Omeganaut
2011-04-19, 08:53 PM
"Welcome to Cordania! Need a hand up?"
Such are the first words many hear upon landing in the Plane of Cordia. Conversely, some find themselves in the city of Salia, in the Plane of Honoraulent, depending on who finds them. This however is not the most pressing concern, and the new dweller of this land is more worried about what happened to his/her former life, and how he/she can survive this new land and return.
This is what I have so far on the history
Many years ago there was a grand group of adventurers who purged the world of many evil dragons. Their last mission was to destroy a red dragon hidden in a cave deep under a mountain stronghold. When they reached the dragons cave, they were stunned when the dragon tried to reason with them first before attacking. Anticipating a trick, the party attacked first. The dragon retaliated with a powerful fireball, and a ridiculously strong stoneshape that killed half the party outright. The wizard attempted to kill the dragon outright with a powerful spell, but the dragon hit him with its tail and knocked him to the entrance of the lair, disrupting his spell. Then the dragon shifted the party bard halfway to another dimension and destroyed the mind of the noble barbarian, not seeming to notice that the wizard was unusually tough. The wizard recast his spell, and the dragon fell, pulling the cave down upon itself with its death throes. Only then did the illusion drop and the dragon was revealed to have been a noble gold dragon all along.
The wizard, who was named Cordius, escaped by the narrowest of margins, turning around only to see the capital of the paladin order collapse into itself. He realized his employer had tricked him, and in shame he fled the plane, not caring upon which plane he ended up. When he next woke up, it was on top of a boulder floating above a volcano. The wizard quickly flew down from his precarious perch, and set out to explore the world. Only to find no intelligent creatures there, just animals. He was lucky enough to see one get pulled away by a summoning spell which made him realize that he was on the plain of Summoned Monsters. Cordius could not believe his luck at finding the one plane that no one had access to. He set to molding the land, creating his own house on top of the volcano, watching out over the only true continent in the land.
He soon grew bored, and decided to form new races for his entertainment. Out of birds he created gnomes, and set them against kobolds he grew from the lizards living in the rock. Out of the freshwater fish he created Halflings, ordering them to attack the Hobgoblins from the numerous lava flows. Out of the burrowing animals he created the stout dwarves, and had them battle fierce flying reptiles turned goblins. Finally, out of a forest fire elves were born, opposed by the salty orcs of the sea. The mighty wizard relaxed, content with watching the wars and politics of the eight races work themselves out.
His rest was soon to be interrupted. Little did he know the gold dragon had sired a child with an elf. This daughter, named Saliana swore vengeance on Cordius, and trained in the ways of sorcerers until she was confident she could defeat any other magic-user. Then she set off across the planes in search of the wizard. She ran across Boccob, who asked her to find the cause of monster summonings suddenly summoning humanoids instead of their intended target. Following the trails, she stumbles across this new plane, and finally is able to locate he nemesis. After a terrible battle of magics, the sorceress destroys Cordius with her breath weapon, and she takes over. Ignoring the races still hanging around, she decides to study on creating new planes, in order to find a place for the surviving dragons to recover from the exodus that was Cordius’s party.
Saliana, being a follower of St. Cuthbert, decides to try to summon devils and such to ask for tips on creating a plane. After failing, she redesigns her spells to target a larger possible pool, and recasts. Unfortunately for her, her spell ensnared Kord, god of strength. Not only had Boccob insisted that Kord find out what happened to the adventurer he sent out just that day, but Kord had also recently lost in a jousting competition. Needless to say Kord was extremely angry, and when he found himself facing Saliana in the flesh, he ripped her body to pieces.
Having destroyed the last mage on the plane, Kord realizes that if he doesn’t get some other adventurers and races over to this plane, it very well could become a retirement home for magic-users, which not only deprives his warriors of a chance to kill them, but also in the long run allows for more law in the planes. First he makes sure that chaos has a good hold on the plane, mostly by creating chaos monsters on the far side of the world on far-off islands. Eventually he uses his godly powers to attempt to create gates allowing travel in-between the material plane and the new one. Well, he messes up the spells, being a god of athletics of course, and so asks for help from Wee Jas. Now Wee Jas was angry over how one of her favorite disciples (and possibly her favorite lover) had been killed and she had not had a chance for revenge. So she decides to give his spells random affects before she fixes the entire mess. Suddenly random beings are being summoned from one realm to the next. While the gods attempt to meet to discuss all of the difficulties created by these circumstances, the doors are left to channel in new creatures. However, Fharlaghn decided that this realm was one of traveling, of adventure, and of new paths to be forged, so he created good roads connecting all the previously unconnected squabbling pairs to the old wizard’s home, where he created a great wall to allow adventures and travelers to have somewhere to stay.
