Cool! Oh, by the way, it should be noted that Dek is still wearing his green sash. Vera never took it off him like he asked.
I know. ;-) He would have taken it off himself, but his hands were literally tied.
Just to illustrate the GM's point about the Templars... Three units, one LG, one LN and one LE.
@Brandon, depends on the sect of the church. She hates the Western Church but is relatively friendly towards the Eastern Church (think of the Catholic/Orthodox divide but much more severe).
The Casvanian Lightbringers are the legendary Casvanian chapter of the Templar order. They are dedicated vampire hunters who are absolutely ruthless in their charge, the eradication of all vampires. Yet they are also a gleaming beacon of light for the people of Casvania, the Lightbringers have brought schools, hospitials and roads to even the most far off villages of this nation.
The Lightbringers symbolize everything good about the Templar Order, even the Western Divinity Church avoids castigating them, knowing the backlash this would bring...
"We are the shining light, we are the holy ones. We stand against darkness and savagery from both within and without." -Knight commander Cassandra-
The Grey Templar arose during the End Times, for what most often forget (especially at the behest of the Western Church) is that the Occult Society fought not only the Church and it's rampant, corrupt Inquisition but also the demonic hordes that threatened all of civilization.
The Grey Templar are put through what is arguably the most brutal training regime in the entire order, against the ravages of the planes only the strong and loyal can prevail.
Grey Templars are anathema to the supernatural, the aura of a Grey Templar literally weakens outsiders around him. His blade is capable of cleaving through both angel and demon alike and often has.
"Suffer neither the ravaging demon nor the meddling archangel to live, slay them all." -Grey Templar Ossus-
The Purifiers are one of the most feared Templar chapters, unlike most chapters (they and the Grey Templars are the exception) the Purifiers are not bound to one specific territory or country. Rather they are called in when the Inquisition deems an area as beyond "redemption" (mass executions of Occultists, concentration camps etc).
The Purifiers are specially trained in the dreaded rites of Exterminatus, a dread ritual that has only been performed three times (in recorded) history. Exterminatus calls forth fire from the heavens, causes the earth to shake, unleashes horrific supernatural plagues and worst of all summons the spirits of the vengeful dead to take their revenge...
In all three instances a 100 mile swath of land became a wasteland, a wasteland that would never again bare life.
The threat of Exterminatus was what caused the Theology War to end so abruptly...
"We are purification, by our will all in this wretched hell shall be obliterated. Occultist and non Occultist alike shall perish alongside the innocent and the corrupt." -Lord Commander Remus, upon the eve of the "1st" exterminatus-
The Occult Society isn't very much liked by a majority in the Territories either.
The Occult Society and the Divinity Church are pretty much going through a Cold War in the Territories. The physical war waged between them recently nearly split the region (American Civil War analogue, albeit for much different reasons). Part of the Compact relegated them to their individual Territories (The Hallows for the Occult Society, and South Peaks* for the Divinity Church). They only have minor churches (Divinity Church) or enclaves (Occult Society) spread throughout the rest of the Territories. Eastwoods, being the location of the capitol, is run primarily by the Order of the Silver Star, whom brokered the 'peace' between the two factions and to this day act as Law Enforcement.
*South Peaks is a new Territory I just came up with that is south of Eastwoods. The Hallows is north of Eastwoods.
@Grace - I'll add those to the website eventually.
@Everyone Else - Feel free to come up with some lore/locations/etc. for the Territories. If I like it and it fits (i.e. doesn't screw with the general idea I have for the setting) I will make it 'canon' information and put it on the site.
More stuff... Onto the role of some Thunderscape classes in the game.
Golemoids came about during the Theology war, they were the result of Relicquarian experimentation. The Templars by far the least numerous faction in the war needed to both minimize causalities and bolster their own ranks.
