D&D 4th Edition Campaign World Notes...
Races of Fallcrest...
Our story starts in Fallcrest, a town, on the outskirts of the Endless Plains and roughly a week's travel from the start of the Dwarf Kingdom's Boarders. This town is Human dominated, but there are also many Halflings and Dwarfs that live in the settlement. Of course there are a handful of other races in the town, but players will find it easiest to play one of the above three mentioned races over the long run.
In the land of Highpoint, the Dwarfs are dominate as the most advanced and populous species. Their Kingdom consists of many mountain fortresses with massive mines below. Like all the other races of Highpoint, the Dwarfs are ethnocentric; but not necessarily racist of others. They have always been on poor terms with the Fey because they don't understand the ways of Magic and they are indifferent towards Humans and Halflings. Most of the Dwarfs have a strong belief in the importance of rules and following the law.
Humans for the most part are nomadic and stick to life wondering the endless plains in their own individual tribes. There are only a handful of permanent Human settlements and Fallcrest is one of them. The people of Fallcrest are on friendly terms with the nearby Dwarfs and owe the inspiration of their homes to their more advanced and shorter neighbors. Natural enemies of Humans include Kobolds, Goblins, and Orcs. Humans are Neutral towards most other races, but they are often found warring against other tribes of Humans.
The Halflings of Highpoint do not have a specific city or region to call their own; instead they settle everywhere and move often. Many a Halflings spend their life traveling the endless river and making their homes wherever they happen to stop. Some live in tribes with other Halflings and others have made their homes in the settlements of other races. Most of the well respected trade companies in the area are ran by Halflings.
Elves and Eladrin live in huge graceful cities, full of powerful magic, but to most people in Fallcrest, tales of these cities are just that. The Fey live far from Fallcrest and do not head to the town often because of its proximity to the Dwarven Kingdom. Legend has it that Eons ago the Elves fought a terrible war against the Dwarfs. During this war, the Fey were decimated by mercenary giants hired by the Dwarfs to crush their Elven enemies. To this day, there remains a great deal of tension between the Elves and Dwarves, but neither race travels into the other’s territory.
The other population of note in the area is that of the Orcs. Orcs are a foul and evil race attracted to power and wealth. They fight constantly and are well known to travel through the endless plains and even to raid a Dwarven Kingdom from time to time. They’ve raided Fellcrest a few times in the past and burned the settlement to the ground about 90 years ago when Fellcrest was a thriving Human city rather than just a town. Fallcrest has been rebuilding itself ever since.
The Moon...
The moon of highpoint is one of the settings many defining characteristics. In Highpoint, the moon is much closer to the planet and covers almost 3/4 of the night time sky. Because of this size, surface dwellers do not know darkness. The surface is always illuminated by either the sun or the moon. Dwarven history has it that the face of the moon has been changing over the last 2000 years, but the validity of this claim is unknown and no change can be detected by the naked eye. As far as anyone can tell, the moon has never changed during their lifetime.
Magic
Once many wizards populated Fallcrest, but now, only one true wizard remains. Any PC wizards will be a member of his Guild of Mages consisting of the PC, the aging Human Master Nimozaran the Green and his Halfling apprentice Tobolar Quickfoot. Magic items are available but usually have to be found or imported. Both Warlocks and Wizards are highly regarded and can easily find jobs as advisors to rich families in Fallcrest. This respect drops off significantly as you travel towards the land of Dwarves. The Dwarves have little use for magic. The membership fee for the Guild of Mages is 100GP a month, but a PC wizard in the guild gets to start with one extra first level ritual in his or her spell-book. At the start of the adventure without spending any starting cash, the PC is considered square in terms of GP with the guild because of the wages a wizard can demand.
Religion
There are three temples of worship in Fallcrest. They are as follows...
House of the Sun - The House of the Sun is a temple to Pelor and within it is a Shrine to Bahamut. It is run by the Dwarf Cleric Grundelmar, a disciple of Pelor.
The Temple of Erathis - This is a temple to Erathis and within it are shrines to Ioun and Moradin. The master of this Temple is the Human High Priest Dirina Mornbrow.