The gods have become so entangled over the issue that their final rulings were that each god would have their own chance to turn that world into something that all gods would accept. Needless to say, not one god has yet been able to create a plan that would work.
Here are some affects I was thinking of adding to gameplay to reflect the setting
There is one city, named Salia, where humanoid races have gathered. There are a few savage tribes out in the wild, and the elemental races all have small civilizations. Politics in the city revolves around which races get how many votes in the city council, while the head of the council, a half-halfling half-gnome bard named Chaumanteau Boulivardez actually runs the entire thing. The tribes have generally come to a ceasefire, but one spark could set them off.
Unless you want characters to be native this plane, all characters gain the outsider template. Most intelligent opponents also gain this template, but it can be switched up at the DM’s will. Adventurers can be sent to fight champions of gods trying to influence the realm in their favor, or extreme chaos creatures, or even extreme law creatures bent on turning the plane into their own playground. Adventurers can also be sent to explore this world, finding islands extreme alignment creatures, especially of chaos. Early adventures can include helping found a town at the base of the mountain, meeting with one of the elemental tribes to solve a conflict, or even deal with gates pouring in hostile evil tribal creatures. Ultimately, successful characters are gifted with a return to their home dimension
Chaos is rampant in this setting, with all magical spells and non-native spell effect-generating items having possible alterations chosen by rolling a d20.
1: spell fails
2: random other spell of same level is cast, or spell chooses different target
3. Spell has half effect (either half duration, half damage, lowers DC by 7, or less NPC’s affected)
4. Spell merely takes twice as long to finish casting (full turn spells allow no AoO for caster, no dex bonus to AC, and must stay concentrating until beginning of next turn including con checks.)
5-18 spell acts normally
19 Spell does not require component (either material, XP, or other)
20 Spell does double affect (damage, boost, duration, or adds +10 to DC)
The effects are based on 3.5, which is the only ruleset I know and have played. I'm a little hazy on the templates, and I'm not sure I picked the correct option if the players are unwittingly portaled into a new plane. Any and all advice or suggestions are welcome. If you want an area to focus on, the politics of the main city or the world as a whole need to be figured out, and the races/geography of the world is also wide open. I appreciate any and all help in advance.
Such are the first words many hear upon landing in the Plane of Cordia. Conversely, some find themselves in the city of Salia, in the Plane of Honoraulent, depending on who finds them. This however is not the most pressing concern, and the new dweller of this land is more worried about what happened to his/her former life, and how he/she can survive this new land and return.
This is what I have so far on the history
Many years ago there was a grand group of adventurers who purged the world of many evil dragons. Their last mission was to destroy a red dragon hidden in a cave deep under a mountain stronghold. When they reached the dragons cave, they were stunned when the dragon tried to reason with them first before attacking. Anticipating a trick, the party attacked first. The dragon retaliated with a powerful fireball, and a ridiculously strong stoneshape that killed half the party outright. The wizard attempted to kill the dragon outright with a powerful spell, but the dragon hit him with its tail and knocked him to the entrance of the lair, disrupting his spell. Then the dragon shifted the party bard halfway to another dimension and destroyed the mind of the noble barbarian, not seeming to notice that the wizard was unusually tough. The wizard recast his spell, and the dragon fell, pulling the cave down upon itself with its death throes. Only then did the illusion drop and the dragon was revealed to have been a noble gold dragon all along.
The wizard, who was named Cordius, escaped by the narrowest of margins, turning around only to see the capital of the paladin order collapse into itself. He realized his employer had tricked him, and in shame he fled the plane, not caring upon which plane he ended up. When he next woke up, it was on top of a boulder floating above a volcano. The wizard quickly flew down from his precarious perch, and set out to explore the world. Only to find no intelligent creatures there, just animals. He was lucky enough to see one get pulled away by a summoning spell which made him realize that he was on the plain of Summoned Monsters. Cordius could not believe his luck at finding the one plane that no one had access to. He set to molding the land, creating his own house on top of the volcano, watching out over the only true continent in the land.
He soon grew bored, and decided to form new races for his entertainment. Out of birds he created gnomes, and set them against kobolds he grew from the lizards living in the rock. Out of the freshwater fish he created Halflings, ordering them to attack the Hobgoblins from the numerous lava flows. Out of the burrowing animals he created the stout dwarves, and had them battle fierce flying reptiles turned goblins. Finally, out of a forest fire elves were born, opposed by the salty orcs of the sea. The mighty wizard relaxed, content with watching the wars and politics of the eight races work themselves out.
