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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
 Posted - 31 Jul 2014 : 21:33:04
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(Psst if you're in my Moonsea game on SA, don't read this!)
Hello everyone! I'm running a Pathfinder game set in the Moonsea, and I thought I'd post some of my thoughts and ideas for others to enjoy and use in their own games. I'm actually running it as pbp on another forum; here's a link to the game. (The link may not work if the paywall's up and you don't have a Something Awful account.)
Here's what I'm doing so far as a campaign outline, since the players asked for a central plotline. I started with the usual 3.0 start of Shieldmeet 1372 DR, hence taking aim at Iyraclea and Zhengyi before some novels get there:
Faerun’s history is studded with ancient horrors and plots. The PCs, embedded in the intrigues of the Northern Moonsea, find themselves facing the creeping, inevitable rush of death, delivered by forgotten kingdoms and the Chosen of Auril!
Shadowed Shores
Levels 1 to 4
The PCs begin as an untrusted band of adventurers working for Phlan’s Council of Six. When they track down a murderer for the Council, they find clues to a meeting - and a stolen artifact - at Pirate’s Point west of the city. Breaking in on an appraisal at Pirate’s Point, they find out that the artifact is part of the Hammer of Vorbyx, royal scepter of the ogre kingdom of Thar. If the hammer is recovered, someone could reform the kingdom as its ruler, the Tharkul, and smash its might against the cities of the Moonsea! Returning to Phlan, the players find the city under attack by the Red Claws goblin tribe, and travel north to Thar to smash the tribe and save the city. Below the Red Claws’ hold is an abandoned Imaskari ruin, where the PCs fight shadowy assassins and forgotten horrors, eventually finding another piece of the Hammer of Vorbyx about to be stolen by the same assassin they chased at the start of the game. She leaves behind a clue, suggesting her next destination is Melvaunt.
City of Swords
Levels 5 to 7
The players travel to Melvaunt, where the assassin has offered her part of the Hammer for sale, only to find themselves beguiled by assassins and an insurrection. The PCs discover that they are dogged by agents of the Five, a cabal of men and women wronged by the pre-existing powers of the Moonsea. The players must break into a temple of Loviatar and pacify a Zhentarim plot to find the Five’s base. Exploring the Five’s base in Melvaunt, the PCs discover that the Five’s leader is the very man trying to appoint himself Tharkul. The PCs must make a desperate trip into the heart of Thar, attempting to stop the ascension of a new Tharkul!
The Pale Thing’s Promise
Levels 7 to 9
The PCs failed to stop the ascension of a new Tharkul, instead watching the leader of the Five disappear into the depths below the ogre capital of Tharniir as he battled a mutated ogre. Instead, they must return to the notes they found in the Five’s base, mentioning more lost regalia of Thar, gone long ago with the lost Tharkul in the strange Tortured Lands. Exploring the Tortured Lands, they come across hyper-evolved animals and other treasures, eventually finding a hidden tribe of ogrekin devoted to the lost Tharkul. Battling back the ogrekin, they descend into the abyss known as Halangrog’s Haunt, eventually defeating Halangrog’s spirit to reclaim his lost stones.
Grey Madness
Levels 10 to 12
Spurred on by rumours of war, the PCs must head for Thar again, to safeguard the important strategic site of Glister. Crossing Thar, the PCs find Glister surrounded by another tribe of ogres, this Falling Star tribe strengthened by ancient magics and with aberration allies. The PCs defeat the Falling Star army, discovering that the mutated ogre they saw in Tharniir is one of the forgotten Kur-Tharsu, a horrific legacy of Tharkuls past. The PCs invade the ogre stronghold of Fangjaws Hold, fighting a council of Kur-Tharsu ogres, their enslaved drakes, and their menagerie of horrors. Eventually, they must use Halangrog’s legacy to break the ogre magi Zar-Umak’s claim to being the Tharkul - and then endure his cornered wrath, empowered by Auril!
The Perilous Shadows
Levels 13 to 15
The PCs have played into Iyraclea’s hands, sending the northern Moonsea into chaos with the cities and Thar’s tribes at each other’s throats. Now comes her next move: just as the PCs return to Glister, the mining town is attacked from without by a flood of undead from under the Galena Mountains - assisted by betrayers from within Glister’s walls! The PCs discover a hidden tunnel through the Upperdark, fighting an elemental incursion and undead ambushes to enter the forbidding land of Vaasa. Vaasa itself is in ruins, most of its people living terrified in small, hidden camps - the Witch King Zhengyi has risen again! The PCs raise a rag-tag army and besiege Zhengyi’s Castle Perilous, only to find that the lich was being controlled by the last of the Five - the Five themselves servitors of Auril, who has been dogging their every move.
City Atop The World
Levels 16 to 18
Empowered by her goddess, her hordes having weakened her enemies, Iyraclea, Chosen of Auril, threatens all of Faerun! As Iyraclea begins preparations to shroud all of Toril in eternal winter, the PCs must ascend the Great Glacier and find the way to its heart, the fabled realm of Novularond. In the Narfell ruins of Novularond, the PCs must contend with ancient constructs, warring fiends, and Iyraclea’s own defenses, in a desperate search to find the Chosen’s one weakness. Then, they must descend into the frozen prisons of Iyraclea’s Crystal Halls, disrupt her ritual, and slay the priestess - or all the world will freeze!
