Dungeonland Part 0a, In which the Stage is Set
I ran my first real session of my Pathfinder (D&D) game this past friday. My first time dm'ing in 15 or so years!
I've decided to try to keep a record.
First, an introduction.
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Note regarding languages, I'm using real-world language to play the parts of various languages in setting. For example, the local Common is being played by Portuguese (under the name Lusitano). Dwarves speaks Dvergmal (Icelandic), elves speak Te Reo (Maori), and halflings speak Marebi (Hebrew). The rural human shepherds in the hills speak Pontiaka (Greek), and the tradeships bring sailors speaking Îlien (French) to the ports.
----
The Setting
A world of ancient, towered fortresses. No wait, that's... wrong.
A world of ancient, underground catacombs. In this world, magic flows up from underground, and those with sufficient work force to dig their workrooms down deep can work great wonders of ritual magic, enough to support many empires. For a while anyway. Until an earthquake shuts down a key power center, or they wake something in the depths.
The history of the world is great magical empire after great magical empire, going back through the reigns of men, and dwarves before them, and elves before them, and who knows what before the elves?
And each has left the ground riddled with ancient dungeons. There have been so many dungeons for so long that ecosystems have grown up inside them. Thaumatosynthetic plants and bacteria, rock-eaters, and scavengers of ancient magics. Some, like basilisks, disperse overland to find new dungeons when they reach maturity and leave their parents' dungeons.
----
A worn out county. Bragança has been a heavily populated capital district of two human empires in the (relatively) recent past, the more recent of which fell apart just 200 years ago. Its natural resources are depleted, its population has collapsed, and its authorities have last all control over the countryside. Monsters occasionally pour forth from forgotten dungeons.
But Bragança is finishing its nap. A new power is rising, with a dynamic, forward-looking approach to its burdensome past. The Delver's Guild, from its roots as a packs of monster-hunting mercenaries, has established itself as the centerpiece of Bragança's new economy: collecting historical artifacts, and selling them overseas to fund the trade deficit.
In this, the third generation of Delvers, the guild is moving beyond subsistence and starting to add research on top off its previous goals of monster-hunting and treasure-finding. The Delvers have begun to investigate the lost history and lost secrets of their ancient land.
The Cast
"We're actors! We're the opposite of people!" -The Tragedian
Into this setting, a team of fresh-faced Delvers, just out of bootcamp. A motley team, but well trained.
*Adelina Isabel Ottavia Estevez e Duarte (sarkat). An... energetic young human woman from an ancient and proud, if somewhat impoverished of late, noble family. After a long series of failed engagements, she decided to find her own way to make money, and joined the Delvers. She has always taken to whatever is in front of her with great enthusiasm, even when her ability does match her energy. When it comes to the rapier however, her ability does match her enthusiasm, and the lessons she demanded from her brother's swordmaster now serve her well.
*Biteli Meheytabel Shel-Mikal (fiona). Biteli, "daughter of my god", is only the public version of this halfling's theophoric name. A devotee of Yonlat, or so she claims, she demonstrates a sometimes surprising moral flexibility for the agent of a Lawful Good goddess. Her study of history is also surprising, an odd field of study for a member of a younger race with little recorded past of their own. But Biteli takes to it fiercely, determined to understand the vagaries of history in order to help build a future for her people. She is armed with a halfling sling-staff, deadly aim, a keen linguistic mind, and the inexplicable blessing of her goddess.
*Çifro (antilles1382). The monks at the monastery this foundling orphan was left with named him "Çifro", which equally denotes either "nobody" or "puzzle". An energetic boy for whom the prayers and lessons at the monastery were a constant struggle to sit still. At 17, the monks sent him out into the world to find his calling, because it clearly wasn't as a monk. The Delvers give him the unique opportunity to simultaneously expend his vast energy and to investigate the question of where things come from, a topic of endless fascination to the boy without a past. But of course, in this world, everything and everyone has a past. Who knows what secrets Çifro's blood holds?
*Haara (maxisg). A priestess of Wharatama (Pharasma to the humans who have taken up her worship), this elven woman studies life and death equally in the service of her mistress. What better place to study life and death than among the short-lived humans? Well, how about among short-lived humans who throw themselves into the most dangerous place they can find?
