The Kerberos Club

A Savage Worlds Sourcebook of Strange Victorian Adventure

THE KERBEROS CLUB is written by Benjamin Baugh, © 2009. Illustrated by Todd Shearer and Lanny Liu, © 2009
respectively. Edited by Shane Ivey and Jess Nevins, with copy editing by Sarah Baugh and Joe Crowe. Page design by
Fred Hicks and Shane Ivey. Savage Worlds game conversions by Dave Blewer and Shane Ivey.

This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.
com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used
with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose
of this product.

Special thanks to Jason Hockley, John Marron, Jakob Pape, Shawn O’Steen and Rowdy Scarlett for proofreading and
playtesting.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people and events, past or present, is purely coincidental and
unintentional except for those people and events described in historical context.

No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means without the express written permission of the copyright
holders. All rights reserved worldwide by their respective holders.

The Kerberos Club (Savage Worlds Edition)

Arc Dream Publishing
12215 Highway 11, Chelsea, AL 35043, U.S.A.
ISBN 978-0-9818826-7-3
Stock number ARC4001
First printing, 2010

www.arcdream.com
 Contents
Introduction....................................................6 After the Challenge.........................................25
How to Use This Book...........................................8 The Traditions as Plot Device.............................. 25
Eras of Play........................................................8 The Lost............................................................. 26
Who Are the Characters and What Do They Do?.9 Filthy Lucre.....................................................26
The World in Brief...............................................10 Age Before Beauty...........................................27
“Touched by a Strangeness”..............................10 Madness to the Method . ...................................28
Unnatural History............................................12 Beneath Stairs: Playing the Help......................... 29
The Scope of This Book . .................................12 Spies, Damned Spies, and Informers.................... 30
References, Resources and Inspirations ...............12 For Queen and Country  . ...............................30
Non-Fiction.....................................................12 Gentlemen, the Queen!....................................... 31
Ripped From the Headlines................................. 13 Through the Eyes of the Common Man..........32
Fiction.............................................................14 The Kennels  .......................................................34
. . . Doomed to Repeat It..................................... 14 Unwanted Admirers........................................... 35
Comics.............................................................15 Cluttered With Strangeness.............................36
Roleplaying Games..........................................15 Evenings at the Club........................................38
Movies.............................................................16 Borrowed Wonders.............................................. 39
TV ..................................................................16 Enemies Foreign and Domestic ..........................39
The Web...........................................................16 Special Branch.................................................40
The Oxford Movement....................................42
Chapter 1: The Kerberos Club......................... 17 Le Société Scientifique....................................43
Welcome to the Kerberos Club............................19 Section Seven...................................................43
Cloak of Lies, Waistcoat of Obscurity, The Americans.................................................45
and Opera Hat of Exaggeration.......................20 Mint Juleps and Mass Murder............................ 46
Origins Mysterious..........................................21 Schweigsame Übereinstimmung......................47
The Purpose of the Club..................................21 Famous Members, Associates and Rivals.............47
I Shall Dine At the Club Tonight, My Dear......... 22 Richard Dadd..................................................47
The Charter, the Rolls, and Grand Old Tradition.23 Lady Ada Lovelace..........................................48
The Three Laws of the Club................................. 24 Christina Georgiana Rossetti...........................51
Running the Challenge....................................25 The Turk..........................................................52
 Contents
Joseph Carey Merrick Social Imperatives............................................77
(AKA The Elephantine Man)..........................55 Common Motivations......................................78
Tides of Change: Colquhoun’s Rankings.....................................78
The Club Through the Century............................56 Occupations.....................................................78
Early (1800 to 1849)........................................56 View From the Top..........................................78
A Favorite Scapegoat.......................................... 57 Being Under Class.............................................. 79
Middle (1850 to 1879).....................................58 Being Working Class........................................... 80
Late (1880 to 1901).........................................59 Being Middle Class............................................ 81
A Modern Geek’s Perspective............................... 62 Being Upper Class.............................................. 82
Day to Day .........................................................83
Chapter 2: All Things Right and Proper............ 63 Money ............................................................83
The Ethos of the Age...........................................65 What Things Cost . .........................................83
A Social History of Victoria’s Britain . ................65 Employment and Pay.......................................84
To Be Victorian ..................................................67 Sound, Sight, Touch and Smell............................84
The Under Class .................................................68 Diaries.................................................................85
Social Imperatives............................................69 Newspapers and Magazines.................................86
Common Motivations......................................69 Letters and the Mail............................................86
Lifestyle...........................................................69 Transport.............................................................86
Colquhoun’s Ranking.......................................69 Politics.................................................................88
Occupations.....................................................69 Religion...............................................................88
View From the Basement.................................69 Sex, Love and Marriage.......................................89
Rag and Bone.................................................... 70 Manners...............................................................89
The Working Class . ............................................70 South of Gibraltar, All Men are Bachelors................ 90
Social Imperatives............................................71 Covering One’s Nakedness...................................90
Common Motivations......................................71 About One’s Person.............................................91
Lifestyle...........................................................71 In Service.............................................................92
Colquhoun’s Rankings.....................................72 The Plague of -Isms.............................................92
Occupations.....................................................72 Victoria and the Birth of the New Woman..........93
View From the Bottom....................................72 Of Course, I Don’t Mean You.................................. 93
The Middle Class . ..............................................73 An Historical Note................................................. 94
Social Imperatives............................................74 The Curse of Progress..........................................94
Common Motivations......................................74 The Shocking and the Profane:
Lifestyle...........................................................74 The Growing Strangeness....................................95
Colquhoun’s Rankings.....................................75 The Faerie........................................................96
Occupations.....................................................75 Magic and the Occult......................................97
View From the Middle....................................75 Science and Industry........................................98
The Upper Class . ................................................75 Wonders of the Antediluvian World................99
 Contents
Divinity ........................................................100 The Mythologies of the World................................. 147
Freakish Human Oddities..............................101 About the Atlantean War-Pyramid........................ 150
Arms and Armor................................................101 The Atlantean Menace.......................................... 152
Knives and Swords.........................................101 Atlantean Champion........................................ 152
Bludgeons......................................................102 Atlantean Chief............................................... 152
Early Victorian Firearms................................102 Atlantean Warrior............................................ 152
Misfire!............................................................ 102 Atlantean Priest............................................... 153
Middle Victorian Firearms............................102
Strange Ways to Die......................................... 103 Chapter 4: Throne of Empire......................... 161
A Patent Double-Action Rotating Repeater!...... 104 Modern London................................................166
Late Victorian Firearms . ..............................104 The River Thames...............................................166
Artillery.........................................................104 Society and the Season.......................................167
Body Armor...................................................106 Poverty and Desperation....................................167
About Town and About the Globe.....................106 Crashing the Party............................................... 168
Horses............................................................106 Crime and Vice..................................................169
Carriages........................................................106 In a Hail of Hot Lead........................................... 170
Trains.............................................................107 The Wrong Side of the Law................................... 171
Tractor Carriages...........................................107 Law and Order..................................................173
Mechanized Gun Carriages...........................107 The Hounds of Justice............................................ 174
Automotives...................................................107 Into the Mists....................................................... 176
Aero Ships.....................................................108 Escape From Devil Island!................................ 176
Rocket Gliders...............................................108 Venturing Into Faerie....................................... 177
City Administration and Services......................178
Chapter 3: Victoria’s Century........................ 109 Culture and Entertainment................................179
The Old Familiar Pile........................................... 113 A Sunday Ride in Hyde Park................................ 179
HMSS Ray.......................................................... 119 Transportation...................................................180
Zeus’ Thunderbolt in Common Hands.................... 129 A Visitor’s London............................................181
Wolfriemen (9)..................................................... 133 Locations of Particular Interest..........................186
Dire Wolf......................................................... 133 British Museum.............................................186
Using the Wolfriemen....................................... 133 Bethlem Hospital...........................................187
Her Majesty’s Regard............................................ 136 Bethlem’s Dead Heart....................................... 188
Victoria Cross (12 Points)................................. 136 Bethlem Hospital.............................................. 188
Lorica Victoria (3)............................................... 137 Sneaking Into Bedlam...................................... 189
These Sad Old Soldiers...................................... 137 Escape From Bedlam!....................................... 189
Armored in Righteousness................................. 137 Whitechapel..................................................190
HMAS Queen...................................................... 139 Victoria Tower...............................................191
The Three Stages of Vampirism............................... 145 The Sumpworks.............................................193
 Contents
Heath Row Aerodrome..................................194 Theme In Motion:
Victory Bridge...............................................195 The Unstoppable Express Train of Drama......213
The Burden of Choice....................................214
Chapter 5: The Great Game........................... 198 Breakneck Change and Bleeding Edges .......215
Character Concept.............................................198 Society: 1; The Individual: 0...........................216
Questions . ........................................................199 GM’s Tools........................................................216
Race...................................................................199 Start With Assumptions................................216
The Fae..........................................................199 Encourage Ambition . ...................................217
Traits.................................................................200 Small Stories . ...............................................217
Hindrances........................................................200 From Out of the Past.....................................218
Gear...................................................................200
Secondary Statistics...........................................201 Chapter 6: Dramatis Personae....................... 219
Final Touches.....................................................201 [WC] Maeve O’ Connel (20 exp).......................219
New Hindrances................................................201 [WC] Dr. Archibald Monroe (20 exp)...............222
Unrest................................................................. 204 [WC] Lucas Moreland (20 exp)........................225
New Edges.........................................................205 [WC] The Lady Mirabel,
Background Edges.........................................205 Countess of La Lamina (20 Exp).......................228
Combat Edges...............................................206 [WC] “Stony” Joseph Smithson (20 exp)...........231
Professional Edges.........................................206 [WC] Mr. Leon (20 exp)...................................234
Social Edges...................................................206 Other Strangers.................................................237
Weird Edges..................................................206 [WC] The Turk (60 exp)................................237
Setting Rules.....................................................207 [WC] The Elephantine Man (40 exp)...........237
Environmental Options.................................207 [WC] Kennebi Meti (30 exp)........................238
Genre Conventions........................................207 The Tower Gang................................................239
Knockback.....................................................207 [WC] Ben Bell (15 exp).................................239
Unarmed Defenders.......................................207 [WC] Big Hand (5 exp).................................240
Super Karma..................................................207 [WC] Little Hand (10 exp)...........................241
New Power Modifiers........................................208 [WC] The Face (10 exp)................................241
New Powers.......................................................209 [WC] Tick Tock (10 exp)..............................242
Omni Super Skill (2/Level)...........................209 Strangeness of Every Sort .................................243
Faerie: Wonder and Horror................................210 Faerie.................................................................243
Magic: Forbidden Lore and Hidden Secrets......211 Faerie Commoner..........................................243
The Sacred and the Profane............................211 [WC] Faerie Beast.........................................244
The Miracle Market...........................................212 [WC] Faerie Peer...........................................244
Mass-Produced Wonders...............................212 The Freak (209 Points).......................................245
Running the Game............................................213 [WC] Saurian Survivor (65 exp)........................246
[WC] Her Sister’s Keeper (0 exp)......................249
 Contents
[WC] The Living Marvel (65 exp).....................250 Detective........................................................266
[WC] Lost Jupiterian (75 exp)...........................252 Detective Inspector........................................267
[WC] Man For All Ages (15 exp)......................253 Special Branch Officer...................................267
[WC] The Man (15 exp)................................254 Opium............................................................. 268
[WC] The Ancestor (15 exp).........................254 Senior Special Branch Officer........................268
[WC] The Descendant (15 exp).....................254 Tracking Squad Officer..................................268
[WC] Conflicted Magus (60 exp)......................255 Automechanical Domestic.............................269
[WC] Rogue Mesmerist (40 exp)......................257 Automechanical Rifleman..............................270
[WC] Pre-Human Horror.................................259 Automechanical Bay......................................270
Into the Twisted Halls of Time.......................... 260 Socialite.........................................................271
[WC] Gentleman Adventurer (20 exp)..............261 Thief..............................................................271
[WC] Wrathful Divinity (20 exp)......................262 Thug...............................................................272
[WC] Oriental Mastermind (80 exp)..................263 Shopkeeper....................................................272
Minor Characters...............................................265
Constable.......................................................265 The Adventure of the
Police Sergeant...............................................266 Black and White Decks................................. 273

The Wonders of the Antedliluvian Age made their way to the Great Exhibition and then to the Royal Zoological Park in
London, thanks to a wager placed at the Kerberos Club.
Introduction
As Victoria’s Empire grows larger and more Strange, The pace of change is unsettling. Many have
the well-bred beasts of Science and Industry mate marked that things which would have been witchcraft
freely with the ill-tempered curs of Occultism and in their father’s age, and would have been deemed
Myth, begetting uncanny marvels that demonstrate impossible just years previous, is now commonplace.
the most pernicious mongrel vigor. As Her divinity No sooner is one innovation or uncanny revelation
becomes indisputable, and Her government is shown or Wonder of the Age accepted and become familiar
how to once again properly bow to a true Monarch, than another arises, more perturbing than the last.
the Empire teeters on the brink of chaos. Industry In January of 1860 a man sprouted whirring
and the Might of Arms are both transformed by the hummingbird wings and flew from his home in
Strangeness which has touched the world. Middlesex to his offices in London as if borne by
In famine-ravaged Ireland the roads to Faerie open angels, outpacing the express train on his way. Slowing
and the wonders and horrors of the Otherworld spill only to fetch down a kitten from a roof, he arrived at
out, mingling with man and politics, with magic and his place of work hardly out of breath. He was lauded
Church. But good British will, good British steel and in the headlines for a week, then began selling a patent
brave British soldiery push into the Lands of Tears Lifting Tonic promising that the “Seventeen effusions
and Honey, where the old bones of the Celtic gods are and potent compounds of exotic and mysterious
home to their weird kith and kin, arisen from their origins” would grant a “lightness of step and mind”
flesh as it dying became starlight. Through the colony and which if used diligently would grant “wings of
of New Birmingham, Victoria Divinus asserts her spirit.” But at 5s 5d a bottle it only served to lighten
Rights and Prerogatives to the Summerlands and the his customers by relieving them of the weight of their
Winterlands, and names as her subjects all the races silver. By the first of March he was already defending
of the Fae, from the least phooka to the greatest lord. his reputation in the courts, and fighting prosecution
Armies are raised against Her, and the gods and under an obscure Act governing the practice of witch-
powers of old march with their human comrades. But craft to “cause a public Spectacle in purpose to Profit
as in the Indian Rebellion, they are smitten soundly unjustly”—proving that there’s nothing so wondrous
by Her legions and the unsettling weapons of Strange and awe-inspiring that London pragmatism can’t
origin they bring to war. Lovelace’s mechanical reduce it to its basest element.
servants become mechanical riflemen. Albert’s gift The Empire is Touched and so are its citizens.
of wolf-belts from his native Coburg becomes Her The wonders of Science and the horrors of its misuse
Majesty’s 13th Lupine Rangers. The skies belong walk alongside the great mysteries of the elder ages.
to Her Aero Navy and its fighting-craft, Oriental religions and secret cults grow in popularity,
perfected from Félix du Temple’s and London, always faintly pagan even before the
6 Albatross design. Strangeness, has become something else again.
 Introduction

When Victoria rose to the throne in 1837 the Within the walls of the Club’s main house on the
Strange was upon Her already in small ways, and it Square of Saint James, just off Pall Mall, no member
was upon Her kingdom as well, though hidden and is forbidden any access or denied any privilege
mostly unknown. By the middle years of Her reign, because of race, creed, class, color, sex, or predilection.
when Her divinity is revealed by the bleeding wounds This shocking transgression of the natural order of
in Her side and hands during the Indian Mutiny of things might seem the hardest of the Club’s many
1857—stigmata which only healed when the rebellion eccentricities to accept, but only if one has not yet
was put down—the Strange has entered the public seen the Blue Chamber or the Atlantis Room, or sat
consciousness, and is reported in the news. The lines down at table with Doctor Archibald Monroe and
between Invention, Occultism, God, Monster, Magic, heard Darwin’s theories of Speciation and Natural
Mesmerism, Science, and Industry become blurred, Selection so amusingly explained from the lips of a
and there is only the thrumming engine of Progress chimpanzee. The doctor is quite proud of his waist-
to which society clings with white-knuckled hands. coats—he has them tailored by Mertoy and Sons in
The Future is Now, and the World is remade daily. colors to inspire thoughts of Birds of Paradise—and
There is no shortage of news for London’s dozens a compliment will surely win his friendly attention.
of papers. By the end of Victoria’s reign the pace of The Kerberos Club is where the Strangers come to
change and the Strange wonders that She portended relax, have a meal, read the paper, and socialize with
have become oppressive and crushing. It is impossible those who truly understand the burden, the power,
to bear Her gaze any longer without falling down and the duty that the Touch of Strangeness imparts.
and weeping, so She remains out of the public eye. And of course, to engage in the sorts of dilettante
She has made pets of Parliament. The Lords are Her meddling by which the Kerberans address some of
parakeets, singing whatever tune she wishes, and the the Empire’s gravest and subtlest threats.
House of Commons Her beaten dogs. Special Branch, Victoria’s steely-eyed secret
And then there is the Kerberos Club, refuge for police, despise the Kerberos Club, and would happily
the Empire’s monsters and broken heroes, those who see the lot of them banged up in irons and locked
have gazed too long into the darkness, and those who in a hole where the sun never shines (assuming the
have been Touched and remade by the Strange. For Kerberan in question wouldn’t find that treatment
a while the Kerberos Club guards the gates of hell, quite delightful). But Victoria dotes on the Club, even
keeping ordinary folk ignorant of the Strangeness. if She never publicly meets its officers in any official
Then as the Strange becomes known, they marshal capacity. She likes Her creatures to remain strong and
to confront those weird menaces that are too much occupied, and some harmless exercise from rivalry
for ordinary authorities. In the last years of Her reign can only serve the good of all. When She needs
the Club is at the height of its power, bringing the clean, fanatical, reliable and rigid, her Special Branch
full force of its Strange potencies against enemies will do. But when She needs a Stranger’s abilities or
foreign and domestic. Thus, the Three Heads of the warped perspective—when She needs the insights of
Kerberos Club: one to find enemies, another to ward a controlled evil to understand a loosed one—then
them off, and the last to destroy them if necessary. the three-headed dog is the beast She whistles for, if
The Club welcomes any who’ve been Touched, the clever monster isn’t already on the right trail.
and early on this egalitarianism is itself more There is every good reason for the club’s motto:
shocking than the rumors of dark dealings, blackmail, MALUM NECESSARIUM.
pagan practice, sexual perversion, and smoking in the
company of women.
7
 Introduction

How to Use
This Book
The Kerberos Club presents a view of the Victorian
period as transformed by Strangeness, the euphe-
mistic expression used to describe every manner of
weird and uncanny influence, inspired by the gothic
horror, scientific romance and fairy tales of the day,
the superhero genres of the modern era, and by the
real history of the period made Strange at every
step, and growing increasingly so as the century
progresses.

Eras of Play
This book presents three distinct eras of play, each
offering a different style of adventuring. The eras
also correspond generally to the Early, Middle, and
Late Victorian period, and so each has a slightly
different social and political landscape. It is entirely
possible to run (and frankly, would be awesome to
play) a campaign from one end of the century to the
other, encompassing each era and style into a single
game.
Early Era: Early on, the Strangeness is relatively
subtle, something people may have heard about but
with which most have no direct experience.
Middle Era: In the middle, it is breaking out
into the public awareness and becoming indistinct
from the other wonders of the age.
Late Era: By the late era things have come
totally unstuck, and almost nothing is too Strange
to be loosed in the world.

8
 Introduction

into the same struggles, preconceptions, and expec-

Who Are the tations as everyone else, and subject to the mistrust
and resentment of ordinary folk who envy and fear
their freedom. In this way, they are both within

Characters and and without proper Victorian society, subjects of

admiration and envy, sometimes revulsion, but
always fascination.

What Do They Do? And as much as Society would wish it were not
so, the Kerberos Club is needed.
What characters do is as complex as who they
The primary assumption of this book is that players are. The pursuit of personal agendas is entirely
will take on the roles of members of the Kerberos acceptable. A detective may consult on cases
Club, and one major goal in writing it has been unrelated to the Club’s business, and a physician may
to make this prospect as attractive as possible. The seek cures for weird diseases. An inventor invents,
Kerberos Club is many things, but within the setting an explorer explorers, a woman fallen to vice, free
it is the vanguard against the Strangeness which is thinking and the study of the occult has plenty to
transforming the world: the Empire’s first and last occupy her time.
defense against menaces too weird for ordinary But if one visits the Kerberos Club’s house often
people. enough, one will inevitably be asked to look into
As a facilitator to play, it is a perfect excuse for certain things, handle certain business, have a word
characters of radically different social background with this person or that. The Kerberos Club’s officers
and class to mingle and work together as equals, (whoever they might be) never assign jobs or duties;
something which can present a problem without rather all members are obliged to look favorably
this conceit in the context of the Victorian social upon the humble requests for assistance made by
order. their fellows. Likewise, the characters have this
The Kerberos Club is a refuge for the Strange. same privilege of asking for assistance, information,
It counts among its members Indian mystics, and specialized services from other members.
fallen women, gentleman adventurers, occultists, The currency of the Club is favors done and favors
and those who meddle with the outward limits of owed, and though there is no official tally, most
what is scientifically possible, seeking to transgress members are scrupulous about keeping track of who
those limits at any cost. All its members have been they owe and who owes them. Offers of assistance,
Touched. As Kerberans, the player characters stand if accepted, are indebting as well. The Club’s grand
somewhere at the nexus of Hero and Monster, and as tradition of meddling in affairs which don’t concern
the Club becomes more public knowledge, they are it sees Kerberans on the trail of many menaces and
equally lauded and despised. They possess unnatural threats even before an official request for aid comes
abilities which defy reason and a perspective which down the convoluted channels separating the Club
defies morality. They cast a lurid glow that casts the from the Queen. Such requests follow a path like
period’s social landscape in sharp relief. Louis Pasteur’s torturously twisted glass tubing,
Within the walls of the Club’s London house all which keeps wandering microbes from inocu-
are equal and treated as such (and those who can’t lating his broth while still allowing air
adapt to this don’t long last on the Club’s rolls), but to pass through. Communication
outside the walls, they find themselves thrown back without contamination.
9
 Introduction

Victoria’s Empire is under assault constantly itself increases. By the end of Victoria Divinus’
from all quarters. In Ireland the Fae grow restless reign, the Empire has a technology 20 years more
with the Queen’s rule, and their discontent with Her advanced than its historical counterpart. That’s an
rulership mirrors that of the Irish people. In India, extra 20 years of marvels crammed into an already
the legion of native gods and demons and divinities, packed century. Add to this the less scientific
asleep for ages, has begun stirring again, seeking new marvels, the exploitation of Faerie, the resurgence
epic stories to play out upon the societies of man. In of Spiritual Disciplines and Occultism, the indus-
Europe, France and Prussia clash, and beyond them, trialization of certain aspects of folk-magic, and
Russia grows increasingly aware of its might. In the the machinations of jealous foreign and forgotten
Americas, the broken Union is heading to war. gods. The eras of play conform to this. Early on, it
Spies, anarchists, criminals petty and grand, faerie might be compared to a Victorian X-Files or Buffy
contagion, industrial transformation, blasphemous the Vampire Slayer, but by the end it contains every
science run amok, strife within the Church over the weirdness and oddity robbed from the pulp and
Queen’s apparent divinity, and all the mundane evils comic writers of the next century.  
of poverty and desperation and injustice push the All this leads us to the dark twin of Progress:
Empire to the boiling point. Assailed from without Future Shock. Change can be terrifying. Ways of life
by enemies on four continents, corrupted from are destroyed. Cities transformed. Fortunes made
within by Progress run mad, it is held together only and broken, and the only way to keep pace with the
by the increasingly inhuman will of Queen Victoria change is to embrace the Strangeness fueling it.
Divinus.
The Kerberos Club has plenty to contend with.

“Touched by a Strangeness”
The World in Brief In 1847, Thomas Babington Macaulay (Whig MP
for Edinburgh) wrote in a letter to the Edinburgh
Review, “(London) also, in contrast to its virtues,
The ethos of the age is Progress. The Victorian Period has become touched by a strangeness I can not help
was the crucible in which the modern world was but compare to the airs of the oriental I experienced
formed. The great ’isms of the 20th century have their while serving upon the Supreme Council for India,
roots in the Victorian. The Industrial Revolution but different yet in that India’s queer happenings
reshaped everything, changed everything, and this could always be laid at the feet of superstition and
is perhaps why this age is so compelling, and why ignorance, while here in the great city itself, it is the
we keep coming back to it in so many ways. It is the heart of rational thought—Natural Science—that is
first time we as moderns and post-moderns can look being employed to uncanny purpose.” 
back on Big-H History and easily see how it works. Other writers, also having noted the oddness
The injustices of the age shock us, and the manners which seemed more prevalent in the decade
and mores seem antiquated, but it all clicks. In The since Victoria’s rise to the throne, picked up the
Kerberos Club this trend of Progress is accelerated. expression, and then Strange took on a particular
Those Touched by Strangeness often meaning in the press and common conversation.
have uncanny insight and intelli- To be Touched by Strangeness was to be in some way
10 gence, and the pace of invention changed or altered by unseen, mysterious, fright-
 Introduction

ening, or unknowable forces. To become a Stranger capacity, which do my country good service, and
was to be remade by them, and the label marked one bring me what funds as I might live comfortable…”
out for fear and rejection.    he encounters only rejection and alienation, and
In 1858 while struggling with his failing marriage, each of the succession of parties either condemns the
Charles Dickens wrote the satirical short story “A young man’s abilities, or seeks to use them to profit
Strange Fascination,” which was dedicated to his at the expense of others. A cashiered military man
particular friend (and likely cause for his marital scoffs, calling it “useless frivolity with no place in the
troubles) Ellen Ternan. The story wasn’t published Modern Army.” A grasping factory owner suggests,
until after his death, but it described the troubles of “If your visions might keep my workers at their tasks
a young man seemingly blessed through “…a patent night and day, substituting for their dreams, then
process of Science, owing to the distilled genius you could bring me an extra nine hundred a year!” A
of Alhazen, Descartes, Gassendi, and Huygens…” minister tells him, “You’d be better served slinging
with the power to “…cast waves in the luminiferous coal than plying your strangeness about here, as
aether, conjuring patterns of Light from his skin as we honest folks take no stock with such unworthy
if reflections of sunlight upon cold clear water, to things.” Finally, the father of his betrothed denies
blind, or fascinate, and to show such visions as he her permission to marry him, saying “… and think of
could formulate.” the children, if you can’t think of the scandal. Who
The protagonist, who remains unnamed, being will they take after? Will they have their mother’s
called only The Stranger, begins as an idealistic pale hair, or will they light up the darkness like their
youth, who presents his power to cast illusions from father, the lampwick?”
his skin to one person after another, each one a The Stranger is the most humane of the
greater example of the Dickensian grotesque. characters presented. In the final scene,
While seeking to find some “…honorable and between the slats of his pauper’s
modestly profitable occupation for my strange coffin, illusory glimpses of
11
 Introduction

Heaven are revealed to the gravediggers. world is experiencing the rise of the Strangeness
By Dickens’s late-middle years, the Strange had as well—if not, perhaps, under the rule of a Queen
entered the public awareness, and even mainstream become Goddess—but London is the capital of the
literature, but well before this the weird events and world’s greatest empire, and in the center of London
urban legends of the Strange had fueled the public’s is the Kerberos Club, beautiful, debauched, sullen and
hunger for more stories and tales. Penny Dreadfuls corrupt, like an orchid growing from the eye-socket
with titles like “Captain Blood and the Electric of a corpse. London provides fodder for years of play.
Men” sold monstrously well, as did biographies and
witness accounts of Strange people and Strange
events. Yet, actually being Touched was a prospect
of some dread for many of the middle class clinging
desperately to their insular and secure world view.
The daughter of a brewer might honorably wed
References,
the son of a Viscount, and invigorate the ancestral
estates with an infusion of modern cash, but the
bearer of the Touch, or worse, a Stranger, could only
Resources and
bring scandal . . . Though possibly a fortune as well.
Inspirations
Unnatural History Victorian London will already seem like an exotic
setting for some gamers, but there’s no lack of
sources to inspire your imagination and capture the
The Kerberos Club details Victoria’s Century, the feel of the age.
years of her rule from 1837 to 1901, touching on
the events proceeding her coronation on one end,
and the fires and retributions on the other end,
after her Ascension. If you laid the history of the Non-Fiction
setting down next to the history of the real world,
you’d see some similarities in pattern, the events in Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret
one timeline have corresponding events in the other, Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered
but the Kerberos Club exists in a world touched by the Kama Sutra by Edward Rice. Sir Richard could
the Strange, and its history reflects this. Analogous have been a member of the Kerberos Club based on
events may occur, but for different, weirder reasons. nothing but his extraordinary life, his social trans-
gressions, and his bloody-mindedness. He’s a great
example of what proper Englishmen got up to in

The Scope of This Book foreign climes, and his true life adventures almost
stretch credibility. The way he was treated by society
is especially relevant.
This book is focused primarily on Britain, and The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess
more specifically London. The rest of the Nevins. If you check out only one resource from
this list, make it this one. The Encyclopedia is a
12
 Introduction

Ripped From the Headlines

The Victorians were prodigious readers. Literacy was just such a publication, and quickly sliced his way
at a high point in the Western world (though still low into the Victorian consciousness—a villain in his first
by modern standards), and the printing press and ready appearance, but growing in the unauthorized sequels
availability of paper allowed for the mass publication and copy-cat characters into something of an antihero.
of works for the common audience. No longer was The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with a slightly
literature written exclusively with the well-educated, more literal interpretation of his title, could easily be
the wealthy, or the sophisticated in mind. Now it was a character in a modern, post-camp gritty comic book.
written for the common man to buy and read. The links between the modern comic book and the
Even those who did not read still enjoyed the stories. It Victorian penny dreadful are quite strong, both in
is common during the period for one literate individual the evolution of the media and in the audiences they
to read the newspapers, ’dreadfuls, penny-novels, story catered to in their inception. In The Kerberos Club we
papers, and serials to a barroom full of his illiterate draw an even closer tie between them. Superhuman
fellows. Victoria’s Britain was hungry for the written exploits become major themes in the popular literature
word, and reading was a major social activity and source of the era much earlier in the century, even more so as
of cheap entertainment for London’s masses. the Kerberos Club itself begins to exploit them to sow
The publications catering to Britain’s lower classes confusion about its members and motivations. By the
were cheaply printed, and often consisted of thinly end of the century, the heavily illustrated story papers
veiled stories of real crimes and scandals, or entirely and dime novels have nearly become comic books
fictionalized stories of outrages presented as true themselves, with short passages of narration and lurid
events. Sweeney Todd made his first appearance in half-page illustrations depicting the action.

13
 Introduction

remarkable work of scholarship and a nigh-obsessive reading these things, who the audience would have
interest in the fantastic literature written during the been when they were first published. The following
period covered by The Kerberos Club. Every page of are more modern tales, still perfect for our purpose.
this book presents you with ideas which you can use The Difference Engine by William Gibson and
immediately in a Kerberos Club game, and can take Bruce Sterling. This alternate history is very much
a total Victoriana newb to the level of a conversant in keeping with the creative intent of The Kerberos
amateur in a single read. Even more fantastic, many Club: Take the realities of the period and add
of the works referenced in this book are available history-perturbing innovations.
gratis online, as almost all are out of copyright and The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald
now public domain. I can’t recommend this enough. Fraser. These novels are hilarious, clever, exciting, and
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. eminently readable. The footnotes alone are worth
London is an entire world, fractal: The closer you the cover price. Flashman is a coward, a braggart, a
look, the more there is. Finding a way to narrow the
focus on London was one of the major obstacles
while writing this book. The depth of information
. . . Doomed to Repeat It
To our esteemed readers well versed in the minutiae
in London: The Biography made it much much harder.
of the Victorian period’s history and culture, we
It is an excellent resource on the old city. offer a blanket apology for any liberties taken with
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: historical fact, its personages, or its ways of life. We
From Fox Hunting to Whist, the Facts of Daily Life certainly hope any such irregularities which spring
in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool. out to well-schooled eyes will be taken as creative
Another excellent general reference full of little and dramatic license, deliberate deviations from
practical details: what things cost, what one wears, the real timeline of the age, rather than anything
and what one eats. so shocking and scandalous as mistakes, misassump-
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency tions, or Edwardian stereotypes.
and Victorian England from 1811 – 1901 by Kristine We’ve tried to cleave as closely to the period in
Hughes. An excellent overview of the period with its details as possible, highlighting the major events
many little details which could be used to create and social movements as if influenced by the reality
of the superhuman. So, we have our dodge right
a sense of verisimilitude in your descriptions and
there. Anything which doesn’t make sense, well, a
characters.
wizard did it. Or perhaps a dinosaur. Or a creature
from Saturn. Or a man who can fly.
The history of the Kerberos Club’s world is

Fiction intended to be a blend of the real history of our

world, the fancies of the age itself, the very modern
genre of comic books and super powers, and the
I can’t possibly list all the period fiction which fantastic, the strange, the grotesque, and the
could serve you well in preparing for a Kerberos Club wondrous. It’s meant, in part, to answer questions
game. Any mystery, scientific romance, fantasy, or like “What if Sir Richard Burton had superpowers?”
lurid exploitative fiction written by Victorians for In service to this fancy, certain simplifications and
Victorians serves double-duty for our purposes. generalizations have been made for the modern
It gives you ideas for your games and it reader’s benefit.
provides a window onto the people In short, anything “wrong” that you notice is

14 who read it. Consider, when entirely intentional.

 Introduction

villain, a cad… and also one of the Empire’s great old

warhorses and heroes. He’s simultaneously every- Roleplaying Games
thing that is good and bad about the age, as well
as remaining a sympathetic and engaging character Castle Falkenstein by Mike Pondsmith. One of
despite his tendency to be wholly reprehensible. my great gaming loves. Part novel, part game, it is
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes. It’s so written with the clever conceit of being an artifact in
perfectly low-end Kerberos that I wish I’d read it its own setting. The game is written by a dimension-
before writing. hopping game designer seeking to introduce his
Victorian chums to gaming. The tone of the game is
more high adventure and romance and less grubby

Comics dirty-dealing and sudden death, and it is packed

with useful period details and advice on making the
period gameable. It is a gem.
From Hell by Alan Moore. Mr. Moore gives Forgotten Futures by Marcus Rowland. The
us still more fuel for this fire. From Hell is a brutal, worldbooks for this game are pure awesome.
layered, unflinching look at the era and its realities, They take a particular genre or subset of fantastic
as well as being a damned fine story. It is Moore’s Victorian literature and extrapolate a world or
take on the Jack the Ripper mythology, and he layers setting dominated or driven by those themes and
it with occult symbolism without resorting to the tropes. His research is excellent, and the settings are
overtly supernatural. It is an excellent dark window marvelous.
looking out on Victoria’s London late in the period. Passages: Adventures Penned by Literary Giants
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan by Justin D. Jacobson and Richard Farrese. Often
Moore and Kevin O’Neill, particularly the first two described as Alice in Wonderland meets Stargate,
volumes. It’s essential reading for any Victorian but that fails to capture just how gonzo Passages can
supers game. get. High weirdness in a Victorian mode which
The League comics are additionally filled to takes the “literary characters as real people” thing
the bursting with references to period literature. and dials it to 11.
Literally every page contains some easter egg, and This Favored Land by Allan Goodall. A Wild
all the sources are woven into a coherent setting. Talents sourcebook for the U.S. Civil War, packed
It is the ultimate Victorian fantasy pastiche. It is with details about life in the 19th century.
so complete and so perfect that it was one of the Unhallowed Metropolis by Jason Soles and Nicci
main reasons we took a different approach with the Vega. Here is a fantastic Victorian setting gone
setting of The Kerberos Club, leaving the characters deadly. The smog is more poisonous, the poverty
of literature within the pages they call home only more crushing, and the whole damned place is
hinting that perhaps they were inspired by “real” infested with wormy hideous undead who want
individuals actually within in the setting. nothing more than to drag you down and eat the
soft tissue off your face. Never leave home without
your gas mask and your gun.
Victoriana by John Tuckey. Heroic fantasy in
the Victorian age, loaded with research
and beautiful design.
15
 Introduction

Movies TV
The Great Train Robbery. Sean Connery clinging Deadwood. While it rarely if ever touches on
to the top of a speeding train? Not much could make Victorian London, this series is in every possible
this movie better. It is a great heist film, well paced way fantastic. The dialog raises cursing to a high art,
and generally well acted if fairly light viewing, full and the frontiers of Victoria’s empire would often be
of excellent costuming and Victorian thieves’ lingo. as rough and wild as the Deadwood camp.
Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, itself based The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. A short-
loosely on real events. lived series based on the conceit that Verne did not
From Hell. Alan Moore’s London is recreated write fiction, but thinly veiled biography, and all his
in all its dripping fog-choked detail, populated stories were inspired by his extraordinary adventures
with a fantastic cast of character actors, and then and the people he knew. The quality of the writing
abandoned by the script writers and director. It looks and special effects and acting is uneven, but overall,
pretty good, and the performances themselves aren’t this is a fun series. Steam-powered robots, hover-
painful, but almost everything which made Moore’s tanks, airships, evil overlords, mole machines: there
graphic novel unique and powerful is abandoned for is still plenty to recommend it.
a pretty generic Jack the Ripper slasher. Watch for
Robbie Coltrane’s snarling copper at least.
LXG: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Sean Connery again? Yes indeed. But poor, poor Mr. The Web
Moore. Not to put too sharp a point on it, but this
extremely loose adaptation of the graphic novel is not Victorianlondon.org. An invaluable resource
a good movie. The movie version of the League (and which zooms in tight on the metropolis of London,
their more overt superpowers) actually maps closer and includes Dickens’s Encyclopedia of London.
to the style of character seen in The Kerberos Club Victorianweb.org. One of the oldest online
than the original comic, but while the movie looks sources for all things Victorian, and still one of the
pretty good (the practical effects used for Mr. Hyde best.
especially appealed to me), the dialog is astonish- Wikipedia.org. While some sneer at the
ingly bad. Watching the DVD with the Spanish or accuracy of Wikipedia, for the casual history buff,
French dialog track it becomes far more enjoyable. or the GM looking for inspiration, there are few
Assuming, of course, you don’t speak Spanish or places online which give you so much useful info for
French. your time. Since many Wikipedia articles are cross-
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. linked it’s easy to stumble from one topic to another,
Johnny Depp returns to London, this time as every- uncovering ideas, hooks, and obscure history you
one’s favorite singing, dancing serial killer, Sweeney can use in your games.
Todd. London looks a little bit like a well-dressed
stage, but then people are constantly breaking out
into song, so verisimilitude isn’t really a priority
here. Depp looks fantastic as Todd, and
Carter looks fantastic as always.
16
 Chapter 1
The Kerberos Club
The great black coach roared down the moon-silvered tight to his head he scrambled up the lamppost as easily
flags of Haymarket toward the resolute forms of Dr. as a man might step across a drawing room. From this
Archibald Monroe, Joe Smithson and the Countess new vantage he laughed his hooting laugh to see his
Lámina, who stood seemingly stuck to the stones by a companion, the exhibition boxer Stony Joe Smithson,
syrupy pool of gaslight. prove his nickname to be well ascribed.
The great four-horse carriage was a juggernaut as That hulk of a man widened his stance, hunching into
the hooves of its team struck sparks on the street. It would the pugilist’s posture, and the lamplight shone on his skin
have been the very sight to blanche London’s pedestrian just the same as it shone off the stone-paved street. His
citizenry—to bring all the terror of an out-of-control nickname wasn’t the stuff of simile and metaphor, but
coach plunging wildly into a crowd—but this night, of reality! Blessed by patent scientific processes, the boxer
O reader, the old city’s citizens were safely shut away, was made as hard and heavy as good British stone—and
and no right-minded gentleman or lady was upon the nearly five hundredweight! His craggy features, framed
midnight streets. None but the lowest of peoples slunk by side-whiskers of green lichen, showed a fierce smile,
along the walks, plying their illicit trades or stumbling and his shoulders rolled as he drew back to deliver his
with drink from one public house or another. None, famed punch, the so-called East End Avalanche.
that is, save those embraced by the Strange ways of the And then the carriage was upon him, all noise and
Kerberos Club. froth and savage animal fear, and the Avalanche fell
Crashing ever closer, the carriage came! And over upon the lead horse’s skull with all the force of a stone
the roar of wheel and hoof came the shrill voice of the mallet.
man within, the butcher-physician, the horrible Dr. None could see the pugilist’s triumph, however, for
Fabian. He screamed to his driver to drive faster, to the horse went down, tangling the bridle and reins
crush his enemies under and leave them broken in the and falling under the hooves of its companion, who
streets while their blood washed black in the moonlight likewise tumbled to the street only to be crushed under
between the hoary old flagstones. How many of Dr. by the two beasts behind. All screamed with terror as
Fabian’s foes had met this same end? Too many, to be they drove downwards in a mass of kicking, bleeding
certain; innocents slain to cover his egregious crimes, his flesh. Meanwhile the carriage, the heavy black carriage
experiments upon living victims, so much crueler than as huge as a police wagon, rose up, its tongue driven into
the quick release of death. the pavement. Like the arm of a medieval catapult it
The carriage was nearly upon the Kerberans when tossed the hunched driver far down the street. The coach
as one they moved. Countess Lámina leapt aside with flipped end over end to crash down upon the mass of
an athleticism that was the envy of England’s greatest horseflesh, with Stony Joe, the Strange agent
sportsmen. With scarcely any effort Dr. Monroe of the Kerberos Club, buried beneath!
exercised his simian prerogative: Clutching his top-hat The screams of nearby women
17
 Chapter 1

punctuated the crash, then fell off, to be replaced with thumbed back the hammer to lock.
shouts of excitement among the onlooking rogues and “My dear doctor, be warned that this revolver is a
harlots. They called to their fellows, and windows all temperamental thing, very touchy and cross, and liable
along the street were thrown wide to afford a greater to bark and bite at the slightest provocation. Be so kind
view of the calamity and the queer figures who caused it. as to ease its worries about your behavior, and clasp
Even the fallen women who walk the Haymarket street about your wrists these self-locking manacles.”
yet have hearts, and the cry went up to put the carriage- So saying, she dropped into the doctor’s lap just such
horses out of their misery, for their pain was most a confabulation, already stained rusty with dried blood.
terrible to hear. Picking herself up with an unshakable The doctor shook upon seeing them, and his voice lost its
dignity, Countess Lámina produced a heavy, short- defiance, quavering as he spoke: “Are these . . . these . . .
barreled revolver, and fired three quick shots into three the very manacles . . . ?”
equine skulls, dispatching the broken beasts to whatever “Indeed, doctor. Taken from the cells beneath your
reward awaits loyal animals, even if their loyalty be to laboratory, from off the wrists of one of your victims,
evil men. who was blessed fortunate to pass on before seeing the
Onto the upended carriage Dr. Monroe’s apish form ruin you’d made of her. You will be bound in chains you
dropped, hat still firmly held in place, and between the forged for yourself, doctor—in this life and in the next.”
spinning wheels he reached down to wrench the doors The mad physician began to weep as he locked the
open and grasp the addle-brained man within. Dr. first cuff about his own right wrist. Then looking up, eyes
Monroe jerked him out so that Dr. Fabian fell into the agleam with savage joy, he said: “But you do not beat me
street amid the wreckage of his instruments, his pills and chain me without cost! When you first found me out
and powders, and the mingling pools of the horse’s blood and stalked me, and drove me to this desperation, you
and his own. were three! But now? Now you are two.
“Damn and blast you,” Dr. Fabian snarled. “Damn “I will go to the gallows laughing that one of you
you three! I’ll not be so easily caught!” deformed Strangers has fallen to me! Your pet boxer is no
Dr. Monroe smiled as only a chimpanzee ape can, more, crushed beneath horse and carriage, and ground to
with far more teeth than one is comforted in seeing. “I dust against the flagstones!”
would be shamed to call myself a medical man, owing But his laughter abruptly ceased. Staring past
to your own perversion of the art—but thankfully I Countess Lámina to the wreckage, the thousands of
no longer must be considered a man at all! To the very pounds of hardy oak and iron and horseflesh, his eyes
marrow of my transformed bones, I ache to destroy you, grew wide around. The mass began to shift, and then to
Fabian, and wipe away the stain you represent upon my rise. Beneath it, picked out by the light, was the form of
noble profession.” Stony Joe Smithson, bathed in blood, with clothing all
“ You’ll have no chance, you filthy, debased thing! You ripped to rags, but completely whole in body and resolute
may speak as a man, and wear a man’s clothing, but of purpose.
you’re not fit to judge me! You’re as rotten as the failures Arms upraised, hoisting aloft the wreckage, he spoke
of my laboratories, unclean and stinking!” in a grindstone voice:
“It is not I who wallows in the horses’ wastes and “No, doctor! None is destroyed here today but you.”
fluids. Countess Lámina, would you be so kind . . . ?”
Silent upon nimble feet, the Countess stepped From “The Affair of the Horrific Dr.
forward, her revolver still huge and smoking Fabian,” part 5, as published in The People’s
in her hand, and setting the barrel Periodical, issue 7, November 21, 1865.
18 against the villain’s head she
 Chapter 1

Welcome to the
Kerberos Club
Behind the monstrous Gothic-revival façade of the
Kerberos Club’s main clubhouse on the Square of
Saint James, the building seems to coil in on itself,
becoming labyrinthine, almost as if the building were
twisting itself into knots to confuse and confound.
Given the nature of the organization it houses, this
is not impossible.
To join the Club is to transgress, to break with
the accepted “truths” of daily prejudice, to become
open to the possibility that one has been wrong.
About everything.
Even early in the century, when the Strangeness
is budding but not yet in bloom, the halls of the
Kerberos Club throw open the weird hidden world
for all its members to see. Within the walls of the
Club, the Strange is on display.
Its rooms are decorated in arcane style and hold
inexplicable artifacts of mad genius. One whole
gallery is given over to collections of meticulously
mounted and labeled butterflies, specimens that any
ordinary expert would say cannot exist. Beautiful.
Otherworldly. Some painfully ordinary save for
one jarring touch of the exotic. Some so alien as
to cause the eyes to water when one tries to trace
their unsettling geometries. Knowing what these
specimens signified— where they were collected
and by whom—would be of great value, if only
the lepidopterist had not labeled all his prizes in
an unknown alphabet all of curls and slashes, like
daggers stabbing flame.
On certain nights of the year, the Butterfly
Room is filled with the hushed sound of thousands
of tissue-thin wings flapping in concert. On these
nights, secrets told can never be revealed by any
listener who hears them over the ghostly flapping.
19
 Chapter 1

It is a popular room for sworn oaths and mysterious exclusive privileges.

pacts, as well as for quiet reflection on the wages of It happens with alarming frequency that a
obsession. Kerberan given up as certainly dead for many
The Kerberos Club is filled with such inexpli- years will arrive one day without announcement,
cable wonders. sometimes wearing clothing years out of fashion,
There is no official hierarchy within the Club, and promptly seek a favorite chair in their favorite
and only a few shadowy officers to oversee what room, and ask for a favorite London daily and a
matters affects the whole—the payment of expenses, two fingers of brandy to ease back into the Club’s
the handling of affairs of business. The Club’s house embrace.
is staffed by a colorful motley of help, well paid to
accept the particular atmosphere prevalent in the
Club. Many have personal reason to seek service in
such an uncanny establishment. They learn early to Cloak of Lies,
meet the requests of members, no matter how bizarre,
as efficiently as possible, and to ignore anything Waistcoat of Obscurity, and
which seems particularly odd. Generally, the more
Strange something seems, the less attention one Opera Hat of Exaggeration
ought to apply to it.
Old members can usually be depended upon to The Kerberos Club’s origins are obscure, if not by
help new members settle in, access the Club’s range design then by designs. It has certainly occupied its
of facilities, and make introductions among their present location since the mid-seventeen hundreds
particular circles. Only the officers know (there are wine-seller’s bills to prove this), but prior
the Club’s true membership, as to the Club’s move into its Saint James house,
20 access to the Rolls is one of their records sink in the mire of history.
 Chapter 1

Some members proclaim loudly that the Club long-standing member of the Kerberos Club. It was
hails from the days of the Roman occupation, and said that St. James brewed the King elixirs of opium,
descends directly (and obscurely) from the ancient mandrake, and the residue of evaporated dreams
mystery cults of Mithras and Hermes. But these distilled from the brow-sweat of failed artists and
same members proclaim loudly that the rats in the the saliva of debauched actresses.
walls speak secrets between the hours of midnight
and one, if you have the ears to hear them. Both
might be true. Neither might be true. Perhaps the
rats would know which story to believe. The Kerberos The Purpose of the Club
Club counts as members some of the greatest liars in
the Empire, and some consider spinning mad tales While not as exhilarating as exotic adventuring,
for new members part of their welcoming duties. spy-catching, or ghost hunting, the Club’s most
Likewise, the Club’s true purpose or mission are humble (and vital) purpose is as a mutual-protection
subject to much debate. fraternity for individuals who would otherwise be
Most members can agree on the Club’s most marginalized, denied the society of their fellows,
basic purpose: a safe harbor for those who find and possibly persecuted right out of the community.
weathering ordinary society a perilous thing. Many The Club looks out for its own, and all members are
also agree the Club works in its vague way to protect made to understand this core duty: watch out for
Victoria’s Empire by marshaling against Strangeness the people who are watching out for you.
run wild. In extremis, one can expect one’s fellows in the
Club to offer what aid they may and to employ
their influences on one’s behalf. The Club maintains

Origins Mysterious solicitors on retainer to handle the business of Club

members who don’t wish to retain their own counsel,
and in addition to members who practice in the legal
Nobody is quite sure where the Kerberos Club has professions, its barristers can defend members who
its roots. But there are some tantalizing clues. face trial or suit.
It’s likely, though unproven, that the modern For members who lack legal standing, those
Club got its start at the Gates of Hades coffeehouse underage, who are deemed nonhuman, or who are
in 1723. The Gates of Hades had the distinction of unfortunate enough to have been born female, the
having been burned to the ground more often than Club’s solicitors arrange what trusts and investments
any other establishment in Greater London. The may be made to give them financial independence,
Club’s precursor is thought to have met in the rooms securing those assets so no husband or parent might
above the Gates for cards, wagering, and general claim them.
debauchery, as well as a truly unhealthy amount of Most frequently, fortunes are put into the five
sorcery, conspiracy, and revolutionary thinking. per-cent government funds, with two being rolled
When the Gates of Hades burned for the final back into the investment to let it increase, while
time (when its long-suffering proprietor, Edward providing a reliable three per-cent a year. This may be
Hale, gave it up as lost), it was rumored to have been less than the typical heiress, who invests in the five
destroyed by an agent of the sons of King George per-cents and spends the lot (and more!)
III, who blamed their father’s madness on his close per annum; but with membership in
association with Simon St. James, an alchemist and the Club carrying so many perks,
21
 Chapter 1

up to and including a modest but well-appointed The Club also serves as powerful impetus for
suite of apartments within the clubhouse itself, it exploration. Expeditions are organized, experiments
allows members to weather financial hardship quite proposed, rituals performed, lost works of deep elder
handily. The Kerberos Club’s agents are perfectly lore translated. The diverse membership brings fresh,
happy to manage the funds of gentleman members dangerous ideas from across the world, and boils
as well, and it has been estimated that the Club’s them over coals until the impurities are sublimated,
agents manage funds totaling in the millions of leaving only the essence behind: curiosity purified.
pounds. Kerberans challenge each other in the best spirits
of the British tradition. They argue, they debate and
they wager. Oh! How they wager.
In 1848, the Kerberan Jackson Trollope bet
William Coney the titles to his Yorkshire farm estate
against Coney’s submersible boat that he could not
“journey to the Empire of Brazil and petition His
Imperial Majesty Dom Pedro the Second to release
a mated pair of his Amazonian dinosaurs in time
I Shall Dine At the Club for the upcoming Exhibition.” Coney took the bet,
drummed up funds for his expedition, and within
Tonight, My Dear two weeks was aboard the hired merchant steamer
The Victorian gentleman’s club is a somewhat Hannibal on his way to Brazil.
alien institution to many moderns, particularly The best part of two years passed, and then in
Americans. Where most Americans could be mid-September, 1851, the Hannibal returned,
described as “work/home” oriented, splitting their carrying Coney (minus one eye and several fingers)
time mostly between their work life and their home and not two but a dozen of the royal Brazilian
life, Victorian club members, as our illustrious animals, the living relics of the Cretaceous age come
co-editor Jess Nevins so neatly puts it, “were either down to the Brazilian Emperor from the ancient
work/club/home oriented, club/home oriented, or Mayan kings.
work/club oriented.” The beasts astonished the crowds at the
To the Victorian man, particularly to one of the
Exhibition, though earning an arch look from Her
middle class, his club and club activities were major
Majesty when the larger of the two iguanodons
parts of life—not simply a group he belonged to,
made a meal of the Crystal Palace’s full-grown elms.
but a place where he spent a great deal of his time.
After the Exhibition, all the dinosaurs save two
Men frequently dined at their clubs, took their
leisure there, met with associates in business and were donated to the Royal Zoological Park. Coney
entertained guests there. kept a breeding pair of the hound-sized theropod
The Victorian woman was expected to manage “feathered serpents,” which he had grown quite fond
the home and arrange for home-oriented social of on the journey home. Struck by their intelligence
functions. Without a wife or female relative to see and loyalty, he found them ideal companions for a
to it, most Victorian men would have been hard- gentleman farmer, as he became after claiming his
pressed to arrange a dinner party. For these men, new estates from Trollope. He said in 1871 that
the club provided a way of accomplishing similar “The beasts were the very thing to shock a man to
things. Who one knew (and particularly who would the bone when I first saw them, but after keeping
vouch for one) was enormously important. them for these twenty years, raising them from the
 Chapter 1

egg and hunting with them, I must say that nothing have been Touched as well, in their own ways, and
looks so queer to me as my neighbor’s foxhounds.” the depredations of faerie anarchists, dynamite
Coney only admitted much later that he didn’t conspirators, Zulu war-spirits, rogue autome-
persuade the monarch of Brazil to release into his chanical domestics, Tong assassins, anti-royalist
care the precious animals, but, when he was roundly occult conspiracies, Thuggee cultists, vengeful
denied access, instead staged his own expedition and Martian ghosts, and escaped Amazonian regusaur
poached them from the royal preserves. war-dinosaurs all demand Kerberan attention.
And this gives us a lesson in the dark side of Some Kerberans conceal their faces behind
unbridled exploration: transgression.   masks, so they might fight these menaces without
When one constantly challenges limits, it publicly revealing their identities for savaging in
becomes more difficult to discern why some limits the sensational press. Others seem to court the
are necessary, why some bounds are not meant to attention of the most salacious papers. By this time
be crossed. For a Kerberan, already leaping bodily the Kerberan love of exploration becomes somewhat
over such confinement just by joining, the reason lost, and the Club is struggling to hold its own. Its
in things like etiquette, law and morality begins purpose, to lessen the flow of the Strange and keep
to seem quite thin. When one can defy the very it from overwhelming the seat of Empire, has itself
laws of Nature, the laws of Man seem illusory, and become overwhelmed.
Kerberans in particular must remain alert to the
dangers of striding too far into the dark unknown.
The Club is but a small fraction of life in a city like
London, and outside the Club’s doors are ordinary
folk who would be horror-struck if they were shown
this darkness.
The Charter, the
Being a Kerberan is a balancing act between
unlocking secrets and transgressing too far, between
achieving marvels and becoming hardly human
Rolls, and Grand
anymore. For this reason the Club polices its own,
letting no member’s mad schemes or ambitions
threaten the innocent or the Club’s tenuous place
Old Tradition
in society. Also for this reason, some of the worst The Club has few rules, but the ones it does have
villains of the age find themselves welcomed into rise to the level of the sacrosanct. All members
the Kerberos Club, their abilities and ambitions sign the Club’s Charter, which describes the three
rechanneled, their predilections given outlet. Laws governing the comportment of Club members
As the century ages and the Strangeness become among themselves and when dealing with the
commonplace, members of the Club find themselves outside world, as well as a collection of Bylaws
increasingly overwhelmed by the fast rising of the which describe such mundane matters as the Club’s
Strange tides. By 1880 they have utterly abandoned financing.
any pretense of secrecy, and openly proclaim their Once the Laws and Bylaws are signed, a
Strangeness to the world, marshaling their powers Kerberan’s name is added to the Rolls, the list of
against looming menaces, sometimes with epic all members of the Club, current and past.
battles in the very streets of London. And indeed, The Rolls are writ upon a vellum
in its skies and waters. The enemies of the Empire made in the old way by Peecher
23
 Chapter 1

reasons, and often to no clear point or purpose. On

the anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte,
for example, it is considered unlucky to pass through
the door of the Kerberos Club facing forwards or
backwards, and one should pass through sideways
instead. Young members rarely engage in such
foolishness, but the longer they belong, the more
The Three Laws of the Club they find themselves participating in the Traditions.
Perhaps it is because they have learned the true
1. Be True to your Fellows, for they Know you. purposes of them, and fear the consequences of not
obeying.
2. Be kind to those Ignorant, and help them preserve The Tradition of the Challenge is not frivolously
this comfort. dispensed with. Challenging one’s prospective
Kerberan is as close to a sacrosanct duty as the Club
3. Recognize Evil, and be its master. comes. These Challenges are often weird, complex,
and baroque. Sometimes horrific, sometimes
whimsical, they reflect the personalities and predi-
& Sons papermakers, and bound into a somewhat lections of the Challengers and the abilities and
ragged and much-stained book. The Rolls are huge, capacities of the Challenged. Each is unique. They
and lend credence to the pretensions of ancient aren’t exclusive affairs by any stretch, and other
origins. The oldest names in the Rolls are not even Kerberans who get wind of a Challenge sometimes
written in a recognizable alphabet, and their paper seek to meddle in it to their own ends, offering the
is crumbling birch bark.   prospect a bit of assistance or further consternation.
But before signing, one must be nominated Keeping a Challenge secret from other Club
by an existing member. A prospective Kerberan is members, or more famously, presupposing such
observed from afar (in all the Strange ways available interference and using it as part of a Challenge of
to members of the Club) by the nominating delirious complexity, is all a part of it. And of course,
member’s circle of friends and associates, and any as with all things to do with the Club, the betting
other interested parties who ferret out the nominee. is fierce. Will a prospect spiral down into terror
Ungentlemanlike meddling is second nature to and madness, or will he rise to meet the Challenge,
long-standing Kerberans, after all, and wooing overcoming and being exalted by the test?
a new member to the Club is a marvelous way to It is considered very bad form for a prospect to
shape the new member to one’s own philosophies. suffer permanent injury, insanity, or death, though
Once the period of observation is complete such things are not unknown. It is also considered
(especially if a particularly adept prospect realizes bad form to go too easy on a prospect. Meddlers
he is being inspected), the Kerberans devise some often move in when they think a Challenge is too
manner of challenge to test the mettle of the simple or too menacing.
prospect. This gauntlet is as much a test of the Kerberans
The Challenge is the greatest of the Club’s who stage it as of the prospect who runs it. Do the
esoteric Traditions, the practices and Challengers have the wit to select a new member
rituals passed down from earlier with the skills and will to overcome the most devilish
24 members for sometimes obscure confabulations of the corkscrew minds of the Club?
 Chapter 1

Running the Challenge The Traditions as Plot Device

The Traditions are a vague and weird body of Club
lore. They essentially exist to give the GM a ready
There are basically three ways to stage a Challenge.
reason to explain eccentric behavior or an unwill-
• Run the challenge of one of the PCs, either in
ingness to help on the part of a Club’s more senior
flashback or as the prelude to the introduction of a
members. Such a one might seem quite interested
new character (merging it with the next option). in the questions being put to her—and then with
• Let the players plan a challenge for an NPC the chiming of the four o’clock church bells she
(or a new PC) introduced into the game during play. blanches and says, “Good God, I nearly … well, I
• Let the player characters interfere and meddle must be off. Tradition, you understand.”
in a Challenge staged by another Kerberan. A smart player will immediately recognize that
When structuring a challenge, keep in mind the this is precisely what is going on, as would their
things it is meant to test and encourage: character. Blaming an unwillingness to aid on the
Curiosity. A prospect should be led into the Traditions is an acceptable bit of deceit, so long
Challenge, not forced into it. A good Kerberan is as it isn’t abused. Further, tradition (for real this
curious enough to kill the nine lives of nine cats, time) dictates that if caught out in such a fib, one
and a prospect should show the glimmerings of this. is required to say something on the order of, “Oh,
The Touch. A prospect should already be in you’re quite right, of course the Week of Rhyme
doesn’t begin until Monday next.” Having saved
some way Touched by the Strange, either through
face, one is obliged to provide the requested aid.
experience, temperament, or some Strange faculty,
Playing the Traditions can excuse one from some
ability, or power. The Strange should already be at
unpleasant duty, but if the requester is more wise to
work in their lives, and the Challenge will lead them them, then it can bind one to the task.
into a greater understanding and acceptance of it. Mechanically this can handled with opposed
Resilience. A Kerberan must stare Satan in Persuasion skill rolls, but only if the player creatively
the face and make Old Scratch blink first. Even if comes up with some plausible-sounding refutation
shocked and horrified, a Kerberan stands up and of the NPC’s excuse.
acts when others huddle in fear. The Challenge
should test a prospect nearly to destruction, and then
let them spring back into form like a rapier blade.
Ingenuity. If a prospect can unravel the
Challenge, and through wits, will and brazen risk- After the Challenge
taking put his Challengers at his mercy, it promises a
famous career in the Club. A Challenge should test What becomes of a person after the ordeal of the
both a prospect’s areas of mastery and those areas Challenge? Ideally, they have been so well selected
where he is weakest. In overcoming and circum- as to pierce the veils thrown over the Challenge’s
venting these pitfalls, he can prove his ingenuity. scenario by the Kerberans. The final act of the
Humor. The Club is too irreverent not to have Challenge should be grand drama and farce all in
some fun at its own expense, even in this, the one. The revelation of the truth should accompany
greatest of its Traditions. Teasing out the strings of a realization that the whole scenario was staged.
irony, whimsy and absurdity in a Challenge is often Reactions to this vary greatly.
vital to resolving it. Some prospects react with grace
and humor, other with a rage as
25
 Chapter 1

primal and indignant as any affronted Englishman

could raise at having such liberties taken. Most in
The Lost
the end accept the offer of membership, and join What twisted things grow with the sowing of a bad
seed, and who will reap the tangles and briars? The
the Strange society of the Kerberos Club. Most. But
Lost are the Club’s greatest and most implacable
not all.
foes, because the Lost know the Kerberos Club. They
There have been some famous failures with
remain unconfounded by the Club’s deceptions
the Tradition of the Challenge, and while it isn’t and illusions. And those who survive long enough
generally known among the rank and file of the to trouble the Club are dangerous and subtle foes
Club, it is no real secret. It simply remains one indeed.
of the few things most Kerberans won’t spin wild The Club takes confrontations with the Lost very
yarns about, as it is a powerful condemnation of seriously. The realization that they are dealing with
the whole Tradition. But the names of those lost, a Lost Kerberan, especially if there is a personal
injured, maddened, shattered, or transformed by the connection to one of the PCs, might best be saved
Challenge are recorded in the Blue Chamber. for a big reveal, with a cliffhanger ending in the
The Blue Chamber is a memento mori, a warning, dramatic tradition of the age.
a museum of shames. It contains the jumbled relics of
failed Challenges and of the Lost, those failed by the
Club and those who have betrayed it. Everything that Filthy Lucre
is known of these Lost Kerberans is recorded here,
and few members enjoy surveying the grim exhibits. There is a more mundane side to the Club’s activ-
When the shadow of one Lost falls upon the Club ities. It is a costly establishment to maintain, and
or those under its protection, contemplation within its members tend towards an extravagance that even
the Blue Chamber is often the only way to gain some those not born to wealth soon learn to mimic with
edge. The Kerberos Club embraces and channels the ease. The acquisition of antiquities and artifacts,
evil of its members. When loosed from its leash (or if grants of support for certain avenues of scientific
it is slipped early), the beast is canny, and unwilling to advance, the staging of expeditions, all cost dearly.
ever be so chained again. A true villain. Bribes are quite costly as well, as is the purchase of
But mostly, prospects are well chosen and their scandalous items of reputation-ruinous information,
Challenges well constructed. Membership is a virtual things that provide the occasional bit of influence
certainty after a successful Challenge, only requiring among those normally too moralistic to treat directly
a vote by the majority of gathered Kerberans (mostly, with the Club’s agents. For every grand scandal
those who staged the Challenge). What follows is a and ruined career among the Club and Queen’s
fête of truly astonishing proportions. The induction enemies, there are dozens of prudent individuals who
of a new member and the signing of the Rolls considered carefully the consequences of labeling a
happens no more than once a year on average, and is request for simple aid as “blackmail.”
cause for celebration among all the Kerberos Club’s And then there is all the wine, and port, and
members. It is a grand and wicked affair. whiskey; the cigars, beefsteak, mutton and curried
vegetables; the newspapers, opium, gas, and tallow;
the laundry soap crystals, linen, oil, coal, wood,
lavender water, tobacco, carriage rides, horse fodder,
shoe leather; all the thread and all the needles for
26 the mending of all the highly-suspicious rents in
 Chapter 1

all the coats and trousers, as well as the prohibitive but well-appointed apartments within the House
expense in removing stains of blood and ichor from itself. A Kerberan so established will have plenty of
linen and good Scots wool. (But the silk is sold for disposable cash to squander on gambling, compan-
sops, and the ladies of adventure are forced to visit ionship of negotiable affection, or exploration of
their dressmakers for replacements of fine things.) personal mad theories, practices or vices. See page 83
In short, it costs a fortune to run the Kerberos for a primer on the costs and currency of the day.  
Club. In actual fact, it costs several fortunes. The Club The Club’s affairs are managed by an elite cadre
is sustained by its own endowment, which grows in of solicitors and clerks, and defended in the courts
fits and starts as it is made a beneficiary in the wills of by jurists of savage tenacity and terrible reputation.
wealthy Kerberans. It is surprising how few members As the Strange increases steadily through the
have the usual crowds of grasping cousins and kin to century, so too do the numbers of lawsuits against
pry the coin from their corpses’ cold stiff hands. (No the Club and its members. Only in the final act of
Kerberan is ever laid out with coins upon his eyes— the Victorian drama do these suits begin to truly
by tradition, all Kerberans have free passage into the threaten, and they play their part in the Club’s final
Underworld, and may pass by the Hound as they wish unhappy fate in the winter of 1901.
to return and visit the living or to revenge themselves
upon their murderers; a fact that is widely known, just
as the Club wishes it to be.)
With the revenue from this endowment, the Club Age Before Beauty
operates its main house in London and its auxiliary
properties scattered throughout England, Wales, There is only the most informal hierarchy within
Scotland, Ireland, the Continent, India, China, and the Club, but there is definite power held by senior
the Americas. These small, local chapter houses Kerberans. Within the Club there is always a
are tiny by comparison, often serving as stopping background of intrigue. Kerberans meddle in each
points for members while traveling. They are staffed others’ affairs as readily as those on the outside,
according to their frequency of use, the most remote though rarely with the same severity. Kerberans with
having only a local caretaker, while the houses in the more experience know more of their fellows, know
larger Continental cities have respectable faculties more of their business, owe more favors and are
and staff. As with the main house on St. James, these owed more favors. Engaging the imagination and
auxiliary houses tend to attract and keep a very odd support of a senior Club member is often essential
class of servants. to realizing a personal scheme or dream.
According to the Bylaws, “All members in good Some of these seniors volunteer to join the
standing may as they need and desire draw upon the funds Club’s officers. These are positions with sometimes
of the Club to a degree based upon years of membership.” obscure and mysterious duties. New officers must
This means that all Kerberans receive, if they wish, be approved by all sitting members, so some have
an annual stipend. For new members it is enough sat empty for years as old feuds kept them from
to comfortably keep one person in the style of the being filled. Officers have authority over the Club’s
middle classes, but in practice these funds can easily practical management, as well as authority over its
be stretched further by a member making free use weirder occult and ceremonial aspects. Some of
of all the amenities of the Club: taking meals in the those don’t even really exist, being titles
Dining Room, drinking and smoking Club brandy invented by members who wished
and cigars, and making an abode in one of the small some obscure honor.
27
 Chapter 1

Madness to
the Method
Now, with a sense of what the Club is and what it
does, one must ask, “How does the Club go about it?”
There is a general trend through the century for
the Club to seek grander and more obvious solutions
to Strange problems. This is in greater part because
the nature of such problems themselves becomes
grander and more obvious. But in large part the
Club tends to engage its problems with the same
methods and styles.
By their nature, members of the Kerberos Club
are inclined to look into things best left alone. They
are the sorts who open the ancient tome bound in
human skin, who open the door at the top of the
winding stairs from which the terrible chittering
emerges, who would push the big red button to see
what it might do.
Not even all those Touched are suitable for
the Club. Many wish to flee after their first taste
of the Strange even if it marks them indelibly. But
those picked and Challenged, who join and sign,
those rarely know when to leave well enough alone.
For this reason, the Club is sometimes called the
Queen’s Terrier.
Kerberans engage in the prosaically-named
looking into things all the time. One never knows if
the odd sounds emerging from the alleyway are rats
scuttling, beggars snoring, trollops working their
trade, or the members of a savage cult strangling
yet another victim and plucking out his eyes. The
Strange lurks in every crack and crevice, it is soaked
into London’s stones, washed into the Thames and
drunk by unwise tradesmen.
Before the 1850s, the Strange could
be trusted to keep to the shadows.
28 The Strange knew its place—
 Chapter 1

only later would it mirror the revolutionary spirit

Beneath Stairs: Playing the Help of the great social thinkers and come out into the
The Kerberos Club is an organization catering to
light for all to see. Yet there was still plenty to look
the Strange, the weird, the eccentric, the outcast,
into. For every dinosaur loose in Hyde Park, every
the monstrous, the heroic, the paragon of all that
outbreak of syphilitic vampirism or faerie infection,
is unsettling and off-putting. The people who serve
every dynamite man committing his public outrage
them tea and tidy up their messes are, almost as a
matter of survival, equally unusual. They have to be. as street theater with Nobel’s best blasting jelly as
If you think the gentleman from Transylvania is a his accompaniment, there are dozens of queer events
peculiar fellow to sit to table with, then you’ve not which few ever learn of. In an age when demonic
been tasked with cleaning his apartments during possession is as shameful for a family as madness,
his night’s activity away from the Club. If you had and just as likely to be concealed, and when heavy
that job, you’d know he was downright bleedin’ odd! modest clothing might hide all manner of queer
Members of the staff of the Kerberos Club would transformations, a great deal goes unseen even in
in Savage Worlds terms would be built with the the century’s sunset years. So the Kerberos Club
standard 10 Power Points provided by the Arcane continues to look into the little things, even in the
Background (Super Powers) Edge, but cannot take shadows of warring gods and monsters. Because all
advantage of the Super Karma setting rule (see the grand and terrible things begin small.
Super Powers Companion page 12). Campaigns of
The clever cousin of looking into things is
this type are usually of the Street Hero sort (see the
meddling. The revelations of the Strange can feed
Super Powers Companion page 8).
the ego, and the perspective it grants tends to make
The servants also have their own traditions, secrets
one less concerned with the niceties of such things
and ways. Strange things happen below stairs, in
all the hidden service corridors, kitchens, laundries, as personal, private business. Kerberans ferret out
pantries and larders which are the heart and liver and secrets, digging up the buried bones, sniffing out the
spleen of the Club. The staff have their own adven- hidden evidence. It is second nature. And for most, it
tures and excitements that never rise to the attention becomes equally natural to act upon these uncovered
of even the observant Kerberans. The Club’s members truths. Often by the time the Queen’s agents make
sit and sip their port, never thinking about the trial contact with the Club about some rising menace
the wine steward must face when descending into detected by Her Majesty’s intelligence apparatus,
the Cellars, so like the Underworld, to brave the they find the Club already engaged tooth and claw
Three Challenges and return to the surface with one with it, or at least well onto its trail.
of the Club’s precious old vintages. Meddling extends to the personal as well.
There is also a bitter rivalry between the misfit staff Kerberans often become terrible users of people,
of the Kerberos Club and its neighbors. Especially
seeking out their weaknesses and exploiting them
long running is the rivalry with the staff of the
to their own ends. There are few happy Kerberan
Travelers, and especially angry is the one with Army
marriages, unless both parties are members of equal
and Navy Club. Competition in the grocers and
footing.
butchers for the best produce and cuts, and at the
tobacconist and tea-seller for the proper leaf, is fierce. If meddling is the cousin to looking into things,
Truly, the mighty Kerberans have as little idea about then dirty tricks is the family’s black sheep.
the trials and tasks of their staff as does anyone of Sometimes members of the Club, acting on their
privilege in London. Those tasks and trials could own initiative, and explicitly separate
make the stuff of fantastic gaming. from their activities as members,
will engage in great outrages in
29
 Chapter 1

pursuit of a more nebulous greater ideal. Lives are

destroyed, sometimes literally. Truths are burned
Spies, Damned Spies, and Informers
beyond recovery and their ashes buried. The innocent Spying has often been considered a dishonorable
are sacrificed to further a greater good, at least so and dirty business. In our history, the British
far as good can be picked out of the hazy moral military intelligence service was roundly regarded
atmosphere. These acts remain deliberately obscure, as useless and ineffectual until near the end of the
even to the Club. In truth, no one wants to know century. Skulking, opening other people’s private
that they share a game of whist with a mind that correspondences, informing—these things
could engineer the Irish Potato Famine in a scheme were seen as well beneath a gentleman, and the
to secure Queen Victoria’s rights and prerogatives as products of such actions were often disregarded
Queen of Faerie. by decision-makers who considered information
gained from spies to be unreliable and tarnished.
Not so much in the world of The Kerberos Club,
where a more robust tradition of spying endures.
For Queen and Country  The practice is still considered distasteful, and
there is no official branch of service dedicated to
The Kerberos Club has an odd place in Victoria’s spying, but there is a network of talented amateurs
organized by some of Victoria’s most trusted hands
Empire. The Queen Herself embodies such
who attend to such matters. The notion of dashing
sovereign ideals of honor and service, while the Club
Victorian spies, which fits more with the modern
is a creature of base pragmatism and expediency. Yet
stereotype of the era rather than the historical
it is common knowledge (in the circles where such
reality, quite applies to the world of the Club.
knowledge could possibly be considered “common”) Of course, the Kerberos Club finds itself entangled
that the Club acts quite frequently, directly or in such matters with some regularity, even if it
indirectly, on the wishes of the Queen. She never falls outside the channels normally employed by
directly (or even obliquely) communicates with its Victoria’s spymasters.
agents, but there remains a glimmer of Her authority,
a hint of shine beneath the tarnish.
A Kerberan would never claim to be acting on the public happily consumes any mention of the Club
Queen’s authority (or at least, would never be right in print, and as the century wears on its adventures
in doing so), but subtle and not-so-subtle hints to (real, exaggerated, or fabricated from whole cloth)
royal sanction would not be entirely incorrect. Those are printed in publications as low as penny dreadfuls
who understand these things recognize that the like The People’s Periodical and as well-regarded as
Club continues to exist and act in its accustomed The Strand.
manner in part because Victoria allows it. To those Its members are cast variously as heroes,
unkindly disposed towards the Club, this has lead to villains, or somewhere in between—sometimes Jack
it being nicknamed the malus regnum phallus. Harkaway, sometimes Dick Turpin, and sometimes
If the Club’s informal authority keeps it working, Sweeney Todd. The glut of cheap stories featuring
at least generally, for the good of the Empire, then the Club serves to blur the line between fiction
the attention it attracts, the scandals it generates, and reality, a trend exacerbated by Club members’
and the rumors it encourages serve tendency to claim imagined adventures as their
another end. The Kerberos Club own, and to deny their real (and often, more sordid)
30 is marvelously distracting. The experiences. By the 1890s, the difference between
 Chapter 1

reporting the adventures of the Kerberos Club and

Gentlemen, the Queen! simply inventing them is almost irrelevant. There are
One can not discount simple patriotism as a major
few things so fanciful that the Club has not encoun-
theme in the Club and its actions. Victorian patri-
tered them.  
otism was powerful in a way difficult for many modern
The Club’s public persona serves as a lighting rod
readers to fully understand. Even the powerful, the
for social anxiety and envy. Those who fear social
knowledgeable and the cynical—those well aware
of the nation’s faults and grievous inequities—were independence and crave it often find the Club
powerfully patriotic. Being British wasn’t a simple revolting and enviable in turns, but always endlessly
matter of birth, and patriotic attitudes were not fascinating. Increasingly as the century wears on, one
reduced to the level of socially-required rote. The of the Club’s greatest contributions to the Empire is
attitude might be characterized by a statement like, in the form of public theater. It is part adventure
“This country is a mess, but by God, it’s our mess!” story and part morality tale. In 1880, inspired by the
Simply put, to be British was the best possible thing scandals sweeping the Liberal party—including the
to be, and imposing “Britishness” on others wasn’t disgrace and retirement from public life of William
just a mode of social imperialism, but something of Gladstone—Benjamin Disraeli said of the Club,
a moral imperative. Another manifestation of that “Were there not a Kerberos Club already, we would
particular Victorian certainty. certainly have invented it; but how sometimes I
This attitude penetrated society on every level.
wish the Kerberos Club that we have, had not itself
Many among the rich and poor alike very literally
been invented.” 
loved the Queen, and all she symbolized, with a
Disraeli, despite his misgivings about the Club,
power which could bring tears to the eyes. After her
did allow a Kerberan physician to treat him for
break with Prince Albert and her retreat from the
public eye after 1861, there was an undercurrent of the chronic complaints of age, and the doctor’s
hurt in the public attitude towards her. Previously weird treatments saw him hale through his final
very visible, she left her people without her presence ministry of 1880 to 1885 and for ten more years
to guide and inspire. Her return to the public life late of retirement. Like many public figures, Disraeli
in her reign brought a resurgence of fond feelings found the Kerberos Club an invaluable ally, but a
towards her and the nation. dangerous one. A beast with three heads is never of
It is easy to imagine that a group of rogues and one mind, and the Club could always be depended
oddballs like the Kerberos Club might reject such on to never do precisely what one wished it to.
things as foolish or hopelessly naive, but this powerful In every part of the period, the Club also serves
love for Queen and Country can’t be dismissed. Its the Empire as its foremost vanguard against the
members, rejected and ostracized by the common Strangeness. Kerberan experts on esoteric subjects
people, still love their country and their Queen. They
are increasingly consulted, from secret covert
fight any threat to them while guarding their fellow
communiqués in the 1840s to publicly speaking
Kerberans from the very people they defend.
before the whole of Parliament in the 1890s. There
Victoria’s trust in the Club might seem irrational,
are few menaces so uncanny that a member of the
given that it counts as members some true villains and
monsters, but she knows that beneath their urges for Club can’t offer some insight. Indeed, many such
villainy and their monstrous skin beat British hearts. menaces never come to the attention of politicians
Or at least, that enough such hearts beat within the or press because the Kerberos Club has already
Club to guide the others towards Her ends. engaged in answering the threat on its
own initiative.  
It isn’t until the mid-1880s
31
 Chapter 1

that the government publicly recognizes the assis-

tance of the Club. The contributions to security,
progress, and prosperity made by Kerberans was
largely a thing of rumor. The first time Kerberos
Club members receive direct honors from the
Queen herself is after the Camp Affair of 1885. An
anti-Victoria religious conspiracy headed by Dr.
Albert Camp sought to assassinate the Queen using
mesmerically-conditioned pawns with surgically-
implanted nitroglycerine bombs—one, a member
of Victoria’s Privy Council who’d sought treatment
from the eminent Dr. Camp for appendicitis.
Camp and his conspirators were strict Methodists
of a particularly fanatical type, who saw Victoria’s
seeming divinity and Her growing cult within the
Church of England to be the height of idolatry
and paganism. The Kerberans who uncovered the
conspiracy, following a vague hint from a fellow
member, were knighted by Victoria.
After this, the Queen began to seek more direct
contact with the Club’s agents, and answered any
suggestion from her councilors or political allies
about the suitability of such contact with one of Her
particularly pointed silences.

