Speaking of the setting... As mentioned, this is a homebrew setting, somewhat fantasy cookie cutter, but with a few splashes of intrigue here and there. Name of the setting is Eafphqu, pronounced Ee-off-coo. All the particulars are navigable here at the Google site. Please let me know immediately if you have trouble accessing any of the material. I tried to make sure everything was available for public viewing, but I may have forgotten to click that button on a few things. Also on the topic of setting, it is my intent that the PCs chosen for the campaign will be a large part of fleshing out this world, and mapping its "history." Which is my way of saying the players in this campaign will take an active role in the continued creation and manipulation of the world of Eafphqu.
That goal is players who are ready, willing, and able to contribute to a deep and complex narrative. Which is why you both were my first choices.
First thing you'll need to do is familiarize yourself with the setting materials as it may (read: should) influence your character creation decisions. I'm looking for characters aligned along the neutral to good spectrum of the alignment grid. As I mentioned before, only PHB, DMG, and MM material allowed, with the extra exclusion that only PHB races are allowed, and even then no Dragonborn or Tiefling. As a friend recently put it, only "humans" with various degrees of ear-pointedness. :P
For stats I am going to dictate using the dice rolling method; rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest. I personally like rolling for stats so much that I throw in the bonus of allowing you to roll three sets of six numbers (4d6, drop the lowest, eighteen times total, but each consecutive set of six represents its own array). Rolling does provide the bonus of the potential to have an ability score of 20 at character inception.
For starting gear you can either use their choices for starting equipment as listed under the class headings, or you can roll for starting wealth and purchase as desired. The starting wealth table is on page 143 of the PHB. If you choose to roll for wealth, you are obligated to stick with purchasing equipment with whatever amount of wealth you roll. Once you’ve rolled for starting wealth, that’s how you have to go, no take-backs.
We are starting at level one and following the character advancement table found on page 15 of the PHB.
It will be of utmost importance that character background, including ideals, bonds, and flaws, are not simply chosen at random, but are deliberate decisions by the player in order to create a character that will be both fun and interesting to role play. If there are choices you the player would like to make for any of those items that are not in the stock lists, just ask! I’m very open to creating new and different ideals, bonds, and flaws. Can't wait to see what back stories you both come up with! :D
It is my experience that a well displayed set of data in the Race, Class/Levels, and Gender portions of the alias profile make things run much more smoothly and easily for all participants. You guys both know how to do that. I'd like to see "Inspiration []" in the tagline as well. So I can keep track of when I've given it to you, and when you've used it. :)
Can't wait to undergo this PbP gaming experiment with you both. I think it will be very rewarding.
Well, let's throw a snowball into the inferno and see how it fares:
So: I think I'll actually be taking array three for my conceived Great Old One Tome pact warlock. Works out to:
Str 7
Dex 7
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 11
Cha 18
All before racial adjustments. But, naturally, I'm a human supremacist, so we kinda know which way that'll go . . . .
That last array is super intriguing. 18, 10, 7, 7, 14, 11... First array is probably the "statistical" best. 10, 14, 9, 16, 10, 10... If those are for the Warlock, I might choose that last array and put the 18 in charisma, and the two sevens in STR and CON... A very "feeble" shaman stereotype there.
Don't forget to roll another three sets for the second character! :)
Excited!!!!
Edit: Ninja'ed on the Warlock idea. Syrus, don't forget there is human variant that actually lets you take a feat at first level. A very powerful option, since otherwise a character won't get a feat until fourth level. :) There are some very cool options in both the PHB and XGE for feats. :)
Second snowball:
Not too sure about this one. The idea was for a barbarian, and I dunno about which archetype I'd shoot for . . . . The totem barb may be appropriate (resistance to all but psychic damage while raging), but the "storm" barb seems interesting -- he is, after all, escorting the clan loony-bird on a who-knows-what quest-ish thing . . . .
Interesting, you want to go 7's in STR and DEX? Actually, that's not a bad idea, now that I think about it, because in 5e your spell attack bonus is not based on your dex, it's based on your casting stat... Plus, CON equals more HP. :)
Last array of the second set, I'd go with: 15, 15, 15, 8, 14, 12... Those are pretty nice barbarian stats...
