OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

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Graybeard
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OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Graybeard »

Recent developments in the Mountain of Madness scenario are creating an opportunity for people to show some "bureaucratic creativity" -- if that isn't a contradiction in terms.

As Jon explained in his civics lesson in the main story, Farrel is basically run by a conglomeration of "guilds" that train mercenaries, some of whom go on to become cops and security people for the country's cities, others of whom ... don't. Players from some of these outfits are now being invited to a "peace conference" at Mountain of Madness to work various things out. All well and good, except that apart from the Gewehr and Eisenfaust, and maybe a briefly referenced seafaring group called the Seeadler, we don't really know who these "outfits" are.

So: your help is solicited in figuring out just what organizations are coming to this thing, and who their representatives are. A sample for the Eisenfaust will follow shortly in this thread. Introducing these groups is useful for several reasons: it helps define the way some of the future episodes at (and, maybe more importantly, on the way to) Mountain of Madness will go; it sets the stage for more adventures beyond Mountain of Madness; and very importantly, it establishes a framework for introducing new player characters in Farrel, if people want to.

So let your imaginations run riot. Who all is out there that Layla, Faye, Galina and the Mesuinu people should be inviting a representative from? All ideas appreciated, although some may have to be either further developed or toned down for purposes of the conference. Thanks!
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Graybeard »

Here's what I had in mind...

Name: Eisenfaust

Area of operations: Western Farrel, from Port Lorrel (main base) in the south to but not including Volkanenborg. They don't do overseas work and only get involved in things far outside their own sphere of influence if there's a clear reason for it.

Specialty: "Entertainment" rackets including gambling, brothels, etc.; also has a hand in ground transportation in western Farrel. Doesn't do a lot of "wet work" such as assassinations, kidnappings, or other violent crime, if they can help it. They also control most of what "official" government exists in Port Lorrel, apart from odds and ends that include a local police force carefully paid not to notice what the Eisenfaust are doing.

Notable features: The Eisenfaust are more comfortable than most Farrelite outfits with Tsuirakuan magic, and have cheerfully adopted "crystal-net" to communicate among themselves and with potential clients. They also have a few low-level Tsuirakuan mages (mostly lower-capability graduates of programs less elite than Sashi Mu) on the payroll and have adopted other Tsuirakuan magical gadgetry, for example the tracer administered to Jamie. Other gadgets of their own devising have magical enhancements, such as the coin bomb used to eliminate a corrupt hotelier early in the Port Lorrel thread.

Alliances and enemies:Their sphere of influence overlaps that of the Gewehr, and there is friction between the two outfits that occasionally erupts in violence. No other alliances/rivalries are known yet.

Any takers for other groups? The "Seeadler," a seagoing group based in northern Farrel, have been mentioned but not developed, and of course the Gewehr is out there too (and well developed), but there's plenty of room for more.
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Sareth
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Sareth »

Normally I'd be all over this, but right now I'm in the early part of a month from hell as I conducted a major expirament for my thesis.

Eh, maybe if I get some spare time.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by AdamZero »

Group Name: The Nine

Area of Operation: Wherever they damn well please. Lacking any sort of 'base' or Headquarters. The Nine are constantly on the move. All their members are on the move, and encouraged not to stay in one place for too long. They go where the work is.

Specialty: Affairs of Death and the Grey. They put things to order when they go out of balance, on way or the other. They are the burners of bandit towns, they are the plague bringers to religious settlements. When things get too good, or too bad, they snuff it out. Usually after finding someone who'll pay them for what they were going to do anyway.

Notable Features: Necromancy: In short all members have some degree of training in magick, and all of them at least a few weeks study of necromancy its most basic forms. Furthermore, the Nine operates with a certain degree of secrecy, but not through deception. If you know about them, you either know what they are, or don't. You don't think they're something else, if you know, you KNOW.

