Topic: QUESTIONS FOR THE AUTHOR

[Raf Blutaxt]

I've thought about running an adventure set in EoH on one or two conventions I hope to visit this year. Especially the teaser from the Throne of god adventure would probably draw in  most people who played it.

[Michael Petrea]

Yea, but I can't fly to Europe just to play EoH 

I do agree with you though about the drawing power.

[Defendi]

I do them at the local cons, but right now I can't afford to travel.

[Michael Petrea]

I was re-reading Throne of God (the d20 version this time) and some questions came to mind.

If you play the first teaser:

(click to show/hide)

do all of the initial characters need to be one of the races that have the divine spark (dwarves, high men, high elves, etc.)?  Since the Divine Spark was granted to those who stood to fight against the fallen, presumably, the non-Divine Spark races would have been part of the fallen host. 

Is Infernal a language during the war in heaven?  That is, were the fallen angels speaking it by the last battle in the teaser?  I wonder since the players may remember hearing it back in Heaven iwhen they hear it in the Mortal realm.

What "religion" would a starting cleric (d20) be who was in the teaser and thus in heaven?  What domains?  It wouldn't make sense that he belonged to any of the church orders and the atavistic church doesn't seem appropriate either. 

[Grafton]

Not sure what Defendi would say, but in my game I assigned Infernal as a starting language for several characters when playing the teaser. With a few races getting 3 starting languages and a sage in the group, it made sense to me.

[mocking bird]

(click to show/hide)

Is Infernal a language during the war in heaven?  That is, were the fallen angels speaking it by the last battle in the teaser?  I wonder since the players may remember hearing it back in Heaven iwhen they hear it in the Mortal realm.

If so, how would a character go about learning the language?  Or on that note how did Infernal come about if all angels spoke the same language at the start?  You could rationalize that by having it that having an Infernal Taint are incapable of speaking the Divine Tongue much like witches were incapable of saying the Lord's Prayer.

What "religion" would a starting cleric (d20) be who was in the teaser and thus in heaven?  What domains?  It wouldn't make sense that he belonged to any of the church orders and the atavistic church doesn't seem appropriate either. 

I would say you could pick any domain since clerical spells hadn't been separated yet - kind of like Arcane magic and the realms in RM.  However I don't see why being in Heaven would necessarily eliminate church orders.  They very well could have existed then - much like various monastic orders in the Catholic church that emphasize different things.

[GerikGnome]

There were good gnomes, halflings, low men, and low elves in Heaven. 

(click to show/hide)

My playtest character is a Gnome (named Gerik, incidently).  For languages, we all spoke the Divine Tongue (our Elf didn't even speak elvish, and I still don't speak gnomish).

I would assume Defendi would suggest portioning out extra languages not taken at creation at leveling.

As for clerics...the churches and orders didn't exist in heaven (could be taken later should the player want to join and preferably role-playing appropriate).  As for domains, I would assume any appropriate ones were available (probably best to avoid ones that touch on evil, necromancy, etc).

Hope that helps, and as always Defendi is free to tell you all I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Defendi]

GerikGnome was mostly spot on (the only part I'd disagree on is a part that I let the players define at the table and GerikGnome spoke of how it came out in his playtest).

(click to show/hide)

  The divine spark was given out at the begining of the war (a thousand years before the teaser).  By the end, the war had touched everyone in some way and things weren't so neatly divided anymore.  All races fought in that final battle.

There was only one language in Heaven.  In one of my playtests I have a character who can understand more languages than anyone else in the party (because he's studied hard since Heaven), but he refuses to "speak" them because the idea of a language that isn't the Divine Tongue offends him so deeply. 

Ravenloft had rules about spending unspent laguage slots after creation, but they took a brutally long time.  I prefer to assume that learning languages during desperate, panicked emmersion is very quick.  If you give a good bit of down time between Throne of God and the next adventure (such as A Knife in the Dark) I'd let them spend all their remaining language slots.

I'd let them pick their domains as long as they don't pick one like "evil."  DM approval as with all things.  I keep the details about Heaven and the Church there vague so players can help shape it how they think Heaven should be.  In GerikGnome's game no one has spoke of orders (but the only channeling caster left the game).  In the Harp playtest the cleric came from an military order of the Heavenly Church that dedicated itself to the war.

[GerikGnome]

I guess I should clarify:

(click to show/hide)

I didn't mean there weren't orders in heaven or a church in heaven.  But the ones that exist in the mortal realm are not the same as the ones that existed in heaven.

[Defendi]

Ah, yes.  Then what he said.

[Michael Petrea]

Thanks for the ideas and answers.  Thanks for adding the spoiler button.  That completely slipped my mind.

(click to show/hide)

I hadn't had the chance to go back to the HARP version to see if the clerical spheres were addressed for heaven-originated creatures there, but I get the point now.

I am planning to let the players choose extra languages between 1 and 1a so that works out.  I was just curious if there was supposed to be any other languages pre-split.

I see your point about the racial mixing after 1000 years of war.  Alliances had time to shift and minds may have changed or been corrupted/healed.

I have no idea what which system I am going to end up running this in.  It depends mostly as to which players I can get together.  But, regardless of version I am trying at this point to get it straight in my head.

Thanks for the help.

[Defendi]

No worries.

[yondar]

Is their any chance of you releasing "One Hundred Goblins (and more)" in the same format as the other Adventure Seeds, as call my pedanticic but I kinda like them all to be the same.

[Defendi]

Looks like Nick has no problem with that.  I'll put it on my list.  I'm in training at a new job right now, but things open up in about a week.

[Raf Blutaxt]

I'll probably have to integrate a new player soon and am wondering how to get him into the teasers. How would you do this?

[Defendi]

(click to show/hide)

Just introduce him like you would any character.  Maybe he's a straggler.  Maybe he's on a seperate mission and his entire squad gets killed on the way into base and he attaches to the party for safety in numbers and takes on their mission.  then, run him through a similar scene as the first teaser in adventure 1.  Have him guarding a different hall from the party, but hopefully slightly closer to the prophets.  Then have him appear in the Mortal Realm near the party.  They'll recognize each other right away and join up.

[Raf Blutaxt]

Ok, the same player called me yesterday evening and told me he had completely misread his calendar and he still has time to play with us so it is no problem anymore

I'm going to run Adventure Seed 1a on friday and am just rereading the campaign setting and especially the appendix. One question occured during this reread. Probably I'm really overlooking it completely but what is the actual year the campaign starts in?
 

[Defendi]

2044.  I replied to this.  Hmm.

[Raf Blutaxt]

Thanks Defendi!
Where in the book did I overlook it?

[Defendi]

You didn't, I'm sure.  I've added it in to the last sentence of chapter 3, but you almost certainly don't have a copy with that sentence.