If One Dances... (Inactive)

Game Master Fallen_Mage

For the past several decades, the Isle of Cadranite has been plagued by a figure known as The Piper. He appears at random and abducts a certain amount children either from their homes or while they are out doing other activities. Once obtained, he demands ransom from the parents for their safe return. Many Adventurers have been hired to track down this fiend, but none have been able to succeed.

In the town of Swampwood, he has struck again. This time he has taken twelve and demanded two hundred gold pieces for their return.

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Welcome everyone, to the very start of your character’s career. This one-shot adventure is designed to use the Young rules, listed here, and to provide a spring-board for characters to get to know each other prior to going out and becoming legendary heroes.

My goal: When this adventure is finished, your characters will proceed into adulthood and start their Adventuring Careers.

Character Generation:

Starting Level: 3

Stats: 20 point buy. Don’t forget, as young PC’s you get a +2 to Dex and a -2 to Str, Con, Wis. These will be removed at the end of the game.

Hit points: Max at 1st, average plus one each level after or roll.

Traits: One

Races: Core and Featured from Advanced Race Guide

Classes: NPC Classes only.

Starting Gear: None, you’ll be starting in a cell. Don’t worry,
equipment will be provided later.

Party size: Six

Posting: At least 1/day during the week, and on weekends if possible.

What am I looking for in a character:
Normally I’m looking for a really well done background. However, given the style of adventure this is, I’m only asking for a brief one. It needs to answer the following questions:

- What does your parent(s)/guardian(s) do for a living?

- Were you born in Swampwood?

- What interests does your character have?

- What does your character dream of being when they’re older?

Submission Cut-off: May 18th. Crunch need not be complete, but Fluff is required to be.

Dotting for interest. Will have something up in a bit.

ooh....This is very interesting indeed. What happens at the end of this adventure? Will there be a transition into a normal adventure?

@ ShadowyFox - Well, I can't tell you what happens at the end. As far as transition goes, I'll either make another campaign thread, or just rename this one. I haven't decided.

GM SCV, can you say more about what happens when these characters reach adulthood? Will they keep their NPC levels? convert them? gain levels in new classes?

You actually answered my question, GM, so I'm definitely going to be putting together something.

I was planning conversion to PC levels. A one for one swap.

OK, thanks. I assume (given that it's a swap) that there will often be abilities lost, e.g. Adept >> Cleric (loses familiar). Expert >> Wizard (loses skill points).

Yes?

EDIT:
Does this take place in Golarion? A homebrewed world?

Unfortunately, ability loss can't be helped. But NPC Classes don't have too much going for them anyway.

It's a Homebrew in progress. So feel free to suggest additions.

Isle of Cadranite listed in Campaign Tab.

hey there GM, trying a new game I see.

wonder what would be good. not sure if I'll apply yet but dotting an interest.

wonder how a retooled terra would work? hmmmm.

@ Edward Sobel - You could make her an Aristocrat.

question of note, do you have the place of the drow already decided in this campaign or can I take creative license with them?

No, I haven't come up with a place for the Drow. Pitch your idea, and we'll go from there.

maybe one level of Adept to represent her affinity to earth magic...

but may need to add some spells to the adept spell list.

Perhaps, she could always develop powers after reaching adulthood. I mean, some stories don't have women develop powers until after they hit puberty. Look at Carrie. She didn't get her powers until after her first period.

The Idea basically is that the Drow have radically departed from the main elven race, where as the main elven race utilizes arcane magic, loves nature and distains technology the drow have actively embraced alchemy and technology... Drow also have little "respect" (i.e love for nature) in the elven sense of term (they still "respect" nature as in "oh this could kill me"). This will obviously require some retooling of the drow race, but it shouldn't be too difficult... Are you game?

interesting, I like that also....suddenly I am having some interesting ideas.

@ Viluki - While it's intriguing, I'll have to weigh the pro's and con's. Let me think on it a bit.

