City Of Mists is a strange place. A huge city on a small Caribbean island. While the rest of the island enjoys tropical sun, the city itself is usually veiled in mists rising from its port—a silent testament to the cold current from a depth to the north struggling with the warm sea around the island.
At first the island was settled by French colonists. There are no records of indigenous population, though they might be simply forgotten. The bulk of the island's "indigenous" denizens are descendants of black slaves brought here by French. They are a minority on their own island now, however, a mere few tens of thousands as opposed to three-four million population of the city itself. Most of them are fishers and farmers on the gentle western and southern slopes of Mont Charniere, the mountain dividing warm and sunny part of the island, from the much cooler and misty bay. The bay, despite its mists is the center of the City's existence, a natural deep harbor that was harnessed in the XVIII century by slavers and pirates, and later in late XIX and early XX century by whalers. The City itself arouse in the Roaring Twenties from the earlier makeshift port. Its vague legal status and unorganized administration made it a useful port of call for many criminals smuggling rum into newly (and shortly) dry United States in bulk. Flow of cash from the smugglers led to development of warehouses, repair docks, hotels, and entertainment avenues that in return attracted first wave of legitimate businessmen, tourists, and vagabonds from all around the world. In the Thirties, the development slowed but not stopped, as the smuggling became marginalized by short lived companies dealing in stock and speculation, trying to make living in the times of Great Depression. Many of the newcomers of that time were fleeing poverty, outstanding debts, and bankruptcies. The second World War brought a number of refuges, spies, and war profiteers trying to take advantage of the island's neutrality. End of the war did not stimulate the economy and a slow decline pushed the second president toward the mild socialist reforms in the middle of the fifties. This lead to a military coup, sponsored by major businesses and companies of that time, that forced the presidential resignation and oversaw forming of a new national legislature that abolished presidency, reformed existing ministries into Departments, and established the rule of Council Of Departments—a collegiate body composed of the Departments' Commissioners. The highest ranking officers became the first Commissioners of the new governing body. This did not helped the declining economy. In the sixties, after the Cuban Crisis, the ruling junta managed to acquire financial aid from the United States (in the form of favorable loans and bogus military contracts) to fight socialist and communist influences. The military rule and economy alike declined in the seventies and eighties, with some stimulation from drug cartels and international weapon traders. End of the Cold War stopped the meager financial aid from United States and de facto finished the military oligarchy. Communication and computerization progress in the nineties, combined with lax laws led to development of financial sector and turned the City into a huge hub of brokerage later further stimulated by a number of big and small corporations moving from Hong Kong just before its return to China.
Since the turn of the century, the City Of Mists development is steady and fast acting, with wide array of corporations and organizations benefiting from lax financial, work, and custom laws, governing departments' institutionalized corruption, and tangle of law and security enforcement branches of various Departments undermining each other, more interested in competition over financing from the Council than prosecuting wrongdoers.
2015-09-27
2015-09-20
Creation Myth: Archipelagia
In the beginning there was only the Night. The Night was all that was, for there was nothing else. The lone Night gave birth to the Cosmic Egg and it was no longer alone. The Cosmic Egg was quiet and cold, though, so the Night started a fire to warm the Egg. The Night never before started the fire and got burned and scorched and grew all black from the ash and smoke, and the pain drove the Night to hide behind the Cosmic Egg creating division between the Night and the Day. The Day warmed the Cosmic Egg from one side while the Night cooled it from the other, so the Night started turning the Egg around so it would be warmed from both sides, and the Cosmic Egg was turning and warming until its shell cracked and splintered and fell apart. Inside the Cosmic Egg, there was the slumbering World. The World awoke when the shell fell apart and it cast the shards of the shell away, and the shards flew and spread across the Night and the Day, except for the three eldest and largest shards that circled the World just behind its grasp. And all those shards became the Firstborn—the gods of the skies.
The World then warmed itself by the fire and cooled itself by the Night and after some time spawned multitude of progeny, the Secondborn. The Secondborn were small and insignificant to the World, though, and it did not care about them, and as it wandered and moved, and stretched, and shaken, and scratched itself, it crushed and killed many of the Secondborn, and gave no thought to their demise. The Secondborn were afraid and pleaded to the World to be careful and to spare them, but they were small and insignificant so the World heard them not. The Secondborn despaired and grew desperate, and when the World went to nap, they met and conspired, and decided to kill the World while it slept, so it would not wander anymore, nor move, nor stretch, nor shake, nor scratch itself, killing no more Secondborn. As they decided so they done, each Secondborn stabbing the World, and while they were small and insignificant, and could not pierce deep into the World, they were so many that the sheer number of wounds caused the World to bleed profoundly and die.
