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 Thanon is a strange little city stuck out on a spit of land at the far western end of the continent. It’s oftentimes the first part of Calabria foreigners ever see, docks and curls of smoke leaking out from between a jagged range of granite teeth. Pirates and slave-traders rub elbows with emancipationists and disgraced nobility in homey taverns, not far from eerie standing stones and stinking foundries. Tensions in Thanon run high. Reaction and radicalism, freedom and slavery, atavism and modernism all push and pull against each other. Whatever your reasons, you’ve put your foot into this snare, and now you get to ride it all the way up. -- Between Night’s writeups in the Fatal and Friends thread, and the game going on sale, it's time for more action in not-Europe in the not-1650s-to-1780s. If you need to get your hands on the rules, you can buy the useful parts of Ironclaw 2E for a little over twenty bucks, and donate to the EFF at the same time. This game will recruit off the forums and then move to asynchronous Discord play. The goal for this game is to point the players at a powder keg and let what will happen, happen. The specifics are something we can collectively decide when picks are made, but it’ll probably involve some dramatic swordplay, some swashbuckling action, and somebody is likely to lose their head along the way. What I initially want from potential players is a sketch or character pitch, rather than a full character writeup with completed sheet. The idea is to put out a general notion that can be developed alongside the other eventual players. Your character should probably have a compelling reason to stay in Thanon, and at least a strong opinion of some sort on the local goings-on. I’m open to pretty much any kind of pitch, but if you want to be a slave trader hellbent on preserving the ancien regime, you should probably back that up with some pretty compelling writing. Below is a list of details to scavenge for prompts and ideas. Use them as you see fit, or propose your own. Since we’re looking for pretty brief items, recruitment will go until some time this weekend. I strongly encourage questions and players getting organized. Make noise here, send me PMs, or use the recruitment Discord: https://discord.gg/Z8Hnd7s E: More betterer URL  -- Places, People, and Things of Interest Thanon - the furthest-west city on the continent. The local environment is rocky, prone to chill weather and overcast skies. The merchant houses, Guild halls and industry are all located by the harbor on the west edge of the land. The city’s elite live slightly uphill within the inner walls, clustered about a central keep that’s wildly outmoded in this modern gunpowder age. Furthest east is the cheaper side of the city, turning into farmland beyond the neglected outer walls. The Via Salutis terminates in the city, stretching eastward across the entire continent. Thanon is somewhat isolated by land - the nearest major settlement is some fifty leagues distant, though coach inns and tiny hamlets dot the hills along the highway. The city was added to the territory of House Bisclavret a generation ago. The Unfinished Bridge - West of the city stands a stone bridge jutting out over the ocean. It’s not damaged, but it cuts off abruptly a few hundred paces out, as if its builders simply gave up after a time. Rumors as to its purpose abound, from demonic whispers or debased rituals to strange impressions upon the magically-skilled. What is known is that robed figures can be seen dancing and cavorting on the bridge when the moon is full. None of these revelers have been caught and questioned, as of yet. House Esclage - Formerly an independent noble branch, this house was recently absorbed by House Bisclavret to the south during the latter’s explosive emergence into political prominence. The Esclage officially hold the city in fief, but are de facto under the thumb of the Bisclavret governor. Thanon’s day-to-day governance is run by the Esclage, who are considered to be fair if uninvolved administrators. Anyone running afoul of the house’s politics is likely to be beset by sudden and malicious compliance with the letter of the law. Baroness Constanze d’Esclage - The head of House Esclage after all these years. Her father was the previous count, and his reign saw the decline of their family under the Bisclavret encroachment. Constanze has tried to pry what power she can back from the southern intruders, but has found limited success in her endeavors in the many decades since her ascension. Remaining out of the halls of power may be to her advantage, as the Bisclavret are increasingly unpopular among the peasantry and the assorted nobility of the county. Meanwhile Constanze is seen as an honorable native daughter, a kind matriarch to her people and subjects, in spite of her heterodox religious beliefs and diminished means. House Bisclavret - The Bisclavret are the newest player among the Great Houses, bursting onto the scene just under 200 years ago. They’ve made a name for themselves with their rapid industrial development, becoming the continental experts on shipwrighting and gunsmithing. The Bisclavret buck tradition, embrace innovation and commerce, are worryingly enthusiastic about the Penitent orthodoxy, and would vastly prefer you not ask anything about their history. Prior to their big debut, the Bisclavret were a sub-clan of the pagan, atavistic Phelan to the north. In no way shape or form should the Bisclavret fascination with the new, the technical, and the devout be seen as compensation for their origins. Governor Kier Lachlan-Bisclavret - The newly appointed governor of Thanon, still settling into his position a few months after his predecessor was mysteriously recalled with no warning. Kier is typical of the younger Bisclavret nobility, delighting in competing with his peers for discovering the next big thing, whether that come from patronizing the arts or discovering a new industrial process. Kier’s job is to put his thumb on the scales whenever the Bisclavret may benefit, and it’s not earned him many friends among the people and the elite, who hate him for his mercenary behavior and for cutting into their profits, respectively. Unbeknownst to the Bisclavret spy corps, the Indicateur, Kier is a member of the emancipationist Eleutherian Society, but they’re beginning to suspect. The Phelan - Eschewing