The Lorestaves: An Introduction

ArcaneKingdomsLogo

The Lorestaves – Prelude

by Fraser Ronald and Dean Martin

Almost a thousand years ago, Humankind had found civilization. City-states had risen to offer protection to the people. Philosophers and poets began to formulate logic and art. In this, the Old Gods had a hand. Led by the Al-Pater and Danu, the Encompassing Mother, the Old Gods walked the lands, involved in Humanity, in the achievements of man.

Then came the one called the Wanderer, the Divine Voice and the Shining Prophet.

The Wanderer brought word of the New God. The world turned from the Old Gods and soon the New God became the True God. The world changed. Magic, once a realm of science and philosophy, became a cauldron of superstition. The priests of the True God lacked the spells of healing and life that had nurtured fragile Humanity for so many centuries. As magic was denied them, the religious powers denied it. Kings and princes followed the dictates of the religious masters. Wizards and sorcerers became bogeymen and scapegoats. Those who had aided the sick and wounded, who had protected the seeds of the farmer, who had dispensed justice and shielded the weak were turned from their homes. Some burned, some hid, many died.

Only in one place did the old learning survive. In Highstone, the Magus survived. The master of the arcane arts created a sanctuary for those magic touched and a college for those who wished to learn the lost sciences. Soon after the coming of the True God, a crusade crashed against the walls of Highstone. The Magus laid waste the land for fathoms. Armies died. Never again was Highstone assailed.

Slowly, even in Highstone, knowledge of the Old Gods disappeared, hidden in dusty scrolls and ancient legends.

What none knew was that the Wanderer was Incarnos, a deva—a guardian spirit of the Old Gods. He had seen the suffering of age and disease and wished to save Humanity from this. He had believed this was a curse of the Old Gods. For centuries he studied the Planes of Reality, seeking an answer to his dilemma. The New God found him, promising to release Humanity from the bondage of the Old Gods. Incarnos believed him, and helped him access the world. He quickly learnt this New God had lied to him.

Trapped in an immortal body, devoid of his powers, Incarnos walked the world. With the same diligence with which he had planned the downfall of the Old Gods, he sought some way to contact them, perhaps release them. Why had they not stood against the New God? Why had they proved so weak?

Finally, Incarnos has learned the truth, but the New God—the True God—does not wish for any knowledge of the Old Gods to survive, even in the mind of one. His hounds seek to find Incarnos and kill the unkillable. Incarnos, though, cannot release the Old Gods. Only mortals may. The secrets are trapped in 10 staves created at the dawn of time—the Lorestaves.

Above was to be the introduction to a series of modules based around the concept of finding the Lorestaves and releasing the Old Gods. This entire cycle of adventures would have in turn been an introduction to the Divided Kingdoms, a campaign setting by Dean Martin.

Those who have followed Sword’s Edge Publishing from its founding in 2004 will recognize Dean Martin as one of the company founders. He has since moved on to pursue a career in law enforcement, and the development of the Lorestaves and the Divided Kingdoms screeched to a halt. Not even the first module was completed.

However, rather than let the work done during development go to waste, Sword’s Edge Publishing will host it as part of our now barren Arcane Kingdoms line. The introductory materials, the module and the rough maps will all be hosted here, as will fiction that was originally written to support the release of the modules. Only the first chapter was ever completed, and this will be broken into bite-sized chunks and posted here.

I hope that you enjoy this little peek at what could have been, and I hope that there is something useful in all this for your own campaigns.

Hadrapole Burn

Earlier, I wrote about Burn Notice and creating campaigns using it as a template. One night after watching a couple of episodes, I had ideas for all sorts of campaigns. I noticed that the campaigns I had imagined fit the genre templates offered in True20 Revised Core. That’s how I’m going to present my ideas, using the lingo of True 20.

First off, Burn Notice as a fantasy adventure campaign.

The basic premise of Burn Notice is the Michael Weston is trapped in Miami. In the fantasy version, the setting will be Hadrapole, a fantasy city in which I’ve set some of my fantasy fiction. Think of it as Constantinople just after becoming Istanbul, and with a tentative truce among all the different cultures and religions. The conflicts are there, simmering, but no one is looking for a war–not when everyone else in the world is eyeing them up as prey.

