James – Half-orc barbarian that exaggerates everything

- Secluded nomadic but intelligent tribe

- Wandering people
- Lots of nature, may have traded with dwarves
- Encountered and lived with giants for a time
- Half-Giant, Half-Orc
- Reddish complexion
- Reasonably Muscular
- No shirt
- Canvas pants
- Basic supplies
- Greataxe slung around the back
- Carries around dirty book: Looking to find more. Grognac the Barbarian has slayed
demons, kings, and dragons.
- Hork comes from a Shepherds and Nomads of Tribe
- Bright-eyed at “city things” and finds them exciting
- Has glasses for reading -

Character Quest: Find comics and gain feats

Fred – Street-gang fighting tiefling wizard that has a problem with heights and vertigo
- Hermit
- Grew up in Mage’s Guild under the head mage, Rabican
- Mother taken by the armies of the Dark – The Fallen Lords
- Spellbook with black pages
- Rabican captured by The Fallen Lords sorcerer The Deceiver
- Fred chased by another trooper, The Watcher
- Met with Rabican’s ally, Maeldun
- Fred to spend life in solidarity, isolated in The Cloudspine (Northern Mountains)
- Maeldun killed. Find map with a new land and coordinates to Rabican’s secret 2nd
Library

Find Ruins, gain access to Rabican’s library for spells and ways to fight The Fallen Lords

Cordell – Hill dwarf druid integrated into nature

- Fairbanks O’Brennahey
- Swarthy skin
- Black hair
- 4’6”, 150, 45 yo
- Charlatan background
- Personality: Disreputable, Liar, Unlucky
- Ideals: Money
- Bonds: Money
- Flaws: Slow learner
- Forced into the druidic arts (swindled by an old man) after wanting to pursue economics
 - Thought he was teaching economics but was teaching druidic arts
- Criminal
- Hill Dwarf, Entrepreneur, Criminal
- Plan of robbing someone

Entrepreneur and stuff

Ian?
Keith?

ADVENTURE TIME
Overarching Premise: Tasked with escorting an ancient relic to an obscure temple for
promise of rewards, riches, or salvation

Setting
Continent of Silmair
The Elmyrian Empire – Capitol = Karstagg

Far to the East, across the ocean, is The Seven Gates – A kingdom where Fred is from that is
currently being overrun by The Fallen Lords’ armies.

Important Factions/Figures
His royal majesty, Emperor Bravor von Elmyr

The Church of Lathandar (NG, God of Birth & Renewal, Road traveling into a sunrise)
The Matriarch + Council
Much more about helping the weak and poor, healing, magic

The Coalition of Tyr (LG, God of Justice, Balanced scales resting on a Warhammer)
The Sovereign + Judges (Justiciars) from FF XII,
More militaristic and supporting army of the Emperor

The Fallen Lords – (CE) Invading army of Darkness

Currently in the land East, Seven Gates
Presence not currently known by most folk in Silmair
Infiltrating The Elmyrian Empire
Hook: Start on a boat to the mainland that gets raided by pirates
All looking for work and adventure on the mainland
Hired as random workhands on the boat
Dragon flies overhead
Group of religious guys secretly escorting a black blox
“Keep it secret, tell no one. Take it to the ___ Church”
Arrive in Port Town
Chance to do fun stuff

Go exploring!

Forest camp with fireflies

Get captured by Savages (like WoW trolls)

MAIN OUTLINE
Create world, major conflicts, nations, geography
Plot Hooks

- Lathandar’s Relic
- The Militant Coalition
- The Bloody Red Pirate attacks
- Hill Giant disturbances (and the associated Red Dragon)
- Ruins of Silmair
Group cohesion

SIDES
The Bloody Red Pirate Attacks

Hill Giant Troubles

- Hill Giant tribe in Southern Silmair – Un’Goro Gok Tribe
- Having problem with the dragon nearby – Yarhargul the Ancient
- First scene: Seeing the remnants of a Kraken brutally murdered and devoured on the beach
and Yahargul flying away from it

Ruins of Silmair
- All provide access to Rabican’s 2nd library
- Each ruin represents the history of all of the fallen religions/gods in Silmair and outlines
the current tug-of-war of power/influence between The Church of Lathandar and The
Coalition of Tyr

The Undercity
- Thieves and black market
Issues of Grognac the Barbarian
- Stories and progression, cliffhangers, epic art
- Give a feat
Opening – Boat Time
You sail toward the continent of Silmair, the mainland of the Elmyrian Empire, the land of
adventure and opportunity

Setting
Boat – Bismarck Water – Cerulean Seas Destination – Havenport

Descriptors
- Salty sea-breeze brushes your face
- The large wooden boat rhythmically bobs up and down with large drawn-out creaking
sounds
- Bright sunny day, scatterings of soft clouds journeying with your boat
- Hoarse shouts of crewman and the ship’s captain barking orders

