Horror Campaign (prev. Army of Commoners)

[Wooter]

Oh, god. The bard. That was the sweetest, saddest thing ever. You were the flute finder, and he kept you company.

Excuse me as I cry a little.

[Grey Watcher]

Bravi tutti!

That was a great ending.

I too think it would be a great postscript to this campaign to "publish" (via a post in the Homebrew boards) the three new Vestiges.

Also, it makes me wonder... in your campaign setting (since, based on the appearance of your previous character, the collector, you seem to be using one ongoing campaign setting for many adventures), what happens when a Binder tries to bind Tenebrous, now that he's a vestige trapped within a vestige? Can you gain his powers by binding the Witch (or her other "surviving" compatriot, unless perhaps they collapsed into a single vestige, there is a precedent for "compound vestiges" right), or can the Witch grant other powers when bound and Tenebrous is out of reach forever?

(Hehe, if your group ever decides to play Evil characters, a band of cultists with a mission to unseal Tenebrous from this "prison" might make a interesting campaign.)

[Hecore]

The only flaw I could find with the ending is that once you told it the story was over.

[Doresain]

i dont know what to do now...i have spent every day for the past like 2 weeks reading this (started late) and waiting for updates...but now its over...

[SilverClawShift]

Also, it makes me wonder... in your campaign setting (since, based on the appearance of your previous character, the collector, you seem to be using one ongoing campaign setting for many adventures), what happens when a Binder tries to bind Tenebrous, now that he's a vestige trapped within a vestige?

We don't usually explicitly play in specific worlds, unless we note at the beginning of the game that we will be. Even when we play eberron themed games, it's usually less about the existing eberron world, and more about the eberron style.

If any of us play binders, i'm sure it'll pretty much function normally. And I don't think we'll be making vestiges for the other people lost in the void, even if they would turn into them logically. Just too much work, hehe

*********************************

To everyone else who enjoyed it:

*********************************

To everyone who wants to see the vestiges, sure thing! But they're not done or anything yet (scept probably the paladin). The way we're figuring we'll do it is... wait
(I just realized I didn't really mention any names, cause it's easier to keep track of classes and races when talking about this stuff. The bard was named Core for reasons he refused to elaborate on, I was Selena, and the paladin was Tevler. The Duskblade everyone only ever called Miss Beverly, the Dragon Shaman was Therric, and the archivist was Ferelian Sethian).

Anyway, the bard is going to be Core, the Guiding Light. He'll be a lower level vestige with group-bolstering abilities, diplomatic magic, and of course, the ability to fend off darkness (fending off even powerful magical darkness based on your binder level). Largely not fleshed out, except for being low level and centered mainly around light.

We haven't come up with a good name for me, but we're thinking "Selena, the Corporeal Ghost". I'll be a mid-level vestige, based more around adaptability and factotumishism than rogueness. Probably grants anyone who binds me a number of inspiration points, and some binder-ish stuff they can do with them (like using them as fuel to activate other binder abilities more often, or with stronger results). The ability to blink ethereal for a round or two as a free action, once every five rounds maybe. (That may sound random to people who don't use binders, but binder abilities are traditionally not-devestatingly-powerful abilities that can be used at will, but with a 5 round delay). It's a good one, but not a game breaker.
I also won't answer the summoning unless you've been bound to Core, the Guiding Light within the past day.

Here's the paladin though:

Spoiler

Show

Vestige Level: 8th
Binding DC: 33
Special Requirement: Yes

Once a spider-riding paladin, then a death delver, Tevler was fearless by nature. His courage in the face of death eventually carried over to courage in the face of nonexistance, and Tevler became a vestige. He grants his host the ability to laugh in the face of certain destruction, as well as several abilities related to his spidery companion.

