Group 1 (Harauld, Elric, Edyssa, Thorfinn):
It is, as always, high noon upon the Bifrost, the hot, humid climate of the Rainbow Bridge serving as a strark contrast to the cold northlands of lost Midgard. In the years since Ragnarok, Midgard’s refugees have adapted to their new home, spreading out from the settlement of Ragnfeld, harvesting trees, hunting the novel wildlife and establishing agriculture. Lately however, Bifrost’s wildlife has been biting back.
Here, at the northern edge of the farmlands taking shape around Ragnfeld, lies the small village of Arnsford, home to a hardy collection of farmers, woodsmen and crafters. This thriving community has lately fallen under the shadow of a winged predator, evoking uncomfortable memories of some of the beasts loosed during Ragnarok. The predator, described as some manner of winged serpent, has been taking livestock for some days now, to the fury of farmers to whom all good breeding stock is precious. There is also the fear it will turn its attention to people. So far, the serpent has eluded efforts to bring it to battle, prompting local Thegn Gulbrandr Frostmane to put out a call for hunters to track and kill it.
Gulbrandr’s call has netted him perhaps a dozen prospective hunters, a mix of locals and people from further afield. It has also netted him an audience of villagers. At present, the interested parties are gathered on the village green, waiting on Gulbrandr to kick things off. There is a low murmur of conversation as people discuss the serpent’s depredations, speculate on the Thegn’s plan, or simply catch up on news and gossip.
Everybody go ahead and post up an introduction, outline what’s brought you to Arnsford in time for the hunt and so forth.
Okay, we have a proper discussion thread for the campaign. Please note that this is invitation-only, simply because I've probably got too many interested parties already.
With that said, the information I've provided so far:
Essentially, I’ve gone post-apocalyptic. Or rather, post-ragnarok. The Twilight of the Gods has been and gone. A wolf devoured the sun, armies of the dead set sail on ships of fingernails, and a lot more besides. Fimbulwinter descended and Midgard perished in a cold and endless night. Thankfully, Midgard was not the only world. Some few mortal survivors were able to traverse the chaos and destruction of Ragnarok and find refuge upon the Rainbow Bridge.
Some five years have passed since then. Though the scars of Ragnarok still linger, the people are prospering in their new home, and are doing their best to rebuild their fallen civilisation, salvaging or reassembling whatever scraps of knowledge they can. There’s considerable scope for adventurous types to chart the limits of the Bifrost, or to become involved in politics as old divisions, set aside in the name of survival, reassert themselves.
The Bifrost is a tropical realm of eternal sunlight and indeterminate size, rich in plants, animals and natural resources, but seemingly devoid of intelligent life. People have begun to modify the terrain around the settlement of Ragnfeld, establishing dwellings and agriculture, but the Bridge is sparsely populated and explorations have been limited to date. Thus far, mineral resources are scarce, providing an impetus for exploration.
Ragnfeld itself, originally a small frontier outpost, is rapidly becoming a sizable town, with some thirty thousand people living there or scattered across the surrounding countryside. Its population consists primarily of humans and kobolds, with other races represented to greater or lesser extents. Some of Midgard’s common races are not represented at all, having failed to escape Ragnarok. The demographics are also a tad shot, being skewed towards women and the young, such people having been more likely to be sent through the portal to the Bridge, rather than fighting to defend it.
Culturally, the people are primarily Ascomi, a fantasy analogue of the Norse, and sharing the Norse pantheon. Other cultures and pantheons held sway in different regions of Midgard, and there is a certain resentment among survivors of those cultures that the Ascomi gods took the rest of the world down with them.
Quite aside from the push to gather knowledge and resources to rebuild, there are some decidedly ambitious people around, determined to make their mark upon the new world, whether as leaders or explorers. Others are more focused upon teaching or training the younger generation, or seeing to the readiness of a militia. Ragnarok is, after all, a recent memory, and being ready to fight and survive never goes amiss.
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Character Creation:
I’ll be going with a high fantasy points buy (ie 20 points), with a starting level of 3. I’m open to most character classes, so long as I have access to them, and may well be willing to discuss tweaking depending on character concepts. Starting wealth is equivalent to 4,000 gp.