Yeah, the warlock has "the shakes". He didn't *choose* his pact: *it* chose *him*, and it's taken a toll. He's barely tough enough to bear up -- though he's no good at conversation, really.
It may take a couple days for me to refine these two, by the way -- I've *got* to get some good "focus time" in on the SWEU PbP TODAY.
Will check back later.
No worries, Syrus. I'm on no timetable here. Just excited. I know you need to have time to read all the available options too, having stats to look at, though, will make some choices easier. :)
Not sure how familiar you both (still hoping Quint/Illiam will join) are with the Discord application and website? I've started using it to communicate with my tabletop group in between meetings. It is pretty handy, and it even has a 5e bot that lets you look things up right in it. I started a Discord server for us here. We don't have to use it, but it does provide the great ability to chat live, either from a phone using the app, or in a web-browser. If we don't end up using it, no biggie. Just thought I'd throw out the option. :)
Just saw your PM. I'm in. Looking forward to playing with both of you again. As for what I'll play, the obvious answer is "a wizard and a rogue", but I want to take a closer look at the options and consider branching out a little more. If I'm playing two characters, I should probably at least avoid the roguish wizard + wizardly rogue pairing :P
Character 1:
Character 2:
Well, definitely using that last one. It even has one of those really low stats I like. I will probably go for the last one in both sets, but I'll have to take a closer look later.
Question, in the other Eafphqu game, you added XGE as an available source. Is that available here, too? I remember seeing at least one archetype there that I'll want to take a closer look at if so.
Oh that reminds me, I forgot to add that XGE is open for this. I think I said that in both of your PMs, but didn't actually put in the first post here in recruitment.
Awesome! Glad you're on board Illiam/Quint. :) I can't wait to see what you guys both come up with for your characters. I'll wait patiently though. :)
Yikes! That last array of the second set is a record breaker!!!
Ha! Posting about the same thing at the same time. :P Yes, XGE is open. I'm still perusing it now and again, and haven't seen anything I don't like. :) The book was worth it just for the random name tables in the back, for what I paid for it, anyway.
Oh, I also have a cleric character that I've used as an NPC before that might be fun to add, but I'll have to take a closer look at the 5e class to see if it's even possible to build her. She's supposed to be a cleric of Loki, but maybe there is a trickster god (of demigod?) in the Eafphqu pantheon that could substitute?
Seriously, need to get to work now, but I'm excited.
Another question (now from work, I'll be driving around and in meetings most of the day, so no rush), in two parts. One, how would you feel about one of my characters being a child (the other would be some kind of guardian)? And two, if I did that (and I haven't decided that I want to, even if you love the idea), what adjustments would be necessary?
In principle I like the idea, but in application, there's a lot to be looked at there... Unless the "child" part of it is just flavor? If it's not I'd say that we'd have to manipulate some of the stats. Wisdom at the very least, because, well, children just aren't that wise. Of course that last array of the second set, has a seven in it... so. Maybe we just force that seven to go in wisdom? Of course you wouldn't want that character to be a cleric, for obvious mechanical reasons. I guess that gives me a couple questions. What classes were you thinking about for both characters? What races? Those could make a pretty big difference.
