London, the largest city in Europe. To some it is a wonder of the world, to others it is Babylon, the sink of all vice and depravity. Cromwell’s capital and home of Parliament, it is a vast, overcrowded city, to which people from all over England flock to make their fortunes or lose them.
As you walk its streets on a foggy winter’s evening, you wonder what the future holds in store. Your briefing with Sir Reginald Perkinson and Henry Ireton was short and to the point. The renegade Clockwork Alchemist Lady Arabella Blackwood (sometimes known as Lady Silver) has stolen an experimental Parliamentarian Clockwork flying ship, and was last seen heading for the Moon. Now a massive merchant vessel, the Enterprise, is setting out in the same direction. You are to join her crew in an attempt to find out what the woman is up to. Your mission is secret, known only to the ship’s captain, the famous Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who has defected from the United East India Company for the chance to lead the voyage of a lifetime. Tonight you are to meet him in the Turk’s Head Coffee House for a briefing.
But somewhere along the way, you have gotten lost. Maybe it’s the fog, or maybe it’s the map of London your patrons gave you, which doesn’t seem to have been updated for several decades. You’re headed for Cornhill, a couple of blocks behind the docks, but somehow you seem to have become lost in a maze of twisty alleyways, all alike. The fog is thick here, cutting visibility to less than ten metres. High stone walls loom on either side, windowless and blank.
Suddenly, behind you, comes the whirr of clockwork, as several devices, as yet unseen, spin into action. Before you have a chance to react to this, there is a bestial roar from ahead, and a massive bear looms on its hind legs out of the mist…
Roll for Initiative.
Quintessence, the fourth episode of the Kingdom & Commonwealth campaign, is available for preorder! It’ll be hitting the streets in March.
The Clockwork & Chivalry Core Worldbook is now a Copper Bestseller at DriveThruRPG! Thanks to everyone who made it so. Now let’s see if we can get to Silver – especially since all our PDFs are currently in the Cubicle 7 e-book sale – the worldbook is $11, and you can pick up the adventures for only $5!
