Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Avisaj 07-10-04, 08:19 PM	I'm a DM for some years. I'm making this post so that other DM's could make comments and give me some advices and guidelines about my latest campaign. Anyway, this is somewhat long post, so, here it comes... Since none of the states presented in Fearun suited my idea for the campaign, I took the liberty to slightly change the Forgotten Realms setting. I added an empire named Rahab, with the capital of the same name, that lies on the north-western coast of Zakhara. This empire exists for centuries, I will not bother you with that, historical details are there for the flavor. Rahab opened itself for trade some decades ago, and its' main trade partners are Calimshan and Amn, although they have some contacts with Mulhorandi. I gave following statistics to Rahab: automatic language: Midani bonus language: Alzhedo, Chondathan, Mulhorandi, Draconic Regional feats: Artist, Cosmpolitan, Education, Street Smart (a litlle bit of Amn and Waterdeep) Eqp: (A) Thieves tools*, hand crossbow, 10 bolts* (B) 1 2nd level arcane scroll and 6 1st level arcane scrolls (C) longsword*, rapier* or shortsword* classes: Brd,Ftr,Mnk,Rog,Wiz Gods: Helm, Mystra, Azuth, Tempus, Mask, Cyric Clerics of Helm hld much sway over the capital city, and over the empire as the whole. The city of Rahab is a metropolis with some 96.740 citizens (give or take a thousand or two). It is ruled by emperor (logically), but wizards have their share of political influence. Wizards control the usage of magic and distribution of magic equipment throughout the city, and they also have their hierarchy of power. Most of the obligations of the lower level members of their guild is collection of scrolls, potions and wands, in order to keep the vaults of the guild full all time. The benefits are mainly political, but membership also grants access to Archmage prestige class, if the player has made his way to the top two levels in the guild. The guild members are forbidden to have anything to do with Shadow Weave, or church of Shar. The guild supports the worship of Mystra, Azuth and Savras in the city, and even tolerate the worshipers of Velsharoon, if they don't play their usual "Must-raise-army-of-undead" game. Tempus is worshiped mainly by gladiators and others who live from the arena fighting. The city has one hippodrome, one collosseum and two smaller arenas. Convicts, slaves and professional combatants are the only types of people who enter the arena. I just mentioned slaves. Slavery is legal in Rahab, and nobody is making much fuss about that, exept few paladins of Helm, but the slaves are not generally treated badly in Rahab, there are even some laws that forbid excessive use of force on slaves. The city lies on the shore of the sea and close to its' shores are few Dungeon isles. As the name imlies, the convicts of all sorts are dispached to the dungeons on those islands. Every island have a dungeon that corresponds to the severity of the crime. Many particallary vile criminals end their lives in the arena, mines or on the ships. Tales are that even wizards use criminals for their experiments, although no evidences of such claims are found. In last few months, the wave of conversion came to the capital. Several Red Knight priests started converting Helm's beleivers, which is bringing Helm's clerics to the point of anger. Oh, yes, the thieves guild. I made nine sections of the guild, each responsible for the given activity. Decade ago, the great shift of power occured in the guild. The followers of Mask made a well prepared atack against the clerics of Cyric, who were the leaders of the guild. In the matter of weeks, Mask became the official god of the thieves in Rahab. Or did he? Small sect of Cyricist, led by an elder cleric live in the sewer system, trying to convert some raptors (the name I use for city bandits, also used in ancient Rome) into worshiping the Dark Sun. Also, they are trying to make peace with the inhabitans of the sewers, mainly with the wererats. The clan of some 200 wererats live in tho sewer for almost a century, without any bigger problem, because they quickly relized how to find food in the underground, so that they don't need to disturb the authorities. The reason for this is the fact that authorities would send people with big swords and shileds to kill wererats, if their presence is ever revealed to the public. Closely related to the sect of Cyric is the first quest that I gave to my players. A rich noble asked them to find his son, and to do it incognito. His son Howen have a history of troublemaking, drinking, fighting, sleeping with prostitutes, etc, so it is not the first time that he is away form home. Usually, he would be back after week or so, for money and food, and sometimes his father even had to pay for his release from jail. Anyhow, Howen is gone for three weeks now, and there are no signs of where he might be. What they don't know is that he fell under the influence of the cleric of Cyric (long story