TEXT: by Don Bisdorf
  NEFARIOUS 
  ADVERSARIES
  
  Nefarious adversaries
  Written by Don Bisdorf.
  Edited by Brennan Taylor.
  Layout design by Thomas Deeny.
  Art direction by Brennan Taylor.
  Cover by Alex White.
  Illustrated by Kurt Komoda.
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  Fate Core SyStem and Fate aCCelerated edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and 
  edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valen-
  tine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue.
  neFariouS adverSarieS Copyright © 2016 Galileo Games. All rights reserved.
  the miniStry initiative Copyright © 2014 Galileo Games. All rights reserved.
  the miniStry oF PeCuliar oCCurrenCeS Copyright © 2014 Tee Morris and Philippa Ballentine. All rights reserved.
  Interior illustrations © 2016 Kurt Komoda.
  ISBN 1-978-1-887920-20-9
  http://www.galileogames.com
  
  Illuminati Briefing Package #1201
  Restricted to Magus and Rex degrees only
  Brothers and Sisters,
  Although we strive to conceal our activities from Her Majesty’s Ministry of Peculiar 
  Occurrences and its sister organizations in other nations, these intelligence agen-
  cies are not our only opponents in the game of history. We must remain mindful of the 
  other secret societies and powerful conspirators who walk through the world’s shad-
  ows.
  This list of potential adversaries is ever-changing. Ambitious groups such as the 
  Phoenix Society collapse overnight, while fellowships such as Methuselah’s Order have 
  survived the passage of centuries. The documents collected here describe the groups 
  and individuals that could provide the most danger to our operations at the pres-
  ent. We have attempted to list strengths, weaknesses, identifying characteristics and 
  likely associates, so that you will have the information necessary to recognize and 
  react to these threats.
  If it becomes necessary to cooperate with the persons described in these documents, 
  be vigilant! These outsiders have not taken our oaths, and owe us no loyalty. Any bar-
  gain they offer us will be a ruse or a trap, as should any promises we offer in return.
  Finally, remember that just as we share some of the same goals and tactics as these 
  individuals, we also share some of the same enemies. If any of these opponents become 
  troublesome, aiming the attention of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences in their 
  direction may be the most expedient means of resolving the issue.
  Your faithful servant,
  Pythia
  Magus Pythia
  Spoiler Alert!
  The information here may spoil some of the surprises in the novels, 
  short stories, and podcasts of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.
  Nefarious Adversaries presents the world of the Ministry of Peculiar 
  Occurrences from after the end of the novel Phoenix Rising, and before 
  the beginning of The Diamond Conspiracy. If your game takes place outside 
  this time frame, you may want to adjust some of this information. And if 
  your version of events doesn’t match what happened in the novels, don’t 
  worry about it. A little rewritten history wouldn’t be the strangest thing 
  to happen to the Ministry...
  
  4     neFariouS adverSarieS
  Illuminati Dossier # 4491
  SOPHIA DEL MORTE
  PROFILE
  The del Morte family is an Italian clan of criminals for 
  hire: thieves, spies, and assassins who have served ambi-
  tious patrons for generations. Sophia del Morte is one 
  of several worthy heirs to this unusual family tradition. 
  Although the location of the del Morte clan is well-known, 
  attempts to infiltrate their village for purposes of gather-
  ing information or exerting leverage would be unwise. 
  Sophia is not the deadliest of the del Mortes, and the 
  women of her family do not tolerate spies in their home 
  territory.
  The proof of her talents lies in the fact that there is 
  no proof. Though we have reason to suspect that she 
  has over a dozen assassinations to her name, as well as 
  a collection of acts of sabotage, burglary, and espionage, 
  the law enforcement organizations of the world have no 
  evidence to tie her to any of these crimes. Through the 
  expert application of the tools of her trade--disguises, false 
  aliases, underworld contacts--she has slipped through the 
  fingers of every agency that has attempted to obstruct or 
  capture her.
  Despite her qualifications, a superstitious observer 
  might believe that her services have brought ill fortune 
  to those who hired her. After the House of Usher hired 
  her to abduct an agent of the Ministry of Peculiar Occur-
  rences, the Ministry retaliated by recovering their agent 
  and destroying the House’s Antarctic base. The fall of 
  the Phoenix Society followed shortly after del Morte 
  silenced several individuals who were in possession of 
  the Society’s secrets. It is worth mentioning, both of 
  these instances directly involved Ministry agents Eliza 
  D. Braun and Wellington Thornhill Books, Esq. We fur-
  ther believe that del Morte is now in the employ of an 
  enigmatic individual who calls himself the Maestro. Only 
  time will tell whether he will enjoy the benefit of her ser-
  vices without suffering the fate of her recent clients, and if 
  Agents Books and Braun are participants of this intrigue.
  SCHEMES
  Del Morte is a mercenary. She sells her talents to those 
  who give her the financial compensation and profes-
  sional respect she believes she deserves, though she pre-
  fers employers who share her own moral flexibility. She 
  herself has no ambitions of global power or astronomical 
  wealth. She enjoys her work for what it is: an opportunity 
  to demonstrate her skill and cunning in a game with the 
  highest possible stakes.
  Her assignments are normally specific and short-term, 
  such as a single assassination, or theft, or kidnapping. 
  She does not concern herself with the overall purpose of 
  her objectives, as she feels she owes no loyalty to those 
  who hire her services. It is not impossible to imagine that 
  she might one day develop a sense of allegiance to an 
  individual, an organization, or a cause, but given her 
  independence and her essentially selfish nature, such a 
  development seems unlikely.
  TACTICS
  Del Morte is cultured, sophisticated, and charming, and 
  is capable of talking herself into and out of virtually any 
  situation. Though she is proficient with tools of violence 
  ranging from slim stilettos to high explosives, she prefers 
  to approach her target with subtlety and stealth, giving 
  her opponents no warning before the moment of execu-
  tion arrives. Sophia is not above using her beauty to her 
  own advantage, and she can accomplish as much mis-
  chief with a glance or a smile as she can with a Bodeo-
  Olivetti revolver. 
  When her job is complete, she vanishes, using dis-
  guises and a multiplicity of escape routes to ensure that 
  she eludes capture. She will gladly leave former com-
  rades in peril to save her own skin, as long as she is able 
  to satisfy the goals of her employers. If she finds that a 
  mission is more risky than she bargained for, she’ll break 
  a contract rather than sacrifice herself, though she prefers 
  not to take any actions that would damage her reputation 
  as a reliable and effective agent.
  WEAKNESSES
  Del Morte enjoys the thrill of intrigue and battle some-
  what more than is professionally necessary. Since her 
  services are always in demand, this craving for action is 
  never left unsatisfied. However, if she ever found herself 
  
  miniStry initiative     5
  confronted by a lengthy period of inactivity, she would 
  undoubtedly invent dangerous and/or illegal methods for 
  occupying her time.
  Despite her disregard of the value of lives other than 
  her own, she will refuse to allow children to come to 
  harm. She regards children as out of the field of play, and 
  will even endanger herself in order to save a young life.
  MINIONS
  Del Morte prefers to work alone, though she’s willing to 
  hire additional muscle if necessary, and if her employer 
  is willing to foot the bill. Though she’s adept at manip-
  ulating the hearts of men, she’s found that soldiers who 
  work for pay are more dependable than those hoping for 
  a share of her affections. 
  GADGETS
  In addition to the knives, pistols, and bulletproof cor-
  sets that del Morte habitually employs, she also wears an 
  unusual projectile weapon: a forearm brace that launches 
  spinning cogs at lethal velocity. The special cogs are three 
  inches wide and have razor-sharp edges. The entire appa-
  ratus is light enough not to encumber Sophia’s movement, 
  and can hide concealed beneath a loose-sleeved garment.
  GM’S NOTES
  ADVENTURE IDEAS
  A TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT
  The Ministry has assigned the PCs to safeguard a group 
  of British inventors during a scientific conference in 
  America. Both the Ministry and the American Office of 
  the Supernatural and Metaphysical have received intel-
  ligence indicating that malefactors have hired Sophia 
  del Morte to assassinate one of the conference attend-
  ees. This intelligence is incomplete, and the identity of 
  the target is unknown. In addition, the members of the 
  OSM team resent the presence of the Ministry agents, 
  and will obstruct the Ministry agents at every opportu-
  nity. Despite this, the PCs must determine del Morte’s 
  target and contend with her traps and ruses before she 
  can strike.
  THE CHASE
  Sophia del Morte has stolen a powerful artifact 
  from a collector in Kabul, mere hours before the 
  PCs were scheduled to collect it. The PCs must 
  pursue her across Afghanistan to recover the arti-
  fact before she can deliver it into the hands of a 
  party who intends to use it for unthinkable purposes.
  LONDON PARTICULAR 
  Del Morte approaches the Ministry to warn them of a 
  deranged scientist who has devised a chemical reaction 
  that could produce a toxic gas potent enough to wipe out 
  all life in London. Loss of innocent lives on this scale is 
  more than even Sophia del Morte is willing to tolerate. 
  She’s willing to help the PCs track down the murderous 
  scientist--if they’re willing to trust her.
  
