Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our August online event THE UNDYING PRINCE! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering a few last topics before the event this weeekend, including some lore about the mysterious OBELISKS!
Over the last two weeks, we have covered a bit of the premise of the event and why your characters might end up in the Lost City of Barogue, and how crafting works in online in our blog posts.
Remember, unlike a live event, you can buy your tickets up until the end of the online event!
Logistics for the Weekend
We have a few last minute reminders to cover!
You can head on over to the Lonestar Skies Discord server to get set up for the weekend event. We will have some early-bird activities starting soon, so don’t miss out on your chance to get a head start and earn a few Barogue Bucks while you are at it.
If you want to get a head start on the Econ game, you can begin to work on your “Do Work, Get Paid” spreadsheet. Remember, this is an optional way to access traditional crafting, gathering, and econ skills.
The Schedule of Events:
6:00 PM, Friday night before the event: We will have folks ready to help you convert your character to Bravado Bones in advance of the event. If you need assistance with any rules questions, I’ll be available around 6:00 PM CST to answer any questions you might have.
Our Opening Announcements will take place at 7:30 PM CST.
Our first Mod Series for Act 1 “New Barogue” starts at 8:00 PM
Our second Mod Series for Act 2 “The Obelisk” starts at 12:00 AM.
Saturday morning, we start our first Mod Series of the day, Act 3 “The Prince” at 10:00 AM.
We continue our fourth Mod Series for Act 4, “The Shards of the Red Crown” at 2:00 PM.
We reach our penultimate Mod Series for Act 5, “The Path Beyond” at 6:00 PM.
Our final Mod Series for Act 6, “The Way Out” begins at 10:00 PM.
We will have a final text adventure wrapping up the story of the weekend for y’all in proper DR:TX Lonestar Skies online tradition starting at 12:00 AM on Saturday night.
Your “Do Work, Get Paid” spreadsheets will be due by Saturday night at midnight!
Sunday will be left open for soft roleplay and last minute Barogue Buck behaviors before we close down the server at 12:00 PM.
We will have our Closing Announcements at 12:00 PM on Sunday, and then I’ll be off with our Admin team to write some cards for our Grab Bag folks so we can get stuff in the mail as soon as possible.
We will have lots to do on the server through out the weekend, several trans-media events planned, some puzzles and challenges to participate in and more as the game progresses. Even if you don’t have a Mod planned, there will still be plenty to be involved in during THE UNDYING PRINCE!
Lastly, as a sneak peek at the rewards we have in our GRAB BAG, take a look at the new SHARD OF THE RED CROWN, a currency-style card we will be using during Season 5 and beyond.
Here’s a sneak peak at the new currency item, a “Shard of the Red Crown”. You can get your very own by purchasing the Grab Bag for this event!
The Obelisks of the San Saba
First, lets cover a bit of lore pertaining to an important part of the weekend event - the Obelisks of the San Saba. You might even find these are important through out Season 5, so let’s first talk about what you might know already.
From our very first story of 3.0, one of the primary reasons people traveled to Bravado was the mystery of a strange white obelisk that protruded from the lake nearby. It hinted at a strange facility under the ground that became the source of delving and fabulous resources for those willing to risk Bloodghasts and worse.
During our Essex Trilogy, a three-game arc during our online season, we dealt with the Fountainhead Incident, where a mysterious monolith called the Fountainhead grew in the center of the City of Light and Sound and caused all sorts of havoc. It was eventually stopped, leaving the city covered in trees and greenery, full of brand new life.
In the halls of Waking Prime, in the museum known as the Hall of Inventions, a plinth of unknown stone stands as a central exhibit, featuring the lost language of a people thought dead for generations. From here, Felicity Redfield was able to translate an ancient map found during the Dead Man’s Hand Tournament, and lead survivors to reclaim the Lost City two years ago.
During the race to find Barogue, survivors used a lone obelisk in the desert as a waypoint to find the Lost City, but any psions that drew near reports a strange sensation of nausea and sickness that kept them from lingering nearby.
During our December 2021 event, The Long Night, a blackened monolith grew in Bravado and trapped an Archon within. With hordes of undead swarming through Bravado, teams of survivors found a way to fight back against the Abyssal threat, silencing the threat of the monolith.
