Professor Walsingham (Adventurers)
Thomas Walsingham (b. 7 July 1876, d. 9 November 1961) a.k.a. Professor Thomas Reginald Walsingham, a.k.a. Professor, is an adventurer, scholar, and military figure from the United Kingdom. Driven to preserve important secrets he knew, he transcended mortal life in the 1960s by inventing a computer system that could scan and store his memories, and then represent that as part of a text-only interactive computer simulation. The magnetic tapes carrying Walsingham's mind and memory was discovered by the 21st century Adventurers in 2019. The Adventurers fed his data into a system at their headquarters, and were able to reconstitute Walsingham as a hologram. Walsingham now serves as an advisor to the Adventurers.
Contents
Biography
Early Life
Walsingham was born 7 July 1876 to Lord Raoul Walsingham and Lady Bethany (née Warwick) at the family property, a mansion called 'Portrance Manor' in Essex. Thomas was a descendant of Sir Francis Walsingham, famed spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I. Young Thomas attended the Bayshore School for Boys, which emphasized martial training, nautical sports, and studies of European languages. It was a notoriously challenging school, but the precocious Thomas excelled in all categories.
Upon graduation, Thomas entered the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
In 1896, Thomas was commissioned at the rank of Lieutenant and posted to the HMS Majestic, a steam-powered battleship. Some of Thomas's earliest adventures came during shore leaves as the Majestic toured the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1903, Thomas solved the 'Mystery on Malta' when several of his crewmates were trapped inside of a labyrinthine dungeon while trying to rescue the beautiful French aristocrat, Chloé Lafaille, who had not returned after exploring inside with an interpreter. But the sailors weren a room meant to hold and kill would-be grave robbers. With ingenuity, Walsingham deduced the working of the mechanism, freed his men, and went on alone to explore deeper into the elaborate tomb and try to find Lafaille. After freeing Lafaille from another trap deeper in the dungeon, she tried to recruit the clearly capable Walsingham into the Order of Osiris of which she was a member, believing that the dungeon might contain an item the Order greatly desired that could change the world forever. Walsingham followed her and considered the offer, but when she desecrated the remains of a long-dead prince in frustration over not finding the Order's prize, he resisted, and battled her. During their fight, Lafaille was left clinging to the edge of a chasm; she pridefully spurned Walsingham's offer of help, and fell to her apparent doom.
Walsingham did not report on Lafaille's true fate for many years after, reporting at the time to authorities that he had tracked her to the edge of a precipice, and that she had probably fallen to her death.
The Classic Adventurers
Now that he knew paranormal activity was real, Thomas found his purpose in life. Thomas concluded his naval tour of duty and pivoted immediately into putting together a team of skilled individuals who would be well-suited for traveling the globe, learning about the unknown, and keeping civilization safe from malevolent forces. He approached the American inventor Aaron Baron as his main partner. They formed 'The Adventurers' and added other allies over time. Walsingham took on the code name "Mr. Adventure" and Baron, "Tank," for his revolutionary electro-mechanical body armor.
For the years 1904-07, Mr. Adventure and Tank were joined by the Huntsman (Armand de Smet), a Dutch marksman and outdoor survivalist of some repute, Mind's Eye (Monisha Foy), a Roma street thief and self-styled clairvoyant from London, and Anchorman (Cecille Deveaux), a mariner and experienced pistoleer from Algiers.
Meddling in Mexico
Mr. Adventure took the team with him to investigate rumors that the Order of Osiris, disguised as a quasi-religious group called the Hermandad de Pastores, were becoming friendly with the President of Mexico in 1906. While there, the team encountered El Sombra, a masked vigilante who was trying to keep innocents safe from the thuggish militias propping up Presidente Diaz, while trying to expose corruption. The team did manage to embarrass Diaz's government and get the Order of Osiris to retreat, but the effects, El Sombra conceded, would be short-lived. News of corruption wasn't new, but Carlos Batres - the man under the mask - had faith that at least it would be kindling that would help the fire of revolution spread, once right spark had been triggered.
The team implored El Sombra to join them on their globe-trotting adventures, but he turned them down, feeling he was needed more at home. But he revealed his secret identity to them, and pledged he would help them however he could, grateful as he was for their help in preventing Diaz from making new, powerful allies who could extend his rule.
