World of the Beast King

Written by Ademal

This article is highly WIP

I am the King of this world, do not trifle me with the matters of your Banners. On my world, it is not the word which rules, but the claw, and my claws are sharp.

— Beast King Siorkjha

The World of the Beast King is a tale in which the party(s) stumbles upon a world ruled by an enigmatic Uplifted, Sophontic Sazakraht. He has, to a lesser extent, Uplifted many of the other creatures of the world to serve him, and rules over every terrestrial inch of the land with an iron claw.
Banner: The Federation of Free Planets.

Themes

• The morality of tampering with life
• Living with choices verses breaking things to fix them
• The conundrum of wilderness vs. civilization

Structure

Exposition

Arriving on the world of Siorkjha-Tai

The party arrives on Siorkjha-Tai by way of a Dead Drop—this trip is one way for now, and they will be picked up again in a month's time. On the ship into orbit and the drop to the planet, they are debriefed by a Simuloid.

This world is an oddity. Every creature in it seems coordinated to turn against any incursion. Prospectors have been killed, droppers have gone missing. We don't know who is behind it, or why, but you have elected to investigate. Good luck.

— Simuloid

The party lands in a grove and must then begin to make sense of their surroundings on this wild world, and settle into camp for the night.

Meeting the Beast King

The party finds itself beset by creatures in the night, attacked by Laughing Night and driven from their camp—losing most of their supplies in the process. They are flushed towards a valley, and after a while of running, the Laughing Nights will leave them be.
In the dark they will see the glittering of eyes—The Beast King has arrived, and announces himself as such.

Again, encroachers upon my world. Not a one of you has left when requested, not a one of you has complied. Tell me now why I should not kill you? Your body is better as mulch than as meal, I could cut you down, spread you out, and forget you.

— Beast King Siorkjha

Winning Favor

The party must plead with or ply the King to let them live. On a good Charm check they manage to get him to reveal that he will let them live if they do something for him, otherwise he psychologically tortures and scares them for a while by playing with them, before finally relenting and telling them what he wants.

Removing the Old World

There are holds which the beast king does not abide—places where Shelled Simuloid still tinker away at the bones of the world that was—the civilization which fell and which left beings like him in its wake. He wants these machinations destroyed, and if they are destroyed, and he is allowed to rule his realm, then they will be allowed to live.

Rising Action

Helping the King

Should the party accept his offer, they will be given a series of locations to destroy. This will be a series of dungeons, ruins of the old world protected by tribes of robots—some of which have gained consciousness and live in fear of him. He also wants one component from each of them.

The hunters
A roving band of robots centered out of an old city hall. They hunt beasts and wear their pelts as trophies, and relish in killing the beasts as it guarantees their own survival.


The keepers
They live in a Seed Library, protecting the world's knowledge and a cryo-store of citizens of the old world.


The desolate watchers
a city high on a mountain and buried in its caves, robots who just try to survive and maintain their unintelligent kin. They also have a cryo-store

Each of these hunts and fights end with burning their residence and wiping the slate, and after each they will later meet with the Beast King, who asks them for the component.
Once they have all three, he tells them of the fourth and most difficult to acquire...

Fighting the King

Should they choose to deny the offer, they should consider not saying as much to his face, and instead trying to find a way to survive this world and take him out before the return of the ship.
On that night when they try to survive, they are approached by a lone robot who tells them that there are three groups protecting something that the Beast King wants, and that the best bet for bringing him down and bringing Sazashi life back to this world is to help each group achieve their overall goal of destroying the King and using those components to build a device which will remove the uplifting affects on the planet's life.
These are the same groups as above, and are met in this order:

The desolate watchers
help some of them reach the keepers to get supplies from the seed library to bring back to their cryo-kept people, while being hunted by creatures.


The keepers


The hunters
Fight alongside them to kill the beast king at last...

Climax

Hunting the Beast King

In which the players gather a party (a count of up to six including themselves and whatever robots can make up the difference) to track the beast king. Along the way they are attacked several time by other Uplifts who want to protect the king or who merely detest the sight of robots.
They track the Beast King to a deep ravine, and must scale down a misty, slick crevasse some eight feet wide and fifty feet deep. Thus begins a back and forth battle between the Beast King and the party.

The Final Stand of the Robots

Falling Action

A King's Final Throes

Burning the Bodies

Resolution

A King's Throne

A Saved People

Components

Moral Quandaries

Killing the bots and leaving the beasts in control of the world as a reserve, or killing the beasts to make way for Federation occupation—the need of people vs. the need of beasts, and how that plays out when the beasts can speak for themselves.

Navigate

Plot type

Campaign