I'm thinking expert.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Very Interested

Hector Le-Grange

Aasimar Noble, [From elf stock not human]
stuck up and condescending but good,
How ever he's in a Cell
so something went very wrong for him.

This sounds interesting to me as well, so I'm thinking female, half-orc warrior? I'll come up with some stuff and post it later.

The is the Alt I'm working with
Aasimar Aristocrat 67 years old [110 being adult] from elf stock
Back ground, he's a rebellious Child [CG] from a rich elf land owning family. Where they see profit he sees exploitation, where they see the right order of things he see oppression. You get the idea.

Here is Flynt's alias with a new avatar and crunch. Any suggestions for languages?

Oh, this is good. Very good.

Human Commoner time. :)

Asho is a young human Warrior 2/Expert 1.

While Asho is gifted, he is a ne'erdowell, often getting into trouble with village elders or his father. Asho trains with weapons with his father (thus Warrior), and studies anatomy and physiology (thus Expert) with the undertaker when not off lounging about or hanging with the wrong crowd. He has designed his own crude tattooing equipment and has applied his arts to a few locals, much to the opprobrium of a few parents and villagers.

Asho hides the heartache of his mother's departure behind bravado and mischief.

What does your parent(s)/guardian(s) do for a living?

Asho's father Jat is one of the Swampwood gravediggers, a kindhearted alcoholic who was once a somewhat decorated soldier.

Asho's mother Saline is a mercantile broker who passes between Freeport and the Jewelled Plains. She does not live in Swampwood.

Where once there was affection and love between the parents there is now regret, mistrust and hostility. Asho rarely sees his mother, but occasionally receives small gifts and letters from her.

Were you born in Swampwood?

Asho is a local and was born in Swampwood. Saline was a local beauty, but has outgrown this small thorp, and the endless reliance of Jat upon past glories... Jat is an outsider, but is a well respected man despite his lowly status and fondness for drink. If there is a militia then Jat will be a respected part of it, even in a sub-commanding role.

What interests does your character have?

Asho is interested in exotic weapons, military tactics, tattooing and exploration. And girls - he has inherited his mother's beauty and his father's glib tongue and charming manner.

What does your character dream of being when they’re older?

Asho dreams of finding his place in the world. He is wise enough to realise he doesn't exactly know what that will entail - he doesn't share his father's view of the glory of war or military life, but like many impressionable young people he does feel he is destined for some manner of greatness...

note to GM: I fully vouch for the scary wolf man thing above me... Good roleplayer and I can assure you he has never eaten the GM...that I know of.

Ok here is the first cut on my character's stats:

General Backstory so far:

Terra is the Daughter of a military general with political connections.

She only recently relocated to Swampwood looking for a quiet life as her father is soon ready to retire.

Currently her father spends a lot of time away, so most of her upbringing falls on her mother.

Her mother is a strict disciplinarian and a bit over protective and restrictive.

Terra was brought up to be the perfect and proper noble lady, (in training) but it is starting to be evident that Terra is starting to hate this lifestyle. She wants to get out, be with her father, and learn to fight.

She spends her days being schooled in the various arts by private tutors, but in the evening she sneaks out to watch the estate guards practice. This has gotten her into trouble numerous times.

Despite her noble exterior, she is a tomboy at heart, and loves to "play in the dirt"
Terra believes that the earth is actually calling to her, but most adults brush that aside as childish fantasy.

Terra has bad eyesight, though not blind she sometimes has to squint or focus real hard to see what many others can see easily.

She tends to wear her hair long covering parts of her face, she does this to hide the marks of her mother’s “discipline” though the marks are barely noticeable, to her, they stand out for all to see.

It was one evening she managed to slip away to practice with her friend but was lured away by “The Piper”

@ Viluki - After some consideration, I've decided we'll go with your style of Drow. I like how you've made then not stereotyplically evil, but not good either.

