13th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.7

Woah, it's been some time since my last post, but no worries, I'm still around. So, 'ere we go:

The story, or what's believed to be the one, goes: In the ancient times, countless millenia ago, long before mortals came into existance, universe was ruled by a single God, which nowdays has countless names, one of which is Bron. He wasn't alone however, countless undergods existed, which were his "people". Bron, being far the most powerful one, took little care of his subordinates, and enjoyed watching them do whatever they did, just as we enjoy watching insects live their little lives, knowing that if we wish to, we can easily help, or destroy them. Everything they did was interesting to him, and rarely did he interfere with their actions, but even if he did, it was only for his own satisfaction.
Undergods were many, and they lived all around, throughout the universe. They were all different from each other, just as people nowdays. They had feelings, sense of creativity, certain level of inteligence, power, etc... That's why some of them lived peacefully, and some of them fought each other for love, glory, practice, or just to be noticed by Bron, who often rewarded those who amused him alot. Considering that all of them had certain desires, quarrels were inevitable, which eventually led to fights, which led to hate, which led to war. Soon, undergods were organized into clans, which have in time grown into kingdoms, which battled each other, or formed alliances.
A couple of billions years later, two opposing sides existed. Lanatis and Undrogh. And guess what, they were in war. War, which has already taken too many lives, and the end to is was an insane idea. Undergods were now few, but hate for their enemies was stronger than ever. That is when they started creating worlds, where armies of soldiers were supposed to be bred, only so they can fight their God's battles. One of the first worlds which was created by the prince Andalor of Lanatis, was Aena, where this campaign takes place.
About ten thousand years later, most of the gods are dead or captured by the opposing side, and rarely does any mortal serve them anymore. Worlds are now self-governed, often composed of many different kingdoms. Portals which were in the past used for invading other worlds are now mostly destroyed, disabled or forgotten. Some have sunk deeply below the surface of the oceans, along with whole continents, others are buried deeply under the ground, never to be found again. Aena however, as it was one of the largest battlegrounds, and often invaded, still has one working portal, known to it's inhabitants, but it is speculated that many more exist, and are still active, but forgotten, somewhere in ancient temples, scattered throughout the land. Some of them are deep underground, some occupy the most unaccessible mountaintops, and for sure there are some laying in unexplored swamps, deserts, jungles or in the frosty wastes of Aena's North or South pole.
Now, the one known portal is what is causing the distrurbance on Aena. It started when the world was created, and has never actually stopped. In fact, it has only gotten worse since the prince Andalor was captured by the forces of Undrogh, because now, the Aenians are left to fend for themselves, with no help from their creator, and the forces of evil are invading through the portal no less. These are dark times, when hope is starting to wither, and Aena is desperate for heroes to rise and battle the darkness.

This introduction defines the epic history of the world and also the whole universe, and still leaves DMs with a lot of choices for creating the campaigns, and micro managing the events which take place before, and during the game.

I hope you liked it! x)

12th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.6

No time to lose! There are sessions to be had!

What once seemed like a quick military campaign, has turned to be a 70-year long war, which is taking two things: too long, and it's toll. There's not a single piece of land, and not a single soul that lives on the continent of Garland, who hasn't felt the consequences of hate and devastation.
After the Age of Creation, the land was divided among the strongest clans which possessed power and influence. Seven kingdoms formed, which have in time expanded their range of controll and influence onto the no-man's lands, taking the lone and unprotected settlements under their wings. Five hundred years later, six, out of seven great kingdoms remain. Frisbane (northern men), Harran (eastern, all races), Gladiis (central, men and elves), Lahalaron (western, elves), Draggath (southern, dwarves) and Eywind (southeastern, men and elves). Peace existed between kingdoms, but only formally. In secret, the governments fought each other for influence over the land.
The war began when Gladiis declared war on Eywind, and soon after attacked. The invasion was supposed to be quick, but Eywind had put together an alliance with the Harran, and had their military support in defending the borders. Soon after, Frisbane joined forces with Gladiis, and the dwarves of Draggath attacked both Eywind and Lahlaron, who formed an alliance to battle them. The situation was: Eywind, Harran and Lahlaron vs Frisbane, Gladiis and Draggath.
Since everyone were long prepared and ready for war, none of the kingdoms managed to take much of the opposing side's land. Seventy years later, the war still goes on, and the battlefields are the same which were in the early days of the conflict. Everyone's exausted, and it is only the hate for the opponents which still gives people the strength to fight. Although the battlefields are the same, the battles aren't. In the beginning, battles were fought head-on, in a large-scale attacks, but now, everyone seems to have dugged-in into trenches, shooting stone blocks from the catapults onto each other. Hand-to-hand clashes are rare, but still present.
It is the battlefield where the characters start their campaign. Arnan, the young, brave and charismatic captain of Eywind is in a command of a small group of soldiers, stationed on the eastern side of the battlefield between Eywind and Gladiis. The characters are under his command, along with about hundred more soldiers. In the previous months, he had much success in attacking the forces of Gladiis, and with the warriors under his command, he has brought many losses to the opposing side's forces. Now, the king of Eywind has commanded all of his troops stationed on the northern front to push an attack and break the enemy forces in a single blow. The time of the attack has come, and Arnan is expected to play an important role in it. He and his men are ordered to push through the enemy lines, and occupy the nearby ruins of the Rosewind village.
The order has been given, and Arnan charges out of the trenches into the no-man's land, followed by his brethren of battle. On the other side, soldiers of Gladiis are quickly strenghtening their lines to defend from the attack.
What happens next, DM will tell :)

I saw some guys playing Magic the Gathering today on college, I'll have to approach them sometime and ask if they're in a mood for some DnD xD

Have fun guys!