And when we started our lead up for the online event, we gave y’all this part of our teaser for THE UNDYING PRINCE:
Lake Bravo boils.
A lone white Obelisk stands undisturbed in the lake, the beacon that first drew delvers to the ruins underneath Bravado. A blackened monolith in the Dune Sea, once used as a waypoint through the desert begins to hum. A tree, formed of flowing stone in the center of Essex, begins to corrode. Unborn throughout the San Saba wander into the desert, mindlessly following the ‘music of the spheres’, a song unheard by any other strain. The melody seems to call them all to one place.
Towards the West. Towards the lost city of Barogue.
So, you see, these obelisks aren’t exactly NEW.
We’ve been hinting at them for a while now.
And now they are a BIG problem.
So let’s cover some current events, and explore what is happening throughout the San Saba.
A New Crisis
As of a few weeks ago, strange events started happening in the San Saba. It started out in just a few places, but it’s becoming a bigger problem by the day. Something must have happened, because now these ancient monoliths, stone pillars at least a hundred years old seem to be reacting to some new signal.
Even the hard-working reporters of The Wastelander, the finest newspaper office in Essex, find the timing a little too convenient:
Extra, Extra, Read all About It!
Well that sounds bad.
Why should your characters go to Barogue?
Well, the simplest answer is that shit is going wrong EVERYWHERE. Every character in the San Saba is being impacted by this event, whether they like it or not.
In Bravado, the lake itself is BOILING. It’s hurt the Junkerpunk port of Drywater and it is preventing most river traffic from reaching Bravado. The boiling lake is causing massive damage to the wildlife of the area, including the local Leviathan population. The heat is intense, and it shows no signs of stopping. Coupled with the radiation from the nearby wreck of Waking Prime, the environment is taking a beating.
Longwalkers, terrible entities that normally emerge during the Winter Lights festival of December are being reported throughout the regions around Widow’s Peak. These strange creatures are a nuisance during the Long Night, but they have normally been somewhat helpful as long as you followed a few simple rules. Now, it’s as if they are called to roam by something else entirely.
Throughout the San Saba, people have been going missing. Some of them have been sighted walking into the deserts of the Dune Sea, chasing some sound that only they can hear. If they are lucky, they simply die of thirst and heat exposure. If they aren’t lucky, the sand leviathans and Firebrand raiders get them first. Those that are asked only say they can hear “the music of the spheres” and try to walk west, towards Barogue.
In Essex, the Fountainheart seems to be waking up again. The last time this happened, the entire city was nearly wiped out as a faceless undead took over the city, and Archons escaped from within. Doomsday cultists are gathering at the feet of the strange stone tree, waiting for the end, and a strange decay seems to be spreading from the center of Essex. Anywhere there is scrap, metal, or any bits of industry, the metal itself seems to be rotting and rusting faster than should be possible. The Oxlines are taking damage from the spread of corrosion, and the RRC has had to limit train traffic to the largest city in the San Saba. If they aren’t careful, even the mighty Ox could be impacted by the strange decay.
Storms along the Spoiled Coast near the Clutch seem to be worsening, and terrible lightning, rain, and hurricanes are building on the coast. Even worse, the Cicatrix, the tentacled Grave Mind of the region, seems to be attacking ships that draw close the Lighthouse, the beacon that leads ship safely to shore. Those that get dragged to the murky depths of the ocean can’t seem to find their way back from death. Travel from abroad has slowed to a crawl, and ships bound for Gatorland and beyond won’t attempt the journey for fear of dying a final death in the bottomless grasp of the sea.
If something isn’t done soon, this seems like it’s going to be problem for Bravado and the entire San Saba Territories. However, there are some pretty smart people in the San Saba. It’s clear that these events must be related, and it’s clear that something is happening in Barogue. Someone has to stop this, and the Railroad Conglomerate is hiring survivors throughout the region to head to Barogue to help their teams find an answer to the problem.
But the answer seems to be these strange Obelisks. According to a report intercepted by the Wastelander, the Railroad Conglomerate uncovered a NEW obelisk, locked behind psi-tech doors within the city of Barogue. If you can find a way inside, perhaps you can find a way to silence this strange music, or discover someway to control or shut down these Obelisks.
