PBeM Players Wanted!
Within the ancient stone walls of Ardryr House, the kandar overlord Zartheyn Tyr has summoned his chief of security.
“So, Valneth”, said Zartheyn, “It is six days since we last spoke. Please update me on the security situation”.
“The rebels attacked us again last night”, the knight replied.
“And?”, Zartheyn asked, “What damage this time?”.
“My militia gave a good account of themselves”, said Valneth.
“You have not answered my question”. Zartheyn tried to suppress his rising anger.
“They.. attacked the village at Gavius Hill”, the knight replied, “Set fire to the barns using flamelances. And some farm workers are missing. My men extinguished the fires, and saw the rebels off”.
“Flamelances again?”, said Zartheyn, “We’re not up against regular feral humans, are we? They sound like legion deserters to me. Or worse”.
Zartheyn let out an audible sigh. Valneth was his half-brother, after all, and ties of blood within the clan are supposed to run strong. He’d be in trouble with the elders if he dismissed him without good cause. But Valneth was so clearly not up to the job.
And the rebels did have to attack Gavuis Hill, of all places. It was almost as if they *knew*.
“It is probably fortunate that I have persuaded the legion to step up their border patrols”, Zartheyn continued, “I am expecting reinforcements to arrive tomorrow, and expect your full co-operation”.
“Will there be humans in the patrols they send”, asked the knight.
“They’re from Calbeyn, so that is to be expected”, Zartheyn responded, “And don’t look so disgusted. They tell me they’re sending veterans from the Zughru wars, so they’re men, kandar and human, who know how to fight. And I’m summoning their commanding officer her as soon as he arrives so that you and I can brief then on the situation. Understood? Good?”
“Yes, brother”, Valneth replied, as he turned to leave.
“So, what have we learned?”, Brogan asked his fellow across round the campfire, “Are the Academy of Life just growing bigger and better turnips, or is there something more sinister going on?”
“Perhaps the turnips are the sinister goings on?”, asked Qeelu, the solidly-built woman who acted as his second-in command. “Perhaps those rumours really are true”.
Brogan laughed. “What? Turnips that render humans infertile?”
“Don’t dismiss it out of hand”, Qeelu responded, “We don’t really understand the magic of the Academy of Life. Our reconnaissance did pick up a lot of Academy of Life comings and goings to and from the village”
“And the barns we torched were full of turnips”, added Grodd, a small wiry man who acted as the scout for the group. “We all know how the kandar fear the rate at which we breed”.
“You’re both expecting me to believe this nonsense”, snorted Brogan, “Turnips are cover; they have something nastier in the works”.
“Which we’re not going to find out about unless we raid their research complex at Guvil Bridge, Grodd replied, “Which is too well defended, and will bring the legion down on our heads if try a fool stunt like that”.
“And I’m no fool”, Brogan stated firmly, “Guvil Bridge is off-limits; but I know enough about the Academy of Life to know their black projects are never based at their publicly known facilities. There’s something going on at or near Gavuis Hill, that needs a stop putting to. And I intend to find out what it is”.
I could do with a few new players for Kalyr PBeM. As some regular readers will know, it’s set in my own science fantasy setting that owes a lot to the writings of Jack Vance, amongst others.At the moment it’s running on the mailing list at The Phoenyx, but may move to a web forum running on the same site in the future.Anyone interested leave a reply here, or contact me at tim (at) kalyr.com, and I’ll send you a up-to-date .pdf of the Fudge build I’m using, including the character generation rules and an overview of the setting.I’m looking for people who can write well, and are prepared to engage with the setting.
August 31st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
FWIW, if you want to run it on the forum at Gameropolis, that’s fine; I’m writing up a mwForum-to-Wirebird conversion so you can convert (back) to Wirebird without losing archives when we make that leap.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I haven’t suggested this to my existing players yet - I’m only going to move it unless there’s a consensus that we should.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Very interesting post that!
Of course Zarthrey Tyr is correct in is belief that the Legion will probably be on his side when they turn up. But the Legion are more correctly against the rebels rather than for him.
My personal archive of part of earlier set of adventures starts here:
http://www.conteck.demon.co.uk/kalyr/index.htm
Not all the characters from back then have survived into the current sequence.