Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Mar 24, 2016 12:17:12 GMT
Culex pipiens molestus as it's named is a unique species of mosquito that thrives in the tunnels under London. A fascinating piece on the BBC website (link) reminded me of the weird and wonderful ecosystem that exists in the 180km of tunnels, including it's own species of mosquito.
- In fact Culex pipiens molestus isn't limited to the London subway system, it occurs in other large underground systems, such as New York and Tokyo. Though it's believed, based on genetic examination, to have evolved in London before spreading worldwide. It caused some problems in New York a few years ago.
It's an evolutionary adaption of the Culex pipiens, a surface dwelling insect that, unlike molestus, only feeds on birds. C. f. m. bites humans and doesn't hibernate in winter. It's also adapted to the warm close confines of the tunnels. The Underground is also hope to a notably aggressive species of mice and a population of foxes and tortoises, though reports of feral Cybermats have yet to be confirmed...
OK, so far it's one of those fascinatingly odd stories. But what else could be lurking in the tunnels, ready to assault unwary commuters, or investigators? Canonically London has been a base for two Cyber invasions, plus there's a Silurian hibernation facility adjacent (Vastra was woken by the construction work). Perhaps the Cybermen modifed some of the existing wildlife to aid in their plans, or guard their bases. Might there be surviving foxes down there, kept alive by their cybernetic implants? Or could someone have escaped from the Hibernation chambers and started turning the tunnels into a new home?
- There are worries about C. f. m. spreading disease in some countries, though apparently it can't carry West Nile fever; might something from millennia ago be spread by their bites?
Branching out there are also the bases, real and fictional, in the Underground network. There are a number of disused, abandoned and incomplete elements of the network (more than forty stations for example) some of which have been used for government storage and wartime bunkers. Torchwood and the Tomorrow People have both based themselves in disused bits of the Underground, and there's also the bunker that featured in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. And the Laundry's archives are also down there, and possibly other poorly guarded stores of alien artefacts and weird technology.
- Transport for London is trying to lease some of the 'ghost' stations for retail use, especially bars. An excellent opportunity for entrepreneurship to collide with something nasty in a confined space.
- While Fu Manchu didn't utilise the Underground, sticking to Limehouse, a Whovian adaption could be based there.
Which brings up the matter of hauntings in the Underground. Pretty much all the older stations have such legends. The British Museum station, for example, had stories of the Egyptian god Amun-ra, dressed in traditional Egyptian loincloth and headdress, roaming around before it's closure in 1935. He's even been linked to the odd disappearance of two women at nearby Holborn Station in that year (did he migrate when his home station was closed?), and to stories of a secret tunnel between Holborn Station and the museum. - Perfect for a scenario involving Osirans and time travel technology. Is the 'ghost' really a temporal echo caused by curators examining artefacts brought from an Egyptian tomb?
Could the alleged ghost of an actor murdered in 1897 and seeking for revenge be another such echo, caused by the poorly shielded time-space portal constructed by Thomas Brewster in 1867? Well, I've branched out further into the weirdness of London Underground that I'd originally intended. It's certainly worth a more detailed post. Feel free to add any ideas you have.
Links. Wiki CBS article on the spread of Cfm to New York
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by CountClockwise on Mar 24, 2016 21:52:49 GMT
How do you find all this weird and wonderful information? It's a gift. I'm certainly getting ideas for showcasing urban wildlife in an upcoming game
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Mar 25, 2016 10:44:24 GMT
How do you find all this weird and wonderful information? It's a gift. I'm certainly getting ideas for showcasing urban wildlife in an upcoming game Thanks! I've always been interested in the odder bits of history, the people, places, ideas and events that are mostly forgotten today. Add to that a rather obsessive personality and a lot of reading... When I come across things that intrigue me I file them away and, when the mood strikes, I expand on them. Hence my posts here which I'm glad you like.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Apr 14, 2016 9:56:56 GMT
Not mosquito related but there's a story on the BBC website about the opening to the public of the Down Street Underground station that was the centre of the command bunker network used by Churchill's government during WW2. Guided tours will also include the passageways under Euston Station and the deep tunnels under Clapham South's which were used as air-raid shelters during WW2 a reception centre of Caribbean immigrants in the late 1940s and accommodated visitors for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The scenario ideas come thick and fast... Some good photos, including one of an air-raid ticket that might be an interesting game prop.
