Please Vote for Us as Campaign of the Year on Obsidian Portal!
Campaign of the Year Award - The Dice Goblet
The Spelljoined won Campaign of the Month last April on Obsidian Portal. That means we are in the running for Campaign of the Year, and voting ends on the 31st!
Being a bit of a narcissist I would love to win this purely for my own egotistic satisfaction, however there is more than that in the equation. You see, we have two brand new game artists on our team and their imagery is what really brings it all to life. Just read through the Journals and you’ll see some amazing illustration as well as some truly entertaining writing.
As the DM I am the overall architect of their fate, but as you can see from the journals we have hit on a really good streak of gaming at it’s best – collaborative storytelling. Even if my rules design doesn’t grab you their art and the fiction they’ve produced most assuredly will.
Check them out our artists’ galleries on Deviant Art:
- RavenKin did our logo and the more Manga looking artwork while
- Syreene did the majority of the illustrations found here and on Obsidian Portal.
It would be a great kick in the pants to see them get this sort of recognition.
Vote Here for The Spelljoined because we would all really appreciate it!
Thanks,
-DungeonMasterLoki
Read MorePlanejammer- The Spelljoined Campaign of the Month on Obsidian Portal April 2011
Today we bring to you guys, a truly awesome showcase of campaign depth and intricacy. The very dedicated and friendly DungeonMasterLoki shares with us a bit about his game, his players and gives us some sound advice. The Spelljoined campaign has been going on since before some of us were born! So ‘ave a seat cutter, and stop rattlin’ your bone box for a just minute and park your ears right here!
So begins the blog post which announces our status as the feature Campaign for the entire month of April on Obsidian Portal! I can’t thank our contributing players, artists, and writers of crunch enough. You are all brilliant!
So rest assured that there is still a lot to go up on the Campaign wiki, we’re talking 30 years of setting development here. I’m slowly getting The Seven Stars and The Misfits formatted and online.
Additionally, all of the campaign journals, rules and such are undergoing a full migration to Obsidian Portal. This website will be transitioning to general RPG news and updates on the forthcoming line of pdf supplements we are working in for Pathfinder.
So here they are, the last three campaigns of the Planejammer series in various states of construction:
The Spelljoined (current) | The Misfits | The Seven Stars
We love feedback and comments!
Read MoreKenari’s Journal Part 11
Hang On by Syreene
I sit up in a cold sweat and grab the edges of my hammock before I fall out into a heap on the floor. As I look around I see that we’re not on the Spelljammer anymore; in fact, we never left our sleeping quarters.
After waking up the rest and conferring, we discover that it’s still three days previous and we’ve yet to meet Torgan Betts. Great… now I get to hear yet again how that greasy windbag plans on setting us up. As I pack my gear and get ready for the day I notice the remnants of burnt incense in the portal window. Hmmn… it seems the Dream Lord’s warning should definitely be heeded. Someone is making sure we sleep and manipulating our dreams. Perhaps I should talk with Veddis for some advice on preparing myself for the next time?
We go through the motions yet again with Torgan Betts, but this time take a moment to check out the Sphere Arcane on the way. What could it hurt, right? If these people are so big on building helms, maybe they’d have knowledge of the Spelljammer; and if they don’t, I can at least check out the gambling houses for some quick money.
We go through the obligatory inspections from the Elven Fleet who happen to be in system capturing one of OUR marks (I bite my tongue at this), and nod politely when they warn us to “be good or else.” Trust me… I’m not planning on getting into trouble around here, especially after seeing the multitude of Stone Golems floating in rings around their moon.
After a rather uneventful information gathering attempt (though I did make 50gp off of a naïve blue-skinned creature) we take off from Refuge and head from Realmspace to Greatspace.
I stand with Lenotta as she pilots our ship and do my best to keep an eye on Dorbo and his mystery box. I try not to think about what might be in it and instead start comparing Dorbo to Willhomina in my head when something strange happens; for just a brief flicker of a moment, his appearance changes and I swear he went from a sharply dressed military Giff to a savage hippo covered in blood. I shake my head and quickly look away; could this be one of those rips in reality the Kobald spoke of, or is it just my wild imagination?
Before I can ponder this further, a silent-running Wasp ship suddenly buzzes past our windows, bringing us out of warp.
