Golarion's Darklands are feared by many. The depth of the earth are filled with mystery and danger in equal measure and most sane people avoid them like the plague. Only a few on the surface realize that entire empires spanning the lengths of continents exist beneath their feet, ruled over by drow, duergar, and other races less known and more dangerous. But those who actually dwell in the Darklands are inevitably a proud people. For they have survived and thrived in the hostile world beneath the earth. And even if they are hard and cruel, they will fight to the death to protect their place in the world.
In the second layer of the Darklands, known by its inhabitants as Sekamina, the drow hold sway, their empire spreading from the crown of the world south to the massive underground body of water known as Lake Nirthran, or more colloquially the Dying Sea. The waterways of their empire are ruled by river boats and reckless swashbuckling pirates who challenge blind leviathans, massive albino sea monsters, and worse things for dominance of the underground seas. Many of these wild souls make their homes in Telderist, the pirate's haven on the northern shores of the Dying Sea where no one but the pirate lords hold sway. But things lurk in the deep that seek to dominate all that they see before them and the denizens of the Darklands will not let themselves be taken without a fight. In Telderist, the drow controlled Nightrunners Guild seeks adventurers, mercenaries, and other interested parties for a venture into the tunnels that could be the first step in uncovering secrets hidden from even the great drow houses.
Welcome to my recruitment for a game that I'm calling On the Dying Sea. I've been trying to get a game focused on Golarion's Darklands running for ages, but I've run into issues before trying to make things work, both on my end and trying to organize players. I'm hoping that third time's the charm and I can actually get a group who will enjoy playing this entire story out from beginning to end. I'm looking for a group of 6 players to take on an adventure that will focus around the Dying Sea, starting with the pirate port of Telderist and heading out to explore other regions of the Darklands from the drow capital down to the vaults of Orv. Recruitment will be likely be open until May 18th, 2018, though I reserve the right to close recruitment early or extend it.
Character creation
Level: Starting at 8th level
Stats: 20 Point Buy
Race: Caligni*, Derro*, Dhampir, Drow, Duergar, Ghoul*, Goblin, Half-Drow, Half-Orc, Hobgoblin, Kobold*, Orc, Serpentfolk*, Svirfneblin*, Tiefling
You MUST select from one of these races. No templates, age is cosmetic only. I expect all characters to actually be natives of the Darklands, though you are under no obligation to be specifically from Telderist. All races marked with an asterisk are included in the Races document below. Read it if you want to play one of them.
Class: All Paizo classes other than Gunslinger, Ninja, or Samurai. Any archetypes that give firearms are not permitted, but you may play a Bolt Ace. No 3rd party, no exceptions.
Alignment: Any. The Darklands are often cruel and dangerous and evil is often more common than good. This is NOT a pure evil game, but I expect evil, good, and neutral party members to play nice.
Hit Points: Max for 1st level, Half+1 for all levels after
Traits: Two traits, you may take a drawback for a third. The Player's Guide below has custom campaign traits that you may take, but are not obligated to in any way. Please try to link your traits and choices to your backstory.
Wealth: 16,500 gp
Other Rules
We will be using the following variant rules:
- Automatic Bonus Progression
- Background Skills
- Variant Multiclassing (Allowed, but not required by any means)
Character Backgrounds
I don't have any specific requirements for backgrounds, but I would like enough that I have a good idea of who your character is and what they've done with their life. A few questions that are good starting points are:
- Where is your character from? Are they from the drow empire, the undead ruled lands to the south, one of the many enclaves of other races, or one of the empires from above or below?
- Why are they in Telderist? The pirate port hosts many opportunities, but what specifically drew your character here?
- What have they done that might have attracted the Nightrunners' attention? The Nightrunners don't hire amateurs for dangerous missions after all.
Player Documents
I would strongly advise reading the three following documents that I have compiled specifically the make it easier to get into this game.
Lake Nirthran Gazetteer - A gazetteer of information on Lake Nirthran and the port city of Telderist, including inhabitants, factions, and government.
Player's Guide - A player's guide with ideas for classes, skills, options, and campaign traits.
Darklands Races - Modified rules for custom races and races that I've modified from their standard rules.
