[D&D-5e] Once More and Three They Go

[roaddog41]

Plot Summary Five hundred years ago the multiverse was splintered by a cataclysmic event referred to as the Breaking. Today the peoples are found within the city of New Dawn, a dimensionally stabilized portion of the material plane created by the arch-mage Kilfierie during the Breaking. The populace is sustained by massive vertical farms run by magic and sweat, and protected by massive shields that hold chaos at bay. Eternal light, eclipsed on occasion by vast stretches of unimaginable creation just to the other side of the shields. In the center of New Dawn is the Portal of Many Moons, a strange and mystical artifact that can take a chosen few to other locations. Magic and power can be found there, but it is rarely free or easy to acquire. The party has been chosen to explore the Portal of Many Moons, the first time it has been active in nearly twenty years. Will their explorations be fruitful? Will they bring back needed power to keep their families safe, or will the trials prove too much for them?

The city of New Dawn rests within of a bubble of reality adrift in a cosmic sea of chaos. It does not make sense to consider the city from the outside since no known being can do so; instead, we consider the city from its center and moving outwards in all directions. New Dawn is built around a partially underground reservoir that provides all the city's water as well as several foodstuffs and basic manufacturing goods. This water is pumped everywhere throughout the city, making pipes and aqueducts key features of New Dawn's architecture. Space is at a premium within New Dawn, and none is wasted where a productive use can be found. Buildings are often open air with cloth hangings taking the place of non-structural walls. Likewise, stairs are a waste of space with ropes, ladders, and removable walkways taking their place throughout the city.

Wrapped around the reservoir like a glove lies the Inner Ring a district of the city made up solely of agriculture and aquaculture. Nearly half of the food eaten within New Dawn is grown here as well as limited spices, medicinal herbs, and sugarcane. The sugar is nice to eat, but it is the distillation of sugar that is the real goal. Life within New Dawn would be unbearable without the Rum and Guaro that are the only available beverage other than plain water or goat’s milk. The farms reach from the very bottom of new dawn up nearly ten stories. throughout their hush priests and druids work their magics to ensure maximum production while artificers and engineers ensure steady flow of nutrients and water. The various sprayers and heat generated in these farms she called new dawn at a slightly too hot temperature and with just a bit too much humidity. A small price to pay for life.

Raw food and goods move out into a district known as the Lower Markets. Most of New Dawn's people are located here within the Lower Markets. from bakers to carpenters to distilleries through weavers, all can be found within the twisting twining walkways of Lower Markets. Most live above or within their shops, with upper floors providing housing to laborers and farmers. This is the oldest part of New Dawn and is always under construction. The oldest buildings are made of stone no doubt rescued from before the break while anything newer is made of wood or thinner materials. Few buildings are freestanding most sharing a wall with their nearest neighbors. While alleyways are nonexistent so too are thoroughfares, with every street feeling cramped and dark. What color there is comes from flowers planted in nearly every home, planted in basins or little bits of soil. Honeybees flit from flower to flower making even these decorations productive, harvestable honey and natural aid in fertilizing crops.

On one edge of the Lower Markets rests a semicircle area known as the High Market although in truth there is very little to buy or sell here. Instead, this is the seat of government in New Dawn. Here can be found a pair of tall churches, the first to the pantheon of gods good and honorable and the second to the pantheon of gods whose wrath the people hope to avoid. Worship is sparse but honest, with small sacrifices left at one or both temples in times of joy or hardship. Few priests can be found during the working day as their skills are needed to keep the mechanisms of New Dawn running. Also found here is the Academy, where those with arcane talents can be trained and the University where the intellectuals can learn the crafts needed to keep the complex engineering of New Dawn functional.

Wrapped around the City is the Outer Ring, a second layer of agriculture and aquaculture that creates the wood needed for the city to survive, as well as grain crops and the few domesticated animals within New Dawn. Goats and chickens wander around tight thickets of bamboo or larger trees carefully grown to harvest, chased away from grain fields by boys and girls whose fingers are busy in a thousand small tasks suitable for their age. Once they are ready, many of the children will take up a trade or begin work within the more dangerous Inner Ring.


A few things of note:
-Alleyways are practically non-existent, and buildings often share walls. Given the constant weather, hot and damp without rain or wind, cloth is used as a barrier in most cases where a wall would not be load bearing. Dye is a rare luxury, leaving the color of these cloths a near uniform gray stained by use.
-Since there are no large beast of burden in New Dawn carts and wagons are rarely used, and when they are they are pulled by teams of men rather than animals. Rather than make use of wheel-barrows or other such tools brute force is used, preferred by the residents to finding a hoist every few yards. As for goats well you try convincing a goat to let itself be hoisted up or down a dozen times a day.
-Magic is common, but carefully applied (see Magic Essence below). If these is a non-magical method of doing something it will be used over the magical version. For example, while magical healing is readily available a single healing potion contains enough magic to feed a family of four for a week.
-Wasting resources is the ultimate social crime, and such an exile may find themselves vanishing in the night.

