Battlefield Bangkok

Independently Published by City of Ghosts Printers Guild.

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Commander Promoted.

Five months into his term as commander of the Corvis watch, Commander Helstrom has been promoted and moved to work directly with his highness Duke Ebonhart the Third, he will be greatly missed as the city struggles to attain peace.
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Last wild undead “down”

The last of the roving undead created by the creation of the Witchfire have been hunted down and put back to rest, however a number of “allied” dead remain at large and protected by their liege lords.

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Mayor Velanois Bans Khadorian Imports…again

For the third time in 6 months Mayor Velanois has ruled against the lightening of the Khadorian import ban. The Khadorian merchant faction represented by Mr Demetris appealed against the ban, but were turned down.

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Street Battle leaves 12 Dead.

A night time fight between unknown factions left 12 bodies on the street in one of the largest blood baths in recent weeks, While none of the bodies showed any direct gang signs, a number showed the plague like sores of the newer Quaska thieves guild that appears to be making moves to oust the weakened Sweet Lord and his allied factions.

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Con Artist Strikes Again

Yet another of Corvis’ “new” rich has been hit by the cities ever elusive master con artist. This time it is rumoured he made off with some 400 bottles of Llaelese wine. The elusive “Limus Elmire”, or so it is said he is called, has managed to avoid all attempts to catch him, including the offer of a 50,000 Crown reward.

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Shek Macra Moves in

Yet to be confirmed but it is said that Shek Macra has moved into Corvis. Said to be one of the most powerful mages in the region, no one is quite sure why he’d want to be in Corvis. His actual whereabouts are unknown but his well known man servant Blind Boura has been seen, or rather, noticed around town.

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Cathedral To Open

The new cathedral of Morrow will open shortly to great fanfare , Father Dumas will be holding a special mass which he hopes will bring a new peace to Corvis.

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Dwarf Slaying Continues

It seems the continuing religious persecution of Cyriss followers continues in spite of promises by the Dwarf community that they will be halted. The latest body was found after it had been “Jacked” and left with the symbol of Cyriss melted into the bodies chest.

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Viloss Denies Wrong Doing

While the body count keeps rising, Exemplar Viloss continues to continues to stalk the streets at night and is never seen far from the increasing nightly body count. Viloss claims he is out “calming souls” and “curing the sick” , however the new watch commander has apparently demanded that he present himself to the watch to discuss his actions further.

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Ropped into carrying out a covert mission for the military the party carried out 2, 3 system jumps to arrive at the rendezous in their unarmed civilian target.  Docked at the the research station was some kind of small “alien” craft about the size of a Military Raptor.  No visible weaponry and the engine energy system was not something anyone recognized.

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Either way their mission was to facilitate a meeting, not get fussed about alien space craft. They docked and the Lt Douglas went on board with order to the party to stay on their ship until he returned. Time passed, and then the power on the Research station went off. Life support, Gravity and lights. A small debate was had and then the army boys volunteered to head on board while the Navy boys and Doc remained safe on their own craft.

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A slow exploration of the small research station eventually turned up the sound of Lt Douglas “crying”. Following the sniffles, he was found huddled in a corner clutching his Picon Pistol and rocking back and forwards in a state that could best be described as “in shock”. He also had a fine spray of blood over his right shoulder. While one of the army boys decided to see if he could be snapped out of it the other moved to check out the “meeting room”, as he got close to opening the door, Lt Douglas suddenly snapped out of his shock and demanded the team leave the station immedlately and return to the ship. Being ex-army boys the intrepid soldiers shrugged and ignored him. Lt Douglas moved to snap a shot off , but was too slow, taking a bullet in the right arm, his own shot missing horribly and then he was hit in the right arm.  Armless and gun less he still tried to make a run for it until brought low be a punch to the face.  With the navy boy wrapped up and bleeding out, they decided to check out the meeting room.

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They were met by a strange site, a desk, two chairs, a brief case, a lot of blood and a dead body with its’ face blown off…wearing the same uniform as Lt Douglas and of a very similar (if not the same) build.  The brief case was quickly popped open to reveal a strange looking device of tubes and liquids, with a green button.  Where more logical minds might have thought “where is the red button” the army boys just pressed the green button and watched as the liquids mixed to form one new green form in a middle container… cool they thought, time to call the Navy boys in .

