Return of the Chained God Campaign Notes

The campaign takes place in and around the Windswolds, a temperate and sunny place where hills ramble and rivers murmur as they chase the breeze. Traditionally inhabited by halflings and gnomes, over the last 2 centuries, it has become the site of a human kingdom, Sunstair, which was a part of the burgeoning empire of Nerath.

The Windswolds, Land of the Wee Folk




Clans of halflings and kingdoms of gnomes have made this land their homes for as long as they could remember. The communal and close-knit halflings favor living in villages of small cottages, while the magically-inclined gnomes like to build towers in deserted, lonely plains dotted with portals leading to the Feywild.

A typical halfling village: Mallowhearth



The Tower of the Gnome King Søren the Fifth



The Kingdom of Sunstair

An artist's impression of the Kingdom



200 years ago, a large contingent of human refugees fled from the North into the Windswolds, with an army of wild savages and hunters hot on their trail. The barbarian horde was intent on pursuing and slaying the refugees for some offense they had committed against their people; however, when the refugees prayed for divine sanctuary, the Sun God Pelor intervened and sent an angelic army to protect them, preventing the barbarian horde from completing its bloody-minded task.

The refugees dedicated themselves to the Shining God in thanksgiving for this divine favor, and they started new settlements in these lands. The most fervent and zealous of these settlers chose to build a castle upon the tallest plateau of the Windswolds, and that forms the heart of what people call the Kingdom of Sunstair today. The kingdom flourished and grew, drawing the attention of traders and missionaries of Bane and Erathis from other cities in Nerath, and the kingdom became a part of the Nerathian empire. Merchants, soldiers, priests, and craftsmen came, and thus the polity grew to its present size.

The Sunstair Citadel



Religious Matters
The three main religions in the land are Pelor the Shining God, Bane the Lord of War, and Erathis the Lady of Progress. Perhaps due to their kingdom's origins, people of the Sunstair are very superstitious sorts, quick to attribute supernatural import to most events in their daily lives. Thus, the churches are very powerful and exert considerable influence in people's lives.

The present king is a young man, more a beardless youth, really - King Alistair, also known as the Clockmaker King for his interest and expertise in the areas of artifice and invention. King Alistair is a devout Erathian, who seeks to protect and preserve the Sunstair as a point of light and progress in these dark times.

The wild tribesmen on the borders follow the Primal Way; most of them worship the World Serpent and Stoneroot, and seek the aid of these most mighty of primal spirits to gird them and give them strength to complete some arduous task which is the sacred duty of their people.

The halflings venerate their divine patron Avandra, while the gnomes are guided spiritually by a mysterious archfey by the name of Arumdina, the Bladed Jest, whom other races cannot see or comprehend.

Politics and Current Affairs
The land has been wracked by a terrible war for the past five years; a massive army of monstrous humanoids and giant-kind, known only as the Legion of the Elder Eye, have been attempting to invade the Windswolds.

The wild tribes of the hills and rivers, together with the halflings and gnomes, form a buffer against these incursions for the Sunstair, but this cannot last, and thus the Three Churches have organized and led Crusades against the forces of the Elder Eye.

Recently, these large-scale Crusades have proven quite successful in pushing back and regaining territory. A scant two seasons ago, King Borus the Bold had managed to best Morgus Bonemasher, the hill giant leader of the Legion, in single combat. Sadly, King Borus expired shortly thereafter from his wounds and exertions, and thus the kingship passed to young Alistair.

Now the Crusaders are in the midst of beating back the disspirited and broken horde of the Elder Eye, and the land is beginning to recover from this long war. But now internal dissent may prove to be a more dangerous foes than the armies on the outer reaches, for the King's other children, and their supporters, also have their eyes on the throne...

Royalty and Bloodlines
The current royal family can trace its lineage back to the royalty among the refugees who first settled in the Windswolds. King Borus has 4 (legitimate) children in all, by 2 queens.

The eldest, Prince Aidan, is deceased. The royal records indicate that he died of a wasting illness when he turned 13, and the same illness also took the life of the Queen. Courtiers and historians, however, may know a little more about the unspoken details of this matter.

The second oldest child, Princess Aneta, is the twin of Aidan, and younger only by a few seconds. She had always been deeply religious and the deaths of her brother and mother drove her deeper into spiritual retreat. She is a member of the Pelorian faith, and has a reputation as the 'People's Princess', as she is well-known for her efforts to secure the welfare and improve the lot of the common people in the Sunstair.

The third child, Prince Allan, is an adventurous sort with what the scribes term a rambunctious and spontaneous nature. About that, it's best to speak no more than necessary. He has recently become very close to the Banite templars, and has fought quite well in the Crusades against the Legion of the Elder Eye.

