Bombaryx was once the most stable state on the Southern Coast, but the government and Royal Family have descended into absolute paranoia without explanation while the Guilds and Temples have become warring factions.
The Royal Guard has erected the Panopticon, the Tower of Light, which is a corrugated iron spire in the heart of the city. It glitters all night and day because it mounts 1000 telescopes trained on the city’s nerve centers and thoroughfares.
Even good people in Bombaryx are prone to outbursts, emotional sensitivity, and defensiveness, and may become violent if sufficiently irritated.
The madness of Bombaryx is due to a Glossolalian Mound that has been smuggled into the very Panopticon itself during its construction: a radioactive runestone that seeds its local environment with massive quantities of lead and mercury, gradually driving people to paranoia, impulsivity and physical decay.
Characters of Interest
King Carl Bombaryx: He was always strict in keeping his kingdom insular, but the massive infusion of lead and mercury into his environment has driven King Carl to absolute paranoia and has led to the construction of the Panopticon by the Royal Guard. King Carl sleeps at the heart of the Panopticon in a lead-lined room with no windows where the Royal Guard brings him his food and carries out his slops. His sons, Peter, Garmont, and Alsan lead the Royal Guard on punitive sorties against the Guilds and Temples. They don’t demand absolute submission, but that the burghers take the actions and adopt policies that King Carl believes will bring them back into the fold of their own volition (despite the brutal violence that follows noncooperation).
High Priest Francis Gander: This man follows the widespread faith of the Burning Eye. Alas, his zeal to manifest the Burning Eye on earth has led to the construction of a a focal light weapon (the Acme of Arson) atop the grand temple, and on sunny days he uses it to burn buildings elsewhere in the city or set fire to markets and other gatherings that he regards as potentially sinful. He welcomes the presence of the Cynthian Empire if they will destroy the city.
Colonel-Captain Marcus Gravevine: The Captain of the Royal Guard (“Colonel-Captain” is his own invention) travels through the city disguised as a member of each social class in turn. When he has discovered any perceived hotbed of sedition, he gives a signal to the Guard and then goes to ground while they sweep through and massacre the offending party. The Captain has become a consummate disguise artist and does everything possible to appear as a member of whatever class he needs to: gaining massive weight to pass as a nouveau guilder, starving himself to skeletal proportions to seem like a penitent templar, or rotting his own teeth, developing scurvy and tattooing himself with brutal and botched designs to seem the common sailor. Currently he is disguised as a wavy-haired and white-toothed (via dentures) Knight of the Moon, a wandering order of humanitarian knights who attempt to comfort the sick and wounded, feed the starving and strengthen the spirits of the downtrodden and dispossessed. As “Sir Aneirin Heleia” he is taking down an extensive list of lese-majestes and other malcontents in the City of Bomaryx. He will try to utilize the party for this purpose.
Jack Goodfellow: Formerly the scion of a powerful shipping house that singlehandedly propped up the Kingdom of Bombaryx’s economy, Jack began to have visions of a global mercantile combine whereby every port city in the world produced a different machine tool destined for Bombaryx, leading to a great transformation of Bombaryx into a machine of universal production where workers are born and die in their respective components and live lives in harmony with the great work. Jack’s first mission is to eliminate all figures of aristocratic or spiritual authority and institute guild rule in Bombaryx, and then internationally; this is what he focuses on while speaking to his followers. He welcomes the party and beseeches them for aid, though secretly he regards Starling & Shrike detectives as a form of dangerous labor spies not to be trusted after a successful revolution).
Characters of Interest
King Carl Bombaryx: He was always strict in keeping his kingdom insular, but the massive infusion of lead and mercury into his environment has driven King Carl to absolute paranoia and has led to the construction of the Panopticon by the Royal Guard. King Carl sleeps at the heart of the Panopticon in a lead-lined room with no windows where the Royal Guard brings him his food and carries out his slops. His sons, Peter, Garmont, and Alsan lead the Royal Guard on punitive sorties against the Guilds and Temples. They don’t demand absolute submission, but that the burghers take the actions and adopt policies that King Carl believes will bring them back into the fold of their own volition (despite the brutal violence that follows noncooperation).
