D&D plot Possiblly

Plot D&D 

The nemesis: the Lord of Greysteel.  

The lord of Greysteel is lawful evil, and a Mage.  He is in fact a Necromancer and arranged the attack on his family that elevated him to rulership.  The Humanoids that attacked and killed his parents and siblings were no fools and they, with the help of the Temple of Elemental Evil, captured one his siblings and secreted him to the temple to be held as a hostage.  The Temple has been blackmailing the Lord.

The Lord has not taken well to the blackmail, but he does not know where they are holding his sister, who is a Paladin.  He thinks it is in a neighbouring kingdom, a lawful neutral state with many civilized Orcs.  In any case he feels that this kingdom is most deserving for conquest anyways.  Convenient that orcs have such a bad name in Jarda.  His bounty on humanoids is to stir conflicts up between the two nations.  

The Temple Faction has only started blackmailing the Lord in the last ten years.  The lord has a number of projects on the go.  The conquest of the Orc nation is one.  The second is the search for immortality— and he is close on this, he has performed many of the rituals necessary to complete his induction as a Litch.  Third on his list to to uncover a great and powerful artifact that he discovered in part when he was a young Mage.  He has the hilt and the tip of an extremely powerful artifact sword.  He is not sure exactly how large the final product is, but he believes it is a larger version of a two-handed sword.  The blade is bright gold and very heavy, but he suspects that when it is assembled that it can be fully attuned to and will be feather light.  Just the hilt is assembled, but with that has given him some great powers, including improved Invisibility, teleportation and illusionary projections.  When it is fully assembled he believes he will be as strong as a god.

The players will find some of these pieces when ever they complete adventures.  First when they get them someone will make an offer to purchase the sword fragment, but the buyer will appear to be a little too eager to get it.  Then there shall be break ins and assassins.  The Lord will then contact the players and ask what all this disruption is all about?  If they tell him, the lord will attempt to broker a solution, he will offer to hold the fragments for the Players until they need them.  After a serious threat and damage to the town, he will insist that they surrender them.

As the players begin to bring in more and more humanoid ears and collect more bounties they will attract the attention of the constabulary.  After they bring in 100gp of bounties, they will get recognized and toasted in the Taverns.  When they hit 200gp, a Sargent will buy the group a round.  By the time they have got 100gp/ player they will be greeted by name as they enter Greysteel and by patrols.  And invited to eat with the Captain of the Forces.  When they hit the 1000gp range the Characters will be given rank in the army, honorary members, but with salutes.  Ranks, 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The characters, when they recover contraband from smugglers and pirates they will get a similar reaction as the bounty hunting line.  1000gp recovered, toasts, 2000gp they will get a round purchased for them, etcetera.  However, they will be snubbed too.  Every ten smuggler/pirate killed will result in an act of vandalism or petty violence, "you killed my daddy."  Ranks 1, 2, 3, and 4

If the characters lawfully pay their taxes when they bring in loot they will will get folk hero status as great adventurers. Ranks, 1-4.

If the characters are good about bringing in bounties and smugglers they will be given more leeway about paying tax on their gains.  Heroes after all are given a little benefit of doubt . . ..  Ranks add partially.  Highest rank + next highest rank -1 + next rank -2 = Yx10% of tax that can be avoided without penalty.  PLAY by the rules of the Lord and you will get benefits.  If they give up the artifact pieces they will get a free rank in every area.  

When the players get stronger, the Lord will enact one of his plans and use his mastery over the artifact to cause his army to attack the town of the player's biggest interest, he will make it appear as if they are attacking Orcs, and the villagers that the army is Orcs, either way refugees will talk about the attack on the village and how it was unprovoked and the Nation of Orcs must be destroyed.  If his sister has been freed at this point he may choose that as the time to begin.  

When the attack has occurred he will seek adventurers to lead the attack on the nation of marauding Orcs.  If the players do this they should see that it is the evil of the Lord causing the disruptions.   

