Journey to Stormwreck Isle (Campaign 1 - Prologue)
Welcome to the introduction to this campaign. This is a pre-built adventure published as a book, but I'm keeping a couple of details in my pocket just to make it more interesting. I intend to break the campaign up into separate threads for each chapter, where a chapter generally encompasses a big quest-arc and the campaign the entire adventure.
Please use the below link to join the campaign on D&D Beyond, so that I can keep track of all your characters, and attempt to use their maps feature if possible - https://www.dndbeyond.com/campaigns/join/4957126426534899
Notes
Me as a Dungeon Master;
Probably the first thing to mention is that this is my first true run at DMing a game, just like it's a lot of your first time playing in one. As such I'm probably going to bumble through this and make some mistakes along the way. I'm also trying to leverage as many tools and things as I can to make this both easier and more interesting, which may adapt/change as we go depending on how well they work in practice.
- I'm not going to use a lot of custom rules like some other more beardy DMs may, given that we're still trying to get the base mechanics down.
- I will try to throw in some graphics and so on, to help paint a picture and give some more flavor to things. I probably won't be trying to put all of the party in many images all at once, as that gets challenging especially when using AI, but we'll see how it goes.
- I'll generally put any "DM" dialog in {{double curly braces}} so that you'll know I'm asking/saying something in a came context, as opposed to any NPCs, etc. Though I'm also going to try to make all the NPC dialog stand out anyway.
You as a player;
I'm fairly sure all of you have minimal experience playing D&D as well, so hopefully the bumbling will be on both sides, but again the key is to have fun and learn as we go. I as such won't go as hard on the "your character has X background and their motivation is Y and they first learned what an upside-down pineapple meant at Z." Certainly take this campaign as an opportunity to build out your ideas about your character, as hopefully you'll be able to carry them over into another one (assuming you don't find some way to die horribly.)
- If you want to establish a group leader between you all, that's cool. You can also not. Building the party dynamic and so on is part of the adventure.
- You can set a preferred dialog color in your GWF profile and use the wizard hat icon in the editor to format it with the CHARACTER tags.
- If you're taking any action that's going to influence the world at all, you must use formatting/the sword icon/ACTION tag to make the text bold green. This is to help me pick those out of the posts and tell when you're actually doing something.
- Feel free to DM me privately if there's anything you want to do/know without the rest of the party seeing it. Likewise, I may DM you if only your character is privy to some information, etc.
Characters In This Game;
All characters will be starting out in this campaign at 1st level. If all goes well, you'll have the chance to progress to level 4.
- We'll be using a "Milestone" level system, which basically means rather than tracking specific XP points, you'll generally gain levels upon completing a chapter of the campaign. This takes a lot of the number-grind out of progressing your character and should give more of a sense of accomplishment as we move along through the campaign, and keep everyone in the same range.
- While all of your spells/abilities will work by the books, the way in which you use them is flexible as far as I'm concerned, especially if it has some roleplay purpose. For instance, if you're a character with high charisma you'll be effective at talking to people, performing, persuading, etc. even if you want to roleplay them as speaking with few words. If you can style your actions in a way that works and is interesting, we'll ignore a lot of the logic behind you being convincing despite the no talk good.
Time Progression in Game;
The passage of time is certainly something to bear in mind as you go about your adventures. This has bearing on many facets of the story, including (but not limited to);
- The duration of some spells and how long you can use them - If your spell only lasts 1 hour, you should be cognizant of the fact this will at some point run out. Generally I will track the 'time' for you, and let you know when your spell effect runs out.
- The time it takes you to take a short/long rest - Short rests are generally an hour long, like a coffee break where you can bandage some wounds, eat, stuff like that. Long rests are equivalent to 8 hours of sleep, and provides more effect than a short rest, such as recovering all of your hit points at once.
- How things occur in the game world itself - As you're out in the world, it does take time to travel from place to place. There is a day/night cycle that may affect when you think it safer to travel. There could be elements such as tide-tables affecting water depth. Or if you're told an individual will be in X place at Y time and you decide to go to sleep during that window, they won't be there when you do arrive, etc.