In terms of backgrounds, you’re wide open. You might be Ascomi, or a traveller from elsewhere on fallen Midgard. You might be one of the initial explorers of the Rainbow Bridge, or a refugee from Ragnarok. You might be of a common race, a small remnant, or the last of your kind.
Although the gods have been silent since Ragnarok, clerics still have access to divine spells and powers, though it’s a mystery where they’re drawing that power from. People are free to select their own pantheons.
On the topic of wealth, it’s worth noting that Ragnfeld is not a gold-heavy economy, running more on barter, favours and social credit. There are also a few artifacts from Midgard available for general use, the most notable being the Changestone, a statue able to transmute people into mer-kin (or mer-kobolds, as the case may be). Very handy for exploring the ocean.
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In response to Min's question about Triaxians and dragonriders:
In terms of cosmology, I'd been intending to use the nine worlds of Norse mythology, rather than alien worlds per se. At least in terms of worlds connected to Midgard. That said, the nine worlds are very much open to interpretation, source material on them being rather limited.
So, if you wanted to reskin the Triaxians to be a race with variant morphologies depending on which world they were born on (say, for instance, Niflheim versus Muspelheim), with perhaps a history of migration across the worlds, that might work quite well. Alternatively, a case might be made for one of the worlds having a variable climate, or an entire region oscillating between worlds.
Whether the same connections held sway in other regions on Midgard, or whether different cosmologies were found depending on the culture or pantheons of a region is a question I'll be leaving ambiguous for now. Or perhaps the cultures and pantheons themselves were shaped by a region's connections to other worlds.
On the topic of dragonriders, I'll give it some thought. My inclination is, if and when dragons do turn up in the campaign, they'll be a very different kettle of fish to your standard D&D dragon, but that isn't an insurmountable difficulty. Indeed, I already have some thoughts as to how to work one in. I come from a very freestyle background when it comes to character creation, so my instinct is to do a bit of tweaking to allow concepts, rather than vetoing them because they clash with my vision.
I'm pretty open in terms of races. I haven't nailed down which races existed on Midgard and the nine worlds to begin with, which leaves things open for people to nominate their own favoured races, and perhaps histories to go with them.
Various races could be tied in with Norse mythology, or they could hail from other regions of Midgard, where different paradigms held sway. I think the only races which might present difficulties are those which hail from alien worlds or have a sci-fi feel to them, and even then they might be able to be reskinned or have backgrounds tweaked. Ragnarok may also provide an excuse for interesting races.
Just on the topic of races, I'm declaring that kobolds get -2 STR, +2 DEX and +2 CHA, simply because I don't think I should declare they're a common race and then penalise anyone who decides to play one with bad stats.
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As far as equipment goes, I'm not putting any restrictions on what you can spend your starting wealth on - I trust people to exercise common sense there. Bear in mind that big ticket items will mean gaps in other equipment which won't necessarily be easy to fill later on.
Any further questions, feel free to ask.
Also, in answer to a question I missed from the previous thread, current ACs are as follows: 23, 20, 27, 27, 22. I'll let you figure out who has what value. I'll admit I haven't been trying to maximise AC, so the characters generally lack items such as amulets of natural armour, though this is already changing as they loot various NPCs who have invested in such things. Full character sheets are unlikely to be posted, as reformatting them would drive me mad. Mad!
Part 1: The Great Hall.
Having been provided with a certain door-opening artifact by their employer, the characters are able to enter the Great Hall without difficulty and start poking around. It isn't long before the clanking of plate armour alerts the bodaks in their lair to the approach of meddling adventurers. They sneak up on the party while Kelne is explaining just why area 7 is a trap. Thankfully, Varlak hears them coming and alerts the others.
Fight 1: Gaze attacks! DC15 Fort or die!
(In practice, I've altered the bodaks, bringing them in line with the new death effect rules. So they deal 90 damage (taking their caster level as equal to their HD) to anyone who fails a save, and 3d6+9 on a successful save. The full damage is still sufficient to kill Cerene outright, and would reduce Kelne or Varlak to negatives. One shudders to imagine the consequences for a party of lower level facing a bodak unprepared.)
With Varlak delaying, Brun shrugs off the disturbing gaze of the first foe round the corner and goes on the offensive. With a natural 1 to hit, he should be thankful I'm not using the critical fumbles deck (36 damage to Brun total, thanks to two passed saves).