She is too dignified to respond (very often) to the fact that her name means "belly" to the gnome.
*Hiro (miatuaro). A gnome sorcerer with a touch of the alien in his past. Even more so than most gnomes, that is. He is obsessed with probability and loves games of chance. He is convinced that God, too, plays dice, and is determined to catch him in the act, and maybe even catch him cheating. He also claims to be an inventor, but as far as any can tell, his concept of invention is to carry around a sack full of parts that he occasionally shakes up and peers inside to see if a machine has spontaneously assembled itself yet.
*Isabel "Mousey" de Martim (emerald_moon519). A small, often shy young woman who joined the Delvers in response to her father's pushing her to make something of herself. She is now heavily armored, and loaded for bear. Of the small arsenal that she carries at all times, battle-axe and shield are her favored combination. When nervous, which is most of the time, she sings to herself. Her singing is of such quality, it makes it hard for enemies to bring themselves to attack anyone but her, just to get her to be quiet.
*Taurekareka "Tau" de Mirandela (ostone). A half-elf with about the most stereotypical elven name there is, given to him by his elf-obsessed, impoverished human mother. He ran away at a young age and became a gifted conman and daredevil of a street urchin. As a half-elf among humans, he was always small and frail for his age, and feels the need to continuously succeed at stunts no sane person would attempt, just to prove he's more of a badass than anyone else. Joining the Delvers seemed the next logical step.
*Tyra Hjallbjörnisdottir (kalliza). A tall, emaciated dwarf woman, with a great fondness for the living rock. She's something of a freak among dwarves and never got along well with her peers, and that was before she started hearing voices. She is haunted by spirits no one else sees, and can often be heard muttering to them. She lived by herself in remote caves as a young adult, until some Delvers stumbled across her makeshift home. She has joined the Delvers as a way to support herself while doing what she loves: exploring caves. The lure of companionship and belonging might have drawn her also, though she'd never admit it.
Her weapon of choice: none but the most sophisticated weaponry: a large rock.
----
Coming Soon (hopefully before the next game on May 8th):
Part 0b, In which there are Final Exams
Part 1a, In which RV5 is Entered
I've decided to try to keep a record.
First, an introduction.
----
Note regarding languages, I'm using real-world language to play the parts of various languages in setting. For example, the local Common is being played by Portuguese (under the name Lusitano). Dwarves speaks Dvergmal (Icelandic), elves speak Te Reo (Maori), and halflings speak Marebi (Hebrew). The rural human shepherds in the hills speak Pontiaka (Greek), and the tradeships bring sailors speaking Îlien (French) to the ports.
----
The Setting
A world of ancient, towered fortresses. No wait, that's... wrong.
A world of ancient, underground catacombs. In this world, magic flows up from underground, and those with sufficient work force to dig their workrooms down deep can work great wonders of ritual magic, enough to support many empires. For a while anyway. Until an earthquake shuts down a key power center, or they wake something in the depths.
The history of the world is great magical empire after great magical empire, going back through the reigns of men, and dwarves before them, and elves before them, and who knows what before the elves?
And each has left the ground riddled with ancient dungeons. There have been so many dungeons for so long that ecosystems have grown up inside them. Thaumatosynthetic plants and bacteria, rock-eaters, and scavengers of ancient magics. Some, like basilisks, disperse overland to find new dungeons when they reach maturity and leave their parents' dungeons.
----
A worn out county. Bragança has been a heavily populated capital district of two human empires in the (relatively) recent past, the more recent of which fell apart just 200 years ago. Its natural resources are depleted, its population has collapsed, and its authorities have last all control over the countryside. Monsters occasionally pour forth from forgotten dungeons.
But Bragança is finishing its nap. A new power is rising, with a dynamic, forward-looking approach to its burdensome past. The Delver's Guild, from its roots as a packs of monster-hunting mercenaries, has established itself as the centerpiece of Bragança's new economy: collecting historical artifacts, and selling them overseas to fund the trade deficit.
In this, the third generation of Delvers, the guild is moving beyond subsistence and starting to add research on top off its previous goals of monster-hunting and treasure-finding. The Delvers have begun to investigate the lost history and lost secrets of their ancient land.
