# COPS & ROBBERS Redux - The stories of cops in a steampunk setting



## Viking Bastard (Jul 10, 2002)

Hi.

When I was reading through my literally ancient Story Hour, Cops & Robbers, I discovered, much to my shock, that it was total e. Especially the first dozen installments or so.

It was to be expected of course, these things take practice.

But GAWD!

It's not the stories themselves that bothered me (they were fun, to play anyway) but mostly the writing. Attention to detail is good. But it can be overdone. Too much detail is boring to read. No wonder how long it took me to write each installment.

So I decided to reboot it. I never got that long with writing it in game terms anyway (sure, the old thread reached a couple of pages, but only a couple of actual gaming sessions).

And here it is.

The next post is about the world.

The next after that on the characters.

Then the games begin.

Cheers,
- MM


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 10, 2002)

_The theme of my current campaign is that the players play cops in my technocracy/steampunkish kinda world. Since I and my group are all Icelandic, this was all originally played in Icelandic. All the names are the same with just maybe with different spelling because I wanted the pronounciation to come out right in english. City names like Serpent City and Iron City are direct translation and both sound *much better* in Icelandic.          _

The setting is a city named *Serpent City*.  It is placed in the western continent of the world, which was first settled about 700 years ago  by humans from the then-all-powerful Kentaarian Empire (that's sometime in the 11th century of the Kentaarian calendar).  Before that the only sentinent races in the continent were gnomes and orcs.  At first, both the gnomes and the orcs neither liked these new strange invaders and tried everything to stop them.  The gnomes quickly changed suits after the Kentaarian army crushed and enslaved the whole orc civilization in one strike.  Instead, they greeted the strangers with open arms, glad to be rid of those pesky orcs who had been tormenting them for milleniums.

Serpent City was the first city to be founded by humans in the new world, although back then it was named Forkwood City, after the neighbourhood woods.  It was built from stone taken from the mountain ranges west of the city called Shadow Mountains. The spooky name comes the fact that the rocks the mountains mainly consist off are completely black.  Therefor, Serpent City is nearly all completey black too.

About 400 years ago some gnome miners discovered a mysterious new blue-ish alloy in the southern mountains of the continent.  The gnomes named it *Thunderstone* because of it's explosive qualities.  The gnomes, who are known tinkers, were able to create such things as *gunpowder* and *explosion combustion engines* from this magical substance. Big markets formed around thunderstone products. When this thunderstone tech was combined with the age   old human magic disciplines named *Rune-Smithing* (kinda lowpower magic item creation) by the tinkers of the gnome city Harrgard, such things as *wargolems* (big metallic warmachines, not always humanoid in form) and *aircruisers* (flying ships) were created which completely revelutionized the world's way of warfare and travelling.  

When the aircruisers became the main tool of travel and trade in the world, *the spires* were built in many of the main trade cities.  Colossal towers often up to 250-350 metres in height.  They function as both multilevel docking stations and warehouses and as gigantic market places. The biggest one of them all is the *the Serpent* which is located in the centre of Serpent City (the city gets it current name from the contruct).  Like the rest of the city the Serpent is made from completely black stone, except for the huge silver dragon statue that sits upon the top of the spire and circles it’s tail around the spire all the way down (a long tail, that).  The idea is that the dragon sits upon it’s treasure (the treasure being the spire and all the riches it holds).

But the denizes of the western lands were not so happy, because all the profits from the thunderstone went straight to the Kentaarian Emperor. One day Lord Julius Dracani and his followers of New Leiteinscheir, a city south of Serpent City and east of Thunderstone Mountains revolted against the Empire.  In the course of the following year all of the Kentaarian colonies except for Gromnburg (a city north of Shadow Mountain) joined Lord Dracani in the war.  The war lasted for nearly a decade, or until the old Emperor died and his son took over, who thought that the war wasn't going be won and it would be better just to let them go.  And so the western world got freedom to do whatever it wanted.

Some of the southern colonies joined New Leitenscheir into the Dracani Dynasty, ruled by King Julius Dracani I and some of the northern ones (like Serpent City) followed King Kerak, but most remained independant. But Kerak quickly came corrupted by the power and craved for more, so he raised an army and marched south.  Kerak's war efforts did though not go well and lost all his followers outside of Serpent City.  Then he confiscated the Serpent City's Merchant Guild's aircruiser fleet to aid him in his war efforts.  This decision backfired on him though because without the fleet, the guild went out of business, this didn't exactly sit well with the guildmasters so they revolted against Kerak and chopped his head off on the palace's balconies.  Now the Merchant Guild controlled Serpent City and they later founded the *Union of Free Cities* (usually just called *'the free cities'* or *'the union'*)  with some of the neighbourhood cities (all of which are now controlled by the guild).

The Guild is lead by a counsil of eight Guildmasters which are elected for life by guild members (which are mainly the rich people, seeing that how awfully high the entrance fee is).  Non-guild members (which consist of nearly everyone) have very little rights against guild members. Still, life in the union is pretty good for most people as long as they don't get guild members against them.  There are no taxes in the free cities since the guild gets all the neccasery funding from the rates they charge guild members.

The city is divided into wards, the further you go away from the spire the   poorer the wards get.   


