Alaria and Rome, Part Two

   First up for today, it’s part two of the Alaria and Rome article, covering the similarities and differences between the two. Since it follows directly from the material in part one, it’s best to start THERE if you haven’t already read it.

   Obviously enough, what classification you fall under has a major impact on your fortunes in the Imperium. A citizen may – at least in theory – appeal unjust legal decisions all the way to the Senate, while a Bondsman has no legal recourse whatsoever. In practice, of course, the occasional Citizen will appeal on behalf of someone else, there are quasi-legal appeals for clemency – based on simply asking for pity rather than any legal argument – and foreigners are generally handled by the Legion Vigeles military courts regardless of the origin of the complaint. Fortunately for traders and merchants, the Vigeles courts are well-versed in commercial law and tend to give scant credence to complaints based on “I don’t like the competition!”. Complaints against ambassadors and such normally go straight to the upper-level imperial bureaucrats, who will usually refer anything serious to the Senate. This is rarely good news for anyone bringing a frivolous complaint.

   For example, a Guild Court may put an entrepreneur on trial for operating without a license – and, if convicted, sentence him or her to be fined, punished, or even enslaved (guild authority does not normally extend to executions, and may not extend to enslavement). However, a Robati or above may appeal to the local governor or whoever’s in charge of guilds – who may then uphold the sentence, alter it, or take the chance to restrain or punish an over-ambitious guild. A Citizen could appeal past the Governor if his or her family approved, taking the case to a relevant Senator. Given the risks of such cases, most persecutions in the empire stick with well-established precedents. After seven thousand years, the laws of the imperium are actually relatively reasonable – often harsh, unforgiving, and designed more to serve social stability than “Justice”, but reasonable. There are even some tolerably well-developed investigative procedures.

   In application, the laws and courts of the Imperium don’t recognize much in the way of exceptions. Ignorant? Drunk? Young? Stupid? That’s too bad. Being compelled by someone else isn’t an excuse either, but it is a factor in sentencing: if someone demonstratably was holding your children hostage, had you under a spell, or tricked you into doing something illegal, you’re still guilty – but you’ll probably get off with a far lesser punishment or a perhaps small fine for being stupid while the court will order the arrest and punishment of the genuinely responsible party. Children commonly get lesser punishments than adults as well – but a lot of things can be considered “crimes” for children which aren’t for adults. A child can (and usually will) be enslaved for persistent disobedience or being disruptive, an adult – or at least an adult not subject to legion discipline – will simply be banished from the relevant group.

   The Imperium holds that punishment should be as public as possible, both to shame the offender and to have the maximum possible impact on any confederates or others who might be considering similar misdeeds. Thus executions, slave-demotions and -markets, and other physical punishments are normally carried out in the city coliseums. Other punishments, such as fines, demotions, and banishments, are announced there.

   This of course, takes us to

   (5) The Games. Yes, there are games. However, the majority of events are non-lethal, ranging from things as mild as sponsored debates, music, poetry recitals, and historical tales (serving to both impress the audience with the mighty history of the Imperium and to educate the young) on through races and athletic events, and only then on up to actual punishments and bloodshed. Many youngsters appear in the coliseums several times each year to exhibit artworks, compete against other children, and generally show off. There’s something going on at the coliseums every day.

   Gladiatorial events are put on periodically, but require a good deal more finesse than they did in Rome. Atherian animals can have much more unpredictable and difficult-to-restrain abilities, and even fights between humans can be extremely hazardous to the audience when supernatural talents come into play. A highly-skilled gladiator may be a match for twenty ordinary guardsmen, while a Dernmarkian phase-cat, or Chelmian Archer Lizard may easily escape or endanger the audience. Most “gladiatorial” events in the Imperium involve free professionals giving exhibitions, and correspond more closely to boxing matches or professional wrestling events than to classical gladiatorial events – right down to the occasional nonlethal “challenges to all comers”, and even recruiting events with the more skilled legionaries showing off their training for the youngsters. There are occasional formal duels and even executions-by-combat – but such events are expensive and rare.

   Physical punishments, enslavements, slave auctions, and executions are always a show. While bidders can sometimes buy relatively minor offenders out of the executioner’s line as slaves, most of the time they are put to death in any of a wide variety of painful and creative ways – at times allowing bidders to determine how. This, along with the occasional unsavory or excessive event (such as the Linneaus Treason episode in 6540 when three families convicted of treason as a group were forced to watch their younger children being killed and eaten by animals, and then their adolescent offspring being tortured to death, before they were ritually transformed into eternally starving, tormented, undead, sealed into blocks of stone, and fitted deeply into the foundations) have given the Imperium a reputation for decadence among several of the neighboring domains. Fortunately, such events are far more the exception than the rule (both Senators involved were later executed themselves for corruption and the sentence of eternal torment was reduced to death – even if it did mean a lot of digging).

   6) The Imperium is OLD. Not just old in the “This has functioned well for a couple of centuries old”. It’s old like Agriculture, or the Domestication of Chickens. The roads, aqueducts, baths, coliseums, city walls, dams, irrigation systems, and other public works are well-established and maintained almost automatically. In fact, in most cases, they’re self-maintaining pieces of mystic architecture with secondary magical functions. The farming is well-organized, crop rotation is established, the fields are blessed and offerings are made to the fey on a regular schedule to increase the yields. The population density is high and concentrated around the cities. What wilderness areas remain are either not worth exploiting or are carefully managed, either as parks, lumber sources, or religious preserves.

   Similarly, the technology of the empire is about at its limits. There are excellent watermills, roads, aqueducts, arches, vaults, domes, and flying buttresses (allowing the Imperium to roof extensive areas even without mystic architecture), there is piping and water management, automatic floatation valves, distillation, powerful siege engines, windmills, bridges, dams, and good mining techniques. There are even basic pumps and steam engines (both curiosities rather than practical mechanisms due to the widespread use of Charms and Talismans for various jobs and to the shortage of fuel; what coal and metal exists is mostly needed for smiths and tools). Lighting is generally provided by magic, beeswax candles, and strips of pine with a minor spell on them to let them burn brightly for extended periods of time. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, “chemical” explosives will not function; due to the underlying dynamic-magical-flow physics of Atheria structural changes cannot propagate at such a rate. Magical equivalents exist, allowing the creation of items such as the Zakari Stormbow as Charms, and of versions which fire Scorching Rays as Talismans – but such devices are relatively rare. Better to learn a little magic of your own and use your charms and talismans for more practical things.

   On the subject of metal and mineral reserves, there are virtually no worthwhile mines or sources left in the Imperium – and even the better grades of stone are scarce. While trade always brings in enough currency metals to allow the mints to keep up with losses – especially given the use of Talismanic presses to turn out thin-yet-durable coins – in many places in the Imperium the easiest source for metals is the magical extraction of materials from old buildings and of lost tools from fields and the bottoms of rivers. Thus, of course, the constant temptation to invade Dernmarik, where they are somehow forever stumbling onto new mines and veins.

   While there were occasional incidents in the early Imperium of various forms of Undead attempting to hang onto seats in the Senate, or attempting to continue running businesses or families, long after their deaths, this is no longer permitted; such meddling by the dead was classified as a violation of the natural order, and banned, in 542. The occasional appearances of deceased Emperors in the Senate is still permitted – if only because they are commonly regarded as minor deities rather than spirits of the dead – but is a rarity in any case.

   The population is essentially stable: general prosperity, relatively low child mortality, easy and reliable contraceptive magic, and the tendency for excess, unsupervised, or poor children to wind up as slaves, have all combined to make having children something that Citizens do only when they’re ready – and many never are. The Robati have rather more children, but their children often wind up being sold as slaves – and slaves are relatively rarely permitted to reproduce.

   On the cultural front, the Imperium dominates much of the surrounding area.

• The various noble courts of Dernmarik sometimes rebel to follow strange fashions imported from other worlds, but they usually follow the styles, literature, and customs of the Imperium the way that a remote European barony might follow the fashions of Paris, the plays of Shakespeare, and the pronouncements of Rome. Still, the people of Dernmarik are well aware that to fall into the fascination of the Imperium is to become – like the people of the borderlands under the sway of the Imperial Legions – second-class citizens in their own homes. The Imperium is best kept at a careful arms-length.
• The Barbarians find the crowds, the wealth, the scale, and the complexity, of the Imperium both fascinating and – ultimately – incomprehensible. Perhaps sadly, since the products of the Imperium are in great demand in the Barbarian Lands, and they have little to export beyond the products of the forest and slaves, all too many Barbarians get to see the Imperium with slave collars around their necks.
• The people of Chelm have a wild rainbow of reactions to the Imperium. They envy the power of it’s charms and talismans, its wealth, and its safety. They fear its legions. They pity it’s lack of understanding of the uses of Rekorathi and it’s citizens fear of death – and are disgusted by how it fails to ease the burden of the Goddess of Blood. They have little use for most of the culture of the Imperium, although they find its fine and durable products extremely useful. They are puzzled by the hatred and fear directed towards them.
• While Kharidath is lost in its fanatical devotion to the distant past, the towns and oases near the Imperial side of the Mri Desert are firmly tied to the empire, to the point where they effectively have little or no culture of their own. They may, perhaps, have what we here in the 20’th century would describe as a faint “Arabian Nights” or “Byzantine” flavor to them, but there are few notable cultural differences other beyond a few styles and turns of phrase.

   There isn’t much easily-observable cultural feedback from the neighbors. While occasional compositions, bits of literature, original spells, and other cultural artifacts do drift back into the Imperium from the surrounding territories – especially the occasional dimensional import from Dernmarik and innovations in spices and cookery – for the most part the culture of the Imperium is twenty times older, incorporates far more people, and is immensely more stable. Other cultures tend to fit themselves around it as water flows around a rock – and with much the same result. The Imperium does change, and it does adopt new ideas, it’s just that it’s very slow to do so, and often has seen very similar ideas several times before.

Alaria and Rome, Part One

   Due to some player requests, today it’s some additional information on the Alarian Imperium. It looks like most of the action is going to be set in its vicinity for some time, so the various institutions and social factors to be found there are likely to be important. 

   While the Alarian Imperium does resemble the Roman Empire in a variety of ways, there are some fundamental differences – and those are probably the easiest place to start talking about it.

   (1) The Imperium began as a defensive alliance, organized by one (now deified) man, rather than by conquering the neighbors. Carius Antonius, with control of the magic of the realm as an unmatched resource, simply bribed everyone else in into joining – offering health, wealth, peace, security, good weather, organization, magical conveniences, and the military superiority needed to beat off attacks from the neighbors in exchange for giving up some local autonomy.

   Still, despite this relatively peaceful beginning, the people of the Imperium are human, and they do tend to assault the neighbors at times.

• The Imperium periodically seizes portions of the Barbarian Lands and usually maintains official control of a selection of roads and trading posts extending well into the territory. That’s partially for trade and defense purposes, partially because the Imperium finds the entire area impossibly disorganized, and – of course – partially for slaves and loot.
• Officially the Imperium claims several hundred miles of the Trackless Forest and Parliament of Trees. In practice, there are a farms just across the border – and farmers who either walk back and forth if their farms are nearby or visit their wives periodically – and a few lonely outposts of slaves and opportunists working as loggers, charcoal burners, turpentine makers, paper makers, and miners (where any mines have not long since been worked out) deeper in the forest. Sadly, such outposts are periodically wiped out by vicious plants and animals.
• The border with Chelm tends to be heavily guarded, but stable. It isn’t worth trying to hold Chelmian territory so – save for the occasional retaliatory raid – Chelm tends to be left alone save for the maintenance of a few roads and trade outposts which extend twenty or thirty miles past the border – and which also serve to funnel Chelmian attackers into the waiting border legions.
• The Imperium officially claims a fair chunk of the Mri Desert, but – not unexpectedly – finds little there of worth. A few small oasis-towns do claim the formal benefits (being able to get troops sent to protect them from bandits) of being a part of the Imperium, but otherwise the area is simply patrolled to keep down the bandits and raiders.
• Dernmarik (or whatever the place is calling itself these days) has been the principle focus of imperial attempts to expand for many centuries. It’s apparently perpetually-renewing mines and natural resources are a considerable temptation to a realm which has been exploiting the same mines, forests, and waters for seven thousand years. Unfortunately, while a fair chunk of the border reaches has traditionally accepted Imperial rule, attempts to push past that point keep running into great tracts of wilderness that appear and disappear – on some notorious occasions taking entire legions along – enemy reinforcements that appear from nowhere, assorted heroes, and other menaces.

   (2) There never was a “King” or a “Republic”. The position of Emperor carries a great deal of power – the Emperor controls the flow of magic throughout the land, can influence the spirits of the land, waters, and air within the domain of Order, functions as the head of the imperial religion, has limited veto powers as the First Speaker of the Senate, and invariably has major personal magical abilities – but he or she is closer to a chief executive than to an autocrat.

   (3) The Senate originally consisted of the assorted rulers of the various city-states that united under Carius – a collection of clan chiefs, plutocrats, hereditary nobles, elected rulers, powerful warriors, priests, and mages, guildmasters, and major landowners – all entitled “Sethari”, and mostly holding their offices for life or until they opt to retire. Carius later added “Magistrates” from a variety of popular Assemblys; basically directly-elected representatives of the population. Today, the Senate includes:

   The Sethari…

• The Heads of the 43 great Gens (Clans) and their assistants. These are, of course, selected, and sometimes replaced by, the Gens according to their own traditions. The Gens were originally mostly regional, and usually still dominate a few of their original regions, but the members of the various Gens are scattered across the empire now.
• A few of the wealthiest men in the Empire. Some senate seats are reserved for men of wealth – and it is possible for citizens to simply purchase a Senate seat from the Imperium. The seats reserved for the wealthiest men of the Imperium change with their fortunes, purchased seats are good for the life of the buyer.
• A modest selection of Hereditary Sethari– the heirs of major nobles, ancient dictators, and similar figures from the time of Carius. In many cases these seats are now their holders sole remaining claim to power or influence.
• The Silent Seatsare reserved for the heads of lost Gen, the heirs of lost noble bloodlines, and similar groups. They are normally unoccupied although, on rare occasions, the imperium-born child of an ambassador with the appropriate ancient connections has been allowed to occupy them. In theory, any deceased emperor may opt to occupy one of the Silent Seats at will, in practice this very rarely happens.
• A selection of the major landowners. Unfortunately, while possessions outside of Alaria do count, their “value” is accounted to be only 10% of the worth of a similar property within the Imperium.
• A selection of the most powerful mages and adventurers of the Imperium. Like the seats of the plutocrats and major landowners, the seats occupied by those with major personal powers are subject to change with the fortunes of their holders. Unlike the plutocrats and major landowners, this is relatively rare. Displacing someone who currently holds one of these seats is quite a project.
• The Hierarchs of the major Priestly Orders (Including the speakers for the Fey and Gods). Some of these are elected by the priesthoods, some are chosen by the entities they serve, and some are simply the senior or highest-ranking priests of a particular order.

   …and The Magistrates:

• The Representatives of the Outlying Provinces (If any): These may be elected if the area in question is sufficiently well organized, otherwise they are appointed from among likely prospects or Imperial Inspectors. Areas outside the order domain are normally unrepresented otherwise.
• The Representatives of the Major Guilds, and the Assembleys (and any other recognized major political groupings). There are currently 62 recognized political groups, including particular areas, interests, and other citizen groups.
• The Imperators who represent the Legions. Oddly enough, the Imperators are chosen by a direct vote of the legionnaires; they may or may not actually hold military rank.

   The senate controls taxation and the treasury, appoints ambassadors and legion commanders, regulates admission to itself (thus regulating the number of Magistrates and the official recognition of various groups), (very very rarely) grants full citizenship to someone without the full Order birthright, declares offensive wars (the Emperor or the Legion Commanders may declare defensive campaigns), and legislates. Unsurprisingly, quite a few functions are handled by committees and appointed officers.

   Each member of the Senate is permitted a modest number of personal bodyguards, enjoys immunity to a wide variety of taxes, obligations, and charges, draws a substantial salary, and can channel the magic of Order to large numbers of outsiders – including those who possess other birthrights, a privilege which extends to the immediate subordinates of the Senate (the Family Councils below the heads of the Gen, the Legion Commanders and appointed Generals, and to the Governors of cities and provinces).

   (4) The Legal System is a maze. Rather than being imposed from above based on the laws of a relatively small city, it’s been assembled from the laws of a hundred smaller domains and has been complicated by seven thousand years of precedents, rules, decisions, and regulations.

   In general, groups and areas tend to be responsible for their internal affairs within the larger framework of Imperial Law – which tends to concern itself with (1) trade, (2) major crimes, and (3) the organization of the Imperium. The Legions deal with military offenses, the priests deal with religious offenses, the rulers of cities with civic matters, and so on. There is an appeals system, but the number of available appeals is based on citizenship status.

