Ravaged Sea Campaign Journal(s)

[jlavack]

Hi there, I am new at this whole forum thing, but was so inspired by the Silver Claw Shift campaign files that I wanted to catalogue my own game.

Myself I am the DM for this Homebrew which I started designing about four years ago. It has gone through several overhauls and re-writes until the current form which I am very happy with.

The game is a massive undertaking. I have started one party of five and am starting up another of five to run in tandem. Same plot, same world. Weekly sessions for each party. PCs do not have character sheets, only powers with descriptions of the attack/feat (I want to maximise role paying and smooth combat - so far this has worked greatly) and they only roll if I ask them to. My plan is to have the parties cross over at certain points for super important plot events.

My intent with starting this is to catalogue the sessions this far and to hopefully have my players take over the posting of the sessions - it is much more interesting in my mind to read from a player's point of view than the DM's.

The World: Caldae
An ocean planet. Steam punk/gas lamp fantasy vibe. Magic is natural (see bellow), metal is scarce - there are no new mines so it is all recycled. Gods are physically manifested and are tied closely to the magic.
There is only one continent (The Aquilan continent) and this is the home base of the bad guys - the self titled Aquilan Empire (think pseudo Roman/Great Britain/western empires). Ruled by Alora the God Queen. God of Blood Magic. Aquila is super magical, tall spires, floating things, little technology uninfluenced by magic.

The rest of the world is one massive archipelago. Known collectively as 'The Free Waters'. There are some large city states, but mostly society is very segmented and confined to islands or island groupings. Trade is huge. Steam Punk influence is more noticeable in areas with high population density. Piracy is large, etc. Just one massive mixing pot of cultures and races. The further out from the large ports the more defined the cultures, until the extreme of savage tribes of one race is reached.

Magic:
Magic takes on one of seven forms. It is all elemental. Earth, wood, water, fire, air. These are considered the official rings of magic. Then there is Blood magic which is considered evil and the reason why the world is in the current state (think Darksun except instead of desert the world was shattered - literally). Finally there is Shadow magic, which most do not believe exists.
Magic spirals is certain ways. Earth down, fire up, water over, wood out, air around and blood into itself. To use magic the source element needs to be nearby -think Avatar. There are para elements which are a mix of two or more. Blood doesn't mix as its spiral is closed. Any form of magic from any class is expressed by the element the PC has chosen. It does that type of damage instead of what the spell, would naturally do. Unless for special circumstances only one element is allowed per PC if they take a magic class.
Shadow magic doesn't spiral, it overlaps. And it cannot do physical harm. Think illusions and things. This is why no one believe it exists.

Gods:
There were once gods each added to the creation of the world an element.
Melrain -God of Earth
Teng- God of water
Lai - Goddess of nature and life (Wood)
Cim - Goddes of Air
Way - God of Metal (called Waylar in ancient times)
Vel - Goddess of Fire
Alora - Goddess of Blood
The faceless god - Goddess of shadow. Thought not to exist
The Chained God - Zuxal god of ??? - no one knows about his existence.
There were a series of wars between the gods and the ancient civilisations. Each shattered the world a little. They killed each other off until Alora is the only god still thought alive.
Divine Magic is unique. It is ekther elemental or obtained through devotion to a dead god (of which pretty much no one knows abut nowadays) or to an ancient bound benevolent primordial (during creation they were chained by the gods to the land.


Planes and warlocks:
All planes converge on Caldae. I personally never liked the whole crossing between the planes idea. There is also no shadowfell. This way practically anything can happen in the world. Warlocks make pacts with physical beings (demons, evil primordial, Alora) or the elements themselves. There are no vanilla D&D demons and gods. Everything is Homebrew.


Races:
There are a tonne. they have all mixed over the centuries. Though there are still some isolated populations which I will detail bellow. More or less all follow Dark Sun descriptions. All are mortal
Aquilans: really pale and corrupt blood magical humans and Eladrin
Humans - most populous.
Elves - nomadic in kayaks. Southern are like eskimos, northern like Polynesians
Half elves - generally disliked. Live anywhere
Dwarves - cannibalistic island hopping tribes
Muls - breed by Aquilans for blood sport
Half Orcs - like Maori
Half Giants - Native American Indians
Halflings - thought to not exist. Live on an isolated jungle island chain.
Thrikreen - Confucian/Buddhist culture. They have the only other 'empire'
Mer - singing, amphibious reptiles. Forced into a racial refugee state after their underwater empires were destroyed in the last great war.
Hadozee - Monkey people that live on board ships
Karkarion - shark people. Like to scrap a d find human settlements good for this.
Kenku - humanoid birds. Live in settlements or near in 'roosts'. Can parrot sounds. Can't fly.
Samael - slightly feline. Live around other cultures like house cats. Like to travel. Largely solitary.

