[Scenario Seed] Plague!!!

[Catsmate]

A skeletal idea partially inspired by the recent case of bubonic plague in Oregon and based on the Holmes Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen, where the Great Detective meets a distant relative, the Great Vampire¹, and foils an Evil Masterplan. Worth a read.

Plague!!!

UNLESS OUR DEMANDS ARE GRANTED, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN INDEED AND THE EMPIRE TOO. LET THERE BE NO TRICKERY OR A MILLION WILL DIE AS THIS MAN DIED.

A note attached to the body of a man dead of bubonic plague, London May 1897.

That’s a month before Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. There are an awful lot of people in London.


The PCs arrive in late Victorian London. Maybe they're here for the Jubilee, on unrelated business, or arrive randomly, but they're there. And they get embroiled in a disaster in the making.

Meanwhile a truly dastardly plot is approaching fruition. Thousands of rats have been caught or bred, and deliberately infected with yersinia pestis², the bacterium that causes the three forms of plague.

• Bubonic effects mainly the the lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes; pneumonic the lungs and the rare septicemic form involves infection of the blood.

The plotters plan to demonstrate their power and demand a ransom, a million pounds in gold bullion³.

• About one percent of government spending, comparable today to perhaps ten billion pounds.

If the plan goes ahead then thousands will die, disease, panic, insurrection and all horsemen. The disease might become entrenched in the animals population of London, remaining for years.
And history will take a rather different course.


Who's behind the plot.
Pretty much the GM's choice. It could be a purely economic effort by the locals ('ephemerals') and the plot was historically foiled and covered up (Torchwood perhaps).
Or was it a political plot, by the French/Germans/Americans/Russians/Fenians [delete as applicable]?
Or might it be the brainchild of a crashed alien or time traveller, eager to disrupt the history of the British Empire?


Medical notes
In 1894 both Alexandre Yersin (in Hong Kong) and t. Kitasato Shibasaburō (in Japan) both succeeded independently in isolating the plague bacillus.

In 1895 Yersin and others⁴ at the Institute Pasteur prepared the first anti-plague serum, though it proved of limited effectiveness.

Later treatment was, and is, by antibiotics: these would be sulphonamides (in the 1930s), streptomycin (from 1947), chloramphenicol (1947, has some rare risks) and tetracycline (1953),  and of gentamicin and one or more of the fluoroquinolones today.

• Even with the medical treatment of 2024 there is a risk, generally <10%, of death. This is especially true if treatment began late or the pneumonic form is present. The septicemic is usually fatal in all cases.
  

The first vaccine was developed by the brilliant, if mostly forgotten, Waldemar Haffkine in early 1897. It reduced mortality from >70% to <12%. It is unlikely to be available in quantity in the time frame of the scenario.

More advanced vaccines exist today but are rarely administered, due to the scarcity of cases of the disease.

• There is actually significant doubt about their effectiveness in light of this.
• Probably only someone with a background in the military, biotech or wilderness exploration would be a reasonable candidate.
  

Of course futuristic medicine might be even more effective. Or resistance to plague might have been entirelt lost....

• About 15% of Europeans possess the CCR5-Δ32 genetic mutation and are functionally immune to plague⁵. It is less common in other human populations.
  

The symptoms of bubonic plague include fever, weakness and headache, i.e. the classic 'flu-like' trinity. Usually they begins one to seven days after infection.
Pneumonic plague causes shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain. Bubonic causes the lymph nodes to swell and blacken.

"Before we depart for France we shall launch my thousand rats into the London sewers, where in a day or two they will begin to sicken and die. In a week a million rats will be infected, and in a week after that, possibly a million men, women, and children. A pity you and the damned bloodsucker did not allow us a chance, here in London, to arrange a foolproof system for collecting our ransom - but in the next city the authorities will be not at all stiff-necked about paying; not with the example of the world's greatest metropolis fresh before them. You'll be in no position to interfere, next time”

As usual, comments and ideas are welcome.




1. Who's a lot nicer than generally portrayed.

2. Though that name is anachronistic for 1897 when it was called Pasteurella pestis.

3. Approximately 7.3 tonnes, excluding packaging. Say about four cubic metres.

4. Émile Roux, Albert Calmette and Amédée Borrel

5. Though probably more susceptible to smallpox.

[thewarchief]

Looking at this logically, one problem is that if the plague were to start then there is no reason to think it would be contained to the British Isles, and so they would be risking a world wide pandemic. Now maybe if they are hiding out in the backwoods of Canada they might wait 20 years or with their gold and ride this out but it seems risky.

In my mind, that would eliminate a foreign power as the risk of the plague reaching their homeland is too high. Not to mention the risk of war. The same with the Fenians, as Ireland would almost certainly be hit by the plague.


Maybe this is all some sort of hoax? Perhaps the set up a small sample, but to scare them but they have no actual wide scale operation, as it would be costly and wouldn't do them any good. If the government doesn't pay, then releasing the plague doesn't change that. Not unless they can somehow do so in a limited and controlled fashion. Perhaps they have a device that can kill the fleas to prevent them from reproducing? Remember it's the fleas that transmit the plague, not the rats.