I will say, the idea of a child touched by the gods (which they would have to be in order to be an adventurer in a world populated with so much danger) being guarded by three adult adventurers, is a narrative angle that greatly intrigues me. I can see Kairon's shaman having received a vision that the child would be destined to change the world, and his Barbarian (brother? friend?) following wherever he/she leads. Oh, maybe Kairon's shaman is a girl, and she gave birth to the child!!! His barbarian her husband, but not the father of the child? Lots of rich role play options there... Obviously as all this brainstorming relates, it's an idea I can easily get behind. We'd just need to make sure the mechanics support your vision. :D
Also, for this game, I will never dismiss anything (except guns, or drow, dragonborn, and tiefling as character races) out of hand. One of the reasons I wanted you both for this is that I know there's nothing we can't make the rules do, that we want them to do. :)
Forgot to mention, the gods of trickery in Eafphqu are Zogus and Grumorjak, the god sons of Desmos. They are both evil and use deceit and tricks (with varying motifs) as their weapons of choice rather than brute force. Just in case you were still looking at a Loki type deity for a cleric... We'd have to decide how a "good" adventurer was working for an evil deity, but the domain trickery itself provides a way. The good cleric who uses the power of the god of trickery, is tricking the tricker by using their power for good. :) The gods of trickery could not possibly be upset by that perfect double-cross. Plus such vain deities would probably be able to rationalize the cleric's "good" actions as evil through enough mental gymnastics. :D
So, the two arrays I have to work with are:
15, 15, 13, 12, 9, 8 (equivalent to a 16pt buy in pathfinder)
18, 17, 16, 16, 9, 7 (equivalent to a 45pt buy in pathfinder)
Those are pretty imbalanced. Any chance you would let me swap one of the numbers in the high array with one in the low array to even them out a bit?
In principle I like the idea, but in application, there's a lot to be looked at there... Unless the "child" part of it is just flavor? If it's not I'd say that we'd have to manipulate some of the stats. Wisdom at the very least, because, well, children just aren't that wise. Of course that last array of the second set, has a seven in it... so. Maybe we just force that seven to go in wisdom? Of course you wouldn't want that character to be a cleric, for obvious mechanical reasons. I guess that gives me a couple questions. What classes were you thinking about for both characters? What races? Those could make a pretty big difference.
I will say, the idea of a child touched by the gods (which they would have to be in order to be an adventurer in a world populated with so much danger) being guarded by three adult adventurers, is a narrative angle that greatly intrigues me. I can see Kairon's shaman having received a vision that the child would be destined to change the world, and his Barbarian (brother? friend?) following wherever he/she leads. Oh, maybe Kairon's shaman is a girl, and she gave birth to the child!!! His barbarian her husband, but not the father of the child? Lots of rich role play options there... Obviously as all this brainstorming relates, it's an idea I can easily get behind. We'd just need to make sure the mechanics support your vision. :D
Also, for this game, I will never dismiss anything (except guns, or drow, dragonborn, and tiefling as character races) out of hand. One of the reasons I wanted you both for this is that I know there's nothing we can't make the rules do, that we want them to do. :)
I was actually thinking the child would probably be a rogue, as that seems like the role that's easiest for a child to perform. It would be mostly a flavor thing, and wisdom would definitely be one of the low stats (probably strength, too).
As for the child's guardian (if I decide to go that direction), that could easily be some kind of caster, though I was also looking at the drunken monk archetype, which would make for some interesting RP. It would be tough for me playing two non-caster characters, though. Maybe a bard? In any case, I'm going to need some time to read up on these classes and write backstory.
The cleric character I had in mind was chaotic good (emphasis on chaotic) following a chaotic neutral deity. I'd have to think about whether the concept would still work with a CE deity. The character would also take significant reworking if only basic races are allowed. The original version was a changeling, and was a thin, lanky girl who was raised by dwarves, thus speaking with an incongruous accent. She wields a big hammer and wears an iron pot strapped to her head as a helmet. A fun character, but not the easiest to rebuild for a different setting and ruleset.
I'm also intrigued by the Mechanist archetype of the Artificer class in 5e, especially after the recent developments with Quint, but it would probably be hard to work into the setting.
Controlling two characters, it also seems like a good opportunity to try multiclassing, especially to get some more use out of those high stats...
Other than the setting info, anything you can share about what type of adventure you have in mind that might help with character development? For an example of what I mean, theme campaigns can be fun, like ones in which the party is a crew of thieves/spies, or a performance troupe, or one where they are hunting giants, vampires, or some other specific class of monsters, or where they are survivors of a shipwreck, zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, nuclear war, or some other calamity.
If you haven't thought that far ahead yet, maybe we can come up with a theme together to help drive character creation, rather than just creating characters and THEN trying to think of a reason to bring them together.
Hmm, now I'm playing with an idea for two monks, one the master, the other the apprentice. The apprentice would be Way of the Shadow (maybe a lightfoot halfling), and would multiclass rogue relatively early (maybe even start there, just beginning his martial arts training), and the master would be Way of the Drunken Master (probably a wood elf), possibly multiclassing fighter. The apprentice would be significantly younger, but not a child.
