Serial Settings 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 28
The seventh month of this year’s Serial Setting for Ubiquity is passing quickly. This week’s entry adds another danger to the mysterious Windlet Islands. The Serial Settings series of posts is intended to provide usable setting material for busy GMs. Series 1 is for those looking to run Daring Tales of Adventure or Hollow Earth Expedition.
28) The Armoury, Windlet Settlement, Greater Windlet Island
If one does not live on one of the Windlet Islands, then the large stone edifice, looking like nothing so much as a castle in the middle of town between Company land and the settlement proper might be baffling. What need does a tropical paradise have for a town militia armoury? When could war ever come to such a peaceful-seeming place? Tourists might not ever be blamed for such innocent attitudes, but residents who maintain this oblivious attitude, had best stay in the relatively safe confines of the settlement, lest they become residents of the cemetery.
Like many small towns across the US and Canada, this settlement has built and maintains a large cache of military-grade hardware and ammunition. Unlike those small towns, however, the armoury is owned by a private individual, and the contents therein are in regular use. Although far less ammunition is needed in these post-fence days, the guards, drivers, hunters, and researchers use a steady allotment of it to survive and do their jobs.
Plain and warlike on the outside, the interior is decorated with colorful unit insignia for the fence guards, the most prominent of which is the Serpent Slayers in brilliant green, yellow, and red. Their motto is, ‘Thank God Snakes Don’t Fly.’ The interior space is dedicated to drilling and training, storage of ammunition, and storage of a few large field pieces such as artillery, and flame-throwers. The space is shared almost equally between the fence guards and other Company security personnel, and the small militia and smaller reservist force that the Administrator has encouraged locals to form since visiting Korea in 1932. Not many are interested, but there is a solid core group which trains regularly, and prepares to train others.
Usual Suspects: Harold ‘Hal’ Campbell
A big, burly, loud, and surly man, it is said there is nothing Hal likes more than complaining. If he did not complain with such passionate, and amusingly erudite vocabulary, he might one of the least-liked men on the island, but due to his talent for creative and rarely vulgar cursing, he is envied by many and loved by most. There is something inside some men that cannot help but admire a tremendous capacity for swearing, and a man who can swear so colorfully that the paint will peel is often held in high regard. One that can do it, without actually swearing? That man can be king.
Hal is in charge of the Armoury and the fledgling Militia. A veteran of the War To End All Wars, and far-seeing predictor of the One-To-Follow, Hal has never really left the military behind, even though he was honorably discharged in 1921. Almost 50, Hal is still very much in the prime of his life, and works like the devil to keep fit. He maintains a high degree of readiness with all the firearms and artillery in the armoury, and regularly trains and teaches unarmed and bayonet combat. He likes to say, ‘You are only ready when you are ready.’
His hair has begun to recede and fade to white from blonde, but his deeply tanned skin, and expressive face and eyes make him look young, still. His eyes are a bright blue, and his teeth are capped in gold. He wears worn, but clean and pressed fatigues most of the time, unless the heat has gotten to him and he is found cavorting in the waves, daring sharks to try out the hell-tanned leather of his split cushion spine protector. (His ass.)
Rumours: heard primarily among the younger men of the islands, and Company Security
- Hal has killed almost as many men as God
- He was in line to become a General, but turned it down
- He never married, but has a daughter somewhere
- He owes his life to the Administrator
- The Administrator owes his life to him
- He tries to keep it a secret but he has a phenomenal singing voice
- Hal wants to burn the whole jungle down, so God can start again – nicer this time
- Hal is learning Japanese from Lilly
Truths:
Soon!
Casting Shadows 