Legend: The legend of Tevler is unique among most vestiges in how detailed it is. Information about his life prior to becoming a vestige -and the details of his vestigehood- is readily accessible in the Pact Execarium, an infamous document on pact magic archived in most reasonable sized churches around the world. Unfortunately, the Pact Execarium is 2500 pages long.
The short version of Tevlers history is that he is one of the brave souls responsible for saving a world from a destruction brought upon it, supposedly, by pact magic. In saving that world, Tevler was forced to bodily enter the void between realities and become a vestige himself.
Special Requirement: You must swallow a live spider. After you are no longer bound to Tevler (wether through dismissal or the natural binding period coming to an end), you cough the spider up and it will descend from your lips on a silken strand. If you kill this spider, Tevler will never answer your call again.
Manifestation: Tevler descends from above as if crawling down an invisible strand of spider silk. His form is that of a spiderous creature, similar to an armored drider in shape and size. At times both the spider half and human half will appear dark and chitinous like that of a normal spider, and at other times both halves will appear in beautiful gleaming shades of silver and platinum. Whichever color Tevler appears in, his face always remains the same, appearing as a human male with 6 spider-like eyes which glow with a pale golden light. Despite his terrifying visage, Tevler always greets his summoner in a relaxed and friendly fashion.
Sign: A golden hourglass appears on your torso - either on your stomach, chest, between your shoulder blades, or on the small of your back. The placement of this hourglass is completely random, and can be seen through most articles of clothing or armor (only metal can conceal this glowing shape).
Influence: When Tevler influences you, you must go to great lengths to protect spiders and spider like creatures. Any act you can accomplish to keep such a creature safe must be taken, including treating those who would destroy spiders with hostility and anger. Tevler makes exceptions for spiders which are an immediate threat to you and your companions, but if you have a chance of ending combat in a way that leaves the spider alive, you must take it.

Granted Abilities: You gain abilities related to spiders, as well as a chance to walk back through death's door.
Lifeline: You gain a single extra life in addition to your own. One time during the 24 hour period you have summoned and bound Tevler, upon your death or destruction, you will return to life with half of your hitpoints, no matter how violent or seemingly permanent that death was. If your corpse is destroyed entirely, or is in a location where returning to life would be immpossible (such as being crushed underneath rocks) your body will reform at the nearest safe location. This will occur 5 rounds after your death, but prior to your death you may willingly increase that delay by a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level.
Spider Climb: You can constantly move as if under the effects of the Spider Climb spell, except you have a climb speed equal to your base land speed regardless of surface traversed, instead of 20 feet as normal.
Spidersilk: You can freely call into existance a wonderously strong rope which resembles unusually thick spider silk. At any given time, you can have 10 feet of rope per your effective binder level. You can choose to produce this rope as one long strand, or any combination of shorter strands at least 5 feet in length each and totalling your maximum amount of rope available. If you call more rope into existance, existing rope begins to dissipate in the order it was created.
This rope can be burst with a Strength check (DC 31) and has 20 hitpoints per inch of thickness and 15 hardness. This rope will also stick to any surface you choose at your discretion. In addition to creating easy climbing points, this grants you a +8 circumstance bonus to Use Rope checks made to tie up a creature.
Silken Armor: One creature of your choosing gains a +4 boost to their armor class, as their armor (or body) is coated in a layer of the strongest spider silk. You can use this ability on yourself or on any one ally you can physically touch, and can change the target of this ability as a free action, but once you have chosen a target to receive this armor boost you cannot change the target again for 5 rounds.
This spidersilk armor will last indefinately while your pact is active, but will dissipate immediately when you are no longer bound to Tevler.
Parlour: You can instantly create a mass of webs that cover all terrain, objects, walls, and even ceilings in a 120 foot radius centered on yourself (these webs will stop at natural barriers such as walls, so indoors they will only cover one room unless there are open doors and windows leading out). These webs are not particularily sticky, and will immediately fall off of any creature of object in motion, and can easily be brushed aside to allow access to areas or objects. However, the build up of these webs causes all non-allied creatures to acrue penalties to their attack rolls, reflex saving throws, and any dexterity boost to their armor class.
This penalty begins accumulating each round they are within this area at -1. They continue to collect -1 penalties each round they spend within this area, until they exit it (at which point, the penalty starts fading at 1 every round). This penalty has a maximum of 5.
This ability can only be used once each day, but the webs last for 24 hours, or until Tevler is no longer bound to you.

We made him an 8th level vestige, partially because having one "get out of death free" card every day is a powerful ability, but it also fits him thematically. He was utterly fearless and willing to embrace death and destruction anyway, after all.

