9 small(?) questions - OG Myth-Weavers

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World of Farland

A world conquered by evil and ruled by the Lords of Sin; A unique campaign setting designed to be used with all editions of D&D.


9 small(?) questions

   
9 small(?) questions

I want to start a campaign where the end goal is for the dwarves to attempt retaking Wawmar from The Lord of greed. However, they will likely encounter the Lords of Sloth and Wrath since they will be regularly going in and out of these neighboring kingdoms. I will hopefully begin this campaign in the next week or so. But before I do I need to know a few things. I don't want to do anything that can't potentially become canon to the continuing story of Farland.


Here are my 9 questions




















Those are all my big pressing questions. Sorry it's so long, especially the one about Mad-am Gurgletongue. Also, I don't know why the fonts are different sizes, weird things happen why I try writing on forums on my phone. (And maybe to you the fonts are all normal, and my phone is just being its normal haunted self playing tricks on me.)

Hello Hamnier,

I like your campaign idea, I think it's great!

I am DM'ing a pen&paper D&D 5th edition game with my friends as players. We are currently following the first adventure Towers of Waiting.

I have a Gnome PC in my party, who is over 300 years old. For the past century, this old Gnome was a teacher for children. Untill at one point, he felt the urge to see the world again. He wanted to see mountains again. 'Mountains, Gandalf...'

I let him believe the Gnomes are extinct. Orcs mistake him for a Goblin, necromancer would love to have him as an undead butler. Truth is, Gnomes are not extinct. They are there, in Sheltinnobortanu, underground. There are just so few who wander the surface these days.

In my campaign, there are many barbarians in the North. But they are all scattered and leaderless. It would provide quite some reasoning as well as inspiring words to unify the clans of long forgotten glory, for the barbaric land is scarred with loss and sorrow.

About the Dragonborn, I like your idea. I got a new PC incoming who wants to play a green Dragonborn. I will discuss the issue about skin color and herritage with him. If I come to new ideas, Ill post them.

I really, really like the seven marshals of sin! If you got any stats of them, please let me know.

Mad'am Gurgletongue, nice NPC!

So Kielzog is right: surface gnomes are not extinct. Their numbers are low, and they are laying low in their home burrow-mountain. Kiel, thanks for your reply.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamnier View Post
I want to start a campaign where the end goal is for the dwarves to attempt retaking Wawmar from The Lord of greed. However, they will likely encounter the Lords of Sloth and Wrath since they will be regularly going in and out of these neighboring kingdoms. I will hopefully begin this campaign in the next week or so. But before I do I need to know a few things. I don't want to do anything that can't potentially become canon to the continuing story of Farland.
That's an excellent idea for a campaign, especially with the recent Wawmar update I did.

Let me respond to your questions individually.


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Here are my 9 questions
1- Are all of the monsters found in the monster manual present in Farland? Obviously there will be some common sense decision making such as that the Driders are replaced by the Drasps, but generally speaking, is everything in the manual available?
I would say yes, but you are absolutely right to use common sense in their placement etc.

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2- Are the Gnomes who committed to staying underground and watch the Drow still there (just forgotten)?
This question refers to the deep gnomes, and they are absolutely still around. See here.

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3- There are still many Barbarians in the north, yes? Would it be possible to convince them in any amount of mass to join the war against the Lords and the Dweller?
The answer is absolutely, to both parts. The Anarians are a thriving culture similar to the vikings (but they don't build ships, being land-locked). With the proper motivation and leadership, they could be convinced to fight against evil.

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4- The Dragonborn were bred by the Lord of greed. Is there anywhere that talks about their color? One of the players in my campaign wants to say that the Dragonborn were initially bred chromatic. But later when many rebel and convert to a good alignment, they... are still chromatic. However, many of their children are born metallic. For example, green dragonborn may give birth to copper dragonborn. This would be explained as a divine blessing for their efforts toward goodness.
Dragonborn in Farland all started out as red. But my conception of their color is similar to yours. Their color diversified over the years, through mystical, natural, and divine blessing. So now among the evil kind, all the chromatic colors are represented, and among the good king, chromatic as well as metallic colors exist. But remember, in general Dragonborn are pretty rare outside of Wawmar.

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5- Do "spell gems" exist in Farland? (This would determine exactly how some of the player-characters will meet on the first day of the campaign.)
What is a "spell gem"?

