Here is the discussion thread for the adventure. Enjoy ;)
I am first. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Bow before me.
Not likely common scum! Wait, your a drow noble as well? :]
I will get the background story in tonight. Hopefully my internet is back to normal so I can submit it.
Yes I am a drow noble. You may call me "my Lord."
OK, went through this guy and added the Drow stuff. I also fixed his saves, background, and added the spell-like abilities. He is now ready to go.
Added my last trait.
Well we are missing one to show up.
Elrivor HP is half +1 so all 5's, I think you are missing a language sense you start with undercommon and elven so you should have 3 extra not 2, I think thats the only things you need to be done. Also why are enchantment DC's +2?
Brang'el are you a Gorrum worshiper?
If so would you mind adding how that came about to your background. As far as I can see your done.
I'm here. Sorry, I'm on the opposite side of the world from most of you I suspect so you're often most active while I'm sleeping.
Can you just give me a third trait please DM? I'm really unsure what to take since I already have one combat and one social.
Also, before I write a background is there some basic campaign info we can see? I like to tailor my character's background to the game.
You can get plenty of info on drow and Zirnakaynan from Armageddon Echo and Endless Night, both are part of the Second Darkness AP they have articles. But here is a drow entry from Into the Darklands for you.
Beware block of text x[
Foremost among the races of Sekamina are undoubtedly the wicked and twisted drow. Since their flight from the surface millennia ago, their skin and hearts have become as dark as the stygian depths in which they dwell. Yet despite the paranoia of many surface-dwelling scholars, the dark elves do not seek to return to the surface—they are content to weave their complex plans and live their decadent lives in the comfort of Sekhamina, the world they have already all but conquered. This is not to say that the surface has nothing to fear from the drow—far from it. The dark elves still seethe with an ancient hatred for the elves above for what they view as an abandonment, and against humanity for indirectly being the cause of Earthfall in the first place. To the drow, the uplander races are fit only for slavery, and the fact that they function so poorly in the dark makes them unsatisfactory slaves indeed. Yet recent events threaten to arouse this ancient wrath—the drow, once content to let those upon the surface exist, could well be willing to strike against the uplanders if they were to perceive anything approaching a threat to their empire from above. The drow empire spans much of central Avistan, from Varisia east to Razmiran and from the Worldwound south to the northernmost reaches of Andoran. Theirs is easily the largest empire in all the Darklands, but not a single day passes without the need to defend this empire from their enemies. They maintain an uneasy truce with the duergar nation above, but in Sekamina the drow are at constant war with the ghouls, the skum, the svirfneblin, the seugathi, and the gugs—all races whose own lands border the drow empire, all races who look upon the drow position of power with envious eyes. And of course, their greatest enemies lie in Orv below; the neothelids, the urdefhans, the intellect devourers, and the few remaining aboleth puppet masters of the Sightless Sea. The drow are a people founded on cruelty and sin. Their pantheon of gods are a collection of a dozen demon lords. They are a matriarchal society, where men are seen as second-class citizens at best or slaves at worst. Drow society is ruled by twelve Great Houses, each constantly seeking to ever expand their holdings and influence at each others’ expense, each believing themselves to be the ones best qualified to lead the nation as a whole, each ruled by a matron of incredible power. As a result, the greatest enemy the drow empire faces is itself, and for the past several thousand years, the drow have balanced precariously on the edge of a devastating civil war. Only the constant threat of the enemies that surround them keep the Great Houses from declaring open war upon each other. Instead, they wage a war of politics and secret betrayals, of false alliances and complex machinations. Each House has something important to provide to drow society, and each House has pledged to defend the nation from their enemies without, yet this never-ending shadow war serves well to keep any one House from seizing enough control to dominate the others. It is a precarious but serviceable balance, and the drow have grown quite fond of it over the ages. Drow engage in many different pastimes, not all of which are decadence or the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure (although these two do remain favorites). Sporecrafting (the art of growing and transforming fungus), lithicrafting (the art of shaping stone), coldwarping (a magical method of forging and smelting metal), and fleshwarping (the vile art of transforming the flesh through torture, surgery, and alchemy) are all popular pursuits. Yet the primary and greatest pursuit for most drow is the art of violence. In most drow cities, the houses send their best and finest warriors to martial training and mustering groups known simply as the Fighting Society. Drow of all houses come here as youths to train and prepare for the inevitable day that they will be called upon to kill. Many drow, especially nobles, stay only for training before returning to their houses to carry on more specialized training with their own house weapon masters, priests, and arcanists. A portion, however, stay on with the Fighting Society, forever foreswearing allegiance to house and patron demons to become a permanent member of the society. The society brooks no warfare between its members and gives devotion to the entire pantheon of the drow’s demonic patrons. The Fighting Society’s creed is purity of race and clarity of purpose; no enemy will survive their cleansing vengeance or prevent them from attaining their ultimate victory. The ranks of officers are usually pulled from the female drow, who hold authority over the male rank-and-file. Beyond warfare and their artistic pursuits, life among the drow is very much a question of where one falls in social class. Although the drow themselves are capricious and prone to fits of pique and unpredictable mood swings, as a race their lengthy dominance over Sekamina has bred into their society an almost cloying level of decadence in tradition, resulting ironically in a relatively stable caste system. The Great Houses rule over all, of course, but the majority of drow belong to no noble clan. These are the soldiers, the prostitutes, the crafters, the servants, and the aimless. Among these drow, it is violence and might, seduction and guile that earn the right to survive. The denizens of one drow home can change a dozen times over the course of a year, as can the makeup of entire families as members are adopted, exiled, or murdered. Those who visit a drow city find the place often just shy of full-blown anarchy; a riot in the streets of a drow city is in a way analogous to a busy day at market in saner cities. Laws exist in drow society, yet they are transient things prone to transformation or neglect—the only true constant in drow society is the 12 Great Houses. All drow aspire to these 12 icons—for to be accepted into the graces of one of the houses is to escape the madness and violence of the city street itself.
Cool, I'll read up on everything and then produce something. So we're starting in the city of Zirnakaynan, right? Sekhima is the drow name for the Darklands?
Yes your starting in Zirnakaynan. The darklands are broken up into three layers, Nar-Voth is the upper most layers (down to 2,000 ft.), Sekamina is the middle layers (2,000 ft. to 8,000 ft.), and Orv is the lowest layers (8,000 ft. to hell).
Born the seventh son of Matron Zoveinia of House Misraria, Elbennon was yet another dissapointment. Zoveinia had been desperately hoping for a female heir, and to birth another son sent her into a fury. She decided to appeal to Nocticula, her house's patron demon by sacrificing the babe. She had a trusted servant carry Elbennon into the dark wilds of Sekhima and abandon him there. He survived there for several days before he was found by a party of Wovirl returning to Zirnakaynan from a slave raid. The party's commander, impressed by the strength of such a babe and unwilling to just let a fellow drow die, carried Elbennon back to their base. A female surface elf who had just given birth before she was taken became his wetnurse. For the next four decades he was raised by the Wovirl, they were mother and father to him. He learned the ways of combat and treachery and that the only way to survive was to be stronger than the others. He serves Nathmir the Sage fanatically, and sees him as the father that he never otherwise had. Elbennon knows he has noble blood, but is unaware of which house. He despises the noble houses for their decadence and infighting, so unlike the structured and disciplined Wovril.
Is that acceptable?
I am writing my background now. :)
The background is done. I am still having internet problems. Hopefully they can be taken care of today.
Well we are missing one to show up.
Elrivor HP is half +1 so all 5's, I think you are missing a language sense you start with undercommon and elven so you should have 3 extra not 2, I think thats the only things you need to be done. Also why are enchantment DC's +2?
