These woods, wherein the adventure known as "Harrald" begins, is an old forest of the Greyhawk genre. A forest of old cedar, firs and spruce. Some of the old firs have words carved in them, but they do not look like they were carved with a manmade tool. Each of the trees has an owl of a different species carved on it.
The carvings, at first glance, to a ranger, appear to mark some sort of path. The air is moist, with faint, wispy tendrils of fog rising from the forest floor.
Normal woodland chatter of animals pertinent to such a woods can be heard, mixed in with an old sing-song sounding chant-like tune that wavers like a breeze blowing through a rippled patchwork of strong grasses. This is where the party either begins or where the first one, two or three player characters are. The others join in within the hour as the party or character(s) progress in their exploration of the surroundings, which are only familiar to one person, if that person is an elven or half-elven ranger.
Different races and character classes will see different things at this juncture, so I need to know what the races and character classes are for each player. Someone in the group should speak the language of small forest animals, another language to be proficient with is, of course, dragon. Still more are elven, dwarven, gnomish, orc, ogre, treant, and pixie.
A cleric is a must, but the character can be a combo class if desired; wizarding powers are a plus; fighters or fighter/thieves are good...
Starting far off but seemingly coming closer, the sounds of a distant thunderstorm rumble from deeper in the woods. A ranger will know that morning is dawning, but due to the thick forest canopy, the sky cannot be seen, although others in the group who are not rangers will sense a growing lightness as the day progresses. The woodland animals whose voices you hear do not grow quieter as the storm rumbles in the distance, but instead, act normally as animals and birds do when a new day dawns.
This is how the adventure known as "Harrald" begins, although it officially doesn't begin until the day after the party arrives in the first town it comes to whether it be inside the woods, or beyond the woods. Characters should be between 5th and 10th levels. There are no psionics to worry about, but some or all should have tracking and flying skills (flying on something, not flapping one's arms to generate lift like some of you have tried in vain or in jest).
A unicorn is also involved in the early stages of the game and near the end game, depending, of course, on your characters' actions, decisions and movements. Each player may have two magical items to begin with, though none can be an artifact, nor can they be overly powerful like a wish, etc. You should sketch out a background for your character, likes, dislikes, curiosities, etc., the usual. For anything else you have a question about, email me, and I will try to answer all.
This is what I tell the players who begin this campaign, for which I hope to soon post some of their actions and the story, so far, as they've experienced it.
Last updated, March 16, 2008. Story copyright © 2004-2008 Terry L. Karkos;
art found on the Internet, copyright of the original artists.
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