DiscipleofBob
2009-02-10, 01:29 AM
Campaign Journal
I thought I'd try out the whole campaign journal thing for the 4e game I'm running. It's a homebrewed world that, while remaining a fantasy setting, has some magitech elements through the natural resource of magic called mana. More story and such to follow.
The Characters
Josephine Clarice Deloria: An Indiana-Jones style aerialist rogue known to the other players only as “Jo.” Formerly of a noble family, Jo takes a great interest in archaeology and takes pleasure in exploring ruins, finding ancient artifacts, and turning them over to a historical society. Despite her background, Jo can’t stand typical noble behavior and takes pains to hide her heritage.
Aramil Dundragon: A human fullblade-wielding fighter, long-term friend of Jo. The country he comes from is the stereotypical “poor” country, but his family is pretty well off as they run an airship business gathering mana. (Mana being a magical natural resource used to basically replace technology on the main continent.) Happy-go-lucky (read: annoying and he knows it) character.
Myreii: Tiefling Feylock. Due to a houserule, she has cold resistance instead of fire resistance, as she reasons her “patron fey” is water-based. It made sense at the time. Very carefree personality. Acquaintance of Jo and Aramil.
Zeldandris Teranus: Eladrin artificer. Eladrin in this world lack the direct ties to the fey, and are instead typical high elves who have some innate arcane abilities, which can translate to the teleportation or some other abilities. On a mission from his home continent to find some missing Eladrin from his house who may or may not have sold a bunch of house property on the black market.
Syn Arl: Dragonborn Beastmaster Ranger with a bear companion: On and off again player, so not really a developed backstory.
Session 1:
Our players begin in the city of Anchorhead in the country of Cape Moon. Cape Moon is a bay filled with an archipelago of diverse, tropical islands, and Anchorhead is the waterlocked city that controls trade from Cape Moon to the rest of the continent. Roads are available but treacherous, so really the best and only safe way to travel out of Anchorhead is by river boat. The halflings control the river trade and will take on passengers in addition to continentally traded cargo.
Unfortunately, Anchorhead is experiencing some trouble, as the gates to the rivers are closed off and no ships are being allowed to leave. Seeking to expedite the process of leaving, our heroes meet at the mayor’s office to find out what’s going on. Apparently, there was a large theft of mana from an incoming ship, and most of the crew was either murdered or brutally injured. The PC’s resolve to investigate the matter and recover the stolen goods (for a small fee of course) so they can leave for better and brighter things.
After a few Streetwise checks and roleplaying where I pull some foreshadowing and introduce some colorful NPC’s, the PC’s get the general idea that they should go see Garro, the head shipbuilder at a warehouse outside the town. After a short walk, they get to said building, large enough to house the construction of an entire ship.
Now, what the players DON’T know is that this is a front for the local thief’s guild. Garro himself is a major player in a criminal society that spans the continent, and that the reason such drastic action has been taken for this one theft is because the goods were stolen without good approval. Garro’s just looking for some cheap labor to deal with the problem and save his reputation. All the players have to do is drop the right names and explain the full situation and Garro will give them his information.
However, the PC’s are unfortunate in their choice of words, telling the guards at the front entrance that they are just here “investigating” setting off the paranoia of the guards while Jo decides to sneak around the side and sneak up a drainpipe. After choosing better words and clearing up some confusion, the PC’s get let in. The guard shows them to Garro, a large, black dragonborn who in turn takes them to the captain’s cabin of the still-in-construction ship. A tiefling woman shuts the door and starts toying with a menacing-looking knife. Meanwhile, Jo has broken into a skylight window undetected and is starting to shimmy down the mast, still undetected, before realizing there’s no safe place for her to dismount without drawing a LOT of attention. Frustrated, she makes her way back up and goes in the regular way.
Garro explains that he knows where the stolen goods are, and that he has the resources to get it himself, but he doesn’t want to spend the resources when some adventurers will conveniently do the job for free (or even better, on the mayor’s dime). He offers to give the information in exchange for giving him the guy in charge of the heist alive. The PC’s agree, though OOC they’re still unsure of whether or not they’ll follow through on said promise.
The thieves in charge of this particular heist have three ships at their disposal, all docked and in separate ports across the city. The stolen goods are in one of the boats, but which one is unknown. The town guard is paralyzed because if they cause a commotion at one boat, and get the wrong one, the other two will safely sail away even without legal clearance, so some stealth is required.
The PC’s head to the first boat, not picking any one in particular, and find a single guard patrolling the deck and keeping to the side of the boat. Jo jumps in the water to disable the rudder. The artificer also decides to jump in and climb up the side of the boat to get into an eventual flanking position. The dragonborn is keeping watch while the the tiefling pretends to be drunk (actually she still is from getting wasted earlier) to “seduce” the guard. The guard is seemingly more concerned about her safety as two vicious guard drakes are chained to the main mast. The fighter eventually comes to assist the tiefling in the con. Jo disables the rudder, Zeldandris miraculously doesn’t drown by rolling a natural 20 on Athletics, and before the guard knows what’s going on, all of the PC’s are on the boat, the guard drakes are attacking and Aramil knocks the guard unconscious and overboard.
