Caias Ward

Promised Land
Series Pitch of the Month
Credits

dramasystem layout
writer/designer/ Cathriona Tobin
producer
Robin D. Laws based on a layout
theme by
series pitch Christian Knutsson
author
Caias Ward proofreader
Craig Hargreaves
illustration
Rachel A. Kahn

Thanks to our Kickstarter backers, without whom this would not be possible.

© 2014 PELGRANE PRESS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Hillfolk — Series Pitches

Promised Land
—Caias Ward

Nutshell • unluckiest cadet alive

Squad comes before all as genetically • unknowing spy for the Inquisitors
engineered cadets take on the universe. • voice of reason
• weapons expert
Characters
You play young cadets aboard a Baruktakaii Setting
monastery ship. Your living vessel, spanning a Over one thousand years ago, the 314th
dozen kilometers or more, enjoys a symbiotic Hierarchy Marine Battalion was sent to
relationship with the thousands of beings who investigate an insurgency in Sector YK449. Over
live aboard. five hundred soldiers entered the sector and
• apprentice of the Tombs of the Honored vanished without a trace.
Dead Three years later, ten of them returned, at
• artist in demand first unrecognized by the Hierarchy. Changed
• bully beyond all comprehension, these Ten displayed
• the clown great physical and psychic powers. They bore
• crybaby a new message of enlightenment through
• demerit machine genetic engineering and their own brand of
• fighter pilot-to-be monasticism. Claiming to have returned from
• future first navigator the Void, the place between the dimensions of
• gravsled racer the universe, they taught others how to be the
• healer change they wish to see in the universe. Their
• henchman followers became the Baruktakaii, which in
• historian paradoxical fashion typical of the movement
• holder of a dark secret means “Those Who Would Challenge the Ten.”
• littlest bioengineer As the order grew and the names of the Ten
• man-child reached Hierarchy intelligence organizations,
• officer’s proxy weapon the Hierarchy identified them as their missing
• one who seeks to meet the Ten a second soldiers. It first sought contact, then demanded
time that the soldiers turn themselves over for
• the one with the plan questioning. The Ten answered by rejecting the
• physical adept Hierarchy and defending their new way of life.
• preternatural seer The Hierarchy responded swiftly, treating
• psychic prodigy the Baruktakaii as any criminal organization,
• recent convert to the order aiming to capture or kill its members. Only
• scion of the First Warrior the incredible technological advances the Ten
• scrounger brought saved the faithful from extermination.
• squad leader These included enormous self-repairing organic
• survivor of a terrible tragedy ships, FoldJump engines capable of point-to-
• transfer from another ship point teleportation, and symbiotic body armor.
• troublemaker The Ten knew this war was not the way to

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Hillfolk — Series Pitches Caias Ward

enlightenment. They offered to return to the in vitro fertilization as of natural conception.

Void in exchange for allowing the young order to Officers often carry the children of others to
exist. The Hierarchy accepted, as the attacks on term, with recognition given to those who birth
widespread and evasive Baruktakaii were more a “Tenful” of cadets. You regard your squad
trouble than they were worth. It did not help as your family, your order as parent, and your
that the Ten themselves could travel through parents as but two of many who raised you.
space and time at will, striking as they pleased Before age eight, you split your time
against the Hierarchy. between your parents and care in the ship’s
And now, over a thousand years later, Nursery. Then you were separated from your
monastery ships travel through Hierarchy space, parents and assigned to squads, as determined
encountering others as they live apart from the by psychological profiling. In your squads,
rest of the universe. The members of the order you went through programs of study called
grow in science and faith, reflecting on the evolutions, covering such diverse topics as
lessons of the Ten and hoping one day to join philosophy, history, and unarmed combat. You
them in the promised land of the Void. also learned to use your bioengineered Gifts of
• Four leaders - the First Navigator, First the Ten, whatever they may be. Key mutations
Warrior, First Healer, and First Seeker - include telekinesis, remote sensing, and pain
jointly command your vessel. Collectively resistance; see “Additional Elements,” below.
you call them the Firsts. You may possess an extraordinary mutation,
Who leads the Order as a whole? Do you or simply have had the standard faculties of your
regard these leaders as benevolent and in species heightened. Those receiving the greatest
touch with the needs of the faithful, or as gifts can trace their DNA back through many
disengaged, lofty figures whose attention generations of Order membership.
brings trouble and menace? Do you want to wait until an early episode
Or is each ship all but autonomous, to choose your gifts, if any? Your character has
answerable only to the Inquisitors, who had them all along, but you reveal them only
themselves mete out correction in the absence when she first makes use of them.
of centralized authority? During your evolutions you permanently
All Baruktakaii technologies are comprised bonded with the Ava’te data retrieval and
of living, biological materials; some items qualify heads-up system, which allows you to wear the
as autonomous beings. Vast vat-grown brains removable symbiotic body armor called the
perform complex computational tasks. Anti- Arha’vaat.
gravity platforms grumble and sniff their way As the series opens, you recently reached
down ribbed corridors. Doorlids wink open and your thirteenth birthdays. You have been
to let people through, then close behind them. out of Nursery for a number of years and are
The ship’s foul-smelling digestive system doubles growing in power, skill, and faith. You enjoy
as jail for those who stray a bit too far from the greater freedom than younger cadets but also
path. more responsibilities as your education and
Among the Baruktakaii dwell three species: Evolutions continue for several more years.
• Humans (including individuals who still Evolutions covering mission protocol have
look mostly human) prepared you to deal with cadets and officers
• the Mahatnaboran, a humanoid race of from other ships—usually your allies, but
greater size and bearing bull-like features sometimes your foes. You’ve been trained in
including an elongated snout and horns missions of diplomacy and outreach, in which
• the Chos’ketthi, a scaly mammalian race you’ll travel to Hierarchy settlements and learn
equipped with sharp teeth and claws to understand others. You’ll explore the far-flung
Outside the world of the Order, these cultures Gadethkar Confederation. You might be left
differ considerably. Here, among their squad, for weeks to fend for yourselves on a primitive
they are all cadets regardless of species. planet. On occasion you may get a visit from an
As a cadet, you are as likely the product of Inquisitor ship, whose crews ensure that your

