Clockwork Abattoir: A Cadaverous Earth campaign

[Steerpike]

Wow, sounds like a great location!

Are the Schismarchs Pestilentialists or Malignants? Or neither?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Glad you like it! Admittedly, Sarantos is a hodgepodge of the Twilight Cities (although Dolmen and Somnambulon have minuscule presences). However, my goal wasn't so much originality as it was inclusion of many CE elements, a place where players could easily play a host of different races from different locales.

As for the Schismarchs, they are both. Conflict is the mother of adventure (hooks).

Pestilentialists include:

The Orthodox Contagionites are led by Eparch Bhael (the same one shot by Eareg in Chymalea), assisted by Diaconite Mizpah. True to their name, they are the most orthodox sect, and have the best relations with mercantile traders and the upper class.

Hierosybil Hagar-Sarrat is the prioress of the Abscess Sisterhood, a group of mendicant sybil-nuns riddled with prophetic pustules that they nurture and rupture to perform their auguries.

Schismarchs tied to the Malignants include:

Neerajit, the Manged Papess -the zerda leader of the Sarcoptic Communion, a populist sect favored by the poor that ritually shares its wealth (of which, diseases count). The Papess' most-favored disciples form the Scabietic Hand, who are part akin to a religious thieves' guild.

Crucifer Sarpan-Tsaauth, the naghini leader of the Order of Gangrenous Salvation. The Crucifer is tied to a cross and milked for his venom and pus and carried through the streets as both banner and exemplar of suffering as 'they' preach the duality of pain & pleasure, life & death, recovery & decay. For those make the appropriate 'donation', they bless the righteous with the service of the Order's assassin-monks.

Archimandrite Ibaz Dirnacus is the abbot of Lugent Cauldron, inhabited by the Mephitic Friars, who ritually sleep on beds of hot nails and wear cages over their heads. The Lugent Cauldron is poised on the precipice of Trephine Hill, and is a frequent haunt for sadists, masochists, and the bored and decadent.



More recently, Inquisitor Xathrites of the Inquisition has shown up, sent by the big-wigs in Marainein to cull the heretics from the true believers, just as the maggots eat his left leg in self-inflicted bedridement. He is assisted by Prelate Chemosh and his subordinate putrefactors.

While the Schismarchs war (spiritually and politically, when not physically) amongst themselves, they are the masters of Scabtown, the Barrio otherwise known as the Red Palimpsest, which is the largest and most populous region of Sarantos. The urchin-gangs of Scabtown, such as the Crimson Peelers and the Bruise-Rats, at times oppose and predate on these sects, but they generally serve, unwittingly or unknowingly, as lackeys and recruitment-grounds for the Schismarchs.

EDIT: After seeing the last two replies, maybe I should take some time to draft some proper posts on the locale. I would happy recieve input from you and the rest of the crew.

[Steerpike]

That's wonderfully detailed. I'd love to see a write-up.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Thanks!

Besides their names, did you have any additional info on the Orthodox Contagionites, Abscess Sisterhood, Order of Gangrenous Salvation, or Mephitic Friars?

[Steerpike]

I don't think I wrote anything down about them. I like the prophetic pustules angle for the Abscess Sisterhood.

I imagine the Mephitic Friars swing noxious censors, and use alchemical vapours to induce visions and mystic ecstasies.

The Order of Gangrenous Salvation... perhaps they nourish a state of advancing sepsis kept barely-in-check through drugs and witchery, with rank indicated by the number of unclosed wounds they possess.

I think the Orthodox Contagionites would be pretty textbook Pestilentialists, as you suggest.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Perfect -thanks for the extra info! As usual, it's wonderfully evocative and visceral. I'll update Ibaz and the other monks at the Cauldron. Same with the Crucifer and the Order.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

FE & Steerpike,

Thanks for the rapid replies from both of you. I've greatly enjoyed reading your posts, and hopefully I've repaid in kind.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

FE, to which health-related rule are you referring?

[False Epiphany]

The following:

In addition to taking damage from their Might, Agility, or Intellect Pool, PCs also have a damage track. The
damage track has four states (from best to worst): hale, impaired, debilitated, and dead. When one of the PCʼs stat
Pools reaches 0, she moves one step down the damage track. Thus, if she is hale, she becomes impaired. If she is
already impaired, she becomes debilitated. If she is already debilitated, she becomes dead.

...

IMPAIRED: Impaired is a wounded or injured state. When an impaired character applies Grit, it costs 1 extra
point per level applied. For example, applying one level of Grit costs 3 points instead of 2, and applying two levels of
Grit cost 6 points instead of 4. An impaired character ignores minor and major effect results on his rolls. When an
impaired PC takes enough damage to reduce one of his stat Pools to 0, he becomes debilitated.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Hmm, I had totally forgot about that rule. I'm of the mind to scrap it, as its narratively appropriate, and personally enjoyable, for dramatic PC comebacks to occur, and impaired and debilitated PCs being denied minor and major effects would hinder that. I still like the extra Grit cost, though.

Thoughts?

[False Epiphany]

As someone currently playing an impaired PC hoping to make a dramatic comeback (and who's rolled a bevy of 5s and 6s), I do have to admit some degree of bias...

...but having something special happen when you roll a 5 or 6 is fun, and having that happen less often is less fun. On a broader tangent, I also think it's preferable for game mechanics to add new twists and turns to the narrative than it is to take them away. So, in keeping with the rule's original spirit that "things don't go your way when you're hurt," I might suggest having 2s introduce minor new complications when you're impaired. Kinda the way 5s already introduce minor benefits, but karmically reversed.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Ok, consider that negation of minor and major benefits negated and its rule revised. As for 2s creating minor complication when you're impaired, I'm open to the change, but I'd like to get feedback from some of my tabletop Penumbra players first.