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Our Next Game Day: TBD -Sometime in Late July, Early August

Our Story So Far

Our story began in the city of Chamberlain, in the Republic of Trimark, which was recently destroyed during the Battle of Scorn.  

 

Chamberlain was the city closest to the border of the country of Nexus Neruda and was the starting point of an invasion into the ROT.   Nexus Neruda and ROT have had a fragile alliance for the last hundred and twenty years since they last had a conflict, mostly arising from differing religious majority in each country and a history of border disputes.  Nexus Neruda predominantly are the Awakened, worshippers of Lethander, while the majority of the Republic of Trimark practices under the House of Knowledge, worshippers of Oghma.  

 

The ROT is governed by the council of seven, each member representing a core aspect of society:  merchant, soldier, politician, scholar, religion, artist, and wizard.  

 

Nexus Neruda, ruled by by a paper king, Ansel the II, is governed in fact by the Awakened (religious servants of Lethander).  Most Awakened believe in the betterment of oneself and intolerance toward evil.  But for twenty years there have been long winters and droughts in the summers and food grows shorter. The Nexans started to see this as a sign they have displeased their god with tolerance to evil, and sentient non humans have become their target of disdain.  They have recently become highly xenophobic, and have begun severely restricting the rights of all sentient nonhumans, and many have outright been imprisoned or put into work camps.  

 

In addition, Nexus Neruda has begun pouring resources into military might.  Most privately owned farms have been seized for national order.  There are rumors that the Nexans have begun raiding ROT villages over the border as well, using hired and well armed bandits, likely with Nexan soldiers and even Dawnbringer Clerics disguised to assist them. 

 

Nexus Neruda is looking at the more prosperous Trimark as evil and weak and because their chief religion worships Oghma, they believe Oghma spins false tales as a bard to make them so,.   Making this worse, In the last few months, Chamberlain had become a waypoint for fleeing refugees making their way east to the larger city of New Hanover.  Nexans see Chamberlain’s assistance as an act of sheltering the wicked, only furthering their belief that the Trimark is deserving of righteous retribution.

 

Lightbringers, who are proselyte bards (not to be confused with the clerics of the order known as dawnbringers), had been sent into the city to pave the way by trying to win citizens to their cause,

 

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Trimark had been sending aide in the form of contractors hired from all the major guilds all over the country.  They offer a yellow card to any who go west to aide the city with promises of lofty payouts when they return, though they’ve been a bit ambiguous about what that means.  Many in hard times, or skilled workers, or glory seekers have taken the yellow card west.  

The Battle of Scorn

Prior to the invasion, the Nexans sent lightbringers into the city to begin paving the way and winning people over to their cause, both through the overt methods of winning of hearts and minds to bring like minded humans to their cause, and through the indoctrination of extremists.  These extremists set off an explosion in the Red Cathedral, a temple of Oghma, that was directly connected to Hamlet Tower.  Led by Dagon, Thul'Rell, and XXXXX, they were able to blow a hole in the wall, open sewer entranceways, and set up thamaturgical rites throughout the city that were used by the invaders to set off an powerful light storm designed to create an electrical storm that ultimately destroyed the city. 

 

The lightbringers also were able to set up a framing of a half orc using a changeling to accost the mayors daughter, so that the execution aligned with just prior to the invasion to serve as a distraction in the city.  

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The invading force used a combination of human troops and monsters to invade and eliminate large portions of the city population, intent on genocide.  They managed to kill off over half the population of Chamberlain, killing over 70,000 people, while the other half managed to evacuate into the mountains.   

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During the invasion, a rider in silver riding a black dragon showed up to attack the city.  Dragons are all but destroyed in this world and only a few remain in the whole world.  Most people think they are just myths.  However, during the battle, another dragon, this one riderless, also emerged and fought the black dragon, but ultimately lost, and after being severely but not critically injured, it was forced to flee.  

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During the invasion, General Ennoiu, the Trimark general assigned to this location was killed.   The remainder of the forces in Chamberlain, as well as the yellow card workers, are now under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Ros Rosa e'Buddle who is trying to get the refugees to safety.  The Grand Mayor Semora is injured but has survived, and is with the evacuees.  