Yes, I would let you swap one stat from the off-the-charts array with one from the low-ball. :)
It's funny that you bring up halfling, because last night it came to me that if you wanted to play a child, we could easily just use the halfling race as the mechanical build, but "skin" it as a child. That way size fits, as does the fact that halflings are supposed to be impulsive, whimsical, capricious. Ergo, if you wanted to play a child, I'd be fine with you just choosing the halfling race for that character and we would role play it as a child (human, elf, whatever).
As for the theme of the campaign... I told Kairon this, and forgot to tell you. I really want the characters to drive the story. Which is to say, I want to see who the characters are, and let them tell their stories. That was one of the reasons I was so intrigued by the child of destiny possibility for a storyline.
If you wanted to go with the two monks, which, btw I also think has some great RP potential, we could easily say that the monastery they came from is in the Highlands, a secluded compound high on a mountaintop (to fit with some stereotypical shaolin motifs). Why do they go adventuring? Because the drunken master is being sent to regain his honor after yet another drunken episode. The monastery has learned of a shaman among the Highlanders who had a vision of an army of dragons, and is going to seek the advice of an oracle that is believed to live on a secret island at the heart of Lake Racamere (wolf lake)...
So... As you can see, my ideas for the theme of the campaign are going to be based entirely on your characters. :) That's why I really wanted you and Kairon as the players. I knew your characters back stories would be rich and full of adventure hooks all by themselves. ;)
Quick question: are there any particular naming conventions you'd want observed in regard to Highland citizenry? Celtic? Slavic? Germanic? (And just add "-ish" to the end of those descriptors -- I'm not gonna lift names straight out of XGE.)
Ok, swapping the 18 with the 12 leaves me with two very similar arrays to work with (which will, of course, be allocated differently for different characters).
18, 15, 15, 13, 9, 8 (equivalent to a 31pt buy in pathfinder)
17, 16, 16, 12, 9, 7 (equivalent to a 30pt buy in pathfinder)
For the two monks idea, I was thinking that the drunken master would be travelling far from his homeland, possibly having left in disgrace related to drunkenness (though the drunken master style doesn't specify that the character actually drinks, just that they have a fighting style that resembles the movement of a drunk person).
The apprentice would start as a rogue that the master runs into on the streets (likely catching him in the act of picking the master's pocket), but the master would see some kind of potential in him, possibly even believing him to be some kind of chosen one. The master then decides to train the rogue as they travel together, possibly on a quest back to the master's homeland.
It's an idea, anyway. I'm not sure I want to sign up to RP two monks yet. It's definitely something I wouldn't want to do in pathfinder, given the alignment restrictions. I might want to rework the idea so that while they are mechanically monks, the flavor is closer to pathfinder's Brawler class (my favorite martial class in pathfinder). I'll have to think about how to skin the wisdom-based bonuses in that case.
Quick question: are there any particular naming conventions you'd want observed in regard to Highland citizenry? Celtic? Slavic? Germanic? (And just add "-ish" to the end of those descriptors -- I'm not gonna lift names straight out of XGE.)
You want to know how I think your characters should be named?! Now that's what I call collaboration! :P In my own parts of the lore I've used a random generator leaning towards Celtic, Gaelic, or Saxon in tradition, with no penchant for any of them in particular. My own imaginings of the Highland Realm are very much a "Braveheart" (which I'm told was not even remotely historically accurate, but there you go anyway) era Scotland/Ireland.
@Dr. Who, arrays are fine with me, and, as I've been saying all along. I want you to LOVE these characters. Don't settle on something. Take your time, find the two concepts you REALLY really want to play. Obviously, Syrus, that goes for you as well. I'm actually really excited to see how you two role play conversations that will take place between your own two characters. :D I'm crazy like that. ;)
So, Kairon, any ideas on theme, since your character ideas are further along than mine? The whole heist crew idea has a strong appeal to me, obviously. Either of you ever watch the show Leverage? Or Burn Notice?
