Improbability Squad

An episodic campaign set in the latter half of the 1800s on Gurth. Initial GM: John

Setting

Our opening scene is of crowded filth in the streets of Philadelphia in the latter half of the 19th century. The city is booming, thanks to decades of growth and innovation in paper, steel, leather, and fine goods. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have arrived, and bitter ethnic rivalries often turn violent. It is a dangerous city, teeming with gangs and disease.

The camera pans out, rising to thousands of feet above the hazy mayhem, and an orderliness emerges, a pattern of thoughtfully laid-out grids of thoroughfares, major and minor, embracing the shore of the mighty Delaware River.

And to the west, where industrial development, foundries, mills, and tanneries, belch smoke and employ thousands.

Further west still, and country estates dot the green hills. Some are simple farm houses with crops and animals and barns, but others are grand marble-columned affairs, stately mansions with outbuildings and guest houses, financed by old European money, or the riches of the new captains of industry.

It is one such magnificent chateau upon which the camera descends, to reveal the matron of the house through the window of a stone tower atop the structure. The tower is striking, medieval in its blocky grandeur, flat-topped with battlements. A glimpse at her surroundings reveals high bookshelves packed with old leather-bound books before the camera descends to a magnificent courtyard of crisply-trimmed hedges, classic marble statues, and a pentagonal reflecting pool.

This is the home of Andrew Madison Spencer, the Secretary of War of the United States, and his wife of nearly thirty years, Lady Abigail Vanderbilt Spencer. Spurring tradition, she prefers to be referred to by her old world title, Lady Vanderbilt.

With her husband generally residing in Washington, Lady Vanderbilt spends her time commissioning the collection of rare objects and knowledge.

Background

Lady Vanderbilt is the party's Patron.

Her interest is more expansive, and specific, than merely 'rare' objects and knowledge. Priceless antiquities are in the hands of grubby shamans. Ancient evils brood and ripen in hidden caves and castles -- and sometimes, in broad daylight. Powerful artifacts lay dormant, fools' plunder. Mysteries abound, overlooked by "reasonable people".

She is obsessed with the supernatural, and has spent decades recruiting a handful of those exceedingly rare individuals who are built of something special, something beyond humanity. This small company of investigators, hunters, thinkers, thieves, scouts, and enforcers, each one a rare specimen themselves, are her eyes and ears and hands out in the world, a world in which all is not right.

Recent actions of this so-called Improbability Squad include:

• The seizing of a centuries-old Comanche 'death totem' from a scurrilous French fur trader in the wilds of Wisconsin.
• The expulsion of an angry spirit from a mansion in New Orleans.
• The chasing-off of a 'beast-man' in rural Virginia. The party sought to capture the enormous creature, but it got away.

Character Creation

Character creation begins with submitting your general concept and background to the GM to be sure the character fits. Example:

Jimbo Dawkins trapped beavers in the wilds of southern Ohio for most of his adult life, 
but it was when the circus came to Columbus that his notoriety commenced. The 'human flea'
could jump over a standing man, to the great astonishment of the crowd. But Jimbo was 
puzzled -- that was a trivial jump for him, and he often leaped across sizable rivers
while maintaining his trap lines. Giddy in the presence of the crowd, he demonstrated.

Ladies fainted and men shouted, and the circus strong man would have beaten Jimbo senseless if
he hadn't jumped over the bleachers to safety. He headed east, the stories followed him, and
Lady Vanderbilt recruited him.

Jimbo is an illiterate woodsman, a big softy who doesn't want to hurt anyone, and enjoys working for
Lady Vanderbilt because she reminds him of his mother.

A reliable Contact is Mildred Evans, a spinster who has a room overlooking the town square of 
Columbus and knows what's going on.

His Enemy is Barnaby Ringling, whose circus event he ruined.

advantage="Super Jump"

Background

You may be from any believable background for the setting.

The culture is highly stratified, so spend points accordingly. e.g., without spending points on appropriate social advantages and/or skills, you will be ignored and discredited by upper classes generally, and even your Patron will treat you with a level of condescension.

You have up to 25 points to spend on GM-approved Supernatural (lightning bolt) / Exotic (alien head) advantages. This needs to be a part of your background story. Lady Vanderbilt sought you out (through emissaries) and recruited you to join the squad. You may have joined to avoid something else, or for the money she offered you, or the glory, or because your 'uniqueness' made you an outcast. It's up to you, but it needs to be described.

That story will help establish your Sense of Duty, Code of Honor, and/or Vow that ties you to the squad.

You may be any human age and may have worked for Lady Vanderbilt for up to twenty years if desired.

