The Luminous Godkiller Weapon

Background

Five of the Dragon-Blooded, rarest of the Chosen, were destroyed in the process of creating the Weapon. Yushoto Koletta extracted their elemental essence and sealed the resulting mixture into a golem made from the six alchemical elements. The matrix of its being contains the tremendous elemental dissonance, focusing it into an unstoppable force.

Karal Volan ordered the Weapon across the Straits of Silk to the Blessed Continent. There, it killed every god it encountered. Gods of harvest, gods of weather, gods of war. For a year it walked across the continent, murdering them, one at a time or in small groups. They gathered to assault it, all together. It slaughtered them all. It drew out their essence and detonated it like a bomb, leaving a crater kilometers wide. The Luminous Godkiller Weapon felt… satisfaction at completing its task.

Now the Blessed Continent is barren. No winds blow across it. The rain evaporates as it falls. No new plants grow, or when they do, they become a tangle of madness that chokes itself to death. The ground cracks and stone crumbles. The island itself is dying. The Weapon is nowhere to be found.

Once its assignment was complete, the Weapon returned to River Isle. Now it lives in a pit in Volan’s citadel and waits. It grows hungry. It can feel the myriad of gods on River Isle and knows that there is more for it to do.

Appearance

The Weapon appears in a human form, seven meters tall. Within its body is a never-ending explosion that can be heard like distant thunder. The energy of this eternal detonation is channeled through its diamond skin, where it is visible as a painfully bright, ever-shifting glow, cracking through its skin in different places over time.

Demeanor

The Weapon’s crystalline mind takes orders only from Yushoto Koletta and Karal Volan, prioritizing Koletta’s. It typically does not speak to others except to ask about the two of them, or to ask when it will next be deployed. It will assault spiritual beings without provocation, but will leave physical creatures untouched if they do not threaten it. If attacked, it will defend itself until the battlefield is empty.

Currently, the Weapon has been standing in its silo for several years. Every so often it asks to speak with Koletta or General Karal, and asks them when it will be allowed to finish its task.

Intimacies: “Kill the last of the gods and end the world” (Defining), “Live to see the world end” (Defining), “Obey Karal Volan” (Major), “Obey Yushoto Koletta” (Major)

Capabilities

The Luminous Godkiller Weapon is powered by the incredible violence of conflicting elemental templates – those of Creation and those of the Great Maker – existing simultaneously within its body. The Weapon can release this energy in directed blasts and tremendous explosions.

The Weapon’s energy is particularly dangerous to spirits of all kinds, dealing aggravated damage against them and stealing their essence for itself. Attacks from spirits against the Weapon are most often absorbed before they can strike, and those gods foolish enough to attack it hand-to-hand (or with a weapon that is a part of themselves) will be immediately drawn within it and consumed. Gods destroyed by the Weapon will not be naturally replaced – unlike those killed by ordinary means, their essence is gone from the world.

The more gods the Weapon draws in, the more powerful it becomes. Their essence is added to its own, building a vast storehouse of power. Each action it takes depletes this storehouse, typically very slowly. Until that stock runs out, the Weapon is tireless, needing neither rest nor sustenance.

Against non-spirit opponents, the Weapon is still formidable. Its blasts can powder stone and vaporize water. It can heal immediately from any injury, drawing on its storehouse of essence to re-seal its diamond skin. When it was walking across the Blessed Continent it faced mortal opposition on many occasions, and was occasionally deflected from its course by a concerted assault from Amalgam-led militaries. At that time, it had the Continent’s many gods to feed upon, and its retreats were typically brief. The area around its current silo is utterly empty of spirits both large and small, all having fled or died at its hands.

Supporting Characters

• Karal Resh, the head of the guards who watch the Weapon. Commanding, reasonable, afraid.
• Underchair, the god of overlooked things, whom the Weapon did not kill. Covetous, sneaky, unseen.
• Yushoto Blaen, who helped Koletta create the Weapon. Talkative, secretive, intimidated.
• Maheka Ulaya, whose son was one of the Dragon-Blooded sacrificed to create the Weapon. Righteous, loud, betrayed.

Questions

• How close is the Weapon to breaking out?
• If the Weapon crossed through a shallow place to beyond the Splinter, what would happen? Especially if it were to appear in the Wyld or the Labyrinth – how would these affect it?