The Secondborn never killed the World before so they were unprepared for the amount of blood springing from its wounds and were cast aside or flooded with the World's blood. Many were crushed by the blood, many held their breath until they suffocated. Those who were surprised and did not held their breath, and those who held their breath but decided to let go before they suffocate swallowed the World's blood and were changed. As the blood flew from the many wounds and flooded the surface of the World, only the World's head and feet, and elbows, and knees, and fingers, and toes, and other members stuck above the blood. The Secondborn that survived found themselves beneath the waves of the blood, and they changed to live underneath the blood, and they sucked the power of the World from the blood until it grew transparent, and they grew to be the gods of the sea, mating and fighting, and giving birth to a multitude of creatures living in the depths.
When the Secondborn stabbed and killed the World, when the blood gushed from the wounds, the unspent seed of the World gushed too, spilling across the surface of the World. Where the drops of World's seed dropped, either on the exposed members of the World, or in the depths of the flowing blood, the volcanoes rose above the waves, and gave birth to the Thirdborn—the gods of fire and the islands scattered across the sea. And they wielded the great power over their islands and their roots beneath the waves, but their power did not extended into the waves of the sea, nor across them. As the Thirdborn were scattered far and wide, only a few were close enough to each other and unbarred by sea to mate, fight, and give birth to living things of their own. The remaining Thirdborn lived apart and alone until the children of the Secondborn crawled on their islands from the sea, and the children of other Thirdborn sailed over the seas to them...
The World then warmed itself by the fire and cooled itself by the Night and after some time spawned multitude of progeny, the Secondborn. The Secondborn were small and insignificant to the World, though, and it did not care about them, and as it wandered and moved, and stretched, and shaken, and scratched itself, it crushed and killed many of the Secondborn, and gave no thought to their demise. The Secondborn were afraid and pleaded to the World to be careful and to spare them, but they were small and insignificant so the World heard them not. The Secondborn despaired and grew desperate, and when the World went to nap, they met and conspired, and decided to kill the World while it slept, so it would not wander anymore, nor move, nor stretch, nor shake, nor scratch itself, killing no more Secondborn. As they decided so they done, each Secondborn stabbing the World, and while they were small and insignificant, and could not pierce deep into the World, they were so many that the sheer number of wounds caused the World to bleed profoundly and die.
The Secondborn never killed the World before so they were unprepared for the amount of blood springing from its wounds and were cast aside or flooded with the World's blood. Many were crushed by the blood, many held their breath until they suffocated. Those who were surprised and did not held their breath, and those who held their breath but decided to let go before they suffocate swallowed the World's blood and were changed. As the blood flew from the many wounds and flooded the surface of the World, only the World's head and feet, and elbows, and knees, and fingers, and toes, and other members stuck above the blood. The Secondborn that survived found themselves beneath the waves of the blood, and they changed to live underneath the blood, and they sucked the power of the World from the blood until it grew transparent, and they grew to be the gods of the sea, mating and fighting, and giving birth to a multitude of creatures living in the depths.
When the Secondborn stabbed and killed the World, when the blood gushed from the wounds, the unspent seed of the World gushed too, spilling across the surface of the World. Where the drops of World's seed dropped, either on the exposed members of the World, or in the depths of the flowing blood, the volcanoes rose above the waves, and gave birth to the Thirdborn—the gods of fire and the islands scattered across the sea. And they wielded the great power over their islands and their roots beneath the waves, but their power did not extended into the waves of the sea, nor across them. As the Thirdborn were scattered far and wide, only a few were close enough to each other and unbarred by sea to mate, fight, and give birth to living things of their own. The remaining Thirdborn lived apart and alone until the children of the Secondborn crawled on their islands from the sea, and the children of other Thirdborn sailed over the seas to them...
2015-09-14
Campaign Idea: World Of Aliens
What would happen to the World Of Darkness, if it was openly visited by aliens—the visitors from the stars? Not your typical sneaky grays mutilating cattle and abducting lone drivers from sideroads, no. The "we come in peace to bring you prosperity and raise your civilization of higher level of development" kind, like Taelons or Visitors... Advanced beings whose open arrival would shake the social and political foundations of the mortal world and the hidden world of the supernatural alike.
