The Fighting Orders of Nentsun - The Masters and the Devices
by Giulio N CarolettiThere is a great difference between normal Order Fighters and Masters.
There are only 4 Bear Masters and 6 Stars of the Southern Cross on Mystara, and it is suggested that you don't allow the players to play one. Masters have been chosen by the Immortals to maintain the control over the Unholy Devices of Blekmur, and they have duties that the other Fighters cannot even dream (or have nightmares!) about.
A Master must meditate 4 hours a day to provide the engines with the psychic energies needed to remain stable and not emit radiations. This is a magical link, and being in antimagic zone or similar situations prevents the meditation from being effective. A Master in meditation immediately senses if he isn't in contact with the engine. For each minute more or less of meditation by a Master, the engine that he controls gains or loses 1 EP (Engine Point). Each Device starts with 4,000 EP. If a Device falls under 200 EP it begins to draw energy from any Device which has more than 200 EP. When all the Devices fall under 200 EP, they begin to emit radiations, losing double as much EP per minute. When one of the EP gets to 0, the Device explodes, and each Device loses 50 EP. When a second Device reaches 0, all the Devices explodes and a complete cataclysm occurs. The Masters are aware of the fact that their meditation is incredibly important for the country, but not only: if a Device gets below 200 EP, all the Masters lose half their Constitution score (and thus many abilities). A Master should always have a Heir. The Heir is of level 1-9. He cannot get over 9th level until he becomes Master. If a Master dies for some reason, and there is a Heir, then the Heir immediately becomes Master, and becomes immediately of the level appropriate for his XPs. If a Master dies without Heir, then a crisis could erupt. It has never happened recently, but probably an ordinary Fighter would be blessed by the Immortals or chosen by the other Masters and then taught what to do. A Master cannot travel further than 120 kilometres away from his Device, or lose all his powers until he returns in the given radius. However, a Master may leave Nentsun without losing experience points.
A Bear Master has no limits to the number of tsubos he can learn, and when a Heir becomes a Master he immediately learns 4 additional tsubos. Until that moment, however, the Heir will be treated like any Fighter (except for the level limit). A Star of the Southern Cross belongs to one of the six major Orders of their school. Their abilities will be detailed in another post.