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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Pirate Don Quixote So, around a generation ago, a desperate group of pirates formed an alliance to defeat the all-out war declared on them by Theah and the ATC. Their only cause was survival, and their only allies were each other. That small band grew to become the Brotherhood of the Coast, and their holdings have expended to be the Republic of Pirates, with a theoretical center in Aragosta. Every ship a state, every captain a voice on the Council of Captains. The tiny island is mostly used for transfer of goods and for entertainment than any kind of governance, of course, but it and the Brotherhood are ruled by an elected king or queen. Most discount the Republic of Pirates as little bit a villain's haven...but on the other hand, almost no one can stand up to the naval power of the Brotherhood when they gather en masse. The story of Aragosta begins with Vincenzo "Knobby Knees" Gatto, who was the worst pirate in the world. Not in the sense of being the most terrifying, but in the sense that he just wasn't any good at it. Vincenzo Gatto was an old, rich Vodacce merchant with romantic dreams of piracy and no skills whatsoever at either ship command or combat. He spent his fortune to live out his dreams, beginning as a hunter of Crescent shipping in the Numanari Approach. He lost three ships and their crews with them, and earned a price on his head from both the Crescents and Vodacce, so he headed for the Widow's Sea to hunt Castillian vessels. He lost three more very expensive ships. Fearing for his life and knowing he'd really have trouble getting another crew, he took what he had left and headed for the Atabean Sea in search of better fortune. He found none. He attacked a Castillian merchantman and failed disastrously due to a frigate guarding it, which crippled his ship and forced him to land on a large but unpopulated island covered in crabs and lobsters. Gatto decided that he was probably going to die on that rock, but at least he wouldn't have to starve...except for one problem: the frigate chased him down to arrest him for the reward. Gatto and his crew boarded their ruined vessel for one last stand when a giant lobster appeared, attacking both ships. The two crews worked together and slew the massive beast, and in exchange, the captain of the frigate, Jacinta Irati Loida Vela, offered to spare Gatto's life if he swore to never again practice piracy. Gatto swore that oath on the Book of Prophets, to never be a pirate again, and Vela sailed off, leaving Gatto to find a new dream - specifically, becoming the great Merchant Prince of the Atabean. Gatto declared the crab-infested island his new home, dubbing it the Porto di Aragoste for the numerous crustaceans, and declaring it safe harbor for all pirates and ne'er-do-wells. Most knew it then and now as Aragosta. If Gatto couldn't be a pirate, he reasoned, he'd surround himself with them in a haven unlike any that had ever existed. Which isn't to say he had any good luck. He started by building a large tavern on the shore and naming it Vela's Mercy. It burned in down within a year. So, he rebuilt it as Vela's Dream, and it burned down within five weeks. So the third time he just went with 'Vela' and it ended up as the site of a violent battle between two rival crews that left it burned out and covered in blood. When he began rebuilding again, one of the pirate captains asked why he was rebuilding that bucket of blood, and in frustration, he renamed it Seccio di Sangue. For some reason, it survived that time - along with the name. Over the years, Aragosta achieved Gatto's dream - it became a safe haven for pirates and scoundrels, an island that sold whatever illegal goods youm ight want, thriving and protected by those who believed in the power of crime. Gatto was the de facto governor, but he never actually enforced any kind of law or order - no king, no lord, just the crew. This made Aragosta quite dangerous, but he wanted it that way. The Bucket o' Blood, as the tavern became none, still stands to this day, and Gatto never thought it'd be the site of the most infamous agreement ever signed in Theah - an agreement signed in blood. In the years after the island's establishment, the Castillian and Montaigne nobles became quite upset about piracy. Normally, they would hire warship to protect their merchantmen, but even that wasn't reliable any more, so the two nations form an alliance against pirates. The ships they hired to fight piracy flew the colors of Castille and Montaigne, but with a black dot in the middle of the flag, to mark them as pirate hunters. These ships, the black spots, hunted and slaughtered pirates, stealing their ships to sell off to Vesten and Vodacce. The Black Spot Fleet nearly destroyed Atabean piracy. Nine great pirate captains met at the Bucket o' Blood: Roberts, Reis, Aardig, Fevrier, Carrigan, Hupia, Vinter, Quijano, Cannonnaso and Gosse. They spent a week discussing, trying to unite, before finally agreeing on a single Charter to bind all the vessels they commanded. It promises mutual protection, annual election of captains, a council of captains that would meet at the Bucket, sharing of spoils for repairs and fleet maintenance, protection of Aragosta, the sharing of sea charts and information, and a vow to hunt down any ship that flew the black spot. As punishment, any sailor who violated the Charter would be branded with a black spot as the true sign of a traitor. When the Charter was finished, all nine captains pooled their blood in one bowl and signed their names with it. The Republic of Pirates was born. Gatto was present htat night, and out of respect, he was given the chance to offer up his blood and his signature. Finally, Vincenzo Gatto was the pirate he always dreamed of. He walked back home with the aid of his cane and servant. A few years later, he headed out to fish in a small boat. A wave of fog rolled in and his servants lost sight of his vessel. When the fog left, he was gone, never to be seen again. Today, ARagosta has been transformed from a small, minor pirate haven to the de factor capital of the Brotherhood of the Coast. Its popularity and its infamy have attracted countless pirate crews and captains, many of whom have signed the Charter and joined the Brotherhood, and they have helped to build Aragosta into a bustling freehold of shipbuilding, trade and smuggling. Aragosta is a safe haven for all of the Brotherhood and those they ike, though the fact that it's open to anyone willing to sail there means it also has everyone that's ended hated somewhere else in the world - wanted criminals, dissidents, political fugitives. All are welcome. Aragosta is the lowest common denominator. But hey, the lobster's great! Most of Aragosta runs on a barter economy, primarily because the only natural resource on the entire island is the lobster. Every transaction is based on some mix of Guilders, goods and services, and reputation. There are three main measures of the Guilder that the Republic cares about : 100, 500 and 600. A hundred Guilders is the pay the Republic gives for loss of an eye or finger in service. Five hundred for a limb, six for something horrific and larger in scope than that. That's your only reliable standard of value to hte Guilder. So the question is, how difficult is what you want, compared to the kind of job that'd lose you an eye or a leg? That's how you price in Guilders. Larger transactions, however, rarely involve coin - they're usually based on haggling over goods. Fine coffee, facy cigars, sailcloth, a boat, a door repaired, an enemy investigated, a leg broken. It means that buying or selling anything takes a lot of time, of course. But the most important of Aragosta's currencies is reputation. Pirates live or die by fear, infamy, adventure and story. An exchange can alter your reputation based on how fairly the other side thinsk you haggled, how pleasant you made the process, or what promises of futre deals you made. Thus, the most powerful are those with an excellent reputaiton. Frequent and fair dealings with many poeple, who will vouch for you, that's what makes an elite on Aragosta. Everyone wants to talk to you because you can spread their name into a reputation of their own. This is why it's very hard to get an Aragostan to give a fair, honest assessment of someone else. Anywhere else, that's just tavern gossip - people talk about each other, make jokes, tell tall tales. In Aragosta, the description you give of someone you deal with is money you give away. Spend your money wisely. Aragostan buildings are mainly built form shipwrecks - Vendel mead halls made out of longships, fences made of ship hull, roofing of snapped mast and sailcloth. If someone says you're dressed like an Aragostan, it means your clothing is mismatched, if charming - every sleeve or button beginning life on another shirt, stolen from another person, yet tastefully and classily assembled. From an Aragostan, it's a high compliment. From anyone else, it is a deadly insult to your sense of style. Aragostan food is likewise eclectic - and as a result, it's amazingly good. They mix meats, spices and recipes from across the world. You might not find any specific ingredient you go looking for, but you can easily find a dozen that are quite similar. And of course there's the lobster. Aragosta has dozens of different and excellent recipes for lobster bisque. A chef can actually make an excellent living on the island - sailors off a ship love eating food other people make, and will pay heavily for it. The poor have to make do with seafood, nutritious but lacking in vitamins that are the great luxury - which is to say, fruits and vegetables to ward off scurvy. While in Vodacce, 'aragosta' on a menu means lobster, 'Aragostan' on a menu means 'whatever looked good and/or cheap at the market today.' Aragosta is covered in small churches, temples and shrines, rather like barnacles. The average pirate tends to be a rather more spiritual person than you might expect, simply as a result of being so close to death so often. Houses of worship are generally shared - a small church may service Dinists from the Crescent in the morning and Jaraguan Sevites in the evening, with a weekly Vaticine service one morning, and an Objectionist one at nightfall. They stay friendly pretty easily, not least because of the threat of cultists of the Devil Jonah. Many Aragostans are so terrified of Devil Jonah that they've decided he's the only dangerous spiritual power to worry about. Vaticines may complain of Objectionists, Objectionists may complain of Crescents - but none of them are chopping each other's limbs off and hurling them into the sea for dark powers, so that makes them okay. At least, that's what everyone says Jonah cults do. Rumor has it that they perform violent, deadly rituals involving sacrifice of body parts in order to be rewarded by the evil spirit that is the Devil Jonah. Jonah worship is the only crime on the island that is punishable by exile or death, usually at the hands of an angry mob. Aragosta has no formal government - just power players, those with enough wealth to control a district. The real power, however, is in the hands of the senior captains and the King of the Pirates. (Queen, these days.) The war with the Black Spots is long since ended, but now a new war is brewing against the Atabean Trading Company. Their recent creation of what amounts to private Letters of Marque against their rivals is a blatant attack on the Brotherhood...and the real knife is that one of the First Captains, Stephen Fevrier, is now a Company man. A pirate hunter. Company President George Rourke promised him the deed and rulership of all Aragosta if he can end the Republic and kill all of its successful captains. This betrayal is legendary, and it couldn't come at a worse time. The King of the Pirates is the job no one wants, but someone has to have. It's a thankless, tiring job. The First Charter maintains that the King must stay on Aragosta to manage disputes and keep the peace. The First Captains agreed to this because none of them wanted the job and none of them wanted the others to enjoy the job. The Charter is vague on what it means, however, and each King has interpreted it differnetly. King Roberts continued to sail, returning once a month handle affairs. King Gosse was a more permanent resident, leaving the island once or twice a year for adventure. A few years ago, however, he retired after being maimed in battle by the Company, losing the use of one arm and requiring a cane. No one wanted to take the crown after him, so he announced that on the last day of the year, the last Captain to arrive and tell him they didn't want the job would be the one to get it. Every captain sailed in that day as quick as they could. It went long, the sun setting, until at last, Captain Morgan, Jacqueline Bonaventura arrived and was made Pirate Queen. The King (or now Queen) rules from Gatto's old mansion atop the hill by the port. It has a small staff, and receives 10 percent tax on all treasure obtained by the Brotherhood...but a gilded cage is a cage, and all three monarchs have hated it. The pirates hate following rules, but they must have a leader to survive. Since the founding of the Republic, it has suffered two great betrayals, and each has shaken them to their core. The first was Captain Reis. She - yes, she - is one of the most feared pirates in the world, called the scarlet reaper. Why do so many on the continent think she's a huge man with a scythe? Because...well, she doesn't leave survivors, but the tale keeps opping up. Some believe the Devil Jonah made her leave some survivors alive, but that she has her first mate claim to be Reis to keep heroes off her scent. Others think some man is out there using her name and reputation and hoping never to meet her. Anyway, when the First Charter was formed, no one actually expected her to show up, but she did. In the first week, no one expected her to sign the First Charter, but she did. And no one expected her to keep to it...but she did. No one knew it then, but she was willing to help out and even to wait years to enact her true villainous plot. She is a very, very patient predator. Reis was the one who suggested the Charter be signed in blood. She peformed the ritual that bound them all together, and while the others didn't truly understand the blood rite they did, or its implications, Reis knew. Everyone knew it was magic, but only she knew what it meant. She knew the ritual that tied them all - and when she went to the Devil Jonah and offered him the souls of those bound to her in exchange for immortality, the Charter let her do it on an equal footing to the most terrifying being on the sea. There was only one catch - Jonah would need to claim each captain's soul himself, at the exact moment of death. Jonah took the deal. The Captains weren't aware of this betrayal until Roberts was wounded and captured by a pirate hunter. As he lay dying, the Black Freighter appeared from the fog. The survivors said Jonah's crew attacked the pirate hunter, but that the Devil Jonah himself took the very soul from Roberts' body. After Roberts, it was Hupia, betrayed by his first mate and bosun. At the moment of his death, the Freighter appeared, and Jonah took his soul as well. And then Gatto vanished in the fog. A pattern became evident. The Captains soon figured it out. Reis' betrayal has put her on every Brotherhood ship's hit list. The curse of the Charter should have struck Reis, but none of the other captains know if it did, or if the Devil Jonah gave her a way to avoid that fate. Any ship that has encountered the Crimson Roger since has not survived to tell the tale and answer the question. The First Captains are now all damned by the betrayal. The Devil Jonah haunts them, waiting for them to die so he can take their souls. The Charter holds, but it's only a matter of time now before Jonah comes calling. Next time: The Second Betrayal and the major Captains. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 21:41
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Mors Rattus posted:7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Pirate Don Quixote  (I'm enjoying this review; also the others)
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Jun 30, 2018 23:26
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it's aragostan rhyming slang
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Jun 30, 2018 23:28
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Holy poo poo, I love that backstabbing.
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Jun 30, 2018 23:36
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I went to a gaming store and the 7th Sea 2E core was 80$ so I couldn't afford it. 