What I've come up with are the following changes:

Stats: +2 Int, +2 Con, -2 Dex

Reason: You stated they are smart and hardy, but you neglected to mention what suffered. I went with less agile due to their hardier frames and the radiation has weakened their reflexes.

Racial Trait:

Given the repression of magic, I replaced their Spell-Like Ability with a Skill Bonus in Alchemy and the Climb Movement Trait. Other than that, I've left everything else the same.

Is this what you had in mind?

@ Edward - I like it. I think it'll be interesting to see how her mother reacts after the adventure.

@ GM-yes and no, I personally envisioned them to be a 2+ con and 2+ int race, no negatives. The reason being below...

Spell Severed, Drow are innately incapable of casting spells of either the arcane or the divine. This also extends to some magic items, a drow simply cannot use wands or anything that requires the use of UMD. This also applies to things like amulets of natural armor and headbands of wisdom, int etc... It does not however apply to magical weapons or armor, reason being that they don't really "magically effect" the user's body.

While this may seem a tad extreme I have plans for how to solve this, the Alchemy handbook is out now and soon will be in pdf (and hopefully the d20) and should contain many useful items that can be retrofitted for our use. The same applies with Iron gods which is coming in August, from what I hear they will be including a whole bunch of technological gadgets in addition to a prestige class based around technology.

As for the equipment the drow have I came up with a solution...

Thoughts GM?

@ Viluki - I'm going to have to say no to the Fleshwarping. It's a little convoluted for my taste. As far as the stats go, I can't see a way per RAW in the Advanced Race Guide to pull that off. The closest way would be to give them the Flexible quality, which gives a +2 to any two Ability Scores. Now to do that, I'd have to remove another racial trait, most likely the Drow Immunities. This could work though, if it were explained as thus: Because of centuries of radiation exposure, the Drow's physiology has become a bit unstable. As a result, the Drow have lost their natural resistance to enchantments, but have gained a strength that manifests differently with each child born.

actually when I think about it, a 2+ con, 2+ int, -2 cha makes sense. The Drow live in an exceptionally hostile environment, aberrations, derro, precursor constructs that are malfunctioning (or worse) and who knows what else harry them at every turn. As a result those who lacked physical dexterity (below the norm of ten) would have also been weeded out, the only stat that would not have been useful would be charisma (talking that aberration to death sound likes real good idea...not).

I am also wondering if weapon familiarity should be modified as well, hand crossbow is perfectly flavorful but rapier and shortsword not so much... Reason is while the surface worlders are still in say the high middle ages etc, the drow are well into the next era technologically speaking. To put it in context I would put the surface world at a stage of Very Rare Guns, while in the Deeps guns are Commonplace. Ever Drow citizen would have a firearm of some sort, Blunderbuss's and Dragon Pistol's being the most common thanks to the close quarter's fighting that is the mainstay of Deeps combat.

Also are you amenable to the use of such things as the following when they come out (in pdf form or on the d20) http://paizo.com/products/btpy90bj?Pathfinder-Player-Companion-Alchemy-Manu al, http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/ironGods?

Thoughts?

@ Viluki - Alright, so you're okay with the +2 Int, +2 Con, -2 Cha then? For the alchemical stuff, I'll have to try and look at that at a later time. As far as the weapon familiarity, the rapier could just be a hold over from their Elven heritage, but the shortsword, I'll give you that. What would you suggest replace it? As far as firearms go, I'm still on the fence about that. Let me give it some more thought.

Okay with that stat setup, here is my take on what should replace the shortsword and (perhaps the rapier).

To replace the shortsword I would suggest either the blunderbuss or the dragon pistol. Both are basically shotguns when we think about it, easy to use, reload and devastating close up. Anyone from the common drow citizen to the alchemist to even the rare drow wizard or oracle (I'll explain that one later, trust me there is an explanation). These weapons are ideal for the drow, especially when on the defensive in the cavern complexes and warrens that serve as their cities and homes respectively.

