GNOMES!
Seeing as there's exciting stuff going on and it's been about three months since my last D&D update...
The game's been going on for almost a year out-of-game, about 15 months in-game. During the first leg, the players went on this big trip across the world on behalf of the big naval country, Whelan, to ask the most prestigious wizarding school in the world, the University of Poitionne, for ships to go fight the fish-Nazis (aka Sahuagins). They went to go plead their case to the head of the school, also named Poitionne, only to find out that a representative from the big agricultural country, Shijai, was there to negotiate exactly the opposite. The representative, eldest son of the infamous General Shibuya, said that Whelan was exaggerating how big of a threat the Sahuagins were and were using this as an excuse to build up their armies more. Which to be fair they probably are, but its better than Sahuagin-lead mass genocides, right?
Shit happened, and the players ended up thwarting an attempted coup against Poitionne by a Sahuagin spy at the school (who later went on to kill off most of the player's crew with a single spell). In return, Poitionne makes the following concession: he won't give Whelan the top-of-the-line Warships outright, but if Whelan agrees to provide an absurdly large number of gnomish slaves to do all the labor, he'll agree to build the ships and send wizards to fight alongside them in the coming battle. Shibuya is pissed, insisting that Poitionne shouldn't even be humoring Whelan over this, and leaves in a huff.
Gnome slaves are pretty damned rare, it turns out. Their entire race was created by the Gods exclusively to serve the Dwarves, who live underground on a faraway continent that they share with the Elves. The Elves are pretty open about slave trade, buying and selling their Halflings relatively freely, which is what has lead to the expansion of slavery into the rest of the world. The Dwarves, on the other hand, tend to keep their Gnomes mostly to themselves, taking relatively good care of them and protecting them from the outside. Gnomes are better-suited for skilled work involving crafting and magic, but given how short the supply is the slave industry as a whole tends to focus more widespread of Halflings.
Poitionne's deal changes everything. Whereas before the only ones who had any interest in the more-expensive and harder to come by Gnomes were the big spellcasting institutions, all of a sudden the increased demand from Whelan (seeking to honor the deal) and from Shijai (whose new "research and development" project is a thinly-veiled attempt to keep the Gnomes out of Whelan's hands) causes the price of Gnomes to sky-rocket.
The players get their hands on two gnomes of their own: twins, Gimble and Bangle, who have been on the run from slavers and for sanctuary join the players' crew. It turns out that the two of them are from Gungran Und, the great Dwarven port where all Ironclads are built, but ran away after stealing a small 2-man submarine (Aparatus of Kwalish) from the shipyard. They tag along while the players go on a bunch of quests, eventually leading up to their return home to stand trial.
Right in the middle of the trial, an Inevitable shows up and starts smashing things up: a Marut, which is a big intelligent iron construct which serves the Three Gods of Birth, Life, and Death. He was locked in suspended animation in the caves under Gungran Und, but was woken up by some of the work the players needed done to their items by Dwarven Artisans. Which is as good a time as any to brag about the five great artifacts I made to give the players each their own superpower:
FOR THE ARCTIC BERSERKER: The Spear of Amak, which she's been questing for ever since being exiled from her homeland. Her quest isn't over though--there are also eight talismans which contributes to the spear's power, one for each of the eight tribes descended from Amak, of which she only has four.
FOR THE DRUID/ELEMENTALIST: The Wind Lord's Ring, given to her in the afterlife by the most powerful Air Elemental who ever lived, named appropriately "Wind". It builds up charges over time, and she can spend them to summon bigger and bigger Air Elementals.
FOR THE PALADIN OF VALOR: A special helm from his God that lets him be invincible for a number of turns per day. He gets to flat out ignore damage while its on and keep fighting past the point that should normally kill him, and he can choose to take damage for other people while he's in this state too.
FOR THE CLERIC OF THE WANDERING STAR: A holy symbol given to him by the Star, Himself. It turns out that the Star is none other than Bahamut, the Dragon God of Good, and the symbol has the power to grant its bearer various abilities of dragons.
And saving the best/most relevant for last, FOR THE ROGUE FROM WHELAN: a one-of-a-kind Intelligent Warship (made by the same Dwarven Artificer that made the Intelligent armor he's been wearing for most of the game now), complete with Adamantine plating, an experimental engine comparable to the Theurgeme's that the University of Poitionne is making, and a Super Cannon capable of firing Disintegration beams.
So about that Marut... it turns out that the Three are an incredibly jealous God, not letting anyone else create new forms of life besides themself. Eighty years ago, when they found out that the artificer was trying to make intelligent items, they sent it after him, only for him to strip away its Intelligence and bind it into the very items they were trying to stop him from making. In retaliation, the Three sent their most powerful fighting force, the Tribunal: a team of twelve Marut to hold the Dwarven port hostage until the artificer agreed to leave in their custody.
No sooner have the players gotten their items fixed and a deal signed to let Poitionne borrow Gnomes from the Dwarves, when they get an urgent dispatch from Poitionne. Shibuya, having broken his oath in failing to prevent the deal and since been forced to atone, has teamed up with a powerful druid, Phong, to lay siege to the school/city of Poitionne. The druid, in league with Oiseaux and Vogel from way before, is making a desperate push to keep Professor Wolfe from creating that new race of Shifters he's been working on; Shibuya's just out for revenge.
At their disposal, they've got a fleet of 30 ships with about 1500 Samurai on board, and Phong called in a bunch of favors to scrounge up a full tribunal of Marut. To stop them, the Players have their own special artifacts, the combined resources of the whole wizarding school, and 15 levels of inventory and experience. It's an epic battle worthy of the big season finale: The Battle of Poitionne begins!
