Mission Profile: Operation Wolfsbane - Destroying the Protect Gear Prototype - Wretched Interbellum Adventure

 In the smog-choked, alternate-history landscape of the Wretched Interbellum, the line between man and machine is blurring. Rumors have reached your cell of a terrifying breakthrough by the Special Armed Police Force (The Kerberos): the Protect Gear prototype.

This isn't just armor; it’s a psychological weapon designed to turn a soldier into a faceless, unstoppable executioner. Your mission: Infiltrate, Sabotage, and Erase.

Mission Profile: Operation Wolfsbane

The Objective: Destroy the "Type-0" Protect Gear prototype and the metallurgical data required to mass-produce it.

The Location: The Eisen-Shiba Foundry, a fortified industrial complex disguised as a scrap metal refinery on the edge of the city’s neutral zone.

The Stakes: If this goes live, the resistance is finished. You don't just want to break the suit; you want to make the brass believe the project is a cursed, expensive failure.

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1. The Infiltration: The Belly of the Beast

The Foundry is a labyrinth of steam pipes, red-hot vats, and armed guards.

• The Approach: The characters can enter via the Sulfur Vents (requires Constitution checks against toxic fumes) or by hijacking a Supply Train (requires a high-stakes Stealth or Deception play).

• The Complication: The Kerberos guards aren't standard police. They are veterans of the last Great War, equipped with MG42s and a fanatical devotion to the "Pack."

2. The Discovery: The MG-42 "Cerberus"

Deep within the sub-level laboratory, the players find it. The prototype is suspended in a pneumatic rig. It’s bulkier and more "monstrous" than the versions seen in the films—dripping with hydraulic fluid and smelling of ozone.

• The Twist: The prototype isn't empty. A "Donor Pilot"—a lobotomized political prisoner—is wired directly into the suit's neural interface.

• The Dilemma: Killing the pilot triggers a failsafe that locks down the lab. The players must decide whether to perform a "clean" extraction or a "messy" demolition while the pilot is still active.

3. The Sabotage: Engineering a "Malfunction"

Simply blowing it up is too easy. To ensure the project is scrapped, the players need to rig the suit to fail spectacularly during its final calibration test.

• Technical Challenge: A character with Mechanics or Engineering must bypass the suit's cooling system.

• The Math of Chaos: To ensure the core overheats without an immediate explosion, the player must calculate the thermal limit:

  $$T_{crit} = \frac{Q_{output}}{\kappa \cdot \Delta A}$$

  (Where $Q$ is the power output and $\kappa$ is the thermal conductivity of the experimental alloy.)

4. The Escape: Through the Red Eyes

As the sabotage takes hold, the sirens wail. The "Type-0" wakes up. It’s not fully functional, but it’s mobile. The players must flee the collapsing foundry while being stalked through the steam by the glowing red lenses of the prototype.

• Environmental Hazards: Molten metal spills, narrow catwalks, and the "Wolf" hunting them in the dark.

• Final Stand: The players reach the extraction point—a rain-slicked rooftop. They must hold off a squad of Kerberos troopers until the suit’s rigged core finally reaches critical mass and detonates.

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 Key NPCs & Assets

Name	Role	Motivation
Dr. Arisaka	Lead Engineer	Obsessed with "The Perfect Soldier." Will try to save his data over his life.
The Donor	The Pilot	A tragic figure who might briefly regain consciousness to help or hinder the players.
Unit 801	Kerberos Squad	Elite hunters who use pack tactics to corner the players in the foundry.

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Game Master Note: This mission should feel claustrophobic and "heavy." Emphasize the sound of the suit—the heavy, metallic thuds of its boots and the hiss of its pneumatic joints. The players shouldn't feel like heroes; they should feel like prey trying to break their hunter's teeth.

 Since you’re running a crew of hardened mercenaries, the tone shifts from a desperate struggle for survival to a professional, high-stakes heist. These aren't idealists; they’re specialists who know that the "Type-0" is a payday if they steal the specs, or a death sentence if they don't finish the job.