  6     neFariouS adverSarieS
  SOPHIA DEL MORTE
  Age: 30
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Multi-Talented Mercenary
  trouble: In Debt to the Maestro
  Add’l AspeCts: I Have A Tool For That; As Deadly as She Is Beautiful; A Friend in Every City
  SKILLS
  greAt (+4): Theft
  good (+3): Fight, Stealth
  FAir (+2): Deceive, Fencing, Firearms, Sport
  AverAge (+1): Contacts, Physique, Pilot, Provoke, Will
  STUNTS 
  ContrAption: You may use Theft rather than Invention if  you are engaged in repairing or 
  creating a gadget that can be used to secure an item or group of  items from 
  theft, such as developing a secure safe.
  Friend oF tHe  
  sHAdows:
  Under the cover of  darkness you are especially effective at disappearing. +2 
  to all Stealth rolls performed under cover of  darkness.
  Know Your own: You know the tracks of  a thief, and you can tell where they’ve been. You may 
  use Theft rather than Deduction to determine if  an object is missing from a 
  scene if  it should be there.
  You’ve got to 
  piCK A poCKet:
  When it comes to lifting something small out of  someone’s pocket, you are a 
  master. +2 to any challenges involving pickpocketing.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b 
  Mild Consequence:
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  GADGETS
  Cog-tHrower: Adds +1 to Firearms, and requires +1 Firearms to use.
  FIELD NOTES
  Highly Dangerous! Approach with Caution
  Refresh: b b
  
  miniStry initiative     7
  Illuminati Dossier # 7830
  THE MAESTRO
  PROFILE
  The Maestro remains a vexing mystery. Our best efforts 
  have not revealed his identity, his origins, or his purpose. 
  We have assembled a file on this individual from an 
  insubstantial fog of rumors, and it would be tempting to 
  conclude that the Maestro is nothing but a modern myth 
  if it not for the wake of bodies. There are also confirmed 
  reports of the abduction of American inventor Thomas 
  Alva Edison. Not a trace of the “Wizard of Menlo Park” 
  nor the Maestro have been seen since the San Francisco 
  Incident. This air of unreality must certainly work in the 
  Maestro’s favor, as it allows him to hide behind the sheer 
  impossibility of his existence.
  The reluctant testimonies of a few terrified eyewit-
  nesses present the Maestro as part man, part machine. A 
  brass mask covers his skull, forehead, and jaw, and illu-
  minated lenses conceal his eyes. His voice carries a metal-
  lic echo, and the hiss of steam accompanies his breathing, 
  which may mean that his respiration is at least partially 
  mechanical. He wears metal armor, sometimes over his 
  entire body, sometimes only over his torso and arms. 
  The armor mechanically amplifies his strength, allow-
  ing him to smash heavy furniture to kindling with his 
  fists, or to toss grown men across a room as if they were 
  made of straw. When the Maestro is expecting combat, 
  he can attach portable Gatling guns to his mechanical 
  arms, giving him enough firepower to challenge an army.
  Yet the Maestro is not merely a brute equipped with 
  automatic weapons. He is a criminal genius, a master 
  schemer who is always several steps ahead of anyone 
  who opposes him. His speech demonstrates education, 
  and his plans demonstrate cunning and forethought. His 
  access to sophisticated weaponry and equipment shows 
  that he is well-funded and has access to both criminal 
  and scientific contacts. The few reliable facts surrounding 
  his endeavors prove that he understands the value and 
  practice of secrecy. Combining all of these attributes in a 
  single man produces a foe of singular magnitude.
  SCHEMES
  Though the Maestro’s ultimate ambition is unclear, it 
  is probable that his crimes are all means to some other 
  end. He seems to be gathering resources--secrets, arti-
  facts, technology, wealth--in preparation for an ambitious 
  secret project.
  TACTICS
  The sophisticated orchestration of The Maestro’s crimes 
  earns him his nom de guerre. His accomplishments are a 
  broad catalog of unexplained thefts and impossible mur-
  ders, without a single clue to link these actions either to 
  himself or to each other. 
  He relies on hired criminals to carry out his work, 
  coordinating them precisely and strategically, like pieces 
  on a chessboard. In the rare occasions where involves 
  himself directly, his preferred weapon is fear. He will use 
  his bizarre appearance, his brute strength, and his cold 
  cruelty to intimidate his enemies into submission and 
  obedience.
  WEAKNESSES
  Assuming that his behavior is not another form of decep-
  tion, the Maestro is easily angered, and can launch into 
  a rage without warning. The machines and weapons 
  attached to his body grant a terrible, lethal force to his 
  fury, and in such a state he is dangerous to his enemies 
  and allies alike.
  MINIONS
  The Maestro prefers servants with enough skill to accom-
  plish his complex schemes without error. Whether he 
  needs airship pilots, engineers, or assassins, he will seek 
  out the best possible candidates, using them as a firm 
  foundation for his elaborate heists.
  
  8     neFariouS adverSarieS
  PEARSON
  One would normally not find a valet listed among a 
  noted criminal’s more feared accomplices, yet no other 
  occupation seems to describe the imposing figure we 
  identify as Pearson. He is clearly one of the Maestro’s 
  trusted assistants, yet he does not oversee any of the 
  Maestro’s operations, so we cannot call him a lieutenant. 
  He is rarely far from the Maestro’s presence, but since 
  the Maestro seems more than capable of defending him-
  self, we cannot call him a bodyguard. “Valet” seems to 
  best describe him: he is ever-present, respectful, silent, 
  and alert, anticipating his master’s needs, prepared to 
  obey any command without hesitation or question.
  Pearson has an unusual master, and Pearson himself 
  is an unusual manservant. He is physically imposing, tall, 
  broad, and muscular, and is the most intimidating man in 
  the room when the Maestro himself is not present. By all 
  accounts he is peerless in the art of hand-to-hand combat, 
  and can kill as swiftly and efficiently as he can straighten 
  a cravat.
  In all other respects, he is the very model of a gentle-
  man’s gentleman. He uses few words, and when he does 
  speak, his accent shows the benefit of a refined British 
  education. When carrying out his master’s orders, no 
  matter how violent, he does not gloat, grin, curse or in 
  any other way reveal sentiment other than calm obedi-
  ence. If he has any vices, he hides them well, and they 
  never interfere with his duties. We do not know how he 
  came into the Maestro’s employ, or how the Maestro 
  ensures his allegiance, but surely no one could wish for a 
  more capable companion.
  GM’S NOTES
  ADVENTURE IDEAS
  THE GREAT HYPERSTEAM ROBBERY
  The Maestro and his minions seize control of a 
  high-speed hypersteam train while the PCs are 
  on board. He intends to hold the passengers as 
  hostages until the government hands over two million 
  British pounds in gold sovereigns. He announces that 
  until his demands are met, he will detach one car at a 
  time from the rear of the train and destroy the cars with 
  explosives, with the passengers still inside. The PCs are 
  outnumbered and outgunned, but the Maestro doesn’t 
  suspect that agents of the Ministry are on board.
  ABDUCTED!
  The Maestro has been blackmailing a wealthy inventor, 
  forcing her to produce state-of-the-art weaponry and 
  equipment for use in the Maestro’s schemes. When the 
  madman’s demands became too outrageous, the inven-
  tor refused. In response, the Maestro has abducted her 
  son, and intends to kill him unless she delivers the equip-
  ment he requires. The inventor has approached the Min-
  istry for help, and the PCs must now locate her son and 
  rescue him.
  THE SKY IS HUNGRY
  An invisible force begins hurling innocent Londoners 
  straight up into the empty sky, and the victims are never 
  seen again. While investigating, the PCs discover that 
  the Maestro is testing a weapon that allows him to free a 
  target from the bonds of gravity, flinging the victim off 
  into space. A meteor with unusual properties powers the 
  Maestro’s device, and the PCs 
  must recover the meteor 
  from the Maestro before 
  he can amplify the weapon 
  to affect an entire city.
  
