Ladies and Gentlemen, I bid you welcome… to the Blight
It’s Clark Ashton Smith and China Miéville, Lovecraft and Dickens, Shelley and Carroll all in a festering brew of toil, tears, and injustice just screaming for heroes to clean up the streets (more likely to die — or worse — trying) or anti-heroes to clean up the streets (or, at least, a little corner in which to set up their own rackets). Castorhage is a city that never sleeps but is never fully awake, living in the shadow of its own dark dream. An insane royalty, a corrupt judiciary, a decadent aristocracy, and a half-living proletariat all jumbled together amid a thousand thousand monsters…some of them not even of the human variety.
…and the unlovely name by which Castorhage is known to those who have the misfortune to scratch out an existence within its darkest, dankest and most terrible districts? …the Blight.
The Crucible
Don’t go to sleep.
Some say dreams of fire are haunting the night, and that if you dream of burning, you awaken on fire.
People in the Blight begin to awaken at night burning with an all-too-real fire. Most of them die horribly, spouses or lovers staring in shocked horror at their sudden death throes in the grip of consuming flames. A few of the truly unlucky actually manage to survive — if living in such a state can be called survival. There seems to be no rhyme or reason in the victims of these incinerating dreams, as those among the high and low fall victim to its touch, and the locals each pray that he or she will not be next.
And now, no one dares to sleep.
I will, when it arrives next year, almost certainly run the Adventure Path that accompanies Richard Pett’s “The Blight” …but the second of the smaller adventures set in the decaying city, Richard Pett’s “The Crucible”, has been siphoned from the madness of its author… and the time has finally come to enter… the Blight.
- Characters shall be Level 7,
- All Paizo published classes are acceptable,
- 20-point ability buy,
- Maximum HP for your class at Level One with four further level increases in HP at average for class rounded up (i.e. d6 classes get 4, d8 classes get 5, d10 classes get 6 and d12 classes get 7),
- Core races AND Featured races from the Advanced Race Guide are acceptable (Uncommon races and Custom races will not be considered),
- Two traits may be selected,
- Character Wealth is 23,500 gp (WBL for Level 7),
- Non-evil alignments only,
- All character options must originate from Paizo published Pathfinder products; No 3rd Party Materials will be considered.
Any further questions / requests re: character creation and allowable options, please feel free to ask in the recruitment thread.
"Who are you… that comes knocking at my door at this late hour?”
Note that, as I have no other Lost Lands Campaign Setting materials, I shall be running the Blight in Golarion… Castorhage is, in this world, a self-governing city state geographically located in the nation of Taldor… and replaces Cassomir on the map. Having said that, I anticipate that the adventure will be entirely self-contained within the Blight so this placing of Castorhage within the Golarion map should only really impact those who choose to write backgrounds that have them originating from beyond the city…
This is a stand-alone adventure and, as of yet, our knowledge of Castorhage is limited to what is within this module, and Bloody Jack that came before it… with that in mind, no-one need write a magnum opus for their character background (unless they want to of course!!!)… but I will be looking for two things in particular…
- Are you a resident of Castorhage? If not, what possible reason have you to come to this decadent city? …and if you are from Castorhage, how have you scratched out an existence?
- Are you known to the authorities here within the City? (Note that at least one person will have a non-criminal connection with the City’s “Office of the Watch”… be that a personal or professional connection… or maybe some kind of reputation as someone that can get things done).
I will leave this recruitment thread going whilst you folks work on your characters - everyone who previously submitted something for Bloody Jack can, by all means, use them here - although there will be a bit of levelling to Level 7 required. I shall, in the background, be reading through the adventure and, when it looks like we are ready... I shall set up the appropriate Gameplay Thread.
Dotting in! I've still got my fetchling oracle Ruby all good to go (she'll just need to be bumped up to 7th level) but I'm happy to come up with something else if we end up having any party gaps that need filling.
Dotting as well! I think I will keep my human rogue Elsie for this one and simply level her up to 7th level. I should have her done over the next day or two.
Dotting in my original idea was a brawler, but I've been maaking low a level occultist and low level bard street performer for other recruitments, so I'll see what might fit in when the next players enter the thread.
But so far Oracle and Rogue fit in nicely with any of the above.
Or come up with another idea ....
Just sharing a little bit of the mad ramblings of the creator of the Crucible, Mr Pett...
Felipe Gaona’s excellent painting “Umbrella” (the cover illustration of the module) is dedicated to the creator of the “Burning Woman in the Rain” image that served as the inspiration for this cover. I have seen the original piece as a wallpaper online in many locations and thought it perfectly captured the atmosphere of The Crucible, but I have never been able to track down the identity of the creator. So here’s to you, mystery artist. You managed to capture a tiny piece of Richard Pett’s brain with your art, an extremely dangerous thing to do. May his tentacled cosmic overlords never succeed in finding you.
...a superbly troubling piece of art to unsettle you before you've rolled your first d20!!!!
Oh my.... :O
I'll probably stick with my Dhampir Vigilante character, who's sort of a magus type.
Also, that picture is very hot!
Okay I will likely stick with Ruby then; will work on getting her updated over the next day or two :)
Sticking with Tella for the most part. I think I'm going to ditch the Psychic Duelist bit and just focus on the Occult Skill unlocks and making her a generalist as much as I can.
Also, I saw that picture Zed and thought, "man, it's a good thing Tella's fire resistant." :P
Still, that pic is way creepy.
All, I have set up a Discussion Thread so, if it is easier to dot in there and talk about your characters / party, etc then go ahead and do so. I am on my second read through of the adventure so should be ready to push away from the shore and into the madness of the Blight whenever you folks are.