Kelne likewise passes his save (albeit by a narrower margin; 22 damage), moves up and rolls a natural 20. Pity undead are immune to crits. Still, with a cold iron weapon, there's no damage reduction to worry about. 15 damage (out of 60).
The second bodak skips the directed gaze attack and deals Kelne 8 damage. Little more than an annoyance at this level; the directed gaze attacks are far scarier. Note to self - no physical attacks in future.
With no room in the front rank, Gloria is reduced to grinding her teeth (22 damage from gaze).
Enter the cleric. Recognising the foul undead for what they are, Cerene warns the others not to look them in the eyes on quite literal pain of death and coolly waits for the entire pack to get within range before breaking out the positive energy channeling. This involves a couple more saves for the front-liners, which they make handily (18 damage to both Brun and Kelne, 19 to Cerene). Cerene's summoned lion is not so lucky, and is rather thoroughly dead.
Thanks to a phylactery of positive chanelling, we're looking at a basic 8d6 damage. Of the pack, only one fails its save (31 damage, 15 to the rest, 31 points of badly needed healing). Varlak, meanwhile, has an idea (he averted his gaze).
Varlak: Kill the lights!
Kelne: Are you mad?!
Varlak: Kill. The. Lights.
Round one hence ends with both casters canceling their light spells. As everybody except the elf and the human has darkvision, this is not the disaster it might seem. No more gaze attacks to worry about. To date, the characters have been lucky in this department, making quite a few saves. Still, given they've taken damage nevertheless, a single failed save would probably spell death for the character in question.
The fleeing bodak draws an AoO from Brun, which is negated by damage reduction.
Brun steps into the gap left by the fleeing bodak and, following Cerene's example, cuts loose with the positive energy. 7d6 this time, again due to a phylactery. It's interesting that despite being a paladin, Brun's only dealing 1d6 less turning damage, though a lower save DC means it's less likely to be fully effective. Again, only one failed save (28 damage/healing, 14 to the rest). What is it with this d20 and saving throws? Characters are now back at or close to full HP.
Now blind, Kelne takes a couple of swipes at the last known position of 'his' bodak, more to distract it than anything, and takes a 5-foot step back. Having missed abysmally, he promptly gets hit by a critical when the bodak follows him. (Brun, incidentally, is grinding his teeth at investing in adamantine rather than cold iron). This all sounds more frightening than it is, as the bodak only deals 4 damage with its crit. The horror.
Said bodak is promptly set upon by Gloria with her cold iron greataxe. The combination of rage and overhand chop deals 24 damage, not quite enough to finish it off. Had I thrown power attack into the mix, it certainly would have, but that -6 to hit is pretty hefty.
Thankfully, Cerene does not need to see to channel positive energy. The heavily wounded bodak fails its save and is annihilated, and one more runs (29 damage, 14 to the remaining two). Brun inflicts a whole 1 damage with his AoO. I foreseee some form of cold iron backup weapon in his future.
The remaining bodaks decide that this whole fighting in the dark thing is a losing game and withdraw. Gloria is having none of that, and gives chase.
Brun: Give me that sword!
As the casters bring up the lights again, they find themselves looking at the receding backs of their colleagues. Kelne regards the adamantine warhammer in his hand with annoyance.
Cerene: I'm sure he'll give it back...
Since bodaks aren't all that fast, even when fleeing, they're soon caught and cut to pieces with cold iron, with the lone survivor found cowering in their lair soon afterwards.
Analysis:
End result: Two turn attempts, one big cat expended by Cerene, one turn attempt by Brun, 4 rage points by Gloria. Although the party took significant damage, it was all fixed up by the end of the fight thanks to positive energy chaneling.
Despite the altered death effects, the risk of sudden death remained very real. There was certainly some middle ground between the bodaks killing people with a mere glance and being completely ineffective, making for a more interesting fight, I feel.
Of course, once the lights went out, it was all over for the poor old bodaks. 1d6+1 damage on a successful (and unlikely) hit is not something to inspire fear.
Lessons learned by the party: 1) Get the paladin a cold iron weapon. 2) In future, Gloria goes in the front rank.
