WizKids 35023 - CBT - Dawn of the Jihad OEF.pdf

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connection/ DAWN OF THE JIHAD / section00: TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
i
THE DEVELOPER’S SAY
4
“Cowardice!”
67
SHADOWS OF FAITH
6
Doctors: Coordinator Ill, Recovering
67
INTRODUCTION
16
“Who Among Us Shall Rule?”
68
How to Use This Book
17
The Widening Confl icts
68
AND IT CAME TO PASS
18
Dieron Under Quarantine
70
War Engulfs Inner Sphere
19
Death to Mercenaries!
70
Decade of Tumult
19
Borders on Alert
71
Opening Shots
23
THE EAGLE SCREAMS
72
FILTHY MONEY
27
Winds of Change
73
War Strikes Mercenaries!
28
The Star League Failure: What Happened?
73
The Gathering Storm
28
Mercenary Assault on Mars Fails!
74
Where the Money Trail Ends
29
Tharkad: Was It or Wasn’t It?
74
Northwind Highlanders Returning Home
29
Assassins Gun Down Head of Sirian Concordance
75
Death of a Legend
30
Outreach Nuked!
75
Harlech City Under Siege!
31
Day of the Hawk
76
Counterstrike
31
War!
76
Dragoons Break Contract
31
Bolan Declares War
77
Northwind Blockade
33
Captain-General Condemns “Lyran Aggression”
77
Mars: What Happened?
34
Steiners Launch Second Wave
78
Fall of Outreach
35
The Quagmire of the Alliance
80
Mercenary Treachery
35
At Last!
81
Outreach Bombarded!
35
Jeremy Brett: Usurper in a Hero’s Clothing?
82
Outreach: A Survivor’s Account
36
Knights Recalled
82
Legacy of Distrust
37
ENEMY BROTHERS
83
“Divine Retribution!”
37
Tumbling Downward
84
Mercenaries Under Fire
38
Word of Blake Declares War as Star League Dies
84
Running the Blockade
38
Heretics and Traitors!
84
BURNING FIST
39
Slaughter!
85
Tharkad Burns
41
Com Guards Shattered
86
Star League Disbanded!
42
Tide of Fire
87
Horror Unleashed
43
Tukayyid Hit, Heavy Casualties Reported
87
Chaos and Confusion
44
Dow Vows “Swift Retribution”
88
The Archon Dead?
44
Case White
88
The Greater War
45
Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion Speaks
88
Skye Assaulted!
45
Case White Underway!
89
Long Odds for Duke Robert
47
“Devastation”
91
Wave Two?
47
Mopping Up
92
An Appeal for Unity
48
“The Bringers of Truth”
92
Skye-League War Forces Archon’s Hand
49
The Holy Light of Blake Comes to Demeter
93
Alliance Under Siege—Day 115
50
TRIALS OF VICTORY
94
BROKEN SWORDS
52
Silent Runnings
95
Sunset Over the Sword
54
Whispers and Rumors I
95
Who Is In Charge?
54
Whispers and Rumors II
97
Marshal of the Armies Speaks
55
Awaiting Orders
98
The Forgotten Fronts
56
Borrowed Time
99
The Pleiades Question
56
On the Precipice
99
Lest We Forget
58
Whispers and Rumors III
101
The Taurian Problem
58
Time of Deliberation
101
Marches at War
58
Whispers and Rumors IV
102
Operation Sovereign Justice Underway
58
Outreach Survivors?
102
Sovereign Justice Strikes Deep
60
Guarding the Flank
103
TEARS OF THE DRAGON
62
Righteous Rage
104
Dreams Torn Asunder
63
Showing Restraint
104
Leaders Gather for Whitting 3067
63
Watching and Waiting
104
Star League Disbands
64
Cry Havoc
105
The Dragon Speaks
65
CELESTIAL CRISES
106
Black Dragon Rising
66
Gathering Shadows
107
Uprising on Luthien!
66
Celestial Wisdom Dedicates Memorial
107
Betrayal at the Dragon’s Heart
66
Blake’s Wrath Targets Capellan People
108
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connection/ DAWN OF THE JIHAD / 00: TABLE OF CONTENTS
002 / 003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
i
St. Ives Struck
108
Warchest Point System
136
Royal Family Kidnapping!
109
Getting Started
136
Flashing Swords
110
Warchest Points Between Tracks
137
Capellans, Unite!
110
Skill Advancement
138
Luck or Foresight?
111
Ending the Campaign
138
Reclaim Your Destiny
111
Chaos Unbound: The Setup
138
Victorious They Vanquish!