An undead outbreak theme could be fun too, but I would go with something along the lines of The Strain, rather than a Walking Dead-type scenario, if only to fit the setting better. If you haven't seen it, think vampires secretly taking over a city, and we discover it, but nobody believes us. This is where the monk idea would work best, I think. The idea would benefit from having a cleric in the party, but might be much more interesting without one.
If we were on a ship, we could do something reminiscent of Firefly, The Expanse, Farscape, Killjoys, etc. (is it obvious that I'm scanning the list of my favorite TV shows to see which scenarios would work for a dnd campaign?)
Time travel stories are also fun, but would be more difficult without a setting designed for them.
Edit: Also, Kairon, do you have any specific ideas about the party roles your characters would fill? A barbarian is an obvious choice for a tank. I can guess which character that would probably be analogous to in most of the shows I mentioned. The warlock is harder to pin down. It would be easy to spec one as a party face, but it sounds like maybe that's not the way you're going?
I could easily get behind any of those ideas except the time travel. At least until your characters are in the umpteen levels. :P
The barb is probably gonna go Ancestral Guardian path -- tank/defender type. The warlock is going to be a blaster-type, with some weirdness effects thrown in.
About as far as I've made it on the backstory concerns the warlock, in particular. I was thinking the highland clans referred to the Far Realms/Utterdark/whatever as "the Stardark" -- the places between the stars made manifest. His name was going to be "________ of the Stardark", once I homed in on a cultural bent for the names. My first brainstormed name was "Maervyd/Maerwydd", but I think that's got a feminine construction (and, for the record, I'm not gonna run female characters). I haven't even been able to find the origins of the name, or similar constructs. Though I haven't been purely focused on that effort . . . .
Anyway, this warlock is, essentially, a cursed individual, though still held in some high regard by virtue of the rarity of his "gift". Once I get my twin-system background rolls made, I'll be able to tweak out something resembling a real story.
And the barbarian will have some story, sure, but he was largely a metagame choice -- I haven't touched any arcane classes in a few years, and it may be time to go back to my "first love" in RPGdom. Challenging myself, if you will. And since "Dreadlock" is such a puny guy, it only made sense for his escort to be a tough and burly type . . . .
Far Realms, you mean space? Cause Eafphqu has what WoTC names the Underdark. In Eafphqu it's called the Shadowlands. Though, having said that, I don't see a problem with groups of Highlanders colloquially referring to it as the stardark (the place where it's always dark, and you can't see the stars to get your bearing).
Also, loving the ideas you're rolling/role-ing out so far, both of you! This, right here, is exactly what I imagined when I imagined this game. All imagination, with very few limits. Imagination made manifest through mechanics that are easy for me to adjudicate and easy to adjust on the fly, should that be necessary, all facilitated through the intellectual and creative minds of two of the best role players I've ever had the pleasure to game with. :)
Ergo, obviously, loving everything that's happening right now. Keep up the great brainstorming. Let me know if you need me for anything. Otherwise, keep up that creative process, and let me know when you've got some concrete things to look at.
:)
Any of those theme ideas jump out at you, Kairon?
I'm fine with whatever, really. I've gotten stuck on these two character concepts, though, and I'm not sure where they'd fit. If the sky is the limit, their stories might have nothing at all to do with the major action we drum up -- and I'd be fine with that.
I could see my pair as a weird River Tam/Jayne-colm Reyn-cobb tandem, if that's any help. Or a Gurney Halleck/doped-out Mentat combo.
If our characters are supposed to be the crux(es) of the primary conflict, then the warlock kinda takes the cake. With the hermit background, and the bond that indicates his discovery (whatever Cthulhu-esque thingy Mended and I can cook up) could lead to the world's ruin, well . . . that seems pretty earth-shattering to me.
The barbarian, on the other hand, is just along for the ride, so to speak. No less great a destiny, as it were, but his "defining moments" are more likely to be the byproduct of other characters' doings. And he resents the assignment his ancestor spirits gave him -- to keep that shivering, rail-thin mutterer alive.
TL;DR -- I'm just building characters. Whatever happens, happens. I know that isn't much help, but that's where I'm at, right now.
