afroakuma
2011-03-23, 07:29 PM
Welcome to the campaign journal for my newest game, Lost Children of Ivalice! As the title implies, our tale follows a group of young people a century after the events of Final Fantasy Tactics, living in a world of encroaching darkness, fearmongering clerics and scheming nobles vying for power at the price of rebellion and war.
Our cast:
Angelus Lucien, Baron of Ardennes
Océane Lucien, daughter of the Viscount of Lenalia
Emma, a thief and poisoner known as "the Scorpion"
Tajiki, a missionary
Alvis, a scholar studying the mysteries of the Dark
Sir Caellach Soren Randall, Knight of the Aster
Chapter I: Blue Moon Rising
Act I: Lost Courier of Ivalice
The province of Gallione is one of the most powerful in the kingdom of Ivalice; ruled by Duke Danroth, himself a brother of the royal line, it is a prosperous and influential region.
Between the Duke's seat at Igros Castle and the royal capital runs the Duke's Road, which is rigorously patrolled by the province's lawmen, the Knights of the Aster. Perhaps the most treacherous part of this road lies high in the mountains, running through the Viscounty of Lenalia, and it is here where malcontents have been interfering with traffic.
Three days ago, a Royal Courier traveling the Duke's Road was accosted by a bandit. His purses, documents and chocobo were stolen, and he was left to walk the rest of the way to the next town, Ardennes. Although the thief was apprehended several times by the Knights of the Aster (and escaped each time), the courier himself has not turned up.
The Baron of Ardennes (Angelus Lucien), the son of the Viscount, has taken it upon himself to hunt for the missing courier and restore the important documents he carried. Arriving at the local Reeve's office with Sir Caellach, he meets with Tajiki the missionary, who has been keeping the thief, Emma, in check.
The situation is explained, and a search of the stolen property reveals that Emma stole only the courier's purses; his insignia was left with him, thus making him a target for anyone with an interest in the dispatches he carried. Of further concern is that, at the time he was robbed, the courier was without escorts, suggesting that he had been attacked at least once already. The Baron and his group make plans to have Emma lead them to the ambush site.
Siblings and Rivalries
A knock at the door heralds the arrival of the Baron's sister, Océane, and her suitor the Baron of Marne, Arturo Giraud. The latter is a known womanizer and tremendously cunning, expanding the holdings of his barony through several clever maneuverings. It is well known throughout Lenalia that he has an eye on acquiring Lucien's lands and inheritance as well.
Lord Arturo wastes no time establishing himself as a particularly revolting prat, rudely manhandling Emma and laughing at her attempt to retaliate. When Angelus intervenes, Arturo drops a piece of news: the Luciens have been sidelined by their father for this investigation in favor of he himself, a change he surely helped instigate. The distraction allows Emma to steal a purse from the prat noble's belt.
Perhaps hoping to curry favor with his lady, the Baron of Marne offers to return the duty to his rival so that he will have time free to spend with her. Océane agrees that her brother should take charge, but carefully sidesteps the notion of her departing with her loathsome suitor. As Arturo realizes he's been had, Emma decides to rub it in by throwing his purse back at him, snidely remarking that the Baron should learn to pay more attention to those he touches.
The Scorpion Strikes
Infuriated, Arturo pushes past the others to deliver a stinging backhand to Emma, who employs her Scorpion Heritor powers to transform into a venomous stinging creature. As the nobles recoil, the scorpion leaps on the Baron of Marne, attempting to sting him, but some magic on his person blasts it away. The scorpion reverts back to her human form, and Sir Caellach interposes himself between Emma and Baron Arturo. The furious Baron threatens to go to the Viscount to see her hanged, pardon or no pardon, and storms out of the office. The tension broken, the Reeve takes the opportunity to faint.
With the Knights now realizing why Emma was so hard to keep in custody, the missionary Tajiki intervenes to keep her reined in. Angelus' conversation with the thief takes on a decidedly hard edge - though he has no love for Arturo, her scorn for civility, the nobles and propriety seem to have struck a nerve. He brings up prison, a veiled threat, but again the situation is defused by the young missionary.