NPCs
Bismarck
- Captain Hector Stormhammer – Surly dwarf, eyepatch, clampy hand
o Scruffy black beard peppered with gray
o Motive: Safe transport of the Empire’s goods (Writs of passage, trade agreements)

- First-Mate Rho-Gar Dead-Leg – stumped wooden leg, once taken by a great shark
o Bald, gray-green skin, muscular, tribal tattoos
o Motive: Protection of the ship

- Reinholt Zeal – Veteran and ship’s cook, agent of the pirates

o Always cheerful but realistic
 o Medium length brown hair, rich emerald eyes, trimmed beard
o Motive: Lay low and sneak info to the pirates

Notable Passengers
- Priestess Hadniel of the Church of Lathandar – on a secret, sacred quest to deliver
something to the capitol
o Half-elf with mid-length purple hair in a ponytail
o Dressed in plain tan traveler robes
o Accompanied by 2 guardian clerics [Kaiem and Argoth] dressed in white and
leather (to look sort of uniformy but also not stand out)
o Transporting a small, perfectly smooth box that is darker than black
o Motive: Church blessings, uphold the Church practices, but LAY LOW and deliver
the “Sacred Relic”

- Eustass Helmbearer (if needed)

o Motive: Get out of Seven Gates and make it to land of promise, Silmair

- Sea-Legs Surly
o

Enemies
The Bloody Red Pirates – sails with the colors of a Red Bloodied Hand
All wear red something
- Captain Sadler “The Bloodied” Cooper
o Red headband
o Dirty, scraggly brown beard steeped in a mix of sea-water and rum
o Motive: Plunder!

Events
- Red Dragon Sighting

- Tasks
o Sweeping the decks
o Taking food to the captain’s quarters and seeing Hadniel
o Crow’s nest
 What’s on the horizon? Chance to write the story yourself
 Island? Kazaks
o Cooking
o Rolling up/down the sails
o Rowing
o Stocking the cannons
o Fishing
 - Ale in the hull/crew quarters

- Storm night:
o "Dark clouds on the horizon. Looks like a storm tonight."
o Storm comes sooner than thought, roused from your sleep, everyone rushes to the
deck
o Shouted orders against the roaring winds and torrent of rain.
o "FURL THE SAILS, CLEAR THE DECK (of cannons, barrels, etc)"
o Failing on the sails whips the rope out of other sailor's hands and they try to beat
you after storm settles
o Participants thrown into the brig for the rest of the night

Pirate Attack

Have Hadniel help out each party member and urge them on
- Have heart, Hork, harness Grognac’s power
- Stand tall, Fairbanks. Remember your dreams and goals
- Mauriac, dispel your dark thoughts and push forward. You will overcome
these obstacles
- Heals the injured
- Gets injured

Those that won’t help:

- Half-elf passenger that was accused of stealing
- Reinholt

Pirate (CR 1/8: 25 XP) Pirate Entangler

HP: 6 AC: 11 (CR 1/8: 25 XP)
Hit +1 SPD: 30 HP: 5 AC: 12
Hit +1 SPD: 30
Scimitar: 1d6
Flint Pistol: 1d4+1, 30’ Bolas: 1d6, 25’, STR DC 14
or entangle
Knife: 1d4

End Options
- Escape the pirates
- Get overwhelmed by storm
- Kraken attack!
- Captured by pirates and thrown over (OR MAYBE JOIN?)

Davenport – fishing
Undercity – thieves and blackmarket

Transition
Eventually find Hadniel wounded and dying
Gives black box

“Trust… no one. Take it to the Church and the Sun Maiden… Please… I beg of you…”

Shipwreck of Bismarck
- Can eventually be found on a beach
- Wreckage and splinters, large crack down the hull in the middle transversely
- Remnants of one chest in the now dilapidated captain’s quarters containing Writs of
Passage and Trade for Elmyrian Empire, has the Empire’s Crest
- Corpses of pirates, sailors, and passengers
- Being pillaged by 2 Sahuagin
o Very greedy Sahuagin (CR 1/2: 100 XP)
o Susceptible to intimidation HP: 22 AC: 12
o Worship Shark God Sekolah Hit +3 SPD: 30, Swim 40
o Dragging off a corpse(?) in a net to be
sacrificed to shark god “Trident”: 1d8, 20’/60’
o Claws: 1d4+1
Net: DEX DC 14 or entangled, 30’

Weak to Lightning
Davenport – Port of Beginnings

Info
- Fishing & Trading
- Quite bustling
- Migrant workers and residents\
- Modest village
- Currently overwhelmed by pirates attacking ships