Surrounding the Serpent is the *Merchant's Ward*, which consists mostly of warehouses, but also holds the Guild's headquarters and the City Guard's main barracks.
North of the Merchant's Ward is the *Industrial Ward*.  Here you can find everything from a upperclass blacksmith's workshop to a big steampunkish     factory.[/i]
       South of the Merchant's Ward you find the *Upper      Ward*.  The ward is the home to the most of the city's rich folk       and bureocrats.   [/i]
       Beyound the Industrial Ward, you find the *Western-,       Northern- *and* Eastern Worker's Wards*.  Here you find the       normal middle class people of the usual city professions (workers, housewives,       smiths, experts, thiefs, prostitutes etc.) living their lives.[/i]
     South of the Upper Ward there lie the *Scholar's Ward*       and the *Bard's Ward*.  The Scholar's Ward is a place of wisdom       and teaching, there you find schools and libraries and clubs where people       talk about the finer things in life and foreign poetry.  The Bard's       Ward is on the other hand a place of entertainment: theaters, street art       and upper class harlots.   [/i]
     Closest to the city walls are the *Lower Wards*:       The poor man's home and the center of most criminal organizations in the       city.  The people who live there are frowned at by the rest of the       city and it return the population of the Lower Wards frown back.   [/i]

The City Guard are Serpent City's police force and the closest the city has   to an army.  The only actual uniform they wear are special red capes (which   are issued by the Guild).  This has resulted in their nickname:   *The   Red Capes*' or just   *Capes*'. It is lead by *the Dux*.  The   position in currently held by Jareck Frost, an old fat and bad-tempered fellow.    The capes' job is to fight crimes which may...
...make the Guild loose money.[/i]
...inconvience the members of the guild.[/i]
...trouble the non-guild citezens of the union so they     won't start questioning their current rulership because the Guild doesn't     really have any army to fight a possible rebellion.[/i]

The standard money unit in the world is the *Silver Crown* (equals one   standard D&D gold piece), which then divides into *100 Cents* (equals   one standard D&D copper piece).


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 10, 2002)

*Incognito Blackshadow* _(PC, Human Fighter 1 / Wizard 3) _

*Picture of Incognito*





Incognito comes from a long line of capes. His mother died of birthing him and he was his parents' only child. His father never married again. His father, which loved him very much wanted his son to become something greater than a cape so he saved all his life for enough money to send his son to mage school in the old world, which he did and Icognito was sent to the faraway city of Calhara when he was twelve. Although he never really enjoyed his time in the school, he studied hard for his father. When he was nineteen his father was murdered by the serial killer called the Red Wizard. The Red Wizard was then killed by one of his father's fellow officers, Carp, but on his deathbed the Red Wizard promised he would return saying to Sergeant Carp: "Your death will be the door opened that will let me complete my task." After this Incognito returned home and joined the City Guard in to ensure that the Red Wizard would never return. He has been in the City Guard for two years.

Incocnito is very honourable and takes great pride in his work. He is loyal to his friends and loved 
ones. He does not always agree with his superiours and the Guild, but he does not let it be in the way of doing his job. Incognito tends to be rather stubborn and sometimes looses control of his temper and sometimes in these rages he does things he later regrets. He feels some guilt of joining the capes since it's not what his father wanted.

Incognito is about 172 cm tall, medium built. He has short dark hair and green eyes. He is not very strong, but healthy. He wears leather armour and the city guard standard red cape and carries a pistol and a shortsword.


*Stickler*_ (PC, Human Rogue 4) _ and *Kurk*_ (PC, Orc Fighter 4) _

*Picture of Stickler*





*Picture of Kurk*





(Made most sense to describe them together).

Stickler and Kurk grew up together on the streets of Serpent City's lower wards, stealing food and money to support themselves. Neither one of them ever knew their parents. They originally were protected by an older human boy named Jon, but he was killed by Grunt, the leader of the Brothers of Grunt bandit group when he tried to pickpocket him. Jon was eighteen at the time but Stickler and Kurk were both just twelve. Years later they heard that the capes had an unofficial war against the Brothers of Grunt so they joined the City Guardm wanting their share of Grunt's head. At first the City Guard didn't want/let them to join, because of their not-so-clean background but finally one of the capes, Sergeant Carp, supported their application and they joined.

Stickler is not the serious type. He tends to make fun at everything and just can't comprehend why his partners aren't always amused. Kurk likes the finer things in life, like crushing people with a good club. He's not the intelligent type. He's very impatient and cracks easily under pressure (which usually results in him waving his axe around a lot. They're both a bit greedy but very loyal to their friends which are their only family.

Stickler is short, only about 165 cm tall and is lightly built. He has short dirty blonde hair and grey eyes. He usually wears a black shirt and panths and the standard city guard red cape. He is armed with a pistol, a shortsword and a dagger. Kurk is tall, over 180 cm and is heavily built. He wears studded leather and the standard city guard red cape. He is sometimes armed with a waraxe and sometimes an greatsword, depending on his mood. He usually doesn't use firearms but is very cabable with one if so is needed.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 10, 2002)

*Session One: "The Brotherhood of Grunt"  *

.

Sergeant Carp and his team (the PCs) have been assigned to investigate recent string of pirate raids on thunderstone shipments. They went aboard an aircruiser - shipping thunderstone from Iron City - in hope it would be attacked.  You were about to loose hope in that it would when a big metallic cruiser appears out of the mists of Shadow Mountains and fires harpoons at the ship, which hit and the pirates draw the cargo cruiser to them.  Orc and human pirates start boarding the ship.

*Picture of Sergeant Carp*





In leadership of the pirates is Grunt, and one eared Orc well known by the PCs as the leader of the Brotherhood of Grunt bandit group, an old thorn in the Free Cities’ arse. When he discovers the red capes aboard the cruiser he snarls at Carp: “Ah Sergeant Carp, it would seem you owe me an ear!”, and signals his men to attack. He opens his black villain-ish cloak, revealing rusty chainmail and starts waving his sword around.

