Star Ocean: Third Iteration

[Tolly]

Being a log of the bizarre play-whenever-we-have-time-and-desire campaign recently started by yours truly.

(Fans of the Star Ocean series will recognise the setting as the Roak of First Departure. The canon-screw of Last Hope is mostly ignored - although Edge and co. did visit and did rescue Sarah, the details of the incident are far, far removed from what appeared in-game. Mostly because it involved a cure for the mysterious stone sickness that wouldn't hit the planet for 320 years...)

This first post is a quick run-down of the Muah Kingdom, where the first set of sessions will take place, along with the races of Roak, and will be updated with info on the other major kingdoms once it becomes relevant.

The Muah Kingdom

The smallest of the four kingdoms clustered together in the northern hemisphere of Roak. Most of the population are Fellpool, although the other races are not an unusual sight.

Its name comes from the long-dead Muan civilisation, who came down from the skies full grown yet lacking tails or wings, and lived amongst the races until the first Demonic War, whereupon they all perished or disappeared. The fragment of their story left to the royal family of Muah speaks of their greatest regret, a mysterious incident tied closely to the legendary Eye of Hope.

It has two major cities, the port city of Portmith and the city of Haute. Although Muah is small, Portmith and Haute see a lot of traffic from people crossing between countries and by mercenaries and pilgrims travelling to the Celestial Ship and the nearby town of Kraat.

Portmith is the biggest city, and plays host to some of the most impressive docks in the known world, stretching out over almost two miles of water in a massive set of 'branches'. It's known across the world for the excellence of its seafood and the quality of its jewellers, who make jewelry from coral and shells. Although it's a port city, the crime rate is kept low by an exceptional local police force and the requirement of having a pass to move in and out of the three gates that lead outside the massive stormwalls surrounding it.

Haute is situated high up in the mountains that straddle the kingdom, and boasts both exceptional trade in weapons and armour and some of the most comfortable inns in the world. Its size is deceptive - it's built in a terraced design, meaning that homes and businesses that appear small from the outside are acually quite large on the interior.

Kraat is a small town experiencing a sudden boost in the number of visitors thanks to the Celestial Ship. Originally little more than a farming community, it's finding itself forced to expand to meet the needs of the pilgrims. The people retain their small-town charm and easy-going manner, and any visitor can be certain of a warm welcome.

The Celestial Ship is the wreck of a strange silver machine that fell from the sky just after the beginning of the Third Demonic War. As the Fellpool believe that the gods live amongst the stars in their Holy Sanctuary, many people believe it to be some kind of a message from the gods. Nobody has ever managed to get inside it, though, so who knows what lies inside...

The Races of Roak

Fellpool
The most populous race on Roak. Fellpool are agile an agile people with slightly pointed ears and cat-like tails, who have equal skill in the art of combat and the mysticism of Symbology. They are in general an easy-going race, with a tendancy to prefer living in small, friendly communities which emphasis community, family, and working for the greater good.

Highlanders
A predatory offshoot of the Fellpool race found almost exclusively in the kingdom of Astral. Although they share the sharp ears and tails of the Fellpool, they are all marked with stripes in shades of red, orange and yellow across their bodies. They are physically very powerful, but they lack the skill to become truly talented Symbologists, and very few make the effort to learn the art. Their kingdom and capital, Astral, and neighbouring Tatroi, are built heavily upon personal strength and achievement in the name of honour and serving their king.

Featherfolk
An almost angelic race rarely seen outside their mysterious home. They are a very slender race with large bird-like wings on their backs. In order to fly, they have hollow bones and odd 'air pouches' in their chests, making them extremely fragile. As a race, they have an almost frightening talent for Symbology, and any Featherfolk found outside their hidden homeland is guaranteed to be a powerful Symbologist. Their city is believed to be somewhere in the mountains of Astral, but nobody seems to know for sure.

The Muah

A dead race of powerful symbologists and scientists. Little is known of them now, apart from the tales of their fall from the sky and eventual disappearance.

[Tolly]

(Yay, topic approval~!)

The party only consists of two characters at the moment, I believe I'll have more players later but for now it's not a bad party size.

Heather Lyonson - A Fellpool Symbologist who uses both healing and attack symbology. She abused the hell out of Ice magic pretty much the entire session.
Fenrir - A Highlander Warrior with a very, very big sword (and no, he's not compensating for something, or so he claims). Despite not wearing any armour, he managed to not take a single scratch of damage.

Session One - Chaos in Coule

The session started, probably quite appropriately, in Coule's bar. Fenrir was there, slamming down shots of something nasty and alcoholic (and passing every damn save too), while Heather was there to treat a poor fool who'd gotten his jaw broken in a bar brawl. There were some interesting rumours floating around, and they immediately focussed on a couple of them.

* There's a strange blue-haired guy with horns wandering around near Portmith, kicking the crap out of bandits and criminals. He doesn't leave a name and doesn't accept money for his services, and one of the barflies claimed to have actually been rescued by him. He said that the man looked really disorientated and confused, almost like he wasn't sure where he was.
* The Velkhent Raiders seem to have recovered from the kicking they got a few years back and are harassing trade ships. Strangely, they're only targetting ships carrying merchants and their goods, which is strange considering they used to attack anything that moved. Fenrir seemed very enthusiastic about the chance to give them a good kicking.

After some discussion with the locals and each other, Fenrir and Heather headed over the mountains. They had a couple of fights with Fellworms but were pretty much untouched, mostly due to obscene abuse of Ice Needles. As they forgot to check their clothes for eggs, though, they had a rather nasty incident just outside Portmith where a whole clutch of them hatched at once and almost managed to overwhelm Heather before Fenrir stabbed them all to death.

They tried to enter Portmith, only to remember that neither of them had the pass they needed to actually get into the city. A local merchant offered them a pass and a rather swish reward if they hunted down one of his workers who had run off with a pretty expensive collection of jewelry he'd been planning to sell to some local nobles.

The session ended there due to real life concerns, but both players are apparently quite enthusiastic to go hunting.