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Jul 1, 2018 00:04
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Steve February Stephen Fevrier was another First Captain that signed the original Chaarter - indeed, he'd been a quiet man who was among the first to call for an alliance against the Black Spots. Shortly after their defeat, though, his ship was caught in a storm that took him to the Seventh Sea and trapped him and his crew there for three years, dodging horrors from beyond reality. Eventually, Fevrier made a pact with an entity within the Seventh Sea that let him escape, but at a horrible cost. While 30 months had passed for him and his crew, 30 years had passed in the actual world - and now, he was bound to the beast and was slowly changing, growing to resemble his otherworldly master. He joined the ATC, giving them all the secrets he knew - names, places, ports, sea charts. He began hunting the other First Captains and the Brotherhood in general. The Company gives him crews and ships, but he still prefers the one he brought back from the Seventh Sea, crewed by men and women who were ex-pirates, as he is. No one is sure why Fevrier betrayed the Brotherhood. Perhaps he believes hunting them down will somehow free him from the pact he made with the monsters of the Seventh Sea. Perhaps he thinks they betrayed him somehow, condemning him to his fate. Perhaps he's just gone utterly mad. Whatever the case, the Company has promised him Aragosta, if he can destroy the Republic of Pirates and shatter the Brotherhood. Fevrier is certain that, armed with his strange ship, his crew and the wealth of the Company - he can do it. He may not be wrong. To join the Republic is easy. Many have done it, signed their own Charters and nailed them to the walls of the Bucket o' Blood. All you need to do is write your own Charter, sign it in blood and put it on the wall. The specific ritual used by the First Captains has been lost - only Reis knew it, after all - but others have mimicked its procedure and gotten lesser effects. What Reis and the First Captains did has been passed down in 40 years of oral tradition, and its purity has been corrupted. The sorcery just isn't as powerful now as it once was. Still, signing a blood Charter gives both a blessing and a curse. Those that abide by it get luck, those that break it get ruin. Of those First Captains, only five remain. Three of the original crew are dead, one is missing, and Gatto of course vanished as the tenth. They remain, however, notorious figures. Morgan Jacquueline Bonaventura, the Pirate Queen is the third to hold the job. She is a literal bastard - she was born without a family, knowing neither parent. She was raised in an orphanage and apprenticed as a sailor on a Castillian fishing boat. Five years later, she was an officer aboard Gentleman Gosse's ship. She sees Gosse as her true father, who taught her everything she knows. Since taking her job as Queen, she's proven a progressive and dynamic leader - she wants to do things right, and has implemented improved communications using various magically talented pirates as well as developing new lines of trade to areas that aren't La Bucca. Her strict policy of solidarity has meant many leave the island marked with the black spot, but her improved defenses have prevented heavy losses during Company raids. Unfortunately, it's under her that Fevrier has come back. Both the Company and Fevrier have underestimated Bonaventura, at least, thanks to her youth. She's managed to keep the captains loyal and coordinated, but she's having trouble continuing to rally the entire Republic indefinitely. She needs to find a feasible end to her war before the coalition fractures. She has to defeat her foes, maintain her limited power, keep Aragosta out of Company hands and stop the Devil Jonah from taking more souls. To make it worse, it's not been a profitable war. Yes, they've captured newer, faster ships...but their losses outnumber their gains, thanks to Fevrier's pirate hunters and pirates choosing to break ties and leave the fight. Some think Bonaventure must be removed to make peace with the ATC, if she can't win soon. While Bonaventura doesn't want the job she's got, Gosse has trusted her with it, and she respects no one more. She is deeply frustrated, as anyone who meets her can tell. She is currently relying on the aid of her best friend, Madeline Dorman, and her sisters Chloe and Sophie, all skilled sorciers of Porte, who are running the communications side of the Brotherhood. The rest of her crew has moved on, but have all promised to rejoin her if she ever salls La Dama Roja again. Michael "Cannonnaso" Gatto was never a great pirate. He had a crew, his ship didn't sink, he did pirate once. But he's always been better on land. He runs the longshoremen and workers of Aragosta. He's an older man, the son of the original Gatto, and has lived on the island his entire life. You want something done, you go to him. But you don't use his nickname unless you've earned it. You'll know when that happens - it's when you can use it and he doesn't have guys break your nose and limbs. He's called that because, yes, he has a big nose and lots of allergies. He's gotten used to it, insofar as he can. He's Bonaventura's right hand man, the guy who runs the island for her. He speaks Vodacce fluently and without accent but has never left the Atabean Sea. He hasn't a head for sailing or strategy - his expertise lies in shipping, scheduling and smuggling, and in finding people to delegate the things he's not good at to. He trusts capable people who will try new things. He's main gripe is organizational - he thinks that Aragosta needs more laws and accountability. Not a lot, but more. So far, every time he suggests it, he gets shouted down. Konstance Vinter is gigantic. She's over six feet tall, with dark blonde hair to her shoulders. Her ship, Dame Dod, is a black frigate with black sails. While she's been running it for 25 years, she doesn't look a day over 30. When she speaks on the Council of Captains, her voice shakes the walls. She's made it clear that she wants to put together a giant fleet and just burn down Fort Freedom, the ATC's headquarters, once and for all. Bonaventura often reminds her that not everyone living there is part of the Company or even complicit, so she's been focusing on raiding Company hsipping near Vestenmennavenjar so that she won't be tmepted to act rashly. Still, her mind is always on Fort Freedom. She's still a hero - for now. She used to be a merchant with the Vendel League, who brought her wife and children to the New World to share her purpose...until they became targets of the ATC. Her wealth and power made her dangerous, so the ATC murdered her family and framed her for the crime, convincing the governor to ship her to Fort Freedom for her prison sentence, where they took all her holdings and used them to build up their slaving trade. She and few others ran a prison break, though of the 24 who started it, only 4 survived. Konstance became a pirate in order to fight the corrupt tyranny of the Company. She still remembers the screams, the torture, the labor, the hunger. She believes the only way to end her nightmares forever is to burn Fort Freedom down. As for why she ages slowly...well, one story says she was kissed by an Avalon Sidhe who gave her long life. Others say she found a fountain of youth in Aztlan, and another says she got a Vodacce FAte Witch to cut the black cord of death from her before she sailed for the Atabean. Konstance will never speak about which, if any, is correct. Grace Aardig is the Old Dame now. Once, she was a beautiful young woman who had just taken her first prize ship - that was when she signed on with the first Charter. She's old now, knobby, has outlived two husbands, and she generally prefers to stay in the dry, warm climate of Aragosta where she can command her rather large fleet of ships from her armchair. They are, after all, run by her children and grandchildren. This makes Grace the head of the largest voting bloc on the Council, as all of her captains have signed their votes to her, and she attends every goddamn metting. It's no secret she's not a fan of Bonaventura, but she's busy enough with her own fleet to not worry about the whole Republic. She favors a more defensive strategy of wasting the Company's time and money...and because of her voting power, that's what the Republic is mainly doing. She can barely remember the old days, but they taught her hard wisdom. While she can no longer dance, she loves to listen to her grandson Ronnie play the fiddle, and she keeps tabs on her entire family. Her first great-grandchild, Emily, is a month old. She is in constant pain from arthritis and old injuries, but it keeps her sharp. She doesn't drink except for a dram of whiskey for the sharper pains, and while she is a cranky busybody, she's still sharp. Some think she's gone deaf; she lets them think this, and sees it as her job to keep others from making her mistakes. James Dharr is the captain of the Lamya. Every time he comes into port, he's a conquering hero with exotic plunder and tall tales, host of an island-wide party that lasts days and ruins all productivity whenever he shows up. Bonaventura loses weeks of planning whenever he shows, and to her chagrin, even Cannonnaso and Aardig like him. He claims to be the bastard son of an Avalon Sea Dog and a Crescent princess. What's worse is how eloquent his speeches are at Council about going beyond the Atabean in search of treasure. Bonaventura would love if he really did just leave and never come back...but his charisma brings in more recruits than any other captain, and if he left, many would go with him. Dharr's most recent return sparked an eight day party on Aragosta thanks to the gold bullion and ivory he brought back from Ifri. He claimed to have married the daughter of a king and gotten it as a wedding gift before leaving the princess at the altar to sail away. He finds the entire Atabean political stuff exceptionally boring and thinks that the ATC is unable to catch any decent pirate, much less himself. He preferred Bonaventura before she was Queen and got all uptight, thinking that if she was like that still, the Company'd be done already. Problem is, he said something like that once too often and she's gone cold to him. For all his bragging and arrogance and vanity - he is a hero, through and through. Just, the kind that makes sure he's first there when anyone needs help, and makes sure everyone knows he was first there. Doing right is a principle for him...but he wants to have fun doing it. Thomas St. Claire is the star of John Wick's second novel, Born Under the Black Flag, but that's not actually very important to his role in the game. He's famous as a captain for the Republic because, for almost 10 years, he was one of the worst scum on the sea, first mate under William Stroud on the Crimson Ghost. He was a heartless monster, like his captain, who would burn down a settlement and rot out a ship just for a few coins. But...something happened to him. He was caught by the ATC and sent to a "plantation." He spent two months there and then, on official record, he was hung until dead. He showed up shortly after as a pirate captain, hunting down the Crimson Raiders with the ruthless efficiency he'd had as a Crimson Raider. Two years later, his ship, the Hanged Man, made port in ARagosta. He walked in with a young girl at his side, nailed his Charter to the wall and threw down a sack of coins to buy everyone's drinks, as demanded by tradition. Then he left with the girl. So, the truth? He was a monster, yes. There's too much blood on his hands to get rid of. But as he hanged, he saw a vision of black fire under his feet, and a light and beatific face gazing down at him from above. Ever since, he's been a changed man. The monster is still there, but he's caged it. He's found new purpose - a new reason to get up each morning. That purpose? Kill the Crimson Raiders. Every last one. Morgan Doyle is the classic Inish pirate - short, one-eyed, long braided red hair, knack for surviving just about anything. Rumor has it that he's survived more monster attacks than any other pirate on the entire Atabean Sea. However, he cannot remember why he came out to the sea. All he knows is that he has a locket bearing two pictures - his own and that of a beautiful woman - and that sometimes, he can hear Sidhe whispers in his dreams. He knows he's lost something but isn't sure what it is or where. The truth? He grew up in a small fishing village and fell in love with a woman named Cordelia. He tried to put her out of his mind when she was shipped off to Vodacce to marry a noble, but he met her again a decade later when she hired him to smuggler her out of Vodacce by night. They returned to Inismore to be married, but found their entire village had vanished. They set out to rescue their friends and family, to find the truth...but then, they ran foul of Unseelie, who stole Cordelia away and took Morgan's memory, dropping him off in the Atabean for his trouble. Morgan can't remember much of his past, but he knows he will fight for the poor and innocent, that evil wins when good does nothing, and that it's better to have loved and lost than to be cold. In his dreams, he hears whispers of something he should know but doesn't, feels a Sidhe hand stroking his face and drawing silver threads. Part of him knows he must leave the Atabean. If the right heroes show up, he'd love to return to Inismore and regain his memory, to find out what he must do to meet the woman he knows he loves, but whose name he can't recall - only the face in the locket. Locations! The Claws are the two forts on either edge of Lobster Bay, the main bay on which the docks, quays, wharves and piers are built. They are armed with long guns meant to deter enemy ships. One of the Claws was built by the Republic, while the other is made out of an abandoned Vaticine friary. They're high, solid structures built decades ago, which is kind of a problem. Their square build is antiquated, wiuth modern ones using the Vodacce Star pattern to have mounted guns covering all angels of approach. So far, only the Company and some governments can afford star forts in the Atabean, though. Bonaventura would like to raise funds to rebuild the Claws, but she's had no luck. The bay itself has pure white beaches intersperesed with ship moorings and ships under construction. Aragosta's the place to get a new ship, especially a coastal raider. The best builder is Red Alice Stewart, an elderly Highlander whose name is not taken from her (black) hair, but from her undending sunburns. For ten years, she's complained of the sun and swore each project would be her last, until one of her friends put a sign up over her door - 'Red's Ten-Year Retirement.' Red's never taken it down - she just changes the number each year. (It is now 22.) The Bucket o' Blood has been destroyed and rebuilt many, many, many times. Bona ventura and Cannonaso have finally spent a fortune transforming it into something amazing, hiring Augustin Hebert, an Eisen castle architect, to make a tavern that couldn't be destroyed. He took the challenge, using modern Castilliand and Eisen design to make a modular interior for easy replacements. The inner walls are coated in Charters, flags, fish, anchors and ship's wheels, all with a story the staff will happily tell. The food is expensive by Aragostan standards but quite good. The bouncer is Adetokunbo, a 40-year-old Ifrian mercenary who is said to have met the O'Bannon when he went to Inismore to fight the famous boxers there, and made the man smile just by standing there. The main floor is for the common pirate, with uncomfortable but sturdy chairs that make decent weapons, and tables bolted to the floor, designed to be too heavy even for Ussurans to lift after Herbert witnessed pirates flipping tables after games. The three walls that don't face the harbor all have their own bar, and two spiral staircases lead up to the balcony level, where the tables have tablecloths and the chairs are comfy. Dancers, musicians and jugglers are always working upstairs, and the customers are wealthier, with candles on the tables. The food costs the same, but the waitstaff expect much better tips for their wit and expertise. A few of the ladies were courtesans in Vodacce and expect the treatment they'd get at home from admirers. The third floor is all private rooms, mostly for meetings. Some are retained by the Republic in perpetuity. They're not as fancy as you might see in Vodacce or Montaigne, but are extremely large. Then there's the Emperor's Boyfriend, which takes some telling. A decade after the Black Spots were defeated, the Captain Zwarte Hoop's shop, Angstrdroom, picked up a castaway on the eastern side of Aztlan. She spoke no known language, and even the Jaraguan and Aztlan crewmen were baffled by her appearance and clothes. When she was offered water, she stripped naked on the deck and revealed a skin covered, head to toe, in elaborate tattoos, which seemed alive in the sunlight, moving across her skin. Later, she impressed them by saving Hoop as he was dragged across the deck by a broken spar. She leapt from the deck to the ratlines to catch him, breathing air into his mouth for minutes while he untangled himself from the ropes underwater. When asked how she managed to mvoe so fast and hold her breath even longer than the best pearl divers, she pointed to her tattoos and said something that sounded like 'whoa sherr Whenshen.' Ever since, she's been Wenshen. Hoop became convinced the tatoos were magic, and asked for one in exchange for whatever she wanted (via a long series of hand signs and sand drawings). She agreed, and he took her to Aragosta, giving her a share of his loot. She mixed her inks, using a goldsmith's forge to make her own needles, and gave him his first tattoo. Before long, she was in high demand. She learned Numanari, which she speaks with a heavy accent, and she doesn't give a tattoo to all the customers that enter her shop - that'd be the Emperor's Boyfriend, a name she says means 'miserable job' in her homeland's slang. She talks to her customers and often asks a task of them before she'll do the work, and she always gives you the mark you need, not the one you want. She also does mundane tattoos for cash, but she never lists prices - she charges based on what she thinks of you after looking you over, and each tattoo is custom. You never ask for someone else's. She has now trained several apprentices over the years, and she once told Hoop and a few others of her two terrible voyages and her trek across Aztlan. Most of her stories are tall tales of warriors leaping from tree to tree, fighting aerial monsters. Her favorite stories are similar to her own tales, but about Theah, IFri, Aztlan or the Crescent Empire rather than her own homeland. Her shop is right by the Bucket o' Blood, and she's been known to give a magic tattoo to someone who tells a particularly good story over particulalry good booze. The Forever Reef...well, everyone knows Aragosta sits on top of an ancient reef - you can see it if you go swimming. Everyone just assumed there was more rock and coral under it, until Bonaventura hired a squad of adventurers to investigate Devil Jonah cultists. They discovered ruins under the reefs, which went deep, deep inside - below the sea floor. Chambers, tunnels, chutes, secret doors, ladders - all on top of each other in some kinf of cylindrical maze that went as far down as you cared to go. After a disastrous fight with the cultists destroyed the entrance, the captains decided to blockade the place...until the Explorers got wind of it and showed up. Expeditions are limited to low tide due to flooding, but they've discovered some things. First, the ruins appear to be Syrneth in origin, but some of the devices appear to have been modified and corrupted with the kind of devilish prostheses granted by the Devil Jonah. The upper levels of the reef are fully inhabited by cultists, outcasts, beggars and traitors, though just a few months ago they found a quick tunnel to move from one side of the island to the other as a shelter against hurricanes. It has also become a haven for thugs and assassins, known as the Forever Reef or the Aragostan Underground. It's dangerous even for the bravest heroes - ten times worse than surface Aragosta in its worst moments. The murderers openly ply their trades, without care for any rules of god or man. The deeper levels currently known are four to five stories under the island, with windows of glass or crystal that reveal the water beyond, and tunnels of seawayer cutting through and across. Locks and hatches would allow a diver, if daring enough, to enter the water. The archaeologists have noticed a strange effect, however. The lower you go in the tunnels, the sicker you get. At first it feels like nausea, but the deeper you go, it starts to turn into madness, and before long you don't want to come back up. Those who go too low return saying that they saw things down there - people - and that the sea creatures clinging toe the glass spoke to them, saying true things. They spoke of dark shapes darting through the water, with trailing tails, whiuch carried weapons of coral and brass, with glistening eyes and ruined mouths in human faces. So that's fun! Next time: Secret Societies on Aragosta, bad guys, and the Devil Jonah his own self.
