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Ruins of Azlant (PF1)

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Ruins of Azlant (PF1)

Unread postby icycalm » 04 Sep 2021 22:43

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This is the thread where we coordinate the Ruins of Azlant campaign being undertaken by the newly-formed group D&D4, which is comprised of players and characters that made their brief debuts in the other groups and campaigns (namely, D&D1, D&D2, and D&D3). All these characters split off from their original groups, for various reasons, shortly after the commencement of their original campaigns, so their players need to think of some backstory as to why and how they split, and how they ended up in the Andoran capital of Armas, where Ruins of Azlant begins. Later on, we will post these backstories in this thread. dan's and Jameson's characters both split from the same group, D&D1, so we're assuming they travelled together, otherwise it would be too much of a coincidence for them to have ended up on the same ship a few weeks later. schaden and Beak travelled alone, so they need their own backstories. DM these to me on Discord, and we'll discuss them in due course. They are not absolutely necessary to start playing tomorrow. We can take our time crafting them. Note that dan and I have already crafted the BEGINNINGS of these backstories in the various campaigns all your characters left, because we had to give something to the remaining characters to explain why you vanished, so take a look at the stream of the first session of your old campaign after you left to see what we said. In my two campaigns, Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne, I include these explanations in the initial text blocks of the session, but in dan's campaign, War for the Crown, the explanation comes a bit later in the session. More specifically,

dan and Jameson, go to 10:16 in this stream:

dndbattlegrounds.net Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords - Burnt Offerings 2 with recoil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kqMjhi ... PWcT9Qpixx

schaden go to 4:20 in this stream:

dndbattlegrounds.net Pathfinder: Curse of the Crimson Throne - Edge of Anarchy 2 with Ciaróg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F94hX8 ... PWcT9Qpixx

And Beak go to 1:12:32 in this stream:

dndbattlegrounds.net Pathfinder: War for the Crown - Crownfall 3 with ChevRage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nzTzOX ... PWcT9Qpixx

It's like being in high school and being given a couple of sentences and told to craft a story starting with them. So go ahead and do that. We don't need anything too elaborate, we need something simple and brief and ideally flavorful that highlights some of your characters' abilities and motivations.

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INTRODUCTION
You have been selected for a very important expedition to the lost continent of Azlant! After hearing of the expedition, you applied for adventure, and those responsible for organizing the expedition selected you to join other colonists to stake claim to an island named Ancorato in the Arcadian Ocean.

The Ruins of Azlant campaign begins with your characters standing on the deck of a ship after a long voyage to a newly founded colony called Talmandor's Bounty on an island in what is left of Azlant. The journey from Almas in Andoran to the island of Ancorato has taken six weeks aboard a ship called the Peregrine, and you and the other player characters have had a chance to get to know some of the other colonists.

While the destruction of Azlant was a defining moment for the Inner Sea region, many people who live there these days know little of the ancient Azlanti. Some don't believe the tales unearthed after millennia of burial and regard them as myth. Those nonbelievers can't imagine a world so rich in magic that it was ubiquitous in Azlanti society, with everyday citizens benefiting from the culture's deep interest in magic and science.

Now is your chance to not only establish a foothold in this fabled and broken land, but also to potentially uncover valuable lost lore once held by one of history's most powerful and enigmatic cultures.


The Ruins of Azlant Player's Guide, unlike all other Paizo Player's Guides we've used so far, doesn't spoil anything, so I am not going to be pulling passages from it as with the other campaigns: you are free to read the whole thing yourselves. It's a mere 16 pages, and you don't even need all of the material in it right away, so you should be able to read the relevant portions before the start of the game tomorrow. If not, we can always delay the start until everyone has read what needs to be read. Most pressing are the first few pages giving you an introduction to the campaign, and then page nine onwards introduces the new campaign traits you have to choose from. Pick one, and post your choice in the D&D4 Discord channel so I can add it to your characters. This is in addition to whatever traits you had from your previous campaigns, which you keep.

The PDF is here: https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem ... 0Guide.pdf

Download it and save it in your D&D folder for reference throughout the campaign. (Players from other groups are free to save and read this as well. It constitutes content that is unlocked for the entire overworld.)

If you have a Paizo account, you can get it directly from Paizo and added to your account: https://paizo.com/products/btpy9uir?Pat ... yers-Guide

Player's Guides are released for free, so you aren't pirating anything.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 04 Sep 2021 22:46

Note that the guide refers to MANY books which you haven't unlocked yet. You only have the "Core Rulebook". So any options from other books are closed to you for the time being. Don't even look them up, just ignore them.
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Unread postby icycalm » 04 Sep 2021 22:53

One thing you might want to consider is switching some of your skills and/or feats to more suitable ones for this campaign. As long as you haven't used a given skill or feat in your previous campaign (check the chatlog of your past session(s) to make sure), you can switch it out for swimming, or for any other skill or feat that the Player's Guide points out as useful.

