Starling & Shrike Inspector Character Creation and Briefing

Summary: Character Creation for my Weird Gonzo Detective Fiction campaign Starling & Shrike: Missions of Mercy. Each player selects their Education Path, their Extracurricular, and three Field Schools they’ve attended since graduating. Every Inspector has had some experience with the supernatural before being selected by the Council; decide what horrific experience qualified your agent for induction.

Table of Contents

Character Creation

    -Education Path

    -Extracurriculars

    -Field Schools

The Briefing

    -The Situation

    -Compensation

    -Means of Insertion

    -Parachuting

    -Coastal Infiltration

    -Overland on Horse or Motorbike

Equipment

    -Standard Issue

    -Requisition

    -Cloak and Dagger

Financial

    -Relevant Commodities

    -Relevant Joint Stock Companies

Departure

Rule Reference

Education Path
This is your Class.

There are three Education Paths: Undercover, Signal-Stealth, and Forensic-Criminological.

Each class has an Investigation Skillset listed first, and then a Complementary Skillset listed second.

Each Agent has trained in their Investigation Skillset for over a decade before they went into the field. As such, this roll works differently than a standard Proficiency Roll. When you use an Investigation Skill, roll a d6:
1: You derive a meaningful lead.
2-5: You uncover as much truth as is possible from the current situation given your methods.
6: In addition to the above, you gain an uncanny insight or some other special bonus.

I have included a list of activities falling under each category of Investigation; however, you may add 1918-appropriate activities falling under the categories of HUMINT, SIGINT and CSI. S&S detectives are so broadly trained that they are likely to have at least some basis in these additional activities. The only non-technological limitation is that Undercover Detectives are not capable of simply persuading people to do things; they always require some kind of leverage to accomplish any social task under resistance besides gathering intelligence (whether that leverage is money, blackmail, or threats of violence).

Note that Proficiencies stack, so a Signal-Stealth Detective who’s taken the Clandestine Course would have Proficiency Level 2 in Lockpicking and Safecracking, and an Undercover Detective would have Proficiency Level 2 in Creating False Documents, etc

The Complementary Skillset is simply a list of Proficiencies you start with as a member of this class.

Here are the Education Paths:

Undercover Detective (Social Detective)
-HUMINT Investigation: Interrogate (12 hour rapport-building process involving a disrupted sleep period), develop informants (money is the most likely path), ply for information (liquor is a big help, you can also try to enrage them. If someone’s sympathetic to Starling & Shrike you can tell them you’re an agent, careful letting the cat out of the bag though)
-Undercover Work: Impersonation, developing deep cover paper trails (fake passports, planted residence documentation, forged financial and work history), urban stalking and shadowing

Signal-Stealth Detective (Infiltration Detective)
-SIGINT Investigation: Utilizing listening devices and microfilm, covertly drilling holes, disabling alarms and electrical systems and other mechanisms, intercepting and hijacking telegraphy systems
-Physical security: Move silently, hide in shadows, camouflage, climb, acrobatics, pick locks, open safes

Forensic-Criminological Detective (Analytical Detective)
-Crime Scene Investigation: Dusting for fingerprints then transfering them to paper using iodine (can determine age and sex by fingerprints, can detect drugs in someone’s oils, can detect glove prints and match them to a glove), detection and analysis of blood, reconstruction of activities at the site, finding hidden objects or evidence of tampering, noticing traps
-Surmise. You are highly trained in criminology, sociology and psychology, and you can derive likely facts about the meta-situation from details that you pick up in the course of your investigation. Why might he have done it? What kind of person does this? Are they likely to be hostile? Essentially, you get to ask the GM questions about the person or organization involved and get truthful answers. On a failure you are stumped, drained, and cannot make another Surmise check until you’ve gotten a good night’s sleep.

All Detectives are also Proficient in the following activities
Skiing, swimming and diving, literacy and numeracy, first aid, pistol, hip throws, basic driving and horseriding, morse code
Additionally, as a Council Inspector you are proficient in parachuting as well as raw agility, raw strength and raw endurance, which may be applied broadly to physically demanding situations.


Extracurricular
During your education, what extracurricular activity did you participate in?
Debate: Boosts interrogation, contract negotiation and other forms of antagonistic speech, includes knowledge of local laws
Equestrian: Combat and acrobatic horsemanship, leaping from horseback and landing safely after a fall.
Engineering: Working on engines, batteries, telegraphy and radiotelegraphy, printing presses and film
Orienteering: Wilderness survival, land navigation, boating (rigid-hulled and impromptu using a rucksack)
Gymnastics: S&S has a pair of phenomenal gymnasiums and regularly sends student gymnasts to the Games of Fire.
Boxing: The Stable. Lets you KO someone with a sudden hit and otherwise win hand to hand fights against multiple opponents; more charismatic than wrestling
Wrestling: Lets you take down, disarm, choke out and break the limbs of opponents; knockouts come from suffocation or slams and aren’t as fast as boxing or as good against multiple opponents, but wrestling has a lot of applications. "Compliance techniques", too.
Culture: Billiards, sailing and sommelier. Billiards as a way to mix with men of every social class in many societies, sommelier as a marker of high social class in many societies, sailing is both respected and useful.
Biathlon: Skiing and shooting. S&S biathlon includes both rifle and pistol.
Trigun: S&S sometimes wins international pistol tournaments but participants in this extracurricular train with the pistol, shotgun and rifle, often along a single course. Includes quickdraw, fast reloading, and tricks like shooting someone through your own coat.
Finance: Equivalent to the Revenue Academy. Prepares a Detective to make private investments and to enter the S&S Banking Wing once they’ve gotten some experience of other cultures and financial systems.


