Bleak Wood - The Ruined City (Table Top RPG Campaign)

[Ancient Gamer]

Quick Notes to get the campaign going:
- Ruins of Paris, France

- Mid level technology access at start. Some firearms.


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- Tribal conditions throughout the ruined City, with clans ruling from different suburban highrises and former urban district office buildings. Some of the Greater Clans are listed below:

-- The Kathayne
Cannibalistic Tribe armed with crossbows, rifles, pistols and some submachineguns. They spread terror with their skull head paint and screeching sounds when they attack. Their leaders carve out the hearts of fallen foes and eats it while still warm, often while still engaged with the enemy. They strike deadly fear into the lesser clans.

-- Technology Reavers
These are a Plague on the ruined city and the outskirts. Demented lunatics who pillage and loot, ever searching for technological remnants of the past. Their headquarter is in an old banking facility, where they have amassed an impressive array of gadgets, weapons, and impressive toys.

-- The Vaahm Baahn Alliance
Fourteen of the minor clans have formed the Vaahm Baahn Alliance. The formost reason for their power is sheer numbers. The allied clans number in the thousands, and an attack by these will likely involve hundreds, even thousands, of warriors armed with bows, spears, and the occasional firearms.

-- The Citadel
A singular spire at the center of town, a steel wireframe tower, holds the clan called "The Citadel". They number very few, perhaps only tens of people, and are rarely seen. Yet no one approach The Citadel, for their sentries are unfallable, and anyone closing in are incinerated, evaporated, by bolts of fire and red light, raining from the upper part of the spire. At times a shuttle spacecraft hovers above the citadel for some hours, and then with a thunderous sound it bolts to the sky, jetting straight into outer space.

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Adventure Starter Hook:
Mother "Ambuya" sick with the wasting disease. They should get a cure or something

Plot Hooks:
- The Hydra Tavern Keep wants someone to get him some fresh deer meat. He says that they can hunt in the (Vaahm Baahn controlled) suburbs.
- The patrons of the Hydra Tavern tells them that the Technology Reavers have an automated surgical device somewhere within their Fortified Bank.
- Their Mother whispers that the Kathayne have their infamous Dark Pharmacy, where all manners of cures, stereoids, pheromones and mutating potions reside.
- The Hydra Tavern sports melee fights and anyone can enter and fight each other, or the reigning champion "Paul the Spearmaster"

[Ancient Gamer]

Random Encounters
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The Deranged "Barbie" Twins:
During their travels, the group will be shot at while walking past the burnt out remains of two old petroleum trucks. The mysterious assailants will ride off on dark horses. If the PCs are unable to stop them, they will return, and return, and return, until all the PCs are dead.
The Blonde, Female Twins are totally deranged, only talking to each other, and survive through robbery and eating their victims.

The Abandoned Workshop:
The Players will come across a mechanical workshop in mint condition. It seems someone has picked the place clean, and no one is there. No matter how long they wait, no one will show up at the workshop (unless some wandering clansmen happen by (during looong waits)).
If the PCs check for tracks and traces, they will see that some of the bushes hide a hatch. Going down the hatch, they will find three dead men, with gut and chest wounds. It seems they have been in a fight, and retreated down here for cover.
Equipment: 2 x Colt 38 Revolver. 42 x .38 caliber bullets.

[Ancient Gamer]

Random Encounters 2
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The Lone Beast Mutant
Late one night, they will hear a rustling sound nearby. If they shout out, they will hear a menacing growl, followed by quick, heavy steps in nearby buildings. It seems something large is moving around at tremendous speed, jumping above their heads, from building to building, staying out of reach.
After a while, a large, hulking shape will come into view, moving on all four, like a gorilla. Out of its left shoulder, a large iron pipe can be seen, the entry wound long since healed around the pipe. This beast is extremely tough to kill, especially with starter equipment, and the GM might have to make it retreat after roughing the PCs up (only to reappear at a later time).

The Glass Clockwork & The Piper
During their travels, they find a large, cubical chunk of transparent glass clockwork. As they approach it, a haunting flute sound can be heard. With soft steps, a piper comes into view atop the clockwork cube, a flute on his lips. After he is finished fluting, he states "I am the Fluter, Servant of Clockwork. All Visitors must bow before the Ticking God, and leave an offering of sufficient worth". He will then jump down somewhere within the clockwork, not to be seen again.
PCs examining his disappearence act will find a hidden gateway that seems to have no opening mechanism. The Glass of the Clockwork needs dynamite to break. (The opening mechanism is actually an RFID system, and can be hacked by someone with hacker skills and a computer with a wireless network card.

[Ancient Gamer]

Quick recap of the roleplaying adventures of my group, in preparation of the next session:

Despairing that their mother, Ambuya, was dying of the wasting disease, the siblings gathered and discussed what to do.
Because she was sick, their mother had to sell their old trading post, and now lived with the siblings in a dirty, rented room on the second floor of the Hydra Tavern.

After one of the siblings defeated Paul the Spearmaster in the Pits, earning the group a nice amount of bullets (the currency in the ruined city), the group hacker tried to scan the local network using the Hydra Tavern computer.

He soon found a small network, and managed to hack into "BRIANSNETWORK", and from there he found a comm satellite. He was, however, critically unsuccessful in hacking into that satellite, and the satellite Firewall AI counter-hacked him, overloading the old computer which fizzed and sparked, and went very dead.

Frustrated the siblings donned their adventuring gear, and went into the streets, towards Brian's Mill, which they suspected hosted "BRIANSNETWORK".

As they approached the tube-shaped building, they stumbled into an ambush. Taking a bullet in the right leg, one of the siblings went down in agony while the rest were able to defeat their ambushers.

