Rise of Drekis: Chapter 3 - Echoes of the Ancients

Hello Patrons!

It's been a hot minute. Before we delve into information about Chapter 3 of Rise of Drekis, I have a short personal note. I've been down and out with the plague that goes away and comes back, and so I'm behind on all the work and all the things. One of the first things to suffer was Patreon posts since, while they are the best form of community out reach, I was concentrating all my available spoons on getting campaigns into launch format. The "Director's Commentary" episodes of The Lazarus Expedition also took a back seat, but hopefully those can get wrapped up in October and we'll move on to the request list.

OK, onto Rise of Drekis!

Chapter 1 was dealing with internal matters of the growing empire. Chapter 2 is about reclaiming lost territory. Chapter 3 is all about reaching out to new areas that Drekis has no direct claim to, but might have some sort of ancestral claim to. Once upon a time, the Arcadian Islands were all accessible, and had been unified into a single empire. Then at the end of the age of Might (also known as the age of Faith), the storms came, and the mountains rose, and Bravo was both devastated and cut off from the rest of the world. Drekis finally has the power to get people to Bravo, and possibly "reunite" it with the rest of the growing empire.

But what does that look like? If you just show up to a new place without knowing what is going on, without having a map of the place, without knowing where cities are, without knowing what the power structure is like, without knowing what dangers you will face, what the terrain is like, what the climate is like, what the resupply availability is like, well you're gonna have a bad time. Before you invade... err I mean reunite a territory, you've got to know what you're getting into. We need some intel. Some scouting.

Using magic to find out what's going on over there might yield some results, but it's not going to get you all the information you need. To do that, you're going to need boots on the ground and some time. And that's what this campaign is.

Mission Objectives

1) Learn about the following

• Local alliances
• Powerful individuals
• Monsters of the land
• Environment and its dangers
• Location of all the major towns and cities

2) Map the island in as much detail as possible

3) Identify locals who could aid the invasion

• Those that can undermine the establishment before the invasion
• Those that can switch sides and fight for Drekis during the invasion
• Those that can provide supplies or aid

The Party

Who do you send on such a quest? There are a few things to consider.

1) This might be super dangerous. You can't send anyone that you can't afford to loose.
2) Whoever you send might get captured, so don't send anyone that knows anything you don't want the locals to find out.
3) The people are going to need to have a specific set of skills to accomplish their job.
3.1) A map maker and note taker
3.2) A wilderness survivalist
3.3) Someone that can get along with the locals and make friends
3.4) Someone that can keep the party alive from whatever threats they might face

The Empress needs 4 individuals who are non military, non political, and non noble. She needs to find those exceptionally skilled individuals who have so far resisted the call to arms, and have so far resisted contributing to the war. She needs people for this quest that do not want to go on this quest. She needs multifaceted excellence from those who would decline it.

The Survivalist

Job: Make sure the party can survive in whatever environments they come across. Get them to where they need to go.

Motive: Times are hard. Your son is a good man, but to make ends meet got involved with the wrong sort of people. He took a job that he didn't look too closely at and it came back to bite him in the ass: he smuggled a package into the capital city. That seems innocent enough, but after the war ended the authorities came looking for him. It turns out that somehow smuggling that package into the city allowed for a Mistryan assassin to bypass the walls and guards, and many important people were killed as a result. Your son now sits in prison, awaiting execution for high crimes he is guilty of. As a ranger, you're skilled in the ways of the woods and surviving in hostile environments. The empire needs you now, and they will pardon your son for his crimes if you will do this one mission.

Class: Ranger

Player: Connar / "QuantumMech"

The Chronicler / Cartographer

Job: Make a map of the area, learn and record the power structure, keep detailed notes one Bravo. Motive: Born into the lowest ranks of the servant class,  you have always had a thirst for knowledge, but not the social standing to quench that thirst. You've gotten in some amount of trouble in the past for sneaking into areas forbidden to you, and reading things that are not your business. But getting into trouble has gotten you recognized, and now the opportunity of a lifetime awaits you! If you succeed, there will be a position within the empire for you.

Class: Thief

Player: James / "McTacky"

The Friend Maker

Job: Integrate the party into local society and keep up appearances

Motive: Once upon a time, you did something terrible. Something you don't want anybody to know about. Something that isn't who you are and doesn't represent you. It is a dark past you've been successfully running from for ages. Only someone found out, and the authorities came a knocking. A noble man spoke your secret to you and then promised never to speak it again if you did this one thing. Refuse, and he would spread it far and wide, ruining you for life. It's pure and simple blackmail, but it's effective. [Note: What you did isn't going to be named. We're going to leave it up to the viewers to project their own thoughts on.]

Class: Bard

Player: Will / "WillB"

The Bodyguard

Job: Keep the party alive

Motive: A natural born fighter who lost almost everything in the war. Your whole family, save your 5 children, were burned by the red dragon. Your only goal is to keep them safe and keep them fed. While skilled in combat, you cannot afford to risk life and limb least your children end up on the streets. You makes money doing odd jobs and are barely getting by. You've been approached to work for the empire before. As a warrior at first. Then as a trainer. But these are all dangerous jobs that would keep you far from home with no one to care for your kids. In exchange for doing this one dangerous job, your children will be warded by good, reputable families. They will be given an education, social connections, and promising futures.

Class: Single classed fighter

Player: Lucas / "MrMouton"

Starting Positions

Our PCs are going to have been dropped off on the island by the powerful wizard king, Imrik McGary. They have 1 year on the island before King McGary will teleport back to the very spot he dropped them off, and pick them up again. But there are some problems. Nobody is going to speak the local language, and the locals are gonna be extremely curious about outsiders to this isolated island.

We'll begin the campaign 6 months into their expedition. The first 6 months will have been spent building their cover story and learning the local language. We'll begin the campaign with them having learned the language well enough, having gotten a super rough idea of the island and where they might be able to find cities/towns, and having established some sort of cover for their actions.

The party will then have 6 months of game time (far less real time), to explore the island, locate cities, make maps, investigate the power structure, and make any notes and reports they would need to give the Empire of Drekis the information they would need before launching an invasion.

Details

Schedule: Fridays at 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern / Midnight Central Europe
First session: Friday the 6th of October
Runtime: ~4 hour sessions
Duration: 10-15 sessions
Edition: 2e

Other

If you check out the RegalGoblins map page, you'll see that, finally, the map shows the location of all the landmasses with the appropriate distances between them. There are still details to be added (some small islands here and there), and some positioning might change just a bit as everything gets finessed into place, but this is 95% accurate.

Also, you'll notice that one of the objectives is "to map the island" but we have a map. We sort of need a map to run the game. It's good for the players, it's good for the viewers, it's pretty core to the gaming experience. While we're just going to use the 1 map for our game, we'll be using two in-game maps. A shitty one the players have roughly made that can at least point them in the right direction, and the detailed one that has accurate distances and would be of value to the empire.

Lastly, you'll notice that Chapter 3 is beginning before Chapter 2. It's fine. Don't worry about it.

That's it for now, and thank you for your continued support. Patrons like you are what make it possible for me to run the campaigns I want instead of the campaigns I'm hired to run.

gl hf
Neal