  miniStry initiative     9
  THE MAESTRO
  Age: unknown
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Schemer in the Shadows
  trouble: Unpredictable Rage
  Add’l AspeCts: Fearful Reputation; Plans within Plans; Mechanical Armor
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Provoke
  superb (+5): Contacts, Fight
  greAt (+4): Firearms, Notice, Wealth
  good (+3): Deduction, Deceive, Physique, Will
  FAir (+2): Empathy, Mythology, Pilot, Sport, Theft
  STUNTS 
  ClAnKertons on 
  CAll:
  The Maestro knows several engineers who will perform work for him at a 
  moment’s notice, either willingly or otherwise. If  the Maestro can reach his 
  network of  contacts and has time to summon assistance, he may spend a fate 
  point to use his Contacts skill to perform any Invention action.
  esCApe plAn: When the Maestro is completely unobserved, he may spend a fate point to 
  remove himself  from the scene. He will escape via rocket chair, secret pas-
  sage, electrical teleporter, or some other emergency measure.
  MY Agents Are 
  everYwHere:
  Once per scene, the Maestro may use Contacts to declare that he has an agent 
  in hiding, or that an apparently ordinary NPC in the scene is one of  his 
  agents. This is a Create an Advantage action, except that instead of  creating 
  an aspect, the action places a new NPC in the scene. On a tie, the revealed 
  agent is an Average nameless NPC. On a success, the agent is a Good name-
  less NPC. On a success with style, the agent is a full supporting NPC.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b b b 
   
  Mental Stress: b b b b
  Mild Consequence:  
   
   
  Mild Consequence: 
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  GADGETS
  steAM-powered 
  ArMor:
  +2 to Physique (since this raises his Physique to Superb (+5), he receives 
  an extra mild physical consequence), +2 to Fight, +2 to Firearms when his 
  Gatling guns are attached.
  FIELD NOTES
  The Maestro’s motives and goals are unclear, engage with caution.
  Refresh: b b b b b
  
  10     neFariouS adverSarieS
  PEARSON
  Age: 54
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Dangerous Valet
  trouble: I Dare Not Fail the Maestro
  Add’l AspeCts: Imperturbable
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Fight
  superb (+5): Sport
  greAt (+4): Physique
  good (+3): Firearms
  FAir (+2): Will
  AverAge (+1): Notice
  STUNTS 
  stiFF upper lip: Pearson may use Will instead of  Deceive to oppose any attempts to judge his 
  intentions or emotional state.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b b b 
   
  Mental Stress: b b b 
  Mild Consequence: 
  Refresh: b b
  
  miniStry initiative     11
  Illuminati Dossier # 227
  THE PHOENIX SOCIETY
  PROFILE
  There is historical evidence that several influential and 
  dissatisfied subjects of the Roman Empire formed a 
  conspiracy, with the purpose of destroying the Empire 
  and dividing its territory among themselves. These con-
  spirators exchanged letters written in coded Latin, each 
  marked with a small drawing of a phoenix.
  It’s unclear how much influence this conspiracy actu-
  ally had on the fall of the Romans. What is certain is that 
  the Phoenix Society’s crest and motto (“From Ashes and 
  Chaos Arises Order and Balance”) has reappeared sev-
  eral times throughout history in the shadows of powerful 
  empires. In any century or any nation, the Society’s goal 
  is to tear down the current edifices of power and to build 
  a new world.
  The Society did not survive throughout the ages as 
  a single coherent organization. Rather, it survived as an 
  idea, a tradition of revolution whose legends inspired 
  the birth of new conspiracies. Each new incarnation has 
  borrowed the mythology of the prior Phoenix Societies 
  for its own purposes. The current Society is composed 
  exclusively of members of British nobility, united in the 
  belief that modern sentiments are destroying the British 
  Empire from within. They hope to seize control of their 
  government and re-establish what they believe is the nat-
  ural order of power: the supremacy of the nobility over 
  the common citizen, the superiority of “pure” British 
  bloodlines over any foreign peoples, and the God-given 
  authority of the male population over the female.
  If not for Doctor Deveraux Havelock, the members 
  of this particular Phoenix Society might never have 
  accomplished anything other than the consumption of 
  a large volume of cigars and brandy. When Havelock 
  saw that the Society required an army to enforce its plans 
  upon Britain, he decided to build one. He constructed 
  an immense subterranean factory beneath his manor 
  house for the purpose of mass-producing hundreds of 
  automated soldiers. These Mechamen would fight with 
  unquestioning obedience, thus satisfying the Society’s 
  need for absolute control over those who served beneath 
  them.
  None of the Mechamen ever left Havelock Manor. 
  The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences gained knowl-
  edge of the Society’s plans, and destroyed Havelock’s 
  underground factory. Scotland Yard, acting on evidence 
  provided by the Ministry, arrested many of the Society’s 
  members, with the exception of Doctor Havelock, who 
  vanished during the collapse of his factory. Though we 
  have unconfirmed reports that Havelock is no longer 
  among the living, some of the Society’s other members 
  remain unidentified and unsuspected by the British gov-
  ernment, and those individuals may eventually make 
  another attempt to rise to power.
  SCHEMES
  The Society hopes to rule Britain, and all of its plans 
  are a means to that end. Due to their extreme opinions 
  about the proper place of women and the lower classes 
  in society, the Society’s members know that they cannot 
  achieve power through legitimate political processes. 
  Instead, they will prepare for revolution by stockpiling 
  weapons, placing sympathizers in key positions, estab-
  lishing alliances and eliminating enemies.
  TACTICS
  To justify their need to cast themselves in the role of 
  rulers and saviors, the men of the Society have con-
  vinced themselves that the collapse of the British Empire 
  is imminent, and that rapid, decisive action is necessary. 
  They will favor any plan that puts the tools of conquest 
  into their own hands immediately, rather than a more 
  prudent plan that might deliver victory to their sons or 
  grandsons.
  Although the Society’s members consider themselves 
  to be honorable and superior men, they will not hesitate 
  to break promises that prove inconvenient, or to endan-
  ger the lives of innocent civilians, or to turn on each other 
  at the slightest hint of weakness or traitorous behavior. 
  These are angry, petty, selfish men who have disguised 
  their greed as patriotism and their cruelty as righteous-
  ness.
  
  12     neFariouS adverSarieS
  WEAKNESSES
  Doctor Havelock’s intellect and will were the driving 
  forces behind the Society, and without his leadership, 
  the disgruntled noblemen who followed him might be 
  content to grumble among themselves and frown at their 
  newspapers. But if a man with vision, talent, and breed-
  ing were to step forward to carry the Society’s banner, the 
  remnants of the Society would quickly fall in behind him. 
  This could end badly for the Society’s members if they 
  later discover that the man they chose to follow did not 
  truly have their interests at heart.
  Regardless of how much damage the Society is able 
  to inflict through its efforts, it seems ultimately doomed 
  to fail due to a critical failing in its philosophy. The world 
  the Society hopes to return to--a world where the poor 
  are willing slaves, and women stand quietly in their hus-
  bands’ shadows--no longer exists, and not even an army 
  of metal warriors can bring it back.
  MINIONS
  Most of the Society’s members, for all their grand talk, 
  avoid directly involving themselves in the tasks of con-
  quest. Whenever possible, the Society will attempt to 
  employ professional soldiers, preferably veterans who 
  defended Britain in the past and who now share the Soci-
  ety’s poor opinion of the state of the Empire. When such 
  well-armed gentlemen are unavailable, the Society will 
  hire cheap, disposable labor from the meanest streets and 
  alleys. The blue-bloods of the Society regard such men 
  with contempt, but will gladly send them to die to further 
  the Society’s goals.
  This is not to say that the men of the Society will 
  never take part in violence themselves. Many of them are 
  eager to satisfy their need for cruelty in rage, but only in 
  controlled conditions, where their victims have no hope 
  of resistance or escape.
  GM’S NOTES
  ADVERSARIES
  ANTHONY WADDINGTON
  Anthony Waddington owns the Waddington Railway 
  Company, Britain’s foremost producer and operator of 
  hypersteam engines. His high-speed trains are a blessing 
  to passengers and a boon to industry. No other company 
  has been able to produce locomotives that come close to 
  the speed, reliability, and safety of Waddington’s engines. 
  This demonstrates either the superiority of Wadding-
  ton’s designs, or his proficiency at hiring skilled and dis-
  creet saboteurs.
  Waddington is sympathetic to the Phoenix Society’s 
  goals, but caution has kept him from supporting the Soci-
  ety in person. Instead, he has donated money, materials, 
  and equipment to the Society through a series of inter-
  mediaries, concealing his involvement from all of the 
  Society’s members except Havelock himself. Without the 
  tools and steel that Waddington provided, Doctor Have-
  lock’s designs might have never been more than ink on 
  paper, and in return, the Doctor was happy to preserve 
  Waddington’s anonymity.
  