The Bloody Red Pirates

- Plague of the Cerulean Seas
- Stealing cargo
- Trade routes threatened
- Supplies and survivability dwindling
- Can be slain or somehow negotiated with a reluctant
Karshen

Notable People
Karshen of Alune Carlsbad Hammerhand
Tall older elf lady dressed in a grassy
Desc Edgy and strong features, older
green-yellow robe
Occupation Leader of Davenport Blacksmith / Innkeeper
Voice/
Gentle and smooth Aussie
Personality
Protect Davenport esp from pirates,
Serve his customers! But has very
Goal facilitate more trade/keeping ports
limited supplies
open
Always walks stiffly with an overly
Quirk Wears dirty spectacles
straight back
Good at making decisions /
Flaw negotiating but not actual maritime Alcoholic & Cowardly
work

Places
- The Salty Seadog: Inn & Bar

The Bloody Red Pirates

- Conflict with some guys claiming to be pirates – Mathes and Morin
- Trying to bully other residents and demand free food/drink
 - Have merely heard rumors of a cove frequented by the pirates
Undercity Connections - Dirks the Tiefling
- transporter of illicit goods from various ships to the capitol
- Needs some help transporting goods (100 g now, gold once in the capitol).

NEXT STUFF
DINNER WITH Karshen
1. Discuss problems in town
2. Get interrogated by Leo-Galen
a. Why are you here?
b. Where’s Lathandar’s Priestess?

Island Adventures
Like Ixalan and Monster Hunter
Jagras, dinosaurs,
Goals
Most Fun Playing an RPG?
J: Balance of activities – exploring, social, and combat. Generally, when everyone is in it and the
story gets ridiculous. DM having enough details and the players just running with it

After action review: Summarize what we did, loot, XP. Small stuff in between adventures between
sessions

F: Whatever, random improv stuff. The ridiculous, things that play out

C: Combat, exploring dungeons, dealing with random NPCs

Not enjoy: Skill check everything – slows things down, keep it moving forward
Too much exposition
Fight between the orcs and caravan
Changed up roles with the manor
Situations where people don’t know how to proceed and improvise

Story/Tone
- Epic?
- Exploration?
- Social?
- Mystery?
- Megadungeon Crawler?

Just have a good quest storyline (I might make it more open-ended)

Settings
- Size
- Central Hub or Journey
- Climate and variety?
- What’s common and uncommon? Low magic, many dragons, many races etc

Table/House/Game Rules?
Imma just make calls and figure stuff out later – GO WITH DA FLOW
In party conflicts?
Splitting up?
How much are you willing to let your character die?
J: First day
C: Ok
F:

What’s more important? Winning or a cool story?

J/C/F: Story

Options/Restrictions
- Evil?
Do we want to establish the glue, what keeps the party together?
Motivation & Avoiding Conflict
Common goal? All want to build & own a ______
Common employer?

Players/Characters
Starting Level
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/83zl5y/how_i_write_adventures_a_short_explanat
ory_guide/

==== Example Plot A: The princess of Kingdom Awesome has been kidnapped.
 Quest Giver(s): Royalty, Sign-posts, etc
 Backstory Connection: Player A has a cousin who is accused of being a kidnapper
 Mysteries: Where was the princess taken? Who took her? Why?
 Connection to other Plots: The only person who knows the location of Princess is Underworld
Boss X. He won’t reveal it unless the problem of Plot B is handled.
 Time Sensitive Aspect: A note was found saying that the Princess will be killed in 3 days if money
is not paid.
 Plot Twist: The Princess was not kidnapped, she ran away from an arranged marriage.
 Plot Twist: Player A’s cousin is the secret lover of the Princess.
 Dramatic Moment: Player A’s cousin will join the party midway through the adventure and will
die prior to finding the Princess.
 Dramatic Moment: The Princess will break down crying when she discovers what happened to
Player A’s cousin.
 Clues to Twist: The Arranged Marriage Prince talks about how much he wants his betrothed back,
but won’t go himself, he will instead send his “best man” to help.
 Clues to Twist: When they find Player A’s cousin, he will have handkerchief of the Princess on
him, which was given before they parted company from each other.
 Seeds for future Plot A: Best Man is carrying a vial of poison, which will eventually be the same
poison used in an attempted assassination of the Princess.
 Reward: The King will grant them each an item of powerful magic if they get the Princess safely
returned.
Online DND 5e Session Zero

Schedule & Times

J: Fridays and weekends
C: Weekends, flexible
F: Late nights – Sundays after 2
Session Length: 2-3 hrs

System: DND 5e
Adjuncts: Unearthed Arcana – if reasonable? Spells & items from EE/SCA/Xanathar/Volo
Roll20 – maps and minimally