5 months after the vault.

A harsh winter has set in across Eastern Europe.

Ardakan

The city of Ardakan sits at the south end of the Caspian Sea, A great canal, carved with years of intense artifice, cuts under the mountains to connect the calm waters of the sea with the city’s great floating market. Ardakan is ruled by a secretive group of 4 officials, known as the Crimson Cabal. The city is a shining beacon of riches and excess built on the backs of extreme artifice and well hidden slave trade. It is generally much more progressive than its neighboring kingdoms. Exotic drug use, artifice, arcanistr, and looming are all welcome and encouraged.

The Crimson Cabal

• The Zenith
• The Horizon
• The Azimuth
• The Observer

When any of the individuals representing the Cabal dies or retires, their position is filled by the one below them. The lowest slow(s) are then replaced by members of the permanent population based on secretive selection rights.

The Cabal earned their name through a bloody coup 300 years ago against Ardakan’s religious ruler caste. Thus began the era of progressivity and opulence. The cabal’s open attitude towards many of the world’s taboos quickly caused Ardakan to be a trade center and haven for wealthy merchants.

Groups in Ardakan

The Arabesque

Led by the mysterious Calligrapher, the Arabesque is a guide of assassins. They have existed in some form in Ardakan for centuries, outlasting even the Cabal. Rumors circulate that they operate out of the church of sacred geometry’s buildings.

Naz (a PC) is one of the highest ranking lieutenants within the organization. She runs operations for the entire upper market and canal areas of the city.

The Church of Divine Geometry

A millennia old order of arcanists dedicated to the understanding of divine geometric structures. They have had a presence in Ardakan since the city was founded, and their churches are some of the oldest buildings still standing. The order is generally altruistic, spending a great deal of time and resources helping the poor and destitute.

Landmarks

The Grand Canal

Often considered one of the wonders of the world, Ardakan’s Grand Canal is the result of a decade long public works artifice project to cut a pathway through the Tahir mountains to the north. It connects the city to the Caspian Sea. Depending on the tides, the canal has anywhere from 100-150ft of room above the waterline at its center, tapering towards the edges of its 200 ft width.

Hanging arcane lanterns light the passage at all hours and its calm waters are patrolled regularly by the city watch. It is underground long enough that ships cannot rely on wind power, and sailboats must hire oar crews or a tug to make it through. The canal has only one internal feature, the entrance to The Night Gardens.

The Floating Market

Embassy Row

The Library

Crimson Keep

An imposing brutal stone castle sitting above the apex of the Grand Canal’s mouth, The Crimson Keep houses The Crimson Cabal and many other offices of Ardakanian government. It is primarily accessed by air car, as it’s only other approach takes a visitor across thousands of small rocky steps, carved into the mountain rock.

The Looking Glass

telescope observatory on the nearby mountain top

The Night Garden

underground luminous garden accessible via the canal

Player Characters

Scholar Erdi

Arcanist Knight of the church of holy geometry

Horology

Looking into the upcoming planetary alignment (which is causing the very cold winter). Meta: something is happening on the winter solstice

About the church

Around for a long time

Goal is to become one with the holy arcana — Those who become one with the holy arcana (ie go crazy) become oracles / prophets. They have been babbling about the upcoming planetary event.

Sessions

I

Ardakan is introduced and players make their characters. Through Naz’s connections the group gets advance notice of a well paying Cabal writ for the capture or execution of a dangerous rogue arcanist and his cadre that destroyed a tavern in a nice part of the city.

While having her morning coffee, Naz receives a note from one of The Calligrapher’s contacts in the Crimson Keep informing her of a upcoming public writ of capture for an unnamed arcanist and their companions. Acting swiftly she sets of a meeting with her go to mercenaries via a network of carrier pigeons. An hour later, the whole crew assembled in a small Mediterranean cafe along Savoy Road, a block away from the destroyed tavern.

After a brief meeting, everyone splits up to investigate different leads.

Mortis and Marcus head over to the remains of the tavern, which turns out to have been a simple family pub serving the local working class. The pub occupied the ground floor and basement of a 4 story brownstone style building. Now, those two floors are a crushed mess, as if a large explosion ripped through the length of the building. The 3 floors above lean precariously downward, having their foundations destroyed. Local city watch are directing onlookers around, fearing a full collapse before the upper floors can be supported. Presenting the cabal writ to be allowed past the watch, Marcus tentatively explores the blasted remains of the tavern.

Inside he is met with a scene of wanton destruction. Most patrons appear to have been killed in the blast or ensuing collapse, but many bodies bare signs of more direct violence. It looks like the arcanist and his friends sliced and shot their way out through a score of civilians. In his search, Marcus finds a surviving teenager, saved but also trapped when the tavern’s fireplace fell around him. Once freed, the kid provides a shaky description of the mercs.

Meanwhile, Aziz threatens and interrogates a shopkeeper across the street for his account of the night’s events. He repeats this pattern across a few other shops.

Erdi left to go seek a local church of her order. When arriving she learns that 4 people including the arcanist they’re hunting stopped by the church late last night. After a few hours of resting at the church, the group got antsy and left quickly into the undercity, minorly injuring one of the priests. Erdi gets a description of these 4.

Naz and Aykan explore nearby undercity entrances looking for signs that the mercs passed through. In the third they check they find a trail of dead bodies where the mercs cut their way through undercity inhabitants. Naz coaxes a scared observer that gives them descriptions of the 3 that came this way.

Meeting afterwards, they end up collecting the following info on the mercs:

• A Viking, went through the sewers
• A jaguar loomed man, went through the sewers
• A holy empire accented lady with a brace of pistols, went through the sewers
• The arcanist, a tattooed bald far northerner with a bad attitude, went via church
• A tall cloaked figure, went via church
• Two crown twins, went via the church

The PC crew decides to make chase through the undercity, using the shaky info about the mercs direction and Erdi’s skills to figure out roughly where they could be. Closing in on their likely location, Naz notices Andre, a spotter for local crime boss Pavel, keeping an eye on foot traffic in the area.

The group tracks the mercs to a large infrequently used warehouse next to a metal foundry. They quietly make their way into the bottom floor unnoticed. Aziz breaks off from the group to keep an eye on Andre, and sees him inform two of Pavel’s enforcers about the PC group, who head off towards the warehouse after them. One sets up outside the door they entered through, while the other loops around out of sight. Aziz sets up to ambush the one that stuck around. Inside, Marcus can feel life force and a small fire upstairs in the overseer’s office.

Game down.

II

The group defeat the mercs and take the arcanist alive. They discover that Pavel was paying the off for something, and that the hooded figure was in the same program as Aykan.