The Drifters

The Cnidarian Intelligence Division Auxiliary Unit, more commonly known as the Drifters, is House Mollusca's military auxiliary intelligence corps. Staffed exclusively by werejellyfish, the unit supports the Lord Commander of the Inkies through reconnaissance, surveillance, rumor collection, courier work, and intelligence gathering within the Molluscan Protectorate.

Officially, they are trained intelligence operatives.

Unofficially, they are widely regarded as the most accident-prone military unit in House Mollusca.

Every senior officer dreads assigning them a mission because something inevitably goes wrong. Yet by the mission's conclusion they have usually solved several unrelated problems, uncovered hidden conspiracies, rescued individuals they were never sent to find, and somehow completed their original objective almost entirely by accident.

Their methods remain questionable. Their results are not.

Reputation

Ask any Inkie about the Drifters and you will almost always receive the same exhausted sigh.

If something has exploded, gone missing, or become a major political incident... check if the Drifters were involved.

Their reports are frequently late. Their disguises are often unconvincing. They become distracted with alarming regularity and have been known to infiltrate the wrong organization entirely.

Despite this, they consistently return with exactly the intelligence House Mollusca needs. No one understands how. Not even the Drifters themselves.

Specialty

Unlike conventional intelligence operatives, the Drifters specialize less in stealth and more in observation through persistence, curiosity, and extraordinary luck. Their strengths include:

• Eavesdropping
• Rumor collection
• Pattern recognition
• Identifying anomalies
• Building informal networks
• Accidentally discovering classified information
• Convincing complete strangers to reveal information they absolutely should not share

Veteran Inkies often joke that roughly half of the Drifters' intelligence comes from assigned missions. The other half comes from people voluntarily telling them secrets.

Manpower

The Cnidarian Intelligence Division Auxiliary Unit intentionally remains small, usually maintaining between twenty and forty active werejellyfish operatives.

Members deploy individually, in pairs, or in four-person reconnaissance teams. Larger deployments are discouraged after repeated operational reviews concluded that increasing the number of Drifters in one location also increases the likelihood of "mission deviations beyond reasonable prediction."

Recruitment favors naturally curious individuals with exceptional observational skills, adaptability, and an unusual talent for making friends wherever they travel within the waters of the Molluscan Protectorate.

Equipment

Compared to the heavily equipped Inkies, the Drifters travel remarkably light. Standard issue equipment includes:

• Cyrstalline Snapper: A crystalline camera device used to take covert images.
• Nightglass Lens: A magically enhanced obsidian stone capable of recording observations and detecting literomantic disturbances.
• Disguise Satchel: Civilian clothing, forged identification papers, emergency currency, and other infiltration supplies.
• Current Charts: Waterproof navigational maps used during reconnaissance missions.
• Field Journal: Every operative maintains a personal intelligence journal. These notebooks frequently contain surveillance notes alongside recipes, shopping lists, sketches, and unrelated observations.

Operatives are lightly armed and instructed to avoid direct confrontation whenever possible.

Command Structure

The Drifters operate under the authority of the Lord Command of the Inkies, who assigns missions and evaluates intelligence reports.

The unit itself is led by a Chief Drifter, supported by several senior operatives responsible for reconnaissance, communications, logistics, and training.

Operational command is intentionally decentralized, allowing field teams to improvise whenever circumstances change.

Experience suggests that circumstances always change.

Training

Training within the Cnidarian Intelligence Division differs significantly from traditional military instruction. Recruits study:

• Surveillance
• Observation techniques
• Cryptography
• Counterintelligence
• Social engineering
• Navigation
• Rumor verification

Exercises are intentionally unpredictable, forcing recruits to adapt to rapidly changing situations. While these simulations are designed to encourage improvisation, instructors privately admit the Drifters rarely require assistance creating unexpected complications.

Graduates possess an uncanny ability to notice details most people overlook and frequently solve problems through unconventional means.

Why They're Incompetent

The Drifters have accumulated an impressive record of operational mishaps, including:

• Accidentally infiltrating their own headquarters.
• Arresting one another on suspicion of espionage.
• Forgetting who they had been assigned to observe.
• Returning with six navigational charts... all upside down.
• Sending encrypted reports without including the cipher.
• Mistaking a rival admiral for a waiter.
• Successfully infiltrating a political gala despite having been invited by mistake.

No official explanation has ever been offered.

Why They're Still Employed

Because somehow... their mistakes keep saving the day. Failed missions have inadvertently uncovered:

• Assassination plots
• Hidden supply routes
• Smuggling operations
• Forgotten ruins
• Political scandals
• Rival infiltration networks

One failed surveillance assignment even prevented a regional conflict after a Drifter mistakenly attended a private meeting and casually pointed out an inconsistency no one else had noticed.

Their methods are indefensible. Their results are infuriatingly excellent.

— Desdemona Rose

Who They Are

Being werejellyfish presents its own unique operational challenges. When startled, members have been known to:

• Glow unexpectedly
• Drift upward without realizing it
• Bump into one another
• Float away during mission briefings
• Become fascinated by harmless distractions at the worst possible moment

During full transformation they become exceptionally difficult to keep in organized formations, leading commanders to adopt the unofficial strategy of simply pointing them toward the objective and hoping for the best.

History

The Cnidarian Intelligence Division Auxiliary Unit was originally created to support the Lord Commander of the Inkies by undertaking reconnaissance missions considered too routine to justify deploying elite operatives.

Their early service record inspired little confidence. Reports were incomplete. Reconnaissance teams frequently became distracted. Several assignments ended in diplomatic misunderstandings requiring formal apologies.

Yet every apparent failure produced an unexpected success. A patrol that became hopelessly lost discovered an uncharted trench system. An operative attempting to avoid an awkward conversation overheard plans for an assassination. A courier who delivered documents to the wrong office accidentally exposed an extensive smuggling network.

As these improbable successes accumulated, House Mollusca reluctantly accepted an undeniable truth: The Drifters rarely executed missions according to plan. They simply had an extraordinary talent for finding the information no one else thought to look for.

Today, the Cnidarian Intelligence Division Auxiliary Unit occupies a peculiar but respected place within House Mollusca's military. Senior officers assign them missions with equal measures of confidence and apprehension, fully expecting chaos and quietly hoping that, somehow, the Drifters will once again stumble into exactly the intelligence needed to protect the House.

Honors & Awards

The Golden Jellyfish Award

Perhaps no commendation within House Mollusca is more unusual, or more coveted, than the Golden Jellyfish Award.

Presented annually by the Lord Commander of the Inkies, the award recognizes the Cnidarian Intelligence Division operative whose greatest mistake unexpectedly produced the most significant strategic success. Eligibility requires that the recipient's original plan either fail outright or deviate so spectacularly from the assigned mission that any reasonable commander would have considered it a disaster.

Past recipients have been honored for:

• Discovering an uncharted trench after becoming hopelessly lost.
• Exposing a smuggling ring by delivering classified documents to the wrong office.
• Preventing an assassination after accidentally attending the wrong political reception.
• Uncovering an rival listening post while searching for a missing lunch.

Although often presented amid laughter and good-natured teasing, the Golden Jellyfish has become one of the most respected distinctions a Drifter can earn. It serves as a reminder that while competence wins battles, curiosity, resilience, and a remarkable amount of accidental luck have repeatedly protected House Mollusca in ways no strategy could have predicted.

As Anassa JaySeaBoom is rumored to have remarked:

If a Drifter wins the Golden Jellyfish, prepare for the paperwork. If they win it twice... prepare to rewrite the history books.