d20 Modern game: the AEGIS Chronicle

[NekoAli]

This is the story hour for my new d20 Modern game. It is a homebrew setting,
using all the rules from the d20 Modern and Urban Arcana book. It is sort of an
'everything and the kitchen sink' game, not entirely unlike the Urban Arcana
setting but with some significant differences.

The world as we know it seems normal. People work, live and spend their lives
without knowing of a wider existance just below the surface. For the world as we
know it is only one of countless other Earths, each varying to some smaller or
greater degree. Some worlds are hardly differenet from the one that we know,
while others are radically different, with monsters only known to us in myth and
legend commonplace. Sometimes however, there is a crossing between worlds, with
people, creatures or things moving from one Earth to another.

Most people aren't aware of these things though. Some crossovers come from
Earths so similar, that what crosses over blends in easily with our world. Some
times it's a bit harder to explain things, but people have an amazing ability to
rationalize the unusual away. In some cases though, what crosses over is to
strange, to different or to dangerous to be left alone or explained away. In
that case, someone needs to step in and deal with with the situation before it
gets to far out of hand. This is where AEGIS comes in.

AEGIS is a shadowy government agency dedicated to protecting American (and by
default the world's) citizens from dangers from these other Earths. While the
general populace is unaware of these things beyond science fiction and fantasy
stories, AEGIS and it's various other counterparts around the world seek to
maintain this illusion or normalcy, to allow people to go about their lives as
usual. These people step up to face the dangers of dimensional travellers, rogue
psions or magic gone wrong and stop them quickly and quietly, before normal
people find out about them.

Some of these agents are talented people from our world. Some are dimensional
refugees with no way to go home, trading their skills and talents for a
relatively safe place to live. AEGIS works under the cover of a special elite
anti-terrorist military unit. Different bases are located in several locations
around the country, each protecting their own area. Only the members of AEGIS
and certain highly placed goverment personell are aware of the orginization's
true agenda.

Policy is very strict on dealing with dimensional crossovers. Items are located,
studied and stored in various secret warehouses about the country. People and
creatures from other Earths are a bit more difficult to deal with. Those that
exhibit obvious danger to the people of this Earth are to be destroyed whenever
possible, or trapped and sealed away when that isn't possible. For those that
are not dangerous, they are given a choice. Either join the agency and work for
them, or be routed into specially created enclaves monitored by AEGIS. Those who
choose not to join the agency are provided with some assistance and mostly left
to live life as best they can, providing they follow our laws and certain
restrictions. For those people who look human or nearly so, it is relatively
easy to ease into society with AEGIS' help. For obvious non-humans, it is
harder, but the agency helps where they can and arranges homes away from the
prying eyes of ordinary citizens. Unfortuantely, the nature of cross-dimensional
travel makes it impossible to return back to the same world a person originally
came from. With untold countless parallell dimensions, and more being created
constatly, sending something back to the same world it came from is not
possible.

Those that choose to work with the agency are given better treatment. They often
prove to be the most valuable agents that AEGIS has, with different and useful
abilities, and a familiarity with what the agency routinely has to deal with.
The majority of other upper level agents come from people who have either had an
encounter with the unusual, or abilities that set them apart from ordinary
humans. Lower level agents, support personel and functionaries are generally
enlisted military personel or civilians who have been brought in to support the
active agents and support the anti-terrorist task force facade. While they are
aware of the truth of the matter, they are carefully selected for secrecy and
the ability to deal with the truth.

The players are the members of the Alpha team of Bay City's branch of AEGIS.
They are the primary team, the best that AEGIS has in the area. Bay City is an
old industrial city on the coast of New Jersey, once heavily occupied by various
heavy industries, but now mostly in disrepair and falling down as more and more
industries move out of country for cheap labor. AEGIS has established a military
base as cover, with a high-tech headquarters underneath to run their operations
out of. They have also secretly bought up real estate around and outside of the
city to use as private enclaves for dimensional refugees.

The Alpha team currently consist of these members:

Alexandra, a human telepath. A civilian, she was recruited for her psychic
abilities. Alex is played by DevilGirl.

Argus Bloodbane, an elf sniper. Though with his build and ears, he looks
different from humans, but fits in close enough to pass as one under casual
inspection. Argus is played by Silvr_Dragon

Jack 'Answulfs' Bristelle, a teifling gunman. A native to this Earth, but blood
from another runs through his veins, marking him as different than others, and
gifting him with some abilities that other native humans don't have. Jack is
played by Nadal.

 

[Silvr_Dragon]

Name: Argus Bloodbane
Race: Elf
Hair: Black, cut short, and tucked under his hat
Eyes: Blue
General Appearance: Everything black, from his black boots, to black jeans, black shirt, black overcoat, to his wide-rimmed black hat, which he tucks his ears into. "Darkness"; His personal Baretta Light Fifty sniper rifle, is never far from him.
Attitude: Argus is very serious at all times, and treats everything with the utmost seriousness. He never smiles, and rarely ever speaks. Despite this, Argus cares for his fellow soldiers, and would do anything to protect them.
Background: Very little is known about his past. What is known is that he used to be the captain of an elite military assassination unit called "Longshot", which was reportedly wiped out years ago.
Other information: If one were to pay close attention, they might notice the scar on his neck, where a bullet ripped through his vocal chords, almost killing him. With the help of reconstructive surgery, Argus can still speak, but it causes him immense pain, and the strain causes minor bleeding in his throat, making him cough up blood when he talks.

 

[Silvr_Dragon]

Name: Alexandra Leyne
Race: Human
Hair: Red but dyed black, her red roots can still be seen. Her hair is shoulder length and slightly wavy
General Appearance: She is unmistakably good looking. Her eyes are large, round, strangely coloured, one being green, and the other blue, both very dark, and easily her most noticeable feature, whereas the rest of her face, while still being very pretty, isn’t anywhere near as remarkable. She wears a lot of black, but is prone to randomly wearing bright colours, such as a bright red shirt, of course under a black jacket. Scientists believe this strange phenomenon is linked to the moons gravitational pull, but are unsure at this time and can shed no further light on the matter. She considers herself short, standing at 5’1”, but that doesn’t make her any less intimidating, with the penetrating stare from her dark eyes, which seems to see right into your mind, set against her milky white skin.
Attitude: Sarcastic with light-hearted yet morbid sense of humour. She can laugh at anything, and sometimes does. Her uncaring outlook on her own life makes it rather easy and enjoyable most of the time. She probably understands the minds of others more than her own, but she really doesn’t care. Worrying takes too much energy that could be spent on better things.
Background: Born in Ireland at a young age, Alex was a very outgoing child and often put on shows for her family, singing and dancing around the house, after a few years of such, she learnt to actually sing and dance. With dreams of being a famous singer/actress she grew up, and lost that dream in her teens, replacing it with aspirations of starting a famous rock band and replacing any bright clothing she may have had with black, also burning anything white she happened to own. The dreams started in her early teens, dreams of strange creatures speaking to her for hours in some language she could only understand when she was dreaming, but when she woke she couldn't remember what they looked like, and the words that lingered in her mind made no sense to her anymore. Her band, known as Demon Soul, was formed a short while after she turned seventeen and gained an underground following. A few years later, and not going anywhere, the band disbanded and Alex left Ireland to do some travelling once she finished school. She travelled a lot in her early twenties, from Ireland to England, then to Australia and finally America, with a few short spots in between. The dreams became more vivid, and vague shapes remained when she woke up