Yushoto Koletta, the Genius

Background

A story to illustrate Koletta’s nature. As a child prodigy, she asked where the knowledge of prophecy came from. Her parents, both Technologists, told her of the myriad crystalline essence conduits beneath the Blessed Continent and their importance in a sorcerer’s work. Many years later, as a student on the Isle of Voices, she applied this to herself and implanted crystalline filaments within her own brain, simply for the understanding. Imagine an entire life lived thus, the pursuit of knowledge above all other concerns, and you have Yushoto Koletta.

Born into the Peleps family on the Blessed Continent, Koletta graduated from the Isle of Voices and became a part of the Empire’s science brigade. Her low rank kept her involved with what she considered menial tasks. She kept proposing more and more audacious experiments, and was turned down. When war broke out, she was given an opportunity: leadership of a cadre of elite students like herself. Their task was to take on high-risk, high-reward experiments. Her first request was to experiment on the Terrible Crystalline Behemoth, the Realm’s weapon of last resort. When her superiors refused in horror, she deserted and left the Blessed Continent.

Koletta approached Karal Volan. She told him of the Behemoth’s carefully guarded weaknesses – where he could strike to disable it. In return, she was allowed to use the creature’s long-dying heart to power her reactor. He offered her the chance to explore whatever she wanted if she outfitted his army. She produced the Luminous Godkiller Weapon and ended the war simply so that she could focus on her research.

Now Koletta runs a laboratory for the Yushoto family, whom the Karals have completely under their heel. She builds automata to drive both the army and her explorations. She investigates the true nature of her world. She tries to find a way to keep the Weapon from destroying every deity in the world. It’s only a matter of time before she finds a connection to the World Before and exploits it, loses control of the Weapon, or both.

Appearance

Koletta has fair, smooth skin and red lips. Her hair is dark and straight, and she keeps it pulled back out of her way. Her irises are gear-shaped, and they glow green when she focuses her abilities as an Aion. Her clothing tends to be complex but utilitarian – pockets, wrist-guards, gloves, goggles, lenses, and so forth.

Demeanor

Dispassionate. Koletta is nearly without emotion. On the one hand, this makes her utterly fearless in the face of threats or coercion. Someone trying to appeal to her emotional side – or, god forbid, seduce her – is wasting their time. On the other hand, she genuinely doesn’t care about other people. She claims that she wants to destroy the Empire, but she only says that to keep Karal off her back.

In her lab, she places herself utterly beyond reproach. Anyone who questions her work or her conclusions is immediately replaced or used as a test subject. With her brilliance, her work hasn’t suffered much because of this. There are still people begging to work in her lab for the reputation alone. Afterward, they often beg to get out, but that’s what the leather straps are for.

In the end, the only thing Koletta really cares about is the pursuit of knowledge.

Intimacies: “The pursuit of knowledge” (Defining, Positive), “The Weapon is a problem” (Negative, Major), “My current lab” (Positive), “Keep Karal Volan happy to shut him up”, “People are useful tools”

Capabilities

As a Technologist and an inventor, Koletta is versed in many crafts, from gearwork and metallurgy to ceramics and chemistry. She speaks Imperial, but prefers the language of the World Before for its precision and its use in Protocols. She picks up new engineering knowledge the way a sponge soaks up water. Any skill that flows from a limited number of basic principles comes easily to her – the study of lore and the occult, medical techniques, observational skills. Other, more contextually-dependent abilities she finds more difficult, and ignores in favor of her existing strengths. Her social skills are more detriment than asset.

Koletta was chosen as an Aion at a very young age. Her gear-sign is the Flayed Clock, an instrument taken apart with its innards laid about it in a ritual pattern. Her essence enhances her technological skills in a variety of ways. Her senses are so sharp that she can determine how a device works simply by observing it and touching it. (Living beings she only understands so well after dissection.) Her memory is perfect. Her attention can split between a half-dozen mental tasks simultaneously. In the time it takes other people to build rough prototypes, Koletta builds fully-working polished devices that look like they just rolled off an assembly line. She can also build a device specifically for the purpose of teaching a particular narrow skill that she knows, such as the construction of combat automata. Those who take apart the device and reassemble it will learn the skill themselves, though not at her supernatural level of prowess.

