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Gorbash
2008-11-11, 05:48 PM
Since people said they wanted to read about Savage Tide campaign I’m running, this topic will be my very own Campaign Journal. My players are well into the campaign, they’re lvl 9 and they’re starting the fifth chapter, out of twelve, called Tides of Dread. So, first of all, here’s a bit of background on players/characters. I’m making them write their character backgrounds now, so they’ll be done in a few days, I’ll post them once they finish.

Ascard - Human Rogue 4/Fighter 2/Dervish 3 - The worst RPer in the group, he's supposedly a gypsy Robin Hood, although I have yet to see him do a good deed or do anything except combat for that matter.

Runstrem Tharmiel - Elf Fighter 4/Paladin 3/Champion of Corellon Larethian 2 - he's the new guy in our gaming group, so he's still a bit shy about RPing in character, though he did write a couple of pages of character background and did a drawing, so I can't really complain. A weaponsmith by trade and recently joined the Church of Whirling Fury.

Artholor 'Art' Hoyt - Half-Elf Bard 9 - A flamboyant half-elf who hates his elven half and tries to hide it as best as he can, wearing a beard and casting disguise spell to change his ears. A womanizer and defacto leader of the party, he has his eyes on Lavinia. He's the son of:

Sol Invictus - Human Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3 - 71 years old (yup, Str and Dex 8). Joined the monastery and forsake his previous life, thus changing the name and taking Vow of Poverty. Loads of fun to watch him bicker with his son about the way he treats women. Not much of an effective character though, basically he can just heal, although he rarely does anything out of character.

Khatran Rask - Human Conjurer 4/Master Specialist 5 - An uptight noble of Sasserine and a member of Dawn Council, forced to work as a mercenary due to his father's debts. Always is competing with Art over the attention of ladies.

Gimdin Mossbeard- Dwarf Druid 9 - just joined the party, so I'm yet to see how he RPs and interacts with the party. Doesn't handle mechanics of the game that good.

They work well as players and as a group (with the exception of the Paladin we've all spent the 4 years of high school together), although they're not very effective in combat (I stopped adding critters to fights because they have enough trouble as it is), they're roleplaying wonderfully (with some exceptions like I said), so I can't really complain about anything.
The campaign itself is about a noble (Lavinia Vanderboren) of the port city of Sasserine, whose parents died in a mysterious accident recently and left her and her brother (Vanthus Vanderboren) in lot of debts. Vanthus eventually pillaged the family vault and used that gold to join a notorious pirate fleet called Scarlet Fleet. Lavinia hired the characters in order to help her collect what’s left of the family fortune and find Vanthus.

After some run-ins with the local thugs in Vantus’ employ, the players finally track him down to a smuggling cave located a bit out of town. Once they got there they found the place overrun with feral, mutated pirates. They fought their way through the cave, where they found one survivor, pirate captain Harliss Javel, who filled them in what happened. Vanthus came to her in order to trade some stolen goods and while he stayed with the pirates he tried to steal a strange black pearl from them. When Harliss confronted him, he dropped the pearl, which suddenly exploded and changed most of the inhabitants into savage creatures, described earlier. Harliss also told the players that, as a revenge, she sent her first mate along with a tribe of Bullywugs (ridiculous, I know) to kill Lavinia. Party immeadiately went to Sasserine in order to stop them, but the Bullywugs got to the Vanderboren mansion first and they butchered most of its inhabitants, but they held Lavinia alive for ransom. The party of course butchered them, although they managed to save Lavinia and capture Harliss’ first mate, Drevoraz.

After a few weeks, Lavinia had a new task for the party, now named Tidecrushers. In the family vault, she found her mother’s journal, along with a deed to a remote colony named Farshore, which is located on the infamous Isle of Dread. She wanted to keep the memory of her parents alive, so she decided to mount an expedition to Farshore and help it thrive. The expedition consisted of two ships – Lavinia’s Blue Nixie, and a ship which the party found abandoned in the smuggler’s cave, called Sea Wyvern. The journey took 3 months and party had run-ins with Crimson Fleet, a living island made of sargasso and a hive mind controling it, they visited ancient Olman ruins (Olmans are people based on Aztec/Maya civilization, who had a vast-reaching empire long time ago, until an unknown tragedy reduced them to a number of tribal communities, they now reside mostly on Isle of Dread), where they found a golden bat idol (will be important later).

Near the Isle of Dread, they run into a great storm, which caused two ships to get separated, and Sea Wyvern barely made it to the north-eastern part of the island (Farshore is on the south side). Through Sending, they found out that Lavinia made it safe to Farshore and they started their long voyage through dinosaur-inhabited island. While traveling they were constantly harassed by an unkown enemy, who made traps for them along most of the way (rigging bridges, causing avalanches, stealing their supplies during the night, etc). The enemy was a Bar-Lgura of Demogorgon, named Olangru, who herded the PCs into his temple in order to sacrifice them, located deep inside a jungle named Fogmire, due to the ever present fog inside it. That is because the boundaries between Material Plane and Abyss are thin there, so the vile influence is evident in mutaded flora and fauna. They fought their way to the actual temple, where they encountered Olangru and his mates, and destroyed the golem which was the focus of the Fogmire’s power, thus dispeling its magic.

