The Tales of the Arcadia 27: Notes so Far

Captain Alezander Deku

The crew of The Arcadia has been trying to make the most of things since the end of the 812 Wars that ended in 812.6.78.

    Odo Maximus had been acting as one of many negotiators between Earth Central and immigrating crig, from workers to warriors, that chose to rebel against their Panni Empire purchasers instead of fighting against their planned targets. He finally got a chance to relax and do some "Froo Mohn Chuo" (Crig martial arts) when he received a space-mail notification, that an emissary of Wise Key 17's Brood Queen, Arodda, would like to meet up and talk. 

    Meanwhile, Alezander Deku, had been taking tips from his mother, Othra Deku, on how to be a proper oligarch. When he wanted a weapon for the Arcadia, though, she was not being helpful at all. He was supposed to stop his star-faring ways, and settle down to be a Mars-born aristocrat. Of course, the PC threw a purple fit. Within an hour he was headed back to his spacecraft, bags in tow. 

    Nextremi 37 was a bit busy wrapping a bit of Holo-Wrap in front of her eyes and playing the almost latest vidi-holo subscription-based game "Kirby Crackle: The Eternals Meet the New Gods."  When her subscription was halted because of a lack of funds, she wanted more money. Failing that she pulled off her blindfold and spat out the question, "WHAT already!?!"  

PCs’ Leads:

Nextremi 37 and Odo Maximus- A degenerate Queen is selling her Crig DNA recipes not her off-spring to the various enslavement masters of the sector. This could cost the Crig to be too low to profit the species as a whole to have any sort of culture. Wise-Key 17’s Brood-Queen, (insert name here), will pull these two PCs into a private conference with her clone-sister, Dray-Jah, to bestow her mission/request upon them. That is to go to the Drejj sector and find Crigg-Mistress and prevail upon her to cease her doings. Failing that, what should happen, should not be spelled out.

NPC: Dray-Jah
A clone of the Wise-key 17 Brood Queen. She has most of her other’s memories but only has about ninety Earth days to live.

Alexander Deku- If he wants to get more weapons for the Arcadia he’s going to have to go someplace else rather than the Terra Sector. 

Possible Leads:
The Sagus family, specifically One-Stop, having been on the wrong side of the 812 War has them working in the far ice clouds of Procyon. The Arcadia’s mechanical intelligence has been keeping in touch with them

"Crackleget" Nextremi wants so armor with "Kirby Crackle" to go with her trihorn hat. 

Steev Sagus-  he wants to become a Space Sage. His family name even is derived from the word “sage,” which fuels his belief that he is predestined to something akin to being a cosmic samurai and a spacefaring wizard. There are problems though. His family is more about growing plants like sage, pepper, and thyme out in Sol’s Asteroid Belt and selling them to mining colonies, not being overly scholastic. Then no one in the Terra Sector needs any psychic power-wielding mystics going on about metaphysical concepts all while looking for a good swordfight. Indeed, the authorities, the many that be, frown upon that sort of activity. 
What Happened During the Session: July 24. 26.
Who Showed:
Nextemi 37
Odo Maximus
Alezander Deku

Nextremi has been deeply involved in the Kirby-Crackle Immer-Holo game where the Eternals meet the New Gods. She and Maximus receive a summons by an emissary from the crig Queen of Wise Key 17 to meet on Deimos Station 4 for a special request. Alezander wants more than basic weapons for the Arcadia. Earth Central, the controlling power of the Terra System, won’t let him have them. His mother, Othra Deju, gave him some overbearing advice, and he lost it. He heads back to his ship. Sexy and him catch each other up. Alezander heads to Nextremi’s “Holotheater” to catch up with Maximus and the Rad clone.
Only when Nextremi’s game subscription hits its limits, does she acknowledge the other two PCs. The Arcadia then flies to Deimos Station. This is where they meet Drey-Jah, a “princess-clone” of Brood Queen Arudda. Using pheromones, flattery, and promises of ample riches, she convinces the PCs to hunt down a rogue crig-princess, acting as illegitimate Brood Queen, in the Drejj sector.
Then Steev Sagus, currently an NPC, showed up needing transport to the Hammurabi Station. This gigantic space station is the Terran Sector’s official portal to the Drejj Sector.


Session 2: August 28. 26
LaSpok, the Floda, has been using the Source and making contact with Steev. The two Space Sages will do almost anything get the two ships together. 

Who Showed:
Odo Maximus
Alezander Deku
Nextemi 37

Specifics:

The Coyote, Manatee Class “Gig Ship”
One of the gray-market ships operating in and around the Hamurabbi Station. 