High Priest Francis Gander: This man follows the widespread faith of the Burning Eye. Alas, his zeal to manifest the Burning Eye on earth has led to the construction of a a focal light weapon (the Acme of Arson) atop the grand temple, and on sunny days he uses it to burn buildings elsewhere in the city or set fire to markets and other gatherings that he regards as potentially sinful. He welcomes the presence of the Cynthian Empire if they will destroy the city.
Colonel-Captain Marcus Gravevine: The Captain of the Royal Guard (“Colonel-Captain” is his own invention) travels through the city disguised as a member of each social class in turn. When he has discovered any perceived hotbed of sedition, he gives a signal to the Guard and then goes to ground while they sweep through and massacre the offending party. The Captain has become a consummate disguise artist and does everything possible to appear as a member of whatever class he needs to: gaining massive weight to pass as a nouveau guilder, starving himself to skeletal proportions to seem like a penitent templar, or rotting his own teeth, developing scurvy and tattooing himself with brutal and botched designs to seem the common sailor. Currently he is disguised as a wavy-haired and white-toothed (via dentures) Knight of the Moon, a wandering order of humanitarian knights who attempt to comfort the sick and wounded, feed the starving and strengthen the spirits of the downtrodden and dispossessed. As “Sir Aneirin Heleia” he is taking down an extensive list of lese-majestes and other malcontents in the City of Bomaryx. He will try to utilize the party for this purpose.
Jack Goodfellow: Formerly the scion of a powerful shipping house that singlehandedly propped up the Kingdom of Bombaryx’s economy, Jack began to have visions of a global mercantile combine whereby every port city in the world produced a different machine tool destined for Bombaryx, leading to a great transformation of Bombaryx into a machine of universal production where workers are born and die in their respective components and live lives in harmony with the great work. Jack’s first mission is to eliminate all figures of aristocratic or spiritual authority and institute guild rule in Bombaryx, and then internationally; this is what he focuses on while speaking to his followers. He welcomes the party and beseeches them for aid, though secretly he regards Starling & Shrike detectives as a form of dangerous labor spies not to be trusted after a successful revolution).
He will, however, promise the players aid against the Cynthians, and he will provide it given that they are the most rapacious aristocratic empire on earth. He wanders the city barefoot in a tattered white judge’s gown and carries a .45 submachine gun slung around his neck, his hands thin and quaking. He is regarded as a kind of prophet by guild officials in Bombaryx.
Grucinax Grue: A Glossolalian morphine merchant turned cell leader here in Bombaryx. Grucinax has established his Mound in the one place the Telescopes don’t look: directly beneath the Panopticon. He comes and goes freely from the Panopticon because he provides the morphine necessary for the King to sleep at night. His men pass their time in a secret basement cell using Glossolalian Gossamer (because opium would be too odorous), and as such each is in intimate contract with the Machine Elves, who have given them each strange and secret missions to accomplish on the occasions that they are allowed to go out into the city.
Sir Trannal Mottan: A Cynthian Knight who has been sent to gather intelligence in Bombaryx. He narrowly escaped after a number of foreign intelligence agents were captured and hung from the Panopticon. He now leads a band of Plenarite mercenary tribesmen in the hills above Bombaryx near the Channels of Light, where he attempts to monitor the city as best he can from a distance. His faith in the Cynthian cause is slipping ever since he discovered an ancient repository and a device in the hills allowing him to see witness anything he can verbalize; as he discovers the history of the world, he has discovered the history of the Grave of the Sorcerers and fears that the Cynthian lords will use that magic to oppress their own aristocracy.
Grucinax Grue: A Glossolalian morphine merchant turned cell leader here in Bombaryx. Grucinax has established his Mound in the one place the Telescopes don’t look: directly beneath the Panopticon. He comes and goes freely from the Panopticon because he provides the morphine necessary for the King to sleep at night. His men pass their time in a secret basement cell using Glossolalian Gossamer (because opium would be too odorous), and as such each is in intimate contract with the Machine Elves, who have given them each strange and secret missions to accomplish on the occasions that they are allowed to go out into the city.