I hope I'm not forgetting to reply to anyone here. (Also, Forrestfire15, the DM laughed and said that The Rising book was part of the influence, yeah, tweaked to include the tome of magic )

[SurlySeraph]

Wow. Just wow. Make sure to post this in the Homebrew forum as well, I don't want anyone to miss this.

And do get back to working on Dustlands when you can, because it's unbelievably amazing. But, you know, no pressure, don't rush.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

...


Woah...


Just...


Woah...

[bugsysservant]

...
wow
...
I...mean...
I think...
you just...
but...
...
wow...

You, your group, and your DM officially win. Life, death, the internet, whatever, you just win. If you ever get rid of your gaming table, could you break it up into splinters instead? I know quite a few people who would pay good money for D&D reliquaries.

And seriously, thank you. I appreciate the time and effort you put into this. Thank you.

[SilverClawShift]

Make sure to post this in the Homebrew forum as well

I think I'll do that when we have all three done

And do get back to working on Dustlands when you can, because it's unbelievably amazing.

Thanks. We plan on getting some work done for it, not in the least bit because in our next campaign, one of our group actually wanted to play a glyphcrafter, but it's just not ready for full on serious play yet. So we'll probably be giving a little attention to brewing us up some new content in the near future.

And seriously, thank you. I appreciate the time and effort you put into this. Thank you.

More than welcome

[Grey Watcher]

One critique of Tevler's vestige form: It struck me as odd that immunity to fear is a class feature of both the Paladin and the Death Delver, yet Tevler doesn't grant any kind of immunity or resistance to fear when bound. I mean, in addition to being immune to fear by virtue of not one, but two class abilities, he was also a pretty reckless guy (second only to Miss Beverly).

[Temp]

About the campaign: Pretty much what everyone else's said; sounds like an incredible game.

I don't know if this has been asked--I sort of skimmed over most of the congratulations and "You're-so-Lucky"s-- but how often does your group meet and how long (time-wise) were the sessions you typed out?


I got the impression that this month-long campaign involved more play-time than I've had in the last year. So I'm curious as to how accurate that inference really is.

And a quick comment on the vestige: As-is, the Lifeline ability's a bit much. Perhaps only applying it to death through hit-point loss would be more reasonable.

[SilverClawShift]

Tevler doesn't grant any kind of immunity or resistance to fear when bound.

Yeah, we brought up the immunity to fear thing.
Scept, all binders are immune to fear at 6th level as long as they have a vestige bound . So any vestige that granted it would be really redundant.

how often does your group meet and how long (time-wise) were the sessions you typed out?

We usually meet once, sometimes twice a week and play for a few hours (5 hours is probably the average meeting, unless it's at a time when we have longer). For this campaign we planned in advance to meet a lot more (around 3 or 4 times a week) specifically so we would finish the campaign on halloween.

Mind you, we also talk and plan in between meeting, individually.

And a quick comment on the vestige: As-is, the Lifeline ability's a bit much. Perhaps only applying it to death through hit-point loss would be more reasonable.

One thing we considered doing was making it require some portion of the binders body to still be around, to bring it into step with a ressurection spell. As of now, it's basically a once per day true ressurection. The difference being that it doesn't have a crazy diamond cost.
The other difference, and the reason we kept it this way, is that it only effects the binder. You can't bring anyone back from the dead, you can't die twice (even if you wake up alone in front of an ancient red dragon), and you're probably worse off than you were when the fight started.
It's powerful, but it certainly doesn't grant the binder immortality or anything (dying twice in a day isn't exactly hard for an adventurer to accomplish). It's a rez effect with the harsh limit of only applying to one person. So yeah, probably just gonna leave it as is.

[vegetalss4]

i just read this thread, it is so awesome.
when you are done with the other vestiges will you post them to?
please

[Tor the Fallen]

Wow, that was great. Keep us updated on you future gaming, yeah?

[Manticorkscrew]

Yeah, and if you have any more awesome gaming tales to tell, please share them with us.

[Xefas]

I've been reading this thread ever since it first started, but haven't really felt like I had anything to add by posting.

And I still don't...I just want to say that your tale had me tearing up at the end, and you should definitely compile it all into a whole post so that new people won't have to dig through the whole thing to read your great work. It was very inspirational, and I loved it.

