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Current map if the Isles.
Purple is nasty land, yellow through red are the larger more active Zones.

Link to the Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cDqaDJykx2hYP3gO3wNrknAajH5yyWKePk47ZFdkKqw/edit?usp=drivesdk

Didn’t quite finish this before the new thread started up:
Fomorians are perfect for the Dalcassians, also the context for a party may affect what is and isn’t crazy
Parties could be anything from some murderhobos to proper mercs, to knights of a petty kingdom
For Scotland the current hooks seem to be based around the Icelandic invasion, and the sudden emergence of the Horned Men joining the fray, as the Scots must organise and work together to try and repel the invaders
Wales seems to be dominated by the Welsh Rail War between the Welsh Kingdoms and Workers States, each partially propped up or supported by external powers
Northern England has a ravaged Northumbria and Hadrians Wall holding out against the zones, below them is the Second War of the Roses and the (currently) uninvolved neutral states
Further below that is the Raider Resurgence on their warpath towards the USKS and the Two Arthurs preparing for war
Those are all probably the biggest goings-on outside of Ireland, but any number of other things can be happening, tons of space for smaller petty kingdoms squabbling, or political intrigue within the more unstable factions

>>67205326
>For Scotland the current hooks seem to be based around the Icelandic invasion, and the sudden emergence of the Horned Men joining the fray, as the Scots must organise and work together to try and repel the invaders
>Wales seems to be dominated by the Welsh Rail War between the Welsh Kingdoms and Workers States, each partially propped up or supported by external powers
>Northern England has a ravaged Northumbria and Hadrians Wall holding out against the zones, below them is the Second War of the Roses and the (currently) uninvolved neutral states

Seems like the Scottish conflicts could go any number of ways, so depending on who they’re working for, a party could serve the Scots or Icelanders, to fight the war or try to get hold of support, unifying the Scottish clans or keeping the Icelandic raiders coherent in the face of insubordinate clan leaders
They may even have to work together to hold off the u expected arrival of the Horned Men, striking both the Icelanders at sea and Scots on the land

Linking some lore and details from last thread
Dún Union
>>67124426
>>67125474
>>67127260
>>67127291
>>67150982
>>67151987
>>67155051


Dalcassians in Clare, with some Fomorian and Order of Turong info
>>67124951
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>>67193911
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Fomorians
>>67204484 (more scales)
>>67179476
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>>67205145

Dispelling tech
>>67196251
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>>67200922
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>>67203620
>>67203694
>>67203736
>>67203930


Radical Turingists have also been discussed at length, and some standard turingist info
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>>67204094 (radicals may have manipulated dalcassians)


There is probably a lot I missed and not everything here is official, reading through may be best

For Wales, whilst every settlement there will have their own issues and monster problems, for the larger war there players could serve on either side or acting for any of the external powers supporting either side, to provide some form of support
In addition to this, crossing though Caerleon, And then passing through the contested lands of the Workers States and Welsh Kingdoms would be the most direct land route from Kernow to Isle of Man territory, for those ideas that involved an important delivery between them

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Question, just how human are the Horned Men? People in weird costumes which happen to include furs and antlers? Beastmen?

>>67206034
Impressive. I would say that Ireland is pretty much done.

The Clans of the Great Glen have a symbiotic relationship with Nessie. She is one of the strongest beasts around and protects the Clans by killing any water beasts that date enter the canal.

>>67206124
A mixture. They start as humans wearing costumes mimicking their elders, then undergo metamorphosis as they age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB2HTAcbmck&feature=youtu.be

>>67206133
> The Clans of the Great Glen have a symbiotic relationship with Nessie.
Do they offer some form of a like sacrifice? Drag a sheep to the shore and feed nessie. Not a form of worship, but part of the two way benefit of the relationship.

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>>67206167
C'mon o'er here nessie!

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>>67206133
>>67206167
Did Nessie exist prior to the War and the Zones or is she something they spawned?

>>67206282
I think it was said she has always been around. May been more than a thread ago. Could be wrong

>>67206167
Let’s keep the word “sacrifice” way away from. Nessie, since it has horrible implications.
There are Clans who will bring a dead animal or beast to feed her, but it’s nothing ritual. It’s more that “let’s give her a treat because we love her” reaction that many people have with animals they like.

>>67206282
That’s a question not even the best scholars are sure of the answer to. If she was, she was nowhere near as bold as she is now.

>>67206416
Actually, how about having the Clans of the Glen relentlessly troll outsiders about it to motivate them to stay out? "Come on invaders, nessie is always hungry!"

>>67206449
Sounds like a good deterrent, especially given all the axe-waving Icelanders about right now

>>67206449
A clan actually did put up a sign like that near an entrance to the canal. It was after a partially daring gang of Icelandic Raiders took their boats deep into the Clans territory for a raid. They had the misfortune of purposefully ramming into Nessie on their way out.
Note: it is still unclear if Nessie actually ate any of the Raiders or not. She has never shown any desire to eat them before or since.

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Some great art

>>67206167
>>67206416
>>67206449
>>67206637
Make it a running joke. A yearly ceremony involving the selection of "nessie's bride" from the most beautiful women in the Clan, etc. The ritual involves scratching Nessie's snout and calling her a good sea monster.

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>>67206759
>The ritual involves scratching Nessie's snout and calling her a good sea monster
If Balor was once a lost cosmonaut, what does that potentially make Nessie?

For Yorkshire and co, aside from the war and all the opportunities that come with it, there was also the tourney at York following its liberation from zone-infestation and the giving of the Minster to the Order of Saint Turing for alliance
It would be a lot of high-profile folks in one place and lots of potential for stuff
Still not sure about Lancashire, or where were going with them during the war

>>67206917
Hopefully that went and passed before the zone fuckery began, for the sake of everyone

>>67206917
Nessie is a beast through and through, no human heritage there. Where she (or they) came from is a mystery that nobody can have a good answer to.

Is there any established culture or organization for the horned men? Leaders, villages, religion, or anything else of the sort?

>>67207610
Very little is known about them, let alone where exactly they came from, but after massacring the survivors on the Shetlands and taking the survivors as thralls, it is said they began construction of a black fortress in the ruins of the capital

>>67206124
>>67206156
Wendigo deep ones?

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>>67207686
> black fortress in the ruins of the capital
I can only get so erect

>>67207777
That niche is already taken. The horned ones are organized enough to claim territory and raid, but they are very bestial and have no loyalty to anyone but those they fight with.

>>67207987
By who? And I'm not really seeing how "seemingly human barbarian horde who metamorphosis into skinwalker-looking monsters as they age" clashes with "organized enough to raid and claim territory.

>>67208224
The “deep ones” here are basically the Fomorians.
But what you just described makes more sense.
Where are they originally from?

>>67206917
>>67206759
Nessie does have a guardian of sorts, or at least something else associated with it. There is a young looking woman of pale sking and raven hair. She speaks a language that is not unlike Welsh but not quite it, an older version of the language perhaps or from "somewhere else". She can cause people to drown on dry land and willing to answer to the name of Nimuë. Very little else is known about her.

>>67206156
ngl it might be better if it's left mysterious as to their nature: riddle one with shot or drag it to the ground with a harpoon, when dawn comes there won't be any bodies, or even a trace that they ever existed at all, other than the devastation they wrought.

>>67208333
>Where are they originally from?
Iceland. Fleeing south from Something. Most optimistically, advancing glaciers from nuclear winter, worst-case scenario, some kind of new Zonespawn horror.

>>67209191
also i was thinking of maybe attempting to make a smaller scale map, any ideas for good places? I'm thinking SE-England and Wales, but idk.

>>67209221
The area around London. It looks like there is a cluster of kingdoms in the north of Lancashire as well, that could be blown up. Basically York, Northumbria, Lancashire and the petty kingdoms. This could involve the Isle of Man as well as the hot zone immediately to the south.

>>67209221
Maybe the contested areas in wales and between Yorkshire and Lancashire
We could try to work out where exactly the battlelines lay at the present

Someone needs to update the doc.

>>67209383
I just added the two versions of Balor's symbol.

>>67209383
We had duplicate entries for the german ghouls

>>67209353
Yeah. I've not really contributed anything the the York-Lancashire part of the setting (apart from the borders and the Leeds situation), so a general recap on them (things like technology, alliances, units applied, general swing of the war, et cetera) would be nice.

>>67209221
London would be good, next to the USKS. Or the path the Death Road to Cornwall would take.

>>67209548
both good ideas, especially the second.

>>67209503
Been a while since we looked at the Rose War.
The Alliances are complicated, but nearby, I believe the Welsh kingdoms are allied with Lancashire and Edinburgh is with York.

>>67209612
Lancashire has propped up the Welsh Kingdoms in that sort of proxy war against Caerleon, but they are rather separated by all that zone-infested land, so it’s mistly been Lancastrian supplies sent by boat to support the Welsh Rail War
Haven’t heard about Yorkist-Edinburgh cooperation before

>>67207610
we've struggled on and off with a consistent definition of who is a horned one, with some anons including mainland woods muties under the name, others just using it to refer to icelanders as vikings, others again going for a icelanders as mutants are the horned ones.
Then there's the 'they're raiders but from somewhere else entirely' spin.
Honestly at this stage it's a bit of a clusterfuck of a term really so the answer is "we don't know" to all of the above because ooc we don't know who they are to you.

>>67209673
I think it was made as a form of stability alliance, since Edinburgh is the northernmost English kingdom, so they can keep eye out for Raiders and anything coming through the Scottish Zone.
I think that most of what York uses in the war comes from some of the south-eastern kingdoms. (Not the USKS. Those four are determined to stay neutral)

>>67209908
You know, that confusion could translate easily to the setting. With all the zones separating the kingdoms, the same name could be given to multiple different threats.
None of the things called Honed Ones are a unified force like the Fomorians or Icelandic Giants, so they can be multiple local problems whose only similarity to each other is that they have or wear horns.