The Quest for the Ogopogo
In the Canadian Okanagan country in 1907, while seeking the monstrous Ogopogo, the Huntsman was ambushed by a territorial sasquatch and killed, while Tank was badly injured fending off the attack. With Huntsman on the verge of death, locals pointed to a young woman named Addison Markeson who had a rumored miracle healing power, but lived on a small farming cooperative run by her parents' employer, Forrest McMillan. Her powers were kept secret by her community for fear that they would draw too much attention, and take her away from them, as she had been quite useful in the remote area where a doctor was maybe two days' journey at the best of times. When Aaron was brought to her, she placed her hands on his shoulders, and he began a miraculous recovery - though it greatly exerted Markeson. By morning, Aaron Baron was adequately recovered from his injuries to resume the adventure, but the Adventurers stayed on the McMillan farm for an extra day to be sure.
Only 13 years old at the time, and an orphan, Markeson hung on Mr. Adventure's every word as he recounted some of his journeys. She pleaded with the Adventurers to take her with them, for her community guarded her and her powers too greedily, and she wanted to learn and see the world. Walsingham appreciated her nascent intellect and wanted to take her on as a protégé, but was persuaded by Tank that such a young girl should not be taken from her kin, even if she wished it. Yet at the conclusion of the adventure, and only after having already traveled hundreds of miles away from Okanagan country, they discovered a stow-away on their cart: Addison. Upon reaching Spokane, Mr. Adventure sent a telegram indicating that he would either arrange to have Addison returned immediately, or else compensate MacMillan if he would permit Walsingham to take on custody of Addison. MacMillan telegrammed back that he would prefer the money.
The Curse of the Prussian Castle
Later in 1907, Mr. Adventure led Mind's Eye, Anchorman, Tank, and Addison to Wevelringen, a principality affiliated to Prussia. Arriving via Austria, the Adventurers were going to follow up on rumors of a haunted gothic castle that could not be demolished, for its evil spirits repelled any who came near. Others who ventured inside were never seen again. During this journey, Mr. Adventure and Mind's Eye found that Anchorman's attentions to Addison were inappropriate, as he could almost be her grandfather. Addison was commanded to be in sight of Walsingham at all times, to her chagrin, as she wanted more freedom to explore. There was a harsh argument between Mr. Adventure and Anchorman about the latter's conduct. Morale on the team hit a low point.
At the castle, the early explorations found it to be empty, and visually intimidating, but haunted by little more than bats. Feeling certain the rumors were just local folk tales, the team prepared to make camp inside the castle their first night, and commit to further explorations in the morning. In the middle of the night, Mind's Eye woke to a terrifying dream that they would all soon be slain in the castle. Mind's eye could not be assuaged that it was little more than a dream, and she demanded the team take it as a premonition and prepare. Mr. Adventure took Anchorman and patrolled by lantern light, but found nothing. Anchorman then unexpectedly stabbed Mr. Adventure in the back, and ran off, apparently leaving him for dead.
Later in the morning, Tank, Mind's Eye, and Addison went in search of them, finding Mr. Adventure on the verge of death. Addison exerted herself to heal him, leaving both of them vulnerable. Tank suggested they leave immediately, but Mind's Eye felt they should ascertain what had happened to Anchorman, first. Mr. Adventure, though weakened, agreed that they must leave no man behind - that perhaps Anchorman was being affected by the castle's 'curse'.
As they delved deeper into the castle, they were beset by a gang of hoodlums who brandished makeshift spears, rusted swords, and could be deadly to the unprepared - but were easily dispatched by the experienced Adventurers. The faces under the mask were of emaciated villagers, taken by madness - apparently those who disappeared in the castle remained to guard it as mindless servants. As the team pressed on to uncover the source of the mystery, they found an ancient sarcophagus of obsidian, with wall murals showing that this was the burial place of Uzahul, a powerful enchanter in black magic traditions. Even in death, his sarcophagus had been imbued with a powerful enthralling spell placed upon it that could turn the minds of those who drew too close - a way of ensuring his legacy endured. Realizing the peril they were all in, Mr Adventure ordered Tank to destroy the sarcophagus with explosives, but was warned by Mind's Eye that an inscription on the sarcophagus indicated a terrible curse would befall he who destroyed it, and his successors. Mr. Adventure took Tank's grenade and assumed the risk to himself, having no fear of the curse.