In the mill no-one answered, so the hacker used a PDA he found on one of the ambushers to access the wifi, and from there the door control system.
Opening and closing the doors was no big deal, but once inside they had to hide from an automated turret robot that was patrolling the ground floor of the building. The hacker was unsuccessful in hacking the robot, so they lured it outside and it began systematically gunning down the crows that were circling in the sky.
After a while the gunfire drew the attention of more tribals, and the robot chased after them.

The PCs came out of hiding and ran into the building, closing the door shut, trapping the defensebot outside.

Inside they discovered Brian was dead, killed by his own defensebot.

While pillaging the building, the hacker once again renewed his network search for cures for the wasting disease. He found it was an alias for cancer, and that the Technology Reavers had an automated surgery device in their stronghold.

At that instance the lookout on the roof warned them of incoming trucks, and an EMP blast knocked out the building electronics, including the hacker's PDA.

Taking along what they could, the siblings sneaked out via the roof while the newcomers loaded the trucks with the defensebot and the supplies from the building.

Hiding behind some crates, the siblings rode along, wherever the trucks took them.

As it was, they ended up at a Technology Reaver facility (the Bank), and they sneaked out of the parking basement, into some lockers where they grappled with a guy in the midst of a shower, and broke his neck. They stuffed his corpse into a locker, and picked the locks of every locker in there, getting some submachineguns and a nice powered-exoskeleton in doing so.

Slipping back into the parking facility, and through a mechanical workshop, they found an elevator and the hacker determined that they needed to go two floors up, as it contained rooms marked "Research and Medical".

Exiting the elevator they found a containment facility, with huge glass windows on both sides of the room, and a door on the far side. To their left was an alien life-form, lizard like with slit eyes and grey-black scaled skin, crawling on all four on the walls. As they hurried past, it slithered with blinding speed, crawling on the glass, it's voice whispering in their heads. "Release me - release me - release me". (Based on Experiment 13, actually. EchoMirage's character in my forum game here on the Citadel).

They mostly resisted his mind control, though one of the sisters had to be carried screaming and kicking out.

In the room next door they found an automated surgery bot, and three doctors, which they executed.

The intruder alarm went off, and they had to fight their way back in a graphic and exhilarating combat sequence.
The glass window broke, and the full force of the alien mental power surged in over them just as the elevator luckily enough went down.

They escaped with a combat rigged grocery truck, the automated surgery bot, some weapons and the powered-exoskeleton.

The session ended back at the Tavern, with mother Ambuya back on her feet, making pancakes and singing songs.

[Ancient Gamer]

Dungeon / Location Ideas:
- The Museum of Crimson Tribute
A Kathayne controlled former museum, where the Kathayne has put up altars, using old african clay and wooden idols. The corridors are dark, all electricity long gone, and the walls are smeared with blood and worse. There is a cybernetic undead here (corpse still kept alive by technological implants), but the AI controlling it cerebral processes has gone insane from the torture the Kathayne has put it through. The implants are immense, both legs, torso and right arms, plus head, are covered in plating. The PCs can see the skeletal remains in between the aluminum and partially rusted steel. The Kathayne keeps it chained in the central exhit room, where it runs around a Mesopotamian pillar with a bull atop.

Please note that the Kathayne worship this place, and consider the cybernetic skeleton a demon from the past, which they have forced into servitude. The Kathayne will keep their distance at first, measuring the worth of the PCs, but will slowly start to attack, throwing axes and knives from around a corner before running into the dark.

When the PCs face the cybernetic skeleton, five Kathayne priests, all naked and smeared in blood, will appear with spears and fling themselves madly into the fray. Their spear skill is great (but perhaps not so good against submachineguns? The Kathayne should provide ample distraction though, as the cybernetic skeleton tears into the PCs.)

- The Crow Square
The PCs arrive at some sort of public square, the ruins of a once great fountain in the center of the scene. A fragmented statue of an ancient general on horseback lies in the middle of the fountain, but what really catches the PCs eyes are the crows.
Hundreds, if not thousand crows, are sitting on the buildings, the fountain edges and on various trees that have reclaimed the square, and in the middle of it all is an albino crow with red eyes.
If the PCs let it be, or simply pass, the crows will merely stare as they travel by, but anything can happen if the PCs approach, or threaten it.

The Crow is controlled by an alien Crt'halyon worm, a parasite much like a centipede that enters its victims bodies and consume their identities, attaching itself to the host's brain.
The White Crow alien has the following extraordinary capabilities:
- Telekinesis
- Telepathy
- Crow Empathy (controls the other crows)

[Ancient Gamer]

Having rescued their mother, their adventuring insentive is gone. Have to create another hook, to make them depart their little corner of Pariiii.

Plot Seeds & Ideas:
- Reaver Revenge: The Technology Reavers are fuming after the daring raid from within their stronghold. Whoever had the nerve to do this will pay, so they have stepped up their incursions, with four teams out in the ruins all day long, scanning the area for the automated surgery device.
- Wartime: The Kathayne raids the Tavern, capturing and killing many. The PCs wake up in the middle of the night to screaming and crying sounds, and as they exit the room, they see the building is on fire.
- Carnival on the Seine: Looking out from their second story window, the PCs notice several barges floating down the river of the ruin landscape. It is the Carnival of Mutations, a horror freakshow unlike any you've ever seen.
- to be continued...

[Ancient Gamer]

Plot Seeds & Ideas, continued:
- A Network Strange: The hacktivism of the group hacker has caught the virtual eye of an artifical intelligence. This A.I., which calls itself "Miss Carlyle", is the remnants of an old US army hub of virtual intelligences. In the years after the great war, power node after power node died, and the self preservation algorithms kicked in, allowing Miss Carlyle to "be born". Miss Carlyle is tired of the physical restraints of her local network and isolated bunker, and she wants the group to take her adventuring, preferably in a mobile platform like a combat mech or powered suit. (The closest thing the group got riight now is the mobile automated surgical device, and the industrial lifter powered exoskeleton.

