Axehead Campaign Intro

Preface

Much has changed on the Axehead over the last ten years. Parthia, once a bastion of knowledge and trade, was destroyed in an instant by a storm of ice. Scythia, once the greatest military power in the land, lost her armies and half her population in the same cataclysm. Some of her people work tirelessly to save their land from the still-encroaching ice of the Parthian Frostfall, while most have left for greener pastures.

On the Western half of the continent too the landscape has changed, this time politically rather than physically. Fortriu, newly reunified and armed with new technology, has become an economic and military powerhouse. Osraige has been all but lost to economic devastation, and has recently lost even more strength to its cities declaring independence, seceding from their already struggling motherland.

East Alban and Dahea contend with winter's chill, their seasons growing colder with every year that passes. The Daheans have begun migrating to the south, abandoning ancient and holy places that have been their homes since time out of memory.

Amidst all of this is the growing fear of the people of the Axehead at the continued growth of the Frostfall. For now it has confined itself mostly to Parthia and the southern regions of Scythia, but the plain of inhospitable ice grows larger with every day.

Character Creation

Level 6
20 point buy
14K starting wealth, no more than half of which can be spent on any single item
Background Skills
Mythic tier 1. This will never increase to tier 2, although you can later retrain your mythic feat should you qualify for a different one.

At levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 you receive a +1 resistance bonus to all your saves, as well as a +1 enhancement bonus to two  physical and two mental ability scores. Cloaks of resistance and + ability score items no longer exist for purchase.

Keep in mind that level six was the absolute pinnacle of performance that any living being could attain until very recently. Your characters are coming into the game with a significant amount of experience in their areas of expertise, and are very good at what they do.

Travel

Traveling is done on the hex map of the Axehead you've probably already seen. The campaign is extremely travel heavy, and your character will need some sort of mount that can keep up with a standard horse, as well as at least a point or two in ride. Mounted combat is all but certain to happen at some point. Survival and K (Geography) are both important to successfully traversing the continent. Survival is used for moment-to-moment incidents on the world map, such as finding hidden sites or navigating dangerous obstacles, while K (Geography) lets you know exactly where what you're heading for is and might let you find shortcuts through more hidden parts of the world.

You are going to spend a lot of time camping in or traveling through isolated, dangerous locales. How you handle these dangers is up to you, but expect to deal with ambushes, natural disasters, running from angry hordes of undead, or any other number of unfortunate circumstances while on the road.

General Stuff

You're going to have a campaign trait that ties you to the main story of the game and gives you some nice little side bonuses, and it will replace one of your starting traits. Talk to me sometime (Not this week) and we can work out exact details.

You have the option of having a base of operations in Caseil that you will be able to return to fairly regularly without great difficulty. This will provide a place for you to store bulky items or objects, as well as anything else you might need a static residence for.

 NEW STUFF

No legendary items

**Dispel Magic:** Can be prepped in any level spell slot third or higher, and automatically dispels magic of a lower spell level.

**Toughness**: Offers 2 HP per level instead of original rules.
**Weapon focus/specialization**: Applies to the weapon groups fighters use instead of to individual weapons.

You gain power attack and deadly aim for free if you qualify for them.

On taking point blank shot, you gain precise shot for free and vice versa. Still applies if you gain one of these feats through class features.

Weapons that can be used with weapon finesse no longer require the feat in order to use dex to hit. This can be done automatically by any character.

Generic mounts gain average HP per HD as per the druid animal companion table e.g. a horse has a d8 hitdie and has 6 HD at level 6. Half a d8 is 5, so 30 HP. They gain saves and AC as per the same table. They can be armored per standard rules for armoring creatures.

Traveling:
While traveling quickly e.g. mounted and without carriages/carts etc. and along a road you can travel 5 hexes per day, and can make a survival check to search hexes you travel through during the day for food, ruins, dungeons, and other points of interest. You can intentionally slow your rate of travel to one hex per day to extend your search to all hexes surrounding the hexes you start and end the day in. Traveling through moderate terrain off-road such as hills or plains slows your rate of travel to 4 hexes per day, and difficult terrain such as heavy forests or jungle slows it to 2.

Traveling with up to 1 cart per mount slows your rate of travel on roads to 4 hexes per day, and slows your off-road travel speed through hills or plains to 2 hexes per day.

Traveling unmounted or with large groups (50+ members) slows your rate of travel on roads to one hex per day, two if all members are mounted.