The result was Occult implants and then golemoids, the first implants were simply prosthetics but the Relicquarium, emboldened by their successes soon became vastly more ambitious. Soon enough they had their chance, the Templar soldier, Cortez Torquemada had been eviscerated by canister shot. On the brink of death Cortez was brought to the Relicquarium in a desperate, last ditch effort to save him.
The Relicquarium succeeded and Cortez would not only survive but continue campaigning as a Templar, rising to the rank of Knight Commander in the Theology War.
While the Society tightly controls knowledge concerning implants it does allow anyone with the coin to buy prosthetics. More valuable implants or indeed outright golemization is reserved for Society members exclusively and especially Templars.
Mechamages began to arise during the industrial revolution but it was only during the Theology war that they truly rose to prominence. The dual innovation of implants and vehicles propelled them to notice within the Society.
The Society being the only faction truly positioned to combine the occult with technology gained a powerful (but not critical) advantage over their Church foes. As while vehicles were powerful they were also prone to mechanical (and occult) failures, they were powerful but cumbersome.
Now that the war is over however the Mechamages are beginning to refine their designs...
Thunderscouts arose from those Templar vehicle operators that survived the Theology war, and it must be admitted their own vehicles. Thunderscouts are in Templar ranks seen as exceptionally brave beings who willingly utilize some of the most dangerous and experimental technology in the world.
Needless to say their numbers are few but their names are legends across the territories, anyone capable of surviving both the perils of the Theology war and the temperamental whims of the occult vehicles (some of them even have "spirits", yay!) is truly worthy of respect.
Next up Grace's own Chapter... And the rise of the Mechanus.
Lord Commander: Cortez Torquemada
Lord Templars: Alexis the "red knight", Kyras the "blessed" and Fenris the "hound".
Knights: over 200
Templar forces: over 3000 (excluding Initiates)
History: A Chapter typically earns it's name from the battles it wages and the Legio mechanus is no exception. During the Theology war the Templar forces suffered heavy losses initially forcing them to resort to new (and desperate) measures to succeed.
So the Legio mechanus turned to it's aspiring innovators to design both implants and vehicles which proved absolutely crucial to surviving and indeed reversing the war. It was at the battle of the Howling Plains that the war was reversed, the wide open plains once the favorite battleground of the Church were turned into a slaughterhouse.
The Templars employed their Steam Transports to lethal effect, the bullets glanced off the armor of the transports and delivered the Templars right into the middle of the enemy army. And so was revealed the greatest weakness of the Church's army, bayonets were no match for Templar swords and armor.
The battle would witness virtually no Templar causalities and nearly half of the church's army was either dead or injured, the rest fled into the foothills.
From then on the Templars continued to press southwards over a dozen battles which they won, eventually however the Templars were stopped when they came to the massive stretch (500 miles) of foothills and forests that encircled the South Peaks.
So began the peace negotiations at the behest of the Silver Star...
The Mechanus is a thus far "theoretical" new faction within the Society, many believe the fusion of magic and machine is so important that the enterprise needs it's own dedicated faction. So far the Mechanus is too young and lacking of numbers to truly become a new faction and is far removed from possessing a council seat.
Still however they bare watching and it is not entirely impossible nor indeed improbable for them to achieve council status in the coming decades...
Your thoughts GM?
Thunderscout, mechamage, and golemoid are not available classes in this campaign setting.
Anything dealing with Occult Adventures/Occult Mysteries is fair game for the Society.
If at all, mechamages and thunderscouts would be part of the Architects faction, and they are never seen out in the open.
Arcane magic is not very common, which is why the main classes of 'magic' are actually the Occult Adventures classes (magic psionics really). Witches are SUPER rare, plus they fit the whole feel of that time period. Spellgun magus fits the general feel of the campaign as well, and gypsy does as well. Those are the ONLY non-occult arcane classes.
That being said, all this info sounds like a great idea for an omnipresent government/organizational presence in a fantasy equivalent to cyberpunk (shadowrun) campaign setting... just not this one. If I were you, I'd write all this stuff down for your own personal campaign world if you haven't already.
