Adventures (Ricasa setting)

After fifty years of peace, war is once again beginning to flare across the continent of Ricasa. And as always, war brings its retinue- thrillseekers, psychopaths, and soldiers of fortune, all looking to make a quick buck off the plight of the people.

As always, I encourage others to think up their own ideas and add them here freely.

Quests in Bastion

Secret Agent Man

The Country of Iron is getting a little leery about their northern neighbors- the Malanese are rattling the stick of the Porchovy sulfur mines a little harder than usual, and the dwarves keep "accidentally" tunnelling into Bastite soil. Your job is to case the populace in the border towns of the two countries and find out what's up.

What's actually up is a counter-plot: Malania and Opridenik have both been hoodwinked by a group calling itself "The Insiders". Purportedly an independent contractor, this group is feeding false intel to the two countries that suggests that Bastion has designs on the southern regions of their lands. Final goal: take out the leader of the local Insiders cell.

Archivist's Notes: This is a perfect example of a two-step quest. The first step is finding out why the countries are getting annoyed, the second is to stop it. There's plenty of ways to accomplish both steps: for step one you could case the taverns for rumors, or ask through channels both official and not, or simply kidnap a guard and interrogate him. For the second step, you could storm the Bank cell on your own, or get your employers to send in a team to weaken them first, or inform the hoodwinked countries of the situation and accompany their assault teams against the cell.

Hyperwar

The BDW has rumors coming in that their rivals, the CAC, are working on a super-advanced form of pistol capable of firing automatically. Since pistols are supposedly BDW's specialty, such a product could cripple them. So you're supposed to pay a visit to CAC's Experimental Section in Seiocol to see if you can find a copy of this superweapon for BDW's scientists to play with.

The Experimental Section is not to be trifled with- it resembles a government installation more than a research lab. Guard dogs, armed guards with shoot-to-kill orders, and even some magical summonings protect this most secret of spaces. Final goal: deliver an XP-1 Usurper to the BDW's Internal Research office in Redlund.

Technical Difficulties

The BDW's Smeltery #2 has experienced over a hundred technical problems in the past month, something that doesn't mesh well with their previously immaculate accident record. Sabotage is suspected, but nothing concrete has been proven. So, go find out.

It's definitely sabotage, and as it turns out, it's being performed by Ricasa's favorite collabaration of interests, the Alliance. Seeing as how they're not likely to just get up and walk away if you ask, it's probably going to require bloodshed to stop the problems at #2. Final goal: kill all Alliance saboteurs.

Quests in Calthoras

The Broken Link

The Great Link is undergoing some serious management troubles. Their leader, Alvin Petras, has finally lost it while out on one of his expeditions, and apparently was found by an Insiders base deep in the Shield Mountains. In addition to the fact that Petras knows more about the Link than anyone, especially the Insiders, should ever know, the group has apparently found a way to harness the psionic energy he's throwing off in his madness, and are using it to power some sort of machine.

The Link wants no traces of the man's existence remaining- this incident could be both embarrassing and damaging to them, not to mention that if it went public all their efforts to remain unnoticed would be shot to hell. Alvin needs to die, as does anyone who has seen him in his madness. You, of course, can be trusted to keep your mouth shut, right?

While membership in the Link is not necessary for this quest, it definitely helps. Members get a free pack-and-parcel kit of goodies from the higher command to aid them in clearing out the base. In addition, non-Links can only obtain the quest if they have already met Alvin, which is a dicey proposition at best.

To the DM: This quest is not for the faint of heart. If anything, it shouldn't be touched until the party reaches the double digit levels or so- the Insiders in the base are no pushovers, and Alvin himself is a level 13 Psion/Level 6 Cerebremancer- higher if you meet him out of the base, his mind's going downhill and taking his skills with it. Final goal: remove Alvin Petras. Sub-Goal: Kill all Insiders at the base.

Fallen Star

The Star Knights can't seem to stop the problems tearing their organization apart. One of their champions apparently swore allegiance to Lorthas out of the absolute blue and absconded with their ceremonial sword, Northwind. He's hiding in an old ruin on the Calthoras-Capraht border, which isn't making the Knights any more relaxed. If Capraht gets ahold of Northwind they will not only have completely humiliated the Star Knights, but they will also be in possession of one of the most powerful artifacts of good on the continent.

The truth is more ominous. The champion and a bunch of dark clerics are trying to summon up something nasty to go wreck things in Calthoras, and the spell evidently calls for the destruction of a "good" artifact. The adventurers will arrive just in time to watch the champion shatter the blade, starting the summoning ritual. And it's a pretty good guess that, whether you're good or evil, being at ground zero of a demonic summoning is bad for your health. Final Goals: Return the hilt of Northwind to the Star Knights; stop the demonic summoning. Sub-Goal: Kill the errant champion.

