12.3 Ghostfield

Introductory Fiction: Dragonspawn

Malley cursed under his breath as he chased after her, dodging the crooked trees in his path. Just once he wished that a rogue skipper would actually stop when ordered to, but that was just too much to ask. And this one was exceptionally nimble. She was weaving among the trees ahead of him, dipping in and out of his field of vision. But after two years of occupational guard duty the Kanissian Captain knew this stretch of Ghostfield better than anyone, even the Enendian locals, and he dashed around the side of a ravine to cut her off. Just when he thought she might have made an unexpected turn she came charging toward him.

He pulled his pneumatic rifle to his shoulder and took aim. The rogue skipper ran up a half-fallen tree trunk and, with a hissing burst of pressure from her boots, jettisoned into the air in a high arc. The very moment that his finger started pulling on the trigger, a gate flashed open between them and swallowed her.

Damn. It would have been to easy for her not to be a spontaneous gater as well. He quickly slung his rifle around his back, bounced off a tree trunk, then another one, and straight through her gate.

Even after dozens of excursions to the Beyond, his mind needed a moment to adjust to the sudden lack of up and down. He focused on the nearest rock floating in the vast expanse of space. He twisted around in mid-air, landed with a heavy thud on the barn-sized rock, and immediately turned his head in all directions to see where the rogue skipper had gone. Rocks of all different sizes floated around him in their inexplicable patterns, obscuring much of his vision. Finally he spotted her, jumping from one rock to another, like a Sumayan dancer.

He pushed off and gave chase. The rogue skipper was shooting thin ropes with metal hooks from her bracers, using them to swing around the rocks and every now and then hurl a smaller one his way. One of them even scratched along his back and tore open his shirt as he barely made it out of the way. It was no use wearing armor if you had to go Beyond; that would only slow you down and possibly trap you forever. Breathing heavily, but nowhere ready to give up, Malley made his way ever closer to her, his sense of up and down adjusting each time that he landed somewhere new. At least she didn't have time to grab anything of value while he was after her. Selling ores and gems from this place was an illegal but flourishing business, and he had a hunch that much of the benefit of that trade made its way to Enendian rebels.

Just when he thought he could intercept her with a couple more well-aimed jumps, something rammed one of the massive floating rocks and knocked Malley out of his trajectory. He saw a huge shadow rushing by, much too close for comfort. Chasing rogue skippers was his duty, but he could hardly fulfill it if he was torn apart by one of the Beyonders, so he searched for the nearest little gate and ricocheted several times until he made his way through.

The gate was twenty feet off the ground. Malley rolled with the impact as much as he could. He ended up on his back, looking up at the sky above, trying to calm his racing heart. Just when he was about to have some success in that area, his eyes widened and his lips parted as right above him, the largest gate he had ever seen tore through the fabric of reality, and a gigantic Beyonder burst through. Its body was elongated like a snake's, but with dozens of tree-sized spider legs, and even though it had no wings it flew through the air with an incredible agility.

He jumped to his feet to watch it whirl around a couple of times before setting down heavily in one of the abandoned villages nearby. The silence following the impact lasted only a few moments. A cacophony of little explosions followed as hundreds of things started shooting out along the Beyonder's carapace, from front to back, in high arcs and low. Malley was stunned. Nothing like this had ever come through. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

A nearby impact shook him out of his trance. He walked over toward the smoldering crater. Just as he tried to peer into it, something charged out. It took him by surprise and smashed him off his feet. Together he and the creature rolled across the ground. He felt something sharp sink deep into the flesh of his shoulder. Yelling out in pain, he kicked the thing off of him and, as it was flying through the air away from him, drew his pneumatic pistol and fired several rounds into the critter.

It landed on the ground and hopped right back to its feet, snarling and looking more angry than hurt. Malley got up and slipped his rifle from his shoulder, but before he could aim it the beast slammed it from his hands. Malley ducked and kicked and stabbed with his utility knife, but soon he found himself thrown to the ground, his head bashing against a wayward rock.

Dizzy and weak, he raised his head. The creature was approaching him again, rows of teeth bared, ready to turn him into its first snack in this world.

Something shot past it from the left, leaving a trail in the air. The sound of dashing steps came to Malley's ears, just before another shot missed the creature by just a couple of inches on its other side. A shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see the someone sailing through the air. The thin ropes to either side of the creature wrapped around its neck, and just as the rogue skipper reached the ground behind it, she gave a hard tug, sending its head flying off its shoulders as she landed in a graceful crouch.

Malley managed to push up into a sitting position, warily eyeing the rogue skipper as she recalled her ropes and the hooks snatched back into place in her bracers while the Beyonder's head bounced across the ground. She gave him a little smile. Up close, she looked younger than he had expected.

She looked toward the site where the huge Beyonder had landed, then cast a sparkling gaze at Malley as she offered him a hand. "Looks like you've got bigger things to chase after now than me."

Ghostfield

The area known as Ghostfield was long thought of as haunted. It's very close to another dimension, which people simply refer to as Beyond. Spontaneous gates open in various sizes that allow creatures to cross back and forth, ranging in size from tiny to building-sized. Smaller gates are more common; huge gates are rarely seen. People live in the vicinity of Ghostfield, but villages closer to its center have long been abandoned due to the unending appearance of strange and often dangerous creatures.

The Kanissian Republic has occupied Ghostfield and a large chunk of Enendia, its previous owner. The Kanissians, whose border was not far from the field, considered it a potential threat to their national security--and a great resource. The remainder of Enendia has barricaded itself behind the First River, leaving the occupied territory in Kanissian hands. There are several groups of rebels, however, who seek to free the realm from occupation.

