Saturday, March 1, 2008

Welcome to Hermes 72!

The camera jostled a bit.

"Hey son, if you're gonna do this, you had better do it right," the distinctive Western growl was unmistakable. Trishaw Carmichael's voice was gravelly. The old engineer sat in a wheelchair, looking rather debonair in his best - albeit forty cycles out of fashion - suit. He looked at the camera with infinite grumpiness.

"Sorry, sorry," Bart, the son of Gade Vonyran replied. The camera jostled once more, but then stopped moving.

"Good boy," Carmichael nodded, "now then, you got the idea for a video essay from where, exactly?"

"Uh, Mr. Trishaw, I think I'm the one who's supposed to ask the questions here."

"Hmph," Carmichael couldn't quite conceal his mirth under his bushy eyebrows, or equally bushy moustache, "well then, young Vonyran, proceed."

"Tell me about what you did in TN1919, in Khayr-ad Din."

"Well, that's rather forward of you, boy. But... I suppose I could give you the whole story," Carmichael shifted in his chair slightly, his face suddenly much older.

"We rolled into Khayr-ad Din to make some major trading contacts, or so I was told. But it turned out that your pa, Gade, had a gear stored here, and delusions of grandeur. Seems he wanted to become a duelist. Now, to be fair, his gear, Gun, was pretty well put together for a patchwork job, but he needed my expertise with engines, and Natty's... er... your mother's know-how in the electronics bay to really make Gun a competitor. 'Course, your father was a real GREL in a whorehouse when it came to dueling back then too. But Peter took that lump of clay and turned it into something Gun could work with."

"So my dad built Gun?"

"More or less," Carmichael nodded, "look, I don't know how it happened, but your father went from being a good mechanic to being an ace gear duelist in less than a season. He did alright in the first Khayr-ad Din League tournament too. He's a real scrapper behind the controls of a gear, or, well, at least, he was back then," Carmichael's softening gaze settled just off the camera.

...

The camera jostled a bit.

"Uh oh, another camera bug on the caravan!" Kelly LeBeaux grinned tightly as the camera focused in on her. The petite, dark-haired woman had an extra line or two around her eyes, but her thousand-yard stare was at the ready, just barely concealed behind a youthful, energetic expression. Her desert suit still did her justice, though she tugged her ancient duster around her shoulders self-consciously.

"Another camera bug?" Bart asked.

"Well, let's just say that there's way too much incriminatin' evidence still floating around this outfit."

There was an awkward pause. Kelly's face was unreadable.

"So, Bart, what do you want to know?"

"Oh, well, could you tell me about Peace River?"

"Hmph," Kelly paused uncomfortably, "well, the Doc, that's Doctor Tom Chambers, he set up the Badlands Caravan Guild office there. And I think that's where Kain, Sam, and your father met him. There was some dustup there once. Or twice. I do remember that one time on the way to Peace River, Father Lelland clubbed a Peace River marshal on the back of the head with a rifle-butt. Or was it a Hsi-Tsang slaver?"

For a moment, Kelly's eyes deadened. She continued:

"Anyways, we got caught up in the unrest in TN1919 when the Peace River elections brought Gerald Simosa to power. Having the Badlands Caravan Guild on site probably made us a pretty penny, but I wouldn't know. I don't have a head for figures. The Doc, on the other hand, well, I know he lived in Peace River for a time, but I knew him best from his days on this caravan. The man's a crack shot, and a decent enough trauma medic."

Kelly rubbed her thigh self-consciously.

...

The camera jostled a bit.

"So, you're Gade's boy, hm?" Ethan Dunn smiled, sizing Bart up. Ethan was no longer the 22 cycle old runner during the CEF occupation of Baja. He had filled out and grown up. But he still had that boyish, agile look about him, like he was constantly in motion, even when standing dead-still. He eased back confidently in his chair.

"That's right Mr. Dunn, Bart Vonyran, at your service," Bart said a little too cheerily.

"Well, Master Vonyran," Ethan shot back, "what can I do for you?" He winked at the camera.

"Were you in Tulsa in TN1920?"

Ethan's face went a little pale.

"Tulsa? Sure," he smiled, though his eyes betrayed discomfort, "hicksville, high up in the Westridge mountains. Diamond town. I think they're still dragging gems out of the mines. Rough place. Why are you asking about Tulsa?"

