Terrors of Zostra

Summary

A game wiki using Evil Hat's Fate Accelerated system. Set in an original low-fantasy setting, it's a place of vile unseen rulers, cultists, and horrific beings known as the Uninvited. Fear reigns supreme, and the folk of the land have succumbed to the horrifying realities of their meagre existence, serving only as thralls and sacrament to the masters that chant in the darkness.

Players

• brahnamin, playing Ruvyana d'Amasku
• undeadDreamer Abbadon
• Omar, playing Taler
• roryb, the GM

Links

• Recruitment Thread

Setting

Zostra (a randomly determined name) is a dark place of horror where rulers that have not been seen in generations hold folk in thralldom for their own pursuits of power. Demonic beings and the dead walk among the fearful men and women that inhabit this place of dread.

Castes of Society

• Craftsmen and laborers are not considered citizens
• Cultists might be bottom rung. Regular humans messing with what they know not
• Possessed cultists might be a step up. Like in Supernatural where things wear people like meatsuits. Humanish but tougher.
• Actual twisted creatures made by the big bads, but poorly so. Leftover experiments, warped animals, etc
• Successful experiments like Golems.
• Same tier as Golems would maybe be Sorcerers. People who have found the/a path similar to the ones the big bads took long ago and are on their way to becoming like them.
• Various levels of actual abominations more warped than sorcerers but not yet god

Factions

There are several nefarious factions that exist, including a prominent thieves' guild

The Red Hand

An eastern/oriental inspired cult trying to bring the darkness back to the world. Issue: The Darkness Returns

Free People of the North

A loose confederation of nomadic tribes that live in the Northern Wilds beyond Bar Kesh. They believe in freedom of choice and action, and that their way of life is rigorous but noble. Often harried by the cults, some young members of the tribes believe now is the time to stop running and fight.

Fauna

Dybbuk

Unbound ancestral spirits that can control through possession, trickery, and in some cases, willingly enter a pact. Most often, these spirits seek relief from the Dry Lands.

Void Hog (“Gorismoth”)

Aspects. Massive Demonic Boar from the Other Side; Burning Hatred for Humanity; Power of the Name

• Great at (+4): Running, charging, goring
• Good at (+2): Causing fear, toughness, mental fortitude
• Bad at (-2): Sneaking, communicating with mortals
• Great Tusks. Once per scene, gain an extra free invocation when creating a Charge! or similar created aspect if there is enough room to get a running start.
• Stress. 3 boxes, plus a mild and moderate consequence

Magic

Great works of magic are powered through rituals in tandem with sacrifice and agreements with the Uninvited and other fell spirits. Magic is at once subtle and powerful, its corrupting effects always changing its practitioners into twisted versions of their former selves. Fear and blood sacrifice power the mightiest sorceries, though lesser cantrips without the formation of pacts are known in hundreds of varieties.

Whether through alchemical invention or true sorcery, created beings exist in the world. Golems are not unknown, as are clockwork automatons.

Psionics

A rare number have developed powerful non-magical mental abilities, including the power to move matter and affect the mind.

Places

Bar Kesh

One of the northernmost of the old cities built as a bulwark against the barbarians. Castellan's road passes here, being the last road before the north claims any pathway.

Northern Wilds

Far beyond the reach where the old cities hold influence are endless swaths of raw wilderness, be they tundra, forest, or impassible mountains. Scattered throughout them are nomadic and primitive peoples.

Game Info

Phase Trio

Abbadon's Adventure

Abaddon Learned magic from watching cultists who had kidnapped him in order to use him as a sacrifice and used his many escape attempts to refine his technique.

T'aler heard of a group of cultists and their prisoner from a sly wood fox. He asked a colony of bats to create a distraction for the prisoner, opened a way through the forest for him and harried his pursuers with brambles and biting insects.

Far from the place of his escape, deep in the wilds, Ruvyana saw the former prisoner curl up in the lee of a fallen tree. After all he had been through, this one showed no fear. The druid* had intrigued her and she had followed, but when the man had gone to such lengths to free this one . . . well, now it was Ruvyana's turn to do her part. Between one heartbeat and the next, she tapped the power of the dybbuk within and become a swarm of beetles, draping herself on the trunks of trees surrounding the sleeping man. Nothing would enter this space tonight without her knowledge.

T'aler's Adventure

In the Northern Wilds outside Bar Kesh, T'aler met a beautiful woman made of wood, whose hair was wildflowers and who spoke in a voice of soft rain. She challenged T'aler to bring her a gift. T'aler snuck into the heart of a sleeping giant, a living deadfall with vines that could snake down a man's throat and stop his heart, or tear a him apart with teeth of thorn and bark. He emerged with a single, crimson acorn and laid it at the woman's feet. "Keep it," she said, laughing as she became the wind and blew away. "I'll find another."

Ruvyana watched the Dryad dismiss the young druid's* gift, leaving it with him as its simulacrum seem to flit away. She wondered if the man knew what it meant . . . that he had been allowed to live. Did he sense the tall dark spirit of the ancient forest looming over him? Through the sight of the dybbuk who shared her body she saw it. Shadowy. Tall. Dripping blood. Dryads lured, enticed, and killed men. But the ancient spirit of the forest approved of this one for some reason. Beneath her leper's rags, Ruvyana smiled.

Ruvyana's Adventure

Exiled from the northern wilds for the blood pact she made with the dybbuk of her ancestor's concubine, Ruvyana is traveling at her ease in the southern forests when she is attacked by highwaymen on the Castellan's high road west of Bar Kesh. Without a thought, she slips into the two handed fighting crouch that her swordmistress taught her, her greatsword held at low guard, and swept in, letting the bloodlust take her. Only after the brigands were bleeding on the ground did she realize the last had thrown away his sword in a vain effort to surrender.

It turns out the highwaymen had some friends. They were not happy. Abbaddon had been trying to get far enough from the city that his tests wouldn't disturb anyone. Apparently some people don't appreciate a good explosion. He was working on a device to help him jump higher and using it to test if there was a problem with them when they shook to hard. Abbaddon Clearly did not see any problem whatsoever with this plan. He stumbled across some rather hostile looking people threatening a woman. While she looked well able to take care of herself these people were clearly cheating by using some mean magical entities to boost their power. Jumping from the top of a tree with a pogo stick and explosives was a great idea. Magicians explode as well as anybody else. Boom! Of course that really shouldn't have worked. Good think I don't have to explain how it did.

Later, after Abbadon's and Ruvyana have dealt with the highwaymen, T'aler invites them to share his food and fire. He recognizes kindred spirits with similiar goals, despite their strangeness.

Game Aspects, Faces & Places

Reign of Terror (Current Issue)

Zostra is ruled by sorcerous mutants who gather power through sacrifice and maintaining an air of fear among its citizens, and even lesser subordinates. This aspect represents the rulers and their nefarious plans, and actions they take to make the world a more sinister place.

The Uninvited (Impending Issue)

Various abominations from beyond the void are called to create pacts with sorcerers to power their craft. Most are bound, but infestations and possessions are not unknown. Recently, more powerful demons have been stepping across the threshold of nothing to plague Zostra. These unbound demons are known as The Uninvited.

Nature is Red of Tooth and Claw

Natural denizens prowl the darkness at the boundaries of civilization. They are aware of the great corruption of the tyrants, but ultimately, the wild things keep unto themselves and reign supreme beyond the stone and wood works of cities.