Drowned King, part II

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When I started the Sons of Moon and Sea campaign I had one idea: there are missing scouts, and the party is supposed to find them, or find what happened to them.  This was the initial session for the campaign, thrown together on the spot.  We were using D&D 3.5 at the time, and then only loosely.  I nearly killed the party with the centipedes, and a couple of our most memorable failed rolls happened here.  The cleric was using a staff, poorly, and whopped herself in the forehead when it rebounded off the stone floor (the player’s description).  The rogue was wielding dual blades and managed to stab herself in both thighs when the player rolled two 1’s (my decision based on the critters’ size and the player’s role-playing).  After the cleric prayed for a blessing there were no more critical fails.  They started rolling 20’s instead.  🙂

The original map is gone, but it was created entirely randomly.  At each door or intersection I rolled two dice for length and width of the next chamber, then two more for number and position of exits.  The emerald was the players’ addition, as was the secret door.  They asked, I gave it a 20% chance, and rolled something like an 18.  The idea that the hidden chamber was a temple to a lost death god was also their idea.  Basically, without knowing it, they wrote the background for the campaign.

Click here for the description of the Temple of the Drowned King.  It includes a rough map of the sinkhole, a few chambers of the temple, and a little of the cave/tunnel system that leads to the Eidechse village and the sea.

Adventure well!

~Jean Nadira

 

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Temple of the Drowned King

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This week, a description of one of the temples called Temple of the Drowned King.  This is actually the second location that my players were sent to at the beginning of the Sons of Moon and Sea campaign.  They were to check on a powerful artifact, to ensure its safety.  In reality, the two lizard folk shaman who guided them were members of a death cult.  They were there to steal the artifact.  The older shaman sacrificed her acolyte to open one of the blood-locked doors (which didn’t make it into the write-up).  Then, at the last, the entire party was betrayed by a higher-level rogue, the remaining shaman murdered, the artifact stolen, and the party left to suffocate, drown, or be destroyed by the chamber’s guardians.  The rogue used an item to open a portal and skip out on the party.  With just seconds to make a decision (the door, which was also closing, or the portal that lead to only-gods-knew-where), the party chose to jump into the portal after the traitor (a trainer at the local adventurers’ guild).  I used this as an opportunity to give them visions of possible near-future events and to move them forward in time one week.  This explained their absence in the city because I actually had two separate groups playing through two different parts of the campaign, and the temple group had been “on hold” for a while because Life.  It was a wonderfully intense session, since it included a “breath meter” as their breathe-underwater spells ran down, and they were completely surprised by the double-betrayal.

Whew!  All that said, if you want to check out the temple, click this link: The Temple of the Drowned King, part I

Post script:  I had each player roll a d6 before going into the temple.  Once they reached the inner chamber, that stat went up by one point.  This was a result of the residual power of creation saturating the chamber.  (1 = Strength, 2 = Dexterity, etc.)

 

 

 

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Deities of Erde

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So many of the belief systems we encounter in both fantasy reading and role-playing games are modeled after the Greek and Roman pantheons.  There is nothing wrong with this, but I wanted something different for Erde.   I went farther back in time, in a way, and drew on aspects of Egyptian and Asian beliefs, as well as western Pagan beliefs.  The gods of Erde did not create the world or her people.  Instead they are the world, or parts of it, and it was the belief of people that woke them and made them self-aware.

This week’s post includes minor spoilers for the campaign.  You can read the whole thing by clicking the this link: Deities and Beliefs.

May the gods smile on you and yours!

 

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Government

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Yes, it’s a dirty word right now, at least here in the United States.  But you kinda need it so your people know what to expect.

There are a lot of different social and political forms to choose from when creating nations and societies.  I’ve outlined a few of them for you.  Just click the link: Systems of Government

I really want to create a nation where the oldest, most powerful mages rule mundane matters such as trade and diplomacy, and the oldest, most powerful clerics rule spiritual matters including the justice system.