The Benefactors presence causes various governments and institutions to flock to them, superficially strengthening the United Nations acting as an intermediary in the dealings with them. Of course the steps needed to advance humankind would require certain sacrifices—some customs and freedoms taken for granted in the past might be deemed backward and keeping progress in check, some technologies could be deemed hurtful to spiritual development, some biological aspects could be deemed retrogressive, some ideas could be deemed memetic infection... All those would need to be restricted, some actions taken to remove them, or even a total eradication programs initiated. Everything for the good of the humankind.
New technologies, new ideas, and new customs are being introduced. Children are taught in new ways, their minds unrestrained by obsolete prejudices of the pre-contact culture. Adults enjoy unprecedented prosperity and safety... Especially in the light of economical stability and strengthened United Nation aided by the Benefactors bringing undreamed peace to recently conflicted regions. Development spreads around the globe together, people move toward urban centers leaving more of the countryside uninhabited with automated farming replacing rural population.
Carefully selected individuals are enhanced biologically, technologically, and psychologically to act as representatives and agents of the Benefactors. Brilliant, powerful, and yet strangely distant from the rest of the population.
Of course, some people do not adjust well to the cultural shock caused by the arrival. Some of them need to be medicated or even isolated both for their own safety and to protect the delicate structures of society during the transition phase...
Do the Benefactors know of the existence of the supernatural? They seem all-knowing after all... But are they? They haven't acknowledge existence of the various supernatural beings hiding in the shadows in any way... Yet. What will they do when they discover the hidden world? Reveal it? Keep it secret? Destroy it? Who knows...
What the supernatural beings know, is that the Benefactors do not fit their world... Their creations do not exactly seem to respond to supernal magic, like if they were governed by set of Arcana different from those known to the mages. Since their arrival alien spirits representing incomprehensible ideas appear with growing frequency while the old spirits are growing restless or hiding in the wilds. Many of the constructions developed with the Benefactor guidance clashes with the God-Machine's infrastructure...
How will the supernatural beings adapt to the new world? Will they survive? Hide deeper? Try to insinuate themselves into the new order? Lash against the intruders trying to prevent the promised progress or reveal the dark side of the Benefactor's influence over the humankind?
2015-09-07
Fantasy Races: Ker-Azan
Ker-Azan
The highly advanced civilization of azan dropped the sexual reproduction ages ago, replacing it with more efficient way of breeding that combined their mastery of alchemy, magic, and technology to grow new generations of azan in their laboratories, spawning them with fully adult intellectual capabilities. Despite azan mastery of the subject and thousands of years spent improving it, the process remains imperfect, with as much as 10% of progeny failing to develop, with another 20% showing various degree of congenital anomalies. The always resourceful azan often try to salvage as much as they can even from failed batches—either by finding the use for organic tissue produced, or by replacing malformed parts of their progeny with machine supplements. Those of the resulting azan-machine hyrbids that show full mental faculties of healthy azan and retain majority of their life functions are known as ker-azan.
Physical Description: Ker-azan are very similar to their azan parents—pale, hairless, with somewhat child-like proportions of their limbs and head. Their skin tends to be more translucent, showing more dark veins underneath, though, and their bodies are riddled with various inorganic parts—tubes, wires, plating, artificial joints, and less identifiable mechanisms.
Society: Ker-azan are part of azan society but their status might vary depending upon local opinions. While they are considered intellectually equal to their azan siblings, there is a social stigma associated with ker-azan being considered partial failure of breeding process and there is a strong taboo against ker-azan reproducing, either with regular azan or between themselves, which reduces their overall standing. While there is no custom or law enforcing it, ker-azan rarely rise to become heads of their cabals, colleges or corporations. Additionally, because of additional cost involved with their mechanical augmentations, ker-azan apprenticeship to their progenitors are much longer, often around 20 years of servitude.
Relations: Ker-azan are but a small fraction of azan society and do not form special relations with other races. In their individual dealings with members of other races they are slightly less prideful but they share the conviction of azan intellectual and cultural superiority over other races.
Alignment And Religion: Ker-azan know their creators, they have no need for gods or superstitions. While usually not as prideful as their siblings, they are often less interested in using gods for their purposes.
Adventurers: Like their siblings, ker-azan adventure to gather resources, materials, ingredients, specimens, wealth, and experience to support their endeavors and research. Their mechanical augmentations are both an advantage and hindrance in such pursuits. Their increased physical strength makes bloodragers and magi more common, with traditional azan classes like alchemist, arcanist, investigator, and wizard being followed nearly as often. Ker-azan seem to become divine casters a bit less often and manifest psychic gift a bit more than azan. Paladins, while unheard of among azan, arose a few times from the ranks of ker-azan.
