Happy Holidays to all!
Happy Hollidays!
I'll see where I can fit into this storyline and I get time.
Merry Christmas, everyone. Stay safe and enjoy your respective festive celebrations. :)
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Elry had known death intimately – first her halfling parents were killed by a passing traveller and then her human mother from an infectious illness. She wasn’t wholly experienced outside the walls of the chapel nor the gates of Darkwater Crossing. She had seen some of the world beyond when she sojourned to Hearth on behalf of her goddess; still it was only a small portion of the darkness and shadows in peoples’ natures. The previous month, Elry met and befriended a halfling family passing through the city – they were part of a travelling circus – and were known professionally as ‘The Three J’s!’ (father: Jare, mother: Jilla and young daughter Jomi). They were performers: jugglers, acrobats, tightrope walkers. Elry liked Jomi very much – such a sweet child – full of light and love. They left Darkwater Crossing later than the main caravan (Jilla had come down with an ear infection, which the healers were attending to). Elry found out weeks later that their wagon had been set upon by bandits and all three had been killed. The bodies were found by scouts (50 miles from the city outskirts) and returned to the chapel. Elry was heartbroken. Yet, this was a great catalyst for her – she would not see anyone else die on the roads without a healer to care for them and keep them alive if needs be. So, Elry would become an adventuring healer and not one closeted away inside a chapel.
Boros sat distractedly before Elry, holding his wounded arm. It was another injury he'd sustained biting off more than he could chew. "Yer the best, ya know. Always willin' ta help, don't ask too many questions. I promise I'll pay ya back."
Looking up from her labours, she set her gaze on the male halfling and gently smiled. ”There’s no need to pay me back. I just wish to see you whole and hale, that’s payment enough. If you wish to leave a small coin in the chapel box for Aleria, then I’ll not stop you and some good can be done for the folk of Darkwater Crossing. Every little bit counts. ” Elry would bet (if she was a betting halfling) that Boros got hurt a lot through his many scrapes, yet she would not say so out aloud and offend him. She wouldn’t scold either for it was not her place. ”If you need me, again, you know where to find me. May Aleria, in her Light and Love, keep you safe, Master Boros.”
That night, while in bed with Tig, I promised him that I would grow up and hunt down these evil men and make the roads safe, regardless of the season or the wealth of the people!
Elry and Danus came from the same village and so his efforts with plants and herbs to heal the sick had not gone unnoticed by the Alerian cleric. She admired his knowledge and skill with nature. On the few occasions their paths crossed on the farmsteads across the floodplains, she had spoken to him, albeit briefly, of her concerns for folk travelling the roads and not reaching their destinations. Even though his prime purpose was to rid the roads of bandits ensuring people were safe, hers was to keep people alive and moving in an effort to thwart of the threats that lay in wait for them out on the open road. Still, she felt they could work together and would complement one another well. ”If you mean to travel, adventure and seek out these bandits, then I wish to join you – help travellers with injuries along the road and keep them alive for as long as I can. May I join you, Master Danus? Two healers are certainly better than one, wouldn’t you say?”
@Sebastien: I'll swap out Bless for something else. Thanks! Addendum: I swapped it out for Protection.
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I've added the following to the Setting document. Shouldn't effect your backstories in progress, but interesting info to note:
There is only one moon, and its name is Laoruta. After The Calling, when many worlds and dimensions were brought forth, there were several moons in Nimalea's sky, which caused havoc on the tidal and continental forces below and added to the chaos of that time. When Gerana took up her role as Grand Arbiter of the New Gods, one of her first acts was to destroy all the moons save one, and set to order the calendar. This has had two major effects.
The first, the dust and fragments of the destroyed moons have formed rings around Nimalea, which are visible as faint glowing structures in both the day and night sky. Meteor storms are still fairly common, as these particles are pulled in by Nimalea's gravity and burn up in the atmosphere. Once in a while, large enough fragments strike the surface, and these Ringstones are well sought after for they're the ore for precious Moon Metals (Cold Iron and Alchemical Silver) which prove effective against occasional planar incursions or breakouts of lycanthropy (known as the Dead Moons Curse).
The second effect is, Laoruta glows with a fiery red light at night, as its surface is molten from the near constant onslaught of meteoric activity. Even when in shadow, its molten surface remains visible to the naked eye.
Gerana ordered the calendar based on Laoruta's phases and the seasons. There are eight months in the Nimalean year, each 28 days long. The first day of each month is the New Moon, and the Full Moon falls on the 15th. The first day of the year is the Summer Solstice. The names of the months are holdovers from the Age of Arcanists: Lambentus, Inferna, Crystala, Fossilus, Torrenta, Brackus, Galea, Zephyrus. There are seven days in the week, four weeks in the month. The names of the days are: Sunsday, Moonsday, Airsday, Watersday, Earthsday, Firesday, Starsday. The current calendar year is 1393 New Gods Era.
