None of the Usual Suspects
This adventure focuses on a group of scientists, mathematicians and scholars in the world of Theah. While it features the same death-defying stunts, courageous rescues and witty banter as a typical adventure, the characters’ stronger focus on intellectual matters is meant as a change of pace for the players. Feel free to encourage esoteric mathematical debates as well as more physical activities during the course of this adventure. Try to keep the heroes moving quickly, setting a quick pace without cessation to encourage a sense of urgency. Also, the Invisible College often finds itself at conflict with the Inquisition, but this adventure is meant to show other forces with which they must contend.
Background: Clarisse Hadewig, an Eisen mathematician and prominent member of the Royal Association for Scientific Minds, disappeared several days ago and a group of her fellow scholars, acting as the heroes of our tale, are concerned for her well-being. After spending the last few years on the run, constantly on guard for an attack while still devoting her time to developing her understanding of the physical and mathematical sciences, she completed several extremely important research projects. This included research proving that astronomical observations were best measured on the meridian, new methods of grinding and polishing telescope lenses, and developing epicycloids for the best shape for teeth in toothed-wheel clockwork mechanisms for uniform motion. However, she remained in the Eisen port of Gurkheim for the last couple months while making lunar observations. She wanted to complete her calculations before moving on since she believes she is on the verge of a radical new discovery.
Gurkheim is lovely in the early springtime. To the north, slowly retreating iceflows glisten in the setting sun but the temperature is now warm enough that you cannot see your breathe and snow no longer lies in hyperbolic drifts amongst the buildings. A coach clatters loudly across cobblestones, splattering mud across pedestrians and stores alike in a graceful arc. But matters of geometry can wait, your mind is consumed by a new quest. Mrs. Kurtch, the landlady of a companion of yours named Clarisse Hadewig sent for you. Mrs. Kurtch is concerned that something might have happened to her. You enter the boarding house, only to find that you were not the only one she summoned.
The boarding house consists of five rooms on the ground floor and another 8 upstairs. The ground floor consists of a homey kitchen filled with the smell of baking bread, a dining room so narrow that people must push in chairs to pass by the table, a tiny bedroom for Mrs. Kurtch, a small study with four shelves containing a mixture of books bought second hand, and a common room with a small piano and several threadbare divans. The second floor consists of four tiny bedrooms. Clarisse Hadewig rented two of them, another boarder rented a third and the last is unoccupied.
Mrs. Kurtch is a wizened old woman with a perpetually angry face, a raspy voice and an opinion on everything. “Thanks for coming. That poor fraulein, Clarisse…she’s in trouble. I know it. She spends too much time with that brain of hers and not enough with men. It’s a shame I tell you.” Despite her demeanor, she is a good person and truly cares about her boarders. When Clarisse Hadewig failed to leave her rooms since dinner night before last, Mrs. Kurtch thought she’d overworked herself yet again and tried to wake her up for breakfast. She found the room ransacked and Hadewig missing. Remembering that the Hadewig preferred to avoid entanglements with the authorities, Mrs. Kurtch asked her friends and companions to come and investigate. Mrs. Kurtch knows that Hadewig was in the house yesterday and Kurtch has only left the house for a few times over the last few days. Yesterday, she went to the market to buy food between 10 am and noon and then she left to visit a friend from 2 pm until 3 pm. The house was empty during those times and locked, though both borders have keys. She saw no other sign of intruders during that time.
Hadewig’s Rooms - A quick search of her rooms reveals that the first room contains her wardrobe and personal effects. These lie strewn about the room or beneath the upended chest while the bedding and pillows have been ripped open. The room’s window was damaged by someone entering from outside (Wits+Stealth TN 10). There are also several strange black marks upon the floor (Wits+Tracking TN 15, 1 free raise for nautical characters) caused by a sailor with tarred feet. Also on the floor are several nut shells (Wits+Keen Senses TN 20). Wits+Herbalism or Botany TN 20 reveals that the shells are a form of walnut only native to Avalon. Heroes may also notice (Wits+Keen Senses TN 25) a patch of wall which is slightly lighter, something hung here until recently. If Mrs. Kurtch is asked, she remembers that it was a mathematical prize Hadewig had won and proudly displayed.