Sir Trannal Mottan: A Cynthian Knight who has been sent to gather intelligence in Bombaryx. He narrowly escaped after a number of foreign intelligence agents were captured and hung from the Panopticon. He now leads a band of Plenarite mercenary tribesmen in the hills above Bombaryx near the Channels of Light, where he attempts to monitor the city as best he can from a distance. His faith in the Cynthian cause is slipping ever since he discovered an ancient repository and a device in the hills allowing him to see witness anything he can verbalize; as he discovers the history of the world, he has discovered the history of the Grave of the Sorcerers and fears that the Cynthian lords will use that magic to oppress their own aristocracy.
He may eventually attempt to form a tribal confederation using his corps of Plenarite followers.
He is armed with a sniper rifle, semiautomatic pistol, and a satchel charge, which he may detonate if critically wounded.
Sir Mottan has forbade the automatic pistol among his men and issued them with submachine guns as a compromise. As a result they have been able to overcome several encounters with hostile Plenarites and their confidence is growing.
He is armed with a sniper rifle, semiautomatic pistol, and a satchel charge, which he may detonate if critically wounded.
Sir Mottan has forbade the automatic pistol among his men and issued them with submachine guns as a compromise. As a result they have been able to overcome several encounters with hostile Plenarites and their confidence is growing.
Princess Helia Bombaryx: This princess of Bombaryx has gone to the hills with her lover, the Cynthian occultist-knight Trannal Mottan. She believes in the Cynthian cause; she believes that it is the only salvation of her ruined homeland. The fact that her father has not sent the Royal Guard after his only daughter seems to confirm his madness to Helalia and Sir Mothand: the King is afraid of losing a single guardsmen outside the city, despite Sir Mottan having kidnapped the Princess to guarantee his escape. The Princess does not share Sir Mottan's trepidations about the Grave of the Sorcerers, and if need be will put a successful Cynthian invasion over her relationship with Sir Mottan, who she cares for but seduced with a clear head.
John Russell: The most prominent importer living in Bombaryx's poor foreign quarter. Unpopular with the Guilders and Templars alike (as most worship the Sun Lion), the foreign quarter is in danger of being looted and burned should the Guilder-Templar war decline and Russell has been busy trying to help coordinate preparations for a defense. He is a polyglot, which has allowed him to unite the far-flung people of his quarter, and he has even learned the sign-language of the foreign quarter orphans, a totally original language that evolved out of necessity; most of the orphans are aphasic and sign rather than develop a pidgin in this treacherous place. As a result the orphans see and communicate to one another everything that happens publicly in Bombaryx. While most wealthy merchants have long since left and the people here are buckling down to defend the only things they own on this earth, they may prove sympathetic to the party’s cause because most of them come and go throughout the year, suffering much less from the lead and mercury radiation than year-round residents.
Treasures and Discoveries
The Telepathyscope: Let it never be said that madness precludes innovation. Perceiving things his peers could not, the particle theoretician Marvus Marcel has invented a telescope that will focus 10’ from whatever the telescope is pointed at. The user must be careful not to look into the sky; if he does he will be stunned and disoriented for a day (with a ⅙ chance of being blinded in that eye from looking into a star somewhere in the universe), reducing his Proficiency by 2 in all things until he recovers.
Anyone viewing the cross-sectioned interior of this telescope will be held in stunned rapture as their vision segments and they look for a way out of what they are seeing but only discover new corridors. They must be pulled away. This telescope can be found at the top of the Panopticon.
The Acme of Arson: If this weapon could be cut from its steel moorings atop the temple, it could be a potent tool for long-range arson wherever it is brought. It is clad in layers of tempered steel and the Guilders’ attempts to knock it out by rifle fire have failed thus far. This device, like the Telepathyscope, was invented by Marvus Marcel. The first thing the Temple of the Burning Eye did after the Acme’s construction was to burn Marcel, naturally enough.
The Golden Orb: This underground structure was recently discovered by the Cynthian occultist-knight Sir Trannal Mottan. It contains a large golden orb and has gargoyles along the entranceway who have pulled their eyes out of their heads with their own tongues. The eyes are wrapped around their tongues by the stalks and peer intently at those who enter. This is a metaphor for the orb and its observers.
