Sythom Studios
CREATOR
11 days ago
Project Update: The Dark Beneath Pre-Launch update 3
Hi all,
I have some exciting news as we at Sythom Studios continue to move through our Pre-Launch cycle of the BackerKit campaign.
This week, we have been hard at work on the FREE Campaign Primer. It will include four pre-generated Level 5 characters created using some of the selected Species, Subclasses, Backgrounds, Feats, and Spells from our Children of the Dark Beneath: a Player’s Campaign Companion book.
The Primer also will include a tiered encounter with a dark and powerful foe from the Dark Beneath setting. The encounter features a conclusion that will give players an inkling of the Dark Beneath’s greater plot. We are working through maps, editing, and art assignments for this currently. This Primer will be free for immediate download. So, stay tuned in the next few weeks for it to drop.
Separately from the Primer, our developmental editing staff is working hard on edits for Children of the Dark Beneath: Player’s Campaign Companion, responsive to our first round of playtesting. Our cartographer is working on more high-definition maps for several encounter areas and dungeons. Lastly, I am working through edits on the four locations of the Dark Beneath sandbox campaign.
It has occurred to me that we have listed out what Backers can expect from the Player’s Campaign Companion fairly thoroughly: Species, Subclasses, Backgrounds, Feats, Spells, and Magic Items. Further details and information about its contents will also be available as part of the soon-to-be-released Primer.
So, I would like to take some time today and talk a bit about the Dark Beneath Campaign’s content here in greater detail. As previously stated, it is a level 1-10 sandbox campaign and is over 200 pages in its entirety. In addition to subterranean travel locations and side adventures, The Dark Beneath campaign contains four primary locations:
I have some exciting news as we at Sythom Studios continue to move through our Pre-Launch cycle of the BackerKit campaign.
This week, we have been hard at work on the FREE Campaign Primer. It will include four pre-generated Level 5 characters created using some of the selected Species, Subclasses, Backgrounds, Feats, and Spells from our Children of the Dark Beneath: a Player’s Campaign Companion book.
The Primer also will include a tiered encounter with a dark and powerful foe from the Dark Beneath setting. The encounter features a conclusion that will give players an inkling of the Dark Beneath’s greater plot. We are working through maps, editing, and art assignments for this currently. This Primer will be free for immediate download. So, stay tuned in the next few weeks for it to drop.
Separately from the Primer, our developmental editing staff is working hard on edits for Children of the Dark Beneath: Player’s Campaign Companion, responsive to our first round of playtesting. Our cartographer is working on more high-definition maps for several encounter areas and dungeons. Lastly, I am working through edits on the four locations of the Dark Beneath sandbox campaign.
It has occurred to me that we have listed out what Backers can expect from the Player’s Campaign Companion fairly thoroughly: Species, Subclasses, Backgrounds, Feats, Spells, and Magic Items. Further details and information about its contents will also be available as part of the soon-to-be-released Primer.
So, I would like to take some time today and talk a bit about the Dark Beneath Campaign’s content here in greater detail. As previously stated, it is a level 1-10 sandbox campaign and is over 200 pages in its entirety. In addition to subterranean travel locations and side adventures, The Dark Beneath campaign contains four primary locations:
- The Drow city of Olg’raavar, a Drow City on the brink of catastrophe and ruin. Built directly below the ancient surface city of Ilserac, Olg’raavar is constructed inside a single huge cylindrical cavern almost a mile tall. The city contains huge hollow stalactites and stalagmites used as towers that protrude from the cavern’s ceiling and floor like enormous fangs. Throughout the city is an enormous, petrified web that suspends structures and roads in a crisscrossing network almost a half mile above the cavern floor.
- The Dwarven settlement of Marthroot. The settlement winds its way down the vertical cliff faces of a huge crevasse with unknown depths. Initially a dwarven mining settlement, Marthroot has expanded in response to the Drow threat. The last century has seen it transform from a minor subterranean settlement into a large, Dwarven military installation. But all is not well in Marthroot. Strange disappearances and odd accidents plague the settlement, and no one knows why.
- Barrowgarde, the city of outlaws and the banished. Set within ancient worm tunnels in the subterranean region’s most remote and forlorn frontier, Barrowgarde is a lawless place where anything can be had for a price. It’s a place where Hopes can be realized, but so can a person’s greatest fears. Strangest of all are the practitioners of its newest religion, worshipers of slime and ooze.
- Elgg’niaren, the city of Death Waters. A Drow imperial power of the Dark Beneath, their attack ships stalk the underground waters of the Hollow Sea, hunting those foolish enough to enter their territory. The city itself is a dark wonder of the subterranean world, built of many grottos and connected by locks and waterfalls. Its streets are deep canals traversed by nimble watercraft, and its buildings stretch dozens of levels high, carved into the cliff walls of its aquatic chambers.
What locations players experience during a playthrough and which direction the plot takes will depend on player and GM decisions. But enough spoilers about the book.
We are now in week 4 of 9 of the prelaunch campaign, and we have gathered 193 Followers! Again, another thanks and shout-out to everyone who has gone to the BackerKit page and supported this book set with a follow or reservation. If you haven’t done so already, please go over there and support with a follow or reservation. Thank all of you for your support; we at Sythom Studios deeply appreciate it.
We have a lot of work ahead of us over here, but we are well underway towards bringing this book set to all of you! Stay tuned for more updates.
Keep exploring,
-Nathan
Sythom Studios
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