Put all your OOC chatter in here as we sit around the fire.

Be sure to claim a character color with your first post here.

Lyra - Brown
Arthur - Green
Qiaryn - Purple
Echo - Dark Blue
Elenar - Lavender
Tarragon - Goldenrod


Main NPCs:

Fayth - Coral
LaCroix - Seagreen
Dorian - (TBD)
Majin - (TBD)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:10, Wed 15 Mar 2023.

Welcome one and all. As of this moment, I've accepted five players and I'm going to have to spend a little time sending messages to those who applied that I'm unfortunately going to have to turn down. I may add one more character if I see something that would be a really good fit, but this looks like both an interesting and balanced party as it stands.

Feel free to introduce yourselves and share any character information you don't want to keep private. Possibly link backstories, etc., and I'll help you out in terms of how to tailor things into this setting. And don't forget to claim your character color!

Each of you has been added to group 1, which will be used for standard in-game threads (additional numbered groups may be added if there's a need to split the party at any point). You each have been assigned to a different letter group (A-E) where you can create threads for anything private between you and me, rather than forcing me to sort through private messages. [Edit: apparently only I can create threads, so prompt me if needed.]

I'll also be working with each of you individually on your custom magical item. I want to create something that fits your character personally and have it be something that will grow with you as you get stronger, so you'll have incentive to keep it for the entire campaign.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:25, Mon 27 Feb 2023.

BTW. I don't have a 5e character sheet template - if any of you have one you'd like to share with the group, go for it.

Alright just filling out some final details and then I'll post it.

Here is a blank copy of one that I designed by combining features of others shared on RPOL.

-----

I gave poor Lyra a devil's bargain to re-roll stats and... well, better luck next time. The dice do seem to have a mind of their own here.

Poor Lyra :(

FYI - I am flying to Europe this weekend and have a packed work schedule all next week. So my postings here won't be as frequent but can still get something in late nights CET.

Ouch that hurts, hopefully it's not a sign of things to come Lyra.
If we're still deciding colours I'll get the ball rolling and say I'll be happy with green or purple unless other people would like those.

Poor Lyra. Oh wait that's me. Ah well. Fate has a way of keeping one humble. I think I'll take Brown as my color of choice.

I raise a glass to the rest of you for your stat rolls! Good luck!

In reply to Qiaryn (msg # 7):

Even with the initial exuberance of everyone getting things ready, we probably won't get rolling too much in game all that quickly. Have a great trip and you'll be fine in terms of posting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:13, Fri 24 Feb 2023.

Sure you don't want a re-roll Arthur?

(I'm getting over a cough, the dice shouldn't be making me laugh this hard)

Haha. Actually I think they just look that good because I couldn't figure out how to drop lowest. I felt really cruel for a second there though.

Under Step 2: Roll options you can toggle drop lowest but also have to tell it how many of the lowest die to drop. In this case 1.

Manually dropping after the fact as long as you can see the individual dice works to which I think is the route you went for.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind for the future. A lot more reasonable dice rolls this time. Sorry about all that.

Thanks for warming the dice roller up for me. :)

11:47, Today: Qiaryn rolled 11,11,14,12,17,16,8 using 4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6, dropping the lowest dice only.  Stats.

I don't know about anyone else, but I love it when the dice have a sense of narrative and humor.

My all time favorite was in a 3.5e game where I was playing a big oafish beatstick and for some reason I decided to try consoling someone who was feeling depressed. With my -2 Charisma modifier. So I roll Diplomacy (3.5e's version of Persuade) and get a natural 1, for a net result of MINUS FREAKING ONE.

Gotta love those negative roll results :)

And I'm quite happy to wake up the dice roller for everyone :D You are all very welcome!

Oh, speaking of 3.5e, I originally wrote this for that version, but since it's basically non-mechanical, it can be applied to pretty much any game. I'll let you all decide if you want to use it in this campaign:

https://forums.giantitp.com/sh...ng-but-it-looks-cool

I remember a campaign where the only time in the entire game I rolled a nat twenty was to determine how much I knew about a bug... Not a story relevent bug mind you just a random bug. Apparently my character had a very particular interest in this very specific beetle.

is somehow behind the curve already

Hi everybody!

Hello there.

Howdy and welcome!

Very livable stat spread for me. grin The build I've got in mind is...not optimized, but it can go in some different directions and has some very good story hooks.

Also happy we have a Kaldenkind!

