travels, the rate of tunneling, the stability of said tunnels and how easy it is to collapse them directly or by countermining). For magic, you have a number of options -- you could use the catch-all divination to know where/when to focus your search and counter efforts, lesser planar ally or binding to secure the services of one or more "guard xorns" (minor xorns are 3HD critters that can swim through earth like it's not there and have 60' tremorsense, so they make excellent underground sentries). Commune with nature is getting up there in level too but should give you a pretty good idea over a moderate range (100' radius per caster level) of underground phenomena -- you can't detect into construction areas, but if you can detect the existence of these "blank spots" you have instantly pinpointed tunneling efforts. Summoned earth elementals are good for short-range recon (only 1rd/level) and nasty in underground fights, since they can pop in and out of floors, celings, walls, are good grapplers, and can simply pop into a tunnel and block it off with their mass, dividing an enemy force. Speaking with burrowing animals might be a good way to get intel too -- if even harmless little critters like moles, etc live in the area, a major tunneling operation may disturb their habitat and allow a friendly druid, ranger, gnome, etc. to gather information. It also wouldn't surprise me if there were customized spells for this sort of thing -- just being able to divine open spaces underground would be a useful trick, for mining in either the military or industrial aspect. 2. Spying. I have the following ideas on spying: invisibility is an obvious one, as are some of the wizard spells like as I mentioned clairaudience, clairvoyance and so on...any other ideas on game mechanics for this? Any number of divination spells allow direct spying (e.g. scrying) or gathering of useful information indirectly (e.g. divination, commune). Druids make excellent spies since they are generally indistinguisable from normal animals once they can shapeshift (moderate levels, or starting at 1st level if you use the PHB II variant shapeshifting rules -- also there is a 1st level Druid/Ranger spell that allows temporary wolf-form shapechanging). A wildshaping druid can swim, burrow, and especially fly, allowing all sorts of recon. (And, of course, there is simply speaking with animals.) There is good old fashioned scouting, via Hide, Move SIlently, Spot, and Listen. Rangers are one obvious choice here, especially with their class skills augmented by spells and/or magic items if they have access. There is the secret-agent approach -- with the appropriate Disguise skill and/or illusion/polymorphing magic, inflitration, Bluff, and Gather Info may get you better intel than any amount of looking from the outside in. A flipside of this is the "strike team" scenario -- dart in, capture a high-value prisoner, extract him back to your base and interrogate him (especially if you have charm and other mind-affecting magic, and/or divinations like detect thoughts and discern lies). You can get the most info this way, but your enemy is likely to detect your target's absence unless you have clever contingency to deal with this -- so the utility of your info may be limited unless you act immediately on it, and/or some of the info is of such a nature that your enemy can't immediately redeploy to limit its utility to you. 3. Giving my players an area of control: I am debating doing this. When I had them defending a section of wall during the earlier part of the siege they took the initiative to make a sortie and destroy a siege tower. I think this might be a cool way to let them take more initiative in their sector of the city--perhaps even making the one playing the Council Police officer in charge of local investigations. They are still mid level but this might be a fun primer for higher level stuff for them. Thoughts? I had thought of giving them say a gate and wall section with the adjoining area of the city to be in charge of patrols in or something--obviously leaving the grunt and more boring duties to the city militia but having them receive the reports and such.This is a good idea -- part of it is, especially as the PCs rise in level, whether you and your players want to treat the PCs as part of the military system or a valuable adjutant resource to the military. In the first case, the PCs are more directly a part of the actual chain of command, steadily gaining command privilege and responsibility for managing military conduct within a given area of control. In the second case, the PCs are more "special forces" -- while it is important that they coordinate with the military on strategic goals and consequences, they operate more independently performing high-value missions that a standard military company could not (or not easily). Naturally, you can do some of both as the PCs' abilities compared to most of the rest of the military change with their increasing level. As low-to-mid level characters, they may simply be significant but nonunique assets within the chain of command, but as they reach higher levels their abilities may be both powerful and unique enough that they would be wasted as "cogs in the machine" or even commanders, and they are increasingly fielded in unique missions. A game-mechanic reason to prefer increasingly fielding the PCs in "special ops" missions is that the D&D combat system is really designed for squad-level tactics, not for battlefield-level grand battles. Mid-to-high level PCs who find themselves in command of large bodies of soldiers will force the DM to adjudicate the results of their battlefield tactics -- there's nothing wrong with that, but at that point you are wargaming and outside the realm of standard D&D rules. If you use D&D Miniatures rules or similar, this might be right up your alley -- but in a regular campaign, the actual battlefield will mostly be more background for the individual fights the PCs get into, whether it is defeating a squad of ogre elites at a critical position on the battlefield at lower levels or performing guerrilla attacks against the enemy's supply lines and command-and-control at higher levels. The compromise, of course, is to give the PCs localized command (or to allow them to take up command in an emergency situation), adjudicate the general results of their battlefield tactics "on the fly" to set the conditions for the "real" battlemat fight, where the PCs mix it up with their more-or-less-EL-appropriate collection of foes directly to determine the outcome of the battle.
GoriceXII 02-27-07, 03:47 AM	Thanks very much for your thoughts, very thorough reply. It is rather involving and exhaustive planning for all this so I appreciate any help! One thing I've been trying to imply is that higher level spellcasters are doing things to maintain security or prepare, so there's some good thoughts there on what kind of spells they are doing on a regular basis. there's really only 4 upper level spellcasters in the city at all, so I'm picturing them being preoccupied. On the other hand there are enough midlevel ones to have some stationed at every major point of defense, which I've done. There are also the body of elvish troops who have been given their own area to defend. I had thought of giving them their own area partly to pass the time--I want the siege drawn out, to make any possible ultimate win more intense and also to make what they are fighting for more clear. I've given them a tower, an area of wall and the areas inside and outside the city immediately nearby for them to look after. the players have their own followers plus about 25 militia that have been given to them as a temporary command. For pc types and their personal followers it includes currently: 1 4th level Ranger 1 4th level Psion 1 4th level Cleric Followers: 1 pseudo dragon 1 2nd level Cleric 1 1st level Barbarian 1 2nd level Sergeant 11 1st level soldiers (mounted crossbowmen)
taradusis 02-27-07, 07:07 PM	A thought on sniping,would the orcish archers creep up to the walls and snipe at people on the wall?If they were wearing a gillie suit(netting with brush)could the orcs remain undetected?A thought on scrying,don't clerics with the water domain get some sort of scrying pool spell?If ishtar or osprem had a water weird,that could provide divination?A thought on an Aerie,a tall building could have a circular platform on it,this would be a like a helicopter pad?Used as stable for windriders?A thought on air defence,spelljammer had ballista in turrets that could be twisted to fire in any direction and provide partial cover for the ballista crews.RANDOM THOUGHTS
taradusis 02-28-07, 08:49 PM	I wonder what sort of punitive campaign is going to be waged against the goblinoids?I think that even in the middle of rebuilding the fineberg leaders are going to want to massacre a few goblins.If the PCs want to do something besides rebuild burned towns you could plot out a few search and destroys missions against the goblins.RANDOM THOUGHTS
GoriceXII 03-01-07, 04:38 AM	I like the thought of orc snipers, I'll have to put that in the next game! I've been thinking of how it will go. I've been planning a battle based adventure I'm calling "The Great Escalade" and we'll see how the players do. If they lend to a spectacular success I may have the Duke's army withdraw to Harbourtown for the winter and then have the players and other defenders given a space of time in which to possibly gather more resources before the depths of winter arrives.