A bitter wind howls outside; an eerie song promising further storms of snow to come. The old wooden walls creak in defiant protest of the wind, and as you look out the windows of the Salty Dog tavern you see the icy flakes whip through the air violently. It is a good night to be indoors.
You have taken up residence in the tavern for the past tenday; the journey up from Luskan was exhausting and upon arrival in the harbour you were disheartened to discover that Lord Ulbrec Dinnesmore had confined all mercenaries and sellswords to the harbour district. Rumours abound as to his reasoning, some say he has gone mad in light of the recent goblin attacks on the Palisades. Others still speak in hushed tones of a traitor abiding among the townsfolk.
You are all presently sitting at a small table by the fire, finishing off the remnants of your nightly meal. A few other small bands share the common room tonight; mercenaries from as far as Cormyr have ventured to Targos seeking fame and glory.
Hey guys, welcome to the gameplay post. Please take this opportunity to enjoy some in character conversation about whatever your heart desires. Spirits (and coin) are starting to run low among your group as the journey hasn't quite turned out as expected. Your biggest issue currently is the prohibition of mercenary companies from accessing the town proper, and for the last ten days you've been consigned to the harbour district. This has probably been a little disheartening and, combined with the relentlessly cold weather of late, has left everyone feeling a little down in the dumps.
Feel free to dot in here while I work on getting all of the relevant info ready to go. Now's probably a good time to establish your background as a group; who knows who, how you all came to meet in Luskan etc.
The year was 1310DR when scouts from Bryn Shander, the largest of the ten towns, first reported sighting goblin warbands. Within weeks, a river of goblins had flowed forth from the spine of the world, and above that wave of death sailed a banner bearing the monstrous heads of the chimera.
The militiamen of the ten towns would have been the Dale's only defense, had the forces of fate been against Bryn Shander. But Ulbrec Dinnesmore, the mayor of the town of Targos, urged the council to send a messenger south to the port cities of Luskan and Neverwinter.
Luskan had problems of her own, but fearful of repercussions the captains of Luskan devised a simple plan. Throughout the city they posted notices promising wealth and fame. With lean work in the northern port city, many mercenaries and thugs were lured to the ships that would take them even further north.
And so their ships crept through the sea of moving ice and onto the Shaengarne river. They bragged of the deeds they would perform and the castles they would purchase. Lost in their reverie, the were blind to the throngs of goblins and orcs that lay in wait. Only a few ships survived the assault. Those that continued up the river watched as the town of Bremen burned. One of the Ten Towns had already fallen
Many wondered, as I often wonder, what difference only a few can make against so many, and in the midst of such terrible circumstances...
Welcome to Icewind Dale! The year is 1310 DR, and the northern lands of Faerun are threatened by an amassing army of orcs and goblinoids. The Ten Towns cry out for aid; will you answer the call?
I’ll be looking for 4-6 characters to embark on an epic quest to the frozen northern reaches of Faerun.
Characters will start at 1st level, and recruitment will be open for 1 week. Submissions close at 12:00AM (GMT) December 18. I’ll dig through the applications and announce the selected party by December 20. This gives us a few days to work out party logistics before Christmas, and fine tune any last minute issues. The selected players should be able to commit to posting at least once per day during the week, and once on weekends. I realise that Christmas is looming, and as such I don’t expect to fully get into the swing of the campaign until after the holiday rush subsides. For an application to be considered complete it will require a character sheet (no need for an alias; a spoiler posted in this thread will suffice) and background as detailed below.
Character Creation:
Abilities: 25 point buy, with no stat below 8 before racial modifiers.
Hit Points: Max HP at first level. Half rounded up or roll (whichever is higher) every other level.
Sources Available: Core classes are a given. Make a case for any of the other class options and we’ll see if it fits. No 3rd party.
Races: Core races, planetouched (aasimar and tiefling only) and underdark (drow, duergar, svirfneblin) are all fine.
Alignment: Any non-evil.
Wealth: Maximum starting wealth for your class. Resources will be scarce initially so make sure you pack suitably.
Skills: We will be using background skills.
Traits: 2 traits.
Character Background:
* Your character should have a reason to have been in Luskan prior to the campaign starting, and a strong motivation to travel to the Ten Towns to lend a hand. Whether this is to escape a debt, to earn a name for yourself or good ol’ fashioned altruism is completely your call.
*You’ll begin in the Town of Targos. Resources are limited due to the recent circumstances and as such even simple items will be costly or difficult to procure at first. Don’t forget to bring a coat, it gets cold in the north…
*The Forgotten Realms is a setting with a rich history and some fantastic lore. I encourage you to steep yourself in it for a while before creating a character. There are stacks of fantastic novels, video games and comic books that may help provide inspiration and help to cement your character within the setting.
Also, If this starts to pick up in the next few days I’m considering opening an in-character tavern RP tab on a separate thread. I’ve got some ideas that would lead into the campaign-proper quite nicely so stay tuned for the link.
I’ve probably forgotten some really pertinent information here; feel free to fire away with any questions you may have.
I'm reasonably new to these forums, and haven't had much luck getting into any games (yet). I've noticed a drastic disparity between the number of players vs. GM's, and so I've decided to maybe run a game of my own.
I'm a huge fan of Forgotten Realms, and the Icewind Dale series was pretty much responsible for my discovery of dungeons and dragons. So, due to my familiarity with the story and the general lore surrounding the events which take place in IWD 2, I propose to run a campaign based loosely on the assault of the Ten-Towns by the Legion of the Chimera.
This is purely an interest check to see if there are any people who'd be willing to jump on board and have a go at this. I've drafted enough content to take a group of 4 to 6 adventurers up to around 3rd level; if there's a committed group and we're all still enjoying the story I'm happy to continue on.
I really just want the opportunity to practice my writing skills, get used to the flow of a PBP game and share my take on the story which is such a massive part of why I become so enamored with tabletop RPG's.
Please note this is not a recruitment thread; that will come later when I'm sure there is enough interest to warrant investing more time and effort into the idea.
