HeySeuss

Battletech: Anabasis

_{Yes, I supported the kickstarter. I love BT.}

T;DR Summary:

- The year 3050 in the Battletech Universe
- The primary weapon of war is the Battlemech, a class of heavily armored robots piloted by a human's nervous system.
- Characters are Mechwarriors in the lance (four to six -- I am willing to augment the lance) or support personnel (there's about a platoon of those, including infantry/security and aerial reconnaissance for the mechs.) However, three characters is all I need to start this.
- The characters top military academy students from the Federated Commonwealth, in their final year of training at the New Avalon Institute of Science (NAIS) College of Military Science or The Nagelring, and are doing field work in experimental battlemechs in conjunction with the College of Engineering at NAIS, who are trying out various new technologies.
- The unit and their support staff find themselves out in Steelton in the Lyran Commonwealth side of the FC, doing field tests of sensor and targeting systems in dense sandstorm conditions and other inclement weather specifically.
- Inner Sphere tech only; it's 3050, right before certain things happen. (Not spoiling)
- Characters should be members of the AFFC -- Lyran or FedSuns side.
- Discord Link - Feel free to ask questions.

In Character Info:

3050; humanity has gone to the stars. But human nature hasn't changed much. In the last three hundred years, since the Star League Defense Forces jumped out of the Inner Sphere and into the beyond, the Inner Sphere has been wracked with a series of destructive wars to determine the succession of one of the Great Houses to the First Lordship of the Star League, a seat vacant since the Amaris Coup three hundred years ago. The only thing that's been accomplished is the near-destruction of space travel technology.

Right now, however, the Inner Sphere is in a good place. Thanks to Grayson Carlyle's recovery of the Helm Memory Core in 3028, technology is improving rapidly, a reversal from the fall of the Star League and the destruction of the Succession Wars when so much technology was lost that some planets were brought back to a 21st century standard of technology. With the marriage of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, it seems inevitable that the unified Federated Commonwealth will eventually be able to bring the other three great houses to the negotiating table to revive the Star League, possibly without having a destructive war in the process. It feels like humanity turned a corner.

Graduation is a heady time for any student, but particularly for senior students at NAIS and the Nagelring, the best of whom are on a detached duty in the far reaches of the Lyran Commonwealth, finishing up a joint maneuver with regional militia and the 12th Star Guards, a mercenary unit, and testing new and different systems for the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth. It's a cool assignment where the young mechwarriors get to use unusual and new pieces of technology and battlemechs in a variety of interesting field conditions as test pilots near the Periphery. Though there is little action to be had besides dealing with potential pirate attacks, they get to run exercises with an elite mercenary unit and, in general, be free of the day to day discipline of academy life. It's almost like a working vacation, a reprieve for all the hard work of four years of the Academy and the hard years before that, preparing to enter the Academy.

They don't expect what's coming for them from the Periphery. No one does.

Out of Character Info:

I can answer any and all battletech universe questions, but here's the essentials; your characters are Mechwarriors, and are most likely from a feudal class or wealthy background. While the militaries are becoming more egalitarian with the rediscovery of Lostech from the Helm Memory Core in 3028 the average mechwarrior is still the product of a feudal family and their retainers that have been piloting mechs, sometimes the same mech inherited from family, for generations.

They are on soft duty, so they think, but there is about to be a huge disruption to the Inner Sphere's status quo and it's going to come at them from the Periphery. They will not be prepared for it but they will have to deal with it.

I designed the unit, a small unit of mechwarriors working with technology types, so that the characters would have a good reason to be very inexperienced characters with very advanced equipment -- realistically, anything in the Inner Sphere could show up on these scientific studies -- including mechs that belong typically to other factions. I wanted to keep it flexible.

I realize that the amount of lore in this RP can be daunting, but I've been in on the lore stuff for this setting since childhood and I can cut through the confusion. If you are confused or not familiar with the setting, you can throw me a concept and I can work out a sheet for you that handles the history portion -- and I am willing to do this. I can assign titles, planets, and a degree of background sufficient to set up your character as credible in their position and then let you fill out the rest.

Samewise, I have a list of acceptable battlemechs to start with that make it easy; since the starting battlemech is just that and characters will be switching in the process of the RP, it's not hugely important to get the most perfect, bestest, awesomest mech from the outset, because your character won't be in it long (unless you love it). I am recommending light and medium mechs because this is still a training unit and because the maneuverability is important. It's not like you'll stay in them unless your character is just a big fan of the chassis.

