1970 wrote:I haven't quite decided on what the Lady is, though I'm leaning toward a powerful nature spirit. In the Wikipedia article I was reading she was the daughter of a god (which one escapes me), so she's at least as powerful as a Demigod. Hotrod mentioned she might be a dragon, which I thought was a cool idea as well. In my semi rewrite she's kind of on the periphery currently, so I don't have to deal with it right now, fortunately.
Nature spirit/deity come easily but making her a dragon could make for a good twist with some explanation. Or maybe there's more than one, a "fake" and a "true" Lady of the Lake, in the vein of how you have "real" gods, demigods & heroes and a number of impostors in Pantheons of the Megaverse.
Anyway, Lady of Lake as a sort of guide/muse/quest-giver figure for wandering knights in general is kind of a must for me.
1970 wrote:I don't know what I'm doing with Fairievale anymore since I moved New Camelot to the other side of Bath. There are forests to the south of Salisbury that I'm using which could serve the same purpose, so your suggestion of using a Faerie Queen (or King) wouldn't be too off base.
Well,
multiple locations doesn't have to be a problem, you know.
1970 wrote:I hadn't considered any giants other than the Gigantes and the Cernun Mystics. I'm still stuck on New Camelot making sense to me. I know they're there, I just don't know where. I do, however, have a definite and more immediate use for PF Kobolds. Since I'm not using Excalibur anymore (for reasons that I'll get into later) having Merlin go to the Kobolds to create a "magic sword" as a symbol of New Camelot sounds pretty plausible.
Well, i mentioned the Jotans as an excuse to suggest Kobolds with major TW skills, but where you'd want to go or not with Jotans or other giants is up to you. Me i once made a "giant empire" in Greenland with the PF giant races blending into one people with varied degrees of purity and capacities (read, a slightly expanded version of the Gigantes table, to account for a greater range of atributes, the possibility of being SDC, fire or ice breath & other stuff). I guess something similar could work as a foil of sorts, sometimes adversaries of Camelot and any other such "powers of good", sometimes convenient buffer against other threats like the Fomorians, Cernun (brainwashing lizards - exterminate, EXTERMINATE!!!) and other bothersome fellows.
1970 wrote:Towards the end of Old Camelot's reign, for reasons currently known only to those involved, the Lady of the Lake imprisoned Merlin somewhere where he couldn't escape. Only the eruption of the Rifts allowed him to escape. He's now fearful of being entrapped again, so he decided to reform a version of Camelot, claiming that Winchester Castle was sort of a Promised Land where a new Kingdom could be established for the betterment of all beings.
What if the reasons are currently
unknown
even to those involved? Due to the centuries passed, traumas of imprisonment &/or Time of the Rifts and unknown supernatural shenanigans no one can say for sure anymore, letting you keep it vague and open until some weird idea comes to mind.
Maybe something along the lines of William Bell messing with
Walter Bishop's head in Fringe or worse.
"Why did you seal me in that place??"
"Because you begged me to, you said i
needed to, for the good of the fallen world!!"
"What?!?!"
Anyway, the "now fearful of being entrapped again" part got an image on my mind - of how Merlin is always found in particular spaces: stone circles, sacred grooves, open courtyards, the top of mountains. Not because they are places of power or good locales to make himself noticeable, though those do play a role but
because open spaces make him feel safer, he's somewhat claustrophobic and small rooms can cause him flashbacks of his entrapment for more than a millenium.
1970 wrote:In reality, Camelot is a buffer to any one or thing that could be a danger to him. He doesn't want to be the ruler; that's too dangerous, but the power behind the throne is where he shines. So he employed magic and psionics plus a good deal of personal charisma and powerful lessons learned and witnessed from Old Camelot to get several small villages and towns to follow him.
Still in the "not being entrapped again" train of thought, it got me thinking that Merlin's objective is not so much dominating or manipulating anything - though as a demigod that certainly entertains him - but to neutralize any major supernatural forces that might have the power to threaten him. That those beings might be an even greater danger to the fragile mortals he's guiding only makes it more of a win-win situation.
