The Central Library - OP:FR setting

[Dave Syrinx]

The Central Library

To govern and supervise the actions of the different companies and put all the gathered clues together a special authority called The Central Library was founded. The previously mentioned Lord Cunningham was appointed director and Chief Librarian — which turned into just Chief after the first week.

Together with a staff mainly consisting of scientists Lord Cunningham tried to govern the activities of the companies and form an overview of the situation. The Central Library was also tasked to lay out a long term strategic plan for the Operation, although this was missing during the first years of the war. Fortunately Lord Cunningham was an authoritarian person who could keep the rambunctious organization of the O:FR together with a common goal.

Reliability before competence

The first task of The Central Library was to quickly recruit more agents. Initially reliability was more important than competence and the most unlikely people were recruited: everything from distant relatives to childhood friends, gardeners and nannies.

Pretty soon it was obvious that people with insight and experience of the occult was needed and so a number of scientists, priests, druids, witches and other that had the paranormal sense were recruited. In a last wave of recruits different kinds of thugs were picked to give the companies some kind of chance for survival of the sort of secret missions that were on the agenda.

There were no lack of complications when a gardener, a witch, a professor of linguistics, an ex hit-man and a psychotic fighter pilot from the first world war suddenly had to perform advanced and peculiar missions together. This was the day to day activities of Operation: Fallen Reich.

The Need for Training

The skills and knowledge of the new agents was truly impressive, but there was a great need for specific training in subjects as language, myths, self defense, surveillance and sabotage. A mandatory two week course was established to provide agents with the basic skills necessary for duty but also to sort out the people unfit for service in the Operation.

As each company was independent these two week courses became a reflection of the odd ideas that circulated in each group. For instance the Rambouillet Owners Guild had a course in pure commando style with extensive elements of riding and the Wales Christian Brass Orchestra focused on theology, fencing and the performance of brass instruments.

Later on in the Operation, directives from The Central Library dictated the companies to refine their two week course even more and let recruits serve additional two weeks at another company to share the knowledge.

Expansion and Secrecy

Initially everything went according to plan. The companies had little understanding of their own actions and even less insight into the other companies. This was all about to change due to the catastrophic events in Istanbul in the summer of 1939.

Three groups from different companies showed up in town at the same time with the same objective to claim the extremely well protected sword of King David from the Topkapi Palace. The bloody farce of a resolution involved a deadly gunfight half way into the palace between the agents of Oxford's Reserve Post Office and Circus Radii-Dali. The survivors was instantly picked up by the Turkish secret police and meet an unfortunate and agonizing end. Meanwhile agents of Kings Cross Badminton Club stylishly replaced the sword with a copy. After this event it was necessary to give the companies more information about each other and company specific activities.

During the progression of the war the number of companies increased as the old units grew. Gradually it even became more common to transfer members between companies and create special units from hand picked members of different companies.

The Backside of Independence

What made the entire project of O:FR possible was that funding from the government was minimal and hidden in other intelligence expenses. The different commanders paid from their own pocket and thus created for themselves a lot of independence — making each company basically autonomous. This helped keeping missions secret but also made the different companies more diverse and pretty soon the commanders started competing.

The six original company commanders were rather odd characters to begin with and they all managed to leave a strong personal mark on their agents and operations. The veteran agents got more and more eccentric as the war dragged on and strange event lefts unforgettable scars in their minds.

Governing body of OP:FR
The Central Library
Chief Librarian Lord Cunnighamn

The seven companies & their respective leaders

King's Cross Badminton Club — The Players
President Sir Percy Carmichael

Rambouillet Owners Guild — The Rams
Chairman Colonel Cassius “Charging” McGregor

Wales Christian Brass Orchestra — The Band
Director Bishop Charles Bishop

Oxford’s Reserve Post Office — The Mailmen
Superintendent Professor Eric Woolworth

Exotic Game Travel Agency — The Poachers
Managing Director Roger Hempher

Circus Radii-Dali — The Artists
Circus Director Lucifer Starfish

Gurniwal’s Home for Retired Veterans — The Veterans
Warden Doctor Margaret Murray

[Dave Syrinx]

Field Manual
Undercover Operations Against Paranormal Opponents.

