Credits

Transcription

Credits
Credits
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Author: Robert J Defendi
Line Editor: Josh Peltier
Additional Contributions: Scott Llewelyn
Cover Art: B.C. Hailes
Interior Art: B.C. Hailes
Art Direction: Christopher Mitchell
Pagemaking: Wallen Ashcroft
Copy Editing: Christine Fortune
Publisher: Robert J Defendi
Editing, Development, & Production Staff:
Robert J Defendi, Scott Llewelyn, Josh Peltier, Christine Fortune, Christopher Mitchell, Wallen Ashcroft
Web Master: Robert J Defendi
Play Testing: Amanda Peltier, Angela Daley, Bjorn Olsen, Brandon Leavitt, Brenda Llewelyn, Dan
Willis, Gary Llewelyn, Jennie Mollerup, Josh Peltier, Kori Emerson, Mark Giffune, Mason Emerson,
Mat Daley, Matthew Fitt, Robert J Defendi, Scott Llewelyn, Stephen Johnson.
Special Support: Heike A. Kubasch, Bruce Neidlinger; Tim Dugger, and Steve Long.
We’d also like to thank all the fans on the Iron Crown Forums who have shown so much support
and enthusiasm, especially Allenrmaher, Buddha, Cormac Doyle, Grafton, Ictus, Ironmaul, Lichemaster,
Lorenen, Maelstrom, Markc, Norin, Pendragon, Quasar, Smiling DM, Wolfram Riegler (our first customer), and Yammahoper.
Rolemaster, HARP and Spacemaster are Copyright © 2006 Aurigas Aldebaron, LLC, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
Rolemaster™, HARP™ and Spacemaster™ are trademark properties of Aurigas Aldebaron, LLC; no unauthorized use permitted.
Copyright © 2013 by Final Redoubt Press. All rights reserved. No reproductions without permission.
Produced and distributed by Final Redoubt Press, 2072 Weeping Willow Way, Eagle Mountain, UT, 84005.
Stock #0009
What Is an Adventure Seed?
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What this Product Includes
What Next?
You can begin play almost immediately. If you
want to get straight to the meat, skip to What Came
Before if you’re playing in The Moving Shadow, or
to Setup if you’re not. It probably takes an average
reader 10 – 15 minutes to read this adventure once
through. If you are about to run the game and you
grabbed this as an emergency measure, step out of
the room for a few minutes, and you’ll be ready in
no time. If your players seem likely to bug you, start
them arguing about a sixth month old GM call, their
favorite sports teams, or reality shows. You’ll be
ready to start before they are.
If you have a little more time, we welcome you to
read the next sections. They should give you an idea
about what The Echoes of Heaven and The Moving
Shadow is all about.
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An Adventure Seed is a story idea. In The Echoes of
Heaven, an Adventure Seed is a story idea that we at
Final Redoubt Press promise never to contradict in
future canon. It’s a chance to allow you to expand an
idea or mystery in the setting without worrying about
whether we’ll contradict you with future products.
But this Adventure Seed is a full product, and
that means it’s something more. This is a fully written adventure plot, meant to allow you to get your
game moving almost immediately. This outlines
all the major steps of a story, carrying you through
an entire narrative arc. With this product, the rule
books of your game (including maybe a monster
book and whatever manual holds sample NPCs),
and just a touch of imaginative table improvisation
you should be able to run an adventure with almost
no preparation at all.
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Introduction
This product contains no rules. You probably
know the rules you use at your table much better
than we do.
This product contains no firm idea of what system you are using. The Moving Shadow is statted
for four different game systems; however, there’s no
reason you need to use this with The Moving Shadow or even The Echoes of Heaven.
This product contains no firm rules on how experienced the characters are. It’s designed with experienced characters in mind, but since there are no
stats, you can use it to challenge characters at any
point in their careers.
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This product includes a full adventure plot, with
enough notes that you should be able to run with
no preparation at all. This product also includes a
description of the Dramatic Purpose of each stage
of the story. This way, if your story moves off in
a new direction, you know what you need to do
to maintain the dramatic arc. Finally, this product
includes notes for how to fit this adventure in The
Moving Shadow™ campaign, our epic series of
adventures in The Echoes of Heaven™ that will
take the world to the brink of destruction.
