Post by gamedave on Jun 23, 2012 20:49:31 GMT -5
It is the year of our Lord 1646. A darkness hangs heavy over Europe. England stands on the brink of civil war. Cardinal Mazarin manipulates the Dauphin and oppressively taxes the commoners in France. The Holy Roman Empire continuously teeters on the brink of dissolution and total war. The tenuous peace between Spain and the Netherlands threatens to break out into open war any moment, drawing all of Europe back into the conflict. Within Spain, the Inquisition hunts down heretics, Jews, Moors, and freethinkers. The Italian peninsula is a confusing morass of feuding cities and statelets which serve as proxies for the rivalries of the Continental powers. But that is only the darkness which is publicly acknowledged...
In Bohemia, a mad queen drains innocent maidens of their blood to preserve her youth. In Germany, a mad alchemist seeks the secret of life itself, to raise the dead. The nearby Black Forest of Germany is stalked by a wolf that can walk like a man. The mountains of Carpathia are haunted by the blood drinking spirits of the dead. In Ireland, capricious Faerie entangle unwary mortals in games of life and death beyond mortal comprehension. Across all of Europe, dark things prowl the night...
But even that may not be the worst of it. There are whispers...scraps of letters...dark hints in darker tomes...there are connections. Political turmoil, monsters in the night, mad science - all of it may be part of some larger scheme beyond the limited capacity of any one man to comprehend, some mad plan that defies Reason itself. Some few dare whisper, in hushed tones, in secret places to their most trusted confidants...Illuminati.
But all is not lost. There is hope. There is a candle in the dark. The Invisible College is a loose network of scholars, explorers, and adventurers, from all across Europe and beyond. They seek to expose the darkness to the cold light of Reason, to find the answers, to slay the monsters, to save the world. Annuit Coeptis.
Swashbuckling and Sorcery is a game of flashing blades, clockpunk gadgetry, hidden magic, dark conspiracies, and high adventures set in Circa 1646 Europe. This is not the Europe of the Real World 1646, but a cinematic, fantastical version, where Leonardo da Vinci's wildest gizmos are practical, John Dee really did contact Angelic spirits who communicate in the Enochian tongue, and a skilled swordsman can defeat a dozen adversaries with a sharp blade and a sharper wit.
The characters are operatives of the Invisible College. Based in London, it includes many of the most famous and well-connected scholars of the day. It has no political power, and its resources are limited to the personal wealth of its members, but it can provide an unrivaled wealth of knowledge and learning, and a network of contacts throughout Europe and beyond. Dedicated to Science and Reason, the Invisible College judges its members purely on the merits of their own abilities, accepting both noble and commoner, Christian and heathen, even men and women, as intellectual and moral equals.
Those brave men and women who have thrown in their lot with the Invisible College will find adventure aplenty, both intellectual and physical. They may find themselves assigned to map the uncharted expanses of the South Pacific or the dark interior of Africa or the new world. They may be asked to look into a newly discovered tomb, or into the very old legends associated with it. They may be asked to discover if the monster killing and eating peasants in the south of France is a supernatural creature, or all too human. And through it all, they will always need to keep an eye out for the activities of the Illuminati - an organization far older, far larger, and far more powerful than the Invisible College (and, some fear, far more knowledgeable about the Great Truths of Nature and Supernature).
So grab your pistol and rapier, your clockwork grapple, and your book of Enochian runes, and go boldly forth!
In Bohemia, a mad queen drains innocent maidens of their blood to preserve her youth. In Germany, a mad alchemist seeks the secret of life itself, to raise the dead. The nearby Black Forest of Germany is stalked by a wolf that can walk like a man. The mountains of Carpathia are haunted by the blood drinking spirits of the dead. In Ireland, capricious Faerie entangle unwary mortals in games of life and death beyond mortal comprehension. Across all of Europe, dark things prowl the night...
But even that may not be the worst of it. There are whispers...scraps of letters...dark hints in darker tomes...there are connections. Political turmoil, monsters in the night, mad science - all of it may be part of some larger scheme beyond the limited capacity of any one man to comprehend, some mad plan that defies Reason itself. Some few dare whisper, in hushed tones, in secret places to their most trusted confidants...Illuminati.
But all is not lost. There is hope. There is a candle in the dark. The Invisible College is a loose network of scholars, explorers, and adventurers, from all across Europe and beyond. They seek to expose the darkness to the cold light of Reason, to find the answers, to slay the monsters, to save the world. Annuit Coeptis.
Swashbuckling and Sorcery is a game of flashing blades, clockpunk gadgetry, hidden magic, dark conspiracies, and high adventures set in Circa 1646 Europe. This is not the Europe of the Real World 1646, but a cinematic, fantastical version, where Leonardo da Vinci's wildest gizmos are practical, John Dee really did contact Angelic spirits who communicate in the Enochian tongue, and a skilled swordsman can defeat a dozen adversaries with a sharp blade and a sharper wit.
The characters are operatives of the Invisible College. Based in London, it includes many of the most famous and well-connected scholars of the day. It has no political power, and its resources are limited to the personal wealth of its members, but it can provide an unrivaled wealth of knowledge and learning, and a network of contacts throughout Europe and beyond. Dedicated to Science and Reason, the Invisible College judges its members purely on the merits of their own abilities, accepting both noble and commoner, Christian and heathen, even men and women, as intellectual and moral equals.
Those brave men and women who have thrown in their lot with the Invisible College will find adventure aplenty, both intellectual and physical. They may find themselves assigned to map the uncharted expanses of the South Pacific or the dark interior of Africa or the new world. They may be asked to look into a newly discovered tomb, or into the very old legends associated with it. They may be asked to discover if the monster killing and eating peasants in the south of France is a supernatural creature, or all too human. And through it all, they will always need to keep an eye out for the activities of the Illuminati - an organization far older, far larger, and far more powerful than the Invisible College (and, some fear, far more knowledgeable about the Great Truths of Nature and Supernature).
So grab your pistol and rapier, your clockwork grapple, and your book of Enochian runes, and go boldly forth!