The spell upon the villagers was lifted. The Adventurers helped the survivors of the castle back to their homes, and there, in a tavern, Tank encountered Anchorman. Anchorman tried to say he was overtaken by the spell, but given that no others had escaped back to the village who had been charmed by the sarcophagus, Tank knew it to be a lie. The argument between Anchorman and Mr. Adventure over Addison had caused Anchorman to try to murder his comrade, and then flee before the others found out, hoping they, too, would flee and reunite with him in the village. For his crimes, Anchorman was hurled by Tank into a wall of sturdy oak timbers which broke a considerable number of his bones, and was left behind in Prussia.
Walsingham found what happened to Deveaux regrettable, but spent no more concern upon him. The team left for the Americas once again.
The Case of the Lost Colony
In late 1907, Walsingham was sent a telegram from British intelligence that the Order of Osiris was believed to be systematically exploring Spanish ruins in Central America, from Panama up to Mexico. They were showing particular interest in churches and cathedrals, but there was one lost Spanish colony that they were having difficulty finding, as it had been reclaimed by the jungle over the centuries.
First, Walsingham visited Virginia on the advice of Aaron Baron to recruit the help of Otis Barnaby, an American inventor who had been trying to improve upon the Wright Brother's flying machine design. Baron believed that the emerging practice of aerial reconnaissance might be of use in locating the lost colony. Barnaby wasn't interested in interrupting his development workflow, nor giving up any of his valuable equipment for an overseas adventure. Leaving disappointed, the Adventurers spotted a man using a sort of motorized glider come in for a landing. The pilot - a young man named Randy Waverly - introduced himself to the Adventurers as Barnaby's test pilot. Walsingham tried to ask if Waverly could persuade Barnaby to give up a machine. Waverly pointed to an older protoype paramotor glider rig and indicated Barnaby would probably sell it for a fair price. Barnaby agreed, not realizing that the Adventurers had also persuaded Waverly to quit his job as a test pilot to become an Adventurer called the Aviator.
Once in central America, Walsingham's contacts in British intelligence updated an area of focus in Mexico that seemed to be of interest to the Order of Osiris's agents. El Sombra was once again recruited to help on the search in his home country.
The Adventurers were first to the lost colony's stone chapel, but before long the Order of Osiris, backed by Mexican militia, encircled the old colony site and bade the Adventurers to surrender. Tank held them at bay with some explosives, but knew he could not hold them back forever. Addison suggested that there strong presence there confirmed that the Order of Osiris wanted something that was in the chapel, and the Adventurers must find it first. Mind's Eye used her abilities to locate the hidden treasure. Underneath a stone tablet, they found a golden disc, gilded in Mayan style, with inscriptions denoting heavenly bodies of the cosmos. The Adventurers needed to get the disc away from the Osirians so it could be studied. Waverly suggested that if the team created a diversion, he could take the disc with him in the motor glider. Mind's Eye spoke against this, saying they hadn't known Randy long enough to be sure he wouldn't just escape, but El Sombra believed Mind's Eye was merely projecting her own experience as a thief onto Waverly unfairly. Indeed, Mr. Adventure felt that Waverly deserved to earn a chance to earn that trust - and, at any rate, if he were to steal the disc, it would be better in his hands than in the Order of Osiris's. Mind's Eye objected to the course of action, saying she could not see beyond it, which might mean they were doomed to fail and be killed. Tank accused her of using her so-called clairvoyance to try to win the argument against entrusting the disc to Waverly.
The distraction began. Mr. Adventure fled into the thick jungle at the north end of the ruined colony, holding a decoy under his jacket so that the Osirians would follow him thinking he was trying to sneak away with the prize. Tank began bombarding some of the Osirian encampments, and Waverly powered up his motor in the ensuing noise. El Sombra watched the west side of the colony ruins, while Mind's Eye stalked the east, each trying to lure the militia into zones Tank had identified as areas he could bombard when given the signal. El Sombra was able to flawlessly eliminate a bunch of militia with this trap; however, Mind's Eye, seized by the fear of knowing this was the moment of her death, signalled too late, and was shot just as she sent up her flare. Her killers were taken out by Tank a moment later.