guns and swords for their traditional way of life, the Phelan are a coalition of aboriginal peoples in the northwestern part of the continent. The Bisclavret used to be among their number, before they decided this whole colonizing thing was a great way to get one up on their peers. The Phelan are big on druids and mysticism, not so big on literacy or evil spirits. The Tuath na Iargul is the clan closest to Thanon, and the oldest. The Iargul are steeped in history and culture, and they’ve also turned to raiding to the south as their own lands are increasingly empty of game. This land used to be theirs, long, long ago, but taking it back by force carries too large a price in blood. The standing stones - Thanon and surrounding environments feature numerous arrangements of rough-hewn standing stones, in various configurations and sizes. Attempts to rearrange or demolish the monuments sees them returned to their previous condition within the lunar month. The Phelan don’t claim any ownership of these structures, but the townspeople have learned to leave them be, after someone got the bright idea to use them as pre-quarried building material. Fires and untimely illness struck each building that used the stones in its construction. The Guilds - Each Guild maintains its own hall, which varies in grandeur depending on its owner. Most of the Calabrian Guilds has representation in Thanon, but the big players are the Shipwrights, Sailors, and Miners. In addition to their internal politics, the city’s Guild council have taken a notion to curb piracy by directly addressing the problem with a liberal application of mercenaries, entirely without sanction by the city officials. On top of this budding arms race between merchants and pirates, the Guilds are locked in an ongoing debate over aligning themselves with the Bisclavret or the Esclage. So far, attempts to raise a private army have been symmied by fierce argument over who’ll be stuck with the bill. Master Prysse - The Thanonian Gunsmith’s Guild consists of Prysse and her assistants. The discharge of their craft may have rendered them all mostly deaf, but the gunworks is quietly expanding under the noses of all the other Guilds. Corsairs - The Bisclavret navy hasn’t gotten around to securing their most distant port, and as such Thanon teems with pirates, privateers, merchant ships, slave traders, and the rest of the scum of the sea. Even the privateers are hated, but each drunken sailor is vital to the city’s continued well-being. Notable mariners include Long Sally John, Captain “Soprano” Castigan, and the semi-mythical Jolly Roger, said to have taken ten ships in a single rum-hazed night. The mines - Dating back to the Phelan arrival on the continent, this grey and dismal land has been mined for iron and coal, as well as quarried for fine granite since before recorded history. Admittedly, a little over a thousand years of mining isn’t much when considered as a whole, but nevertheless, the locals keep draining the veins of the earth. With the Phelan driven away, the miners employ the latest blasting techniques, plumbing veins untouched until the current day. With ready access to slaves and criminals condemned to the mines, life for the local commoners has never been more prosperous. The Eleutherians - A diverse group of religious and secular members, united by their opposition to slavery. Scrupulous Penitents lecture on street corners while agnostic clerks and the occasional wealthy patron pass out handbills condemning the practice of slavery in all its forms. The Eleutherians are not well-liked by anyone with even a modicum of power or money. The Society of Friends - A small salon hosted from a lawyer’s home in the ritzier part of the city, where the Thanon intellectuals go to see and be seen by their relatively few peers. More attention to courtly manners is paid here than anywhere else in the city. Lofty ideas and theories are bandied about behind lace fans and the cover of poetry. Estefan Liberti - Formerly Lord Estefan de Rinaldi, fourteenth of that name, and one of the semi-legitimized by-blows of the Rinaldi line. Or at least he once was - Estefan has renounced his title and ties to his august family, giving every appearance of earnestly espousing free thought of all kinds. He’s ingratiated himself among some among the Society of Friends, but at least a few other members of the club claim to have seen him behind closed doors with another Rinaldi of prominence. The religious community - As with all other Bisclavret territories, any faith outside the Church of S’Allumer is illegal in Thanon. That doesn’t stop secret believers in the Old Faith, hidden druidic conclaves, or if you believe the rumors, at least one necromancer. A majority of the faithful in Thanon are orthodox Penitents, owing to either sincere belief in the Bisclavret way or in an attempt to curry favor with the latest batch of overlords. The Esclage remainder venerate the saints, holding close to the Hyperdulian heterodoxy. The peasantry is mostly concerned with how frequently they’re asked to tithe and how much they get back in return. Father Thistle - Thistle is not a member of the Esclage lineage, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him or hear one of his sermons. The priest is the foremost Hyperdulian in the city, and will cheerfully mention the ethereal visions he receives of putting the old nobles back in charge of the city. The Hyperdulian order gives deeply to the peasants and the poor, as well as running the largest hospital in the city; when Thistle is not at the pulpit or excoriating the Bisclavret governorship, he’s tending to the sick and needy. The gentry - The petty nobility unaligned with any of the major houses, and the occasional emigre from one of the other Great Houses elsewhere in Calabria. These people, regardless of their affiliation, are mostly holding their breath and waiting. Their demographic is very well attuned to the possibility of chaos and change, and Thanon is not in a sufficiently steady state to make the bluebloods happy. You’d be hard-pressed to find a one of them ready to commit to any action beyond accumulating their next denar. The burghers are enjoying the unprecedented freedom this hesitance allows them. Enri de Lusignan - A country squire come to the city to earn a living. Ostensibly a vassal of the Esclage, he’s found little opportunity to pay his debts with his liege lord - he’s