Welcome to the Reign of Winter (RoW) blog!
I hope this format will make it easy to not only look back a couple sessions as a recap, but to also look back months and years down the road to see the path of the adventure. Of course it will be fun at 12th level to look way back and remember who met an icy death at 1st or 2nd after sending their miniatures to Sri Lanka to be painted (insert evil DM laugh) :-)
A small bit of background info for anyone reading this down the road: I didn't reveal the exact adventure path I'd be running to any of the players prior to the first session. They had to create a character without any specific knowledge of what was to come. I did this to keep the element of surprise, but also to keep people from being tempted into creating a character who was optimized for an adventure that they (the character) had no idea was on the horizon.
Future posts will feature a session recap from a particular character's point of view (written by the player), and then additional info and graphics provided by me, the DM, to round out the synopsis.
I can't wait to see the new characters in action in the months and years (gulp) ahead!
- Mark (that guy that was laughing above).
Below is a list of the players and their characters' backgrounds.
Keith & Fritz:
Sadobras and his companion Dalomar were the scouting party for their offshoot band of nomadic halflings (Sadobras) and sylphs (Dalomar), the Savannah Walkers. Upon returning from an extended scouting mission, the two friends found that their entire community was gone. Vanished without a trace. There was no sign of bloodshed and no sign of imminent departure. They were simply gone! The two scouts were at a loss to determine where their kin went and began wandering the realm in search of their lost clan.
During their many travels, they eventually fell in with another band of travelers, the Varisian Wanderers, and resumed their roles as scouts. Due to their traumatic experience with their own people, both are extremely fanatical in their attempts to keep their adopted family safe from harm. They no longer pursue extended scouting missions, realizing that too much time away from the group could have undesired consequences. The only thing more powerful than their loyalty to their group is their loyalty to each other. They have faced the very real possibility that they are the last of their respective kinds. Any contact with others like themselves would be of great interest and likely lead to complex social interactions.
Pierre:
Yoska comes from a long line of witches in the family. Young witch Zaz is her cousin. Their mothers were sisters. Yoska's mother, Ezmeralda, is not a true witch, but she acts as the midwife and healer in the clan. His father was a traveler from the North, a stranger only worth a one night stand.
Yoska had a talent for magic very early on. And he carried the mark of witchcraft, a lazy eye that wanders on its own. Things would happen around the toddler, mainly frozen objects. It got worse as he got older. Kids would stay away from him, out of safety. Only Zaz was brave enough to play with him. His mother started to place tattoos on him, pouring all her love as wards. It boosted his confidence, and incidents subsided. But people were still weary of him. Being alone so often, he started playing with an imaginary friend he called Yana. The cold and the snow never bothered him, he would often play in the snow with Yana long after the other kids were safely back by the hearth. When he was of age, he was placed in the care of the clan's hedge wizard to get a grip on his magics. He learned to control magic, but he was not so interested in studies. He liked to practice the blade games with the other boys. Yoska was good and the boys finally accepted him for who he was. A tattooed teenager with an imaginary friend and a creepy lazy eye.
Age: 19; Height: 6'2"; Weight: 180; tall trim and skinny frame. Tan skin, ponytailed jet black hair, one green eye one black eye (lazy)
Eli:
Zaaz was born on the road and grew up in the wagons. Her mother became harrower of her clan and Zaaz learned intrigue literally at her mother’s knee. At age 13 Zaaz was assisting her mother while she was bargaining with a spirit for knowledge to help the clan when her mother cracked and killed herself. Zaaz can't seem to recall what knowledge it was that drove her mother to take her own life. Her fellow travelers found her shivering by her mothers side. On that day her hair started coming in ivory white and the cold never touched her like most others. The birth tattoos that she had solidified as well giving her a strange icicle looking tattoo under her right eye and a mystic pattern above her eyes. Though Zaaz doesn’t remember making a bargain herself that day, she found that she could draw forth magic and make it do her bidding. While Zaaz is essentially good, her patron power seems to delight in misfortune and deception.
Zaaz is determined to someday take her mother’s place as harrower for the clan. She knows she has a long way to go and is anxious to gain experience that will stead her well in her quest. She also seeks to learn more about her powers and what they can do.
Zaaz is also close with her cousin Yuska in the clan, a Magus with odd freezing abilities.
Chris
Not all souls go directly to the outer plans when they die, many get lost in the Realm of Dreams.
Sobolan was a half-elven child who was stricken with plague.
During his last few days of fevered dreams he manifested lucid dreaming
and was able to enter plane of dreams. During one night he saved another
dreamer (one of the pcs?) who was being poached by a Night Hag, using
his near limitless child imagination. He was able to disrupt the Night Hags, nightmare
attack causing her enough frustration to find prey elsewhere.
A passing Azata witnessed this event (knowing the child was drying) and gave the child a seed that would take him to Elysium and let his soul rest there, the Azata did not wish the child to fall prey to another Night Hag or worse.
The next night the child dreamed he planted the seed, a crystal tree sprouted opening a dream gate to Elysium. He was greeted by the same Azata who gave him the seed. Seeing the child was in his last hours he gave him a tour of Elysium and told him this would be his new home. The child grew frustrated, sad angry and through force of imagination being able to link dream to physical substance manifested his dream powers on the plane of Elysium. Not wanting this mortals potential to go to waste the Azata offered the child a choice in one hand presented some ambrosia cider which would protect his soul and allow him to live in Elysium forever and the other hand a chrysalis a new opportunity at life and adventure.
The child chose the chrysalis waking up in a crystal cacoon that purged his being with holy fire of the sickness, creating a new body in the process. During the time it took the body to develop the child spent much time traversing the dream world and Elysium being mentored by the Azata and training his powers.
A year passed the crystal cracked and a furry Rat boy emerged with 3 gems upon his forehead. Still the disease was powerful and left his new body weak, small and lame.
He found his village decimated by the plague, those that survived must have fled.
So off he goes to find a new family, while at night he searches the dream world for his lost family guiding there souls to Elysium as he finds them.
His summoner powers and spells are his manifestation of the dreamworld crafted by his imagination. His summons and Eidolons are his friends family, and lost souls he has guided to salvation in the realm of dreams. He found the group not by chance but by meeting them in dreams and perhaps guided all the members together. Now his new adventure begins.
