Hi, I'm a forever DM and I have absolutely no problem with that. I'm passionate about DnD and the stories that spawn from it, I enjoy lurking and reading community stories, taking inspiration and applying it to the betterment of my own DnD campaigns. I've had a story up my sleeve for some time and I feel confident enough now to tell it.This one is going to be a long one, so grab yourself a snack and enjoy!
The campaign was known as "The Shifting Seas". The campaign is now finished, and simply thinking of the name brings in a wave of nostalgic memories and stories. Easily the highlight of the campaign was this story.
The world of "The Shifting Seas" is as follows:Majority of the world is covered in an endlessly deep ocean, dotting the ever extending blue are small islands. These islands house all civilisations in the world. However there is a strange occurrence within the world of the Shifting Seas. The islands are split into two categories, true, and husk. True islands are as any normal island should be. However husk islands are an enigma. Every week, a worldwide event known as "The Shift" occurs. During the Shift, all husk islands above the water are dragged down and disappear forever, new husk islands appear in other places of the world.
The inhabitants of the world are similarly split into two categories: true, and husk. True people are those who reside on the true islands, doing whatever it is that they do. Husks reside on the husk islands. At the beginning of the campaign, I made it clear to my players that husks always stay on husk islands. There has never been a recorded case of a husk leaving its husk island.
Husks however, are not mindless beings. They are people who have emotions, beliefs and interesting stories. In every husk island that is inhabited by a civilisation, there is a story accompanied with it, that justifies its place in the world as if it has always been there. There have been husk islands that have histories with other, true, islands. The inhabitants of the husk islands believe this history, however the rest of the world, the trues, understand that this history is nothing more than a fabrication. That this supposed island with rich history only in fact came into existence this week, and next week it will be gone.
As a result, husks are viewed as subhuman compared to everyone else. There is even a faction of pirates who solely target husks, they invade the island and plunder it of everything with value. Nobody really cares about these horrible actions. The husks are pillaged, killed, raped, they have horrible things done to them with no consequence, why would there be any consequence? The husks will simply disappear after a week anyway.
This was essentially the base building blocks for the campaign, along the way, my players would venture throughout the world, visiting husk islands and true islands, and would eventually uncover a horrifying truth about the nature of the very world.
Here we mark the beginning of the actual campaign.
Three men stand in front of a quest board at a local tavern on the island of Point Jak.- The first is Jota Hann, a woodsman whose simple hunter/gatherer lifestyle with his wife was shattered when the forest he resided in was burnt to the ground, and his wife was killed, by a red dragon.- The second is Shin Kaze, more commonly known as Ryu, a gangster working for the worldwide shadow organisation: The Mazoku.- The last is Scythe, a man named after his weapon. An amnesiac whose first memory is waking on the empty beach of an island that sits halfway across the world.
These men have never met each other before, but when looking upon the quest board, the difficulty of the available quests encourage the three men to join forces. So began the quest of our heroes. The quest in question that they chose was to track down a young man who had sliced the belly of the local priest open, and bring him in for execution. After tracking down the young man, the players learnt his story.
His name was Amon Ivo, and his reason for killing the priest was sympathetic. Instead of bringing him in, the players instead vowed to sneak Amon off of the island, and away from his persecution. They succeeded, and gained an ally who would accompany the party for some time, and eventually become key in entangling the mystery of the world.
This would happen when the players visited their first husk island known as Endeem. Endeem was an husk island populated entirely by primitive, warring dragonborn tribes. Each tribe had an in depth history that seamlessly intertwined with other, true, islands. Despite this, my players understood that this history was false.
Each tribe wanted help to conquer the other tribes, and were offering different things in return. The players chose to ally with a tribe that promised the hand of their princess, a white dragonborn named Faerina Fuurrhusar, in marriage. The players fought for this tribe fuelled by the promise of Waifu. Eventually they had accomplished their task. But the shift would be occurring that night and they did not want to be on the island when it started. The players snatched the princess and began to retreat to their ship as the sun began to set.
They made it onto their ship with the princess and looked back to the dock, their companion, Amon Ivo, was sprinting right behind them. The players encouraged Amon to hurry, however he did not make it in time. Amon suddenly stopped in his tracks, standing extremely still, his gaze empty. The husk island began to sink into the ocean, and Amon stood motionless as the water slowly swallowed him whole. At that moment, I told my players to roll a wisdom saving throw.
The throw was impossible to succeed. After all of them rolled, I began to inform them that their character's minds were being altered. Faerina, the husk dragonborn princess that came with them on the ship, was now a true, someone who the players found adrift at sea.Amon, however, was a husk on the island of Endeem. The players met Amon on Endeem and saw him sink into the ocean with the island, just like any other husk.
The player characters did not think anything was out of the ordinary, however the players knew what they had just saw. That true people are capable of becoming husks, and husk people are capable of becoming true.
