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
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 Broadmoor 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.
Once everyone recovers from the melee, the party is on its way, having extracted from Thaddeus that he intended to shoot Raymond, who shot him in the neck aboard the Nemesis. A quick stop along the way at a charitable farmer's house outfits Thaddeus in clean clothes.
Thaddeus, in between catatonic and hebephrenic episodes, further reveals that yes, the sarchoagus was aboard the Nemesis, and a source of great conflict, even mutiny. And he knows where he last saw the ship -- beached in a lagoon of Captain Jack's Secret Isle, somewhere north of Bermuda.
The party resolves to make the trip to this island, with Thaddeus as Navigator. They return to Lady Vanderbilt's estate and get a document from her ensuring payment to Captain Crikey for expenses endured on the journey. Walt sends his valet out with an enormous shopping list (including mules), and by the end of the day, everyone and everything is aboard with Captain Crikey and his Icelandic crew.
Two days of smooth sailing and Thaddeus navigation bring the clipper ship to the lagoon on the south side of the Isle, where the keeling mast of the swamped Nemesis is spotted.
The party loads into the ship's lifeboat and rows over to investigate, accompanied by an Icelandic diver and breathing apparatus. An approaching storm threatens, the diver feels around in the dark below deck, and suddenly, in a fit of inspiration, Arizona strips to his 19th-century undergarments, takes five deep breaths, and dives into the water behind the diver. He returns briefly and asks Walt for his "magic light bulb", and then dives below again, quickly overtaking the diver and entering the hold, where a reservoir of air is trapped.
Upon spotting ancient mariners' remains, the diver retreats in a panic, but Arizona investigates, and immediately spots the sarcophagus -- with its lid cast aside on the floor. Taking pains not to peer within the magix box, Arizona replaces the lid and collects some loot scattered around the old skeletons. He then wraps many coils of rope arount the stone box, and sends it above.
With the box retrieved, the party steps away from Thaddeus and discusses next steps.
Walt points out that promises were made to Thaddeus that he'd have a chance to get his revenge by tracking down Raymond, if he yet survived. The party agrees halfheartedly, and Arizona delivers the news. Soon, a rowboat is deployed to accompany Thaddeus to the island.
Soon after sliding it up onto the beach, however, arrows rain in on the party from the treeline. They're short and primitive, but hit their mark occasionally, and Helen and Walt reel from their injuries. Arizona hurls himself back into the boat just in time.
The arrow intended for Wyeth misses, but enrages him, and he leaps out of the boat and sprints into the bushes, knife flashing, while Walt summons a lightning ball that zaps one of the assailants painfully.
Arizona rights himself and experiences a series of frustrating weapon malfunctions. Helen takes a shot but misses.
Wyeth arrives in the undergrowth and spots his attacker -- a naked teenage girl with boggle eyes, a slooping forehead, terrible teeth, and long blond ratty hair. He pauses for a microsecond, and then thrusts his knife into her heart. She dies instantly, dropping off his blade like a wet noodle.
The other assailants flee into the jungle, and Wyeth, bloodied, jogs back to the boat, his rage sated, and pushes the craft back into the water, leaving Thaddeus behind, despite Helen's charitable pleas.
Then the poison sets in, and Helen and Walt suffer. Wyeth attempts to suck poison from their wounds. They both survive.
Two days later, the team arrives back in Philadelphia and transports the sarcophagus back to Lady Vanderbilt's estate hastily, after some suspicions that Scavengers may be observing.
Dismayed that it was discovered with the lid removed, Lady Vanderbilt conducts a careful inspection, and then suggests the team go back to the island, with the sarcophagus, and capture the demonchild it was designed to entomb.
Return to Secret Isle
Recovered from a touch of the cholera, Marcus Wells joins the crew at the Vanderbilt estate, and quickly settles in build a device he believes will help with the mission -- a spirit capturer. After some hours exploiting his genius, he tests the gourd-sized device and beleves it to be functional.
Supplies are ordered, anthropological research conducted, and early thr next morning, the group meets at the pier where Captain Crikey's swift clipper is moored.
While loading tents and mules and so forth, someone spots a group of five Italian thugs maching with evident purpose towards Arizona.
Walt and Wyeth approach, with Arizona close behind, hand on his concealed pistol.
Clear-eyed and stony-faced, Wyeth inquires as to the Italians' intentions. They're clear and direct: they intend to leave with the sarcophagus.
And when they hint at their capacity for violence, Arizona acts: he points his ready weapon at the apparent leader and fires, to the astonishment of everyone.
Unfortunately, the projectile sails past the goon's neck and punctures the torso of a passing lady, who drops to the cobblestones with a scream. Mass panic ensues.
The goons, stunned at the blast of gunpowder smoke and deafening crack, stagger back, and Arizona shoots again, this time hitting his mark with deadly precision. Three of the goons turn to run, but one seems to be going for his weapon, and so Wyeth lunges in with his knife, splitting the man's heart and dropping him instantly.
Meanwhile, Helen, spotting the injured bystander, rushes through the melee to save her. The crowd continues to widen its perimeter, but many have turned to observe the combatants.
Debating next steps, Walt realizes that while not having taken part in the deadly exchange, he's been recognized. Taking the moral high ground, he announces to the crowd that he would like to speak to the police, who arrive presently.
