Greetings adventurers!
I have been running a Pathfinder version of Rappan Athuk for nearly 2 years now, and have been having a great time doing so! I am also enjoying the D&D 5e rules quite a bit, and have run several in person games. I am offering to run a 5e version of Rappan Athuk for a party of 4 interested individuals!
Hundreds of years ago, the Chelish imperial forces of Haliad the First moved to destroy the main Temple of Orcus which was taking root in the Eleder in Sargava. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon lord fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic fighters, clerics and paladins—led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the army of light that followed after them disappear as well. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.
The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill south of the Kaava Lands, a sylvan woodland on the northwest coast of Desperation Bay. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For years, they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.
Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these happenings, the cause of the creatures’ disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Aroden, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again—lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.
For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits, slavers and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”
Character Creation Guidelines:
* Legal material will be restricted to the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Player’s Handbook (or the free Player’s D&D Basic Rules PDF). I will not be using any options from the free Player’s Companions or Unearthed Arcana articles.
* All characters will be created using the standard stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, PHB, pg. 13).
* All races and all classes in the PHB are valid choices. Variant Humans will not be used.
* You must either take the equipment choices for your class or roll for starting gold and purchase your equipment.
* You must choose a Background, complete with Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond and Flaw. You may randomly determine these, or choose specific items that match your character concept.
* Because we are using the 5e Background system, I do not expect a long, involved backstory. If that is part of your process for coming up with a character, by all means go for it! Just know that I do not expect them.
* Profile aliases will need to be setup for chosen characters, but are not required for submission.
* If you are unsure about any aspect of character creation (especially anything labeled variant or optional), please ask.
Bullpen Queue:
* There is a limit of 1 character per person in the Bullpen Queue at all times.
* All approved applicants will be added to the Bullpen Queue, in the order submitted and approved.
* The Original Four Characters will be selected from the bullpen queue. All remaining approved characters will remain in the Bullpen Queue.
* If a character is killed, the replacement offer will be made to the first character in the Bullpen. Replacement offers expire after 48 hours, and the next character in the Queue will get an offer to join the party.
* Active party members may submit additional characters to the Bullpen Queue. Such submissions automatically move ahead a number of places in the queue equal to 1+ the level of their current character.
To be clear:
* 4 characters will be chosen.
* This is very likely to be a lethal game. I will not DM in an overly bloodthirsty way, neither will I pull my punches.
* I expect that you are able to post once per day minimum. I expect that you provide a heads up when you know you are going to be away or without reasonable access.
* Every approved submission will end up in the Bullpen Queue with a chance to get into the game eventually.
* I will be using Roll20.net for tactical maps, tokens, player handouts etc.
* Submissions for Original Four Characters will close at 9 pm EST on October 5th 2015.
* Submissions for the Bullpen will be open after that indefinitely.
Interested and here!
October 5th, good. I'll be back with either a tanky MeatWall™, or some kind of disgruntled mage who will be taking the easy way to power (assuming multiclassing is available later in game, this is the Wizard 2/Warlock X, probably 18, but may go War17 and add 1 Fighter, depending). Right now, I need sleep!
Dot. I'll get something Groovy up soon.
Well my Groovy is running blank, so I think that I'll recreate the first character I ever played in original D&D back in 1981. A half Orc Fighter with heavy armor and a great sword. Soldier background. I'll work to come up with an interesting story to help bring him to life.
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf,Mountain, Cleric (War)
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - scranford - Half-orc, Fighter
5E hasn't seemed to be incredibly popular around these parts, so your Queue might not get very full. I am definitely interested though, I love 5E and the Mwangi Expanse. Plus I've always wanted to play Rappan Athuk.
I recommend 5 players not 4. It keeps the game flowing better if we have someone with temporary posting problems and helps, a little, with the lethality of the game.
Anyway, here is Helamans submission. An elven rogue... I've added the following to the character.
Background
Cererithil has always been protective of his people lands and took to the path of wilderness warrior even before he was an adult. He liked the peace of the woodlands even as he hunted those things that sought to bring his people harm. His tribe have were victorious against an orcish warbands invasion thanks to to Cererithils running from woods to village all day but since then this tribe has lived in peace until recently when animals and forest dwellers, including two of his tribe had gone missing. Cererithil knows something is amiss - it is too much of a pattern to be mere chance. He has decided to head into human lands to see if similar things are happening there, or to confirm if they are root of the problem!
Background traits, bonds etc
Traits:
I once ran twenty-five miles without stopping to warn to my clan of an approaching orc horde. I’d do it again if I had to.
I’m driven by a wanderlust and a sense of duty that led me away from home.
Ideal:
Glory. I must earn glory in battle, for myself and my clan.
