Campaign Introduction
The year was 1703. Kurast, my home, has for one year - one terrible year - been immersed in war. The war, we were told, was being won... but... there were rumors. Our city was a shadow of its former self. The skies once filled with airships were now empty. The streets once bustling were now eerily quiet. Everyone was worried. Each day we waited for news - none came. We did not even know who we were fighting. Our enemies, the Sha’Tar, the “black ones”, were for all we knew a shadow, a nightmare we all wanted to wake up from.
Nine months after the war began something happened - something strange, something that emptied from our hearts all remaining courage; something that struck fear - a deep cold - into the core of our very souls: our city's portals... stopped working. But that was just the beginning. Within days all the Eladrin in our great city could no longer Fey Step; wizards and warlocks could no longer teleport. All forms of magical transportation stopped working. The airships and carpets fell from the sky. It’s as if... I shudder to think this... it’s as if something wanted for us... to wait. This is where my story begins.
After one year my day finally came. I received a letter of conscription from the Minister of Defense; I was to join the war effort. Four days later, from the arms of my weeping mother, I departed from my home into the vast desert that surrounded our great city.
There were seventy of us: sixty soldiers from the 86th Offensive, and ten from the King's bodyguard: the Ara'tham, our superiors. Our mission, explained one of the Ara’tham, was to escort them and their goods. Where were we escorting them to? What exactly were "the goods"? And why weren’t the Ara'tham with the king? These questions boiled in our minds. For one month we marched.
Rumors began to spread. Like a virus, one by one, we succumbed to fear. Fear brought restlessness. Restlessness brought anger. We began to question them, the Ara’tham. We wanted answers. After one month and two weeks the boiling point came – the burdon of the unknown could no longer be carried; a fight broke out.
In the scuffle, eight of us were killed, five more were injured. The Ara'tham suffered no casualties or injury. Still we had no answers.
That night I was jerked out of my slumber by a sharp pain in my back. As I twisted in my bed roll, I became aware of a whispered argument between two of the usually disciplined Ara'tham. I strained to pick up even just a few words. The argument soon escalated every so slightly, now just barely louder than whispers, one snippet of information escaped. I wish that it had not.
One camel had died that night. One sleigh of water and rations would need to be stranded. Our journey was now impossible.
My heart sank.
I did not sleep that night.
The following morning we renewed the march and for two more excruciating weeks it continued. After two months in the desert, it finally happened. They finally came.
"What's that over there!?” somebody yelled.
We all turned.
On the horizon, just over the setting sun, could be seen a great shadow. As it drew nearer, what we thought was a shadow, revealed itself to us just as the sun's last rays disappeared: crows - thousands of them.
The sight was more than some of us could handle: eight of us ran shrieking aimlessly into the desert. Three fell to their knees and began to sob uncontrollably. The Ara'tham, undaunted, positioned themselves to brave the coming onslaught - they would defend our precious cargo to the bitter end.
After what seemed like an eternity the birds were overhead and circling, strangely silent. Not a single squawk was heard, only the drumming of a thousand wings. Without thinking, I hid beneath our camel-towed sleighs and cowered– my courage now completely gone, taken by the desert. On my knees, under cover, only prayer now filled my thoughts.
What I saw next I can barely recall without an uncontrollable shake consuming me. The murder divided itself in two, and almost in unison the flapping stopped. As I gazed up towards the night sky in wonder, they began to dive, like a black liquid silently pouring from the heavens.
I froze.
Millions of pins pricked every inch of my skin. Time slowed. I was outside myself, a spectator of my own paralyzed body; unable to think, unable to move. Just then, before we were engulfed, a sudden fluttering of thousands of wings jolted me back into my body. The crows turned. They were now headed for each other. To my amazement and udder shock, they collided.
I will never forget that sound.
For what seemed like hours, blood and guts rained from the sky as the thousands smashed into each other, beak and talon. We were inundated in gore – a torrential downpour of innards and feathers. Not one crow remained alive. A foul nausea roiled up from my bowels. I had not the fortitude to stomach it. Vomit escaped my mouth.
__________________________________________________________
For the next 3 days a disease spread amongst us. It manifested itself in strange ways: some of us became blind, others delusional, still more palsied. Everyone spoke of a cold shadow descending upon them. Only twenty of us remained now. That’s when they came to take us.
In the distance, like a storm cloud in the wind, came an enormous black airship - larger than any of us had ever seen before. As it landed with a dull thud, a shrieking wind roiled the sand around it. A shadowy shockwave of sand engulfed what remained of our party. With it came a terrible dread. By now we were just shells, shells of men.
Nobody ran. Not one word was uttered. We just waited. Only breathing could be heard.
From the ships gaping maw poured dozens of cloaked figures. They moved strangely – quietly - in a neat order. Not one word was spoken between them. We were blindfolded and taken along with our cargo without a fight.
__________________________________________________________
Blind and sick, I passed in and out of consciousness. Time passed like in a dream. Reality was slipping away from me like sand through my fingers. When conscious, I was tormented with specters and horrific visions of possible futures. I could not separate dream from reality. Unconsciousness was my only solace. For days, I fought the demons in my head, until I was overcome by fatigue; then I slept. For how long I cannot say; days, maybe weeks.
A loud thud abruptly yanked me from my stupor. We landed. We were finally here.
I waited. Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours; nothing. My mind wandered.