Think of the following scenario, you and five other drow citizens see a detachment of the Duergar army that invaded your city state. They are coming into your warren (neighborhood) and the only way to do that is through a narrow, straight corridor that only allows one to two Duergar to come at you abreast. To defend themselves form the invaders the drow make a barricade at the entrance (from their side of the warren) and three of you man it and maintain a constant stream of fire at the approaching invaders. Meanwhile the other three are each busily reloading two blunderbuss's each, this way a constant rate of fire is being maintained from six drow and nine guns.

As for the rapier the reason I recommend replacing it is practicality, long bladed weapons like rapiers and longswords would not be good in the majority of the Deeps. Reason being similar to ship combat, a blade that it too long will easily get trapped in the rigging and so forth. The same thing could happen quite easily in the tunnels of the drow, so instead equip them with a cutlass (or cutlass equivalent). As the cutlass has lots of chopping power and is a short blade, perfect for the brutal melee combats in the close confines of the tunnels.

your thoughts GM?

@GM - Thoughts on my submission? Obviously crunchless at the moment...

@Viluki - Thanks for the vote of support. If Rennoc weren't so mysterious I'd know him a little better! ;)

Ditto on my submission. Also what kind of languages are common in the area?

@ Viluki - Alright, I'll go with the cutlass, however I'm still debating on firearms. But you do make a strong case for it.

@ Oceanshieldwolf & Flynt - Sorry guys, got caught up in the Drow negotiations. Wolf, I like the crunch so far, and can't wait to see the stats. Flynt, as far as languages go, all of Cadranite is a conglomerate of everyone, so any language you feel fits your character should be fine.

Gotcha. Well languages picked and everything should be ready to go. Any comments or critique, let me know.

@ Flynt - Just to clarify, you're an Expert, correct?

Yea. I forgot to put that in the profile. Fixd.

guess I should put Terra's info in a profile

gm if your worried about gun availability affecting your campaign I have a sort of compromise for you... It's a part of the backstory as well. These Drow as they setup there settlement in the world above will initially be in a stage of "Emerging Guns" not because they lack the science to do it but because everything is in chaos. They will eventually recoup their losses somewhat but it will likely take decades before Guns become commonplace in their realm let alone the outside world.

Intrigued as well. Considering an Ayra Stark type character.

@ Viluki - I love the Pirates of Dark Water vibe I got from that story. While it has potential to surface later, I do have two questions. Were you planning on playing a Drow? If so, what are you doing in Swampwood?

@ Mark Thomas 66 - And somehow, that doesn't surprise me.

oh yes I am planning on playing drow, and the character won't have been at swampwood but he/she (haven't decided yet) will have been in the area at night, scouting for herbs and so forth for alchemy back in the mountain which would be ten miles away from swampwood. My character would have been captured as a "rarity" to be sold to the Piper's less savory customers (think evil vivisectionist here who like to experiment on new specimens, and drow would certainly be "new").

well got an alias together.

using the young spoilers the rest are for later in life.

so this first adventure is going to take place when the characters are children. Any subsequent adventures won't be able to use any of the human characters from this one because the dwarven, and elven (this includes drow) characters won't have become adults when the human character do. or the human charactes will old or dead by the time the others come of age. Unless you homebrew the maturity rates so they all mature at the same rate.

Actually, if you look closely at the ages in the young characters section, you'll notice that the starting ages for the classes puts them all within a few years of maturity.

If you max the ages humans are within a year of adulthood
dwarves are four years from adulthood
elves are 19 years from adulthood
Gnomes are two years
half-elves are four years
half-orcs are one year
and halflings are 2 years

everyone could be married and have kids before the elf was an adult. Don't mean to give you a hard time just curious how you are going to make it work. I have problems with some of the age rules. Assimars and Tieflings in particular. What human would want to spend 60 year raising a kid especially a demon child.