Rupea Castle Expedition 1884

The expedition to Rupea castle.
**20 April 1884, Headquarters of Imperial Intelligence Department (IID), Templar Barracks, Ashford, Kent. **
Doctor Kieran Hamilton look at the map for at least the 100th time.
Shook his head and wondered allowed who had come up with this brilliant plan.

A knock on his door alerted him to the arrival of the two people who would help him with this expedition on behalf of Her Majesties government.
“Come” he called out and the door opened. The two people who entered could not have been more different.

The first was a rather short woman, with a normal build, she was dressed in a tweed skirt, blouse and jacket. Dark framed glasses and her hair pulled back in a bun, she looked both intelligent and observant. This was Doctor Helen Mulvaney. She was an expert on the Occult and was also capable of speaking 17 different languages. Dr. Mulvaney didn’t look like a field researcher but she had been across the Gobi Desert twice, hiked the Himalayas and had worked on digs in Papua New Guinea as well as the Knossos dig on Crete.

The man who came in behind her was a bit over six feet tall, broad shouldered and walked with the ease of a powerful confident person. Travis Scott was from the back woods of Northern Ontario. His early days working as a lumberjack by Thunder Bay helped develop a powerful body as well as an uncanny ability with navigation in woods, jungle or where ever he might be.

The two had two completely different roles for this expedition.

Mulvaney was the brains behind what they must and yes that is must find in Rupea Castle. It was her job to figure out what the tomb within the Castle had to offer in the way of either relics or guidance to the site of the Ancient evil that once occupied medieval Romania.

Scott’s role was to keep the team safe and to secure the site once they got there. Scott was one of the most experienced operators in the “Special Branch”, of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau (IIB), a sub-branch of the IID.

“Welcome! I am glad the two of you could come on such short notice, but we have quite the task ahead of us”! Hamilton stood up and shook hand with the two arrivals.

“Glad we could make it” was the short response from Mulvaney. She immediately began looking at the map on the table in front of her. 

Scott remained standing near the door, ensuring that it was properly closed then walked over to the table as well.

“So, Romania and I can see here that it is right in the middle of the country. This can’t be an easy one! The Carpathian Mountains are not easily travelled”!

Hamilton looked at the Canadian and nodded, “You have it Scott. We need to take a team in there, to a spot known as Rupea Castle or Rupea citadel, depending on how you want to translate the Romanian. Rupea has been used in warfare since about 1200 AD and was one of the fortresses used by Vlad the Impaler. That is where our interest lies”.

“As the two of you know, Vlad has been identified by our Occult teams as one of the Ancient Evils, and we need to track down his remains, as well as any relics that may relate to him. We did the obvious and sent a team to his tomb, as you know, and of course no surprise the tomb and vault adjacent were both empty.

This is not problematic, except that The Austrians got there first and found it empty before we did and now have the jump on us. We know that they, and the Germans, have both been through Castle Bran for any relevant information. We will send a second team to Bran as well, but we now believe it will be a dead end. The Austrian team is apparently headed to Rasmov ruin, but we have already been there, and it is a dead end”.

“No not dead Doctor”, replied Mulvaney. “That is where we got the information on Rupea”!

“Yes, you are quite correct Doctor. Well, we have a bit of a surprise waiting for the Austrians when they do get there in any case.

So, here we are. You two will lead a six-person team to Rupea, search it and figure out the useful information and recover any possible artifacts, maps, relics and so on.”

“Six? I was told I could bring along myself and 3 others! I doubt Mr. Scott would be happy with just himself and one other for security”. Mulvaney stared hard at Hamilton.

“Well it’s a question of not arousing suspicion from the locals, keeping the team small and being able to move quickly in and out.” 

Scott laughed at the prepared response from Hamilton. “Then count me out! Its impossible to secure a site like that with just me and one other. I need a minimum of six! My thought is 12 is the number. That would be the four researchers including Doctor Mulvaney and eight members of the security team, including myself of course. We can move quickly by horse, travel in the area is not going to be quick regardless. But on horse back we can move at a good pace.”

Mulvaney looked to Scott, back to Hamilton and nodded her head. “I agree”!

“Very well” Hamilton replied, pick your team.

You leave tomorrow on the 10am train to Dover! The Ferry leaves at 1pm for Calais. You will embark a train there taking you to Paris. Overnight in Paris. You will board the Orient Express on the 22nd of April at 8am and should arrive in Bucharest Romania on the 25th of April at noon, if there are no delays. Once in Bucharest, you will acquire any necessary transportation to get yourselves to Rupea”.

“From there I am afraid I can provide no further detail. We are unaware of the scope or the state of the site. It has been abandoned for at least 200 years now and the area is not heavily populated.

Good luck, and I hope fortune smiles on us this time out! I fear the Austrians are ahead of us in this race we are in, and if they win, they will have a power in their hands that we will find very difficult to counter, if it is even possible! Again, Good Luck!”.

Mulvaney and Scott both acknowledged Hamilton’s words and left. Both were thinking very similar thought, this was going to be a challenge.

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Ok, if we take the above story and convert it to MODERN INEPTT.

You will have an 8 person INEPT Team (Leader, 2IC, Combat medic, Support Operator and a four person fire team. Plus four civilians (Mulvaney should probably have the stats for a Police officer given her field experience). The Civilians should have body armour and possibly a side arm - your choice if you do or not.

Opponents would be 2 separate bands of 10 warlord type soldier (or militia). Armed with AK's and maybe RPGs. The Rupea should be a fairly large castle with a tomb like chamber located somewhere within the ruins. Allow for up to 4 relics (each a VP to INEPTT).

One band of the militia/warlord soldiery is under control of the Ancient evil in the form of the Commander of the group (Mind controlled) the other are locals who just want to be left alone and so will try and scare off or capture any intruders to be held for ransom money.

I will get some pics up of possible table layouts in the near future.