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Doc and one of the ex-navy boys headed over to the station and in very short order declared that “It’s a bomb of some kind, it’s a chemical bomb, or maybe a bio agent, and there’s enough in it to wipe out a small planet…” At this point there was still an arguement about taking it along, but before guns could be drawn news of the Alien ship powering up had the team scurrying back to their own ship, along with Lt Douglas and leaving the bomb behind.

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Wasting no time they team dissengaged from the research ship and made a jump, just as the alien ship launched some kind of missle.

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Doc quickly went to work on Lt Douglas, medically as well as psychologically, as well as checking out the dead body. He soon concluded that the body was also Lt Douglas… a worrying fact that… and that the Lt Douglas that was dead, was not the Douglas that they came with. (Clever check of stomache contents) .  The live Lt Douglas was left restrained in the sick bay as well as drugged up once questioning was finished. He seemed innocent enough, cracking under pressure of questions to admit that he had shot the other Douglas after freaking out when he saw him on the research station waiting for him. Though he had no recollection of taking his gun with him on to the station, “I never take my gun to these meetings!” and had no idea why he’d taken it this time or even when he’d taken it.

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A week in jump space left the team no wiser as to what they had seen. Though when they dropped out of Jump space it seemed like it might be a good idea to tell someone, but not everyone agreed….

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After an epic session of character creation,which took a bit longer than expected due to there being a lot of players, and only one had made a Traveller character in the past 10 years. But after some fun the characters developed, learnt, got wounded and eventually mustered out with a range spread of 32 to 52.  An aged Navy Captain being the oldest member of the party, though that didn’t stop him throwing the first attack of the episode. The only Scout of the party fluffed his mustering out roles…no ship!

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While I’d hoped to some what hide the campaign focus of the game, the home worlds were a bit of a give away with names like Picon, Caprica and so forth.. my attempts of “yes well I chose these world’s because I had nice background data on them.” was totally laughed at, “So those Cylons! Which of us is it?”

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The game play started a later than planned and we unfortunately lost some of the players, including the scout, which made Surveying more fun.  Though with all words in the Caprica system known the only danger to the ship was the senile Captain Seldon who was constantly in danger of opening the cargo doors on a planet with a rather iffy atmosphere.

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Episode one : Cue Theme Music. Mustering out the party were not left to their own devices for very long. Approached by an ex crew member of the Captain’s they quickly agreed to meet with a member of Cascia Mining Corp with regard to a potential mission.  The ex grunts motivated more than the Navy boys due to a shortage of on hand cash.  The mission was simple enough. Pop out to the Frontier System and track down a missing mining survey ship (the Anubis) that had gone missing.  Cascia Mining Corp had been under the impression that the party had a ship, so after some grinding of teeth they agreed to loan the team a renovated Far Trade with a J3 drive but no weaponry.  At 80 MCr the team decided that it would be best not to put any dents in it.

The journey to Frontier was uneventful, two J3 jumps with a refuel in the middle saw them arrive and head straight to the tiny planet of Frontier. A very small frontier mining planet with a population in the hundreds. Locating the Anubis took very little time. And the team headed down to the surface and headed towards the downed craft.  Prior to arrival the ship was shown to be totally powered down, and holed in three locations by what the team gunner decided must be some seriously advanced laser / energy weapons.

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A detailed search of the ship found 3 dead crew from suffocation in areas hit in space, three more dead crew from close range shots, obviously the Anubis had been stopped, border and the crew killed, external checks showed interested markings that the team decided were from some sort of towing device, for what ever reason, who ever took out the Anubis had towed it to the planet surface rather than leave it in space. Two crew were missing along with the ships shuttle, a civilian Raptor. At this point the party were pondering on pirates and an inside job, but the ship showed no sign of pillaging.  When auxillary power was returned to the ship the team found the computer system was totally scrambled and unusable. Though they copied the software onto a PDA for further review, no access was found to data on what happened to the ship.

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A visit to the start port saw the Captain Seldon deck the Dock hand on duty for what amounted to his belief they were been ripped off for docking fees on what amounted to a bit of hard rock. Meanwhile in town the team found that at the same time as the Anubis was being shot down, the entire population center suffered a power outage for no reason, and once powered up all the computers were scrambled… all except one guy who lived out in the boonies. The team nipped over to his place, sure enough his old computer was fine, a few questions eventually lead to what the team believed was the prime, no network connection.