about that, but in short terms - the cleric promised him imortality and freedom from pain, in exchange for worship of Cyric). Howen is strong, wity and stubborn young man, but is also easily manipulated by the people who flatter him. As the time passes, this Ftr/Rog is going to become the Spur Lord, and a weapon to crush the followers of Mask. Thieves guild has a smuggling network, but that network is concealed in such way, that city gard never achieved to catch a single load when it comes into town, they only get to catch some street dealers. The trick is in the fact that the merchandise is not comming by land or sea, but under the sea. A sahuagin with his own trade network under the surface has made contacts with the guild in the city, and they do trade somewhere in the sewers, but no one knows where. To be honest, no one knows that there are any sahuagins in this story. The main story of this campaign is hidden in a single orc captive from the last war. The word was that orcish hordes are gathering on the southern borders, and so the legions weere sent to take care of that. What legions did found were field filled with orcish and goblinoid corpses, with few survivors that wander the place. One survivor sad that he was one of the chieftains and that there was a big fight among them, so they started battling each other, and the result lie before them. They took this one surviving chieftain and brought him back to the capital as the meat for the arena. Not surprisingly, he killed with ease most of his opponents and he left other maimed. There are few hundreds of orcs and goblinoids in the city's ghetto. One of thoe orcs is their leader, and a cleric of Gruumsh also. He is not making any troubles in the city and no foul rites are performed on one shrine that the ghetto has, so the city gards don't harrass him more than they would. He asked my players to liberate this orc and to get him out of the city, because he beleives him to be the chosen of Ilneval, orcish god of war. They agreed, but not because they like orcs, just because they hate slavery. What they don't know is that this orc is not ordinary orc at all. Two hundreds of years ago, mighty wizards left the city and gone to the south. They never returned. Nobody asked why, because the south of Zakhara is savage place. The wizads succeded in taming several orc and goblinoid villages, and started to cultivate them. Awakened ors and goblinoids quickly started to admire the ways of civilization and to build the mighty city, along with the mighty legion, the Zero Legion. The name implies that the wizards and their underlings are still loyal to the empire, but they officially do not exist, so they took the number of the legion that never existed (all emperial legions have natural numbers in their name: First, Second, etc.). Some time after that, tribes of gnolls joined, but the wizards had to force Yeenoghu to let them go, which was a task so risky, that gnolls fell to the impresion that the wizards are mightier even from demons, so what they say - goes. Some ogres and trolls are also added to the numbers, as did some outcasts from the empire. The wizards aranged that several convoys of prisoners from the empire to "disappear", so that they could fill the numbers of their legion. The sole purpose of this legion and the mission of these wizards is to bring culture to the savage races, in order to bring all races of Toril in the state of well-beign. They promote teamwork, chivalry, personal sacrifice, while they supress the primitive orcish, goblinoid, gnollish, ogrish and trollish beleifs. The result is that the species that are labeled "evil" now serve as the shield from the really evil ones. The result of one shielding was the scene that human legions found when they came to the souther border. They didn't know that they are speaking with one senior officer of the legion, who took the sacrifice to make Rahab beleive that there is nothing to search for in the south. When the time comes, Zero Legion will make its' presence known, but until then, secrecy is their ally. That is it for now. I'm sure that I didn't explain many of the things about my campaign, and that explanations you find here are a little bit confusing, but all of this is just a small portion of the story that lies behind, and I had to cut off some details in this post. Please, ask me anything, and I will reply. Also, expect the second part of the story soon. I mentioned it in the begining of this post, I say it again - I'm deeply thankful for any critics and suggestions. Thanks again!
Masakado 07-12-04, 01:53 PM	So far, your plotline looks very good. One nitpicky thing is the religion, as the Zakharans do not worship the traditional Faerun pantheon. Such deities are ajami gods, or foreign gods. Sadly, the info concerning Zakharan religion cannot be printed here without violating the ToS, but there should be plenty of info at Wizard's home site, as well as other fan sites, which will help you fine tune the religion should you feel inclined to do so.
