Out of Character Thread for the AotBC

[Daniel]

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THE BLACK COMPANY

Often referred to as: The Army of the Black Company (AotBC).

The Black Company has two main headquarters, one is located in Arkansas on Earth, at a town once called Newport, now named: Black Dawn. The other is in the Anvil Galaxy on Rakis Prime, at a mining town called Fissure.

The original Commander of the Black Company was Hudson Blackwell, a black dragon. Blackwell has not been seen or heard from in nearly 5 years. With the Tomorrow Legion missing and Castle Refuge rotting away in the desert on Rakis Prime, Lord Coake has stepped up to over see the day to day operations of running the Black Company for Blackwell (the two are best of friends).

With the Legion gone, the AotBC and the Cyber Knights are the new force that has stepped in to help where the Legion once did. The AotBC and the Order of Cyber Knights (who's numbers have drastically been reduced) struggle to keep Earth safe. Their funded by both the mining operation on Rakis Prime and are heavily assisted by Titan Robotics who supplies cash and cashes of weapons.

The embedded image below shows the military rank of the AotBC. Members of the Black Company elite squad (the Player Characters) who operate special missions are considered "founding" members and hold the rank of Colonel.

AotBC Leadership

General of the Army Hudson Blackwell (Missing In Action)
General Lord Coake
Colonel Craven (at Fissure)
Colonel White (once mayor of Newport)
Colonels that are Player Characters
Next highest rank held is Major. By far most NPC members of the AotBC are enlisted.

AotBC Rank Structure

This Thread is for Out of Character posts (granted by far I imagine most of the time that will be done in Discord). Additionally, I may post information or meta/in the background information here. ~ Lars

[Daniel]

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When we started this game (Sep 08, 2021) of the Black Company, searching for Geist and attempting to figure out what happened to the Legion, I wrote and shared the following OOC tag with the Players. Following it is a new short background narrative OOC tag of where thing stand now. Keep in mind this is meta, or background info, not necessarily known by your Characters.

The original GM post

The following events take place after Mercy Six (Pender Lumkiss - Rifts Game - Mercy Six) encounter the castle and the lack of Legion members.

Days after they (Mercy Six) leave the castle, Elle of Owls returns to find the castle is empty. Elle is unaware what Mercy Six are up to. She calls for help. A few days later Lord Coake arrives.

Elle of Owls escorted Lord Coake and his lieutenant, Sir Redheart, through the empty council meeting area to the secret tunnel that lead to the secret basement under the castle. Elle looked at the empty seats and felt a great loss. Everyone in the castle had mysteriously disappeared. The only members of the Legion alive as far as she knew were any SET teams out and about. Everyone who had been here was gone. Chance was she had been at a nearby town talking to their leaders. Upon her return there was no one left. As far as she knew, she was the last surviving council member.

The underground basement, subterranean Ley Line and the secrets kept hidden away in the underground area were only know of by a very selective few.

With the Cyber Knight Sir Redheart accompanying them, he would now be in the know. Elle was worried about adding yet another person to those who knew but Lord Coake trusted the Knight and had stated the Knight would be in charge of putting the plan together. Elle wasn’t sure what he meant quite yet. With everyone in the Legion gone or away she had called upon her friend Coake.

Elle thought for just a moment she heard the old Lord of the Cyber Knights grumbling something about Victoria. Elle reflected that Lord Coake had been against keeping Victoria Geist’s body locked up under the castle. He had wanted to destroy her forever. The council had decided the body was to be kept locked up.

Elle supposed he’d been right. As the three stood before the destroyed doors to Geist’s cell she marveled at the destruction. Powerful technology and magic had been used to secure the cell. Large claws had torn the mega damage metal doors and walls leaving deep cuts.

Coake grumbled. Sir Redheart placed his left had on the deep cuts. Elle looked into the dark cell. An evil seemed to emanate outward from within.

Redheart shook and nearly dropped to his knees. Coake grabbed ahold of the man and held him upright.

Redheart groaned then spoke quietly.

“Geist’s body was taken by … Fell? Looking on him hurts…”

“Steady man.”

Elle caught the fear in Coake’s voice as he reassured Redheart. Her stomach turned inside out and she felt weak. If Lord Coake was frightened…

“Lord Coake, I see a massive dragon. Daxon something, not real name but….”

Sir Redheart shook violently in Coake’s grasp. Shaking his head Redheart let the vision go. Standing on his own the Knight still shook a little.

“He’s got her body. He’s got access to some bizarre magic-technology and he’s mad as hell. I couldn’t hold the vision any longer I’m sorry.”

Lord Coake glanced at Elle then back to his Lieutenant.

“Is Daxon connected to … to everyone missing?”

Sir Redheart shuttered then replied: “I saw no connection. But, maybe. Maybe no.”

Lord Coake turned to look at the last leader of the Legion, possibly it’s last member?

