[Scenario Seed] The Terrible Hobby Of Sir Joseph Londe, Bart
Apr 5, 2020 12:49:01 GMT
starkllr likes this
Post by Catsmate on Apr 5, 2020 12:49:01 GMT
The Terrible Hobby Of Sir Joseph Londe, Bart1.
The title of this post is a collection of short stories about the eponymous titled surgeon who’d been driven mad by his experiences in the Great War. Londo appeared in a series of ten short stories published between 1924 and 1927 and were later collected in a single volume.
The stories were written by the best-selling British author E. Phillips Oppenheim (wiki), an immensely prolific writer (he published over 150 books and hundreds more magazine stories between 1884 and his death in 1946) whose work crossed multiple genres. He’s most often considered a mystery writer but Oppenheim's works range from mystery to romance, science fiction to spy thrillers.
One common element is an undertone of intrigue, mystery and weirdness.
Sir Joseph was a brilliant Australian surgeon whose sanity was sapped by months of continuous work providing medical care for the wounded of the Great War, months of injuries, blood, pain, death and sleeplessness.
The "terrible hobby" of the title is cutting people’s heads open to steal bits of their brains.
In this he’s assisted by his wife Judith, a s a former nurse who went mad alongside him.
They are pursued across England and Europe by one Daniel Rocke, a codebreaker and agent of the Foreign Service, along with Ann Lancaster (daughter of one of Londe’s early victims and seemingly the common sense of the pair2) and Sir Francis Worton, known as Q20, head of the secret service, and someone who knows of Londe’s past..
Londe adopts many disguises, and plots brilliant escapes.
Despite their dated setting and culture the stories maintain a real atmosphere of menace and suspense. Oppenheim manages, in something unusual in fiction of the period, to move the reader’s sympathies from the investigators to the mad surgeon.
Londe himself wants to be cured of his madness; he’s convinced then he will be able to achieve scientific greatness. He is convinced that “somehow or other, a drop of [blood] got into my brain” and that “nothing would cure me but to find another brain of the same formation as mine, but a natural colour, and remove a small portion of it to take the place of the discoloured part of my own”.
This started Londe experimenting and thence, quietly, to a lunatic asylum after his secret was discovered follow the Battle of Cambrai.
Londe and Judith spend two years in (separate) asylums so were presumably discharged as cured in 1919.What they've been doing for the five years before the setting of the stories is only alluded to.
Judith believes that her madness has done wonders for her appearance, making her look and feel like a young woman again. She’s also developed hypnotic powers, able to mesmerise young men and she absorbs their adulation.
Whoification and Game Use.
So let’s look at dropping Londe into a Who game. He's make an interesting antagonist for a Pulp era game, whether it's AITAS, Call of Cthulhu (or one of it's variations) or a more generic Pulp system.
Origins.
In the Whoniverse there was a fair amount of weirdness going on in the Great War.
Did Londe witness a stream of soldiers marching into a strange box only for it to disappear? Was he himself snatched by the War Lords? Did he serve in St Teilo's Military Hospital? Did he see patients that have survived disappear from their beds by strange angelic figures?
Enough to drive anyone from their reason...
Londe seems to have developed or acquired genuinely unusual powers. In one story he administers a ‘draught’ that can change personalities: “…you would awake to-morrow, to all appearances, exactly the same person, but you yourself would be conscious of the change. You would be lighter-hearted, gayer, happier, and, in some things—such as gambling, for instance—your success would be extraordinary. You would be free, too, from the thraldom of soul”.
This seems rather like the elixir developed by Doctor Henry Jekyll.
Which rather neatly links to the old FASA adventure module The Iytean Menace, which provided it’s own explanation for the Jekyll/Hyde story in the form
Londe has also developed other drugs, including a type of anaesthetic that can render a person senseless by not unconscious for twenty minutes or so. He may have invented these himself, his Ingenuity augmented by the symbiote or he may have acquired a few items from the Iytean spacecraft.
So he's got powers and a plan (of sorts). What might he get up to?
