# The Floating City - OOC



## mkill (Feb 25, 2012)

_(Note to forumgoers: This game is invitation only)_

Dear members of the Book Club,

It is time to bring the band back together. If this is your first time to play online, don't despair. We're in the same boat, and we'll figure it out as we go along.

As a first step, please create an account on this forum and post here, so I know you are there. Also, if you have any comments, questions, requests and expectations, let me know so I can make the game fun for everyone.

The game I would like to invite you to is a continuation of our home campaign in the Jade Empire. These lands, once a mighty elven empire, have fallen under Orc occupation, but a small band of heroes has taken up the banner to free it.

* Organizational Part 1 *

We will use 4E rules. However, exploration, interaction and mysteries are much better suited to forum play than combat, so expect this game to be mostly about storytelling without much rules. However, there is a big war going on, so expect a big battle or two as we progress.

If you don't have a character in this campaign yet, please post a character concept here. We'll then figure out together how to fit you into the campaign. Feel free to pick any race, class or concept, I'll see how you can fit in. You can find some infos on our game world on the wiki. If you need more infos, ask here.

Since this is a forum, you can come and check posts any time. I know all of us are are busy working, so I'd say we set one post per day as the goal and see if that can work. If not, we'll try something else.

And by the way, this forum has an integrated dice roller. After you post, you can go back to your posting and click "add dice roll". It's kind of cool, try it out!

EDIT: Oh great, DM starts the campaign with an OWN.


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## Craig_H (Feb 27, 2012)

And...... I'm in.

Okay, my first thoughts character-wise were towards an eladrin,elf or half-elf star pact warlock. Kind of going with the fate aspect of Anthares (the gold dragon deity). Figuring they're an orphan (perhaps taken in by the cult/church of Anthares) that has drawn the attention of said cult/church for perhaps being guided and empowered by Anthares. He/she is certainly quite religous and has really started talking up the impending downfall of their orcish overlords and the return of freedom in the Jade Empire. That's an early thought anyhow.

Out of curiosity Martin, did you have a plan for how you wanted to generate ability scores? Just asking cause I'm trying to play with some character builds on the character builder.

Edit: Just playing with the dice roller. Seems pretty solid system.


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## mkill (Feb 27, 2012)

@craig : Sounds like a solid concept. It's definitely a character who would want to join this cause. Since the character is already Paragon-level, he (she?) would be either a really powerful child prodigy, or a seasoned veteran of the cause.
As for ability scores, we are using standard point buy from the book.

 All: Some general information to help you make characters:

_Races in the Jade Empire
_
The Jade Empire is located in the Northwest of a larger continent (did we ever give this one a name?). The Gold Dragon River cuts through the land from East to West. In the center lies Brodak-Baator, the old imperial city of the *elves*. Note that both elves and *eladrin* inhabit the Jade Empire. The races aren't distinctly separated, eladrin are merely elves with a strong innate arcane talent.

Elves worship the dragon gods. Strong devotees of the dragons are rumored to undergo a transition to become *dragonborn*. However, there are only very few of them, if they exist at all.

While elves make up the majority of the population, there is a minority of *halflings*, who have settled here for hundreds of years, although they migrated from the east.

With the orcish invasion came the *orcs*. However, to this day orcs remain a minority, and most of them are soldiers, mercenaries, menial laborers or petty criminals. There is a small elite, mostly the imperial family and high-ranking officers. The orcs mainly rely on corrupt old elven families to rule.

Even though orcs worship Baal, the demon lord, they are banned from becoming clergy. This position is reserved to *minotaurs*.

To the South lie the Diamond Spires, a towering mountain range that divides the Jade Empire from the Storm Plains. These mountains are home to *dwarves*. The Storm Plains to the south are a barren wilderness, with small pockets inhabited by orcs, minotaurs, dwarves, and *xeph*.

In the East, the Jade Empire is separated from Al'Mathka, land of the *genasi*, by the Jagged Peaks, another massive mountain range that is mainly inhabited by the Aftok, bird people.

To the north is an icy tundra, inhabited mainly by *shifters* and elven barbarian tribes.

The Jade Empire used to stretch all the way to the ocean in the west, but this area has been settled by *humans* who came to this continent over the sea. When the orcs destroyed the old empire, the humans claimed these lands as theirs, and founded Morrisland. The humans are technologically advanced, and are rumored to pilot gigantic war machines. They possess this technology thanks to *gnomes* who came with the settlers as engineers. The gnomes are also known to build *warforged*.


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## Albin (Feb 29, 2012)

*Finally registred!*

Hi all
Apologies for being awfully slow. 
I like the setting. As for character, I have not thought deeply about it and I have not been in the loop for the 4th edition, so I cannot be as specific as Craig. I can say that I quite liked my monk character in the eberron 3rd ed setting, but I am quite open for other suggestion on what would fit in best. 
Best, 
Albin


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## mkill (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi Albin,
The 4E monk works very different from the 3E monk. You can ignore that it's now a psionic class, the main difference is that they have a lot of powers that are a combination of special movement (jumps etc) and an attack. You can try it, but I'm not sure how you like the results. I haven't looked closer at the class myself, so I can't help much with it.