Question of note Warhawk are you looking for a game yourself? Will rework Grace's chapter in time...
To play in? I'm currently playing in 2 PbP games and running this one (since as you can tell the sci-fi one went under pretty much). I don't think I have the time right now to devote to 4 games.
To play in but if you aren't interested I won't press it, what went wrong with the sc-fi one?
As you know, we had one person drop by announcement. While you were creating your character to replace them, another player never responded, and no one else created a new character in the recruitment thread. It just fell apart really. I may try again some other day though.
I personally recommend going with a non prison setting next time, players need to "move around" as it is. A campaign spanning the galaxy should be the ultimate sandbox.
I was leading there, just slowly apparently. In a table-top game the prison would have been done in one session, easily.
The Sci-Fi and this Western PbP are my first ventures into running a Play-by-Post game. Next time I run that setting, I won't be using the vitality/wound or armor as DR systems most likely.
Part of the problem was that Pathfinder wasn't designed to handle science fiction (the rules for automatics just don't make sense)...
But I did find this, yes it is what you think it is...
http://masseffectd20.freeforums.org/med20-pdf-links-t512.html
I'll have to check that out later as I'm trying to do schoolwork.
Yea I've seen those before. I think I had them saved somewhere on my laptop, desktop, or one of my external hard drives, but I cannot remember where exactly. I think it's okay, but its old 3.5 d20.
Lord Commander: Ahriman
Commanders: Kyras the "blessed", Cassandra the "archangel" and Thule the "shadow"
Knights: over 200
Duty bound: 100
Templars: 3000
Initiates: 500
History: The Custodes Mortem (deathguard) earned their name in the brutal Theology war, during this war they lost over half of their entire army. As a result the Chaplains of all the Occult forces in the Custodes Mortem hold the most sway, Lord Commander Ahriman himself is a powerful Thaumaturge.
The Custodes Mortem also possess a massive number of Duty bound, nearly ten times what most Chapters would have. The Custodes Mortem rely heavily on not just the Duty bound but often the dead who truly perished in the Theology war, several times in brief flareups across the West the ghosts of dead Templars have arisen to fight alongside their living brethren...
While the Custodes did not deliberately summon back the spirits of their fallen brethern they have taken advantage of the situation and numerous Templar Chaplains run across the west on "mysterious" errands...
The Theology war while a broad conflict can be summarized as follows.
The Custodes Mortem started off at the disadvantage, while capable of moving their forces with ease via teleportation and maintaining communication via astropathy they simply could not stem the tide of the Church...
Mid way in the war however the tide turned in the favor of the Custodes Mortem, for while the Church had over ten times the number of Templars this was essentially a conscript army. Poor training, poor equipment, bad supply lines and faith that could just as easily be crushed as stoked.
The Templars however were disciplined, well equipped and well versed in the ways of the occult. Furthermore those Templars that had survived by the turning point of the war were battle hardened veterans. Worse however was the fact that the number of Duty bound effectively quadrupled due to causalities and the efforts of the Chaplains...
The war turned brutally at the battle of the Spirit's run, the run once the sight of the Templars greatest defeat in the war (1000 causalities) was turned into a bloodbath for the Church. Thanks to the efforts of the Ahriman and his fellow Chaplains every Templar who died at the battle rose once again.
The battle of Spirit's run would result in over five thousand Church causalities and a routed army. From the on the war would turn progressively worse for the church, as the Templars pressed further south the weaknesses of the Church's army were not exposed...they were laid open like a carcass at the butcher's shop.
Worse yet for the Church was the fact that the Templars who had just heard rumors previously now saw the full extent of the Church's crimes... The Templars now seeing their enemies as below even rabid animals now viewed the war as nothing more then a massive cleansing, entire towns burned to the ground and once fertile fields became nothing save ash.
The Templars were as merciless to the Church as the Church was to gifted children, both the innocent and guilty perished in the flames of war.
