Adventure One Briefing

With the end of the last war, many of the horrors of the era are only now coming to light.  The Sentinel Marshals have taken it upon themselves to track down and prosecute those who have comitted the worst of these atrocities and war crimes.  During the conflict, there was an incident where several thousand prisoners disappeared while under the custody of the armies of Breland.  The Crown has always maintained that the prisoners escaped in transit and must have taken up residence in Cyre, being killed along with the rest of that nation on the Day of Mourning. 

Now a witness has come forward.  A foot-soldier known as Johan is willing to testify about what he saw, and his role in, the burtal massacre of these prisoners.  He has contacted the Sentinel Marshals and was willing to cooperate.  However, since coming forward, he has disappeared.  Foul play is suspected.  A team must therefore be dispatched.

The Goal:
Locate and recover Johan.  Extract him safely to protective custody.

Secondary Goal:
Identify and defeat those who would stand against justice and attempt to propogate this coverup.

Resources:
The team will have arranged transport in and out of the Thrane/Breland border region where Johan was serving.  The governments of Thrane and Breland have both pledged their full cooperation in this matter.

Kor ir'Wynarn

Guard Captain of the Brelish border with Thrane.  Encountered the Sentinel Marshals during their first mission, and provided map and logistical assistance to help them track down their target.  Is an avowed supporter of peace, for he has seen too much of war.

House Rules

The following are 'House Rules' and are assumed to apply unless stated otherwise.  This listing may be updated at any times with new ideas, or abuse-prevention modifications.  If a house rule grants to all players an ability normally reserved for a specific class, players interested in that class should contact me in order to work out some modifications to preserve that class' balance.

House Rules:

• "Heroes Never Fail" -  This house rule reflects that the players are heroes, not incompetent boobs.  There may arise situations where a hero is in a position to make a skill check for which the two possible outcomes are success, and embarassing-and-useless failure.  In this situation, a failed skill check will serve to educate the hero as to the impossibilty of his task, and he may choose not to attempt it.  Example: Bob the Barbarian has been captured.  He is suspended over a boiling pit of lava, awaiting the arrival of the dark one who will attempt to eat his soul.  The player decides to attempt a feat of aerial acrobatics and rope tearing to work himself free, trapeeze style.  The player then botches the roll.  Rather than allow Bob to fall to his decidedly non-heroic and mundane death, the botched roll represents Bob the Barbarian realizing the futility of his escape attempt, and choosing instead to save his meager strength for a confrontation with the Dark One directly.  Note:  This does not mean you cannot fail a skill check.  It basically means you cannot fail a non-plot central or boring skill check.
• "Heroes Aren't Boring" - This house rule reflects that the mundane details of character's lives, while accurate in their portrayal, are frequently about as interesting as watching paint dry.  This means that heroes are generally assumed to succeed at mundane/stupid tasks;  in a large metropolis, it should be pretty easy for a HERO to find an inn.  Similarly, no HERO would be without his critical gear in a crisis situation;  heroes can generally assume that they posess any appropriate mundane items below 100gp in value.
• "Dice can be boring" - In situations where a skill check is made under the assumption that failure will simply mean repeated retries until success is reached, a frequently boring occassion is the studious watching of 15 straight 'gather information' checks to attempt to locate the acolyte's home.  In these situations, success is inevitable, but it may matter how much time is taken to acheive it.  Instead of watching die roll after die roll, one roll will be made.  If it succeeds, it will take the normal 'success' time.  If it fails, some other die shall be rolled, and the number revealed thereupon is how many 'rolls' it took to actually succeed.  Example: The heroes are attempting to locate the house of the acolyte in order to warn him of a pending attack upon his person.  A Gather Information check is rolled.  On success, the heroes would heroically arrive early, in time to warn the hapless acolyte and even ambush his would-be ambushers.  On a failure, the DM would roll 2d4.  It took the heroes that long to find the Acolyte's home, and they may be too late, or face stiff opposition!
• "Heroes never die... suddenly" - In many situations, especially combative ones, it is possible for the dice to conspire to suddenly murder a hero at an anticlimactic moment.  This is annoying to everyone.  The following rule is therefore inacted:  In a situation where a hero would be killed in a non-dramatic way, that hero is instead badly injured.  Maybe an arm broke, or he has suffered terrible scarring to his eyes and face.  Heroes can only be killed if they are deliberately 'finished off' by an opponent (full-round action) via overwhelming odds, or in climactic battles for the fate of the adventure.  This is to prevent 'revolving door' sessions where a string of bad rolls can result in a player either bringing in a series of increasingly unbelievable characters or being forced to sit out part of the session.  We're here to play.

