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| | ===Founding=== | | ===Founding=== |
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| − | « Cleansing ». It's not a nice word, and it's not a nice job, but it was done. After the Second World War, countries of Western Europe had to root out the collaborators, the traitors and war profiteers, and purge them from the positions of power they had attained under German or Italian occupation. In Germany and Austria, the territory was even occupied by the Allies, who ran this intense denazification programme. The investigators who did this were a unique blend of policemen, accountants and spies. Several of them, in the course of their investigation, discovered a terrible truth: that the men and women who had richly profited from the chaos and tyranny of war were sometimes more than humans. They say that man is the worst monster, but they're not always right. | + | « Cleansing ». It's not a nice word, and it's not a nice job, but it was done. After the Second World War, countries of Western Europe had to root out the collaborators, the traitors and war profiteers, and purge them from the positions of power they had attained under German or Italian occupation. In Germany and Austria, the territory was even occupied by the Allies, who ran this intense denazification programme. The investigators who did this were a unique blend of policemen, accountants and spies. Several of them, in the course of their investigation, discovered terrible truth: that the men and women who had richly profited from the chaos and tyranny of war were sometimes more than humans. They say that man is the worst monster, but they're not always right. |
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| − | Several investigators tried to strike back, and were destroyed utterly. But safety was in numbers. Former resistance networks were reactivated, weapons procured, requisition orders forged. In 1946, detective Edwin van Geerts, Major Gaston Buffalat and Occupation Commissioner Harold Fellowes held the first international cooperation meeting on supernatural cleansing. Experience came from any source they found: turncoat Nazi occultists, politicians with an in on the dark sides of the Church, American friendly special forces. The meetings became regular and eventually merged smoothly into the burgeoning European Communities. | + | Several investigators trie to strike back, and were destroyed utterly. But safety was in numbers. Former resistance networks were reactivated, weapons procured, requisition orders forged. In 1946, detective Edwin van Geerts, Major Gaston Buffalat and Occupation Commissioner Harold Fellowes held the first international cooperation meeting on supernatural cleansing. Experience came from any source they found: rutncoat Nazi occultists, politicians with an in on the dark sides of the Church, American friendly special forces. The meetings became regular and eventually merged smoothly into the burgeoning European Communities. |
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| − | Nowadays, the Irrational Economic Actors Task Force is one of the myriad bodies gravitating around the Commission building in Brussels. It is a think tank, a quango, a semi-private reflexion group dedicated to monitoring supernatural activity. With the quelling of continent-wide fears of warfare, its focus has shifted largely to economic analysis. It is also an informal meeting group for agents of several European intelligence agencies which have maintained a presence there, co-opting colleagues with a special experience in the field of monster hunting. | + | Nowadays, the Irrational Economic Actors Task Force is one of the myriad bodies gravitating around the Commission building in Brussels. It is a think tank, a quango, a semi-private reflexion group dedicated to monitoring supernatural activity. With the quelling of continent-wide fears of warfare, its focus has shifted largely to economic analysis. It is also an informal meeting group for the many continental intelligence agencies which have maintained a presence there, co-opting colleagues with a special experience in the field of monster hunting. |
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| | ===The Enemy=== | | ===The Enemy=== |
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| | The Task Force itself is small, but its turnover rate and extended contact network means it can rely on many more people than those just on the payroll. Over time, differences of opinion emerge. | | The Task Force itself is small, but its turnover rate and extended contact network means it can rely on many more people than those just on the payroll. Over time, differences of opinion emerge. |
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| | '''Hacks''' are devoted to keeping things running smoothly. They want what's best for Europe's citizens and markets, and nothing creates panic more than unwanted news. Many of them come from backgrounds in economics or government. They will keep the monsters down so everyone else can live, but it's just as important to be diplomatic and smooth than it is to go guns blazing. | | '''Hacks''' are devoted to keeping things running smoothly. They want what's best for Europe's citizens and markets, and nothing creates panic more than unwanted news. Many of them come from backgrounds in economics or government. They will keep the monsters down so everyone else can live, but it's just as important to be diplomatic and smooth than it is to go guns blazing. |
| − | | + | By contrast, '''Troubleshooters''' see themselves as consultants hired on particular problems. They often have previous monster-hunting experience and are called in when the Task Force encounters issues they cannot solve by activating their government or intelligence contracts. |
| − | By contrast, '''Troubleshooters''' see themselves as consultants hired on retainer to solve particular problems. They often have previous monster-hunting experience and are called in when the Task Force encounters issues they cannot solve by activating their government or intelligence contacts. | |
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| | Finally, '''Wonks''' are the strategists of the group, the big thinkers with vision, or at least that's how they see themselves. They tend to come from business or academia, and compensate their lack of practical experience with a surprising breadth of knowledge. Wonks usually hold the Chairman position. | | Finally, '''Wonks''' are the strategists of the group, the big thinkers with vision, or at least that's how they see themselves. They tend to come from business or academia, and compensate their lack of practical experience with a surprising breadth of knowledge. Wonks usually hold the Chairman position. |
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| − | '''Hacks''': Persuasion (Politicians) or Persuasion (Public Servants).