Hadewig painted the walls of the second room white and then laboriously wrote mathematical formulas in charcoal upon them. However, someone recently hurled a bucket of paint across the vast majority of the information, making it utterly illegible. The only furniture in the room is an overturned single hard-backed chair and on overturned table. Strewn across the floor are broken lenses, string, paint brushes, pens, spheres, gears and mechanical parts. There is noticeably no paper or books within the room, though there is an empty shelf which once held books. Also missing are Hadewig’s geometry and scribing tools. A single brown silken threat juts from a nail upon the door frame (Wits+Keen Senses TN 15). One section wall near the door contains two hastily scrawled mathematical formulas.
The formulas are 23×631 and 62×1223. These are a coded message to other members of the Invisible College. Each formula results in a number. Each digit of this number correspond to a letter in the alphabet. Anyone making a Wits+Mathematics check TN 15 can solve the math problems. Members of the invisible college will know that each digit of the solution will correspond to a different letter. The letters are assigned in numerical order, so the higher numbers will match up with letters later in the alphabet. Many players can solve some of these steps by their own efforts, which should be encouraged. The goal is that they will not solve this puzzle until they receive additional clues at one of the other locations.
23×631 = 14513
62×1223 = 75826
Key : c = 1, 2=e, 3=k, 4=l, o=5, 6=r, 7=t, 8=w
Solution : clock tower
Questioning neighbors : If neighbors are questioned, no one saw anything. However, Panache+Streetwise TN 25 (with a free raise if the heroes mention the missing woman or suspicion of foul deeds) convinces an old beggar to reluctantly admit that he saw a group of sailors visit the house yesterday afternoon. When they found the door locked, several slipped around back and went in through the window of one of the upstairs rooms while a beautiful grinning Avalon wench offered him a guilder and a kiss to keep his mouth shut. Further, Panche+Streetwise TN 15 (with a free raise for members of the merchants guild) jogs the memory of the shop keeper across the street who noticed that Hadewig and a tall thin man left the boarding house yesterday late morning only minutes before Broxson returned. The pair entered a clock shop in the main square, across from the clock tower.
Anyone investigating the clock tower finds Franz tending the store. He is an earnest man with a friendly smile who matches the description they were given. He denies any involvement, but if pressed, admits that Hadewig is in the cellar. He leads the heroes down there, rushes across the room and up another trapdoor. If anyone remained upstairs, he pushes them into the basement and then locks and bars both doors into the basement. Then he closes the shop and leaves for the clock tower.
The heroes should find themselves locked in the basement of the clock shop. However, they discover the basement is filled with a multitude of interesting objects including gears, bars, wire, various chemicals including acids, shelves of books, blueprints of the clock tower, small quantities of gun powder, herbs, oil and tables. Basically, there is everything a mad scientist needs to do remarkable things. Encourage the heroes to come up with creative ways to get out of the basement and allow anything within reason.
Franz: B2, F2, W2, R2, P2. Has all knacks from Courtier, Streetwise and Firearms. Armed with a brace of three pistols.
