Following information from Avenar you all went to a meeting spot in Harkem-Viol. The city ruins were of some race about twice the size of humans. After a little while you notice some strange things, like the movement of the ruins themselves. Fearing an attack you retreat to Theoninn and take off. Soon after, sensors pick up an energy spike and then a creature of some sort which Landros flies out to chat with. The story Landros tells you is that the creature instructed you all to meet in Marhund in 24 hours with the ring or else you would be pursued.
Instead, you all head for Raven , hidden somewhere deep inside the Land of the Damned. You find a desolate city formed of countless numbers of petrified insects that seems to be deserted. Of course, you quickly learn that this is the nocturnal dwelling of Mantus and his cohorts; so you return during the day when it is safer.
You don't run into too much trouble getting to the area of Raven, but you do run into the Goddess who tells you that you are welcome to take Raven as long as you are aware that removing it will lift the curse that banishes Mantus from this world in the daylight. Naturally, you have some misgivings about this, but she assures you that Mantus has no intentions for this world. Allowing Mantus to escape here might help balance the powers of the demon lords' various quests for power; Mania has been looking to overthrow and destroy her husband and having him in the land of the damned might save him a while yet.
So, with Raven in hand you head to Khul-Than Forge, discovering along the way that this runic item works in consort with Theoninn to power its Albucierre Drive. The ship rifts into an interior chamber. From there you head down a very large hallway with statues of armies lining either wall. At the end of this corridor you find what you believe to be the forge itself.
Before you can do much, Skedic troops launch an attack on you which is quickly supressed by Theoninn. Shortly after Ankar shows up hoping to negotiate with you; he wants the forge lit and asks for your help in doing so.
Could this be the culmination of a lifelong search for runic knowledge?
NOTE:
Technically, I made an error regarding the warp drive of Theoninn. In fact you would not have rifted into this area - you cannot pass through solid objects using the ship. It is essentially a line-of-site travel path. Obviously, I allowed you to get in, and getting out won't be a problem from a logistics point of view. But no more warping through solid objects.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Temple of Ptelas
Using Lodos you are able to find the Temple in the mountains of the Yin-Sloth jungle. The plateau at the entrance of the temple is littered with very large cairns made of boulders, so landing Theoninn there was not possible. Fortunately there was a clearing near the base of a set of stairs that ascends from the depths of the jungle floor to the temple plateau.
Silus immediately senses something watching you from the jungle and Treasda quickly neutralizes about 12 tribal warriors. Things go uneventfully until you reach the plateau where a sniper starts taking shots at you all. Silus, Farallon and ??? sneak around to flank the sniper while Agar and the others keep him occupied. Eventually Silus drops the snipe with a poison blow dart and you all tie the bastard up. Farallon correctly guess from the Skedic uniform that this snipe was from Eta, meaning that Sonjia was most likely here.
You pick you way through a couple of booby-traps, find the main worship hall of the temple, disarm a remote alarm device and finally come to a great battle.
You reach the central shaft of an extinct volcano and discover/disarm 8 other Skedic who are working for Sonjia. Unfortunately Sonjia has already obtained the ring Chronos and attacks you. Although some of you take a little beating you manage to kill her just after Landros arrives on the scene, plummeting down the shaft in a frogsuit. Avenar, Ankar's son, also shows up demanding to know what is going on. You quickly school him and gather the information that Sonjia and he were going to meet someone named Fermarcus at an ancient ruin call Harkem-Viol.
Farallon manages to convince the Etan Skedic to leave the employ of Ankar and you all pack into Theoninn to go to Harkem-Viol. The maximum comfortable capacity for Theoninn, in terms of bunk space, is 24. As it stands, Landros is "guarding" Chronos and won't let anyone have it yet. The ruins of Harkem-Viol seem to belong to a race of beings about twice the size of humans. You have landed in a sort of town square near one of the glacial lagoons that dot the area around this town/ruin.
Silus immediately senses something watching you from the jungle and Treasda quickly neutralizes about 12 tribal warriors. Things go uneventfully until you reach the plateau where a sniper starts taking shots at you all. Silus, Farallon and ??? sneak around to flank the sniper while Agar and the others keep him occupied. Eventually Silus drops the snipe with a poison blow dart and you all tie the bastard up. Farallon correctly guess from the Skedic uniform that this snipe was from Eta, meaning that Sonjia was most likely here.
