It's that time again.  No, it's not already August 2013, but it doesn't matter thanks to the miracle of technology!  Walpurgis part 3 will be run over the Internet.  Specifically, www.roll20.net.  Everyone will need to sign up for it (it's free), and we will all need to do a test run before we run the game.  Should all go well, we will finish this campaign, and I will be moving on to a brand-new game.

As before, this game is run under specific character creation rules.  We will be rolling over to Pathfinder, so read carefully.  Some import issues will arise, and I'd like to work things out ahead of time.  So if you run into problems such as carrying over an item that has properties that don't exist in Pathfinder, let me know.

This game will not be allowing in new players.  All those who played either Part 1 or 2 are invited to join once again.  Due to the nature of where the game left off, it will be impossible to jump a new player/character into the story at any juncture from here on out.

Game-Specific Rulesets

1. All characters are to be created and set to level 10 as per Pathfinder rules.  This can and will result in class builds radically different from the character's old D&D profile.  For gameplay purposes, the differences will not be alluded to in-character.  Treat the character as if s/he always had these abilities.

2. Standard Pathfinder conversions apply.  The following in-house classes will also be available: Hero, Gray Guard.

3. Alignment Restrictions: All Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral are allowed.  All other alignments are disallowed.

4. Alignment-Restricted Classes: Alignment restriction: Evil is waived on any classes with this restriction.  Abilities or skills remain as-is (meaning you don't get to change Smite Good to Smite Evil).  Any classes with Alignment Restriction: Chaotic Neutral are disallowed.

5. Any spell, ability, or item with an associated XP cost has the cost converted to GPx2.  This stacks with any existing GP cost (if any).

6. Any spell, ability or item that drains/grants levels or XP are disallowed.

7. Pathfinder Rules and books trump D&D in all situations.  If an applicable Pathfinder rule cannot be found for any issue/gameplay mechanic, the D&D rule may apply at DM discretion.

8. General catch-all rule.  As DM, I reserve the right to adjust the modified ruleset or override Pathfinder/D&D rules as necessary.

9. Any issues with character creation due to the changeover to Pathfinder needs to be resolved before the game starts.  Due to the fact that I'm a few thousand miles south of everyone, if you need to contact me, you can get my home phone number from Paladin.  For obvious reasons, I won't be posting it publicly.

I would like to be able to play this game sometime in the next 2 months, depending on peoples' schedules.  I will go forward with the game if we can get at least 4 out of the 6 players onboard.  If I can get a rough estimation of everyone's schedules, we can start planning ahead to make this happen.

Information about roll20.net will go here

The World

Eden is a younger world, whose population came here only three thousand years ago from another, now-forgotten world, in an event called the Great Exodus, or the First Exodus.  What is known/believed is that an old war, with great magic and technology scorched the old world, and the survivors escaped to Eden to create a new life for themselves.  As part of the effort to start over, they destroyed all knowledge of the old technology and high magic.  Over time, as the first settlers died, even the concepts of these old technologies and magics disappeared, with only tiny bits and pieces surviving, usually in the hands of local enclaves.

The first continent to be settled was Deklein, the largest of the three.  Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Drow are the main inhabitants of Deklein, as the Elves, Orcs, and bands of Human tribes eventually left and settled Feythabolis to the west.  The third continent, Paragon Soul, was considered too wild a frontier with extremely hostile native wildlife to be settled.  Over time, many nations flourished on Deklein and Feythabolis, and of course conflicts arose as local lords began expanding their influence and politics began to develop.

Politics, in this case, turn quite deadly and lead to invasions and wars of aggression, especially on Deklein.  Often when two lords' regions expand to butt up against one-another, on a long enough timeframe, one of two outcomes is all but inevitable: marriage and union, or invasion and conquest.  The end result is usually the same, with varying degrees of damage done.