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Heading out the team decided to see if they could locate the Raptor in space. No ships had passed through the sector in the past 3 weeks, nothing had left either so there was a good chance the Raptor was still out there drifting, though it had been just under three weeks since the Anubis was downed, so the team didn’t give much hope to finding anyone alive.

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The Raptor was located without any hardship, and sure enough powered down to a bare minimum. But a minimal power field was detected on closer inspection.  So Vacc Suits on pop across to the shuttle…no, not this team, the Captain decided he needed a challenge so they popped open the cargo doors and he proceeded to scoop up the shuttle. Nicely done it was too. That done gravity and air were restored to the Cargo bay though the team kept all their Protective gear on just in case. On first review the Raptor appeared empty, but then the team noticed that one of the low berth racks was on, and sure enough there was a crew man inside. Of course  no dedicated medic on board… who is going to risk waking him up! Up steps JoaT, not for the first time, and does the necessary, and the crewman was brought back.

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The crewman’s  story didn’t help a great deal, he knew little more than the party, the ship was attacked, and he ran like hell to the Raptor as soon as he heard the alarms going off and the engines die. He manually Jacked open the Shuttle bay doors and then gave the Raptor a minimal boost before cutting all power and diving into a Low Berth, praying for a miracle.  Not much new there other than.. one crew member was still missing.

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A return to the ship saw the ship searched again, and nothing found until they looked at the ship blue prints and saw that 30% of the ship was fuel tanks… a quick check and one tank was found to be empty, cracking open a maintenance fuel hatch they soon found the last crew member, dead from suffocation inside the fuel tank, or, I should add, locked inside the fuel tank. The hatch had been resealed from the outside after the crew member had climbed in to hide.

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Well mission accomplished the team headed home to Caprica, job done, no one dead, easy cash in the bag. And it all looked good until the Vipers turned up and requested the team land on Picon.

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There the team were met and grilled by a senior member of naval intelligence, who then shanghaied them for a job for the navy, a civilian craft was needed in order to facilitate a meeting that would raise no suspicions amongst the civilian population nor raise alarm for the Cylons at the meeing. The younger member of the team, had to be updated on the Cylons and the First Cylon War and why this meeting was being kept clandestine. Yes in at the deep end!

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July 13th will see the Traveller RPG launch in Bangkok, using the Classic / LBB version of the rules, along with Snapshot for combat.  Traveller was the first Sci-Fi RPG I ever played and stuck in my mind long after others had faded away. The character generation system is one of the most unique and fun ever devised. Certainly killing off all hope of min / maxing a character or creating a template character over and over again. Variety is guaranteed! The game is d6 based. Stats are 2d6, but can go higher than 12.

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Combat is brutal, fast, viscous and deadly, as it should be. When you get hit by a shotgun at close range, then you and your adjacent buddies should be scrapping your guts off the floor, not picking pellets from their finger nails.  He who shoots first, tends also to be the last one to shoot too.

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Campaign wise, I’m giving nothing away at present for what is planned, other than to say that all players will start on the same world, be human, but have a choice of homeworlds to select from that will give a slight variation in background as well as some initial skills.  All career paths are open though I will be recommending against merchants, for reasons that will become very clear shortly after we start the campaign.

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I’ve created some Snapshot fast reference sheets to help everyone through the first combat incident. Though after a few fights it should become pretty easy to manage as Snapshot is a very straightforward system to use.  So see you on the 13th… bring your Vacc Suits!

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Borloch for Mayor.

After his brave actions on the night of the attack on our fair city by nefarious sources loyal to the traitorous previous mayor, the city council has decided to declare Council Man Borloch,, Mayor for Life! We citizens of Corvis are honored to have a man of such self sacrifice and integrity as our Mayor!

Corvis Against the Puppet King.

As has been long know, the thrown of our kingdom is presently held by the usurper and rebel weakling Leto, who stole the thrown from it’s rightful heir through trickery and witch craft. Corvis is proud to declare its’ allegiance with King Vinter! After the cowardly attacks on the city council we were indeed most fortunate to be able to call upon King Vinter and his allied forces to bring stability back to our city, whilst the forces of Leto were nowhere to be seen in our hour of need!