HISTORY

The organization of Operation: Fallen Reich was formed when seven reliable and energetic persons were contacted by Aleister Crowley and Admiral Sanders by the order of Winston Churchill. These persons had substantial personal wealth and believed incorruptible. Three days later they gathered for a personal briefing on the state of affairs and were asked to serve in this operation — they all said yes.

With the exception of Lord Cunningham who received the not so enviable task of coordinating the rest — each one were to create an independent company of the organization.

Seven companies, seven covert names

Each company was to be made up out of small groups of 10–15 members who were to act totally independent and at most only be aware of the existence of their own company. A covert name and false purpose was given to each company to make them less suspicious, several even had their own properties or offices connected to their false identity. The real purpose of this system remained somewhat blurry, and stories are still told of particularly drunken evening Colonel McGregors’ castle at St Abb’s Head. But our research confirms that the names and even the personalities of the companies came from the mind of each leader.

Very soon the agents of each company was given nicknames based on their companies covert names — which became even more popular then the names of the companies. Only a few months after the birth of the first six companies a seventh was created as the result of a successful mission.

Kings Cross Badminton Club

This is were a gentleman or a lady gets training in the noble art of espionage.
Skills: German, Shadowing, Stealth, Photography, Observation, Searching, Interrogation, Lock Pick, Acting/Disguise.
Mandatory: Clubs and Etiquette.

Rambouillet Owners Guild

Hardship, explosions and fist fights during a truly manly course.
Skills: Any Physical, Boxing, Auto fire, Rifle, Explosives, Skiing, Boats, Parachute, Swimming, First Aid, Tactics.
Mandatory: Riding and Endurance.

Wales Christian Brass Orchestra

A religious course with elements of fencing and a lot of music practice to keep the appearance.
Skills: Religion, Myths, History, Christian Rituals, Info Searching, Blades, Dodge, Aura, Greek, Latin, Reading/Writing.
Mandatory: An instrument of choice.

Oxford’s Reserve Post Office

Heavy academic studies mixed with whatever Professor Woolsworth finds amusing.
Skills: Any Academic, Explosives, Cars, Motorcycles, Wrestling, Psychology, Shadowing, Searching, German.
Mandatory: None.

Exotic Game Travel Agency

This is all about finding the prey and putting it down as elegant and neat as possible.
Skills: Pistols, Tracking, Zoology, Observation, Animal Training, Searching, Endurance, Info Searching, Blades, Orientation, Any Language
Mandatory: Stealth and Rifles.


Circus Radii-Dali

The curricular of the circus is filled with lessons not taught anywhere else.
Skills: Sixth Sense, Stealth, Witchcraft Rituals, Dark Rituals, Spiritualist Rituals, Charm, Acting/Disguise, Attractiveness, Courage.
Mandatory: Myths and Aura.

Gurniwal’s Home of Retired Veterans

The door is bolted from the inside of this manor. There is no indication anyone is home.

[Dave Syrinx]

King's Cross Badminton Club
The Players

This is the in depth description of the tad more highbrow — but definitely effective — company and its colorful commander.

Indoor court in London

As the name implies the badminton club was situated on King’s Cross Road in London. Each day the staff — mostly classy women and possible agents — arrived with sport bags and rackets. Oddly enough the badminton courts were filled with games since the staff didn’t exactly have a lot to do.

The president of the Club, Sir Percy Carmichael, encouraged the independence and initiative of the different groups and personally handled many of the reports. He wasn’t specially particular with keeping notes or files of events, instead he kept most of it in his head. The task of the staff therefore became more decorative than functional.

The lack of a proper archive would prove to have a practical advantage, since the badminton courts was hit by bombs during the war no less then three times. Some claimed that the bombers were attracted by the huge emblem of the club painted on the roof, it’s also a possibility that the true activities of the club were known to the Germans. Anyway, the bombs caused very little effect and the emblem was painted back after each bombing on the orders of Sir Carmichael.

