Monster Hunters by Gaslight - Whitechapel, London, Hell?

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

. . . At the epoch of Icelander's campaign Bedlam is at St George's Fields in Southwark (in the Lambeth Road).

IIRC some of this structure has been incorporated in the Imperial War Museum.

[Cornelius]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

The mediaeval Bedlam in Bishopsgate was demolished in 1634. The second was in Moorfields, and that was demolished in 1815. At the epoch of Icelander's campaign Bedlam is at St George's Fields in Southwark (in the Lambeth Road). It's several miles from Icelander's setting and on the other side to the Thames, not at all close in London terms.

And so?

There's no need to have the hospital right in the middle of London. The influence of the spirit can be far reaching, or maybe is only influencing those who come to visit the patients and so on so forth. And I don't think that Icelander's player, even if based in whitechapel, are actually chained there.
They will move around and what would be the point of setting the campaign in the world' most important city of the time, if you are not using her whole?

Originally Posted by johndallman

We are in the era of actual treatment of the insane: this Wikipedia article gives some background.

OH, I'm sure that the treatment were the best of the times. And maybe the responsable of all the mistery won't be some mad scientist or dreadful warlok, but a very caring and compassionate doctor, which unwittingly did something quite hazarded. The last a group of PC would suspect.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Cornelius

And so?

The current adventure in which Icelander has got himself in a tangle is localised to a house in Whitechapel.

[Cornelius]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

The current adventure in which Icelander has got himself in a tangle is localised to a house in Whitechapel.

To tell you the truth, to me seemed the pitch for a campaign, rather than for a few sessions...oh, well, it doesn't matter. If he likes the idea he can a find a way to make it work, otherwise he have plenty to choose.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Without having read more than the plot outline, it seems that I was so inspired.

It's a book worth hunting down, though it's collectible so that might be hard, the lowest price on amazon.com right now is $27.95.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Cornelius

To tell you the truth, to me seemed the pitch for a campaign, rather than for a few sessions...oh, well, it doesn't matter. If he likes the idea he can a find a way to make it work, otherwise he have plenty to choose.

A campaign might result. On the other hand, it is still an open question where exactly the PCs are located. Indubitably they are in Whitechapel, but they are beginning to suspect that either their section of the East End or perhaps even London as a whole might have been transported Somewhere Else. And not a nice place neither.

The stars appear to be different. Now they just illustrate the nastier Hermetic decans.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's a book worth hunting down, though it's collectible so that might be hard, the lowest price on amazon.com right now is $27.95.

I was really happy to see that it was sold on Kindle, but then I noticed that some enterprising individual had published his own novel as Night in the Lonesome October. Perfidy.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The Victorians did like moral panics about foreigners, mixed with trying to scientifically define their prejudices about race, religion, etc. I don't have any specific suggestions alas, but exotic foreigners are just as horrible as exotic old things to the Victorians.

Just so. The Burton-expy character is very odd in that he embraces foreign cultures and may even have embraced their filthy and licentious ways. Hence a Secret. And it's been established in the campaign that this PC and Dr. Stanley shared an unpleasant adventure in 1865, in Cairo. It's not immediately clear what happened, but there were erotic undertones for one or both of them, with some of the natives*, and a death cult was involved.

*Quite possibly not native women, however.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Something with evolution? The growing hints about deep time?

A possibility, of course.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Cornelius

To tell you the truth, to me seemed the pitch for a campaign, rather than for a few sessions

It probably is, but the first session of the first adventure has already been set in a house in Whitechapel.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

It probably is, but the first session of the first adventure has already been set in a house in Whitechapel.

Two sessions are now down and the PCs have just left the house by the front door, herding a crowd of refugees from Awful Things down the street to the nearest church. That's where we ended the session.

There are still people in the house, but the PCs are fairly confident that the ones who are left there are more perpetrators than victims. At least they have unsavoury reputations as young rakes with more money than sense and appear to have been dabbling in occultism, not to mention sexual shenanigans, lawbreaking and possibly even murder.

Well, actually, there might still be some victims in the house, but the consensus among players was that saving the ten they knew about was more important than risking horrible fates for those ten while looking for 3-5 people who were most likely already dead.

They mean to return to the house after they have found some save haven for the ones they have saved. And possibly they will also pick up some new weaponry, as they are running out of 8-bore cartridges for the Greener they looted from Dr. Stanley's gun cabinet. The Burton-expy PC is Wealthy and has some shiny hunting guns in the travelling gear he keeps at his current residence*, possibly better suited for town house room-to-room clearing.

Dr. Stanley did have, apart from the Greener double-rifle, two Martini-Henrys, a fancy new Lebel, a single-barrel ten-gauge colonial shotgun loaded with lion shot and a couple of nice bird doubles**, so it's not as if they are unarmed, though. They also have pistols and whatever they cared to grab from the wall of the trophy room, which had a nice collection of "primitive tribe" weaponry and even some genuine archeological treasures.***

*Which is either a hotel, if there are any suitable ones for a couple of months stay in London before the opening of the Savoy, or a rented furnished apartment.
**Not taken by the PCs yet, as at least one of them was a choked Greener double and they were 12-gauge, for which the only ammo available was bird shot.
***Chiefly from Egypt and Africa up the Nile from there.