Yael
2014-07-16, 04:57 AM
So, I really want to DM an adventure of full discovery, where the PCs don't really know where they are. The intro comes as follows:
It is around noon, the salty winds go through your hair and you smell the seawater on the board; the floor is moving along with the waves as the crewmen sing and work on their stations, tighting ropes, and cleaning the deck, you all are aboard the Saint Arrow, a merchant vessel whose name has gotten some renown, especially for its owrner, Captain Dragobert himself, a brave sailor whose tactic advice helped through the entire Civil War at the Alataria continent.
The ship's destination is to reach the Raiknastrus Archipielago, a fully developed metropolis, famous for their arcane research and discoveries, resulting on the flying city of L'Arc~en~Ciel, above the central district of its own capital city. The exact location for the deliver of goods is the Prax District, the southern largest island, where the religion of Alausha, Bocoob, and Wee Jas have their biggest influence. Also, a small school of magic resides in Prax, and the largest production, and trade of food and clothing is located there (also the isle contains the smallest population of casters from all the islands, ironically because the gods with more dominance are the gods of magic.) You have been four weeks on-board, and surprisingly no storms ever hit the Saint Arrow, especially for the region, which is known as the most aggresive area on the entire southern sea; but at the start of the fifth week, something happened: a big storm had its act of presence on the Arrow's way, giving the crew a hard time due to the strong winds, and furious tides. The ever-vigilant watcher suddendly shout to the crew (PCs inside the ship require a DC20 Listen check to listen what the watcher said.)
Captain! Ae can see somethin' at prew!
...
It's comming!
(A spot check with a DC of 25 allows the PCs to see the source of the hit, and a DC25 Knowledge (Arcana) check reveals it to be a Kraken (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG162.jpg), failing the knowledge check tells the PC that he is seeing a squid of some sort.)
The captain ran to the prow, and when he saw the "something" the watcher saw before, rappidly he also gave a shout, ordering the crew (same as above, but the Listen check's DC is 15.)
HOLD TIGHT!
Suddendly the ship took a hit, a very hard one. You all fell from wherever you were standing at the moment, whether at the deck or not (a Reflex save, DC15 would keep PCs barely standing, failing the save has a 25% chance of making the PCs fall to the sea, if they were on the deck when the ship took a hit.)
Turn the ship, take ous outta here!
The captain ordered, but there was no response, the man that had control over the tiller was nowhere to be seen, probably he fell off the ship. The captain ran to the bridge, but when he was mid-way, the ship took another hit, and the Saint Arrow was knock over deck-down, the creature broke it and the crewmen that was inside were thrown to the sea, the Saint Arrow got sinked, and the crew was dispersed all around the area.
...
(Randomly select one player).
You wake up when a crab was walking around your back, using its pincers to poke your head, sometimes pulling from your hair. As you wake up, you can see a beach, you don't know where you are, nor how you got there, maybe you were lucky that you weren't feed for the creature (Kraken.)
The beach looks pretty clean, no trash can be seen around, actually, there is no sign of civilization within vision range, there is a cliff that can be seen behind a wall of trees which look like palms, maybe you could be on a small tropical island, maybe some village should be located near the place, to provide their people with coconuts or something, you think. There are another (# of PC) persons on the shore, no one is moving, they could be either dead or sleeping. As you look around the place, you can see that parts of the S.A. lying on the white sand, some clothing and tools like ropes are there, none of them seem useful anymore. After a while, (randomly select another PC) another (type of PC) wakes up. Then another one, and other one (continue as many times it is needed,) you recognize them from the crew, just as you, they just boarded the ship at the city of Kass'As, at the Alataria Continent. After a while, you hear something, not too far away from where you are right now (DC 15 Listen points out where the sound comes from.)
It is the captain, he seems pretty injured, actually, he is missing his right arm, right foot, and left leg. He sees you all, and you can see he is dying very badly.
K-k... K-krak... Krak... en...
(A DC25 heal check stabilizes him and puts him to sleep.) He said with such a low tone that could be barely heard, then, he closes his eyes and he does not breathe anymore. Onto your eyes, you see the dead captain lying over a half-buried chest.
The captain cried a lot during the treatment, but after a while, he stopped breathing rappidly, and just slept like a branch. Under him, you can see a half-buried chest.
It was a special chest, you all have seen it before. It was where the explorer's equipment was stored, a wet-proof container, used by the Captain's men to explore new islands and to record their findings to the water's dominant continent. It contains exactly (# of PCs) backpacks filled with useful exploring stuff (especifically, Standard Adventurer's Kit, as explained in the PHB2, p216; plus the special need for each class, such as a spellbook), and the same number of Explorer's Outfits.
There it is, very mediocre, I know, but that's what I was thinking today while I was walking like 7kms to a friend's house to play d&d. The idea is to make a full continent where there are civilizations, but not mostly composed by humanoids. Creatures like aberrations, outsiders, and some humanoids (such as kobolds, or goblins) have their untouched home (except by them.) This continent is unknown for the PCs (later resulting also unknown for every other NPC in the world.) Also, this place enforces exploring, so I thought of placing a weird kind Antimagic Field above the whole place, preventing divination from reaching outside the field, but working at a 50% failure chance inside it. Even when I know how I want it, I don't know what it is to make a whole world, I want it to be a world where every skill is used to its best (such as appraise, and most knowledges, except for history, and limiting geography, I think.) Putting in some limitations with the books, but that's something different.
How about helping me to brainstorm the world building, I see the shore where the PCs landed at the north part of the continent, from there on, what could be here? It would sized aprox almost like Europe+Asia+Africa (yes, even this big, undiscovered.)
