GreyMantle
2011-01-23, 04:10 PM
Yeah, there's this module, it's called Red Hand of Doom, a lot of people like it, I'm running it. In Eberron.
Following AslanCross's lead, I'm placing the Elsir Vale in the northwestern reaches of Breland, near the border of the Mournland.
Ruleswise, I'm running a Tome (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=48453) game, along with a number of other houserules that I'll probably only bring up if they become relevant to the story.
tl;dr: The Tome revisions were an attempt to rewrite most of the baseclasses on a more consistent "wizard power" scale.
The characters consist of as follows:
Anica Elna: elven gadgeteer, originally from Ærenal. Despite her penchant for heavy explosives, she seems to be one of the more stable characters in the party.
Jebediah ("Old Jeb"): human assassin. He's from Cyre and was actually still in Cyre during the Day of Mourning, which has unhinged him slightly. (No one knows how he survived.) His old age (57) means that he likes to talk about the "glory days" of Cyre. He exists more or less as a total vagabond, with almost no possessions or material wealth besides what he carries on his person.
Diem "Stitch" Ouquis: aasimar dread necromancer, from Karrnath. Wears a "Widebrimmed Hat of Disguise" to hide the fact that he is not alive. Despite his undead nature and dark powers, he is actually the most goodaligned and allaround cheerful member of the entire party. He hates hobgoblins.
Elyas Cauthon: halfelf ranger, from Valinar. He dualwields bastard swords. The only other Good member of the party. Elyas' player's character in our last campaign was the butt of 90% of our jokes, so I think he's trying to be a bit more traditional this time. (Although he does have a pet fleshraker dinosaur named "Bruce.")
And, finally,
Serth Vandmoor: gnome warmage, from Zilargo. Somehow, the player managed to roll two 18s during charactercreation (something I would be openly skeptical of had I not witnessed both their rolling). He's apparently LN, but his actions during the first session were much more suggestive of CN. Whatever. Serth is basically a semipsychotic gnome with powerful magic.
The reason these five very...varied...personalities have ended up working for Breland's Dark Lanterns (basically the CIA) is a story that will probably not fully be told until the end of the campaign.
The First Session
The First Session was rather short, as we had to finish charactercreation and do the standard introductions and such. But the game began in Wroat, the capital of Breland, with the PCs being tasked by one of their senior officers in the Dark Lanterns to head up north to the Elsir Vale and investigate reports of increased intensity in hobgoblin attacks. They were assured that the reports were probably exaggerated, and that there were likely to be no more than a few hundred hobbos at the most, "small potatoes for great heroes like you." They were also requested to ensure that the attacks were the work of random brigands and not connected with Darguun (Eberron's goblin nation) before they started killing things. Standard stuff.
Reactions: Stitch and Elyas were both delighted to have a chance to kill some hobgoblins, but Serth was much more concerned with what he'd get for doing this. There was a fair bit of mildly amusing interplay between the characters.
Their train to the Vale was not supposed to leave until the next day, so Stitch and Elyas decided to go volunteer at a refugee's soupkitchen, and Serth got really drunk. Anica went along with Serth to act as his "designated walker." Old Jeb went and chilled with some of his bum friends.
Asking around at the soupkitchen, Stitch learned that the attacks in the Vale had been committed by strangely dedicated hobgoblins who bore the standard of a Red Hand and who were not afraid to sacrifice themselves for their cause. [/ominous music]
The next day, the party heads to the lightningrail station. The conversation:
Serth: "You know, Elyas, I really wish you would muzzle your dinosaur. Or at least put him on a leash."
Elyas: "Bruce? He's very welltrained. And I have a lot of raw meat to feed him."
Serth: "So you are carrying around haunches of flesh to control your wild lizard. This does not reassure me."
[they arrive at the station]
Conductor: "Okay, your tickets seem to be in order, you may proceed to--Is that a dinosaur?"
Elyas: "His name is Bruce. He's very welltrained."
A fierce debate ensues as to where Bruce will be put. Eventually Elyas acquiesces to the general demand that Bruce be caged and put in the storage. And they get on board. Old Jeb then whispers, "So do you think that the conductor knows too much? Should I kill him? I'm an assassin, after all..."
All: [sort of general, stunned silence]
Anica: [nervously] "Umm... Maybe not... You could keep a very close watch on him, though..."
