Background of the campaign

The Gates of Karshit is an official campaign for RQ III, that was written and produced here, in Spain. Around these parts playing RQ in Europe or some periods of history it's been always one of the favourite options, so when the Chaosium guys authorized the Spanish translator to publish their own material, this was the first and only one to be produced. This would explain why this book is not familiar to you, if you don't live around here.

This is a very short background on the backstory of the campaign. Actually, I'm only providing here the bare basics needed to understand things as they happen. I intend to let you discover what's going on at, more or less, the same pace of the PCs

The action starts in Thesalonikki, winter of 589 d.C. Rough times for the Byzantian Empire. Barbarians roam the frontiers, many of the local nobles are getting uppity, and there's a general feeling of distress, and the fear that Byzantium may not survive Rome for a long time. Christianity is dominating, though, and the last remnants of the old cults and religions still cling to a meager life.

Due to this circumstances, this campaign is working under a slightly different rules from the usual setting. First, magic is not available for PCs, unless they are pagans (in which case they can get maybe a small Spirit spell), or magic users (that is, priests of a pagan god or sorcerers). Christianity is the religion by default, and they have no magic, though they can ask for Divine Intervention and some of their holy man may manifest Divine spells in the form of miracles. Anyway, no PC here is going to be a saint.

This makes for a more brutal than usual game, as RQ is already hard and lethal as is. Not having magic around is something that everyone is going to notice. Also, bear in mind that armor is far from common, so combats are going to be nasty and short. Add to this that we have some players that are not very used to this... well, we'll see.

So, without further ado, let's discuss the starting situation for the game.  Situation which starts 2000 years before.

You are familiar with Troy war, I assume. Well, right after leaving his palace at Mycenae, king Agammenon asks for advice at the oracle in Delphi. The oracle tells him that he must abandon the expedition, as the gods are divided about it. Agammenon pays no heed to that, and sends messengers all over the world to contact the Blue Eye brotherhood, this powerful secret society, while he moves towards Troy. He hopes that the mystic brotherhood will help him conquer Troy, and get enormous loot.

7 years after this his wife, Clitemnestra, is ready to give birth to the fourth son of the king (don't ask). This time, seeing how shitty the war is, the king decides to go back home and leave the battlefield. Too late: that very night, 2 minions of the Blue Eye brotherhood arrive and kidnap the king's firstborn so he reconsiders his decision. These guys want the war to go on to the bitter end.

Agammenon gives on to the demands of the kidnappers: they will give him a powerful magic helmet (so he wins the war soon enough) and also give him back Orestes, his firstborn. In exchange of that, the brotherhood will have both the soul and the body of the king after he dies, so he won't know the eternal rest, becoming a servant of the cult. Later, according to the curse over his house, Agammenon is murdered by Clitemnestra. His most faithful followers bury him, and one of them breaks the bronze seal, the sacred stone that gives the dead person eternal rest. Keeping with them the greater part of it, they cast powerful spells and curses so no one will break in, as the Olympus has withdrawn its protection over the king. One of the parts stayed in Mycenae, the other went away, until it was found in Thesalonikki, many years later.

While conducting reparations on the northern wall of the city, damaged 3 years before by the siege of a barbarian army, the smaller part of the seal is found amidts the foundations of the wall. Several factions are looking for it.

   - Ecthelion Parapleo: a powerful sorcerer from Athens, bent on destroying the Blue Eye brotherhood. His daughter, Gorgo, was kidnapped many years ago by them, and he intends to destroy them using Agammenon's weapons. So he needs the seal. Badly. In terms of raw power, he's a powerhorse.
   . Georgios Mustakisis: a master of thieves from Thesalonikki, hired by Ecthelion, wants to get Agammenon's treasure to be able to retire. Plans on killing the sorcerer before they get the other part of the tablet.
   - Brotherhood of Zeus: these guys are one of the last pagan cults around, and their oracles told them that the magic weapons in Agammenon's tomb were key to fight back Christiantiy and bring back their gods to their former power. They're about 30, led by a priestess named Narvael Eliptika. She's young, pretty, looks like an innocent person and is ruthless.
   - other factions that have yet to be revealed.
In our next post we will be introduced to the heroes of this story. Or at least they will try to.

Now we're meeting the heroes of the saga, and the players behind them. Snail's pace, I know, but RL is a bitch. As people is new to RQ, and given that we play once a month and start late at night, I asked people to describe their PCs so I would generate the numbers and fill in the character sheets accordingly. Also, I told them a bit in advance about the three factions listed on the previous post (Ecthelion, Georgios and the brotherhood of Zeus) so they could elaborate ties with them if they wanted, or not. I also asked them to generate ties between PCs.

