Folks, the campaign was a success! I had a lot of fun with multiple groups, and I got a lot of feedback on my homebrew system. And since, I have written another small campaign, this time aimed at testing many non-combat aspects of my homebrew system. There is no big overarching main quest, but rather multiple mini-side quests. I will be playing it with my regular scummer D&D folks as well, but I also wanted to see if there were any interest from you guys.
The campaign will likely last two 3 hour text-only sessions on roll20. The sessions will be held on this and next saturday at time to-be-determined. The draft of the system is viewable on my website:
here in the top right tab of "Celerity Lite". You will need to come up with your own characters, using the ruleset I have provided. I encourage communicating with one another in the thread regarding your characters. I will of course be around as much as possible over the week to answer any questions you might have. (And if you discover any errors or typos, please inform me so I can make edits!)
Campaign Introduction:
Brackendeep, City of Monsters
C
reatures live everywhere, and the deep bowels of the earth is no exception. In the Deep Down, hundreds of miles below the surface world, lies the city of Brackendeep. It originally started as a mining colony for a long forgotten human empire, called the Dusthedge. It is well known that the empire mined valuable weather crystals from this colony, to reclaim the land from the deserts and ferocious sandstorms. No one is sure what the last days of this empire looked like, but the historians do agree that a torrent of biblical proportions was responsible for putting the end to this dynasty. Many theories attempt to explain the phenomenon: perhaps a god was angered that the mortals were encroaching on lands they weren't welcome in, or maybe the overuse of the weather crystals had unknown but dire consequences. No one knows for sure, but the mining colony deep below was not touched by the flood.
Humans easily adapt and excel in new environments, and the mining colony continued to grow and expand into a full-fledged city. It became a busy marketplace for underground denizens, lucrative enough to draw the hungry attention of nearby monstrous factions. Before long, they attacked, and the city could not hold long against the monsters. Its cowardly governor ordered the knights to abandon the citizens and retreat deep into the heavily fortified barracks. Many knights were outraged at this command, and evacuated all civilians they could reach to the Temple of Demia, desperately hoping that the goddess Demia would intervene on behalf of so many innocents.
And the goddess did answer. She sent Raphmiel, one of her archangels, to protect those at the temple. For days on end, Raphmiel threw back the assaults on the temple ground, long after the barracks fell and the governor was gutted in the streets. Monsters eventually grew tired, and offered a truce, promising to leave the city and its merchants in peace for a guarantee that the monsters will always be welcome at the markets. And since then, under the attentive eyes of its angelic guardian, the city prospered.
Centuries of watching the mortals made the archangel's mind wonder: was she doing the right thing? It is definitely good to protect the weak and show mercy, but isn't it unfair to the strong? The concept of justice demanded a fair competition from all beings involved, without intervention from a higher being. And finally, one day, she vanished, vowing to return to her post after she finds a satisfying answer. Power struggle almost immediately erupted across the city to fill the vacuum, and the city now remains in uneasy ceasefire.
Maybe you are an interplanar traveler, and Brackendeep happened to be your next destination. Perhaps you are originally from the surface world, who decided voluntarily (or involuntarily) take a portal just to see where it goes, only to end up in the city. Perhaps you have been a citizen of the city all of your life, and you wanted stop (or take advantage of) the chaos. Perhaps you are simply a guard working for a merchant caravan going through the city, or a slave who is hoping to lose your captors in the mayhem of the city. Either way, you WILL make a difference through your actions as you wearily step across the graffiti and smoke-filled town square, into the inn,
Magnificent X
, for a well-deserved rest...