  miniStry initiative     13
  After the destruction of Havelock Manor, Wadding-
  ton dissolved the network of smugglers and shell compa-
  nies that he had used to provide aid to the Society, and 
  sat back to wait and see whether Her Majesty’s servants 
  would uncover any evidence linking him to Havelock. 
  So far, Waddington has escaped suspicion, leaving him 
  free to make plans for the Phoenix Society’s rise from its 
  own ashes.
  GEOFFREY GRENFELL
  The world knows Geoffrey Grenfell as the inventor 
  of the Waddington Railway Company’s hypersteam 
  engine--and if Grenfell has his way, no one will ever 
  discover otherwise. The truth is that Grenfell himself, 
  despite working twenty-hour days, conducting hundreds 
  of experiments, and studying notes stolen from rival 
  inventors, was unable to produce an engine meeting the 
  performance characteristics that Waddington demanded.
  One late night, a filing clerk named Beryl Allenby 
  looked over Grenfell’s designs, and had a sudden inspi-
  ration. The next day, she presented Grenfell with a hand-
  drawn plan for a solution to the compression problems 
  that had defeated Grenfell’s efforts. In one glance, he 
  could see that Allenby’s solution was correct, and that 
  it would propel Waddington’s business far ahead of any 
  other railway company in existence.
  He took Allenby’s plans, and he paid a few of Wad-
  dington’s underground contacts to spirit Allenby away 
  and dispose of her. This allowed him to take full credit 
  for the design, and to avoid answering uncomfortable 
  questions about why a filing clerk could solve a problem 
  that he could not.
  After the fall of the Phoenix Society and the disap-
  pearance of Doctor Havelock, Waddington gave Grenfell 
  a copy of Havelock’s Mechamen plans. Unfortunately, 
  Havelock omitted a few critical details from his written 
  designs, possibly as a security measure. Grenfell is once 
  again in a position where his employer has ordered him 
  to solve a problem that is beyond his capacity. 
  Desperate to remain in Waddington’s good graces, 
  Grenfell will go to any lengths to fill in the gaps in Have-
  lock’s design. The pressure has begun to affect him men-
  tally, and he has become convinced that Beryl Allenby 
  somehow avoided the fate Grenfell planned for her, and 
  that she may emerge from hiding at any moment to claim 
  her revenge.
  ADVENTURE IDEAS
  AIRSHIP AMOK!
  Before the collapse of the Phoenix Society, Doctor Have-
  lock had directed the construction of a heavily-armed 
  and fully automated airship. This vessel was to be the 
  Society’s flagship, a symbol of its scientific prowess 
  and unstoppable might. Now, as the result of a contin-
  gency measure prepared by the Doctor, the airship has 
  activated itself and has sailed free of its secret hangar to 
  wreak destruction on the British countryside. To stop 
  this juggernaut, the PCs must shut down the airship’s 
  decision engine--but first, they must find a way to slip 
  past the airship’s machine-controlled weapons and inter-
  nal defense systems.
  LOFTY AMBITIONS
  An agent of the Ministry has disappeared while investigat-
  ing strange disturbances in the foothills of the Andes, and 
  the PCs travel to Argentina to investigate. They discover 
  a city concealed in the high mountain peaks: a colony 
  of the Phoenix Society, forged in the Society’s principles 
  of chauvinism and class superiority. Suspicious of the 
  indigenous culture, the colony’s leaders have imported 
  a workforce of European laborers, and are constructing 
  rocket-propelled weapons that they hope to use to subju-
  gate those they see as Britain’s enemies, both within the 
  Empire and without. 
  OUT WITH THE OLD
  Anthony Waddington, a wealthy industrialist, had been 
  a secret supporter of Doctor Deveraux Havelock. After 
  the loss of Havelock Manor and the disappearance of 
  Havelock, Waddington intends to resurrect the Phoenix 
  Society himself. In order to eliminate any possible inter-
  ference from the Ministry, Waddington has begun to 
  eliminate a list of individuals who had knowledge of the 
  Society’s secrets. Scotland Yard believes the killings to 
  be unrelated, but the Ministry knows about the victims’ 
  former connection to the Society, and sends the PCs to 
  investigate the murders.
  
  14     neFariouS adverSarieS
  ANTHONY WADDINGTON
  Age: 48
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Wealthy Hypersteam Tycoon
  trouble: Secret Supporter of  the Phoenix Society
  Add’l AspeCts: Flawless Public Image; Hidden Resources; Without Me, Britain’s Industries Col-
  lapse
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Wealth
  superb (+5): Contacts, Class
  greAt (+4): Deceive, Will, Rapport
  good (+3): Empathy, Invention, Provoke, Firearms
  FAir (+2): Deduction, Pilot, Mythology, Notice, Ride
  STUNTS 
  CleAn pAper trAil: Waddington may use Contacts to actively oppose any attempt to expose his 
  criminal activity through financial or legal records or through newspaper 
  archives.
  sMile For tHe 
  CAMerA:
  Waddington gains +2 to Rapport to defend against any attempt to accuse 
  him of  any personal or professional wrongdoing.
  i Know MY trAins: Waddington gains +2 to Pilot when operating one of  his own hypersteam 
  engines.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  Refresh: b b b
  
  miniStry initiative     15
  GEOFFREY GRENFELL
  Age: 35
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: World-Famous Inventor
  trouble: More Ambitious Than Clever
  Add’l AspeCts: She Is Out There Somewhere
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Wealth
  superb (+5): Will
  greAt (+4): Provoke
  good (+3): Deduction
  FAir (+2): Notice
  STUNTS 
  Murderous rAge: When insulted or humiliated, Grenfell can use his Will to attack instead of  
  Fight.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Refresh: b
  