In addition to the above, Jameson's character will have to specialize in some school of magic. It's just a bad idea to not specialize, and it greatly diminishes the chances of the group to complete the campaign. An extra spell per spell level is nothing to sneeze at, especially for inexperienced groups. I am basically requiring it. More on this in an upcoming chapter of the Ultimate Edition "Player's Handbook".
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Session 1 - Jubal's account

Unread postby schadenfreude » 25 Sep 2021 17:33

Ruins of Azlant - The Lost Outpost 1 with schadenfreude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QHCfSr ... PWcT9Qpixx

Chatlog: http://vault.dndbattlegrounds.net/teams ... ion-1.html


After six long weeks traveling aboard the "Peregrine" to the colony of Talmandor's Bounty, we finally sighted land to the west. As the crew lowered a small boat to the water, several sailors passed a spyglass amongst themselves before handing it to Captain Jacob Markosi who peered at the shore for a moment before grunting and handing it to expedition leader Ramona Avandth, the first acting "governor" of the colony. After gazing through it and trying to hide her concern from the crew, she whisked us over to a relatively private section of the ship's deck where she let us peer through the spyglass to confirm what she saw: an abandoned settlement, with no smoke coming from cooking fires or the smithy. To prevent tension from spreading amongst the ship's crew and its colonists, she asked us to disembark and investigate, as we were the only available fighters on the expedition she could spare. Afterwards, Captain Markosi would sail north along the island's coast to a secondary site, set as an emergency extraction point in case danger befell the colony, and we're to head there after completing our mission.

The four of us dropped down into our boat, with Shadrick and Matthias rowing in the stern, and me and Kelos keeping a lookout at the bow. We spotted a dock some 300 feet off in the distance and began to paddle towards it. As we came within 50 feet of it, however, Shadrick noticed movement beneath the water on either side of us, and before we could heed his warning, two unsightly creatures resembling a goblin from the waist up and a greasy octopus below surfaced and attacked us with their spears. The first attacker missed Shadrick, but the second landed a heavy blow on Kelos, who continued to fight with bravery despite his wound. We gathered ourselves as best we could in the scuffle, but our attacks continued to miss due to our lingering surprise from the ambush and the violent rocking of the boat affecting our aim. Eventually we killed one while the other fled via an astounding move that saw it jetting off hundreds of feet in seconds, to finally disappear under the waves.

Unfortunately, poor Kelos had fallen unconscious to additional wounds received during the battle, but Shadrick stabilized him, and we rowed the remaining distance to the pier. We disembarked there and, with Shadrick carrying Kelos's unconscious body over his broad shoulders, we cautiously headed east up the gently sloping beach and towards the triangular arrangement of the buildings in the settlement. Just in front of those buildings were seven canvas tents, most of them collapsed and all looking as if they hadn't been used in quite some time. We scanned the area around them but couldn't see or hear any evidence of activity, and after ensuring it was devoid of threats, we entered the closest standing tent. With his healing powers, Shadrick brought Kelos back to consciousness, and we regaled him with details of our escape from those horrible monsters. Satisfied with our hard-won victory, Kelos leaned back against the tent, while Matthias and Shadrick dropped their gear, and settled down to rest. I too joined them in rest, but, being the least weary, I began to tell a story to pass the time, though my true purpose was to mask the deathly silence that surrounded our makeshift resting quarters and premonished the unknown danger that was certain to meet us on our quest.
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Session 1 - Shadrick's viewpoint

Unread postby Beakman » 25 Sep 2021 17:53

Ruins of Azlant - The Lost Outpost 1 with Beakman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVcbjAp ... PWcT9Qpixx
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Session 1 - Kelos's viewpoint

Unread postby danjiro » 25 Sep 2021 17:57

Ruins of Azlant - The Lost Outpost 1 with danjiro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MA6Ux ... PWcT9Qpixx
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Session 2 - Jubal's account

Unread postby schadenfreude » 29 Dec 2021 06:08

Chatlog: http://vault.dndbattlegrounds.net/teams ... ion-2.html


I awoke eight hours later to the sight of Kelos being healed by Shadrick. Recuperated from the battle, we decided to search the other nearby tents for supplies while remaining vigilant of danger. Shadrick, Kelos and I found nothing, but lucky Matthias found three potions as well as a light, gossamer-thin fabric shirt. Kelos determined that the potions have healing properties, but unfortunately none of us could determine the nature of the mysterious shirt, which Kelos donned under his armor for safekeeping.