*Picture of Grunt*





The thugs attack, but are quickly dispatched by waves of the _sleep_ spell cast by Incognito and dozens of rounds of ammonution fired by the rest of the capes and cruiser’s guards and crew. After Grunt himself gets his sword knocked out of his hand by a fierce blow from Kurk’s greatsword, he decides not to take his chances and orders his men to retreat: “This ain’t worth it! There are many more ships to raid!”

The remaining thugs quickly follow their leader back aboard the pirate ship and with the engines roaring, their cruiser starts to move away from the capes.  They try to stop the pirate cruiser, throwing hooks and ropes aboard it, but without any success. As a final try as the gap between the two cruiser widens, Kurk literally jumps after it, just barely succeeding in getting a hold onto one of the harpoon ropes hanging from the ship.  After dangling there for some time, Kurk starts to slowly climb the rope and onto the ship.

Just as Kurk gets his balance he is attacked by two thugs, but both are quickly dealt with. Kurk chops one thug’s head off in one blow and the other gets a stab in the gut, showering the floor with entrails.  Grunt grabs himself an axe and faces Kurk himself muttering something like “...always ya gotta do it yerself fergawdsake!”. 

Kurk throws himself at Grunt, but Grunt dodges the blow with ease.  Kurk does not wait to strike again but again blow is easily parried by Grunt who then lands a blow into Kurk's arm followed by kick that knocks Kurk's blade out of his hands.  In desperate defense Kurk grabs a nearby bucket and throws it at Grunt who slices it in half in mid air. Grunt gives Kurk another kick, this time in the chest so that Kurk falls backwards onto his behind. Grunt patiently waits for Kurk to stand up and when he finally does, Grunt gives him a third kick. This time, Kurk doesn't fall down, but fumbles backwards all the way to the right side of the ship. Kurk tries to grab Grunt by the neck with his bare hands, but Grunt is stronger and pushes him over the side and off the ship. Kurk falls down bu tis saved by Incognito’s quick responses as he casts _levitate_ on him and levitates him back aboard the merchant cruiser. 

From distance Grunt signals the capes with some insulting gestures. Sergeant Carp swears under his breath as he watches the pirate vessel disappear into the distance.  “Shake the bodies,” he says to the PCs, “see who are dead and who are just sleeping.  Then tie the sleepy heads up.  We need to get the location of their base out of someone of them.”

After and _hypnotize_ spell and some “suggestions” one of the prisoners tells them that the base is located in an old abandoned Kentaari stronghold just west of the great stone mines in the Shadow Mountains, deep into the fog.  The party agrees on going back to Serpent City, get rid of the prisoners, get some rest and healing before they head over to the stronghold with some backup.

.

The next day the party heads over to Shadow Mountains with a raiding party of twelve well armed men aboard a City Guard aircruiser (notably known by the red sails and the big twin cannons standing out of the front).  After four hour of cruising over plains and woodland the ship sails deep into the Shadow Mountains, beyond the stone mines and into the thick fog.  After cruising straight ahead blindly for a couple of minutes, the fear of sailing straight into the rocky hills has nearly made them turn around.  Those plans are abandoned when they see a strong blue light source in the distance. It is a guidance beacon.

As they come closer to the beacon the grey fortress walls of the ancient Kentaari stronghold come into view.  It  built into the mountain side out of light grey stone bricks, in strong contrast to the dark black rock of the Shadow Mountains, that surround it.  The Kentaarian army obviously didn’t trust the native building material so they brought their own.  Grunt’s ship is docked next to one of and the big two cannons which are located at either side of the base.

The capes keep themselves in the fog so they shouldn’t be seen by the pirates while they hatch their plan. The plan is just to storm the place in one quick strike. The only problem being the two cannons that defend the base. They should be able to blow one cannon up with the ship’s cannons, but not both. Just as they’d attack one cannon, they’d automaticly be sitting ducks for the other, so the PCs get the mission of sneaking into the base and blow one of the cannons up.

The PCs are dropped off out of sight and slowly they find their way into the base. When they  finally get to the stronghold, Stickler sneaks onto the base with a grenade in each hand.  He hears some voices and quickly jumps to hide behind some boxes.

“I don’t understand what they need all this thunderstone for,”  It’s a whiny squeaky voice. It sounds like it has done it’s fair share of complaining through the years, “I mean, we’ve stolen enough to blow up half the Serpent for God’s sake!  And now the capes are on to use, this job has become way too high profile for me ye know.”

 “Sixteen good lads went down yesterday.”  Another voice, much deeper.  “Pity.”  It sounds as it had done it’s fair share of following orders without any thought put into distractions like ‘why?’ or ‘what for?’,  “Of course da boss probably has a good reason for all of this.”

 “Then why doesn’t he share it with us then?  I mean, I’d really like to know what I’m risking my neck for! ”

 “But Scarran, if he told us we could talk.”  The voice becomes little more serious, like a parent preaching the dangers of smoking to it’s child, “And we’d not like that, would we Scarran?” 

 “Yeah, yeah, you’ve made your point.  Man the cannon won’t you, old Bink said he saw something move in the fog.  It’s probably nothing, you know how he is, we can all remember the incident last year.”

 “Yeah, we lost a lot of good men then.”

 “It’s hard to trust his eyesight after that ye know, but I’m not taking any chances after yesterday.  I’m going down to the kitchen to get mister Grunt something to eat now, I can trust you.”  That last part wasn’t really a question.