Waverly took flight, and headed north, whooping loudly as he went so that the Osirians would realize they'd been had, and chase him. The surviving Adventurers headed into the jungle north of the ruins and joined Mr. Adventure, while the encircling Osirians decided not to enter the colony - probably fearing more traps. In truth, Tank had little ordnance left and the prospects of winning a ground battle against the assembled Osirian forces were quite small, so the team was relieved when the Osirians headed north in pursuit of Waverly's motorized glider. In the early morning, when it seemed safe, Tank went to recover the body of Mind's Eye, and they gave her a respectful burial at the jungle's edge.
Days later, the Adventurers - sneaking through the Mexican jungle with El Sombra's guidance - reached their rendezvous point, and found Waverly waiting for them at a dockside town where the steamship the Adventurers chartered in Virginia was moored. Not wasting a moment, though rueful to have lost Mind's Eye, the team headed back to the United States. Mr. Adventure arranged for Addison to take some training with a group of Nursing Sisters in England so that she could heal minor wounds without the toll her healing powers took upon her; she thereafter took the code name Sister Savior. Waverly stayed with Walsingham at his home, while Aaron Baron returned to New Jersey to check in on his business interests. El Sombra continued the fight to keep the innocent safe from marauding militias in Mexico.
The Cretoan Adventure
In 1912, the Adventurers began a tour of the Aegean islands to seek out rumors of ancient mystical objects and matters of legend. On this tour, they visited Cretoa and assisted a village there in locating and defeating a genuine minotaur that had been stealing and murdering livestock and people for years. The Adventurers hauled the minotaur carcass to the village afterward. In commemoration of this event, grateful villagers struck a special medallion from some of the minotaur's hoarded gold and gave one each to the Adventurers. The medallions each depicted a Nereid - ancient water spirits, or so the locals said.
In 2020, the medallion once belonging to El Sombra became instrumental in the 21st Century Adventurers gaining entry to the Nereid kingdom, in a subterranean ocean below Cretoa.
The Khan's Tomb
After a journey through the Black Sea, and visiting the Tsar in Moscow, the Adventurers traveled to Mongolia. Mr. Adventure wished to speak with Dr. David Broughton, a learned scholar of Mongolian history and archaeology who believed she had uncovered an ancient reference to Genghis Khan's fabled secret burial site. Too late to prevent Broughton's slaying by a group of mysterious warriors, the Adventurers split up to pursue leads they found in Broughton's Mongolian home. Eventually, the team of Tank, El Sombra, and Sister Savior found clues that the location that Mr. Adventure and the Aviator had sought was the correct one - but arriving, they found their companions held hostage by the same clan of warriors who had killed Broughton, guarding a concealed door in the mountainside to what was supposedly the Khan's true mausoleum. Tank tried to draw off the warriors so that Sister Savior and El Sombra could rescue their compatriots.
However, El Sombra and Sister Savior were captured, and on pain of his allies being executed, Tank also surrendered. A translator, who spoke Chinese in common with Walsingham, conveyed that the site of the Khan's resting place is a secret their clan had guarded for over 600 years - the Adventurers had to each make an immediate choice to either swear an oath to join the clan and live out their days guarding the site, or die. Lest they consider giving their oath faithlessly, the Adventurers were admonished that supernatural consequences befell those who broke with the clan, for the oath would be given before a shaman; moreover, they would never survive the terrain without help. Mr. Adventure asked if they would be permitted to visit the Khan's casket, and the translator indicated that the shaman said yes. He also inquired about what the oath was; he was told it required them to guard the site of the Khan's Tomb until the end of their days. At Mr. Adventure's direction, the Adventurers took the oath, translated from Mongol to Chinese to English. Then they were admitted into the mausoleum.
Within, they found ancient treasures from eastern Europe, northern Africa, and from many cultures of Asia. There was a stone coffin which the translator indicated was the resting place of the Great Khan, in a marble hall surrounded by columns, with many inscriptions of his conquests. The translator elaborated from the shaman's explanation that the Khan had his mausoleum built in secret. A barracks was found in the entry areas to house the Khan's honor guard. This clan of guards were instructed by the Khan in his later years to keep the tomb safe from all others, and never speak of it to outsiders, once his body was interred. They were permitted to leave only when they needed provisions, to find a wife, or to intercept threats to the tomb, as they had with Dr. Broughton.