• The Sethari are the highest social stratum of the empire. Originally limited to sitting Senators, the Emperor, and his Family, the Sethari has expanded to include the immediate families of all sitting Senators and major officials appointed by the Senate, such as Governors and Legion Commanders. In theory, everyone of the Sethari rank is equal. In practice, the Emperor overshadows everyone, the status of Senators and the (slightly lesser) status of their Families varies with how secure their seat is, and the status of elected members, such as the Magistrates, takes an automatic hit. Membership in the Sethari requires an innate Order Birthright and carries the right to act as a Judge in cases falling under your jurisdiction, the right to appeal to the Emperor if accused of some crime against the empire, the authority to call on the services of various officials and the legions, immunity to a variety of taxes or being drafted into imperial service (even in emergencies), and immunity to a wide variety of local laws and regulations. Still, there are only a few thousand Sethari out of the nearly 24,000,000 in the Imperium as a whole – a negligible percentage for all their influence.
• Citizens must have either a full Order Birthright OR a special vote of recognition from the Senate OR 30 years of loyal service in the Imperial Legions. Only Citizens and Sethari can be voted into Magisterial positions, manage businesses or own lands across more than one province, be placed in command of Imperial Legions, appeal legal decisions which go against them to their Senator, petition to form a new Assembly, have recognized marriage rights (marriages with the lower classes offer few rights), or study at the Imperial Academies (non-citizens may teach or serve there, depending on their special talents). They are exempt from forced service except during major emergencies, may freely sign up with the Imperial Legions, may make at least two appeals in legal cases – one on their own behalf and one if their Family thinks it worth it – and pay considerably less in the way of taxes and fees than the lower classes. In general, the offspring of Junior Sethari, Citizens, and Robati are automatically Citizens as long as they possess the Order Birthright an manage not to get into trouble (usually about 20%) or be sold as children (many are, especially among the Robati). Offspring with non-order Birthrights are Robati. In theory all Citizens are equal. In practice, they tend to be divided up by their level of wealth and influence. About 20% of the people of the Imperium are Citizens.
• Robati are probationary citizens, and aren’t as limited a group as the Sethari and the Citizens. They include individuals with non-order birthrights and imperial patrons (such as most of the residents of the Imperium-dominated and -run borders with the Dimensional Magic domain), the recognized offspring of Slaves by Citizens (provided that they have Order Birthrights), freed slaves with Order Birthrights, and freed slaves with other Birthrights and Imperial Patrons. Robati may freely sign up for the Imperial Legions or enter Imperial Service, may appeal a legal decision which goes against them once, and may own lands or run businesses which extend across multiple cities within a province. About 35% of the people in the Imperium are Robati, mostly due to Citizens fooling about with Slaves and the border provinces.
• Bondsmen include two basic groups – visiting aliens (including merchants and ambassadors from other realms) who are permitted into the Imperium under Bond for good behavior, residents with non-order Birthrights and no Patrons (such immigrants are generally hoping that their offspring will enter the Citizen class), those who’s births or positions are uncertain, and freed Slaves with no Patrons. Socially, they’re all in a similar position – under suspicion on general principles. Those who take up permanent residence in the Imperium are normally placed under the supervision of one of the Legions. Visitors are normally monitored by the bureaucracy and by the Legions (if necessary). In general, Bondsmen are relatively rare, making up only about 5% of the people of the Imperium – many of those make up the underclasses of the major cities or the unreported offspring of slaves and Robati from near the borders who – technically – should be slaves, and would be if they officially existed. Robati CAN sign up with the Imperial Legions given the permission of the local Legion Commander. They may also own lands, properties, and businesses, but only within the bounds of a single city or district.
• Slaves make up about 40% of the population of the Imperium. They’re property, like any other piece of livestock. There are some laws against excessive cruelty, and against separating mothers from young children, and similar restrictions, although most of them (save for the general restrictions on selling slaves to Chelm) are simply adopted from restrictions the Fey imposed on the treatment of ordinary domestic animals. The Imperium has had quite a few slave uprisings, but generally has crushed (and severely punished) them with ease. Their masters ability to cut off the flow of order magic to them means that the Imperial side is invariably far better equipped, organized, and powerful – especially since slaves usually aren’t given advanced combat or magical training. Common sources for Slaves include the offspring of Slaves, kids who are sold as slaves by their parents or guardians (it is generally prohibited for a Citizen to sell his or her offspring into slavery unless they get the permission of a family head, but Robati and Bondsmen may usually do so freely), of Slaves and Robati, or of Slaves and Citizen or Sethari parents who don’t acknowledge their offspring (fathers often don’t, mothers almost always do), Dernmarik, the Barbarian Lands, petty criminals, and any children of citizens (or even Sethari) who prove overly disruptive. Slavery isn’t necessarily all that bad; most slaves can afford to use a charm or two of their own, live reasonably comfortably, accumulate funds and even own other slaves (although not land), and may even be able to buy themselves free given time. Slavery in the Empire is often more comfortable, and almost invariably more secure, than freedom outside it Individuals past early childhood who are demoted into slavery within the Empire are traditionally brutalized during the process (used as concubines and/or castrated if male, simply to drive it home that their bodies no longer belong to them), but Order-augmented charms can readily repair such injuries if their masters permit them to use them.

   Chelmians are not normally welcome in the Imperium, even as slaves.

Anime World Laws and the Anime Template

   The Anime Realms cover an immense stretch of territory – ranging from (reasonably) realistic historical realms on through the wildest reaches of fantasy and futuristic fantasy – but there are enough stylistic elements to unite the entire realm. In Eclipse: The Codex Persona (available as a free download HERE), just as in the Manifold setting, that usually means that there are a set of World Laws in operation.

   And here they are:

Anime World Laws

1. Characters may take a move action using Jump, Acrobatics, or a similar physical skill once per round as a free action. If necessary, such skills may be combined with Tumble to avoid Attacks of Opportunity that would otherwise result from such movement.
2. Minor details – hair and eye color, costumes, and similar items – are freely variable. As such, any attempts at disguise (no matter how thin) receive a +10 bonus and clothing, makeup, and hair can be damaged only by deliberate attacks on it.
3. Characters may conceal their weapons about their persons from anything short of a full strip search, no matter how impracticable this appears, as long as they have any clothing left at all. Similarly, they never run out of ammunition and automatically gain the Anime Master feat, allowing them to wield weapons of one size category larger than normal.
4. Everyone has +10 points of energy resistance to all forms of energy, although they will still be temporarily blackened, iced over, or electrically charged by appropriate energy attacks. This lets them wear their usual outfits regardless of how inappropriate they are for the local weather and makes blades and projectiles the most effective known weapons.
5. Characters may use personal dexterity-based rolls, such as Acrobatics, Tumbling, Jumping, and Reflex Saves, on behalf of their vehicles.

   Now that we’ve dealt with the Mechanics, there are two Stylistic Laws of Anime as well:

• Everything glows and/or explodes noisily, whether or not this is possible. Thus fatal wounds tend to glow, weapons charge up with energy and glow, massive explosions are heard in space, characters channeling energy glow, and stricken opponents blow up or disappear in a burst of light.
• While other anime conventions include children often being much smarter than adults, extremely rapid healing, bandages counting as temporary hit points, death being either extremely fast or extremely drawn out (and filled with flashbacks and insights), and a certain flexibility about time, these are not particularly universal – and so such abilities must be purchased by the individual characters who wish to have them. 

The d20 Anime Template:

   Now, if we’re hauling Anime Characters out of their universes and want to keep those abilities, we’re going to want an Anime Template to apply. Ideally, to keep it at a nice, consistent, +1 ECL it should have a total value of 31 CP. So lets see what we can get.

• Opportunist: May take a Move Action using Acrobatics, Jump, or Tumble once per round as a Free Action. This may be combined with Tumble to avoid Attacks of Opportunity (6 CP).
• Anime Master: May use weapons one size category larger than usual (6 CP).
• Innate Enchantment (6000 GP Value / 7 CP. All effects use-activated unlimited use at caster level one, personal only): Void Sheathe (Conceals Weapons, 700 GP), Mending (Fixes Hair, Clothing, Etc, 700 GP), Disguise Self (+10 bonus only, 1400 GP), Resist Energy (1400 GP), Fast Healing I (up to a limit of 20/level/day, 1400), and Prestidigitation (only provides glowing special effects, half cost, 350 GP).
• Opportunist: The characters may make personal dexterity-based rolls, such as Acrobatics, Tumbling, Jumping, and Reflex Saves, on behalf of any vehicle he or she is piloting (6 CP).

Anime Identities:

   Now, for some Anime-World Identities. Interestingly, while most Identities are limited to a single world, or to a very limited group of closely-related worlds, Anime Identities tend to apply throughout the entire Anime Multiverse.

   Lingering Smoke tends to take on the role of Fire-On-The-Mountain, a young mystical monk of vaguely taoist persuasion, a tendency to “go with the flow” by meddling as whim takes him, and tremendous martial art skills. Fortunately, Fire-On-The-Mountains ability to induce a loss of recent memories with a focused nerve strike allows him to keep his reputation from spreading. As a level four identity, Fire-On-The-Mountain gains an extra 32 CP worth of abilities:

• Enhanced Martial Arts: 1d20 base unarmed damage (increased from 1d12, 6 CP)
• Double Damage vrs Inanimate Objects and Generic Thugs (6 CP)
• Enhanced Strike/Focused (for a total of 2d20 +2d6 Force +10, 6 CP)
• Enhanced Strike/ Hammer (Inflict maximum damage at +5 to hit with a single blow, 6 CP)
• Trick/Amnesia Strike (Victims lose all memories of the last few hours, 6 CP)
• +2 bonus to Jump (2 CP).

   As a Sidereal Exalted, Lingering Smoke has considerable experience with slipping into Identities – but has been taken somewhat aback by the Manifold’s tendency to simply drop you into them willy-nilly. Still, at least Fire-On-The-Mountain isn’t that far from his usual reality.

.

   Marty tends to fall into the role of Genin Tabard – a slightly “ninjafied” version of his usual Battling Businessman persona, with a darker-colored suit, slightly enhanced reflexes, and more skill in parrying attacks. As Genin Tabard he has a somewhat more ruthless streak than Marty, and is even more fixated on “contracts” – offers of which he seems to attract. As a level four identity, Genin Tabard provides 32 CP worth of abilities:

• Reflex Training/Combat Reflexes Variant (+4 Attacks of Opportunity, 6 CP).
• Improved Melee Block (DC 15 Reflex Save to block up to 60 points of damage. Unfortunately, this uses up an attack of opportunity. 12 CP).
• Augmented Attack/+2d6 Sneak Attack (6 CP).
• Innate Enchantment/7000 GP Value: All effects use-activated unlimited use at caster level one, personal only. +10 to Jump (1400 GP), +4 Shield bonus to AC (2000 GP), +6 Competence Bonus to all Dexterity-Related Checks (1400 GP), Scalywrath (may take lizard-man form, gaining +5 natural armor, 1d4 natural weapons, and a +4 bonus on Balance, Jump, and Swim checks, 1400 GP), and Message (700 GP). 8 CP).

   Marty is beginning to get used to the Manifold, and to the ability to adopt particular identities in it – however he still tends to default to various versions of his basic identity. While that somewhat limits the variety of abilities he gets to play with, it does have the virtue of keeping things familiar for him.

.

   Kevin falls into the role of Arken of the Sands – an incredibly agile young mercenary swordsman with dark mystic powers which he usually winds up winds up wielding against far greater darknesses. Unfortunately, he tends to feel that if people don’t have either (a) the ability to protect themselves or (b) the resources to pay for such protection, then they’re obviously (c) – the property of whoever rescues them. He has no compunctions about saving a bunch of kids from demons, only to turn around and either ransom them to their parents or sell them on the local slave market. They’re better off aren’t they? Doesn’t that make him a good guy?

   As a level six identity, Arken provides 48 CP worth of abilities:

• +6 Warcraft/BAB (specialized in Swords, 18 CP).
• Improved Melee Block (may block up to 60 points of damage from an attack with a DC 15 melee save. This uses up an attack of opportunity, 12 CP)
• Opportunist/can reflexively throw a transmutation spell on anyone in the immediate vicinity who’s just gone unconscious (6 CP). Arken usually throws a protective, or move-to-safety spell on allies or people they’re rescuing, and a stabilize-bind-and-ready-for-sale effect on enemies.
• May do Stun Damage with Blades without penalty (add Strike to the Blade Expert martial art, 2 CP)
• Add Vanishing to his Lightning Fist Martial Art (2 CP).
• Innate Enchantment (5000 GP, 6 CP): +2 Resistance Bonus on Saves (1400 GP), +10 to Jump (1400 GP), and a +4 Shield bonus to AC (2000 GP).
• Contacts: A local dealer in “dark” magical merchandise and a slave trader (2 CP).

   As an experienced wanderer of the Manifold, Kevin is mildly annoyed at just how strong the drag of the anime conventions are. There are a number of other identities he could try to slip into, and he could probably change things given enough time and effort – but every time he turns around in an anime universe he gets shunted back into being Arken. Not that it isn’t FUN to be Arken sometimes, but it’s a bit blatant.

Secrets of the Elders

   Have you ever noticed that, in Legend of the Five Rings, aging has no effect – and there is no requirement that a character ever actually die?

   OK, there aren’t any rules for children either – but apparently people remain hale and hearty (at least to judge by their undiminished Rings and Skills) until, it is vaguely assumed, they abruptly fall over dead at some undefined time. Obviously, aging must be voluntary – and if its voluntary, why do so many people do it? What secret techniques do the elderly gain?

   At last, the Secrets of the Elders can be revealed! Read now, and glory in, the secret knowledge of the “Courtier” SCHOOL OF SENILITY.

• Trait Bonus: +1 Void
• School Skills: Calligraphy, Ceremony, Courtier, Defense, Etiquette, Meditation, Storytelling, and Theology. Free choice of any two Lore skills and any two other skills.
• Special: Any character may start taking ranks in the School of Senility at any time after reaching 40 without explanation. At 60 they may start trading in ranks in old schools for ranks in the School of Senility.

First Technique: Retiree

• Hard of Hearing: The elder may ignore the effects of any social skill check by simply invoking the mystic mantra “Eh? What was that you said? (random sentence with a word or two which vaguely sounds like what was said)” or some variation thereof (Immunity/Social Effects, 10 Points).
• Nearly Blind: You don’t have to see anything that you don’t want to, and thus lose no honor for “overlooking” any misbehavior or situation (Immunity/Honor Losses for overlooking things. 5 Points).
• Querulous Demand: You may select a skill for which you may obtain Favors. (5 Points)

Second Technique: Respected Grandparent

• You Don’t Get To Be My Age Without Becoming Very Good At Not Dying. You may increase the TN for all attacks or spells used against you by (Void x 5) at the cost of accepting a similar penalty to all other rolls except Defense. (15, -5/Limited Activities, net 10 Points).
• Rambling Digression Prana: You may make a contested Void check against up to three targets in the immediate area. If you win, they are trapped listening to you tell some long and incoherent story of your childhood, looking at pictures of your grandchildren, or some similar digression, and may not move, attack, or take other actions unless violently disturbed for one minute, plus one minute per rank by which the user’s void exceeds theirs. While this occupies the user as well, he or she may continue to invoke the Rambling Digression Prana against any new targets who make the error of getting too close. Fortunately, an individual target may only be so pinned down once per hour by any single user (Contested Void Paralysis 10, -5 for occupying the user, +5 for extended duration. Net 10 points).

Third Technique: Doddering Old Fool

• There’s No Cure For Old Age: The effects of this schools techniques cannot be negated, blocked, or otherwise taken away (5 Points).
• Doddering Elder Technique: Anyone who attempts to attack you, or who lays violent hands upon you, loses honor points equal to your rank in addition to any other honor losses they would normally take for such an action (5 Points).
• Senile Dementia: You may ramble on incoherently, saying anything you please to anyone you please, and no one will take offense. In addition, you lose no Honor for anything you say (Immunity/Giving Offense, 10 Points, plus Immunity/Honor loss for saying things, 5 Points. Unfortunately, due to your general incoherence, no one will take anything you say too seriously, -5 points. Net 10 points)

Fourth Technique: Withered Geezer

• Moment of Clarity: Experience counts for something you young whippersnapper! During those rare moments when you focus on something properly, you may demonstrate all your old skill and insight. Gain a daily pool of (2x Void) Free Raises which may be used on any desired roll – but they must all be used on a single roll and you will lapse back into senility – unable to take any non-defensive actions on your own – for at least a minute (in combat) or an hour (out of combat) after completing the task in question. (15 Points – 5 Points – 5 Points, taken twice = 10 Points)
• Imperious Demand: Your dementia now lets you see beyond the usual boundaries; you may select an additional four skills with which you can request Favors. Unfortunately, you must spend a Void point to invoke this privilege (10 Points, -5 for Void requirement, net 5 Points).
• Practiced Reflexes: You have trained so long that your Kata have become ingrained: you may keep one of them active at all times, spending either the usual practice time or a void point to switch (5 Points).

Fifth Technique: Wizened Ancient

• Obvious Harmlessness: So long as you carry no weapon and make no threatening moves, you are so obviously harmless that no one will pay attention to you, allowing you to pass where you will. At most, guards will gently steer you away from the most secure locations or keep your hands away from the most dangerous or important items. Sadly, you must either spend a Void point or spend at least fifteen minutes talking to yourself to activate this technique. In other ways it is generally similar to the Steal the Air Dragon Kiho (10 Points).
• Blessings of the Patriarch / Matriarch: You have hordes of descendants, relatives, and connections through them. You may make a TN 20 Void check to call on a “floating” 2-point human ally once per session (10 Points).