Feeling satisfied with our search of the tents, we set off east towards the seemingly abandoned colony. On the way, a vegetable patch to the south caught Kelos's eye, and he split off from the group to investigate it. Suddenly, I heard him scream at us to prepare ourselves, and the rest of us rushed to join him. I arrived just in time to witness him slashing his longsword into what looked like a seven-foot-tall cornstalk, with razor-sharp leaves dripping with blood and a long tentacle-like vine protruding from its top. The monstrosity retaliated in an instant by slamming its body into poor Kelos, who sustained heavy wounds and began bleeding profusely. Matthias distracted the creature by wounding it with a missile of magical energy while Shadrick used the opportunity to heal Kelos. I fired an unsteady arrow that missed its mark as the terrible creature released a large cloud of pollen into the air, but it had no effect on the chanting Matthias, who released his magical missile once again into the monstrous plant's body, causing it to collapse into an inert, bloody mess on the moist dirt.

"What in the Nine Hells was that thing?", blurted out Kelos in exhausted gasps of breath.

"I don't know", I responded, "but it almost had you for lunch." Considering ourselves lucky that we survived that surprise encounter, we agreed to stick together as we headed north to what appeared to be an abandoned house near the fields. The house had a pitched thatch roof, with a basic door and overall a rough and unfinished appearance. After searching it and finding not a soul inside, we rested to regain our strength.

Hours later I awoke to the sound of raindrops striking the thatched roof and Kelos peering out the window. A warm tropical shower had arrived at our island. We waited a bit for it to subside, then continued our trek north to the colony, passing east through its walls. In front of us stood buildings clustered in a rough triangle, all with pitched thatch roofs, open windows, and simple doors, like the house we had rested in. Shadrick entered the first house, one of the largest ones, which lacked a door and had a porch covered with dirt and dust. The others and I followed behind. The interior looked like a place of worship, with an altar and statue of a half-human, half-avian creature near it. Shadrick examined it and explained it's a statue of Erastil, the god of farming. In the center of the chapel I noticed scratches on the floor, overturned furniture, and other signs of a struggle, and near the altar was a horrible stench of rotting flesh, yet I couldn't find a corpse or even a simple bloodstain.

Suddenly I heard a scream from Shadrick and turned to see the statue of Erastil fly past his head and crash into the wall. I got the feeling of a presence in the room as Kelos threw ashes in an arc towards the southern wall, presumably because he suspected some type of ghostly presence there, and Shadrick channeled his priestly energy all around us in an effort to wound whatever was attacking us in case it was undead, but neither had any effect. A gust of air shot through the room as a cyclone of tools, plates, utensils, and other objects rose from the floor, whirling about a ghostly, skeletal figure within them. "Let's get out of here!" I screamed as a feeling of terrible dread overcame me, locking my legs in place as my companions rushed to the door. Somehow I loosened myself from the ghost's dreadful influence and joined my friends outside, thinking we were safe, when a rock rose from the ground and flew towards me. I reacted quickly and covered my face with my buckler, and the rock clanged against it and fell to the ground. I gathered myself and the four of us ran north away from the accursed building, while rocks flew in our direction. In the panic I was not sure if the ghost was following us, but so conspicuous was my fear that I couldn't bear to turn around lest I see its terrible face again.
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Session 2 - Shadrick's and Kelos's viewpoints

Unread postby icycalm » 29 Dec 2021 06:22

Ruins of Azlant - The Lost Outpost 2 with Beakman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmng6Po ... PWcT9Qpixx

Ruins of Azlant - The Lost Outpost 2 with danjiro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saVgAN8 ... PWcT9Qpixx

I was just joking to schaden via DM that in a couple of years everyone here will be a novelist lol. You guys are doing really well with the summaries, and constantly improving. Wait till you see how I'll use them on the overworld! It'll fire you up even more to improve. I fully expect people to break out thesauruses eventually and try to make the sessions sound even epicer than they are lol.
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Stage Directions: The Lost Outpost

Unread postby icycalm » 29 Dec 2021 08:53

I wrote some stage directions for the situation you're currently in, and I included them as my example in the "Ultimate Stage Direction" chapter of Ultimate Edition, so please have a look at them there and let me know here if you have any questions or issues with them: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=7607
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Session 3 - Matthias's account

Unread postby Jameson » 08 Jan 2022 03:04

Chatlog: http://vault.dndbattlegrounds.net/teams ... ion-3.html


Still fleeing from the ghostly creature, we hurried north and took cover behind the palisade walls. Shadrick turned to scan the houses behind us, but the ghost tossed another rock at him. Luckily, it bounced off his armor harmlessly. Jubal urged us to stay on the run, and we began to move into the open field to the west. Certain that this ghost would continue chasing us, I could sense the dread and unease growing among the men. But when Shadrick once again turned to scan the area behind us, he could sense nothing. Just as quickly as the creature had appeared, it had vanished. I surmised it must have had a spiritual connection to something inside that chapel.

