Dias Ex Machina Games

My new D&D game has several key sources of inspiration. Chief most among them is Amethyst: Foundations, the Known World/ Mystara of old school D&D, a little bit of real-world history, a little modern-day political intrigue and a smattering of every book I've ever read. Sounds a bit crazy, I know... but the really best DM's borrow from every possible source. And really, everything we encounter in life is possible source material for our games and imaginations.

So, my players grew weary of our first 4th Ed. D&D game, when the campaign thread I was diligently weaving became insanely frayed, then fully unraveled. So after our break ( we game for 4 hours per session and break mid-way through), they proposed that we start a new campaign and all the PCs would be 11th level. I was intrigued by their proposition, while they thought they got the better deal in this "devil's bargain." See they had to build "legal" characters from the DDI Character Builder, while I was free to use absolutely every source in the world to craft the campaign and the monsters they would face in battle.

So I cobbled some of my favorite sources together into a seamless whole (well... mostly seamless, if you look real closely, you will see through the veil into the source material... . So the campaign is set on the CanAm continent in a distant future or past, haven't yet revealed that. I call the world Errat, an anagram of the latin word terra... meaning earth. If the world of my campaign is based upon our own lovely home, then the heroes hail from the mighty empire of Dindali, which encompasses all of northern Africa and parts of Spain and the rest of southern Europe, all the way across to the Black Sea. A mighty empire indeed. It is kept secure by the Rite of Protection, a powerful ritual that is recast every year to insure victory in battle, bumper crop yields, and relative peace within the empire's borders.

The campaign kicked off with the heroes assmbled in the Great Coliseum to witness Emperor Kaldazar and his apprentices craft the very powerful and difficult Rite of Protection. Near the end of the ceremony, Kaldazar's apprentice and former lover, Fatima, was handing him the ritual dagger, to close the magical portal and bind the energies to the empire's service. Instead of handing him the dagger as they practiced hundreds of times, she buried the blade in his chest. The tightly controlled portal ripped open, and a huge wave of elemental chaos washed across the city, bringing with it thousands of demons to terrorize, loot, murder and raze the city to ruins.

The heroes ran for the docks where thousands of ships had been assembled from all corners of the empire. Visitors came from all over to witness the Rite and take part in two weeks of feasts, parades and general revelry. The heroes happen to board the same vessel, which escapes the mayhem of the capital and sets to sea. These craft are made to ply the realtively safe and shallow waterways of the Imperial Sea (the Mediteranean). They are not ocean-worthy, not capable of running before mighty ocean storms. Word comes from other ships nearby that the Crown Prince, Jaba,l is safely aboard one of these sailingships and he received a vision from the gods... sail across the Endless Sea, and you will be delivered unto the promised land. Jabal calls upon all of the ships in the fleet to heed the call of the gods.

Demons are ripping the empire to the ground, the mother of all ocean storms rises up to sink Jabal's fleet... and the heroes awaken some time later, on an unknown shore... their ship wreckage litters the shoreline, the survivors number fewer than a hundred from the four-hundred or more that boarded the ship in Dindali.

More to come...

I welcome comments, questions and advice!

Our heroes are: The Genasi Wizard, Zan-Kyri, The Half-Orc Paladin, Leonidus, The Dragonborn Warlord, Balasar, The Elf Ranger, Lucius and the Half-elf Warlock, Amaris.

The Amethyst races and classes will be introduced in the New World, the promised land called Daysalanon.

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May all your hits be CRITS!

Over the next two weeks or so, I'll be adding some of NPCs and home brew monsters, encounter maps and battle reports from the campaign.

The original idea for the Dayasalanon Campaign actually started while I was in Basic Training way back in 1991. In the initial visioning, I knew that the heroes were going to arrive in a strange new land dominated by an empire on the decline. Originally the royal houses of the empire were composed of High Elves and their retainers.

When I got ready to launch this campaign in 4E D&D, the High Elves became Eladrin and the empire became The Black Lotus Empire inspired by WoTC's Dragon Fist, a wuxia inspired RPG that was released as a PDF before 3rd Edition hit the streets. So the Eladrin, the Imperial Masters, have control of the continent. They rule a bit absentmindedly but make ocassional demands of their provincial rulers. Those demands include conscrpited villagers to serve in the Grand Army and families of peasants to mine the natural resources of the realm. Though there magic is mighty, they live a very long time and are often overcome by bouts of depression that render them disinterested in the lives of their subjects. Some of the Eladrin nobles suffer deep depression for periods lasting more than 100 years at a time. Enter the eunuchs (The Half-men), ritually scarred and indoctrinated into a shadow government that rules the Empire, these men become powerful spell casters and deadly martial artists. While their master slumber and hide away in their magical fortresses surrounded by ancient tomes and artifacts, the eunuchs manage the daily affairs of the Empire. They order the lesser nobles about, build armies and wage war against the Empire's neighbors.