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ship neither forces the faith on others nor strays being. Telepathy indicates it is a sentient
too far from the path. being with a mission, hopes, and fears. Do
Cadets may even develop a reputation as great you attempt to take it captive, destroy it, or
artisans, as certain cultures consider Baruktakaii negotiate a peace?
sculpture and song to be the pinnacle of artistic • Dropped on a planet for a training
endeavor. exercise, you find yourselves feted by rival
town factions. Do you pick a side, try to
Themes stay clear, or take on all comers until your
• Squad vs. Order retrieval ship returns in three weeks?
• Faith vs. Truth • One of you made a life form, which has
• Love vs. Duty gotten loose in the hidden parts of the ship.
• Popularity vs. Integrity As it grows it could be dangerous. Do you
• Childhood vs. Discipline attempt to stop it on your own or risk the
• Success vs. Honor wrath of the officers by warning them?
• Bravery vs. Survival • An officer seeks to mentor you and your
• Squad vs. Squad squad. Do you accept, thrusting yourselves
• Happiness vs. Ambition into the wider world of officer politics, or
• Will You Become the Officers You find a way to keep clear?
Despise?
Antagonists
Tightening the Screws • Any of the Firsts may take a personal
• The First Warrior takes a personal dislike interest in your affairs, becoming obstacles
to the Squad Leader PC. Do you ease your to your Desire.
suffering by naming a replacement, or • The Battlemaster: a master of ritual
fight back? combat aboard the monastery ship and
• An Inquisition ship arrives and demands keeper of the Tombs of the Honored Dead,
that one of the squad be transferred to the Battlemaster has the psychic ability
them. Should you say goodbye, stall, or to tell when conflict is imminent. A cadet
rally other squads until you can get the may find the Battlemaster’s attention upon
support of the Firsts. her and then wonder when the hammer
• One of you learns that you have a direct will drop.
lineage to the Hundred, the first members • The Instructor Corps cares more about
of the order trained by the Ten. How overall results than the individual welfare
do you handle the hero worship and of their students. They push and stress you
jealousy? to your limits, then put you back together,
• One of the Ten appears to you from the if you live.
Void, imparting heretical new revelations. • Parents: Despite cadets being separated
Do you reveal this wisdom or keep the from their parents at a young age, some
peace? connection still exists. This presents more
• A bullying cadet kills herself, for threat than blessing, as cadets must be
reasons unknown. The officers refuse to wary of parents using cadets as proxies in
investigate this self-murder, the first they battles against their enemies.
personally have ever seen in the order. • Rival Squads: while cadets must
Should you be thankful for the removal stand together against officers, squads
of this terror or seek out the reason that must stand against squads. Be it
officers don’t want others to know? direct competition for ranking and
• During an attack by Hierarchy forces, a privileges to surviving the harassment
boarding needle crashes into a section of upperclassmen, some of the greatest
of the ship and traps you with a single dangers to a cadet are his fellows.
survivor, a severely injured synthetic • Rival Fleets: in the thousand years since

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the Ten left the universe, the doctrines of We’ve included a new custom Action Type
faith of the Baruktakaii have evolved… for the setting: Gifts of the Ten, the incredible
or degenerated. Despite the tenet ‘no one psychic powers present in all Baruktakaii in one
may be pushed through the door to faith,’ form or another. A brief list of common abilities
some fleets wish to do nothing more than present includes, but isn’t limited to:
paint the universe in blood and bring • The Invisible Fist (telekinesis)
all to their way of thinking, willing or • Remote Sensing
not. Even if they do not follow this wild • Telepathy
path, other monastery ships may have • The Gifts of Pain (ability to mitigate or
strange customs which can cause no end intensify pain in yourself and others)
of conflict. • Battle Prescience (brief precognition to
• Outer Threats: even as the truce between aid in battle)
the Baruktakaii and the Hierarchy still • The Glow (empathic healing)
exists on paper, the enforcement of that • Longstrider (supernatural endurance and
truce has varied through the years. Some speed)
sectors of space are more accepting than • Good Idea (unreliable precognition)
others. A sector’s hostility toward you • The Voice (limited mental control based
might be unjustified, or a fitting response on voiced commands)
to the depredations of fanatical rival • Best Friend (a low-level psychic field
fleets. causes others to give you the benefit of the
doubt)
Additional Elements • Hard-Headed (resistant to psychic
For an alternate series set in this universe, abilities)
you might play higher ranking shipboard While all Baruktakaii officers wield all of
authorities, including the Firsts, the Battlemaster these to some degree, cadets only exhibit one at
and other senior staff. You contend with any appreciable strength.
external threats and each other, grooming cadets
to serve as minions.

Names

Paul Vandermeer
Hathar Ber-Tolek
Karen Zavodsky
James Anderson
Den’sshor Rrys
Chris Markinson
Ran’nos Grenlitar
Demar Jos-Wamith
Corbin Holmeri
Sarah McGintal