DM INTRO

It has been thirty one yastins (months), almost three complete cycles of Narbondel since a strange series of events led members of this company into the depths of Deep Dark— a seething, unimaginably powerful place in the gut of the world where no creature is ordinary and no trek easy. However, something about those sordid days played harsh with your minds, and the details grew obscure with the fast-falling draws of Narbondel, so that now all which remains are memories of some vague urgency, some pending events which once drew you together but are now hidden within recesses of the mind and of history itself. Perhaps it was a bounty run, perhaps an errand of death-dealing, or perhaps a quest to reclaim a tribal artifact-sword. In any case, life (as one measures life in the gritty, trafficked, cutthroat bowels of Middle Dark) has continued. And so, two years later, we see where Fate has taken us.


SETTING BACKGROUND
A generation ago, dark elves came to these grim-hollowed tunnels, this gods-forsaken Night Below. And they came not as explorers, not as merchants, not as colonists, but as slayers.


Now, from this cavern Erehel-Cinlu, "the body of Lloth," spreads the eight legs of the Spider Queen. And down each leg a drow settlement has brought death, torture, and enslavement to a new Underdark people.


But the many tales of woe filtering across Middle dark are best left for another time. Tonight we weave a new tale of despair and killing: all focused on Erehel-Cinlu, the Body of Lloth and the First Settlement of the Drow. The current time period is so-called the Cycle of the Spider, an auspicious time marking the anniversary of the drow coming to these under-earthen bowels, a time measured by Narbondel once every 666 year and lasting merely two draws (tendays).
It is said that during the Cycle of the Spider, all destiny of the Mori'quessar are awry, and anything can happen.


Characteristics of City of Erehel-Cinlu:


Unlike any other civilization imaginable. This is a place of open, naked hate. Upon every street flows the blood of the poor and reviled. Three carved tiers, each the size of ten city blocks, cut like giant stairway steps up to the highest point of the city: Academe Arachtillith, Temple to Lloth. Day and night, the wails of the tortured of mind and the tortured body resound from this lofty site, which is not only the focus of the city's worship but also the center of all economic life: every merchant , merc, and ambassador who wishes to deal with Erehel-Cinlu must first offer tithe and penance to Arachtillith, and all marketplaces spread out from the base of this remorseless landmark.
Through winding, broken streets (at times so tight nimble drow urchins must scale vertically across wall spaces) hover regular processions of twelve-member bands of the priestesses, the tallest (by three feet) strongest, smartest, and cruellest specimens of the drow race. The priestesses represent the highest state of dark elf evolution. And not just of stature, but of physiology. Their bleached hair naturally stains charcoal black after witnessing so many atrocities (some say it a sign of abandoned souls). Their stomachs reject all food and drink that is not the blood and flesh of male drow or Lloth's sacrifices. And their personal store of magicks are haunting: ability to summon clouds of screaming, whirling blades; to control planar horrors; to corrode the minds of captives; and of course to enslaves the will of enemy races —which are ALL n'tel'quessar (non-drow).


A sunless, clawing metropolis of rot, perversion, spell-strength, screams, spiders, and endlessly, endlessly dripping blood. This is Erehel-Cinlu.
- posted by heavyweather @ 10:09 PM (0) comments

Underdark Campaign Optional XP Opportunities, PART 1, 12/23/03
Contact Brian at briandodson7@aol.com with any questions.
Note that unless stated in the assignment description a player may never earn bonus experience points ("XP") submitting the same assignment more than once, though he or she may complete a second (completely different) draft of the same assignment as regards a different character . As an exception to this rule, some assignments may make provisions for continually earning bonus experience points via the maintenance of the assignment. See individual assignment descriptions for details.
(EXAMPLES: The book reading assignments may never be submitted a second time for additional XP; the Character History assignment, however, may be submitted again as pertains to a brand new character. And the Journal Entry may be submitted at the start of each session, so long as the entry describes only the events of the previous session.)



Optional Assignment
Each month, at the conclusion of a game session, players are encouraged to email feedback to the dungeon master (email is: briandodson7@aol.com). This should include specific, detailed thoughts and criticisms about the session. For example, what you like, dislike, would have preferred; what you want for you character in the campaign; what you don't want; etc.
Any and all feedback is appreciated, and can only serve to improve the campaign.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #1
Type a prayerful homage to your character's patron deity or patron deities. This work can be in your character's own words, or it can be written in the third person.
REWARD: Submitting this document earns your character 90 XP per current character level per typed page. (A page is 250 words.)


