Post by Catsmate on Aug 6, 2021 11:53:21 GMT
I'm having a bit of a dry patch and this is an attempt to bestir my imagination.
Contributions and ideas welcomed, as I'm not actually sure where this is going......
The Singular Adventures of the Grice-Patersons in the Island of Uffa.
Inspired of course by the untold Sherlock Holmes story. And in pseudo-Watsonian style an introduction:
Right. There were have the idea so far; an unpleasant family come to a (the?) Great Detective seeking assistance with a strange problem. They travel to some rural part of Suffolk and explore the artificial island that Uffa (or Wuffa) ordered constructed in 575CE to cover the thing that crashed into what was then a mosquito infested swamp3. There they find madness, betrayal and death.
So, on to the structure of the plot.
1. What the the Grice-Patersons up to?
Presumably treasure hunting, either for Anglo-Saxon gold and jewels (the Sutton Hoo horde is fifty years in the future but there were stories) or the lost treasure of King John (which would require relocating the action to the area around The Wash). Personally I think they're following the legend of the Three Crowns of East Anglia
Now while this is a wonderful story, it is utterly fictional. The legend of the Three Crowns created by the excellent Dr. Montague James for his story A Warning to the Curious. James was an antiquarian and historian, so he made his fiction realistic. So much so that the legend is actually cites as genuine by some. I recommend the excellent 1972 BBC adaption with Peter Vaughan.
2. What happened?
Were the Grice-Patersons (and perhaps the Great Detective and minions) transported back in time to the fifth century by some device on the crashed craft?
I favour the idea that the GPs had a plan to loot the past, relying on cutting-edge nineteenth century firearms6 to overawe the locals, and with a few expendable thugs for muscle? This was why one of them, escaping back to the 'present' of 1887, sought some unusual aid. The other had they been captured or killed by Uffa's warriors, assisted by a druid/shaman her psionic powers augmented by an alien device. So the Great Detective must ensure the past is undisturbed to become the present, a task made difficult by bits of advanced alien technology.
3. So there's a struggle in the past, perhaps one of the GPs allies with the Great Detective to stop the violence but betrays them. There's an escape to the future (i.e. 1887) and a massive energy release when the time-gate shuts down which triggers the largest thunderstorm Britain has ever seen. The PCs will nearly drown as the tunnels they're fleeing through start to flood.
4. There are other possible complications.
Suggestions? Ideas?
1. The horrible fire in the Theatre Royal in Exeter on the evening of 05SEP1887 during a performance of Barrett's Romany Rye was not the result of an accident involving gas lighting.
186 people died.
2. The weather in Britain in 1887 was somewhat odd. Temperatures were cooler than normal (by about 2°C) but rainfall was extremely low, the third lowest ever recorded, leaving much of Britain in conditions of severe drought that summer. There was a major impact upon water supplies, via rivers, wells, aquifers et cetera.
This came to an abrupt and tumultuous end (in London especially, but across most of the isles) on the night of 18AUG with a massive thunderstorm system across much of England and very heavy rain across much of the country.
3. While we don't think of malaria being a 'British' disease this is historically wrong. The 'Fen country' of East Anglia was rife with what was locally called
"the Ague". The drainage of the fens eliminated most of the more pestilent swamps, but in the seventeenth century the mortality rate in areas near the Fens was comparable to that of West Africa today and the drainage wasn't complete until the late nineteenth century.
4. Also given in some sources as the coat of arms of the legendary King Arthur; azure with three crowns or. Which makes one wonder….
5. Yes, that Rendlesham. The one beloved of conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists where the Rendlesham Forest incident (“Britain’s Roswell) occurred.
6. It's too early for the 'Broomhandle' Mauser, but the Maxim is just about available as are magazine rifles and shotguns and revolvers.
Contributions and ideas welcomed, as I'm not actually sure where this is going......
The Singular Adventures of the Grice-Patersons in the Island of Uffa.
Inspired of course by the untold Sherlock Holmes story. And in pseudo-Watsonian style an introduction:
The adventures of the Grice-Paterson family in East Anglian fen country began, in so much as any tale involving travel through the fourth dimension or having echoes from the events of centuries earlier, can be said to have ‘begun’, on the first day of August in the year 1887. A Monday it was, full of the promise of a new week though we could hardly have foreseen the events of the following three weeks, nor their horrible sequel the following month that have forever seared the melodrama of Mr. Wilson Barrett into my memories1.
We were enjoying a brief hiatus from the cool weather that had predominated for most of the year, though rain was still very scarce and much of England was in a state of severe drought. A drought whose tumultuous end would nearly cost us our lives2.
It’s traditional in these chronicles to describe a family as ‘charming’, however in this case I cannot bring myself to do this; it is simply untrue. The Grice-Patersons, husband, wife, son, daughter and son-in-law, were a uniformly unpleasant bunch; their sins against society, propriety, the laws of the land and good taste and decency were many and varied.
Greedy, arrogant, vain, unscrupulous, rude and unpleasant merely touch on their appalling natures. While I would not go so far as to state that their unfortunate fates were entirely deserved, they were surely the result of their own actions.