What this Product Does Not
Include
This product includes no creature stats. You have
your monster books.
This adventure contains no NPC stats. Almost every game has premade NPCs for the GM to use, and
many GMs are used to improvising NPCs on the fly.
What Is The Echoes of Heaven
Campaign Setting?
The Echoes of Heaven is a game world of darkness
and danger, where a monolithic church has split into
dozens of quarreling factions and holy war looms
like a shadow. Here, strength and brutality win the
day and only those with the most faith, honor, and
courage can stand against the terrible tyranny of
those who would enslave everyone of a different
belief, a different philosophy, a different race.
Worse, it is a world infected by the very fabric of
Hell itself.
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Game System
GSL
OGL
HARP
Rolemaster
Starting
3rd lvl
2nd lvl
3rd lvl
3rd lvl
Ending
30th lvl
20th lvl
30th lvl
30th lvl
In addition, The Moving Shadow has a series of
Teasers which take place during the last days of the
War in Heaven. It is truly a campaign that spans ten
thousand years.
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It’s a world that once knew perfection, where
Mortals and Angels labored side by side and all
spent their days basking in the light of God. There
was no Mortal Realm. Hell was nothing more than a
province of Heaven. All lived in Paradise, and they
knew what it was like to wander in Grace.
Then came the War.
The Fall of the first third of the Host of Angels
nearly destroyed Heaven. The Fall of the second
third came as a death knell. Only the foresight and
planning of the Five Prophets saved everyone from
languishing under the rule of the Fallen . . . but it
came at a terrible price.
Enter Meridrin, the Mortal Realm, a world sundered
from Paradise, a world both familiar and strangely
different. A world where you can make a difference.
The Echoes of Heaven is designed for use in four
different game systems. They are games using the
Open Game License or the Game System License
(for use with the 3rd and 4th edition of the world’s
most popular roleplaying game, owned by Wizards
of the Coast), as well Rolemaster™ (owned by Iron
Crown Enterprises), and HARP™ (owned by Iron
Crown Enterprises).
This product can be used with any fantasy game.
What Is The Moving Shadow?
The Moving Shadow is a ten part adventure path
that takes the world to the very brink of destruction.
In it, characters must fight against the depredations
of some of the greatest villains the world has ever
known. In the end, only the smart, the brave, and the
lucky have any hope at all.
These adventures are statted with versions for
four different games: games using the Game System
License, the Open Game License, as well as HARP
and Rolemaster.
The Moving Shadow gives characters the opportunity to take characters through an entire career
of adventures.
They start inexperienced but will end as some
of the most powerful characters in the world. The
range of experience depends on the game system:
Line Elements
The Echoes of Heaven contains two main elements.
They are sourcebooks and adventures.
Sourcebooks
Some of the existing sourcebooks are as follows:
The Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting—The
Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting details the
Mortal Realm and includes a bonus supplement
describing the Kingdom of Ludremon at no extra charge.
Bestiary—The Mortal Realm is filled with many
horrific creatures and some that merely terrify.
Here you will find creatures unique to The Echoes
of Heaven from the Nephilim to Angels and Demons, to the Cambionic Beastmen and beyond.
In His Name—Religion is a central theme of The
Echoes of Heaven. In this book you will find all
of the major churches detailed and ready for play.
This book also includes a chapter on Sulvican City,
the seat of the human church, at no extra charge.
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Our Philosophy
Quad Statting
The Echoes of Heaven contains stats for four different
games. We at Final Redoubt Press purposely chose
these games for their compatibility. Each of these
games has the same general levels of power and
abilities for the major classes or professions. Mages
in all four have similar spells and clerics in all four
have similar divine powers.
This means that we can weave a story without
worrying about whether a mage can cast a fireball
in all three systems. We can provide a GM with everything he needs to run his game, and he can do
that with his own house rules and his own style of
game play. As much as possible, we intend to stay
out of the way.
This isn’t saying that we don’t add optional abilities or even change the way that some things work.
That’s necessary in all game worlds. It just means
that we won’t stumble all over ourselves because an
OGL Bard can do a bit more with illusions than a
Rolemaster Bard. Each game group should play the
game the way they like to play it.