Bond:
My family, clan, or tribe is the most important thing in my life, even when they are far from me.
Flaw:
I am slow to trust members of other races, tribes, and societies. I am blunt and honest in my speech with them and hope they will be truthful as well - I have little time for lies.
I may go up to 5 players, but for now I'll see what the submissions turn out looking like.
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- 2 - Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - scranford - Half-orc, Fighter
- 3 - The Pale King
I'm interested. I may build a barbarian of some sort.
Good question pauljathome. No I am not.
I will pick the best 4 overall submissions to make a survivable party. This means I am looking at party balance in the Original 4 selection. I am putting all accepted characters into the queue in the order which they are approved, and any submissions over 4 will reorder to the top naturally when the Original 4 are selected. This somewhat incentives early submissions as even if you are not selected for the Original 4 you are near the top of the alternate list should someone die.
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- 2 - Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - scranford - Half-orc, Fighter
- 3 - The Pale King
- 4 - The Doomkitten - Something barbarian maybe
Loup Blanc here with interest and a character from the old thread. Lysander's a paladin of Ragathiel, come to Rappan Athuk to explore, bring honor and glory to the name of his god, and take light into the darkness of the dungeon.
Lysander, a few minor things. It looks like your ranged javelin attack and damage are calculated incorrectly? You language list is different in two different places. It looks like you should have 5 total, and they are accounted for but differently in two different places. Also - I really like your character sheet layout. I will probably steal it :)
Javelin should be correct, since it's a thrown weapon and uses the same modifiers as melee (a nice change for 5E). I did forget about the extra language for half-elf on top of my background languages, so I'll calculate up to those; they're in two places because I filled in the extra block online, but I'll take that out to keep from getting confusing.
As for the sheet layout, thanks! I try to make basic templates that are easy to read for the different systems I play on here, since I'm too cheap to get HeroLab.
Ok cool on the javelin I didn't realize that, thanks for clearing that up! :)
HeroLabs doesn't have anything for 5e yet. :(
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- 2 - Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
- 3 - Lysander Tremayne - Half-elf, Paladin
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - scranford - Half-orc, Fighter
- 3 - The Pale King
- 4 - The Doomkitten - Something barbarian maybe
Expressing an interest with a half elf Sorcerer.
GM Mark,
Here is Lorian Darkleaf for your consideration.
Welcome Lorian and Akmenos!
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- 2 - Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
- 3 - Lysander Tremayne - Half-elf, Paladin
- 4 - Lorian Darkleaf - Half-elf, Sorcerer
- 5 - Akmenos - Tiefling, Wizard
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - scranford - Half-orc, Fighter
- 3 - The Pale King
- 4 - The Doomkitten - Something barbarian maybe
Hi GM Mark - Hoping we can go 5 players. I've done a fair whack of PbP and 4 players with 1 out to RL issues runs a lot smoother than 3 players and 1 down for RL issues.
Daniel, if you would like to submit a character that would be wonderful :)
Here is Spiro Hawke's completed profile (I'll type in all the equipment from the standard builds if chosen).
An honorable, lawful 1/2 orc, who was dismissed from his body guard duty from a noble house (Chelish) for dereliction of duty (Unfounded, but served as a scapegoat). Has served in several mercenary companies since then, but has yet to settle on one, looking for more of the routine and orderliness of his former station, and finding most to "loose" for his liking.
Took some of his savings and a shop to the frontier, to see if someone or something there was in need of his skills, and his order.
Here is Uilisfuen, elven ranger of the Ekujae tribe. I will add an alias if chosen for the game.
Ranger 1 Elf
Soldier
Chaotic Good
--------------------
COMBAT
--------------------
AC 14
Hit Points 12
Hit Dice 1d10
Saving Throws Strength +3, Dexterity +5
Melee Shortsword +3 1d6+1 slashing (Finesse, light)
Ranged Longbow +5 1d8+3 piercing (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed
--------------------
ABILITY SCORES
--------------------
Str13 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 8
Initiative +3 Passive Perception 13 Speed 35 ft.
Proficiency Bonus +2
Skill Proficiencies Athletics +3, Intimidation +1, Nature +3, Stealth +5, Survival +3
Languages Common, Elven, Polyglot
--------------------
CLASS FEATURES
--------------------
Hit Dice 1d10/ranger level
Armor Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools None
Saving Throws Strength, Dexterity
Skills Nature, Stealth, Survival
Equipment Leather armor, 2 short swords, an explorer’s pack, a longbow and 20 arrows
Favored Enemy Humans and lizardfolk
Natural Explorer Forest
--------------------
RACIAL FEATURES (including Woodelf subrace)
--------------------
Attribute Adjustments Dexterity +2, Wisdom +1
Age Doesn’t start adventuring until around 100. Lives roughly 750 years.