 

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Personal Update

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Our internet connection went out a few days ago so I was unable to do the research I wanted to do for this week’s blog.  A technician was supposed to come out yesterday afternoon to repair the connection, but we never heard from him.  We learned (by nearly running over the line with the lawnmower) about ten minutes ago that, yes, he had been here.  I am not happy.  I have internet, yes.  At less than half the speed I’m paying for.  And I have a hazard in my yard, namely the phone cable.  SO … there will be more calls made, which also makes me unhappy.  I’ll be back again next weekend with a real post (internet gods willing).  In the meantime, I wish you Happy Adventures!  May glory and fortune by yours!

~Jean Nadira

Frozen Blossoms

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So often these days when we hear the word “monk” we think “martial arts masters.”  But a monk is a person who has dedicated himself to a monastic order and to living by the precepts and tenets of that order.  It’s a spiritual life.  It is often a life of solitude, tucked away from the rest of the world.  In the role-playing games I’ve seen, “monk” is a combat-oriented class, a type of fighter, albeit one that harnesses internal energy to do some pretty amazing stuff.  But one does not have to be a fighter to be a monk.

I was trying to create a sorcerer character in D&D 5e recently, and I was unhappy with both choices for sorcerous origins.  Most of my worlds don’t have dragonborn, and wild magic didn’t fit the character developing in my mind.  So I went looking.  I finally settled on Yokai-kin – people who carry the blood of spirits/demons/gods for whatever reasons.  I’m still working on the mechanics for the character, but in the meantime, I present to you the Temple of Frozen Blossoms, and the sorcerer monks who live there.  Click the link to read the full write-up.

 

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The City’s Heart

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I was listening to a song by S. J. Tucker called November and one of the lines really struck a chord with me.  “The city’s heart sings a song for November.”  I couldn’t stop thinking of the heart of the city as a thing alive, it’s own entity.  What if a permanent community was built around an act of sacrifice?  How would that play out?  Would different forms of sacrifice produce cities that had different ambiances to them?

I finally sat down and wrote a vignette – a scene – describing one sacrifice.  For me, Eylithlana and her family are elven, but I deliberately left out all descriptions of them so you may fill in those details as you wish.  Her name is pronounced A-lith-Lah-nah.

Click here to read The City’s Heart

 

And for your listening pleasure, here is the link to S. J. Tucker’s song http://music.sjtucker.com/track/november-2

 

 

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the Port of Annan

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This week, a quick description and history of Annan’s Port, the starting area for my current campaign, titled The Sons of Moon and Sea.  It’s set on the world of Erde.

Click here to read about Annan’s Port

The map was created using Inkarnate Worlds, which you can find at http://inkarnate.com/

 

 

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the Crone

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So often modern imagery depicts death as skeletal, or ghoulish.  It presents anthropomorphized death as evil, a relentless hunter who seeks our destruction and then revels in it when he inevitably wins.

In the campaign I am currently running, Death goes by many names, among them the Hunter of Shadows, the Mistress of Ravens, and the Drowned King.  However, should the player characters fall, they will encounter a kindly old woman.

Click here to read the passage I have prepared for my players.

A note: We are playing Dungeons & Dragons™, 5th Edition.  I intend to give this passage to any players whose characters have failed two death saves.  Should they fail the third save and die, the Crone will lead them out of the Forest of Souls.  Companions who survive will have the opportunity to rescue the character(s) from the Otherworld.  Should they succeed their death saves and stabilize, the Crone will light their path back to the mortal realm.  But the characters will have the opportunity, at two fails, to choose to move on.

 

 

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Creating Characters

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This week I chose to talk about my character creation process.  Usually I don’t have any trouble creating new characters. On those rare occasions when the ideas just aren’t there, I use these tricks to get the creativity flowing again.  And sometimes I just have fun rolling up random – really random – characters.

Click this link to read the full post: Character Creation

May the dice always roll in your favor!  Or at least give you really interesting character concepts.

 

 

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