Steamworks & Arcana

Campaign Introduction

Setting

The World of Vallia

Set in The World of Vallia similar to our own during the late 1800's or early 1900's in a European/American environment. This world has evolved in tandem with a high level of magic, so most technology is built around such magics.

• Gunpowder (or its likeness) has not been discovered or utilized, so weapons are still stuck in mid evil levels (swords, axes, bows...).
• Transportation for short distances is handled by horses or other living creatures, automobiles do not exist yet. Long-distance maybe covered by a limited number of trains. Few tracks do cross the continent, but they do cross.
• Humans are the dominant species of the world, but all the high fantasy races do exist (elves, dwarfs, gnomes, demons...). The level of interaction they maintain with the humans will be decided by the players.
• The rest of the make up of the campaign and story will be dictated by the backgrounds of the characters. Example: if someone wants to make a mariner, there will me more ocean mapped out.
• I personally like the idea of a large scale war in recent history (10-50 years ago) but it is not required.

The feel for this campaign will be similar to a steam-punk style with high magic; examples of this would be Fullmetal Alchemist, Final Fantasy VI or Eberon

Story

This intends to be an epic quest with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

The story will be a contemporary character driven piece, i.e. character's motivations and goals will drive the plot forward, no plot for plots sake. Therefore, the plot will be generated from the backgrounds of the characters that are provided to me.

It should also be noted that since I have not run many campaigns (4) and only a handful from this mentality (2), the greater lead time I can have with character backgrounds, the better.

Character Creation

Characters

• Martigan Swift, played by John
• Groth, played by Jess
• Vectra, played by Melissa

What Happened

Chapter 1: A Gathering of Heroes

The Dream

The Dream

All the characters started the campaign with the same dream:

Standing alone on a ship, you lookout across a large body of water. Off in the distance, you see a beautiful city glowing with a white light. You've never seen sucha a city. As you are looking, you notice a ripple in the water. You look closer in the water and you see a gigantic sea serpent encircling the ship. Suddenly the open maw of the serpent springs from the water directly towards you, but you awake before it strikes.

A Fallen Hero

Martigan Swift arrives in Renas to request his commission be reinstated. He speaks with Colonel Alexander, the young new commander of the Anti-Piracy Strike Force (APSF). Alexander dismisses Swift's request, saying that "Pirate hunting is a young-man's game", but he does advise that Swift's former commander, Colonel Marsh (ret.) is in Renas. Swift tracks down the retired colonel, who informs Swift that his daughter Mary Anne, who is heavy with child, has been kidnapped. Marsh says the only clue, was a hankie found at the scene with the initials "VR", and he assumes it must be some pirate from their pasts doing this. Swift jumps into action (after a quick drink) and boards the first train to Salet.

An Elven Wanderer

Vectra has been wandering from Welling, finding her way to the main continent. After awhile, she purchased a train ticket to Salet. While on the train she encountered Martigan Swift carousing and enjoying himself, but given her nature, she chose to keep her own company. After disembarking the train, Vectra noticed four men following her, Martigan noticed this as well. Vectra lead the men into a dark alley in hopes of eluding or ambushing them and Martigan followed the men to see if the lady needed assistance.

Kardik Brunst

The four men cornered Vectra in the alley so she unsheathed her sword and prepared for attack. Hank and Chet (two of the attackers) prepared to defend themselves, but after two quick blows from Vectra's elven blade sent them to the ground. Martigan quickly disarmed the other two (one literally) and sent them on their way. Martigan interrogated Hank and Chet and discovered that they planned to kidnap Vectra and meet with the ship "The Sea Star" to sell her off, but they knew nothing else as to why.

After the conflict Martigan and Vectra found a tavern (one of Martigan's old favorite haunts) and discussed their next move when the burly Kardik Brunst arrived. Kardik had heard that The Sea Star had recently been sighted nearby, after following up with Brunst's contact, Brunst offered his services and ship "The Clementine" to the party and they set out the following morning to hunt the Sea Star.