Field Schools
Schools range from 3 weeks to six months but are most commonly 1-3 months. Each school lists the activities you become Proficient in by the end.
Alpine Institute: Lets you lead climbs using specialized equipment, survive in alpine/glacial/tundra/taiga environments, ski cross-country and downhill with great proficiency (including jumping), dog sledding and dogsledding.
Lowland Ranger Course: Survival, evasion, tracking, trapping, orienteering, constructing hides, fording rivers, water infiltration, and finding safe landing sites for planes
Sniper School: Long-range precision rifle shooting mixed with concealment (urban and wilderness) and stalking.
Movement Course: Freerunning and free soloing. Move through an urban environment without impediment; rapidly scale walls and other obstacles that would stop most people in their tracks; jump and land safely from surprising heights; traverse narrow, unstable surfaces in the wind and rain. Free soloing allows you to climb almost anything without equipment.
Surgical Academy: Allows you to stabilize otherwise-mortal wounds, salvage limbs that might otherwise be lost, prevent infection and remove gangrenous tissue, and safely apply morphine and other drugs.
Motor Pursuit Course: Includes PIT maneuvers, high-risk turns, highway boarding, offroad driving, shooting while underway, bailouts, and motor repair.
Political Action Institute: Helps you start flashpoint riots, put out broadsheets that are effective at swaying public sentiment, start rumors in effective ways, and get leaders to listen to your advice. You are trained in the details of civil engineering and urban planning, and can assist foreign governments in setting up effective systems.
Revenue Academy: International trade and economic system, detecting creative accounting and corruption, also helps negotiate contracts.
Prosecution Academy: International law and legal systems. Lets you prosecute captured perpetrators in a variety of courts (potentially using your own evidence), and if need be represent someone in defense (including yourself). More stable societies will often demand that captured evildoers be turned over to the state for trial as part of a contract; alas, societies this stable are rare in this world, though the more prominent a citizen the more likely a trial will be, anywhere.
Flight School: Includes air to air combat, bombing and strafing, aerobatic maneuvers, parachuting, engine repair and emergency landings.
Saboteur School: Demolitions (surface and underwater), bombmaking and disarming, naval gunfire coordination, bomb damage assessment, water infiltration and cliff diving.
Internal Defense Academy: You can help an organization detect infiltrators and shore up its security protocols, you can train and lead militias and other teams into the field, you can help a group plan and execute strategies for wars and other actions, cartography and orienteering
Clandestine Course: Follow surreptitiously, pass information undetected, pick locks and crack safes, use grapnels, blend into an urban environment, pick pockets, cryptography, create false documents, slip handcuffs and other bonds



The Briefing at Starling & Shrike

To recap: Starling & Shrike is a mountaintop city-state. It relies entirely upon imports for food and almost everything else, having a domestic industry geared almost exclusively towards producing supplies and equipment for its employees. S&S gets its water from snowmelt and rainfall. Its economy is supported by two sectors: the financial industry and the detective agency. Most citizens are enrolled into the latter at birth, though not all complete their training.

S&S is a cold and tranquil place. Your nose is cooled as you walk through the streets. Most buildings are cream-colored stone that seems to glow as the snow reflects against the black sky, although there are homes made from brick or logs, as well.

The snow is falling silently past the intricate lampposts; there is no wind, no stars, the sky is black and soft.

The beauty and peace of S&S at night must be emphasized before the party goes anywhere, so as to contrast with the horror, madness, filth and deprivation that is to come.

The briefing takes place in the Council Palace at night, which is one such cream-colored building and is located to the South of the mountaintop, near the airstrip, overlooking those arriving at the train station in the forest down beneath.

The meeting room (off the grand staircase) has a high, arched ceiling and a brown and white tiled floor. The windows have diamond-shaped black latticework running through them, through which the snow and sky may be seen.

The briefing is conducted by Consul Nicholas Rainier, this year’s head of the Council. He is the only one present for the briefing besides the party. He is a sober man with combed-back brown hair. He wears a cream-colored suit with brown shoes and belt and a red cravat. At 37 he is young for a Consul, and, like you, once served as an Inspector. His election was controversial due to his participation in the Tourmaline Gorge Massacre, where a group of young, newly-graduated S&S detectives who’d shifted their allegiance to a faction of syndicalists they’d been investigating in the Free Cities of Tourmaline Gorge were summarily executed by the Council Inspectors sent to re-acquire them.

That said, Consul Rainier does not come off as evil or villainous here, but rather as hardened and calm with an inclination towards realpolitik. If any players give him a hard time about Tourmaline Gorge his eyes will flash and he will become tight-lipped, steering the conversation to the matter at hand and treating the most cooperative player as the party’s executive. If pressed, he’ll break his decorum and address the massacre by saying in a cynical and dismissive tone to his interrogator, “Please. You might be an Inspector but you don’t know a damn thing about how the world works. If you come back from this mission, which I doubt based on what a cherry you seem to be, maybe you can speak on my level then.” After that, further probing of the subject will be icily ignored.

The Consul knows everything from the last post’s sections “The Situation”, “The Mission, in no uncertain terms” and “Likely PC courses of action”. I will repost them below for concision.

He doesn’t know anything about the islands (beyond the Fire Islands) except what reports say; no S&S agent has ever travelled to Glossolalia, let alone to the Grave of the Sorcerers or Daimonia.

