Trinity:The Toplanders

This campaign started the second week of September, 2007, and is currently being played.

In terms of Trinity, this group began adventuring in early 432 CY on Arcturas.

This page will house all the information for this campaign in Trinity.

Game Time

The game takes place on Saturday nights, roughly at 11 pm local time, and goes until anywhere from 4 to 6 in the morning.

Waiting List

Given that there is the possibility of losing some players over the course of time, I will be maintaining a waiting list for this game. If you are interested in joining us, please leave a note in the Discussion page attached to this page.

The waiting list is as follows.

• House

Game Information

Players may choose their method of character creation: 32 point buy, or standard Trinity rolling method (4d6, reroll 1's, drop 1 die, roll eight - keep seven, arrange in any order). Once the rolling method is chosen, the player will use those stats each time the player decides to switch to rolling method (by which I mean that you cannot roll stats, switch to point buy, then switch back to rolling method to reroll your stats); a player may redistribute ability scores or switch to the other creation method at any point before the game begins.

Rolled stats must be rolled in front of the DM at any time that is convenient. Just make sure that you don't lose the stats!

Ability Scores

Standard Trinity ability scores - standard d20 stats with the addition of Perception - will be used.

Race Selection

Unlike previous Trinity games, this game will have a racial restriction. Race selection is limited to the following races...

• Human
• Ancelari
• Artilect
• Cogling
• Dwarf
• Gnome
• Gremlin
• Half-Orc
• Halfling
• Moogle
• Orc
• Selkie

Class Selection

Class selection is unrestricted. Any Trinity-accepted classes are allowed.

Level

Characters will be created at 2nd level. That means that you can choose an LA +1 race, and begin at 1st level.

Backstory

Some amount of backstory is appreciated. As this game will not be starting for a good few months, you have plenty of time to figure one out.

Keep your age and race in mind. If you are older than 37 or so, then you are originally from Adnez or Ganymede, and came on the ship to Arcturas; this means that you remember the way things were, and you remember the tyranids. If you are younger than 37, then you were born on Arcturas, and have only heard of the other planets through stories; you have also probably heard of the tyranids, though you may not believe that they're necessarily real.

Regardless of where you were born, you'll need to figure out how you came by your profession. If you're from Andez or Ganymede, then chances are good you had gained some knowledge before leaving the planet, and have essentially taught yourself or gained training from someone else in the community. If you were born on Arcturas, then you probably were taught your skills by one of the gnome akashics (who can tap the world memory and teach you by proxy).

Due note that travel to Arcturas was by spacecraft, which is technological in nature. As such, if you are a member of a magic- or psionic-based class, that you will require an explanation of how you came by those skills. Most of the people on Ganymede (where Arcturas left from) were not versed in the ways of magic or psionics, and as such you'll need to explain why you are. Some classes will require more explanation than others - a sorcerer makes a lot more sense than a wizard (your ability to wield magic was dormant for a good while, for instance). I have no intentions of limiting your class selection, but just make sure that it makes sense.

Character Knowledge

Each character knows something about the world: this information is encountered during training, found while gossiping, or simply inherently known.

About the Game

I will attempt to keep the players as in-the-dark as possible until the game begins; however, this game will add quite a bit of information to the Trinity universe, some of which will need to be up prior to the game to ensure that the players all at least have some idea of what is going on. As such, small updates will be added throughout the wiki on a semi-regular basis over the course of the summer. For my convenience, I shall keep a list here of what has been and is going to be added; this list is by no means comprehensive, and may change over the course of the summer, as additional information may be required or found to be useful.

• Update of General Stellar Cartography
• History of Arcturas and Arcostes
• Arcturan Geography
  • Turas
• Arcturan Calendar
• Arcturan Society
  • Arcturan Demographics
• Electrum

Campaign

What follows is a summary of each game session.

Cast

• Hamtaro as Kuro (moogle greasemonkey)
• Melty as Cassian (human artificer)
• Brandon as Miggs (gremlin technologist)
• Smack as William (artilect templar)
• Dave-O as Shiro (moogle greasemonkey)
• Nyc as Tiy (selkie assassin)
• Catface as Addison (human voidchild)
• ®ß¥!! as Uriah (human bard)

Others

• Volos (ancelari metamorph) [left the group (s03)]
• Tabby (human bard) [followed Uriah around (s02 - )]

Session 01 - Explore? Explore... what?