Koletta never really learned to fight. Instead, ten clockwork snipers watch over her in shifts, ensuring a swift end to those who would threaten her. Karal Volan has also stationed additional guards around her workshops. Should Koletta end up in a battle, she’s likely to try calmly talking her way out of it, or to use Protocols to escape. She knows Protocols for the summoning of alchemical elementals, communication at a distance, teleportation (up to 30 kilometers), and deactivating rogue automata with a touch. (This latter ability has proven ineffective against the Weapon.) She primarily uses her Technologist powers for the Alchemical Workings they provide her, enabling her to create devices beyond the ken of ordinary inventors.

Supporting Characters

• Yushoto Fortan, her current research assistant. Paranoid, attentive, brilliant.
• Yushoto Damaklae, the lab guard with a misguided crush on her. Brawny, diligent, foolish.
• Karal Ethno, who carries messages back and forth to Karal Volan. Quick, quiet, nervous.
• Peleps Raka, the sky pirate who was Koletta’s brother. Daring, foppish, concerned.

Questions

• How do scientists outside of Koletta’s lab feel about her? Are they admiring? Concerned? Do they feel threatened?
• How close is Koletta to finding out how to control the Weapon? Will she ever? If she can’t, is she able to destroy it without help?

Karal Volan, the General

Background

The Karal family had always been the strongest military power on River Isle. For many decades after the island’s unification, their fellow families tried to convince them to disarm, but tradition is a strong thing. The Karals maintained their army and their draft. When war broke out with the Blessed Continent, they took over River Isle and led them in battle… and eventually in all other things.

Karal Volan was an experienced warrior and commander before the island’s unification. He rose to the rank of general. Then the opportunity to employ his skills vanished, and he sat unhappily in a senate chamber for fifty years. The war provided him with the opportunity he wanted to show his prowess.

Now he is a legend. It is he who has dominated the battlefield in this war. He who dealt the final telling blow against the Terrible Crystalline Behemoth that guarded the Empire. He who leads the victorious forces of River Isle in what became known as the Final War.

It is also he who approved and financed the development of the Luminous Godkiller Weapon with Yushoto Koletta. More than any other single thing, this weapon has won Volan the war, inspired fear in his enemies, and cemented his place in history. Now, all that remains is for his troops to wipe out the last remnants of the Empire.

Appearance

Volan is tall and muscular. His dark hair is trimmed close to his head, and his beard is short and well-kept. He has light skin, with a few wrinkles, and darker circles around his eyes from his lack of sleep. His dark eyes often stare off toward the horizon when he is thoughtful, but can be penetrating when his attention is drawn.

He is most often seen in his ceremonial armor, a set of articulated plate that incorporates bronzed sheafs of wheat to represent River Island’s fertile fields and hills.

Demeanor

Imperious and arrogant. Karal Volan is power-hungry, and he doesn’t take much care to hide it now that he’s at the top of the heap. However, he’s not a ranting, raving supervillain. He’s a canny politician who knows exactly how important he is, and wants even more. He uses his house’s military reputation – or indeed, the military itself – to intimidate his opponents into allying with him.

In his home life, he is much the same. When people interrupt his family time, he becomes furious, demanding that his home time be kept sacred – but this is just another way to create leverage and power. His children were long ago dominated into obeying him; his wife sent away when she refused to bow the same way. There’s not much difference between his public persona and his private persona.

Intimacies: “I will rule the world” (Defining), “I will be respected” (Major), “My family” (Major, Positive), “The dying Empire” (Negative), “Everyone will love me”, “I secretly fear the Weapon”

Capabilities

A soldier, an officer, and a politician, Karal Volan is an experienced adversary with two lifetimes of knowledge to draw upon. His willpower and focus are impressive. He has a commanding personality and a clever eye for detail, especially when it comes to his allies and servants. He was promoted to general not just for his work on the battlefield, but for his eye for acquiring and retaining the best soldiers. He’ll make an excellent leader for the New Empire.

Volan is an Amalgam Champion, and Smoke-aspected. He smells of cinders and burning oil. When he becomes emotional, he literally smolders. He can exude clouds of black smoke, which have a variety of purposes. Some are simply dark clouds, for obscurement; others are poisonous or even hallucinogenic. He can create images in the smoke, projecting his senses and voice through them. Those with a sample of his blood can burn it to speak with him through the smoke at any distance.