The Situation

The First Fleet of the Cynthian Empire is awaiting the completion of a canal in their client Kingdom of Kadwa. The canal will be finished in two days; the villages of the whole nation have been emptied of men, sent to labor under the whips of Cynthian enterprise.

Once finished, the canal will open our continent’s South Coast Sea region to the Cynthian Empire.

We were informed by a mole in Kadwa three days ago that the Cynthians intend to attack the three largest islands in the South Coast Sea to establish naval bases from which they will invade the continent via the chaotic South Coast regions. The island states targeted by the Cynthians are all absolute pariahs and we have no means of communicating with them.

No allied fleets will be able to reach the Southern Sea before the Cynthians invade these islands. As such, the inland city-states of Archzenith, Troutbridge and Seven Gables have contracted Starling & Shrike with a request that S&S send the Council’s personal operatives to prevent the invasion from taking place. The S&S Council has accepted, as the Cynthian Empire is a hereditary enemy, and has negotiated a contract with the northern city-states and a number of other regional creditors. A cell of trusted and experienced S&S Council Inspectors will be activated and will each travel to a predetermined meeting point on the South Sea Coast, after which they will do everything in their power to deny the Southern Islands to the enemy. Terms and compensation are as follows:

-Repulse or prevent the invasion of Glossolalia Isle: 12 100oz gold ingots

-Repulse or prevent the invasion of the Grave of the Sorcerers: 12 100oz gold ingots

-Repulse or prevent the invasion of Daimonia Isle: 12 100oz gold ingots

-Secure all islands; the Cynthian fleet retreats to the West Sea: 24 100oz gold ingots

Starling & Shrike will take 2 ingots per objective; the rest will be delivered directly to the party or a bank account of their choice.

S&S is providing the party with a single 100oz unmarked gold ingot for their preparation, which can be cut however is needed; each player also has 1d20 x 10 oz of gold for their personal liquidity.


The Mission, in no uncertain terms

Stop the Cynthians from conquering and occupying these islands by any means necessary. Payment is per Island held by forces not aligned with the Cynthian Empire; a grand bonus will be awarded for completely defeating the invasion.


Likely PC courses of action

This should not be presented to the players unless they ask for the Consul’s advice.

Travel to the islands, ascertain the dispositions of the current inhabitants, and lead them in the defense of their islands against the Cynthians.

Supporting activities: Ascertain Cynthian invasion plans, sabotage the construction of the Kadwan Canal to buy more time for the S&S operation, stabilize the South Coast region and thereby gain local forces and resources for the defense of the islands, rally support from the Bandit Tribes, clandestinely acquire high-quality gear from the Fire Islands (site of the annual Games of Fire; stunt planes, advanced belaying rigs, race-built yachts, biathlon gear, etc)

After the situation is discussed and the PCs begin discussing their desired course of action, the Consul will be able to tell them about possible means of insertion.

Starling & Shrike is far to the north of the Northern Realms on our Southern Sea Coast map; the Northern Realms are a variety of non-aligned city-states that by and large are sympathetic to S&S (and will be the primary industrial targets of a Cynthian invasion; their Western Coast is well-fortified, but their borders with Mandrake and Bombaryx are not). All means of ingress to the region will pass through or over the Northern Realms, although gameplay proper will begin once the players reach their initial point of entry.

Note that no commercial flights are traveling to Kadwa, Mandrake, Bombaryx or the Fire Islands; Kadwa has cut herself off from the world after swearing fealty to the Cynthians, Mandrake is experiencing a period of anarchy and Bombaryx is experiencing a period of tyranny, and the Games of Fire are not in session in the Fire Islands.

In brief, here are options the Consul will suggest:

1. The PCs can parachute in nearly anywhere except the Fire Islands. This has the benefit of extreme rapidity and great proximity to their destination, but limits them to what they can carry on their body and 1 crate of goods to be parachuted in with them (and it is far more likely to suffer a malfunction than they are). The Consul will caution against jumping into the Channels of Light due to the perpetual lightning storms there, but will allow it if the players insist.

2. Entry by motorbike or horse across a remote border region of the Kingdom of Kadwa, the Dominion of Mandrake, or the Kingdom of Bombaryx. This allows them extended mobility and a way to transport goods (saddlebags), but is also the slowest practical way of getting there.

3. Coastal insertion via seaplane. This is safer than parachuting but is highly visible and leaves the party to travel on foot to their destination.

Once the players have decided which method of insertion they will take, refer to the following section for details.

Parachuting from enneaplane can reach anywhere except the Fire Islands, which are too rocky, jagged and small to reasonably jump over. An enneaplane is a nine-winged seaplane with a large cargo compartment and a cargo door on the rear. Its crew will consist of a Pilot and a Flight Commander who stands by the cargo door and identifies when it is safe to jump.

The enneaplane will be threatened with destruction by a jump over the Grave of the Sorcerers, Daimonia, the Channels of Light, or anywhere near the Kadwan Canal.

The Consul only knows about the dangers of the Channels of Light (massive lightning storms at all time + you’re jumping into the hills and mountains which is dangerous) and the Canal (flak cannons); unbeknownst to S&S, the Grave of the Sorcerers is defending by flak guns as well, and living in the peaks of Daimonia there is a giant mutated vampire bat possessed by a shredded subpersonality of a guardian deity.