Speed: 75
Maneuver: 78 (+2) in combat
Offense: 65
Defense: 40
Armor: 20
HITS: 60 (40 +20)
Crew:
Captain Treemer- sexy, maybe a boyfriend to someone.
LaSpok the Floda- here for Steev to start fighting the Sluggon.
Hunter Dog- a bounty hunter
Axi an exiled Crig drone- able to free Maximus from his hormones that make him the protector of Nextremi.

What Happened:
-40 XP for GM
Steev and LaSpok bought Nextremi's spacecraft for gallivanting around the Drejj Sector.
No one got laid, but friends were made.

Sandbox Plot Points
Nextremi and Maximus- a rogue Crig princess selling the Hive’s DNA codes to non-crig entities, “the Enslavers,”  in the Drejj Sector.
Anybody- Adler Hatchback, the “Leader” of the Hulchers, has fled to the Drejj Sector trying to escape prosecution by Terra Central for war crimes during the 812 War.
Steev- Is out and about in the Drejj Sector with LaSpock fighting the Sluggon and learning how to be a Space Sage.

More on Avalon Hill Runequest-ish

 

600 AD

The Roman Empire is ruled by Maurice (Emperor 13.Aug.582 - 27.Nov.602). He is the senior co-ruler with his son Theodosius. He is coasting off of his victories against the Sassinid Sultanates in and around Syria. In the west though, the ongoing aggression by the Lombards, despite their losses to the Romans. That is what the Byzantiums call themselves. He has dissolved the Civil and Military channels of power into a military/paramilitary structure of Duxi (warlords) and Exarches (military-governors).

The Exarchate of Ravenna (exarchus Italiae)
Venice
Consisting of municipalities like Venice, Opitgero, and Adria, the Veniti, and others, still harbors plenty of degenerates to keep a level of lawlessness and banditry alive. This is despite the efforts of leaders from Constantinople. 
Venice- though still noted for it being mostly swamps, bogs, and bayous it is becoming a duchy of note.

Ravenna
The one time hinterlands of Rome and its Roman elites, it is now the middle ground between Constantinople and Rome. This is where the Latins start to make the Greek-speakers from those Byzantium realms speak proper Latin.  Notable cities at this time are Mutina, Cremona, Ravenna, Remix, and Pesaro.
Cremona
Called “Cataulado” by the “Byzantines,” the Romans who hailed from or looked to Constantinople as the center of the things. It is around this area where our campaign begins.

Liguria
With its seat of Genoa, these Romans are more prone to speaking Latin rather than that new-fangled Greek crap coming out of the east. Didn’t Pompeii burn Corinth to the ground way back when already? Why does anyone speak Greek anymore? Oh the Germans. Oops. Hey Constantinople, they can use a bit of help!

The Duchy of Rome
What with such fine cities Perisio and Reate, Rome is only an equal among equals– okay big bullcrap.
Rome
Gregory I is the Bishop of Rome (the Pope).  It is said he did not ever learn Greek, but that is probably not true, as he worked in the embassy between Rome in the Byzantine capital for six years. He is called “pro-barbarian” by his critics, as he states that the Visigoths, Franks, and even the Lombards were practising religion, Christianity, as he thought it should be. That is unlike the Donatist of North Africa and the churches of Constantinople.


The Lombard Lands
Despite recent setbacks in the Italian peninsula, the House Lombard are still the main players along its territories. Even the Bishop of Rome, Gergor, agrees. Just have to handle these Greek-Peakers and then those pesky Francs.

Spacers: Voyages of the Arcadia 27, View from Hambone Station

 

 The Drejj Sector-
Some nine hundred light-years of clusters of stars where inhabitable worlds are scattered throughout the spaces therein. Perhaps because of the close proximity of the many spacefaring civilizations within it, there have been at least sixteen cataclysmic wars ravaging almost all of them. Outside influences have factored in almost all of those conflicts though. 
Where the Player-Characters start out here though is well beyond that. They are coming here for varied reasons. Perhaps it’s for…

600 AD: Proto-Kelts in the 7th Century, the Nearly

(Peryton)

" I like proto-Bavarian or maybe half-neanderthal. The neanderthal angle is interesting because the Island Celts had a legend that, when they arrived in Britain, they had to push out a race of ugly giants. And an isolated community in Bavaria seems like a reasonable place to find more-than-usual neanderthal heritage."

Along side the humans, these beings would come to know the Universe, They were those that came about as the Trees made Land welcoming. They were those that were born as the seeds of the Now and would take hold. The Nearly, mostly human, as a culture have watched the Sea separate from Land. 