Perhaps a month after contact with the Arcostes was lost in SY 34, a call was sent out from Arcturas. The people of the fallen craft had lived on this world for 34 years, and knew nothing beyond the small chunk of world they had found themselves on - and Angmar Steeltoe, the old captain of the Arcturas herself, felt that it was time for the Adnezians and Ganymedians to know more about the world they had found themselves on. The call he sent out was a simple one: if you are willing to explore the world beyond what we know, come to the remains of the Arcturas.

Eight people answered the call, from all walks of life. A thinking machine who saw the future; a young girl who seemed terribly out of place. The apprentice blacksmith from the capital city; the twin moogles who had constructed their own mechs. The lone ancelari, who had explored the continent some thirty years before; a young selkie, who assisted in keeping the peace of the land; the legendary musician, whose music inspired the rebellious youth.

Thus did their tale begin.

...

Angmar greeted the group, and told them to go out and explore. He mentioned that the robots in Edge might know something, and that the kids out in Germonik might, as well. The group decided to rest for the evening and head out the next day. Volos waits for the group outside of town.

They travel to Edge. Volos goes to the lumbermill, to see if they know anything; everyone else heads to the administrative building in Edge. The apparent political leader in Edge is an artilect called Bucket, who William knows from being on the Arcturas. They converse; Bucket doesn't seem to know anything useful.

Josef

Shiro and Kuro take their mechs and begin investigating the bottomside of the continent, but don't find anything useful.

The group decides that there is nothing useful here, and heads to Germonik.

They stop at the bridge that crosses the Gouge, as Volos seems to notice something strange about the mountains. The rest of the group gets frustrated, and they continue on.

They arrive in Germonik, and find that someone has constructed a facsimile of the radio tower in Edge, but out of wood. They investigate, and find that its attached to a barn; the whole shindig is apparently under the ownership of a young human called Josef. As they arrive, he goes out and beats someone with his bat.

Inside the barn, they find that he is constructing a flying thing of some sort, which he refers to as "da riggable" (that is, something that can be rigged). Interested in the possibility of flight, the party enquires as to how they could assist; he answers that he needs hemp, fuel, and time. The party decides to go look for some hemp, which Josef can use to finish his craft - in exchange, they tell him, they're interested in using it.

They investigate, and find that the current big shot in town is a kid by the name of Bill. They arrange a deal with Bill, in which they'll trade him a crossbow from sufficient hemp for Josef to finish his craft. Bill agrees to the deal, and the party heads back to the barn to rest.

Session 02 - Teenage Wasteland

XP: 500 (story)

Shortly after the party sets down to rest (with William and Volos keeping watch outside), a mob of Nevhonim appear, some of whose clubs are on fire. Their apparent leader is holding a body; they find out that it's Igor, one of Bill's cronies, who seemed to be the only one who could count. Last time they saw Igor, however, he had a lower jaw.

The leader yells at William, who then goes inside to rouse his companions - the leader then informs his cronies to set the building on fire.

Tabby

Combat ensues. Of the eight members of the group, only three are standing when the last of the Nevhonim is felled.

After the combat, the group finds that one of the Nevhonim had a youngish Gaeli girl attached to him by a rope. Uriah enquires further, and finds that she is unable to speak - instead, she communicates with her flute.

Tabby (NPC) joined the group.

The party rests for a couple days, to recuperate from the battle. After, they venture to Bill, irritated with what happened - however, they find that Bill successfully procured the hemp, "from the Nevhonim." Irritated, they take their payment, then pay him a few bundles of crossbow bolts (which they had left out of the earlier deal) for alcohol, which the group has determined is suitable fuel.

Once da riggable is set up, the group begins to discuss where to go. There are two thoughts - either to head west, across the desert, or head north, to the mountains.

Loot

Wooden Maul, Masterwork (*1)
Wooden Maul, Masterwork (*2)
Quarterstaff, Masterwork (*3)
Natural Potion [Bear's Endurance (2nd @ 3rd)] (ID'd)
Thin sheet of wood, covered in writing on both sides [language unknown; Divine item] (*5)
Temporal Hourglass [Accelerate Metabolism (1st @ 1st), Dimension Swap (2nd @ 3rd)] (ID'd)

Session 03 - Decisions, Decisions

XP: 719 (469 combat, 250 story)

Volos decided that he was irritated with the group, and headed off on his own.

Volos (PC) left the group.

After he left, there was some debate regarding which way to go. The party decided to head north to the mountains, then - if that proved uneventful - to head to the waterfall near Edge.