On Feythabolis, the Elves tended to fall into one of two categories: reclusive Allthings that rarely travelled outside the bounds of their territory, and shunned outsiders (even other Elves), or more conventional soceities that have been influenced by, and influence, neighboring Human territories.  Though the various factions led to a great deal of regional skirmishes, in three thousand years Feythabolis has never seen war like Deklein has.

Until a hundred years ago, that is.

They appeared near the Equator, and immediately invaded the Human and Dwarven countries that resided there first.  Quickly, they fell to overwhelming numbers and superior tactics.  They were called demons with their leathery crimson wings and scales, they were like nothing that had ever been seen before.

The Original Timeframe (AKA Universe A)

The nations of Deklein heeded the distress call of their neighbors.  Together, the lords and commonfolk rallied under the banners of a select few who had the charisma and know-how to lead massive numbers of soldiers against their common foe.  The war lasted several brutal years, but the demons were beaten back to only a few strongholds, and the united forces sieged these places until they surrendered or died to starvation.  Usually the latter.  After this, the alliance of nations dissolved, but not without lasting changes.  The nations of Deklein set up a system of mutual defense where such things as border defense, conflic resolution, and so on, was no longer treated as issues among individual nations, but on the whole.  Eventually, even Feythabolis joined in this effort of joint-resolution to some extent.

Apocalypse (AKA Timeframe B)

The distress call of the occupied nations fell on mostly deaf ears.  Only a few kingdoms saw the true extent of the demons' conquest plans and fought back.  But without a strong, unified coalition, these nations' armies were soundly defeated, and the demons moved in on them next.  Other nations, fearing for their own safety, signed treaties with these otherworldly foes.  At first, they abided, but one by one, they used the treaties to outmaneuver the nations of Deklein.  After the first ten years, they held nearly a third of Deklein, and their numbers were only expanding.

The remaining nations forged a grand alliance to fight back, and waged great battles against the enemy.  Some successes were had, but ultimately these successes meant nothing, as the armies of these nations were slowly worn down, and as time went on, their own losses only accelerated, fighting seemingly endless numbers of new dragonkin.  After nearly eight years, the grand offensive was dead, and the dragonkin were poised to take greater amounts of territory.

Feythabolis was not immune to the war, either.  As they watched the horror unfold on Deklein, they made their own plans.  But they found that the dragonkin were far too quick and their own defenses were not ready when they came ashore unexpectedly twenty-two years into the conflict.  Much like Deklein, the nations of Feythabolis were not united.  The first invasions were eventually repelled, but not after their own heavy toll.  Several nations, especially on the eastern coast, were in no position to help with fighting on Deklein.  These attacks were carried out several more times over the next twenty years, with similar results each time.  Despite their attempts to bolster defenses, the simple truth was that Feythabolis was playing catch-up in terms of military innovation the whole time.  At the start, the biggest ships Feythabolis had were barely more than large fishing ships and the occasional passenger vessel.  Their weapons of war were laughably inadequate at best.  Despite having superior magical abilities, there was no stopping the real invasion.

In 1047, the invasion was well under way.  The dragonkin broke through the latest defenses, and took several beach heads along the eastern coast.  Pushing forward, they captured the capital of Malapis, Detorid along with several other major cities.  Over the next two years, they pushed further inland, overrunning Human, Orc and Elven nations with equal rapidity.

In 1049, everything changed.  In the middle of an attempted siege of Detorid by Human and Elven forces, the dragonkin brought their living deity into the world.  Its presence scorched the world in a cataclysm, rending all that lived.  After that year, civilization ceased.  A few pockets of survivors in secluded areas tried to eck out a living, but even they succumbed.  Without open skies, arable land, and no useful food supply, they died out over time.

Cataclysm Averted (AKA Timeframe C)

The summoning of Daimakaicho was stopped at Detorid.  The attacking Human and Elven forces were tipped off to the summoning, and redirected their attack to hit a previously unknown vital spot in the enemy defenses.  For the first time, the dragonkin were routed in a major battle on Feythabolis.  Forced to fall back out of the city, the Human and Elven attackers pressed the engagement and drove them far back.  For several years, the dragonkin were on the defensive on the continent.  However, constant reinforcements from Deklein allowed them to stop the counteroffensive, and the dragonkin eventually reoccupied the territories and were well on their way to owning Feythabolis as a whole.

