Unveiling of the Black Chronology

Sundering of the Weave

Description

Within a lonely underground room beneath the House of Wonder in Waterdeep, a diviner of Savras forsees a future event which he calls the Spellplague; so horrific was his vision that he tore out his own eyes and froze himself in time to avoid ever seeing this terrible future again.

The necromancer Meleghost Starseer, Magister of Mystra, is determined to avoid the prophesy left behind by the mad diviner. On the walls of the room are clues from the seers vision, including many names. One group of names stands out, not because the names are of powerful individuals, rather they seem to be names of lowly adventurers and acolytes of Mystra's flock.

Determined to reveal the truth behind the prophetic vision and stop it if possible, Magister Starseer has called the named individuals together to unravel the conspiracy and fight against the impending doom.

Champions of the Weave

A'mael Half-elven - NG Male Half-elf Bard of the Starry Quill (NPC) (Retired)
Cersei Lightbringer - LG Female Human Priestess of the Weave
Kallric Nightbreeze - AL Male Sun Elf Spellblade of Evereska
Ricken? - CG Male Human Knight of the Blue Moon
Tainy Kadell - NG Female Human Ranger of the Shooting Star (Deceased)
Talas Nightwind - AL Male Star Elf Warmage of the Blue Moon

House Rules

[+]

Character Creation

Books: All official Realms, Core, and Complete books. Exaulted/Vile material is allowed only where required for official Realms classes, like Harper Paragon, and only the specified requirements are allowed. Additional material can be included pending DM approval.
Starting ECL: Campaign starting ECL is 3. Thereafter the starting XP is an average of all existing players.
Dieties: All characters are recommended to be followers of Mystra (or related diety, such as Azuth). While not a requirement, it is STRONGLY recommended for the campaign's story. Shar, Cyric, and Mask are not allowed as patrons at character creation.
Alignment: No alignment restrictions, however evil characters must be a loyal member of one of the Mystra organizations noted below. Followers of Mystra include LG Paladins and CE Necromancers. This provides the character with a strong motivation for the campaign as well as reduces the risk of intra-party conflict.
PC Organizations: Characters are strongly recomended to be members of an organization associated with Mystra. While not required, choosing one of these organizations will have unspecified benefits due to their influence in the campaign story.
Party Cohesiveness: After discussing character ideas, each character is required to have strong ties to at least two of the other party members. The tie can be two ways, i.e. it is the same tie for both people. This helps create party loyalty and cohesiveness. Ideas for ties include: "his cleric introduced mine to the faith, and has served as my spiritual advisor since" or "the two of them have been friends since growing up on the streets of X" or "he saved my life once, and we've been travelling together so that I can repay the favor" or "we stood together at the battle of X, and gained a strong respect and trust which lasts to this day." Characters added after campaign start should have similar ties, which helps explain why they show up and join the party.
Feats: The Shadow Weave feat cannot be taken at character creation.
Wealth: Characters will start with wealth equal to 1.5 times the amount on the Wealth by Level Table in the DMG. i.e. at 3rd level the starting wealth table entry is 2,700 gp, so the character will start with 4,050 gp (2700 * 1.5 = 4050).

