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.
A Titanic Holiday
Upon Thomas's engagement to Lady Petra Southesk, he began receiving numerous telegrams from Aaron Baron for he and his bride-to-be to visit the United States. When Walsingham accepted, Baron booked passage for he and his fiancee aboard R.M.S. Titanic. Walsingham, aware of the ship's reputation for luxury, size, and being unsinkable, but dismissive of it as "mere advertisement," nevertheless accepted Baron's gift under pressure from Petra, who was swept up in the ship's building legend. The couple traveled from Oxford to Liverpool to meet the ship.
The Order of Osiris, having been monitoring Walsingham, sent an agent named Henry Adam Colville aboard to try to assassinate him with poison whose symptoms would take on the appearance of a progressive disease, knowing that the ship's doctor would lack the serum necessary to save him, and help would be too far once the ship was in the mid-Atlantic. Colville attempted to insinuate himself into Walsingham's shipboard routine so that the two could become companions. With Petra having found some female companions with whom to spend her days aboard ship, Thomas reluctantly accepted Colville as his companion a few days into the Atlantic crossing.
What followed were several misadventures in which Colville tried and failed to deliver poison to Thomas. He tried to drop poison into a pitcher of drinking water at the ship's gymnasium when the men worked out, but when a third man arrived and wanted a drink before working out, Colville had to conjure an accident to trip into the man and cause the pitcher to fall to the floor. Colville then invited Walsingham to tea, and carefully slipped poison into Walsingham's cup; but just as Thomas sniffed the cup, he chided the server for bringing him English Breakfast tea when what he wanted was Earl Grey, but the server said the ship only carried the former, whereupon Thomas lost his interest in tea. Finally, at dinner, Colville did some sleight of hand to steal Thomas's flask of brandy, successfully put the poison in, and then just as deftly put it back into Thomas's evening coat. He invited Thomas out on deck for a smoke and a drink in the crisp night air; Walsingham produced the flask, and drank from it, but... even after an hour of talking and smoking with Colville, did not get sick. Inwardly fuming, Colville returned to his cabin and took out his chemist's book to try to understand what had gone wrong, there discovering that the poison was quite effective in water, but was neutralized by most spirits.
Later that night, as word spread that the ship was sinking following a scrape with an iceberg, Colville realized he had the perfect opportunity to simply murder Thomas Walsingham, and let the sea claim all evidence of the deed.
Conversely, Walsingham, upon boarding his fiancee into a lifeboat, decided to check on the well-being of Colville. Even as Colville reached the Walsinghams' empty cabin, so too did Walsingham find Colville's quarters empty. But finding the book of poisons on Colville's desk, and a satchel with various deadly chemicals, Walsingham investigated further and uncovered a mask and robe in the armoire of the cabin that denoted Colville as an Emissary of Osiris. At once, Walsingham sensed he and his fiancee were in danger, and he immediately went to the top deck to ensure that his wife's lifeboat had launched safely. Verifying with a spyglass that Colville was not on Petra's boat, Walsingham suddenly felt the point of a blade against his back, and Colville whispering for Walsingham to come quietly indoors. He marched Walsingham into the kitchen of the first-class dining room, and the vast walk-in freezer, with the intention of leaving Walsngham there to die as the ship sank. But just as Colville was shutting him in, Walsingham burst toward the door, forcing it back hard against Colville. A scuffle ensued. Colville lost his dagger. Walsingham turned the tables on him, pushed Colville into the cold storage locker, and locked him in from the outside.
