The Pirates Campaign

took place in Celestial Space in .
== Background ==
In the years directly after the First Coalition War, the Margravate of Tarim remains cut off from Imperial space by the bizarre “rotation” of the Pin-Jump, the ancient and colossal column of pre-divine engineering which holds together two outer folds of Celestial and Imperial Space. Tarim is an accident of history, born well before the Pin-Jump broke the Nipponese trade monopoly between Celestial and Imperial Space: for Imperial travelers who could not return home, the Margravate was a new home on the fringes of Celestial Space. This nation of exiles and renegades became a pirate state, attracting not only Imperials but every description of the disaffected from the Celestial powers, merging into an unprecedented “Outremer” culture. When trade through the Pin-Jump became possible, Tarim was ideally positioned geographically and culturally to become a commercial powerhouse, beginning the golden age of 358 - which grew Tarim’s wealth and size, and with these the attention of avaricious conquerors. With that trade and military lifeline to friendly Imperial powers suddenly severed, Tarim may collapse under its own weight before it adapts. Perhaps its best hope, if only against the glittering machine hordes of the Brass Cities or the eldritch connivances of the Veiled Masters of the Nippon States, lies in its privateers. Half-merchants, half-soldiers of fortune, they are the popular heroes of Tarim and have spent centuries as thorns in the side of various great powers. You are one such band of eccentrics and adventurers, bound together by the ship that is your livelihood and by your refusal to see the Margravate dissolved by foreign powers.
This campaign will allow major flexibility in background of your characters. Some of you may be recent Imperial immigrants: refugees from the Pin-Jump merchant community, Knights Mercantile paramilitaries, escaped Fialta POWs or stranded Aeldrum Dragoons. Some of you may come from other Celestial powers: you may be fanatical Mirror Elves wrestling with the demise of their raison-d’etre after the insidious Naga empire collapsed under the weight of a terrifying Mind Virus, or rogue Brass Cities cyborgs, or scholars fleeing mistakes made in the sight of the Veiled Masters. Some of you may even come from long Margravate lineages, with generations of experience as pirates and privateers. Really, almost anything is probably workable with some adaptation.
This campaign is set in the year , just under three years after the 3rd Treaty of Korinth but thirty-three years before the Gangsters Campaign. Technology will in some ways be much more basic, but also more eclectic: expect your characters to carry military surplus from the Coalition War combined with local weapons and various strange artifacts of Celestial space. Think hydrogen pistols and monofilament sabers, with your grandpa’s repeating crossbow just in case. You might use a chainsaw if you think a sword is too subtle. You might carry a brace of black-powder single shot pistols, not because you cannot find better guns, but because these are chambered for the small supply of rune-carved, time-distorting bullets you stole from the tomb of an ancient warlock.
You should come to this campaign expecting some light exploration, plenty of smuggling and grey-market activity, lots of swashbuckling during boarding actions and in port, and an open-ended overarching plot about the (failing) wars of the Margravate offering room for higher intrigue. In all likelihood one of you will end up killing another over treasure or principle.
To get you into the mindset of a Margravate adventurer: the journey is likely to end in death for all or most of you, and the best you can do is to have as good a time as you can before the end. Cosmic horror is just another experience to have before the grave, like barfights, torrid romances and honor duels. Expect to make friends fast and enemies faster. Expect to see amazing things and then pillage or kill them. Expect to die gloriously. A sufficiently heroic TPK is a win.
== Characters ==
=== Player Characters ===
Character 	Player 	Description
A.C.E. (Angry Cube Express) 	Daniel 	Dwarf mercenary.
Captain Moreau 	Daniel 	Captain of the pirate ship. Wears a captain's hat.
Agnar 	Evelyn 	Dwarf craftsman from Celestial Space, forced to work for the Margravate of Tarim.
Thefaren 	Kristen	"Very French" elf pilot from the enclaves.
C.L.A.R.C. (Compact Learning Autonomous Robot Cartographer)	Logan 	Automaton from the Brass Cities. It is most comfortable in cargo bays. Claims it is no longer affiliated with the Brass Cities.
Pirsig 	Logan 	Aeldman elf, probably ATC.
Horatio Prax, "The Aetherfish" 	Matt 	Famous Shantaran hero for hire.
Smithy Reens 	Matt 	Quartermaster on the pirate ship, looks like a small human/ape hybrid.
Melon Tusk 	Quay 	Elf surgeon specializing in facial editing.
Cromwell the Quartermaster 	Wes 	Knights Mercantile representative with connections to the Bank of Valdos. Was part of a stay-behind team after the Pin Jump was taken.
Ogodno 	Wes 	A horrifying version of a gnoll, 9ft tall with the bite of a hyena.
=== Important Non-Player Characters ===
Character 	Description
XÆ-69 	Melon Tusk's beautiful assistant.
Landydion / Normal Bob	Press officer / hype man for the Aetherfish, works for Margravate propaganda house, part of the government’s arrangement with the party.
== Summary ==
=== Session 1 ===
=== Session 2 ===
=== Session 3 ===
=== Session 4 ===
=== Session 5 ===
=== Session 6 ===
=== Session 7 ===
Category:Campaign Summaries