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Jul 1, 2018 00:32
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Hattie Masters posted:gently caress yeah. I love Aragosta, mainly because I'm a complete sucker for pirate stuff and Aragosta is the most pirate. Yeah. It gives us our... Tortuga, I want to say, that I don't think we had in 1E.
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Jul 1, 2018 00:34
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It sounds to me like there's a great setup for a climactic, constantly escalating battle between players, Reis, and Fevrier at a campaign endgame, with tons of supernatural stuff crashing the party as stuff gets progressively more nuts. If nothing else, the fact that the fluff immediately puts cool set pieces in mind is a good sign.
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Jul 1, 2018 05:15
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Ha, that's flat out PotC Davy Jones in the not-East India Company's employ.
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Jul 1, 2018 08:24
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Vincenzo "Knobby Knees" Gatto is a pretty obvious analogue for Stede Bonnet, a historical wealthy landowner in Barbados who decided he was going to run off and become a pirate, and used his wealth to build a ship and hire a crew, despite his utter inexperience at sea. It didn't work out very well for him, either.Mors Rattus posted:Thomas St. Claire is the star of John Wick's second novel, Born Under the Black Flag, but that's not actually very important to his role in the game. He's famous as a captain for the Republic because, for almost 10 years, he was one of the worst scum on the sea, first mate under William Stroud on the Crimson Ghost. He was a heartless monster, like his captain, who would burn down a settlement and rot out a ship just for a few coins. But...something happened to him. He was caught by the ATC and sent to a "plantation." He spent two months there and then, on official record, he was hung until dead. He showed up shortly after as a pirate captain, hunting down the Crimson Raiders with the ruthless efficiency he'd had as a Crimson Raider. Two years later, his ship, the Hanged Man, made port in ARagosta. He walked in with a young girl at his side, nailed his Charter to the wall and threw down a sack of coins to buy everyone's drinks, as demanded by tradition. Then he left with the girl. So, the truth? He was a monster, yes. There's too much blood on his hands to get rid of. But as he hanged, he saw a vision of black fire under his feet, and a light and beatific face gazing down at him from above. Ever since, he's been a changed man. The monster is still there, but he's caged it. Having read Born Under a Black Flag, this was clearly written before the book was seemingly outlined or plotted. Firstly, in the book, it's the Red Moon, not the Crimson Ghost. (The Stroud section gives another different name for the ship as well.) But more importantly- Mors Rattus posted:He's found new purpose - a new reason to get up each morning. That purpose? Kill the Crimson Raiders. Every last one. In the book? Nope. Big nope. Doesn't happen, and it's not his motivation. In fact, at one point he has to be hectored into going after Stroud at all. The Crimson Raiders are way more interested in killing him than vice versa.
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Jul 1, 2018 12:51
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Having read Born Under a Black Flag, this was clearly written before the book was seemingly outlined or plotted. For fucks sake, is this series allergic to decent continuity. If you've already established something, stick with it. I don't have a problem with Reis being a woman, and at least they half assed an explanation for the misgendering that she got in the corebook. But they didn't even try that for Allende
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Jul 1, 2018 13:57
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Fifteen Men As A Dead Man's Chest Aragosta is off all the major trade routes, so it's a pretty safe place for secret societies compared to Fort Freedom or the colonies. The Brotherhood of the Coast is based there, obviously, though most of the actual island's permanent residents aren't members. (Cannonnaso is only by virtue of having once captained a ship, briefly.) Pretty much the entire island economy runs on their piracy. Die Kreuzritter recently learned of the Devil Jonah when a member destroyed one of his dark gifts with a dracheneisen dagger. They're now wondering if dracheneisen would prove useful and effective against Jonah himself. The Explorer's Society is officially based out of Fort Freedom, regionally, but many who distrust the Company have decided to work out of Aragosta instead. Their new chapterhouse is in the Forever Reef. The Invisible College have a major contact in the form of the bartender Huemac, who is a member. Order the right drink, and he'll take you into the back and through a network of secret doors and staircases, to a sub-basement that got lost during all the rebuildings, which he's turned into a scientific lab. The Knights of the Rose and Cross have no presence on Aragosta, and the locals wouldn't particularly like their moralizing if they did. Los Vagabundos have shown up, however. A few years ago, the Company hired an assassin to murder Queen Bonaventura, and she tried to shoot her at the bucket of blood. The masked vigilante El Vagabundo appeared in the nick of time, snatched the bolt from the air and chased the shooter down, defeating her in single combat, though the assassin killed herself rather than be captured. Bonaventura has been looking for more information ever since - she's grateful, but doesn't like knowing someone's watching her. Mociutes Skara operate fairly openly on Aragosta, and have a network of sympathizers who provide them with safehouses for refugees that have been extracted from various Atabean conflicts. The Rilasciare briefly and disastrously attempted to set up a cell in Fort Freedom, and have since headed for Aragosta. There's no nobles there except Queen Bonaventura, who barely counts, but that lack of activity means it's a good fallback point. No,w villains. The big villain group (besides the ATC, who get their own dang chapter) is the Crimson Raiders. Once Reis betrayed the Republic of Pirates, she needed allies, and so she offered bargaisn and promises, and some say even made a deal with the Devil Jonah. The result is the Raiders. All who join make a blood pact with Reis and fly a red Jolly Roger. They swear to take no prisoners, show no mercy to enemies and to take anything not nailed down. They give up pity and fear, replacing it with violence. Now, if you see the red Jolly Roger, you know it's Reis' fleet, and your options are fight, flee or die. Reis has seven captains under her so far, each as wicked as she. She calls them her Seven Deadly Sins: Black Heart Spannagel, Jeremie Otto Oliverson, Andrej Vinicius Edwardssen, Maredudd Wallis, Ioanna Celso Mah, Jame Akelsesen and her favorite - William Stroud. William Stroud is known as the Red Ghost of the Atabean. He's merciless and cruel, and he always wears fine silks, a black wig and a wide-brimmed hat. He's a dandy, and his accent's unplaceable but definitely not Avalon, despite his name. Maybe Eisen or Ussuran. His ship, the Red Ghost, never takes prisoners, and it is said that he cannot be killed by any weapon - not pistols, not swords, nothing. This is because, they say, his heart is hidden somewhere at sea. Which brings us to the Devil Jonah's gifts. On a dark night at Backbreaker's Bay, on the north side of Aragosta, you might find a man and his mates. The man will bite down on a belt to stop the screams as the others cut off his limb or pluck out his eye. Then he will say a quick prayer to the Devil Jonah, using the true name of the Black Freighter: the Caroline. He will throw the appendage into the Devil's Spout, a blowhole at the edge of the bay, and wait alone by the shore ofr a gift from Jonah to wash up at his feet. The Spout's not actually required, either. Aynone who wants to can cut off a limb, say the prayer and hurl it into the water, waiting for a gift to return to them. Some do it out of desire for power, some to stay safe from the Devil, some because their crew won't take them unless they do. And some don't do it, but have the Devil himself board their ship and take their limb, leaving a gift behind. While the Devil Jonah gives the same gift to all, those who have it taken by force are less likely to be happy about using it than those who gave willingly. Gosse tried to stamp out the practice, but while many crews that follow Jonah's ways have been forced out of the Brotherhood, lone sialors and captains remain that have the gifts. Bonaventura has personally decreed that no further captains will be allowed into the Republic if they have the Devil's gift - she doesn't trust them. These gifts vary. Often, they are strange, creepy devices to replace a lost hand, leg or eye, but not always. They never work for anyone but the one that sacrificed to Jonah - and if you ever try to hurl your gift back into the sea, sell it or even give it away, it will return to your side by ther next fall of night. The story of Jonah himself is told in-character by an old ghost to a serving girl named Jocelyn as a framing device. (A literal ghost, as it turns out, though not a Rahuri-style one.) But the tale goes like this. There was a pirate captain, Gonzalez, who was as good and honest as a pirate can be. His quartermaster, Jonah, was a black-hearted traitor, and while Gonzalez knew Jonah to be a wicked man, he thought there was good buried in there. There was not. Gonzalez also had a master gunner, a Vodacce woman with the gift of Sorte. The three of them and the other officers had, years ago, written up a charter, written in blood. Gonzalez' mother was Avalon, and there was magic in his blood - and in the gunner's, and in Jonah's. The Charter swore all to be loyal to the hsip, giving them a kind of magic no one had ever seen before. This was long, long before the First Charter and the Brotherhood ever existed. The Charter gave each hand a vote, among other things, and to break it called down a horrible curse - a curse that could not be cured even by a Vodacce witch. Since the signing of the Charter, the ship knew nothing but clear skies and good hauls. They were happy. But one da,y Gonzalez saw a beautiful woman on another ship, and he became obsessed with her, seeking neither treasure nor glory - only her smile. He ignored wealthy galleons coming from the New World. He ignored Vesten ships laden with cargo. All he wanted was the woman, whom he could not find. The crew began to mutter, and Jonah whispered to them, poisoning hteir minds with it, but making sure the gunner woman never heard of it. One day, they saw a ship flying the flag of some Atabean plantation. The Captain said he was not interested, but Jonah called a vote, and the crew decided to take her. There was no battle - on seeing the Jolly Roger of Gonzalez, the ship surrendered. But when the crew looked for treasure, they found nothing but illegal slaves. By the Charter, all slaves were to be released and given command of the slaver ship, abandoning the old crew on the nearest island. Jonah demanded they break with that, keep the slaves and sell them. Gonzalez refused - he reminded Jonah of the Charter's curse if broken, and so they followed it, and didn't even keep the ship to sell. And that was the last day Gonzalez was captain. When the moon rose, Jonah led the crew in mutiny, murdering all those still loyal. They reached the ugn deck, and Jonah's own blade pierced the master gunner's heart. She reached out and touched Jonah's face, her hands thick with blood, and she whispered a dying curse: "Vivere per sempre." Live forever. He was unworried - a dead witch's curse can be cured by a live one. Then, the mutineers reached the captain's quarters. The two men duelled, but it was clear Jonah was neither so fast nor so good as the captain, and he ordered his crew to hold the man down. But it would not go so cleanly. Gonzalez fought them off, sword in one hand, Charter in the other. When he struck a traitor with the Charter, that man would burst into red and gold flames. They fought across the ship, and Gonzalez found he had no crew left that was loyal and alive. When he saw the gunner's body, his soul snak, and al lthe fight left him. Jonah and the mutineers overpowered him, but as they did, Gonzalez placed the Charter against Jonah's chest and drove his sword through the both of them. The Charter exploded in flame and the sword pierced Jonah's black heart. Jonah was hurled like a cannon shot, on the deck, chest aflame, and the captain fell overboard into the dark waters. But though his heart was pierced, Jonah did not die. He was burned and bloodied - but the witch's curse kept him from death, and the Charter's damnation kept him from life. From that day, ever onwards, the Devil Jonah has been trapped between life and death. He is unlike any other creature, for his flesh rots off his traitorous form. And so, he must steal the flash and bones of living men, and he haunts the seas even today, captaining the Black Freighter, as any sane man now calls the Caroline, to raid ships and plunder their crews of flesh. When the Black Freighter comes - always by night, and now more bone than wood, its body repaired with the bones of sea monsters - the only escape is to sail like madmen until sunrise. Otherwise, you will be caught in its grapples, for Jonah never sinks a ship. He and his crew of skeletons will board your ship, and he will relish the fear and the hate, for he despises the living, he envies them. He will take limbs and eyes offered to him by the crew - and if you are unlucky, he will take those not offered as well, or even a whole person. He rarely touches passengers, unless they have been crew to a ship themselves. But the worst tales say that sometimes, if angered, the Devil will take all souls aboard, save for those who have previously given him an eye or limb. That, incidentally, is why it is bad luck to board a free-floating vessel with no souls aboard. You walk where the Devil his own self once tread. But if Jonah meets someone who has already given him a limb, well, he thanks them personally. "One limb is all I require of thee, me hearty, but if you wish to donate more, I'd be willing to part with a fine gift from me hold," he says. The offer stands. Next time: Jaragua Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 14:07
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 Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers, Part 11: "For the Tarlok, the discovery of this fabulous place is like a child stumbling into Disney World." The Rifts® Connection Phase World So, we're told the Charizolon System is only "a few light-years" from Phase World, which makes them part of the setting detailed in Rifts Dimension Book 2: Phase World and Rifts Dimension Book 3: Phase World Sourcebook, even though that isn't actually made clear until this far in the book. The Tarlok discovered Phase World 40 years ago... Wait. The Tarlok don't have interstellar space travel. This was made very clear. What's not clear is how the hell they ended up on Phase World. It's implied they may have hitched a ride (with their slaving peers, the Rithe or Tandori?) or traveled there via some kind of sub-light drive that takes over a decade, but that's just supposition; the book doesn't bother making a proper explanation. The Tarlok aren't so dumb as to think they might conquer Phase World, and see it as an opportunity to explore (and likely conquer) other dimensions, as well as purchase technology from the various races present. And in case you're wondering; no, Phase World didn't seem to notice or care about this burgeoning space empire only several light years away, despite being run by the ultra-advanced Prometheans. "Hey, is that interplanetary genocide going on over next door?" "Can't stay I rightly care, Mick." The Three Galaxies Though technically they're part of the Three Galaxies setting bought up in previous Dimension Books, the Charizolon System is basically considered a third world backwater because they hadn't discovered interstellar travel (no, seriously, we're back to that point again without explaining-) run by petty tyrants. Most people don't even know about them, and we get a long, long diatribe on why they'd remain undiscovered. This is supposedly because, of course, this setting uses a warp technology that doesn't involve visiting any locations amongst your route. Still, it doesn't make a ton of sense, because it implies nobody bothers to investigate the immediate region around Phase World, arguably the center of the that particular universe, and certainly the most pivotal locale. One would think people would be interested in setting up shop nearby, or at least mining and exploring, but apparently not... well, outside of the Rithe or Tandori, but this section also pretty much forgets they exist. Mostly, this is a hook to use the Tarlok in your Phase World games. Granted, Phase World already has a generic race of conquering baddies (the Kreeghor), but I guess if you need another group with inflated M.D.C. values, the Tarlok are there for you. True Atlanteans So, it turns out if the ancient, dimensionally-wandering "True" Atlanteans find out about Seeron, they'll immediately come to the conclusion that the Seeronians are descendants of Atlantis. Apparently the fact that Seeron has no apparent remnants of Atlantean culture, language, or heritage is no barrier to this assumption. In addition, any one of the Seeronian human species are far closer to baseline Earthly humans than Atlanteans. Despite this, so some of them will come to Seeron to help their wayward siblings out! Also, the Tarlok will quickly find themselves archenemies of the True Atlanteans... when the Atlanteans can be bothered. Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers posted:However, True Atlanteans will be disheartened to learn that these "cousins" have forgotten their heritage, and they will be infuriated that Seeron has fallen under the yoke of alien oppression and is polluted by genetic mutation. "Polluted?" That's one of those terms that usually goes with... but they couldn't mean... Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers posted:While True Atlanteans will embrance the (not so) indigenous homo sapiens of Seeron, they will feel closest kinship to the ordinary humans. It is they who will be most often given magical tattoos and invited to learn about their Heritage as True Atlanteans. The evolved Seerman and Talus, and the superhumans mutants transformed by the Tarlok's virus will be regarded as truly "distant" cousins who have lost some measure of their humanity, and thus, their full heritage as "True" Atlanteans. While this smacks of racism, is the way of the elitist True Atlanteans. ... oh. No, Siembieda. It doesn't "smack" of racism. It is just racist. Treating somebody as inferior or less worthy is a fully featured and complete form of racism. Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers posted:Yet, paradoxically, most True Atlanteans will respect each person as an individual, and may come to accept and value certain Talus, Seerman, and superhumans more than their own blood relatives. True Atlanteans tend to respect courage, integrity, and compassion regardless of race, so the Seeronians who struggle for freedom, and battle evil in all its forms will be seen as noble heroes and given the respect they deserve. Furthermore, the True Atlanteans will regard even the mutant Seeronians as a source of pride - True Atlanteans in their heart and soul, if not in their appearance. In the minds of the Atlanteans, it is little wonder that so many Seeronians have risen above every adversity and fight like Atlantean heroes - it is in their blood (or so they believe). uuuuuugh Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers posted:For the most part, True Atlanteans will leave the people of Seeron to find and achieve their own destiny. Racist, paternalistic bullshit. I've gotta move on. The Splugorth Aw, poo poo. Yes, Siembieda's pet monsters are back. See, they basically throw a tentacle around the Tarlok's shoulder on Phase World, and are like "You've got a friend in me!" They're exploiting the cold reception the Tarlok have generally gotten on the interstellar world stage to use them as thugs and agents (particularly as disposable or deniable ones), as well as get access to Seeronian slaves. In time, they may consider them for recruitment as client race. It suggests this as a means of linking Seeron with Rifts Earth, by having Seeronian slaves brought to Atlantis or who are fleeing the Splugorth. There's a lot of talk on this, but mostly it's just a constant streak of smuggery about how much smarter  This is the only piece in here that isn't reused art. Relations with Others The Tarlok are generally regarded as sinister bumpkins. The Kreegor and Naruni see them as upstarts, and the Cosmo-Knights see them as a potential threat. the Tarlok are interested in magic but will have no talent for it. We get a blow-by-blow of how Tarlok technology compares to Coalition technology because we have to find out how the the Tarlok compare, and we're reassured that the Coalition could hold their own against the Tarlok. This doesn't make much goddamn sense, given that the Tarlok have things like orbital bombardment and engineered plagues, but I guess we can't even have the Coalition get shown up by little interplanetary empires. The Megaversal Perspective And though it has nothing to do with the subject book (other than it loosely being about another dimension), we get a discussion of how Rifts relates to another Palladium game lines. I haven't really gone over these even with all these reviews, because they're all listed in other game lines. In particular, Rifts relates to the Beyond the Supernatural game in that it borrows most of that game's metaphysics - ley lines, most of that game's monster section, the term "Potential Psychic Energy", and so on. Previously, Rifts has been presented as a likely future of Beyond the Supernatural, since characters like Victor Lazlo occur in both game lines. In addition, the Heroes Unlimited supplement known as Villains Unlimited had a number of connections to Rifts setting elements. Companies like Cyberworks (creators of the the mad AI Archie-3 from Rifts Sourcebook) and the KLS Corporation (designers of the Glitter Boy from Mutants in Orbit) made appearances, for example. In addition, a Chiang-Ku dragon (from Rifts World Book 4: Africa) made an appearance as a supervillain in the same book. As such, it also seemed like a possible, though less likely past of the Rifts universe. And so, this book then explains away the connection by claiming the three settings are just dimensionally "close" and have connections and common elements as a result. It also retcons the notion of Victor Lazlo (of Rifts World Book 4: Africa) having traveled through a rift from Beyond the Supernatural to the future of Rifts. Instead, it says that the Beyond the Supernatural universe is contemporary to the Rifts setting, and he just rifted between dimensions instead of through time. And so Victor Lazlo mistakenly believes he's time traveled, and isn't aware that he could potentially travel back home. Mind, this minutae is given two whole pages and many more  just recapping transdimensional information we already know, but it at least gives a clear explanation for the hints dropped between the various game lines.Next: Super Rifts.