11th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.5

Haai guyz, howyadoin, let's get to it.

The year is 665th off the fourth age, and the world is frightened of an upcoming year, as there are tales of a demon of unimaginable power which is supposed to come to earth and bring destruction and death.
Thousands of studies and explorations have been done, but none of them gave any evidence or a reason to believe that the horrors of which the ancient prophecy tells about are going to happen.
The story goes: Once upon a time, estimated about 10.000 years ago, there was a continent caled Krataana, bathed in magic, whose inhabitants were more than regular men, elves, dwarves, orks, and all the living beings which now live. They were so gifted by the continents afinity for magic, that they had no trouble casting even the most powerfull spells, with just a swift fingermove and a quick thought. Krataana was a peaceful place, as everyone understood the power of magic, and were careful about using it against each other. Beside that, everything they ever needed in their lives was easily created by spells, so the poverty and hunger were unknown. Then, one day, out of nowhere,  a great fireball fell from the sky bringing a great demon inside it, who killed everyone in a matter of days, and sunk the continent deeply below the water surface. After that, the demon disappeared without a trace, and Krataana was no more.
It is unknown what the demon was looking for, but there's a story, told by a surviving guardsman, which tells of the demon shrinking, to the size of a man, when he was done dispatching all who would oppose him, and entering the greatest temple of Krataana. In the main room of the temple, he summoned a black pearl, the size of an apple, put it on the pedestal, and cast a spell which made the pearl glow darkness and consume all light around it. The guardsman fleed, and somehow survived the destruction of the continent.
Great mages and wisepeople of the current world predict that the pearl is put there so it can gather the sunken continents magic, untill it reaches the amount of power needed. Then, the demon will come back to claim it. What will happen afterwards, we can only guess, but you can bet it aint gonna be pretty.
The players start off in one of the greatest coastal towns of the known world, which is a starting point for many expeditions which venture across the great ocean of Rohun, looking for anything which would indicate the existance of the sunken continent.
The world prays for a miracle, and the thousands of brave adventurers are those that everyone put their hopes into.

I'm off to have a lunch, and you guys, take care, and have a good time :)

10th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.4

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been around for the last few weeks. I'll make it up to you, so let's get started!

There is a continent, the only one known to civilized world so far, that stretches for thousands of miles from east to west, and also for thousands of miles from north to south. It has dozens, or even hundreds of names, all drawn from legends, but the most widely used is Arania. Others include Akhanor, Aldriiz, Orton and others, but “Arania” is the only one known to every single one of it's inhabitants.
Now, on the eastern part of the continent lies a great rocky chain of mountains called Rudar. It too has many other names, but let's stick to this one, as it's the most-used one. It is a land of dwarves. In fact, it's a series of caves which stretch for hundreds of miles, filled with all sorts of dwarvenfolk, with hundreds of thousands entrances to the caves, all scattered throughout the mountains. The exact number of dwarves living there is known to none, not even to the most powerful and influential of them, but those who try to estimate usually say about one billion. Now, that is a lot of dwarves, who could easily make the strongest kingdom on Arania, if they were united under a single banner, but, that is not the case. It is said that there are over ten thousand tribes and clans of dwarves on Rudar, and all of them, as dwarves always do, live underground, in great mountain halls, cut through and into the rock. It is pointless trying to explain their lifestyle or interests, as all of them try hard to differ from each other. Some value smithwork, some value stonecutting. Some value gems, others gold. There are even those clans that value magic, as there are those who believe brute force is the key to solving all of the life's problems.
You could say the only thing they have in common is digging. Digging into the depths, looking for resources and rare and even unique materials. Considering that the dwarves are many, and the tunnels and halls are even more than many, the Rudar mountains are starting to crumble on itself, leaving behind thousands of cut-off passages and treasuries, sometimes even whole little kingdoms, filled with... Treasure. To better explain the proportions of underground kingdoms, I'll say that there are rumors that some of them go so deep, to the hell itself. There are also rumors that some lead to another worlds, and some even go beyond the borders of imagination and/or reality and end up delivering the explorer to the non-existent places of the universe. Of course, none of this is proven to be true.
You guys (characters) are a group of tomb-raiders, brought together by interest, sense of loyalty, friendship, luck or something else. Of course, you are not the only such group. In fact, you are just one out of thousands of them. You look for abandoned mines, passages and halls where dwarves used to, or still live, and loot them, providing that there is anything to loot. Sometimes you venture into the depths, and during one such raid, your party was attacked by a group of dwarves, who carefully laid out an ambush, waiting for a curious group of adventurers to walk into their trap. After a short fight, you realized the only way to keep the head on your shoulders is to flee, but with the path back to the surface being blocked by angry dwarves, the only way you could run is deeper under the ground. After about an hour and a half of being pursued, and then finally losing your pursuers, you find yourself lost, with no idea of which way to go.
Not knowing if the next living being you encounter is going to be friendly or hostile, you carefully choose your path and quietly walk through endless passages and halls of Rudar, hoping to meet the daylight as soon as possible.

