ZEITGEIST Cypherblade's Zeitgeist campaign

[Cypherblade]

Hey folks,
In a couple of months I will start with the Gears of Revolution AP for my roleplay group.
So I'm in the middle of preparations and thanks to a lot of people here, I found a huge amount of advice and material to augment the experience of my players.
Thank you all for this awesome content!

On one thing in chapter 12 'The Grinding Gears of Heaven' I didn't find a satisfactory answer on the boards. let me explain....

Spoiler

In Chapter 12 Part 1, the party crash lands on Av and while trying to save some fey, Av breaks apart, consumed by the grinding gears of the Gyre.
In Part 2 there is some reference to Av as being plane 53 on the map which sits all way back, farthest from the destruction of the cogwheels.

How do I have to understand this? Is this a fundamental flaw in the AP? Did I misread this? Or are the remnants of Av thrown across the Gyre and will they be processed again in some distant future?

Thanks for clarification.

Hope to keep you all posted on further developments in short notice.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

my understanding is that there's two sets of gears - the first set is at the entrance of the gyre and grinds each plane down to being about 30 miles across. the second is the one at the end of the gyre and that one destroys planes entirely (and possibly reincarnates them but that's not super relevant to the AP). the dreaming hits the first set and thus is the most recent plane to enter the gyre, hence why it's furthest from the second set.

 

[RangerWickett]

The Gyre is a metaphysical thing that takes in 'dying worlds' and starts grinding them down. It's sort of like moons getting ripped apart by tidal forces and then turning into a ring like around Saturn, only in a different shape.

Some chunks survive, and the largest chunks are the places the PCs get to explore. Those bits will survive for a long time, getting worn down (like if you put rocks in a tumbler), until after many centuries they are basically eroded of everything that matters about them. Then they're finally destroyed in the center of the Gyre, which is a bit like falling into a black hole.

 

[Cypherblade]

thanks for all the explanations, the pieces start falling into place

 

[Cypherblade]

Still 3 months to go before the start of the campaign, but I'm excited because I received the first background of my soon to be players.
I'm going to tie in the 2 orphans to the Orphanage 'Gallo's School for boys (and girls) '
Not sure yet what I'm going to do with Retired Inspector Luther Ashcroft, nor with the fact that Kane is already working for the RHC for 27 yeasr now....

Kane (pronounce as Caine) Kelrin was originally from good stock. His father Haldar was a fairly successful merchant who was able to support his wife and child well, until one day he disappeared at sea and did not return to Flint. Kane was six years old at the time. His mother did her best to stretch resources, but time after time the little family had to lower its standards. So they went from the large mansion where they lived to a modest row house and from there to a small apartment in the rougher Harbor neighborhood. Mom initially took care of Kane's upbringing herself, something that came easily to her as an educated lady, by the way. But in time, circumstances forced her to look for work elsewhere, and so she joined a businessman who had once been a friend of the house. Kane, twelve years old by now, was often left to his own devices from then on and consequently spent most of his time hanging out on the streets with other boys of questionable character.
When Kane was fourteen, he began to suffer more and more from nightmares. Eventually it turned out that the scary dream images he was seeing were not happening to him during sleep, but during his waking moments at night. In fact, Kane had the ability to see the dead. Fearful of the ghosts that appeared to him at night, Kane developed nyctophobia, fear of the dark. He dared not go to sleep anymore and had to have lights and amulets around his bed all the time, or he became terrified of the ghosts that came sighing in his ears.

Kane's ability to contact the deceased, however, became his salvation.
Thirty years ago, when the Royal Homeland Constabulary, the RHC, was formed, Kane came into contact with one of its detectives, a certain Luther Ashcroft, who was investigating the mysterious disappearance of a spy in the harbor district. As a street kid, Kane was able to play the inspector's eyes and ears in places where the man himself had difficulty getting in. However, his real talent revealed itself only when he discovered the spy's corpse and was able to communicate with his ghost. The information he learned in the process was enough for Inspector Ashcroft to solve the case.
Ashcroft made Kane his regular informant and death whisperer, and when the boy turned eighteen, the inspector inducted him into the ranks of the RHC. Kane has now been with the RHC for twenty-seven years. His fear of the dark never went away, and the obsession with light it gave him led him to begin worshipping light. That devotion has even given him priestly powers, without being able to pin a specific deity on it. Kane also retains his ability to speak with the dead, but his horror for ghosts has still not gone away, so this ability invariably overwhelms him with oppression. At the same time, this uncanny power makes him an outsider in the RHC, where some consider him a freak.


Contacts:

• Luther Ashcroft is inspector at rest and my mentor.
• Mom is a maid with a wealthy family, her name is Esther, but everyone calls her Tess.
• Karsten and Lottie are two street thugs who serve as minor informants.

- Karsten is a crafty pickpocket with a smooth tongue.
- Lottie looks innocent, excels at not standing out, she has sharp senses.

 

[Cypherblade]

Does anyone have experience with players who will not play all adventures due to time restraints? One of my players wants to play a druid (old school, Duchess' beliefs)
Any idea how the character could easily leave or join the other inspectors? He himself spoke of a secret agenda that compels him to disappear from time to time.
Thoughts?

 

[RangerWickett]

Easiest thing would be that he's caught up in the Dreaming, and sometimes gets pulled there, either like interplanar narcolepsy, or as a result of some pact or curse.

If the campaign seems to have legs, maybe some time in the gap between adventure 5 and 6, while the main party is running down a bunch of Ob cells scattered across the nation, you could run a one-shot where the players get to see what that PC gets up to when he vanishes to the Dreaming.

You could tease stuff that will show up in adventure 9. Maybe the PCs play some disposable fey (like Mista Knives and one of the satyrs who end up ambushing the PCs at some point, etc). You could tie it to servants of one of the fey titans who are politicking while their master is asleep, but keep things a bit zany and Alice in Wonderland-y.

 

[Tormyr]

• Maybe just have the PC normally stationed at the Slate bureau and put on loan with Flint for "reasons" when the player is available? Reasons are going to have to be flexible since they might not line up with the adventures.
• They could also be with another organization or the druids in the Cloudwood and brought in from time to time for consulting.
• An accident in the malice lands has caused them to phase in and out of the material plane. A one-inch-diameter anchor stone gives them a target point when they phase into the material plane.
• If the PC is a deva, they have a condition/curse that causes them to periodically keel over and die, appearing again at a later time with their memories intact. This cannot be used past adventure 9.

 

[Cypherblade]

oh lol, that last one is hilarious.

but all good suggestions @RangerWickett, @Tormyr
I'll see what direction it leads after discussing with the player

 

[Cypherblade]

I'm afraid I have another question
In adventure two, the players can prevent a smuggling deal and can capture 3 boxes of wands, 160k of gold, or both.
Some time later Morgan Cippiano wants some chat with the inspectors. And he even wants to help them in return for setting free Deorn Feldman.

I don't understand why Morgan would negate the 160k loss when talking to the players? Even if he was just the middleman and the money came from Gale or the Cloudwood Brigands (just speculating here), he's still in dire straits because he can't deliver the wands.

How did you all handle this in your campaign(s)?