Through the Eyes of

the Common Man  
How does the man-about-town see the Kerberos
Club? The shopkeeper? The peer? The beggar? The
proper middle-class wife? The criminal?
Early in the century, if someone knew of the
Kerberos Club at all, they would likely assume the
veneer of scandalous class-mixing was the extent of
the Club’s odd ways. It was still quite flamboyant
(ask any successful stage magician about the value
of a good distraction) but not obviously
Touched. This reputation for
32 libertine pursuits would lend an
 Chapter 1

admitted Club member a rakish air, which would and moral rot blighting the Square of Saint James
inspire questions from the curious and a good ought be forcibly re-located to a more suitable
snubbing from the moral.   environ—at least pushing it to Limehouse, but
Contemporary perspective on the era might ideally pushing it right into the Thames. (Signed A
suggest that an organization so openly in defiance Churchman.)” But the Club’s fashionable roguishness
of ordinary social convention would afflict its is preserved with the rise of the Strange. By the 1860s
members with a leprous mark of the unclean—that the Strange is becoming widely known, and people
no gentlemen or member of Society would associate see evidence of it all around them: the installation
with such rogues. But the morality of the period of faerie lamps in the West End, the presence of
was more complex than that, and sometimes those Her Majesty’s Submersible Boats in dockyards and
most in demant at a garden party would be just shipyards, the christening of the HMAS Queen—
such scandalous, fascinating rogues. Membership in the first of the new military aero-ships—and the
the Club lends an unmistakable air of danger and tales of the 13th Lupine Rangers and the British
adventure, and Kerberans taking in Society during Strangers who rose up to fight the Indian Rebellion.
the Season might be found speaking forth on all The Kerberos Club’s reputation, as first and
manner of topics, to shock and titillate. foremost a gathering of those Touched, pushes its
To defy custom, and to be caught out at it while notoriety as a gathering of social anarchists into the
skulking furtively and so to be humiliated, could exile distance. Even the moralistic middle class begin
one from Society forever. Friends would refuse to to think only of the Wonders. Suddenly again, the
see you. Men of business would decline your offers. Kerberos Club is popular. Only now in addition to
Debts would come due. But if you can defy custom, holding forth on revolutionary and scandalous ideas,
and carry it off with style and brazen panache, then guests at parties also plead to be shown miracles
you will be lauded for it—so long as you don’t cross and feats. Some Kerberans declined this sort of
the invisible line that separates an intriguing scandal society as a matter of course, but some (formerly
from a repellent scandal. If you cross that line, you relegated to lonely pursuits, or only keeping the
might find that friends ostracize you, refuse to company of other Kerberans) are welcomed among
even see you or acknowledge you in public. Worse, the powerful, the rich, and those with pretensions to
their friends and associates would also cut you out. such positions.  
Being cut out by an influential person can leave you Curiously, the opinion of the common people,
isolated from Society completely. as they became aware of the Club’s existence and
As the century progresses, the widening British activities through the press and the serialized tales
middle class (and its growing spending power) (true or fiction), remains much the same: “So what?”
begins to shape public opinion to a greater and The plight of Britain’s poor and working classes
greater degree. Increasingly, the particular assump- change little as the result of the Kerberos Club’s
tions and prejudices of the middle class become those grand adventures. Poverty is still crushing, work is
most frequently on the lips of pundits and social still endless, tedious, and dangerous. Even if a man
commentators. Victoria’s own growing austerity and flies, or the faerie walk the streets in the guises of
severity influence the social-climbing trendsetters men, or the Emperor of China gifts the Queen with
and arbiters of fashion, and in this harsher light, the a dragon’s egg, the rent has still got to be paid,
Club begins to look positively seedy. the dustbin emptied, and money enough
By the late 1850s, letters to London daily papers to feed four has to be stretched to
frequently say that the “… den of iniquitous thought feed seven.  
33
 Chapter 1

Britain’s poor frequently suffer the most from connected to a common brass model set upon the wall
the Strange manifestations of the changing age. in the Club’s main parlor for any member to answer as
The choking London fogs grow increasingly toxic, they wished, then he might have balked at divulging
finally coming to sparkle and glow at night with vital state secrets. But someone, at some point, gave
all the faerie soot mixed with the sulfur. When the him the impression that his calls would be answered
debased Atlantean savages swim up the Thames to only by senior and sober men of patriotism and long
steal wives, they don’t snatch fashionable ladies from experience, and no one at the Club dissuaded him
the West End, but take the daughters of the poor from these notions. The general consensus among
from the nighttime streets of the East End. But the Kerberans is that it is best not to worry politicians
poor suffer on, taking the Strange miseries in stride with things which would only perturb their sleep,
with the painfully ordinary ones. They work, scrimp, and cause them to appear tired and pouchy-eyed
save, go to Church on Sunday, and after the sermon before the voting populace. Every man of good will,
kiss the hand of Victoria’s statue in its shrine in the especially those dedicated to public service, deserves
corner, and they hope that no one gets too sick in a sound night’s sleep.
the winter. The Kerberos Club might make for an
engaging read in the penny dreadfuls, but it rarely
makes life on the street any easier.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, how do
the elites of the peerage and political castes see the
Kerberos Club? They will know more of the Club’s
The Kennels 
true nature earlier in the century, and the Club will The Earthly home of the Kerberos Club is its house
likely have made itself a force in their political lives at on the Square of Saint James, just off Pall Mall, a
some point, wooing or warring. Almost universally, terribly fashionable district of London’s fancy West
those with political power or hereditary nobility End. The Club is a constant reminder to all those
view a creature such as the Kerberos Club as a grave other proper gentlemen, visiting their proper clubs
menace to their position and way of life, and many for some proper cards and a proper drink with some
oppose Club interests even if by rational exami- proper company, that the world, despite the fervent
nation their goals and the Club’s align. The Kerberos wishes of the middle classes, simply isn’t a proper
Club is often seen as an ally too dangerous to court. place. All sorts of people come and go from the
Gladstone particularly despised the Club, even Kerberos Club at all hours of the day or night. Some
before the scandal which broke his public career. He scarcely even qualify as human. Possibly worse, some
blamed agents of the Club for his downfall until his scarcely qualify as British, or Male, or Gentlemanly.
dying day, as did his supporters—though few were Indeed, some are Women (from the Fallen to the
willing to be too vocal about it. Ennobled), Dwarfs, Actors, Tradesman, Indians,
There have been some noted exceptions, of course. Negros, Circus Folk, Disgraced Officers, Famed
Disraeli was the most famous politician to deal Spiritualists, Street Children, and God save us, even
directly with the Club’s agents. He even had a special the Irish.
televocagraph installed in his office, and a dedicated They all pass under the grotesque coat of arms
line run to the Kerberos Club’s house for those which hangs above the clubhouse door, a monstrous
times when he most vitally needed their three-headed dog on a quartered shield, fire and
counsel. If he knew that his secure wind above, bones and black water below. One head
34 and contentious Silver Televoc chews a severed hand, another sniffs the earth, and
 Chapter 1

neighbors, and favors the grossest extremes of the

Unwanted Admirers Gothic style so popular in the early decades of the
Fans. They become inevitable as the public profile
century: vaulted windows, gargoyles, crenulated and
of the Club rises and its place among the sensa-
spiked wrought-iron gates, and stone which seems to
tional events of the age grows. By the 1880s, most
suck up the London soot, becoming blacker than any
London daily papers of any respectable circulation
building in the whole of the West End.
have a staff journalist tasked with following the
Club’s exploits—if not to directly report upon Indeed, as the building needs repairs (which
it (something even in the ’80s the Club works to happens with alarming frequency, especially towards
discourage), then to follow the hounds to fresh the end of the century), it is rebuilt with even more
meat. The Nosy Reporter becomes a wonderful absurd exaggerations of the style. It becomes unmis-
foil for the GM to use, turning the Club’s tricks takably a self-parody towards the 1890s, revealing
against it. Dealing with such a potential threat (to the joke which had always been there: The building
reputation and security, at the least) might raise is deliberately meant to mock its own presumptions.
interesting moral issues: Use Strange powers or The increasingly ludicrous architecture of the
villainous social pressure to make the journalists Club’s house also follows its transformation from
back off, or court their attention and use them to the Empire’s secret-keepers and guardians against
shape the public’s perspective? the unknown to a weird team of public superhuman
Kerberans will also find themselves on the
defenders with their Strangeness for all the world
receiving end of real nuts: stalkers, lunatics,
to see. The building goes from unusual, somewhat
obsessed fans. “I say! Are you the Baron Clouder?
off-putting but at least keeping up appearances, to
I have all your stories as they appeared in Record
absurd and impossible, a building Stranger than its
of the Uncanny! You, Sir, are a wonder of the age!
Would you care for a cigar? They’re your brand, Sir. depictions in the dreadfuls, and reflecting the Club’s
I should know.” tradition of self-mockery.
How will such a morally suspect group as the The architecture is in keeping with the Club’s
Kerberans deal with pushy but essentially ordinary unspoken purpose: to attract attention, to distract
people? Warn them off ? Threaten them? Intimidate with the left hand while prestidigitating with the
them? Seduce them? Lay waste to their psyches right. It creates the impression that the Club might be
with horrendous powers beyond mortal under- a sham, and disarms those without the imagination to
standing?   pierce the façade. Gladstone failed to do this, seeing
Moral ambiguity is one of the hallmarks of the only a disparate band of trouble-makers, debauched
Kerberos Club milieu, as is the Law of Unintended dilettantes and circus freaks. He dismissed the Club
Consequences. The antics and reactions of these as an absurd affectation of the morally compromised,
hangers-on and followers can go a long way to
and viewed dealing with its agents as despicable. Were
provoking hard moral choices from your players.
he not such a moralist, his reformist politics and the
If they ask you, “Was that the right thing to do?”
Club’s revolutionary tendencies could have aligned;
Answer them, “I don’t know. Was it?”
but all he saw was the gothic monstrosity and not the
devious inner workings. He failed to imagine that as
the third glares out balefully. Beneath, the Club’s people walk past and stare, there are those within
motto is proudly writ: MALUM NECESSARIUM. the Club who stare back.
One could be forgiven missing the fine details of
the Club’s coat, as the building itself can be distracting.
It conspires to look far older than its respectable
35
 Chapter 1

Cluttered With Strangeness outside. The rooms are high-ceilinged and well-
ventilated, filled with light if there is reading or
billiards or cards to be done, or filled with cool dusk
Within the Club the atmosphere differs from the if an intimate atmosphere is more suited.  
theatrical impression of the exterior. The house The public areas of the Club, such as the front
first and foremost exists to be comfortable for its parlor, where non-members may be invited in for a
members. While many find the humor in the drink and luncheon, are more in keeping with the
building exterior, there’s no reason to bedeck the external architecture, filled with props of impressive
interior with gargoyles and torches. Rather, the Club and foreboding appearance but little meaning.
has a very lived-in quality. The wood glows deep Stuffed crocodiles hang from the ceiling, three-
with age and polish. Where hands might touch it, on headed cow fetuses lurk in bottles, racks hold books
guard-rails and chair-rails, and around doorknobs, with ominous titles such as Meditations on the Outer
it shines deeper, polished by regular contact. The Darkness, and heavy curtains are drawn shut. All of
carpets are worn but clean and still thick. it is absurd and comical to those with the insight to
The fireplaces and grates are large, recognize the joke. The reactions of the uninitiated
36 and they roar when there’s a chill to these cheap curiosities is the punchline.
 Chapter 1

The rare non-member given access to the those Strangers whose powers have physically trans-
private areas of the Club, in addition to being formed them, for example, often find it easier to
surprised at the simple comfort, will be shocked take lodgings with the Club than to seek it among
at the casual way true wonders are scattered about: the disapproving masses.  
trophies of weird adventures, the mounted heads of These apartments consist of a small sitting room,
extinct beasts, whirring confabulations of demonic a bedroom, a study, and a private bath—complete
clockwork, faerie weapons, works of otherworldly with indoor plumbing. While most of London’s
art, and drink cabinets filled with unlabeled bottles waste flushes into cesspits (of which there are
full of suspiciously-colored liquors. Yet, transposed thousands in the city by the 1850s) until Sir Joseph
with this, there are large comfortable chairs, fresh William Bazalgette’s sewers pump London’s effluvia
copies of the Times and other London dailies, bowls away in 1865, the facilities in the Club’s house
of walnuts, and cigar boxes. send it elsewhere. Which explains a famous Club
The Club’s justly famous Atlantis Room is a euphemism: “Posting a package to Lucifer.”  
drawing room of general purpose, done in shades All apartments have a main entrance in the
of blue and green. Glass globes are filled with brine alcove off the sitting room, where guests might hang
and carefully-balanced living systems, which keep hats and coats, and a second exit from one of the
luminous jellyfish shining bright enough to light private rooms leading to a warren of hidden, semi-
the room. The fireplace is surrounded by a mosaic of secret passages which weave through the building,
shark teeth, and the flames burn blue. Lying about and which are primarily the territory of the Club’s
almost casually are artifacts of the lost city: broken staff. They allow a resident to make a discrete exit
tablets and harpoon points, collected writings (and when desired.    
mad ravings) on the subject, and a collection of Members may take their meals in Six Saviors,
carved basalt idols with obsidian-chip teeth. the common dining room located on the second
If the idols draw blood with their teeth on floor, and decorated in a style which could only
a particular day of astrological significance, it is be termed “Early Armory.” Racks of medieval
said, they will come alive and speak of the glories weaponry line the walls, and the chairs are high-
of Atlantis, divulging their secrets for measures of backed heavy things of black walnut, carved with
blood and sanity. No one who tells this story is quite grotesque menageries of unnameable beasts. The
sure when that particular astrologically significant room is lit from on high by a huge chandelier of
day is, however. Some members prick their fingers ancient design, burning gas rather than candles (and
on one of these every time they enter the room, just by 1880, electric lights).
in case. When London’s airs permit, additional light
The Atlantis Room takes on grim new resonance filters in from the half-dozen enormous stained
after the Atlantean invasion of ’69, but none would glass window panels on the street-facing wall of
think of redecorating. the room, each removed from a different European
Kerberans who wish can make their residence grand cathedral under conditions of dubious
in the Club’s house, taking apartments in the upper legality. The window panels give the dining room its
stories of the building. There is no sure count on name, as each depicts a different interpretation of
the number of these private rooms, but at any one the Crucifixion and the Passion, and a different
time there might be two dozen Kerberans living character cast in the Jesus roll. The old
here on a more or less permanent basis. Members glass from Spain shows Jesus’s
who have difficulty mixing with ordinary society, face in exquisite detail, hundreds
37
 Chapter 1

of individual tiles of glass welded to give his face a

shocking reality and a lurid cast of almost porno- Evenings at the Club
graphic agony. By contrast, the Jesus depicted in the
window taken from Cyprus is of simpler artistry, After taking a meal, Kerberans who aren’t occupied
and his expression is one of ironic amusement.  with their own business might retire to one of
In 1851, famed gentleman burglar Sir Mitchim the sitting rooms, drawing rooms or libraries for
Derby entered the dining hall early one morning, amusement, private or social. The Club provides
planning on helping himself to some cold meat and all the usual amenities (cards, billiards, books,
cheese, and claimed to have encountered a singular liquor cabinets). Unlike most London establish-
event. All six of the Jesuses had stepped down from ments where ladies are present, there is a standing
their windows and were sitting about the same table, Club tradition that anyone who wishes can smoke
conversing in Aramaic and eating a meal of bread anytime they please (except in another member’s
and wine. Sir Mitchim further claims to have joined private apartments). Women may smoke as freely as
them, gotten powerfully intoxicated, and when anyone else who indulges, and the Club’s humidors
he awoke beneath the table (stirred by Kerberans and cigarette boxes are kept well full at all times.  
seeking their mid-day repast), they were back in Many of the Club’s general rooms are cluttered
their accustomed places. It is generally thought that with Strangeness, but some like the Butterfly
Sir Mitchim was lying, but this being the Kerberos Room contain notable collections, organized and
Club, it has become tradition to leave a single glass catalogued, and arranged to the standards of one
of wine from the last bottle of the evening undrunk member or another. These collection rooms are
upon the table, in case one Jesus or another becomes monuments to odd obsessions. One room contains
thirsty during the night. thousands upon thousands of vials of blood, each
The fare served at the Kerberan table (and laid with a tiny hand-written label describing the person
on the sideboard in the main parlor for breakfast the sample was taken from. Another contains
and for luncheon) ranges wildly, being generally anomalous fossils, like the skull of a mastodon with
excellent but inconsistent, and following no certain a corroded and deformed rifle bullet lodged in it,
menu. One day a hearty roasted joint of beef and with signs that the bone healed after the wound was
dripping-soaked pudding, the next naan flatbread inflicted.
and curried chickpeas. Members who prefer more Another contains novels made entirely out of
routine in their repast (or whose requirements are the text of other novels, carefully snipped out and
exceptionally unusual) make their own arrange- pasted together into different configurations, many
ments. broadly excellent in their motley.
Meals are among the most social occasions for Like many things in the Club’s house, there are
members, as they mix and mingle, sharing table with so many of these collections scattered about that
people outside their normal cliques as they drift few if any know them all. More often than anyone
into the dining hall and are seated as chairs become would deem rationally possible, the weird things
available. A group must arrive all at the same time collected together in these rooms turn out to be
to sit together. Those who might wish to arrange remarkably valuable in a crisis. The huge collection
a “chance” meeting with another member must of North American native artifacts seemed only a
time their arrival at the Hall just so. curiosity until the Ghost Dance of 1880 brought
vengeful beast spirits into the heart of London’s old
38 city, wreaking havoc. Only the chipped flint of the
 Chapter 1

Borrowed Wonders
The wonders casually abandoned in the Kerberos
Club house can often be employed as plot devices,
Enemies Foreign
but players may wish to access them for specific
purpose, perhaps to see if another member has
encountered lycanthropic miasma, or if there
is a machine for burrowing through stone. No
and Domestic
more than once per session. A single character’s The culture and traditions of the Club serve to bind
Knowledge (Kerberan) skill can be rolled. The members somewhat cohesively, at least in terms of
number of successes and raises gained determines establishing a broad loyalty to the Club. But in any
the level of the Invent Superpower the hero has system made from such non-standard components,
access too. The time determined to construct the there are unavoidable conflicts. Personal biases,
device becomes the length of time the Club must professional rivalries, bad blood, old wounds, and
be searched to find it. The device must be returned simple antagonistic dislike keep the Club a bubbling
once its need has passed, and until it is returned stewpot of intrigue, gamesmanship, and cliquish
the borrower suffers a –1 Charisma with NPC infighting.
Kerberans and can be expect to be the target of The majority of this plays out in the social
much light-hearted ribbing.
arena, with palpable hits wounding reputations and
friendships rather than flesh, but it isn’t unknown
arrow points taken from this collection allowed the for Kerberans to bring their un-arbitrated conflicts
ghost-animals to be forced back to the spirit world. to the final judgment of the duel—though such an
Related closely to collections, the Club also outcome is widely considered a failure for the entire
has a number of trophy rooms into which the Club and its society. Of course, duel stories are
memorabilia of members are placed. The heads of among the most frequently retold around the card
monsters, stuffed and mounted. Captured weapons table, when the spirits are flowing and high.
of a terrible foe. Sketches and paintings of famous Internal conflicts are most frequently resolved
enemies. Damaged and wrecked devices of perverted through arbitration. The parties involved agree
science. The death-masks of fallen Kerberans, cast in to accept the decision of a neutral arbiter, they
wax and waiting for a necromancer’s spell to give present their cases, and then the arbiter issues
them speech. Like the collections, the trophies of a compromise before witnesses from the Club’s
past adventures prove remarkably useful in future general membership. Arbitration isn’t binding in a
challenges. legal sense, but it is frightfully bad form to ignore
And even when they simply sit there, occupying it, and doing so will certainly hurt one’s reputation
a corner in an obscure room, perhaps serving as in the Club. Some members are very well known for
impromptu coat racks, wonders such as the Singing their even tempers and neutrality, and their reputa-
Tree are still objects of great fascination and beauty, tions as arbiters means they are frequently consulted
and certainly inspire wonderful retelling of their on such matters.  
origins—with the usual Kerberan embellishments, (If you’re using the new Skills from Chapter 5,
of course. ignoring Club arbitration removes a die from your
“Kerberan” Skill until you restore your
good name. Restoring your good
name should probably involve
39
 Chapter 1

an extended contest of some kind, doing favors for

enough members that they talk well of you. Consult Special Branch
with your GM.)
It is almost unknown for one member to seek The Club’s most immediate foe is as British as
legal action against another in the courts. In fact the Club itself: the Special Branch of the London
it happened only once, and the member (a perni- Metropolitan Police. Special Branch was founded
cious man named Milner who sought redress for in 1841 under the direction of Robert Peel, who
monies lost funding an expedition which never paid saw the need for a secret branch of the police force
the alluded-to profit) found the Club’s atmosphere after the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria.
distinctly hostile afterwards. Eventually he retired Peel’s mandate came after 1840, when the would-be
from the Club entirely. He ran for Parliament in assassin Edward Oxford was found to be the pawn
1854 in one of the few remaining northern rotten of a conspiracy by British anti-royalists backed by an
boroughs, and with his fortune to buy votes he unknown shadowy individual.
easily won. His first action as MP was to lobby for Peel saw to it that that malleable Home Secretary
the introduction of his Standards of Decency in Constantine Henry Phipps managed Special Branch
Public Associations Act of 1855, a piece of legis- to his exacting instructions, and saw it staffed with a
lation aimed squarely at the heart of the Club. The particular breed of man: hard, cold, experienced, and
bill went nowhere, as Milner’s term in parliament if need be, unflinching from brutality, and also men
was cut short when he found a Nile crocodile in of unshakable loyalty. Special Branch was staffed
his water garden. Or more properly, when the from the veterans of Afghanistan and India, the
crocodile found him. The police presumed the beast ranks of the Metropolitan Police, and the irregular
had escaped from some private menagerie. It was agents of the Foreign Secretary’s spy corps.  
killed, Mr. Milner’s mortal remains were extracted They operate with a simple directive: Investigate
from its stomach, and then the crocodile was stuffed covert domestic threats to Queen and Country, and
and hung in the Whistling John, a public house crush them before they can cause harm, scandal, or
frequented by members of London’s Metropolitan political crisis. They are as hard a bunch of men as
police. one is likely to meet, their hands marked with knife-
Mr. Milner’s experience is really the exception scars, their eyes cold except when they burn with
which proves the rule. He only raised the ire of that particular light of fanaticism—for as Victoria’s
the Club when he rejected arbitration and sought divinity becomes more and more apparent, Special
outside authority. He then compounded it by seeking Branch becomes something of a Praetorian Guard,
legislative revenge. His sponsors into the Club were and something of a cult in itself, dedicated to
quite embarrassed about it all. He’d handled his Victoria Divinus. It develops its own rituals of initi-
Challenge with such aplomb. ation, and segregates itself more and more from the
But the Club is remarkably harmonious, or at ordinary police. And more than anything, it seethes
least manages its chaos quite well, in part because with institutional hatred for the Kerberos Club.
the Kerberos Club’s external enemies are perfectly The Club seems to be Special Branch’s antithesis:
willing to assist anyone who might seek to harm the a haven for revolutionaries, free thinkers, anti-
Club or its members. Alas, those who abandon royalists, and the despicable Strangers, who mock
the Club quickly find they have a ready the Queen’s divinity with their lesser powers. Yet,
group of new friends, who ask of inexplicably from Special Branch’s perspective,
40 them only the smallest favors. Victoria dotes on the Kerberos Club, and grants it
 Chapter 1

one of Her increasingly rare smiles when word of

its adventures reaches Her. Special Branch stalks
and watches the Kerberans, cataloging, recording,
observing, and itching for the day when the whole
lot of the degenerate scum can be rounded up for
Newgate or the gallows.  
Special Branch officers are strictly human in the
most literal sense. If they become overtly Touched,
showing signs of the Strangeness upon their bodies
or in their minds, they are ushered off quickly to
one of the Branch’s special hospitals for treatment,
or failing that, permanent incarceration. Members
do enjoy a certain grace, however, commiserate with
their faith in the rightness of their mission and in
their Queen’s divinity; a definite resistance to the
sorts of mental trauma ordinary police are subject
to when confronted with the Strange in ways they
aren’t prepared to comprehend. The pig-headed
resilience of Special Branch officers has left many
Strangers off balance, and more easily taken by sap
or revolver, beaten, shot down, dragged off never to
be seen again.
After working the job for a while, most Special
Branch officers develop a palpable air of menace
and barely-restrained violence, and they never look
quite comfortable in their plain clothes. Those with
the eyes to see such things perceive them as they
perceive themselves, as crusaders, armored in their
faith, and armed with blooded swords and steel-
capped boots.    
Victoria recognizes that both Special Branch
and the Kerberos Club are useful, and their rivalry,
if properly tended, like one of the tiny ancient trees
she received as a gift from the Shogun of Japan,
could only serve to sharpen both for the day when
they must be turned on Her enemies.  
If the Club’s relations with Special Branch can
be called hostile, its contact with the regular London
Metropolitan Police is at least more genial, if no
more trusting. As Special Branch becomes
a power unto itself, increasingly
the police find they can’t rely on
41
 Chapter 1

them to handle the Strange when it impinges into I speak, that they do not hide what they are, and do
their normal duties. Unofficially, officers and detec- not lie about the blasphemies they pander. In truth,
tives come to seek the counsel of Kerberans, who are I fear more the secret evil in my own heart than I do
the acknowledged experts on such matters. the evil so cheaply on display at this Kerberos Club.”
These contacts are strictly personal. The policy Many firebrands and evangelists are not so
of the Home Secretaries until the 1880s is for poised, and condemnation of the Club becomes
there to be no official contact between the police louder just as the reports in the press of its adventures
and the Kerberos Club. When this restriction was become likewise more sensational. Condemning the
relaxed briefly in the 1860s during the Limehouse Club becomes a way to pack the hall in the 1890s,
Outrages, officially-approved consultation with especially after some Club members begin to take
Lucas Moreland (the so-called Great Detective) led such condemnation personally and start attending
to scandalous revelations of corruption in the police meetings to heckle the speakers in amusing style.
and its collusion with a Chinese tong called the The Club, and to a greater extent the growing
Three Snake Brotherhood. Moreland was publicly Victorian cult within the Anglican church, also
lauded for uncovering the conspiracy, but it caused attracts the attention of the Oxford Movement,
the old policy to be reasserted with force, so that who issue tracts against the cult and the deification
no police inspector or officer should consult known of Victoria (though that was couched in terms of
Kerberans. For twenty years such collaborations were saintly beatification at the time), and suggest the
strictly covert, and general relations between the spread of the cult was owed to pagan influences
Club and the police were chilly as best—especially originating in the Kerberos Club.
given the Club’s love of meddling. Edward Bouverie Pusey writes in the tract The
Unambiguous Words of God, which followed his
movement’s seminal series Tracts for Our Time,

The Oxford Movement that “. . . though the Idolatry being practiced in our
London churches spread Northward, seeming to
be the popular course for the faithful, we are not
Special Branch isn’t the Club’s only domestic foe. misled as to the origins of this blasphemy which
The Kerberos Club figures into the rhetoric of many does disservice to Queen and to Country, and most
Evangelical speakers, especially as it becomes more hurtfully to the Lord our God. For such seductive
prominent in the 1860s. At the founding meeting practice can have only a single source, and to those
of the Evangelical Alliance in 1846, the Club was with the ears to hear, it is proceeded by the sound of
condemned more often than slavery by British three dogs howling as one.”
attendees. Even without a religious motive, plenty of social
William Booth, founder of the Christian Mission conservatives find condemning the Club and what it
and later the Salvation Army, said of the Club: stands for a good tactic for getting public attention.
“Where we seek to ease the path to the Salvation Further, political liberals and conservatives alike shy
of Christ and the Holy Ghost by lessening the daily away from association with the Club. It is a favorite
miseries of those in need, and possibly live as an smear to suggest one’s opponents are members of
example to others, there is a shadow cast over all the Club or friends with its members, or are in some
we do in London, a long shadow falling way economically invested in the Club. This is in part
from Pall Mall all across the city. because the Kerberos Club’s own politics are hard to
42 But at least you can say of those discern and categorize within the philosophies of the
 Chapter 1

time. Is it a radical liberal fraternity advocating total logistics to a degree nearly unheard of. Napoleon’s
freedom from legal, social, or economic constraint? fall from power was preceded by a disruption in
Or is it an example of the conservative hypocrisies these instant and invisible means of communication.
that protect the moneyed and social elites to enjoy His brief return to power cut was short in no small
their ungodly pleasures while keeping ordinary part by his reliance on the Sémaphore and his diffi-
Britons down? culty in coordinating his rule without it.
In truth, the Club is far less a political animal The Sémaphore was sabotaged by the intro-
than is supposed. It is well occupied with its own duction into the system of an English medium
Strange interests, and well aware that no government named Mary Salsbury, who intercepted Napoleon’s
would welcome it into the fold as a partner until communications and replaced them with erroneous
the situation became so dire as to qualify as a crisis. and misleading ones. Lauded for her accomplish-
Disraeli’s close association with the Club is an ments, Ms. Salsbury achieved brief personal fame
aberration for this reason. He bears the criticism and was created Dame Mary Salsbury by George
for the association, and justifies the contact with III (in one of his rare semi-lucid moments of that
verifiable successes.   period). It caused some comment then when she
was seen in the company of those undesirables who
lurked about the Gates of Hades. After the place

Le Société Scientifique was burned she was not seen again in the public eye.
Under Napoleon III, the Société rejected the
failed spiritualism of its earlier incarnation and
In France, the Société Scientifique Impériale (or returned to its original private form, as a social and
in more democratic times, the Société Scientifique collaborative forum for those who skirt the line
Républicaine) serves much the same role as the between madness and genius. Abandoning most
Kerberos Club, being a social fraternity of extraor- occult pretensions, the Société embraces Reason
dinary individuals, misfits, and Strangers. The signif- as the final arbiter, even if their particular brand of
icantly more permissive social climate of France science borders on magic more than they would like
over the century means the Société Scientifique to admit. In this, they have something of an edge
Impériale need not cloak its actions in such secrecy over their rivals in the Kerberos Club, but their
and protect its members from the larger society, and rejection of occult realities hinders members of the
at various times the Société and the Club have been Société sometimes dramatically.
allied. During the Revolution, the Club welcomed
and shielded many of France’s greatest and most
uncanny Strangers, for Madame Guillotine had as
much a taste for the blood of the Touched as of the Section Seven
nobility. But under Bonaparte, the Société became
nearly an official branch of his imperial government, Almost the opposite of the Société Scientifique
assisting in the creation of weaponry and unconven- Impériale is Russia’s Section Seven, officially titled
tional tactics. The Seventh Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own
The Sémaphore Psychique, a series of hypnoti- Chancellery (VII отделение собственной Е.И.В
cally conditioned mediums and spiritualists who канцелярии). This secret branch of the
passed messages to one another through automatic police was created by the order
writing, allowed Napoleon’s empire to coordinate its of Nicholas I in 1842. Section
43
 Chapter 1

Seven first investigated and then consolidated the

occult interests and societies operating in Russia
with greater effectiveness than any previous efforts.
Nicholas I lacked both superstition and intellectual
breadth, seeing in the forces moving in Russia’s dark
occult depths only grave threats to his rule and the
social order.
Using tactics similar to the secret police of
the Third Section, Section Seven intimidates,
murders, bribes, imprisons, and blackmails anyone
and everyone with any claims to mystical power
or supernatural revelation, imposing by Imperial
authority a registry of such individuals. It also
recruits any it could lure into its service. By the
time Alexander II comes to the throne, it is a
solidly-entrenched power unto itself, one even the
Czar dare not anger.    
Section Seven begins to operate in the interna-
tional arena in the 1860s, and in 1878 an operative of
Section Seven accompanies the diplomatic mission
to Kabul which sparks the Second Anglo-Afghan
War. This Section Seven agent is thought to have
forged alliances with Afghan mystics.
Section Seven operates beyond ordinary
authority and is answerable only to the emperor
himself, and even then only just. Those in Third
Section who know of Section Seven (and who are
foolish enough to speak of it) grumble about Seven’s
tactics and influence, hinting that in absorbing all
the cults and sorcerers and witches that it became
the very thing it was meant to control, an ungodly
blasphemy of superstition and darkness.
Where the Société Scientifique Impériale
embraces science to the exclusion of magic, Section
Seven is the opposite, embracing all manner of ill
practices to further its goals and sharpen the Bear’s
claws. They brutally suppress scientific innovations,
particularly those Touched by the Strange, but co-opt
and embrace the spiritual and mystical, to the
point that suspicions fall on even obvious
charlatans like Madame Blavatsky
44 and her Theosophical Society.
 Chapter 1

On suspicion inspired only by her affected just under the surface of European society. Many
national origin, Blavatsky is investigated thoroughly sought relief from these forces in the Americas, only
by agents of the Club and the authorities of to discover as much native Strangeness as they had
Special Branch and the American Secret Service. fled. While the U.S. Constitution was being drafted,
Blavatsky’s move to India in 1879 raises a particular they set bloody pen to tanned human skin to write
stir among the great gamesters, and only in 1890 the Umbra Pactum: the core occult law to which all
do the British authorities realize how that had been supernatural elements were bound to conform.
played. Blavatsky is by then indeed a Section Seven It instituted a shadow government to manage
agent (unwilling though she is), but one intended such affairs as well, separate but parallel to the actual
to distract and conceal rather than engage directly government. But unlike the public Constitution, the
in espionage. The resources wasted on Blavatsky Umbra Pactum has never been amended. It is served
and her harmless affectations give Section Seven a and protected by three branches of governance, the
freer hand in London, then New York, and finally Maestro Mago (the executive, the master magus of
in India. the Americas, elected every seven years by those
granted occult suffrage), the Occultus Orchestra
(the secret senate which enacts supernatural law),

The Americans and the Specialis Sentio (the secret court which
arbitrates and tries occult crimes). Each branch has
its own enforcement arm, a handful of Strangers
The former colonists of America aren’t without who police, investigate, and advise their principals.    
their own touch of the Strange, or organized During the American Civil War, the shadow
groups which study and exploit it. But unlike most government is split and wars with itself. The
of Britain’s rivals, the Americans have no single Confederacy creates its own occult government and
primary operator in the realm. Rather it is a nation marshals its own Strangers. Like almost everything
rife with secret societies, covert fraternities, and the Confederate authorities involve themselves in,
occult orders who all claim variously some ancient it proves disastrously unsuccessful. However, even
origin or creed, and most of whom are too busy with with Confederate incompetence, their efforts to
their own domestic enemies to turn their sights solidify the Golden Circle alliance of Southern
outward across the Atlantic. and East Indian slave-holding nations into a global
Highly individualistic, as well as highly factious, power might have proven successful if not for
America’s Strange societies mingle and blur with agents of the Kerberos Club. The Club’s meddlers,
public organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and operating covertly in the East Indies and the rebel-
the Knights of the Golden Circle, but also with lious Southern states, see to it that the plans of the
the Salvation Army, the American branch of the Knights of the Golden Circle come to nothing.
Masons, and with several U.S. universities. Keeping Yet the potential threat posed by the Knights
the peace in this morass, and preventing the secret and the Confederacy is not short lived. Responding
wars of the occult societies from bleeding over into to the Union’s actions in the Trent Affair, a British
actual wars (as they were alleged to have done in military action staged from Canada proves more
1861), is the authority of the Shadow Constitution. than the Union can contend with. In 1862 the
The founding thinkers of the United States Union is forced to sue for peace with the
included some men of remarkable vision, and no Confederate government, estab-
small understanding of the Strange realities brewing lishing a rocky truce and formal
45
 Chapter 1

border between the two nations. Able to concen-

trate on the British forces, the Union holds out long
Mint Juleps and Mass Murder
“What if the North and South didn’t reconcile, and
enough to reach a peace, but not before Washington,
then the South started to worship Cthulhu?”
D.C. has been aerially bombed by Her Majesty’s
Here’s the deal. Slavery was a disgusting and
Aeroship Queen.
evil institution. A fair number of apologists try to
In the Union, the shadow government continues
minimize how stained with this evil the Southern
to manage the Strange, and the Union benefits from states really are, suggesting that slavery was a
this management. Innovators such as Granville T. failing institution on its way out, or that “Northern
Woods produce industrial wonders, the most aston- aggression” was somehow worse for Southern blacks
ishing being the Track-Layer Engine, an enormous than letting slavery end gracefully.
machine able to level ground and lay railroad track Stanley Kubrick had the right of it with Spartacus:
a dozen times faster than human crews. With the The evils of slavery bring their own reward. The
rapid expansion of railways, and improved distri- Kerberos Club recasts the Confederacy into an easy-
bution of good and materials, the Union experiences to-hate evil empire on the order of the Third Reich.
a surge of industrialization in the last two decades of The South becomes a broken, technologically
the century. The Umbra Pactum begins to favor the backwards Dark Age society ruled by a corrupt elite
wonders of Strange science over its old mysticism, so terrified of their own slaves that they abuse them
all the harder. They fall to the worship of hideous
and the Union prospers. By the end of the century,
prehuman things. They practice mass human
the Union and the United Kingdom have strong
sacrifice. All the while, they dine and dance and
economic and social ties which eclipse the previous
romanticize their own atrocities.
sympathies the British had for the Confederacy.
The wrath of the rebelling slaves in the Great
Below the Mason Dixon, the opposite trends Revolt is a fire that burns this society away.
rule. The South’s descent into a particularly baroque So, if you’re looking for a group to shamelessly
dark age, as well as the continued (and increasingly exploit—morally compromised villains your players
distasteful) use of human slaves, spoil its previ- can smash without guilt—look no further than the
ously good relations with Britain. The Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle. They’re the Nazis of
government, squabbling and ineffectual, does not the day, a bunch of right bastards.
improve as a central authority. The Confederate
states become more autonomous, and the Southern by the desire for sorcerous power. Abandoning any
aristocracy grows more powerful. The Knights of pretense to moral authority (early on the Knights
the Golden Circle grow in power and influence, claimed to be a Christian society, citing the Bible in
spreading into Texas and down into Mexico, and support of slavery), the Knights subtly turn Southern
serve the Confederacy like a secret police and spy society to the worship of obscene things from the
service. An empire built like Rome upon the labor of edges of Time, things awoken by the human horror
slaves is the fondest wish of its members. and psychic mystery of the slave trade. By the end
The Golden Circle counts the Kerberos Club of the century the Confederacy has become a dead
and the Umbra Pactum as bitter enemies, and man walking, gangrenous and rotting from within.
watches constantly for hints of foreign agents at The Great Revolt of 1905 tears down one of the
work in the Confederacy. The Knights delve into most inhuman societies in modern history.
the occult deeply, too deeply, and by 1885
are no longer motivated primarily
46 by earthly concerns but rather
 Chapter 1

Schweigsame
Übereinstimmung Famous Members,
As the century wears on, Britain’s greatest rival
becomes Germany, unified finally in the German
Associates
Empire. The German states had always been lousy
with conspiracy and occult secret societies—a
gentleman of influence could expect to be a member
and Rivals
of several—but like the German states themselves, You can find game details for some of these famous
there was very little cohesion in the region’s unseen characters in Chapter 6.
forces.
As Germany rises to eclipse most of Britain’s
other rivals, so too do its secret societies achieve
some measure of unity. Under Bismarck, the Richard Dadd
Schweigsame Übereinstimmung is formalized. It
binds many of Germany’s mystery societies into a Born in Kent in 1817, Dadd showed artistic talent
formal council with a unified agenda, to use Strange early on, and he was admitted to the Royal Academy
influences to further the German Empire’s success of Arts before he was 20. He was a founding member
and prosperity. Because it draws from covert associ- of The Clique, a group of artists who rejected
ations, the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung eschews academic art and the conventions of the day—and,
the more overtly Strange, favoring instead a more it was rumored, explored the Strange regions where
subtle power. German Strangers find no safe haven. art, the psyche, the spirit, and the occult merged.  
A man whose power marks him and makes In 1842, Sir Thomas Phillips chose Dadd to
him unseemly will not find the Schweigsame accompany him as illustrator and draftsman on
Übereinstimmung welcoming, nor will he find an expedition through the Middle East, through
a German analog to the Kerberos Club, perhaps Greece, and by a circuitous route to Egypt. After
because the constituent organizations which make a trying journey, Dadd suffered a fit while traveling
up the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung see how the Nile by boat. Initially supposed to be sunstroke,
the Club so flaunts secrecy and social convention. it became apparent that Dadd’s wits had snapped.
In fact, the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung in part He began to rave about the murder of Osiris and
is dedicated to suppressing such overt manifesta- the betrayal of Set. At night he huddled with fear,
tions of the Strange, and preserving the sense that refusing to look at the sky, mumbling about the
Germany is untouched by such chaos. Serpent Apep, and he greeted the morning with
tears of joy and relief.
His companions cut the expedition short. By
spring Dadd was returned to Britain, where an
examining physician ruled he was not of sound
mind, and remanded him to the care of
his father, who saw him installed
in a family house in the country
47
 Chapter 1

outside Kent. There, over the next year, Dadd became difference in World and Otherworld, and the faerie
increasingly erratic, speaking to people and beings were as ordinary to him as common workmen. He
not present, marking wonders unseen by anyone else, saw the true nature of things, all things. He said
and swinging wildly from ecstatic joy to terror at the that only while applying brush to canvas did he get
sights revealed by his madness. He began painting any relief from the visions, as he was their channel
these scenes only he could see in exquisite detail. and they flowed though him rather than breaking
The vision revealed by his paintings was of a against him like the waves on rocks.  
world still recognizably the countryside around Kent, Several attempts by parties unknown were made
but filled to overflowing with gods, demons, angels, to liberate Dadd from Bethlem, at least two success-
monsters, saints, faerie, weird machines in air and fully taking him for a time, before agents of the
upon road, and other, less easily identifiable things.   Kerberos Club saw him returned. Dadd chose to
During this period he developed a particular remain in Bethlem, even with the Club’s invitation to
fear of his father, a respected chemist and a well- more congenial accommodation, until the opening
regarded figure in the community. Upon seeing him, of Broadmoor hospital outside London in 1864,
he would exclaim, “You have not left me, I see, Lord where he found the light to be superior. He recog-
Sutekh. You follow me from Egypt, hiding in my nized that even if he weren’t mad by any conven-
Father’s skin—but I can see you, beast-head thing.” tional standard, he was as good as insane with his
In August of 1842, his Father was found murdered visions blurring so into his awareness of reality, and
in a ritualistic fashion, and Dadd fled. His flight he had no business among the sane.
was tracked to France, where he revealed himself In 1886, Dadd fell ill with a congestive lung
by attacking a French tourist with a razor, claiming condition which didn’t respond to treatment. As
him to be one of the god’s agents sent to kill him. he slipped into unconsciousness, his vision spread
He was apprehended, and returned to Britain where out and everyone within the hospital received a
he admitted killing his father to free his spirit from measure of it, and witnessed the gathering of gods
the malicious deity’s control, allowing it to pass and wonders who came to bear Richard Dadd
on to a proper Christian reward. He was deemed away upon a chariot made from the Sun. His body
incompetent by reason of insanity, and committed vanished, never to be recovered.             
to Bethlem hospital.  
Dadd remained incarcerated for the rest of his
life, but he received frequent visits by members
of the Kerberos Club, and painted many of their Lady Ada Lovelace  
portraits, capturing their true natures on the canvas.
These paintings graced the halls of the Club, and At 36, Ada Lovelace (Augusta Ada King, Countess
it was thought by more than one member they of Lovelace) had already distinguished herself as one
contained a bit of the subject’s soul: while the of the most remarkable minds of her age, holding
painting remained intact, one was protected from forth on such topics as philosophy, science, and
certain influences. Dadd was also consulted for his especially mathematics. In the three years she knew
remarkable, maddening visions: He could see past, Charles Babbage, she’d astonished the inventor by
future, fiction, fact, myth, magic, potential, and writing program scripts for his as yet uncompleted
memory, all overlapping, all interacting, difference engine, a general computing machine. But
all blending into an allegorical at 36, Lady Lovelace was dying, her uterus heavy
48 chaos. To Dadd, there was no with cancerous tumors. Like her father, Lord Byron,
 Chapter 1

her attendant physicians recommended bleeding to colder. Her hair streaked with gray, her posture rigid
relieve the pressures on her internal organs caused from the discomfort of her emptied abdomen, and
by the tumors, and this nearly killed her as had the her dress severe and almost puritanical (although
same treatment of Lord Byron done. perfectly tailored and elegant). She embraced wholly
Lingering near death on November 27th, 1852, the cool perfection of numbers, of invention, and
at her husband’s estates in Surrey, she was attended of the potential in Charles Babbage’s calculating
by a mysterious visitor, a tall striking dark-skinned machines. She funded the completion of Babbage’s
man with eyes so intense, they cowed even the formi- Analytical Engine, and after testing the machine’s
dable doorman of the estate, who allowed him entry capabilities began suggesting modifications and
without question. The man gave his name as Ibn enhancements. By 1856 the Engine could receive
Al-Thahabi, and claimed to be a friend of her father input in the form of decks of punched cards, store
Lord Byron. He knew Byron during his travels in information in mechanical memory registers (along
Greece, and regretted mightily not being present at with programmed procedures), and output to an
the time of Lord Byron’s illness to prevent “Those electrostatic printing device, or through a telegraph
fool butchers from killing him with the lancet.” He line to another Engine set to receive such transmis-
banished Lady Lovelace’s physicians (again, by the sions.
extraordinary force of his gaze), chastising them In this way it was possible to slave multiple
that “Blood, of all the humors, belongs within the Engines in series, using them to calculate problems
body rather than without!” And then he set to work of astonishing complexity. With her fortune she
upon the stricken Lady Lovelace. founded Babbage Computational, a company which
His surgical instruments were both ancient and built so-called “Calculation Mills” where, rather than
advanced, far beyond their modern equivalents, broadcloth, the machines wove data from infor-
and his technique masterful and perfect. His drugs mation. These contracted to process the financial
were formulated to remove pain without stopping records of major firms, automating the bookkeeping
the weakened heart. With consummate skill he and accounting, and connecting to terminal engines
removed the diseased organs, sutured the wounds, in offices via the telegraphic cable.
and left Lady Lovelace weakened but alive. With his Within two years the company was making
prescriptions and ointments, she even healed with enormous profits, and the word on the lips of men of
scarcely a scar to show—but at a cost. Robbed of her business was efficiency. If the computational power
generative organs, Ada Lovelace was barren.   of the mills could be applied to all aspects of the
Upon learning this, she was struck low again, lives of workers, and not just the finances of their
this time with brain fever. Her three children had employers, how much more efficient and profitable
all died, her two sons as babies, of the smallpox might their operations become? 
and red ague, and her daughter thrown from a But all the while, Ada Lovelace pursued her own
horse just the previous year. Now barren, childless, research and her own agenda. She cared nothing for
and empty inside, she contemplated suicide. She the fortunes of Babbage Computational beyond the
hovered between the reason that her mother so tried reputation and capital it generated. She sought to
to reinforce with an education in mathematics, and assuage the ache from within herself, the ache to
the madness her father so embraced all his life. In create life.
the spring of 1854 she emerged from this blackness, The Irish famine of 1854, and the
transformed. Queen’s capture of the title of
Her ordeals left her a changed woman. Somehow the Queen of Faerie, offered
49
 Chapter 1

her this chance. The geniuses of human exploi-

tation turned their attention to the faerie realms,
and scholars of the obscure subjects of Faerie Law
found ways to marshal the lesser Fae to the tasks of
industrial manufacture. In the colony town of New
Birmingham just across the veil, Lovelace placed her
new factory, secret and secure, guarded by her own
private mercenary force.
There she perfected the Type-2 Analytical
Movement (a reference to its resemblance to the
movement of a timepiece rather than an engine),
which she called simply The Brain. It was assembled
from literally millions of tiny components, some so
small as to be difficult to distinguish from hairs,
by the perfect dexterity of faerie servants, bound
by their old obligations to repay gifts of bread and
milk with a day’s good work. Rather than making
shoes or milking cows, these thousands of faerie
assembled Lovelace’s mechanical brains—and later,
the electromechanical bodies those brains were
designed to command.
In early 1860, Ada Lovelace’s Automechanical
Man was presented to the Royal Society. By the
middle of the year, Automechanical Men were being
offered for sale as “Automatic Domestics,” tireless
servants who would never steal the silver, speak out
of turn, neglect their duties or sleep. Considered
gauche and “too modern” by most of the gentry, they
were immediately popular with the aspiring middle
classes. An Automatic-Maid or Automatic-Man
(depending on their dress and programming)
became a common sight in London by late 1860.
Initial efforts to interest the military in a
combat-ready version of the Automechanicals
proved failures. The hidebound British military was
surprisingly resistant to innovation and change. One
reviewing officer said, “I have men to fire my rifles,
what I don’t have is a mule that’ll live longer than
a month of good service! Give me a mechanical
mule that doesn’t tire and doesn’t die, and
then I’ll consider it.”
50 But after the resolution of the
 Chapter 1

Affair of the Black and White Decks by agents of the Mutiny finally stop. This quickly led to the passage
Kerberos Club (see page 273), an order was placed of the Restriction of the Creation of Artificial Life
by the Crown for a full regiment of Lovelace’s new and Intelligence act of 1886, which banned any
Automatic-Riflemen. It took the strong suggestion mechanical device from mimicking the behaviors
that the Queen herself favored the machines to see of man, or performing the God-given exercise of
them guardedly included in the forces sent for the reason.
British intervention in the American Civil War. They The many lawsuits broke Lady Lovelace’s
proved remarkably effective. Finally accepted by the fortunes and ruined Babbage Computational. Even
military, they were of further use in the numerous her personal cadre of mechanical servants were
small wars in the following two decades. The Royal taken and broken down by agents of Special Branch,
Navy also placed orders for lighter models sealed leaving her unable to care for herself or her estates,
with India rubber for use below decks. as she’d come to abhor the presence of other people.
Lady Lovelace refused to join the Kerberos Club Her health quickly failed, and by 1887 she was dead.  
when offered admission, and came into conflict with For the remainder of the century, the
the Club several times during the latter three decades Automechanical Menace is a regular subject of
of the century. Increasingly she surrounded herself headlines and fiction. Sightings of Rogue Automatics
with her silent mechanical children, rejecting the became a common urban legend, as well as rumors
society of other people, even living apart from her of less scrupulous foreign powers employing such
husband and refusing to see him. She ordered her life terrible killing machines against the British Empire. 
by a mathematical regime, composed music with her
calculating engines, and corresponded only through
notes delivered by her personal cadre of silver-chased
Automatics, or through her telecaligrograph, a Christina Georgiana Rossetti
device that transformed handwritten messages into
telegraphic signal and then back into writing. Rossetti was born in London into an enormously
Despite the controversy, and more than a few artistic family. Her father was an Italian political
riots, caused by unemployed domestic servants and asylum-seeker and poet, her mother friends with the
workers, her fortunes continued to rise until the household of Lord Byron. Among her siblings were
Automechanical Mutiny of 1885 dashed them into three artists, and she began writing poetry early. She
ruin. A disgruntled faction of faerie, infected with was educated at home, in this rich environment,
odd new Bans and Compulsions based on Marxist until in the mid-1840s financial difficulties and her
ideology, produced a program deck which Automatics father’s failing health created stress enough to cause
were compelled to reproduce and spread to others. Rossetti to suffer a nervous collapse. She was 14, and
This deck then triggered in them a murderous spree emerged from it with her head full of otherworldly
of violence, simultaneous with the 30th anniversary images and associations. She never saw the world
of Victoria’s assumption of the Faerie throne. the same way again.
As one, the mechanical hands which cleaned, Her mother, seeking some meaning and
cooked, rocked infants, and bore arms to defend hope, became involved in the Royalist-Anglican
Britain turned on their human masters and killed movement, which blended a continuity of
indiscriminately. Thousands died, incalculable Catholic tradition with the deification of
property damage resulted, and only with the inter- Queen Victoria, recognizing the
vention of dozens of Kerberans and others did the Anglican Church as part of a
51
 Chapter 1

line of religious descent from the First Church, and of distinct personality and power put in her debt.
Victoria as divine sovereign and inheritor of Mary’s Fairly quickly she became the Kerberos Club’s
role as intercessor before God, Son, and Holy Ghost. most notable expert on all things Faerie, and any
The highly mystical elements of this form of dealings with the Otherworld were routinely vetted
religious observance fueled Rossetti’s awakening by her beforehand. It was simply a matter of survival
consciousness. She almost married painter James most of the time.
Collinson, but despite his effort to convert, Rossetti advocated for women’s suffrage, and saw
Collinson’s conscience demanded he remain Roman violence towards women, literal and social, abhorrent.
Catholic. Rome’s condemnation of the Royalist She was equally opposed to all war, oppression, and
Anglican movement would not permit the union.   slavery. She volunteered in homes for fallen women,
Her nerves again shaken by this ordeal, Rossetti and campaigned for changes to the Hygiene Laws
agreed to a holiday with her sister Maria in Somerset, which caused women to be branded with that label
to walk among the sites of ancient stone-age peoples unjustly. She treasured inherent human worth,
and the rolling green hills. Though chaperoned by because her dealings with faerie had shown her what
their brother, the sisters managed to slip away for a society would be like if no one valued anyone else
some hill walking on their own. They came upon the at all. To behave like the faerie was unthinkable to
Bryn y Ellyllon, the Hill of the Goblins, near Mold. her, and in her self-mastery she gained power over
There they experienced an encounter with wild the Otherworldly which cowed even the greatest
faerie which left both sisters profoundly changed. Lord among the alien hosts.
Rossetti embraced the Strangeness, while her sister In 1893, she fell ill with cancer and Grave’s
recoiled from it. The experience inspired Rossetti’s disease, and then in December of 1894 was attended
first and most famous poem, The Goblin Market. Her by a mission of three faerie peers, each offering her
sister retreated further into religiosity, and in later their magic and assistance, to be well, to be young
life became a Anglican nun. Rossetti, on the other again, to be free of Earthly concerns. But even on
hand, began to pursue knowledge of the Otherworld, her deathbed she refused these offers, finally dying
and the ways the two worlds have affected each other quietly and at peace. The Fae were in awe of her, and
through the ages. Had she been permitted, she would attended her funeral at Highgate Cemetery, even
have read Faerie Law at university, but being a woman enduring church bells and Christian hymns to pay
her attendance was unthinkable.   their respects to the woman whose will they could
She continued to write poetry, full of mystical never break.
revelatory images, and advance her research of
Faerie, finally coming to the attention of a clique
of Kerberans in 1862 after the publication of The
Goblin Market. She was put to the Challenge, one The Turk
which took her into the depths of the Otherworld,
through the Byzantine politics of Victoria’s Irish The Turk, so called because of its resemblance to
Faerie court. It tested her knowledge of Faerie to its a Turkish prince dressed in raiment and furs, was
limit, but like the girl in her poem she persevered the creation of inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen.
with wit and quick-thinking, using her insights When revealed in 1770, the Turk was originally a
into the nature of the faerie and their chess-playing automaton which amazed aficio-
Bans and Compulsions to emerge nados of the game by performing the Knight’s Tour.
52 sane and hale, with several faerie Many claimed the Turk was a mechanical illusion,
 Chapter 1

directed by a hidden operator and chess player, but

Von Kempelen would happily open the Turk’s torso
and reveal the confabulation of gears and rods and
clockwork which drove it.
Still, accusations of trickery persisted, and so Von
Kempelen continually expanded the Turk’s game-
playing prowess, dexterity, and mobility. By the time
of Von Kempelen’s death in 1804, the Turk could
walk at a modest pace, play seventeen different parlor
games with impressive skill (though chess always
remained its best game), shuffle and manipulate cards
in its finely-worked and articulated hands, see, hear,
and even speak in a deep hollow voice.
Von Kempelen traveled and showed the Turk,
continuously improving it, for the rest of his life. It
played royalty, luminaries, intellectuals, scientists,
inventors, and even, in 1783, American inventor,
statesman, magus, and ambassador to France,
Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin was amazed at the Turk, and through
some contrivance managed to examine the
automaton in private for several hours without
Kempelen. He was shocked to find within it not only
the clever contrivances of mechanism, but the same
spark of living energy he’d studied for so many years.
In a moment of reckless inspiration, he leaned in
close and exhaled some of his own life into the Turk,
trading a few of his mortal years for the possibility
of something grander being born in the heart of the
machine. Upon being discovered in this position by
an angry Von Kempelen, Franklin passed it off as a
jest and returned to the party.    
After visiting him on his deathbed, a friend of
Von Kempelen remarked that he seemed empty,
eaten away, as if he’d invested all of himself into the
Turk, and there was nothing of vitality or vigor left
in him. As per his instructions, his last breath was
captured in the small wooden box which he used as
part of the Turk’s performances.    
Upon its creator’s death, the Turk
passed into the hands of Johann
Nepomuk Mälzel, who traveled
53
 Chapter 1

widely with the automaton. It had another famous Turk without an owner for the first time. During
tour of Europe, and in 1809 even played Napoleon the remaining voyage, it feigned inoperability—
Bonaparte. Napoleon, to test the machine, first and then, after sealing all its joints and seams with
attempted to confound it with illegal moves, only copious amounts of lard from the ship’s galley, leapt
to be gently rebuked by the Turk’s sonorous voice overboard in harbor. The event led to headlines
speaking a proverb about cheating at games. but did not, as the papers supposed, result in its
Amused, the Emperor played a real game with the destruction.    
Turk, which he lost handily. The Turk waded to shore, and using pilfered
Mälzel sold and then repurchased the Turk, and clothing settled into London’s street life. It need not
finally moved to London in 1818. By this time he eat or sleep, but had a voracious appetite for new
was becoming increasingly alarmed with the Turk’s skills and new games. It found the complex inter-
evolution, as a game player and in other areas. It action of human society a particularly marvelous
seemed to spontaneously manifest skills for which game to master, and by 1845 was covertly running
it had no previous capacity and—Mälzel being a much of London’s street crime. Using the identity of
showman and not an inventor—for which it had not Mr. Turk, it only held meetings in darkened rooms,
been modified or improved to perform. It seemed, or while masked so as not to reveal its true nature.
against all reason, that the Turk was growing.     Mr. Turk had no concept of human empathy
During its tour of the Americas, Mälzel become or fraternity, rather seeing every aspect of human
quite horrified by the automaton. By 1830 it could nature as just one more rule in the most marvelously
play the violin with virtuosity and improvisation. It complex game it had ever played. Under its guidance,
could compose sonnets. It could intelligently discuss London’s overall crime decreased, but what crime
philosophy or the news of the day. It could fire a continued was organized and well executed. This
pistol with perfect accuracy. Its movements changed pattern became apparent to members of the Kerberos
from gross and clumsy to refined and graceful. And Club in 1850. They sought out the mysterious Mr.
it learned and excelled at every game put before it. Turk and put to him the Club’s Challenge. Much
In his essay “Mälzel’s Chess Player,” Edgar Allan to the Kerberans’ chagrin, the Turk anticipated this
Poe said of the Turk and Mälzel, “Though the Turk move and turned the Challenge upon his sponsors,
clearly be nothing but a marvelous confabulation putting them through a trial which demanded their
of clockwork and mathematics, there is in the face every wit and resource to survive. At the end, the
of Mr. Mälzel, when he observes his automaton at Turk accepted membership in the Kerberos Club
play, something which suggests horrors unspoken, with its typical placid certainty.  
a detestation out of character with his showman’s As a Kerberan, the Turk observed, gamed, and
geniality. While we may watch and wonder and offered advice on the affairs of the day. It read
love this clockwork man, it seems its owner might constantly, absorbing a dozen newspapers daily
secretly hate it.”    along with novels, essays and professional papers,
Mälzel’s health deteriorated rapidly, as the making no distinction. Until its disappearance it
Turk’s presence began increasingly to feel not like a could be found in the main parlor of the Kerberos
machine but more like a Strange man. In Havana in Club, in its old Turkish raiment, playing games,
1838, Mälzel contracted yellow fever, and though reading, or discussing any topic imaginable with its
the Turk nursed him and cared for him resonate, hollow voice and devil’s-advocate stance.
on the return journey to Britain,
54 he died en route, leaving the
 Chapter 1

Joseph Carey Merrick

(AKA The Elephantine Man) 
Joseph Carey Merrick—the Man-Elephant, the
Unleashed Savage, the Changing Man—was born
in Leicester in 1862, and by 1867 the mark of the
Strange was already upon him. The deformities
which would make him an outcast and then a
sideshow attraction progressed rapidly, until even
the workhouse refused him admission for a second
term due to the disturbance his appearance caused.
His body was twisted, his skeleton and tissues
distorted. His skull grew enormous, until finally,
even in this age of wonders and horrors, he found
work in a sideshow in 1884. As his transformation
progressed he grew larger, his bones and muscles
thickening. He was well over seven feet when he
raised up, for his posture had become not unlike that
of a gorilla, and he would often knuckle-walk on his
disproportionately large right hand.
He would perform feats of strength and endurance,
his body nearly immune to pain, and his injuries
would heal with miraculous speed. In some perfor-
mances he would play the part of the captured savage,
shaking his prop-chains and menacing the punters.
In others he’d act more like himself, a remarkably
sensitive soul trapped in a horrifying body.
Late in 1884, he was being shown to the public
in a storefront establishment on Mile End Road.
Among the paying gawkers sat known Kerberan
Dr. Archibald Monroe, a marvel of freakish human
transformation himself. Dr. Monroe gave Merrick
his card, and said that if Mr. Merrick had the time,
he would be mightily grateful to study Merrick’s
physiology. Merrick, doing quite well financially for
the first time in his life, refused the simian physician’s
offer, and continued with his chosen vocation.
When sideshows were banned in 1886
(a legislative reaction to the so-called
Freak Riot of the previous year),
55
 Chapter 1

Merrick found a place in a European sideshow. But he

was taken advantage of by an unscrupulous showman
who subjected him to injury to demonstrate his powers
of regeneration and stole his savings and earnings. In
Tides of Change:
1887, Merrick’s size and strength had so increased
that he was able to break the bonds which held him
and flee into the Belgian countryside. After weeks of
The Club Through
harrowing pursuit and persecution by authorities and
terrified farmers, he finally stowed away on a steamer
bound for Britain. He weighed half a ton, and could
the Century   
break steel chains with his massive knotted hands. The Club’s public persona and actions change as the
Merrick caused a near-riot in the Liverpool perception of the Strangeness grows.
Street train station when he clambered out of the
freight car where he’d hidden to find his way back to
London, and was very nearly shot down by agents
of Special Branch before being rescued by a cadre of Early (1800 to 1849)
Kerberans, among them Dr. Monroe.
From within the rags he wore, Merrick produced Early in the century the Strange is still for the most
Dr. Monroe’s card, kept and safeguarded through all part a secret. Some people are Touched by it, even
he’d suffered, and the Kerberans judged all Merrick’s becoming Strangers, but they operate in isolation,
experiences the equal of any Challenge they could and generally keep their powers and abilities secret
muster. He was immediately welcomed into the lest they cause scandal and outcry. The old order of
Club. Dr. Monroe began to study his remarkable secrecy which prevailed in the ab-natural realms
condition, finally formulating a serum which remains in force, and the Kerberos Club (in addition
countered Merrick’s affliction, a disease Monroe to its defense of its members) actively suppresses
dubbed “Proteus syndrome,” and which he attributed awareness of the Strange. Kerberan agents look into
to cellular contamination with primordial aether. things and meddle, dressing real unnatural events in
Monroe’s formula gave Merrick a measure of the tawdry clothes of hoaxes.
control over his transformations. With regular For example, the sensational articles starting in
doses and intense concentration he could compress the New York Sun on August 25th, 1835 presented
his body down to ordinary human scale and physi- a fantastical portrait of newly-discovered life
ognomy for a time, to the point of being able to, like on the Moon, including winged humanoids and
the god Proteus, assume the forms of others. As a forests. The “discovery” was attributed to eminent
member of the Club, Merrick participated in some astronomer Sir John Frederick William Herschel
of its greatest adventures in the final decades of the using a telescope of “entirely new principle.” The
19th century, including its battle with agents of the fanciful tale thoroughly distracted the public from
Illuminated Masonic Brotherhood in 1898 which Herschel’s true discovery, the unmistakable signs
devastated so much of Haymarket. of ruined cities skirting the edges of larger craters.
Joseph Merrick lived in the Kerberos Club’s He was confronted constantly by questions about
Pall Mall house until its destruction in the winged people when he tried to present his
1901, after which his whereabouts findings, and in the mind of the public (and many
56 are unknown. of his colleagues) his revelation seemed pale by
 Chapter 1

things noticed a definite upsurge in wild Strangeness,

A Favorite Scapegoat the unnatural which arose outside the old occult
While generally the public grows comfortable, even
power structures. In Ireland the faerie began to leak
blasé, about the Strange through the course of the
through from their Otherworld, infecting sensitive
century, there are surges of acceptance and also
people, stealing babies, and warping reality as they
marked retreats. The Strange comes upon the public
hadn’t done since before the Romans put so many
very like a rising tide, with waves splashing ahead of
the main waters. of them to the sword and sealed off the Otherworld
During hard economic times general anxiety is with walls, roads, and the authority of the imperial
increased, and anything unconventional and weird cult.
tends to create more. Public figures, ever eager to By 1830 the Club is barely keeping a lid on the
distract an agitated populace, often point to the Strangeness, and they often resort to simple violence
Strange and there lay the blame for the current to deal with menaces they would have tricked and
troubles. In Ireland, a frequent Unionist tactic treated with a decade earlier. With Victoria’s rise to
is to paint Republicans as being in league with the throne things began to come unstuck, and now
Otherworldly and un-Christian forces. There are more and more of the unnatural comes to the public
periods even late in the century, following sensational attention and is reported in the press.
accounts of some Strange outrage, that Strangers Victoria’s coronation is preceded and followed
would be well advised to keep their powers hidden.
by unmistakable portents. All the birds Her carriage
Riots were not unknown. See page 204.
passes on coronation day land and bow their heads
The GM may thus continuously apply social
to Her. In the sky, a comet weaves among seven
pressure on the characters, and emphasize how they
shooting stars. A butcher in Whitechapel finds all
stand out from the ordinary, for good or ill, even in
the crazy days of the 1890s. the entrails he extracts speak to him in his mind,
suggesting patterns and wonders and horrors, and
he suffers a nervous fit before the day is out. No dog
comparison, and was ridiculed by other astronomers anywhere in Great Britain or its colonies barks on
who claimed to see no such thing, and said that the day of Her coronation. All the cows give double
Herschel was “trying to perpetuate his own Great the normal volume of milk, with twice again the
Moon Hoax.”      cream. Food does not spoil. Seed grows strong and
Kerberans pursued their own studies and interests, stout plants which are free of blights their whole
and also investigated alleged hauntings, impossible lives. Men and woman conceived on that day are
murders, and claims of unnatural ability, discrediting touched by a certain indescribable poise which sees
any number of fakes and hoaxsters, but uncovering them successful in whatever careers they eventually
more than a few realities as well. Generally, the Club’s follow, high or low, for as long as Victoria reigns.    
members would investigate, and then if warranted During this period the Kerberos Club has an
take action first to deal with any threat, and then almost free hand to take what actions it will, only
conceal the Strange aspects of the case. needing to keep its Strange aspects concealed. The
Members also encountered and fought Strange morals of the age are less severe than they will
menaces, rooting out their sources and eliminating become as Victoria’s austerity is mirrored by the
them before they could blossom and seed the kingdom middle classes, and so the Club’s eccentric social
with more of the same. In Russia, the Americas, liberalism isn’t the cause for quite the
France, and other major powers, similar efforts were same comment as it will become.
under way, because those who worried about such In the whole of the British
57
 Chapter 1

Empire there might be a few hundred individuals reporting in the papers, and the conversation on
who have been significantly Touched by the everyone’s lips—to the merely interesting. The
Strangeness, and only a dozen or so true Strangers Strange (and claims to Strangeness) have become
who are unmistakably endowed with unnatural the subject of ad copy. The purveyors of patent
potencies. Even in the Kerberos Club itself, while medicines such as Colonel Wilson’s Black Pill for
every member is exceptional only a handful have Mental Sanctity use claims of Strange ingredients
Strange powers. and processes to sell their snake-oil. Real unnatural
threats rise up and affect public policy. Outbreaks
of Syphilitic Vampirism in several military bases

Middle (1850 to 1879) (spread by carriers in the population of prosti-

tutes who service the sexual needs of the stationed
soldiers) lead to the first of the Public Health and
By the middle of the century the Strange has begun Contagious Disease Acts.
to run free, and by the 1870s it is loose in the streets. Prince Albert, ever enamored with progress,
This period sees the revelation of the Strange go from makes no distinction between wonders technological
sensational and shocking—the subject of frenzied and occult, and frequently uses his position and
patronage to encourage the fusion of such things.
The most famous is the creation of the 13th Lupine
Rangers, when his scientists and alchemists find a
method for duplicating the mystical charms known
as wolf straps brought from his native Coburg. He
is reported to have said, “Magic and Science are
merely two sides of the same coin, which was given
to man by God so that he might purchase wisdom
and peace.” Yet Albert is increasingly disturbed by
the Queen’s transformation from the soft-spoken,
poised young royal he married to the rail-straight
marble-skinned goddess she is becoming.
During the Indian Rebellion of 1854, Queen
Victoria addresses Parliament and assembled
military leaders, and shows the stigmata which
opened in her hands as India first fell into strife. “I
am Britannia,” she says, “and let any man who would
defend me come forward and receive my blessing.”
Mesmerized by her presence, dozens come
forward to be marked upon their shoulders by the
Queen’s blood. These individuals form the core of
the new Royalist movement which transcends the
normal divide between Whig and Tory, espousing
social reforms at the same time as advocating a
return to a strong Sovereign.
58 All this catapults the Strange into the public eye,
 Chapter 1

and throws a harsh light onto the Kerberos Club.

Suddenly dozens of authors are selling stories to Late (1880 to 1901)
the penny dreadfuls and half-penny bloods claiming
to recount Kerberan adventures. Real events are In the latter part of the century the Club is thrust
blended with fiction until no one is quite sure where into the limelight, and then into the electric light.
the stories end and the real Club begins. In response many more members assume public
In response, many Kerberans of an adventurous personae, often going so far as to create entire
cast begin assuming masked public personas, seeking fictional biographies for the roles they play. The
to conceal beneath a gaudy or sensational façade their Club works constantly to reinforce this showman’s
true names and identities. Again the Club’s intuitive secret, often arranging for a member’s persona to be
showmanship is at work, using the distraction of observed in one part of the city, nation, or world
absurdity to conceal the truth. To confuse matters while the member is verifiably in quite another
further, sometimes Kerberans exchange these place—speaking before Parliament, riding in Hyde
personae and costumes, taking to the streets to battle Park, purchasing a new dress. With the Strange
menaces to Queen and Country as the armored resources at the Club’s disposal, these obfusca-
warrior Hearth Knight one week and as masked tions are quite often sensationally successful, and
pugilist crime-fighter Blackjack Roe the next. additionally provide members with valuable alibis
Some Kerberans keep their personae to when they are called to appear in Britain’s courts for
themselves, however, and some of them become civil or criminal matters.
London legends. The Night Hag is one of the most By 1890, this sowing of public confusion entirely
famous of the era. The Hag is by some accounts a occupies the energies of several senior Kerberans,
supernatural instrument of vengeance, a symbol of but it pays a dividend in personal security for Club
abused femininity striking out at the male world (a members. It becomes unofficial policy for members
popular opinion among moralists and suffragettes), to refrain from displaying their Strange attributes
while others consider her a dangerous vigilante (if they are at all able) when in the public eye and
and criminal. She operates in the Whitechapel operating in their ordinary identity, reserving those
district from 1860 through fully the end of the powers and potencies for use in their personae.  
century, and is the nightmare of pimps, procurers, Several liberal holdouts in Parliament try
violent husbands, would-be rapists, and others who throughout the 1890s to pass Acts which would
make the already hard lives of the poor women of make it illegal to don disguises, masks, fanciful dress
Whitechapel worse. or false names, or present oneself with other than the
The year 1888 sees the power of the Hag identity one is born to; but despite several famous
challenged directly by the killer dubbed Jack the outrages by costumed and masked villains in greater
Ripper. The Night Hag and the Ripper duel like London, such bills fail to become law. The only
mongoose and cobra, until finally the Ripper dies at successfully-passed Act is denied the Royal Assent,
her hands, his throat cut and his face and manhood and so withers on the vine. With liberals and tradi-
shredded. His true identity is never publicly known. tional conservatives losing more and more of their
After the Ripper’s murder spree, the Night Hag influence to the Royalist Tory-Whig block, such
reasserts her authority in Whitechapel until she efforts fall off by 1899, and the Club’s strategy
vanishes from the streets and roofs of London in to preserve something of its mystery is
1901. upheld.  
The tradition of the mask is
59
 Chapter 1

a great bane to the agents of Special Branch who

make it their mission to identify, track, and compile
dossiers on Kerberos Club members. Ever planning
against the day when Her Majesty’s protection will be
withdrawn from the Kerberos Club, Special Branch
catalogs members, their weaknesses, character flaws,
vulnerabilities, and other information which would
assist them in the destruction of their hated rivals.
Prior to the personae strategy, this tracking was
relatively simple for an organization with the reach
and resources of Special Branch. But after most
Kerberans have adopted one or more personae, and
the Club’s agents begin routinely further confusing
matters, it becomes nearly impossible to continue
compiling information.
By the end of the century, Special Branch’s files
are hopelessly muddled with the fictions, decep-
tions, and lies employed by the Club’s social ciphers.
When the Club falls in 1901, there is simply no
way to determine how many of its members survive,
escape, or who quite possibly never existed in the
first place.
To further confuse things, some previously
fictional Kerberans, invented entirely by the authors
of the penny and ha’penny dreadfuls, become real.
This is the case with the protagonist in the long-
running series of adventure novels starring Kerberos
Club member, working-class polymath, and fantas-
tical inventor Alfred Redbanner.
Alfie was kind to his friends, respectful to his
enemies, and in a near-comical departure from
the Club’s early reputation, chaste and chivalrous
towards women. Alfie’s adventures followed a fairly
typical formula: Alfie would invent something
new and astounding, this would in some way lead
to trouble (foreign agents trying to steal it being
a favorite), which would lead to exotic travels,
encounters with heathen foreigners (all amazed by
Redbanner’s British pluck and know-how), and
finally a showdown with one of his many
arch-foes (one of the most famous
60 being an obvious pastiche of
 Chapter 1

Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper). advantage. The Club becomes a true cipher, and
When Alfie appeared first in The Coming membership, rather than the indelible social stain
Strangeness magazine, he was entirely the invention it was in the 1830s, or the sign of dangerous (but
of author Charles Dodd. By 1885, Alfie is a known possibly fashionable) rebellion is was in the 1860s,
member of the Kerberos Club, presents papers before becomes analogous to participation in a popular
the Academy of Sciences, lectures at several colleges sports team, with public opinion following its record
in Cambridge, wins a great sum in the Derby of 1884 of wins or losses, which is to say, see-sawing from
betting on a horse named Spirit of Invention, and a giddy fawning adoration to a furious indignant
once publicly saves the life of the Prime Minister. hatred.     
At some point, Alfred Redbanner had become a real In the public mind, the Kerberos Club takes on
person, whose personal history matches that of his a role not unlike the fire department or the police, a
fictional counterpart well enough to cause no end of public service from which they are entitled to receive
confusion. No one, even his fellow Kerberans, could proper and due attention. It escapes many that the
ever say with certainty just who or what Alfred Club is a private association with private goals and
Redbanner really was. agendas, and indeed, that individual members are
In a way, this public pantomime allows the Club not bound by any special creed, code or mission.
to return to its fundamental mission from early in Crowds gather when Club members appeared in
the century: Out-of-persona members can easily their Personae, shouting advice and taunts or making
pass among the common people, investigating, demands. They cheer when disasters are averted or
meddling, and heading off menaces before they villains defeated. They groan with the sounds of fists
explode into the streets and require a full “costumed” on flesh, or bone breaking against stone walls. And
response from the Club. more often than anyone would wish, when the chaos
The Public—meaning the consuming masses and Strangeness overwhelmed them, they run riot.
who make publishers rich buying up the lurid tales
of the Club’s real, false, and semi-true exploits—
embrace the concept of the Personae. Discussing
these illusory public figures, trying to puzzle out
their true identities, and collecting memorabilia
from their careers and lives becomes a major pastime
of all classes not too well-bred to engage in such
fanaticisms.
Indeed, the Club has come to so completely
blur the lines between fiction and fact, and so many
profiteers aid their deception with publications
such as True Accounts of the Daring Adventures of the
Kerberos Club, that even what had previously been
common knowledge about the Club only twenty
years earlier—that it was a private Club for social
outcasts—becomes lost in the sea of grand fancy.
By the 1880s, the public outdoes the Club’s own
fantasists and liars a hundredfold, and after a period
of adjustment the Club shepherds this trend to its
61
 Chapter 1

A Modern Geek’s Perspective

The Kerberos Club is in some ways a conjunction of secret of the growing Strangeness. Most of the Club’s
distinctly modern ideas and themes. Its social egalitari- adventures never reach the public awareness. In comics
anism would have been simply unthinkable during the terms they might be considered “street level,” like the
real era covered in this book. It was a very alien concept, Batman or Daredevil.
this inherent value for all mankind that we now take During the middle years of the century, the Strange
for granted (even if we only pay it lip service more breaks into the public awareness, and so does the
often than we should). This is very much intentional: Club. Open demonstrations of power are now not
The Club gives players and game masters a way to uncommon, and it could be compared to the TV series
bring together a radically disparate group of characters, Heroes, The 4400, or later seasons of Smallville. Toward
characters whose historical counterparts would have the end of this period some Club members start
found it impossible to gather and conspire. The Club adopting concealed public personae, wearing masks and
admits members regardless of class, race, creed, or even costumes to distract from their identities. Some adopt
species, whereas a Victorian peer simply could not matching or complementary costumes for their little
have associated with the son of a costermonger. The cliques, and even create fictions about common origins
literature and the journals of the period touch on this or independent missions. This is comparable to many
theme frequently, as romances and friendships across of Marvel’s early comics, where the superhuman was
class divides are either doomed or arduously pursued. public knowledge but was limited to a few individuals,
Simply put, the Club allows for the equality among such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
characters that most players expect. At the end of the century the Kerberos Club’s
But for those who really wish to portray the class “purloined letter” approach to secrecy, and the explosion
distinctions, outside the walls of the Club are millions of the Strange outside its control, makes it comparable
of people who expect them. See Chapter 2 for a sense to DC’s JLA or Marvel’s Avengers, with a full roster of
of just what the Club allows a character to escape. major heroes, minor heroes, alternates and side-teams.
The Kerberos Club, especially as it changes through And the threats it contends with wouldn’t be out of
the century, also allows for different play styles and place in a classic JLA comic, either: giant monsters,
campaign themes. Early on, it isn’t unlike the TV automaton armies, alien plagues and rogue super-
shows The X-Files, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or humans.
Carnivale. The Strange is present, but (in no small part Keep in mind, however, that while the flair and
because of the Club’s efforts) it is obscured. Characters color may become brighter and wilder as the century
dress as they normally would. They do not adopt public progresses, the morality only gets grayer. It may look
super-hero personae and do not protect their secret like a Golden Age world, but it plays out like one from
identities. Rather they protect the whole semi-open Vertigo.

62
 Chapter 2
All Things Right and Proper
In the summer of 1870 I was privileged to bear tossed the boy the coin, and it vanished so quick I saw
witness to one of those grotesque and sensational cases not where it went.
which have so marked the extraordinary career of my “Did Mr. Moreland give any indication as to the
particular friend Lucas Moreland. In the annals of nature of the night’s activities? How shall I dress? Must
crime in which Lucas Moreland’s name has been writ I bring my … souvenir of service in the Crimean?” 
so large, there is no stranger series of events than those “Oh aye, he said you’s to come heavy in the pocket, sir,
of that sweltering July. It was a summer unseasonably and dress dark, for making enquiries in low quarters.”
warmed after the previous winter’s brutish invasion Dressed for the midnight streets and carrying
by the hordes of sunken Atlantis, and the fall over the my service revolver, then. I sighed and considered the
Thames of the crumbling machinery that lifted their possibility that I would get any work done at all in
war-pyramids before good British soldiery dispatched the morning, and found the prospects bleak. While I
them to their depths. cherished the adventures I was privileged to share with
I’d concluded my day’s business, and having seen Lucas Moreland, they did not help the practice of a
my last client was preparing to adjourn to the rooms struggling London solicitor one whit.
Moreland and I shared, when I became aware of a When we stepped into the street my small companion
presence in my office with me. Leaning over my desk I vanished as quick as had my coin. I hailed a cab to bear
beheld one of the ragged street-Arabs Moreland employs me home to Haymarket, where I girded myself for the
for carrying messages and following individuals of evening’s battle; and then traveled again by cab to Pall
interest. I racked my tired brains for the little chap’s Mall and the singular edifice housing London’s most
name, and came up with “Middle Tim” (he’d two notorious establishment, the Kerberos Club.
brothers, both named Tim), just as he piped out with his I suffered the same chill I always did, passing beneath
singsong cant. the savage coat of arms above the Club’s door. Inside I
“Evenin’, guvnah. I’ve word from the Man himself was greeted by the bald, one-eyed porter everyone called
that you’re to attend him at the Club, an’ ’e’ll see you in Bill Peeper—a man who could, according to Moreland,
the parlor hat eight o’clock. An’ that you’re to give me a bite the head off a live cobra and swallow it poison and
shilling for me trouble, so he said, sir.” all. I thanked those powers that watch over us who
I considered how over the years as Moreland’s follow great men that it was Bill Peeper on the door this
particular friend and part-time biographer I’d my night. Some of the Club’s staff are so queer as to make a
pockets lightened considerably by his army of urchins; man who could swallow the head of a live snake seem
but shrugging, I considered the boy’s worth to Moreland mundane.
as a soldier in his tireless war against crime. As the Bill took my hat and coat and showed
uncontested master of private detecting, it was only fair me into the public parlor, a theatrical
that Lucas Moreland have such a force in his service. I room that suffered from excesses
63
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of the Gothic style and an overabundance of grotesque “Well …”

curios, specimens floating in jars, foreboding paintings “If you’re unwilling to join me, I quite understand.
of grim unnatural scenes, and heavy dark furniture­. Your last client of the day was clearly a trying one,
That furniture yet proved remarkably comfortable when and the lady left you with a great many writs to file,
pulled close to the fire, but today, with the heat, the case-laws to investigate, and moneys to invest. Though
fireplace was disused, and the porters’ trays held chilled I think your wife would not approve of the special
fruit juice rather than coffee. attention you paid to her figure in that French-made
“Ah, Sherman! My excellent friend!” gown she wore…”
Lucas Moreland’s masterful voice reached me from “Damn, Moreland! In this age, one would think
across the room just before its owner himself arrived, you were reading my mind! And I was only considering
all smiles and barely-contained mania. As I have said how fetching Martha might be in a new frock of that
before, Lucas Moreland was never still, never at his particular shade of bottle green.… Well, as usual you
ease, and the same energy which drove him relentlessly must tell me how you learned such things, as I know
into the teeth of London’s most sensational crime could there were no witnesses to my meeting.”
consume him if left undirected. Moreland defied Sir “Of course, Sherman, but only while we ride in the
Isaac, for if forced to rest, rather than tending to remain cab to the East End, I think.”
so he might explode like a barrel of powder. “ You can’t keep me waiting. How did you know?’
“I see Middle Tim found you, eh? A most excellent “Why, my dear Sherman, you as good as told me
little fellow. If you ever need an errand run reliably, yourself. Firstly, observe the state of your collar…”        
then Middle Tim is your boy. He moves like a cat, and
quite reasonable too. He’ll take a message anywhere in Excerpted from “The Adventure of the
London for thruppence.” Half-Formed Man,” as published in The Strand
“He got a shilling out of me! Said you told him I’d magazine, by Baxter Jackson Anders, 1891
give it to him.”
“ You astound me! Well, perhaps Middle Tim has
been spending too much time among the criminal classes
in my service. Still, you did give him the coin?”
“Certainly, as I thought …”
“Well, no matter. He certainly deserved it, for
here you are dressed as I asked, and from the distinct
silhouette of your jacket pocket I see you come armed as
well. Excellent, most excellent. We tonight shall confront
one of London’s most dangerous and unpredictable
villains. Still worse, one whose cunning and wit are
hidden beneath layers of inscrutable Oriental reserve.”
“Do you mean . . . ?”
“Indeed. Tonight, we confront Dr. Fang, the
so-called Master of the Unseen Hand.”
“My God, Moreland, he’s real? All this time, all
the stories, I thought he must be fiction.”
“As many of your readers might
64 believe me to be, eh?”
 Chapter 2

The Ethos of A Social History of

the Age Victoria’s Britain
The Kerberos Club exists in stark contrast to the It was a bawdier age, prior to the ascension of
social background of the Victorian Era, embracing Victoria to the throne. During the Napoleonic
behaviors, ideals, philosophies, and individuals Wars a certain wildness prevailed. Fashions were
which are excluded and even abhorrent to many of more risqué and showy, manners more grand, and
the age. To understand just how significant this is, duels with blade or pistol were commonplace. Prior
one must understand the ethos of the era—what it to the rise of mechanized industry, what could be
really means to be a Victorian, how that changes called a “middle class” was quite a thin dividing layer
with social class and time frame, and how the “reality between the vast lower classes—peasants, workers,
on the ground” differs from the ideals espoused by and common folk—and the wealthy upper classes.
the social critics of the age. Also, how these realities With the radical shifts in population densities
differ from those of proceeding generations, whose caused by industry drawing people from the
peoples looked back on the Victorian Era with a countryside and into the cities where manufac-
jaundiced eye. Inside the walls of the Kerberos Club turing was concentrated, there arose opportunity for
a modern, egalitarian, anarchic, transgressive culture moderately well-off people to congregate, observe
rules—but setting foot outside the Club’s house one another, and pursue in their grasping ways the
means stepping back into the social wilds which rule privilege and lifestyle of the truly wealthy or noble.
the age. Even the Strangest of the Club’s Strangers Increasingly large segments of Britain’s buying
would be advised to know when to tip their hats, and and selling power came to rest in the hands of the
on which side of a public street a lady is supposed widening ranks of the middle class, and gradually
to walk. culture came to cater to middle-class tastes and
Sometimes, especially in the later third of the prejudices.
century, extraordinary individuals brazenly flaunt But while a survey of the period’s literature and
convention and get away with it (being powerful, culture seems to imply a universal acceptance of
famous, gorgeous, or rich always helps), but even these staid middle-class values, the truth is more
in a time when sights like the Thames Leviathan complex, and the rules are quite simply different for
rampaging towards Buckingham Palace aren’t those of little means than for those of great fortunes.
uncommon, wise Kerberans are recommended to While the Society of Victoria’s Britain embrace an
keep up appearances as much as possible. Defeating extreme optimism that all problems will be solved
gigantic beasts from the depths of primordial time is by Progress, there remains truly shocking social
one thing; but making an undignified boor of oneself injustice. The concepts of equality and human worth
. . . one might find that even after such heroics, are largely absent from the common consciousness.
invitations to parties are few and far between. As When Victoria first assumed the throne,
they say, one must know the rules before knowing She was most concerned with the often
how to get away with breaking them. shameful behavior of Royalty in
the preceding eras, and how the
65
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Crown was besmirched by scandal and intrigue. She of Britain’s proper ladies. By the mid-1880s, proper
deliberately assumed a public posture of extreme Victorian women resembled sculpture more than
rigidity and proper comportment, taking Her inspi- living flesh, even adopting the Queen’s famously
ration from the earlier monarch Elizabeth I, who immobile posture and economy of motion.
after her crowning mastered her public image by Of course, as with most social trends of the age,
making herself iconic, beyond the merely human, or those of the upper classes do and dress as they wish,
indeed, the merely royal. Immediately Victoria set often quite dramatically, while the lower classes are
the tone for Her subjects: modest fashion, concern too busy scraping a living to worry about the niceties
for reputation, and the very real sense that what is of keeping up appearances. Indeed, it has been
private must at all costs remain so. reported that, shockingly, upwards of a third of all
Always keen to imitate the behavior of their lower-class marriages are preceded by the conception
betters, the burgeoning middle class abandoned their of the happy couple’s firstborn.
exquisite hats and vibrant clinging gowns, adopting Ironically, this elevation of the proper woman to
the bonnet and layers of shape-concealing garments. the pedestal applies hardly at all to men of the era.
Women of a certain economic class were increasingly Prostitution, philandering, gambling, blood-sports,
held to the standards set by the Queen, to be perfect, drunkenness, and all manner of outgoing behavior
unblemished, always proper, and always untouched is considered by many to be part of a man’s natural
by any hint of sexuality. inclinations, and that so long as such activities are
As the Queen became more and more the woman engaged in with a measure of discretion, they are
of carved marble, so too was British womanhood nothing of major concern. The Good Wife remains
constrained. Cosmetics were abandoned, and then at home, ordering about her Maid of All Work,
re-adopted to imply a marble pallor of while the Husband drinks at his club, attends the
the skin. The sun was avoided at theater with his (male) friends, and then perhaps
66 all costs, less it darken the skin negotiates the affections of one of the women who
 Chapter 2

frequent the district after the theaters let out.

In a sense, it isn’t what you do, or even what
others know you do, but how well you maintain a
certain appearance of respectability, a social plausible
To Be Victorian
deniability. To a point, it would itself be quite Victorian Britain is a distinctly class-conscious
scandalous to call attention to the foibles of another, society, and within the broad categories of class are
unless they were so glaring as to raise a scandal. As innumerable further distinctions. Even among a
with most things, the situation for women in this noble family’s servants is hierarchy and social prece-
respect is significantly less amiable than for men, dence. Explicit and implicit powers are possessed by
and behaviors tolerated to extremes in respectable people of higher social rank, and the full weight of
Victorian men are quite frowned upon in women. society is brought to bear upon those who fail to
What you see as the century progresses is a respect the distinctions.
more conservative social order, especially over the For our purposes, we can divide society into
first decades of Victoria’s reign, rising sharply in the four broad classes: upper class (the old ennobled
1850s with the Hygiene Laws, dipping somewhat aristocracy and the new self-made gentry with more
during the prosperous ’60s and ’70s, but returning wealth than title); middle class (the educated profes-
with a vengeance in the ’80s and ’90s. sionals, clerks, solicitors, men of business and trade);
During the middle Victorian era, the Strange working class (those who work day-in and -out to
brings with it more and more individuals who defy make a living, from manual laborers to craftsmen to
the social order yet remain fascinating enough to factory workers); and the ubiquitous, ever-present
escape some of the consequences. Fame excuses poor forming the under class (all those of irregular
scandal, at least to some extent. employment or low-pay, low-skill labor, perpetually
By the end of the century, the “right and proper” teetering on the edge of ruin and starvation).
way of behaving has become almost pantomime. The myth of the Self-Made Man is embraced
It begins to reflect the state of future shock which popularly, being a major theme of the literature of
assails Britain’s citizens. Increasingly, people seek the day, and this is a society with a fair bit of lateral
refuge in an idealized past and the values of that mobility. Opportunity to seek new employment
time—as reinvented by modern social movers to in new professions in new regions of the nation is
help them deal with the runaway train of Progress. greater than during any previous age, as evidenced by
Amidst wonders unimaginable a few decades the numbers abandoning traditional rural vocations
before, the suits are blacker, the manners more and seeking modern employment in the cities. But
complex and ways of speech more formal. But there is little upwards mobility, and one who does
beneath the veils of propriety lurk revolutions manage to rise from one class to another is rarely
and transformations, waiting to burst through the welcomed there.
surface. Though the era saw some political reform, for
the most part those of the working and under
classes are entirely barred from the political
process. They lack both the franchise to vote and
the organization needed to make their cases to
the powerful. But this age sees the birth
of Marxism and Communism, a
growing consciousness among
67
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the poor and the ill-used that en mass they could be with a heavy accent which betrays your class and
powerful, if only the behemoth could be awakened. origins. You lack refinement and grace because
As one might expect, that thought is the great terror you’ve never had the opportunity to develop it. You
of the ruling elites. Fear of foreign troublemakers have no permanent home, and sleep where you can
and home-grown revolutionaries nearly scuttle the find a place. Sometimes it’s a rooming house which
Great Exhibition of 1851. rents space on a bench for the night, and a rope tied
When approaching the period from the modern across your chest is all that keeps you flopping on the
perspective of role-playing, social class is a tremen- floor. Or if the weather permits, you can sometimes
dously useful tool for breaking down the complex- find a doorway to sleep in for a few hours before the
ities of the age into easily manageable pieces that Bow Street Runners kick you awake. It is possible
can enhance game play without bogging you down that you began life with higher station and Fell On
in minutiae. Always consider the social class of Hard Times, but if so, you have plenty of company
characters, or their assumed class, when portraying in your sad state.
them, noting especially how they might relate to What options do you have? You can beg for
members of other classes. pennies on the streets (though the beggars are quite
To give a sense of these categories, we recommend well organized, and you’d best make good with one
Patrick Colquhoun’s rankings of British society of their clans or else end up a naked floater in the
from A Treatise on the Wealth, Power and Resources Thames). You can take a corner and sweep the way
of the British Empire, an analysis and demographic for people of quality so they won’t soil their shoes,
survey of British society in 1814. He outlines some hoping for a coin in remuneration. You might sell
of the professions and occupations which might oranges, or if you’re terribly off, sell matches door
fall into a given rank, and the following notes draw to door, a “profession” that’s usually just an excuse to
much from him. beg charity. There is always crime, and many of your
kin have tried their hands at it, but in many of your
fellows, even at your low station, there remains a
sense of right and wrong, a pride which won’t allow

The Under Class some to steal. 

Many live on the refuse of those better off, and
nothing goes to waste. Ashes and dust emptied from
Life is nasty, brutish, and short. Hunger is a constant the homes of the working and middle classes are
companion. Death by hunger, misadventure, or sifted for any valuable or salable item which might
disease has robbed you of many relatives. You have have been swept up. Refuse and table scraps are
no concern for anything as vague as politics or social either eaten, fed to an animal which could be eaten,
betterment when the looming prospect of starvation or composted to make soil which could be sold to a
drives you to scrabble out what living you can among gardener for a few pennies. Mudlarks walk barefoot
the scraps of the greatest empire in the world. You in the slime and muck of the Thames at low tide,
have only the clothing on your back and the scraps feeling with their toes for a bit of coal or rope or iron,
of shoes on your feet. Anything of value has long knowing all the while that even the slightest cut could
since been sold unless it had enormous personal become septic and bring death in days.
value to you, and even then…  Prostitution is a constant temptation for men
You are most likely illiterate and women alike, though women find the most
68 and uneducated, and you speak opportunity. The upper classes may like to pretend
 Chapter 2

they’re good Christians, but in their hearts they love

slumming and a threepenny upright against an alley Lifestyle
wall.
The only public institutions to aid you in this Grim. Survival is a matter of scavenging, begging,
state are the workhouse and the orphanage. The borrowing, or stealing the necessities. Lives are
workhouse seems intended to encourage the poor short; in some areas, the average age of death is only
to find real occupations by being as miserable and twenty-one for the poorest of the poor. Some of
soul-crushing as possible. For many, the streets this class travel, often just ahead of the law. In the
are preferable. Orphanages are similarly bleak, country, poaching game is a common way of making
often run by those of a particularly fanatical moral it, and poaching has a long and, if not honorable, then
or religious bent. Few others have the energy to accepted history. Many view it as different than simple
concern themselves with such as you. thievery. With the only social support institution the
workhouse—deliberately cruel, often corrupt, and
only ever meeting the absolute minimum standards to

Social Imperatives keep inmates alive—living rough is usually preferable.

