Visitors will find Mandrake in a state of general gang warfare between fantastically attired aristocrats from around the planet, and their retinues, some of whom are die-hard loyalists and some of whom are cynical foreign mercenaries.
The streets are mostly mud with incongruously splendid counting houses, couturiers and villas alongside ramshackle boozing halls, raucous boarding houses and midtown muskeg, both sets frequented by the outlawed aristocracy. The town should have a Silent Hill feel with these unhinged gangs sweeping about; the increase of violence between the city's first citizens seems to have been accompanied by general mental, moral and physical decline as well.
The Dominion of Mandrake
Government: Aristocratic consular republic
Population ~250,000
Military 3,000 sailors, 2 battleships, 4 destroyers, 2 frigates, plus ad hoc cavalry formations
Major Exports: Tinctures, vaccines, silk, absinthe, wood, sulphur, dye
Major Imports: Food, fur, textiles, lay minerals, precious minerals, labor
Characters of Interest
Consul Garret Vernatine: A hereditary citizen of Mandrake not descended from a foreign aristocrat, as mandated for the Consul of Mandrake by the city’s weatherbeaten constitution. He has Mandrake’s entire naval corps holed up in the docks, guarding the fleet, and is currently residing on the flagship Spear Twixt Slats. He does not share the jaunty irreverence of his flagship’s name. If the players help him bring order to the city, he will provide them with whatever resources they require for their mission; everything except sailing against the Cynthians or otherwise directly attacking them. He has been away at sea fighting the fleet of the Sorcerers and is saner than most of his countrymen, but many of the fleet's guards are slightly mad from the situation in the city and may be difficult to deal with. They act irrationally, such as by jumping from the side of their ship into the water to speak to the party a little closer.
Count Chaldon Monedew: A larger than life noble who plans to hijack the fleet from under the Consul’s nose; he promises the players that he will sail against the Cynthians thereafter, and if he should somehow succeed then he certainly will do so, and he will probably sorely damage the Cynthian fleet before his defeat (Mandrake’s fleet will be a shadow of its usual quality without its panplanetary officer corps). His mind has been sorely affected by lead, mercury and liquor, and his scheme to hijack the fleet is completely harebrained without heroic aid on the part of the players. His garb appears to be made entirely of the feathers of fantastic breeds of peacocks; in combat he will produce a pair of gold-plated machine pistols and empty them rapidly.
Sir Morcar Coleolus: A noble returning from the city of Archzenith, where he petitioned the families for an investment so that he might end his exile by traveling to the Channels of Light to recruit the hill tribes as further auxiliaries for Archzenith’s rapidly expanding corps of tribal mercenaries. He now walks through the unguarded gates of Mandrake to find the markets looted and deserted while bullets pass overhead between rival mansions. Archzenith has not been suffering from a Glossolalian Mound (its mercury problems are a result of its POW mines and so not as severe). Morcar now plans to take his chest of gold and maps of the Highlands to recruit the tribes there for an invasion of Mandrake, and promises the PCs that he will help them against the Cynthians if they help him get to the Highlands and back in one piece. There is a 50% chance that he will do as he says he will, rolled at the conclusion of a successful invasion of Mandrake. The aristocrats of Archzenith are competent warriors and he will equip himself for the journey in a steel breastplate and carry a .500 nitro express rifle in addition to his usual brace of pearl .44 revolvers.
Sir Pruitt Albumen (actually Sir Alinai Fossume): A Cynthian Knight sent to collect intelligence in Mandrake and prepare it for an invasion. Sir Fossune is posing as a merchant adventurer who has recently returned to Mandrake to find it in shambles. He sits in an abandoned saloon near Mandrake’s open gates sipping fine indigenous absinthe, waiting for people like the PCs to enter. He has six men (Cynthian commoners) out on the city trying to ascertain whether the madness here has a physical cause, and they are on the verge of unearthing the Glossolalian cadres. If the players reveal to Fossune that they are S&S operatives, he will express sympathy with their goal and offer his help, leading them through the uncanny streets of this city, pausing to let rambling gangs of shambolic mad noblemen and their halfwitted mercenaries pass, before taking them to an abandoned rowhouse on a shady, leaf-covered hillside where he will bring them inside to meet the five of his men who are present for resupply. When all his men are in the room, he will draw a machine pistol and say “For Cynthia. Execute them.” after which a point blank shootout will begin. His remaining man (Jeren, just Jeren) will return soon and can lead the PCs to the Glossolalian cell, who inhabit the basement of a manor. The exterior trapdoor is incongruously strong and iron-banded with a gleaming padlock. The commoner has little loyalty to Cynthia but only understands feudalism, and is likely to try and swear himself to a player or to the Consul of S&S if his lord is killed by the players.