Ultimately the war would be stopped by the Silver Stars, for the Templars despite enormous gains simply didn't have the numbers to defend them and the Church had exhausted both the faith and resources of it's people.
Peace was brokered and a shadow conflict began...
Thoughts GM?
The Divinity Church did not cleanse "gifted" children, and the Church didn't conscript it's followers. Stop trying to make the Divinity Church into some evil religious fanaticism.
The Black Abbott, an excommunicated and disavowed rogue member of the Church, brought with him a few hundred loyal (at legitimately crazy/evil) fanatics with him and is the one whom "cleansed" the gifted. He did so to sow confusion and anger, as he disguised his followers and actions so they looked like legitimate Church followers to instigate a war. The Divinity Church denied all accusations in these crimes (and rightfully so as they truly were innocent), but the Society, still influenced with the stigma of the Old Country wars, believed with every fiber of their being that the Church was truly to blame, thus a war started.
The Black Abbot, a devout follower of The Destroyer, wanted this war as it created confusion, sorrow, and destruction--all in the name of The Destroyer.
The war, having torn apart the eastern Territories (some conflict spilled into the West), was practically a stalemate the three years of the entire war. No true winner would emerge from it. In the first year, both sides gained early victories, but eventually the war did stalemate. It was the Order of the Silver Star, a large group of devout warriors of The Lawbringer (an often overlooked neutral deity and judge of mortals and souls), who brokered peace between the two factions.
Most of Grace's viewpoints are possibly based off of extremely biased knowledge taught to her by the Society. Grace's town was burned to the ground by the Black Abbot's forces, not members of the Divinity Church.
Also, ressurection/raise magic is EXTREMELY rare, and teleportation magic/abilities do not exist in this setting.
Oh they are, admittedly though Templars think the world would truly be a better place if the Church was destroyed (or at least they effectively all became the Eastern Divinity Church).
Did the teleportation magic get nixed at the beginning or just now? (personally I think teleportation magic should be limited to rare "gates" and perhaps the dimension door spell)
I would also note that Grace does believe (she isn't alone in this belief) that the Black Abbot is nothing more then a minion of the Church who was "conveniently" excommunicated... To say that her bias runs strong is an understatement, also a question of note. Do hot air balloons and zeppelins exist in this setting (I know that balloons were use during the civil war)?
Well, of course the Order wants the Territories Divinity Church to be like the Eastern Divinity Church... the Eastern Divinity Church is in the Order's pocket... lol.
It was never really mentioned, but teleportation spells were never something I was keen on in the game. Gates are the closest to teleportation, but they are ancient technology that are rare to find and no one knows the secret to their creation. Also, they are paired together (think Stargate without picking your destination).
Both the Divinity Church and the Occult Society each possess a pair that they use on rare occasions where someone of extreme importance needs to travel across the Sea between the Territories and the Old Countries. Also, a limitation is that they can only be used once per week/month for a total of 10 minutes at a time.
As for the dimension door spell, that would be a no-go.
Well, the Black Abbot really is not part of the Church. And as for your suggestion for the Theology War, that could very well be what the Occult Society historians and educators claim to be true. Misinformation is a powerful tool. The general membership (as in non-leadership) of the Order believes what they are told, so they go forth and 'purge' those accused of wrongdoing (usually by a higher ranking member either "in" on the farce, or they are truly a believer). This is the primary reason why the general populace has a severe distrust of members of the Order.
Pretty much although admittedly the Eastern Church is something akin to a morality pet for the Society...
Also I have been thinking of a way to make something between Mass Combat and "normal" PC operations... Would you be interested in collaborating on such a system?
What do you mean? Also, reply to that via private message so we don't bombard this thread with that.
ALso, I'm waiting for the other members of the party to respond to the gameplay thread.
Checking in, so you know I'm checking in.
who are we waitin on?
Well, I was going to see if anyone wanted to weigh in on the Doctor's Office, but if not, I'll have something to post by tomorrow evening. I have a speech and essay to write this weekend for my management class. (fun times).