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Jul 1, 2018 14:19
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Dear witches and sorcerers: please stop laying curses on people that turn them into supervillains.
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Jul 1, 2018 14:46
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Mors Rattus posted:Reis has seven captains under her so far, each as wicked as she. She calls them her Seven Deadly Sins: Black Heart Spannagel, Jeremie Otoo Oliverson, Andrej Vinicius Edwardssen, Maredudd Wallis, Ioanna Celso Mah, Jame Akelsesen and her favorite - William Stroud. More Born Under a Black Flag contradictions: Stroud's not her favorite. Not even once. The book has a big meeting with various pirate captains and Reis after her betrayal, and literally none of the names match up except for Stroud. Nor do they agree to work under her. With her, yes, but not under her. It could be that she had a different meeting after her betrayal with these sorts? Or maybe these are the unnamed, non-speaking captains from that chapter. Mors Rattus posted:William Stroud is known as the Red Ghost of the Atabean. He's merciless and cruel, and he always wears fine silks, a black wig and a wide-brimmed hat. He's a dandy, and his accent's unplaceable but definitely not Avalon, despite his name. Maybe Eisen or Ussuran. His ship, the Red Ghost, never takes prisoners, and it is said that he cannot be killed by any weapon - not pistols, not swords, nothing. This is because, they say, his heart is hidden somewhere at sea. Some of this is probably unreliable narration. Most of it is inaccurate. He's never called the Red Ghost in the book. He does take prisoners, if not often. In fact, that's a major plot point.
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Jul 1, 2018 15:11
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Rum, Tobacco and Slaves For most of Jaragua's history, it was just Rahuri chiefs fighting over the rich fishing, mining and planting of the fertile island. A hundred years ago, however, Theans covered it in plantations, crowding the local Rahuri into the mountains. When the Atabean Trading Company seized those plantations by treachery and lies, they added the crucial ingredient to bring out Jaragua's real productive potential: slaves. Their greed led to working hundreds, even thousands of Ifrians and Rahuri to death in order to make the island their most profitable holding. And yet, these captives - the most vulnerable people alive - developed an unbreakable spirit that inspired daring escapes, the founding of runaway communities and support networks, and more. The Mawons, as these escaped slaves who turned to fight the Company were known, organized a revolution, using their superior numbers, excellent strategy and brutal determination to overwhelm Company security and seize Jaragua. They have turned it into a nation, a cultural mixing of Ifrian and Rahuri beliefs and a potential agricultural powerhouse, guarded by an army that has done the impossible. The Company doesn't want anyone to know about Jaragua and its history. They'd prefer no one believes their slavery exists, that there was no revolt, that nothing important happens there. But Jaragua is their biggest failure, and they will stop at nothing to tear it down. Jaragua is the largest landmass in the Atabean Sea, right on the eastern edge, between Theah, Ifri and the Atabean proper. Las Alpes Azurees, a blue-tinged mountain range, bisects the island. The weather would be pleasant all year if not for the droughts, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. The fishing is great, barring the sea monsters, and the farming is excellent. The forests are full of unique wildlife and also hidden seams of copper, gold, marble and limestone. The many natural resources led the early Rahuri settlers to establish five competing chiefdoms that fought politically and militarily over the fields and fisheries. By the time of the Thean arrivals a century ago, only the Mariana Chiefdom in the north and the Higuey Chiefdom in the south remained, having consumed the other three. Both sold the Castillians and Montaigne farmland in 1568, in exchange for Thean technology and crafts, in an effort to gain an edge. The Theans founded the port town Cap-Carrefour on the eastern cape - the first stop for Ifrian and Thean ships in the Atabean Sea. Due to intrigues among the inhabitants of the island, Thean indigo, coffee, cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations infested the island. The crops provied profitable, but the heat, humidity and danger meant hiring and retaining workers was hard. When Vespasien de Vicquemare became governor in 1636, he had a solution: give the poor of Theah free passage to the New World, charging their fare with a term of indentured service on Jaragua. The system was illegal everywhere in Theah, but it worked well for Jaragua's planters. The hiring problem was solved, though retention was still difficult and they never had enough workers. Vicquemare worked with a Montaigne-based company, Rourke & Rudd, to be a local fixer and procurer, and arranged meetings betwen struggling planters and R&R lenders at a handsome fee. Eventually, R&R became the Atabean Trading Company, and they intentionally crashed the market with cheap goods, buying up independent farms across Jaragua. Soon, the indentured servants were working side by side with the former poor farmers. The future, as envisioned by Company business practice, had arrived. The colonial period of Jaragua came to a sudden, brutal end when Vicquemare arranged a private meeting with the Higuey and Mariana Rahuri to discuss the division of the island. The Jaraguan Rahuri weren't idiots, and they fought hard against the Company security ambush, but after a short and bloody shootout, the Company captured both caciques. Security Chief Laerke Ulriksdottir assaulted the disorganized Rahurir settlements, driving them into the highlands, and the Company came to control the entire island (well, the parts they could plant, anyway, which was all they cared about). They began improting Ifrian captives en masse in 1642. For the first time, the plantations were fully staffed and working at peak efficiency, as they could safely work slaves to death before replacing them. However, there was also a boom in escapes - the slaves had nothing to lose. Most traveled t les Alpes Azurees or the Mangrove Base, where the forests and terrain made recapture hard. Soon, hidden Mawon villages popped up in the mountains, offering asylum to escapees. Their guerrilla forces frequently raided the plantations for suppliues, arms and to free slaves. It all came to a head in 1649. After nearly two decades of operating a secret escapee network into Mawon territory, two heroic twins - Taiywo and Kehinde, who had been born into slavery on the island - met with Chaplain Nkansa and the chiefs of the Mariana and Higuey Rahuri at Mangrove Base. They proposed a revolution against the Company, a great marshalling of power towards freedom. Nkansa and the chiefs agreed - it was time to drive out the ATC. At a night festival in the tradition of the Kap Sevi faith, they announced their defiance, their plan to take back the island not only for the Rahuri, but for the Ifrians and Theans who had been made into slaves. Their revolution would unite them all. Chaplain Nkansa organized her group of nganga priests as generals, with Chief Pablo de la Cruz becoming their drill instructor and teaching the rebels guerrilla tactics based on what he'd learned about Theans during his captivity. Chief Casiyuaya coordinated the naval support, stealing Company warships and harrying their supply lines by trading information to pirates and buying munitions. Kehinde used his resistance network to coordinate the rebels, using even small animals to send messages when humans were unable to. General Taiyewo led from the front, armed with machete and pistol plus her tactical genius. For eight years, casualties on both sides were high to the point where Laerke Ulriksdottir called in Thean mercenaries to defend the Company. The final battle was at Cap-Carrefour, and the Jaraguans stormed it by night, striking at their foes with brutality and terrifying skill. Ifrians and Rahuri on the inside were prepared to help, staging a mock escape to distract the guards. With the defenders occupied, the rebels were able to scale the walls and seize the gun turrets, allowing them in and letting them cover the slaves already there. It was long night of vicious urban fighting, but as dawn came, the Company agents swam for their lives to the ships leaving harbor as Taiyewo dueled with Governor de Vicquemare, eventually sending him tumbling off the walls with the power of her machete. He was pulled from the sea onto a fleeing ship, bloody and beaten. In the wake of the war, the rebels set up a profisional government, with Taiyewo running the military, Chief Casiguaya running the navy and Kehinde taking charge of domestic affairs, like the reclaimed plantations. Nkansa declined to join, saying that she hadn't had a day off in 15 years and just wanted to read a book on the beach. Chief Pablo del Cruz was not as happy as the others - he was shocked and upset that Higuey and Mariana lands would not return to their original owners, as the Ifrians had nowhere to go. Some wanted to return to Ifri, but not everyone could, and it would be easy for them to again become victims of slavers there...so why not share the land? But Chief de la Cruz was adamant - he wanted at least the Mariana land back, north of the mountains. The argument took all day, and no one could change his mind...so the new oligarchs sadly agreed to return the northern half of the island to the Mariana. It only got worse when the Mariana again began selling off the plantations to Castillian settlers. Again. Now, the work's hard. The Jaraguan fighters must return to work...and often on the plantations they fought to escape, some converted to food production but others still working the cash crops. A new government must be established, and diplomats must go out to foreign lands and build alliances. The ATC's agents continue to lurk in the shadows, trying to foil them. In the north, a Castillian governor has built Porta Ozama, meant to serve the needs of Thean planters. While the ATC is banned from the isle, no one knows how many of the new planters are in their pocket. Worse, many of the Thean plantations in Mariana land still use slave labor. It's a well-kept secret and none rely on it entirely, for fear of the government's attention. Rather, they use a mix of free labor, indentured service and slave labor - a mix of Thean convicts, Rahuri and Ifrians. Paid workers are forbidden to discuss their pay, to keep slave identities unclear for as long as possible, and any workers who speak out will lose their jobs and possibly get killed. Thean relations in the southern half of the island are going better. Eustache Dubois, son of former governor Alexandre Dubois, returned from Montaigne after the rebellion, bringing supplies and support that were desperately needed. As Eustache is half Jaraguan himself, he is already working to connect the Provisional Oligarchy with Montaigne revolutionaries as he travels between Theah and Jaragua. He's also built a chapterhouse for the Explorer's Society, inducting new members in the hopes of leading an expedition to the Syrneth ruins under the mountains. Despite hopeful signs, though, the darkness of the past seems to have outlived the revolution, and making peace now will be hard. 'Jaraguan' is a term that covers all ethnicities on the island. The ATC slavers deliberately targeted as many Ifrian ethnic groups as they could, to prevent any one group from organizing against them. The language of the island is Patwa Haragwen, a fast creole with a mix of Montaigne and West IFri roots. Most Jaraguans can slow their speech down and speak Montaigne for foreignters, however. They are extremely diverse, being a mix of Atabean, Thean, Ifrian and more. About all you can say is al ot of them have dark skin and dark hair, though even that's a stretch, as Crescentized Ifrians and Rahuri often have lighter skin. Hairstyles range all over the board, too, and figuring out social standing is intensely confusing. In West Ifri, various cultural groups had caste systems - some had noble bloodlines, some warrior classes, some meritocracies or economic castes. However, the enslavement led to a mix of young, physically fit people with a handful of merchants and nobles, and pretty much all those distinctions vanished in the passage west. The Company encouraged a sort of slave meritocracy, with unskilled workers holding the least desirable field and sugar boiling jobs, and slaves with technical skills or training as house servants holding safer jobs closer to the Theans. They were more highly valued, sometimes even paid or tipped, and considered too useful to be worked to death. Flemming Rudd instructed the slavemasters to treat these "house slaves" as if they were better than "field slaves," to encourage classism and elitism among the slaves and distract them from their true enemy. It wasn't just envy and selfishness that drove the two classes apart, either, but fatigue and the need to pretend so long that some even convinced themselves. The revolution has complicated this, but slavemasters generally found their 'devoted and loyal' house slaves shockingly quick to turn against them - and indeed, found too late that they were very, very well=positioned to kill slavemasters. In the wake of victory, however, the divisions have become something of a problem. Elite vs peasant, house vs field, Ifrian vs Rahuri. Many former slaves who worked in the fields have now been given opportunities they thought impossible, and it's been common practice to grant temporary control of the plantations to freed slaves, but all too often they find themselves relying on the old house slaves they never trusted, needing them to run the stables, keep the books and sell the product. The old distrusts haven't gone away. Jaraguans use drumming for everything from communication to religion to social dances. Ifrian polyrythmic drumming is common, and drummers typically play in different time signatures with each hand. Dancers mix Ifrian, Rahuri and Thean traditions, but keep the steps basically simple and repetitive to make them easy to learn but allow extensive improvisation for experts. Ifrian artistic tradition has also survived mostly intact, as the slaves were able to pass their religious art as secular or even Vaticine symbols, though the most impressive were sometimes stolen by the masters for sale. Creatively decorated practical goods are common, as are stylized wooden carvings of human figures, many meant for export to fund the nation. One distinct Jaraguan style is the creation of sculpture and art from trash materials like scrap metal or driftwood. The Company forced the Ifrian and Rahuri slaves to wear cast-off Thean clothes and rags, hoping to negate their ethnic identities, but the slaves made an art of swapping and recombining scraps to make eye-catching outfits...or camouflage. As the Mawons took the island, they also got hold of many ATC uniforms, and it's amused them a lot to wear them piecemeal, combined with other styles. In the wake of the expulsion, traditional Ifrian clothes have also had a renaissance - loose, baggy shirts, skirts, robes, trousers and colorfully patterned tunics with turbans or caps. Belts, shawls and scarves are used to augment this and carry things. Anklets, bracelets and necklaces of beads and cowrie shells are common. They don't often have tattoos, but some ethnic groups do perform ritual scarification on young infants to mark tribal affiliation. Jaraguan currency for outside trade is leftover Company Guilders, but the Provisional Oligarchy is in the process of switching the island to an Ifrian-type shell currency, using quahogs - hard-clam shells marked with a national stamp. They're trying to keep a rate of one shell to one Guilder, with the help of the local Vendel League rep, Herlief Asgersen. He's an old man who volunteered to come to Jaragua 20 years ago because no one else wanted to. He was a terrible merchant, an excellent warrior and a willing helper to the revolution. He never liked slavery and was a small but important role in the success of the revolt by providing intel about ATC movements. He's tried to pass on word to the Vendel League about what really happened there, but the ATC has done its best to intercept or discredit his messages. Next time: Government and religion.
