Exiled in Eris

The following is how I'm going to run my next Swords of Cydoria adventure. It's cribbed from what I wrote for my other blog "Exiled in Eris".

Your character was once a (insert character background) growing up in the peaceful kingdom of Demetria (or other homeland). The kingdoms of eastern Cydoria were once simple medieval lands protected by mounted knights and men-at-arms. Wizards studied in their towers.  The ancient race known as Yedrix dwelt in the deep forests. The Deru excavated great subterranean kingdoms under the mountains.

You gathered with the others to hear bards recount the stories of great heroes who slew dragons and clashed with the forces of darkness in the wild lands to the west. But you were content to be a (character background). You had heard stories about the other City-States of Cydoria, maybe even traded with merchants from those places, but overland travel through the terax-infested wildlands was difficult and fraught with peril. The only save means of transport was via flying aircraft known as zephyr-ships.

Ten years ago, the City-State of Vrildar suddenly started equipping its troops with weapons and vehicles of forbidden technology. They quickly conquered their neighbors and turned their attention towards Demetria. 

The kingdom of Demetria called forth their greatest knights and most powerful war-wizards to stand against this invasion. Troops were mustered by the tens of thousands. Armies were arrayed against the mechanized onslaught of the Vrildarians. Even the Guardians of Adhara, normally neutral, chose to align themselves with the Demetrians. The subsequent war was called simply "the Invasion".

You volunteered to defend your homeland. You were issued your own weapon of forbidden technology. You fought bravely, but ultimately the war was lost. Talen, the capital of Demetria, was destroyed  by a single weapon of unimaginable destruction. When Demetria surrendered, you were rounded up with the other prisoners of war. You were shipped off to a prison camp with your fellow veterans, separated from your family who were sold into slavery in the cities of the Vrildarian allies.

NOTE: This introduction assumes the characters are Demetrian prisoners of war. However, the characters can be imprisoned for any number of reasons. They could be criminals, political prisoners, slaves to a warlord, etc.

Ten years have passed.

Ten hellish years as a Vrildarian prisoner and laborer. Your work built the infrastructure for the colonies of your new overlords from the Empire of Vrildar. For the last ten years, you have been (choose or roll one):

1.    Building roads

2.    Clearing forest/jungle

3.    Mining ore

4.    Crushing rock into gravel

5.    Digging trenches

6.    Building a pipeline

After your work was done, you were sent to a prison in Eris, thousands of miles from your homeland. Eris is a lot like Arizona or Nevada. Hot, arid, dry, and generally uninhabited.

In the last decade, you have faced the harshest living conditions, endured the cruelest punishments, and have performed the most grueling work imaginable. You have been the lashed by the whip, subjected to electrical shocks, and have had to perform unspeakable acts to survive.

Today, guards removed you from your work detail. You were taken away, a burlap sack was placed over your head and your limbs were bound. You were placed in the back of a motorized transport and driven somewhere. You were taken out of the transport. You may have thought, "This is it. This is the day they execute me." Instead, the bag is removed. You blink in the hot sun.

One of the guards tells you, "Prisoner (or Prisoners if more than one player character is a veteran), the Vrildarian Empire has decided in its munificence to show leniency towards you. Your period of incarceration is ended. You are free men. Go in peace. Glory to the Empire! Hail Vrildar!"

A bundle is dropped on the ground a dozen feet away from you.

The guards re-board the motorized transport and drive away, leaving you alone somewhere in the desert, lost.

You open the bundle, inside you find a few meager items.

·         a poor quality knife

·         a wool blanket

·         a skin of water

·         2d4 days worth of rations

·         a ball of twine

What do you do?

The first session would then revolve around the player character's survival in the wilderness and the search for civilization. The settlement of Sweetwater is a few days away. The character will need to find some food, perhaps by digging for underground critters or eating some of the sparse cactuses.

The GM should roll for random encounters every twelve hours. Most encounters are visible from miles away before they occur, giving the player characters 10-40 minutes to prepare.

1. Large lizard
2. Venomous Snake
3. Man-sized Spider
4. Tintazi hunting party (1-4 tintazi), willing to trade information for one of the items above.
5. Large vultures known as "Varks" (1-4)
6. Find the remains of a dead prisoner, +1 knife, wool blanket, twine, empty water skin
7. Another prisoner, 50% friendly/50% antagonistic
8. 1-4 Bandits attempt to rob and/or enslave the player character
9. Human hunter from one of the settlements, friendly, will offer the player character food and water and directions to the settlement
10. Barbarian hunter from one of the tribes, 40% friendly/40% wary/20% antagonistic
11. A sealed barrel of water, once buried in the sand, has been exposed by the wind
12. Sand storm
13. Young sand squid
14. A Vrildarian patrol of 2-8 soldiers in a transport takes 2-12 ranged pot-shots at the character before driving off.
15. Giant beetle known as "Kolops" 
16. An Orix hunter from the Badlands decides to track and hunt the player character
17. An merchant zephyr-ship transport flies by overhead en route to a nearby settlement
18. Tire tracks. One direction leads to a nearby settlement, the other direction leads to the prison
19. A small pile of stones, indicating the location of a buried sack of 10-60 gold pieces
20. An old rusty weapon half-buried in the sand
1. Ballistic Pistol with 1-4 bullets
2. Sword
3. Axe
4. Mace
5. Hammer
6. Explosive hand grenade

I will provide a hex-map of the region soon. Eventually, the player character will find a nearby settlement. There they can get water and food and equipment. They'll have to earn money, however, but paying work is hard to come by in the settlement. If the player character wants to survive, they're going to have to recruit some more allies and become adventurers.