May 15, 2024 1:53 am
A first level Pathfinder 2e Remastered campaign.
Earthen Reign aims to tell the story of a few (un)fortunate apprentice scholars and monster-knowers who have been instructed to venture into The Furrows to discover the truth behind a rumored resurgence of the Whispering Tyrant’s legacy. Whether those inexperienced few have earned a remarkable amount of trust from their Order or are merely expendable, remains to be seen.
Earthen Reign is intended to be a short* adventure that takes these apprentices to somewhere around level four or five, depending on how much fiddling they do.
[ +- ] Long Introduction
Arodus 9, 4724 AR
It was a terrifying thing, to be summoned to the Kavapesta Cathedral by one’s sponsor. The command had been enclosed within a small envelope bearing the symbol of a scarab in lieu of any information regarding the sender, or the letter’s intended recipient: Appear in the alleyway across from the Burdened Bailey tavern no earlier than the twenty-first hour, nor later than the twenty-second. You were startled but not surprised as the cloth sack was dropped over your brow soon after you arrived, nor when strong hands looped your elbows and half-carried you into the darkness.
You are an acolyte of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. It is not the first time you have been collected so.
The individuals sent to retrieve you were professionals, alternating the length of their strides and jostling you with shocking violence at seemingly random intervals. Within minutes it became impossible to gauge the distance you had traveled, much less the direction. Your captors eased up after those first few uncomfortable twists and turns. In fact, they were almost gentle when a dozen steps after the creaking of hinges pulled at your ears, you found yourself being lowered into a seat.
A rectangular table stretched widthwise before you. There were five seats on your side of it, but opposite you the only chair was occupied by an older human woman, perhaps sixty years old. Her slowly withering features were familiar to you; Lector Sofia. Your sponsor.
"An opportunity to prove yourselves has arisen, acolytes," she spoke quietly, but her voice still carried in the enclosed room. "Disciples of the Green Faith are organizing an expedition into old Furcina, and a number of young, ignorant, would-be adventurers have decided to accompany them on this venture. There is much plunder to be had — and many reasons why such treasures still remain years later!" Sofia’s tone was sharp, and she clenched her frail jaw bitterly as she continued.
"The expedition plans to set up camp on the outskirts of Candlehalls, just beyond the Peasant Graves in a village once called Hilheller. The Order would know what these tree-worshippers achieve, and the extent to which The Great Enemy’s influence still pervades the region."
Her hands came to rest on the table, bony fingers tapping at its wooden surface as she slowly swept her eyes across the faces of her acolytes.
"Will you accept this charge?"
It was a terrifying thing, to be summoned to the Kavapesta Cathedral by one’s sponsor. The command had been enclosed within a small envelope bearing the symbol of a scarab in lieu of any information regarding the sender, or the letter’s intended recipient: Appear in the alleyway across from the Burdened Bailey tavern no earlier than the twenty-first hour, nor later than the twenty-second. You were startled but not surprised as the cloth sack was dropped over your brow soon after you arrived, nor when strong hands looped your elbows and half-carried you into the darkness.
You are an acolyte of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. It is not the first time you have been collected so.
The individuals sent to retrieve you were professionals, alternating the length of their strides and jostling you with shocking violence at seemingly random intervals. Within minutes it became impossible to gauge the distance you had traveled, much less the direction. Your captors eased up after those first few uncomfortable twists and turns. In fact, they were almost gentle when a dozen steps after the creaking of hinges pulled at your ears, you found yourself being lowered into a seat.
A rectangular table stretched widthwise before you. There were five seats on your side of it, but opposite you the only chair was occupied by an older human woman, perhaps sixty years old. Her slowly withering features were familiar to you; Lector Sofia. Your sponsor.
"An opportunity to prove yourselves has arisen, acolytes," she spoke quietly, but her voice still carried in the enclosed room. "Disciples of the Green Faith are organizing an expedition into old Furcina, and a number of young, ignorant, would-be adventurers have decided to accompany them on this venture. There is much plunder to be had — and many reasons why such treasures still remain years later!" Sofia’s tone was sharp, and she clenched her frail jaw bitterly as she continued.
"The expedition plans to set up camp on the outskirts of Candlehalls, just beyond the Peasant Graves in a village once called Hilheller. The Order would know what these tree-worshippers achieve, and the extent to which The Great Enemy’s influence still pervades the region."
Her hands came to rest on the table, bony fingers tapping at its wooden surface as she slowly swept her eyes across the faces of her acolytes.
"Will you accept this charge?"
Earthen Reign is a predominately undead focused campaign that is based firmly in the gothic horror roots of Carrion Crown. Graphic fantasy violence, dismemberment of zombies, and related material that some may find troubling are expected to be regular features. I anticipate descriptions of death, decay, and illness to be common. I expect there to be some amount of profanity, though not gratuitous. I expect references to the consumption of drugs and/or alcohol to be made occasionally.
Materials / Tools Used:
This campaign will use the Pathfinder 2e remastered rules found in the three "core" books that have currently been released. Sorry champion fans.
I will be using and players are free to use the PF2e Book of the Dead.
I will be using Owlbear Rodeo for battle mapping; having access to the tool will be useful if you want to be able to perform the magic of moving your own token around, but is not mandatory. The battle map will be snipped and snapped over for you to admire on a turn-by-turn basis.
Everything except moving tokens around on the battle map(s) will be on Gamers Plane.
House Rules:
This campaign will use batched initiatives for combat, with the player characters going first in a vast majority of non-ambush situations. I have always found that the risk of players alpha-striking the bejeezus out of a poor group of mobs is vastly outweighed by single combat encounters not taking plural weeks to resolve. Most reactions will resolve following the enemy’s turn but before the party’s next turn. A normal combat round will play out as: party turn -> enemy reactions -> battle map/statuses modified to account for reactions -> enemy turn -> party reactions -> battle map/statuses modified to account for reactions -> start round two.
For reactions triggered by friendly actions, they can just be resolved during the party’s/enemy’s turn before moving to the next step. I explain this in some detail because batched initiative is a dealbreaker for some.
Player Expectations:
Be kind to one-another; this is all fun scribbling.
One post per day. You will miss days for a variety of reasons. That is okay and I won’t be grumpy with you. If one post a day becomes two posts a week and you don’t mention that you have something going on, I will poke you to ask if things are okay. If you cannot maintain the activity requirement for whatever reason or need to step away, we will negotiate your being eaten by zombies graceful departure and no grudge will be held.
Players do not need familiarity with the lore of Pathfinder to engage with this campaign, but a quick google of "Whispering Tyrant" and a couple minutes of reading will give you most of the functional background.
Players of all skill levels are welcome, but advanced players may find much of the early content to be too simplistic for their tactical acumen. If you are expecting liches and zombie dragons, you will be waiting a long time.
How to get in on the zombie thumping:
Proclaim your interest in this thread and give me a sentence or two talking about your experience with the system, or what you’d like to get out of the game! It’ll be open until it fills up, but I will try to close it pretty promptly after we have our five. If more squeeze in it will be decided with a simple roll of the dice. I will reach out to people who expressed interest before opening things back up in the unfortunate event of a player getting lost in The Furrows, ne’er to return. Acolytes are not in limited supply.
*GM is not responsible for the reader's interpretation of what a short campaign is. PBP could make this six months or six years.
Last edited May 15, 2024 1:48 pm