My ears, heightened by my blindness, suddenly alerted me to the sounds of a battle barely audible from within the bowel of my flying prison. A flame of hope ignited in my heart. A strength - a bestial energy – hidden within me, erupted. The sounds grew louder and closer and soon came from within the ship. I shook with anticipation. Beads of sweat now covered every inch of my body. The battle now could be heard in every corner of my cell, resonating in the very structure of my prison. I sat and listened ever so intently to weapons clashing, to strange shrieks and barks, yells and roars of a sort very alien to me.
Soon it was all over. A deafening silence engulfed everything. My ears strained to hear even the slightest sound.
Just then, without warning, a door opened. From it the sound of footsteps flooded my ears. Two, maybe three, beings approached.
CRACK!
__________________________________________________________
When I awoke I was being carried. My hands and feet were bound to a wooden post. I heard around me what can only be described as the sounds of a jungle. I rationed that I was dreaming: this couldn’t be real. Strange creatures were all around, barking, grunting and speaking in some tongue I couldn't make out.
CRACK!
__________________________________________________________
The sound of a steel door being opened brought consciousness. After a moment of confusion I suddenly became aware of a pounding pain in my head. As I reached to feel my injury, I was startled by someone or something removing my blindfold. Before my eyes could adjust, they were gone. My captor’s identity remained secret.
Looking around, I found myself in a dark cold stone cell. Two candles flickered in the room. As I scanned, I became aware of survivors in adjacent cells: two of the 86th, and one of the Ara’tham. I’m ashamed to say it, but their presence comforted me. I did not know it then, but these would become my closest friends and allies. Our adventure was about to begin. We were about to become heroes.
perhaps you simply used this as a misnomer. could this be more like a prologue for your players than an introduction? because as the name suggests, an introduction introduces the players to something, and the only concrete information that the players get out of this is that the ara'them are BADASSES and that they are prisoners. I think all that you really need to come to terms with is what you are trying to accomplish with this and if that has been met. If this is a prologue, simply a retelling of how the players reached the point that they are at now, then I think you could call it quits, but if this is supposed to introduce them to the world that they will be inhabiting for the course of your campaign I think it needs a bit more substance
Finally, I think you should be careful about such a structured introduction. A lot of players would feel kind of railroaded by such a detailed intro. You already forced your characters to be affiliated with a military without their choices. I think you'd make a great writer, but your DMing needs a little work. Always remember that your not the only one telling the story in a D and D campain. Players need to feel like they actually have an imapact on the overall storyline of your world, otherwise, they'll become dissatisfied with your campaign very quickly. Just my thoughts, hope they help.
What this intro does is set up the mood of the game, how the enemy is everywhere, very powerful and dark, imposing figures.
What more could the players be told about a strange land, with new obstacles? Let me say that another way. What else Should the players be told?
All in all I really enjoyed it, it took me a couple of paragraphs to get interested enough to read it all but by the end I was looking for more.
The mood is dark with only a little horror. Everything else the players will have to learn as they go. All in all, a good start I think.
To last poster: Actually, I disagree. Outside of knowing they are prisoners in a foreign place with enemies at the doorstep there could be little else to say.
What this intro does is set up the mood of the game, how the enemy is everywhere, very powerful and dark, imposing figures.
What more could the players be told about a strange land, with new obstacles? Let me say that another way. What else Should the players be told?
All in all I really enjoyed it, it took me a couple of paragraphs to get interested enough to read it all but by the end I was looking for more.
The mood is dark with only a little horror. Everything else the players will have to learn as they go. All in all, a good start I think.
I agree, I want to know more about this world!
I might have toned down the gore factor but it adds a powerful visual. I think I would have gone with a swarm of insects rather than crows (due to my dislike of insects most likely,
).Now to respond to some of the questions:
I intentionally didn't overdevelop Kurast because it was only to serve as motivation for the characters, not as a place that they would return to and adventure in. On the other side of the coin, perhaps their motivation would be stronger if I had broadened the description and really made the characters attached to the city.
The Ara'tham are also purposely underexplained b/c they're supposed to be somewhat mysterious - think secret police. Also, they don't really serve that much purpose beyond the setup. They're there to give the characters something to aspire too, and maybe, if there is a desire, I will develop their organization into a paragon path.
I agree with the earlier post that perhaps this is better described as a prologue rather than an introduction. I purposely made the details vague and the story filled with mystery. I was going for a suspense/horror/dread/nothing-I-seem-to-do-makes-things-better-I-want-to-cut-myself type campaign.
I think you guys are right that perhaps too much is left out and little is concrete enough so as to be able to build a solid character background off of it. I think I will work on a more typical introduction.
jdud: I don't want the players to be railroaded by forcing them into the military. I wanted a mode by which characters in the future could be introduced. You see, saving their home city will be the players' main motivation. If saving Kurast is the primary motive, then any future characters would probably be from Kurast. The problem would then be explaining how that character ever got into the jungle to meet up with the party. Perhaps there was a better way of doing this, but knowing my players, I don't believe they'll mind - they're more the hack-n-slash type. They only enjoy hacking-n-slashing if their reasons for hacking-n-slashing are deep and developed enough.
Now, I would expand about where the story was planning to go but I fear that my players will discover this post and it will all be ruined. PM if you're interested. (Is there PM's on these boards?)