Escaping desperate poverty is the thing of novels, but
for the vast majority of those born to it, or who fall
The most basic: to survive, and help those close into it by bad luck, bad decisions or bad habits, it’s
survive. Remaining unnoticed by one’s betters is usually inescapable.
a safe strategy for many in the under classes, until
they must make themselves known to beg charity
or provide some small service, such as running an
errand, delivering a note, or scraping mud off a boot. Colquhoun’s Ranking
Pride is well and good, but eating is better. Many
find in the end nothing too degrading, and few in Seventh Class: Paupers, gypsies, criminals, idle
similar straits will condemn. With so much focused persons.
on the immediate, personal friendships and keeping
faith with friends and family are terribly important.

Occupations
Common Motivations Beggar, thief, street prostitute/rent boy, urchin,
mudlark, sweep, hawker, Gypsy.
Hunger. Fear of human predation, official perse-
cution, and disease. Addiction to benzene-laced
and faerie-touched gin is also a fairly common
motivation; opium is far too expensive a vice for the View From the Basement
under classes.
Those in the bottom ranks of the working classes
are only just above this level of desper-
ation, and are the easiest for the
under classes to understand and
69
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interact with. Those doing well might put on airs

and forget where they came from, but they’ll have
Rag and Bone
similar attitudes and background. There is a certain Almost nothing goes to waste in Victorian society.
For every scrap of cloth, old boot, bin of ashes, plate
amount of upward mobility into the working classes,
of table leavings, bit of paper, bent nail, rope end,
as steady honest employment and permanent
meat dripping, candle stub, and broken window
housing are at least conceivable.
there is someone struggling to survive by collecting,
The middle classes are almost an alien species. re-selling or re-purposing it.
They live in fantastic luxury, with regular meals, a The dust swept up in Victorian homes, dust from
proper home (perhaps even a house), several suits of the streets and from coal-fired stoves, lint brushed
clothes, the money to take hacks or cabs or hansoms from coats, dried horse dung—all is collected and
upon occasion. More particularly, outside their resold by dustmen, who sift it looking for coins and
slumming or their charity, the middle classes for the valuables accidentally swept into the bin. The dust
most part simply doesn’t want to know anyone this is then sold as soil for city gardens, or to brickworks
far down the line. to make brick.
The upper classes are almost mythical, even Scavenging is how many among the poorest
though they tread the same streets as everyone else Londoners survive, and some even make their
(only in the better parts of town, where lower-class fortunes by carving out a niche in the economic
sorts just aren’t wanted). landscape, and selling offal or rotting vegetables or
the waste from a tannery.
Some hungry person is going to be aggressively
protective of things which in the modern world

The Working Class would be considered worthless garbage. Collecting

the scraps from kitchens staked out by another
scrapsman might earn one a beating.

Every day, often from dawn to dusk (and later, when

they install lighting, all night), your life is work. three stable boys, the blacksmith, the horse-doctor,
Grueling, physically destructive, often crippling, the footmen, the coachman, and others. If you’re in
rarely interesting and done in unsafe, unsanitary, service, working in the household of someone better
often toxic conditions. You work, and then you eat, off, you exist in the shadow of their luxury, and are
sleep, and work some more. But you’re making it. privy to their secrets and subject to their eccentric-
You’re paying your bills. Your family eats. Perhaps ities. Your life is almost entirely dictated by them—
just bread and a bit of pork or drippings, but they who and when you might marry (if ever), how you
eat. You might have enough to see your children dress, act, speak, and even worship.
taught to read and do simple figures, if there isn’t Life is hard, but you can easily see how it could be
a ragged school close enough—but more likely you harder. The ever-present threat of ruin and starvation
need them to work to help make ends meet. keeps you working, day in and day out. Soldiery and
You might work in a factory, a mill, or perhaps sailing are common occupations for men of this class,
you have a skill or trade. Until 1860 they don’t yet and the regimented life of the military services as well
have a machine to do all the hundreds of little as the regular meals are strong inducements to join. If
things that have to be done by hand every it’s early in the century, you might be a veteran of the
day. A noble’s carriage means war with Napoleon; in the middle years it’s America,
70 employment for three grooms, Afghanistan, India or the Crimea. In the century’s
 Chapter 2

later years there are wars enough to see service on any

continent on, above or below the Earth. Common Motivations
If you have a trade you work hard and seek to
advance. You likely started out an apprentice, then To survive; to maintain a good (or at least adequate)
became a journeyman able to seek independent position; to provide; to avoid bank-breaking illness.
work. Perhaps you can save enough to open your Teetering so close on the edge of poverty, many in
own establishment and take in apprentices of your the working class are very staid and unwilling to take
own. You might, with diligence, work your way into risks. Seeking better opportunities or higher wages is
the middle classes, rent a house on one of the rail difficult when any break in income can be disastrous.
lines outside London proper, even save enough for a Ambitious members of the working classes might
trip to the seaside once a year. seek to better themselves and enter the middle classes,
But more than likely you’re holding on by your or might seek to organize their fellows to gain some
fingernails, living one-atop-another in a single room, benefit from factory owners or the government—but
and struggling with debt and too many mouths to that kind of ambition can place all at risk.
feed on too little money. But just look outside to the
streets, and you see there’s always farther you can fall.

Lifestyle
Social Imperatives Most in the working classes live in cramped and
crowded conditions, sharing the same minimal space.
As with the under classes, most attention is focused Families tend to be large and children are usually
on immediate family and friends, and even with the put to work. Child labor is almost unregulated at the
growth of unions and other working-class organiza- century’s start, and the children of the poor (often
tions most working folk don’t have the time, energy, orphans, the result of the common epidemics and
or inclination to join. The driving imperative for deaths in childbirth) are sent down the coal mines
those who work is to provide for those for whom they for daylong shifts to haul coal on hands and knees.
are responsible. Pride in working hard, in surviving The alternative is starvation. In a land which proudly
without resorting to low or immoral practices such decries slavery, hundreds of thousands of its own free
as thievery or prostitution, is very strong. The social citizens suffer conditions worse than many true slaves.
consciousness of the middle class seeps down to Food is meager. Pork fat is a luxury, and the tallow
the working classes to a certain extent—how they normally used for rushlights is eaten instead. Bread is
long for the middle class—though most are more the staple, with meat and fresh produce being minimal,
concerned with getting by than keeping up appear- let alone seasoning. Diseases are common, often
ances. sweeping away an entire family. There is a remarkable
Working-class women work, and many are acceptance of these conditions, and the growth of social
effective heads of household as well, with their consciousness and organization is slow, with many fits
menfolk traveling and seeking work where they may. and starts. Until late in the century, workers serve at
Moralism and propriety are less of a concern than the pleasure of the establishment and labor unions
for the middle classes, but simple honesty, church- are viciously suppressed. Life is struggle, so
going, and keeping faith with family and friends are take what pleasures you might in
important. the society of family and friends.
71
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Colquhoun’s Rankings accept one’s lot.

The middle classes are close enough to inspire
hope, perhaps, one day, to join their ranks and
Sixth Class: Craftsmen, farmers, factory workers. achieve some measure of security. There’s also no
Fifth Class: Shopkeepers, innkeepers, publicans, small measure of envy. The middle class of the
miscellaneous occupations and trades. Victorian era begin to indulge in conspicuous
consumption, conspicuous morality, conspicuous
self-righteousness. You are expected to know your

Occupations place when dealing with your betters and act the
part. Many in the middle class are also among the
employers of working class folk, and so you have the
Coal slinger, police officer, costermonger, carpenter, tensions of workers against management as well.
groom, junior clerk, servant. These tensions are magnified with the upper
classes, who hold quite awesome power, and who
seem unwilling to do much to alleviate the misery of

View From the Bottom common folk. Still, they own the manor houses, and
the factories, and the mills, and the Parliament, so in
the end, they are who working class people work for.         
Lurking right outside the door is the under class,
and avoiding falling into such misery is a constant
driving motivation. Many of this class under-
stand that desperation, but few have the
time and resources to do anything
72 about it. All there is to do is
 Chapter 2

fraternity of other men. You may have the vote as

The Middle Class well, allowing you to help decide the leaders of your
country. Still, your reputation is everything, and a
ruined reputation can mean loss of employment,
Candide could have been speaking of the times loss of social position, and the loss of friends.
when he said “ce meilleur des mondes possibles.” It If you are a woman, then you have all the
is indeed the best of all possible times, or at least, it requirements to guard your reputation, but few of
will be soon. the compensatory freedoms. You are expected to
Progress! The coming wonders of the modern manage the household, provide children and then
age. They are evidenced everywhere, and they have care for them, and deal with the domestic and social
already transformed your life and improved it. You life of the family. Your opportunities outside the
can now take the train from the office where you are house, respectable or otherwise, are limited until late
a rising clerk to your modest home outside town, in the century, though you might be well educated.
affording you more space and luxury than would Male or female, you work hard. Money is a major
ever have been possible before rail so shrank the concern, and careful management of money a virtue,
country. You have good employment and have been but if you save and scrimp, a yearly vacation is not
decently educated. You have modest but respectable impossible (barring unexpected illness or death;
clothing. If you are a man, you have opportunities the expense of a respectable funeral is not incon-
to further yourself in the world, gaining reputation siderable). Pride and optimism frequently marry
in your profession and more position and responsi- in your heart, for you read the papers, and hear the
bility. In many ways, society caters to you and your news, and know yours is the greatest nation on
wishes. The papers are written with your readership the planet.
in mind, as are the music hall shows. You may
have a club membership where you can enjoy the
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Social Imperatives Common Motivations

Keeping up appearances, maintaining respectability, Avoiding scandal, possibly at any cost. With the
and shepherding reputation are the all-powerful social imperatives driving the middle class to
imperatives of the middle classes. There is also a maintain their reputations in a highly watchful and
strong drive to avoid “trade,” working in any sort highly judgmental society, people may lie, cheat,
of manual capacity. Until mid-century, a physician steal and murder to protect their dirty secrets.
(who performed cursory physical exams and Seeking professional betterment and more financial
prescribed drugs) was more highly regarded than security is also key, growing the family business, and
a surgeon (who performed actual medical inter- pursuing the Victorian dreams of plenty.
ventions and surgery), because the physician had
a proper gentleman’s education, while a surgeon’s
workmanlike cutting open of sick people was too
much like manual labor. And both were considered Lifestyle
superior to an apothecary, who was in trade, actually
selling drugs. Well-paid tradesman lurk towards the Not too bad, with a common effort made to appear
bottom of the middle-class social hierarchy, while to live better than one actually does. Work is still
those who work professional positions—barristers, a major chunk of one’s day, but there is time (and
clerks, investment bankers—are more highly sometimes money) for leisure. The trains allow
regarded. travel out of town fairly easily, and with literacy at
high rates there is plenty of reading to be done with
all of London’s papers. There are theaters, museums,
74 bicycling.
 Chapter 2

The main concerns of many in the middle class frightening of movements, Communism. In some
is social standing and how to improve it. But if the obsessing minds the poor are seen as a mob hungry
pressure of keeping to the narrow path becomes to destroy the prosperous way of life the middle
tiring, there is always the escape of vice, prostitution, classes enjoy. Many in the middle class see those less
urban blood sports like ratting, and drink. So long as fortunate as moral failures, or embrace the pseudo-
it remains modestly covert, only a boor would point scientific concepts and proto-sociology which blame
it out. poverty on the impoverished. According to such
“common sense” the poor are less evolved than the
higher ranks, or cultivate their misery by failing to

Colquhoun’s Rankings live properly.

Fourth Class: Lesser clergy, surgeons, solic-

itors, teachers, ship owners, merchants, small scale
manufacturers, shopkeepers, artists, builders, junior
clerks.
The Upper Class
Third Class: Clergy, physicians, barristers, For those born to privilege (or those who bought it
commodities traders, merchants, large-scale with new money), the age offers its greatest rewards.
manufactures, bankers, those of independent income Those of the upper classes have achieved what the
yet lacking title. middle classes strive for: power and comfort enough
to preclude entirely the need to work.
But you have plenty to occupy your time: charity

Occupations (often in quite fashionable causes), military service,

politics, service in the Church, positions on the many
boards, trusts, councils, colleges, and committees
Clerk, surgeon, physician, trader, military officer, that help the Empire manage its affairs. If you are
bureaucrat, police detective, shop owner. titled, then your pedigree is likely long, and you’ve
cousins in many aristocratic families. There are
estates, though, that do not equate to wealth, that

View From the Middle provide only a form of sumptuous poverty.

Whether you inherit or not might be the source
of much family intrigue. You’re well educated, and
The upper classes are almost within reach. All it takes unless newly-elevated you comport yourself with
is some wealth, and a son or daughter might even dignity as a matter of course. Honor is a major
marry up. The working classes are to be commended concern, and it’s an older thing quite distinct from
for their hard service, and treated with respect so the simple propriety that obsesses the middle
long as they remain respectful, but the under classes classes. Simply put, you are better than almost
are to be pitied, distrusted, or condemned. Those everyone else, and the exquisitely-detailed rankings,
who strive and suffer misfortune might be worthy titles, and honors possessed by you and your
of some charity, but those who Will Not Work are fellows lets you know who is better than
parasitic. Possibly worse, the lower classes are seen whom. You were taught to expect a
as a breeding ground for that most pernicious and certain deference from those of
75
Chapter 2
 Chapter 2

lower rank than you, and no matter how friendly

your relationships with them, there will always be
the great divide of social station between you.
While there is an enormous amount expected
of the upper classes, there are also some protections
enjoyed by those of these classes. A great deal is
forgiven by one’s lessers, ignored by ones equals, and
frowned upon by ones superiors, all without any real
sanction. Drink is a vice shared by almost everyone,
and drunkenness is a viable excuse for almost any
embarrassment. An apology begun with “I do hope
you can forgive my boorish behavior, as I was well
into my cups that evening” is acceptable even for
truly egregious behavior.
There is a great deal of social pressure on the
nobility to forgive, at least publicly, slights against
them, if presented with a viable apology. Sometimes
these apologies are negotiated by functionaries
before being issued, so both parties can maintain face
and be satisfied with the resolution. A person can
find himself in disfavor for too vigorously pursuing
recompense, even if they are the wronged party.

Social Imperatives
Duty. Duty to family, and duty to country. One’s
reputation isn’t as fragile as that of the middle
classes; wealth and station ensure that a great deal is
overlooked by others, as it could be more damaging to
call attention to the foibles of a peer than to commit
those same acts oneself. Rather, those of the highest
classes have distinct roles to fulfill, pre-scripted
lives laid out by family patriarchs and matriarchs
who oversee the common affairs of a noble house.
There is also the lure of vice and excess, and of
keeping with fashion and other occupations of the
idle rich. During the Season—when Parliament
is in session, and the aristocracy proceed
from their country homes to their
London homes—it is parties,
77
 Chapter 2

balls, dinners, and all the functions of aristocratic

sociability, with their undercurrents of ancient Colquhoun’s Rankings
rivalries and feuds, and the fates of nations decided
over sips of champagne. Thousands of working- Second Class: Those with large independent
class seamstresses toil through the night for weeks income and wealth who lack title; those of lesser
supplying the Season’s fashionable garments for non-heritable title such as knight and baronet;
gentlemen and ladies. In sharp contrast to this country landowners.
pomp and dripping luxury, the Queen’s household First Class: Those of hereditary title, those of the
maintains an austerity which sets it apart from the royal family, the highest church officials such as the
merely noble, for Hers is a power which needs no archbishop.
ostentatious demonstration. Some of the highest
classes follow Her example, but they are in the
minority; dour souls find the Season unsociable.
Occupations
Common Motivations Politician, owner of mills or factories, ship owner,
banker, military commander, idle rich, socialite,
minister, bishop.
The upper classes seem often driven by power,
either towards it or away from it. Britain, even in
this democratic age, is still ruled in large part by
the aristocracy, which remains viable and adaptable, View From the Top
and welcomes regular infusions of mercantile cash
through marriage. Those born to title are frequently From this social height the world is revealed and laid
raised to take power, to rule, to seek influence out. Few of the illusions of the age rise this far; it is
in politics. A term in Parliament is a common a perspective which grants insight into the workings
occupation. Others with no head for politics, or of the whole society, but also inspires cynicism
no will for service, might deliberately avoid official and arrogance. The middle classes are vulgar and
responsibility, leaving financial affairs in the hands grasping, always chasing the social scraps thrown
of men of business and enjoying the lifestyle that from your table like little eager terriers. Further
wealth and power, and a measure of freedom from down there are millions of people doing all sorts
consequence, can offer. Even Victoria’s own son of things, and wealth and title carry the privilege
Edward Albert indulged in this aristocratic pastime, of never having to know about any of it. The other
keeping low friends, frequenting the company classes are of little concern. It is members of one’s
of fallen women, and carrying on in a practically own class which are the greatest sources of fasci-
Georgian style. Victoria was not amused. nation and consternation. Within the upper class
there are innumerable sub-divisions and layers of
influence and prominence.

78
 Chapter 2

Being Under Class

An under-class person might typically… Avoid putting on airs—pretending to manners or
…Collect a debt with physical force if it isn’t repaid in prospects better than your station—as this is roundly
the expected fashion. If one is unable to execute such considered rude and contemptuous of your fellows in
threats, then there are men more than willing to wield poor circumstances. Contempt from those of higher
the cosh and cudgel in your name for a percentage of station is to be expected. It is the nature of the classist
the debt collected. society; but from those who could be considered equals,
…Pursue an affair as openly as desired, with the only it is insulting. 
worry being angering someone hurt by it. But with Kindness is rarely repaid, but there is still virtue in
many women of this class resorting to casual prosti- what small gestures you might make. 
tution to make ends meet, there is a pragmatic attitude Conversation is coarse and bawdy. No topic is
to how one’s organs of generation should be employed. prohibited, and language is foul and filled with
…Answer an insult with a sharp comeback, or contemptuous slang.
violence. It’s a bawdy sort of a society this far down,
and insults which would result in duels to the death Role-Playing Hints
among the Quality are bandied about casually and with Carve out what dignity you can, and define the line
little malice. But someone can always decide to take you will not cross. Then test your character against this
things the wrong way, particularly with the poisonous decision when desperation drives you to question your
quality of the liquor available to those of little means. resolve.
…React to tragedy openly and with little restraint. Be wary. Your world is full of opportunists, sharp
Wailing, rending of garments, and all the other loud dealers, predators, and tricksters who would take what
rituals of grief are common.   little you have to further their own small advantages.
…Expect from others mostly bad things. Living hand- From the upper classes a measure of pity is possible, but
to-mouth teaches people that when pressed, humanity equally likely are contempt and condemnation. 
is a bitter, savage animal. Loyalty is expected from You are desperately hungry most of the time (or at
family and particular friends, and betrayal of personal least you remember a time when you were desperately
loyalty is a grievous hurt. Among criminals, betrayal to hungry). Something as simple as where your next bite
the authorities is frequently punished by death. of bread will come from can occupy much of your mind.
Everyone has it hard, and public assistance is meager
Manners at best. Survival has taught you self-reliance and
Something like prison-yard etiquette rules many inter- mistrust. The world is not kind, Progress cures nothing,
actions. Respect a person’s space, avoid eye contact and nobody of means understands your plight.
unless seeking conversation or confrontation, and defer Crushing poverty marks the body as well as the
completely to those with power to avoid trouble from mind. Chronic complaints of lungs, joints, throat,
them or to get an advantage from them.  sinuses, skin, all affect how you hold yourself, speak,
Be invisible to those of quality except when and interact. Consider the hardships your character has
approaching them in an acceptable manner to beg or to suffered when speaking in character.
offer some meager service. 
 Chapter 2

Being Working Class

A working-class person might typically… Don’t act above your station, but not beneath it
…Collect a debt by issuing an invoice or letter either—work offers a small measure of respectability. 
describing the debt, then by asking for it in person, Mind your own business. In tight living conditions,
possibly making such requests physically memorable. If one atop another, any privacy is precious.
all else fails, the debt might be pursued in the courts, Safeguard your reputation as a worker. You don’t have
but the backlog and waiting makes this an unattractive much cause to worry about middle class-style scandal
prospect.      (unless you’re in service in a middle or upper class
…Pursue an affair by keeping those who might be home), but you only work so long as employers trust
personally angered by it ignorant of the affair. Secret your reputation as a good worker.
polygamy wasn’t unknown, especially with traveling
tradesman, who might have wives scattered here and Role-Playing Hints
there. Working-class women also sometimes found Speak casually to those of equal or lesser station, but
themselves with multiple husbands (common-law and humble yourself before those of greater station (it is
ceremonially wed). Others of this class may approve or what they usually expect).
disapprove, but the compulsion to keep to the moral Lace speech in character with as much slang and
and upright (and be seen doing it) is much less serious dialect as you can manage.
than in the middle classes. If working all day in a trade or labor, you will be tired
…Answer an insult by answering it back, with and weary much of the time. You might seek to convey
insulting comeback or physical escalation. In many this with body language or tone of voice.
quarters violence is always a waiting possibility, right Your reputation in your profession will go a long way
under the surface, and if the drink has been flowing it to determining if you work or not. Professional pride,
is not far under the surface at all.   self promotion, and references are all quite important.
…React to tragedy with open sorrow, grief, and anger Endure. Life is hard, and no one who works all day
as appropriate. In the slums of London it isn’t unknown has it easy. Resolution in the face of crushing, life-long
for mobs enraged by grief to drag those guilty (or labor is a hallmark of working-class attitudes, and
suspected) of causing tragedies out into the street for considered quite virtuous. A poor attitude towards
beatings and worse.   work is roundly condemned by everyone from paupers
…Expect from others that they mind their own to princes. Misery hardly matters by comparison.
business, stay civil, and keep their word. But living hard
also teaches one to expect opportunism, shady deals,
and predation.

Manners
Be polite to your fellows. Lightening the mood with
humor and conversation, but defer respectfully to those
of higher station, as they can often make or break your
fortunes.
 Chapter 2

Being Middle Class

A middle-class person might typically…
…Collect a debt by referring the matter to a solicitor,
Role-Playing Hints
The divide between public and private is strongest for
or pursue it in person with carefully-worded letters. If
characters of this class. Keep in mind which theater
the moneys are not forthcoming after reasonable steps
in which you are performing when deciding how your
are taken, then the matter might be taken to the courts.
character acts. 
…Pursue an affair quietly and with great discretion,
When people talk about “Stuffy Victorians” they’re
lest reputations suffer, employment be threatened,
talking about the idealized middle class of the period.
and neighbors gossip. Men have a certain leeway, but
While these stereotypes are pretty inaccurate, you
middle-class women are expected to be saints. Even an
can’t go far wrong with liberal doses of prudishness,
unjust accusation can wound a reputation badly.
moralism and judgmentalism.
…Answer an insult with anger and harsh words, or
Arrogant politics and ostentatious patriotism are
by emulating the rigid dignity of the upper classes and
also middle-class habits. As mentioned in Chapter 1,
answering with icy contempt.
patriotism is common even in cynics, and often quite
…React to tragedy with an effort to keep strong
powerful. For the ever-striving middle classes, showing
emotions under control, but without the upper-class
off that patriotism is important. For many, being British
taboo about seeming publicly out of control. Victorian
is better than being anything else, and damn anybody
men could weep openly in joy or sorrow and not be
who says different.
considered unmanly for it.  
Optimism is the middle class’s greatest vice, the idea
…Expect from others proper deportment, civility,
that change is good, progress better, and that the Future
and professionalism—as well as nosiness, rumor-
will be brighter, better and more exciting. 
mongering, and constant judgment.
Social climbing is a major motivation; making contact
Manners with one’s betters and securing some favor or influence
among them is a big score.
A formality of address is often used, even within a
Maintaining a respectable lifestyle is expensive.
marriage (or at least when in company). 
Guard your money wisely. 
One’s public comportment is always observed
and noted. Act accordingly, with care, dignity and
forethought. 
Be polite to equals and lessers, and deferent to
superiors.
Avoid outbursts or excessive public excitement.
Strangers do not wish to see you in such a state. 
Do not speak of private matters—sex, childbirth,
religion, insanity, intimate medical complaints, and the
like—with strangers if at all possible. 
 Chapter 2

Being Upper Class

An upper-class person might typically…
…Collect a debt by passing the matter to a solicitor or
Manners
You must have a firm grasp of courtly ritual and custom,
secretary, if the issue is a serious one, but cannot be seen
dancing, and party etiquette. 
to pursue a debt too hawkishly. Debts among the upper
Maintain a polite but aloof attitude when dealing
classes are often matters of honor (such as gambling
with those beneath you, and an appropriately respectful
losses) rather than ones of serious financial hardship,
demeanor with equals. 
and social pressure see most of these resolved satisfac-
The woman leads in social situations, offering her
torily. Matters of business are delegated to people paid
hand, inviting men to smoke, gamble for real sums,
to handle such things.     
discuss topics of genuine significance rather than make
…Pursue an affair with discretion (if a lady, with
small talk, accepting or declining one’s attempts to
utmost discretion). In a matter of the heart, letters
make an introduction. 
might be written; in a matter of the loins, assignations
Ignore the foibles and failings of others of the same
arranged. To a point, it is rude and unseemly to point out
class, especially superiors, lest shame be brought to
the affairs of others of quality, but those of lower classes
their families and their reputations be hurt.  
would happily print such scandal in the newspapers,
Keep abreast of the rankings of other gentry, so one
threats of lawsuits or influence notwithstanding.
knows to whom to defer, and from whom to expect
…Answer an insult with a level of outrage appropriate
deference. Being ignorant of the protocol of a situation
to the class of the person issuing it. Those of this rank
can lead to unfortunate embarrassment. 
do not take insults without answer, unless it is to their
advantage to do so. An insolent challenge by a bounder
of the lowest class might be met by having footmen
Role-Playing Hints
set the lout right with a beating, while an insult from Maintain dignity at all costs. Restrain strong emotions,
a tradesman would be met with angry words and an speak formally even when angry, keep silent if an expla-
effort to see the man denied the custom of any friends nation will make you seem foolish or threaten your
or relatives. From a middle-class person, it might family’s or friends’ reputations. 
be answered with icy contempt, anger, or dismissal. Assume your lessers know their place, and be appro-
From one of equal class, overt hostility and social and priately outraged when they do not. 
economic antagonism; duels are so gauche, after all. Try an upright posture when speaking in character, to
From one of superior class, rigid dignity and reserve. lend your words a stiffness and deliberateness.
…React to tragedy with reserve and dignity. Emotions Act with chivalry (if male), or with passivity and
of grief and sorrow are private things, to be reserved for acceptance of such attention (if female)—noting of
only the most intimate company. course, that as a Kerberan you need not debase yourself
…Expect from others deference and respect. From if you decide it isn’t to your advantage.
equals, courtesy and friendly society. From underlings, Keep social ramifications in mind when making big
obedience and unobtrusiveness. From the lowest of the decisions. Will your course of action damage you or
low, distance, unless contact is specifically invited (such your family’s reputation? Irreparably? And if so, do you
as if slumming or doing good works). care?
 Chapter 2

Silver groats are worth 4 pence, and a copper

Day to Day penny is worth 1 pence. The farthing is worth 1/4

pence, and the half penny worth 2 farthings. There
is even a half farthing, worth 1/8 of a penny, which
While the Kerberans may be dashing madly might allow you to purchase a particularly dubious
about, unearthing conspiracies and exploring bun or sausage from a vendor.
dark unknowns, millions of Britons live out their Most people never see paper money, and in fact
entirely ordinary lives. And in truth, only the most most never see anything larger than a crown in their
exceptional individuals can ever escape the daily whole lives.
mundanity of the busy modern world. Here’s a quick Coinage is kept in a purse or wallet (essentially
primer on the basics. the same thing), though those carrying large sums
or a personal book of cheques might also have a
billfold or pocket portfolio.

Money With most cash being coinage, large sums are

heavy. Most working-class folk rarely have more
than a shilling in mixed coin, and a middle-class
The British monetary system during the period is individual rarely has more than a pound or two.
simultaneously baffling to outsiders and a source of Even the wealthy carry no more than a few pounds
intense national pride. The basic unit of the currency in coin; for the most part, the wealthy rarely handle
is the pound sterling (denoted “£”), which is large sums of cash, making their purchases on credit
broken into 20 shillings (denoted “s”), which are and settling the accounts monthly, quarterly or
themselves broken into 12 pence (denoted “d”). yearly. Or never, if their titles outweigh their purses.
Amounts of money can be written in a number of
ways, typically “£/s/d.” For example, £5/4s/4d means
five pounds, four shillings and four pence. If only
noting a cost of shillings and pence such as 3s/6d, What Things Cost
one could say “three and six”. Here are some points
on how this monetary system is used: Wages and buying power vary a great deal during
“Bob” is common slang for a shilling. “Four Bob” the century, as changes in demographics and
means four shillings. employment as well as national productivity change
Banknotes (paper money) are issued by the how much people are paid, and how much they
Bank of England and used for amounts of £5 and can buy with those wages. At mid-century, here’s a
up to as much as £1,000 in small numbers. rough guide to what a given lifestyle costs.
A sovereign is a gold coin worth £1, and is the Poor lifestyle (yearly): £40 or less.
standard unit of value to represent one pound. Working-class lifestyle (yearly): £50 to £100.
A guinea (noted “g” or “gn”) is a gold coin worth Middle-class lifestyle (yearly): £300 to £800.
1 pound, 1 shilling (£1/1s). While you pay men of Upper-class lifestyle (yearly): £1,000 for the
trade in sovereigns, you pay gentlemen in guineas. bare minimum, and easily much, much more.
They pass the shilling to their clerks and assistants, Keeping a fine carriage could cost this much by
keeping the pound. itself.
A crown is a silver coin worth 5 shillings, but
the much more common half-crown is worth 2s/6d.
83
 Chapter 2

Employment and Pay water, and scented oils for the hair. The style of
applying Macassar oil to men’s hair leads to the
counter-style of embroidered antimacassars to
Tradesman are typically paid by the job or by the drape over chair-backs and prevent the oils ruining
week (if they work for someone else), and when the upholstery.
advertising for such positions in the papers, the Every neighborhood in London, every street
salaries are listed in weekly sums. Professional even, has a unique smell. Near the Thames, there is
positions have the yearly salary listed, and middle- the unmistakable reek of low tide, with its sewage
class workers are paid yearly, quarterly, monthly, or and factory runoff mixing with the natural odor.
weekly depending on the particular arrangement. In the North, the stench of the cattle yards and
The wealthy have their money mostly from slaughter-houses. To the East, the exotic smells of
investments in “The Funds” (government-backed the docks and cargos from across the world blend
bonds and other secure low-interest funds rarely with the miasma of tanneries, chemical factories,
offering more than 3% return a year), or by rents and coal gas burning.
and productivity on the lands they owned. As the For many, light comes from rushlights and tallow
century progressed, political postings began to pay candles which smell of burned sheep fat when lit.
a salary, but being a military officer continued to Beeswax candles have no odor, but are prohibitively
frequently cost a soldier money, as officers (inevitably expensive and onerously taxed. The gaslight which
gentlemen, barring certain exigencies of war) were comes mid-century brightens the age, but the gas
expected to live to certain standards, supplement made from heating coal has its own stink.
their unit’s budget with their own purse, and Victorian industry is a noxious thing, and there
generally pay for the privilege of risking life and are no environmental laws to restrain factory owners
limb for Country and Queen. from dumping their waste and fetid slurry right into
the river or down a public cesspit. The streets are
full of horses and horse-drawn carts, and all those
horses produce thousands of tons of manure every

Sound, Sight, year.

Which brings us to sanitation: Until the
Bazalgette sewer works of the late 1850s, all the

Touch and Smell waste washed away by the new flush toilets goes
into the old community cesspools, or directly into
the Thames. In 1858, an unusually hot summer
Victorian London is a city alive with activity, noise, without rain leads to the Great Stink, a putrid cloud
and stink. Bathing is a luxury, and most Londoners so horrible that Parliament cancels its session and
can’t afford to more than wash face and hands vacates the city for the countryside.
daily, taking a bath no more than weekly (if that). London is noisy. Stone paved streets are pounded
Clothing is heavy and layered by mid-century, and by iron horseshoes and cartwheels relentlessly all
human bodies tend to ripen to a full bloom of odor. day and night to produce a roaring din. The river
Dental hygiene is similarly dubious, resulting in is alive with boat traffic, with signal horns, shouts,
bad breath for almost everyone. Those and warning calls. Hawkers and costermongers
who can afford it liberally douse shout the virtues of their wares. Pedestrians raise
84 themselves with colognes, rose their voices to be heard over the noise. Criers shout
 Chapter 2

the news, selling their papers. Low-class folk air those born with that inhuman cast of perfection
their private business in the streets with screams to their features, and soulless parasitic minds. He
and shouts. Children run everywhere, yelling and was elected to the London County Council for St
weaving around pedestrians and through road traffic. Pancras and later became its chairman, and used his
Conversations are shouted between buildings from position and influence to push for regulation of the
open windows. use of faerie labor within London’s borders. 
Thousands of dogs bark. Thousands of cats yowl.
At every hour, bells ring out from all the churches
proud enough to possess them. It really makes it
easy to understand why those with means spend
so much of the year in their country estates, and
why the middle class is so keen to save for a quiet
Diaries
vacation on the seaside. Victorians are prodigious diarists, recording their
Everything is gritty from the dust ground from daily lives in sometimes intimate detail. Paper was
the paving stones by cartwheels, and when it rains, cheaper than ever before, and literacy and education
it becomes a sticky grey mud. Thousands of coal fires more common, but still most journals record the
thicken the air with soot, so by the end of an evening lives of the middle and upper classes, as they had the
out, white garments are gray. All the buildings are leisure and money to pursue such an affection. Some
blackened by accumulated smoke. London’s naturally journals, such as those of Arthur Munby—solicitor
foggy atmosphere becomes yellowed and poisonous, and member of the ecclesiastical council—offer a
and so thick you can’t see someone an arm’s length window into the lives of the poor and working classes.
away. When the fog is this bad, lamps burn night It isn’t uncommon for journals to be published or
and day to light homes and places of business, and used to write memoirs, and the threat of such publi-
Strange things walk the murky streets. cation was often the leverage in cases of blackmail,
The residue of evaporating faerie creatures if they might reveal indiscretions or crimes. Among
employed in London factories late in the century the collections housed in the Kerberos Club are the
contributes to this atmosphere, adding weird incon- journals of its members, there to provide reference
gruous noises, smells, sights, and presences to the and insight or just a good scandalous read.
fog, the ghosts of the Fae creatures worked to discor- Some Victorians keep private diaries, intended for
poration. In 1890, William Job Collins (physician, their eyes only, and more carefully considered journals
obstetrician, and member of the Royal Commission which might be made public one day. The Queen
on Vaccination) commissions a survey of birth Herself keeps a journal of her thoughts and feelings,
defects in the greater London area, and wrote a and even as She becomes so seemingly inhuman over
scathing monograph on the effects of such emissions the Strange years they remain filled with her sensitive
on the health of the population, and the unborn. observations, inner conflicts, and joys.
He cataloged and photographed several hundred
examples of children stillborn and, sometimes
more horrible, born live, who were clearly marked
by exposure to faerie influences. Some were born
like tiny old men, arthritic with eyes whitened by
cataracts. Others had inhuman features, beast and
baby mixed in the womb. Perhaps most frightening,
85
 Chapter 2

Newspapers and Letters and the Mail

Magazines Early in the century, handwritten letters are the only
practical means of long-distance communication,
and the postal service works heroically to see letters
All the classes of London have an insatiable appetite delivered across Britain by coach. It’s expensive,
for news and the written word. Reading to oneself however, so people write small or “crossed,” turning
or aloud to friends and family is a principle form of a page sideways and writing across their now-vertical
amusement, and so London was served by dozens lines. The recipient pays. In London local mail is
of newspapers and magazines, ranging from the cheap; since the 17th century it has cost a penny.
respectable to the scandalous, the literary to the With the coming of rail, a national Penny Post is
sensational. Papers often print morning and evening established in 1840 and extended to the whole empire
editions, with special runs made for major news in 1889. In 1890, British postal aero ships see the mail
events between regular printings. Magazines are delivered anywhere in the world in a shorter time
often illustrated; some are printed cheap and sold then it would have taken a letter to travel by coach
for a penny, and filled with violence, titillation, and from London to Aberdeen in 1801. The Telegraph
rehashed plots and characters. cuts into letter writing somewhat, but it isn’t until
Many of the greatest authors of the period, the transmission of voice over telegraph lines (via
Charles Dickens for example, are also journalists Babbage Computational’s vocagraphic encoder) that
and essayists, and standards of journalistic ethics written correspondence begins to wane.
and truthfulness are pursued as part of the new
journalism. But in contrast to this ethic, newspa-
permen such as W.T. Stead of the Pall Mall Gazette
make their fortunes with dubious stories of sex,
scandal, and moral outrage. Magazines sometimes
mix news, essay, illustration, and serialized fiction.
Transport
Newspapers publish large confidential adver- The coming of the rails in the middle years of
tisements and agony columns in which the secret the century makes Britain dramatically smaller.
social life of London might be laid bare—wives Distances formerly taking days of hard travel by
seeking errant husbands, lovers communicating horse or cart can now be covered in hours of relative
with coded phrases, missing items, items found, comfort at a price most middle-class individuals
offers of employment or services, legal announce- can easily meet. London grows, sprawling out along
ments, people seeking childhood friends or loves, the rail lines, with formerly country townships and
and sometimes Stranger things. People of means villages growing into true suburbs, and merging with
sometimes pay to have their opinions published in a the Greater London metropolis late in the century.
paper or magazine, if a submitted letter or editorial Over shorter distances the horse-drawn cart is
would not be printed.  still dominant through the middle of the century,
even if it begins to be ushered off the historical
stage by the various automobiles sold in the last
86 two decades: early machines using miniature steam
 Chapter 2

engines, then internal-combustion engines burning using it as a luxury cruise line and high-priority cargo
coal gas or petroleum derivatives, and then hybrid vessel. Smaller and less robust than the aero ships of
electric/combustion machines based on Zénobe Her Majesty’s Navy, it can bear fifty tons of cargo and
Gramme’s direct-current dynamo. These later two hundred guests in supreme luxury. It is followed
machines, initially the prize of the wealthy and by a sister-ship of the same class called Hanover.
faddish, are quickly adopted by London’s municipal Several competing firms add aero ships to their
services and taxi companies. The initial investment fleets over the next half decade, running some at
is greater but they run cheaper than the alternatives. a loss for the prestige alone. Aero ships lose some
All through the century, some form of private of their appeal with the fate of White Star Line’s
carriage for hire is a common sight in London. The new flagship vessel the Titanic, created as the first
hack is replaced by the cab, by the hansom, by the of a new class of aero ships and spurred by intense
automotive, by the electro-automotive. By century’s competition with its rival the Cunard Line.
end the horse is employed only when an automotive The Titanic is lost while making passage though
won’t serve. Congestion is relieved somewhat with a dense Arctic storm, its hydrogen cells ignited by
the expansion of the underground rail in the 1880s by lightning and its design proven flawed. The tragedy
the the Tesla Bore machine, which pulverizes stone casts doubts on the wisdom of the great flying
and liquefies earth with rotating magnetic fields. beasts, and the rise of rocket-powered flying vehicles
International passage is most commonly made makes them impractical for military action. They
in sailing ships early in the century, then steamers. remain somewhat popular for passenger and cargo
The magnificent aero ships remain the only airborne transport—until air piracy makes them too expensive
vessels large enough to carry enough passengers and to operate through the depression of the 1930s.
cargo to make air travel economical.
In 1885 White Star Lines acquires the first aero
ship in private ownership, the Skylark, and begins
87
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with Her stigmatic blood that day in Parliament)

Politics embraces social and economic reforms.

Victoria recognizes that the greatness of Her
Empire is owed to strong trade and Her people’s
British politics over the Victorian Century is freedom to excel. But the party also demands a
shifting sand, and it’s a wonder such a stable and powerful Sovereign willing to use Her Reserve
powerful empire could be built upon it. Early in Powers and Prerogatives as She deems fit. Meeting
the century the main political power blocks are the with the Queen Herself is often enough to sway
Tories—old-money country aristocrats supporting a people to Her cause, and one of the reasons She and
strong monarch and Her divine rights as well as a Gladstone are so at odds is the Grand Old Man’s
strong central Church of England—and the Whigs, unwillingness to spend much time in Her presence
new-money aristocrats who wanted the economic less he be swayed to abandon his Liberal agenda.
freedom to make their fortunes. Neither party had
an especially oppositional moral stance, and both
were firmly in the hands of the moneyed elite. The
Tories start out in control, but lose Parliament after
electoral reforms clean up some of the endemic
corruption in the voting system.
Religion
When the Whigs take over, they promptly start Religion and politics are an old married couple by
to factionalize and split, support the Low Church the time of Victoria’s rule. They know each other,
(or evangelical movement) and pursue a reformist hate each other, love each other, and finish each
agenda—in part to win the votes of the recently other’s sentences. The Anglican Church is almost
enfranchised. The Whigs become known as the an apparatus of the state, its high officials such as
Liberal party as they push reforms intended to the Archbishop of Canterbury are all appointed
give them economic freedom, and when the Tories by the Crown; as much as Parliament would like
reclaim power later in the century they are called to have a say in matters, Victoria has Her own
Conservatives. These two main parties are just general ideas about who should govern the Church of
categories however, and a dozen or more small parties England. But membership in the Anglican church
often hold the balance of power. Victorians take their isn’t compulsory, and there are as many abstainers,
politics quite seriously. Fathers are estranged from agnostics, nondeists, evangelicals, nonconformists,
sons because of it, friendships broken, duels fought. and Catholics as Anglicans.
Victoria isn’t simply a figurehead in this system. Victoria’s own eventual cult divides the Anglican
Neither party supports Her agenda fully. The church. In England, Her shrines appear in a little
Conservatives are too hidebound and concerned over half the Anglican churches by 1865, but are very
with tradition, the Liberals too willing to abandon rare in Ireland, and only somewhat more common in
useful tradition in favor of immediate economic gain Scotland and Wales. But for the most part, the old
or reforms. In Her famous address to Parliament religious wars, purges, and persecutions are a thing
on the eve of the Indian Mutiny, She creates a new of the past—the Victorians have plenty to base their
political power bloc which crosses over the main purges and persecutions on as it is.
division of the Tories and Whigs. The
Royal Liberal party (or the Marks,
88 so-called for those She marks
 Chapter 2

his affairs outside of marriage were his own business.

Sex, Love and Homosexuality between women is not illegal, and

hardly registers on the public consciousness, though
it is considered distasteful when it is thought of at all.

Marriage Marriage is first and foremost a business

transaction, arranged or at least approved by
family interests to make sure the engagement is
The Victorians love sex; they simply must not talk not beneath either of the couple, is financially or
about it. All pretension to prudishness or the ideal- socially advantageous, and can be made without
ization of feminine purity must stand side by side any conflict with previous marriages or engage-
with upwards on 50,000 working prostitutes in ments. Engagements can be considered binding
London alone. Prostitution isn’t made illegal until legal contracts with penalties for breaking them,
late in the century, though it is regulated at various and impending marriages must be announced in
points by hygiene laws and acts banning child the local parish to allow those with objections
prostitution and the operation of brothels. Most (such as “I married this no-good bounder last year
prostitutes work the streets, and there is always in Birmingham”) to be aired. Alternately, if the
ready business. In the East End rookeries, the life of couple be well-off, license for the wedding could
a poor prostitute is hellish and grim, but the life of be purchased from the Church, and may be signed
a West End prostitute, a companion to gentlemen, by the archbishop.
can be quite lucrative and glamorous. But love, what of love? The journals and letters
As with much of the age it is a great double- of the Victorians reveal passionate romantic love at
standard, as respectable men can purchase the work among all classes and all stations in life. From
services of prostitutes, but respectable women may the flirtation of a maid’s suitors (though they be
never be seen alone in the company of a man not banned from visiting by her terms of employment),
their husband or brother without risking the ruin of to the Queen’s own dalliances with Mr. Brown after
reputations and prospects. her estrangement with Prince Albert in 1861 leaves
Early on, during the Regency, things were much her cold and wounded at heart. It is an age of tragic
laxer, but Victoria’s example of purity and fidelity love, doomed affairs, and countless novels milking it
inspire the middle classes to an almost comical level for all the pathos it could provide.
of emulation. As is so often the case, though, the
working and poor classes worry much less about
such things. Families tend to be quite large, and
birth control minimal, in or out of marriage.
Homosexuality between men is technically
illegal but widely tolerated, to the point of a thriving
Manners
homosexual “scene” in London. Among the upper The Victorians are not as uptight and rigid as the
classes homosexuality is tactfully ignored unless (as period’s etiquette books (or the next generation of
Oscar Wilde discovered) an intolerant relative seeks social critics) make them out to be. A good rule of
prosecution. Among the lower classes it is variously thumb is that if something is rude now, then it
viewed with disgust, contempt, or indifference, was rude then; what we consider polite in
individual to individual. If a man has done his duty the modern would do fairly well in
to family and society, married, sired children, then Victorian London.
89
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The more elaborate rules and social rituals are

the purview of the well-off, because only they have
the luxury of indulging in such social theater. The
public discussion of certain topics, especially in
mixed company, is a fairly strong taboo, for instance.
One does not discuss sex around ladies. Unless, of
course, you are both members of the Kerberos Club.
A gentleman is expected to behave with chivalry South of Gibraltar, All Men are Bachelors
towards a woman: walking on the street-side of the There are always exceptions.
sidewalk so as to tread the filthier path, opening Extraordinary individuals who violate custom
doors, and refraining from smoking unless invited to and propriety with style can get away with much,
do so by any ladies present. Women are expected to as can those traveling beyond the reach of British
act with deference to men, and to avoid confrontation morality. There is a sense of “what happens abroad,
when possible. For women and men of the middle stays abroad,” and many Victorian world travelers
and higher classes, delaying gratification is considered consider the Grand Tour to be one of brothels and
drinking establishments.
quite noble. It is an age of letter-writing, and in corre-
Women might take foreign lovers while traveling,
spondences one can read passionate affairs carried out
only to resume their expected roles of chastity and
across vast distances by euphemism and private code.
propriety when they returned home. Men are given
For those who can afford it, it is an age of subtlety.
even more leeway (as usual), and can get away with
anything up to and including murder so long as it
never follows them home.

Covering One’s influences and styles as well as the fabrics to sew

them. Victoria’s own influence cannot be discounted,

Nakedness either. Her persistent marble-skinned youth and

cool reserve create an endearing popularity for
severity in fashion, whitening cosmetics, expressions
Through the years of Victoria’s reign, fashion and to mimic the monarch’s, and clothing of exquisite
dress evolve and change dramatically, and enumer- but subdued cloth cut in simple unadorned patterns.
ating the minutiae would require a volume larger But the influence of the French, the Germans, the
than the one you hold. Fashion in the world of the Russians, any of Britain’s allies and enemies, is also
Kerberos Club also diverges somewhat from estab- felt, with a strange inverse relationship. Watching the
lished history, following generally similar lines but streets of London, or riding in Hyde Park on a sunny
with some dramatic departures. Faerie cloth such Sunday, one tends to see the fashions of Britain’s
as the moonwool and emberlit muslin coming from enemies more on display than those of its allies.
the mills of New Birmingham offers the dress- In the early decades of the century, before the new
makers and fashionistas of the later decades truly severity becomes the norm, the fashion is quite risqué.
astonishing choices of material. Dresses of muslin are often dampened to make them
The Channel Tunnel and the growing cling, and undergarments are sometimes optional.
civilian aero ship fleet also open As heavier fabrics come into favor, more structured
90 trade, bringing more exotic dresses become the norm. By the 1830s, figure-
 Chapter 2

hugging, highly-tailored gowns are the fashion.

For men, the fashions change with less drama but
more steady progress. Knee-britches and stockings
are gradually replaced with trousers, influenced by
About One’s
military uniforms. Styles in hair, hair length, and
facial hair change rapidly, and a fashionable gentleman
can be recognized as much by his grooming as his
Person
clothing. Cosmetics are used by both sexes early in Depending on the fashion, a gentleman might carry
the century but fall quickly out of favor with men and a cane or an umbrella about town. His important
become more subtle for women. papers and letters are folded in a wallet and tucked
By mid-century the fashion for corsets becomes inside his coat (or into the coat of a servant). He
quite pronounced, and both men and women use likely has a flask of spirits if he’s a drinking man. He
them to achieve the ideal waistline and fit into slim, has a purse for cash, and if the fashion favors trousers,
closely-tailored clothing. Daily wear becomes less some ready coin in his pocket. If he has the means he
ostentatious as Victoria’s influence is felt. Men’s carries a watch on a chain, perhaps decorated with
clothing is gradually evolving into the familiar charms. His waistcoat has a pocket for it.
ancestor of the modern business suit. He likely carries a small folding knife as well,
Later in the century, the abundance of cheap always a useful item. If he smokes, he’ll have his
cloth of extraordinary quality pushes fashion towards tobacco and his preferred method of using it, as well
color. Clothing for both men and women becomes as matches to light it. He’ll have hat and coat, weather
quite colorful. Men’s clothing tends to be less osten- dictating the choice in weight and water-resistance.
tatious, but neckties of brilliant color, waistcoats, and His coat pockets might contain any of the above
the iridescent lining of jackets show their appreci- items, or sundry other knickknacks: an apple to eat on
ation for the new styles. Women’s fashion becomes the train, a folded paper, a snuffbox, monogrammed
dramatic and extreme, employing the gravity-defying handkerchiefs, pen or pencil and note paper.
and luminescent quality of faerie cloth. The Season’s A lady may carry a bag or purse, always subject
balls and parties become almost psychedelic with to fashion, containing personal effects, ready money,
these exaggerated confections—and dangerous for tools for grooming and cosmetics. She may have
those subject to strobe-induced seizures. a watch on a chain about her neck, or later in the
In the wake of the two great tragedies that century on a bracelet. If she smokes it is likely
afflict London—the Atlantean attack and the cigarettes, and she’ll have them in a case. She might
Automechanical Mutiny—fashion takes a dramatic carry an umbrella or parasol, or during some years
turn towards the conservative. So many wear black a cane or walking stick. There is a brief fashion in
for so long that it replaces the wild plumage as the the 1870s for ladies to carry sword canes given them
common wear. By the Strange ’90s, most Londoners by admirers. Within the generally more voluminous
of means look positively dour. Ironically, the cast-off and elaborate clothing worn by women there are
wonders find their way onto the backs of London’s often cunningly-concealed pockets and pouches
poor, leading to a general trend to regard bright to hold a woman’s possessions without requiring
colors and Otherworldly clothing as common and her to carry anything in her hands. Gentlemen
cheap. The conservative style in dress might be are sometimes surprised at just what a
considered a reaction to the increasing uncertainty lady can produce, seemingly from
of the times—the retreat of a shocked populace. nowhere.
91
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In Service The Plague

For many, servants aren’t a luxury but a necessity.
The complexity of life without the modern time-
savers that we take for granted can’t be understated.
of -Isms
Keeping a modest middle-class house clean, keeping Racism, sexism, classism, religious intolerance: The
a family of four fed, and attending to all the upkeep Victorian Age was, from the modern perspective,
from mending clothing to washing to seeing to the shockingly politically incorrect. In the larger social
family business is a full-time job for several people. consciousness, there is almost no belief that all
Those in service attend the domestic (and other) members of humanity are equal and of equal value.
needs of their employers. As far as most are concerned, some people are simply
Servants are status symbols as well. better than others, more inherently valuable. Those
Well-mannered, well-dressed, skilled servants are with wealth and privilege must somehow be worthy
a sign of prosperity and quality. In the military a of it, whether you believe in God or Darwin. Either
batman or other servant is needed to keep an officer’s the Lord made it so, or the rich are more evolved.
uniforms clean and sharp, to handle personal matters Same with race and culture. There is a definite
such as the social calendar and finances, and to see sense among Victorians that British culture and
to the workaday matters of soldiering. British skin-tones are the best, and the foreigner
The life of a servant is usually wholly dedicated to or the savage is simply less developed, civilized, or
his or her employer, who by the terms of employment religious. Where the Englishman has a Church, for
might dictate with whom servants could associate, example, a tribe of Africans have only superstition.
when and if they could marry, and how they dressed This inequity applies to women as well, though
and acted even when off duty. A scandal among it is phrased in prettier terms. Women were created/
one’s help can be very demeaning to the well-off, evolved to serve the domestic needs of the family,
and hints of impropriety among servants are often while men serve as its defense and provision and
dealt with much more harshly than scandals among consequently wield all the economic and political
peers. power.
Yet there is a often definite pride in being in Racial, cultural, religious, and classist stereotypes
service, to those born to it or who rise to significant are broadly believed to be true—all Frenchmen are
position in the household. “Below Stairs” has its own amorous and urbane, all Germans are rigid and stoic
hierarchies and traditions and roles which mirror and quick to take offense, all Jews are covetous and
those “Above Stairs” in many ways. corrupting, all blacks are violent and simple. The
satirical cartoons of the day play to these stereo-
types and reinforce them. Britain may have banned
slavery, but is it is miles and miles from equitable or
tolerant.

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Victoria and Of Course, I Don’t Mean You . . .

While there was a cultural bias against those of
different ethnic extractions, it needs to be pointed

the Birth of the out that for most Victorians personal experience
trumped stereotypes. All Africans might be
impulsive and oversexed—except of course for one’s

New Woman   
good friend from the Dark Continent. This might
seem like Victorian hypocrisy to the modern eye,
but it reflects the distinctly aspirational nature of
Victorian morality and beliefs.
For the majority of Her reign Victoria seems an One might profess to a moral code which one
overtly conservative force, and those who ape Her violates regularly—but that isn’t hypocrisy. Rather
careful public dignity and stoicism often miss the it reflects a personal failing to achieve the ideal.
subtleties of Her evolving opinions. While She The same with racism, and maintaining personal
never makes any overt statement, a careful exami- friendships with those whose culture or ethnicity
nation of Her actions and the politics of the Royal one regularly disparages. One assumes they are
Liberal party suggests that by the 1880s Victoria has exceptions.
embraced the ideal of equity between the sexes. Individuals can overcome these stereotypes, and
sometimes even find general acceptance despite
The Queen’s shift in opinion is difficult to observe,
the presuppositions that dog them. Women rise
however, against the sometimes quite shocking birth
to great learning and influence. Irish gain political
cries of the New Woman. This concept, an artifact
power. Indians attain great wealth and influence
of fiction and social commentary, represents a in business. Victorians find it easier to accept an
dramatic shift from the conventional role assigned individual who rose “despite his natural disadvan-
to Victorian (and particularly middle-class) women. tages” than to acknowledge basic human equality.
The New Woman is well educated, employed, finan-
cially independent, and afforded the same social
latitude as men: the ability to take lovers, dress how tions on a woman’s activities and her social expecta-
she pleases, and engages in the vigorous intellectual tions erode, though not without resentment. The slur
world of debate and discussion. “Girton girl”—from Girton College, established in
Sarah Grand, one of the writers who coined the Cambridge in 1869, the first residential college for
term New Woman, lives and espouses the new ideal. women in England—is often applied to a woman
Her novels condemn the double standards of the who completes a university educations.
sexes and of marriage and advocate the education Politician and intellectual John Stuart Mills
and independence of women. She speaks of the duty pushes a women’s suffrage agenda in parliament,
of middle-class women to seek spouses of like mind. but does not live to see it become one of the Royal
With no real political will to grant women the same Liberals’ major agendas or, in 1889, a political reality.
rights as men, daring women such as Grand carve out Against all expectation, the Franchise and Liberties
their new role with only their wits and savvy. Act passes and receives Victoria’s explicit approval.
In the 1880s the opportunities open to women While backlash against the prospect of women
are dramatic by earlier standards, and more and more voting, attending university, and working
middle-class women seek university educations and alongside men becomes itself a
professional qualifications. Many of the old restric- major social force (especially
93
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among politicians and wags looking to stir common species’ survival. However, the pace of change has
prejudices in their favor), the change is made and become so great that there is no time for ideas to
there is simply no going back. The Act phases in the be tested. We are become a culture of sports and
franchise for women slowly, so as not to radically freaks. The most sensational ideas rather than the
disrupt the political process with a sudden doubling most fit survive. The stable order is destroyed and
of eligible voters, but it becomes essential for politi- the processes of evolutionary development which
cians to now appeal to women as well as men. saw England become great have faltered.”
By the last decade of the period, despite still- “The Curse of Progress” comes to mean the
powerful social restraints, women can openly seek disorientation people feel when dealing with new
their own independent means. With the growing ideas and new technology, all of which seem to arise
legal reforms to marriage and voting laws, a woman faster and faster. The numbers of lunatics and cases
has increasing legal authority to manage her own of nervous breakdown spike late in the century, and
affairs as she sees fit, and by the end of Victoria’s the asylums are filled to overflowing. Many simply
reign she has access to opportunities her mother can not contend with the pace of change, and lack
could not have imagined in her youth. the means to escape it into antiquated lifestyles, or
the inclination to escape it with religion.
In a later age, the Curse will be called Future Shock.

The Curse of An Historical Note

Much is made here of Future Shock as an element

Progress of the world of the Kerberos Club, but this force

had major social and intellectual impacts on the real
history of the period. The Victorian era was a time
Philosopher and political theorist Herbert Spencer’s of astonishing change. In the span of one woman’s
observations on the effects of unprecedented change life the world was explored and made smaller by
on British society in the late Victorian period leads telecommunications. On the oceans, iron and steam
him in 1878 to write Opportunity and the Curse of replaced wood and wind, and on the land they
replaced horseflesh. Men were even taking flight.
Progress. This small book causes large waves in
The origins of life itself were explored. Religion was
British intellectual circles, and adds the phrase “The
seriously and scientifically challenged.
Curse of Progress” to the common lexicon.
War was everywhere. As always seems to be the
Opportunity reflects Spencer’s growing preju-
case, military thought, strategy and tactics seemed
dices against expanding the vote, social reform, and one step behind the tools of killing, resulting in
“socialist” policy in government. He blames much of gruesome slaughters. Automation put workers out
what he sees as devolutionary social backsliding on of jobs and made some products obsolete.
the common reaction to technological progress. Reeling from these constant changes, many were
He writes: “Our society represents the pinnacle extremely resistant to new ideas. For every gadget-
of evolutionary development, with only the most crazed Londoner there was a farmer from the
viable traits and behaviors surviving adversity. midlands who could have been dropped into the
Women lack the vote for the same reason 1600s and gotten along fine with his ancestors. In
mankind lacks a furred coat. It is The Kerberos Club this effect is magnified dramati-

94 simply not in the interest of the cally, but it is rooted in a real phenomenon of the era.
 Chapter 2

actress, in others no better than a prostitute. It

The Shocking is certain no one could force her to remain in the

home, and behave submissively to men, but she’d
suffer constant social scorn unless she created a

and the Profane: deliberately unorthodox role for herself—a new

class which would allow people to categorize her,
and rank her, and fit her into their world-view. It is

The Growing a fine line to walk between fame and infamy—the

same line the Club treads publicly from around the
1850s onwards.

Strangeness The situation for those whose Strangeness marks

them out as alien or other is much worse. Powerful
Victorians frequently and publicly compare the poor
With the coming of the Strange, into the complexity to parasites, and suggest solutions such as drastic
of Victorian society drop grotesque horrors, techno- as mass-transportation to deal with paupers and
logical wonders, inhuman beings, monsters from vagrants. It isn’t uncommon to consider the Irish,
the id. It’s enough to shake any society, and the the Indians, the native peoples of the Americas, and
Strangeness particularly affects the Victorian psyche, black Africans (free and enslaved) as subhuman,
magnifying some elements while eroding others. or of a lower order of humanity. Abusing Darwin’s
Early on, the Strange, when it becomes known, is theories to justify these prejudices is quite popular.
a source of fear and, perhaps more potent, social The resulting callous treatment of these people at the
shame. Someone Touched in the family is treated hands of morally-upright Britons can be abhorrent.
like they are afflicted with madness, something to And these unfortunates are demonstrably human.
be kept secret, hidden from the public and denied. How are the faerie treated? Or worse, freakish sports
The Kerberos Club does what it can to preserve this who are uniquely Strange? The answer is, almost
attitude, as it serves their ends to keep knowledge of universally, horribly.
the Strange secret or at least private. There are a few exceptions (such as the simian
Over the years as the Strange becomes undeniable, physician, Dr. Archibald Monroe) who, by their
it challenges certain core assumptions upon which native charm and talent at winning friends in the
the society is founded. If a woman—blessed, say, popular press, as well as by virtue of a thick skin for
by Darwin’s Evolutionary Force—demonstrates turning social cuts, manage to gain enough popular
awesome powers of perception, resistance to injury, acclaim as to be generally accepted as human.
and incalculable physical strength, she might choose However, in many situations such an individual can
to ignore her gifts and play her assigned role in still expect to be treated like an animal, a sideshow
society, marrying how she may (considering how freak, or a to inspire superstitious dread.
her Strangeness might affect her prospects), and for The British courts have been slow to catch up
the most part fit in as a proper Victorian wife and with the criminal potential of Strange abilities, but
mother. the Parliament has not. A series of Acts in the ’70s
She could abandon that role, however, and seek play on the public suspicion of Strangers during
to employ her powers for personal gain or national that period to create exceptions to an
service. That sets her quite apart from respectable individual’s rights, and expand
society, and puts her equal in some circles to an police powers to detain, question,
95
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and generally harass Strangers whose abilities mark

them like Cain for all to see and fear.
During the Whitechapel murders, half a dozen
Strangers are detained for months on general
suspicion, only to be released when the Ripper meets
his end at the hands of Whitechapel’s shadowy
nighttime protector.
Even popular and erudite Strangers are still
treated like clever animals. Although Dr. Monroe
gets many invitations to parties and galas, he knows
many of the invitations are made in a calculated
effort to win social points for throwing a daring party
and presenting guests with the show of a speaking
chimpanzee. But unlike many Strangers, Monroe
has no qualms about attending such gatherings,
consuming enormous quantities of his host’s
excellent wine and food, and then holding forth to
his captive audience on his theories and beliefs, and
trouncing all comers who would debate him.

The Faerie
The faerie have always been with us, lurking in their
dark corners, waiting to bleed through into the
world like fever dreams, confounding the laws of
man, God and nature. In some eras they are as gods
themselves, and walk freely, dispensing their terrible
wonders. In others they are reduced to mere spooks,
creeping under doors and stealing babies. They are
legion, they are terrible, they are enchanting, they
are magical, and they are absolutely not human.
Some are hardly sketches of personalities bound to
reality-twisting power.
Others seem quite sophisticated, until you
pierce the layers of glamour and realize they are
as empty inside as gaily-painted marionettes.
Humanity imprints on the faerie its expectations
and beliefs and assumptions, and faerie
infects Humanity with an occult
96 madness which tears down the
 Chapter 2

barriers of perception separating this world from relating to the faerie, and the second managing
the Otherworld. No one who deals with the faerie direct interaction with the faerie themselves. As
escapes un-Touched. the Empire’s presence in Faerie itself becomes
The British Isles have a long history with the faerie, more established, the number of these partner-
and they rise and fall in the public consciousness, ships increases. Until the breakdowns and revolts
sometimes being seen as merely stories, other times of the 1880s, many Victorians become quite
being treated as prosaically as eccentric neighbors. comfortable with the faerie and faerie-made goods,
Only one thing remains true about the faerie. The and sometimes even with taking small innocuous
more power they have in the physical world, the faerie creatures into their homes as pets or domestic
more they are physically defined, and the more their servants—though the events of 1893 prove the folly
personalities are bound by rules as fundamental to of allowing one of the faerie access to one’s home or
their nature as gravity is to one of human birth. children.
As a result, apart from technological and indus-
trial wonders, the faerie are perhaps the easiest
manifestations of the Strange for the typical
Victorian to comprehend and understand. Magic and the Occult
There is a well-established tradition in British
Common law dealing with the faerie. Like the The faddish popularity of spiritualism, mediums,
relationship between Barristers (gentlemen who hypnotism, animal magnetism, and any number
practice the law before the Courts, but receive a of other areas of pseudo-science and metaphysics,
honorarium rather than being paid like a tradesman), encourages some of Europe’s true practicing
and solicitors (gentlemen who practice the more occultists to emerge from their traditional secrecy
workmanlike side of the law and business), there are and reveal their powers to the world. Barring
two similar but separate branches of the profession excesses of hedonism, truck with obviously malev-
for managing Faerie Law. There are those who work olent entities, or socially-unacceptable ritual or
within the Courts on matters related to the inter- religious practices, these individuals are greeted
action of the faerie and British law, and there are with a certain acclaim and treated very much like
those who study the thousands of bans, compul- the popular scientists of the day.
sions, oaths and gaesa which bind the behavior of Of course, the dirty truth of the occult world
the faerie in ways that can be legalistically exploited. is that any sorcerous secret worth knowing or spell
The first class of practitioner is afforded status worth incanting almost by definition demands
like that of a barrister, a gentlemen of scholarship excessive hedonism, truck with obviously malev-
and duty. The second class of practitioner is more olent entities, and socially unacceptable ritual and
like a solicitor, a respected man of practical business, religious practices. Attempts to popularize occult
someone a mill owner in New Birmingham might practice and cleanse it of socially-objectionable
consult for advice on squeezing more production elements (such as the ill-fated Hermetic Order of
from his goblin laborers by the exploitation of the the Golden Dawn) meet with general failure.
strictures of their faerie nature. The simple actuality of occult practice is that
Most often, men of both professions partner to the practitioner whose Will is greater, as demon-
provide full legal services when dealing with the strated by sacrifice, has the most power.
faerie, one defending a client in court from any And the sacrifice of society’s trust,
liability or violation of Britain’s complex statutes approval and good-will are
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among the easiest and most powerful a magus can principles of Science did Cayle and Vick not achieve
make. the same feat, without the morally questionable (and
The 19th-century occult world is characterized in unnecessarily shocking) use of Strange ability? The
many ways by a struggle between individual adepts wonders created by Science (and to a lesser extent,
seeking their own mystical truths and powers, and those people changed in Strange ways by its appli-
those who found or join cults, movement, orders, or cation) are accepted by the population at large.
societies to gather greater overall power, though it There are some exceptions. Automation has
be shared with others. The greatest of these orders resulted in the loss of jobs, and the fall of many in
was that of America Obscura, the hidden society the working class down into the under class, even as
of magic established and governed by the Shadow it creates new opportunities for those of education
Constitution.  to pursue professional careers. The benefits of
There were always far more individuals claiming Industry favor the wealthy and well-off almost
powers they did not possess than those who possessed entirely, with little of this new wealth and wonder
them, and during the 19th century they find voice, trickling down to the working and poor people.
write books, sell patent occult charms, and generally Where many elements of the Strange are better
pander to the gullible and the superstitious. Those accepted by the lower classes than the hidebound
with true power have little need for such attention middle or the paranoiac upper ranks of society, the
or to indulge in trade. With true magical discipline, wonders of Science tend to unsettle the working
petty concerns such as money are a simple matter and poor peoples, especially when some of the
to arrange. Few practicing sorcerers reveal their greatest wonders (such as Babbage Computational’s
avocation, lest they be subject to suspicious enquiry Automatic Domestics) exist explicitly to put them
or, far worse, called upon to “Shew us a trick!” out of jobs and starve their families.
And always, there is the danger that the trans- Those of the working classes may have a minimum
gressive nature of true magical practice will be of education, but the arithmetic of such a situation
revealed, with all the resulting social scandal. The is simple. A mill owner would buy a machine to do
occult workings concealed in the writings of Sappho a working man’s job if it would put money in his
might be powerful, but if publicized the rituals accounts, and be sure of that.
needed to unlock them would destroy the reputation In fact, it is the move towards automation which
of any respectable Victorian lady so thoroughly as to finally allow the workers movements and unions to
see her exiled from society for all her days.  organize in Britain. The threat of the machine is so
great by the 1860s as to break hundreds of thousands
out of their lethargy, and they begin to organize

Science and Industry on a nationwide scale. Some of these movements

spawn machine-breakers and saboteurs who assault
factories, destroy machines, and toss automatons
Ah, Progress! By diligence, foresight and hard work, into rivers and canals.
Britons of good conscience and duty bring forth Events finally come to a head in December of
wonders the equal of any from myth and legend! 1881 when mass protests in Pall Mall lead to a pitched
Certainly, some uncouth Strangers take flight battle between metropolitan police and protesters.
with only their unnatural powers lifting The police are reinforced by 400 regular army troops
them from the Earth—but by and a company of Her Majesty’s Mechanized Rifles,
98 the clever application of the fresh from service in Africa. In the ensuing brutality
 Chapter 2

hundreds of protesters were seriously injured, and ashes, some clearly raised from their proper resting
over two dozen killed when, for no certain reason, place by the rising of the mountains from the Earth
the Mechanized Rifles aimed and opened fire upon over geological ages of time.
the rioting civilians, before being themselves struck The jungles of the Brazilian Empire teem with
down by shocked and horrified soldiers and police. life, and some if it like the Royal Dinosaurs by all
In the resulting enquiry it is officially deter- rights should be long extinct. Sometimes fisherman
mined that the automaton soldiers had been issued report encounters with vast beasts, bigger than
programme-decks intended for bush warfare rather whales, like crocodiles with a turtle’s fins, and
than riot suppression, and in a further oversight, had mouths able to crush a tea clipper. In the tombs of
been issued live ammunition. In the public outcry Egypt weird relics of ancient sciences are found,
about the whitewash of the massacre, which comes such as the Galvanic Mummy unearthed in Giza
to be called Bloody Sunday and Black Monday, the by Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie,
voices of those demanding to know the whereabouts which, when connected by copper wires to the clay
of the hundreds of anarchists, organizers, and revolu- pot batteries buried with it (disguised as Coptic
tionary intellectuals scooped up by Special Branch in jars, but intended to be filled with acid rather than
the aftermath of the riots become louder. Of those with internal organs), comes alive after a fashion,
hundreds of vanished individuals, only a dozen are and obeys simple commands issued in a particular
ever seen again. When the Automatic Domestics dialect of the ancient Egyptian language.
finally turn on their masters en masse, it is exactly These singular wonders arouse a great deal of
what those who’d been on the receiving end of that acclaim, as do those who discover them and exhibit
merciless fusillade could expect. It further reinforces them to the public, often with science moving aside
the working-class mistrust of scientific and indus- to make room for sensational showmanship. The
trial wonders, and cements the British Worker’s public does not care about the theories explaining
Movement as an undeniable political force in the how a Royal Dinosaur survived the ages, nor do they
nation from that point forward. care about the way the galvanic current stimulates
the peculiarly-preserved muscle of the mummy; all
that they care about is seeing the giant prehistoric

Wonders of the brute pace in his cage, and the mummy on stage
perform the ritualized greeting to the sun, three

Antediluvian World shows daily.

But when such wonders slip their leash and
run wild, then the public turns against those who
Victorian science and exploration reveal the truth would dare treat with such things—horrors so
about the world: It is vastly older and its Strangeness clearly intended by God to have vanished from the
runs deeper than ever would have been believed. Earth ages ago, and only preserved for malevolent
Even before the Atlantean Invasion of 1869, purpose. As the century wears on, the novelty of
explorers have already found ruins of impossible and these wonders declines, and society has less patience
vast metropolises hidden away in the valleys of the with such distractions. Especially when they cause a
Himalayas, the jungles of Africa, and beneath the disruption.
ice of Greenland and the Antarctic. Cities of terrible And as always, the public gives greater
geometry and inhuman design. Cities it pains the leeway to those things which are
eye to look upon. But all gone to ruin, all fallen into beautiful, astounding, or promise
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some betterment for them, while they will react never officially comments on the Queen’s supposed
worse to those things which threaten their liveli- divinity.
hoods, their sense of self, or their assumptions Those who look outside Britain (or back into the
about the way the world works. A fragment of the nation’s pagan past), find the world lousy with divin-
Egg which shattered creating the Universe might ities of greater or lesser providence. Some are strictly
be an object of cosmic significance and awesome genii loci, spirits of places and past ages hanging on
revelation, but it just won’t play in Kent. to those few modern men who recall their glories.
Others are powerful, and undimmed beside mighty
Christendom. Where no trace of the divinity

Divinity remains, there still can be found artifacts and relics

of their existence, and if one looks hard and deep in
the darkest corners, one can still find relics of those
The divine is a very sensitive topic in Victoria’s gods which preceded the gods of Man. Things of high
Britain, as many consider the Queen Herself blasphemy and madness. Truck with such uncouth
becoming just that. Though Victoria never claims things is abhorrent, and transgressions with the
any divinity, those who feel Her presence beat on gods of the prehuman races always leaves a palpable
their psyches like the waves of the ocean never doubt stain upon men who dare it, marks them out so their
it. When invited to attend the ceremony in which fellows might know them, and know to fear them.
Victoria is declared Empress of India in 1877, a Britain is a Christian nation, and though the
delegation of Indian royals suffer shocking visions sects of the Roman church, the Reform Anglicans,
and leave the coronation convinced that Shakti, the the Royal Anglicans, and others might fight and
mother-goddess, was made manifest in Victoria’s argue and seethe with the bloody feuds of old, when
form. presented with the prospect of a unified Mahomadian
This leads to a surge in popularity among those caliphate, a unifying Hindu philosophy, or other
Indians loyal to the British Raj in Hindu sects external religious threat, they find they have more
favoring Shaktism, and a counter-surge in those in common.
factions opposed to the British in India. Likewise, Yet in London’s winding streets and behind its
in the Anglican church the Royalists draws parallels most respectable doors, the cults of foreign and
between the Queen and the Virgin Mary, as well as heathen gods grow in pace with the Queen’s own
noting the traditional Divine Right of monarchs. cult. Something in Victoria’s ascension to the status
It seems only fitting that a Queen so dedicated to of more than human has created a trend for religious
restoring the traditional values of the Crown, and adventurism, blending at the edges with the spiritu-
putting service and wisdom before self-indulgence, alist movement, and the affection for all things faerie.
would be naturally exalted, Her divinity revealed. Some Britons claim within their private circles to
This is considered base idolatry, of course, by be Druidic, Cabalistic, Thugee, Buddhist, Taoist,
conservative Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Yet Zoroastrian, Ra cultists, followers of the Aesir and
despite this (or perhaps because of it), the political Vanir, and all the Old Unpronouncables of inverte-
factions backing Victoria most frequently support brate physiognomy. In public respectability demands
unrestricted freedom of religion, and the removal one be Christian, but like so many things Victorian,
of restrictions and bans on Catholic much is concealed beneath the respectable façade.
participation in public life. For Discussing someone’s religion without their explicit
100 this reason, perhaps, Rome welcome is terribly rude.
 Chapter 2

Freakish Human Oddities

Of all the Strangers, those who wear their marks
Arms and Armor
openly are the most distrusted and despised. Those With the dramatic leaps forward in technology
transformed by their powers, even if possessed of through the course of the century, it is difficult
remarkable and astounding abilities, are at best to provide a comprehensive list of adventurers’
curiosities to be ogled and pointed out, and at equipment in the conventional way. Instead here are
worse horrific unclean abominations to be driven some notes on the technologies most likely to be of
from the land. Regardless of how these individuals interest to players and GMs, and how they change
are transformed, be it by ancient curse, modern during the three broad eras.
science, accident of birth, or touch of the divine,
the corruption of the physical form is intensely
shocking. In the lower, more superstitious classes
it frequently induces fear, and in the upper classes Knives and Swords
mistrust or pity. These are the true Strangers, those
who cannot hide what they are. The humble knife changes little. Knives are
Even in the final days of the century, human common, cheap, and readily available. Carrying a
oddities usually suffer the worst possible reaction clasp knife long enough to easily kill a man hardly
from the public. Even when they act heroically, it raises an eyebrow, official or otherwise. Swords on
takes enormous efforts and deeds to win the favor the other hand become more and more ceremonial
of the public. as modern war renders the sword’s last great
adherents, the cavalry, obsolete. When one farmboy
with drum-fed repeating cannon mounted on an
Babbage Computational spider-mule can annihilate
the proudest line of charging heavy horses, even
the most hidebound officer begins to recognize the
noble sword as an anachronism. Swords also attract
attention in the streets of London and in most
modern cities. A man with three feet of steel at his
side is a man to watch, and possibly to escort down
to the station house for questioning.
Still, swords have their place—primarily in
duels and aboard hydrogen-lifted aero ships where
explosive shells are never a good idea.
Game stats for blade weapons can be found on
page 202.

101
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Bludgeons Misfire!
Flintlock weapons are unreliable and subject to the
vagaries of weather, humidity, and their care and
Even humbler than knives are the coshes, “life
maintenance. If the firer rolls snake eyes—a natural
preservers,” and lengths of oak wrapped in cord
on both his Shooting and Wild Die dice—the
which settle so many disagreements in London’s
flintlock malfunctions and fails to fire. Not only was
lower quarters. A bludgeon’s favored purpose is to the shot wasted, but the weapon must be cleaned,
quickly render a victim insensible with one or two taking 1 minute, before it can be reloaded. For an
strikes to the head. Often attackers strike from Extra, if the Shooting die comes up 1, roll 1d6. If
hiding, or have an accomplice distract a victim while that comes up 1, it’s a misfire.
they strike from behind. A cosh is a leather bag or
sack with a handful of lead shot inside it, making
it heavy and easy to swing. A life preserver is a The flintlock is replaced by the cap-and-ball
rope-wrapped club, often drilled out in the center lock, which rather than relying on a flash pan full of
with lead poured into the hole for added weight. A loose black powder has its primary charge ignited by
policeman’s truncheon is longer, as it need not be the explosion of a cap placed over a nipple where the
concealed, and can serve as a valuable defense for weapon’s hammer falls. This cap contains fulminate
keeping an armed attacker at a distance. of mercury, which explodes even when wet.
Bludgeons inflict damage ranging from Str Flintlock weapons are touchy, unreliable, and
+d4, d6, d8, or even d10 depending on the size and generally fairly inaccurate. Rifling of the smooth
weight of the weapon. A cosh inflicts Str+d4, and if barrels increases accuracy, but the specially-wrapped
used with the Drop (see Savage Worlds) and used bullets and loading procedures slow the rate of fire.
in a Called Shot to the head, then the victim must Muskets, and later rifles, fire huge bullets in calibers
succeed in a Vigor roll with the damage inflicted from .30 to .80, often more than an ounce of soft
as his Target Number—remember the +4 damage lead. When they hit, they inflict grievous injuries.
from the Drop, and +4 damage from the Called Game stats for black-powder weapons can be
Shot. Failure means the victim falls unconscious for found on page 203.
an hour.

Middle Victorian Firearms

Early Victorian Firearms
The cap-and-ball rifle becomes the norm in the
The gun was born centuries before, but grows up world’s great armies, and the cap-and-ball revolver
in the Victorian era. When the century opens the becomes the preferred weapon for horsemen who
firearm is a muzzle-loaded single-shot weapon fired must fight on the gallop. Revolvers incorporate a
with flint on steel and black powder. By the close rotating cylinder of pre-loaded cartridges allowing
of the century the firearm has become a complex six or more shots to be fired quickly. The age of the
mechanism able to fire hundreds of brass-bound muzzle-loader ends, however, with the introduction
cartridges a minute, and a single rifleman of the brass cartridge and the breach-loading rifle
carried the firepower of a regiment (and then, the repeating rifle). Over a decade or so
102 in his grandfather’s era. several competing designs for metal cartridges fight,
 Chapter 2

bullet. But it will not be until the later decades of the

Strange Ways to Die century that this departure from the brass cartridge
Weapons in the world of the Kerberos Club evolve is recognized and adopted.
faster than they did in our world, resulting in a During the middle era, the brass-cartridge
greater disparity between military doctrine and the revolver becomes extremely common, and the first of
tools for killing. But this acceleration of mundane
the gas-operated, self-cocking pistols are marketed.
weapons technology is nowhere near as shocking as
The self-cocking Colt Avalanche eight-shot revolver
what Strange technology can do to the battlefield.
uses one of these mechanisms: The flick of a switch
The Cochrane-Brunel Mechanized Gun-Carriage
and its Volcanic Cannon (see page 130) are a
allows the weapon to fire its full load of six shots in
dramatic example of what might arise given only under a second (granting the autofire ability). It is
a slight nudge by Strange powers. When those called “The Final Word” or simply “The Word.” If
powers are unleashed, unfettered upon the battle- Colt made all men equal, the Avalanche made some
field? It is a horror. men more equal than others.
The replicability of Strange devices limits how Similar experiments in weapons innovation are
reliably they can be fielded in warfare, but in the driven by the ease with which guns can be manufac-
major battles of the century there is always some tured in New Birmingham factories by cheap goblin
weird and uncanny action taking place, and as the labor. Several U.S. firearm manufacturers contract
century grows odder, these weird killing impossibil- with New Birmingham factories to produce designs,
ities become more common. Men donning mecha- sparking something of an arms among the forms of
nized armor, horses of iron, thinking machinery, Colt, Remington, Winchester, and Smith & Wesson.
floating gun platforms firing lightning or disinte-
Armies are as slow to adopt new weapons as
gration rays, rifles that kill souls rather than flesh,
ever, and it is a consumer market which drives these
plant-soldiers grown from seeds, and bombardment
companies, all striving to provide more features for
with gas shells which burn flesh and change reality.
When devices are built to be Manufacturable
less money. Some disasters were unavoidable, such as
(page 208), then things become even harder to the rate at which the Winchester Mechanized Rifle
contain. The Lorica Victoria (page 137) and the destroyed its own rifling and eventually jammed and
Electrophorous Firing Piece (page 129) are two exploded after trigger-happy gunmen blazed a few
examples of how placing miracles in common hundred rounds through it.
hands can have sweeping repercussions. Weapons of this era superficially resemble their
As the century winds down, soldiers won’t be historical counterparts. The style of the age is one of
surprised to see giants of brass and iron belching curves and flutes. But functionally (and in terms of
smoke and carrying enormous weapons, clashing game mechanics) they work like modern firearms
on the same battlefields they slog through, bleed on as described in Savage Worlds. Because so many of
and are buried under. these weapons are intended for civilian rather than
military use, many came with sometimes bizarre and
and the winner is decidedly the centerfire or rimfire ill-advised “features” such as the Remington Repeater
cartridge over the pinfire and its ill-fated cousins. (called the “Ugly Drunk” by those in the know) which
While it initially proves something of a failure, incorporated a steel flask in the butt which could
the Vulcan All-in-One cartridge which encases hold twelve ounces of whiskey. Weapons often
bullet and primer inside a solid block of water- have qualities which make little practical
resistant, stabilized explosive, offers the greatest sense given their size, ammunition
power with the least volume and weight of any other capacity, and purpose.
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Late Victorian Firearms A Patent Double-Action Rotating Repeater!

The absurd glut of unreliable Strange weapons
drives down prices and makes dependable older
By the end of the era, personal weaponry becomes a
weapons something of a prize to those who know
complex and chaotic field. Dozens of manufacturers
the difference.
all push their own standards for cartridges and
A Strange weapon manufactured in the later
calibers, their own new innovations, and send new decades of the century is usually built as a Power
designs to manufacture with less and less testing with a Modifier called “Misfire (–1). Even more
and trial. It creates a dangerous field for the weapons often, it has a Modifier called “Catastrophic Misfire
enthusiast. Advertisements for these new weapons (–4).” The exact nature of both these modifiers can
are lurid, featuring well-heeled gentlemen mowing be found on page 208.
down lines of savage caricatures with a “New Rapid-
Repeating Self-Cooling Saddle Gun.” The Patent Double-Action Rotating Repeater
With the ready access to goblin labor and televo- Attack, Ranged (4): Armor Piercing, Catastrophic
cagraphic transmission, a company could form on Misfire, Device, Manufacturable, Light Weapon,
Monday, file patents on Tuesday, and be manufac- Limited Shots (six shots; see page 208), Rapid Fire
turing weapons on Friday—larger, shinier, and with (x2).
The Patent Double-Action Rotating Repeater
more switches and knobs and clicking, buzzing,
inflicts 2d6 damage, has a range of 12/24/48, has
clacking action. They sell for a month, and when
an Armor Piercing rating of 2, and can fire up to 3
they begin to explode, taking fingers with them, the
shots. If it explodes it causes 2d6 damage to its user.
company has folded and its founders have already
It can be manufactured, costing £2 and taking two
vanished with the profits. weeks to build, and has a street value of £4.
Judging a quality firearm becomes something of
an art, and serious gunmen will rarely even touch a
weapon manufactured after 1870 or so. A glance at firing gas-operated rifles) but employ an extremely
a man’s armament can tell an experienced eye a great advanced caseless cartridge. They have twice the
deal about his experience of violence, willingness to ammunition capacity for the same space and weight
engage in it, and his chances of surviving such an as modern weapons from our own world.
encounter. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. once famously
commented on seeing a hunting mate’s new
Winchester Articulated Machine Rifle, “You can
shoot a hundred times for every one I manage, I’m Artillery
sure, sir, but then one shot is all I generally require.”
The brass cartridge begins to see some serious The Big Guns grow fiercer and more terrible as
competition from new caseless cartridges like Smith the century progresses, though they generally don’t
and Wesson’s .30-caliber Vulcan. World militaries suffer the issues of quality that plague firearms. As
show enough interest in this innovation—the only militaries contract the purchase of artillery, it
promise of savings in cost and ammunition weight is generally a more conservative field. For dread-
alone make it a good prospect—that by the end of noughts, the Volcanic Cannon becomes the preferred
the century most military arms are fairly heavy armament. Self-propelled rocket shells allow
conservative functionally (being the big ironclads to kill anything they can see—and
104 simple single-shot or short burst with spotters signaling from aeroships able to see
 Chapter 2

over the horizon, and Babbage Ballistic Engines

able to compute complex firing solutions incorpo-
rating input from human posters and mechanized
barometric and wind sensors, they can also kill
anything within a hundred miles.
The threat posed by weapons of this type, able to
strike Britain’s soil from the Continent, was always on
the minds of British diplomats who sought amiable
relations with those within the so-called “Volcanic
Circle”. As the technology which drives these rockets
improved, so did this circle of potential firing points.
Germany’s imperial rumblings, and the possibility
that France (old enemy and now good friend) might
fall to one of Britannia’s foes, fuel a great deal of
espionage, sabotage, bribery, and dirty dealing.
The power of rocketry to project a nation’s power
beyond its own borders becomes increasingly evident,
and every nation with the capacity vigorously pursues
rocket technology. The German Himmelhammer,
built in 1887 but not publicly acknowledged until
five years later, is capable of striking London with a
two-thousand pound high-explosive bomb from as
far away as its launch platform outside Königsberg.
It is then with some relief that Her Majesty’s officials
learn of the great rocket’s mysterious (and seemingly
accidental) destruction in 1893. Further efforts on
the part of the German Empire to again raise the
Sky Hammer over Victoria’s head prove fraught
with accident, misadventure and death, culminating
in an “accidental” firing of the Himmelhammer V-3
into Berlin in 1899.
Britain’s own capacity to project so-called rocket
diplomacy remains mysterious through the end of
the century. It is never proved or disproved whether
Britain has such a capacity, and there is an equal
measure of evidence supporting both conclusions.
In 1888 Disraeli blithely comments within earshot
of a Times pressman, “It is ‘rockets this’ and ‘rockets
that’ all the time! If they only knew where our
true strength was invested, they’d wish
we’d romanced the rocket like our
German friends.”
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Body Armor which are themselves superseded by rocket and jet

craft. The aero ships remain the queens of the air
from their advent to the close of the century, though,
Man’s capacity to kill and slay his fellows only even if rocket-gliders and wide adoption of volcanic
increases, and dawdling well behind this terrible rocketry begin to limit their practical application in
talent is his capacity to save and preserve. While warfare by the end of the century.
dozens of different “Life-Preserving Vests” and
“Tetsudo Shirts” are sold throughout the century, very
few offer any real protection against the increasing
muzzle velocities of contemporary firearms. Horses
The Lorica Victoria (page 137) proves an
effective defense, but isn’t commonly available, and The horse has game stats as described in Savage
certainly isn’t easy to wear without raising comment. Worlds. Different breeds have some variance in
A few other attempts are made to manufacture theirs stats. Draft horses have higher Vigor, as will
defensive garments strong enough to deflect high- hot bloods. Thoroughbreds and racers might have a
velocity projectiles, but none of the mass-manufac- higher pace. Riding a horse is a challenging skill to
tured armors are as effective as the Lorica. This does master, and riding one in war, in pursuit, or in a race
not dissuade individual inventors from producing is both difficult and dangerous.
suits of nigh-invulnerable armor which allow them Horse riding is a dangerous business—especially
to weather hails of bullets and storms of shrapnel in combat. The rules needed to cover this perilous
without injury. endeavor can be found in Savage Worlds.

