Hello everyone...im james...and i live on the east side of cleveland. run a rifts game every wednesday afternoon at lakeland community college. so if anyone is looking to get in on a game and is from the area...you're more than welcome to come join us. i have 10 people who play so far...but we can make room for ya!
the adventure is based on a mercenary company run by an NPC and set in the great lakes region. the party itself is definately a motley crew. we have a crazy, a coalition power armor pilot, a mind melter, a cyber doc, a ley line walker, a head hunter, a full conversion cyborg, a hack rat, a techno wizard, and a mercenary. they are a bunch of characters too...and we have a ton of fun playing.
i had to start off with an NPC run merc company as opposed to a player run one...simply because not many people are framiliar with the palladium system. some of my players are experienced role players...and for others this is their first campaign.
anyway go give some backround about the campaign itself...since we're from cleveland i decided to set it in Rifts cleveland...aka queenston harbor. i got most of the beginning material from the coalition navy sourcebook as far as pirates, lake erie creatures, etc.
the merc company is able to pick up contracts doing all kinds of things. queenston harbor is an excellent place to make money...as it is one of the only free ports on the great lakes. it's a haven for pirates and other nefarious characters.
our weekly sessions are usually minor steps along a bigger story arc. my story arc in a nut shell is that certain factions in atlantis want to overthrow queen seabreeze and take over queenston, turning it into a splurgoth controlled slaving port. queen seabreeze is adament about having no slave trading conducted in queenston. the atlantaen factions are operating through the dragonwright cult. basically they want to open a rift in the center of town to bring dragons through...at the same time assaulting the city from sea, land, and air to take it over and establish their port.
it is advantageous to the splurgorth to have a slaving port here because it gives them good access to the human controlled lands around the great lakes...and a ready population of potential slaves.
the campaign began with a member of this dragonwright cult approached the merc company with a contract to recovery of an acyolyte who was kidnapped by pirates. their job was to take a ransom out to an island in lake erie...make the exchange and bring her back to queenston. sounds simple right?
what happened was they got to the pirate base ok. made the exhange, and the acolyte booked it. stole a jet ski...and took off. the party had to scramble..stealing a boat and some other jet skis and gave chase. the pirates of course also gave chase and we had an awesome battle.
the acolyte got pretty far ahead...and ended up being captured by a coalition patrol...who was also in the area. they had a small observation station set up on a nearby island. an LPOP for the CSS Citadel which was also in the area. the party was about to assault the camp when they CS sailors and marines were set upon by a swarm of water striders. (these are MDC creatures...basically mosquitos the size of pickup trucks). In the confusion..the party was able to nab the acolyte and steal a coaliton patrol boat.
while aboard the escaped acolyte explained that she wasn't in the dragonwright cult...that they cultists had kidnapped her because of her inate magical abilities...(she has a VERY high PPE) and were planning to sacrifice her during a ritual along with some other young girls...using the released PPE to open a temporary rift to atlantis...in order to bring more of the Splurgoth forces through. she managed to escape and was kidnapped by the pirates. she begs not to be taken back to the cult...and instead wants to be reunited with her family back in queenston.
the party set off back to the harbor...and when they got close they were waylaid by the harbor patrol. since they were in a coalition patrol boat..and the coalition is not welcome in queenston, they were placed under arrest and escorted back to the city. they were taken before a magistrate who realized they were just a mercenary company and were relased. however the acolyte was picked up by members of the dragonwright cult. (in my campaign they are noticable because they have goatees artifically dyed red.)
one of the party members was able to make a perception check along with a post rifts lore check and noticed the magistrate had a dragon tattoo on the inside of his wrist.
this alerted the party that the dragonwright cult was deeply entrenched in the society of queenston. they managed to rescue the girl and were later approached by one of the queen's intelligence operatives who informed them the queen was aware of the plot against her and wished to enlist their help in preventing the coup.
in any case...that's how it got started and it's taken off from there! we've been playing for 8 weeks now and it's an amazing adventure. they still haven't found the dragonwright lair. I love running campaigns and we have a blast playing rifts.
i would appreciate any feedback or comments.
