Monster Hunters by Gaslight - Whitechapel, London, Hell?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Interestingly enough, he's not the only Robert Holland to get a royal pardon for treason...

Originally Posted by Miles

Pulled my information from Arthur Bryant's book on Samuel Pepys, here.

Extremely interesting...

I wish I was able to tie things together somehow, but I doubt either one of them is particularly associated with the Thames, the Tower of London or the Execution Dock at Wapping.

[Icelander]

In 1888, all children aged between 5-10 must attend school* and the period maps I have of Whitechapel, the east part of Aldgate, the area around the Tower of London and the Docklands are pretty liberally dotted with schools.

Does anyone know the typical or common school hours for local parish, charity district or 'barracks' schools? At what time would they start in the morning and how long would the children attend?

Would all schools have been out by 3 o'clock Friday?

Or might there still be children trapped in some of these schools?

*Which is not yet free, which means that some poor people may evade this requirement.

[Icelander]

This came up in a related thread, but discussion of it is more appropriate here:

Originally Posted by johndallman

The Tower is, unsurprisingly, a remarkably strong defensive position. I've held it against considerably superior forces in a different game.

Do you have any idea where I could get a detailed map of the Tower of London, ideally one from 1888, with a legend explaining the use to which each part of the fortress was put around that time?

I would be ready to pay for a map which I could digitally download, particularly if it was a high-resolution one with lots of detail.

What about pictures that show the Tower and surroundings as they were before the Tower Bridge was built? Do you know where I could find good ones?

I've done some Google image searches, but so far I haven't done any better than such as this too early one (with too little detail) and others of similar detail, being either too early or too late.

Originally Posted by johndallman

If there are ten men inside with Martini-Henrys who know what they're about, and the attackers lack artillery, explosives or the power of flight, I'd expect it to survive the night. However, the PCs will have to break the siege to get inside.

The inhabitants of the Tower of London (might include housing outside it) are registered as 800+ in the period. The villains attempted to take the Tower by treachery at the start of the calamitous events that have befallen, but for reasons that the PCs do not know yet, they failed. An attack on the north facing of the fortifications has also failed, with at least a score lying dead and three score wounded.

The soldiers defending the Tower are somewhere between 100-200. In addition, it is not unlikely that several hundred more people are taking refuge in the Tower (or lived there already) and some of those might be able to help with the defence.

On the other hand, the villains dispose of at least 200 hardened roughs at two barricades in King Street near the Royal Mint and there is no reason for the PCs to assume that there are not similar numbers at other strongpoints, making the total number of villains upwards of a thousand. They have rifles and something that makes a lot of noise that can be heard through the fog, probably cannon, mortars or at least dynamite explosives. They may have Gatlings or repeating rifles, judging from the volume of fire heard earlier.

They certainly do have monstrous and powerful allies, some of whom are very hard to destroy with conventional bullets. And there are flying gargoyles, feral carnivorous pigeons and stranger flying things, which, even if they are not directly fighting for the villains, certainly do seem to be attacking the defenders.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Do you have any idea where I could get a detailed map of the Tower of London, ideally one from 1888, with a legend explaining the use to which each part of the fortress was put around that time?

Not a really serious one. There must be a book with this, but I don't know which one. I've found a plan from 1909 which is quite illuminating in conjunction with the site's own history page for the 19th century.

What about pictures that show the Tower and surroundings as they were before the Tower Bridge was built? Do you know where I could find good ones?

Afraid not.

They have rifles and something that makes a lot of noise that can be heard through the fog, probably cannon, mortars or at least dynamite explosives. They may have Gatlings or repeating rifles, judging from the volume of fire heard earlier.

Getting into position to attack the doors of the Tower without getting shot is the problem. Getting through those doors with axes or burning them will take considerable time: dynamite properly placed will be much faster. Mortars won't be much use, but artillery will get them in reasonably fast. A proper defence will hold them at the gates for as long as possible and then fall back to the keep, of course.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Not a really serious one. There must be a book with this, but I don't know which one. I've found a plan from 1909 which is quite illuminating in conjunction with the site's own history page for the 19th century.

I've found more and better pictures and maps and am now fairly confident of running any scenes set at the Tower itself, at least as far as maps are concerned.

I do wonder about the garrison, however. In 1888, after one of "Saucy Jack's" first murders, the Tower Guard was turned out for inspection, due to the testimony of a witness. A photograph of that event shows between 100-120 Coldstream Guards. There is a reference to the witness describing the uniform of a Grenadier Guard, in response to which they were turned out for parade as well, but the source I have does not make it clear whether the Grenadiers were barracked at the Tower as well or whether they were guarding the Royal Mint or perhaps lived in the many houses inhabited by military men and their families around the Tower Hills.