Stickler hears the whiny voiced character leaving. Stickler sneaks a peek over the boxes and sees a rather stupid looking orc wearing studded leather which holds a war hammer in one hand. He seems to be counting the fingers of the other hand out loud. “One, two, three... erm... four and... eh... six... no that’s not right... five! Yup, that’s it! I wonder how many my other hand has...”

When Stickler tries to signal Incognito and Kurk, the orc spots him. “Who’s dat?!” With a large swing the orc demolishes the box Stickler is hiding behind. Now exposed, Stickler calls for help. the orc takes another swing at Stickler, which he just barely dodges. Kurk comes to the rescue and with two shots from his pistols he kills the orc who falls onto the boxes with a loud crash.

Kurk gives Stickler a good kick in the behind for messing up.

The noise did not go unnoticed and a pair of thugs come running from around the corner. When they see the capes they scream for help before they attack. One thug gets a quick death by a shot from Incognito’s pistol while the other’s right arm gets chopped off by Kurk, followed by his skull being crushed.

The Capes throw their grenades at the big cannon and run for shelter. The cannon goes up in neat blue thunderstone flames.

*Picture of Scarran the Gnome*





Grunt arrives at the scene followed by a scruffy looking gnome and a brigade of thugs. Grunt screams some orders at the gnome calling him ‘Scarran’. Obviously the gnome is the bearer of the squeeky voice. Just as the legion of thugs seems ready to attack the capes, the other cannon goes up in flames followed by a loud ‘BOOM’. The City Guard aircruiser sails into view out of the mists and soon waves of red capes crash into the pirate army.  After a lenghty fight the capes come out victorious.

But Grunt along with a large portion of the army escape through a secret way out. When the capes finally find the way, all the pirates have gone, appearantly sailed away on another aircruiser which was docked inside a cave on the other side of the mountain. Also, there seems to be no traces of the loot, the many shipments of thunderstone that were stolen.

But one the of thugs that got arrested was Scarran, the scruffy looking gnome. When interrogated he cannot say where Grunt went or what he did with the loot, but he can tell of some mysterious hooded fellow Grunt seems to be spending a lot of time with. He cannot give a good description of the man, other that he spoke with a Serpent City accent.

So, the capes sail back home to Serpent City after a job well done although somewhat disappointed with the results and unsettled by the mystery of this new unknown character.


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## KidCthulhu (Jul 10, 2002)

Hey, I liked the first story hour!  Don't be so hard on yourself.  It was good stuff, and I'm glad to see it back.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 10, 2002)

I liked it too. I just didn't really like the writing.

I mean, I was kinda shocked when I reread it, I thought it was much better.

I was like: "Hey! Who messed with my Story Hour!!"

I just wanted it to be BETTER!! 

Anyway, I had already decided to change the storytelling style a bit, so why not rewrite what I had already done. I'm unemployed right now and I have WAY too much time on my hands. Y'know, I'd never think I'd actually get bored of watching Buffy tapes. 

I think you may have taken the first post as bit harsher than it was meant.

Note to self: Use more smilies.


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## Piratecat (Jul 10, 2002)

Whoo hoo!


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 11, 2002)

*Session Two: "Big Trouble in Little Gromnburg"  * 

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Someone has been going on a killing spree down in the lower wards.  He claims to be a professional witch-hunter, bent on freeing the empire of the witch pest.  The ones who have been killed until now have mostly been fortune tellers, the mentally ill, immigrants from faraway lands and other people who have stood out in any way.  Usually the City Guard doesn’t meddle in the affairs of the lower wards as the locals don’t care for their help (or anybody else’s) but the last victim was the apprentice of a very influential Calharian wizard who was in the city for business with the Merchant Guild. Therefore it is now the business of the red capes. Sergeant Carp sends the PCs to investigate the matter.

While everybody the PCs interrogate seems to be ready to tell them that that the killer is “A bloody nutcase!” or “A wacko, missing some serious screws!”, nobody is prepared to tell them anything of any importance.  One of the major unwritten rules of this part of town is ‘That nobody talk to the capes!’.  The only valuable information the capes can get is that the killer is a Gromnburgian

.

Gromnburg is a small and until recently, very isolated society located west of Shadow Mountains.  They are highly religious and very superstitious.  Witch hunting and burning is a national pass time.  They were aware of the outside world, but it was of no importance to them.  Evil and sinful lands, all of it, one of those dreadful things that happened to other people.  During the rebellion against the Kentaari Empire Gromnburg was the only colony that sided with the Empire. The Gromnburg high priests even identified Emperor Aramach as one who had been blessed by God and joined him in his crusade against the rebels.

The people of Gromnburg expected Aramach to rid the lands of witchcraft, but much to their dismay they discovered that the Emperor did in fact have some very good spellcaster friends and just laughed at such foolish ideas.  The people of Gromnburg felt that they had been tricked and went back to their lands in shame.  It wasn’t until about a decade ago that they were forced to return to the outside world after a natural disaster made a big lump of the country uninhabitable.  It was all the fault of the witches, they say.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Jul 12, 2002)

I'm sorry to say I didn't catch the story first time round, but I'm certainly pleased that I've read this one through.

The Steampunk setting is fantastic - I've wanted to see what (and if) a steampunk campaign would run like... if your stuff is anything to go by, then it works pretty well.  

Looking forward to more!


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 12, 2002)

.

When one needs to find someone native to Gromnburg, one always talks to Leeta Townsbuckle who knows every Gromnburgian in town.  Leeta is a big woman. Not only physically, but in thought and attitude.  When the Gromnburgians started flooding into Serpent City all needing jobs that just weren’t there she started her own business.  ‘Leeta and Co.’ makes everything from clothes to cheap furniture and even weapons.  Everything she manufactures is made by hand by Gromnburgians.  She even runs a very successful ‘escort’ service.  Some would say she ‘uses’ the poor saps but she would say herself that she ‘exploits’ them.  She says it sounds more classy.