The guard drakes are only part of the problem, however, as some pirates are making their way from below deck. Jo nails the trapdoor shut with the dagger, but it’s a minor delay. The dragonborn, feylock, and artificer take on the drakes with the dragonborn ranger doing a spectacular job of defending, the feylock taking potshots from a distance, and the artificer providing all sorts of wonderful buffs and AoE’s. Jo and Aramil have the pirates bottlenecked, and even their big, shirtless brute couldn’t pose much of a threat while the other non-minion pirate botched a roll and got knocked overboard. The drakes take the longest to kill. After some searching, the first boat’s a dud.
Second boat: Same deal as before. This time the feylock merely knocks the guard unconscious with an eldritch blast. Despite her nonlethal intentions, the drakes now have fresh unconscious meat as they both go for the body. Well, that saves the trouble of two more guard drakes anyway. The pirates are smart this time (as they actually have the captain on board) and simply wait below deck for the adventurers with weapons ready. The ensuing fight in close quarters begins with all three minions taken out by a single AoE from the artificer. Other than that, there’s a soldier pirate, a lurker pirate, and the elite captain wielding a flail. The close quarters mean bottlenecking for both sides, and the dragonborn’s bear happens to be on the front line. Throwing around some racist comments from the pirates just to make them seem more evil, the soldier is effectively disabled by the fighter’s mark. The lurker does quite a bit of damage to the dragonborn, but is eventually taken down, and while the captain does enough damage to down the bear and bloody the dragonborn behind him, he eventually goes down too. So the captain is knocked unconscious and taken back to Garro by the fighter who now has earned brownie points with an international crime organization.
Third boat: No encounter, just story. The party arrives to find the boat in flames and most of its inhabitants murdered. A strange, masked knight covered head-to-toe in armor covered in glowing magic runes slowly walks out. The party quickly recognizes that this isn’t someone to mess with and stands back, watching as the knight jumps into the water and rides away on the head of a sea serpent. Future plot hook? Well, duh!
Anyway, epilogue consists of the group deciding to follow the artificer’s quest hook for the time being and head on the same halfling-chartered riverboat across the continent. They get a free ride as long as they help out with the cargo and defend the boat from any ne’er-do-wells.
Technically, we actually completed our second session, which I'll type up soon enough as well.
I thought I'd try out the whole campaign journal thing for the 4e game I'm running. It's a homebrewed world that, while remaining a fantasy setting, has some magitech elements through the natural resource of magic called mana. More story and such to follow.
The Characters
Josephine Clarice Deloria: An Indiana-Jones style aerialist rogue known to the other players only as “Jo.” Formerly of a noble family, Jo takes a great interest in archaeology and takes pleasure in exploring ruins, finding ancient artifacts, and turning them over to a historical society. Despite her background, Jo can’t stand typical noble behavior and takes pains to hide her heritage.
Aramil Dundragon: A human fullblade-wielding fighter, long-term friend of Jo. The country he comes from is the stereotypical “poor” country, but his family is pretty well off as they run an airship business gathering mana. (Mana being a magical natural resource used to basically replace technology on the main continent.) Happy-go-lucky (read: annoying and he knows it) character.
Myreii: Tiefling Feylock. Due to a houserule, she has cold resistance instead of fire resistance, as she reasons her “patron fey” is water-based. It made sense at the time. Very carefree personality. Acquaintance of Jo and Aramil.
Zeldandris Teranus: Eladrin artificer. Eladrin in this world lack the direct ties to the fey, and are instead typical high elves who have some innate arcane abilities, which can translate to the teleportation or some other abilities. On a mission from his home continent to find some missing Eladrin from his house who may or may not have sold a bunch of house property on the black market.
Syn Arl: Dragonborn Beastmaster Ranger with a bear companion: On and off again player, so not really a developed backstory.
Session 1:
Our players begin in the city of Anchorhead in the country of Cape Moon. Cape Moon is a bay filled with an archipelago of diverse, tropical islands, and Anchorhead is the waterlocked city that controls trade from Cape Moon to the rest of the continent. Roads are available but treacherous, so really the best and only safe way to travel out of Anchorhead is by river boat. The halflings control the river trade and will take on passengers in addition to continentally traded cargo.
Unfortunately, Anchorhead is experiencing some trouble, as the gates to the rivers are closed off and no ships are being allowed to leave. Seeking to expedite the process of leaving, our heroes meet at the mayor’s office to find out what’s going on. Apparently, there was a large theft of mana from an incoming ship, and most of the crew was either murdered or brutally injured. The PC’s resolve to investigate the matter and recover the stolen goods (for a small fee of course) so they can leave for better and brighter things.
