Shadows of the Sand (Inactive)

Game Master caster4life

How the Shadows recruit:

The Shadows typically recruit promising prospects from the ranks of the military. Two years of military service are required of all citizens of Qadira. It typically takes at least a year for a green soldier to distinguish themselves and prove worthy of the Shadows' interest. Things may be more complicated for those who are sub-citizens or under the radar but the Shadows would recruit anyone who could prove useful and be trusted. For example, they would recruit a skilled and dangerous criminal out of jail if they had sufficient leverage to ensure the prisoner's loyalty.

New recruits are blindfolded and taken to secret hideouts for training. Few know where they are. You may have been trained in a cave, under a city, or in a forsaken desert outpost.

Posting Style:

Your posts should be descriptive and engage with those of your teammates. Long posts are often epic but this can be done in short posts as well. Example:
"Taking advantage of the distractions created by Bob the Fighter's mighty strikes, Jim the Rogue deftly strikes at their beleaguered adversary, his dagger seeking a vital organ. Dice rolls."

Further, posts should push the action along. In combat, this may be as simple as taking your turn. Out of combat, it may be more complex but it's still pretty easy. Example:
"I hate that wizard! Jim the Rogue exclaims. He turns to Bob the Figher How can we kill him?"
The above example advances the action and prompts teammates to join in while the below example
"I hate that wizard! Jim the Rogue exclaims."
doesn't advance the action and promote engagement nearly as much.

Character Death:

Character death will be a real and weighty possibility but it's not the end of the line. Your companions may or may not pay to have you resurrected depending on their means and the closeness of the bonds you have created. If they do not, then your replacement character will join their existing team as a fresh recruit (level 1 xp and equipment). But due to how levels and experience work, you can catch up relatively quickly. You may also be allowed to pursue some individual sidequests during downtime to help yourself catch up. In this way, character death carries heavy disadvantages but these can be overcome. A TPK would, unfortunately, be a game over. I will not aim for this but I will not bail the party out either. Above all, do NOT let yourself be captured alive. The Shadows' dogma is that no Shadow has ever been captured alive.

Dossier on the First Mission:

The Shadows' tactical philosophers consider this a wooden mission, appropriate for a well-trained but inexperienced team. The mission is to eliminate a smuggling ring guilty of tariff evasion and the murder of a tariff officer. The targets are 7 human melee combatants, 2 halflings specialized in scouting and ranged combat, and a tiefling leader (Aroc). Intelligence reports suggest that Aroc is capable of some arcane spellcasting. The band is currently headquartered in a small storehouse in Lopul. Previous conventional attempts have successfully neutralized several guards but Aroc and his lieutenants have escaped on three occasions: twice through collapsed escape tunnels and once through the use of some magical effect.

Character Advancement:

Xp will be tracked and characters will advance along the medium experience progression. XP will be awarded for successful completion of goals whether they be combat (kill a creature), social (persuade a key npc), or exploration (discover a hidden lair) as well as for high quality roleplay.

The campaign will run to level 5. If things are progressing smoothly, the plot will be extended to level 10.

Crafting Rules:

Players will have some downtime in which to craft. As much time as desired may be spent before the beginning of the campaign to craft. Mundane crafting rules will be altered such that mundane crafting can be accelerated. Accelerated crafting produces 50 gp of market price per day for +1 to the crafting dc. This can be stacked up to 250 gp per day for +5 to the crafting dc.

A band of hardened raiders winds carefully through the dunes, their scouts squint against the sun as they look for signs of movement on the sand. Weathered by sun and years, the hard face of their leader stares forward in stony silence. He’s taken an enormous risk leading his men into Qadiran lands but the riches waiting to be reaped are too immense to ignore. Surely a force large enough to strike at them would move through the desert too slowly.

A quiet rush of falling sand alerts him to the gravity of his mistake. Figures in dark robes materialize out of the dune around them. He and his men fight bravely, thinking to overwhelm their mysterious opponents with superior numbers. But the dark figures cut through his forces with ease, moving fluidly and suddenly such that each raider finds himself cut off, surrounded, and dispatched. The captain fights boldly with a camel at his back but quickly succumbs to the cold efficiency of the Shadows of Qadira. The last thing he sees is a bronze-hilted dagger flashing towards him.

Meanwhile, in a cool cave beneath the desert many miles away, you receive the dark robes of a Shadow and a dagger with an undecorated wooden hilt. Perhaps one day you will earn iron or even copper on this hilt. Perhaps all of your training since you were selected from the ranks of the enlisted will bear fruit and you will be promoted within the Shadows. But first you must prove yourself. Tomorrow night is your Passage: your first mission as a Shadow of Qadira. You and your cadre must eliminate a troublesome smuggling ring in Lopul to prove that you are worthy of the dagger.

Setting:

This campaign will be set in Golarion and primarily Qadira. Tensions are mounting between Taldor and Qadira. I am drawing from the official material on these nations and their history but am not binding myself to keep everything the exact same. In general, you may assume elements are as listed officially and I will specify if that is not the case here.

Character creation details:

Level 1: 20-pt buy. All official races (up to and including 20 RP)/classes allowed (including unchained). May ask about 3rd party material. Two traits. 300 gp starting gold. Any alignment that can play well with others, follow orders, and perform morally gray missions. Alignment mechanics will matter so alignment may be shifted depending on actions.
Full hit die at first level followed by half hit die +1 at each subsequent levels. Con mods, favored class bonuses, toughness, etc of course add to the hp gained at each level.

Will use the alternative system designed to get rid of feat taxes.
Combat stamina feat is also available. Full BAB classes get it as a free bonus feat at level 1. I intend to bring martials relatively in line with casters in terms of flexibility and power at higher levels.

Submissions should include a character background right up until selection by the Shadows.

Team Submission:

Submissions should be units of teams of 2-6 players. Some preference will be given to teams in the 3-5 player range. Teams should show intentional synergy in builds as you have been trained together since just after you were drafted into the Qadiran military. Teamwork feats may or may not help achieve this in the most effective manner. Clever team building will apply not just to combat but also social and exploration challenges. Teams should be able to perform a variety of operations including stealth, live capture, assassination, social interaction, wilderness survival, tracking, etc.

I understand it is difficult to create a lot of versatile synergy with a level 1 build so briefly forecast the ways your team will work together at level 1 as well as in the next few levels.

A player may submit characters in multiple teams if they wish. Teams should provide some character background of the party’s experiences between being selected for the Shadows and their first mission, which is about to occur.

Campaign Feel:

This campaign will be relatively serious with lots of high-pressure missions. Humor is welcome as long as it is used in the correct time and place. As the game progresses, the party will have an increasing amount of freedom to choose which missions they pursue. Available missions will spread a range of difficulty so the party may push themselves to the brink of death for large rewards of loot and xp or try playing it safer. There will also be significant opportunities to pursue quests that are not official Shadow missions in a relatively open-world format.

This is going to be a high-difficulty campaign in which clever building and play are rewarded and vital for mission success and survival. Enemies will often enjoy the benefits of the same variant rules as the party.

Campaign Timing:

Will allow several weeks for submissions. Posting will be expected to occur roughly once per weekday and once on weekends. Players may let me know ahead of time when exceptions come up.