The Cast
"We're actors! We're the opposite of people!" -The Tragedian
Into this setting, a team of fresh-faced Delvers, just out of bootcamp. A motley team, but well trained.
*Adelina Isabel Ottavia Estevez e Duarte (sarkat). An... energetic young human woman from an ancient and proud, if somewhat impoverished of late, noble family. After a long series of failed engagements, she decided to find her own way to make money, and joined the Delvers. She has always taken to whatever is in front of her with great enthusiasm, even when her ability does match her energy. When it comes to the rapier however, her ability does match her enthusiasm, and the lessons she demanded from her brother's swordmaster now serve her well.
*Biteli Meheytabel Shel-Mikal (fiona). Biteli, "daughter of my god", is only the public version of this halfling's theophoric name. A devotee of Yonlat, or so she claims, she demonstrates a sometimes surprising moral flexibility for the agent of a Lawful Good goddess. Her study of history is also surprising, an odd field of study for a member of a younger race with little recorded past of their own. But Biteli takes to it fiercely, determined to understand the vagaries of history in order to help build a future for her people. She is armed with a halfling sling-staff, deadly aim, a keen linguistic mind, and the inexplicable blessing of her goddess.
*Çifro (antilles1382). The monks at the monastery this foundling orphan was left with named him "Çifro", which equally denotes either "nobody" or "puzzle". An energetic boy for whom the prayers and lessons at the monastery were a constant struggle to sit still. At 17, the monks sent him out into the world to find his calling, because it clearly wasn't as a monk. The Delvers give him the unique opportunity to simultaneously expend his vast energy and to investigate the question of where things come from, a topic of endless fascination to the boy without a past. But of course, in this world, everything and everyone has a past. Who knows what secrets Çifro's blood holds?
*Haara (maxisg). A priestess of Wharatama (Pharasma to the humans who have taken up her worship), this elven woman studies life and death equally in the service of her mistress. What better place to study life and death than among the short-lived humans? Well, how about among short-lived humans who throw themselves into the most dangerous place they can find?
She is too dignified to respond (very often) to the fact that her name means "belly" to the gnome.
*Hiro (miatuaro). A gnome sorcerer with a touch of the alien in his past. Even more so than most gnomes, that is. He is obsessed with probability and loves games of chance. He is convinced that God, too, plays dice, and is determined to catch him in the act, and maybe even catch him cheating. He also claims to be an inventor, but as far as any can tell, his concept of invention is to carry around a sack full of parts that he occasionally shakes up and peers inside to see if a machine has spontaneously assembled itself yet.
*Isabel "Mousey" de Martim (emerald_moon519). A small, often shy young woman who joined the Delvers in response to her father's pushing her to make something of herself. She is now heavily armored, and loaded for bear. Of the small arsenal that she carries at all times, battle-axe and shield are her favored combination. When nervous, which is most of the time, she sings to herself. Her singing is of such quality, it makes it hard for enemies to bring themselves to attack anyone but her, just to get her to be quiet.
*Taurekareka "Tau" de Mirandela (ostone). A half-elf with about the most stereotypical elven name there is, given to him by his elf-obsessed, impoverished human mother. He ran away at a young age and became a gifted conman and daredevil of a street urchin. As a half-elf among humans, he was always small and frail for his age, and feels the need to continuously succeed at stunts no sane person would attempt, just to prove he's more of a badass than anyone else. Joining the Delvers seemed the next logical step.
*Tyra Hjallbjörnisdottir (kalliza). A tall, emaciated dwarf woman, with a great fondness for the living rock. She's something of a freak among dwarves and never got along well with her peers, and that was before she started hearing voices. She is haunted by spirits no one else sees, and can often be heard muttering to them. She lived by herself in remote caves as a young adult, until some Delvers stumbled across her makeshift home. She has joined the Delvers as a way to support herself while doing what she loves: exploring caves. The lure of companionship and belonging might have drawn her also, though she'd never admit it.
Her weapon of choice: none but the most sophisticated weaponry: a large rock.
----
Coming Soon (hopefully before the next game on May 8th):
Part 0b, In which there are Final Exams
Part 1a, In which RV5 is Entered