Steamworks & Arcana
Campaign Introduction
Setting
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.
Characters
- Martigan Swift, played by John
- Groth, played by Jess
What Happened
Chapter 1: A Gathering of Heroes
A 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 beutiful 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 comission 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 sasys the only clue, was a hanky found at the scene with the initials "VR", and he assumes it must be some pirate from thier 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 corousing 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 follow the men to see if the lady needed assistance.