Game Name Once More and Three They Go

Game System DnD 5e

Theme Meta, Dungeon crawling, Post-apocalyptic

Flavour Distopian Society, Episodic, Dark

Application Character Name: Character Race/Class: Personality: Appearance: Character Goals: Player Goals:

Mechanical Details Characters will begin the game at lvl 3 with access to low level minions and inexpensive low level magic items/consumables. Characters should not be created before the game starts.

[Embrodak]

Application Character Name:Alegra Race: Half-Elf Class: Warlock (Celestial) - Pack of the Tome Personality: There is nothing more that Alegra loves, but a good Mystery. She is driven by learning the new. It could be a new book, freshly scribed arriving at the library, or a new experience of hiking to a rarely seen glade and being one of the few sentient beings to see a waterfall. Alignment:NG Appearance:Alegra is a young woman of average height (5'6") usually covered in well tailored robes. She has green eyes, a chestnut-brown skin tone, and shoulder length blond hair shaved into an undercut on the left, flowing down her right side. She usually has it trimmed neatly and has a splash of color (currently red). She wears multiple silver rings on her exposed ear, and her left eye brow has a part in it from a childhood accident. Character Goals: To find new knowledge, both magical and mundane that can help explain the Breaking and what lays beyond the veil of chaos. Player Goals:To have fun with a blast from the past.

[Zangul]

Name: Lilith
Race:Human
Class: Barbarian (Path of the Storm Herald)
Personality: Lilith is head strong in her virtues, free spirited, and fights for what she thinks is right. She doesn't like to see others that she cares about get hurt, and stands up for the weak.

[zevonian]

Saw that you had returned to the site, welcome back. You have any restrictions on character alignment or sourcebooks used?

[roaddog41]

Zevonian, thank you for the welcome. I am relatively new to 5e so I ask that you note any no core stuff. Otherwise no restrictions on sources.

No alignment restrictions other than the caveat that if you wish to play a murder hobo please don't hurt other people's enjoyment of the game.

[WildJessi]

Character Name: : Animal in the Woods (Woods is nickname) of The Evading Jungles Clan
Race: Tabaxi
Class: Ranger (Archetype - Horizon Walker)
Personality: While most of her kind stays at their homeland, a third of them are possessed with an innate curiosity, that compels them to travel and seek out stories, artifacts, history with new experience and knowledge. Knowledge they can never seem to get enough of, for while enjoying planning a mission, once they obtain an item, they study it until they learn all they can, they forget about it and move on to something else that intrigues them.. Woods was one of them and left her homeland to became an adventurer. Wary of strangers at first meeting, but gradually opens up after. While happy in seclusion, she is also happy to mingle with others. One quirk that she has is, when on her down time, she has a small ball of yarn that constantly she fidgets with.

Appearance: 6 1/2 feet tall and slender build. Her body covered in spotted fur with a light yellow color with a long tail. Her right eye is yellow and her left eye is green. She looks almost like a leopard standing up. Covered in woodsman clothing, blending in with the forest, with a pair of swords and a bow at her back. She easily passes for a ranger.

Character Goals: Woods love to hunt for unusual and powerful things and learn about them. So when the opportunity to enter a portal of a mystical artifact that can take her to other locations to find magic and power and perhaps great knowledge. well, she just couldn't turn that down.

Player Goals: Have fun with others

[GleefulNihilism]

Can you tell us more about the world? Where are the Gods in all this?

[I'm sort of imagining that most if not all of them are quite dead, but seems like it would help to ask. :P]

[triedtherest]

Are Artificers allowed?

[roaddog41]

More info definitely coming. The gods are more Eberronesq than Faerun, so don't expect any of them to show up in person. It could certainly be believed that some or all of the gods are dead or injured given the broken state of reality.

@triedtherest
I don't see why not, however that you felt you had to ask leads me to ask you. Do you believe playing an artificer would hurt the setting or the game?

[Rune Knight]

How long ago was the Breaking?

[triedtherest]

Originally Posted by roaddog41

More info definitely coming. The gods are more Eberronesq than Faerun, so don't expect any of them to show up in person. It could certainly be believed that some or all of the gods are dead or injured given the broken state of reality.

@triedtherest
I don't see why not, however that you felt you had to ask leads me to ask you. Do you believe playing an artificer would hurt the setting or the game?

