Too Close to the Sun

## Too Close to the Sun - A Malovia story

### Purpose

Welcome to another Malovia adventure, the purpose of this campaign is to take part in some of the history of Malovia. This campaign will be more focused story wise than Explore Malovia and is targeting a life span of ~10 sessions. Unbeknownst to our heroes the primal Angels, Barachiel, Nakir, and Uriel, are about to enter a period of extreme conflict. Though we know from Explore Malovia that the primal angel Nakir is dead we do not know if this is the event that ends their life because of this, the outcomes of Too Close to the Sun is uncertain and I need your help to find out what happens. The campaign will be action packed and likely take place over the course of ~1 week. There will be no need for crafting systems this time.

### Background

The year is 906 AC, in Ordinia the Chroma Conquest ended 300 years ago and the vitian elves are a collection distinct tribes that have yet to be united under a single banner; in Malovia the most recently created native inhabitant, the grung, was created by Uriel using the Dryad's Diadem just 50 years ago. The grung's color based class system has not yet taken formation. Crackalisks still live among the grung within the limits of Vod Gozzex. The island is in the middle of a period that will later been known as The Flourishing, the island is teeming with plants, wildlife, and water. The singing lake's connection to the feywild has never been stronger. Check out Vod Gozzex for more details about the city and groups within it that you might be connected to.

### For your character

I want to preface this with I am 100% down for either option, just because option 1 has more text does not mean I really hope you pick that one. I wanted to allow you guys to vote on the overall tone of the campaign as it will come it may come with a few restrictions to help establish that tone.

From super serious to lighthearted, I would put option 1 would have a more serious tone than Explore Malovia and option 2 would have a more light hearted tone than Explore Malovia. (I need a little variance in my life, there is no option that has the same tone as Explore Malovia).

The path of the beast mechanics work the same for both options.

The discord message will have some instructions on how to vote for this.

#### Option 1

To fit the themes of the campaign there is going to be a race restriction for your characters. Your characters are grung that live or do business frequently within the city of Vod Gozzex. Why do we need this? The story I'm hoping to tell with Too Close to the Sun is a story of insiders, a story of how a group made a big impact on the formation of the grung society we know today. It will allow us to explore a large pocket of mysterious history left in Explore Malovia about the original relationship between the grung and crackalisks. I think having you, the players, take part in it yourselves is the most engaging way to explore this history. Having the grung society in it's very early years (the first grung was only created 50 years ago) gives us a relatively clean slate to make some waves that will ripple into the future and I want your groups actions to make those waves. Grung culture wasn't developed by outsiders but by it's own people, which is why I need restrict you all to playing grung.

Refer to the racial stats below for what your racial bonuses are. These stats are a reduced version of what is publish in One Grung Above. You may be sad about the lack of racial diversity coming to our band of heros but fear not, in addition to your racial bonuses (not much) you may choose one path of the crackalisk to take. **Your character will not start with these abilities but will acquire them during the first session, feel free to count on these bonuses as part of your character build (it should feel like they were a missing part of your character that has been completed) but they do not need to be worked into your backstory.** It will make thematic sense as to why these perks fit with your already established character skills/background when you acquire the abilities during session 1. Choosing your path randomly or something that doesn't fit with your background will feel weird, I'll help during character creation or if you'd like I can assign you one based on your character. Also, each path of the crackalisk can only be used by one character please negotiated amongst each other if you have duplicate desires.

The grung caste system has not yet been established, feel free to choose your grung's color, ideally if you guys have unique colors from each other.

Since, everyone is going to be a grung, even with the added crackalisk paths, what you pick for your background is more important than ever before. Please work with me directly on weaving your background into the city. If we find that none of the published backgrounds fit well, this is the perfect time to make a custom background. For starter information checkout Vod Gozzex on some groups and factions in the city.

Background questions to get your wheels turning:

What is your occupation? How do you put food on your table? Are you part of any of the guilds?

How big is your family? Are you parents still alive? How are your siblings? (An average grung family has 8 children per two parents, birthed in a single spawning pool)

What is a hill you would die on?

Do you have any friends you would die for?

Do you have any friends you would steal for?

Would you steal for your own benefit?

How do you feel about Uriel redirecting the river to flow through Vod Gozzex?