Don't worry too much about filling a party role or whatever. Well, if you want to, we don't have a leader type yet. That still gives you a wide range of choices between cleric, warlord, bard, sentinel druid, runepriest, artificer, shaman and ardent...

I also thought about your question about bringing another player. I'm all for it, but at the moment it looks hard enough to coordinate all existing members. Let's get this running first and then add more people.



Who plays what

Ste: Obsidian (Swordmage)
Lac: Liandurel (Invoker)
Jon: Styn (Sorcerer) / Threilen (?)
Cra: Warlock (?)
Joa: ?
Alb: Monk ?
Yv: ?


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## Craig_H (Mar 1, 2012)

I'll also throw in that my other thoughts for characters would be a warlord resistance leader type or a bardy diplomat/spy kind of guy.


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## mkill (Mar 2, 2012)

Craig_H said:


> I'll also throw in that my other thoughts for characters would be a warlord resistance leader type or a bardy diplomat/spy kind of guy.




These also sound good. Well, the hard part of being a player is to decide what to play.

For me, I just need a basic concept from everyone, maybe lines of text, so that I can start coming up with a way to bring you all into the campaign. Please come up with a character concept (3 lines of text) by Friday next week (*March 9th*) if you want to be in the first scene.

Who of you has a DDi account? If you have one, please make a character and upload the file to iplay4E. If not, we need a different solution. I'm fine if you find an Excel- or Word-based character sheet somewhere, fill it out and send me the file per email.

If you don't have any 4E books and no DDi account, tell me so we can figure something out.


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## lockwa (Mar 5, 2012)

*Salutations!*

Well, here I am, with an EN World account after years of silently lurking on the forums here! Just dropping a note to let you know I've arrived (my Internet connection is _finally_ set up!)

I'll get to work on digging up Liandurel and bumping him up to Level 11!


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## mkill (Mar 5, 2012)

Great to hear!

By the way, I recommend you find the "Thread tools" menu at the top of this thread box and click on "Subscribe to this thread" there. That way, you get email when someone posts here. Saves you from checking the forum.


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## lockwa (Mar 5, 2012)

*Liandurel Twiceborn*

For those who aren't as familiar, my character, Liandurel, was born an eladrin, but put himself through a ritual to become a dragonborn. He is a fierce devotee of Pyrecor, the Bronze Dragon god of Fire and Knowledge. As the game begins, Liandurel has taken the next step on his path toward the dragon gods, taking on the paragon path Scion of Arkhosia (basically, uber-dragonborn. Martin has some lore on his version of Arkhosia I believe).

His character sheet is up on iplay4e now and there's a lot more character background on the wiki. It's also fun (at least for me) to see how he evolved from 3.5 to 4e and how that effected his story!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is up to!


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## Craig_H (Mar 6, 2012)

*Eleniel*

Hi all,

Eleniel: Half-elf Warlock 11 (Doomsayer Paragon Path)

Eleniel was found as an infant by a cleric of Anthares after a particularly brutal orc attack on a small village several days ride from Brodak-Baator. With her parantage and existing fmaily unknown he took the child in and raised her himself. Not even knowing her true name he named her Eleniel after the brightest star in Anthares' star constellation.

As she grew up it seemed to all that Eleniel was blessed by the great gold dragon and she spent many nights staring at and talking to his constellation in the night sky. Soon she began talking to others of what Anthares had said to her and many around her believed that the child spoke truly as a messenger of Anthares. Some even murmured the title of Prophetess when speaking of her (but of course not where she could hear).

However as she grew older those around her could not help but to notice a growing sombreness (verging on darkness) in the formerly cheerful if somewhat serious child. Many have interpretted this change of disposition as being symbolic of Anthares own anger at what had been done to the elven people.

In recent years she has begun speaking of the imminent fall of the orcish empire and the coming of a reborn Jade Empire. The resistance movement has taken up her words as prophecy and have made Eleniel an important figurehead within the movement to inspire others. But many have noted that as she has grown in power the darkness within her continues to grow. But most take heart that if she can help bring about the fall of the orcs then perhaps the risk is worth it. And besides, she is only a half-elf. She may live longer than a human, but not that much longer. The darkness could be watched and endured for the greater good of elven kind...

Eleniel is an extremely well known figure within the resistance and few are unaffected by the power of her personality. She is an extremely accomplished public speaker and emmisary for the resistance. While all are moved by her words, none fail to notice the simmering darkness within her (if only subconsciously) and it perhaps keeps many from speaking against her.

*********************
Well that's my idea so far. Martin feel free to let me know what needs to change to better suit the campaign and the setting.

Her character sheet is up on iplay4e.