Personally, I feel that the Steampunk nature of the Artificer lends itself well to a Post-apocalyptic setting, but I also admit to being a little biased in favour of the Artificer in most cases.

I had to ask because you have the final say in what fits in your World, and not every GM/DM is keen on allowing the Artificer.

[girlplay]

@RoadDog: Could you tell us more about the city of New Dawn and its culture? That would help me think up character concepts that actually fit into the setting.

Also, what posting rate do you hope for?

At the moment, I'm leaning towards some kind of warrior-type.

[triedtherest]

Spanners Alias: "Spanners" Real Name: Cuthbert d'Cannith III Race: Human, Mark of Making (If allowed) Alignment: Lawful Neutral Class: Artificer (Artillerist) Age: 28 Personality: He has an industrious, rather than energetic, nature. He is always doing something, usually building, repairing, or modifying something, even when he's in the middle of something else, like a conversation. He tries to downplay his family connections with the rest of the Group, but is in no way shy about using any of his connections to get something the Group needs (usually information). He also hates his first name, and prefers to be referred to by his Alias of "Spanners." Backstory: The Cannith family established themselves in New Dawn more than two hundred years ago. Using their family-secret techniques they had acquired before the Breaking (some stories say from another world, but that's just hearsay) they quickly monopolised the higher-end crafting market. In those early days, they boasted a higher than usual concentration of Artificers, but their numbers dwindled, in fact, Spanners is the first Artificer in the family for three generations, and it all occurred after he defied his father.... Over twelve years ago, the Cannth shipments to outlying sectors were being disrupted by bandits along the trade routes, this had eaten into the House profits so much that if the following shipment failed to get through, then that route would be shut down indefinitely. Cuthbert d'Cannith III (as he was then known) wanted to escort the shipment, reasoning that the thieves would not expect a "Mark", and his devices could make a Marked (Hah!) difference. Cuthbert d'Cannith Jr (his father) would not hear of it, and sent him back to his Workshop. He, off course, disobeyed, and joined the caravan disguised as a driver. His father was furious when he realised, and bribed an official in the Guards, to send out a force of his men to intercept the caravan. They Guards smelled the battle before they saw it, or at least they smelled the smoke! Cuthbert III had rigged up a device that could shoot vials of Alchemist's Fire at high velocity and range, but it had only fired a few times before breaking, later analysis would reveal it to be a Wand of Catapult. It had been enough to turn the fight, the remainder were being sniped at by the young Cannith with some kind of fire-spitting rod. The remaining thieves were taken into custody by the guards, who were later discovered to have been working for a Cannith-rival, the Forever Trading Company. And that is how he fell out with his father, and came to the attention of the New Dawn Special Operations Committee. Background: Guild Merchant Personality Traits: I always want to know how things work and I like to talk at length about my profession. Ideal: Community. It is the duty of all civilized people to strengthen the bonds of community and the security of civilization. (Lawful) Bond: I owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person I am today. Flaw: I'm never satisfied with what I have – I always want more. Character Goals: Gain Knowledge, Wealth and Respect on his own terms, and by his own hand. Player Goals: Have a fun and cooperative Game

[morgantha]

Application Character Name: Langtree Character Race/Class: Wood Elf Circle of the Moon Druid Personality: Quiet and aloof but cheerful, Langtree prefers to stand back and help her fellows shine. Perhaps this could be misconstrued as laziness, but underneath she is a calculated planner and is often thinking ahead. Though she is slow to anger, when provoked she attacks fiercely and is known by friends and family to hold petty grudges from time to time. She has a strong sense of justice and though she may not always be right, she defends herself and her companions with slow, stalwart determination. Naturally, as a druid, she has a soft spot for beasts of all types. Appearance: Langtree has tan skin, pale hair, and dark eyes. She is most often found in plain dress conducive to moving around with many pockets for specimens hidden in the folds and sleeves. She stands at 5'4" and is a little plumper than a typical elf. Her pointed ears are hidden under her hair. Character Goals: Langtree believes the Breaking to be the biggest tragedy to befall the natural world, point blank. She also has a strong suspicion that people caused it doing something they shouldn't have. She feels that it is her duty (in fact, it's everyone's duty, just some people don't seem to care much about that) to restore some semblance of balance. Plus, who doesn't love a good adventure? Player Goals: It's been a hot minute since I've done any pbp so I am pumped to get into it. I prefer collaborative/rp slanted games but I enjoy a good fistfight too.

[Hal Hammerhand]

@RoadDog: How are said 'Heroes' chosen to go into the portal? A lottery or handpicked based on credentials or ....?