HOW do you get there? Traveling to Barogue
Getting to the Lost City is a feat in and of itself. The Dune Sea is an unforgiving environment and it makes simply reaching the city an endeavor few can afford or are willing to risk. There are only a few reliable ways to reach Barogue, chief among them the momentous accomplishment of using the rail lines. The act of laying a new rail line to the Lost City by the RRC over the last two years is a vital connection to the greater San Saba and beyond.
By Rail - The only truly secure way to travel to Barogue is via the Oxline. Even so, the travel is slow as a “sweeper engines” must travel in front of the mighty locomotives to clear the tracks of sand and debris that gathers daily across the stretch of railway that runs towards the Broken Coast. These smaller locomotives push giant plows through the sand, keeping the rail clear for the engines that follow in their wake. The Oxline travel is expensive, but offers a mostly smooth journey to the Lost City. However, your personal finances determine if you get to ride in luxury in an ice-cooled luxury car, or suffer with the laborers and less fortunate travelers in the blistering heat of the passenger cars. Many travelers don’t make the trip to travel solely to Barogue, instead opting for passage to Oasis and beyond as the Oxline continues its journey west.
By Land - The second most dangerous journey to Barogue is braving the treacherous sands and the many threats of the Dune Sea by land. Desert tribes of the Cali*co Caravan and the DJs of the Sweetwaters offer protected passage through the desert, following the trail set by the map-bearers and Felicity Redfield on their first journey to the Lost City. Few travel on foot, but even vehicles need to be specially outfitted to survive the journey across the inhospitable sands. Those that journey across the Dune Sea tend to use the only major landmarks that remain, starting from the oilfield camps of the RRC to the west of Essex before leaving major trade routes. Two major points remain to reference on the journey – one a strange black Monolith that rises from the desert, and the massive metal behemoth known as the Frigate, a known raider stronghold within the Dune Sea. Many that attempt the journey westward never make it to Barogue, as they are killed and eaten by Firebrands, dangerous Roughnecks, or even massive Leviathans.
By Air - The most dangerous way to attempt the journey to Barogue is attempting the passage by airship. The bone-scouring sandstorms and superheated winds tend to combine for a lethal combination for those that try to travel by air. The heat causes the air bladder-technology of most airships to expand out of control and burst, and the winds make straight navigation impossible. Even in a ship rigged for the journey, travelers must make frequent stops to refit and repair, leaving them exposed to the same dangers of traveling by land, but with less ability to evade the threats. Only the truly foolhardy attempt the journey to Barogue by air, and it is most often some DJ with a deathwish that is trying to make a name for themselves on the most dangerous stretch of the Dune Sea imaginable.
No matter the route, those that are lucky enough to survive the journey to Barogue soon find that getting inside the superstructure of the titan city is not as easy as it might appear. Hopefully, you will find assistance in the work camp outside the Lost City, commonly known as “New Barogue”.
What awaits you in NEW Barogue?
There is a saying among the work crews in New Barogue: “If the heat doesn’t kill you first, the desert, raiders, or leviathans will get you in the end.” Simply surviving in the heat of the Dune Sea is a task not for the faint hearted or unprepared. While the threat of zombies and the undead is fairly low in the desert (but not unheard of), the other denizens of the dunes are more than enough for the camp to handle.
There are several major dangers to contend with while in Barogue:
The Heat - The temperatures in the desert can soar into the 120s at midday, so much of the work done at Barogue is done at night or in the cooler parts of the morning and evening. Even still, it’s hard to sleep drenched in sweat and there are no real modern amenities at the camp. Water must be carefully rationed, and only the access to regular shipments from Essex makes the camp even possible. The few wellsprings the RRC have found are jealously guarded and sold as rations to their workers. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke remain the number one killer of RRC teams, and daily safety briefs are given to the workers to keep the very real danger of the weather in mind.
