[i]Recently there have been rumours floating about of a new group of Ruins uncovered in the Red Waste, a vast

wasteland forming the southern borders of the Human lands. It is said one man found enough treasure in one day to retire in a life of luxury to the end of his days! Your character has traveled south to investigate, finally arriving at Upton, a small frontier town with the dubious distinction of being the southernmost Human settlement. Spotting the local tavern, "The Upton Arms", you decide to go in for refreshment...[/i] ~~~~~ [b]WELCOME[/b] to my game, The Altar of the Sleeping God, where we will be enjoying some old-school gaming! This game will be a fairly traditional dungeon-crawl (at least in the beginning!), with a home base in a town, and a dungeon off in the wilderness nearby. There is no set "time" when you need to post your characters actions, but I try to run quite a fast-paced game and I expect players to be able to post about once every 24hrs. If you expect to be away from your computer for longer than a day, please notify me so I may NPC your character while you are gone. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to ask :)! PS: If you have been directed to this site from elsewhere, and are not yet familiar with Labyrinth Lord, the rules are available COMPLETELY FREE in PDF format, and can be downloaded from [url=http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.htm]Goblinoid Games' Labyrinth Lord page[/url], the link is in the upper-right portion of that page. If you are familiar with "Classic D&D" ("Basic" and "Expert" sets), you should have no trouble adapting :D.

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[b][u]CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND[/u][/b]: [color=Gray][i]((I have deliberately left this information fairly vague and sketchy. This will be a homebrew world, but as yet it is not fully fleshed out; this will occur naturally as the game progresses. Please feel free to make things up when writing your character's background, providing it does not clash with what I have written below :)))![/i][/color]

[u]General History and Mood[/u] The world is ancient beyond imagining. Numerous races have had their societies arise, thrive, and then fall, each building atop of the last. The land is strewn with their ruins. For the past few hundred years, the world has been in flux with many races vying for dominance. But now, amid the numerous races of Chaos, Humanity is beginning to make a foothold and is on the rise. But they are only the latest, and they too will fall.

[u]Power Level[/u] This is a very low-level, low-magic world (at least as far as Humans are concerned!) Spell-casters are very rare (whether Clerics or Magic-users), and are mistrusted, especially by those in Lawful authority. The vast majority of people are 0-level, or at best 1st level. Characters above 1st level are very rare, and are likely already somewhat known (by reputation at least) by 3rd level. Magic items are very rare, and are mostly obtained by exploration of the ruins of previous civilisations.

[u]Campaign-Specific notes on Character Classes[/u] [b]Clerics[/b]: The pantheon is abstracted into two factions, "Law" and "Chaos". "Law" does have its various Saints (some of whom are in actuality pagan gods), and although some Lawful Clerics may have patron saints, they still follow the greater teachings of "Law". As stated above, spellcasting Clerics are very rare; they are often looked down

upon suspiciously (and jealously!) by the "Lawful" church authorities, so they sometimes hide their 'gift'. The vast majority of 'normal' (non-player) Lawful clerics may not cast spells. [b]Dwarves[/b]: Dwarves were originally created as a slave race by the Elves at their peak of decadence, purpose-made to do all the dirty work. As the Elves declined into introspection, the Dwarves finally rebelled and fled to the mountains. The animosity between the two races remains to this day. Dwarves mostly keep to themselves, although they do trade and ally themselves occasionally with Humans. Dwarves are rare in Human lands, but they are still the most commonly-encountered demihuman race. [b]Elves[/b]: [color=Gray][i]((If you are familiar with the Melniboneans from Michael Moorcock's "Elric" stories, they are quite similar to the Elves of my world.))[/i][/color] Elves are an ancient and cosmopolitan race, the original discoverers of the secrets which allow the manipulation of arcane energies to create magic spells. Their peak of civilisation was many, many, thousands of years ago, when they ruled the world from their massive cities. Over time they lost interest in the mundane world in favour of the contemplation of inner mysteries, and so their power slipped, and they declined. Only a few isolated remnants survive, in huge, isolated, mostly empty cities, walled and cut off from the world. Those Elves encountered outside of their cities (a very rare occurrence!) are typically renegades and outcasts. They need not be criminals in the human sense of the word; merely an interest in the world at large is enough reason for the other elves to shun them. They will often disguise themselves as humans when traveling in the lands of man to avoid unwanted attention and persecution. [b]Halflings[/b]: [color=Gray][i]((This is where I make my largest and perhaps most controversial deviation from canon :). My inspiration was the "Peludos" from Groo #80-83 by Sergio Aragones. Game-mechanically they are still identical to Halflings as written.))[/i] [/color] Halflings in this world are not "Hobbits", rather they are hairy forest-men, known in their own language as the "Peludos", inhabiting the dense forests on the edge of humanity's land. Extremely elusive, they are regarded as almost mythical by the majority of humanity, but they do have occasional (and mutually beneficial) contact with human settlers living on the outskirts. The current precarious rise in Humanity's power is in no small measure (:P) due to the protection of their borders by the Halflings, although Humanity is largely unaware of this fact! [img]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e241/ajkipper/DnD/Halflings.jpg[/img]

[b]Fighters[/b]: Fighters are as written. They are the most common NPC character class. [b]Magic-Users[/b]: Magic-Users are very solitary and secretive, a necessity due their persecution as 'Witches' by the Church, who view all workers of Magic as allies of Chaos. Obviously, then, there are no formal Magical colleges, schools, or shops! Magicusers are more common around the dangerous outskirts of Humanity's lands where the power of the church is less strong, and where their abilities are of such usefulness that so long as they are discrete the local clergy will often turn a blind eye. New magic-users are normally trained one-on-one by becoming an apprentice until they are 1st level, at which time they are most often sent out on their own. The majority of Magic-users are female, but male Magic-users are not entirely unknown. Magic-users are very individualistic, often personalising their spells. Please read [url=http://web.fisher.cx/robert/infogami/The_Color_of_Magic]The Color of Magic[/url] on Robert Fisher's webpage for good ideas and inspiration in this area. [b]Thieves[/b]: In addition to their obvious role, the Thief class also ideally suited to the marginally more respectable (if even more foolish!) profession of "Adventurer": those who explore the dangerous ruins of past civilisations, for their own profit of course! Nevertheless, even "Adventurers" are often viewed as borderline madmen, so Thief characters often have a 'cover' profession to avoid arousing distrust.