Then there is Goldfinger's Dilemma- that is how do you get away with all that gold? If the plot is successful the plotters will need a way to collect and transport the gold (looking at historical exchange rates, I'm coming up with 8.183 metric tons for a million sterling in the 1897, based on a price of around £3.80 per ounce (troy)) and get out of the country before the British government can bring the full might of the wolds most powerful nation down upon them. After all, what guarantee does the government have that they won't release the plague once they are safely out of the country, or even to cover their escape?

So moving 8 tons of bullion to a ship and getting out of the country would be tough. Better if they had asked for something more portable, such as diamonds. And if they do somehow pull it off (say something clever involving disguises, and a train disappearing in a tunnel?) then they have to hid from nearly everyone since between blackmailing the British government and porting around 7-8 tons of gold, they are going to have a huge target painted on their backs.



But again, if this is some sort of hoax, maybe the end goal isn't the plague or the ransom but merely to embarrass someone in power and probably cause them to resign.

Lord Salisbury was Prime Minster in 1897, and is working to pass the the Worker's Compensation Act , which will hold employers liable for accidents at the workplace. So maybe some big British Industrialist is behind this as a plot to remove Salisbury from office?

[Catsmate]

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

Looking at this logically, one problem is that if the plague were to start then there is no reason to think it would be contained to the British Isles, and so they would be risking a world wide pandemic. Now maybe if they are hiding out in the backwoods of Canada they might wait 20 years or with their gold and ride this out but it seems risky.

Well the world was undergoing the early stages of Third Plague Pandemic, mainly confined to Asia in the 1890s but seeing a lot of deaths in China and India, around fifteen million in total.
At the time preventative measures, mainly cordon sanitaire and extermination of rats, were known and it's entirely possible that a group of fanatics (especially if they'd acquires a stock of Haffkine's vaccine).

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

In my mind, that would eliminate a foreign power as the risk of the plague reaching their homeland is too high. Not to mention the risk of war. The same with the Fenians, as Ireland would almost certainly be hit by the plague.

Quite probably, though Dublin did have the services of Sir Charles Alexander Cameron as Medical Officer of Health.

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

Maybe this is all some sort of hoax? Perhaps the set up a small sample, but to scare them but they have no actual wide scale operation, as it would be costly and wouldn't do them any good. If the government doesn't pay, then releasing the plague doesn't change that. Not unless they can somehow do so in a limited and controlled fashion. Perhaps they have a device that can kill the fleas to prevent them from reproducing? Remember it's the fleas that transmit the plague, not the rats.

That's a rather interesting idea.
I'm doubtful that 1890s tech could have reliably sterilised the flies without the killing them.

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

Then there is Goldfinger's Dilemma- that is how do you get away with all that gold? If the plot is successful the plotters will need a way to collect and transport the gold (looking at historical exchange rates, I'm coming up with 8.183 metric tons for a million sterling in the 1897, based on a price of around £3.80 per ounce (troy)) and get out of the country before the British government can bring the full might of the wolds most powerful nation down upon them. After all, what guarantee does the government have that they won't release the plague once they are safely out of the country, or even to cover their escape?

You're exactly right, collecting the ransom would be the problem. The gold sovereign weighed a tinge under eight grammes, with 7.32g of gold.
Presumably the gold would be collected by ship, with the threat of the rats to cover their escape.  Once they're away from Britain tracking a group on a fast ship could evade pursuit, no aircraft or RADAR to ease tracking.
Or maybe a submarine, it'd be cinematic enough. Airship would be better but a bit difficult.

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

So moving 8 tons of bullion to a ship and getting out of the country would be tough. Better if they had asked for something more portable, such as diamonds. And if they do somehow pull it off (say something clever involving disguises, and a train disappearing in a tunnel?) then they have to hid from nearly everyone since between blackmailing the British government and porting around 7-8 tons of gold, they are going to have a huge target painted on their backs.

Diamonds might be tricky to dispose of, stones can be described and the markets are limited. Gold can be sold off anywhere.

Feb 16, 2024 23:07:41 GMT thewarchief said:

But again, if this is some sort of hoax, maybe the end goal isn't the plague or the ransom but merely to embarrass someone in power and probably cause them to resign.

Lord Salisbury was Prime Minster in 1897, and is working to pass the the Worker's Compensation Act , which will hold employers liable for accidents at the workplace. So maybe some big British Industrialist is behind this as a plot to remove Salisbury from office?

That's an interesting idea. Dis Tobias Breckinridge (from Evolution) have an heir?

[thewarchief]

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Well the world was undergoing the early stages of Third Plague Pandemic, mainly confined to Asia in the 1890s but seeing a lot of deaths in China and India, around fifteen million in total.
At the time preventative measures, mainly cordon sanitaire and extermination of rats, were known and it's entirely possible that a group of fanatics (especially if they'd acquires a stock of Haffkine's vaccine).

Fanatics yeah, any sane person, no. If say, the Germans did it, and were found out, then Britain would go to war with Germany, choke off their supply lines, and definitely transport rats to the Continent. It wouldn't go much better for the Fenians if they were found to be responsible. I mean, you're talking a potentially genocidal action and response.

