Sunlight shines through the thick choking clouds of ash
from mighty Iðil, vicious Magi, and placid Bragm, the churning hearts of the
Emberholt. Over nineteen hills they loom, their slopes of black obsidian deep,
their veins the color of molten fire. And in the shadow of the raging
Blackcrown rule the cunning kings in red.
The streets below are choked with soot and smoke, weaving
their way between the hills like a web of well-trod stone. The people who walk
the roads are touched by fire. Their ashen skin shows through blackened cloth.
Their eyes gleam like burning embers. One goes there to the fields of hard
shrubs and prickly hedges, where the people find their sustenance while another
goes there to the bellowing foundries, that belch their endless sparks to the
sky.
For all its seeming chaos, the Emberholt is a thriving
center of commerce. The molten iron that its foundries produce is the glowing
white-hot lifeblood of its economy. Ruled by the iron fist of the Carmine
Kings, it is a place of law and order. Here in the shade of the Blackcrown, no
crime goes unpunished, and all wrongs are made right.
Though the environ is harsh, and the wilds beyond
unforgiving, to the brave adventurer, the Emberholt presents a place of great
opportunity.
===
Having just finished a campaign that I’ve been running for
well over a year (unfortunately to pretty much a TPK), I’ve decided that bright
and early next week, my group and I will start playing a new campaign. In the
Shadow of the Blackcrown is that campaign. We’d like to get more people
involved, so if you’re up for playing a game on Sundays, at 10:00 AM
Central/3:00 PM GMT for around 4 hours every session, we’d like to invite
you to join us. Here’s a little information about the campaign that I’m
running, and what you can expect of the game:
Mindfuckery : Medium — With a cognitive realm like the
Shardscape in place, where the limit of what is possible is literally the
imagination, there is no telling what will face the party. Hatred given form?
Fear incarnate? A twisted labyrinth of psychological torment? A contorted image
of yourself, who is the embodiment of all that you fear you are? All of it is
fair game.
Roleplay: High — I like to run games that involve a
lot of roleplay, and whenever possible, I like to encourage interactions among
player characters and between the players and NPC’s. It might occur that in
some sessions, there won’t be any combat encounters at all, but rather quite a
few social encounters.
Exploration: Medium — The Emberholt is just one of
the many realms of the Shardscape, and it has doors leading to a number of
other ones. Your adventures will take you not just to the lands that lie beyond
the tall obsidian walls of the Molten City, but also to the myriad lands that
comprise the Shardscape.
Gravity: Medium — Like most groups, me and my current
players like to have some fun every now and again, but the overall tone of the
game is pretty serious. The characters are facing a genuine crisis and have a
lot to lose should they fail, but occasionally, levity is necessary in the face
of what seems like insurmountable odds.
Player Buy-In: At the beginning, this campaign will
be more or less have your traditional adventuring fare: going on quests,
getting gold, and making a name for yourselves. But as your legend grows, of
course, you will naturally find yourselves fighting stronger enemies, and
different factions will begin to vie for your attentions and fealty. In the
end, you might even get roped into a conflict that spans the entirety of the
multiverse — but let’s not think about that just yet.
===
If you find that you’re still interested in the game after
that spiel, then we should probably go over a few things about character
creation:
Starting Level: 3rd
Character Sheet: 5e Shaped Sheet
Pre-Built Characters: Because this is an entire
setting of my creation, the only pre-built characters that will be accepted are
ones without pre-existing backstories unless said backstories are generic
enough (i.e. do not contain specific historical events, prominent figures, and/or
prominent locations) to be reworked to fit my world, subject to my discretion.
Races: A word of forewarning: the races in this
setting developed in a very different way than what you might have learned to
expect in High Fantasy. For instance, due to a plague that nearly wiped out the
entirety of their population, Dwarven society has become particularly
fastidious and zealous. You can find more information about the races in this
article:
The Races of Sekhar
There are no extant equivalents of the Triton, Firbolg,
Kenku, Aarakocra, Shifter and Warforged races in my setting, and as such they
will not be playable. Halflings are extinct as a result of the same plague that
wiped out the dwarves and as such will also not be playable.
Genasi, Tieflings, and Aasimar while normally not races I
like to let new players start out with, are up for grabs in this campaign.
However, do understand that their lore in this setting is very different from
the lore that they are typically associated with in the traditional Forgotten
Realms.
Alignment: I choose not to allow characters that
start out evil-aligned.
Classes: Anything published is fair game. UA classes
are not unwelcome (except for the mystic), but you should talk to me before you
decide to use something from UA. If a UA class/subclass has a published
equivalent, the published option takes precedent, of course. I allow Matthew
Mercer’s Gunslinger homebrew class, but not any of his other class options.
Current Party Composition:
There isn’t currently a party composition as we’re still
working the details of that out amongst ourselves but be informed that players
are looking at the Sorcerer/Wizard, Rogue, Bard, and Paladin classes to play at
the moment.
And that’s about it, I think? In-world lore will be
discussed further with individuals when they join. Don’t hesitate to ask me
questions about the world, though, as I’m very much open to answering them!