When you jump over the following destinations:

-Near the Kadwan Canal: Roll a d6. On a 1, outlying flak guns open up on the plane, which has its wings shredded while shards rip through the thin walls, cutting up and damaging everything the players have brought with them and leaving superficial cuts on their bodies as well. The pilot has his throat cut by shrapnel and the flight commander is jarred out from the back of the plane; he opens his parachute but will land in the Kadwan Canal. He will shortly be captured and subjected to brutal torture by the Cynthians (knives, boiling water, electrocution); he will hold out as long as possible and take massive damage to give the party time to maneuver (d4 hours), but will finally divulge the mission to the Cynthians, at which point they will go into high alert to find the players. The players will find him horribly mutilated if they attempt to rescue him.

The players will need to make an emergency jump from the plane; everyone should roll a d6. On a 1, they suffer a major problem: getting their clothes caught on jagged material inside of the plane, getting trapped near the cockpit during a plummet, or having a partial-opening of their parachute once they’ve made it out of the plane. They can use one of their Proficiencies to escape if relevant; however on a second Fail they are killed (riding the plane in or burning in with a cigarette-rolled parachute). They touch down in the desert outside of the Canal.

On an initial roll of 2-5, the insertion goes smoothly.

On an initial result of 6, the enneaplane spots a pair of Cynthian biplanes on patrol who don’t see the enneaplane; as the players jump and drift down to the desert, they can observe the fighters landing at a lightless motor pool a few miles from the Canal, which they otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

-The Grave of the Sorcerers: Roll a d6; on a 1 it’s the same situation as in Kadwa, but the Flight Commander lands at the bottom of the temple pit and is captured by the Temple Guards and infected by one of the Star Viruses, who subjects him to a monstrous fever until he cracks (d6 hours). The players will find him horribly mutated if they attempt to rescue him.

Each player who exits successfully must roll a d6 to determine where they land, as the Grave is much smaller and has a far denser infrastructure than the area around the Canal.

1: The player lands at the bottom of the pit. The Temple Guards close in rapidly; should they capture the player, he will be quickly bound in manacles that are linked to an electroshock machine that will incapacitate him; he will be laid adjacent to the Flight Commander in a hanger outside the Temple, where a Star Virus will approach and infect him. He will suffer an agonizing fever (like being buried amidst tectonically-shifting stone) and begin to mutate, growing vestigial eyes, fingers, nostrils, tongues and ears.

2-5: The player lands amidst the city of beached ships surrounding the pit. At night he may have a few moments to hide; during the day he will be spotted on the way down and Grave warriors will quickly begin to close in on him.

6: The player lands painfully on the massive sandstone platforms that bridge the towering megaliths together, but he is blessedly alone. Looking around, he sees a variety of cargo ship segments that have been bolted into place here and are being used as huge winches. He may quickly encounter the engineer from Ascension, Geordie Passer, or workers/guards that will take him to Passer. If he descends, this is more likely; if he ascends, he will eventually reach a Temple Guard post near the highest platform.

On an initial roll of 6, the players marvelously touch down in the stretch of downy-soft dust-sand between the beached battleship fortresses, and the city of lost ships dragged up onto the high shore that functions as the island’s primary polis.

-Daimonia: Roll a d6. On a 1, there is an ear-stabbing sonic screeching from the night that drives everybody to their knees in agony. Blood seeps from everyone’s ears. Anyone who looks outside the enneaplane sees a gigantic form rising from the island’s rocky peaks. Alternatingly fleshy and black-furred, with vivid, glowing red eyes, it is careening for the enneaplane. A heartbeat later gigantic hooked claws rip through the enneaplane’s canopy as the gigantic, mutated vampire bat seizes the plane. The players have a choice: jump wherever they are, attack the bat, or wait.

Jump: The players bail out instantly. Each player rolls a d6. On a 1, the player lands in the water near the coast and will have to free themselves of all of their bags, satchels, firearms beyond a pistol, and their rucksack and then swim to shore using whatever relevant skills they have. A further snake-eyes here will kill them (though that’s blessedly unlikely).

On a 2-5, the player lands in the jungle, most likely having their parachutes caught in the dense canopy.

The first player to roll a 6 is caught midair by an 8’ snowy owl who begins loquaciously interrogating him about anything and everything. See the upcoming Daimonia post for more. All other players to roll a 6 land safely on the island’s sandy shores.

On an initial roll of 2-5, the players land in the jungle.

On an initial roll of 6, the players land on the sandy beach and can observe the Cynthian patrol ship beached on the rocks far out to sea.

If the players attack the bat, they may be able to wound it, it depends on what they brought. In any case, enneaplanes are fragile and this one was finished from the moment the bat sunk its claws into the plane.

Jumping up and trying to board the bat Shadow of the Colossus style is also possible for a player who has Climb. The good news about this is that the player is wearing a parachute so when he falls of the bat he’ll be somewhere over the island; the bad news is that on a pair of Fails, the bat gets a grip on him and swallows him whole. Also, should he manage to seriously damage it (something clever like entwining the strap of a satchel charge in its fur and then bailing), the deity’s possessiveness subpersonality is likely to be maimed. If it were to die, the deity would have little direct interest in defending the island. The players don’t know this, however, and will think they’re simply defending themselves from the Monster of Skull Island, so if they somehow maim it here, that means it will be easier to find and reunite with the God Pearl later on.

If they fail to damage the bat, however, it will tear the enneaplane in half. The pilot and the flight commander are at the extremities of the plane, and the bat will seize them in its claws and fly back to the island, draining one of blood in midair and saving the other one for the ground. The players will have to parachute as above.

The same thing will happen if the players wait, but they can get a fuller description of the thing’s sour face and flexing claws before it yanks the plane in two.

-The Channels of Light: The pilot refuses to go deeply into the channels due to their never ending lightning storms; he will drop them in the hills, either between the mountains and Bombaryx, between the mountains and the coast, or between the mountains and the Earthheart Fens in the northeast of the Channels. Whatever the players choose, roll a d6.