This event was a revelation, but is not the mind-blowing event that I promised, that event is soon to come. This event laid the foundation for what is to come: The 4th wall breaking reveal that shattered my player's expectations.
The next piece of the puzzle came into view from the sea once again. A husk island. The players were sitting on a beach when the shift occurred. Off in the distance, they could see a husk island rising from the waves. Only, this one was different. It began to rise further, further upwards. Rising past the sea and into the sky. However this island was not floating, no. It was supported by a thick stem that ran down beneath the waves.
My players ventured onto this island. The island was uninhabited for the most part, however had a complex cave system. The party delved through the cave and eventually came upon a sort of device, it was currently dormant. They all discussed whether or not they should activate the device. They all eventually agreed that if nothing was ventured, nothing was gained. Sure of consequences, but unsure of what they might be, the players activated the device. The entire island shook, and the players began to race back out of the cave and off of the island. However when they exited the cave, the entire island turned and became vertical, falling towards the water below. The players held on for dear life, and everything went black.
The player awoke a week later, rescued by allies. The first thing they wanted to know was what happened to that husk island. And their allies informed them that the island was no longer a husk, the shift had already occurred, however that island did not sink into the ocean unlike all others. The husk island had become permanent, true, and it was all because of the players. The device that they activated had caused the stem that raised the island to be severed. The stem was what made the husk island a husk island.
A thought suddenly came over the players. If a husk island can become true, what of the other true islands? Were they husks at one point? They ventured out to determine their hypothesis. In a submarine, they ventured down the side of one island. Eventually the island's side sloped inwards on itself and the players found themselves at the underside of the island. The island wasn't connected to any solid ground, it was just floating in the water like a piece of your cookie that tragically broke off and landed in your milk. And to my player's horror, they found a broken stem sticking out from the underside of the island.
This revelation created a rift between the players. One of them came to the realisation that all of the atrocities committed against the husks, the pirates, the pillaging, the discrimination. It was all against husks, committed by husks. The other two acknowledged this, however still argued that there was still a differentiation between the two groups. Husks were still husks and trues were still trues. Husks will come and go, but trues are here to stay.The first player refuted again, stating the case of Amon. Who is a husk? Who is a true? Anybody has the capability to become both. In fact the world was probably full of these cases. People venturing onto husk islands only be dragged down into the water and be remembered as husks, and husks who venture off of their island to be acknowledged as true.
Oh boy, this player didn't know just how right they were. But they wouldn't come to realise this until it all came together, all of the mysteries, the revelations. The players had found out the secret of the husk islands. However there was still just one more piece of the puzzle that would absolutely blow my player's minds.
The next shift, there was another peculiar island. The island's presence was causing a stir amongst the entire world. The island was another island with inhabitants, rich history intertwining with the rest of the world. It was another whole place to explore. However there was one unsettling aspect of it. On the island was a monk who resided in solitude at the peak of the island's tallest mountain. This monk, apparently knew that he, his island, and everyone on it was a husk.
This monk had the players full attention. They raced to the island, certain that this monk would provide the players with another revelation that would expand their understanding of the world. When the players stood before the monk, they were shaking in anticipation. The monk was shrivelled and anorexic, his skin was rotting and his eyes has gone foul like rotten raisins. However the monk took one look at the players and smiled, he knew exactly what they were after. Answers. What the players heard next blew their minds.
"Has there ever been a moment in which your life seemed to be split in two? A point in time that separates your backstory from your actual story?"Confused, the players asked what he meant."A gangster, a woodsman and a lost soul. Is that really who you are? No. You are none of those things. You are simply three souls who looked upon a quest bulletin board."The players were called back to the first session, the meeting of their characters and the beginning of everything. But they still couldn't ascertain what the monk was implying. That was when the monk put it simply."You are husks."
The monk finished and left the players at that. Most of the players were left confused. However one of them realised. He began to freak out at the realisation and told the rest that they have to return to Point Jak, the island in which they started on. The players all raced to Point Jak. They found that it wasn't there. Point Jak was a husk island just like any other husk island...
A moment in which your life is split in two... A point in time that separates your backstory from your actual story... Within DnD, that would be those first moments. The players all sitting at the table eager to begin a new campaign. The stories that they had each written up for their characters, that was all in the past now. Their characters had lived, and were now ready to live through a new era of their lives, a new story.But not for my players. Their characters hadn't lived at all. The beginning of the first session where I told the players what was in front of their eyes, a quest board. It was no ordinary quest board, it was the first thing that the player characters had ever laid their eyes on. In that very moment, the player characters came into existence. When the shift ushered them life.
My players that session sang just how crazy of a twist that was. I myself am very proud of it to this day. I hope that anyone who made it this far enjoyed it. I had fun reliving the memories as I wrote this story. Thank you very much!
Edit: Thank you so much for the positive feedback. Some people were asking for the world map so here's the map of the Shifting Seas if you cared. All of the islands shown here are true island btw.