You pick you way through a couple of booby-traps, find the main worship hall of the temple, disarm a remote alarm device and finally come to a great battle.
You reach the central shaft of an extinct volcano and discover/disarm 8 other Skedic who are working for Sonjia. Unfortunately Sonjia has already obtained the ring Chronos and attacks you. Although some of you take a little beating you manage to kill her just after Landros arrives on the scene, plummeting down the shaft in a frogsuit. Avenar, Ankar's son, also shows up demanding to know what is going on. You quickly school him and gather the information that Sonjia and he were going to meet someone named Fermarcus at an ancient ruin call Harkem-Viol.
Farallon manages to convince the Etan Skedic to leave the employ of Ankar and you all pack into Theoninn to go to Harkem-Viol. The maximum comfortable capacity for Theoninn, in terms of bunk space, is 24. As it stands, Landros is "guarding" Chronos and won't let anyone have it yet. The ruins of Harkem-Viol seem to belong to a race of beings about twice the size of humans. You have landed in a sort of town square near one of the glacial lagoons that dot the area around this town/ruin.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
From Shroud to Palladium
A quick synopsis of the last couple of meetings...
You left the Elven home world as members of M7 aboard the Infinity which headed out for the Shroud at Lascaille. This was part of Sylveste's plan. During the journey Glaston and Ephemera plot to kill members of the party, but because of Silus' cunning ways you all get the jump on this and loop Volya into the know.
Once at the Shroud, Galston and Ephemera launch their short lived plan and end up being quickly dispatched. Oki and Landros journey into the Shroud boundary and discover many wild and interesting facts, none of which they have had time to divulge to much of anyone except Sylveste. And, in its own special way, the Shroud has left its mark on Oki and Landros.
Sajaki is pissed about the recent goings on, such as the death of two long-time crew (Glaston and Ephemera), and the lack of help for the captain. He calls a meeting which quickly dissolves into an attempt to take over. Sajaki demands that Volya turn over the ship's command bracelet, an item which she seems to be the exclusive keeper of, and tries to use it. He quickly loses his hand as the bracelet severs it allowing Volya to step in and take charge. Akar and Landros escort Sylveste back to his quarters and lock him in there while Oki and Farallon escort Sajaki to the med lab and Jermea to an airlock to be used as a holding cell.
The plan was to then meet back up at the bridge with Volya and Khouri, but things get hairy as Sun Stealer begins to take control over parts of the ship. In an heroic effort, you all manage to find environmental suits and avoid the pursuit of stalking Frog suits. Volya orders you all to take a shuttle, a favorite of hers called Theoninn, and to escape the ship for now. Landros departs the group to go get a Frog suit with the hopes of meeting up with everyone later. He doesn't make it in time. Although the rest of you reach the ship just fine, your troubles begin with the Theoninn being shut-down. Agar valiantly works to get systems online as other shuttles under malevolent control begin to target the sitting duck. Mirella, much to peoples dismay, uses her new amulet to banf the ship into the upper atmosphere of Palladium, somewhere above the Yin-Sloth jungle.
Needless to say, Agar lands the ship just fine (well, crashes into the jungle, but reasonably safely). You meet a tribe of locals who take a liking to the ship. Oki discovers that Theoninn is about 110 million years old and seems to have or use some kind of runic energy. Well, a team effort gets the ship in reasonable condition and you all set out toward the Temple of Ptelas because Lodos has sensed there is a rune object there.
Think of this (brief) time back here in Palladium as an opportunity to settle old scores, tie up some loose ends, and help the Misarlon get the remaining few runic items off-world before you go scouring the heavens for the vast majority at large.
You left the Elven home world as members of M7 aboard the Infinity which headed out for the Shroud at Lascaille. This was part of Sylveste's plan. During the journey Glaston and Ephemera plot to kill members of the party, but because of Silus' cunning ways you all get the jump on this and loop Volya into the know.
Once at the Shroud, Galston and Ephemera launch their short lived plan and end up being quickly dispatched. Oki and Landros journey into the Shroud boundary and discover many wild and interesting facts, none of which they have had time to divulge to much of anyone except Sylveste. And, in its own special way, the Shroud has left its mark on Oki and Landros.