The Other Boarder - Currently, Mrs. Kurtch has only one other boarder, a Vendel merchant named Karl Broxson. Dressed in a fine outfit of leather and silks, Broxson is in town to sell a cargo of rugs in town. He spends most days visiting other merchants and clients, only returning for meals and to sleep in his rented room. If questioned, he says he didn’t see or hear anything. An extremely curious and good-natured fellow, Broxson answers any questions posed to him, but asks one of his own for each of the heroes’. However, the doorknob to his room has a slight black paint stain (Wits+Keen Senses TN 15) and hidden at the bottom of his chest are dozens of academic books. Inquiring in town reveals that while he claims to be a rug merchant, he has made numerous inquiries with booksellers and publishers. Karl Broxson is actually a thief and plagiarist. He steals other people’s scholastic works and notes and then publishes them under assumed names. He is responsible for ransacking Hadewig’s room, stealing her notes and destroying the calculations she had written upon her wall after copying them down, however, he does not know where she is. If questioned too strongly or confronted with his crimes, he will confess to stealing her notes and offers to take them to the warehouse he rents. The front of the warehouse holds barrels of salted fish (owned by a different merchant) while the back contains his printing press, enough blank paper and bindings for a small print run and a dozen Castilian rugs. In addition, Hadewig’s notes, notebooks and several drawings of a clock tower are all spread across a table. Eight rank 2 brutes prepare the printing press and paper while Broxson is arranging type for the first run. If confronted, Broxson orders his men to attack and leads them. Two brutes always stay by his side to aid his own attacks against the heroes. If the brutes are all eliminated, he confesses his crimes and returns the notebooks. If examined, a couple of the documents includes intricate gear schematics, but they are not in Hadewig’s handwriting. These are to the clock tower and brought by her guest.
Eisen thugs: 8 rank 2 brutes armed with improvised weapons. Each brute gets back up after being hit once.
Karl Broxson: B2, F2, W2, R2, P2. Has all knacks from Criminal, Scholar, Spy, and Fencing skills at rank 3 as well as the Merchant skill with Printing and Accounting.
Follow the Tars: Checking the docks, only one Avalon ship is in port, a merchant ship called the Scarlet Marlin delivering nuts and captained by a beautiful woman named Beth Tailor. If approached openly, Tailor denies any knowledge of Hadewig or her whereabouts and refuses to allow the heroes on board her ship. More subtle approaches include offering to help load cargo for someone delivering supplies or attempting to seduce the captain or the watch on the ship. If the heroes get into the captain’s quarters, they find a plaque from the Royal Association for Scientific Minds for Outstanding Achievements in Mathematics beneath her navigational charts. Hadewig scrawled the key to the math code on the back of the plaque. Alongside it is a letter from Robert Hooke of Avalon offering the privateer captain Tailor 200 guilders for the return of the award stolen by Clarisse Hadewig. The letter’s language clearly indicate that she stole it by somehow convincing the judges of the Royal Association that her utterly worthless drek of a solution to a complicated problem was superior to his own graceful and elegant solution. If the letter and plaque are revealed, Tailor shrugs and confesses but denies that she and her salts had anything to do with Hadewig’s disappearance. In fact, the only reason the room was so thoroughly searched was that they never thought she’d display her prize so openly. During combat, the brutes and Tailor swarm through the rigging, swinging into heroes and attempting to knock them off into the water. They do not use lethal force unless the heroes do so.
Avalon Privateers : Twelve Rank 2 brutes armed with belaying clubs (light weapons), Swinging 3, Balance 2. Once per round, a brute squad may use swinging as an attack.
Beth Tailor : B2, F2, W2, R2, P2. Has all knacks from Captain, Criminal, Sailor, and Fencing skills at rank 3.