Introduction:

Those of you who were born to this little Dukedom know the history of the area well.  Over one hundred years ago the Holy Kingdom of Jarda, at the height of its power, was threatened by a cult of evil men.  The cult performed many assassinations on the nobility before the cult was traced to its source, a Temple of Elemental Evil.  The might of the Kingdom fell upon the Temple and destroyed it utterly— or as near to completely as they could manage.  The King vowed that never should the kingdom be threatened again by such a force and empowered his Cousin, the Duke of Greysteel to settle the region with loyal soldiers of the realm, a reward for good service.  It was hoped that if good people lived in the temple's shadow, it could never rise again.  For two generations the town of Greysteel grew from its inspirational beginnings to a small Duchy with five small villages, Hommlet, Sunnydale, Nulb, Saltmarsh and Orlane.  Things were not always pleasant, time was not always favourable, but overall life is good here.  Few remember a time when the taxman from Jarda was last seen, but the old timers say that is was near fifty years ago.  There is little news from the outside world here, so the reasons for the abandonment are still a popular topic of discussion, second after the retellings of the attack on the Second Duke's retinue, which was wiped out to a man, leaving only the youngest son soul heir, back in the Keep.  It was common knowledge that he was left back because he was gravely ill, but some claim in the darkest hours of the night after the ale has flown freely, that he was not infact ill, but the mastermind of betrayal…. Whatever the case the time of his rule has been one of strength and order.  Taxes have been laid,  an army was raised and, fortifications built; the nation is strong and hearty.  The bounty on Humanoids is new, just in the past couple of years and every year their are tales of smugglers caught and hung for display, one in every village at least.  

Adventures that my be played herein: N1, N2; T1-4; U1-3

New D&D campaign 2

Turning your setting that you dreamed up in high school into a D&D or any roleplaying game setting has a few troubles.  The things that I thought were cool don't necessarily translate very well into a game; some sound great and neat in your head, but just get in the way of game play.  Like having a world with six moons and three suns and a opposite direction of rotation all sounded cool to my sixteen year old mind, well they still sound cool to my mind now, but they mostly mean nothing or make things complicated and only that.  So, maybe, just maybe I need to de-clutter the game setting.  For example, maybe three suns will work, since only two are ever visible, but dropping the moons down to three, allows each of the suns to have a opposite, because the gods are the moons and the suns.  Rotation direction is not important except for me, so drop it entirely.  

Sometimes things sound great in your head, and writing them out they still sound great, but when you tell someone about them, then you realize that you have been talking inside your head too long.  Far, too, long.

So, let's work with the changes.

Three Goddesses and three Gods.  The goddesses will represent Law, Chaos and Neutrality.  The Gods will represent Good, Evil and Neutrality.  

The Goddess of Light is Lawful (Green) Light, Forge, Protection

The Goddess of Magic is Neutral (Blue) Arcana, Knowledge, War

The Goddess of  Weather is Chaotic (Red). Tempest, Nature, Trickery

The God of Health is Good ( Small and White, 1/4 year rotation, eclipse every five rotations) Life, Protection, City

The God of Nature is Neutral (Medium and Blue, monthly rotation, eclipse every nine rotations) Nature, Grave, Life

The God of War is Evil (Large and Green, bi-weekly rotation, eclipse every 27 rotations) Death, Tempest, Forge

List of domains

Arcana.    Forge.            Life.         Protection.  War. 

City.           Grave.            Light.      Tempest.      

Death.       Knowledge.   Nature.   Trickery.   

Those six Deities are universal, but have many names but they always are portrayed similarly.

Each Lesser God is culturally dependent, gets two domains, but one must come from one of the two major gods, example: LG goddess of Righteousness, has one Domain of (Life, Protection, City, Light and Forge) and one other domain.  There could be a dozen different gods of Righteousness, that are LG and each could have different domains.  One might be the Bright Sword, Light and War, another might be Righteous Raven, Protection and Trickery.  

An Orc Pantheon would be culturally Orcish, but have possibly a similar list of gods as a nearby human pantheon.  A city might have many different Pantheons sharing a single temple, as long as the alignment and purview were similar, and a non human god could have human worshipers too.  

Languages.  Every character will have the minimum of Common and a racial language.  Racial languages are not just the typical Elvish and Dwarven, they are regional dialects.  Typical games, the characters know Common, but in this game world there are several Common Languages and they are all easy to understand and may have a full language underlying them.  For example, along the Great River, they use a simple form of River Elvish as a common language, but each region has a language that remains apart from that common tongue.  In the region of the characters start the common tongue is quite similar their starting language with words from many languages, cosmopolitan creatures of the area understand it and speak it, human and non-human alike.  The Main language they know is Jadanese and it is used in varying forms for hundreds of kilometers from Jarda, even Orcish and Goblin languages of the area is similar.  