Define (a sentence or two minimum) at least one Contact and at least one Enemy.

Your purchased Wealth level determines your starting budget for personal possessions. Normal wealth starts with $1000.

Equipment

This is TL 5.

Generally, Lady Vanderbilt will be able to provide many common items, food, liquor and transportation if requested in advance of a mission.

But you'll need to buy the clothing you're wearing and any weapons, ammunition, repair kits, books, specialized tools, flasks, canes, tobacco, pocketknives, etc.

Some NPCs will judge you based on the quality and style of your clothing.

Guns: Guns in this campaign will malfunction frequently (any roll of 15+ regardless of skill), require expert care, and should be generally concealed in public. Brandishing a firearm on the streets of Philadelphia will lead people to assume you are a violent gangster or bank robber, which in turn will attract thuggish police. Public standards in the rural areas are more accepting.

Points

We'll start out with 120 point characters.

Patron (Lady Vanderbilt) is free and doesn't need to be listed on your sheet.

Up to 50 points in disadvantages, and up to 5 quirks and perks.

Up to 25 points in GM-approved Supernatural & Exotic traits. No 26+ point Advantages will be approved. If desired, you can choose one Exotic/Supernatural Disadvantage as part of your general Disadvantage pool.

Literacy and languages cost points and might matter.

Magery 1 is allowed, but there are no teachers, mentors, or spell books, as far as you are aware. So you'd start with no spells at all.

Characters

• Helen Atherton, Susan's beguiling healer
• Walter Blackstone, Brad's electrifying magician
• Marcus Wells, Dio's otherworldly engineer
• Arizona Smith, Jeff's mystical professor
• Wyeth Wilson, Eli's hotblooded jeweler

What Happened

An Outing with a Navigator

Helen Atherton, Arizona Smith, and Wyeth Wilson receive handwritten invitations to a garden party at the estate of Lady Vanderbilt, as they have many times before. They catch individual carriage-taxis through the streets of Philadelphia andinto the countryside, arriving within a few minutes of one another, and catching up by the reflecting pool.

The Lady's decrepit butler brings some snacks, and Professor Smith regales the group (again) about the various gods and mythical heroes depicted in the statuary nearby.

Eventually, Lady Vanderbilt emerges from the estate and glides down to greet the group, flanked by her manservant Little Wing, and a new recruit, Walter Blackstone. Polite introductions ensue, and then Lady Vanderbilt explains the pending mission.

In the lore of ancient Caribbean savages, a special sarcophagus was used to trap a malevolent spitit, a demon perhaps, in the form of a two-headed baby. The sarcophagus appears in a few other documents through the ages, including a Spanish explorer's memoir of the 1740s, and an 1828 ship's manifest. Cross referencing a newspaper article from later that year, she infers that the sarcophagus was seized by pirates of the Nemesis, whose chief navigator, Thaddeus Cooke, she believes is a resident of Boardmoor Hospital in nearby Greenbriar, in a rural area just a two hour ride to the south.

The Lady explains that the sarcophagus must remain sealed, for, if the legend is true, it houses a creature of great evil, and she wants to keep that beast imprisoned, to be sure.

At her prompting, Wing produces a document crafted to extract Mr. Cooke from the hospital, and soon the team is off to visit the ancient navigator, Wing at the reins.

After the bumpy ride south, the night is spent in Greenbriar, where Walt puts on a show of his talents with electricity, Arizona interviews a worker from the hospital, Wyeth stalks around after dark, and Helen buys a few cans of beets. All enjoy the goat jerky from the general store. The night passes without incident.

The next morning, the short trip to the hospital reveals the signage nearby, "'Asylum for the Criminally Insane'", as well as a collection of defectives picking squash, watched over by a handful of guards, one of whom playfully poijnts his rifle at the party's approaching carriage before being scolded by a colleague with a bull whip.

Helen presents the document to the rat-faced hospital administrator, who finds everything to be in order and mentions that Mr. Cooke has been in "the hole" for 20-some years and was once known as the "Mustache Killer" before being locked up.

Soon, two guards arrive with an emaciated, filthy, 100-year-old man in shackles. Helen and Arizona appeal for the old man's unchaining, and the guards comply.

Thaddeus Cooke squints at Walt for a moment, and then quickly grabs a guard's enormous pistol from its holster and blasts two lead balls past Walt's ear, dusting his face with hot black powder and leaving him stammering for several seconds. The surprised guards tackle Thaddeus to the ground and restrain him inexpertly. Arizona surreptiously stashes the gun in a coat pocket for safety.