It depends. Some are created from ghoul fever, but some of them are created intentionally through magical rituals or exposure to a magical mineral called Lazurite that's common in the southern parts of Sekamina. The supernatural radiation means that dead bodies have a high chance of spontaneously rising as ghouls when they die exposed to it, so the civilized Darklands ghouls use it as a means of reproduction.
Getting a Sunless Sea vibe...This cat is giving me dirty looks.
Definitely interested! I'll mull over ideas.
A drow noble, massively self-confident, thinking he knows better than his house and has left to make his own mark. An antipaladin servant of their patron demon lord (Shax seems a likely choice), he believes he can do more away from his house than confined within it.
Oooh a Faceless GM game, I'm interested.
Might play a Half Drow Cleric of Lamashtu
Very interested, and leaning towards a half-orc ranger who's made a name for himself as a guide on expeditions into the depths. Details to come.
Interested and will adjust when I am not on my phone.
Hmmm...a Serpentfolk Wizard sounds intriguing.
I've been steadily absorbing War of the Spider Queen and other drow focused novels of late. Drow are so nasty! :D
Kaelmourn Vexidyre, a noble servant of Shax, who is distrusted by his noble house and ended up leaving a few decades back.
A fit, agile warrior with slate-coloured skin. Out of his shaved head peer solid white eyes over a thin smile. If he is showing his allegiance, Shax's holy symbol of a bloody white feather will be visible as an amulet around his neck.
Kaelmourn Vexidyre is a sadist but not a bloodthirsty maniac. He is more calculating than one might suspect of a devoted follower of Shax. He has great strength of personality, and can often win over others who dislike or actively despise him. Or browbeat them into doing his bidding, if he doesn't just slay or rend them.
Kaelmourn Vexidyre was born in Zirnakaynin to the trading house. He showed remarkable devotion to the house's demon lord patron, Shax. Perhaps a little too much for his mother and sisters' tastes. He absorbed much knowledge of the Blood Marquis and began communing in private aiming to become a great servant of the demon lord, while on the face of it accepted his lot of martial training. One day, things came to a head and his strong connection to the demon lord became known to the rest of the house.
It is debatable whether Kaelmourn has left his house, or was driven out. He will say the former, them the letter if they speak of him at all. There is something of an unspoken agreement that he will not interfere with them and they will not hunt him, which will last exactly as long as both parties find it convenient.
For several decades now, Kaelmourn has served Shax in many capacities, and thoroughly indulged his own dark impulses while doing so. He plays the long game, racking up a great tally of slain and tortured in Shax's name.
Kaelmourn is intended as a front-line melee combatant who can deal out decent damage while simulaneously debuffing madly with Intimidate. Out of combat, he will have several knowledges and interaction skills.
Anti-Paladin, taking the Dread Vanguard archetype to replace spellcasting with various abilities. Also variant multiclassing into Cavalier, Order of the Star, for his devotion to Shax and extra abilities such as challenge and strengthened touch of corruption.
Edit: Questions
1. The drow antipaladin favoured class option reads:
The antipaladin adds +1/4 to the number of cruelties he can inflict.
Is this an increase to the number of cruelties that the Antipaladin can learn to later inflict, or an increase to the number that they can inflict at one time?
2. In terms of the cavalier Order of the Star ability 'Calling', would the antipaladin ability 'touch of corruption' be analogous to lay on hands for the purpose of Calling?
@ Phillip Gastone: Would you believe that I've never heard of that game before now?
@ Kaelmourn:
1) It increases the number of cruelties you learn.
2) Yup, absolutely.
You haven't? Well get thee hence to Steam!
Just remember...
Never Seek.
@Daynen: Which one are you curious about? The ones that already have alternate traits should be mostly still the compatible. I'm willing to help put some together for the original ones.
Oooh a Faceless GM game, I'm interested.
Might play a Half Drow Cleric of Lamashtu
Hey Nimue! We fought back to back in PFS, did we not? And had a few Serpent's Skull mis-starts...
Oh hi, it's good to catch up again! Been kinda a while since I played PFS though :s
I've had PFS on hold, myself. Kind of seeing what will happen. Still thinking about a cleric? I am still pondering a bog-standard conjuration/teleportation wizard.