Looks pretty damn good considering how the dice were behaving themselves earlier.

That's what's RPGs are for, you're not trying to win them so sometimes it's fun to play something a little more quirky.

In regard to speech color, Purple or Aqua are my preferences.

Remember, I may have seen your character concept submissions, but no one else has, so take some time to introduce your characters to each other and we use this as a chance to iron out some backstories, including possible common links or shared backstory between certain characters.

I'll claim darkblue out of habit, but if somebody really wants it, I can do periwinkle.

Echo's a multiclass knowledge cleric/inquisitive rogue, come to the Shadelands in pursuit of a mysterious book (that might not be a book). She knows a lot about a lot of things, but is generally eager to know more. I'm certain that won't cause any problems in patron country. None at all.

Well I'll introduce Lyra a bit then. She's a native of the Shadelands, at least she was, and is returning home. She's got family here that raised her until about her teen years before sending her off to somewhere safer. It was smart cause she was and is the sort to indulge in wanderlust and as a youth this wasn't the best place to do that. She's spent time outside of the Shadelands as well, mostly deep in a forest with a bunch of other druids who are basically her second family. Of course just about anyone she meets she's quick to adopt into her family and takes on a sort of motherly protective nature of those she particularly cares for. Friend to animal, humanoid, monstrosities and really anything that crosses her path that isn't outright hostile she's likely to have connections all about in some form or other. She's a translator but doesn't feel she's much good at doing her own talking. Oh also, she's a feeder, so watch your waistlines around her.

Given her time both in and out of the shadelands I'd be happy to start weaving some backstories together with anyone who would like. You can hit me up here or in PMs if it's something you'd rather discuss together before presenting it here for everyone.

And we are now full, as I added one more character, making a party of 6.

Arthur is a Hexblade Warlock although not entirely by choice, he's looking to try and dissolve a certain pact he doesn't want to be a part of anymore.

Aside from that he tends to be quite awkward and naïve due to not spending a lot of time with other people, at least not normal people.

Combat spec wise I imagine he'll spend most of his time on the front lines trying to kill anything that might become a problem.
Outside of combat he has a few good knowledge skills and fluency in a couple of unusual languages in his arsenal.

Due to the nature of my race, background, and class choices I'm going to have access to a lot of languages. I don't want to step on anyone's toes when it comes to unique language choices and Lyra isn't going to be hiding any of her known languages. I for sure will have Common, Sylvan, and Druidic, and then at our current level I'll have 6 more to choose from. I'm thinking I'll go for some basic ones but also will be picking one or two more unique. If there's a language that you feel you wouldn't want me to pick up or maybe would like me to take let me know. Or if you need to keep things secret I'm also good with just hearing from the GM if a language is something somebody would like to kind of key in on for their own concept and I'll pick something else.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:01, Fri 24 Feb 2023.

Coming from the Shadelands and it's generally warlocky-themed environment, Lyra would likely be familiar with sylvan, abyssal, and infernal. Other languages are strictly up to what you think she'd have picked up on her travels, I suppose.

Fairy Bard at your service. If someone is in trouble, its probably me. Wait a moment....

Yeah probably me.

@Lyra Echo hasn't taken a direct route from where she started to the Shadelands, and it seems plausible that she might have traveled alongside Lyra for the last leg or legs of that trip as she researched and chased information about this mystery "book."

Y'all should check out the special announcement thread. It's your first IC task. Enjoy it.

You get a feat or a attribute bump at level 4 right?

You should get one at class level 4. If you're multiclassed and haven't reached level 4 in any one class, you would not have qualified yet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:53, Fri 24 Feb 2023.

Yeah I think I will go straight bard.

Why do I get the feeling the Red Opera is going to be like GOT The Red Wedding? :)

Qiaryn is a purveyor of rare and exotic goods for a merchant in a far away city. He is here on business looking for some “rare collectible” for his employer. He doesn’t seem to want to share many details about this item.

(Perhaps there is some connection to Echo’s Quest for the Holy Grail book?)

Qiaryn is a rogue/warlock. In combat, he is content to stay out of harms way and throw some Eldritch magic around where he can.

While not the most deadly combatant on the battlefield, his strength lies in getting valuable information. He is a silver-tongued master and given enough time he is seemingly capable of getting people to share even their most guarded secrets.

I've got special items done for four of you now, and I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out.

Feel free to share details - or not - with the others. (Though it might be more fun to have them be used organically in the story, I suppose.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:51, Fri 24 Feb 2023.

