Friday 29 July 2016

A Bastionese Smokey in King Haffwun's Court


You don't have to get a time machine to visit the past. You just have to leave Bastion and head into Deep Country.
It stretches on and on. Seas, Mountains, Deserts, but always more Deep Country.

The long shadow of Bastion's backwards past. Every embarrassing phase of humanity's modernisation stuck in its rut.

Deeper in distance, deeper in time.

If they're close enough to see Bastion's smoke, you might be able to talk with them. Failed cities, idiot yokels, and toothless estates.

Any further and you'd be as likely to reason with wild dogs.

They live with beasts and follow their rules.

Their little wars favour only the strong.

Their faiths are ill-informed.

They lack the modern look.

Still, if you're there you might have need of a Patron.

In short, Patrons know about Treasure, and their main uses are buying Treasure off you, and pointing you to even bigger hauls. In Bastion they tend to be complicated and self-important, reflecting the city itself.

But this is Deep Country, and its Key Principles are:
- It's stuck in the past.
- Things move slowly.
- Everything is hiding something. 

Two Deep Country Patrons


King Haffwun - Petty King of Shambly Hole
- To non-subjects, he uses Guards (8hp, d6 Crossbow, Fur-hats) to tax them, then expel from any land his Cave can see. It's crap land, but provides useful passage and has lots of Underground connections. 
- You can become a subject by bringing a Treasure worth up to 1g, but subjects have to dress up in ridiculous jester outfits when in court (and he summons you often). He doesn't like jokes, though. 
- If you bring a Treasure worth more than 1g, you can become a Knight, but it's more work than its worth and loads of drawn-out ceremony. 



The Lion Council - Literally a Council of Lions (9hp, d8 Bite) in a Failed City
- If you come without meat, you are their meat. 
- If you bring normal meat, they'll eat it and bring you a mouthful of coins d10g they took from bodies of previous victims. 
- If you bring exotic meat, they'll eat it and savour it for an hour or so before deciding if they enjoyed it. There's a 50% chance they'll love it, and grant you a place on the council. If you take it and spend a day with the Lions you learn to pounce and bite as a lion (d6, or d12 to an unsuspecting civilised person the first time you do it). If they don't like it, they make an example of you. 

Now, as a General Thing:
Patrons are useful when you want money.
Unions are useful when you have money. 

Well money is still useful in Deep Country, but these Unions want something else. 

Here the line between Union and Patron can get blurred. Generally they both want something, and have something you want. 

Two Deep Country Unions

Instead of the usual 10g contribution to be allowed in to a Ritual, these Unions require alternative payment. 


The Buckwud Legiune - Backwards, Never Forwards!
Instead of the 10g fee, attending a Ritual requires you to destroy 10g worth of modern equipment. 
- Song of Yesterday: A droning lament against civilisation. Can be sung once per day to cause buildings to crumble and machinery to fail catastrophically. 
- Carousel of Unprogress: A spinning dance that returns those in the middle to a younger form, essentially taking your character back to how they were immediately after generation.  
- Nature's Tale: A long drawn out story about the glory of the savage past. All that take part in the telling forget how to use anything more complex than a doorknob, but can get vague hints of how trees and animals feel by touching them. 


Sub-Man-Pack - We All Must Slave
Instead of the 10g fee, attending a ritual requires you work a month as a Slave, complete with murder if you try to leave partway through. 
- Mind Breaker: Permanently lose d20 WIL. If you survive this, increase your STR to 18 and grow ogre-like in appearance. 
- Body Breaker: Permanently lose d20 DEX. If you survive this, you always count as having Armour 1 and essentially suffer no pain. 
- Spirit Breaker: Your personality is gone, and although you look the same your friends and family won't believe you're the same person. However, you are immune to anything that targets your willpower, spirit, or confidence. 

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