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6- I want to get the Lord of Wrath 7 Marshalls as a mimic of the seven Lords of sin. They won't have power like the Lords Of sins do, he's merely copying the strategy of having powerful leaders and combining them with the might of the Farland Legions. Not only would this add a few more powerful obstacles without having to fight the Lords themselves, but I think it would fit into the story of Wrath where he is either consciously or subconsciously building up forces to rebel against the Dweller.
Hmmm, if you want to keep it Canon, Wrath has 5 Cancellors who together hold the most power in the Kingdom after Wrath himself. However, if you want to retain your 7 Marshalls idea, which I like, you could easily make them the top ranking officers in his Crimson Lion Guard, his elite battalion of body guards. And it certainly would not be above Wrath to scheme against the Dweller, or maybe only one of his personalities is scheming.

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7- Would it be acceptable to make the new creature, the giant Crow (chaotic neutral)? The Lord of Wrath will have developed this new species through a combination of specialized enchantments and breeding. He wants to use these as flying mounts. They need to be large enough and strong enough to be effective for travel and combat (I already have some stats for it), yet easy enough to "mass produce". He wants them for Scouts, Messengers, and for a flying Eq-Ledas.
Hmmm, I don't personally love the idea of giant crows. What about Wyverns or some form of smaller Wyvern-like creatures lacking the stinger, if you want to make them less powerful?

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8- the Lord of sloth HATES the Dweller for breaking her bargain about letting him kill his creator. Would it be at all possible for the Lord of sloth to be convinced to change sides in order to kill the Dweller and his creator (the enemy of my enemy is my friend, for now...)? Or is the magic of the book designed in a way that he is incapable of doing that without a more powerful intervention, such as Vornoth himself doing something like putting a second soul (or whatever demons have) into the Lord of Wrath?
Although I suspect all of the Lords of Sin hate the Dweller to one degree or another, Sloth definitely hates her the most. I doubt that the Book of Seven would allow Sloth to openly attack the Dweller, but Sloth could undoubtedly be convinced not to attack rebels and not to aid the Dweller, with the right motivation.

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9- I want to make an insane Hag/Orc/Demon crossbreed named Mad-am Gurgletongue (she mumbles a lot). She's been around since before Aelfar, and has an obsession for collecting rare items. These range from custom weapons, armor, and other trinkets for Lords and Kings, to some of the missing artifacts named from legends. Because of the twisted natural magic and magical resistances from her ancestors, such magical artifacts don't affect her the same way as they do others, rather they act like a drug by intensifying her insanity, and fuel her desire to collect more things. She finds such items using her magically intelligent vultures who telepathically inform her about rare items which will soon be lost, so she can retrieve them without anyone knowing she has them. She sometimes even collects people when she can't help herself, usually important figures who go on dangerous quests so they will be presumed dead when she takes them. The individual will be placed in an eternal slumber to preserve them, while any companions that are also captured will be in enchanted into being servants.

She lives in a secret fortress-like abode on a small island in the Selfhaven archipelago. Between her magics and the combined powers of all her artifacts, it is nearly impossible for people to find her, accidentally or intentionally (it's even difficult for other hags, but whether it's possible is undetermined).

I'm thinking that this would be an interesting way to reincorporate many old artifacts back into the world of Farland. It would also be a way to introduce many new items from the days of Seldorius, Keler, and the haydays of Wawmar and Aelfar. This can also bring back many major figures (if the party can figure out how to wake them), creating both joy and unrest for the public and politicians of both the liberated and occupied kingdoms.

The party would NOT keep a majority of what they find. Even if they woke everyone up and grabbed every item of the collection, the awoken people would first claim what is theirs, and then almost everything else would be donated to the liberated kingdoms for the continued war effort. From there, they can be again stolen and lost, dispersing them throughout Farland. (Aldo, this would be something the party encounters much later in the adventure, this is not a level 1 encounter. "Hey look everyone, I just grew to level 2 and I'm already fully equipped with an arsenal of powerful legendary artifacts!" Yeah-no...)

Now that the description is done, the real question: If I did this, would you allow it to become canon? More so, what/who would you suggest/allow to be in her collection?
Okay, really cool idea. As far as making it Canon, the answer is, I am not sure. A lot of it might depend on the official write-up submitted. I am not loving the name. It might have a better chance of becoming Canon if you changed your creature to a personage mentioned in the histories, such as Seldorius of Farland, and worked it out that way.

I hope these answers helped!

Both of your answers were immensely helpful. Thank you.


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Originally Posted by Farland View Post
What is a "spell gem"?
I'll take that as a no. :P In that case, how about they are a fairly recent invention? (War is the best catalyst for innovation after all.)