- Descent into Darkness: Explosions illuminate the night as a neighbouring settlement is devastated by a Tech Reaver assault team. Coming too late, the PCs discover not only the settlement, but also the Reavers, have perished. A huge explosion has torn open the overgrown pavement and the basement of an office building, and a crater can be seen, with a dark hole at the bottom. When they explore, the PCs discover old catacombs beneath the streets and buildings. Blood trails from the surface enter the hole, and it seems that something has taken several of the settlers. 

[Ancient Gamer]

Down in a Hole:
For a long time, the catacombs have been sealed off, and a mutated strain of humans calling themselves "The Nether" have lived there. The Nether usually seal of all exits, and this new exit is the first time someone have been made aware of their existence in over 200 years.
The Nether have developed a keen sense of nightsight, but in daylight their vision suffer. They sometimes venture out of the catacombs at night, on particularly overcast occasions, when the moon is hidden behind a veil of clouds. They communicate in silent whispers, or with distant slamming of tunnel walls. The wall slamming has actually become a morse-like extension of their language, and they use it to synchronize the defense of their catacombs and assaults on the surface.

After the hole is exposed, the following will happen:
Day 1: Tech Reaver Scout team will arrive and investigate. They will enter the hole briefly, then head back to their hq.
Day 2: A Kathayne scouting party enters the hole, with one heading back across the river. The scouting party will not resurface, but the adventurers might find their bones not far from the hole, just beside an old fireplace.
Day 4: A Tech Reaver Assault Party enters the hole.
Day 7: Another Tech Reaver Assault Party enters the hole.
Day 9: Both Tech Reaver Assault Parties resurface. They miss 30% of their crew, and have nothing to show for their effort. Nothing beside four cuffed Nether, hidden under blankets and shoved into transports.
Day 12: (Or rather midnight). At midnight the Nether will boil out of the hole in full force. Several hundreds of them, spilling out in random directions, raiding the ruins.
Day 13: Early morning: The hole is sealed shut by a large explosion.

[Ancient Gamer]

Catacomb Encounters (2d10)
2: The Lizard-Alien from the Bank Raid. Powers: Telepathy, mind control, telekinesis, triple movement and actions each round due to blinding speed.
3: A G'Kraun Warrior Mutant, lost and alone. (Grey skinned human abominations with blades for hands, bloodshot lidless eyes and retracted gums.
4: A long dead human lies crumbled against the wall, the clothes in tatters around his torso. It seems as if someone has nibbled on him, as he lacks pieces here and there.
5: A ladder leads up into a shaft, that seems to go forever. It only takes about thirty second to climb to the top though, where there is an iron hatch. 25% chance it actually opens. 85% chance it can be opened with explosives.
6-8: A distant thumping sound can be heard far ahead. After a couple of seconds, they can hear more thumping, this time somewhere far behind them.
9: A strange fluorescent type of mushrooms grow on the walls here, in between faded frescoes. (psychedelic mushrooms, favored by the Nether)
10: Somewhere ahead a woman screams. It is a long, piercing scream, which ends in a whimper and feet running away.
11: A Nether warparty (2-8 warriors) attack the adventurers. On the first round a molotov cocktail is thrown into the group, followed by 2 crossbow bolts the round after. Then the Nether charge, with spears and stone tomahawks.
12: A swarm of rats squeak by, like a river diseased fur washing past their legs. A few will try to climb the adventurers, and might bite if annoyed or attacked.
13: Thousands of skulls and bones stick out of the walls, in a grotesque display of death.
14: The PCs stumble upon an abandoned camp, probably a former Nether settlement. The fireplace is still warm, suggesting that they fled the group rather than risk an encounter.
15-16: The catacombs cross the old metro system, and the PCs have the option of following the metro tunnels instead. They marvel at the skill with which the catacomb entrance was concealed, and, if they search long enough, they might find another catacomb entrance nearby.
17: The PCs discover an old storage room, its door slightly open. All the lockers inside have long since been pryed open, but oddly enough, not much have been taken. Inside the lockers they find orange overalls, toolkits, yellow hard-hats and an old flashlight without any batteries.
18:   They find a piece of lumber, with an old steel axe stuck in it. It requires a very strong man to get it loose, and if someone gets it loose through sheer strength, a Nether Giant steps into view. "The Challenge has been accepted. You and I, to the death. Here and now. Your friends may not interfer. It is against the honor of the Shadows". If the PCs violate this arrangement, a detachment of 2-12 Nether will attack them every 1-20 hours.
19: The adventurers have stumbled upon the court of shadows. In a stone throne, the King of Nether waits, his head weary under the crown of skulls - four skulls mounted on a metal ring, one looking forward, one back, one left and another right. From niches in the wall, dark cloaked shapes appear. 2, 4, 6, 12, no... 18 in all, armed with spears and pistols. The King of Nether has a blank rifle on his lap (the weaponsmith might recognize it as a ZR142 Gauss Rifle). The King of Nether slowly lifts his hand, and a voice rings through their heads: "The Court of Shadows is in session. Welcome to the Shoadaari, the emissaries of the burnt land"
20: A Tech Reaver Forward scout comes around the corner, freezing for a second, before he lifts his submachinegun over his riot shield and starts firing. (6 rounds until his 2-7 comrades show up with body armor, machine guns and worse).