112
Look Who’s Coming to Dinner
139
Fortress of Determination
112
Another Day, Another C-bill
140
Davions Sue for Peace
113
FUBAR!
142
Falling Skies
113
Payback
144
Sian Struck!
113
Vacationing in the Wasteland
146
Not Again!
114
The Skye Is Falling!
148
Union of Sword and Spirit
115
Running From the Devil
150
Too Far!
115
Game On!
152
AFTERSHOCKS
117
Golden Goose
153
CHAOS UNBOUND
132
Full Metal Press
155
Chaos Unbound: Dawn of the Jihad
133
Falcon Ptomaine
157
How to Use This Section
134
Final Curtain?
159
Track s
134
Campaign Special Rules
135
CREDITS
i
Writing
Herbert A. Beas II
Randall N. Bills
Loren L. Coleman
Warner Doles
Chris Hartford
Ken Horner
Kevin Killiany
Nick “Gunslinger” Marsala
David L. McCulloch
Ben Rome
Paul Sjardijn
Christoff er “Bones” Trossen
Øystein Tvedten
Phaedra Weldon
Shadows of Faith
Loren L. Coleman
Chaos Unbound
Ben Rome
Paul Sjardijn
Cover Art
Klaus Scherwinski
Cover Design
Jason Vargas
Header Design
Jim Nelson
Layout
David M. Stansel-Garner
Illustrations
Gerhard Mozsi
Additional Graphic Elements
Chris Lewis
Proofcheckers
Mike Miller and Peter LaCasse
©2005 WizKids, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Dawn of the Jihad,
Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech, BattleMech, MechWarrior,
Classic BattleTech RPG, AeroTech 2, and WK Games are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of WizKids, Inc. in the United States
and/or other countries. No part of this work may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright
Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in
which it is published. Printed in the USA.
Special Thanks
To…Everyone!
Version 1.0 (June 2005)
Published by FanPro LLC
1608 N. Milwaukee • Suite 1005 • Chicago, IL 60647
Playtesters and Fact-Checkers
Raymond Arrastia, Daniel M. Ball, Ron “Steel Hawke”
Barter, Charles Borner, Paul “Blackhorse” Bowman, Rich
Cencarik, John Danovich, Brent Dill, Tim DuPertuis, John “Quentil”
Dzieniszewski, David Fanjoy, Bruce Ford, Jon Frideres, Aaron
Gregory, Anthony “Shadhawk” Hardenburgh, Ross Hines, Glenn
Hopkins, Peter La Casse, Rodney Klatt, Camille Klien, Edward
“TenakaFurey” Laff erty, Edward Lott, Mike Miller, Jeff “Highlander”
Morgan, Darrell “Flailing Death” Myers, Louis “Nukeloader” Myers,
Michael Nelson, Andrew T. Norris, Keith “Vang” Oberschulte,
Nathaniel Olsen, Aaron Pollyea, “Medron Pryde”, Rick Raisley,
Rick Remer, Christopher K. Searls, Chris “Chunga(lomeningitis!)”
Smith, Joel Steverson, Rob Strathmann, Geoff Swift, Scott “Clutch”
Taylor, Roland “Ruger” Thigpen, Todd Thrash, Jason “Panzerfaust
150” Weiser, Chris “Chinless” Wheeler, Aaron Williams, Charles
Wilson, Andreas Zuber.
Find us online:
Precentor_martial@classicbattletech.com
(e-mail address for any Classic BattleTech questions)
http://www.classicbattletech.com
(o cial Classic BattleTech web pages)
http://www.fanprogames.com
(FanPro web pages)
http://www.mwdarkage.com
(o cial MechWarrior: Dark Age web pages)
http://www.wizkidsgames.com
(WizKids web pages)
http://www.studio2publishing.com
(online ordering, sales and distribution)
http://www.battlecorps.com
(o cial Classic BattleTech fi ction)
Product Development
Herbert A. Beas II
Randall N. Bills
Product Editing
Diane Piron-Gelman
BattleTech Line Developer
Randall N. Bills
Production Staff
Art Direction
Randall N. Bills
i
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connection/ DAWN OF THE JIHAD / section02: THE DEVELOPER'S SAY
THE DEVELOPER'S SAY
i
The Word of Blake fi rst appeared in 1992 with the publication
of the ComStar sourcebook, a direct result of events from the novel
Lost Destiny by Michael Stackpole. As with any major schism within
a fi ctional setting—especially one revolving around a pseudo-re-
ligious order—the plan from inception was to ultimately stage an
apocalyptic future battle between the sundered halves of ComStar.
