Mars - Blood Legacy of Mars.pdf - SAVAGE WORLDS! - Maldaen

BLOOD

LEGACY OF

BY H. M. ‘ DAIN ’ LYBARGER

G uard Captain Rodel looked over the balcony at the red banners waving in the plaza below. They were

being held aloft by rabble; a disaffected and disloyal mob tearing up paving stones and lobbing them at

the palace windows. They were armed only with farm implements and tradesman’s tools – but they’re

numbers were growing…

In the royal family’s quarters, a nursemaid held a squalling infant to her breast, trying to soothe it. Fearfully, she

watched out the window as the mob tore down the gates and forced their way into the palace. “It will be all right,

little one. Your father will make sure of that…” she murmured, shuddering to think what the King would do to the

mob’s leaders once they were captured. Then she heard the sounds of ﬁ ghting, coming closer. Luria swaddled

the infant in her gray spiderweave cloak, and ﬂ ed.

As the palace gates cracked and fell, Rodel led two of the Royal Guard down the marble-pillared hall toward the

Throne Room. His Majesty must be protected! The crack of radium riﬂ es sounded as he turned the corner, and

both his companions were cut down by sizzling bolts! Rodel dived forward, naked blade in his hand – then his

mouth dropped open in shock! The Royal Guards at the Throne Room door had ﬁ red on their brethren – and now

their riﬂ es were leveled at him!

“Turn and go, Captain. Your duty to the tyrant is discharged -- his blood is already drying on the throne.” The

trembling Guardsman looked over his gunsights into Rodel’s eyes, and saw the resolve there. “The Citizen’s

Council has issued a warrant for your head as well as his – but you trained me. Don’t die trying to avenge a man

who wasn’t ﬁ t to lace your sandals.”

the baby, singing softly to calm his cries. Rodel held

the yoke lightly now, drifting in and out of sleep, listen-

ing to the girl’s sweet voice. His limbs felt cold, but her

voice warmed him somehow.

Rodel cursed the faithless soldier, but turn he did – to-

ward the royal apartments. The King may be slain, but

his blood was not all spilled; and Rodel’s duty to him

did not end with his personal death.

Discharging his duty, Captain Rodel breathed his last

as the air-skiff skidded to a halt beneath the looming

spires of a distant city.

The mob below had cut off all hope of escape, and

driven Luria upward into one of the palace spires as

she tried to hide. Suddenly, there were six of the Red

Banner swordsmen blocking the ramp before her!

Luria screamed, and turned to run back – but a broad-

shouldered man in the bronze wireweave of a Royal

Guard Oficer leapt from the balcony above, and into

the clot of swordsmen! “Run, girl! Run!” he cried,

pointing upward with his free hand as he cut the irst of

them down.

Alone in a strange city, caring for an infant not her

own, Luria did the best that she could. She scrounged

in the gutters for food; she begged. Perhaps if they

had led to Callor Maralin it would have been different,

but in Darisheel, like all Baltan cities, there are few

who act for charitable reasons. Before her beauty had

time to become haggard, Luria attracted the attention

of a whoremonger. There were Baltanese men who

preferred to lay with free women, not slaves, even

when they were paying for their pleasures. That life

was less hard than living on the streets, and selling

her body meant little to Luria now; she knew that she

could never fall in love with another man. The Guard

Oficer who had died to save her and her infant charge

had captured her heart, even though she had never

known his name.

Luria stumbled, but ran upward, protecting the infant

with her body. The ramp led to an airship dock at the

top of the spire. Pleasure-craft belonging to the royal

family were tied there. One bobbed invitingly against

the padded dock-bumpers, but it was a dead end for

the nursemaid – she had no knowledge of how to ly

an airship!

Luria heard footsteps on the ramp behind her, and

turned in fear – but it was the Guard Captain who

struggled into view. His armor was slashed, his cloak

was gone, and blood, thick and red, poured from be-

neath his weapon harness. “Hurry,” he urged, forcing a

smile. “those rascals won’t bother you again – but they

have plenty of friends.”

