Hello and welcome to The Exiled City! This is a 7 out of 10 hardness game about a faith-based expeditionary force sent to investigate the demons and undead recently being produced by the "Harrow Gate," a magical gateway in the side of a mountain that leads to an ancient city that should be all but uninhabited.
Character Generation- Starting Level: 9
- Stat Generation: 32-point buy.
- Wealth: Normal wealth by level; full crafting is allowed and supported. Players cannot spend more than 1/2 their starting wealth on a single item.
- Classes: Gestalt for PCs and cohorts. Base character classes will be chosen from a pair of lists, as seen below: one choice from list A, and one choice from list B.
Racial hit dice, level adjustment and prestige classes may fill up to one side of the gestalt. Prestige classes are subject to approval, but generally allowed. ACFs are acceptable. Non-gestalt tier 4-6 and no prcs for followers.
Class list A: Bard, Crusader, Fighter, Hexblade, Incarnate, Marshal, Ranger, Spellthief, Swordsage and Totemist
Class list B: Barbarian, Binder, Dread Necromancer, Factotum, Paladin, Rogue, Shadowcaster, Warblade, Warlock and Warmage
- Races: No races with LA greater than +2, before buy-off. Each character may have up to 1 minor bloodline, 1 intermediate bloodline or 1 major bloodline. Instead of coming with effective level, these will come with XP penalties of -10%, -15% and -20%, respectively.
- Templates: Unseelie Fey is banned, no templates greater than LA +1, before buy-off.
- Hit Points: Max at 1st level, average per level, rounded down.
- Alignment: No alignments. All references to alignment will be ignored, alignment subtypes will be removed, and alignment-dependent mechanics will also be removed or ignored.
- Religion: All characters in the party must serve the same church on a more-than-nominal basis. Following the same deity is not strictly required, but would probably make following this rule easier.
- Organizations: Allowed.
- Feats: Characters may ignore the regional requirements of Regional feats, but not their racial requirements. Wild Cohort, Leadership, Undead Leadership or similar feats are recommended, and will not be provided automatically, despite the nature of the campaign.
- Leadership: Your leadership score will not be capped at 25, use the epic leadership table if your score would allow for it. Cohorts get the elite stat array. Followers of 5th level and above will use the elite stat array, followers of 4th level and below will use the standard stat array.
- Flaws/Traits: 2 flaws, 2 traits. No anti-feats.
- Sources Allowed: WotC 3.5, 3.5 Dragon mag (please give source); some Pathfinder (ask). Homebrew with permission, but only one homebrew item per character (such as a specialized feat tree, feature system, prestige class, martial discipline, bloodline, set of uses for a skill, et cetera). Heroes of Battle is recommended reading material, as many encounters will consist of maneuvering and commanding troops or operating inside situations with them.
- Optimization Level: Moderate. No broken/clearly overpowered combinations, infinite loops or use of Pazuzu will be tolerated. You'll want to be very good at what you do, but remember that the game emphasizes the team effort, not the individual. If you have a leadership score, you are encouraged (but not required) to design the general features of your army for yourself. This can include races, classes, unit compositions, favored strategies and standard equipment.
- Difficulty: Attention will be paid to weather, food and water, traps, diseases, poisons and taint. The campaign is designed with a “Darkest Dungeon” feel. Encounters with tier 1 or 2 classes (and equivalent monsters) will be heavily limited. The monsters will be played to their strengths and be given equipment expected for their NPC level, but will not have the All-Seeing-AI, nor will they always be motivated to annihilate the players. It's not Tomb of Horrors hard, but each encounter will be calibrated to the party’s capabilities.
Many monsters will be modified, bringing them in line with their intended CRs, removing their immunities to poison, and flying and teleportation effects will be reduced throughout the entire campaign.
Play will include combat scaled per the Heroes of Battle supplement, with strategy and tactics, of the players and their army against forces of darkness including demons, the fey, the obyrith and the undead, as well as more "traditional" encounters featuring just the players and a few opponents at a time. Leadership is not only allowed, but comes highly recommended for this one. Despite this, the PCs will be isolated for most of the campaign, meaning that once a follower is dead, it will not be replaced. The Exiled City will have some elements of horror, including lurid descriptions and creepy stuff, but is not designed to be a horror campaign.
Setting InfoZelescoria, your home city, is the greatest presence of Evening Glory in the world. It is located in a vale-like gap within forested buttes on all sides, between which are many winding, naturally occurring corridors that serve as a protective maze. Death and undeath are seen as natural parts of life in Zelescoria, and the city's population is just as much undead as they are alive. Water for the city is provided by a network of underground springs, and food for the living portion of the population is attained by farming and hunting in the forests above the city. Zelescoria is also the closest settlement in the world to a structure known as the Harrow Gate, on the side of a mountain called Phuaoake's Needle, which leads to an ancient and mysterious city.
You can imagine your government's surprise when demons and unhallowed undead appeared on the outskirts of Zelescoria and began destroying the forest and crops. Scouts and divination suggest that the invaders emerged from Phuaoake's Needle, and based on the number of them which have appeared, your characters have been selected by the theocracy to investigate the cause of these incursions and deal with them as you see fit and as best protects Zelescoria.
The ApproachPossibly the shortest arc, herein we'll cover the generality of military logistics and travel from the outskirts of Zelescoria to Phuaoake's Needle. Low on story, but high on figuring how to play this game, what with its ambitious rules and all.
Taking the GatePrepare for your first real large scale battle, as Phuaoake's Needle is the location of the Harrow Gate. Without spoiling too much, this location is fortified by whoever is currently holding the Gate.
The Exiled CityThe characters' first encounter and extended stay in the Exiled City, with plenty of opportunities to explore the environs and character climates.
The War of ChaosEmbroil yourselves in this ongoing war between demons and obyrith, hash out the truth of the danger, and determine for yourselves how to defend Zelescoria!