Character Classes

Barbarian. There is a lot of rough terrain in the area so this is possible

Bard. There is a town and a number of villages in the area with a number of inns so there is a lot of employment. Good choice

Cleric. There are two primarily important sects in the area, and Agricultural Deity, and a forest deity, in the town there are other religions which can be invented

Druid.  Lots of nature.

Fighter, most common class

Monk, select a deity, must be Lawful, because discipline 

Paladin/holy warrior select a martial deity

Ranger lots of nature

Rogue . . ..  Smugglers not a lot of urchins or city style rogues but they could be escaping the city . . ..

Sorcerer.  Possible

Warlock.   Difficult, Elder Dragon, First One.  Often begins as an attempt to summon one of the outer plane creatures or inner plane creatures and results in a cosmic rift and something getting through, eager to enter new territory and exploit it, ie the character.  It ends in blood as a shadow leaps upon it and destroys it in one blow.  And the thing that destroyed it looks over the character and determines its worth and it's importance to the world, before it kills the character out of hand, or more rarely, it takes it on as an apprentice.

Seeking the elder gods they acquire a dragon of the Pact and it eats the character and moves on, or rarely he gives them a drop of its blood to drink.  Usually the blood kills that character, but rarely they survive and they are given knowledge and power.  

Wizards. 

Races

Dwarves. Mountain dwarves are rare have a good story

Elf. High elf, wood elf, river elf, drow are very rare, have a good story.

RiverElves don't get dark vision, but can breathe under water.

Halflings are more common than other non human races, they prefer the plains which dominate the region

Humans dominate the region.  Racially they have specific ability increase and use variant rules

Dragon Born/Tiefling.   Both represent a mutant race that comes from a land far away.  It could be that you   Replace breath weapon with a bonus spell related to your appearance

Gnome. Not common at the best of times, is there a secret settlement in the area good story

Half elf, which elf, with which race?

Half Orc, with which Orc race and which other race?

()()()()()()()()

Other Races:  these races are listed in the monster manual and many of them are listed as evil, but in this world free will is granted any intelligent species.  It is their choice to be good or evil.  Let each person be judged by the actions that they make!  Just as there are evil and good humans in the world, so can there be good and evil of each of the following.  You must learn to trust what you see before you and not what you were told in the crib.

()()()()()()()()()

The region that the game is set in has a few notable features.  There is the Wild River that runs through the region.  It is navigable just to the town of Greysteel, and then barely, further down river it becomes more navigable at the village of Saltmarsh. further downriver it joins with the Jarda river.  

There is a small spur of low mountains in the East, just about ten miles long and a mile wide.  They were mined by some race of dwarves at one time and most of the minerals ha e played out.  

The Salt Marsh, located outside the village of the same name.  There is a salt mine located there, the residents discovered it as the source of the briny marsh.  The Wild River is slightly salty down river of here, but it quickly becomes sweet.  

The River Run is too small to support boats, runs from Hommlet to Saltmarsh.

The Temple of Elemental Evil, destroyed a century ago, has been rumoured active ever since its destruction.  Surrounded by three forts that have long since fallen into ruin themselves.  

The Tower.  There is no door, no window, and no one can claim to have scaled it.  It is old, very old, but it looks new with no wear and tear.  No moss, lichen or vines grow up its walls.  Old maps claim that it sat near Greysteel when it was built, but now it sits far from there.  

Rumours in Greysteel:

The Tower has been known to move because it has legs and every once in a while it needs to get up for a stretch.  

There is a Ghost Haunting the village of Saltmarsh.

The Downs has been cursed and is suffering a horrible drought caused by the Tower.

Smugglers are rampant on the river particularly in Saltmarsh and Nulb.

Hommlet is a under suspicion by the Lord, because his family was ambushed by orcs near there long ago.  

The Temple of Elemental Evil is up and running, and it was responsible for the Lord's Family's death.

The Temple of Elemental Evil has been quiet for the last century because it was destroyed by the Tower as an example of its power.  

The village or Orlane is so prosperous because of a evil pact that is due to be called in soon.  

The Lord was affected with a debilitating curse that has disfigured his body and that is why he is never seen.  