Hope you like it, c ya soon!

9th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.3

Here's another one:

It has been seventeen years since the Magnus clan, a group of the the most powerful spellcasters in the land, has overthrown the king and established Magocracy as the political system, with the Ang-Alahil-Manor as the supreme ruler, unequaled in the knowledge and spellwielding skill. The king, along with his whole family, and all of his closest associates and advisors, have been captured and sent throughout the land to be put behind the lock. Since that day, which is known as the "Day of Fire and Blood", the land has constantly been falling apart. Taxes have risen, unrest plagues the cities and the bands of robbers roam throughout the land untouched, terrorizing the people. All the funds, raised by tax-collectors, are now being used by the Magnus clan members to develop new and devastating spells, and Ang-Alahil-Manor hasn't been seen in public for the last 4 years. The people are suffering. The strict regime, conducted by the Magnus clan is quick to punish all those who dare to speak against it. Needless to say, the spellcasters working for the magocracy are present everywhere, and their numbers are rising with each day. Everyone who has even the least talent in wielding the spell is quickly recruited into the ranks of the clan.
You guys (characters) are members of a secret resistance organization, sworn to free the king and put him back onto the throne. The organization has no name, no permanent place of gathering, and no leader. It's members not necessarily know each other. It is a group of people, united, not under one banner, but under one goal. It is even known that inside the organization, many unique groups exist, and although they differ from each other, a common goal is what keeps them together.
On one warm summer night, you (characters), gather in a small cottage in a forest, not too far from one of the larger cities in the kingdom, to meet Akron, a member of a resistance group. After all the precations have beeen taken, and the comrade's identity confirmed by a unique password which only he could have known, you all sit and he quietly starts speaking: "There is a job that needs to be done...".

Hope you like it, see ya laterz ;)

8th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.2

This just came across my mind:

After you guys (characters) spent hours walking through Garonium, which is a small city, looking for the Red Tavern, about midnight, you finally found the place you've been told about. No wonder noone knew this tavern's whereabouts, as it seems to be a bit more than just a tavern. First, to get to it, you got to pass through a narrow passage between two houses, then through some dark backyard, into the small ruined temple, which seems to have been burnt years ago. There you encountered three tall figures, hooded under brown cloaks, who are supposed to look like priests. You bribed them with three rubies and 33 copper pieces, as you were instructed to do, to let you through a hidden door, into a small house, hidden between other buildings. In the house, you've been searched for weapons or other dangerous objects, which have been taken away from you, by the tavern guards, who look more like regular mercenaries and cut-throats, paid to have fun beating the life out of those who disobey the house rules. Once you gave away the items you weren't allowed to bring in, you climbed down the long wooden stairs, into one of the largest taverns you've ever seen. Rich and poor, drunkards, bandits, prostitutes of all sorts and races, alcohol, illegal substances, music, singing, arm wrestling, fires cracking out of the fireplaces, a fat inkeeper with golden teeth and an eye bandage, and a few busty waitresses, constantly bringing more booze to the guests, and running away from the curious hands of those who had a drink or a few too many. You (characters) already feel a few eyes pointed at you, and quickly sit at the nearest unoccupied table. After a few moments, one of the waitresses, who just freed herself from the grasp of a young and very drunk nobleman, approaches you putting her boobs back behind the dress and says: "Drink or women, fellas ?". Your turn :)

Hope you enjoyed, stay tuned for more :)

7th blog entry - Campaign introduction idea, No.1

Heya, and thanks for taking interest in my blog! Today, I give you a suggestion on how to start the first session of your new campaign, as the "After a long trip, you guys finally make it to a small village..." beginning is now officially being over-over-overused.  So, here's an example:

After the battle of Hareigh, the forces of both the elven kingdom and the orkish hordes have been reduced to mere nothingness. Still, elven determination to defend the holy tree of Leleigh remains strong, and the orkish warlord's hate for the light is still deeply cut into his mind. For the last three months, there have been no real military action on both sides. Everything now comes down to sending skirmishing units into the no-man's land, hoping they catch enemy's party off-guard. On one cold and rainy september morning, the group of orks ambushed and killed most of general Lohilem's unit which has been ordered to scout a small hilly portion of the northern front. The few who managed to save their lives (characters) have found shelter from the rain in a small and hidden cave. Considering the circumstances, they realize that no rescue party is likely to be dispatched, and the enemy unit might just be hiding around the next hill. With the night slowly creeping around the corners, food almost gone, bleeding cuts and painful bruises from the fight, and the rain which is only getting heavier, the survivors will have to use all their skills to survive and get back to a friendly fort. 

More to come! :)