When you speak to the orb you see things. The more you say the more you see, the more you see the harder it is to control your speech, and then what you see tends to go out of control. You will see the closest actual thing to what you describe, now or in the past; the less detail you give, the more rapid and more general the visions will be, with less opportunity for study. Everything you see is real and has existed or exists, but unless you speak with great force and direction you are likely to be quickly overwhelmed by the multitude of visions that may accompany any single subject.
To use this device and to get to the bottom of any particular subject you will need to go through three rolls: first, when you are near it and begin speaking you must make an untrained Proficiency test to think straight as the GM tells you what you see based on what you say. If you fail you get dog-sick from vertigo and confusion and will need to be pulled back, your head spinning. Second, once you roughly determine what the thing is doing, you must make an untrained Proficiency test to begin to control the tempo of the visions using your speech (counts as Proficiency 1 if you are a Social Detective and/or have the Debate extracurricular); if you succeed the GM will begin to describe visions of the kind of thing you’re after. If you fail, an entity will intercept the transmissions you are receiving, and will show you what IT wants you to see. This will likely be disturbing, disheartening, and intended to tempt you towards cynicism, moral confusion and inaction.
Your third check (if you passed your most recent one) may be made at Proficiency 1 since you’ve gotten used to what you’re doing. On a success, it will show you visions of more or less exactly what you want to see in a useful way. On a failure, the entities intercept it and show you what they want you to see.
You must go through the second and third steps with every new subject you approach.
The entities showed the Cynthian images from the precursor empire in the islands that the Cynthians escaped from. He is now deeply afraid of the Cynthian lords unearthing the magic that allowed the Sorcerers to so totally tyrannize their own people in ancient times.
Here are a few visions the entities might present to the PCs:
1. Council Inspectors (the same type of agent as the Players) once committed a massacre of freshly-graduated S&S detectives who were investigating Anarcho-Syndicalists in the associated cities of Tourmaline Gorge on behalf of the Tourmaline government. The idealistic young detectives went over to the Syndicalists, at which point the Council sent their internal affairs squad, the Inspectors, after the wayward youths. After storming the syndicalist safehouse and killing most of the Tourmaline Syndicalists in a gunbattle, the Inspectors found the Detectives waiting in the nerve center, having laid down their arms by the door. The Detectives pleaded to return to S&S with the Inspectors if only for a trial, but the Inspectors herded their Tourmaline Syndicalist prisoners in amongst the Detectives and mowed them all down with their submachine guns. This remains the most controversial action ever undertaken by S&S personnel in good standing, though it remains largely unknown amongst the international public. The Tourmaline government was upset that the Inspectors didn’t turn over their prisoners, and the Council was upset that the Inspectors didn’t bring home their wards, but ultimately no disciplinary action has ever been taken.
This vision should demonstrate how cold-bloodedly the Inspectors killed the young detectives, who were pleading with them until the hail of hollow-points. None of the seven graduates killed were over the age of 20. The current Consul is visible taking part in the killing.
2. The Grave Islanders using electromagnetic weapons to attack ships and brutally throwing smoking, paralyzed women and children overboard, only kidnapping the immobilized, tear-stricken and flush-cheeked men. Visions of sickening sinew (laden with electrodes) creaking its way through machinery. The purpose of this is to make the players not want to help the Grave Islanders. The players may not yet know how enslaved the Islanders are.
3. The horrors that inhabit the wilderness and underground. This is intended to demoralize the players about the future of humanity; they will see things that have the potential to destroy the human race, having felled ancient civilizations using diseases or parasitic memes. Many monsters in this world cannot be harmed by bullets and artillery.
Potential PCs
Prince Jedwin Bombaryx: Fourth in line to the throne, Prince Jedwin has begun to suffer nightly visions of violence and bloodshed, the destruction of pursuers and their enablers. He has begun to despise his family and despairs of ever becoming king, so he will leap at the chance to steal away and accompany the players on an expedition. This will earn them the enmity of King Carl.