Sajaki is pissed about the recent goings on, such as the death of two long-time crew (Glaston and Ephemera), and the lack of help for the captain. He calls a meeting which quickly dissolves into an attempt to take over. Sajaki demands that Volya turn over the ship's command bracelet, an item which she seems to be the exclusive keeper of, and tries to use it. He quickly loses his hand as the bracelet severs it allowing Volya to step in and take charge. Akar and Landros escort Sylveste back to his quarters and lock him in there while Oki and Farallon escort Sajaki to the med lab and Jermea to an airlock to be used as a holding cell.
The plan was to then meet back up at the bridge with Volya and Khouri, but things get hairy as Sun Stealer begins to take control over parts of the ship. In an heroic effort, you all manage to find environmental suits and avoid the pursuit of stalking Frog suits. Volya orders you all to take a shuttle, a favorite of hers called Theoninn, and to escape the ship for now. Landros departs the group to go get a Frog suit with the hopes of meeting up with everyone later. He doesn't make it in time. Although the rest of you reach the ship just fine, your troubles begin with the Theoninn being shut-down. Agar valiantly works to get systems online as other shuttles under malevolent control begin to target the sitting duck. Mirella, much to peoples dismay, uses her new amulet to banf the ship into the upper atmosphere of Palladium, somewhere above the Yin-Sloth jungle.
Needless to say, Agar lands the ship just fine (well, crashes into the jungle, but reasonably safely). You meet a tribe of locals who take a liking to the ship. Oki discovers that Theoninn is about 110 million years old and seems to have or use some kind of runic energy. Well, a team effort gets the ship in reasonable condition and you all set out toward the Temple of Ptelas because Lodos has sensed there is a rune object there.
Think of this (brief) time back here in Palladium as an opportunity to settle old scores, tie up some loose ends, and help the Misarlon get the remaining few runic items off-world before you go scouring the heavens for the vast majority at large.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Updates
Coming soon...
There will be a new character sheet form that references all of the new tables. It even fills in OCC skills based on OCC. Maybe it will have even more functionality by the end of next week. Does anyone remember what bonus I allowed for OCC skills? Was it a flat number, like 15%, or did everyone take it from the book? I think it was a flat rate.
Also, the synopsis for last week will be out sometime soon, but not before Wednesday in all likelihood.
There will be a new character sheet form that references all of the new tables. It even fills in OCC skills based on OCC. Maybe it will have even more functionality by the end of next week. Does anyone remember what bonus I allowed for OCC skills? Was it a flat number, like 15%, or did everyone take it from the book? I think it was a flat rate.
Also, the synopsis for last week will be out sometime soon, but not before Wednesday in all likelihood.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Welcome to M7
A brief synopsis...
Sylveste drags you all to the ruins that started the entire Skedic research project. There you learn that the native race, the Amarantin, is known to you as the Yema. The Yema were divided into two tribes; one tribe believed that god had punished them and that should never seek to fly while the other, more rebellious tribe left and journeyed among the stars for ten thousand years. They returned being pursued by the Inhibitors, whom they knew would destroy their entire race. The space-faring Amarantin grabbed as many refugees as possible and left behind an enormous "time capsule" of sorts to their culture, the sphere.
Another four years (20 years total now) and you all arrive at Gliese, the home of the elves. Mirella invites you all out and ends up leading you to an M7 meeting where you are greeted by their leader, Eyvinon. Eyvinon invites you all to join the Misarlon/M7 as allies (an offer which you all accept) and then gives you the first mission of stopping Sylveste and Sajaki...in essence, stealing the lighthugger. Well, over Volya's dead body, of course, but maybe she could prove to be useful.
But before you can begin your mission you are sworn in. And Twession, one of the elder members, presents Landros a medal of distinction for his years of faithful service in the Ipinidaan.
Your seven are:
Mirella
Farallon
Agar Prime
Oki
Landros
Silus
and Treasda.
the Kankoran gone Bohemian is just a tag along...and he has changed his name to Ginsberg.
Sylveste drags you all to the ruins that started the entire Skedic research project. There you learn that the native race, the Amarantin, is known to you as the Yema. The Yema were divided into two tribes; one tribe believed that god had punished them and that should never seek to fly while the other, more rebellious tribe left and journeyed among the stars for ten thousand years. They returned being pursued by the Inhibitors, whom they knew would destroy their entire race. The space-faring Amarantin grabbed as many refugees as possible and left behind an enormous "time capsule" of sorts to their culture, the sphere.
