Nearly all of Antarctica lies within the Antarctic Circle. Along the coastline, snowfall averages 20 to 40 inches per year, and temperatures range from 40 to -40 degrees. Most of the coastline is mountainous, and travel to the interior is difficult.
Rumors of a hole in the middle of the continent, leading into the Earth’s interior, have persisted for years. No one has ever returned from an expedition with evidence of the legendry hole. Stories also persist of a lost world; a region of tropical environs surrounded by nearly impenetrable mountain.
England and Europe
Great Britain
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during the time of Victoria, consisted of four different and interdependent countries. Wales, by far the most subjugated of the lot, was the center for the mining of iron and coal. Ireland, the center of unrest in the Empire, was fighting for independence and freedom from repressive absentee landlords. Scotland, the center of philosophy and science, flourished in its Union with England. England, the true center and heart of the British Empire, was the jewel of the Empire. England was, for many, the height of fashion, style, and culture.
London was the social, political, and moral center of the Empire—home of the English Parliament, the West End theater district, the British Museum, and a host of gentleman’s clubs to meet any man’s tastes.
Great Britain brought the train to the world, making many places accessible that were truly out of touch with the time. Great Britain was the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution, which brought about the development of steam-powered railways, ships, electrical power generation, and machinery meant to make life easier.
England is the home of “The Great Detective” Sherlock Holmes, his partner Dr. John Watson and his smarter brother Mycroft Holmes, Dr. Henry Jekyll, the infamous Mr. Edward Hyde, the equally infamous Jack the Ripper, Founder of the Metropolitan Police Force Sir Robert Peel, Sweeney Todd (the Demon Barber of Fleet Street), Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Thomas Carnacki, Alan Quatermain, Dr. James Moriarty, and a host of others famous and infamous.
In the Steamfunkateers universe, Baas Bello was teacher of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes and is convinced that Sherlock is actually infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes, who built a terrifying “murder castle” in Chicago.
France
France can really be seen as the land of anarchy and change during the 1800s. Throughout the stable reign of Queen Elizabeth in England, France sees the rise and fall of King Louis Philippe and the Bourbon Restoration; the rise and fall of the French Second Republic; the reign of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, first as President for Life and later as Emperor Napoleon III; and the beginnings of the long standing French Third Republic. Royalists, anarchists, Republicans, and the general citizenry of France clash and work together in alteration, much to the confusion of all.
The insidious and brutal French colonial system suffered greatly during the turmoil in France itself, but it was still quite diverse. Most of North, West, and Central Africa were under French control, with the protectorate of Tunisia as one of the centers of power. Morocco, Algeria, French Somaliland, and French West Africa, were all under French control. In the South Pacific France established joint control with Great Britain of the New Hebrides. Also in the region, France wielded control of New Caledonia and various island groups which made up French Polynesia. French colonies even existed in the Far East in French Indochina and a French concession in Shanghai. France’s influence in the Western Hemisphere was also quite broad. Their support of the reign of Maximilian in Mexico leads to great turmoil in a country already fraught with political problems. In the South American colony of French Guiana was the notorious penal colony Île du Diable, or Devil’s Island, the most feared prison in the entire French domain.
Throughout the varied and diverse French colonial system one could be assured of one constant; the French Foreign Legion. This near legendary military unit is the source of many stories, a grand mixture of myth, hard fact, and mystery that garners respect no matter where they go.
Many persons and creatures of interest call the France of Steamfunkateers and her colonies home— Author Jules Verne, Erik (known to most as the Phantom of the Opera), the Beast of Gévaudan, the famed detective Eugène François Vidocq, and many others.
Spain
Once a major power in world politics, Spain was but a hollow shell of its former self by the mid 1800s. Queen Isabella II, who was crowned at the age of 3, was not popular among the people of Spain, who felt that she was easily influenced by those around her and did not care for her people. The turmoil within her court led to revolts among the far flung Spanish colonies. Her attempts to unify her country only served to alienate her even more. Under great pressure from forces both political and military, Queen Isabella II went into exile in France in 1868, leaving the country in chaos. After two years of unsuccessful rule by a coalition government, it was decided that Spain would have a new king, from a new line, and a search was made to find a king that would satisfy the government. King Amadeo I was crowned in 1870. He swore to uphold Spain’s constitution, and with great ambition began his reign. King Amadeo had to deal with the unstable political atmosphere in Spain, constant attempts at assassinations, and a revolution in Cuba, among many other problems. After two years, faced with reigning without popular support, King Amadeo abdicated. That same day, the first Spanish Republic was born. This lasted for another two years, during which a great deal of turmoil and unrest ruled the country. Since none of the political parties wished the return of Isabella, they pronounced her son Alphonso as King.
Alphonso XII was a young and inexperienced king, but he ruled with natural tact and grace, and the people of Spain grew to love and respect him. His rule saw the country rise up from plagues of cholera, devastating earthquakes, and the stabilization of the rule of Spain. After his death in 1885 his son, ruling as Alphonso XIII, dealt with a humiliating defeat by the United States in the Spanish-American War. Agreements signed after this six-month war saw Spain lose the majority of their colonies, including Cuba and the Philippines.