Now yeah, fanatics might do it, but fanatics would want, or ask for, a ransom. That just gets them captured. They'd demand home rule or some such. Or just do it.



So you've got a particular type of criminal here. Unless it's aliens or time travllers. But aliens would probably have an easier way to get the gold. Finding some of the lost treasure ships in the Carribean for instance.

So it really comes fown to just what the criminals really want, and why this is the way to get it.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Quite probably, though Dublin did have the services of Sir Charles Alexander Cameron as Medical Officer of Health.

Yeah, and the US had some generals in the 1950s who thought they should start WWIII as the US would "win" against the USSR. But calmer heads prevailed.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

I'm doubtful that 1890s tech could have reliably sterilised the flies without the killing them.

No, that would probably mean alien or time travelers. in fact it could be a clue to the PCs. Time Travllers would make some sense too, as they would have an easy way to escape with the gold. Just pop a few centuries into the future, load in into a shipping container and take it wherever you want. Same with aliens or someone with T-Mat technology. I could see Scotland YArd surroounding a wahrehouse on the docks, bust through the doors and..it's empty.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

You're exactly right, collecting the ransom would be the problem. The gold sovereign weighed a tinge under eight grammes, with 7.32g of gold.

Oh, I was thinking of gold bullion, not gold sovereigns. But either way, shifting tons of gold when your the most wanted criminal in Britain is a major problem, assuming that they really want the gold.

If I were them, and wanted the gold, I'd make sure the massage was kept secret, and schedule the payoff to occur during the Jubilee to hamstring the authorities.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Presumably the gold would be collected by ship, with the threat of the rats to cover their escape.  Once they're away from Britain tracking a group on a fast ship could evade pursuit, no aircraft or RADAR to ease tracking.

Just the worlds largest navy setting up the worlds biggest blockade. Not to mention every country being on alert for the ship to arrive. No, I don't think they are going to get away by ship. Not unless the ship is just a ruse of some sort. No, I don't like the chances of escaping by ship. IMO it's the worst possible thing to do. At this time the Royal Navy is the largest, most powerful navy on the planet. They are the last group I'd want to have chasing me, and I don't see how the ship could escape them. Not unless they had some plan to move the gold to something else (like a hidden submarine) and then abandon or scuttle the ship.

Now if the mastermind behind all this was a magician (or had advanced tech) and planned for all this and used a ship to cover the real escape. What if the bad guys don't want a million in gold, just enough to fill a horse drawn cart, say half a ton. So they separate half a ton from the rest, maybe swap it out for some lead, then ride off with the cart (and £70,000) while the authorities chase down the ship carrying the other 7 tons of gold. That would be smart.

One horse cart is much like any other, so it would be easy to blend in. The authorities would be too focused on the rest of the gold to notice that some is missing right away. When they did notice, they would haven gotten most of it back, so it easier to cover things up and save face. And £70,000 in 1897 is more than enough for the criminals to live like kings, but not enough that they can't move it.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Or maybe a submarine, it'd be cinematic enough. Airship would be better but a bit difficult.

Both are nice, but if the criminals can afford them, why the blackmail plot? A working submarine that can carry the blackmailers and 7-8 tons of gold, that can stay submerged long enough to avoid detection (and cross the channel) would be quite pricey in 1897. They could probably sell the prototype for a million pounds and not be criminals.

The airship would be a great way to escape- Zeppelins were nearly impervious during the early raids of WWI. But they were also expensive and mostly government funded. If the bad guys ride off in a Zeppelin it's WWI a couple decades early. I believe the early Zeppelins cost something like 100,000 marks, so iff they can afford to make their own airship, then the rewards don't warrant the investment. Now if they could steal an airship...

Now, if the criminals aren't in this for the gold, then some of these options make more sense. Say they are time travellers who want to start WWI early for some reason.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Diamonds might be tricky to dispose of, stones can be described and the markets are limited. Gold can be sold off anywhere.


Not after they blackmail the British government for a million pounds of it. Everybody is going to be on the lookout for someone showing up with literally tons of gold to dispose, and track them down, either to seize the gold, make points with the UK, or to prevent them from doing the same thing to their country. These people will have no friends and won't be welcome anywhere. Even the usual fences and such will avoid dealing with them or turn hem in, as they wouldn't want the heat that would come with dealing with them.

I see this as a "Sink the Bismark" situation for the British government. They can't let the criminals get away.


Chances are these guys wind up dead somewhere and the gold vanishes.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

That's an interesting idea. Dis Tobias Breckinridge (from Evolution) have an heir?


I don't know. For that matter what if Li H'sen Chang and the Chinese tong from Talons of Wen Chiang, were behind this. They might have some of Greel's advanced technology. Imagine giant sized fleas to go with the giant rats. And Li H'sen, assuming he survived the rats was a magician, and might have been clever enough to plan something like this.


I also think you might need to factor in for Torchwood on this one. Considering the where and when this is precisely the sort of thing they should be protecting the Empire from. So I'd expect they'd be involved somehow. THat is unless they are behind it all, and it's just thier way to showing how the Empire is vulnerable or some such.