Here is how to tailor Operation Wolfsbane for a mercenary party:

The Contract: "The Red-Eye Clause"

The players were hired by a shady industrial rival (The Tatsumi Group) or a foreign intelligence agency.

• The Pay: 50,000 Marks (half up front) and a clean slate for their previous war crimes.

• The Bonus: An extra 10% for every gigabyte of metallurgical data retrieved before the demolition.

• The Constraint: No "loud" explosives until the target is reached. If the city guard realizes what's happening too early, the extraction helicopter won't risk the airspace.

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 Tactical Variations for Pros

As mercenaries, your players should have access to specialized gear that makes the mission feel like a tactical operation:

• Thermal Masking Capes: To bypass the Kerberos infrared sensors.

• EMP Breacher Charges: Designed to fry the Type-0’s neural link without damaging the physical hardware (allowing for data extraction).

• The "Iron Man" Strategy: Instead of just destroying the suit, the players might try to remote-pilot it to clear their own path out of the facility.

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The Encounter: Combat Professionals vs. The Wolf

In Jin-Roh, the Kerberos unit is famous for their Pack Tactics. Against mercenaries, they won't just charge; they will use the foundry’s architecture to pin the players down.

• Suppressive Fire: The Kerberos guards use MG42s to keep the players behind cover.

• Flanking: While suppressed, "Hounds" (lightly armored scouts) will move through the steam pipes to get behind the party.

• The Prototype Boss Fight: The "Type-0" is a tank in a hallway. Standard small arms won't dent it. The mercenaries will need to use the environment—dropping a vat of molten lead or using a crane to crush the hydraulic legs.

The Mechanics of Professional Destruction

Since these are pros, the sabotage requires more than a simple roll. They need to induce a Specific Failure Point.

To destabilize the Prototype's internal power cell without a premature detonation that kills the party, the lead Mercenary must balance the voltage output $V$ against the internal resistance $R$ of the experimental battery:

$$P = \frac{V^2}{R_{fault}}$$

GM Tip: If the players fail this check by 5 or more, the suit doesn't just break—it enters a Berserk State, ignoring its pilot and attacking everything in the room with mechanical, unthinking efficiency.

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Mercenary-Specific Objectives

To make the mission feel "authentic" to the Wretched Interbellum setting, give the players a checklist of secondary objectives that affect their final payout and reputation:

Objective	Requirement	Reward
Data Ghost	Download the alloy schematics.	Permanent +1 to Engineering checks.
No Witnesses	Eliminate Dr. Arisaka.	Bonus payment from the "Silent Partner."
Scrap Metal	Bring back a piece of the red lens.	Can be crafted into a "Wolf-Eye" HUD (+2 Perception).

OSR Wretched Interbellum Campaign Update - South China Sea

 I've been drawn to Hong Kong, the 1920's, the South China Sea and more from the Interbellum years between the World Wars as a possible campaign setting. Time and again real life gets in the way. I've been going over old campaign notes from 2016 from Dragonring Issue #1 Comicbook by Guang Yap From Aircel Comics As D&D Campaign Fodder Possibly using Wretched Interbellum as the go to system to pull this off. 

The Interbellum years were wild, the spectre of World War I hadn't quite faded. The Orient was wide open, China was a complete mess, and there were plenty of opportunities for both heroes and assholes. The Wretched verse is prime for this; "The shadows of the Great War still loom large in this uneasy interwar period, coloured by the lingering trauma of unprecedented violence that swept the world from 1914 to 1918. Unsettled borders, crumbling empires, and new regimes leave the political landscape fraught with tension. Strange occult forces stirred by wartime bloodshed now threaten the fabric of reality. You take on the role of adventurers in this uncertain era, navigating landscapes scarred by the horrors of trench warfare. Like the roguish sailor Corto Maltese or Steinbeck's wandering souls, you may have no allegiances beyond your own code of honour. Alliances are prerequisites for survival, yet trust is scarce among scheming factions vying for power in the ashes of war. Moral compasses waver like ships in a storm, the lines between heroes and villains obscured in swirling fog." The lines between heroes and villains were non existent and it was all about profit and getting a piece of the pie. Add to this the Pulp elements and you've got the makings of a great campaign setting that could last for years. 