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| − | '''Troubleshooters''': Subterfuge (Vacate the area)
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| − | '''Wonks''': Academics (Economics)
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| | ===Status=== | | ===Status=== |
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| | The Task Force is just as much of a backbiting, scheming place as one would expect. Still, experience and skill sometimes get noticed and rewarded. | | The Task Force is just as much of a backbiting, scheming place as one would expect. Still, experience and skill sometimes get noticed and rewarded. |
| | + | *: You've been asked to do a presentation for the Task Force, and consulted a couple of times. You gain the Economics specialty for free in either the Investigation or Politics skill. |
| | + | ***: You're on retainer or on permanent assignment to the group, and have started to build a network of contacts. You've also gone in the field at least once on an investigation or an elimination job, and you've more than likely taken serious risks for your life or career. You gain two dots in the Contacts merit. |
| | + | *****: You are known as not only an expert in your field, but as the guy people should turn to when they meet unexpected trouble. You've also uncovered enough dirt about enough people that the authorities will not cross you lightly. You gain the benefit of two additional dots of Status if you're willing to demonstrate your blackmail material. |
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| − | 0: You've been asked to do a presentation for the Task Force, and consulted a couple of times. You gain the Economics specialty for free in either the Investigation or Politics skill.
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| − | 000: You're on retainer or on permanent assignment to the group, and have started to build a network of contacts. You've also gone in the field at least once on an investigation or an elimination job, and you've more than likely taken serious risks for your life or career. You gain two dots in the Contacts merit.
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| − | 00000: You are known as not only an expert in your field, but as the guy people should turn to when they meet unexpected trouble. You're so good at noticing telltale signs that you can do it unconsciously now. You gain the benefit of the Unseen Senses merit, but it is only triggered when you put together evidence of a supernatural being's activity (i.e., it does not work at close range).
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| | ==The Season Letters== | | ==The Season Letters== |
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| | '''Starlings''' are experts on meeting sessions. They routinely travel from location to location, setting up safehouses and wards to assist the local members. They generally stay during the meetings and are rewarded by information as much as money. | | '''Starlings''' are experts on meeting sessions. They routinely travel from location to location, setting up safehouses and wards to assist the local members. They generally stay during the meetings and are rewarded by information as much as money. |
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| − | Free specialties: '''Larks''': Academics (Reviewing);
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| − | '''Cuckoos''': Subterfuge (Blending In);
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| − | '''Starlings''': Streetwise (Safehouses).
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| | ===Status=== | | ===Status=== |
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| | The Letters are a very informal network, but reputation is everything to people who rarely meet. | | The Letters are a very informal network, but reputation is everything to people who rarely meet. |
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| − | 0: You have provided information on request by a member, and have been kept appraised of the result of the Investigation. You are also starting to work at a distance through contacts. You gain a free Written Word specialty in the Expression or Persuasion skill.
| + | *: You have provided information on request by a member, and have been kept appraised of the result of the Investigation. You gain a free Specialty in the Occult or Academics skill. |
| − | | + | ***: You have participated in at least one meeting session, and are well-known for your insight within the network. You have come across dozens of reports from across the world. You gain two dots in the Language merit, allocated however you wish. |
| − | 000: You have participated in at least one meeting session, and are well-known for your insight within the network. You have come across dozens of reports from across the world. You gain two dots in the Allies merit.
| + | *****: You are one of the central hubs of the network, and those members that you don't know personally you can probably investigate and discover. You have survived several meetings with creatures, and not all of them have gone well. You gain the benefit of the Common sense merit, applied only to supernatural creatures and their actions. |
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| − | 00000: You are one of the central hubs of the network, and those members that you don't know personally you can probably investigate and discover. You have survived several meetings with creatures, and not all of them have gone well. You gain the benefit of the Encyclopaedic Knowledge merit, if you have the time to ask your contacts in the network and receive their feedback.
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| − | ==The Tucker Street Outfit==
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| − | ===Founding===
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| − | The "boys from Tucker street" were one of the major players in turn-of-the-century London's crime scene. They were one of the original legendary outfits, known for robbing, running gambling dens and managing prostitution in the golden days of old-fashioned street gangs. They were also known for their very public excesses and for flaunting their power in the streets. Then, like many other organised crime structures, the gang collapsed. But it hadn't been muscled on or killed. It had fallen under the thumb of a mysterious man known only as "the Gent". For decades, the creature known as the Gent turned the original gang into his own discreet army of crime, exerting supernatural control over even the most strong-willed to hold the city in his grasp. He had turned the gang's rabble into a well-oiled profit-making machine, extending his tendrils across the world through his agents.
