The Gilded Chains to the West

Setting

This campaign takes place in the the lands of Nouchi and the Empire of the Clouds. Jesster will be GM.

It has been years since the Colossus first awoke. While the Empire of the Clouds still holds firm control, the eternal gray gloom is occasionally pierced by "sunstreaks"—rare moments of true sunlight that terrify the superstitious populace and embolden enemies of the state. Rumors have reached the capital of Shuto that the Western barbarians, already known for supplying rebels with superior steel, have forged a pact with strange magical beasts in the Dulso Forest and beyond.

The Empire cannot allow a supernatural alliance to fester. You are a special task force dispatched from Eigyou with a specific mandate: Capture, do not kill. The Empire wants these "conspiring creatures" brought back alive to be studied, broken, and weaponized.

Intro

This campaign will start in Eigyou, a trade city dealing mostly with agricultural goods traveling to the imperial capital of Shuto across a narrow channel called Dogleg Straight. Eigyou is near the heart of the Empire of the Clouds and therefor, weapons and armor are strictly controlled by the Empire.

The Party: Instruments of the Emperor

The group consists of Imperial assets who have been authorized to carry heavy arms and armor—a rare privilege that demands absolute success. Character suggestions include:

• The Gray Coat (The Handler): A magic-wielding tax collector and officer. Their job is to identify magical threats and ensure the captured creatures are magically bound for transport.

• The Dark Templar (The Muscle): A religious soldier of the Empire, fanatic and heavily armored. They are the shield against the barbarian steel.

• The Mercenary Guide (The Scout): A local or reformed rebel who knows the Dulso Forest and the western lands. They are in it for the gold, but the Empire holds leverage over them.

Points

Characters will start with 200 points with the following specifications. No more than -100 in Disadvantages, dropped attributes, dependents, wealth and so on. No more than a score of 14 on an Attribute without supporting back-story, as a 15 is immediately apparent and draws constant comment as per description on pg 14. Tech level = 4.

I would also like to recommend that characters think of a handful of skills that help define your character and how they act in a given situation. These should be your primary skills and should have a skill level of at least 14. Then you should have another handful of secondary skills that it wouldn't make sense for your character not to have and have at least a level of 11. You can then add other background skills to flesh out your character.

An example would be if I were a pirate, I would probably have at least, the following primary skills: fencing (rapier), crewman, swimming. Then I may have the following secondary skills: boating, knife, gambling, intimidation, detect lies. And maybe some background skills that help define my character, like fishing and cooking because I used to be a fisherman and maybe slight of hand (for gambling) and brawling because sometimes the gambling doesn't go so well.