Session 0

### An invitation from the King

It is Spring on the 1205th Tally of Bazen, the night before The Feast of the Crown.

* Archduke Cabiros, King of Cadmus, has been discretely recruiting heroes from throughout The Three Duchies and the realms beyond.
* For whatever reason, you were chosen for your unique talents to take part in this clandestine quest.
* Until now, you have been informed only that the Adzen Knights (the King's own delvers into ancient dungeons) have uncovered a powerful magic that may hold the secret to ending The Cold Embrace.
* You have mustered in the city of Annarost for an audience with the King, who will explain his need.

## Campaign Primer

### Central tension

After a lull of nearly a century, the malevolent winter storms that dominate the region are growing in their ferocity. What were once intermittent blizzards have frozen over into weeks-long sieges of snow and echoes of the ancient evil's armies. But Cadmus is a kingdom of strongholds and the King's vassals, hesitant of stretching their armies thin, advise him merely to weather these storms. They believe that this surge of winter will pass as a mere transient nuisance. After all, had their proud cities not survived even greater scourges? Still, common folk struggling to survive the long winters bear the heaviest burden of this optimism and it may only be a matter of time before schemers in the dark start to prey on their discontent...

### Recent events in the region

* **Since 1199 TB,** refugees from the Twilight Plains have been straining the resources of the Three Duchies. They are largely fleeing the oppressive rule in Black Rapids and famine in Elzevir. By royal decree, King Cabiros, the Fair ordered that land be set aside to house and manage the masses.
* **In 1202 TB,** an insurrection led by Magurius, of the Pale Cliffs was quashed by \_\_\_\_. It is rumored that Magurius, half-brother to the king, sought to take the throne. Sympathizers to the would-be usurper and remnants of his forces have scattered to the winds.
* **In the winter of 1204 TB,** the Obsidian Citadel was razed to ashes. The citadel was the home of The Circle, an arcane society of Mond's greatest wizards.

## Who are our heroes?

Everything below here is out-of-universe. I was tempted to keep writing like this was all still part of the Encylopedia Mondicus, but I really just wanted to get this all done.

### Adventurers of all kinds

* All alignments allowed - but within the group, you are faithful companions. This can include evil characters that have motivations in line with the group.
* All player classes allowed, including all class options available in the expansion source books, listed below. I would even be ok with the villainous character classes (Death Domain Cleric and Oathbreaker Paladin) if the rest of the party is ok with it.
* All player ancestries available, including all variants and subraces in the listed source books.

### From where did they hail?

* The Three Duchies - a mix of classic Fantasy Land and medieval Europe. The eponymous Duchies are:
	+ The Kingdom of Cadmus, the center of the action for the campaign;
	+ Pelorus, an agrarian theocracy devoted to the sun god Pelor, bordering on the lands of halflings (our version of The Shire, The Goodhills) and the labyrinthine Elven forest (the Sylvan Highlands); and
	+ Tierstom, the snowy frontier homeland of Goliath (dominated by the Reghedian Plateau, a massive tundra plunged in nearly eternal winter) at the border between the Duchies and the rest of the continent of Colva.
* Sonn Barakor, a dwarven island stronghold just off the Liondrake Coast, northeast of the Three Duchies. The proud dwarves here are the staunchest allies of Cadmus, and by extension the other Duchies.
* The Eastfold, an analogue of Conan the Barbarian's Hyboria, dominated by mountains and desert, where the light of the gods does not shine.
* The Sahelean subcontinent of Shanatar - an analogue of ancient Africa, where enterprising traders (and sailors) are constantly threatened by bandits (and pirates!) under the shadows of mountainous pyramids. With the exception of Zakhara, this region is the only place where extraplanar beings like Genasi and Aasimar hail. This is where you would go if you wanted to get your swashes buckled.
* The Twilight Plains, an analogue of medieval Russia. Bounded to the north by the Sylvan Highlands and to the south by the Ashen Vale. This is the only place outside of the Underdark that Drow can be found. Elzevir is a largely half-elf and Drow kleptocracy and magocracy while Black Rapids is the largest permanent settlement of orcs and half-orcs in the world. All stone dwarves in Mond hail from Sonn Duergor, their ancestral fortress kingdom.

*Some are from more exotic lands.*

* The Ori Isles, an analogue/combination of fantasy Japan and Wuxia. A small isolationist island nation just north of the Colvan continent. The land is so terraformed by ancient geomancers that mundane travel is nearly impossible. Rumor has it that the Orian People have found ways to move through the Feywild at will.
* The Greater Tapals, a series of atolls far to the west of Colva. While not much to look at on the surface, the vast undersea cities are the homeland of Tritons. Currently, the civilizations of the Deep are embroiled in a war with the Sahuagin.
* Zakhara, a desert continent far to the east where no mortal has ever set foot - in fact, some are not even convinced it really exists on Mond. The efreet and other races from the Elemental Plane of Fire make their home there, and beings from the outer planes of existence are rumored to have passed through there to enter the Material Plane.