What is something about you that is just not quite normal?

You will start at level 6. The campaign will end at level 8. Keep this level range in mind when building your character. Use point buy for your stats.

##### Grung

* **Ability Score Increase.** - Tasha's custom origin, choose one trait give it +2 choose a different trait give it +1.
* **Age.** Grungs mature to adulthood in a single year, but have been known to live up to 50 years.
* **Size.** Grungs stand between 2 ½ and 3 ½ feet tall and average about 30 pounds. Your size is Small.
* **Speed.** You have a walking speed of 25 feet. Your sticky finger and toe pads give you a climb speed of 25 feet.
* **Amphibious.** You can breathe air and water.
* **Poison Immunity.** You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
* **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Grung

#### Option 2

The only race restriction for your characters is that they can be found within the ADIGASH multiverse in 906AC and they may not have a native fly speed (just looking to get some variance from Explore Malovia). Your characters are part of a multi-planar mercenary group that's objective is to steal some artifacts for a client. The client has warned you that the Primal Angel Uriel is also searching for these artifacts and to watch out for their interference. The story I'm hoping to tell with Too Close to the Sun is a story of outsiders, a story of how a group that initially had no relation to this space had an incredible impact on the formation of the grung society we know today. It will allow us to explore a large pocket of mysterious history left in Explore Malovia about the original relationship between the grung and crackalisks. I think having you, the players, take part in it yourselves is the most engaging way to explore this history. Having the grung society in it's very early years (the first grung was only created 50 years ago) gives us a relatively clean slate to make some waves that will ripple into the future and I want your groups actions to make those waves.

In addition to your normal character bonuses you may choose one path of the crackalisk to take. **Your character will not start with these abilities but will acquire them during the first session, feel free to count on these bonuses as part of your character build (it should feel like they were a missing part of your character that has been completed) but they do not need to be worked into your backstory.** It will make thematic sense as to why these perks fit with your already established character skills/background when you acquire the abilities during session 1. Choosing your path randomly or something that doesn't fit with your background will feel weird, I'll help during character creation or if you'd like I can assign you one based on your character. Also, each path of the crackalisk can only be used by one character please negotiated amongst each other if you have duplicate desires.

If we pick this option, we are all going to need to work together to come up with the background for our multi-planar mercenary group. This will be essential for everyone's characters.

#### Path of the Beast

For free on your turn you may summon an ethereal crackalisk beneath you, mounted (no movement cost to mount). The crackalisk lasts until the start of your next turn and uses the modified mount rules listed below. You may summon your crackalisk 3 times per long rest. You may re-mount your crackalisk on your next turn but you will be briefly dismounted at the start of your turn. This matters for some effects last the duration of being mounted.

Your crackalisk is tethered to you specifically, if you dismount or are forcibly dismounted your crackalisk dissipates early. PHB Forced Dismount Rules - *If an effect moves your mount against its will while you’re on it you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall off the mount, landing prone in a space within 5 feet of it. If you’re knocked prone while mounted, you must make the same saving throw. If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it.*

Your crackalisk is an extension of you granting you benefits while you are in the *mounted* state. It has no actions, movement, or initiative of it's own but will empower your own abilities while mounted. The ethereal nature of your crackalisk prevents them from taking damage or being targeted by effects outside of the ethereal plane but prevents them from providing cover or visually obscuring their rider or any other creature. Mount related weapons and feats still apply while you are in the *mounted* state but you will find abilities that help keep your mount alive are less useful. (Were they really that useful to being with?)

##### Beast Paths

* Any effects listed outside of the "while mounted" section are permanent bonuses.
* Any spells listed that may be cast are cast without the need for spell slots or material components and the casting modifier stat will be listed with the spell.
* Crackalisk spells may be cast and concentrated on during barbarian rage. *Let the barbarians do cool things too he said from the back*
* You can be mounted while using your grung climb speed, however your climb speed will always stay 25. The crackalisk speed only overrides your base speed, which can be increased by other movement buffs.

###### Path of the Cheetah

Gain proficiency/expertise in acrobatics.

