Campaigns; Children of the Gods (Campaign Seeds)

author: Joseph Carriker
email: druid@swordsorcery.com
date: 2003-08-26 (added 2003-09-02)
status: finished

Hey, folks. What follows is a "campaign seed." When I am prepping to run a game, I usually write up a couple things like this and let the players read through them and choose which ones they want to play. It usually starts with a bit of "in-character" stuff, followed by the details of the game itself.

Use and abuse as you like:

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My Child ?

Long you have studied here, learning the ways and the wills of the gods. You have far surpassed most who entered the cloister and temple with you, and I have watched you with great expectation and hope in my heart.

But the time for your sheltered learning is at an end, and the beginning of the most important challenge you have ever faced is at hand. In the northern reaches of the Haggard Hills lies a stretch of land that is called Marath's Fall.

Once, this stretch of land, like the rest of the Haggard Hills, was home to nothing but miles of dry, cracked clay, mildly poisonous streams and a few scrawny rabbits. But that was before the druids of the Ganjus came. At the site of a great battle of the Divine War where fell the champion Marath the Iron, they worked a powerful magic.

Now, there is life in these hills. But only hard work and constant vigilance sustains it. Unfortunately, their numbers are too small to care for all of the areas they have transformed thusly, and they sought help. Some ten years ago, they contacted many places ? Amalthea, Mithril, Vesh and many other nations ? with word that those who sought to own the land they worked might find it here. In that decade, a small circle of farming hamlets has grown up around the area. The druids worked hard to make it livable and more importantly sustainable, even summoning great elementals to craft a channel from the springs that feed Denev's Aquifer that the people may have fresh water.

But the folk of Marath's Fall have fallen on difficult times and the druids are scarce able to lend aid any longer, for they have other worries, concerns which keep them closer to the mighty Ganjus. To this end, the people have sent cries for help to our temples and we are sending them aid.

I have spoken with the patriarchs of the other temples and we have agreed to pool our resources and build a grand temple. There is a stretch of land directly in the center of Marath's Falls. This site, a holy place of the druids and a place of power, is to be the site of the new temple. We have the permission of the druids to use this place, and their pledge to aid us where they may.

The five hamlets of Marath's Falls need you. Too long they have made do with what the druids might aid them with, and with tiny shrines to the gods. They have clung to their faith, despite the difficulties their lives have brought them. We owe them a place of respite, a place of solace. A place of the gods. Will you build it?

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WELCOME TO MARATH'S FALL

Five hamlets of folk struggling to create a new home in a once-desolate land, Marath's Fall is on the razor's edge of survival. It is only through the hard work and blessings of the druids of the Ganjus that this place has managed to survive against the dry and poisonous land of the Haggard Hills for as long as it has. And now, the druids cannot come to the aid of Marath's Fall the way it once was, and the dusty Haggard Hills have already reclaimed several acres of farmland once more.

Into this desperate place come the children of the gods, a collection of divine servants, to aid the people. The first task is to build a mighty temple to serve as a center both spiritual and defensive for this place. Then, it is up to them to assist the reclamation of Marath's Falls.

Are they up to the task?

THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS

The characters for this campaign should be built around the concepts of "temple servants." Several clerics is very appropriate, but this isn't necessarily a cleric-only campaign. All of the characters will, however, have their origins in service in a temple, be it a paladin or fighter temple-guard, a wizardly church arcanist or a roguish church diplomat. At least one of the characters should be a cleric, however ? in fact, more than one should be, given the fact that most of the temples would be most likely to send a cleric into this kind of situation. One PC may even play a druid sent by the Healing Circle druids to aid Marath's Falls.

The base assumption is that the PCs all hail from various temples, but if everyone wants to, they can all choose to come from a single temple to one god, in which case the temple to be erected is devoted to that god alone. I will leave this up to the players.

Characters will be 5th level, and I'd prefer predominantly good and neutral characters (mainly because the clergy of many of the evil gods would have little interest in aiding this particular endeavor).

Resources for feats, spells and equipment include the core rulebooks, the Players Guide series, Malhavoc Press' Book of Hallowed Might and Books of Eldritch Might series and any other books from the Scarred Lands line (particularly the Relics & Rituals and The Divine & the Defeated books).

THE TEMPLE

We as a group will design the temple; the total resources available to the group is 70,000 gp worth of building materials and volunteered labor. We will be using the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook.

CAMPAIGN DIRECTION

The early part of the campaign will deal with getting the temple built, ministering to the people of Marath's Fall and helping them survive the ordeals of the Haggard Hills (from drought to horrible weather to monsters). Once the temple is built and things are a bit more stable, some exploration of the surrounding areas (including perhaps the founding of new hamlets) maybe in order. Additionally, the final battle of Marath will have some repercussions here as well.