Jhamjarhistan: Objectives

Each player was given a secret briefing order before the game began.

This is Trotsky's brief:

BACKGROUND

You are Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known to the world as Leon Trotsky. You are one of the seven members of the first Bolshevik Politburo. You are also head of the Red Army as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. However, your ally Vladimir Lenin is ill and your influence and power is waning as your rival Joseph Stalin, works his devious machinations against you.

During your sojourn in London (before the Great War), you met and had an affair with Lady Persephone Fotheringay-Featherstonhaugh, the wife of Sir Frobisher Fotheringay-Featherstonhaugh, the then Home Secretary. Lady Persephone fell pregnant and to avoid scandal, was taken away to the Swiss Alps where she gave birth to Arabella. Later returning to her position in society, her daughter was accepted as a family member and grew up in the family home, Grey Gables in Ambridge, Borsetshire.

You have made secret enquiries about your daughter during the Civil War and discover she is being educated at Hilda Rumpole College, Oxford studying archaeology.

Your agents in Tashkent have delivered the startling news that your daughter is in Jhamjaristan on an archaeological dig with her college.

Also, contained within this information are the rumours that the Golden Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods may be discovered in the vicinity. You rapidly come to the conclusion that possession of the Golden Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods would restore the balance of power between yourself and Joe Stalin. Indeed, perhaps put you ahead of him in the race to control the Comintern, should Lenin become too ill to fulfil his duties.

Accordingly, you set out for Djelibad forthwith, with two aims in mind. You will reunite with your estranged daughter and also take the Jhamjarh for yourself. As C-in-C Red Army, you have your own personal armoured train. Ordering steam up, your train departs Moscow’s Oktyabrsky Terminal for Tashkent. On board are yourself, the fearsome members of your personal train guard, plus one or two surprises, should you meet any opposition along the way.

OBJECTIVES

Main objective – Obtain the Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods, location unknown but in the vicinity of the archaeological dig at Djelibad.

Secondary objective - Reunite with your estranged daughter, Arabella Fotheringay-Featherstonhaugh, located somewhere at the dig site outside Djelibad.

...and for Hella von Zeppelin:

BACKGROUND

You are Helene Amalie Gräfin von Brandenstein-Zeppelin, daughter of the Zeppelin inventor, Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin and Isabella Freiin von Wolff. Known to all as Hella, you married Graf Alexander von Brandenstein-Zeppelin in 1909. The marriage is not a happy one, as you find his dilletante, philandering ways, not to your taste. You have formed a very close relationship with one Marlene Spanckwürst.

Marlene is currently your second in command in Der Zeppelin Korps. You formed the Korps in 1915 in secret and Marlene was of great assistance to you.

Der Zeppelin Korps were originally part of Die Fliegertruppen des Deutschen Kaiserreiches (Imperial German Flying Corps), abbreviated to Die Fliegertruppe. In 1916 the Kaiser gave you permission for your Zeppelin Korps to break away from the Fliegertruppe and become a secret autonomous arm of the German military. Only the elite were selected for service in the Korps after a rigorous selection process. Details of your missions during World War I are secret, and the British suppressed details of your raids behind Allied lines to avoid panic. The Korps took part in the raid on Britain by LZ 36. This raid was intended to destroy British historical documents, including the copy of Magna Carta held in Balcoven Castle in Scotland. This raid was only defeated at the last minute by a British spy, Lieutenant Geoffrey Richter-Douglas.

Recently, in the Zeppelin base at Cologne, matters had been moving at a very rapid rate, indeed. LZ36 was making ready to take to the air. It was announced as a record-breaking flight to Persia for the general public. In actual fact LZ36 was to undertake a top secret mission to central Asia. You are one of the few people who know the real purpose of the mission and you are engaged in embarking your clandestine corps of soldiers onto LZ36.

As you make your last preparations for LZ36’s departure to central Asia, your mind harks back to an interview two weeks before. You had been summoned to the Neudeck estate in East Prussia, home of the retired Chief of the Great General Staff, Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg.

