Casual day in Acernos

Now that we have gotten all the serious stuff out of the way (at least for a while), we are going to tell more about the gameplay. Most of the time we are going to use short stories from our campaigns and scenarios as examples for gameplay mechanics and situations.

The story of why you don’t anger the Lady of Mist

In our campaign we had a short war between Agura, god of water and alliance of Lumia, goddess of moon and Morte, god of death. Our player characters are powerful shinigamis who serve the god of death. This scenario takes place during a victory celebration held in Lumia’s capital Umbra. Player characters were invited, because they managed to kill few of Agura’s lords* during the war, however they also made one of Lumia’s ladies* their enemy. One of Lumia’s ex-ladies, Kiku Lady of Mist, is a friend of the player characters and is currently accompanying them. At this point Kaguya, Lady of Moonlight, attacks the player characters with her signature ritual.

Massive white wave of energy discharges across the ballroom and devours dozens of bystanders. The energy wave disintegrates multiple thick stone walls of the gothic castle and rips twenty meters wide and hundreds of meters long crater to floor of the building. One of the player characters manages to avoid the attack, but other one is too slow to react. As Kiku notices one of her friends is going to get hit she uses her own body to shield the player character.

The ritual which would reduce any normal human to ash, only slightly injures the hand which Kiku used to absorb the damage. Then Kiku conjures her katana from the void and proceeds to subdue Kaguya. During next ten seconds of combat Lady of Mist one-sidedly beats Kaguya through a thick stone wall and slashes her half a dozen times with her sword and cuts her right arm cleanly off. Any of these slashes would have been enough to cut a normal human in half or to send a powerful demigod flying.

Gameplay wise this battle took us about half an hour to complete and the combat consisted of three combat rounds with four combatants. Design wise point of this battle was to test combat between one of the most powerful characters in our lore (Lady of Mist) and an average lady (Lady of Moonlight). Even though an average lord is able to single handedly destroy Tentaika’s capital, Rozushito, Kaguya was still easily manhandled by Kiku. This battle also shows how much collateral damage a single attack from a powerful character can cause.

See you next Sunday!

*Lords and ladies are extremely powerful demigods who serve directly under the minor gods. Each minor god has three lords/ladies which means there are a total of nine lords/ladies under a prime god. Morte is an exception as his minor gods have no lords or ladies.

Saiki

Saiki Prefecture

Saiki Prefecture

Saiki is the largest prefecture in Tentaika as it covers the entire Black Sea island belt. An evergreen jungle masks high hills and volcanic mountains which rise from the Mediterranean isles. The islands are loosely populated and most of the prefecture’s population is centered to inner coasts. Boat traffic between isles consists mostly of fisherman, traders and samurai.

Ten'noshima is the largest island in Saiki prefecture. The mountain range of Tenyama spans across the island and it is known amongst the religious minds as home of Kyuubi Ryusaki Ume. The islands capital, Akegata is considered as the religions center in the prefecture. Akegata also has close ties to Genkaisha.

Because of the enormous size of the prefecture, it is impossible to properly enforce law on all the small islands. Because of this, the prefecture has always attracted outlaws, strange cults, demon worshippers and other outcasts. Also on the northern shores of the prefecture lies a shack town of Wasure no wan, which serves as a safe haven for local pirates and other outlaws.

Shimazu Clan

Shimazu clan rules the single largest prefecture in Tentaika. The large size of the prefecture makes it hard to govern from a single location. This has led to increased authority for the vassal clans. Shimazu upholds the old traditions of bushido and they often refrain from meddling with other clans’ affairs. Shimazu clan is well known for its large navy and the unique methods for naval warfare.

Ritualism has changed the nature of naval warfare. This can be clearly seen in the way Shimazu’s special forces operate. Fast and maneuverable strike boats are favored amongst Shimazu’s naval forces. From these boats ritualists can either sink ships from hundreds of meters away or infantry can be brought into a running distance from the enemy ships. From there the infantry can run on top of the water to board the ships.

Shimazu clan values skill in ritualism and channeling and the clan has many training centers scattered around the prefecture. These training centers specialize in teaching Agura’s and Luca’s rituals and self-channeling and only the best young samurai are accepted as students. The clan has a tradition to reward the best ritualists and channelers during graduation every year. These champions receive honor and respect among the clan. This has been proven as a successful way to encourage young samurai to push their limits during their training.

 

See you next Sunday!

Tenshu

Tenshu Prefecture

Tenshu Prefecture

Tenshu prefecture’s Mediterranean climate has spawned great evergreen forests around Aira Yama. Most of the landscape of Tenshu prefecture is dominated by lush forests and hills. Forests are relatively easy to travel due to almost nonexistent underbrush. Forests climb up the volcanic Aira Yama range and many hidden temples and villages reside in Aira Yama’s steep coves. Kenzan Wetlands are part of Tenshu prefecture. The wetlands are scarcely populated and most people living in the wetlands are outlaws or members of secret organizations and cults.

The city of Tenshu is located on the shores of Uchijiro gulf and it is built in between the sharp seashore cliffs. To save precious building space most of the buildings in the city are high pagodas. These high-rising buildings have built-in walkways between towering structures. Tenshu is known for its beautiful architecture and high standard of living. The prefecture is rich in ores and gems as well as rare Aira Silk which is harvested from gigantic spiders living in the mountains.

Kido Clan

The Kido clan is among the smallest of the seven warrior clans. Even though Kido is a relatively small clan they are very wealthy because of their silk, ore and gem trade. The clan itself is very similar to Kawachi clan. Both clans prefer lightly armored infantry and they prefer swords over other weapons. The clan is also known for their high standard of training and in channeling and ritualism arts they are second only to Genkaisha. Unlike their neighbor Okano, Kido is rather lax when it comes to bushido. This mentality is due to the fact that Chōhō Butai works directly under Kido clan.

Chōhō Butai is an old organization of shinobi who work under Kido clan. Originally Chōhō Butai was founded by the Shogun to act as an intelligence and assassination corps for his own use. Time has changed the organization which is now directly under Kido control. Chōhō Butai indirectly accepts contracts from other warrior clans. These contracts are usually information gathering or assassinations. However Chōhō Butai rarely accepts contracts against the ruling shogun clan.

 

See you next Sunday!