Star Wars - Liberators

Back at the base, the Intruders, despite the slovenly, by Core Worlder military standards, appearance, were already turning their X-wings around on the maintenance. The techs were on it while the pilots rested, but once the pilots got their sack time, they were back in the effort to run diagnostics and scheduled maintenance. It wasn't as simple as just parking the X-wing like an air car, it was a combat spacecraft tuned with performance in mind, and that meant maintenance was intensive.

There were never enough techs to go around, but this band of junkers, smugglers, survey spacers, pirates and systems defense force veterans were used to having to do it themselves.

Readiness was important because if they might have to launch at a moment's notice. It'd happened before.

So when one of Xen's flunkies came around with an invitation for Shan, it was met with annoyance -- he was greasy, dirty and sweating from the intensive work of overhauling one of the engine units in his X-wing that came up with a questionable status, some sort of wiring issue or a gasket or one of the many different forms of wear and tear that could befall highly and precisely tuned performance craft. With sweat on his brow and goggles over his eye, an arc-welder in hand, he shrugged and left the gear on a wheeled table.

If Xen was asking for an audience, he'd get Shan as the invitation arrived. And so even with the cocked eyebrow of the aide asking a silent question of his attire and presentation, he stomped, in reinforced work boots and stained coveralls to meet the CO.

Blood Debt - Medieval/Fantasy

"Ain't here. Bunnies have 'is carcass up in the village square." the orc said flatly. He knew the value of an enemy skull on a pole, but the idea that Brand was defiled in this way struck a savage chord with the orc, and it was picked up by the slinking mass of fur and muscle he came with, as a rumbling growl erupted from the the beast's chest. He'd heard rumors when they streamed back to his camp as other mercenaries, upset over the lack of pay that generally prevailed, except to certain captains being promised land and title, left.

They'd been not-so-subtly encouraged to behave in Ceril, on account of the crown having already put muscle in power with lands and title, but Vendland was a different sort of mess where pillaging was the rule, as unpaid mercenaries took their due. The Orcish company was in a strange position of owning lands and stopping bandits that thought they'd carry on as they had in Vendland. So Dakgu had went along with a couple hunting parties and got the news that way.

"Harold's not payin' his mercs, and Brand was shieldin' Barkstead's cubs. Harold wanted the t-t-title to give away to one of his henchmen, wot I heard." Dakgu decided to provide more information as clarification; it sounded like wherever Diēscogitō went into exile, the news didn't come that easily.

Guess the bunnies thought that's a good way to make people not want to rebel," the orc added grimly and coldly, with a hawk and a spit, which was to say that he didn't sound all that dissuaded from going to town and doing precisely that.

Star Wars - Liberators

Just a small post ladies and gents.

@HeySeuss, if you want to have Shan being summoned to the Admiral's Lounge in the Bitter End in the next post that might set us up for some interaction. Or you can PM me the opening and we can collab it out.

@Flagg

That sounds good, let's talk about it tomorrow. I will be around all day.

Blood Debt - Medieval/Fantasy

"T-t-t-title's g-good in the Company," he pointed out to his 'brother,' "And Myrmith was barking," he explained as he squatted down on his haunches amongst the flowers. His warg there, a truly nasty piece of business that looked like it'd served in a couple campaigns itself, seemed pretty in tune with the orc, who was all long, lanky muscle, hunched over, with a topknot of black hair. He had tusks and it all looked a bit savage and unkempt, but the actual equipment was carefully maintained; immaculate fletchings on the arrows, cord-wrapped knife handles and an axe that was balanced and sized for an orc, handle axed and head sharpened. It was easy for a less observant person to write off the orc as some sort of dimwit.

It was a lesson that a lot of beings didn't survive. Dakgu was a nasty piece of work, after all.

But it was true, an entire company of pissed off orcs tended to respect one of their own that went one to one with a powerful knife-ear ranger and came out on top, but a bunch of elven rangers might not be so happy. On the other hand, Myrmith Tinuviel was genocidal.

They'd have to deal. The truth was that in taking Ceril for their latest employer, the Company did come up against the forces that the Elven kingdom of Torceleblas supported, and killed quite a few of theirs in the process. That was war, and if tuskers took a certain pleasure in it, that was quite natural to them. In any event, the Queen there wasn't anything on Bloody Harold. Once the fighting was done, she was rather intent on running a profitable, peaceful kingdom without exacting bloody revenge on anyone that ever disrespected her.

