The Twelfth Seal

Finally, getting this campaign rolling. For those of you new to using Blogger, you can make your text in italics to signify out-of-character questions/rolls/etc by using a '<'i'>' and '<'/i'>' (Without and ' marks) around the text you'd like to be italicized. When you need to roll dice, go ahead and use this app. One of these days I'll figure out how to get it built-into the blog.

Without warning, your doors were broken into splinters by the armored boots of the city guard of Adiroth. Manacled at swordpoint, you were led out of your rooms along with strangers in the rooms nearby, and hustled out of the inn and into the drizzling rain of the street.

Those around you start to ask what they've done, but are only answered by sword pommels smacking into their heads, angry glares, and a few mutters of "You bastards... what are you bastards trying to do" from one of the guards. Gauntleted hands quickly strip you of your possessions, and you can see it's all being thrown into a large chest that's then locked and lifted up between a pair of guards.

Dawn appeared to be merely a few hours away, but you are unable to appreciate the pre-dawn glow as halberd shafts hit your legs, ushering you into the back of a large dingy cage in the back of an old wagon. The guards place the chest with your belongings in the back of the wagon, and a whistle, the wagon lurches forward.

Within the span of a few minutes, you arrive in front of the city's Magistrate building, and are ushered inside. Already, you can see a handful of people waiting in the anteroom, and distantly you can hear a gavel banging from beyond the closed doors ahead of you.

Alrighty, feel free to introduce yourselves or speak to any of the other townspeople that have been rounded up with you (There's around a dozen total other people, including the three or four who were already waiting for their court hearing). In addition, if you'd like to make any checks of any kind, let me klnow what you'd like to do and I can let you know what to roll. Skill checks are always one of your main 3 stat bonuses (Strength, Dexterity, Mind) + one of your 5 Skill bonuses (Communication, Knowledge, Subterfuge, Communication, Survival)

Let's Make a Party!

For this campaign, we'll be using the Microlite20 ruleset. It's similar to D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, except far simpler, free, and you can print it off in the form of a mini-rulebook (I've included links to them on the right-hand side of the blog). You can make a character using any of the included classes or races, although as fair warning Lizardmen and Half-orcs are uncommon and will probably not be received well by large portions of the city's population.

For your character's backstory, I'd like at least 3 sentences. More is nice, but not required. Please also give me three beliefs your character feels strongly about, and three goals your character has (A long, medium, and short-term goal would be perfect). Again, more is nice but not required. As long as you have some justification to be in an inn in the market district, your character will be able to be fit into the story quite nicely.

Once you have your character, please reply with your character information and backstory as a comment in this post, and I'll start the campaign in a new post sometime within the next week.

Now for a bit of back-history: Adiroth was built to span the Feycross Canyon. At the base of this canyon lies the stone prison containing the elder dragon Scourgetalon. Scourgetalon was the disaster foretold in the Fifteenth Razax Prophecy, of the legendary Sixteen (It is interpreted that the Sixteenth Razax Prophecy will result in the scouring of all life from the planet). However, thanks to a brave band of heroes, and with the help of the most powerful mages on the continent, Scourgetalon was defeated.

Due to his immortal nature, Scourgetalon cannot actually be killed, as he regenerates fatal wounds in mere seconds and is resistant to all but the most powerful of spells. As a result, after his defeat, he was imprisoned in a huge stone cell, chained to the ground with adamantium shackles that have been fused with the rocky mantle of the planet itself. In addition, the prison itself has been sealed with Twelve Sapphire Seals, crystal-inlaid ceramic tablets the size of a tavern table an gilt with the finest metals and enamels.

These Seals help keep the dragon somnolent, and allow him to remain asleep while the unceasing line of workers harvest the various reagents and raw materials from the dragon, taking advantage of his unceasing regeneration. While the Canyon was originally mined for gems and precious metals in the walls, now Adiroth's prime exports are all derived from the dragon; Indeed, the modern city was built around the trade of dragon blood and venom for spell reagents, scales and leather for armor, teeth and horns for weapons, and meat for foodstuffs. As a result of these prized exports, Adiroth is the wealthiest city in the Charoc nation, and leads the rest of the region in terms of diplomacy and political power.

To the north-east, the city borders (and in some cases, is inside of) the Thoury Forest, an ancient jungle teeming with both mundane and supernatural creatures. One of the other exports from the city is rare and exotic hardwoods harvested from the forest, earning the ire of many of the creatures and intelligent residents of the forest. The city (and nation as a whole) are still on supposedly neutral terms with the nation of Drufen to the south after the last great war a decade previously.

Despite the recent outbreak of the Stumbling Death plague in the poorer districts, Adiroth remains a bustling metropolis and the hub of activity for the entire continent. Only a fool would seek to disturb that...