President Sir Carmichael

Just before the war, Sir Carmichael, was a leading diplomat. In 1914 he took the credit for being one of the responsible for starting the war — by not attending a final diplomatic meeting to save the peace. He didn’t mention the fact that he overslept, due to spending a more than exciting night with two Russian mistresses. Since the war was meet with cheers he even managed to get knighted before the popularity took a severe fall with the realization of enormous number of casualties.

After being assigned an obscure desk job he resigned in 1918 and started a business that would make him excessively wealthy. Sir Carmichael is the image of a wealthy, skirt loving playboy in the prime of his life. He’s good looking, unbelievably charming and rather inconsiderate.

This is a man with no scruples — he started the bloodiest war in history and sleeps well at night after a lesser orgy. Sir Carmichael is a very competitive man and loves seeing his agents perform spectacular and remarkable heists. But he is also a man of a sharp intellect, as long as he’s not distracted by beautiful ladies, which as least according to Sir Carmichael himself is all to seldom.

No everyday missions, please

The Players has a liking for sensational operations, at the same time they are the most skilled company in stealth missions. They preferably keep to the high society lifestyle, seem a tad highbrow and they prefer cunning to violence. Mostly active on the continent they have an an extensive network i larger parts of Europe (with the exception of Germany) and are able to perform complex missions almost anywhere. Although, as a rule, they avoid front line assignments.


Kings Cross Badminton Club

This is were a gentleman or a lady gets training in the noble art of espionage.
Skills: German, Shadowing, Stealth, Photography, Observation, Searching, Interrogation, Lock Pick, Acting/Disguise.
Mandatory: Clubs and Etiquette.


Mission summary #1:
The Destruction of the SS Skull Rings

The raid of Castle Wewelsburg is a classic mission of the Club. This medieval castle was the spiritual headquarters of the SS, rites were performed and courses in the art of war, archeology, myths and astronomy filled the agenda. Early on the Kings Cross Badminton Club took an interest in the place, and managed to identify that in the castle was situated a small chest containing all the rings from fallen SS-soldiers.

A small hand picked team was assembled. Assassinating a group of Swedish and danish Nazis on their way to the castle — the group managed under false identity to infiltrate the castle and make their way to the chest. The objective was to let a priest do a blessing of the rings and then blow them up. What actually happened is unclear. Only one member of the team managed to escape and somehow make her way to Sweden. Unfortunately she had aged 50 years and died of heart failure shortly after her arrival. She is said to have rambled on about destroyed rings before she past on at a hospital in the city of Malmö. Sir Carmichael took this as a sign of success and the club celebrated with champagne and canapes.

Mission summary #2:
The Kidnapping of Antonio Verdici

Antonio Verdici was one of Europe’s most reliable psychics with a special flair for predicting death and illness of prominent persons. He also had a severe gambling obsession and toured the casinos of Europe spending all the Deutschmark the Nazis gave him. Unfortunately his gifts were of very little use at the roulette table, except for one time when he predicted the death of the croupier, made an astronomical bet on number 36 and put the ball on the right number when everybody was helping the dying man.

The Players first plan was obviously to kill him, but after two disastrous attempts the Players realized that it will never work. Instead an advanced kidnapping plan was set in motion. With the help of a hypnotizing roulette wheel and a bribed casino manager in Monte Carlo they managed kidnap not only him but also one of Mussolini’s cousin and German general. After being relieved of his gag, Verdici claimed to be predicting the death of all the members of the team, himself, the cousin and the General. By now however the team had realized that his prediction could be altered and they swiftly changed plan. Instead of crossing the border to Switzerland they only sent a decoy car. It was shot to pieces before getting even close to the border station.

Instead the team got hold of a pilot who could fly them out, but on the airfield they ran into a Hussarian rescue team, in the ensuring fight all was gunned down except for Verdici and Mussolini´s cousin who both ran to and boarded the aircraft and took off by themselves. Verdici had heard about Havana’s gambling dens from one of the agents and was filed with an unbending desire to visit them. However, after the hypnotizing roulette wheel his psychic abilities was no more. He was believed to have been killed when his ship was torpedoed on the way to Cuba.

