Gears of Ruin: Session 1, Revolutions per Machines, Part 2

See part 1 here.

Get me some Competence Porn, stat!

The first scene had a few goals.  Introduce the PCs to the first important NPCs of the campaign, give them a quest for the night, but more importantly, make them look good!

The scene started with the PCs waiting to be summoned to show up before their employer, Baron Ezechiel von Falkenstein.  The baron is the tyrant (in the Greek sense of being a commoner rising up to supreme ruler) of the sky-human kingdoms.  His HQ was the airship-city of Castle Falkenstein…

Yes, I’m totally ripping off Mike Pondsmith’s  Castle Falkenstein, the 90s Steampunk RPG.  Hell if you guys haven’t gotten that this campaign is shamelessly stealing from tons of settings and novels, I have a bridge to sell! 😀   This is not a setting I intend to publish, at least not without some heavy duty serial numbers filing off first.

In my defense, I’ve never read Castle Falkenstein, and I think I ended up mimicking Pondsmith’s name selection process.  You see, in tribute to the Girl Genius Clockwork webcomic (another source I’m stealing from), I decided that I’d base the sky-humans on Germanic tropes (i.e. mostly names and the “We’re very industrious and serious” stereotypes).  Thus, I started researching Germano-Austrian nobility names and the coolest one I found to my French ears was Falkenstein, by far.

Where was I?  Ah yes!  The PCs were awaiting the summon to see the Baron, sharing rumours of possible revolt and armed conflict on the surface, not an uncommon occurrence on this water-poor, high-resource dying world (I should get around to naming it soon).

I was careful to pass across that they where honored guests, explaining how they were always escorted by highly polite, white-gloved marines. A new campaign lives of dies on how players feel about their characters and how they connect to the setting.  At level 14, it no longer was necessary to have PCs prove that they were badasses, the whole world knew already.

They were rapidly brought into a military briefing of some sort.  The room had “3” NPCs.  The Baron, in his military regalia, facing the PC at the end of a planning table looking pained and bored.  There was the Colonel, a bespectacled man, siting quietly, away from the table.  And then there were the Admirals…

I don’t know why I set it up like that, but I pooled all the Admirals sitting around the table into one gestalt NPC.  They had one description, one agenda and one role: Be pompous asses and make the PCs look good.  It worked out perfectly as the players caught on rapidly and interacted with them as an unnamed mass of overweight clueless twits.

The admirals were a bunch of anime-inspired officers (think Castle in the Sky). They were crowding the table, shouting at each other, trying to blame one another for the mess on the surface.  A few weeks ago, all the machines of the Baron’s mines and factories had rebelled at the same time, seizing the means of production and churning out mineral and weapons feeding the rebellion!  The Admirals had been unable to break the revolt and were at a loss.

As the PCs entered the room, an admiral leapt up!

Admiral (pointing Holy Clank): What is that THING doing here?  It should be dismantled and studied to prevent others from developing ‘ideas’!

Holy Clank (Taking is weapon out) : Interesting!  Does that mean I can also dismantle you to see what makes you so noisy?

Admiral:  Baron!  You see! It’s threatening  me, have it destroyed!

Baron: Sit down and shut up admiral. Please sheath your weapon sir. Colonel,  brief them.

Goal…achieved.

The shade-wearing, suit-adorned officer introduced himself as Colonel Zeitgeist, the baron’s Minister of Intelligence and Security.  He briefed the PCs on the situation, telling them that two of his agents had infiltrated into machine-held territory and reported (he tapped his clockwork watch) that a strong psychic signal was emanating from somewhere in the vicinity.  He said that both agents were still alive as their Watch signal was still being picked up.

He also informed the PCs that the machines were stronger and more coordinated the closer to the psychic source the Baron’s soldiers got.  Currently things were at a stalemate as the armies could not safely penetrate the perimeter of the baron’s mines/factories megacomplexes.

He then lowered his voice…

Colonel: The baron has a few prototypes of super weapons, called Clanks,  that could fight the rebellious machines, called warforged, but the actual means of productions are in the factories down there… that’s what’s making the admirals so nervous.

Admiral: We need to throw our elemental portal bombs in there and quick!  We can always rebuild after!

Magma: Hmmm?  What are those?

Colonel: They’re high-powered magical explosive devices that open a portal to the Elemental Chaos, bringing forth elemental vortexes and demons that destroy everything in sight before winking out of existence a few hours later… sucking everything back in… at least in theory.

Magma: Cool!

Vorian and Wrath of Melora (in unison): Are you crazy?

Baron: I will not use these devices unless I get better intel. (To the PCs)  Gentlemen, I believe that you may succeed where those half-wits have failed.  Can you infiltrate this area and bring back more info in what’s happening down there?

Magma (moving to the table’s edge, drawing his sword, making generals scatter like bowling pins): You mean here?

Baron (smiling slightly) Yes, exactly.  Also, if you happen to find the source of the revolt and solve it without my intervention, I would be most pleased.

Eric: Did he have a question mark on his head?

Yan: No, it’s an exclamation point now.

(World of Warcraft quest inside joke)

Colonel: You have any questions?

Holy Clank: Just one.  When can we start?

The players LOVED that scene and so did I!

Up next: Rocky Turret Surprise!