*Picture of Leeta Townsbuckle*





The capes find Leeta paying salaries to her workers in front of one of her businesses down in the lower wards. After some interrogation Leeta admits to know who the killer is but ain’t prepared to give the identity away just like that. Although the “witch-hunter” is a fruitcake he never harmed her or any of her people. Just some lowlifes that deserved to die anyway. She is on the other hand ready to give the information in exchange for something else. When the PCs offer her money, she shakes her head. “Ya have a problem, we have a problem.” she explain and tells them of some dweeb that has been preying on some of her girls. 

“Weird guy, unnatural.” She says, “I sent some of the guys to whack him, but he easily kicked the crap out of them. Tore one’s head clear off. Yer all are trained to deal with this kinda crap ain’t ya?  If ye want to know where to find the witch hunter, ye find this sod first! He keeps out in the ole’ church over in the Gromnburg district.”

Intrigued, the capes head out to the Gromnburg district.

.

When the immigrants from Gromnburg first arrived they took over an practically abandoned part of town formerly known as the Burnt District (originally it was known as the Harrgard district as the Gnomes of Harrgard ran a gunpowder factory there, but after a rather nasty accident involving one of the factory workers, a hot cup of coffee and a torch, the factory blew up and took the whole district with it.  After that it became the home of all the homeless people that even the scum of the other Lower Wards didn’t want).  The Gromnburgians started by burning all the bums, beggars and other homeless people and then they tore the whole district down and rebuilt it.  Now, Little Gromnburg is probably the cleanest place of the lower wards.  It’s also the only part of the city that’s built out of wood in any real volume, the Gromnburgians believe that the black stone that the rest of the city is built from is the sign of the corruption of the devil.

The old church is the only building that the Little Gromnburg locals didn’t tear down, seeing that even if it was built by the corrupt foreigners it was still the house of God.  They don’t use it though, and built their own church a couple of blocks away.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 12, 2002)

.

When the party enters Little Gromnburg they are greeted by nothing but hostility.  “Go back to yer home witches!”  People just stand in the distance and stare at them, some mumbling prayers or exorcism, but most just hurl curses at them.  “Ya can’t corrupt us ye filthy pigs!”

Someone screams, a woman’s voice.  “Nooo!  My baby!!  The witch’s got my baby!”  A hysterical young woman runs in the party’s direction.  “Somebody help me!!”  She crumbles down into the muddy street crying.  “Somebody... ::sob:: took my baby...”  A crowd starts to form in a circle around her, all staring, but none offers aid.

The party makes it’s way through the crowd and Incognito helps her up and asks what happened. The woman tells them that someone snatched her daughter when she was playing near the church and dragged her inside. She claims it was _the witch_ that she’d seen sneaking around the church at night. Then suddenly she realizes that the PCs are not of her kin and her complete demenour changes and she screams at them: “Ye all are not one of us! Corrupt pigs!”

Incognito slaps the woman who falls back down into the mud.  “We _pigs_ are the only ones who seem to be willing to save your girl, so watch it!” Kurk kicks open the front doors of the old church and they storm in.

.

The church is big and majestic.   Nearly 25 meters from floor to ceiling, all made from black stone.  There used to be six big mosaic windows on either side of the church, but now they are all broken and have been replaced by bits of wood.  This results that the only light inside the church comes from the broken entrance.  The church has been stripped of everything of any real value ages ago, long before the Gromnburgians came. There’s nothing there but dust and spider webs, and lots of both.  Even the church benches have been taken away. The only thing left is the stone altar and that’s just because it’s too heavy to carry out.

From the other end of the church a faint crying can be heard. The little girl sits on the altar, hugging her knees. As they approach the girl they hear a dark, snakelike voice:  “Who’s there? Looks like we have some friends over to play with.” A young pale fellow, wearing a long brown leather trench coat, levitates a couple of meters over the altar.  They could’ve sworn he wasn’t there a second ago. Incognito points his pistol at the pale stranger and threatens to shoot if he doesn’t unhand the girl at once. The stranger just laughs at the PCs, claiming that their little toys can’t  harm him.

“Yeah whatever.” Incognito remarks as he fires his pistol, but the bullet just goes straight through the stranger’s flesh without really affecting him in real way. He just laughs, “Oh darn, you put a hole through my coat!  Now I have to kill you.”

Just as he prepares to attack, fangs and talons ready, Stickler screams out: “He’s an vampire, open the windows!” The three capes start tearing down the wooden plates covering the windows. Sunlight floods into the church, hitting the vampire who howls in pain as it crashes into the floor. As the capes tear the wood from the remaining windows the burning vampire flees up the stairs to the church tower.

Incognito grabs the girl and runs outside while Stickler and Kurk follow the vampire up the staircase. Outside, Incognito gets greeted by a big crowd of people armed with torches and hayforks.  A tall skinny guy waves a shovel at him:  “Put the girl down ya freak!!”  Incognito puts the girl down who runs to her mother and puts her arms around her neck. “Mommy, the sun _burns_...” The shovel waving skinny guy turns to the mob:  “This building may once have been a house of the lord, but now it is infested by spawns of the shadows!  We must destroy it and all it’s evils with it!!”