Another four years (20 years total now) and you all arrive at Gliese, the home of the elves. Mirella invites you all out and ends up leading you to an M7 meeting where you are greeted by their leader, Eyvinon. Eyvinon invites you all to join the Misarlon/M7 as allies (an offer which you all accept) and then gives you the first mission of stopping Sylveste and Sajaki...in essence, stealing the lighthugger. Well, over Volya's dead body, of course, but maybe she could prove to be useful.
But before you can begin your mission you are sworn in. And Twession, one of the elder members, presents Landros a medal of distinction for his years of faithful service in the Ipinidaan.
Your seven are:
Mirella
Farallon
Agar Prime
Oki
Landros
Silus
and Treasda.
the Kankoran gone Bohemian is just a tag along...and he has changed his name to Ginsberg.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Synopsis: Into the Heavens
After a few minutes you were able to figure out that you were in some sort of rotating space station (colloquially, a “carousel”) and that you were near the hub. Farallon pressed Mirella for information on where exactly you were and how you got there. Seems that Mirella, though Elven, is not from Palladium, but rather Erysterai, a world which orbits Gliese 876. She is part of the Misarlon, but that is only the Palladium name for a larger group known throughout the Cognoverse (known set of systems and colonies) as M7.
M7 starts with Fermi's paradox which briefly put states that given the theoretical number of planets that could support life and advanced civilizations it is improbably that we should find so very few races living among the stars. Research over the years found that there were, in fact, as many civilizations as Fermi's equations suggested; they were just all extinct, and not by natural causes, or so it came to be understood. So M7 was formed a very long time ago to help safeguard the newer races that had appeared in the galactic scene. It is believed that these other extinct races had attracted the attention of something known as the Inhibitors. Races that tried to expand boundaries of travel too far or had used “runic” energy tended to attracted this unwanted attention, so M7 tries to keep the profile of the human races and its neighbors below the radar of the Inhibitors.
Not wanting to just sit around, you all decide to take an elevator ride down to the outer ring of the station where the gravity approaches something normal, but you unfortunately disturb the denizens of this semi-derelict station, a group of Juicers who want to play. You all race back up to the hub where Treasda and Lodos seal the safety hatches and Landros (using Eldvöð) heats up the locking rings to become untouchable, buying you all enough time for Oki to telehack into the computer system. Oki gets you all clearance to the shuttle bay and prewarms a craft for you to leave. By this time the Juicers have armed the station's weapons and are merely waiting for you to leave the bay before they destroy you. Mirella calculates that even at the 10G maximum thrust, the Juicers will have more than enough time to pick you off as you leave. Agar Prime devises a scheme to clear the bay at 10G's, which will render everyone else unconscious, and then swing the nose around and unleash the shuttle meager fury at the other ship in the bay and the bay itself. Seconds before this plan can be executed a very large dark shadow slides between the station and the gas giant below. It is a lighthugger. With nothing to lose, you follow through with Agar's plan. It works splendidly, and a fraction of a second later the lighthugger send out a series of beams that reduces the station into a shimmering cascade of tiny metal pieces.
A radio hail from the lighthugger, “Nostalgia for Infinity”, informs you that you have been arbitrarily selected to join their crew. You oblige.
On board you meet Volya, a female triumvirate of the ship and head of weapons and engineering, Sajaki, triumvirate number two, unstable megalomaniac, and Jermea, the third wheel. There is also Kori, a crew member as well as Glaston and Ephemera, both highly chimeric Ultras. Oki tries to bond with the ship and encounters a force, “Sun-Stealer”. The mere mention of Sun-Stealer makes Sajaki very mad...
To make a complicated story short, the crew is looking for a cure for the captain ,who has the melding plaque, a disease which causes the nano-chines in his body to run amok and begun melding into other things. In this case the captain is melding into the ship and has bonded with about ten percent of it. Sajaki believes that the answer can be found on Palladium, but because that system is so far away and dangerous to get to, they will travel to Anasaria and use the Rifts. Fast forward through a six year stint in hibernation and you wake up to find that this entity, Sun-Stealer is trying to destroy the entire planet of Anasaria. Apparently it does'nt want the rifts open and believes that if they are not closed the Inhibitors will come and destroy everyone. Oki is able to determine that Sun-Stealer is about a billion year old entity.
