To a party of seasoned adventurers such as yourselves, this is but another dull tavern in another dull town in some nameless province. It is but another passage of time between the challenges of true adventuring. Such is the doldrum of existence waiting for another opportunity.
Outside the Inn, a fog lies over the town this evening, draping everything in its clammy grasp. The damp cobbled street shines as the light of street lanterns dances across the slick stones. The cold fog chills the bones and shivers the soul of anyone outside. Yet inside these tavern walls the food is hearty and the ale is warm and frothy. A fire blazes in the hearth and the tavern is alive with the tumbling voices of country folk.
Suddenly, a hush falls over the tavern. Even the flagons of ale seem to silence themselves. The tavern door swings open. Framed by the lamp-lit fog, a form strides into the room. His heavy, booted footfalls and the jingle of his coins shatter the silence. His brightly colored clothes are draped in loose folds about him and his hat hangs askew, hiding his eyes in shadows. Without hesitation, he walks directly up to your table and stands proudly in a wide stance with folded arms.
His accented voice speaks, "I have been sent to you to deliver this message! If you be creatures of honor, you will come to my master's aid at first light. It is not advisable to travel the Svalich woods at night!" He pulls from his tunic a sealed letter, addressed to all of you in beautiful flowing script. He drops the letter on the table. "Take the west road from here some five hours march down through the Svalich woods. There you will find my master in Barovia."
Amid the continued silent stares of the patronage, the gypsy strides to the bar and says to the wary barkeeper, "Fill the glasses, one and all. Their throats are obviously parched." He drops a purse heavy with gold on the bar. With that, he leaves.
The babble of tavern voices resumes, although somewhat subdued. The letter is lying before you. Dated yesterday, the ink is still not dry and the parchment is crisp. The seal is of a crest you don't recognize.
Characters will be 5th level. All classes and backgrounds from the PhB are allowed, and all races except Dragonborn. Bear in mind that half-orcs and tieflings will be seen as monstrous and scarcely tolerated, and ALL non-humans will be viewed with suspicion.
You may choose or roll your Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws, or you may certainly invent your own.
Alignment matters.
Generate ability scores using the standard 4d6 drop 1 method.
Hit points will be standard. Max at first level, half +1 at all following levels.
Equip yourselves with up to 500 gp of mundane equipment.
Roll d% for magic items.
Mood is important to this adventure, so it is important that the characters are suitable.
Since this is a one shot (though if it goes well, I'm certainly open to a sequel) I am treating it as setting neutral. It isn't in Golarion or the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, but it isn't not in any of those places, either. Rather than an extensive background, I would like a short scene that captures the essence of your character.
dot dot dot dot dot
I love ravenloft, and I'm enjoying 5th edition so far, so ya, I'm definitely interested.
Now to think about what I'm gonna play.
That gets me a 14, 14, 13, 12, 13, 11. Not too shabby.
Hahaha a 7,7,9 !!!!! Guess I'm rolling a simpleton!
I'm not saying anything about a druid gaining the physical stats of the animal it Wild Shapes into.
I wanted to play a bard or a ranger though!
you can download the quickstart guide for free legally from wizard's website.
If we're playing humans can we take the race variant traits?
From my understanding, the four 'core' classes are supposed to have plenty of free and accessible information. I haven't really -really- looked into 5th edition, though, so I could totally be wrong. :)
What list of magic items are we pulling from?
D-Kal - never mind, it seems you got ahold of what you needed. Good.
Ian - yes, you can take the human variant trait. As far as magic items go, I'll get a list up when I start to see some characters.
I am simultaneously considering paladin, warlock, and rogue.
Terquem, you can be in more games. You're already thinking about this one....
I would say that Paladins & Clerics will definitely be extra-useful in this adventure, though I think they did a pretty good of giving everyone some nice stuff.
I think I'm gonna stat up all three and see which one I like the most.
I use to not be a fan of 5e, but now that I have the book and exp with it, I am.
9
12
7
15
17
15
Anyone grab "Bard" yet?
14
9
13
8
11
16
I'm on a trip away from my Phb, but will finish up this potential Cleric tomorrow...
Okay, so I'm down to two different characters:
the first is a half-elf warlock who thinks he's a paladin. When he was a boy, he saw ch'thulu and kinda went a little bit crazy. He doesn't remember what he saw (and would be full blown insane if he did), so he thinks that he works for a lawful good deity. He will behave pretty much the way that a paladin does (as the great old ones don't care what people do with the power they are given, if they even notice that they are giving away power).
