The beginning...

Keshern’s Cove is a small village on the western coast, sheltered from the storms that howl in from the Eternal Sea by a stout bluff.  Surrounded by heavy forests, steep hills, and small farms tucked into the valleys providing a crop of wheat, wool and tobacco. All but a handful of farms are outside the village proper, although none are more than a days walk. Keshern's Cove doesn’t precisely thrive so much as continue to grow and prosper at a regular, leisurely pace.  Founded a century ago, the founding families are continued in the positions of the Smith, Miller, Innkeeper, Fisher and Forester.  Serving just under two hundred souls, the vast majority of which are humans.  The Smith, Miller, and Innkeep families are giants, while the Forester family are verrik.  Living in isolation, Keshern’s Cove sees two trade caravans a year, once in the spring, for wool and tobacco, and once in the fall for wheat and timber.  

An ancient watch fire lies at the top of the bluff, by local legend it predates the foundation of the village.  To the east lies the various hills, valleys, and a wandering road that leads to the mountains, where it winds through Gaunt’s pass, and on to the city of Ralven, to which Keshern’s  Cove owes it allegiance.  Two weeks to the south lies Calden’s Ride, and beyond it a few other villages.

 

There most ever present threat to this village is nature - the raging storms and the brutal winters, however there are also groups of Slitherin living in the hills, and while they seldom cause trouble, sightings have been more frequent as of late…

So, on a clear and warm spring evening it comes as a surprise when the caravan not so much rolls into the village as storms frantically into the village, bloodied and battered, bearing tales of an attack from a large band of Slitherin, our tale begins...

(Credit for these amazing photographs is to Tom & Marcia Murray, they have even more, which can be found at http://tomandmarcia.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html)

And on to the details! This campaign will be using the open d20 license system in terms of gameplay rules. Character races and classes will come from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed players handbook, and it's expansion, Arcana Unearthed : The Diamond Throne. Characters will be built on a 28pt point buy method, and built to level 5. Characters are expected to act in a good or neutral manner. The region for this game is ripped directly from the southern area of our Pacific Northwest, and you can reasonably infer temperature, non-magical vegetation availability of water, weather etc. There will be significant survival elements to this game, so keep that in mind when building characters. If you haven't ever hiked through a mountainous region, then you can't really know how it feels, but rest assured others have and will explain it to you. Lore wise, I am setting this campaign in Sword & Sorcery Studios excellent Scarred Lands. While we aren't playing on the continent most of those resources refer to, the denizens of that world, and it's history are all applicable. It should be worth noting that Keshern's Cove is loyal to the Divine, as opposed to the fallen Titans. Characters are expected to either be from Keshern's Cove, or to be part of the trade caravan. Starting gold/equipment is as detailed in the Arcana Unearthed.

Game will run on Tuesdays, and I have tentatively set the start time at 5:30. The first game will most likely be a meet/greet/character building session. There will be delicious sandwich for consumption.