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Post by soultaker666212 on Jul 21, 2022 22:24:07 GMT
To revive this one I did have an idea for a London Underground story, imagine a gothic horror story set in the Victorian London Underground involving the weeping angels, would be one hell of a scary campaign of people going missing alone on the stations and following clues of them being temporally displaced by the angels going from house to house location to location artefact to artefact searching for what happened to them and then to confront the weeping angels in those scary tunnels.
Also you forgot to mention the Yeti Invasion and Great Intelligence of the 1960s which is where we first meet the Brigadier. Imagine the strange reports of a Yeti robot roaming the London Underground attacking trains coming near its direction. There is plenty of options to be set in the London Underground. Hmm a 1940s Blitz campaign set in the London Underground with alien affairs going on might also be interesting having to then move an object or machine under one station known to be blown up by a German bomb might make for a good plan to foil an alien threat.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jul 22, 2022 8:40:02 GMT
To revive this one I did have an idea for a London Underground story, imagine a gothic horror story set in the Victorian London Underground involving the weeping angels, would be one hell of a scary campaign of people going missing alone on the stations and following clues of them being temporally displaced by the angels going from house to house location to location artefact to artefact searching for what happened to them and then to confront the weeping angels in those scary tunnels. Also you forgot to mention the Yeti Invasion and Great Intelligence of the 1960s which is where we first meet the Brigadier. Imagine the strange reports of a Yeti robot roaming the London Underground attacking trains coming near its direction. There is plenty of options to be set in the London Underground. Hmm a 1940s Blitz campaign set in the London Underground with alien affairs going on might also be interesting having to then move an object or machine under one station known to be blown up by a German bomb might make for a good plan to foil an alien threat. Excellent! Wrt the Weeping Angel my first thought is having a statue unearthed during some of the diggings and then placed into one of the new stations as a decoration. There it gradually gains energy, siphoning off the odd few seconds from the multitudes passing by until it reaches it's full potential. How do Angels reproduce? Might more suddenly start appearing in other stations?
Hmm, what if this happened during the Yeti incident? Another layer on top of that crisis. Perhaps the weakening of space-time is what attracted the Great Intelligence to that location. And, as you suggest, there's room for a prequel to The Web of Fear set during the opening stages, perhaps with Torchwood or ICMG involvement.
The Second World War has lots of weirdness related to the Underground, from their use of bomb shelters to disused sections converted as bunkers, offices and 'stay behind' hidey-holes, storage of artworks and artefacts in transit to safe locations. Mix in Sinister Laboratories, buried aliens being revived (as in The Iytean Menace) and real disasters, such as the Bethnal Green crush.
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Post by greyhame on Jul 26, 2022 22:12:16 GMT
When I first saw this subject heading, I thought that it was a continuation of The London Trilogy!
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jul 27, 2022 8:54:18 GMT
When I first saw this subject heading, I thought that it was a continuation of The London Trilogy! That's on my to-do list. Well more of a re-write since we've played through the scenarios now.
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Post by soultaker666212 on Nov 14, 2022 4:33:49 GMT
Had an idea that works well for the London Underground. What if there is a colony of Vashta Nerada lurking within the London Underground, feeding off anything that comes inside of there. Perhaps some of the missing people within the Underground are in fact victims who have been eaten, usually being preyed upon when they are alone or even some who get curious and explore the tunnels when they shouldn't. I can see UNIT or P.R.O.B.E or The Misfit Mob being called in by the Mettropolitan Police to investigate these strange disappearances, perhaps even ghost sightings of the Vashta Nerada animating these corpses (sets up the idea they may have been here in the beginning of the London Underground).
