MirrorsOfWyld
When i ran the first episode of this game i gave my players extra bonus points at character creation, and lots of experience during the game(like when they succeeded in sneaking past the wall or pulled a sick stunt or whatever) and very few at the end, and though they haven't really had a chance to spend their experience yet, that opportunity is rapidly approaching. I tried to give out more experience than usual to speed their character growth so that i can introduce harder enemies and more enemies,and i did try and keep the experience balanced among the players so no one gets too far ahead. Keep this in mind if your going to run this game and not give lots of experience
I've divided this campaign into chapters, so that hopefully it will fit within a single gaming session. There are a few things about setting that you should know before you run this game.
Contents
Temple Rules
There are various ancient fountains around creation, all created by the same people, and all created for the same reason. These fountains were a gift to the citizens of creation, from a well loved Solar couple, an Eclipse and a Twilight. Through the use of great sorceries and great diplomacy the Solar couple, created the fountains and bound each one to a powerful Unformed fairfolk, to guard over them and to protect their function always. The fountains are the entry and exit points of a world much like creation, where time and distance had very little meaning, allowing a person to journey from one end of creation to another in very little time. In addition to preserving the fountains, the Fey were obliged to offer a boon to any traveler that was willing. Each Fey would offer a single boon aligned with their passion, allowing them to cater to the needs of the diverse population of creation. Gaps in the bargain struck with the fairfolk as well as the difficulty of preserving the fountain in troubled times, gave birth to great fortresses around the fountains created by the workers of the fey. Here are the basic rules that the temples counstruction had to abide by.
A clear path to the fountain must be maintained at all times.
The fountains safety must be preserved at all costs.
Offer a boon to any who come to the temple.
As the societies of creation fell into decadence, and through the great wars that followed, all citizens of creation were deemed dangerous to the fountains, and the fey felt obligated to protect their new homes, hiding themselves, and the fountains, from the world.
Rules of the Mirror World
The mirror world is an independant wyld pocket. Great effort was put towards keeping it that way and so it is impossible to teleport to the mirror world or to get there through manipulating any other source of wyld energy. The temples protect the mirror world from other fey as much as anyone else
The mirror world keeps the same form as creation, although only very stable constructs are apparent in the mirror world, so tents and any ramshackle building that might fall apart any day do not show up. Anything constructed in the mirror world is not represented in creation.
The weather is uniformly pleasant throughout all the mirror world and fruit and vegetables are plentiful,always ripe, and sometimes magical.
There is no sky or stars or sun, although night and day do mirror creation. 10 yards above the tallest point of creation is the set ceiling height of the mirror world and after that it is pure wyld.
The oceans are much cleaner and safer than those in creation
Unless populated the mirror cities will be lacking furniture and many other things.
Half Gravity, 2x leaping distances, carrying capacity and range for archery or thrown attacks.
If you know where you need to go travel is very fast(no mechanics you decide how much faster), if you do not know where u need to go travel takes the regular amount of time.
Any reflective surface in creation exists, like a window looking out on that part of creation, in the mirror world.In addition people travelling the mirror world with a mirror or highly polished surface can see that part of creation. Naturally if the mirror in creation is covered or blocked, or the if the displayed area is protected from magical scrying then you are unable to see that area of creation.So it is not unusual to see little pocket mirrors or signalling mirrors floating around aimlessly in the mirror world.
Like any Wyld, parts of the mirror world can be manipulated by those of strong enough will. However, it is next to impossible to effect great changes to the world(i.e.; return gravity to normal, remove the travellign magic, create a giant deadly ice storm that spans all of the world)
Episode 1: Tinkers Palace
I gave my characters extra bonus points at start-up, thats your decision, but you may need to tweak some stats if you don't.I also told my characters that if they play a tattooed Lunar character they won't be getting many of the perks this campaign has to offer since many of them have to do with shapechanging.
The Village
The game starts off in some little village in the south west corner of Antang, where the main languages are Low realm and flametoungue(the innkeeper knows High Realm). Why your characters are there you will have to explain in their backstories, or with a quick little pre-game or something. Theres nothing really special about this village, a simple farming village for travelers to stop off and get supplies before they head over the mountains;so naturally it has a small market and a bar/inn.
If your characters have any visible artifice made of forbidden magical materials (orchalcum,moonsilver) or have with them an arsenal of jade without apparent breeding, with them when they walk into town there is a Wyld Hunt informant that will notice and send 2 pigeons immediately and 3 pigeons after when they leave town.
It is a perception + socialise roll at dif.5 to notice the spy(boy hes good), as he leaves his market stall to an assistant, and goes to send the messages. If your team doesn't notice him now then its too late for them to nip this in the bud, and they have a realm tail even if they notice him spying on them after and beat his brains in.
Note: one of my characters had the realm following him already at the start because of known anathema, so i didn't use the informant although i still used the scout troupe. I intend to have the realm on their tails for a while at the start of the campaign until they deal with it or it deals with them
In the first group of pigeons, one flies to the spys supervisor and one to a crack scout troupe(1 terrestrial, 4 mortals, 1 stealth observer) to track the offending party. The scout troup is 1 week away, and if it becomes obvious that there is definitely anathema in the town it won't be a scout troupe and they will be there today. The scout troupe is dispatched immediately with a years supplies and are informed of new events through sorcery.
In the second group of pigeons two are reports, one to his supervisor, one to an immaculate monk, both saying what he saw and where it went, and the last letter is to the scout troupes post. If they get the informant b4 the last letters go then they still have a chance to escape the realm if they kill the scout troupe and its observer.
Either at the market or in the bar(or both), your players will encounter a group of "treasure hunters". Talking about a tribal village they heard about some 100 miles south of them against the mountain. The tribe guards a big wall that blocks a pass up to the mountain and are friendly to travelers but lethal if you mess with the wall.
My group of "treasure hunters" had a single newly exalted outcaste in it, and he was pretty much the only one with brains. They were far from a crack troupe and intended them mostly to be a way to get your characters to that mountain pass and to be a little bit of a meatshield for the first game(even though two of my pc's were martial arts masters). Whether you want to incorperate them into the game as permanent Npc's, or slaughter them all off like i did in the first temple as an example to my players that they are dealing with life or death situations is up to you but know that my players and i had lots of fun laughing at the poor extras. The terrestrial botched and took a swim...in sand.... with sandswimmers.
At any rate, the group of "treasure hunters" is leaving the next morning, but they get drunk and its easy to get the location of the tribal village out of them, so your group can leave tonight if they wish.
Dont forget the spy on the way out of the village.
Guardian Tribe
A week or two's travel on foot, and your group will arrive at the tribal village, with the "treasure hunters" half a day behind them; Your group will know this depending on whether or not your group has a rear scout/guard.
The village is well defended. It is backed up against the mountain and surrounded by a strong wooden wall, with a wooden gate re-inforced with metal. If your players took any tribal languages, the tribe will be able to speak it, but i made them a bear tribe and a couple of them speak choppy flame toungue. The tribe is used to dealing with travellers and if your group is polite, and is able to imply that you need survival supplies,food or medecine you will be granted access into the village.
sorry to anyone who gets this far i really need to go for now but i will try to finish this up today
back to BuzzChild