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Jul 1, 2018 15:14
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I don't know why there would be any assumption that a tie-in novel should trump rulebook statements as far as what's canon to the setting goes, even if it's written by the setting's creator. As for character genders... At a guess they were rushing to get the core book out and just copypasted a bunch of stuff they hadn't determined details on yet from 1E to meet deadlines. It's stupid but I can't really blame them.
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Jul 1, 2018 16:32
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OvermanXAN posted:I don't know why there would be any assumption that a tie-in novel should trump rulebook statements as far as what's canon to the setting goes, even if it's written by the setting's creator. As for character genders... At a guess they were rushing to get the core book out and just copypasted a bunch of stuff they hadn't determined details on yet from 1E to meet deadlines. It's stupid but I can't really blame them. I don't think anyone's arguing which one is more canon than the other, more that it's dumb that John Wick can't keep the setting straight.
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Jul 1, 2018 16:40
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Hattie Masters posted:I don't think anyone's arguing which one is more canon than the other, more that it's dumb that John Wick can't keep the setting straight. I suspect it's less that he can't keep his setting straight and more that there were other people contributing for the game, so it wound up going in a different direction. Wick presumably had total creative control on the novel (Aside from editing) and didn't have anyone else to look at. Said novel probably does offer a fairly good into his head, though.
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Jul 1, 2018 16:54
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Hattie Masters posted:I don't think anyone's arguing which one is more canon than the other, more that it's dumb that John Wick can't keep the setting straight. Plus Wick has this Thing with continuity, where sometimes he thinks that conflicting narratives add to making the world seem 'real' as in real life people can get different stories from history. That was one of his principles on L5R as I recall. It seems like Stroud stole original flavor Reis' unkillable gimmick. Dawgstar fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 17:01
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OvermanXAN posted:I don't know why there would be any assumption that a tie-in novel should trump rulebook statements as far as what's canon to the setting goes, even if it's written by the setting's creator. I'm not saying it does; that's why I used the phrase "in the book". Pirate Nations stands pretty well on its own and is a perfectly fine supplement. That being said, it does reference Born Under a Black Flag as a source for more on St. Claire, and it feels like Wick wrote the Aragosta section. (I don't know for certain, but it feels like his writing to me.) So I read it to find out more! And honestly, I found it enjoyable despite its flaws, at least until an anticlimactic twist in the last 30 pages and an epilogue that I really, really didn't care for. I've already said all that really needs to be said regarding that bit, beyond St. Claire, Stroud, and Reis, there isn't any direct crossover between the supplement and the novel I can recall. There's more nits I could pick, but I don't need to flog it any more than I already have.
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Jul 1, 2018 17:14
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Mostly it's just there's a sidebar in the sourcebook suggesting that more background would be revealed in the novel. The novel that contradicts heavily.
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Jul 1, 2018 17:17
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Obviously they need to double-down and make sure that none of the novels ever have a serious attemp at continuity. "Your
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Jul 1, 2018 18:02
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I'm not saying it does; that's why I used the phrase "in the book". Pirate Nations stands pretty well on its own and is a perfectly fine supplement. That being said, it does reference Born Under a Black Flag as a source for more on St. Claire, and it feels like Wick wrote the Aragosta section. (I don't know for certain, but it feels like his writing to me.) So I read it to find out more! And honestly, I found it enjoyable despite its flaws, at least until an anticlimactic twist in the last 30 pages and an epilogue that I really, really didn't care for. While there wasn't particularly a twist or an epilogue in the other novel Daughter of Fate, it also felt like a story I liked up until the ending which it did not stick.
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Jul 1, 2018 19:00
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Rum, Tobacco and Slaves The Provisional Oligarchy has maintained the same leaders as it had from the start - General Taiyewo for the military, Kehinde for domestic affairs, and Chief Casiguaya for maritime affairs. Unfortunately, Chief de la Cruz was the most experienced actual leader of government among the rebels, and his recent departure has left them with little in the way of experience. Chaplain Nkansa has vowed to be done with leading and is no one's mentor, but the work frequently drags her back, and many believe it's only a matter of time until she takes a more formal position. The current plan is to establish a new government of elected representatives from each district of plantations, but there seems to be tons of things that need to be done first. They need to organize the plantations, determine which ones to repurpose for food and which for cash crops, set up mines, and figure out what to do about the increasingly hostile Mariana Chiefdom and its Thean guests. The war, it seems, was the easy part. The Oligarchy is also trying to reach out to other nations as best it can, but they lack much in the way of diplomatic staff or relationships to draw on. Despite their best efforts, the empires of Aztlan seem uninterested in them, and while both the Nahuacan Alliance and the city-states of Tzak K'an have received them as guests, they refuse to come visit formally. The Jaraguans are unsure why, but it appears to be traditional for Aztlan to ignore the Atabean Sea. However, one Jaraguan, Hangbe, has headed all the way south to the Kuraq Empire and reported that the Kuraq Empress was shocked by tales of slavery and sacrifice, wanting to establish formal diplomatic ties and sending gifts of gold as a token of esteem. Time will tell if this pays off. Some Jaraguans also want to contact the Brotherhood of the Coast as allies, given their common enemy - particularly Admiral Casiguaya. However, the Brotherhood are still pirates, and many think it's only a matter of time before Jaragua's shipments become prey too tempting to ignore. Plus, other nations wouldn't look kindly on them for making treaties with such brigands. As for relations with Theah, well, that's a bit of a fiasco. After eight years of fighting, Jaragua is not a nation to most of Theah but a ghost story. The ATC has convinced most people that slavery in the Atabean is a myth spread by President Rourke's political enemies to smear the Company. The few former slaves that made it to Theah in the wake of the revolt either disappeared shortly after their first public appearances or nervously recanted their stories while under observation by ATC agents. The Company believes it can retake the island, which had been their cash cow, but they fear the Oligarchy will find allies among the Theans first. Slavery, after all, is illegal in most of Theah. But hey, if the ATC can just scare or murder all Jaraguans that come to Theah, well, maybe they can prevent that damage from being done long enough to take the island back. To fight the ATC propaganda machine, the Oligarchy has deputized a number of Mawon officers to be a new kind of diplomat. They must be subtle and charismatic, disguising themselves as dandies and courtiers to infiltrate the elites of other nations and find those among the powerful who might sympathize with Jaragua. They dare not serve as open agents, for the Company is watching for that and would attack them. This secrecy must be even more intense in the Thean colonies on the Atabean. The Company has huge power over these settlements, even if they're starting to doubt the ATC's motives, and it will have to be seen if the Jaraguans can reach out and build the relationships they need to turn the colonies against the Company. There are some Vaticines and Objectionists on Jaragua, along with a somewhat larger Rahuri traditionalist contingent and Ifrian practitioners of Crescent faiths. However, the most widely practiced religion of Jaragua is Kap Sevi. The various Ifrian faiths brought to the Atabean with the slaves were and are diverse, but the slaves found commonalities. Most had a single almighty god, sometimes a sun god, who is called Bondye in the Patwa Haragwen, and is often somewhat alarmingly and casually called Theus in discussion with Theans, Crescents and other monotheists. This god has little role in day to day life, particularly compared to the Lwa. Lwa, Patwa for 'king', refers to an entity that is more divine than a human but less than Bondye or Theus. Some philosophers claim the Lwa are parts of Bondye's soul, while others refer to them as servitors, angels or devils, though that last is a compliment, not an insult. These and revered ancestor spirits live in a spirit realm close to the mortal one, and once were allies of priestesses who practice Kurwa, a religious ritual that petitioned for favors or knowledge in exchange for sacrifices - typically stuff hard to get in the spirit world, like tobacco or rich foods. However, as the slaves needed more power, they asked for new things, offering their own bodies as vessels for the Lwa to inhabit, and the Lwa responded. They would take on bodies as well as granting favors of wisdom or trickery before leaving. The practice has, since its arrival in Jaragua, become so widespread that those who can call the Lwa down to their bodies are known as Sevites, even if 'Kap Sevi' is an exonym derived from what the practitioners would say if asked their religion. There's no formal structure - every Sevite has their own technique to call down the Lwa and their own relationship with the Lwa they can summon. When the ATC took the Ifrians to Jaragua, they made certain to sequester any holy people from the rest of the population, hanging them publicly to destroy morale and culture. The idea was to indoctrinate the Ifrians to servitude with suffering, and this, mixed with corrupt teachings from corrupt Vaticine priests on the ATC payroll made life very hard for the slaves. They didn't want to give up their faith, but it'd be hard to keep up under the watchful eyes of the Vaticine slavers. The answer came in the form of the mass-produced lithographs of Vaticine saints distributed among the Ifrian slaves. They adopted those saints' names as ciphers for Ifrian gods, as every slave had access to the saint names and images, and they could speak of them openly without being questioned. They might use the staff-bearing Second Prophet to mean Ahron, the psychopomp with a staff, or the fiery sword of the Third Prophet to mean Jakuta, the warrior-god of fire and storms. Thus, Kap Sevi merges Ifrian and Rahuri tradition with Vaticine imagery as a veil. Their traditions include animal sacrifice, sacred dance, trances and ancestral divination. It is practiced openly now, but the secret traditions are still spread by agitators through the ATC-controlled islands, so that even those who are still enslaved may worship their gods. The Ifrian religions fractured as a result of slavery, and one of the more common traditions that survived was divination. Various kinds made the sea trip, some the province of only the trained, others more widely available. The easiest and most common form is throwing kola, the halved nuts of the cola tree (or equivalent, such as coins) on a tray or mat. Anyone can throw kola and read the results based on how they fall, orientation and which face is up. The predictions aren't hard and fast, just suggestions of what to meditate on, though ancestors can speak directly through the kola if they must. (The Rahuri find this last idea somewhat confusing, as their ancestors tend to just yell at them directly.) A priest is called an nganga, and is also an herbalist and community leader in Ifrian tradition. A prospective nganga spends their life in obayi, the religious craft, learning many things from poetry to oral history to medicine and toxicology to therapy and meditation. It's become even more demanding because the Company used to murder anyone who openly used their nganga skills, and they've had to adapt to new and strange plants and animals. One of their first discoveries was an herbal poultice that could remove slave brands, a secret that was kept so carefully that many slavers came to believe that Ifrians and Rahuri could just recover from branding due to their darker skin. When the rebellion began, Chaplain Nkansa drew on the social authority of the ngangas as military leaders, given her rebels weren't soldiers, but angry people with machetes. Thus, the rebel strategies heavily used nganga skills - they poisoned supplies with herbal mixtures and toxins drawn from marine life, used herbal medicine to treat wounds and wielded envenomed weapons. Chaplain Nsowaa Nkansa came to Jaragua at age 16. Her parents had apprenticed her to a priest-herbalist, but she was forced to become a soldier instead when her state went to war, which ended up killing her parents and condemning her to slavery. She survived the Western Passage, hiding her religious knowledge to survive until her escape, which was almost immediate. She assembled a team of competent, smart and brave slaves who would listen to her, gathered up some makeshift weapons, killed the overseer, hid the body and headed for the mountains. She and her team hid out in a mangrove swamp on the west coast, in the correct belief that the Theans wouldn't want to deal with the swamp. Mangrove Base, as it became known, grew into the strategic control center for the entire Mawon network, which would become the Jaraguan rebel army. Nkansa led them militarily and spiritually, though she never fought on the front lines. She was proud and angry, but not reckless. She led Kap Sevi ceremonies of victory and funeral, trained others as warrior-priests and practiced chemical warfare. While Taiyewo was the strong arm and Kehinde the breath of the revolution, Nkansa was its heart and its mind. She is now forty, but says she feels like sixty. She hates to mention it, but she's arthritic and has depression. However, with the departure of Pablo de la Cruz and the losses the Mawons took, she's the most experienced leader they've got. She needs rest, but they need her. She is tired now, lacking patience for most. She doesn't want to lead, and it would be terrible for her health. She'd probably do best getting de la Cruz back on board - she's the only one he really trusted, though she'd still need help proving that his interests would not be ignored. she is also notable as the founder of the Ko nan Espekte, an intelligence division she set up before retiring. They serve as Jaragua's monster hunters, as the undead seem to just kind of show up sometimes on Jaragua for no clear reason, and also as defense against ATC sabotage and espionage. They are detectives above all, keeping an eye out for hidden menaces. Taiyewo and Kehinde must be spoken of together. They are the children of slaves - a Rahuri farmhand named Juax and an Ifrian carpenter named Olubunmi. They were born in 1642, the pregnancy concealed carefully from the slavers. While many infants born to slaves die, they did not, and the twins showed strange powers even as children. (Jaraguan twins are often believed to share a soul connection to each other, and will either be great forces for good or evil depending on how they are raised.) Kehinde could speak to animals and command them, while Taiyewo was a natural leader with a knack for chess and tactics even as a child. Their parents planned an escape for years once the twins were born, escaping under cover of a Mawon raid. However, once safe in a Rahuri village, the twins demanded to go back. They had a plan - they could use their age and size to move under the radar, helping the slaves in greatest need, like the sick, disabled, those who knew magic or lore, and other children. They could move them between plantations and eventually get them to safety. Their parents were terrified, but even then, they saw something special. Over three years, what had begun as a plan to free more slaves grew into a massive network of informants and saboteurs that relayed slaves to the mountains. The ATC could never catch them, for they never understood their organizational skill. When Taiyewo and Kehinde fell in with Nkansa and the Rahuri leaders, the ATC was blindsided. The twins proved themselves in the fighting, with Kehinde's animals providing key intelligence and logistical support while Taiyewo fought on the front lines. Now, the twins are 26. They never got a true childhood, and they've seen violence for most of their lives. They've only ever really talked about it with each other, but they both kind of want a normal life. They expected Nkansa to lead the government, and with her bowing out, they don't know if they're up to it or if they can just keep their lives on hold for everyone. Taiyewo has been the rebel face - brash and inspiring, though inwardly unsure. She feels out of her depth now, fully aware that she's at her best when able to deal directly with a problem on a small scale - strategy was always Nkansa and logistics was Kehinde. She doesn't want to give up, and everyone expects her to lead - so she's going to fight to the bitter end if she must, even if she doesn't have what it takes. She's a hammer, and she's having to deal with not everything being a nail. Kehinde is an eccentric if optimistic man, who handles animals better than people. He's remained caring despite the suffering he's seen, and he's far too easily distracted by the beauty of nature, even in inappropriate situations. He genuinely cares about the opinions of anyone he meets, and he usually takes the time to ask them about them. Admiral Casiguaya, Former Chief of the Higuey Rahuri, was born on a catamaran in the middle of a monster hunt. In retrospect, both his parents admit that they probably should've stayed home that day, but it was a fun story at parties. Casiguaya has herself always been most at home at the sea. Her worst time was when her father was captured by Governor de Vicquemare. In a bid to get him out of prison, she sent word that she, not he, was the true cacique, and would trade herself for his freedom. Vicquemare agreed, and she was soon imprisoned at the House of Sorrows over Cap-Carrefour. She lived in prison alongside Pablo de la Cruz of the Mariana Rahuri, who converted to the Vaticine faith in prison and became the chief of the prisoners. When Casiguaya masterminded an escape using some kind of device they'd found deep in a dungeon which set the stones on fire, de la Cruz came only reluctantly, to avoid burning to death. Casiguaya stole a Company ship in the escape, sailing for the mangroves, where she met up with Nkansa. In the revolt, she was their admiral, leading Rahuri flotillas against Company vessels by stealth and stealing them for use by the rebels. She even invited pirates in to harass Company shipping. She loves being the head of the navy now - much better than being a chief. She's not sure what to do about those pirates, though. The Brotherhood's been sending gifts to Kap-Kalfu, as Cap-Carrefour is now known, and wants to use the place as an outpost against their common foe. However, the rest of the Oligarchy aren't fans of the idea. It'll be too hard to make other allies, they say, and will give a bad reputation. Casiguaya has told the Brotherhood that they may dock, but only if they keep their allegiance secret. This will likely not last, especially after the new government is set up. Next time: More people, and also places.