   Up in the mountains, as they fear the Sea with His anger about being separated from their mother, the Sky, the are stranded on Land. The Nearly have dealt with first the neanderthals and then the humans as partners as the Cosmos have unfurled around them. This has worked only so well for them.
   The humans new One God thing is causing the Cosmos to go mythical. As refugees on land from the Sky-Sea Cosmos, this means the Nearlys inevitable demise. At the same time they have to deal with the world of 600 A.D. going on around them. They are doomed but the world around them probably isn't up to their extinction.

The Nearly Player-Character in 600 A.D: 
 Protecting Dryad-Trees only found in the deepest of forests, the Nearly areat home in wilderness. As they are tied to magic along threads being woven by the Stitch Witches weaving the Cosmos around all beings in the Universe, a world's elements hold only so weight upon them. 

Been Here  +10% to any Perception roll.
Done That +5% to any Knowledge roll. 

600 AD: Elves Against Myth

 

The Tim Kirk of Iceland's take on elf

Elfkind has been around even before the Sky separated from the Sea and the Trees grew on Land. In  600 A.D. , they are often described as angels that did not chose a side when Lucifer tried to defy God. Tied to magic and the working of magicks, but also tied to the goings on by the mundane creatures around them. For most practicing Good Old Tyme Religion, umm Paganism, you idiots, elves are a primordial species that aren't trolls (titans or monsters, if you're from the Greek center of the world).

An elf-princess on her way to the dance party

   Those in this most modern of world in the year of Our Lord 600, elves are watching that One God thing making most the Cosmos go mythical. That said, they aren't exactly opposed to Christendom, located in the Parchment. Marble, and Steel Valley. That is all the cutting edge spots between Rome and Constantinople. Elves aren't fans of chaos and misery that cyclopsi and storm giants have liked to impose on those around them. They, in their eternal wilderness, can withstand the mundane. They have after all survived the separation of the Sky from the Sea, and helped grow the Tress on the Land. 

   Reincarnation, while essential to the species survival, it really gets on their nerves though. They are immortal in age, but not eternal in form, at least since when the Sky separated from the Sea. Elves live many lives. It's not a pleasant quest working their way out of any of the many damnation pits lying just beyond whatever mortal coils of the Cosmos. Memory as well as ancient wisdom is lost. These lost things though can be recovered. This is while the elf is in a new skin. The elvish can't complain too much. 

   An elf can't complain too much...

The Elf Player-Character in 600 A.D:

  
 Sprung from Dryad-Trees only found in the deepest of forests, elves are here to protect those around them from chaos. As they are tied to magic along threads being woven by the Stitch Witches weaving the Cosmos around all beings in the Universe, a world's elements hold only so weight upon them. 

Been Here  +15% to any Perception roll.
Done That +20% to any Knowledge roll.

300 AD: Not Humanly Possible

 

Saint Christopher, for reals.

Let's talk about non-human species for this game.

Now Runequest, RQ, is known for "strange" monsters. I put "strange" in quotations because the people saying these things think that Stat-Trap monsters designed to to play against rules and based on weird plastic dinosaurs, looking at the Rust Monster, are normal. So of course, me being so normal, I am going with based off of scholastic works that actually exist-- I am being scientific. Yeah right. Still using what we now call folkloric sources, which would be called "educated" at the start of the Seventh Century AD. I'm such good weird fantasist that reality falls into my lap. 

   The Dog-Heads
According to Wikipedia it's called "cynocephaly." I call them dog-heads, not "dogfaces." "Faces" is a World War Two term for Army grunts because ring-knocking West Point Officers giving orders to about 3/4-trained conscripts like they were dogs in combat. Dog-Heads have popped up throughout history. They start appearing in strict Biblical iconography since about 300 AD and didn't stop there. Despite Dog-heads being a metaphor for accomplished but illiterate people, I find them the most fascinating non-human "race" ever these days. Yes, they had that convention of language, metaphors,  before 1993. So mixing and mismatching  here's my lore:
  My-Take: Residing beside humanity since the skies were separated from the seas and trees grew on the land, dog-heads have been around humanity. It is said that they even older than wolves or real dogs, those species evolved from the cynophalids(?).  They have been able to avoid going MYTH because of their acceptance of the human regime of how things should be. Lately though, the muslin-wearing Islamic-worshiping mystics have associated the dog-heads with the ghul And when ghouls show their undead essence to to the travelers that those demons have been trying to seduced, the dog-like head of the collapsed corpse would remain. So Dog-Heads have been getting the short end of things especially for the last century and then some. 