Names: Ker-azan generally follow the azan name pattern of short first name followed by combined names of their batch-parents, but some azan forbid their ker-azan progeny from using their names.
Ker-azan Racial Traits
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, –2 Constitution. Ker-azan are intelligent and their mechanical augmentations give them superior strength, but do not negate their overall frailty.
Type: Ker-azan are humanoids with azan and half-construct subtypes.
Small Size: Ker-azan are Small creatures gaining +1 size bonus to attack rolls and AC, –1 size penalty to CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus to Stealth checks.
Slow Speed: Ker-azan have land speed of 20 feet.
Half-Construct: Ker-azan part-machine nature gives them +2 racial bonus to saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poisons, and effects that cause fatigue or exhaustion. They cannot be raised or resurrected but can be reincarnated or returned to life with breath of life spell and similar effects. Unlike most half-constructs ker-azan still need to eat, drink, and sleep to sustain the organic parts of their bodies.
Low-Light Vision: Ker-azan see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Magetech (Sp): Once per day, ker-azan with Intelligence score of 11 or more can spend 1 minute building a small techno-magical device that will replicate effects of single 0th level spell. Using this ability requires access to proper tools. Replicating a spell with costly components require using materials of equal value during the construction process. The device falls apart if used or when a new one is build. Any saving throws and concentration checks required by the use of device use the azan's Intelligence score.
Language: Common and Azan. Ker-azan with high Intelligence scores can choose any non-secret language they want.
Ker-Azan Alternate Racial Traits
Oversensitive Eyes: Ker-azan with this trait gain darkvision with 60 feet range and light sensitivity dazzling them in bright light. This trait replaces low-light vision.
Ker-Azan Racial Feats
Following feat is common among ker-azan and their siblings.
Reconstructor
You have learned a lot about maintaining constructs.
Prerequisite: Disable Device 1 rank.
Benefit: You can use Disable Device skill to repair constructs, half-constructs and creatures with constructed trait. This works like first aid, treat caltrop wounds, or treat deadly wounds applications of Heal skill, using a set of mechanical tools instead of healer's kit. When you cast make whole spell or spell-like ability, it repairs +1 point of damage per die and you can use it on half-constructs. You can use machinesmith's repair class feature on half-constructs.
Favored Class Options
Ker-azan can select following options for their favored class bonuses.
Alchemist: Add +1/4 to the alchemist's natural armor bonus when using mutagen or cognatogen.
Arcanist: Gain 1/6 of a new arcanist exploit.
Bard: Maximum level of spell replicated with magetech device increases by 1/4. This applies to single device per day, even if the character can build more than one device per day.
Bloodrager: Add +1 to number of rounds of bloodrage per day.
Investigator: Gain +1/4 bonus to all inspiration rolls.
Kineticist: Increase capacity of the kineticist's internal buffer by 1/6.
Machinesmith: Add +1 to hit points restored with repair feature.
Magus: Gain 1/6 of a new magus arcana.
Metamorph: Add +1/4 to the metamorph's evolution pool.
Occultist: Gain 1/6 of a new occultist focus power.
Psychic: Gain 1 point of resistance against damage caused by mind-affecting effects.
Rogue: Add +1/2 to number of magetech uses per day.
Witch: Add +1/4 evolution point to the witch's familiar.
Wizard: Add +1/2 use of a 1st level power that can be used 3+Intelligence times per day.
The highly advanced civilization of azan dropped the sexual reproduction ages ago, replacing it with more efficient way of breeding that combined their mastery of alchemy, magic, and technology to grow new generations of azan in their laboratories, spawning them with fully adult intellectual capabilities. Despite azan mastery of the subject and thousands of years spent improving it, the process remains imperfect, with as much as 10% of progeny failing to develop, with another 20% showing various degree of congenital anomalies. The always resourceful azan often try to salvage as much as they can even from failed batches—either by finding the use for organic tissue produced, or by replacing malformed parts of their progeny with machine supplements. Those of the resulting azan-machine hyrbids that show full mental faculties of healthy azan and retain majority of their life functions are known as ker-azan.
Physical Description: Ker-azan are very similar to their azan parents—pale, hairless, with somewhat child-like proportions of their limbs and head. Their skin tends to be more translucent, showing more dark veins underneath, though, and their bodies are riddled with various inorganic parts—tubes, wires, plating, artificial joints, and less identifiable mechanisms.