The youngest child, Alistair is the son of Borus and his second wife, Queen Meryla, and was chosen by Borus to study with the Erathians at a young age in the fields of statecraft and rulership. He was groomed to become a competent statesman, and Borus chose to leave him as the first in line to inherit the throne upon his death. The other royal siblings and their factions were none too pleased with this turn of events, and they held their peace then. However, with the death of Borus, who knows what they may now attempt?

Trade and Industry
The land is rich and fertile, and provides prime pasture for cattle, especially cows and sheep. Grain, meat, milk, leather, wool are valuable trade commodities, and there are also deposits of iron and silver ore in the earth. Sunstair imports a lot of its wood and forest products from the dark forests along the borders, and many of the tribesmen make a thriving living as loggers and hunters to cater to this trade.

More to come later...

Hi, everyone gets 2 special encounter powers:

Favor the Odds
Encounter, Utility, No Action
Trigger: You reduce an enemy to 0 hp.
Effect: You may roll a d6; on a roll of 1, 3, or 5, you can spend a healing surge. If you do not roll a 1, 3, or 5, you do not expend this power, and can use it again during this encounter.

Breaking Even
Encounter, Utility, No Action
Effect: At the end of every encounter, you may roll a d6. If you roll a 2, 4, or 6, you can regain a healing surge.

Everybody also gets Improved Defenses and Versatile Expertise as bonus feats. During the campaign, you may meet trainers and grandmasters who can help you respec these feats to more focused ones; maybe you meet a Zen master and go for waterfall ascetic training and get Superior Will, or hang out with Thor and learn Hammer Expertise instead, for example.

Also, I'll be homebrewing customized themes for individual characters. Hopefully they're balanced, but if not, we'll tweak again. Anyway, as long as it's fun it should be good in my book.

Theme 1: Hedge Knight (Jansen)
Worldly-Wise
Constant benefit: You gain the ability to read, write, and speak an additional language of your choice. You add History and Streetwise to your list of class skills, and you gain training in one of these skills. You may choose to use your Wisdom modifier when making checks with these two skills.

Seasoned Campaigner
Encounter Power, Utility, No Action
Trigger: You make a History or Streetwise check
Effect: You may reroll the result and pick the result you prefer. If you are making this check as part of a skill challenge, any successes you make as a result of this check nets you 2 successes instead of one.

Theme 2: Sekolah's Child (Aziz)
Aquatic Mutation
Constant benefits: You gain the Aquatic subtype, and look like a humanoid fish, frog, turtle, or some other aquatic creature of your choice. You gain a +5 bonus to Athletics and Endurance checks related to swimming. You can hold your breath twice as long as normal, and you do not suffer penalties to movement, skills, or combat related to watery conditions.

Feeding the Waves
Encounter Power, Attack, Free Action
Trigger: You slide, push, or pull a target.
Effect: You add your Wisdom modifier to the number of squares you slide, push, or pull the target. If the target moves into a wall or other hindering terrain as a result of this forced movement, you may knock it prone and the target takes your Wisdom modifier in damage.

Theme 3: Foxfire Disciple [Ken]
Whisper's Teachings
Constant benefit: You add Bluff and Stealth to your list of class skills, and gain training in one of these skills. You also gain the Fox's Shape at-will power.

Fox's Shape
At-Will Power, Utility, Minor Action
Effect: You transform into a Small fox. While you assume this fox shape, you cannot use any powers with the weapon keyword, and you can only use implement powers with the beast, charm, enchantment, fire, or illusion keywords.
Special: When you are in your Fox Shape, you may use this power again to transform back into your normal form, and shift 1 square. You may only use this power once per round.

Theme 4: Green Scar Adept (Zaki)
Bearer of the Green Scar
Constant benefits: A shard of the legendary meteor Alhazard fell on you, and you didn't die. Instead, your skin became really, really, green and you bulked up a lot.

You can forge the shard of the meteor into a special weapon or implement, and this unique item always counts as an implement for the purposes of your Arcane powers. Also, with a successful Arcana check, you can sense the presence and fluctuations of cosmic and elemental magic in the vicinity.

Gravity Pulse
Encounter, Attack, Free Action
Trigger: You hit a target with an at-will Arcane power
Effect: All the targets whom you hit with this triggering Arcane power take damage equal to your Charisma modifier, and they are slowed until the end of your next turn.

Theme 5: Athasian Minstrel (Mark)
We'll just be using the one from the Dark Sun book cos it fits the character.

Whew, that's all for now. I'll put up more stuff later.

Michelangelo

Spoiler:

Required Reading: http://www.pandius.com/tortle.html


TORTLES FIGHT WITH HONOUR!

Sir Brandon

Spoiler:

Kitsune Raida Salariman

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