I think the key thing here is to determine just what the blackmailers are really after? Do they want to destroy the UK with plague? Do they want the gold? Do they just want to cause a political fuss? Do they have some unknown goal? That really determines who they could be and what their methods will be. We're kinda playing this like Scotland Yard investigators after the fact.


BTW, this might make a good way of presenting it to your players. Imagine if you had a group of fanatics, a group of time travelling thieves, and some political rivals all in the area and the PCs had to determine which group was behind this and stop them before it's too late? The fanatics are the most unhinged and the ones who would release the plague, the time travellers would pop off with a million in gold, and the politicians/nobles have status and power limited what the PCs can do unless they can get proof. I mean they can't just accuse a member of the House of Lords of treason without some sort of proof.

Give the PCs a Detective Inspector NPC contact to interact with here and you got yourself a nice detective story, with the PCs rushing to solve the crisis before the Jubilee. Maybe throw in a Jago & Litefoot cameo. Maybe put in a little "don't alter the timeline" stuff. Oh and the Diamond Jubliee is too good of an event not to include it in some way. Either by the criminals to cover their escape, or as an epilogue with the PCs in the crowd, waving at the Queen as she rides by.

Write it up so that each GM could pick which group is the villain and you got a great adventure supplement.

[thewarchief]

I want to flesh out one possible variation on this:

Say Li H"sen Chang is the mastermind. He found out about the Black Death being spread by fleas from Magnus Greel. Maybe not enough to make good on his threat, but enough to leave a dead body or two on the right doorstep.

He arranges for the ransom to be delivered at a dockside warehouse on the Thames, from which it will be loaded onto a ship in the morning. A warehouse that he has secretly installed a trapdoor and some sort of lift, allowing him to lower some of the gold down into the sewers, replacing it with crates filled with lead.

Li H'sen then makes his escape with crates of gold, and covers his tracks by tossing down a side of beef, and releasing a few giant rats to block any pursuers. He then takes the gold to some secret location above the sewer, transfers the gold to a standard cart, or possibly even a carriage, and rides out of London while Scotland Yard raids the warehouse and Royal Navy seizes the ship. Chang and the tong melt down the gold and form int into Chinese themed status - the cheap sort of stuff you'd see in any Chinatown, and then smuggle it out of the country. He might even have a golden leg made, since I believe he might had lost one to a rat.

That might work. For an adventure I'd probably make some threat out of Greel's advanced tech, such as the time cabinet that was left behind, so that the PCs will have to get involved.

[thewarchief]

The plot thickens...

Apparently there was a rash of mystery airship sightings in the USA from late fall 1896 to spring 1897 - it even made the cover of the San Francisco Call on November 19, and Novemeber 23, 1896 .

Now considering that the sightings stooped in spring 1897, and that the Diamond Jubilee occurred on June 20, 1897, well, it matches up nicely for an airship to be involved in this caper.

[Catsmate]

Feb 17, 2024 15:01:04 GMT thewarchief said:

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Well the world was undergoing the early stages of Third Plague Pandemic, mainly confined to Asia in the 1890s but seeing a lot of deaths in China and India, around fifteen million in total.
At the time preventative measures, mainly cordon sanitaire and extermination of rats, were known and it's entirely possible that a group of fanatics (especially if they'd acquires a stock of Haffkine's vaccine).

Fanatics yeah, any sane person, no. If say, the Germans did it, and were found out, then Britain would go to war with Germany, choke off their supply lines, and definitely transport rats to the Continent. It wouldn't go much better for the Fenians if they were found to be responsible. I mean, you're talking a potentially genocidal action and response.

Now yeah, fanatics might do it, but fanatics would want, or ask for, a ransom. That just gets them captured. They'd demand home rule or some such. Or just do it.



So you've got a particular type of criminal here. Unless it's aliens or time travllers. But aliens would probably have an easier way to get the gold. Finding some of the lost treasure ships in the Carribean for instance.

So it really comes fown to just what the criminals really want, and why this is the way to get it.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Quite probably, though Dublin did have the services of Sir Charles Alexander Cameron as Medical Officer of Health.

Yeah, and the US had some generals in the 1950s who thought they should start WWIII as the US would "win" against the USSR. But calmer heads prevailed.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

I'm doubtful that 1890s tech could have reliably sterilised the flies without the killing them.

No, that would probably mean alien or time travelers. in fact it could be a clue to the PCs. Time Travllers would make some sense too, as they would have an easy way to escape with the gold. Just pop a few centuries into the future, load in into a shipping container and take it wherever you want. Same with aliens or someone with T-Mat technology. I could see Scotland YArd surroounding a wahrehouse on the docks, bust through the doors and..it's empty.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

You're exactly right, collecting the ransom would be the problem. The gold sovereign weighed a tinge under eight grammes, with 7.32g of gold.

Oh, I was thinking of gold bullion, not gold sovereigns. But either way, shifting tons of gold when your the most wanted criminal in Britain is a major problem, assuming that they really want the gold.

If I were them, and wanted the gold, I'd make sure the massage was kept secret, and schedule the payoff to occur during the Jubilee to hamstring the authorities.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Presumably the gold would be collected by ship, with the threat of the rats to cover their escape.  Once they're away from Britain tracking a group on a fast ship could evade pursuit, no aircraft or RADAR to ease tracking.