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Post by grinch on Nov 15, 2022 12:52:15 GMT
Had an idea that works well for the London Underground. What if there is a colony of Vashta Nerada lurking within the London Underground, feeding off anything that comes inside of there. Perhaps some of the missing people within the Underground are in fact victims who have been eaten, usually being preyed upon when they are alone or even some who get curious and explore the tunnels when they shouldn't. I can see UNIT or P.R.O.B.E or The Misfit Mob being called in by the Mettropolitan Police to investigate these strange disappearances, perhaps even ghost sightings of the Vashta Nerada animating these corpses (sets up the idea they may have been here in the beginning of the London Underground). To add a slightly darker twist, perhaps some of the authorities are fully aware of the presence of the Vashta Nerada. But have chosen not to do anything about it because it serves as a useful means to get rid of the vermin. Whether it be rats or the local homeless population.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 16, 2022 11:07:38 GMT
Had an idea that works well for the London Underground. What if there is a colony of Vashta Nerada lurking within the London Underground, feeding off anything that comes inside of there. Perhaps some of the missing people within the Underground are in fact victims who have been eaten, usually being preyed upon when they are alone or even some who get curious and explore the tunnels when they shouldn't. I can see UNIT or P.R.O.B.E or The Misfit Mob being called in by the Mettropolitan Police to investigate these strange disappearances, perhaps even ghost sightings of the Vashta Nerada animating these corpses (sets up the idea they may have been here in the beginning of the London Underground). To add a slightly darker twist, perhaps some of the authorities are fully aware of the presence of the Vashta Nerada. But have chosen not to do anything about it because it serves as a useful means to get rid of the vermin. Whether it be rats or the local homeless population. Interesting possibilities, IIRR there was a Twilight Zone (or similar) episode about a US subway managing weird happenings in the tunnels. Not Special Unit 2 but somewhat similar. Also the '70s horror file Death Line or the more recent The Midnight Meat Train. There could be anything down there....
ETA: It seems I was thinking of Far Below an episode of the series Monsters: or TV Tropes has a page devoted to Sinister Subway, with numerous ideas.
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Post by grinch on Nov 16, 2022 14:35:24 GMT
To add a slightly darker twist, perhaps some of the authorities are fully aware of the presence of the Vashta Nerada. But have chosen not to do anything about it because it serves as a useful means to get rid of the vermin. Whether it be rats or the local homeless population. Interesting possibilities, IIRR there was a Twilight Zone (or similar) episode about a US subway managing weird happenings in the tunnels. Not Special Unit 2 but somewhat similar. Also the '70s horror file Death Line or the more recent The Midnight Meat Train. There could be anything down there....
ETA: It seems I was thinking of Far Below an episode of the series Monsters: or TV Tropes has a page devoted to Sinister Subway, with numerous ideas.
The Midnight Meat Train definitely sprung to mind as well. Personally, as a take on the Monsters episode maybe your PCs find themselves conflicted. The Vashta Nerada which lurk in the Underground are relatively docile due to getting a regular food source. Should the PCs report their findings, the Vashta Nerada may become more aggressive (should they feel threatened) or even venture topside. That is, unless another alternative can be found. Maybe there is even a gateway (similar to the anomalies in Primeval) in the Underground to one of their forests on another world which has enabled them to settle on Earth? At least if that were closed, it would partially resolve the problem.
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Post by soultaker666212 on Nov 17, 2022 14:42:34 GMT
Interesting possibilities, IIRR there was a Twilight Zone (or similar) episode about a US subway managing weird happenings in the tunnels. Not Special Unit 2 but somewhat similar. Also the '70s horror file Death Line or the more recent The Midnight Meat Train. There could be anything down there....
ETA: It seems I was thinking of Far Below an episode of the series Monsters: or TV Tropes has a page devoted to Sinister Subway, with numerous ideas.