"Well, I know that Sam Tarmalin used to ride in this caravan, and I heard he only lost one showdown, and it was in Tulsa," Bart replied, his tone as even as he could make it.

"Oh, you heard that, did you?" Ethan smirked, "well, two things about Tulsa. First, that's the only time where I saw Kain Delacroix lose his footing. But that's another story," Ethan swallowed, "Yeah, Sam lost a showdown in Tulsa. Sorta."

"Sorta?"

"He and this woman, Sandra Jolaine, they squared off over a shipment of diamonds she was going to steal. She always had some sort of hold on him. Anyways, I'm telling this second-hand, but Ellen Cranby was there, watching the whole thing. She's in Prince Gable now if you want the whole story. All I know is that Sandra shot Sam. Only she didn't draw first. He did."

"So he missed?"

"No. I've seen the man in action. If he had wanted to, he would have outdrawn her and shot her dead. Instead, he just made his hand into the shape of a gun, drew a bead on Sandra, said 'BANG', and then got shot in the chest."

Ethan sighed, "I was the first on the scene after Ellen called for help."

...

"Quit mussin' the camera about, boy!" Avatanya Brom scolded Bart, as he set the tripod up. Once the camera had settled, Avatanya nodded approvingly, "good. Now, get with the questions."

"Yes ma'am," Bart said, meekly, and then paused.

"What is it boy?" Avatanya thought she smelled fear. The blonde, square-jawed woman's intense glare was focused just off of the camera. It was clear she was challenging Bart, pushing and cajoling him. She treated him like one of her own, and she knew he would be better off for it.

"Well, umm..." Bart began. You couldn't see it, but he had just swallowed hard, "why are you in charge of the Caravan?"

If Avatanya took the question as a challenge, she didn't show it. She sat back in her chair, breathing out slowly. A reminiscent smile broke out on her face.

"Kain Delacroix asked me to do it."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if anything goes wrong, I'll do my best to keep you and anyone else from coming to harm," Avatanya replied. There was a look in her eye, that one of the newbies on the Caravan would have thought was imbalance, but the veterans would know to be undying loyalty.

"What's the worst thing that happened to the Caravan?"

"Wrong question."

"Huh?"

"Lots of bad shit has happened to us on the Caravan. We lost Father Lelland in Malachi Flats to a bunch of thugs. Konnor Riles was killed in Temple Heights in a gear fight, but that's not where the worst stuff happened," Avatanya smiled at the boy.

"Well, where did the worst stuff happen to the Caravan?"

"We weren't always a Caravan," Avatanya said, quietly.

"Oh, umm... Well, before you were a Caravan, what were you?" Bart asked.

"We were the New Baja Regulators."

"Regulators? What's a Regulator? How'd you come up with that name?"

Avatanya chuckled.

"I found out that Kain Delacroix was once a literature teacher in the South. I think he named us The Regulators in honour of some book, or something, somewhere," Avatanya shrugged, "As to what a Regulator is, well, there aren't many of us. Mainly just on the Caravan. We were all veterans of the Battle of Baja. And when Kain Delacroix showed up, he formed the Regulators with Sam, and we set about cleaning up the city. Kain's the sort of guy who knows when to fight clean and when to fight dirty. Baja was a dirty fight."

"You mean against the CEF?"

"No. I mean after. I think he's still sore that the city became a Southern protectorate," Avatanya grunted.

"So what's the worst thing that happened to the Regulators?" Bart said, staying on topic.

"The same as the best thing that's happened to us."

"Which was?" Bart was getting a bit impatient.

"Meeting Kain Delacroix."

...

Welcome to the Hermes72 Network Blog, the online resource for a Heavy Gear role playing game campaign now in its third year. In this blog you'll find all the rules and regulations governing the campaign, including feats, and the Heavy Gear Firearms Project. You'll also find resources for the campaign: people, places and things that have made their impact at our gaming table and that we constantly refer to. And finally, you'll find the stories this game has inspired us to write, as we felt that we had to flesh out the characters and interactions that couldn't be given their proper treatment at the game table. Happy reading!

(Last edited 9 May 2010)


 
Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG - Most artwork Copyright 2002 Dream Pod 9, Inc.