Another character idea: A bumbling (probably human) illusionist wizard who carries around an overly-large spellbook and hastily flips through the pages to actually read spells from it as he casts them. For flavor purposes, I think it would be fun to say that the spellbook (which he didn't write himself) is actually full of lots of high-level spells, but he only gains access to them as he learns to read them. As he levels up, the book becomes increasingly cluttered with dog-eared pages and notes hanging out from between them as he learns to interpret more of the spells.
For the other character, I would go for a rogue/monk or rogue/fighter multiclass character. I'm thinking elf/half-elf of some kind. So yeah, I'm back to the wizard+rogue combo, but at least the characters don't overlap each other, and neither is all that similar to Illiam.
So what I'm reading is that Syrus has solid concepts for his characters but doesn't have a clue how their back stories give them manifest destiny, and Dr. Whosawhatsis has become partially paralyzed by such an open choice.
Syrus, for the Cthulu-esque thing, how do you feel about cooking up a version of Tiamat? My vision has her appearing as a multiheaded dragon, a multiheaded serpent, a dragon serpent, etcetera. Basically iterations of serpents and dragons. Part of the reason that's what I'd like to do is that Iewiuf has not seen a dragon, kobold, or dragonborn for over a thousand years, and while the elves, dwarves and duergar have memories and books about them, nothing live has been seen for some time. I've already had imaginings of a cult trying to bring back the reign of the dragons. A lot of story lines with that, including recurring powerful NPCs. Could be that your hermit warlock, who always had a strange connection to the "other" realms, suddenly feels a rapid influx of power, and realizes that something is trying to make a break through the barriers between worlds? So he leaves his hermit lifestyle seeking out the elders of his old clan to give him assistance as he goes to see if he can stop whatever it is from breaching that barrier???
A bumbling illusionist wizard (which, btw, is another sweet flavorful concept) and his dashing swashbuckler (that's how I imagine a rogue/fighter) friend might be in the Highlands already as the wizard was rejected by the Arcane Order, and has come to Haedwulf's realm searching for any with arcane training among his subjects. Learning of a warlock (who is an arcane caster) with some power, he might come along just to see if he could learn more from him?
Just throwing out ideas here. Spitballing as it were. Still loving the process. I don't care if that's not where we end up, just trying to help you both have a vision about how those characters might fit together, and where they might be going. :)
Oh, also, who-ster, don't forget that in order to multiclass a character has to have met the prerequisite ability scores for both the class they are "leaving" and the class they are gaining. Fighter/rogue has to have a minimum 13 in both STR and DEX.
Daggum phone service here is *awful*. And an ATT tower is less than 3 miles away!! My post got eaten. *again*
I think I'll have little trouble channeling some barbaric rage in the future . . . .
Anywho --
Return of the Devouring Dragon(s), eh? Seems good!
We've *got* to RP that council meeting . . . .
I'll throw out some more relevant ideas after I'm off work.
We've *got* to RP that council meeting . . . .
Agreed!
Clan council chief: "Maerwydd Stardark resurfaces seeking aid for a quest going he knows not where, to do he knows not what? Surely, let us send our bravest warriors with him!"
Rest of the council elders laugh hysterically.
Rejected by the Arcane order is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe kicked out of the academy, and the spellbook is a 1000+ year old forgotten museum piece that belonged to some previous High Archmage. The easiest way to explain how he got his hands on it would be that the rogue stole it.
Of course, a book that old could actually contain some useful information about dragons (the author might even have been alive at exactly the time they were last seen), but the whole thing is written in a dead language, and the GM can trickle out bits of information that he manages to translate as the adventure progresses.
I do believe we have the makings of a good story here... ;) :D
Oh, and if I use the variant human race, I can give him the Lucky feat. He's a klutz, but somehow manages to survive anyway (will mostly be used defensively, to make up for the fact that he doesn't have armor OR a particularly high DEX score). Might actually be the first PC I've built that will have higher CON than DEX.
Sounds like a real Howard the Duck kind of character. A hero that falls bass-ackwards into victory, every time.