Halperino?
It is around noon, the salty winds go through your hair and you smell the seawater on the board; the floor is moving along with the waves as the crewmen sing and work on their stations, tighting ropes, and cleaning the deck, you all are aboard the Saint Arrow, a merchant vessel whose name has gotten some renown, especially for its owrner, Captain Dragobert himself, a brave sailor whose tactic advice helped through the entire Civil War at the Alataria continent.
The ship's destination is to reach the Raiknastrus Archipielago, a fully developed metropolis, famous for their arcane research and discoveries, resulting on the flying city of L'Arc~en~Ciel, above the central district of its own capital city. The exact location for the deliver of goods is the Prax District, the southern largest island, where the religion of Alausha, Bocoob, and Wee Jas have their biggest influence. Also, a small school of magic resides in Prax, and the largest production, and trade of food and clothing is located there (also the isle contains the smallest population of casters from all the islands, ironically because the gods with more dominance are the gods of magic.) You have been four weeks on-board, and surprisingly no storms ever hit the Saint Arrow, especially for the region, which is known as the most aggresive area on the entire southern sea; but at the start of the fifth week, something happened: a big storm had its act of presence on the Arrow's way, giving the crew a hard time due to the strong winds, and furious tides. The ever-vigilant watcher suddendly shout to the crew (PCs inside the ship require a DC20 Listen check to listen what the watcher said.)
Captain! Ae can see somethin' at prew!
...
It's comming!
(A spot check with a DC of 25 allows the PCs to see the source of the hit, and a DC25 Knowledge (Arcana) check reveals it to be a Kraken (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG162.jpg), failing the knowledge check tells the PC that he is seeing a squid of some sort.)
The captain ran to the prow, and when he saw the "something" the watcher saw before, rappidly he also gave a shout, ordering the crew (same as above, but the Listen check's DC is 15.)
HOLD TIGHT!
Suddendly the ship took a hit, a very hard one. You all fell from wherever you were standing at the moment, whether at the deck or not (a Reflex save, DC15 would keep PCs barely standing, failing the save has a 25% chance of making the PCs fall to the sea, if they were on the deck when the ship took a hit.)
Turn the ship, take ous outta here!
The captain ordered, but there was no response, the man that had control over the tiller was nowhere to be seen, probably he fell off the ship. The captain ran to the bridge, but when he was mid-way, the ship took another hit, and the Saint Arrow was knock over deck-down, the creature broke it and the crewmen that was inside were thrown to the sea, the Saint Arrow got sinked, and the crew was dispersed all around the area.
...
(Randomly select one player).
You wake up when a crab was walking around your back, using its pincers to poke your head, sometimes pulling from your hair. As you wake up, you can see a beach, you don't know where you are, nor how you got there, maybe you were lucky that you weren't feed for the creature (Kraken.)
The beach looks pretty clean, no trash can be seen around, actually, there is no sign of civilization within vision range, there is a cliff that can be seen behind a wall of trees which look like palms, maybe you could be on a small tropical island, maybe some village should be located near the place, to provide their people with coconuts or something, you think. There are another (# of PC) persons on the shore, no one is moving, they could be either dead or sleeping. As you look around the place, you can see that parts of the S.A. lying on the white sand, some clothing and tools like ropes are there, none of them seem useful anymore. After a while, (randomly select another PC) another (type of PC) wakes up. Then another one, and other one (continue as many times it is needed,) you recognize them from the crew, just as you, they just boarded the ship at the city of Kass'As, at the Alataria Continent. After a while, you hear something, not too far away from where you are right now (DC 15 Listen points out where the sound comes from.)
It is the captain, he seems pretty injured, actually, he is missing his right arm, right foot, and left leg. He sees you all, and you can see he is dying very badly.
K-k... K-krak... Krak... en...
(A DC25 heal check stabilizes him and puts him to sleep.) He said with such a low tone that could be barely heard, then, he closes his eyes and he does not breathe anymore. Onto your eyes, you see the dead captain lying over a half-buried chest.
The captain cried a lot during the treatment, but after a while, he stopped breathing rappidly, and just slept like a branch. Under him, you can see a half-buried chest.
It was a special chest, you all have seen it before. It was where the explorer's equipment was stored, a wet-proof container, used by the Captain's men to explore new islands and to record their findings to the water's dominant continent. It contains exactly (# of PCs) backpacks filled with useful exploring stuff (especifically, Standard Adventurer's Kit, as explained in the PHB2, p216; plus the special need for each class, such as a spellbook), and the same number of Explorer's Outfits.
There it is, very mediocre, I know, but that's what I was thinking today while I was walking like 7kms to a friend's house to play d&d. The idea is to make a full continent where there are civilizations, but not mostly composed by humanoids. Creatures like aberrations, outsiders, and some humanoids (such as kobolds, or goblins) have their untouched home (except by them.) This continent is unknown for the PCs (later resulting also unknown for every other NPC in the world.) Also, this place enforces exploring, so I thought of placing a weird kind Antimagic Field above the whole place, preventing divination from reaching outside the field, but working at a 50% failure chance inside it. Even when I know how I want it, I don't know what it is to make a whole world, I want it to be a world where every skill is used to its best (such as appraise, and most knowledges, except for history, and limiting geography, I think.) Putting in some limitations with the books, but that's something different.
How about helping me to brainstorm the world building, I see the shore where the PCs landed at the north part of the continent, from there on, what could be here? It would sized aprox almost like Europe+Asia+Africa (yes, even this big, undiscovered.)
Halperino?