Moonsong Temple - This is Fallcrest’s largest temple and enjoys large donations from the Markelhay family. The temple is in honour of Sehanine and contains shrines to Corellon, Melora and Avandra. High Priest Ressilmae the Halfling runs the place.
Amongst the three temples, all the deities from the Players Handbook except Kord and the Raven Queen are permissable to PCs. Sehanine has gained lots of power over the past century, and she is revered for giving the night light from the oversized moon in the sky. Particularly interesting deities to worship from a story standpoint include Sehanine, Bahamut, Pelor and Erathis. Anyone wishing to worship Sehanine will likely find themselves wanting to abandon their faith in the future. If you make a Cleric or Paladin of Sehanine, be sure to realize that you will likely be abandoning your religion and writing up a new character about 1/3 of the way through the campaign.
Martial Characters
Martial carriers are the most common to the area. These people can find jobs most anywhere in Fallcrest as guards, merchants and labourers. Martial characters are more likely to be familiar with NPC groups such as the Porters Guild, Lord Warden Faren Markelhay and Teldirithan's arms. Lord Warden Faren Markelhay is the leader of Fallcrest. He is very busy and hard to get time with; however, he is always looking for Sellswords to carry out various tasks such as clearing out groups of bandits that plague the area. The Porters Guild is the labour group that handles all cargo in Fallcrest. Rumour has it that they deal in some shadier dealings as well. Dwarf Ironhews Teldirthan runs Teldirthan's arms and he always makes it his business to keep informed on the heroes in the area and troubles that are brewing. From time to time he may hire PCs to watch over his convoys of supplies.
Party Composition...
The party can consist of any combination of characters that the players wish to play. The world is low magic and will become even lower magic so most of the players should be playing Martial Characters. Religion will play a huge role in the days to come, so all characters must choose a God to worship before playing. "No God" is a choice amongst the Gods outlined under Religion. Whatever the God you worship is, please be sure to inform me and note the Deity down on your character sheet. Divine characters are allowed and encouraged, but there are some restrictions on them. First of all, they must worship one of the Deities mentioned in the Religion area. Second, all of divine characters in the party have to worship the same God. There is to be no Paladin in the party unless there is first a Cleric. If there are Divine characters in the party, most of the other characters should follow the Divine character’s God as their Primary God. Divine characters would be fun to play, but they will be receiving lots of both of scrutiny from others and tests of their own fate. If a non-divine character loses faith, that is no big deal but for a divine character to lose their faith it means retiring the character and creating a new one. The races for this adventure are limited to Humans, Halflings and Dwarfs. If all the PCs end up being the same race, that is okay. The races are already fairly Ethnocentric and this will get worse before it gets better. Nevertheless, the above three races will continue to get along well in certain factions throughout the future.
For the party member composition I recommend...
1 Cleric (of Bahamut, Pelor, or Erathis). Clerics and Paladins will be familiar with the leaders of the church that they choose to worship.
1 Wizard or Warlock. Wizards are preferable to Warlocks. This character will be the town’s only member of the Mage’s guild aside from its founder wizard, Nimozaran the Green, and his Halfling apprentice Tobolar Quickfoot.
The rest of the party should be martial characters of any variety.
If there is a Cleric, the PCs may also take on a Paladin or two of the Cleric’s religion.
Rewards...
Magic is not commonly available and will become less so in the coming future. Instead of buying magic items with accumulated GP, players may consider a number of other options. These other options will further the story and reward characters in other ways. Ideas include establishing homes, keeps, churches and businesses and hiring NPCs to man these facilities. Travel options such as mounts and wagons should also be considered. These things will anchor the players to the Fallcrest area, thus increasing their desire to keep the area safe and at the same time give the PCs other benefits such as extra income, political clout and unlocking story clues. Let me know which direction you would like to take your PCs extra funds. Below are some credible options.
All these items can be purchased by individual characters or a group of characters. Let me know how you want to spend your extra money because it will affect how the story unfolds.
Legends of Highpoint...
Many thousands of Years ago, when the races were Young, the all of the land was ruled by the mighty Dragonborn. These creatures were fair and just. They were champions of all good creatures and worshipped Bahamut, the Dragon God. Eventually, powerful Dragons grew jealous of the Dragonborn’s greatness and waged war on the Dragonborn. This war of Dragons lasted for hundreds of years. Paladins and Dragon Riders were the defenders of choice for the day. Masses of Kobolds took over the Dragonborn cities and eventually the Dragonborn race was all but wiped out. Only a handful of Dragonborn remain and most of them still campaign for good.