However, as with so many plot threads weaving through the Bat-
tleTech universe, at that point in time the unfolding of events was
nebulous at best.
In 1994, FASA held its fi rst fi ction summit concerning the Bat-
tleTech universe. At each of these large-scale summits—which
have occurred every two or three years for the past decade—the
BattleTech developers and editors, the president of the company,
game creator Jordan Weisman and the primary authors of Bat-
tleTech sourcebooks and novels met to develop the next several
years’ worth of plot threads, which they could then weave into
novels and sourcebooks. At the 1996 meeting, participants began
to fi rm up the nebulous plan, using the word “Jihad” for the fi rst
time to describe the coming battle. However, the major events of
the Twilight of the Clans and the FedCom Civil War still needed to
be developed and published, making any jihad many years distant.
At the next fi ction summit in 1998, the Jihad received a little more
meat on its bones, though the meeting participants spent most of
that time spelling out the details of the huge FedCom Civil War.
The summit in late 2000 saw serious eff ort to develop the Jihad
event. Authors and developers fi nally put on paper a series of novel
ideas and concepts (along with rough sketches for accompanying
sourcebooks) to begin what would become the Word of Blake’s cru-
sade… and then everything came crashing down. FASA closed its
doors in January 2001, and it appeared BattleTech might die.
Fortunately, the BattleTech community refused to let that happen.
WizKids, Inc. purchased the BattleTech Intellectual property and
went on to publish MechWarrior: Dark Age (the collectible miniatures
game set 65 years in BattleTech ’s future). Meanwhile, FanPro licensed
the rights to continue publishing BattleTech sourcebooks and rule-
books. Since that day, FanPro has published a new base box set and
more than twenty new sourcebooks and rulebooks, while getting
additional products back into print as well.
However, a key element temporarily went missing. From the
beginning, BattleTech has been a living universe, growing and mov-
ing forward, its characters, nations and people constantly evolv-
ing. After the FedCom Civil War plot line ended in 2001 and 2002,
the BattleTech universe went into hibernation of sorts—stuck in
3067. This hiatus allowed us to explore numerous facets of the uni-
verse never before fully developed (such as publishing construc-
tion rules for battle armor and support vehicles, generating badly
needed revisions of such books as AeroTech 2 and Technical Read-
outs: 3026 and 3057 , delving into some of the “supposed” powers
behind the Clans and Houses in Interstellar Players , launching the
Historical and Handbook series, and so on), but the lack of forward
progress in the timeline made itself felt.
The hiatus took place for numerous reasons. It allowed FanPro
to fi rmly establish its ability to produce quality products (includ-
ing the creation of a fact-checking group of fans to help maintain
continuity/quality), and enabled WizKids to fi rmly cement its own
timeline and game before starting to close the gap. The decision to
“pause” the BattleTech universe was not made lightly. In 2003, I pro-
posed that by 2005, all other criteria should be met and we could
fi nally delve into the Jihad.
We soon realized that the framework for how the Jihad would
take place and develop had changed almost beyond recognition
since 2000. Instead of presenting to the community a largely un-
expected event (beyond foreshadowing laid down across the past
decade), as FASA had done with the Fourth Succession War and
the Clan invasion, the history of the MechWarrior: Dark Age time-
line spelled out in some detail the events of the Jihad, including
its ending. We also did not have the primary venue for conveying
such a mammoth storyline; no novels about it had been written.
(WizKids did launch a new and successful line of MechWarrior: Dark
Age novels, continuing to fl esh out a new and exciting universe
and characters, but these books don’t provide the support needed
for Classic BattleTech fi ction.)
So when we convened another summit at the end of 2002, we
quickly realized we had to think outside the box across the board.
The standard, all-inclusive, mostly straightforward style of source-
books published for BattleTech over the past twenty years simply
would not cut it. Instead, writers needed to generate a completely
new style that would put the players directly into the events of the
Jihad, unfolding them as time and sourcebooks progressed.
We also had to deal with continuity as never before—not only
to tie in and develop the past ten years and more of plot threads
across dozens of FASA/FanPro published products and novels, but
also to work in the numerous threads leading back from MechWar-
rior: Dark Age . We needed to develop these plot threads through
the Jihad to create the “next era” for Classic BattleTech stories and
sourcebooks in the Jihad’s aftermath, and also to lay the founda-
tion for events planned for the future of MechWarrior: Dark Age
(game and novels). All this while attempting to provide action-
packed storytelling rife with suspense and surprises to shock and
entertain; not just to keep the community coming back for more,
but to generate new excitement for the BattleTech universe.
