UntoldGlory's Keep on the Shadowfell campaign

Tell us how you are using our gaming tools and how your sessions are going.

Moderator: Azhrei

Post Reply
User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

UntoldGlory's Keep on the Shadowfell campaign

Post by UntoldGlory »

Okay, gonna catch up, since we're a few sessions in. I created some "prefell" encounters to get my players used to 4e and introduce a couple characters, and also introduce the main plot hook.

Since I didn't want to wait for the FR source book to come out, but wanted a forgotten realms setting, I made the following changes to Toril (note the following changes are from my groups forum, so some stuff may not make sense in the context of session reportback):

Okay, this thread is for information on the setting. If you would like to see the full map of the continent, it's HERE

Here is the section we are dealing with:
Image

This the image is shrunk down quite a bit, here is a direct link for downloadability: LINK
We added the stuff in bright red. That would be:

1-Altering Amorel. This city, located SE of the Lake of Mists, is now a massive center of commerce. The road, "the Golden Way" links the western continent with the Oriental campaign setting to the east, the continent of Kara'tur. Also, it is a short distance from Elastranor, which will be explained shortly. There is an as yet drawn city on the Golden Road, right on the Clearflow River (North of Winterhaven). This small city is basically a port for River barges which transport goods up and down the river to/from Murghyr.

2-Added Winterhaven. This is the main village that we will be dealing with for the first part of the campaign. Clear it with me before choosing to be from here.

3-Added Torashka. This is a dragonborn city being built in the ruins of the capital of the old Dragonborn nation. Very few non-dragonborn know this place exists as a funtioning city. It's not that they're keeping it a secret, just that's it's a new development. Most dragonborn live in scattered clans, or in multicultural cities such as Amorel. Dragonborn have been slightly altered from their writeup in the players handbook. I am linking breath weapon to draconic heritage. I.E. If you have Lightning breath, then your dragonborn is ancestrally related to Blue Dragons. This has no bearing on your choice of alignment, but if you choose to be from one of the scattered clans, then it will likely be primarily made up of Blue dragonborn.

4-Added Tuatha'eladri. This is the main Eladrin city. It has no roads connecting to it. It is at least partially within the Feywild. Very few non Eladrin are invited there (with the exception of Elves, who are a related species). Non Eladrin must conduct their business in the city of Elastranor. Elastranor is connected to Tuatha'eladri via large magical gateways. When Elastranor was being designed, the merchants guild in Amorel requested it be closer, as it was designed as a trading post/ diplomatic city. The Eladrin told them that the extra distance was meaningless compared to the beauty of the location they chose. Elastranor is situated on a cliff overlooking a series of stair-stepped watterfalls. It is a shining alabaster, high walled, fortified work of art. Many humans who see it remember it as the most beautiful sight they have seen in their life. It pales to insignificance compared to the majestic beauty of Tuatha'eladri. Tuatha'eladri is nestled between, and partially overhanging, the nexus of three great rivers. Surrounded by ancient forest, the three rivers converge as an enormous waterfall which plunges thousands of feet below the city. The portions of the city that are built reaching out over the falls are continually shrouded in mist, and it is not uncommon to walk directly through rainbows as they form during the day when you travel between towers interconnected by skyway bridges. The natural mists of the falls intermingle with the mystic mists of the border between worlds, and the veil to the feywild is so thin here, that many places in the city actually exist in both worlds.

5-Altered the Endless Wastes. They're not near so endless now, and there's other stuff there, but we don't know what yet. But it's not endless!

You can choose to be from any of these places, with the notable (and obvious) restrictions that only Eladrin can be from Tuatha'eladri, and only Dragonborn can be from Torashka (though Eladrin and Dragonborn can be from elsewhere). Joe, I imagine that the most likely home for clans of Minotaurs would be up north in or near the Icerim Mountains.

Please limit your choice of origin to the places shown on the Zoomed Map (not the full continent map). If you consider having anything to do with Thay, make sure you know what you're getting into and clear it with Aura or myself. If you're having trouble deciding where to be from Amorel is a good location. It is fairly similar to Sharn, but without all the floating and flying (though there is a bit of that).

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.


Since that pic is still a bit hard to read, here's an even more zoomed pic of the altered areas. If possible, it would be best to be from this second, even more zoomed area, though Joe, you still might be from farther NorthWest unless your minotaur family lived in a city like Amorel.

Image

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

Session 0
This was actually 3 session. Each session had 2 players (though 1 had 3)

Session 0-A: The Slavers (Build 32)
Characters Present: Feanor the Half Elf Ranger (Bow), Merick the Tiefling Ranger (Two Weapon)

Scenario: These two mercenaries were hired to break a small slaving operation and rescue some captured villagers from a small village near Almorel. They have 2 small encounters with a mixed group of Human Rabble, a Human Soldier, and some Kobolds. The two weapon ranger gets dropped in both encounters due to lack of Defender, but they prevail. They head back to Almorel, their base of operations.