Principally Londe appears to be trying to find a "suitable" brain donor to replace the damage he think his has sustained. If this obsession is ever fulfilled he may turn his attention to other plans...
Especially if he knows of time travel.
Traits.
Bio-Chemical Genius, Brave, Boffin, Charming, Healer, Indomitable, Linguist, Quick Reflexes, Technically Adept, Voice of Authority.
Adversary, Code of Conduct, Dark Secret (when he's hiding), Eccentric [Major], Obsession [Major], Wanted.
Resources.
The full text of the book is available here from the Gutenberg Project.
E. Phillips Oppenheim, Prince of Story Tellers
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. For those of you unfamiliar with the nuances of the British honours system “Bart” is short for Baronet a title of either the gentility or nobility (a matter of opinion) ranking between Knights and Barons. Unlike a Knighthood a Baronetcy is heredity.
2. In their second encounter Rocke manages to fall into an obvious trap, is rendered helpless, and almost have his brain sliced up. Luckily Miss Lancaster is on hand.
I lived with a knife in my hand, and she with bandages. Night and day we were there. If I sought a moment's sleep, I was awakened by the screaming—and they came and fetched me. We were short of anaesthetics. We were short of everything.
The stories were written by the best-selling British author E. Phillips Oppenheim (wiki), an immensely prolific writer (he published over 150 books and hundreds more magazine stories between 1884 and his death in 1946) whose work crossed multiple genres. He’s most often considered a mystery writer but Oppenheim's works range from mystery to romance, science fiction to spy thrillers.
One common element is an undertone of intrigue, mystery and weirdness.
- The Land of Fiction. Oppenheim's prolific output is somewhat reminiscent of the unnamed ‘Master’ of the Land of Fiction and might be an interesting alternative. Perhaps a group of time travellers are transported to a strange, Pulpish, world populated by the heroes and villains of Oppenheim’s novels? Possibly with others of the period (Doc Savage, Bulldog Drummond, the Spider) mixed in too.
Sir Joseph was a brilliant Australian surgeon whose sanity was sapped by months of continuous work providing medical care for the wounded of the Great War, months of injuries, blood, pain, death and sleeplessness.
The "terrible hobby" of the title is cutting people’s heads open to steal bits of their brains.
In this he’s assisted by his wife Judith, a s a former nurse who went mad alongside him.
They are pursued across England and Europe by one Daniel Rocke, a codebreaker and agent of the Foreign Service, along with Ann Lancaster (daughter of one of Londe’s early victims and seemingly the common sense of the pair2) and Sir Francis Worton, known as Q20, head of the secret service, and someone who knows of Londe’s past..
Londe adopts many disguises, and plots brilliant escapes.
Despite their dated setting and culture the stories maintain a real atmosphere of menace and suspense. Oppenheim manages, in something unusual in fiction of the period, to move the reader’s sympathies from the investigators to the mad surgeon.
- Or perhaps that's just me. I agree with one reviewer who described Rocke and Lancaster as "wet as haddocks".
Londe himself wants to be cured of his madness; he’s convinced then he will be able to achieve scientific greatness. He is convinced that “somehow or other, a drop of [blood] got into my brain” and that “nothing would cure me but to find another brain of the same formation as mine, but a natural colour, and remove a small portion of it to take the place of the discoloured part of my own”.
- Somewhat reminiscent of Colonel Rickman from the later Sliders, if anyone remembers him?
This started Londe experimenting and thence, quietly, to a lunatic asylum after his secret was discovered follow the Battle of Cambrai.
- Shades of the wartime career of Herbert West and friend. Were they acquainted? Might they team up in the '20s and share ideas and techniques?
Londe and Judith spend two years in (separate) asylums so were presumably discharged as cured in 1919.What they've been doing for the five years before the setting of the stories is only alluded to.
Judith believes that her madness has done wonders for her appearance, making her look and feel like a young woman again. She’s also developed hypnotic powers, able to mesmerise young men and she absorbs their adulation.
Whoification and Game Use.
So let’s look at dropping Londe into a Who game. He's make an interesting antagonist for a Pulp era game, whether it's AITAS, Call of Cthulhu (or one of it's variations) or a more generic Pulp system.