Mission summary #3:
The Burning of the Library of Castilé

This is by most people seen as an act of extreme vandalism as the library contained many unique and historically invaluable volumes including “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat” and early manuscripts of “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”. Hidden amongst the thousands of other books were also several potent scripts on occult and terrible matters. Not even the methodical Germans had managed to find a scheme on how to uncover them and a small staff of historians worked there since the occupation. A team of Player agents posing as a German film crew managed to get into the castle, following ancient scripts found previously in Marseille they got their hands on two dangerous documents and had leads on several more. They were however interrupted by Gestapo, after a brutal fight most of the team was killed but two survivors manages to set the library on fire and get the French to blame Gestapo. A bad day for both Nazis and historians all over Europe, but a very glorious day indeed for the two surviving agents and the Players in general.

[Dave Syrinx]

Rambouillet Owners Guild
The Rams

The Rams headquarter is located at Colonel McGregor’s own castle at St Abb’s Head. On his mountainous coastal grounds the members are constantly drilled in commando like warfare. The isolated locations made for a more relaxed and not so secret environment. The Rams differs a lot from the other companies as they are much more warlike. Their operations are usually best described as raids rather than undercover missions.

As the war dragged on the Rams got more and more into their specialization and after 1942 they become more or less the military arm off Operation: Fallen Reich. They also lent their services to other companies. When extra firepower or a group of daredevils who would volunteer to storm a bunker on top off a steep cliff is needed the Rams are the company to call. As they expanded into the by far largest company they also set up a number of rescue teams, who could be sent in to save other OFR-teams in distress. This made the Rams very popular amongst other OFR agents, but their actual rescue track record was somewhat fuzzy. An agent code named “Miss Daisy” once commented:

“Things were bad before they came. But the arrival of the six males armed with machine guns, grenades and a huge amount of testosterone turned an unpleasant situation into hell.”

Chairman Colonel Cassius “Charging” McGregor

The man behind Rambouillet Owners Guild was a legend in his old regiment the Royal Dragons. He is said to be the first British to get German blood on his sable as his cavalry troop charged German Cuirassiers in 1914, just after the expeditionary force had arrived in Belgium. He went through the war in the same way and apparently enjoying every second of it. Despite being injured at least ten times he never got any serious wounds and only spent one night in a hospital bed and that was just because he was visiting a dying college. After four years of fun on many different battle fields, the war ended just before he could kill his 100th German. The colonel went into a mild depression (cured with heavy drinking) which lasted until he got the opportunity to join the ranks of OFR. McGregor has many things going for him, he knows a lot about warfare, especially the sneaky guerrilla tactics he used in the trenches, and he also cares for his men and is a charismatic leader. But despite this, the fact is that anybody who actually enjoyed trench warfare is not in his right senses.

Violent and explosive missions

While the Rams sometimes did classical investigation missions, their heart belonged to the more action oriented projects. If they could get the chance they preferred to storm though the blood soaked sand of a shelled landing beach, sneak through barbed wire fences or blast any type of construction into small pieces. As they also preferred heavy fire power before dressing up or pretending, the Rams often approached their missions more directly than most other companies.

Rambouillet Owners Guild

Hardship, explosions and fist fights during a truly manly course.
Skills: Any Physical, Boxing, Auto fire, Rifle, Explosives, Skiing, Boats, Parachute, Swimming, First Aid, Tactics.
Mandatory: Riding and Endurance.

Mission summary #1:
The Lofoten raid

There where persistent rumors about telepathic links between psychics on submarines and the other at shore. A very odd old man were amongst the crew on a submarine caught in June, his mental health declined on his way back to England and was declared completely catatonic as he reached interrogators. The captain was also quiet about his passenger, but a few members of the crew spilled the beans and claimed he was some kind of communications technician. They were supposed to kill him before they let British on board but they liked the man and hid him instead.

It was later discovered that a number of strange German civilians were being active at Lofoten Island off the Norwegian coast. A raid on the island was mounted and a large party from the Rams was present to get their hands on the psychics. After intense fighting the 7 psychics were located, but only two was captured alive. Three others took their lives and two blown up by a hand grenade tossed by McGregor himself. Of the two captives one felt into the same catatonic state as the old man on the submarine, but the second proved to be a very valuable asset.

