Post by starkllr on Jul 28, 2010 18:24:33 GMT
Another upcoming adventure I've got planned for my face-to-face group - comments are very welcome!
The TARDIS materializes in London, late April, 1876. In just a few days, Queen Victoria will proclaim herself Empress of India (happened on April 28 in actual history) during a grand ceremony.
It should be an exciting week, full of jubilation and high spirits throughout London, but the players will quickly find that's not the case. Between encounters on the streets of London, and a look at the newspapers, they will learn of two very disturbing things that have the citizenry of London on edge.
First is the appearances all throughout the city of what have been termed "Mechanical Beasts". These are metallic creatures that glide around, usually taking no notice of the Londoners who cross their path, but on three occasions, unfortunate individuals were struck down by blinding bolts of "lightning" from the Beasts. Witnesses reported that on those occasions, the Beasts spoke in a loud, metallic, screeching voice prior to killing their victims. There seems to be no pattern to the movements or behavior of the Beasts, except this: they seem to appear more frequently in one neighborhood than in any other; and they've first appeared just a month ago.
Second, and possibly even worse, is the recent spate of "vampire" attacks. Over the last month, more than three dozen victims have been discovered (sometimes 2 or 3 in a single night), sometimes unconscious, sometimes dead, always drained of a significant amount of blood, and always with an odd double puncture wound on their necks. The victims have been found in various parts of London, but more than half of them were discovered in roughly the same neighborhood, not too far from the large and imposing manor of highly respected physician Dr. Christopher Price. This is the same neighborhood in which the Beasts seem to appear with more frequency.
The Mechanical Beasts, of course, are Daleks. And they are related to the "vampire" attacks. Asking around, the players will discover that Dr. Price suffered a tragedy a month ago - his beautiful, aristocratic fiancee, Lady Jessica Starwood, was in a horrible carriage accident. It seems that her horses were spooked by a blinding light falling from the sky, they careened out of control, and Lady Jessica was thrown from the carriage and - so it is believed - killed.
The story goes that Dr. Price collected her body and that he's buried it on his property, not even letting her family see it - and, since then, he's become a total recluse, while at the same time hiring many security guards for his home and ordering strange equipment apparently for his medical practice.
The light in the sky was the Dalek ship, another survivor of the Time War, crashing helplessly to Earth. The ship contained a dozen Daleks, all damaged, all thrown from the wreckage.
And Lady Jessica was not dead. Dr. Price did everything in his power to save her, and he's been able to keep her alive, barely, by figuring out how to transfuse fresh blood into her every hour. To obtain it, he's been sending his assistant, the hulking Mr. Fenwick, out into London armed with a truncheon and a neat little device that makes a double puncture in the neck and collects blood from a victim. This is the source of the "vampire" attacks.
Near the accident site, Dr. Price and Mr. Fenwick discovered strange metals - wreckage from the hyperdrive of the Dalek ship. These metals have the property of slowing time, and Dr. Price used them to make a primitive Stasis Cabinet to preserve Lady Jessica in. Time passes at a 1:24 rate inside the Cabinet - one hour passes inside for every day in the outside world. This means Dr. Price needs less blood, and has more time to work on a permanant cure for his fiancee.
He's decided that transplanting new, healthy organs into her might save her, and he thinks he's up to the task. All he needs now is some healthy "donors", and he's dispatched Mr. Fenwick to collect them.
Meanwhile, the Daleks are still repairing themselves, and searching for the components of their hyperdrive - now in the basement of Dr. Price's home - so they can fix their ship.
The players have two tasks: prevent the Daleks from repairing their ship and getting up to the usual Dalek trouble; and stopping Dr. Price from killing more innocent people in his efforts to save his fiancee.
The TARDIS materializes in London, late April, 1876. In just a few days, Queen Victoria will proclaim herself Empress of India (happened on April 28 in actual history) during a grand ceremony.
It should be an exciting week, full of jubilation and high spirits throughout London, but the players will quickly find that's not the case. Between encounters on the streets of London, and a look at the newspapers, they will learn of two very disturbing things that have the citizenry of London on edge.
First is the appearances all throughout the city of what have been termed "Mechanical Beasts". These are metallic creatures that glide around, usually taking no notice of the Londoners who cross their path, but on three occasions, unfortunate individuals were struck down by blinding bolts of "lightning" from the Beasts. Witnesses reported that on those occasions, the Beasts spoke in a loud, metallic, screeching voice prior to killing their victims. There seems to be no pattern to the movements or behavior of the Beasts, except this: they seem to appear more frequently in one neighborhood than in any other; and they've first appeared just a month ago.
Second, and possibly even worse, is the recent spate of "vampire" attacks. Over the last month, more than three dozen victims have been discovered (sometimes 2 or 3 in a single night), sometimes unconscious, sometimes dead, always drained of a significant amount of blood, and always with an odd double puncture wound on their necks. The victims have been found in various parts of London, but more than half of them were discovered in roughly the same neighborhood, not too far from the large and imposing manor of highly respected physician Dr. Christopher Price. This is the same neighborhood in which the Beasts seem to appear with more frequency.
The Mechanical Beasts, of course, are Daleks. And they are related to the "vampire" attacks. Asking around, the players will discover that Dr. Price suffered a tragedy a month ago - his beautiful, aristocratic fiancee, Lady Jessica Starwood, was in a horrible carriage accident. It seems that her horses were spooked by a blinding light falling from the sky, they careened out of control, and Lady Jessica was thrown from the carriage and - so it is believed - killed.
The story goes that Dr. Price collected her body and that he's buried it on his property, not even letting her family see it - and, since then, he's become a total recluse, while at the same time hiring many security guards for his home and ordering strange equipment apparently for his medical practice.
The light in the sky was the Dalek ship, another survivor of the Time War, crashing helplessly to Earth. The ship contained a dozen Daleks, all damaged, all thrown from the wreckage.
And Lady Jessica was not dead. Dr. Price did everything in his power to save her, and he's been able to keep her alive, barely, by figuring out how to transfuse fresh blood into her every hour. To obtain it, he's been sending his assistant, the hulking Mr. Fenwick, out into London armed with a truncheon and a neat little device that makes a double puncture in the neck and collects blood from a victim. This is the source of the "vampire" attacks.
Near the accident site, Dr. Price and Mr. Fenwick discovered strange metals - wreckage from the hyperdrive of the Dalek ship. These metals have the property of slowing time, and Dr. Price used them to make a primitive Stasis Cabinet to preserve Lady Jessica in. Time passes at a 1:24 rate inside the Cabinet - one hour passes inside for every day in the outside world. This means Dr. Price needs less blood, and has more time to work on a permanant cure for his fiancee.
He's decided that transplanting new, healthy organs into her might save her, and he thinks he's up to the task. All he needs now is some healthy "donors", and he's dispatched Mr. Fenwick to collect them.
Meanwhile, the Daleks are still repairing themselves, and searching for the components of their hyperdrive - now in the basement of Dr. Price's home - so they can fix their ship.
The players have two tasks: prevent the Daleks from repairing their ship and getting up to the usual Dalek trouble; and stopping Dr. Price from killing more innocent people in his efforts to save his fiancee.