>>67209951
Seems like most of the southern groups like Oxfordshire and Warwickshire were also determined to maintain neutrality
The old stuff had it that Edward of Yorkshire had gained quite a bit of wealth and favour of his lands by liberating York itself, and then gained an alliance with the Turingists by granting them the Minster as a new base of operations across the Irish Sea
Due to the poor state of the Yorkist armies, and many troops being lost, Edward was making heavy use of mercenaries, whilst trying to get the old army into shape and train mounted riflemen, using the Turingist support to help keep his equipment in shape alongside other things

Perhaps the current lines are long the River Wharfe, a current stalemate
The old plans were building it up for a battle of Towton situation, but that was quite a ways in and a very decisive battle

>>67206034
Nice, thanks for rounding all this up! I'll try and get round to shifting it to the doc tomorrow.

>>67062179
>So hows music holding up anyway? There was some mention once of old fashioned bards
>>67063037
>Bards haven’t made a comeback. (Honestly l, I’m not sure if they ever really were a thing) Music is once again separated into the “proper” styles of the nobles and the chanting lively dances of the peasant. Old world music is seen as quite a novelty and original records being protected like paintings and books are.
>>67205478
I thought sailing was a deathtrap since the seas were full of monsters that made the land-dwelling Zonespawn look positively friendly. The Horned Men’s domesticated krakens, nessie’s bigger and angrier siblings, sirens, Zone-corrupted WW3-era warships that want to press-gang sailers into their undead crews, etc.
>>67129981
>Long distance travel on water isn’t possible, but brief periods of “calm” on the water allow for ships to quickly hop between safe land until they reach their targets The Icelanders assuredly lost many ships due to the distance they had to cover without many stops, even given many calm periods On the isles, it’s still very risky but sticking to the coast should be possible, and leave you able to get to land fast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwGHXsfI7E&feature=youtu.be

The Two Roses seem to be rather cut off from those south of them by zones, especially Lancashire with the industrial zones below them
Guessing there must be some rather secure passages through that purple land at least

>>67212709
York has ready access to land trade, while Lancashire has access to sea trade.
York has the wealth to hire mercenaries, while Lancashire can trade with the Isle of Man.

I do have to wonder, though. Since it has been Eight generations since the War, I wonder how legitimate their claims to the throne are, and why it only recently came to a head.

>>67212936
Perhaps both have not been in much of a state to do so until now, Yorkshire only just retook York itself before the war

>>67213538
Looks like top-of-the-line Zone Metal armor. That would be good gear to use when heading into a highly radioactive zone.
Of course nothing can cut out all radiation, but if the joints were properly maintained, that suit should cut out about 90-95%.

We now know that Lancashire is making use of its boats when it can, but what else is going on in the home front, and how are they fighting the war?
Older stuff had them fielding some elite, well equipped men with bolt action rifles alongside pikemen, those finer troops being Bluehelms derived from the peacekeeping forces around there at the time of the fall

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>>67206124
>>67206156
>>67207777
>>67208224

>>67209193
clearly not, the Icelanders are from Iceland, and are known to be fleeing glaciers. Other Scandinavians though could work very well

>>67217293
giants I mean, not glaciers

>>67217293
I do like the idea that Horned Ones just just the most pathetic of the continental mutants and have been driven out of their Norwegian homelands by bigger, nastier Zone Spawn.

Are there any important contested sites between the Two Roses, which could be significant in the direction of the war?

>>67206759
No two witnesses can seem to decide on what Nessie actually looks like, unlike the sea serpents that are just big snakes. Some say she is a four limbed creature from the pages of pre-history with a long neck and a long tail, some that she is a large majestic snake, some say she has fur and some say that she has scales and a hundred other variations. Photographs, both chemical and digital, of the creature always come out extremely blurred and distorted to the point where nothing can be determined beyond "it's big".

How intelligent it is is also debatable. Sometimes she appears to be of at least human levels of intelligence and other times a beast, though a friendly one, driven by instinct and emotion alone. Most common beliefs in this regard is either that she is clever but it's an inhuman cleverness we find it difficult to grasp, that she's playing with us or that brain power waxes and wanes depending on when her last meal was.

>>67218483
Sounds good
What other sorts of larger, more dangerous beasts are out there in the isles?
Could be blatantly mutated or more magical, but stuff that would actually call for monster hunters to summoned, opposed to packs of smaller creatures that have been covered a lot

>>67218821
> In the modern world many names for large monsters are used interchangeably, a dozen localised terms for 'large, cannibalistic, humanoid' exist, the specific usage of terms only really matter to the scholars of Oxford and the hunters who might need a specific item to successfully down a given creature.
> Thus, the Hunters' Guild might list a beast a 'silver', 'salt,', 'flame', 'iron' or any number of other materials, combined with a calibre, indicating the scale of munition necessary to stop it.
> Distinct to the monsters of the zones, those actively inimical to human (or Woodling, if they pay) life, are the Questing Beasts, for which far less professionalism is usually applied.
> Questing Beasts are merely, though merely is perhaps not the ideal word, natural animals that have been enhanced by the Zone, lacking the horrific abilities and murderous intelligence of the monsters, they are instead usually larger, tougher or more deadly variants of their kind, a boar might find its tusks sharp enough to puncture steel, a wolf's hide might turn shot or arrows, or a bull might gain the strength to smash free of its pen.
> Questing Beasts tend to become dominant in their territories, their traits may or may not pass to offspring, but their reign will oft endure until they run afoul of Man, when they may be pursued as a threat, or merely as the most dangerous kind of game.

>>67219013
Where would the Hunters guild be based out?
Northumbria? Those semi-independent lands next to it? In the USKS?

>>67219280
Not sure there are exactly just guilds for it, and hunters would be on the move a lot

>>67219427
Then I guess it’s a conglomeration of several hunting groups, with each group being more focused on what’s going on in their kingdom.

I would say the Questing Beasts are given out for the value of their meat more than anything. They send someone out, bring the beast back, and sell it to a local butcher.

>>67218483
Everyone looking at nessie sees a sea monster with the features that frighten them the most?
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-252

>>67219758
She’s not a formless nightmare thing. She’s a guardian that canal, and inspires fear in only her enemies.
The most common explanations for the variance is that their are either more than one Nessie, the witnesses are seeing only part of her, or that the debris in the water make it look like she has features she doesn’t have.

>>67219983
I’m not saying she’s malevolent, just that she’s got awesome camouflage/mimicry. If she’s even a physical present and not a bodiless effect of the Loch Ness Zone.

>>67220155
Camouflage is something I will agree with.
Nessie is great at hiding, and is only seen is because she wants to be seen, or in in the process of attacking an opponent.

>>67208560
>>67218483
>>67206759
Nimuë and the Nessie's Bride contest are inextricably linked. Upon choosing a maiden considered the right combination of most wise, virtuous and beautiful in all the land they are presented before Nessie.

At this point they become Nimuë, their mind is subsumed by her and they become in every way that matters Nimuë. The previous Nimuë is then released from the enchantment and has no recollection of the previous few years beyond a few confused memories that amount to feelings of cold and dark.

The change is not entirely mental but it is also not entirely understood. Without significant alterations or equipment a human should not be able to survive underwater for any length of time, but Nimuë can.

One explanation is that the young ladies are possessed with the inhuman mind of Nessie but there is no proof of this or anything else.

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>>67220376
>The previous Nimuë is then released from the enchantment and has no recollection of the previous few years beyond a few confused memories that amount to feelings of cold and dark.
As motivation, former Nimuës keep the augmentation.

>>67220376
Those who become Nimuë keep the physical modifications even after the mental effect wears away. In other words, the Nimuë are another form of Changed One, but one that can ONLY be formed on purpose.
They gain a resistance to radiation and ability to easily swim and dive. Otherwise they are still close to human.

>>67220376
>>67220912
>>67220969
Powers of the Nimuë:
>Super swimming, including the ability to breath water and survive freezing temperatures and crushing pressure, superhuman night vision extending into the infrared assisted by whale-style echolocation, mildly superhuman strength, a lifespan of until something kills them while remaining biologically at the same age they were when Nessie first possessed them.
Even released from direct control, they are Nessie's eyes on land. What they see, she does.

>>67221070
Remove the “immortal unless killed” part. They do have extended life spans, but they still get sick, need food, and suffer the wear of time. (I see them as someone a player could play as).
The second Nimuë lived to be 160, still outwardly looking like she was in her prime.
Nobody knows what happened to the first.

>>67220376
>>67220912
>>67220969
>>67221070
>>67221129
The teleoperated appendages of an underwater kaiju.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CTe86UQjg

>>67221221
Main difference is that there is only one truly active at a time.
How offended does the ritual take place? It was every few years, but how long exactly?

>>67221276
How about making it the choice of the perspective Nimuë candidate? The more of their life they give up, the more powerful they are? The standard period of possession is a year, but there's got to have been at least case of someone saying "the rest of my life" and becoming an unstoppable juggernaut.
>Hester heard him groan and swung towards him. “What did you do that for?” she shouted.
>Tom could not have been more surprised if she had slapped him. “He was going to kill you!” he protested.
>“He was going to make me like him!” screamed Hester, hugging Shrike. “Didn’t you hear what he said? He was going to make me everything I ever wanted; no memories, no feelings. Imagine Valentine’s face when I came for him! Oh, why do you keep interfering!”
>“He would have turned you into a monster!” Tom heard his own voice rising to a shout as all his pain and fear flared into anger.
>“I’m already a monster!” she shrieked.
>“No, you’re not!” Tom managed to heave himself to his knees. “You’re my friend!” he shouted.
>“I hate you! I hate you!” Hester was yelling.
>“Well, I care about you, whether you like it or not!” Tom screamed. “Do you think you’re the only person who’s lost their mum and dad? I feel just as angry and lonely as you, but you don’t see me going around want ing to kill people and trying to get myself turned into a Stalker! You’re just a rude, self-pitying—”

Perhaps have it happen to replace the previous one when they are approaching death
The candidate enters the loch and is never seen again, “Nimuë” never seems to die

>>67221322
They wouldn’t become an unstoppable juggernaut if they wished to be the host Nimuë for the rest of their life, since their mind would be taken over for that time. In fact, it would be akin to suicide.
However, I don’t think Nessie is one to take life-long hosts. So there is a maximum amount of time someone can stay the host before it is changed.
I think a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 5 years sounds pretty balanced.

