Club Campaign Setting-Intro: "Exiting Mandjet, Into the Emerald Palace"

EXITING MANDJET, INTO THE EMERALD PALACE

"Lush verdant subtropical forests encircle the white-stone walls that encapsulate the largest city on Yahvelt Major, obscuring the heavily inundated urban dwellings, bustling markets of street vendors and storefronts packed with the buying public, and amorphous throngs of the red-skinned Anu’sec and the white-skinned Ra’fir dragonborn traveling to and fro. The buzzing of setkbels fills the air in a low-humming vibration sound, a cheerful chorus that waxes on and off, a song sung by the large and green shimmering shelled insects that populate the countless age-old oaks throughout the forested lands nearby.

White-stone obelisks topped by pyramid-like cut rose quartz crystals the size of a dragonborn skull reach upward toward the ruby colored sky, climbing beyond the exalted rows of planted palms and the solid walled exterior to reveal the near-exact locations of market squares; the lofty stony landmarks are decorated with elaborate gold-laid hieroglyphs that record the city’s millennia existence.

Above it all many airships drift blissfully and lazily upon the majestic skyline, this larger planet accompanied by its similarly inhabited moon, witness to the eternal dance of both planets as they are both moons orbiting an immense tempest which is painted with turbulent cyclones that never cease their destructive patterns. And beyond that a quiet sun which burns warmly. The elite, the more fortunate, and the wealthy all enjoy the day gazing from upon these airships using brass telescopes to peer down below to observe the commoners whose quarrelsome lives they love to despise and ridicule.

Alas, those many that toil in the factories, that protect the city, and that work tirelessly in overcrowded workshops are the same who support the guild halls, industry leagues, and general services that maintains the city and therefore the economic power of the ruling-class. The guild halls are a loathsome place where the desperate poor and working-class seek to barter for benefits and pay raises from those rich and powerful by way of the industry leagues, the same rich and powerful who control the industry leagues are then the force behind the guild halls.

It is perhaps only a single guild that ever attempts to reestablish equality among the citizenry, if ever it existed, and in these dark times more and more dragonborn decide to the use the Lunar Gate and flee these types of places to the smaller and older planet to seek a more humble life in exile. But deep in the jungles an ominous wind blows, a disturbance having awakened that which will quiet the streets of cities like Mandjet and bring destruction down upon the guilds one by one.

As you and your fellow Osirian accensi finish final preparations to escort a handful of merchants to the Lunar Gate you finish and then in hope and in seriousness all join in hands and say a prayer for protection to Rashnitsu. Eblix, a junior councilman of the Osirian, bids you all farewell and hands the party leader a sealed envelope before turning and walking away."

Club Campaign Setting-Solarium Provocatores

The Solarium Provocatores are a long-established guild that uses predatory practices that often creates civil unrest and has even led to many a great war.

One of the top three guilds in terms of membership.

Is on the verge of becoming the dominant guild.

Club Campaign Setting-Accensi

Light infantry used to escort caravans of merchants across the two planetary bodies; these are entry-level guild members of the Osirian.

Anu’sec and Ra’fir are both commonplace among the guild’s membership and throughout the accensi.

Are led by an elder council that oversees the daily operations of the guild as well as votes on critical agendas to be carried out by the guild’s officers.

Club Campaign Setting-Osirian

Osirian is a specialist guild and maintains a small membership compared to most others.

They make money hiring out their members as professional security and have even participated in provincial skirmishes as a mercenary combat force.

Financial profit is not their primary reason for existing, it is actually the lack of safety that plagues most governments and their settlements between the two moons.

Club Campaign Setting-Human Civilization

Human civilization is largely known to have once existed and old human shrines which contain sculptures of old deities have often become imitated in recent times in popular art among the dragonborn.

Commonly seen are motifs of ancient human gods and goddesses and exterior facings on newer public buildings with corners decorated featuring exotic human faces similar to how gargoyles were used in European history.