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## Joannah (Mar 8, 2012)

*Helloooo!*

I'm finally here and looking forward to gaming with you all again!

My character idea is Taryn Bol - female halfling rogue. Shadow Assassin paragon path

Taryn grew up in a small farming village to the north-east of Brodak-Baator. Her family was a quiet, hardworking halfling family that had taken the unusual step of settling down. Her parents had been travellers, but after many years of moving around they had found a place they wanted to call home. They had set up a small crop growing farm which supplied the surrounding village, and in times of plenty allowed them to trade with merchants in Brodak-Baator. 

It was one such year of plenty that saw a 17 year old Taryn tasked with taking a cart of grain in to town. She was pleased she had managed to get a good price for her grain, and was almost at the end of her two day journey home when she saw smoke in the distance. On reaching her family farm she discovered that all the silos had been ransacked, and her home was in flames. Attempts to find her family only ended with tragedy. Through the flames that were too strong to allow her passage she could see her entire family tied up with their throats cut in the middle of the house. 

She later discovered that a group of orcs had come to the town demanding all the food from all the farms in the area to feed their garrison. Her family was the first approached and when they refused, putting up a fight, they were gathered up and murdered as an example to the others in the village.

Since that day Taryn has done all she can to fight and destroy the orcs in any way possible to avenge her famiily. Although not strong, Taryn made the most of her size and skills spending several years becoming an expert in stealth and silent assassination. She is also not afraid of using some dirty tricks to get results. She has worked with some resistance fighters, but mainly worked alone as she often found others to be a hindrance to her stealth. More recently however, she has realised that she can't do it all on her own and has been looking for a group of like-minded adventurers to help her in her quest to destroy the orcs.

Taryn has dark hair and green eyes, and has a burn scar on her left forearm, which she is unafraid of people seeing as it is evidence of the cruelty of the orcs. She is generally quiet, but when it comes to orcs she can find it hard to control her rage and can become brash and overzealous. 

-------

There's Taryn. let me know if there's anything you need to help her fit in with the setting and the scenario. I'll upload her character sheet to iPlay. It's almost finished, but I haven't given her any special items yet.


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## mkill (Mar 8, 2012)

[MENTION=17941]craig[/MENTION], Jo: Thanks! Good work. 

I'll put the starting post up tomorrow, expect a new thread in the in-character section (I'll link it here and on facebook). Below some more info on the current situation.

The bard recounts...

_Half a year has passed since our heroes last took the scene. Winter has fallen over the Jade Empire, but few have the leisure to enjoy the scenery.

After open conflict broke out in the last year, small pockets of resistance have formed across the land, but the rebels lack the ressources, the logistics, and the leadership to form a united army. They have seen victories and defeat, but it does not appear as if the orc stranglehold over the country is waning yet. The resistance has tried to form a ring around the capital, and the orcs seem to answer with efforts to build new fortifications. 

The struggle has also attracted orc warbands and mercenaries from the Storm Plains, who are rumored to form a new force in the South. In the North, barbarian tribes from the tundra have used the opportunity to make smaller raids into the Empire, and the humans are encroaching from the West. Even the Avtok have tried to make inroads.
_


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## mkill (Mar 9, 2012)

In-character thread is up!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/319500-floating-city-character-part-1-a.html#post5845389


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## Soal (Mar 9, 2012)

Obsidian Zephymane, male Fire Genasi, Swordmage, born in Shemma in the  caliphate of Torik (NE Al'Mathka). He studied the Desert Wind and Child  of Shadow paths, and was granted the tiltle of Guardian by the  Vice-Caliph of Torik, requiring him to patrol the borders of the  Calipahte, watching and reporting. He rides a black salamander, Soal,  and wields twin scimitars.


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## mkill (Mar 9, 2012)

A picture of castle Stormoak...

The river is frozen right now, and there is snow on the roofs. The trees have no leaves. In other words, winter.


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## Craig_H (Mar 14, 2012)

*Internet problems...*

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay from Jo and I but we're having some ISP issues at the moment... Let's not talk about phone customer service and international outsourcing of labour right now. Sadly things which should take 20 seconds are taking more like 20 mins (or so). We'll try get on ASAP to keep things moving along (I'm at work at the moment). Fingers crossed our issues are resolved soon.


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## mkill (Mar 14, 2012)

Let's hope the gods of telecommunication will have mercy with you and the situation is fixed soon. Not sure if sacrificing a chicken can help.

If anyone wants to bridge the time while Craig's network connection is fixed, here is a cool thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i.html

Lord Gygax himself once came to this forum and answered questions! He sounds like a Cool Old Dude you'd like to have a beer with.


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## Craig_H (Mar 16, 2012)

And now we have no internet at all. We should be having a new ISP account set up at the moment but this could take 2-4 days...


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## Craig_H (Mar 26, 2012)

Well suffice to say that our internet issues continue but the connection has improved enough that we can at least log in from home now. We should be able to participate regularly now. At least until the next issue...


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