>>67221360
I don’t know, that sounds like people are being killed to sustain the creature, and I don’t think Nessie should be about that.
Nimuë being a form of Changed One unique to the Loch Ness Monster sounds more interesting, and can let a player play as a former host.

>>67221405
Good point, just figured Nimuë could be interesting if it was more of a guise inherited by each successor, but if it’s just a part time deal then perhaps the old one must leave the area, would give an excuse to have one out and about

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Does the Cheyenne Mountain complex have a secret line of communication to the USKS?

Also I think it would make sense to have the USKS be a heavily militarized state, seeing as they have a ton of old-world military surplus and were founded by US military personnel

Of all the states in the former UK I think the USKS stands the best chance of having working guns/artillqry, mainly because

1) they have a shit ton of surplus, which means lots of spare parts and ammunition

2) higher amounts of gun manufacturing knowledge and culture

3) nearby states to trade armaments for food with, and a lack of other resources to turn into commodities (and a pressing need for heavily armed forces to fight eldritch monstrosities and raiders)

If there’s an analogue for tactical cowboys or fantasy WWII riflemen, it’s the USKS.

>>67221536
Also add the fact that it’s fairly easy to forge rifles and basic artillery (look at how locals in the Khyber Pass can forge AK-47s out of pig metal) and I don’t see the USKS completely regressing to medival weaponry. Probably a mix of semiautomatic (M1 Garand) or leveraction rifles, sub machine guns for elite units, and black powder rifles or simple bolt actions for trade. With howitzers as the USKS’s main force multiplier (possibly a very very small unit of Sherman’s cobbled together as an emergency response unit?)

>>67221536
I just checked, and apparently the Cheyenne Mountain Complex hadn’t begun excavation until 1961, which would be years after the War. At the time it was a small bunker base.
So whoever the United States in Exile is, or was, in contact with, it isn’t Cheyenne.

The supplies saved from Europe wouldn’t be huge given the mess that happened there, and a good amount may have drifted off from the southern coast or been lost/used up over the years, but I believe it was said that they did have some good equipment, but virtually all of it sits on their defences against the expanding zones that nearly surround them

>>67221276
Once a year, with the changeover ceremony happening on the summer solstice.

>>67221619
Hm. So is the lore that Cheyenne is the only surviving US town still true? Maybe in this timeline Cheyenne was excavated earlier? Or maybe US forces just happened to fall back to Cheyenne as the zones expanded.

Could be an interesting plot, the heavily armed USKS is seemingly in contact with the legitimate US government (which actually is some abomination playing the USKS to its own ends).

>>67221129
>(I see them as someone a player could play as).
An ex-Nimuë yes, the current one, absolutely not, they'd be gamebreakingly overpowered even without bringing their actual kaiju form into play.

>>67221749
A lot like the Radical Turingists following the whims of their zone-gained machine
Could be interesting, and potentially disrupt their uneasy alliance with the other members of the USKS

>>67218483
>>67219758
>>67220155
The only trait common between all of Nessie's forms are glowing eyes.
>>67221221
The current Nimuë also has them.

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>>67221536
Interesting plot idea: rebuild the US Navy and try to lead an expedition to the ruins of the USA, with the end goal being reuniting with surviving US forces or reviving the USA with whatever manages to survive the voyage. Would be an interesting end game challenge for sure, if it’s even possible with the sea monsters and the expanding zones.

>>67221739
Sounds good! Then it would be reasonably possible for a player to be a former Nimuë.

>>67221536
The coast along the four kingdoms making up the USKS is one of the most heavily armed stretches of coast. It was the landing sight of both the Evacuations and many fleeing refugees. This has left a lot of boats beached along the shore, many of which being formerly of the navy.
A majority of them have been broken down for parts and metal, as well as their guns being moved to more strategic positions or sold.

>>67221755
Definitely not. The host is on the level of Balor, Melin, or the Dragon of the London Swamp.
Only to be used by the GM.

>>67221536
>>67221594
Correct me if I am wrong, but isnt the former US represented as the USE, or United States in Exile, while the USKS is the alliance they are a part of with their neighboring factions? Would the entire USKS be represented by US style military? Or would it be the USE with the with the guns and artillery, while their allies have variations of other or similar equipment?

>>67221802
There are more common traits, namely the head. However that could just be because the head is the only part seen out of the water unless Nessie is attacking.

>>67221803
>>67221810
This would make sense then- the naval fleet the players assemble could depend entirely on the economy of the US in exile, and each ship would represent a massive amount of time and resources invested to repair and retrofit for the voyage. Add stockpiling supplies, recruiting crews, and acquiring technology and weapons strong enough to fight off the horrors of the deep... even then, the voyage would be a harrowing experience. With the ruins of the USA to contend with at the end.

Throw in competition from a neo- East Indian company (that wants ships of its own to reclaim the legendary Crown Jewel of the Old Empire) and possibly conflict from those who hate the US in exile and you’ve got endgame content. Slaying Nessie is a possible final boss, if the players are powerful enough. Probably impossible though, depends on how eldritch Nessie is made and how powerful players can get.

>>67221874
The USE is the former US, while the USKS is an alliance helping each other. The military style is the most “modern” due to being the closest to where the navy boats beaches in the evacuation.

>>67221874
Ah I mean the US in exile. Though the USKS could have surplus guns, as that’s what the US would supply to the coalition/alliance/whatever. But the US

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Concept art from a completely different setting, but captures the alt-WWII-USE-infantryman kinda well.

>>67221874
Also, any faction that is more modern in its military technology should either be largely neutral in petty wars or small in number, to balance their badassery that spare tanks and shit offer. Just a thought. Some of the factions are largely or entirely medieval, and the power disparity between knights and horses against 1950s or 60s military arsenals is absurd.

>>67221916
I do like the infantry design. Shielding their home is instilled in a lot of the knights of the USKS.

>>67221931
The USKS don’t have any tanks. Not because they can’t maintain them, but because they don’t have any fuel to power them. So the tanks that were still in those ships have long since been disassembled for spare parts.
Their modernness is their ease of access to guns and style of fighting.

>>67221129
>Nobody knows what happened to the first.
Prior to actually knowing that the ritual wasn't some kind of sacrifice, the Glen-dwellers "volunteered" an outsider they considered disposable. Once she was free, she had enough dalcassian heritage to suffer from delusions of Lughhood >>67194752 and her amphibious nature and radiation resistance means she's the only person capable of theoretically going after Balor on his home turf of the Lough Neagh lakebed.

>>67221931
Still-working 50s level tech is still very rare, and the supplies on the south coast will have spread out and dwindled during the chaos and stagnation of the fall
Their own territory isn’t huge, and most of the fancy gear is stuck on zone-defence duty due to the dangerous zones on their borders

>>67222010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deichtine

>>67221885
>Slaying Nessie
I knew the USE were evil all along
Jokes aside, crossing the ocean would be near-suicidal, and the USE itself isn’t huge
A point had been made of the distance being too great to safely cross, but they can still try

>>67221885
If they are slaying Nessie, they are playing evil characters. Any possible boss for good players? The Dragon, perhaps?

>>67222039
>>67222076
The Dragon, Balor, the Radical Turingist Wire Man, etc. Fighting Nessie should be a matter of "you lose, roll to see how painfully you die".

>>67222010
It’s only resistance to radiation, and Balor’s gaze is like taking a nuke to the face.
Though the Dalcassians having a former Nimuë could be a good plot point.

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>>67221950
Round shields work well. Could be a callback to early Captain America comics, crossed with the simplicity of reforging steel from warships into discs, as well as the shields being a secondary focus for infantrymen wielding rifles (shields kept on back unless needed).

>>67221931
The balancing factor of the USE would be

>Country is small in population (100k-200k people if that fits the overall lore)

>lacking gasoline (only one or two oil wells that are heavily guarded and rationed), ergo fueling armored vehicles and aircraft is a serious investment compared to trading gas for food/commodities or fueling generators

>Production of artillery shells for the border guns takes priority over new types of weapons or repair of vehicles

>The USE is hesitant to commit to military actions as previous campaigns have led to the loss of irreplaceable assets (would explain the burnt out husks of tanks in the wild)

>Politics within the USE, the USKS coalition, and the “international” politics constrain the USE’s growth and hamper its prosperity

>>67222118
Yes, but she didn’t know that, hence nobody seeing her again.

>>67222113
Only in a 1-on-1 fight. Anyone going after them should be rigging the fight to high heaven.
And if the fight Nessie, it’s more “Congratulations! Scotland hates you now!”

>>67222039
>>67222076
>>67222113
Is it bad that I now kind of want to see Nessie vs Balor? Killing her former Nimuë>>67222118 was a mistake. Now she’s angry.

>>67221992
The limiting factor shouldn’t be lack of gas (gas is fucking easy to get/refine, even if surface level deposits have been tapped) it should be lack of parts, the inability to devote resources to maintain/repair a tank battalion (over traditional artillery) and the fear of losing irreplaceable Sherman/Pershing tank hulls in combat, as the tank factories are either deep in enemy territory or long collapsed rubble.

