Gladiators

The wildling jumps off the ship in the confusion of the unloading, quickly getting to cover away from the ship. He looks up and sees his first city, Shadowhaven. Its bizarre to the wildling, the cities are all leaning together forming a darkness and shade more dense than any forest he's seen. As he staring wide eyed at the city, he hears people grunting around him, pushing him, cursing at him for being in the way. Every bump and shove causes him to rush his hands to the weapons at his waist, weapons he found in the hold of the ship, they are as precious to him as his freedom. He moves off to the first building he sees. As he approaches a petite man greets him, 'Greetings wildling we don't see much of your kind here at the arena. However you are welcome to test your strength and mettle against other fighters.' The wilding overwhelmed by the noise, responds with a grateful acknowledgement and asks a few simple questions. The usher politely answers and sends him onward into the arena to the Keeper to sign up for activities of the day.

In the Nexus, Kainlan enjoys his fifth drink of the day, but notices that the drinks are getting weaker. Behind him he hears two men discussing the latest activity list in the arena.

'Today is a great day to make money at the arena, no dangerous criminal or creatures, and lots of new combatants.' His friend acknowledges with a laugh. Kainlan wanders over and asks about the arena, boasting he could take anyone on. The barkeep shouts from across the room 'Do not be stirring trouble up Kainlan!' as a few barmaids laugh. Kainlan shouts back, 'I was leaving anyways, you've been watering down my drinks and cheating me out of my coin again!'

Kainlan wanders in to the arena, he notices an big orc standing in a corner. He walks over confidently and looks the orc up and down, 'Greeting sir!', the orc surprised by the brashness of this human attempts to dissuade him from continuing, 'Leave me alone, I'm not in the mood human.' Kainlan continues on, even remarking about the great ax that the orc has behind him. 'Is that blood I see on your ax  I usually clean the blood after using my blade.' The orc looks Kainlan over, for some reason he likes this human. He reaches over to pat the human and accidentally hits him a bit harder than expected ringing Kainlans bells. 'I like you human!' as he picks up his great ax and walks off.

From across the room the wildling notices the exchange, riled up that the big orc would bully the smaller human, but something about the nature and posture of the orc makes it seem that it was a friendly exchange. As the wildling surveys the room, he notices the humans are gathered in packs, each pack has similar characteristics, and some humans even show hatred towards other groups. There are a few dwarfs drinking around and some glowborn keeping to themselves. In one of the dark corners, the wildling notices another of his kind. He walks over slowly to him, as he nears, the small wildling gets very defensive. Holding up his hands to show that he means no harm, he stops a few feet away from him respecting his personal space. As he asks the wildling about his time here, he realizes that the wildling doesn't really reveal much of himself. He does learn that registering for group combat is the safest way to make money. After a few more minutes of discussion the wildling decides to leave the other in peace, as he turns around he hears scampering, when he looks back the other wildling is no where to be seen.

The wilding and Kainlan are drawn to the Registrar shouting out matches. As different men reach forward or hold up their weapons to sign up, responding to the different shouts of combat available. Kainlan and the wilding get to know each other, and the wildling gets the name 'Slick' from Kainlan. Kainlan and Slick are soon joined by two other men Kurt and Mag, as they are signed up for a four vs four first blood arena fight. Kurt is very boistourous and knows Kainlan from the Nexus, while Mag is quiet and keeps to himself ignoring any conversations.

In their waiting cell, Slick starts to question the guard on the activities he sees, the Watcher gruffly responds to all the questions, as Kainlan in cheering on the fighting.

Soon it is the turn of the adventurers to enter, each prepares his weapon and slowly join the fray. Mag calls out 'Drakin, dwarf, and two humans' as he pulls out his weapons and advances. Mag takes a few shots from the humans, but shrugs it off and continues towards the drakin with Slick and Kurt right behind him. Slick playing to crowed in a wild flourish strikes down the drakin and begins to move towards the dwarf. One of the humans takes aim at Kainlan and hits him squarely in the side, as a lot of blood starts to color his shirt. But soon the enemy is overwhelemed by the adventures, when Kainlan gives a speach, asking the last man to surrender in front of their prowess. The crowd loves the show as they cheer loudly for the group.

As they walk out of the arena, each is handed a purse of cogs. Slick receives a second pouch, 'The Eskelat approve of the show wildling and give many thanks.'