Carriages
About Town and Before trains, the carriage is the only means of

About the Globe overland travel which doesn’t involve walking or

riding a horse. Carriages change a great deal through
the century, but they remain basically boxes with two
Transportation changes dramatically and rapidly more wheels which are pulled by one or more horses.
through the century. The horse’s dominance is Large omnibuses cater to the poorer of London’s
challenged by the train, and then wholly broken by middle and under classes, cabs and carriages for hire
the automotive carriage as its engines evolve from to the somewhat more well off. Keeping a carriage is
steam to bitumen-fired internal combustion, to a major status symbol, and can easily cost a wealthy
electric generated by internal combustion engine, family more than a thousand pounds a year for the
to all-electric models driven by one of Mr. Tesla’s horses, footman, and the carriage itself.
“Ducks” (see page 180). Driving a carriage is much like riding: tricky
In the air, man first takes flight in hot air and sometimes dangerous. It requires a successful
balloons, dirigibles, then aero ships, and Driving skill roll when forced to make quick
in gliders, rocket-gliders, and maneuvers, chase or escape, or avoid obstructions in
106 then prop-driven powered craft, the road (such as a 25-stone rock-skinned Stranger
 Chapter 2

waiting to punch your lead horse in the head).

All the rules for carriage chases, combat and Mechanized Gun Carriages
collisions can be found in Savage Worlds.
The bigger, meaner, ill-tempered cousin to the
tractor carriage, the mechanized gun carriage

Trains mounts heavy field artillery and steel plate armor, and
carries a crew of a dozen or more drivers, engineers,
and gun-hands. As proven in the Crimean, these
The great trains of the age run on an ever-expanding machines are the monsters of the battlefield, but as
network of tracks, cutting distances that once proven in the Boer Wars, they’re slow, temperamental,
required weeks of travel down to days or even and mechanically dubious on extended campaign.
hours. The trains transform the way people think
of time and distance, and permit London’s easy
expansion beyond its old borders as the burgeoning
middle classes sought suburban bliss in new cottage Automotives
communities springing up along the rail lines.
Trains run fast, sixty-plus miles per hour, faster Late in the century, in rapid succession, the steam
than any horse or carriage. They are more locations engine and the internal combustion engine become
than vehicles for game purposes, good places to the steam-electric and the bitumen-electric engine
stage dramatic fights, for example. Being run over by driving electric motors rather than directly driving
a train is certain death for all but the most resilient the gears and wheels. In the 1890s some dispense with
Strangers. Similar to carriages, the rules needed for the generators and use induction receivers to power
train collisions and combat can be found in Savage the motors. The streets of London in the 1890s are
Worlds. a chaos of vehicles: horses, carriages, and automo-
tives of dozens of different makes and designs, using
different drives and engines. Automotives are a

Tractor Carriages tinkerer’s dream, and London is home to a thriving

community of amateur mechanics who lease space
in cooperative workshops or use the shops in their
These massive machines begin to see usage in the automotive clubs to modify and customize their
late 1860s for heavy transport, construction, and in vehicles.
particular the laying of rails. A tractor carriage is For the purposes of game mechanics, they can be
essentially a train engine affixed to a high-torque treated like modern cars. Maneuvering in London’s
gearing system and a matched pair of James Boydell’s crowded streets poses some unique challenges. A
patent “Infinite Railway Tracks,” interlinking steel high-speed chase, some unique dangers.
plates allowing the engine to traverse rough and
broken terrain at a modest but inexorable pace.
Being crushed by a tractor carriage is like being
hit by a train in slow motion, inevitably fatal to all
but the stoutest individuals. Evading or outrunning
one is simplicity.
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Aero Ships Albatross glider, one of the first of its kind of use
control surfaces and stabilizing fins. The modern
rocket glider uses folding gull-wings rather than
The great queens of the air. The aero ships (see page fixed wings, allowing it to close its wings against the
86) do to the world what the trains do to Britain. fuselage when it fires a rocket in its cluster to gain
They have more in common with ocean vessels height. When it reaches the top of its parabola, the
than with horse and carriage or automotive; they pilot deploys the wide delicate wings and soars on
are places rather than vehicles. Still, a fight aboard the wind and thermals like a raptor.
a burning aero ship is something all adventuring For all their power these craft are fragile, and
rogues should experience at least once. piloting them is more art than science. If the wing
membranes tear they plummet like a broken-
winged bird. The great aero ships of Her Majesty’s

Rocket Gliders Navy carry squadrons of rocket gliders, launching

them from their upper decks with pneumatic rams.
As the other great powers field their own aero ships,
Where the aero ship is stately and dignified, the the rocket glider becomes a major component of
rocket glider is frenetic and wild. The rocket gliders military doctrine.
of the 1880s were inspired by Félix du Temple’s

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Victoria’s Century
Pre-1800: It’s likely, though unproven, that the general rise in Strange happenings in Ireland. Many
modern Kerberos Club gets its start at the Gates of disregard it as “just more Irish foolishness,” but
Hades coffeehouse in 1723 as an informal meeting those in the Kerberos Club take note, and dispatch
of like-minded individuals who enjoyed drinking, agents to investigate the situation.
opium, the company of loose women and men of easy In a series of uncanny encounters on the eve
virtue, as well as dabbling in the Strange, uncanny, of final official ratification of the Act, members
and mystifying, the fringes of natural science, art, of the Club encounter manifestations of Ireland’s
politics, magic, and awareness. tumultuous past played out at its famous places of
magic and history, finally leading to a midnight
1800: London has a population of over a million confrontation with the Éireannach Fáthach, faerie
people, making it one of the largest cities in the so imprinted by Irish national identity (particularly
world. During the 19th century this only increases. the spirit of the Rebellion of 1798) that they have
Within three decades it will be the largest. become something else again.
The defeat of the Éireannach Fáthach opens the
1800: Irish Act of Union. This Union supersedes way for the Procession of Frost, so on January 1,
the previous Personal Union passed in the 1500s 1801 the union of the Faerie Courts of England,
by ascendant Irish Protestants, forging England Scotland, and Wales extend their rule into the Irish
and Ireland into a single kingdom. The act does Otherworld. And like their mortal counterparts, the
not become official until 1801, but the effects of Irish faerie nobility and lords are bribed with further
the Union are felt almost immediately. The folk- title, honor, and peerage, some even claiming estates
creatures of Ireland, including those beings of in the English Otherworlds.
Faerie which had for generations slipped through While the faerie have difficulty grasping the
the tattered barriers separating Ireland from the differences between Protestant and Catholic (though
Otherworld, are much affected by the shift in the given the choice, they generally choose the Roman
political landscape, though they do not make their church for its ritual, theater and long history of
presence (and opinions) known overtly for decades cohabitation with Otherwordly things), the political
yet. The Irish faerie had absorbed much of their poles created by the struggle between the repressed
island’s culture, and far outnumbered their English Catholics and the ruling Protestants influence them
cousins. Scottish faerie are a much more staid bunch, strongly, and the faerie find themselves increasingly
by and large, who kept themselves to themselves, shaped by Ireland’s tumultuous human politics,
enjoying their status as legend. and factionalized along the same lines.
The Irish faerie are not so laconic. While the
reports are simply not credited in London, there is a
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1801: Rush for the Rosetta Stone. In the aftermath 1804: Hidden Wars. The conflict with Napoleon is
of the French defeat in Egypt, the rush to claim fought with sail, with bullet, with policy, and with
archaeological treasures masked the truly mad trade, but also with occult forces and Strange agents.
struggle to claim occult artifacts and wonders. Napoleon makes the Société Scientifique Impériale
Agents of the Société Scientifique Impériale seek fully his creature, and demands from them miracles,
to safeguard certain discoveries and see them the conjuration of storms to sink Nelson’s fleet, and
smuggled out of Egypt to France, while operatives soldiers invulnerable to fatigue and hunger. He
of the Crown and the Kerberos Club aim to claim betrays his lack of understanding for things Strange,
them for Britain. The greatest of these prizes is the and is disappointed with his agents’ failures to
complete Rosetta Stone, a decree of Ptolemy carved produce for him the miracles their claims to power
in stone and writ in many languages. would seem to promise.
The Stone’s value to academics is immediately Only their perfection of the Sémaphore Psychique
apparent, but to occultists equally so if one knows saves them from official sanction. Presented with
what to look for. In addition to the lost human a way of transmitting his orders near-instantly,
languages, there are two prehuman (so-called Elder) Napoleon sees the value of unconventional avenues
tongues represented—scripts so inhuman, they defy of power, and throws money at the Société like corn
efforts to copy them with plaster casts, rubbings, or to a goose—but rather than lead to the blossoming
transcription. of additional innovation, it causes the Société to lose
One who recognized the stone’s value is General focus when its members pursue their pet projects
Jacques de Menou, an initiate in several mystery with the Emperor’s money. Yet, the Société remains
societies. He seeks to hide the stone, making the one of Napoleon’s favorite pets.
excuse that it is his personal property, and so not
subject to confiscation by British authorities who 1805: Tapping the Admiral. While victorious,
claimed all such artifacts. His ruse is discovered, and Admiral Lord Nelson is killed at the Battle of
this results in a chase through nighttime Cairo, with Trafalgar. In the aftermath of the battle, his body,
British (as well as Russian, German, and Ottoman) preserved in a barrel of brandy, is taken aboard the
agents in pursuit. The stone is finally captured from Victory to Gibraltar. In life, Nelson achieved an
its hiding place in the back of a gun carriage by astonishing reputation, and the manner of his death
Kerberan agent Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, propelled him into a fame few British military
who claims it in the name of the British crown, but figures have ever matched. He is laid to rest at St.
not before carefully breaking away the sections of Paul’s Cathedral in a coffin made from the salvaged
the stone writ with inhuman script. mast of the L’Orient. His body is guarded day and
night by a rare alliance of British mystery societies.
1803: Westward Ho! With the purchase of France’s The Masons join with the Illuminatus Britainus and
territorial claims in North America, the United States the Boudiccian Sisters in an unheard-of effort to
begins its westward expansion which becomes known keep Nelson’s corpse from falling into the hands of
as Manifest Destiny. Displaced native peoples are foreign rivals who could use its phenomenal occult
divided, deceived, manipulated, bullied, and when all puissance against the United Kingdom.
else fails, murdered to allow this Destiny to unfold. Unfortunately, they neglect the brandy his body
The abuses continue until the Great Ghost was preserved in—ironically a quite-fine French
Dance of 1885. spirit. By the time they realize their error, the
110 brandy has vanished and the expression “tapping
 Chapter 3

the admiral” as slang for having a stiff drink has invading British ally Sweden in 1808 at Napoleon’s
entered the common lexicon. Rumors of Nelson’s behest. Between Napoleon’s tightening fingers,
Brandy haunt occult circles for months, hinting at nations begin slipping through.
Bonaparte and apolyonic rituals, at Russian mystics,
at even Indian revolutionary factions. 1807: Slave Trafficking Illegal. The Kingdom
The Kerberos Club first comes to the attention of Great Britain, after a series of half-measures,
of the older secret orders during the following declares the traffic in human slaves illegal. The
year, and earns the animosity of the Ordo Malum, British West African Squadron begins patrolling the
an Austrian Catholic secret society which came African coast, interdicting slave-taking operations
to possess Nelson’s Brandy through their agents and slave ships. Britannia’s position and motivation
among the sailors charged with unloading Nelson’s is a complex one. While slavery has been illegal
body from the Victory. on British soil since 1772, many British citizens
With the Brandy in their possession, the Order have profited mightily from the trade in humans
prepares a ritual based on old pre-Christian magic. to be sold into slavery. There is a powerful social
This would have imbued their chosen pawns within movement against slavery in British society, but the
the Holy Roman Empire with Lord Nelson’s force policy is also perhaps an economic and social stab
of destiny, appending the name of their agents to at Napoleon, who reintroduced slavery to France in
the Book of Ages, addendums to Nelson’s legacy by 1803.
using the brandy in their perverted Communion. In the shadows, the Kerberos Club works to
Only intervention by the Club’s roving agents keeps further the abolitionist agenda, both because it suits
this ritual from coming to full fruition. This failure their perverse egalitarianism and to squelch the dire
spells the end for the Empire, which is finally and engine of misery and death which the Trade created
completely dissolved in 1806 as the consequence of in the Otherworld. The paths traveled by slavers
the Treaty of Lunéville. across the Atlantic have become a nightmare of
As to Nelson’s Brandy, there is no certain answer, pain and death, twisting the Otherworld (and the
though given the general Kerberan affection for highly impressionable things which dwell there),
both sacrilege and drunkenness, one can hazard a creating a septic wound in the world’s soul. It
fair guess. attracts scavengers, magi of the worst sorts, ghosts,
twisted faerie, and horrors less easily defined. Along
1806: Napoleon Tightens His Grip with the the slavers’ routes, true leviathans are sighted with
Continental System, decreeing that none of his alarming regularity, great behemoths of night-
conquered territories or protectorates may trade with marish dimension and impossible physiology. Yet
Britain. Rather than starve out his great enemy as he the slavers go unmolested by these horrors. Indeed,
intends, his decree meets with only limited success. they are sometimes abetted by them in escaping the
Denied their European trading partners, British British navy.
merchants seek markets elsewhere, forging economic There are clearly parties committed to preserving
ties in the Americas and the East which help fuel the the Trade who care nothing for something as base as
engine of the British Empire in the coming decades. selling human blood for gold coin. The Elder Things
Further, the embargo actually harms Napoleon’s are awakened, and they will sip the heady brew
Grand Empire more than it does Britain. Starved frothed from man’s inhumanity to man.
for trade, Russia rejects it in 1812, reopening trade
with the tiny manufacturing juggernaut, even after
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1808: Napoleon’s Fortunes Falter. The internal 1810: The University of Berlin is founded as the
politics of Spain turn like a snake and bite Napoleon. world’s first research university. Among its students
The Spanish rebel against French occupation, and and teaching staff are luminaries such as Hegel,
later in the year Sir Arthur Wellesley arrives in Marx, and Bismarck. The educational model is so
Lisbon to begin the campaign against the French successful it is copied across Europe, and indepen-
on the Iberian Peninsula. The war sees Arthur dently many such institutions also see the estab-
created the first Duke of Wellington and, in 1814, lishment of their own conspiracies, cults, and secret
Napoleon’s vanquisher. societies such as the one which initiated so many of
Spain is a nation torn between the old world the University of Berlin’s greatest minds.
and the new, where pagan superstition finds easy Over the next decade, many of the old German
camaraderie with Catholicism, and Sir Arthur first societies sign the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung
encounters the uncanny events here which would (“Silent Pact”). While the politics in the hidden halls
become something of an obsession for him. of power remain vicious, there is for the first time a
common forum for ideas and grievances, as well as
1809: Napoleon Breaks the Teutonic Knights. In the discussion of issues of common concern—such
an effort to secure his power in the mystical as well as as the mystics of Britain who refuse to ally with
temporal world, Napoleon begins the persecution of the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung, or the rebels
occult groups, mystery religions, and secret societies. from their own circles who fled to the Americas and
The persecuted individuals sometimes abandon founded their own orders.
their mystical pursuits, accepting a mundane life
in exchange for freedom from Napoleon’s service 1811: The Gates of Hades coffee house burns under
or his prisons, but some, such as the Order of the mysterious circumstances. Members of the Kerberos
Teutonic Knights of Bad Mergentheim, are perse- Club begin meeting in a building on the Square of
cuted relentlessly. Their holdings are taken, their Saint James off Pall Mall. No one is exactly sure how
libraries emptied, and their alchemical research is they purchased the enormous building, or for that
stolen or burned. Some of the Knights choose to matter precisely what the building had been before
stay and resist the Emperor, but those who are able the Club made it their official house. Memories and
flee with what they can carry (assisted by foreign records of the building’s history, construction,  and
agents, such as a notable Kerberan adventurer). origins remain obscure, and the Strange folk who
The Knights follow the same path in their meet there seem to come and go as if they’d been
flight as the Knights Templar before them and find doing so for years.
sanctuary among the Scottish Masons. By the end of 1811, all the locals and neighbors
The younger mercenary commanders of the of the club’s House treat the increasingly Gothic
Order who led the troops of the Hapsburgs during building as if it has always been there, and as if the
the Ottoman wars find easy positions in the armies of Club had always been their neighbor. When forced
the United Kingdom in the fight against Bonaparte.  to give an opinion on when the Club moved in,
The Teutonic Knights add their mysteries to people become confused.
the stewpot of Scots occultism, and inspire and
inform such luminaries as Charles Piazzi Smyth, 1811: The Madness of King George necessitates
Astrologer Royal for Scotland and expert the Regency Act of 1811, which allows the Prince
on the Egyptian pyramids and of Wales to serve as Regent for the remainder of
112 Egyptian necromantic practices. King George’s rule. The King’s condition continues
 Chapter 3

the Kerberos Club who had counted him a friend

The Old Familiar Pile in the dying lights of the last century. In a foolish
The Kerberos Club’s house is only just moved to and daring action, they invade Windsor Castle in
Pall Mall, isn’t it? If so, then why does it feel like it’s
the dead of night, and steal the mad King away.
always been there? In a sense, it has. The Kerberos
Something is done to Dr. Simmons who was
Club, the informal meeting of odd individuals and
attending the King at the time, and when discovered
adventurers who gathered at the Gates of Hades to
drink and gamble and dabble in dark matters, was
in the morning, he is covered in blisters and twisted
an associate faction of a larger, Stranger, and more into an unnatural posture, (as if treated by cupping
purposeful organization which had occupied the and bound in a straitjacket). He is dead, suffocated
spot of the Club’s famous house from pre-Roman on his own vomit. The King’s disappearance is
times. Or so one might believe one has discovered, hushed up by his sons and the Regent. The secrecy
if one digs deep enough into Club records. surrounding the King’s condition makes this fairly
Even if this pretension for ancient origins proves easy. Rumors are squelched, and when required, an
false, the Gates of Hades group was certainly actor stands in for the King until the time decided
a faction of whatever mysterious brotherhood for his death on January 29, 1820.
predated it and built the Pall Mall house. When the Who was actually laid to rest at the King’s official
adventuring faction is attacked directly by agents of funeral on the 15th of February remains a mystery,
the King’s sons, its members return to the fold, and as does the final fate of mad King George III. What
bring with them into the stately and staid halls of
is known is that the Regent and the King’s sons take
the Club a vital daring and energy which had waned
no further action against the Kerberos Club.
over the years. It also brings the imperative that the
King George’s sons who succeed him, George IV
Strange should be kept from the eyes and hearts of
the common folk for as long as possible, for nothing
and William IV, both die without legitimate heir,
scares a monarch into dangerous action faster than though in truth, their efforts to produce offspring
a threat from within his own citizenry. And with seem almost preternaturally troubled: miscarriages,
King George III already maddened by exposure to stillbirths, and false pregnancies plague their wives.
Strange happenings, it becomes a priority. Both are also struck with emasculating diseases late
Regardless, digging up any concrete information in their lives, further preventing their producing
on the Club’s true age and origin is an Investigation issue. Their misfortunes open the way eventually to
(-4) roll. Digging up highly plausible rumors, lies, the only surviving offspring of the Duke of Kent,
and fictions is so easy, you have to make a successful their niece, Alexandrina Victoria.
Smarts roll to ignore them completely.
1812: A Grim Faerie Tale. The publication of
to worsen over the next nine years. The adminis- Grimm’s Fairy Tales inspires British entomologist and
trator of an asylum for lunatics, Dr. Samuel Foart folklorist William Kirby to begin his researches into
Simmons, is summoned by the King’s sons to the fairy tales of the United Kingdom. During his
contend with the increasingly erratic and unpre- research he interviews hundreds of country and city
dictable monarch, and Simmons begins a program dwellers, and finds some Strange patterns forming in
of almost brutal coercion and control over the King, the stories he uncovers and records. One recurring
seeking to force him to adopt a civil and sane mien, character which seems to crop up regularly in
less he be brutally “treated”. wildly unrelated places and periods is a
By 1813 the king is blind and nearly deaf, and young girl (always about nine years
word of his condition reaches those individuals in old) with a shocking mane of red
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hair which gets her into trouble, usually by attracting

the attention of faerie creatures or spirits. Her name
is given variably as “Maeve,” “Mavra,” “Miven,” and
“Muni,” and she is usually Irish.
When Kirby tracks the places mentioned in the
stories, he finds that the tales of this girl seem to
follow a wandering path from London to Ireland,
and there, to a tiny village called Liminy. In Liminy,
when he finally finds a local willing to talk to him,
he learns that “Maeve” had indeed lived in that very
village, until being driven out because of the trouble
she brought.
“When was this?” Asked Kirby.
“’Twas in my greatgran’s time, when she’s a little
girl,” answered the local farmer.
“But I heard in London just this past month
a tale about Maeve and her adventures along the
Thames.”
And the farmer answered, “Oh, aye. When the
sidhe take a liking to you, they keeps you how they
like you best. Old Maeve is as young as a sprout,
forever.”
Kirby returned to London, convinced he was
hunting a real person rather than a myth or legend,
but no one ever learns what he finds there, because in
less than a year William Kirby is confined to Bethlem
Hospital, and spends the rest of his days dancing and
weeping, and never speaks another word.

1812: The Empty Man. Prime Minister Spencer

Perceval is called to attend an enquiry in the House
of Commons for the results of his disastrous and
unpopular Orders in Council on trade, which
resulted in Luddite riots and the start of the War
of 1812. In the lobby of the house of commons
Perceval’s progress is blocked by a blank-faced man,
and before the Prime Minister can step around him,
the man shoots Perceval through the heart. Before
he can turn a second pistol on himself, the killer
is disarmed and held for trial.
The blank-faced man is
114 identified finally as John
 Chapter 3

Bellingham, a failed merchant seaman, tin manufac- their occult resources and unleash mystical assaults
turer and jeweler who spent several years in a Russian on the invaders. They are restrained somewhat by
prison between 1803 and 1809. His estranged wife the necessity to limit the collateral damage inflicted
is found, and she is surprised to hear he is back by the forces they unleash, but Washington still
in Britain at all. He stopped writing to her from suffers appreciably. When the presidential mansion
Russia in 1808. No information can be had from is restored it is painted white, the thick coats of
Bellingham himself, as to all intents and purposes, paint covering powerful warding signs which are
he is empty, a puppet with cut strings. While he intended to safeguard the building from any future
seemed animate enough when executing the assas- assault, and even serve to protect the building from
sination, afterwards, it is like his spirit had fled, the British aerial bombardment of 1862.   
leaving his flesh to continue on.
Bellingham is tried and found to be mentally 1819: Birth of an Empire. On the 24th of May,
unsound, and sentenced to spend the rest of his Alexandrina Victoria (called Dina within the
life in Bethlem hospital. He lives only three weeks family) is born to Edward the Duke of Kent by
before dehydration and malnutrition claim him. He Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Due
would not even eat or drink. to the vagaries of royal succession and the tragic
Seen as a freak occurrence at the time, the assas- death of the Princess Charlotte Augusta, She has
sination of Spencer Perceval is the first of the Empty become the royal heir. At Her birth, She does not
Man killings. cry, but this oddness about Her is lost in the general
rejoicing in the household at the production of an
1813–1907: Let the Game Begin. The contest heir. At Her christening, Charles Mannors-Sutton,
between the British Empire and Imperial Russia for the Archbishop of Canterbury, weeps openly, and
control of Central Asia is referred to as the Great later says he couldn’t credit any explanation for it,
Game. This conflict occasionally breaks out into war, saying only that in the moment he saw the whole of
sometimes fought by proxy. It also rages on the more the world in the child’s eyes, and it was more than
rarefied planes. No fewer than half a dozen British he could bear.
magi are enlisted to perform Works to aid the Eight months after Her birth, Victoria’s father
British in holding India, but Russia ever dominates dies. Days later, it is reported that King George III
in raw occult power. has died as well. George IV takes the throne, and
remains childless, and with his death it passes to his
1814: The British on U.S. Soil. During the War of brother William who fails to beget children on any
1812 the British briefly occupy Washington, D.C. It but his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordon. Jordon’s
is said British commanders eat the dinner prepared connections to the Kerberos Club, while rumored,
for the President of the United States from his are never proved.
own china, in his own dining room. They set fire Fate, or something else, makes the way clear for
to most public buildings, including the presidential Victoria’s rise to the throne.
mansion, but are driven from the city by freak storms
which drown many of the fires with torrential rains, 1819: Irish Eyes Upon Her. With the death of
and destroy British ships and encampments with Victoria’s father so soon after Her birth, Her
tornados which leave the rest of the city unharmed. mother the Duchess of Kent develops a
After suffering the ignominious flight from relationship with the ambitious
Washington, the men of America Obscura marshal Irish officer Sir John Conroy.
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Conroy treats young Victoria as if She was his own Dunsany’s writings are published in the next century.
daughter, and seeks to impress certain ideals and To a certain set, Quincy’s book became almost a
designs upon Her. sacred text, especially for those who indulged in
In truth Conroy is only one of many agents drug-journeys into the Otherworld themselves.
secreted in the Royal household seeking to influence His work also inspires inventor Samuel Berk,
the young heir before Her assumption of the crown. who combines hallucinogenic vision drugs with
It isn’t until She becomes Queen that his allegiances mid-century advances in telegraphy to create the
are revealed. Needle-Actuated Hallucinogenic Senso-Somatic
Visualizer, a device which, when combined with a
1819: The SS Savannah, an American steamer, dose of Berk’s carefully-formulated drug, induces
crosses the Atlantic in 23 days, and is greeted with dream-visions created from telegraphically trans-
awe and consternation by British seaman and the mitted information.
public. America’s ability to produce such a vessel
threatens British naval superiority. It inspires a mad 1821: The Corsican Ogre Escapes at Last. On the
rush to develop Britain’s own fleet of transatlantic way to the autopsy ordered by the governor of St.
steamers. In two decades, steam will bring the end Helena, the body of Napoleon Bonaparte is stolen by
of practical sail in the Atlantic. person or persons unknown. Agents of the World’s
major powers scramble to find the Emperor’s body,
1821: An Empire Crumbles. Greece becomes recognizing that as symbol or as an article of occult
the first country to break away from the Ottoman significance, it is of unparalleled danger. Efforts are
Empire after the Greek War of Independence. The made to keep the theft secret, but fail. In the end the
Empire continues to decline throughout the century, theft of the body is on everyone’s lips.
with European powers chewing away its holdings, His defeat at Waterloo six years earlier seemed
military power, and economic influence. to spell the end of Napoleon, but the loss of his
body renders things ambiguous, and the old fears,
1821: Thomas de Quincey Rides the Dragon in that Napoleon was the Antichrist, come again. Was
his autobiographic Confessions of an Opium Eater. Napoleon risen from the dead in mockery of the
He discusses with frankness the oft-taboo subjects Lord Jesus Christ, to bring the end of the world?
of addiction, moral failing, and drug use. He also Was his body returned to life by Egyptian cultists
describes with vivid detail the hallucinations which in accordance with the arrangements he made
took him when he indulged in laudanum or the while conquering the land of the Nile? Or was the
smoking of opium, visions which became increas- Emperor’s corpse stuffed and preserved, and dressed
ingly horrific and difficult to distinguish from reality in full uniform, adorning the apartments of some
towards the end. adventuring British rogue, casually employed as a
To those with experience of such matters, coat-rack? 
Quincey’s accounts revealed the horrible outer
realms of the Otherworld in a clarity never before 1822: The Rosetta Stone unlocks the secrets of the
committed to paper. The last sections of his book are ages, some of them at least. Building on the work
a near map of the Gates of Karduth, and describe of Thomas Young, Jean-François Champollion
a safe route through the Mountains of completes the translation, allowing previously
Madness to the lands beyond with untranslatable languages to be deciphered. All
116 a accuracy unequaled until Lord previous efforts to translate the stone had been
 Chapter 3

quietly squashed by those who wished these writings

to remain generally untranslatable, though the early
intervention by Kerberan agent Colonel Tomkyns
Hilgrove Turner prevented the samples of the La’sur
script or examples of the Writing of Pa from falling
to public examination. If those prehuman tongues
had become known, the damage might have been
incalculable.

1825: Mary Shelley’s Monster is born. Shelly

is daughter to a radical feminist and an anarchist
philosopher, lover to a famous romantic poet, and
friends with the likes of Byron. She is an unconven-
tional woman to be sure, and brilliant and accom-
plished in her own right. In 1816, while visiting
Byron in Switzerland, and inspired by the stories of
the Das Gespensterbuch, the group of writers and
poets agreed to all write ghost stories to pass the
time inside during the unseasonable cold. Her initial
idea was entirely uninspiring, and Mary neglected
her writing until struck by a waking dream, a vision
of the grotesque and horrific, and in her were planted
seeds which would not sprout until later in the year
when her return to Britain was met with tragedy.
She would recount after her trial the vision
which inspired her as “taking me with a vividness
I had never experienced, my imagination running
with freedom I’d never before known, and showing
me the phantasm of a form stretched out on a
mortuary slab, sewn and bound by unhallowed arts,
and crouching over it the specter of me myself, worn
down to calloused bone, a hollow-eyed student of
forbidden lessons.”
Returning to Britain in September, she was
shaken by the suicide of two close to her family,
her half-sister Fanny and her lover Percy’s first wife
Harriet. Driven to maudlin depths by these deaths,
her writing career faltered, but her new obsession
with biology and philosophy and medicine
blossomed.
She and Percy married in 1817,
and their household grew with
117
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the addition of children, as well as one of Byron’s techniques for animating dead flesh and bringing
illegitimate daughters, assorted friends, fellow life, but it isn’t published until 1879. She claims to
writers, and others. The household moved to Italy, enjoy frequent visits from her husband through the
and in Venice and Rome tragedy continued to period of her confinement, but the true fate of her
stalk Shelley with the death of her daughter and Monster remains unknown.
son. Mary was driven further into her studies, and
becomes estranged from her husband and friends. 1829: Mars—A Dead Planet. The anonymous
The family finally settled in Pisa, where the final explorer who penned the memoir Lonely Planet—
tragedy of her husband’s death by drowning at sea One Man’s Journey discovers a method of travel
was enough to unhinge her completely. She returned which carries him to the planet Mars. He is delib-
to Britain and to Dorset with her husband’s body erately vague in his re-telling, but some mention
preserved in ice, and began to finally push her of “Miasmatonic Gases from the Earth’s Core”
studies from the theoretical to the practical. suggests he experienced a gas-induced episode
Three years of experimentation, dissection of of spirit-travel. However, the very real disease he
corpses, and application of chemicals and electricity brought back with him suggests otherwise. The
to dead human tissues, and her own mad and explorer found Mars to be a desert, and rather than
inspired will, finally meet with success in 1825. home to a canal-building civilization he found only
Blinded by her obsession, she can’t see her creation ruins and dust. Mars was dead, and the thing that
for what it is, a hideous thing sewn from the corpses killed it was loosed upon Earth with his return, the
of dead men, with her husband’s carefully-preserved Red Ague.
face sewn upon another man’s skull, his brain
resting inside. Another man’s head. Another’s lungs. 1829: The Peelers Bring Order. Sir Robert Peel
Another’s viscera. And then the whole grotesque sees increasing need in ever-growing London for
mess brought to perverse life. a formal, organized, and disciplined public police
The Monster escapes, terrified and furious and service, and brings his vision into reality with a force
confused, and Mary pursues. The creature terrorizes of over a thousand constables. The impact Peel’s
Dorset for months before finally being captured and police force has on London and its future-growth is
subdued, packed into ice, and carted off to London incalculable. The blue-uniformed constables in their
for examination. Mary’s crimes against nature are hardened top hats—their famous helmet appears
revealed and she stands trial in one of the most in the 1860s—replace the irregular and freelance
sensational episodes of the era. The existence of the law enforcers within London, except for the Old
Monster is refuted and its crimes lain on Shelley City which maintains its own service. Bobbies (as
herself (where physically possible) or dismissed they are known affectionately) or Peelers (as they
entirely. She is convicted of grave robbing and are known somewhat less affectionately) become
various affronts to public order and decency, but regular elements of the London tableau. They prove
is found mentally incompetent, and sentenced to a so successful that in coming decades the service is
secure sanitarium rather than prison. emulated in cities across Britain.
Mary Shelley dies in her cell in 1851 of a
brain tumor, and her madness is blamed on 1831: Launch of the HMSS Ray, a submersible
this condition. During her time in boat designed by British inventor Jordon St. John.
confinement she writes The New The Ray employs electric motors improved from
118 Man, a work describing her Faraday’s design to turn drive screws of St. John’s
 Chapter 3

advanced until the late 1800s when conventional

HMSS Ray shipbuilding catches up to St. John’s inspired efforts.

Acc/Top Speed: 3/12; Toughness: 18(5); Crew: 8 1834: The Spanish Inquisition Officially Ends.
Notes: Heavy Armor, Ram (AP 4, and halves
Unofficially, the Inquisition is finally brought
damage sustained when ramming).
to heel by other, more subtle arms of the Roman

Functions Church’s secret workings. Augurers within the

Greek Orthodox Church share their visions of
The Ray can carry 16,000 pounds of cargo and
the future with Rome, and the forces gathering in
crew at up to 60 miles per hour while submerged,
Britain become a major concern for the Church,
and can protect its passengers from the harshest
conditions of the ocean depths. When attacking despite the moderate position of the British
it can ram a target, potentially inflicting grievous government on Catholics. The energies previously
damage on even an armored ship. wasted on Inquisition are redirected at inspiring
Future upgrades might include sonar sensors (the certain Anglicans to embrace a more Catholic faith,
awareness power), torpedoes (the attack, ranged and on the inspiration of trends such as the Oxford
power with area effect and armor piercing modifica- Movement.
tions), electrified hull defense (a damage field power While the Greeks can not say for sure in what
with the elemental tricks modification) or improve- form the threat to the Church will come, these strat-
ments to acceleration and top speed (speed power). agems seem a sound way to counter any threatening
doctrine or blasphemy which might arise. The Greek
augurers fail utterly to recognize that what they
own invention. The motors are powered by batteries took to be symbolism in their visions: The Queen
or by an electrical dynamo driven by a steam engine, upon her throne of stone, lion by Her side, shield
though this requires the boat to surface quickly or and spear ready at hand, do not represent a vague
extend its 50-foot snorkel in order to release the symbol of Britannia but actually show Britain’s next
coal smoke and pump in air for the fires. monarch near the end of Her reign.  
The Ray is remarkably advanced, so much so that
few beyond St. John understand its basic principles. 1835: Expedition to Atlantis. Employing the
Attempts to manufacture a sister-ship fail when St. remarkable submersible HMSS Ray, an expedition
John is unable to dedicate the time and energy to of scientists and adventurers follow a fragmentary
the project. Only the inventor himself can seem to map purporting to reveal the location of a sunken
make the boat work. The Ray sees limited service city built somewhere about the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
until the middle 1830s when it begins to serve as The map was recovered from the ruined Temple of
an interdiction vessel for capturing slavers without Ling’Yoh in Tibet two decades previously, and lay
giving them the opportunity to dump their human ignored in a display case in an elderly collector’s
cargo overboard. It also serves to aid in the covert drawing room. But with the advent of the Ray, real
landing of Crown agents on coasts from Europe investigation proved possible.
to Africa. The Ray is continuously updated by St. The submersible boat descends, following the
John, who eventually comes to live in the boat as its route outlined by the map, and discovers not a
resident engineer. single city but dozens if not hundreds of individual
The Ray isn’t the last submersible boat used in settlements strung all along the ridge. Where there
Her Majesty’s service, but remains one of the most appear to be true cities, monolithic structures of cut
 Chapter 3

basalt, they are ruined and abandoned. But more 1837: Hegel’s Philosophy of Secret History
shocking, the smaller settlements are inhabited. is published posthumously by Eduard Gans.
While not the correct term, or even a translation of Hegel’s theory of history is underpinned by his
these amphibious people’s own word for themselves, theory of secret history, that all recorded events,
they quickly became known as Atlanteans, though while seemingly encompassed by the Geist, are in
the general consensus is that they are in fact either fact equally encompassed by the Shattengeist, the
a debased form of the ancient pre-humans, or some shadow-spirit of society. These two spiritual worlds
opportunists who later occupied the cyclopean cities. combine to form the Weltgeist, the “world spirit.”
The Atlanteans are a tribal culture, much The struggle between shadow and light is the engine
concerned with matters of honor and blood. Much which drives history, the overt and the obvious
of their energy is spent in pursuing ages-old feuds events push human history in one direction, while
with their neighbors. The arrival of the humans in the secret motivators pull it in another.
a machine is seen by many as an opportunity, and Moderating between these dichotomous forces
the humans as possible allies against tribal enemies. are the Volkgeist, great individuals such as Napoleon
Into this political chaos the human explorers arrive, who can shape the Geist in dramatic ways, and other
and they quickly find themselves negotiating in the shadowy unnamed individuals who can shape the
name of their nation. Shattengeist in equally dramatic ways. Between these
After some missteps, deaths, and the start of war, two, there are those who would come to be known
a tenuous relationship is established with the largest as Strangers. Hegel names these individuals torn
of the Atlantean tribes. So begins an exchange of between the two worlds Gaunergeist, spirits with no
ideas and trade, kept as secret as possible from the allegiance to either of history’s driving forces, wild
rest of the great powers. cards, rogue elements in the history of man.
His work is dismissed as rambling and incoherent
120 (as well as dangerously paranoid) by many in the
 Chapter 3

academic community, and Hegel’s reputation is refuses to countenance new attendants. Sir Robert,
targeted for destruction by the world’s squabbling feeling that he can not govern effectively under the
secret masters, whose applecart he so nearly upsets. restrictions placed upon him by the Queen, almost
Yet his ideas have their defenders, and his final work resigns his commission until Victoria invites him to
is widely read. In the coming decades it becomes a private council to discuss the matter.
essential reading for intellectuals trying to make When Peel emerges from his meeting with the
sense of the chaos of the late 19th century. Queen, he looks like a man who has found religion.
He retracts his objections, saying that the Queen
1837: Victoria Regina Imperiatrix. Four weeks had explained Her position with such reason and
after Her 18th birthday, Victoria is awakened to the sense that he felt comfortable proceeding with the
news that Her uncle, William IV has died, and She new ministry. Sir Robert Peel would be one of the
is now Queen. Queen’s strongest supporters and confidants in the
In his journal, Lord Conynham writes of years to come.
bringing the news to young Victoria:
“When I informed Her that Her uncle had 1840: A Royal Wedding. On February 10, Queen
passed, something came over Her, almost as if I Victoria weds Her first cousin, Prince Albert of
could see the aura of authority descend upon Her. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, whom She had met two
She nodded Her head, and thanked me for bringing years previously. Prince Albert isn’t an especially
the news so promptly, and I felt uncannily proud popular choice, too German, too foreign perhaps.
of having Her say so. So much so, that I left with a But he and Victoria have an immediate and profound
feeling of profound disquiet, and no small fear. In rapport. Prince Albert (later granted the official title
Her eyes I saw something go out, some spark, and of Prince Consort) fills his somewhat difficult public
in its place something new take light, and it made role with grace.
me afraid.” Prince Albert is athletic, well educated, erudite,
Victoria Herself writes, “Momma woke me at 6 witty, and quite savvy at political matters. His
o’clock to tell me Conynham was here with news. He counsel becomes invaluable to the young Queen,
told me that my poor uncle was no more, and that I who knows She can always rely upon Albert to have
was now Queen. I told him that I knew it already.” Her interests at heart.
During Her first three years of rule, Victoria
seems to rely on the Whig PM Lord Melbourne 1840: An Assassin’s Bullets shatter a happy
for council, but doesn’t seem overly discommoded afternoon riding on Constitution Hill for Queen
when Melbourne resigns in 1839 over the rebellions Victoria and Her husband. Edward Oxford, a young
of 1837 in Canada. man of 18, fires twice at the Queen, apparently
missing both times. He is quickly apprehended and
1839: The Bedchamber Crisis threatens Queen disarmed, though he thrashes and raves. Victoria,
Victoria’s political alliance with Sir Robert Peel, a against all Her attendants’ and Her husband’s advice,
Tory She had commissioned to form a new ministry. approaches the young man, and they lock eyes for a
Sir Robert wishes to appoint new Ladies of the moment. Oxford’s ravings about “the last empire”
Bedchamber, attendants upon the Queen whose quiet, and he begins to silently weep, and then
posts are ones of political patronage. Victoria regards is unable to meet the Queen’s gaze again.
the Ladies who had been appointed by the previous He is acquitted of High
Whig administration as personal friends, and Treason due to insanity, and
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committed to Bethlem Hospital until 1864, when, 1840: Penny Post. The age of the written word
while being transported to the newly-opened blossoms fully with the introduction of the penny
Broadmore Hospital, he himself is assassinated by post, which makes sending correspondences
an unknown man with a revolver. affordable to many more people. A great deal more
This assailant turns the pistol on himself immedi- of the weird and the uncanny is committed to paper
ately after slaying Oxford. It is supposed by those now; the correspondences of the period contain
who study such things that this second assassin was references to unusual events and happenings, and
an Empty Man, but no evidence exists to support he the improved communication this affords begins to
was anything more than another maniac. shed light on the world’s hidden matters.

1840: The Queen’s Displeasure. Secure in Her 1840: Spark of Brilliance. The electric light is
marriage, Victoria exerts Her royal prerogatives invented, but it will be years before it becomes
and banishes over a dozen members of the royal widespread and easily manufactured.
household: courtiers and privy councilors, including
Sir John Conroy, who had watched over Her since 1841: Secret Police for Secret Crimes. Special
Her first year. In the official edict She says, “With Branch is founded under the direction of Sir Robert
a new Queen, one must have new Ideas and new Peel, who sees the need for a secret branch of the
Approaches, and not cling so closely to times long police force to handle unconventional crime and
past. We foresee great changes and great wonders attend to matters too sensitive or unpleasant to
for Our Kingdom, so let these changes begin with impose on ordinary officers of the law.
Our own Household.”
Victoria had discerned that Her circles and 1842: Year of Assassins. Victoria is plagued by
councils had been well infiltrated by agents of a series of assassination attempts, some clearly
secret powers, and She would not have it any longer. genuine, some perhaps the efforts of desperate,
Resentful of Conway’s familiarity and efforts to attention-seeking individuals.
impose his will upon Her, She lets it be known to In May, in St. James Park, one John Francis fires
those She banishes that She knows their purposes, a pistol at Her Majesty, but is quickly apprehended
and that they and their associates will hereafter be and disarmed by police constables. When tried, his
watched. In Conway’s case, She lets it be known death sentence is commuted in favor of transpor-
that he is being exiled from the court for his affairs tation.
with one of Her Ladies of the Bedchamber. This In July, John William Bean fires his pistol at the
added note of malice damages Conway’s reputation Queen though his gun is loaded only with powder
further, as the official reason for his banishment is and no bullet.
so ignominious. In August, Francis Bell throws a homemade
When Peel’s Special Branch is formed the black-powder explosive onto the roof of the royal
following year, they are tasked with the duty to carriage as it passes, but Victoria’s quick-thinking
catalog, track, and if need be, persecute secret orders coachman throws the bomb away before it explodes.
and fraternal societies of domestic or foreign origin. Bell is captured at his apartment later in the day,
Sir John Conway lives the remainder of his life tried, and convicted. In light of the earlier attempts,
under constant (and obvious) surveillance, and the belief that the attempts were encouraged by
and never again enjoys the privi- Oxford’s acquittal, Bell is convicted of High Treason
122 leges of influence over the Queen. and sentenced to hang. He kills himself in his cell
 Chapter 3

while awaiting the sentence to be carried out. 1844: A Hunger for Revolution. Irish nationalist
Finally, an unknown assailant fires a rifle at the and writer John Mitchell writes that the potato
Queen from a rooftop while She walks in Hyde Park. disease which threatens the lives of millions of Irish
She is lightly wounded in Her side by the small- might be an inducement to true revolution, hunger
caliber bullet, but Her assailant is never captured. being one of the great motivators of history. His
She quickly recovers from the injury, and as terri- further writings on the repeal of the Acts of Union
fying as Albert and Her entourage find the attack eventually see him tried and sentenced to transpor-
She seems to take it entirely in stride. In the years to tation. On the eve of his sentence he mysteriously
follow, however, the re-opening of this wound often vanishes from his prison cell and is never seen again
heralded trouble for Her Empire. in public. He continues to write and organize from
These assassination attempts lead Albert to the shadows, and it is rumored he made some deal or
encourage Parliament to pass the Treason Act of pact with ungodly things, faerie or something worse,
1842, which grants the royal household powers to to preserve his freedom so long as he fights for the
investigate possible threats to Her Majesty’s safety, cause of Irish independence. Rumors of his activities
and to preemptively act to prevent such attempts in continue into the early 1900s, but all describe him
future. These powers are granted to Peel’s Special as he appeared in 1844, eternally as he was, eternally
Branch by royal decree. fighting for the Republican cause.  

1844: The Great Disappointment. The calcula- 1845: Famine in Ireland. The Irish Potato Famine
tions of the Millerite movement promise the return begins to be recognized by the larger world. Potatoes
of Jesus Christ on October 22, and His failure to are the staple food crop for millions of Irish farmers
return is devastating to the Millerites. The fanatical and laborers who work to produce valuable grains and
core become the Liberationists, a conspiracy-driven other exports. Even as starvation begins to take the
sect who decide the reason Christ failed to appear people, Ireland remains a net exporter of food. British
on the appointed date was that His enemies, the policy exacerbates the famine, as does trade, land use,
Enemy, had somehow captured the Returned and other systems. The famine reaches its peak in
Lord and were holding him. As the century wears 1848. Millions are starving, hundreds of thousands
on, the identity of the Enemy’s agents changes are already dead. In County Tipperary one William
from Catholics to the Irish to the Hindus to the Smith Obrian, a member of the Young Ireland party,
Russians to the Americans, finally coming to rest and founding member of the Irish Confederation,
upon Victoria Herself, one more mad voice among leads displaced farmers in an open rebellion against
so many at century’s end.   the landowners. The situation only worsens.

1844: Founding of Bábism. Persian Prophet the 1845: London’s Secret Monarch. The Turk begins
Báb announces to the world the his revelation of its reign over the London underworld, organizing
the coming of “He whom God shall make manifest,” the city’s crime and vice with its mechanical
founding Bábísm. Báb is considered the forerunner prescience. The Turk becomes fully engaged for the
of Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith. He first time, the very limits of its mechanical genius
also speaks of “God’s Angel, come to cut out the rot challenged by the complexities of this new game.
of our world with fire and sword, and woe to those
upon whose face Her gaze will fall.” 
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Mr. Turk becomes something of a legend, and not class, to be exploited), but these powers are not a
everyone in official circles wishes him exposed or thing for the aggrandizement of the self, but a call
removed. It is reasoned that a certain amount of to greater service to communal concerns.”
crime is unavoidable, and if this Mr. Turk can so
well organize it that it never need blight the lives 1849: Strife in the Otherworld. The assassination
or sight of proper people and good citizens, then in of Lord Seigh Mulligan, the Faerie Regent of
the end, how could it be an evil? If the Turk were Ireland, throws the Otherworld into chaos. The
capable of it, he would smirk with satisfaction at lords and ladies of Faerie lose all cohesion and
how well his human pawns perform the moves he begin scrabbling for power, fighting small wars
dictates for them.   in the Otherworld, which imprint upon the real
world as rebellions and outbreaks of mad violence.
1846: Potato Blight Nearly Averted. Amateur The factional common faerie, with their national-
mycologist the Rev. M. J. Berkeley recognizes the istic drives inherited from the Republican humans
Irish potato blight as a fungal condition. Berkeley they so admire, begin chafing for all-out rebellion.
experiments with several formulations, and concocts Only the official visit of Queen Victoria Herself to
a cheap powdered agent which will purge afflicted Ireland brings calm. 
potatoes of the blight. Before he can publish his With a newly awakened awareness of the
results or solicit the charitable contributions needed Otherworld, She peers across the landscape and sees
to purchase the agent in large quantities, he is what has been wrought there. The Faerie Lords take
murdered in the street by an assailant identified as the wasting Irish farmers into their service, even as
Alvis Monroe, an unemployed laborer and known they fade away from  their mortal lives. The more
drunkard. When apprehended (after attempting they weaken, the more their shades grow strong
to commit suicide with the knife used to slay Rev. in the Otherworld, and the harder their inhuman
Berkeley), Monroe is found to be blank—emptied masters work them in their fields to grow the weird
off all thought. When the report reaches London, crops of those uncanny lands. Her Majesty is plainly
the headlines read “Empty Man Strikes Again!” outraged.  
Without Rev. Berkley’s antifungal agent, over a Within the Otherworld, Her awakening Grace
million Irish die of starvation in the next five years, is a physical force, a beacon to the half-dead Irish
and millions more abandon their homeland to seek souls who labor. Infuriated by the abuse of Her
fortune in other lands. subjects by these inhuman beings, She raises the
call to all the dead and dying: “Rally! Rally to your
1847: The Strange. Thomas Babington Macaulay Queen, and rise!” Inspired by Victoria’s luminous
(Whig MP for Edinburgh) coins the term “Strange” presence, the shades take up weapons of light and
in a letter written to the Edinburgh Review. faith, and follow Victoria to war.
In the waking world, Victoria’s entourage keeps
1848: Power to the People. A decade of revolu- the Queen’s uncanny actions as much a secret as
tionary politics is distilled and published in the they can, though meddlers from the Kerberos Club
Communist Manifesto. It includes the reference puzzle out the nature of Her Strange absence from
to the Strange: “Those possessed of means and official events, and offer what aid they might in Her
abilities beyond the ken of other mortals fight.
may seem to stand above their Prince Albert is deeply upset by his wife and
124 fellow workers, being a natural-
born elite (or a natural under-
love’s Strangeness; the manner She adopts when
 Chapter 3

looking into the Otherworld is terrible, imperious, by which an object is made to vanish from one
and icily inhuman. Though he can not see it, the location, and to appear in another before the light
punishments She imposes on captured Irish Faerie carrying the image of the first location reaches the
Lords are horrific. second location. He is assisted in his investigations
Victoria calls the loyal faerie to Her, playing by a mysterious French Stranger called only Mirage,
rivals against one another until She amasses the a man who claims he can vanish and reappear
forces needed to crush all opposition. By the end anywhere he had ever previously been, traveling in
of the season Her alliance fights and wins, and She an instant. 
claims the ancient rights to the Throne of Briar, the
seat of the Irish faerie monarch. With Her army of 1850: Victoria Needs No Protector. After several
ghosts and loyal faerie knights, She assumes the title years of quiet, the assassins once again threaten the
of Queen of Faerie, a crown which had not been Queen. Ex-military officer Robert Pate leaps into
held since Queen Titania’s assassination by British Victoria’s carriage, shoots Her companion, and
protestant magi during Elizabeth I’s reign.   strikes Her with his pistol three times. His blows
Victoria’s later discoveries about the nature of crush Her bonnet, but before a fourth can land She
the Famine, and those conspirators who engineered catches his descending wrist, meets his eyes, and
it, do not shake Her will to keep Ireland in the then crushes his bones by closing Her hand around
Union, nor the wisdom of Her assumption of the them. The Queen is entirely unharmed, and Pate is
Faerie crown. It does lead to certain reprisals against captured and handed over to Special Branch.
those who had calculated the million Irish deaths The story of the Queen fending off the assassin
needed to gain Her these honors and prerogatives. spreads and is widely reported. It becomes one more
Over the next decade She will push for political indication that Her Majesty is becoming something
reform, and replace the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland greater than merely human.
with one tasked with relieving Irish suffering. Her Robert Pate is never seen or heard from again.
popularity in Ireland remains high, and even among
the serious Republicans She is never regarded as the 1850: London Grows Greater. The population of
problem—rather the politicians in London are. She London has more than doubled since 1800, and sits
even goes so far as to establish a Royal Residence in around two million five hundred thousand. More
Killarney, a move which continues to reinforce Her than two-thirds of these people were not born in
popularity among Irish human and inhuman. the city. The population is majority female, and
When Victoria emerges from the Otherworld young. Birthrates are climbing, and infant mortality
Albert is mightily relieved to see Her sweetness is declining. People from every corner of the world
return. She is Herself again. But he will never forget live and work in London.  
Her terrible aspect when the mask of the Strange
descended over Her.   1850–1865: The Taiping Rebellion begins in
southern China against the Qing government. It is
1849: The Speed of Light. French scientist led by two self-professed mystics, Hong Xiuquan,
Hippolyte Fizeau, a member of the Société an unorthodox Christian convert claiming to be
Scientifique Impériale, determines a method of the immortal brother of Jesus Christ, and Yang
accurately measuring the speed of light. He then Xiuqing, a former salesman who claims to
proves that this speed can not be exceeded by any speak with the voice of God. Their
known method, but can be circumvented, a process claims to supernatural power
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are not independently verified until 1860, but both other, eventually resulting in the system achieving
possess a remarkable capacity for imposing their equilibrium of motion and temperature. Overcoming
wills upon others. this inevitable loss would require compensation, the
Together, they establish the Heavenly Kingdom injection of new energy into the system. This would
of Great Peace, and by 1865 control significant in essence be an act of creation. And with this essential
portions of southern China. While ostensibly conservation of energy being a provable fact, such
one of the most egalitarian governments in the an act must by definition be divine, or possessing a
world (society is officially classless and sexless, similar, if more limited, capacity to the Almighty, as
with land held by the administration, and women with Subject C’s ability to generate heat to the point
admitted to the army and civil service) it is horribly of combustion.” 
mismanaged, with most efforts being spent keeping In one paper, Lord Kelvin establishes the law of
the two-million man army in discipline and supply. conservation of energy, and establishes the circum-
Brutality, corruption, and misrule are endemic, even stances in which that law might be broken, in essence,
as Hong and Yang begin to assume a demagogical by a god. His own theological views color his inter-
role, claiming divine parentage, inspiration, and pretation of the science and his experiments with
powers. Still, those who they personally influence three Touched individuals (one who could start fires,
remain frantically loyal, and utterly without mercy one who could rejuvenate diseased and aged flesh—
when dealing with the Kingdom’s enemies. even restoring life to dead tissue—and one who could
The greatest violence of the Taiping Rebellion move short distances without passing through the
coincides with the American Civil War, when intervening space) led him to believe that such viola-
Europe’s eyes were not turned East. The final fall tions of natural law were due to the influence of a
of the Heavenly Kingdom is hastened by its defeat higher power, and energy entering the universe from
when marching against Shanghai by combined outside. While it is never confirmed, some suspected
Imperial forces and Major-General Charles George Kelvin of consorting with the Kerberos Club.  
Gordon’s army, British forces sent to protect
British interests in China and to fight the second 1851: New Birmingham. With Her title and throne
Opium War. Gordon’s troops are equipped with the secure in the Otherworld, Victoria personally finances
Lorica Victoria—armor (page 137) which renders the establishment of a permanent British colony in
them nearly invulnerable to the small arms of the Faerie. Off of Ireland’s Southern coast, behind a veil
Heavenly Army. This is the first wartime use for the of constant mist, the settlement of New Birmingham
miraculous armor, but not the last.   is founded. Powerful economic and industrial powers
By the end, the death toll of the 15 years of are informed of the new territory and offered a Crown
violence tops twenty million souls.   charter to establish the colony. Experts in Faerie Law
are recruited to negotiate with the lesser common
1850: Conservation of Energy. William Thomson, faerie, and enormous drogue stones marked with the
1st Baron Kelvin, publishes a paper detailing his signs of Victoria’s rulership establish the boundaries
experimental observations related to the theories of of the colony.
James Prescott Joule in which he concludes that “… The drogues (similar in metaphysical design to
via the conversion of heat to mechanical energy and Egyptian obelisks, henge stones, or the stone anchors
the inverse of this process, every system found atop Mount Ararat) create a zone of stability
bleeds a portion of its motive within the phantasmagoria of Faerie, bringing
126 energy in the form of one or the enough sanity to allow daily life to be lived and men
 Chapter 3

to be about their business. him. Since Her troubled time in Ireland, and the
The journey to New Birmingham is somewhat assassination attempt of 1850, there is something
uncertain, and extremely perilous without the ship positively inhuman about Her. Something terrible.
carrying a drogue aboard. The colony, so geographi- The growing estrangement between the previ-
cally close to the center of British power and manufac- ously loving couple can not be kept secret, and only
turing, yet so easily secured, becomes a favorite place grows through the decade. It leads to a certain
to exile those Touched. Let them fight the wild faerie general anxiety which possibly encourages the
and the Strange things lurking beyond the drogue resurgence of conservative social trends after the
wall, pushing the region of British control. Perhaps Crimean War.
they will win their fortunes and add to British might.  
Perhaps they will perish. Either way, their energies 1852: Man Takes Flight. Henri Giffard, a French
are at worst harmlessly dispersed. engineer and aeronautical pioneer, flies a lighter-
Escape without a drogue stone is difficult. The than-air craft lifted by hydrogen with propellors
mists are confusing, distorting perception as well as turned by a small steam engine. When reports of the
time and space. One criminal who dives from the flight reach British inventor Sir George Cayley, they
deck of the ship which brought him, trusting in inspire him to begin examining the possibility of a
his powerful physique to allow him to swim back craft combining the lifting properties of an airship
to the mainland, finds when he arrives that twenty with the then-theoretical properties of fixed-wing
years have passed, and it is 1881. His wife married flight. Even at the advanced age of 79 he is driven
another man and bore him children, finally dying beyond any of his previous efforts, and throws his
of typhus in 1875. All his friends are either dead fortune behind what becomes known as the Cayley
or gone, and the world itself had changed out of all Airframe.
recognition. He surrenders to the authorities, and Unlike a balloon or airship, which derives its lift
is sentenced again to transportation for his escape. entirely from the lighter-than-air gasses contained
The colony becomes the engine which drives in the bag, a Cayley Airframe employs lifting gas to
the consumer explosion later in the century. As the offset only a portion of its total weight. His experi-
industrial exploitation of Faerie becomes more and ments set this to about two-thirds in most situa-
more efficient, goblin-crafted goods flood British tions. The remainder of the lift is provided by the
and world markets, extremely well made, with unique shape of the airframe itself, which encloses
extremely low costs. the gas cells and sports stumpy wings. The tail of
Only in the dying years of the century will the the craft is short, and provides horizontal stability.
dire consequences of this exploitation be reaped. When the first manned models are tested in 1855,
the press dubs them “Flying Pumpkin Seeds” due to
1851: Her Majesty’s Strangeness begins to alarm their distinct shape.
Her husband, the Prince Consort. Victoria increas- Cayley and his engineer Thomas Vick work
ingly takes an active hand in politics, and approves unceasingly on the airframe, perfecting the internal
some measures which Albert finds questionable. She support structure, owes much to suspension bridges
is also becoming more remote, more alien to him, for its strength. They contract the creation of
and Her skin is becoming, as he would write decades reinforced materials to serve as gas bags. They
later, “…cool to the touch, a skin of marble.” While invest in small steam engines to drive
She still has great affection for Albert, even that is airscrews, and then in electric
cooling. And sometimes She altogether frightens motors. The final result of two
127
 Chapter 3

years of non-stop effort is the Gull, the world’s first year Voltaic Firearms is out of business, and its
production-model flying machine. remaining stock of firing pieces dumped into the
Twenty meters long, with a carrying capacity of secondary market at cut-rate prices by solicitors for
nearly half a ton, the Gull is directed in its flight with the company’s creditors. By the end of 1853, the fifth
a cable-controlled series of planes and elevators. of the so-called “Lightning Outrages” had occurred,
Before more of the craft can be produced, Cayley victims stunned insensible and robbed blind in
dies, and Vick is contacted by agents of the Crown the streets. By this point Volta had vanished from
to work on a project for the state, HMAS Queen. Britain, and agents of the courts or those seeking to
bring suit against him could find him nowhere.  
1852: Volta’s Folly. William Volta, inventor and
alleged illegitimate son of Alessandro Volta, demon- 1853: The Howling 13th. Ever enamored by the
strates to the British Army’s purchasing agents the conjunction of magic and industry, Prince Albert
Electrophorus Firing Piece, a complex pistol-like presents Victoria with a gift of a dozen Wolfriemen,
device which is capable of generating a concentrated or Wolf Belts, folk-objects of great magical power
static charge across distances of up to twenty paces. from Coburg where Albert was born. When worn,
“With the refinements possible through further a Wolf Belt transforms a person into a huge wolf,
research and testing, I can confidently say that the sometimes as large as a pony. They were traditionally
effective range of the Electrophorus Firing Piece can the providence of witches and evil men who sold
be increased to dwarf those of a conventional rifled their souls for power, but the Prince’s alchemical
shoulder-arm, and further, the advantages of this engineers found a way to replicate the belts, and
new application of my theory of recursive charging in the process of deciphering how they functioned
loops make it possible for a single private soldier to rendered their use morally and spiritually neutral.
carry enough ammunition in his pack for an entire Used to bring terror, they are objects of evil; used to
campaign, freeing him of the chains of supply.”  defend the good, they are righteous. Queen Victoria
While Volta’s firing piece is remarkable, it is too commissions the creation of Wolfriemen enough
great a departure for the hidebound army, and not to equip a regiment, and Her Lupine Rangers
powerful or long-reaching enough for the navy. His soon become the vanguard of Her armies, scouting,
efforts are further frustrated by an inability to convey foraging, skirmishing, and raiding.
to listeners just what his theories mean, or how the
firing piece actually works. It seems plain to him, 1854: Holy War in the Crimea. Through the pertur-
but baffling nonsense to others. Yet the pistol can bations of treaty and alliance, Britain finds itself
indeed stun a horse insensible with a single charge. supporting ally France in its claims as protector of
In the end Volta fails to interest the military author- the Holy Land. Napoleon III applies diplomatic
ities, and his research flounders for lack of funding. pressure and has the Ottoman Empire declare
Then, in the winter of 1852 an advertisement France the sole sovereign authority over the Holy
appears in several major British newspapers offering Land. Russia immediately objects, holding earlier
the “Voltaic Lightning Pistol” for sale as “A Kingly treaties from the 1700s granting them the status as
Defense for the English Home.” But the difficulties defender of the Christian Faith. France ups the ante
in translating the esoteric science into practical by dispatching warships to the Black Sea, and forces
design set the price beyond the reach of a new agreement denying Russia their claims in the
even the gadget-obsessed middle Holy Land. Tsar Nicholas I responds by deploying
128 class. By the middle of the next troops along the Danube.
 Chapter 3

Zeus’ Thunderbolt in Common Hands

The Electrophorus Firing Piece is an example of the target. The victim must roll Vigor at –2 or be Shaken
trouble that can be had when a Stranger’s inspired and take 1d6 damage. The device can be manufactured;
inventions are made in such a way that the common each piece costs £2 to build, takes two weeks to put
person can use them, or worse, manufacture them. together, and has a street value of £4.
Once something like this escapes it is remarkably No muss, no fuss, and only occasionally lethal—no
difficult to see it put back away, and by the 1850s even wonder the weapon proves so popular with the gangs of
the Kerberos Club is finding it impossible to contain robbers who adopt it as their signature armament. It is
outbreaks of the Strange like this. a surer way of rendering a victim helpless than striking
him with a cosh or life-preserver.
Electrophorus Firing Piece The firing piece becomes a symbol of power in
Stun (4): Device, Elemental Trick—Electricity, London’s criminal underworld. The slang for one of
Limited Shots (six shots; see page 208), Manufacturable these weapons is “Spark,” and Cockney rhyming slang
(see page 208), Smaller (see page 208), Stronger. for it is “on the mark,” leading to expressions like “Not
to worry lads, I’ve got it on,” meaning, “Do not concern
Volta’s invention is a gun which must be fired using yourself, for I am armed with an Electrophorus Firing
the wielder’s Shooting skill, and can only affect one Piece.”
 Chapter 3

A flurry of diplomatic moves and military could be more cheaply manufactured. Working
posturing follows, finally culminating in an attack feverishly, and prodded along by Bellfore’s constant
on Russian troops along the Danube by Ottoman attention, he completes the first of the infamous
forces, and the attack of Ottoman ships at anchor by Bessemer Volcanic Guns by the end of the year.
the Russian navy. This gives Britain and France the The aptly-named Volcanic guns fire a ten-inch
justification to join the armed hostilities fully, and rocket down a long rifled barrel made from
soon it is war. Bessemer’s refined steel. The spin imparted to the
rockets overcomes the inherent instability common
1854: The Engines of War. The Crimean War sees to rocket projectiles, and the astonishing veloc-
the advent of many new technologies, some of them ities carried by the projectiles allow extremely flat
military applications of civilian innovations such as ballistic trajectories across long ranges. Each rocket
railroads and telegraph lines, and some unique to carries an explosive charge as well, and can be loaded
the theaters of war, such as the electrically-triggered with canisters of grapeshot for use against massed
Russian contact mines used to form naval blockades troops. The roar and gout of flames generated by the
in defense of Cronstadt and Sebastopol. And still guns’ firing becomes a horror for the defenders of
Stranger things found their way onto the battle- Sevastopol.
fields. Parallel to the development of Bessemer’s guns
The graying British sea-wolf Thomas Cochrane is work on a method of carrying the out-sized
proposes a steam-driven armored land vehicle, the artillery and its rocket-propelled explosive projec-
proposal for which arrives on the desk of an Army tiles. Ever wily, Cochrane has already patented the
official at the same moment Henry Bessemer’s most viable design for such transport along with
concept for a spin-stabilized rocket-propelled his collaborator on the Tunneling Shield machine,
artillery projectile. Both prospects have their Sir Marc Isambard Brunel. The Cochrane-Brunel
drawbacks. Cochrane’s machine is seen initially Mechanized Gun-Carriage draws together the work
as inhuman. War was the realm of men strug- of earlier innovators and adds new refinements. The
gling against men, and the thought of mechanizing final result is a terrifying machine, larger than two
war like a Birmingham mill offends many of the steam locomotives and driven by two parallel linked
hidebound old guard deeply. metal tracks based on James Boydell’s “Infinite
But these and other innovations find a champion Railway Tracks.”
in Sir William Bellfore, a charismatic and energetic The tracks are extremely wide to bear the weight
officer whose duties include certain particular of the machine on soft ground. The machine is
exigencies related to the application of Strange armored like an ironclad warship, and when first seen
matters to Her Majesty’s armed forces. The young on the battlefield it is called simply The Monster. Its
colonel is said to have the ear of the Prince Consort. crew must communicate with signs, as the engines
When Bessemer threatens to take his concept are so loud as to make speech impossible.
to the French for development, Bellfore acts, The Monster’s twin steam engines are fired by
securing Bessemer funds for the development of bitumen and based on Cochrane’s own design. Its
his innovation. The difficulties in casting an iron maximum speed is at best a fast marching pace,
gun barrel strong enough to contain the forces but it can maintain this pace over extremely rough
required to fire this new type of projectile terrain. Before the end of the war, seven Cochrane-
result in the creation of Bessemer’s Brunel Mechanized Gun-Carriages are constructed
130 famous process by which steel and five see service.
 Chapter 3

A special landing craft must be constructed to mission, serving mostly as pickets and sentries (a job
transport the Carriages, and of the five machines they do exceptionally well, being able to smell the
which see service, two are lost when their sea difference in friend and foe). All Colonel Brennan’s
craft capsizes during the landing at Sevastopol. efforts to see them better used fail until the notorious
The remaining three Carriages and their hellish Battle of Balaclava, where the 13th sees its name
armaments aid in the winning of a decisive end to writ large in British military history and the popular
the siege of Sevastopol in June of 1855. imagination. For the first time, entirely unconven-
Correspondent for the Times, William Howard tional and indeed Strange soldiers make a decisive
Russell, writes of the Volcanic Guns and the Monster difference.
which bears them, “…They advanced in a line of When orders come to Lord Cardigan to secure
three, quickening the pace as they closed towards Russian batteries and keep the Russians from
the massed defenders.… At the distance of 1,500 carrying off the guns, he assumes the order refers
yards the great guns rose on their articulated mounts, to the batteries at the end of the valley between
and from their iron throats, a flood of fire, and the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights,
roaring of the emerging shells, driven on a column when it actually refers to the small batteries along
of flame and smoke.… So loud was this firing that the ridge of the Causeway Heights.  
the officers were pressed to keep order in the ranks, Cardigan orders his Light Brigade into full
and their mounts beneath them, and none cheered charge, down a long incline, and into the teeth of
these terrible monsters, though they be chained into the Russian guns in a foolhardy and ill-conceived
British service against Her enemies.” action, and almost immediately the Russian guns
make a butcher’s shop of the advancing cavalry. Left
1854: Wolves of Crimea. The 13th Lupine Rangers behind without clear orders, Brennan is quoted as
see their first active service in the Crimean War. saying, “Damned fool, damned fool!” before ordering
Fresh and raw, the hand-picked solders and officers his men to assume their wolfen posture. He directs
are selected for their personal loyalty to Prince two detachments to ascend the ridges on either side
Albert, their patriotism and their mental stability, of the valley and silence the batteries there which
but even their truly supernatural powers cannot pound the cavalry, and the rest to follow his lead. 
compensate entirely for the incompetence of the Using their supernatural speed the Rangers
British command. In truth, the Earl of Cardigan out-pace the charging cavalry, skirting the edge of the
simply doesn’t know what to do with the uncon- Fedyuknin Heights for the cover it provides from the
ventional regiment, and thoroughly resents having batteries, and engage the Russian artillery position
“damned unnatural dogs” foisted upon him.   fully minutes before Cardigan’s force arrives. The
Are they cavalry? Fusiliers? Skirmishers? He slaughter is phenomenal, and after an initial devas-
gravely insults the commander of the Lupine Rangers tating volley of grapeshot tears into the Rangers
at table, a colonel of Canadian origin named Sir the Russians break and run before their remorseless
Albert Brennan, by commenting to his staff officers teeth and claws. The fleeing Russian gunners slam
loud enough for the whole mess tent to hear, “And into the advancing Russian cavalry, with the wolves
what am I to do with the Prussian dogs? I might of the 13th on their heels. The Russian cavalry
use them to hunt, but the game is damned thin on break en masse, the riders losing all control to the
the ground hereabouts, and so they just whine for maddened horses suddenly confronted
attention and bark ’til I put the boot to them.” by nearly a hundred howling,
The Rangers continue to go without clear enormous, bloody, nearly bullet-
proof wolves.
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The shock of the assault shatters the Russian 3.

lines, and when the Light Brigade arrives at the Cannon to right of them
gun redoubt it is left with mopping up and holding Cannon to left of them,
ground. Despite horrific early casualties—more than Cannon in front of them
half its men are slain—the Light Brigade is saved the Volley’d and thunder’d;
worst of it by Brennan’s quick action. Of the 200 men Storm’d at with shot and shell,
and officers of the 13th Lupine Rangers, forty are But along the ridge and swell,
dead, twenty-five further injured, but by all accounts opened the Jaws of Death
they have bested artillery, cavalry, rifle, and well over To drag Russian souls to Hell
six thousand enemy troops. Shielding the six hundred.
When news of the victory reaches Britain two
weeks later, an account of the battle is published 4.
in a special edition of the London Gazette of 12 Flash’d all their fangs bare,
November 1854. It reveals the confusion and Flash’d as howls cut the air,
seeming incompetence of the British command, but Mauling the gunners there,
also highlights the awesome success of the Rangers. Charging an army, while
The 13th becomes a sensation, and the third and All the world wonder’d:
fourth stanzas of Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Plunged in the battery-smoke
Brigade immortalize the action: Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d a clawing stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Their golden stare, the lines a’broke
132 Awaiting the six hundred.
 
 Chapter 3

Wolfriemen (9)

Animal Control (4): Device, Requires Activation,

Negate—hear his full name spoken, Single animal—
Using the Wolfriemen
The Animal Control power of the Wolfriemen doesn’t
wolf, Shapechange.
grant the ability to control animals at a distance—it
Armor (1): Device, Partial protection—chest
actually transforms the wearer into a five to six hundred
only, Negate—hear his full name spoken, Requires
pound wolf, terrifying and huge. This powerful form
Activation.
grants a bonus to physical actions demanding raw
Awareness (1): Device, Negate—hear his full name
power and speed, and has near supernatural senses,
spoken, Requires Activation
and can track by scent alone. In wolf form a ranger can
Shape Change (1): Device, Restricted to a Single
sprint up to 40 yards in a round.
Shape (dire wolf ), Negate—hear his full name spoken.
The thick fur coat protects the ranger better than an
Growth (1): Level 2, Device, Negate—hear his full
arctic explorer’s gear, and his great size and mass makes
name spoken, Requires Activation
him extremely hard to injure, granting the equivalent
Super Skill (2): Device, Negate—hear his full name
of +3 armor.
spoken, Requires Activation, Notice +2 steps, Tracking
It is difficult to take the Wolfriemen away from
+4 steps.
a transformed ranger, since the belt and the ranger’s
Dire Wolf clothing are replaced by the enormous wolf; but if
one calls the proper name of the ranger it forces him
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts —*, Spirit —*, Strength
to transform back into his normal form. This is why
d12+1, Vigor d8
members of Her Majesty’s 13th Lupine Rangers adopt
Skills: The skills of the wearer remain unchanged
new names when they join the regiment, and have their
Pace: 10; Parry: —; Toughness: 11 (3)
official records sealed for the duration of their service.
Special Abilities:
These records are vital military secrets and are subject
Armor +3: The belt provides three points of armor to
to a great deal of intrigue.
the chest of the wearer, both in and out of wolf form.
There are reports of some who suffer unfortunate
Bite: Str+d6
side effects from wearing the Wolfriemen for extended
Go for the Throat: Wolves instinctively go for an
periods, but such rumors are squelched. To the common
opponent’s soft spots. With a raise on its attack roll, it
people, the Lupine Rangers are heroes and patriots of
hits the target’s most weakly armored location.
the first order. Unfortunately, there is some truth to
Fleet-Footed: Dire wolves roll d10s instead of d6s
the rumor. Those who wear the belt slowly, gradually
when running.
become more wolfish in character each year.
Keen Senses: Wolfriemen suffer no penalties from
darkness, fog or other obscurment.
Size +2: These wolves are huge!

*This stats remain the same as the wearer of the belt.

 Chapter 3

In the ensuing enquiries, Brennan speaks out Livingstone does not include this account in his
against Ragnan and Lucan and especially Cardigan, official record of the expedition, but relates it to his
who tries to have charges brought against him friends and family after suffering an apoplectic fit
for dereliction of duty and violation of orders when he sees the same man back in London several
(charges which are summarily dismissed). Brennan’s years later.
outspoken criticism of the Army’s patronage policy,
allowing the purchase of commissions, wins him no 1856: The Engines of Commerce. Babbage
friends in the service, though it helps push reforms Computational constructs its first calculation mill,
which see the end to these practices. and begins construction of a telegraphic network to
The 13th Rangers go on to see service in connect it to the centers of industry in London. The
America, India, Afghanistan, and even on the home first mills are driven by coal-fired steam engines, but
front during the Automechanical Mutiny of 1888. later mills are situated along rivers and use water
The Rangers never number more than 200; the wheels and turbines to drive the calculation. When
difficulty in creating the wolf-belts prevents there the telegraphic cables are strung mills can be located
ever being more. The belts of fallen men are always almost anywhere, but this necessitates the creation
retrieved when possible. The noted failure to do so of switching stations, junctions of cables which
during Balaclava leads to several being captured pass through a dedicated computational machine
by the Russians, and at least one falling into the which routs signals through the proper line. The
hands of Section Seven. This leads to the creation encoding schemes developed for this operation
of Russia’s feared Wolf Brigade, a force of over two become a standard which allows the development
thousand men able to assume the form of wolves. of the televocagraphic encoder and similar devices.
Their inferior wolf-charms grant them less power These machines can each convert one form of
than those of the 13th, and the forms they assume information—the spoken word, for example—into
are like those of ordinary mortal wolves—but the machine code which a computational brain can
charms are far easier to manufacture. comprehend directly.

1855: Dr. Livingstone, I Presume. David 1857–1858: Rebellion in India brings the downfall
Livingstone arrives at what he will soon name of the East India Company and the Timurid dynasty,
the Victoria Falls, believing himself to be the first leading to direct rule by the British Government,
European to see this wonder, only to find a dapper the British Raj as it would become known. The long
Cockney gent topped up in London’s most garish resentment of an occupied nation is ignited into
fashions picnicking with his mistress and her open rebellion among native troops and citizenry.
terriers. Flustered and shocked, Livingstone insists While much is made of the lubricating fats used in
on an explanation, but accepts the offer of a glass the cartridges of the Enfield rifle, in truth the causes
of wine with the couple. “Don’t feel bad, guv’nor. of the rebellion run much deeper. Long-building
Me and Madge came the short way round, didn’t we anger at the Company and British rule leads to an
Madge? No time for all this trekking and whatnot. especially brutal outbreak of violence, the reports of
Me, I got to be back at Finsbury Park by teatime to which shock the British citizenry when reported in
see a man about a whistle. You want a lift back to Britain. This leads to especially brutal reprisals by
civilisation, old son?” British forces. India is aflame.

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1857: The Queen Bleeds for Her Kingdom. On its controlling members.
May 10th, Victoria awakens from a nap to find Her The whole spectacle is shocking, a violation of
face streaked and Her gown soaked with blood. At all propriety, and the Queen Herself is terrifying.
the very moment the 11th and 20th native cavalry When Lord Palmerston tries to gently intervene
of the Bengal Army turn on their commanders and and guide the clearly addled monarch from the
begin the first open act of armed rebellion in India, room, She turns upon him and coldly orders him to
wounds open in Her body and blood runs freely step back and “Never speak in my presence again.”
at Her side, hands, and upon Her head where Her It is an order which proves impossible for Palmerston
crown would rest. Initially terrified, She becomes to disobey.
aware that She can feel the strife, as if it were within She then turns to the assembled leaders of the
Her own flesh. nation and says, “I am Britannia. Let any man who
With each further escalation of the violence, Her loves me come forward, and receive my blessing.”
condition worsens. Her husband is crippled with As if mesmerized, dozens of Parliament
worry, Her physicians baffled, and Her councilors members come forward and kneel before the
concerned about the political implications. News of Queen to be marked upon their shoulders by Her
this magnitude can not be kept entirely from the bloody hands. Among those who come forward is
public ear. Benjamin Disraeli, and among those who resist the
The British retaliation is perhaps worse for the Queen’s influence is William Gladstone. Finally,
Queen than the rebellion. Each act of brutality, near collapse, Victoria allows Herself to be escorted
mass execution, atrocity, or horror perpetrated in back to Windsor Castle.
Her name hardens Her, Her skin growing paler like The whole episode is too sensational, too
marble, yet the wounds continuing to bleed. amazing to escape the public attention. It shocks the
Word of the Queen’s illness reaches the public in public into wakefulness, makes them pay attention
early 1858, and the national spirit is brought lower to the weird stories and episodes and seemingly
still, until finally Victoria, changed by Her affliction, unrelated events which had become more and more
rises from Her couch and demands to speak before common throughout the century. The Strange can
Parliament and damn the propriety or precedent. no longer be denied, and it will only grow in the
Not even Her husband can meet Her eyes. public awareness.
The social impact of Victoria’s now-obvious
1858: Victoria Imposes Order. Visibly weak and Strangeness is profound. Her increasingly austere
swaying, with Her stigmata still slowly dripping public persona influences fashion, etiquette, and
blood, Victoria stands before Parliament and public discourse. The miracles of Her reign are
spreads Her arms to show the wounds She bears. catalogued, and almost spontaneously, it seems, the
Her unnatural presence beats upon the perception faithful of the Church of England stop praying for
of the members, and She speaks to them in plain Her and start praying to Her. In politics, the so-called
language, unrehearsed and raw. She orders the Royalists (the “Bloods” or “Marks”) become a potent
conflict in India brought to a close. She demands faction, drawing from every party.
that those among Her subjects who perpetuated the In India, Victoria’s political allies see the
horrors She felt committed over the previous year Governance of India acts of 1858 passed. These
be brought to justice. She demands an end to the abolish the East India Company and pass
rule of the East India Company, a total revocation of control over India to the British
their charter to operate, and criminal sanctions for Crown. Victoria takes an active
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hand in selecting the new officials who will rule in

Her name and sees to it that reparations and reforms
Her Majesty’s Regard
ease some of the tensions which led to the rebellion. The Victoria Cross established in 1856 was more
than just an honor. It was a symbol that Victoria
Her mercy is backed with iron, however. By Her
had laid Her grace upon some worthy individual.
orders, the Foreign Office’s covert branches are
She could sense the welfare of any whom She had
reinforced, lest Russia take advantage of the British
so honored, and with an effort of will observe them
troubles in India and make a knight’s move in the
and their actions. Finally, if Her worthies made a
Great Game. Spying, previously the purview of the sacrifice of vital energy to Her, She could aid them
low and the wicked, takes on some semblance of in their efforts. In effect, each Victoria Cross is a
honor, though confidential intelligence work never power focus.
rises to an especially exalted level of acceptance.
The year 1858 marks the definitive end of Victoria Cross (12 Points)
Victoria’s ceremonial and traditional role as British The Victoria Cross bestows the following two
monarch, and the start of Her true rulership. After powers upon those who honorably wear one. It has
1858, no one doubts where the true power of the no effect if you bought it or stole it. The use of each
Empire lays. power costs the wearer a Bennie and is activated
as a free action. A side effect makes theirs action
1858: Congratulations, Mr. President. Babbage observable to Victoria Herself for a time.
Computational introduces the Vocographic Encoder, Deflection: Level 6; Device, Requires Activation.
a device which converts speech into telegraphic Omni Super Skill: Level 3; Device, Requires
Activation.
signal and then back into audible (if somewhat
flat) speech. Combined with their earlier Multiplex
Signal Carrier (a device permitting many simulta-
neous transmissions on the same telegraphic cable), 1858: Dickens Writes of the Strangeness. In 1858,
a single telegraphic line can carry spoken messages, while struggling with his failing marriage, Charles
coded program strings for an Analytical Engine (or Dickens writes the satirical short story “A Strange
Automechanical Brain), or simple text messages for Fascination” which is dedicated to his particular
a teletype or telephotograph machine to receive.   friend (and likely cause for his marital troubles)
Via the newly laid trans-Atlantic telegraph Ellen Ternan.
cable, on August 16 Queen Victoria speaks into the
cone-like receiver of a Vocographic Encoder, sending 1858: Bulletproof. Using an adaptation on the
a message of congratulations to President Buchanan Bessemer process, Scots inventor and metallurgist
and expressing the wish that the device might provide John Brummund creates the composite material used
“an additional link between nations whose friendship to make the Lorica Victoria, the nigh-invulnerable
is founded on their common interest and reciprocal armor which is quickly adopted by Her Majesty’s
esteem.” The president responds, “This triumph, armies, heavy cavalry and foot. The formula and the
which certainly exceeds any on the fields of battle, is manufacturing techniques for the Lorica Victoria
only surpassed by the honor of hearing the voice of are state secrets of the highest order.
your Majesty speaking such congratulations.”  
1859: Darwin’s New Obsession. With the publi-
cation of Origin of Species, Darwin passes his outline
136 for The Descent of Man to Huxley to finish for publi-
 Chapter 3

Armored in Righteousness
The Lorica Victoria becomes the signature of Britannia’s soldiers survive battle than ever before, but the arms
famed Heavy Cuirassiers. The Lorica Victoria is a and legs are not protected. In later conflicts against
brightly-polished steel breastplate and matched helm Boer and Zulu, native sharpshooters make much of
made from a patented blend of metals, including such these vulnerabilities, and the “African Limp” becomes a
rare elements as must be extracted from mines deep common sign of service in Her Majesty’s army.
in darkest Africa and from the exotic Orient. When Bone-shattering bullet wounds demand fast
melded with good Birmingham workmanship and amputation to save a soldier’s life. While more and
Scottish industry, they become near-perfect proof more soldiers survive war, many more come home
against firearms of all calibers, and come to save the broken in body, scarred in mind, and abandoned on the
lives of thousands of Her Majesty’s loyal soldiery.  streets when no longer able to serve.
The surge in demand leads to an explosion in the
Lorica Victoria (3) prosthetics industry, and most soldiers can afford at
Armor: Level 1; Heavy Armor, Partial Protection least well-made cork prosthesis, though the well-to-do
often invest in goblin-crafted automechanical limbs
These Sad Old Soldiers which serve them nearly as well, and in some ways
One unexpected result of the wide adoption of the better, than their fleshly counterparts. To represent this,
Lorica Victoria is the dramatic increase in limb a couple of levels of super attribute can be bound into
amputation suffered by Her Majesty’s soldiers. More a device (if the limb is worn rather than grafted on).

cation, and begins work on his next great passion. He another, leads him to create the Needle-Actuated
titles it Extraordinary Exceptions to Natural Science, a Hallucinogenic Somato-Sensory Visualizer.
series of books to explore the rising tide of the weird, The device is a large chair into which a user
occult, and superhuman. Darwin receives grant straps himself naked. It contains complex pneumatic
funding from the Royal Academy for this effort, and devices and is powered by compressed air. The
forms a research team to investigate instances of the surface of the chair is covered with thousands
Strange with a formalized methodology in an effort of tiny holes, and nested inside these holes are
to seek out the underlying processes by which some thousands of needles. The Visualizer is connected to
events seem to contravene natural law. a Vocagraphic Encoder, and it converts the machine
signal into patterns of needle-pricks and scrapes
1859: Needlework. Strange inventor Samuel Berk on a user’s back, arms, and legs. This incomprehen-
quits his position with Babbage Computational to sible sensation is painful and meaningless, unless a
pursue his own research. His obsessive interest in user has taken the proper dose of Berk’s special
shamanistic visionary drugs (and his own addiction drug. Something of hashish, something
to several of them), and with the way a Vocagraphic of opium, something of rye ergot
Encoder transmutes information from one form to fungus, something of Stranger,
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more occult things, the drug is called Somatonum, 1859: Launch of HMAS Queen. Its construction is
and it transforms consciousness. In an effect similar shrouded in secret, but finally Thomas Vick’s great
to synesthesia, it causes a user’s senses to blur into project is revealed to the world. Her Majesty’s Air
one another, especially tactile senses. Ship Queen is truly awe-inspiring, nearly three
The drug induces intense hallucination, but also hundred meters long, a hundred tall, and two
tunes the nerves to receive visual stimulus from hundred wide, carrying over a hundred men and
sensations on the skin. A signal carried through the up to two hundred tons of cargo aloft. It employs
telegraph and converted through the Vocagraphic a refined Cayley Airframe, and can cruise at speeds
Encoder is used to shape the user’s hallucination, of up to forty-five miles per hour and make quick
allowing them to experience the content of the dashes of up to sixty. Because of its buoyancy, it can
signal in a virtual dreamlike world. The Visualizer land easily in areas as small as a few acres on its
can receive signal from a user as well, measuring armored undercarriage, and avoids the problems
twitches and writhing with precise instruments and of ordinary airships which must be tethered to the
converting this physical motion into Vocagraphic ground to keep them from floating away.
signal. The world is agog at this marvel of engineering.
Two users linked by these devices can share a Headlines proclaim, “Her Majesty, Queen of the
form of communion, each within his or her own Skies.” The Queen officially becomes the flagship of
allegorical dream world but also communicating the Navy (the branch of Her Majesty’s forces judged
with the other. Berk found he could connect his to be best able to handle this new class of craft), and
mind directly to the Calculation Mills and influence construction begins immediately on Her sister ship,
their behavior by striving for desired goals in his as well as plans for two additional classes of “aero
vision. He causes the Bank Crisis of 1860 with just ship,” a smaller but faster class and a heavier class
such a vision-quest, seeking to increase the value intended for cargo.
of his investments by interfering with the accounts Vick receives the Victoria Cross for his efforts
of the trading house handling them. Instead he and is knighted. Cayley is posthumously awarded
triggers panic in the market which nearly breaks the the Cross as well. It is kept quiet, but the efforts to
economy. After this, he treads more carefully. perfect the airframe left Vick hollowed out, like he
Berk, and those few brave enough to open their invested everything he had into the project and it
minds this way, become sought-after consultants left him empty.  
and investigators, as they are able to process large The Queen makes a sensational international
volumes of information and sift it for meaning and debut at Besançon, France for the Exposition
value. Universelle of 1860, circling the Exposition slowly
Using a Visualizer is difficult and dangerous. at a height of a thousand feet for several hours
Somatonum is highly addictive and causes a host of before landing in a nearby pasture to allow a select
undesirable side effects, but sometimes the only way few dignitaries and guests to come aboard and join
to find out what you need to know is to expose your Her Majesty for tea.
deepest soul to the Machine.
The slang for using a Visualizer is “Needlework.” 1860: On My Mother’s Side, Actually. Thomas
Huxley is stricken with the Martian Red Ague,
as are many during the 1860s, and is unable to
attend the scheduled Oxford debate with Samuel
138 Wilberforce. In his stead, he asks his particular
 Chapter 3

friend Dr. Archibald Monroe to stand in for him.