>>67222076
Only if Nessie would stop the US expedition. Maybe the players could figure out a beneficial relationship with Nessie, have her protect the fleet?

>>67222146
If she was one of the first Nimuë, and became delusional before moving to Ireland, she could be one of the founders of Corcu Clare.

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This would be a good example of elite USE forces engaging hostile zone creatures

>>67222205
Better question: why would the US expedition need to go into the Caledonian Canal? (The canal that goes across Scotland and connects to Loch Ness)

>>67222246
Possibly a roundabout route to avoid a certain section of the ocean? Specifically the channel and artic ocean- the fleet would swing north along the east coast, then take the canal to access the North Atlantic and, from there, some sort of voyage that skirts the worst of the Atlantic monsters and zones.

>>67222145
Yeah, that sounds good
As lots of these high-level things like Nessie or Balor would really need a lot of very skilled individuals and support of capable groups, we should probably look at some smaller scale large threats, if that term even makes sense
Stuff like dangerous zone-beasts that are a large step above the more typical creatures lurking about, that would pose a challenge to hardened gleaners or mercenaries

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I'm gonna try to do the Cornwall-Devon area first, just to get an idea of how to present everything well. Still a work in progress though, and I'm planning on making most of the Old Roads impassable (and so remove them from the map) later.
>>67221536
IIRC the USE is fairly advanced in terms of weapons technology, and produces them in small quantities, but with high quality, by artisans. The rest of their tech though isn't too great, though it's made up for by their usage of native serfs who they pressed into service when they arrived there.
They probably have similar levels of weapons tech to the Sealandic guys to their north, since they were also made up from military remnants, (though their maritime skills are probably worse off), and they're far out-produced by the emerging industrial powers to the north, like the Isle of Man for instance.
If the Cheyenne complex remains anything like pre-cataclysm America, they'd probably be disgusted by the USE, even though they'd have preserved much of the American military traditions and doctrine that came before them.

>>67222503
Good stuff so far

I'm going to stop this right here before it metasizes, the USE/USKS are -not- the big dogs of the setting, launching an assault across over hundreds of miles of variably hostile terrain to fuck with Scotland's favourite monster is not within their capabilities, it is barely within the capabilities of the big players.
The idea of a 'fleet' is also completely contrary to everything else established, there is NO polity capable of putting together a modern fleet together, even a sailing fleet would be a struggle because of the amount of opportunity cost it would inflict by draining resources into non-productive efforts.
This is a point that apparently needs repeating, every material that cannot be produced on UK soil is scarce to the point of non-existence, rubber, oil, chromium, dozens of things that you need for any new manufacture, all of it requires MASSIVE efforts to gather enough of from pre-war stocks to make something.
There are no fleets of modern vessels. There are no fleets of trucks, or tanks, or aircraft.
There is no mass production, there is hand-made from painstakingly assembled material one-off artefacts.
I don't want to no fun allowed it, but the setting doesn't work if everyone wants to be a relative technological superpower.

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>>67222503
I’m split 50/50 on whether the old USA should survive somewhere in North America or not. I’m leaning towards it though- Cheyenne has been brought up before, and it’s location makes for a good “Golden city” for the USE-aligned players to journey towards. Except once they get there they only find a fortress city locked in an endless war against the horrors of the zones.

Also an interesting player quest would be to find the “last captain of the (US) Navy”, an old man who can teach them the nautical navigation and general seamanship needed to train a cadre of naval officers to lead the expeditionary fleet.

>>67222761
At best, I’m guessing that the players would be able to put together one ship from the remaining parts. But that’s it.
The USKS has the most guns, but they are all pointed at the Zones, not other kingdoms.

>>67222173
Nessie tends to stay near her patch of water, she can leave but doesn't. It's her patch. The old cosmonaut would be foolish to encroach on her patch.

>>67222761
The USE is a waning nation in the corner of the isles with a strong desire to return home. It’s got the most old-world war tech left over, and the majority of it is deployed to fight the zones. It’s not a super power and it doesn’t have the capabilities or manpower to become one. Everything I’ve proposed so far is endgame content designed to challenge experienced, powerful players. In fact, the creation of an expeditionary fleet would require some of the guns on the USE border to be retrofitted onto the ships, weakening the zone defense and potentially leading to the collapse of the USE as a whole. It would be a gamble players would make to try and reunite with the remnants of the US... if they can even confirm if the US still exists.

The USE won’t ruin the rest of the setting. If anything, it’s a fantastic vehicle for the GM to create a new campaign within the setting in the Americas, or it can be a small nation the players can conquer and get some loot from.

>>67222789
I can see the exploration fleet being the big plot for the USKS. However, it has been Eight generations since the War. America would be a massive mystery outside of the Numbers stations from there, and the sailors would have had to learn everything about the shops from scratch.

As for the size of the expedition, I would say it’s going to be three ships. Two altered battleships and one supply carrier. The carrier is functional and being used in trade, but the two battleships still need repairs to their motors and a source of power.
Also, when completed, those two battleships would only have regular anti-aircraft style guns for defense against the sea beasts. The artillery has long since been moved to land.

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An example of the USE’s most powerful weapons, the fixed artillery on the zone border.

>>67222761
I have to say that the USE repairing a few ships for a treck across the Atlantic makes more sense than the Radicals having nuclear-powered rocket monastery.
And it can transition to a campaign built by the GM themselves. Much better than whatever the radicals would do with space.

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also re the map, i'm honestly in favour of discarding the current one and starting from one that actually has the counties pre-marked on it, as the current one has is both not up to date and flat-out wrong.
I've brought this up before and was fobbed off with assurances it'd get better, instead it's gotten worse.
the geography is off, the borders are off, places that are inhabited aren't on the map, places that no ones mentioned have flags and names, counties are the wrong size/shape/location, it's just a fucking disaster..
I'm sorry map guy, I know no one is helping with it but it's just too wrong for me.

>>67223104
yeah that's fine dude, it's only meant to be an initial guide to give an idea of roughly where things are. That said, I'm pretty sure that the only thing on the map at the moment that hasn't been mentioned in a thread is Leicestershire, which I just put in mostly to get rid of that blank, but implied to be inhabited, area between East Anglia and Warwickshire.

>>67222118
>>67222146
>>67222217
If she was a founder, and related to the MacNamara clan either as a member or of a related family, there is an avenue that the dlacassians would accept her back into their lands. Her abilities would make them suspicious and fearful of her, at least at first. She could theoretically win them over. When their warriors go all "I am Nuada, I must fight balor" they aren't exactly applauded. Revered? Sure. But I think it would be a sort of situation like this..
> Conor gets a magical glowy sword. He stares off into the distance and rambles about great battles of myth and such. His friends are awed and slightly frightened of him. He is great in a fight, but not great company otherwise, maybe isn't super welcome around the camp fire. This is seen as being blessed or touched by Nuada himself, a great honor, to be sure. However, this is recognized as a death sentence for the man, he will soon disappear on his own, wandering off.

The Dalcassians think these folks are essentially blessed, but they are still somewhat fearful of anything that could be attributed at all to the zones. They just find these fellas to be unsettling to be around mostly.

So, there is room for Nimuë to head back to Clare once she is able, but she would need to convince the people she is closer to divine than not. I think the idea that a Nimuë was from the Dalcassians, and has a mix of minor delusions of mythical grandeur AND blessings of nessie makes for a very potent character. Whether this character is in Corcu Clare or not is open to discussion.
Maybe the Nimuë is different. She doesn't think she is Nuada, but Lugh. This would change the dynamic of the delusions from "tragically fated to die" to perhaps be "greatly fated to slay balor".

Maybe, as this anon linked >>67222035 it is thought the dalcassian Nimuë could give birth to a sort of Cu Chulainn esque hero figure?

>>67223104
To be fair, nations won’t have borders on the exact old county lines, as they expand past them or are too small to cover it all, or large chunks are still zone-infested
Some like Yorkshire and Lancashire have managed to expand and cover a lot of land to become heavy hitters that are tearing each other up, whilst Northumbria was said to have lost quite a bit of land to the nasty northern zones

>>67223104
I think it is okay if the borders are off, since many of these kingdoms were set up after the war and claimed territory to themselves, disregarding the old borders. Like the USKS, Caerleon, Kernow, and the Welsh Kingdoms.
However, if you want to make new borders to be more sensible with geography, go right ahead.
Just don’t forget to add the Zones!

>>67223207
I think it was said that somewhere around Lincolnshire or Leicestershire were some settlements trying to grow naturally off-isles stuff like tobacco
There were also some other minor groups around there like those tunnel-dwellers and possibly Harold

>>67223092
i'm not a fan of the rocket monastery either but i haven't been responsible for any background on ireland, not my circus, not my monkeys.
>>67222969
>>67222981
I can appreciate this as a campaign narrative, i just strongly feel you're approaching it on too large a scale, we established very early on that the RN died in the channel covering Second Dunkirk, why would the USN, if it didn't fight to the finish alongside the RN, leave even semi-operable ships in the UK and not go home immediately?
It just doesn't work for the USKS to have anything that was half-way seaworthy left because if it had, they'd have gone home in it already.
I really feel if you're going across the atlantic, you're doing it in something that looks a lot more like the Constitution than the Missouri.

>>67223218
Unless I misunderstood, and this particular Nimuë was a dalcassian that wandered off, THEN became the Nimuë after leaving clare.
Also, what would it do to Nessie to mind meld a person consumed with balor-slaying fantasies? Is she above the minds of her people influencing her?

>>67222981
To build on that:

>players need to find several ships they can reasonably repair (and if beached, somehow refloat)

>players need to find and train crew

>players need to acquire USE artillery guns to retrofit escorts with, and fortify the ships to survive the sea monsters and effects of nautical zones

>players need to figure out safe sea voyage route- along the islands coasts, through the Atlantic, and probably into the Great Lakes

>players need to then survive the incredibly dangerous voyage

>if the voyage makes it to the US the players need to unload the ships and decide on how to proceed (do they set up on the coast and stay seafaring? Do they expedition inland and try to find Cheyenne? Etc.)