  16     neFariouS adverSarieS
  Illuminati Dossier # 23
  METHUSELAH’S ORDER
  PROFILE
  While several conspiracies claim to be the oldest secret 
  societies in existence, Methuselah’s Order may have the 
  oldest members. The Order is embodied in its guiding 
  star, Dorian Gray. Breathtakingly handsome, always 
  impeccably dressed, and described as “of an indetermi-
  nate age,” Gray serves as the director and final voice in all 
  matters concerning its vast, shadowy membership. If the 
  legends about the Order are correct, all of its members 
  have pursued the Order’s goals over the course of cen-
  turies, using an alchemical elixir to preserve their youth.
  Regardless of their true age, the members of the Order 
  intend to rule the world, and as their primary weapon, 
  they have chosen one of the most powerful forces in the 
  universe: compound interest. Over the course of the 
  Order’s existence, its members have invested and rein-
  vested their fortunes, accumulating enough wealth that 
  they could certainly buy themselves a large nation. Until 
  recently, they have made little use of their staggering 
  wealth, limiting their expenses to the research of occult 
  topics such as mythology, alchemy, spiritualism, and 
  prophecy. 
  Over the past twenty years, however, the Order has 
  begun to construct strongholds in the more inaccessible 
  areas of the planet. It has stocked these fortresses with 
  weapons, supplies, and hired soldiers. This gathering of 
  forces has alarmed the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, 
  which has destroyed two of the Order’s strongholds, but 
  many more remain undiscovered.
  We believe this is clear evidence that the Order is 
  approaching its endgame, after centuries of planning and 
  preparing. Once its armies are in place, we can expect it 
  to launch a global offensive, using its economic, military, 
  and supernatural might to destroy the governments of 
  the world and replace them with the Order’s rulership. 
  We expect that neither the success nor the failure of 
  this attack will alter the Illuminati’s own goals, though 
  we are keeping close watch and developing appropriate 
  contingency plans.
  SCHEMES
  The Order’s primary focus--the accumulation of wealth--is 
  not only legal, but is actively encouraged by our modern 
  materialistic society. Its practices of avoiding taxes, chan-
  neling money through shell companies, manipulating 
  markets and trading on inside information are the tools 
  of industries and businesses around the world. Though 
  the Order’s military prowess is still largely untested, on a 
  financial battlefield it is invincible.
  The Order’s military strongholds present a night-
  mare of logistics. The Order must scout out suitable loca-
  tions, excavate and construct facilities, package and ship 
  weapons, recruit soldiers, and administer the payroll of 
  everyone from architects to ditch-diggers. The most haz-
  ardous element of this enterprise is avoiding interference 
  from the governments of the nations where these bases 
  are located. The Order normally solves this problem by 
  purchasing the goodwill of the regional officials in charge 
  of the territories where the strongholds will be built. 
  Even then, the Order conceals the purpose of these bases, 
  claiming that they are weapons factories or military acad-
  emies so that the necessary bureaucrats can accept their 
  bribes with a reasonably clear conscience.
  The Order’s more tactical operations involve the 
  acquisition of occult artifacts and knowledge. The Order 
  steals rare books, hijacks archaeological shipments, and 
  abducts mythological scholars, seeking supernatural 
  advantages that will allow them to succeed where other 
  world conquerors have failed.
  TACTICS
  The Order excels at long-term planning. The actions it 
  takes today might have been made possible by prepara-
  tions undertaken fifty or a hundred years ago. Just the 
  bookkeeping necessary to carry off such plans effectively 
  is a feat worthy of admiration. 
  The Order’s proficiency with occult mechanisms 
  makes its methods unpredictable. When confronted with 
  an enemy, it might poison her with an alchemical mixture 
  that turns her to stone, or drive her mad by psychically 
  amplifying the power of her nightmares, or give her a 
  
  miniStry initiative     17
  necklace that afflicts those who wear it with the curse of 
  lycanthropy.
  WEAKNESSES
  It is impressive that an organization with less than twenty 
  true members has achieved the power of Methuselah’s 
  Order, but such a small governing body will have a diffi-
  cult time directing a war of global conquest. The Order 
  does not reveal its larger plans or purposes to any of the 
  commanders, engineers, or administrators it employs. 
  Without understanding the overall strategy of their lead-
  ers, these underlings can only follow the instructions they 
  are given. When it is necessary to improvise, they may 
  well act against the Order’s true interests while attempt-
  ing to carry out their orders. 
  MINIONS
  Establishing hidden private armies throughout the world 
  is a monumental task by itself. Maintaining the readi-
  ness and loyalty of those armies over years of inactivity 
  is another problem entirely. The Order has addressed 
  this by incorporating thaumaturgic elements into the 
  construction of its strongholds. Interlocking patterns 
  of concealed inscriptions and psychically charged foci 
  are hidden within walls and beneath floors, projecting 
  a mild but continuous influence over the minds of the 
  inhabitants. Over time, this psychic field reinforces the 
  obedience of the Order’s soldiers, until they are prepared 
  to obey their chain of command without hesitation or 
  question. 
  This invisible field of mental control is harmless to 
  short-term visitors, and by itself presents no threat to an 
  attacking force. On the other hand, the fanatical dedica-
  tion of the soldiers affected by the field is sufficient threat 
  on its own.
  GM’S NOTES
  ADVERSARIES
  ISABEL ALVARENGA
  Isabel Alvarenga is one of the few women ever allowed 
  to join Methuselah’s Order and sample its elixir of 
  youth. Born in Brazil in the early 1700’s, Alvarenga was 
  recruited by the Order due to her extensive knowledge 
  of ancient South American culture and myths. Unlike 
  many European scholars, Alvarenga has gained the trust 
  of many of the indigenous tribes of the South American 
  jungles, and they have welcomed her into their territory, 
  told her their legends, and permitted her access to the 
  millennia-old ruins they watch over.
  
  18     neFariouS adverSarieS
  Though the Order has given Alvarenga direct com-
  mand of their military stronghold hidden in the Amazon 
  rainforest, she has no enthusiasm for warfare, and in fact 
  has no confidence of the Order’s ultimate success. The 
  Order is important to her only because it provides her 
  with the funding and political connections she needs to 
  pursue her research freely. She does not seek academic 
  fame or the wealth of lost treasures; instead, she hopes 
  to uncover a miracle that will make the Order’s elixir of 
  youth seem like a mere parlor trick in comparison. 
  Alvarenga believes that the long-dead Tiwanaku 
  empire of the Andes region worked wonders that would 
  defy our modern scientific understanding. In particular, 
  she believes that the Tiwanaku Gateway of the Sun may 
  be an aethergate, similar to those used by the Atlante-
  ans, and if activated, it will lead to the realm of the gods 
  that the Tiwanaku worshipped. When she is not serving 
  the Order’s business, Alvarenga devotes her time to the 
  acquisition and study of Tiwanaku relics, in the hopes 
  of unlocking this gate and discovering what lies beyond.
  BENJAMIN VINES
  In the sixteenth century, the members of Methuselah’s 
  Order became so enraptured with the work of a poet 
  named Benjamin Vines that they admitted him into their 
  fellowship, and allowed him to taste the Order’s elixir 
  of youth. The elixir extended his life--and took away his 
  sanity.
  Vines screamed and raved for a week until apparently 
  returning to his senses, but the damage to his mind was 
  permanent. Having eluded death himself, he became 
  obsessed with observing the deaths of others. When the 
  sick and elderly did not pass away quickly enough to 
  satisfy him, he began to take lives himself. The Order, 
  finding that some of its secrets were now in the hands of 
  an uncontrollable madman, sought to destroy Vines, but 
  he escaped, taking a copy of the formula for the youth 
  serum with him.
  Vines has retained his artistic talent and sensibilities, 
  and has used his centuries-long murder spree as the basis 
  for an enormous art project. He stages his killings so that 
  each tells a story. He might slay a cruel and tyrannical 
  business owner to tell a story of poetic justice, or he might 
  lure a pair of lost travelers to their doom as a cautionary 
  tale, or he might induce a pair of lovers to kill each other 
  in a romantic tragedy. He records each story in verse, 
  collects them in books and leaves them on the shelves of 
  bookstores and libraries for unsuspecting readers to find. 
  There are currently thirty-one volumes of Vines’s 
  Tales from the Tomb in existence. The modern volumes, 
  produced when Vines had access to printing presses, are 
  easy to find, but the older, hand-written volumes are rare, 
  and the only known copy of Volume One is secure in the 
  Archives of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.
  GADGETS
  To ensure their command over their armies, the mem-
  bers of the Order wear pendants infused with psychic 
  power, keyed to the metaphysical patterns produced by 
  the mind control fields of the Order’s strongholds. When 
  the Order’s soldiers receive commands from someone 
  wearing one of these pendants, they will carry out those 
  commands to the utmost of their ability, even at the cost 
  of their own lives.
  ADVENTURE IDEAS
  THE LUXOR GAMBIT
  In a daring airship raid, Methuselah’s Order has carried 
  off the Luxor Obelisk, which stood in the Place de la Con-
  corde in Paris. The Order intends to reunite the Obelisk 
  with its original pyramidion, which was stolen from its 
  summit in the 6th century BC, and which the Order has 
  recently recovered. The PCs must intercept the airships 
  that are carrying the Obelisk so that the Order cannot 
  reassemble it and awaken its slumbering power.
  THE LONG TOMORROW
  The Ministry has learned that agents of the Order are 
  in Scotland, preparing to infiltrate a mystical village that 
  is skipping through time. The village reappears in our 
  timeline only one day out of every hundred years, and 
  its inhabitants have only experienced the passage of a 
  week’s worth of time since the village began its journey in 
  the twelfth century. The Order’s agents plan to enter the 
  village undercover when it appears and steal the magical 
  tome responsible for the village’s condition. The Director 
  of the Ministry has ordered the PCs to prevent the theft, 
  to leave the tome in the hands of the villagers, and above 
  all, to escape the village before midnight, when it will hop 
  forward to the end of the twentieth century.
  THE HAUNTED FORTRESS
  Ministry intelligence reveals that the Order has hastily 
  abandoned one of their strongholds, leaving an enor-
  mous stockpile of deadly weapons behind. This is not 
  a trap prepared by the Order--the mind control inscrip-
  tions built into the base were improperly prepared, giving 
  the facility a malevolent and powerful consciousness of 
  its own. This entity’s telekinetic power gives it control 
  over the Order’s cache of weapons, and its influence 
  grows stronger daily. Left unchecked, it will soon be able 
  to wage its own war against humankind. The base is 
  located deep underground, shielding it from such direct 
  measures as artillery bombardment. The PCs must dis-
  assemble the stronghold’s psychic foci in order to destroy 
  the possessing entity, while it uses its substantial arsenal 
  to defend itself.
  