You had been seated in von Hindenburg’s library by his wizened valet, Hoden. In a trice, von Hindenburg had entered the room and furnished you with a large schnapps and a cigar.

Paul von Hindenburg was in a talkative mood and entertained you with scurrilous anecdotes about his political rivals. Then, with a frown he began to come to the point. In his eastern command in 1917 was the Ulanen-Regiment von Katzler Nr.2, defending Cireșoaia peak during the Battle of Oituz against the Romanian Army. Facing overwhelming odds against the Romanian Mountain Troops, the Ulans wished to withdraw to a better position and the commanding officer dispatched a young Rittmeister, Dietrich von Strepsil to carry the message back to the German Command. When von Hindenburg refused to allow the withdrawal, matters became heated between the General and the young Rittmeister. Returning to the Cireșoaia peak, von Strepsil was seriously wounded and the rest of his regiment were wiped out, to a man. After the war finished, von Strepsil swore to return to Germany one day and challenge the General to a duel. Since that day, von Hindenburg has lived in mortal fear that the Rittmeister would one day return and confront him on the field of honour. Dietrich is known for his skill with sword and pistol and von Hindenburg, for all his military prowess, is a duffer with weapons.

Your mission is to travel to Jhamjarhistan and obtain the Jhamjarh of the Sticky Gods for von Hindenburg and Germany, but secretly you are to ensure that Dietrich von Strepsil is to suffer an unfortunate but fatal ‘accident’ during the Zeppelin Korps’ raid on Djelibad. You feel this to be a dishonourable task but are compelled to obey.

OBJECTIVES

Main objective – Obtain the Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods, location unknown but in the vicinity of the archaeological dig at Djelibad.

Secondary objective – Eliminate Baron Dietrich von Strepsil, Hindenburg’s nemesis, located somewhere at the dig site outside Djelibad.

...and for Enver Pasha:

BACKGROUND

You are İsmail Enver, better known to the world as Enver Pasha. After the 1913 Ottoman coup d’état you became the Minister of War and were a part of the ‘Three Pashas’ who held de facto rule over the Ottoman Empire from 1913 until the defeat of Turkey and the end of the Great War in 1918. Following that defeat, you, along with other leading Unionists, escaped the Ottoman Empire.

In July 1921, you travel to Moscow where you manage to win the trust of the Soviet authorities. In November 1921 you are sent by Lenin to Bukhara City in the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic to help suppress the Basmachi Revolt against the local pro-Moscow Bolshevik regime. Instead, however, you make secret contacts with some of the rebellion's leaders and, along with a small number of followers, defect to the Basmachi side. Your aim is to unite the numerous Basmachi groups under your own command and mount a co-ordinated offensive against the Bolsheviks, in order to realise your pan-Turkic dreams. After a number of successful military operations, you manage to establish yourself as the rebels’ supreme commander and turn their disorganized forces into a small but well-drilled army. Your command structure is built along German lines and your staff includes a number of experienced Turkish officers.

Your burning passion to assert yourself as a great pan-Turkic leader may in part, have stemmed from your harsh treatment as a boy. At only seven years of age, you were dispatched to a Catholic school in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, Ireland.

A very vicious teacher known only as Father Jack, was your Housemaster. Father Jack was a surly, rude, alcoholic, lecherous, senile, foul-mouthed and violent priest, who frequently lapsed into aggressive behaviour, particularly when his fellow clergy denied him alcohol. He would beat his students with a hurley stick and tell them they would burn for all eternity in Hell.

A very unpleasant time for you. After you had returned to Turkey at the age of fourteen, there was a lot of gossip about the Drumshanbo massacre, but you never heard the full details.

The Basmachi, like all inhabitants of that region had heard the rumours of the possible discovery of the location of the Golden Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods and sought the power of this legendary artefact for themselves. You have also heard rumours of a new missionary arrived in Gummibad in Jhamjarhistan. An aging white-haired alcoholic who could hardly get out of his armchair, name of Father Jack you have been told. Is there now a chance for retribution?