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Sébastien will be most grateful for the protection and doctoring by his friend, Danus and his friend, Elry, respectfully.
Road trip!
But do not tell my parents!
Sébastien will be most grateful for the protection and doctoring by his friend, Danus and his friend, Elry, respectfully.
Road trip!
But do not tell my parents!
Elry accepts! The trio seem simpatico in their adventuring goals.
Sounds good to me as well. :-)
Question: do y'all prefer doing combat maps on Google Slides or Roll20?
I’m good with either, GM. I do however find that maps are easier to manoeuvre and edit on Roll20.
I am of a mind; whatever allows ease of performance for DM.
Doesn’t matter to me, easy as a player to use either.
I’m fine with either too.
Either is fine with me as well...whatever is easier for you DM
So as our adventure begins, are we a fully-formed adventuring party? Apologies if I'm jumping the gun here.
So as our adventure begins, are we a fully-formed adventuring party? Apologies if I'm jumping the gun here.
Yes. I think we just need Shemar's piece of the puzzle and we have ourselves an adventuring party. No pressure! If we can get it all worked out by end of the week, I'm hoping to kick things off in the new year.
So far we have Danus and Elry swearing to keep travellers safe from bandits, Sebastien joining them and seeking fame and fortune through adventuring rather than trading under the family name, Valkor honoring his father's dying wishes, and Boros serving him as per the conditions of his parole. Things are really coming together I think.
Perhaps we need a party name?
Oh and Im gonna try and figure this Roll20 thing out.
Perhaps we need a party name?
Darkwater Alliance?
The Darkwater Six? (My fave.)The Venturing Six?
Darkwater Company?
H Company? (H for Halfling and Human)
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Thanks Elry, all viable candidates!
Y'all now have an inventory tracker!
It lives in you Player Resources Drive. I'll also keep a link under the campaign info tab.
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I like Darkwater Six too.
I’ll throw out:
Darkwater Dungeon Delving and Adventuring Company.
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Darkwater Six is dope. It needs the old western whistle noise after each time it is said, however. Darkwatwer Delvers is a win for alliteration.
Here's my piece of the puzzle. Sorry, Christmas was a bit crazy. I'm ready now. lol.
There is not much more I can show you. You'll need to earn the rest through life experiences I'm affraid." Shemar's uncle, Sherrod says to him after presenting him to the family as an official sorcerer. "Which brings me to the next obvious step. What are you going to do with this power to help bring your family back up out of it's downward spiral?" These words have been weighing heavy on Shemar the past few days.
I could use my abilities to become some sort of body guard for one of the noble families. Too subservient. I could join the circus I've heard that halfling girl talking about. My family would not appreciate that. Open up some sort of shop? sigh. As Shemar begins to feel the weight of his family pressing him into some sort of jelly, he looks to the window to see if there is any obvious escape. Looking directly at him from outside the window is a dragon. A bronze dragon, like the one his family is always referring to back in the old days back in Zethinian Empire. Like from where his sorcerous powers come from. He instantly freezes. Waiting to see what was going to happen next...nothing. Slowly, he gets up and moves to the window to open it.
"Um. Hello? Are you real?"
"Am I real? That is a very loose term. Real? Biscuits are real. Fire is real. Thoughts are real, but not all of those can you touch. Not all of them should you touch! Some of them just need jam to be real good. Your dilemma of what to do with your life is also very real, and more pressing at the moment. Shemar, I'll not let you waste these talents you have been given! You are about to gain your independence, and it is important to to what you want with it, not what you feel you need to do just for your family. But remember the ideals that you swore to when you gained your power. Justice and equality is what you said you would fight for. To do this, you will need a network of friends and allies. Now," Something seemed to catch the dragon's attention and he pounced out of his window frame and disappeared.
There he is. Valkor Oso.
Shemar has seen this young man a few times at the social gatherings their families require them to attend. He's spoken to him once or twice, but doesn't really know alot about him. He has heard that his dad just died. That sucks, but it might mean he's looking for a change. And he's HUGE! No one has muscles like that if their not going to use them for something. Alright. Here we go.[/i]
"Hello Valkor. It's so strange how I used to dread these parties. So boring. I couldn't wait until they were over so that I could go do something fun. Although the food is always good. Things seem to be different now, though. You know? I see things differently. There are so many people I have never connected with who may have like goals because I was unwilling to take part. I'm not sure what the next step for the son of former magistrate is, but I'm willing to bet that it's not so different from my own. I, myself, am ready to head out to fight for justice and equality in the land. Literally. Fight. How about you?"
