Post by Catsmate on Jul 9, 2022 12:17:18 GMT
The Van Traylen Fellowship.
This organisation appeared in the film Nothing But The Night, Christopher's Lee's single production credit, in 1973. The film was an oddity, partly a horror flick in the Hammer mode, but with an admixture of police procedural and mystery. Lee plays a former army officer, Colonel Charles Bingham, who has some connection to the police/intelligence community and is investigating the fellowship; specifically the mysterious deaths (mostly apparent suicides) of the organisation's trustees.
He calls on an old friend, played by Peter Cushing, Sir Mark Ashley, a psychiatrist.
Blend in a mysterious coach crash which causes the death of the driver (but not the three trustees and thirty orphans on board), an island (Bala) off the Scottish coast on which the Fellowship's orphanage is located, a curious doctor and an inquisitive journalist, psychic visions of fire, one of the orphan's mothers1 (a convicted murderess) and a lot of political pressure.
Eventually, in the last scene really, the plot is unveiled in something of a rush; the trustees are transferring (somehow2) their minds from their old bodies into the bodies of the children to live on.
Rather Cthulhu-esque, in the vein of the Yithians or 'The Thing on the Doorstep' or several Call of Cthulhu spells.
The film is pretty mediocre, though it has some good moments, especially it's poor plot pacing and badly handed revelation.
But it's an interesting idea for a game scenario, which could be set in almost any era.
Firstly, given that the Whoniverse is rather magic-lite, the GM will need to determine the mechanism for the mind transference and it's effects. In the film at least one victim seems to be having visions of the life, and death, of a trustee so a gradual process, like the serum, seems reasonable.
Or perhaps it's more the traditional "helmet on victim and donor" connected to mysterious machine, and special effects, with the child's mind being gradually take over by that of the adult.
In any case the process should be limited. Perhaps a victim needs careful selection for compatibility with the donor, and perhaps only young-ish minds are suitable as recipients (mutter mutter, "neural plasticity").
Finally there is the original of the mind transfer technique; is it human mad science? A trapped or stranded alien? Some horrible Thing from the Dungeon Dimensions?
A group with access to such a process could be a formidable enemy, not least with a very useful way to corrupt people, the promise of extended life.
The film is also known as The Resurrection Syndicate which rather gives away the plot.
Links.
The film is on YouTube
Screencaps
Wiki
1. Yes this isn't technically correct if she has a living mother, but the connection was apparently severed and there seems to have bene some doubt about Mary's parentage.
2. It's not actually certain if the process is scientific (there is a secret lab on the island), psionic or a magic ritual of some sort.
This organisation appeared in the film Nothing But The Night, Christopher's Lee's single production credit, in 1973. The film was an oddity, partly a horror flick in the Hammer mode, but with an admixture of police procedural and mystery. Lee plays a former army officer, Colonel Charles Bingham, who has some connection to the police/intelligence community and is investigating the fellowship; specifically the mysterious deaths (mostly apparent suicides) of the organisation's trustees.
He calls on an old friend, played by Peter Cushing, Sir Mark Ashley, a psychiatrist.
Blend in a mysterious coach crash which causes the death of the driver (but not the three trustees and thirty orphans on board), an island (Bala) off the Scottish coast on which the Fellowship's orphanage is located, a curious doctor and an inquisitive journalist, psychic visions of fire, one of the orphan's mothers1 (a convicted murderess) and a lot of political pressure.
Eventually, in the last scene really, the plot is unveiled in something of a rush; the trustees are transferring (somehow2) their minds from their old bodies into the bodies of the children to live on.
- An earlier version of the script made the mechanism explicitly clear; the Fellowship was a 'Satanic Cult' and the children were being injected with a 'serum' containing 'generic memories' of the trustees that would allow them to live on. This seemed to have the side-effect of triggering murderous impulses in the children, though this may simply have been the genetics of Anna Harb at work.
Rather Cthulhu-esque, in the vein of the Yithians or 'The Thing on the Doorstep' or several Call of Cthulhu spells.
The film is pretty mediocre, though it has some good moments, especially it's poor plot pacing and badly handed revelation.
But it's an interesting idea for a game scenario, which could be set in almost any era.
Firstly, given that the Whoniverse is rather magic-lite, the GM will need to determine the mechanism for the mind transference and it's effects. In the film at least one victim seems to be having visions of the life, and death, of a trustee so a gradual process, like the serum, seems reasonable.
Or perhaps it's more the traditional "helmet on victim and donor" connected to mysterious machine, and special effects, with the child's mind being gradually take over by that of the adult.
- If the process allows the temporary 'possession' of a victim this would be a useful tool for the cult, allowing them to use possessed victims as assassins, for example.
In any case the process should be limited. Perhaps a victim needs careful selection for compatibility with the donor, and perhaps only young-ish minds are suitable as recipients (mutter mutter, "neural plasticity").
Finally there is the original of the mind transfer technique; is it human mad science? A trapped or stranded alien? Some horrible Thing from the Dungeon Dimensions?
A group with access to such a process could be a formidable enemy, not least with a very useful way to corrupt people, the promise of extended life.
The film is also known as The Resurrection Syndicate which rather gives away the plot.
Links.
The film is on YouTube
Screencaps
Wiki
1. Yes this isn't technically correct if she has a living mother, but the connection was apparently severed and there seems to have bene some doubt about Mary's parentage.
2. It's not actually certain if the process is scientific (there is a secret lab on the island), psionic or a magic ritual of some sort.