[Ancient Gamer]

Foreshadowing  and explaination of campaign plot:

- Refugees!
One morning over thirty people wander in from the wilderness outside the ruined city. This has never happened before. Sometimes small groups arrive, and frequently wasteland traders, but thirty refugees at ones, carrying all their belongings with them? The refugees are confused, cold, hungry and scared. When questioned, they will tell that they were beset upon by friends and relatives that had allied themselves with a wasteland cult lord called Acharos.

- More refugees!!
The days, weeks and months thereafter more and more refugees come streaming into town, with similar stories. They woke up to screams in the night, and they saw fathers strangle sons, mothers be slain by their children, and complete strangers fighting by their side. Some will also tell of scary human zombielike beings, corpses being picked up from the battlefield by a six armed. slender and frail humanoids, tall, more than seven feet. They will explain, tears running down their cheeks, that its arms moved in a blur, and as they moved, circuits and weird electronics were grafted upon their flesh, and after a short while, these unholy abominations rose from the ground and joined their deranged family members in an ever growing wilderness army.

Background:

War and Dispute between the Alien Factions:
Charter 2 of the League of Solar Systems, clearly states that any civilization that manages to bring about its own destruction is to be labeled a failed civilzation, and no longer are their independence guaranteed by the League, but rather their survivors and resources are forfeit and can be claimed by any civilisation with the might and means to do so.

When Earth was struck by the great war, all those hundreds of years ago, scout ships hidden in Earth's atmosphere, and in secluded valleys and under the ocean, departed earth, heading for the Galactic Council. It took less than a year before Charter 2 was invoked, and Earth was listed as a failed civilization. The lunar, mars and orbital bases were exempt from the ruling, however, and attacks against those are forbidden under council rule.

[Ancient Gamer]

War and Dispute between the Alien Factions, continued:
There are currently three alien civilizations on Earth:

Crt'halyon Civilization:
The Crt'halyon Worms, and the Crt'halyon Engineers (the six armed slender beings seen by refugees), are the two most commonly encountered species representing the Crt'halyon Empire.

These aliens are infamous for their burrowing brain worms, and the tales of their battlefield engineers that resurrect the fallen in a bio-technological mockery of life, are many, even amongst the wastelander humans of earth. In the League Council it was suspected that the Crt'halyon had intervened in human politics, seizing key political figures and had directly been involved in bringing about the great war, but like so many times before, no evidence could be found, and the council had no choice but to invoke Charter 2.

On Earth these fiends can most often be found around key locations, areas of interest that the faction wants to explore or exploit. To these, humans are mere cattle, hosts to possess and then discard. It is the Crt'halyon that are most active in the Paris ruins and it is they who are raising the wilderness army, for their scans have detected faint signals emitted by the Untareath; an artifact of the elder days, of the first civilzation. They do not know how it can be that these signals are emitted on earth, for it was believed to have been lost 10.000 years ago, when the Dreadnought Isauseos imploded in the Battle of Aigira, four thousand light years away. Yet every full moon over Paris, a single sonar ping can be heard, and the Crt'halyon are solidifying their grip on the region.

[Ancient Gamer]

War and Dispute between the Alien Factions, continued:

The Zaquatl Nomads:
Impossibly fast, Gecko-like, aliens with powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities, a Zaquatl Warrior is a terrible foe to encounter.

Three thousand years ago, their civilzation fell, and Charter 2 was invoked on their twin planets. Blue Alzzusta and Wintery Hezul fell to the nuclear cluster bombs of their deranged Tyrant-God, and within a millennia five alien nations had plucked their planets clean; technology, natural resources and genetical riches alike. While physically and mentally superior to all other known species, their technology was no match for the old species, and their blind servitude to their Tyrant-God was seen as a weak spot by the Crt'halyon, who surprised the Tyrant-God in one of his myriad orgies. Beset upon by possessed Palace Guards and reanimated concubines, the Tyrant-God was brought to knee, and worm devoured his mind, ordering the destruction of their twin planet, where the Arch-Mage of Hezul had no choice, but to reply in kind.

But the Zaquatl, once unshackled from their overpowering obedience to the Tyrant-God, were not to be trifled with, and five thousand warriors from Hezul and Alzzusta united and captured a Crt'halyon Plantary Scavenger Ship, which they renamed "The Sentinel".

While they are technically a failed civilzation, the Zaquatl have an emissary on the League Council. While she cannot vote, she is allowed to observe, and to act as an ambassador for the Zaquatl.

In the ruins of Paris,  there is only one Zaquatl. Her name is Possauss, and she has long ago given up on humans. She has repeatedly tried to communicate, and fifty years ago she met the Tech Reavers. Believing them sufficiently advanced to ally with, she was tricked, imprisoned and experimented upon. Genentic material has been taken from her, and used in experiments, and she has been subjected to years of torture and examination.

She has just recently escaped from prison, and is slowly regaining her senses after raging insanely in the Paris catacombs for a number of weeks.

[Ancient Gamer]

War and Dispute between the Alien Factions, continued:

The First:

The First is a race of aliens now thought to be extinct. Not much is known about them, except that three relics survive to tell of their existence, and that these relics seem to predate the universe by billions of years.

The relics were discovered on the Dreadnought Andalus after a Crt'halyon Battle Squadron launched a surprise attack on it in orbit around the moon Io, Jupiter's moon, over 10.000 years ago. With no declaration of war, and having spent millennia in stasis, the Dreadnought defense systems kicked in too late, and the Crt'halyon were able to send fifteen of their archnid battle mechs into the ship. "The First" on board were able to somehow escape though, and no trace of any living being was detected on board. Nothing save the three relics, which later became known as "The Essence of Fire", "The Oberon Cube" and "Andalus' Veil of Darkness".

Each full moon, somewhere from the ruins of Paris, a single "First" sonar ping can be heard, something the Crt'halyon has greedily discovered.

