Concepto de Ingeniero Industrial

Some of the islands have one or more adventure ideas relating to them. Often it is easy enough for the GM to generate new adventure ideas based on the ones listed. For example, if the group succeeds in the St. Lucia scenario hook, the likely consequence is the destruction of the French colony there; the spy may then offer the group more money to contact the Caribs again only to betray and destroy them, so that the English can colonize the island.

A NGUILLA (E NGLISH )

Anguilla, the most northerly of the Leeward Isles, is a small island with a population of just 100 whites and 800 black slaves. One of the few features of interest in this beautiful but not particularly profitable island is Devil’s Cave, a large cavern containing a freshwater fountain and native carvings, both on the walls and on a huge stalagmite. The stalagmite is over three yards tall and carved to represent a stern-looking figure. Devil’s Cave is shunned by the colonists, who believe it to be a place of evil Indian magic, but some of the

slaves hold secret meetings and rituals there. The island’s population recently evacuated to Antigua after an attack by the French, but the English colonists have now returned.

Produce: Salt, Fish, Meat (Turtles) Demand: None

Scenario Hook: An ancient people, called the

“Siboney” or “People of the Stones” in the Arawak tongue, once held Devil’s Cave to be one of their most sacred places. They are long gone now, having left naught but shell inlaid axes and cups to mark

their passage. Hougans that have been taught by the Arawaks can call the few spirits of the Siboney that haven’t moved on here. They once knew all of the Caribbean and their knowledge of lost places and long buried tombs is said to be extensive.

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-A NTIGUA (E NGLISH )

Antigua has several good harbors and many beaches and coves, making it a popular waypoint and hurricane haven for legitimate traders, smugglers and pirates alike. Its population is about 12,000, at least 9,500 of whom are slaves and another 300 freed slaves. Deer, duck and wild pigeons can all be found in its forests, which enhance the island’s appeal to freebooters looking for a hideaway.

It is considered an important strategic gateway, being situated by one of the main trade routes from Europe to the Caribbean, and so the English have protected it well with a number of forts and gun batteries. These include Fort George and Blake Island Fort, which protect the main town of Falmouth.

Produce: Sugar, Fish, Fruit and Vegetables, Tobacco, Indigo, Spices (Ginger) Demand: Meat, Slaves

Scenario Hook: Alastair Codrington oversees the Codrington family fortunes in Antigua. His branch of the family has been feuding with another branch, led by Devon Codrington of Barbuda. Each quietly accuses the other of skimming profits, illicit dealings and trafficking with dark forces. They’re both probably right.

A ^RUBA (D ^UTCH )

The Dutch captured Aruba from the nominal control of the Spanish more than half a century ago, but have not settled in great numbers as yet. The majority of the population consists of Arawak and African slaves who herd cattle, goats and horses for the Dutch. Herding is perhaps the best economic use for the island—although it is flat and outside the main

hurricane risk area, the soil is relatively infertile, and it has few other natural resources. The ruins of a pirate castle can be found at Bushiribana, almost two centuries old. Aruba is protected by Fort Zoutman.

Produce: Fruit, Meat (Goat, Duck, Iguana, Beef ), Horses, Fish

Demands: None

Scenario Hook: It is no wonder that the Dutch have avoided colonizing in great numbers: Aruba is haunted. The pirate castle at Bushiribana, on moonless nights, stands undamaged in the darkness. Many a spirit sails the waterways here and the dead are restless. Then again, several massive treasures are supposedly buried or sunk here. Maybe these two facts have something to do with one another?

B AHAMAS (E NGLISH )

The Bahamas are a pirate’s dream in terms of a hideout—there are hundreds of them, many of which are uncharted, and they have few natural resources, making them unattractive to law-abiding settlers. They are a veritable labyrinth of islands, islets, coral cays and reefs, right next to the Straits of Florida, through which all the Spanish treasure ships pass.

Small wonder that Blackbeard makes his home in the town of Nassau on New Providence Island. Nassau has a wicked and filthy reputation, and is full of the dregs of the Caribbean: pirates, smugglers, and

other criminals. It is protected by Fort Nassau, built as a safeguard against the Spanish. Its population is little more than a thousand people of all nationalities and backgrounds, with another thousand or so black slaves and five hundred whites doing some farming of cotton and tobacco on several of the other islands.

The Caicos Islands are effectively part of the Bahamas, although the nearby Turks Islands are technically governed by the Spanish from Santo Domingo.

Produce: Fish, Luxury Goods (Sea Sponges), Cotton, Tobacco Demand: None

Scenario Hook: Many believe that the islands of the Bahamas shift of their own accord. Those of a more scientific bent contend that it is only the natural forces of wind and wave that make them seem to move, but the superstitious know better.

There is a young Portuguese boy named Helio Gama who supposedly knows all of the islands intimately. God touched Helio, they say, but in his mind a living map of the Bahamas dwells and any ship he sails upon can always find its way through without incident. Needless to say, a number of unsavory characters have a great deal of interest in the boy . . .

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-B ARBADOES (E NGLISH )

The entire economy of Barbadoes is built around sugar—it is England’s most successful sugar colony, although Jamaica is beginning to rival it. Its success has brought problems, though: its planters are even more greedy, selfish and isolationist than most colonists, they treat their slaves even worse than most English slave-owners do, and they are beginning to exhaust the fertility of the soil with their mania for sugar. Inevitably, these problems will spell eventual disaster for the colony, but there is little hint of that at present. The profits to be made are so enormous that the planters think of little else. The only other product exported from Barbadoes is rum, invented recently by the planter Abel Gay, and already proving popular.

