Welcome to Gears of Vengeance!

Introduction

Gears of Vengeance is a classic exploration and mega-dungeon crawl. Set near the town of Tanylvar the adventurers seek out the lost ruins of del’Torak hoping to find fame, glory, and maybe some new technology...

Niar'vyn Aerchipelago

The action of this campaign takes place on the sky island (known hereafter as an aeyre) of Niar'vyn. More specifically it takes place in the Cyrlys Kingdom in the area surrounding Tanylvar, an area similar in many ways to the French Alps.

Time

Let's go over some world basics first. First, the world has two suns known as Solari and Rilanar to the Dyeri or Cyr and Toryla to the Cyrlys. These two suns orbit each other over a period of 27 days. This means about every 13 days or so one of them crosses in front of the other. This causes a dip in the overall light depending on the alignment of the eclipse and which star is eclipsing the other. There are also seven moons in the sky called the Faces of Light by the Cyrlys and each given a distinct name by the Dyeri: Virdinh, Aeryi, Hynari, Linari, Firdaeg, Tylvari, and Vilari. These moons orbit at differing rates with Aeryi being the fastest at less than two days and Vilari taking the longest at over two years of time. Vilari also orbits backwards when compared with the rest.
The residents of the Sea of Tears use the Dyeri Cycle as their means of tracking time. This consists of ten months each consisting of fifty days which mostly corresponds to the orbit rate of Linari. Each month is further broken up into five weeks of tens day each. Unfortunately, this doesn't match exactly Linari's rate and so every two months there is a half week to make up the difference. Depending on the culture this is usually a festival week of some sort. Adding all of this up gives us a year of five hundred and twenty-five days. Each day itself is twenty-four hours long. The aerchipelago also experiences seasons as one would expect, they just take longer given the longer year. Lastly, a series of crystal-like arcs can be seen to the south crossing the sky. There are dozens of these arcs with the highest reaching just about 30 degrees above the southern horizon.

Cultures

The Niar'vyn Aerchipelago has many different species of flora and fauna, but only about a dozen intelligent species. The aeyre is dominated by two human species, the Cyrlys and the Dyeri. These two species have spanned much of the eyre. In the north, the Verdur eke out a difficult existence in their longhouses and raid those to the south for supplies. To the east live the Aev, an avian culture based on family and honor. To the southwest amongst the islands of the Sea of Tears you can find the Cyrlys and the Dyeri as well as a native species called the Malazan. This slightly scaled lizard-like species seems to be older than the humans as evidence of their culture has been found in ruins on the islands. Unfortunately for the Malazan, the more unscrupulous merchants of the City-States of Sylar have been enslaving them. Dwarves, halflings, and gnomes can be found almost anywhere on the aeyre but in lesser numbers than humans. Tieflings are few and far between and most are seen in the City-States of Sylar. Draconians haven't been seen in over one hundred years, and so are almost considered a myth at this point.
The Cyrlys Kingdom and the city of Tanylvar are dominated by the Cyrlys and the Dyeri. Once a small Dyeri kingdom, the region around Tanylvar was conquered by the Cyrlys over two hundred years ago. Because of this, much of the region is settled by Dyeri who are now ruled over by Cyrlys nobility. The city of Tanylvar is run by Baron Dolgas Fortyn who seems to be more interested in lining his pockets than he is in improving the lives of his citizens. The city itself is 80% Dyeri, 15% Cyrlys, and 5% other (3% dwarves, 1.5% halflings, and 0.5% gnomes with a smattering of half-elves and half-orcs). Most other races would be considered an oddity in the city and depending on the race may even be captured or killed (fae, tieflings, and changelings fall into this latter category).

Technology and Magic

The Niar’vyn Aerchipelago is a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, many of its political structures are still feudal in nature, but on the other, technology is more like the early renaissance. With the discovery of gunpowder and the advances in magical technology, the aerchipelago’s standard of living tends to be a bit higher for those with money.
These advances have led to new Weapons such as the flintlock musket and pistol. Further, advances in artificing have led to a variety of new inventions both mundane and magical. More information can be found in Equipment and Weapons of Niar’vyn which details a wide variety of new items characters can use.
Lastly, Ships of the Sea and Sky discusses the various sailing vessels one can find in the seas of Niar'vyn or above it. This article discusses the different sailing vessels you may encounter and how much it might cost to build and upkeep such a vessel. Further, it provides information about the different forms of skyships such as balloons, blimps, or even the might Sky Dragon, a military vessel that brings terror from the skies. It also discusses which skills apply to naval and aero vessels and their operation.

Background

You have spent at least the last month or so living in and around Tanlyvar performing odd jobs to get by. The city itself is an ok place to live and is definitely growing as the mines to the north and west in the foothills are always in need of new workers. It is a tough job but does provide food for the table if necessary. There a three main districts in the city, the Merchant District, the Common District, and the Docks. Situated on the western side of the Norcyg, Tanylvar's main exports are ore, fish, and wine. Several small farming villages within a day of the city provide a variety of different foods (grains, meats, fruits, vegetables) during the summer and fall months.
Depending on where you live, the city can be a great place or a terrible place. Life in the Merchant district is relatively idyllic for the time as it is well patrolled and maintained by the baron. As you get further from the Merchant district and closer to the Camps district living conditions become worse and worse while the tenements near the docks have seen much better days with many looking to be in danger of falling over. Several new buildings and homes have gone up on the north side of the river and relatively decent for now, but even there the living conditions are not as good as the Merchant district itself. As the game begins, you have been invited to the workshop of a local artificer by the name of Castor Fizzbolt. You have heard of him (as there are only five or six artificer's in the city), but may or may not know him personally. You know the invitation mentioned a well-paying contract with him with the possibility of that contract being extended depending on the results obtained. Needing the money and knowing that most artificers are well respected in Tanylvar, you arrive at his workshop a little early. As you go to knock on the door, a loud explosion occurs from inside. What could have possibly set that off...