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #2
At any point after 12/22/03, a player may read one or more of the following books, listed in preferred reading chronology:
Realms of the Underdark, ed. King (ISBN 0-7869-0487-9)
Homeland, Salvatore (ISBN 0-88038-905-2, or 0-7869-3123-X hardback)
Exile, Salvatore (ISBN 0-88038-920-6)
Sojourn, Salvatore (ISBN 1-56076-047-8)
The Legacy, Salvatore (ISBN 1-56076-640-9)
Starless Night, Salvatore (ISBN 1-56076-880-0)
Siege of Darkness, Salvatore (ISBN 0-7869-0164-0)
Daughter of the Drow, Cunningham (ISBN 0-7869-2929-4)
Tangled Webs, Cunningham (ISBN 0-7869-2959-6)
Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Kidd (ISBN 0-7869-1903-5)
Dissolution, Byers (ISBN 0-7869-2944-8)
Insurrection, Reid (ISBN 0-7869-3033-0)
Condemnation, Baker (ISBN 0-7869-2824-7 hardback)
(All of the are in-print and available mass market.)
REWARD: At the onset of any game session, for each book read, your character earns a one-time XP bonus equal to 275 per current character level. The book in question must be on-hand at the time this XP is earned, and you may be quizzed on the reading. Note that scanning the book and not actually reading it nets zero bonus XP.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #3
Draw up a family tree of your character's family. Include at least three generations. Include noble or royal titles, surnames, family names, or nicknames, if appropriate.
REWARD: At the onset of a game session, submitting this assignment earns your character 90 XP per current character level.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #4
Provide musical accompaniment for a game session, in the form of recorded music appropriate to what is going on during the adventure.
REWARD: At the close of a session during which you provided recorded musical accompaniment which met with the DM's approval, your character receives 20 XP per character level.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #5
Type a two-column list of the people who taught your character something important, naming also what was taught. No description or narrative is necessary; simply one column of names next to one column of things learned. Include at least ten names.


For example:
1. Jed McMasterson of Wheloon Shoeing a horse
2. Ray "Stinky" Leftsword Running from the law
3. My militia sergeant, Lord Whistledown Running a trout line
4. etc. . . etc. . .

REWARD: At the onset of a game session, submitting this assignment earns your character 40 XP per current character level.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment #6
Select one or more Underdark Campaign player characters. Type a one-paragraph introduction for each player character selected. Introductions should include any titles or prestigious family name the PC owns, place of origin, as well as noteworthy deeds accomplished and noteworthy places visited. The introduction(s) should be as grandiose and as positive as possible, and the tone of the composition should be that of a court attendant announcing the arrival of a revered hero.
REWARD: Submitting this typed document earns your character 25 XP per hero detailed per current character level.
For example, a player with a 5th-level character types an introduction for three characters in the Underdark Campaign to earn 375 XP (3 intros x 5 character levels x 25 bonus XP = 375 total bonus XP).


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment
At the onset of a campaign session, players who field a fully-painted 25-mm scale plastic or metal miniature representation of their character receive an experience point bonus equal to 50 per current character level. This bonus applies once per session, at the onset of the session.
For example, a player with a 5th-level character brings a painted mini to the next game. He thereby garners 250 bonus experience points (5 character levels x 50 XP = 250 total bonus XP). If that character gains a level, and the player brings the same mini to the next game, he garners 300 experience points. If that character dies, the player must field a new mini to represent his new character.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment: Character History
Type a complete character history for your current, active Underdark Campaign character.
REWARD: At the onset of the game session, submitting this assignment earns your character 50 XP per page per current character level. A page is 250 typed words. Page-fragments less than 250 words earn no XP.
For example, a player with a 3rd-level character submits a three-page character history. At the onset of the game session, that player's character earns 450 bonus experience points (3 character levels x 3 pages x 50 bonus XP = 450 total bonus XP).
NOTE: Players who have already submitted their character's history are not eligible for this optional assignment.
Players who bring a new character into the Underdark Campaign may submit a new Character History, for the listed bonus XP.


Optional Bonus Experience Point (XP) Assignment: Journal Entry
Each game session, players may submit a typed journal entry detailing the events, people, and places of the previous session. This entry may be composed as a first-person diary, a third-person narrative, a third-person eyewitness account, or any other form.
REWARD: Submitting an entry earns your character 25 XP per full, typed page per current character level. (A page is 250 typed words.) A partial page earns no XP.
For example, a player with a 5th-level character types five pages in his log after a particular session. At the onset of the next session, that PC earns 625 experience points (5 character levels x 5 pages x 25 XP = 625 total bonus XP).
NOTE: A player need not have been present at the last game session to submit this optional bonus XP assignment, just so long as the log entry is accurate.
- posted by heavyweather @ 10:02 PM (0) comments