Crown of Embers

A tale of Zyathe
By the graces of Glastria and Zyphria, blessed and protected by Kaakeon
and with the permission of the Lord-Wizard Gondrifus Enderfer of the sapphire
tower of the Dunport.

This scroll indicates the bearer has paid for passage onboard the airship
"Cloud's Rest", under the captainship of Es'tonza Tolezara. to the undersigned
destination. Room and board is to be granted based on availability and the
captain's personal policy. Being late is ill advised

Destination: Darkenhaven, West Verdestia

Concepts: I have book lets called the "Player's Primer" regarding the setting that I can hand out
with relative ease, but I do want them back. Since most people I'm sending this too are good
about actually making adventurers and decent character concepts, I don't feel the need to hold
your hands too much. Rather, you tell me what you want to do, and I will find ways to fit them
into the world. Please note that that Zyathe is the kind of world where more traditional Eurpoean
fantasy can walk alongside with the Samurai of L5R, the latin/italian feel of Braavos and even
the african-esque feel of Raybearer with relative ease. I advise everyone to give me a whole
bunch of ideas I can play with, as I plan my games around player creativity just as much if not
more than a wider plot. The only thing I aask is that your character be, for one reason or another
onboard an airship heading to the city of Darkenhaven, a major population center in the
Zyranthean Republic in the north-western land mass with the inlet sea below, West Verdestia.

RULES
CHARACTER GENERATION: So I gotta give credit to my boy Matt for this idea. We won't be
rolling for stats. Rather, you will be telling me about your character, and I will be telling YOU
what your stats are. In case you think my scores are unsatisfying though, I will be giving people
d4+2 extra stat points. Every character will start with a bonus feat, as well. This means that
Variant Humans will start with two bonus feats. Please make an actual character, not a
description of how awesome they are. In addition, as a favor to me, please talk with each other to
ensure that there is a reasonable race-class balance with as little overlap as possible. Zyathe has a
bunch of honking races, yall can work something out. Speaking of which...

RACE CHOICES: The following are races you can choose without me signing off on. Human
(either normal or variant), Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-elf, Half-Orc. In addition, Zyathe
has a few unique races that fall into this camp as well. Sarth, Myruun, Fay'aree, Goruun, Aethyr,
Ordrin, and Half-ogres. Tieflings, Aasimar, Dragonborn and other planetouched demi-human
types are disallowed, as such things are being replaced by the mechanic below.

BLOOD-TOUCHED: The primary source of magic, the Everflow (or the Zyanthuus, to use its
academic name) has become distorted since being touched by the bleakest of beings in the
Nether War and divided into four distinct flows in the afermath of the Woe of Ruin. In very rare
occasions this distortion leaves its "mark" on individuals. This phenomenon is known as the
Blood-Touch, and is the cause of much fear and superstition across Zyathe.
I am making a few modifications to the way blood-touches work for three main reasons. One, I
really, really like this concept. Two, as you all know I quite like giving players a certain amount
of say over their characters. Three, I've come to believe out that plane-touched beings like
Genasi, Aasimar and Tieflings (especially Tieflings) are a bit... problematic to use as a race
analogy as my view on fantasy evolves.
There are three main catagories of Blood-touch; Elemental, Biological, and Deific. These are
further divided into ten specific blood touches, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Fey, Draconic, Abyssal,
Equissal, Havenal, and Nether. Under no circumstances will a player character gain a Nether
Blood-touch (rather naughty sounding, that). It is so rare as to almost be unheard of to begin
with, and very few who are infused with the corruption of AvovA's creation survive for long.
At the start of the game, you can choose to sacrifice your bonus stat points and feat, see character
generation above, to have a single Blood-Touch of your choice. The reason why is because
having a Blood-Touch gives you access to powers, although each also has some drawbacks as
you grow in power. Even if you choose not to do this, there is a small chance (a secret roll I
make based on your race, class and general power level) that your character has a blood-touch,
potentially even multiple blood-touches, without you needing to make this sacrifice.
Being blood-touched at all can be immensely dangerous in certain parts of the world, as it is a
recent phenomenon that remains poorly understood and only started appearing after the Woe of
Ruin. As such, many blood-touched people's, or parents of blood-touched children, use many
means to conceal their mystic ties. Magic, Surgery, alchemical solutions, all of these are on the
table for concealing the physiological signs of a blood touch.
If you are uninterested in or bothered by the blood-touch concept, you may choose to opt out of
it at character creation entirely with no penalty.

BONUSES: This is a pretty high fantasy campaign, and all players will be starting out a bit
tougher than average. All spellcasting classes gain three 1st level spell slots. For the
comparitively smaller number of classes in D&D that DON'T cast spells of any kind, Barbarian,
Fighter, Monk and Rogue, we will discuss giving you an equivalent bonus of some kind. This is
WIDE open for discussion but could be extra stat bonuses, fighting styles, a free blood-touch of
your choice, or even some magic item at the start.

Second, very early on in the campaign (basically immediately) your party will get their hands on
a unique magic item that will provide a few party-wide healing spells and capabilities. The
purpose of this, and the former bonuses, are to reduce the need for resting, ensure your characters
don't need to spend all their money on health potions, and ensure that divine spellcasters get to
do more interesting things with their spell-slots than heal exclusively without the party getting
pissed at them.

