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The Oard Commeth
“It was only a matter of Time”-Anonymous
Who are the Oard?
The Oard can be found in the D&D Creature Catalogue and the D&D Adventure CM6 Where Chaos Reigns. They are a space and time faring Empire built on the power of technology. They specialize in the discreet infiltration of other civilizations and the manipulation of those civilizations toward a technological end rather than a magical one.
A Peoples Revolution
Recommended Location: Heldannic Territories
Description: The Bailiffs dispatched by the local lord to collect grain tax have failed to return from the Village of Humprey.
What’s going on: The locals are in the middle of a technological boom. A travelling sage has taught the local blacksmith how to build a mechanical grain harvester. The Humprey Push-Scythe allows a single individual to harvest four acres an hour. He has also taught them to manufacture a repeating crossbow that fires bolts from a drum barrel of twenty and must be wound like a clock in a single turn before use. The Sage is an ordinary person dispatched from an Oard Re-education Facility to “assist” the locals in their technological rise.
The Lords Bailiffs simply stumbled into a peasant uprising and were disposed of on their arrival.
Humprey Push-Scythe
The push-Scythe allows the farmer to harvest a grain crop at four acres per hour (4x rate of peasant labourer).
(Weight: 50lb, value: 500gp)
Humprey Repeating Crossbow
Must be wound like a clock with a special handle that fits on the end of the barrel and fires up to twenty bolts from the crossbow drum barrel
(Weight: 30lb, Weapon Cost: 250gp//Ammunition: 10gp/bolt, Range: 100’, Damage: Heavy Crossbow+1, Reload: 1 Turn)
PC Involvement: The Party is called in to investigate an isolated village refusing to pay its taxes in farm produce. They find the locals have declared independence from the local lord and have declared them selves the People’s Union of Humprey. They will be ambushed on the road by twenty peasants armed with Humprey Repeating Crossbows. If the party capture the Sage, they find a mind immune to torture and interrogation.
The Lord dispatches fifty light footmen from his castle a week after the Adventurers with orders to exterminate the villagers. If the People’s Union crush the soldiers (with PC help) they spread to control the Lords estate within a year.
An Angry Mob
Recommended Location: Luln, Karameikos
Description: A Wizard in Luln is being lynched by local peasants.
What’s going on: The Wizard has been feebleminded by an Oard device called a Hypnosis Cube (detailed in the Adventure CM6 Where Chaos Reigns) which causes the Wizard to be unable to cast spells. An Oard traveller surprised the Wizard with the Ray while in the local tavern and hypnotised the Villagers also there into lynching him.
PC Involvement: The PC’s can stop the Lynching. The Wizard and Peasants don’t recover from the effects of the Subjugator Ray however (that takes a Wish). Until they are cured, the peasants will attack any identified wizard attempting to Lynch them. When word gets out, rival wizards show up to loot the Wizard’s residence.
An Iron Dragon
Recommended Location: North of Radlebb, Karameikos
Description: Farmers in a region of wilderness report an Iron Dragon (Drolem) on the Rampage north of Radlebb wood. The Drolem has destroyed their farms and killed their livestock. The Baron of Verge puts out a call for reliable Adventurers to look into it.
What’s going on: The Oard are clearing out a region of its population. They are Mining minerals in an abandoned mine in the Area and needed cover. IF adventurers follow its trail of destruction back to the source they are led to a mine that has been recently worked. Dwarf miners will be unfamiliar with the technique.
PC Involvement: The PC’s can stop the Drolem (Oard Robot). It will have some value to a Wizard fetching 1000gp-4000gp. They can also discover that someone used it to cover their mining activity-Something that took Tin, Lead, Copper, Iron, Gold, Silver, Platinum, and some Silicon. Over a thousand tons have been mined in a single week.
Examination of the mine by a Dwarf skilled in mining for a year will allow improvements in their mining skill (+1).
Starfall
Recommended Location: Reedle, Darokin
Description: A wizard seeks Adventurers to look for a Shooting Star that fell from the sky near Reedle.