Just the worlds largest navy setting up the worlds biggest blockade. Not to mention every country being on alert for the ship to arrive. No, I don't think they are going to get away by ship. Not unless the ship is just a ruse of some sort. No, I don't like the chances of escaping by ship. IMO it's the worst possible thing to do. At this time the Royal Navy is the largest, most powerful navy on the planet. They are the last group I'd want to have chasing me, and I don't see how the ship could escape them. Not unless they had some plan to move the gold to something else (like a hidden submarine) and then abandon or scuttle the ship.

Now if the mastermind behind all this was a magician (or had advanced tech) and planned for all this and used a ship to cover the real escape. What if the bad guys don't want a million in gold, just enough to fill a horse drawn cart, say half a ton. So they separate half a ton from the rest, maybe swap it out for some lead, then ride off with the cart (and £70,000) while the authorities chase down the ship carrying the other 7 tons of gold. That would be smart.

One horse cart is much like any other, so it would be easy to blend in. The authorities would be too focused on the rest of the gold to notice that some is missing right away. When they did notice, they would haven gotten most of it back, so it easier to cover things up and save face. And £70,000 in 1897 is more than enough for the criminals to live like kings, but not enough that they can't move it.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Or maybe a submarine, it'd be cinematic enough. Airship would be better but a bit difficult.

Both are nice, but if the criminals can afford them, why the blackmail plot? A working submarine that can carry the blackmailers and 7-8 tons of gold, that can stay submerged long enough to avoid detection (and cross the channel) would be quite pricey in 1897. They could probably sell the prototype for a million pounds and not be criminals.

The airship would be a great way to escape- Zeppelins were nearly impervious during the early raids of WWI. But they were also expensive and mostly government funded. If the bad guys ride off in a Zeppelin it's WWI a couple decades early. I believe the early Zeppelins cost something like 100,000 marks, so iff they can afford to make their own airship, then the rewards don't warrant the investment. Now if they could steal an airship...

Now, if the criminals aren't in this for the gold, then some of these options make more sense. Say they are time travellers who want to start WWI early for some reason.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

Diamonds might be tricky to dispose of, stones can be described and the markets are limited. Gold can be sold off anywhere.


Not after they blackmail the British government for a million pounds of it. Everybody is going to be on the lookout for someone showing up with literally tons of gold to dispose, and track them down, either to seize the gold, make points with the UK, or to prevent them from doing the same thing to their country. These people will have no friends and won't be welcome anywhere. Even the usual fences and such will avoid dealing with them or turn hem in, as they wouldn't want the heat that would come with dealing with them.

I see this as a "Sink the Bismark" situation for the British government. They can't let the criminals get away.


Chances are these guys wind up dead somewhere and the gold vanishes.

Feb 17, 2024 11:33:30 GMT Catsmate said:

That's an interesting idea. Dis Tobias Breckinridge (from Evolution) have an heir?


I don't know. For that matter what if Li H'sen Chang and the Chinese tong from Talons of Wen Chiang, were behind this. They might have some of Greel's advanced technology. Imagine giant sized fleas to go with the giant rats. And Li H'sen, assuming he survived the rats was a magician, and might have been clever enough to plan something like this.


I also think you might need to factor in for Torchwood on this one. Considering the where and when this is precisely the sort of thing they should be protecting the Empire from. So I'd expect they'd be involved somehow. THat is unless they are behind it all, and it's just thier way to showing how the Empire is vulnerable or some such.


I think the key thing here is to determine just what the blackmailers are really after? Do they want to destroy the UK with plague? Do they want the gold? Do they just want to cause a political fuss? Do they have some unknown goal? That really determines who they could be and what their methods will be. We're kinda playing this like Scotland Yard investigators after the fact.


BTW, this might make a good way of presenting it to your players. Imagine if you had a group of fanatics, a group of time travelling thieves, and some political rivals all in the area and the PCs had to determine which group was behind this and stop them before it's too late? The fanatics are the most unhinged and the ones who would release the plague, the time travellers would pop off with a million in gold, and the politicians/nobles have status and power limited what the PCs can do unless they can get proof. I mean they can't just accuse a member of the House of Lords of treason without some sort of proof.

Give the PCs a Detective Inspector NPC contact to interact with here and you got yourself a nice detective story, with the PCs rushing to solve the crisis before the Jubilee. Maybe throw in a Jago & Litefoot cameo. Maybe put in a little "don't alter the timeline" stuff. Oh and the Diamond Jubliee is too good of an event not to include it in some way. Either by the criminals to cover their escape, or as an epilogue with the PCs in the crowd, waving at the Queen as she rides by.

Write it up so that each GM could pick which group is the villain and you got a great adventure supplement.

Hmm, after some consideration time travellers do have possibilities, rather like the opening of Time Cop. So who and why? And of course when do s/he take the bullion?
Though, as you said and as we've discussed before, there are plenty of 'lost' treasures that might be easier; perhaps the time traveller has limited capabilities? Or are setting up a base in the era and want to fund it.
Which reminds me of my campaign idea for meddling in the Russo-Japanese war and the Dogger Bank incident. Such a group might have the motivation, inclination and capability to pull off something like this.