Society: Ker-azan are part of azan society but their status might vary depending upon local opinions. While they are considered intellectually equal to their azan siblings, there is a social stigma associated with ker-azan being considered partial failure of breeding process and there is a strong taboo against ker-azan reproducing, either with regular azan or between themselves, which reduces their overall standing. While there is no custom or law enforcing it, ker-azan rarely rise to become heads of their cabals, colleges or corporations. Additionally, because of additional cost involved with their mechanical augmentations, ker-azan apprenticeship to their progenitors are much longer, often around 20 years of servitude.
Relations: Ker-azan are but a small fraction of azan society and do not form special relations with other races. In their individual dealings with members of other races they are slightly less prideful but they share the conviction of azan intellectual and cultural superiority over other races.
Alignment And Religion: Ker-azan know their creators, they have no need for gods or superstitions. While usually not as prideful as their siblings, they are often less interested in using gods for their purposes.
Adventurers: Like their siblings, ker-azan adventure to gather resources, materials, ingredients, specimens, wealth, and experience to support their endeavors and research. Their mechanical augmentations are both an advantage and hindrance in such pursuits. Their increased physical strength makes bloodragers and magi more common, with traditional azan classes like alchemist, arcanist, investigator, and wizard being followed nearly as often. Ker-azan seem to become divine casters a bit less often and manifest psychic gift a bit more than azan. Paladins, while unheard of among azan, arose a few times from the ranks of ker-azan.
Names: Ker-azan generally follow the azan name pattern of short first name followed by combined names of their batch-parents, but some azan forbid their ker-azan progeny from using their names.
Ker-azan Racial Traits
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, –2 Constitution. Ker-azan are intelligent and their mechanical augmentations give them superior strength, but do not negate their overall frailty.
Type: Ker-azan are humanoids with azan and half-construct subtypes.
Small Size: Ker-azan are Small creatures gaining +1 size bonus to attack rolls and AC, –1 size penalty to CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus to Stealth checks.
Slow Speed: Ker-azan have land speed of 20 feet.
Half-Construct: Ker-azan part-machine nature gives them +2 racial bonus to saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poisons, and effects that cause fatigue or exhaustion. They cannot be raised or resurrected but can be reincarnated or returned to life with breath of life spell and similar effects. Unlike most half-constructs ker-azan still need to eat, drink, and sleep to sustain the organic parts of their bodies.
Low-Light Vision: Ker-azan see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Magetech (Sp): Once per day, ker-azan with Intelligence score of 11 or more can spend 1 minute building a small techno-magical device that will replicate effects of single 0th level spell. Using this ability requires access to proper tools. Replicating a spell with costly components require using materials of equal value during the construction process. The device falls apart if used or when a new one is build. Any saving throws and concentration checks required by the use of device use the azan's Intelligence score.
Language: Common and Azan. Ker-azan with high Intelligence scores can choose any non-secret language they want.
Ker-Azan Alternate Racial Traits
Oversensitive Eyes: Ker-azan with this trait gain darkvision with 60 feet range and light sensitivity dazzling them in bright light. This trait replaces low-light vision.
Ker-Azan Racial Feats
Following feat is common among ker-azan and their siblings.
Reconstructor
You have learned a lot about maintaining constructs.
Prerequisite: Disable Device 1 rank.
Benefit: You can use Disable Device skill to repair constructs, half-constructs and creatures with constructed trait. This works like first aid, treat caltrop wounds, or treat deadly wounds applications of Heal skill, using a set of mechanical tools instead of healer's kit. When you cast make whole spell or spell-like ability, it repairs +1 point of damage per die and you can use it on half-constructs. You can use machinesmith's repair class feature on half-constructs.
Favored Class Options
Ker-azan can select following options for their favored class bonuses.
Alchemist: Add +1/4 to the alchemist's natural armor bonus when using mutagen or cognatogen.
Arcanist: Gain 1/6 of a new arcanist exploit.
Bard: Maximum level of spell replicated with magetech device increases by 1/4. This applies to single device per day, even if the character can build more than one device per day.
Bloodrager: Add +1 to number of rounds of bloodrage per day.
Investigator: Gain +1/4 bonus to all inspiration rolls.
Kineticist: Increase capacity of the kineticist's internal buffer by 1/6.
Machinesmith: Add +1 to hit points restored with repair feature.
Magus: Gain 1/6 of a new magus arcana.
Metamorph: Add +1/4 to the metamorph's evolution pool.
Occultist: Gain 1/6 of a new occultist focus power.
Psychic: Gain 1 point of resistance against damage caused by mind-affecting effects.
Rogue: Add +1/2 to number of magetech uses per day.
Witch: Add +1/4 evolution point to the witch's familiar.
Wizard: Add +1/2 use of a 1st level power that can be used 3+Intelligence times per day.
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