Rebellions

So, you want to start a rebellion do you? Simple enough, the soulless are enslaved (to a certain extent) by the Fallen, goblins and their cousins the hobs and bugbears are enslaved by the Fell-Humans, The New Empire has enslaved a bunch of magicians. You don't want to wander across the expanse of The Known World? Ok, fine, go two inches west and you can aid the goblins. Half of you are Fell-Humans and one of you hates goblins...oh. Hmmm. Oh, I've got it, you can liberate the indigenous people of Hell from their conquerors! ...Oh, one of you hates Fell-Humans as much as the one hates goblins and you have no desire to liberate them.

Fuck it. They're liberating Hell. It has been decided.

Hell is a rough place full of as much magic as Kusseth is is with technology. The wardens stop at the first district and don't do much in the deeper places, and they're all wardens and senior wardens here. No junior wardens training in this place, they die. This is not to say the place is more dangerous than Kusseth City, its just that the dangers are different. In Kusseth a youth gang could lure you into an alley with a crying child (that is so happening) and then the two dozen hiding in shadows mob you and steal your marks and spill a fair bit of blood while they're at it, depending on their mood. In Hell something slimy with way too many mouths and eyes will crawl up out of a sewer grate and bite a piece of you off. It will then impregnate you with some form of tentacle or inverse orifice built out of non-Euclidean geometry. That sentence makes about as much sense as anything else Lovecraft wrote.

Its a spooky place that has a bit to do with the Necropolis in the east. The Necropolis is a place of strange, cold, black stones. There are tons of mist-shrouded tunnels and crypts in the bowels of the place, one of which is where The Bleak Tyrant was found. These dark crypts are the center of The Bleak Tyrant's power. Each of the cities of the Fell-Humans, including Hell, were founded on black slabs of stone mined from the depths of the Necropolis. The stones are just as fucked up and fell as everything else with The Bleak Tyrant's stamp on it.

I think I have an idea how I'm going to run Hell. The next scenario takes place over three days and is basically travel time to Kusseth City and a chance for them to ditch Spineplate and pick up a hook for going to Hell. I think I'm going to do a sandbox in Kusseth. Not the entire city, that would take years. But I plan to create a series of events and quests and encounters, I just won't link them to any specific location. So as the guys are wandering around Kusseth City I can plop in inns and stores and various things and just take copious notes about what I put where in this scenario for future expeditions to Kusseth. I might have to add lib a bit, and certain areas will be blocked off to a mob of no account ill-kempt thugs, but I think that will work. I know enough about this place to rattle off factoids effectively, I think. Maybe they'll just drop Spineplate off at home and the quests and events and sights can occur as they're doing that. I'll have to remember to go back to my Traith story and keep track of precisely where Traith originally found Spineplate.

I'm starting to get pysched about this idea now. Hell is probably my second favorite city in The Known World. Its history incorporates a series of events that I am fond of, mainly Cenn the Reaver taking the city for Kusseth and the beginning of the events that lead Smiling Jack, Hell's Own Happy Butcher, to become the master of the bardic colleges. I have an idea for a monument in the center of the first district of Hell. Like a heap of the twisted black gates that guarded the place, still smoldering with malicious energy, and like a bit of text from Cenn's own hand swearing that he'll rip this city away from anyone who dares undo his work blah blah blah. I'll think I'll try and sandbox this place as well. Its not a small city, but it is kind of vertically oriented. I imagine it as some black ziggurat with houses and walls built of mundane stone sort of added on to it and the PCs have the main set of districts and then they can go up or down as they so choose. I intend on having the shit in the deeper places be nastier and deadlier the further down they go. So they can go places, but the going gets rough, unless they wait till they gain more levels.

(Days pass)

I feel this scenario slipping away from me. Literally a room and a half need to be written out, a "we're badasses" description needs to be done, and it is done. Or it would have been. An NPC needs to be re-written, a battle description needs to be redone to make something resembling sense. It is really the NPC that is giving me trouble. First he was going to be a Paladin, then a Paladin multi-classing as a Warlock, then a Warlock wearing heavy armor, then I thought about hybrid character rules and Paladin/Warlock mix. Now I'm back to Paladin. It could be done any of the above ways and still fit the image of "I am a plate mail wearing knight of Hellfire and brim-fucking-stone." The one thing I've learned recently is something I've dubbed as re-skinning stuff. I am too new to this edition to just make shit up, so when I need a dwarf for a level 1 fight I don't know how to make it and ensure there is some element of balance. I know it needs to be on the weak side with low hit points, but that's about it. What I did is go on to the Monster Manual, find a level 1 monster (Human Rabble in this case) and reskin it. Instead of rags it gets "chain mail" instead of a 4 damage dealing club it gets a "warhammer" and istead of "they are humans dressed in rags" the guys get "they look like young dwarves with inadequate beards". The stats and everything are used as is, the descriptions are just altered. Eric does the same thing with his Artificer.