A Torchwood 'false flag' operation has great potential; then again who's pulling whose strings?

Your multi-faction idea is excellent, and rather to my tastes. Thanks.

[Catsmate]

Feb 17, 2024 21:06:49 GMT thewarchief said:

The plot thickens...

Apparently there was a rash of mystery airship sightings in the USA from late fall 1896 to spring 1897 - it even made the cover of the San Francisco Call on November 19, and Novemeber 23, 1896 .

Now considering that the sightings stooped in spring 1897, and that the Diamond Jubilee occurred on June 20, 1897, well, it matches up nicely for an airship to be involved in this caper.

Oh yes, there was a series of Airship Panics in the period. I had a campaign idea for them, encompassing the period 1894-1914.
Wayne McCarthy over at Airminded did a lot of work on them, which is collected here as well as on his website.

[Catsmate]

Feb 17, 2024 15:39:40 GMT thewarchief said:

I want to flesh out one possible variation on this:

Say Li H"sen Chang is the mastermind. He found out about the Black Death being spread by fleas from Magnus Greel. Maybe not enough to make good on his threat, but enough to leave a dead body or two on the right doorstep.

He arranges for the ransom to be delivered at a dockside warehouse on the Thames, from which it will be loaded onto a ship in the morning. A warehouse that he has secretly installed a trapdoor and some sort of lift, allowing him to lower some of the gold down into the sewers, replacing it with crates filled with lead.

Li H'sen then makes his escape with crates of gold, and covers his tracks by tossing down a side of beef, and releasing a few giant rats to block any pursuers. He then takes the gold to some secret location above the sewer, transfers the gold to a standard cart, or possibly even a carriage, and rides out of London while Scotland Yard raids the warehouse and Royal Navy seizes the ship. Chang and the tong melt down the gold and form int into Chinese themed status - the cheap sort of stuff you'd see in any Chinatown, and then smuggle it out of the country. He might even have a golden leg made, since I believe he might had lost one to a rat.

That might work. For an adventure I'd probably make some threat out of Greel's advanced tech, such as the time cabinet that was left behind, so that the PCs will have to get involved.

Chang surviving is a fascinating idea. I had a bunch of ideas on a sequel to Talons that linked to Ward's Fu Manchu books, via a son of Changs, and the plague plot would fit in nicely there. Perhaps the whole Third Pandemic was an experiment that went terrible wrong?
The 1897 operation could have been an early plot of 'Fu Manchu', perhaps while he's attending university in Europe (he supposedly attended Edinburgh, Heidelberg and the Sorbonne)

[thewarchief]

Feb 18, 2024 11:26:21 GMT Catsmate said:

Oh yes, there was a series of Airship Panics in the period. I had a campaign idea for them, encompassing the period 1894-1914.
Wayne McCarthy over at Airminded did a lot of work on them, which is collected here as well as on his website.

It's sort of ironic.Normally we'd be thinking UFOs and aliens, especially in Doctor Who, but what if they were actually airships?!


So if the context of your adventure you'd have a group of people devolving an airship on the US West Coast (San Francisco, a major gateway to the East) who them fly it across country (more sightings) and hten across the Atlantic to the UK for your nefarious plot. That is if you want to go with the airship.

Oh, and if you are going to go all Fu Manchu with this then the million pounds will be just about the airship's useful lift.

OH, and I was reading about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's metal clad airship design, and he wanted to use heated gas to have better control over altitude, like with a hot air balloon. That would be useful for escaping. They would need to get enough altitude to not be shot down over the ocean. So something like 3000-4000 meters.

They wouldn't be able to stay ahead of the telegraph though, so probably fly to Cananda and then back to their HQ in the US? [/quote]

[thewarchief]

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

Chang surviving is a fascinating idea.

Yeah. he is an interesting character. A villian who doesn't really want to be a villain, but one who is in too deep to get out. He'd probably be the natural choice to lead to tong after Greel's death-no doubt phased as Wen Chang returning to the heavens. He's also an accomplish magician, and appears to be well read.

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

I had a bunch of ideas on a sequel to Talons that linked to Ward's Fu Manchu books, via a son of Changs, and the plague plot would fit in nicely there.

ThHat's a easy link.I mean Talons was basically SHerlock Holmes vs. Fu Manchu adapted to Doctor Who.

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

Perhaps the whole Third Pandemic was an experiment that went terrible wrong?

Perhaps, but then that would be another point against the threat in the UK being real. If it already got out of hand once, why do it again?

On the other hand, it could serve as the inspiration for the plot. Say the got a dead body of a plague victim (they gas the body to kill any fleas or lice) and they dump it in front of Scotland Yard or Buckingham Palace with the note.

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

The 1897 operation could have been an early plot of 'Fu Manchu', perhaps while he's attending university in Europe (he supposedly attended Edinburgh, Heidelberg and the Sorbonne)

Yeah, if you want to go that route. I'm a bit cautious about crossovers. I find that in most cases it's hard to do justice to all of the characters. Robin Hood meets Godzilla just doesn't work.

Although, there was an actual criminal that Moriarty was based on.

[thewarchief]

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

Hmm, after some consideration time travellers do have possibilities, rather like the opening of Time Cop.