## And how did they get here?

### Heroes of their realms

* Do the normal character creation, with progression up to 5th level.
* For your ability scores, use the standard point-buy described in the Player's Handbook (helpful online tool); or use the standard array (before racial bonuses: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8).
* Choose a bonus feat, to represent your progress as an adventurer (you have to meet the prerequisites for the feat).

### Equipment

* Take the normal starting equipment for your class.
* In addition to your starting gold, your characters have 500 gp, plus 1d10 x 25 gp (we can roll this session 0).
* (Each) One minor uncommon magic item, or two minor common items (at least one of which is a consumable scroll or potion)
* (Party) One minor rare item or one major uncommon, decided collectively

*Some notes on your starting magic items.*

* Minor/major magic item tables are in Xanathar's Guide to Everything pp. 140-145. If you don't feel like pulling up a PDF of that, you can just look for magic items online and ask me where they fit on those tables!
* I'm also happy to homebrew up a magic item to suit your character or we could cook one up for the party's starting magic item.

### Bonds/backgrounds

* Since your characters will be somewhat experienced adventurers, try to come up with 1 (plus your Charisma bonus) additional Bonds or other connections in the world (can be a person, place, faction) and think up how you may have come by that connection. Alternatively, you can just write a Bond as normal when creating your character and having 1 + Cha bonus "I know thems" for characters we meet on our adventure!
* Consider letters of recommendations, medals, titles, or special favors from nobles or other important people. Maybe you saved a town from their owlbear infestation and they're eternally grateful! Maybe you have a rival or friendly nemesis out in the world!

## More meta stuff

If you want a very general overview of the tone of the world, check out the Meta page.

Some other considerations:

* The intended genre is medieval heroic fantasy. Make heroes that are badasses or have the potential to become badasses.
* Failure is an option, but I'll do everything I can to avoid losing. Don't be afraid to retreat if that's reasonable, but also know that sometimes the heroes lose for a bit and still lose in the end.
* No need to have characters built session 0, but ideas would be cool.
* I want to mine your backstories for adventure hooks - if you want to write deep backstories, I will happily use them!

### Variant rules

* **Action Options (from DMG).** Different actions include disarming strikes, marking opponents, and tumbling past opponents.
* **Random encounters (homebrew).** During each day of travel through the wilds, twice every long rest in dungeons, and once every short rest in dungeons, roll D12, D10, or D6 based on the relative danger of the location. Tough encounters on 1s, normal/easy encounters on 2s. Rangers in their favored terrain can choose to succeed or fail. Parties can get advantage or disadvantage based on the circumstances.
* **Spell Points (from DMG).** Only available for sorcerers, adding Sorcery Points to their pool of Spell Points. This variant replaces spell slots with a pool of points with spells costing points based on their level.
* **Special uses for tools (from XGE).** Extra utility from the available tools in which adventurers may be proficient. For example, cook's utensils can be used to prepare tasty meals that help companions regain their strength, allowing up to 6 characters regain 1 extra hit point for every Hit Die spent, provided they have access to the utensils and sufficient food.

*I am considering using (and welcome everyone's input on):*

* **Slow natural healing (from DMG).** Characters don't regain hit points at the end of a long rest. Instead, a character can spend Hit Dice to heal during a long rest, just as with a short rest. (This would also apply to monsters, especially those you meet in the wild. They would rarely be at full strength.)
* **More useful inspiration (homebrew).** Characters can expend their inspiration to impose disadvantage on a creature or to take an additional reaction.

### Source books

In addition to the core rulebooks, your characters can use options, feats, items, and spells from any of the following:

* Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
* Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
* Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
* Volo's Guide to Monsters
* Xanathar's Guide to Everything

## References

1. ↑ Noble lord or lady pending. Maybe someone your characters know?
2. ↑ Please don't all be goblins or something. No one would ever open their gates to your party because they'll assume its an invading warband.

Please *do* all be kenku, however.
3. ↑ Wait 'til you hear what they named all their towns after.
4. ↑ 'Good stone for defending', in DND's dwarvish. Thanks internet.
5. ↑ But where was Gondor when it fell?
6. ↑ Once a continent-spanning forest that was home to elves, burned to the ground over a thousand years ago to prevent the northern march of the Tyrant's armies from the southern pole.
7. ↑ Yet?
8. ↑ They may even be an NPC selected to be part of this quest. I don't know, it's your character's life. I'm not their dad.
9. ↑ The variant described in the DMG is unclear on whether this is the same pool of Hit Die you have during the day or if it just means you roll based on your total Hit Die, regardless of how many Hit Die you used during short rests during the day. I'm inclined to use the latter.