Kamzadan Kaz: The Glossolalian priest who leads the Mound Cell in Mandrake. Formerly an opium smuggler before his people unearthed the Gossamer Boar and made contact with the Machine Elves. He dresses like a dockhand and has large, round, bloodshot eyes; his men are similar, and spend their time smoking opium in the basement of a bombed-out manor in a park-heavy area of Mandrake. If the players attempt to fully enter the basement at any time, the cell will fight to the death attempting to maintain the secret of the Glossolalian Mound (a runestone that radiates mercury and lead, seeding the area with it as well as everyone's bodies). The players may encounter him out and about, where he keeps tabs on the gang wars, or may be led to him by the Cynthians or a nobleman. If the players explain about the planned Cynthian invasion of Glossolalia, he will offer to take the players there to meet with the “High Priests”; if they agree, he will transport them in a small smuggling submarine moored a little up to coast from Mandrake; robbers will set upon the group halfway there but their guns *all* jam, at which Kamzadan laughs in a self-satisfied way. On the journey, Kamzadan will ask a player to keep the rudder steady while he communes with the Machine Elves, tearing a band from a roll of Glossolalian Gossamer and wrapping it around his arm, which it will bloody as it tesselates into his bloodstream. If the players take some they will enter the Machine Realm, as described in the entry for Glossolalia, but will specifically encounter a Machine Elf in the shape of the Consul, who will ask them to do something abhorrent to gain an advantage in their quest (eg dagger out the eyes of an innocent or ally, such as Jeren if he’s with the party, and tie them together like a bola; they will point in the direction of the nearest supernatural creature (except the Statue Men and the Gossamer Boar, of course)). He will tell the party that Glossolalia must stand, but that the Grave of the Sorcerers and Daimonia must fall to the Cynthians, and that he couldn’t tell them that inside the Councilary Palace. This is just the Machine Elf using the players’ memories. Once they arrive at Glossolalia, you can use the entry for Glossolalia as reference. He will lead the players to the Conduit, wherein the High Priests will approach the players excitedly and tell them to prepare to be transformed into Statue Men, that they may aid in the defense of the island. This should be a horrific prospect given the High Priests’ appearance; if it fits your style, you can make it clear that the players will go insane and become pawns of the Machine Elves if they go through with this process.
Treasures and Discoveries
A giant egg that is decorated like a Fabergé egg; very valuable by itself. If placed in a flame, one minute later a psychotic spider will hatch from the egg, unfurling itself to the size of a small but vicious dog and leaping around in a poisonous and berserk feeding frenzy.
The GM can place this wherever he feels a treasure is needed; otherwise it's a tool of Sir Fossume, which he may use to assassinate the leadership of one of the city's gangs (hopefully with the PCs present).
Potential PCs
Sir Bastianado Violatear: Knight of the Rose, Knight Errant. Serves as a wandering executioner for death sentences passed in absentia. Leaves a red rose upon their corpses. Dressed all in blood red except a black breastplate and black fullhelm. Came to Mandrake seeking warrants, found it as the players do. Carries a pair of black semiautomatic .45s on his breastplate, has access to a semiautomatic shotgun. There is a standing death sentence against Cynthians in many courts, so he will gladly join the mission.
Potential PCs
Sir Bastianado Violatear: Knight of the Rose, Knight Errant. Serves as a wandering executioner for death sentences passed in absentia. Leaves a red rose upon their corpses. Dressed all in blood red except a black breastplate and black fullhelm. Came to Mandrake seeking warrants, found it as the players do. Carries a pair of black semiautomatic .45s on his breastplate, has access to a semiautomatic shotgun. There is a standing death sentence against Cynthians in many courts, so he will gladly join the mission.
Investigation Skill: Holy Terror. If someone can be intimidated or tortured into divulging information, Sir Violatear can do it instantaneously or in d4 hours. On a 1 result he may get information but the subject is killed if he was using physical violence.
Proficiencies: Shooting, horsemanship, takedown, law, climbing, breaking doors, hide in shadows (not move silently), pick locks, raw endurance, orienteering (not wilderness survival), poison. No proficiency with agility or acrobatics tests due to his armor, which allows him to soak the wound on a 1-5 or 1-6 result.
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