The Clock tower: A three story clock tower sits in the center of the town beside the main square. While bustling commerce goes on below, the clock silently grinds out the hours by means of an enormous and complicated series of gears. A small Rilasciare cell living in the town decided upon the clock tower as a perfect symbol of the corrupt authoritarian culture. They mean to blow it up at midnight. However, none of them possessed the talent to create a bomb sufficient to destroy such a large edifice without killing dozens of townsfolk. They wish to sow disorder, not snuff out innocent lives. When they read Hadewig’s recent publication on the properties of gunpowder, they knew the answer to their dilemma. They kidnapped her and forced her to create the bomb and set it within the lowermost gears of the clock tower. The bomb is now completed and the Rilasciare locked and barred the doors to the tower before retreating to the third floor. (Finesse+Lockpicking check TN 20 for the lock, Finesse+Lockpicking check TN 35 for the bar. Breaking down the door requires a Brawn check TN 30 for the door and TN 40 for the bar) They also removed the pins from the stairwell as they retreated to ensure no one can reach the bomb in the basement. Their plan is to rappel down the side of the clock tower in the darkness and wait for the explosion timed for dawn. To make the adventure more exciting, the Rilasciare are on top of the clock tower when the heroes arrive there and just beginning to rappel down. Due to a flaw in the fuse, the bomb will go off 8 rounds after the heroes arrive. Hadewig wanted the bomb blast to injure the saboteurs. If the heroes are stumped, they might spot her atop the clock tower.
The Rilasciare forces consist of an 6 brutes and two henchmen. The brutes descend the rope followed by Gunther, Hadewig and Franz. Two people descend each round. If attacked, the Rilasciare fight until everyone is off the tower and then scatter into the town, leaving Hadewig and the heroes. All of them are wearing hooded masks to conceal their identity from their captive except for Gunther who plans to return to Freiburg now that this plan is completed. Hadewig insists on disarming the bomb, but a stray blow during the combat has injured her leg. She cannot climb down to the bomb since the only way to reach it is to climb down the moving gears. A moments study from the top of the clock tower (Wits+Mathematics check TN 15) shows the proper path to take to reach the bomb (2 free raises to the Climb check). A Wits+Mathematics check TN 35 reveals the spot to insert an easily-found iron rod and break the clock’s mechanism. Anyone descending must make a Finesse+Climb check TN 30 to reach the bottom in one full round. Anyone failing this check takes 3k3 damage as a limb is caught in the massive gears of the clock. It takes a Wits check TN 15 to disarm the bomb.
Rilasciare brutes: 6 rank 2 brutes armed with daggers (light weapons). Stealth 1. Once per round, brutes may elect to perform a prank upon a hero as their attack. If successful, the hero’s next action die is increased by 1 plus an additional 1 for every 5 points they exceeded the hero’s passive defense.
Gunther: B3, F3, W3, R3, P3. Has all knacks from Courtier, Hunting and Fencing skills at rank 3. Armed with a rapier.
Franz: B2, F2, W2, R2, P2. Has all knacks from Courtier, Streetwise and Firearms. Armed with a brace of three pistols.
Aftermath: Once saved, Clarisse Hadewig is extremely grateful and offers to help the heroes with research or any other means at her disposal. Give the players 1 xp for each task : retrieving her notes, retrieving her academic prize and rescuing Hadewig. Give whomever disarms the bomb an extra xp and subtract 1 xp from each players’ total xp if they allow the bomb to go off.
Major NPC:
Clarisse Margaret Hadewig
B2, F3, W5, R3, P3.
Courtier: Dancing 1, Diplomacy 2, Etiquette 3, Fashion 1, Gossip 2, Mooch 2, Oratory 2
Doctor: Diagnosis 3, First Aid 3, Surgery 1.
Fencing: Attack (Fencing) 3, Parry (Fencing) 4.
Knife: Attack (Knife) 2, Parry (Knife) 2, Throw (Knife) 2
Professor: Oratory 2, Research 4, Writing 3, Law 1, Mooch 2, Natural Philosophy 4, Politics 1
Scholar: Astronomy 4, History 2, Natural Philosophy 4, Mathematics 4, Natural Philosophy 4, Philosophy 2, Research 4.
Advantages: Avalon (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Vendel (R/W), Member: Invisible College, Brilliant, Secret Laboratory (Small).
One of the brilliant minds within the Invisible College, Hadewig possesses a quick smile and a warm heart. She encourages her acquaintances to become involved with the Invisible College and sponsors them personally. While many think she is too trusting, her open personality and friendly demeanor have garnered the College many recruits and even more allies.