I think spell gems are originally a 3.5e mechanic. It is basically a gem which has been enchanted to be able to hold a spell which can be used as an action. It's not the easiest thing to craft a spell gem, but once made, it can be recharged with new spells up to once a day by most any spell caster (who knows the spell they're charging it with). Spell gems also have levels, so a level 2 spell gem can only have 1st or 2nd level spells.

Specifically, I wanted to give one to a player to start the game. A level 1 dwarf rogue swipes it to help in his first mission across enemy lines (a rescue mission). I'll put a sleep spell or something in it. It will help explain how a handful of level 1 players are able to get out of a (semi-)heavily guarded prison area.

I'll have a section about a variant of spell gems in a post I'm working on about merchantry (I have a section devoted to gems and their pricing).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland View Post
Dragonborn in Farland all started out as red. But my conception of their color is similar to yours. Their color diversified over the years, through mystical, natural, and divine blessing. So now among the evil kind, all the chromatic colors are represented, and among the good king, chromatic as well as metallic colors exist. But remember, in general Dragonborn are pretty rare outside of Wawmar.
The plan is for a small clan of green dragonborn (and copper children) who live in the outskirts of Orland to be recaptured by the forces of the Lord of Greed. The clan is split and imprisoned separately. The player will be freed by a small group of rebels (the dwarf rogue being one of them), and will begin her personal quest to find and free her clan/family (or at least that is her plan, whether she succeeds or not is to be seen).

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Originally Posted by Farland View Post
Hmmm, I don't personally love the idea of giant crows. What about Wyverns or some form of smaller Wyvern-like creatures lacking the stinger, if you want to make them less powerful?
I overlooked Wyverns initially because I associate them so much with dragons (sentient beings and all that). But I think I like the idea of having "domesticated" Wyverns better than crows. And their lack of stingers could be similar to how cows have horns in the wild but not on farms.

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Originally Posted by Farland View Post
Hmmm, if you want to keep it Canon, Wrath has 5 Cancellors who together hold the most power in the Kingdom after Wrath himself. However, if you want to retain your 7 Marshalls idea, which I like, you could easily make them the top ranking officers in his Crimson Lion Guard, his elite battalion of body guards. And it certainly would not be above Wrath to scheme against the Dweller, or maybe only one of his personalities is scheming.
Fair enough. Though I'm a little confused about the Crimson Lions. Is it a whole legion? Because in some places it's referred to as a legion, and others as a guard. It could be both, but I'm thinking it's probably not a legion, because if the hobgoblin 1st legion is already occupying Far City, another legion there would make the city a very crowded place.

The original idea of the 7 Marshals was to have something along the lines of "level bosses". They would go around the occupied kingdoms (mostly Farland) in the place of the Lord of Wrath. It seems like a bodyguard, especially as described on the site, would just be extra strong forces needed to be overcome before facing the lord himself.

I was hoping for the Lord of Wrath to have few handpicked individuals who would go about taking care of business and even lead his troops if needed. One of which is one of the lords own sons (the strongest and smartest), a Cambion who greatly despises his father, but keeps it mostly under wraps part out of fear and part out of reluctant respect. (I want him to lead a force of Gnolls. I'd say that a "Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu" can be possessed by any Demon, so this son of the Lord of Wrath can easily accommodate this. The Gnolls are his way of secretly building a loyal force with which to usurp his father. Intrigue GALORE!)

Perhaps rather than being directly connected to the military, they could be something like a secret police? But in that case I'm not really sure what their titles would be. Ideas?

PS. I do have a basic outline for them and am working on stats. Once I know exactly how to organize them, I'll post their info.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland View Post
Okay, really cool idea. As far as making it Canon, the answer is, I am not sure. A lot of it might depend on the official write-up submitted. I am not loving the name. It might have a better chance of becoming Canon if you changed your creature to a personage mentioned in the histories, such as Seldorius of Farland, and worked it out that way.
Im not particularly attached to the name, it just seemed like a name that mad hag would have. And the creature was my explanation for why/how she's been around for so long to collect all of these artifacts.

What if I say it's instead one of the Aelfarian mages who were researching and creating magic items back at around 3000? He/She is dabbeling in dark magic, and the effects drive the mage mad (perhaps achieves immortality by loosing their sanity, kind of a reverse lich). The mage flees into seclussion, carrying many already created magic items with them. The rest of the description I gave for Mad'am Gurgletongue would apply to this insane mage who develops a love for collecting things.