   OK, so this is a bit tongue in cheek and stretches the rules a bit here and there – but no more than most schools. I can see some circumstances under which someone might actually want to start taking ranks in it. In heavily social games, it might even be seriously overpowered. It doesn’t have any real offensive potential, but it will let you get away with all kinds of things.

Federation-Apocalypse Campaign: Things To Do

   To help everyone keep track of what’s going on, here’s a list of the current projects in the Federation-Apocalypse Campaign. Hopefully we can get some of them checked off before we add too many more. If there’s anything I’ve left out, or your pet project isn’t on the personal project list, let me know and I’ll put it in.

   To Do Regularly: Check up on whether or not the groups magic weapons work locally, do a situation update with the House of Roses, do a situation update with Mr Leland, recruit new Thralls (both personally and via the Thralls themselves looking for new recruits), and monitor what the Thralls have found out (after all, there are currently Thralls working in quite a few places throughout the Core and the Manifold, and for many of the major factions).

   Ongoing Projects include their attempts to:

• Gather information on, and attempt to keep an eye on, the Neanderthals, Merlin, Arthur, Arthur II and his Arrancar, the MIB and American Shadow Government, ATE, Spellweaver and the young Praetorian Wingate Girl, Arxus (who probably needs locating and rescuing), Vekxin (who seems to need locating and stopping), John Jack (who probably needs stopping), Dr Vu, Ryan, “M” and the House of Roses, the Hellstorm, the Singularites, Shayn, Darth Plageous, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Ourathan Robots, the Singular Robots, and the various other factions.
• Get more information on and/or experiment with past life regression, the Silmarils, the power armor goons, contagious memes, the “disease and disaster” realms, the omnipresent Orcish and Italian Restaurants, the quasi-praetorian bodyguards, and that weird Kobold and Minotaur from the Underdark.
• Visit: Rifts, Exalted, Anime Worlds, the World of Darkness, Faerie, a Zombie World, Pirates of the Carribean, a historical Robber-Baron world, Classic Star Wars, and – possibly – Benedict’s world and Greenweld again.
• Minor things to do or keep an eye out for: odd gatherings of magical power for local uses, locate the kids from Core and Hogwarts in the Underdark, gather information on Spellweaver and the young Wingate Praetorian, pick up the Ebon Hawk, go through the Sith and Jedi Lore from the Tomb Archive system, deal with the Priestesses of Lloth, check on Hutchins, find out about the House of Roses backup team, and make SURE that the Russian AI in Singular was really destroyed.

Personal Projects include:

• Kevin: Visit the various worlds he has Identities in (Dragonworlds, Rome, English Fantasy Zone / Hogwarts, Etc), since all of his identities have things to look after. Pick up an abandoned Core colony world as a personal base. Change some core earth laws about slavery – or at least tweak their interpretation. Recruit at Hogwarts (especially the next Slytherin class), place some Thralls with McAndrew, deal with any investigating parents of Thralls, and get his Thrall-contracts past Queen Elizabeth.
• Marty: Expand his business branches (Core New York City, Baelaria, Forgotten Realms, Etc), bring in additional staff from Battling Business World, and kick his bosses butt without serious retribution.
• Jarvian: Find mechs and pilots for an attempt to defeat the clans and take over a house, acquire at least a limited version of the praetorian technology, upgrade the Battletech realm’s battlemech technology to something reasonable, get into mecha manufacturing, fight some major battles, and spend more time in the Battletech universe.
• Smoke: Smoke wants to locate his home universe, but has otherwise been pretty quiet about his personal goals and motives, at least so far.
• Raphial: Analyze and generalize the Singular praetorian and nanite technologies and develop versions of those and his other devices which merge magic and technology so that they will work across the entire Manifold – or at least the vast majority of it. He also wants to expand and aid the New Imperium, to make sure that his employers recieve full value for the resources they are providing (a matter of integrity), and to both develop, and receive proper recognition for, his impressive technological skills.

Federation Apocalypse Session 27 Log: Fire Rhapsody

   Unsurprisingly, an open block victory party with free food and drink (even if nothing stronger than small beer) in a city that had been under siege and short of food got rather large. Kevin and the Thralls did a lot of recruiting, as well as crowd-control and food-providing. It went pretty well once word got around that they’d been the ones who took out the Minister; Kevin got 38 new Thralls and Marty got lots of local employees.

   It looked like it really was a victory party: there were still a few mages holding out here and there in the remnants of their strongholds – and one spot that might have been a secret base, since it didn’t line up with any known stronghold – but they didn’t seem to be anything the locals couldn’t handle. After all, the mages major power sources – the secondary wells and the Sunwell – had been pretty throughly drained for the next month or two.

   The reports on the ministry’s records and “Experiments” weren’t as good. The records almost all involved purely local concerns, there were only about a dozen people who’d been caught and not yet experimented on, and the experiments mostly fell into three groups:

• Roughly 30% were severely mentally or physically crippled, some fixably, some not. Kevin had the golems offer enthrallment to the few youngsters in that group who could comprehend the choice (that would fix anything for those who were eligible) – but most of them refused: they’d had enough magical tinkering.
• Nearly 60% were simply gone: body still functioning, but soul long departed. Nothing to do there but turn off what was left.
• About 10% were having issues controlling their power, but their training (or execution) could probably be handled locally.

   The military was mopping up the constructs and monstrosities – and there didn’t seem to be any big reserve of souls hidden away: some had returned to their bodies, some seemed to have passed on, some had apparently been poked at magically until they’d “dissipated” (Kevin was pretty sure that “dissipated” meant “given up and gone elsewhere”; not even the greatest powers of the abyss could actually destroy a soul or hold one which had truly given up on a particular incarnation), and others had been handed over to Merlin. The mages had been experimenting with soul-magic – trying to create Arrancar (with little success), watching the effects of psychic energy sources and sinks created by souls and the remnants left behind when souls were stolen, trying to artificially modify souls, and trying to reverse-engineer souls in an attempt to create more.

   Now that was just sick and stupid.

   So: they’d been working with too-friendly weird extradimensional mages of unknown motives, creating huge magical power pools, tampering with souls, creating uncontrolled, ever-growing, magical and psychic nexi, trying to take over running the world, making golem armies, creating hordes of poorly-controlled and ever-growing monstrosities – was there any invariably-disastrous magical experiment or project in the universe which these people had NOT been trying? While they hadn’t INTENTIONALLY been experimenting with lowering the base energy level of the realm to another stabilization point draining the base energy level into artificial nexi could have easily had the same effect; magic wasn’t necessarily governed by entropy.

   That pretty much confirmed guidance from a malevolent outside force anyway, there was just no way that they could stumble on THAT many suicidal experimental paths all at once by themselves.

   Chief Battlemage Kelsier from the Southern Defense Force showed up about them; he was looking for Jarvian’s companions.

   He got a sandwich and – since the military was fairly in the dark about what had been going on – a rather lengthy explanation (clearly divided into known facts, probable facts, strong and weak theories, inferences, and speculations thanks to Kevin’s core education), the information that the group hadn’t approved and had decided to intervene, and a reference to the House of Roses – who had asked them to look into what was going on in Baelaria because their information said the Mages Guild was dabbling in some very nasty stuff. The group also recommended that the military talk with the local underworld: they seemed to be about the most functional government currently available.

   Kelsier didn’t like his world being used (or having to be bailed out by outsiders) – but offered his thanks on behalf of the Republic of Baeleria. He also felt that it might be a good idea to get the diplomats in touch with the House and provided some rings which would mark the group as Allies of the Baelarian Military.

   A mob representative turned up about then: the group confirmed that they’d accounted for all but one mage, who’d appeared to be an operative for Merlin, and gave him the lengthy explanation. He noted that Taraq felt that he owed them a major favor and headed off to talk to Kelsier. Kevin assigned them each a Thrall to help with the communications and manifold transport. To keep things peaceful, he also left one with the Alchemists, one with the Independent Mages, and one with the Government.

   Meanwhile, Marty spent some time checking the potential markets, organizing his new local employees, and checking on the import/export business they’d been setting up with Faerun. It seemed that the Thralls on that route were having issues with opening the route through the realm of Castle, and needed more weaponry – preferably firearms. There was a giant hive mind which called itself the ruler of the entire realm, was blocking the path, and wanted to eat them – but technological weapons had proven effective and gunpowder explosions seemed to disrupt the local magic for some reason.

   Well, basic firearms were easy enough to come by; a modest shipment should cover that handily.

   Back on Earth, the Thrall Kevin had left with the House of Roses for communications, testing, and evaluation was being treated quite decently; M had been supervising things personally. The House had been giving him performance tests and putting him through a few simulation trials, and he’d been performing admirably. The House would definitely like Kevin to send along a few more.

   That was a pretty good sign of approval. Kevin’s impression of the House wasn’t nearly hypocritical enough for them to be saying “these children have been horribly damned already so we might as well use them and employ the demon who’s doing it to get more into that situation as long as WE’RE not responsible”.

   Lets see… He’d just gotten 38 Thralls. Assign 5 to the local power-groups, 3 to open an office in Londinium, 4 to open and staff offices in Core Earth London, 4 to Jarvian, 4 to the House of Roses, 4 to McAndrew, 2 to the Singularites, Marty needed 2 to run offices in Waterdeep at the other end of the trade route, so that left 10.

   They opted not to try and send any more to the Commonwealth. Merlin seemed to already know more about both the party and the Thralls than Kevin would like. (A thin excuse since he was planning to go semi-public with the details and his sales pitch soon, but Kevin didn’t want the Thralls being at risk of worse than death if he could avoid it). The one thrall already working there was probably safe enough as long as he stuck to the entry-level stuff and didn’t attract attention. After all, at worst, they’d probably just filter his information and assignments even if they spotted him as a spy: the thralls were too useful to simply discard.

   They decided to wait on assigning a few to Anakin Skywalker too, at least until they actually met the man. He might take it wrong and he was against slavery anyway.

   The remaining 10 could wait for long-term assignments. Kevin had some errands for them to run anyway.

   The House would be digesting information from Baelaria for a bit. Marty sent a report to Mr Leland – and Kevin sent the Thralls out looking for gates. He’d spent ENOUGH mana for a while on Baelaria already – and it was SO conspicuous. Now, if they could find a gate to Solaris or any of the battletech worlds (How big could the place be anyway?) They could easily hit Core Earth – and from there he could hit the Dragonworlds, the Roman Imperium, and check on the situation in the Underdark.

   Londinium had four gates. Baelaria was a bloody SWISS CHEESE. One in a poor district that probably led to another Victorian or “Gilded Age” realm, one to a battle realm, the one in the guild headquarters to Singular, and one deep underground which could lead damn near anywhere. Practically everyplace had underground areas. Marty was curious, so they took the Londinium Underground.

   It did indeed go lots of places. It was a doorway into a gate network. Baelaria was labeled “Firesong” in Thai, the others were labeled in various languages. They took one labeled “Future Samurai” in French – passing up “Five Worlds”, written in English, “Ring War”, written in Tolkein Elven, and “We Made It”, written in Kzinti. The group – including The Mirage – voted for “Future Samurai”

   It turned out to be a french dub of “Samurai Jack”. It opened into a bar filled with shady looking aliens/robots/mutants and other horrors beyond comprehension. They all turned to look – and them went back to what they were doing.

   Kevin did a little linguistic transmutation. Marty ordered a vodka martini, Jarvian ordered wings, the Mirage ordered liquid helium III (but had to settle for heavy water), and Kevin and the Thralls ordered sodas, burgers, and fries. Checking the databases, it looked like the local things to do were cause trouble for Aku, help him out, hunt for Samurai Jack, get involved in some random heroics, or learn to “jump good”(?). Marty flipped a coin and voted for causing trouble for Aku – at about which point a large body came looming up behind Kevin:

   “You got a lot of nerve ordering a burger around here boy!”

   Kevin didn’t even bother to look around… “Why? Did you sell your kids for meat? I could understand that if they took after you of course”

   “Very funny! I don’t like it when your kind eats beef thinking you’re better than us Minotaurs. I makes me want to put you puny monkeys in your place.”

   It was a herd of five minotaurs, apparently equipped with switchblade battleaxes.

   Marty noted that “Hey, I’m not a monkey. I just act like one when I’m drunk. At least that’s what my ex-wife says.” – and chugged down his martini before the inevitable bar brawl began.

   Kevin asked if they had families. They apparently had entire herds of cows and kids. Good. If they were going to interrupt his lunch, they’d best have enough assets to pay for it.

   Marty wanted some steak, Kevin voted to establish “Cruelty to Minotaurs day”, Jarvian made remarks about Oxen, and even the Mirage wanted in: it had never gotten to beat up a futuristic mythological greek monster before.

   There was leaping, acrobatics, mighty swordblows, weapons fire, and many explosions. The Minotaurs exploded (like the CHAIRS?!?) when mortally wounded. Apparently they chewed “Nitrocud” because it gave them strength and power.

   OK, NOW Kevin felt superior. How could they possibly be that dumb? Injuries could be treated, exploding was kind of permanent! He voted that they find the herds and round them up for sale; if the adults were this dumb, the kids ought to class as livestock (Marty made some remarks about Veal).

   They left the battle in full swing – and Jarvian and the Mirage enjoying themselves vastly – and went to look up the herd. The barman had said they kept them in the stables just outside of town.

   Meanwhile some of Kevin’s new Thralls were running errands. There were several abandoned and out-of-contact worlds they could easily reach; one where the supernova shockwave was coming in three months, one where the colony had been abandoned, and a third that had been about to be overrun by the Ouratha. A couple of them – one pretending to be a canine-derived creature – used the one with the upcoming supernova shockwave to test the computers definitions of “human” and “property”.

   It looked like – as long as it accepted being property and was apparently animal-derived – the system simply treated it as an animal. The computers didn’t even consider obedience programming, near-human anthro forms, OR shapeshifting, but balked when confronted with full physical human form. That was weird: the uplifted species had a fair set of rights, obedience-programming (if not shapeshifting) had been around for quite a while – and nearly 25% of the population had at least minor anthro characteristics due to genegrafting. The computers couldn’t possibly be this dumb… Wait: this meant that the system had to be deferring to humans somehow – a survey or a committee or something – when judging complex social interactions. Since there was no one here to check with they were getting default – stupid – responses. Still, as long as they didn’t protest, it looked like animal-derived Anthros were simply property. Kevin could simply put Thralls into anthro forms and block shifts to full-human if he needed some property in core.

   Kevin had both of the Thralls who’d been testing head over to the Roman Imperium for a pleasure-vacation after he got their report. After all, the one had had to put up with being treated like a dog for a couple of weeks of testing.

   Checking the acceptability of his contract and sales spiel was easier: all it took was having a thrall “drop by” and ask about this offer he’d found “out in the manifold”.

   The computers apparently found the contract quite legal and acceptable – in fact, apparently very very good as far as such things went – although it did need valid consent: BOTH the computers AND their parents in agreement for small children, adolescents if both they and EITHER their parents or the computers approved, and adults (if Kevin was recruiting any) without anyone else’s approval.

   Interestingly, the computers didn’t have any major objections other than advising the boy to make very sure that this wasn’t a demon tricking him, and giving him a long lecture on how this kind of contract could affect him for many years to come, and how it wasn’t always best to make major life decisions at a young age.

   That wasn’t bad – although what Kevin really wanted was for the computers to evaluate it, find it to be a genuinely good deal – hopefully the best that was at all readily available – and start recommending it (preferably for everyone, but at least for kids who were in danger otherwise or who wanted to go adventuring in the manifold). That was why he was doing his best to make the package as good as it could possibly be, stressed the “resurrection insurance” part, and was taking a rather low price: he was after volume and repeat business with future generations.

   Still, it looked like the only ways to get around the “demon” warnings would either be to wait while the computers accumulated data or to convincing some of the major core organizations that the computers relied on for judgement calls that he wasn’t malevolent so that they’d vouch for him. Back to convincing people – and to distributing thralls to organizations.

The Order of Arelm

   First up for today, it’s another bit of background for the Atheria campign: The Order of Arelm, a group that takes care of those children who are, for one reason or another, born with a Chelmian Birthright of Blood or Shadow Magic rather than the Imperial Birthright of Order Magic. Since the player characters are currently working on and around the border, and have a soft spot for kids, they may be bumping into the Order on and off.

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   The Order of Arelm was established during the reign of Carius Augustus, the first Emperor of Alaria – although it has been reorganized several times since then and there has never been a lot of agreement on its methodology.

   The problem confronting Augustus was simple: there were children with Chelmian birthrights who still had some claim on the Imperium. Some were fathered by legionaries, some were the offspring of kidnaped and rescued women, and others the children of citizens who were in Chelm at the moment of birth – whether due to accident, out of ignorance of the boundaries, or because the domain borders of Chelm had shifted shortly before their child was born. That happened, and happens, occasionally; the domain border with Chelm was, and is, wildly unstable compared to most domain borders. It can fluctuate by up to a dozen miles for hours or days at a time. That’s pretty rare, but it happens in limited areas at least once or twice a year.