In the Steamfunkateers universe, little does anyone know that Isabella, Alphonso XII and Alphonso XIII are all one and the same: a nigh-immortal shape-shifter and mimic who believes in second—and third—chances.
Italy
At the beginning of the 1800s, the Italian peninsula was a fractured political landscape. After the Crimean War, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia, managed to unite the many fractured states into the Kingdom of Italy. He was crowned King of Italy in 1861. The beginning of his reign was full of turmoil, but this all ended when his army entered Rome in 1871, and all of Italy was under one king. The remainder of his reign was quite peaceful, and many visitors came to admire the aged splendor of the Italian cities. King Victor Emmanuel II died in 1878, succeeded by his son Umberto I.
King Umberto was deeply despised by the left-wing political circles, and suffered several assassination attempts. Alliances with former enemies Austria-Hungary and Germany did not gain him favor at home, and his attempts at imperial colonization in northern Africa, and the disastrous massacre in Milan, made the reign of Umberto a troubled one. In the Steamfunkateers universe, it is only a matter of time before one the many attempts on King Umberto’s life succeeds… if they can destroy his iron and bronze, steam-powered body, that is.
Portugal
Once a mighty colonial empire known for its explorers and for sparking off the insidious slave trade, by the mid-19th century Portugal had become almost a footnote in European history. The War of the Two Brothers, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, dominated the lives of all of Portugal from 1828 to 1834. With this upheaval came a breakdown of the fragile civil and social improvements that had started to bring Portugal into the modern era. Queen Maria II made great strides in the effort of restoring her country to its role as a dominant force in European affairs by her policies of improving medical and education standards in the country. Queen Maria, ofte
n referred to as “The Good Mother,” raised her large royal brood to work hard to improve the nation and its people. In 1853, following her death, that task fell to her son King Pedro V.
Among the many improvements during the reign of Pedro I were advances in the field of public medicine. Cholera was a persistent plague upon Portugal, causing the economy to fall even further behind the rest of Europe as their population dwindled. The “Curse of Portugal” even touched the royal family, killing King Pedro, his brother Ferdinand, and a number of other members of the royal family. This sudden and tragic loss isolated the country, causing domestic stagnation which seemed to have forever locked Portugal into its role as second class citizen of Europe.
Switzerland
During the era of Napoleon, Switzerland was occupied by forces from Russian and Austria during their battles with France. After Swiss autonomy was restored in 1815 the country suffered a period of political and civil unrest, which culminated in a month long civil war in 1849. The war produced few casualties, but made the people realize they needed to be united and strong in order to fend off all external troops. A federation of all the cantons of Switzerland formed a united and stable federal state, which gave the country a level a peace not seen in most of Europe.
Since medieval times, Switzerland had been known as a stable, safe, and private banking community. One could have money in a private account in Switzerland, and they be assured that nobody would be told that you had money there, or where the money came from. The many treasures and secrets hidden away in the vaults of Zurich and Geneva staggers the imagination and could produce a host of adventures for a Steamfunkateers adventure.
Austria
The Empire of Austria, founded in the early 1800s, was created on the heels of the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the wake of the defeat of his military coalition against Napoleon, was forced to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, but prior to that in 1804 he declared his personal holdings to be the Empire of Austria. This allowed him to retain rule over this smaller realm after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Francis I, a greatly suspicious man, set up a vast network of spies, censors, and secret police. This vast network of informants was used throughout his reign to keep the emperor informed about the actions of many people he did not trust, including his own brothers.
The Emperor’s death in 1835 was sudden and greatly mourned. His funeral was a spectacle unto itself, with people filing past his casket for three days. His successor, Emperor Ferdinand I, was an epileptic, and most considered him to be not terribly intelligent. Emperor Ferdinand I had a mostly uneventful reign, with the government run mostly by his regents. In 1848 revolutionaries took over the empire, entered the emperor’s palace, and convinced him to abdicate in favor of his nephew Franz Joseph.
Emperor Franz Joseph, in an attempt to increase the power and influence of the Empire of Austria, negotiated an agreement with the nobility of Hungary .In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed. While the government and the economy both expanded and improved during the early years of the new empire, it was also a hotbed of anarchist activity.
The Empire of Austria-Hungary was a land of great prosperity, an ever increasing industrialized nation that is a multi-cultural region of prosperity and intrigue. While the emperor’s spies and secret police were ever present, so were spies from other countries and anarchists bent on ending the Emperor’s grip of power over the vast Empire’s domain.
Germany
In 1871, following their victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Prussia allied the many small German states into a single empire, with the king of Prussia, Wilhelm I, as Emperor. The Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, was the true force behind the unification, and as Prime Minister and later Chancellor of the Empire, much of the power of the empire lay in his hands. Under the hands of the German Empire, the constituent states flourished and became an industrial power unrivaled in Europe. The manufacturing of steel, the exporting of coal and the industrial works of companies such as Krupp, all resulted in the German dominance in industry in the latter part of the 1800s.