The Michael Weston character will just be Weston. He was one of the Urban Cohorts, a paramilitary force that is also used to police the city. Just before the campaign begins, Weston has returned to the Old Bazaar, an area outside the city walls and his old neighbourhood. His father has died and he has gone to bury him.

When he’s done the funerary rites, one of the Whites–a group of incorruptible, elite soldiers of the Urban Cohorts, known for their white tunics and white truncheons–let’s him know he’s barred from the city proper, from the city inside the walls. Weston questions this, and it is strongly implied the Whites know whose pocket he’s in. Thing is, he’s not in anyone’s pocket.

Weston isn’t stupid enough to go against the Whites. Doing so would just give them ample reason to not only toss him from the Cohorts, but make him a penal slave on one of Hadrapole’s war galleys. No, Weston has to find out who framed him and why. For that, he’s going to need help.

I see Weston as a Warrior. I like the heroic archetypes in True20, and I’m going to use those. Weston is a Champion for certain, though maybe he’s going to move into Fated.

Fiona left the Cohorts the hard way. She didn’t police so much as execute. She’s made a name for herself in the Old Bazaar as a sword-for-hire, and now she’s come looking for Weston. She always looked up to him, respected him, maybe even loved him. She flattered herself into believing he had feelings for her, but was that true? What now? That relationship is for the players to explore.

Fiona is certainly a Warrior, and she fits the Shadow archetype perfectly, with Weston as her Champion.

Sam (Samwise? Samnal? Whatever) is a confidence man and sometimes informant. He’s been friends with Weston since childhood, and Weston always did his best to protect Sam, even when Weston stood as a Cohort. Knowing that Weston is being framed, Sam wants to help. He has a deep and abiding fraternal love for Weston, and this is one time when Sam is willing to lay down his life to find the truth.

I can’t see Sam as anything but a Trickster archetype, but I am torn between Expert and Warrior. Certainly, Sam is supposed to be a fixer, meaning he needs the social skills, but the contacts and information might also be a narrative element. Mechanics might not be the way to address it. For Sam, I think it would be up to the player. Does the player want to go Warrior or Expert?

Finally, there is the fourth character, the one that actually isn’t in Burn Notice. Except in this case, the character sort of is. Michael Weston has a brother named Nate who shows up a couple of times and becomes important in the season finale. Weston also has a sibling. A sister named Natalia (or Nate!)

Natalia is one way to keep Weston tied to the Old Bazaar, to keep him from doing anything stupid. Their father is dead, their mother–a gypsy fortune teller–has found solace in the bottle, and young Nate only has her big brother to take care of her. Weston, no matter how much the hardcase he like to play, is basically a man of duty and honour. He’d feel responsible for Nate (and for his mother, for that matter).

But Nate isn’t exactly a damsel in distress. I think the Maiden archetype works well, given that she is supposed to be a relatively young lady. However, I think it would be cool to have Nate as an Adept. She learned some tricks in her time in the Old Bazaar, and it turns out she might be able to help Weston out when things go south. She may also act as the voice of conscience, a counterpoint to Fi, Sam, and expediency.

The main story arc would be learning who framed Weston and why. But there would be little adventures in the Old Bazaar, on Flotsam, and other locales outside the city. These would be presented through Sam and Fiona, as people come to them for the service and aid. Weston and his family need money, and that’s one certain way to get it. This would allow for consecutive, unconnected adventures while unravelling the mystery of Weston’s framing.

It turns out one of the senators framed Weston. Weston is about the toughest SOB in the Cohort outside of the Whites. The senator wanted Weston broken, so that the senator could then swoop in and save him from destitution. Weston would then become a tool within the Cohorts to use against the Whites when the coup d’etat commenced.

Oh, did I mention the coup d’etat? The Krystalian senators who lost power when the Alofesians captured the city want that power–and the city–back. Weston is just one of their tools.

When Weston does find out the who, he likely won’t find out the why. Even if he does learn the why, he won’t have the proof necessary for the Alofesian leader of the city, the Dey, to act without it seeming to be simple religious prejudice. So Weston and his crew will likely end up involved in the attempt to uncover the plot and oppose it.

So there we have it: Burn Notice as a fantasy adventure.

Next, Victorian horror!