This one is going to be tricky folks. First the rules!
-Level 4.
-4 Players give or take.
-4d6 reroll ones and twos.
-Human or elves only.
-Limited class selection. Fighter, Ranger, Bard, Rogue, and Warder.
-Rune Magic System.
-Rune Skill.
-Bard Mandatory.
It has been 321 years after the return of the Corelings, demonic beasts That rule the core of the earth that appear at dusk and de-materialize at dawn. The Age of Science, which has lasted for 3000 years, forgot its own history on how to fight against the corelings, and as such civilization was torn asunder by the untold millions of demons, as normal weapons had little to no effect against their power. Only through the study of ancient superstitious books was the survivors able to relearn the art of Wards. What was able to be salvaged was carried off to what few remaining cities were left, and massive walls with forbidding wards were placed to protect these cities from their doom.
Thus has humanity been reduced to a handful of city states, people trapped behind the wards and rarely traveling outside into the wilds. Only those called Warders have the balls to travel outside and communicate and trade with other cities, while also acting as mailmen and tradesmen. These Warders survive on the outside with the use of protective circles placed before dusk, as a properly placed ward circle can prevent the corelings from tearing them into pieces. These wards have to be painted or carved into pieces of wood for the best effect, with the pieces of wood strung together with rope. It is possible to draw forbidding wards on the ground or on shields, but such wards are easily disrupted with a stray leaf or blood coating the writings.
Wards for the past 300 years have only been used for defense and forbidding, as the knowledge of the coveted offensive wards has been lost for three centuries. This is where you guys come in, crazy asshole willing to brave the uncharted western woods to see if there exists any structures from before the Age of Science that have the wards needed to take the fight to the demons.
Corelings are light sensitive, have infernal healing, sicken people whom they claw, improved natural armor, and are just completely batshit insane with murder. They gave little to no intelligence and are perfectly willing to smash into forbidding wards over and over for hours on end, testing them for any weakness in the design. Corelings come in different flavors, depending on your terrain:
-Fire Demon. The Flame Demon is a fast demon that spits a liquid demonfire out of it's mouth. The Demonfire can set fire to most things and is effective against other breeds of corelings. Although they can spit fire they need time to spit again. This breed of Demon is frequently sighted in the lowlands. The flame demons avoid forests where Wood demons make their hiding places, the reason being that Wood demons attack Flame demons on sight due to their firespit, which sticks to wood demons and kills them quickly. There are none in the mountains and only a few in the desert, the reason is that there is nothing to burn. It runs on all four and is easily recognized by it's glowing mouth and eyes.
-Wood Demons. Populate any forested area and form out of the trees themselves. As such, their hides are near identical to the trees they come out of, making for perfect camo. They are much stronger than fire demons and are known to kill them on sight, since demonfire can kill them in return and burn down their trees.
-Wind Demons. Medium Sized bat creatures that favor a flyby attack that is able to slice a mans head off before he even knew what was happening. When on the ground they are very weak and their leather wings are easy to damage. They also need a running start to get back up into the air, so tight places are their worst enemy.
-Rock Demons. The big daddy of all demons, as they show up in and around mountains. Standing easily 20 feet tall and hides coated with rock plating and tails spiked with rock spires. They are also the slowest of the demons and take the longest to materialize at night.
Those are the more common demons you will be going up against, as there are others worth mentioning when the time comes. As you may have had figured out, the magic system in this game is completely different. I am merging the divine and arcane schools into the Warding school, as the new Warder class is a combo of the wizard and cleric. The class gets:
-d8 hit die.
-Average BAB.
-Cleric Base Saves.
-Prof. with all armors and simple and martial weapons.
-Same skills as a wizard and skill points per level.
-No familiar or channeling or aura or domains.
You get "spells" the same way as normal for a wizard. Instead of a spellbook you have a wardbook of the wards you are good enough to use with. Spells can be written on anything that can be used to be written on, as the most easiest way of doing this is to carry small wooden planks with the wardspell lacquered on them. Also, as previously mentioned, there are no offensive wards known to exist, so any spell that deals damage doesn't exist. Magical weapons don't exist, but armor can be warded to fend off demon attacks to a limited extent. Magical items do exist but are severely limited in use, as I will explain below.
But here comes the rub. The wards are totally useless by themselves. They need magical fuel, and the only known source of magical energy is the demons themselves. Forbidding magic only works on demons, not humans, as the demons need to be nearby for you to use the other spells in your arsenal. A warder during the day time is just an average fighter, as they need to be good with fending off demons long enough for another warder to set forbidding wards down. At the same time, when the demons are nearby, your magical spell potential cannot be reduced, so you don't have spells per day. Magical items only work when demons are around, so gauntlets of ogre strength only give you the +4 to strength when you are fending off demons, for example.
There is a loophole around this, but you'll have to figure that out by yourselves.
MAP!
You will be all starting at Fort Miln. They are the only place for the other towns to get metal for tools and weapons and other items of importance. But being that far north and in the mountains, the area is poor for farming and trade their ore for food from the more plentiful southlands.
