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Lord Bradicus

Arms-Dynasty Heir • Showman • Bradicus Estate, Eldoran

Overview​

Lord Bradicus is the new head of the Bradicus family, the continent's arms makers for centuries. He inherited after the recent death of his father. To recast the family as adventurers and patrons of wonder, he staged a filmed contest in which mercenary companies raced to recover a golden harp from a haunted ruin, and he openly hoped many of them would die on camera. The Twilight Company used his contest as the party's way into the Eldoran capital. The party entered as the deliberately mediocre company Pupusa Possum, but left the contest through a hidden portal and never won it. As of Session 63, his show has aired its finale, and the party has had no further dealings with him.

The Bradicus Family​

Bradicus family wealth comes from war. In the Session 55 transcript, the DM says the family "provided the guns that built the Golden Empire," made vast fortunes from the Eldoran conquests of the region, and serves as the primary engineers for advanced rocketry, including much of the Empire's spaceflight machinery. The late father was straight-laced, an excellent businessman from an engineering background, and led much of the family's space work. The heir is far more ostentatious. The DM adds that his friends call him "Fat Brad".

The Bradicus estate is built into the rock of the capital: a spiral of stonework behind a huge brick wall that burrows into the earth. An arcane dome over the grounds blocks flight and deflects thrown objects, and in Session 55 the party watched a burning wagon explode against it. Bradicus claims to be an independent state, a contested point ("like Hong Kong" to Eldoran, "like the Vatican" to Bradicus). Crimes between Eldoran citizens and Bradicus property go to a joint tribunal whose split decisions can strand a person in one territory or the other.

Naming note: In the Session 55 transcript the DM first names the recently deceased head of the family Satakus, and the recap follows that. A moment later, Leliana's player asked whether "Thatakus" was the current Lord Bradicus, and the DM answered: "Yeah. Uh, Lord Thatakus. Bradus." So it is unsettled whether Satakus/Thatakus is the father's name, the heir's given name, or both.

The Contest​

  • The briefing (Session 54). Lady Viper described him as a high-ranking noble hiring mercenary companies. Finnegan filled in the rest. Bradicus wanted an artifact pulled from a ruined library, once part of a college and buried after a long-ago plague. The ruin is haunted, and he meant to film the whole run with drones for his own amusement. The winners would get a five-year contract as his henchmen, and with it free movement through the capital.
  • The audition (Session 55). He addressed the crews from a balcony in a long red velvet coat, flanked by two drones. He admitted the family fortune was "bought by the cold metal used to kill thousands of people" and promised that "The name of Bradicus will be known for adventure, wonder, splendor." Butlers handed out packets with the manor's history, a map to a ruined music library to the northwest where a shrine had burst up through the earth, the goal (be first to bring back the golden harp), and pages of liability waivers for the Bradicus Corporation. The packets warned that the deadliest threats were the other competitors. Then he dropped the flag.
  • The race (Session 56). At his bell and his "go," the contest turned into a filmed brawl and then a run through a soul-eating library, with camera drones filming throughout.
  • The exit (Session 57). The party escaped through the library's hidden gateway, out of reach of his cameras. Since they never actually won, the Bradicus cover no longer worked.
  • The finale (Session 58). Over dinner, the party watched the contest's finale on the restaurant's screens. The "cowboy crew" stumbled into a den of phantoms, and a small assassin frog named Needle felled a contestant called Jesse with a poisoned blow dart and made off with a glowing book.

Session History​

  • Session 54 — Lady Viper and Finnegan brief the party on his mercenary contest, a filmed artifact hunt he hopes will kill contestants, as their way into the capital.
  • Session 55 — Welcomes the crews to his domed estate, confesses the family's arms fortune, announces the golden-harp hunt, and starts the contest.
  • Session 56 — Rings the bell that starts the race, and his drones film the party's run into the soul-eating library.
  • Session 57 — The party slips out of his contest through the library's hidden gateway, voiding their Bradicus cover.
  • Session 58 — The party watches his show's broadcast finale over dinner in the capital.