Astanphaeus 07-12-04, 09:17 PM	Avisaj, I would highly, highly recommend that you get your hands on Al-Qadim material. Culturally, Zakhara is very distinct from the rest of the Realms. Masakado mentioned the gods. I'll expound on that by saying: they're a distinct pantheon with a cohesive feel that's quite different from the hodge-podge of the regular FR line-up. I think you could have a lot of fun with a region in which the Zakharan faiths and the "barbarian" ajami religions are trying to co-exist. Slavery is also very different in Zakhara, and the attitudes there would no doubt impact the complexion of you nation. Mamluks, for example, would probably be prominent in Rahab (based on your current description) and they'd wield significant power, despite their slave status. Finally, there's just a long list of interesting/fun cultural traits that you could integrate into the nation, which would no doubt make your campaign feel very exotic and memorable for your players. Al-Qadim is a real solid piece of work... one of the best things to ever emerge from TSR. Find the player's guide and the original boxed set. You will not regret it. ~ A.
Avisaj 07-12-04, 09:28 PM	Thanks for the tips about the religion. Is there any way that someone could send me the list and short description of the gods of Zakhara, 'cuz I never heard before about them. The gods are not the really important part in the campaign, or so to say, the religion hasn't played significant role yet, so it is still easily replacable. Thanks to my history professor in the high school, I am aware of the Mameluk's status as "noble slaves". Islam forbids Muslims killing each other, so great sultans made Mameluks, non-Muslim warrior slaves, who could do the "dirty" job (ideo somewhat similar to ninja in ancient Japan). I like it, but like with the previous thing, I never played Al-Quadim, nor ever heard that someone I know played it, but I am willing to try, as always. So, is there any 3rd or 3.5 edition versions of the gods of Zakhara, or this Al-Quadim campaign setting (in other words, can I simply by them, or I am forced to search the land and sky for the books from 2nd or previous editions)? Thank you both for your advices, I appreciate them a lot. Avisaj, King David's loyal guard
Astanphaeus 07-12-04, 10:38 PM	Here are some PDFs that are available: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=897& http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=899& These products are The Lands of Fate and Arabian Adventures, and they are pretty much the "core" material for Al-Qadim/Zakhara. The latter is basically a player's guide. If you only get one, get the former, but I'd recommend both. They're 2nd edition, but you're mostly interested in the fluff, so that doesn't really matter. Recently, Dragon magazine introduced some Al-Qadim 3rd edition prestige classes (if memory serves, the mamluk was included). Maybe someone could offer the exact issue. I seem to think it was part of that retrospective of all the D&D campaign settings, but I could be wrong. Wizards of the Coast has a couple of freebies available as PDFs... the Corsairs of the Great Sea and the Caravans sourcebooks. Check them out here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/downloads ~ A.
Avisaj 07-13-04, 08:18 AM	Thanks, Astanphaeus, you're true gold!
Cunning Linguist 07-13-04, 08:25 AM	Also, try to get ahold of Dragon 315. It has some 3.5 updates for Al-Qadim. (5 pages of it)
Chewbacca's LightSaber 07-13-04, 09:42 AM	Dragon #321 also had some prestige classes for Al-Qadim. 500 xp for any one who answers what does "al-qadim" mean in Arabic.:D :D
Masakado 07-13-04, 09:51 AM	Originally posted by Chewbacca's LightSaber Dragon #321 also had some prestige classes for Al-Qadim. 500 xp for any one who answers what does "al-qadim" mean in Arabic.:D :D "From the Ancient" if I'm not mistaken, and I very well could be.
Cunning Linguist 07-13-04, 10:00 AM	It means old, as in "this cheese is old". But they wanted the word for Ancient.
Avisaj 07-13-04, 08:21 PM	I picked up some info about Al-Qadim and Zakhara. It is interesting to have some Arabian and Islamic elements in the campaign, but... I read a lot about Islam, and the rules that govern the every-day life of a Muslim. There are some parts of Al-Qadim setting which are way-out-of-there from Arabian culture, but I understand that those changes are made to make the setting more playable. Any way, if there is a religion that is more specific about worshiping ONLY one god, than I don't which one is it. Related to this.... One of my psychopathic players had expressed his wish to worship Lord Ao as his patron. I know that there are those cool guys in Planescape who worship the Great Beyond, but I'm not quite sure how would Ao react if someone started to preech about him and his ways. I had some ideas about this, but if I let the player worship Ao, and if Ao responds, then what is the purpouse of all other gods? There we go into a monotheistic campaign... P.S. Does anyone agrees with me that Vile Darkness aand Exalted Deeds are perfect books for monotheistic worlds?
