Swashbuckling in Freeport! (Adventure Help)

[Psion]

So anyone a Freeport fan here? 7th Sea/Swashbuckling Adventure Fans could help, too. Or anyone with a good eye for a plot.

I'm porting the Swashbuckling Adventure adventure "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" to Freeport (I'm using Fantasy Craft, but that's really not important here.) The adventure is loosely based around many of the ideas of the 24 TV series: massive twisted conspiracy hatch to bring about mass mayhem, with heroes being run through the wringer on a strict timetable.

The part I am having trouble with, and could use a little help with, is this. The adventure is based on the 7th Sea word Theah, which features analogs of the Catholic Church and Protestantism. One of the three conspirators is in the city to wreak havoc on the "Objectivist" church at behest of the "Vaticine" church.

But the Freeport setting (and the world I put it in) don't assume such a powerful central religion. I thought about just swapping in the Church of the Sea God, but the feel is off a bit.

Does anyone have any other ideas of what a very skilled assassin and a small group of revolutionaries could want to do in Freeport?

 

[CarlZog]

Does anyone have any other ideas of what a very skilled assassin and a small group of revolutionaries could want to do in Freeport?

It depends on what the context of Freeport is in your world.

One of the key distinctions of Freeport as a standalone setting as compared to Theah is that Freeport operates in something of a vacuum. Yeah, it's a pirate town, but it's never really made clear where all these ships are coming and going, or who exactly they're pirating from.

Theah, on the other hand, is a setting of sophisticated international intrique (or at least can be when done right).

Regardless of the religious nature of your setting, if you are going have Freeport in it, I would consider examining how the piracy and criminal elements of Freeport fit into your setting. Who in your setting does Freeport prey on? Then you'll know why an assasin and revolutionaries would be drawn there.

Perhaps they are political not religious revolutionaries. THey could be looking to create something of a privateer navy that would prey on the govt they are trying to overthrow.

An assasin working with for the revolution could be targeting a pirate lord if that pirate lord has been enlisted by the standing govt to wipe out the revolutionaries at sea.

Or they could be religious fanatics. Rather than trying to overthrow a central religion perhaps they are trying to establish one as a ruling power. Factions such as these also look to places where the existing power structure is unstable and/or corruptable.

Going back to your "24" comparison, you can look to modern analogies for all this stuff too. South American revolutionaries operating along the Caribbean coast; extremist muslims seeking poltical power in the Middle East, etc, etc.

 

[Psion]

Thanks for the input.

The Freeport setting is not quite as much a vacuum as you make out. If you have/use the Pirate's Guide to Freeport, there is a "world of Freeport" chapter that details much of the oft alluded-to "continent" of the Freeport books. So in part, my question for those who might be familiar with the Freeport setting is what else might "slot into" the same spot as the Vaticine church/Objectivist conflict.

I guess it's worth spelling out here the same thing I did on the Green Ronin board. With respect to my unnamed antagonist group:

1) * sent an agent to Freeport
1a) Who is mistaken for another agent, temporarily detained by an "inquisition"
1b) Who was implicit in poisoning members of the Captain's Council and Merchant's guild.
1c) Is using 1b as a leverage point to get a certain book that the Merchant's Guild has possession of.
2) * has revolutionaries in Freeport
2a) Who are targeting some building or structure
2b) At the time the PCs cross their path are trying to kill an innocent woman in said structure
2c) Structure is perceived as important to Freeport and is NOT the lighthouse.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I'm not at all familiar with the setup and it's been a long time since I've looked at Freeport but a few vague ideas:

1) Some Fransisco descendants might decide to make a come back after all these years and get revenge. This could be a cause for a revolution.

2) Another idea i had for using Freeport in a Northern Crown game was to have Freeport be the last sanctuary for paganistic polytheism in a world increasingly becoming dominated by monotheism. A monotheistic faith with different denominations as rivals for each other might relish it as a prize worth conquering (and converting).

 

[Psion]

For those who might be curious, here's what I did.

IMC, though Freeport is closest the the continent, it's a jumping point/hub to other nations/cultures. So I sort of decided that Freeport is the center of a so-called "syncretist" movement. When the Freeport material mentions "the temple of the sea god", that's seriously what lots of Freeport natives actually say. They see most sea gods as the same being with different names/faces. So while I use the Book of the Righteous deities for the best known names, Shalimyr's temple has slowly become a stopover for followers of Ahto, Poseiden, or whatever your local Sea Deity is.

While this has mostly been a practice only at the most basic lay-worshipper level, the artist being targeted by the inquisition has made her name making murals that blend different cultural styles that has caused these sorts of unified view of deities to spread, much to the chagrin of more conservative sects.