   Yet the Imperium could not afford to give up the borders – and a certain percentage of its citizens would always be drawn to the profits to be found on the borders of Chelm.

   Still, the Chelmian Birthrights were too disruptive to simply allow in the empire. The population feared and distrusted their bearers – whether they were children or not – and their parents often wanted nothing to do with them. Almost as importantly, without an imperial patron children with any other birthright but that of Order would never be able to fully participate in the society of the Imperium.

   Ergo, he established the Order of Arelm

   The Order’s duty is simple enough. They take in unwanted children with Chelmian Birthrights and a claim on the imperium (and sometimes, depending on the generosity of whoever’s in charge at the moment, simply those with Chelmian Birthrights and nowhere else to go) and raise and discipline them. If such a child reaches adulthood without having been enslaved for some offence (a fate for which they are even more at risk than most children in the empire), having opted to accept being purchased by an honorable citizen from the interior of the Imperium, or having accepted an offer of patronage from some high-ranking imperial citizen (an incredible stroke of good fortune), they will be offered some choices. 

   They may

• Emigrate to Chelm
• Become bondsmen under the supervision of the border legion
• Be enslaved and sold to anyone in the Imperium who is willing to take them on, or
• Be given a clean death.

   There have been times when other options were available – such as being exiled to the Mri Desert for “purification” or being cursed with a compulsion to stay away from the Imperium and being exiled to the Parliament of Trees – but such options depend on the current abilities and directives of the order.

   How they’re treated while they’re growing up depends on how the Order currently sees the Chelmian Birthrights. At times the powers of Blood and Shadow have been seen as inherently evil, and the children as – rather literally – little demons. At other times they have been seen as natural enough, but easily abused. Most often, as they are now, their talents are seen as an affliction to be suppressed – and for them to be taught to be ashamed of.

   In any case, their lack of access to Order magic is almost invariably seen as a disability which classifies them as, at best, a bit subhuman.

   Unfortunately, in practical terms:

• Their chances of being offered imperial patronage are negligible; only a high-ranking patron can channel Order magic to anyone who’s not a native of the domain, and such individuals are rarely found anywhere near the border, much less dealing with the Order of Arelm.
• Virtually no one in the empire wants to take a chance on a slave with a Chelmian Birthright. Most of the few who claim that they will are in fact simply out to resell them in Chelm for sacrifice. For what it’s worth, the Order tries to avoid letting this happen; even if the current directors feel no pity at all, they know that each sacrifice strengthens Chelm.
• Emigrating to Chelm usually means being sacrificed. There have been occasional attempts to set the kids up as a friendly tribe, but such tribes usually either get wiped out or become insular and refuse to accept more kids after a generation or two.
• Becoming a bondsman with a Chelmian Birthright in the service of a legion which spends its time fighting Chelmians is throughly unappealing.
• So is death.

   That leaves:

• Becoming (or remaining) a slave in the service of the Order – if they need one.
• Being taken on as a slave by some borderer who doesn’t want to pay the price for an imperial youngster, and
• Being purchased by a trader who thinks a batch of cheap slaves is worth taking to Dernmarik – and who hopefully isn’t just out to resell them in Chelm. This is rare, such an individual only comes along – on the average – once every fifteen or twenty years.

   Mostly the kids try to cultivate a relationship with some borderer and/or a Chelmian tribe, make themselves useful to the Order, and hope desperately that someone from the interior of the Empire might want one or more of them. Occasionally someone even wants one of them as something other than a slave. It happens often enough to keep them hoping.

   The members of the Order may be sympathetic, but they also know their jobs. Carius Augustus was a decent man: there have been quite a few emperors who would have simply ordered the kids killed if Carius hadn’t already given instructions on the subject.

   Discounting the two slaveboys that Fauve just purchased, there are currently 117 children, ranging from a few months old to nearly 16 (and adult), and 28 young-adult slaves, in the custody of the Order. They’re distributed between the Orders six chapterhouses (there is a house associated with each of the six legions assigned to the border with Chelm).

Introduction to Atheria: Kharidath

   For today it’s another article in the Introduction to Atheria series – this time a quick survey of Kharidath, the land of purity and solar magic. As always, the birthright packages can be found on the Races of Atheria page and the characters for the setting use the abilities from Eclipse: The Codex Persona, a classless d20 system (also available in a shareware version HERE).

   Kharidath is land of contrasts. Near the borders of Parack, where the ever-regenerating heights and perpetual rains of the storm domain send rushing streams and rivers through gorges and over precipitous falls, the power of the sun domain is muted, its purity broken into a rainbow of lesser magics and softened by the mists rising from the waters. Moving southward, the cool green meadows of the high valleys near the border plunge into steaming jungles overgrowing long-eroded heights as the power of the sun increases and the influence of the storm domain wanes.

   Still further south, the streams slow as they languidly pass beneath the cloudless skies of the Mri on their way through the coastal plains to the sea. Their waters, the fertile silt they deposit along their routes and in the marshes and deltas of the coast, and the unfettered radiance of the Mri Sun combine to produce some of the most productive farmlands in the known world – albeit in a rather limited area. Much of the population of Kharidath clusters on the more arid rocky outcroppings near the rivers or well back from the fertile zone along them, thus allowing the best use of the irrigable land for the growing of crops.

   Eastwards, water becomes scarce as the rivers drain to the sea to the west. The fertile river valleys and floodplains fades into grasslands, and thence into the Mri Desert and a scattering of oases clustered around the occasional springs. If you continue eastwards, into the heart of the desert proper, you will find an occasional scattering of towns which swiftly fades into the rocky wastelands and sandy reaches of the Mri.

   The great Mri Desert itself is, of course, the stronghold of nomads, hermits, remote monastic orders (as a rule, the more remote, the more insane), and rebels against the traditions of Kharidath – their survival made possible by the resistance to light, heat, hunger, and thirst which is a part of the solar birthright of the people who live here. Outsiders tend to find the heat, light, and desiccating winds unbearable, although a few visit the edges of the desert proper seeking to purify themselves through its power.

   Life in Kharidath is dominated by the temples, by the obligations owed to them, and by the Oath of Remembrance – which continues to hold after more than seven thousand years. That philosophy of preservation has come to permeate every facet of life in Kharidath.

   Troublemakers – such as children who refuse to honor the traditions, ceremonies, and obligations of the faith, who attempt to innovate, or who doubt the divinely-appointed order of life – are walled into cells at the edge of the desert and left to die. Given that the local birthright provides resistance to heat, and the ability to survive for lengthy periods without food or water, such individuals have plenty of time to consider and regret their folly – often long enough for other rebels who have escaped into the desert to rescue them. Such rescue is widely regarded by the people of Kharidath as a fate far worse than death, since such rebellion against the will of the gods is believed to condemn the rebellious ones to become demons, forever denied salvation. It is simply proof of the depravity of the condemned that so many of the condemned raise their voices in pleas for release or rescue when sealed within their tombs.

   Unlike most of Atheria, ordinary dwellings in Kharidath are normally built of solid stone, designed to last for centuries, and reinforced with priestly binding spells. Even the humblest of homes and crofts are built of rammed earth and sodded over, capable of lasting for several centuries with due care. A similar attention to detail pervades their other public works: “good enough for the moment” is not a phrase to be found in Kharidath.

   Politically the land is loosely organized into small holdings under various sorts of nobles – each with their own, rigidly-maintained, structure. In one realm only female warriors may rule. In another, squabbling swashbucklers maintain a loose dominion over a bustling town. In a third, the ruling mages ruthlessly enforce their will on the trembling slaves beneath their lash. Of course, such domains are generally tiny, and the real power in the land is held by the temple councils.

   The monetary system of Kharidath was apparently decreed by some god or goddess of commerce of the Ancient World: it’s a simple system of copper, silver, and gold coins and bars (with a few optional metals) with a fixed value-ration between the types of coins that disregards the actual value of the metals involved. At least as importantly, it’s actual units are far too large for most people to actually deal in – convenient for rulers, merchant princes, and adventurers with hordes of treasure, but relatively useless for the common folk. Given the small scale of the domains in Kharidath, the currency system is almost useless even for many of the rulers. Perhaps fortunately, most transactions are either made by barter or are so traditional that they are essentially carried out as rituals. Visitors are well advised to come up with enough monetary metals to simply make their own coins and bars: no one in Kharidath has any objection.

   The people of Kharidath speak an archaic form of Ikunn (for conveniences sake, names for characters from the region may be drawn from Old English sources), and virtually all of them can read – however, save for their carefully-preserved classical literature, liturgies, and other ancient materials, writing is forbidden in Kharidath. The people get around this to some extent with a system of hieroglyphic signs which each represent a particular idea, concept, or number, but the work-around is extremely awkward. Slavery is technically illegal in Kharidath in most of the little realms. In practice, they locals don’t recognize outsiders as people – they lost that status when they turned away from the ancient gods – and they can handle a variety of tasks which their laws forbid the locals to undertake, such as record-keeping, hence the local nobility and priesthoods import a trickle of foreign slaves for various purposes. They also recognize imposed servitude as a priest-directed penance for sins against the gods. Given that one or another of the ancient gods regards almost anything as a sin (and the fact that some of the priests are more than a little corrupt by outside standards), in practice slavery is fairly common. Whether fortunately or unfortunately for enslaved locals, enslavement in no way releases them from their duties to the temples and the gods – which is what takes up the majority of most peoples efforts in Kharidath anyway. The non-religious workload of the common folk is heavy during the times of planting and harvest, but relatively light otherwise; save for the occasional dredging of silt, most of the well-built works of Kharidath need little maintenance. Major construction is uncommon, and – while purity, speciality spells, and stone are useful goods, they generally are not exported in massive quantities. Given that the country is isolated by the Mri Desert, the domains of Storm and Destruction, and the spurs of the Rian Mountains, it is hardly surprising that it is almost entirely self-sufficient. It really has no other choice.

   In general, the progress of a year, or a life, in Kharidath can be marked by festivals, holy days, and ceremonies. There are ceremonies for birth, for the ages of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 12, for recognizing various levels of adulthood, for bonding a master an apprentice, for marriages, for particular days, for the seasons, for each of the gods, and for dozens of other purposes.

   The creatures of Kharidath and the Mri show a variety of adaptions, mostly suited to survival in a rather inhospitable environment. Interestingly, quite a number of them show momentary bursts of incredible strength, speed, and vitality – evidently somehow expelling all waste products from their system, focusing utterly on a particular goal, and fueling such as effort with solar energies.

   See also: The Unforgotten Gods – an article covering the ancient gods of Kharidath in detail.

In The Depths of Chelm

   While the history of Atheria is littered with powerful individuals and lost devices and records, relatively few such items are likely to have survived from the early days of the settlement better than six thousand years ago. Some were unstable on Atheria, others have been intentionally destroyed, and not a few have simply yielded to the pressures of time. Even fewer are priceless for the clues to the ancient world which they contain, rather than for whatever powers they may possess. The more notable items which have been lost in Chelm since the ancient days include:

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The Ichian Oriux Soulstones:

   Before the rise of the Dralithar and the fall of the ancient world, mages meddled – as they do yet – with forces they did not understand. They created anchors for their souls and powers, so that – if they should be slain – they would be reborn, once more truly living. The Dralithar corrupted this process and set it’s touch upon their hidden hearts. They were reborn to the living world, yes, but remained dead – and bound to the power of the Dralithar. Thus were many of the eldest and most mighty mortals of the Ancient World bound to the service of the enemy. By heroism were some redeemed – to stand, terrible beyond death, against the Dralithar.

   And to fall, for the hand of the Dralithar was yet upon them, and neither the living nor the dead might stand against it.

   Their allies, the yet-mortals to whom their anchoring talismans had been entrusted, carried those anchors with them out of the ancient world and beyond its doom – but the touch of the Dralithar upon them could not be redeemed by what little magic remained to men, or what they were to learn within the next few generations. The Ichian Oriux, the once ever-living, were born again, dead, and decaying in both mind and body. Yet, despite their madness, all their terrible powers, the sorcerous skills which had defied the laws of life and death, remained theirs – and, as they had once so desired, they rose once more after each fall.

   But as men spread across Atheria, and into the deep south, rumors came to the rotting ears of the circle of the dead, to enliven the withered hearts of the Ichian Oriux. Tales of realms of blood and life, where – perhaps – even they might once again be genuinely reborn.

   And so the Ichian Oriux, and their anchoring talismans, passed South, into Chelm, and out of history.

   The ancient tales give various numbers of the Ichian Oriux, and state that some of them were not even remotely human even in life – but, if they still exist, and can be stirred to recover memories seven thousand years old, they are among the last remaining eyes which have looked upon the Ancient World, beheld it’s gods, and witnessed the power of the Enemy. Within their minds, and the binding talismans which anchor their essences, are secrets which have been lost for seven thousand years.

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The Kether Scrolls

   One of the most legendary treasures of the Ancient World, the indestructible Kether Scrolls had long been believed to contain the magical secrets of that world’s creator gods, and had required centuries to decipher – but had given immensurable power to the mages who did so. Moving them to Atheria revealed the Scrolls to be something much simpler, and in some ways more terrible. They did not record the deepest magical secrets of the ancient world – they simply mirrored the deepest basis of magic in whatever domain they were in. While only the most skilled of mages could understand enough of the magical structures the scrolls displayed to accomplish much, they were still an invaluable aid in the settlement of Atheria. Unfortunately, of the three scrolls known to have been brought to Atheria, one was lost in Chelm, one off the shores of Nial, and one was carried to HuSung.

   In game terms, the scrolls are a relic: +36 Spellcraft: Specialized, requires hours to decipher, cannot more than double the user’s basic Spellcraft skill (3 CP) with Unique Returning (Specialized: Only applies to the Scrolls themselves, 1 CP). They may – indeed, they probably do – have other powers, but that’s enough to start with.

   Asurater the Nightbane, a double-bitted battleaxe forged of adamantium-steel, sapphire, and lapis lazuli, hosts a spirit of the ancient world with a variety of mental powers of its own and control of the celestial magic forged into the axe itself. Asurater opted to associate itself with the city of Thalassinus, by the Sea of Jade near the borders of Chelm. It safeguarded the city against raids and chelmian infiltrators – magically revealing those who fell to their control and striking down the creatures of the jungles – for many centuries, until it was lost during a series of major border conflicts. A very substantial reward for its return is still recorded in the imperial archives.

   The Malachite Bindings are inscribed on wafer-thin, but apparently indestructible, sheets of Malachite, and deal with both commanding the spirits of the dead and with the imprisonment, compulsion, and transformation of minds and spirits. It’s pages include both horrific lore and terrible spells – which the original tome allows its readers to use without formal training if they are mad enough to do so and tough enough to withstand the resulting drain on their personal energies (later, and mostly fragmentary, copies do not have this effect). The book is generally regarded as one of the darkest magical works to be brought to Atheria from the Ancient Realm and was carried into Chelm by the surviving Children of Suthek, the sworn servants of that god of Darkness, shortly after the Settlement. Those few historians who take an interest in matters from nearly seven thousand years ago believe that the Malachite Bindings, and possibly the Children, may have played a pivotal role in the development of the Chelmian Rekorathi

   Saingen Bonecrusher, a monstrous feline avatar of Parath the Beast, supposedly accompanied the founders to Atheria, but was either driven mad in the process or simply gave into his rage and bloodlust once the immediate danger was past. Saingen fled southwards, and may have taken up residence in Chelm: their Beast-God Apanka bears a substantial resemblance to the ancient accounts of Saingen and is relatively weak – which might be expected of an isolated aspect of a greater god. In fact, their crocodilian War-God Tiskian bears a similar resemblance to some ancient descriptions of a another avatar of Parath who’s name is now lost. If either local “deity” both exists and is indeed an aspect of Parath, they should have a great deal of otherwise forgotten information.

   The Quincunx Ruby, also known as the Oathstone, is a massive slab of ruby, with a shape resembling a casket inscribed with complex runes and set into a golden necklace. It supposedly contains a living fragment of the god Nor, and allows the bearer to manipulate the forces of destiny. On Atheria, the Ruby has a turbulent early history; a series of odd quests and wild coincidences caused it’ possessors to carry it throughout much of northwestern Atheria, including in and out of the Great Northern Barrens, the Boreal Sea, the Mri Desert, the Trackless Forest, and Chelm all within the first few centuries of the settlement. It’s last known possessor was Canis Valerus, a religious fanatic from 4847 who raised a force of tens of thousands of men, women, and (especially) children from current-day Dernmarik, the Imperium, and the Barbarian Lands and attempted to cross the Sea of Jade to reach the “undying lands” that lay beyond the “gates of the underworld” which supposedly blocked land access through Chelm. He and his followers were never seen again. Canis is still ritually cursed once yearly in a few traditional ceremonies at some of the oldest temples of the Imperium and – while only historians know why – the name “Canis” is still considered unlucky.

   The Quincunx Ruby is supposedly cursed, both because – apparently – its wielders have lacked the wisdom of Nor and have failed to properly define their wishes and limit how they come about and because attempts to decipher the runes inscribed upon it have often proven fatal, somehow draining the would-be reader of life and causing massive magical disturbances at the same time.