turned to leaning on his noble privilege, acting as an intermediary between the blooded and unblooded for coin. His peers are beginning to wonder just whose side he’s truly on. The plebs - The workers and peasants trouble themselves with the source of their next meal as they have since time immemorial. Next come worries about the raiding Phelan, thieving pirates, or whatever nonsense their neighbors and fellow congregants are getting up to in defiance of all sense. Of least concern, whatever their betters get up to will inevitably make the lives of the common folk worse; why dwell on whatever horrible thing is about to happen when you can look forward to the next festival? Anais and Ifan - When this young couple wed, their fellow villagers were overjoyed; with any luck, the two loudest, angriest people around would keep each other busy. Their propensity to pick fights and voice their opinions unprompted will surely have no negative repercussions any time soon. grassy gnoll fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 16:38
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 Deadeye Reed, Warlock Attaché to the Gunsmiths A fox with no small amount of sympathy for the plight of the down and firmly trodden upon, Reed has been working at Master Prysse's side to push the Guild's grasp of firearms to ever higher levels. The guild is working on a revolution in the field of gunsmithing — moving from simple matchlocks to a more complicated setup involving bullets primed with a hint of elemental magic. Reed, naturally, is more involved with the latter, though he's picked up more than a bit of the basics of creating guns. Though the Guild has been relatively low-key, content to make moves through deniable assets and back channels, Reed still managed to draw no little attention to himself. A few days past, a group of ruffians fresh from the dock decided that a load of the Guild's finest was just what they needed to start making a mark. Unfortunately for them, however, Reed was working late that evening. They were fairly canny fighters for dock thugs, surprisingly so, but they weren't prepared for the level of firepower he was willing to bring to bear. The survivors scampered off, leaving behind a pair of smoldering bodies. pre:Traits Species: d4 (Red Fox)
Tricky fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Feb 25, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 17:09
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Seems interesting, I'm a sucker for age of sail and sadly disappointed by 7th Sea. Not that familiar with the system though, how does it run?
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Feb 20, 2019 17:45
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Slave trader hellbent on preserving the ancient regime, you say....hmm...
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Feb 20, 2019 17:49
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Tentative interest post, I guess? I tried joining the Discord earlier, but I get the impression I was removed from it or something. e: Eh, sorry. Rescinding this. I haven't had a decent chance to read the book yet and I probably won't get it to it in decent enough time. Not Operator fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Feb 21, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 18:02
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Irving Loamwright Armadillo Diviner Irving is a diviner for hire, mostly doing mineral dowsing work for the mining companies and nobility of the city. His unerring guidance has lead to many a great find, and his grateful patrons have left him in quite a cozy position, money-wise. However, lately his visions of the future are clouded. Something has put the spirits of nature in turmoil. Unable to ignore the cries of the earth, Irving has soured his relationship with many of his old patrons by suggesting that they may be digging too deep or in places best left alone. Now, leaving his lucrative career behind and living off his savings, Irving has begun to investigate. He is often seen now in the company of practitioners of the old ways, speaking in hushed tones about old gods and places of power. Though he doesn't know exactly how, Irving wants to protect the city from whatever is coming. And Something is coming, that much is clear. quote:Personality: Naive Getsuya fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Feb 26, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 18:08
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Tentative interest post, I am interested in the setting and have played far too much EU4 but haven't tried Ironclaw yet, will give it a look e: nm, got nothing Aesculus fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Feb 23, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 18:22
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Liquid Communism posted:Seems interesting, I'm a sucker for age of sail and sadly disappointed by 7th Sea. Not that familiar with the system though, how does it run? Pretty decently, although to be totally blunt it's a touch higher on the lethality and fiddliness for my personal tastes. Still, it's probably the best thing out there for the approximate simulation of muskets-and-rapiers adventure. The core mechanic is that you build a dice pool out of various attributes, then roll to beat a target number, usually three. Let's say your character is built so that your pool for this particular test is a d4, 2d6, and a d12, which you roll and get 4, 3, 1, and 4, respectively. You'd have two successes. More successes, more better. While I of course encourage you to buy the rules from this charity bundle, I'm sure you can find a more elaborate explanation of the rules somewhere online. Not Operator posted:Tentative interest post, I guess? Getsuya posted:Oh thank goodness it wasn’t just me. Same thing happened! Anyway I’m also very interested. I just picked up the bundle myself and was hoping to try it out. Hrm, that's definitely not intended behavior. I refreshed the Discord link. Give this one a shot: https://discord.gg/Z8Hnd7s
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Feb 20, 2019 19:00
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Well musket and rapier is my jam. Not sure what'll fit with the group, but I have bad habit of running sailors of dubious past and rather more experience with gunnery than one expects of the merchant marine. 