Eternal Lord Abaros, a hero among the First, has spun his Dark Interdimensional Mausoleum into the fabric of reality surrounding Paris. A tiny rift in space and time exists, and at the peak of each full moon, that rift opens just a little for a couple of minutes, unintendedly releasing radio waves into the ruins of Paris.

As a result the Crt'halyon are vigilant, and have sent agents to possess humans and birds alike, effectively creating foreboding scouts that stalk the ruins.

******************************************************

Coldforged fantasy connisseurs be advised:
The First are the Eternals, as described in the Coldforged section on the main citadel. Interdimensional travel is no matter to these beings, and they exist even here, on post apocalyptic earth.

In the wars of old, the Eternals eventually united in one last stand and laid seige to the heavens and hells. The combined might of the eternals was overpowering for the Gods and the Demons, and screaming with outrage they were sealed away by the essence weaving of the eternals, who imprisoned each God in an artifact of immense power.

Splitting the artifacts between them, the Eternals created the first space travelling civilization and for a few million years their Dreadnoughts ruled the Galaxies alone. Then came the lesser species, and they conquered space and myriad races encountered the forboding Dreadnoughts as they silently drifted through space.

The Eternals never parlayed with the lesser races, and became known as "The First" by the newly created League of Solar Systems.

Under Charter 1, the League of Solar systems judged The First a flawed civilization, as all civilized beings are measured by their ability to socialise and trade. "By their arrogance alone, the League condemns them; their technology, resources and genetic material is forfeited to whomever has the might and ability to impound these things in the name of Galactic Law".

This led to a surprise attack on the two known orbital Dreadnoughts more than 10.000 years ago, in an event that also marked the abrupt disappearance of the Eternals / The First.

Do note that the Dreadnought Isauseos was Lord Abaros' former home, and that he wove a rift mere minutes before it imploded, and used the portal to transport himself and his artifact to earth. He arrived in Nanzhuangtou in Northern China, where he reluctantly lived among the savages for a century. He acted as a sage and wizard, teaching the neolithic tribesmen how to tame wild beasts and helped them create a written language.

But the Eternals are restless, and he walked the continent, from China via Russia to Germany and finally the Atlantic Ocean. Seeing an island on the other side of the ocean, he traversed the seas with a group of celtic warriors and landed in Skara Brae, where he founded yet another settlement. In the end he traveled to neolithic Paris, where he wove his essence into a Dark Mausoleum - the prefered Eternal Stasis Chambers and Fortresses when they are in hiding. (The Dreadnoughts are their open display of power - the vessels they live on when not in hiding).

Lord Abaros' stasis is flawed, the result of the genetical experiments of the Tech Reavers upon the Zaquatl prisoner and his immense psychic powers. Of all the races in creation, only the psyché of the Zaquatl are powerful enough to influence the stasis-ghost-dreams of an Eternal. The result of this is that Eternal / First radio signals are slipping through when the influence of the full moon is at its strongest.

Also slipping through are Eternal Mechanoids - Small spidery robots, no larger than mice, that have begun mapping the Paris ruins for the Eternal subconscious.

Should Lord Abaros awaken, much has changed since the mythic days of Avalon; the timeline in which he was last awake.

http://strolen.com/viewing/Of_The_Eternals

[Ancient Gamer]

Lord Abaros Artifact

The Eternals, albeit not quite as powerful as the fallen Gods, were on a demi-godlike powerlevel. When heaven was assaulted by the combined might of the Eternals their combined power was so overwhelming that on the fiftieth day of the siege of heaven, Aberos himself slew the very God of War and his dreaded White Hounds of Slaughter. That the very champion of heaven should be dispatched by a single Eternal scared the other gods to the cores of their being, and after a parlay, heaven surrendered and the Gods were judged and sentenced to eternal imprisonment by Eternals.

The Eternals forged artifacts from their Godly essence, and used these artifacts to enhance their own powers.

Lord Aberos did not imprison any of the Gods. Instead he went back to the gates of Heaven where he summoned the deceased spirit of the God of War, and they struck a deal. The God of War would willingly let his essence be infused within an artifact of Aberos choosing, if Aberos would let him retain his free will and a measure of control over the artifact.

Aberos agreed.

So Aberos forged The Cowl of Draconi from his essence.

The Cowl of Draconi is an artifact. A super-item. An uber-item. It is on par with the one ring and items of that power. It has incredible bonuses, but also some hefty downsides.

In its dormant state, the cowl resembles an ordinary dark grey cowl of a monestary order. Even while dormant it has significant power and a will of its own. Therefore it flutters with the wind inside the mausoleum, landing on snow filled branches and getting stuck for a few days between cracks in the stonework.

When donned by Abaros, which has not happened since he entered stasis several thousands years ago, the cowl offers all of its boons and none of its penalties.

When donned by mortals, however, the Cowl of Draconi acts as follows:

- It shields the wearer against harm, granting 20 armor points (or equivalent) on all body locations. (Powered armor grants 20 armor points, full body armor grants 12 armor points, plate mail 8 armor points and chainmail 7 armor points).

- It grants permanent flight to the wearer. The wearer can fly about as fast as an owl.

- It grants double ordinary movement /action rate to the wearer while he is in battle

- The wearer can polymorph into the shape of a Shadow Dragon the size of skyscraper. This Shadow Dragon can enter and survive outer space, and breathes pure hellfire.

- The wearer always walks in his sleep, donning the cowl if he removed it. He will always awaken with it on, even if he took it off and hid it /locked it away the night before.

- Each midnight the wearer is overcome with insane bloodlust unlike anything ever imagined before. It is like an insane hatred, a jealousy so strong it is uncontrollable overcomes him (unless he succeeds a willpower check of some kind), and he goes berserk, laying waste to the countryside. It takes 10-60 minutes before he recovers from the carnage. (A lot can be done by an immense Shadow Dragon in 60 minutes).