Between the war years in the South China Sea there were huge military upheavals and conflicts. This was a rich time of harvest for the Beyond and the supernatural. These powers took full advantage of these situations of violence and desperation. For our 1920's game, I'm taking full advantage of Jemery Hart's stock artwork with Demon 42 becoming our main demonic antagonist.

Nazzaruth has been spreading it's cult throughout the South China sea and getting humans to worship it. Nazzaruth has been doing this through 'black miracles' healing the sick, the desperate, and feeding the hungry. There are however prices for all of these 'miracles' such as soul exchanges, human sacrifice, murder, and the usual that goes along with the price that demons extract. Enter the PC's who have noticed the number of islands that have fallen to this cult. 

And of course there's a treasure involved because there's always a treasure. The players are already itching to find this. Add in a boat with a desperate crew of adventurers.  

OSR Commentary - Further Readings Into Raiders of The Lost Artifacts Rpg By Night Owl Workshop

 Over the last two days, I've been incredibly busy with work and familial stuff. However, I did manage to pull in a discussion with another friend of mine about Raiders of the Lost Artifacts rpg by Night Owl Workshop. I've used RoA as a game and campaign fller for Wretched Interbellum in the past especially with the Scientist class being able to be used a stand in for a mage. 

 And using Raiders for filling in PC classes is especially handy. The OSR library site has a ton of new classes for RoA  that David Baymiller did.    These are perfect to add into a party going on exploring jaunts. This means that the party is far more or less modernly handled. 
So whose actually maintaining the traps and ancient ruins?! The short answer is cults are and this is because these dungeons & ruins are psychic batteries of occult power and misery that the optional occultist class channels into thier machinations. Cults using thier sacred ruins & dungeons gain the ability to charm & influence once every new moon. 
The occultist when casting ritual magic within the dungeon or ruin casts at one level higher. Traps and tricks within a dungeon or ruin are there to further the pot of supernatural power. This power allows the occultists to have access to more dangerous rituals that might seem outta of reach. Magick and the supernatural is all about power and domination. 
For our own game campaigns, dungeons & ruins allow occultists to have access to the Beyond. The Beyond comes from the Wretched Rpg and allows the occultist to have access to the power hungry entities. Entities who want to cut deals and further thier own agendas. 
The Beyond comes with it's own agenda however and the supernatural energies of that universe are terryifying unto themselves. Those exposed to & channeling the occult energies are subject to horrific mutations. 
And at higher levels within our games occultists can become quisi demonic lords immune to many mundane & physical hazards. The price for these immunies is high as the occultist becomes more and more a creature of the Beyond. They slip further and further away from our own dimensions. 

Between The Cracks Of Reality Campaign Set Up - Wretched Interbellum & The RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign

 So over the last couple of months I've gotten to play in a friend's Wretched Interbellum rpg game and he's thrown in some bits and pieces of  RPG Pundit's Invisible College. Because the Red Room is having a special promotion on The Rpg Pundit Files: The Invisible College, there's a huge discount on the Wretched Interbellum campaign setting; "This is the largest Pundit Files yet at 24 pages. And the cost is still $3.50! Also, when you buy this issue, you can use the promo code invisiblecollege for a 50% discount on the purchase of Wretched Interbellum, the Wretched setting that covers the 1930s. That’s a $6.50 discount on a 390 page setting book for a $3.50 purchase!"