His rest was soon to be interrupted. Little did he know the gold dragon had sired a child with an elf. This daughter, named Saliana swore vengeance on Cordius, and trained in the ways of sorcerers until she was confident she could defeat any other magic-user. Then she set off across the planes in search of the wizard. She ran across Boccob, who asked her to find the cause of monster summonings suddenly summoning humanoids instead of their intended target. Following the trails, she stumbles across this new plane, and finally is able to locate he nemesis. After a terrible battle of magics, the sorceress destroys Cordius with her breath weapon, and she takes over. Ignoring the races still hanging around, she decides to study on creating new planes, in order to find a place for the surviving dragons to recover from the exodus that was Cordius’s party.
Saliana, being a follower of St. Cuthbert, decides to try to summon devils and such to ask for tips on creating a plane. After failing, she redesigns her spells to target a larger possible pool, and recasts. Unfortunately for her, her spell ensnared Kord, god of strength. Not only had Boccob insisted that Kord find out what happened to the adventurer he sent out just that day, but Kord had also recently lost in a jousting competition. Needless to say Kord was extremely angry, and when he found himself facing Saliana in the flesh, he ripped her body to pieces.
Having destroyed the last mage on the plane, Kord realizes that if he doesn’t get some other adventurers and races over to this plane, it very well could become a retirement home for magic-users, which not only deprives his warriors of a chance to kill them, but also in the long run allows for more law in the planes. First he makes sure that chaos has a good hold on the plane, mostly by creating chaos monsters on the far side of the world on far-off islands. Eventually he uses his godly powers to attempt to create gates allowing travel in-between the material plane and the new one. Well, he messes up the spells, being a god of athletics of course, and so asks for help from Wee Jas. Now Wee Jas was angry over how one of her favorite disciples (and possibly her favorite lover) had been killed and she had not had a chance for revenge. So she decides to give his spells random affects before she fixes the entire mess. Suddenly random beings are being summoned from one realm to the next. While the gods attempt to meet to discuss all of the difficulties created by these circumstances, the doors are left to channel in new creatures. However, Fharlaghn decided that this realm was one of traveling, of adventure, and of new paths to be forged, so he created good roads connecting all the previously unconnected squabbling pairs to the old wizard’s home, where he created a great wall to allow adventures and travelers to have somewhere to stay.
The gods have become so entangled over the issue that their final rulings were that each god would have their own chance to turn that world into something that all gods would accept. Needless to say, not one god has yet been able to create a plan that would work.
Here are some affects I was thinking of adding to gameplay to reflect the setting
There is one city, named Salia, where humanoid races have gathered. There are a few savage tribes out in the wild, and the elemental races all have small civilizations. Politics in the city revolves around which races get how many votes in the city council, while the head of the council, a half-halfling half-gnome bard named Chaumanteau Boulivardez actually runs the entire thing. The tribes have generally come to a ceasefire, but one spark could set them off.
Unless you want characters to be native this plane, all characters gain the outsider template. Most intelligent opponents also gain this template, but it can be switched up at the DM’s will. Adventurers can be sent to fight champions of gods trying to influence the realm in their favor, or extreme chaos creatures, or even extreme law creatures bent on turning the plane into their own playground. Adventurers can also be sent to explore this world, finding islands extreme alignment creatures, especially of chaos. Early adventures can include helping found a town at the base of the mountain, meeting with one of the elemental tribes to solve a conflict, or even deal with gates pouring in hostile evil tribal creatures. Ultimately, successful characters are gifted with a return to their home dimension
Chaos is rampant in this setting, with all magical spells and non-native spell effect-generating items having possible alterations chosen by rolling a d20.
1: spell fails
2: random other spell of same level is cast, or spell chooses different target
3. Spell has half effect (either half duration, half damage, lowers DC by 7, or less NPC’s affected)
4. Spell merely takes twice as long to finish casting (full turn spells allow no AoO for caster, no dex bonus to AC, and must stay concentrating until beginning of next turn including con checks.)
5-18 spell acts normally
19 Spell does not require component (either material, XP, or other)
20 Spell does double affect (damage, boost, duration, or adds +10 to DC)
The effects are based on 3.5, which is the only ruleset I know and have played. I'm a little hazy on the templates, and I'm not sure I picked the correct option if the players are unwittingly portaled into a new plane. Any and all advice or suggestions are welcome. If you want an area to focus on, the politics of the main city or the world as a whole need to be figured out, and the races/geography of the world is also wide open. I appreciate any and all help in advance.