[SilverClawShift]

when you are done with the other vestiges will you post them to?

Absolutely, just gotta actually make them first

Wow, that was great. Keep us updated on you future gaming, yeah?

Yeah, and if you have any more awesome gaming tales to tell, please share them with us.

The problem is, it feels kinda weird/pompous to just create a thread talking about my groups activities.

Me: "Hi, tonight my group didn't get killed by a doppleganger"
World: Hi, are we supposed to know you?

you should definitely compile it all into a whole post so that new people won't have to dig through the whole thing to read your great work. It was very inspirational, and I loved it.

Glad you liked it, and that's actually probably a good idea. That's gonna be one crazy long post though... it'll be a freakishly large post even if it's in spoilers

[Neon Knight]

The problem is, it feels kinda weird/pompous to just create a thread talking about my groups activities.

Me: "Hi, tonight my group didn't get killed by a doppleganger"
World: Hi, are we supposed to know you?

On the other hand, you apparently have God's Own DM as your DM, so that makes it cool.

[Alex12]

Me: "Hi, tonight my group didn't get killed by a doppleganger"
World: Hi, are we supposed to know you?

If it's anything near as awesome as this one was, then you left out the following line
Everyone Who Read This Thread:(to World->) Shut up, I want to read this! (to you->) This is awesome!

[bugsysservant]

The problem is, it feels kinda weird/pompous to just create a thread talking about my groups activities.

Me: "Hi, tonight my group didn't get killed by a doppleganger"
World: Hi, are we supposed to know you?

Actually, I'm pretty sure that many people on this board would love to read it. The only problem is, as I see it, the amount of work we are asking you to do. But if you don't mind...

[SilverClawShift]

Well, I guess it couldn't hurt. If someone thinks it's silly, there's plenty of other threads to read. It's not like we'll run out of new thread uses or something.

Also, I tried to compile everything into a post? Yeah, it's over three times the boards maximum characters-per-post limit (I didn't even know there WAS one!). Was gonna shove it all into spoilers, but whateryagonnado.

[Alex12]

I find it mildly amusing that in the OP you said you didn't want this to turn into a 5-page thread, and now it's 13 pages long. Not that I'm complaining, precisely the opposite, because this has been far better than a large portion of the fiction I've read, and I've read a lot of fiction. I just thought it was amusing to point out.

[Mezzalli]

I only have two things to say.

First, this is the best campaign I have ever read, and I will shamelessly steal everything that your DM created and use it later in my games. I doubt Gary Gygax could have done better. I believe that WotC could use DMs like yours.

Second, where can I find your vestiges? I've looked through the homebrew but I can't find it.

[SilverClawShift]

There's only the one so far, This Post, near the bottom.

[Grey Watcher]

Also, I tried to compile everything into a post? Yeah, it's over three times the boards maximum characters-per-post limit (I didn't even know there WAS one!). Was gonna shove it all into spoilers, but whateryagonnado.

Perhaps you could set up some sort of Wiki or blog? (Blog would probably be simpler and better suited to episodic campaign reporting, but a Wiki would be a nice format in which to present your homebrew material.

Oh, and, for the record, I'm on the website staff and I didn't know there was a character limit on the size of posts (though I suppose it makes sense that there would be one).

[SilverClawShift]

Not really sure how to set either of those up, actually.

And as for the character limit, I'm sure it doesn't come up often. It's 50000 characters per post apparently

[Xefas]

I just wanna say that if you set up a blog in which you detailed your tabletop game sessions, I'd bookmark it/subscribe to it/check it very regularly.

Just wanna show my support...

[The_Werebear]

I have been reading since the beginning. I too would follow a blog of you and your group's adventures and exploits.

[Alex12]

@blog idea: I am not currently a big reader of any blogs. In fact, the number of blogs I visit even semi-regularly is zero. If you started a blog about your gaming sessions, that number would go up to one, and would be checked regularly.

[SilverClawShift]

I don't know where in the world I'd want to set up a blog, but if people really wanna read about it, sure. For lack of a better plan of action, I guess I'll just make a new thread about our current (one session in) campaign. It probably won't be updated as much as this thread was though, we'll be gaming a tad less and spending more time on homebrew for a while (probably).