In the meantime, Deklein was steadily falling as well.  Survivors from nations representing both continents began to settle on Paragon Soul, in a series of hidden townships.  At first, they merely desired to live away from the war and be left alone.  However, as more and more refugees found their way to Paragon Soul, it became clear they had no choice but to fight.

In an unparalleled alliance, everyone began to pour their knowledges and resources into the war effort.  Surprisingly, they found that everyone had bits and pieces of usable old magic and technologies that could help them.  Designs for newer warships, advanced weapons and magics were developed in rapidity.  New tactics, innovative abilities, and use of all these came together until Paragon Soul's first major naval engagement, which ended in a stunning victory over the dragonkin: the enemy flotilla of three thousand ships was destroyed to the last by a fleet of five hundred assault ships and galleons.  The range on Paragon Soul's weapons far outstripped their enemy, and their use of a small island chain for cover until the attack sealed the victory.  Even the dragonkin's flying attackers were shot down well before they could reach the armada.  In all, Paragon Soul lost only three ships, and less than five hundred died in the attack; in return, over fifty thousand dragonkin paid the cost.

Upon this victory, Paragon Soul took command of the oceans, an advantage they have held ever since.  This advantage was further exploited in 1078 when they rolled out their first flying Spelljammer warships: galleons modified and given the ability to fly.  With these ships, and later generations of Spelljammers, Paragon Soul has kept the enemy far away from their shores, and has continued to press war with the dragonkin.  However, these advantages came too late to save any of the nations of Deklein or Feythabolis; only a few years earlier, the dragonkin purged all remaining non-dragonkin from both continents.  Only Paragon Soul remained after that to continue to fight.

The dragonkin still badly outnumbered the Paragon army, several thousand to one, the general population of Paragon by more than eight to one.  It was determined in 1105 that Paragon Soul could hold out for a matter of years, and that it was only a matter of time before the dragonkin would simply overwhelm them with numbers like they did Feythabolis and Deklein.

Armageddon Horizon (AKA TImeframe D, where we begin)

Although the battle on Feythabolis was thought to have been lost, in the late 1060s, the Human and Orc tribes of the Stain Desert united under the banner of the first female Khal into a new Horde which rampaged throughout the northern and central portions of the continent.  Using technology from an unknown place, they were successful in trapping over two million gathered dragonkin in the city of Detorid, thus causing them to flee south, and the Horde established itself as the dominant power on the continent.

In less than ten years, Feythabolis was mostly cleansed of the Dragonkin.  Meanwhile, Paragon Soul, acting independently, ascended to power (figuratively and literally) with their use of Spelljammer warships.  The first such fleets, made up of refitted sailing ships, were quickly replaced with more abstract-looking ships that were faster, larger, and did not require lumbering maneuvers to maintain target bearing.  The first major fleet doctrine introduced used Tempest-class battleships, Guardian-class support cruisers, and Dragoon-class destroyers.  This first fleet doctrine was robust enough to allow the Paragon Soul Naval forces to combat the dragonkin in what was previously their domain, and win.  In several engagements in 1072-1074, Paragon Soul annihilated dragonkin forces in several theaters in Deklein, over the seas, and even in Deklein itself.

In 1076, a secret deployment of a new fleet departed Paragon Soul, and headed north into Vale of the Silent, crossing the frigid tundras, and arrived in Deklein.  The Navy engaged a marshalling dragonkin force rallied around a dragon, and hotdropped on top of it using a new two-man Spelljammer-powered warfighter: the Flycatcher-class Interdictor.  Its only job was to get in close, and deploy an Amber bomb on top of the dragon.  That, and the few hundred other Flycatchers as well.  With support from Typhoon-class assault cruisers, and deployed from Basilisk-class heavy cruisers, they blotted out the sun when they ambered not just the dragon itself, but hundreds of thousands of dragonkin as well, at the cost of 95% of the fleet, giving it the nickname "Welpfleet".