After some more travelling through the jungle, they finally made it to Farshore, which is under the attack of the Crimson Fleet. That is how their last session ended, when they ventured near Farshore and saw the banners of Crimson Fleet and smoke rising from the town itself…

The next session will be on thursday, hopefully, if not then on tuesday, and I really hope my updates here will be on regular basis, but that depends much on how many times we actually play! I apologize if I made some grammar mistakes, english isn't my primary language, so I can't make everything be 100% or that much descriptive, but I hope it will do.

Gorbash
2008-11-11, 05:59 PM
This post is reserved for character's stories and sheets.

So far:

Runstrem Tharmiel:


Runstrem was born to a family of devoted worshipers of elven gods. His father was a paladin and mother was a cleric, both serving Corellon. Trough his parent’s deeds he was looked upon with respect and his early childhood was promising great swordsmen career. At age of 20 he was commissioned to a special order of his church, to follow a path of Champion of Chorellon, which was a great honor he gladly accepted. He was first in class, he was of noble blood and his father even led him in secrets of elven blades in town’s forge. Heroism, valor and pride were words that shall follow his name in future, all agreed. But all that changed in his 28-th, as it always happens, small towns of forest folk are often victims to revenge looking drows, searching only for plunder of blood and life of surface elves. Chaos befell town quickly, there were no mistakes in drow raids. Magical darkness instantly whipped light and only screams were heard, silent and precise, blades of dark blood brothers slashed swift and true. With only ring of his house and holy symbol of initiate Champion he ran, he ran, future of heroism and valor and pride were putted aside, hidden with fear and last words of his father: “Thamirel, Thamirel the elven prince, that’s what you are, run now, my last vow to Corellon is that you will live to serve him. So run now and fulfill my vow.” …he ran, till he passed out.
Few days later he woke in a fortified temple of Heironeous, his life was saved by divine power of human priests, followers of god he only knew from books. A 12 year old human boy, priest to be, was appointed to take care of elven youngster, his name was Veryn. Veryn was a book worm, man bound to temple and its library and Runstrem’s best friend, till death sets them apart. In temple no one ever tried to convert this elf into worshiping human god, but they’ve arranged for his further education with Veryn, while at the same time he was practicing swordfight with war priests and even visiting citadels weapon smith. He learned about his village, it was burned to the ground. Few corpses were found, but these were not identifiable. So he decided to stay in the temple, study of the world and than decide his course. At age of 81 he met and actually talked with a first elf, since he fled his home. Emarilar was a traveling bard, full of stories and proud of his heritage, for whole month he stayed and fed Runstrem with dreams. IT was than that he decided to leave, that he learned he was only hiding here, hiding from shame of fleeing and leaving his parents. He remained for 2 more years since Veryn was ill and dying, after the ceremony he left, grief was evident and he had to find a way out, it was all a mess. Emarilar advised him to visit elven community and that he did. For 29 years he lived in few elven villages finished his initiation with Champions of Chorellon and gained a title of smith. His nobility was also admitted and accepted by elven elders and most importantly he reunited with Corellon. His time with human instilled him with doze of dedication, law, justice and tolerance. But his cruel fate made him a stern warrior. There will come time when he will be king, but not in forest that can be burned, he will not hide, he will raise a great citadel of Corellon. Home to greatest champions, he will not have to make his child a fugitive, but he will repel the enemy. He will be the honorable hero they spoke about, he will seek power and he will not misuse it. He will protect and he will stop tyranny before it happens. He will go now, on his personal crusade, he passed test of Corellon and is no longer initiate, but tests of life never end, so no more running. Lesson one of swordfight is never to turn your back to enemy, he knows now and he will not any more.
“But Drow scavengers, mark my words, your demon eyes will be shut by my sword should we ever meet, this is my vow. Let the hunt begin.”

And here are the sheets of the others:

Sol Invictus (http://www.pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=603)

Ascard (http://www.pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=656)

Khatran Rask (http://www.pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=645)

Gimdin Mossbeard[/url

[url=http://www.pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=664]Artholor Hoyt (http://www.pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=604)

Matthew
2008-11-13, 08:27 AM
Just so you know, I did enjoy reading the recap and look forward to the session reports. X1 Isle of Dread was the first module written for Expert Dungeons & Dragons (the follow up to Basic Dungeons & Dragons), so it is interesting to hear about a D20/3e "return" to that locale.

Totally Guy
2008-11-13, 08:32 AM
Is this a published campaign or is it one of your own?

Matthew
2008-11-13, 08:36 AM
I can answer that; Savage Tide (http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/savageTide) is one of the Adventure Paths that Paizo Publishing put out during their time handling Dungeon magazine.