Chapter 0 - Session 1
Before the Adventure Begins
The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibil9k8eZW8
Events and Actions
This session was a character creation workshop, with the GM guiding three of the players through building their characters using the RoleMaster system.
Werner De Rendal, son of Kasimir De Rendal, established himself as a Common Human of the Mariner culture, taking the Labourer profession. The De Rendal family was once a prominent noble house of the North, its wealth built on whaling and sailing, but their fortune collapsed when the currents changed. Werner arrived in the Capitol with little more than a fine suit of clothes, a single silver coin, and the weight of a storied family name. His father Kasimir was commissioned as a skilled sailing expert on a royal expedition westward — before Werner was born — and never returned. With his elder brother holding what remains of the crumbling estate in the North, Werner has come south to seek his fortune and restore the family through a commission in the Navy. His Boon is his aristocratic status: the De Rendal name still opens the right doors, however threadbare the support behind it. His ambition aboard ship is practical rather than aristocratic: he pictures himself earning a place as master of sail or senior gunner, taking his share of any prize money, rather than leaning on his name for an authority he could not otherwise back up.
Knick Nab is one-eighth Elf, taken from the Northern Highlands at a young age and brought to the Capitol to serve as a pickpocket for an underworld contact who runs a group of young thieves. Still slight from a difficult upbringing, he chose the Rogue profession. His partial elven heritage — though he barely understands it himself — grants him night vision and a natural quickness of reflex. His Boon is a subtle ability to discern what people truly want at their core, a gift that may prove invaluable in negotiation, leadership, and knowing when to run. He imagines working his way up through the crew to a position such as quartermaster or boatswain — respect earned from the men around him, rather than the kind of rank that only ever comes with a title.
Noddy is a Mixed Man of the Harsh culture — a survivor of the city's worst and most desperate corners. He aspires to the Mystic profession, drawn to the realms of Essence and Mentalism, forms of magic entirely unknown to the people of the North and potentially very dangerous to practise there. His abilities, at least in his own experience, have so far manifested as uncanny luck and fortune rather than anything that could be labelled as sorcery. He took the Breath Holding and Elemental Resistance (Cold) talents, practical skills for someone who once dove for pearls to survive. Aboard ship he expects to serve as a Marine, a soldier standing apart from the sailing crew's own chain of command — a role that counts for little at sea but rather more once the ship makes port.
The absent players' characters were also discussed briefly: Mani (Manuel de Barret), a fighter pursuing a Florentine style of swordsmanship with rapier and dagger; Cosimo (Cosimo Cellini Scivio), whose profession had not yet been settled, though the GM mused he might suit a surgeon's role given an interest in alchemy and herbs; and Riu (Infurious Montesigna), leaning toward the Dabbler profession as a semi-spell user of Essence.
The group are all starting as fourteen-year-olds, not yet of adventuring experience — the GM noted that even a weasel might pose a meaningful challenge to them at this stage.
NPCs & Creatures
None encountered.
Locations
None visited.
Conflicts
None.
Learnings and Discussions
The GM shared substantial background on the world:
The Great Change: In the relatively recent past — within the characters' lifetimes — a major and unexplained change in the world's weather systems made ocean travel to the West possible for the first time. Before this, any ship that lost sight of land to the west never returned; the winds simply would not allow it. Now, both the North and South are sending expeditions across the sea. This change is the central premise of the Age of Sail.
The World at War: The North and the South are currently at war, and the characters will begin their lives in this context.
The Capitol: The main city of the North, built against a great cliff. Power rests with two factions: "the Hill," representing the Divinity of Two and its Temple, and "the House," the seat of Royal authority. These two factions coexist in uneasy equilibrium, with influence shifting between them over time.
The Divinity of Two: The dominant — and effectively only — religion in the North, centred on two gods: the Father and the Mother. All publicly recognised magic in the North is attributed to this religion. Practising any other form of magic is heresy, and heretics disappear without explanation. Among the Divinity's ranks are the Censures, an inquisitor-type order (classed as Paladins in game terms) who enforce religious orthodoxy. The Divinity maintains that two clerics of the Faith must accompany any significant expedition.
Status and Society: The North is rigidly stratified by class and status. Nobles and aristocrats have privileges denied to commoners, including the right to ride horses. The South, by contrast, is far more egalitarian — one of the deep sources of tension between the two powers, and one reason some men choose a life outside both.
Werner's Family History: Kasimir De Rendal was commissioned as a skilled sailor and sailing expert to join a royal expedition westward at a time when the Great Change had not yet happened. He did not return. The mission was sponsored by the king and included two clerics of the Divinity of Two, one of whom was a Censure. There are rumours in the family that something came back from that voyage — but Werner has never seen his father.
Knick Nab's Background: Knick Nab was taken from the Highlands and brought to the Capitol to work as a pickpocket for an underworld contact who organises a gang of young thieves operating across Low Town and High Town. He is still learning the trade.
Noddy's Background: Noddy comes from the most desperate circumstances in the city — effectively the sewers and lower gutters. He has survived through wit and an uncanny run of luck he attributes, at least loosely, to the favour of the Mother.
Magic in the World: Magic is uncommon and poorly understood by most citizens. The only publicly recognised source of power is the Divinity of Two. Other forms — Essence and Mentalism — are unknown to ordinary people in the North, and practising them openly risks being labelled a heretic. The one other rumour that circulates is of a fire cult somewhere in the South, which the Divinity of Two dismisses as nothing more than flash powder, sleight of hand, and stage trickery — not real magic at all.
Items Gained
None.
Items Lost
None.