Masakado 07-13-04, 11:13 PM	Originally posted by Avisaj One of my psychopathic players had expressed his wish to worship Lord Ao as his patron. I know that there are those cool guys in Planescape who worship the Great Beyond, but I'm not quite sure how would Ao react if someone started to preech about him and his ways. Ao is so far removed from humanity that it really wouldn't matter. He'd have no reaction at all.
dragonheart 07-16-04, 07:36 PM	Ao came to faerun's attention during the time of troubles and appaerently that knowledge is "somehow" slipping away again. THere were a few clerics etc of Ao right after the ToT but when they never got spells they eventually gave up and turned to other gods (now there was a chance to Cyric to stir up trouble that he missed).
Avisaj 07-19-04, 01:42 PM	I finally convinced my lovely player to take some less omnipotent power to worship, so that's cool. I have a rather unique Edwin-Minsc (Baldur's Gate) relationship in my game - there is this neutral Red Wizard, and this Chaotic Good Rashemi Barbarian. Isn't that sweet? For now, they are cooperating (powerful mage, powerful warrior, always good combination), but it's generally a matter of time until they realize that they must kill each other in a bloody clash. Anyway, my campaign... So, besides those Cyricist, Thieves Guild, Zero Legion on the south and mage guild in the city, there are few more groups worth of notice. I don't beleive I mentioned my Fiend of corruption Succubus. She runs a bordel, and she is also available, but she doesn't use her draining abilities, because she wants to use her seductive powers to gain some level of control in the city. Most of all, she needs informations. Her boss, a mighty demon (I will pass the part who he is and why is he important) wants to be free, and succubus is looking for a young, naive wizard who will complete the ritual (cliche). The truth is, I have one player who always succumbs to the temptations, so this is generally a quest for him. Another player married two girls from bordel, in order to pull them out from the underwold. He doesn't know that those two are the agents of succubus. I menaged to give four cursed objects to the greedy part of the party, I belive that this will keep them busy for some time. There is this Terbin, NPC, a half-drow ranger of Shaverash (you can almost smell the plot here). Drow raped his mother, and killed her and his human family ten years ago, so he is willing to go with anyone, but his primary objective is killing the drow Judicator who was responsible for the death of his family. I also took liberty of creating the brother of my Rashemi barbarian, a Rashemi fighter, specialized in spiked chain. He is kinda coll guy, because there are plenty of fancy moves with the chain you can do in the combat. Enclave. My Red Wizard wants to open an enclave, but he is not naive about it. He is trying to accumulate power, so that this enclave doesn't accidentaly slip to another, more powerful Red Wizard. He also wants to slay Nevron, when the time comes (epic advantures are always my favorite). There are several things that Red Wizards should do in a city where one guild controls all magic trade, but I don't want to bother you with that. That's it for now, more coming at the end of the week. :)
Gray Richardson 07-19-04, 05:27 PM	Sounds like you have the makings of a really great campaign, Avisaj! Since you have said Rahab is a nation on the border of Zakhara and Faerun, I see no reason why you couldn't use Faerunian deities. Maybe they have special Arabicized names in your campaign. I know in Calimshan Tyr is sometimes known as Anachtyr. If you still want a list of the Zakharan gods then here is a link for you: http://www.ii.uib.no/~bjornts/.rpg/AQrelig.html
Avisaj 07-19-04, 07:07 PM	Thanks for compliments and special thanks for the list of Zakharan gods. I still kinda think that it is wrong idea to change Arabic-strictly-monotheistic religion into polytheism (I don't want to tell you what the Qu'ran says about polytheism). Also, I generally opose the idea of bringing any monotheistic traditions in the Forgotten Reals. Come on, I counted over 120 active deities only on Fearun! How more can there be on Maztica, Kara-Tur, and that piece of land that is between Kara-Tur and Maztica? Given the animistic view of the world in Kara-Tur, probably several millions. My point is, if no one worships Ao, and if he simply deosn't care about it, why trying to give the world monotheistic traditions, when the only god who can be named as One God simply don't give a damn? Anyway, that's where my next part of the plot comes up... I REALLY liked the Athar idea from the