Sir Caellach and Sir Elaine are sent by the recovered Reeve to accompany the Luciens' party along the Duke's Road, and the dispatches given to Baron Angelus for safekeeping. With Emma safely surrounded on every side and the carriage at the ready, the party departs for the Road.
The Rebel on the Road
The section of the Road where Emma ambushed the courier is reasonably wooded and very well-worn from frequent use, though there is a very narrow section to the north, which suggests a practical choice of location. Tajiki scouts ahead as the party exits the Baron's carriage, discovering signs that confirm Emma's story. He also discovers fresher tracks indicating an altercation, a shallow drag suggesting a hostage being hauled away, and no corpses or traces of corpses. The air is, however, disturbingly still and quiet. There are no corpses, or traces of corpses.
Caellach's sword emits a white glow, and he suddenly grows tense and wary, though he does not mention anything to the party. Sounds from ahead herald the appearance of a woman in commoners' garb, who stands with arrogance and imperiously challenges Angelus to identify himself. When he asks her the same, she will only call herself a "proud daughter of Ivalice," prompting the Knight Elaine to curse her as a rebel. Insults are volleyed between the two women, but the Baron interferes, asking the woman her business while attempting to read her thoughts magically.
The rebel shrugs off the magical intrusion and challenges Angelus, asking him if he is in fact the Baron and the son of the Viscount. Though he hedges at first, he eventually acknowledges it to be true. The rebel demands the courier's dispatches, which she claims will expose "crimes being done in the Duke's name." She confirms that her band of rebels (of which none are presently in sight) have the courier as a hostage, and when Angelus points out that a courier is no real hostage if the nobility is as cold-blooded as she claims, the rebel triumphantly crows that she has now captured the Baron himself as hostage, too. Alvis spots blasphemous markings on her hands and cautions the Baron that they are sigils of the Dark - likely those of summonings. His observation is late - as Sir Caellach challenges her ability to hold anyone hostage alone, she begins murmuring a call to forces outside of proper magic... a call to the Dark.
Once Set In Motion...
The party snaps to attention. Tajiki has been scouting behind the rebel, and as he prepares to drop from the trees and take her down, Baron Lucien calls for her to be taken alive. Alvis unfolds a tome and attempts to bind her with his recital, but her will is overpowering. A powerful blackness swells in front of her as the runes on her hands writhe. As blood begins to run from her nose, howling noises and the sounds of flapping wings can be heard from the growing vortex of the night. Caellach and Elaine draw their swords and ready for battle, while Angelus focuses his mind and Dominates the rebel, breaking her mental defense and calling out to her to stop the summoning.
The power of the Dominate effect forces the woman to yield, and she lowers her hands, but Alvis screams out that she needs to be killed, and now. The woman falls to the ground, as the runes on her hands shoot out chains of blackness that force her down, and the whispers of the Dark sing.
A Summoning has begun, and the Dark will not let it stop.
Tajiki lands and rushes at her, calling forth his acidic spittle and spraying a jet at the rebel. It burns her badly, breaking her concentration and dooming her to her fate. Blood runs from her mouth and eyes, black blood that spills out and pools on the ground. As her life ebbs from her and her mind breaks, the vortex shrinks back and fades into the earth, the creature it was bringing forth trapped back in the outer night. The twitching, grayed corpse of the woman falls to the ground.
The whispering voice of the Dark is not yet satisfied, however. As the party examines the body and expresses disdain for her actions and pity for her fate, the ground heaves and the Dark exults. From below have been raised walking corpses, animated from the ancient skeletons of soldiers from old wars. The Dark chooses well, for the walking dead arise surrounding the party. A quick count is tallied - sixty-six undead monstrosities advance on the Baron and his group.
