Character: Harry 'Copper' Dixon

Harry Dixon is a private eye. A good one.

Back in his home town of Steelopolis, in Rru-Ssarn (Passage75), he was a cop, until he was framed by a crime he didn't commit. The corruption in City Hall had gotten too much and he needed out, and the fat cats up in central office wanted him out. Thus the Passage Opening was a blessing in disguise.

In Thyra, he found a Place filled with good guys, bad guys and the same corruption up where The Ministerium meets (The Big House). But this time? This time he's being paid to track people down and to solve crimes the Yellowstripes don't want to touch.

Saw the picture and simply couldn't resist. Above average shooting and tracking.

Character: The Twilight Owl

Little is known about this stealthy and shadowy creature. Even his/hers/its race is a complete mystery. What is known is that as soon as the first Passage was opened, he started showing up, due to an interesting problem arising. 

If you say, rob someone or even kill, you'll be chased and probably found by the Yellowstripes (they are good at this). However, what happens if after the crime, you simply walk through a Passage? Do the Yellowstripes follow? What if instead of an uninhabited world, you have a bustling city on the other side? Are you now wanted by their own policing force?

Whilst these discussions continued, a core of bouty hunters slowly came into being. People that could disregard the local rules and bring people back. Subject to the highest parameters of conduct, but still with plenty of leeway to crack some heads.

Owl is one of these. His track record is smaller than some, but he has 100% success rate. 'Anyone Anywhere' is his motto, and by the Gods he lives up to it...

A personally interesting character, as Owl is my steampunk cosplay (in fact it's me in the picture). Great fighter, great tracter, good survivalist, otherwise not a pleasant person.

Character: Baetrice 'Bee' Vulpes

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On the other side of Passage 19, there is world, Gaia, which is effectively an alternate Earth. The Passage ends near a city, K'tarin, but a few miles down the road there is an island, with another city, Kitsune, that is easily 3 times the size of Thyra, but with only a little over half the population.

They called it the Shadow Wind.

An epidemic the likes of which had never been seen. People wasted away hours after infection. Millions died. A precious few seemed to be immune.

The rest of Gaia enforced a deadly quarentine. Nothing in, nothing out.

Bee's father was an engineer. She learned clockwork at his side, to build machines, big and small. Then the Wind hit.

In those dark few months, Bee had to be a bit of everything: scavenger, doctor, fighter, protector.

What emerged was a strong healer. Someone still fascinated by machines, metallic and organic. Two years after The Wind had passed, the Opening of Passage 19 was a blessing, the city had plenty to trade, and was happy to receive immigrants. Bee made her bag, and left, deciding to take her gift out into Thyra and beyond. 

On her shoulder, faithful, annoying and bright, Sheba, a clockwork construct, able to morph shapes between a small dragon and a small snake.

Woe to those that get in their way.

A custom build for a good friend. A powerful healer and good melee fighter, with some engineering skills. Sheba will not be very fast, but it might provide key recon at times. I might give her +1 to hit from the start. She who knows how to heal knows how to hurt....

The Quarantine Zone

To the South of Thyra, there is an area that has been permanently walled off. Even most of the tunnels and passages of Below end just before they reach this area. 

Now simply called The Quarantine Zone, this was the area of the city that was hit the hardest during the War. The cost of repair being deemed too high, the whole place was simply cordoned off. 

There is, however, an issue.

The Night fell in a roughly West/East trajectory. Upon impact, the QZ was in the same line as the impact trajectory. This is the area with one of the highest concentration of Passages known. Only 2 are known to be open (onto seemingly uninhabited worlds). Also, it is known that there is a similar area of Below beneath the surface, cut off from the rest of the network of tunnels.

Tales abound of riches and treasure behind every stone in the QZ. The Ministerium doesn't care too much about scavengers, although the Yellowstripes maintain a nominal patrol of the wall that isolates the area.

The Kerrigan Asylum For The Ethereal Challenged (The Mansion)

Way out in Exilopolis, there is a massive building.

The Mansion started as an offshoot of The College experiments with NightSerum. Right from the start, and although volunteers were easy enough to find, it was clear that the fail rate was impressive enough to demand some arrangements. Sure, most individuals died, but a few did indeed develop magik abilities, and these were very much beyond their control.

Thus The Mansion was opened. A safe (or as safe as it can be made) place for these wretched souls to exist, and to - perhaps - be helped back into some sort of peace. 

The staff, picked by hand from a number of Places, are kind, nurturing and patient. 

The guests.... They are not what they once were. 

Some are horribly mutated into grotesque forms, and need to be kept in quiet, gloomy rooms. Some wield impossible energies, and live their lives in copper covered rooms.

They are an unfortunate consequence of progress, some would say. Thyrans prefer not to think about it too much.

Currency

Money, money, money.... It makes ALL the worlds go round. It appears that throughout the Multiverse, gold is fairly rare, so it is very much the precious metal of choice.

I wanted a simple conversion rate, so I'm using the one from D&D:

1 Copper piece (about ten British pennies)

10 Copper = 1 Silver (about one British pound)

100 Copper = 10 Silver = 1 Gold (about 10 British pounds)

1000 Copper = 100 Silver = 10 Gold = 1 Platinum (about 100 British pounds)

So you tip a beggar a couple of Coppers, eat a modest meal for 1 Silver, buy a new gun for half a dozen Gold and buy a ticket in 1st class to another Place for a couple of Platinum pieces.

Character: Captain Rachel 'Silver' Wall

Rachel hails from Crescent Cove, in the Billion Isles (Passage 45). In her world, the whole planet is one huge ocean, peppered with the above mentioned Billion Isles, atolls, floating cities, etc.

The Billion Isle side of Passage 45 is in the middle of nowhere, and even to this day, only a selective few inhabitants know of it. Captain Wall is one of them.

Her world is one of high sea piracy, alliances, backstabbing and intrigue. Bar the piracy, she understood Thyra the moment she arrived.

Having an almost monopoly on trade with her world mean she has to put up with cutthroat pirates and bloodthirsty buccaneers at every step.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

Captain Wall is here because I adore pirates. An adventurer, amazing with a sword and pistol. Gave her a 'spider-sense' for danger and an attitude.