Rebels to be Hung!

In a cowardly attack upon our city, a number of rebels and rebel sorcerers attacked the city prison where they managed to rescue a number of rebel scum of little consequence. 15 of the rebels were killed and 6 captured. Sadly, “Stevious Sackly”, a father of 3 young children was killed in this cowardly attack. A service will be held for him at the city hall and a collection made for his family. The University of Corvis has offered free education for his children.

The criminals captured will be sentenced by the court and are expected to be hung within the week. The ring leader, one Bart, a sorcerer of some repute will be on display for  the public to display their outrage at this villain before he is hung, drawn and quartered in public.

Curfew.

Please note that while the city is cleaned of the last vestiges of criminal elements that a dusk till dawn curfew is in place. Remember also that the ownership of swords and firearms is illegal, you should hand in your weapons before the end of the week to avoid prosecution!

Father Dumas Kidnapped.

While great strides have been made to combat the rebel elements, it is with great sadness that we must report that Father Dumas has been kidnapped by a desperate group of these criminals. What they hope to gain from the kidnap of our most respected priest we have no idea! If you have news that leads to the rescue of Father Dumas then report it immediately. A reward of 100 Gold Crowns will be given to each person with news that leads to his rescue. False representation is punishable by public flogging!

Sunbright Estates

Presently recognized as one of the leaders of the criminal elements. The Sunbright estates have been confiscated by the crown. His Royal Highness King Vinter will reside in the estate when he is in Corvis. While no doubt many of you will wish to pay our True King your respects, he humbly requests that you allow him is privacy and do not gather at the estate. Gifts may be sent to the city hall for forwarding to his Highness.

Alchemy and Witchcraft.

Evil doers take note! The City of Corvis will not tolerate the use of necromantic magic, dark alchemy or sorcery. The punishment for such crimes is death without hearing. The Witch Hunter General has given the town watch permission to detain, question and if necessary torture anyone who is know to consort or harbor witches! There is a 100 gold crown reward for information leading to the arrest of any witch. False representation is punishable by public flogging!

Shipping.

Contrary to reports, shipping and merchant caravans are allowed to go about their business as usual. King Vinter has no wish to prevent our fair city from going about it’s usual business and in fact has decided to drop the grossly unfair tax on Khadorian goods and merchandise too!

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The party had little trouble entering Corvis, passing several check points where they had the rest of their weapons confiscated for being smart arses, but otherwise entered unmolested and were surprised to find the city both quiet and peaceful. No beggars on the streets, no street corner riff raff and none of the Sweet Lords crews to be seen. The peacefulness was rather disturbing.  A quick treck to the Church found them looking down the barrel of Cpt Helstrom’s pistol and (much to my amusement) the party thought he’d switched sides, when he put a bullet in the back of the head of the Inquisitor that was with him. The party took more than a few seconds to wonder what exactly had happened. But then as they checked for bullet holes they realized it was just the Inquisitor that had been shot.

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Helstrom brought the party up to speed and told them he’d be back in 24 hours with details on how to rescue Father Dumas from the dungeon where he was being held, as well as with some weapons. In the time between the party managed to find time for :

• Gob to nip out and try and get into the Temple of Cyriss, but the doors were locked
• A trip to the Sweet Lords ship, where it was really quiet and the Sweet Lord tasked the party with helping to get the city back on it’s knees – to him. As well as try and rescure Lord Sunbright.
• A misguided but successful quest placed upon the party by their dear friend Harcourt Horkel, Milskrat found him to be a great guy, Kovul for some reason wanted to kill him on sight…hmmm
• And from helping Harcourt the party ended up running into the Blighted Dwarves that the party had evaded in the forest, killing themand Kovul took the lead Dwarves Axe “Brain Frost”, a covenant weapon.