Egica (played by Jorge "Tiberius"): Egica is a veteran (35 years) noble and warrior from the goths tribes that rule Spain these days. He's an arianist, so he had to endure some persecution due to that. He and his family supported the Byzantine occupation of part of Hispania, in hopes that they would be tolerant and friendly to their beliefs, but that was not the case, Byzantium withdrew its troops, and he had to flee for his life, living since then the life of a mercenary, moving east to try and get some support from the Imperium.

Thing is, he recently heard about legends of the treasure of the Atreidae, and that piqued his interest: with that money, he could raise an army and go back Hispania, reclaim his place... One night, while camping near Thessalonikki, he saw some campfire and went to look. He witnessed an old pagan ritual, conducted by men with a blue tatoo on their foreheads, old men that could call the clouds and thunder in the name of Zeus. They spoke about the seal of Agammenon's tomb, and how the oracles told that it will appear soon around Thessalonikki.

Egica did the only sensible thing: try to escape unseen, but had no luck and they chased him. He tried to hide at an inn near the city, and they waited for the night to torch the fucking place. He managed to escape and hid in a near shepherd's hut, but he got horrible scars that lowered his APP to only 6. After he healed the burnings, he went to Thessalonikki, more determined than ever to:

(a) Get the treasure.

(b) Kill each and every person on the brotherhood of Zeus, and piss over their holy places.

Egica is a combat monster, heavily armored and having more than a 100% with his sword.

Tiberius is a lifelong gamer (he actually owned a FLGS), with a passion for history, so I knew that recruiting him would be fun. He provided the longest backstory, and I feel he will be one of the driving players. He's passingly familiar with RQ, having played it many moons ago.

Anthianara (played by Susana): Anthianara is one of the last amazons, that still live hidden over the Scythian land. They still worship the old gods, so I gave her PC a minor Healing - 2 spell. Her hook into the story is Ecthelion: while he was researching about legends on the Blue Eye brotherhood, he was ambushed by an amazon party. Though he put up a really tough fight, he got caught and carried to the amazon's settlement, to be used as male and probably killed.

Alas, it happens that Anthianara is like the splitting image of Hilia, the dear wife of the sorcerer. So he got obsessed with her, and managed to seduce her (the guy's still dashing, despite his age). He escaped, taking Anthianara with her. The amazons gave pursuit only to the limits of their territory, afraid of going further and being discovered by the roaming barbarians.

Once they escaped, though, Ecthelion departed misteriously in the midst of night. Anthianara knew that he was after the seal, so she went to Thessalonikki, trying to meet Ecthelion there. She met Egica and Alexia, and offered to help them, charming her way to the heart of Egica with her sad story of being booted out the tribe.

What's happening behind the scenes: Ecthelion is obsessed with his dead wife. Badly. So he wants to summon her ghost, and bind it in the (dead) body of Anthianara, making her his familiar at that moment, to ensure her love and loyalty. Thing is, according to Susana's suggestions, he could not bring himself to do it, so at the very last moment he fled. Anthianara knows nothing about this.

Susana's being RPGing for about 20 years, only D&D (different versions), always with the same group, so she's used to some weird-ass rules (for example, personal relationships and romance are a no-no). As soon as she got the chance of having drama and relationships and stuff she was all over it. She says playing with us is really refreshing, and she's enjoying the game a lot, even if it's really different from what she's used to.

Alexia (played by Victoria, my missus): Alexia is a relatively young (25) thief in Thessalonikki. She and her cat, Petronius (my girlfriend has a really hard time making a character with no goddamned cats around) have been making a profitable career in Thessalonikki and the nearby area, without stepping in the way of other thieves or burglar groups. She's been hired by Egica on the promise of a fair share of a fucking huge treasure, plus the increase in renown that comes from sacking one of the most legendary tombs in Greece. So she's good with that, as Victoria didn't want to have a really convoluted or megadramatic backstory, for a change from her previous Sorcerer PC.

Victoria's well familiar with RPGs (her ex-husband is a gamer), but has not been involved on a steady game for a long time, so now she's catching up a bit. She's not familiar with RQ, as she started this game almost at the same time the RQ Vikings game started. She loves cats, in case you didn't notice.

Next entry: first chapter, Intrigue in Thessalonikki!