Sojouner's Journal: Essence

Essence is the substance that binds everything to existance. It is in everything and nothing all at once. We living creatures, and by living I mean unliving (aka undead, living dead) too, are able to tap into our own Essence and alter reality around us.

Mortals can tap essence in different ways, invoking raw power to be shaped by rituals is difficult and takes practice to learn to channel it. This is called invocations and many mortals have learned to use hand gestures and various words to help them focus themselves and cause the changes. The often call this Magic. Some Mages have learned to invoke essence with no need of hand or word, they are often called psychics.

Finally you have those capable of calling forth power granted to them by a being far more powerful than they. These are your preists and cultists who worship immortal gods and demon princes. By committing to further the being cause they get enormous power in return.

There is another side of Essence called taint. Taint is twisted essence, wrought only from beings hailing from places outside our known precieved existence. Anything touched by taint is twisted and mutated to mimic that strange place beyond. Many scholars claim that taint replaces essence, or that they are not the same. But in my few dreaded experiences taint and essence affect each other openly.

Essence itself is neither good nor evil, it is a pure force and an energy without limit. However it is easily colored by the intentions of those who use it. A priest who calls down power to heal another out of kindness or a necromancer who binds a soul to animate a corpse both color essence with their desires. However taint is pure corruption, consuming everything it encounters.

On Terris there are three ways to use Essence. Invocations, both magical and psychic, Miracles called down by the prayers of priests, and Necromancy, the power to communicate and manipulate life and death.

If you ever choose to follow the path of the gifted, those able to tap into essence, be cautious to prejudge, and be wary of the path you tread.

Sojourners Journal: Terris

We live in a world ripe with mystery and power a tiny jewel of life drifting in a black sea, circling a tiny ball of fire. However this is also a crossroad for other dimensional realms. It is a place of limitless wonder beaconing to be discovered. From the great powers that created and shaped Terris, to the lowly mortal toiling away on the fields to bring food into existence.

In my travels throughout the dimensions I am always amazed when I see Terris again. Who and I you ask? Not as great a person as you may think, but I’ve seen much, and could speak volumes of it, but no…I am here to tell of my experiences here.

First a little history, most of which is born of Myth and Legend about the ancient times, and like all legends of world creation this one begins a god. The god of Terris, for there is one god and then there are his children the Angels and Demons.

Between the realms of heaven and hell is said to be the battle grounds of the angels of heaven and the demons of hell. It was in this thin fabric that Terris was born, as result of divine power mixing in daunting ways. It took eons for the planet to form and life to grow but it did happen, and as a result the one God forced his children to tend to the new life.

It was hear the powers took on roles and created the mortal races.

What people believe is that Terris is one world…but that is both right and wrong, Terris in reality is one world the sprawls over several different existences at the same time. You have the Mortal Realm, which is referred to as Terris this is where the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Goblins live, Midgard home of the Sidhe, fey, and birth place of the Elves, and finally the Underworld where spirits of the dead reside. Beyond the mortal realm lie Heaven and Hell, but those places cannot be reached beyond acceptance from powers I personally have never seen or heard more than of which I write to you now.

I will speak more of these realms in future entries…

Plans in the works

Well it’s been a longtime since I’ve written on this blog. Basically we created a forum for this campaign and started posting the game logs there, follow the forum link and check out the Terris Game log.

But what this Blog is truly about is what I have planned for my simple little campaign setting. The end of the campaign ushered in a new ear on Terris where the planet was swept into a Galactic Empire ruled by dragon-kind. Many things have changed because of this and going further is a definite possibility, and the PCs may have their hands full with getting the outland planet recognized for simple protection from those who’d exploit the technological inexperience.
Terris however has a long interesting history that I wish to exploit, as well as shift it to allow for both d20 rules and Unisystem rules. Doing this I hope to play two different sorts of games. One is the game that brings Terris into the Galactic Empire. The second is a historical campaign that takes place sometime around the Scorcher invasion.

The Victory at Northgate

It didn't take long for the victory at Northgate to spread. Already the news spread with ferocity thanks to the improvements of life brought by the advanced technology. Still there is much to be done.