Alvis summons holy light to aid him, while Angelus fires a small crystal shard at a nearby undead. Elaine charges the monsters, blade blazing with holy power, and strikes into their ranks, causing one to explode outward into shards of cutting bone. Elaine recoils in pain as the sharp cutting fragments use their last vestige of animation to seek her flesh.
The whispers of the Dark surround and mock the party as they back towards one another. Sir Caellach strikes out at two of the corpses with fiery rays, causing their putrid flesh to liquefy instantly. Océane Lucien begins a bolstering melody on her mandolin, and as Emma waits to see an opening to strike, Tajiki uses his acid jet once more.
The undead advance as one, surrounding Elaine. The rebel woman's corpse twitches, going unnoticed by the harried party. Angelus and Alvis lash out with fire and light, respectively, driving back in ones what have come in tens. Alvis wracks his brain trying to determine how to deal with the corpses, but this is a Summoning gone wrong - he has no idea the hows or whys of the situation. The Knights combine spell with blade to dispatch a few more of the shambling corpses, but space grows dear and their numbers are great. Emma entangles the largest group, slowing them marginally and opening a slight gap. As the party retreats to the carriage to break through, a voice sounds from behind the corpses - an unwelcome voice.
Baron Arturo has arrived with a few Knights, and offers aid to Baron Lucien. When the latter is noncommittal, Arturo attempts to teleport his love away, but she tells him "Family first" and resists the spell. Mollified by Angelus' admission that he could use the help, Arturo casts a fireball to clear away some of the entangled undead; however, even this is clearly insufficient.
As Tajiki turns from the northern line to see the arrival, he spots the profane twitching of the rebel woman's corpse and shouts out to the party. Alvis releases the remainder of his sacred light as a bolt shooting towards the corpse, which explodes. The seal destroyed, the Dark has lost the thing holding the door open for its creatures, and the remaining corpses vanish back from whence they came, disappearing without a trace.
The battle is won (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iBCqz9gnK0), but the two rival Barons are greatly perturbed by what has happened - and by the true scale of the threat these rebels may pose. They agree to a temporary truce until the situation is resolved.
Act II: Lost Dispatches of Ivalice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10665662#post10665662)
Act III: Lost Rebels of Ivalice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10718748#post10718748)
Our cast:
Angelus Lucien, Baron of Ardennes
Océane Lucien, daughter of the Viscount of Lenalia
Emma, a thief and poisoner known as "the Scorpion"
Tajiki, a missionary
Alvis, a scholar studying the mysteries of the Dark
Sir Caellach Soren Randall, Knight of the Aster
Chapter I: Blue Moon Rising
Act I: Lost Courier of Ivalice
The province of Gallione is one of the most powerful in the kingdom of Ivalice; ruled by Duke Danroth, himself a brother of the royal line, it is a prosperous and influential region.
Between the Duke's seat at Igros Castle and the royal capital runs the Duke's Road, which is rigorously patrolled by the province's lawmen, the Knights of the Aster. Perhaps the most treacherous part of this road lies high in the mountains, running through the Viscounty of Lenalia, and it is here where malcontents have been interfering with traffic.
Three days ago, a Royal Courier traveling the Duke's Road was accosted by a bandit. His purses, documents and chocobo were stolen, and he was left to walk the rest of the way to the next town, Ardennes. Although the thief was apprehended several times by the Knights of the Aster (and escaped each time), the courier himself has not turned up.
The Baron of Ardennes (Angelus Lucien), the son of the Viscount, has taken it upon himself to hunt for the missing courier and restore the important documents he carried. Arriving at the local Reeve's office with Sir Caellach, he meets with Tajiki the missionary, who has been keeping the thief, Emma, in check.
The situation is explained, and a search of the stolen property reveals that Emma stole only the courier's purses; his insignia was left with him, thus making him a target for anyone with an interest in the dispatches he carried. Of further concern is that, at the time he was robbed, the courier was without escorts, suggesting that he had been attacked at least once already. The Baron and his group make plans to have Emma lead them to the ambush site.
