Well I was listening to some Roman-esque music on my morning walk today, so I guess we're doing Magnum Chasma.
Magnum Chasma - Caesar's Legion
OST Atmosphere (Initial Arrival):
OST Atmosphere (General):
OST Atmosphere (Caesar's Fort and Slave Camps):
We all know the story of Caesar and the birth of the Legion. Soon, the whole of Arizona will know (some version) of it too. So there's no need to waste words. Caesar as of 2253 has conquered 12 tribes and swells his ranks by employing nearly every slaver group in the Four Corners to bring him stock for servitude or in war.
The many fires, tribal beats and swarms of marching bands can be seen for far around before initial arrival, surrounding the entire Grand Canyon. At night, the interior of the Grand Canyon is lit by dozens upon dozens of camps, burning fires and those with torches moving back and forth. A swarming hive of activity.
The outer edges are interspersed at equidistant intervals with numerous fortified outposts. Each camp named and in constant communication. Basic walled fortifications and outposts means nobody approaches the Grand Canyon without being seen.
Ascending trails leading from the canyon floor to the surface, whether natural or constructed by the Legion are frequently trafficked . Pack Brahmin led by Legionaries or slaves carrying supplies to and from. It never ceases. Entry into the canyon itself is strictly forbidden to outsiders.
Non-Legion are directed to the southern region outside of Magnum Chasma, where the bulk of activity lies. Near where in real life Grand Canyon Village lies.
Here in this large region there are three hubs of interest: The Forum, The Servus Consortium and Caesar's Fort.
The Forum
The lightly wooded road into the Forum is interspersed with the crucified, beneath each a wooden plaque inscribed with their crime "Savage" "Thief" "Degenerate" "Pusher of Chems" - these plaques are not common at all to crucifixions, but are signals to newcomers of the Legion's sense of justice. A warning before your arrival.
The Forum itself is a bazaar of tall, open market tents (their fabric crimson of course) filled with Legionaire Fabers or slaves working the stalls, purchasing and selling with merchants from across Arizona - primarily smaller communities but larger caravans from Phoenix and the distant Two Sun have arrived to investigate.
With the bounty of the Grand Canyon and the recent defeat, current assimilation and harvesting of resources at Flagstaff - the Legion is flush with food and clean water. Fair prices and safe dealings have meant they're becoming a quick attraction compared to the tribes of Phoenix or Arizonian warlords. Traders aren't quite sure what to make of the Legion yet, but businesses is good. In the future the Legion will become self-reliant (the Legion currency has not yet been formed) and razor focused, but as of now Magnum Chasma is a necessary blast furnace for future conquest. The Bazaar is flush with bottlecaps to trade and mid-to-higher level items to purchase. Nothing too high tech, but valuable. This and New Canaan are probably going to be your biggest stocks of purchasing ammunition.
At the centre of the forum is an old National Park building, on the roof at an overlook (once a rooftop cafe) across the Forum sits the Centurion Titus of Chasma. Surrounded by tables of maps, paper work and kept hydrated and regularly fanned by his two slave girls. He is the master of the Forum and the Centuria that polices it.
Unless you are a trader, you're in the Forum for mercenarius work. Which means you speak to Titus. Titus holds the smug imperialist superiority of all Legionaries but is otherwise charismatic and largely pleasant - the reason he was assigned to deal with The Forum. In this era, the Centurions still maintain their Roman-fashioned helmets, but their armor is that of regular (though Legionized) reinforced metal armor with a handful of tribal tokens as worn trophies. Titus keeps at his side a Super Sledge.
Titus has a number of mercenarius jobs to be done, either to earn the favour of the Legion to petition Caesar for entry to the Grand Canyon or simply to earn money (or both). Engaged in war with the many tribes of Hecate the Legion is teetering on the edge of overextension and as such requires mercenarius to come aid in smaller matters.
Monster Hunter: The Great Gila tribe has recently been conquered and is in the process of assimilation. To fully break them, their "God", their Great Gila, must be exposed as simply an oversized (hippo sized) lizard. However, Legionaries have either had trouble finding it or been savaged by it. Track the monster in the narrow canyonlands and bring back its head (somehow) to show the former tribesmen that Mars and his Son are the only true God.