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Jul 1, 2018 19:53
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Bad Decision Time Chief Pablo de la Cruz of the Mariana Rahuri remembers nothing before he had to leave his ancestral home as a young boy, making the long trek into the mountains to hide. His parents, the cacique of the Mariana and her husband, complained bitterly about needing to live among their enemies, the Higuey, and recited for Pablo a list of Higuey crimes the way other parents might tell bedtime stories. Pablo knew it was his destiny to retake his ancestral lands and beat the Higuey. While trapped in prison, he met with a priest named Diego Mendoza. Feeling cut off from the ancestors and desperate for hope, he converted and set aside his Rahuri name for a Vaticine one. He saw this as a method of survival, a way of learning the weaknesses of the Theans. But even when he escaped with Casiguaya in 1650, he was plagued by doubt as to the effectiveness of the rebel cause. He thought that the Company might not be beatable, even as he trained troops. The doubt never left him, and when the war was won, he saw his chance. Half the land, he insisted, was Mariana land. If the Higuey wanted to throw in with the Ifrians, well, that's fine. The Mariana wanted it all back - nothing less. They'd not take one seat at the table when they deserved half an island. The debate was long and hard, but the Oligarchy couldn't find a reason to deny his request. Over a month, the Mawons and Jaraguans vacated the north and the Mariana took the land back, at last. Shocking everyone, Cruz then opened it up to the Castillians - for a significant fee, of course. Now, there are as many Theans in the north half as they are Rahuri, with the Theans running most of the plantations and Captain-General Camila Abasolo in charge of Porta Ozama, their new city. Cruz suspects them of keeping slaves, but he is deliberately ignoring it. If he doesn't see it, it's not his problem, right? That means he doesn't have to make any hard choices. And honestly, that's what he wants at this point. He's a bitter, pragmatic man who was raised on hate. He hates the Higuey, the ATC and personally resents Casiguaya and the Ifrians on 'his' island. He's forced himself to choke it back for much of his life, but now he doesn't need to. He believes that by collaborating with Theans more reliable than the Company, he can secure his people's future, and he's probably wrong. He's given up hope that things can be better. He does remain friends with Nkansa, however, and on some level he knows that the Oligarchy is more likely to compromise with him than the Castillians. Ex-Governor Vespasien de Vicquemare was once a lieutneant in the Musketeers. He was court-martialed for use of excessive force in breaking a riot - specifically, a riot in protest against l'Empereur, which shows exactly how excessive the force had to have been. Only his mother's noble line and extensive bribes kept him out of prison forever. Fortunately for him, the last governor of Jaragua, Alexandre Dubois, had just died - rumor said by murder, but that didn't matter. They wanted a new governor who could hold off claims by the young son of Alexandre, Eustache. Vicquemare's superiors and parents suggested that, perhaps, a trip very far away to the Atabean colonies might salvage his career, especially if he never returned. So he went, finding fertile land, valuable crops and criminally understaffed plantations whose workers were dead or quit. He revitalized a few with indentured service, tripling production, and drew the eye of the ATC, who moved to secure control of the colony from Montaigne. Vicquemare welcomed them with open arms, touring them through Jaragua. His amoral ambition earned their attention, and they offered to pay him to keep doing his job. Vespasien de Vicquemare became very, very wealthy, building Cap-Carreofur as a luxury vacation destination for wealthy Theans. His mask of succees cracked, however, when he realized there was an epidemic of escaped slaves. He brought in Company security to chase them down to little avail. The Mawons left false trails for them, sending them in circles...and then the rebels began attacking in earnest, and he was not ready. He was trained as a policeman, commanding the best and most disciplined warriors in the world, essentially. He was best at urban combat with elite troops. In the rebellion, he had to operate in the jungle with rear end in a top hat washouts and dishonorable discharges like himself, and whose only saving grace was their utter ruthlessness. That made it easy for the rebels to draw them into ambushes, though, fueled by their bloodlust. Every day brought new losses, and it never occurred to him that he might even be enabling the rebel recruitment with his violence. The Battle of Cap-Carrefour was the ultimate shame for Vicquemare. He was defending his home city with his best men, but the attack from inside and out set his troops into disarray long enough for the Mawons to get past the walls and take the western fort, which was linchpin for all his defenses. He and his elites fought hard, but at the end of the day, most of them were swimming for their lives, and Vicquemare only escaped death by purest luck. The ATC was furious. Vicquemare had managed to lose the most profitable island in the sea. Laerke Ulriksdottir hung him from a battlement at Rourke's Tower while Rourke told him that if he didn't find a way to take Jaragua back or otherwise produce return on investment, he would be fired. In a kiln. Now, Vicquemare operates as a spymaster out of a basement office in Fort Freedom, coordinating informants across the Sea of Monsters to try and stop the Jaraguans from gaining help and support. He's nearly 50, burly, and scarred in such a way that he seems older. He still dresses at the height of fashion, and barely speaks above a whisper. He can pretend at the old Musketeer grace at social functions or when recruiting new spies, but the mask cracks when he gets angry. He's a shadowy figure in the Company who rarely acts personally unless he has to, and even then, probably through a false identity. Locations! Les Alpes Azurees are the mountains that split the island, running east to west along the center. The mangrove swamp sits on the west side, Kap-Kalfu on the east. North is Mariana land. The forests and valleys are no-man's land now, full of abandoned Rahuri villages and Mawon forts that are no longer needed. While dangerous animals are rare, venomous snakes are not - their bites just aren't very fatal unless you have an allergy. However, there are the boa constrictors, and of course the venomous rodents, the solenodons, which can grow to the size of a small dog. The area is a bit of a trade battlefield as the Mariana and the Provisional Oligarchy hunt for mining sites. Several valuable minerals are quite common in the mountains, including iron that's put the swordsmiths of Kap-Kalfu into business, rubies in a vein that runs deep through the Syrneth ruins under les Alpes, and gold. The fighting over these sites is frequently violent, as the Mariana hire mercenaries and the Jaraguans bring in Mawon troops to hold the best sites. The Company also has a research station in a hidden valley, accessible only via underground caves. This the Buried Laboratory, and its isolation is required by its master, Doctor Oluf Karstensen, who experiments for the sole goal of controlling the undead wights and ghouls. Results have been...mixed. Karstensen and his sorcerer-scientists have found tools and potions that give them a limited ability to motivate ghouls in a general sense, but nothing that lets them work safely or closely with the monsters, which was the real goal. Karstensen's gone through a lot of attendants, mostly by having them turn into ghouls by accident. When the rebellion began, he just sealed off most of the exits to his lab and set his undead minions to guard the rest. He doesn't even know the war's over. His ghouls and wights have escaped over the years and currently wander the wilds, eating animals or people that they run into. Reports are frequently confused with zombie stories, and since no one outside the top of the ATC knows about the lab, the presence of these monsters is very confusing for the ngangas of Jaragua. They know how to ward them off, and it's not totally unknown for them to show up in Ifri or the Atabean of their own accord, but the sheer number and the fact that they wear Thean clothes is rather unsettling. The more that escape, the worse Jaragua's reputation becomes as an isle of the walking dead. Most outsiders who've heard of the ngangas believe the apocryphal rumors that they kill good people and resurrect them as ghouls via Ifrian magic. The top port of the island is Kap-Kalfu in Patwa, Cap-Carrefour in Montaigne. It lies in a dormant underwater volcano's caldera, the Eye of Ulikun, whose sinkhole lagoon is said to lead to the underworld. Occasionally the Eye bubbles or belches flame from the depths, usually before an earthquake, and several believe this energy could be tapped if the Eye's Lwa could be contacted and placated. The buildings are close to each other in Montaigne coastal style, with a market that runs the length of the caldera. The huge senzalas at the port once held slaves off the boat. Now, they store sugar, tobacco, cotton and other exports. A huge arch between the two ten-story towers spans the mouth of the lagoon, and the Twin Princes, as the two great senzalas are called, double as lighthouses and defensive turrets. The Grand Caiman Tavern sits in a repurposed two-story senzala on a loading dock. Only the most trusted or richest can dock alongside it, and it's run by a Mawon woman named Anty Luv. (As far as anyone knows, anyway, that's her name.) She's quick to fight if someone interferes with her profits, and she's happy to sell anything, regardless of provenance. Nearby is the Vaticine Cathedral, overlooking the port and standing opposite the Royal Palace. It was built on Company funds and served the Prophets in name only. Now, it is full of effigies and shrines to the Lwa alongside the traditional Vaticine images. Father Diego Mendoza has remained, unwilling to live Kap-Kalfu without a priest, but he's uneasy. Most of his parishioners used to be the Theans and Company agents that the rebels killed, after all. The Republican Palace is the new name for Vicquemare's Royal Palace. It was full of stolen art, brought in by Vicquemare when he lived there as a way of flaunting the Company's strength and wealth. Now it has been renovated in IFrian style and is the seat of Jaraguan administration. It sits near the prison called the House of Sorrows, once used primarily as l'Empereur's dumping ground for people he wanted to disappear. The ATC then purchased it and all of its contents. It sits atop the Gallows Cliff, facing the sea, and 6000 of its prisoners have died since its construction. It is hidden behind two 30-foot walls, and has three levels of dungeon full of torture devices to extract the secrets of political prisoners. The slave uprising accidentally destroyed the maps of its hidden underground vault, where many Atabean secrets were kept. Rumor has it that it was built on top of a Rahuri sacred cave complex, with tunnels that span the island. Since the uprising, a person named the Red Duke has repurposed the place for honor duels. The Red Duke is a religious figure of some kind but no one knows his credentials or affiliation. The gallows pole now serves as a scoreboard bearing the name of each winning duelist. The Red Duke adjudicates all duels, and those that break his rules learn he is not to be trifled with. Mangrove Base used to be the headquarters of Nkansa and the rebels - huts and shelters of wood and hide between gigantic trees, set on poles sunk into the shallow water. Locals travel by rope bridge and walkway, and the whole of the 'city' hovers over the water itself. It was the perfect place to plot revenge, and the fishing is some of the best on Jaragua, especially the clams, shrimp and snails among the roots of the mangroves. It's almost impossible to approach with any but the smallest boat, and even those must come slowly. The Company troops that found it never got to return thanks to Mawon guns. Now, however, Mangrove Base is under Mariana control and is the seat of Chief Pablo's government. Jaraguans are welcome, but most have left for the countryside or Kap-Kalfu, in the belief that the Mariana Rahuri don't really appreciate their presence. Loss of the old base does sting - many Mawons think Mangrove Base should have remained under Jaraguan control, given its role in their victory. If they wanted to take it by force, they probably could, given how well they know the swamp - but Cruz would then end up asking for military aid from Theah. Porta Ozama resembles the Jaragua of fifty years ago - a small but fast-growing port in white and coral, with few Ifrian faces but plenty of wealthy and middle-class Rahuri and Theans. Captain-General Camila Abasolo has a small but nice palace, too. She and the Castillians keep close watch on all ships coming in or out. Neither pirates nor Company ships, except for the Seahorse Express vessels, are permitted to dock at Porta Ozama. Castille doesn't want the Company's competition, though a handful of residents are secretly informants reporting to Vicquemare. Next time: The Atabean Trading Company in all its glory.