Siblings and Rivalries
A knock at the door heralds the arrival of the Baron's sister, Océane, and her suitor the Baron of Marne, Arturo Giraud. The latter is a known womanizer and tremendously cunning, expanding the holdings of his barony through several clever maneuverings. It is well known throughout Lenalia that he has an eye on acquiring Lucien's lands and inheritance as well.
Lord Arturo wastes no time establishing himself as a particularly revolting prat, rudely manhandling Emma and laughing at her attempt to retaliate. When Angelus intervenes, Arturo drops a piece of news: the Luciens have been sidelined by their father for this investigation in favor of he himself, a change he surely helped instigate. The distraction allows Emma to steal a purse from the prat noble's belt.
Perhaps hoping to curry favor with his lady, the Baron of Marne offers to return the duty to his rival so that he will have time free to spend with her. Océane agrees that her brother should take charge, but carefully sidesteps the notion of her departing with her loathsome suitor. As Arturo realizes he's been had, Emma decides to rub it in by throwing his purse back at him, snidely remarking that the Baron should learn to pay more attention to those he touches.
The Scorpion Strikes
Infuriated, Arturo pushes past the others to deliver a stinging backhand to Emma, who employs her Scorpion Heritor powers to transform into a venomous stinging creature. As the nobles recoil, the scorpion leaps on the Baron of Marne, attempting to sting him, but some magic on his person blasts it away. The scorpion reverts back to her human form, and Sir Caellach interposes himself between Emma and Baron Arturo. The furious Baron threatens to go to the Viscount to see her hanged, pardon or no pardon, and storms out of the office. The tension broken, the Reeve takes the opportunity to faint.
With the Knights now realizing why Emma was so hard to keep in custody, the missionary Tajiki intervenes to keep her reined in. Angelus' conversation with the thief takes on a decidedly hard edge - though he has no love for Arturo, her scorn for civility, the nobles and propriety seem to have struck a nerve. He brings up prison, a veiled threat, but again the situation is defused by the young missionary.
Sir Caellach and Sir Elaine are sent by the recovered Reeve to accompany the Luciens' party along the Duke's Road, and the dispatches given to Baron Angelus for safekeeping. With Emma safely surrounded on every side and the carriage at the ready, the party departs for the Road.
The Rebel on the Road
The section of the Road where Emma ambushed the courier is reasonably wooded and very well-worn from frequent use, though there is a very narrow section to the north, which suggests a practical choice of location. Tajiki scouts ahead as the party exits the Baron's carriage, discovering signs that confirm Emma's story. He also discovers fresher tracks indicating an altercation, a shallow drag suggesting a hostage being hauled away, and no corpses or traces of corpses. The air is, however, disturbingly still and quiet. There are no corpses, or traces of corpses.
Caellach's sword emits a white glow, and he suddenly grows tense and wary, though he does not mention anything to the party. Sounds from ahead herald the appearance of a woman in commoners' garb, who stands with arrogance and imperiously challenges Angelus to identify himself. When he asks her the same, she will only call herself a "proud daughter of Ivalice," prompting the Knight Elaine to curse her as a rebel. Insults are volleyed between the two women, but the Baron interferes, asking the woman her business while attempting to read her thoughts magically.
The rebel shrugs off the magical intrusion and challenges Angelus, asking him if he is in fact the Baron and the son of the Viscount. Though he hedges at first, he eventually acknowledges it to be true. The rebel demands the courier's dispatches, which she claims will expose "crimes being done in the Duke's name." She confirms that her band of rebels (of which none are presently in sight) have the courier as a hostage, and when Angelus points out that a courier is no real hostage if the nobility is as cold-blooded as she claims, the rebel triumphantly crows that she has now captured the Baron himself as hostage, too. Alvis spots blasphemous markings on her hands and cautions the Baron that they are sigils of the Dark - likely those of summonings. His observation is late - as Sir Caellach challenges her ability to hold anyone hostage alone, she begins murmuring a call to forces outside of proper magic... a call to the Dark.