Size Medium
Speed 35 feet
Darkvision
Keen Senses Proficiency in Perception
Fey Ancestry Advantage on saving throws against being charmed. Magic can’t put you to sleep.
Trance In lieu of sleep, deep meditation for 4 hours daily
Languages Fluent in Common and Elven.
Elf Weapon Training Proficiency in longsword, shortsword, short bow, and long bow.
Mask of the Wild Attempt to hide when your are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
--------------------
BACKGROUND (Soldier)
--------------------
Skill Proficiencies Athletics, Intimidation
Tool Proficiencies Dice set, vehicles (land) [water due to rivers and lakes of homeland?]
Equipment An insignia of rank, a trophy from a fallen enemy, a set of bone dice, a set of common clothes, belt pouch with 10 gp
Specialty Scout
Personality Trait I can stare down a hell hound without flinching
Ideal Independence
Bond I’ll never forget the crushing defeat my company suffered or the enemies who dealt it
Flaw I made a terrible mistake in battle that cost many lives — and I would do anything to keep that mistake secret.
Uilisfuen has some minor things. Your shortsword attack and damage would be based off your Dex not your Str because they are finesses weapons.
You list polyglot as a language, which is reasonable given your favored enemy and racial background but you forgot to list lizardman (which should be draconic) as well :)
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ok, here is my submission..will make an alias if chosen...thanks!
Tarn
Male ½ Elf Hermit Druid 1
Neutral Good
Strength 8 (-1)
Dexterity 14 (+2)
Constitution 14 (+2)
Intelligence 12 (+1)
Wisdom 16 (+3)
Charisma 12 (+1)
Size: Medium
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 160 lb
Eyes: Green
Hair: Light Brown
Skin: Tan
XP: 0
Maximum Hit Points: 10
Hit Dice: 1d8 (1)
Speed: 30 feet
Proficiency bonus: +2
Passive Perception: 15
Darkvision: 60’
Armor Class: 16 = 12 + 2 [Shield] +2[Dexterity]
Initiative modifier: +2 = +2 [dexterity]
Attack (handheld / thrown):+1 = + 2 [proficiency] -1 [strength]
Attack (missile / finesse):+5 = + 2 [proficiency] +3 [dexterity]
Quarter Staff: +1 to Hit, 1d6-1 damage
Sling: +4 to hit, 1d4+2 damage, Range 30/120
Strength save: -1 = -1 [strength]
Dexterity save: +2 = +2 [dexterity]
Constitution save: +2 = +2[constitution]
Intelligence save: +3 = +2 [Prof] +1 [intelligence]
Wisdom save: +5 = +2 [Prof] +3[wisdom]
Charisma save: +1 = +1 [charisma]
Carry:
Languages: Common, Elvish, Druidic, Goblin, Draconic
Skill Name (*=Prof)
Acrobatics: +3
Animal Handling +3
Arcana +1
Athletics -1
Deception +1
History +1
*Insight +5
Intimidation +1
Investigate +1
*Medicine +5
*Nature +3
*Perception +5
Performance +1
Persuasion +1
*Religion +3
Sleight of Hand +2
Stealth +2
*Survival +5
EQUIPMENT
Quarter Staff, Sling, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, bedroll, mess kit, tinder box, 10 torches, 10 days rations, waterskin, 50’ hemp rope, set of clothes, 15gp
RACE: Half-Elf
• +2 Charisma, +1 two other ability score of your choice
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30ft
• Darkvision 60ft
• Fey Ancestry: advantage on saving throws against being charmed, magic cannot put you to sleep
• Skill Versatility: gain proficiency in two skill of your choice
• Languages: Common, Elvish, one additional language
BACKGROUND: Hermit
• Feature - Discovery: The quiet seclusion of your extended hermitage gave you access to a unique and powerful discovery. It might be a great truth about the cosmos, the deities, the powerful beings of the outer planes, or the forces of nature. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or unearthed some relic of the past that could rewrite history...
• Life of Seclusion: I needed to commune with nature, far from civilization.
• Skills: Medicine, Religion
• Tools: Herbalism kit
• Languages: One of your choice
CLASS: Druid
• Armor: Light & medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)
• Weapons: Club, dagger, dart, javelin, mace, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, sling, spear
• Tools: Herbalism kit
• Saves: Intelligence, Wisdom
• Skills: Choose 2 from Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion and Survival
• Druidic: You know Druidic, the secret language of druids. You can speak the language and use it to leave hidden messages. You and others who know Druidic automatically spot such a message. Others can spot the message with a successful DC15 Wisdom (Perception) check but can’t decipher it without magic
• Spellcasting Spell slots: finishing a long rest restores any expended spell slots. You can cast a druid spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and the spell is prepared. Spellcasting focus: druidic focus
Spells: DC-13
Cantrips:
Druidcraft
Shillelagh
1st Level (2 Slots)
Animal Friendship
Cure Wounds
Entangle
Speak with Animals
Thanks for the quick reply and input. I am new to 5E though I occasionally make mistakes in Pathfinder too, so I'm not very surprised that a few things got by me in this application. I changed the modifiers to the shortsword and added Draconic to the languages.