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Jul 2, 2018 02:09
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Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers, Part 12: "It is virtually impossible for him to walk unnoticed, because he looks more like a knight or robot than an Ordinary Joe."  This section has no art, so I'll just use what I didn't elsewhere. Super Abilities Descriptions for Rifts® And, for the final thirty pages of the book, we get an abbreviated version of the superpower rules from Heroes Unlimited. These are divided into two types: "minor" super abilities and "major" super abilities. Minor abilities tend to have a limited scope and effect, where major abilities have a more broad set of connected effects or a single very powerful effect. Generally speaking, most powered characters get at least two to five abilities, with generally only one or two major abilities. Of course, Palladium being Palladium, the effects can still have wildly different efficacy within those categories. For example, "Flight: Gliding" is objectively inferior to "Flight: Wingless", but they both take up a single pick for a minor super ability. Or, alternately, having Tentacles is considered equal to Magnetism (which is like putting Constrictor on the same level as Magneto). In Heroes Unlimited, this is "balanced" often by forcing players to roll randomly for powers. However, Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers just has players pick their powers instead during character generation. As such, there's not a lot of reason to take Heightened Sense of Taste unless you really, really want to be a super-taster. In any case, the minor super abilities include: Adhesion, Bend Light, Body weapons, Energy Explusion (choose from Electricity, Electrical Field, Energy, fire, or Light), Energy Resistance, Extraordinary ____ (choose from any attribute except I.Q.), Flight (choose from Gliding, Winged, or Wingless), Healing Factor, Heightened Sense of ____ (choose from Hearing, Smell, Taste, or Touch), Impervious to Fire & Heat, Manipulate Kinetic Energy, Mental Stun, Nightstalking, Power Channelling, Radar, Superhuman Strength, Supervision (sight, not management, choose from Advanced Sight, Nightvision, Ultraviolet & Infrared, or X-Ray), and Underwater Abilities. The following power is listed as being in the book but is absent: Horror Factor. Presumably they cut it after creating the list, and forgot to note that fact. The major super abilities include: Alter Limbs, Alter Metabolism, Bio-Armor, Chameleon, Cloaking, Control Elemental Force (choose from Air or Fire), Control Others, Copy Physical Structure, Create Force Field, Darkness Control, Disruptive Touch, Divine Aura, Energy Absorption, Energy Weapon Extensions, Force Aura, Gravity Manipulation, Growth, Immortality, Intangibility, Invisibility, Invulnerability, Item Reduction [shrinking], Karmic Power, Lycanthropy, Mechano-Link, Mimic [powers], Multiple Beings/Selves, Natural Combat Ability, Negate Super Abilities/Powers, Shrink, Sonic Flight, Sonic Speed, Sonic Absorption & Reflection, Stretching/Elasticity, Super-Energy Expulsion, Supernatural Strength, Teleport, Tentacles, Vibration, or Weight Manipulation. The following powers appear in Heroes Unlimited but not in this book: Adapt to Environment, Alter Facial Features & Physical Stature, Alter Physical Structure (Electricity, Fire, Ice, Liquid, Metal, Plant, Plasma, Smoke/Mist, or Stone), Animal Abilities, Animal Metamorphosis, Bio-Ghost, Control Elemental Force (Earth or Water), Control Kinetic Energy, Control Radiation, Control Static Electricity, Gem Powers, Holographic Memory Projection, Magnetism, Multiple Lives, Negative Matter, Plant Control, Slow Motion Control, Sonic Power, Spin at High Velocity, and Transferal Possession.  Space is nowhere near as empty as I expected. A full description of each power is going to be beyond the scope of this review; for those that need the fullest skinny, MegaDumbCast has been doing a year-plus long discussion of Heroes Unlimited. Instead, I'm going to focus on what the one thing every Rifts superhero has to worry about, which is "how do I survive mega-damage?" Well, here's your "Survival Guide to Rifts Superpowers".
So, what are we left in this book? Well, we have the XP tables, which leads to the funny fact that most (non-bio-freak) superpowered characters from this book use the XP table for their R.C.C. So you could be an invulnerable, super-fast, super-strong Seeronian talus human, then go and take the Vagabond O.C.C., and level extra-fast. In fact, you can trivally level faster than weaker character types like the Lashreg. They also forget to give the Seleniak an XP table, even though they're one of the core races available on Seeron.  Bio-Freak? Alien? Insert your justification for this art here! Heroism and Rifts And that's that for Rifts Dimension Book 4: Skraypers. The core idea of "superheroes fighting an alien invasion that won" isn't a bad idea at all, but mainly this book runs into a lack of focus. A good fourth of the book is dedicated to all the Tarlok client races that just aren't of much consequence compared to the Tarlok themselves. Furthermore, adding in a bunch of supervillains muddies the waters, and with the severe in-setting consequences for rebellion makes it confusing as to what exactly most characters can even do against an invasion that can just orbitally bomb any resistance. While far from unsalvageable, a gamemaster's going to do a lot of heavy lifting to put together an actual campaign structure out of this. Of course, more realistically, players are going to raid this for superpowered characters for the normal Rifts setting, and it seems unlikely the Seeronian setting itself has ever seen much use. But this book had me think of what Rifts' core values are. We've had over two dozen books to work out what Palladium thinks is right and wrong, and I feel like it's been on the tip of my brain, but it's only recently come together. So let's go over what I've worked out. Bear in mind there are a lot of exceptions to this - but you'll find them solely in books not written by Siembieda. Carella, in particular, led to a much different feel for the regions he wrote. But when Kevin's exerting his editorial and authorial control, this is what we see. Authority is corrupting and evil. This is true in most RPGs, but is especially true in Rifts. Governments devolve into intolerance (New German Republic) and often fascism (Coalition States). Businesses like Atlantis or Stormspire are exploitative, inhuman slavers. We almost never, ever see organized religion, but when we do, it's inevitably an evil or deceptive cult like the Cult of Dragonwright. Mind, small city-states can still be good (Lazlo or Psyscape), small businesses can be fine, but individual priests can be as benevolent as can be. But when they become an institution, they become an authority, corruption is inevitable. For example, you have New Camelot being undermined by a supernatural intelligence, or the New Empire of Japan being undermined by a bloodthirsty, power-hungry warlord. War is only performed by the foolish or mad. A small band of adventurers undoing schemes is the ideal, but whenever things get scaled up, things get bad. The Coalition commits to war the most often, and is run by a literal madman. The New German Republic is presented as morally grey even as they fight a defensive war. Even when fighting dyed-in-the-wool evil like the Coalition, Tolkeen itself will be portrayed as corrupt and foolhardy. War is inherently bad, even defensive war. After all, the Seeronian most actively ready to wage war on the Tarlok - Burning Scythe - is portrayed as a corrupt powermonger. You have Victor, who's presented as the "good" Blhaze hero, who only performs limited intervention and refuses to use his power to actively take the fight to the strongholds of the Tarlok. However, you have Nebular who is the "bad" Blhaze hero, and presented as mad and unreasonable in the fact that she's willing to just slaughter the Tarlok to drive them off of Seeron. And that'd work if we were working in a purely comic-booky environment where villains didn't murder billions as a matter of course, but when you count up the amount of deaths the Tarlok have caused across their system, throwing death plagues on literally every sentient species in the system, well. It doesn't square. People have to be inspired to fight for themselves. Basically, the only just conflict is a popular one. In other words, rule of the mob. Mind, this would work better if the average Seeronian had any power at all. Only spontaneous, small-group guerrilla actions seem to be justified. You know, like Star Wars. Or Dungeons & Dragons. It's a type of morality uniquely suited to justifying a small group of PC world-savers, but it doesn't seem particularly practical. Once you start organizing things and forming an army, you're back to point #1. It's unfunctional, in the end, requiring that there be some central power reactor for the PCs to blow up and save the day, or similar plot device. And if the game was built with that in mind, that'd be fine. It can work if it's intentional. But as Rifts tends to be written, these three principles prevent the world from ever truly being saved. But you can change that if you like. END. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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Jul 2, 2018 02:31
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Mors Rattus posted:7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Fifteen Men As A Dead Man's Chest Holy poo poo that's loving cool. Duelling with a sword and a magic contract against traitors. That's like, incredibly awesome. So what do Devil Jonah's gifts actually get you, though? Just weird prosthetics?
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Jul 2, 2018 10:45
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What I find weird is how Devil Jonah is basically giving people Syrneth Artifacts to use instead of their appendages... so is Wick trying to bring back the alien stuff via the backdoor here or is it just some sort of obscure otherworldly story-rule-of-coolness stuff?
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Jul 2, 2018 11:12
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They’re not Syrne, they’re evil ocean ghost prosthetics and they give magic powers, we will see examples later in the new Advantages section, because you can have one.
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Jul 2, 2018 12:07
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PurpleXVI posted:So what do Devil Jonah's gifts actually get you, though? Just weird prosthetics? There are also general nautical-themed items. It's not all prosthetics.
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Jul 2, 2018 13:13
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I demand cursed lobster claws, but will settle for crab hands.
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Jul 2, 2018 13:46
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Funny that there's a clear Davy Jones analogue while also a Pirates of the Carribean Davy Jones analogue separately, a completely differently mystically empowered pirate forced into the employ of a soulless exploitative nautical mega-corporation. They really only painted over the last digit of the serial number on that one, but I did feel the original was wasted. Does Montaigne have a lot of prisons for dissidents to disappear in? Clearly a Man in the Iron Mask reference there, but wondering if there's room for a Count of Monte Cristo.
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Jul 2, 2018 13:46
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Several. Outside the Atabean, they still have the Not Bastille and whatever the GM needs of them.
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Jul 2, 2018 13:50
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Be Glad I'm Skipping The Galt Speech The next chapter opens with a two-page speech from George Rourke on the benefits of libertarianism, the profits of the ATC, the virtues of slavery and statistics. It is infuriating to read. Like, congrats, you managed to write an effective libertarian villain and I hate him, but it takes up two pages and I hate it, too. Short form: holy poo poo this man is scum. The Atabean Trading Company was the result of his work and his partner's, a mix of Vendel and Avalon shipping that has grown into the first multinational corporation ever to exist. Its philosophy is simple: Explore dangerous and exotic places, meet unsuspecting natives, kill them, take their stuff. Link all the stuff together into a circulating system of profit. Laugh at anyone that tries to stop you. In a nutshell, it's all about gaining wealth and freedom on the backs of those weaker than you. They are a Villain, but one whose methods can sometimes resemble those of Heroes, and they're happy to hire a Hero that becomes tempted by the siren song of profit into dark places. Their motto is this: "Neither Will Nor Power Save Mine." The Company has gotten into many ventures. About a third of their business is dedicated to shipping and moving goods. Spices, sugarcane, food, liquor, lumber, monster parts. If someone will pay for it, they'll move it. They buy in bulk to save on costs, using their immense network to find the buyer who'll pay the most. They don't just move their own product, however - they will ship yours, cheaper than anyone else. They undersell every other shipping company for a few reasons. Firstly, they own more shares in more vessels than any other, and indeed more than most navies. Second, they cut corners on their ships whenever possible. ATC vessels are notoriously uncomfortable, unsafe and poorly defended. They don't care because they don't lose much cargo to pirates, thanks to the deals they make. How's that work? Well, supposing you're a pirate that spots a poorly defended ATC ship. By the time you're close enough to board, the captain's laid out the fine china and has tea ready for you. He invites you aboard, and you take his tea and demand his goods. You don't want the ship because it's barely afloat as it is. The captain nods, says you're welcome to it...but hey! Why take a single payout when you could make a deal that'll give you reliable plunder? What if you spared Company vessels and in exchange you got access to accurate charts, cheap repairs, discounts on slaves, safe harbors and reliable buyers for your plunder? The captain takes out a contract for you and offers you a chance to read it. The benefits start out small, but with every other pirate captain you sign on to the same deal - and why wouldn't they, given how good the deal is and how scary you are - then you get more. You'll get an address in Fort Freedom you can take your contract to, getting recompense for each captain you recruit. And so you sail away, leaving them unplundered, with confidence that you'll be rich tomorrow. So how does the Company handle pirates that won't buy into their pyramid scheme? Their ships are neither defensible nor worth trying to defend. Elite warships guard high-value shipments, yes, but that's rare. The problem is what happens after you rob a Company ship. Their informants mark you wherever you dock. Contracted pirates hunt you down for bounty. If you're particularly dangerous, Laerke Ulriksdottir and her security einherjar will come for you instead. The first time they catch you, you'll be branded with the letter P. If you're a ship's captain or already bear the P, they'll execute you and shove your head on a spike on the battlements of Fort Freedom. Now, most pirates are prepared for dangers in boarding, even ready to lose a limb. But the ATC? Everyone knows they keep records - meticulous records - of what they buy, sell and lose. And if anyone you sell your plunder to recognizes it and reports it to a Company man...well, then even your friends might decide to check the wanted posters to see your worth to them. Besides shipping, uh, literally anything, the ATC thrives on exploration. It wants to know where the best ports, easiest defended harbors, most fertile plantations and safest routes are. While they'll happily buy good charts, they'd prefer to know those things before anyone else. Company explorers are full employees, working directly under Flemming Rudd, President Rourke's old friend and business partner. No one wants to risk independent archaeologists using Company resources and then keeping their finds - or selling them to governments. The salaries are reliable, with bonuses worth a fraction of your finds' value, but all rights, land and slaves go to the Company. They lure explorers in with excellent equipment, far better than their shipping crafts. The fastest galleons, durable enough to bear a gale and heavily armed enough to repulse hostile natives. Explorers with a lot of ambition and not a lot of cash find the Company a helping hand, offering them all the tools they need...at the price of everything truly valuable they might find. Then, of course, there's the evangelism business. Many Theans see the New World as a chance to spread their faiths, and while the War of the Cross put a moratorium on open religious warfare, zealots have a new chance across the sea. Evangelical missions tend to have cash, personnel and enthusiasm, but not a lot of logistical support or experience. The Company's pre-packaged missions come with a crew, a ship and all the supplies and maps you'll need to reach the New World. The Company-appointed captain will log events, notifying the Company of any interesting territorial discoveries...and a subclause, often overlooked in the contract, guarantees the Company has rights to any newly discovered lands. Of course, often the captains nudge the missions into 'discovering' regions that the Company's already scouted, in order to ensure a chaotic checkerboard of Objectionist and Vaticine holdings rather than allow either to consolidate a defensible bloc. After all, that could end the ability to play both sides against each other. Flemming Rudd is a devout Vaticine, and the CFO, Annie Goldflower, is a devout Objectionist. Ostensibly, they get along fine, and while Goldflower is silent on the subject, Rudd loves the chance to compete with Objectionists, violently or otherwise. It'd be hard to war profiteer off just one side, though, so the Company plays both, and is more than happy when a mission fails due to violence at the other side's hands. Monster attacks discourage missions, but rivals? Well, if we just hire more soldiers and spend more money, we'll get them back! Of course, the Company's security forces never get involved personally. They just sell off captured military equipment to both sides. And then...slaves. The Vaticine has always maintained that slavery is a sin, but the practice has existed for centuries. The Company's version of it is a new form, however. It is fueled by greed, a greed that is fed with human bodies and lives. The Company moves slaves wherever they are needed, no matter the cost in lives. Many Atabean islands are fertile, hot and humid - perfect for sugarcane and tobacco. The first settlers struggled, however, unprepared for the hard labor and diseases and accidents. Mounting casualties discouraged other workers from heading west, and the plantations were in trouble. The Company showed up to lend them money, and once they had plenty of debts owed to them, they started leaning on their Vendel contacts to lower sugar and tobacco prices. This drove many planters to bankruptcy, forcing them to sign over their property to the Company. Rourke and Rudd saw opportunity in these plantations. They realize the workers still saw themselves as fundamentally equal to their employers, and to get the most of things, they'd need an underclass. Sidebar: Slave, Not Victim posted:The slave and former slave are classic heroic archetypes we see in Spartacus, Nat Turner, King Zumbi and Harriet Tubman. 7th Sea is a game about larger-than-life Heroes and Villains, about inspiring heroism and unabashed wickedness. The distinction is often wide and clear. But it's easy to apply that mindset to other divisions between people: the brave and the cowardly. The strong and the weak. The actors and the victims. Next time: The slave trade.