Discussions in public involving the human past presence on Yahvelt Major are met with a degree of conspiracy and significant speculation. However, when in private these conversations reveal a deep interest in the disappearance of the humans and their relation to life in Yahvelt prior to the arrival of the dragonborn.

Club Campaign Setting-Selestali

Here is an excerpt from a diary from Selestali. 

Selestali is a middle aged Magicianess, the formal title of the all-female mages prevalent among the dragonborn, and she is well respected as having been an adviser to several prominent guilds on Yahvelt Minor.

Players are introduced to the character Selestali who, an archaeological expert and historian, is studying the ruins of an ancient human civilization that once roamed the jungles of Yahvelt Major. 

She is lithe of build, tall, and has an immense tail unlike her male counterparts who do not possess such a feature. As characteristic of a Ra’fir she possesses white scales and pale blue eyes.

“The creatures and geography of the moons of the plane of Yahvelt are as complimentary to one another as we the dragonborn who call the plane home. For the bleak desert domain of Yahvelt Minor there is the voracious wilderness world of Yahvelt Major and upon both is a curious amalgamation of fauna sharing a common origin on either planet. 

Dragonborn certainly began on the smaller of the two worlds; there is no consensus as to where life first originated. It is the belief of the Ra’fir that Rashnitsu had created life first on Yahvelt Minor with the dragonborn, however, as exploration and settlement of the larger world of Yahvelt Major continues evidence points to an advanced people distinct from the dragonborn having preexisted us by many millennia and whose seeming ruin predates the knowledge contained within the boundless books of the great libraries...”

 – Selestali

Club Campaign Setting-Continued

Players will be allowed to play as either an Eldritch Knight or a Magicianess. Two distinct combat specialists based on dragonborn life on Yahvelt; it is the physically larger and more dominant male dragonborn who must hunt, who protects the female and their family, a truly fierce warrior. The female dragonborn is cunning and ruthless when need, possesses an affinity towards magic, and is devoted to nurturing their young as well as mastering themselves. It is in this partnership which is essential to life on Yahvelt that the players will come to rely upon each other to endure and succeed.

Eldritch Knight:

Shortsword (1D6 +5 STR Piercing, Finesse, Light), Shield (AC +2), Unarmed Strike (4 Damage). Heavy Armor (AC 18). Dueling (+2 DMG Shortsword). Eldritch Blast (1D10 Necrotic @ 120 feet). Explorer’s Pack. Playing Cards.
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution.

Proficient Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Sleight of Hand. Proficient: Shortswords, Shields, Heavy Armor.

Initiative Bonus=+2, Hit Dice=1D10, HP=36, Spell Attack Modifier +3, Spell Save DC 11+.

STR (17), CON (14), DEX (13), INT (12), WIS (10), CHR (9)

1 Bonus Action/Per Encounter

1 Spell Cast/Per Day and Requires Long Rest to Restore

Magicianess:

Staff (1D4 Bludgeoning), Unarmed Strike (1 Damage). Light Armor (AC 11). Mage Hand, Minor Illusion. Scholar’s Pack. Herbalism Kit. Pan Flute.
Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom.

Proficient Skills: Investigation, Medicine, Persuasion. Proficient: Staff, Light Armor, Herbalism Kit.

Initiative Bonus=+0, Hit Dice=1D6, HP=18, Spell Attack Modifier +4, Spell Save DC 12+.

INT (15), WIS (14), CHR (14), STR (14), CON (10), DEX (8)

1 Bonus Action/Per Encounter

3 Spell Cast/Per Day and Requires Long Rest to Restore

•      If playing as a Ra’fir your character also has the attack ability Cold Breath Weapon (3D6 Cold Damage) and the trait Cold Resistance.
•      If playing as an Anu’sec your character also has the attack ability Fire Breath Weapon (3D6 Fire Damage) and the trait Fire Resistance.
•      Explorer’s Pack includes: A backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it.
•     Scholar’s Pack includes: A backpack, a book of lore, a bottle of ink, an ink pen, 10 sheets of parchment, a little bag of sand, and a small knife.
•      All dragonborn speak Draconic.