- If anyone else removes the cowl, the former wearer will sense who has it, and will feel an urge to challenge him to duel to the death. (willpower saves the day).

The longer the cowl is in a characters possession, the heaver the penalty on the willpower checks.

[Ancient Gamer]

Campaign Coordination

Now that the over-arching metaplot has been explained, lets focus on how to use it.

The alien details and artifact plotlines should be shrouded in mystery. Never, ever dump it all on the players at once.

Play the campaign piece by piece, focusing on the tribes and factions in the ruins, then slowly start introducing the aliens.

They have already met the Zaquatl, but they are afraid of her. Let us keep it that way, and the next time they meet her (probably in the catacombs), they are likely to fight. She will retreat before she (or they) die, which should be easy given her mental powers and high rate of movement.

Take it easy with the aliens for a while, but do let them discover an eternal mechanoid spiderbot. They will probably not understand anything of what it is, which is fine. Adds a bit of mystery and chrome.

Then hit them with more ruins of Paris faction stuff. In particular introduce them to the Kathayne more and more. Eventually they will discover that the Crt'halyon has possessed some of the Kathayne shamans, lending them "magic" (psionic) powers.

If the PCs carry the spiderbot with them, this will act as an attention magnet for the Crt'halyons, which will "sniff" something about that character.

If they choose not to carry the spiderbot, give them another Eternal toy to pick up. It will serve the same purpose.

At this point reveal the full extent of the Crt'halyon infections to the PCs, in a central plot turning point.

Campaign milestone:
The Horror within the Highrise
The characters will be approached by a girl in her late teens. She wears a filthy grey tank top and camo pants, has red hair and fights with a machete. She asks them for assitance in rescuing her family, who have been captivated by the Kathayne in a Highrise by the river. She is fearful they will be eaten if the characters do not act. She promises them information on an old tech trove she found, but could not break into (if they help her).

This girl, Michelle, is possessed by a Crt'halyon. Its motive is to get the group into the highrise, where they will be hit several times by (unpossessed and unwitting) Kathayne clansmen. They basically have to fight their way up the highrise against opponents with bows, spears, submachineguns and grenades. At this point the group should have access to machineguns and body armor, and at least one powered exoskeleton. They should be considerably better equipped, but the teenager continues leading them into dangerous situation (effectively getting rid of ammo, and weakening them for the plot finale).

As they reach the top of the highrise, they notice crows circling in the sky, in a downward spiral. They can see three white crows in the midst of the swirling airborne horde.

A painted Kathayne, with human blood all over his face and torso, stands with his back to them, and as he turns around the little girl runs towards him and stops at his feet, kneeling.

"I deliver as promised, master"

Then they will be telekinetically lifted into the air, and a booming voice echoes in their heads.

"Where is the <Eternal item>" i.e. "Spider mechanoid".

"Where did you find it?"

"WHERE DID YOU FIND IT!" (regardless of answer).

Once the fight begins, they face two unarmed possessed husks with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. They also face a substansial amount of suicidal crows led by three Crt'halyon white crows. The Crt'halyon will at first try not to kill anyone, but once their lives seem in danger they will unleash all their abilities against the PCs.

At the end of the "Horror in the Highrise", the PCs should be well aware of 1) the fact that several of the inhabitants of the Paris ruins are possessed by disgusting creatures that look like some sick cross between an earwig and a centipede.

After this event there will be more encounters with tribesmen of the ruins, but keep them reminded of the aliens by mentioning a white crow in the distance, or let them find corpses with signs that something has burrowed inside their skulls.

Then in an unexpected twist, let them meet the Zaquatl ex-prisoner, preferably by her saving them or aiding them in some way, gaining their trust.
She will not become a full time NPC, but an NPC that can shed light into the state of affairs and propel the campaign plotline forwards.

Want to do plots:
- Life on Orbital Station X-14: Primary mutation lab before the war. All residents dead, except the mutants who wage war across the space station and eat their dead. High possibility of meeting unclassified mutants, and probably one G'Kraun Prophet (in effect the owner and captain of the Space Station). Loot on the station is significant, including a couple of space going vessels, a huge industrial lifter (exoskeleton, but much larger than the one they got).

- The Salvation of the Tech Reavers: At one point, late in the campaign, let the Tech Reavers be assaulted by Kathayne / Crt'halyon. The Tech Reavers are the only human faction capable of actually doing some harm against the aliens, so saving them should be a priority. However saving them will gain them some hostility from the Zaquatl, who has a hard time forgiving and forgetting her 50 years of torture by the Tech Reavers.

- God of the Aztecs: The Zaquatl reveals to them that she has been on earth several times, and that the Aztecs worshipped her grandmother as a winged serpent god (she also used to have a winged exoskeleton, but lost that a long time ago). In Paris another tribe of humans, the small Ardanhangue clan, has begun worshipping her, putting out small clay idols and offerings of meat. Proud, and genuinely wanting to help, the Zaquatl has elected to become their benevolent diety, so when a hovercraft from the Strassbourg Enclave enslaves the lot of them, she really lose her temper. She almost demand that they expropriate a Tech Reaver vessel, and take her along for a rescue mission.
This mission can play out in a number of ways, depending on their standing with the Tech Reavers, and whether they reach the Hovercraft before or after it has docked in Neo-Straussburg.

[Ancient Gamer]

Tabletop Campaign Update & Householding
 

Short synopsis
Being hit by wave after wave of refugees, the PCs decided it was time to step up. Assisted by Ms. Carlyle, the artifical intelligence residing within an automated doctoring machine, they set up a series of CCTV cameras around the Hydra Tavern.

