Post by DM Windhover on Feb 4, 2016 23:11:06 GMT
A combination world-building/campaign idea. I don't see myself doing much with it anytime soon, as I have other worlds and campaigns I'm working on, but I love the basic idea and bet that you Blockheads can add a lot to it.
There is a hospitable earth-sized moon orbiting a Jupiter-sized gas giant, which in turn orbits its star. The combination of heat radiation from the gas giant and the sun made the planet lush and fertile. Great civilizations rose up and lived beneath the light of the sun and the bright blue orb of the planet around which they revolved--a blue orb they called the Eye of God. But one day, a devastating impact strikes the moon, wiping out all life in an entire hemisphere and creating a cloud of dust which blocks out the sky, super-tsunamis which wipe out coastal settlements on the far side of the globe, and all forms of devastating natural disaster one could imagine. The only ones to survive are those who lived on the continent furthest from the impact, and even among those it is a scattered remnant.
Worst of all, though, the impact had interrupted the orbit of the moon. It became tidally locked to the gas giant, so that for those in the least devastated continent, the Eye of God became a permanent fixture in the sky. And the increase in radiation began to heat that side of the planet more and more. Ultimately the only way to survive was to leave by ship, and hope to find a new home on the islands which were all that remained of the shattered landmasses on the far side of the world--the Shards of Artos.
Civilization rebuilds itself in the Shards. The land is colder than it had once been but not unbearable, and people manage to make do. The sun rises and sets every morning, but no sign can ever be seen of the great gas giant which dominates the sky on the other side of the world. Millennia pass. People forget, as they always do, the tales they had once been told by their ancestors. Truth passes into myth and fairy tale. Warnings that no sailor must ever sail beyond sight of the islands, let he anger the gods. Belief that the world is flat, and those who sail too far will be swept off the face of the earth. Tales of an angry deity who destroyed the world through fire and flood, but saved a remnant to rebuild, led by Naxios the Unbroken, the mythical founder of all the Artosian races.
And one day, more than ten thousand years after the great Cataclysm has passed out of memory, a group of treasure hunters (the PCs) stumble upon an ancient tomb buried deep beneath the ground. The walls are covered in engravings in an ancient language. Eventually they are able to translate the text, which tells the story of an ancient leader who led the remnants of his people from a distant land to make a new home. The story of the real Naxios. And what they read will change their lives forever, leading them on a quest to sail across the sea and discover the broken remains of an ancient civilization still living under the Eye of God--and the monstrous creatures which have claimed it as their home.
If I ever do run this game, my plan will be to have the PCs have no idea about the world's backstory at all. Let them get to know the world for a while doing minor adventures, and it's basically a totally generic fantasy world. Mention that the night sky has no moon, just stars. Have NPCs talk about the tales of Naxios, the world being flat, etc. Then at around level 5 hit them with the discovery of Naxios' tomb, and when they're sailing to discover the lost continent they'll reach a certain point when the lookout thinks he sees land on the horizon. But then it starts to rise--not land, but the massive rim of a bright blue orb with a dark swirl at the center, dominating the sky. It's a cool image.
And I love the idea of the PCs encountering pretty generic low-fantasy stuff on the "habitable" side of the moon, but when the campaign really gets going they'll be entering into a hot, arid, desolate landscape filled with ancient ruins and full of creatures that the actual characters would never have heard of or dreamed of: the mutated and deranged remnants of an basically alien ecosystem which was almost entirely wiped out tens of thousands of years ago.
What do you guys think? I do hope to run this game someday, and I'd love to get input on ideas I can add. Beyond adventure and discovery, what information in the tomb would lead the adventurers to drop everything and try to find the lost continent? I've had vague ideas about the old civilization having been more technologically and/or magically advanced, and so there's a specific artifact they need to find or something. And what kind of D&D creatures would work well as mutated horrors from an arid and desolate land?
"Those who live forever beneath the Eye of God cannot help but go mad."
~Inscription found in an ancient tomb
There is a hospitable earth-sized moon orbiting a Jupiter-sized gas giant, which in turn orbits its star. The combination of heat radiation from the gas giant and the sun made the planet lush and fertile. Great civilizations rose up and lived beneath the light of the sun and the bright blue orb of the planet around which they revolved--a blue orb they called the Eye of God. But one day, a devastating impact strikes the moon, wiping out all life in an entire hemisphere and creating a cloud of dust which blocks out the sky, super-tsunamis which wipe out coastal settlements on the far side of the globe, and all forms of devastating natural disaster one could imagine. The only ones to survive are those who lived on the continent furthest from the impact, and even among those it is a scattered remnant.
Worst of all, though, the impact had interrupted the orbit of the moon. It became tidally locked to the gas giant, so that for those in the least devastated continent, the Eye of God became a permanent fixture in the sky. And the increase in radiation began to heat that side of the planet more and more. Ultimately the only way to survive was to leave by ship, and hope to find a new home on the islands which were all that remained of the shattered landmasses on the far side of the world--the Shards of Artos.
Civilization rebuilds itself in the Shards. The land is colder than it had once been but not unbearable, and people manage to make do. The sun rises and sets every morning, but no sign can ever be seen of the great gas giant which dominates the sky on the other side of the world. Millennia pass. People forget, as they always do, the tales they had once been told by their ancestors. Truth passes into myth and fairy tale. Warnings that no sailor must ever sail beyond sight of the islands, let he anger the gods. Belief that the world is flat, and those who sail too far will be swept off the face of the earth. Tales of an angry deity who destroyed the world through fire and flood, but saved a remnant to rebuild, led by Naxios the Unbroken, the mythical founder of all the Artosian races.
And one day, more than ten thousand years after the great Cataclysm has passed out of memory, a group of treasure hunters (the PCs) stumble upon an ancient tomb buried deep beneath the ground. The walls are covered in engravings in an ancient language. Eventually they are able to translate the text, which tells the story of an ancient leader who led the remnants of his people from a distant land to make a new home. The story of the real Naxios. And what they read will change their lives forever, leading them on a quest to sail across the sea and discover the broken remains of an ancient civilization still living under the Eye of God--and the monstrous creatures which have claimed it as their home.
If I ever do run this game, my plan will be to have the PCs have no idea about the world's backstory at all. Let them get to know the world for a while doing minor adventures, and it's basically a totally generic fantasy world. Mention that the night sky has no moon, just stars. Have NPCs talk about the tales of Naxios, the world being flat, etc. Then at around level 5 hit them with the discovery of Naxios' tomb, and when they're sailing to discover the lost continent they'll reach a certain point when the lookout thinks he sees land on the horizon. But then it starts to rise--not land, but the massive rim of a bright blue orb with a dark swirl at the center, dominating the sky. It's a cool image.
And I love the idea of the PCs encountering pretty generic low-fantasy stuff on the "habitable" side of the moon, but when the campaign really gets going they'll be entering into a hot, arid, desolate landscape filled with ancient ruins and full of creatures that the actual characters would never have heard of or dreamed of: the mutated and deranged remnants of an basically alien ecosystem which was almost entirely wiped out tens of thousands of years ago.
What do you guys think? I do hope to run this game someday, and I'd love to get input on ideas I can add. Beyond adventure and discovery, what information in the tomb would lead the adventurers to drop everything and try to find the lost continent? I've had vague ideas about the old civilization having been more technologically and/or magically advanced, and so there's a specific artifact they need to find or something. And what kind of D&D creatures would work well as mutated horrors from an arid and desolate land?