So Taso Anas grew up a whoreson, doted on and

spoiled by the girls of the house until he was old

enough to notice them as girls – then he was on the

streets on his own more often than not. That was but

the irst taste of rejection for young Taso Anas.

Rodel hustled the girl and her infant charge into the

air-skiff. Thumbing a contact on the console, he re-

leased the vessel’s gleamingly transparent wingsails.

Before strapping in, Rodel slashed his blade across

the skiff’s mooring line, severing it cleanly. He had no

need of it – there would be no returning to Maran – if

they could even escape.

His mother’s life had not been easy, but she had

saved her earnings and spent them to purchase a

gentleman’s education for her ‘son’. His fencing acad-

emy taught more than swordplay and dance; he was

taught letters and manners, and given the rudiments of

science and mathematics. She never spoke to him of

his father, but when in her cups she would spin tales

of a heroic swordsman who was fair of face and form,

and noble and pure of heart. Taso Anas could never

compete with that image of manly perfection, and

hardly tried. Whatever his mother might have wanted

him to believe, he was certain he was some canal-

trader’s by-blow. Still, her tall tales sparked in him a

love of literature and language. He drifted into writing

-- irst poetry, and then plays.

The sky above the city was full of ships, as the Navy

fought against the rebelling populace. An aerial cruis-

er, fallen to rebels within its own crew, was picking

off any lyers escaping the palace. Two were already

smoking wrecks in the plaza below. A deck-mounted

radium gun pivoted toward the unarmed lyer. Rodel

gripped the yoke tight, and slammed it forward into

the console. Wingsails folded, he dived straight at the

cruiser. The deck-gunner, fearing a suicidal crash from

the tiny skiff, linched. His shot went wide!

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but living by

the pen pays poorly in the stews of Darisheel. Every

artiste needs a patron, and patronage is hard to come

by when one has no family or lineage upon which to

base an introduction...

Rodel hauled back on the yoke, the muscles in his

arms straining -- and felt hot pain in his side as some-

thing tore within his wound. Warm blood gushed, but

he ignored it as he fought his tiny ship’s stabilizers.

Swooping low under the warship’s keel, Rodel broke

through to clear sky!

The air-skiff was a silver streak against the pink sun-

set. Westward it sailed, across pale red desert and

purple-tinged savannah. Luria huddled in the back with

OVERVIEW

Living the life of a wastrel poet in the

theater districts of the Baltan Confedera-

tion, Taso Anas has little ambition beyond

drinking and following his muse.

When an impoverished noble discovers

Taso's royal birthmark, he immediately

knows what it means: It means that he

has a way back into Baltan high society,

coat-tailing on the mysterious Prince's

fame as deposed Royalty!

Unfortunately for this patron of the arts,

there are political forces who would see

his protégé dead -- and other political

forces who would use him as a igurehead

for a Royalist Counter-revolution!

Enter the PCs, as friends or associates of

the poet or his patron, caught in a web of

intrigue, assassination, and violence!

ADVICE FOR THE

GAME MASTER

This adventure is organized differently

from most Savage Worlds adventures.

The plot is convoluted, and has several

potential branches. Because of this, the

main NPCs are given extensive write-

ups in the Dramatis Personae section in

the last chapter, along with a list of their

personal plots, plans, and goals. Loca-

tions which will be visited more than once

during the course of the adventure are

detailed in the last chapter as well, for

convenience. Refer frequently to that sec-

tion as you read through the adventure.

In addition, a relationship diagram has

been provided, showing the main NPCs

and their conlicting intentions, to help you

keep it all straight.

days at most. Feel free to insert other, shorter adven-

tures or encounters in and around Darisheel to oc-

cupy the PCs time as the main plot line develops.

Each Chapter has both Plot Point scenes which must

occur, and additional scenes which may or may not

play out, depending upon the PCs reactions to events.