1970 wrote:What they didn't know was that Kefrem, Lord of the Necropolis, was sending out his undead legions to scout locations that could be a danger to his small theocracy in London. These two groups clashed with each other however briefly (Merlin and company wiped them out), leading both to worry about the security of their current and future nations. So far Merlin has everything he needs except for a symbol of heritage by divine right. Excalibur is gone and Merlin can't find it, which worries him greatly, because due to his half-demonic nature such a sword could be a serious danger to him personally.
Kefrem? That makes me think of an egyptian pharaoh's mummy awakening in the British Museum and making it his palace from which to start the conquest of the city. Does that fit on your idea?
Incidentally, i would make Kefrem & Merlin's past confrontation something more of an impasse, just to reinforce both how they are on somewhat even ground in power & influence (what's far from a good thing) and their mutual badassness.
Also, while it has roots in the source, i'm not quite sure about playing the "half-demonic heritage" card - at least in relation to vulnerabilities, as bringing them could mean making him also vulnerable to silver or iron, but more importantly, Millenium Tree wood, that tends to be quite the smacker of all things unholy (that said, Merlin getting unexpected trouble out of whoever his demonic mom or dad is could be interesting).
Ok, speaking of "Helldad/mom is coming for a visit" gave me an idea. Ever watched Teen Titans? What if Merlin is like Raven, not "just" a half-demonic child turned magician, but a gate in the making, destined to become a great permanent passage to whatever Hell-Realm its diabolic parent rules and that is the awful, lost motive for his imprisonment?
And in a twist of Arthurian themes, the Stone [a magical crystal menhir] was his prison and the Sword [Excalibur] the lock and key? At least until someone pried the Sword from the Stone during the Time of Rifts/Chaos Earth era, Merlin was freed and this link is why he's vulnerable to Excalibur still?
1970 wrote:What he doesn't know is that when the Arthur died, both he and Excalibur were interned in the Island of Avalon. When Earth's magic started waning, the Seven Sisters who ruled and protected Avalon magically shunted the island into its own pocket dimension. After the coming of the Rifts, the Sisters aren't sure they want to return. It's tempting; millennia spent in isolation, with the odd appearance of one dimensional traveler or another who visited through random dimensional portals or those who simply discovered them through luck has made them doubt the safety of their pocket domain and may lead them to pop back into existence, such as it were. So far the best they've done is sending scouts from the immortal nuns who are caretakers of Avalon to get the lay of the land and find out how safe returning would be. In the end it might not matter. Dimensions so close to Rifts Earth are significantly less safe than they were, and simple survival may egg them into action before they're ready.
Just to complicate things a bit more, what if Arthur is not dead, but indeed sleeping/healing in Avalon? Arthur actually being able to return - and Merlin having no idea whatsoever the legend has some kernel of truth and being as surprised/unbelieving as everybody else could be fun. Incidentally, if the Seven sisters or the Lady of the Lake have anything like the Taursis' healing/ressurection powers, i bet they would be even more strongly opposed to an undead theocracy than Merlin.
Or for a funky twist, what if Avalon and the Seven Sisters have no healing/ressurection powers whatsoever - Avalon is a repurposed Temporal Raider hideout, a time bubble effect over it making the place ideal to preserve dead people outside of time and in perfect condiction to be ressurrected when opportunity (help from a deity, spirit of light or spellcaster with the right ability) comes by.
Speaking of the Seven Sisters, weren't they related to either Morgana, the Lady of the Lake or both? Or maybe they are the muses of Greek Myth, instead? That could make for a slight twist/change of direction too, with them as masters/mistresses of arts and sciences.
1970 wrote:So, until Merlin can find Excalibur, he's commissioning a weapon of power from unknown parties to act as a symbol of the Divine Right of Kings and simultaneously a weapon against the growing danger that London presents. He's used subterfuge to crown a King for his new kingdom, but Merlin now wants to send this King on a quest to find the sword that will cement his Divine Right to rule over the Britons. It isn't much now, but once they destroy the Cult of Set in London and bring the other dangers of England under control Merlin thinks the other nation-states of England will fall in line.