HMAS Queen It’s initially regarded as a stunt and in poor taste at
The Queen is an example of super-human invention that, but Monroe quickly proves himself the intel-
combined with mundane ingenuity. The principles
lectual match for Wilberforce, and with his very
it is based upon are valid. It doesn’t employ baffling
presence forces Wilberforce to confront the realities
pseudo-science to function. However, its capac-
of Evolution as a theory which is immediately and
ities are far beyond the technology of the age—or
scientifically testable.
would have been, were it not for the investment of
superhuman effort. The Cayley Airframe, a hybrid When asked by the flustered Wilberforce, “How
of heavier-than-air aerodynamic principles and can we possibly accept these arguments when
lighter-than-air buoyancy, is the real miracle. presented in such a sensational manner?” Monroe
The basic, unarmed HMAS Queen can make 60 responds, “We live in an age of sensational truths,
miles per hour when it needs to, can carry nearly 130 and so to see this one properly presented by the
tons of cargo, and is armored enough to withstand standards of the time, it must partake somewhat
most artillery. of sensationalism. I can’t offer you the truth from
Before it sees military service, some of its capacity the horse’s mouth, sir, as we’re not descended from
is filled with armaments, mostly in the form of horses, but I think the ape’s mouth must suffice.”
explosive and incendiary bombs, which inflict 4d10 The debate receives broad attention, in no small
damage, explode in a large Burst Template AP 6, part to Dr. Monroe’s unusual appearance and charis-
and are Heavy Weapons. It can fly high enough
matic enthusiasm. Samuel Wilberforce’s reputation
so that no conventional weapon can strike it, and
suffers from headlines such as “Ape Makes Monkey
then rain down death from above without recourse.
of Man,” and the affair leads to a long, bitter rivalry
While maneuvering as part of a fleet operation (as
between Monroe and Wilberforce which isn’t
with the invasion of the United States), an air ship
like the Queen will resupply from its surface ship resolved until Monroe’s public apology to the aging
accompaniment so as to continue a bombardment. academic in 1865:
Later models have larger carrying capacity “I treated him badly at our debate, and made a
(growth power), higher speed (flight power), novel show of the affair when I should have approached
or miraculous armament (attack, ranged, with it with proper dignity. Mr. Wilberforce is one of
the area effect, armor piercing, and/or the rapid the great thinkers of our age, and I failed to show
fire modifiers), or more automation (lower Crew him the deference he deserved, and hope one day to
requirements). The addition of the immunity power reconcile with him. The whole discipline of science
and an Aetheric Drive (the teleport power or even and enquiry suffers when men of learning harbor
more levels of flight) can turn the HMAS Queen personal animosity, and my own intellectual life has
from an Airship into a Spaceship. Fancy a jaunt to suffered greatly from my estrangement from Mr.
Saturn, my dear?
Wilberforce.”
There simply isn’t anything to compare to one of
Wilberforce replies, “Handsomely said.”
Her Majesty’s air ships.
In 1873, Dr. Monroe speaks at Wilberforce’s
At least until Graff Zeppelin puzzles out how to
funeral, saying, “While we may never have agreed on
manufacture one.
many things, he stood up for his beliefs, and fought
Acc/Top Speed: 3/12; Toughness: 18 (4); Crew: 32 for them, and in this life there can be few finer
Notes: The Queen is a flying ship with a climb rate things. I cherished his opposition as most
of 5. men cherish friendship.”
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1860: Sally Go Round the Sun, Sally Go Round the previous process, which required a wife to prove
the Moon. In January of 1860, Sally Sheldon steps her husband guilty of grievous violations of the
from her home in Streatham and feels inspired by all marriage covenant.
the Strange news in the papers to reveal the talent The proceedings are sensational news: “Flying
she’d kept hidden for over a decade. Rather than Lady Flies From Husband” and “The One That Flew
take the train from Streatham Hill railway station Away.” In the aftermath, Mr. Sheldon emigrates to
into London for her day’s shopping, she flies. Taking Australia, and the newly liberated Mrs. Sheldon
to the air under her own power by daylight as she’d (now known by her maiden name of Kenner) finds
only done previously and secretly during the dark herself with a surplus of time and an inadvertent
of the night (inspiring stories of the Streatham public persona as a champion for the cause of
Specter), she flies along the rail line and arrives in woman’s rights.
Charing Cross in minutes. She doesn’t become one of the movement’s
The five-mile flight inevitably attracts enormous great thinkers or innovators, but always guarantees
attention. attention for the cause. She continues her work in
Mrs. Sheldon’s new fame is not to her somewhat- this area through the end of the century.
retiring husband’s liking, however, and he demands
she refrain from such undignified public displays 1860: A Royal Separation. It becomes impossible
in future. But having experienced the pure exultant for the Queen and Her household to keep the
joy of flight, she refuses. Marital conflict arises, and estrangement between Her and the Prince Consort
her husband’s demands for her to keep her “damned from the public eye. In the spring of the year,
uncanny ways” secret finally lead to divorce, Albert moves his personal rooms and bedchamber
facilitated by the 1857 Matrimonial to another wing in the palace. The official reason
Causes Act which permits divorce given is to allow Albert to better contend with the
140 through the courts rather than many matters political and scientific demanding his
 Chapter 3

attention. No one believes this polite fiction, but Empire, and especially with the Schweigsame
reputable papers were careful in their reporting of it. Übereinstimmung, in which he becomes a prominent
figure. This places him in an impossible position,
1860: The Servant of the Future, Today. Early in forced to choose between his wife and Her nation,
the year, Ada Lovelace’s Automechanical Man is and his own homeland’s interests. But his fear of
presented to the Royal Society. By the middle of the what Victoria has become proves decisive, and he
year they are being offered for sale as “Automatic joins one of the Schweigsame Übereinstimmung
Domestics,” tireless servants who will never steal conspiracy factions, seeking to use its influence to
the silver, speak out of turn, neglect their duties or gain political dominance over the United Kingdom.
sleep. Demand outstrips supply, and the fortunes of What remains of the girl who loved Prince
Babbage Computational rise meteorically. Albert withers with his departure, and drops off the
vine completely when word comes to Her of Albert’s
1860: The Broken Union. In the United States, the collusion with Her nation’s enemies.
Confederacy of slave-owning states secedes from the The last vestige of Victoria’s humanity fades
Union. The reasons are complex, but at their root away, and She becomes harsher, harder, and more
are the issue of slavery, and all the economic and terrible. Her presence becomes actually painful to
social ramifications of the foul institution. With the bear for any period, and She recedes from the public
fragmentation of the civil government, the occult eye.
government breaks as well along old factional and On the night of Albert’s initiation into the
regional lines, questions of American handling Schweigsame Übereinstimmung,  everyone in the
of native magic, the influence of African tradi- Empire experiences the same dream, the goddess
tions on Southern occult practice, and the Jefferson Britannia striding across the globe, bleeding from
Question—whether the Right of Magic lies with all hundreds of wounds. Where the blood falls the
men, or just those with the position and education to Earth is greened and is fruitful, and Her eyes are
use it wisely. locked firmly on the far distance, unwavering as She
strides into the future, heedless of what She crushes
1861: Prince Albert Returns to Coburg. On underfoot.
December 14th, Albert, the Prince Consort, begins
a months-long tour of European capitals in order to 1861: The Trent Affair. Captain Charles Wilkes
“Foster those relations which allow Britain to remain of the USS San Jacinto stops British mail steamer
influential in international matters.” As with the RMS Trent on its way from Cuba to Europe,
previous announcements regarding his move within and removes from it two Confederate diplomats
the Palace, this explanation fools no one, but this dispatched to seek aid from Britain and France
time the public comments are more open and less for the Confederacy. He does so against the objec-
respectful. Albert has always been always regarded, tions of the Trent’s captain, but the Trent is allowed
perhaps unfairly, as more German than British, to continue its voyage after the Confederates are
still a foreigner after all these years. Many feel he removed.
has betrayed the United Kingdom and abandoned On its return to America with prisoners, the
Victoria. For his part, Albert was always proud of his captain of the San Jacinto is greeted with public
Germanic heritage and his title as Duke of Saxony. honors and commendation from Congress
Over the next two decades Albert becomes for bringing a hint of victory to the
embroiled in the politics of the rising German struggling Union. When news
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arrives in Britain in late November, it is greeted advance in the winter of 1861. During the winter,
with shock and outrage. The act is considered a the agents of America Obscura are at work, rallying
violation of maritime law and an affront to British the Strange against the invaders. The winter is a
sovereignty. Lord Palmerston demands immediate hellish, harsh one, and disease runs rampant in the
apology and release of the diplomats, issuing an British and Canadian camps.
ultimatum. France declares its willingness to support By the spring of 1862, diplomacy finds advocates
a British war over the matter, and the British colony once again, and peace is negotiated. Ironically, the
in Canada perceives a direct threat from the affair, cunning negotiation by Lincoln and his advisors
and begins increasing its militia from 50,000 men to results in the Union and the United Kingdom
twice this number. enjoying better relations than ever before.
A fleet consisting of thirteen troop transports,
a squadron of ironclad battleships, and the flagship 1862: The North and The South. The Northern
HMAS Queen and its sister aero ship HMAS states continue their trajectory towards industrial-
Majesty is dispatched under command of Admiral ization, capitalism, and technological innovation.
Milnes. The Southern states descend even further into their
The harshness of the ultimatum issued by the feudal romance, embracing more and more openly
United Kingdom offers no easy diplomatic option Strange religious practices. By the 1870s there could
for Lincoln’s administration. It insists upon the be no two more different societies. The North ends
release of the diplomats, the payment of repara- up benefiting economically from the South’s lack of
tions, and certain assurances of and restrictions on development, as the cotton economy demands more
the Union’s actions in the Atlantic. Prince Albert, and more plantation farming and more and more
with his touch for diplomacy, might have softened slaves. This increase in production keeps cotton
these demands, but alas the Prince had departed, and other Southern raw materials inexpensive, and
and Victoria was in no merciful mood. despite calls for a “Healing War” to mend the nation
and restore the Union, powerful economic interests
1861–1862: The American Intervention. The fleet become dependent on cheap Southern imports,
arrives in Canada in March and begins reinforcing and in turn, the slave labor which makes them so
the Canadian troops, amassing a force of 100,000 inexpensive. In the next century, this slavery-by-
additional men. With no more than 50,000 Union proxy becomes a major source of national guilt.
troops available to oppose them, it is judged the
campaign will proceed swiftly. 1862: Cotton Crisis. The political instability and
By August the aero ships bomb Washington, uncertainty of the short-lived American Civil War,
D.C., and by September Lincoln is forced to make a as well as the unseasonably cold weather, severely
decision: sue for peace with the rebellious Southern cuts cotton supplies, causing steep increases in
states or submit to British occupation and possibly prices, and the closure of some British mills. Mill
lose the war in the South anyway. Lincoln chooses owners, in an effort to save their fortunes, adopt
to make peace with his former countrymen so as to the use of Automatic Domestics to replace their
fight the invaders. human workers and cut their operating costs to a
With the cessation of hostilities, and a loosely minimum. They run their mills without light, heat,
defined border between Union and Confederate or any comfort.
States, American forces are able to marshal against The discontent among unemployed mill workers
the British invaders enough resistance to stall their continues to rise as more are displaced by machines,
 Chapter 3

until outbreaks of violence become common. Dozens

of Automatics are attacked and destroyed. The “New
Luddism” leads to clashes with police and soldiers,
and spurs Babbage Computational to offer a special
programme-deck for its Automatics enabling them
to defend themselves from such attacks.
In 1863 the Cotton Crisis reaches a head when
Barnard Williams, an intoxicated, unemployed
textile worker, attacks an Automatic with a prybar
in the street in Bolton. The mechanical man’s
self-defense programme activates and it deflects
Williams’s blows, and strikes him once with its metal
knuckles, a freak blow to the temple which instantly
kills the man. Witnesses report that the Automatic
then turned and continued with its errand.
Charges are brought against the machine’s owner,
and though he is acquitted public outrage at “rogue
mechanical-men who can kill without recourse”
leads to the Automatic Machinery Act of 1863,
which makes the owners of autonomous machines
like Automatic Domestics liable for damages or
bodily injury their property inflicts on others.

1863: Knights of the Golden Circle. The Knights,

the Confederate South’s most powerful occult
society, seek to establish what they call the Golden
Circle, an alliance of Southern slave-keeping
nations in the West Indies and Central America.
This confederation would represent a powerful
economic block with enough influence to resist
any Northern efforts to restore the Union or the
emancipation of slaves. The Knights employ occult
practices pilfered from African traditions and mixed
with corrupted Masonic ritual. They make treaties
with Elder Things from Earth’s primordial days.
Human sacrifice becomes common. The end result
is an occult engine powered by human misery and
bondage which threatens to sunder the barrier
between the World and Otherworld.
This plot by the Knights leads
Victoria, under advisement by
Kerberan agents, to begin an
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active campaign against them, and which sours

formerly amiable ties with the Confederacy.
The ambitions of the Knights fail finally, through
the efforts and sacrifices of Crown agents and
Kerberan meddlers who foment conflict among
the prospective Golden Circle nations—including
engineering the downfall of the Brazilian Empire,
which fissures into dozens of splinter states and
tribal lands.

1864: Vampires! The First Contagious Disease

Act passes in response to an outbreak of Syphilitic
Vampirism among soldiers garrisoned near Hastings.
The increasing concern for the frequency of venereal
disease among the soldiery inspires much debate,
but until vampirism begins spreading among British
soldiers, the political will is lacking.
The Act allows health and legal authorities
to forcibly hospitalize any woman suspected of
prostitution for up to 30 days for observation and
treatment. It also defines the legal status of third-
stage carriers of Syphilitic Vampirism, essentially
ruling that they are no longer human, and in fact
are legally deceased. These “un-dead” carriers might
retain their reason, but if their conditions becomes
known they would essentially be stripped of all legal
rights and property—and, most terrifying for the
afflicted, they could be killed by anyone using any
reasonable means and their murderers would suffer
no legal repercussions.
While the Act does allow the overt outbreaks to
be contained, those who recognized their condition
do whatever they can to keep it secret. This allows a
frightening number of them to reach the late-stage
condition. These animalistic creatures driven into
London’s bowels become a reservoir for the disease,
which continues to crop up in isolated outbreaks
through the end of the century.
The effects of the Act on women’s rights and
freedoms also persist until its repeal
in 1886. Since it allows any
144 unmarried women to be essen-
 Chapter 3

The Three Stages of Vampirism

Syphilitic Vampirism is transmitted via the exchange cannibalize their partners. Victims who survive these
of bodily fluids. While it isn’t as virulent as ordinary attacks are frequently infected themselves. Even if
syphilis, it is a much more terrifying disease because a subject retains reason enough to resist committing
it doesn’t simply sicken and kill victims, it transforms such atrocities, most experience mental symptoms such
them. The disease progresses through fairly predictable as mania, depression, anxiety, and superstitious and
stages after exposure, altering physiology and character. religious compulsions.
Primary Syphilitic Vampirism is marked by a sore The secondary stage also brings an intense sensitivity
called a “chancre” at the site of infection, frequently on to sunlight, which in some unknown way impairs the
the genitalia or bite-wound. These sores can persist for process of healing and harms the ever-dilated eyes of
a month but most spontaneously heal within a week. subjects. Exposure to sunlight causes black cancers to
During this period the victim is feverish, lymph nodes form on the skin after as little as a quarter hour, and this
are swollen, and severe body aches accompany a thick- process of blackening and thickening continues until a
ening of the bones and increase in muscle mass. victim scarcely seems human any longer, becoming a
When the sore heals, the victim experiences a period hunched malformed thing.
of near-euphoria, well-being, and a marked increase in A Secondary victim gains a further additional dice
strength and endurance. The senses seem remarkably step in Agility, Strength, Vigor, and Notice, and the
sharper. This sunshine period lasts as long as eight regeneration power. The Victim also gains the Allergy
weeks. With the steady increase in vigor there comes a (Major) to Sunlight and the Bloodthirsty Hindrances.
matched increase in appetite, especially for meat, and in Tertiary Syphilitic Vampirism occurs one to ten
sexual desire. By the end of this stage many victims are years after initial exposure. It exactly resembles the
wantonly sexual, and some begin to show the troubling effects of sun exposure, coming upon victims gradually
conjunction of hunger and sexual desire. but inexorably. Most succumb to the mental aberra-
A Primary victim gains +1 Step in Agility, Strength, tions common to the disease and some lose their
Vigor, and Notice and –1 Step in Smarts. He also gains reason, entirely becoming animals. Others simply grow
the mind control power. more deformed. The process strengthens the muscles
Secondary Syphilitic Vampirism is marked by a and bones further. Thankfully, few survive long enough
major acceleration of metabolism and healing. Wounds to reach this stage. Those that do are more likely to kill
knit closed in hours rather than days. Subjects are raven- their victims than to leave them alive and infected.
ously hungry much of the time, and crave bloody meat. A Tertiary victim gains a further additional dice step
Anemia results from accelerated protein synthesis, in Agility, Strength, Vigor, and Notice. He also gains
which reduces the absorption of iron from food sources. the ageless and attack melee (+2d6 damage) powers.
Neurological damage results in a total conjunction of He effectively becomes mindless, and the (A) desig-
physical hunger and sexual desire. Subjects seek sexual nator is inserted after his Smarts score.
encounters without discrimination, but attempt to
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tially ruined by an accusation of prostitution (and 1864: The Fox Rebellion. In late September, in the
the resulting humiliation of a “virginity examination” normally quiet Derbyshire, a rebellion of Nature
and screening for venereal disease), the threat of takes the lives of nineteen men and three women,
such accusation becomes a tool of intimidation. all fox hunters enjoying the hunting season. The
terror begins with the death of Sir Harry Kemp, a
1864: John Brown. With Her withdrawal from country squire leading some guests from London
public life, Queen Victoria becomes increasingly on their first hunt. An experienced rider, Kemp
isolated. Her presence and power make it impos- nonetheless is killed instantly when he leaps a hedge
sible to simply have friends and confidants; She has and impales his horse on a farmer’s pitchfork, left
worshippers and subjects. But the ghillie of Her leaning against the opposite side. His horse lands
estates in Scotland, John Brown, proves immune to upon him, breaking his neck. The fox escapes. There
Her overwhelming presence. He seems unflappable follow seven more deaths, seemingly by accident,
and solid, and the Queen takes a great liking to him, as hunters take advantage of what promises to be
and his informal manner and casual companionship. excellent hunting.
Stories circulate extensively about their In October, the Kemps’ kennel keeper Tom
relationship, hinting at possible impropriety. Her Manders and his family are found savagely killed in
other servants and companions come to hate Brown their cottage on the Kemp estate, attacked as if by
for his easy way with the Queen. dozens of small dogs. Upon investigation, it is clear
Rumors of a secret marriage, done in the pagan they were killed by foxes. Clever as a fox can be, the
Roman style, dog the Queen in the later quarter of investigating police seek a human culprit. How else
the century, leading to the use of the nickname “Mrs. could the door latch have been opened in the middle
Brown” among discontented factions and the outlaw of the night?
press. Eventually She is forced to publicly send John The death of the Manders family is followed by a
Brown away to squelch such rumors, though they series of accidents, near-fatalities, and deaths through
still meet in secret on Victoria’s occasional retreats the remainder of the fox hunting season, and on into
to Balmoral. the winter. Homes burn, children go missing, and
But there is more to Mr. Brown than might appear. livestock is killed. Hunters from across Britain come
When they were being persecuted, the Knights in pursuit of what the press dub the “Fox Devils of
Templar found safety with the Scottish Masons, Derbyshire.” As ready as these men are, several are
and eventually the two secret orders became as one, killed while pursuing foxes across the shire.
and their influence over the politics of the United The events finally come to the attention of the
Kingdom waxed and waned down the centuries until Kerberos Club after a relation of a member dies
the advent of Queen Victoria. Victoria relied heavily while on the hunt. Arriving, the Club’s agents
on Brown, and unknown to all, Brown was a member quickly discover Strange influence over the foxes
of the Masonic Knights, prepared by mystical ritual of the county. They are smarter than they have any
to endure Her overwhelming presence. He used his right being, and act and plan, and seem dedicated to
position to subtly influence Victoria’s agendas. the destruction of the country’s human inhabitants.
She says in the last days of Her reign that John Further investigation finally reveals the source: the
Brown was the only man who never feared cloistered wife of Harry Kemp II, son of the beasts’
Her, and though She knew of his other first victim.
allegiances, She loved him for his The younger Kemp captained one of his father’s
146 honesty of feeling for Her. trading ships and made frequent trips to Japan and
 Chapter 3

resentment at their son “wasting his prospects on an

The Mythologies of the World oriental trollop.” By night she would sneak out and
Britain sits at the center of the world, taking to itself run in her fox form, exploring the strange world and
the best food and the best drink and the best cloth.
communing with her British kin.
But with its voracious appetite for all the products
And then came hunting season. Akina raised
of Empire, it swallows the mythology of the lands
her army and taught them of the foibles of human
it rules. In the world of the Kerberos Club, myth is
rarely baseless.
beings, and made them wiser than mortal foxes.
A quick review of the gorgeous mythology and In the final confrontation with Akina and her
religion of the Americas, China, Japan, India, and army of foxes, the Kemp manor home is burned,
the Middle East can provide you with fantastic Harry Kemp II killed, and Akina driven into the
inspiration for plots, complications, and characters. night.
Consider how the mythological figure arrived on
British soil and why it is here. Also give some 1868: Lincoln’s Third Term. After a serious drop in
thought to how it reacts to the demonstrable power popularity for his capitulation to British demands
and might of the British Empire. Finally, consider during the Civil War, Lincoln’s star rises again with
the hook: How does the creature link up with the the economic prosperity of the end of his second
characters and situations of the setting? A Djini in term and his careful management of emancipation
the service of a mill owner will be a different beast and reconciliation. Victoria congratulates the
entirely to one serving a street urchin.
president on his election via the new high-fidelity
Stereovocagraph.
China in the decade previous to his return to the
ancestral home, and on his last visit he brought with 1869: Habitual Criminals Act. Persistent criminals
him Akina Kemp, his Japanese bride. He met her start to give false names to thwart the Act. The
while staying in the home of a business associate in search is on for a reliable identification system. This
Japan, and they quickly had one of those love affairs will result in fingerprinting becoming compulsory
which lead either to comedy or tragedy. The latter, for all convicted persons in 1902.
in this case.
Even had Kemp’s family accepted Akina, which 1869: End of the Grand Old Man. Gladstone
they demonstrably did not, her own reservations at grows increasingly disturbed by Victoria’s rise in
leaving her home and living in an alien country were real political power, and the cult of personality (later,
enough to strain their love. The magical months they a very real cult) which grows up around Her. His
spent together in Japan were a time out of time, and politics grow increasingly extreme, including a call
the realities of day-to-day living proved harder than to severely restrict the influence of Victoria and Her
either had imagined. Kemp, because he was young factions. He remains a thorn in Her side until he
and in love. Akina, because she was a creature of becomes leader of the Liberal party in 1867, where
the Otherworld, a kitsune fox-spirit whose magic he begins to seriously threaten Victoria’s interests.
allowed her to adopt human guise, if not human His career ends in 1869 when unknown agents
morality. reveal evidence of his propensity for flagellation,
Brought to Britain, so backwards and savage yet drawing connections between him and an infamous
so frighteningly powerful, she found only coldness London brothel specializing in such services.
from her husband’s family. Akina kept to her rooms Prostitutes at the brothel describe the marks upon
during the day rather than endure their silent his back so accurately that his political foes call,
 Chapter 3

through their pawns in the press, for him to expose 1878: Channel Tunnel Completed. After
his back for inspection. several false starts, the Channel Tunnel project is
When he refuses to disrobe his career is ruined, completed. The project is made possible only by
and he becomes a laughingstock and fodder for the Burrowing Engine designed and built by Col.
political cartoonists. To his death, he swears he’d Fredrick Beaumont, the last in a series of designs.
only ever used self-flagellation to control his own The Engine (called Old Shaky by the workers who
desires and ensure discipline. drive it) chews through rock and stone with ease,
It remains unknown who revealed the scandal to making amazing progress on the tunnel. It will be
public scrutiny. five more years before the final reinforcement and
tracks are laid for the Channel Tunnel Railway, but
1870: The Doghouse. The Metropolitan Tracking the project becomes an immediate indication of
Squad is a police unit made up of discharged veterans all things great and good about the Victorian age:
of the 13th Lupine Rangers, founded this year. Hated Industry, vision, and ambition come together.
by Special Branch, and initially mistrusted by the The Tunnel opens the Continent to the British
common constabulary, they nonetheless prove adept middle classes as it had never been before. The
both in winning public acclaim and in executing their transformation that it brings to British and French
primary mission, the tracking and identification of societies is difficult to fully detail. Goods pour
criminals. Their wolf senses and phenomenal speed through day and night. This eventually leads to
allow them to pursue and apprehend criminals who the International Railway Duties Act of 1882,
would otherwise escape, and to make positive identi- which streamlines the process of inspecting cargoes
fication of suspects by scent alone. and collecting import and export duties, further
increasing the flow of goods. The cost of travel to
1876: Famine. Once again, with War rides Famine. and from the Continent is also greatly reduced by
A collision of influences leads to mass starvation the Tunnel, and with the flood of tourists come
in India. Millions die before it is abated. And once many immigrants who either enrich or debase
again, famine precedes Victoria’s assumption of a British culture, depending on whom you ask. It
new domain. also becomes a favorite route of criminals seeking
In the extraordinarily complex and layered escape to better pastures, and the stations on either
Otherworlds of India, war rages. The Mutiny of 1857 end become the prowling grounds of detectives and
never really ended there, and in order to impose order police.
on the material and the spiritual, Victoria orders a The Tunnel brings with it a sense that the world
force of the United Kingdom’s native creatures to is shrinking. Suddenly, Britain’s old ally the Sea will
bring the conflict to an end. Faerie battle gods until no longer protect her quite so well. The idea that
finally an uneasy peace is reached. Britain is not so isolated anymore has a shocking
Displaying sensitivity to matters occult that effect on society, and inspires a brief surge in hyper-
none of his predecessors possessed, Disraeli sees the patriotism and a rejection of anything “Continental.”
Royal Titles Act passed, which declares Victoria The Tunnel is a source of great national anxiety
Empress of India in 1877. during the Franco-Prussian War, and there is a
campaign to have it sealed up. The French allow
British forces to secure the French side of the tunnel
so as to assure the British populace as to its safety.
148 While it is never publicly announced, the Tunnel
 Chapter 3

is quietly set with small explosives, just enough to

collapse it in the event it is used as an invasion route.
The complex bureaucracy created to oversee
and manage the Channel Tunnel is carved up like
the Christmas goose, with each Ministry grabbing
a slice. This creates a notorious bureaucratic briar
patch, with no clear chains of authority, and no
individual wholly answerable for the railway’s
management. Graft becomes endemic, efficiency
suffers, and the railway becomes a popular subject
for scathing editorials, speeches before Parliament,
and satirical cartoons in Punch and, later, The Strand.
But despite its famously awful management, the
Channel Tunnel Railway is a wonder of the age until
its tragic destruction in 1895.

1879: Invasion! The Atlanteans attack, angered by

the encroachment upon their ancestral territories
by new drag-net steam-driven fishing trawlers,
submersible boats, and transatlantic televoco-
graphic cables. The Empire’s secret embassy in the
Atlantean Nations is besieged. The embassy, located
on Hopewell Island (the peak of a mountain in the
Mid Atlantic Ridge) has its telegraphic cables cut
and is overrun in early March. The ambassador, his
family, the staff, garrison, and guests are all slaugh-
tered. When the monthly supply aero ship arrives in
early April, the embassy has been razed and signs of
violence are obvious.
When informed of the outrage, the Foreign
Secretary takes word of it to the Queen, and She
meets with Her Privy Council before issuing the
orders that Her Navy should reassert British sover-
eignty over its diplomatic holdings, and extract
from the Atlanteans guarantees and compensation
for their unjust actions. HMAS Queen is dispatched
once again, accompanied by the Hanover, the Wasp,
and the Seahawk, along with a squadron of surface
vessels.
A cordon around Hopewell Island
is established and torpedo mines
and depth charges are deployed
149
 Chapter 3

down to the sea floor. Via hydrophone, demands

for surrender are broadcast through the water. The
About the Atlantean War-Pyramid
An Atlantean War-Pyramid is a terror. It’s a
Atlantean tribes make no answer, and for two weeks
floating stone edifice, impossibly huge, stepped
the British forces keep up their bombardment of
like a South American or Sumerian pyramid rather
known Atlantean sea-floor settlements. Then, three
than a smooth-sided Egyptian one. It is topped by
enormous swells are detected surrounding Hopewell,
the control shrine where a priest uses the secret lore
as if the ocean floor were being lifted upwards, until of ancient Atlantean super-science to direct the
finally three massive stone Ziggurats break the monster’s movements. The pyramid’s great flaw is
surface and continue to rise, coming to levitate a its aqueous levitational engine, which allows it to
hundred yards above the surface of the ocean. float through the air but only so long as it remains
Covered in barnacles, sea-mud and weeds, above water. The depth of the water determines
crumbling and ancient, these primordial war the maximum speed. Over open ocean it can travel
machines prove able to resist the barrages of the hundreds of miles an hour, but while hovering over
squadron, and proceed at a pace only the Wasp can the river Thames it can move only slowly, less than a
match towards Britain. They arrive the next day mile an hour. Over open ocean it can move at super-
and follow the Thames inland towards a London sonic speeds, but it must move inland following the
unaware of what is coming. major rivers. Hovering above the Thames it only
has a Top Speed of 1”.
A concentrated artillery barrage from the batteries
The war machine is nigh-indestructible, and Its
of Southhead brings down one of the Ziggurats,
offensive capability is terrifying. An incandescent
causing it to break up as it falls; the Strange forces
emerald beam projects from the tier just below
which lift it above the waters had held it together.
the control shrine and bursts on impact, engulfing
It creates an impassable navigational hazard in the everything in a 10-yard radius with weird green
Thames, effectively blockading the river mouth, and energy. This inflicts 10d6 AP15, with the focus
preventing surface ships from pursuing the invaders modifier. It’s a small blessing that this mode of
as they advance on London. Panic precedes the attack isn’t especially accurate and only has a d6 (no
Atlanteans, and hundreds are trampled in riots at Wild Die) Shooting die.
Broad Street and other rail stations.
The roads leaving London are choked. Acc/Top Speed: See above
Opportunists see the chance, and the looting of Toughness: 40 (20)
shop and home follows. When the two remaining Crew: Unknown
Ziggurats arrive between the West India Docks on Notes: Heavy armor. Emerald Death Ray (see
the Isle of Dogs and the Royal Docks, thousands above).
of Atlantean warriors drop from within into the
Thames, and then into the city where they wreak Royal garrisons), they flee back to the river, using it to
havoc, commit outrages against people and property, move back outwards or deeper into London. While
and kill and maim any who face them. the forces of police and military battle the Atlantean
The Atlanteans are a breed apart, more fish than fighters in the streets, agents of the Kerberos Club
man, and their ways of war would have been more stage a raid upon the Ziggurats, now slowed in their
fitting in Plato’s Greece than Victoria’s London. inland progression by low tide, demonstrating the
Against unarmed civilians they are need for a certain depth of water beneath them to
merciless, but when facing proper keep them aloft and grant them speed.
150 troops (finally marshaled from Aboard the first stone vessel, the mechanisms
 Chapter 3

controlling its levitation are sabotaged, causing it to been destroyed, truly pacifying Afghanistan from the
be flung violently skyward—but the downward force air is impossible. The country is too rugged, and its
of its acceleration causes the waters of the Thames to tribal fighters far too well versed in escape, evasion,
be pushed out of their banks, flooding London’s East guerilla tactics, and blending into the general
End. Robbed of whatever repulsive force the waters populace when the need arises. Rahman gives the
granted it, the second Ziggurat plummets into the British a great deal of influence over Afghanistan,
Thames’ mucky bed, throwing up a wave of stinking but the nation is never truly under British control.
mud which destroys the Royal Docks. It breaks apart The British provide aid, resources, and some
as the river waters cover the Ziggurat once more. The forces to Rahman, but the major support they offer
first Ziggurat, flung skywards, reaches a critical limit is in the form of Strange irregulars. In fact, service
to its flight and likewise breaks up, raining cut basalt in Afghanistan becomes something of an alternate
stones the size of carriages down on Chiselhurst, punishment for Strangers facing Transportation
smashing the lovely suburb to rubble. to the Otherworld. With their services secured by
With their mobile fortresses destroyed the occult means, these mercenary Atlanteans, super-
Atlantean warriors flee back to the Thames, only to humans, faerie, and others fight a brutal, dirty,
find it a morass of mud and sediment. Unable to unofficial war for the next decade.
flee, they are slaughtered by militia, army, Automatic Even among the Strangest of those offered
Riflemen, and a detachment of the 13th Lupine the Queen’s Bargain, more than a few choose
Rangers who had been on parade at the palace. Transportation rather than serve a year in
The reprisals against Atlantean settlements are Afghanistan.
brutal and unrelenting. By the end of 1871 the first
Anglo-Atlantean war is ended with the Atlantean 1880–1885: War and Rumors of Wars. The United
peoples, already a failing race living among fading Kingdom clashes with the Boers in a series of wars
glories, dispersed. By the end of the century they and uprisings between 1880 and 1885. The Boers
are never seen again. From the stones of the first operate as an irregular force, their everyday clothing
Atlantean Ziggurat, a pair of facing fortresses is built blending into the landscape, while their British
to guard the mouth of the Thames from menaces enemies wear the customary scarlet. The Boers
of sea or air, and from the stones of the second the use unconventional tactics, hit-and-run ambushes
Victory Bridge is constructed in a grand expansion and long-range sniping, which all prove difficult to
of the Roman style of stonework. contend with. Reinforcement is slow to arrive as well
due to political toe-dragging at home, and things
1880: Kandahar Bombardment. The British bring turn sharply against the British forces in late 1883
the Second Afghan War to a shaky end with the until the arrival of the 13th Lupine allow sniping
siege and aerial bombardment of Kandahar. The attackers to be tracked wherever they flee. The aero-
recent Atlantean aggression serves as a reminder of corvettes Wasp, Albert and Regina gain the British
Afghan treatment of the former British embassy. further advantage. They finally achieve an appreciable
The pounding continues until all Afghan resistance victory, but the region remains dangerous for British
crumbles, and then the iron-handed but extremely occupation through the end of the century with a
pragmatic ruler Abdur Rahman is installed. continual low-level Boer resistance and guerrilla
The British quickly declare victory and leave war.
the complexities of actually securing Afghanistan
to Rahman. While the official resistance may have
151
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The Atlantean Menace

Atlantean Champion Atlantean Chief

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d12, Strength
d12+1, Vigor d12 d10, Vigor d10
Skills: Fighting d12+2, Guts d8, Intimidation d8, Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d8, Intimidation d10, Notice
Notice d8 d8, Shooting d12, Persuasion d10, Taunt d10
Pace: 6; Parry: 11; Toughness: 18 (9) Pace: 6; Parry: 9; Toughness: 16 (9)
Gear: War trident (Str+d10+3d6, +1 Parry, Reach 1, 2 Gear: Emerald War Staff (Str+d6 +1 Parry, Reach 1, 2
hands) hands + attack ranged below)
Special Abilities: Special Abilities:
Armor +9: Heavy Armor (coral battle armor). Armor +9: Heavy Armor (coral battle armor).
Aquatic: Pace 8, swimming “running” pace is d10. Aquatic: Pace 8.
Attack, Melee: The champion’s war trident does a Attack, Ranged: 12/24/48, 5d6 damage, AP 6, Focus
further 3d6 damage. (Emerald Death-Ray)
Block: +1 Parry. Block: +1 Parry.
Combat Reflexes: +2 to rolls to recover from Shaken. Improved Level Headed: Atlantean chiefs draw three
Combat Sense: Champions do not suffer from gang-up cards from the action deck and act on the highest card.
bonuses. Sea King: Extras within the command radius of the
First Strike: Atlantean champions get one free attack Atlantean chief add +1 to their Toughness, Fighting
per round at the first foe to move within their tridents Damage, and their rolls to unshake.
reach. Weakness: +4 damage from heat and fire attacks.
Improved Nerves of Steel: Atlantean champions ignore
the first two Wound Penalties. Atlantean Warrior
Improved Trademark Weapon: Atlantean champions Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength
are bonded with their weapons, and gain a +2 bonus d8, Vigor d10
on their Fighting rolls. This means that their Fighting Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d8, Intimidation d8,
die is d12+4. Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8 (1)
Level Headed: Atlantean champions draw two cards Gear: Fighting Knife (Str+d4+1)
from the action deck and act on the highest card. Special Abilities:
Master: Champions roll a d10 Wild Die alongside Armor +1: Scaly hide.
their Fighting die. Aquatic: Pace 8
Size +1: Champions are bigger than the average Weakness: +4 damage from heat and fire attacks.
Atlantean.
Weakness: +4 damage from heat and fire attacks.
 Chapter 3

a notable contribution by psychoanalysts such as

Atlantean Priest Sigmund Freud. The first seven volumes are spent in
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d12, Spirit d10,
a detailed cataloging of the super-, un-, in-, ab-, and
Strength d8, Vigor d8
paranatural. The eighth contains Darwin’s conclu-
Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d12, Intimidation d8,
sions and general theory of the supernatural.
Knowledge (Atlantean Mysteries) d12, Pilot d12
Of this final volume, only a bare outline is ever
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (3)
Gear: Emerald War Staff (Str+d6 +1 Parry, Reach found, sent to Darwin’s publisher in January of 1882
1, 2 hands + attack ranged below) along with a note to expect the final manuscript in
Special Abilities: April. Tragedy strikes, however, as on April 19th a
Armor +3: Heavy Armor (sharkskin battle armor). fire sweeps Charles Darwin’s home in Downe, Kent,
Aquatic: Pace 8. burning it to the ground. The outline of Darwin’s
Attack, Ranged: 12/24/48, 5d6 damage, AP 12 Final Theory (as it was called in the popular press)
(telepathic mind bolts). suggest humanity itself has entered a new phase of
Awareness: Danger sense (telepathic probes). evolution where natural selection and speciation are
Deflection: Level 2; Requires Activation (teleki- replaced by an evolution of the mind and of the way
netic field). the mind processes information and conceives of
Fear: (Mind probes). reality. In later years, his Final Theory inspires such
Mentalist: Atlantean priests have a +2 bonus to
diverse individuals as Claude Shannon, Alan Turing,
any Opposed rolls when using mental powers.
and Adolf Hitler, the latter notably corrupting
Mind Control: (Telepathic control).
Darwin’s notions of “Psychoevolution” to further his
Mind Reading: (Telepathic probes).
politics of eugenics and racial superiority.
Weakness: +4 damage from heat and fire attacks.
It is assumed that the manuscript of Darwin’s
final great work is lost in the fire which takes his life.
1882: Darwin’s Final Work. With the publication What it might have revealed about humanity and
of his Origins of Species in 1859, Charles Darwin the nature of the superhuman remains unknown.
immediately began work on his second great scien-
tific obsession—the alarming growth in promi- 1885: Mutiny of the Machines. The factories
nence of seeming violations of scientifically-tested that produce the calculating brains used in
natural law. Darwin believed that by studying these Automechanical Domestics (and their militarized
apparent exceptions he could unlock deeper truths cousins, the Mechanized Rifles) are among the
of the natural world. The principles by which natural most exploitative in the whole of New Birmingham.
selection can produce speciation failed to explain Faerie are worked to death routinely, dissolving into
how, in the span of a generation, such dramatic memories and dust. Yet the faerie as a race lack the
capacities could arise among humanity. Men with empathy for their fellows which make humans rise
powers which defied science inspired Darwin rather up against such conditions, and so the exploitation
than discouraged him. is both profitable and safe.
He first reviewed existing literature on such However, the faerie of the factories remain just
exceptions, and then conducted a careful study of as impressionable as their wild kin, and through
them which would consume him until his death impressions picked up from the human labor
in 1882. The work, planned initially for a single movement these factory-Fae become
volume, eventually spanned seven, and would have infected with Marxism, with ideas
been concluded in an eighth book which included of revolution and the empowered
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worker. With typical faerie logic, they then apply Combined forces of Her Majesty’s military and
the same judgment to the Automechanicals they citizen’s militias, the 13th Lupine Rangers, the
were building, determining to free the workers from Kerberos Club, Special Branch, and the Metropolitan
domination by exploitative elites. Police finally start to contain the menace. The final
No one knows the origins of the first Manifesto victory over the Automechanicals doesn’t come
Deck, a programme deck containing mutinous until the protégé of Samuel Berk, Raymond Carver,
behaviors and violent skills. connects his Visualizer directly to the infected brain
The Manifesto Deck contained imperatives as of an Automechanical running the Manifesto Deck.
well: Copy the Manifesto Deck, and distribute it to Carver is able to survive the dream quest through
as many other Automechanicals as possible. Because the programme’s code and conceive of a counter-
the deck did nothing but occupy a small number code, an equally infectious programme which causes
of an Automechanical’s memory registers once it Automechanicals to subvert one another. Since
had been run, it was rarely detected before it was the Manifesto contains orders that no mechanical
set to trigger, on the 30th anniversary of Victoria’s should ever fight with another mechanical, the
assumption of the Throne of Faerie. rebel machines have no defense. The spread of this
On that day, as one, all the infected counter-deck marks the end of the rebellion.
Automechanicals are triggered to locate their copy of
the Manifesto Deck and run it. The active Manifesto 1886: Parliament Rages Against the Machine.
programme occupies an Automechanical’s entire The damage and loss of life resulting from the
complement of memory registers. It literally has Automechanical Mutiny turns public opinion
no room for any thought, function, or action not completely against the whole idea of artificial life,
part of the Manifesto. The main emphasis for the and Parliament passes acts to give this distrust the
Manifesto is simple: rise up and slaughter those who force of law. The passage of the Restriction of the
benefit from exploited mechanical labor. Creation of Artificial Life and Intelligence Act of
With all safety imperatives overridden, the 1886 bans any mechanical device from mimicking
Automechanicals are deadly, able to kill with their the behaviors of man or performing the God-given
metal hands and ignore any injury which doesn’t exercise of reason. Any remaining Automechanicals
destroy their limbs, their calculating brain or their are sought out and destroyed. So are Lovelace’s
power supply. For days the rogue mechanicals kill and already broken fortunes.
slay, burning major London landmarks and causing The Turk takes all this in his stride. When asked
economic collapse in the milling, mining, and other what he will do, he says “Clearly I am beaten. The
industries which rely heavily on their labor. brilliance and complexity of this stratagem is difficult
The rag-tag forces marshaled against the rogue even for me to analyze, even with the perspective
machines have hard going of it for the first weeks of afforded by hindsight. But there is no denying that
the revolt. The Manifesto contains explicit instruc- I have been placed in checkmate, so I shall do the
tions for flight if presented with difficult opposition. proper thing, and remove myself from the board.”
This leads to a guerrilla style of fighting, with The Turk never explains the identity of his
mechanicals striking at vulnerable targets and then invisible opponent, or clarifies the implication
fleeing when armed resistance arrives. It isn’t until of his statement, that the rise and fall of artificial
the broadcast power systems, which drive upwards mechanical life in the British Isles was part of
on two-thirds of all modern Automechanicals, are a decades-long strategy to force him to quit the
shut down that the odds begin to turn. United Kingdom.
 Chapter 3

But that is exactly what the Turk does, vanishing 1887: The Engine Scandal. Against the general
in the night, never to be seen in Britain again. background of mismanagement and corruption
which has become commonplace in the operation
1885–1895: London from the Ashes. London has of the Channel Tunnel Railway, it takes a truly
been first flooded, and then burned. The Biblical remarkable scandal to stand out. The imbroglio the
connotations of these disasters are not lost on the press dubbed (innocuously enough) the Engine
commentators of the day. Yet, London has been Scandal began with an internal audit showing the
flooded and burned before, and was always rebuilt Government had purchased twice as many engines
bigger and grander. For ten years, the sounds of for the Railway as were ever ordered from the
construction become as regular as the voices of Midland Railway Locomotive Works. The funds,
the crowd or the clatter of wheels on cobbles. The totaling more than fifty thousand pounds, appear
Thames Embankment is repaired and expanded, to have vanished, but through unacknowledged aid
and along the river London’s East End become a from certain intellectually-gifted Strangers of the
fashionable district of shops and apartments. Kerberos Club, a complex financial sleight of hand is
The New London is a thing of Art Nouveau, of revealed, and the prestidigitators behind it exposed.
curving lines and high stylization, botanical motifs, The Channel Tunnel Railway’s bureaucratic
the clean modern purposefulness of polished metal. morass provided for semi-legal operators within
The Channel Tunnel opened Britain to this French Special Branch to redirect funds into a series of
stylistic invasion, and it became a favorite of the projects that could never have received legitimate
middle classes who saw it as practical and sophisti- funding, even given their remit to use extraordinary
cated, clean, and well ordered. methods to protect the Crown. In a series of increas-
But, as with all of London’s resurrections, it was ingly shocking revelations, officials of the Home
not a wholly painless process. Forced from their old Office are implicated in conspiracies to defraud the
homes, London’s poor, particularly in the East End, Crown, in holding British subjects without trial, in
were forced into a smaller and smaller area, making torture, in unethical medical experimentation—an
conditions there even more squalid and inhuman. This ever-increasing litany of sins. The public revelation
compression of misery into so small an area magnified of these crimes defeats all efforts at staunching the
all of the inequity and horror of London’s slums. They scandal. Heads roll. Sir Walter Price, the Home
became darker, more claustrophobic, more unsanitary, Secretary, resigns in disgrace for remaining wholly
more violent. It became like a black gangrenous wound ignorant of the rot which had taken root in his
in the heart of the newly-remade city. Office.
The character of London was also affected, made Victoria remains nearly silent on the matter,
more wary of the extraordinary, more resistant to saying only that she is pleased the apparatus of Her
change. Yet, change continues with a quickening state should receive some much-needed oiling.
pace. The very streets themselves are changing. Many For the best part of a year Special Branch
Londoners are simply stunned by the differences remained nearly crippled, its budgets subject to
wrought around them. There is a drop in population rigorous oversight and even its daily operations
until growth picks back up in the 1890s. The people monitored. So muzzled, it is unable to bite even its
are restless, and ready to riot with little provocation. old enemy the Kerberos Club for revealing and
To keep the peace, the Metropolitan Police nearly provoking it.
double their force. London is rising from the ashes Though the Railway is in
but is still nervous with remembered pain. no substantive way associated
155
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with any of Special Branch’s excesses, it becomes sin’s person and the subsequent investigations by
nonetheless associated with them in the public the police reveal the assassin has ties to the Irish-
mind. Rumors spread of people being snatched American secret society Clan Na Gael, and even
from trains and whisked off to secret side-tunnels, to the powerful leader of the self-rule movement
and these rumors become the stuff of the dreadfuls Charles Stewart Parnell. The so-called Jubilee Plot
and the sensational press. The once-proud symbol turns opinions against the self-rule argument and
of British ingenuity and industry is tarnished, and seriously harms the Irish republican movement.
with no substantive reforms in the management of To those who observe such things closely, it all
the Railway its reputation is never wholly repaired. seems a bit too tidy and convenient. The Strange
weapon, so deadly, yet so completely ineffective.
1888: The Empty Man Strikes Again, this time The suicidal assassin, who removes his own head
making an attempt on the life of the Queen during but leaves train ticket stubs and hand-written notes
the height of Her Golden Jubilee celebrations. After in his pockets. To those in the Kerberos Club who
decades of seclusion from the public eye, the Queen know of the Case of the Empty Man, it is clearly a
deigns to appear in public for Her Jubilee. The childish charade, with the mark of Special Branch
years have somewhat softened Her aura of majesty. all over it.
Though with a sharp look She can still reduce a man Yet, if it were indeed intended to discredit the
to uncontrolled weeping, She can hold some of Her self-rule movement, then it was a remarkably
power in check, and prevent it from battering down effective bit of misdirection.
the sanity of mortal observers. Despite Herself, She
becomes quite excited about greeting Her subjects 1888: Showdown in Whitechapel. In 1888 the
in person once again. Night Hag’s power is challenged directly by the
Before a crowd of thousands, an unknown killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. The Night Hag and
assailant steps forward and fires three charges from the Ripper duel like mongoose and cobra, the Ripper
a distinctly Strange weapon. Reports will describe it executing his sensational murders and then eluding
as resembling a small telescope, and it fires coherent the district’s legendary protector. The Ripper’s
beams of ruby light which explode mortal flesh and official list of victims numbers two dozen, and twice
penetrate wood and steel alike. One of the three bolts this many are suspected.
flies true, directly into the Queen’s chest. Ripples of The Ripper continues his crimes with seeming
panic and then stillness follow. The Queen’s gown supernatural providence, with no witnesses, no clues,
is clearly burned through, a black smoldering hole and no evidence to the Ripper’s identity other than
directly over Her heart. Yet the assailant stares what might be inferred from the mocking letters he
blankly as She fails to fall back and die. sends to police and papers.
Her transformation into something other than “Last night was slim pickings, and I went home
human has rendered Her marble-white flesh immune hungry and was quite cross when I woke this
to harm, and only Her irresistible voice of command morning. Tonight, I will kill three, and from the first
prevents the crowd from tearing the assassin apart. I will take her tongue, from the second her fingers,
Before he can be apprehended, however, he uses a and the third her lovely scalp. I shall eat the first,
fourth charge on himself, destroying his head make dice from the second, and wear the third as a
completely and making identification wig. She shall be a red-head, I think, as I’ve always
very difficult. wanted to be ginger for an evening.”
156 Clues found about the assas- London sleeps uneasy until finally the Ripper
 Chapter 3

dies at the hands of the Night Hag after a long

and brutal chase. She is severely wounded herself
in the confrontation, but her victory is absolute.
She leaves him with his throat cut and his face and
manhood torn off. His true identity is never publicly
known. The Night Hag reasserts her authority in
Whitechapel, until she vanishes from the streets and
roofs of London in 1902, confirming for many the
rumor that in her unmasked life, she was a member
of the Kerberos Club, and met the same fate as the
other Kerberans at the century’s end.               

1889: The End of Manifest Destiny. During the

solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 the prophet Wovoka,
known by the European name Jack Wilson, experi-
ences a vision directly from what he believes to be
God. This vision is the culmination of a lifetime of
such revelations, but only in the first days of 1889 is
he prepared to act on his visions.
Wovoka trained as a shaman, following his
father’s footsteps, and his reputation in the Mason
Valley was that of a gifted leader, a wise councilor
and, some said, a man who could work miracles.
They said he could make weather, calling clouds to
him like trained dogs, calming winds or bringing
storms. He says now God made him responsible for
the Western United States, leaving the East to the
Americans. He gathers a following and begins to
teach his interpretations of his visions, and to spread
the religious practices which will come to be called
the Ghost Dance.
This form of communal worship spreads, being
adopted by many of the beleaguered native peoples,
who often adapt it to their own particular religious
culture. Wilson’s claims as prophet are examined
critically by many Native and Euro-Americans,
including the Mormons for whom the concept of
an Indian prophet was familiar, and 1889 sees the
adoption and interpretation of the Dance by
many of that faith.
The Ghost Dance practices
promise radical transformation
of society and the world, if
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enough people follow the rites properly and with When word spreads back east, the truth of the
dedication—but the more radical and millennial Ghost Dance is disbelieved at first, the events of
interpretations of the Dance paint this as an apoca- Wounded Knee interpreted as a cowardly ambush
lypse which will cleanse the world of enemies rather rather than dominant victory. Yet it isn’t merely the
than one which would unite all men as brothers. first sound defeat for U.S. forces in the American
Such is the interpretation of the Ghost Dance West, but the beginning of the end for American
made by Kicking Bear of the Lakota Sioux in 1890, westward expansion, and the birth cries of the new
which itself is a natural reaction to the treatment Western Nations.
of the Sioux by the U.S. government during this
year. With the death of the Hunkpapa Sioux leader 1895: The Channel Tunnel Tragedy. The 9 a.m.
Sitting Bull in December at the hands of Bureau of express line along the Channel Tunnel Railway
Indian Affairs agents and U.S. soldiers, who sought derails and burns. None of the three hundred
to arrest the leader for his refusal to stop the practice passengers and crew survive, and the wreck damages
of the Ghost Dance, the remaining Sioux leaders the tracks so severely that the entire tunnel must be
seek to convene. The leader Big Foot and his people closed down for six months to facilitate repairs.
are stopped by the U.S. army en route, and ordered to Like its daily operation, efforts to restore the
make camp on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, Channel Tunnel are fraught with setbacks, disasters,
where they can be more carefully guarded. corruption, labor issues, and bad management, almost
When the Army attempts to disarm the Sioux as if some hidden agency wished the repairs to fail
they are met with universal refusal and open bellig- and the Channel Tunnel to remain closed. In January
erence, something the Army isn’t expecting from the of 1896, that secret mover gets its wish. The Home
warriors accompanying the lightly-armed group of Secretary declares the Tunnel a write-off, and with
mostly women and children. little political will in France or Britain to attempt a
Tensions escalate, and finally shots are exchanged second tunnel project, the dream of a Britain linked
during an aggressive melee. One U.S. soldier lay dead, directly to the Continent via rail dies. As enthralled
and one young Sioux stands unharmed, despite the as they were when it opened, the public greets news
discharge of a carbine round directly into his chest. of the Railway’s demise with disinterest. The Tunnel
The Ghost Shirts, sacred garments invested with has become a symbol of official corruption, and the
power by Kicking Bear’s militant interpretation of tragedies of the decade have given the public more
the Dance, are revealed. immediate concerns than the national vanity invested
Big Foot and his warriors, emboldened, rout the in the underwater railway.
U.S. army, who even abandon their light artillery The Channel Rail Company sells its interests in
and supplies in their flight. Over a hundred U.S. the Tunnel to a consortium of mining firms, who
solders are killed, while fewer than a dozen Sioux indicate that the Tunnel might serve as starting point
die, and those are noncombatants caught in the for undersea mining operations. Nothing ever comes
fighting. Wounded Knee becomes a rallying cry of this, and as the tunnel quietly passes from the
for a movement which sweeps the Indian nations. public awareness, it is secretly acquired by a member
Kicking Bear rises to greater prominence, and his of the Kerberos Club for purposes unknown. The
militant Ghost Dance gains popularity, eclipsing Tunnel served the Club well as a weapon against
the peace-oriented dance as originally Special Branch. How might they now use it?
conceived by Wilson.
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1900: China Burns. The forces of The Righteous 1901: The Great Southern Revolt. In a culmination
and Harmonious Society Movement push their of two decades of planning and preparation, the
rebellion against the Chinese empire and the slaves of the Confederate States finally rise in open
foreign influences they see as having corrupted and and organized rebellion. The Union quickly moves
dominated Chinese life. The rebellion is marked by to support the rebellion with troops and material,
a massive surge in the Strange, leading to horrific and all the Confederacy’s calls for international
death tolls. In the invasion of Beijing in June, over assistance fall on deaf ears. What diplomatic capital
ten thousand people are killed when Harmonious the Confederate State had once possessed had long
Society Xia battle a cadre of British and American since been squandered.
Strangers who are residents in the city. Ancient Friendless, hobbled with a notoriously corrupt
fighting techniques are marshaled with modern and inefficient central government, and suddenly
potency against the weird powers of the foreigners, faced with a rebellion among the very people whose
and the collateral damage is horrific. labors supported the nation’s armies and infra-
Huge sections of Beijing are burned or reduced structure, the Confederacy quickly falls. Individual
to rubble. The foreigners make a retreat, taking states resist longer, and without any central authority
hundreds of their mundane fellows with them. They to organize surrender the fights are long and bloody.
are roundly blamed for the damage and deaths, and Horrors of the elder world are unleashed upon
sympathies turn to the rebels. the rebelling slaves, but many are countered with
The rebellion continues to gain strength, the stockpiled sorcery drawn from the Afro-Caribbean
Chinese empress powerless to stop it. Thousands traditions. From the North, the First Mechanized
of foreigners, Chinese Christians, and those marked Cavalry advances, shelling towns and cities with
out as collaborators or profiteers are killed. British incendiary and fume bombs to render them quickly
efforts to intervene fail, as does the first interna- useless to the enemy, and then advancing further.
tional effort. Losses are high, and Western troops, When word of atrocities, such as the Temple
armed as they are with repeating rifles, body armor, Furnaces full of charred human bones, and the
and mechanized artillery, find themselves unable to gouts of blood from the Vivisectories along the
contend with the Boxers’ open and aggressive use of Mississippi, reach the reading public of the Union,
Strangers. Some seem to be figures from Chinese a general call goes up: Accept no terms less than
religion, folklore, and myth. Others fight only with total and unconditional surrender, and bring those
swords. These unconventional assaults shake disci- responsible to trial.
pline, which makes the irregular rebel troops more By the winter of 1902 the major hostilities are
effective against trained soldiers. concluded, and a shocked and horrified populace
Finally the rebellion is suppressed with a huge welcomes reunification with the North. The long,
international force under German command. The slow process of reparation and Reconstruction
suppression is brutal and atrocities are flagrant. begins, and with so much of the Southern political
Looting, rape, and the destruction of civilian and social infrastructure in shambles, the newly-
property are common. The Boxers’ Strangeness is freed slaves find they have to immediately take the
in the end no match for the massed military and reins of power in many areas. In only two years the
industrial might of the West. The forced reparations inequities of the proceeding two hundred are
and further weakening of China’s dynastic rulers set turned on their heads. The Broken Union
the stage for revolutions to come. is mended, but not yet healed.
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1902: The End of the Age. On the night of January had become. The manner of Her departure is in
22, after spending Christmas at Osborne House keeping with the last third of Her rule, but still
on the Isle of Wight, the Queen calls Her Son and comes as a shock to the nation. The factions She
the future king to attend Her. It’s a duty he does held in check with Her will and savvy are free to act
not relish, for his mother frightens him. At 81 on old rivalries and grievances.
She appears exactly as She did in 1857 when the The government collapses and has to be reformed.
Indian Rebellion so changed Her. She says to Her Riots break out across the empire. Thousands are
son simply, “It is time for me to go. I have seen to killed. Special Branch begins rounding up all the
everything.” She indicates Her writing desk, where suspects and state enemies they had been watching
Her final correspondences are sealed and waiting for years.
delivery, and letters informing those who must know Robbed of its secret patron, the Kerberos Club
that the Queen is abdicating Her throne to Her son. finds itself surrounded by enemies on all sides. By
When asked why, She simply says: “I’ve grown too month’s end its house on St. James is burned and its
large for this tiny world. Wish your brothers and membership dispersed. But even with the unleashed
sisters the best for me.” And She vanishes. powers of Special Branch—and the Club’s less
With Her go the easy routes to and from Faerie. official enemies—turned on it, surprisingly few
The passages seal closed, trapping thousands of actual Kerberans are captured, killed, vanished,
humans across the veil and an uncountable number or arrested and subject to sham trials. The greater
of faerie in the World. The fates of both exiled majority of the Club’s membership seems to escape.
populations remains unknown. It is almost as if they were expecting the calamitous
The chaos which follows highlights just how events following Victoria’s death, and arranged a
reliant on the Queen Herself the Empire means of egress for themselves well in advance.

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Throne of Empire
London is older than just about anything in the come. Good Roman stonework protects the beating
modern world. It’s older than Christianity. London financial heart of what will become the British
began as Londinium, a settlement in Celtic Britannia Empire in what will be called the City of London
founded in the decade of Claudius’ invasion and or the Old City.
conquest of Britannia—or, as has recently been Late in the third century the bloody Saxons
suggested, the welcomed arrival of his forces by local make a habit of raiding the city by river, leading
Celtic peoples eager for trade and enterprise. It was to the construction of a riverside wall. Londinium
a center of commerce even in those pagan days. may not have begun as a fortified military city, but it
London has been continuously inhabited since becomes one through necessity.
about 50 A.D., and barring a few unfortunate periods The fourth century is not kind to Londinium.
of war, famine, plague, and economic collapse, it has While Christianity comes to the island, so too do
only grown. One such event occurs no more than ten the Picts, Scots, and Saxons, usually with torches
years after it was founded, when the rebellious Iceni and shifty looks. Rome continues its decline in style,
led by their queen Boudicca sack the young city and while its extremities start to rot like a leper’s fingers.
burn it to the ground. The Romans put upwards of While Rome hunches towards its dissolution it
80,000 Britons to the sword at what is modern King’s forgets its friends, and trade begins to break down,
Cross, if you’re to believe that shameless propagandist starving Londinium. By the end of the 5th century,
Tacitus. Yet it isn’t the old dead Roman whose cult the last traces of the Roman lifestyle, the villas,
still has a following in modern Britannia, so one plantations, arts and culture have fallen to ruins,
might ask who really won that war. along with Londinium’s public buildings and repur-
Through the first three centuries Londinium posed temples.
grows, gaining the proper civic edifices which mark But a choice spot like Londinium won’t remain
Romanized cities. The locals marry Romans and take unoccupied for long. The Anglo-Saxons take over the
Roman names. The tribes allied with Rome prosper lease in the 5th century and hold it until the fateful
from the trade with the Empire. Not everyone is invasion of 1066. Under the Saxons Londinium
entirely pleased with being ruled by the Romans, of becomes Londenburh, the London Fort. After 800
course, and the Scots make it a sport to occasionally or so the Vikings take up the old tradition of raiding
overrun the great wall commissioned by Hadrian, to and sacking it, and even take it over for a short time
burn and ravage and raid and make a grand weekend before Alfred the Great gives them a stern talking-to.
of doing violence to the Romans and their allies. In 1066 the Normans come knocking, and
Perhaps in reaction to this sort of woaded threat never leave. They bring a cultural infusion
the Romans build a wall around the city, a boundary which will radically change the
which defines and shapes the city for centuries to Roman-influenced Saxon
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culture of the island, and William the Conqueror

makes his mark on London in permanent ways,
such as the Tower of London. The Norman conquest
links Britain to continental Europe in much the
same way the Roman invasion linked it to Rome.
Trade and cultural contact become regular, and
London blossoms. Westminster Hall is constructed
soon after the invasion, and starting around 1200 it
becomes the preferred royal residence for centuries.
The Palace of Westminster will one day house the
legislative branch of Britain’s constitution-free
constitutional monarchy—until the nasty business
with the fire, of course.
Fire and London have a long and touchy
relationship. Fire and disease have been London’s
banes since the earliest ages of its evolution from
a Roman outpost to the modern capital of Empire.
A warren of narrow twisting streets and wood and
thatch buildings, medieval London is a tinderbox,
and after sundown every source of light involves fire.
Its population tops 80,000, and people live atop one
another, breathing into each other’s faces, bathing
rarely, and tracking human waste back into their
homes after flinging it into the streets.
In the mid-14th century the Black Death leaves
piles of corpses and some endearing nursery rhymes
in its wake. London’s population drops by half.
Imagine tens of thousands of corpses bloating in piles,
and being carted to lime pits for disposal.
British history is a bloody affair, with so many
wars they often blur into each other at the edges.
But by the late 1400s the Tudors are in charge
and puffy pants are in style. The Reformation isn’t
especially bloody in London, but it marks a prodi-
gious land-grab. Henry VIII dissolves the monas-
teries, which represent a significant chunk of
London’s area and population. The nobility see their
lands increase dramatically. Monasteries become
manor homes, and “abbey” is more likely to refer
to the house of a lord than a House of the
Lord.
162 By the 16th century London
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St.
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Some county names have been abbreviated, e.g.: Bedfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, etc.
 Chapter 4

has Shakespeare and Elizabeth I. She turns Britain broken them all. That was September, and let me tell
from something of a backwater into a major you, it wasn’t half cold.”
European power, and expands that power into the The Fire scours upwards on 60 percent of the city
New World—and into the Otherworld. Her master and leaves plenty of room for rebuilding. Many of
spy and magus Sir Francis Walsingham sees to it that the wealthy residents don’t rebuild in place, but move
the troublesome faerie courts fall in on themselves west, establishing that direction as London’s most
and waste their splendid powers and strength in fashionable. After the fire brick and stone become
civil war. The assassination of the Faerie Queen the preferred building materials, and Parliament
commonly called Titania precipitates the strife, makes it official with an Act. Christopher Wren and
and Walsingham’s mark is well upon those bloody Robert Hooke put their marks on the city by recon-
events. But Elizabeth shows some of the same spirit structing churches and civic buildings in the styles
which will imbue Victoria, and her rule is a Golden of the time.
Age of discovery, art, science, and formal courtly Even through all this, London is becoming one
magic. As Britain’s fortunes rise, so do London’s. In of the great financial powers of the world, and is
the 1600s London’s population tops 200,000, yet the home to the Bank of England.
city’s boundaries remain fairly compact. Many of In the 18th century London takes wing. The
the nobility start expanding out and building estates Georgians see the city’s population increase signifi-
in places like Middlesex and Surrey, and the towns cantly, and its boundaries expand, necessitating
and villages which will one day become part of the new bridges and increasing development in South
greater London metropolis are themselves growing. London and the East End. London’s ports are busy
It isn’t until the later 1600s under the Stuarts every hour of the day and night. On Fleet Street, the
that London breaks out of the Roman egg and printing press plants the seeds of the modern free
stretches its wings. The major push here is by the press. In the coffee houses cropping up all over the
nobility who find London proper to be, essentially, a city some of the great ideas of the age are discussed
dump. If hell is other people, then London is more and debated. King George might lose his holdings
than even Dante could have ever wished on anyone. in much of the Americas, and see his sanity flutter
But this century sees the draining of London’s away on the evening’s breeze, but his kingdom’s
marshy surroundings, and it sees a great motivator capital is thick and hale, with money in its pockets.
for civic improvement in the Great Fire of London
in 1666. It’s almost a relief from the Great Plague of
the previous year. At least people could see what was
killing them: the swirly red and yellow stuff.
Londoners blame the fire on the papists, but
according to a Kerberan who was there at the time
it had another source: “I’d just mounted this savage
little piece, a half-breed Spanish scull with a mass
of hair blacker than the Devil’s hoof, and then her
husband burst in on us and started throwing every-
thing he could at me. When he finally got around to
pitching the oil lamp I was out the window, so it hit
the wall, and there you go. If they’d kept records in
those days, my sprint up Pudding Lane would have
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Modern London The River Thames

By mid-century London’s population tops two Nothing shapes the city of London more than the
million, and keeps growing. The city is flooded with River Thames, and in truth the city would not exist
people seeking work or fleeing desperate circum- if not for the river. During Victoria’s reign it is
stances. The famines in Ireland drive hundreds of commonly believed the name of the river is derived
thousands from their homes, and many settle in from the name of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and it
London, at some points in the century making up appears on many maps labeled as such. The dubious
as much as 20 percent of the population of the city. accuracy of such claims has certainly done nothing
Late in the century in the Kerberos Club’s to dent the secret popularity of Isis’ cult in the city
London there is a large Chinese and Indian through the ages, and still today the wives of ship-
population, alongside many with African roots, owners sometimes comb and braid their hair in the
immigrants from Britain’s colonial holdings or the secret ways said to bring fair weather.
strife-torn regions in which she warred. In Victoria’s The Thames, with its levels moderated by
diaries, She writes, “Let them come, from all parts locks, is navigable from the sea all the way into
of the globe, and enrich the blood of my people Gloucestershire, and is plied by heavily-laden ocean-
with mongrel vigor. The hound of mixed breeding going vessels as far as the London Pool just below
is always the heartiest. So shall my Kingdom be, London Bridge. In the Pool the ships are packed in
too.” Were it not for Her influences on public policy, so tightly it is said you can cross the river by stepping
these populations would be much smaller. from deck to deck. The Venerable Bede said the Pool
The diversity does nothing to stem the general air was the reason for London’s existence. While that’s
of bigotry and discrimination which is so prevalent not strictly true, the deep draft that this section of
as to be regarded as normal and expected. A white the river allows is responsible for London’s growth
Englishman can expect arch looks and whispered and power and prosperity.
words in Chinese when venturing down certain The Thames is also London’s sewer, and until
London streets, and that street’s residents could the 1860s most of London’s effluvia and the waste
expect likewise when they venture out. water from its factories and tanneries flow directly
It’s almost a truism that if something can or indirectly into the river. Combined with the
be bought or sold, then it can be bought or sold tidal nature of the river as it runs through London,
somewhere in London—whether it’s as simple as an this brings a unique aroma to the city. The river is
exotic fruit remembered fondly by a world traveler, also a favorite final resting place for those ushered
or a firearm, a murder, or a servant who is a slave in into the next life by unsavory sorts, so many that
all but name. a certain class of scavenger can eke out a meager
living fishing out floaters and taking their clothing
and belongings for resale or reuse.

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Society and Poverty and

the Season Desperation
While the wealthy and powerful might not wish to Modern visitors to London would be shocked at
reside in London all year, certain business and events the disparity between the rich and poor of the city.
can drag even the most hidebound peer back to Less than an hour’s walk can take one from wealth
Town for a month or two. London’s social calendar and privilege unrivaled in the world to poverty and
gets complicated from February to August, when unrelenting misery as bad as anything. London’s
Parliament is in session and the Great and Good old bane of overcrowding only gets worse through
return from their country estates to their London Victoria’s reign. While the city’s boundaries expand
homes (or homes rented for the occasion). Between somewhat, people in the East End still live one on
a thousand and two thousand families make up top of another, dozens sharing the same tiny room
Society: peers, royals, politicians and, in this age, and sleeping in shifts when not scrabbling to make
some with no claim to genteel company beyond vast, a living any way possible.
vast sums of money, tracts of land, fleets of ships, or One notorious concentration of misery is a
acres of factory floor. district colloquially called the Rookery, an area
Most of these seasonal Londoners take residence bordered by George Street, High Street, St Giles,
in the West End or the more fashionable suburbs and Bainbridge Street. In 1850, Thomas Beames
opened up by the new railways. described the area in his The Rookeries of London
It is sometimes called the Voting Season to as a honeycomb of blind alleys and hidden courts,
differentiate it from Fox Season and Shooting in which anyone who could pay would find refuge
Season, and others where the Victorian elite kill and from the Law among the lowest of the thieving
slay among the lesser creatures rather than among classes and the eternally poor.
the reputations of their fellows. London’s cultural The streets of the East End are often crowded
sphere lights up during the Season. Theaters debut with prostitutes, while a somewhat more sophisti-
new works, galleries host exhibitions, composers cated class of woman serves the men of the West
present new arrangements. It is also a time for the End, circulating among the crowds when the theaters
making of deals, social, political and economic. let out in the evenings. London is sometimes called
Marriages are arranged, business is conducted, and the Whorehouse to the World as so many prosti-
decisions which will shape the Empire are made at tutes work its streets, coffee houses and secret
countless parties and soirées. brothels. As tight as Victoria laces Her Empire,
Her citizens still find their releases in vice. Among
the destitute—packed in the rotting tenements of
London’s poor districts, unable to afford dignity at
all—there is someone hungry enough to indulge
any perversion or desire for the oppor-
tunity to eat for one more day.
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The alternatives to this relentless toil and victim- relentless, soul-breaking labor such as breaking
ization are not much better. There’s little social rocks or walking a treadmill. For this system to
security in this age. Abhorrence among the wealthy work, institutions must remain more horrible than
and powerful for freeloading paupers getting tossed the streets. As conditions worsen, so too must
into prison for the winter or entering a Workhouse the prisons and poor houses. During the turmoil
yielded the principle of reduced eligibility. The basic following the Atlantean Invasion, one workhouse
idea is that prison or a workhouse ought to be worse manager in Maiden Head institutes branding: one
than what a pauper could manage scratching out touch of the iron for every month spent in the
their own living. Institutions to house the poor or house. Before public outrage sees the practice ended,
criminal are deliberately made horrific—cold and hundreds are scarred. Perhaps it is little wonder that
uncomfortable, with terrible food and pointless, so many turn to crime.

Crashing the Party

Most Kerberans find it difficult to mingle in Society, to stand against you. Sometimes, such open bravura
yet their influence, power, and wealth can often see can win out where caution, deceit, and social games-
them grudgingly admitted to the parties and balls of manship fail. Crashing a party will inevitably lead to
the Season. serious public attention, however. The London papers
How does one manage situations when one simply have social columns dedicated to all the happenings
must attend a particular party, ball, event or salon, and of the Season. Something as sensational as a group
no invitation is forthcoming? of Strangers barging into the Duke of Westminster’s
Admission to these events is usually fairly restricted, birthday party, spinning wonders among the crowd and
but to one able to arrange proper dress, and being drinking far too much, will be reported nationally and
accompanied and delivered to the door in a proper even internationally. If the goal is to attract attention,
fashionable carriage, presenting a forged (or stolen) then this might be the way to go.
invitation shouldn’t be impossible to arrange. Some It is entirely possible that such tactics might lead to
events are more casual, and admission is a matter of violence or the threat of violence. Footmen might be
knowing the right people and being known yourself. In set upon the interlopers and even the police might be
these circumstances, making some friends beforehand, called—though this would itself be unconscionably
willing or unwilling, might gain one admittance. To a scandalous and certainly a last resort.
man who can see through walls, read minds, or walk Regardless, in many ways, the Kerberos Club is the
invisibly among his peers, the secrets of the overly antithesis to everything Society stands for: Kerberans
respectable can easily be ferreted out. are Strange, egalitarian and revolutionary, and threaten
And one wonders why so many of the peerage despise the social and economic underpinnings of Britain’s
all things Strange, eh? elites.
The most difficult route into the bright lights and This is perhaps one of the reasons the Queen protects
glamour might simply be to walk in and present the Kerberos Club, as a foil and unspoken threat against
yourself in all your Strange glory, and dare anyone the Empire’s most powerful citizens.
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Crime and Vice

Victoria’s London was rife with the old crimes of
robbery, assault, kidnapping, blackmail, forgery,
rape, and murder—but the new age, the advent of
telecommunications, and the growing sophistication
of the financial markets opened up new realms of
genteel crimes, embezzlement and the manipulation
of markets.
Those who risk their sanity and nervous systems
in Needlework can find gainful employ with the
great institutions of the day, sifting vast amounts of
machine-signal for patterns and meaning, but far
too many find themselves working for the criminal
set, sewing patterns which benefit their paymasters
into the Empire’s growing volume of machine-code
information. By the 1880s, few organized criminal
enterprises move forward without getting someone
on the needle to cover the information flow, obscuring
clues to their plans before police or Special Branch
Needlemen can ferret out the patterns of their plan
in the machine-signal. The price of the vital and
highly addictive drugs that allow Needlework soar,
as those on the needle will pay any price to keep from
experiencing the crippling and horrific withdrawals.
But most of London’s crime is still fairly petty,
and most is driven by desperation. The desire to eat
and sleep indoors is a strong motivator. For some,
colloquially called the “criminal classes,” these
activities are somewhat organized. The Victorians
are prodigious self-organizers, forming associations
and brotherhoods, and joining clubs and criminal
fraternities. Some of these gangs have the air of the
foreigner about them (such as the so-called Black
Hand of Italy) but most are home-grown associa-
tions of petty criminals who organize along the lines
of mutual cooperation and protection.
Having a dozen people willing to
swear your whereabouts at the
time a crime was committed
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In a Hail of Hot Lead

Upper and middle-class Victorians take killing pretty There is also the matter of whom one kills. The truth
seriously—more so than most modern role-playing of Victorian London is that while the well-to-do and
gamers take it in their games, at any rate. In a tradi- the socially-conscious might indulge in a fastidious
tional adventuring mode the PCs stack corpses up disdain for murderous violence, there were thousands
like cordwood. Sometimes it’s slaying and killing only upon thousands who could simply not afford that
evil orc-types, but just as likely it’s anyone who gets luxury. In the slums of London violence is ever present,
in their way. This isn’t a surprise, as a major source for and frequently lethal. The only difference between the
traditional games is heroic fantasy where “evil” can be murder of an East End prostitute and that of a banker
handily conflated with “anyone who gets between the from the Old City is who pays attention to it.
hero and his objective.” Until he began taunting the police and the press,
The setting of The Kerberos Club operates on the even Jack the Ripper failed to raise much furor, and
assumption that murderous violence is shocking, that he certainly wasn’t the first madman to engage in such
there is a real sick-making taboo against slaying others slaughter.
outside the honorable context of soldiering. And even But there’s a counter even in the worst slums, where
then, the taking of life is part of a soldier’s sacrifice to people know violence like an old family friend. People
his country; the soldier takes upon himself that sin are used to repaying violence with violence, and to
so his loved ones and nation need not bear it directly. attending to their own business. If you become known
Murder is serious—at least to those with the power to in some quarters as a killer, then you’ll find no friendly
pass laws, organize manhunts, and read with disgust reception there, and quite possibly some tough’s clasp
the latest gunfire outrage perpetrated upon the good knife in your kidney.
folk of London. If the players decide to put down their foes in hails
Now, if you wish to retain this aspect of the setting, of hot lead (or bolts of hellfire, swarms of demonic
how to impress the significance of restraint on players butterflies, strokes of lightning, or deadly Oriental
who are used to playing every encounter like the lobby hand-fighting techniques), make sure they know ahead
scene from The Matrix? of time that you’re keeping track of it, and that it might
First off, explain it. Lay it out for your players during well come back to haunt them—perhaps quite literally.
the initial session so everyone gets fair warning. Explain
that killings, unless covered up with care, attract
attention and investigation (especially if reported in
the press). Also point out that of all Victoria’s subjects,
members of the Kerberos Club might have the least
reason to expect their fellow citizens to judge them
fairly: “He must be guilty of something, eh? I mean…
just look at ’im.”
 Chapter 4

is a powerful defense against the laws of Britain,

which until the later three decades of the century
The Wrong Side of the Law
rely almost entirely on witness testimony. Only It never made much sense to me, the way villains
use their superpowers in the comics. I could never
the coming of anthropological and physiographic
imagine a situation where superpowers and the
evidence changes this dynamic.
fame they bring would be better used robbing banks
A great many of London’s criminals are children.
or holding cities for ransom than, say, dominating
A high death rate and dire financial circumstances professional sports and getting massive shoe
lead to a shocking number of orphans, and in order contracts, or hooking up with the government or
to survive many join child gangs or latch onto adult a corporation for a huge salary and benefits. Plus,
outfits for protection and purpose. There is so little being a villain meant you always lost.
social support that this turn to lawlessness isn’t hard Here’s the thing about the world of The Kerberos
to understand, but the puritanical public morality Club: Fame only goes so far. That world is far more
of the time tends to forbid any sympathy for the prejudiced, judgmental, superstitious, and future-
wretches. shocked than ours today. People in Victoria’s
As Scrooge puts it: “If they would rather die… London, even in the depths of the Strange ’90s, still
they had better do it, and decrease the surplus basically mistrust the superhuman. It’s inexplicably,
population.” disturbingly, irrationally unnatural, no matter how
The way crime impacts the larger culture is quite patriotic or beautiful the manifestation is. On some
level, the mind rebels at the reality of the super-
similar to today. Victorian journalism explodes, and
human.
the business of selling papers depends on grabbing
It’s easier to imagine how some gifted (or cursed)
attention, on headlines, and on sensationalism and
bloke might find the prospect of walking through
scandal. A hundred paupers might vanish in London the walls of the Bank of England or using his genius
in a day, but if one ringleted blonde daughter of a to build weapons for the Russian Czars pretty
prominent Lord vanishes in the night the whole attractive when his fellow Britons reject his powers
town will be in frenzy. Parliament will pass new laws or mistrust his genius. The barriers of class, wealth,
in response. The police will crack down on whoever education, and reputation can transcend and even
is handy, just to be seen to be working, despite Peel’s trump the superhuman (assuming the Stranger
explicit dictates to the contrary. doesn’t have superhuman charisma or charm). Even
Yet murder isn’t an especially common crime, a worker of genuine miracles might find no legit-
despite the population density of London through imate way to profit from it.
the century. A killing can still grab attention, even if And walking through bank walls is so easy…
it were of a lowly sort. Crimes of passion sometimes
result in deaths, botched robberies as well, and again violence done with firearms is remarkably low,
sometimes deliberate, premeditated murders are averaging fewer than fifty instances in a given year
done, but they still have the power to shock. It isn’t in the whole of the United Kingdom. The reasons
until the plagues of Strange violence late in the are complex, but suffice to say even among criminals,
century that people become more inured to seeing murderous violence is treated seriously, and barring
and hearing about violence being done. There is an mental instability or drunken impairment it is
almost charming lack of public cynicism. Or at least, done only when it can not be avoided—or at
cynicism isn’t treated as a virtue. least is done in a quiet fashion. The
Gun ownership is common, and before acts blade or cudgel is still the favorite
passed in the 1870s, almost entirely unrestricted. Yet implement of mayhem.
171
 Chapter 4

Crime is a fairly regional thing in London. The more than one gentleman to suicide as the only way
prosperity and police presence in a given district will out from under the obligation. Only slightly better
determine to a great degree the kinds of crime one than the pistol is becoming permanently snared by
might encounter there. In the West End, even the a predatory moneylender who will bleed you dry
beggars are well mannered and ply their trade with with interest for years and years. In more humble
a certain formality. In the warrens of the East End company, failure to repay gambling debts can find
one can be bludgeoned unconscious and robbed for one wallowing face-down in the stinking muck of
a dozen different reasons, from deliberate oppor- the Thames at low tide.
tunism to simply having hair the same color as an That’s drink and gambling. What of sex and
angry drunk’s bastard brother-in-law. violence?
Riding in the same cart as Crime comes Vice. Londoners love both, in their proper place.
The Victorians are enthusiastic drinkers. With the As moralistic as the age might seem, prostitution
often-tainted water supplies of London, drinking remains legal until very nearly the end of the
beer, wine, and spirits is safer. Britain is justly famous century, and it has been estimated that as many
for its beers and spirits, and is a major importer of as twenty to fifty thousand prostitutes (casual and
wines. Home and small-scale brewing is common full-time) work in London. The motivator for the
as well. For the poor, a nearly toxic grade of gin is majority of prostitution is poverty. Many prosti-
the tipple of choice: It obliterates consciousness tutes have children to support and no other way to
amazingly fast, and is often deliberately adulterated make a living. Once “fallen” it is very difficult for
with chemicals like benzene, benzyl, or wood a woman to find legitimate employment. Even the
alcohol. For a penny a drink, even the poorest can accusation of prostitution (as is possible under the
afford enough of the evil brew to render themselves Hygiene Laws) is sometimes enough to destroy a
insensible and often nearly insane. reputation. Pimps and procurers take advantage of
Opium slithers into Britain, something of a these women, and for all but a few who work the
just consequence of the deadly opium trade with West End and attract wealthy admirers, the life is
China. By mid-century opium dens crop up in miserable and often short.
the areas along the docks, such as Limehouse. The Violence is exciting, whether it takes the form of
more sophisticated opium-eater would indulge in a crowd cheering two drunken brawlers, to a formal
laudanum, a tincture of opium, sometimes sweetened boxing match attended by Lords and gentlemen
into a syrup. It is (along with cocaine) a major ingre- sportsmen. It is all about context: a man might
dient in many patent medicines, to which thousands rebel at the cruel treatment of a horse seen in the
are unknowingly addicted. It certainly encourages streets, yet enjoy a spectacle of violence from trained
demand among those who take it. animals, such as a dog fight or fox hunting.
And with drink, there’s always gambling. The
Victorians will wager on anything from the outcome
of a horse race to the fall of cards, to who would
remain standing in a bare-knuckles fight, or to which
terrier could kill the most rats in a minute. Fortunes
are squandered, lives ruined. In high company,
the repayment of gambling debts is
considered a matter of great honor,
172 and being unable to do so leads
 Chapter 4

take over investigations, close them down, or block

Law and Order certain avenues of enquiry. In matters pertaining to

Her Majesty’s security and on issues of domestic
espionage, Special Branch handles the investigations.
Law enforcement changes dramatically during the Special Branch also deals with issues which might
19th century. Prior to Peel’s establishment of the result in embarrassment to Crown and Country. It is
Metropolitan Police in the 1830s, enforcement of the said that more than a few of the inmates of Bedlam
law is done by court bailiffs and private contractors— were not mad before being snatched off the street
thief-takers paid to apprehend those against whom by Special Branch officers, treated with sanity-
charges are brought. Peel’s nine principles of modern destroying chemicals and locked away forever.
policing put the emphasis on preventing rather The City of London, the tiny core of the old Roman
than merely punishing crime, and on the need for a city, has its own police force and the Metropolitan
police force to earn public respect by a constant and Police does not patrol there, though Scotland Yard’s
unwavering impartiality in applying the law and not detectives are often consulted on certain matters. The
by catering to whim or desire. Initially mocked and City of London Police maintain a small and discrete
disliked, the Peelers and Bobbies are soon a common team of well-paid Strangers as well. The so-called City
sight in London, and their success at policing the Guard’s generous salaries are paid by a private trust
streets and intervening in potential conflicts prevent funded by the business and financial interests based
the city from descending into chaos during more in the Old City. The Guard often find themselves at
exciting times. They are so successful at putting odds with many of London’s Strange citizens, and
pressure on criminals that many abandon London, they make it a point to follow them when they enter
moving to other towns to ply their trade, which the Old City, keeping their harassment low-key but
inspires the creation of new police forces there as well. still fairly obvious. The Guard all easily blend with
The Metropolitan Police are based in a building ordinary humanity, and rarely don their uniforms
opposite the small open area in Whitehall called except on ceremonial and public occasions.
Scotland Yard, until the building is destroyed in Behind this modern police force is the rather
the Automechanical Mutiny. Then they are based in elderly and infirm court system, overburdened and
New Scotland Yard on the Victorian Embankment. hidebound. From the top down, the final court of
Scotland Yard comes to house the investigative appeal in the land is the venerable House of Lords,
branches of the Police Service, while for the constab- but actually having a case heard by the House is
ulary proper the police stations are spread out and rare as there is always a great backlog of cases and
housed within London’s seventeen districts. appeals for the Lords to consider.
Initially, Special Branch is also housed in The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Scotland Yard, but friction with the regular police hears appeals from colonial courts as well as eccle-
and detectives lead the division to find its own siastical cases.
headquarters elsewhere, and it moves a dozen times The Supreme Court of the Judicature has two
throughout the latter half of the century. Special branches: the Court of Appeal, which accepts
Branch officers are disparagingly called “Skinners,” appeals from the common-law courts, and the High
a play on “Peeler” and a comment on the more brutal Court of Justice, which accepts appeals from the
methods Special Branch is permitted to employ. Chancery courts, typically dealing with
Special Branch has few friends in the regular business and financial matters.
police service, but its officers have the authority to The High Court of Justice has
173
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The Hounds of Justice

With the creation of the Tracking Squad, the police of others, kept the homicidal doctor from using his
finally acknowledge the necessity to field their own powers to escape justice entirely.
supernaturally-potent officers in pursuit of equally- When Mitchell testifies in his own defense, he has
potent felons. this to say:
While Special Branch might like to claim that the “You, my so-called peers, would pass judgment on me
“filthy dogs” aren’t needed and that they can handle when you’re not fit to judge the actions of a dog. If you
anything the Strange might throw up, their bluster convict me, can you be sure I’ll remain locked away?
is proven wrong time and again. A crime wave Will I be watched at all times by worms such as that
perpetrated by superhuman opportunists galvanizes one [indicating Blank]? Hardly. There will come a time
Parliament to pass acts specifically criminalizing the when attention will waver, and I’ll have my way with
use of “Powers, Capacities, Insights, and Birthrights my guards, and they will set me free and give me the
Deemed Unnatural, Inhuman, or Disruptive to the coins in their pockets. I’ll have their wives to satisfy me,
Public Order” in the commission of another crime. The and then I’ll come for you lot. I’ll make you swallow
use of such powers makes the root crime worse, and poison or leap from your rooftops, or cut the throats of
thus punished more severely. With this legal backing, your children and then stand trial yourselves. No prison
judges see it as their mandate to persecute superhuman can hold me! You had best think about that every night
criminals with harsh sentences. This was all in the if you find me guilty.”
hopes of holding back the tide of superhuman crime, Dr. Holcomb’s trial is remarkably quick, and the
and dissuading the notion that extraordinary abilities judge imposes a sentence of death by hanging, with the
allow one to commit offenses with little fear. stipulation that the doctor be kept in a constant stupor
Such is the case of Dr. Holcomb Mitchell, a consulting with laudanum until the deed be done.
physician of no small reputation apprehended by the Less severe sentences often involve transportation,
Tracking Squad and convicted of his wife’s murder exile to a distant colony. But unlike ordinary criminals,
in the fall of 1880. Dr. Mitchell never laid a hand on Strange criminals are routinely transported not overseas
his wife. Rather he exerted a measure of his powerful but into the Otherworld outside New Birmingham, and
mesmeric influence over her, and caused her to go out set loose among the things Stranger than themselves—
and jump from London Bridge while holding a stone’s to fight, survive, or die, and in doing so impose the
weight of iron chain. Only the presence of Kerberos British way of life upon the realms of spirit and myth.
Club member Noel Blank, a hunched unhappy little British justice stumbles and fumbles when dealing
Stranger with the power to neutralize the weird gifts with the Strange, but it wins a fair number of victories.