In addition, his essence flows in more subtle ways to enhance his training. He can hide himself from the eyes of observers, and hide his intentions from his political enemies. His drifting stances evade his opponent’s blows with ease. Social influence slides off his mind. His opponents in war find his tactics unreadable. None of these effects are absolutes, but all of them give him an edge.

Volan keeps himself in fighting trim, practicing with an impressive curved daiklaive known as Prowcutter. He keeps an honor guard of a dozen trained warriors who drill alongside him, preparing for ambushes or dueling challenges. His fighting style is measured but direct, using his smoke powers to attack from concealment.

Supporting Characters

• Karal Cenethar, his secretary. Attentive, careful, long-suffering.
• Karal Biala, his eldest daughter. Ambitious, dangerous, paranoid.
• Amilar Thea, his greatest political rival. Cautious, experienced, desperate.
• Karal Frena, his estranged wife. Proud, suspicious, compassionate.

Questions

• Does Volan realize how dangerous the Weapon is for the world?
• What are Volan’s plans for Koletta? Does he intend to keep her working on new devices, or would he kill her to ensure his control over the Weapon?

Splinter Relationship Map

The image above (click for a larger version) is a relationship map to help you understand and remember how the various NPCs of the Splinter interact with one another.

Using the Characters

There are three main entry points into this scenario. As Storyteller, the characters you’ll want to use first will depend on where the players’ circle arrives in the Splinter.

The shallow space between Creation and the Splinter might deposit the characters in the badlands, in the southeastern Blessed Continent. Here, they are likely to meet Yatna Modan, possibly in conjunction with a raider assault. If all goes well, he will take them to town of Clearwater, where they would meet the prophet Starsight. Jek Eikar is a potential “sidequest” character before Cynis Operations arrives and the game moves toward River Island.

The second option is that the characters might arrive closer in to the center of the Continent. There, they might run into the airship No Memory, as it carries Cynis Operations and their band of heroes across the land. (The airship is a prototype, and may have to set down for repairs.) The players’ circle will meet these central characters first, then Starsight and her allies, before heading to River Island.

Both of these approaches assume that the the players’ characters will take the opportunity to ally themselves with the native characters. If you don’t think that’s going to be the case with your players, the third possibility is that they might come out on River Island to begin with. Running into Karal Volan or Yushoto Koletta early on might convince them that they’ve landed on the wrong side of the war. Cynis Operations can come in later, as the characters consider an assault on the Weapon. Starsight and her allies likely won’t appear at all in this version.

Give the characters (both player and non-player) time to ask questions and be themselves. This setting is as much a character drama as it is an alternate-dimension story.

Textual Description

For those who aren’t helped by a visual map, here’s the same information in list form:

Karal Volan, the General…

• Commands the Luminous Godkiller Weapon
• Provides funding for Yushoto Koletta

Yushoto Koletta, the Genius…

• Ignores Karal Volan
• Designed and constructed the Luminous Godkiller Weapon

The Luminous Godkiller Weapon…

• Obeys Karal Volan and Yushoto Koletta
• Killed Cathak Venkan’s father
• Killed the adoptive mother of Iselsi Daita and Rhai

Cathak Venkan, the Lookout…

• Seeks revenge against Karal Volan and the Weapon
• Hired Cynis Operations

Cynis Operations, the Smugglers…

• Were hired by Cathak Venkan
• Recruited Ledaal Miia, the Ragara brothers, the Iselsi twins, Mnemon Reshmi, and the Ticking Mask
• Once worked with Jek Eikar

Ledaal Miia, the Pilot…

• Works with Ragara Van and Uto
• Was recruited by Cynis Operations

Ragara Van and Uto, the Smiths…

• Were recruited by Cynis Operations
• Distrust Jek Eikar
• Know how dangerous Yushoto Koletta is

Iselsi Daita and Rhai, the Cubs…

• Vowed revenge on the Weapon
• Were recruited by Cynis Operations

Menmon Reshmi, the Sniper…

• Was recruited by Cynis Operations

The Ticking Mask, Parasitic God…

• Was recruited by Cynis Operations

Starsight, the Prophet…

• Expects the arrival of Cynis Operations
• Considers Yatna Modan an ally
• Shares information with Jek Eikar

Yatna Modan, the Badlander…

• Works with Starsight

Jek Eikar, Mad Inventor…

• Shares information with Starsight
• Distrusts Cynis Operations

The Splinter of the Machine

The great Empire lies in ruins. Their empress is dead. Their gods are dead. Their lands and people are dying. From the land of rivers a powerful legion moves in to mop up the survivors and ensure that the Empire will never rise again. A desperate band of would-be heroes tries to save their lands – and their world – from final destruction.