And that was more or less that. Stay tuned for the next episode, where hobgoblins will presumably be encountered, slain, and reanimated!
Following AslanCross's lead, I'm placing the Elsir Vale in the northwestern reaches of Breland, near the border of the Mournland.
Ruleswise, I'm running a Tome (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=48453) game, along with a number of other houserules that I'll probably only bring up if they become relevant to the story.
tl;dr: The Tome revisions were an attempt to rewrite most of the baseclasses on a more consistent "wizard power" scale.
The characters consist of as follows:
Anica Elna: elven gadgeteer, originally from Ærenal. Despite her penchant for heavy explosives, she seems to be one of the more stable characters in the party.
Jebediah ("Old Jeb"): human assassin. He's from Cyre and was actually still in Cyre during the Day of Mourning, which has unhinged him slightly. (No one knows how he survived.) His old age (57) means that he likes to talk about the "glory days" of Cyre. He exists more or less as a total vagabond, with almost no possessions or material wealth besides what he carries on his person.
Diem "Stitch" Ouquis: aasimar dread necromancer, from Karrnath. Wears a "Widebrimmed Hat of Disguise" to hide the fact that he is not alive. Despite his undead nature and dark powers, he is actually the most goodaligned and allaround cheerful member of the entire party. He hates hobgoblins.
Elyas Cauthon: halfelf ranger, from Valinar. He dualwields bastard swords. The only other Good member of the party. Elyas' player's character in our last campaign was the butt of 90% of our jokes, so I think he's trying to be a bit more traditional this time. (Although he does have a pet fleshraker dinosaur named "Bruce.")
And, finally,
Serth Vandmoor: gnome warmage, from Zilargo. Somehow, the player managed to roll two 18s during charactercreation (something I would be openly skeptical of had I not witnessed both their rolling). He's apparently LN, but his actions during the first session were much more suggestive of CN. Whatever. Serth is basically a semipsychotic gnome with powerful magic.
The reason these five very...varied...personalities have ended up working for Breland's Dark Lanterns (basically the CIA) is a story that will probably not fully be told until the end of the campaign.
The First Session
The First Session was rather short, as we had to finish charactercreation and do the standard introductions and such. But the game began in Wroat, the capital of Breland, with the PCs being tasked by one of their senior officers in the Dark Lanterns to head up north to the Elsir Vale and investigate reports of increased intensity in hobgoblin attacks. They were assured that the reports were probably exaggerated, and that there were likely to be no more than a few hundred hobbos at the most, "small potatoes for great heroes like you." They were also requested to ensure that the attacks were the work of random brigands and not connected with Darguun (Eberron's goblin nation) before they started killing things. Standard stuff.
Reactions: Stitch and Elyas were both delighted to have a chance to kill some hobgoblins, but Serth was much more concerned with what he'd get for doing this. There was a fair bit of mildly amusing interplay between the characters.
Their train to the Vale was not supposed to leave until the next day, so Stitch and Elyas decided to go volunteer at a refugee's soupkitchen, and Serth got really drunk. Anica went along with Serth to act as his "designated walker." Old Jeb went and chilled with some of his bum friends.
Asking around at the soupkitchen, Stitch learned that the attacks in the Vale had been committed by strangely dedicated hobgoblins who bore the standard of a Red Hand and who were not afraid to sacrifice themselves for their cause. [/ominous music]
The next day, the party heads to the lightningrail station. The conversation:
Serth: "You know, Elyas, I really wish you would muzzle your dinosaur. Or at least put him on a leash."
Elyas: "Bruce? He's very welltrained. And I have a lot of raw meat to feed him."
Serth: "So you are carrying around haunches of flesh to control your wild lizard. This does not reassure me."
[they arrive at the station]
Conductor: "Okay, your tickets seem to be in order, you may proceed to--Is that a dinosaur?"
Elyas: "His name is Bruce. He's very welltrained."
A fierce debate ensues as to where Bruce will be put. Eventually Elyas acquiesces to the general demand that Bruce be caged and put in the storage. And they get on board. Old Jeb then whispers, "So do you think that the conductor knows too much? Should I kill him? I'm an assassin, after all..."
All: [sort of general, stunned silence]
Anica: [nervously] "Umm... Maybe not... You could keep a very close watch on him, though..."
And that was more or less that. Stay tuned for the next episode, where hobgoblins will presumably be encountered, slain, and reanimated!