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Feb 20, 2019 19:46
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 Macha the Raven-Eyed, Pirate Captain Raised among the Iargul as a warrior, Macha grew to resent how her folk constantly sacrificed their lands and lives at the altars of meaningless traditions. She began to disdain worship of the gods, discreetly learned to read, and even smuggled firearms to pick apart in her lodge. These blasphemies had her rudely cast out of the highest circles of Phelan society. Piracy helped cushion her fall. Macha's since become one of the popular cutthroats around Thanon. The wolf almost exclusively targets Bisclavret vessels, spending her proceeds while raucously recounting her victories over those hated upstarts. Her habit of freeing slaves for crew and information, too, brings goodwill from the iron mines to the dusty rooms of the Eleutherians. But this is done solely in the name of networking and coin. For now. quote:Traits: Bendigeidfran fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Mar 1, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 21:45
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 Mascarado, Champion of Justice! Gorilla Pit Fighter Any traveling circus worth the name (and Cirque de Screebaragh had quite the name) has a brawler or grappler, often doubling as the strongman, to allow ambitious locals to come and test themselves in the ring. Stand 3 rounds against Mascarado, the barker would cry, and win a dinar! Not a gladiator, no - that would be illegal, sir! Just an athlete putting on a display. Of course when money gets tight and the creditors are sniffing around, one does what one must. But the final, fatal, mistake of Anillo de Screebaragh was to place bets he could not afford to lose, and when approached by shady figures to arrange for Mascarado to take a dive - he refused. Anillo was found bobbing in the harbor, Mascarado vanished, and the circus was no more. The gorilla nursed back to health by Penitent monks might be in a position to speak about it, but a pistol ball just barely deflected by his thick skull has left few memories behind. He remembers mostly that he is strong, and must use his strength for the benefit of others. Firebrand Eleutherian preachers have convinced him that his true cause shall be the abolition of slavery by any means. Mascarado will no longer be a name for bullying or brawling - now it will be a name that brings hope to the downtrodden, and justice to the ignoble. quote:
thatbastardken fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Feb 26, 2019 |
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Feb 21, 2019 05:49
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 Vasco, the wanderer. Some say that salt water runs in the veins of otters instead of blood, and Vasco wouldn't disagree. Most of his life has been spent on the water, from the fishing boats of his youth to naval carracks after he was pressganged into service, and most recently the merchant ship Wave. Feeling a need to leave town, perhaps due to a certain young weasel searching the dockside taverns for the one who had broken his sister's heart with murder on his mind, Vasco signed for a six month voyage to Thanon and back, shipping mining tools and returning with valuable goods. Late one night a few days out from Thanon, he happened to overhear the ship's master discussing with the bosun a little side deal he intended to make, to fill his own purse by bringing back a few bodies to sell into the underground back home. A man who would secretly deal in slaves is a man who might see value in adding a couple deckhands with over-free tongues to the chain for a bit of extra profit, so when Vasco strolled onto the quay for shore leave, it was with his slim savings concealed in his vest, and no intention of being aboard when the Wave put up anchor again. quote:Vasco, Otter Vagabond Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 23, 2019 03:44
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Apps lookin' pretty good so far. If anyone's still pondering, I'm going to  close applications Sunday evening, GMT-5.
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Feb 23, 2019 15:04
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Recruitment is closed. If you submitted a pitch, you got in. Players, if you're seeing this, you should probably check the Discord channel.
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Feb 25, 2019 00:48
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