# Sundered Sky Storyhour



## Dave Blewer (Mar 6, 2003)

Greetings!

I am just about to embark on a new Sundered Sky campaign and I intend to detail the exploits of my players here.  As usual for all story hours this will mainly be for my players, but I will detail things so that an "outsider" will be able to follow things.

We are a few weeks away from starting the campaign (maybe one, two or three - depends on how quickly the players get themselves slaughtered in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil). So I will fill the gap with re posting some details on the campaign setting and the PC descriptions and backgrounds.


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## Dave Blewer (Mar 6, 2003)

*Campaign Setting*

Imagine a world destroyed, a Sundering that tore the land apart. Now what remains of once proud and noble kingdoms and empires is a myriad of floating islands. Floating in a fathomless void, or maybe falling, as some academics and mages have conjectured, nobody knows. These islands orbit one another slowly, languidly. 

What caused the Sundering? This is also unknown, some think that the gods punished the evil ways of an ancient and lost people, others think that a magical artefact destroyed the world and still others believe that demons ripped the land apart trying to find the heart of their defeated tyrant king. Most just accept the world as it is and just try to survive. 

Skyships ply the void between the islands allowing trade and travel. They are not alone, Pirates prey upon the weakest ships and dangerous creatures roam the void. Barbarian tribes inhabit the colder altitudes, their communities clinging precariously to artificial islands constructed from captured Skyships that have been tethered together. The void is infinite (as far as any one can discern), who knows what other wonders and terrors it holds? 

Resource starved islands sponsor "Scavengers", adventurers willing to risk the dangerous ruins of towers and cities that can be found on some of the more remote and smaller islands. Terrible beasts, traps and ancient undead haunt these ruins protecting the precious iron, steel and other metals. 

The powerful Trade Council (see below) has banned open warfare, but this does not stop many islands waging clandestine warfare on one another, hiring small bands of mercenaries to undertake covert missions of sabotage or assassination. 

Mysterious secret societies plot against one another or strive to uncover arcane mysteries hidden within the long abandoned ruins. Some are in the thrall of demonic or Celestial avatars, others (it is rumoured) seek to destroy or restore the Sundered Sky once and for all. 

Climate Rainfall and More 

It is always daylight in the void, although the source of that light cannot be discerned. The void glows with its own luminescence. This constant mid afternoon light has two interesting effects on the inhabitants of the islands. Firstly, in open ground the cast no shadow and secondly, the constant light drives them stark staring mad. 

Exposure turns humanoids into raving cannibalistic savages. The length of time that this takes is different for every individual, but if you spend at least a "day" out of direct exposure every "week" then you should be OK. This means that if you spent your "nights" under a heavy canvas tent whilst travelling or travelled in a shadowy area such as a forest, then they shouldn't go Glowmad. 

Some inhabited areas however, fall under the shadow of higher orbiting islands and this tends to regulate their day and night cycle, be it a thirty, ten, eight or four hour cycle. Some of the smaller islands are permanently in the shade of their larger neighbours. It is rumoured by some that renegade communities of Goblins and Wildlings can be found in the fungi forests of these darkened archipelagos. 

The shade that the higher altitude islands give is often used as an example of the benevolence of the Lords of Night by their worshippers. Those Islands that have a well regulated light and shade pattern are easily the most desirable islands to live on. 

The altitude (in relation to its neighbours) of an island tends to dictate its climate. The higher an island is the colder it is. The lower it is the hotter. Most of the more heavily populated islands are found in the more temperate middle. 

Water is a constant problem in the Sundered Sky, very few islands have any standing water at all, and those lakes that do exist are not fed by springs or underground streams and as such are a non-replenishable resource. However, there is rainfall. 

Many hundreds of leagues above the highest inhabited island is the Draining Sea. This sea is the largest landmass in the Sundered Sky. No explorer has mapped it all successfully. This sea is in the most part frozen, but forces beneath the ice cause ice to constantly fall into the void. This thaws, falling as snow or rainfall on the islands below. Strong wind currents in the higher altitudes ensure that most islands get at least some rainfall occasionally. The really remote islands have to bolster this meagre rainfall with imported water and Divine magic. 

There are other dangers in the void 

*Landfall*: It has been known, very rarely, for an Island to fall, either crashing into a lower landmass or disappearing into the depths of the void. Sometimes the inhabitants of such an island get some warning, sometimes they don't. 
*Collisions*: Sometimes two islands will collide, this hasn't happened for two hundred years, but this doesn't stop a paranoid guild of Astronomers from scanning the void looking for previously undiscovered rogue islands. 
*Vortexes*: The winds of the Sundered Sky can be extremely savage and sometimes form aerial whirlpools that can be strong enough to tear small islands apart. Skyships stand very little chance in these storms.