Total side note, if the Echo/Qiaryn/Tarragon dynamic works out like I hope, I may have to run some sort of spin-off campaign for the three of them as a small, independent intelligence service.

(I'm kidding. Maybe.)

CSI: Shadelands

As much as I'd really like to have the Observant feat, I'm not quite willing to give up second level spells or the starting features for Inquisitive, so...yeah. 3/3 for me. (And I want to keep my progression options open, optimization be damned.) Echo's going to be a...supplementary piece in combat. Whether she tilts more toward damage dealing or support will depend on how the campaign and her story progress.

On the plus side, the combo of half-elf+knowledge cleric+rogue makes for a monstrous skill monkey with proficiency in nine skills and two tools with expertise in four of those eleven things. Echo Knows Things. The fact that she doesn't seem to know as much as she wants to know is a temporary inconvenience.

---

It's entirely possible that multiple other PCs are "leads" in Echo's wide-ranging investigation, whether it's something they have, something they've done, or somebody they know.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:50, Sat 25 Feb 2023.

Hi there everybody!

Excited to join this campaign.

My character is a necromancer, but not evil. She is just studying undeath purely as a scholar, and has come to Shadelands to further her study.

BTW, what level are we starting at?

I got this work thing on Saturday and will finish up my character sheet within the weekend!

Level 6

Gonna be a bit busy throughout the weekend. Slowly been chipping away at my character sheet though.

@Echo, I'd love to come up with some potential story then. How much have we traveled together how much have we seen of each other's capabilities, and how motherly does Echo allow Lyra to be when we are together?

No rush everyone, I'd rather see complete and detailed over rushed, and it's going to take some time to get everyone up and started to the point where the lot of you are ready to get started.

Tuesday is going to be a long and busy work day for me. I'll likely be less responsive but keep the updates coming, things are looking really good so far.

I am new on this forum so can I ask how to roll dice in a thread? And I am to roll when asked by GM or when I think I need to?

One of the links at the top of each page is "Dice Roller" - you can make your rolls there and copy the results out of the log as you need to.

About the letter, it is not necessarily for a lover right? Somebody with affection like family is ok?

Correct, "someone you love" in this context just means someone who have significant affection for - a family member, close friend, mentor/student, etc.

Essentially, someone you're leaving behind who you will miss and who will miss you.

I hope I am not holding things up. This week has been jammed packed and I havent had much free time. I fly home tomorrow so will definitely finish up my character sheet, letter, etc. over the weekend.

You're good, I've been running prologues with each character and we're not quite done with those. Depending on where we're at, your prologue may be a bit more expedited.

I'm not sure about the logistical questions, but I'm guessing the dynamic when Lyra goes mama bear is that Echo complains but never quite enough to stop her from doing it.

As far as capabilities...I'm not sure how much Echo would have displayed (because that comes back to some of those logistical things we'll have to make calls about), but she carries herself through her days like some kind of bookish jock or, perhaps more accurately, one of those nerds who gets really into physical conditioning. She always seems to have a book on her person, but also moves around a lot, does exercises in the morning, stretches throughout the day, et cetera.

Hey folks, I am alive, just not been well and I'm barely awake right now. I'll catch up on posting tomorrow morning.

Feel better! I know there is some nasty stuff going around.

Get well soon! Can't wait to begin btw.

Hope it's nothing too serious, get well soon mate!

*starts banging on his drum*

Morning, evening, whatever. Posts coming momentarily.

It was nothing particularly serious, it just drained my of all my energy and what little concentration I could muster was saved for work. Thankfully I work from home 99% of the time.

But I seem to be better now, and I should be more consistent. I will be gone most of the day on Sunday but I'll probably still check in early and late.

I have to add, I am loving how each of you are approaching your prologues. It's giving me a really good sense of your individual characters.

I'm going ahead and posting the first IC thread, even though I'm still finishing prologues with Qiaryn and Tarragon. I also need letters from both of them and Elenar. The remaining prologues will be finished as "flashbacks".

My character: No. No. No. And well no. lol!

Echo: "achingly roundabout way"

Ouch. Ok, maybe true and fair, but still ouch.

Totally the character's judgment and not mine! It turns out a career spent dealing with secrets and mystic nonsense, like a career spent working in theater, can leave one jaded in certain respects.

If only Echo had a Watson--"Yes, yes...of course it was magic. But the suspect claims only to know abjuration, and this working was clearly conjuration. The game is afoot!"