The story that emerges is that billions of years ago several races ascended to the stars and fell into conflict with each other. The war between these races lasted so many millions of years that it became impossible to tell how many races had ever been involved in the war, since the races had evolved so much over the course of the conflict. Eventually, all but one race disappeared from the conflict, those that became known as the Inhibitors. From that point forward the Inhibitors prevented any other such war from starting by preventing any race from ever achieving the technology necessary. It has been between three or four billion years since the end of the Dawn War. Sun-Stealer's people learned all of this about the Dawn War once they had stirred the hornets nest and just before they were destroyed.
M7 starts with Fermi's paradox which briefly put states that given the theoretical number of planets that could support life and advanced civilizations it is improbably that we should find so very few races living among the stars. Research over the years found that there were, in fact, as many civilizations as Fermi's equations suggested; they were just all extinct, and not by natural causes, or so it came to be understood. So M7 was formed a very long time ago to help safeguard the newer races that had appeared in the galactic scene. It is believed that these other extinct races had attracted the attention of something known as the Inhibitors. Races that tried to expand boundaries of travel too far or had used “runic” energy tended to attracted this unwanted attention, so M7 tries to keep the profile of the human races and its neighbors below the radar of the Inhibitors.
Not wanting to just sit around, you all decide to take an elevator ride down to the outer ring of the station where the gravity approaches something normal, but you unfortunately disturb the denizens of this semi-derelict station, a group of Juicers who want to play. You all race back up to the hub where Treasda and Lodos seal the safety hatches and Landros (using Eldvöð) heats up the locking rings to become untouchable, buying you all enough time for Oki to telehack into the computer system. Oki gets you all clearance to the shuttle bay and prewarms a craft for you to leave. By this time the Juicers have armed the station's weapons and are merely waiting for you to leave the bay before they destroy you. Mirella calculates that even at the 10G maximum thrust, the Juicers will have more than enough time to pick you off as you leave. Agar Prime devises a scheme to clear the bay at 10G's, which will render everyone else unconscious, and then swing the nose around and unleash the shuttle meager fury at the other ship in the bay and the bay itself. Seconds before this plan can be executed a very large dark shadow slides between the station and the gas giant below. It is a lighthugger. With nothing to lose, you follow through with Agar's plan. It works splendidly, and a fraction of a second later the lighthugger send out a series of beams that reduces the station into a shimmering cascade of tiny metal pieces.
A radio hail from the lighthugger, “Nostalgia for Infinity”, informs you that you have been arbitrarily selected to join their crew. You oblige.
On board you meet Volya, a female triumvirate of the ship and head of weapons and engineering, Sajaki, triumvirate number two, unstable megalomaniac, and Jermea, the third wheel. There is also Kori, a crew member as well as Glaston and Ephemera, both highly chimeric Ultras. Oki tries to bond with the ship and encounters a force, “Sun-Stealer”. The mere mention of Sun-Stealer makes Sajaki very mad...
To make a complicated story short, the crew is looking for a cure for the captain ,who has the melding plaque, a disease which causes the nano-chines in his body to run amok and begun melding into other things. In this case the captain is melding into the ship and has bonded with about ten percent of it. Sajaki believes that the answer can be found on Palladium, but because that system is so far away and dangerous to get to, they will travel to Anasaria and use the Rifts. Fast forward through a six year stint in hibernation and you wake up to find that this entity, Sun-Stealer is trying to destroy the entire planet of Anasaria. Apparently it does'nt want the rifts open and believes that if they are not closed the Inhibitors will come and destroy everyone. Oki is able to determine that Sun-Stealer is about a billion year old entity.
The story that emerges is that billions of years ago several races ascended to the stars and fell into conflict with each other. The war between these races lasted so many millions of years that it became impossible to tell how many races had ever been involved in the war, since the races had evolved so much over the course of the conflict. Eventually, all but one race disappeared from the conflict, those that became known as the Inhibitors. From that point forward the Inhibitors prevented any other such war from starting by preventing any race from ever achieving the technology necessary. It has been between three or four billion years since the end of the Dawn War. Sun-Stealer's people learned all of this about the Dawn War once they had stirred the hornets nest and just before they were destroyed.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Lighthugger
Lighthuggers are about 3km in length. The sleek hull is designed to cut through the relatively thick gas of space as the craft travels at 0.99c At relativistic speeds a very large gossamer sail can be unfurled to collect molecules for use in the Conjoiner engines.Alliance craft, while capable of being pushed to 0.75c, are really only designed for 0.25c to 0.45c and the design differences between the craft are astonoshing.
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