The Midnight Meat Train definitely sprung to mind as well. Personally, as a take on the Monsters episode maybe your PCs find themselves conflicted. The Vashta Nerada which lurk in the Underground are relatively docile due to getting a regular food source. Should the PCs report their findings, the Vashta Nerada may become more aggressive (should they feel threatened) or even venture topside. That is, unless another alternative can be found. Maybe there is even a gateway (similar to the anomalies in Primeval) in the Underground to one of their forests on another world which has enabled them to settle on Earth? At least if that were closed, it would partially resolve the problem. I know Vashta Nerada can travel through time rifts, perhaps a small time rift had opened within the London Underground causing them to come through?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 17, 2022 20:32:57 GMT
The Midnight Meat Train definitely sprung to mind as well. Personally, as a take on the Monsters episode maybe your PCs find themselves conflicted. The Vashta Nerada which lurk in the Underground are relatively docile due to getting a regular food source. Should the PCs report their findings, the Vashta Nerada may become more aggressive (should they feel threatened) or even venture topside. That is, unless another alternative can be found. Maybe there is even a gateway (similar to the anomalies in Primeval) in the Underground to one of their forests on another world which has enabled them to settle on Earth? At least if that were closed, it would partially resolve the problem. I know Vashta Nerada can travel through time rifts, perhaps a small time rift had opened within the London Underground causing them to come through? Which neatly links to the scenario Ghost Engines (in All of Time and Space - Volume 1) with it's Steampunk cyborgs, travellers from the Constant of Harmony and lingering Victorian time vortices.
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Post by grinch on Nov 24, 2022 11:27:35 GMT
I know Vashta Nerada can travel through time rifts, perhaps a small time rift had opened within the London Underground causing them to come through? Which neatly links to the scenario Ghost Engines (in All of Time and Space - Volume 1) with it's Steampunk cyborgs, travellers from the Constant of Harmony and lingering Victorian time vortices.I do like it when things connect together. Makes it feel like a really connected and expansive universe especially when there is a knock on effect from past events.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
No longer living in a bad adaption of "A Journal of the Plague Year".
Posts: 3,730
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Twelve, Nine, One, Eleven..
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 24, 2022 11:43:45 GMT
Which neatly links to the scenario Ghost Engines (in All of Time and Space - Volume 1) with it's Steampunk cyborgs, travellers from the Constant of Harmony and lingering Victorian time vortices. I do like it when things connect together. Makes it feel like a really connected and expansive universe especially when there is a knock on effect from past events. Absolutely, I do like a degree of continuity.
ETA: Actually, as I think on it, there could be an auxillary base in an abandoned tunnel left over from that business.
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Post by grinch on Nov 24, 2022 21:28:25 GMT
The Midnight Meat Train definitely sprung to mind as well. Personally, as a take on the Monsters episode maybe your PCs find themselves conflicted. The Vashta Nerada which lurk in the Underground are relatively docile due to getting a regular food source. Should the PCs report their findings, the Vashta Nerada may become more aggressive (should they feel threatened) or even venture topside. That is, unless another alternative can be found. Maybe there is even a gateway (similar to the anomalies in Primeval) in the Underground to one of their forests on another world which has enabled them to settle on Earth? At least if that were closed, it would partially resolve the problem. I know Vashta Nerada can travel through time rifts, perhaps a small time rift had opened within the London Underground causing them to come through? Actually, it makes you wonder whether the time rift goes both ways. Just think of the bacteria or species of Earth animal could have gone through the time rift and caused all sorts of problems. You could possibly even run two adventures parallel to one another. One where an Earthbound group is dealing with the infestation of Vashta Nerada and another where a Time Lord/Companion team is on the other planet dealing with the fallout.
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Post by soultaker666212 on Nov 24, 2022 21:33:26 GMT
I know Vashta Nerada can travel through time rifts, perhaps a small time rift had opened within the London Underground causing them to come through? Actually, it makes you wonder whether the time rift goes both ways. Just think of the bacteria or species of Earth animal could have gone through the time rift and caused all sorts of problems. You could possibly even run two adventures parallel to one another. One where an Earthbound group is dealing with the infestation of Vashta Nerada and another where a Time Lord/Companion team is on the other planet dealing with the fallout. Now that is an idea that can explored further in a different thread but to tie into this one, what if a species on Earth went through the Time Rift and landed on another planet and had chance to evolve. Tying it into this threat say there is a small rift located within the London Underground, what if one of these mosquitos went through the rift and landed on another planet, allowing for them a chance to evolve and using your idea loosely, come back to planet Earth using the rift.
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