Walsingham then took to the deck. Finding all boats had launched, and the ship listing dangerously, he had only a few minutes to assemble a few wood reclining chairs on the deck. Rearranging the chairs, he lashed some together and made a crude raft using some rope pilfered from the deck. Though the raft barely stayed afloat with Walsingham's weight on it, he persisted long enough to be rescued by a lifeboat. The makeshift raft sank almost as soon as Thomas stepped off of it, leading some to remark upon the folly of arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Later that day, Thomas and Petra were reunited aboard S.S. Carpathia. Aaron Baron, having heard of the Titanic's fate, rushed from his New Jersey home to New York City to await news of his friends' survival. Overjoyed to find them alive, Baron conducted them to his home. Privately in New Jersey, Thomas recounted the tale of the Osirian assassin and showed Aaron a book he had stolen from Colville's cabin: a book written in a cryptic ancient script. Though the ancient text would take years to translate, the book represented the first true insight into the Order of Osiris's methods and intentions, and it would be a boon for British Secret Service's counter-operations against them.
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 had courted the Petra, daughter of the Earl of Southesk, over the 1900s, but her father thought Thomas too low of station to marry into his family, and that, taken with the strain of Thomas's constant travels, caused the courtship to flounder. Petra held a candle for Thomas, though, and they were wed on Valentine's Day, 1913. The couple had their first of four children in November of the same year.
Thomas corresponded by mail routinely to his Adventurer compatriots, yet dithered on invitations from both Addison and Aaron to journey across the Atlantic for a visit, citing the needs of his wife and children, and then once the war broke out, the increasing danger of Atlantic travel even to civilian ships from German u-boats. Tied down by married life and steady work, and entering middle age, Walsingham grew impatient, and nostalgic for his adventuring days.
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, Professor Walsingham was covertly consulted by the SS many times. Sometimes, coded messages from Germany that the British 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 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.
The Interwar Period
After the war ended in 1919, Thomas Walsingham was knighted for his service to the British nation in wartime - though most had only a vague idea that it was related to his contributions to code-breaking theory.
The British Secret Service continued to consult Sir Thomas 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 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) 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 SIS became more interested in the other emerging agitators 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.
Walsingham did have one supporter, Colonel Sutherland Cambridge, who urged Walsingham to document all that he knew in preparation for the dreaded day when the Osirians re-emerged. The two created a recording dated 5 August 1925 in which Sutherland interviewed Walsingham on his knowledge of the order.
As an aging man, Walsingham had a dwindling interest in fighting the bureaucracy, and acknowledged that his adventuring days were well behind him. He traveled between Oxford and his family home at Portrance Manor in Essex frequently. With a wife, four children to mind, and his scholarly work, he was content in life.
But as Germany resurged under Hitler into a war-like state that dealt blow after blow to liberty there, and began to spread its hateful ideology to Britain, the United States, and elsewhere, Walsingham presented his curriculum vitae to the British Foreign Secretary and offered to take an advisory role. For Walsingham, it was the fear that the Order of Osiris were once again using Germany as a launching point for another campaign - though no proof of that ever did emerge. Yet the threat to Britain was real, with Walsingham calculating a near-certainty of a war of animus to be waged by the rapidly-militarizing Germany upon the Allied powers of the Great War. Walsingham was granted a commission of Rear-Admiral and a seat on the Joint Intelligence Committee, reporting to the Foreign Secretary.
Though Walsingham shared his experience with code-breaking to a new generation of analysts, much of his work in this time was advising on political and military strategy. Walsingham had advised against the appeasement strategy championed by Neville Chamberlain - an act that nearly cost him his advisory position with one government, and an act that caused the successive government to keep him on.
Second World War
As the Second World War broke out, Walsingham was posted to India because of his previous travel there, and general familiarity with Asia. Thomas protested the assignment on grounds that he would be more useful domestically in England and serving on the Intelligence Committee, but the Admiralty felt a man of his experience would be invaluable as Britain shored up the military presence in India. India was crucial to Britain's ability to raise money and supplies needed for the war. Despite these intentions, Admiral Walsingham did little administration, commanding squadrons of warships to escort supply convoys through the Mediterranean Sea instead. He did give advice to Indian intelligence officials which proved useful in uncovering pro-Nazi resistance.
