Bloodred Skies

over
Haalkitaine

Bloodred skies is centered around the city of Haalkitaine, the core of the empire Rhakhaan.

Setting

The setting of this campaign is in the city of Haalkitaine in the Rhakhaan Empire. It is the second largest city in the empire and by far the oldest one.

The ancient stone buildings of Haalkitaine make it ideal for an epic dark fantasy campaign. See more about the city in the next chapter.
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Time

The campaign takes place in the year 6050 TEI, Rhakhaan is torn by the struggle for the throne and civil war has broken out.
The area around Haalkitaine is not effected by the war so much since it takes place much further north, but it is still clearly visible on the amount of refugees that have come to the city, make the 25.000 people expand to nearly 40.000 and villages around growing to become towns. Even among the higher classes you notice the amount of refugees, many nobles living up north are moving or sending their family south to Haalkitaine to spare them the war.
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Characters

The characters are Baronet Arim Markellos and the footpad Ron the Knee, the Jester and cat burglar ?????????, the night blade ??????? and the assassin apprentice ???????????. They are described more under Player Characters

Baronet Arim Markellos is a lower noble, his father is a Baron but he has two older brothers that will get the title before him. He lives in Haalkitaine trying to make a living there since the money his family sends him would not be enough to survive on. To add on to that money he started getting involved in some criminal activities, selling stolen things supplying other nobles with illegal wares… mostly small crimes, so he not is noted for that. His official life he is a typical lower noble, he tries to get to the important parties, duels for fame and in general tries to make a name of himself.

To keep him out of more serious trouble he has hired one of the most feared men in Haalkitaine, the not so bright, but all the more brutal Ron the knee.

Until he met the baronet Ron was working as a footpad to who paid most, helping more organized criminals disposing people, extortion and much more, this has made him a known and feared individual in the city, but also got himself in serious trouble with the guard and authorities in the city and without the help of his new employee he would most likely still be in prison or maybe even hanged.
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Adventures in Haalkitaine

Here is just some idea for different adventures and scenarios.

Points to think about:

Minimize railroading, let them do whatever they want and adept the adventures from that… this will be easy for Fredrik that is more used to that style of role-playing, but harder for Anders.
Keep the money situation controlled, let each keep their own view of what is much money and so on, if they get too much money they will loose that. And if they should get to much money, let them keep it for a little while, and then they will get robbed, and we got a all new adventure trying to get a hold of the ones that did that awful crime.
Keep violence at a level adapted for a small criminal city campaign, killing people is not everyday practice, not even for "Ron the knee", even when they are really discrete corpses have a way of pointing their finger to whoever done the crime. Normally it is enough to beat someone up or something like that, killing is a lot of trouble for everybody.
Wounds, all wounds are dangerous, make sure they learn it, for example if they are robbed, one of the villains has a crossbow pointed to them, it is a light crossbow, doing 1D6+1 damage… that means not even a perfect shot could kill Ron, but it would definitely wound him… apply all rules possible for effects of wounds, bleeding, infections, diseases and so on, that will teach them to be very aware, and medical attention cost a lot of money. Dueling wounds are usually very clean, and the character receives medical attention very fast, but it is a completely different thing with a dirty arrow or a dagger that is rusted and dirty.
Use their disadvantages hard, a disadvantage that is no disadvantage is not worth any points, and as long as they got points they should suffer from it accordingly. This is not meant to punish the characters in any way, but more just have it as a constant source of adventure inspiration and keep them a little on their toes.
Time, keep timing going, starting at 6050 means they still have several years before they come up to the level of other campaigns, if they get wounded or sick, let weeks, sometimes month pass, just as long as the don't feel they can't do anything about it.
Make up plenty of NPC's, let the baronet come to know everybody that sells things to him for example, let them know what other criminals there are around and let them relate to them as they want.

The Relatives

Baronet … …. Has relatives that want him dead, this may be a constant source of adventure, try and stay alive and at the same time make sure they are not.

If they should find out about his secret life and his illegal businesses he would be in great problem. Fencing is not a mortal crime, but it would disgrace him completely and his family would have reason enough to cut him out of any inheritance and he would might have to spend some time in a prison, something that is not a very pleasant experience for anyone… least of all some lower noble that is used to have a good life.

The Cultists

Some women has been disappearing in the city, something our hero hears a lot about and must do something about… it is a evil cult that use people for live sacrifice.

Another part of the cultist is if they get to continue their ceremonies they will eventually summon a powerful demon and worship it as a god, this demon could be another source of adventure on a little more high level since the pc's better get some magic weapon or something like that to be able to slay it.

Some reason for the pc's to want to slay it? Best is if it gets some personal interest in the characters and make their life a living purgatory if they don't do something about it.

The Goblins

Some criminal element has taken in some new assassins in the city, a small band of goblins with poison arrows and a generally bad attitude.

If some rival criminal has control over the goblins he can use them for example to ruin the baronets business (his fence business) or someone wanting to get back at Ron the Knee by having a bunch of goblins laying in ambush with poison arrows and saw toothed knives… Ron is big, but this would be a problem for a veteran soldier even.

Vampires

The original setting in Blood red skies over Haalkitaine. It would be bad enough if it was one vampire in the city, but a dozen or so makes it a lot more complicated, and with the all the new people in the city they can act less careful, something that suits the rebels very good.

The vampires are organized in two groups, the first group has been in the city for eons, they are called the traditionalists, they live in the catacombs, and only come out at some nights when they need to feed, most of them have several humans servants that gives them what they need so they can spend the time to themselves.

The other group of the vampires are the rebels, they have rebelled against the traditionalists in best vampire rpg style, they are still in awe of the powers they have and think they should be used, they have started infiltrating and using different criminal organizations and try to get some power among the mortals.

The traditionalists are ancient compared to all the rebels, and as more powerful over them as a new vampire is over a mortal, but they are going great lengths not to have a open conflict, they know there are plenty of sorcerers and adventurers that would jump at the chance to make a reputation by killing some vampires, so they are still trying to just keep a low profile and are not able to agree what to do about the rebels.

One idea for an adventure is that one of the traditionalists want to hire Ron the Knee for some arson… even vampires dies from the flames, they will suggest for him to do it in the early morning… and if he does not chances are that someone will get very upset on poor little Ron when he is burning down their home. If the timing is right all he fears to meet are some mortal servants, which should be no problem at all for him.

No honor among thieves

The terrible things happened, the characters get burglarized or robbed, apparently there is no honor among thieves anymore.

This is a very good scenario to make sure the characters are kept at a decent level with money and so they keep their values of what money is worth, for characters that normally does not fear things that normal people always do it is no big problem getting their hands on huge amounts of money and normally this makes them so rich they don't have to think about money unless they are buying herbs or magical weapons. Better to keep their money in a level adapted to their stature… this means coppers for Ron and silvers for the baronet, and make sure that the costs are applied even between adventures, rent cost money, Ron's carousing cost money, fancy dinners and clothes cost money.

Back to the adventure, if they by some chance come across so much money to disturb this delicate balance, they should know that rich people are always at a danger, and there are even newcomers that are stupid enough to rob Ron the knee.

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by Jonas 'Drac' Cedher.