Nearby, Jubal searched a lone post, a remnant of an unfinished building, and Shadrick wondered out loud if the ghost was some sort of cursed spirit. Kelos asked if any of us could purify it, and Shadrick said he could try. Jubal suggested that we search the other buildings for clues. But before we continued on, I asked Kelos if he could lend me the shirt he'd found earlier so I may inspect it for magic. He agreed and I was able to detect faint magic in it but could not determine the type. He took the magical shirt back, and we continued north around the settlement's palisade. There were several tree stumps near the outer wall, and Kelos quipped that the settlement appeared smaller than one would first assume.

"Where are all the bodies?" Kelos asked no one in particular, his eyes focused on the treeline to the northeast. It was more than clear by now that something awful must have happened to the people here, though we could not say what or when. He checked the ground for tracks, then Jubal warned us not to wander too far from Kelos.

To the east, a well-worn path in the grass rose up a slope toward a cluster of buildings. These buildings were arranged in a triangular shape, with each point ending in a wooden circular enclosure with rectangular notches cut intermittently, like battlements. It appeared to me as if these round enclosures were clearly meant to be three points of a wooden palisade fence, which would have enclosed this group of buildings had they been completed. However, the palisade had only been finished along the southeastern side. The grass around the settlement appeared to have been cropped in the past, and several paths led between locations in the settlement, but in less well-trafficked spots the grass had begun to regrow. How long had it been since anyone had walked these paths?

All the buildings seemed to have been made of rough timber or mud bricks set in a wooden frame, with all the roofs made of pitched thatch. Many of the buildings had open window frames, but few had shutters or curtains. The doors were basic and wooden, too simple for locks, while some buildings lacked doors entirely. These buildings appeared new and unfinished. We decided to move past the settlement for the moment. As we circled our way south, Kelos dropped to the ground to search for tracks but found nothing. He pushed ahead of our group, and Jubal once again urged us to stay close together. This inability of ours to move as a group had gotten us in trouble before and did not bode well for what was to come.

There was ultimately little of interest to the south. Jubal suggested we make our way back north to search the nearest buildings, which were the two large ones on the northeastern side of the settlement. These long, rectangular buildings were constructed entirely of planks on a wooden frame, with both lacking doors. On each building, four window frames opened into either side of the long walls, most without covers on them. From the outside, we had a partial view of the interior and the floors inside were hard-packed earth. With the way that the walls were lined with wooden bunk beds, this appeared to be a barracks. The blankets on the beds were gathering dust now, and sacks and bundles of clothes sat at the foot of each bed.

Kelos remarked that it was odd for whoever had been here to leave their clothing behind. He moved to the windows and stood ready with his bow. Shadrick made his way, alone, into the building. This was a grave mistake for no sooner had he stepped inside than he shouted bloody murder, as some beast was now attacking him! Before we could react, this small scurrying creature bit away at Shadrick from under a bed in front of him, wounding him severely. Kelos immediately rushed inside, drawing his blade to assist him. He swung his longsword and struck the creature with great effect but it then retaliated with another bite, hurting Kelos substantially. Enraged, the wounded Shadrick swung his greatsword at the creature, then backed away. It was then that Jubal rushed inside, finally putting the monstrosity down with an expert arrow shot from his shortbow. Before I could even speak, the fight was over.

"A bit reckless, orc," I said. Our poor planning had almost ended disastrously once again. Kelos searched the building and found no more beasts, but did come across a talisman of sorts. He handed it to Jubal, who inspected it more closely.

"These are symbols of good luck on it", Jubal remarked. "Probably a lucky charm."

"We need some of that," said Shadrick. Certainly, we had already been terribly lucky.

I asked that Jubal place the talisman on the bed so that I may inspect it for magic. It emanated a moderately strong aura, but I could not distinguish the type. Shadrick requested the talisman for himself, then he searched the room and found a wand with the initials "U. H." inscribed on it. Could it have belonged to one of the colonists? I inspected the nature of this wand and found that it emanated a faint magical aura of illusion.

Before we left the building, Jubal inspected the corpse of the slain beast. He determined that it was an ankheg nymph, one of those acid-spitting, burrowing, bug-like creatures that plague rural farmlands. Its mother and siblings would certainly not be far. Kelos found the shallow hole under the bed from which the ankheg had burst through, and Shadrick dropped to the ground to examine it, determining that the creature must have burrowed here all the way from somewhere to the north or northeast. As we continued our search of the settlement, we feared the absolute worst for the colonists who had been here.
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