She didn't know her father at all and wasn't trying to impress him. Bloody Harold? Always trying to impress one of his ancestors or show them up. Dakgu? Grateful he didn't know a father. Well, except Brand and he didn't leave the Nightwood trying to please the old ranger either. Dakgu's life was the one he chose, and he wasn't going to the likes of Harvey dictate that to him.

And perhaps there would be a reckoning with his elven 'kin.' There was never much love lost there in a lot of ways, but Dakgu always held his bargains and gave his word in good faith. The elaborate and bloody vengeance piece? Keeping the world in line a bit.

"Sides, we ain't here," he had to speak carefully, because of his impediment, "to fight each other."

Star Wars - Liberators

Aryon Mountains, Two Klicks South of Acting Imperial Command

---

Corporations would call this a collaboration, several Rebel SpecForces types with local Uslam miners, the best drilling and detonation engineers they had, working on a project deep in the mountain. It was several weeks' work to set up a contingency for invasion on their end; tunnels bored, wires laid, charges set. The idea wasn't so much to blow a section of the mountain off, though that was what was going to happen, as much as it was to create another chain reaction.

Grozaddik, the growling Wookiee SpecForces NCO in charge of the charges (heh) clicked back acknowledgement of the Captain's orders and then gave more orders to the rest, some of whom translated for the others.

The work still moved at a pace, checking the primers and making sure the explosives were in good condition. Function checks mattered. It wasn't just some explosive charges, but also some EMP, for a specific purpose. As large profile and loud as this was going to be, it was cover for something else. That didn't mean the operation was a facade, since they had a target and objective, but it did mean that one thing could also provide cover for another.

Grozaddik had to admire Shang's ingenuity here. They were all volunteers for the long haul. Rebel Command did not want to throw people away, but some of them wanted into the fight. This particular SpecForces detachment knew that they were on Uslam for the haul and probably to the end.

The troopers and the miners started calling out their status checks; once they were all green, they started to move to the exfil tunnel; dug in transport and everything they needed to get out into their next RV, so they could plan the next move of this conflict. Grozaddik, no fan of the Empire, hoped they'd enjoy the show.

Secondary Imperial Command Center

---

That was no laser. The charges themselves represented little in the way of threats, but there was something else, a rumbling.

Uslam was snow-bound, this was the winter.

The avalanche was not the minor ones that anyone that knew the place was used to. This was a massive thing that rumbled across the horizon, whose awakening roar could be heard for miles.

Entire rock faces were obliterated by expertly set charges, providing a smooth slide down, so that the snow and rock could gain momentum unimpeded.

Until it got to the Imperial base anyway. It was a SpecForces plan from the getgo, a classic sabotage move on their part calculated for maximum strategic disruption. It was one of a series of things planned to give the Imperials a hard time.

Lorya

---

If you could shoot at it from space, it could shoot back at you. And so Lorya hadn't been idle since the uprising either. With Imperial ships in orbit, the batteries that Admiral Xen brought down spun up to life. With city-based generators, rather than depending simply on more compact space-based generators (which were brought down and hooked into the grid as well) the City had plenty of power. The shields came down in a flash and the turbolaser batteries and an ion cannon all fired in concert according to a coordinated fire plan tied through a central computer system deep in the city.

Xen may have been abandoning them for a more favorable battlefield, but the ground-based fire added a new element to the touch and go of space combat -- now the Empire had to decide if it wanted to gamble its defenses on Lorya's firepower and shielding...and the shielding came right back up the instant that the firing ceased, giving the groundside crews time to recalibrate and recharge. They were managing the power supply carefully, and focusing the fire on the most immediate threats -- the Victory's and Imperials in orbit. The residents could feel the shudder of power systems and hear the screaming atmosphere as the turbolaser bolts superheated air, as well as watch the light show. In the Headquarters, much of the staff were devoted to either firing the weapons, coordinating the shields, monitoring power or generating reports from the sensors on what the enemy contacts were doing.