PLAYERS
Gellir Brown
Vendel Swordsman
B2, F3, W3, R2, P3.
Doctor: Diagnosis 1, First Aid 2.
Athlete : Climbing 1, Footwork 3, Sprinting 2, Throwing 1.
Bonita School: Bind 1, Disarm 3, Exploit Weakness (Bonita) 1, Wall of Steel 3.
Fencing: Attack (Fencing) 3, Parry (Fencing) 3.
Merchant : Glassblower 3
Pugilism: Attack (Pugilism) 2, Footwork 3, Jab 1.
Rider: Ride 1.
Scholar: History 1, Natural Philosophy 2, Mathematics 2, Philosophy 1, Research 1.
Advantages: Bonita School, Avalon (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Vendel (R/W), Member: Invisible College, Above Average Appearance.
The son of a glassblower, you found yourself attracted to the beautiful scholar from your home town. When her studies brought her into contact with the Invisible College, you joined as well to ensure her safety. While that early infatuation faded over the years, your determination to ensure those with brilliant minds are allowed to flourish. Your comrades in the organization have encouraged your own studies into the tonal qualities of glass, but you generally find yourself more occupied by aiding them against danger. You’ve stayed with Clarisse Hadewig on several occasions when the Inquisition threatened, but unlike many women, she resisted your charms with ease.
Sylvia Kraus
Eisen Courier
B3, F2, W3, R2, P3
Athlete: Climbing 1, Footwork 2, Sprinting 1, Throwing 1
Dirty Fighting: Attack (Dirty Fighting) 3, Attack (Improvised Weapon) 3, Parry (Improvised Weapon) 3, Throw (Improvised Weapon) 2
Doctor: Diagnosis 3, First Aid 3, Surgery 2
Firearms: Attack (Firearms) 3, Reload 2
Hunter: Stealth 2, Survival 3, Tracking 2
Merchant: Gardener 2
Rider: Ride 2, Trick Riding 2
Scholar: History 2, Mathematics 2, Philosophy 2, Research 2
Streetwise: Scrounging 3, Socializing 3, Street Navigation 3, Underworld Lore 1
Advantages: Avalon (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Academy, Member : Invisible College
The daughter of an Eisen merchant, you have traveled across Eisen dozens of times. However, while you once did so in order to gain a profit, now you deliver messages between a dozen scholars engaged in dangerous scientific experimentation. While you find their research fascinating, your true goal is to find a means of restoring the weak soil of Eisen. To that end, you collect soil samples from across the region and test it for signs of improvement. You are familiar with the math code in which a series of mathematical equations must be solved to determine a set of numbers. Translating each digit of these answers into a different letter reveals the answer. Clarisse Hadewig is a friend and you’ve delivered correspondence from and to her on several occasions.
Reinhard Swartz
Eisen Mathematician
B2, F2, W4, R2, P2
Courtier: Dancing 1, Diplomacy 2, Etiquette 2, Fashion 1, Mooch 3, Oratory 2, Sincerity 1
Knife: Attack (Knife) 2, Parry (Knife) 3, Throw (Knife) 3
Professor: Oratory 2, Research 3, Writing 2
Scholar: History 1, Mathematics 3, Philosophy 1, Research 3, Astronomy 1, Natural Philosophy 1
Advantages: Avalon (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Thean (R/W), Research Library, Spark of Genius (Mathematics)
Background: Rivalry (Clarisse Hadewig) 1, Hunted 1
Numbers have always held a fascination for you and when an Avalon nobleman offered to sponsor you to a University, you quickly agreed. After spending several years in the stifling halls of academia, you fled for your homelands. Since returning, you’ve devoted yourself to equations and calculations, determined to prove your brilliance and win one of the academic prizes offered annually. So far, all your hopes have come to naught, largely due to Clarisse Hadewig. Hadewig beat you out for top honors in several competitions and proved one of your solutions was false in another. Your reputation suffered, but you find it hard to fault her dedication or intelligence. Since she moved into your own town, you’ve met with her on numerous occasions and enjoy her company, but still secretly yearn for her downfall.