Leadership The Nine is divided into, as fitting, nine divisions. Seer, Exorcist, Runner, Inquisitor, Decayer, Sublimer, Balancer, Digger, Eraser.
Seer: Nurin
---The roles of the Seer are fairly straightforward, besides general observation of Nine-members on high-priority missions, or under probation, they scry for any hints of haunting or other matters of the grey. They travel in large groups, and operate on linked scrying, meaning their range is boosted by the number of 'Seers scrying'.
Exorcist: TalonField
---The primary 'field' division, holder of the majority of The NIne's membership. They travel the world, finding places where spirits will not rest or cause harm to others, and see them to the otherside, one way or the other. Their modes of operation are entirely dependent on the individual, making it difficult to link their appearances together.
Runner: Fa'lyn
---The messenger and primary field operative observation division. They work on the 'Grey Plane' a shadow realm that allows for greater speed, at a less immediate price. They keep tabs on most of the younger 'Nine' members, or any member under probation. They also act as, quite naturally, runners for important messages that cannot be sent magically, or carry parcels of a delicate nature.
Inquisitor: MaiMaiPa
--- Often times things happen that aren't alway on the books, and so the inquisitor division seeks out the knowledge, in the living and the dead, and gathers what must be recorded to the archives of the nine. A mysterious division whose intentions are often veiled.
Decayer: Locksome
--- When it is deemed necessary that an area is gaining too much positive grey, to the point of chaotic incursions and manifestations of pseudo-deities, the Decayers will scorch the land, let loose the blood of the living and darken the landscape to set right the balance. Besides this they are chief in charge of the less 'living' necromancers.
Sublimer: Galatea
--- Counterpart to the Decayers, the Sublimer division lays the seeds of life in broken lands, brings light to the darkness, and is also responsible for The Nine's medical division. They are a few in number, but powerful and
Balancer: Yves'era
---A branch whose members often belong to several other divisions, the balancers ensure the mental stability of Nine members, further more, they work closely with the Decayers and the Sublimers on what areas need their respective attentions.
Digger: Issac
---A division that includes archeology, paleontology, and paleobotany, the Diggers do just that. They seek out ancient ruins and buried beasts to find out the mysteries of the past, often from the dead themselves.
Eraser: Lucious.
---The smallest division, if only by a dearth of need. When members of the nine, or non-nine-necromancers cross the line of power abuse, and see to it that nobody hears about it, ever.
Each leader holds equal say on all equally group matters, and each leader has veto power over matters that regard their own divisions.

Alliances/Enemies. The Veracian Church views all necromancy as sin and unnatural, but denies a group like this exists (as it would imply they haven't the power to stop them. Which they don't, not in guerilla warfare anyway)
Last edited by AdamZero on July 3rd, 2009, 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Graybeard »

Thank you, AZ. That helps clarify "opportunities" involving the Nine. Meanwhile, since they've been mentioned:

Name: Seeadler ("Sea Eagles")

Area of operations: The Farrel Sea, with their dry-land base at Mariniel, a seaport on the northwestern shores of Farrel. There is a Seeadler presence in other port cities along the northern and western coasts, possibly extending as far east as Rinkael. Their sphere of influence does not normally extend as far south as Port Lorrel, however.

Specialty: "Protection" rackets involving maritime commerce, including offensive actions (the polite term for what others would call "piracy") against those who ply the northern Farrel Sea without Seeadler protection.

Notable features: Ships, of course, rumored to incorporate dwarven technology.

Alliances and enemies:They have a natural antipathy for other, as yet unnamed seafaring Farrelite guilds and outfits, at least those that work the northern reaches of the Farrel Sea. They are also considering whether to try to interfere with the burgeoning airship business, which is starting to cut into their profits. (Needless to say, they're not so stupid as to take on the Tsuirakuans and their warp gates.) Otherwise, as long as nobody tries to muscle in on Mariniel, their relations with other outfits are purely businesslike and generally cordial.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by AdamZero »

Updated the nine with descriptions of each divisions duties.
"Now he's gone too far. NOONE ATTACKS AMERICA'S FOOD COURTS!" -Deadpool.
"Don't be so naive. I've got ulterior motives. MANY. Two, maybe three. Probably Four. I am one BIG ulterior motive." The Great Teacher, Onizuka Eikichi.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Alberich »

Name: Falkenrohr Patrols

Area of operations: Ester, a small town not far from Port Lorrel. Their headquarters is at the Flatiron, a local inn.

Specialty: Patrolling the roads to keep them clear of bandits; collecting tolls and contributions from better-off travellers to support this necessary security work, in a way that is totally distinguishable from being bandits themselves; keeping order in town.

Notable features: Horses and carbines. Several members are deserters from the Black Guard mercenaries, men who left Port Lorrel after the Black Guard's magical patrons (and a sizable number of their troops) were wiped out by elf assassins and Eisenfaust ambushes. These add extra rigor to the Patrols' training regimen.