This victory, as devastating as it was to win, was the impetus for the Horde to formally ally with Paragon Soul and begin joint strikes against dragon-held Deklein.  For the next 20 years, the dragonkin, fearful of the Amber bomb, shored up the defenses of their major holdings on the continent, and only built up to critical mass in event of either nation making a heavy invasion.  In this time, both Paragon Soul and the Horde of Feythabolis innovated and refined their best tactics.  They trained better and better soldiers.  In 1094, Paragon Soul's newest fleet doctrines, BaltecFleet and FuckYouFleet deployed with the first Archangel-class Dreadnaught and Thanatos-class troop carriers.  In a massive invastion, Paragon Soul and the Horde together conquered the first holding in Deklein, the former city of Kor-Azor in the south of the continent, destroying the dragonkin defenses and wrecking them in ground combat for the first time in an engagement larger than 200,000 (combined on both sides).

As the combined push went northward, a scouting force surveying the central region of the continent discovered a previously unseen mass of millions of dragonkin along with three full-sized dragons.  Where they came from, and how they weren't discovered before, is a question that has haunted the Horde and Paragon Soul to this day.  Upon discovery, the dragons launched an attack against the Spelljammer fleet on Deklein first, devastating them quickly.  Although Paragon Soul assembled WelpFleet in record time and deployed, the damage was done.  Over 75% of the fleet was destroyed.  The only capital ship to escape was the Archangel.  The Thanatos carriers were all destroyed, and Deklein was safely again in dragonkin hands.   Claws.

WelpFleet managed to Amber one of the three dragons on Deklein, though with similar results to last time.  The other two dragons went on a rampage in Paragon Soul itself, torching military installations in Aineas the capital city, as well as destroying massive tracks of farmlands and forests in a bid for resource denial.  Meanwhile, Feythabolis was reinvaded by dragonkin, who quickly took the ambered city of Detorid and began their push east across the continent.  Without aid from Paragon Soul, the Horde was unable to contend with the dragonkin offensives mainly coming from flyers which now existed in far greater numbers than ever before.

Paragon Soul managed to down one of the two dragons by overloading the Spelljammer cores for hundreds of ships, causing a massive tear in the fabric of magic itself, creating the single largest Vortex ever seen.  It worked, and the dragon was killed by the effort.  Not merely ambered, but actually dead.  Fringe Division came in after the battle to seal the vortex themselves.  The other dragon was eventually Ambered in the heart of Aineas itself, forcing the populace to mostly abandon their capital, and depleted of almost the entire Spelljammer fleet.

The Horde fared better, but the victory against the dragonkin came at great cost.  Millions dead on both sides, battle after battle was waged until the dragonkin were exhausted and depleted, but still they fought to the last.  The Horde was arguably in worse shape due to their one advantage of sheer numbers being countered by the dragonkin sheer numbers.  But by 1099, both continents were secured, though vulnerable.

In 1106, the next wave came.  Paragon Soul, still rebuilding their fleets, could not stop the dragonkin's conventinal invasion at Aineas.  And the Horde could do little against the next wave washing ashore, though they did build massive defensive structures to slow them down and force the dragonkin to contend with more than just foot soldiers.

I don't know if anyone will see this, but this game will not be using Pathfinder.  We will finish this as D&D 3.5, but with one additional item imported in from Pathfinder.  The Combat Maneuver system from Pathfinder will be imported into this, so you will have to calculate your CMB and CMD.

If we had more time, we would have made this a full Pathfinder game.  But in the end, it's better to see this through to the end with 3.5 instead so we don't have to worry about rebuilds.

Oh yeah, and I updated the latest timeline of events.

I SEE IT!!!!!

just sayin