Painted Black: The Legion have received word that one of the Daughters of Hecate has embedded herself with the Painted Rock tribe, a powerful but isolationist tribe in Monument Valley. This corruption must be stopped. Either assassinate her or expose her as a charlatan. If she's killed, her head must be brought back.
Laser Gear Rusty: To the southwest, there is a tribe by the name of the Rusty Hooks that live inside the ruins of Bloomfield Space Center. The facility is surrounded by automatic laser cannons that auto-fire on anyone not wearing an Old World staff-ID badge. Find a way to infiltrate the camp and permanently disable the cannons so that the Legion's conquest may be made easier.
Servus Consortium
A rather straight forward affair. The Legion's expansive slave market, where slavers of the Wasteland come to bring their stock to Caesar. Overseen by the tall, lanky Centurion Octavian. Octavian is extremely numbers and business minded, often overtired. In the old world he would have been a stock trader. The Servus Consortium is a mess of market tents, cages and fenced off slave pens.
Of the hooks here, there are three:
Selling slaves: Self-Explanatory.
"Slave Running": Tracking and re-capturing escaped slaves. A little bit of bounty hunting mixed with some detective work if they've managed to reach other communities.
Mystery Disease: There's been a problem of slave illness and death ravaging the eastern slave pens. Octavian isn't sure why. Doctor PCs can discover that their water source is lethal and they're suffering from cholera.
Caesar's Fort
Located at the former camp of the Ridgers, Caesar's Fort is as you might guess the most heavily fortified and defended part of Magnum Chasma. At it's center is a series of luxurious tents where Caesar and his upper crust live and strategize. Only those of Caesar's invite may enter.
The young Caesar's demeanour is different to that of his Mojave era behaviour. In this time he's still got a head of (shortly cropped) blonde hair and is deceptively charismatic, however at the right times his sardonic brutality and sense of superiority bleeds through as always. In this era he doesn't have the privilege of decades of secure tyranny to afford and couch him in the irritable, brief maniacal state we find him in New Vegas. He's stoic if not affable, gentlemanly almost but at all times maintains a sense of power and command of respect - through subtlety rather through (as he can later afford) later, blunt demand. He is constantly guarded by his Praetorians.
The only way the party can come face to face with Caesar is if they are in need of entry to the Grand Canyon and have earned enough favour with the Legion to warrant it, r if they have already either killed Hecate or become a major thorn in her side.
The state of the war with Hecate is as such. The Legion has better strategy, logistics and command. Three of her tribes are backed into a siege situation without the provisions to last through it. Caesar states when they begin to starve like vermin, their pathetic Goddess nowhere to be found, and eat eachother alive, they'll eat the Daughters of Hecate first. Only then will the Legion move in.
However, Hecate has the numbers by a significant margin and her usage of poisons is crippling to the Legion. It's a fight he is confident he can win, but it will take a significant chunk out of the Legion to do so. So, he'd rather end things quickly.
If the party play it cool as for their need to go into the Grand Canyon (i.e don't reveal how critical it is) and navigate the conversation with Caesar well, as well as having done the services of Titus (or only some of Titus and assisted Gallus in SLC)- Caesar will grant them passage.
If they navigate the conversation well but haven't curried enough favour, they will have to do each of Titus's tasks.
If they blow their poker face and fall into Caesar's conversational trap to get them to expose how much they need to get into the Grand Canyon, he'll level it as such: Bring him the head of Hecate and not only will he grant passage to the Grand Canyon, but he will also greatly reward them (high level weapons of their choosing + bottlecaps). Otherwise they can leave.
Bottom of the Canyon
Filled with camps of young Legionaries, either in training or induction into the cult of Mars by Priestesses. Additionally, farms and the harvesting of water.
The real prize is the crash site of BOMB-001, a smouldering, junked ruined space-station. Inside a barely intact ZAX Unit holds the memory can required to save Boulder Dome, and maybe the whole Wasteland from New Plague.