Alliances and enemies: They occupy a space between Eisenfaust and Gewehr Wraith territory, and maintain their independence largely because neither of those organizations wants the other one to occupy their space. Since any "trouble" in their area would be an excuse for one of the larger organizations to move in, they are ruthless about suppressing it, and endeavor to maintain good relations with all their neighbors. Their notion of "trouble" focuses on problems for passing traders or other wealthy travellers, the kind who pay tolls, and anyone trying to use Ester as a base to raid into someone else's territory. Ordinary (i.e., broke) travellers are mostly on their own.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Alberich »

Name: Eichenyttel Militia

Area of operations: A large section of Southwest Farrel, east of Ester and south of the Gewehr and Eisenfaust territories.

Specialty: Local crime control, being left alone. Not terribly concerned with protecting outsiders.

Notable features: The Eichenyttel Militia are a true "militia," in that all adult males capable of bearing arms are expected to be members and to attend weekly training (this is a social pressure, since there are no "government offices" to enforce it; if you aren't part of the militia, or at in the family of someone who is, then you are not "one of them"). A few females join in as well. Each member supplies his own weapons. Everyone has a cudgel and between them they've got a motley assortment of swords, halberds, bows, and other low-tech weapons. Firearms are rare. The leaders are "big men" in the villages, and in contrast to some Farrelian "group" leaders their identities are extremely public. Offices are held by acclaim and can be lost if a leader loses social status. Anyone can raise the "hue and cry" for an immediate problem; a local leader can call up his village's unit or any part of it; larger expeditions require agreement among multiple village leaders, and anything outside their territory requires a conclave of all the local leaders. Courts are held four times a year with juries drawn from multiple villages, handling civil and criminal matters all together, though a fair amount of "summary justice" takes place outside of that procedure, especially if outsiders are involved or the local duelling culture is implicated.

Alliances and enemies: They attempt to stay on good terms with their neighbors, and mostly succeed. They have no territorial ambitions, do not encompass any major trading routes or other sources of concentrated wealth, and are very good at resisting encroachments. If someone escapes their justice, they will try to convince their neighbors to send him back (though they are hit-or-miss about returning the favor themselves). Thirty years ago one of their neighbors was consistently refusing to return fugitives and was serving as a safe haven for some very aggressive horse and cattle thieves, and they mounted a punitive expedition to stop that. An extremely messy affair. It took a lot of provoking to get the necessary agreement between the village "headmen"; the Militia is not really effective for offensive operations outside its own territory.

Judging by events in-game, they get along well with the Falkenrohr Patrols, but it may be assumed they are far less enthusiastic about returning assassination targets to the Gewehr or Eisenfaust.
Last edited by Alberich on May 21st, 2013, 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Graybeard »

Possible problem with this one. We generally think of Port Lorrel as being on the southwest coast of Farrel, more south than west -- in fact it wouldn't be amiss to say that it's on the "south" coast. That doesn't leave a lot of space for this new organization to be "south of" the Eisenfaust territory. Refer to the map of Farrel, which more or less covers both the Errant Story version of the country and the Errant Road version. Where do you see this outfit as hanging out? On that southern peninsula, maybe? Lorrel would be west of that, near (and on the south side of -- important to the first year of the game) that weird channel that cuts all the way across the country.

Solvable problem, but it would be nice to make sure the outfits don't step on each other's toes.
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Re: OOC: "Organizations" in Farrel

Post by Alberich »

I never saw Port Lorrel marked on the map at all, and I still don't. I had to infer the fact that they were in the southwest from the Wiki saying they were three days' right from Thranel, which is in Southwest Farrel somewhere. Reading old threads and ER wiki articles it seemed you'd placed most of the Eisenfaust/Gewehr territory north and northeast of Port Lorrel, so I figured they were on the west coast and that there was some room to the east and southeast to place other groups (in fact, in the current adventure, Angrist had a choice of assignments; one of these would've taken him through Thranel, further south than the one he chose, which goes into Eichenyttel territory).

The point is that Angrist's and Udo's current adventure (maybe Jade's too; waiting to see which way Jack points her) involves delivering a fugitive back to Eichenyttel territory; my intent is that they be inland, generally eastwards, so that travelling through their territory is a more-or-less direct shot towards distant Salaband, which is in the east.
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