Valkor stiffly stood in the corner of the room of the latest social gathering of society’s well to do. He is distracted by the thoughts of his father’s death, Was it foul play? Was it orchestrated by someone in this room? He can’t help but wonder … but those thoughts are interrupted by one of the party goers. Smeg something… no Shemar, he remembered the young man’s name as the youth continued his discourse.
The brooding monk considered Shemar’s words in silence, a silence that stretched for a few moments, becoming almost painfully uncomfortable. Finally, he assented, with a crack of his knuckles, ”Justice, Aye”.
And thus the Darkwater Six was born!
I'll go ahead and create the Gameplay Thread, please dot in when ready!
Also, Follow this link to join the game on Roll20 for encounter maps.
Cool theme song for the Darkwater Six, Dorian.
Dotted and deleted GM! :)
I've never actually used roll 20, but I'm signed in. I may need a few pointers.
I'm new to it myself. Since we're only using it for maps, we'll only need basic functions, so hopefully it won't be overwhelming. If it proves too difficult, I'm happy to default to Google Slides.
That's all that I've used so far but I'm willing to do whatever.
It's not hard, Shemar. Those of us familiar with Roll20 will be happy to help out.
Hi, GM. On the Roll20 site, you may need to open up the Journal section (if you look at right side bar - at the top there's a paper type icon and that's the journal section). That way you or we can add our character names and avatar/token pics to the map. If you're unsure on how to do this or how to open up security/privacy settings so we can move our own tokens and not have to burden you with the task, then Dorian/Sebastien will most likely be able to assist (I've never GMed on Roll20 to go through the instructions with you on there).
Thanks! :)
Thanks for the tip Elry. There's now a token and character sheet for each of you, even Tor the Boar. I'll have to assign the tokens once you join the game.
Your high tech techy tech DM, at your service...lol.
Psst....I still f++! up all the time! The secret is to not let your players know...
Thanks, GM! :)
and haha, Dorian.
GM, I should be +7 for perception (my error, apologies). I’ve corrected it on my sheet. Can you please correct it on the campaign info tab? Thanks kindly,
Checked in! On Roll20, Silvio=Boros.
Dotted & deleted. Ready to go on roll 20 too.
and the peasants rejoiced.
That's everyone dotted in! Will kick things off here shortly!
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and the peasants rejoiced.
That's everyone dotted in! Will kick things off here shortly!
Is that sum kinda Halfling joke?
Lol!
The peasants thing? That's a Monty Python reference. Every good game needs at least one.
...oh, the shortly. Hah, unintentional.
I've added a Quest Log under the Campaign Info Tab. You have two new quests: Oona Tealeaf and Druingar the Flintaxe!
Sébastien has a momentary vision of playing a MMO that was renowned for its escort missions....
Ah, our meta-aware bard has arrived.
Did you know, that when I was looking for an image to use for the discord server, I discovered that Silverpine Forest is a locale in WoW? Well, I didn't know, and I doubt the Angry GM knew. Purely coincidence, surely.
*Raises hand sheepishly*
Bedlam and Sébastien may have a few things in common...lol.
Fun loving, but snobby and pretentious. That's a tough personality to create. Bare with me, lol.
Perception DC example:
It's NYE here in the land of Oz, so I want to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I'll be back to proper, regular posting from the 2nd January (1st Jan in the northern hemisphere). :)
Thanks. You too,
Happy New Year everyone! Stay safe.
◆= 1 Action
◆◆= 2 Action Activity
◆◆◆= 3 Action Activity
◇= Free Action
↺= Reaction
Hi all. Moving forward, in accordance with forum convention, we be using the above symbols to indicate actions during Encounter Mode. You may find it useful to copy and paste them into your Alias, but I've posted them as part of the campaign info above for convenience. I have no idea how to actually produce these symbols on any standard keyboard, so copy and paste is my best advice.
I normally copy and paste then into my header. I love that you have them posted. That will help quite a bit.
That is awesome! I don't think I know what you're saying when you talk about the "forum convention," but I'm sure I'll pick it up once I see it.
Here's an example of how it might look:
Alice draws her sword and advances on the goblin, swinging for its ears!
As this is a beginner's campaign, and meant to teach and learn 2e, I find this helps us understand the action economy and how actions work.
Mosquito blinks his eyes. The little-big goblin rubs them. He begins to pout until the stupid bar...guess appears right next to him!
Youses stupids! Stays stills!
And the little-big goblin is about to swing at the creature, but suddenly he pauses, listens to an unseen voice, and decides to (◆) Step into a Flank with the nice rogue lady.
Shrugging his shoulders, the goblin now takes his swing!