1: The plane is struck by lightning. Luckily the cargo area is mostly wood and canvas, so while the players each suffer a severe electric shock it’s not as bad as it could be. That said, the whole plane is engulfed in a conflagration that sends the Flight Commander screaming away, his parachute a burning wreckage, and has the pilot completely consumed by a wall of flame. The players will need to get out of the plane immediately but it’s breaking up in flight; each will need to make some sort of roll to escape. On a 1, they are torn apart as the enneaplane breaks up. On a 2-5, they begin to descend but several pieces of their gear are on fire. On a 6, they’re safe, albeit very numb and burned from the lightning strike. Great crooked beams of lightning continue to explode here and there in their field of vision.

2-5: The players land painfully on a rocky hillside amongst cascading pillars of electric destruction and fuming, pulverized dust.

6: The players touch down on a relatively flat region of highland near an icy lake. The lightning is sparse here. Anyone who’s been to Revenuer school will smell moonshine brewing from some crags nearby. There is also someone inside the lake who will be curious about the party; see Mikvit when I post the full Channels of Light section.


Jumping elsewhere isn't as dangerous but some spots still require a roll.

-Mandrake: The players land in the Mangrove swamps outside of town. On a 1, the player goes in the drink and everything they own gets soaked through. On a 6, they land in a volunteer banana tree.
-Bombaryx: The players land in the dewy, sparse forests of the Kingdom’s hinterlands.
-Kadwan hinterlands: The players land softly among the dunes.
-Glossolalia: Roll a d6. On a 1, the players land near a sleepy village, and sluggish villagers will observe them; soon, blinking militia cavalry will come to inspect their landing site, sabers and semiautomatic pistols drawn during daylight, or one hand with a torch and one holding a hunting dog’s leash at night. The Affidavit hunter-killer cadres will be activated as well, but they will not be the first to the landing site, being more centrally located on the island.
On a 2-5, the players land among the hilly forests that cover much of Glossolalia. Looking around, they see a waterlogged oat field at the bottom of a slope, and higher up the awning of a village house.
On a 6 the players land in an opium field. They are beautiful hazes of pink, purple and red on rich green, one of the only truly beautiful places on this otherwise-drab isle. On their way in they caught glimpses of a well-maintained but isolated manor on the coast, a town of modest and somewhat drab whitewashed homes, and a forest clearing full of strange statues.


Making a coastal entry by seaplane to any region is straightforward but involves less variability than parachuting.

-The Coast of Kadwa is largely deserted by the Kadwan military, not expecting the chaotic states of Mandrake, Bombaryx, Glossolalia or the Grave to be able to detect the Canal; the players will see quiet fishing villages with sandswept boats and wharves. Obviously there has been little fishing here as of late; the women do what they can but will fall back to their cellars if they see heavily armed operatives sloshing in from a nine-winged flying boat. A female S&S operative may be able to approach them alone and hear about what’s happened, from the Cynthian chevauchees to the surrender to the men being emptied from the villages by Kadwan Royal Guardsmen and Cynthian Sea-Legionnaires to be trucked away for work at the canal. No consideration was given to the wellbeing of those left at the villages.

-A night landing at the Fire Islands will allow the players to enter the rocky islands unannounced and begin their hunt for Olympic-quality gear.

-Landing up the coast from the capital in Mandrake and Bombaryx, or anywhere along the Channels of Light, is very straightforward. The party won’t be molested.

-When landing at Glossolalia, roll a d6.
1: The plane gets made coming in. The militia is waiting for them when they come ashore; the party is attacked by a fusillade of gunfire from the brush before a militia cavalry charge is launched, the unsteady and dry-eyed militiamen still launching deadly saber-swings and firing their semiautomatic pistols.
2-5: The party disembarks in the reeds, unannounced.
6: The seaplane pilot cuts the engine and silently drifts into an abandoned moorage near a sandy cliff, cloaked by heavy sloping woods on each side. Up the coast a little ways is a well-maintained manor.

-Landing at the Grave of the Sorcerers will play out more or less the same way no matter what: the sea is monitored 24-7 from every angle, and enormous naval guns will open up from the coastal fortresses in plumes of billowing sand, trying to drown the seaplane or knock it down with the fury of detonating shells. The pilot wants to bug out; if the players insist on staying, he’ll get as close to shore as possible before the seaplane is flipped by a detonating shell from a battleship turret. The players will have to escape the seaplane and then swim to shore under heavy gunfire (they’ll need to at the very least abandon their rucksacks), with the pilot drowning unless someone rolls a 6 trying to save him, and then they’ll have to get up the beach somehow despite the presence of multiple machineguns on each fortress hulk. Hope they brought their sniper rifles. Eventually, dozens of warriors will push down the beach towards them. At this point, short of ditching into the sea again and making some circuitous (multiple-check) tour around to a different part of the island (assuming they haven’t been directly seen), it’s probably being captured or eventually being overrun and killed by sheer numbers; the Islanders won’t retreat from this, having several Temple Guards and 4-armed Captains as backbone.

If the players decide to bug out, they’ll be able to get away safely. If they decide to scout the island by air, machineguns inside of ship-segments mounted on the island’s megalithic structures will open up on the ponderous plane and shoot it down in short order if the players don’t soon call a retreat.