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OK, here's the thing: I have a Half-orc fighter idea, but I'd need someone to be my butterfly. As in, someone to build a nimble combat character with the Butterfly's Sting feat. Then he would do terrible, terrible things with his mattock. We could build linked backstories and everything.
Dotting. Will read more. Very happy to be back at the forums, and amused to see another Faceless GM game opening.
Yeah, I think I'll stick with a Cleric. Perhaps someone that wades into the thick of things with Bestow Curse and so on. Still fine tuning the concept backstory at present
Kaelmourn sounds like you're planning to play him as something of a defensive type - is that accurate? The character I was contemplating is, mechanically speaking, a warpriest who also charges into the front lines, using Fervor-ed buffs and attacks that generate temporary HP to keep himself alive. I'd like to avoid any overlap, though, so if that's stepping on your toes I can put thought into something else.
To be honest, I intend a fairly aggressive role for Kaelmourn, using a two-handed weapon, power attack and cornugon smash. Warpriest sounds a good complement!
Interesting! I have no time until late next week, so here's to hoping that you don't close recruitment early!
Mmm.. this sounds wonderful. Almost done with crunch on this kobold rogue. I'll finish background and other stuff by this weekend.
Shoot, I forgot something super important in my first post.
Unchained classes are required for Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, and Summoner.
I love the concept of the Underdark/Darklands. I love the concept of the Dying Sea even more. Caligni are also one of my favourite races. Lots of boxes are being checked by your pitch!
Interesting! I have no time until late next week, so here's to hoping that you don't close recruitment early!
...probably a Tiefling Wizard, which has long been on my list of characters to play!
...Variant Tiefling Abilities and Heritage? Determined deliberately or randomly?
Not done yet but it is a start.
Swashbuckler/Blade Bound Magus
Another thing I forgot. Baseline versions of races only. No drow noble, duergar tyrant, etc. You can take the Drow Noble feat line if you'd like those abilities of course.
There should be. There will be sections where you're on a little bit of a time crunch, but there will be plenty of chances to take a little down time to do things like shopping, crafting, learning spells, etc.
I'd say it's a little bigger than that, but it depends on the context.
Looks very interesting! :)
My first thought is to try and create some kind of Goblin bat that flutters around ^_^
That said, 8th level is quite high up there so that opens a loooot of doors, so for now I will just have to dot and think :)
Shoot, I forgot something super important in my first post.
Unchained classes are required for Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, and Summoner.
How does that work for Monk and Archetypes? Are all Monk Archetypes just basically off limits?
@ Daynen: That seems reasonable. What ability are you looking at?
@ Gobo Horde: Generally, monk archetypes can be adjusted to fit with the unchained monk by having abilities replace the ki power of an appropriate level. For example, an ability that replaces Diamond Body instead replaces the 10th level ki power. If that causes issues, I'll allow regular monks though.
alright thanks. 2 rough ideas I am currently mulling over in my head would work better with archetypes, so once I have a specific idea in mind I will bring it up again.
Thanks for being malleable! ^_^
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yeah scratch I'm going to make a drow sorcerer. A rebel male drow that grew tired of being seen as inferior in "normal" drow society, unless you think that is a bit too much?
that or a drow sorceress, that decided advancing in normal drow noble houses was too tedious or something of that sort.
\ahhh so many cool races I don't get to play often... I've decided I'm going to be a sorcerer, just have to think about the race and background now...
@ Daynen: Ah, gotcha. That's actually not something I would have thought of before, but it makes sense to me.
I'm looking at either a ghoul or dhampir warpriest of Urgathoa, using Vital Strike, Power Attack, and Divine Fighting Style - Urgathoa's Hunger to leverage temporary HP on the fly, while using Fervor for quick buffs and heals as needed. Does that sound different enough from what you're doing? You're focusing on debuffs while I'm focusing on survivability. It may sound like I'm belaboring the point, but I tend to be very, very careful not to step on anyone's toes when it comes to party role.
Out of combat shouldn't be too big a deal, as he's a lookout and survivalist sort - Perception, Survival, Sense Motive, all that.
That sounds fine by me! Kaelmourn will most debuff with intimidate and cruelties, with a smidgen of buffing with beacon of evil. I think the characters would complement but I appreciate the concern.