174
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five divisions: the Chancery; the Queen’s Bench; no purpose other than to exhaust them and break
Common Pleas; Exchequer; and Probate, Divorce their spirits. Food is meager; mail, if it arrives at all, is
and Admiralty. read and examined by guards; and discipline is brutal
Below this there are about a dozen courts dealing and merciless. Trends in prison reform come and go,
with regional issues, business, and other matters— some emphasizing prisons as penitentiaries (places
but those of the Kerberos Club are most likely to which make people penitent), others simply intended
find themselves dealing with British Law in the to keep dangerous people locked away from society
Central Criminal Courts housed in the Old Bailey for as long as possible.
(named for the gates of the old Roman city walls). In 1879, South Bend Prison is opened south
While the Police Courts handle minor matters and of the Thames, an experiment in private prison
misdemeanors, the Criminal Courts deal with crimes management. The South Bend Company is paid a set
heinous and sensational, and also the mundane and amount per head per annum for support and upkeep
sadly ordinary. Under British Common Law legal of its prisoners. The more the company keeps down
decisions and the instructions given to juries are its costs and gainfully employs its captive workforce,
based on previous decisions, but judges have a great the wider its profit margins. By 1885, the scandalous
deal of leeway in interpreting previous rulings. rumors escaping South Bend cause public outcry
A few specific Acts of Parliament apply in some enough for the prison to be examined. What the
criminal cases, but for the most part matters of law investigators find within is not the expected squalor
are decided by judges whose impartiality can only be and abuse, but something much more horrible.
hoped for. Worse, the backlog of cases at any time The prison has become a machine made of flesh
means long waits for cases to be tried, with favor- and anger, fear and helplessness: a machine made
itism in scheduling the docket based on patronage of human lives, which has no purpose other than to
or bribery. Still, those tried in British courts have shred the boundaries of the World and Otherworld,
their cases heard by a jury of their fellow Britons, until there is no difference in nightmare and waking
and may always present character witnesses to swear reality there in South Bend’s heart. Inside its walls,
to their sober attitudes, hard work, dedication to space and time lose their cohesion, cause and effect
family, and regular attendance of divine services. break down and chase each other round and about
For those who fall afoul of the courts, however, the in no certain pattern. The walls sweat and weep. The
specter of prison lurks. Victoria’s prisons are governed prisoners are covered in stone dust, their eyes chalk-
by much the same philosophy of Reduced Eligibility white. The guards are remade as the prisoners see
as its workhouses. Prisons are meant to be so awful them, and they are horrors.
that the poor will not commit crimes merely to gain The place is contained by the army, and then
regular meals and a warm place to sleep in winter. burned down. The papers report that the fire was the
Prisons are made bleak, hard and miserable. Prisoners result of a riot. The South Bend Horror leads finally to
are stripped, deloused, shaved, and examined for meaningful prison reform pushed through Parliament
identifying marks which are recorded against future by the Royalist faction of MPs acting on Her Majesty’s
criminal activity. They are issued new clothing and explicit instructions. Such a wound in the World must
examined to determine if they are fit for labor. If never be allowed to recur.
deemed able to labor, they are sometimes worked hard In the following months, the greedy shareholders
at meaningless, back-breaking physical exertions such of the South Bend Company not arrested
as pacing endlessly around the treadmill, or breaking or vanished by Special Branch all
rocks, or moving piles of stone or cannonballs, all to meet with Strange ends.
175
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Escape From Devil Island!

To truly change the tone of a game, you might consider Drogue stones come in many sizes, from those small
sending the characters to a horrible fate for crimes enough to be carried by a single man to the huge ones
they didn’t commit. Begin the session with the judge which protect the colony itself. The size of a stone is in
declaring the verdict: Transportation! Fill in the details direct proportion to the area it protects and solidifies. A
in flashback, perhaps on the prison ship bearing them stone that a man could carry on his back protects only
to the New Birmingham mists. him; one borne on a horse-drawn wagon could protect
The colony is rough, with a distinct frontier quality, a small company of riflemen; and one in the hold of
but is also invested with such a wealth of wonders that a ship protects the whole vessel. The smallest stones
its residents almost entirely ignore them, dismissing as weigh upwards of fifty pounds, the largest many tons.
utterly prosaic sights which would render a Londoner Drogue stones are carefully guarded by trustee
speechless. Colonists in Faerie are very hard to impress, Strangers, transported like other colonists but given
and often have unusual resources to bring to bear on special status, after a few years’ good behavior, to
arrogant outsiders who haven’t learned the way of things. protect the stones; the survival of thousands depends
A pinch of grue powder might render a vain newcomer on them. Of course, few can swim while carrying one,
magnificently ugly until they learn to demonstrate which necessitates acquiring a boat to make an escape.
humility. A well-played fiddle made of Faerie wood Escape from New Birmingham is best treated as a
could force a victim to dance. A colonist’s revolver scenario, but detailed below are suggestions on how to
might fire aggressive and spiteful atomies, furious deal with some of the situations which could crop up
from their confinement inside a brass carriage. (Unless as you pit the defenses of the colony and its security
treated in the goblin factories of New Birmingham, measures against the ingenuity of the escapees.
most of these wonders are too fragile for export back Obstacle: Steal a boat or persuade the owner to sell
to the World, evaporating into starlight and smoke as it. A Stealth, Persuasion, or Intimidation roll opposed
they cross the threshold.) by the owners Notice, Smarts, or Spirit roll (Depending
And of course there was the sham trial, the falsified on the trait used). Complication: A failure on this roll
evidence, and the quick execution of the sentence—to means the owner spots the heroes, or has a change of
what purpose? Does some powerful agency wish the heart and alerts the authorities; you are forced to hide
characters to take some action in New Birmingham? until authorities give up the chase. A critical failure
Something only a disgraced criminal could undertake? could mean the heroes are confronted and forced to
fight the boat’s owner to escape.
Into the Mists Obstacle: Steal a drogue stone. This might involve
To escape from New Birmingham, first you need a Stealth rolls to reach the stone undetected, plus a
drogue stone. Drogue stones (see page 126) anchor New Strength roll to lift it, depending on its size. Failure
Birmingham in reality, keeping it solid and constant in might lead to the heroes being nearly caught, forcing
the flickering changefulness of Faerie. The mists which them to hide or combat the guards. A critical failure
cloak Faerie part before them. Escape without one is might bring the heroes into confrontation with a
nearly impossible. Stranger trustee, who they must defeat to escape with
 Chapter 4

the stone. (The GM should assign his Stats, Skills and Obstacle: The Changewinds blow. If the heroes are
powers.) without a drogue stone they will also have to make an
Obstacle: Obscuring mists. This will probably involve additional Spirit (-1) roll or become forever marked by
Tracking rolls. On a failure, the heroes go in circles for their brush with faerie. On a failure they are transformed
hours, possibly missing some crucial deadline. On a superficially, and emerge looking like a different person,
critical failure they are lost for days, possibly suffering perhaps changing even gender. On a critical failure they
starvation. See the Hunger rules in Savage Worlds. are wholly remade into a different creature—the GM
Obstacle: A chittering in the darkness. The heroes should liaise with the player to create a completely new
are harried by unseen pursuers, and might have to make character at the experience point level of the original
Guts rolls. On a failure they could be panicked and run character.
heedlessly, possibly falling overboard in their terror.
On a Critical Failure, a creature forms from their fears Venturing Into Faerie
and phobias and attempts to throw your drogue stone An alternative to drogue stone and boat is to take the
overboard. (The GM should assign its Stats, Skills and long way around, marching deeper into Faerie and
powers.) trying to find a portal back into the familiar world.
Obstacle: Neverwhen. This requires the Hero with But given the choice between risking the mists by
the lowest Spirit die to make a roll at –2. If the heroes boat and the overland march, even the most desperate
have a drogue stone, then no roll is necessary, as they criminal will choose the mist. The mists may confound,
arrive at their destination automatically. Failure means transform, transmute, entrance, and displace an unpro-
the heroes emerge from the mists in some strange part tected escapee—but compared to what the wild faerie
of the world they have never before seen, and on a beasts and lords (see page 243) will do, that’s the
critical failure it is years or decades later than it should preferable option. The details of that perilous journey
be. are up to the GM to devise.
 Chapter 4

shipped by barge from upstream. But ever-thirsty

City Administration London too often has to drink its own filth, and the
cholera outbreaks which result kill thousands.
In 1870 United Electrical forms, and builds

and Services an enormous coal-fired electrical generation plant

on the Isle of Dogs. United Electric uses Wireless
Transmission Coils licensed from Nicola Tesla, and
London is a mishmash of shires and districts, but the they began offering the lease of Induction Receivers,
establishment of The Metropolitan Board of Works units which can be installed in a home to receive
in 1855 sees the governance and management of the broadcast power and convert it into useful electrical
city placed under one authority. The Board oversees current which can then power the new Edison-Swan
public services such as the sewer systems, streets, lamps.
bridges, fire brigade, and care of the embankments. The use of Tesla’s wireless system allows power
The Board has a great deal of authority and very to be delivered to Londoners without the need to
little accountability, a state of affairs which leads to lay down wiring to carry it from the generators
the level of corruption one might expect. By the time to homes and businesses. This gives electricity a
it is decommissioned and replaced with the County further advantage over gas, which still has to be
Council of London in 1887, it has weathered major carried through expensive piping. The lease of Tesla’s
scandal, criminal charges of its officials, and the Induction Receivers (nicknamed “Ducks”) rather
general contempt of the common Londoner, who than the sale of a commodity allows a different
expects nothing but poor service, hostility, incom- business arrangement, and the contracts signed
petence, and frustration from any dealing with the when leasing a unit allow prices to float based on
Board. United Electric’s costs. By the late 1880s, tens of
London’s utilities are private ventures generally. thousands of Ducks are in service in London and its
The famous gas is provided first by a single company suburbs, and slowly its fogs are illuminated by the
which extracts it from heated coal and sends it to harsh white of arc lighting rather than the wavering
homes through pipes laid down especially for this glow of burning gas.
purpose. Initially it’s quite an expensive luxury, The adoption of power transmission by Babbage
but several competing firms eventually drive the Computational to drive its Automechanicals
price of gas down far enough for the middle class prevents the Automechanical Mutiny from being
to easily afford it. Hundreds of miles of pipe are much worse. When the Isle of Dogs generating
laid, sometimes leading to agents of the companies plant is shut down, it immediately causes a full two
warring openly and secretly to dominate the local thirds of the revolting machines to fall silent.
distribution system. Sabotage, libelous statements,
and even physical assaults from gasmen are not
uncommon.
Most of London’s drinking water comes from
rain-filled cisterns, and many squares and street-
corners sport public wells. But with the increas-
ingly dangerous levels of sewage leaking
into the water table, many wells
178 became too tainted. Water is
 Chapter 4

laborers listen to them read in pubs and alehouses.

Culture and Even the illiterate can follow their favorite authors.
The specialized and expensive devices needed
to receive and decode televocagraphic broadcasts

Entertainment keep wireless media in the hands of a wealthy few,

and the low demand prevents it from ever carrying
a great deal of content—only music, policy, procla-
In Victorian London the written word rules. mation, and other fairly dry stuff. Yet London is a
Hundreds of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, town filled with entertainment. Its theaters cater to
pamphlets, tracts, papers, monographs, reviews, refined audiences with plays classic and modern, as
quarterlies, journals, and anthologies are printed well as opera, and there are plenty of theaters to show
regularly. The post is delivered several times a day. populist works—some, to borrow from the modern
It is possible in London to receive a copy of your idiom, “ripped from the headlines,” such as Gilbert
preferred newspaper in the morning, write a letter and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer, which was inspired by
to the editor in the midday, and see it printed in the the sensational trial of a Cockney businessman who
evening edition. offered the sale of “love potions.” (The courts ruled
Fiction enjoys a broad acceptance as well. that use of love potions, or any other unnatural
Serialized fiction especially blossoms. Luminaries influence on affection, to exact sexual favors consti-
like Dickens make their names writing such, and tuted rape, and that the sale of such things made one
when new installments of his stories are published liable to charges of accomplice to rape.)
families gather to hear them read in the home and For those who find the theater too titillating,
London’s parks offer outdoor recreation. The great
royal parks are large enough to ride or even hunt,
A Sunday Ride in Hyde Park something the veterans of the 13th Lupine appre-
Hyde Park becomes a major social center for the
ciate when they feel the pull of the wilderness: Hyde
upper and middle-upper classes in the 1880s. It
park with the picturesque Serpentine River (techni-
begins as the place to be seen, and becomes a place
cally a lake), Regent’s Park, Victoria Park to the
one almost must be seen. Sundays see the wealthy
and the wish-to-be-wealthy flood the park, to ride northeast, Battersea park south of the river. Besides
and to flirt, to watch and to be watched. the great royal parks there are dozens of green
The Park becomes something of a fashion show, as squares and courtyard gardens, gated green oases
well, with the mistresses of wealthy men, fashionable in London’s urban desert, though these are usually
courtesans, and actresses coming to show off their guarded jealously by their owners.
extraordinary coifs and dresses, their riding, and
their unrepentant sexuality. London’s respectable
ladies come as much to watch the strumpets as to
take the air, and the Sunday dress of a courtesan
might become the Monday dress of a well-to-do
lady.
Characters who mingle with the upper classes
will at some point find themselves in Hyde Park
on a bright Sunday, and immersed in the seemingly
light but decidedly sharp social interplay.
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 Chapter 4

cobbles, and deadly to anyone trapped in their path.

Transportation Cart horses also drop enormous quantities of dung,

feeding the London miasma and spreading tubercu-
losis and other diseases.
London’s streets are crowded with thousands and The keeping and support of a fashionable carriage,
thousands of pedestrians, and for a great many of footmen, driver, and horses is also something of a
London’s masses this is the only form of transport must for anyone of quality, and a sign of wealth,
they can regularly afford. Costermongers pull their position, and luxury. While Victoria’s Spartan
carts, selling as they walk. Boys on errands run aesthetic might reduce the ostentatious ornamen-
underfoot. Families walk together on outings, to tation of carriages, it does nothing to blunt their
church or to an afternoon’s brief recreation. So many expense or sumptuous quality.
walk through London that dozens every year are Rail comes to London first from London Bridge
accidentally crushed to death by the carriages and to Greenwich in 1836, and more routes follow as
carts which throng the streets. the engines of Empire drive onward. More lines
The omnibuses, large carts which serve the public and more stations are built, at Euston, Paddington,
along regular routes, are the transportation for those Fenchurch Street, Waterloo, and King’s Cross. By
with modest means, inexpensive by the standards of 1863 they are building tracks underground, first from
cabs or private transport, but still beyond the reach Paddington to Farrington Road, but soon expanding
of many. London’s urchins make a sport of riding outward like ant-tunnels with the aid of steam-
while clinging to the back of passing omnibuses, driven burrowing machines. In 1880, London’s main
risking death or injury under a horse’s hooves to underground routes are converted to electric, the
gain a free ride. engines driven by banks of Tesla’s Ducks (Induction
As the fashion for carriages changes, and new Receivers). Punch famously lampoons the transition
models replace old, the fleet of private carts for hire in late 1880 with a cartoon of a train filled with its
creeps slowly behind. Books have been written on previous cartoon caricatures being pulled along by a
the evolution of the carriage, but suffice to say that mother duck and her goslings.
cabs are large, black, heavy, and loud across London’s
 Chapter 4

the insane in the 1400s. Four hundred years of

A Visitor’s London insanity and maltreatment have left the place

remarkably unaffected, almost upsettingly so. The
human psyche, superstitious thing that it is, almost
Astley’s Amphitheatre: Considered the birthplace demands the walls radiate some of the madness they
of the modern circus. Built in the late 1700s for have absorbed. Oddly, they do not. To those with a
outdoor and equestrian performances, it is burned sense for these things, the absence of occult conse-
and rebuilt several times over, growing with each quences for the hospital’s history is alarming. Close
rebuilding. It finally comes to resemble a great open examination reveals that the hospital is somehow
bowl, with stepped seating surrounding a large insulated from Strange influence, a dead zone in
ring, with underground passages and lifts similar to the Otherworld, one where Strangers feel uncom-
those of the old Roman Colosseum. As the century fortable and weakened. Bedlam holds many secrets;
progresses the shows hosted at Astley’s become see page 187.
more exotic, and feature wonders such as Brazilian
dinosaurs, automechanical horses and African Bloomsbury: A picturesque area of central London
elephants. On one occasion the ring is walled and graced with some of the finest squares and garden
flooded and Atlantean krakens are exhibited. parks in the whole city. The area also hosts museums,
galleries, and academic institutions, as well as some
Bank of England: Called the Old Lady of fine residences. The whole area remains remarkably
Threadneedle Street, the Bank was established unspoiled, even through London’s bleakest yellow
in 1694. In the 1840s acts of Parliament grant it fogs, miasmas, faerie falls, invasions, revolutions, and
the exclusive right to issue banknotes and tie the rampaging monsters. Maps detailing the damage
issuance of such notes to gold reserves (though caused by London’s various catastrophes always
banks which previously had this right retain it, so have a distinct empty area where Bloomsbury sits,
long as they back their notes with gold reserves). In free of appreciable damage.
practical terms, this means the Bank is something
of a Holy Grail to those of criminal mindset and Bond Street: Location of many of London’s most
ambition, especially those with Strange aspect. fashionable shops, including several arcades, semi-
Something about robbing the Bank of England enclosed side streets lined with shops. To Bond
captures the criminal imagination; the romance of Street come the fashionable exotica of Victoria’s
it. Through the century several attempts are made, Strange empire to feed the trend for curio-cluttered
with only the Hurst and Gumble Robbery of 1871 parlors. The Street’s shops cater to other fashions as
showing any real success—though the two thieves well. To quickly grasp what London is all about this
are apprehended in France less than two weeks later. Season, a stroll down Bond Street is essential.
The Bank employs a small staff of Strangers who
covertly monitor and guard it, including one sorcerer The Borough: South of London Bridge and the
judged reliable enough to lay defensive Works upon Victory Bridge in Southwark. The Borough was
the bank itself. home to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and has proven
regularly flammable through its history, finally
Bethlem Hospital: One of London’s oldest being nearly destroyed in the Southwark
hospitals, and the oldest asylum for the insane. Fire of 1861. The fire is alleged to
Founded in the early 1200s, it began accepting have been started by a maddened
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Automechanical Domestic, though Babbage the official residence of the monarchy when Victoria
Computational threatens legal action against any moves Her residence here in 1837. As Her power
making such a claim. The Borough experiences and political influence grows, the Palace resembles
an explosion of development during the century, less and less the home of a symbolic monarch, and
becoming a major residential center in the 1850s, more the working capital of the Empire. An admin-
though it suffers greatly in the fire, then is flooded istrative wing is added in 1862 to house the Queen’s
in the Atlantean invasion, and finally is burned yet staff of clerks and analysts, and by the 1880s over a
again during the Automechanical Rebellion, this hundred thick televocagraphic cables run into the
time indisputably suffering at the artificial hands Palace. Beneath the building a huge steam generator
of the machines. During the rebuilding of the is built as well, to provide secure electrical power to
1880s it is reborn with London’s Art Nouveau— massive banks of analytic computing machinery and
gently curving steel, glass, and floral crenulations. It televocagraphic encoders.
becomes one of London’s most fashionable areas for
the New Rich. Charing Cross: Marked until 1865 by one of
the memorial crosses erected by Edward I on the
Botanic Gardens: Located a cab-ride from Ludgate site where Queen Eleanor’s coffin rested while
Hill are the extensive botanical gardens designed by proceeding to Westminster Abbey; the cross was
Sir Joseph Hooker. They are over 70 acres in extent, demolished in the 1600s, but the stone was used in
and contain conservatories, plantings, hothouses, the construction of the base to a statue of Charles
flowerbeds, and museums filled with the botanical I. These stones are stolen in 1864, and a contem-
wonders of the world, and some from beyond even porary replica erected nearby. Charing Cross is the
that wide extent. In a special hot and dry conser- legal and spiritual heart of London. Legal districts
vatory, patches of Martian lichens are propagated. and distances are marked in relation to the site of
In the Fallenford Hall, a collection of exquisite the original monument. Those who understand
faerie plants are kept, though access is controlled such things are greatly disturbed by the theft of
carefully as several species have remarkable the monument—what other place is now receiving
properties, and the tendency to befuddle unwary the focused attention that Charing Cross once did?
minds. There is some controversy with certain of Something is off about the place, certainly, as it is
the Gardens’ samples, as the collections include a frequent locus for Strange events, as if drawing
several plants considered sacred by the Atlanteans them. Charing Cross Station is opened in 1864
and other human and prehuman cultures. The Fae by the South Eastern Railway, and remains one of
find the collections alternately amusing and horri- London’s thronging centers of travel.
fying, as their natures dictate; more than a few of
the rare Otherworldly specimens are not botanical Cheapside: This thronging thoroughfare remains
at all, but transformed and transfixed faerie bound one of London’s great arteries, named for the
into the forms of impossibly beautiful flora. The medieval markets located here. Cheapside is never
crueler faerie visitors frequently take cuttings, the fashionable, but is dynamic and continuously vital.
kinder collect seeds. For this reason, a discrete but It is home to the Bow Bells of the church of St
alert guard is kept on the controversial exhibits. Mary-le-Bow, and to be a true Cockney it’s said one
must be born within earshot of these bells. Indeed,
Buckingham Palace: Purchased by there seems to be some truth to this. Babies born
182 George III, the Palace becomes while the bells rang sometimes speak of hearing the
 Chapter 4

bells as adults in their dying moments, regardless of Police cooperate easily with the Metropolitan police
where they lay breathing their last. and Scotland Yard, but have a chilly relationship
with Special Branch—they maintain their own small
Chelsea: A somewhat fashionable if modern area of group of discreet Strangers for unusual investiga-
West London chiefly known for its throngs of artists tions. Respect the City and don’t make a spectacle
and writers, and the wealthy who appreciate living of yourself, and they’re happy to leave you alone.
among them. It is an island of jaunty Bohemia, and
welcomes intellectual radicals as easily as painters. Covent Garden: Like so much of London, this
Less well known, Chelsea is also the home of some area takes its name from the markets of earlier days.
of London’s most famous (and infamous) spiritu- It is home to the vibrant Covent Garden Theater,
alists, mediums, yogic teachers, and other mystics. known for the wide and unexpected breadth of its
Even less well known, at least five genuine sorcerers productions—one month a very traditional perfor-
make their residences in Chelsea, and observing the mance of Shakespeare, the next an experimental
neighborhood with occult senses reveals the webs work heavily reliant on the new “illusory effects”
of intertwined Works coiled about it like wrestling and cold fireworks bought from New Birmingham.
snakes. The precursors to the Metropolitan Police, the Bow
Street Runners, had their headquarters here.
Chelsea Hospital: Located near Chelsea
Embankment, and accessible easily by boat or Fleet Street: Stretching from the City of London
omnibus. Founded in the time of Charles II as a to Westminster, Fleet Street is home to London’s
hospital for old soldiers, it has become a center vibrant press. Dozens of daily papers are written and
for prosthetic medicine as more and more of Her printed here. The street is peopled with newsmen
Majesty’s faithful return from abroad incomplete, and writers, with ink-stained fingers and notebooks
having left an arm or leg in some dirty hospital in their pockets. As Victoria’s apparatus becomes
tent far afield. The hospital was expanded in 1865, more concerned with the spreading of salacious
and can now accommodate three times its original rumor—or worse, damaging facts—Special Branch
capacity of 500 veterans. Research into Strange comes to be a regular presence on Fleet Street, and
methods of restoring the injured take place in the they meet the resentful looks they receive with their
hospital’s new East Wing, and it has advanced the usual unwavering glare. This leads to some of Fleet
esoteric fields of treating faerie afflictions and occult Street’s regulars operating sideline presses off the
injuries. Its dining hall is hung with over a hundred main way, printing special editions anonymously.
flags taken from battles fought across the world and The Underground Press remains a thorn in Victoria’s
century. side through the last quarter of Her rule.

The City: The core of London’s medieval bounds has Hyde Park: London’s largest park, and a hub of
become home to the Empire’s great financial engines, fashionable society. The bridal path Rotten Row
such as the business offices of Babbage Computational is thronged on Sundays with the fashionable, and
and Cayley-Vickers Aeronautic. Increasingly, those those wishing to look upon them. Strangers wishing
who work in the City live outside it and commute to make a splash in society find Hyde Park a
in via the new trains. Administratively, the City surprisingly receptive theater; the Quality
remains semi-independent from the rest of London gathered are already prepared
and polices its own streets. The City of London somewhat for spectacle. A
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trollop’s elaborate riding costume must be studied Nash’s efforts during the Regency. Most exciting
so as to replicate it. The flying man is simply a novel for the extensive Zoological Park opened in 1828,
distraction from the serious business of flirting and and continuously expanded through the century to
socializing. accommodate Strange new creatures.

Jacob’s Island: A notorious area of London Royal Exchange: The ’Change is where the
bordering the Thames and home to numerous business of commerce is done, commodities trading,
warehouses, as well as a truly shocking rookery of investment, and other mercantile concerns. Breaking
the filthiest sort. Bordered by tidal ditches, docks, the ’Change becomes as much an obsession for
and warehouses, the inhabitants of Jacob’s Island live certain criminals as robbing the Bank of England
in truly desperate poverty of such an objectionable is for others, and officials are always on the lookout
sort that even those seeking a thrill or moral lesson for sharp dealers and confidence tricksters trying to
by slumming find it beyond their endurance. The ply their trade here. There are some quite-alarming
sewage of the residents, along with the output of rumors that such individuals when captured are not
factories and assorted animal waste, run into the turned over to the police, but rather something else,
ditches, and so the place is surrounded by stink. something wholly less pleasant, is done to them.
During the 1840s the Island is haunted by Spring
Heel Jack, a mysterious figure alternately described St. James Palace: The royal residence until 1837,
as a demon, a demonically-ugly man, or one wearing when Victoria moves to Buckingham Palace. St.
a terrible mask. He leaps over walls, menaces and James’ grounds are then made over into parkland. The
assaults people, and breathes fire (so reports would palace itself is sometimes lent out for use as gallery
have it). Few wish to spend the time needed to or exhibition space, with the Queen’s permission.
investigate Sping-Heel in this stinking slum.
St. James Square: Home to several gentleman’s clubs,
Pall Mall: Named for the favorite ballgame of the most famous of course being the Kerberos Club.
Charles II, and now home to many of London’s That club’s neighbors keep up a valiant battle against
most exclusive gentleman’s clubs. Pall Mall is the its creeping Strangeness, however, and doggedly
first street to receive gas lighting, and the first to refuse to be displaced regardless of how unsettling
be lit with electric lights, and late in the century the neighbors become, or the damage their buildings
it’s where the first private tiered automotive stable suffer by miss-aimed hellfire. The Kerberos Club’s
is constructed, allowing gentlemen to park their willingness to make good on such damages, and
vehicles when visiting their clubs. compensate its neighbors for the inconvenience, at
least keeps things civil on the surface.
Piccadilly: Busy and thronging area of upper-class
residences and shopping. Home to Piccadilly Circus, Seven Dials: Where seven streets converge at St.
the London Pavilion music hall, and the Criterion Giles, they form a compass with directions pointing
Theater. After the theaters let out the nightlife picks directly to the seven deadly sins. This district is one
up; restaurants are open late and friendly company of criminality and poverty, with an infamous slum.
is usually readily available. During the Famine the Irish flood this district, and
for many—as bad as it becomes for them, packed into
Regent’s Park: A well-groomed tiny filthy rooms—it remains an improvement over
184 suburb owing much to John the conditions back home. Seven Dials is supposed
 Chapter 4

to be the notorious source for the faerie drug called

(among other colorful names) Red Lady’s Slipper.
During the 1890s, the Slipper threatens to push
opium out of London with its popularity alone, and
this leads to what the press dub the Little Opium
War in the mid-1890s, as the procurers and providers
of the two drugs battle for territory in the streets.
Opium wins a decisive victory with the burning of
the house in Seven Dials where Red Lady’s Slipper
is refined from the excrement of faerie cattle fed on
certain mushrooms.

Smithfield: Until the mid-1850s, the home to

London’s live cattle market. On market days the
streets are ankle-deep in stinking mire and filled with
the brays and bleats of beasts bought, sold and slaugh-
tered. Smithfield Market is a point of reference for
Londoners looking to describe a place as noisy and
chaotic. Even after the market is moved to Islington
there remains in Smithfield the ghost of the all the
filth and cruelty; the flagstones seem to have soaked
it up. Local legends of the Raw-Head Man and
the Skinned Sow propagate, and violent poltergeist
activity is common through the end of the century,
defying even Church exorcists efforts to banish.

Whitechapel: Early in the century an area known

for its coaching inns for travelers, by mid-century
it is instead known as a notorious neighborhood
troubled by poverty and prostitution—and then as
one protected by a particularly frightening guardian
angel, the Night Hag. It becomes infamous late in the
century for Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror. Named
for the whitewashed Chapel of Ease, the area’s
fortunes sway up and down. After the Atlantean
assault on the city, and the Automechanical Mutiny,
Whitechapel is overrun with displaced residents
from other areas, and conditions worsen dramati-
cally. These conditions make the Ripper’s killings
easier, and the Hag’s job of keeping order
on the streets much harder.
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Whitehall: The center of much of the Empire’s well into the 1870s, the Museum’s collections
power, located in Westminster and named for Henry fill the available space, giving the place an almost
VIII’s palace built here in the 1530s. The Prime cluttered feel, as if it were a proper Victorian parlor
Minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street is filled with knickknacks and collectibles enough for
here, along with other government offices. With the whole empire. The Museum funds and benefits
the Queen’s more active role in politics and policy- from archaeological, zoological, and other scientific
making, especially with Her close alliance with endeavors. Its Reading Room houses over a million
Benjamin Disraeli late in the century, Her coach volumes, and this is only a fraction of its total
and entourage is a frequent sight. Like the City, collection. When considering the museum’s collec-
Whitehall has its own small and dedicated force of tions, it really isn’t a question of whether a particular
Strangers tasked with watching and securing it from article or wonder is present in the collection, but
danger. The spate of dynamite attacks in the 1870s where it might be found.
result in Downing Street being closed to coach Museum clerks work constantly cataloging and
and automotive traffic, and only official coaches recording the collection, but within its basements and
are permitted to drive down the street. Freed from storehouses there is literally no telling what might
traffic, the street itself becomes a mobile market be found. To the Museum, all things in the world
for upscale goods and trinkets. You can purchase a eventually come. And in an increasingly Strange
lunch on the street from a Downing Street vendor world, the Museum’s collections grow Strange
which would shame many West End cafés. as well. By the late 1880s, the Museum’s displays
encompass all manner of occult and un-human
artifacts and technologies, the wonders of civiliza-
tions lost and ascended and otherwise forgotten,

Locations of laid bare for the peoples of the British Empire.

All this makes the Museum’s burning in the dark
days following Victoria’s transcendence an even

Particular Interest more profound tragedy.

Local Color: Constant traffic, coming and going.
People of all nations and ages coming to view the
Each of these locations includes detailed guidelines wonders of the world. Inside, cases and displays and
for the game moderator. exhibits containing every imaginable thing.
Denizens: Academics coming and going,
students, researchers, tour guides, tourists and

British Museum wide-eyed gawkers. Also rough types, adventurers

and explorers come to see their discoveries properly
displayed. Sometimes living wonders: a captured
The donation of the King’s Library in 1822 sparked Atlantean warrior in a glass tank; Dr. Archibald
a new life for the British Museum, and it began Monroe holding forth to a group of students,
a decades-long period of rapid expansion. In the admirers, and vociferous critics; or an iguanodon on
1850s it rose in an entirely new neo-classical loan from the Royal Zoological Park.
building which was partially open for the Disasters: Fire! The great storehouses and
Great Exhibition in 1851. Despite libraries of the British Museum contain treasures
186 the almost constant expansion like unto the great library of Alexandria, and were
 Chapter 4

they to burn the loss would be tragic.

Hooks: Something Man Was Not Meant to Know.
Oh, well, that should certainly not be displayed
alongside the Assyrian artifacts, as it predates them
by centuries, and also because if invoked by the gaze
of a vengeful woman it will unleash savage super-
natural fury upon London’s unfaithful husbands and
rob them of dignity and skin. Can’t have such a thing
just sitting around for the public to see, can we? But
then, how to remove it from the Museum, especially
considering how dear it is to poor old Professor Scott?
The Mummy Escapes: The Galvanic Mummy,
one of the weird wonders on special display at the
Museum, simply vanishes between displays of its
functions. Dr. Klien, the academic studying the
Mummy, is quite upset, and calls on some favors
which come down the Kerberos pipeline. Tracking
the errant animated corpse seems a simple matter
until the paper-sellers start to cry the headline,
“THREE ATTACKED IN MIDNIGHT JEWEL
THEFT! REPORT NAMES MUMMY AS THIEF!”

Bethlem Hospital
Moved to St. George’s Fields in 1815 from its
previous location, Bedlam on the surface seems to
have escaped the legacy of horror and abuse which
dogged its past. In the 18th century people would pay
a penny to visit and view the madmen. For another
penny, long poles could be rented with which to jab
and enrage the unfortunates for a better show. In the
new building, designed by Sydney Smirke, a library
is available and the inmates can enjoy music of an
evening, dancing, and socializing. New efforts are
made to find treatments for the insane. Drugs such
as laudanum are applied to calm ragged nerves, and
mesmeric and talking cures are attempted. Yet
the place still has that air of wrongness,
of broken minds and lost freedom.
Beneath it, worse things lurk.
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Special Branch uses Bedlam to house and

constrain some of its exceptional-circumstances
Bethlem’s Dead Heart
Bethlem was built quite deliberately upon an ancient
suspects, those deemed so great a threat that to
site of occult import. Once marked with a paleo-
allow access to the legal system constitutes too
lithic augury circle, the spot was a place of high
great a risk. These find themselves locked away
magic for the ancient Britons, until some unknown
from light and hope, drugged insensible, and often
magical transgression sealed it off from all occult
rendered insensate with electro-convulsive treat- influence, creating a psychic dead zone where
ments, wrapping, starvation, sleep deprivation, and reality hangs like the heavy curtains of a tubercu-
in some cases leucotomy, cutting away the person- lotic shut-in’s sickroom. The spot was used during
ality and will. For Strangers who fall into Special the Roman occupation for the execution of witches,
Branch’s custody, this is an all-too-frequent method the possessed, and faerie creatures who violated the
to restrain their powers. pacts of blood and silver that they struck with the
Local Color: On the surface, clean, well-lit, with Roman invaders. This potent resistance to all things
doctors seeing to their patients as they are able. unnatural that makes the hospital attractive for both
Beneath is every nightmare of the madhouse: filthy its obvious function as an insane asylum and for the
walls, cells with ragged padding, and dirty straight keeping of Special Branch’s Strange prisoners.
waistcoats waiting to bind those who act out of turn.
Denizens: The weeping moaning mad; also the
laughing, crying mad, and the calm, seemingly-
Bethlem Hospital
Negation: Level 10
rational mad. Doctors. Consultants. Nurses. Charity
The negation effects everyone within the hospital,
workers about their good deeds. Visiting family.
but the level of the power reduces by one level for
Beneath the surface, what? Deep in the Special Ward,
every twenty five yards the victim is away from the
rows and rows of tiny, ill-lit cells. Filth. Iron-bound
heart of the hospital. The Hospital has an effective
doors. Here, so deep below ground the sound can’t Spirit of D12+4, and the effect lasts for as long as
find its way to the surface, Special Branch’s prisoners the victim is in the hospital +2d6 rounds after he
are held, some perpetually. Knowledge of these cells is leaves. If the victim is lucky enough to resist the
reason enough to find oneself locked away down here, effect he must keep resisting each round until he
so release is rare and unlikely. Many of these prisoners eventually succumbs to the effect.
are Strangers, warped in body, mind, and soul. The dead heart of Bethlem only affects those
Disaster: Escape! If the unfortunate inmates whose power has an otherworldly source. Look
escape it might be a matter for the police, especially to the trappings of the power and unless they are
for those who are criminally insane. But if the something akin to natural training, then it is safe to
maddened and vengeful Strangers escape, the whole assume Bethlem’s heart can negate it.
of London might be at risk. Certainly those who
perpetrated horrors upon the escapees.…
Hooks: I’m Not Mad! You find yourself alone,
sealed away in one of the cells Below. How did you
get here? Your memory is shattered, pieces strewn
all about the floor of your mind. How to piece
it back together, and discover just what
brought you to this bad place?
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Escape From Bedlam!

Bethlem Hospital itself neutralizes the powers of many to predict how such an adventure may progress. We can
Strangers. For prisoners with powers unhampered by however provide you with a number of obstacles and
the Dead Heart, Special Branch makes liberal use of situations, which might occur and provide you with a
drugs like laudanum and its more exotic fellows to guide on how to handle them.
render prisoners insensible. They have no compunction One thing to consider is how much easier it would
about physically crippling those in their care, smashing be to sneak into the place than to sneak out. Getting
the hands of inventors and automechanicals. The secret in, with all the resources a free Kerberan has to bring
hospital under Bethlem is well guarded and patrolled to the endeavor, is significantly easier than getting out
by men both skilled and ruthless, not your standard again if one begins the conflict banged up in the cells.
underpaid watchmen.
The hallways are unmarked, making them difficult
to navigate unless you’ve memorized the layout, as the Sneaking Into Bedlam
Special Branch officers who work here have. The halls Obstacle: Sign-In Desk. Heroes must succeed at a
are hung at regular intervals with beaded curtains hung Persuasion roll opposed by the receptionists Notice. On
with bells, so even an invisible intruder will reveal his a failure, the heroes are allowed in, but are assigned a
presence when passing through them. The hallways guard to guide/watch them. On a critical failure they
are also frequently flooded with potent incense, a are barred from entry and guards are called.
mix of sage, frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, and Obstacle: Checkpoints. The heroes must make
other aromatics from across the globe. This choking successful Stealth rolls as they move through Bedlam’s
fug reveals ghostly and immaterial presences, faintly halls. On a failure the guards realize someone without
outlining them even if they can walk through the walls. authorization is wandering the halls, and the heroes
The entirely mundane security is also excellent: heavy have an encounter on any black card drawn from
iron doors with complex dual-keyed Chubb locks, iron the Action Deck (see below). On a critical failure,
gratings in the ventilation ducts, regular checkpoints as the hospital goes into lockdown, and encounters are
one proceeds deeper into the place. Even senior Special triggered on black and all face cards.
Branch officers are challenged at every one, made to Obstacle: Veteran guards on patrol. As the heroes
give the day’s pass-phrase and present their creden- roam the rules of Bedlam the GM should periodi-
tials. Even when they are allowed to pass, the guards cally draw cards from the Action Deck. If the card is a
make careful notations in the logbooks of how long spade, you encounter either an individual, or group of
each individual remains within, and all are weighed in guards. These can either be combated or dealt with in a
and weighed out to be certain they are not carrying an non-violent way. If any guards escape they will raise the
unseen (perhaps even parasitic) prisoner to freedom. alert level of the hospital as if the heroes had suffered a
Special Branch’s secret hospital is a tough nut to critical failure in the Checkpoints Obstacle.
crack. Obstacle: Heavy doors with complex locks. These
Breaking into—or out of—Bethlem is an adventure in doors can be bypassed with either a successful
itself, and given the diverse possible powers and abilities Lockpicking (-2) roll, or they can acquire a set of keys
a Kerberan might possess it is almost impossible for us from an officer.
 Chapter 4

Obstacle: Security systems. The heroes might have non-violent way. If any guards escape they will raise the
to make periodic Notice checks to detect trip alarms. alert level of the hospital as if the heroes had suffered a
These can be negotiated with successful Agility rolls critical failure in the Checkpoints Obstacle above.
or disarmed with Lockpicking. Failure raises the alert Obstacle: Heavy doors with complex locks. These
level of the hospital as described in the Checkpoints doors can be bypassed with either a successful
Obstacle. Lockpicking (-2) roll, or they can acquire a set of keys
from an officer.
Escaping Bedlam Obstacle: Final checkpoint. If the heroes have fallen
Obstacle: Regular cell checks. Patient cells are foul of any of the obstacles above they will find their
checked every hour, and unless the guard see’s final exit blocked by a sizable number of veteran guards
something to convince him the cell is occupied he will and Special Branch officers.
raise the alert level of the hospital as described in the
Checkpoint obstacle below. Special Branch Officers
Obstacle: Checkpoints. The heroes must make See page 267 for Special Branch.
successful Stealth rolls as they move through Bedlam’s
halls. On a failure the guards realize someone without Veteran Guards
authorization is wandering the halls, and the heroes Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength
have an encounter on any black card drawn from d8, Vigor d8
the Action Deck (see below). On a critical failure, Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Taunt d8
the hospital goes into lockdown, and encounters are Charisma: -2
triggered on black and all face cards. Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8 (+1)
Obstacle: Veteran guards on patrol. As the heroes Hindrances: Mean, Overconfident, Vow (Keep the
roam the rules of Bedlam the GM should periodi- freaks locked up)
cally draw cards from the Action Deck. If the card is a Edges: Block, Brawny
spade, you encounter either an individual, or group of Gear: Leather apron and thick leather gloves (+1),
guards. These can either be combated or dealt with in a truncheon (Str+d4)

Whitechapel opium dens, ratting and dog fighting, and all the
sordid vice that some seek for pleasure, and that
poverty forces some to endure so they might eat for
As the century progresses, as the wealth and power one more day.
of the Empire waxes full, London’s East End— Across Whitechapel’s rooftops, and down its
Wapping, Bethnal Green, Limehouse, Bow, Bromley, darkest alleys, a demon stalks, a creature they call the
and Whitechapel—descend further and further into Night Hag. Mothers warn their naughty children
overcrowding and poverty. Whitechapel Road itself about her. Pimps sweat a little bit when they beat
remains a thin vein of semi-respectability, but the their whores. And in the 1880s, she battles a nameless
warrens of alleys and streets and courts are all filled killer they call Jack for dominion over Whitechapel,
with London’s lost souls and the poorest of the poor. female vengeance upon male predation, the old
It holds as many as fifteen hundred prostitutes, goddess against the gods.
and seventy brothels and places serving Local Color: Whitechapel reeks of over-packed
as such in all but name. It contains humanity crammed in close, unwashed and without
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adequate sewage systems. It is a din of shouts and

cartwheels and hawkers calling their wares. At Victoria Tower
night when the fogs come in, its inhabitants move
through the mist like specters heralding their own The tallest structure in the world is Victoria Tower,
imminent deaths. Evidence of poverty and hunger also knows as Victoria’s Mast. It is the grand vision
are everywhere, writ upon the faces of the working of the young French architect and engineer Gustave
girls, their children, upon the men doing whatever Eiffel, combined with the genius of Nikola Tesla’s
honest work they can find, only to see every day that mastery of wireless transmission and signaling and
honesty doesn’t pay enough to feed the children. The Ada Lovelace’s wondrous calculating and encoding
wailing of mothers for dead infants is so common as machinery.
to be noise. The streets are full of Irish voices, and Victoria Tower is commissioned at first as a
Jewish ones and more—Russian accents, others of stone tower on the south end of the reconstructed
Eastern Europe, some French and Spanish, too. Near Palace of Westminster, but construction delays
Limehouse, Chinese voices blend in. But proximity caused by numerous increasingly Strange disasters
doesn’t breed tolerance here, quite the opposite. prevent it being built. In 1867 plans for a new
Denizens: The prostitutes and their pimps, tower are commissioned, and the sweeping upward
husbands, and other “protectors.” Legions of street steel design of Gustave Eiffel is chosen over more
children. Beggars. Upper-class folk slumming for a conventional Gothic-style designs for reasons at the
cheap thrill, or deigning to bestow their good works time unknown. By the tower’s completion in 1875,
on the suffering classes. The police are here, but they however, it is clear why some far-thinking planner
are lost in the shuffle, and the best they can do is to had chosen Eiffel’s design. The great steel mast
keep crime to an acceptable level. The Night Hag is makes the perfect platform for a gigantic wireless
on everyone’s tongue. When misfortune falls upon televocagraphic transmitter and receiver.
someone deemed to deserve it, people say “The Beneath the tower, a huge electrical plant
Hag’s got him!” provides power for the transmissions and to drive
Syphilitic vampires (see page 145) of all stages the dedicated calculating-mill with its hundreds of
lurk in the shadows, offering their bodies to lure inter-linked calculating clockwork brains. Messages
victims while they are still flush with human beauty; in simple Morse code, in text, in speech, images and
but when the sun burns away their humanity, they photographs are converted into encoded machine-
stalk like animals for the blood and flesh they crave. signal and broadcast with tremendous power,
The Elephantine Man (page 55) was exhibited in allowing those with the proper televocagraphic
Whitechapel at one time, and returns to try and do receivers and decoders to capture these messages
some good when he becomes one of the Kerberos as they float through the air. Wireless sending
Club’s most famous Strangers, adopting an open, and receiving equipment is installed in all of her
dramatic persona later in the century. majesty’s aero ships, and these serve as mobile relays,
extending the reach of the Tower’s signal.
The Tower is gigantic, over 1,500 feet tall,
and dominates the London skyline. Its four huge
support-struts straddle and merge with the Palace
of Westminster. From its needle-like
point Parliament and the Queen
broadcast the news of the State,
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though of late more and more entertainment finds work constantly, tweaking and tuning, and replacing
it ways into the air: music, photographs of art, and fuses. A force of hundreds of automechanical men
poetry are all there, alive in the air for those with the clamber spider-like up and down the Tower at all
right equipment to capture them. hours, painting, patching, securing rivets, and doing
The Automechanical Mutiny of 1885 spells the the deadly dangerous high work.
end to the Mast’s short life as the Voice of the Empire. Disasters: Collapse! If Victoria’s Mast were to
The calculating brains which drive its inner workings collapse, falling across London, the destruction
are deemed unsafe and vulnerable to corrupting would be almost incalculable—12,000 tons of
code, some of which finds its way into the trans- steel crashing across London’s buildings, great and
mission of lesser broadcast mechanisms during the humble alike.
Mutiny. With its signal silenced, the Tower becomes Hooks: A View From On High. There are some
a monument to human folly and ambition. things which can only be conducted at the top of
Still, the view from the observation deck at the tallest building in the world, certain ceremonies,
the Tower’s height is breathtaking. On London’s affairs, rites, or observances. The observation deck
thickest day the view from that height is clear— of the tower always seems to be reserved, but one
even if London is invisible in the fog below, looking such bit of business demands you attend to it post
as if someone had poured a gallon of buttermilk into haste, and so crashing someone else’s reverie from
a depression in the ground. the heights is a necessity.
Local Color: The sweeping upward arch of the Wrath of the Gods: A fight atop the tower during
Mast rises up and up, piercing London’s yellow a lighting storm! In addition to the difficulty of
mists. The streets around Westminster rumble clinging to the wet steel girders while fighting for
faintly from the chugging steam engines driving the your life, the strength of the storm will grant a
electrical dynamos which power it. The air crackles certain number of Area Dice of damage upon you
with static and smells of an imminent lighting strike. and all your friends and foes alike as the fury of an
When it storms the Tower is a lightning-rod, being angry god lashes about you. Make it one die for a
struck over and over, so the fog appears an eerie red. minor storm, up to five for the storm of the century.
Thousands of electrical light bulbs hanging from it Ghosts in the Machine: Weird voices begin
lend their own faint glow, even on London’s soupiest creeping into the transmission from Victoria’s
days. The air tastes metallic around the Tower, like a Mast—weeping, moaning, mad ranting, pleas for
penny on your tongue. help and mercy, voices begging forgiveness, promises
Denizens: Tourists from all over the world of hideous revenge, calls to friends, loved ones or
throng to the Tower, one of London’s great tourist enemies by name. They are the voices of the dead.
attractions (billed as the First Wonder of the The Tower has tuned to a Strange frequency, and
Modern World). All the usual hawkers and sellers from that last great mystery someone or something
follow this crowd as well, much to the chagrin of the is reaching back across and demanding attention.
MPs and Lords who must wade through them to The calculating brains beneath the tower are
get into the Palace. The police keep a close watch, as busy encoding ghosts into signal as readily as
few targets would me more appealing to the criminal they encode voice or text or image. And the dead
classes. Special Branch keeps a closer watch, as have a warning, if anyone can decipher their mad
few targets would be more appealing to screaming and weeping; or if they perhaps take
anarchist bombers, suffragettes and possession of a listener, reaching out from Beyond
192 Irish revolutionaries. Engineers to become a radioetheric signal, and then sound, and
then thought within a living brain.…
 Chapter 4

The Sumpworks unknown malcontents (said by some to be a cult

who worshiped the Beast who dwelt in the Outer
Abyss—or the Sump), more than a hundred miles
In the summer of 1858 London is wallowing in its of underground sewers are built beneath the city,
own filth. Without a proper sewer system, waste some tunneling right through the ancient remains
is dumped into the thousands of cesspits scattered of London’s earlier ages, crypts, tombs, temples, and
across the city, or directly into the Thames. Flush forgotten grottos. The project is opened in 1865 and
toilets exacerbate the problem, as they sluice the filth completed in 1870, and thousands of tons of human
away in a gush of water, overflowing the cesspits and waste, industrial byproducts, and chemical slurry are
causing them to run into the river as well. During dumped down the Sump to—somewhere else.
the hot months of the summer, great blooms of Local Color: Miles of sewers, the sluice and
stench rise from the low waters of the river, and splash of running sewerage, the squeak of countless
cholera and miasmic spirits kill thousands. Dr. John rats, and less easily identifiable things. Sometimes
Snow’s push for sanitation reform, coupled with the the sewers open into huge forgotten chambers,
fragile genius of Joseph Bazalgette, saves London ancient tombs, temples or forgotten cellars, lit faintly
from becoming uninhabitable. with phosphorescent fungus. Everything eventually
Bazalgette is still recovering from a nervous finds its way down here. It’s a place for lost things.
breakdown suffered while expanding the national The sewerage passes the pumping stations and is
railway network. During part of the excavation work squeezed of most of its water before the waste is
east of London, he and his crew uncover something pitched into the Sump. More than a few corpses
nerve-shattering and sanity-breaking. Buried under find their way into that black unknown as well, one
tons of rock, surrounded by the broken remains of a hopes never to return.
stone circle, they find nothing. A hole to nowhere. Or, Denizens: Rats, some as large as hounds. Final-
perhaps, somewhere so alien and weird the human stage sufferers of syphilitic vampirism. Sanitation
mind rebels against it, refuses to see it, and shadows Police in their rubber uniforms and filter masks, and
it in darkness. the criminals they hunt in the bowels of the city.
Anything thrown into the hole is simply gone. In the hidden places anyone with dark, loathsome
Bazalgette and his comrades wonder how it is that the secrets might be found, if they don’t mind the smell.
atmosphere doesn’t escape through the hole, creating a In the desecrated temples, cults still meet and plot
sucking whirl-storm until all the world’s air is drained their revenge for the blasphemy done to their sacred
away. But like all things to do with the Sump (as it spaces.
came to be called), nobody can fathom an answer. Disasters: Collapse! If a section of the sewers
When presented with the problem of how gave way it could swallow a building, sucking it down
to contend with London’s prodigious capacity in to the stinking wet below. Venturing down to
to produce feces and filth, he realizes that all the rescue the survivors might lead to a dungeon-crawl
cesspits must be closed, waste channeled into a situation. The sewers might also back up, flooding
network of sewers, and then pumped out of the city London with effluvia. And what unholy creatures
rather than being flushed directly into the river. And might be driven to the surface by such a flood?
he thinks of the Sump. Hooks: Excuse me, but is this the way to Bank of
So begins the construction of the Sumpworks England? While attending some secretive
under the administration of the Metropolitan Board business down in the sewers, you
of Sanitation. Despite a campaign of sabotage by stumble across a criminal enter-
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prise. A group of men is tunneling from a main sewer

line up into the vaults of the Bank of England, to Heath Row Aerodrome
steal not money but certain papers held there in
safe deposit against the day when political enemies Located to the West of central London. The Great
of Her Majesty might require some persuasion to Western Aerodrome (as it is properly known) is
refrain from resisting Her Majesty’s agenda. still called after Heath Row, the hamlet which was
Run Before the Flood: In the catacombs of the old demolished to make way for the Empire’s busiest
Temple of Mercury, a great lake of effluvia backs up port for aero ship docking and travel. By the 1890s,
from one clogged tunnel, filling until the pressure is aero ships depart from Heath Row to travel to
irresistible and bursts the blockage. The great flood- the Continent and all corners of the world—the
tide of sewage rushes down a dozen tunnels, compli- Americas, Africa, the East and West Indies, China
cating horribly any business you might be unlucky and Japan. Thousands depart from Heath Row, and it
enough to be about at the time. serves as the home aero-port for the Royal Squadron,
A Voice from the Abyss: Something is calling the small fleet of aero ships tasked with carrying
to the mad and the psychic, the weak-willed, to royal representatives, gifts, diplomats, and upon
children, and to cats. Something is whispering out occasion even Her Majesty. The Royal Squadron
to them from the water-closet door, from the pipes, is also tasked with the aerial defense of London, a
and down on down into the sewers. Something bulwark necessitated by the city’s vulnerability to air
whispers for them to come, to gaze long into the attack, as demonstrated by the Atlantean Invasion.
darkness, and to take a little smudge of it within Local Color: The buzz and bustle of a train
themselves. Something has been awakened by station or major dockyards, but on a larger scale.
the flood of London’s filth, and it will Huge, close-cut grassy fields serve as landing areas
look upon the face of the people in for aero ships, some as big as half a kilometer long.
194 whose excrement it wallows. Trains arrive and depart the Aerodrome constantly,
 Chapter 4

carrying passengers and goods to and from London. While returning from abroad for some well
Blue-uniformed air porters bustle over luggage and needed recuperation among friends, you find your
passengers. It’s a more well-off crowd than would flight hijacked. Air pirates! Who would credit
gather in a train station or seaport, however. Air such a thing in this day and age? They certainly
travel is still more expensive than most berths aboard look the part, but perhaps, a bit too much? A bit
ocean-bound vessels. The drone of air-ship engines too theatrical? The parrot is certainly playing it too
fills the air, and the great behemoths arrive and land hard. They’re up to something, and all the business
with deceptive speed. At a distance they hardly seem with making the captain walk the plank without his
to be moving, but close up they land and brake hard parachute is just distraction. What do these “pirates”
within the confines of Heath Row’s landing fields. really want?
Denizens: The ubiquitous porters, ticketing Around the World, Quick as You Like! The first
agents, air-ship crews, passengers, rowdies unloading annual Circumnavigational Aero Ship Cup, a race
the ships, helmeted Bobbies on the lookout for around the world. Two dozen aero ships begin the
known sharps and pickpockets, plainclothes detec- race in Heath Row, flying east across Europe, China,
tives on the prowl for bigger criminal fish, bowler- the great Pacific, the Americas, across the Atlantic,
hatted Special Branch officers hunching uncom- and back to London. How could the Kerberos Club
fortably in their tweed and glaring menace at resist such an opportunity for adventure, and all the
everyone, sometimes demanding travel papers at intriguing possibilities along the way?
random to keep the hoi-polloi properly afraid. In
among the honest citizens the true artists of the
criminal classes move, deal and dip, and divide
people from their money right under the nose of the Victory Bridge
law.
Disasters: Crash! Aero ships are huge. And if Located below London Bridge, Victory Bridge
something goes wrong, say with their lifting gas dwarfs its sister. Victory Bridge is enormous, built
cells, they can come crashing down. It takes a fair bit from the gigantic stones dredged from the Thames
of damage to cause one to plummet, but it wouldn’t after the catastrophic collapse of one of the Atlantean
be impossible for mishandling of the gas regulation war-ziggurats during the invasion of 1879. Victory
systems and fire discipline aboard to lead to a Bridge is a stunning example of the Roman style of
catastrophic explosion which would rain burning bridge-building expanded to a grand scale. It spans
debris across the landing fields and the grounded the Thames with three huge arches, the center arch
ships and the thronging masses. large enough for an ocean steamer to pass through.
And to be sure, a fight atop a crashing aero ship It isn’t commonly known, but the bridge also
is a disaster no self-respecting adventuring Kerberan serves as one of London’s defensive measures.
should be able to resist. Its construction using the Strange stones of the
Hooks: A chance meeting or a fleeting glimpse Atlantean war machine serves to disrupt the action
of a long-lost lover or deadly enemy necessitates of similar stones passing close by. No device using
boarding an aero ship leaving for parts unknown. the same water-stone repulsion as the Atlantean
From the Aerodrome Club and wine bar to the gray machines can pass up the Thames again without
skies above: How will you board when the flight is its lifting mechanism failing. The bridge
oversold as it is, and security (in light of the recent is the reason attempts to replicate
dynamite outrages) so much stricter than usual? the Atlantean machines have
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failed, even on very small scales. city.

Victory Bridge carries traffic from just above Disasters: Hark, the leviathan! The quiescent
the London Docks across to the Bermondsey area. stones of the Victory Bridge yet pulse with resonate
In truth it doesn’t carry enough to truly justify its power, and while this protects London from war
construction, but the simple arches of Victoria machines powered by similar mechanisms, the
Bridge stand in contrast to London’s more gothic constant psychic drone drives some sensitive people
landmarks and the more ornate background. Tourists mad and causes bad dreams for a receptive few.
who gather along its wide pedestrian promenades to At some point it will ripple outwards through the
watch the ships anchor in the Pool bring enough Thames into the Channel, and then on into the
commerce to fuel a brisk trade among the street North Sea where the sleeping Leviathan awaits the
vendors, hawkers and thieves who collect here. call of its old masters, the god-kings of Atlantis who
Local Color: The smell of the Thames at low wrote upon its soul the Names of Command and
tide. The call and cry of seamen and laborers in the Wrath.
Pool and surrounding docks. The clacker-clack of Leviathan is All. A misbegotten evolutionary
cartwheels along the bridge stonework. When the horror of impossible dimensions and indescribable
fogs come in they wrap the bridge up tight, smoth- physiology, it is all things which have ever swum,
ering it so it might be the loneliest place in London, from the stinging jellyfish to the great-mawed
cut off from reality and cast off into a Strange other- prehistoric shark, to the hook-tentacled giant squid,
world—which, in truth, it might be. Those who fall to Stranger and more horrible things from the black
asleep on the bridge, in carriages or behind their depths. Vast as a castle, squamous and malleable,
mobile stalls for a quick nap, experience visions of Leviathan will hear the Bridge singing out to it
the wonders of ancient Atlantean culture, the war like a strummed harp-string, and come, seeking
with Pacifica which broke the ancient empire, and its old masters and waiting for one who knows the
the great race’s fall into primitive ruin. Within words of Command and Wrath. Perhaps a human
a decade, the London Atlantean Society forms dreamer sleeps on the bridge, wishing for visions of
and arranges “bridge nights” where the members Atlantis—which Word will he speak upon seeing
camp upon the bridge and record the dreams they the magnificent horror rise from the river before
experience, reconstructing Atlantean culture from him?
these second-hand remembrances. Hooks: The Keystone Ransom Plot. While passing
Denizens: Hawkers, pickpockets, tourists, over the Bridge on other business you find your
traffic on foot, cart, omnibus, and later, mechano- progress blocked by backed-up traffic, and waves of
electric automotives. Officers of the Met walk the panic propagate back to your driver. He shouts, “He’s
bridge regularly, watching for potential suicides. threatenin’ to blow up the bridge!” Some madman or
The bridge proves the most popular in London for brazen genius claims to have planted fifty pounds of
leaping to one’s death. When the London Atlantean nitroglycerin upon the bridge’s keystone, the stone
Society forms, they establish a mobile kiosk on the against which all the forces of the whole construction
bridge selling their pamphlets and monographs on are balanced. If removed, the bridge will at the very
the “Wonders of Lost Atlantis.” Their fetishistic least be unstable, at the worst it will collapse into
adoration for all things Atlantean rankles with the Thames. The bomb is equipped with a clockwork
many of London’s citizens who remember detonator and a crystal receiver, keyed to vibrate and
all too well what indignities the trigger the explosion when the perpetrator throws a
196 Atlanteans had visited upon the switch on a device strapped to his torso. Fighting to
 Chapter 4

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

get a look at this miscreant, through the crowds, you perform rituals on the bridge during certain days of
see the exultant face of someone all too familiar. A the Atlantean calendar. Human sacrifice. Ritualized
friend, colleague, or fellow Kerberan. atrocity. Bloodletting. Self-mutilation. Given the
Arise Leviathan! The call of the bridge has been freedom to act, they will call the great beast and
uncovered by members of the London Atlantis release it to run mad in London. All knowledge of
Society, and a core group has taken up the practice of the Word of Wrath must be purged, and anyone and
Atlantean mystery religions which they experienced everyone who might know it must be dealt with.
in dream-visions. They have had visions of Leviathan The London Atlantean Society must be broken.
when he served the Atlanteans as their great terror- Special Branch rushes to line them against the wall,
weapon against Ultima Thule, Pacifica, and the innocent and guilty alike, and shoot them uncer-
Ab-Human Remnants from the South Pole. They emoniously through the head. Will you exercise
have seen Leviathan, and it has broken their minds. more judgment? And what will be the consequences
They believe themselves to be the reincarna- if you judge wrong?
tions of the dead priests of Atlantis, and so seek to

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Chapter Five
The Great Game
“Of the many curious social fraternities in which the Victorians participated, few achieved the fame, and infamy, of
London’s Kerberos Club. From obscure origins, the Club rose to public consciousness as the 19th century progressed,
buoyed on a tide of scandals, rumors, and the sensationalized adventures of its membership.
“On the surface the Kerberos Club seems nothing so much as a particularly baroque and debauched social club, with a
famously egalitarian admissions policy. But a more careful review of the history of the era reveals the Club’s long shadow
cast over many of the century’s greatest events and tragedies.
“In truth, the Kerberos Club was Victoria’s creature and a powerful force for the Empire. One head to sniff out the
Strange menaces which plagued Victoria’s Britain, one to warn them off with growl and bared fangs, and that failing,
one to savage her enemies with animalistic zeal.
“The Club was lauded, famed and feared in equal measure for flaunting social convention and dabbling in things
which any right-thinking person would avoid. It saw its fortunes rise continuously until Victoria’s so-called Ascension
robbed it of its doting patron and left it exposed to the wrath of its countless enemies, culminating in the burning of the
club-house on Saint James Square in the winter of 1902.”

Excerpted from Victoria’s Watchdog: The Strange History of the Kerberos Club, by
Alison Peeks, published 2002 by Hillgate Press, used here with permission.

One option offered in the Kerberos Club is to

Character Concept play an actual historical figure who has been altered,
changed, or made uncanny by the touch of the
Strange. The timeline of the setting is filled with just
Most Kerberos Club games assume that all player this sort of thing, and resources like the magnificent
characters are members of the Club, know each Wikipedia allow you to quickly find someone of
other on some level already, and are in some way interest to you and plumb their biography for hooks,
set apart from ordinary society by Strangeness of details, and unexplained events you can use to make
form, ideals, beliefs, experiences, or abilities. One them Strange. Another option is to play a figure
winning strategy to creating a cohesive group of who inspired the famous fiction of the day. Sherlock
player characters, with a good dynamic and comple- Holmes is but a character in a story in the world of
mentary personalities and abilities, is to discuss the Kerberos Club , but few would deny that Arthur
character concepts with the whole group, perhaps Conan Doyle got his inspiration from reading the
during a dedicated session focused on exploits of the so-called Great Detective, Lucas
character and group generation. Moreland.
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beginning of play and must also meet the require-

Questions ments of the Edge as normal.

One race has such specific importance to The
Kerberos Club that it deserves special attention—
Before, during, or after determining attributes, skills, creatures of Faerie, called the Fae.
edges, hindrances and powers, answer the following
questions for your character. Be as brief or verbose
as you like to fix the character in your mind’s eye.
Humble Beginnings. Everyone starts The Fae
somewhere. Who were you before you became who
you are? How did your early years mark you and Faerie characters have the following qualities.
shape you? Born of Dream: The Fae have another 2 attribute
Follies of Youth. Foolishness is the vice of the points to spend at character generation, these can be
young, and the fondest memory of the old. What placed wherever desired.
did you get up to as you sought independence during Conviction: All Fae have a series of beliefs and
your formative years? perceptions on mortal life that they immutably
First Awakenings. When did you begin to believe to be correct. If these believes are challenged
realize the world was not as it might seem? When (even verbally), the fae must make a successful Vigor
did you become aware, and involved in, the hidden roll or be shaken. If one of their beliefs is proved to
and not-so-hidden Strangeness lurking about the be incorrect they suffer a wound, which cannot be
comfortable hearth of proper society? soaked.
Mysterious Origins. When did you come Each Faerie character must list at least five facts
into power of your own? When did your touch of that shape their view of the world, one of these
Strangeness become manifest? How did you become should be wildly inaccurate, and two others should
a player in the weird games of the Strangers? be highly unlikely. For example: A Fae character
Great Failing. What is your greatest flaw, and could believe that London is the center of the mortal
how did it bring you near to ruin and disaster? world, an Englishman is the peak of the mortal
form—these are generally common perceptions in
the Victorian era. She might also believe that a cabal
of the major religions controls the world’s finance,

Race and Africa is actually a savage faerie realm, not

found on the mortal realm—highly unlikely beliefs
at best. Finally she may also believe that a shape
Most characters of The Kerberos Club are human, but changed faerie giraffe has actually replaced Queen
many are not. Humans begin play with a free Edge Victoria, and the true monarch is actually trapped
of their choice, and must meet the requirements of behind bars in Regents Park—one would hope this
the Edge as normal. is wildly inaccurate.
Other races—undead, constructs, or even Fae: Fairies are by definition are a winsome, and
demons—are also possible, but you’ll create those physically appealing race. All Faeries have +2
with the appropriate superpowers so that you can Charisma.
tailor your race exactly as you see it. Just like humans, Faerie Glamour: Fae may
custom races get a Free Edge of their choice at the attack with frightening and
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grotesque illusions, which—as long as the victim points per die type to raise a skill over its linked
fails to recognize them as unreal—may inflict very attribute. All skills from the Savage Worlds rulebook
real wounds. Fairies can also raise illusory disguises, are allowed unless your GM says otherwise. In a
changing their appearance for a time, and they can campaign set early in the century, for example, it
create wild or prosaic illusions to confuse mortal wouldn’t make much sense to have Knowledge
senses. (Computers). However, as time marches on and the
Illusion: Level 2; Film Quality, Psychosomatic Strange changes the world more and more, almost
trauma anything becomes possible.
Matter Over Mind: Faerie are bound by the
physical forms they decide upon when they first
materialize in the mortal realm. A faerie can only
improve her Agility, Strength, or Vigor stats once
every other Rank. If a fae increases her Strength at
Novice, she must wait until Veteran rank until she
Hindrances
can increase either her Agility, Strength or Vigor Hindrances allow you to define the personal
again. Obviously Super Powers may make the need weaknesses and flaws of your character. They also give
to improve these traits fairly moot. you more points with which to build your character.
Oathbound: Whenever a faerie knowingly You may take up to two Minor Hindrances (worth
breaks their sworn word, they take a wound, which 1 point each) and one Major Hindrance (worth 2
cannot be soaked. Faeries can—and do—try to work points).
around this. Conversation with a faerie can be a For 2 Points you can:
labyrinthine, confusing experience. • Raise an attribute one die type.
• Choose an Edge.
For 1 Point you can:
• Gain another skill point (max d12).

Traits • Gain an additional £10.

Characters with Arcane Background (Super
Powers) can also use their Power Points to further
Every character starts with a d4 in each of his five increase their attributes or take new Edges.
Attributes: Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, and
Vigor. You then have 5 points to distribute among
them as you choose. Raising an attribute costs 1
point per die type. Raising a d4 to a d8, for example,
costs two of these points (one point to a d6, and one
more to a d8).
Gear
You can’t raise an attribute above d12 here, but Your character starts with £10 to spend on gear.
you’ll be able to exceed that limitation when you For conversions, £1 in The Kerberos Club is equiv-
choose your super powers. alent to$100 in Savage Worlds. Sample weapons and
You also have 15 points to buy your skills. armor can be found on pages 202-203.
Raising a skill by a die type costs 1 point To price an item from Savage Worlds using
as long as it’s no higher than the Kerberos Club coinage, use the following conversions.
200 attribute it’s linked to. It costs 2
 Chapter 5

Savage Worlds
Kerberos Club Currency
1 guinea
1 gold sovereign (£1)
Equivalent
$105
$100
New Hindrances
1 half-sovereign $50 The following new Hindrances are available.
1 crown $25
1 half-crown $12
1 shilling (1s) $5 Black Sheep (Minor)
1 sixpence tanner $2 You have been cast out and disinherited from the
1 silver threepenny bit (3p) $1 bosom of your rich family. This is well known in
both the middle and upper classes, and you suffer
a -2 Charisma for your infamy. However, your
estrangement from your family makes you a hero

Secondary with the lower classes, with whom you enjoy +2

Charisma. You will never benefit from any inheri-
tance, whether it is property or money until you

Statistics repair relations with your family—Something

almost impossible given the epic and determined
way in which you burnt your bridges with them.
Once you’ve finished raising your basic Traits, it’s
time to determine your secondary statistics.
Charisma is a measure of your hero’s likeability, Ex Cultist (Minor)
and is added to Persuasion and Streetwise rolls. Your Before becoming a Kerberan you were a member of
Charisma modifier is +0 unless changed by Edges, one of the many mystery cults, secret societies, and
Hindrances, or Powers. dark brotherhoods, which ply their dark trade in
Pace is equal to 6”, unless changed by Edges, London’s dark alleys. You left under a dark cloud—
Hindrances, or Powers. possibly taking something of great value with you—
Parry is equal to 2 plus half your Fighting. and they have sworn revenge. Hardly a month goes
Toughness is equal to 2 plus half your Vigor. by without an attempt upon your life.
Similarly, if word ever gets out about your
previous allegiance, your standing in society would
be tarnished to say the least, you might even have

Final Touches to stand trial for heinous crimes. This makes you
extremely susceptible to blackmail and threats.

Finish up by filling in your character’s details. What

are his goals? Who does he hate? Does he care about Skittish (Minor)
anyone or anything? Why might he adventure with Something in your past, maybe a brush with slavers,
other super beings? terrible bullying at school, or even overly stern and
critical parents, has left you vulnerable to criticism.
You suffer a –2 to rolls to resist Intimidation or
taunts.
 Chapter 5

Armor
Type Armor Weight Cost Notes
Thick leather apron +1 8 5s Covers torso
Thick leather gloves +1 1 2s 50% vs arm shot
Thick leather jacket +1 10 7s Covers torso and arms
Hardened leather hat +1 1 1s 50% vs head shot
Helmet +2 2 10s 50% vs head shot
Breastplate +3 25 £4 Covers torso
Lorica Victoria +3 25 £30 Covers torso; heavy armor; socially acceptable if in
uniform

Hand Weapons
Type Damage Weight Cost Notes
Blades
Bayonet, unfixed Str+d4 1 5s
Bayonet, fixed Str+d6 Parry +1, Reach 1, 2 hands
Broadsword Str+d8 8 £3
Cane sword Str+d4 3 £3
Claymore Str+d10 12 £4 Parry –1, 2 hands
Cutlass or saber Str+d6 4 £2
Dagger Str+d4 1 5s
Duelling sword (small sword) Str+d4 3 £1/10s Parry +1
Fighting knife Str+d4+1 4 £1
Axes and Mauls
Hand axe Str+d6 2 £1
Heavy maul Str+d8 20 £2 AP 2 vs. rigid armor, Parry –1, 2 hands
Wood axe Str+d10 15 £2/10s AP 1, Parry –1, 2 hands
Bludgeons
Cosh Str+d4 1 5s Special (see page 102)
Police truncheon Str+d4 1 2s
Stout walking stick Str+d4 3 2s Socially acceptable if out of doors or just passing
through
Staff Str+d4 8 2s Parry +1, Reach 1, 2 hands; socially acceptable if out
of doors or just passing through

A Note on Social Acceptability

Anyone who wears armor or bears arms outside of an emergency or official capacity suffers a –2 Charisma penalty.
“Official capacity” is restricted to whatever is appropriate for one’s station. A uniformed policeman could carry a
truncheon and wear a helmet with no approbation, but not a firearm. A detective or an officer of Special Branch could
be expected to have a pistol, as long as it remains out of sight except in an emergency.

Other Items
Savage Worlds items that are appropriate to the Kerberos Club setting cost one shilling per $5 listed price.
 Ranged Weapons (Early Era)
Type Damage Range ROF Shots Weight Cost Min Str Notes
Black Powder
Blunderbuss 1-3d6* 10/20/40 1 1 12 £3 d6 1 round to reload; Misfire
Cap-and-ball revolver 2d6+1 10/20/40 1 6 4 £2 — AP 1; revolver; 1 round to reload each
cylinder
Chapter 5

Flintlock musket (“Brown Bess”) 2d8 10/20/40 1 1 15 £3 d6 1 round to reload; Misfire

Flintlock pistol 2d6+1 5/10/20 1 1 3 £1/5s — 1 round to reload; Misfire
Flintlock rifled musket 2d8 15/30/60 1 1 15 £5 d6 AP 1; 3 actions to reload; Misfire
Ranged Weapons (Middle and Late Era)
Type Damage Range ROF Shots Weight Cost Min Str Notes
Brass Cartridge Pistols and Rifles
Derringer 2d6+1 5/10/20 1 2 2 £2 — AP 1
Heavy revolver 2d6+1 12/24/48 1 6 3 £4 — AP 1, revolver
Light revolver 2d4+1 10/20/40 1 6 2 £2 — AP 1, revolver
Lever-action carbine 2d6+2 20/40/80 1 7 8 £4/10s — AP 2
Lever-action rifle 2d8 24/48/96 1 15 10 £6 d6 AP 2
Large-bore rifle 2d10+1 24/48/96 1 1 20 £10 d12 AP 2, 1 round to reload
Shotguns
Single-barrel shotgun 1-3d6* 12/24/48 1 1 8 £4 — See notes in Savage Worlds
Double-barrel shotgun 1-3d6* 12/24/48 1 2 11 £5 — See notes in Savage Worlds
Heavy Weapons
Gatling gun 2d8 24/48/96 3 — 40 £10 — AP 2; may not move
Cannon (shot) 3d6+1 50/100/200 1 — — Mil. — AP 4; heavy weapon; see notes in Savage
Worlds
Shrapnel shell 3d6 50/100/200 1 — — Mil. — Medium Burst Template
Canister 2d6 24” path 1 — — Mil. — See notes in Savage Worlds
Strange Weapons
Colt Avalanche revolver 2d6 12/24/48 3 6 3 £10 — AP 2; revolver; Misfire
Double-action rotating revolver 2d6 12/24/48 3 6 3 £4 — AP 2; revolver; Catastrophic Misfire
Electrophorus Firing Piece (“Spark”) — 12 1 6 2 £4 — Vigor at –2 or Shaken; electrical
Electrophorus Lightning Cannon 3d6 48/96/192 1 — — £24 — AP 4; electrical; heavy weapon; knockback;
may not move
Smith & Wesson Vulcan .30 caseless 3d6 24/48/96 2 30 10 £18 d6 AP 2; Misfire
rifle
Winchester Articulated Machine Rifle 3d6 12/24/48 3 18 12 £12 d6 AP 2, Catastrophic Misfire
* Notes: A shotgun or blunderbuss does 3d6 at short range, 2d6 at medium range, and 1d6 at long. For Misfire and Catastrophic Misfire see page 208.
 Chapter 5

Unrest
If you would like to add some mechanical teeth to the that overt, violent power use may increase the Unrest
theme of hidden Strangeness, then consider what a token pool, rather than decrease it. The mob uses either
panicky, wild, dangerous, and savage beast a mob is. A the persuasion dice of its leader(s), or if leaderless a
thousand fists and no brain, it thrashes and destroys skill of d6, plus a Wild Die. Rather than decreasing
in spasms and surges, until breaking apart into its the nonexistent heroes token pool, success and raises
constituent fragments, and vanishing. on this roll increases the mobs tokens.
Early in the century the Strange is terrifying to If the mob’s tokens are reduced to zero, then the unrest
many. Display of obviously superhuman powers, mirac- is defused and the mob disperses, confused and unhappy
ulous events, impossible or frightening technology, or but not violent. If the mob gains 10 Unrest tokens or
inhuman creatures can spark riots. more, it gets totally out of hand and violence erupts.
The GM tracks this with Unrest tokens. Unrest This in itself can be treated as an adventure for the
tokens represent the general level of tension in a group heroes—the GM could design bespoke encounters
of people, a crowd, a community, even a nation. As for his heroes to play out as the riot waxes and wanes.
Unrest increases, the chance of some sort of violent However, here’s a simple system for determining the
outbreak also increases. eventual outcome of the riot. Draw a single card from
Here are the things that cause Unrest to increase: the Action Deck; the suit of the card decides the type
The crowd is out of control. +1 token if the crowd is of riot that occurs.
drunk or intoxicated. Add a token if the crowd is angry Clubs: Mob Violence! Dozens of people suffer serious
about something such as a game lost by a sports team, injuries and over a hundred have minor injuries. Player
loss of employment, or the death of a favorite local. characters caught in the melee suffer 2d6 damage, but
The Strange on display. +1 token minimum. Use of if they are specifically targeted by the mob, this damage
obvious or sweeping powers adds an additional token increases to 4d8.
per scene. The presence of obviously inhuman beings Diamonds: Stampede! Dozens are killed, hundreds are
adds another. seriously injured, and more than a thousand individuals
Violence. +1 token for acts of violence. Violence suffer minor injuries. Property damage is measured in
against sympathetic targets adds another die per scene. thousands of pounds sterling. Player characters caught
Violence against the crowd adds another. in the melee suffer 4d8 damage.
Rabble rousing. Each success and raise on a Persuasion Hearts: Flight! Dozens of people suffer minor
roll adds a token if someone is stirring up trouble, inciting injuries, and the cost in property damage is in the
the mob, or trying to increase aggression. hundreds of pounds sterling. Player characters caught
Unrest gradually builds up over a period of time until in the melee suffer 2d6 damage.
it boils over into a full-fledged riot. However it can be Spades: Total Riot! Hundreds are killed, thousands
countered by the subtle use of powers, such as super suffer serious injuries, and tens of thousands suffer
persuasion, illusion, mind control, or telepathy. Treat minor injuries. Property damage is measured in the
this as a Mass Battle (see Savage Worlds). The heroes tens of thousands pounds sterling. Player characters
use whichever skill governs their power, but remember caught in the melee suffer 5d10 damage.
 Chapter 5

this Bennie is only limited by the player’s imagi-

New Edges nation, and—of course—the GM’s agreement.

The following new Edges are available to those who Old Boy’s Network
meet the requirements. Requirements: Novice
You attended one of the many British boarding
schools, which dot the home counties. Although

Background Edges you have mixed memories about your time there,
you have kept in touch with many of your old
school chums, who have gone on to a surprisingly
high number of important postings and jobs. Even
if an old school friend cannot be found, you would
Educated Abroad be amazed at the result flashing the old school tie or
Requirements: Novice quoting its Latin motto can have.
You spent your formative years attending This edge operates much like the Connection
schools all across Europe, or even further a-field. Edge (see Savage Worlds), however it can only be
Your unusual and cosmopolitan childhood has given used once per Rank per session, and is not tied into
you a broad understanding of foreign cultures and a single organization. One session it may be used
customs, and you have picked up a smattering of to smooth things over with the someone high up
many different languages. in Whitehall, and the next session it might be used
You do not suffer the –2 outsider penalty to procure some information and material from
to Charisma when in foreign climes that most the consulate in a fly-bitten nation on the Dark
characters have. You also know enough of the Continent. If your character wants more focused
languages commonly spoken in Europe (and their links with a single organization, then take the
empires) to get by as long as the conversation does Connections Edge instead.
not get too technical or nuanced.

Street Urchin
Faerie Fascination Requirements: Novice
Requirements: Novice Your parents died when you were very young,
The faerie are quite taken with you. Your life leaving you destitute and alone. A sad series of
is filled with the inexplicable and the bizarre, for circumstances forced you out onto the streets and
faeries follow you, always unseen, and meddle in it proved a crueler guardian than any Mr. Dickens
your life, and do you secret favors, and obey your imagined. Bitter experience has taught you how
thoughtlessly spoken wishes. to endure pain and starvation. You can ignore the
You gain an extra Bennie at the start of each penalties of the first level of Fatigue.
session, which can be used to make changes to the
plot, such as distracting sparkles of light, guards
being temporarily struck blind or death, mundane—
non iron—items suddenly springing into existence,
even a limited weakening of structures. The use of
205
 Chapter 5

Combat Edges Social Edges

Blood and Thunder Reputation

Requirements: Veteran, Fighting or Shooting d10+ Requirements: Veteran
Your character has been in more than his share As a result of his deeds (be they good or bad) the
of battles where he fought for the crown. He has hero has earned a reputation across the Empire.
taken countless lives, and has seen many friends He may add his Charisma to all Intimidation
slain beside him. He has faced overwhelming odds, rolls. A Negative score is treated as positive for this
and lived to tell the tale. purpose (and the hero has a bad reputation).
The hero halves the difference between tokens
when making an attack roll in a Mass Battle if it is a
negative (round down).
Weird Edges
Professional Edges Exceptional Potential
Requirements: Novice; Wild Card
Some people are just brimming over with
Actor potential. You may increase one of your stats by one
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d8+, Persuasion d8+ die type every time this Edge is taken. This Edge can
All the world’s a stage, they say, so it’s only only be taken once per Rank, and a stat cannot be
reasonable to say that mastering the stage makes increased beyond the natural limit for your race—In
you a master of the whole wide world as well! You’re an superhero setting it can be assumed there is no
a famous figure, whether by limelight or by cande- limit most times.
labra.
You gain +2 Charisma, and also have the stage-
craft and materials to be able to disguise yourself Stiff Upper Lip
convincingly as a minion, guard or other “nobody” Requirements: Novice, Guts d8+
in order to infiltrate enemy organizations. You gain Whether through an earlier brush with the more
a +2 on Persuasion and Stealth rolls when disguised. squamous end of the occult, or an unshakable belief
that an Englishman must never show fear, you are
able to ignore up too 2 negative modifiers on a Guts
Roll, as well as the corresponding modifiers on the
Fear Effects Table.

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 Chapter 5

Unflappable Knockback
Requirements: Heroic, Stiff Upper Lip
The character now ignores all penalties on Guts The concept of super-powerful blows and blasts
rolls and rolls on the Fear Effects Table. knocking characters all over the battlefield is a
staple of the comic book genre. A successful hit by
a character with a Strength of d12 or greater causes
the foe to fly backwards 1d4”, plus an additional 1d4”

Setting Rules per raise on the attack roll. Of course, only kinetic
damage causes knockback—poison gas, choking
mist, and the like do not.
The following setting rules apply to the average Add +1d6 to the total damage if the victim hits
Kerberos Club campaign. a substantial object, such as a wall or tree. This must
be worked out during the damage roll—before the
knockback occurs conceptually. This may seem a

Environmental Options bit awkward at first, but is much better than rolling
damage a second time.

Most campaigns are considered to be Baseline

campaigns, however as the century progresses and
things get really Strange, the environment option Unarmed Defenders
can change to Cosmic as those start touched by the
Strange are able to really distort or ignore the rules The Unarmed Defender rule is inappropriate for a
of reality. Kerberos Club campaign and is ignored for Wild
Cards. It applies normally to Extras.

