KMC Forums - Upcoming Campaign II Episode VII Thread

Time is as ever my enemy, and I can no longer do any giant previews like we may have done in the past. Nonetheless, I'd like to give you guys some idea of what is upcoming- and the reason and nature of a change to the story titles

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Both Light and Dark Side teams alike have come to the fabled White Fortress, a lost pirate/outcast base of old. Trapped in a high-radiation system, the planet of the Fortress is only habitable for a year in every decade as the sun moves into an unusual position, its lethal radiation briefly blocked by stellar particles. Over the millennia, many pirate groups- and other types- have claimed the Fortress as their own; tried to civilise it and use technology to hold off the coming radiation. All have failed- it is said the Fortress is cursed. Each group that inhabits it destroys itself before they can finish the job.

The Fortress itself is the accumulation of thousands of years of failed bases, built besides, on top of or even inside the ruins of what came before. Now it is the mess of all those generations, piled high up, gleaming whitely in the harsh sunlight- and also home to endless catacombs of failed fortresses below. It is full of secrets and mysteries of time gone. No-one has settled the Fortress in a long time, but now it has become home to something very unusual...

The Jedi knew they were looking for the Fortress, for they are looking for places of ancient secrets; the places where the sinister Lady Adelmo looks in her relentless search for the Syphar N Kalar; the ancient Sith superweapon so mythological that no-one even knows what (or who) it was or what it did, and few believe it ever existed. They have discovered that Adelmo nearly got a vital clue to that legend ten years ago at the Fortress. But her story was one of violence and betrayal , which turned on her at her moment of triumph. She was left marooned on the planet without the knowledge she sought. How she escaped is unknown, but she missed her window. Ten years later, she has come there again- and the Jedi race to intercept her. But the Council have warned them that there is more to this world than Adelmo, formidable though she is- something tremendously powerful is stirring in the Dark Side- unknowable, as the Dark Side tends to be.

The Dark Siders had no idea they were going to run into the Fortress, but they knew all about the Dark Side. Someone has been going to great effort to kill the Dark Siders, and they have had no idea who it was- but they knew the Dark Side was clouding his or her actions. They have tried to trace the killers back to who hired them, finding only more mysteries- but eventually, they have a name and a place. The place turns out to be the White Fortress; the name is that of Larios Kuylen, former nemesis of the Jedi in the first campaign- and great swordsman of the Jedi himself in his early days- and former master of Galder, the famed killer of the Dark Side group. Kuylen's status as missing, dead or active has become so confused that he has become more legend now than man.

The Dark Siders are well acquainted with Adelmo, who acts ads their employer but also as a hated exploiter of their abilities. The Jedi well remember Kuylen, for it is one of Kuylen's ex-associates who gave them their knowledge of Adelmo, who was once someone Kuylen worked with. They did not expect the two paths to cross here- but everything is crossing over at the White Fortress.

Unaware of each other, the two sides arrive at the same time- only to find the Fortress now inhabited by what seems to be an army of Dark Siders, paying homage to their General Kuylen. Now, all the mysteries collide at once- who are these people? What do they want? What is Kuylen's plan? Where does Adelmo come in? Has she found her secret? Why were the Dark Siders targeted? And what of the curse of the Fortress?

The Dark Side is strong here indeed- very little is as it seems. They have come here for different reasons, but what both sides seek is the truth. Yet that truth may be what kills them.

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This is a much more focussed story than the sprawl of the last one. You're in the fortress, you know what you want, go get it. There are three barriers to pass- access to the Fortress at all, access to the higher levels, and finally access to the command spire, where your truths lay. How you get there is up to you- but for once, the 'total and pure violence' option won't work, because these sabre users all around you are serious. They may not be as good as you, but there are a lot of them.

So- sneak your way up? Talk your way up? Infiltrate your way up? The choices are many. For once, the Dark Siders have a cultural advantage. Normally working at the fringes, they can fit in rather well with a group of Dark Siders and can attempt the insider route- though don't expect reputation alone to get you anywhere. For the Jedi, the pressure is on almost at once, as they fundamentally need to keep quiet the fact that they are Jedi in the first place, and lying is not their strength. Yet balance is maintained; the Jedi have two trump cards for the story. One they know about- one is a great surprise for them to find.

Both sides, then, have an even shot of getting to their targets first. And just maybe- when the Jedi find out that the answers to a lot of their mysteries reside here, and the Dark Siders find the Jedi are tracing a vital clue to the Syphar N Kalar, both sides might take a passing interest in the other's plots...

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Structurally, this is the first time the two sides have been playing on the same side for years. However, this does not quite mean a return to the crazy wild times of yesterday- technically speaking, you are both doing different stories, just set in the same place. It would, of course, ruin things immediately if you met up (especially for the Jedi) so expect only to encounter each other indirectly. Unless, maybe, there is some sort of climactic finale...

That being so, I am slightly differentiating the story titles. The Jedi are looking for answers to a mystery- their quest is for The Secret of the White Fortress. Whilst the Dark Siders are looking for the person who wants them dead- they will confront The Master of the White Fortress.

All to come in the New Year...

__________________

"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"

"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"

BtVS