Period sources mention 'artillerymen' at the Tower, but I don't know how many. Were there any cannons there at this time?

There is a reference to a military guard at the Royal Mint, just across the street, but I have so far not found anything concrete on which regiment had that duty, where they were barracked and how many were part of the guard force.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Getting into position to attack the doors of the Tower without getting shot is the problem. Getting through those doors with axes or burning them will take considerable time: dynamite properly placed will be much faster. Mortars won't be much use, but artillery will get them in reasonably fast. A proper defence will hold them at the gates for as long as possible and then fall back to the keep, of course.

The PCs have seen the remains of an attempt at escalade at the north wall, over the dry ditch. It appears that several hundred men attacked the walls there, with ladders, grapnels and perhaps supernatural assistance, but their assault was repulsed. Judging from the noise earlier, it is very probable that they launched their attack in conjunction with attacks on other parts of the Tower.

The dead and wounded appear mostly to be locals, with a decided bent toward radicalism. Reggie Woodsworth, who sometimes attends political rallies or meetings for a lark, recognised several bearded agitators of an anarchist, socialist or communist stamp. George 'the Teapot' Frankton recognised more of them as frequent rioters, hard-core anarchists, Fenians and anti-royalists, most of them from Whitechapel or the Docklands.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I do wonder about the garrison, however. In 1888, after one of "Saucy Jack's" first murders, the Tower Guard was turned out for inspection, due to the testimony of a witness. A photograph of that event shows between 100-120 Coldstream Guards. There is a reference to the witness describing the uniform of a Grenadier Guards, in response to which they were turned out for parade as well, but the source I have does not make it clear whether the Grenadiers were barracked at the Tower as well or whether they were guarding the Royal Mint or perhaps lived in the many houses inhabited by military men and their families around the Tower Hills.

Period sources mention 'artillerymen' at the Tower, but I don't know how many. Were there any cannons there at this time?

There is a reference to a military guard at the Royal Mint, just across the street, but I have so far not found anything concrete on which regiment had that duty, where they were barracked and how many were part of the guard force.

The Waterloo Barracks on the North side of the inner court could hold 1000 troops, so that seems a plausible home for all the troops in the area. It would have allowed much better control of them than dispersing them to billets in the area, and the Mint is quite close enough for troops guarding it to be based in the Tower. I wouldn't expect a single regiment to have the Mint duty for more than a few months at a time: the army likes to rotate troops, and having them there for a long time presents an obvious risk of corruption by would-be robbers and other criminals.

The Tower was re-fortified against the Chartist "menace" in 1828-58, which means there would be (somewhat obsolete) artillery suitable for use against civil disobedience.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

The Waterloo Barracks on the North side of the inner court could hold 1000 troops, so that seems a plausible home for all the troops in the area. It would have allowed much better control of them than dispersing them to billets in the area, and the Mint is quite close enough for troops guarding it to be based in the Tower. I wouldn't expect a single regiment to have the Mint duty for more than a few months at a time: the army likes to rotate troops, and having them there for a long time presents an obvious risk of corruption by would-be robbers and other criminals.

I find that the Grenadier Guards and the Coldstream Guards alternated the Tower Guard duty and that one battalion was stationed in Waterloo Barracks at each time. During 1888, this was the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards.

The Tower Guard also appears to have furnished a detachment to guard the Royal Mint.

There is a period mention of blue-coated artillerymen at the Tower and also of these artillerymen and other soldiers living with wives and family in houses near the Tower, but not inside the walls. I can find evidence that setting up a household in a private dwelling was permissable for married soldiers, assuming that such housing was close to barracks and the men of a character to warrant such license.

As somewhere in the vicinity of 120 men were absent from the Tower on a Tuesday earlier in 1888, I feel pretty confident that on a Friday afternoon, more than a third of the Tower Guard have leave to visit family, friends or to seek other amusements. The officers will presumably be overwhelmingly absent from the Tower at such a time, with social engagement elsewhere in the capital. Exceptions would be the officer of the day and presumably someone in command of guard detachments actually on duty, but I wonder whether that would be anyone more senior than Lieutenant.*

A full battalion of Grenadier Guards includes a Lieutenant Colonel in command, four Majors and four Captains. There are then 8-9 Lieutenants and an adequate supply of ensigns and other ranks.

I was wondering who would be in command of the defence.

The Constable of the Tower does not live there, but some of the archaic and picturesque titles in the Tower carried with them apartments there. Would any senior military man be living there, apart from possibly the commander of the Tower Guard?

Does anyone recall a famous historical figure who was serving in the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards in 1888?

*Rank of Guards, so a Captain or more in the regular Army.