Ground Rules

Your character is a brave adventurer willing to explore the ruins in the nearby mountains to seek items of wonder and power and riches beyond imagination. You seek to travel with your band of companions, in cooperation, to explore these ruins.
Consider this the golden rule of the campaign. You may come from different backgrounds, but you all seek a common goal to fulfill your contracts and find items that can lead you to glory and riches. This campaign is all about exploration, starting with some overland exploration to find the ruins, but eventually, the bulk of the campaign will take place in a mega-dungeon, so keep that in mind while making characters. While there will be some city intrigue, for the most part, dungeon exploration and survival is the biggest feature of this campaign.

House Rules

In this campaign, character options are available from the D&D Player's Handbook, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Additional options can be found below.
This campaign will use the following house rules:

Ability Scores. Either use the standard set (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) or you may use the purchasing variant on page 13 of the Player's Handbook.
Flexible Racial Attributes. When you select a race with ability score bonuses, you can apply these bonuses to any ability score rather than those described. You cannot apply two sets of bonuses to the same ability score unless otherwise noted.
Burgeoning Heroes. Each character begins with 5 extra hit points.
Sundered Shields. When a character wearing a non-magical shield is hit by a melee weapon attack, they can choose to have their shield destroyed and take no damage from the attack.
Flanking. When a creature and at least one of its allies are adjacent to an enemy and on opposite sides or corners, they are considered to flank that enemy, and each of them gains a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls against that enemy.
Fumbles. Rolling a 1 on an attack is a fumble and will require your next action to recover. Flavor-wise this unjamming your pistol, prying the sword from where it has sunk into a pillar, picking up a weapon off the ground, or restringing your bow. Natural weapons will not have this issue (claw attacks, bite, etc.).
Alignment. This campaign does not use alignment. Instead, certain classes will have oaths or tenets they need to follow otherwise they will start to lose their abilities.
Fading Spirit - Alternative Resurrection Rules (use on Critical Role). Character death can often prove to become a minor inconvenience in some campaigns once the adventuring party reaches a certain level, with spells being available to return fallen comrades from the afterlife with temporary setbacks, robbing a small element of danger, and threat to future conflicts and challenges within the story. If you wish to elevate the gravity of character death, you can introduce this optional rule.
If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.
For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.
After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.
Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.
Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual.
If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the Revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.
Hero Points. Everyone begins the campaign with 1 Hero Point and can gain more along the way. A hero point can be used to do one of the following things:
- Act Out of Turn. You can spend one hero point to take your turn immediately. This counts as your turn for the round and does not change your initiative order.
- Extra Action. You can spend one hero point on your turn to gain an additional Action, Bonus Action, or Move.
- Inspiration. You can spend one hero point to gain a hint from the DM about what to do next. If the DM feels there is no information to be gained, the hero point is not spent.
- Recall. You can spend a hero point to recall a spell you have already cast or gain another use of a special ability that is otherwise limited. This can only be used on spells and abilities possessed by your character that require a short or long rest to recover.
- Reroll. You may spend a hero point to reroll any one d20 roll you just made. You must take the results of the second roll, even if it is worse.
- Special. You can petition the DM to allow a hero point to be used to attempt nearly anything that would normally be almost impossible. Such use is not guaranteed and should be considered carefully by the DM. This is not a wish but potentially allows the character to do something miraculous such as convince the raging dragon to give up its attack, cast a single spell that is one level higher than you could normally cast, or make your attack do something special. Regardless of the desired action, the attempt will be accompanied by some sort of DC check or penalty on an attack roll. No additional hero points may be spent on such an attempt.
- Cheat Death. You can spend two hero points to cheat death. How this plays out is up to the DM, but the character is left alive in some fashion.

Races

Races of Niar'vyn

Classes

Alchemist (Homebrew)

Artisan
Herbwarden
Irezumi
Metamorph
Poisoner
Pyromancer
Reanimator

Artificer (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything)

Gunsmith

Barbarian (Player's Handbook)

Path of the Buccaneer

Binder (Homebrew)

Eldritch Fate
Occult Fate
Sealed Fate
Twisted Fate

Blood Hunter (Homebrew)

Order of the Ghostslayer
Order of the Inquisition
Order of the Lycan
Order of the Mutant
Order of the Profane Soul

Cleric (Player's Handbook)

Lightning Domain
Ocean Domain
Sea Domain
Spirit Domain
Storm Domain
Thunder Domain
Tidal Domain

Fighter (Player's Handbook)

Corsair

Gunslinger (Homebrew)

Arcane Gunmaster
Musketeer
Pistolero
Sniper

Paladin (Player's Handbook)

Oath of the Deeps
Oath of the Inquisitor

Ranger (Player's Handbook)

Bounty Hunter

Backgrounds

Feats

Equipment

Equipment and Weapons of Niar’vyn
Ships of the Sea and Sky

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