Sandstorms - In addition to the heat, the very desert itself threatens to reclaim the Lost City if not constantly battled. Periodically, the superheated winds of the Dune Sea carry enough force to scour flesh from bone in blistering sandstorms that wash over the titan city. The only hope of survival when a coriolis sandstorm arrives, or “Aranae Ramleh” in the language of the Anneh Yaba desert tribes, is to take shelter within the superstructure of Barogue. The mighty metal barricades allow for the survivors to withstand the biting sands and melting temperatures, though they must contend with the threats within the city.
Firebrand Raiders - A primary danger of the camp are the various clans of Raiders that make the Dune Sea their own. The psionic Firebrand Raiders make their homes in the carcasses of Leviathans and seem to worship those of their kind that develop the spark of pyrokinesis that marks the leaders of the clan. They can be a threat, but they seem to be largely spooked by the Lost City for some reason. While some brave bands of Raiders periodically test the perimeter, the majority of the clan leaves the camp alone for the most part.
Resonant Raiders - The crystal-encrusted raiders first discovered two years ago remain a major threat from within Barogue. There are several hibernation chambers that have been uncovered within the belly of the titan city that contain thousands of vessels where the unfortunate were kept as living batteries in the Resonant Choir. Each of these victims is a potential Resonant, and early estimates suggest that there are still dozens of more chambers that are unopened. From these strange hives and nests, the Resonant Raiders strike out into the world to drink in fear, terror, and anguish as the psychic vampires they are. Anyone that braves the interior of Barogue must be ready to deal with the eerily quiet threats within. Some ghost stories suggest that there are other predators within Barogue, but the Resonants are the true masters of the dead city.
Leviathans - The true natural predators of the dune sea, these giant mutated critters resemble nothing more than massive sand worms with bifurcated jaws. Some stretch thousands of feet in length, and the most dangerous of their kind are called Elder Leviathans. These mighty beasts are nigh-unkillable, and are a force of nature that must be contended with rather than overcome. There are Leviathan nests that surround the perimeter of the Lost City, offering some protection from raiders and scavengers that would plunder the work camp. The RRC has provided maps that mark out most of the major known nests, but they remain a regular threat to continued operation of the Oxline and the settlement of New Barogue. The massive Leviathan that once protected the Lost City has been sighted in the desert nearby and it seems reluctant to return to the former nest, but it remains an ever-present threat in the minds of the laborers in the salvage camp.
The Oxkiller Alliance - The technophobic crusade of the new Oxkiller Alliance has threatened Barogue, strangely enough. The soldiers of the Antler Tribe and Oxkillers strike out into the desert to deal with the “profane monument of man’s hubris” that to them is the Lost City. In their traditions, the titan city is a sacred and forbidden territory that none must disturb, and the zealots are a constant threat to the Oxline and any that try to travel to the Lost City. The few Oxkillers that have been willing to talk with the workers of Barogue have mentioned that they believe the city is cursed, and the RRC will doom the world if they are allowed to continue.
Roughnecks - Not quite Raider, but not quite civilized, the Roughneck clan is a tribe of DJs, Tainted, and other scavengers that have loosely allied themselves into a roving band of misfits. From smoke billowing rides, they travel the Dune Sea as the nomads they are, seeking out travelers and raiders to salvage for scrap and resources. They are bloodthirsty killers, and care nothing for the law and order of the San Saba. They are known enemies of most San Saba DJ clans, including the Road Royals and the Sweetwaters.
Zombies - While zed are truly not much of a threat in the desert, the return of workers to New Barogue has awakened the Morgue within the city once more. Most zombies that threaten Barogue tend to be shamblers and recently departed workers, but a few desiccated corpses have been encountered from within the dunes itself, victims of the treacherous journey to Barogue.
Life is tough in New Barogue, but the will of the Railroad Conglomerate is mightier. The wheels of capitalism keep churning amazing amounts of resources into leveraging the treasures of the Lost City of Barogue. No threat will truly slow the creeping expansion of the Oxline, and the continued successful salvage operations at Barogue are critical to the RRC’s plans of forging the future.
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados!
We hope you will have fun this weekend during THE UNDYING PRINCE! We have some mysteries and nightmares to explore, some secrets to uncover, and some exciting stories told by our new team of Storytellers to start out Season 5 strong. We can’t wait to see you there!
See you this weekend!
The Last Words, continued.