Ranger 1 Elf
Soldier
Chaotic Good
--------------------
COMBAT
--------------------
AC 14
Hit Points 12
Hit Dice 1d10
Saving Throws Strength +3, Dexterity +5
Melee Shortsword +5 1d6+3 slashing (Finesse, light)
Ranged Longbow +5 1d8+3 piercing (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed
--------------------
ABILITY SCORES
--------------------
Str13 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 8
Initiative +3 Passive Perception 13 Speed 35 ft.
Proficiency Bonus +2
Skill Proficiencies Athletics +3, Intimidation +1, Nature +3, Stealth +5, Survival +3
Languages Common, Elven, Polyglot, Draconic
--------------------
CLASS FEATURES
--------------------
Hit Dice 1d10/ranger level
Armor Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools None
Saving Throws Strength, Dexterity
Skills Nature, Stealth, Survival
Equipment Leather armor, 2 short swords, an explorer’s pack, a longbow and 20 arrows
Favored Enemy Humans and lizardfolk
Natural Explorer Forest
--------------------
RACIAL FEATURES (including Woodelf subrace)
--------------------
Attribute Adjustments Dexterity +2, Wisdom +1
Age Doesn’t start adventuring until around 100. Lives roughly 750 years.
Size Medium
Speed 35 feet
Darkvision
Keen Senses Proficiency in Perception
Fey Ancestry Advantage on saving throws against being charmed. Magic can’t put you to sleep.
Trance In lieu of sleep, deep meditation for 4 hours daily
Languages Fluent in Common and Elven.
Elf Weapon Training Proficiency in longsword, shortsword, short bow, and long bow.
Mask of the Wild Attempt to hide when your are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
--------------------
BACKGROUND (Soldier)
--------------------
Skill Proficiencies Athletics, Intimidation
Tool Proficiencies Dice set, vehicles (land) [water due to rivers and lakes of homeland?]
Equipment An insignia of rank, a trophy from a fallen enemy, a set of bone dice, a set of common clothes, belt pouch with 10 gp
Specialty Scout
Personality Trait I can stare down a hell hound without flinching
Ideal Independence
Bond I’ll never forget the crushing defeat my company suffered or the enemies who dealt it
Flaw I made a terrible mistake in battle that cost many lives — and I would do anything to keep that mistake secret.
I like Uilisfuen - hoping we can partner up.
The list is starting to shape up nicely! There are a few roles which a currently under repesented and hopefully between the expressed interest here and in the interested check thread there will be a very robust list of characters to pick from by Monday evening! Keep up the great work everyone!
Accepted Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- 2 - Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
- 3 - Lysander Tremayne - Half-elf, Paladin
- 4 - Lorian Darkleaf - Half-elf, Sorcerer
- 5 - Akmenos - Tiefling, Wizard
- 6 - Spiro Hawke - Half-orc, Fighter
- 7 - Uilisfuen - Elf, Wild, Ranger
- 8 - Tarn - Half-elf, Druid
Expressed Interest
- 1 - Artemis Moonstar - MeatWall fighter or disgruntled mage
- 2 - The Pale King
- 3 - The Doomkitten - Something barbarian maybe
There is still plenty of time for submissions for consideration to join the ranks of brave adventurers looking to explore the Dungeon of Graves! Recruitment closes today at 9 pm Eastern.
Down to just over 3 hours left folks, if you are thinking about throwing your hat into the ring now is the time to do so!
Congratulations to the Original Four! Go ahead and pop over to the Discussion thread!
Original Four
- Garnult Tarnhammer - Dwarf, Mountain, Cleric (War)
- Cererithil - Elf, Wild, Rogue
- Lorian Darkleaf - Half-elf, Sorcerer
- Uilisfuen - Elf, Wild, Ranger
Bullpen Queue
- 1 - Lysander Tremayne - Half-elf, Paladin
- 2 - Akmenos - Tiefling, Wizard
- 3 - Spiro Hawke - Half-orc, Fighter
- 4 - Tarn - Half-elf, Druid
Thank you to everyone who submitted a character for this! The remianing four submitted characters are now in the Bullpen Queue and will be called up for action should one of the slots open up!
Good gaming to all, and I'll keep an eye on things in case I get called!