About halfway up the tower the vampire falls down from fatigue. It’s badly burned and the repulsive smell of burned dead flesh fills the air. Kurks swing his axe at the vampire, but it jumps up and grabs it in mid-air. Stickler prepares to attack as well, but the vampire gives him a kick to the head, while still holding onto the axe, sending Stickler rolling down the staircase. Kurk is able to wrestle the axe of the vampire’s hands and with a quick left hand strike he seperates his foe’s right arm from it’s owner. The vampire, now terrified, flees further up the stairs.

Downstairs Stickler is greeted by a terrifying sight. The whole floor has been covered in oil and five barrels of gunpowder have been placed in the middle of the hall. Stickler screams warnings at his partner, but Kurk decides to follow the vampire up to the tower. Kurk catches up with the vampire at the top of the stair, not able to go any further up because of the sunlight that shines through the glassless windows in the top room.  The vampire goes into a frenzy and leaps at Kurk, who wrestles it down with ease.  He gets a good hold of it and draws the vampire with him to the top room, (lacking any kind of church bell now, somebody pinched it years ago). It starts to burn as Kurk forces it into the light. It screams in pain. Kurk throws the vampire out the window.  “Fry bastard!”  It bursts into flames and then explodes halfway down.  Only ash lands on the ground.

Meanwhile downstairs, somebody throws a torch through one of the windows. Stickler quickly throws it back out, but three other torches get thrown in immediatly and ignites the oil on the floor.  Stickler runs over to the staircase and screams:  “Kurk, get your butt down here, it’s about to blow!” Kurk runs down the stairs as fast as he can.  When he gets down every inch of the floor along with the gunpowder barrels are burning.  The two capes run through the fire and smoke trying to find their way out. The doors have been barricaded so they jump out one of the windows.

When they’re out they just run as hell away from the church as it goes up in a gigantic blue fireball. Showering chunks of debris over the neighbourhood.

They go and reunite with Incognito and then go to Leeta to get their part of the bargain. The Leeta is at first a little bit relunctant to pay up, but when she’s been shown the proof of the vampire’s death she gives them the identity of the witch hunter, who turns out to be an Gromnburgian immigrant named Gerald. Last time she knew he stayed in the Mad Cow Inn over in the eastern worker’s ward.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 12, 2002)

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The Mad Cow Inn is the biggest Inn in Serpent City, located in the Merchant’s Guild’s old headquarters (before they moved over to the king’s palace).  It’s a five storey building with 68 rooms and about 50 employees. The owner, old Turk, is an ex-cape.  He is old and fat now, but once upon a time he was the City Guard’s finest.  He’s also Sergeant Carp’s old partner and mentor. When given the vague description of Gerald Leeta had given the PCs he seems to remember him, goes looking through some scrolls on his desk and then hands the PCs a key to a room.

The room is full of witch hunting weapons. Swords, stakes, crossbows and silver pointed bolts, couple of buckets of garlic, crosses and holy scriptures, a dozen unused torches, oil, gunpowder (but strangely  no guns) et cetera.  The walls is covered in holy symbol and the words “ARE THEE CORRUPTED SHALT THEE BURN” have been carved into the one of the walls in capital letters. They also find some newspaper clips about old Guildmaster Beramix’s death and the upcoming crowning of his replacement, Ztorialim, who is also the Merchant Guild’s most powerful sage. The PCs come to agreement that Gerald probably plans to do something at the ceremony, which is scheduled for later that day. Immediently they go and show their discovery to Sergeant Carp who issues additional security to the crowning, including the PCs.

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The crowning is held in the Merchant Guild’s great hall, formerly the throne room of the old King. The PCs are given the task of protecting the stage, where Ztorialim himself will be along with the bishop that crowns him. The night comes and the first guests of the ceremony start to arrive.  The other seven guildmasters are the first on the scene and they gather around in one group, probably discussing some Guild issues and the running of the Union of Free Cities.  As the other guests arrive, guildmembers and ambassadors from neighbouring lands, the guildmasters scatter.  

One of them, the youngest one, the one named Qter, walks over to the players. He is tall but slender, in his late thirties but one might’ve thought he was even younger. He has shoulder long black hair, well groomed and shining as if it’s been sprayed by somekinda oil and a small, tidy beard. He wears a dark blue silk suit and a fine silver-embroidered black cape. To the PCs’ surprise he brings them drinks. “As our protectors, you all deserve something to drink.” He then makes a remark that they should really be protecting the city from the other Guildmasters, saying that they’re corrupt and the only thing they really care about is the size of their own wallets. He seems drunk. “The Guild has abandoned all of the principals the Union was formed on.” He keeps on babbling, now about the diplomatic tension between the Union and the Dracani Dynasty. Since Iron City, the biggest source of thunderstone in all the lands, declared independance against the Dynasty and sought for admittance to the Union, the two powers have been at the brink of war. If they accept Iron City’s offer they’d dominate the thunderstone market but it would also guarantee an attack by the Dynasty. “And as you know, the Union has no real army to speak of, if it comes to war we are destined to loose!”

When Ztorialim enters the hall everyone fall silent. He has a strong precense and dominates all the attention in the room. He’s old, in his late sixties, yet looks firm and healthy.  He’s completely bald which is made extra noticable by his long grey beard and thick dark fluffy eyebrows. He’s wearing scarlet ceremonial robes embroidered with entwined black and golden threads in the shapes of dragons. He walks up the steps to the golden stage and kneels in front of the bishop. As the lower priests start hitting the ceremonial drums, Ztorialim chants his wows: “I vow to you, the people of the Free Cities, I am ready.  I am ready to rule wisely, to rule by the wishes of the people, not my own.  I am ready to follow the teachings of God and his messengers.  I am ready to stand against evil and corruption in all forms they might come, and ready to uphold truth and justice.  I vow to serve the people until my days on earth are over.  I am ready if you see so fit to honour me.” The bishop asks the audience:  “Is there anyone here who objects to his crowning as a Guildmaster?  If so, speak now or forever hold their peace.”

