I am posting this here because ultimately the campaign will end up there - in fact it may start there this next session. After you read it, I would appreciate any ideas/suggestions you have. Thanks.
The Daughter of Darkness As the daughter of Kadaena, she (no name as of yet) grew up in a combination of privilage and fear. Her mother was the most powerful being in the universe and wielded her power through fear, intimidation, and force. Still Kadaena was her mother's daughter. The household taught one to get what they desire no matter the consequence, other peoples hopes & dreams are immaterial. Through force, fear, whatever, you just get what you want. To say the least, it engendered uncaring, selfish individuals.
The daughter was no exception.
When she was 240 years old she learned two things: 1) her mother was bargaining with a very powerful being from Beyond the Pale to assist her in the Usurper?s War (as it was being called) and 2) that she had had a twin sister - who was ritually sacrificed by Kadaena in order to power the Shadowstone (others were also sacrificed, but that did not matter). Putting these two things together meant danger for the young K'ta'viir.
As she was no match for her mother, and her cousin (Utha) would likely user the same way (all she knew of Utha was what her mother and her mother's followers told her) she decided she had to go into hiding if she wanted to stay alive, and she desperately wanted to stay alive. Because both her mother and Utha were both very powerful psychics and spell-users, she would have to truly disappear. Finally, she came up with a plan.
She physically altered her form to that of a human and cast her mind deep within itself, a black pearl hidden in the white oyster. Through some clever antics she made it look as though she was killed in a rebel attack, while secretly her she was transferred to a minor world in hibernation.
There she passed the millennia, her computer slightly damaged in the reentry, continued to keep her in hibernation because it still sensed danger for her. Ultimately, after countless years (approx. 200,000 - how convenient
) it was on its last reserves of power and had to release her. With her safety as its primary goal it decided to do something very unusual: it reversed physical forms age (humans are very simple biologically, at least to the K'ta'viir and their technology) in order to make her even less like she was. (It actually hoped that her original mind would not come back as that would lead to her being discovered - and against it's programming.)
It left the baby on the doorstep of a human settlement it picked out ahead of time - using a multitude of criteria to ensure her survival. There she was raised as a human child in the primitive culture on the insignificant world of Kethira - more specifically in the Kingdom of Kaldor on the island of Harn.
Life on the farm was not ideal, but a great deal safer than the Imperial Palace. Of course, she had no memory of that, as far as she is concerned she is the loving daughter of a couple of simple farmers. With a small gaggle of siblings. The only thing that ties her to her past (it could not get rid of them all, more programming) was a necklace with an beautiful gem - though she believes that her human mother gave it to her.
All her life she was a little different than the rest of her family. A little smarter. Healthier (she never got real sick, only a mild cough and some sniffles, when others in her village are dying of pneumonia). Occasionally, she would get "glimpses" of things; like two people who are going to marry, or a cheating husband, or were the missing cow wandered off to. Of course, her family kept it as secret as they could, they did not want her to be called down as a witch.
When she was 8 years old - her "glimpses" had been going on for a couple of years by then - the Lord of Kiban got it into himself to purge his town and villages (like the one she lived in) of any heretics. Hearing of this, her parents knew that they would not be able to hide her, too many knew of her unusual traits. So, they decided to send her off to a distant relative. On the other side of the kingdom lived this relative, so she should be safe there - at least from the Lord of Kiban's wrath.
The family across the kingdom took her in with little problems, their children had all grown and left the house (the last just a year before) so they had room for her. They ran an inn on an important trade route so she went from being the farmer's daughter to being the Innkeeper's Daughter (which is the name of the first part of this campaign). Here she learned to serve food and ale as well as prepare dinners and rooms for the travelers.
Eight more years go, now she is a lovely young woman who has caught the eye of a visiting nobleman. Now, no self respecting nobleman would take a peasant girl for a bride, but to just
take one, well that is totally fine. When he tried to force himself upon her, it triggered the mind within her mind, and it lashed out with a Mind Illusion to scare the hell out of the attacker (yes, if
she was more in control it would have been a more deadly spell, but it was a sudden thing). Which it did. When he screamed, she screamed, the nobleman's valet screamed (maybe even the rats and
roosterroaches screamed, but none of it was for ice cream) and she ran out of there, jumped on a horse (she has a high empathy and is very good with horses) and took off into the nearby wilderness.
Unknown to her (and the rest of the planet), a local hunter - that has only been in the area for just over a month - is actually a Kashmerian agent. He was sent to search this world for unusual energy readings. (They have a little idea of the energies that the Sianetic Harbingers devices could emit.) While there he detected the energy coming from her - though it was actually her necklace at the time - and decided to do some further investigating. Disguised as a local human (he is a Trans XII soldier and would seriously stick out if not disguised) hunter he has interacted with the young woman on a number of occasions, though he has not determined exactly where the energy is coming from (he does believe it comes from something she is wearing, though). One day he comes by the inn only to find the girl's aunt & uncle frantic about her. Apparently, they believe she is in some danger from the nobleman's brother (& protector) who believes she may be a witch. As the nobleman was unconscious after the "incident" it was apparently his valet who named her such - and is with the brother out looking for her. They ask him to go and get her and hide her.