Lastly, given that I use milestone level ups, we will be using a system called "Interlevel
rewards". Basically, whenever such things are suitably earned, through roleplay, cleverness,
triumph or other things that should be encouraged, the player will earn certain types of rewards,
most commonly either temporary hit points or inspiration, but sometimes Honor points,
Reputation points, Hero points, or Fate points. These will be represented by special markers.
Green
Honor points, the most common type, give you an automatic success on a reasonable check
provided you can explain how what you are doing ties into your alignment. Green.
Reputation points give you advantage on every charisma check you make during an extended
interaction with an NPC and immediately make them more receptive to what you're trying to
accomplish. Blue.
Hero Points grant you the best possible result when you are attempting to do something
heroically reasonable, such as leaping a chasm that is a bit too far to be crossed, holding up a
falling gate, getting a max heal or automatically hitting and doing max damage at a crucial
moment in the fight. These are intented to be used for badass, heroic, swashbuckly nonsense,
such as swinging across on a fraying rope to grab a fallen comrade and swinging back before
they get swallowed by a giant demonic toad. Get fun with it. Red.
Fate Points, the rarest of all, allow you to reasonably alter an outcome or event. Some examples
are Automatically succeeding a saving throw, changing the effect of a missed save, eliminating
the effects of a critical failure, and reducing or eliminating a single spell effect, effects of trap or
attack. In effect, these are a "get out of screwed free" card. Black.
The more engaged, descriptive and attentive you are, the more of these points you will get. But
they will by no means be common rewards.

SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Magic detection: There is a spell called Mask Magic that can be used to counter detect magic. It's
not exactly a particularly rare effect, but neither is it terribly common. The simple reason why is
for most people it's much easier to just do the thin sheet of lead or inch of metal. However, Mask
Magic is a thing that exists and is a favorite of reasonably powerful spellcasters who build their
own lairs. Mask magic is a 1st level spell that masks the mystic aura of an object for a number of
days equal to the spellcasters caster level. In addition, there is a 6th level spell called Permanent
Mask Magic which does the same thing but permanently for the cost of a one-inch-thick metal
container that could hold whatever the item is of proportional value to the items power. So an
uncommon magic item could get away with a simple box of iron, but a legendary item would
need a container of solid gold studded with intricately laid gemstones.
Rez Penalty: To counter my relative kindness with healing, should your character die, your
characters resurrection will make them lose one point of constituion permanently. There may
also be consequences depending on what happened "on the other side" so to speak. This will not
effect your characters hit point total, just the bonus going forward.

Money: Most of my players know I'm not the biggest fan D&D's default money system.
However, I've been trying to find a system to make it more enjoyable and easy to manage
without either breaking my game or becoming this thing that the players just sit on hordes of
without spending it on anything. So Money in this game is going to work VERY differently. Here
is the new rule of thumb. Money in Zyathe will better equate to real-world values to allow for
both easier on the fly bartering and raise the relative size of treasure hordes to something much
cooler. It also gives the poor electrum pieces something to actually DO.

Copper pieces: 1 dollar or under.

Silver pieces: 5 dollar.
Electrum pieces: 10 dollars.
Gold pieces: 20 dollars.
Platinum pieces: 100 dollars.

Now, generally, we don’t really have to look up anything in the book to know that a poor laborer
would make about 75 Golds a month (or around $1,500), a common worker would make around
125 Golds per month (or like $2,500), a skilled laborer perhaps 150 to 250 Golds per month
(around $3,000 to $5,000), an artisan or merchant, maybe 200 to 500 (or more) Golds a month
(so $4,000 to $10,000), and rich dudes would make what rich dudes make. Please note that these
values may in some places by higher or lower, depending on the location. This is a good rule of
thumb, however, for your average medium-sized town. Please note that the book prices for
weapons, armor, and other such "equipment" crafted items will be staying intact. This is more
about general monetary value. However, getting good craftsmanship on those items may be more
expensive. In fact, you will likely notice that this makes EVERYTHING more expensive. Please
note there will be proportionally larger amounts of coin, but nevertheless, If you want discounts
or free shit? Roleplay. Barter. Make friends with shopkeeps.

In addition, there will be things you need to spend money on outside of room, board, upkeep and
repairs. The world is aware of the wealth adventurers can find, and the taxman will find you.
Depending on where you are, this price can be anywhere from pretty average (20%, generally
what the treasure hordes you find will be built around) To "fuck this Sherriff of Nottingham
Bullshit" (70% and up). Sometimes your horses may die. Sometimes your wagon may catch fire.
A base of operations costs money. Honestly, most things cost money.

If yall want to offset the taxman without being hunted down like very wealthy dogs, the easiest
way is to unionize! And by that, I mean join one of the six adventurers guilds. Joining a guild
costs only 50 gold and 10% of the annual take of your party. You will also gain a variety of
bonuses resources including information, artisans and researchers, plot hooks, paying missions
and even exceptionally good legal protection. The six guilds are rivals, and there is much bad
blood between them.
Opening businesses, investing in friends and other such moneymaking tricks can ensure yall get
very wealthy, very quickly.

JOBS: Speaking of wealthy, I recommend yall choose some people to handle the following
responsibilities. This is not just for your benefit, but for mine, since having people to help with
the bookkeeping will be helpful for me.

Banker: Self explanitory. Party funds, total take, Etc. Could also convert party funds to modern
money to make everybody feel super good about themselves.

Timekeeper: Zyathe has a unique calendar. Probably the easiest job on this list, since it literally
comes down to ticking off boxes.

Lorekeeper: Hey, are you a major slut for lore? Write that shit down for the party!

Journalist: Writing down current objectives, plot points and other stuff can make the party's life
much easier.