Fishmen are living in the river downstream of Saltmarsh. 

Or s are gathering near The Downs, to capture the people and enslave them.

The Lord is slowly gathering forces because he knows that there is a huge nation of Orc marauders just to the south, if he gathers his forces too quickly, they will attack before he is ready.

D&D-New Campaign

There is a town, Greysteel, away from the main commerce routes near one of the great stands of forest in the world.  This town has aspirations of becoming a city of a sprawling empire, but has not yet been able to capitalize on those aspirations because the woods surrounding the south, west and east of the town are said to be filled with orcs, gnolls and goblins of all types.  And the river to the north has many outlaws and pirates.  Also there are many smugglers that frequent the area that dodge the taxes of the city fathers impose to raise money to pay for the defences of the city and pay for the army.  The leader of the area is wildly unpopular because he has put an income tax on the residents of 25% in addition to other taxes.  He says that the taxes are due to outlaws, the pirates and smugglers, and the humanoids attacking caravans and he is using the money to pay for town defences.  This is true.  There is a new stone wall around the town, and there is an actual paid military in the town of 200 trained persons.  Hey are trying to combat smuggling but are having little impact.  There is also a bounty placed on all humanoids.  1sp per pair of goblin ears, and 1gp/pair of Gnoll, hobgoblin and Orc ears.  The bounties rise to 5 and 25 for ogre and giant ears.  The result has been a rise in young people heading out into the unknown for a few years, some coming back with bounties, but many not coming back at all.

There are 5 villages in the area tied to the town through many relations, as they are the frontiers of the town.  Nulb, Homelet, Orlane, Hookhill, and Bissel.  

Homelet, moathouse law abiding, low smugglers. NG, LG, CG, N

Nulb, temple, smuggler base and pirates. CN, NE, LN, N, LE

Orlane, clearing past forest to south, swamp to the south. NG, NE, N

Hookhill or Bissel has a ancient tower nearby whose confines are a mystery

Other location has a ruin in the area perhaps, also there is a slaver in the area perhaps.

The area is dominated by a large old growth deciduous forest.  There is a tributary to a tributary to the Great River to the north.  It is navigable by small boats and barges.  Not far away by larger boats.  

The people of the land are mostly good or lawfully aligned NG, LN, and N.  the ruler of the area is the LE grandson of the founding family the keep at the centre of town dates from then.  

The neighbours of the region are not human necessarily.  In fact, to the South there is an Orcish Matriarchy on the other side of the forest proper.  There is another human settlement to the North, where the original lord and most of the residents claim ancestry. NG, N, LN They are about five days travel from the town and are not interested in the town at all.  There is a prosperous town to the west where the river widens.LN, LE, N. To the east is a wilderness that is populated by small bands of freeholders and humanoids, CE, CN, CG, N.

North to the Right 

West most is Nulb, then Homelet, Orlane, Bissel, Hookhill.  Greysteel is on the river.

Greysteel Keep was founded on a hill overlooking the Banebrook a little over a century ago.  Lord Greysteel was sent to keep an eye on a evil temple that the forces of the King in distant Jarda had defeated.  The King supposed that if the area was settled by good folk, there would be plenty of vigilant eyes to notice another rise of evil.  Lord Greysteel built a keep, and several fortifications to keep an eye on the temple.  At first the outpost received a lot of attention and tax collectors were a seasonal occurrence, then less until during the reign of the second Lord Greysteel they stopped coming altogether.  The first Lord Greysteel was the faithful administrator of the area for 23 years.  The first decade he built and established the keep and town and three forts closer to the temple.  Each of the next two years he founded a village and encouraged settlement there.  First Homelet, then Nulb, Bissel, Hookhill, and lastly Orlane.  It was shortly after that last village that the first lord died.  The second Lord continues to follow the path his father set for him but for not understanding the reason, for he had not been alive for the battles.  Twenty years into his tenure support from Jarda dried up and within a few years the Forts were allowed to fall into disuse.  The second Lord died during a tour with his family of the villages when the party was attacked by a strong force of humanoids, about forty years ago, he was survived by his youngest son, a mage, the family’s black sheep.  

Rumours persisted for years that the Lord had engineered the ambush on his family and that the pogrom on humanoids was meant to get rid of the evidence. The new Lord was the last of seven children.