Recent History:
After the last great war, Alora was sent into a thousand year slumber and confined in her Silver tower by the Antipodean barrier. For a long time Aquila has claimed imperial right to the whole planet. Five years ago Alora woke up. Two years ago the free waters raised in rebellion (or the closest thing to) under Magnus Hammerhand. The Hammerhand rebellion ended tragically. All the captured rebels had their right hands cut off and were released into the islands again as a reminder of the price of rebellion. Since then the Aquilans have been out in force, slaving and being evil.

The next post will include the characters for the game. Hope this all made sense.

[jlavack]

Characters
I sat down with each player individually and we talked out their concept. I gave them lore, and then a cheat sheet with what they would know if they lived on Caldae. And we figured out how they came to be slaves upon an Aquilan ship bound for home. The only restrictions are
1) cannot be Aquilan
2) cannot have been part of the rebellion
3) unless the concept it super cool

Personally I am a really relaxed DM. I want my players to have fun so I made all the efforts to make the characters fit. Which is why I sat down with them to discuss their PC. Then I painted up a minis, made their PC character sheet as close to the concept given (classes and powers are house ruled). We also talked about PC development. How they act and how they decide to act will progress them in different ways (multi-classing). Bought them journals and wrote in a mysterious plot dream to give them after the first session.

All PCs start at lvl 3

Party 1
In this party all are 4e virgins. Three are D&D virgins. Exciting for me! None can be rules lawyers!

Tiffidy
Human Eartstrength Warden (to start). The Eco Pimp. Last of his kind. Lived alone on an island learning from the Tiffidy before him until that one died. He was learning to pimp (master) all the elements and to bring balance to the world. He mastered Earth before he was captured by Aquilans who came to his forest island and began logging it. They found him and were shocked to find one of the Tiffidy race still alive, believing they killed them all a generation before. Tiffidy knew none of this, just saw people logging his home and attacked.

Vestikia Seaspeaker
Half Elf Paladin/black guard from the order of Way. She was a minor noble in the house of Artiedes from the largest trade power or Krang. As a child she was visiting distant relatives when her ship was sunk. The only survivor she washed up on the isolated island monastery of Way. Unable to leave she learned from them the ways of a paladin, except she is not devout. After ten years she left to find her Elf father - a Elven water caller (mage). She is conflicted though. Spending ten years learning a monastic tradition means she is trained to be good. But she is largely selfish and this can cause her to act in sometimes evil ways. And she has the blood of a Water Mage... After she left her ship was boarded by Aquilans and she thrust into slavery.

Big Fella
Half Giant berserker Barbarian. He used to be something else, but was smacked in the head and lost all memory. He woke up surrounded by a band of bandits and immediately thought them his parents. He also thinks he is only two. His crew was ambushed by Aqilans and Big Fella captured. The way Big Fella works is that each time he is knocked out he regains part of his lost memory. He used to be a Half Giant fire crafter (smoking crown initiate, fire crafter, etc to get the powers and feats).

Shakulros
Halfling Illusionist (witch). Unknown user of shadow magic. Left his island home to find a dowry for the woman he loved. Ended up becoming stranded in civilisation. In order to hide his identity he always wore an illusion. Eventually he developed a weird love of messing with people. He travelled around the smaller islands to find a suitable dowry - something gold and valuable - but had no luck. So he became a con artist and small time crook. Eventually someone got suspicious and started to try and discover who he was. They entered a Sherlock Holmes type cat and mouse. Shakulros was Moriarity. Thanks to this he developed immense paranoia and in an attempt to remain hidden he voluntarily became caught by the Aquilan slavers. He now knows he has been instinctively using shadow magic and has found his familiar... his own shadow. though he doesn't know this until around the third session (his PC that is).