“Once again the Legion’s dirty laundry can’t be exposed. The only creature I know that could stand a chance fighting Daxon is one Hudson Blackwell, wherever he is! They’re either brothers or practically brothers. Both dragons anyway. I understand why you called us. With no force of your own, what can you do. Geist being known about or her body disappearing from secret cells under the castle and what not. Not good for your image is it? Under any circumstances.”

The three start walking back up the stairs away from the gloom under the castle.

Elle looked over at the leader of the Cyber Knights. “Lord Coake? I don’t know what to do. I have no way of getting information or fixing this.”

That grumble again, then, “I will have Sir Redheart form a new Black Company. I have access to Blackwell’s horde, we’ll find things with that…. Nevermind that… all you need to know m’lady is we will recruit some heroes who can take the job the Legion cannot be seen doing. I will personally find Blackwell. The Black Company will start looking for answers. Starting in the remains of Gloom.”

Sir Redheart hesitated then asked: “The Gloomscree?”

Lord Coake nodded.

“Yes. The aftermath of the CS nuking. I know it’s an irradiated zone. Where better for Daxon to hide? If not him. There may be clues that are here. Sir Redheart I need you to assemble a team and track down Daxon. Learn as much as you can and find him. Once I have Hudson… well, then hopefully he will help us fight Daxon and we can stop him before he ruins us all.”

Sir Redheart nodded and shook hands with his leader.

“Yes m’Lord. Ma’am a pleasure. G’bye”

As Lord Coake grumbled, Sir Redheart walked away, Elle thought about her own plans and how Lord Coake wouldn’t be happy about what she had in store for the Legion, or what she knew about why everyone was gone, it was no coincidence that she’d been away when things befell the castle, no, not in the least, she would have to be very careful.

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New Material

OOC Comments

The owl-like humanoid dimensional being strode across the flat green grass where Castle Refuge once stood. Her feathers rippled from excitement. Her vision was overlapped by two images. One was what she saw here in Arkansas. The other was what her avatar Victoria Geist saw on Amarok IV.

Those damned Black Company mercenaries had been chasing her across the three galaxies, from Phase World to Amarok IV now. Her plan was working. All she needed to do now was one last thing on the snow planet and keep the Rift Dominator away from them. They might kill her there, that bothered her. It had been centuries since she was down to just one body. If her owl body was also killed... she would truly be dead. For good. That frightened her and she laughed aloud at herself and her fear.

Stopping at the center of the grassy expanse she smirked. The castle would always be gone. Discarded in the harsh desert of Rakis Prime. That made her happy. Thoughts of the various members of the Tomorrow Legion missing made her giggle and flush with pleasure.

They might all still be alive but their lives were in agony and pain forever. No one but she knew where in Hell she had teleported them.

Elle knew Lord Coake was building up the AotBC in Black Dawn. It was mostly comprised of the last few hundred Cyber Knights and maybe a hundred mercenaries who fancied themselves the new Legion. They would have their hands full mitigating the volatile situation she had incited with the Coalition States government at Fort El Dorado. Coake would be too busy dealing with them to have any time to realize her plans.

As far as Hudson Blackwell, if he was still alive, he’d be busy in South America. His forces were dwindling and would lose soon enough. Daxon Fell had better do as promised and kill Hudson. The damned red dragon had spread his influence across the three galaxies with his "corporation" of pirates and his elite mercenaries called Crimson Dawn. She didn't care, as long as he killed Hudson.

The last six or seven members of the rag tag mercs calling themselves The Black Company would have to figure out how to get back to Earth before they could even begin to be a thorn in her side here in Arkansas again, and they’d have to somehow figure out she, Elle of Owls, was Victoria Geist.

Again she laughed aloud.

Kneeling down on the damp grass she set the spell book down on the grass before her and flipped its pages until she found the incantation she wanted. Pricking her thumbs with a sharp knife she placed them both in the rough parchment letting the book pull her body’s blood from her as she softly spoke the spell.

The ground shook and dark clouds rolled in over the area where once heroes had gathered.

Finishing she rocked back still on her knees and licked her bloody thumbs.

Looking about she watched as a barrier of deception erupted over where once Castle Refuge stood. The first stage of rebuilding the Hell Pit was prepared. Once before, years ago, the devil lords of Hell had tried to form a put at this location. The Legion had banded together and stopped it.

“This time there is no Legion to stop us. Abraxlidone will be pleased.”

Her words were soft and escaped her beaked mouth with glee and mirth.

Anyone passing by or above would be deceived by the barrier. No one would see the denizens of Hell building the pit.

Standing she brushed the wetness from her knees away, along with a few stray blades of grass, and watched as the first of the devils crawled its way up out of the dirt and grass roughly twenty feet away from where she stood.

Laughing she called to the beast, “Yes my lovely. Rip your way up. Come. We will rule this world and serve the lord Abraxlidone!”