The second is a Human rogue (assassin) who kills people for money, but for whom it's just a 9-5 job. he is fairly well adjusted, has a family that he cares for, and has taken up adventuring as a faster way to make money to support his family (assassins have to deal with guilds who take 50% of your money, or go solo and risk getting killed by said guilds).
First?!
I am Wintermoon! I am tall and thin but don't be fooled! My magicks are strong. Initially I rolled for personality and such but some of those hermit traits are just garbage. So, I pulled one personality and my ideal, I believe, from Outlander background. I hope that's ok.
Will put together a spells known list this evening when I get home.
Having built both, I think I'm gonna go with the "paladin". I think he could be a lot of fun to play, even if he's less capable than the rogue would be. He is going to be a member of the clergy of the god of knowledge, assuming that such a god exists (I was thinking of something like thoth, as he has some fairly shady overtones and in at least one rpg setting is a great old one).
=11
=14
=11
=13
=8
=17
interesting...
A short piece of fiction that I came up with on my walk home from work:
They stood, three men, in the square at noon. On one side stood a pair of men, a noble dressed in gaudy silks, and before him was his bodyguard, a powerfully built warrior who wore heavy armor and carried a shield and vicious looking saber.
On the other side stood a man wearing simple priest robes. Of average build, were he wearing his hood up, he could be one of the multitude of religious pilgrims who passed by an adventurer on any given day. The only visible ornamentation being a wooden holy symbol of the all-seeing eye. With his hood down, the man's mixed elven blood clearly showed through, both in his silver colored eyes and pointed ears.
Unarmed and unarmored, he called out across the way to the noble: "Are you sure that you won't just give up your rights to the land and stop abusing your authority? There is no need for bloodshed this day. It is not too late to turn back to the path of righteousness."
"You're a fool priest. My man has won over 100 of these duels, and is amongst the finest swordsmen alive today. You have gambled away your life, and lost. Surrender now, and he'll only take your hand."
"Clearly," the solitary man replied, "I am outclassed, but my compassion for these people you harm will not allow me to stand aside."
Doffing his robe for his combat outfit of loose-fitting, knee-length White breeches and bare chest, The men stared openly at the tattooed writing that appeared to cover his entire body save for his head, hands, and feet. The tattoos were in a myriad of languages and if one were to examine them closely would reveal the gambit of knowledge, from esoteric mathematical formulas to the recipe of unleavened bread.
Calling across again to the noble, the solitary man said "So, you are clear on the rules, correct? You will act as your warrior's second, should he be unable to continue?"
"Of course, holy man, I know the coda duella very well; but it seems that you lack a second."
In response, the half-elf turned and looked to the heavens, a prayer on his lips. As he finished, those assembled to watch the duel gasped as a being that could only be described as an angel descended. garbed plate armor of the finest steel and a great helm, this winged being landed without word and buckled the priest's sword on his belt, insuring that it fit perfectly, before finally summoning a shield that appeared to be a large, thin book made of steel.
Turning back to the shocked men, the paladin smiled and said "Let us begin."
I don't even know what mundane items I'm going to need.
Antitoxin vial (2)----100gp
Healer's Kit -----------5
Component Pouch -------25
Potion of Healing (2) 100
Pouch (ammo)-----------.5
Sling -----------------.1
Bullets (20/iron) ----.04
Total 230.64
Remaining 269.36
This sounds like a lot of fun. I have the PHB but I honestly haven't played 5e before. I've done Pathfinder, a little bit of 4e, and know about Ravenloft (haven't played in the Setting before) but that's around the extent of my D&D.
If you're still recruiting let me know!
Night falls and the fire's coals are now hot enough for cooking. Softly through the woods creeps a bluish light, spread wide and oscillating in height and frequency. Atop the rocks appear eight spiritual panthers. One by one until they are cascading down like an ethereal translucent waterfall they climb down towards the fire ring. Two of them dip their heads low laying something on the ground near the fire.
Yellow eyes watch from above as another panther has arrived. This one a solid black. It peers down at the camp lit with seemingly carefree felines lazing about. The beast lowers its head dropping two hares from its mouth. In the next instant a scrawny human is perched atop the rock crouching over the two hares. Wintermoon climbed down to the pit where the fey panthers are gathered and began cleaning the prey.
"Thank you for accompanying me on this hunt. Hopefully our efforts will preserve a better wild flower yield this season without stifling the warrens."
With a wave of his hand he strokes the nape of one of the panthers and the magic dissipated as a thought released the spirits from their summoning. It had been over 20 years since Wintermoon had isolated himself from his druidic order. He grew stronger because of it honing his magic alone where he could hurt no one again. As is the way of Nature though, there must be a balance. So, with the power he gained came knowledge of a growing evil. He feared for the sake of all things he would have to leave his secluded lifestyle soon enough.