Fixed both of those.
Drow elves get +2 on saves vs. Enchantments correct? I thought I read that in the SRD last night. Drow nobles get all of the drow abilties + theirs according to that entry correct?
That is correct Elrivor.
Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to magic sleep effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves against enchantment spells.
You get the bonus when you are saving against enchantments, not as a bonus to your own spell DCs. You have listed under your spells that all your enchantment DCs are two higher, that's the error.
I guess I should have checked his character sheet first :) Elbeenon is correct. That is a defensive feature, not an offensive one.
It's cool that your my DM in another game but here we're gonna play together Mr Swagger ^_^ Didn't realize it was you until a few posts ago.
Oops...forgot I copied this template from my enchanter...just an oversight on my part, corrected. DC's updated as well although ti won't matter much.
@Elbennon
Normally I give backgrounds alot of leeway but well yours just steps on to many "never would happen" toes. When drow kill and more so when its ritual in nature they do it themselves, they do not leave someone to die. Also a lone drow with gear would not survive in Sekhima unless he had some noteworthy items or ability for several days. A defenseless babe who did not have the ability to even keep quiet would not last a few hours before becoming a snack or at best being found and turned into a slave. Even if by some huge luck nothing came across the babe it would be dead in a day without food or water being freshly born, it would never last several. An adult would be lucky to last two days in the same conditions. Then their is the Wovirl, they are not dumb enough to bring a surface elf to the city if they did capture one. Not to mention they would pick up a drow they found to turn into a slave not invite into their ranks. If something does not show itself to at least have potential in a real way, they wont take the time to invest in it.
x_x
I read in several places that they don't enslave other drow. But, you're the DM. I guess I'll start over when I have some time later.
Where did you read that drow dont enslave each other?
Every male is pretty much at the mercy of the females unless they have some juice to make it otherwise.
Alright guys I am changing the other adventure into inactive. Also let me know when your ready to go so we can get started.
Well, they are socially subordinate. But they are not slaves. I read both the chapters about Drow and Zirnakaynan in Armegeddon Echo and Endless Night. It said that drow sometimes willingly enter the service of other houses but as servants not slaves. It mentioned that some high ranking females see little difference between servants and slaves though. Would the story be more acceptable if it happened when he was like 6 years old? He survived by being quiet and using his SLAs. Then he tried to hide from the Wovril using his deeper darkness and they realized he was a noble born kid with a lot of potential. Just scrap the bit about the surface elf slave.
To drow mores, anything and anyone who is not a drow is a candidate for slavery. Their word for servitor is anquestra, while their word for outlander is jenanquestrok, which means “not yet a slave.” Sentients that are spoils of war are always considered slaves, especially if the purpose of the war is to gather more servitors. Similarly, non-drow trespassers can be declared anquestra, and this can happen even to non-drow offered protection from a noble house, should another noble house want to enslave them......
Drow view the capture and enslavement of their own kind as anathema, the work of barbarians. Captured enemy drow are treated as guests and ransomed back at the end of hostilities. That is not to say that, should negotiations break down, said guest will not be returned in pieces as a sign of a matron’s displeasure.
Although the dark elves do not enslave their own, many drow willingly seek to serve other, more powerful drow. Particularly among the houses of drow nobles, scores of dark elf servants might attend to the whims of cruel mistresses. Such servants have a better lot than slaves and suffer the barbs and tantrums of their employers for the opportunity and respect afforded those close to nobility. Drow nobles, however, often forget the difference between servants and slaves, however, and many drow guards, handmaidens, pages, and attendants bear the lash marks of their mistresses’ furors.
Yeah what I define as a slave is more general. Its a tomato, tamato thing.
The house you choose is just bad, the matron would kill you sortly after child birth. You would not make it out of the room. Not to mention your dad would be killed too. Thats just the way that matron is. Drow matrons are just nutty like that.
