Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 11
This series of posts is intended to provide a quickly usable setting for busy GMs looking to run Daring Tales of Adventure or Hollow Earth Expedition. Each serial installment for the setting builds on, connects to, or in some way embellishes those that have gone before. Story seeds are liberally strewn throughout, and each entry features a location and a typical person to encounter there.
This Serial Setting for the Ubiquity Roleplaying System focuses on the mysterious Windlet Islands, and those who make them their home.
11. The Idol, Windlet Cove Settlement, Lysette Isle
If there is an exclusively expat bar in the islands, The Idol would have to be it, if for no other reason than that the locals know better than to go there. For most things, life on Lysette is much quieter than on Greater Windlet, but unlike the communities on the larger island, there are some parts of Windlet Cove where people fear to go at night.
Larger vessels, particularly those of questionable registry, or less friendly nationalities are offloaded by purely local crews and shore leave is only granted for Lysette Isle. The constabulary, both the small local force, and the more professional security crews of the Company, find it easier to observe and contain rowdy visitors in the smaller, less populated Windlet Cove settlement, and through use of a more widespread application of gates and fences throughout the settlement, find it easier to contain them as well.
The Company, particularly the Windlet Natural Resource Division, operates several bars and entertainment facilities such as a theatre, bowling lanes, and similar distractions. Several local entrepreneurs also try to cash in on the large influxes of cash and goods made available by crews on leave. Of these, only a single local woman – both cynical and with a deeply penetrating eye for the weaknesses of humanity, has managed to create the sort of attraction which attracts attention – but flies under cover of darkness at the same time.
The Idol is the king dive of all dives, close to the water, and surrounded by warehouses and twisting alleys. It occupies a specially constructed basement which resembles a bomb shelter more than anything, with the decor which crosses fishing shanty with industrial warehouse. The benches and chairs are hard, the lights are low, and the music is gritty. The bar staff are suspicious, but serve strong drinks for cheap prices. The choices are limited, poor quality and are as likely to make you blind as get you drunk, but that seems to be a plus with the clientele who find this place.
The Idol has no sign, and does not advertise its existence or its location. Still, through some creative application of rumour, whisper, innuendo, and one or two dropped matchbooks in the right cargo holds, the location gets out to crews itching for a night on the town. Most come looking only for alcohol, but once there and with one appetite sated, the thoughts of many turn to other hungers. The owner, while not a peddler of flesh or a merchant of narcotic fueled dreams, does not stand in the way of others who might wish to try their hand at those risks. Most crews can find what they might need, or think they need, in the arms of the Idol.
The owner, a woman of indeterminate heritage, and a bizarre patois of English learned in the worst places on Earth, is said to have buried four husbands, not all of them dead at the time, and to be the one woman Satan himself could never forget. She keeps to herself, observes the goings on in the Idol with an eagle eye from a darkened office window above the club, and these days is living under the name of Rose. She pays a regular fee to both the local constabulary and the company to ensure she will be protected from the bad element her club invites, and they in turn supply immunity from any charges that turn up in raids which circumstances require them to make. Everyone sees the benefit of a club like this keeping the people who would seek it out away from everyone else.
The Idol is not large, but can comfortably serve and provide a sense of anonymity and privacy to at least 200 people, although it rarely sees more then 40 or 50 at a time. When no ships are docked, the place rarely has more than 2 or 3 customers, the most notable being Reynard. Although he goes in disguise, everyone on staff knows who he is. It is assumed he goes there to get away from himself.
Usual Characters: Rose
Known to her staff and those who use her club as a base of illicit operations by the nom de bière, “Rose,” the inscrutable proprietor of the Idol is a virtual unknown to the vast majority of islanders. Of indeterminate nation and age, she is both attractive and intimidating to those who meet her. She deals hard, speaks plainly, and reveals nothing. She dresses in fine silk, often cut in classic chinese styles, typically in a deep red or black. Her figure is that of a lush young woman, but her eyes are those of a predator… or a soulless survivor of horror.
Her security staff – strong, quiet, local men – are fiercely loyal and never leave her. They do not speak, and they do not need overt commands to know her will.
Rumours:
Potentially heard among sailors on leave, or perhaps from a local security guard or constable.
- She owns dives like the Idol in the US and Japan
- People who upset her, disappear
- She used to be a slave, but killed her master and used his wealth to escape
- She is looking for someone – for revenge
- Somewhere behind the bar there is a small picture of a young couple; the man’s face is scratched out, but the woman is Lysette
- She wears a long, deadly stilletto on her thigh, under her skirt.
- She keeps her staff loyal through the use of Chinese black magic…and sorcery
- She once cut off the hand of a bartender who was watering drinks
Truth:
You won’t believe it when you find out!
Statistics:
Keep your eyes peeled!
Related Articles
- Serial Setting I: Ubiquity ~ Week 1 from Casting Shadows (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
- Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 3 (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
- Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 5 (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
- Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 7 (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
Casting Shadows 