To do all this will require far reaching political connections, hours of research and planning, days if not weeks of gameplay stockpiling and preparing, and that’s just to launch a proper fleet, let alone make it to the continental US.

It’s a massive undertaking meant for a certain type of player whose progressed pretty much as far as possible. 100% endgame content

>>67223236
>>67223207
zones and leicester is actually what caught my eye, i've realised warks should curve around the W.Midlands industrial conurbation, which is now the Forest of Arden Zone + Warks annexed a chunk of Leicester & all of Rutland to get access to Lincolnshire because Lincolnshire turns out to be where you get sugar beet from in the UK, which lead to us deciding it was basically a bunch of disunited farming communities iirc.
Oh and Cambridge, what's going on there?, i was feeling awkward that I only reference oxford but thought there was nothing doing in its rival.

>>67223282
I think the scale would okay, if it starts with just getting boats repaired then getting supplies to make the trip.
The main reason I’m okay with this is that if the players are going to America, it basically means they are done with what can be found in the Isles and are uninterested in anything in Europe.
Not something that will definitely happen anytime soon, but would be good to hint at if the players ever want to leave.

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>>67223282
Did not know that about the death of the RN, good to know. I still think a 1930-ish Destroyer-escort makes more sense than a 1800s frigate because the steel ship would last 8 generations without maintenance, a DDE would fare better against sea monsters (gotta give the PCs a fighting chance), and with the retrofit of a small fleet comes the sacrifice of some to all of the USE’s border defenses. It’s one more problem the PCs have to contend with, and it’s not one that can be solved with violence, so I think it’s a pretty decent dilemma. Is it worth leaving the USE weaker in pursuit of an elusive, possibly-non-existant goal? Even if it’s one of the USE’s deepest desires? Even if it’s at the cost of thousands of lives? And at the very end of the journey lies a dark continent crawling with the profane eldritch abominations that turned a once mighty superpower into rubble and ruins...

>>67223320
I think for the amount of ships needed, three should be enough. And they can work with the Isle of Man to help make the more delicate parts.
This could even be one of the reason players first enter Ireland.

>>67223398
It also works well because the USE isn’t likely to collapse if the players don’t fuck with it. It’s a small little nation in the corner of the realm, with allies on its flanks, a dark and deadly zone encroaching on it and the Channel at its back. It’s a self contained nation, if the PCs never go near it they’ll only see a rifle here or there that has the USE stamp on it as they roam around the isles.

>>67223447
Yeah the buildup to the voyage offers a GM some great quest opportunities, it’s got a lot of narrative potential

>>67223104
>>67223207
>>67223220
>>67223236

For what it is worth, I think the map man did great with Ireland. Clare is spot on at least.

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Posting some concept art I have.

I like the idea of vertical towns, especially on cliffs, or zone-warped terrain.

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>>67223483
pic related tier adventure?

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Strange organisms convulse over the old-world skyline

>>67223637
Now those are some big organisms
London Swamp plant life may have a moment of its own in cases, but we haven’t had any fauna that big yet

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Dragons now roost in skyscrapers

>>67223660
...ignore the jets, sorry

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Something to do with our errant cosmonaut?

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A hulking wreck, once a mighty warship, lost during the second evacuation of Dunkirk.

>>67223648
What about deeeeeep in a zone?

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In the trenches of a Zone front

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Preemptively apologizing for how crappy this is. It was mainly to sort how I see the main conflicts of the Isles and where.
R: the Second Rose War. You can cast your lot on either side as a mercenary and shape the future as to whose ideology will lead England to the future.
A: who is the true Arthur. Can start the Death Road to Cornwall, the expedition last into France with Kernow, and the search for the Grail which is supposed to ease the negative effects of becoming a Changed One.
I: the raiders of Iceland and Horned ones. They are making life quite difficult, but Nessie protects the Canal to the Clans. Players could go raider in search of loot and glory, possibility attracting the raider resurgence to the north.
B: Balor’s Fomorians. The factions of Ireland having to deal with both the Fomorians kidnapping people and the Radicals going mad with their thinking machine.
E: the USE’s expedition to America. Needs a lot of trade for materials, men, and searching of the Great London Swamp.

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I like this a lot, the flag would have to be changed though. And the skyscrapers are a bit too tall. Still fits the aesthetic though.

>>67223637
Looks like the kind of plants you would find in the center of the Great London Swamp. I like it!

>>67223767
Yeah, that looks like something Kernow and the USKS would have to face from the Sea.
And Nessie can kill those with ease.

>>67223794
I like this one a lot.

>>67223782
iirc the welsh of all three flavours are also fighting, which is being used as a proxy war for the roses.
God knows what's worth fighting over in wales though.
*squints at map* And the midlands play kingmaker again. Fucking Northerners.

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I'll contribute one I found

>>67223782
There’s also that big horde of scarily armed raiders tearing towards the USKS

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>>67223935
Here’s another one by the same artist

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This kinda fits I guess

>>67223660
We’ve only got one so far and it’s made most of inner-London it’s home

>>67223660
We’ve only got one dragon in The Great London Swamp.

>>67222010
>>67222035
>>67222217
>>67223218
>>67223289
I imagine it started when the Glen Clans had no foreknowledge that Nessie wasn't simply going to eat the sacrifice so they substituted a captive foreigner. Dalcassian Nimuë went home as soon as her year was up. No Glen-clanner was stupid enough to try and get in her way.

>>67223289
The Nessie-possessed Nimuë is a mindless puppet. The only reason for the selection criteria is that after the possession wears off, they'll still be superhuman.

>>67225627
Would a nimuë of dalcassian origin be cleared of her tuatha delusions through this process?

It was said that great lion-like beasts were sometimes found roaming the isles, depending on just how big and scary these things are they could make for a good formidable enemy for even a capable party

What's going on in Scandinavia?

>>67226783
Nobody has (madly) sailed off that way and come back
Some thing the Horned Men came from Scandinavia, but nobody is sure

>>67226783
I know that some of the things called Horned Ones came from there.

>The Hounds of Conánn

>The Hounds of Conánn, also known as Cornerdogs, and Blinkdogs, are a cruel irony in the new world. Their origin is all but unknown, the land of "Conánn" ascribed to them is a result of the mutterings of cultists and those rare survivors stricken mad by encounters with the beasts. The persistence and consistency in reports of Conánn are far too prevalent to write off the phenomenon as the ravings of the insane, a place described as being both near and far, a desert shrouded in roiling mist, illuminated by a black sun and red moon, an unending sprawl of black sand dunes dominated by a dark craggly spiring citadel that can never be reached. The hounds themselves are said to prowl this waste, and emanate from the insidious structure, but is somehow not their origin.

>The hounds themselves appear as vaguely canine shaped, as large as a great dane but with a greater musculature. They seem skinless, the exposed musculature twisting in hard geometric patterns, their robust heads eyeless, and where ears should be the patterned flesh comes up as horns, or perhaps antennae. Their maws are lined with rows of black, shark like teeth, with three lashing tongues dotted with circular pits much longer than their mouth should be able to accommodate. Their legs terminate in sharp points, instead of paws, their unnatural appendages never touching the ground, gliding silently on galloping stumps.

>>67227796
>The most disturbing aspect of the hounds, is their ability to "stabilize" acasual zone activity. Whole swathes of land, once thought uninhabitable can suddenly appear normal. Inevitably, the desperate flock to these areas, ignorant of the danger replaced. Over time, madness will grip these unfortunates, paranoia, dread, then eventually, slowly, full blown cultism. Building monoliths from blackened flesh and self flaying. Should the Hounds responsible be found and terminated, the full effect of the phenomenon they stabilized will erupt from their dissolving corpses, making their deaths a dangerous proposition. Fighting them is another proposition entirely, as they naturally strip the moisture from their surroundings, their bite and constricting tongues can dessicate a human body in minutes. Naturally, normally foggy and rainy areas will seem more dry than usual, another sign of a pack in the vicinity.

>Most terrifying of all, and the origin of their monikers, is their ability to phase out of and into existence through corners. Anything more than 90 degrees is useless to the hounds, but within that range they can squeeze into, and erupt out of reality at will, leaping from weaponry, house corners, and gear for a deadly ambush. If sufficiently wounded, they can seek to escape in this manner, and will lie in wait until they are healed.

>>67206917
F

>>67227796
>>67227811
Needs a BoB rival

>>67225755
Probably not, they are returned to themselves afterwards. Warts and all.

>>67225755
They mentally return to who they were once the possession moves on, but the physical changes stay.
It actually made the delusions get worse.

>>67228390
BoB?

>>67228929
Beast of Bodom. British Big Cats, etc

>>67229015
We do have >>67226586 , but they don’t seem to have any reality bending powers like that, they’re just bloody dangerous as they are

>>67228390
The big cats would have to be both very resilient and very strong to kill that dog before they could be hurt.

>>67227796
Sounds like the Zone’s time/space rippling is phasing into a desert area a bit. And their bites phase their victim out of time.

I would say the phasing should be limited to the ability to phase through objects that aren’t in the other half of their phase. Like if there’s a rock in the country but not in the desert, they can move through the rock.

>>67229579
Sounds less like phasing out of time, and more like dumping it into Conánn. So is it a separate plane of existence? A mirror universe? What's the implications for the setting

>>67229680
Personally I want to avoid dimension-fuckery for humans outside of stuff like the Scottish zones, maybe keep it to the hounds method of manouvering around prey

>>67229680
I would say no to mirror universes or planes of existence. You are on earth, so the where and when you go are restrained to Earth from the 1950’s onwards. (The time travel effect only goes back to when the Zones first formed)
It’s likely phasing with the future of a desert somewhere in the world.