This is not Creation’s future… and yet some day it might be.

Into this strange, mechanical shadow of a world, a group of shining heroes arrives from the World Before. Their actions may save this place or damn it to final destruction, but neither this place nor Creation will emerge unchanged.

History

The Splinter of the Machine is like a brass mirror held up to reality. Some views are accurate. Some are distorted. Let us look back to the Splinter’s beginning, that we may better understand its coming end.

Long ago, the gods relied on an ally of theirs in a great war: the Machine God. When the conflict was over, the Machine God still survived. The Chosen were afraid of it, and forced it to retreat rather than remaining in Creation. In this and many other ways was Creation lessened in the early days.

In its retreat, the vast Machine God shed pieces of itself, all unknowing, as an animal might shed hair. One fragment landed in the ocean, where it floated about aimlessly and was eventually colonized. This place was called the Splinter of the Machine. The Chosen eventually banished it too, using its resonance with its long-vanished originator. They sent it in a direction that was neither backward nor forward, up nor down, left nor right. They sent it away. The gears and pipes that were its underpinnings wrapped around it like a cocoon, and none could enter or leave. It became its own reality.

This banishment was when the Splinter’s destiny became strangely entangled with our world. History took on familiar forms – a great war, a military shogunate, an invasion from beyond, an empire, a legion determined to remain independent. These mirrored events took their own time to happen, and the hidden secrets of the Machine God yielded themselves to the Splinter’s natives over the centuries. Devices have been forged here that Creation never saw, but which mirror developments elsewhere, far across the void. The Splinter bore Creation’s history, but created it with the Machine God’s technology.

Physical Geography

The natives of the Splinter refer to Creation in the First Age as “The World Before.” Most records of that time are lost. The original settlers of the Splinter were mostly pirates and bootleggers, not much for keeping diaries.

The enormous Splinter itself is now known as the Blessed Continent. Until recently this was the seat of the Empire. The center of the Blessed Continent becomes more and more mountainous until a massive metal spire rises from its hub, once gleaming, now rusted. Mountains cross the continent east-west. Cities dot the coastline and hug the rivers farther inland. Someone familiar with Creation’s Blessed Isle would find much familiar here, at least as far as names go.

Off the Continent’s southeastern coast lies an island from Creation, caught during the Splinter’s banishment. This fertile land is River Island, which bears names and temperaments similar to those in Creation’s River Province. This place is now the home of the Seventh Legion, also known also as Lookshy. It was recently declared as the seat of the New Empire.

Cities in the Splinter are large, with the potential for millions of occupants. Improved technology helped them stay cleaner and grow taller than in Creation. In the countryside there are many places where nature has provided forests and scrublands, swamps and veldt. Though the ground is metal far below, somehow things still grow above. If the apples here taste strangely of tin, well, no one knows that they should be otherwise.

Metaphysics

In the Splinter’s sky, beyond the bright white sun and the dancing stars, is a great clockwork that turns slowly as days and ages pass.

The elements of Creation (wood, fire, water, air, and earth) are known here as the Five Exiguous Compounds. They are rare and potent elements with strong magical resonance. The Splinter’s makeup, in contrast, is more like that of the Machine God. Rather than being anchored against the dark by elemental poles, the world is graced with the Six Virtuous Beasts of Alchemy, whose existence stabilizes the land. They are:

• The Brilliant Crystalline Spider
• The Indomitable Metal Ox
• The Unhesitating Tiger of Lightning
• The Cunning Crocodile of Oil
• The Benevolent Stag of Steam
• The Calamitous Vulture of Smoke

Unfortunately, the Blessed Continent has recently lost almost every spirit that watched over it, in an event called the Holocaust of the Gods. The land is rusting and breaking apart. Rivers run with oil. The crystalline conduits in the ground darken and crack. Cities that once were great are now in crumbling disrepair after only a few years of neglect, and many millions have died. Whether the Six Virtuous Beasts remain is unknown.