Tank began to inquire how a mausoleum with such engineering and artisanal craftsmanship could possibly have been kept a secret in the first place. He estimated that perhaps hundreds of workers must have been engaged on the project. The shaman, speaking through a translator, said he did not know. Nor did he know, when Tank asked, if these craftsmen had been part of the clan, though legend had it that all involved were put to death to keep the secret. Then tank, still wearing his armor (for the clan had only stripped him of his weapons) smashed the casket. A dozen warriors surrounded Tank with their swords drawn, but as the dust settled, he screamed for Walsingham to tell the translator to tell the shaman to look inside the casket. Indeed, there were no remains within. The casket was empty. Tank suggested as a business owner, he knew all about contracts and labor - and nothing added up about this place. The Khan was never buried there. The honor guard and the mausoleum were a decoy for the real Khan's burial site, Tank suggested, which was probably far more humble, and a far better-kept secret than an ostentatious hall filled with treasures.
In the day or so after, as the clan came to terms with the great misunderstanding under which they had labored, the shaman suggested that perhaps the hall had originally been guarded as a treasure hall, but the mythology around it being the Khan's burial site may have come long after, at a time in the clan's history when perhaps its numbers had dwindled, and they needed a deeper meaning of their purpose to inspire their youth to remain. For there was more to the clan than just an ancient hall, but they were kin, and had their grand traditions to pass along from generation to generation. At any rate, the Adventurers were released from their oath, for no one present at the mountain fortress truly knew where the Khan was buried.
The Adventurers stayed with the clan for a few days, however, and shared stories of the wider world, as many now considered that they should take their place in it. One morning, Sister Savior - worried about the aged shaman heading off alone early in the morning to a mountain trail, followed him. He made his way to the edge of a cliff with a grand view of the steppes, and knelt before a spheroid boulder that was flat on its base. Old scrape-marks on the rock suggested it had been moved there, at some point. Perceiving that Sister had been following him, the shaman waved her to join him, and she knelt, too. He took her hand and placed it on the stone, then nodded to her. They shared no spoken language, but Sister fully understood the secret knowledge he was imparting. Once they caught a train to Vladivostok, Sister shared the story and secret with Mr. Adventure. Neither of them spoke of it again after.
First World War
Pre-War
As tensions in Europe flared ahead of the First World War, the Adventurers disbanded and traveled to their respective homes in late 1912. Walsingham took up a distinguished professorship at Oxford University, teaching linguistics and logic. He courted the daughter of the Earl of Southesk, but her father thought Thomas too low of station to marry into his family, and the relationship soured.
Waverly, for his part, returned to the United States to see if he could find work as a pilot. Thomas sent letters routinely to his Adventurer compatriots, obliquely expressing loneliness and isolation despite his accomplishments and reputation, though he rebuffed invitations from both Addison and Aaron to journey across the Atlantic for a visit.
One manner in which Thomas eased his impatience was doing work for the British Secret Service, who recruited Thomas as both an expert on foreign languages and his extensive travels. Though he would continue to work overtly as an academic, Thomas was covertly consulted by the SS many times. Sometimes, coded messages from Germany that the SS intercepted were brought to Professor Walsingham for examination, even before the war broke out.
During the War
Professor Walsingham wrote in letters to his American compatriots that he was considering re-enlisting in the navy and formalizing his work with the War Department when war broke out in 1914. However, he remained at Oxford, apparently with the SS wanting to keep his association under wraps. In 1916, Walsingham joined a fact-finding mission to the front, and was permitted to observe the trenches and no-man's land from the safety of a two mile distance through binoculars which, until 1917, was the closest Walsingham got to the conflict. On that occasion he was never in enemy territory, but reported on the war effort with a group of other experts to advise the War Department on some possible improvements.
Affected by the intense suffering of civilians, the deplorable conditions in the trenches, Walsingham wrote Aaron Baron and pleaded that he make some of his advanced weapon designs available for British military production so that Germany would be pushed back, and the war won sooner. Baron sent a scathing reply about the injuries done by British military might in the past, and how he did not want to escalate an arms race.
