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S K U L L D U G G E R Y
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P R E M I S E
There is a city. A city caught between here and there. Both center and terminus, beginning and end, light and dark. It rest at a great convergence, sandwiched between the Storm of Creation above and the Storm of Obliteration below. It is the change between these two extremes constantly building and rebuilding itself. The first city and somehow the last city. A gateway between a myriad of worlds and folding realities. You can cross its expanse in one day if you wish hard enough, and yet it stretches past every horizon. It has been called many names: Hell, Heaven, the Gate, the Labyrinth, the Nexus, and yet most know it simply as Coarse.
Coarse is split into various districts, each controlled by the various guilds. Each of these guilds serving a functional purpose within the city, as well as holding distinct cultural and philosophical identities. At the best of cases the guilds see one another as idiots, at the worst destabilizing factors that must be wiped out. Traditionally guild politics is a delicate and subtle affair. Rarely though war will spark between the guilds, the last of these caused part of Coarse to fall way in the Storm of Obliteration. Not a fun time for anyone as you could imagine. Even more so as it drew the ire of the Platinum Tower.
The Platinum Tower is the heart of Coarse. Stretching impossibly high in the air and always at the center of the horizon, no matter where you look, always watching. The Tower is home to an entity known only as the Outrider. They say he is older than Coarse itself, a left over from some long dead reality. Whatever he is, from his throne at the top of Tower he watches over Coarse. The Outrider has one rule and that rule is to not mess with his city. The guilds failed in that regard - on account of the whole dropping part of Coarse in the physical manifestation of oblivion - and so they were shattered.
We now enter this new period of interregnum. The winds of change whip and swirl about the city. From this disruption of age old hierarchies comes with it chaos, and with chaos comes opportunity.
Coarse is split into various districts, each controlled by the various guilds. Each of these guilds serving a functional purpose within the city, as well as holding distinct cultural and philosophical identities. At the best of cases the guilds see one another as idiots, at the worst destabilizing factors that must be wiped out. Traditionally guild politics is a delicate and subtle affair. Rarely though war will spark between the guilds, the last of these caused part of Coarse to fall way in the Storm of Obliteration. Not a fun time for anyone as you could imagine. Even more so as it drew the ire of the Platinum Tower.
The Platinum Tower is the heart of Coarse. Stretching impossibly high in the air and always at the center of the horizon, no matter where you look, always watching. The Tower is home to an entity known only as the Outrider. They say he is older than Coarse itself, a left over from some long dead reality. Whatever he is, from his throne at the top of Tower he watches over Coarse. The Outrider has one rule and that rule is to not mess with his city. The guilds failed in that regard - on account of the whole dropping part of Coarse in the physical manifestation of oblivion - and so they were shattered.
We now enter this new period of interregnum. The winds of change whip and swirl about the city. From this disruption of age old hierarchies comes with it chaos, and with chaos comes opportunity.
Y O U
Who are you? Well, you are a thief, a pickpocket, a vagabond, and a scoundrel. You make your living based upon the misjudgment and misfortune of others, never personal save for when it is. You are one of the many drifters that come and go through Coarse, not aligned to any guild's particular politics or philosophy. You take on whatever job is offered to you, or maybe you do some 'freelance' work whatever gets you paid. Or maybe that's not you. Maybe you are young and naive with dreams of adventure. Maybe you used to work with one of the guilds before the Shattering. Maybe you stumbled upon one of the many portals that lead to Coarse just hours ago and have no idea what is going on.
What matters though is what you've heard.
The Twisting Vault, a grand repository of riches and wonders somewhere beneath Coarse. With the resulting chaos of the Shattering, the retinues of guards kept in supply by the guilds has diminished. If there was any time in all of existence to break into it, that time would be now. The heist of a lifetime, one which would mark you as a god among thieves. And as chance has it, you've just been hired by someone with a very special map. Best be ready for some shenanigans.
What matters though is what you've heard.
The Twisting Vault, a grand repository of riches and wonders somewhere beneath Coarse. With the resulting chaos of the Shattering, the retinues of guards kept in supply by the guilds has diminished. If there was any time in all of existence to break into it, that time would be now. The heist of a lifetime, one which would mark you as a god among thieves. And as chance has it, you've just been hired by someone with a very special map. Best be ready for some shenanigans.
Hiya! This is Skullduggery, a peculiar mix between Ocean's Eleven and Planescape. This is not a story about saving the world, rescuing the princess, slaying the dragon, or throwing the evil jewelry into the volcano. (Though, all those events could hypothetically be happening at the same exact time in a place like Coarse.) This is a much more lighthearted story at its center, one where the stakes are as high or as low as you want to make them. Things can get real dark but at the same time you best be not afraid to laugh. Coarse by its very nature is a place where anything can happen. Created in such a way that you as players have as much freedom to put in as much or as little into the world as you want. Do you want to write a morally complex and compelling character? That's cool! Do you just really want to be a wizard lizard that somehow wears high-tops? Rad. Do you want to somehow do both? Godspeed my friend. Coarse is a place where a robot run by the power of love, a talking tree stump, and a gnome that thinks it is an orc can potentially save the world. Cause hey, if you can't tell a good story without having fun with it, why make a story at all?