Origins.
In the Whoniverse there was a fair amount of weirdness going on in the Great War.
Did Londe witness a stream of soldiers marching into a strange box only for it to disappear? Was he himself snatched by the War Lords? Did he serve in St Teilo's Military Hospital? Did he see patients that have survived disappear from their beds by strange angelic figures?
Enough to drive anyone from their reason...
Londe seems to have developed or acquired genuinely unusual powers. In one story he administers a ‘draught’ that can change personalities: “…you would awake to-morrow, to all appearances, exactly the same person, but you yourself would be conscious of the change. You would be lighter-hearted, gayer, happier, and, in some things—such as gambling, for instance—your success would be extraordinary. You would be free, too, from the thraldom of soul”.
This seems rather like the elixir developed by Doctor Henry Jekyll.
Which rather neatly links to the old FASA adventure module The Iytean Menace, which provided it’s own explanation for the Jekyll/Hyde story in the form
- For those not familiar with that race, the Iyteans were a race of two kilogramme ameboid parasites/symbiotes (similar to Trek's Trills) who used only unintelligent hosts as tools. The antagonist in the adventure is a renegade, one who used sentient hosts, a process that drove them mad.They take several minutes to enter a host's body, though they can 'jam' the nervous system on contact
Londe has also developed other drugs, including a type of anaesthetic that can render a person senseless by not unconscious for twenty minutes or so. He may have invented these himself, his Ingenuity augmented by the symbiote or he may have acquired a few items from the Iytean spacecraft.
- Which may remain buried under a French battlefield. Perhaps the French government is investigating it, under cover of Zone Rouge? With or without the help of their British allies (Torchwood, MIO?) Or was it discovered by the Germans and salvaged by them, with artefacts remaining after the Armistice held by a covert organisation with plans for the future? Or did the newly arrived American troops stumble over it and ship it home for investigation? Will Londe try and return to the ship to salvage more technology.
- The Iyteans weren't that advanced, call it AITAS tech level 6, but it's still a starship. And they did have smaller items, such as the 'Police guns' (stunners) and 'digging tools' (portable disintegrators) as well as their advanced biochemistry.
- If you don't want to involve the Iyteans you could develop a different backstory for Londe; sinister government experiments, residue of War Lord service et cetera.
- Another alternative is to have a Greel-like time traveller crash in France and be brought to Londe's hospital. Does she explain to London where she came from? Might she, suffering from cellular damage due to the trip back in time, construct a catalytic extraction chamber and being 'harvesting' donors to survive, leading to Londe experimenting similarly. She could be an escaping war criminal like Greel or a driven, monomaniacal agent trying to find him.
So he's got powers and a plan (of sorts). What might he get up to?
Principally Londe appears to be trying to find a "suitable" brain donor to replace the damage he think his has sustained. If this obsession is ever fulfilled he may turn his attention to other plans...
Especially if he knows of time travel.
| Awareness | Coordination | Ingenuity | Presence | Resolve | Strength |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Athletics 3 | Convince 5 | Craft 1 | Fighting 3 | Knowledge 5 | Marksman 3 |
| Medicine 4 [Surgery] | Science 4 [Chemistry] | Subterfuge 4 | Survival 3 | Technology 3 | Transport 2 |
Traits.
Bio-Chemical Genius, Brave, Boffin, Charming, Healer, Indomitable, Linguist, Quick Reflexes, Technically Adept, Voice of Authority.
Adversary, Code of Conduct, Dark Secret (when he's hiding), Eccentric [Major], Obsession [Major], Wanted.
Resources.
The full text of the book is available here from the Gutenberg Project.
E. Phillips Oppenheim, Prince of Story Tellers
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. For those of you unfamiliar with the nuances of the British honours system “Bart” is short for Baronet a title of either the gentility or nobility (a matter of opinion) ranking between Knights and Barons. Unlike a Knighthood a Baronetcy is heredity.
2. In their second encounter Rocke manages to fall into an obvious trap, is rendered helpless, and almost have his brain sliced up. Luckily Miss Lancaster is on hand.