The Grand Army of the Black Lotus Empire is composed primarily of peasant conscripts armed with spears, dressed in poor quality leather armor and given little training. Thousands of families are forced into this service across the Empire annually. In addition to the conscripts, the Half-men also hire various humanoid races to serve in the army as heavy infantry, shocktroops and skirmishers. These humanoid mercenaries are usually paid a portion of whatever battle loot they seize. The conscripts are generally used as city guards or as dispensable infantry in large battles.

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May all your hits be CRITS!

Wow, that's epic...

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“I despise stallions. I ride them as I ride an ugly noble women--smiles for appearances and politics only. Stallions. All personality with no depth. They prance like ponies and trot with arrogance. I always say, respect your mules most of all. A stallion may lead with the king and gather the eyes, but a mule will follow behind…and carry your kingdom.”
Tsarevick Kazaan
Amethyst D20

http://www.diasexmachina.com

Thanks Slipstream, I take that as high praise from you.

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May all your hits be CRITS!

When the heroes awaken after the storm, they find themselve on the beach near a burned-out village. The huts in the village, have been burned to the ground. The fishing boats nearby were pulled to shore beyond the breakers, then burned to charcoal and ash. The small keep that once kept watch over the village is an ash strewn stonework foundation. As they continue to look about. They find a funeral pyre of several hundred bodies, partially burned. None of the villagers live.

The ocean seems calm after the horrific storm that destroyed their ship. The skies are clear. Salt is in the air and seagulls play over the water. The heroes assess their new situation and get the survivors to remove the remaining supplies from the wreckage. By mid day, the heroes are getting the lay of the land and they head south to explore a hilltop shrine.

When they near the shrine, they find that it stands over 100 feet in height and is surrounded by a small fishing village. The heroes spend the day meeting with a priest of the Sea-god Podos. The Priest, Ling Po tends to the spiritual needs of the small village of 200 peasant farmers and fishermen. He explains to the heroes that sometimes bandits come to raid his small village and he may have need of the heroes abilities, for the interim he will trade them food stuffs and small carts in excahnge for future protection. The villagers are terrified of the powerful strangers. One farmer even wets himself when one of the heroes touches him, trying to communicate. Ling Po also explains that Lord Wu, the provincial baron, recently sent a mercenary company to conscript young men from Saltmarsh Village (the place the heroes came ashore). The Village Headman, Lao, refused to allow anymore of his people to be led away to die fighting distant enemies. For standing up to the mercenary captian, the village was destroyed and all the villagers were murdered.*(The native language of the realm sounds a lot like Dindali-Elvish, so those heroes speaking Elvish, are able to understand and make themselves understood in Daysalanon.)*

The heroes return to their encampment to find the survivors huddled together over a pair of fires near the water. The heroes explore the ruins of the small fort and find a lower level that is intact and much more easier to defend than the open ground of the village.

Before setting sentries for the night, Leonidus, the Half-Orc paladin of Kord, prays over the bodies and lays them properly to rest.

In the dark of night a band of soldiers approaches. Lucius, the Elven Ranger is on guard duty. He quickly scans the assembled enemies and attacks the man he believes to be the commander. He wounds the captain greivously, but the man does not die... and now the patrol knows that someone is in the dead village!

I called this encounter "Burned Village - Lord Wu's Patrol"
It was a level 13 Encounter for my four PCs and their fully statted NPC Warlord - it netted 3,940 xp
And consisted ofthe following enemies:
1 - Human Murderer
1 - Human Cavalier
4 - Human Veteran
1 - Orc Chieftain (The Captain)
1 - Bloodrager
4 - Orc Warrior
10 - Orc Drudge

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May all your hits be CRITS!

While going over notes for tomorrow's game and slowly perusing my cherished copy of AMETHYST: Foundations, I decide that the events, so far, in my 4th Edition D&D game have actually happened along the peninsula within ahundred miles or so of York and Mann. I've already introduced some techans to the game, but Mann will be empty until after my asteroid crash. Hmmm, much thinking and work to puzzle out before 7 pm tomorrow night.

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May all your hits be CRITS!