Ok, I read by on Cheliax history and Westcrown. I have a sketch for a character, I will prepare the details and the NPC's you requested tomorrow. If there is anything in the story you don't like tough, do say so, I might come up with something different.
Egder is a halforc bard coming from the southern lands of Katapesh. He is a blade dancer and actor, but always performs masked as not to scare the spectators.
An injury made his life difficult. When he pierced his leg while dancing ten years ago, he ran out of money rather quickly and he had to sell himself in slavery to avoid death from starvation. He was sold to a Chelian Noble and transported to Westcrown to entertain him, his family and their guests. During the years tough, he managed to collect some money. Six months ago he bought himself free, but he didn't find the taste of freedom as good as he had imagined. So when a group of concerned citizens approached him with tales of a free societey, he gratefully accepted.
Posting interest. I'm not familiar with Council of Thieves so I'm going to read first. Seems like a lack of casters, so would probably make such a character. I hope the hate of magic from the barbarian doesn't make him kill on sight? ;-)
I would make a low-ranked Red Wizard, given the task of investigating possibilities of opening a Red Wizard compound in the city. The reason of this is most probably because some higher-ranked mage disliked his ambition in the magic arts. He'd be LN since he's more focused on the Arcane as on Thayan politics, he's rather glad not to have to return there anytime soon.
Right on time Braxton, closing recruiting now. ;-)
I'll make a decision within 48 hours. It's going to be a tough decision since I saw many interesting stories and characters, but I'll do my very best to make a fair choice.
Yes, I would allow that. Just do me a favour and come up with a good story about the blade's personality and why it has been dormant. My suggestion would be something tied to the fear against magic in the Vales, or something tied to the death of your father. But no need for that now, you can do at lvl 2.
It's final, the language rules change a bit, thanks to Varro for the suggestion. To all participants who already chose their language, please make sure to adapt them.
Languages: Tintalas and the Olan Vales have the same language, but with a very distinctive dialect. This language is called "Vulgar", meaning "language of the people". When dealing with high nobility and clergy of Ishtar tough, many people prefer to speak "Divina", the language of the gods. It's the language of the Empress and everyone approaching her or serving her must know it. Furthermore there is "Argot", a language in the Olan Vales, originally created as a thieves language. Being forced underground, many magic-users use it as "their" language now. Last but not least, there is "Emerit". It is a dead language, only recently translated by scholars of Globeto, but found on many ruins troughout the Vales and Tintalas.
a) Vulgar = Common
b) Campaign bonus languages: Divina, Argot
c) Other bonus languages with some (minor) purpose in this campaign: Celestial, Abyssal, Infernal, Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Sylvan, Terran
d) Emerit requires the Linguistics skill, to represent a character being a scholar to know it.
@Errik, Senthiri: Welcome!
@Volty: Can you make a profile page for your character and insert abilities, skills etc?
It seems that at this point I'll have to make a selection. Party will be 6 people, as balanced as possible with a slight preferance to good narrative. Recruiting and character changes still open untill tomorrow midnight (european time).
Very good arguments, Varro. Thanks for pointing that out, I consider adapting to your suggestions of skipping the "magic users get for free" part and leaving Emerit for those with Linguistic skills, I'll let you all know in a few hours. If someone else has a say on the matter I suggest sharing it fast.
My reasoning for giving Divina and Argot for free was that, from a story point of view, it would almost be unlogical not to know the first as a cleric in Tintalas and the second as a magic user in the Olan Vales. But I didn't consider that would devaluate the languages, plus on a second tought I should leave some room for those who want to take a different path storywise.
Invasion of the Empire of Tintalas is going for +-3 years now. Strange raids and plunders of coastal cities happened earlier but the full-scale invasion is quite recent and happened very fast.
@Euchrid: Welcome aboard! Still room at this stage, closing recruitment tomorrow midnight (European time).
Hissarion:
I think you could do something with that, just don't forget that for Hissarion as well, this invasion is clouded in mysteries and forces beyond his understanding.
Thanks for the characters, Marabelus Tarphoni and Liam Rackford! They look good at first sight, I'll have a closer look tomorrow.
