Character Statistics
Adventure Ideas
Benjamin Ford is the mastermind behind the Bear Flag Empire's secret security agency. In 1853 he was recruited by the California Secret Service to act as an agent in the United States. Joining a traveling repertory company, under the alias of Frederick Williams, he toured throughout the United States sending clandestine reports back to the Frémont Government. Ford was admitted to the ranks of the Freemasons in 1858. Using his Masonic connects and talents Ford impressed Herman C. Whitley, Director of the newly founded United States Secret Service, enough that he was asked to join the agency.
With the outbreak of the Civil War Ford was one of several agents dispatched south to infiltrate Confederate society. He was successful in getting posted to the staff of the Army of Northern Virginia. Here he kept the Union regularly appraised of its movements and objects, in September 1862 his intelligence coup was the successful drop of Lee's orders that resulted in the Battle of Antietam.
Following Antietam Whitley withdrew Ford from the Confederate theater and sent him to Europe to counter Confederate attempts at winning European recognition. Throughout his years in the South he was instrumental in securing the right contacts for Californian armsdealers to sell weapons to the Rebels, and even provided contacts in the North.
In Europe Ford wandered the continent planting disinformation, blackmailing and assassinating Confederate sympathizers and agents, under the disguise of a Confederate patriot. Here he developed industrial espionage to a fine science gaining entrance to the great factories of Europe and keeping Californian industries appraised of the latest developments.
His pro-Confederacy performance drew the attention of the Confederate Secret Service's European Bureau, who approached him to become an agent. He became a double agent in 1863 arranging the sales of arms, armaments and technical support for the Confederacy as well as playing both agencies against each other.
Recalled to Washington in mid 1864, he was one of Whitley's first choices for joining the newly organized Clandestine Operations Section of the Service (COS). He briefly served as head of recruiting, where he passed his recommendations on to Whitley. Within the COS he was one of many who secretly laid the groundwork for the assassination of President Lincoln by providing all the necessary contacts between U.S. Secretary of War Stanton and Former Confederate Spymaster Nathan Forrest.
Ford was hand-picked by Whitley in 1864 to head the Service's California Bureau and carry out "Operation Guillotine". This operation detailed the assassination of President Norton and the toppling of the Californian Government. Once in California Ford contacted California Minister of War Carson. The two worked out a plan to stop the coup. This counter-operation took place in January 1865 and culminated with the elimination of the Fremont Cabal and members of the U.S. Secret Service.
After faking his own death in 1865, Ford immediately went underground assisting in the capture of U.S. Secret Service agents in California. When Director Whitley began purging the COS of agents who assisted in Lincoln's attempted assassination Ford aided in smuggling many agents out of the United States.
Ford decided to settle down to the quiet life in 1866. He recognized his lifelong dream in owning a farm near Napa, close by where he grew up. Ford eventually started a vineyard on his farm and began growing rice to take advantage of the large Asian market. In 1876 he married a young Chinese operative named Lin Chin Hsia. This is the front that Ford performs in public today.
In 1868 he was appointed the Assistant Director of the Californian Secret Service. Carson knows of Ford's former involvement with the U.S. Secret Service, but not of his connections with the COS. Using former agents of the COS, Ford formed the Imperial Security and Intelligence Service (ISIS). Outside the immediate circle of Emperor Norton, Minister of War Carson, Ford, and the Directorate of ISIS, no one knows of its existence.
Ford has directed the recruitment of Asians into ISIS, contrary to the practices of the Californian Secret Service, in order to keep tabs on the Empire's growing Asian community. Even happenings within Chinatown, including those of the Tongs, are known. The centerpiece of Ford's intelligence service is its surveillance service, which is built around the chinese laundry. In nearly all cities, towns and villages throughout the Empire there are chinese laundries, which are ISIS's centers of operations. The Chinese employees keep track of individuals ISIS wants to keep an eye on, since as a people doing menial work nobody "sees" them.
| Excellent | Connections | Though his involvement with the Emperor and heads of state is clandestine a word from Ford has a heavy weight behind it. |
| Great | Charisma | Ford is a powerful motivator and understands what his people need. |
| Great | Courage | He's not known as "Ole Iron-Balls" for nothing. |
| Great | Politics | To play the Great Game you have to know the rules. He could have shown Machiavelli a thing or two. |
| Great | Social Graces | Ford is equally comfortable in the field or in the ballroom. |
| Good | Education | Though much of Ford's learning comes from experience, his university degree in political science doesn't hurt either. |
| Good | Marksmanship | Hunting both animals and human prey have made him a deadly accurate shot with both rifle and pistol. |
| Good | Performance | He plays on the ultimate stage, where a bad performance could bring down the final curtain |
| Good | Physique | For a man of fifty he is in remarkably good shape. |
| Good | Stealth | A spy who doesn't know how to move with the silence of a cat and how to synch his heartbeat to the rhythms of his surroundings soon finds himself dead. |
| Possessions | A few things that Ford has on himself almost always: sword cane, derringer, boot knife, silk cord garrotte, dual identification papers, explosive coins, notepad and paper, sleeping capsules (cause sleep inside of 2 minutes when ingested). | |
Ford may be seen anywhere within the California Empire and a few places without. Here's where the characters may run into him.
| Patron |
| The characters have been recruited for ISIS and have been assigned directly to a task force headed by Ford himself. Any number of adventures could stem from this relationship. |
| In Texas the characters find Benjamin Ford, shot through the shoulder and weak from loss of blood. He has a mission that must be completed. It appears that agents from the United States are attempting to assassinate Sam Houston. Should this happen the strongest force keeping Texas together will crumble to dust giving the United States an opportunity to roll through during the ensuing chaos. It would be a simple matter for the Union Army to march through Walker Pass and into the Bear Flag. He needs the characters to get the information of when and where they plan to assassinate Houston to the Texas Rangers. Look out, though, some of those Rangers may not be what they appear. |
| Ally |
| Through a remarkable case of mistaken identity the characters are being sought by the U.S. Secret Service as ISIS's top spies. Numerous attacks on their lives, all meeting with narrow failure, have made them a mite touchy. They are contacted by Ford and asked if they might be willing to play the parts a little longer. Apparently the activity surrounding the characters have allowed some of ISIS's agents to perform some very important and dangerous investigative work unimpeded. Ford is able to bring many of the vast resources of ISIS to bear in an effort to protect their lives while they act as decoys. |
| Informant |
| The characters are agents of the little known Bureau X. Strange things have pointed to a vast conspiracy within the ranks of the Bear Flag Empire. As agents of ISIS they have been given the task of uncovering the truth and rooting out the conspiracy. But whom can they trust? Ford comes from the shadows with information to help them in their quest, though he cannot openly condone or support their activities; it's simply too dangerous for him. But he can pull strings behind the scenes and help in ways no one else could. |