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Mechanus adventure idea

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Thu, 2007-07-26 08:50
#1
Torin Dalemark
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Mechanus adventure idea

Just throwing this out for anyone who may want to use it. I'm also wanting to ask for any cool tips and ideas since I may turn this into a campaign. I'm keeping this vague as it is only a fresh idea I had today.

Mechanus is the plane of law and full of cogs working towards some unknown task or goal. It can be said that Mechanus is linked to nearly every ordered and precise thing in the multiverse. Much like each living thing in the world affects another, each cog within Mechanus changes the one next to it. What if some lives are linked to a single small gear within the limitless Mechanus? What would destroying that gear do? Pure chaos for you? Disconnection from the world you otherwise affected? Death?

My thought is that some authority figure has proven untouchable by any attempts to remove them to power. So the antagonists have set about trying to find the cog linked to this figure's life. This isn't an easy task and involves spying on the figure at all times to make sure that the suspected cog moves with changes in the figure's life. The adventurer's could get a start by being hired to root out spies which will slowly reveal the entire plot.

Of course the existence of the antagonists and experiments into how to destroy a cog should be causing disturbances within Mechanus. Therefore any adventures within Mechanus should be wraught with inquiries and suspicion for being outsiders during this time.

So, ideas? Has this been done before? Does this concept work with ideas already in place for Mechanus?

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Thu, 2007-07-26 09:02
#2
Clueless
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Mechanus adventure idea

I think it works very very well actually - I've not seen it done elsewhere before either, so you're definitely onto a really good idea for a game. Law could use some more tie-ins with the metaphysics of the setting and this provides that very well.

Is your ruler's society going to be very lawful as a whole?

Thu, 2007-07-26 09:27
(Reply to #2) #3
Torin Dalemark
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Mechanus adventure idea

'Clueless' wrote:
I think it works very very well actually - I've not seen it done elsewhere before either, so you're definitely onto a really good idea for a game. Law could use some more tie-ins with the metaphysics of the setting and this provides that very well.

Is your ruler's society going to be very lawful as a whole?


Yes. Although I have no clue who it will be. Truthfully the leader could be anything from a nearly untouchable mortal to an immortal. I'm thinking somewhere on Bytopia, Arcadia, Celestia, or even the Prime might be a good idea. However, I'm a stickler for antagonists and don't want to choose the leader of law without having a great opposing force.

I could just go with a celestial paragon like Zaphkiel, but I stand the risk of making it a cheesy good vs evil battle and not entirely innovative.

Also, Just in case it needs clarifying. I wasn't going for every life is a cog. I was thinking something more along the lines of: So the whole of Mechanus can be linked to the multiverse, some cogs are linked to the lives of important figures. These cogs tend to move in fashions that imitate events in the person's life. Exactly how they imitate is a mystery, but usually important times in someone's life can be seen as changes in the cog's movements. "Important figures" doesn't mean that every leader in the multiverse has a cog, however. It has been known that sometimes even a peasant on the street of some city in the Prime has a small cog linked to their life. (wow, that lost cog in the outlands has a new meaning with this)

Thu, 2007-07-26 09:36
(Reply to #3) #4
Squaff
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Mechanus adventure idea

I actualy like this idea: that law conects all living and all unliving things and that there is no action without reaction. And that applies to chaos too: without law there would not be interacion with multiverse, but law needs chaos too, it is mommentm that keeps wheels turning and without it universe would be static, stoic place.
After all: opposites atracts, no.

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Mon, 2007-07-30 17:44
(Reply to #4) #5
Clueless
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Mechanus adventure idea

Hi, I hope you don't mind - but I opened up a new forum for those interested in creating and playtesting adventures (from hook sized to campaign sized) and moved your thread over there to get that forum started off. Let me know if you want to be moved back.

Mon, 2007-08-06 12:18
(Reply to #5) #6
Torin Dalemark
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Mechanus adventure idea

THE ANTAGONIST
I still don't have the protagonist who is named (protagonist) for now.

Malini Nilam
(name is a work in progress, but I wanted a palindrome)
Malini was once a great wizard, historian and researcher of law. To imagine what he was like is to picture Professor Nash from A Beautiful Mind. He was brilliant in studying the laws that govern the world and in turn seemed very out of touch with everyone around him. He spent most of his life trying to define equations and laws that would characterize the world around him which eventually led him to Mechanus and the Mathematicians.

Malini was fascinated with what Mechanus did and vowed to discover its purpose. This was an impossible task for a mortal but this didn’t daunt Malini. Decades after he started his study, he discovered what he called “Linked Cogs”. Rather chillingly, several years later he discovered a cog that had been linked to him. He was fascinated by what he would do to affect the wonderful calculations of Mechanus and devoted all of his time to discovering the nuances to these linked cogs. This study led to a revelation that his cog was linked to (protagonist)’s. In a flash of brilliance and insight, he also found that (protagonist)’s cog would eventually destroy his.

Distraught, Malini pondered over how Law could bring about his destruction. Years past as he spend all of his time in seclusion with only this on his mind when finally he made up his mind to try and defy the multiverse. With his vast knowledge of the linked cogs, he reasoned that he could easily find a way to divert the destruction on his cog. However, all of his magic could not affect the cogs no matter how powerful of a spell he wrote.

Suddenly, he realized that he needed to mix a bit of chaos into his spells. Chaos could actually effect the gears while his law magic could move the chaos in the way he defined (much how magnetic fields contain plasma). The law surrounding the chaos also helped to mask the chaos and his true intentions. His discoveries would have created a new field of magic study had he been an active part of the wizarding community.

Now came the problem of secrecy. He would have to act in such a way as to not alert the enforcers of law and (protagonist). He would also have to be sure that his theories worked and needed to test it out on someone. Years past and have not been kind to Malini’s mind which could have been easily assumed. He is now obsessed with prophecies, fate, his new form of magic, and the destruction of the cog that promises his doom. He now has to perfect the last bit of his magic.

Now the possible fun part is to bring about his death at the hand of (protagonist)

Mon, 2007-08-06 12:30
(Reply to #6) #7
Torin Dalemark
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Mechanus adventure idea

The Unlinked

Being linked to a cog is a boon as well as a bane. Mostly it means that you, at some point, will do something that will affect the world as a whole. Important leaders in history as well as inventors of life changing spells have usually been linked. Sometimes people that are linked only perform one small act that eventually cascades into an important defining point in history (no matter how unrecognized they are).

However, to become unlinked is a frightening and sometimes disastrous ordeal. Very few have been unlinked so what happens cannot be entirely defined, but it is known that the affects can be varied. Sometimes you merely find yourself unable to control what happens around you no matter how hard you try. Sometimes you become like a ghost to the world unable to touch certain objects. Sometimes your entire existence is erased, including the past.

Becoming unlinked rarely occurs because it is very hard to change something like Mechanus in a way that hinders its function. VERY hard. Occasionally someone will become unlinked seemingly at random, but these occurrences are usually to protect the universal function. Even more rare (the times can be counted on one hand), a cog is destroyed maliciously.

Mon, 2007-08-06 12:42
(Reply to #7) #8
Torin Dalemark
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Mechanus adventure idea

Also, these probably won't be set into stone. I tend to go off on my own accord so if anyone has some ideas that will tie a bit of planescape flavor into this, let me know. I may mesh some of them in.

Also I need a protagonist.

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