After three years in India, Admiral Walsingham was assigned to head a squadron in the Italian campaign in the summer of 1943, as Allied forces swept through Aegean islands and fortified them for use against German-occupied Balkan nations.
Admiral Walsingham was granted an audience with Prince Risto, ruler of Cretoa, in late 1944. Allied Forces hoped to persuade Cretoa to share its vitanium with them. Prince Risto wanted a bargain that would force the Allied powers to grant funds to Cretoa, that would require the United States to build a military base including tanks, fighters, and warships - all of which would be owned and operated by Cretoa, yet funded by the United States in perpetuity. This deal was untenable, as Churchill and Roosevelt understood that Risto was a ruthless authoritarian who would use any such equipment to solidify his rule. Walsingham and his commanders were not aware that Prince Risto had already made a secret pact with the Soviet Union that would only be revealed after the war's end, hence no tolerable deal would ever have been reached between Cretoa and the West.
As the war concluded, Walsingham returned to England to enjoy retirement.
Cold War-Era
Upon sorting through his old notes to turn some things over to the Oxford University archives, Sir Thomas rediscovered his journal of Order of Osiris investigations. He made an inquiry to the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) on the status of their Osiris investigation but was astonished that no active managers were involved in "chasing the Osirian ghost," as one high-ranking official put it. With Carlos Batres long dead, Walsingham frequently worried about the state of Jack Cunningham, of whom he had no contact and could not risk investigating, lest the Order become aware of Jack. Jack's fate meant the fate of the world, a thought which preoccupied Sir Thomas into the 1950s as his number of grandchildren multiplied.
In 1954, upon hearing being asked by Aaron Baron to supply input for a memoir he was preparing about his experiences with the Adventurers, Sir Thomas pulled strings to have the book canceled by the publisher. Although loathe to do it, Sir Thomas, through intermediaries, reminded distributors of Baron's appearance before the House Unamerican Activities Committee on allegations he was a Communist. The accusations against Baron were laughably flimsy and likely motivated by a business competitor of his taking advantage of the Red Scare, yet Baron's reputation had been tarnished. Nevertheless, Sir Thomas felt it necessary to suppress the book as he feared it gave the Order an insight into what the Adventurers knew, and might hint at what they had done with the gem that the Order was seeking.
Baron and Walsingham had a falling out via correspondence, and did not communicate again for several more years.
Project Bygone
Eventually, Baron - then in declining health - penned a final letter to Walsingham dated 11 November 1957, urging Sir Thomas to record the totality of his knowledge about the Order of Osiris for posterity using emerging technology. To that end, Baron shared a schematic for a computer and a neural interface. The computer technology, Baron felt, could benefit from a few years' more development, but it was critical that the world not lose what Walsingham knew. Baron died the day after the letter reached Walsingham.
Requiring funds for the acquisition of computer components, as well as the veil of secrecy to divert Osirian attention, Walsingham met with the head of the SIS in 1957. Walsingham would conduct the recording of his memory to data tapes under the guise of an Oxford University archival digitization project. Secretly, it was named Project Bygone. Aaron Baron's design was improved upon by some of England's best computer engineers, and Sir Thomas eventually began recording of his memory on 1 September 1960. The technology required a persistent connection to Walsingham, and for him to remain awake, until the recording was complete. It took 102 hrs of intensive focus to complete the digital image on Walsingham's memory, and it was recorded onto a large number of magnetic tape reels.
The vault containing Walsingham's reels and a computer system which could utilize them was sealed off and forgotten at Oxford, lest the Order of Osiris find out about it.
Death
On 1 February 1961, Sir Thomas Walsingham passed away in St. Albans, UK, in the home of his daughter Gloria, and his son-in-law Mitch Hanger. He died of natural causes, though in his final days he remarked that Project Bygone's physical demands upon him may have taken their toll.
He was buried at the family house in Essex, his epitaph reading, "First Adventurer, Foremost about Family." His wife Petra, who passed nine months later, was buried next to him.