He heads out after her and, with his ship?s help (he has a stealth/surveillance satellite in geosynchronous orbit and could communicate to him through a stealth transceiver in his ratty hood ? ain?t technology grand) he finds them very quickly. With his advanced technology he is able to catch up with them quickly. The group has splint into 3 main parts (4 if you count the man staying with the horses): one, the largest with 6 people & one hunting dog, is slowly moving towards where the girl is trying to hide, two & three, are flanking her and have two people and a hunting dog.
Acting quickly, he dispatched group three buy jumping over them and hitting them with a sonic stunner. The dog he had to kill as he did not want them to be able to track him. After that he hooked up with the girl and while she was getting ready to go, he distributed some spelling salts around where she was sitting (to throw off the other dogs). They left in a hurry.
While all this was going on a storm had been brewing. The weather continued to go bad and they soon found themselves in a fairly hefty thunderstorm. The problem was that the storm radiated the same energy readings as she had, and now even more was radiating from her (the necklace really). Then, suddenly, a meteor shot out of the sky overhead and crashed to earth a mere few leagues away. (
The ship told the soldier that even though its sensors could not penetrate the clouds, the satellite did not pick up any meteor entering the atmosphere from anywhere above.)
The girl felt her necklace sort-of vibrate and it began to glow, so much that it glowed thru the heavy woolen blouse she was wearing ? no hiding it now. Also, she felt an urge to go to where the meteor is/when to. Why she could not say. So they headed out for the meteor.
On the way they encountered what used to be a local barbarian tribes village (the Taelda). It was decimated. There were numerous dead here (men mostly, but women and children as well), but it was hard to tell exactly how many because quite a few of them were dismembered. The soldier guestimated that there were around 50 dead; nearly 20% of this village?s population. The remainder of the village fled almost due north, with at least half-a-dozen creatures of some sort following them. (The soldier could gather this info from the ship as the storm had broken over an hour back ? it took them numerous hours to get here.)
The site of the meteor downing was barely a mile away so they went on to it instead of following the Taelda and their pursuers. The site was not nearly as expansive as one would imagine it would be. Pieces of the meteor lay all around the small crater in the side of a hill, one of many as these were the foothills of some mountains to the south. Combined the pieces seemed to create a shell-like casing for something 6?-7? by 3?-4? wide & thick. The only clues were that it was apparently hollow, and that there was some left over viscous fluid. It was at this time that the girl got a mental image coming from one of the creatures. It was as if she was the creature, chasing down prey and delighting in the flesh and blood. When the creature raised the arm of one of its victims to take a bite, she hastily broke contact. It was very disturbing to her.
Nearby the soldier found a small cave opening that had strung up bones and small stacks of skulls adorning the surrounding vicinity. A gargun cave. (Gargun are Harnic orcs.) That was when the ship told him that the creatures that were following the Taelda, had now turned towards them. They had around two hours to do something. They figured bugging out was a good idea.
The soldier headed them towards the lake that his ship was hidden within. Once there, he zapped her with the sonic stunner (he needed to hit her twice) and then had the ship come up so that they could board. They got on with little time to spare as the creatures made it to the lake just after they went under. (The creatures were no longer gargun, they had been mutated in some way; they were bigger and they somehow had the ability to sense her, but they were still afraid of the water and would not go in it.)
Needless to say, when she awoke the soldier had some explaining to do?.which he did. Though he did not tell her everything; just what mattered to the present situation. After waiting in there a while, the girl got another mental image from the creatures; this one was of her home ? the inn. The creatures were looking at the inn, with an evil malice that she felt. After breaking the contact, she explained to the soldier what was happening (about the creatures, she doesn?t know anything about what is happening) and they off in the ship to her inn. By this time it was late night and the ship could run fairly quietly and without lights, so detection was slim. They formed a plan on the way.
Once there, the girl tried to contact the creatures and was successful. She ?asked? them what they wanted and they ?told? her: ?you, come, go; you, come, go? while pointing to the storm that had come up recently. This storm had the same energy readings as the one before. Tricking them into believing she was going to go with them, she lured them away from the inn and towards a patch of uninhabited land nearby ? not even a mile away.