>>67229761
The Scottish Zone is a time/space warp where you can get stuck in impossible spaces like a Penrose stairway or Mobius loop. They can be broken by line-of-sight or a long enough rope, but the hips and forests make that difficult.

>>67206323
Nessie is a complicated one, people don't know whether she's retro-causal, as in she was magicked up based off of local legends, a mutated local animal that's filled the Nessie shaped void in people's psyche or an old creature who's finally come out to light.
I think it's best we keep her vague.
>>67206167
It's not really ritualistic, Nessie's more like a benign protector. Locals may give her food now and then though, much as you would a big friendly guard dog. You want her happy, after all!

>>67209193
The Something is most likely to be the Jotunn kingdom up there.

>>67210039
Yeah, copycat crimes, so to speak. Could work, and gives GM's some scope

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>>67229015
Any traveler passing through the Bodmin-Exmoor wilds will have their own stories, of eyes in the dark. Some say they're messengers of death itself, to guide those that follow to whatever lies beyond. Others believe that they're twisted mutants, come to snatch whatever they can from caravans passing through the area. You ask anybody in the know though, and you'll only get some very similar answers: a large population of escaped big cats, interbred and crossed so much that nothing of their original species can be discerned; spots, stripes, and manes adorn many, and it's said to have been the last thing many travelers have ever seen.
>>67227796
Something very different hunts to the south in Dartmoor however: roving packs of ghostly hounds, their presence announced only be glowing cherenkov radiation, emerging from behind the next glen.

>>67230139
Awesome map!
From the context and geography, I would say the hounds originated from the Plymouth Zone.

>>67230202
That’s looking great so far!
Should the Exmouth and Taunton zones be a bit larger so they reach their nearest coasts, forcing travellers to pass through a rather small gap between? Seemed like the Death Road to Cornwall was the only possible route

>>67230139
The zones overlap each other more than what’s implied here, with Plymouth and Exmouth both extending into the Dartmoor wilds. This crossing is likely the reason the hounds are so weird.

>>67230268
>>67230312
I thought it was accepted that things from the zones made it hazardous for a few miles away from their edges.
In any case, I'll try extending their borders to make things a little more clear.

>>67230508
Their area of effect expands quite a bit beyond their center, and are subject to change. Ireland’s Zone, for example, covers almost 2/3rds of the island without there being an obvious center.
What you have on your map would be useful to show the levels of radiation from the zone, rather than the full extent of their influence.

>>67230508
Yeah, the land outside of the actual zones will be nasty, just thought it should be especially harsh for the path to Kernow

Are there any significant cities or sites in the Kernow League? We haven’t really gone into what’s in their land

>>67231152
Truro is the capital, and where Arthur gathers his four lords to help properly govern and defend against the neighboring zones.
Penzance is the main staging city for Gleaner expeditions across the channel into France, as well as being a good port for trade north.

>>67231265
Sounds good, they’ll probably also have some hefty defences along the zone-lines

>>67231665
Due to the Zones in the area spitting out beasts at a fairly high rate, and the availability of guns being low, the knights of Kernow have become very skilled at fighting off beasts through the use of melee weapons. Having the head of a Big Cat beast as a trophy is fairly common for the area.

Interesting thing to note: Merlin and Arthur first appeared coming out of the Dartmoor Wilds holding trophies from both a large Hound and Cat.

>>67231763
Whilst they don’t really produce guns, those of immense wealth from the cross-channel scavenging can afford to import quality weapons for themselves from places such as the Isle of Man

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Zone-beasts are not all biological, as this unfortunate coastal merchant discovers...

>>67229783
>>67229761
When I wrote this I never intended it to be a place PCs would ever go, unless the GM wanted to be CUHRAZEE. It would the equivalent to going into the Far Realms, or the Realms of Chaos, the place itself being a sort of nod to Carcosa, the Hounds themselves being inspired by the Hounds of Baskerville and blatant rip offs of the Hounds of Tindalos. In a sensible campaign, you'd never go there, in a less sensible campaign, if you do, you die or worse.

But I do argue the point of mirror universes and alternate dimensions. If we look at other paragons of Wierd PostApoc, Fallout, s.t.a.l.k.e.r., etc, weird shit like that is implied, or directly stated, to varying degrees. And a setting like the British isles, with a strong history with Fae and Other Lands(tm), lends itself to lands beyond the mundane reality, whether you go there or not.

That does lead me to my last inclination, in that people *should* go to these places, even briefly, especially in dream scenarios or Zone mishaps. An excellent tool a GM or story teller can use is displaying the full horror of the new the world, then display worlds beyond, and the PCs or readers come to the horrific realization that the real world is as good as it gets. I can't think of a more depressing theme to express. Otherwise you can get some sick Dreamquest action if you want to tell that kind of story, or something more direct, like ancient Nazi dimension gate machine, or !Fae fuckery. I think the best thing we can do is have a small handful of such places, or unplaces, with some vague fluff and connections, so that GMs or authors who want to use the stuff, or make their own, have the tools to do so

>>67232213
They aren’t quite that fancy, or all mechanical, but the ruins of Germany may have some horrors like this to offer

>>67232233
Good points, I guess a lot of the idea was that these sort of things had now come to reality in the zones, so you’ve got that part

>>67231763
>Interesting thing to note: Merlin and Arthur first appeared coming out of the Dartmoor Wilds holding trophies from both a large Hound and Cat.
What’s this a reference to?

>>67232265
If you want mechanical horrors, try the German Ghouls or Radical Turingists.

Is the rest of the world fucked?

>>67233739
even more so.

>>67205385
Whilst Dùn Mòr Vaul is the official capital of the union it is neither the largest city in the Dùn Union, nor the most prosperous. These accolades go to Tobermory and Port Ramsay respectively.

Mull being the largest Island in the Union (by a particularly sizeable margin) Means that it plays host to the largest population of any of the isles, roughly 2/3rds of the Union's entire population as a matter of fact. And close to a sixth of Mull's population lives in Tobermory. This makes it not only larger than any other city in the Union, but also larger than many of the other Islands in the Union. It's size means that it has more representatives in the Union Parliment than is normal or even strictly legal, a point of contention among many.


Port Ramsay's wealth comes mostly from it's location, as it's the clostest city in the Union to the Great Glenn. Thus, it's the first stop for any traders from the clans, and many traders who come from further afield. It is afterall where the union sends most of its wares, far from the Icelander's as it is. Ramsay's perennial is not particularly large, however it is seasonally bumped up by an influx of traders and their workers.

>>67233739
Yes. It’s completely nuts.

>>67205385
Fuck off and put Martlets in the Sussex flag. We wunt be druv, fucker

>>67230139
>>67231265
Tintagel and Polperro both seem good for the key bases of the zone-defence troops, along with their own minor ports
How’s Barnstaple holding up, and what’s it like there, given they’re very cut off from the others?

>>67235857
Barnstaple is actually holding up rather well. Since their border is so short, they built a solid wood wall along the edge of the woods, and that keeps out the Big Cats quite effectively.
Mostly that city keeps it’s lands producing food for the rest of Kernow.

>>67235233
What would their total population be? Somewhere in the 10-20,000 range? Or more?

>>67236716
I'm thinking a little over, like 21k or maybe 22. Not so large as to be completely unbelievable, but large enough to survive against the Icelanders but also be causing some issues.

>>67236716
In 1950 Cornwall had a population of around 350,000. I'm pretty sure lorewise that most of the territory of the Kernow League has been inhabited and (reasonably) civilized continuously since the 50's, so (given lowered agricultural yields, and the loss of maybe 15% of their territory) I'd say they'd have a population of approximately 100,000, maybe a bit more, so around 1500 levels.
I can't really imagine anywhere else having this many people though (maybe East Anglia, or the Isle of Man, but I'm not sure that would fit thematically).

>>67236716
>>67236847
Wait I'm a fucking idiot. 20k sounds reasonable.

>>67236847
>>67236852
Still good to get some numbers for Kernow.
The Isle of Man would likely have about two thirds that, like 60,000. The Isle itself likely holds 30,000.

Now I’m wondering what Caerleon would be. They’re powerful enough to claim and hold territory in what should by all rights be Zone.

>>67237115
Most of the crusades have been recent, so they’ll have likely started to move people into it but they haven’t had long

>>67237204
Kernow has been around since the beginning, with their Arthur getting chosen to be the leader.
Caerleon, on the other hand, is a relatively young kingdom (about 15 years sound good?), with the towns and people their joined together through the work of their Arthur.

you guys are under-estimating population densities elsewhere i think, by UK standards cornwall & wales have always been small and comparatively empty, so they're going to be tiddlers compared to York or Lancaster.
Also I feel the pop figures are a bit low, the comparative distance from Ruin to Now is about equivalent from Black Death to Tudor, which is when the population really started to grow again but the difference is that even post Ruin the level of knowledge loss wouldn't have been as bad for 'us'.
I feel we're looking at a minimum of very early 18th century population levels, probably higher.
The total will of course be much lower because we're missing the four biggest conurbs, but if you're not Mancunian/Scouse/Brummie or a Londoner your county totals should be similar.

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here's a map with the expanded zones.

>>67237675
Looking good! The main trouble players would find on the Death Road to Cornwall is that there are no land paths that let you avoid the active Zones.

>>67237675
Looks great!
>>67237773
I think the general idea was between the exmouth and taunton zones, and then on snaking around hazardous areas towards the Kernow border
To that end, should those Taunton zone reach its nearest coastline but leave a small gap between itself and exmouth?

>>67237856
There’s no real gaps outside of a small one along the coast, but there are no roads or paths along that stretch so it is hard to follow without wandering into the Zone.