A Sagacious Grey Man

Meanwhile, Groth awoke due to a bucket of water being tossed on him. The first-mate of the Sea Star stood on the other side of some bars from him. Groth realized that in his sleep, he'd been moved into the brig during his sleep. The first-mate informed Groth that Captian Vincent Rufello had some words for him. The Captain Arrived, and told Groth that even though, he was an able crewman and an excellent fighter, he "knew what Groth was" and could not allow him on the vessel any longer and Groth was set to be sold and the first opportunity. Groth did not know what fate had in store for him, but he chose to go along for the time being.

Fight on the High Seas

After throwing together a plan, the crew of the Clementine prepared to get information from the crew of the Sea Star. Martigan swam to the rear of the Sea Star, and climbed up the back, while Vectra stayed on the Clementine and readied her bow. Five of the crew of the Clementine rowed over with various supplies in a boat and meet with crewmen from the Sea Star and pretend to be making a trade. Martigan then began quickly dispatching opponents on the ship, and when the crew of the Sea Star realized something was up they started attacking the crew of the Clementine. Captain Brunst saw his men get struck down and ordered the Clementine's main cannon fired. The blast was a lucky one and caused great damage to the vessel, making the locked cell door on the brig move enough that Groth could break it open with a powerful blow. Once free, the former pirate joined the fray, taking on his former first mate.

Upon realizing that his ship maybe lost Captain Rufello began climbing to the crows nest. Having freshly pacified the majority of the crew, Martigan saw Rufello, and gave chase. He grabbed the nearest rope, cut where it was tied and flew up to the top of the mast. After getting to his feet, Martigan began to approach Rufello all the while asking why he was interested in Vectra and what he did with Marry Anne. Rufello was evasive in his responses and when Martigan lunged at Rufello they both fell off the mast. After falling into the sea, Martigan attempted to save Rufello, but he was no where to be seen....

Chapter 2: Trouble in Vorschland

Hot on the Trail

After rescuing the survivors of the Sea Serpent, Groth joined with Martigan and Vectra. He knew that a pregnant woman, matching Marry Anne's description, was aboard the Sea Serpent a few weeks ago and had been dropped off in Randgriz a couple weeks ago. The party made haste to the northern city and have begun running down leads.

After speaking with the dock-master, the party learned that a shipment from the Sea Star had been unloaded to the North Vorschland Trading Company. Running down this lead yielded little results when speaking to the warehouse manager at the NVTC so the party spoke with the warehouse manager across the street, who was concerend about the possiblity of an abduction of a young pregnant woman. He assisted the party by introducing them to his son who was friendly with the workers at the NVTC and in turn helped the party sneak into the warehouse after hours to retrieve the manager's secret ledger that detailed a shipment that was received the same day the Sea Star was in port and then delivered to a Dr. Klein in Wilkshire, a small town a half-day's ride from Randgirz. Impulsive and with a new lead to run down, Martigan urged the party to hire a stagecoach that night and head to Wilkshire. During the ride, Vectra slept, Martigan made conversation with the driver and Groth meditated.

Dr. Klein's Scientific Pursuits

The mad Dr. Klein

Upon arriving in Wilkshire, the party wasted no time in finding a tavern and learning the whereabouts of Dr. Klein's residence. Given the late hour, the Klein estate was dark when the party got there, but that didn't stop Martigan from pounding on the door until the good doctor answered. While waiting for the door to be answered, Vectra climbed a tree near Dr. Klein's bedroom and sneaked inside through a window to search the upper levels.

Martigan's incessant knocking eventually awoke the scientist and he came down and opened the door. Obviously irritated to be visited at such an hour the Dr. asked "Are you from the society?" Martigan and Groth answered "No" and proceeded to interrogate Klein about Mary Anne. Once realizing that these two men meant him harm, Dr. Klein bolted down the hallway and down some steps to his lab with Martigan and Groth giving chase.

Bounding down the stairs in pursuit of Dr. Klein Martigan and Groth came face to face with a horned monster. Martigan became unnerved at the sight of the creature, but Groth, used to fighting such things, moved in for the attack. Groth traded great blows with the beast until he sucumded to his wounds and fell unconscious, but not before Dr. Klein, wielding a odd gun and a scepter, shot Groth with the gun (this blast had little effect on Groth, this fact was unnoticed by Martigan). With the beast soften up, Martigan was reinvigorated and charged in, finishing the mighty beast and then subduing the doctor.

During all of this, Vectra had found the doctor's study and, more importantly, his journal.