Homelet was founded first of the five villages.  The sleepy hamlet is fairly prosperous with good land and fairly frequent travellers.   The people are good and the people follow an agricultural Deity and a nature deity.  These people have a number of rumours that have persisted.  The one about the Lord’s gain of power is a persistent topic, but they think the best of their lord.  There is some concern about Orlane, as more than one family has moved from there and to there.  They talk about the old outpost a few miles to the west, and the tower in the woods at Hookhill.  There is some discussion about the bounty on Humanoids, many feel that they should practice a live and let live attitude, particularly among the followers of the nature god and those of the Agricultural goddess are in favour.  There is a similar split in ideas for the followers of the two religions.  One thing they both agree upon is that smuggling is wrong and so is tax evasion, but still barter is the most common form of trade in the village and you can’t tax that.

Nulb is a different town.  The people here are cut from a different cloth.  They are closer to the abandoned temple and yet it is rarely talked about except indirectly as the cause of some misfortune.  The creek that flows through the village is slow moving and deep as it is connected closely with the greater river beyond.  A normal village with this situation would capitalize on the harbour and become a trading centre but not so here.  The land is marginal but the village was founded to keep a close eye on the temple, something they do to this day.  The bulk of the people still farm.  But many are supplement their income with smuggling, piracy and hunting.  Smugglers are typically people who are moral but need the income to stay a float.  Many are leaving themselves open to blackmail, and many are being used this way.  The river pirates operate far down river and chose their targets carefully.  There is not much to offer them here because the area is so poor and backward, but the hidden cove is welcomed.  The Pirates sell and pay their taxes at Nulb, but have offloaded all precious cargo at the local Haunted House.  There are two sets of pirates here one set works for the Temple and the other is based out of the haunted house.  The hunters are also agents of the Temple.  They ferry information from the abandoned outposts and the temple using a few businesses in the town to coordinate.  There are five factions in the town, Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Greater Temple.  It is no wonder that the principal faith in town is a deity of stealth.  It is located in a pawn shop on the main drag, the temple is in the back.  The Agricultural temple and the Nature grove are not well attended.  Points of interest in the town include a large battlefield to the south and several large burial mounds in the centre where soldiers and enemies were buried and great heroes fell.  

Orlane is a town in decline.  The troubles that are affecting this town are large but come from one source.  The people in this town are being being abducted and charmed and returned.  The entire town is being subverted this way.  

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The importance of faith.  

Nine days in the week.  Each month lasts 4 weeks, 12 months in a year.  One week in the winter of holy observance, 441 days in a year.  The week has two holy days one where the Red Sun covers the Yellow and one day where the reverse is true.  Priests get a +3 bonus to saves on the day of domination and +1 on the Eve and day after.  Three days there is no effect, when the other is in dominance, they get a Penalty of -3 and -1 respectively.  They also receive a bonus spell on the dominant days and lose one on the reverse.  Blue sun gods have none of this bonus but have an effect in the deep winter and high summer.

The deep winter the blue sun dominates during the Holy Week and in High Summer the blue is recessive.  Holy Week they get a +3 and in the Summer -3.  The Holy Week the Red and Yellow are both at disadvantage and during the High Summer, accept during Dominance the Red Sun the sky goes black and the stars come out, and during the Yellow, flowers close.  

:):):):):):):):)

Some changes.  The Village to the North-west will be called Saltmarsh, because there is a salt mine located above a mash on the river.  The mine was discovered as the reason for the salty nature of the marsh and has been mined by the locals and sold to merchants and sent along the river as export.  The river here is wider and more navigable than anywhere else in the area.  The river is slow moving too.   Small boat traffic can continue to Greysteel.  There is a branch of the river that heads north some ten miles down the river and heads to the old Jarda.  The series U1-3 can fit in here with little changes.  

The Village of Nulb is next, located on a separate river system, which meets up with the larger river five miles west of Saltmarsh.  The river is navigable for its length to Nulb but the river mouth is blocked by shifting sandbars.  There is a abandoned fort overlooking the river manned by temple agents.  

The next Village is Hommlet.  Roads lead to Greysteel, Nulb, Orlane and, the Downs.  The road to Greysteel splits off to Saltmarsh after a mile.  Hommlet is a hub of sorts.  

The Downs has a road directly to Greysteel, and one to Hommlet, which splits and heads to Orlane shortly afterwards.