Adventure 4

Episode 1 – Robbery in Regent Street

A flat in Belgravia, London, 17^th January 193x.  Two men sat in armchairs; one looking at an advert in ‘The Times’, the other honing a samurai sword with a leather strop.

“Demobilised army officer and batman, bored with civilian life; seek like-minded gentlemen to form a Gentlemen’s Adventurers Club. Our goal – to seek adventure and excitement across the world. Reply to Box B6, Belgravia.”

A knock came at the door and Jeeves the butler¹ showed in two other men and a dog.

‘By Jove, what!’ said Colonel Brackenbrie. ‘You’re here in answer to the advert, what! Good show. Brackenbrie’s the name, Colonel. This is Shujin (indicating the other man); Japanese chappie, served with me on the North-West Frontier and in Burma. Sound man, but doesn’t say much. A devil with that sword of his though, watch out, eh! Take a seat; Jeeves will bring the drinks²

Over drinks, they introduced themselves and fell to talking.

Colonel Brackenbrie – veteran of the North-West Frontier and the Burma Campaign. He came into a large inheritance and a range of investments that provide a comfortable income.

Dorei Shujin – Japanese; met Colonel Brackenbrie in Burma and became his batman. He speaks Japanese and English, but does not talk a lot. He uses a katana and is very skilled with it.

Richard “The Punisher” – Fought in the Great War; one of the “Punisher” company. They were trained in unarmed combat and stealth; then sent out into no man’s land to infiltrate and kill the occupants of German trenches.

Captain Sean Dukes and Patches – An American flyer, served in the Army Air Corps during the War. He crashed in Flanders and Patches pulled him from the wreckage.

Jeeves handed a note to the Colonel. ‘This has come for you, sir.’

Dear Sir

Would you and your associates join me for afternoon tea at Claridges tomorrow.

Drusilla, Lady Stanhope

‘By Jove, the Game is afoot, what!’³

18^th January

Lady Stanhope met them at Claridges tea room and ordered tea, cucumber sandwiches and scones. Dukes was little miffed that they didn’t allow dogs inside. Lady Stanhope was late middle-aged and very prim and proper.

‘There have been a disturbing number of robberies at jewellers throughout the City recently. I have a valuable tiara being repaired at Roxon and Co in Regent Street. I would like you to collect it and return it to me. Here is the collection note for Mr Roxon. I will pay you each the sum of one hundred pounds upon its safe return.’

They drove to Regent Street in Brackenbrie’s Chrysler Airflow (with Patches hanging his head out of the window.) Roxon and Co was a small jewellery shop with a double window display. Richard, Patches and Shujin stayed outside; Brackenbrie and Dukes went inside. Brackenbrie slapped down £100 on the counter.

‘The tiara for Lady Stanhope.’

The young man behind the counter looked confused and called out ‘Mr Roxon, there are two gentlemen here to collect Lady Stanhope’s tiara?’ An older man came out of a back room, portly, wearing a pin-stripe suit. ‘Do they have a ticket for it Pike?’

At this point, Dukes noticed a ticking sound that was getting louder and louder. Suddenly the rear door burst open and in strode a mechanical man, dressed in a pin-stripe suit and wearing a bowler hat. From it came a constant whirring and shifting of gears; overlaid by the loud ticking.

Outside, the others saw four more of the clockwork men approaching along Regent Street.

Mr Roxon blew on a whistle and yelled for the police; Pike grabbed a cash box off the counter and threw it at the clockwork man; unfortunately he missed and struck Mr Roxon on the head. The clockwork man punched Pike, who went flying backwards. Dukes pulled his Browning HP and put a bullet into the automaton; a vicious return punch put him backwards over the counter; wounded. The clockwork man smashed open a display case and grabbed handfuls of gemstones; Dukes got off another shot and hit something vital; the clockwork man collapsed.

Meanwhile, outside on the street, one of the clockwork men kicked Patches out of the way and smashed the display window. Patches retaliated by biting it in the leg and Brackenbrie put a bullet through the mechanical man’s head and it collapsed. Richard punched another clockwork man with a martial arts blow and knocked its head off.

‘That’s how we did it in the trenches.’

Unfortunately, he was struck from behind and badly wounded. This caused him to start getting worked up into a rage.⁴ Shujin drew his katana and, with Brackenbrie’s help, took out the last clockwork man; Brackenbrie then managed to calm ‘The Punisher’ down.

They watched as a Foden steam lorry that was parked on the far side of the road pulled away; its rear doors swinging open. On the side was the legend “E.H. Baker, Godalming.”

Mr Roxon was badly bruised, but Pike was dead, despite Dukes efforts to save him. They left Roxon to deal with the police and drove Dukes and Richard to the nearest hospital.

23^rd January

Now fully healed, they delivered the tiara to Lady Stanhope, were paid the promised sum each; then visited to the local police station and asked if they could examine the clockwork men taken from the jewellers. Brackenbrie was prepared to try a bribe the sergeant on the front desk but Dukes advised him that this wouldn’t be a good idea.

The clockwork men were in the back yard. Examination revealed that they were made from fine clockwork manufactured by Longines, a noted Swiss watch manufacturer. Richard noted that the middle finger of the left hand was a hollow hexagonal cylinder; he took one of these. Brackenbrie noted that there was a large winding sprocket on the clockwork man’s back.

‘How do they know what to do?’ puzzled Dukes and opened up one of the heads. Inside was a complex arrangement of tiny gears and tabs set on a series of shifting columns.

‘I know what this is; it’s a miniature Babbage Engine.’

‘A what?’

On their way out the desk sergeant stopped them.

‘Got some news sirs, bit of a rum do. All them jewels and gems stolen have been found dumped by the side of the road. Diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, you name it. Never seen anything like it in all my years on the force.’

‘Hmm. All of those gems, but no rubies? That’s interesting.’

To be continued …

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GM Notes

¹ Ben named him

² I’m not going to write out every one of Brackenbrie’s dialogues; basically Ben plays him as a British ex-Army with an outrageous British accent and the Clueless and Big Mouth Hindrances.

³ I’m already beginning to regret Ben’s choice of character

⁴ Harry (as usual), has the Berserk Edge.

A fun Game, we haven’t played Savage Worlds for some time and this was the first try-out of the latest Adventure edition (SWADE).