   The oldest Rekorathi or Stelea of Chelm were apparently created within a century or two of the colonization of Chelm – whether due to a desire to evade death, in imitation of some of the devices of the Ancient World, or to aid survival in an exceptionally dangerous environment – and thus may have spirits bound into them which date back to shortly after the settlement. While the Imperium would view binding such revered ancestors to service with a very jaundiced eye indeed, attempting to seek them out and interview them would be a well-worthwhile, if extremely risky, endeavor.

   The Bloodlord himself, a figure from the first millennia of the Imperium, is said to have earned the eternal curse of the Forgotten Gods of Kharidath by carrying the Staff of Rey from the Imperium) where it had long been the object of diplomatic attempts by Kharidath to reclaim it) into Chelm. While the staff is supposed to have been a relatively minor item before the Fall of Rey, it supposedly inherited some fragment of his divine illumination after his fall.

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   At least thirty expeditions into Chelm were lost in the first few centuries of the Imperium. While Carius Augustus was content to organize Alaria proper, many of his successors were either more ambitious or less wise. Lesser devices that were lost in Chelm during this period include:

   The Necklace of Worlds appears to be a simple necklace of clay beads, glazed with white, blue, green, brown, and a variety of other colors. Closer inspection will reveal that each bead is entwined within a cage of fine wire, rather than pierced. The beads are, in fact, maps – each either blank and awaiting experiences or bearing the wearer’s observations of a particular world or of the routes between them. If touched and named, a bead will project an image of the relevant world which may be “zoomed”, rotated, and moved both forwards and backwards in time. Unfortunately, the beads record only those things which the wearer has seen; they are superb recorders of maps, but no more.

   A considerable number of personal journals, maps, and accounts may still exist somewhere in the jungles thanks to the spells of durability which are routinely applied to such items. While finding such items is difficult, durability charms are fundamentally related to Order magic – which means that they can be detected at close range. Items which were actually charmed in the imperial capital, drawing on the Sigil of Order, are both even more durable and detectable at longer ranges. Unfortunately, of course, such lost journals are likely to have been left wherever their original owners perished – and thus are probably in some of the most dangerous areas of Chelm. On the good side, many of them have been lost for a very long time indeed, and thus conditions may well have changed.

   Several sentient devices – although only a few old enough to have come from the Ancient Realm – have also been lost in Chelm. These include Grimward the Bulwark, a shield apparently capable of transforming itself into a modest fortress or other structure, Thirst the Lifedrinker, a blade which steals the vitality of those it strikes, the Phoenix Helm, said to be unconquerable, the Pendant of Witness, which offers wise council and support, and the Steeds of Rason, figurines which transform into fabulous mounts. All remain lost.

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The Nalydia Expedition:

   A sample, and comparatively more recent expedition – to whose fate the group may have recently found some clues – was that of Nalydia Sem Manellius (circa 3942-4003, Alarian chronology, dating from the acclamation of Carius Antoni Augustus, Imperator) of the Imperial Academy. A formidable Geomancer, Mystic Architect, and Sorceress, Nalydia was attempting to analyze the substructure of the boundaries between the various magical domains through comparison with the magical techniques of the Ancient World as recorded in sources now lost. Her expedition into Chelm – the only known location where domain boundaries shift and fluctuate chaotically on a daily basis – was intended to examine the structure of domain boundaries while they were changing and restabilizing and, if it proved possible, to use Mystic Architecture to set up and stabilize a balance point between them. Nalydia theorized that a child born at such a balance point would possess both Birthrights, and – further – that this might be the origin of the occasional Barbarian child with a “Dragon Totem”; they were born at a moment of precise balance between the influence of two totems. The expedition was lost, and divination at the time proved inconclusive – not surprising when divining into Chelm – although there were some indications that she at least partially succeeded. Given that, for better or for worse, her research might have resulted in the birth of more powerful Chelmians, the next institute director opted to shelve the project. It has remained shelved, save for being referenced as an example of over-ambitious and ill-advised research, for three thousand years since.

   With the groups discovery of some of Nalydia’s personal jewelry, and the use of psychometry and divinatory magic on it, they are now aware that either the balance point summoned something terrible into being or – possibly – the child of one of the pregnant slave-girls who had been brought along to give birth at the experimental nexus for testing purposes became something very much inhuman. Of course, mystic architecture is noted for it’s self-sustaining and self-repairing durability – and while most of the lesser landmarks such divination revealed are probably gone by now, the greater ones – the double waterfall, the three peaks, the great valley, and the plateau – have almost certainly survived a mere three thousand years, and should suffice to get the group to the general vicinity of the site.

Latest Posts

   First up for today, it’s been a couple of weeks since I updated the various indexes – so here’s a summary of the various posts and sections for the past few weeks. Since WordPress now allows you to stick a post to top of the front page, I’ll try keeping a recent posts index here and see how that works out.

d20 Material:

• The Introduction to Atheria series covers the various realms of the Atheria campaign: so far we have Kharidath (Solar Birthright), the Ourathan Isles (Lunar Birthright), HuSung (Elemental Magic Birthright), the Great Savannah of the Ankorath Tribes (Life Birthright), Parack (Storm Birthright), the Barbarian Lands (Totemistic Birthrights), Chelm (Blood or Shadow Magic Birthrights), and the Alarian Imperium (Order Birthright).
• An Overview of the Realms and Domains of Atheria – to give everyone a better idea of the various relationships.
• Some basic information on Atherian Ritual Magic.
• The (Un-)Forgotten Gods of the Ancient Realm, as remembered in Kharidath and the Mri Desert.
• The Federation-Apocalypse Game Logs for Session 24, Session 25, and Session 26.
• Sample Classless d20 Point-Buy characters for the Atheria Campaign – Flowing River, an Ankorath Smuggler, Sem the Sin-Eater, and Fauve, a Chelmian Adventurous Scholar.
• The Alarian Legionaire Build and some Sample Legionaires.
• The Silmarils of the Manifold – the version of Tolkien’s Silmarils that have made an appearance in the Federation-Apocalypse Campaign.
• Chelm: Lost Artifacts and Expeditions. An accounting of some of the legendary treasures which may lie within the borders of Chelm.

Champions Material:

• Runestones, the magical technology of the Celestial Dragons.
• Campaign Log Updates for Session 39: The Little Ice Age, Sessions 40 and 41: The Spirit FIsher and the Barque of Ra, Sessions 42 and 43: The Return of SETI and Homeland Security, Session 44: The Raving Maniacs, Sessions 45, 46, and 47; Gates of Darkness, The Unquiet Realm, The Akhasic Plane,  Session 48; The Cyborg and the Fox, Session 49; And From the Darkness Light.

Shadowrun Material:

• Shadowed Moon Lotus, an Archmage-class sorcerer.

Legend of the Five Rings Material:

• The Campaign Log for the last ten sessions of the Clan War Sequence (it got a long ways behind).

Second Edition AD&D:

• Dunstan Auchenlock Issilor, a Skills-and-Powers elven Cleric/Thief – with a selection of New Spells, New Proficiencies, his Pre-Game History, and his Character Sheet.
• Saelinnyth, a sample elven fighter/thief.

Continium II:

   Continium II is a project that’s been kicking around for many years now: since the system is modular, and most of it could be slotted into many other games, I’m starting to put up the system. Some of the old players may feel nostalgic.

• Martial Arts Basics
• Weapons Design and Sample Weapons

World of Darkness Material:

• How to make Garou who think they’re Jedi Knights, “Highlander”-style “Immortals”, and so on. Who knows? Perhaps they’re right. The Force be with Garou.

Sample Legionaries

   Now that the Alarian Imperium Legionnaire build has been laid out (yesterday, or HERE), it’s time to set up the characters – two somewhat disgraced legionaries assigned to the current player-character group since no one else wanted the job and two disgraced-and-enslaved legionaries who have been turned over to them as disposable bodyguards/servants. Like all our characters, both PC and NPC, they’ve been created with the Classless d20 Point-Buy rules from Eclipse: The Codex Persona. If you’re looking for it, there’s a shareware version available HERE.

   All really important NPC’s are created as characters. Still, you don’t necessarily want to create every member of a band of mercenaries, group of bandits, or bar-room brawler, if only because making them all different will be a bookkeeping nightmare. For quick-play purposes exact attributes irrelevant: just pick the appropriate row of attribute modifiers, assign them, and go.

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Kid	+0	+0	-1	-1	-2	-3
Adolescent	+1	+0	+0	-1	-1	-2
Adult	+1	+1	+0	+0	-1	-1
Well Trained	+2	+1	+1	+0	+0	-1
Veteran	+2	+2	+1	+1	+0	-1
Elite	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1	+0
Hero	+4	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1
Superhero	+4	+4	+3	+2	+2	+1

   In this case we’re making up four quick Legionaries from the Alarian Imperium. They’re Well-Trained, so we’ll give them attribute modifiers of Str +2, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, and Chr -1. They do get +4 Skill Points since they would – like almost all freeborn children from the Alarian Imperium – have been given Scholar’s Eye Charms as kids.

   First: the Order Birthright (the races of Atheria, and their Birthrights, can be found HERE) causes their “Aid Another” actions to provide a +4 bonus, enhances their Charms and Talismans and/or allows the use of Talismans in Charm slots, gives them a +1 Morale Bonus to Saves, Attacks, Checks, and Damage, provides 8 SP + 2 SP/Additional Level (from Fast Learner, specialized in Skills), and one Bonus Feat.

   Secondarily, they all started off at the “Common” wealth level, and thus gain an extra 4 SP for background skills and an extra d6 hit die at level one. (Information on Wealth Level Templates can be found in The Practical Enchanter, available in a shareware version HERE).

So we’re looking at:

• 20 HP (1d12+1d6 at L1, +2 Con) and DR 3/- (2/- Purchased, 1/- Martial Art).
• Saves: Fortitude +3 (+1 Purchased, +1 Con, +1 Morale), Reflex +2 (+1 Dex, +1 Morale), Will +1 (+0 Wisdom, +1 Morale).
• AC 10 + 6 (Shimmermail) + 1 (Dex) + 2 (Large Shield) +1 (Defender) = 20

Attacks:

• Longsword: +7 (+2 BAB +2 Str +1 Magic +1 Martial Art +1 Morale), Damage 1d8+4 (+2 Str +1 Morale +1 Magic), Crit 19-20/x2. Combat Reflexes and 1d6 Sneak Attack.
• Light Repeating Crossbow: +4 (+2 BAB +1 Dex +1 Morale), Damage 1d8+1 (+1 Morale), Crit 19-20/x2.

Special Abilities:

• Legionary Feat: +1/2/3 to AC, Attacks, and Reflex Saves when working with 1-2/3-4/5+ other people with this Feat.

   Now, we can actually have a fair amount of customization: They get one bonus feat/+6 CP for their racial birthright package, one for first level, and one for their first-level build. They also have 17 SP each to spend on top of the 6 SP preassigned by their Training [+3 Knowledge Speciality / The Legions (1 CP), Legionary Sword Training +8 (4 CP), Survival +2 (1 CP)]. For their individual abilities, lets try:

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   Ancus Marellus: Ancus was scheduled for execution after killing three people during a brawl over an accusation of cheating, but got his sentence commuted to enslavement and being turned over to an academic going on a trip to Chelm. That’s probably a death sentence too, and quite likely worse than death, but at least it’s delayed. Ancus has an unusual gift: he can briefly channel great surges of magic through himself, making himself – however briefly – incredibly strong and tough. 

• Disadvantages: Insane (irrationally violent when accused of cheating at dice – but loves dice, +3 CP), Poor Reputation (enslaved for murder, +3 CP), for a total of 24 available CP.
• Special Abilities: Berserker and Odinpower (+12 Str, +1 BAB, 6 CP), Berserker (Corrupted: may only be triggered in conjunction with previous Berserker ability, 1.5x Effect: +15/- DR, total 18/-, -2 AC, 6 CP), +2 Bonus Uses to Each Berserker (6 CP), and Immunity to the restriction on running more than one version of Berserker at the same time (Common, Major, Minor, 6 CP). His next six CP will probably go to buying Enduring (No fatigue afterwards, 6 CP).  
• Skills: Heal +5 (4 SP), Knowledge/Architecture and Engineering +3 (2 SP), Profession / Gambler +5 (4 SP), Ride +4 (2 SP), Spot +4 (3 SP), Survival +4 (3 SP), Legionary Sword Training +9 (4 SP), and a +3 Speciality in Knowledge / The Legions (1 SP).
• Talisman: (Enhanced; +6 AC) Shimmermail.
• Charms: Eager Rune Weapon (Longsword), Zakari Stormbow, (Enhanced; 5 uses/day) Mothers Tears Amulet.
• Future Advancement: OK, Ancus is pretty straightforward. Move into melee range, ignore most attacks, and hopefully hammer opponents into mush before his berserker enhancements wear off. If he was a player-character, he’d probably want to continue the theme – upgrading his Berserks and getting more Bonus Uses. Outside of that – and the resulting superstrong nigh-invulnerable “superhero” routine – more BAB, more HP, and more melee-combat abilities.

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   Fulvio Erasas: Fulvio was also scheduled for execution, in his case due to embezzlement of Legion property. Like Ancus, he got his sentence commuted to enslavement and being put to use on a trip to Chelm. Unlike Ancus, he’s expecting to be able to buy his freedom and get out fairly quickly. If not, escape is an option – but he’d rather be able to get into the empire without being under an automatic death sentence.

• Disadvantages: Poor Reputation (enslaved for embezzlement, +3 CP). 21 CP available for customization.
• Special Abilities: Affluent (due to his hidden stores of cash from his fencing operations: Armor, Shield, and Weapons are treated as Masterwork, Seven Charms and Three Talismans, 6 CP), Cloaking (covers up his dishonesty, 6 CP), Augment Attack/+1d6 Sneak Attack (3 CP), Trick/Death Blow (Str based save DC 12, usable 3/day).
• Skills: Appraise, Forgery +9 (4 SP), Gather Information +8 (4 SP), Open Lock +7 (1 SP), Ride +7 (1 SP), Sense Motive +8 (3 SP), Speak Language +7 (Ikunn and Orthic, 2 SP), Spot +7 (2 SP), Survival +6 (1 SP), Legionary Sword Training +14 (4 SP), and a +3 Speciality in Knowledge / The Legions (1 SP).
• Talismans: (Enhanced; +6 AC) Shimmermail, (Enhanced; fires Scorching Rays in his hands) Zakari Stormbow, Pendant of Mastery (+4 to Checks).
• Charms: RubyDraught, Eager Rune Weapon (Longsword), (Enhanced; 5 uses/day) Mother’s Tears Amulet, Sigil of Purity (Delay Poison while worn), Endless Rope, Shifters Cloak (Falcon), (Enhanced; may also use Suggestion 1/Day) Serpents Tongue Amulet.
• Future Advancement: Fulvio is obviously heading down the Crimelord route, so Leadership, Favors, Contacts, Poison Use, and possibly Action Points/Influence or even Dominion are all in order. On the personal level, more BAB, Sneak Attack, and special attacks are probably best. He won’t be needing much in the way of hit points though; protracted battles are never going to be his thing. Fulvio has an early edge in power thanks to his high Wealth score. On the other hand, if he were a PC, other characters would probably catch up on that soon enough – and without having to pay for it. He’d better exploit that early edge while it lasts, it’s going to be a liability later on.

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   Lucian Pennus: Lucian is young, ambitious, and more than a bit overconfident, which is why he’s already undergone the initiation to become a minor priest of the Sun. Unfortunately, getting caught drinking on guard duty – regardless of just how stupid it was to be guarding an abandoned temple with nothing in it – was a serious mistake. Lucian has compounded that error by deciding that going on a quick trip to Chelm guarding some scholar-adventurers with imperial patronage would be better than a week in the cells before a probable sentence to a beating, demotion, and six months of crappy duties would be.

• Disadvantages: None. That leaves the base 18 CP available for customization.
• Special Abilities: Adept (Diplomacy, Gather Information, Knowledge / Religion, Sense Motive, 6 CP), One level of Clerical Spellcasting/Fire and Travel Domains. Granted powers of Immunity to Fire (Common/Major/Minor or 12 points) and Minor Immunity to Restraint (Common / Major / Minor, effects of up to level three), Spell Conversion to Healing Spells, Domain Spell Slots. Usual Spells: (L0) Light, Mending, Purify Food and Drink, (L1) Shield of Faith, Longstrider. He’s going to have to raise his 11 wisdom before he can get much further. Lucian still has two unspent CP, and is hoping to make some important contacts if he gets out of Chelm alive.
• Skills: Diplomacy +4 (2 SP*), Gather Information +4 (2 SP*), Knowledge / Architecture and Engineering +3 (2 SP), Knowledge / History +5 (3 SP), Knowledge / Local +4 (3 SP), Knowledge/Religion +5 (2 SP*), Sense Motive +4 (2 SP*), Ride Speak Language, Survival +2 (1 SP), Legionary Sword Training +9 (4 SP), and a +3 Speciality in Knowledge / The Legions (1 SP). Three memorized Minor Rituals: Basic Camp Wards, Legionary Camp Setup, Lay of the Land (1 SP).
• Talismans: (Enhanced; +6 AC) Shimmermail
• Charms: Eager Rune Weapon (Longsword), Zakari Stormbow, (Enhanced; 5 uses/day) Mothers Tears Amulet.
• Future Advancement: Lucian wants to get into politics, which means first living down this little disciplinary problem, than building up Favors, Contacts, Privileges, and similar social advantages. His knowledges will need to be built up as well, the Ritual Magic feat would not be out of order – and, of course, he’ll want to build up his Wisdom, Charisma, and Clerical Spellcasting, since it includes lots of effects which will be useful in the future. At higher levels some Executive or Inspirational talents might be best. He won’t want to waste many points on more combat skills: he won’t be using those much in his later career – at least if he lives to have one.