There is a market for almost any goods but sugar here, since nothing else is grown or produced and there is a lot of capital available to buy. Add 1d6 x 10% to the sale price of any goods other than sugar here (this is cumulative with the +1d6 x 10% for goods specifically listed as in demand). Luxury goods of all kinds are particularly valued. Because the island is the most easterly of the English colonies in the New World, it often receives supply ships and slavers before the other islands, and it also functions as a trading center for the other colonies. Many planters from other islands buy their slaves and luxuries here rather than waiting for the depleted merchant ships to reach them. The economic importance of the island inevitably brings with it political significance. Barbadoes has its own Parliament, and its richer planters also have quite some influence over the English Parliament. There are around 70,000 slaves on the island, around 5,000 planters and other whites, and about a thousand “Red Legs” (see below). The white population includes small but significant communities of Jews and Quakers.

The largest settlement on the island is Bridgetown, a thriving and rich trading town on the far south of the west coast.

Speightstown, also on the west coast but much further north, is essentially a private port for the commercial sugar empire of the Speight Company of Bristol.

The other colonial powers would dearly love to pluck Barbadoes from the English, but would find it a difficult task;

the winds are against any attack from the west, and would necessitate a great deal of tacking back and forth to reach Bridgetown, all the while under fire from the guns of Nedham’s Forte and Willoughby’s Forte. Speightstown is similarly protected by two forts. A land attack on Bridgetown would be difficult, since the north of the island is mountainous and rugged (and is named Scotland for that reason), the west has high cliffs that would make landing hard, and the south is protected by a Watch Tower and several gun batteries on coastal outcroppings.

The lower classes of Barbadoes are descendents of indentured servants who were used extensively to work the sugar plantations before the planters decided that black slaves were hardier and cheaper. Because many of these indentured servants are easily sunburnt fair-skinned Scots, poor whites on Barbadoes are still known as “Red Legs”. Those who cannot find work in the port of Bridgetown live in caves on the east coast of the island, making their living by stealing or fishing.

Produce: Sugar, Rum

Demand: Slaves, Meat, Luxury Goods

Scenario Hooks: A French spy offers £500 on completion of a job for rabble-rousers and agents provocateur. She wants the group to disguise themselves as Quakers and incite a slave revolt. She will provide religious tracts and letters purporting to be from the Quaker leadership, indicating that the Quakers are the spiritual heirs to the Diggers, Ranters and other anti-authoritarian movements. She also offers bombs, grenades, knives and muskets with which to arm the leading slaves. This is a two-pronged attack on the English colony here: even if the slave revolt is put down, the aftermath will tear the white community apart and even have repercussions in England and the other colonies, as Quakers fall under suspicion of anarchism and terrorism.

The same spy offers £300 and a 1/72nd share in the pillage of Bridgetown for the group to attack the Watch Tower on the south coast, silencing its guards and spiking its guns, so as to allow a French force to land there and march west to sack Bridgetown itself.

An elderly plantation owner, Mr. Berringer, is looking for someone with expertise in spiritual matters to exorcize his manor house of the ghost of his father, Colonel Berringer, who was killed forty years ago in a duel with his wife’s lover. Mr. Berringer has tried the Church and is now willing to try other alternatives, including the assistance of bokor or hougans. He can pay well in sugar or guineas, and he is a potentially a useful contact. The ghost of Berringer will only be placated if the former home of his killer, John Yeamans, is ceremonially shot at with a blessed dueling pistol—how the group discovers this is up to them.

B ARBUDA (E NGLISH )

Barbuda has just one town, Codrington, named for the Codrington family who effectively own the entire island. They use it to produce food for their slaves on Antigua, and as a place to breed slaves, again to work their plantations in Antigua.

The island is almost surrounded by reefs, with this and its tiny population (less than 500 all told) and lack of wealth making it an unattractive target for raiders of whatever sort. Although

it is listed as a producer of beef, maize and slaves, these are not available for sale—all are reserved for export to the powerful Codrington holdings.

Produce: Meat (Beef ), Maize, Slaves Demand: None

Scenario Hook: The Codrington family is an ancient and disturbing line. Various branches of the family have yielded both saints and diabolists. The family head of Barbuda is one Devon Codrington, a man with both ambitions and gold to spare. He is engaged in a subtle war with his counterpart on Antigua, Alastair.

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-B ONAIRE (D UTCH )

Bonaire is a low, flat land, full of all manner of tropical birds, from flamingos to parakeets and terns. Sailors who visit it for the first time often find themselves unable to resist buying one of the beautiful green parrots for which the island is famous. Its only fort, Fort Oranje, is still only half-finished.

Produce: Timber, Meat (Turtles, Beef, Duck, Goat, Iguana), Salt, Fish, Maize, Horses, Fruit

Demand: Slaves

Scenario Hook: Natives often speak of a “great and fiery

bird” that sweeps over Bonaire sometime during the mid-summer. While most colonists think this nothing more than a foolish superstition, some whisper that the bird is the last phoenix. If so, the value of such a creature is near incalculable.