This Templar is busy performing her duties (finding the gifted and sending them back to the old countries for education and safety)...
@GM: With speeches I advise taking historical speeches (especially Winston and Roosevelt) for inspiration... Both knew what they were doing.
Luckily its only a 3-5 minute speech on Monday, but Tuesday I need to do a 5-7 minute speech.. Ugh.
Updated the Campaign Info tab again to include current bounty targets and the prices for said bounties.
By far the best interpretation of being drunk I have seen in words... kudos
I've had practice. One of my characters was drunk for two pages.
LMAO.
Yeah. The worst part was that she was an inquisitor with the "restoration" subdomain, so she had a domain power to remove drunkenness, but she was too drunk to remember she had it...
The Divinity Church did not cleanse "gifted" children, and the Church didn't conscript it's followers. Stop trying to make the Divinity Church into some evil religious fanaticism.
The Black Abbott, an excommunicated and disavowed rogue member of the Church, brought with him a few hundred loyal (at legitimately crazy/evil) fanatics with him and is the one whom "cleansed" the gifted. He did so to sow confusion and anger, as he disguised his followers and actions so they looked like legitimate Church followers to instigate a war. The Divinity Church denied all accusations in these crimes (and rightfully so as they truly were innocent), but the Society, still influenced with the stigma of the Old Country wars, believed with every fiber of their being that the Church was truly to blame, thus a war started.
The Black Abbot, a devout follower of The Destroyer, wanted this war as it created confusion, sorrow, and destruction--all in the name of The Destroyer.
The war, having torn apart the eastern Territories (some conflict spilled into the West), was practically a stalemate the three years of the entire war. No true winner would emerge from it. In the first year, both sides gained early victories, but eventually the war did stalemate. It was the Order of the Silver Star, a large group of devout warriors of The Lawbringer (an often overlooked neutral deity and judge of mortals and souls), who brokered peace between the two factions.
This is helpful, thanks.
Going to try to catch up now. Extremely busy weekend.
I have to write another speech tonight, so I won't be posting any updates until tomorrow. Sorry folks.
Posted for you Relik.
Also, for the rest of you, I'm thoroughly enjoying your efforts to soberize Vera. Keep at it.
Oh, at this point, Vera has pretty much what she wants. She's drunk, Dek is in the Marshal's hands, and there's a room in the works, at least in theory. She's just going to be a willing (or not so willing) victim for Grace.
Our total loot count is as follows:
A deck of marked cards.
A deck of cards featuring drawings of various unclothed females.
A pair of superior loaded dice.
70 Dollars.
A compass.
2 gunbelts with 20 revolver rounds each.
A combat folding knife.
a silver pocketwatch
2 revolvers
AND two green sashes, each valued at 15 dollars.
Anyone have anything specific they'd like? Cogs said he wanted one of the guns, belts, and 10 rounds. Vera wants the artistic cards and the loaded dice.
Grace would probably take a 100 dollars out of the loot (70+the sashes), suspect I should save up for the hoped for "goodies" in the Occult Adventures release.
I'll be away from the internet from Friday until Monday. Just a heads-up.
Okay. I'll try and post before then.
No rush. If there's combat, you can run my character. She shoots stuff. It's pretty easy.
Let's keep things moving people...
I'm ready to move on to day two, unless anyone has stuff they want to do in the dead of night.
Not me.
Ready, although Grace does want to do some investigation concerning the so called "bandit princess"... Grace's question is basically this, is she a society renegade or someone who slipped through the Society's fingers?
This will influence how Grace deals with her greatly...
seeing how tomorrow might get messy I'll make sure to double check my medical supplies. and clean my utensils and tools.
Grace stands before the elderly Reliquarian and speaks in a respectful tone, "fellow member of the Society would you cast a spell on my behalf?"
The old Reliquarian responded, his tone questioning...
"What is the name the of spell my good Templar?"
Grace not missing a beat responded, "post haste."