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Tonight was the second "session" of my new campaign that I'm DMing. "Session" in quotation marks because while it was the second time we got together as a group for this campaign, the first time character generation, introduction, and whatnot took up nearly the entire time that we had. I figure I'll give a go at posting a campaign journal here about it, and hopefully it'll be interesting enough that people will enjoy it. It's pretty late and I'm tired, so I'll type up the events of the session tomorrow, but I'll give a brief intro here.
The setting is a semi-generic world of my own creation, and the campaign takes place in a tropical jungle. Specifically, it takes place in the Principality of Three Rivers, which is a part of the Bequoji Empire. Due to the density of the jungle and small number of well maintained roads, there is little enforcement of law and order outside the major cities (which are fairly well spaced apart) and the numerous small villages under protection of roving patrols based inthe big cities. Each local Prince (or Princess) has a large degree of power within their borders as long as they keep order and pay the required taxes to the Emperor. The action begins in and around the city of Jiyan, named after the river that it sets upon where the Imperial Highway (the only high quality road in the area) crosses it. Both the Highway and the river are major trade routes in the area.
The party begins as a somewhat rag tag gang of bandits. Needless to say, this isn't a "heroic" party; most of the characters are in fact chaotic evil. Since I wanted to encourage interesting characters, I allowed PCs with level adjustments and the entire party would start at an ECL of one higher than the highest LA, so every character would have at least one class level. The highest level adjustment is +2 (the drow), so each member has an effective character level of 3. The party is as follows.
Tesa Runningdark, catfolk rogue. The dark gray furred catfolk rogue is quite quick and dextrous, and has a healthy ego. She's quite nasty with her rapier (weapon finesse and a dexterity score of 21 will do that) and has quickly developed a habit of making fun of Duzair, in the middle of combat, when he misses an attack with his comparatively clumsy flail. She has also declared herself "the great monkey slayer," but we'll get to that soon enough.
Bixbi, halfling sorceror. After a less than successful attempt at thievery, Bixbi got out of jail and decided to be a sorceror. He's proven a bit better at that, though he's a bit paranoid for his own safety. He gets along with the rest of the group because they don't seem to mind him hiding behind them as long as he provides magical support and cooks. On the rare occasion that he might be within reach of a foe, he simply directs his faithful riding dog, Butch, to bite them since he knows that his staff is about as deadly in his hands as a blade of grass (a strength of 7 will do that to you).
Theravin, drow hexblade. While not the most physically resilient combatant around (12 HP, including his Toughness feat), Theravin, or "Theo" as he is known to some, tries to make up for his lack of toughness with sheer nastiness (usually in the form of a swinging scythe). He left his home some time ago because his kinfolk made him extremely paranoid (fancy that, scary drow) and while his current companions aren't exactly upstanding citizens there are much fewer of them to keep track of and these ones are actually useful to be around.
Likai, tiefling ninja. Not much is known about Likai, and he prefers it that way. He deliberately draws as little attention to himself as possible. While having a definite impression of his own superiority over them, he likes his companions because they provide a nice distraction while he sneaks up behind his enemies, or somebody to run behind if he gets noticed first. He and Tesa are quickly developing a sort of unspoken professional partnership as they have similar abilities and work together well, but she's much louder and more noticeable when stealth is not needed.
Duzair, raptoran cleric of Lliendil (raptoran god of storms). Duzair began wandering as part of his Walk of the Four Winds, and while still technically on that journey has developed even more of a nasty streak than he already had. He's really into the destructive aspect of his deity and prefers to use as many storm metaphors as possible. He joined up with the party as a way of "adding winds to his storm" and has a rather secure position in the group as the only one capable of using healing magic. He is proficient in the use of his heavy flail (the favored weapon of Lliendil) but has so far had less than stellar luck with it, resulting in the taunts from Tesa; he has responded several times by suggesting she tries swinging a real weapon instead of her oversized sewing needle, but does value her skill as long as she's on his side.
"Tank," jungle dwarf barbarian. Tank is a nickname, but most people can't pronounce his full name, including more than a few dwarves. He says his entire village (not a particularly big one) vanished while he was hunting, but some suspect that he might have just hit his head on a branch while vine swinging (no, he doesn't see any reason why dwarves can't be good at that) and got really lost. He's quite strong and tough, and extremely outgoing despite his lacking in the charisma department (Cha of 9). He gnerally comes across as a fast talking car salesman except he (usually) isn't trying to sell anything. He's not dumb but comes up with some strange ideas; the others put up with his strangeness because he's quite useful when swinging an axe. He has a pet monkey named Cheetor, but seems to dislike just about any other monkey (sometimes accusing them of trying to steal his bannanas). Tank may not be active in all sessions, as the player lives out of town (but frequently visits, often on game nights).
I like Marc Chin's idea of naming each session synopsis with actual character dialogue, so I'll try to do that. Tomorrow I'll post the events of the action so far (really just a fight with some monkeys and then todays session), which will be titled "But, come on! Think, a GIANT ball of copper!"