In reply to The Conductor (msg # 65):

I have sent the letter!
Also I am claiming the color Lavender
This message was last edited by the player at 08:49, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Style guide reminder when posting IC, please use bold colored text when your character is speaking, the bold makes it stand out better to my tired old eyes.

Will be jumping in to get my post up in the next 4-8 hours. Had a long day of travel yesterday.

Apologies for the posting delay on my side. Took this weekend to disconnect with the Ether and enjoy the fresh, but cold air. Taking this afternoon off from work for my birthday so will get my IC posts updated shortly.

FYI - the sound track is also available via Spotify steaming.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2jIFfdDKDbLMmKHY5wCVY0

There is the RPG soundtrack (orchestral) and the original speed metal recording by DiAmorte. I've scanned through the lyrics to the latter and I don't think I see anything that would spoil the RPG campaign story, so feel free to listen to either or both versions.

Yay exposition!

How the rest of this opening scene will play out is entirely up to y'all. Feel free to poke around, chat, ask questions, get to know each other and the NPC's, etc.  If you choose to act independently of each other (more or less), I may provide responses as you go instead of waiting to see what everyone does. But that will depend on context.

Updated my post by the way!

Just wanted to say that if anyone here speaks infernal let me know and I'll include what Arthur mumbles as a private line to you, if people like the idea.

Would love to hear it (:

That and abyssal are also within Lyra's languages known

You know how in most campaigns, a warlock takes the invocation to understand all known languages? No need for that as long as Lyra is around. Lol.

“If you need some thing translated, find a Kaldenkind. If they don’t speak the language, they have a cousin who does.”

I took this snippet from the provided material to heart.

FWIW, I added a couple of links to the game links with

1) an article I wrote ages ago for an online Neverwinter Nights server that discussed alignment in D&D and how to think more critically about alignment as an aid to roleplaying

2) also ages ago, a homebrew option (for D&D 3.5 but easily adaptable to any system, honestly) to give characters more fun "color" options that have absolutely no mechanical benefit or drawback

Just there for info/light reading unless you all want to use the "Idiosyncrasies" option.

I know Fairy *wink wink* haha.

Just to let everyone know I look like a small elf or maybe a halfling. Wings ain't out.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:13, Wed 15 Mar 2023.

The only language I can bring to the table then seems to be celestial.
It certainly is useful to have a Kadlenkind on the party... As long as one survives the bear hugs (:

Did I fail to address the question of why some would choose to break their pacts willingly? Didn't mean to gloss over that - the idea would be that warlocks are drawn here for many, many reasons. For some of them, it's because they are trapped in a bad pact and they seek a way out of it. This would be a minority view; most warlocks come to be in a place where they are accepted instead of persecuted and/or to strengthen the connections with their patrons.

Funny enough, one of the listed "plot hooks" to start off the campaign is that you all would have been warlocks (though built to be a warlock analogue of your actual planned character archetype) who were in bad pacts (your individual patrons would be real pieces of s**t) and came to Yon'Cath in hopes of finding a way to break the pacts. The opening side quest adventure would have allowed you to do just that, and you'd have proceeded with your rebuilt characters with your intended classes/levels (including being a warlock with a different patron if desired).

I'll keep a modified version of that side quest in my pocket in case any of you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to get out of a pact... ;)
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:44, Thu 16 Mar 2023.

Also, for timing purposes, assume it's mid-to-late afternoon and the plan is to set off in the morning. You have time to make plans, get to know each other and the NPCs (and your dogsled team!), make whatever preparations you need, and get the benefits of a long rest for anyone for whom that will matter.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:46, Thu 16 Mar 2023.

Bout time I finally got a natural 20 on a perform check.

I'm waiting for a 'What?' lol
This message was last edited by the player at 20:13, Tue 21 Mar 2023.

DM I have a suggestion about a specific spell: Shield

In my opinion, Shield is a very good spell, but not in the way of teamwork. Can I cast Shield as a reaction action to shield others in my team, in the same turn if I have not used my reaction?

That would be cool.

Its all good. The Squirrel is the PC.

9 days no DM :(

Yeah he has not been online since March 24. Did something happen ?

No clue. Hope everything is ok.

12 days no DM. Doesn't look too good :(

I do hope everything is OK with them but not looking good for the game...

Yeah definatly.

Been 15 days so I think the game is over unfortunatly :(

Guessing this game has succumbed to its injuries :(

Seems that way.