Having a problem with brain burrowing parasitical alien worms, the PCs organized a militia of 20 men to guard the 500 refugees currently residing in their village, which is now called "Alpha".

Failing a raid on a raider stronghold in an ancient convent, the made away with their horses, and their custom fitted armored truck. During the chase, the ground gave way and the armored car was stuck in the hole, which turned out to be the failing ceiling of an old subterraenean office facility.

Escaping down into the offices, the PCs discovered it was an old ESA space vessel launch facility housing an ATLAS class space transporter with two VESPERTINE class fighter drones. They also spotted two plasma rifles in the cockpit, but due to a combat bot guarding the officer's key, they failed to enter.

After much intrigue, and bartering at the old trading outpost located within an old prison building, the PCs were able to ambush the raiders, who by then had taken over both the facility and the ATLAS spacecraft.

Heading back with 15 slaves (former raiders), they started rebuilding Alpha in the fashion of the old Parisian building they saw remains of.

3 months into the reconstruction, the alien Zaquatl allied itself with them, and was granted a building to dwell in. This building is now unassuming on the outside, but an alien place, with scaly surfaces and strange twisting corridors on the inside.

The Zaquatl aided in the contruction of a city wall made of bricks from collapsed buildings. 6 men guard the village wall at all times, and Ms. Carlyle continues to monitor the perimeter through her CCTV network.

****

Alpha Inventory
***************

Town Rulers:
Sunal, Delta, Chichi & Aldina

Major Town Buildings & Places of Interest:
The Hydra Tavern (Food, lodging, pit fights)
The Alien Abode (Home of the Zaquatl)
The Garage (Mechanic Workshop)
The Forge (Weaponsmith's Workshop - Sunals Home)
The Old Bank (Delta, Chichi, Aldina & Mother Ambuya's Home. Also where Ms. Carlyle resides)
The Church Tower (Militia Stronghold & Outlook)
The Graveyard Pastures (Where their 26 horses run free. The tombstones have been removed and used in the village wall)
Rue la Vrillière (Where they have restored some of the old city buildings and housed the refugees. They have room for 1300 more there)
The ATLAS Square (Where the ATLAS spacecraft is located)

PC Inventory & Property
ATLAS Spacecraft with 9 space suits and Copilot AI called Jack.
2 x VESPERTINE Small fightercraft

Armored White Truck with Topside fortification
White Truck
Yellow Pickup
Triumph Motorcycle with side wagon
Dreck Combatbot vIII (powered off)

4 Horses (18 more belong to the militia)

Stavros Powered Industrial Lifter
Black Thuire Combat Armor with built-in gas mask & IR goggles. Covers the entire body. 8 Armor Points.
Green Steel Thuire Combat Breastplate - V shaped. Covers torso and genitals. 12 Armor Points (20 Armor Points when combined with the combat armor)
2 x Bullet proof vest

1 x Plasma Rifle (the other one was destroyed and exists only as spare parts)
1 x Hunting Rifle with scope
3 x Pump Action Shotgun
2 x Military Camo Helmets

[Ancient Gamer]

February 2014 Notes
* Technology Reavers Send an Ambassador (early in the session) to Live in their new Village. The Technology Reavers apparently wants an alliance in the "fight against savagery". He comes wearing white army pants, white tanktop, and a blue bulletproof vest. He has two Uzi submachineguns (one on each hip)

* Miss Carlyle warns the group of alarmingly increased activity at the city perimeter.

* Some of the Citizens are fearful of the alien that has come to live in the city.

* Jack, the space ship AI, tells the Group of an emergency signal it has received from a superfreighter spaceship in orbit around the moon

* The Alien, inside its building of twisted tube corridors and greenlife, sits in mediation in a room, on its knees in the water on the floor. After a while it will telepathically contact the PCs, asking them to help him retrieve something from the tech reaver stronghold. (A sound gun, that can kill or knock people unconscious with concentrated sound waves)

* A group of children will come running, asking for help from the PCs. They will tell them that their parents have been captured by Kathayne Tribals, and that they need help. They are telling the truth, and the Kathayne let them run away in hopes that the kids would get more help (slaves / food)

* Life on Orbital Station X-14: Primary mutation lab before the war. All residents dead, except the mutants who wage war across the space station and eat their dead. High possibility of meeting unclassified mutants, and probably one G'Kraun Prophet (in effect the owner and captain of the Space Station). Loot on the station is significant, including a couple of space going vessels, a huge industrial lifter (exoskeleton, but much larger than the one they got).

* The Salvation of the Tech Reavers: At one point, late in the campaign, let the Tech Reavers be assaulted by Kathayne / Crt'halyon. The Tech Reavers are the only human faction capable of actually doing some harm against the aliens, so saving them should be a priority. However saving them will gain them some hostility from the Zaquatl, who has a hard time forgiving and forgetting her 50 years of torture by the Tech Reavers.

* God of the Aztecs: The Zaquatl reveals to them that she has been on earth several times, and that the Aztecs worshipped her grandmother as a winged serpent god (she also used to have a winged exoskeleton, but lost that a long time ago). In Paris another tribe of humans, the small Ardanhangue clan, has begun worshipping her, putting out small clay idols and offerings of meat. Proud, and genuinely wanting to help, the Zaquatl has elected to become their benevolent diety, so when a hovercraft from the Strassbourg Enclave enslaves the lot of them, she really lose her temper. She almost demand that they expropriate a Tech Reaver vessel, and take her along for a rescue mission.
This mission can play out in a number of ways, depending on their standing with the Tech Reavers, and whether they reach the Hovercraft before or after it has docked in Neo-Straussburg

[Ancient Gamer]

Dramatis Personae
PCs
------
Chi-Chi: Black haired young woman using thin wires to tie up her hair. She prefers black clothing and is wearing a bulletproof vest and carries an assault rifle, a pump action shotgun as well as a plasma rifle. She is a trained marksman.