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Jul 2, 2018 14:12
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Gotta admit, can't think of a better way to get people to hate a sociopathic capitalist slaver villain than with a condensed Galt speech. Also a good way to know what players you should have second thoughts about if they read the whole thing and like it.
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Jul 2, 2018 14:38
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Realms of Sorcery Complicated rituals for making complicated rituals Rituals have always been a bit of an afterthought in Warhammer Fantasy. They've almost never shown up for use by PCs in any of the games I've played in or run, because Rituals require huge numbers of exotic ingredients, often need multiple casters, take 300-400 extra EXP to learn for what is likely to be a one-shot plot device spell, and usually do something really horrible if you fail the roll at the end of the process. Similarly, if your opponents are working on a grand ritual to summon a terrible demon or accomplish some evil end, you're not likely to need the actual casting number. You're likely to want to know how PCs can disrupt that ritual and what happens if they don't stop it. Would you have a satisfying adventure if you raced to stop the dark Cult Magus from completing his spell of ultimate devil summoning, didn't quite get there in time, and then he failed his casting roll, couldn't summon the demon at all, and died on the spot? Would that be a fun conclusion? Rituals are a place where the game could have done with less mechanical backing and more of a pure focus on constructing an adventure around the Ritual. That aside, there's a very robust and handwavey subsystem for building these big 'narrative' spells. Like Rituals themselves, it takes a great deal of resources, time, and is very likely to kill or damage the person doing the research, giving players little incentive to actually engage with it. We get a little thing on why you'd use Rituals: They're the magic that moves and creates entire plot arcs. These are the spells that curse an entire bloodline to infertility, open a portal to the Realm of Chaos, return a vampire to life after ages as a pile of ash, or banish some ancient curse. To its credit, the book is clear that Rituals are primarily plot devices. It recommends using the Ritual system to give players overarching objectives to strive for; break the ancient curse, find a way to cleanse an artifact, discover a way to actually destroy (rather than just banish) a demonic adversary, that sort of thing. They shouldn't be 'just' a big attack spell or a permanent character buff. The problem with this is that it's at odds with wanting to have a system for players to design their own Rituals. If a Ritual is entirely a plot device, and usually has a fairly limited plot application as such, then much of what's to come is kind of irrelevant. What will the Ritual do? It'll do the thing the plot required the players to find a Ritual for. No need to have a big research subsystem for a plot device. A few simple randomly generated complications would do. Similarly, the role of Rituals as plot devices makes the 200-400 EXP cost necessary to learn any Ritual feel like a plot tax on a player. That's 2-4 sessions' EXP. That's enough to buy +10-+20% in a stat, or 2-4 Talents or Skills. 400 EXP is almost half of what it takes for a character to finish their first Career. Those are not insignificant costs. Now, let's get to actually making Rituals. First, the player writes up their ideal end-result. They pick which Arcane Language the spell requires, they describe what the spell will do, they describe what will happen if the spell fails, they describe what sorts of ingredients and components the spell should take, and they come up with some conditions (like only casting the spell in a land brimming with Dark Magic or only being able to use it on a full moon). Both GM and player secretly write down their individual estimation of what the Casting Number, EXP Cost, and Magic requirement of the Ritual will be. Many of the consequences of failures in research will be based on how far apart the GM and Player are on how difficult the Ritual should be. This is a bad idea. Secret estimate stuff is never actually fun to play with compared to having a system to encourage conversation about how mechanically difficult your big magic hand-wave is going to be. Also note the Player can't invent a Ritual they can't cast, so if the GM's estimate of the required Magic is higher than the PC's current Mag, the Ritual can't be developed. You now spend a month of game-time doing research, to develop your first draft of your Ritual. This happens before the GM reveals their estimation of the difficulty of the spell. Once your first draft is complete, the GM's bid on difficulty is revealed, and the Ritual will continue forward using whichever estimate was higher. So if you thought your spell should have a CN of 22, and they thought it should have 31, it will have a 31. Conversely, if you bet it would be a 25, and they thought it would be a 20, it ends up 25. This encourages the player to try to low-ball things and again, this guessing game stuff is a bad idea. You next roll a d10 to see how many months will pass in the next Research Period and this is already probably going to ensure very few groups use these rules, because stopping the plot for months so the Wizard can look up rites is very awkward. You have a 1-4 month period based on the roll, with a 10 on the d10 indicating a 1-5 month period (roll d10/2) AND a -20% Int check or else a d10 roll on the Ritual Fuckups table. This table can grant insanity, slow down work, blow the wizard up, cause heavy Miscast results, or on a 10, kill the wizard. So, 1% chance or so (minus your Int save, mind, so less than 1%) every research period that this straight kills you. If nothing goes wrong, at the end of your research period, you apply a ton of modifiers to a d100 roll based on how differently you guessed things from your GM. -20% to your roll for every point of required Mag you missed the guess by, -3% for every point of CN, -1% for every hour of casting time you were off by, and -5% for every 100 points of EXP you guessed wrong by. These penalties only apply on the first research period. You also get -10% if the GM thinks the Consequences of failing your Ritual aren't dangerous enough. You get +5% if the Consequences would kill the caster, +3% for each thematically linked Ingredient and element of the Consequences used in the Ritual (so, say you have a spell that breaks a curse, having a Consequence where you transfer the curse to yourself would get you this +3%), +3% if you have +10 or +20 in the Arcane Language you're using, +3% for having Dark Magic, Aethyric Attunement, Luck, or a Dark Lore, and +1% for each rank you have in Magical Sense and Knowledge (Magic). That's a lot of fiddly modifiers, isn't it? This is important because they modify a flat d100 roll. And if you roll less than 5 on that d100 your Ritual is impossible, your research dead-ends, and all your time was wasted. Most of these results will add new Consequences, make you find more Ingredients, make the spell harder, etc, but if you roll over a 71% all the results up there are positive: They decrease casting number, required Mag, EXP cost, etc. At 91%+, nothing changes and your Ritual is on track. At the end of the research period, you must try to cast the Ritual. If you fail, you suffer the full Consequences of the Ritual. This is bad. If you succeed, however, there is a table to roll on to see if the Ritual is now stable. There is only a 20% chance that you're done! There's a 15% chance that gently caress you, the Ritual fails and you suffer Consequences AND take a penalty to your next research roll, too! The in-between effects are all either 'go back and do another Research check' or 'Go do one but with a +10 or +30 because you're 'close'', but only a 20% chance that, after taking a big risk and trying to cast a big spell that might kill or permanently damage you if you fail you actually finish this bullshit process? No! Bad! Especially when these things are just goddamn plot devices! You also take further research penalties if you try to participate in plots or adventures while you're working. I went through all of this process in detail to illustrate this as an example of something you see in a lot of RPGs: The complex subsystem with lots of thought put into it that no-one will ever use. They expended a fair number of pages and a lot of effort producing this elaborate subsystem for designing big plot device spells, but it doesn't serve the actual role of a Ritual in the game and it's mostly a large table of how to punish a player for trying to engage with it. This ensures very few GMs or players are ever going to use this material. Something to remember is this was one of the first big sourcebooks for this line; this is a far cry from 'roll to see if your baby horsebird causes an adventure!' style long-term endeavors in the later books. A Ritual system that focused on causing adventures rather than rolling tons of dice and slapping the players for playing with it would have been so much better, but as it stands this entire section is a waste of the book's page space. Next Time: The Marks of Magic
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Jul 2, 2018 17:28
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7th Sea 2 - Pirate Nations: Haven't You Heard, Mr. Adams? Clink, Clink.Theah on Slavery posted:Avalon has outlawed slavery explicitly. Memories of occupation still sting. The Company began its slaving with Atabeans, largely Rahuri, as they were visually distinct from the average Thean and thus couldn't blend in as easily as Thean criminals, who are a small minority of slaves. Besides, training overseers to treat the darker-skinned slaves like animals proved surprisingly easy. Still, one slave for every four free workers wasn't enough. Ifri, with so many prisoners of war, addressed that issue. Because Ifrians also look different, they were easy to dehumanize, too, and Rudd suspected they'd handle the Atabean climate well. Waiting for Ifrian wars to supply captives wasn't fast enough, however. They had to grease the wheels. Within a year, the Company had managed to spread enough distrust and resentment among some Ifrian vassal states to start a civil war, framing leaders for various crimes against neighbors, using guerrilla warfare to strike key targets and selling "intelligence" that urged towards violence. Soon enough, the Company were able to lay siege to the capital of Lougua, capturing land, hostages and slaves. That was enough for a brisk trade, avoiding Theah so the Church could not denounce them. Once the plantations were staffed by chattel slaves, they realized they could just work the slaves to death and replace them. Much cheaper than investing in their survival. To survive, many other plantation owners followed suit, and even those initially disgusted by slavery changed their minds after reading the pamphlets of Flemming Rudd, which presented slavery as a Theus-given benefit to the slave's intellectual and spiritual character. Theans make up only three to eight percent of Atabean slaves, and the Thean governments tend to love the idea of selling their prisoners to the Company. All nations outlaw the sale of free Theans into slavery, but political prisoners or false convictions can result in that anyway. The Company prefers, however, to transport their Aztlan and Ifrian slaves via independent contractors. Slave ships are high-risk, after all, what with disease and revolts, which require heavy insurance on the slave ships the Company actually owns. Much better to buy cargoes from independent slavers, most of whom are former pirates the Company has convinced to change careers. After the utter hell of a slaveship hold, quarters at a Company fort or plantation often seem almost pleasant - small, unassuming villages far from the plantation's great house, or in catacombs under the fort. New slaves sleep in communal halls, and those who show obedience and use are allowed family huts and small plots to grow their own food on. Because keeping slaves alive and letting them reproduce are not priorities, these holdings are very few. Slavery has also given rise to the most notorious martial art of the Atabean, best known by its Odisean name - Jogo de Dentro, the Inside Game. The name may refer to it being developed "inside" - that is, in jails, slave enclosures and so on. Or perhaps it refers to its extremely close range. It is practiced in a circle of singers and musicians, with two people vaulting and twirling in the center. If someone were to ask, they'd say they're just dancing, which isn't false. However, it's easy to miss the shard of glass in one hand or the straight razor in another. Most Ifrian martial arts train using combative rhythms to musical accompaniment, teaching a warrior to read the enemy's polyrhythms. They teach defense on the beat and attack on the off-beat. In captivity, the Ifrians have traded their lances and shields for shivs, shards of glass and razors, dialing back the all-or-nothing strikes of field engagements to disorienting blows that unbalance and avoid attention from others. The result is a mix of subtlety and dirty tricks that is perfect for an exhausted slave fighting a better-fed and better-equipped enemy. Generally, it is the slave-owner's best interest to allow slaves to accumulate some meager wealth of their own. Revolution is easy when you have nothing to lose, no hope and no family. But when you have worked for some money, and that's all you have? That becomes something to protect. The idea of accumulating enough to buy your way to freedom is a daunting task, of course. Some slaves manage it, or buy the freedom of their children. Being a freed slave isn't much easier, but Company vessels offer slaves that buy their way free a free passage to Fort Freedom, hoping to keep them from going to Jaragua. The Company's latest, fastest-growing venture is also probably the only one it's engaged in that everyone can agree isn't actually reprehensible and monstrous: the Seahorse Express. Mail delivery. While most mail travels on shipping vessels, more urgent materials are given to the seahorses, as the Company's couriers are called. They're fast, honest and almost suicidally brave, given their job mainly involves outracing monsters. They are considered noble servants of the sea, respected by all. Penny dreadfuls about attractive and daring seahorses are quite popular, and while the Company has diverted copywriters and illustrators to develop more, the best stories tend to be the independently made ones. Mesquite, the figure on the Company board who showed up from nowhere to found the Express service, masterminded them entirely and personally trained their postmaster leaders. Mesquite patterned all this on Aztlan courier networks, which were and are designed to maintain communications and supply chains over massive, highly organized empires. The project has been so successful that the Company, whose employees tend to believe the Board invented the system entirely, is now considering starting up a similar service in Theah. The mail is now considered so sacred that even the pirates who will take Company vessels will send runners under flag of truce to drop off the mail at Company dead drops, marked with the sigil of the Postmaster General. Even the Rahuri rebels will let seahorses go, believing they serve a higher ideal. This is basically the only Company position a PC can hold for any length of time without being complicit in atrocity, and even then, it's hard to stay ignorant of the Company's activities - they'll eventually have to face up to the fact that the ATC are Villains on a massive scale. Most of the Company's employees are clerks and analysts who handle numbers and money from behind desks. Most are Thean, though there are a few New Worlders and even fewer Ifrians. None are former slaves. Mostly, they're bored, but those with charisma and ambition get promoted if they can stand it. At the head of the company is President George Rourke, an Avalon man in good fashion with a tendency to fiery speeches. He was the third son of gentry, wealthy but with little standing. His eldest brother got the land and title, his second-eldest joined the priesthood (Objectionist, if it matters) and he was expected to join the military. He chose instead to become an adventurer, whose enterprises uniformly ended in the death or imprisonment of everyone involved but him, at least until he got involved in the Vendel League. He flourished under the mentorship of family friend Flemming Rudd, now his chief procurement officer. However, by then, Rourke was growing disillusioned with the Vesten customs that bound merchants unnecessarily. He began to resent the nobility in general, given how little his own name had ended up being useful to him, and he began to develop his wholly egocentric philosophy of personal genius and achievement. Like the Rilasciare, he saw those who were born with advantages like nobility were getting undeserved rewards. Unlike them, he saw compassion as weakness. This viewpoint made waves, earning him investors - even noble ones. Rourke's skills in commodities trading weren't bad, but he was better at speeches, charisma and recognizing synergies. He founded Rourke & Rudd in Montaigne, simply because he enjoyed their culture and art. However, l'Empereur was not a fan of his plan to make a corporation that answered to no government, and sent the Musketeers on Rourke's offices. They attacked by night, using a falsified threat to draw security away and storming the offices, beating up anyone present, taking any papers and burning the place down. Rourke had backups copies on his personal ship, yes, but it wounded his pride and budget. Thus, he learned, heading for the Atabean to rebuild - not as R&R, but the Atabean Trading Company. He is a confident, friendly fellow, charismatic and entirely self-serving, who is free with small things like dinner invitations and charm to hide his greed for land, wealth and power. He is no doubt an inspiring figure...but he is also one of the greatest Villains there is, and possibly the most powerful man in the Atabean. Next time: More Staff
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Jul 2, 2018 17:43
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Gotta admit, can't think of a better way to get people to hate a sociopathic capitalist slaver villain than with a condensed Galt speech. Also a good way to know what players you should have second thoughts about if they read the whole thing and like it. It's one of those things where it would at first seem cartoonishly evil by modern standards, but it turns out the people making actual excuses during the period were, if anything, even more vociferous and detestable.
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Jul 2, 2018 18:52
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It's one of those things where it would at first seem cartoonishly evil by modern standards, but it turns out the people making actual excuses during the period were, if anything, even more vociferous and detestable. People STILL make those excuses. One of our chief errors in the modern era is thinking any of this stuff went away, it just changed its stripes.
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Jul 2, 2018 18:54
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