Trade and Currency

Trade is the lifeblood of the Sundered Sky. No island is self sufficient they all rely in some way on imported food or materials. Three hundred years ago a great war raged across the void, a war over resources and real and imagined slights. The carnage was incredible, more than a dozen islands literally starved to death. 

This tragedy shocked the warring islands into a temporary truce and powerful political figures within the ruling classes of the more powerful islands were able to negotiate a peace. It was universally agreed that such a terrible event must never be allowed to happen again. The Trade Council was born. 

The Trade Council is a powerful pan-island regulatory body that enforces the peace within the Sundered Sky. It enforces many edicts and laws;

 - No island may maintain a standing army. The Trade Council is the only body that may maintain a standing military force. Islands may maintain a civilian militia force. _Many of these militia forces are extremely well trained and equipped; also some of the so-called civilians do no really important work on their home islands._ 
 - Only Council registered and approved Skyships may ply the trade routes. The Council will take 0.25% of all cargoes as registration fees. _Many Skyship captains work independently of the Council either smuggling undeclared cargoes or turning pirate. Some of these pirates seem to prefer attacking and scuppering ships of one nation only. _
 - Any Island found guilty of waging war on another island will be embargoed for ten years; this embargo to be enforced by patrolling Council Corsairs, any approaching ship that does not give the correct signal will be destroyed without warning. _Many of the islands are waging clandestine war against one another, either through mercenaries or their militia. The Council must be aware of this (every island has at least one member on the Council) but seems to turn a blind eye to it._

Many of the islands export and import foodstuffs and raw material such as timber, iron, steel or copper. The smaller islands that have no such local resources to exploit tend to sponsor scavengers to explore the many ruins on the more remote and desolate islands for items that can be sold on. The more successful scavengers live like barons on some of these islands.

In the resources starved world of the Sundered Sky those materials that are practical and useful are prized much more than the mere decorative. As such the coins table looks like this

                               GP    BP         SP           IP 
Gold piece (Gp)       1    1/10    1/100    1/1000 
Bronze piece (BP)   10      1       1/10      1/100 
Silver piece (Sp)    100    10        1           1/10 
Iron piece (Ip)      1000  100     10              1 

As you can see, the standard coin is the silver piece, with the less valuable coin being bronze, which is arguably of less value, and the highest value coin being the most useful, the iron piece, gold coins are the least valued, being of very little use other than looking pretty. Gold coins must have been valued at one time, though for they are often found by Scavengers in ruins and crypts.

The Islands

The islands come in all sizes, ranging from just large enough to house a ruin of a single tower to the size of several counties. The lower islands are desolate deserts, steaming rainforests or even active volcanic ranges (the island is in effect constantly reshaping itself). The higher ranges are near artic tundra, frozen steppes or snow-clad mountains. Between these two extremes can be found almost every kind of climate and landscape from teeming deciduous forests to (rarely) murky dank swamps. 

What keeps the Islands aloft? No one knows - or at least no one is telling. It certainly isn't an enchantment of the earth, as every child knows, for if a handful is thrown over the edge it disappears into the void. Wind erosion is a pressing problem on some of the smaller islands. 

The Skyships

Every single Skyship, from rowing boat to war galleon is built by the same source, The Shipwright Guild, a subsidiary of the Trade Council. The shipwrights guard their sorcerous secrets jealously to the extent that no one outside of their ranks knows the secret of flight. They claim to enchant the very material of the ship itself. 

The ships are built to the specifications of the owner or captain and often sport a dragonhead on the prow or some such. Weapons are never fitted by the guild but ample space for them is allowed. The guild also repairs damaged ships and it is an open secret that they even offer this service (at an inflated charge) to pirate vessels. Although the source of flight remains a mystery, a Skyships reaction to damage is no mystery. If a ship is holed in what would be considered below the waterline on an ocean going craft then it will start to behave in a way that you would expect its less fantastic counterpart too. Listing, sluggish controls and slowly descending, this descent will increase in speed until it becomes a plummet. 

If enough damage is done, then the ship may actually fall apart or fall so quickly that the crew are unable to patch it up in time. There is always the chance that a crewmember may fall through a breech in the hull. If the ship doesn't hit an island, then no one really knows what happens to a ship or its crew as they hurtle through the void. One eyewitness swears that he saw a ship burst into flame after the Dwarven Citadel of Deepsky destroyed it (one of the lowest inhabited islands). No one was able to corroborate his story however.


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