Once Set In Motion...
The party snaps to attention. Tajiki has been scouting behind the rebel, and as he prepares to drop from the trees and take her down, Baron Lucien calls for her to be taken alive. Alvis unfolds a tome and attempts to bind her with his recital, but her will is overpowering. A powerful blackness swells in front of her as the runes on her hands writhe. As blood begins to run from her nose, howling noises and the sounds of flapping wings can be heard from the growing vortex of the night. Caellach and Elaine draw their swords and ready for battle, while Angelus focuses his mind and Dominates the rebel, breaking her mental defense and calling out to her to stop the summoning.
The power of the Dominate effect forces the woman to yield, and she lowers her hands, but Alvis screams out that she needs to be killed, and now. The woman falls to the ground, as the runes on her hands shoot out chains of blackness that force her down, and the whispers of the Dark sing.
A Summoning has begun, and the Dark will not let it stop.
Tajiki lands and rushes at her, calling forth his acidic spittle and spraying a jet at the rebel. It burns her badly, breaking her concentration and dooming her to her fate. Blood runs from her mouth and eyes, black blood that spills out and pools on the ground. As her life ebbs from her and her mind breaks, the vortex shrinks back and fades into the earth, the creature it was bringing forth trapped back in the outer night. The twitching, grayed corpse of the woman falls to the ground.
The whispering voice of the Dark is not yet satisfied, however. As the party examines the body and expresses disdain for her actions and pity for her fate, the ground heaves and the Dark exults. From below have been raised walking corpses, animated from the ancient skeletons of soldiers from old wars. The Dark chooses well, for the walking dead arise surrounding the party. A quick count is tallied - sixty-six undead monstrosities advance on the Baron and his group.
Alvis summons holy light to aid him, while Angelus fires a small crystal shard at a nearby undead. Elaine charges the monsters, blade blazing with holy power, and strikes into their ranks, causing one to explode outward into shards of cutting bone. Elaine recoils in pain as the sharp cutting fragments use their last vestige of animation to seek her flesh.
The whispers of the Dark surround and mock the party as they back towards one another. Sir Caellach strikes out at two of the corpses with fiery rays, causing their putrid flesh to liquefy instantly. Océane Lucien begins a bolstering melody on her mandolin, and as Emma waits to see an opening to strike, Tajiki uses his acid jet once more.
The undead advance as one, surrounding Elaine. The rebel woman's corpse twitches, going unnoticed by the harried party. Angelus and Alvis lash out with fire and light, respectively, driving back in ones what have come in tens. Alvis wracks his brain trying to determine how to deal with the corpses, but this is a Summoning gone wrong - he has no idea the hows or whys of the situation. The Knights combine spell with blade to dispatch a few more of the shambling corpses, but space grows dear and their numbers are great. Emma entangles the largest group, slowing them marginally and opening a slight gap. As the party retreats to the carriage to break through, a voice sounds from behind the corpses - an unwelcome voice.
Baron Arturo has arrived with a few Knights, and offers aid to Baron Lucien. When the latter is noncommittal, Arturo attempts to teleport his love away, but she tells him "Family first" and resists the spell. Mollified by Angelus' admission that he could use the help, Arturo casts a fireball to clear away some of the entangled undead; however, even this is clearly insufficient.
As Tajiki turns from the northern line to see the arrival, he spots the profane twitching of the rebel woman's corpse and shouts out to the party. Alvis releases the remainder of his sacred light as a bolt shooting towards the corpse, which explodes. The seal destroyed, the Dark has lost the thing holding the door open for its creatures, and the remaining corpses vanish back from whence they came, disappearing without a trace.
The battle is won (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iBCqz9gnK0), but the two rival Barons are greatly perturbed by what has happened - and by the true scale of the threat these rebels may pose. They agree to a temporary truce until the situation is resolved.
Act II: Lost Dispatches of Ivalice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10665662#post10665662)
Act III: Lost Rebels of Ivalice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10718748#post10718748)