  miniStry initiative     19
  ISABEL ALVARENGA 
  Age: 157
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Relic Hunter of  Methuselah’s Order
  trouble: My Research Comes First
  Add’l AspeCts: Expert in South American Lore; I’ve Had Plenty of  Practice; At Home in the 
  Wild
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Mythology
  superb (+5): Contacts, Deduction
  greAt (+4): Class, Notice, Wealth
  good (+3): Arts, Rapport, Ride, Will
  FAir (+2): Firearms, Empathy, Pilot, Sport, Theft
  STUNTS 
  survivAl: Gain +2 when using Deduction to find food, water, or the correct path while 
  in the wilderness.
  AntHropologist: Gain +2 to create advantages related to indigenous South American cultures 
  when using Mythology.
  sixtH sense: Alvarenga may use her Notice skill to detect active supernatural influences 
  nearby.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  Refresh: b b
  
  20     neFariouS adverSarieS
  BENJAMIN VINES 
  Age: 238
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Immortal Mass Murderer
  trouble: Obsessed by Death
  Add’l AspeCts: Hunted by Methuselah’s Order; I Must Capture This in Verse; Before I Kill You, 
  Allow Me to Explain...
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Arts
  superb (+5): Deceive, Provoke
  greAt (+4): Empathy, Fencing, Notice
  good (+3): Class, Rapport, Sport, Stealth
  FAir (+2): Firearms, Medicine, Mythology, Theft, Will
  STUNTS 
  tHe devil on Your 
  sHoulder:
  Vines gains +2 to Provoke when persuading someone to commit an act of  
  murder.
  A Clever Alibi: Vines gains +2 to Deceive when convincing someone that he is innocent of  
  any crimes.
  unexpeCted 
  reCoverY:
  Once per scene, Vines can spend a fate point to reduce the severity level of  a 
  physical consequence by one step. This removes a mild consequence.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  Refresh: b b b b
  
  miniStry initiative     21
  Illuminati Dossier # 6042
  THE RESURRECTION SISTERS
  PROFILE
  We have all heard of resurrectionists: criminals who 
  exhume corpses and sell them to medical institutions for 
  experimentation. The Resurrection Sisters have taken 
  this practice to a more grisly and ambitious extreme.
  The Sisters are attempting to obtain the corpses of 
  1,613 persons who have died in a state of perfect grace, 
  according to the sisterhood’s own criteria. They believe 
  that the act of assembling this collection of the righteous 
  deceased will bring about the Day of Judgment described 
  in the Christian Bible, and that for their part in establish-
  ing the Kingdom of God, the Sisters will sit at the right 
  hand of the Almighty in paradise.
  This remarkable belief, and the sisterhood itself, was 
  authored by a self-proclaimed prophet named Greta 
  Brunner near the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
  Through a combination of natural charisma, religious 
  fervor, and the usual symptoms of divine inspiration--sei-
  zures, visions, speaking in tongues--Brunner attracted a 
  small but dedicated female following. Brunner eventually 
  withdrew from public view, and although reports of her 
  final appearances suggest that her prophecy was slipping 
  into incoherent madness, the sisterhood she left behind 
  will reject any such assertion. In fact, the Sisters will 
  never refer to Brunner as deceased, though she would be 
  close to a hundred years old by now.
  Brunner’s followers remain exclusively female to this 
  day, and they replenish their membership with women 
  from all social strata, offering hope and purpose to those 
  who feel defeated by the world’s cruelty. Through oaths 
  and secret ceremonies, they cultivate fanatical dedication 
  within new recruits, creating an army of women whose 
  mild public faces conceal their fiery commitment. 
  If the sisterhood was satisfied to locate and exhume 
  the remains of those whose lives satisfied the Sisters’ defi-
  nition of purity, we might regard its activity with little 
  more than morbid curiosity. However, to ensure their 
  eventual success, the Sisters have taken it upon them-
  selves to coach selected persons in the practice of righ-
  teous, faithful living. When a subject has purified himself 
  sufficiently, the Sisters will murder him and confiscate his 
  body, adding him to their growing collection.
  SCHEMES
  The sisterhood’s targets are most often young unmar-
  ried men who are susceptible to the charms of Sisters’ 
  more charming and attractive members. When the Sis-
  ters have located a likely subject, they will appoint one 
  of their members to be the subject’s patron. The patron 
  will capture the subject’s attention and guide the subject 
  down a path of piety, modesty, and charity, sometimes 
  over the course of years. The patron keeps a detailed 
  ledger of the subject’s deeds and misdeeds, and when the 
  Sisters judge that the subject’s soul is properly prepared, 
  the Sisters will end the subject’s life--preferably quickly, 
  painlessly, and without drawing attention to the subject’s 
  patron or to the sisterhood in general.
  Not all subjects can achieve spiritual perfection, but 
  the Sisters have addressed such potential failures through 
  their doctrine of “amalgamated perfection”. Ambiguity 
  in the recorded words of Greta Brunner has led the Sis-
  ters to conclude that although they definitely require 
  1,613 corpses left behind by pure souls, there is no reason 
  they cannot take the organs and limbs from several par-
  tially-pure individuals and assemble them into a single 
  perfected corpse. The system for determining what to 
  extract from the remains of any given corpse is complex, 
  using the nature of the subject’s spiritual virtues and 
  vices to select specific portions of the subject’s anatomy. 
  In this way, if the Sisters can achieve even a small degree 
  of success with a given subject, they can still salvage 
  some benefit from their efforts.
  TACTICS
  The Sisters prefer to use poison when harvesting the 
  lives of their purified subjects. Poison does not require 
  physical strength, quick reflexes or a tolerance for vio-
  lence. The correct poison, used properly, can mimic a 
  natural illness and can slay a target while the murderess 
  is nowhere nearby, allowing the Sisters to continue their 
  work without drawing the attention of the police.
  When poison cannot be used, the Sisters will arrange 
  the subject’s death through apparent accidents. Horse 
  riding mishaps, locomotive collisions, drownings, and 
  defective firearms have all claimed the lives of the sister-
  
