Jack Doran

Background

Jack Doran – ‘Jackdaw’ to his friends - was (and is) a thief. Like many he was forced to turn to a life of crime to survive in the unforgiving age in which he was born. He made no bones of the fact and was quite happy to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. He eventually ‘graduated’ from petty thief to a crack ‘top-storey man’ - having neither the physique (nor temperament) to obtain money with violence. When the Bow Street Runners finally caught up with him he was found with a bag of silverware knocked off from a house in Mayfair. Brought before ‘The Beak’ he was quickly found guilty and sentenced to penal servitude in the colonies - he at least had the satisfaction of knowing that he was going-down from a proper job, not for stealing a loaf of bread like some.

The conditions aboard the ship were harsh (but no worse than Newgate). Apart from a short, daily excursion on deck, the convicts were mostly kept below and so knew virtually nothing of what proceeded on the ship. So the first that the unwilling passengers knew of the trouble was when the merchantman began to be buffeted by a raging storm. The squall lasted for what seemed like days to those trapped below - they had been kept there while the elements lashed the ship. Eventually the gale seemed to subside in intensity but they had no more idea than the crew that they were now in another world; stranded in the forsaken place known as The Flotsam Sea.

Then the screaming began. Quaking, the convicts listened to the sounds or horror and struggle that reached them from above as the crew was set upon by the hideous denizens of the Devil’s Cross. Eventually there was silence. After a fearful wait the survivors were able to force the door and ventured out. What they found was a deserted ship, signs of a brutal conflict and nothing more. Ironically they had escaped the massacre because they had all been locked in the hold, but of the captain and crew there was no sign. It didn’t take them long to realise that they had not arrived in the colonies. They salvaged what they could and taking the longboats abandoned the ship. Jack was one of the lucky ones, he made it to the Freetowns. Now Jackdaw is back to his old tricks…

Special Abilities

• Languages Known: Native (native, d8)

Advances

• Edge: Streetwise
• Raise Skills: Fighting/Persuasion
• Edge: Extraction

• Edge: Free Runner