The Mines of Malis
Setting
This campaign takes place in the the lands of Nouchi and the Empire of the Clouds. Jesster will be GM.
Current status is that the Empire still rules and protects it citizens beneath the gray sky, while a rebellion stirs at the fringes and in secrecy beneath the clouds. The lumbering silver-backed mountain known as the colossus, still ambles about the countryside leaving wreckage in it's wake.
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.
Character Guidelines
Characters will be random adventurers in Eigyou whom Teernan has recruited.
If you are an outlander, you will likely have to register with Imperial guard who you are, what your business is in the empire and what armaments you carry. Depending on how you entered the country and what your business is, I'm willing to entertain the possibility of avoiding such a bureaucratic legitimization of your visit, if your backstory warrants it.
Possible character threads:
- Any of a plethora of basic adventurers not tied to the setting. These could be fortune seekers, pirates, information brokers, con artists, traveling entertainers, ancient sages seeking lore from the imperial libraries, aimless youths soul-searching, ex-convicts seeking refuge and redemption with the southern monks, rich nobles in seek of real estate ventures or countless others.
- Someone from Kara-Tur sent by the Emerald Emir on an urgent quest.
- An Imperial Gray Coat on business for the Empire.
- A player could be one of the Dark Templars carrying out Imperial orders.
A player could be sided with the rebels or the Empire or neither. If you have ideas for the Rebellion, let me know. It is far from developed. It has been shown in one small instance that the rebels were dealing at some level with the western barbarians for combat training, weapons and armor of their great western steel.
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.
Characters
Gradik Seatalon played by User:BradyH
Esme Harrington played by Melissa
What Happened
The group met with Don Lau in the Gilded Stein for lunch and details. The illustrious Mr. Lau had chosen each member for certain qualities. Tok, the swarthy thick-limbed dark mustachioed Mongolian sell-sword for protection, Doc, for his medical skill and crossbow support, Esme for her cartography and other archaeological acquisition skills, and finally Gradik for his seamanship and ability to transport the team to the destination. Don Lau told the party of a mining operation being run by Lord Skreez Malis about a day’s journey north of Serenton on the coast, in what is rumored to be an ancient dragon’s den. It is rumored that the den was collapsed when the injured dragon rested within and Lau was hiring his team to infiltrate and recover said dragon’s bones. He would pay them each $100 sp upon return with some bones (claws and teeth being choice) and they can otherwise keep whatever other bounty they come across. He supplied them a crude map and asked for verification of Malis using slave labor in this mining operation. After lunch and determining a meeting location, the party split up.
Tok gathered weapons and some supplies before spending his evening bullying around the Guilded Stein and being robbed.
Doc, wandered into the slums in seek of a place to stay for the night. Following a small thin man into a dark alley which ended up in a brief confrontation and Doc short the 1 gold coin Don Lau fronted him. He then went to a free clinic/soup kitchen and inquired about the mine and the large furry fellow who helped the small thin man rob him. He traded some first aid for a bed-roll for the night.
Esme went to the library and researched dragons in the surrounding area, learning of a white serpent that often stole from fishing vessels dozens of years ago outside of Serenton. She then went into the slums and gathered what information she could about the mine from street urchin, where she learned of one boy’s older brother Eddie being taken off to the mine, perhaps against his will.
Gradik provisioned his small fishing vessel for the upcoming journey and visited with his contact in the Serentonian Guard (Sten Oakhearth). Sten told Gradik to be cautious because he’s heard that Malis is an up-and-coming politician who is rumored to use muscle from a tough crowd called the Blood Ghost Syndicate and isn’t afraid of playing dirty. He bid him good luck on his exploration of said mines and asked for a report back. The following morning, Tok searched for the picker of his pockets and tried to rob the proprietor of the Guilded Stein, and Esme purchased some food and sent message to her patrons in Cormire. The next day around lunch, the group all met at the docks and took Gradik’s small boat out to sea to approach the mines from the low-tide cave entrance, rather than the topside of the mining operation. After a brief and brutal mishap in the dark encountering the cliffside, the party found the cave. They rested and ate before rowing in and beaching the boat. An armored man came down from the tunnel above asking their business. Mixed messages about being lost and looking for mine were given. The man retreated back up the tunnel. As the party disembarked and began to follow, the man came back down with an accomplice and they again asked for more info, this time at the point of loaded crossbows. Combat erupted and Tok cleaved through chain-shirt and ribs alike, while Gradik hastily harpooned a man and ripped his guts out. In the aftermath, Tok and Esme looted the bodies while Gradik dealt with the shock of his first kill and the gore. While the party debated whether to push onward or to fall back to the boat, something approached. Something large. At the crack of a whip, a chained ogre stepped into the light and roared its rage at the party. Tok distracted the beast while Gradik speared it. Doc shot it’s driver, then chased him up the tunnel while Tok finished off the ogre. After the brief melee, the retreating ogre driver blew a horn up the tunnel and the party retreated to the boat and out to sea to rest and regroup. Doc mended Tok’s wounds, Gradik tried to repair his ogre-bent harpoon and Esme questioned the value of this task.