PC Race- Dog-Head
   
   As they are canine in nature, they tend to adopt the Character with the highest Charisma around them as their leader. As people move in and out their lives, SAVES on CHARM will be required to maintain loyalty.

Dog Luck Keen Hearing, Smell, and Tastes- +15% to any Perception roll.


   Pilt-Downer
As the Sky continues to separate from the Sea and the Trees grow ever larger on the Land, Ogres continue to face the problem that the world just isn't big enough for them. Wherever more natural folks liked to live, the ogres would have to go away. Pilt-Downers are their last defense against the World Occurring. 
   The size of human children bit possessed with the presence (INT and CHR) and strength (STR and DEX) of an adult.While they try to avoid the World's attention (+10% to SNEAK rolls), they tend to die young (-10% on CON Saves).

Down and Pilt: 50% chance of learning any spell cast at or on them. 

300 AD: The everflowing River Po and its Playful People

Well, Runequestish

 So this session is going to be set in a city spread over the banks of the Po River known as Cataulado. To the historians in the crowd, I'm talking about Cremona, Italy. 

You as Players can play whatever you like. Try me fuckers, I'll work it in.

What I suggest, as only the GM for the session, are the folks that lived in and around the Exarchate of Ravenna in 600 AD, human or not.

For fun let's call them:

Natives- Did you know that Rome never actually conquered all of Italy? Just ask the Veneti and their swamp hub known as Venice. Let alone the Ravenners, that have spit at all the Imperials giving them money for centuries. The Cremonani have a nice touch of pagan as well as torch-holders for this Chrtistdom fad.
   Speaks: Cremonmani , or Ravenner, or Veniti (Latin 3, Italia 1)  then roll D4 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Italia 2, Latin 2), Lombard (German 4), Romas (Latin 1, Italia 1), Latin (Italia 2, German 5) Illyrian (Italia 3 , Greek 3, Slav 3),  Greek (just Greek), Frank (German 2), Sicilian (Italia 2, Latin 3), or Western (Latin 2, Iberian 3, Frank 1, Arabi 9) 
   Skills: +10 points

Lombardi- Look, you're only teaching the damn Romans how to be people after they forgot how to be civilized. This is regardless, even irregardless, of all the money that they have been holding on to for way too long. 
   Speaks: Lombard (German 4, Italia 2)  then roll D4 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Latin 2), , Romas (Latin 1), Latin, Greek, Frank (German 2), Sicilian (Latin 3)
   Skills: Nil bonus

Greek-Peakers- Home is so far away. You're only re-teaching this "civilization thing" to people that forgot how to be civilized.
   Speaks: GREEK  and Latin,  then roll D4 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Italia 2, Latin 2), Syrian (Arabi 2),  Lombard (German 4), Romas (Latin 1, Italia 1), Latin, Illyrian (Italia 3 , Greek 3, Slav 3),  Greek (just Greek), Frank (German 2), Sicilian (Italia 2, Latin 3), or Western (Latin 2, Iberian 3, Frank 1, Arabi 9)
   Skills: +45 

Romaners- As soon as all these Italians, Greeks, and Germans realize that the peninsula belongs to Rome the easier things will go.
 Speaks: Romas (Italia 1, Latin 2)  then roll D4 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Latin 2), Latin , Sicilian (Italia 1, Greek 1,Latin 1), Latin, Greek, Frank (German 2), Sicilian (Latin 3) 
   Skills: +5 

Catholic- Does anyone on the Peninsula follow the will of Jesus and Saint Peter?
   Speaks: Latin and Vulgate  then roll D8 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Latin 2), , Romas (Latin 1), Greek, Frank (German 1), Sicilian (Italia 3)
   Skills: +40

Far Off Franks- Does anyone on the Peninsula follow the will of Jesus accepting our Nestorian faith and our King? Home is so far away.
   Speaks: Frank (German 1)  and Latin,  then roll D6 per 6 on the PC's INT score.  Vulgate (Italia 2, Latin 2), Syrian (Arabi 2),  Lombard (German 4), Romas (Latin 1, Italia 1), Latin,  Illyrian (Italia 3 , Greek 3, Slav 3),  Greek (just Greek), Frank (German 2), Sicilian (Italia 3, Latin 3), or Western (Latin 2, Iberian 3, Arabi 9) 
   Skills: +15 



The Language Mechanic

When a PC speaks a certain Language, out in the wider world, miles from where they were born, the other character that they are talking to might not have their background. Whatever is (the root) means that have a lot of linguistic speaking in common. Failing that the number after the root language can bring their idioms closer to an understanding. It goes the other way, Characters having a root language in common will have difficulties because of their dialects indicated by the number score.