Mission summary #2:
The Saint Mary’s raid

The Saint Mary estate was the scene of a strange drama during the German occupation of the Jersey Islands. A number of relatives had a clash with the unknown in the house. The Germans was very interested in the house and went through it very carefully, yet the house still had a magnetic effect on one off the O:FR-companies, the Wales Angelica Brass band. They sought ways of reaching the house and unlocking it’s secrete. After a failed attempt to send a team in by fishing boat that got shot to pieces by an E-boat they asked for the Rams assistance. They worked out a nice clandestine plan involving a torpedo boat and rubber rafts.

Two weeks later a team of four Band members waded ashore escorted by six heavily armed Rams. Initially the firepower made little difference as the team encountered no Germans but instead some kind of astral being that drove a few of the team members crazy. The being was finally exorcised, but by then a curios German patrol showed up and tried to cross the shallow waters that separated the estate from land during high waters. They were promptly gunned down by the Rams and a full scale battle erupted. The two last sane Band members fled on a rubber raft, while the surviving Rams covered the retreat with machine guns and grenades.The battle set the house on fire and all Rams was written off as casualties.

Strangely a year later one of the Rams reported as dead was gunned down by military police after brutal rape in Hastings. He was bearded and long haired and there is no clue how he survived or got to Hastings.

Mission summary #3:
The monster crocodile of Sittang River

One of the Rams strangest missions was the dispelling of the crocodile demon of Ammit Chen. In early 1942 a small number of Rams and Poacher (Big Game Travel Agency) agents were sent to India to form O:FR companies there. As the Japanese stormed into Burma, it was discovered that they too had a highly occult agenda. It was not long until the action minded Rams got restless with the organizing, but they soon found a worthy mission.

Troops building defenses by the river of Sittang was plagued by a number of strange crocodile attacks, a very large specimen had killed many soldiers and seemed almost indestructible. It had been hit several times by rifles and even machine guns but always reappeared. The Rams tracked the beast to an underground network set next to a village who's inhabitants was members of an ancient crocodile cult.

After a firefight with the villagers and a terrifying close encounter with the monster, a trap was set. The beast swallowed a cow packed with explosives and a remote detonator. However the detonator jammed and the infuriated croc swam to the bridge to kill more soldiers. Unfortunately but not surprisingly the troops open up with all their guns as the monster attacked a number of wounded who sheltered from the sun under the bridge. Finally a 20 mm AA-round hit the croc and detonated the explosives. The monster disintegrated together with the bridge which just had been rigged by explosives. With the bridge gone two brigades got cut off and Rangoon could not be defended. The demon was exorcised by a priest belonging to the Rams. The whole team then discreetly left the scene and went on a long mission to Tibet.

[Dave Syrinx]

Wales Christian Brass Orchestra
The Band

Wales Christian Brass Orchestra

A religious course with elements of fencing and a lot of music practice to keep the appearance.
Skills: Religion, Myths, History, Christian Rituals, Info Searching, Blades, Dodge, Aura, Greek, Latin, Reading/Writing.
Mandatory: An instrument of choice.

[Dave Syrinx]

Oxford’s Reserve Post Office
The Mailmen

Situated in Professor Woolworth’s own Mansion just outside Oxford, few companies can compete when it comes to academic depth and weight. Amongst their ranks are numerous Professors, Doctors and other acclaimed experts in the historical, ethnographical and anthropological fields of knowledge. Anybody thinking that this would have a somewhat calming effect on their missions is definitely wrong. The Mailmen apparently had no insight when it came the physical and mental experience demanded by undercover work. With a never failing enthusiasm and bravado these pen pushers and bookworms went to the world’s most dangerous locations, dressed in tweed and armed with things like an umbrellas with hidden rapier blades and derringer handguns. Even in the darkest hour of war and most horrible battlegrounds the Mailmen would act like they were on a field trip. They also had the world as their working area and Mailmen could be found on any location, the more exotic the better.