While mounted: Speed 50. Your jump distance is tripled. (Note\* check the mechanical section for updated rules on expending movement to jump, these make this much better)

###### Path of the Stonefish

Gain dark vision (60ft)

While mounted: Speed 40. You may use your bonus action to disengage. If you take no movement on a turn gain +10 bonus to stealth checks as you are cloaked in ethereal camouflage. You remain camouflaged until you take movement even after your mount vanishes. Sight into the ethereal plane by a perceiver reduces this bonus to +5.

###### Path of the Bull

Gain the Charger feat.

While mounted: Speed 40. Gain the martial adept feat (pick your maneuvers now, they don't change each time). Refresh your superiority die (1 per mount).

###### Path of the Elephant

Your carrying capacity is treated as though you were a 2 sizes larger

While mounted: Speed 30. Ignore difficult Terrain. When you would take take damage you may use your reaction to roll a d12 and reduce the damage by the amount rolled. If the d12 rolls 6 or less, your reaction is not expended. You may only use this feature once per damage instance.

###### Path of the Remora

At will cast animal friendship. Gain proficiency/expertise in animal handling.

While mounted: Speed 40. Can cast suggestion (WIS).

###### Path of the Lava Crab

Gain resistance to fire damage

While mounted: Speed 40. Immune to fire damage. Can cast burning hands(DEX) and flame blade (DEX).

###### Path of the Jellyfish

While mounted: Speed 30. As a bonus action you may turn invisible until you make an attack or cast a spell or you dismount.

###### Path of the Octopus

Gain the Dual Wielder feat

While mounted: Speed 40. When you make an bonus action offhand attack you may make an additional offhand attack with the same weapon.

###### Path of the Axolotl

Gain an improved version of the Healer feat. The text now reads "As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and allow that creature to expend up to 3 hit die, gaining hit points as they would during a short rest for the expended hit die.**"**

Gain proficiency/expertise in medicine.

While mounted: Speed 40. You may use a healer's kit as a bonus action.

###### Path of the Rabbit

Gain proficiency/expertise in religion.

While mounted: Speed 30. As a reaction, you may re-roll a d20 that you roll or force an attack against you to be rerolled.

###### Path of the Cockatiel

Gain the skilled feat. Gain proficiency in a language of your choice.

While mounted: Speed 40. Whenever you make an ability check that lets you add your Proficiency bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

###### Path of the Bull Frog

Gain proficiency/expertise in intimidation.

While mounted: Speed 40. Can cast compel duel (CON).

###### Path of the Opossum

Gain proficiency/expertise in insight.

While mounted: Speed 40. Can cast Speak with Dead. Can use Turn Undead.

*Turn Undead - As an action, an undead creature that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw (CHA). If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can.*

### Mechanical Changes

These changes are very similar to Explore Malovia rules the differences are we are no longer tracking consumable spell components and addition of long rest clarification and jumping changes.

#### Exhaustion

The current system of exhaustion has some VERY detrimental effects that compound very quickly into an near-instant death spiral. I'd like to smooth out the effects so that as a DM I can actually use exhaustion as a normal/natural and flexible consequence of a character pushing beyond their normal limits. I believe this will slot down nicely ontop of any current rules that give or remove exhaustion levels if you have any concerns please let me know.

The modifier listed in the table is applied anytime a character makes an attack roll, ability check, saving throw and is applied to their spell save DC.

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

A character removes 3 exhaustion levels every long rest.

#### Dying Condition

I have found encounters are most fun when players get to make meaningful choices. Unfortunately, not every choice is good or optimal or made with complete information and it never feels good to punish a character by putting them in the time-out of death saves. This leads to players dissociating from the session and often another player must choose between making the correct tactical choice and getting their friend up as soon as possible so that can re-join in the fun of playing DnD. The Dying Condition is now applied to any character that drops to 0 hit points instead of unconscious.

You should envision the dying condition similar to a last stand mode. You are bleeding, crawling around on the ground, at the cost of some of your precious last gasps of air you might do something to improve your chances of survival or take as many of the monsters that hurt down with you. This might include but is not limited crawling to safety, casting healing word on yourself, misty *crawling* to safety, pulling the last lever to seal the door the monsters are coming through, defacing a rune to interrupt a magic ritual. How you use your last breath is up to you, you get to choose - that's the point.