The 1930's were marked by an increase in occult activity & Wretched Interbellum reflects this. The psychic fall out from WWI has put millions of restless dead into the supernatural ether.  hits on the fact that the Invisible CollleThe RPG Pundit Files The Invisible College: 1930's Campaign's occult and supernatural secret societies are struggling to keep up with the demands of the 1930's. We as DM's and players get a plethora of snap shots and details on how these occult and supernatural sects react as the years go by. 
These details can be worked into a Wretched Interbellum campaign easily. The factions of the Invisible College are going to butt heads and clash with the factions of the Wretched Interbellum even if they are fronts for other Invisible College factions. A war would be happening on two fronts the battles of Pre WWII and the occult clashes behind the scenes. In our Wretched campaign, Wretched Interbellum's Europe has been invaded by the Greys. And the Invisible College is aware of the invasion! 
The first tenative steps to this happened in 1917  because of Aliester Crowley's the "Amalantrah Workings," According to the Grey's Wiki entry; "As early as 1917, the occultist Aleister Crowley described a meeting with a "preternatural entity" named Lam that was similar in appearance to a modern Grey. Crowley believed he had contacted the entity through a process that he called the "Amalantrah Workings," which he thought allowed humans to contact beings from outer space and across dimensions. Other occultists and ufologists, many of whom have retroactively linked Lam to later Grey encounters, have since described their own visitations from him, with one describing the being as a "cold, computer-like intelligence," and utterly beyond human comprehension"  This contact allowed the Lam to punch holes into our reality from the Beyond. 
 The Greys are on the expansion train again and using cults to build gateways that allow them appear in New York and Europe. New York is on a 'slow kill breeding & expansion'  program. LAM are opening gateways into apartments and buildings then snatching people. The LAM are using a black liquid evolutionary accelerant virus that rewrites the victims genetic material. This process hollows out the victim's body allowing a 'feral LAM' to be born. Feral LAM are monsters of pure instinct and hunger with sharp claws and teeth. Any meat or protein is used to fuel the evolutionary change into the far more logical LAM form. The LAM have been expanding operations in major cities in America and Europe because almost no one has noticed. Anyone exposed to the accelerant virus must make a disease save or contract the LAM genetic material that will overwrite thier own material allowing the hatching of feral monster killing the host. 

Only by using a variation of the Banishing rite page 106 can one banish and close the psychic door of the LAM. This will force the entities back to the Beyond and they as well as thier works will evaporate. There is a breeding hive in Midtown Manhatten that has become ground zero for the LAM. 
Cults actively capture any 'feral Lam' that they come across and then secret them into facilities in the wilds of New York state and New England. A process repeated across Europe. 
The Machitore are monitoring the situation and watching with cold logical detactment.  Thier agents have been getting a bit close to the action and two or three have already been killed. 

The Invisible College's agents approach the PC's or are actively are part of the party. This means that the PC's are going to be stretched thin. 
The Adventurer's Club is being pushed to get involved The AC's occultist are pulling back and making adjustments with thier own adventurers. Note that the AC is very active during the Wretched Interbellum period. They work with the Invisible College from time to time. The AC knows that something is up with the Black Lodge but not what?! 
The Black Lodge lost a ton of ground & resources during World War I and have been acively canvasing to get back ground. 
The Black Lodge is trying to push further support to the German Nazi party. The Black Lodge believes that Hitler & co. are going to be easily controlled. The Thule society and the Vril oganization have contacted the LAM. They believe that they can make covenants with the LAM not knowing the true danger of these creatures. The LAM continue to fuel the German's Vril and Thule laced dreams. The rest of the Earth has no idea of the true danger that they are in. 

Pre WWII Pulp Setting Campaign with an Indo European flavor Using Wretched Darkness & Fantastic Heroes And Witchery Part III

 Make no mistake even though I haven't talked about it, Wretched Interbellum is definite about themes of cosmic horror. Because it couples so well with the broken promises of World War I to both those who served and to the world. The supernatural tidal wave of World War II promised to engulf the world in a cascade of destruction and Hellfire. This blog post picks right up from here on the blog. 

There were forty million killed during World War I and the world easily forgets these numbers. The supernatural world not so easily as the dead & undead crawl into the spiritual world. Fantastic Heroes and Witchery uses a variation of the Great Wheel which means that in some ways the Great Wheel model of the planes fits a sorta of Christian & Pagan model of the planes. Which allows one to fit the Beyond into this as a realm connected with Purgatory. 

World War II leads to the uprising of the supernatural as well as the undead from World War I begin filling in the ranks of the damned for the upcoming world war. This all stems into the realm of Dreams and the Fey. This means that the Fey are already lowering thier tendrils into Europe's underworld. And this sets up some of the deadly factions that we find in Wretched Darkness. And we get a good sense of exactly what's coming from Wretchedverse issue #21 A Guide to The Wretchedverse. 