And then back to the main plot, the party picked up their weapons rowed out to the dungeon sewer entrance and moved swiftly to enter.  Finally they arrived at the stairs up into the Dungeon. First up was Bart (The Gobber) , he popped up from the trap door to find himself face to face with a guard using the privy. Bart (covered in mud and gunk) quickly explained that he was cleaning the sewer, which the guard found to be a pretty reasonable statment. Gob followed (another Gobber covered in gunk), “part of the same team”. Okay passable, next up Milskrat armed with Large Hammer “Err… sewer cleaning crew?” more a question than a statement from the Trollkin.  Now being caught on the crapper with his pants down the guard knew better than to argue, next up, Kovul,”Part of the…yea well what ever!” An argument now broke out amongst the sewer cleaning crew as to what to do with the man on the privy.  Which ended as follows as Kovul asked “So do you support Vinter Raelthorne?” , “No Sir”? said the guard (telling Morrow’s own truth), “Bollock’s!” said Kovul and swung at him with his Axe…missed and said guards man then dived screaming down the open trap door. All chance of sneaking in was over and the party just glared at Kovul, who glared back. Time passed and then alarm bells started to ring and combat broke out.

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In the ensuing chaos, the party managed to find several prisoners (including Father Dumas and Lord Sunbright), free them and almost escaped without casualties. But were cut off by the guards and the arrival of lots of guns And Van Oberen. Bart was overcome by a group of viscous Skorne paingivers that he ran into  and while he didn’t bleed out, he was left behind by his valiant buddies. (”Leave no man behind!” not being part of the parties creed) The rest of the rescue team managed to fight off the wave of Skorne that took down Bart, lost a couple of rescued prisoners and then plunged through the blood grates back into the Sewer to flee into the night.

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And so, father Dumas is saved, Skorne are in the city and Bart has been captured… Can the party save Corvis or will they call it a day and bugger off to Five Fingers!

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CORVIS ATTACKED!!

Beyond all belief out fair city of Corvis was attacked and defiled by an army of undead lead by none other than the niece of Father Dumas!

The attacked started shortly before the main city fireworks display got underway with undead pouring from the rivers. They rapidly took the docks as well as several naval vessels moored off shore.

Initially their main focus was on devastation and mayhem though , as one they turned their attention towards to the Cathedral of Morrow after 2 hours of the assault.

The defense of the Cathedral was lead by Father Dumas and backed up by the lay members of the church as well as a number of the city guard and local toughs.

The Cathedral defenses were finally over run and the defenders fell back to the crypt of Alexia’s mother! At the sight Alexia and the flying corpses of four of the original Witches of Corvis were discovered breaking the circles of protection.

The defenders were unable to stop the events of chaos and evil being performed and Alexia was able to recover not only the body of her mother but also the cursed Witchfire blade itself!!!

How over just as all seemed lost an unknown wizard materialized and laid waste to a vast number of undead while striking down Alexia. Sadly this did not stop the army of evil. Alexia rose again and although the surviving forces on hand tried to stop her, she recovered the sword and with a baleful curse flew away with the rest

of the witches coven. Of the heroic wizard no sign was found, it is feared he may have been carried away by the witches. With the departure Alexia the army of dead, simply collapsed, their armies work done!

Dented Helm “The Wake”.

Garek has announced a period of mourning at the Dented Helm, during this time all beers will be served at half price to all council employed clean up and salvage crews.

Pray to Menoth for Salvation says Exemplar Viloss

Exemplar Viloss looks upon the events of the past week as nothing more than can be expected to befall a city of unholy souls!!! We’re not convinced he has a point but the Chapel of Menoth wasn’t touched by the undead. Exemplar Viloss put the safety of his chapel’s safety down to his total and pure faith in Menoth.

Church Calls for Volunteers.

Father Dumas is looked for volunteers to help repair and clean up the church grounds. The church offers free food and accommodation to all volunteers. Food donations are also needed to help feed those left homeless by the attack. Families are also needed for a number of children left orphaned.

Bridge Troll Slaughters Continue.

After slaughtering a group of mercenaries lead by Gregor Grundi, the north bridge continues to be plagued by a Bridge Troll. The city council and Merchant council are offering a 5000 Crown reward for the head of the Troll and proof that it’s nest has been cleaned out of any young.

Yellow Shields up thuggery and theft.

Even after the destruction of our fair city it seems some people can not stop themselves from praying upon our citizens in the hours of need and despair. Attacks on homeless, undefended homes and damaged business premises. There seems to be no depths to which they won’t fall, even offering low cost and free “6th I” to people who are presently looking at the ruins of their lives.