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Each sourcebook comes packaged with an adventure.
Between these two works, your campaigns can explore
an ever widening world of intrigue and danger.
The Throne of God (Episode 1) A story that spans
10,000 years, here the players learn the lay of the
land in the Mortal Realm and fight to find an ancient relic, a diamond splinter said to come from
the throne of God Himself.
The Tainted Tears (Episode 4) With the character’s
success in Uzarâg, they must now make a mad
dash across Belkanâth in an attempt to stop the
end of the world.
The Last Hallowed Place (Episode 5) With the end
of the world nigh, the characters seek guidance and
refuge in Sulvican City. There they must defend
the walls and the world against the end of days.
This Adventure Seed can fit neatly after either The
Last Hallowed Place or The Quiet Time (from Guild
Adventurer 3 by Guild Companion Publications)
and before The Day Before Apocalypse.
find Adventure Seeds in every product that will allow the characters to explore the world around them
until they’re ready for the next episode of the series.
That is one of the possible uses of these Adventure Seeds. They fit neatly between the full adventure products, allowing you to flesh out your game
while you’re waiting for the next release.
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Adventures
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At Final Redoubt Press, we wish to bring high
quality products to the hands of the gamers who
need them. Starting with characters ignorant of the
world around them, players can discover the Mortal
Realm even as the story unfolds. With each new
adventure, player and character alike will discover a
world rich in excitement and adventure, a world as
intriguing as their GM can make it.
An Ongoing Campaign
We’re aware that different games progress at many
different rates. Some groups play almost every day
and some fight to meet once a month. Therefore,
we’ve tried to devise this world and this series for
any rate of play.
Each adventure is designed for characters of a
certain level. A GM needs only to adjust the rate of
experience gain to meet the needs of his group. If a
group can play an entire adventure in one weekend
and that leaves three more until the next product releases, then the GM can match the experience gain to
move hand in hand with this pace. Meanwhile, he’ll
Dramatic Purpose
Every stage in this adventure has a dramatic purpose.
These are there so the GM can better decide what to
do if the party goes off book. If a group diverges
wildly from the written adventure, let them. Take
the dramatic purposes of the skipped stages and
invent new events that serve the same purpose.
Maybe the party abandons the adventure entirely
and refuses to go back. If so, who are any of us to
say they did wrong? Take the remaining dramatic
events and create new ones for the party, following
their new path. It might not be this adventure, but it
will be an adventure, and it will be a lot more fun
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than arguing about whether the party is ruining the
GM’s plans.
As long as all the purposes are served, you will
have a workable story, probably even a good one. It
doesn’t matter if it isn’t the story you set out to tell.
Gaming is a collaborative effort, after all.
lot less experience each time. It doesn’t matter how
fast a group advances as long as everyone understands what to expect and why to expect it. If you tell
a party you want to game every single night but the
next adventure isn’t out for two more weeks, they’ll
understand they might need to advance more slowly.
Running the Campaign
Character Power Level
This Adventure Seed fits neatly into the ten part,
ongoing campaign The Moving Shadow. This
brings up some issues one wouldn’t have in a
standalone adventure.
If you are plugging this adventure into The Moving
Shadow, then it likely takes place right after the events
of The Quiet Time or The Last Hallowed Place and
before The Day Before Apocalypse. It’s likely that
characters came out of the last adventure at a certain
approximate character level or point value.
Game System
GSL
OGL
HARP
Rolemaster
Character
17th lvl
11th lvl
17th lvl
17th lvl
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It’s possible that someone will want to run these
adventures before the entire series has been released.
It’s likely that a game group may finish an adventure
before the next one is available.
We’ve taken this into consideration. You can’t run
a ten part adventure and not expect to take some side
trips. Don’t worry if this is your intention. We’ve
built downtime into the story between each adventure, and these Adventure Seeds are handy ways to
fill that down time. Near the end, it might be nice to
run the adventures concurrently, but there’s no point
in this series where one adventure must be played
directly after the one before.
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Down Time
Experience and Table Pacing
If you’re running the adventures in a series, then
the issue of experience will come into play. Some
groups might want to do the adventures one after
another. Others might have ten sessions between
each adventure (especially if they meet frequently
while waiting for the next release).