Pre WWII Pulp Setting Campaign with an Indo European flavor Using Wretched Darkness & Fantastic Heroes And Witchery

 So going back too Fanastic Heroes and Witchery PC's has been interesting to say the least. Over the last day or so I've been reading old campaign notes. And this post is going to right up from here on the blog. And looking into having a horror based F&W horror game has been interesting because the players want to kick supernatural behind. 

Now the Pulp classes from FH&W are as follows: 
Necronimus ( Spiritualist) class, occultist, Psychic, Rifleman, savant(scientist), the skylord, and the wild brute. We've got these classes set against the supernatural of the Beyond ( which is actually Purgetory between Heaven & Hell) in our campaigns. 

Wretched Darkness first & seond edition presents an interesting delemia mixed with FH&W because what do you do with the D&D style wizards?! The answer is simple we use the existing magic guilds and wizard schools set in stable Fairyland areas. Technically speaking you could take the whole cloth of the campaign setting of Wretched Darkness 2nd edition and run it with Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. The supernatural world is still reeling from the unquiet dead of World War I. Add to this instability of the world and it's a perfect opportunity for the horror factions of Wretched Darkness to make in roads into the world. 
And we can see factions looking at South America, Mexico, France, Russia, and other nearer European theaters being too juicy targets for the supernatural or cults for that matter to leave alone. 

And we've been using a Tainted version of Greyhawk to this mix where the various Greyhawk monster factions looking over Europe and licking thier metaphorial chops.  I could see the characters journeying to Greyhawk to sabatoge a humaniod army filled with pig faced Orcs and the like under the purview of Luz. 

Paris France has been one of our occult mainstay cities for decades along with Portugal because of thier roles in the conquest of the 'New World'. The tide of violence and blood has been the source of supernatural energies of decades. These centers of forgotten power draw occult societies and cults like moths to flames. 
These places are also going to be beckons for many knightly orders who still exist in secret. 

With fading colonial interests and deadly enemies waiting in the shadows. Who knows what is moving around the swirl of desparate partiers and jet setters of the displaced royals, world weary vets, and others who move among the Interbellum crowds and elite. 

 Here's where I'm thinking of slipping in Raiders of the Lost artifacts for it's relic rules. These magical artifacts allow gods and other divine entities to have a toe hold in the world and allow them to possibly comeback into the modern era after thier time or era cycle is gone. 
This is something I've been toying with after reading up on the legends of the Devil's witch shools in Iceland. The idea that the supernatural continually recycles its agents and what not has a very nice appeal to me as a DM. More to come! 

Review & Commentary On Reporter X By The Red Room For The Wretched Interbellum rpg Setting.

"Set against the backdrop of the late 1920s/ early 1930s, and inspired by the audacious and often fabricated stories of the legendary Portuguese journalist Reinaldo Ferreira, also known as Reporter X, this supplement compels players to unravel mysteries that blur the lines between fact and fiction. From enigmatic espionage networks in Lisbon to the mystifying tales of Mata-Hari and her connections with occult societies, up to gangsters and bootleggers in Prohibition Era Chicago. Encounter a varied cast of characters, including former German intelligence officers, enigmatic artists, high-class courtesans, and more, each with their own hidden agendas. Reporter X is a small trove of adventure plot hooks, where every article holds a clue, and every rumour might just be a lead to a larger conspiracy (71 pages)." 
Available now at the Red Room store,

@biggeekemporium

and

@GiantSlayerRPGs

. https://moordereht.com/product/reporter-x

So what Reporter X is a supplement filled with adventure hooks and stories told by NPC reporter who may or not be what he or she seems. These stories ( adventure hooks) are meant to get the PC's into the deep end of the Interbellum rpg setting  from the Red Room. These scenarios within Reporter X are solidly done and a have a definitively European flair to them. And as a follow up to the events of  Ten Thousand Miles to Fiji  Reporter X does an excellent job. And Ten Thousand Miles to Fiji combined with Reporter X would make an excellent mini campaign. 