.

   Tacitus Veras: Taking Lucian a couple of bottles while he was on duty – regardless of whether it was a pointless bit of guard duty on an empty abandoned temple that no one was interested in at the center of the empire – was a really poor idea, even if the unexpected assignment had put a crimp in their planned night on the town. Still, Tacitus always was a little thoughtless when there was any kind of entertainment in the offing, and he’s equipped with a cheery confidence that something will come up to get him out of whatever trouble he’s gotten into. After all, he was nearly sold as a slave four times as a kid due to thoughtless misbehavior, but something always came up. Perhaps sadly, Tacitus doesn’t really see a trip to Chelm as anything but a chance to get in on some excitement and maybe pick up some cash: his ability to order and channel local energies has always saved his neck before.

• Disadvantages: Inept (-2 on Wis-based skills, -3 CP) and Irreverent (-3 CP). That makes 24 CP available for customization.
• Special Abilities: Luck with +4 Bonus Uses and Fortune (18 CP), Extended Order Birthright: +12,000 GP worth of Innate Enchantments (6 CP due to preexisting specialization. All L1 Spells, Caster Level 1, 3/Day Use-Activated Each: Charm Person, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Moment of Insight/Skills, Cure Light Wounds, Entangle, Obscuring Mist, Pass Without Trace, Color Spray, and Lesser Restoration).
• Skills: Bluff +2 (2 SP), Decipher Script (1 SP), Disable Device +2 (1 SP), Diplomacy +4 (4 SP), Gather Information +2 (2 SP), Search +5 (4 SP), Spellcraft +4 (3 SP), Survival +2 (1 SP), Legionary Sword Training +9 (4 SP), and a +3 Speciality in Knowledge / The Legions (1 SP).
• Talismans: (Enhanced; +6 AC) Shimmermail
• Charms: Eager Rune Weapon (Longsword), Zakari Stormbow, (Enhanced; 5 uses/day) Mothers Tears Amulet.
• Future advancement: Well, if this was a PC, I’d take the remaining allowable 6 CP worth of Innate Enchantment to get most of those spells (except for Moment of Insight, Cure Light Wounds, and Lesser Restoration, for which 3/day is the limit) up to unlimited use and add either a few personal enhancements (Personal Haste, Attribute Enhancements) or maybe Magic Missile. At higher levels I’d spend another 6 CP on Empowerment to keep the caster level up. Other than that? Well, while he’s a very powerful and versatile low-level spellcaster, he’ll hit hard limits on his magical powers quickly enough. He’ll probably be best off going with the jack-of-all-trades theme, possibly complimented with some Mystic Artist and/or Bardic Magic abilities.

   Hm, that’s actually a fairly formidable party, although part of that is due to their being the beneficiaries of a high-end package deal, and most of them look like they might be fun to play – albeit with some background tweaking. I’ve just designed too many player characters; every NPC I turn out rapidly gets detailed, complicated, and playable.

The Alarian Imperium Legionnaire:

   For today it’s a section on the Legions of the Alarian Imperum in the Atheria campaign. Since the group is currently travelling with two of them, it seemed like a good bit of information to put up. As always for our campaigns, the packages are set up for Eclipse: The Codex Personal Classless d20. There’s a shareware version available HERE.

   The Legions of the Imperium have been turning youngsters into soldiers for more than six thousand years: they’re pretty good at it by now. They are highly disciplined (and enforce that discipline quite brutally), enjoy lengthy traditions, and wash out a sizable percentage of their applicants. While – as usual for NPCs – many of the Legionnaires never get much past level one, they get an excellent Package Deal and a basic fighter-framework that serves them well in their careers.

   Alarian Legionary Package Deal: The legions basic training places massive emphasis on drilling and functioning as a team, the use of shields, and in enduring long marches with heavy loads. Oddly enough, armor is not stressed. Since the Legions are normally issued Shimmermail in any case, there is little need for such training. The package deal provides:

• The Legionary Feat (6 CP)
• Shield Use Proficiency (3 CP)
• +1 to Fortitude Saves (3 CP)

   Recruits may have differing talents to start with, but the legions make bloody well sure that all of their standard troopers and NCO’s-to-be wind up with the basic military skills they’ll need to serve in the legions. While they offer limited amounts of special training to take advantage of any special talents or bloodline potentials that their recruits may have, basic troopers tend to look a lot alike. Specialists, such as mages, get equally special training and treatment – for which they are both respected and resented.

The standard first-level Legionary build provides:

• a d12 Hit Die (8 CP)
• Proficiency with all Simple and Martial Weapons (9 CP)
• Proficiency with Light Armor (3 CP)
• +2 BAB (Corrupted: only with Legion Weapons, 8 CP)
• DR 2/- (3 CP)
• Defender (Specialized: only while using a Shield, 3 CP)
• Skill Focus +2/Legionary Sword Training (3)
• 7 Skill Points (7 CP): +3 Knowledge Speciality/The Legions (1), Legionary Sword Training (4), Survival (1), and a choice of (1) – although skills useful to the Legions, such as weapon-crafting or relevant knowledges are encouraged.
• Customization (6 CP). While many Legionaries prove capable of learning minor magical talents, of expanding on their birthright, or otherwise learning tricks useful to the legions, a fair number effectively hold those points “in reserve” for their later civilian careers.

and

• Duties (obliged to serve the Imperium, subject to either legion discipline or a painful execution for desertion), +2 CP/Level

   For a net L1 cost of 48 CP.

   Legionaries normally enjoy a “Common” lifestyle, although the intentional channeling of Order magic to them upgrades the number of Charms and Talismans they can normally use by one level – usually to three charms and one talisman. They will normally use Shimmermail (as an order-enhanced Talisman, +6 AC), Eager Rune Weapons (as an order-enhanced Charm), and two Order-Enhanced Charms of choice, most commonly a Bear Amulet (+2 Str), Zakari Stormbow, RubyDraught Flask, Dao Sigil, or Helm of War.

Alarian Legionary Sword Training (Str):

   This straightforward martial “art” is, unlike most martial arts, at it’s best in mass combat, where there are plenty of allies to set you up for flanking (“sneak”) attacks and – thanks to Combat Reflexes – to make anyone fool enough to charge one of your formations think that they’ve dived into a mincing machine.

• Requires: Weapon Proficiency with Swords
• Basic Abilities: Attack 3, Power 3, Defenses 3, Toughness 3
• Master Techniques: Combat Reflexes, Mighty Blow, Sneak Attack II
• Occult Techniques: None. (The price of minimal requirements)
• Usual Known Abilities: With a usual skill rating of at least seven, most Legionaries are entitled to four of the forms abilities, most commonly Attack I, Toughness I, Combat Reflexes, and Sneak Attack I.

 

The Legions of the Alarian Imperium:

   The organization of the Imperial Legions has undergone numerous minor “reforms” and changes. After all, improvements are sometimes made – and even the magic of the Order domain is no match for the urge of a new emperor or general to make his or her mark by changing SOMETHING. It’s also commonly subject to local “tweaking”, especially in the matter of cavalry versus infantry – but the basic standards haven’t changed much in a very, very, long time. The formal organization of the Legions does not, however, consider auxiliaries such as slave-children, camp followers, local informants and agents, and special advisors; such matters are left up to the judgement of individual commanders. Still, at their base, the Imperial Legions are normally organized in tiers of five:

• A Basic Patrol or Star of five men consists of 4 Common Legionaries, Troopers, or “Miles” and one NCO Patrol Commander or Sagent. Preferably every man will be skilled with a variety of weapons and tactics both afoot and mounted, and each star will include at least one man with basic medical and magical skills, one with some skill as a scout and knowledge of the local area, one competent in cooking and the maintenance and repair of weapons, and one capable of acting as an understudy for the Sagent. In practice, this often doesn’t work out.
• A Standard Troop of 25 men consists of four Basic Patrols and one Command Patrol consisting of a NCO Troop Commander or Pential, two Messengers / Scouts, and two Specialists – normally minor magicians or scholar-priests capable of at least some healing, communication, and ritual magic. With any luck, they’ll have at least a little bit of offensive or defensive ability as well. The total thus consists of 16 Troopers, 4 Sagents, 2 Messengers/Scouts, 2 Magicians, and 1 Pential.
• A Standard Company or Maniple of 125 men consists of four Standard Troops and one Specialist Troop containing two Combat Engineer Patrols (4 engineers and a Sagent each), a Drover Patrol of mule-drivers, carters, and logistics specialists (but no Sagent: if caught on the lines, Drovers should attach themselves to any handy Patrol), a Patrol of (hopefully slightly more powerful) mages / scholar-priests commanded by a Senior Magician or Okkula, and a Command Patrol containing the Maniple Commander (also known as a Second Pential or Exponus), his assistant (often a mage-clerk), a standard-bearer, and two signalers/musicians. The total thus consists of 64 Troopers, 18 Sagents, 8 Messengers/Scouts, 12 Magicians, 8 Engineers, 5 Drovers, and 4 Pentials. 2 Signalers/Musicians, 1 Senior Magician/Okkula, 1 Exponus, 1 Clerk, and 1 Standard-Bearer.
• A Standard Regiment or Cohort of 625 men consists of four Standard Companies and a Support Company made up of three Standard Troops, a Logistics Troop (in charge of basic supplies and equipment repairs), and a Command Troop consisting of five specialist patrols – a Medical Patrol consisting of a Chief Physician and his assistants, a Regimental Magical Patrol consisting of four Okkuli (or sometimes Beastari*) and one Master Mage, a Command Patrol consisting of one Regimental Commander or Legate, two Aides-de-Camp, and a Regimental Standard Bearer or Signifer (and, traditionally, the regimental Treasurer/Paymaster), and two Messenger/Bodyguard Patrols, each consisting of a Sagent and four Troopers.  The total thus consists of 308 Troopers, 86 Sagents, 38 Messengers/Scouts, 54 Magicians, 32 Engineers, 25 Logistics Specialists, 20 Drovers, 19 Pentials. 8 Signalers/Musicians, 8 Senior Magician/Okkuli, 4 Exponi, 4 Clerks, 4 Company Standard-Bearers, 4 Assistant Physicians, 1 Chief Physician, 1 Master Mage, 2 Aides-de-Camp, 1 Signifer/Treasurer/Paymaster, and 1 Legate.

   *A Beastari is a specialist in handling and working magic involving the (easily-trained) animals of the Imperium: he or she is responsible for sending out – and seeing through – scout-birds and animals, for controlling and directing horses and draft animals under emergency conditions, and for operations involving special creatures, such as big cats. Beastari positions are one of the few positions in the Legions which is easily open to individuals with Blood birthrights.

• A Standard Legion of 3125 men consists of five Standard Regiments. Unlike the smaller units, which have integrated command staffs, Legion Commanders are usually political appointees – even if they are professional military men – and travel with their own general staffs, mages, servants, and support staff, all of whom stand outside the official chains of command (but may be listened to anyway).

   The Imperial Legions are somewhat officer-heavy. This is partially because individuals from the major families tend to enter as officers almost automatically, partially because being a legionary tends to be more of a career than a job, and partially because – over many centuries – it’s often proved useful to always have a clear chan of command and someone available to take over if an officer goes down.

   Slave-volunteers, or soldiers reduced to slavery for major infractions, are sometimes found in the Legions, but the percentage is relatively low: while service in the Legion is a good route to manumission, it’s also an unusually dangerous one. Free soldiers are much more common, and usually either move on to other jobs after a relatively brief term of service or retire after a full military career with lands or a pension after their service.

   In most cases, the Legions basic tactics are relatively straightforward. While they take full advantage of their greater organization and training to outmaneuver their enemies on the battlefield, and of the Imperium’s superior protective charms to counter enemy magic. They normally simply define their objectives, march on them, and take them, whether by assault or by siege. On the move, they accept a slower pace in favor of erecting fortified camps at each stop – rendered more formidable as defenses by their habit of incorporating defensive runes and ward-enhancing effects into the design and layout. While this calls for extreme standardization, the Legions are more than capable of handling it.

   The Legions are routinely successful against the Barbarian Lands, despite the occasional dragon-totem warlord who drives them back for a time or and the occasional isolated force wiped out by an unexpectedly-large barbarian army. Similarly, The edges of the Mri Desert and the virtually uninhabited reaches of the Trackless Forest are easy enough to hold – if anyone wants to bother. Unfortunately, the Dimensional Magic domain is considerably more difficult. Not only are there plenty of mighty heroes, with their unpredictable and chaotic abilities, infesting the area but there is an annoying tendency for escape routes and reinforcements to appear from nowhere and a nasty tendency for gates, dimensional distortions, and considerable chunks of territory to appear and disappear at whim. Only recently two entire legions simply vanished while in pursuit of Siridovix (a local heroine) and her band of warriors: they and their targets apparently passed through a dimensional rift and have not been heard of since.

   Attacks into Chelm are almost as problematic: limited-objective raids, especially with local support (which is almost always available from rival tribes), are relatively easy and almost always successful – although casualties are often relatively high. Actually attempting to hold any significant portion of Chelm seems to be an invitation to constant harassment by spells, undead spirits, horrific animals, and noxious toxins. In general, the Legions settle for trying to keep the problems of Chelm safely in Chelm.

   Regardless, the imperial table of organization calls for 25 Frontier Legions and a similar number of peacekeeping and auxiliary Legions Vigeles operating within the Imperium.

Session 49: And From The Darkness, Light

   At first, as the upwelling of cosmic force which had carried them both beyond the gates of death faded, Yuki concentrated on hauling the Dark Lord of the Ru’Kahl towards the light – but eventually she decided to hurl him into the abyss and proceed by herself. She was even fortunate enough to refrain from passing into the light herself, and began descending the Sephiroth.

   As always, Death absorbed most of the excess power she was carrying – but she accidently freed the Red Dragon from his imprisonment in the first gate in her descent. As had been predicted so long ago, she had set him free. Unfortunately, when she returned to the dark dimension, there was nothing left but light – and Kanmari, who was busy radiating off his own excess powerload. Being Yuki and a dragon, they promptly got into an argument, than a competition of illusion-creation, and then arguments with their own subconscious projections and Mara, the illusion-demon of distractions (presuming that she actually existed). It took quite some time to settle that down, to return safely to earth, and to have a confrontation with Ranko, who was not amused at Yuki risking her life this way.

   While the Sunwall attack had been going on, the Chauffeur had returned to dealing with Chi’an. Seven other dragons feeding him raw magical power. All that raw energy running loose in the human racemind. How should he handle this? In fact, given that level of magic, how should he IMAGINE this? It would make a difference. If he believed that they were actually changing the past there would be all kinds of consequences. Clearly that was not suitable. If he took the realm they were in as an actual, literal, dimension there would be some advantages – it would be clearly separate from reality, only unconscious beliefs and memories could be changed, the patch could be applied and limited, and his vehicle would be at full power – but it could impact all the phantasm planes, and social structures, and beliefs, of the world unpredictably. If he just saw them as adjusting a few subconscious memories via global transformation effects, the effects wouldn’t be so far-reaching, but they could be a lot sloppier in individual cases.

   He elected to go with a dimension shaped by human minds, and thus both a real place and subject to transformation. It placed him at some disadvantage, but it seemed wisest. So: onto the astral after them. His helicopter wouldn’t be anything more than an expression of his will there – but all he could possibly be up against would be mental constructs, since he wouldn’t be in anything but an analogy.

   He caught up with them at a memory of a WWII prison camp, embroiled in a conflict with Deathurge – or at least with a memory thereof. Kids. They’d both forgotten that they were only “fighting” memories and constructs. It took a little while to talk them out if the fight – but he managed eventually. Unfortunately, he couldn’t talk Chi’an out of his original idea – so he went along to limit the damage and help them navigate.

   Now for the route – year to year, trauma to trauma, or linking through the White Necromancer?

   It would probably be wisest to see how those traumas had played out: trauma to trauma it would be. He’d also make sure that they observed the initial trauma in detail – a couple of times – before they tried to interfere.

   History was sad. There had been so many traumas, and so much pain.

