Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The_Confessor 04-09-08, 10:52 AM	So, I've decided to begin planning for my first 4th edition campaign and after a long period of soul searching I've decided that given the kind of "Heroes are Larger than Life" feel I'm getting from 4e that I'm going to go with a swashbuckling pirate story. At character creation everyone is going to be restricted to Good or Unaligned and as they make their character they just need to keep in mind how they ended up on the local count's island penal colony (think Elba). It doesn't matter if they actually committed a crime or not, somehow or another the PCs ended up in the slammer. Well, after a brief time of getting to know one another, the characters encounter "Argile the Mad" a dwarf who's supposedly been driven mad by his time in the prison. Legend has it that he's been here since the prison was built and even darker legends say that count's grandfather built the prison specifically to contain Argile. Well, of course the PCs all get to meet and interact with Argile. He either repeats the same sea shanty over and over or he keeps rambling like a mad man. I haven't exactly decided which. To make a long story short, he's got a treasure map tattooed, quite literally, on the inside of his flesh. It was inked in demon's blood and has slowly been driving him mad. (The PCs don't know that yet) Well, on the next full moon, the prison is attacked. A ship of unknown origins uses greek fire and arcane artillerists to lay waste to the prison. During the course of the siege the PCs are able to escape. But as they flee, they see old Argile limping through the halls, bleeding badly. He's dying, and clutching something. He's managed to carve off the map crafted from his own flesh. He stuffs into the hands of the PCs before turning like the mad man he is and charging into the group of pirates who are coming to shore. As the siege goes on the PCs fight off pirates and can hear from the edges of shore someone commanding them, "Find the dwarf! Find the map!" This is, of course, the pirate captain who has yet to be named but will play a part as a major antagonist in further games. As the PCs reach the shore line they see the pirate ship and one of the ships of the count's navy doing battle. The count's ship is clearly losing. The PCs can either simply leap into a rowbow moored at the dock beyond the prison wall and flee, or they could heroically attempt to save the count's ship. Anyway, this is my idea for the first session of the campaign, but I'm not sure what the mysterious map leads to, who the pirate captain is, what the history of the county (and those who rule) is, or any of the details that create a fleshed out campaign. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
VampyresThrenody 04-11-08, 07:57 PM	Map Ideas/Pirate captain ideas !) The map could lead to some dark relic of an ancient civilization. If you're into using the PoL stuff WoTC has put out it could be Bael Turath. The relic could be an enchanted piece of a demon/devil such as a horn, tooth, an eye or something equally strange and sinister. If you go this route you could make the pirate captain a long long descendant of said civilization. 2) The map is actually leading to a portal into the Astral Sea. The pirate's family has been searching for the map for years because it is said to lead to a place of great riches. 3) Map shows how to find the old ruins of some ancient civilization. Like above it could be Bael Turth or Arkhosia. The pirate learned of the map and knows it leads to an area full of old cities that may never have been discovered. Which means they should be full of gold, right? On the County: 4) Design it as a small chain of islands that are all colonies of some great empire. For the empire you need only know a) who rules it and b) a good name. The islands are rife with danger and pirates, think Pirates of the Caribbean sort of setting but without the guns. (Unless you want to include those..). The empire would want to get their hands on said relic/map/portal/city area. 5) A small island kingdom with 3-4 islands but due to recent political issues such as a rebellion forming there has been a rise in pirate activity. Both rebels and government would love to have the relic above if they find out about the map because they could use it to gain the upper hand. 6) Located in a chain of islands, each one individual ruled by a faction. Each group is striving to conquer the others. Any of the factions would like to have access to the map in hopes they could acquire the item/place/location to give them an upper hand. On a another note, if you're at all interested in running a game in a setting that other people are using I'd suggest the following based on the setting/games that I'm running along with two or three other DM's: 7) The island is part of an archipelago only recently (past 20-30 years) colonized by members of a far away empire, The Holy Land of Karthin. Perhaps a few villages/towns have alliances but in general the area is fairly un-governed. Or perhaps it is a colony of the far away Holy Land and is ruled over by a low level noble made governor of the area. Unfortunately, there are alot of pirates and he only has so many mariners. The map was scrawled on the dwarf's back by the devil who's blood it was made with. The devil drew the map with the intent to give the dwarf as a gift to a particularly skilled warlock minion. Unfortunately, said minion died and demon forgot/no longer cared/also died/otherwise disappeared. Mad dwarf is found by settlers and locked up for being loco. The map leads to an ancient tower on a mysterious island where something is located. Could be a relic of great evil might, an arcane book possessing not only its own personality but the most powerful magicks in the sea, a portal to the Abyss, an object that can make portals into abyss/elemental chaos/any random plane. The pirate learned of the map as a former affiliate of the warlock, and actually the one who killed the warlock. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the dwarf wasn't already in the warlock's hands. Oops.