Lord Sunbright Donates to City.

Though his own estate was untouched by the resent devastation, Lord Sunbright has donated some 100,000 Crowns to the rebuilding of the city. He also asked to add this message “Gentlemen solutions are well overdue! Lets clean up and have closure!”

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New Campaign run by Wuffy kicks off on May 4th. The first session will be to create the world.
Each player will be a creator Deity, Forging the land and Races and societies.

This session will establish the game world, including what will be allowed for players to develop. Will it be a low magic world? High Technology, will it be Barren land on which much blood will be lost?

Once the land has been forged, A group of adventurers will be asked by their kingdom or Temple to go out and explore the new lands. Each player’s character will be the head of an expedition, he will have to balance discovery, colony building, alliances with the locals and other players While seeking to expand the lands for his Benefactor.

Or will they turn on their benefactor and make them self Ruler of the new land.

RSVP here on Meet Up

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Hoax or Reality. Undead Trick or Treat!

The military of Corvis was put on high alert today. The basis of this alert seems to be news regarding an attack on the city due in the next couple of days, by an undead army! Captain Helstrom has mustered the Blue Coats and Nigh Glass militia, doubling street patrols, gate guards and mounted patrols into the woods/ Magistrate Borloch however has suggested that the whole thing is nothing more than someone’s idea of a grand (but over done) plan for the Longest Night, he warns that “The church and city council will take a dim view on anyone caught up in necromancy, even at this time of year!”

Dented Helm “Corvis Lager” Launch.

Rhulic brewer Garek, announces that the 1000 Crown tables are almost fully booked for the big launch event. Notable attendees include everyone who is anyone and a few anyone’s who wish they were someone. Free beer, food and of course the new Corvis Lager will be flowing for the honored guests. Rumor has it that the Llael embassy booked 3 tables!!!

“6th I” Drug Price Drops!

While Yellow Shield gang members have been visible less than usual over the past week, the price of “6^th I” has dropped due to an increase in supply. The price has made the drug readily affordable to the average man on the street. Certainly not a good thing. The ever invisible Mr. Wednesday sent us an announcement just today, offering a reward of 2000 Crowns for information leading to the death or capture of the people behind the supply and smuggling of the drug into Corvis.

Menoth Chapel Defaced

Exemplar Viloss is said to be less than impressed with the city watch after his new chapel was defaced. Apparently anti Menoth Slogans were painted on the alls of the church and the altar was left with some less than charitable donations. Exemplar Viloss was more concerned with the incompetence of the watch than he defacement of his chapel, “Even Morrow acknowledged that Menoth is the father of all gods!” was his statement before returning to cleaning the chapel.

Warehouse Burnt Down!

In spite of a city wide ban on fireworks being set off during the Longest Night celebrations, it seems some folks just don’t listen, A large explosion ripped apart a warehouse held by the Khador Trade Representative Office. Apparently the fire was set off by locally hired guards who lacked the common sense to see off Skigg with buckets of water. The guards were all swiftly arrested by the watch and are being held on charges of Arson. They could also yet be hauled up on charges of , illegal discharge of firearms and possession of illegal weapons. The Trial is sent for the 7th of Glaceus.

Ogrun Assaulted by Rats!

In related news, one of the hired help was said to be none other than an Ogrun. Who according to sources “Screamed like a Bogger bitch with her hair on fire when he saw the Skiggs!” A sad day for Ogrun everywhere.

Message from the new Ambassador.

His lordship Aryn Lymos was presented as the new ambassador. Promoted from his role as Trade Attaché, Lord Lymos had the following statement “Following from the unpleasant incident that occurred in Corvis this month I am delighted to take on the role of Ambassador to Corvis. I hope to ensure that trade continues to flourish between Cygnar and Llael and that we will not let this incident become and issue for either nation.”

Bridge Troll Slaughters Hunters

A team of 7 “so called” experienced hunters set off to take down the Bridge Troll north of the city were slaughtered. The only survivor (as usual) being Gregor Grundi. He had plenty to say on the fight and remains optimistic that the Troll will kill plenty more people in rather bloody fashion before it’s taken down. Ashley Alton was unavailable for comment, apparently heading North on university business.

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