Game Rules

Ruleset: When in doubt, use the 3.5 ruleset
Character Death: Unfortunately, characters die from time to time. Resurrection magic is rare, as is locating someone high enough to cast it if the PCs are unable. Resurrections must follow the campain setting guidelines. Should ressurection be unavailable, a new PC can be generated and integrated at the earliest opportunity. There is an experience loss, resulting in a level loss. Experience will be set to 50% of the difference between the pre-death level and post-death level. This is not a penalty for dieing, it reflects the reward for those who did not die.
Story/Heroic Death: In novels and movies, there are times when a hero must sacrifice themselves for the greater good. An example might be a warrior staying behind to hold off the tides of evil to allow time for her companions to get away with the <insert good/holy item>. Knowingly sacrificing a character for the benefit of story will not incur an experience penalty for death, rather will be rewarded with an unspecified benefit. Note: This should be a rare occurance, use perhaps once or twice a campaign. The death must occur off-table (i.e. not the result of rolls), must be declared, and approved by the DM.
Critical Hits/Successes/Fumbles: Critical hits (natural 20) always hit. Critical successes (natural 20) on non-combat checks, such as skill rolls, are treated as having a +10 untyped bonus. With a critical success, there is no go guarantee of absolute success, yet the bonus assures that failure is unlikely. Critical fumbles (natural 1) in combat and skills are always treated as a failure. With a melee attack, a critical fumble has a 20% chance of resulting in the character be stunned for the remainder of the current round and the next. Some critical fumbles can result in an enhanced failure as can other low rolls, when applicable. For example, barely failing to disarm a trap can result in no effect, but a really low roll can result in the trap being triggered.
Equipment: Characters can buy equipment "off stage" at any reasonable time while characters are in cities. Cities have a maximum GP limit for what they can buy/sell, this limit is noted in the FRCS. All items sell at 50% cost to buy. Charged items such as wands or staves are pro-rated in value based on remaining charges for purchase or sale with 50 charges being the base value.
Identifying magic items: Knowledge(Arcana) can identify items using a DC 15 + CL of item. Prior detect magic cast by identifier adds a +5 circumstance bonus. The Identify spell adds a +20 enhancement bonus to knowledge checks for the duration of the spell and treats the caster as trained if they have no ranks in the skill.
Experience: XP will be awarded based on encounters as normal. Experience will be provided at least once per session, divided by the number of characters involved in the event. Characters with cohorts will suffer a 10% penalty to XP instead of counting a cohort as getting an equal share of the XP. Cohorts do not calculate XP though, leveling whenever the leader's leadership score allows. Lower level characters will receive slightly more XP per encounter, as is standard.
Cohorts: Use of the Leadership feat is allowed, though the character cannot attract followers. As noted above, Cohorts have an impact on the character's XP, and levels up when the leadership score allows. Cohorts are controlled by the leadership character's player, unless the action conflicts with the cohort's character history or the action is deemed suicidal. Cohorts share the main character's initiative roll. Try to spice up your cohort with a personality; don't have a meat shield or heal-bot cohort, have a second character. Consider if you can handle running two full characters before choosing the leadership feat, both personality and abilities, as it can be a lot of work.
Intimidate: Using Intimidate to demoralize opponents requires no prerequisite time. It is a full round action a character can attempt to demoralize an opponent in combat, with the target getting a Will save against fear. If the character is attempting to make the target surrender, rather than flee, the target gets a +5 bonus the save due to fear of torture/death. A failed save makes the target shaken. A fail of 5 or more, or a subsequent failure, moves the target +1 fear steps (to frightened, then to panicked). A natural 1 failed save always results in a panicked condition (or surrender if that is the desired outcome). There is no re-check for a failed intimidate and the target receives a +2 circumstance bonus against sunsequent intimidates during the same encounter from other sources. If the intimidate is being used for interrogation, the check and save function the same as noted here except there is no retry possibility as noted in the skill description and does require 1 min of interaction before attempting. The 1 min restriction can be skipped as a full-round action, which takes a -5 penalty. The effect of a failed save or failed check is the same as noted in the skill description.
Diplomacy: Like intimidate, instead of a relatively fixed DC, this is now a save based check. A successful check moves the target up one attitude level and failed attempt moves the target down one attitude level. For every 5 that the check beats the save, the NPC moves up one additional attitude level. For every 5 that the check is below the save, the moves down one additional attitude level. A rushed, full-round, diplomacy suffers a -5 check penalty instead of -10. All other aspects of Diplomacy function as noted in the skill description.
Psionics: Use the Psionics/Magic Transparency rule, psionics are similar to normal magic, but slightly different. The difference is similar to the difference between the Weave and the Shadow Weave. Psionics can be dispelled and counterspelled with dispel magic, and vice versa. Spell resistance and psionic resistance are considered the same. Spellcraft, psicraft, and the equivalent knowledge skills are considered different however. Psionic powers and items function normally in dead and wild magic zones, though antimagic zones still suppress them.
Canon: Some creative liberties will be taken during the official version of events for the purpose of consensing the time period and allowing for player influence on the outcome.

Tips and Tactics

Social Skills: XP will be awarded for skill checks which negate an encounter; with XP equal to a combat encounter. Though the checks must have an in-game reason. For example, a character can use diplomacy to get past guards, while another sneaks over the wall, while a third character kills the guards. All are equal in value. Unnecessary use exceptions to this rule include picking pockets or opening locks for no story purpose to be determined by DM.
Character Boredom: Sometimes you just are not satisfied with a character. Maybe a PRC or feat selection just isn't as desirable as it originally seemed. Maybe the character as a whole needs to be rebuilt, or scrapped. Here are a few options available to the player. For minor changes, the character will lose all experience accumulated towards the next level, and suffer a 10% XP penalty until the next level, similar to changing alignment. For redesigning a character from scratch, yet keeping the essence of the character, the character will lose all experience accumulated towards the next level, and suffer a 20% XP penalty until achieving the next level. Radical changes like this can be explained in-game somehow; explanations can include divine intervention, extended between adventure downtime, Wish spell, etc. The less desirable option is to kill the character (or have them abandon the mission). This is treated as a normal character death. The story/heroic death option may be possible, but once again must be appropriate to the story and requires DM approval.
Role-play, not Roll-play: Try to determine your character's actions by what the character would do, not the player. Sometimes the most fun is when a character must do something that makes the player groan. Use character names and speak as such. Its not necessary to use voices, but it helps us suspend disbelief when you hear a character speak, rather than hear the player paraphrase what is said. For example, try to address people by the character's name, not the player's name.
Secrets: Some information that is provided is out of character. The information provided is for our enjoyment and should not be used unless your character has learned it in-game. This includes special abilities, histories, etc. There will be times in the game where only one character experiences something and the rest do not know. This inside information should not be used. Notes can be passed to the DM when secrecy is a must, however this practice slows the game and can cause intra-party conflict so use this only when necessary. Basically, trust each other to keep out of character information outside the game.
Team killing: Almost always a bad practice. Intra-party conflict is the fastest way to a party wipe and generally kills the enjoyment of the game. If your character has a personality conflict with another, help your character get over it so we can move on to the story. If your goodly character sees another do something less than noble, feel free to bring it up in character but it shouldn't come to blows. Seek a resolution and move on with the story. Success will be hinged on teamwork and trust.