  22     neFariouS adverSarieS
  hood’s subjects. These require careful handling, and a 
  special committee of experts exists within the sisterhood 
  that is responsible for the planning and execution of 
  these accidents.
  Regardless of the method of death, the Sisters will 
  attempt to claim and preserve the body of the subject as 
  soon as possible. They recruit women with medical or 
  embalming experience for this purpose, and these spe-
  cialists remain ready to travel at a moment’s notice, with 
  a bag of necessary equipment always packed.
  WEAKNESSES
  We caution our brethren not to dismiss the Resurrec-
  tion Sisters as a tragic collection of misled and deranged 
  women. While the other organizations in these documents 
  pursue worldly power for themselves, the Sisters believe 
  that their work will bring about the ultimate salvation of 
  humanity, and they are willing to pay any price in pursuit 
  of this goal. The Sisters recruit only strong-willed women 
  who are willing to guard the sisterhood’s secrets with the 
  last drops of their own blood. They reinforce their oaths 
  with ceremonies and rituals, forging themselves into fear-
  less, remorseless servants of their own faith.
  That being said, there is some evidence that the 
  Sisters have begun to abandon their usual caution and 
  secrecy. They may be approaching some critical date 
  given to them by Greta Brunner, and attempting to make 
  up for a shortfall of purified dead before the deadline 
  arrives. Alternately, they may be close to their goal of 
  1,613 corpses, and may be willing to accept a greater 
  degree of risk now that success is close at hand.
  The subject of Greta Brunner’s teachings brings us to 
  another possible failing in the sisterhood’s plans. Just as 
  a few vague words have allowed the Sisters to improve 
  their efficiency through amalgamated perfection, a close 
  study of Brunner’s prophecies shows that there is no cer-
  tainty that she was foretelling the advent of any Chris-
  tian paradise. Some of her metaphors and phrases appear 
  in the scriptures of religions that predate Christianity 
  by millennia, and that predict the return of a far darker 
  power to our world. Briefing Package #202 gives further 
  details, and should be sufficient to convince all of our 
  brethren that it would be worthwhile to interfere with 
  the work of the Resurrection Sisters whenever possible.
  MINIONS
  The Resurrection Sisters avoid employing outsiders 
  to perform the tasks given to them by Greta Brunner. 
  They prefer not to risk the secrecy of their movement 
  by involving anyone who is not a true believer. Further-
  more, they believe that their work only has merit when 
  performed by those who have pure and sincere motives. 
  Anyone adding to the Sisters’ collection for mere mone-
  tary gain would stain the spiritual value of the task.
  When outside assistance is unavoidable, the Sisters 
  will never reveal their true motives to their hired help. 
  They will offer false but plausible explanations for the 
  work they require, and they will use their poisons to 
  silence any outsider who learned too much about the sis-
  terhood’s secrets.
  GM’S NOTES
  ADVERSARIES
  THE RED LADY
  Whether Greta Brunner is alive or not, the Resurrection 
  Sisters currently operate under the day-to-day leadership 
  of the woman they refer to as the Red Lady. She is Aus-
  trian, in her fifties, and presents herself as a woman of 
  fine breeding and elevated social position. She travels 
  constantly, using assumed names to disguise her move-
  ments, visiting the various gatherings of the sisterhood to 
  supervise and encourage their efforts. She also guides the 
  scattered members of the sisterhood through correspon-
  dence, employing a code known only by the Sisters so 
  that their letters appear to be simple exchanges of gossip. 
  The Red Lady has cultivated powerful friends 
  throughout Europe. These are men and women with 
  strong religious sentiments who may not understand 
  the full truth of the sisterhood’s enterprises. When the 
  Sisters require money, information, or protection from 
  police or government agents, the Red Lady calls on these 
  well-placed friends for assistance.
  Though she has no formal training in espionage, her 
  natural intelligence has allowed her to master the talents 
  necessary to baffle any intelligence agency. She is fluent 
  in several languages and has some talent for disguise, 
  allowing her to adopt new identities quickly and to blend 
  into the local population anywhere she goes. She is profi-
  cient with a pistol, but she prefers to avoid drawing atten-
  tion to herself through violence.
  ANNIE O’FLAHERTY, THE BLACK ANGEL
  Annie O’Flaherty possesses all of the skills most desired 
  by the Resurrection Sisters: medical experience, pro-
  ficiency with the funereal arts, a sympathetic face, and 
  a practical understanding of the hearts of men. She is 
  Irish, in her early thirties, and has served as a nurse in 
  several medical institutions. Her movements have helped 
  her disguise the high rate of mortality among patients in 
  her care, and her apparent sincerity and dedication has 
  diverted the suspicions of anyone in a position to observe 
  her handiwork.
  Not even her fellow Sisters suspect that her mask 
  of politeness and professionalism conceals the cruelty 
  of a sadist. She revels in the act of murder itself, caring 
  little for any divine reward that her work might provide. 
  
  miniStry initiative     23
  Her vials of poison and her embalming knives have so 
  far sated her thirst for blood, but the thrill of these acts 
  has already started to fade. She has recently staged the 
  violent, apparently accidental death of a subject when a 
  simple poisoning would have sufficed. This will encour-
  age her to attempt further, more overt acts of violence, 
  and may endanger the sisterhood’s secrecy as much as it 
  endangers the patients she supervises. 
  GADGETS
  The most common weapons used 
  by the Sisters are poison-dispensing 
  rings. These rings have small hollow com-
  partments for storing poison in liquid or powder 
  form, usually concealed beneath precious stones or other 
  decorations. Pressing the ring’s hidden switch opens the 
  compartment so that the wearer can dispense the poison 
  as needed.
  These rings add +2 to Deceive and Stealth when 
  attempting to administer poison without being detected.
  ADVENTURE IDEAS
  WEAPONS OF MASS SALVATION
  Representatives of charitable organizations around the 
  globe have organized a conference to discuss the practice 
  of performing good works. The Resurrection Sisters plan 
  to flood the conference hall with poison gas and then 
  assemble a few acceptable specimens from the remains 
  of the guests. The Sisters will detonate their gas bombs 
  when the conference’s guest of honor delivers his sched-
  uled speech and all of the attendees are gathered together. 
  By the time the Ministry discovers the plan, the confer-
  ence is already in progress, and attempting to shut down 
  the event might cause the Sisters to release the gas prema-
  turely. The PCs must locate and disarm the gas canisters 
  before the Sisters can act.
  SISTERS AMONG THE SISTERS
  Patients have been dying mysteriously at a hospital 
  staffed entirely by nuns. The Ministry suspects the 
  involvement of the Resurrection Sisters. Is one of the 
  nuns secretly a follower of Greta Brunner? Worse yet--
  what if they all are?
  WRATH OF THE DEAD
  The Resurrection Sisters exhume the body of a man 
  they did not murder: a pious, humble, well-liked gen-
  tleman whose public deeds satisfied the Sisters’ criteria 
  for purity. In secret, however, this apparently harmless 
  man was a diabolist and sorcerer. Angered at the dese-
  cration of his body, the sorcerer’s soul has returned to 
  Earth to animate all of the corpses in the cemetery where 
  his body was stolen. His army of the dead will wreak 
  havoc throughout the city until the PCs can recover and 
  sorcerer’s corpse from the Sisters, and restore it to its 
  consecrated grave.
  
  24     neFariouS adverSarieS
  THE RED LADY
  Age: 58
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Leader of  the Resurrection Sisters
  trouble: Greta Brunner’s Words Are My Gospel
  Add’l AspeCts: A New Day, a New Identity; I Rely on the Kindness of  Strangers; Faith Can 
  Move Mountains
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Class
  superb (+5): Contacts, Wealth
  greAt (+4): Deceive, Rapport, Will
  good (+3): Arts, Empathy, Mythology, Notice
  FAir (+2): Firearms, Medicine, Pilot, Stealth, Theft
  STUNTS 
  ForgerY: Gain +2 to Arts when forging documents.
  inspiring words: Gain +2 to Rapport when soliciting assistance from someone with strong 
  Christian faith.
  Friends everY-
  wHere:
  Once per session, the Red Lady may spend a fate point to find an old friend 
  or make a new friend, no matter where she is.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Moderate Consequence: 
  Severe Consequence: 
  Refresh: b b b b b
  
  miniStry initiative     25
  ANNIE O’FLAHERTY, THE BLACK ANGEL
  Age: 33
  ASPECTS
  HigH ConCept: Murderous Nurse
  trouble: Sadistic Hunger
  Add’l AspeCts: The Resurrection Sisters Are Watching Me
  SKILLS
  FAntAstiC (+6): Medicine
  superb (+5): Deceive
  greAt (+4): Rapport
  good (+3): Stealth
  FAir (+2): Fencing
  AverAge (+1) Notice
  STUNTS 
  tHe surgeon’s 
  KniFe:
  Once per scene, O’Flaherty can use her Medicine skill to create the aspect I 
  Know where to hurt You on a living opponent. The opponent may defend 
  with Physique (to show the opponent’s resilient physical condition) or Notice 
  (to realize what O’Flaherty is planning). Whenever she invokes this aspect 
  to attack her opponent, she receives +3 to her roll instead of  the usual +2.
  STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES
  Physical Stress: b b  
   