Hador has found himself in an unexpected situation. Although not truly of noble blood, his deeds had won the hearts and loyalties of many men caught under Tesrin's vile powers. Only those who witnessed the fight would actually know what happened in that fight, but what is known is that Hador Garmann had challeneged the most powerful man (as far as the populous were concerned) in open combat and he won.

Zo still hasn't found any word of her brother and is at a loss of what to do. She had never dreamed of being caught in situations of life and death. Among the people of Northgate, the freed women particularly she was a liberator and she now has started to find that many suitors among the men of Northgate want to make themselves known.

Yrin also discovered that she is well accepted and a hero in many parts of Northgate. Her part in freeing the slaves in the south then her exploits across Terris grow bigger with each story told. As time goes by she is able to take several trips to Brindenford with Razz, who still seems like he wants to take her up on the offer of being a back scrub for her.

Gavin has found that the ODT (Orbital Drop Troopers) now respect him to a point that they will always have his back. Bravery, tenacity, and Open thinking are things that they all approve of and he with his mix matched band of locals did something that they all were having trouble accomplishing and he can be sure that he will recieve high recommendations to the boss (if they find him).

Ethgow has seen a lot in his years but these events on Terris have been the strangest ever. Still he feels a certain strain, that these events are not over and the enemies have only retreated to lick their wounds and regroup.

After the battle no one knows where Tesrin and this wizard Melnourn had fled too. They have almost seemingly fell off the earth and it looks like their threat is over. But everyone who knows what the Hell Hounds were doing in the black desert knows that the Scorchers of those ebony sands are now armed with upgraded weapons, and it is only a matter of time before they want to launch an attack.

Aquii has not shown up either and member of the Ghost Legion are beginning to grow concerned. He was last known to go find Edge...and "no one" really knows where they were hiding.

16 The Sowing 671, is when the downtime begins. This is the first month, please let me know what is happening with each of you.

This will be time that passes between sessions...

Those days of downtime...what happened

A little DM Magic

The party ducked under cover for 3 days holding out while garrisons from the recent attacks moved about to prepare for their current operations. During that time, the party sat quietly in the destroyed tower, ducking one patrol spotted by Magic Zo's familiar and basically whittled away the droning hours in hiding.

Hador found it the most difficult to deal with by thankfully found mentorship from the dwarven cleric. Together they they explored the meaning of why Hador was chosen to bear the sword and talked through some deeply religious matters far confusing and boring to those not interested. By taking a closer look at the sword they discovered that the blade was forged in the distant passed and under the critical eye of a dwarf only was it noticed that the sword was forged far better than anything able to be done on Terris.

Yrin bored out of her mind set about pestering Hador at first but listening to the grand stories od Clangiden Silverbeard only made the boredom worse, and set her eyes on Gavin. After tormenting him about how she was going to pay back Edge, to the color of the sky, why water was wet, the internal workings of grass, and other what not she moved on to Zo, and pestered her about magic and how it works.

Zo managed to keep Yrin interested for several hours, better than having to reveal so much about a lady. Being in the woods with several men over night was dirty and improper, she felt a little releaved to be teaching again, and Yrin proved to be a natural with sputtering pops of magic. However Zo did manage to mend her close with her spells and clean up a bit.

Gavin after surviving Yrin's boredom, settled into long watch hours and monitoring radio chatter in the area. He discovered that the Red Legion was heading into two directions one west into the Black Desert, the other South to deal with a new threat to their plans. Also one garrison was remaining in the "occupied city" to await the arrival of a high level diplomat. To Gavin's suprise, he also discovered that beginnings of a radio media starting in Northgate, mainly to assist troops in the city with announcements, but used to announce news and propaganda. Once place mentioned that stood out to Gavin was a new tavern, that was able to pay for an actual radio advertisement.

The Drunken Dragon, a place built by a wealthy noble that utilizes all the new great conveniences of the new protectorate. The Drunken Dragon was the favorite Outland watering hole Edge and his mercs liked to frequent to recruit, wet down (get drunk), and let his troops spend all that hard earned cash. In fact Edge recruited Gavin at the same place.