Reporter X breaks down into several stories each with it's own twist and NPC's to jump right into the action. There's a mix of the mundane soiled European theater in PreWar German spies  Portugal to the full on rebellion in Peru. The PC's are caught in the middle of everything. And there's lots of foreshadowing World War II here and the fall out from World War I. 

The action & adventure ranges from German spies to the brushes with the supernatural. And we get some very compelling NPC's within Reporter X. There's wall to wall A.I. artwork but it fits the material. And we get lots of background in Pre War Europe and in fact everything here has an air of the European. And this is a good thing. Reporter X reminds me of many European graphic novels that I've read over the years. And a good dash of the Pulps within. The layout, font style, column spacing, etc. is all good and easy on the eyes. 
Reporter X is a really solid hit into the Wretched Interbellum rpg setting. It sets the stage for a full on Wretched Interbellum rpg campaign. And it's a good example of the Red Room thinking outside of the box again. 
Reporter X brings some solid rpg adventure hooks into the fray with out the usual baggage. There's some great material here to hook in the players and keep them on the line for a Wretched Interbellum rpg campaign. 

Pre WWII Pulp Setting Campaign with an Indo European flavor Using Wretched Darkness & Fantastic Heroes And Witchery Part II

 The last couple of days have been very hectic to say the least with my day job and between real life events the alternative Pulp universe of Fantastic Heroes & Witchery mixed with a campaign of Wretched Interbellum has been on my mind. The nihlism of the European mindset after the events of World War I and the broken promises to US servicemen laid the ground work for the coming supernatural darkness of World War II. And this blog entry picks right  up from here on the blog. 

 

And it once again got me thinking about the artwork that was looted from various European and African countries  during World War I. How many occult and supernatural artifacts & relics disappeared into private collections. And how many are still within the collections of elite occultists during the Wretched Interbellum period. 
The Antiquities market during the Interbellum years saw thousands of artifacts sacked from Africa be moved into private collector and museum hands. The money involved in the black market of these items is both lucritive and incredibly scary. Murder and double cross are common. 

Add into this the growing supernatural cults and secret societies of the interbellum years then mix in the interest in the occult. And you've got a witch's brew of greed and fervor that is the perfect breeding ground for Wretched Darkness second edition entities to gain a toe hold on Earth. 

Pre WWII Pulp Setting Campaign with an Indo European flavor Using Wretched Darkness & Fantastic Heroes And Witchery

 So today myself & my wife were laying in Thanksgiving day supplies & just made it before the snows flew tonight. And all day Fantastic Hereos & Witchery plus The Red Room's Wretched Darkness 1st edtion rpg and 2nd edition campaign setting has been on my mind. Because of the fact that I got off the phone with a buddy of mine. He saw my recent Swords & Witchery Valley of Stone and Fire blog post here. 
Imagine that the Apocalyse is next door & that out on the streets tonight horror is a doorway away from the modern nights of 2023. The shadows are stalked by Weird Tales style Fanastic Heroes and Witchery PC's. 

Fantastic Heroes & Witchery's PC class levels top out at thirteen and The Wretchedverse's titles top out on the high side of ten. So the differences are not that far off for monsters,treasures, etc. Technically speaking you could take the whole cloth of the campaign setting of Wretched Darkness 2nd edition and run it with Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. 

This isn't a joke you could take the whole cloth of Wretched Darkness from factions to full blown monsters and just go to town. And then take the Tainted version of Greyhawk and combined it with this whole cloth OSR design to run anything from Weird Tales Pulp to full on Science Fantasy. 

So theoritically you could have your fantasy PC's crossing over into your modern horror rpg style games. This is just a thought but it makes sense give the number of fantasy character options. I love the idea of the Weird Tales and Pulp classes for Fantastic Heroes & Witchery opposing the horror and darkness of Wretched Darkness second edition. The biggest thing I see with such a campaign and working out the details is watching the damage threshold. Given the Pulp PC and Science Fantasy option plus the other optional  Fantasy PC classes. 
Wretched Darkness and the Wretched Interbellum campaign settings could be used together to created a whole cloth pre WWII Pulp setting with an indo European flavor. 

I'm still working out details such as country, place, players, which factions, and more. Details to come!