Kainlan

Laughter and scream sound in the middle of the city. Around the corner runs out Kainlan confident boistourous and loud. 'No one can catch me for I am the fastest in Shadowhaven!' he yells. Behind him two burly men, one with a black eye are stumbling behind attempting to chase him. The only thing keeping them close is Kainlan being distracted by a pretty girl at every turn.

Life for Kainlan is easy, hanging out at the Nexus 'sharing' stories of adventure with others there. The barkeep knows Kainlan well, and has often had to intervene due to some conflict or scheme the Kainlan cooks up. Many of the barmaids put up with him as he thinks everyone loves him, in fact he is sure of it, and the girls ignore him, only because he isn't trying hard enough and allows them to.

Every day sharing stories with the different adventures, the longing for adventure itself starts to grow inside of him. He begins to save up some money, practice combat for the arena, in the hopes of one day owning his own ship. His cautious nature has kept him from the arena, till his prowess in combat is the best in the island.

The Wildling

A nameless wildling, running quickly through the forest of the Heartlands. A few elves around him ushering him along, picking him up as he stumbles, encouraging, guiding, moving him along. It's very hard for him to trust these elves, for the elves are the ones that tortured him and his friends and family, experimented and worked mercilessly everyday. He doesn't remember when it started, but for as long as he remembers he was enslaved to the elves and lived at their whim. He has seen many die for elven curiosity, or hunger, or anger, and even madness.

As the forest lightens up, the wildling notices the Void starting to brighten up. One of the elves, the one that broke him out, ushers him to the edge and points towards a small sky ship.

'Go little one, run and hide over on that ship. Keep out of sight of any elves and find your own place in this world.' The elf hands him a small token that is unfamiliar to him, it looks like a hollowed out metallic ring with a tree inside. 'If another elf shows this to you, he may be trusted, but always be wary, and learn who you can trust on your own.'

The wildling, still confused, rushes towards the sky ship he sees. The elves, he notices, create a commotion on the other side of the docks, and the humans rush off to see what is happening. He looks back to the forest to see the elf that helped step back into the shadows. As the elf disappears, he jumps in to the ship and finds his way into the hold, a dark corner behind some crates where no one can see him.

In the darkness thoughts of his brother stir up feelings of anger, he vows to come back and save him as he has been saved this day, and get revenge on his captors and keeper. His thoughts sometimes wander towards the elves that rescued him. They confuse him greatly, for he has a deep hatred of the elves, but as he dozes off with the ship leaving port, his last thought is of the elf's name he overheard during the conversation when he was rescued, 'Calin.'

The Sundered Skies

The Sundered Skies began where another world ended. Filled with floating islands that range from the size of a single tower to ones that support multiple cities. The skies are filled with the Void, an maddening endless light. Staying too long in the Voids light has led to irritability, anger, and as some have reported madness. There are stories of people changing form when they go mad from the Voids light.

The main travel between islands is skyships. Each race has different designs and types. Travel between the islands is done using wayspheres; globes filled with water and an arrow head. Pouring a little of the target islands earth on the waysphere points the arrow toward the island. Each island has a Navigator Hall where earth from different islands can be purchased. Some captains also take earth from islands they visit for trade and barter as well as a second supply.

Since no island is self sufficient, a Trade Council was created at the end of the wars between the islands. The Trade Council doesn't interfere with each islands politics unless it affects trade and threatens the general peace. The Trade Council enforces no standing military on the islands, however some islands maintain their own militia that are organized and structured as a military force would be.

Each island has one representative on the Trade Council. This allows for bigger, richer islands to not have more power, however, richer islands drive the council policies, but have to tread carefully otherwise a coalition of smaller islands can defeat them.

The Void is teeming with life. Skyships drag nets will generally catch enough food for a voyage, and any excess can be traded at the next port. The highest landmass, the Draining Sea, is the largest as well and covered with ice. As the ice melts and drops down on the other islands, it creates rainfall for even the most remote of islands. Some islands send ships up to brave the glacier and mine the ice for trade with other islands.

The Sundered Skies is dangerous and full of opportunity for those providing all kinds of services. Everything has a price in the Sundered Skies.

Campaign Rules:

• Jokers Wild: When PCs get Joker +1 Benny everyone
• No Power Points: Special rule for spellcasting