What’s going on: An Oard Entry Impact Capsule has come down in the Mountains. The Engineer of the Oard Survey Ship (detailed in SPLASHDOWN and FOOTHOLD) has ejected from the ship. They find an Iron Golem wandering about a large Smashed “Egg”. It is constructing a Bunker (if allowed to finish). The Oard has perished. The “Smashed Egg” is the Entry Impact Capsule from an Oard Ship. Markings on the Capsule translate as “EIC-1”. The Iron golem will not allow the PCs to leave with the Oard and will need to be overcome.
PC Involvement: The PC’s might be hired to retrieve the falling star.
The Lifeboat
Recommended Location: Anywhere in the Sea of Dread
Description: A ship stumbles across a strange lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.
What’s going on: Another of the Crew of the Oard Survey Ship ejected over the Ocean. The “Lifeboat” is an Entry Impact Capsule from an Oard Ship. Markings on the Capsule translate as “EIC-5”. The Oard is in Hybernation and will revive if brought onboard. The Oard will attempt to hypnotise the Captain and Crew into slavery.
PC Involvement: The PC’s might encounter the Oard controlled ship at sea or coming into the isolated fishing village they are in. If the Oard makes it to a village it will enslave the locals (A PEOPLES REVOLUTION should provide a good suggestion as to what happens next).
Splashdown
Recommended Location: Gulf of Marilenev, south of Karameikos
Description: Sailors report seeing a huge “thing” fall from the sky into the gulf of Marilenev.
What’s going on: The “Engine” to the Survey ship has come down in the gulf. There is not much left and it is sitting on the Seabed. Adventurers will find the Ship remains mostly intact and under repair by a pair of iron Golems. Unfortunately the Engine is Days from going critical and any water in “engineering” will cause it to trigger early. The implosion of the engine will create a whirlpool located five hexes south of Specularum. The Whirlpool will last for a year before dissipating.
PC Involvement: The PC’s might be hired to go on an undersea adventure.
Foothold
Recommended Location: Eastern Thanegioth Archipelago
Description: The Forward Section of an Oard Vessel has come down on an Island of Cannibals east of the Isle of Dread.
What’s going on: The Forward part of the Ship has crashed in the Thanegioth Archipelago. The Islanders are being re-educated by the “Sky Gods” through the use of Hypnosis Cubes while the Robots (a dozen Iron Golems) begin mining and construction operations.
PC Involvement: The PC’s might encounter the Oard dismantling their ship section and constructing a base while exploring the region. This event Takes place AC1010, Nuwmont 1. If encountered after AC1020, there is an Oard Dome and Mining Facility just off the Coast.
Twilight of the Twaelar
Recommended Location: Sea of Dread, Near the Thanegioth Archapelago (Sometime after 1020AC).
Description: The Twaelar Empire stops raiding the surface as they come under sway by the Oard.
What’s going on: The Oard at the Thanegioth Foothold Site have begun an invasion of the Twaelar Empire. The Oard have provided the Twaelar ruling class with the gift of Hypnosis Cubes. The Oard are intent on totally assimilating the Twaelar Empire and using its resources to build an underwater mining facility. They will brainwash the Twaelar People into servitude. The Twaelar are provided with an army of Robot Sharks to patrol the Seas above their Empire and iron golems (robots) to construct the mining facility.
PC Involvement: The PC’s might be hired to go on an undersea adventure to investigate why the Twaelar conflict with the Surface has broken off. They might encounter a lone Twaelar fleeing the Empire for help.
The Bunker
Location: Thyatian Coast, Kerendas
Description: The Captain of the Hattian Merchantman Sea Prow spots an unusual construction on the cliffs overlooking the entrance to Port Kerendas. He makes a note of it in his report to Frieburg. The Construction is a 50’ wide, 25’ high hemisphere of stone with some sort of siege weapon protruding from a narrow slit.
What is going on? Oard infiltrators advising the Thyatian Empire have finally developed a Steam Cannon as an alternative to the unusable “smoke-powder” weapons of the Savage Coast. The Bunker and its cannon are the first of many such placements securing Thyatian Interests. The Hattians are always on watch for some new military development by the Thyatian Empire.
Considering the one mile range of the Cannon, anyone sailing into Port Kerendas is in range of the Artillery.
The Steam Cannon
Weight: 5 Tons, Range: 1 mile, Damage: 20d6, Reload: 1Turn, Ammunition: 50lb
PC Involvement: Adventurers might simply notice the construction and do a little investigating or are spying on behalf of foreign interests.