Although, one nice thing about it being a demented hag is then she can exist before humans. Thus, she could have collected King Walin IV who vanished in 10,002 er.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamnier View Post
I think spell gems are originally a 3.5e mechanic. It is basically a gem which has been enchanted to be able to hold a spell which can be used as an action. It's not the easiest thing to craft a spell gem, but once made, it can be recharged with new spells up to once a day by most any spell caster (who knows the spell they're charging it with). Spell gems also have levels, so a level 2 spell gem can only have 1st or 2nd level spells.

Specifically, I wanted to give one to a player to start the game. A level 1 dwarf rogue swipes it to help in his first mission across enemy lines (a rescue mission). I'll put a sleep spell or something in it. It will help explain how a handful of level 1 players are able to get out of a (semi-)heavily guarded prison area.

I'll have a section about a variant of spell gems in a post I'm working on about merchantry (I have a section devoted to gems and their pricing).
Spell Gems are a Sword and Sorcery idea in 3.5.

They were then snagged for D&D 5E and placed into Out of the Abyss (Pg 223).

In all honesty, they function like a variant of a "
Ring of Spell Storing - in Gem form.
Gem of Spell Storing".

Though, S&S had a class, that could set the Gems up with a number of automatic triggers. (Including Touch)

Cool, I didn't know it was in out of the abyss.

On the subject of the formerly 7 Marshals, the LoW's son has a magic spear in the form that he can summon it from up to 60 feet away by calling it's name (or with telepathy). The name will MEAN "fire spear" or "fire spitter". Do you have a system for naming things (like did you pull a tolken and actually develop all of your languages), or should I just pick a name for it (unless you already have an awesome name for a " fire spear")?

About the spell-gems, awesome idea. I might implement it in my game. I guess you need to cast the spell in order to restore it?

About the clan of Green/copper Dragonborn clan... A player came up with the idea to make a Green Dragonborn druid, who originated from a forest. I decided that Sarumvest forest would be the perfect place for this clan of Green Dragonborns. The ruins of Alustel (ancient elven city of 'God') provides the perfect surroundings for this clan. The Sarumvest forrest is bordering the mountains near Wawmar. You can read more on the Farland website about the ruins of Alustel and Wawmar, if you want.

Domesticated wyverns, awesome.

About the secret police, I thaught about the factions I've created in my setting of Farland. Maybe you can use it:

Faction 'the Resistance.' The resistance is an anti occupation movement that operates throughout all the conquered kingdoms. Mainly, they move within a faction of the thieves guilds in capital cities. Their aims are freedom and justice and their means are subterfuge, assassinations and stealth.

Faction 'the Lightbringers'. This faction's primarily concern is undead, demons and feints. They specialize themselves with these creatures to locate and recognize them in order to destroy them or send them back to their own plane. Their aims are the liquidations of undead, demons and feints and they use whatever means possible. This used to be a great faction before the occupation. Now, it's members are disorganized and spread throughout many conquered kingdoms. They are most active still in the kingdom of Daven in the south.

Faction 'the Sylvan Safeguard.' The creatures of the forest have withdrawn themselves from the goblinoid world. Deep within their ancient forests, they have hidden themselves in order to survive the occupation like a passing storm. Some, however, realize that just sitting idly will not be enough. These few are loosely organized to place the right force at the right time to protect the right source. Their goals are knowledge and preservation and their means are magics and ancient mysteries.

Yes, I believe you need to spend 10 minutes to atune to the gem (for each gem, and each time you charge it), and then you can cast your spel into it. I could be remembering/reading the description wrong, but like I said, I'll be posting a variant soon. I'll say the mages of Kale only recently (past year) developed these, and have been working tirelessly to create more and spread them through the occupied kingdoms. But because they are so new and still challenging to craft, they are quite rare. The occupied kingdoms may or may not know about the gems yet, and may or may not have begun "reverse engineering" them to begin make them as well. (They are being closely guarded for as long as possible in order to maintain a military advantage. Imagine being able to equip each solder of an entire army with a handful of powerful lighting spells, while the enemy only have 20 or so spellcasters).

Druidic circles are extremely secretive though, aren't they? So it makes sense for a circle to be in Sarumvest, but unless the entire clan became druids, wouldn't the rest of the clan be unwelcome by the circle? (It would indeed be interesting if our clans were in fact the same clan, I'd be all for coordinating that with you. Which is why I want to iron out specifics.)

Lol, " the lightbringers are about to REALLY get their hands full.