Read MoreKenari’s Journal Part 10
Kenari's Nightmares by Syreene
The next morning, after a strong cup of mead to get rid of the headache from that dream, I decide to go to the Seeker library to see if I can dig up any information about incidences where these rips in the continuum might have been encountered before. That, and I still can’t understand why a Kobold? Is he an important figure I’ve just never heard of? It’s worth a shot to check the books just in case.
In the meantime, it seems that Vedis and Ef Utan have managed to stir up some business. We are to meet someone named Torgan Betts at the Drunken Neogi for a job come six bells. At least it’s something to do… my research hasn’t turned up much, other than some characters named Elminster and Merlind who have supposedly dealt with other dimensions of time and space. I highly doubt our Kobold was one ofthem. This just makes me doubt things even more. I mean seriously… a Kobold?!?
The group rejoins for lunch and then we make our way very carefully around the edge of Shu Town to reach a dump of a bar full of opium smoke and smelling of stale beer and rancid meat. Thank goodness I ate light today. We make our way to the back of the bar to meet a gangly human male with slicked back hair and a goatee guarded by the second Giff I’ve ever seen in my life. I wonder if he’s ever met Wilhomina Uft?
I shake myself out of my reverie and focus on the instructions Betts is laying out. Take the sealed metal box and deliver it unopened to someone in Greyspace, and the Giff is coming along to make sure you do it. Got it.
As we leave the bar to make arrangements with the ship, I nudge Ef Utan and mutter “You realize this is a trap, right?”
Read MoreEpisode 15: The Donjon and The Dvati
Dragonfly by Silverblade
As the Guard escort them to the Donjon Kenari hides her theives tools in her hair. When all of their gear is confiscated before being led to their cells her tools are missed.
They are all locked into adjoining 5′ x 10′ cells and Ayrun prestidigitizes chalk for Kenari so she can leave off color heiroglyphs on the walls of hers. While doing so he calls out in draconic and gets the attention of the upstairs guards. Determining fairly quickly that they don’t understand the language he uses it to confer with his fellow prisoners. Ef Utan, being the only one who doesn’t speak it, is left out.
The next morning a bureocrat and squad of guards march them out of the Donjon and into the upper city at sword point. All but Vedis are brought to a manor house in the upper city, she continues on towards the grounds of Castle Skyview. When ef Utan asks a guard where she’s being taken he say she has an appointment with Lord Cartan.
Left to wait in a meeting room they are soon joined by an aide to the magistrate. He explains that the leads on the Tenth Pit discovered have made his master inclined to be lenient. The minimum sentence of thirty days hard labor on the Underside has been chosen. After giving them a moment or two to sweat he goes on to say that Large Luigi and Lady Tarilla Moune have interceded on their behalf and as a result the sentence has been downgraded to a fine of 75,000 gold. Additionally the Crown offers 100,000 gp for the Frostfire and it’s helms. The fine will, of course, be deducted prior to disbursement of funds. They accept enthusiastically!
When they ask about Vedis they are told that she is under scrutiny for not having revealed and registered her pyrokinetic talents before now. There is no telling how long she will be or what penalties she might face.
Read MorePlanejammer: The Artists
I’m teaching myself iMovie and this is one of the things I’ve been practicing with -a video slideshow of art produced by players from the last three Planejammer games. Here’s to all of them!
-Loki, Dungeon Master and novice film editor
Read MoreLenata’s Journal Part 5
Lenata of Celestian by Syreene
Whew, I’m so glad we did not meet up with the one’s who did the professional hit that Sapphira insists was done on the Nautiloid ship, it was nerve wracking enough holding our ship steady while my companions carried out the snatch and grab investigation of the wreckage. We got a scroll, a couple bolts, some maps, a ring, a robe and a memory crystal. We’re keeping what’s useful and selling what isn’t pertinent to us or that which would incriminate us. I managed to translate the scroll, there’s a missing seal and sash that along with the scroll identified the bearer as an ambassador. We decide to head back to Bral to identify what we can and do some research. My battered companions slept most of the way back.
Upon our arrival Vedis immediately notices how tense everyone is in low town. We dropped Kenari off at the Library of Spheres (she had to do research this time) and the rest of us headed to Balic’s Blades, he immediately identified the bolts as belonging to the enforcers of the Tenth Pit Mercenaries. He also kindly advised us to keep the lowest profile possible and to be very careful asking questions about the Tenth Pit. We tipped him and thanked him and headed to the Rockrat to regroup.