-Landing at Daimonia: There is an enormous blue whale who has been mutated and inhabited by the Guardian Deity’s rage subpersonality near the coast. This thing has gigantic barnacle-horns like a minotaur, eyes that weep living snails of pure crystal (quite valuable), and a pair of livid, smouldering blowholes; any water ejected from these (potentially traveling hundreds of feet) will reach its target still boiling hot. Roll a d6:

1: This thing surfaces even before you touch down. “Shit! Look at that gigantic fucking narwhal thing!” cries the pilot, jumping suddenly. A moment later the windscreen is broken by a blast of water that similarly crumples the wings of one side of the plane. The pilot is engulfed in boiling water and screams horridly; boiling water courses through the cargo bay, scalding the players about the shins and hands as well. The plane goes off-kilter and careens towards the surface; in horror, the players can see it coming but don’t have time to bail out (and anyways it’s too low for them to deploy parachutes if they’re even wearing any). The plane smashes into the water at a blessedly-acute angle, and although the front is smashed in and cracks run all along the wood and canvas structure of the plane, and the players are thrown all over the place, no one is crushed or maimed. Even the Flight Commander survives, and for a few seconds the plane drifts, dark inside and cut off from the sun, upon the splashing sea.
Seconds later their stomachs seem to fall out from their bodies as this monstrous blue whale emerges from beneath them with its mouth open wide. The crushed plane goes sailing down its gullet with all aboard. See the entry for Daimonia for more once its posted.

2-5: The players land on the water and start motoring for shore when this gigantic fucking blue whale with barnacle horns and glowing-red pinprick eyes and blowholes that radiate head like pilot lights emerges from the water in a wave-upturning heartbeat. The pilot and flight commander scream. The players can either bail out and tell the pilot to get the hell out of there, in which case they players will get to shore just before this thing, which blasts its boiling blowhole at them before descending into the deep again (this is dangerous and requires a check to escape), but if the players have the pilots motor them all the way to shore then the seaplane will be devoured by the whale as soon as the players are off. However, if the crew goes down the gullet with the plane, the players can encounter them later should they voluntarily be swallowed by the whale.

6: The players see the whale on the other side of the island as they approach, but it doesn’t have time to get to them or the seaplane before their offloading is complete.



Entry overland by motorbike or horse. You can take a motorcar or coach instead but you’ll be strictly confined to roads.

This is the most straightforward means of entry, though it takes a day of uninterrupted travel just to reach a border, precluding the possibility of sabotaging the canal before its finished. As stated before, traveling through Kadwa the players will see villages stripped of men, through Bombaryx they will encounter small farming villages all deeply concerned about the king’s illness (which is psychiatric, but they don’t want to tell you that) and will possibly be accosted by motorbike-mounted Yeoman Rangers that patrol the roads between villages, collecting impromptu taxes for the King (this is a new thing with no precedent; formerly the King was strict and isolationist but fair). Traveling through Mandrake they are highly likely to be attacked by brain-addled bandits on the run from the absolute chaos consuming Mandrake, where gangs of exiled aristocrats from across the globe, supported by small armies of mercenaries and hangers-on, are going to war in the streets while the Consul of Mandrake has retreated aboard the fleet at anchor with the whole of Mandrake’s military to wait it out. The bandits you encounter will be paranoid, irritable, muddle-headed and shaky, just like the gangs presently at war in Mandrake.

Lastly, you can travel through the Earthheart tribal regions to the north of the Channels of Light to reach the mountains there; these are forests, hills and fens not well-suited to motorbikes although horses will do just fine. There are several tribal chieftains here who have had positive interactions with S&S agents in the past, though not the clans know the name of Starling & Shrike.

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After the party has decided exactly how they want to do their entry, they’ll be able to select their equipment. While there are no hard and fast weight rules, the GM should have a ballpark estimate of how encumbered the players are getting and begin to apply Proficiency penalties when they attempt to do things under a massive load. Beyond that, he should carefully maintain a visual account of what the Detectives look like; in most of the South Coast Sea region besides Mandrake, the sudden appearance of rucksack-laden operatives who are draped in hand grenades, satchel charges and rucksacks while clutching submachine guns and sniper rifles will be met with a wordless barrage of gunfire. Even in Mandrake the players will be accosted before long by one of the aristocratic warlords’ men.

Anyone who isn’t draped like a local laborer when approaching the Kadwan Canal will be seized and taken to the Cynthians in short order. However, clothes appropriate to nearly any region can be packed before deployment.

The Consul used to be an Inspector; he knows how it is, and thus he can open up the “seized assets” warehouse and provide unusual weapons and skulduggery equipment to the players, stuff that would be unavailable for requisition to normal agents. That said, most of what’s available is pretty basic; whatever crazy 1-of-a-kind experimental weapons there are getting used en masse in Battlefield 1’s multiplayer or whatever are not available here, and if they exist in this world at all they’re not common and they’re not reliable, and they won’t be for decades (unless some gun nut mad scientist PC invents them in a larger campaign).


Equipment

The Consul provides a sheet to each player to order gear for the mission; it will be ready within an hour of notifying the armory.

This list is not exhaustive; GM’s discretion about whether an item not listed here is available in the hours between the PCs getting the mission and deploying. All of this is free; the primary consideration is weight. Limits are per individual.

Practically, an agent can carry 1 rucksack with a pair of long items strapped to each side, and then two briefcase or satchel-sized items (one by each of his sides), and then 1 small item over the abdomen. There is no practical infantry armor that can stop anything above a low-caliber round in this era; only the Cynthian sea legionnaires wear plate armor and it stops them from doing any kind of overland travel without a huge number of trucks or armored cars in support.