The thing to remember about experience is that
it’s all arbitrary. Many GMs ignore official experience guidelines. Some have home systems. Some
just assign experience by story points, some by
number of sessions, regardless of session content.
The important thing to remember is that no experience system is set in stone. If you have multiple adventures in this series and you wish to run them back
to back, then a party will need to gain two or three
levels in a single adventure. If you want to run eight
adventures in between, then they need to average a
But since you choose the power of the adversaries
in this adventure, they can be just as powerful as
you want them to be. This means you can use this
Adventure Seed in any setting or any point in your
characters’ careers.
Stats
No opponents have stats in this adventure,
most every game has NPC stats in one of
primary books. Use them to flesh out the
guys in this Adventure Seed, or, if it’s easier,
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Descriptions
This Adventure Seed has no “boxed text.” That
means the descriptions of rooms, people, and places
are up to you. Tailor them to your game and your
characters. This is most of the improvising you’ll
need to do to run this Adventure Seed.
Mechanics
We’ve left mechanics as simple as possible in this
work. We’ve listed all bonuses as a percentage. 5% =
5 in a percentile system or 1 in GSL or OGL games.
What Came Before
This adventure begins, by default, in Sulvican City.
If the characters played The Quiet Time, they’ve just
returned with the bad news that evil is rising in the
world, and their actions in The Last Hallowed Place
delayed things at best. If they haven’t played The
Quiet Time, no one really knows what’s happening
with the state of evil in the world.
Either way, the Faerarch of the Church (the
Church’s supreme leader) has upped patrols of Sulvican Island around the holy city. He believes that
things out there might be bad, and this might be
causing Ulcers to form at greater than normal rates
(an Ulcer is a place where hell infects the fabric of
the Mortal Realm).
He sends the party out on one of these patrols,
after a regular patrol disappears. The party has done
things for him that no other person in this city can,
and he’s not afraid to use them like a ball-peen hammer against a cockroach. There’s no such thing as
too much force right now, in his mind, so he calls
his most destructive asset: the party.
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If you’re running this Adventure Seed as part of The
Moving Shadow, it fits neatly after the events in The
Quiet Time or The Last Hallowed Place.
In The Throne of God, the villain created a powerful Unholy relic. In The Festering Earth they
tracked a murderer and discovered more about the
relic’s nature. In On Corrupted Ground they became
involved in a plan of a powerful evil force.
The characters foiled this plan, but in the end
fled Uzarâg. They ended in the Elven-Dwarven
Alliance, a union of Elven people and the refugee
Dwarves who fled before Uzarâg’s fall. From there,
they chased a Duke of Hell across the countryside,
only to be sidetracked in a village corrupted by evil
in The Tainted Tears. In The Last Hallowed Place,
they ended up fighting a holding action in Sulvican
City against a tide of evil.
Now they wait in Sulvican City. If you played The
Quiet Time (it was only released under a license for
Rolemaster and HARP), they know that the level of
evil in the world is slowly rising. If they didn’t, then
they might still be wondering how much good they
actually accomplished.
Setup
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improvise them as you go. Many GMs can stat an
NPC in their head without skipping a beat.
The Adventure Plot
What follows is the plot of the Adventure Seed. This
is only one course the adventure could take. If the
party diverges from this plot, let them.
Teaser
The party is likely living in the Holy See at this
point as personal guests of the Faerarch. Regardless,
when the summons is sent to bring them in, they are
in the city itself and have to walk to the Holy See.
On the way, they notice a ruckus on one of the
streets and see members of the Sulvican Guard.
They hear panicked screaming and there’s a crowd.
Upon closed examination, they discover that there’s
a man in a wine shop, holding a woman hostage
with a knife to her throat.
The man is one of the many refugees that came
to the city during the events of The Last Hallowed
Place. Some have left since then, but many are
afraid to return to their homes. They fear the worst
is yet to come. This man in particular has run out
of money to feed his family. He came here intent
on robbery and things escalated out of hand. Now
he’s holding the woman hostage (her family owns
the shop). He’s a trapped rabbit, and he doesn’t
know how he’ll get out. This has made him desperate and dangerous.
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