Maria Cortez
Castilian Chemist
B3, F2, W3, R3, P2
Knife: Attack (Knife) 3, Parry (Knife) 2, Throw (Knife) 1
Firearms: Attack (Firearms) 2, Reload 3
Merchant: Blacksmith 3, Tinker 3
Scholar: History 1, Mathematics 3, Philosophy 1, Research 2, Astronomy 1, Natural Philosophy 2
Advantages: Avalon (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Vendel (R/W), Member: Invisible College.
Arcana: Intuitive
The daughter of a professor who spent his final days in a poorhouse after the Inquisition hounded him from his position at the University, you fled your native lands when the Inquisition began investigating your own research. You are one of the scientists who dwell in obscurity while the public face of the Invisible College draws attention to themselves. You have only corresponded with a handful of other scientists primarily through the math code in which mathematical equations must be solved and then translated into letters. In particular, Clarisse Hadewig encouraged you in your experiments and offered to find you space in Gurkheim to work. Despite your normally demure appearance, you explode into furious outbursts while working on a difficult problem or encountering idiocy on the part of those around you.
Simon Bergison
Vendel Astronomer
B2, F2, W3, R3, P3
Courtier: Dancing 2, Diplomacy 1, Etiquette 2, Mooch 1, Oratory 2
Fencing: Attack (Fencing) 2, Parry (Fencing) 2
Performer: Acting 2, Dancing 2, Oratory 2, Singing 1
Scholar: Astronomy 3, History 2, Mathematics 2, Occult 1, Philosophy 2, Research 3
Advantages: Eisen (R/W), Vendel (R/W), Member : Invisible College
Arcana : Insightful
After turning in disgust from the popular notion that a man’s future can be read in the stars, you delved into the true nature of celestial objects and their purposes. Clarisse Hadewig was especially helpful to you by offering you advanced techniques for grinding and polishing lenses. In return, you offered her the use of your telescopes for the recent eclipse of the moon and the two of you watched with rapt attention. Hadewig took numerous notes, particularly noting the timing of the eclipse and seemed on the verge of a tremendous discovery. Nevertheless, you worry about her. The Inquisition has sought her for several years and will stop at nothing to ensure her capture.
Ambrose du Paix
Montaigne Botanist
B2, F2, W3, R2, P3
Artist: Painting 2
Courtier: Dancing 2, Etiquette 3, Fashion 3, Oratory 3, Diplomacy 2, Politics 2, Scheming 2
Fencing: Attack (Fencing 3), Parry (Fencing) 3
Firearms: Attack (Firearms) 3
Scholar: Astronomy 1, History 1, Mathematics 1, Philosophy 2, Research 2, Botanist 3
Spy: Shadowing: 1, Stealth 1, Bribery 1, Lip Reading 1, Sincerity 1
Advantages: Dangerous Beauty, Linguist, Montaigne (R/W), Thean (R/W), Eisen (R/W), Avalon (R/W), Noble
Arcana: Ambitious
While you currently labor in obscurity and secrecy, you one dwelled on high amid the Montaigne nobility. A few ill-chosen words reduced you from your elevated state to that of a pauper. Luckily, several of your acquaintances are hard at work to restore you and its only a matter of time before you retake your rightful place among the elite. Until then, you dabble in a hobby of yours, cataloguing and classifying plants. There is plenty of time to mingle with the common folk as well and you’ve spent hours closeted with Clarisse Hadewig as she struggles to explain obscure mathematical equations to you to help you with your botanical research. The poor creature doesn’t fathom you are far more interested in her appearance than her tangents. Despite this distraction, you still feel the creeping hands of boredom overtaking you.