>>67237968
Was thinking a fresh path could have been made post-fall as it used to be the only way through on the first map

>>67238011
The problem there is that anyone making a path would have to deal with making it through the wilds and all the beasts there in, then make sure nothing happens to that path.
It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s actually easier to leave the paths where they are than it is to make a new one.

>>67238165
Making a new one would be hard, just was that on the first map there didn’t seem to be any safer route to take
A good while has passed, and they do call it the Death Road for a reason

>>67238191
I could give a myriad of reasons as to why there isn’t a safer route, like the edges of the zones expanding and shrinking, or the difficulty of making a path that isn’t already there.
Unfortunately, it all boils down to wanting the death road to be a gauntlet that shows what zones are, the effects of radiation, and a taste of the myriad of beasts to be found. So a condensed area showing what exactly Radon and Raiders is.

>>67237507
At that time, London had about 4.5 Million people alone, but now there is no London, and vast swaths of land are covered by zones.
However, the numbers did make me think we were severely lowballing the population of the British Isles.
I looked up this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_demography
The population came out to about 5 million in the 1500’s. Despite the difficulties of the Zone, the average quality of life is still higher, so I would say the total population of the aisles would be between 6 and 7 Million.
I wouldn’t go much higher, since international trade isn’t really a thing anymore thanks to the Zones.

>>67238456
I agree it should be a gauntlet, I figure a winding path squeezing between the edges of zones is already dangerous enough for the only land path to Cornwall
It’s more feasible than one that goes into a zone, and still Loren of danger of bandits and beasts roaming the land, a particularly nasty thing could force people off the road and into a zone, warranting them to try and get back to (relative) safety of the road and around whatever forced them off it

>>67221129
I wouldn't have them be "unnaturally" long lived. Tending towards the upper limits of normal and well preserved would feel better. Or at least would be to me. At 30 they still look 20, at 40 they look 30, at 50 still 30s, by 70 they look 40, at 80 they're mid to late 40s, at 90 they're in their 50s and of those few that make it to 100 could pass for mid 60s.

So how’s stuff in Penryn? They seem to be rather close to Truro, but are also not quite coastal

>>67240023
I would guess that Penryn is a second spot that Gleaners would return to, so it would be a good place to trade and appraise Zone metals and materials found across the channel.
However, it is also the seat of one of the lords, and they keep tracks of the production of farms in the land south of the town.

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>>67240023
Penryn is to Truro what Ostia was to Rome: a connection to the sea.
Bear in mind to that the labels on the map are just major towns, there's plenty of villages of maybe <2000 people scattered all round Cornwall.

>>67238795
I wouldn't estimate international trade as having such a large impact, what really sends the population growth skyrocketing in late Georgian-early Victorian times is increased efficiency in farming and sanitation.
The problem is of course is that even if growth is at 18th century rates the population crash to get there is absolutely immense, even by the standards of a setting self-avowedly apocalyptic, in order to get it that low we have to kill something in the order of forty five million people in the uk, i.e.more people than died in world war 2.
this just doesn't work with what we've established about the relative commonality of mid-level urban areas because to get down that low we'd need to have levelled them all.
It just doesn't work with the technology available and what exists in the setting afterwards.
I propose a minimum of about twenty million post war, that's everyone in the major conurbs gone and then the remainder halved, this is a beyond worst case scenario by an order of magnitude but it's about as low as we can reasonably go with the weapons of the day, the level of lethality of the environment and the canon presence of so many polities 'now'.

>>67240277
Sounds good, and it seems like many could have died during the fall, since even the places that weren’t enveloped by zones were likely swarmed with the beasts emerging from them

>>67240277
Well, I’m just guessing the low end since it has been Eight generations since the War happened.
There’s also the inevitable conflict that occurred during the evacuations, the people who died directly from bombs, and the deaths that would inevitably happen from the famine that would follow the panic of the War, as well as the amount of people who get killed due to the Zone.
It doesn’t have to be all at once, but the population will almost certainly have decreased over the 169-240 year period since the War.
I will say that it has started to increase again in the past century, though.
Does 15-18 million sound like a better number?

>>67240484
>>67240277
Nevermind. 20 million sounds like a good number for all the Isles.

>>67240502
>>67240484
That sounds good
There will have been various things since the initial fall like the days of terror, with roving bandit gangs wreaking havoc and slaughtering survivors, and other things
Seems like by the present things have started to stabilise after all of that falling, though whilst some expand and clash, others like Northumbria are set to suffer with countless beasts heading their way

>>67240277
I'm not sure that that's the right amount.
Consider that there was heavy rationing during WWII, with the UK pretty much subsisting off of what it could produce, with most available open spaces being converted into farmland of some variety.
Now think about how there's perhaps only 1/3 as much arable land available being utilized, and that most of the farmers working it wouldn't have many of the advances that were around in 1950, such as utility vehicles (like combine harvesters, tractors, et cetera), complicated fertilizers requiring chemical processes to synthesize, or proper irrigation.
The issue comes down to productivity per acre, rather than man hours put into the task of agriculture. I think that from the limited amount of land available, with the technologies available, the maximum would probably be about 15 million.
This isn't even factoring in problems such as disease and the apocalypse itself (frankly I doubt the British demographics could shift to reach this maximum so soon after such devestation anyway), so I'd say that there'd probably be around 10 million people knocking around.

Should there be some kind of racial/factional stat figures for characters?

>>67240867
When we were looking at adapting DH rules for this we were going to adapt the homeworld stats and such to different parts of the isles

>>67240827
This seems to come down to how much food can be made.
Scotland and Ireland can sustain themselves. Which kingdoms would be considered the Breadbaskets of England?

>>67241075
It seems like something Suffolk and co would have going well for them, given all the land they have, despite being low-tech
Yorkshire and Lancashire would also have some simply from their size, but a lot of that land is also an active warzone

>>67219013
The general classification thing seems pretty good. I think we were going with "myth" or "mutant" for the classifications though. Basically your "Questing beasts" would be mutants while the Jotunn and Wights would be myths
>>67219280
I reckon multiple guilds would work, just as there are multiple mercenary bands. A Cork-based guild would be hard pushed to deal with a Helldog infestation in Oxford, for example.
>>67221803
Going to the US could be interesting, but I think it's been decided that the US was completely flattened and exfoliated, barring the Cheyenne complex and some shit on the far west coast. There wouldn't be much to see there, though I suppose the players don't have to know that...
>>67222789
See above, I think it's best if we keep US habitation down to the absolute minimum, since the vast majority of super weapons and zones hit/occurred there and in the USSR.
>>67223104
Fuck you you keep saying it's wrong and it literally fucking isn't lmao
Funnily enough, the new nations aren't sticking to the old county lines

>>67241323
I think the myth and mutant designations are for the best, with many Zone Beasts being one of the two.

I will say that there are likely to be a few mutants that would be seen as beneficial to take alive for breeding, like a deer with more meat, or boars that grow quicker on less food. (Though I doubt many players would actually go for those. Just good worldbuilding fluff to find on the job board)

>>67241323
I think that there are definitely very few people still living in North America, but the exact state of the place is still unknown. The USE knows this, but they feel that since it has been 160-240 years, it should be safe enough to see what has changed.

>>67240948
Anything official for classes? Would these also be inspired by DH?

>>67241606
I remember some being Knight, Mercenary, and Gleaner. Some others could be translated from Dark Hersey. Been a while since we went into classes.

>>67241670
well archetypes'd be wizard, warrior and rogue.
How we approach wizard is going to be a fucker, warrior is obviously going to be a knight and rogue would seem to be best matched by gleaner.
we've also got beast hunters, who i think'd probably be the dakka to the knight's choppy, but both should have some capability to use the other style of weaponry.
What other classes do we think are suitable?
>>67241323
the idea with those classes was they'd be a guild shorthand and be pretty much gibberish to the man in the street.
Semi-related, Hunters & Gleaners Guilds'd be present everywhere I suspect, loosely aligned but mostly concerned with their own areas rather than having a central organisation.
Merc bands seem to range from highly mobile to quasi-standing forces, afaik we've got the Men of Stirling, Blue Helmets? Ironsides, Band of the Bear so far, any others?
Religious Orders: Turingists, Vanilla and EXTREME, the Anti-Pope in Scotland, more?
Knightly/Monastic Orders: Order of the Black Tears, the Uffington Yeomanry, who will be detailed later but are a thing. Others?

>>67241471
Yeah, people had mentioned some odd sorts of horses that took better to certain terrain

>>67242169
For wizard, it would have to be heavily altered to Changed One, since Rad-wizards are the only one who can “cast” radiation, and the abilities of Changed Ones are the closest we get to magic without being magic.

>>67242169
Blue helms were the elite troops of Lancashire
There were quite a few mercenary groups, will dig through the old threads a bit later

>>67242229
We still need to figure out how radiation would be quantified, and it’s effects in terms of damage.

>>67243508
I think we were taking that radiation chart someone posted, and using radiation with corruption points, using malignancies for the effects of it

>>67243570
I remember the chart, but what levels of radiation would translate to how many corruption points? How long would they need to be exposed?

>>67243607
Initial plans were to fudge the numbers so the fatal dosage was equivalent to 100 corruption points, half of it 50, and so on
Different things would have different doses, either instant or continuous, like different stages in zones
Equipment that protected against radiation would remove a certain fraction of radiation received

>>67230139
Map's looking good, the Death Road is *sort of* the basis for this whole setting! I like what you've done with it. Which one's going to be said road, though?
>>67232233
Yeah that's fair enough. At the end of the day it's all about what the GM's want to do with it.
>>67233739
Easily 99% of the world's non-fucked humans live on the Isles.
>>67238191
Sounds good. A short stretch looping around the top of the Taunton Zone could have been recently established, which would be the most perilous, "Mines of Moria" part of the Road. This would give the majority of the Road a position of relative safety with only a short, maybe 25 mile stretch of really dangerous crossing.