One thought. If the thief stole this massive ancient tome written in a dead language out of the Arcanium of the Arcane Order, he'd have to be pretty good at both disguise and stealth. In addition, he/she didn't steal that book just to give it to some fumble-bumbling wizard. They stole it for money, I'd bet, or to curry favor with someone powerful. So, how did the rogue end up following Howard the Duck around? The promise of riches? The promise of power? Something more nefarious? Inquiring minds want to know! :)
Oh, forget it, answered my own question. The rogue stole the book because it's rumored to have knowledge of an ancient dragon's treasure hoard!!!!! The exiled wizard is the only one that believes him when he says it's in there somewhere... Oooooo, yeah. Good stuff.
Edit: More... the book actually has a tooth embedded in the ornate cover, that both the rogue and the illusionist think is a dragon tooth. Kairon's warlock hears about it after having awoken one morning from a disturbing dream of a multi-headed dragon descending from the sky to lay waste to all of Iewiuf. The illusionist agrees to follow the warlock in exchange for him helping to decipher what is in the book. This would also lead really easily to the warlock being pact of the tome... He could be copying bits and pieces out of the book as they travel, unlocking some of the secrets of the arcane lore himself!!!
It practically writes itself! Now all they have to do is survive long enough to stop a cataclysmic world invasion by a wrothful reimagining of Tiamat.
Not exactly what I was thinking, but I like the treasure hunt angle. Maybe the dead language it's written in is actually draconic (which WOULD be a dead language in Eafphqu). They, of course, wouldn't KNOW that's what the language was, at least until they started encountering actual dragons...
Not sure how that would work unless the old archmage was a follower of a dragon/dragons, rather than someone who fought them as I was originally thinking...
And that's where the cult comes in... The cult has gathered together scraps and bits of an ancient culture that DID follow/worship dragons, and they want to bring them back. Once the cult finds out (this character really needs a name, cause I don't want to keep calling him Howard the Duck) Howard has that tome, they'll be attempting to take it from him constantly, with ever increasing levels of resources spent to try and get it...
"I don't even want to f$@~ing talk about it. I just want to run parts on these machines."
Now: guess who said it??
My program manager. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
----------
I have worked manufacturing off and on for the last 13 years, and LEAN/6S has proven to be a *huge* boon in increasing productivity and profit, in my experience, and I am *flabbergasted* that anyone in a leadership/managerial role in *any* factory, *anywhere*, would say that.
I've gotta go job-hunting AGAIN.
Back to business:
All my warlock has to go on is this: an awareness of a "thinning" of the bounds of the borders between worlds 'over-that-a-way', and that his patron/pact drives him to meet this threat. The twist is, though, that without great care being taken, his actions could draw power enough to loose the bonds on his patron. A fine line to walk!
The council elders would decree that 'Brash McReckless' must accompany their "touched of the Stardark" exile, newly released from his imposed seclusion, to guard him and learn the truth of this portent/vision/thing.
Etc., etc., etc.
Out-of-towners in attendance, of course . . . .
Actually, I was thinking it would be interesting if the two groups, my characters and yours, were looking into the cultists or whatever for completely different reasons, and run into each other almost mid-combat.
That might have me roleplaying two different locations for the two of you for a bit before they come together, but I don't mind that. I wanted this game to be a challenge, so challenge on! Also, is it just me, or are you both starting to solidify things?
Also, sorry about your work Syrus. I have been blessed to have had a job I love for the rememberable past. I wish that for you.
Yeah, the combat encounter mixer would be cool, too! :)
EDIT: Solidify? Yup -- that bowel movement just now was pretty solidified . . . . But, yes, the storylines *are* crystallizing. :)
Could I get a density and color report on the bowel movement then, since we're talking about it... O.o
Crystals... Dark crystals?
Hmmmmm, yes.
Edit: Can Brash McReckless have a penchant for heavy drink and heavier women? They could pull him hung over out of a big beautiful woman's bed and say he's going with Cryptic McExhermit to keep tabs, and see if he really does have a bead on some kind of thinning of the barrier between realms...? Oh pretty please.
That sounds like a great idea to me :)
Wizard character (in progress).
Rogue character (in progress).