I think I'll go with calling them the "Hope Crushers" as a reaction to all the small and large rebelions cropping up. Though I will change this name in a heartbeat if someone has a better one.

I'm almost done with their stats on paper, will probably try to post them later today or tomorrow (in their own thread, with their own set of questions).

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Originally Posted by Hamnier View Post
I'll take that as a no. :P In that case, how about they are a fairly recent invention? (War is the best catalyst for innovation after all.)
Yeah, I don't really see a problem with spell gems.

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I'll have a section about a variant of spell gems in a post I'm working on about merchantry (I have a section devoted to gems and their pricing).
Cool, just triple check for balance.

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The plan is for a small clan of green dragonborn (and copper children) who live in the outskirts of Orland to be recaptured by the forces of the Lord of Greed. The clan is split and imprisoned separately. The player will be freed by a small group of rebels (the dwarf rogue being one of them), and will begin her personal quest to find and free her clan/family (or at least that is her plan, whether she succeeds or not is to be seen).
Yeah, thast sounds like it will work well.



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I overlooked Wyverns initially because I associate them so much with dragons (sentient beings and all that). But I think I like the idea of having "domesticated" Wyverns better than crows. And their lack of stingers could be similar to how cows have horns in the wild but not on farms.
I love that idea. Makes good sense.


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Fair enough. Though I'm a little confused about the Crimson Lions. Is it a whole legion? Because in some places it's referred to as a legion, and others as a guard. It could be both, but I'm thinking it's probably not a legion, because if the hobgoblin 1st legion is already occupying Far City, another legion there would make the city a very crowded place.
Yeah, definitely only one legion in the Far City. I picture the Crimson Lion Guard as being an elite unit attached to the First Legion but essentially always by the Emperor's side.
Quote:
The original idea of the 7 Marshals was to have something along the lines of "level bosses". They would go around the occupied kingdoms (mostly Farland) in the place of the Lord of Wrath. It seems like a bodyguard, especially as described on the site, would just be extra strong forces needed to be overcome before facing the lord himself.

I was hoping for the Lord of Wrath to have few handpicked individuals who would go about taking care of business and even lead his troops if needed. One of which is one of the lords own sons (the strongest and smartest), a Cambion who greatly despises his father, but keeps it mostly under wraps part out of fear and part out of reluctant respect. (I want him to lead a force of Gnolls. I'd say that a "Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu" can be possessed by any Demon, so this son of the Lord of Wrath can easily accommodate this. The Gnolls are his way of secretly building a loyal force with which to usurp his father. Intrigue GALORE!)

Perhaps rather than being directly connected to the military, they could be something like a secret police? But in that case I'm not really sure what their titles would be. Ideas?

PS. I do have a basic outline for them and am working on stats. Once I know exactly how to organize them, I'll post their info.
I dig the cambion idea. And I think a secret police would be perfect. It allows the 7 marshalls and it fits with Wrath's personality.


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Im not particularly attached to the name, it just seemed like a name that mad hag would have. And the creature was my explanation for why/how she's been around for so long to collect all of these artifacts.

What if I say it's instead one of the Aelfarian mages who were researching and creating magic items back at around 3000? He/She is dabbeling in dark magic, and the effects drive the mage mad (perhaps achieves immortality by loosing their sanity, kind of a reverse lich). The mage flees into seclussion, carrying many already created magic items with them. The rest of the description I gave for Mad'am Gurgletongue would apply to this insane mage who develops a love for collecting things.

Although, one nice thing about it being a demented hag is then she can exist before humans. Thus, she could have collected King Walin IV who vanished in 10,002 er.
I think an Aelfarian mage would work extremely well. You thinking a lich, or long lived through other means?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland View Post
Yeah, definitely only one legion in the Far City. I picture the Crimson Lion Guard as being an elite unit attached to the First Legion but essentially always by the Emperor's side.


I dig the cambion idea. And I think a secret police would be perfect. It allows the 7 marshalls and it fits with Wrath's personality.
Awesome, I'll move forward with the secret police. I'll post a thread specifically for them soon.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland View Post
I think an Aelfarian mage would work extremely well. You thinking a lich, or long lived through other means?
I'm thinking a distorted Lich. Because of all the magic experiments, he isn't actually undead. I'm thinking he stumbled upon another way to gain immortality, but the cost was his sanity, and to a point his common sense (although I guess that ties in with being insane). His insanity is what drives him into isolation. And then his isolation mixed with his addiction to magic items is what drives him into starting his bizzar hobby.

But aside from not being undead, he is basically a Lich.




 

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