Using "da riggable," they headed for the mountains. Along the way, they noticed a gremlin heading towards Germonik. Setting down, they found out that he was looking for the group - he had apparently planned on being part of the original expedition, but was late. After some debate, the group decided to allow the gremlin - who told them his name was Miggs - to join them.

Miggs (PC) joined the group.

The group arrived at the mountains some time later, and decided that there was little worth doing there. They decided to head to Arcturas to refuel, then carry on to the waterfall.

They arrived in Arcturas and refuelled. While the group was resting, Miggs planted flashpowder on Kuro and Shiro; when they woke up, Kuro fell prey to the trick, and angrily pulled his pistol on Miggs, who was clearly the culprit. After a warning shot was fired, the group carried on.

Arriving at the waterfall, there was some discussion as to the best course of action. They decided to go over the edge and follow the waterfall down to wherever it went.

They followed the waterfall down for a little less than two miles, and saw ground and a lake below. Kicking on their engines, they made a cautious landing.

They searched the lake, and found a river heading west-southwest. They decided to follow it. Some time later, they came across the edge of a forest, perpindicular to the river; they decide to continue following the river. Two days later, they came across a fork in the river: the river they were following joined another, and continued to flow south. The adjoining river was flowing from the north. The group decided to follow the flow, and headed south.

Two and a half days later, they encountered a strange humanoid-looking creature, up in a massive bulge in a tree. After several attempts at communication, the creature gestured for them to follow it, which they did. Four hours later, they arrived in a "city" of these tree-bulges. They were brought to one of the humanoids dressed in blue in the top of a tree.

An adu'ja

They found out that the creature they were brought to was an akashic, who rapidly learned their language. The group found out that these people were the Adu'ja, a race of - essentially - sentient mobile trees. The akashic's name was Aes'iel, and they learned later that he was a Simic - a druid/akashic. Aes'iel was also somewhat suspicious of Addison, though he did not mention why, save in a rather cryptic manner.

They asked several questions. The group learned that the adu'ja had been present for six-hundred years, and that the myconids - a race of fungus people - had been around for at least eight-hundred. They learned that the adu'jan akashics could only see up to around eight hundred years in the past: beyond that, there was a great gap in the world memory. They learned that there are other floating landmasses, though the adu'ja do not know how many there are; they also learned that there are sometimes visitors from elsewhere on this landmass (which they found was called Tai'lyan), but that they were primarily left alone.

They also found out that there was a cavern complex that connected Tai'lyan and Turas, in the mountains, "beyond the mushroom forest." They also learned that there were ancient ruins north of the forest, along the river, the nature of which the adu'ja were uncertain: it had always been ruins, in decay, for at least eight-hundred years or so.

The party decided to go explore the ruins. Before they set out, Aes'iel gave each member of the group (along with Tabby, who had been tagging along since they left Germonik, and would apparently not leave Uriah's side) an akashic stone, which allowed them to instantly learn the Adu'jan language, called Phytic. Aes'iel informed the group that, with that, they could speak with the adu'ja and the myconids. The party then set out.

Five days later, they arrived at the ruins. William noted, at first, that the architecture was similar to the Ronkan style; later on, he also noticed that they seemed similar to Elven architecture, as well. The group explored the ruins, which were the size of a city suitable for perhaps a thousand occupants; as they searched, they also salvaged as much usable metal as they could (as the remains of the buildings were metal in nature).

After awhile, Kuro, Cassian, William, Miggs, Shiro, and Uriah (though he was sleeping at the time) began sparking purple; Addison, meanwhile, began sparking white. They also began noticing ridges in the ground, as though something were traveling underground. Kuro flew up, and noticed that the ridges were appearing around the group in a vaguely circular pattern, and more were forming some distance from the group, no matter where they went. As those who were sparking neared the ridges, their sparking was more intense.

Miggs climbed up a delapidated building, and Shiro flew down to inform William of what he saw. As soon as he touched down, five creatures burst forth from the ground, forming a circle around the group.

Three of the creatures look like this...

...and the other two look like this.

Three of the creatures look like this... This creature is about the size of a large dog, with a short tail and tough carapace. Its back legs are long, while its front legs end in sickle-like claws. Beneath its head rest two equally sharp fangs, and it chitters and jumps about restlessly.

While the other two look like this... This creature slithers forward on a serpentine lower body. It is hunched forward, its two powerful arms curved like wicked scythes and its manibles dripping with acidic drool. The back of its head is elongated into a plate, covering most of its back save for a long spine on the top of its carapace.