It is also expected that the PCs will generate scenes

on their own, as they pursue their various courses of

action within Darisheel. In particular, uses of the skills

Investigate and Streetwise should be played out as

full scenes, as the PCs interact with the adventure’s

NPCs.

The PCs can enter into this adventure in several ways.

Unusually for a Savage Worlds adventure, it is entirely

possible for the PCs to come into it at separate points

and at cross-purposes to one another, if you wish and

if your players are willing. When PCs are not all in the

same scene together, you must pay special attention

to cutting between their locations so as to keep every-

one playing involved in events as they unfold. At many

points in the text, individual PCs will be referred to by

their relationship to the Prince. These relationships

are Friend, Rescuer, Agent, Minder, and Celebrity. The

entry-points for PCs who will fall into these rolls are

called out in the text. Assign any PC who are Lowborn

Baltanese to the Friend role, and any PCs with signii-

Between certain Chapters, a signiicant amount of

time is expected to pass. Several weeks may go by

between the events of Chapter One and Chapter Two,

and perhaps as much as a month may go by between

Chapter Two and Chapter Three. From there, things

pick up speed. The events of the last two Chapters

of the adventure take place over the course of a few

FRAMING DEVICE

INTOXICATION

If in your campaign you have established that the

Maran Revolution occurred more than a generation

ago, this adventure can still be incorporated as a

sort of ‘historical lashback’. Find an excuse for your

PCs to attend a play – a production of “Blood Lega-

cy” by the infamous Baltan playwright Taso Anas. As

the curtain goes up, have the players create tempo-

rary characters for use in this adventure, fulilling the

roles listed above… Afterward, the groundwork will

be laid for the framing adventure described on page

xx, which can easily take place in the current-day of

your campaign.

There are several scenes where one or more of the

NPC – and possibly the PCs – will be intoxicated.

When characters consume alcohol or other intoxi-

cants, they must make a Vigor roll. Success means

that they are merely tipsy, with no mechanical effect.

Failure on the Vigor roll indicates that the character

becomes drunk. Drunken characters are at -2 to

skills linked to Agility or Smarts.

Failure on a second Vigor roll means that the

character is very drunk: -4 to skills linked to Agility

or Smarts. Additional alcohol or other intoxicants

at that point will lead to 1 level of Fatigue per failed

Vigor roll. This can lead to Death if someone ‘helps’

the character drink even when he or she is Incapaci-

tated and incapable of voluntary action.

cant combat abilities to the Rescuer (and later Minder)

roles. A PC with skill in Investigation should of course

be put into the Agent role. Any PC who is not a Red

Martian should ill the Celebrity role, since he or she

will be a novelty in Baltan society. Although there are

ive different roles, there is no need to ill all of them,

nor is there a requirement that there be only one PC in

each role. You can run the adventure successfully with

as few as three players (Friend, Rescuer/Minder, and

Agent), two players (Friend or Rescuer and Agent),

or even one player (Friend who becomes Minder and

Agent as the story progresses).

During the adventure, NPCs will frequently lie to the

PCs – as the GM, you must handle this very carefully.

Although the NPCs may desperately wish to keep their

secrets, it is in the best interest of the game for those

secrets to be revealed. In iction of this type, particu-

larly as portrayed in movies and TV shows, when a

protagonist is lied to, even if the protagonist believes

what is said, the audience knows that the other party

is lying. RPGs blur the line between protagonist and

audience. To preserve the ability of the players to fol-

low and make sense of the story, the GM should make

all rolls for Persuasion and Notice publicly. That way,

even if the character is conned

into believing the lie, the player

is aware of the failed roll, and

knows that his character has

been deceived. GMs should

encourage the use of the Story

Declarations rules from page

88 of the MARS book to allow

players to manufacture fortu-

itous circumstances to protect

their characters from the side

effects of deceit.

FOR A LARGER VERSION OF THIS MAP

PLEASE REFER TO PAGE 31

Mars - Blood Legacy of Mars.pdf

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