The great hall is silent. Someone coughs in the distance. When the Bishop sees that nonone objects he signals one of the lower priests to bring him the ceremonial silver crown. When the bishop picks the crown up an angry voice calls from the balcony: “ I object!  I object to the idea of the holy lands of man being ruled by witches, I object to the corruption that this city is drowning in and I object to that the people of the realm close their eyes and act like they see nothing.  It’s time for them to see, to understand!” There on the balcony stands Gerald the Witchhunter in all his glory, clad in tattered leather armour, which is covered in various holy symbols and trinkets, and sporting a large crossbow in his hands and a old rusty longsword strapped to his back. 

Gerald fires a bolt from his crossbow at Ztorialim, but it vanishes in white flames about a half a metre from his chest. Ztorialim starts laughing: “You fool, did you think a great scary witch like me comes here without any means of magical protection?!”

Gerald lets out a cry of fure and hastily prepares to reload his crossbow but is stopped as one of the guards attack him from behind and tries to wrestle him down. Another guard comes running to help but is quickly sent to the floor as Gerald breaks his kneecap with a kick. Gerald swings the first guard over his head and off the balcony, sending him crashing down onto the floor of the great hall, unsheaths his sword and in one mighty swing chops the other guard’s head in half as he’s trying to stand up.

Then he jumps through the big mosaic window behind him, onto the roof. He starts running. The PCs follow him. Incognito screams after him: “STOP, YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!” He gets no reply from Gerald, who is reloading his crossbow while he runs. Even though the palace is big, Gerald soon runs out of roof to run after. 

He jumps down off the roof, spins around in the air and fires a bolt from his crossbow  at the players which hits Incognito in the shoulder, sending down on his back in a groan of pain. Gerald lands on a balcony two floors down and quickly swings himself off it down onto the roof of the next building. 

Kurk and Stickler jump after him. Stickler lands safely on the balcony but Kurk seems to have miscalculated. He falls down but Incognito (who got back on his feet) casts Levitate and levitates Kurk back up on the roof.  Stickler swings himself down off the balcony and onto the roof below and immediately starts running after Gerald who has reached the end of this roof and prepares to jump to the next one.

Gerald jumps over to the next roof with Stickler close on his trail.  Stickler is able to grab on to one of the holy trinkets on Gerald’s armour, but Gerald jumps into the air, disbalancing Stickler who falls down onto his face.  Gerald keeps running but finds out that the distance to the next roof is too great to jump over.  He looks over the edge but there he sees Sergeant Carp and a large group of capes coming around the corner.  He’s stuck, Carp and the capes down below and Stickler  blocking his other way away (with Kurk and Incognito gaining on them).

Gerald panics: “If ya come any closer, I’ll jump!” 

Stickler slowly walks up to him and then pushes him off the roof, sending him spiralling to the ground below, landing with a loud thump.

Sergeant Carp runs over to the body.  “Eww!” He says as he steps in the pool of blood that’s starting to surround the body.  He bends down, checks for pulse and then shakes his head slowly.  “He’s dead.”  He looks up to the roof at the players and says loudly:  “Good work guys.  Now come down and help in cleaning this mess up.”

Guildmaster Qter, who just entered the scene, objects:  “On the contrary sergeant, if anything, our heroes should be rewarded, not to be forced into such activities.”  He raises his glass.  “I salute you, the very pride of Serpent City.”

A couple of the other guests join the salution as well as the rest of the capes raise their weapons into the air, praising the PCs.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 12, 2002)

The next two installments, session three and four, I've never actually posted before. In the original thread I decided to skip them as they had nothing to do with main storyline of the campaign.

I have seen the errors of my ways.

Next up: Snake cults, ancient evils and sanity-stealing magical spheres.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 16, 2002)

*Cough*bump*Cough*


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 18, 2002)

*Session Three: "It Came From Beyond"  * 

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The Merchant Guild has outposts all over the world. From neighbourhood nations to the Kentaari Empire and beyond.  The Guild has been trying to found a new outpost in the small country known as the Centrum Alliance, which lies south of the Kentaari Empire. King Ludwig, the descendant of a Kentaari noble who dared to oppose the Emperor and deny paying war taxes during the west continent rebellion, rules the Alliance. Angered, the Emperor’s sent his forces to beat the rebellious nature out of the lord. The Lord, quite aware of the fact that his small legion of personal guards was no match for the Emperor’s hordes of loyal soldiers, ran with his family and guards over the border and into the southern desert lands.

There they wandered from community to community, further and further south until they came across the city Kerim. It was bigger and more civilized than most of the other communities they’d been to and the lord decided to stay. There the lord’s family lived for decades, their influential power increasing with the years.

After the lord’s death the family’s place in the city started to become of question. While the lord’s two sons battled over the estate a new leader took over the city that did not like the foreigners. He systematically tried to get rid of them, which ended in a direct attack on their estate. The two brothers were forced to unite and for a month they held off the attackers. One of the brothers was able to sneak out and headed out into the desert looking for allies. After a week he returned with a tribe of desert warriors. Instead of saving the estate he headed straight to the city leader’s palace and slaughtered everyone inside and claiming himself as the new King of Kerim, renaming it Centrum.

The new King sought for peace with his brother and gave him half the kingdom, creating the Centrum Alliance, the alliance of brothers. This may have been a bad move as a couple of months later he died mysteriously while eating dinner and his brother crowned himself as the sole King.