You have ordered a golden seal to use in stamping official documents, that describe you as ‘Commander-in-Chief of all the Armies of Islam, Son-in-Law of the Caliph and Representative of the Prophet.’ Very soon after that you started calling yourself the Emir of Turkestan, a practice not conducive to good relations with the Emir whose cause you are supposedly serving. Recently the Emir of Bukhara had broken off relations with you and this is one of the motivating factors in your desire to possess the Golden Jhamjarh and usurp the Emir in a coup.

OBJECTIVES

Main objective – Obtain the Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods, location unknown but in the vicinity of the archaeological dig at Djelibad.

Secondary objective – Revenge yourself on Father Jack by either kidnapping him or killing him outright. Believed to be at Gummibad.

...and for Snapcase:

BACKGROUND

You are 10th Earl of Snapcase, Bertram Willard Cornelius Waterloo Clarence Snapcase.

After the Great War, you had returned to your ancestral home after a long absence. Relations with your pater, the 9th Earl of Snapcase had been somewhat strained when you had left home years ago to attend Balliol. As the first-born son you had then been Lord Willard but had now returned to Snapcase Hall as Lord Snapcase, the 10th Earl of Snapcase. The 9th Earl’s liver had finally given up in disgust after years of alcoholic abuse and the old Earl had dropped dead at a cream tea given by the ladies of Much-Piddling Women’s Institute. It was considered by all concerned that it was a particularly apt moment to shuffle off this mortal coil as it happened during the traditional rendition of Jerusalem at the conclusion of the Darjeeling, scones, cream (which of course was added to the scone first) and homemade jam bean-feast in Much-Piddling Village Hall.

After putting your affairs in order, you have been posted to India along with your regiment, the 17th Lancers. On arrival in Peshawar, you have been put under the command of Major-General Kenwood-Chef, an old comrade of yours from the trenches on the Somme.

“It’s all kicked off in Jhamjarhistan” ejaculated Major-General Kenwood-Chef. A British officer on shooting leave by the name of ‘Chippy’ Minton has been imprisoned in Djelibad. “That roguish rapscallion, Faqir Al Djelibeybi, the Emir of Jhamjarhistan will be behind it all!”. This is how the adventure into Jhamjarhistan started. Kenwood-Chef proceeded to brief you.

“Now then Snappers, we need you to get to Kashgar with a mixed force by yesterday!” “Stap me, Kenners, that’s a rather tall order!” you riposte. “Now look here, I’ve spoken to that transport johnny of yours, Agnew is that his name?” growled Kenwood-Chef. “Aggers, yes that’s right sir”. “Well, he and that QM chappie Johnston reckon they can cobble together enough motorised transport to get your advance column to Kashgar in a week or so. The heavy baggage and follow-up column can damn well use Shank’s pony and a mule train. Oh, and by the by, there’s a rumour of a strange artefact in the vicinity, the Golden Jhamjarh of the Sticky Gods. Be a good chap and pick that up as well. It would look rather nice in the trophy case in the Officer’s Mess”. “If that’s the case then I’ll get my adjutant, Major Bovril onto the detailed planning straight away, General”, you come to the salute, about face and march off to cantonments to look for Bovvers, Aggers and Johnners.

When questioned, Bovvers and Aggers were adamant that they would need a team of expert mechanics to keep the motorised section running all the way to Kashgar. Aggers felt that if they could get a chap called Tuffnell from the Royal Engineers on board, then he could bring a choice selection of oily rags with him on the beano. Aggers went off to see if he could sweeten the deal with Tuffers with an all-expenses paid visit to Madame Kharrsi’s.

OBJECTIVES

Main objective – Obtain the Jhamjarh of Sticky Gods, location unknown but in the vicinity of the archaeological dig at Djelibad.

Secondary objective – Rescue Chippy Minton from the clutches of the Emir, Faqir al Djelibeybi. Location, Djelibad.

Tertiary objective – Ensure Vaggers rescues Bunty Hamster-Crust from the dig site outside Djelibad.