Know that it is the year 1499 DR.
At the turn of the year, each of the sixteen Outer Planes of the great wheel of the cosmos turns, orbiting the Prime Material Plane. They drift through the Astral Sea like great disks, trailing wisps of astral sea foam as they align with each other.
Once an age, an Outer Plane eclipses the Material Plane. It hangs overhead for single night, but that contact is enough to shape the realms below.
This night, in the rarest of celestial events, the lawful clockwork plane of Mechanus hangs above. It’s orderly people, the modrons, cast their lawful gaze down to the world of Faerûn.
They are scandalized!
A chaotic, disorderly world. The uncoordinated flailings of mortal life laid bare for their enormous globular eyes to see.
Primus, the lawful over-god of the modrons, looked down upon this disorder. It displeased them. With a wave of their clockwork staff, they uttered a single sentence…and the universe was rewritten.
“Hey…you stop that”
With that, the Prime Material Plane and all that connects to it was wrapped in a holy grid. Every part of mortal existence now cleanly organized into five by five foot squares. Primus approved. Measured, accurate, orderly.
…
Life on the continent of Faerûn continued, much as it always had.
The baker bakes as a standard action.
The fisherman casts their net into the sea in a close blast 1.
Children run through the streets, laughing as a free action.
The priest prays to the gods and restores vitality to the sick in the form of a healing surge plus 1d6. The gods smile and deem it good.
Life goes on, in a more orderly fashion, for now.
…
In this Session 0 I introduced (or reintroduced for some) the basic concepts of D&D 4e. The action economy of ‘Move, Minor, Standard’, reading things in squares, and what standard, encounter, and daily powers are. Even for a veteran like me, it is a considerably steeper learning curve than D&D fifth edition.
Still, I think we’re getting the hang of it.
Our current cast of characters include:
- Sir Volaash, dragonborn paladin of Bahamut and newcomer to Faerun from ‘Dragonborn Island’.
- Malachite ‘Mal’ Black, tiefling cleric of Selune and scion of the Krynnephi Black family.
- Anya Diana Wintour von Fürstenburg, eladrin warlord of the unnamed god, raised in a human convent and orphanage.
- Hobb the Nail, human paladin of the Raven Queen, outsider, and friend to those in need.
- Rose Royce (NPC), half-elf rogue, noble patriar of Baldur’s Gate, and trash elf in a lot of trouble.