Unsealed - Fantasy

Teal Deer

---

- Fantasy set in a world in the 17th century level of tech. A world of reason, where education and technology are starting to take off.
- Magic was a thing in the past, documented in history.
- The history, of course, is inaccurate. The real story is there.
- The Empire, which rules the continent and has for a long time, is built upon its founding myth, of the binding of magic by Jovon.
- Beasts of out of legends mount a ferocious attack on the Imperial family. They are led by men that seem to know magic, which is impossible since magic has been suppressed for millennia.
- Your character, a female descendant of Jovon and Yariel, his queen, watches her family being attacked and knows that the only thing she can do to save herself and even have a chance of fighting the fell beasts is to follow the instructions of a family legend - go down these stairs and insert that stone there.
- The plot proceeds from that start.
- Looking for advanced and someone that can collaborate on the design. The world as it is would be of your designing. I already worked out the world as it was. They now collide.
- You can PM or reach out to HeySeuss #6650 on Discord.

In Character

---

The official histories claim that Jovon, who became first emperor, defeated Ciron, the last great magocrat, a sorcerer that lusted to rule and coveted his wife to be, Yariel. Magic, that tore the world apart, was at last done for. Ciron, who represented all that was wrong with the world, was the end of the era.

Since that time, with the magic's sources suppressed, sealed away, civilization flourished under a peaceful rule without spirits, good or bad, to interfere in the affairs of mortals. The magic ebbed away without replenishment and there was a stable, prosperous golden age. No one had magic anymore, and order and peace prevailed. Humanity was not without strife, for there was unrest in the Empire, but the magic that nearly tore the world apart with its apocalyptic power was no more. The damage was limited.

Until, of course, someone found a way to partially unseal magic, and the Imperial family found itself under assault by fell beasts of a like from the legends of the Age of Tempest. Even the muskets of the guard could not stop these things, or the men that led them, wielding fire and lightning, felling those that ruled the Empire. It is the hell of the old stories come again, the old fear that someday, someone would figure out how to undo the ancient bindings.

An heir, knowing of an old family catacomb and a contingency against such a thing, stumbles down the stairs, as the palace rumbles, coughing from the dust, with a runestone in hand, to be inserted into a crevice only in the most dire of circumstances. They were Empress Yariel's instructions to her descendants, handed down from mother to daughter in the Imperial Family. Only to be used in the most dire of need, when all seems lost.

Her savior, Yariel's contingency against the return of magic, the intended guardian of her bloodline, is none other than Ciron, the great villain of history.

Out of Character

---

There is, of course, a deeper story of what really happened, and I will be happy to discuss that in Discord with interested players. I need to use Discord to brainstorm quickly. What really happened in the Age of Tempest is a well kept secret, because the truth would shatter the Empire anyway. Who the heroes are, who the villains are, who did what? It's been centuries and an Empire intent on unifying a continent with ideas has been at the histories. The truth has long since been lost. Some of this plot will be the system shock of your character talking to a man that knew the heroes of the age in the flesh...and the danger of what he might say if it got out.

Is there an element of Mary Magdalene and that debate to this plot? Absolutely.

But what remains is that magic has returned and the Empire is being torn apart. And your character has to make decisions under duress.

If that's your kind of plot, please reach out and thanks for reading!

Blood Debt - Medieval/Fantasy

Dakgu always felt, through his life, that he benefited from underestimation. Myrmith Tinuviel certainly underestimated his cunning. An experienced, sorcerous elven ranger with an incredible god complex, the elf fell for it and that's when Dakgu became the Elf-Scalper.

To be fair, the mad ranger had a huge price on his head and was burning villages, a real menace. But the lordling that put up the bounty was grudging to pay and then had Dakgu banned from his realm after he did it. He was used to that brand of thanks from the bunnies.

By that time, Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi, specifically the warlord of the company, Old Radush One-Eye, heard of him and brought him on as the warg-keeper and lead scout. The rest was a terrifying reputation for prowess in battle that included a cutthroat corps of orcs that ran side by side with wargs and slit throats in the knights, felling sentries and enemy leaders ahead of the marching, chanting, skull-bedecked, black-iron-disciplined ranks of the Orcish Free Company, who were noted for their strength and brutality in the open fight.

They'd conquered a kingdom for a Queen, a rumored witch, that way, brutally chopping down opposition, a legion of heavy orcish infantry marching in ferocious discipline while old One-Eye watched and directed this fell orchestra.