   It had been simple enough: an amplified telepathic attempt, made by some of the wisest and most powerful telepaths on earth at the time, to probe the dark places of the sky. A friendly attempt to communicate with the whisperers they sometimes heard, directed towards a “less busy” patch in an attempt to keep thing simple at first. Sadly, humanity as a whole was young and naive. They did not even suspect the powers of chaos that lay in wait between the galaxies – and as the insanity overwhelmed them, and spread throughout the web of minds that made up human civilization, there was madness, death, and suicidal efforts to escape. An adult celestial dragon intervened – but it’s raw power disrupted the biosphere of the earth, and most of the minds it touched withered and died as the insanity within them was burned away. It spared the human race from total madness and utter destruction – at the price of millions of horrific deaths, unguided by the shamans or eased by magic, the destruction of the dreamtime civilization, and the creation of the Sahara Desert. A horror of outsiders, a desperate fear of death and being alone, suspicion of psychic abilities, a reflexive fear of progress, out-of-control imaginations populating the darkness with monstrous visions, an inherent paranoia about the “unnatural” activities and lore of scholars and “experts” – all born in a few hours, despite the sorrow and regret of the Firstborn. Wards were set about the solar system and telepathy restricted – but little could be done to heal the wounds inflicted: without integration into the bioenergy fields of the earth, the power of the Celestial Dragons would do as much harm as good when used too near the planet.

   So what to do? Chi’an and the White Necromancer were determined to do SOMETHING.

   Simply erasing the entire episode would leave so much else unexplained – and the era was already about as repressed as it could get anyway. Put in a memory of benign external help? They didn’t need more passive looking to external aid for salvation, especially not with alien arms-merchants offering all-too attractive “deals”. Perhaps if they gave people something positive, something for themselves, some inner resource they could draw on to resist those ancient traumas…

   Chi’an had a proposal for that: the Eleven Lights of Luathon would do nicely. Even a memory of them would bolster human resistance against another memory – and Luathon had power to spare.

   Not bad. The Chauffeur ran some simulations on that. It took immense computing power, but he had a few Dragonseyes himself – and the computing power of the intergalactic network to draw on.

   Hm. There would be side effects. The Bane Mummies would sense the attack on their power source and come to defend it. The negative energy couldn’t just vanish, it had to go somewhere. Left to itself, it would focus itself through the minds most attuned to it – yielding a new crop of supervillains, inspiring the study of dark magics, and strengthening demons. They’d have to ground it into something. That would mean a new crop of evil artifacts – but it wasn’t like they weren’t storing plenty of those now.

   It would work better if they could focus the racemind – make it pay more attention and get the new information out to everyone more effectively – and if they had some way to boost and rebroadcast the signal. Well, the old Archmage could focus the Racemind – and he might be dead, but he hadn’t gone far and they did have the White Necromancer. Through him they could reach the dead and soothe that component of the racemind too. They could even use the dragonseyes and dragons – or at least the ones who were willing to listen to Chi’an – on earth to rebroadcast the signal. Of course, they’d need a lot of help to handle the Bane Mummy attack while they performed the spell – but Earth had quite a few telepaths and mystics who – unlike the situation in the power-sapping Ru’Kahl hell dimension – could help with that here.

   The Chauffeur gathered his allies from across the globe, briefed them, and began.

   They scored Magical Theory 18 (a 90% reduction in trauma – which would soon be felt as a diminution in hate-group recruiting, a reduction in evil phantasms, and elsewhere), Presence 21 (getting almost everyone to listen properly to the message), and Necromancy 17 – binding 85% of the dark power. The would still be some new villains, and quite a few new “gray” mages – but there would be some new heroes and heroic mages too.

   They could call that a victory on two fronts. The Bane Mummies would be much diminished, and wouldn’t be coming back nearly so easily.

   The Chauffeur frowned as they returned to the material plane in Alaska and the draconic power-chain wound down. The Celestial Dragons had been really helpful, even if they were childish and argumentive. Practically all of them were decent enough, and quite a few were even pretty heroic. Even Chi’an – for all his “teenage” glory-seeking and recklessness – meant well. It was simply wrong to see so many of them as slaves, just as it was wrong of the War God to transform and enslave human youngsters. It was true that they were an alien race, and that they had their own customs – but he had customs too, and seeing children enslaving and mutilating each other over stupid arguments and dominance games was very much against them. Weren’t they pretty much being fostered with humanity? Wasn’t part of the reason they were here to learn? Would it be within their own customs to at least try to talk them into behaving themselves? Shouldn’t they have SOME sort of adult role model?

   That might even work. The fact that the Mandate was free to MAKE them behave should at least get most of them to listen. As for whether it was right to interfere – he’d try contacting their parents and see what they thought about the situation.

Federation-Apocalypse Session 26: Aftermath

   Drifting above the ruins of an exploded building, there was a brief discussion. They’d have to inform the military guys, check on Arxus and the Thralls, and then have lunch. Marty wanted something heavy: they were all starving. It wasn’t like there were going to be any clues left at the site of a big bomb trap. Jarvian said that military was beginning to make real gains. The hordes of constructs were dwindling, and the General was very pleased with their work.

   They said he was welcome.

   Unfortunately, Crystal Palace turned out to be a wreck: there were obvious signs of heavy fighting, a barrier which had kept the Thralls from calling for help, the bodies of the Thralls – and no sign of Arxus. The Thralls souls were still around at least, if somewhat apologetic for their failure. Kevin reassured them and found out what had happened. Apparently, as they were mopping up the remains of the constructs, they were assaulted by more praetorian-creatures. Arxus tried to hold them off but was overwhelmed. With something blocking them from calling for help (Kevin made a note to do something to strengthen those links later), and a very well-prepared enemy to deal with, they hadn’t been strong enough. Kevin petted the Thralls spirits and assured them that he’d get them back into bodies shortly.

   Well, Arxus couldn’t exactly “die”, so maybe they could pull the traces back together if there were any. Looking for clues, it looked like he’d gotten two guards in heavy fighting – striking hard enough to split blocks of stone, gouge trenches in the ground, and break various weapons. There was quite a bit of cable spooled in a pile in one of the clearings centered around the heaviest damaged zone – but it was crumbling into black dust as they inspected it. Smoke thought it was magically conjured, but unstable in the local reality for some reason. They didn’t exactly have normal matter around here; possibly a high-tech or super-fiber containment cable to hold Arxus?

   Kevin went off and found a quiet, and reasonably secure room to ward and re-embody his Thralls in. He wanted to give them some positive reinforcement for loyally doing their best anyway. They might not really have any choice about devoted loyalty and obedience – but being willing and happy with it all the way down made it a happier arrangement all around.

   Smoke and Marty went to find a golem and see if the Sunwell was still powered up. They found one partially buried under a collapsed building and spent some time digging it out with some local help. It was heavily damaged, but operational. Either the Sunwell was inactive, nearly drained, or the link was broken – although that seemed unlikely unless there was a general barrier up. There were so many golems

   It was running on 3% power – but the Sunwell was still active and stable, just nearly drained. The golem was willing to do what it could to help out, but suggested general repairs and checking the Sunwell immediately. It had limited autonomy based on what it judged best for the people of the realm.

   Kevin and the Thralls got back about them. Sadly, the Thralls didn’t know exactly what had happened to Arxus: they’d gone down before him despite his valiant efforts to protect them. They had managed to inflict about 30% casualties though. The enemy had been hampered by their (apparent) efforts to capture Arxus rather than killing him.

   That was weird. If they’d wanted Arxus, why was he running loose on the streets to start with? They might not have known who the focus would end up being, but they could have manipulated it. Of course, the group knew that most of their opponents were quite crazy.

   Kevin poured some power into the Golem, but told it to try and conserve it. It needed the local special blend or Mana, and – while Mana was expensive – he didn’t have the local magic.

   They went to check the Sunwell. It looked like tracking down Arxus was going to be a long-term project – but reaching the Sunwell didn’t involve much more than descending into a really deep pit. Marty and Smoke leapt in their own fashions (Smoke wanted to learn Marty’s – especially since Kevin said it was possible), Kevin and company settled for a more sedate levitation.

   The Sunwell was mostly drained – although Merlin had left a sign on it: “For sale: former lakefront property. CHEAP!!! (Smiley face included on sign) Make best offer 1-900-BITE_ME1”. Either Merlin or Snyder had a really cheap sense of humor.

   Still, the “Water” level was rising slowly. There was still incoming power, and it looked like it was stable and useful even without the input from distilling down children. It looked like the well would be back to normal in about three months.

   The group set the available golems to running tests and checking all stabilization and other systems. It looked like Merlin had wanted a really big, if presumably temporary, charge of magical energy for some reason. It was sort of odd really. Why go to all this trouble? The Manifold was FULL of energy. Maybe Merlin couldn’t naturally tap into it, wanted to be able to, and was trying to find a magical method of doing it?

   Right. Now they’d missed Breakfast AND Lunch. Time for a really big afternoon tea… Jarvian was about done with the attack too, so he could come as well. Fortunately, the city was still mostly intact.

   Kevin had the Thralls – both his usual set and the local ones – collect hungry local kids on the way: they might be hiding, but the Thralls were telepathic enough to find them easily. Sadly, the local food supplies were being rationed by large thugs – so (while Jarvian refueled and resupplied the Mirage) Kevin looked at the gathered local youngsters, took over a large vacant lot, and started transmuting to provide tables, chairs, and food. It was less fun doing it himself – if only because it always tasted a bit bland and average instead of being actually cooked – but the locals needed some extra supplies. This brought in more people, so they spread the word that the Mages Guild and Ministry of Magic were out of action – and free food was on the menu for the next few hours. If they had any friends they should bring them along.

   Smoke provided ice cream, and there was a small stampede of kids from out of alleyways and buildings. They had to set up some lines and delegate some Thralls and locals to keep things under control, but that wasn’t a big problem. They had plenty of cash.

   Jarvian came in for lunch as well via telekinetic transport (courtesy of Jaiden); it seemed like he was getting used to magic.

   It turned into quite a party. Kevin recruited, Marty got plastered (and put to bed), Jarvian finally realized that Jaiden was a girl and plotted a takeover of the Battletech universe, and Smoke discussed methods of organizing parties across dimensions.

   Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Ike, the GM went offline at this point – all right, but no power – and the session wound down after some in-character discussion. 1 CP apiece.

Session 48, Interlude: The Cyborg and the Fox

   Meanwhile, over in China, Kristin was waking up – and wasn’t happy. Strapped down, most systems deactivated or on standby, back in China and trapped in an eerily familiar lab.

   Outside Beijing, a small, very upset, Kitsune had followed the military convoy to the city – and was intent on finding some food, spreading some mischief, and otherwise making some trouble (at least if he could do it without much risk or fuss) for those miserable military people who’d burned down his den and stolen his girls. He hadn’t been hurting ANYONE, and he’d even rescued the girls before seducing them instead of just tricking and seducing them, so why try to blow him (and them) up? Maybe they had some brain sickness.

   In the lab, Kristin was being examined by some of the scientists who’d originally created her. They were pretty curious about the system upgrades, but seemed to regard her as a historical footnote of sorts: even with Monopole’s tinkering. Evidently they had much more sophisticated technology to test at the moment.

   Fortunately for Kristin, they hadn’t found all of Monopole’s upgrades. They never checked the hidden override chips – and those systems included an emergency override. It didn’t take long after that to find here weapons and go into full rampage mode.

   Meanwhile, Kitsune Shan had obtained a nice breakfast with a few transformed leaves for currency, gotten directions to an orphanage where the military had taken some strange girl, and provoked a small riot at the quarters for some Olympic athletes. Weird. Most of the villagers had seemed to realize what he was in short order. Didn’t these city-dwellers know how to recognize a kitsune? Well, his gain, their loss.

   The orphanage he wanted was currently being surrounded by the military. Shan transmuted most of their ammunition into jello and headed on in. Weird place. Why so much security at a home for kids? Were they stockpiling cute young girls for him? Well, probably not, but you never knew… 

   In the secret labs below the orphanage, Kristin had found out what was going on. This was the Chinese on-the-cheap version of a super-soldier program: enhancing and/or cyborging disposable kids. Their casualty rate was actually pretty low – but they were really heavily into brainwashing and – hmm – installing the cyberware with magic and enchanting it to adapt to the kids as they grew. Clever, and way cheaper than the American methods. There might be something to this mixing classical and modern techniques thing the Chinese were so big on. Still, it also said a lot about her own origins. HEY! No wonder this place was vaguely familiar and they wanted her back! Her records were here too! Orphaned in a fire and her injuries rebuilt with Cyberware… OK, in a way that had been a favor, but she could have done without the deep programming. Despite that – or perhaps because of it – it looked like quite a few of their agents eventually went rogue.

   Still, at the moment, they’d shifted focus to some sort of nanite-enhancement which they were trying to enhance with magic so it could self-install instead of needing expensive (and very, very, advanced) computer guidance.

   At about that point Shan – who’d been fooling around upstairs, shifting identities, causing confusion, and provoking the military while he hunted for where they might have stashed his girls – found the subbasements and came on down. They were not initially friendly, and in the ensuing argument Shan got throughly doused with war-wiring nanites – and his own innate magic provided more than enough power for the spell on them to get to work.

   Shan made his escape with a random selection of kids he’d more-or-less felt sorry for (what with the military being willing to shoot at them) while Kristin confronted the Dragon Warriors (China’s official hero team) and called for the Chauffeur to pick her up.

   After some debriefing they went looking for Shan: they might not know who he was, but they know that he was up to something.

   Shan, meanwhile, had dumped the boys he’d picked up on some local farmers – but found that they were less enthused about taking on girls. That old preference-for-boys thing again. For some reason he concluded that it would be best to flee the country, used his magic to forge both papers and money, and took a couple of flights – first to India, then to Taiwan, where he confused the customs inspectors and fled again. His nerves were not so good anymore.

   In pursuit, Kristin and the Chauffeur quickly decided that they were not in pursuit of a villain, an alien, or even a human – and whatever it was had to be both pretty young and inexperienced with human society. Not a menace, but certainly something that needed some supervision.

   The picked up the girls, but they didn’t know much – and locating Shan left them confronted with an “Undead President Nixon as an Elvis Impersonator”, his “Secret Service Bodyguards” and their “Pistols” with the flags that said “Bang”, all acting more-or-less independently. Darkness-illusion obviously enough, but what were the electronic traces and who would think that this made sense even as a diversion?

   Kristin deduced “Kitsune” soon enough, but the electronics were war-wiring. Where and how… OH. She’d accidently infected the creature with the stuff herself. Great. Yet another empowered youngster the Mandate was responsible for.

Sessions 45, 46, and 47: Gates of Darkness, Unquiet Realm, The Akhasic Plane

   With everyone AT LAST ready to go, Yuki, Zachary, Kimai, 200 Racaf Janissaries, the supervillain Ionstorm, Stranglevine, and ten Celestial Dragons / walking magical fusion bombs headed off into the Ru’Kahl hell-dimension.

   Not surprisingly, they arrived hundreds of miles away from where they needed to be, with a horde of hideous monsters, a variety of deadly environments, and a selection of other obstacles between them and the cavernous crypts and imprisoned souls of the Ru’Kahl stronghold proper.

   Oddly enough, this turned out to be somewhat fortunate; the initial battles and obstacles let them get the Racaf and some transportation arrangements (a boat made of ice) organized.

   With that done, their first major battle was at an island in the sea of darkness where the Ru’Kahl were working on opening a major portal to let their legions of monsters, as well as the Harvesters, directly into New York City. After that, they’d be re-adjusting to hit other cities. The ensuing massive battle involved thousands of opponents, fortified positions, and dozens of enemy psionics and magicians – but the Mandate actually managed to get the most compatible pairs of dragons to start working together. Sadly, the battle also led to a number of deaths among the Racaf: they simply weren’t anywhere near as durable as Ionstorm, Stranglevine or the Dragons (who also took some fairly heavy hits) – and they were on the front lines rather than working as support staff like Yuki, Zachary, and Kimai. Yuki and Kimai had nearly died anyway – there were just too many nygothean chthonic crawlers, psionic horrors, toxic living clouds, and skeletal legions. If they hadn’t started using some of the Ru’kahl Harvesters own black necromantic talismans against them, they probably would have lost – and they weren’t even anywhere near the main Ru’Kahl base yet. They couldn’t keep on doing that: the things were incredibly corruptive and addictive. Yuki had barely been able to stop after the first time or two.

   Two things then. First, try and get those bloody dragons to actually COOPERATE. Hopefully as a unified group, rather than in pairs trying to impress each other. The creatures had plenty of raw power if they’d just use it effectively.

   Secondarily, Yuki went to work on trying to unlock the sealed settings on the Racaf’s nanite-based portable weapons-constructors. Hacking an alien computer security system built around a technology many millennia older than earth’s wasn’t exactly easy – but Yuki’s remarkable skills and intuition, backed by Zachary’s chaos-magic enhancements (and a lot of luck), proved just barely equal to the task. She got program access, unlocked the weapons-of-mass-destruction settings, and got the fusion self-destruct program to abor, moments before the countdown on the fusion reactor which powered the system would have reached zero.

   That gave them access to tactical fusion warheads, nanite plagues, bioweapons, major toxins, death field projectors, gravitational nullifiers, gamma-ray flash systems, and a wide variety of other hideous weapons. Considering that the same aliens were offering their “friendship” to everyone back on earth, that wasn’t entirely a comforting thought – but they could certainly use some of those weapons now.