There the two of them engaged the creatures on the ground while the ship used its smallest (and quietest) weapons: two M-10 Lasers. Quickly, 3 of the 6 were down and the other 3 had taken to hiding in some woods nearby. These woods were also dotted with some fairly large rocks & boulders as this was the dumping ground for all those rocks they moved out of the farmlands. The ship could not get bead on the rest, so the two of them had to go in and get the last three.
When they encountered them, the soldier used his broadsword (he only had a sonic stunner and an assault blaster; he was afraid the stunner would be less effective against these large creatures and the blaster was just too noisy) while the girl used her new metal quarterstaff. Once close enough, the soldier engaged two while the girl faced off against the last one. He quickly dealt with one, but was knocked a few meters back by the other one. Off his feet, he was in a vulnerable position, but this was when the girl got the wacky idea of trying to command the one she faced, and succeeded. (She rolled a ?00? I could not believe it. To be fair she had been rolling great all night, with only one really low roll. RM is just her game, I guess.)
Well, when it knelt in submission, with one big hairy fist on the ground she was a bit shocked, but quickly recovered and sent it after the other one. It caught the other one by surprise and pretty-much ripped it up. She got a little caught up in this action ? in her head ? and had to pull herself out. When the creature continued to suggest that she follow it into the storm and ?go home,? the soldier asked her if it was good that they take it and place it in a holding cell on the ship ? so that he could study it. When this hit her mind and she was OK with it, the creature broke her control and attacked. Again the soldier was knocked a few meters, though he took very little damage thanks to his full combat armor. The girl just started to wail on the creature with her staff, as she was able to hit it from behind she was able to smack the heck out of it so that the soldier barely had to stab it once and it was dead.
The two of them got back on the ship, took the body of one of the creatures (he wants something for the ships SI (Simulated Intelligence) to study and they went back to the lake.
This is where I am at now.
I have the idea of doing a sort of flash-back series of sessions for the next few sessions:
They start off with them crashed in the jungle, her fairly seriously injured (though not mortally) and him mildly injured (I rolled the injuries on the impact critical tables). For the moment they have very little idea of how they got to this point, but after a little while the flash-back starts. We pick back up with them in the lake deciding what to do next. Each session begins with them in the jungle, a little further on than when we last left off. I will usually have some sort of encounter, be it a wild beast or some interesting aspect of the jungle for them to witness before going back to the past. There also, picking up shortly after where we left off.
The Jungle: Quon / Khum-Kaan / Emer /Kulthea
Here they will travel (very slowly) and encounter many dangerous things until the Kuluku find them. I have it that the Kuluku will take them for Xuul, their sky-god ? or if not that, then family of Xuul, and hence gods in their own right. From the Kuluku they will learn some things, but not much so they will have to leave to figure out where they are and what the heck they are doing here.
Harn
Back on Harn, they are going to go to her original home on Harn, a village near Kiban. There they hope to talk to her ?parents? and see if they can learn anything. They can, but first they have to track the parents down, as they did not fare well after she was sent away; the Lord of Kiban did not like loosing a possible vict?err, wayward child to bring back to the ways of light and truth (by either drowning or burning ? he hadn?t decided), so he took out his frustrations on her parents. They went into cells under his keep for a few years, but eventually he let them go. By this time they had lost their farm and had to make do, so now they live in the (mostly) walled town of Kiban, doing whatever work they can. Mostly unskilled labor wherever they can find it. Sometimes they stay in an inn or a hayloft, but often they are sleeping in the streets (apparently, the Lord of Kiban finds it magnanimous - and funny - to give them ?special dispensation? to sleep in the street).
Here I will have them uncover a small locked box that was with her when they found her ? it is buried under the chicken coop at the family?s old farm. In it will be some stuff (haven?t decided on what yet) that pertains to her, though she doesn?t know how yet. Also, in Kiban I was going to have them hook up with a group of Khuzdul (read: dwarves) that are on their way to the Sindarin (read: elven) lands to beseech their king to give them an ancient key ? one the Khuzdul used to have as well, but lost in some dark times 600 years ago. This key is to unlock an ancient door that prophecy says will be needed when the signs come again. The storms and other things were the signs.
Well, all of this will put them on the path to uncovering her ancient hiding place (I was going to use the Barrier Peaks installation for this?.
) after looking into a couple of old Earthmaster (Earthwarden?) sites. But it will be completely without power and not much help. Oh, did I mention earlier that the comet Sa?kain was making its millennia and a half year appearance during this time? Ooops. They even call it the same. This is going to trigger a massive flow storm that they will get caught in and transported to Kulthea. End of flash-backs.
I hope to have the last flash-back done by the time they are ready to leave the Kuluku. This would be the start of the adventure where she faces off against Kabis and (hopefully) sends him back into wherever those beings from beyond the Pale goes to?.
Sorry for the length, I guess I could have shortened it, but as I wrote, it just kept coming. I think I am going to use this as a campaign journal as I have gone this far.