Walsingham was the first code-breaker to notice a slight variation of German Imperial code in mid-1916. Looking through his old notes, he confirmed a likeness to signals used by the Order of Osiris in their search for the lost colony in Mexico years before. This was the first confirmation that the Order of Osiris were running a shadow campaign during the Great War under the aegis of the German state, and apparently, directing German troop movements to suit their aims.
Mission to Belgium
The British Secret Service was alarmed at the highest levels that the Order of Osiris was so entrenched within the German Imperial hierarchy. Some senior analysts suggested that the entire war might be a cover for the Order's true aims. As Walsingham continued to find the hidden Osirian transmissons among German intercepts, it became clear that they were once again systematically looking through churches in captured territories, and seemed to be closing in on it whatever they were after.
The British SS wanted to send a special forces team, but it was deemed too risky by the admirality - too great a chance the Order of Osiris, with its vast spy network, would get wind of the SS's discovery if orders went through the chain of command. Walsingham volunteered the Adventurers, who were well-equipped for battle, but also acquainted to stealth. The Admiralty agreed, as long as the Adventurers took a guide who was familiar with the region with them: Jack Cunningham.
Hastily assembled within a week, the Adventurers infiltrated northern France and proceeded into Belgium in April 1917, where they discovered that the Order of Osiris had already found what they were looking for in an old church in Roeslen, and were taking it back to Germany by train with a heavy German escort. Tank did a quick modification to an automobile to increase its speed, while Jack (a.k.a. Eagle Eye) pointed out on a map where there was an intercept point on the rail line that they could reach before the train, using roads that passed through German-occupied territory. It was risky, but the only chance the Adventurers had. Aviator gave Eagle Eye and Sister an aerial boost to drop them on top of the train, while Tank, Mr. Adventure, and El Sombra used their vehicle to ambush the train and drive alongside it.
The Adventurers boarded the train and had to fight off numerous German soldiers aboard her. Eagle Eye took a bullet in the skirmish, but the team achieved its goal: the Order had captured a beautiful, blue gemstone. Jack, though badly injured, violently reacted when Tank tried to take the gem from him. Sister Savior used her healing power to save Jack from the brink of death, though at great cost to herself. Mr. Adventure and El Sombra stormed the train's engine compartment, while Mr. Adventure consulted a rail map, and discovered a route they could take that would bring them back to the French lines. With an escort from the Aviator, the team succeeded in making their way back to safe territory.
Jack Cunningham was distressingly unwilling to part with the gem, or even let anyone else get close enough to touch it. Aaron Baron and Thomas Walsingham did their best to examine it from afar. Baron believed it contained a vast amount of energy which, though he did not know the purpose, could be dangerous in the wrong hands. The team argued about where best to keep it; Walsingham suggested that Britain should, as this was a British mission, but the others felt it was too risky for any state to claim the gem as its own. Walsingham relented, and agreed that as Jack was its keeper and quite unwilling to part with it, Jack, should be the one to keep it concealed. As Jack and Addison had formed a romance during the mission, Addison promised that she would watch out for Jack and alert the team if anything went awry with the Jack or the gem - and they would live in secrecy together in Canada. Walsingham arranged to have Jack quietly released from the British navy, and all records of him carefully expunged.
Thus the Adventurers realized that their time as a team had ended. Baron returned to America with Jack and Addison, the latter two then heading to western Canada. Waverly returned to his air squadron in France to continue fighting the Germans. El Sombra returned to Mexico, which needed him then more than ever during the tumultuous revolution times. And Walsingham returned to Oxford, where he resumed teaching as though he had only been away for a simple holiday.
Post-war
After the war ended in 1919, the British Secret Service continued to consult Walsingham about the threat from the "triple-O" or "OOO," its code-name for the Order of Osiris. Though Germany was neutralized as a threat for the foreseeable future, the British SS was eager to ascertain the Order's purpose, and discover the extent of its global influence. Yet over time, with the Order going quiet, the British SS became more interested in the other emerging threats of the day - eastern Communism, labor unrest, the resurgence of Germany in the 1920s and 30s. Soon, Walsingham seemed like an old man trying to prosecute yesterday's war for his insistence that the Order of Osiris were still a threat, and just biding their time.