Excursion at Arras

A story claims that during the battle of Arras a British Captain of the armored forces meet a number of “British Gentlemen in civilian clothing” who was having tea at a graveyard right in the middle of the battlefield. When the captain asked about what they were doing they became evasive, but he could see that they had dug up a number of graves. As German armor showed up the Captain went back to his tank and the gentlemen finished their biscuits. He later met them at Dunkirk where they tried to squeeze two heavy crates on a rowing boat, despite loud protest from the soldiers trying to get out alive. The captain later got recruited by the Rams where his story was highly appreciated and obviously connected to the Mailmen. Surprisingly often the Mailmen’s missions were a success, but their history also harbored many disasters.
Superintendent Professor Lord Woolworth

It would be a great positive exaggeration to call the Lord an ineffective OFR company commander. A lot of the problems the company had could be directly connected to his erratic and absent minded personality. Unfortunately he possessed a powerful aura of false competence and had fantastic political connections. On the plus side for the company was that he liked to travel and go on missions himself, which led to that his secretary, the highly effective Mrs Ironside, managed the company most of the time. The Lord was a well known expert in the history of Vikings, though he had opinions and theories about most historical matters. Being a very energy filled person he also nurtured a large number of hobbies; from kayaking and fly fishing to sheep dog training and stamp collecting. These hobbies came and went from time to time and had an unlucky influence on the operations. If he was on the hunt for a specific Italian coin there would soon be a team sent to a strange mission to Rome with a instruction to pass by a specific collector’s store. Some kind of record was set when the Lord himself led an expedition to the North of Sweden in search for “Gindinger the paranormal trout of Samish folklore”. Most of the Mailmen agents show a similar point of view and many successfully tried to get their own personal interests into their agenda.

Academic weight and daredevil attitude

After disasters like the Istanbul shootout it was easy to laugh the Mailmen away, but they also had several successful missions and they gave the whole organization a solid base of knowledge. Far from all its members ware academics, in their ranks were many other professions and peoples with desirable skills. Almost all of the team leaders were however academics, even in teams with experienced officers or former intelligence operatives. Sitting on high theoretical horses gave the Mailmen a bad reputation of arrogance. Despite the fact that they were often needed for their expertise the other companies mostly disliked them. Even though led by bookworms the teams showed a strong bravado and never lacked in courage. Evil tongues spoke of a lack of connection to reality, but is courage ever a wise attitude?


Oxford’s Reserve Post Office

Heavy academic studies mixed with whatever Professor Woolsworth finds amusing.
Skills: Any Academic, Explosives, Cars, Motorcycles, Wrestling, Psychology, Shadowing, Searching, German.
Mandatory: None.

Mission summary #1:
The New York stamp collection convention

This is an example of a not so successful Mailmen mission. It got a bad start from the beginning when Lord Woolworth himself got obsessed with tracking the letter traffic between a German occultist and an American horror writer. The American used a rare line of stamps on his envelopes and this helped the Mailmen find the letters. Obviously Woolworth also started to collect the stamps. In the spring 1941 just three letters were left and there were a great chance of them showing up on the huge stamp collecting convention in New York. The Lord and a team showed up and with a maximum of luck (and help of a medium) they found all three letters within a few hours. Woolworth got hold of an office at the convention and put all the letters together. Finding out they formed some kind of spell Woolworth got eager to try it, thinking it would give him some kind of astral power. It did not. In fact it summoned a whole collection of poltergeists that quickly possessed a number of youths having a lecture about French animal stamps in the room next door. As poltergeists and stamps never are a good combination the convention ended in total havoc. Woolworth was in the end kicked out of the international stamp collecting committee. A great personal disaster for him.