Do Not Open

Trouble is brewing at the Capam mithril mines- there's knights all over the place, a detachment of Calthoran Militia, and a bunch of stiffs under sheets outside. The miners apparently broke into a sealed chamber about 500 feet belowground, scuffing a binding circle as they did. Now something nasty is loose in the depths of Calthoras' only major moneymaking source, and the knights are worried that it might find another way out- or make its own.

The news just gets better from there. Apparently the number of dragons that the original Black Army brought to Ricasa wasn't five, as was commonly thought- those were just the more public ones. The rest were evidently quietly sealed away in various locations by the dark clerics when the Army fell- the miners disturbed one of these chambers, and so there's a young white dragon (Young Adult template) roaming the mining tunnels. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it seems to have brought a bunch of lizardmen with it.

This adventure is your basic dungeon crawl- hack and slash through tons of enemies to reach the end boss- which happens to be a dragon! Since this is pretty much the only way Calthoras makes money, they desperately need the mines back online, and if you can pull it off they'll be very, very grateful. Final Goal: Slay the white dragon in the refinery chamber.

Quests in Canadia

To Serve the Crown

We have a serious problem. While the King's sloop, the Delirium, was docked in Farpoint, a bunch of pirates managed to overcome the watch and steal the King's symbol of office- the Crown of Madness. Thankfully, the King keeps the central diamond- the really important part of the crown- on him while he sleeps, so there's no time limit or anything- that'd be ridiculous considering what you have to do. But the incident is still an incredible embarrassment for the government, and so they want you to recover the Crown, fast, before the secret leaks (leaking the secret yourself would be bad for your health).

The pirates are hiding out on Cratercore Island, which sits at the direct center of the Bay of Kolvet. Now how are you going to get there? Fear not, the King anticipated such problems, and for the purpose of retrieving the Crown is having the Delirium and her battle-hardened crew take you through the pirate-infested waters on a mission of retrieval and revenge. Once you make landfall, though, you'll have to make it to the Crown yourself- the crew needs to hold the ship to ensure that you have a way out.

The Crown is locked in a chest near the top of the old keep on the island, which the pirates are using as a base. As such, it's crawling with the beggars, and you'll have to pave your way in blood if you want to get it back. Final Goal: Return the Crown to the Palace in Treycona.

Return The Favor

CAC has been hearing rumors of a super-weapon being developed by the BDW; a rifle with automatic firing capabilities, which is not only their terrain, but an immense technical leap. The CAC's scientists simply MUST get their hands on a prototype of this weapon, and that means that someone is going to have to make a visit to the BDW's Internal Research compound in Redlund.

The IR compound is just as heavily guarded as its Canadese counterpart, and getting in and out is going to be extremely difficult- possibly more so than it would be to invade the EW compound, as the XA-1 you're stealing is larger and therefore harder to conceal. But should you get it out, the CAC will pay heavily for the favor. Final Goal: Deliver an XA-1 Commander autorifle to the CAC's Experimental Weapons lab in Seiocol.

Will You Shut Up

The city of Jalathai is at wit's end. A man dressed in extremely strange clothing and wielding weapons unlike anything we have ever known has recently taken up shop at the base of the Gem Spike monument in the town square, ranting and raving on about "time travel" and "condition fluxes" and lots of other useless babble. Bullets fired at him seem to stop a few feet away from him, and swords are turned aside at about the same range. The Town Guard is holding at an uncomfortable standoff at the edge of the square, and if someone can't sort this mess out fast they may resort to just blowing up the entire place and to hell with it.

The man, known only as SK, is evidently wanting someone to talk to. Turns out, he fouled up a plane-to-plane transit (or something similar, it's a little unclear), big time, and as a result has been stuck here for the past three days. He'll offer no help as to what you can do to aid him, so you'll have to follow your own leads and figure out a way to get him home- killing him is likely going to be more trouble than it's worth. Final Goal: Remove SK from the Jalathai Square.

Pier 14: S.S. Ghost Ship

Ever since the S.S. Camrecol's Blessing docked in Seiocol, nine weeks late, strange things have been going on around the docks- and as a result, at least twelve people are dead. Inexplicable fires, unbalanced stacks of goods, supposed hauntings, and various other things led the Port Authority to declare the Blessing unworthy for the port. But when the Guard tried to make the ship leave, they found no-one on board. Of the sixteen Town Guardsmen who boarded the ship, only five made it off alive, and only one of those was sane enough to relate the tale. Somewhere on its trip, the Blessing evidently ran into some serious trouble and the whole crew died- and made her into a ghost ship.

The P.A. are at the ends of their ropes, and are offering a heavy reward for anyone who can either exorcise the ghosts, sink the ship, or maybe both. The objective is down in the main cargo hold, where the First Mate has been running the show from- there's no sign of the captain. Only two options really exist- either kill the First Mate's ghost to stop the hauntings, or blast a hole in the Blessing's keel and send her to the bottom, where the Royal Navy's dredgers can finish the job. Final Goal: End the Kolporta hauntings.

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