Waspuncher!
Human fighter. In his own world he was a vigilante crime fighter (Web comic project my friends and I are working on (still early planning). His face is a poweranger-esque wasp mask - not a helmet, that is his actual face. He gains his powers by punching wasps. He is afraid of water, loves milk and has a strongly defined sense of justice. He was fighting a villain called the Dungeon Master who sent him through a portal to Caldae. Waspuncher woke up on a small island. No Wasps anywhere go be seen. For two years he stayed on the island trying to fight crime and earning the nickname the Yellow Paladin. Eventually he was palmed off to passing Aquilans by the fed up town people who framed him for stealing milk. He believes that if he can find and defeat the Dungeon master in this world he will return to his world. he thinks this because on the boat he saw Tiffidy, an ally of his in his world, but who wants nothing to do with the physically deformed looney on Caldae.

Party 2
A few of these guys are veterans of 4e. Still waiting for a few character concepts to be refined. The first session is yet to happen. In about two weeks we are having a meet where I give them the campaign players guide and will help them to fit their characters into the world.

Joe Grim
Human fighter (brawler)/barbarian. He comes from Caldaes London equivalent and is a sailor on the ship 'The Sea Lady' which he considers the best ship on the sea. Joe is a prize fighter, although not very good at winning he is incredibly hard to knock out and personally considers it a win if he was not knocked out. catch phrase: "Nobody knocks out Joe Grim!!!"
Before a bare knuckle fight in a rough port he was drugged and press ganged into slavery. He wants to return to his ship.

Stan
Thri-kreen rogue/swashbuckler. His real name is unpronounceable by non Thri-kreen so he goes by Stan for ease of interaction and fights with a Chinese long sword. He left the Thri-Kreen lands to seek adventure in the free waters. Stan settled in the London equivalent and, so shocked by the rampant crime and the authorities ineptitude became a consultant detective. Being an insect his unique perspective and deductive reasoning enabled him to solve crime quickly. Think Sherlock Holmes, but a giant praying mantis. He became very obsessed with his new work and thinks that everything is a conspiracy. Following a lead he let himself be captured by Aquilans (This is totally a coincidence. No jokes, the two parties know nothing of each other, except that there is another party).

Unknown name
Because the player hasn't thought one up yet. Though the concept is of a treasure obsessed Karkarion pirate captain who lost everything hunting for the treasure. He drifted around for several years scraping a living and doing petty crimes. He got heavy into substance abuse and alcohol. Eventually he was picked up by Aqilans. Time rowing the boat made him sober and he is now determined to get another ship, another crew and hunt the treasure again.

the other two are unknown as of yet. One payer hasn't thought up a concept, the other hasn't been fond yet. But there is still a couple weeks and if we have to we will start with a party of four.

So those are the parties so far. It is a massive undertaking, especially without character sheets and all the homebrew elements and house rules. But so far it has been incredibly fun.

My next post will be the first session for the first party. Hope you all are interested so far!

[masteraleph]

Just a note- I'd be concerned over the total lack of any leaders in either of the party. That strikes me as being rather painful in the long run.

[jlavack]

True, there are no leaders. This is something they will learn the hard way later on. I won't pull punches. So far though party one has worked well as a team.

[Yakk]

Race suggestion
Races generally breed true. A child of two races looks like one parent or the other.

Even the half races (Half Orc, Half Giant, Half Elf and Mul) breed true. You don't get a half elf by breeding a human with an elf. When a human and an elf breed, you get a human, or an elf.

Similarly, when a half elf and a human breed, you get a half elf or a human.

Instead, an ancient empire created the half races, possibly so long ago that it fades out of recorded history: maybe "before the world was broken". Half Giants where laborers, Half Orcs where soldiers, and the Half Elves where house servants and diplomats.

The Aquilans have rediscovered these techniques, and used them to create the half dwarves -- Muls.
It is something similar to what I've used in my 'brew. (In it, the ancient empire is the Tiefling empire, who also bred the Behemoths from Dragon stock).

[jlavack]

Ooo, that's a cool idea. I especially like the races breed true. And it does fit nicely with the lore. Half giants were made with help from the gods by mixing Halfling and Giant blood lines. And Half Orcs were made by Melrain to aid the Dwarves as soldiers. And it would work for Mul too because I follow established lore there and made them infertile. That could be an inbuilt safety measure. Though Half elves are different because Vestikia's background has her mother as a human and her father as an elf. Definitely, with your permission I will take the idea for the other races though and tweak it where necessary.

Cheers!