T w e n t y S i d e d

Name: Endo Race: Human Class: Monk Played By: Shamus (Endo is an NPC when I’m the DM)

Backstory:
Endo is a follower of the Ki-Tan fighting style. He lived in Highstone Monastery, a large stone structure overlooking the town of Bridgehold in Grey Moor. The town and the monastery formed a sort of symbiotic relationship. The Monks guarded the town (so traditional town guards were not needed) while the townies provided food and clothing for the monks.

Over a few generations various misunderstandings led to quite a bit of animosity between the two, and eventually they came to resent each other. The story is too long to relate here, but the short of it is that at the time of our story it was the custom for select monks to become “guardians” of the town. As part of their guardianship, they take a vow of silence and also a vow never to strike (or even threaten) a resident of the town. After seven years, their guardianship would end (along with their vows of silence and pacifisim toward the members of the town) and it was more or less expected that they would leave the monastery to seek their fortune elsewhere, or stay and become teachers.

Young men of the city would often take advantage of this vow and taunt or torment the very guardians that kept them safe from external threats. (A bit like the way people picked on the Amish in “Witness”) Different monks came up with various ways of dealing with this. One simply ran when accosted by surly young men in town. Another avoided coming into town during the day, and instead ran his errands at night. He would sneak into shops, procure what he needed, and leave the money on the counter.

Endo had a different way of dealing with it. He stood there and took it. He would stand still and endure their slaps, insults and spit until they grew bored and left. Eventually the bullies (there were two young men who did this) grew angry that they couldn’t daunt the monk. They became more abusive, eventually punching and kicking Endo in an attempt to get SOME response out of him. Endo never made any attempt to resist them. They would pummel him until they were exhausted. For years Endo was covered in cuts and bruises.

As his guardianship drew to a close, the player characters came into town on their quest. Enoch the cleric encountered Endo on the road and offered him healing, which Endo silently refused.

There was a counsil at the monastery about the problems that players faced, and the curse on the land. During the counsil, Endo was released from his seven-year vow and a new guardian was sworn in. Endo spoke for the first time in seven years (his voice is very raspy) to thank his teacher, and then left without hearing the rest of the proceedings. The meeting was long (lots of talk between the players and the leaders of the city / monastery) and a lot of the plot was filled in. Towards the end of the meeting, Endo came in and sat down without saying a word.

As everyone rose to leave, a couple of townies barged in, breathless, shouting that Endo had just walked into town and murdered two men.

This was Endo’s solution to the bullies in town. He fulfilled his oath, and the moment it was over he went and snapped the neck and back of his tormentors. He did NOT do this out of revenge, but out of a desire to end the violence against guardians. From now on if someone abused a guardian, he need only stand still and accept it. His passive attitude would carry a very real implied threat: In seven years I will kill you.

From that point on, the abuse of guardians ended forever.

In the meantime, there were a lot of sore feelings in town about what Endo had done. It was decided that he should leave town and travel with the party as a guide through the mountains.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

To set the stage for this campaign:

The characters are in the town of Golgotha. It is late in the month of Suncrest (July). They just helped the city fend off an army of undead, saved everyone, and became the big heroes, thus ending the last campaign. The battle ended three days ago and they have been resting since then. The battle destroyed and burned down a good bit of the town, which is now being rebuilt.

The current party is Skeeve the Wizard, Eomer the Rogue, Thordek the Fighter, and Enoch the Cleric. Lucian the ranger is still part of the group, but that character is being retired (replaced) with another one in the first session.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Mar Tesoro is the setting of our current campaign. It is a large island (It would take a little better than a week to walk from the north shore to the south) that is inhabited by two seperate groups: The Northerners (also called “Lormanites”), and the Alidians.

On the south side of the island is a mountain called “Mount Khelberg”. It is apparently a very large and valuable mountain that contains a lot of precious metals and gems. From what the party has gathered, the war seems to be over who should control the mountain.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

This is a running narrative of our Dungeons & Dragons campaign. This is a custom campaign written by me, using the 3.5 edition rules. Our group meets at my house Sunday evenings and usually plays for about 5 hours. I run the session while my wife transcribes events as they unfold. After the session I go over our notes (both her live notes and my pre-game notes) and turn them into the story you read here.

This means that what you read is a collaboration between myself and six other people. I design the plot and enforce the rules, but the five players decide how the heroes deal with (or avoid) the challenges they encounter. Finally, the chaos is turned into what is hopefully an interesting narrative.

This is our third campaign together. The other two campaigns are not on-line, although if there is some demand I may post them. All of the characters are currently level 5 at the start of this campaign. The current active players are Skeeve the Wizard, Eomer the Rogue, Thordek the Fighter, Thu’fir the Blade Lord, and Enoch the Cleric.

The campaigns I run are usually a bit more low-key and realistic than your average D&D story. So, likely as not you’ll see Orcs, Goblins, and Zombies, but I doubt we’ll have stuff like gelatenous cubes, mimics, or dimensional grabbers. Towns are filled with commoners, not extraplaner travelers. You won’t see any talking swords in my world, and dragons are very, very rare. True magic users are about as rare as celebreties or pro atheletes in our world. Commoners are aware of magic and deal with it from time to time, but they don’t see it every day. This is just a style thing. I find the world easier to visualize if it looks a bit more like our world. I have a hard time imagining how warfare and commerce would work if a good portion of the populace could teleport or fly around on pet hippographs. This rule change is the sort of thing I’m talking about.

I’m writing this campaign because I’d like to see other people doing this sort of thing. Perhaps it will catch on? I’d love to read the campaigns other people come up with. If you blog a campaign like this, please email me and let me know. I’d love to read what you have, and I’d be glad to add you to the links.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.