All of the options have possibilities. That's the doubled edged sword of this. Other than the date and the note, nothing is set, so you can go off in all sort of directions.

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

So who and why? And of course when do s/he take the bullion?

Well either a conman/crook, someone who really needs the gold, or someone who really wants to get rid of the gold.
Imagine if they were just getting rid of the gold to soften the UK up for a Cyberman Invasion?

Or what if they are defending against the Cybermen in the future and need the gold for all those glitter guns? They aren't bad people just desperate ones, so they wen't a bit overboard and escalated things to try and get the most gold as fast as possible..

Or what if it's someone from the future who damaged a museum exhibit and is trying to replace it before they get caught & fired. They don't know all that much about the value of coins, or history, so they are really just asking for a million pound coin (not issued until the great inflation of 2895) and they are non-surplussed by the huge pile of coins. They probably don't know when the black death hit London either (it's all ancient histroy to them), so they are making lots of mistakes.

But I'm thinking the con man ala early Captain Jack seems best. They show up with a body of a victim (sterilized, of course), leaving it someplace it's bound to get noticed by the authorities with a note, set up the delivery, and then time travel out of the area with the gold. Make them the rougish sort. Say they go back in time and loan the gold to the crown in the past and so:

"It's my money, I'm just asking for it back. You try asking nicely for a million pounds some time, it doesn't work out too well. Started dragging me off to the tower. Last time I give King Richard a loan."

The time traveller probably would need some period specific help for some tasks, and maybe the help can't be trusted, turns on the time traveler, and either tries to steal the gold or make good on the threat?

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

Though, as you said and as we've discussed before, there are plenty of 'lost' treasures that might be easier; perhaps the time traveller has limited capabilities? Or are setting up a base in the era and want to fund it.

Yeah, why threaten the most powerful country in the world, and demand an exorbitant sum that would be very difficult to claim and escape with? If you got a vortex manipulator and plan to leave the 19th century ASAP, okay. But there is obviously an easier way get rich. It's why I keep thinking of some personal grudge or power struggle.

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

Which reminds me of my campaign idea for meddling in the Russo-Japanese war and the Dogger Bank incident. Such a group might have the motivation, inclination and capability to pull off something like this.

Yeah it's a very Victorian style plot, which is why Saberhagen used it as his C plot in the Holmes-Dracula File. It's highly sensational, sounds good, but mostly falls apart on closer scrutiny. But he nneded Seward to be a villian and he was a medical doctor, so...

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

A Torchwood 'false flag' operation has great potential; then again who's pulling whose strings?

I figure someone high up in Torchwood who wants to do something but is being told no by his superiors, and/or Queen Victoria. The whole plot is supposed to put a scare into them so they will change their minds and let him go forward with his hair-brained idea. Just what that is? I dunno. Maybe he want's to experiment with biological warfare and the plot shows that someone else is already doing it. Or maybe he has some bit of alien tech he wants to test out that everyone else considers too dangerous (and they are right).

Feb 18, 2024 11:21:14 GMT Catsmate said:

Your multi-faction idea is excellent, and rather to my tastes. Thanks.

I figured it would. Basically you got at least two factions. Both are loyal, but one wan't to play nice, do things the honorable way, "gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail", that sort of thing. The other faction considers that to be naive and are more pragmatic, willing to do all sorts of underhanded dishonorable things (like this plot), but for the right reasons (i.e. the British Empire). The figure that the fear and sense of helplessness that come from this plot will result in their getting a free hand to do something that they wanted. A threat to the Empire on the diamond Jubliee? That's perfect. They are either going to step in at the last minute and say the day with their McGuffin, or take the gold and use it to finance their black project so it will be "ready for the day that Britain needs it".

You would need to figue out the staff and workings of Torchwood circa 1897. Maybe give them a London HQ - probably in a manor house outside of the urban center, but close enough for a royal inspection. I'm not that familiar with the city- maybe Kensington?

Although, if you wanted to push the Dracula link you could use Carfax Abbey in Purfleet. The sanitarium next door could be where Torchwood puts people who "know too much" and you could pattern the villain after Doctor Seward from the Saberhagen novel. Heck, now I think I'll use Carfax Abbey for a Torchwood adventure. Maybe put Arthur Holmwood into the Torchwood leadership. Come to think of it, the whole Dracula novel could work as a Torchwood adventure. We know there are vampires in Doctor Who. I wonder if Terrance Dicks' early drafts for his Doctor Who Dracula story are out there?



But I think you need to "pick a path" for the adventure -either that or put in all three possible villains (time travellers, Chang, Torchwood) and let the PCs figure out who is the culprit.Or maybe all three>

What if Chang is behind the plot, some Torchwwod scientist is using the treat to push his own pet project, and some time traveller who is aware of all this (it's in the history books) is planning on stealing the gold from underneath every else's nose? Maybe they know the gold was lost at sea so they figure they can steal a million pounds that was just going to end up in the ocean anyway, and no one will ever know.

Complicated, but great if you can pull it off.

[Catsmate]

Feb 18, 2024 14:36:13 GMT thewarchief said:

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

Chang surviving is a fascinating idea.