Mission summary #2:
Excavations of Ur

The ancient city was party excavated by British and American archaeologists 1922–34. Despite trouble with the local authorities a much smaller British expedition was sent to Ur in 1939 and together with a warlord/hobby historian of Dhi Quar they did some further digging. In the ruins of an ancient Temple devoted to the moon goddess of Nanna there appeared to be all the stuff archaeologists dreamt of; cryptic symbols, curses and hints of lost knowledge. A number of strange occurrences (raining blood, eclipse of the sun, seven mysterious deaths and an American scientist admitting to be wrong) spurred them further. All these goodies obviously got the attention of other and mostly unwanted elements. I did not take long time until a bunch of French and Swiss scientists showed up along with a team from the Vatican who claimed the apocalypse would be at hand if diggings were not stopped. At this time the Mailmen joined the fray as self proclaimed guardians of British interests. They managed to expel the Swiss and the Popes henchmen as well as a minor demon. After a year of digging, intriguing and exorcising events turned the French allies into enemies. And after the accidental but mortal shooting of a French historian a team of Foreign Legionnaires raided the digging site and manages to blow up part of the exposed temple. Diggings still went on until mid September, when a number of Bedouins sneaked in to the camp and held a ceremony which led to the total collapse of the ruins. The same night a huge pack of hyenas attacked the site, the attack was fended off with surprisingly severe losses including the warlord. The team then packed their bags with ancient artifacts and left for Baghdad. Their ship was sunk by a German U-boat outside of Africa, all passengers survived but the gods was lost forever.

Mission summary #3:
Onyx Theater murders

The rehearsal of the play “Demons of Middleton” was plagued by strange deaths, many cases of insanity and paranormal incidents. A team of Mailmen was send to the theater to investigate. The team met a chaotic setting were the director/producers, Sean Tennant, were fighting desperately to save his project. The play was written by a depressed young genius who killed himself right after finishing the script. As Tennant was the young artist’s lover he had swore to put the play on stage. After some snooping and digging the team found out that the play was actually a ritual designed to bring down a flock of low common Fallen. As the rehearsal proceeded more and more of the actors started to get possessed. Finally the team decided to stop the play and have a talk to the whole crew, this ended up with one member of the team being lynched, while the others had to shoot their way out of the theater. During the struggle a fire broke out and the Onyx burnt to the ground. Sean Tennant disappeared and a few months later he showed up in Berlin where his play was set up. It was not a great success and the day after premier he was sent to a concentration camp. Once there he somehow managed to put on the play again, causing a great escape that actually saved the lives of over a hundred people. Tennant later set his play up in both Soviet and Argentina, always with the same terrible result.

[Dave Syrinx]

Exotic Game Travel Agency
The Poachers

Exotic Game Travel Agency

This is all about finding the prey and putting it down as elegant and neat as possible.
Skills: Pistols, Tracking, Zoology, Observation, Animal Training, Searching, Endurance, Info Searching, Blades, Orientation, Any Language
Mandatory: Stealth and Rifles.

[Dave Syrinx]

Circus Radii-Dali
The Artists

Circus Radii-Dali

The curricular of the circus is filled with lessons not taught anywhere else.
Skills: Sixth Sense, Stealth, Witchcraft Rituals, Dark Rituals, Spiritualist Rituals, Charm, Acting/Disguise, Attractiveness, Courage.
Mandatory: Myths and Aura.

[Dave Syrinx]

Gurniwal’s Home of Retired Veterans
The Veterans
A DIFFERENT KIND OF INSTITUTION
The Gurniwal Home of Retired Veterans seems idyllic
and in fact it is, if you like croquet, feeding ducks and
ritual sacrifice.

HISTORY OF THE GURNIWAL HOME
The home was founded with money inherited by a
certain Lord Gurniwal after the Crimean War. Since
then it has housed about 50—60 disabled or elderly
veterans. Most of the current inhabitants are veterans of
the Boer War, with a few Great War veterans as well.
The latter form a special elite section.

Gurniwal’s Home of Retired Veterans
Warden Doctor Margaret Murray

Layout

Detailed map

[Dave Syrinx]

THE BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
The BBC

This is a more detailed description of the company, and its rather
special kind of operations.
The Bombay Bicycle Club is one of the less known companies within the
Operation: Fallen Reich. It is headed by a former colonel in the British
army that was stationed in India, or more precisely Nepal, where he
recruited and trained Ghurka soldiers. He always carry a Khukri knife in his
belt and wear an impeccable dark grey suit. !e name of the Colonel is
known to few, but he goes by the nickname Colonel Cutthroat. His real name is Colonel Marcus Alexander
Cumberland.

The Bombay Bicycle Club, internally referred to as !e local BBC, has a few fronts, where the main front is
in Southampton. The company is formed as a countrywide operation, with a handful, well placed local
headquarters.