Aldina: A careful young woman. She is an extremely short, long haired brunette. She is prefers earthen colors and wears a bulletproof vest. She is master thief.

Sunal: A brutish, hulking gorilla of a man, Sunal is a trained weaponsmith. He prefers to walk bare chested.

Delta: Delta is a muscular man with his hair dyed black. He wears a black Thuire assault suit, and a V-shaped military green Thuire breastplate. He is a skilled hacker.

*************************************
NPCs:
--------
Ms. Carlyle: Artificial intelligence currently inhabiting an automated doctoring machine. Ms. Carlyle is extremely protective, and slightly unhinged. She communicates by displaying 1950's pinup images and captioned texts. Lately she has also begun broadcasting an old fashioned, stern matronly voice through any nearby speakers.

Jack: Jack is an extremely polite spacecraft artificial intelligence. Jack always addresses crewmembers as "Madam" and "Sir", or "Madams and Sirs". He currently inhabitates an ATLAS class cargo warship.

"Zaquatl": Zaquatl is a Zaquatl, a lizard raze from a conquered alien world. She is a telepath, telekinetic and moves with blinding speed. She has allied herself with the PCs, and currently inhabits a building in town. Inside the building there are twisting tunnels of an alien nature. Her inner sanctum is a shrine, where the floor is covered in water, and she can often be found therein, in meditative prayer. "Zaquatl" hates the Tech Reavers and is currently fuming over the fact that she was not allowed to kill the Tech Reaver ambassador that entered town, demanding to set up an embassy in a building.

Ambassador Jeroques: The white clad ambassador with long, blonde hair arrived one day in the PC stronghold, Alpha, demanding to talk with the PCs. He told the PCs he was an emissary from the Tech Reavers, and insisted that he be allowed to start an embassy for the Tech Reavers in town. He left in a fit of rage, pulling his donkey along, furious over the PCs statement that they would wait and see.

Spearmaster Paul: Paul is a bald, muscular fellow that is good with the spear. He only wears a loincloth in the pit, and was the former champion of it, until Sunal bested him in single combat. After Sunal withdrew from Pit Fights, Paul is once again the pit master.

The Innkeep of the Hydra Tavern: The Innkeep and cook of the Hydra Tavern is a fat man sporting a bushy white moustache. He is the town representative of the Vaamh-Bahn alliance, and is opposed to the influx of refugees (now more than 1000) from the wilderness surrounding Neo-Paris. He wants to prohibit the residents from being able to rent rooms to traveleres, as he feels that it undermines his profit. Still, with the construction of Alpha, the Innkeep sees increased revenue.

Mother Ambuya: Mother Ambuya is a silent woman. She is the mother of the PCs, and is often in their vicinity, but mostly keeps silent and to herself. She is very attached to Aldina, and Aldina to her. She recently survived cancer, an experience that stole some of the gleam from her eyes. She is secretly fearful of Ms. Carlyle.

Francois, Captain of the Militia: Selected for his extremely high IQ, Caprain Francois has spent the last year training with a scoped hunting rifle and riding horses. Running an efficient outfit, he regularly scouts the outskirts of town, keeping the area clean of raiders and thieves alike. The young captain has watched a lot of old cavalry movies, and sports a bushy, waxed moustache in the style of american cavalry officers of the 19th century.

The inhabitants of Alpha: Alpha has a steady influx of new citizens, and almost every week a new group of refugees arrive. The current reconstruction of the city, in Rue de la Vrilliere, can hold 2300 people and only 1040 currently live there. They have created a booming trade town and the marketplace is always full. At the present Alpha is the largest settlement in Neo-Paris, and one of the best protected. There are concerns about the Zaquatl in town, and a secret organization has been founded, called "Protectors of Mankind", whose aim is to behead the Zaquatl.

Azar: Azar is a Crt'Halyon worm currently burrowed into the brain of an eight year old black haired girl. It is a master telekinetic and communicates through it's host. As the most powerful Crt'Halyon in Neo-Paris it coordinates the Crt'Halyon efforts to harvest the area, and to rediscover the Cowl of Draconi. It lives in a ruined highrise some three kilometers from Alpha

The Crew of Claire Sioux: The Clare Sioux, a Mk 3 Tube Cargo Ship from Copernicus One, passed by the PC's ATLAS cargo craft en route to the wreckage of the Superfreighter "Alpha 301" as the PCs homed in on its emergency beacon. The PCs demanded the Tube Ship to surrender, but instead they barely escaped to the safety of Copernicus One and her 48 Cannons.

The Crew of Emma Darling: Emma Darling is another Mk 3 Tube Cargo Ship from Copernicus One. Her crew is currently looting the superfreighter "Alpha 301". They are twelve, but two of them have been obliterated by the PCs. After the PCs retreated into their space craft and opened the airlocks, another two was sucked into space. Of the eight survivors, one Copernicite, Captain Phil (generation 3), has augmentations.

Captain Phil (3. Generation Lab Grown Phil)
The PCs found Captain Phil on the superfreighter Alpha 301, where he led a team from Copernicus in looting the disabled juggernaught. After an intense battle where one PC obliterated the Copernicus team with his gatling gun, Captain Phil nearly died as a bullet tore through his left eye. He damaged his already feeble mind and they brought him down to earth, where he received surgery and gave control of Emma Darling to the PCs. He currently serves in the militia, though mostly he likes to run along the rooftops, jumping from building to building and especially running in circles around the church spire, using his arms as a pivot, swinging in mad circles high above the ground. Captain Phil's braindamage resulted in him speaking slowly, with a slur and thich accent.