City Leadership - The primary leader in the city are Grand Mayor Vilt Semora, a Herengon (rabbit folk), born to prosperous merchants.  It is believed he has some Arcane ability, though no one is really sure the extent.  He's known for being very fair in his judgements, and is prone to laconic speech.   Before coming to office last year, he wrote a book of philosophy called "The Broken Circle Observed" and it has become a standard guide on right living for many in the city.  

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Military Leadership - LtCol Ros Rosa e'Buddle - Bio to follow

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Local Underground Criminal Organization - The Unseen. 

Status:  Unknown

It's not a group you can contact easily.  They contact you.  While there are known enforcers, virtually nothing is known about leadership.  A lot of mysteries and rumors surround this group and no one knows exactly how connected they are.  But there are rumors of political control, assassination, slave trading, and extortion as the primary actions this group partakes in.  Supposedly, if you go to the temple of the red night, behind the temple you will find a wall with a tree growing from the center of it.  If you leave gold and speak a name, that person may be killed, but be warned that too little gold and they will ignore your request, and in some cases be insulted by your offer and may seek to harm you.  

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Local Gang - The psychopimps or the Psimps 

Status:  Most of the members killed while rioting, when invading forces wiped them out.

They are known for wearing black bandanas tied around their upper arm and for getting tattoos of a raven skull.  

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Character Building & House Rules

We are going to have 3 DMs running 3 parts of the city.  Players may stay in a specific location as part of their group, or move from one part of the city to another to accomplish specific tasks set by DMs.

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We will be using 5e rules for this campaign 

  • Characters will start at 4th Level.  Any Common Race or Class is acceptable.  For anything exotic, you need to ask permission from the DM of your group.  

  • Characters may only take Ordinary weapons, armor, and equipment, meaning nothing magical or unique to start.

  • Characters will start at 4th Level.

  • Encumberment rules are off, however, we are limiting players to 15 items to start, including weapons and armor, but not counting ammo.  Ammo you can start with 20 for arrows and bolts.  More is going to be readily available.

  • Magical components are not required for spellcasting.  

  • Basic Stats - Roll 4d6, choose the best 3 numbers.  After this is done 6 times, place the stats as you desire into Str, Dex, Con, Wis, Int, Cha.  No Stats may be over 18 to start.

  • Characters wealth will be determined by rolling 4D20 (1st roll for Gold Pieces, 2nd roll for Silver, 3rd roll for silver pieces, and 4th roll for copper pieces).  If your first roll is a D20, your next two rolls will be for Gold instead of Silver and Copper. 

  • We expect character background to justify character builds.  You don't have to provide character backgrounds to us, as we expect your character personality and history to be part of the combined story we will tell.  But please know your character.  If you want us to know something specific to your character like a nemesis or a notoriety, please notify your DM once assigned to a group.

  • We want to encourage you to avoid metagaming and power building.  It's tempting to build a character designed to smoke anyone, but consider the point of the game is storytelling and thinking your way through situations, not easily killing everything we throw at you.  

  • Things to note

    • Magic is rare in this game.  Less than 1% of the population has magical ability, and less at a significant level.  It's like being a collegiate or professional athlete.  You may know 1 or 2 people with magical abilities, but they are rare.  Over 10th level is like being a professional in a major league.  Over that is like being Lebron or an olympic gold medalist.  It's unlikely you've ever met someone that level.  Most (but certainly not all) magic users have either political, religious, or military appointments.  A magic user who does not work in an official capacity is usually considered an untrustworthy person by most people.  ​

    • Magic items are even rarer.  Medicine is better than you will find in a standard D&D game, but it's still medicine with limitations, and it is not a healing potion.  A true healing potion is extremely rare.  Magic items and weapons are even rarer, and there may be only 2-3 magic items in a city this size.  It is unlikely to find them.

    • Monsters are almost as common as normal animals.  It is a common military practice to have a monster assigned to a unit, and entire units of a particular monster designed to achieve a specific function, such as throwing a hundred gelatinous cubes over a city wall or having a unit of exclusively ...well, let's not spoil the fun.

  • Please Submit Character sheets by 3/25 for DM review.  We likely will not make any significant changes but we want to use this to help assign groups.  We will have a character building digital session on 3/22 at 9pm for people getting back into D&D. 

  • Please also let us know beforehand if you have any personal boundaries regarding play or things that you find uncomfortable.  We do have a standing house rule that sexual assault, in name or description may not be used as part of storytelling, backstory, or combat actions for any reason.   

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Sparring Anchor
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