By the evening of the third day the farmers son comes to you stating that his father was killed by a group of Hell Hounds and his mother and sister were taken into the city probably to be sent out into the black desert as payment to the Scorchers. He pleads for your help, to go into the city and get them out.

This begins at dawn of Day four...

Downtime

(Due to work schedule we are taking a two week break form the game and I'm allowing the characters a little downtime. However considering they are deep within enemy territory this makes things a little difficult to allow the PCs the full benefits of the downtime so here is how it will happen...the PCs can adjust accordingly.)

After meeting the human at the farmstead it took a little convincing by Hador, Zo, and Yrin that they were not members of the Red Legion.

This went over with the farmer quite well and he agreed to assist you in minor ways. Inform them about red legion activities, minor ways to help get into the city, offer good places to duck under Red Legion Patrols.

He also said that the Red Legion has introduced technology to the aristocracy of Northgate and that some things, like motorized wheeled vehicles and other light sources are starting to appear more often. Also about a week ago a large group headed west into the black desert using the flying carriages to cross over the mountains...probably to garner more respect from the scorchers (this is said with much fear).

But recently there has been a mysterious group that has been attacking the Red Legion posts in the area. One night he saw several flashes and heard some booms in the distance further up stream...then a few nights ago another incident down stream, this one much closer (you came from downstream). Because of these attacks security at the gates has been doubled and any signs of resistance is dealt with harshly.

The time that passes is only going to be two or three days...patrols around the area has dwindled do to the troops deployed and the remaining garrison is reenforcing Northgate, but there are a few troops about checking on their various outposts.

(Decisions, where are you hiding, what are you doing in the down time...)
(Radio traffic garnered from Gavin's monitoring is pending)

The Dragon Empire and Terris

These are things that Gavin (Jester's Character) could explain to the other PCs about the empire. This is general knowledge, and not damaging the cause of the good guys.

The Dragon Empire consists of house each corresponding with a different color dragon. These houses each sit at a council on a planet called Drconis Prime and all take turns at the head of the council every 5000 years.

Its been about 1000 years since the red dragons have taken control and surprisingly the Red Emporer has not attempted to disband the council...infact he has pushed to keep it in place. However he has created his own policing force. The Imperial Security Police Directorate (ISPD), which is primarily ran by the Drow.

Each House holds its own Legion to be able to defend against one another and a portion of each army is used in the Imperial Legion to defend against outside threats. Laws are put in place to keep the imperial legion from being used to wipe out the other houses.

Terris is a planet that is near a galactic land mark called the "Black Scar" an strip of dark energy the cuts through the empire far above the galactic plane (the starting point for navigation). The energy from Black Scar often mutate and corrupt nearby stars and planets eventual engulfing the stars as the scar widens. However Terris is an oddity for it is not affected like other nearby planets. This anomaly has drawn the attention of the court who wanted to move to make contact with Terris. But the Red Emporer moved to block this suggestion stating it was too risky.

Not trusting the emporer the Bronze Legion (the best military force in the empire) sent a survey team to make sure the Emporer stayed true to not interferring with Terris. In doing so they discovered that the ISPD had infiltrated the planets governments...which through back-linking analysis...suggests that they were in place months before the decision to deny contact was even made. Later captured evidence also let the Bronze Legion know that the Red Emporer planned on conscripting the legion into his house ranks, an illegal action for a planet without a unified government under imperial law.

The difficult with public exposure is that the bronze legion would expose themselves, and the ISPD are incredibly good at disposing of evidence...even going as far as destroying planets.

So, the Bronze legion sent in SOLAR (Special Out-Lands Army Recon) as a counter team to remove the ISPD and leave. However the Drow unexpected found some strange power that has made them far more lethal than anticipated.

In recent discover around Northgate, it is reasonable to think that the Red Legion is taking a more active role in supporting the ISPD. They have begun recruiting, training and equipping the local populous, and it is rumored that they have even sent in some Hell Hounds to eliminate any opposition.