Maptools Performance Great for b32, it would be painful to go back to there at this point though, now that we have all the nifty stp and macro stuff.




Session 0-B: The Brigands (Build 32)
Characters: Max the Minotaur Fighter and Gaius the Human Warlock (Think Han and Chewie)

Scenario: These mercenaries are hired to retrieve some stolen goods. They have a very similar (read: exactly the same) fight as the last group. Great tactical movement and table flipping goodness! As part of their payment, they're offered a cheap deal on a beat up wagon pulled by a horse named "Falcon", once they get back to Almorel they put em up in Stable 94. :wink:

Maptools Performance Same as with session 0-A

Session 0-C: The Cult (Build 32)
Characters Two Almorel Sentinels (the military/police force for Almorel) and a hired Arcane Specialist Consultant. The sentinels are Jarion the human warlord, and Kalmorel the Dragonborn Paladin. The consultant is Silva the Half elf Warlock.

Scenario:
Sent to investigate rumors of a cult near Almorel, these adventurers end up interrupting a ritual to enchant a mirror to aid summoning spells, after they tear through the guards out in the entry hall. They discover a note on the dead priests body that implies that this mirror was being created to aid some larger force near the town of Winterhaven. They are later ordered to hire some mercenaries and check it out!

Maptools Performance Good, here are some screenies of the map I used, but I didn't think to take any screenshots mid battle.
Image

Image

Image

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

Session 1 (build 32)
Characters Present: Jarion, Kamaladrin, Silva, Gaius, Max, Feanor, Merick

1. Characters meet in mercs!
2. Silva and Kam hire the four of them
3. Max gets a free kitten.
4. They gather their things and meet up an hour later—Jarion joining them.
5. Travel for a week and a half (in a lot of rain), Gaius and Max ride in the wagon, Silva rides on horseback and the rest travel on foot.
6. While scouting ahead, Feanor spots a kobold hiding behind a rock. He alerts the rest with a high pitched whistle.
7. A battle ensues with several kobolds. It is a vicious fight. One of the kobolds threw clay pots that do various things, such as coer people in glue or explode. Merick nearly gets killed.
8. Heroes defeat kobolds. Gaius leads the body searching mission. Many poorly made weapons and about 34 silver are found.
9. Within that same day they reach Winterhaven. Guards explain to them that they should find a room at Wrafton's, and also that the town has been having some kobold trouble.
10. Merick and Feanor stable the horses and put away provisions. Gaius and Max exchange the weapons for rations at a local shop "Bairwin's Grand Shoppe".
11. Everyone meets for dinner in the inn’s common room. Silva chats up an elven woman named Ninaran. She is unreceptive and when he asks her a question about the village, supplants herself with a very old man who talks Silva’s ear off. He tells him about Shadowfell Keep, but otherwise seems to be full of useless information.
12. A heated debate occurs between the travelers about the nature of the work they were hired for. Gaius and Merick insist that they were only hired as bodyguards. Max and Feanor mostly say nothing. It is made clear that Silva was unspecific with the details and that he shouldn’t have been the one to do the hiring at all. The discussion is curtailed with the local lord comes over to inquire if something is amiss. It is agreed that the details will be ironed out in the morning.
13. Before they begin dinner, a dragonkin wearing robes enters the inn. Noticing Kal, he comes over and makes introductions (Valthrun), offers to pay for everyone’s meal. He is invited to sit with the group. He explains that he lives in a tower in town and that he is a researcher. He prefers Winterhaven to Almorel because there aren’t so many distractions.
14. Everyone goes to sleep. Silva has his own bed.
15. The next morning the mercenaries discuss what they should do to renegotiate their deal with the sentinels. Merick and Gaius are adamant that they receive more for their services. Feanor notes that he’s willing to take the 250 gold, but will happily take more if they offer it, and that it might be impractical to try and get more from the sentinels because they do not seem to have any gold to give them, or power to obtain more.
16. This theory is largely disproven when the mercenaries discuss the situation with Jarion, who agrees to give them an additional 50 gold worth of spoils from whatever they should encounter upon the mission as well as some sort of “hazardous duty payment” upon their return to Almorel.
17. Jarion takes the other Silva and Kam to speak with the local Lord Padraig. During their discussion, the lord explains that they’ve been having a lot of trouble with kobolds and asks if they can do anything to help them. I was mostly afk for this part so let me know what else I missed.

Maptools Perfomance
Decent. we had some of those red ? issues, which persisted no matter what we tried. Ran into one or two of the other known bugs.

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

--This space reserved for Session 2--

Post Reply

Return to “Session Report-Back”