Edited: Soon after completing the initial encounter, I found a thread discussing the changes to DR. Not entirely sure about them, but they certainly would have made Brun's attacks more effective, and the extra +2 damage for the +2 cold iron weapons definitely would have dropped a bodak earlier. It also means there would be no borrowing of Kelne's sword by Brun. Alas for the loss of humour.
A beacon of civilization along the Lost Coast, the town of Sandpoint has had its share of troubles in recent times, but today, these all seem things of the past. An event that has drawn in locals from miles around, and even a few visitors from as far away as Magnimar, the Swallowtail Festival this year marks the dedication of the new Sandpoint Cathedral, a house of worship for many faiths, that of Desna chief among them.
Mayor Deverin opens the proceedings, and though sheriff Hemlock mars the mood somewhat by calling for a moment's silence in memory of those who died when the old chapel the catherdral is replacing burned down, the remaining speakers soon lift the crowd's spirits once more. The festival is a great success, highlights including the release of a thousand swallowtail butterflies by Father Zantus and his acolytes at noon, numerous performances by minstrels and the annual competition between the town's inns for the best meal, the lure of free food even drawing out the town's mostly-tolerated goblin resident. Ameiko Kaijitsu of the Rusty Dragon handily wins this contest.
As the sun begins to set, our various heroes find themselves gathered near the cathedral. The assembled people are still going strong, the sound of a dozen conversations filling the air. These conversations are abruptly interrupted by a sharp crack, as of muted thunder, which wakes a stray dog which has crawled under a nearby wagon to sleep, stills tongues and draws attention to the central podium, where a beaming Father Zantus has taken the stage.
He clears his throat, takes a breath to speak, and suddenly a woman's scream slices through the air. A few moments later, another scream arises, then another. Beyond them, a sudden surge of new voices rises - high-pitched, tittering shrieks that sound not quite human. The crowd parts and something low to the ground races by, giggling with disturbing glee as the stray dog gives a pained yelp and collapses with a gurgle, its throat cut from ear to ear. As blood pools around its head, the raucous sound of a strange song begins, chanted from shrill, scratchy voices.
And away we go. Spot checks for all, followed by initiative.
Also, Arctaris: I've had a bit of a change of heart as regards Korpiklanni. I'm inclined to use the halfling rules with an additional -2 to CHA and without the bonus to fear saves (because really, whoever heard of a fearless goblin?) and of course, proficiency with the appropriate weapons. Oh, and darkvision. This puts him not quite level with the upgraded PC races, but I think the gap is now more comparable with the one that existed under the old rules.
Finding 1 of the campaign: Pathfinder goblins are compelling enough that there are people willing to play them even under the rules in the monster manual.
Well, since we now have a good chunk of the classes out, I figure the time is right for me to give the new system a whirl. So, I'm looking for 4-6 players willing to put the new system through its paces and perhaps post up their thoughts in a separate thread from time to time.
I'll be leaving recruitment open for a couple of days or until I get enough people, whichever comes last. In the event that I get a surplus of volunteers (As seems likely, given the speed at which such threads are pounced on), I'll draw lots. I'll be looking at maintaining a rate of at least one post per day, ideally.
Character creation will be by 32 point buy, with standard starting wealth. Core books and alpha document only (plus the players' guide, of course). To begin with, at least.
Well, that seems to to be the basics. Any questions, post away.
I should mention that the issues I have with the rogue go back to 3.5, so no complaints specific to the revisions.
Trapfinding, for me, is the big issue. I tend to read this ability as 'the rogue (and only the rogue) may deal with traps'. Now, I have no problem with rogues being better at dealing with traps than other classes, but I do think it should be possible for other classes to take a crack at it if they want to invest in the perception and disable device skills.
As it stands, once you hit traps with a search DC of 21+ or magic traps, a party without a rogue is reduced to either extreme paranoia or sending the meatshield in first and taking the hits.
My second issue is with rogue talents. It seems to me that these could be modified in line with fighter bonus feats, thus both reducing clutter in the rogue entry (and in stat blocks), and opening up the abilities to other classes willing to burn feats on them. Obviously, some modification would be required, and owing to the specialised nature of some talents, conversion may not be practical, but I do think it bears looking into.
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