Originally Posted by johndallman

The Tower was re-fortified against the Chartist "menace" in 1828-58, which means there would be (somewhat obsolete) artillery suitable for use against civil disobedience.

No company of artillery is stationed at the Tower at this time, according to the Army and Navy Gazette, but presumably there is a smaller detachment there to maintain the large store of ordnance kept in the Armoury. Period sources mention that muskets (over 60,000 Enfield rifle-muskets) and cannon stored at the Tower are always kept in perfect working order.

[Icelander]

I've posited that a certain segment of survivors did not barricade their homes with their families (many of them have none), did not seek sanctuary in a church or other holy ground and has not taken service with whatever group of occult revolutionaries or criminal masterminds are besieging the Tower and sending out flying columns of kidnappers to collect women all around the East End.

No, these survivors react to the apparent end of the world by finding a good place to loot and/or look for ardent spirits. For either, a railway goods depot is a fine place to while away the Apocalypse. In particular, the North West Rail Goods Depot at Haydon Square looks like it would yield fine looting and a fair number of potential recruits in a rough line.

There are several bonded warehouses, made of brick, 4-5 levels. The top levels are used to store wool, I gather, and the other levels a variety of goods. A great quantity of spirits will appeal to many East Enders, even during the End Times.

At this point, into the second day of the events, I imagine that some sort of society has sprung up among the looters. A trade bazaar, at least, and likely some means of adjudicating disputes. Most likely in the form of armed and violent strongmen, probably ones who were already gang leaders.

Would several petty tyrants locked in a power struggle, while also carrying out considerable trade, sound plausible? And how picturesque can the budding societies by without doing harm to plausibility?

[Icelander]

The East End of London in 1888 is a densely populated part of a great metropolis and even though there are strangely few bodies around for the comparatively thin numbers of survivors that the PCs have seen, the campaign area is still very well populated when contrasted with a more typical Dungeon Fantasy town.

Even the threat of roaming gangs of wild beast-men, hunting packs of feral carnivores and other monstrous creatures that prey on anyone outside such sanctuaries as holy ground or established homes cannot prevent survivors from coming together for protection, pooling of resources and trade.

As such, there are a great number of NPCs that the players have encountered, can encounter or must encounter, with dispositions or roles ranging from friendly through neutral to hostile.

I thought I'd run short descriptions of them past the forumites, see if they scan as plausible for inhabitants of London's East End in the year 1888, or one year after the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

This first batch are NPCs that are encountered at St. Botolph's church at Aldgate, next to Aldgate underground station and just a stone's throw from Mitre Square and the Great Synagogue at Duke Street. It is here that the PCs took the first refugees that they rescued and they found some survivors already established here.

The new Vicar, Rev. Robert Henry Haddon, was not present in the church on a Friday afternoon and has not turned up since then. He lives with his wife near St. Botolph's Bishopsgate, where he was previously a curate, and he might have taken refuge there.

A young curate, the verger and two churchwardens are present at St. Botolph's now, in addition to some members of the parish council and the parish clerk, as there was a philanthropic meeting of some sort at the church in the Friday afternoon.*

Other survivors who sought shelter in the church tend to be 'fallen women' and their erstwhile customers who linger in the neighbourhood; costermongers, coachmen and newsboys; publicans, wait staff and customers from public houses in the afternoon; and any passengers from the underground who got off at Aldgate station at around 3 o'clock Friday.

I'd welcome any suggestions for alterations, additions, changes or more NPCs.

Mrs. Arabella Millicent; churchwarden of St. Botolph's Aldgate, age 74
Mrs. Millicent has been for these past twenty years a widow and still wears severe black mourning clothing. She has dispensed with veils, however, and makes do with a truly formidable hat that adds at least a foot to her 5' frame. Her late, lamented husband, Simon Millicent, was a draper and left her well-provided for, albeit with an unfashionable address, as he owned not only his store and upstairs home, but the two houses on either side. Shrewd managment of the rents for the total of two storefronts and six apartments she has made from those houses affords Mrs. Millicent the comfortable income of £200 a year.

Mrs. Millicent has firm views on nearly everything and is accustomed to having others share her views as a matter of course. Her position as churchwarden has been held continously since the death of her husband and no member of the parish council can imagine electing anyone else in her place. The several people who alternate the duties of the second churchwarden in the parish are entirely aware that the correct performance of those duties consists of carrying out the polite requests of Mrs. Millicent and, if at all possible, such scrupulous adherence to the letter and spirit of previous requests laid down by Mrs. Millicent that the worthy widow should not find it necessary to articulate how Things Are To Be Done.