Dakgu's skills came from his mother, taken from him by human bandits, and a human that took him in with his wargs, when he was orphaned in the world. Always half a warg himself, Dakgu did not socialize or trust easily, but Brand tried, and perhaps he even succeeded a little in that the strange orcish youth was had decent interactions with Bosfyrd with Brand's sponsorship, even if his experience with human employers, including as a member of one of the most feared mercenary companies on the continent, was shit. It did not help that he had a cleft palate and a speech impediment that caused humans to mock him.

Well, only really stupid ones these days. Dakgu was a master of the cold glare, promising the retribution for such things. He led such humans to their death when trying to capture or kill (well, kill period) Myrmith Tinuviel. They mocked his speech right up until they died terribly in the face of blood-magic, arrows and horribly possessed animals perverted to the purpose of the ranger's vengeance on civilization.

He slipped into Bloody Harold's realm by completely bypassing the patrols of the border, mercenaries hungry to loot the roads for their wealth, unpaid and antsy. Dakgu, ever the superlative pair of eyes, was able to identify some of the banners; the Bear Men, l'Oriflamme, the Red Fangs, the Tempest. Others, he identified by region of origin based on equipment. By all accounts, these were the forces that helped murder Brand, and their time would come.

But for now, one orc, even with a terror of a warg for mount and companion, really a full partner as was the way of Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi, he avoided the battles, even if there was a part of him that called for blood. But the greater, and more dangerous part of Dakgu, as he slunk in the green and the mud, as the spring rain fell, counseled to measure twice and cut once, to fight coldly and to win. That voice had carried him through everything.

The landmarks became more familiar, part of the last few years of his childhood, even as the skies went gray and the elements pissed down on him -- and he ignored the elements. He was long of limb, but hunched over, gray-green muscle exposed, and the orc himself wearing a mix of fur and leather and spikes. Like all of Brand's Brood, he knew the way to move through this broken terrain quickly, the tricks of a woodland strider. In a way, he'd been one of Brand's best students, despite the fact that he was an Orc and considered by so many to be deficient. His grasp of the natural, and link with his wargs, was a formidable phenomenon that even a druid looked at in askance.

But as an orc, he was in tune with the savage, merciless ways of nature. Not for him the gentleness of elven and human rangers, he relished the challenge of life as an Orc; the adversity made you stronger. And Brand taught that in a sense.

But as he came closer to the runes that marked the perimeter of the Barrows, he knew he'd have to deal with the 'family.' Some would grasp the necessity to fight Bloody Harold with the uncaring ferocity of a storm, to crack rock with the relentless patience of water, and to burn like a forest fire. They'd bring too much of their cultural morals to the fight. Dakgu knew differently.

But as the first one there, he had time to consider how he'd say it, not that he was ever very good at saying it. But Dakgu's wisdom was the raw kind, the dangerous cunning of a low thing that would not be trespassed with impunity. The body of one of the few good things in his life was on display in the village, left there by a man in samite robes, with rouged cheeks and a greedy eye for gold. Dakgu had no respect for kings or thrones, the laws of that world never held much bond on him. Gold never impressed him.

He made his camp among the graves of other rangers, where Brand's body should lay. There were runes all around and a glow in the air; things grew here as they never did outside its perimeter, a splash of color and beauty. It was a place of private wonderment, but the beauty seemed to Dakgu to pall. This was Brand's place, not his. The trees and undergrowth, however, were like walls, keeping the rest of the world out. It would due as a place of refuge and a place to meet unseen, so they could begin a campaign of the likes that Harold would not believe that a mere handful could carry out.

He was a creature of blood, and this was a war of blood.

Star Wars - Liberators

I'm sorry but this is just too fast paced for me and I think I'm going to have to drop out

@YungTweak

No problem, we wish you well on what you do in the Guild.

Blood Debt - Medieval/Fantasy

Name: The Ranger Barrows
Type: Location
Faction/Unit: Brand's Brood
Synopsis of Role: Deep in the Nightwood is a gathering place and burial ground for rangers since the misty beginnings of known history. The barrows are shrouded in truly ancient trees and it takes rangers, who know the tricks and the runes, to slip through, due to the defensive magic of the place. Rangers have been laid to rest in this place for a long time, with only other rangers able to read the faint carvings in the rocks that mark their burial places.

It is also a meeting ground, with rough amenities for someone to make camp there for quite some long time. It's not really a home, but a holdfast.

The place is defensible, if needs arise, but non-rangers have never been able to get through. It was Brand's wish to be buried here and it's the Brood's duty to see it done.