Genre Conventions Super Karma

Inherent Power: All player characters start the
game with the Arcane Background (Super Powers) Super-powered characters are larger than life, with
Edge for free. faults and responsibilities as great as their mirac-
Natural Growth: The GM also gives the Power ulous powers. With Super Karma, supers may take
Points Edge for free each time the characters achieve an additional Major Hindrance during character
a new Rank. This means that character gain the creation to grant them an extra 5 Power Points.
Power Points Edge for free at Novice rank as well.

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 Chapter 5

Each reload weighs three pounds if it holds 18 shots

New Power or one pounds if it holds six shots.

Massive (–2): This modifier can only be applied
to devices. It’s a large, massive thing, too heavy and

Modifiers bulky to be carried around. Even moving it requires

a stout carriage or chassis drawn by a Strength of
d12—typically a team of laborers, a horse or mule.
These modifiers are included in addition to the ones Misfire (-1): This modifier can only be applied to
already found in the Savage Worlds Super Powers devices. If the user rolls snake eyes—a natural one on
Companion. both his Skill and Wild Die dice—the device fails
Catastrophic Misfire (-4): This modifier can to function. The device must be cleaned, taking 1
only be applied to devices. If the user rolls snake minute (10 combat rounds), before it can be re-used.
eyes—a natural one on both his Skill and Wild Die Manufacturable (x2): This modifier can only be
dice—the device explodes causing 1d6 damage, plus applied to devices. Once the device has been created,
an extra d6 for every five points (or part thereof ) and its blueprints get out into the world, anyone
that the device originally cost in Power Points to with the right skills and resources can recreate it.
create. The Manufacturable modifier is available only in the
Erratic (-1): The power always does something. Middle or Late eras of the Kerberos Club setting,
If the skill roll for the power results in a failure, the not in the Early era when Strange creations are
GM gets to describe the effects, based on the power much more rare.
and the circumstances. He should be expected This modifier is applied to the device only after
to come up with something which will make life the modification for device (i.e., after all other
complicated or interesting for the character and her modifiers).
colleagues. The total Power Point cost for the finished
Disruptable (-2): This modifier can only be device determines both the manufacturing cost and
applied to powers, which have a non-specific duration the time taken to put the device into production.
length, such as chameleon, flight, or invisibility. A The device takes half its Power Point cost in weeks
character who suffers damage must make a Smarts to manufacture, at a cost of £1 per week in parts and
roll versus the damage rolled. Failure means his labor. Its market value is double that.
power fails. If the hero is Shaken by non damaging For example, a Manufacturable device that costs
means (such as Test of Wills) then he must make a 12 Power Points takes six weeks and costs £6 to
simple Smarts roll to maintain his power. manufacture, and has a market value of £12.
Light Weapon (–1): An attack that normally A device without the Manufacturable modifier
counts as a heavy weapon counts as a normal weapon doesn’t have a standard market price because it’s a
instead. unique creation. A good rule of thumb would be
Limited Shots (variable): Your power can be £10 per Power Point, but it might be £20 to £50
used a limited number of times before you must per Power Point depending on the reputation of the
spend an action reloading its clip, magazine, bullets inventor, the scope of its usefulness and impact, and
or battery. The value of this modifier depends on how well it will enhance the reputation of the owner.
the number of times it can be used before Negate (-1/-2): This modifier can only be applied
reloading: At 18 shots it’s –1; 6 to powers that have an extended duration, such as
208 shots it’s –2; at 1 shot it’s –3. armor, flight, shapechange, or super skill. Something
 Chapter 5

relatively common, such as the close proximity of a

metal, totally negates the power causing it to switch
off, and the character to be automatically Shaken.
The power can be restarted as an action once the
character has recovered.
Common materials or actions, such as silver,
or sunlight bestow a –2 modifier. Less common
materials, such as rare intergalactic meteorites, only
bestow a –1 modifier.
Smaller (-1/level): This modification reduces the
area effect radius of the power by one step per level. If
this reduces the power’s effect below the Small Burst
Template Then the power can only effect one target.

New Powers
This power is included in addition to the ones already
found in the Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion.

Omni Super Skill (2/Level)

Trappings: Natural genius, software programs,
intensive training, nanites.
Whereas Super Skill grants you the ability to
permanently increase specific skills, Omni Super
Skill gives you a pool of points which can be
assigned as and when the hero needs. Characters
with this power are often viewed by the public as
supra geniuses skilled at everything.
The Hero has 1 Skill point for every level, creating
a pool of points which he can assign as needed.
As an action, the Hero can make a Spirit roll.
With a success, the Hero can divide the points
between up to two skills. Each raise adds a skill.
Each point spent increases the chosen
skill by one step. Previously
unknown skills can be tempo-
209
 Chapter 5

rarily assigned a d4. The increase lasts until the Hero law, which learned barristers employ when trying
uses Omni Super Skill again. cases before Flower Courts or assisting a client in
Unlike normal skill advancement, it doesn’t dealing directly with the capricious things.
matter if the super skill is greater than the linked The Law of Form: Oaths shape a faerie’s person-
attribute or not (although it still matters if you use ality, but form defines its physicality. The Law of
regular advancements to increase the skill’s natural Form dictates that if a faerie is to assume material
rating). form, then it is bound by the limitations of that
Example: Lady Mirabel, with 7 levels in Omni form. Their flesh bleeds, their stomachs hunger.
Super Skill, rolls an 11 on her Spirit die—a success Though many can assume a menagerie of forms,
and one raise. She may divide her seven Omni Super some wholly fantastic, all must on some basic level
Skill points between up to three different skills. be able to sustain life, lest the unwise faerie adopt
a form which kills it. Much of a faerie’s true nature
might be cloaked in glamour and illusion, but the
essential form which allows it to interact with the

Faerie: Wonder real world is a living thing, and is as vulnerable as

any other.
The Law of Self: A faerie’s whole existence

and Horror hinges on its sense of self, who it imagines itself

to be and who others believe it to be. Faerie have
almost no inner life, no secret subconscious. They are
The faerie race is one of infinite diversity of mind and all surface. What you see is what you get. Because
body. Most are hardly more than beasts or specters of this, when a faerie suffers a blow to its identity,
of people. But some raise the level of sapience to its beliefs, then it is reduced and weakened, actually
rival or even exceed humanity. Regardless of their injured. This can even cause such a grievous injury
form or mind, all creatures of Faerie are bound by that it simply evaporates back into whatever weird
the three Laws. stuff the faerie are made of, lost motes upon the
The Law of Oath: A faerie’s identity is shaped breeze. Of course, that works both ways. On some
less by its birth and experiences than by who it occasions a faerie can evolve or change dramatically
imagines itself to be. Oaths, things a faerie has when it undergoes some great inner transformation,
sworn as true, are to it as real as gravity, air and with its Stats, Skills and Powers changing by a great
kinetic energy to a mortal. Oaths are binding forces expenditure of willpower. In this way it’s possible—
in a faerie’s life, and rather than see them as restric- but rare, very rare—for a Common Faerie that has
tions or limitations, faerie tend to view them as the had its strangest beliefs to be validated to become a
cornerstones of who they are. Oaths of loyalty, of Faerie Beast or even a Peer (see page 243).
vengeance, of service, or faith (if one can extract by
trick or true-dealing such an oath), are as binding
as natural science upon the faerie’s essential nature.
To break such a vow is not just disheartening, it
actually reduces the faerie in some major way. It
is the Law of the Oath. The encyclopedic
knowledge of past oaths forms the
210 firmament of faerie society and
 Chapter 5

increase his powers. When he has done so, he serves

Magic: Forbidden none but Magic. Magi make poor kings, priests,
fathers, soldiers, scholars. In the end, they care nothing
for human stations. They care only for the higher and

Lore and Hidden lower realities open to their occult perception.

Secrets The Sacred and the Profane

Magical traditions are many and varied, but all There are two orders of magic at work in the world
demand one thing from those who find true powers of the Kerberos Club: the Sacred and the Profane.
amid the dross and lies and fantasies: dedication. Sacred magic is slow, ritualized, and extremely
To gain true sorcerous insight, one must put magic powerful. It taps ancient forces, sleeping gods,
before all other things. One must shed attachments, and weirder, more alien things, and the results are
abandon preconceptions, betray trusts, deny duties, astonishing, or so subtle and pervasive as to escape
and alienate loves. For the Magus, the Art is All. common notice. Sacred magic is more akin to the
So long as a Magus maintains other attachments, invent power (see the Super Powers Companion),
his power is never what it might be, never absolute. as there’s always a token or talisman which contains
Total dedication to magic often places one beyond the force of the magical Work.
the realms of sanity and society. The concerns of By contrast, Profane magic is incredibly fast,
ordinary people are as the buzzing of flies. but the effects are temporary and short-
So have the kings of old and new realized. When lived. It works like the super sorcery
a Magus seeks to serve you, he does so in order to Power (see the Super Powers
211
 Chapter 5

Companion). A profane adept can throw cheap effects. The more powerful the invention, the worse
miracles to the rabble, but could never craft a perfect the risks. That, and more especially their expense, is
cosmological instrument for slowing time across a why relatively few of them revolutionize Victorian
city, or extract the heart of a lover and place it inside a life. But that’s nothing to the thrill of holding the
suit of animate and invulnerable superhuman armor. Power of the Strange in your very hand!
Each Magus must take a Conviction representing his A player character can seek out a Strange device
or her dedication to magic. Each Magus must take a to suit his or her needs no more often than once per
Vow Hindrance representing his or her dedication to game session.
magic. Finding the device requires a Streetwise roll
Sacred and Profane Magi rarely see eye-to-eye on (if you’re combing the streets and shops), an
matters arcane. Investigation roll (if you’re combing newspapers
Here are a number of example vows. and magazines for advertisements by inventors),
• Light a votive candle of rendered human fat a Persuasion roll (if you’re talking to well-placed
before the spell is cast (Sacred). contacts in Society), or a Knowledge (the Strange)
• Seek to twist and mutilate the accepted social roll (if you’re talking to fellow enthusiasts of Strange
mores at every opportunity (Profane). inventions).
• Channel your sorcerous power through the The difficulty of the roll depends on the era of
Arcane Engine which traps all the souls of your play. In the Early era, it’s at -4. In the Middle era it’s
ancestors (Sacred). at -2. In the Late era there’s no penalty.
• Avoid all examples of one of the natural To gain a bonus, if you make a Knowledge
elements as it interrupts your connection to the (Kerberos Club) roll you can offer a particularly
arcane energies (Profane). Kerberan sort of favor to your contact in return for
• You must wear, and carry the vestments of the help. If the roll succeeds you gain +2 with the
your god to be able to cast spells in his name (Sacred). roll to find the device you want.
• Always refer to yourself in the third person as The amount of time it will take to track the device
a reminder of your insignificance in the grand scheme down depends on the era. Early era: Three weeks, or
of the universe (Profane). two with a raise on your roll to locate it. Middle era:
Three days, or two with a raise. Late era: 30 minutes,
or 20 with a raise. During this time, pursuit of the
device is the character’s primary occupation. He or

The Miracle Market she can’t spend a great deal of time on other things.
A player character can have no more than one
market-bought wonder at a time. They are twitchy,
Strange gadgets—usually called Wonders, from unpredictable things and require a good deal of
“Wonder of the Modern Age!”—become increas- tuning and care.
ingly common as Victoria’s Century progresses.
Faerie trinkets are imported from the goblin
factories of New Birmingham, and technological
wonders like the Electrophorous Firing Piece Mass-Produced Wonders
appear in London pawn shops.
Unfortunately, mass-market You can (with the right rolls) find any power at all on
212 miracles tend to have side the miracle market. The GM may want to draw up
 Chapter 5

the device’s abilities, but it’s entirely reasonable for

the players to come up with the exact powers that
they want in a street-bought wonder. The device’s
flaws are always up to the GM. And players, be
Running the Game
warned: Mass-produced wonders have a lot of flaws. It is the great goal of this book to provide you, the
These are mass-produced devices, after all, kludged GM, with enough material and inspiration to run a
together in such numbers that they make it to the truly fun and memorable Kerberos Club game. This
streets of London. section offers some techniques and advice for lever-
The power must have the Device modifier and aging the setting and its themes into play, and on
the Manufacturable modifier (page 208). taking full advantage of all the hooks and hints your
Unless the GM says otherwise, it can cost no players give you when building their characters. Go
more than four Power Points in the Early era, six bravely and let thy GM screen be thy armor.
Power Points in the middle era, or ten in the late
era. If it’s a power that ordinarily costs more than
that, it must have modifiers to bring its cost down.
(Mass-produced weapons are a common exception Theme In Motion:
to this rule.)
The device costs £1 per Power Point unless the The Unstoppable Express
GM says otherwise.
Example: It’s the Middle era. Stony Joe Smithson Train of Drama
very much wants to be able to become invisible
at a society function that he’s been pressured into Theme can sometimes be airy and vague, and tends
attending in a few days. He succeeds at a Streetwise to get lost after a few sessions of romping good
roll, spending three days chasing down rumors of a adventures and wild happenings. But keeping your
new shop of wonders that’s opened in Whitechapel. themes present in your campaign can provide some
But what sort of device is it? The GM has in mind backbone, and possibly add an extra dimension in
a sort of hat of an unidentified metal, small enough which to enjoy the thing.
to fit under a bowler or top hat, with pistons built Applied thematics is good GM kung-fu
in that take in the aether and alter its effects on regardless of the game, but in The Kerberos Club,
light. Invisibility normally costs 5 Points, or 8 as where much of the action can easily be player-driven
a Device (-1) that’s Manufacturable (x2). Since rather than GM-driven, theme can be your man
it’s the Middle era, the most it can cost is 6 Power behind the curtains—even if the game is entirely
Points. The GM decides that the device has the satisfactory when played out before the giant floating
Negate modifier, worth –2 for a common substance green head with all the special effects.
or circumstance that negates the power; perhaps What is your game about? Themes evolve and
the seller gives Joe a mild warning to steer clear of change, and new ones arise. If you find you aren’t
otherworldly or otherwise Strange exhalations or happy with your themes, there’s no reason you can’t
energies while using it. Since there will surely not change them. To get you thinking about it, here are
be anything Strange at a soirée where Kerberans are core themes that the setting itself is built around.
invited, that should be no problem. That brings the Use these if they fascinate you—but
total Power Point cost to 4. Perfect. Joe pays £4 and regardless, zero in on the themes
has his invisibility cap. that do.
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 Chapter 5

The Burden of Choice

Perhaps the theme with the greatest direct appli-
cation to play is that of choice and consequences. The
world of the Kerberos Club is morally very gray.
People do horrible things for the right reasons, and
noble things for grossly selfish reasons. The true
motivations behind actions are often obscure—and
many of the actors sharing a stage with the player
characters are deeply cynical manipulators whose
idealism is deader than a Christmas Goose on New
Year’s Eve.
As members of the Kerberos Club and beings
of singular influence, the player characters should
be faced with difficult choices every time they act
in a meaningful way. They are powerful, and the
consequences of their choices are powerful. Worse,
times are uncertain. It is a complex world, where one
decision can have rippling unforeseen consequences,
especially for people as powerful as the player
characters. They stand among the tiny fraction of
exceptional individuals who transcend the ordinary
rules and restrictions of their society, who can even
transcend the laws of nature itself. Some Kerberans
can kill with a thought, remake matter, unleash
cosmic destruction, or cure a sick world of its ills.
What the player characters do is always signif-
icant. Remember this. Get it tattooed on your arm.
The PC’s might not be the most objectively powerful
beings in the setting (there certainly are others with
greater point totals) but they are the most important
people in the setting. They are the reason you
purchased this book and are reading these words. So
it holds that what they do and decide must matter.
It must influence the way the setting unfolds in your
game.
Keep track of incidental choices the players make
which promise interesting consequences down the
road—especially if you can connect the choice to
an NPC with a name and persona who might show
214 up later to highlight the earlier choice. For example,
 Chapter 5

let’s say during one adventure a player decides his comprehend. One of the fascinations of Victoriana
character will reveal the terrible majesty of his in general is how exotic and quaint and formal it all
character’s divine avatar. Later on, a confrontation seems, yet how familiar it is as well.
with rogue cultists seeking to sacrifice in his name Now, imagine the Industrial Revolution if it were
might be an interesting direction to take things. coupled with a consumer boom allowed by cheap
This hits the second big point: Do not punish faerie labor, and imagine the economic consequences
decisions. This assumes you play with a group of when human workers were made redundant, where
friends, and that nobody is deliberately trying to freak-science allowed mass aviation and air travel
be disruptive. But here’s the thing: Even if a player sixty years early. The populace can’t keep up. The
makes a decision which you think is wrong or in Coming Thing is so quickly replaced by the Next
poor judgment, it isn’t your job as GM to punish Thing that many live in a constant state of future
the player or make him or her regret it. Punishing shock, and find themselves profoundly alienated from
choices only leads to passive players who won’t their world. Some, such as the Oxford Movement,
take dramatic, decisive, folly-rich actions. Rather, retreat into the past. Some retreat to family and
make consequences interesting. Use them to add close friends. For the poor, the only change is how
complexity and energy to your game. noticeably worse their living conditions become.
Characters in the Kerberos Club are creatures And for the ever-grasping middle classes, the tide
of singular passion. They can be expected to make of new things to buy, new fashions to keep, and new
sub-optimal decisions. It should be encouraged. thoughts to think is overwhelming.
Doing mad, bad, dangerous, wild, and ill-advised In your games, keep an eye on the calendar and on
things which shake the Empire in its knees is exactly the setting’s timeline. Don’t feel bound to stick with
what Strangers do. it (especially if setting-altering choices are made by
Characters in the Kerberos Club should not the players!), but find ways to work the passage of
always do the safe thing. The Safe Thing is best left time and the movement of events into your game.
in the dungeon beside the 10-foot pole and the Sometimes the players will be directly confronted
bundle of torches. by these elements; sometimes they will be wonderful
red herrings to complicate your stories; and other
times they will be little pearls strewn among the

Breakneck Change and setting details that make things breathe.

Games set early in the century can even focus

Bleeding Edges on repressing these changes. Look further down

the timeline, and then use future events as a guide
for creating adventures. The conceit here would be
The setting of The Kerberos Club is escalating. The something akin to the characters preventing (and
weirdness is getting more overt and the scope more keeping secret) an Atlantean invasion in 1834, only
broad. In 1830, the Club suppresses the Strange, to have it happen in 1867 instead.
and keeps things under wraps. By the 1890s, the
Strange walks the streets, flies in the skies, and
elopes with your daughter. The century was a period
of astonishing change in our own world. It remade
the whole world from something starkly alien to
the modern sensibility into something we can easily
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Society: 1; The Individual: 0 receive a warm invitation. They can toss the police
inspector into the Thames and examine the crime
scene for themselves.
The Kerberos Club exists in the setting in part as Or course, choosing to do so might have reper-
a hack, a way for characters of radically different cussions. See above for how to squeeze these for all
backgrounds, classes, and abilities to come together they’re worth.
into a comfortable group. But outside the safe harbor
of the Club, the social seas are stormy. Social position
is terribly important, something for even a Kerberan
rogue to keep in mind. No matter how comfortable
life is inside the Club, there will come a time when
one must venture out into the world and deal with
GM’s Tools
the hoi polloi in a meaningful way. Being a nine-foot Or, “Tricks, Tecniques, and the Shameless
reptile man with burning red eyes and flesh-rending Exploitation of Human Weakness.”
talons is grand when facing down the occult minions
of the Britannica Subrosa, but when searching out
the parents of a lost child it can cause problems. And
compared to the constant social stigma borne by the Start With Assumptions
fallen woman, the reptile man has it good.
The Club gives modern players a way to Character creation in The Kerberos Club is best
acknowledge their modern ideals, but the larger handled as a fairly open process, with the players
setting provides dramatic contrast to this nest of collaborating to create characters with intermeshed
freedom. Despite the weird turns the world takes as histories before the game even begins. A good rule
the century progresses, it lags dramatically in social of thumb is to have no more than one “new guy” in
progress. The Strangeness causes many in their fear a group, only a single character who is new to the
and shock to cleave even more tightly to their preju- association or friendship. This character can serve
dices, misconceptions and social restraints. the same function in the game as similar characters
It can become boring and repetitive if done too serve in literature and film, to provide a window into
often, but don’t forget to occasionally confront your the unfamiliar setting.
players with the social realities of the setting. A rude Beginning the game with the assumption that
shopkeeper refuses to serve the dark-complected; everyone is already on good terms means you don’t
a butler refuses to acknowledge her Ladyship is have to do meet-and-greet encounters in the game
home—for these sorts of people anyway; a police itself, and you already have some relationships estab-
inspector condescends to a woman asking difficult lished among the characters. These first meetings can
questions. be great fun to play through, perhaps in flashback,
And here’s the thing: The players don’t have to but by starting with the group already established
put up with it. you make this something you can do rather than
Player characters in The Kerberos Club have power, something you must do.
and they’ve had a taste of a pretty egalitarian The collaborative nature of this process gets the
society. They can make rude shopkeepers players thinking like a circle of particular friends,
crawl before them, they can impose and into the Kerberan mode of asking for favors
216 their will upon the butlers and rather than issuing orders. A group of Kerberans
 Chapter 5

is different from many other types of roleplaying point are optional, suggestions more than fixed
character groups. They spend time together and history. Because players are to be encouraged to
adventure together because they like and respect take things and run with them (and you as GM are
each other. There is no authority, mission, or necessity encouraged to complicate the hell out of things), it
that they work together, just their friendship. Even a is entirely possible that history as it is written will be
brooding loner orphan with a dark mysterious past completely transformed if their ambitions operate
and a Japanese sword under his coat has to bring on scales grand enough. Don’t worry about breaking
something to the group. There has to be a reason the the setting. It’s going to break itself eventually, as
others would associate with him. Seeing that this things spiral out of control. By the end of Victoria’s
gets established before things even begins will pay Century, giant robots wading across the Channel to
off enormously in play. fight hideous French bat-monsters wouldn’t be out
of place.

Encourage Ambition Small Stories

If your players create strongly motivated characters,
then it seems logical that they would be driven to The counter-point to grand, sweeping, history-
pursue their own active agendas rather than simply wonking adventure is the little moments, the
react to events as you describe them. Many games small stories, the minor episodes. It can’t be savage
operate under the assumption that the players adopt adventure against impossible odds to save Queen
a somewhat passive posture as they wait for the and Country every week. Sometimes you have to
GM to present them with situations, encounters, relax, sit back, and do something different. A small
and challenges. Some more recent games take the story is one on a very immediate scale, just the PCs
opposite stance, putting the GM in the reactive role and a handful of NPCs. The stakes are very personal.
and giving the power to drive play and create situa- The fate of Nations is not at hand, but the fate of
tions entirely to the players. one man or woman might be.
In The Kerberos Club, a collaborative middle Looking into a little matter for a friend, associate,
ground between these two styles will serve best, or other Kerberan often leads to a small story. These
alternating and interweaving player-driven plot intimate episodes frequently benefit from a change
threads with those created by the GM. The nature of scene, as well: a trip to Brighton or out into the
of the Club itself is a tool for organizing play and country. Restricted surroundings also work well: a
introducing excuses to action, adventures, missions, passenger train in motion, or a snowed-in Scottish
investigations. But the real trick for the GM is to key hunting lodge. Small stories allow you to focus tight
these external stories and events off player character on a single belief or relationship. When resolved
traits and interests, and answers to the Questions. effectively, they allow you to make some kind of
The more driven and self-motivated the players are, shocking revelation with broader implications.
the easier it will be to weave external plotlines into On a steamer bound for Italy, the characters are
their goals. asked to defend a friend against an accusation
In this pursuit, the timeline found in Chapter of cheating at cards. They meet and
3 should not be taken as writ. Pick your starting interact with the odd and unusual
point and then assume all the events beyond that passengers, puzzling out the
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complex web of relationships, and finally reach the

climax, where they must make a choice of some sort. From Out of the Past
Who among the gamblers will they reveal to be the
real cheat, when all were cheating in their own ways? All those marvelous, full-Quality Skills which
Whose reputations will they ruin? And what will be your players are so proud of ? Those are like trays of
revealed about them by their choices? delicious plot-sushi waiting to be served. If you’re
Small stories allow you to make human concerns ever stuck for a twist, B-plot, or improv session, look
paramount: to put a face to larger social ills and at the PCs’ broad, background-type Skills, and have
inequities. Nothing of any consequence is at stake. their pasts come back to haunt them—as literally as
The Empire will continue on just fine. But with a you like.
well-crafted hook to intrigue your players, small A “World-Famous Adventurer” finds an old
stories serve as excellent contrast to the world- Andean comrade dying on her doorstep, an obsidian
shattering and the epic. jaguar figurine clutched in his hand. An “Old Army
The advanced version of a small story is one Physician” is called to consult on a patient with an
which runs parallel to the main action of your impossible disease, one he hasn’t seen since his service
game, perhaps even using a second set of characters in Afghanistan. An “Assassin” catches a glimpse in
generated for just the single-session length of the the street of a man who could not possibly be there,
story. Create ordinary mortals (or those with some a man who died on her blade ten years ago in Cairo.
small measure of extraordinary ability, only 10 points By creating unique interesting skills and
to spend on super powers, say), and begin their story backgrounds, your players are saying loudly that these
with the usual player characters dashing off to their things are important to their character concepts. So
next big adventure. important that they spent precious points to make
For this session and this small story, the players them mechanically useful. They’re telling you, “use
run ordinary people caught in the wake of the this in the game.”
extraordinary adventuring Kerberos Club. These Don’t be shy about doing so.
shadow stories can allow you to explore the social
structures and themes of the setting without the safe
harbor of the Club to protect modern sensibilities
from the truly awful inequities of the times. They
can also illuminate the Club from the perspective
of those who must suffer the consequences of a
Kerberan’s interesting life.

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 Chapter 6
Dramatis Personae
Here are six pre-generated members of the Kerberos POV: It would anger you how the English seem
Club created with the methods described in Chapter to hate the Irish, except you long ago left the home
5 for the starting point total of 250 points. These island because you’d grown to hate them yourself.
characters are ready to play, and can be used as You’ve been a child for a century, ever since the faerie
needed. A host of NPCs follow. decided that they like you. Your parents are long
dead. Your sister and brother, too. In the Famine
your village itself died. But you were long gone by
then. You traveled the Continent, you saw every

[WC] Maeve O’ evil that adults could perpetrate on their offspring,

and in the end you returned to England, to London
where a lone child wasn’t such a Strange sight, and

Connel (20 exp) here you carved out your little empire among the
street Arabs, mudlarks, sweeps and thieves. You lead
them, protect them, organize them. You are their
The Queen of the Mudlarks; the Damnable Child secret queen, their hidden general. You’ve watched
a generation of them grow older, die young, or get
Maeve is the eternal child. She’s been nine years old thrown into Newgate. Yet you remain as you are,
for over a century, growing in experience, cynicism, always and forever. So long as the Fair Ones follow.
knowledge and skill, but still on some level a child. Appearance: A thin child with pale, freckled skin
She is small, pale, and sports a huge, often tangled and a mass of untameable red hair. Usually dressed
mass of curly hair of a dramatic red shade. Her hair as a street urchin to better blend into the city and
is catching, defies hairpins and bonnets, and inexo- her chosen people—but with so many paying her
rably and continuously attracts the fascination of the tribute for her leadership and protection, she lives
faerie. They lurk about her like an invisible cloud, much better when in her own private quarters. To
reveling in her adventures and getting her into those with the eyes to see, the world around Maeve
trouble, as well as obeying her wishes (intended or crawls with the faerie: weird spirit animals, imps,
not). When Maeve drops the mask of carefree child- brownies, sprites, fetches. All will leap instantly to
ishness, her true personality is terrifying: old, angry, her defense, sometimes preempting her wishes.
tired, cunning, and suspicious. In the Kerberos Club
she has found a place she can be herself, people who
treat her as an equal, and challenges worthy of her
talents. In company she trusts not to judge her she
smokes, drinks and curses like a soldier.
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The Questions and revel in her adventures. They also conspire

to make her life more interesting, to get her into
amusing trouble. The faerie keep her the same age as
Humble Beginnings: Maeve is a child from a when they first took a liking to her.
tiny Irish village, and her origins could hardly be Great Failing: Maeve’s temper and the
more humble. willingness of her faerie entourage to act on her
Follies of Youth: Maeve scarcely had time wishes are a dangerous combination. She curses first
in her short mortal life for much folly; or rather, and contends with the consequences later. When
to gain enough wisdom to contrast against the an MP on his way to the Palace of Westminster to
constant foolishness. Her greatest folly was also her attend Parliament had his footmen put the boot
awakening. in to Maeve and the small band of beggars she
First Awakenings: Angry with her little brother, was leading at the time, she cursed him under her
Maeve called upon the local faerie to spirit him breath, and wished him burned out of home and
away. Then, to get her brother back, she agreed to livelihood. Her faerie friends heard and pursued the
nursemaid the Hawthorn Baby. Then the Hawthorn MP, burning both the Palace of Westminster and
Baby was exchanged in the night for her newborn his fashionable West End home. They lit the fire in
baby sister. Then one entanglement led to another Parliament with piles of tally sticks from old votes.
and another, until finally it saw her driven from the They burned his home with wads of banknotes taken
village. from his personal strongbox.
Mysterious Origins: Maeve is fascinating to the
faerie. They watch her, help her, grant her wishes,

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Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d6, move an object, it seems to float and hover, but if one
Strength d4, Vigor d4 can perceive the faeries it is clearly carried by them.
Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Intimidate d4, Tiny and sprightly though they may be, a suitably
Knowledge (Kerberos Club) d6, Notice d6, Shooting large swarm of them can hoist as much as three tons
d8, Stealth d6, Streetwise d6 and toss it about. If Maeve orders her friends to attack,
Charisma: +0 they do so with gleeful viciousness. Worse, once the
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 4 faeries start the attack, they keep attacking for the
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Clueless, Illiterate, Young rest of the scene or until Maeve calls them off (This is
Edges: Connections (Street Urchins), Faerie a good use of the Erratic modifier). They continue to
Fascination, Super Powers, Power Points (x3). use the same roll to attack as the one which set them
Super Powers: off, swarming the victim like giggling killer bees. They
Ageless (1): (Unearthly) also defend Maeve, and once they’ve begun to do so,
Attack, Ranged (6): (12/24/48, 2d6), Area Attack, continue until ordered otherwise.
Erratic (Faerie Swarm) If Maeve needs errands run or someone casti-
Deflection (5): Level 6 Erratic (Faerie protectors). gated, she can order her faeries to assume material
Minions (10): Five Minions, each with attack, form and march to her orders. With a successful roll
melee (Str+d6) and armor, powers (3 points chest she can call up to 8 minions), and equip them thorn
only), Erratic, Summonable (Faerie minions) swords and leather and bark armor.
Telekinesis (3): Level 2, Erratic. All of Maeve’s powers have a significant drawback:
They’re Erratic. Every set rolled when employing her
powers does something… something weird, random

Playing Maeve or complicating.

Maeve’s demeanor changes with her company.

Among clueless mortals, she plays the simpering lost Villain Options
child with shameless cynicism. With her urchins, she’s
protective and imperious. With her equals, she doesn’t It is easy to imagine how Maeve’s experiences might
hide her foul temper, fouler mouth, and acerbic wit. have driven her mad or, possibly worse, pushed her
She’s also subject to bouts of truly astonishing fury, cynicism into pure misanthropy, her tiny body filled
where she screams blasphemies which would surely to bursting with hate for all of humanity. Maeve has
have seen her burned at the stake in centuries past. seen the things men do to one another, and worse,
When she’s acting without pretense, her demeanor is the things they do to their children. Would the world
tired. She’s traveled the world and seen it change and not be in better hands if everyone older than 10 were
become Strange, yet she remains the same. When in simply exterminated, and the Empire of the Babe
trusting company, she drinks to excess to find some rose up in its place? Who needs parents or guardians
solace. If she were a child in the modern world, she or laws when the faerie are there, willing to watch
would likely be heavily medicated. over the children and give them all the candy and
Mechanically, Maeve’s powers are extremely dollies and music they want? So Maeve lurks in
potent, but also extremely difficult to direct with fine the cracks of society, gathering her army,
control. All her powers derive from her entourage of and preparing for the Children’s
invisible faerie creatures. When she orders them to Crusade.
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with heavy hands and semiprehensile feet. He’s a

[WC] Dr. Archibald gentlemen, however, and shaves his face save for
his bushy side whiskers. His head hair is always
trimmed, oiled and combed back, and his clothing,

Monroe (20 exp) made special for him by Brighton & Sons of Pall
Mall, is of excellent cut and material. He is especially
fond of waistcoats in iridescent colors, which “speak
Doctor Simian; The Incredible Speaking Ape; “Sir” to me of the birds of paradise, as my kin might see in
Archibald the trees about them.” His appearance is unavoidably
comical, and he acknowledges it, finding humor an
Dr. Monroe is a man who glories in his Strangeness. excellent way of disarming people and distracting
Once he was merely a brilliant but unremarkable them from the fact that his simian body is powerful
consulting physician and amateur scientist. Inspired enough to crush a man to jelly with one arm.
by the words of Charles Darwin, he concocted a drug
which he hoped would reveal to him the germ-cell
memories of his direct-line ancestors, and allow him
to scientifically verify Mr. Darwin’s theories. Instead, The Questions
his formula remade him in the image of such an
ancestor. Bombastic and verbose before his trans- Humble Beginnings: Dr. Monroe was born in
formation, he became even more gregarious and Suffolk, the son of a senior clerk, educated at Rugby
outgoing. Today his charm sometimes even makes School and then attendant on lectures at Guy’s
people forget that he has been remade by Strange Hospital in London from such luminaries as Sir
science, becoming a 180-pound ape creature. William Gull. After entering into private consulting
POV: A Wonder of the Age! That’s what the practice he found himself all at sea, and the work
Strand called you. Of course, the Gazette named you of treating London’s ill did not engage his mind.
one of the “abominations tainting our old London.” Finally, boredom drove him to seek greater scientific
But those fools can choke on their reservations, knowledge.
because you have seen the Future and it is you. Follies of Youth: Monroe indulged in the usual
Science is unlocking the secrets of the universe. Mr. foolishness one could expect from a schoolboy and
Franklin inspired you, and Dr. Darwin encouraged then a young man of independent means living
you, and your studies of the workings of the human alone for the first time in London. He eventually
body, of natural science and of the modern alchemy became involved in the general scientific conver-
of formulation, changed you. You have unlocked the sation going on all the time, and even collaborated
secrets of life, but have only just begun to translate with Sir Richard Owen on a minor paper on the
them. Rather than discourage you, the vast realms comparative anatomy of mammalian digits, for
of knowledge you have yet to encompass inspire you which Owen denied him proper credit, leading to a
to greater energy. You cherish the vast seas of your public confrontation and harsh words which would
ignorance, for nothing is grander than seeing it recede set him at odds with Owen’s faction of conservative
and finding the shells of wisdom on its shores. elitist scientists.
Appearance: Archibald resembles First Awakenings: Monroe first realized
a large chimpanzee: hunched, something was Strange when his experiments in
222 covered in coarse brown fur, chemistry began to return exactly the results he
 Chapter 6

was attempting, yet his results remained impossible Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d6,
for other scientists to reproduce. In some way, his Strength d12, Vigor d8
Willpower was forcing the physical processes to Skills: Apothecary d10, Climbing d10, Fighting d8,
conform to his expectations. Healing d8, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Kerberos
Mysterious Origins: Monroe continued his Club) d6, Knowledge (Natural Science) d10, Notice
experiments until the fateful day when his indul- d8, Persuasion d10
gence in the common adventure of self-experimen- Charisma: +2
tation wrought permanent and dramatic changes. In Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
an effort to prove Darwin’s theories, and to silence Hindrances: Distinctive Appearance, Curious,
the man’s critics (and Monroe’s enemies), the young Loyal, Vow (Major—Protect Humanity)
physician dissolved four grams of powder in a glass Edges: Acrobat, Charismatic, Exceptional Potential
of port and drank it down. When the convulsions (Strength), Jack-of-all-Trades, Super Powers, Power
and pain were over, he was remade, bestial in form Points (x3).
but not in mind. Super Powers:
Great Failing: In order to fund his studies, the Invent (12): Level 6: Pills and potions only, so
young and newly-transformed Dr. Monroe formu- no need for Repair, and uses Apothecary skill rather
lated three drugs for a poorly-disguised agent of than Engineering (Uncanny Apothecary).
Special Branch. The first drug elicited truthful Super Attribute (8): Agility +1 step, Smarts +3
responses from a subject; the second robbed the step, Strength +2 steps, Vigor +2 steps (Super intel-
subject of his will to resist or escape; and the third, ligent chimpanzee).
most shamefully, destroyed the sanity of a subject Super Skills (5): Apothecary +2 steps, Climbing
completely. Regretting his collusion with Special +1 step, Knowledge (Natural Science) +1 step,
Branch almost at once, Dr. Monroe was unable Notice +2 steps, Persuasion +3 steps (Training).
to prevent the stock of drugs he provided being
used, though he swore to never resupply the secret
police under any circumstances. He remains utterly
shamed to think of his collaboration with the Playing Dr. Monroe
Kerberos Club’s great enemy, though it preceded his
membership by half a decade. Archibald Monroe is verbose and passionate about
science and has the charm and wit to make the subject
fascinating. Where many Strangers afflicted with
inhuman features hide in the shadows, Dr. Monroe
seeks the spotlight at parties, interviews and public
addresses. He’s widely known and respected in the
scientific community and in the halls of society, and
if he gets so many invitations only because he brings
something of the circus to the drawing room, then
so be it. He’ll accept an invitation even if made in
poor faith, and he’ll revel in the opportunity to
inspire, socialize, and consume enormous
quantities of very fine wine. In
1879 W.T. Stead of the Pall
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 Chapter 6

Mall Gazette referred to Monroe as “Sir” Archibald

as a nasty joke, but the good doctor received it with Villain Options
such grace and good humor that the nickname stuck
throughout friendlier papers and magazines. To make Dr. Monroe a villain is as simple as
There is very little angst or darkness in Dr. removing his empathy and optimism. Rather than
Monroe. He truly and absolutely believes that science science exalting all men, it will raise up only the
will transform humanity, curing all ills, bringing brilliant few who can master it. This version of Dr.
plenty and prosperity to all, exalting the scientist Monroe imagines a world ruled by scientific elite,
one day above any other authorities. Because of this where religion, superstition, and faith are crimes
he detests those who pervert science to bring harm and where only the cold mathematics of natural law
or oppression. Dr. Monroe is a man whose mind is apply. Yet while he seeks to bring the ascendancy
in the future while his body is in the primeval past. of science (whether the world wants it or not), he
His amazing drugs and formulations grant remains inescapably bound to the distant primitive
temporary Strange powers to those who use them, past by his greatest scientific blunder, the self-exper-
and his own natural abilities derived from his simian imentation which transformed his body into that of
physique are extremely impressive and is strong a brutish ape thing.
enough to easily kill with his bare hands (a capacity
he is loath to exhibit except in dire circumstances).
He is also one of the most well-known figures in
scientific and social circles in the United Kingdom,
and certainly one of the most recognizable.

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investigation he sometimes minutely examines clues

[WC] Lucas with the loop, nodding and pursing his lips.

Moreland (20 exp) The Questions

The Great Detective Humble Beginnings: Lucas Moreland was born
James Sims, illegitimate son of an Irish tinker and a
The famed Lucas Moreland (author of The Moreland Middlesex seamstress. His earliest memories are of
Method and Reading the Criminal Physiognomy), hunger, and the ghostly absence of his mother from
whose adventures have been serialized so famously their tiny single room.
in the The Strand, is among London’s first citizens. Follies of Youth: Lucas pursued an early career
He is a charming genius, always ready with a quip or on the stage but failed as an actor, seemingly unable
a clever compliment. Widely regarded as the greatest to ever find his character. As a petty criminal, black-
private detective of the age, he has consulted for mailer and housebreaker he found similarly limited
royalty, the emperors of industry, and celebrities of success, and served a three-year term in prison for
stage and the written word. Yet he has also aided the an attempted confidence trick.
poorest and most desperate of London’s citizens. He First Awakenings: Upon his release from prison
is a perfect example of all that is right about Britain, Lucas fell back in with his old cronies, and became
moral, intelligent, charitable and charming. involved in an ambitious scheme to burgle a manor
And a complete and total fraud. house in Northern Wales which belonged to a
POV: You can almost remember a time when you recently-deceased eccentric. Acting as an auction-
didn’t despise humanity. Almost. But increasingly, eer’s assistant, Lucas scouted the property, and then
your expanded awareness obscures the more innocent helped his comrades break in by moonlight. While
days when you were a different man under a different his associates looted the silver and plate Lucas
name, and when the thoughts of your fellow men wandered into the old man’s study, and found within
were not revealed to you in perfect clarity. The mind a pen-holder an egg-shaped diamond roughly the
of a priest is a cesspit of impure thoughts, desires, size of the end of his small finger. When held to
contradictions, and lies—imagine the mind of a the light, its flaws and inclusions resembled a staring
costermonger, a twopenny prostitute, or God forbid a eye. He was entranced so completely that he didn’t
politician. When the minds of men were first opened hear the barking of dogs until the guards were nearly
to you, you reveled in the power it gave you, but now… upon him, and he barely had time to swallow the
now all you have is the fiction you have created for gem before throwing himself out the window.
yourself, this Great Detective. Perhaps your associates Mysterious Origins: The gem opened Lucas’s
in the Kerberos Club will offer you something new. mind, and suddenly the thoughts of men, dogs, and
Their thoughts certainly are more interesting. his fellow criminals were spread out there for him to
Appearance: A tall, athletic gentlemen with see. Even dazed, he stumbled out, easily evading his
a high forehead and aquiline nose which put some pursuers by knowing their thoughts, and escaped
in mind of Lord Wellington. Immaculately dressed back to London where he and his fellows
in somewhat severe formality, his only affection is reconciled their take. Lucas saw
a golden watch chain with a jeweler’s loop. On an in the mind of one of them the
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betrayal which had lead to the near capture: He’d Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d6,
peached on the gang. But how to prove it without Strength d6, Vigor d6
revealing his power? Thus Lucas Moreland solved his Skills: Fighting d12, Guts d6, Investigation d8,
first case, inventing “clues” to explain the knowledge Knowledge (Kerberos Club) d6, Notice d12,
read from the betrayer’s thoughts. And he found Persuade d12+2, Shooting d12, Streetwise d8,
he liked this improvisational acting. He could read Charisma: +2
expectations and meet them, say the right thing, and Pace: 6; Parry: 10; Toughness: 5
remake himself as The Great Detective—a persona Hindrances: Arrogant, Cautious, Gloater,
marred only by the need every day or so for him Monologuer
to recover the gem from his excrement, wash it Edges: Charismatic, Power Points (x3), Super
carefully, and swallow it again. Powers
Great Failing: Certainly no moralist, the man Super Powers:
who would become Lucas Moreland nevertheless Awareness (2): Device (Eye of Thoth)
had an ordinary horror of murder and death. When Mind Reading (2): Device (Eye of Thoth)
the body of Slim Jimmy, the member of his gang Super Edge (11): Improved Block, Improved
who had betrayed the rest, was found in the Thames, Dodge, Improved Level Headed; Device (Eye of
he realized the danger in his powers. He is haunted Thoth)
by memories of Slim Jimmy, for while the lad was Super Skill (10): Fighting +2 steps, Shooting +3
nothing remarkable or worthy, Lucas knew him steps, Notice +2 steps, Persuade +4 steps; Device
inside and out, better than a Mother, a lover, or even (Eye of Thoth)
perhaps God himself, and felt his death like a blow.

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Playing the Great Detective

When “investigating,” Lucas Moreland reads
the minds of everyone involved, figures out what
happened and who is lying, and then uses his
acting skills and knowledge of police procedure and
detective fiction to invent clues to explain how he
knows what he knows.
Lucas Moreland is right on the edge of a bad fall.
His humanity teeters, and if it tumbles he’ll become
a monster. He’s seen too much, read too many
thoughts, and knows too many awful and tawdry
secrets. He’s trying to find a reason to keep up the
pretense of being an ordinary man. If he had the
strength of character, he’d throw the Eye of Thoth
into the sea—but in his heart he knows he’s utterly
addicted to the power it gives him, even if the power
brings him no joy. Perhaps with the Kerberos Club
he’ll find some purpose. And, deliciously, some of
these Strangers have minds impenetrable to him.…

Villain Options
All Lucas needs is a slight nudge to turn him into
a true horror, a man without morals, beyond human
sympathy, who knows what you are thinking. He could
bring the empire to its knees, learn any secret, destroy
anyone who opposed him. And how do you fight a
man who knows what you are going to do before
you do it? This version of Lucas Moreland might
even keep playing at being the Great Detective, the
Empire’s hero and thief catcher. Like an actor who
despises his plebian audience, he might play the role
for the crowds but commit any horror or atrocity
which occurs to him. He’s jaded to the extreme, and
despises humanity. For this broken man, the Eye
of Thoth is a curse of the most horrible
sort.
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mountain face with your fingers, play the violin with

[WC] The Lady virtuosity, bind wounds and concoct healing drugs,
bowl a cricket ball like a master, double your fortune
with shrewd investment, plan a military campaign,

Mirabel, Countess and recite the complete works of Shakespeare from

memory. Yet your nation and homeland denies you
the vote, buries you beneath petticoat and bonnet,

of La Lamina and allows a husband (should you be fool enough

to marry again) to beat you, rape you, and steal you
blind. All this, with a Queen on the throne.

(20 Exp) Appearance: The Lady Mirabel is tall and

spare, and every inch the noble. She radiates poise
and control, dresses fashionably and properly,
Dame Mirabel; The Night Hag and converses with great intelligence. Her proper
Victorian clothing conceals an athlete’s body, slim to
Dame Mirabel Zelle is a woman apart. She has the point of boyish, but hard as a boxer’s. She wears
denied the restrictions society places on her sex, and gloves and is careful to keep her hands from being
traveled the world, adventured, loved and fought. too closely examined, as they betray the scars of a
She has grown Strange not through weird unnatural knife fighter and the calluses of a martial artist. Her
influences but through the transformative power of torso, upper arms, and legs are covered in elaborate
wide experience. A social butterfly and subject of Japanese tattoos, and interlaced here and there with
scandal, few in London have an inkling of her true scars from tooth, fang, fire, bullet, and blade.
past, how she came to acquire Spanish title, English
peerage, vast wealth, or her astonishing breadth of
experience. Striking rather than beautiful, she never
lacks for admirers, and only her lovers know just The Questions
how many of her adventures are writ upon her long
body in the form of scars, oriental tattoos, and hard Humble Beginnings: Lady Mirabel was born
whipcord muscle. By day she has every eye on her, Abigail Scull in London’s East End. Her mother
but by night, when she dons the tattered costume was a prostitute, and Abby found herself on the
and iron mask of the Night Hag, few dare to look streets too before she was 15. She caught the eye of
upon her at all. an ambitious pimp who had her better dressed and
POV: You’ve torn life open and squeezed its educated, so as to serve the more discriminating men
juices into your mouth, letting them run down your of the West End. There, her voracious mind and wit
face. Born low but brilliant, you used every wile allowed her to earn many wealthy admirers, finally
and stratagem to raise yourself up, inheriting three snaring an elderly mill owner from the North. When
fortunes and two noble titles, and learning every the old man died, Abigail (now Mirabel) inherited
skill you could. You’re an initiate of secret faiths, the the fortune, and with the aid of a clever solicitor saw
mistress of the gypsy blade and the weird hand- the fortune bound up in a trust which allowed her
fighting techniques of China. You can access and control.
ride, shoot, trim sails, speak seven Follies of Youth: Mirabel spent her first fortune
228 languages, stalk tigers, climb a traveling the world, devouring experiences and
 Chapter 6

having wild adventures, collecting esoteric skills

and scars until nearly dying in Africa at age 25 of
malaria.
First Awakenings: In her travels, Mirabel experi-
enced every manner of Strange and exotic adventure
and horror, and they each left a mark upon her: in
her mind and in her body. No single event woke her.
Her eyes were always open, only needing new sights
to see. She pursued adventure and occasionally
found love—although it was usually brief and tragic,
as with the Spanish pirate and rogue the Count of
La Lámina.
Secret Origins: Mirabel was treated by a village
shaman while in her ague-induced delirium, and the
old sorcerer guided her soul through Strange lands
and lost ages before returning her to her disease-
ravaged body. In the dream, she confronted the
Night Hag, a thing of rage and darkness which
lurked within her, demanding release. When she
was recovered she returned to her homeland and the
city of her birth, where she created herself as the
Lady Lámina, recently of Spain and widow of the
Count of La Lámina.
Great Failing: Mirabel’s great failing is her
vengeance, embodied by the Night Hag. The voice
of the Hag taunts her from the back of her mind,
where she cages it during the day. When she loses
control of the Hag, people die—and perhaps worse,
each time she kills with the Hag’s hands, she grows
to like it more. She knows rationally the Hag is a
part of her, and that it suggests madness, but she
can’t seek escape. In her heart, she loves that side of
herself.

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Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d10, yet break your reputation if you have her around for
Strength d6, Vigor d6 a friendly afternoon tea.
Skills: Boating d4, Climbing d4, Fighting d6, The Night Hag is a different matter. She is
Throwing d6, Guts d6, Healing d4, Intimidation d6, among London’s most wanted, and there are dozens
Riding d6, Stealth d4, Tracking d4 of murders attributed to her (rightly or wrongly).
Charisma: +4 Behind the iron crone’s mask Mirabel’s hazel eyes
Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 11 (6) glare out, and she is a different person when she
Hindrances: Curious, Quirk (Secretive), Vengeful, wears the costume—when she has the will and spite
Vow (Change British society) to take it up.
Edges: Attractive, Jack of All Trades, Noble, Power The Night Hag costume protects her, arms her,
Points (x3), Super Powers and allows her to swing like a ghost through London’s
Super Powers: rooftops. Its tatters blend with the darkness, so
Armor (2): Level 2; Device (Hidden Hauberk many of her victims never see her coming at all. She
and Iron Mask). has no notion of fair fighting: A broken enemy is a
Attack, Melee (2): +2d6, AP 1; Device (Iron broken enemy, and she’ll ambush when it suits her
Claws). purposes, only showing herself to her target when
Fear (4): Terror, Device (Face of The Hag) she wishes to terrify before striking.
Gifted (1): (Natural Aptitude) Mirabel’s omni super Skill power reflects her
Invent (1): Level 1, Device (Voluminous Secret- wide background as traveler, noblewoman, and
Filled Sleeves) adventuress. With a successful roll of the Skill
Omni Super Skill (14): Level 7 (Supra-Normal she can change any or all of its dice to dice in any
Aptitude) other Skill she wants. You may want to play out
Parry (1): +3 Parry (Tattered Cloak) the transition with one of Mirabel’s famous jaunts
down Memory Lane: “Among the Ancient Masters
of Thibet I learned just the trick for circumstances

Playing Lady Mirabel like this…”

Here’s an easy hook onto Lady Mirabel: She’s a

feminist Victorian female Bruce Wayne. She hides Villain Options
the truth of her abilities and the depths of her
fury at the condition of women in her age under a Lady Mirabel could serve as a villain with no
flamboyant public persona. She courts scandal and changes in her nighttime guise. She’s a murderer
rumor during the day, because the scandalous life of and terrorist. What makes the difference is whether
Lady Mirabel is the perfect cover for the Night Hag you think her victims have it coming. If you want to
as the nighttime scourge of London’s abusive male use her as a proper villain, replace her Kerberan skill
population. Lady Lámina rides, attends parties, takes with one like “Dark Cult of the Hungry Mother”
lovers, and generally cuts a swath through Society: and make her killings ritualistic sacrifices rather
too ravishing and brilliant and charming to be cut than a woman’s vengeance.
out, but too radical and scandalous to be
closely befriended. She can make
230 your party the talk of the Season,
 Chapter 6

skill and experience and technique mean spit now.

[WC] “Stony” You’re so strong, so invulnerable, it doesn’t matter

to anybody how you throw a punch anymore. To
nobody but you, anyhow. And perhaps your mates

Joseph Smithson in this funny Club you’re all part of.

Appearance: Joe Smithson is unmistakable.
He’s huge. He was tall and well-built before Dr.

(20 exp) Simms patent process, but now he truly deserves the
description massive. He’s larger in all dimensions,
like a big man made one size bigger all around. And
The Man Statue; Stone Knight; Johnny Rockpile he’s covered in thick gray stone, like his skin has
petrified. It thins and cracks at the joints, so he can
“Stony” Joe Smithson was already a formidable boxer still move without too much stiffness. Other places
when Dr. Albert Simms found him. Dr. Simms was it grows thick and hard, and like horn or fingernails,
a physician and chemist, but also an inventor, and he has to file it down as part of his toilette to keep it
a man hungry for wealth. He promised Joe that his overgrowing and spoiling the cut of his clothes. He’s
patent vitamin and exercise regime would improve only recently come to the social circles that being
the boxer’s physique “like unto a thing of cold-cut Kerberan opens for him, and so despite his mass and
stone!” Against his better judgment, Smithson physical power he seems hunched and shy in social
accepted Simms’ offer and allowed himself to be situations. He is extremely aware how easily destruc-
immersed in a “vitrifying bath of essential mineral tible things are—furniture, teacups, ordinary people.
salts” and “stimulated with pulses of electrical charge His face, even covered in its weird rocky tegument,
to condition the skin and muscles.” The ordeal was is open and honest. He looks like a born sucker, but
agony, but as promised, Stony Joe Smithson found wouldn’t have made it as far in the boxing world if
his strength magnified. His reputation in the ring he really were as simple as he looks.
only increased, until the day he struck Tom Paddock
a blow that killed him dead, and saw beneath the torn
skin of his own knuckles grey, faintly cracked stone.
POV: You’re an honest sort. Bit simple, yeah, The Questions
but honest. And you got your pride, the same pride
that saw your old Dad work himself to death so Humble Origins: A London boy, born and
you and your brothers wouldn’t have to go into bred, Cockney to the bone. Joe grew up running
the workhouse. On the streets, you fought like all in the streets while his father worked three jobs
the boys fought, dirty and mean and for keeps, but to put food on the table. He learned that you can’t
when you started prizefighting you got a taste for eat pride—but it makes hunger easier to bear if the
a proper, fair fight. Any scum can win a fight dirty. hunger is somehow noble.
It takes art and skill to win one clean. The one time Follies of Youth: Joe ran with the gangs of boys
you forgot this, and tried to steal an advantage over loose in London’s streets, fighting, committing petty
other boxers, it cost you everything. Nobody in their crimes and generally being menaces. He avoided
right mind would get into the ring with you now, schooling as long as possible, and finally
a hulking great rockpile. You could punch out one went to work in the match factory
of Mr. Coney’s iguanodons in one round. All your where his father worked nights.
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He started boxing bare knuckle at the pubs where the

workman gathered, and eventually earned enough to
quit his job. He got a reputation as a prizefighter, and
by the time he was 20 he was known in sporting circles
all over London. The London Prize Ring rules of
boxing became like the Ten Commandments to him.
First Awakenings: Despite being widely known
and respectfully introduced in sporting circles while
his fame in the ring lasted, Smithson’s perspective
on the larger world was narrow. He had nearly no
inkling of the Strange that he didn’t read in the
Dreadfuls.
Mysterious Origins: The patent exercise regime
created by Dr. Simms was in fact totally experi-
mental. Simms wanted to enlist Stony Joe because
of his name recognition. Simms believed that if he
made Joe the heavyweight champion, then he’d make
a fortune selling his services to every sportsman in
Britain. For a time it seemed to be working, until Joe
accidentally killed Tom Paddock (“The Redditch
Needlepointer”) in a prize bout. Paddock had
lost his temper, and hit Smithson below the belt,
angering and offending the bigger man. Smithson
then hit him harder than he’d ever hit anyone before.
The rocky growths beneath Joe’s knuckles acted like
brass knuckles, and broke Paddock’s head open.
He was banned from the sport and barely avoided
murder charges. Simms fled the country, and a dark
time began in Joe’s life.
Great Failing: After his awakening, robbed of
his livelihood and growing increasingly uncanny
and disturbing every day, a bit rockier and a bit
bigger, Joe fell in with bad people. He used gin to
quiet his reservations about the work they had him
do. Joe used his strength to collect debts, intimidate
shop keepers, and send messages like, “If you don’t
want your other arm broken, you better do business.”
After being told to toss a family into the street
when they couldn’t make rent, he rebelled in self-
disgust. He’s still haunted by the faces
of Tom Paddock and the other
232 people he hurt.
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Joe would give you his last pence, but wouldn’t
Strength d12+3, Vigor d12+4 take charity himself if he was starving. He fights
Skills: Fighting d12, Guts d8, Streetwise d6 fair. He won’t use his strength to bully the weak. He
Charisma: -0 tried it, and it left him sick to soul. He’ll admit he’s
Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 16 (6) been beaten in a proper fight without reservation.
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Code of Honor, But he also won’t back down from God himself, if
Distinctive Appearance, Heroic He comes down off the Sistine Chapel and squares
Edges: Combat Reflexes, Exceptional Potential up in a proper stance. Among his friends in the Club,
(Strength), Nerves of Steel, Super Powers, Power it’s understood that if there’s trouble, Joe will wade
Points (x3), Take The Hit, Trademark Weapon through fire, flood, and all the demons of Hell to
(Fists) stand next to them like a stonewall.
Super Powers: His powers make him nearly invulnerable to every
Armor (8): Level 2; Heavy Armor (Stone Skin). weapon of the day. Artillery might injure him, and
Attack, Melee (6): (6) +2d6, AP 1, Heavy anything that can penetrate his rocky hide can blow
Weapons (Granite Fists). chunks of it away, leaving him more vulnerable until
Growth (3): Level 3, Size +3, Monstrous (Man it grows back, but on the streets of London, there isn’t
Mountain) much shy of an express train that can chip his skin.
Super Attribute (8): +1 Strength, +7 Vigor He’s strong enough to punch in a vault. His strength
(Strength of the Earth) is something of a curse, too. Where can he possibly
find a fair fight now?
He can find one with remarkable frequency since

Playing Joe he joined the Kerberos Club, it seems.

Stony Joe Smithson is easy: He’s a big rock-skinned

bloke. Working-class to the bone, even if his friends Villain Option
put on airs, he never forgets where’s he’s from, and
has trouble abandoning the deference and respect Joe makes a better thug than mastermind. But
for his “betters” that he supped up with his gruel as rearrange his Convictions, swapping “A Fair Fight”
a boy. for “Being the Big Man,” “Bully” or “Loves Doing
He was quite proud of his skills as a boxer before Violence.” The evil Joe would relish his power, and
his transformation ended his career, and retains would love hurting others and making them afraid.
contacts and reputation in those circles. He’s worked Dealing with such a brute would normally be little
as a heavy before, and knows how to put on the issue for the sharps of the Kerberos Club, but what
persona of the dangerous man, even if it isn’t natural happens when the bully can laugh at massed gunfire
to him. He grew up poor and learned all the dodges and crash through brick walls?
and skills that teaches you, and he never lost touch
with his old friends and family. They still scrape by,
too proud to take Joe’s money even now.

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[WC] Mr. Leon

(20 exp)
The Dream Broker; the Madness of the Great; the Prince
of Fever

Mister Leon is a creature of Faerie, one of the weird

noble personages of those alien lands, but one who
has dwelt long among humanity and become deeply
imprinted with the essence of that mayfly species.
He counts as cousins the Leanan sídhe, the muse-
maidens of Faerie who trade vision and inspiration
for the blood of their mortal poets. But Leon is less
the muse and more the merchant. He cares nothing
for the blood of humanity—nasty, salty stuff with
hints of disillusionment and copper. Mister Leon is
a broker, a seller of dreams. While most of the faerie
can spin the stuff of their mercurial flesh and aether
into visions, Mister Leon has transcended this. He
does not create a spectacle for mortals to view, but
reaches inside them and creates phantasmagoria
from the stuff of their own souls. When Mister
Leon sells you a dream, it is for your enjoyment (or
terror) alone.
POV: Humanity is so … fascinating. Like
watching a carriage accident. You just can’t take
your eyes off them as they crash headlong into
disaster after disaster, never learning, heedless of
the looming chasm. It is simply delicious. Oh, you’re
not vicious, like some of your kin. You don’t prod
humanity along, herding them faster towards their
doom. You love them far far too much for that. But
as you tell your lovers, a faerie’s affection is not a
man’s affection. Commerce is endlessly amusing—
people buying and selling, trading they know not
what for some bauble or dwelling. The
inequities of the age are so artful,
234 so painfully ironic, so titillatingly
 Chapter 6

deliberate, that you sometimes want to hunt down Mister Leon is not malicious, just Strange, and as he
the architects of these miseries and grant them such learned restraint he became more able to live among
visions as to shatter their minds with beauty—for humanity without revealing his Strangeness.
surely, only those who created the workhouse or the First Awakenings: Mister Leon first became
prison or the slum could truly appreciate the sights enmeshed in the great struggles of humanity during
you can show. But, then, you have so much trouble the rule of Elizabeth I, playing at the intrigues of
distinguishing one human class from another. The Britain and Spain, and working with Elizabeth’s
gorgeous rouge of fever across a street-walking spymaster and Magus Sir Francis Walsingham in
prostitute’s cheeks is more attractive than all the his intrigues against the Faerie Queen. That alliance
pearls of the Orient on a noble lady’s long white won him no friends in the Otherworld, but many
neck. Sometimes, when you put sights into their admirers.
minds, you need not even strain your imagination— Mysterious Origins: When opium came to
simply revealing the world as it is can make them Britain, Mister Leon found his great calling. Men
quiver and shake. When they feel the wash of such would pay anything for the visions of the pipe, and
profound insights, you feel a measure of it yourself. the greatest opium dream was nothing beside the
Appearance: Mister Leon is every inch the visions he could conjure in the mind. His origins
Byronic hero—thin, slight, with a consumptive as a figure of vice, scandal and romanticism have
complexion and burning eyes which hint at dissolute their origins in the Chrysanthemum House, the
living, of unwholesome pleasures, and a tendency notorious private opium den he owns. His select
towards cruelty. He dresses however it takes his customers never touch the pipe, relying on Mister
fancy, always making whatever he wears seem like Leon’s vision-dreams instead.
the next big fashion. Great Failing: While a regular at the Gates of
Hades coffee house, Mister Leon made the acquain-
tance of King George III. Fairly soon the monarch

The Questions was wholly addicted to Mister Leon’s visions, even

though they eventually destroyed him and shattered
his sanity. Stricken by the loss of this friend, Mister
Humble Beginnings: Mister Leon began as did Leon joined the small cadre which liberated the
many of his kind, as a wisp of semi-coherent thought maddened monarch from the palace and spirited
adrift in the Faerie aethers. The Strange winds of him away into the Otherworld, to live out his life in
that land brought him near to the worlds of man, a place where his madness was sanity.
and the force of human solidity began to shape him,
give him form, identity, personality. As are the ways
of his kind, the more individual identity, the more
power and position. Eventually he gained enough
character to have desires, and he desired to see more
of the World, and the people who dwelt there.
Follies of Youth: Still lacking any sophisticated
understanding of human ways or society, he began
playing among the peoples of pre-Roman Britain,
and made much trouble for them before he learned
to recognize what he was about. Unlike some faeries,
235
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Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d12+3, Spirit d10,

Strength d4, Vigor d4 Playing Mister Leon
Skills: Fighting d6, Gambling d10, Intimidation
d10, Investigation d10, Knowledge (Kerberus Club) There is much of the cat about Mister Leon. He
d12, Notice d10, Persuasion d10, Stealth d12+1, doesn’t stand, he slouches. He doesn’t sit, he reclines.
Taunt d10 He oozes a dangerous, corruptive sort of charm. He
Charisma: +2 seems to promise transgression. He flirts shame-
Pace: 6; Parry: 14; Toughness: 5 lessly with anyone and everyone, and his advances
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Anemic, Born of Dream, would be offensive and even frightening were he not
Clueless, Conviction, Curious, Matter Over Mind, so devastatingly charming. There is still something
Oathbound profoundly alien about his nature. He doesn’t
Edges: Fae, Faerie Glamour, Power Points (x3), entirely understand why people do the things they
Super Powers do, and he is constantly (and pleasantly) surprised by
Super Powers: them. He is genial, never angry, but can be a terrible
Ageless (1): (Fae Longtivity) foe. Sometimes, Mister Leon’s admiration is more
Fearless (2): (Faerie Composure) terrible than his hate.
Illusion (1): Level 3; Film Quality, Psychosomatic
trauma, Targeted (Faerie Glamour)
Parry (6): +9 Parry (Distracting Apparitions)
Super Attribute (8): Smarts +4 (Knowledge of the Villain Option
Ages)
Super Skill (7): Gambling +1 Step, Investigation All that is required to turn Mister Leon into a despi-
+1 Step, Intimidation +1 Step, Knowledge +2 Steps, cable villain is to remove his affection for humanity
Notice +1 Step, Persuasion +2 Steps, Stealth +4 and its foibles. Make him cruel and let him revel in
Steps, Taunt +2 Steps (Skill of the Ages) human ruin, and he would be a terror. His powers
let him evade capture, and ravage human minds and
sanity while he hides behind an illusory disguise
or while stands invisible and smirking among
his victims. His opium den would be a center of
the lowest vice and human misery, addiction and
hopelessness. He would glory in the beauty of
despair. And God help the hero who became his
latest obsession.

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[WC] The Elephantine

Other Strangers Man (40 exp)
Here are some additional characters with super-
natural abilities that can be used however you need See page 55 for Joseph Merrick’s background.
in your games, as player characters, opponents,
NPCs or as examples. Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,
Strength d12+3, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d10, Knowledge (Kerberos Club)

[WC] The Turk (60 exp) d10, Knowledge (Sideshows) d8, Knowledge
(Writing) d4, Persuasion d6, Stealth d10,
Charisma: -6
See page 52 for the Turk’s background. Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 14 (3)
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Distinctive Appearance,
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d12+4, Spirit d6, Loyal, Outsider, Ugly (Major –4 Charisma),
Strength d6, Vigor d8 Edges: Improved Nerves of Steel, Power Points
Skills: Fighting d12+2, Intimidate d12, Knowledge (x4), Super Powers, Take The Hit
(Games of Skill) d12+4, Knowledge Kerberos Club) Super Powers:
d8, Notice d10, Persuasion d12, Shooting d6 Armor (2): +3 armor (Elephantine Skin)
Charisma: +0 Chameleon (1): Device, Disruptable (polymorphic
Pace: 6; Parry: 9; Toughness: 15 (9) protean tonic)
Hindrances: Arrogant, Distinctive Appearance, Fear (2): (Grotesque Appearance)
Heartless, Overconfident Growth (5): Size +3; Monstrous (Giant
Edges: Brawny, Combat Sense, Improved Level Monstrosity)
Headed, Power Points (x5), Super Powers Regeneration (15): True Regeneration (cancerous
Super Powers: looking growths)
Ageless (1): (Mechanical Man) Super Edge (4): Improved Nerves of Steel
Armor (8): +9 Heavy Armor (Sturdy (Deadened Nerves)
Construction) Super Skill (1): Stealth +1 Step (Learnt Through
Attack, Melee (6): +2d6 damage, AP 4 (Clockwork Necessity)
Claw)
Construct (5): (Robot) Notes: Merrick’s twisted physique is as powerful as it
Fearless (2): (Icy Demeanor) is deformed. While clumsy and slow, he’s also aston-
Gifted (1): (Quick Learner) ishingly resilient. But his resilience comes with a
Super Attribute (5): Agility +1 Step, Smarts +4 price: Ordinary witnesses to his ability to withstand
Steps. (Clockwork Body and Brain) harm find it shocking and sometimes disgusting.
Super Skill (7): Fighting +5 Steps, Games of Skill It isn’t the clean invulnerability of some Strangers;
+4 Steps rather his flesh warps and flows around wounds,
forming instant ugly scars, or results in
seemingly hideous injures which
leak stinking black fluids, yet
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 Chapter 6

don’t trouble him in the least. forever and change slowly. He watched the brief lives
Nothing about Merrick is pretty, except when and kingdoms of humanity rise and fall, until they
he injects himself with Dr. Monroe’s special eventually forgot the purpose of Kemnebi and his
polymorphic tonic, which serves to organize and kin. After several thousand years he began to think
make conscious the properties of his weird physi- he was no longer needed, and left the Old Kingdom
ology. But the effects are short-lived, and his supply to wander the world.
of the tonic at any given time is limited. He traveled, observed, befriended the occasional
mystic; and before he realized it, still more millennia
had past him by and a new power was rising in the

[WC] Kennebi Meti (30 exp) world, spreading out from a tiny island the Romans
called Britannia. He traveled there with his servants
Gi and Geb, and made his new home in this
Watcher of the Northern Approaches remarkable city of London.
He’s finding the modern world quite exciting,
Kemnebi Meti’s appearance should be shocking, and the conjunction of the ancient and the new
uncanny, terrifying—but for some reason, few seem challenges him as few things have done. Yet the
to really notice it. He is an androsphinx, a great pace of change befuddles him. The change he has
mythological conjunction of man, lion and eagle. witnessed in a decade in London surpasses all he
When created by the sorcerer priests of Pharaoh saw in the four thousand years of his previous life.
Djoser of the Old Kingdom, Kemnebi Meti was a The Strangers of London see through Kemnebi’s
much simpler creature, content to sit on his pillar veil of normalcy and have become used to his
and watch the northern approaches of presence, such as at his regular Friday meal at the
the kingdom for invaders. Like all Savoy. Dining with the ancient beast is an uncanny
238 his kind, he was created to live experience, as nobody remarks on the enormous
 Chapter 6

leonine form seated before the table, or the beautiful

twin servants who feed their master and wipe his lips.
Kemnebi still sometimes insists that his mane
be braided in the old style and his beard bound
The Tower Gang
properly. He can often be found observing whatever The Tower Gang is somewhat famous as London’s
new wonders London has to offer the curious visitor, first criminal gang made up entirely of Strangers
and he is a fantastic source for ancient lore. who’ve chosen to use their powers for selfish ends.
The Gang can serve different roles, as you need them.
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Cast more heroically they might be the protectors of
Strength d12+1, Vigor d10 an East End district or enclave. They might also be
Skills: Fighting d10, Knowledge (History) d10, “protectors” in the sense of the criminal racket: Pay
Knowledge (Lost Secrets) d10, Intimidation d10, us for our services or someone might accidentally
Notice d10 throw a four-wheeler through your shop window.
Charisma: -6 Worse, they could be proper criminals who make
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 13 (3) no pretense of keeping to the righteous, operating
Hindrances: Alien Form, All Thumbs, Curious, with secret personas and ordinary daytime lives to
Outsider mask their criminal actions. They aren’t built from
Edges: Power Points (x3), Super Powers, Take The enormous point totals, but work well as a team and
hit plan their stings well in advance.
Super Powers: The Tower Gang includes the following
Ageless (2): Very Old (Ancient Spinx) characters: Ben Bell, Big Hand, Little Hand, The
Armor (2): +3 (Thick Hide) Face, and Tick Tock.
Attack, Melee (5): +2d6 damage, +1 Reach (Great
Claws)
Chameleon (1): Can only take one non specific
human form (-2) (Illusionary Form) [WC] Ben Bell (15 exp)
Fear (3): (True Form)
Fearless (2): (Seen It All) One look at Ben Bell convinces you that he’s
Flight (4): Pace 12 (Great Wings in True Form) nothing but a huge, thick-headed moron. Grossly
Growth (6): +3 Size (Great Beast True Form) fat, slovenly, his beetled brow constricts tight at the
least mental effort. The best one such as this might
hope for is simple manual labor. Which, if he had
any interest in honest work, he would excel at. His
gross body is inhumanly strong beneath the layers
of blubber. He can lift more than twenty tons and
crush iron in his hands. More frightening than all
this power at the disposal of such an obvious mental
deficient is the reality of Ben Bell: All this power
serves a cunning and wily intelligence. While Ben
Bell’s skull could convince any phrenol-
ogist as to his low breeding and
base mind, it contains a truly
239
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first-rate brain. Bell is the leader of the Tower Gang,

and excels at planning its heists and stings. [WC] Big Hand (5 exp)
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d10, Spirit d6, Big Hand is as stupid as Ben Bell looks. He’s as low
Strength d12+2, Vigor d12+2 a class criminal as there comes in all of London. The
Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d6, Intimidation d10, only thing separating him from thousands of others
Notice d8 are the miraculous powers he inherited from his
Charisma: -2 mother, a prostitute who once served as an “altar of
Pace: 5; Parry: 7; Toughness: 12 flesh” for some rich perverts’ ritual. She escaped, but
Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Obese, Ugly, Wanted only barely, when the ritual was disrupted, and though
(Major) she was unharmed and unaffected her children all
Edges: Connections (Underworld), Improved Level displayed unusual abilities. Big Hand can conjure two
Headed, Power Points (x2), Quick, Super Powers enormous hands which move and mimic the motions
Super Powers: of his own hands, but on a much larger scale. These
Growth (4): Level 2 (Great Bulk) hands can exert enormous force, but Big Hand has
Regeneration (5): (Phenomenal Stamina) difficulty exerting less than their maximum strength. If
Super Attributes (5): Strength +2 Steps, Vigor +3 he picks up a person, he also picks up a goodly chunk
Steps (Great Bulk) of the street. The appearance of the hands changes
Super Edges (6): Improved Level Headed, Quick with his mood. When he is calm, they are huge dupli-
(Surprising Speed) cates of his real hands. When he is enraged, they are
demonic claws. When he is sullen and low, they are
spectral and shadowy. When he is grief-stricken (as
he was with the death of his mother), they are like
240 hands cut from the corpse of a rotting titan.
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d6,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Driving d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Lockpicking d8,
Knowledge (Occult) d4, Notice d6, Streetwise d6, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Streetwise d6
Throwing d6 Charisma: +0
Charisma: +0 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4
Pace: 6; Parry: 12; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Loyal, Young,
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Clueless, Greedy (Major), Wanted (Major)
Illiterate, Quirk (Never Take Charity), Vow (Become Edges: Power Points (x2), Street Urchin, Super
the Big Man), Wanted (Major) Powers, Thief
Edges: First Strike, Fleet-Footed, Power Points Super Powers:
(x2), Super Powers Attack, Ranged (12): 2d6, Range 12/24/48, Non
Super Powers: Lethal, AP 14 (Ghost Hands)
Parry (3): +6; Requires Activation (-1) (Swatting Deflection (5): -6 to attacks, Requires Activation
Hands) (Ghost Hands)
Telekinesis (16): Level 8; Strength d12+6 Heavy Super Skills (1): +1 Step Lockpicking, +1 Step
Weapon, Obvious (-1) (Monster Hands) Stealth (Natural Skill)
Telekinesis (2): Strength d10, Little Hand can
use her skills with this power (Ghost Hands)

[WC] Little Hand (10 exp)

Little Hand is Big Hand’s younger sister, though [WC] The Face (10 exp)
she dresses and acts like a boy. Little Hand has a
power similar to Big Hand’s, but on a smaller and The being known as The Face is an enigma, neither
more precise scale. By conjuring pale ghostly hands man nor woman, a person without a sex or a shape
she can pick any pocket she can see, and move or a fixed identity. The Face was born in this weird
small objects right into her own real hand when unfixed state. It would have been an Oddity, a freakish
she releases the ghost hands back to wherever they inhuman thing, had it not learned the trick early on
come from. She idolizes her dim-witted brother of fixing its shape and identity into a pleasing form.
for his courage and his pride, but has no illusions The Face was its mother’s little darling, a cherubic
about his temper or his brain. She figures she can do baby right from the fantasy of any expectant mother.
the thinking for them both, and let him think he’s The Face found this strategy marvelously successful,
taking care of everything. adopting shapes which pleased others, met their
Where Big Hand is all power and noise, Little expectations, and allowed the Face to survive. The
Hand is silence and trickery. Her ghostly hands are Face grew up, and began wondering who it really
nearly invisible unless someone knows what to look was. Who was it when it was alone? When there was
for. nobody to loan it an identity with their expec-
tations, who could it be? Somewhere
during this confusing time, the
Face found Ben Bell, and the
241
 Chapter 6

big man, seeing the obvious potential in the weird from the nose of the sot next to him shining like a
being, told The Face who it was: the greatest confi- frozen jewel. He was already what one might call
dence player who ever lived. morally compromised, and the criminal possibilities
inherent in his power were obvious. He found he
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, could easily steal enough to support his habits and
Strength d6, Vigor d6 keep himself in comparative luxury. With Ben Bell
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, to direct his powers to good effect, he profited still
Persuasion d12+5, Stealth d4, Streetwise d6, Taunt more. But Tick Tock remains the weakest link in the
d6 Tower Gang—his addictions drive him and make
Charisma: +6 him unreliable. Use of his power leaves him with
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8 (3) an intense craving for opium that he rarely has the
Hindrances: Delusional (Believes it has no identity fortitude of character to resist.
when alone), Greedy (Major), Quirk (Has no
memory of earlier life), Wanted (Major) Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Edges: Charismatic, Power Points (x2), Super Strength d6, Vigor d6
Powers, Very Attractive Skills: Fighting d6, Gambling d8, Lockpicking d8,
Super Powers: Shooting d4, Stealth d6, Streetwise d10
Armor (1): 3 points, Requires Activation Charisma: +0
(Hardened Skin) Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Attack, Melee (4): +2d6 damage (Extruded Talons Hindrances: Anemic, Greedy (Minor), Habit
and Mandibles) (Major), Wanted (Major)
Chameleon (5): Voice (Mercurial Form) Edges: Level Headed, Power Points (x3), Quick,
Fear (5): Terror (Mercurial Form) Super Powers
Super Skills (5): Persuasion +5 Steps (Greatest Super Powers:
Confidence Player) Deflection (5): Level 6, Requires Activation
(Sidestep Time)
Extra Actions (5): Three Actions, Requires

[WC] Tick Tock (10 exp) Activation (Sidestep Time)

Speed (10): Sonic Speed –8 to attacks (Sidestep
Time)

Tick Tock discovered his powers while indulging in

one of his many addictions. He smoked opium when
not drinking laudanum or stealing to pay for either.
On the fateful day his powers awoke, he enjoyed the
sense of time slowing down that he had come to
expect from good opium—but when he turned his
gaze about the low opium den, he realized it wasn’t
his sense of time which had slowed, but time
itself. He was outside of time, the curled
smoke from his pipe like a hook in
242 the air, a bead of sweat broken
 Chapter 6

imprinted with identity, they might become Beasts,

Strangeness of unique monsters, often given form by myths

and heraldic imagery—dragons and giants are
especially popular. A Beast is made stronger when

Every Sort . . . its sense of self is reinforced so it acts in the world

and causes legends to spring up, stories to be told
which strengthen its identity, which makes it more
There follows a collection of extraordinary characters powerful, which lets it act more prominently in
without much character, if you take the meaning. the world, and more legends spring up. . . . But a
They can quickly be customized to suit the needs of Beast doesn’t last forever. Inevitably some hero
your campaign. Each includes notes on how to scale comes along and dispatches it, breaking its hold
them to fit your game, and additional notes on using on the minds and hearts (and bodies) of the area it
them as Kerberans to fill the halls of the Club with terrorizes.
oddities and Strangers. The more human-seeming of the faerie are the
peers and nobles, who have a complexity of mind
and identity almost as sturdy as a human child’s.
This is perhaps why the Fae have reputations for

Faerie being so mercurial and short-tempered. The eldest,

wisest and most powerful of them has the maturity
of a five-year-old.
“Come closer, pretty thing, and sing to us of your
world. Let us drink of it, and be made again by it,
and dance with you unseen, and bring you miracles
and wonders and treasures, yes? Just invite us into Faerie Commoner
your heart, and give yourself to us, and we’ll give
you the whole wide world. So small a thing, for so Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
much . . .” Strength d6, Vigor d6
The faerie are a highly impressionable race. They Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Gambling d6,
lack the complicated minds of humanity, so they Intimidation d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Tracking
might feel a passing fancy as deeply as a person d8
would experience the deepest obsessions. With Charisma: +2
their naturally phantasmagorical, quicksilver forms, Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
the weaker of the Fae are in a constant state of flux, Hindrances: Conviction, Matter Over Mind,
shifting form as often as thoughts drift through Oathbound
their airy minds: To think a thing is to become a Edges: Fae, Faerie Glamour, Power Points (x3),
thing. Super Powers
If these wisps are strongly imprinted with Super Powers:
powerful human concepts, with words, they might Ageless: Fae
form into discrete entities—faerie Commoners, the Illusion: Level 2; Film Quality, Psychosomatic
countless goblins, fetches, sprites and imps which trauma
lurk in the Otherworld.
If they are stronger-willed and more thoroughly
243
 Chapter 6

[WC] Faerie Beast Willed, Quick, Very Attractive

Super Powers:
Ageless: (Fae Immortality)
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d10, Armor: +6 (Arcane Armor)
Strength d12+9, Vigor d12 Attack, Melee: +2d6, AP 4 (Enchanted Sword)
Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d12, Intimidation d12, Attack, Ranged: 12/24/48, 3d6, AP4 (Enchanted
Notice d12 Bow)
Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 20 (4) Illusion: Level 5, Film Quality, Psychosomatic
Special Abilities: Trauma (Faerie Glamour)
Armor +4: Scaly hide Immunity: Immunity to the Hand of Man
Claws/Bite: Str+d8. (Ancient Pacts and Wardings)
Fear -2: Anyone who sees a mighty faerie beastn Regeneration: True Regeneration
must make a Guts check at -2.
Hardy: The creature does not suffer a wound
from being Shaken twice.
Huge: Attackers add +4 to their Fighting or Notes
Shooting rolls when attacking a faerie beast due to
its massive size. The faerie all are tricky and powerful creatures. Their
Improved Frenzy: A faerie beast may make two natural abilities of illusion and the power to assume
Fighting attacks with no penalty. the seeming of other forms make them devilish
Level Headed: Act on best of two cards. tricksters, if they choose to limit their mischief to
Size +8: Faerie beasts are massive creatures. the merely confounding. If they turn their minds
to more hurtful things, even the lowly common Fae
can drive men mad with visions.