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Edited by - Arivia on 31 Jul 2014 21:37:58
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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2014 : 21:36:08
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And here's what I've been poking at recently:
Since I'm using Novularond as my big ending, I've been teasing out the history to figure out whose those ancient ruins are:
-9000 DR The arctic dwarves settle in the peaks of the Novularond [GHotR]; then called the Cold Ocean (Powers and Pantheons 62)
-2642 DR The arctic dwarf kingdom of Dareth is founded north of Rashemen [GHotR]
-2550 DR Ulutiu banishes himself to the Astral Plane; his necklace forms the Great Glacier [GHotR]
-2549 DR The Great Glacier begins to overtake Gharreil and the rest of Ostoria [PF]
-2545 DR Jhothun is created as a refuge for the frost giants left homeless from Ostoria [PF]
-2540 DR Driven mad by the new half-year long winter (“an eternal eclipse”), the dwarves of Novularond turn to worshiping Abbathor (F&P 115)
-2500 DR The Novularond dwarves begin to trade with fiends and open up several portals to the Lower Planes
-2320 DR Traders from Rashemen found Sossal [GHotR]
-2274 DR Dwarves from the Tortured Lands leave for the Great Glacier in exile [GG]
-2273 DR The dwarves reach the Great Glacier and reclaim their brethren from Novularond, falling away from the Morndinsamman (due to their disillusionment/abuse by Abbathor) and becoming the modern Innugaakalikurit [sort of GG]
-1648 DR Kara-Turan hunters travel through Sossal and become the Ulutiuns [GHotR]
-843 DR Belevan the Unliving ascends to Nentyarch of Narfell [GHotR]
-821 DR Belevan the Unliving becomes a lich with assistance from Orcus in exchange for a service
-819 DR Belevan and the Narfelli explore the Great Glacier in search of Novularond in search of gates to the Abyss
-343 DR Dareth comes under attack from Hoarfaern, a realm of white dragons and their servants [GHotR]
-327, 318 DR Dareth is destroyed [GHotR]
-300 DR The Sossrim pledge their loyalty to Raumathar [GHotR]
-212 DR Sossrim come across a legacy of Hoarfaern [GG]
210 DR Iyraclea is born in Halruaa [R]
230 DR Iyraclea converts to worshiping Auril and begins exploring the Realms at large [R]
530 DR Iyraclea comes to the Great Glacier and begins pacifying the Glacier’s natives
531 DR Tosvin discovers Gharreil [PF]
632-633 DR Iyraclea the Ice Queen invades Myth Ondath in Rystall Wood, and the Great Glacier expands again [GHotR]
709 DR Iyraclea gives the yugoloths of the Army of Darkness two pieces of the Gatekeeper’s Crystal
991 DR Sossal is invaded by fiends (demons) from the Great Glacier trapped there since the fall of Narfell [GHotR]
1038 DR The Great Glacier retreats from the Cold Lands [GHotR]
1347 DR Zhengyi the Witch-King rises to power in Vaasa [GHotR]
1359 DR Zhengyi is destroyed by Gareth Dragonsbane [GHotR}
Grand History of the Realms = GHotR; The Great Glacier = GG; The Ruin = R; F&P = Faiths and Pantheons; PF = Portals of the Frozen Wastes
Going from what I've found, the ruins are dwarven in the first place, and then resettled by the Narfell; I've placed them in Belevan's reign simply because I thought he fit and there's some spare space there for a Narfell expansion north and west into the Great Glacier. But I'm wondering - did I miss anything? Any reference to the Glacier or whatever might pin it down some more? |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1842 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2014 : 09:35:59
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| Okay I promist I didn't read it. Now, how does one join your game? I'm an addict, you see, and folks should support my addiction and create games for me to play in OR invite me into one they're already running. |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2014 : 14:38:02
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quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal
It is very interesting. I have not yet looked at the great glacier (although i have revised its creation date to -25000 is).
I'm very interested to see if the ancient Nar culture survives in the Great Glacier at all. It certainly doesnt really exist elsewhere in Faerun anymore.
As soon as i finish going over Cloak and Dagger i'm going to get researching the Great Glacier
There was no mention of it in the old Great Glacier source book. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2014 : 16:19:23
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| I'd suggest Sossal, just next door. There is a lot less about the region that would need explaining away. When you deal with the GG that means you have Netheril in the middle of your timeline. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2014 : 16:58:08
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| I can't remember the source, but I recall that one of the Enclaves was there at the fall. This would be the Western Area of the Glacier, near the Tortured Lands. Its possible I just read that in a post here once... not sure though. Sorry I can't point the way to that one better. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2014 : 18:20:14
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| It's possible that is what I was thinking of. |
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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2014 : 17:25:27
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quote:
Originally posted by The Arcanamach
Okay I promist I didn't read it. Now, how does one join your game? I'm an addict, you see, and folks should support my addiction and create games for me to play in OR invite me into one they're already running.
Ha. Unfortunately I'm full - I have seven players as it is, and a waiting list of about five more.
Sage, I'll post explaining my ideas soon - busy running a game today! |
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The Moonsea and Parts North