To achieve that goal, more front-end work has gone into this
product than any of the roughly fi fty others I’ve worked on. We
spent half a year alone kicking ideas around and fl eshing out a pro-
posed style of presentation that all Jihad sourcebooks will follow,
its outline and the accompanying timeline: a ten-thousand word
proposal. Because this project would start to move into MechWar-
rior: Dark Age territory, more so than any other BattleTech product
published by FanPro to date, it would require WizKids’ approval to
move forward. I consider it a testament to the work all the vari-
ous authors put forth that WizKids approved it without a single
requested revision.
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connection/ DAWN OF THE JIHAD / 02: THE DEVELOPER'S SAY
004 / 005
THE DEVELOPER'S SAY
i
Based on the proposal, detailed writing assignments were
generated. Once written sections came in, they were handed off
to the fact-checking team, which—combined with the playtesters
and authors—generated more than two-thousand e-mails in the
weeks (and months) of review and counter-review. Outside of the
fantastic work they’ve done in making the Handbooks a quality
line, they earned their keep and then some with the mammoth
eff ort they’ve poured into helping make this product and the Jihad
as a whole all it can be.
Overall, we’ve done more front-end and back-end work than
for any previous product I can think of…and all for a product that
covers only the fi rst year of the Jihad!
As you dive into Dawn of the Jihad , you will notice that the
short fi ction piece at the front not only ends in a cliff -hanger, but
that the continuing story will not be published in future source-
books. Instead, it will continue at www.battlecorps.com (the o -
cial online source for canon Classic BattleTech fi ction).
I made this decision for several reasons.
First, the cliff -hanger aspect of the fi ction piece fi ts Dawn of
the Jihad as a whole; this is only the fi rst year of the Jihad and the
whole product ends on a cliff -hanger, waiting for the story to con-
tinue in Jihad Hot Spots: 3070 .
Second, while the BattleTech sourcebooks have always been
entertaining in their own right, players would have missed the full
experience of any major BattleTech event (from the Fourth Succes-
sion War to the Clan Invasion, Twilight of the Clans, the FedCom
Civil War and so on) without the accompanying novels. I believe
BattleTech has survived for more than twenty years because of
those novels and the dynamic storytelling format that began in
1986 with the publication of the fi rst BattleTech novel, Decision at
Thunder Rift .
As FanPro has grown over the past three years and increased
the quality, size and scope of its products in preparation for fully
accepting the BattleTech mantle and moving the timeline forward
once more, BattleCorps has grown as well. While able to explore
numerous aspects of the BattleTech universe—including historical
fi ction—I believe BattleCorps’ true contribution to the BattleTech
property and more importantly to the community will be felt dur-
ing the Jihad. In what has already generated a huge buzz of online
excitement, “Shadows of Faith”—the fi rst of many stories support-
ing, fl eshing out and weaving through the various future FanPro
Jihad sourcebooks—appears at the front of this product.
I have always contended that every license, from the million-
selling computer games and novels, to decals and miniatures, to
the Heavy Metal software line, all provide essential support for the
BattleTech universe. BattleCorps is no diff erent. Even though so
many people have poured so much time and eff ort into the Dawn
of the Jihad sourcebook to make it as exciting and dynamic as pos-
sible, BattleTech fans will miss the full experience of the Jihad with-
out the fi ction BattleCorps provides.
So now comes the test.
You hold in your hands the culmination of nine years and
thousands—if not millions—of man-hours, the beginning of
what I hope will be a fantastic and enjoyable ride for several years
(and numerous sourcebooks) to come.
In the end, none of this would be possible without the Bat-
tleTech community. Though it is my sincerest hope that this prod-
uct will generate the excitement needed to spark interest among
a new generation of players, while bringing back those who have
parted ways, this book is dedicated to those fans who have stayed
the course with BattleTech through thick and thin. It is because of
you that BattleTech still exists and because of you that we’ve dedi-
cated so much eff ort to making the Jihad the most enjoyable event
yet in BattleTech’s long, illustrious history.
Only you can judge whether or not we succeeded.
Thank you.
Randall N. Bills
Classic BattleTech Line Developer
[ Assistant Developer’s Addendum: There’s really nothing I can add to
the above except a heartfelt dedication of this product to the fans at
large. Thank you all for your stalwart support and love of the game,
even in our lean years. Starting now, I hope, we can repay your pa-
tience and devotion in full.
Herbert A. Beas II
Classic BattleTech Assistant Line Developer ]
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