Steampunk Story Arc
My players may not want to read this, although it's fairly likely I won't be continuing Samru 1889.
I was planning to make this a much longer campaign, but it didn't work out. This was the third adventure I was planning, to be loosely based around the events in the nonfiction book of the same name.
THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
The World Fair — the greatest achievement in the United Cognoterre’s history, many say, and a gem in the crown of Queen Praetoria. It’s a huge city built on the edge of the ocean, in which entire villages from remote parts of Samru have been transplanted, where on its best day to date over 700,000 visitors have come to visit and celebrate Samru’s great peoples and technologies. Where they can taste both new and ancient foods and visit the exotic and the futuristic; ride through man-made canals on steam-powered boats and watch in the evening as fireworks light up the sky. Where geniuses like the engineers at Pomum can show off their latest inventions and where rude natives from the darkest depths of Damnare and Saskian demonstrate their scandalous rituals. Where giant iron towers and wheels pierce the sky, taller than anything has ever before been built, more delicate than seems possible, yet sturdy enough to take thousands of sightseers a day. Where hundreds of thousands have stopped to gape at the latest in airship design and, most amazingly, real live natives from the moon.
The World Fair — where Her Majesty’s Secret Service has determined that Universal Exports, the power behind lunatic biologist Dr. Kantu Sahan, is developing their killer steammechas and atavising drugs, and perhaps something far more frightening.
It’s up to you to stop them.
World Fair Map (pdf)
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While they're at the World Fair, archvillain Hannibal Moriarty will break out of prison and Team Alpha will hunt them down and be destroyed, but not before leaving clues that Hannibal has gone to Moha. This will Team Beta up to go to Moha and begin to discover the larger story arc:
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Larger story arc:In approximately three years, the stars will be right to bring Ryleh up from the sea on "the moon" (that is, on Samru, and it is the center of the Cognoterre continent configuration, with Saldon part of the hidden continent).
The Aztechs of Moha know this, and in fact have been leading the fight AGAINST the Elder Gods for aeons, albeit some might argue that their methods of blood sacrifice to power their defenses is little better than what the Elder Gods would offer. They'd be wrong. Blood sacrifice is infinitely preferable to what the Elder Gods would bring down upon the world.
However, those occultists and creatures that await the Elder Gods have been working long to discredit the Aztechs and to try to drive other peoples to the Aztech's destruction. Only the most highly placed occultists, such as the Mainspring of the Watchmakers, knows the dark truth -- that destroying the Aztechs will remove one of the greatest enemies of the Elder Gods.
The story arc for the characters is to piece together evidence that the Elder Gods are stirring, to have it lead to the Aztechs, to try to stop the Aztechs, to realize that in fact the Aztechs are the strongest bastion against the Elder Gods, and to join them to stop the disaster. They start on Candor with innocuous adventures before being swept up in these greater events.
(How often are the stars right? Only once every 2,000 years or so, in fact. The last time the stars were right was during Samru's last Armageddon.)
Along the way, the group should slowly realize that the Watchmakers are a very powerful group. RED HERRING: They should be misled into believing it is the Watchmakers, not the Aztechs, who are trying to stop the rise of Ryleh. And IN FACT, originally the Watchmakers were this kind of group. But the occultists, realizing the danger, infiltrated them and took over.
A splinter group, the small Winding Keys, know the truth and are sworn to protect it. They are being killed off (a la The Da Vinci Code).
Any attempt to have an analytical engine decipher magical writings will drive the engine insane. Any attempt to have an analytical engine decipher magic related to the Elder Gods will turn it insane and infect it with self-awareness, making it evil AI. Naturally, at some point this needs to be tried - if the group doesn't do it, then one of their close NPCs will try it, trapping the entire group in the mountain while the engine goes insane....
