Trouble

Putting out the Fire

Job Offer?

The Switch to 4E

Crocodiles

Ambush

Back to the Inn

The East Side

On the Road

The Knife

Crocodiles

Office location

As teh team settled into their new office they had a chance to look around. Their office was a pretty dingy little box down under the Puffing Bridge near the river. The Puffing Bridge is a big clockwork contraption that can raise the entire bridge to allow barges to sail up river. The gears controlling the bridge and the steam room are very close to the Explorer’s Guild office. As such when the bridge is being raised or lowered the office shakes and the noise is overwhelming.

The office also has a message tube system set up with the university where professors can drop hand written messages in small metal cylinders down a long tube running under the city. As the office is down hill from the university gravity carries the cylinders down where they are deposited in a contraption with a solid thunk.

Accustomed to their surroundings they were not the least bit surprised when a cylinder landed in the contraption. The letter requested their presence at the School of Prophesy and Divination within the hour to meet Insert Name Here

Meeting at the University

Heading up hill the crew exited the smelly dirty environs of their office down by the docks into the more refined setting of the University of Tarna which sat high on the hill surrounded by noble estates of Tarna. The university is a perponderous campus with several very large and old buildings. The history of the setting is almost tangible as it weighs down on the students in attendance. Of course it was pretty much ignored by the Explorer’s Guild as they headed to the dean’s office.

At the office they met a gray haired crazy bearded slightly dopped Dean of Prophesy and Divination. He gave them the task of delivering a letter to his colleague in Armandor. With the stipulation that they needed to avoid the river while travelling. They had a month to complete the job given the difficulty of travel.

System

Back in January ‘08 I put the question to the group on what system and setting people would like to try out. Initially the idea was to pick something temporary until June when 4th Edition came out. Among the ideas presented were Ptolus, Rise of the Runelords AP, Savage Tide AP, Shackled City AP, Age of Worms AP, Forgotten Realms, Rokugan, Call of Cthulhu, Mutants and Masterminds, True20, Qin, and Shadowrun (and probably a few more that I’m forgetting a year later when writing this). The group choose to go with Iron Kingdoms with the D&D 3.5 rule set. While I was incredibly interested in IK, I’d not read any of it yet.

Group Template

One of the things that I wanted to try was a concept that Fear the Boot advocates often, the group template. Their early episodes elaborated on the group template and gave an example one. The idea is a simple one, before people go off and create characters have the players as a group come up with a theme or idea behind the group and connections and stories behind the characters. By working together on backgrounds and connections the players provided me with a better sense of where they wanted to take the game and why the group was together. It worked out alright, I would’ve liked a bit more crazy ideas to come out of this stage, but for the first time using the group template it did what it needed to ~ provide a framework for character creation.

Using the maps from Western Immoren the group picked a backwater city in Ord, central to the action of the setting as a starting point for the game. They also decided that they would all be members of the Explorers Guild, a guild dedicated to map making, assaying, and wilderness exploration. An easy hook for me to get people out of the city and off into the forest.

Character Ideas

Many of the players were intrigued by the options available in the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide and grabbed onto those with gusto. The others took to the character backgrounds and setting information in the book creating a wonderful group of characters who felt very integrated into the setting. There is nothing that will ruin a DM’s motivation more than a player who wants to play something completely out of scope of the setting (ie. throwing in a gnome monk would’ve been difficult to justify in IK).

With that in mind here is a general overview of the characters that came out. Each will link to their character sheets once I get that far into the game.

• Finn Rayverse elven cleric of Scyrah (Goddess of Healing) Finn is looking for the source of his goddess’ coma, believing that the cloistering xenophobia of Ios is doing even more harm. Finn’s travels began with Tarna in Ord as it is the birthplace of sorcery, thought by Scyrah’s clergy to be the source of the mysterious death of their entire pantheon.
• Yrgh the Well Endowed trollkin fellcaller Yrgh wanders the backwaters of Western Immoren looking for more of his kind. He does not belong to any clan, having integrated himself into Ordian society. He yerns to join others of his kind but is currently content to provide his expertise to the group.
• Victor ordian arcane mechanic Victor is an arcane mechanic from up the river who has come to Tarna because of his previous master.
• Fennigoth the Red ordian sorceror Fennigoth is the one serious member of the Explorer’s Guild with actual geographic knowledge. He is from Tarna and tries his best to reign in the more easily fooled members of the group.
• Piran laellese swashbuckler An exiled member of the Laellese gentry, Piran is an expert swordsman from a dueling society. He’s entirely too guillible for his own good, which is probably why he is wandering around with a landlocked pirate.
• Nicollo laellese gunmage Nicollo is also an exiled Laellese who fashions himself a pirate, except he’s never been on a boat. Oh but he does have the parrot and tries for the accent too. Not really the voice of reason for the group, Nicollo is often encouraging everyone else to follow any lead no matter how illogical.

Working it all together

While an odd group, they all believe in the Explorer’s Guild’s mandate, which of course none of them really know. As an arm of the Tarna University they are at the beck and call of the professors and deans there. Many of whom treat the guild like a glorified messenger service. As long as they are sent out of city they are all happy.