Planescape, so I kinda developed their equivalent in the Fearun. There are those guys, settled on the north part of Rahab, and they cane from another plane some months ago. They are quite enigmatic guys, and they don't beleive in gods, they say that there are no gods in the place where they came from. To make things more interesting, 90% of their population are wizards, so why bothering yourself with powers above, when you can become the Power yourself. Simillary to Athar, they say that all creatures, and even gods, draw their lifeforce from one place, but they don't know the name of that place, or entity, or both. When asked is that Ao, and when someone explains them who is Ao, they say that it is possible, but they are not sure in that. In the recent years of their traviling through the multiverse, they menaged to train few "priests" of that Unknown Power, and they have samo basic domains available (knowledge, protection, luck, healing, etc). I made one exception in this campaign, and allowed them to take Mystic Theurge, but I made that class only a five level prestige class, so that their powers don't grow too great. The idea is to make the some kind of out-of-this-place very smart, but secretive, and in the same time they should be some kind of the pinnacle of the understanding of the Art. I'm still working on the following thing: how to make them ignore the Mystra and here Weave? I thought that I should take Spellfire like the guiding idea, but then, Mystra gives you the spellfire. I don't want them to use something like Shadow Weave, not at all, but I do want them to draw their mastery of Art from somewhere else, not from Weave. Basically, there can be thousands of ways to cast spells, right? I mean, in Rokugan, you use ancestral spirits to give you the power to cast the spells, why couldn't they draw their power from that Unknown Source? It will not make them anyway different from normal Weave-using spellcaster, but it will make them exotic. Thanks again to everyone who read this thread, and special thanks to all who gave me their advices for my campaign. Until the friday (or any other day when I return from the country), ciaos!
Gray Richardson 07-19-04, 07:25 PM	I still kinda think that it is wrong idea to change Arabic-strictly-monotheistic religion into polytheism (I don't want to tell you what the Qu'ran says about polytheism). Please remember that Islam did not really begin until the mid 7th century AD. Pre-Islamic Arabs were indeed polytheistic, although many were also influenced by extant christian and judaic traditions. Tales of Djinni and Ifriti all come from pre-islamic mythology. Monotheism only became prevalent in Arabic culture in the wake of Mohammed.
Avisaj 07-20-04, 02:21 AM	I am well aware of that, but the laws in Al-Qadim are almost completely taken over from Qu'ran, with some of them changed. I don't like taking the part of one tradition, and ignore the rest. If I am to take the laws in Al-Qadim for my Rahab, then I also feel the need to take other things. The sam thing applies if I try to incorporate Rokugan in Kara-Tur, and any other setting in the Realms. True, I did took the Mameluk idea to some extent, but my campaign is already on the move, so every significant change in the setting makes my players really confused. I prefer keeping Rahab some kind of "distant part of the Realms", with it's own exotic aspects. I did, however, used the most of Al-Qadim for other city-states in Zakhara, that seemed reasonable, especially given the fact that no one of my players ever traveled to those lands. Ok, I think think that was it. Any comments about those extra-planar wizards?
Occams_Razor 07-25-04, 07:54 AM	Not to be disagreeable, but I have found in the past that it is dangerous, but better for all involved to not directly rip off Islam. I was in a play once where a character uttered the phrase: "May Allah twist your nose off." -Don't Drink the Water, by Woody Allen. And we had Muslim picketers for the remainder of the run of the show. It is important to keep the flavor, but not insult a people's faith by copying it too closely. I have not studied the Qu'ran, nor have I read the Al-Qadim CS, but I would suggest that the intention was to avoid irritating or insulting anyone, and you could always adapt it if you want your players' knowledge of Islam to be of use to them. If this is not the point, then I would ask why it is an issue, since it is a fantasy game... sorry, that sounds a bit confrontational, I'm only trying to suggest a different angle to consider, since you won't really be hearing from WotC on this issue, and I have an annoying tendancy to try to make everyone feel better... :blush: