This is part of a series of RPG characters, creatures, items, adventure ideas, and locations inspired by random entries from Wikipedia. The material I create may grow distant from its roots.
Today we have Skotisma Zazavavy eto Madagasikara, the national Girl Scout federation of Madagascar. It has 25,000 members. That’s about all the information to be gleaned from the page, which doesn’t give us much to go on, but the idea of a large organization of young girls learning survival skills on a small island captures the imagination in itself, doesn’t it?
Luigi Castellani’s “Weapon Training” (CC-BY-3.0)
Dagaxa is one of the largest islands in the world, strategically placed as a vital trading hub. Ships from all over the world stop here. Unfortunately, this influx of shipping has not been kind to the natives, particularly the women.
About 30 years ago, a middle-aged woman named Zaza became well-known for taking in disadvantaged girls, from orphans to escaped kidnap victims. For a few years, she operated a small orphanage and school in the coastal city of Narivo.
Nobody knows what caused it. But one day, a call went out to all the sisters and cousins and friends connected to Zaza’s girls. Dozens came to the orphanage. Then they were all gone.
Some concerned relatives investigated. The group had been sighted heading into the dense jungle surrounding Narivo. A few half-hearted searches found nothing. For the next few decades, adventurous souls would whisper in a tavern about knowing a friend of a friend who sent supplies to Zaza’s Girls, as they were inevitably called, who now lived on their own deep in the jungles of Dagaxa.
Then, about five years ago, the underground rumor mill swirled with reports of “crazy women assassins.” They would swoop upon thieves’ jungle hideouts and brigands’ caches, destroying them and taking the spoils.
Then came the story of a gang member who limped into Narivo one hot day. His gang was threatening a small farmer in the jungle for protection money. The last member of the gang had just tied up the farmer’s youngest daughter when women flew into the hut from every side, slicing with long blades while screaming battle cries. The gang didn’t stand a chance.
The gang member was badly hurt but not killed, and feigned death. He heard the farmer ask the warriors, “Who are you?” One replied simply, “Zaza’s Girls.”
In the ensuing years, Zaza’s Girls have intervened in dozens of raids, hostages situations, and kidnappings. They have even tracked down those who escaped the law, and punished them severely. They are vigilante justice at its most skilled and direct.
Always prepared for combat and always armed, Zaza’s Girls are renowned for their muscled physiques, nearly psychic coordination in combat, and taciturn demeanors. They appear from the jungle and disappear back into it at will, untraceably so far.
Because of their focus on the scum of society, law enforcement (weak at the best of times in Dagaxa) has made only token efforts to track them down. The criminal underworld is more determined, but their efforts so far have met with swift failure, in the form of heads separated from their bodies.
And even while commoners on the street marvel at the Girls’ exploits, they wonder: how can a vigilante group like this stay so well-trained and well-armed?