Anyway. I'll be sticking with Paladin for Nakmander the Fell-Human. Instead of doing radiant damage he'll be dealing fire or necrotic with most of his powers, which was what I'd intended to do with Divine classes in the first place. Most prayers for Divine characters deal radiant damage, because of the stronger link between these characters and their patrons in my campaign radiant damage is changed to whatever damage type I feel is relevant to the patron. Guys serving The Bleak Tyrant primarily deal necrotic damage while characters enslaved to the will of King "Bob" (can't remember his name, I think it is Rudolph II, maybe) of the New Empire deal mainly psychic damage. All of Nakmander's powers will likely be the Charisma based ones available to the Paladin class and I will try and focus on rays and blasts and the like to kind of up his mystical street cred with the guys. The hard thing about these NPCs is that I make them because I think they're neat and that presents the possibility that I will start to favor them and make them the focus of the campaign and not the guys. I think I'll be ok as long as Eric adheres to the tenants of our deal (I pump out scenarios as long as you do) and I can get my fix with Junkpile.

Now that I've finally settled on the nature of the NPC I think I will have an easier time of finishing up the scenario. This guy is supposed to make his appearance, hint at shit going on in Hell, then disappear until the guys find their way to Hell. He will be their quest giver and possible bonny companion (although I intend on him being kind of an ass until the "half-breeds" prove they're not mentally defective). He is kind of a big deal in La Revolutione'.

I think I've figured out the whole rebellion plan, and how to make it appeal to those in the group that profess to hate their Fell-Human heritage. The Fell-Peaks are divided up into three main groups. The first are the rulers, they care about power and prestige and keeping shit in their country under control and capable of defending their borders. They do not give two shits about goblins or the heritage of their (the faction) ancestors. The second group is the goblin clans, they want to be free. They don't remember much about their ancient empire (because the Fell-Humans burned most of it down and Jedi mind tricked their ancestors into forgetting it), but they know it was big and tough and they want it and their freedom back. The third, and smallest, faction is those concerned with Hell and their bloodline. These crazies believe that the true potential of the Fell-Human bloodline can only be unlocked if they take Hell back and return it to its rightful place as the capital of the Fell Peaks. How this appeals to D'Alton and Xain is as follows: A fragmented Fell Peaks means Kusseth has a greater chance to finally take a crack at conquering it for real. Right now the Fell Peaks is a impenetrable bastion like Whurent, most of it is underground and the true rulers can basically just lob a million hobs and bugbears into any cave system or mountaintop fortress Kusseth cares to take a crack at. The third faction and the goblins are working together for two goals. The first is to free Hell from Kusseth and the second is to free the goblin clans. The goblin clans and this third faction (must think of a badass demonic name, something like Descendants of the Blood but more badass or something) will then ally to kick the first faction down from their high horse to kind of ensure all goblins are free, then everyone carves out what they can of the surface area of the Fell Peaks and goes back to war with one another over previously non-existent borders.

There are a few wild cards though. The third faction could find a way to uncork the stopper on the power of the bloodline and unleash all kinds of demonic power into the Fell-Human race. Bugbears could finally get inspired and once more become the driven, mildly bloodthirsy, warrior kings they once were. Cenn the Reaver could get word from his spies in Hell and decide he's going to level the place. Eldumans and Abraxens could get wind of the whole thing and say "This does not fit the plan." and immediately activate contingency plans that are centuries old. Finally, The Bleak Tyrant could suddenly go "yoink" with his power and make the Fell-Humans ugly looking humans. Or could he?

The real difficulty I am finding all of a sudden is making it appeal to John and Gideon. One is a Sereth elf and the other is an Elduman-descended human that speaks Uncout as his primary language. If John (the player) ever decides to make a background I will be interested to find out why an Elduman-descended human ended up being born in the Wild Lands. John (the player) will pretty much go along with the group, but I'm not sure what Jeff will do with Gideon. I want this quest line to appeal to everyone and their character, not just be something they're doing because it was what everyone agreed on and everyone else wants to do.

Ah well, I'll figure it out I suppose.

Music: Little Acorns - The White Stripes