Drow Nobles are born 1 out of 20 drow. You do not have to be a product of a drow noble, just so you know. As for the Wovirl they dont really need to recruit, that only changed recently. But they do have a sort of sponsor system where a current member can vouch for someone to enter. You could have your guy tied to said sponsor instead. A distent blood relation or ally of the family. Non noble parents wanting to gain off their noble blooded child by sending them to train with the Wovirl instead of a fightning society.
Remember the Wovirl does not have ties to any noble house and they dont want any.
I just liked the idea of him not knowing who his parents were at all. I picked that house because I want to be born of one of the great houses, and the fluff text said she kept having sons.
How about something like:
-------
Elbennon Morosi was born to a minor daughter of House Dolour. She was hoping for a daughter, but got a son instead. He was still of noble blood however, and might be of some use to her house. So she had servants raise him until he was old enough to go to the fighting societies, if he could survive there long enough to learn something she had a cousin in the Wovril that would agree to sponsor his admission to the company. He was never told who his mother was, and grew up believing he was of common birth.
Elbennon spent years in the fighting society learning to outwit and outlive the other boys. He became a devious fighter, skilled in treachery and expert with the shuriken. It was not until his fourth decade of life that he had earned enough respect for his mother's cousin to sponsor him to join the Wovril. Recent circumstances had created a need, and he had kept her waiting long enough.
-------
Is that better?
I hate to sound like a broken record but the Wovirl have no ties to the noble houses. This is by design, anyone who joins is effectively a traitor to any house they belonged to. So if you understand that, with a minor change your background will make it seem like she threw him away after losing interest.
Alright guys I am changing the other adventure into inactive. Also let me know when your ready to go so we can get started.
I am ready.
Yeah, that's fine. I want him to be born of a noble house, but have no connection with it. Gives you the option of a darth vader moment later or something if you want it. As far as Elbennon knows he was born to drow servant of house Dolour, and they got rid of him as soon as they could. He doesn't know that he's related to his sponsor in any way, and has no loyalty to the great houses, Dolour or otherwise.
Is everything done with Yaesen? I think we are done then...and ready to start.
Waiting on a reply from Breang'el.
Otherwise yeah I think everyone is set and we will be starting up soon.
Thanks for sticking it out Irthos, we have got a pretty good team it appears and should be in for some good PBP...
lol Yeah I should be the one saying that.
Ready to go.
@Brang'el
Your a Gorrum worshiper?
To everyone else I will be posting the intro in a bit.
Made the first game post. So we are ready to roll. Remember to keep it clean to, post OCC stuff and questions here as I dont like to clutter the game thread. ;)
Sorry guys my net just came back on. >.<
Find it a little funny you guys posted in the order of the spoilers. xD
I go first.
Is there a Wovril uniform? If so what is it? Are the members all drow/drider, or do we see slave races here too?
The Wovirl like Noble Houses and anyone important have insignia's that they carry which bear the symbol of their house/organization. Normally these insignia's are exposed so people know who they are dealing with and show the proper respect/fear accorded to their station and position.
Currently you only see drow, the only non drow is the drider leading you.
Sorry if I sometimes forget the little things. I have tons of info on drow and not just from pathfinder. Granted the insignia thing was not due to effect anything just yet.
P.S. The only reason they show their insignia is because they are in their base. Outside of it they hide theirs to blend in with common drow. Insignia's are also never forged because its a deathwish and insignia's are never just symbols, even the weakest insignia has certain magic's in it. While the leader of a house or organization normally bears a insignia of great power, the item itself giving weight to the holders right to rule said house or organization.
Giving you guys a bit of time to RP thoughts and such. Will move along in a bit. ;)
Big post but could not be avoided.
I am liking that I took the ancestral grudge alt trait.
For anyone who does not know of Ancestral Regression. Its from ARG.
I know about that spell, but it is not on my class spell list. I guess I should have told the others about it though.
Not really an issue now ;)