X-PATROL are the super-team based in Rockport. Rockport is a tiny island realm that is also coincidentally the site of the “UN building” of the Free Realms, the Truce Palace.
X-Patrol are a group of
freebooters who were kicked out of the Rockport army for various offences. They
cashed in their severance pay and started adventuring on their own account.
They are a team of mercenaries and corsairs who use military style combat and
rogue skills to get what they want.
Rockport doesn’t pay much
attention to them and officially they are just a bunch of friends who hang out
on the Northwall wharf. The Northwall wharf was slated to be a big harbour
complex but it was shut down by the Grand Duke of Rockport, Lord Rocco DeParle,
on the advice of his Island Druid and the other “environmentalists” of the
realm. So now only the X-Patrol use the Northwall wharf. Due to the magic of
the Island Druid and the neighbouring elven tree town of Green Rocks, the wharf
area is already overgrown with lianas and infested with chicken-sized dinosaurs
called terasaurs, which are little flying dino-rodents.
X-PATROL have crossed cutlasses
with the Eastern Empire navy and the Royal Ienian Navy. They have also fought
Baroness Quelm, a pearl-loving bandit queen of the Undersea based in the
abandoned dome city of Feralarkis. They destroyed Ziggurat the Living
Stronghold at the cost of most of their original team-mates, following which
they concentrated on having a week’s rest.
Their most recent adventure was a
salvage mission to recover documents for Aquatica from the sea floor near
Dreadisle, where an Aquatican magic submarine had crashed. The area was
controlled by Big Blobby, a vicious Ooze Elemental who X-Patrol couldn’t kill
or even hurt. In the end they defeated it by feeding it some poisoned meat,
which put the monster to sleep long enough for the XP-ers to enter the
half-flooded sub and recover the scroll tube with the documents inside. This
mission netted enough of a reward for the X-Patrol to get itself a submersible
sailing ship, the RPSV Dreaderick. RPSV stands for Rockport Sailing
Vessel.
Members of X-Patrol most all use
noms des guerres as their old identities are usually wanted for crimes.
X-Patrol members wear a stylised “X” pattern weapon harness over a simple Aquatican
sharkskin bodysuit (d20 AC 20), with Sea Ranger’s boots and gloves (AC bonus 2).
Big X ensures all team members are trained up so as to fight effectively as a
team and as individuals, along legionary lines.
Current members of X-Patrol are
THE ANGLER
The Angler is a master of
disguise. A taciturn olive-skinned man, he is believed to be a failed member of
the Sohei Monkfish’s martial arts army. Angler’s predilections lay in other
fields of endeavour so he has made his way to Rockport to try his hand amid the
madding crowd of the Truce Palace and on the hell-for-leather buccaneer
adventures of X-Patrol. From an early age, he was trained in the secret arts of
the Fisher Monks, an ancient monastic order combining the passions of sports
fishing and martial arts combat. As a result, his signature weapon is an exotic
weapon resembling a fly fishing rod. In place of a normal line and lure he
wields a steel wire on the end of his fishing rod, tipped with one of a variety
of deadly adamantite Death Lures. “He fishes for evil-doers”.
BIG X
Big X is a male human ex-legionary
and royal marine with a penchant for two-fisted deck battles. He is also the
leader of the group and the man who comes up with the plans.
LITTLE X
Little X is a female dwarf
ex-legionary and survivalist who is highly skilled at gathering information and
procuring items needed by the group. She is also usually the helmswoman of the Dreaderick
and the team’s alchemist.
PERSEPHONE PEN’UMBRA aka DEADLY
NIGHTSHADE
The newest member of the group is
a Heart of Glory criminal, spared by the realm in return for a lifelong
pledge to help Rockport in time of need. She is the daughter of the evil shadow
mage (and would-be Shadowking) Umbra Pen’Umbra and his ex-wife the sorceress Eliza
Wrack of the Nova Zvogan town of Malkovica. Deadly Nightshade is a Shadow
Dancer (a shadow-teleporting acrobat-rogue
highly skilled in the arts of the unseen knife).
RIPTIDE
Riptide is a criminal wanted by
the authorities in the Dedite Lands and the Jungle Kingdoms. He is an elemental
water wizard, specialising in oceanic magics. His familiar is a blue-ringed
octopus named Suckface.
X-Patrol is treated as an urban
myth in Rockport by some citizens, who believe it is nothing more than a rumour
started to make the group of friends who live on their salvage ship Dreaderick
sound grander than they are. This suits X-Patrol as although they are all
protective of Rockport and loyal to each other they do not wish to be an
official team of superhero do-gooders like the Silver Knot or the Rising Sun,
nor do they wish to attract the attention of evil groups the way that the sword
master swashbuckling organisation Gemini does.