  Mental Stress: b b
  Mild Consequence:
  Refresh: b b
  
  26     neFariouS adverSarieS
  Illuminati Dossier # 161
  THE HOUSE OF USHER
  Those of you who are familiar with the House of Usher’s 
  reputation may be shocked to find it included as a mere 
  postscript to this document. Within the encyclopedia of 
  the world’s conspiracies, the House of Usher must be the 
  Platonic ideal of a globe-spanning secret society. In the 
  name of honesty, we of the Illuminati must admit that 
  even our own order cannot match the House’s scope and 
  influence.
  Regretfully, the House’s proficiency at keeping its 
  own secrets means that we have almost no reliable infor-
  mation about its structure, membership, and goals. The 
  few facts we have are quickly explained. We know that 
  the House has been in existence for centuries, and that 
  its members claim to serve a single leader, known only as 
  the Lord of the Manor. 
  We do not understand their goals or motivations, 
  but we know that whatever they hope to achieve, they 
  have chosen to achieve it through chaos, terror and anar-
  chy. Their agents have engineered countless disasters 
  and upheavals, including civil wars, industrial accidents, 
  mass murders, plagues, fires, and riots. Where their 
  raven insignia appears, death and catastrophe follow. To 
  accomplish such acts of destruction, both large and small, 
  the House has infiltrated a wide array of businesses, gov-
  ernments, universities, religions, criminal syndicates, and 
  even other secret societies. Readers of this text will surely 
  need no reminder of the House’s unsuccessful attempt to 
  seize control of our own society thirty years ago.
  Without more detailed information to rely on, we can 
  only caution our brethren to assume that any outside 
  agencies or individuals they encounter may be pawns of 
  the House of Usher, and to report their suspicions imme-
  diately through the usual protocols.
  
  miniStry initiative     27
  Appendix One
  GM’S ADVICE
  PLAYING THE VILLAINS
  e Great heroes require great villains to properly test their mettle.  E
  Great heroes deserve great villains. Villains commit the 
  crimes the heroes must solve. Villains threaten the inno-
  cents that the heroes must defend. Villains knock the 
  heroes down, so that the heroes can grit their teeth, bind 
  their wounds, and stand up to fight again. 
  When you’re preparing to play The Ministry Initia-
  tive, consider the following suggestions for using villains 
  to create exciting, dramatic stories.
  NEFARIOUS ORIGINS
  One way to transform a mere criminal into a memorable 
  arch-nemesis is to connect your villain to your heroes 
  through aspects. You’ll need to discuss this with your 
  players during character creation, but if the PCs have 
  aspects that relate to your game’s villains, that gives the 
  PCs a personal stake in the battles to come. When a PC 
  has an aspect like The MaesTro WaNTs Me dead or 
  i’ll BriNg sophia del MorTe To JusTice, that aspect 
  becomes a source for compels and invokes whenever the 
  villain makes an appearance.
  Think beyond the character sheet. Your villains 
  should be more than just lists of skills and stunts. When 
  you’re creating your own villain characters, consider the 
  answers to these questions:
  • How did this villain get to be where she is today?
  • Why is she a villain? What does she hope to accom-
  plish?
  • What methods and strategies does she uses?
  • What resources and allies does she have access to?
  • What does she think of herself as? In her own mind, 
  is she a daring rogue? A brave conqueror? A savvy 
  businesswoman?
  • Which of her flaws might eventually lead to her 
  defeat?
  Deciding what your villain does, and how, and why, 
  helps you decide how the villain will react when the 
  players do something you didn’t expect. This can also 
  provide ideas for crimes your villain might commit, or 
  avenues of investigation that the PCs might pursue. You 
  don’t need to write a whole book about your villain; a 
  single paragraph or a few bullet points might be enough. 
  You can also include some of this information in the vil-
  lain’s aspects. 
  The rules of The Ministry Initiative suggest that your 
  more powerful villains should have skill levels higher 
  than those of your PCs. This might seem unfair--and it is. 
  Your main villains should be formidable opponents, capa-
  ble of outfighting or outsmarting any of the PCs one-on-
  one. When the PCs finally catch up to the villain for the 
  dramatic conclusion of the story, they’ll need to be well 
  prepared, and they’ll need to use teamwork and strategy 
  to overcome the villain’s advantages.
  HISTORICAL VILLAINS
  Using real historical figures as villains lets you draw inspi-
  ration from actual events, and gives the players the thrill 
  of challenging a well-known foe. Be prepared, though, for 
  the outcome to diverge from established fact. If the vil-
  lain you’re using was never captured in real life, but your 
  PCs brought him to trial and justice instead, they’ve just 
  changed the course of history. As the GM, you’ll need to 
  decide what that means for your PCs future adventures.
  Also, when you bring a real historical person into 
  your game, he might bring real-world issues along with 
  him, such as politics, religion, or other, thornier topics. 
  You’ll want to discuss potentially uncomfortable material 
  with your players ahead of time, so that you can all agree 
  on what you’d like to see in the game and what you’d 
  rather leave out.
  
  28     neFariouS adverSarieS
  THE BUSINESS 
  OF VILLAINY
  To make sure that your PCs are shaking their fists at 
  your villain and cursing his name, have him commit 
  crimes that affects your PCs personally. If a PC has the 
  aspect sofT spoT for orphaNs, have the villain hold an 
  entire orphanage hostage. If a PC is eNgaged To lord 
  arThur BaiN, have the villain kidnap poor Arthur. After 
  the villain has earned the enmity of your PCs, they’ll be 
  eager for the final confrontation.
  Villains should plan ahead. Remember that the PCs 
  aren’t the only ones who can use their skills to create 
  aspects. Villains who are expecting trouble should place 
  aspects on the scene ahead of time such as lurkiNg 
  sNipers or coNcealed Trapdoors. Don’t forget the 
  free invocations the villains would receive for using the 
  Create an Advantage action. When the heroes arrive, 
  these aspects and invocations can help the villains defend 
  themselves and flee the scene.
  Remember that in The Ministry Initiative, your PCs 
  inhabit a world of wonders: timeless mysteries, stupen-
  dous technology, and daredevil adventure. Your villain 
  shouldn’t just rob a bank, she should steal the entire bank 
  building with her teleporter beam. She shouldn’t threaten 
  a city with explosives when she can use a freeze ray, or an 
  earthquake projector, or a truckload of mind control gas. 
  THE CHASE
  If you’re planning to keep your master villain around for 
  several adventures, let the villain send hired assassins or 
  faithful lieutenants against the heroes. The players can 
  triumph against these lesser villains, while the master 
  villain remains safe in the background, plotting his next 
  diabolical deeds.
  Don’t crowd the stage with too many villains.  Pow-
  erful opponents whose skill levels match or exceed that 
  of the PCs can put up quite a fight. You may be tempted 
  to throw several powerful NPCs at your heroes all at 
  once for an extra challenge, but this can lead to a fight 
  scene that drags on for too long and loses its excitement, 
  especially if the NPCs all have consequences available 
  to absorb damage. If one or two significant NPCs isn’t 
  enough of an obstacle for your players, add a few name-
  less NPCs as reinforcements. Nameless NPCs are easy 
  to keep track of during a fight and can give the players 
  other things to do besides simply pile on the main villain.
  Be careful when your main villain confronts the 
  heroes personally. Players can be clever and determined, 
  and as soon as the PCs catch sight of your master vil-
  lain, they’ll try every trick in the book to keep the villain 
  from escaping. Your players might be willing to accept a 
  concession and allow the villain to escape, or you might 
  declare that the villain escapes in a collapsible helicopter 
  that she just happened to have in her valise, but frequent 
  escapes may be frustrating for your players. It may be 
  better to keep your villain in the shadows and out of 
  reach until you’re ready to set up the final, dramatic con-
  frontation.
  Finish with a bang. After the PCs have pursued a vil-
  lain across several game sessions, matching wits, trading 
  taunts, and exchanging gunfire, make sure the final con-
  frontation is a tough one. The villain should use every 
  weapon and ally at her disposal: her death rays, her 
  ancient magic incantations, her armies of steam-powered 
  mechanical bears. The final fight should feel like a des-
  perate gamble in the final moments before the villain’s 
  ultimate triumph.
  
  oPen Game liCenSe verSion 1.0a
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian 
  Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue.
  The Fate Core font is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission. The Four Actions icons were designed by Jeremy Keller.
  Nefarious Adversaries Copyright © 2016 Galileo Games. All rights reserved.
  The Ministry Initiative Copyright © 2014 Galileo Games. All rights reserved.
  The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Copyright © 2014 Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballentine. All rights reserved.
  Written by Don Bisdorf.
  Edited by Brennan Taylor.
  Layout design by Thomas Deeny.
  Art direction by Brennan Taylor.
  Cover by Alex White.
  Interior illustrations © 2016 Kurt Komoda.
  In accordance with the Open Game License Section 8 “Identification” the following designate Open Game Content and Product Identity:
  OPEN GAME CONTENT
  The contents of this document are declared Open Game Content except for the portions specifically declared as Product Identity. All Fate Core rules 
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  ISBN 1-978-1-887920-20-9
  http://www.galileogames.com
  
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