And for myself I will not soon forget the events of that fortnight in Suffolk; the strange 'Island' constructed by a long dead king of the Anglo-Saxons, the secrets it held, the betrayals, and the deaths we so narrowly avoided.
We were enjoying a brief hiatus from the cool weather that had predominated for most of the year, though rain was still very scarce and much of England was in a state of severe drought. A drought whose tumultuous end would nearly cost us our lives2.
It’s traditional in these chronicles to describe a family as ‘charming’, however in this case I cannot bring myself to do this; it is simply untrue. The Grice-Patersons, husband, wife, son, daughter and son-in-law, were a uniformly unpleasant bunch; their sins against society, propriety, the laws of the land and good taste and decency were many and varied.
Greedy, arrogant, vain, unscrupulous, rude and unpleasant merely touch on their appalling natures. While I would not go so far as to state that their unfortunate fates were entirely deserved, they were surely the result of their own actions.
And for myself I will not soon forget the events of that fortnight in Suffolk; the strange 'Island' constructed by a long dead king of the Anglo-Saxons, the secrets it held, the betrayals, and the deaths we so narrowly avoided.
Right. There were have the idea so far; an unpleasant family come to a (the?) Great Detective seeking assistance with a strange problem. They travel to some rural part of Suffolk and explore the artificial island that Uffa (or Wuffa) ordered constructed in 575CE to cover the thing that crashed into what was then a mosquito infested swamp3. There they find madness, betrayal and death.
So, on to the structure of the plot.
1. What the the Grice-Patersons up to?
Presumably treasure hunting, either for Anglo-Saxon gold and jewels (the Sutton Hoo horde is fifty years in the future but there were stories) or the lost treasure of King John (which would require relocating the action to the area around The Wash). Personally I think they're following the legend of the Three Crowns of East Anglia
- The kingdom of East Anglia has traditionally been represented by the insignia of three crowns upon a shield (usually gold on blue, the same as Sweden4).
Now while this is a wonderful story, it is utterly fictional. The legend of the Three Crowns created by the excellent Dr. Montague James for his story A Warning to the Curious. James was an antiquarian and historian, so he made his fiction realistic. So much so that the legend is actually cites as genuine by some. I recommend the excellent 1972 BBC adaption with Peter Vaughan.
2. What happened?
Were the Grice-Patersons (and perhaps the Great Detective and minions) transported back in time to the fifth century by some device on the crashed craft?
I favour the idea that the GPs had a plan to loot the past, relying on cutting-edge nineteenth century firearms6 to overawe the locals, and with a few expendable thugs for muscle? This was why one of them, escaping back to the 'present' of 1887, sought some unusual aid. The other had they been captured or killed by Uffa's warriors, assisted by a druid/shaman her psionic powers augmented by an alien device. So the Great Detective must ensure the past is undisturbed to become the present, a task made difficult by bits of advanced alien technology.
- Perhaps including a basis for the legend of Excalibur/Caladbolg?
3. So there's a struggle in the past, perhaps one of the GPs allies with the Great Detective to stop the violence but betrays them. There's an escape to the future (i.e. 1887) and a massive energy release when the time-gate shuts down which triggers the largest thunderstorm Britain has ever seen. The PCs will nearly drown as the tunnels they're fleeing through start to flood.
4. There are other possible complications.
- Locals who are part of a cult that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times and seeks to deter desecration.
- A group of immortals that have monitored and protected the fens for centuries
- Other time travellers, attracted by the energies released when the GPs disturbed the craft under Uffa's island. Morgana would fit well.
- Gandalf and others from the Hourglass club would be a useful Deus ex Horologium if needed.
- 'Deep Ones'. Degenerated aquatic Earth Reptiles, the descendants of a group of children who were awoken centuries earlier without the support of adults and who've grown without proper supervision and teaching
- The malign psionic influence of the surviving crowns.
Suggestions? Ideas?
1. The horrible fire in the Theatre Royal in Exeter on the evening of 05SEP1887 during a performance of Barrett's Romany Rye was not the result of an accident involving gas lighting.
186 people died.
2. The weather in Britain in 1887 was somewhat odd. Temperatures were cooler than normal (by about 2°C) but rainfall was extremely low, the third lowest ever recorded, leaving much of Britain in conditions of severe drought that summer. There was a major impact upon water supplies, via rivers, wells, aquifers et cetera.
This came to an abrupt and tumultuous end (in London especially, but across most of the isles) on the night of 18AUG with a massive thunderstorm system across much of England and very heavy rain across much of the country.
3. While we don't think of malaria being a 'British' disease this is historically wrong. The 'Fen country' of East Anglia was rife with what was locally called
"the Ague". The drainage of the fens eliminated most of the more pestilent swamps, but in the seventeenth century the mortality rate in areas near the Fens was comparable to that of West Africa today and the drainage wasn't complete until the late nineteenth century.
4. Also given in some sources as the coat of arms of the legendary King Arthur; azure with three crowns or. Which makes one wonder….
5. Yes, that Rendlesham. The one beloved of conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists where the Rendlesham Forest incident (“Britain’s Roswell) occurred.
6. It's too early for the 'Broomhandle' Mauser, but the Maxim is just about available as are magazine rifles and shotguns and revolvers.