Loot

38 pounds of usable iron
9 akashic stones, all containing the Phytic language

Session 04 - Question!

XP: 500 (story)

The creature Aes'iel called the memento umbra.

The group fought the creatures, in a rather vicious fight. They found that the creatures were able to regenerate their wounds - those they thought were slain rose to fight again. When the last was felled, they proceeded to smash in all of their skulls, as that seemed effective in stopping their regeneration.

In the course of the fight, Shiro and Tiy succumbed to their wounds. After a bit of healing onsite, the group gathered the bodies (including the bugs' bodies, which Kassian believed were able to be worked like iron) and returned to the Adu'ja, who they believed would be able to return the dead.

The adu'ja were in fact able to do so, and agreed to reincarnate their friends (in a rather Simic manner, combining the power of Nature and the Blue to reincarnate the creature in the same body), in exchange for a favor. The adu'ja had explored the memories of the party's world and people, and discovered the existence of the mementos - they also found that some had been trapped there, and sought a way out. Unexperienced in the ways of the mementos, they accidentally freed a particularly vicious memento, which Aes'iel believed was known as memento umbra.

To assist in their search for the creature, Aes'iel implanted a rough map of the continent into the minds of the party.

Waiting for the morning, the party is able to recuperate from the experience of the fight, which had pushed them to their limits.

XP: 675 (combat)

After resting and meeting up with their reincarnated members, the party discussed where to go. Kassian was adamant that the group go to the mountains; William questioned the human's insistence, and Kassian explained that the various things he had been picking up had a strange "aura" to them, and that he believed the things they fought at the ruins were the source. He believed that the myconids, whom the adu'ja had mentioned existed prior to the gap in the world memory (800 years prior to now), may know something about it.

William also made a query to the adu'ja regarding the possibility of ironwood, which he had encountered on Ganymede. Aes'iel told him that the adu'ja do indeed make ironwood, and keep stores of it, and that they may be willing to part with some of it.

Loot

5 bug carapaces
Map of Tai'lyan (memory now possessed by all current members of the party)

Crafting using bug carapaces

Almost everything from the corpse of a bug is usable, in terms of crafting items. Internal organs aside, a skilled crafter can work the bits and pieces in a manner similar to how iron, chitin, or leather would be worked.

Crafting armor out of the bug carapaces is similar to how armor is crafted from dragonhide. Multiple bug carapaces can be combined to produce more choice material for crafting - two Medium corpses can be combined to be treated as a Large corpse, while two Large corpses (or their equivalent) can be combined to be used as a Huge corpse.

In addition, due to the extreme hardness of the bugs' skeletal structures (both endo- and exo-), a clever crafter can craft weapons out of the corpses, as well. A weapon of one-handed size or smaller can be made in place of a shield, if the rest of the carapace is used to craft armor; if an entire carapace is used to produce weapons, it can produce: two two-handed weapons of a size equal to the size of the corpse; or, four one-handed weapons; or, eight light weapons. Ranged weapons require more choice bits of the creature (finding an appropriate sinew for a bow, for example, is rather difficult, as is finding bones that would function for a crossbow) - as such, halve the number of weapons of that size that can be made for the corpse being used.

In terms of crafting other kinds of items, the internal organs of the bugs can be used to construct technological devices from the Chemistry field (and the Chemistry field only); such devices have a rather bitter and disgusting smell and a worse taste, but they function well enough. Since these materials aren't useful for anything else, a Medium-size bug's corpse can be raided for parts that can be used to construct two Chemistry devices; for each category above Medium, this number doubles (a Small bug, then, would provide sufficient parts for one Chemistry device, while smaller bugs are simply too small to be of any use).

The corpses of bugs can also be used for the purposes of structures, including buildings and vehicles. To construct a vehicle of a given size, the crafter must have corpses sufficient to be one size category larger than the vehicle; for instance, to craft a Large vehicle, bug corpses whose combined size is Huge are required. However, such vehicles greatly resemble the corpses from which they were assembled, making them difficult and unusual to pilot, resulting in a PCP to the vehicle of -4. For every additional size category larger the assembled bug corpses are, this penalty is reduced by -2 (so in order to build a Large vehicle without a PCP, you would require bug caparaces whose combined size would be Colossal).

Session 05 - Mushroom Samba

The next session will be taking place on Saturday, October 14.