So it seems most of us are on Eastern Standard time. Nae is 6 hours ahead of EST, and Smacktard is 8 hours ahead I believe. From what I can tell the chunk of time where most people are on will be 9-12pm, with some expanded time on the weekend depending on real-life things (100% understandable.) We'll absolutely try to make sure there is stuff happening at times that everyone can participate, though.
- Before we get into the meat of the adventure, we'll gauge what works best for the flow of this. I'm undecided if I'll basically hit pause on action until X time when everyone's around, or if we can work out some way to stagger responses and just take them as they're available.
- Some options are that you could send me your intented actions based on the events at the time you log off, and I can just run your character as an NPC during those times, based on their personality and the guidance you give before logging off.
- Another option is that you could give the keys to another player for those windows and let them drive your character for you, which would allow for more dynamic response to events as they come up.
We've got some logistics to work out so I won't be a stickler about out of character posts in this thread specifically. In general going forward, try to stay in character if you can and use the double curly braces for OOC questions, etc.
Golden rule;
Have fun. Don't die.
Prologue
Having bartered yourself passage on the merchant vessel Laden Biscuit, you shuffle your feet against the sun-bleached boards of the deck. The salty sea air brings a slight sting to the back of your nostrils when you inhale deeply, but it also carries the spirit of adventure and also helps clear your sinuses. The sea has been relatively calm for your voyage so far, and the waves lap but half way up the hull of the vessel.
You left The Wary Wolf tavern a few hours earlier this morning, awoken by the sound of the ship's captain yelling orders from the end of the hallway. His small crew appeared mostly hung over as they poured out of the two small rooms rented for them, but years of following orders drove their legs to action even though their minds lagged behind. After a brief assault on the Tavern's breakfast offerings, which was largely apples and some aging bread, the crew departed with you and a number of other adventurers you'd met in this establishment.
As you turn back towards the coast you just left, you realize now how close you were to the Sword Mountains, the tall peaks rising to the sky to your East. Whether you had begun your journey from the North or the South you couldn't recall, but you attribute that in part to the strong smelling apples that were being passed around in the Tavern the night prior. But the Tavern must have been located along the High Road that runs from Waterdeep to Neverwinter, perhaps a few dozen miles South of the Mere of Dead Men.
The captain had explained their charter, to bring supplies from the coast to an island which had developed a reputation as being incredibly difficult to navigate to. Stories of crews running afoul on the jagged rocks that lurked beneath the surface were shared among the crew the night prior, some telling their tales of entire vessels capsizing and the souls aboard being lost forever. You stand now between barrels of goods, mostly non-perishable goods, though some kegs of ale had snuck their way on deck as well. The crates and barrels are secured to the deck with strong netting, and do not budge as the boat rocks up and down with each crested wave.
 | "OI, Y' SOIL LOVIN' CURS! KEEP OU' THE WAY O' ME CREW!", the captain shouts from the ships helm. |
His rough calloused hands hold the wheel steady against the chop of the sea. The aforementioned crew pay no mind to the barked order, nor you and the other bizarre adventurers who had talked their way onto the ship. They carry on with their tasks, securing rigging, bracing the main sail, and swabbing the poop deck behind the captain. Satisfied with his demonstration of authority, the captain huffs and returns his eyes to the island growing larger on the horizon. As you follow the captain's gaze across the ocean, you too see the rocky shape of an island looming out of the ocean. While the waters near the coast appear relatively calm, you can see a dark haze of clouds congregating above the landmass ahead of you, with occasional streaks of white lightning cutting towards the ground through the otherwise grey aura.
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You've heard of your destination. An enclave on the island called Stormwreck Isle, rumored to be a place of enlightenment and knowledge. You've taken a gamble on these tales being true and hope it will bring further insight into your destiny.
{{You've got a bit of a journey ahead of you, so you can take this opportunity to speak amongst the party, get your bearings, etc.}}
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