Sentinel Marshals

The 'Sentinel Marshals' are an organization in Eberron which is well respected and widely admired, yet carries little in the way of direct authority.  They are based in the Sentinel Tower, a mighty fortress in the city of Karralakton, the second-largest city in Karrnath.  Before the Great War, this organization served largely in the same way as the US Marshals work today in present-day America.  With the events of the Great War, that mandate has evaporated.  The organization proved unwilling to take sides, thereby gaining a reputation of trusted neutrality, and today busies itself with the same task as always:  dispensing justice and protecting the realm.  This mission frequently brings them into conflict with corrupt local rulers or would-be despots, but it is a rare nation that wishes to earn the ire of this organization.

Campaign Introduction

This blog corresponds to the "Sentinels of Galifar" campaign as run by... ME!  The idea is to use the blog as a resource for players to look up things, and I can post to it campaign tidbits "as discovered by the players."

Now that that's out of the way, some campaign introduction!

This campaign will run in the Eberron campaign setting, using the D&D 4e ruleset.  There may be house rules.  They will have their own post.

Player Backgrounds:
     In order to facilitate party management, the players are all presumed to be agents in the service of an organization known as the Sentinel Marshals.  They, too, will have their own post.  All Player Characters created for this campaign must be created with a background that would be conducive to them being useful and loyal members of the Sentinel Marshals; there are no restrictions on alignment, but bear in mind, even evil people aren't out kicking puppies ALL THE TIME IN FRONT OF THEIR BOSS. 

Campaign 'Rating':
     This game is rated "PG-13".  That means:

• No detailed descriptions or depictions of your characters bedroom prowess.  Any storyline events of that sort will 'fade to black'.
• Any characters that feel the need to revel in debauchery and unsettling activity are assumed to do so 'off camera'.  If a PC feels the need to torture the little children, we're going to roll a die and move on;  no RP of that kind of thing. 
• No "my character tries to seduce your character".  Its not as funny as you think it is. 
• Have a good, in character reason for any Player VS Player conflicts.  Assume that you may have to answer to your bosses as to why you felt that the other character was a direct threat to the party. 
• Have a good, in character reason for any Player VS Player thievery and sabotage.  "He got 5 more gold than I did and I have to take it back to defend my honor" is a STUPID reason.  Seriously, we've all been there and done that, and its just not that funny anymore.

Character Management
     Each player may have any number of Player Characters created at any time.  However, exactly one will be allowed to participate in any given session.  Each Player Character will maintain its own independent list of gear and equipment.  All Player Characters will have the same XP total.  This is to maintain party balance and prevent 'runaway' players from stealing the limelight and provoking assassination.  Each Player Character will have at least as much wealth as indicated in the sourcebooks as appropriate for a starting character of that level.  Many may have more, depending on their earnings during the actual adventures.  Each adventure will be broken into 2 stages.  During the first stage, the Players will receive a detailed briefing as to what is expected from them by their superior officers.  They may then confer amongst themselves as to what 'team' they want to send on the mission.  Any Player may control any character, even one that 'belongs' to someone else, as long as they have that someone else's permission first.  No items may be exchanged among characters who are 'not coming'.  It's assumed that they need them on whatever task they've been sent.
     Once the first stage is completed, the Players are 'locked in' to their character selections.  They are then sent out on their adventure, which will in most respects resemble a traditional D&D adventure.  On this adventure, each player must keep track of what equipment has been earned by each character;  that equipment stays with that character until it is expended or lost.