>>67243656
I would say the maximum amount of protection available would be 90%, but that’s high end specially made with zone metals and beast leather. Money of what you can buy or find will max out in the 50-75% range.
I think Changed Ones automatically have a 50% resistance.

>>67242171
This was originally a cavalry thread, after all...
>>67242229
>>67242169
Yeah, Rad-Wizard already has '"wizard" in the name, so this makes the most sense. The spells and casting etc would have to be heavily altered, of course, but I reckon radiation damage from casting "Rad-Spells" would be functionally similar to psyker Perils of the Warp.
>>67242169
I banged out a bunch of merc groups a while back, not sure many of them caught on though. The Stenners, Men of Stirling, Ironsides and Bluehelms are all pretty fundamental to the setting though

>>67244030
>>66848759
This was it, recycling to use at leisure

>>67244084
>>67244030
Fuck I'm retarded.
Here it is control-V'd:

Well, vis a vis mercenary groups, who have we got so far? I can recall some solid work being done on the Desert Rats, and the Stenners are sort-of a merc group, though perhaps less directly military than others. The SAS are also operating rather like sell-swords, if I remember correctly, though more tied to the Old World powers. Also there was talk of European groups smuggling in Were-Francs to do their dirty work. Perhaps some work should be done on new groups? Maybe three more English ones, two Irish and two Scottish, one Welsh, Two European and a US one? Just a suggestion, so we have a wide thematic range.
>The White Company-an English band of mercenaries famed for their skill with the spear, and the (relative) civility of their behavior
>Halifax' Hounds-originating in the old world town of Halifax, part of the greater Realm of York, these infamous mercenaries have tamed Zone hounds and Helldogs to fight for them, giving the band it's name
>Bonnie Boys- a rag-tag band of Scots, led by a man claiming to be the true descendant of the Stuarts, the reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Whether or not this is true, his mercenaries are driven and skilled with both cannon and their stash of single-shot rifles.
>Jaegers-hailing from Germany, this platoon sized unit of hunters stole a shipment of Napoleonic era pneumatic rifles, which they put to great use in their stealthy escape from the continent, and subsequently as hunters-for-hire in Britain that was
Just a couple of ideas, feel free to ignore/adapt!

>>67244104
The Irish don’t have Mercenary groups due to how the Island isn’t very factional and focused on fighting against Balor and the Paranoia.
The other Scottish ones are just different Clans from the Great Glen venturing south due to being hired into the Rose War, so Highlanders and Lowlanders.

I do like the four you have there, though! We shouldn’t do too many Mercenary bands, though. It could get a bit messy to keep track of them.

>>67243974
Yeah, 90 sounds like it would belong with legendary equipment like those radiation suits from Kernow
>>67244104
Good stuff
We had some like the cavaliers also, and someone did some Germans doing dodgy stuff to keep people alive recently
A few others too, and the Great Red Ones from the US, who never got fleshed out
>>67244030
More capable Changed Ones can do finer things than just blast radiation at people, I think we were going to sue mutations and such along with insanity points with them for their deformity and loss of sanity
Thought Bluehelms arent mercs?

>>67244104
Including those four, that would be seven Mercenary groups for the players to choose from in joining or fighting. That’s likely to be more than enough.

>>67244211
I think what they can do would depend on what kind of Changed they become.
Honestly I think that the Rad-wizard ability to direct radiation would be equivalent to pyrokenisis in battle.

>>67244307
We have a few more than that overall, but there is a lot going on across the whole isles, and a party would be likely to never see many of them as they also go from contract to contract

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>>67244197
Thanks, they're slightly derivative! I agree on the Irish front, they're gotten more cohesive since I wrote these.
>>67244211
The continental stuff should be fleshed out, your right. I thought the Bluehelms were Lancastrian troops but only tied to them by a sort of permanent retinue contract. I guess kind of like the Janissaries. Having them signed on to a Captain who hired himself and his retinue out to the Lancastrians several generations ago, then became a noble, would work quite well.
>>67244211
>>67244335
Fair enough, this would give us Changed one Wizard archetypes players could follow. I'm not sure what the magic source would lend itself to other than pyrokinesis, perhaps some sort of biological magic? Maybe shields and abjuration of some sort? The more traditional divination, illusion, healing shit doesn't really thematically work/can't really be explained by how Rad-Wizards work.

>>67244357
Oh yeah, there are dozens of Mercenary groups, but most of them contain only a few people (payer groups, in other words).
For The major ones that could be an army in and of themselves, there’s only about eight.

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Saw this image and couldn't resist; we haven't touched the Isle of Wights for a while. They've got some form of society more advanced than most other ghouls, so perhaps this figure could be their king or leader?
Again, just spit-balling ideas before I go to bed.

>>67244583
Looks about right. Sadly, considering how violently isolationist the Wights are on the isle, the players would have to leap through quite a few hoops to see him, let alone talk.

>>67244816
>>67244583
The wights are still beasts, just more organized than the other ghouls you will find on the isles
Perhaps the one that leads them, bearing the livery of a monarch, is unnaturally smart for their kind
Whilst there are rumors of a legendary bow on the isle amongst other treasure, you would have to worry about the wights and being shelled by Howitzer during their typical firing practice
>>67244575
Oh yeah, can’t have too many big ones on the loose, but I think some of the prestigious ones are still smaller in number, by no means an army
Ones like the Men of Stirling and Desert Rats (before they were torn up pretty bad and joined Edward more permanently) were elite, but small groups

>>67245099
I will agree those units are small, but they are worth an army.
Most of the mercenaries are loyal to the contract, with some being bribable, some being not. Currently, the most skilled and desired ones are in a “licking their wounds” phase during the ceasefire of the Rose War.

>>67245264
The Rose War has reached a current standstill
The Desert Rats, after their severe losses, seem to have joined Edward more permanently as they rebuild what they can
The highlanders are still on the frontlines, whilst the Men of Stirling are currently carrying out their raids through zones, and about to face the Lancastrian counter of hired Changed Ones
Edward’s own mounted riflemen are just about ready to go now he has the wealth and support to field such a thing
Lancashire has had far less attention so far, aside from some internal tensions leading to a turncloak lord, and the Blue Helms being a thing

>>67245430
I think the next thread should be about what is going on in York and Lancashire.

>>67245430
Interesting to hear that there is an attack going on despite the ceasefire.

>>67245577
I didn’t think there was a ceasefire, just that the war had reached a standstill, possibly along the river wharfe

>>67245615
Then I guess it’s an unofficial, just a result of nobody having a good opening for attack that doesn’t result in heavy losses for themselves as well.

>>67245720
The results of the Stirling raids could soften up the Lancastrian troops enough to turn the tide in Yorkshire’s favour if they succeed

>>67245828
If they succeed, it would give the momentum back to York.
Then there’s the inevitable counter-offensive with the Changed Ones that Lancashire hired and so on that could stall it and push back again.(Until the players join in and the GM decides what they do to tip the balance).

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>Stukadraken

>"Don't trust the skies, mate. The ground beneath your feet, the water you drink, but least of all the skies. You hear their scream, best you find some decent cover. And pray."

>The Blitz, while a failure militarily for the Luftwaffe, left deep scars in the psyches of the English, no more so than the civilians who bore the greatest cost in the attacks, the fear of German bombers nigh ever present until the eventual cessation of the operation. Even still, the ghosts of the Third Riech plague the Isles. Ghouls and phantom U-Boats are amongst the terrors left behind, grim reminders of a war that was unfortunately better times long forgotten. Stukadraken, or simply Stuka or Draks, are another breed of Germanic horror that plagues the western coasts, and sometimes beyond. Often solitary, these monsters will drift on buzzing wings, a hideous amalgam of flesh and metal. While not all Draks are "derived" from the Stuka fighters of their name, the moniker is more in reference to their nimbleness in air, as attested to the aiviating orders of the Knights of Kes, or the warring bands of Harrisons who hold special enmity for German remnants. They seem to not need sustenance, or fuel, and instead simply kill and feast to sate some instinctual desire to cause death. Snapping jaws and roarings guns make them incredibly dangerous, and their territorial nature often puts them at odds with others of their kind, clashing in spectacular and deadly aerial duels. The land is not beyond them, as they can crawl or slither, but they obviously prefer the air due to their supremacy there. Often they will go to groun after a screeching dive bomb, the horrible warbling sound reminiscent of the German bombs of the War.

>>67246740
>Easily baited into this dive, they can be caught and dispatched by the well prepared and well drilled, although fighting a machine monster takes as many men as it does good equipment. Many aspiring Dragon Hunters have been slain by underestimating a grounded Stukadrak. Indeed, they are a plague to many legendary forts, as once a Drak is ousted from its grounds by another, they will seek out a new place to roost, preferably with elevation. As most mountains are host to things beyond their power, and the cities are likewise dangerous propositions, they will attack forts to claim as their own. Some fortresses and castles have specialized siege equipment to take the beasts down, while others simply take to the underholds and wait the thing out. How they propagate is unknown, but is postulated by some that they are manufactured somehow in the remains of Germany, or birthed by some dire Stukadrak dirigible somewhere over the sea.

What's the status of Oxford?

>>67246827
Oxfordshire has become a trade hub kingdom, so I would say Oxford is doing pretty well. Not sure about the state of the university, since a lot of people took the books for safekeeping during the War and none of the teachers were really able to teach for a long time.

>>67246827
Oxfordshire lives on as a currently neutral state, they’re in a decent position
>>67246808
>>67246740
Good stuff!
Sounds bloody dangerous, only other flying danger we’ve had so far was gargoyles
These things should be rare, but a serious problem that a nation would need to amass good men and gear to deal with

New thread
>>67247308