Perfect ramrod posture, an imposing presence and the aformentioned tall hat combine to make her seem far bigger than her 5' high and 100 lbs. frame justify. Her face is not unhandsome, with a classical nose, fine lines and very good complexion and her eyes must have been striking in her youth, being a very beautiful deep blue. Any amorous widower with designs must need have looked long for any hint of bon vivant sparkle in those eyes, however, and his arour is likely to have been quickly quenched by an icy stare. If Mrs. Millicent may be said to deprive the world of her amazingly good teeth by failing to smile, let it also be said of her that she never frowns, glares or scowls.

An unkind wag might note that she never has to. Any hint of Mrs. Millicent's will in a matter will result in immediate obedience and thus the raising of her voice or any signs of anger would be superfluous effort. The mere narrowing of eyes is a historic occasion and entirely sufficient to reduce strong men of the parish to quivering fits.

Mrs. Millicent has high Will (Will 15), Attractive, Charisma 2, Social Regard (Respected), Status 1 and Reputation 2 in her parish. She has Administration 15, Leadership 15 and skill 15 in any use of Merchant that involves negotiations. She also has Intimidate at skill 18 and the Perk Fearsome Stare.

Rev. John Amos Cathmore, curate of St. Botolph's Aldgate church, age 41
The Reverend is a tall, thin man who appears younger than he is in most respects, although his blond hair has started thinning on top of his head. His cheeks are red and his complexion fair, while the gaze of his watery gray eyes is transparently honest, if not particularly forceful. Perhaps his most distinguishing characteristic is a very large Adam's apple that bobs distractingly as he speaks.

Rev. Cathmore is unmarried and all attempts by the benevolent ladies of the parish council at finding him a wife have stranded on his excessively polite, but surprisingly firm, refusal to consider the subject 'as he is a Failed Lover entirely, a spent force in Romance, devoted solely to his Heavenly Calling these days' after an unhappy ending to a betrothal in his youth.

The Reverend pens some atrocious purple prose and even more unfortunate poetry in his theoretical spare time, but as he interprets his duties toward parishoners very broadly, he spends most of his time ministering to those less fortunate in the parish, administering or assisting a wide variety of charities and working for parish poor law reform. He is broad-minded enough to have made common cause with many Nonconformist missions in Aldgate and Whitechapel and even has a warm working relationship with Father MacManus' Catholic mission to the poor Irish of Whitechapel.

Rev. John Cathmore has IQ 11, Will 11, Unattractive, Charisma 1 and Status 1. He has skill 12 in most of the skills related to his profession, with Administration at 10, Writing at 9, but he also has Diplomacy and Pscychology/TL6 at skill 12, for ministering to the spirit.

*What is that likely to have been? Church bingo is apparently a slightly later development, but I'm looking for the equivalent these 20 years before progressive churches started bingo nights. I want something that summoned together a hard-core of dedicated churchgoers for whom social life is centered around the parish church.

[Icelander]

I've prepared for a game session in my campaign set in 2011 Iraq and I discover that my players had somehow gotten the idea that we're going to play in London's East End in 1888. And as the players aren't exactly the same, I guess there is no time to switch over.

So I have about two hours to prepare for the next session of Monster Hunters by Gaslight. Naturally, I have not finished naming or otherwise detailing the other 'guests' at the macabre party in the Royal Mint where Reggie Woodsworth is dining with Atreus, the general of the army of criminals besieging the Tower.

Just as naturally, the existing detail for the impromptu society of looters and criminals at the Haydon Square Goods Depot, where George 'the Teapot' Frankton has gone to look for firearms and recruits to his cause, essentially amounts to... well, nothing. I want a few budding local warlords there fighting over the choice loot while trying to keep some trade relations with their less objectionable neighbours, if only because the one who is squatting on most of the liquour needs food to go with it, clothes to wear and maybe some weapons to defend his prize.

I also need to be ready for whatever Father MacManus does while his suit of armour is being prepared. He might want to go up the Houndsditch and look for the nearest City of London Police station, seeking reinforcements for the survivors at the Great Synagogue and St. Botolph's Aldgate church.

And I have to detail the away team of survivors that the PCs will manage to gather. Some will come from the Swell Coves, Mr. Frankton's Ally Group (which I haven't detailed yet), some will come from veterans among the immigrants from the Jewish Pale of Settlement and some will be from among the Irish of MacManus' congregation.

Also, Col. Wilkinson might well decide to swing by the Leman Street police station while he picks up his gun collection. Need to invent details on the Inspector in charge, a few Sergeants and Constables.*

I also need more named characters among the villains and more detail on the groups of criminals fighting for Atreus.

Obviously, I welcome suggestions. Even those I won't use will stimulate my hung-over and tired brain.

*Their names are a matter of public record.