   Yuki opted for the fusion warheads. With the dragons to hold things steady and shield their ice-ship, a “sunwall” tactic of continuously bombarding the assault area with a steady stream of nuclear weapons seemed likely to be pretty helpful. By the time they reached the Ru’Kahl stronghold they should be able to have several hundred warheads ready to go.

   Back on Earth, the White Necromancer and his apprentices, the Chauffeur, Vasilko, Ranko, and the rest of the Mandate had pretty much fortified everything they could. They’d been able to sense Chi’an throwing high-powered spells around for awhile – evidently drawing on the massed power of his dragon-slaves – but none of it really seemed to be likely to do much more than delay the Bane Mummies a bit. He might be able to establish some enclaves, but that was just stalling. Maybe he’d realized it too: he’d quit a few hours ago.

   Then again, knowing Chi’an… He was the one who’d thrown a retroactive spell that affected his own past. Maybe they ought to check and see what harebrained scheme he’d embarked on this time.

   That turned out to be unnecessary: Kossitsika – one of Chi’ans two free girlfriends (lucky bastard, no wonder there was so much competition to be “flight leader” if the position came with that kind of perk) – dropped by with an urgent request for assistance. Chi’an had decided to singlehandedly defeat the Bane Mummies by going into the human racemind and purging the hundred-thousand-year-old trauma which lay at the base of their ability to keep coming back, and she hadn’t been sure that was a good idea even before the fireworks started.

   OK, that wasn’t necessarily a bad idea – but it was a job for a human telepath, or at least a subtle human mage with mental talents, not for a walking fusion bomb spewing dragonfire and blasting away with elemental magic! Who needed something like that in their head?

   No wonder he’d refused to come along into the dark dimensions. He’d wanted to be a solo hero and save the day on his own… Well, with the help of his slaves to provide extra power. In dragon terms they probably didn’t count as assistants though, just as tools.

   The White Necromancer droppped everything, took Jason – no help for that, he was linked into his mind – Foxfire, and the other Werechild (also linked to him), went astral, and started trying to get into the Akhasic – the realm of the racemind – from there.

   Chi’an’s trail was clear enough. He was simply chasing down associated chains of major traumas, slapping “happy-ending” fantasies/memory patches over them with gouts of raw power, and trying to fix things – apparently on the theory that if he fixed everything he ran across, eventually he’d hit the last trauma.

   Either that or he’d gotten so caught up in the experiences that he’d forgotten that – fundamentally – they weren’t real.

   The White Necromancer had the same problem. He accidently spun a dream of zombie hordes rising from the trenches of WWI, did battle in WWII in the role of the original White Necromancer, intervened in the plague, fought a fire, and helped villagers escape the flooding of the Mediterranean basin with barriers of bone – which was where he finally caught up with Chi’an, who’d simply spread a mass-merman transformation. With a chain of other dragons pouring power into him, Chi’an’s raw power was immense – but he wasn’t nearly as well-attuned to the human racemind, or as good at navigating the astral plane, as the White Necromancer.

   They regrouped at a concentration-camp memory of world war two. That was a reliable landmark – and there ought to be a link between it and the first White Necromancer. Then all they’d have to do would be jump back to the early days of the White Necromancer, and trace back the Bane Mummies from there…

   The Chauffeur had taken Vasilko and headed for Alaska. He’d better find out what was going on there before he tried anything else.

   It wasn’t good: Something was obviously pushing Chi’an off course and there was a powerstorm of dark energies pouring back into his physical body. Fortunately for Chi’an, he could handle that. The Chauffeur had Vasilko try to hold things stable while he did a little research – and attended a quick emergency meeting about preventing the spread of the alien war-wiring technology. Fortunately he’d fitted his vehicles with time-travel systems long ago, so it didn’t actually waste any of his time.

   Meanwhile, back in the dark realms, the Sunwall attack was underway. A steady stream of fusion warhead clusters was more than enough to keep most of the smaller creatures off their backs – but wasn’t enough to penetrate the deepest levels of the caverns of the Ru’Kahl. Some of them were so far down, and so reinforced by darkness, that material started sliding into the crater as fast as they could blow it out.

   They also hadn’t really counted on attempts to possess the Racaf and have them start firing nuclear warheads at each other at point-blank range (fortunately those aliens weren’t too dumb: their weapons had computerized safety interlocks), or the Harvester attack which left them all falling into the sea of magma they’d created, or nearly losing Yuki and Zachary to the corrupting addiction of the Ru’Kahl black necromantic talismans.

   Drat it, they kept forgetting that the enemy would be making plans too. It probably came with being teenagers. Yuki and Zachary were no more immune to overconfidence than the dragons were. On the other hand, faced with all their allies being in severe danger of being killed, and under mass attack, most of the dragons finally started listening to Yuki and began working as a group, with at least some consideration for what everyone else was doing and a certain amount of tactical sense.

   Unfortunately, in the deep crypts, the master of the Ru’Kahl cult was at the very center of it’s power, surrounded by fear and darkness made solid, by the tortured souls of the dead which powered black necromancy, and protected by a hundreds of mighty spells. Even Yuki, now channeling the full power of the last Ice Age, a reasonably cooperative group of celestial dragons, Ionstorm, and the rest were barely holding their own.

   There was still one more trick to try. If Chi’an could focus the power of his slaves through himself, couldn’t a group of free dragons do the same?

   Kanmari immediately volunteered to act as the “lens” – he was a dedicated show-off – and the chain of power formed while Yuki locked the Lich-Lord of the Ru’Kahl in a block of ice with herself. She could not hold him long- he was draining her life with terrible speed – but it was long enough. The dimension of darkness dissolved around them as the radiance of creation engulfed its heart – while Yuki and the Lich were blasted beyond the material realms into the higher Sephiroth, where Yuki cast him into the quilopothic abyss.

   Believing Yuki dead, the heroes, villains, dragons, and surviving mercenaries returned to Earth – there to confront Ranko, who was aware that something had happened to her sister.

Session 44: The Raving Maniacs

   Sadly for the Mandate, except for Kadath and Baen – both of whom were, as slaves, magically bound to obey their masters – the rest of the dragons who were willing too come along all seemed to be completely unable to stand each other. They acted like a bunch of squabbling, jealous, and demanding children. Of course, they were children by immortal dragon standards, but they were still all at least seven or eight hundred years old. They should know better by NOW.

   Anyway, Chi’an had said that he was too busy working on the magical second line of defense, and had refused to send any of his bonded subordinates other than Baen – but Ilarian Drake, Lohikaarme (F), Zheng Yi Sao (F), Kanmari, Jamathial (F), Apheriol, Xaliotl, and Wyvern (F) had all shown up. Roughly evenly divided between boys and girls. Even closer to even if you remembered that Baen had been neutered – and exactly even if you discounted Kadath. Dammit! Were they treating this as a SOCIAL EVENT!?! OK, so the Bane Mummies were only after human beings, but you’d think that they’d recognize the scale of the menace!

   Oh. They were adolescents. They thought they were more-or-less invincible. At least they had more grounds for that belief than most human adolescents did.

   Sadly, actually getting the expedition organized took hour upon hour upon hour. Ionstorm didn’t get along with half the dragons, the dragons were virtually all either showing off, pointedly ignoring each other, making snide remarks, hitting on each other, or otherwise being troublesome (it would have been outright war if both Ionstorm and the Dragons didn’t all treat blasting each other with vast bolts of raw cosmic power as the equivalent of a pie fight). The kids and werewolves kept getting involved (or at least wanting to be), the White Necromancer had to imbue all the hero’s and the Racaf’s weapons, armor, and gear with life energy to protect it all against the Ru’Kahl’s entropic spells, there were other protections to raise, supplies to lay in, people to say goodbye to, special awards to discuss with the Racaf, teary scenes of “sending our boys off to war”, having to recover Zachary (who’d obeyed the prompting of chaos and run off to enchant the farm animals downstate in weird and wonderful ways; bringing him back did not help with the ongoing arguments however), debates over the lunch menu, a debate over whether it was RIGHT to involve the Racaf, and plenty of sheer random chaos. If it wasn’t for the fact that it would be virtually impossible to handle matters without nonhuman assistance, most of the heroes would have voted for just throwing them all out.

   At least Stranglevine was quiet. Of course, the fact that it was a plant and had no known modes of communication might have something to do with that.

   Eventually the Mandate managed to get them all pointed in the same direction and headed into the gate, but it took a RIDICULOUS amount of work to pull it off.

Session 42 and 43: The Return of SETI and Homeland Security

   While they were dropping off the children – and attempting to bypass the paperwork – somebody had a bright idea: the Bane Mummies hell-dimension of darkness drained or suppressed human powers. Invocation magic should work (at least as long as it was calling on nonhuman sources), and alien abilities should work just fine.

   Kimai wasn’t alien enough – most of it’s ancestry was human, and the same went for the werewolves, kids, and most of the Mandate – but there were some alien heroes out there.

   Well damn. That was what a lot of those attacks on various superhero groups had probably been about. The Bane Mummies had been taking out likely opposition before it could get to them. Still, there ware a fair number of nonhuman heroes – and mercenaries and robots and saner villains – still out there. All they’d have to do would be research, locate, recruit them.

   The White Necromancer, Yuki, and the Chauffeur set out to do that while the rest of the group tried to reinforce the estates defenses (with more magic, technology, and living barriers), to keep the children out of trouble, and to persuade various groups NOT to accept the Kraggan’s war-wiring technology. It wouldn’t do them much good to save the world from the Bane Mummies and lose it to aliens. For that matter they had to brief the government.

   Wait, what about the Destruction Company and those nuclear warheads, the power armor goons in Russia, and the demon-creatures that were on the loose over there?

   Never mind, the Harvesters and the Aliens seemed a lot more urgent somehow.

   Unfortunately, with Bane Mummies and psionic reptile men striking at will all over the planet it was pretty hard to get the governments of the world to turn down military enhancement technology, no matter how suspicious-looking the offer was. Back to the Bane Mummies.

   Eventually they got their list on nonhumans down to a few who were willing to come, were at least vaguely heroic, and whom seemed likely to be useful (a provision added after a talk with the Knights of Avalon – who had several nonhuman members, but none with useful powers) – which left them with… Ionstorm, Stranglevine, anyone they could get from the Heroic Extraterrestrial Law Protectors, and however many Celestial Dragons they could talk into coming along.

   Oh yes. How dumb could they get? They had the Racaf. Two hundred well-equipped, extensively cyborged, and heavily armed alien mercenaries. They wouldn’t need to appeal to the Producer or to the Arith Vaya out near Jupiter for more help. Just as well, they’d had no idea of even how to communicate with them, much less persuade them of anything.

   OK, that wasn’t bad. Zachary would still have some enhancement powers, as well as some Invocation magic to use, Kimai needed to go to act as a compass (thanks to it’s ongoing mindlink with the stolen souls of its agents), and Yuki was going because she insisted. Oh well, the Racaf needed someone to be in charge, and they did see her as their current commander.

   With the mercenaries ready, their base about as magically fortified as they cold manage, and the home front precariously stabilized for the moment, it was time to start bringing in their allies.

Sessions 40 and 41: The Spirit Fisher and the Barque of Ra

   Off the coast of Alaska, the wild discharges of spiritual energies had awaked an ancient Guardian Spirit – a human soul that the shamans of the north had sacrificed long ago, setting it as a guard at the borders of the spirit world, and charging it with preventing such disturbances from disturbing the realms of the northern gods.

   Unfortunately, within the Rho-Field, Senca the Guardian had needed regular infusions of power to remain wakeful – and he had been forgotten for millennia. Senca, the Guardian, groped for focus – and latched onto the mind of recently-deceased drug-addict who’d been obsessed with Mexico. Senca promptly drafted the White Necromancer and his astral Chariot of Death for the trip to Mexico City – and managed to confuse and overawe the inexperienced magician enough to get him to take him there.

   Back in New York Zachary was attempting to restrain the kids – and to get a replacement camera and record-books: his had been disintegrated during the battle at the museum. It hadn’t gone well: the kids were obliging, but had far more magic available than children so young really ought to. With Kimai busy attempting to analyze her own genetic structure with the Genocide Data Node in the basement,

   Again unfortunately, the Mandate’s last visit to Mexico City had not gone well – and the local military promptly moved in while awaiting the arrival of the Avatars. With the White Necromacer and Yuki thus distracted, With the Chauffeur and the rest of the Mandate busy in New York and Alaska, the only available assistance was Zachary – and a scion of strife with his own personal hostility field was not a lot of help in calming things down. This left Senca on his own – and in his confusion he enacted a ritual to open the gates of the realm of the Northern Gods. Given that it was a realm of the deep sea, he promptly flooded much of Mexico City. Zachary, who had managed to get there after he heard about what was going on, called in a favor from Chronus to get most of the population out of the way, but couldn’t affect anyone whom had already been seen to be injured – which left several thousand casualties.

   The White Necromancer and Yuki knew that it probably wouldn’t work, but decided to try summoning the Barque of Ra anyway: in legend a ride in it could restore the dead. They loaded up the various spirits of the newly-dead and set sail – dragging Senca along simply to keep him out of trouble.

   They didn’t make it to the hours of the night of the Egyptian underworld. The Red Dragon was pulling at them, most of their passengers were vaguely Christian (with some notions derived from the old Aztec pantheon), and they all had their own ideas.

   In the end, they wound up in the Hindu creation myths, adrift in the sea of creation which was being churned into the milk of immortality by the combined efforts of the Gods and Demons using a mountain and the world-serpent for a rope to spin it with. Then the war broke out – and neutrality was just a way to get attacked from both sides.

   Souls were recruited to be demons and warriors of the gods, ninja ice cream of creation was made, snakes were assaulted, Senca got into an argument with the Monkey King in the Gardens of the Gods, and there was much confusion before the group managed to break the ship free of the Red Dragon’s powers and escape through Cleopatra, where they managed to get Elizabeth Taylor’s autograph.

   Returning to earth with the remainder of their cargo simply got the spirits reincarnated as new infants – about what would have happened to them anyway eventually. Well, it was better than nothing they supposed… Finding orphanages or parents to take them on would have taken a lot longer, but the Chauffeur was finally available again and he’d had lots of experience in finding homes for stray children.

Session 39: The Little Ice Age

   Like the Legend of the Five Rings log, the Champions log has gotten well behind – so here’s the first section of catch-up.

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   So: They had the undead warriors/soul-harvesters of an ancient death cult to deal with – a group of them and their leader, when one had nearly been sufficient to defeat two major superhero teams, the highly-experienced New York City police department, Mr Tanner, a set of high-grade professional security spells and systems, Kimai, some random independent heroes, and a detachment of the Producers movie-making forces. They were operating out of a dark dimension that vastly amplified their abilities and suppressed those of all other humans. They had wiped out all human life across North and South America a hundred thousand years ago, drew on the power of millions of imprisoned and tormented souls for power, and even the first White Necromancer had been unable to do more than trick them into thinking they had succeeded in wiping out humanity before he spent centuries weaving spells to keep them from seeing anyone else from their dark realm and to seal them there.

   Now they knew of the rest of the world and – thanks to modern modifications to the landscape – the White Necromancers ancient spells had been damaged by humanities ongoing changes to the land to the point where any concentrated effort would pierce them.

   Just wonderful.

   Unfortunately, by the time they got that much information together, they had an urgent call from Raven, in Alaska. A sizeable chunk of Anchorage had dissolved into a crater full of monsters, the rest of the city was under attack – and most of the west coast groups were already under attack or were out of contact.

   The Chauffeur swore to himself: why did everything have to happen at once? Wait: they never had figured out who’d been paying for the rest of those dinosaur-augmented psionic mercenaries. The cult head – he’d disappeared after they’d awakened him, and he’d only put in a few appearances since. All for silly things… Had that been a diversion while he’d been investigating, scheming, and gathering mercenaries?

   Anchorage was – at best – a draw. By the time they got there – probably by the time they’d been called – the Harvester had already come and gone. Anchorage had had few protective spells. The Harvester had simply visited the center of town, stolen all the souls within it’s range, transformed the soulless bodies into ravening monsters, and left them to finish the extermination. Individually the creatures were no match for a superhero – or even for a normal enhanced by Zachary – but there were thousands, what was left of the city was without power, and a storm was moving in. Raven had set up a safe zone, but in the end Yuki allowed the Spirit of the Ancient Winters – the Spirit of the Ice Age – to channel itself through her and enshroud the entire field of battle in glacial ice.

   It was not easy to stop it afterwards, and there was no immediate way to seal off the link that Yuki had opened at all.

   Well, even a new ice age would be better than the Harvesters, Bane Mummies, or whatever unpronounceable thing they called themselves.

   The Harvester had apparently attempted to find the Dragon Enclave next – but had eventually given it up and returned to the dark realms. The Dragons had been erecting confusion and concealment wards to keep the governments off their back for quite awhile now, and those had inadvertently served them well.

   They warned them anyway. Along the way, the White Necromancer borrowed Baen for the next few decades: he might be useful, it would be a waste to leave him in Chi’an’s stables – and it would have been awfully unkind to leave him there anyway. The boy had to be bored as hell.