Standard-issue equipment

Forgery kit: For Undercover Detectives. Fits in a briefcase or is distributed around the inside of a greatcoat. Includes a disguise kit.

Signal toolkit: For Signal-Stealth Detectives. Small, flat knapsack that covertly wraps around arms and legs like a parachute. Includes microcamera, lockpicks, safe stethoscope, miniature bolt cutter, glasscutter, rope and spring-toothed grapnel, etc

CSI kit: For Forensic-Criminologist Detectives. Small briefcase or messenger bag.

.45 semiautomatic pistol: A hundred years ago, newly minted S&S detectives were issued a double-barreled flintlock pistol with a braining knob and a rapier, but today the sole weapon handed across at graduation is the S&S .45 semiautomatic pistol. It is a sturdy weapon with a surprisingly low level of recoil due to its length and heft. It loads 7-round magazines; foes preparing to face S&S detectives often scoff at this, forgetting that the rawest S&S graduate has already trained with this weapon for a decade.

Commonly requisitionable free of charge, though with a per-agent limit per some items

Rucksack: Allows you to carry 100+ lbs of gear, though you’ll start moving slowly after 60lbs. You can parachute in with a full rucksack.

.45 SMG: 3’ long, cannot be broken down or shortened. 30-round stick magazines. Limit 1.

30.06 sniper rifle: Breaks down into briefcase, toolbox or duffel bag. Limit 1.

Satchel charge: Time, fuse or wire-detonation. Limit 2.

Thermite strip. Limit 3

Toolkit: Roughly the size of two open hands laid next to each other. Limit 1

Surgical bag. Limit 1

Hand grenades: Not available to standard Detectives, but available to you as Inspectors. Limit 4

Rations: Basically greasy pemmican in a resealable bag. Highly efficient. 3 days each

Fighting dagger, cosh, machete, bowie knife, hatchet, smatchet et al

Pulaski: Small but two-handed entrenching axe, allows you to create hides and fortifications in the wilderness as well as to hack down or pry open wooden doors.

Set of clothes befitting a member of a particular social class in a particular place. Note that S&S detectives in plainclothes will not stand out in Mandrake, Bombaryx or the Fire Isles.


Stuff that S&S doesn’t encourage the use of but that Council Inspectors sometimes like to have around and that the Consul can provide you with; "cloak and dagger" in a cloak and dagger world.

9mm machine pistol: Built off of a semiautomatic pistol chassis, has a small integral foregrip and an optional folding stock. Limit 2 but you’re hitting nothing if you dual-wield you motherfucker

Sawed-off shotgun. Limit 1

Garroting wire

Pair of brass knuckles

Extremely fine liquor, alcohol surreptitiously increased. Limit 2

Cut diamonds: Available from S&S jeweler per 25oz of gold.

Suitcase flame fougasse. Limit 1

Shank or razor hidden inside a common item i.e. toothbrush, comb, cigarette case

Vial of vomiting agent or chloroform. Limit 4 doses

Tripwire for grenade or satchel charge

Saturday night special: Pepperbox derringer. Limit 1

Sword: If the bowie knife wasn’t enough for you, this is likely to cut off limbs with every blow

Double shoulder holster with a second .45 semiautomatic



Financial

Remember, Starling & Shrike is half a detective agency, but it’s also half a financial institution. Once the party has chosen their gear, the Consul notes that he has had Financial Branch prepare a set of contracts for any interested PCs; these papers list stocks and commodities relevant to the mission which the players may invest their personal funds into before deploying if they so choose. The payoff of each stock or commodity will be determined by the final outcome of this adventure. The information below the “---” is for the GM only; he will report each player’s return after the adventure.

The players can amend their order should they reach a telegraphy station; however, the only functional telegraphy stations in the South Coast Sea regions are in Mandrake, Bombaryx, the Fire Isles and the Cynthian facilities in Kadwa.

Investment x1.5 means that will be the size of your original investment if the conditions are met. Note that Cynthian control of the relevant region will nullify the value of the commodity or stock in question.


Commodities

Aqua ignavus: Ground gallstone of Vermilingua Ignavus mixed with tree sap. The only imported material that goes into Mandrake absinthe; it has found no other purpose and the beastkeepers of Feyglade are pulling their hair out as it rots on their wharves.
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If the blockade of Mandrake ends: Investment x1.5
If the aristocrats have been crushed and Mandrake has to shift its economy away from the allowances and inheritances of its first citizens: Investment x1.5
AND the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x1.5
Otherwise: Investment x0

Luxuria leeches: Emits a potent nerve agent through the mouth that immobilizes its target while the leech feeds, but is actually quite pleasant; this was a popular means of going to sleep quickly in Bombaryx before the tyranny began.
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If trade in Bombaryx opens up again to the outside world, the Guilders are not destroyed, and the monarch or head of government is not in a state of crippling paranoia: Investment x2.5
AND the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x1.5
Otherwise: Investment .5

Mink fur: Extraordinarily popular amongst the exiled aristocrats of Mandrake despite the heat; currently the Consul of Mandrake is trying to starve out the warlords so no ships are entering Mandrake at this time.
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If the blockade and gang war of Mandrake both end and there is still a large population of aristocrats in the city (ie they haven’t been brutally crushed by the city-states or the bandit tribes): Investment x2
If the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x1.5
Otherwise: Investment x1.1

Match grade pistol components: The Plenarite barbarians of the Channels of Light have a peculiar preference of firearm: they love fully-automatic pistols that are steadied upon 5’ magazines, which they otherwise use as war clubs or lengthy nunchaku. It requires an extremely reliable handgun to put out the rates of fire they adore without jamming often, and as such they have been the world’s largest importer of high-quality fully-automatic pistols for quite some time.
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If the Plenarites have been usurped, scattered or otherwise destroyed: Investment x0
If the Plenarites have become dominant over a city-state: Investment x2 per
If the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x1.5