The game's been going on for almost a year out-of-game, about 15 months in-game. During the first leg, the players went on this big trip across the world on behalf of the big naval country, Whelan, to ask the most prestigious wizarding school in the world, the University of Poitionne, for ships to go fight the fish-Nazis (aka Sahuagins). They went to go plead their case to the head of the school, also named Poitionne, only to find out that a representative from the big agricultural country, Shijai, was there to negotiate exactly the opposite. The representative, eldest son of the infamous General Shibuya, said that Whelan was exaggerating how big of a threat the Sahuagins were and were using this as an excuse to build up their armies more. Which to be fair they probably are, but its better than Sahuagin-lead mass genocides, right?
Shit happened, and the players ended up thwarting an attempted coup against Poitionne by a Sahuagin spy at the school (who later went on to kill off most of the player's crew with a single spell). In return, Poitionne makes the following concession: he won't give Whelan the top-of-the-line Warships outright, but if Whelan agrees to provide an absurdly large number of gnomish slaves to do all the labor, he'll agree to build the ships and send wizards to fight alongside them in the coming battle. Shibuya is pissed, insisting that Poitionne shouldn't even be humoring Whelan over this, and leaves in a huff.
Gnome slaves are pretty damned rare, it turns out. Their entire race was created by the Gods exclusively to serve the Dwarves, who live underground on a faraway continent that they share with the Elves. The Elves are pretty open about slave trade, buying and selling their Halflings relatively freely, which is what has lead to the expansion of slavery into the rest of the world. The Dwarves, on the other hand, tend to keep their Gnomes mostly to themselves, taking relatively good care of them and protecting them from the outside. Gnomes are better-suited for skilled work involving crafting and magic, but given how short the supply is the slave industry as a whole tends to focus more widespread of Halflings.
Poitionne's deal changes everything. Whereas before the only ones who had any interest in the more-expensive and harder to come by Gnomes were the big spellcasting institutions, all of a sudden the increased demand from Whelan (seeking to honor the deal) and from Shijai (whose new "research and development" project is a thinly-veiled attempt to keep the Gnomes out of Whelan's hands) causes the price of Gnomes to sky-rocket.
The players get their hands on two gnomes of their own: twins, Gimble and Bangle, who have been on the run from slavers and for sanctuary join the players' crew. It turns out that the two of them are from Gungran Und, the great Dwarven port where all Ironclads are built, but ran away after stealing a small 2-man submarine (Aparatus of Kwalish) from the shipyard. They tag along while the players go on a bunch of quests, eventually leading up to their return home to stand trial.
Right in the middle of the trial, an Inevitable shows up and starts smashing things up: a Marut, which is a big intelligent iron construct which serves the Three Gods of Birth, Life, and Death. He was locked in suspended animation in the caves under Gungran Und, but was woken up by some of the work the players needed done to their items by Dwarven Artisans. Which is as good a time as any to brag about the five great artifacts I made to give the players each their own superpower:
FOR THE ARCTIC BERSERKER: The Spear of Amak, which she's been questing for ever since being exiled from her homeland. Her quest isn't over though--there are also eight talismans which contributes to the spear's power, one for each of the eight tribes descended from Amak, of which she only has four.
FOR THE DRUID/ELEMENTALIST: The Wind Lord's Ring, given to her in the afterlife by the most powerful Air Elemental who ever lived, named appropriately "Wind". It builds up charges over time, and she can spend them to summon bigger and bigger Air Elementals.
FOR THE PALADIN OF VALOR: A special helm from his God that lets him be invincible for a number of turns per day. He gets to flat out ignore damage while its on and keep fighting past the point that should normally kill him, and he can choose to take damage for other people while he's in this state too.
FOR THE CLERIC OF THE WANDERING STAR: A holy symbol given to him by the Star, Himself. It turns out that the Star is none other than Bahamut, the Dragon God of Good, and the symbol has the power to grant its bearer various abilities of dragons.
And saving the best/most relevant for last, FOR THE ROGUE FROM WHELAN: a one-of-a-kind Intelligent Warship (made by the same Dwarven Artificer that made the Intelligent armor he's been wearing for most of the game now), complete with Adamantine plating, an experimental engine comparable to the Theurgeme's that the University of Poitionne is making, and a Super Cannon capable of firing Disintegration beams.
So about that Marut... it turns out that the Three are an incredibly jealous God, not letting anyone else create new forms of life besides themself. Eighty years ago, when they found out that the artificer was trying to make intelligent items, they sent it after him, only for him to strip away its Intelligence and bind it into the very items they were trying to stop him from making. In retaliation, the Three sent their most powerful fighting force, the Tribunal: a team of twelve Marut to hold the Dwarven port hostage until the artificer agreed to leave in their custody.
No sooner have the players gotten their items fixed and a deal signed to let Poitionne borrow Gnomes from the Dwarves, when they get an urgent dispatch from Poitionne. Shibuya, having broken his oath in failing to prevent the deal and since been forced to atone, has teamed up with a powerful druid, Phong, to lay siege to the school/city of Poitionne. The druid, in league with Oiseaux and Vogel from way before, is making a desperate push to keep Professor Wolfe from creating that new race of Shifters he's been working on; Shibuya's just out for revenge.
At their disposal, they've got a fleet of 30 ships with about 1500 Samurai on board, and Phong called in a bunch of favors to scrounge up a full tribunal of Marut. To stop them, the Players have their own special artifacts, the combined resources of the whole wizarding school, and 15 levels of inventory and experience. It's an epic battle worthy of the big season finale: The Battle of Poitionne begins!