John Russell: The most prominent importer living in Bombaryx's poor foreign quarter. Unpopular with the Guilders and Templars alike (as most worship the Sun Lion), the foreign quarter is in danger of being looted and burned should the Guilder-Templar war decline and Russell has been busy trying to help coordinate preparations for a defense. He is a polyglot, which has allowed him to unite the far-flung people of his quarter, and he has even learned the sign-language of the foreign quarter orphans, a totally original language that evolved out of necessity; most of the orphans are aphasic and sign rather than develop a pidgin in this treacherous place. As a result the orphans see and communicate to one another everything that happens publicly in Bombaryx. While most wealthy merchants have long since left and the people here are buckling down to defend the only things they own on this earth, they may prove sympathetic to the party’s cause because most of them come and go throughout the year, suffering much less from the lead and mercury radiation than year-round residents.
Treasures and Discoveries
The Telepathyscope: Let it never be said that madness precludes innovation. Perceiving things his peers could not, the particle theoretician Marvus Marcel has invented a telescope that will focus 10’ from whatever the telescope is pointed at. The user must be careful not to look into the sky; if he does he will be stunned and disoriented for a day (with a ⅙ chance of being blinded in that eye from looking into a star somewhere in the universe), reducing his Proficiency by 2 in all things until he recovers.
Anyone viewing the cross-sectioned interior of this telescope will be held in stunned rapture as their vision segments and they look for a way out of what they are seeing but only discover new corridors. They must be pulled away. This telescope can be found at the top of the Panopticon.
The Acme of Arson: If this weapon could be cut from its steel moorings atop the temple, it could be a potent tool for long-range arson wherever it is brought. It is clad in layers of tempered steel and the Guilders’ attempts to knock it out by rifle fire have failed thus far. This device, like the Telepathyscope, was invented by Marvus Marcel. The first thing the Temple of the Burning Eye did after the Acme’s construction was to burn Marcel, naturally enough.
The Golden Orb: This underground structure was recently discovered by the Cynthian occultist-knight Sir Trannal Mottan. It contains a large golden orb and has gargoyles along the entranceway who have pulled their eyes out of their heads with their own tongues. The eyes are wrapped around their tongues by the stalks and peer intently at those who enter. This is a metaphor for the orb and its observers.
When you speak to the orb you see things. The more you say the more you see, the more you see the harder it is to control your speech, and then what you see tends to go out of control. You will see the closest actual thing to what you describe, now or in the past; the less detail you give, the more rapid and more general the visions will be, with less opportunity for study. Everything you see is real and has existed or exists, but unless you speak with great force and direction you are likely to be quickly overwhelmed by the multitude of visions that may accompany any single subject.
To use this device and to get to the bottom of any particular subject you will need to go through three rolls: first, when you are near it and begin speaking you must make an untrained Proficiency test to think straight as the GM tells you what you see based on what you say. If you fail you get dog-sick from vertigo and confusion and will need to be pulled back, your head spinning. Second, once you roughly determine what the thing is doing, you must make an untrained Proficiency test to begin to control the tempo of the visions using your speech (counts as Proficiency 1 if you are a Social Detective and/or have the Debate extracurricular); if you succeed the GM will begin to describe visions of the kind of thing you’re after. If you fail, an entity will intercept the transmissions you are receiving, and will show you what IT wants you to see. This will likely be disturbing, disheartening, and intended to tempt you towards cynicism, moral confusion and inaction.
Your third check (if you passed your most recent one) may be made at Proficiency 1 since you’ve gotten used to what you’re doing. On a success, it will show you visions of more or less exactly what you want to see in a useful way. On a failure, the entities intercept it and show you what they want you to see.
You must go through the second and third steps with every new subject you approach.
The entities showed the Cynthian images from the precursor empire in the islands that the Cynthians escaped from. He is now deeply afraid of the Cynthian lords unearthing the magic that allowed the Sorcerers to so totally tyrannize their own people in ancient times.
Here are a few visions the entities might present to the PCs:
1. Council Inspectors (the same type of agent as the Players) once committed a massacre of freshly-graduated S&S detectives who were investigating Anarcho-Syndicalists in the associated cities of Tourmaline Gorge on behalf of the Tourmaline government. The idealistic young detectives went over to the Syndicalists, at which point the Council sent their internal affairs squad, the Inspectors, after the wayward youths. After storming the syndicalist safehouse and killing most of the Tourmaline Syndicalists in a gunbattle, the Inspectors found the Detectives waiting in the nerve center, having laid down their arms by the door. The Detectives pleaded to return to S&S with the Inspectors if only for a trial, but the Inspectors herded their Tourmaline Syndicalist prisoners in amongst the Detectives and mowed them all down with their submachine guns. This remains the most controversial action ever undertaken by S&S personnel in good standing, though it remains largely unknown amongst the international public. The Tourmaline government was upset that the Inspectors didn’t turn over their prisoners, and the Council was upset that the Inspectors didn’t bring home their wards, but ultimately no disciplinary action has ever been taken.