Will this make it harder for your characters to die. Sure it will but as a DM I can account for that, I'd rather bad dice rolls help us tell an awesome story of the parties last stand where they fought until the bitter end than a story of players watching death throws tick down passing their turns.

Dying Condition - When your hit points are equal to 0, you fall prone and gain this condition. If a creature is stabilized without being healed above 0 hp. They fall unconscious for 1d4 hours or until they gain at least 1 hp through other means or they may choose to receive levels of exhaustion equal to the hours of unconsciousness they have remaining. (Stabilized like normal except you can take exhaustion to skip being unconscious if you aren't healed via other means).

* At the start of your turn roll a death saving throw (like normal)
* You may not stand up from being prone
* You may not use a climb or fly speed
* If you use your Action gain 3 levels of exhaustion
* If you use your Bonus action gain 2 levels of exhaustion
* If you use your Object interaction gain 1 level of exhaustion
* If you use your reaction gain 1 level of exhaustion

#### Jumping

Normally when making a Long Jump you can cover a distance equal to your strength score but in order to do this during tracked combat you also need to expend movement equal to the distance jumped. So when a character tries to make a long jump it is often thwarted by the need to approach your target, get the 10ft running start, and clearing the gap itself all within a characters normal 30ft movement. To remedy this we will be adding the slight modification:

*If a character doesn't have enough movement to complete the length of a jump they may end their turn mid-jump and will complete the jump at the start of their next turn.*

Imagine in a movie the camera starts by watching Legolas take a badass leap off of the helms deep wall, followed by a cut to Gimly bonking some Orcs over the head, then the camera cuts back to Legolas completing his jump and cutting off some more orc heads. Legolas was not suspended in time while the camera panned away we just were getting some more context of other things happening in the battle before we saw how Legolas resolved his jump.

#### Flanking

We will be using flanking but instead of giving advantage you may double your proficiency bonus to your attack roll. (Stacks with weapon proficiency). Does not apply to weapons you are not proficient in. (2 x 0 = 0).

#### Critical Rolls

Critical successes only apply to attack rolls. There are no critical failures. (Passing a DC on an ability check by more or failing by more still may have varying outcomes)

#### Spell components

Consumable components will NOT tracked. All consumables can be substituted with component bag or spell focus. You can not sell or transfer components.

#### Encumbrance

We won't be tracking it unless you try to build a siege tower out of rusty daggers.

#### I wish I could pull a second lever

You may expend your action to gain a second object interaction during your turn.

#### Session absence

If you are gone from a session but play still happens your character will simply follow the group stay out of trouble. Upon your return it will be as if you didn't miss anything

#### THE FADING SPIRIT – ALTERNATIVE RESURRECTION RULES

Character death can often prove to become a minor inconvenience in some campaigns once the adventuring party reaches a certain level, with spells being available to return fallen comrades from the afterlife with temporary setbacks, robbing a small element of danger, and threat to future conflicts and challenges within the story. If you wish to elevate the gravity of character death, you can introduce this optional rule.

If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.

For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.

After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.

Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.

Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual.

If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the Revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.

#### Contested Initiative

On an initiative tie the character with the higher initiative bonus will go first. If their bonuses are a tie a straight d20 contest is used.

#### Targeting of AOE spells

Spells and abilities which have a circular, spherical, or cylindrical area of effect that does not originate from a creature must target the intersection of the grid not the center of a square or hex. Circular radii create cubes on a grid because diagonal movement is the same as horizontal and vertical movement. *We live in a non-euclidean world, sorry.* For spells and abilities which specify a cube area the point of origin is anywhere of the one of the faces of the cube. The origin face of the cube is the is not part of the effect of the spell and the cube begins on the following tiles with a side width specified in the spell. The caster may choose the exact positioning of the cube relative to the origin.

