The North of England is aflame.
Cities and towns declare themselves for the King or reject the central authority and set up communes governed by the people, for the people.
Newcastle and Carlisle remain staunchly Royalist, but York has chosen to back the moderate Bishops. Liverpool and Manchester are seething beds of revolution and discontent, nominally controlled by the so-called Free Militias and the Workers Guilds, but in reality almost lawless sinkholes of deprivation and anarchy.
In Cumberland, secessionists have announced the rebirth of the independent Kingdom of Rheged, although the recent invasion by the Duke of York was met with little resistance and in fact some tacit support.
Across the border in Scotland, things are just as bad. Seeking to remain aloof from England’s turmoil, the Scots have turned on themselves with Nationalists against Unionists, Highland against Lowland and a growing militant Scandinavian heritage movement in the outlying Isles.
In this time of chaos, a new morality has emerged; or rather an old one has reasserted itself.
If you need something, take it. If you are challenged, kill to protect yourself.
Bands of armed men roam the hills, slipping from the secret places in the dead of night to rain fire and terror on the populace, taking what they will and destroying what they cannot carry to deny their enemies.
Deserters from opposed militias band together with local freemen and opportunists from beyond the Border in groups that have rejected all political and ideological systems in favour of carving themselves fiefdoms where they can live as they please by their own strength of arms. Fortified towers, towns and encampments are springing up in hidden dales and valleys, their locations known only to a select few.
Men answer a call to arms, gather in the darkness to steal, kill and burn before disappearing back to their lives as though nothing had occurred. Family is more important than Law, and you do what you must to ensure that you and yours are safe and well supplied.
This is not the Middle Ages.
This is 1938, and the Reivers have returned...
The leader of the Wolfpack, Major Dunne, accompanied by his support weapon team and bodyguard, Muckle Wullie:
Rifle squad one, under Cad Harry, resplendent in his Windermere Yacht Club blazer:
Rifle squad two:
The demolition specialists:
On the right, Taffy the Tank with his codriver, Geezer, standing in front of The Mighty Mouse:
Support in the form of a "liberated" lorry, with driver:
And some Loot tokens, to represent whatever the gang has set their sights on:
21 May 2011, 06:54:49 PM