After a few Streetwise checks and roleplaying where I pull some foreshadowing and introduce some colorful NPC’s, the PC’s get the general idea that they should go see Garro, the head shipbuilder at a warehouse outside the town. After a short walk, they get to said building, large enough to house the construction of an entire ship.
Now, what the players DON’T know is that this is a front for the local thief’s guild. Garro himself is a major player in a criminal society that spans the continent, and that the reason such drastic action has been taken for this one theft is because the goods were stolen without good approval. Garro’s just looking for some cheap labor to deal with the problem and save his reputation. All the players have to do is drop the right names and explain the full situation and Garro will give them his information.
However, the PC’s are unfortunate in their choice of words, telling the guards at the front entrance that they are just here “investigating” setting off the paranoia of the guards while Jo decides to sneak around the side and sneak up a drainpipe. After choosing better words and clearing up some confusion, the PC’s get let in. The guard shows them to Garro, a large, black dragonborn who in turn takes them to the captain’s cabin of the still-in-construction ship. A tiefling woman shuts the door and starts toying with a menacing-looking knife. Meanwhile, Jo has broken into a skylight window undetected and is starting to shimmy down the mast, still undetected, before realizing there’s no safe place for her to dismount without drawing a LOT of attention. Frustrated, she makes her way back up and goes in the regular way.
Garro explains that he knows where the stolen goods are, and that he has the resources to get it himself, but he doesn’t want to spend the resources when some adventurers will conveniently do the job for free (or even better, on the mayor’s dime). He offers to give the information in exchange for giving him the guy in charge of the heist alive. The PC’s agree, though OOC they’re still unsure of whether or not they’ll follow through on said promise.
The thieves in charge of this particular heist have three ships at their disposal, all docked and in separate ports across the city. The stolen goods are in one of the boats, but which one is unknown. The town guard is paralyzed because if they cause a commotion at one boat, and get the wrong one, the other two will safely sail away even without legal clearance, so some stealth is required.
The PC’s head to the first boat, not picking any one in particular, and find a single guard patrolling the deck and keeping to the side of the boat. Jo jumps in the water to disable the rudder. The artificer also decides to jump in and climb up the side of the boat to get into an eventual flanking position. The dragonborn is keeping watch while the the tiefling pretends to be drunk (actually she still is from getting wasted earlier) to “seduce” the guard. The guard is seemingly more concerned about her safety as two vicious guard drakes are chained to the main mast. The fighter eventually comes to assist the tiefling in the con. Jo disables the rudder, Zeldandris miraculously doesn’t drown by rolling a natural 20 on Athletics, and before the guard knows what’s going on, all of the PC’s are on the boat, the guard drakes are attacking and Aramil knocks the guard unconscious and overboard.
The guard drakes are only part of the problem, however, as some pirates are making their way from below deck. Jo nails the trapdoor shut with the dagger, but it’s a minor delay. The dragonborn, feylock, and artificer take on the drakes with the dragonborn ranger doing a spectacular job of defending, the feylock taking potshots from a distance, and the artificer providing all sorts of wonderful buffs and AoE’s. Jo and Aramil have the pirates bottlenecked, and even their big, shirtless brute couldn’t pose much of a threat while the other non-minion pirate botched a roll and got knocked overboard. The drakes take the longest to kill. After some searching, the first boat’s a dud.
Second boat: Same deal as before. This time the feylock merely knocks the guard unconscious with an eldritch blast. Despite her nonlethal intentions, the drakes now have fresh unconscious meat as they both go for the body. Well, that saves the trouble of two more guard drakes anyway. The pirates are smart this time (as they actually have the captain on board) and simply wait below deck for the adventurers with weapons ready. The ensuing fight in close quarters begins with all three minions taken out by a single AoE from the artificer. Other than that, there’s a soldier pirate, a lurker pirate, and the elite captain wielding a flail. The close quarters mean bottlenecking for both sides, and the dragonborn’s bear happens to be on the front line. Throwing around some racist comments from the pirates just to make them seem more evil, the soldier is effectively disabled by the fighter’s mark. The lurker does quite a bit of damage to the dragonborn, but is eventually taken down, and while the captain does enough damage to down the bear and bloody the dragonborn behind him, he eventually goes down too. So the captain is knocked unconscious and taken back to Garro by the fighter who now has earned brownie points with an international crime organization.
Third boat: No encounter, just story. The party arrives to find the boat in flames and most of its inhabitants murdered. A strange, masked knight covered head-to-toe in armor covered in glowing magic runes slowly walks out. The party quickly recognizes that this isn’t someone to mess with and stands back, watching as the knight jumps into the water and rides away on the head of a sea serpent. Future plot hook? Well, duh!
Anyway, epilogue consists of the group deciding to follow the artificer’s quest hook for the time being and head on the same halfling-chartered riverboat across the continent. They get a free ride as long as they help out with the cargo and defend the boat from any ne’er-do-wells.
Technically, we actually completed our second session, which I'll type up soon enough as well.