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| − | Then, one day in the early 1960s, the Gent disappeared. No one really knows what happened to him. There followed a few very confusing weeks for his cult of mind-slaves, but the Gent's two main lieutenants and high acolytes, Hugh Cullen and Glenn Abbot, decided to react. They reassembled the Tucker Street outfit and held tightly on to the reins of power, and the gang went on with its petty criminal activities, although infighting constantly threatened to break it apart. In 1971, the Outfit found out one of the crime bosses running the neighbouring area was not human. Using all the experience they had acquired under the Gent, the gang launched a night raid and destroyed him. The entire neighborhood was now theirs for the taking. A common enemy was found, unifying the gang. New business opportunities were suddenly open.
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| − | Since then, the Outfit has greatly expanded, opening affiliated gangs in many countries in Europe, Russia and North and South America. They see themselves as protecting their territories, but truly, their specialty is just bumping off monsters who are an obstacle to their expansion plans. The Outfit is now an international corporation, with very strict rules about authority and profit sharing, but it is also built as an underground army. Like every army, it needs enemies to stay together, and monsters provide this enemy.
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| − | ===The Enemy===
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| − | The Outfit is interested in every field of grey- or black-market activity, with a predilection for their original specialties in gun running, gambling and protection racket. They have noticed that when a monster creates a power base in organised crime, it tends to stay isolated, rarely creating alliances with others of its kind or with competing crime bosses. This allows them to strike with relatively little fear of retaliation, as long as the supernatural influence is rooted out entirely on the first go.
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| − | Like many gangsters, the Outfit sees itself as rebels, and experience a powerful sense of shame at the long years spent in mental servitude to an inhuman being. Therefore they will go out of their way to hunt and destroy any supernatural being that they see as remotely threatening to their operations, and portray themselves as heroes in the community they are exploiting. They are not above selling their services, either, in the grand tradition of hired killers. The fact they are specialised in the hardest possible targets to kill allows them to extract extremely high fees. If some of their clients are also monsters, that's fine... until the Outfit sees a reason to bump them off too.
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| − | ===Hunters===
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| − | You were a cop, and you did your best, but when you tried to take down an up and coming kingpin, the department hung you out to dry. You and your family suffered the price. So you turned to your street contacts. Some hoodlums from another neighborhood took him down, free of charge and no questions asked. You saw what it took to take the fight all the way to the bastards. You handed back your badge and never regretted it.
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| − | Had you been born somewhere else, you'd be an academic, a spin doctor, a virtuoso in strategy and politics. But you were born on the street, and that's where you exert your talents. You don't have much against those poor bastards with the funny faces and the deformities, but you've got to keep your troops sharp. They fight back, but you're tougher.
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| − | To you, it's all about business. Fair and open competition is the only way things work out for the best, right? Except these things don't play fair. They have dirty tricks to play with people's minds and make them forget what a good deal you're offering. Well, you've got a couple of tricks up your sleeve too.
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| − | ===Factions===
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| − | Over time, the Tucker Street Outfit has expanded in many areas, both socially and geographically.
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| − | The '''Locals''' are the everyday operators. They keep the outfit's businesses running, provide management for mundane crime. They're also the eyes and ears of the outfit, out on the streets. Most of their job is sorting the gossip and rumours from the real info, but they happily lend a hand when action is needed.
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| − | The '''Family Boys''' have retained most of the outfit's rites and scriptures from its days as a cult organisation. They provide links with the rest of the outfit and keep everyone focused on the prize. They can fill any role, from capo to adviser to gang-banger.
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| − | Finally, '''Old Hands''' are a bunch of experienced gangsters who tend to develop the same approach to life after a while: a growing obsession with hunting monsters, to the detriment of the business side of things. They're used as resources but all too often kept at arm's length by leaders with a more materialistic point of view.
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| − | Free specialties: '''Locals''': Streetwise (Rumours);
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| − | '''Family Boys''': Socialise (The Initiated);
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| − | '''Old Hands''': Firearms (Rifles).
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| − | ===Status===
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| − | As with most organized crime, the Outfit is a very hierarchic and ritualised society.
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| − | 0: You've been blooded in and have started to take part in the Outfit's criminal activities. You have also done some outlying work for monster-hunting, such as intelligence gathering or surveilance. You gain a free specialty in Firearms or Streetwise.
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| − | 000: You've been formally initiated in the Outfit and enjoy a certain amount of protection because of it (think of it as being 'made' in the Mafia). Because you've proven yourself on the frontlines, you now gain access to a share of the pie. You get two extra dots of Resources, representing your involvement in various trafficking.
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| − | 00000: You're one of the major crime figures in your area. You are very well-versed in the local supernatural landscape as it intersects with crime and underground activities. You gain four dots in the Retainer merit, representing your loyal men, allocated however your like.
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