If you step through one of the gates in Ghostfield to Beyond, you find yourself in a world without ground. It is filled with rocks of various shapes and sizes that float amongst one another. While they seem to repel each other and rarely crash into each other, their cores attract all other matter, serving as localized gravity. Many of these rocks are only as big as a room, yet they still have a gravitational pull much stronger than a comparable chunk would have in our world. Other rocks are as big as whole villages, but their pull is not much stronger; they all have the same tiny cores that are the source of the gravitational anomalies, with similar strength.

A vast range of strange creatures inhabits the Beyond, but what attracts humans to cross over are the ores and gems that can be found within the floating rocks. Scavengers who pluck them out are known as skippers. They bounce from rock to rock, traveling among them and looking for valuables. Only the First Expeditionary Corps of Kanissia is allowed to do this officially, but there are many rogue skippers who sneak through one of the gates and claim ores and gems to sell for a good price to one of the two crime cartels that has sprung up around the illegal trade of Beyond goods. Some of them finance the Enendian rebels. Others are just out for themselves.

Player Characters

The player characters can have any sort of background, as long as they have a good reason to stick together. They can be rebels, rogue skippers, Kanissian soldiers, villagers, criminals, or anything else that's workable. Here are the two example characters from the fiction piece above. If you like, you can play these in a sample character scene and/or conflict to get a handle on the setting before you create your own (or you can just use these characters for a whole story).

Captain Malley – Kanissian Guard Veteran
Passion: Anger
Mark: He has a huge shadowy discoloration on his back. Some might
mistake it for a birthmark, but it’s the spot where a Beyonder
melted into him; right before he started exhibiting powers
Traits: I follow orders, but in my own way
More experience than you’ll ever have.
Protective of children.
Stats: Action Pool 10, Wounds 4, Defense 3
Powers: Gate Sense, Leadership, Resilience II, Skipping, Soul Resistance,
Squad Tactics, Tactical Maneuvering, Toughness

Tikara – Rogue Skipper
Passion: Glory
Mark: Eyes sparkle in all kinds of different colors.
Traits: I like the chase.
Protect my family at all costs.
Deep in debt.
Stats: Action Pool 12, Wounds 3, Defense 4
Powers: Force Attack, Heroics, Resilience III, Skipping, Spontaneous Gating,
Stamina, Soulbound Weapon (Boots: Pneumatic)

Powers

Powers are uncommon, but not absolutely rare. Having several powers like PCs do, however, is something few are blessed with. There are maybe a dozen characters at or above the PCs' ability level in all of Enendia and Kanassia.

Additional powers:

Skipping
This character is trained and experienced at skipping among the rocks Beyond. Gain 2 bonus dice to any maneuver made Beyond. Almost all Beyonders possess this power.

Spontaneous Gating
This character can open a spontaneous gate to Beyond. The cost depends on the character's distance from the center of Ghostfield. Around the center, it costs 2 charge dice. For each kilometer further out, add 1 die to the cost. After 5 kilometers, spontaneous gating becomes impossible (and gates do not appear on their own at this distance, either). Using this power during a conflict counts as an action, but the character can simultaneously enter the gate and go Beyond during this action. The gate remains open for 3 rounds, during which any character can spend an action to follow Beyond.

Gate Sense
This power does not let a character open gates, but she senses where one will appear shortly. Close to the center, the character can spend one character scene to find a gate and enter it at the end of the scene. That means she doesn't get any of the other benefits of a character scene, but any characters with her can enter the gate and still claim a benefit for the scene. It takes two character scenes further than 1 kilometer from the center, but closer than 3 kilometers. Beyond that this power cannot be used. The power also cannot be used during conflicts.

Technology

Enendia is a less-developed realm, but the Kanissians have a vast array of steam-powered technology at their disposal. This ranges from pneumatic cannons to airships. Some of these devices are used Beyond, specifically pneumatic boots that assist a skipper in jettisoning off a rock.
A new brand of technology has sprung up around metals and gems from Beyond, which exhibit strange properties and can enable all sorts of unprecedented effects. There are rumors of experimental hover vehicles that can fly without steampower by using the strange gravitational properties of certain matter from Beyond.

Additional weapon effects:

[1] Pneumatic
This item improves maneuverability Beyond with air pressure thrusters. You gain 1 bonus die to all maneuvers and strikes Beyond. The maneuver bonus die stacks with the Skipping power.

Factions

There are several factions in this setting: the Kanassian Guard, Rebels, 2 crime cartels, and the unknown invaders. Details will be worked out for the full version.

Faction boons

All general boons plus Armor Piercing, Dwells Beyond (Ethereal--Beyonders only), Gating (Planeshifting--Beyonders only), Heavy Armor, Legendary (only the dragon and possibly one for a PC-supported faction), Mind Control (only the dragon), Mind Shield and Unravel are available.

Ethereal is changed to Dwells Beyond and Planeshifting is changed to Gating. Only Beyonders can start with these abilities; no one else has the ability to gate whole units through to Beyond. Engaging across gates requires Beyonders to come in and out on Ghostfield using Gating. If extraordinary things happen in your story, the GM can make exceptions and allow one or both of these boons to be taken by non-Beyonder pillars (for example, if a huge expeditionary corps sets out to Beyond).

Setting Seed: Coming of the Dragon

The setting seed for Ghostfield consists of a strange dragon-like creature that came through the largest gate that has ever been observed. It burst through into our world, flying for a few moments before setting down hard in one of the abandoned villages. It immediately shot hundreds of things out of its carapace into all directions. They could be seeds, eggs, or something of that sort; no one is exactly sure yet.