Probably wouldn't kill you to grab a dagger and some holy water. Maybe even armor.
Edit: I see a dagger in your profile now. Though the +2 to wisdom puzzles me a bit.
Yeah I have a dagger and a qstaff from the base class equipment. I suppose I could have traded a traveling priest for some holy water at some point, good idea! I also started with leather armor.
If you're referring to the +2 at the end of my Wisdom score it breaks down like this: 17 base off of my 4d6v1 roll, +1 for human, +2 for level 4 ability score improvement. Total of 20(maxed) for a +5 bonus.
From the HotDQ game, let's see what I can come up with. If this is using the entire Demiplane of Dread I could pull off a Bard or Ranger from Kartakass.
=10
=13
=14
=16
=15
=15
It didn't look like anyone had nabbed a Paladin yet...a little "on the nose" if you will, but I like the classics I suppose.
Wow.
Lots of interest making me happy.
I'll try to answer all the questions, but if I miss yours it's not malice, just a blond moment. Ask again.
First off, if anyone but Wintermoon has a finished character up, I don't know about it yet.
GenThunderfist: Paladin is available, and nothin' wrong with the classics.
haruhiko88: just running the 1st edition module, in no specific setting. Since there is no setting, that means there are all settings, sort of, so feel free to be from anywhere. Including Kartakass.
D-Kal: 4th level bump is 2 to or 1 to 2. And I'm not using any special magic rules for this adventure. If we were doing a full blown Ravenloft campaign I would look at ways to limit divination and conjuration, but for this, detect away.
Wintermoon: looks good, I like the blurb.
Vrog: Interesting story, I like it.
I will probably go with other campaign(s), but I feel like rolling stats just in case.
14
13
13
12
11
8
Yay, unless there is some sort of reroll, the dice say I am out. Oh well.
Wintermoon=Druid
Vrog=Warlock, I think?
GenThunderfist=Paladin?
haruhiko88=Bard or Ranger?
D-Kal=Cleric?
scranford=Cleric?
Terquem/Waglinde=Bard?
Daniel Stewart=Wizard or Druid
DoubleGold
Viluki??
French Wolf??
Wondering Monster??
Magic Items: I know I said to roll for these, but that was a mistake. I was going to present a set of choices and your roll would determine your options. I've changed my mind about that, and am instead going to use magic items to balance characters a little, so the crappier your stats, the more magic you'll get. It won't be a lot, but people who are rolling and walking away because they didn't get amazing ability scores will get a little extra juice.
A bit about my criteria for picking characters. I don't pick characters, really. I pick players. The things I look for are creativity, enthusiasm, the ability to get along with others. I want people who are going help to make the game an awesome story, who are going to inhabit their characters and the world, and not just throw dice at it. Obviously, this is a judgement call on my part, and I'm not telling you this to tell you what to do, but so you know what I'll be looking for. I'm not looking for 1 martial+1 skill+1 divine+1 arcane=party. If you want to play a bard, play a bard, even if there are three other bards. I might end up picking all four of you, if you're the ones who look like you'll help me have the game I want.
Last thought, personality traits, bonds etc. Feel free to come up with these on your own, but be guided by the one in the PHB. A short phrase should get it done, with a sentence or two of elaboration. If there is a 5000 page novel that tells the story of why your character hates children, that's awesome, as long as you can tell me his bond is "DINKs rule!"
I will probably go with other campaign(s), but I feel like rolling stats just in case.
4d6 14
4d6 13
4d6 13
4d6 12
4d6 11
4d6 8Yay, unless there is some sort of reroll, the dice say I am out. Oh well.
Join Us! I rolled a 7,7,9 and still have two 7's after level and race bumps soooooo there's always a chance!
Nerk, does it matter what deity list I pick from. Do you have a preference? Can I just say Nature in general like Old Faith style?
are we allowed to be evil? Also, I'm going to try to be proficient in every skill, so I'll be rogue and probably multi-class as bard or ranger to pick up more skills. Have the feat that gains 3 skills and be a half-elf for 2 more skills.
DoubleGold: You are allowed to be evil, but it will set the bar higher as far as what I'm looking for.
Wintermoon: Pick a deity or not. Unless you're a cleric. I play a druid who views gods as just more powerful than ordinary beings. Sure, an elephant is more powerful than an ant, but they're equally screwed if you take away the world.
Wintermoon: Pick a deity or not. Unless you're a cleric. I play a druid who views gods as just more powerful than ordinary beings. Sure, an elephant is more powerful than an ant, but they're equally screwed if you take away the world.
Old Faith it is then!