The People of the Splinter

The people of the Splinter are descendant from those who settled there in the First Age. Most of them are ordinary folk, similar to those of the Blessed Isle, the North, and the Northwest. The most common language is Imperial, a tongue similar to High Realm, with some savants still capable of speaking Old Realm (which they refer to as the language of the “World Before”).

As in Creation, there are some whose awakened essence makes them powerful figures:

• Some mortals (and others) become Technologists – science-sorcerers who invoke the ancient Protocols and call the body of the Maker to perform miracles, or who undertake lengthy Alchemical Workings that exceed the limits of science or reason.
• There are very few Dragon-Blooded. There were none on the Splinter when it was banished, and few mortals with strong elemental bloodlines. Those Dragon-Blooded who do arise here are similar in power to those in Creation, though they are often less strenuously trained in childhood and more in demand for their unusual skills later on.
• God-Blooded are fairly common. The gods here have sired and borne many children over the centuries. With the Holocaust of the Gods, this now seems as much a tragedy as a blessing.
• The Six Virtuous Beasts of Alchemy occasionally select Amalgam Champions who synergize with their power and moral attributes. The beasts personally appoint each of their Chosen as they move across the world. The appropriate alchemical element courses through the champion, empowering them in ways both physical and ephemeral. At a glance they look like ordinary mortals, but they might move like lightning, burn like steam, or have the strength of metal.
• Finally, the Celestial Aions are selected based on their birth time, the patterns of the gears in the sky, the timing of falling stars, the turning of the ages, and a myriad of unknown patterns. When the right clocks align, pure essence strikes from the sky, and an individual finds themselves unexpectedly coursing with essence. Each Aion is aligned with a particular sky-sign, of which there are thousands. Aions are much like the Exigents of Creation, each one having an idiosyncratic nature. Unlike the Exigents, however, Aions were not chosen by a particular god – merely by coincidence and timing.

Both the Continent and River Island are run by a set of ruling families, with names matching those from the Realm’s Great Houses and the Gentes of Lookshy. Dragon-Blooded are slightly more common in these lines, but they are far more likely to sport Amalgam Champions.

The Setup

The players’ circle passes through a “shallow space” between worlds. Depending on the Storyteller’s preference, this shallow space may be similar to a Shadowlands, or it may be a portal hidden within the Wyld. They find themselves in the Splinter; effectively an alternate Creation. They have a little time to explore, to consider their options – but the world before them is clearly dying.

At some point in their exploration, the circle runs across a secret mission from the remnants of the Empire. Their goal: to destroy the Luminous Godkiller Weapon that murdered the gods, or to turn it against Lookshy and end the war. They don’t realize how catastrophic that decision could be for their pocket dimension. The end of River Island could mean the final death of all gods, and the end of their world.

The players’ circle would be safe if they could escape to their home world in time. However, the shallow space through which they passed means that there will always be a connection between the Splinter and Creation. It may also mean that the Splinter is returning to Creation after so many years. Dealing with the Weapon first may save millions of lives in Creation. Sealing the gate, if such a thing is possible, may doom those in the Splinter. There are tough choices to be made here.

Questions

• Shadowlands in Creation are created by death and suffering. If the “shallow space” between Creation and the Splinter is a similar thing, what kind of event might create it? What rules would govern the transition across the border?
• If the “shallow space” is located in the Wyld, what natives of the Wyld will guard it or seek to destroy it? How will this portal look and behave?
• Worse yet, what if the passage is found in the Labyrinth? What are the implications for the Machine God?
• There is an event in the past of the Splinter that mirrors the Fair Folk invasion. Who or what invaded? How were they turned back?
• If the Splinter is returning to Creation, is it because of the Weapon’s resonance with the elements of Creation, or is it because the Machine God itself is returning? How long would it take for the Splinter to return to Creation? Will it be weeks, months, years?
• Is it possible to move the Splinter “alongside” Creation as the Underworld is, or will it reappear as an island? What power might suffice to make the difference? How violent an event would its return be?
• How much will Creation’s future follow the Splinter’s history?