This all has resulted in three basic castes in Centrum. First there are the royals, the descendants of the lord and his family and his personal guards. They are the supreme rulers. The other castes have no rights against the royals, or the ‘pales’ as the lower castes call them. Second there are the Jt’eri. The descendants of the warrior tribe that joined the lord’s son and allowed for his takeover. They serve as the Centrum’s military as well as royal guards. They are blindly loyal to the royals and their only goal in life is their protection. Their forefathers pledged their loyalty to them and they will honour it until the last of them die. Third, there are the peasants. The descendents of the city’s original population.

Over the years the kingdom has grown taking over the neighbourhood city Caddram and claiming leadership over the many desert tribes in the surrounding area.


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## Viking Bastard (Jul 18, 2002)

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The King just built a new spire in the city, opening the whole area to trade by aircruisers. The Merchant Guild wants power there and has sent Guildmaster Qter to open negotiations with the King. The PCs are to escort him as his bodyguards. They have been travelling for a whole three weeks by the Guild’s luxury cruiser, the Unicorn, beyond the vast inner seas to the eastern continent, beyond the Kentaari Empire and to the South-Eastern lands. When they finally arrive it’s late, about eleven o’clock. They dock with the newly built spire where they are greeted by a special envoy, the King’s right hand man, Ser Leonard and a group of the royal guards.

Ser Leonard escorts the Serpent City citizens to the palace. They go through the tight streets of Centrum. The city is very dirty and colourless, everything in the same yellow-grey colour of the sand. The people seem poor, yet content, and very very busy.

The palace is rather small when compared to the great buildings of Serpent City, yet very glamorous. Especially when compared to the rest of the city. It’s white, with a shining red roof and archways. It’s well guarded, by both members of the royals and the Jt’eri.

In the Palace entrance they are greeted by the King. He’s large and strong, with a big mighty brunette beard. He’s wearing a somekinda mix of Kentaari and Centrum native outfit. While he wears a classic (if somewhat outdated) Kentaari suit, he wears a native cloak and jewellery. He shakes Qter’s hand with much intensity, letting out a loud laugh. After showing Qter the palace and all his riches (who pale when compared to the Guild’s, but Qter seems most impressed) he takes them to his office, who is seems more like a big playroom, filled of food and riches as well as things that might only be seen as toys.

Ser Leonard takes a guarding posture outside the main entrance to the “office” and when the PCs see the last of him he’s standing loyally outside the door.

Qter tries to engage the King in business talk, but all he seems to want to discuss is idle chitchat, of the newest Harrgard gadgets and the state of world politics.

Suddenly a loud crash can be heard from the hallway. The PCs, along with the King, jump to their feet and smash their way through the door. Leonard is on his knees, his face torn by agony and his body shaking in spasms of pain. Over him stands a robed man. He has red bronze-like skin and on the forehead of his completely shaven bald head there’s a tattoo of a Snake. He’s holding a shining glowing sphere right in front of Leonard’s torn face. When the PCs burst in he mumbles something under his breath and extends his hand in their direction. The King, mad with rage, rushes at the stranger with his sword drawn but crashes into somekinda invisible barrier and bounces back. The stranger grins, clutches the sphere and jumps out the broken window behind him.

When the PCs try to walk forward, the barrier seems to be gone. They run to the window and look out. The stranger is climbing into a carriage. Three similarly robed men are helping him. When the carriage takes off, they stay behind. Two of them seem to be armed, one with a large scimitar and the other with two crescent shaped daggers.

_[ Music = “Spybreak” by Propellerheads from the Matrix soundtrack ]_

The PCs jump out the window and down onto the street. Incognito takes out his pistol and prepares to shoot one of the robed men. The unarmed guy stretches out his arms and mumbles something in a foreign language. When Incognito fires, the pistols only gives a very disappointing hiss and a lot of smoke. When Stickler and Kurk try to fire their weapons they get the same results.

The scimitar-wielding thug slashes at Incognito but he easily dodges and throws away the gun and unsheathes his two rapiers. Stickler pistol-whips the scimitar thug across the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward. Incognito uses the opportunity and separates the thug’s head from his body with a quick and strong blow. Meanwhile, the dagger-wielding thug lounges at Kurk and it able to cut him slightly. Kurk grabs one of the thug’s arms and head butts him so he falls limp to the ground.

Stickler and Incognito make their way to the spellcaster. He seems calm and braces himself into defensive postures. When they seem to be about to attack he raises out his open palm and pushes forward. Stickler and Incognito are thrown backwards by some invisible force. Kurk grabs his axe and with a berserk roar he rushes at the spellcaster and slashes. The spellcaster easily avoids the blow and circle kicks Kurk in the lower back, knocking him off his feet.

Stickler and Incognito get to their feet. Stickler lounges at the spellcaster with his short sword. The spellcaster mumbles something and casts another spell but Incognito casts dispel magic and the spellcaster finds Stickler’s sword ripping open his gut. While trying to shove his intestines back into his stomach and with a stunned look on his face he falls down onto his knees. Stickler finishes the job with a quick beheading.


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## Horacio (Jul 22, 2002)

I liked the old story hour a lot, but this redux seems even more vivid.

More, please!


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## Viking Bastard (Aug 6, 2002)

Erm... I'm having comp problems, but when it gets fixed I'll post more.


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## Viking Bastard (Aug 12, 2002)

I'm just bumping this back to page 1.

And changing the title a wee bit.


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## Viking Bastard (Aug 19, 2002)

Again, I'm just bumping this up so I will be able to find it when I get my comp back working.


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