Between the facts, and his charm and reputation, Walt convinces the lackluster law enforcement officers that the dead goons were killed in legitimate self defense.
As the streets return to normal, Elise Cromwell is spotted, on horseback, riding away.
Shortly thereafter, the box is loaded and team is underway aboard Crikey's clipper. Arizona regales the group with tales of the Elise's Scavengers.
Two mornings later, the plan is to row ashore from the north side of the island and bushwhack inland with the sarchophagus strapped to the mule. The brush is thick and progress is slow. Near sunset, they reach a path running perpendicular to their current travels, lined with human limb bones hanging from the trees. Wyeth, wielding the machete on point, deftly avoids creating a cascade of bone-clattering when his blade hits a dangling femur.
Moments later, a group of blonde-headed inbred adolescents is spotted trundling down the path carrying enormous spider-crabs. The party takes up pseudo-tactical positions, with Helen attempting to calm the mule.
Walt, bedecked in his tophat, steps on a twig as they pass, and one turns in astonishment. In response, Walt electrocutes the youngster, who drops to the duff-covered path. As the other teens seem to debate what to do, two pan-faced tykes begin running back the way they came. Marcus takes aim, but the team waves him off, and the kids are allowed to escape. The other teens, however, are also felled by Walt's buzzing electro-field.
The party debates whether to follow the kids back, or followthe bone path to where they were headed. A brief recon discovers that just a little further down the path, it emerges in a risen clearing littered the crab shells. They move forward and camp nearby as the sun sets.
Marcus, stricken with understandable insomnia, keeps watch all night, and is the first to spot a group of larger inbred teens hustling down the path before dawn. The teens ascend the rise and disappear, but then return minutes later, with one less in their group.
The party cautiously allows them pass before approaching the rise themselves. Wyeth climbs a tree and discerns that there's a steep-sided cave atop the rise, and also gets perspective on the entire island, including what might be a cooking fire a half-mile away towards the lagoon.
The group steps through the cracking litter of crab shells and approaches the lip of the crevasse, presuming the alleged 'two headed baby' is within. Marcus, in a fit of inspiration, hauls out his ghost-trapper device and concentrates to activate it. A few seconds pass, a clatter is heard from within the lava tube, and the horrid creature leaps out like an oversized cricket.
From GM Notes:
Perhaps a skinny 8-yr-old boy, but backwards knees, scarlet skin, one arm bigger and longer than the other and tipped in a single yellow claw. Oversized bald head, yellow eyes and fangs, PLUS, a grapefruit-sized partial second head in its neck/shoulder region. A tuft of hair, eyes sealed closed by thin veined skin, seeping nostrils above a smashed up mess of randomly-placed teeth, tiny flicking forked tongue.
Combat ensues, but more than anything, insanity, as varous party members are stricken with disadvantages and afflictions: Paranoia, Bully, Bad Temper, Intolerance (all), Terrible Pain, Agony, Drunk, Truthfulness, and Megalomania.
After axe, bullet, and electrical fire wounds seem to only briefly injure the leaping monstrosity, Wyeth tackles it to the ground and hurls it into the box, whereupon Arizona slams the lid shut and lies atop the box anxiously as the party gradually recovers from their afflictions.
Eventually, Wyeth jogs down the path to find the missing mule, Marcus trailing behind, while Walt guards the box and Arizona and Helen spelunk the cave.
Wyeth spots the mule, keeling drunkenly with short arrows in its haunch, and beyond, a group of thirty or more blonde-headed primitives. They emit a haunting war cry and charge towards him.
Wyeth reverses direction, hauls Marcus back to the box, and defenses are prepared. Marcus quickly fashions an incendiary device and buries it in the path as the tribe approaches, Wyeth melts into the jungle to prepare a flanking attack, and Walt provides the detonation device in the form of ball lightning.
The hooting inbreds charge towards the group but are effectively dispersed by the explosion and Marcus' rifle shots, the first of which blows through three of them.
Two globe-skulled teens rush into the underbrush to encounter Wyeth's hulking form, and a growl and an uppercut sends them running as well.
Finally, quiet reigns, Arizona and Helen emerge from the pit with some treasures, and the group lugs the sarcophagus back to the north shore, where Crikey's men provide pickup. The 36 hour trek back to the mainland is uneventful.
To protect against any further trouble from the Scavengers, a decoy crate scheme is envisioned and successfully executed, and the party reconvenes at the Vanderbilt estate. Congratulations are offered, and the Lady shares her concerns that the demonspawn might hav ebeen deployed as a weapon of mass destruction.
With Little Wing nearby, she then takes the party and the sarcophagus to her subterranean warehouse she calls The Catacombs. A long descent by mechanical elevator is followed by the amazing sight of an enormous, high-ceiling chamber lit from above by strange blue orbs, and filled rows of tall and sturdy shelving, mostly filled with dusty crates similar to the one that houses the sacophagus.
Arizona blinks thrice at the assembled magicks that he alone can see.
Later, by the reflecting pool, Marcus produces some delightful ruby port, toasts are raised, treasures divvied, and next steps discussed. Lady Vanderbilt indicates that another mission is brewing, but advises the party get some needed rest -- and please, bathe yourselvs and launder your effects.