Germany was also the home of several semi-autonomous regions, such as Bavaria, ruled by King Ludwig II until his mysterious death in 1886 Often called “Mad King Ludwig” , he , was a man of peculiar vision. He loved to build lavish fairy tale castles and buildings of elaborate design. Besides his masterpiece New Hohenschwangau Castle, later renamed Neuschwanstein Castle after his death, King Ludwig oversaw the construction of the Winter Garden in Munich. The garden, complete with a lake and a technologically advanced glass and steel roof design, included a grotto, a Moorish kiosk, an Indian royal tent, an artificially illuminated rainbow and intermittent moonlight.
The German Empire, being a collection of kingdoms, principalities, grand duchies, and electorates, was a breeding ground for intrigue, subterfuge, and espionage. The Emperor, or Kaiser in German, had an extensive secret police force, and a spy network that was particularly successful. The German success in the Franco-Prussian War was rumored to have relied heavily on the network of spies within the French government.
BE FREE
A Steamfunkateers Adventure
The vile practice of slavery casts a shadow over the entire world. Even in these modern times, human trafficking—slavery, by any other name—is a plague that has infected, and affected, us all. There is even irrefutable evidence that more than 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, there were Black people in the Deep South who had no idea they were free. These people were forced to work, were violently tortured, and raped by Caucasian men and women whom they believed were their enslavers.
In Be Free, the characters must travel to the city of Galveston, home base of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi who terrorize much of the state. Their quest is simple: Rescue Frederick Douglass, whom the Confederates rightfully believe manipulated Abraham Lincoln into signing and putting into affect the Emancipation Proclamation, from the clutches of Galveston’s slavers. But in their effort to free the young barbarian from his captors, the heroes find the trail leading them into a cruel, twisted realm of human bondage, underground cults, and wicked rituals.
NOTE: GMs, when you see passages written in a smaller, different font in a Steamfunkateers adventure (like this one), that indicates you read that passage to the players. Don’t read this one to them, though!
Summary
The player characters are hired by Jeremiah G. Hamilton—a Wall Street broker noted as “the richest Black man in America,” and one of the richest men in the country, regardless to race—to rescue his friend and colleague, social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, Frederick Douglass from the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. Before leaving on this mission, PCs have an opportunity to talk to a former slaver and learn crucial facts about the slave trade and the city of Galveston.
Once in Galveston, the PCs discover that the job won’t be as easy or as simple as just buying Douglass back. He’s already been bought and sold several times before the characters pick up his trail.
Douglass is being sold to increasingly grim and disturbing owners that are into a world of death sports, magical experimentation, and nightmare cults. The trail also leads to members of the Abandoned who fight against slavery in Galveston and aid escaping slaves in their flight to freedom. The Abandoned, unaware that slavery is over everywhere else in the United States, believe that the Underground Railroad has abandoned the people and the cause. Earning their trust is as crucial to the rescue’s success as finding Douglass and stopping the cultists’ horrid plan.
Important NPCs
In Be Free, Player Characters will spend most of the time speaking with, gaining the trust of, or squeezing information from NPCs involved in the slave trade. Some of them are despicable, some are valuable allies, and a few are both.
Newton Knight was a mercenary who joined the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, but after two years of service, he deserted.
Knight’s principal reason for desertion was his anger over the Confederate government’s passing of the Twenty Negro Law, which allowed large plantation owners to avoid military service if they owned 20 slaves or more. An additional family member was exempted from service for each additional 20 slaves owned by the plantation owner.
Knight fled into the swamps near his home to escape being shot for desertion and lived among the runaway slaves and Native Americans that inhabited the swamps. At first, Knight and the others in the swamp had a stormy relationship, to say the least, but eventually he grew to admire his neighbors in the swamp and learned to survive in the marsh from them. He repented his racist and bigoted ways and began to teach the people of the swamp military tactics and has even led raids on other whites for food, weapons and supplies. He’s lived among them for several years, now.
Jimmy McCune is a seasoned warrior and physician who has seen more than his share of combat against slavers and other enemies. He sees himself as a “modern African warrior.” He lost his right arm battling gnolls a decade ago, but he still serves Jeremiah G. Hamilton as a lieutenant and adviser.
Jeremiah G. Hamilton is a millionaire and is ruthless in business. So ruthless, the other businesspeople on Wall Street call him “the Prince of Darkness.” He was a great boxer and athlete in his prime, and even now few of his peers would face him one-on-one in a fight. He secretly funds Frederick Douglass’ anti-slavery public speaking engagements around the globe. Jeremiah also provides food, weapons, ammunition and even money to radical abolitionists, whom he uses as his personal army whenever the need arises.
Frederick Douglass is a friend of Jeremiah G. Hamilton and the true author of the Emancipation Proclamation. He is passionate, strong, articulate, impetuous, and a skilled and experienced diplomat. He has the ear of U.S. Presidents and uses that advantage to affect change for Black people on a federal level. Many people—including Harriet Tubman—believe Frederick Douglass is Brushed and has limited mind control. Douglass believes he is just articulate and clever.
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