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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Dallman" data-source="post: 9858501" data-attributes="member: 6999616">Things have been a touch busy, but here you go:Characters:Simon Deacon, narrator and commanding officer. First Lieutenant, British Army Intelligence Corps, on indefinite loan to loan to the Commonwealth Security Organisation.Don Williams, zoologist working on his PhD, likes to wrestle animals. Corporal, Australian Army, also on loan to the CSO.Johan Taylor, German by birth, left when the Nazis came to power. Student of Germanic paganism, and since Serpentfall can do some useful magic: divination and removing Taint. Good pistol shot, too. Employed by the CSO as a civilian specialist.Our new mission is to Macao, near Hong Kong, searching for “The Jade Scroll,” a Chinese Shang Dynasty artifact that was thought to be lost but is apparently now on the market. Macao was a Portuguese possession, but Spain now controls Portugal and Macao. We do not take our Marconi guns, since they're a dead giveaway that we're British Empire agents, or major-league criminals.Note: This is a published scenario for The Day After Ragnarok, but the GM says he's altered it significantly.It’s a Chinese mystic thing, a jade-cased collection of thin jade tablets linked by bronze rings. The language is the Oracle Bone script, which is imperfectly known, at best. They might be about weather magic, or be invoking the authority of heaven.It was last heard of in St Petersburg, in the private collection of a Russian nobleman, Count Upirnov. It was assumed lost in the chaos of the Russian Revolution when he ended up dead. Himmler apparently tried to locate it during WWII, without success, so it was flagged as interesting.Our people in Macao say that there’s a chance a current owner is willing to sell it to us. All the flights from Manilla are closely watched by the Japanese secret police. Our man in Manilla, Captain Mallinson, has a plan, though he tends to improvise. We are issued luggage with handgun compartments, some gold coins, and passports saying we’re Canadian, working for a machine tool company. We have tickets on Quantas’ Lockheed Constellation to Manilla this afternoon, and there should be a car at the airport. We should check in at the consulate and Mallinson will be there.The fight goes smoothly. Manilla is still notionally US territory, but they’re thinking about pulling out. We drive into the centre, and really don’t seem to be being followed. In the consulate, Mallinson is the assistant trade attaché. He gives us extra papers, the bureaucracy in Macao is sketchy and corrupt. We’ll be flown by Peter Verbinski, a freelance bush pilot, who’ll take us to a small island near Hainin, where we get on a boat owned by Cheng Ma Ko. He’ll drop us on the Macao docks where we’ll meet Gerald Brown, our man in Macao.Brown is responsible for getting us out. If we can do it at leisure, reverse the route. If urgent, there are aircraft we might be able to get the use of. Mallinson advances us Portugese escudos, Brown can get more. Buying the Jade Scroll from the current owner at the high price likely to be demanded will have to go up the command ladder.We take our leave, go to the hotel, get dinner, and confer. This all seems hasty, but if there are other people after the Jade Scroll, haste is plausible to get in first. Anyone with better resources than the Empire in Macao will not be friendly. We notice we’re being watched, by a chap who followed us out of the dining room. Young, European ethnicity, mid-brown hair. I invite him for a game of pool.He’s “Larry Monk” with an American accent. He is keeping an eye on us because American intelligence thought it worthwhile: we came in and went straight to the Empire’s head spook here. Let him know we’re leaving tomorrow, but can’t say where we’re going. Half of the US Army thinks they should go home, the other half wants to stay and fix things up. The Philippines has to be economically stand-alone at present.After breakfast, nod to Larry in the hotel lobby, meet our taxi, and we’re not visibly being followed. We are taken to an out-of-town jetty in a fishing village, with a seaplane tied up at the end of the jetty. There’s a shed at the base of the jetty, with loud voices in English, arguing about money. We knock, and a large Filipino gentleman says PeterV is not here, gone to town today, go away. Call out to PeterV, guy at door says “not here!” and another voice says "That’ll be my job, Ooof, Ok, Ok.” They shut the door.Don barges the door, and gets in, I follow holding out money, Johan follows. I let them take the money. They want to take PeteV to their boss for punishment. The amount involved keeps rising. PeteV does not have any broken fingers yet. I take out a gun, but don’t wave it. They notice after a bit and decide to back down. Pete is worried I’ve made things worse for him, I didn’t reckon he’d be wanting to come back, but he thinks he will. I should probably have been more diplomatic, but treating thugs like that as equals sticks in my craw.We go out and take off in PeteV's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_G-21_Goose" target="_blank">Grumman G-21 Goose</a>. He looks like you’d expect: scruffy, unshaven, casually dressed. The take-off is pretty shaky, but the cruise is OK. We make it to the island, where we land OK, and get out. We are introduced to Cheng Ma Ko, who asks how much trouble Pete is in?Ma Ko looks like a sturdy weather-beaten peasant. His boat looks like an ordinary large sampan, but his crew – about six of them – are very sharp and well-organised. They don’t salute; they don’t need to. It’s a lot faster than most fishing boats, but not using Ophiline in its engine. We’re due in Macao early in the morning. We get a cabin, seafood noodles, and in Johan’s case, mild seasickness. We reckon the boat and crew are Chinese Navy, now doing extra jobs for income.In the middle of the night, the boat has slowed down and there’s conversation outside in Chinese. We decide to lie doggo. A spotlight sweeps the boat, there’s more talking in a different language, we get going, and later speed up. Ma Ko tells us later it was a Japanese boat, and staying quiet was just right. We have more noodles for breakfast, and get given coolie hats and sacks to help with being inconspicuous. We arrive in Macao, head for a smaller jetty, get directions – second warehouse on left – thank him, disembark without attracting attention, and go there.The warehouse is largely empty. We look around carefully, then wait. Brown shows up after half an hour, and we give the recognition signals and then show ourselves. We’re being Fred McCluskie, Doug Winslow and John Trent. He’s got us a hotel. He’s pretty well known, but has shaken his tail, he takes us to a car and to the hotel he’s booked us into.</blockquote>

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