Thursday, August 14, 2014

Martyr King 28: Meeting the Reclaimers

The twenty eigth session in the "Legacy of the Martyr King" campaign.

Our heroes say hello to the svelte young man, who introduces himself as Jesse Prayer. He says he's come from the Reclaimer to pick them up, and the group hops on his cart. The cart is powered by a mini soulstone, and off they go! Jesse says they are going to Reclaimer-ville, but doesn't really answer any more questions. He does say, however, that the storm that helped sink our heroes' ship a few months ago was caused by a defense system.

Two days into the journey, and our heroes are attacked on the moving cart by a bunch of "tribals" on emus. The fight is rendered pretty easy by Castor's use of Protection from arrows. Highlights include: Aymeric getting pushed off of the cart at full speed. Castor patrially destroying the cart with bombs, then kicking an Emu in the face and sending it tumbling off the cart. Nut successfully leaping onto an emu, realizing he has no idea how to ride, and tumbling off at 30 mph. After the battle is firmly on our heroes favor, and Aymeric liquifies two dudes, the of the tribals rest turn and run.

One day later, our heroes reach Reclaimer-ville. A large crowd has gathered and sees them to the silver minaret in the midst of the brick town. Inside they go, and they find the King and Queen of the Reclaimers, Carmine and Emily Grey.

Nut, for no good reason, goes invisible and starts jumping up and down. His invisibility is dispelled, and he is attacked and bludgeoned to unconsciousness by the guards, then taken away and thrown in prison. The rest of our heroes shrug their shoulders at Nut's increasing insanity.

Carmine seems none to pleased to see them, but Emily begins a long story...

Two thousand years before the fall, there was no magic. The human race clustered on our planet, breeding and growing, enhancing our technological advantage over the apes. In the year 1915 Before the Fall, a man was born by the name of Richard James. We call him the first King, although in his time, he held no title other than genius. He discovered many things about the universe that were before then unknown. Using funding from various governments, he built great and complex machines capable of editing fundamental universal laws. He shifted the molecules in substances, and slowly rewrote the composition of atoms.

He made it such that, when you ran electricity through lead at a specific temperature, at a specific gravitational pull, at a specific speed, the metal would spontaneously transmute to gold.

His son took over the project when Richard died. He, and his team of scientists refined the formulas, rewrote the algorithms, and modified the particles. The second King made it possible that only a small handheld device was required to transmute lead to gold.

When he died, his son took over. Richard’s grandson, the third King, refined the project even further. After a lifetime of work, the Third King made it possible that a man only had to speak a few words, wave his hands, and concentrate, and lead could be transmuted to gold.

The third King invented magic.

Generations passed. Magic grew and expanded and a King was always at the head of the project.

When man spread his seed to other planets, a King lead the charge.

When man wore down the borders to other dimensions, a King showed the way.

Jumpgates were created to ease the increasing costs of manual travel. The 14th King discovered how to force open the pinholes in dimensions and keep them open.

The spirit of exploration and colonization overwhelmed the human race, and they unified in this mutual aim. The 16th generation of Richard James’ line was given the title of King of the Human Race.

Man spread far and wide, and, in their exploration, the 16th King discovered a unique plane. This plane was composed completely of glowing white stone, which, when brought to any other place, would turn black and sparkle like opal.

Opal could be used to craft soulstones, which furthered the power of the human race.

The human race thrived for a time. Trillions of lives were spread over thousands of dimensions and planets. Humans evolved, either naturally or artificially, to fit their environments. We transformed into Orcs, Elves, Gnomes, and Halflings, but the sons of Richard James kept the dissenting factions at bay and the human race unified.

It was a golden age.
And then, Cataclysm.

For reasons that we do not know, 15 soulstones simultaneously failed. 15 explosions rocked the planet, and the world was changed forever. Titanic tides ripped the continents apart, and distorted them. The world shifted its rotation, and spun in the opposite direct. The entire planet contracted, simultaneously shrinking and warming.

And, every single dimensional gate closed. The various far flung children of the human race were lost to the multi-verse and never seen again.

The global civilization fell, and man was reduced back his primitive form.

But, perhaps more important than all of this, the last King, humanity’s most valuable resource, the last ruler with a direct line to Richard James, was lost. You know this last King before the Fall as the Martyr King.

The Reclaimers have tried our best to bring back the old ways, but far too much has been destroyed. We have always hoped that the line of Richard James was not ended, but merely lost to the eye of history.

And now, you three stand before us.

From the moment escaped from the Dorians, we have had our eyes trained on you. And now there is one final test.


Jesse rises and approaches our heroes with a dark soulstone. He then takes a dagger, and drains a bit of blood from Aymeric, Maven, and Castor, and covers the soulstone with it. He then places it in the silver jumpgate.

It activates. The room erupts into murmers.

Emily Continues.

These Jumpgates were only used by the Kings. They were his way of quickly traversing from capital to capital on the planet. Nobody can open them but sons of Richard James. You are of the line of Richard James, and you are our Kings, and have rightful dominion over the whole human race.

The queen bows, then the king bows, then everyone bows.

Carmine then ushers all of the hanger-ons out of the room. He is less thrilled about the arrival of these adventurers than the queen.

You may be the rightful rulers of the human race, but I am still King of the Reclaimers. I have years of experience ruling a nation, and four are borderline sociopaths. Prove yourselves as thoughtful rulers, and you may yet begin the next line of Kings.

It is still May 14th 2001 A.F. This session took three days. Who got a point of heroic favor. Our heroes played this session at level 11, but just leveled up to level 12!

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