Coal: Will rise in value if shipping increases in the South Coast Sea. Shipping in this sea is nearly at a standstill.
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If the isolation of Bombaryx ends: Investment x1.5
If the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x2
If Glossolalia must shift its industry away from opium: Investment x1.5
If the Grave of the Sorcerers is reconciled to the outside world: Investment x1.5

Wheat: If new markets of hungry people are opened, your wheat will rise in value.
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If the Kingdom of Kadwa is freed from Cynthian tyranny (not automatic just because their fleet retreats to the Western Sea): Investment x3
If Glossolalia is freed from the Statue Men and Machine Elves: Investment x1.5
If Glossolalia must shift its industry away from opium: Investment x1.5
If the Grave of the Sorcerers is reconciled to the outside world: Investment x2
If the isolation of the Panopticon of Bombaryx ends: Investment x1.2
If the blockade of Mandrake ends: Investment x1.2


Stocks

Ascension Shipyards: Suffering greatly due to the loss of ships and shipping in the Southern Coast Sea.
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If the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x2
If a new government takes over in the Panopticon of Bombaryx, no matter who they are: Investment x1.5

Firebird Holdings: Owner of a panoply of sporting and recreational goods producers whose wares are critical for the annual Games of Fire.
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If the piracy of the Grave of the Sorcerers is ended in the Southern Sea: Investment x1.5
If Glossolalia is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If the Grave of the Sorcerers is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If Daimonia is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If the Kingdom of Bombaryx is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If the Kingdom of Kadwa is freed from the Cynthians and reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If the Plenarites are somehow reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.3
If a stable government is restored in Mandrake: Investment x1.5

Mason Construction: Specializes in frontier contracts; likely to benefit heavily if new and relatively-undeveloped markets open.
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If Glossolalia is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If the Grave of the Sorcerers is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x1.5
If Daimonia is reconciled to the Northern Realms: Investment x2.5
If the Kingdom of Kadwa is freed from the Cynthians: Investment x1.5



After this, the players are ready to head to the airstrip or take the night train to the S&S motor pool. If any of them want to say goodbye to their families or go to a favorite place before departing, they should be encouraged to do so. Waking up your wife to say goodbye, or walking in a forest park you’ve known since you were a boy could be very poignant. This will contrast with what is to come.

Rule Reference

Derived from the Bandit Tribesman character creation post. There's basically one rule for this game: the Proficiency Check. Italicized commentary: If you'd like more complexity, just sub in an OSR system or Apocalypse World or what have you. I find this system works surprisingly well and my players are happy, but my #1 personal priority as a GM is how fast the game moves. D&D combat makes want to gnaw on the table, let alone something like V:tM or Shadowrun. You lose hours every session that could be spent really *doing* things. I prefer RPG combat fast and hard as nails.

The Proficiency Check
GM, decide ahead of time if you'll have a number of progressions required to beat a particular problem, or if you're gonna narratively freeball it based on the color result like yours truly. If the latter, tell the party how they advance the situation in their favor on a White result; on a Green they accomplish what they're trying to do within reason. Failure on a Red should be punishing to maintain tension; you don't need to massively damage the party every time but it is a good time for all hell to break loose in a satisfying way.

Player, when you're trying to do something and the GM tells you to roll, determine your character's total Proficiency in whatever you're trying to do, roll a d6 and check the result (the GM can throw on or take off a level of Proficiency if you have some big advantage/disadvantage):

This can go above 2 and below Untrained as well, just extend green or red

I have only one hard and fast rule; if you're exchanging deadly attacks and you roll a 1, roll another d6:
1: Death
2-5: Serious wound with attended Proficiency losses and physical slowdown, etc. Serious medical aid or recuperation will be required.
6: Nasty flesh wound; no Proficiency loss etc but blood everywhere, no hiding it.
So you have a 1/36 chance of dying whenever you exchange deadly blows with Proficiency. You also have a 5/6 chance of pushing the situation forward to your advantage, so your character is still competent to the point of heroism, but even Delta Force guys get killed sometimes. Better to launch an ambush or something if you can.
Results of 6 on your primary combat roll normally kill one or all opponents you are personally facing.

Why don't weapons have stats? Every weapon lets you do things you wouldn't be able to do otherwise, ie shoot at long distance, suppress the enemy or nail a whole bunch of them on a 6 result, severely damage monsters and so forth. If you're trying to shoot at a long distance the GM might dock you a Proficiency level if you have a pistol but not with a sniper rifle. If you're trying to win a struggle to shoot someone in a melee the GM might dock you a Proficiency if you've got a sniper rifle but give you a bonus if you've got a sawed-off, and so forth. Besides allowing you to do new things and bypass penalties, weapons are weapons and bullets are bullets for our purposes.

In any case, this is not a hard and fast rule but something that I like to do: always tell the players what they stand to lose on a Red and what they stand to gain on a Green. That way they can walk it back if they don't want to take the risk; they were warned.

Remember also that Investigation checks have their own rules:

When you use an Investigation Skill, roll a d6:

1: You derive a meaningful lead.
2-5: You uncover as much truth as is possible from the current situation given your methods.
6: In addition to the above, you gain an uncanny insight or some other special bonus.

Alternate character creation method: https://worldbuildingandwoolgathering.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-little-outside-my-normal-material.html