This vision should demonstrate how cold-bloodedly the Inspectors killed the young detectives, who were pleading with them until the hail of hollow-points. None of the seven graduates killed were over the age of 20. The current Consul is visible taking part in the killing.
2. The Grave Islanders using electromagnetic weapons to attack ships and brutally throwing smoking, paralyzed women and children overboard, only kidnapping the immobilized, tear-stricken and flush-cheeked men. Visions of sickening sinew (laden with electrodes) creaking its way through machinery. The purpose of this is to make the players not want to help the Grave Islanders. The players may not yet know how enslaved the Islanders are.
3. The horrors that inhabit the wilderness and underground. This is intended to demoralize the players about the future of humanity; they will see things that have the potential to destroy the human race, having felled ancient civilizations using diseases or parasitic memes. Many monsters in this world cannot be harmed by bullets and artillery.
Potential PCs
Prince Jedwin Bombaryx: Fourth in line to the throne, Prince Jedwin has begun to suffer nightly visions of violence and bloodshed, the destruction of pursuers and their enablers. He has begun to despise his family and despairs of ever becoming king, so he will leap at the chance to steal away and accompany the players on an expedition. This will earn them the enmity of King Carl.
Prince Jedwin has been trained from birth to be a cavalry commander, excise official and duelist, so the players may find him a valuable asset in finding hidden places and leading islanders against the Cynthians. He is, alas, prone to mad charges and must resist this urge should it present itself; an Achilles heel in an automatic age.
Proficiencies: Finance and revenue, swordplay, handgun, combat and acrobatic horsemanship, combat command, poetry and great literature, history and genealogy.
If he has a chance to make a wild charge (potentially leading his men with him), the GM may make him roll not to. He goes for it on a 1-2, and sees a better opportunity on a 6.
The Widow of Bombaryx (Dendra Machalia): An herbalist-turned-assassin after her family was burned alive during an explosive Guilder-Templar battle. She uses poisoned needles. She might stick you and slip into a crowd, or you might find a needle at the bottom of your bowl of soup. The Templars, Guilders and Royal Guard all want her dead but can't go around harassing random women without getting in shootouts with their rivals over it.
She is skilled in cures as well. She can’t replicate her deadliest recipes unless she can access the city of Mandrake’s herbal market OR unless trade in the southern sea resumes. She does, however, have d4 doses of everything she knows how to make already on hand.
Proficiencies: Sleight of hand, coagulating/disinfecting/shock-stabilizing herbs, make poison, urban stealth, stalking and shadowing, verbally gather intelligence, impersonate, costumery
Proficiencies: Finance and revenue, swordplay, handgun, combat and acrobatic horsemanship, combat command, poetry and great literature, history and genealogy.
If he has a chance to make a wild charge (potentially leading his men with him), the GM may make him roll not to. He goes for it on a 1-2, and sees a better opportunity on a 6.
The Widow of Bombaryx (Dendra Machalia): An herbalist-turned-assassin after her family was burned alive during an explosive Guilder-Templar battle. She uses poisoned needles. She might stick you and slip into a crowd, or you might find a needle at the bottom of your bowl of soup. The Templars, Guilders and Royal Guard all want her dead but can't go around harassing random women without getting in shootouts with their rivals over it.
She is skilled in cures as well. She can’t replicate her deadliest recipes unless she can access the city of Mandrake’s herbal market OR unless trade in the southern sea resumes. She does, however, have d4 doses of everything she knows how to make already on hand.
Proficiencies: Sleight of hand, coagulating/disinfecting/shock-stabilizing herbs, make poison, urban stealth, stalking and shadowing, verbally gather intelligence, impersonate, costumery
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