Here is some information about the languages:
Languages: Tintalas and the Olan Vales have the same language, but with a very distinctive dialect. This language is called "Vulgar", meaning "language of the people". When dealing with high nobility and clergy of Ishtar tough, many people prefer to speak "Divina", the language of the gods. It's the language of the Empress and everyone approaching her or serving her must know it. Furthermore there is "Argot", a language in the Olan Vales, originally created as a thieves language. Being forced underground, many magic-users use it as "their" language now. Last but not least, there is "Emerit". It is a dead language, only recently translated by scholars of Globeto, but found on many ruins troughout the Vales and Tintalas.
a) Vulgar = Common
b) Divine casters of Tintalas get "Divina" for free, all others can select it as a bonus language.
c) Arcane casters of the Olan Vales get "Argot" for free, all others can select it as a bonus language.
d) Campaign bonus language: Emerit
e) Other bonus languages with some (minor) purpose in this campaign: Celestial, Abyssal, Infernal, Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Sylvan, Terran
@Varro the Haruspex: Had a good read, interesting character! Didn't see the Alertness feature tough, so what do you intend with "Senses Perception +3 (alertness)"?
@Zariah: Definitely has good prospects storywise. A gift from the Godess is possible, if not you can keep the current story with minor adaptions to fit either the Olan Vales or Tintalas. You'll need to change the Heirloom Weapon trait tough (same issue as Hissarion) and you'll need to downgrade abilities to a 20 point buy.
@Hissarion: Lookin' good!
I'll put the deadline for recruiting on Tuesday. If you got any questions, feel free to ask. I'm still working on parts of the campaign to be able to provide a good story, I hope the effort I put in will be rewarded with a good campaign.
@Roidrage: I'm sorry, can't tell for the entire campaign yet. I got the big story in my head but haven't tought over all the environments so far. I do fit campaigns for the characters tough, so if there is a gunslinger, I'll provide muskets, if there is a cavalier I'll provide mounted combat occasions. I just can't predict how common it will be.
@JoelF847: Thanks for the character! Answer to third question at the bottom, I think the info from Magics in the Olan Vales makes it complete.
@Mark Sweetman: No problem, thanks for the interest!
Magics on the Material Plane: Standard level. A rich black market in the Olan Vales, public shops etc. in Tintalas.
@JoelF847: Interesting questions, but let me tackle one issue at a time ^^ At the bottom of this post you'll find more info about faith in Tintalas and magics in the Olan Vales, I'll answer your last question tomorrow. If you got further questions, go ahead, but I'm not going to tell you what's in my sleeve ;-)
@Varash Ironskull: Thanks for the interest, looking forward to see your character!
@Hissarion Azor: You were right, he does fit in good! Take your time for the edits, I'll warn in advance when deadline is approaching and by then you'll have another two days. I still need to cover large parts of the story as well.
@Varro the Haruspex: Defenitely still open, I'll have a good read tomorrow for your char!
The Faith of Tintalas: The people of Tintalas believe in Ishtar, the Sun Godess. Ishtar (Lawfull Neutral) is represented on the material plane by the Empress, a divine incarnation of hers. She is both the Creator and the Destroyer of the world and will do the last when the time has come, according to ancient prophecies. Because of this, Clerics in her service represent various aspects of her: a cleric can preach good in her name, teaching to help others, another can preach that human sacrifices in her name must be made to please her. There is only one domain that does not represent her: Chaos. Everything, from life to (un)death, creation to destruction, has a meaning and a place in the divine order that Ishtar has created. Chaos is perceived a disruption of this order and hence a heresy.
Magics in the Olan Vales: The Olan Vales are a federation, a highly decentralised group of cities. As such, there are no laws against arcane or divine magic. On the other hand this makes magic-users dangerous, since there are no authorities able to control them, either divine or arcane. There are cults for gods (sometimes even with support from a public church) and hidden groups of mages, but in public, magic is like thievery. Valesmen know it exists, they see traces of it and suspect some people of doing it, but they rarely see someone actually doing it and prefer to keep it that way. No one will mourn for a dead thief, and no one will mourn for a dead magic-user.
@Saint Caleth: Thanks! Feel free to put him in, as long as he fits the setting I'm more than happy.
@Mark Sweetman: I am not familiar with material from other Paizo sources, so I'm hesitant to use it. You can convince me to use Homebrew/other Paizo stuff by creating a good story around it that suits the setting. Fair enough?