Ah, so Kefren is indeed egyptian, good to know! How about insted of Set per se, Kefren served a less focused or controlling member of the Taut Pantheon, like either Anubis (loves undead), Anhur (not evil per se, but loves wargames) or a total nutcase of an unreliable divine patron, like Amon, Apep or Bes?
1970 wrote:That's where I'm at right now. A semi-paranoid half-demon demigod trying to protect himself from threats he can't see or doesn't know about is bent on absorbing and conquering his neighbors. Sure he's instilled high ideals in the people and helped create a thriving community where people are relatively safe, but he won't understand why some people won't want to give up their autonomy to serve a King they've probably only heard about. Once the blood starts flowing, what other forces will align against him? Will the Seven Sisters give Excalibur to a worthy soul to smite the usurpers? Will the Lady of the Lake make her appearance again? I suppose that's for the game to decide.
Well, i guess i kind of commented on some of these already above, but let me try to order things.
I like the idea of a slightly traumatized Merlin that is ambitious, manipulative and proud as a demigod might be expected to be, but is actually more focused in
eliminating potential threats to his freedom/safety than empire-building per se, what makes his actions more unpredictable and dubious to interpret as he throws the occasional "Screw the politicking, the undead/fomor/fae/sploogs are coming from the North, let's kick monster butt noooooooow!!!!!" rant out of the blue or brings a nuke to a spell fight, so to speak.
What doesn't make him good by any measure - "sacrifices are sommetimes necessary, ends justify the means, etc" - just makes his agenda a little more complex and less linear or clear for the observer. The idea that he might unknowingly be the linchpin of one such threat can only makes things even more twisted and tragic.
The seven Sisters and the Lady of the Lake are major wildcards. Things can be considerably different for the game depending on their powers, origins and relation to each other - are they allies, neutral, rivals, enemies, one and the same? who's back on Rifts Earth, who's not? what if "Lady of the Lake" is just a misnomer for the many sightings of the seven sisters, or instead they are the multiple personalities of an insane shapeshifting creature of magic or demigodess? Or there's a bit of both in the British Isles (remember my comment about imposters)?
1970 wrote:A couple of other quick questions: Has anyone converted Dead Reign Zombies to Rifts? They'd be pretty perfect for Kefrem's armies.
Well, as i'm not really familiar with Dead Reign i got to ask what would require conversion exactly? Zombies in Rifts Earth are still SDC and any minor differences might be chalked up to either Anubis' patronage or Kefrem having access to some mcguffin spell or artifact (rune weapon with a weakened vampire intelligence inside?) that makes them so.
1970 wrote:And speaking of the military, how does England get Power Armor? Every nation capable of getting power armor to England are skeptical of their acceptance of D-Bees, and as far as I know, anyone who would trade with them wouldn't have the capacity to ge the armor to them. So where does it come from? I'm not confident enough to create my own, though I'm sure someone could figure it out; maybe Cambridge, which would make a great export for them BTW. I don't need power armor, but it would be cool to throw some in regardless. Thanks in advance.
Dreicunan made pretty good points about the Black Market already, to which i would add that Triax merch or knock-offs are far from the only options.
At least one of the Warlords of Russia is majorly involved with the Black Market and some excerpts in Warlords, Triax 2 and the Sovietski books imply that parts of Poland (probably unrelated to Tarnow, in fact) are also pretty big in contraband, knock-offs of other nation's hardware and independent production. There's also the possibility of buying, redirecting or outright stealing stuff sold by the Splugorth and/or Phoenix Empire to the Gaargoyles, Brodkill and other minor "monster kingdoms".
Beside this, there's the old, practical standby of excavating the ruins of pre-Rifts cities and military installations for "golden age" armor, vehicles, weapons and hardware that might be salvageable. Even the Necropolis could benefit from this,
specially if Kefren has intelligent remnants of the Chaos Earth era among his undead armies and/or court.
I had some other things in mind, but this post is already large enough as is. Whatever, need to take a **** and some rest. I can rant more some other time. See ya later people.