#### Creatures Provide Cover

The body of a creature provides 1/2 cover to any creature behind them relative to the point of origin of an effect if the creature in front is at least the same size or larger than the creature in the back. If the creature in the back already has cover their cover will be increased by 1/4. (1/2, 3/4, full). This type of cover does not apply to spells or abilities that target in a line. (The magic is too concentrated to be reduced in intensity by passing through a creature). For example, *Your party is navigating through a tight hallway. You shoot through the space occupied by your friendly kobold and party horse to hit the enemy medium sized goblin. The enemy has an automatic half cover from your shooting past the party horse (large) but your shot is unaffected by shooting past the kobold (small).* Another example, *You cast a fireball into a dense pack of goblins, every grid space is filled. You lob a fireball into the center of the pack. There is no issue with targeting the fireball to hit the center of the pack. The goblins immediately adjacent to the point of origin of the fireball has no bonus. The inner ring of goblins has +2 from half cover (including diagonals). Then next most ring of goblins has +5 from 3/4 cover. The fourth ring of goblins is not hit from total cover though they will mourn the sacrifice of their immolated comrades.* Another example, *You shoot a lightning bolt through a line of goblins. None of the goblins receive a bonus to the DEX save because lighting bold is a line targeted spell.* Note\* The feat spell sniper does not mitigate the DEX save bonus of AOE spells as stated by the feat it only effects spell attacks, which would help when shooting past an ally.

The purpose behind this change is to create the potential for more interesting positional choices during combat and to mechanically demonstrate the difficultly of choosing a target through a chaotic melee.

#### Discerning Triggers

When the trigger of a held action occurs the character that held the action may choose not to follow through with their held action. Upon not following through the character does not expend their reaction and will have the opportunity to take their held action on any subsequent triggers before their next turn. Using the held action on a subsequent trigger will cost the character their reaction as normal.

#### Potion Consumption

The consumption or administration of a magical, alchemical, and herbal potion is one action unless stated otherwise in the description of the item. *The action cost of using a potion is designed to limit the use of potions to being a reward for good preparation or allow a speedy recovery in between tense scenes and to keep the rich from being indefinitely alive.*

#### Known Health Pool

Party members should feel free to share their exact hit points with their fellow party members. The adventuring party has survived many conflicts together and are familiar with exactly how many tricks their fellow party members have up their sleeve before going down. On the other hand enemy combatants can be difficult to judge. At <50% hp an enemy will be visibly bloodied, at <25% an enemy will be visibly haggard, <10% an enemy will be gasping for air or digging from their last reserves in some other way if they are a creature that does not breathe.

#### Non-lethal Attacks, Spells, and Abilities

Before or after an enemy is declared dead the player that caused the injury regardless of attack type may ask to DM to deal non-lethal damage. The DM will then roll death saves for the downed npc or monster like they would for a player. From there the NPC may be stabilized using the same rules as stabilizing a character. For example, *A group of goblins ambushed your party. After you kill most the goblins the last one begins to flee. You shoot your bow at them as they retreat. The DM begins to describe the arrow piercing their head as they go down, you quickly interject "Umm, could they not die instead?" "Sure" the DM replies, backtracking a little, the DM describes the arrow piecing their gut as they collapse to the ground. The DM they rolls dead saves for the goblin until they die or are stabilized.*

Non-lethal melee attacks will knock enemies unconscious but stable as normal. This effect can apply to spells that deal aoe damage, persistent spells like cloud of daggers, single target spells like inflict wounds, character abilities, ranged attacks, and most reasonable ways that a player would damage another character.

#### Ball Bearings

As an action, you can spill these tiny metal balls from their pouch to cover a level, square area that is 10 feet on a side. A creature moving across the covered area must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn’t need to make the save.

#### Becoming Stable

When a creature becomes stable after reaching 0hp after 1d4 hours that creature regains 1hp. Creatures may no longer be awakened from the unconscious state without being brought above 0hp through any means. *Previously I allowed a simple slap to wake an unconscious creature. Going forward we will be reverting to the original rules. If your party struggles with waiting they should consider investing in a healers kit or any item or spell that heals.*

#### Transcribing Spell Scrolls

Wizards may copy spells that are a higher level than they can prepare into their spell book but may not cast them until they could prepare that spell level. *We are trading the flavor of a wizard practicing the spell for allowing players to not feel wasteful when consuming high level spell scrolls.*

#### Long Rest Frequency

You may only receive the benefits of a long rest once per day, resets at dawn. *Normally the rule is every 24 hours but that gets weird because if you go to sleep at 10pm one night are you not allowed to start sleeping at 9pm the next day?*