OPEN SIGNUPS Emperor Defeated, What Now?(DND 5e)

Moose

Spider-Buddy
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Advanced
  3. Prestige
  4. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Primarily Prefer Male
The evil emperor Abbaddon conquered the world 1000 years ago and killed all the gods. Since then there were many assassination attempts including some successful ones. The first successful assassination attempt was very short lived as his clone woke up from the basement and killed the tired Great Heroes who had killed him. The second successful assassination attempt they made sure to take out his clone in the basement first before killing him, their freedom from his reign lasted only a month before he returned with an undead army and conquered the capital as he had once done before. The third successful assassination attempt had two teams: one that would kill the clone he had away from the castle and one that would confront him directly, their freedom lasted only one month as well until Abbaddon once again returned.

The Final Resistance tried to figure out what has gone wrong and how they could save the world from Abbaddon when they discovered something, once a year, every year, Abbaddon would disappear for a week. The Final Resistance intuited that this meant that Abbaddon had an extra clone hidden elsewhere in the world for each year of his reign. Unable to assemble 1000 strike teams to take down Abbaddon at once, the Resistance bided their time for an opportunity. A gnome calling himself Prophet went to the Resistance and informed them of his plan and they prepared to strike when ready. Prophet and his team of adventurers froze Abbaddon in ice so that he would not die and activate a clone to return.

You will be playing the delivery team, as the most competent courier service at the capital at the time, they were chosen to deliver Abbadon's frozen form to a silver dragon who will guard him while a more permanent solution is found. Your characters will fortify the towns you stop in to help them prepare to take on Abbadon's loyalists as well as informing the residents of the city that he is defeated. Your characters will improve in power and skill while the Great Heroes who froze Abbaddon slowly die off to his followers(I intend for them to be dead by city 3 of 7) and your characters will be expected to pick up the mantle. You will need at least one person in the party who can cast cone of cold in case the emperor gets unfrozen.

Now that the game pitch is finished allow me to tell you about myself. I am a forever GM by choice who primarily does theatre of the mind so that generally meshes well with RP. I have been playing DND 5e for six years and dming for five of those so I have some experience. I am very permissive but natural consequences are a thing in my games, yes you can steal from that vendor but guess what these are the people supposed to be supplying you on your journey out to the frozen wasteland of the north and they're already afraid of your prisoner.

I'm looking for 3-5 players not including myself for a game that is primarily play by post but I would like to do discord sessions on occasion if we can. I am very beginner friendly, so if you don't know how to play I can help. Character creation is open pretty wide, just talk to me before you do something homebrew or pick a race from the monster manual. The game will be starting at level 5.
 
I would like to toss my hat into this ring, if I may. Feeling sourcerery.
 
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Oh geez, sorry I didn't respond sooner @Applo I didn't get the notification
 
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oh hey, no worries :3
 
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Kooky was also interested, so I just need two more people.
 
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May I join
 
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Sure, welcome to the site btw
 
I don't think Atomic is actually joining.
 
I got a ton of pre-prepped characters, so I would be more than interested in joining.
 
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That makes for three
 
I would advise that everyone do a character who can cast cone of cold as that is the spell to freeze the emperor and him being unfrozen is something that can happen. I homebrew a lot and things get up to level thirty, and the emperor definitely has the stats and abilities to kill gods
 
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I would advise that everyone do a character who can cast cone of cold as that is the spell to freeze the emperor and him being unfrozen is something that can happen. I homebrew a lot and things get up to level thirty, and the emperor definitely has the stats and abilities to kill gods
I figure if at least two to three us have cone of cold, we should probably be okay to have one or two who doesn't.
 
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That's up to you guys. You could just optimize your characters so well that you only need someone to rechill the ice cube, or you could end up setting Abbaddon free and he kills you all. Shit happens.
 
Hey Moose, do you have feeling on stats vis-à-vis standard array, point buy, outrageous gambling 4d6?

Edit: Also, CoC is a 5th level and that doesnt open up till level 9 even for full casters I dont think. Are we fudging that or will other spells of chillyness work?
 
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Other spells of chilliness will work to keep him frozen but to refreeze him you need cone of cold. So only if he escapes. As for stats, I allow a few unique options. All 13s, three 8s and three 18s, and 4d6 drop lowest and reroll ones.

Edit: oh you are starting with a bunch of scrolls of cone of cold and I allow anyone to use a scroll if they can make the arcana check.
 
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@LuckycoolHawk9 & Kooky(?) Y'all have any strong feelings on which way you would prefer to go? Dont want to be that person that jinks when you jive XD
 
@Applo I'm probably going to level up my traumatized halfing fighter as my character… that or my mind reading warlock
 
Not entirely sure what I'm going to do. I'm considering some sort of wizard, but I haven't entirely decided at this point. It'll probably largely depend on what everyone else is planning. If we're short on spellcasters, I'll definitely end up building up a wizard.

On that topic, what're rules like for scrollcrafting? I know that 5e's rules make it a ballache to do in most campaigns, but it'd be sweet to be able to craft up scrolls to keep the emperor frozen in worst-case scenarios.
 
You will only be staying in each city seven days as the remaining loyalists of the emperor will be pursuing you. You will have to help the city set up it's defenses as they will also be attacked for the fact that it is presumed that they are aiding you. There is going to be a ticking clock as time is a resource.

That warning out of the way, I believe Xanathar's guide has a level by level chart for time it takes to make a scroll. You can make spell scrolls up to third level per city. Page 133 of deluxe, I don't know what it would be on other editions. I say anyone who can cast magic can scribe spells as long as it is a spell they can cast. But a fifth level spell is four weeks to scribe and this campaign is supposed to be a week of travel followed by a week in the next settlement for seven settlements. From city to village.

This is going to be a campaign of dwindling resources. You're gonna get a bunch of stuff up front, and you're gonna have to make it last because by the time you get to settlement seven, they're gonna need supplies from you.

Space is another resource I want you all to think of. I don't keep strict track of anyone's carry weight, but I will be asking where you are keeping your stuff. Bags of holding are cool but that's only four cubic feet. You will have a storage wagon which will start out very full of potions and scrolls with one coffin. The coffin will start empty, but I expect it to be not empty by city three.