I had never seen an Ogre in a tuxedo before somehow he looked even bigger; this one was collecting weapons, specifically ours. His name it turned out was Grinder and he was rather sweet (Vedis snorted that only I would think an Ogre was sweet). After drinking for a while Ef Utan nudged us as a group of scruffy humans staggered in with wisps of mist clinging to their heels. Heroes began gathering weapons from Grinder and after eyeing Sapphira’s curvy form warn her to watch herself as the Red Masks and Yakuza were battling it out on the streets. I thought to myself, that was something that was unheard of in Bral, the Council of Captains, Prince and Guard never put up with that before.
We collected our weapons from Grinder and I asked him if there was another way out. He thought for a moment and shook his head and gruffly replied, “Afraid not”. We pushed our way into the night, we feared the mists as they resembled those that kidnapped us in the first place but it wasn’t as thick or pervasive as that. We had to get to Kenari and get to the ship. Shouts, curses and spells rang through the streets chorused by the ringing of steel and the screams of pain and rage. The only sign of the guard is the crumpled, uniformed mess left on the adjacent corner.
Read MoreLenata’s Journal Part 4
Monk Surfing by Syreene
So much has happened I scarcely know where to begin. I suppose, I should start with the moustache man’s (Vedis and I nicknamed him this as he never gave us his own) strange appearance at the Laughing Beholder. As we entered, five drinks floated our way and hesaid “What took you so long, come on in kids and we’ll fill you in”.
The thing is…while he provided a few more clues of what might be happening, offered the aid of the Seekers should at least one of us join their group and share all the information we find and somehow wrangled us a ship from my godmother, he didn’t really fill us in. Truly, we aren’t that much more “enlightened” than we were to begin with, we just have more resources. I’m not complaining mind you, I love the little ship we have and space traveling doesn’t give me the queasy stomach that portal hopping does. We also apparently have turned privateer. While I acknowledge we have to pay our 50% (ship rent) 10% tithe (Seekers) as well as the costs of feeding our selves and overall ship’s costs somehow, I hadn’t quite expected that twist. The rest of my party I note accepted this new career path without qualms it seems, tho I do note that Sapphira went over the ship’s contract with House Moune with a fine tooth comb and wouldn’t
even consider letting us sign until she had he “boots on the deck inspection”.
Kenari’s Journal Part 9
Kenari Cheesecake by Syreene
So much for our theories about Eric and his barbarian hordes; by Bast’s whisker, I never imagined that they would be an undead army! That’s definitely a nifty trick Eric has. Who needs to get close enough for boarding when you can just launch your crew across in handy-dandy bone form?
While I may not know where Bast is anymore, I have to believe she’s still watching for me to have survived being knocked off the deck by one of the undead. Have I mentioned how much I love my rope and grappling hook? It is a wonderful piece of equipment that I will never take for granted again.
While we were not able to defeat them all, thank goodness we were able to drive them away. “Live to fight another day,” I say.
Now that we’re back on Braal, Vedis is going to report the encounter to the authorities, while the rest of us take to the bars to spread some rumors of Eric’s defeat and try and stir the rabbit out of its hole. We’ll see how strong his reputation becomes when everyone learns that a bunch of girls sent him on the run! In fact, I do believe I am inspired to song:
“There once was a black pirate ship
ran by Eric the Drip.
He threw down some bones
then ran away home,
being beaten by girls on a trip.”
Well… doubt I’m going to become a Bard anytime soon, but it will do.
After a few hours of ale, carousing and stories, it seems we managed to catch someone’s attention. Ef Utan caught a suspicious character leaving the bar, so I took off and followed him to a warehouse on the other side of Shu Town. Here’s a tip to thugs: if you don’t want to seem suspicious, don’t use a coded knock on the door.
Trying to disguise myself is right out, so I did the next best thing and scaled the building to find a trapdoor in the roof. Some well placed oil and a few disabled traps later, I’ve got a nice birds-eye view to whatever our friend has in store. I spy six humans as well as the man from the bar sitting at a table surrounded by various goods and a large black banner with a silver “X” emblazoned on it. Could these people be a part of the 10th Pitt? I listened intently as they played cards and the talk began to flow… but all I could make out was “Some got away from Eric…hot foxy bitches…slaves…accelerate our plans.”
Hmm… if we can prove that Eric is associated with the 10th Pitt and a slavery scheme, we could have carte blanche when it comes to taking him in! As my mind tries to piece this all together, the card game ends and the men leave to go in different directions; one to the high city, one to the docks, and the other disappears from sight.
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