The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ooc]Hey Luminous, I bet you thought it'd never happen, but here it is, piece by jagged piece.[/ooc]


BOOK ONE is a revenge tale
Act 1 - The One Who Calls the Storm
Act 2 - The Executioner's Daughter
Act 3 - A Queen in Grey Raiment

BOOK TWO is a story of pure adventure
Act 1 - Experiments in Volumetric Orthography
Act 2 - Toward a Syntax of Four Dimensions
Act 3 - A Grammar of Formless Expression

BOOK THREE decides the fate of everything
Act 1 - They Set Sail on a Sea Without Water
Act 2 - ...Whose Corpse was Found at the Foot of the World
Act 3 - A Devil Took Root in the Coolness of His Shadow


bar-et (om-beh-ral): A genius practitioner of hen-gan who sold her comprehension of the art to whoever could afford it. With her resultant fortune she purchased several ships and a company of mercenaries, aspiring to join the ranks of merchant lords, but other hen-gan adepts, already affronted that an om-beh-ral should be so profligate in her proliferation of the art, conspired to destroy her. Now she is both shamed and destitute, her house gutted of its possessions and her slaves disbanded. Only her grand slave Fandhit and the vagabond assassin Camerron remain as allies, and Camerron cannot be trusted.

Fandhit (dwarf): A mathematical and linguistic prodigy, whom bar-et purchased at market when she saw that another customer was prepared to squander the child's talents on manual labour. In his youth he spent much of his time devising puzzles and mechanical amusements for his mistress, until at age 32 he became her grand slave. When the conspiracy of merchant lords destroyed bar-et's fortunes it was Fandhit's ingenuity that facilitated her outrageous scheme of revenge. Now 61 yers old, Fandhit bears all of life's vicissitudes with an often bitter amusement, and in his years of service he has cultivated a tortured, intimate familiarity with the politics of nar-en-in.

Camerron (human): An incorrigible liar with a temper that smolders and seethes. Though not legally bar-et's slave, he has served as her informant and assassin since he was orphaned at six years old. He does not know that she was the one who ordered his parents be beaten to death, and with all that she has given him it is uncertain how he would respond to such a revelation. At 27 years of age he his huge, hardened and scarred, missing three fingers and four teeth, yet he has a keen social sense and a veneer of affability that conceals his brooding humours and penchant for violence.

Camerron's unofficial name at the gaming table is "Sexy Bill Sykes"

Jaifi (goblin): A gunslinging mercenary with burn scars over two thirds of his body, though thankully, as he is quick to remark, "not where it matters". He does not appear until Book Two, Act 1: Experiments in Volumetric Orthography.

Indyiris (human): A childhood survivor of the Ithyrian genocide and an active Locksmith of shallow allegiance.  She does not appear until Book One, Act 3: A Queen in Grey Raiment.

[ooc]You won't know nuthin' bout this, unless you know sumfin' bout this.[/ooc]

[ooc]Can we spend a moment just talking about how awesome it is that this thread exists,[/ooc]

Quote from: Luminous Crayon
[ooc]Can we spend a moment just talking about how awesome it is that this thread exists,[/ooc]

[ooc]I've been craving some Jade Stage for ages now. I greatly anticipate the awesomeness that this thread will surely provide.[/occ]

the great chain: all denizens of nar-en-in exist at the pleasure of the merchant lords. Though most are not formally slaves, they are nevertheless bound by the alien formalities of om-beh-ral law, and by the vicissitudes of elven passion. The everpresent and unspoken threat of the merchant lords' brutality is known as the "great chain".

the coin: The world.

flipside: The antipodes.

yelp: Slaver slang for humans. An onomatopoeia.

stretch: Goblin slur for humans, originating from the racist adage: "humans are nothing but dwarves stretched out". Dwarves are perhaps more offended by the term than humans themselves.

merhound: Oceanic pack predators, usually only sighted during a battle or shipwreck when they surface to consume the fallen. Named after their haunting calls, which are likened to the cry of a forlorn hound. Colloquially called "seabitches".

skein: Individual who is suffering the manipulations of a hen-gan practitioner.

weed: Slur for om-beh-ral, after their slender frames and the colour of their blood.

mongrel: Someone who copulates with other species. One of the first slanders aimed at humans was that they were an entire species of mongrels, and that the offspring of such unions would be dangerous monstrosities. Humans do have a significant incidence of sexual interaction with dwarves, preferencing them for their phenotypic closeness, but this may be more in the interests of integration than actual attraction. (It is also worth mentioning that interbreeding is impossible between the sentient species of dojh-oln-beh. This has been common knowledge since before recorded history)

the-one-who-calls-the-storm: Among the om-beh-ral, objects, concepts, ideas and even people are considered relevant only insofar as they provide pleasure or utility. Those that offer neither are destroyed. This attitude extends to the spiritual domain as well: the forces of nature permit mortals to exist because of their capacity to engineer beauty, and when mortals fail to embody this principle they are purged from the world with hurricanes and floods. The banal and the indolent are perceived as inviting punishments on their whole tribe. They are therefore butchered before the spirits can bring those punishments to bear.

what are you to me?: The universal om-beh-ral greeting.


Brother Mercury (goblin): A bounty hunter with an artificial left hand that conceals a loaded pistol. He has a longstanding grudge against Camarron, and now that bar-et's fortunes have failed he is free to exact his revenge.

Twelvefingers and Blister (goblins): A pair of ex-slave smugglers operating out of yol-dis. One is named for the trophies dangling from his neck, the other for the deformities concealing his face. They claim to hate each other more than anything in the world, yet they have worked together for more than a decade.

Wrack'n'ruin (simoc): Also called "the Brute" or "Seaghost". A solitary sailor, scarred beyond recognition, who has piloted a small dhow in western nar-en-in for at least three decades. He has never been sighted on land, and no-one who has attempted to apprehend him has succeeded.

Déantach (human): A grand slave of merchant lord an-ral-don-beh. Given the current plight of his species, he has been called the "most fortunate human in the world". He pilots his master's notorious cruiser, Tide Killer.

an-ral-don-beh (om-beh-ral): The pre-eminent merchant lord of yol-dis. He is owed a great many favours in a great many nations, so that where other merchants vie for trade access and the control of shipping lanes, an-ral-don-beh influences what foreign goods are available in the first place.

Adremellah (human): The whore who betrays Camerron at the very beginning of the tale. His past parallels her own in many ways, though she is not as well equipped to deal with its consequences.

Small-Eyes (dwarf): A nameless wretch with an over-large skull and an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things maritime. He was sold by his family to the simoc pirate Cruxes in exchange for the release of his brother, Crofes of Ariyya, and has since been slave to numerous other captains.

Kilil (liriss): An assassin and torturer-for-hire. He has an ancient dagger made of ork steel, called Tongue-cutter, that lives up to its name.