The main body of staff are either former bicycle
patrolling police officers, and former military men
that sees an opportunity to keep in good shape while
serving the country. There are also quite a few
women who like the long biking tours across the
countryside with picnic baskets, freshly baked scones,
ginger and lemon marmalade and of course the
thermos with hot water for the tea. No one would
ever suspect a birdwatching woman on a bike with
binoculars of being anything else but just that.

THE EXCURSION PLANNER

Colonel Cumberland, or Colonel Cutthroat as he is
called is a man with a sharp intellect. His many
stories about how he used to kill his enemies by using
his Khukri knife instead of a pistol or a rifle earned
him the nickname Colonel Cutthroat. He fought in
Africa and the middle east during the Great War, and
has been fighting in India ever since the war ended.
He came home to Britain for his retirement from the
army just a few years ago, in October of 1936. As he
was very found of exercise and bicycling, he founded
the Bombay Bicycle Club as a way to get in touch
with other former soldiers who spent time in India, to
have someone to share the memories with.


Through those contacts, he came in touch with Operation: Fallen Reich, or they rather got in touch with
him, and arrangements were made. !e arrangements was organized by a rather wealthy British lord, Lord
Ashbury of Paxton, who joined the BBC as treasurer, and suddenly the budget for excursions multiplied
tenfold. Excursions for birdwatching, flower picking or just plain country trips were organized in several
places, not only on the vicinity of Southampton.

RIDE, RIDE, RIDE YOUR BIKE, GENTLY DOWN THE ROAD...
The cover for the operations performed by the BBC is perfect. They now arrange Bicycle rides almost
anywhere on the British Isles, and occasionally groups have bicycled in other countries as well. !e group all
cheerfully bicycle around, taking pictures and making paintings or sketches, and nobody expects a group of
middle aged to elderly people to be scrutinizing the area for evidence of spies or suspicious activities.
!e BBC does much of the scouting, information gathering and spying, building cases and collecting
information, so that the other, more specialized companies can act upon more accurate information.

MEMORABLE FOREIGN EXCURSIONS

Springtime in Norway
It was at one of the first bicycle excursions abroad, in Norway, that the BBC was put on the first real test.
Intelligence claimed that a German archeology team was scouting the areas around the town of Geiranger,
where it was believed that Viking King Olav Høfager had been buried, and with him his legendary drinking
horn. !e horn, originally brought home to Norway from one of King Olav’s many journeys, was said to
make the owner force anyone drinking from it to speak the truth. One of the members from that excursion
said:
– ”It was a very long week. I could not walk properly for month afterwards, and if anyone had told me that it
would be an endlessly long uphill bicycle ride in pouring rain, I would probably not have joined the
excursion at all.”
!e BBC did locate the German archeology team before they discovered the true location of the grave,
tricked the Germans into believing they had found the correct location several miles away. It was a brilliant
operation, well executed.

Louga - Dakar
The African excursion was one of the most dangerous excursions ever taken on by the BBC to this date. It
all began with a trip on a French cargo ship to the small port of St Louis on the East coast of French Senegal.
From there, a bicycle ride inland to the town of Louga. When we finally got to there, a message had been
received that the excursion now was to move down to Dakar, over roads in extremely bad conditions. Why
do we even call them roads, they were just paths in the jungle?
It was of course those Germans again, that was trying to locate the traces of an old civilization, believed to
have used an ancient carved wooden bucket to make their crops grow, and they were trying to locate
remains of those tribes. We had to track those Germans all the way to Dakar before we could call in the
Rams to finish them off. Not much of gentlemen those Germans, fair fighting doesn’t seem to be their cup
of tea.
Tragically, we lost several men when the ship that was bringing back the bucket and our men from Dakar
mysteriously sunk without a trace in the waters outside Morocco. Wreckage was found and a few survivors
talked about a huge explosion midships.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
Counterespionage, covert operations and jolly good bicycle tours in the countryside is what this is all about.
Skills: Bikes, First Aid, German, Observation, Pistol, Searching, Shadowing, Stealth & Tracking.
Mandatory: Orientation and Endurance.

[Dave Syrinx]

[Dave Syrinx]