Yeah. he is an interesting character. A villian who doesn't really want to be a villain, but one who is in too deep to get out. He'd probably be the natural choice to lead to tong after Greel's death-no doubt phased as Wen Chang returning to the heavens. He's also an accomplish magician, and appears to be well read.

Feb 18, 2024 11:32:02 GMT Catsmate said:

I had a bunch of ideas on a sequel to Talons that linked to Ward's Fu Manchu books, via a son of Changs, and the plague plot would fit in nicely there.

ThHat's a easy link.I mean Talons was basically SHerlock Holmes vs. Fu Manchu adapted to Doctor Who.




Perhaps, but then that would be another point against the threat in the UK being real. If it already got out of hand once, why do it again?

On the other hand, it could serve as the inspiration for the plot. Say the got a dead body of a plague victim (they gas the body to kill any fleas or lice) and they dump it in front of Scotland Yard or Buckingham Palace with the note.

Yeah, if you want to go that route. I'm a bit cautious about crossovers. I find that in most cases it's hard to do justice to all of the characters. Robin Hood meets Godzilla just doesn't work.

Although, there was an actual criminal that Moriarty was based on.

Well historically most major ports saw occasional cases of plague, along with cholera and yellow fever. There were mechanism in place to deal with them. So infected bodies weren't unknown. And universities would have had stocks of live cultures for research.

• A little checking shows me that, as of approximately 1910, one could purchase sealed tubes of various (78 types) of live bacterial cultures from scientific supply catalogues; these included anthrax, cholera, diphtheria, dysentery, plague, pneumonia, tuberculosis and typhus.  There was no licensing requirement. 4/6 per tube.
  

IIRR there was a Thorndyke story that had the villain scheming to create a plague outbreak, and another Holmes-esque detective investigating a case where a plague quarantine was used to conceal tunnelling into a bank (or something like that).
White's story The River of Death had London threatened with a plague outbreak also.

Wrt to Moriarty, Worth was an interesting person who could appear himself in a Victorian setting. Doyle (who, to confuse matters, might also appear) also based Charles Augustus Milverton on the (then dead) society blackmailer Charles Augustus Howell. a man who had some interesting associates.

[thewarchief]

Feb 18, 2024 17:56:59 GMT Catsmate said:

]Well historically most major ports saw occasional cases of plague, along with cholera and yellow fever. There were mechanism in place to deal with them. So infected bodies weren't unknown. And universities would have had stocks of live cultures for research.

YEs, I don't see any problem with anybody getting a hold of a body, if they really wanted one. Or a sample of the plague. In fact, I could even see them injecting a dead body with the plague yo set things off.

THe points here are that:

1) They can release the plague anywhere, not just in a port city. It will spread before people know it's there.

2) They are alerting the authorities about it. That makes actually doing it much harder. Of coruse if they are in it for some other reason, that doesn't matter.

Feb 18, 2024 17:56:59 GMT Catsmate said:

• A little checking shows me that, as of approximately 1910, one could purchase sealed tubes of various (78 types) of live bacterial cultures from scientific supply catalogues; these included anthrax, cholera, diphtheria, dysentery, plague, pneumonia, tuberculosis and typhus.  There was no licensing requirement. 4/6 per tube.

Again, I'm not surprised. I don't even think there was all that much for restrictions on cannon either. If you want it and can pay for it, you can probably get it.

Feb 18, 2024 17:56:59 GMT Catsmate said:

IIRR there was a Thorndyke story that had the villain scheming to create a plague outbreak, and another Holmes-esque detective investigating a case where a plague quarantine was used to conceal tunnelling into a bank (or something like that).
White's story The River of Death had London threatened with a plague outbreak also. [/quote [/font]

Oh, it's a good story for a villain. It just that they type of villain who will actually do it is different from the one who would ask for ransom not to do it. It's a great threat, but not somethingmost people would want to actually follow through on.

Feb 18, 2024 17:56:59 GMT Catsmate said:

Wrt to Moriarty, Worth was an interesting person who could appear himself in a Victorian setting. Doyle (who, to confuse matters, might also appear) also based Charles Augustus Milverton on the (then dead) society blackmailer Charles Augustus Howell. a man who had some interesting associates.

Yeah, he could be a worthy long term adversary for a Victorian group, or if characters frequent this era. He might not have the tech savvy and advanced knowledge that time travelling PCs would, but he knows the city, has connections in high and low places, and has money. Just like how Dracula catches Holmes off guard in the Holmes-Dracula File by just paying some ruffians to get Holmes off of his tail. Holmes didn't expect a vampire to take such an approach and deal with Holmes the way a wealthy nobleman might.

But the thing with this scenario seed is that since we know so little about it -only the body and the ransom note - that we have an almost infinite number of ways to go with it. For example, what if the body was that of a series killer about to go on a killing spree? He wrote the note himself to taunt the authorities, and then succumbed to illness before he could drop off his body with the note?

Or what if the real goal is to assassinate Queen Victoria, and the whole plot is just a red herring to draw off the police and military to lower the security during the Jubilee? An assassin could lie in wait somewhere along the route, with an air rifle (disguised as a walking stick?) and then shoot the Queen and vanish into the crowd.

So many possibilities.