Some say it was inevitable and that our great empire was already a succes by avoiding this fate for a thousand years. Others claim we brought it upon ourselves by our pride or even speak of a divine punishment. Whatever the explanation, the hordes of the sea have come and our walls have fallen. They have taken thousands of lives, defied our Empress and plundered our cities. Only we are left, in the city of Babil, ironically "Gate of the Godess". She has become silent. And we wonder... How did the horde of the sea do this? Why were our Empress and our magics not enough to hold them back? Was the horde just lucky or are other causes at hand? Why has the Godess fallen silent? Why do our allies do not answer? We have sent messages to the Olan Vales, yet no sign of help. Have they all forsaken us?
Mirthon the Wise, High Priest under Empress Ishtaranian II
Setting::
We have what used to be a mighty Empire on the brink of collapse, Tintalas, and their allies and trade partners, the Olan Vales. The players start in the city of Globeto, capital of the Olan Vales.
The Olan Vales: A merchant federation of cities, compare it to the historical Hanze in northern Germany, or the Italian Republics in the late middle ages.
Tintalas: A large and centralised Empire with an Empress, incarnation of the Sun Godess, at its head and High Priests directly serving her.
Technology: Late middle ages/early renaissance. Bombs, early guns (think of muskets rather than rifles or revolvers) and the usual fantasy stuff.
Religion: A Pantheon in the Olan Vales, Monotheism in Tintalas. In fact, most of the Tintalas people venerate their Empress as a living godess. Only refugees dare to openly doubt she is a godess. As for the Pantheon, feel free to use the Pathfinder Pantheon for now or come up with a good homebrew that convinces me.
Magic: In Tintalas, magic used to be a blessing, in the Olan Vales it's considered a curse. It frightens people and many Valesmen are openly or secretly hostile towards magic-users, causing difficulties in the refugee population.
Recent history: See prologue. Refugees in large number look for shelter in the Olan Vales.
Cultures Tintalas is a rather Lawfull Neutral society, the Olan Vales are Chaotic Neutral. They have a long history of rivalry but have never invaded the other and joined forces when eliminating threats to both civilizations, untill now.
Races: There are other advanced races in the world, but your character has only heard myths and legends of them. Perhaps even heard a traveller speaking about them, but never encountered another civilized race before.
Other: Feel free to ask.
Characters - Rules:
-Starting level: 1
-Races: Human only.
-Classes: All official* base classes, core classes & archetypes.
-Feats: All official* feats allowed.
-Abilities: Point buy 20, no ability under 9 before modifiers
-Traits: 2 official* traits
-Money: 250gp
Feel free to pick either a native Valesmen or a Tintalian refugee. You're free to agree or to disagree with your proper civilizations' culture, (you can be a chaotic Tintalian who is very happy with the freedom in the Vales, or a lawfull Valesmen who would love an established power in the Vales for either good or bad).
Tintalian characters have had no personal contact with the invaders. You fled before seeing any actual combat.
Valesmen characters do not know what to make of current events, hearing many tales of the refugees but no one seems to have actually seen the enemy.
Make sure your background story includes:
-your most valuable posession and why you hold it dear
-the name of a relative, a friend or lover, be it alive or dead
To motivate you a bit, I give a minor bonus trait to good/original character backgrounds.
The Players:
I'm looking for 4-6 people willing to bring this world alive. Recruitment will depend on the amount of interest, more info will follow soon.
I expect the players to post at least daily. If you don't post for 2 days without noticing beforehand your character dies.
The DM:
I'm a 3.5 player and discovered Pathfinder only recently. I don't have much experience DM'ing, but this is not my first campaign either. I've done some forum RP before, but this will be my first PbP campaign. What I enjoy most is the RP part: creating a world and making others part of it. I'm not native English so I'm sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes. I do hope the players will have a wonderfull time and look forward to start this.
I think I got something for you... I'm not familiar with Torchwood tough, but I do like steampunk. So here's a quick character draw:
Creating a Scottish middle aged Swordsmith who recently had to close his shop due to the poor demand for swords lately (everyone wants guns nowadays). He lost pretty much everything and still has huge debts because the business was a family tradition he didn't want to give up. Wishing to provide an income for his family - his wife and three children - he is looking for a new job. Any job. He would be a Barbarian, taking the Giant campaign trait, and when doing dirty jobs he tends to carry his favourite hammer with him, as well as a Greatsword he inherited from his clan.
