[Crescent Bay] Rumours, fact or fiction.

[geekling]

[spoiler=preamble - Much ado about nothing]I might be in over my head, and probably don't really belong on this forum with such esteemed campaign builders like yourself. Truth to be told, this is not only my first campaign - but the first time on the DM side of the (virtual)table.
But being me, I never could do thing the easy way, so a homebrew it is.
I guess one of the reasons I did sign up to CBG, was in the hope to give myself a kick up the arse and start writing stuff down. Rather than keeping it all in my head. Maybe the deadline looming ever closer is part of it too.[/spoiler]
I've got about a month to get stuff down until the planned start of this campaign, and the players are starting to ask more and more questions. *eeeeek* and I'm slowly filtering down to them the information they need to know / their characters would know, to sort of build things up pre-game.

[spoiler=What is this Crescent Bay all about?]Crescent Bay is the name of a "newly" discovered continent. It's named after the shape of a very prominent greographical feature, which also happened to be the place for the first ship to make landfall.
It is also what I call the whole campaign she-bang.
The whole Theme (for the lack of a better world) behind this campaign is sort of a wild west/gold rush/settlers of a new continent - but with generic D&D technology, magic and possibly pirates, -thing.

The wheels of the empire turns slowly, over two centuries have passed since the new continent across the sea was discovered. For over two centuries, the empire's main interest in this new continent was little more than curiosity, satisfied to keep a small garrison on the main island and to slowly explore the continent. The Empire was in no rush to exploit this new found richness, secure in the knowledge that their position would not be challenged.

Well as the campaign starts, this has changed. For about 20 years, this empire have activly campaigned to get people to settle in Crescent Bay. A mix of the old tricks of offering pardon for lesser crimes under the condition that the convicts relocate and incentives like substidized travel and land grants to those that willingly uproot their lives in favour of the new continent.

What very much triggered this change in policy from the empire, was the discovery of a new spieces of oysters native to the bay. Or rather that the shell of said oysters, are not just very decorative and can be carved into beutiful cameos, which have become all the rage amongst anyone who think they are anyone. But more that that, that this material leans itself to be imbued with magical proprieties with an ease not found in anyting else. (Purely mechanical, there is no XP cost to enchant things made out of this material.)

Raw oyster shells are worth more than their weight in gold... There's fortunes to be made in Crescent Bay. The empire have an ever growing demand for these oyster shells. This campaign to populate Crescent Bay is very much about feeding the oyster shell industry.

It is working more people arriving nearly every week. Around where this garrison were stationed, a sprawling port town have sprung up and new settlements - little proto towns - are popping up like mushrooms after a rain. Emigrating to set up a new life in Crescent Bay have turned out to be a favourite amongst fringe religious cults, criminals escaping justice, etc. and so forth.
The garrison itself - the empire's representatives on the continent, is bogged down under the administrative duties of just keeping the port running. No resources left for things like law enforcement - Crescent Bay is at the moment a lawless land very much trapped in chaos of an exploding population. Not all of the new arrivals are very savoury.

The campaign starts as the PCs arrive at Crescent Bay.  
[/spoiler]
Now one of these things I want to give them is a little, or not so little list of rumours that would be floating around back in the empire about Crescent Bay. Some of them might even be true and potential future plot hooks.
Things like:
The streets are paved in gold (or well oyster shells. :P )
Crop circles!
Stories about whole settlements dissapearing without a trace overnight.
What the empire have really been up to during those two centuries is sininster magical experiments to create a new super race of undead. Now they've succeeded and this whole offering small time criminals pardon is just to feed their demand of new bodies...

And I figured you might have fun coming up with some of them.

[So-Keher]

Sounds like you have a good basis for adventures, although i would try and stay away from cliches as much as possible, as to not bore your players. Add something mysterious abotu the oysters to draw in the pc's. maybe their shell's ARE made of gold? perhaps they create especially large and beautiful pearls worth thousands?

[Lmns Crn]

This looks like fun. I'll toss in a few rumors of my own:

- When eaten, the oysters are a deadly poison.
- When eaten, the oysters are a powerful aphrodesiac.
- When eaten, the oysters restore and prolong youth.
- The oysters grow only on particular types of surfaces: specifically, decomposing flesh. The Empire has been slitting people's throats and dumping them into Crescent Bay so they can dredge the bodies up later, covered in precious oysters.
- The oysters are cursed, and bring bad luck, especially when lots of the shells are piled up in a small place. That's why oyster towns have vanished, and why ships transporting the shells have sunk. Cursed, I tell ya!
- Crescent Bay used to be home to a pretty grand civilization. Now they're gone, and nobody knows why.
- The oyster shells are fragments of a dead sea god's bones. If only we could find the bulk of the skeleton, we'd be rich beyond calculation!
- Crescent Bay is infested with hostile savages.
- The entire continent of Crescent Bay did not exist until a few months ago. It just rose up out of empty sea.
- Crescent Bay is a trap, and the greedy ones who fall victim to it are doomed.
- Crescent Bay is the gods' reward to the Empire for the Empire's great wisdom and discretion. Obviously, the Empire has a right to the island and everything on it. The Empire deserves those shells!
- The "oysters" are not adult organisms, but are the larval stage of a much more complex and deadly sea creature.
- Towns in Crescent Bay don't need to print money; they use oyster shells like coins.
- Oyster thieves are tortured to death in the town commons, as a warning to others.
- The entire landmass of the Crescent Bay continent is made of a big pile of oyster shells.
- Crescent Bay oysters are the preferred food of sea monsters.

[Lmns Crn]

Double Post. My apologies.

[geekling]

Thank you, that is very encouraging.

Now for cliches, or generic out of the PHB if you wish. My group are absolutely OK with that. You might even say that most of them prefer it over more 'out there' settings. Most of them would rather play in a generic setting where elves are poncey bow-twangers, dwarves are gruff, have big beards and drink too much. Than one filled with too much weirdness and stuff they don't recognise out of the PHB.

I know I am not the DM I'm filling in for, our usual DM is pure genious. He might have been good enough to pull something extraordinary off, but even he worried that some of the players might rebel when he started going away from the generic psuedo-medieaval D&D stuff and turned our old cosy cliché D&D into a spaceopera romp. (Wheeeee! Gnomes in space! With laserguns and rocket launchers! - Hrmmm... sorry, don't know what came over me there.)
And the players know I've never done this before. So we've got an understanding. They won't be difficult and I won't throw a tantrum and swear off DMing for ever and ever to leave us DM-less for the nine months or so until the good DM is back from his real world commitments. :P (Well unless any of them wants to pick up the DMG for our Friday night games. Most of them already run other campaigns on other days. Or have tried it and hated it, so that's unlikely.)

So if I was to be going a little bit cliché, that's the least of my worries at the moment. :)

[geekling]

Wow! Luminous Crayon, I bow to your greatness. Those are fantastic.

It must be said, though...
- Crescent Bay used to be home to a pretty grand civilization. Now they're gone, and nobody knows why.

This one is absolutely true, it's part of a planned plot hook. :)

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Pirates are always fun, even if cliche.  Almost always adds a sense of adventure to a story or game.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Perhaps a rival country is trying to create "secret colonies" and military bases on the other continent - and once they have built up enough strength, they will overrun the colonies of the Empire and gain an unbeatable strategic advantage.

And what about the interior of the continent? It sounds to me like most explorers will concentrate on the coast, since that's where the known riches lie - but there's sure to be all sorts of stuff hidden in the outback...

[Jürgen Hubert]

Oh, and would you mind posting more details on Crescent Bay in another thread? This sounds like a fun premise for a setting, and I'd love to hear more about it!