The next Kingdom of note was that of the Fey. During this time, a span of over 900 years, Elves and Eladrin were the supreme rulers of the land and Magic was their might. The Elves and Eladrin were mostly good, but corruption eventually filled their ranks. This corruption spawned desires for stronger powers and lead to Elves, Eladrin and even Humans to make packs with Demons, Devils and evil gods for stronger power. These deities gave the power freely but encouraged their minions to expand their boarders and taught them to thirst for wealth. The corrupt gained power in the Fey Empire and their thirst for wealth brought them to war with the Dwarfs.
The war between the Dwarfs and the Fey lasted for over 300 years. During this time, the two sides fought hundreds of battles. Many from both sides died. The Fey were masters of magic and the Dwarves were masters of steel. It is rumored that the dwarfs won the last string of battles by recruiting Giants clad in steel and stone to fight on their behalf. The final battles of the war were fierce and the Dwarves decimated the Fey in a matter of months. Hundreds of years’ worth of Eladrin construction was destroyed in the minutes beneath the feet of Giants. The elves escaped this peril because their settlements were small and plentiful. Nevertheless, the Elves fell with their Eladrin allies. Many of the Fey returned to the dimension from which they came. Those that didn’t retreat still harbor strong resentment towards Dwarves.
2000 years passed since the war between the Elves and Dwarfs ended. The Dwarfs have rebuilt their strongholds and their numbers increased. Despite being the most powerful race on the Continent, the Dwarfs keep to themselves and do not often involve themselves in the affairs of the other races. Their Strongholds are mighty and they store technological secrets beyond the scope of men. During their rule, the recorded size of the moon has increased hundreds of times over. What was once recorded as a mere bright spot in the night time sky similar to our own is now a mass that dominates almost 3/4 of the night sky now. Why has the moon been growing over the last 2000 years? Is it a curse from the vanquished Fey? Is it the work of an evil God? Is it a a negligent Sorcerer of extreme power that is pulling the moon closer to the planet? Will the moon eventually crash into the planet? Whatever is going on, there is only one thing that is for certain... The Dwarves are the rulers of the day, but it feels like change maybe in the air.
Spoilers...
This campaign is one of extreme change. The world will change significantly during the lives of the characters and most of this change will be catastrophic. Because of how disastrous these changes are, I am providing a small out of character spoiler of what is to come. Armed with this knowledge, I hope that players can make informed decisions about their characters and create a character that they are interested in sticking with long term. If you are unhappy with your character, let me know and we will retire your current character at a logical break, and I will let you start a new character a level below everyone else. As the world changes, new character types may become available and as such you may want to give up your current character for someone more in tune with the changed world. As described in the Player’s Handbook, you can also retrain your character if you want to take them a different direction.
The game world starts out very similar to the generic world of Greyhawk with a few changes. As the adventurers establish themselves in the town of Fallcrest, events outside of the Party’s influence of control begin to change the face of the world. The group will then cross continents searching for answers of what is happening and why. During their travels the PCs will find themselves traveling from a very vanilla d&d world, to a desert world low in magic and steel and returning to a world completely altered from how they remember it. In short, this game takes the characters through an apocalypse and the story is about the characters establishing themselves as heroes, then how they adjust just to stay alive and finally how they help civilization reestablish itself across a ruined landscape.
Despite the fact that the PCs can’t change the coming apocalypse, their actions can influence how Fallcrest deals with the disaster. By the PCs establishing keeps, churches, trading companies and other facilities of note in the area, Fallcrest will be better able to deal with the coming catastrophe. If the PCs decide that they would rather spend their GP on equipping themselves rather than the area, that is okay, but then the citizens of Fallcrest may then not survive long enough in the apocalypse to come for the PCs to return home to them. Being citizens of Fallcrest, it is in the player’s interest to keep the residents alive because the inhabitants are the character’s friends and family.
The future
societies are very Law focused because order is extremely important for
civilization to re-establish itself across the destroyed landscape. It is to
the benefit of the player to play a character who values law and authority.