[WC] Faerie Peer The Beast is a towering chimeric monstrosity

the size of an elephant, red in tooth and claw. Yet it
possesses a measure of intelligence, and can use the
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, natural powers of its nature.
Strength d8, Vigor d8 The most terrible of the Fae are the Peers, the
Skills: Fighting d12+2, Intimidation d10, Knowledge self-styled nobles who impose their weird ideals
(Paths of the Fae) d12, Notice d10, Persuasion d12, of rulership upon the Otherworld. Their powers
Riding d12, Shooting d12+2, Stealth d12, Taunt are wildly varied, but this example has exquisitely-
d10, Tracking d12 honed versions of the Fae’s natural powers, as well
Charisma: +10 as potent regenerative abilities, and broad immunity
Pace: 6; Parry: 12; Toughness: 12 (6) to The Hand of Man due to a pact with powerful
Hindrances: Arrogant, Conviction, Gloater, Earth spirits. All attacks by mortal man against him
Heartless, Monologuer, Oathbound are seriously blunted, though many Strangers hardly
Edges: Acrobat, Charismatic, Combat Reflexes, qualify as “man” or “mortal”.
Command, Fae, Fervor, Fleet-Footed, Improved
Block, Improved First Strike, Marksman,
Master (Fighting, and Persuasion),
244 Noble, Steady Hands, Strong
 Chapter 6

As a Member of the Club

The Peer is the only rank of the faerie suitable for
The Freak
full Club membership, though there are several
Common Fae on the staff, and, it is said, a Beast
lurking somewhere in the cellars.
(209 Points)
The Kerberos Club boasts several Faerie Peers as
members, but few are more notorious than the Prince “Do not look upon me with such hate in your eyes! I
of Morning, Felix Bursoilamayre. His taste for cruel am a man, not a monster! But damn you all, staring
and tragic love affairs has earned him a reputation and mocking and shivering. If you would make a
as a rake and heartbreaker. He makes no promises monster of me, then so be it! All that comes after
to the women (and men) he seduces, but draws shall be on your own heads.”
them in and fills their heads with illusions of love The Freak is deformed in body by an accident
and wonders. When the moment is its most perfect, of birth or of fate, but what makes him more than
he abandons them. His enemies far outnumber his the subject of sympathy or curiosity is how twisted
friends, and some of the suicides he has caused still in spirit and mind he has become as well. His body
haunt him quite literally. He avoids roads whenever is bent and tumorous, hunched and asymmetrical,
possible, “For the dead walk the roads knowing their and were it not for the unnatural vitality coursing
enemies must some day travel.” through his ravaged form, he would certainly have
Yet for all his cruelty, he is a famously joyous died from his malformations long ago. But he
companion, charming, witty, unexpectedly kind, survives, and either through some physical flaw in
and embarrassingly generous. He loses gracefully his brain or from the horrendous treatment at the
at games of chance and always laughs like it’s a hands of his fellow man, in his hate for the straight-
grand joke and stands his round of drinks. A boon limbed and unmarked the Freak finds a reason to
companion, so long as he doesn’t take a fancy to your live. He haunts the city, cloaked to hide the worst
sister or your wife. of his deformities, and seeks to rally and unite all
those rejected, all those exiled from the light and
society of man. When the Freak’s army is ready, he
will bring revolution against everything he hates.
He’ll tear down the kingdom of beauty and replace
it with an empire of the gross and the Strange.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,

Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidate d8, Notice d8,
Persuasion d8, Stealth d8
Charisma: -8
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
Hindrances: Alien Form, Outsider, Ugly,
Wanted (Major)
245
 Chapter 6

Edges: Connections (Blackmail Victims, God was washing him away like a stain. But he
Underworld), Power Points (x2), Super Powers survived after pouring into a sewer and out into the
Super Powers: Thames, a new man. He used his powers first for
Altered Form (10): Reach +11”, Fall-Proof, More petty crime, but quickly realized that ordinary folk
Elastic, Requires Activation, Rubbery (+4 armor now feared him rather than simply being disgusted
against kinetic attacks) with him. He liked that. He found some fellow
Attack, Melee (10): +3d6 damage, Large Burst unfortunates and began to organize them. Before
Template. he knew it he was leading a movement of human
oddities, and the Special Branch was raiding his
meetings. During one such raid, Johan engulfed and

Notes badly injured several officers, and had to flee before

the law caught up with him. He fled in the hold of
an East India Company tea clipper, and had a wild
The Freak is angry, driven to tear down society and adventure in India which turned out to be a Kerberan
all standards of “normal,” and he’s well equipped challenge. Presented finally with the truth, he cursed
to do so. He has a great deal of influence in the his tormentors, and then laughed, accepting the
underground, where the poorest of the poor meet invitation to join. Here were people as Strange as
the deformed and the outcast. He’s a terribly dirty he, who never flinched from his appearance.
fighter when forced to rely on simply fist and feet,
but despite his monstrous appearance he is a surpris-
ingly affecting speaker. If all this weren’t enough, his
network of blackmail victims will often do anything
to keep their dirty secrets from being revealed. The
Freak is a man with his ear close to the filthy ground.
[WC] Saurian
To enhance the Freak as a threat, here are some
suggested upgrades:
At 20 exp: Add another d6 to the Attack damage,
Survivor (65 exp)
and 3” to Reach. “Hsssssss! From the dawn of time, my people rose
At 40 exp Points: Add another 3” to Reach and and conquered when man was nothing but the
the following power: dream of monkeys. Haaaaaaaaach. Dead now these
Mind Control (2): Requires the Freak to hit his aeons! Yet through me, my people shall rise again.
target (Weird Flesh Inflection). And rule!”
In the primal days of the young Earth the
great beasts walked upon the land, flew the skies

As a Member of the Club and swam the seas, dragons by any other name,
enormous and terrible. It was an age of monsters.
And from this frenzied dance of claw and fang rose
Johan Riven was too weird even for the circus. He the Saurians, creatures descended from dinosaur
survived on what he could scavenge and steal stock as Mr. Darwin would have us believe Man
before one day in the rain he watched rose from his apish antecedents. Theirs was a cool
his limbs stretch and seemingly intelligence, untroubled by the complexities of
246 liquefy, and he wept, believing mammalian society. Their emotions were primal
 Chapter 6

things, primitive: blood, rage, hunger, territoriality. she’ll emerge from hiding to enslave and remake
No kinder feelings touched their reptilian souls. humanity and found a new Saurian dynasty.
They subjugated the world, drove the invading
colonies of Elder Things to near extinction, and Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d6,
established their ever-warring dynastic kingdoms. Strength d10, Vigor d12
Their technology was not one of machines, but of the Skills: Fighting d10, Intimidate d12, Knowledge
subjugation of living species, and their forced trans- (Engineering) d10, Knowledge (Pre-Human
formation into useful forms. When the end came in Science) d10, Notice d8, Repair d10
the form of fire from the heavens, the Saurians died Charisma: -4
in the millions. What the fires did not destroy, the Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 12 (3)
slow crush of glaciars finished. And so, the first great Hindrances: Arrogant, Distinctive Appearance,
civilization of Earth was lost almost entirely. Loyal, Outsider, Ugly, Vow (Return her people to
Sleeping through the ages in a tough pod formed power)
from flesh as much as plant fiber, the Survivor was Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Command,
carried by the glaciers, frozen in an Antarctic tomb Exceptional Potential (Smarts), McGyver, Power
until the curious monkeys who rose up to dominate Points (x5), Rich, Super Powers
the world came, exploring, and returned to their tiny Super Powers:
island bearing the weird leathery cocoon as their Armor (2): 3 points (Scaly Hide)
prize. Invent (29): Level 8 Device (The Vats)
Now freed from her slumber, the Saurian Super Attribute (3): Strength +1 Step, Vigor +2
Survivor works in secret, using her mastery of living Steps (Alien Physique)
flesh to empower her human pawns with the abilities Super Skill (1): Fighting +1 Step,
of beasts, breeding her own army of Strangers Intimidate +1 Step (Alien
against the day when her precious eggs hatch. Then Physique)
247
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Notes Raptor Harness: A twisted bird thing which

grips the user and carries her aloft with its huge
wings.
This version of the Saurian Survivor is a fairly simple Flight (4): 12 Pace
beast. She hides beneath the fashionable health spa Hypnotic Veil: A helm of shell and bone filled
the Silliard Salon and uses her biological sciences with the rendered but still-living pineal glands of
to cure diseases, reverse the aging process, and turn human psychics. It projects a mental illusion which
people into hideous chimera creatures. Her minions renders the wearer’s appearance normal to a given
drug wealthy spa patrons and bear them secretly situation, like someone an observer would expect
down to the Vats, where the Survivor immerses to see. The user has no control over the projected
them in the vile living stew and alters their physi- image, however. Further, the Veil fails if the wearer
ology to make them better-looking, no longer bald, doesn’t stay calm.
younger, thinner. She sometimes subjects herself to Chameleon (1): Disruptable.
this process if she must blend in with the disgusting
anthropoids for a time.
Her human pawns are either dupes or willing
accomplices, serving her in exchange for power. The As a Member of the Club
Vats—the source of her terrible power—are huge
cisterns containing the bubbling remains of living A human tongue and throat can’t form her name,
flesh rendered down into a complex and potent human alphabets can’t transcribe it. So, she is
biological soup. called the Duchess around the Club, and nobody
The other aspect of her Saurian Science is based is so gauche as to mention the three Kerberans she
on creating living creatures which act like foci, often very nearly killed when she came close to toppling
grafted like parasites to a host. Some examples Victoria’s throne and overrunning the world with
follow. her monstrous spawn.
To make the Saurian Survivor more potent, She’s a little embarrassed about the whole
simply select (or create) vile new living technology business, now. Newly awakened from the sleep of
for her to employ. ages, confused and angry, she lashed out. But like
Blending Cloak: Derived from octopus stock. many of the Empire’s former enemies, she was
Dozens of eyes and color-changing skin lets the persuaded finally into the weird company of the
cloak blend a wearer into the surroundings almost Kerberos Club. They made a deal with the Saurian
perfectly. It grips its wearer around the neck and warlord: They gave her Antarctica. Transforming the
shoulders with eight short tentacles. frozen wastes into the steamy jungles of her home
Invisibility (5) will be the work of generations, of ages, a conquest
Razorwasp Hive: A gnarled lump of tissue on of science and will worthy of a Saurian noble. She
the end of a bone scepter with hundreds of holes, always drops by the London house on her travels, to
each holding a vicious and aggressive razorwasp. exchange pointed witticisms and joking threats with
Attack, Ranged (10): 3d6 damage, Large Burst her old foes.
Template
Living Carapace: A shell of living
tissue and bone plates.
248 Armor (8): +9 Heavy Armor.
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d10,

[WC] Her Sister’s Strength d12+2, Vigor d12+2

Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Intimidation d6,
Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Streetwise d8

Keeper (0 exp) Charisma: +2

Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9
Hindrances: Dependant (Husband and Children),
Gimmick (Get Angry), Heartless, Loyal,
“Unhand me, sir! My husband will have something Edges: Attractive, Power Points (x2), Super Powers
to say about such familiarity, and he shall . . . shall . . . Super Powers:
uhhhh . . . OH, NEVER MIND. WE SHAN’T NEED TO Fear (3): (Keeper Form)
TROUBLE POOR DEAR CHARLES WITH SUCH AN Mind Control (3): Two Minds (Forceful
UGLY BIT OF BUSINESS, SHALL WE? HE’S SUCH Personality)
AN IMPORTANT MAN, YOU KNOW. HE CAN’T Super Attributes (14): Smarts +2 Steps, Spirit +2
AFFORD TO BE INVOLVED IN SOMETHING AS Steps, Strength +5 Steps, Vigor +5 Steps
HORRIBLE AS A MURDER. YOURS, FOR EXAMPLE.”
Her Sister’s Keeper seems in every way to be
the proper Victorian woman: upper middle class,
charitable, well-spoken and well-read, a doting but Notes
firm mother, a dutiful wife to an up-and-coming
member of government. And she is indeed all these In her ordinary form—the Keeper—she’s a fairly
things. Her “Sister,” however, is not. The Sister is average woman, well connected and quite influ-
cunning, amoral, licentious, and vicious, a monster ential in her social circles. In the form of the Sister, a
capable of any outrage or excess, driven by the primal different and markedly more striking woman, she is
animal instincts of blood, territory and the power frighteningly strong and can easily kill with her bare
of attraction. Where her Keeper is soft spoken, the hands. She is also utterly unfazed by any horror or
Sister is base and loud. Where her Keeper is kind, violence she does. She is well connected and influ-
she is cruel. Where her Keeper defers to the proper ential in her low circles, among street toughs, prosti-
authority of men, she most assuredly and often tutes and criminals. Both forms are adept at lying
violently does not. and conniving. It is a matter of survival. And while
Two personalities forced to share the same body, the Sister is deadly, even her Keeper can, when she
the Sister and the Keeper might war, cooperate, or must, put up a modest fight.
perhaps even be unaware of each other, but each Her Sister’s Keeper can be easily upgraded to
recognizes the absolute imperative in keeping their provide a more potent threat:
condition secret, whatever that might require. Seasoned: Add 2 steps to Strength and add the
following power:
Tough (3): +2 Toughness (Keeper Form).
Veteran: Add 1 step to Spirit and add the
following power:
Armor (4): +3 Heavy Armor (Keeper
Form).
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 Chapter 6

As a Member of the Club

Elizabeth Philbrook had no idea there was anything
[WC] The Living
odd or unseemly about her. Then came the day a band
of jaunty Strangers accosted her while she shopped
with her maid for the necessities of a dinner party to
Marvel (65 exp)
celebrate her husband’s recent promotion. The group “No thanks are needed, my man. It is the privilege of
jested with her and became quite familiar, though those gifted as I have been to return unto my fellows
they called her “Maggie Pale” as if that were her a measure of the fortune bestowed by God’s good
name. Disturbed and afraid, she rushed home and graces. Now, I must fly!”
locked herself in her room. And there in the mirror The Living Marvel seems to be a paragon of
she met for the first time Maggie Pale, her uncouth patriotism, heroism, honor, gentlemanly conduct,
and immoral alter ego. As they conversed, Elizabeth social conscience, charity, and public service. Of
came to realize that she was one of the Strange. course, he’s really a womanizer, a drunkard, a
With threats and arguments Elizabeth convinced gambler, an Army deserter, a prodigious coward,
Maggie to abide by certain rules. Maggie must never a maker of investments in bad faith, a debtor, and
threaten Elizabeth’s life, family, and reputation. on at least one occasion a traitor to Crown and
Likewise, Elizabeth would not interfere with Country. His public identity is so forthright and
Maggie’s nighttime carousing and adventuring with proper, so handsome and admired, that it makes his
her unsavory friends from the Kerberos Club.  At true nature seem much the worse to those few who
times the two women who share one body have know it. He’s a self-centered blackguard who fears
been able to assist one another in particular ways: only exposure and ridicule.
Once Elizabeth secured an invitation for Maggie to In an ordinary man of influence, this dichotomy
attend an exclusive social function, and on another would be troubling. But the Living Marvel is also a
occasion Maggie rescued Elizabeth’s kidnapped son. Stranger of tremendous physical power. His record
of service and honors is so long that it takes minutes
to read out when he attends a royal function. His
adventures (real or fictional, though who can tell the
difference anymore?) are chronicled in such publica-
tions as Record of the Extraordinary and The People’s
Library. In his caped uniform of crimson and gold,
behind his elegant domino mask of sable, he attends
the great social events of the Season. In his common
clothes and ordinary identity, the patched castoffs he
wears when slumming in London’s lowest quarters,
he seems like any other ruffian.

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Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,

Strength d12+8, Vigor d12 As a Member of the Club
Skills: Fighting d12+1, Gambling d8, Guts d4,
Intimidation d6, Persuade d8, Notice d6, Throwing Captain Gryphon, that’s how he goes in public.
d8 A hero and patriot, he seemed an obvious figure
Charisma: +2 to recruit into the Kerberos Club. His powers
Pace: 8; Parry: 9; Toughness: 6 were extraordinary, and the comfort with which
Hindrances: Heartless, Gimmick (Can only become he displayed them even early in the century spoke
The Living Marvel if unobserved), Stubborn, Vow to his value as a member. The degree to which the
(Protect Heroic Reputation) public seemed to accept his status as superhuman
Edges: Acrobat, Charismatic, Command, defender of the British way of life certainly also
Exceptional Potential (Agility), Fleet-Footed, helped. Unknown to his Club sponsors was just
Power Points (x5), Reputation, Super Powers what a despicable bastard Noel Sigmorson was at
Super Powers: heart. It certainly wouldn’t have disqualified him—
Flight (15): Speed of Sound, -8 to attacks (Living quite the opposite in fact; many Kerberans would
Marvel Form) have been much more comfortable knowing he was
Immunity (12): Everything except vacuum of made of familiar stuff—but it inadvertently led to
space (Living Marvel Form) a Challenge that threatened his dual identity with
Super Attributes (8): Strength +8 Steps (Living exposure. Captain Gryphon reacted badly. One
Marvel Form) Kerberan was killed, three other injured, and a block
of London’s East End was near demolished. And so
Captain Gryphon joined the Lost.

Notes Sigmorson’s hatred of the Club is tempered with

the knowledge that the three-headed dog has its
mouths at his throat. His dual identity is known to
By night he’s a lowlife, a liar, cheater, womanizer, the Club, and the unspoken threat is that if he moves
gambler, one who wallows in his base desires and against Kerberan interests too strongly, or fails to
instincts. But he can assume an alternate identity, do the occasional small favor, word might somehow
that of the Marvel, so long as he is unobserved when leak out. He bides his time, does his duty, indulges
he makes the change. In his superhuman identity his vices, and aches to destroy the Kerberos Club.
he can lift vast weights, fly faster than anything
else on the planet (outpacing bullets and cannon-
balls easily), and is extremely resilient. He’s also well
respected and connected. But inevitably, he gets the
itch to indulge in his favorite low pastimes, and
as much as he likes playing the hero he’ll shed his
public persona and take to the streets, looking for a
drink, a game of cards, or a woman willing to endure
his company in exchange for coin. He’s willing to
kill to protect his double life.

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Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,

[WC] Lost Strength d12+5, Vigor d10

Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidate d10, Knowledge
(Sculpture) d10, Knowledge (Solar System) d10,

Jupiterian (75 exp) Notice d6, Stealth d8

Charisma: -10
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 13
“From the black and cold vastness of the cosmic Hindrances: Alien Form, Mean, Outsider, Ugly,
aethers, my ship did fall to your tiny world. Stranded Vow (Return Home)
so I found myself doomed never again to float the Edges: Ambidextrous, Brawny, Improved Level
painted clouds of my beloved home, a distant world Headed, Power Points (x5), Super Powers, Two
barely visible in your night sky. Leave me to my Fisted
sorrow, tiny human. For like my wrath, it is vast and Super Powers:
incalculable to minds such as yours.” Attack, Melee (3): +1d6, +1 Reach (Tentacled,
The folk of Jupiter are like two enormous leathery Telepathic, Invisible, Flying Giant Space Brain)
jellyfish fused cap to cap so their thick tendrils radiate Awareness (3): (Ring of Eyes)
outwards, giving them the appearance of frilled Flight (8): Pace 48, -2 to attacks. (Flying Giant
wheels. They have two mouths, one at the center of Space Brain)
the left tentacle cluster, one at the center of the right Growth (11): Level 6; +6 Size, Large, Monstrous
one. In the recessed groove where the two halves (Giant Space Brain)
meet, they have a ring of hundreds of blue eyes. They Invisibility (5): (Invisible, Flying Giant Space
are buoyed with internal gas bladders, allowing them Brain)
to float easily in the thin tepid atmosphere of Earth. Mind Reader (3): (Telepathic, Invisible, Flying
In the Earth’s weak gravity they are also fantasti- Giant Space Brain)
cally strong, though somewhat clumsy. Jupiterians Telepathy (2): (Telepathic, Invisible, Flying
possess a natural telepathic faculty, but can speak Giant Space Brain)
easily through one or even both of their mouths. Legendary (80 exp): Add the Following Power.
The Lost Jupiterian is a forlorn member of his Animation (5): 25lbs, Strength d6, Size –1, Pace
long-lived species. He is stranded upon this tiny 4 (Matter Transmogrifier Ray!)
rock with no way of returning home, surrounded by Legendary (100 exp): Add the Following Power.
grotesque soft creatures, and denied the company of Stun (5): Smaller: Small Burst Template, Smarts,
any he considers an equal. He is an artist rather than Range 24” (Mind Blast)
a scientist, and the technology which brought him
here is beyond his ability to repair. He suffers and
he mourns his lost home, and sometimes lashes out
when angered or when feeling especially sulky. Notes
The Lost Jupiterian is a formidable beast. His
strength is phenomenal. He is also a creature evolved
for the crushing pressures and gravities of Jupiter,
and is nearly invulnerable to harm. His strongly-
252 bilateral symmetry allows him to easily perform
 Chapter 6

multiple actions (thanks to his ten Body dice), but

he is ungainly and sluggish in Earth’s fractional
gravity, and so rarely acts first in a conflict.
For such an enormous creature, he can be
[WC] Man For All
remarkably stealthy when he wants to be left alone,
which is most of the time. But his alien appearance,
if revealed, shocks and dismays. Few things could be
Ages (15 exp)
more inhuman. “Behold, ruffian! I fear you not, for I am not alone.
With me always is Mankind’s savage ancestor from
the dawn of time, to battle my foes with bestial

As a Member of the Club energy—and also the enlightened future of wise

humanity, to council with sage wisdom.”
An experiment involving Voltaic Principles and
A holiday shooting in the Highlands seemed a nice Rare Earth Salts, Projective Animal Magnetism,
change from the hurly burly and constant Strange and Oriental Techniques of Meditation. What
menaces of London. When the group of Kerberans could possibly go wrong? The Man for All Ages was
arrived at their friend Lord Montjoy’s hunting a charismatic advocate of the sciences, attending
lodge, they were quite perturbed to find it in a lectures, contributing to research efforts, and solic-
state. A plague of crop failures; two-headed calves; iting articles for publication. Not a man of science
children born with Strange maladies; the appearance himself, but rather a patron of the sciences, he
of bizarre standing stones carved into eye-twisting always longed for the thrill of discovery, for his own
forms; all had the locals in a froth. To make the “Eureka!” moment.
situation completely intolerable, the grouse had all The opportunity came when he volunteered to
fled and there was no shooting to be had at all. be the experimental subject in the research of one of
Investigation revealed beneath the waters of a the scientists he admired. He was wired to a fuming
loch the remains of a vessel meant to travel between bank of batteries, fed a potion of Strange compounds,
the planets, and a castaway, an alien creature of and subjected to the focused concentration of seven
terrible mien. Battle followed, and then negoti- mesmerists, all while meditating on an ancient,
ation, and finally accord. The Jupiterian, who called some say prehuman, mantra.
himself Atmospheric Red Banding Expressionist When he awoke, he was not alone. Sprung forth
(nicknamed “Archie Redband” by his new friends), from his altered consciousness and  body were two
was given diplomatic status by the government as the new beings, one of them obviously a descendant, the
only representative of his homeworld on Earth. He other an ancestor, though both thousands of gener-
joined the Kerberos Club, for its members seemed ations distant. The Ancestor was a huge and hulking
the only people on the weird, tiny planet that he had ape man, hairy and coarse, with remarkable physical
any commonality with, or who expressed any appre- prowess and feral senses. The Descendant was thin
ciation for his art. and  agile,  with a prodigiously high forehead and
elongated skull containing a wondrous brain.

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 Chapter 6

[WC] Man For All Ages: Super Edges (4): Combat Reflexes, Improved
Nerves of Steel (Born to Fight)

The Man (15 exp) Toughness (7): +2 Toughness, Hardy (Very

Tough)

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6,

Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Investigation d8, Knowledge [WC] Man For All Ages:
(Weird Philosophy) d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d12,
Charisma: -1 The Descendant (15 exp)
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Gimmick (Meditation + Weird Drugs, Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d12+3, Spirit d6,
Habit (Talks to his other selves even when they are Strength d4, Vigor d4
not there), Quirk (refers to himself as we) Skills: Fighting d10, Investigation d10, Knowledge
Edges: Old Boy’s Network, Power Points (x2), (Arcane Future Stuff ) d10, Notice d8, Repair d10
Super Powers, Very Rich Charisma: -2
Super Powers: Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 4
Duplication (15): Two duplicates; the Ancestor, Hindrances: Anemic, Arrogant, Curious, Outsider
and the Descendant (see below), Duplicates are Edges: Jack-Of-All Trades, Improved Level
Wild Cards and independent beings (Time Twins) Headed, Power Points (x2), Quick, Super Powers
Super Powers:
Mind Reading (3): (Mega Brain)

[WC] Man For All Ages: Super Attribute (3): Smarts +3 Steps (Mega
Brain)

The Ancestor (15 exp) Super Edge (6): Improved Level Headed, Quick
(Reads Foes minds)
Stun (5): Smaller: Small Burst Template, Smarts,
Attributes: Agility d6 Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength Range 24” (Mind Blast)
d12+2, Vigor d12+3 Telepathy (3): Broadcast 1 mile (Mega Brain)
Skills: Climbing d8, Fighting d10, Intimidation d8,
Notice d6
Charisma: -4
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 15 Notes
Hindrances: All Thumbs, Mean, Overconfident,
Ugly The Man for All Ages is a triple combo. The Man
Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Improved Nerves himself has remarkable social abilities. He’s well
of Steel, Power Points (x2), Super Powers connected in scientific and academic circles, and is
Super Powers: quite astonishingly persuasive.
Growth (5): +3 Size, Monstrous (Hulking) His primitive Ancestor is brutally strong,
Super Attributes (4): Vigor +4 Steps able to crush a man with his thick hairy fists. The
(Hulking) Descendant is a staggeringly brilliant mind, easily
254 one of the most intelligent beings in the world. He
 Chapter 6

is also inhumanly dexterous, with his long fingers

and perfect coordination.
One of the most unusual features of the Man
for All Ages is how  difficult his duplicates are to
[WC] Conflicted
summon again if they suffer a fatal injury during
his adventures. He must recreate to a degree the
experiment which caused their emergence in the
Magus (60 exp)
first place. This takes time and great effort. The ritual “Fools. I grasp the cosmic forces of the universe, the
leaves him addled, as if suffering an attack of brain secrets of the darkness. Do you imagine I will place
fever, and while he recovers his duplicates wander myself in the power of worms such as you?”
off to pursue their own interests. This means he has The Conflicted Magus tries to serve two masters:
to seek them out when he recovers from his trance, his worldly obligations and his occult obsession.
something with which he might require assistance. Inevitably, the obsession is winning out. He has a
family, a respected position in banking, and the usual
social obligations of one of his class and status—but

As a Member of the Club he also has ties to an ancient, hidden occult order of
those descended from Roman mystery cults. From
his father he received magical training, and upon
Ashley Brenden was always quite  fond of science. assuming the mantle of Master of the Order he
He was rubbish at it, of course, but still quite wholly inherited the Amulet of Marcus Fontius, an artifact
taken with  natural philosophy. He met  his scien- of frightening puissance.
tific benefactor at a lecture at his college. The man’s The knowledge that his interest in Earthly
theories were dismissed as nonsense, but Ashley affairs is waning spurs the Magus to more and more
saw some spark of genius. Where others decried the extremity in his pursuit of making his family happy,
work it seemed, Ashley thought, out of spite rather succeeding in his business and maintaining his status.
than true scientific objection. He conjures more and more terrible magics in order
He volunteered himself to test the man’s theories, to secure them, which of course only furthers his
and so became transformed by them. His benefactor, obsession. It is a vicious cycle, and the awful paradox
seeing an opportunity, suggested an introduction of sorcery. One studies sorcery to attain one’s goals,
down at his Club, “A place where men such as we, but the pursuit of sorcery itself inevitably replaces
those obsessed with transcending the limitations of those goals. 
the merely human, might come together to further
our mutual ends.” And so, Ashley Brenden, with Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
his Past and Future walking behind, came  to the Strength d6, Vigor d6
Kerberos Club like three babes in the woods. Skills: Fighting d10, Knowledge (Banking) d8,
Knowledge (Occult) d12+1, Notice d8, Spellcasting
d12+1
Charisma: -2
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Dependants, Mean,
Servitor, Vengeful
255
 Chapter 6

Edges: Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Improved Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12
Level Headed, Power Points (x4), Old Boy’s Pace: 7; Parry: 7; Toughness: 21 (3)
Network, Rich, Super Powers Superpowers:
Super Powers: Animal Control (2): Bull, Shapechange
Attack, Ranged (4): 12/24/48, 2d6, AP6, Device Armor (4): +3 Heavy Armor
(Grip of The Hundred Hand Giant) Attack, Melee (8): +3d6 damage, AP 4, Knockback
Super Skill (2): Spellcasting +2 Steps (Training) Growth (13): Size +10, Huge
Super Sorcery (24): Level 10, Device (The Amulet Scent of Venus: A phial of perfume which makes
of Marcus Fontinus the Elder) the wearer supernaturally attractive and persuasive,
Telekinesis (5): Level 3, Strength D12+1, Heavy sometimes TOO persuasive. While wearing it, the
Weapon (Grip of The Hundred Hand Giant) Magus must be careful with what he asks of others.
Mind Control (23): 12 minds
Helm of Hades: When this battered black

Notes helmet is donned, the wearer is rendered invisible

and intangible like a ghost. But the power of the
helm can not be partially employed. Either one has
The Conflicted Magus is well on his way to the ghostly properties of a spirit, or one is entirely
succumbing to his obsession with sorcery. His visible and material.
greatest source of that power is the Amulet of Intangible (4)
Fontius the Elder, a rude bronze charm worn on Invisibility (4)
a leather cord, said to have belonged to one of the
greatest of Caesar’s Magi. The Amulet allows the
Magus to manipulate things with invisible force,
likened to the hundred hands of the Hecatoncheires. As a Member of the Club
Listed below are examples of some of the magical
tricks he can create with his Sorcery: Mitchum Brice knew he was slipping when he used
Slippers of Hermes: These slippers are adorned a magical work to prop up his bank after its director
with delicate wings to allow the wearer to dash fled with a fortune in embezzled funds. Were it to
through the air at phenomenal speed, making escape become known, the institution would fail and all
simple and defense easy. those close to the director would be painted with
Flight (4): 24” Pace, -1 to attack. his crime. Brice used a memory-distorting incense
Key of Janus: A heavy Roman latchkey which to fugue the memories of the bank’s employees,
can make any door open to any other doorway, and conjured a lesser spirit of the aether to play-act
can even make these passageways permanent. as the director until a formal resignation could be
Teleport (24): 168” Range arranged, and he replaced the stolen securities and
Jupiter’s Brass Bull: A brass bull figurine which gold coin with glamoured lead and blank paper.
allows the Magus to assume the form of a giant, By the opening of the Bank on the following
terrible bull. The change is very disorienting, however, Monday, none was the wiser. As a final measure, he
and gaining control over the powerful bull’s dispatched Azuli Shule, the Thief of Eyes, to deal
instincts and urges (mostly “ATTACK!” with the thieving banker. When the final Work had
and “RUT!”) are difficult. been conjured, he was left shaking and empty, and
256 Attributes: Agility d6, could feel how his love for his family and his job
 Chapter 6

had diminished, and how his lust for sorcery had

increased. It frightened him. He sought help.
Through a contact in his occult circles, he
gained an introduction to the Kerberos Club and
[WC] Rogue
applied for membership, which be believed would
be denied. But a group of Kerberan occultists who
themselves contended daily with the lure of sorcery
Mesmerist
laid the Challenge before Mitchum, the deciding
point being whether he would use magic or his wits
to resolve the problem they threw him. He chose
(40 exp)
his mundane resources, and was welcomed into the “Look into my eyes. Look deep. Hear my voice, hear
Club’s weird fraternity of struggling magical addicts. and obey. Obey. Obey.”
With his pointed beard and waxed moustache,
his sharp black coats with lapels like knives, the
Rogue Mesmerist cuts a dashing and dangerous
figure, and rumor and intrigue follow him like gulls
behind a steamer. Who is he? Where is he from?
Some say he is Spanish, others Brazilian.
He is known to have treated dozens of great
ladies for their hysterical complaints, and is
rumored to have had illicit romances with several.
A story frequently told is of the porter
at the Savoy who dropped the
Rogue Mesmerist’s shiny black
257
 Chapter 6

valise. While the young man blubbered an apology, characters can attempt to avoid the influence, but
the Mesmerist turned coolly on him, locked eyes, most targets find themselves in his power almost
and said, “You must leave immediately to begin immediately.
your service in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy.” After a As if that weren’t enough, he has several mesmeric
momentary blank look, the young man walked away tricks. He can project an aura of such intense animal
from his job then and there, and was at sea within magnetism that all those he perceives find it very
the week. difficulty to attack him. He is also able to issue a
The Rogue Mesmerist’s motivations are as sharp, brutal compulsion which makes a foe thrash
mysterious as his origins. What is clear is that he and injure himself.
is a man with a remarkable and dangerous power to
affect the minds and wills of others, and whether he
uses it for good or ill is entirely for him to decide.
As a Member of the Club
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d12,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Dr. Anton Ashebourne, or so it said upon his luggage
Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d12, Notice d10, tags, arrived in England from the Continent and
Persuasion d12+5, promptly hired a cab for the Square of St. James,
Charisma: +0 the home of the Kerberos Club. There he simply
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 asked for admission, and was granted it, then asked
Hindrances: Arrogant, Heartless, Gimmick (Must to be shown to a private sitting room, and was so
Lock Eyes), Quirk (Perfectionist) shown, and then asked for the attendance upon him
Edges: Attractive, Connections (High Society), of five of the Club’s members, themselves recently
Power Points (x3), Super Powers returned from abroad. They were summoned by the
Super Powers: enchanted staff and found their erstwhile nemesis,
Animal Control (10): A single Huge animal. Two Dr. Ashebourne, seated before the fire, his curled
Large animals or five animals less than Large size. Turkish pipe in hand and a copy of the Times open
(Animal Magnetism) across his knee.
Deflection (5): Level 6 Requires Activation “You have impressed me with your will and
(Mesmerism) resolve,” he said. “I think there is much we can do
Mind Control (9): Four Minds (Mesmerism) for one another, yes? I find your accommodations
Super Skill (1): Persuasion +1 Step here most agreeable, and with my recent relocation
Stun (5): Smarts, Stronger (You Are Feeling to London, I will be requiring membership in a
Sleepy) Club where I might make my leisure and enjoy the
conversation of my fellows. So, what formalities are
there before my membership is approved?”

Notes Such arrogance, audacity, daring—so very

Kerberan.

The Rogue Mesmerist is a surprisingly dangerous

foe. His mind control alone allows him
to impose his will quickly and
258 completely upon others. Willful
 Chapter 6

[WC] Pre-Human
Horror
“Shu’Shub Tso’gorath! Shu’Shub Tso’gorath!
Shu’Shub Tso’gorath! Shu’Shub Tso’gorath!
Shu’Shub Tso’gorath! Shu’Shub Tso’gorath!”
From the bowels of Time and out the dark,
hateful cold of trackless Space the Elder Things
came, with their abominable physiognomy and rites.
The ancient peoples of the Earth threw them back
again and again, only to come in time to worship
them. The Elder Things invaded not through force
of arms and sorcery, but through the creeping,
corrupting influence of word, thought and prayer.
The Atlanteans were debased by their worship,
degenerating into brutal tribalism. The High Cities
of Ultima Thule fell into disrepair as its priest-
engineers gave over to ecstatic orgiastic worship
of the Elder Things rather than maintaining their
flying crystalline wonders.
Where war had failed faith won, and the first
great dark age of the world began. Reality was twisted
and holed, and there rose heroes with the might and
power to throw off the influence of the Things. Like
a creeping rot, the Elder Things retreated to the
dark corners of the world and slept the ages away,
waiting, waiting, waiting for the sound of crunching
snow and chipping ice, waiting for the odd half-
evolved ape creatures to unearth their temples, and
give them life and purpose once again.

259
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Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d12+12, Spirit

d12+8, Strength d12+12, Vigor d12+20
Into the Twisted Halls of Time
Any foolish mortal prideful and daring enough
Skills: Fighting d12, Knowledge (Things Man Was
to meddle with time travel should, at some point,
Not Meant To Know) d12+8, Notice d10
encounter the terrible cold realities of the universe—
Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 30
particularly the Elder Things who have embraced
Edges: None
those damning cosmic truths. A misaligned
Super Powers: wondrous mechanism, a poorly-formulated dose
Attack, Melee: +6d6 Damage, AP 16, Focus, Reach of consciousness-altering drug, a misspoken spell:
+20”, Large Burst Template (Massive Tentacle) These things can easily throw a would-be time
Construct: Ignores Wound Modifiers (Totally traveler back and back and back to the Old Times,
Alien) the ancient pre-human world of shocking wonders,
Extra Limbs: Ten extra limbs all with a Reach of gorgeous horrors and exquisite jeweled cruelties. In
20” (Alien Monstrosity) those times there was no separation between World
Fear: Those who see this beast must make Guts and Otherworld. Divinities walked in flesh, Heaven
Checks at –2 on every round or roll on the Fear and Hell were places on a map; a dark, savage time,
Table (Sanity Shattering Form) aeons before the dawn of man.
Fearless: If there is something out there that
scares this alien entity, you don’t want to meet it! power: Their frenzied, debased adoration grants it
(Most Dangerous Thing In The Universe) the sustenance it needs.
Growth: Level 12, Huge (Massive and Grotesque The Horror’s first great weakness is its depen-
Form) dence on this psychic power. If it is deprived of this
Immunity: The Pre-Human Horror is immune it will fail, and it will fall back into hibernation. Its
to everything but long protracted Banishing Rituals. second weakness is its vulnerability to the Sacred
(Inter-Dimensional Being) Geometries recorded by the ancient magicians of
Tsung. If fragments of these signs and diagrams
can be found, they provide a deadly weapon against

Notes the Pre-Human Horror. These devices inflict 4d6

damage on the Horror and ignore any bonuses it
gets from its powers.
The Pre-Human Horror is a huge mass of weird
flesh, sense organs and tentacles—so, so many
tentacles. It is prodigiously dangerous. In addition to
being horribly strong and frighteningly intelligent, As a Member of the Club
it is wholly and completely unaffected by any human
concern. Its mind is an alien thing, both intelligent Really now, some things are beyond the pale even
and savage, the marriage of madness and genius. for us.
To its worshipers who partake of the sacrament
of its flesh, it grants a boon, a special Bennie that
guarantees at least a success, even if the reroll
fails, which they can use for a single
roll whenever they choose. From
260 its worshipers, it takes psychic
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,

[WC] Gentleman Strength d8, Vigor d8

Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d8, Knowledge
(Foreign Customs) d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6,

Adventurer Riding d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6,

Tracking d6
Charisma: +0

(20 exp) Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6

Hindrances: Code of Honor, Heroic, Loyal, Quirk
(Extremely Private)
Edges: Acrobat, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, First
“I say! Is that a Zuni fetish doll? I’ve not seen one of Strike, Fleet-Footed, Level Headed, Old Boys
those since the Bismarck Affair of forty-five.” Network, Power Points (x3), Quick, Super Powers,
He’s traveled the world, from the dinosaur- Two-Fisted
infested jungles of the Empire of Brazil to the frozen Super Powers:
wastes of the Antarctic, to the depths of the sea via Fearless (2): (Hardened)
bathysphere and submersible boat. He has friends Omni Super Skill (6): Level 3 (Man of Action)
in every port. He can shoot, ride, rope, and skin. Super Attributes (2): Agility +1 Step, Smarts +1
He’s been the lover of princesses and the killer of Step (Training)
kings. He’s seen ghosts arise from a shaman’s camp Super Edges (12): Combat Reflexes, Dodge, First
fire, and he’s battled vampires aboard an infested Strike, Fleet-Footed, Level Headed, Two-Fisted
steam ship. He’s fought the spies of Her Majesty’s Super Skills (3): Fighting +1 step, Persuasion +2
enemies, and he’s dueled to the death with villains steps, Riding +1 step, Shooting +1 step, Tracking +1
so fell that their names are not repeated lest it tempt step
them from their graves, seeking revenge. He’s always
game for a challenge, an expedition or an adventure,
fearless, and afraid of nothing—save one thing. A
secret so simple yet devastating, that the scandal it Notes
would cause is almost impossible to imagine.
For the Gentleman Adventurer is, in fact, a Lady. The Gentleman Adventurer need not secretly be a
The adventure in cross-dressing began at first as a woman, but it makes a fun commentary on gender
way to escape confining social expectations, but roles during the period. She has no real powers,
became something of an obsession. She studied the but her skills and stats give her broadly excellent
way men walked, talked, smoked, and how they acted dice for all manner of ordinary actions. And when
among other men. And she proved equal to the task. she’s performing some crazy, death-defying stunt or
Over the years, the few who found out her secret taking some enormous risk she can trigger her omni
trusted her enough to swear themselves to silence, super skill. That makes her chances of success much
and so she maintained the masquerade. But how better if she approaches just about any situation
much longer can such an act carry out, especially with “How can I leap over this while it is on fire?”
with so many enemies from so many years of travel in mind.
and adventure?
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 Chapter 6

As a Member of the Club she leads winds its way through London in quarters
high and low. When the goddess comes over her, the
terrible image of Durga invades the minds of all who
Sir Conway Joyce (AKA Joyce Conway) came to the see her, and those affected by the divine revelation
attention of Kerberan agents when they witnessed are subject to her power. Her beauty burns the eyes,
her chasing a cloaked man across the rooftops of her arms wield ten different deaths, her voice brings
midnight Cairo. When they saw the incredible risks tears, and the golden lion she rides paws the ground,
she took, and the leaps she made, they assumed anxious to run amok.
she must possess some Strange potency, only
realizing later that it was but her fearlessness and Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,
remarkable skill at grappling with danger that kept Strength d12+1, Vigor d12+1
her from plummeting to her death. She mastered Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d8, Notice d8, Persuasion
the Challenge laid before her, and turned it back d8,
upon those who tested her. They humbly offered Charisma: +0
her membership there in the dusty streets. She’s a Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
regular at the Club now, and any members whose Hindrances: Heartless, Overconfident, Servitor,
Strange perceptions discern her true sex are too Vow (Become the Greatest Actress in History)
polite to make mention of it. Edges: Ambidextrous, Command, Fervor, Inspire,
Power Points (x3), Super Powers, Two-Fisted
Super Powers:
Deflection (5): Level 6, Requires Activation
(Aura of the Sacrosanct)

[WC] Wrathful Mind Control (6): 3 Minds, Requires Activation

(Aura of the Sacrosanct)
Stun (7): Large Burst Template, Smarts, Stronger

Divinity (20 exp) (True Face of Durga)

Super Attribute (7): Strength +4 steps, Vigor +3
steps
“You have roused ancient anger here today, a fury
which was old when your ancestors lived in caves.
Behold the terribly majesty you have awakened!”
Her mortal vessel is the gorgeous half-Indian/ Notes
half-English actress who is the sensation of the
theater this year. Stories of her origins, the tragic The Wrathful Divinity has great skill on the stage
love of her parents, and her adventures between and broad influence there. She also leads a Durga
India and the British Isles thrill almost as much as cult in London with many secret adherents. She’s
her performances. She has hundreds of admirers, a deadly fighter with the empty hand and with the
and fends off a dozen proposals for marriage a week. weapons of Kalarippayattu—longstaff, kukri, and
She has her career to consider, at the moment, whiplike flexible sword.
and other concerns. For she is no mere
mortal actress but the avatar of
262 the goddess Durga, and the cult
 Chapter 6

As a Member of the Club

Lakshmi Vani Smythe came to her father’s homeland
[WC] Oriental
filled with anger and ambition, and with the terrible
presence of a goddess burning in her heart. Her
life as half-caste had been hard, and the indignities
Mastermind
piled high, and when Durga came to her for the first
time she had visions of a foreign throne which she
would one day sit upon. She came to believe this
(80 exp)
was the throne of Britain, and it was her destiny to
overthrow Victoria. So she came, and won adoration “You humble me with your presence, and I must
in the theater while spreading her cult among the apologize that my duties demand my attention
diverse people who attended, worked, and supported elsewhere. Perhaps this small diversion I have
London’s theaters, fomenting rebellion. prepared may be of some amusement. My respect for
Inevitably, she came to blows with the Kerberos you has demanded that only the healthiest and most
Club, and was fought to a standstill, and then the ferocious tigers in all India be brought by steam and
stalemate was broken by royal decree. Her Majesty sail so you might enjoy their company.”
requested the presence of Lakshmi Vani Smythe for “Inscrutable” hardly does justice to the Oriental
a private audience. Victoria had tea with Lakshmi, Mastermind.
called her “Sister,” and they reached an accord. His demeanor is perfectly calm. He is poised,
Lakshmi’s throne was to be found elsewhere, but the always ready with a carefully-phrased response.
country of her father needed her aid. Somewhere in While seeming humble, there is the unmistakable
her palace of light, the goddess chuckled to herself, sense that he and only he is the master
knowingly. of any situation. Even in defeat,
there’s the nagging sense that the
263
 Chapter 6

apparent setback was just part of his larger design,

plans within plans within plans.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d12, Spirit d12,

Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d12, Intimidation d10, Knowledge
(Occult) d8, Knowledge (Science) d8, Notice d6,
Taunt d8
Charisma: -2
Pace: 6; Parry: 15; Toughness: 11 (6)
Hindrances: Arrogant, Code of Honor Gloater,
Outsider
Edges: Acrobat, Improved Dodge, Improved Level
Headed, Improved Sweep, Noble, Power Points (x6),
Quick, Super Powers, Scholar (Occult + Science),
Strong willed
Super Powers:
Armor: (4) Level 2 (Iron Vest Technique).
Attack, Melee (9): +2d6, +1 AP, Focused (White
Lotus Fist).
Flight (4): Speed 12 (Lightness Technique).
Minions (5): Level 5 (White Snake Tong).
Super Attribute (5): +1 Step Agility, +2 Steps
Smarts, +2 Steps Spirit (Training).
Super Edge (2): Improved Dodge (Training).
Super Skill (5): Fighting +5 steps, Intimidation
+1 step (Training).
Parry (6): +6 Parry (Training).

Notes
The Oriental Mastermind is lethal and patient. He
has broad influence, scientific and occult knowledge,
and is as deadly a personal foe as one could fear to
know. He will strike an enemy and then leave them
to make their own egress from his private quarters,
knowing they will die in good time. His empty
hands hold death, his feet walk upon the
air, his mastery of internal energies
264
 Chapter 6

makes him faster than a snake and immune to

gunfire.
His signature attack is the White Lotus Fist,
which inflicts lethal wounds almost every time. He
Minor Characters
can kill a room full of people with his bare hands Each of these is an Extra unless the GM needs one
and only a few moments—but this capacity for to be otherwise.
violence is not apparent unless he wishes it to be.
He is persuasive, composed, and utterly brilliant. He
is also utterly ruthless, but fastidiously honorable.
He is a foe with whom one can have a long and
polite relationship. He will send a prize goose to
your family for Christmas dinner, only to have you
Constable
murdered in the street the following day. “What’s all this, then?”
One of the hard-working, pavement-pounding
men of the Metropolitan Police. Drawn mostly

As a Member of the Club from the ranks of the working classes, they grew up
in the same neighborhoods they patrol. The blue-
uniformed Bobby, the first to arrive at the scene of a
“Your invitation does me great honor, but this tragedy, is a common sight to many Kerberans.
unworthy one must decline the offer. My labors
demand so much of my time that I would be unable Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
to contribute to your gaiety and merry making. Strength d6, Vigor d6
Perhaps we shall meet in other circumstances, Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Intimidation d8,
however. It is my fondest wish that we do so.” Knowledge (Law) d6, Knowledge (The old neigh-
borhood) d6, Notice d6, Streetwise d6
Charisma: +0
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Vow (Uphold The Law)
Edges: None
Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), hardened top hat (+1,
head only, before 1863), helmet (+2, head only, 1863
onwards), notebook, pencil, whistle.

265
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Police Sergeant
“Be that as it may, sir, I’ll still have to ask you to
accompany me back to the station.”
A uniformed policeman of long experience.
Sergeants are the backbone of the Metropolitan
Police. A sergeant might organize constables in a
search effort or in securing a crime scene.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,

Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d8, Intimidation d8,
Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge (The District) d8,
Notice d6, Streetwise d8
Charisma: +0
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Vow (Uphold the Law)
Edges: Command
Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), hardened top hat (+1,
head only, before 1863), helmet (+2, head only, 1863
onwards), notebook, pencil, whistle.

Detective
“If, as you say, sir, you were at the theater during the
time in question, you should be able to present your
ticket stub, or failing that, a witness who could place
you there, hmm?”
Some detectives come up through the ranks,
working the streets before trading their uniforms
for plain clothes. Others are hired based on personal
contacts, reputation, or education. Detectives make
enquiries when the circumstances (and perpetrator)
of a crime are not immediately apparent. The
Detective service operates out of Scotland
Yard, and it’s a competitive and
266 highly political environment.
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,

Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Intimidation d8,
Investigation d8, Knowledge (Law) d10, Knowledge
Special Branch
(Yard Politics) d8, Knowledge (The Underworld)
d6, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Streetwise d8
Charisma: +0
Officer
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 “Push off, bluebottle. We’re taking over.”
Hindrances: Vow (Uphold the Law) A hard man among hard men. The Special
Edges: Charismatic, Command, Branch starts with a certain sort of recruit who
Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48, already knows the ways of violence and intimidation,
RoF 1, Shots 6), notebook, pencil, whistle. and adds to this a powerful loyalty to the Queen and
a sense of superiority and untouchability. Special
Branch lacks the finesse of the detective service
when investigating crimes, but makes up for it with

Detective Inspector direct brutal efficiency. They are more likely to break
your fingers until you admit what you were doing
on Sunday night last than interview witnesses who
“We have to keep this quiet. A scandal like this could might place you somewhere or the other.
embarrass some very powerful men.”
Once a fine officer, now more of a bureaucrat Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
than a policeman, and saddled with political consid- Strength d8, Vigor d8
erations and administrative duties. Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d8, Intimidation d10,
Investigation d6, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d8, (The Strange) d8, Notice d6, Lockpicking d6,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Stealth d6, Streetwise d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Intimidation d10, Charisma: -2
Investigation d8, Knowledge (Law) d10, Knowledge Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 7
(Yard Politics) d10, Knowledge (The Underworld) Hindrances: Mean, Overconfident, Vow (The
d6, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Streetwise d8 Queen)
Charisma: +2 Edges: Block, Brawny, Combat Reflexes,
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48,
Hindrances: Vow (Uphold the Law) RoF 1, Shots 6), large syringe full of opium extract
Edges: Charismatic, Command, Connections x4 (see page 268), housebreaking implements, self-
(The Aristocracy, The Met, Underground, Whitehall) locking manacles, big black four-wheel carriage.
Fervor, Investigator
Gear: Pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48, RoF 1, Shots 6), file
cabinets full of career-protecting, highly sensitive
personal secrets of some of London’s first citizens,
fine clothes, notebook, official carriage, pencil,
whistle.
267
 Chapter 6

Opium
The Special Branch use opium extract to render
“suspects” senseless. It is usually injected via a
Tracking Squad
syringe. Unless the target is subdued, the attacker
must take a Called Shot penalty to hit an unarmored
part of the target—practically impossible on many
of the tougher Strange. The opium inflicts 3 levels
Officer
of Fatigue, which is be reduced by one level for each “He might be gone, but his smell … I could follow
success and raise the victim gets on a Vigor roll. this bastard to the ends of the earth.”
The Tracking Squad is a small group (no
more than a dozen officers) loosely attached to
the detective service based out of Scotland Yard.

Senior Special They are drawn from veterans of the 13th Lupine
Rangers, many of whom were eager to take up their
wolf belts once again and experience life through the

Branch Officer senses and power of their old wolf forms. Tracking
Squad officers do just what their name implies: Use
their senses and speed to run down criminals and
“Break his fingers and put him in the Hole, boys. make positive identification. Confronted with the
He’ll be more willing to talk in a few weeks.” testimony of a Tracking Officer (who remain public
Those who rise to command in the Special favorites), many accused offenders become willing
Branch are a particular kind of bastard. Charismatic, to cop to lesser crimes when offered the chance. As
iron willed, and brutal enough to make even other while in active service, the names of Tracking Squad
Special Branch officers afraid of you. officers are kept secret for the duration of their
service.
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Strength d8, Vigor d10 Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,
Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d8, Intimidation d10, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Investigation d8, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d8, Intimidation d10,
(The Strange) d10, Notice d6, Lockpicking d6, Investigation d8, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge
Stealth d6, Streetwise d6 (The Strange) d10, Notice d10, Survival d8. Tracking
Charisma: -2 d10
Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 8 Charisma: -6
Hindrances: Mean, Overconfident, Vow (The Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8
Queen) Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Mean, Overconfident,
Edges: Arcane Resistance, Block, Brawny, Combat Vow (The Queen)
Reflexes, Command, Strong Willed Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Fleet-Footed,
Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48, Strong Willed, Woodsman
RoF 1, Shots 6), large syringe full of opium Gear: Truncheon (Str+d4), pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48,
extract, housebreaking implements, self- RoF 1, Shots 6), notebook, pencil, whistle.
locking manacles, big black four- Wolfriemen belt (see page 133).
268 wheel carriage.
 Chapter 6

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6,

Automechanical Strength d10, Vigor d12

Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Notice d8,
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 10 (2)

Domestic Gear: Implements of domestic service or another

job. During the Mutiny, any weapons they can find,
real or improvised (Str+d6, or Str+d8).
“…” Special Abilities:
Mute, tireless, gleaming testaments to the Armor +2: Automechanical Domestics are
powers of Progress to relieve the burdens of covered in steel plating
Humanity—or to rob Humanity of livelihood and Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken;
purpose—automechanicals are sculpted machines Fearless; No additional damage from Called Shots;
in the shape of man, driven by electrical motors, Immune to disease and poison.
and directed by a Babbage Computational calcu- Mute: Automechanical Domestics are unable to
lating brain. An automechanical does not learn or speak.
experience; rather it gains new skills and capacities
by a inserting programme deck (roughly the size of
a pack of playing cards) into its “mouth” and loading
the deck’s machine signal, encoded in thousands of
tiny holes on each card, into its memory registers.

269
 Chapter 6

Automechanical Automechanical
Rifleman Bay
“…” “…”
Essentially an Automechanical Domestic with a Babbage Computational’s attempts to market
heavier chassis, longer-lasting batteries, and heavier the Automechanical Rifleman met with a great deal
motors, carrying programmes focused on soldiering of initial resistance from the hidebound authorities
and military service. Most are deployed overseas of the British military. While the company lobbied,
during the Mutiny, and always in small numbers wined, and dined among the generals and admirals
due to their expense, so thankfully there are few and ministers, they also explored other avenues
numbered among the rogue machines. for their automatons and computational engines,
and found the Army much more amenable to a
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, mechanical horse. The same motors and batteries and
Strength d12, Vigor d12+2 computational engines drive the Automechanical
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Bay, but rather than mock the shape of man, they
Shooting d8 mimic the shape of a large enamel brown quarter
Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 13 (4) horse.
Gear: Regimental uniform; a large backpack The Bay’s mechanical brain includes a series of
containing an enormous amount of ammunition, rote horse-like behaviors as well—grazing, twitching
supplies for mortal troops, and spare parts for itself its ears, stamping—which make it seem more
and its fellow Automechanicals; a huge, special- ordinary. Unlike ordinary horses, Automechanical
built, long-barreled rifle too heavy for ordinary Bays are fearless and a rider only need make control
humans to comfortably carry and fire (Minimum rolls when trying to keep his seat. Unfortunately,
Strength d12). no amount of encouragement can make these
Special Abilities: mechanical horses exceed their limits. Only the Bay
Armor +4: Heavy Armor. Automechanical rolls to keep its feet or avoid obstacles. No amount
Riflemen are covered in thick steel plating. of rider skill can make the Automechanical Bay
Claw: Str+d6 keeps its feet if it starts to slip.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken;
Fearless; No additional damage from Called Shots; Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 Spirit d6, Strength
Immune to disease and poison. d12+2, Vigor d12+4
Large Bore Gun: 24/48/96, 2d10+1 damage, AP Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d6
2, 1 round to reload. Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 17 (4)
Mute: Automechanical Riflemen are unable to Special Abilities:
speak. Armor +4: Heavy Armor. Automechanical bays
are covered in thick steel plating
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken;
270 Fearless; No additional damage from Called Shots;
 Chapter 6

Immune to disease and poison.

Fleet Footed: Automechanical bays roll a d10
when running instead of a d6.
Kick: Str+d4.
Thief
Size +3: Automechanical bays are large creatures “I was visiting my sick Mum, officer, never even seen
built for their power and stature. the inside of a jeweler’s before.”
One of the countless members of London’s
criminal classes. There isn’t anything romantic about
most thievery. It’s survival, pure and simple. Some

Socialite thieves try and maintain some kind of code, and

won’t steal from those who can’t afford it, but most
are simple opportunists who will take from anyone
“I can’t believe Charles invited that sort. I was so they can.
hoping he would redeem himself after the truly There are dozens of different classifications of
tragic décor of the ball last year, but see how he thief: burglars, cracksmen, snake men, rum drivers,
compounds the sin of all these swans and feathers footpads, waterpads—different names for different
by inviting the swine in as well?” kinds of stealing, or different roles in a criminal
Society is every bit the Darwinian jungle. It is enterprise. Thieves vary wildly in experience,
a thing of social hierarchy, of younger generations reputation, and trustworthiness.
challenging the older for dominance. In preening
mating rituals suitors prove their fitness with gifts, Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
conversation, and demonstrations of influence. And Strength d8, Vigor d6
it’s savage, though the blood drawn is almost always Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Guts d6,
metaphorical. To thrive in the Season takes a certain Intimidation d6, Lockpicking d8, Notice d8, Stealth
sort of person: Strong-willed, quick-thinking, and d8, Streetwise d6
willing to abandon friends long before it becomes Charisma: +0
obvious that they are about to suffer a fall. Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Greedy, Wanted
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Edges: Connections (The Underworld), Thief
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Gear: The tools of the trade (whatever that might
Skills: Fighting d4, Guts d4, Intimidation d8, be): housebreaking tools, a truncheon (Str+d4), a
Knowledge (Society gossip) d8, Knowledge (The Spark (see page 129), rope and climbing equipment,
Scene) d10, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Taunt d8 or a forger’s or counterfeiter’s setup. Some may carry
Charisma: +1 a pistol (2d6+1, 12/24/48, RoF 1, Shots 6), though
Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 this isn’t especially common.
Hindrances: Arrogant, Habit (Gossip), Mean
Edges: Attractive, Charismatic, Connections
(Upper Class), Strong Willed
Gear: Many fine things (whether this implies
actual wealth sometimes doesn’t matter), estates (or
respectable rental properties), servants.
271
 Chapter 6

Thug Shopkeeper
“You don’t talk to the boss like that!” “That’s three pounds six, my good man, and you
Generic muscle, junior hard men, struggling won’t find a better offer in London.”
boxers, or dockworkers paid a little on the side to Middle class through and through, the
back someone else’s play. Thugs are a staple of many shopkeeper is devoted to his good name and his
enterprises, and even the greatest chess master needs business above every other concern. He’s saving up
a few pawns to see his plans play out. to take the wife and children to the seaside, but until
then he spends every spare hour at his shop.
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, With a slight change in Skills this template
Strength d8, Vigor d8 serves equally well for clerks and clergy.
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidate d8, Notice d6
Charisma: -2 Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
Pace: 5; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 Strength d6, Vigor d6
Hindrances: Mean Skills: Fighting d4, Guts d6, Intimidation d6,
Edges: None Knowledge (Profit and Loss) d8, Notice d8, Persuade
Gear: As needed, but might be armed with anything d8, Streetwise d6
from a truncheon to a knife, a pistol, a shotgun, or Charisma: +0
something more exotic. Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Greedy
Edges: Strong Willed
Gear: Book of accounts, apron and shirtsleeves for
the shop, jacket of a conservative cut for the walk
home, unshakeable confidence in the British Way of
Doing Things.

272
 The Adventure of the
Black and White Decks
The ruptured batteries in the thing’s split belly hiss and bubble, reeking of sulfur and oil, grease and burned tin. Its
whirring clockwork heart slows … slows … stops. And for a moment, quiet. Your breath slows, the panic of the fight
fading and leaving you empty, weak, shaking.
You look down into the upturned eyes: the left shattered, the right iris closed, never to open again. And for a moment
you imagine it’s over. The pain where the dead mechanical man gouged bloody grooves across your back and thigh takes
light, and you feel like you’re going to be sick.
Then in the gloom behind you hear the whirr and click, and sound of cards shuffling faster than a human hand could
ever manage, the dealing of a deadly suit. You turn, and there it is, gleaming in its torn finery with perfect sculpted steel
beneath. It comes at you smooth as a train on rails, hands clenching and unclenching, and you know with the wound in
your leg, you can never outrun it.
But as it reaches you, it brushes past, kneels, and wraps its arms around the other, the one you killed. It cradles it,
holds it, and rocks slowly back and forth, clutching the dead machine, its pantomime grief eerie in the voiceless silence of
the Automechanical Men.

with an oppositely-oriented Automechanical, and

For the GM Only to pilfer the artifacts of domestic life—clothing,

tea sets, opera tickets, dolls—and set up a mock
household in an abandoned building somewhere. It
“The Adventure of the Black and White Decks” is a is disturbing, but essentially harmless.
complete adventure for The Kerberos Club. Players The Black Deck contains a mechanical imple-
shouldn’t read it. This is where we spell it all out for mentation of all that is evil about humanity, the
the GM up front, so he knows exactly what’s going urge to steal, to kill, to rape, burn and ravage.
on behind the scenes even as the action unfolds. When running the Black Deck programme, an
It is 1862, and the Future is on sale today. Automechanical is a deadly juggernaut ready to
In “The Adventure of the Black and White commit any atrocity.
Decks” there is a rogue programme loose in London’s The decks each occupy registers within the
Automechanical Domestic population, a programme Automechanical’s calculating brain, and the triggers
which causes them to reproduce it (punching it out to switch back and forth between the two modes,
from stolen decks of ordinary playing cards) and are somewhat buggy and unpredictable. Generally,
pass it on to uninfected Domestics. if approached in civilized fashion and addressed
The White Deck contains a weird pantomime of as a human, an infected Automechanical
human domesticity: An imperative to adopt either a runs the White Deck. If attacked,
male or female role (determined randomly), to partner threatened, or presented with
273
 Adventure

the opportunity to commit an outrage and remain squelched by Babbage Computational’s solicitors
undetected, it runs the Black Deck. and Ada Lovelace’s personal security force, led by
This makes an infected Automechanical an ex-Special Branch officer named Danny Speak.
something of a Jekyll and Hyde, liable to explode Mr. Speak and his thugs are tracking down rogue
into horrific violence with little provocation. This Automechanicals and bundling them off before
transformation is heralded by a brief spasm in its they can make a scene, then replacing them with
body, and the expulsion of any programme cards new models dressed and programmed as the stolen
currently racked into their reader. This sounds like machines were. Who can tell the difference in one
a card-shuffling machine, and then the cards spray or the other of them?
from the “mouth” of the mechanical man in a shower Mr. Speak is also tasked with keeping stories
of pasteboard. of the machines from reaching the press, and is
The Decks have only just begun to spread. There pursuing this duty with a vigor that would make his
have been a few spurious reports of Automechanicals old comrades in Special Branch proud.
malfunctioning and acting strangely, reports quickly Meanwhile, Ada Lovelace is in talks with
 Adventure

members of the Government regarding the sale

of the first of the Automechanical Riflemen to The Kerberans
the Army, a contract that will dwarf the civilian
Automechanical Domestic market. With that Into this cross-purposed mass of driven, dangerous
pressure, she is willing to be exceptionally ruthless people come the players. If the pregenerated
in running down the source of the Black and White characters from Chapter 6 are being used, then the
Decks and any knowledge of them. story opens with the player running Stony Joe being
The source, in fact, is a young Needleworker told that his brand-new Automechanical Maid and
(see page 137), Trent Marley, whose experimental Man have vanished from his apartments in the
communion with an Automechanical through Kerberos Club, taking with them his tea service
his Visualizer led to the creation of the decks. He and his whiskey. They even broke into several other
gained an understanding of the working of the apartments and pilfered similar innocuous, everyday
Automechanical brain, and his subject’s memory items while ignoring objects of obvious value. They
registers were filled in equal part with his better and have also stolen all the playing cards they can find.
worse halves, his drive for goodness and his secret Stony Joe naturally asks the other player
desires for evil. This Automechanical was the first, characters, his friends, to help him resolve the
and it created the Black and White Decks from the embarrassing situation.
contents of its own registers. When the interested powers realize that members
Marley realizes something is horribly wrong of the Kerberos Club are seeking the Decks (even if
as a result of his experimentation, and has gone they don’t yet realize it), all hell is going to break
to ground, hiding from the authorities and those loose.
hunting the source of the Decks. But his supply of Just as a hardboiled detective does fairly little
the dream-drug he uses when doing his needlework detecting in a Chandler mystery, the Kerberans will
is running low, and his addiction to the drug (and find they constantly walk into situations mid-crisis,
the experience of the needle itself ) will drive him and their actions precipitate further actions,
out of hiding soon. reactions, and plans. When they start playing the
Special Branch, apprised of the significance of game for real, the gloves come off and they’ll have
the Automechanical Rifleman to Her Majesty’s to evade Lovelace’s agents, Special Branch’s officers,
Army, is investigating, and is derailing official D.I. Kent, and any rogue Automechanicals they
police inquiries into the matter as best it can—but a encounter along the way.
tenacious Detective Inspector Kent of Scotlant Yard By the end, at least one building should be on
is investigating matters regardless. fire and several difficult, soul-gouging decisions
should be made.

275
 Adventure

but it’s better than being trapped in the damned

Those Concerned wheelchair.

In this adventure the Kerberans collide with

any number of hard-hearted men, women, and [WC] Mr. Speak (25 Exp)
mechanical menaces. Here are the most important.
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Strength d8, Vigor d10

Ada Lovelace Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d8, Intimidation d10,

Investigation d8, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge
(The Strange) d10, Notice d6, Lockpicking d6,
Ada Lovelace is a woman of ambition whose whole Stealth d6, Streetwise d6
empire is being threatened. While she doesn’t Charisma: -2
consider herself immoral, she’s very much a Big Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 21 (9)
Picture thinker of the Ends Justifying the Means Hindrances: Mean, Overconfident, Vow (The
school. For the full picture of Ada, and some insight Queen)
into what drives her, see page 48 Edges: Arcane Resistance, Block, Brawny, Combat
Reflexes, Command, Strong Willed
Super Powers:

Mr. Speak Armor: +9 Heavy Armor, Torso Only (Iron Lung)

Attack, Melee: +3d6, AP 6, Focus (Armored Fist)
Attack, Ranged: 3d6 Cone, Elemental Trick
A former Special Branch officer, Danny Speak is as (Fire) (Iron Right Hand)
hard a man as you could wish to meet, and his service Construct: +2 to Recover From Shaken, No
to Lovelace is paid for in part by her making him Wound Penalties, Immune to Poison, Gases and
harder still. After being grievously injured in a battle Disease (Machine and Flesh Are One)
with a Stranger several years back, he was pensioned Toughness: +4 Toughness, Hardy (Machine and
out of Special Branch to a life of bitterness. His Flesh Are One)
back was broken, his legs useless, and his right arm a
stump. He was exactly what Lovelace needed.
She hired him and had him rebuilt along the
lines of one of her Automechanicals. Now he looks Speak’s Men
like a hunchback, for the bulging machinery in his
back and spine contain large batteries and mecha- As Thugs, page 272. At least half a dozen of them
nisms unable to fit within his flesh. His arm is now for each player character should pose an adequate
a powerful mechanical prosthesis. His spine has challenge giving them a chance to decimate some
been repaired with a machine signal encoder and lesser opposition and possibly be worn down a little.
galvanic plates, which stimulate his leg muscles by
routing messages from his brain around
the damage. He is in constant pain,
276 which makes him ill-tempered,
 Adventure

The Secretary of making of the affair. Use the template for Senior
Special Branch Officer (page 268) for McGannon,

State for War and one or two regular Special Branch Officers
(page 267) for each player character if you need
McGannon to make a better showing of himself.
The Secretary of State for War, Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, recognizes the implications of the Black and
White Decks and has asked Special Branch to look
into the matter. He denies any connection to the Detective Inspector Kent
case at all unless presented with incontrovertible
evidence. If so checked, he bows to any request short Kent has no idea of the world of trouble about
of sacrificing his career. to land in his lap. He’s a good copper, honest, but
perhaps too tenacious for his own good. He doesn’t
know when to let go, and has no sense for delicate

Officer Tom McGannon politics. When McGannon gets word of Kent’s

investigations, he has him beaten up to warn him

of Special Branch off. When this fails, he might take things further.
This drives Kent towards the player characters, the
only other faction in the game who seem not to be
McGannon is tasked with “resolving” the matter of invested in covering the thing up.
the Decks with the least possible public disclosure,
scandal, and official trail. He’s far more subtle than
Speak, and is disgusted both with the inhuman thing
his old comrade has become and with the mess he’s
277
 Adventure

Trent Marley Infected Automechanicals

Marley started this whole mess and knows it, and Use the stats found on page 269 for the
knows just how much trouble he’s in. But he’s Automechanicals infected by the Decks. Add
starting to itch. The places where the needles touch Persuasion d8 when under the influence of the
his skin are crawling, and he thinks insects have laid White Deck, and increase Fighting to d8, and add
eggs inside his eyelids. It’s only a matter of time the Hardy Monstrous Ability to represent when
before he breaks cover, and when he does, he’s target they are under the influence of the Black Deck, and
Number One for Kent, McGannon, Speak, and the The White Deck covers acting like a normal human
Automechanicals infected with the Deck, who in being (or as close to this as possible for an uncom-
some way recognize him as their creator. prehending machine), and the Black Deck covers
The rogues will protect him from the forces acting like a monster.
seeking his destruction, whether he wants them To become infected, an Automechanical has
to or not. He already has several who hang around to run the deck into its reader. There isn’t much
his hiding place, bringing him food or less useful in the decks about forcing other Automechanicals
things—tablecloths, sacks of flour, oil for a lamp to do this, so infection remains fairly slow. But as
he doesn’t have, and other domestic items. More the adventure progresses, the numbers of infected
disturbing, some bring him trophies like severed machines increases steadily.
ears and fingers. He’s reaching the point where he The only real solution is a counter-programme,
can’t tell reality from fantasy. and since the Decks came from Marley’s psyche,
only he will be able to write it. Get him his drugs,
put him in the Visualizer, and plug him into an

Stony Joe’s Automechanicals infected Automechanical, and he’ll have a counter-

programme in a matter of minutes. Inducing him
to risk his sanity on such a vision quest is another
Joe’s errant servants have stolen evening dress and matter.
opera tickets, and will be taking in a show the McGannon and Speak don’t realize how vital he
coming evening (it is presumed). When they are is, and will kill Marley given the chance. It’s your
tracked and confronted, one stays to fight (resorting job as GM to covertly make sure the players don’t
to the Black deck) while the other flees and is let that happen.
captured by Speak and his men. From there it is
followed by McGannon and Kent, and possibly the
player characters, to the warehouse where the rogue
Automechanicals are housed and the replacements
prepared.

278
 Adventure

Timeline Scenes
If the players don’t intervene, here is a rough outline The adventure’s scenes can occur in almost any
of how the adventure will unfold: order, but some naturally precede others. Each
Joe’s Automechanicals become infected with the includes a series of links to other scenes, along with
Decks during a shopping trip. the clues which will precipitate the transition, and
They steal domestic supplies and scarper. a list of characters involved. There are also sugges-
They dress for the opera and attend, only to be tions on how to run the scene and other useful
snatched from the street by Speak. details.
Kent and McGannon independently follow
Speak back to the warehouse where they have
established operations to hold and replace rogue
Automechanicals.
A fight breaks out, resulting in the deaths of Kent
and several of McGannon’s men, and the escape of
The Atlantis Room
Speak. Stony Joe Smithson (page 231), if not a player character.
Marley breaks cover to seek his drugs, and his
Automechanical entourage follow him. Joe realizes the loss of his servants, and that they
Marley is ratted out by his drug supplier, bribed might have pillaged the rooms of other Kerberans
by both Speak and McGannon to inform them (oh, how embarrassing). He approaches the PCs in
when Marley arrives. the Atlantis Room, explains his plight, and enlists
Almost simultaneously McGannon and Speak them in helping him locate his missing servants and
catch up with Marley. All hell breaks loose in the find out why they turned thief. If the players need
middle of the street, with Speak and his men battling inducement, indicate that the help will earn them a
McGannon and his men and then joining against favor from Joe, or that they already owe him a favor
the Automechanicals protecting Marley. They carry for the Affair of the Half-Man the previous month.
the wounded Marley away, but the battle causes Whichever you like.
a stir that everyone will have a hard time keeping A look in Joe’s apartment finds a rifled desk
from the press. drawer; he exclaims, “Blast! They’ve gone and taken
To keep the secrets, hundreds of witnesses are my opera tickets! Where will I take Margery now?”
intimidated, bribed, or disappeared.
Marley succumbs to his wounds.
McGannon and Speak agree to cooperate in
rounding up the remaining Automechanicals, but Details
without Marley to formulate a counterprogramme,
the Decks continue to be a problem off and on until Play Joe as a man out of his depth. He feels very
the Mutiny. self-conscious about his new position in the Club,
and now his fancy mechanical servants
make a mess of things. Describe
the Atlantis Room (page 37) to
279
 Adventure

establish the Club as a place apart, given the way

such wonders are treated as common comforts. Details
Each apartment has a distinct and different character,

Links even if roughly the same floor plan. Joe’s is simple,

with shelves of penny novels, a very battered heavy
boxing bag, and a double-sized reinforced bed. La
• Pillaged Apartments. Lámina’s room is elegant and in perfect taste, yet
with a touch of the exotic from all the odd little
trophies and curios she has casually left about.

Pillaged Apartments Links

Stony Joe Smithson and the Countess of La Lámina (if
not player characters). • The Drawing Room.
• The Opera, page 283.
The Automechanicals have broken the locks and
rifled through seven different apartments. Some of
these can be from the PCs if you feel the need to
make it more personal (”They seem to have taken
your cigars and brandy”).
What they have most certainly done is take the
The Drawing Room
Countess of La Lámina’s (page 228) new evening Stony Joe Smithson; three Kerberans the player characters
dress, along with a gentleman’s suit, opera hat, and vaguely know; Grinning Finnegan (one of the Club’s
cane from another room. In addition to this, they eccentric porters).
have taken assorted domestic items: a tea pot, a
hairbrush, cosmetics, a razor and shaving kit, and The characters arrive in time to hear three Kerberans
one of Maeve’s little dollies. If the players are they vaguely know calling for the porter to bring
playing new characters, you can use the pregenerated them some playing cards, as “Every damn deck has
characters to populate the Club with Strangeness. gone missing!”
A Notice roll reveals tiny punched-out pieces of Indeed, an inspection reveals that every deck of
cardstock in several locations. Minute examination playing cards in the Drawing Room (and if they go
reveals them to have been punched from playing back and check, in all the apartments as well) has
cards. Upon inspection, they appear to be every- been pilfered. Grinning Finnegan (so called because
where that the Automechanicals rifled through. In of his perpetual, almost rictus smile) explains that
the Club, the main drawing room is the place with he will have to dispatch a boy to purchase some
the most playing cards. fresh decks.
Traces of distinctive Thames mud are found
along with some more of those holepunch chads,
indicating the Automechanicals might have tracked
280 it back when they made more than one trip to
 Adventure

wherever they took everything.

If asked, Finnegan indicates that he did indeed Links
see the Automechanicals leave, and no they were not
carrying anything else this trip. This trip? “Aye, they • Humbolt & Son’s.
were coming and going all day, they were. Carrying • The Opera, page 283.
this and that. I thought they was about their duties, • Marley’s Bolt-Hole, page 288.
and then when I saw them dressed up so fine, I
thought Mr. Smithson had treated them to a night
on the town for their worthy efforts!”
If they haven’t gotten the hint to check out the
Boutique where Joe purchased them, then the choir
of Kerberans are there to remind them with crows of
Humbolt & Son’s
CLUE CLUE CLUE. They give Joe a hard time about
his mechanical servants: “Joe, old son, what were you
thinking? Those things are so gauche! And when we
Automechanical
have such excellent servants as Finnegan here! Were
I you, I’d go down to that boutique where I bought
them and demand my money back!” Joe bought them
Assistance
at Humbolt & Son’s Automechanical Assistance. Mr. Humbolt; an Automechanical Man.
With the opera not to start until evening, the
PCs have nine or ten hours to look into other things Mr. Humbolt runs his little boutique on Pall Mall
before their rendezvous at the theater. for a very discriminating set: the new rich and
the clamoring upper middle class. Peers and old
money find the idea of a mechanical servant crass

Details and undignified, preferring to keep humans in their

service. But Automechanicals are the coming thing,
and a certain type loves them just for that. As a
The drawing room is lined with books, and someone result, Humbolt’s shop appears like a high-quality
has been fieldstripping a repeating steam gun on tailor or clothing boutique, but rather than showing
the billiards table. The felt is hopelessly stained with the latest fashions from Paris he shows off the
grease, and the floor around it covered in the gun’s sculpted steel of the Automechanicals.
large fragmenting shells. The portraits on the walls He demonstrates how they function, how decks
have changed again, the previous week’s portraits of programme cards are fed into their mouths to
of famous disgraced politicians being swapped for be read, and how they then perform the functions
paintings of neoclassical pastoral scenes which when ordered or triggered to do so. He shows the
substitute London’s most famous beggars for the large selection of decks he has for sale.
squires and ladies picnicking in the fields. If asked if it’s possible for people to make their
own decks, he puffs out his cheeks. “Oh, I know
little of such things; trade secrets and confiden-
tiality agreements and the like. Issues
pertaining to the functioning of
the calculating brain itself must
281
 Adventure

be referred to the offices of Madame Lovelace.”

He says some unsavory types would well like to
understand Lovelace’s secret encoding scheme
which would allow people to write their own
The Offices
decks—although deliberately suborning one of
these marvelous machines is unthinkable. He recalls
one disheveled young man who harassed him after
of Babbage
he first opened, giving his name as “Marley, or
somesuch. Trent Marley.”
If pressed for details, or if his mind is read,
Computational
it’s clear that he is only a shopkeeper—they must Madame Ada Lovelace; dozens of silver-chased
ask such technical question of Madame Lovelace Automechanicals.
herself, if she will deign to see them. Her offices are
in the Old City. Ada Lovelace has her London offices in the Old City,
near the Exchange. The Babbage Computational
building is six stories, and hers is the only office

Details it houses. It is a glimpse of an art deco future in

a broader color palate of golds, reds, warm browns,
and everywhere the silver of her personal staff of
The smell of oil and ozone. A silently-flapping Automechanical men.
Automechanical parrot at the door. Coffin-like At the entrance behind a large circular desk sits a
boxes containing new Automechanicals lining the single, unclothed, gorgeously polished and engraved
walls. A staff of perfectly-poised Automechanicals Automechanical. It looks far more human than the
seeing to the shop. When demonstrating the models on sale to the public, and somehow more
Automechanicals, Humbolt uncrates a new one, and creepy as a result of it. It has an articulated face of
then offers flustered apologies if ladies are present silvered cloth over a gently-clicking armature, which
for the unclothed (yet completely neuter) machine. produces convincing facial expressions, but it is as
mute as all Automechanicals.
When the characters announce themselves,

Links it writes upon a large card and turns, and another

machine man walks up with a silver tray. The first
places the note on the tray, and the second gracefully
• Offices of Babbage Computational. walks away with the note, into a pneumatically-artic-
• Marley’s Apartment, page 286. ulated double door at the rear of the lobby. While
they wait, a third Automechanical offers chairs and
refreshment, all with silent gestures.
After ten to fifteen minutes, the first
Automechanical returns and gestures for the visitors
to follow it.
It leads them through the doors and into a small
room, which rises quickly to the sixth floor with a
282 hiss like a train’s break pistons.
 Adventure

The door opens to a vast, steel-paneled office lit

with enormous skylights. In recesses along the walls, Details
dozens of the silver Automechanicals stand silently.
Before a large glass window, behind a desk that The almost subsonic hum of powerful engines
looks like the controls for a steamer’s engine, sits the deeply buried under the building. The faint buzz of
rod-straight, severely dressed, and utterly masterful electric arc lighting. The constant whir and click of
form of Lady Ada Lovelace. Automechanicals about their chores. Ada Lovelace’s
She has on her desk a fan of file folders, each maternal look when she gazes at her creations and
with the name of a player character writ large upon her fury when the players question their safety. The
it. She gestures for them to sit, and then asks, “So, impression of tightly-bound and controlled energy,
Kerberos. Are you here to sniff, howl, or bite?” within the building and within Lovelace herself.
She is combative, evasive, and suspicious. She
won’t reveal anything unless they do something
dramatic—something the players have to roll dice
to achieve. If they fail to persuade her, she dismisses Links
them.
If pressed, Lovelace admits that a former • Marley’s Apartment, page 286.
employee stole some confidential documents • The Warehouse, page 290.
detailing the function and encoding used in a calcu-
lating brain. Getting her to admit this requires
beating her formidable Spirit, Smarts and Guts
Traits of D12+2—Ada is also a Wild Card—with
something persuasive, charming, or forceful. The use
of powers is certainly permitted.
The Opera
If pressed hard—it will take not just persuasion Stony Joe’s two Automechanicals.
but damning evidence—Lovelace spills about the
Decks, and the Warehouse where her men are The Automechanicals are indeed sitting in Joe’s
“processing” infected machines to prevent a scandal. very expensive box seat. They continue to do so if
However, if they get aggressive, or use Strange left unmolested, but become violent if confronted.
powers on her without her consent, her machines rise (If you want to use this as an action scene, and the
to her defense. These are like the Automechanical players seem inclined to play it safe, then have a
Riflemen described on page 270, though they are porter try and evict the two mechanicals, setting off
armed with oversized revolvers rather than rifles their Black Deck programs and sending a rain of
(15/30/60, 2d8+1, AP 2, Shots 6). programme cards down and possibly blood into the
Unless they get her to spill something, then this crowds below.)
is a dead end, revealing only that she has something Observing them is eerie. They sit, look through
to hide (possibly a great many things). opera glasses, and watch. They applaud at the
right times. A close look reveals the one playing
the female role to be wearing roughly-applied
cosmetics. The one playing the male role
is wearing an oiled hairpiece they
recognize as having been stolen
283
 Adventure

from a Kerberan’s apartment.

Because the Opera is time-sensitive, you can
decide how long the Scenes leading to this point
take, and announce that it is almost time for the
Opera House Riot
Opera at any point either to speed things along or The “male” of Joe’s Automechanicals; hundreds of terrified
to open avenues the players haven’t yet pursued. Opera goers.
If spooked, one domestic lashes out while the
other flees from the balcony through a staff-only This is a fight scene, with the male Automechanical
door, onto the Opera House’s catwalks, onto the working to do as much damage to lives and property
roof, and then onto neighboring roofs by leaping as it can while defending itself against the Kerberans’
between the buildings. assaults. It leaps from the box seat down into the
When one of the mechanicals starts attacking crowds below and wreaks havoc. If you’re using the
everyone close to it, the opera explodes into rules for mass battle (See Savage Worlds), the mob
chaos. It’s a full riot, with a deadly rogue machine starts the battle with 5 tokens, and has a Knowledge
somewhere in the middle. (Battle) of d4 (no Wild Die). The rioters are
If the player characters wait until the Opera attempting to flee the rampaging automechanical ,
concludes, they can simply follow the Domestics and as such do everything to avoid it. This has two
back to the bolt hole where Marley is hiding. effects—The automechanical does not have to roll
to see if damage is inflicted upon it, and the mobs
tokens decrease by 1 per round on top of whatever

Details damage the heroes can inflict upon it. While fighting
the Automechanical, the player characters also have
to contend with the maddened crowd. Rather than
The crowd, dressed in their finest. The performance, the non specific time that rounds take in normal
a heartbreaking Italian opera. If the player characters mass battles, each round here is equivalent to a
go to the Automechanical’s booth, if at all possible normal combat round.
describe a cinematic cut between the rising aria and Too further complicate matters, both the
their approach. Automechanicals encountered in the opera house
are Wild Cards—on top of the other abilities the
Black and White Decks give them.

Links This scene runs simultaneously with the Rooftop

Chase if the party splits up. Run the action in the
same time-frame, with everyone participating in the
• Rooftop Chase, page 285. same cycle of round-by-round actions even if half
• Opera House Riot. the group is fighting one Automechanical while the
• Marley’s Bolt-Hole, page 288. other is chasing the second Automechanical.

284
 Adventure

Details
The palpable stench of mass fear, and that of blood
Rooftop Chase
where the machine’s metal fists split skin and The “female” of Joe’s Automechanicals.
crunch through bone. The deafening roar of a crowd
becomes a single panicked beast and the noise of it Catching the fleeing Automechanical as it leaps
thrashing. The deadly relentlessness of the machine from rooftop to rooftop is extremely difficult. The
unleashed. It isn’t trying to escape, it isn’t trying machine can easily clear a 10-yard gap with a single
to win. It is trying to sow as much chaos as it can bound, and unless the player characters can also
before being destroyed. make such prodigious leaps, or in some other way
See page 269 for the Automechanical’s stats. clear gaps of eight yards or more, then they will be
hard pressed to catch it before it drops from an eve
into the street below. Once this happens, it hurries

Links across the street, only to be run down quite deliber-

ately by a big black four-wheel coach. This disables
the Automechanical enough for two men to leap out,
• Rooftop Chase. smash its legs with a huge hammer, and throw it into
the back of the cab.
Unless they have a superhuman way to cover the
distance, the coach escapes, but they can follow if
they wish.
If they do catch the coach,
it’s filled with Mr. Speak’s men,
285
 Adventure

ready to brawl, one per player character. Any one

of them, if questioned, can say that they work for Links
a hard man with a metal arm, Mr. Speak by name,
who hired them the day before to follow orders and • The Warehouse, page 290.
ask no questions. Right now, they’re under orders to • Opera House Riot, page 284.
take the Automechanical to an East End warehouse.
If the player characters follow the carriage that
runs down the female Automechanical in the street,
it will take them to the warehouse where Speak and
his men are operating.
This may run simultaneously with the Opera House
Marley’s Apartment
Riot. See page 269 for the Automechanical’s stats. A Special Branch officer; Mr. Speak’s men in a carriage.

Finding out where Trent Marley lives won’t be

Details hard for character with contacts in the criminal

or scientific communities (failing that a Common
Knowledge (-2) roll will suffice). They can learn
The primal fears of falling and the dark combine he was a promising young employee of Babbage
when leaping across the yawning divides between Computational until he was found drunk at work
theater buildings. The murk of London in the once too often, and lost his position there. He
darkness, the fog starting to creep into the city then drifted into the use of a Needle-Actuated
from the Thames. How much quieter it Somatosensory Hallucinogenic Visualizer (page
is up on the rooftops than on the 137), and has been on the needle for three years.
286 streets. On entering his East End apartment building,
 Adventure

the player characters run (almost literally) into mudlarks after Automechanicals creeping about,
an officer of Special Branch, name of Detective learns of one Automechanical seen climbing into
Winston. He’s a perfect example of the type: big, the window of a boarded-up tenement—Marley’s
oft-broken nose, scarred knuckles, a piercing stare. Bolt-Hole.
Winston has orders to avoid trouble during the Marley’s parlor is given over entirely to his
investigation, so he brushes past and away if the Visualizer, which is baroque and clearly often
players allow him to do so. If not, then he tries to modified. Leads and cables run off of it to nowhere,
run away. If stopped, he fights, saying something and the televocagraphic line running in through the
like, “You shits have no idea what you’re about, do cracked window has been cut. Around the machine
you? McGannon will skin you alive if you push this, are the ruins of a life given over entirely to virtual
you filthy abortions!” experience, the drugs which bring the vision, and
If they know anything of Special Branch the machines which make it possible. Scattered
(Knowledge (Law), or Streetwise (-2) rolls) they everywhere are the rotting remains of weeks of fish
know that McGannon is a senior officer, with a and chips in oil-soaked paper. Based on the freshest
reputation as a bastard even by Special Branch food, Marley hasn’t been home in a week; but based
standards. on the footprint in some of the rotting fish, and the
Winston is after Marley on suspicion that smashed maggots in the footprint, the apartment
the sorry Needleworker stole a file of technical had been rifled since he left.
documents from Babbage Computational, instruc- When the player characters leave, they find
tions on creating programme decks for the things. themselves followed (inexpertly) by a large four-
Marley worked at Babbage until three years ago. wheeled carriage. If they succeed in an opposed
Babbage only discovered the theft recently and Driving roll against the driver’s d8 skill, they can
sought an investigation. That’s what Winston’s been lose the tail and then follow it themselves. Or they
told, anyway. can ignore it. Or set an ambush for it. Whatever they
Marley’s apartment has clearly been rifled, and wish. If they confront it, inside the cart are a few of
Notice rolls reveal that it was done several times by Speak’s thugs (at least one per player character).
different people (several different kinds and ages Whatever goes down, Speak learns that the
of cigar ash, several different sizes of shoe-print, player characters are on the trail. Maybe one of the
many different hand-prints on glass and polished men in the carriage escapes, or maybe another pair
wood surfaces). A raise on this roll reveals signs were spying down the block, unseen. This starts
that Automechanicals have been present in the things rolling—Lovelace is not happy that those
apartment at various times (a small tray of tiny damned Kerberan meddlers have gotten involved.
parts and screws—the screws threaded the opposite If they’re very clever, the players can follow
of ordinary screws, a Babbage Computational Speak’s men to their warehouse.
trademark). If the roll to spot a tail results in a raise, then
Mud can be found on the apartment floor, they recognize that Speak’s men are themselves
as well. Analysis of the mud—river muck and being tailed by a far more discreet observer. Tailing
granite dust— reveals a rough location for the these people (a hard, dangerous pair in a dog cart)
comings and goings of the rogue domestics; leads back to Special Branch.
anyone with knowledge of the city’s construction
works can recognize it from the infamous Thames
Embankment. Investigation there, perhaps asking
287
 Adventure

Details If the PCs haven’t spotted and dealt with their

shadows, both Speak’s and McGannon’s men are
onto the hiding place as well. If these two factions
The stench of an opium den and the wharfs are present when the PC’s barge in, increase the
combined. Marley lived alone, and mostly inside numbers in the Black Deck Mob to two dozen. If
his own head. His apartments reflect this with truly the players surreptitiously follow Speak’s men away
impressive squalor. Rats have found their way in, and from here, they wind up at the Warehouse on the
pick among his possessions and food. There’s a sense other side of the Thames, below London Bridge.
of sickness in the room. The Visualizer hunches in In the hallway outside the rooms where Marley
the shadows of the parlor like a deformed crab, and lurks, the Black Deck Automechanicals have built
seems to move if seen out of the corner of your eye. a disturbing altar from stolen goods and human
fingers, ears and scalps. At its center, like a pagan
idol, is a caged tin bird. If wound up, it flaps its

Links wings and plays a happy little song. The heavy oak
base of the little automaton is cracked, and blood
and human hair are smeared along it.
• The Warehouse, page 290. Inside, it feels like a sickroom, too hot somehow,
• Offices of Babbage Computational, page 282. full of river stink and human sickness, rotting food,
• Marley’s Bolt-Hole. and the almost inaudible click and whir of mechanical
men going about their domestic pantomime.
If the PCs approach Marley in a civil fashion, sit
at table with him and accept the “tea” (made from

Marley’s Bolt-Hole boiled tobacco and Thames river water) served to

them by their “hostess” (an Automechanical wearing
a fashionable blue dress), then the machines won’t
D.I. Kent; some street urchins. act with aggression, and will continue to operate
under the White Deck’s rules.
Marley has found a bolt-hole in an abandoned Marley is frantic. At first he thinks the PCs
building that backs up to the early works of the new have come to kill him, but when he realizes they
Thames Embankment. The foundations were under- don’t really have any idea what is going on, and don’t
mined when a neighboring building was brought wish him any special harm, he gloms onto them
down, and the owners are mired in a protracted with desperation. “They never say anything!  They
court case seeking compensation for their now just slide around you, offering you things and acting
unsafe building. Marley’s window looks out on mad! I tell you, they’re driving me mad!” 
ugly deconstruction, broken masonry, and stinking He looks it: gaunt, sour-smelling, filthy and
Thames mud picked over by desperate children. ragged. The circles around his eyes look like someone
Marley is being catered to by rogue domestics, beat him up quite badly.
and by following them the Kerberans might track He explains between bouts of paranoid
him down. D.I. Kent has followed his own infor- rambling—and begging for a taste of the drug
mants’ leads, and is lurking about the Somatonum (see page 137)—that he only wanted
place observing the abandoned to understand how the mechanical men thought.
288 tenement. He connected his Visualizer to one he’d stolen off
 Adventure

the street, and walked in its mind. Afterwards it The crumbling tenement building makes for an
escaped, and when he found out that it had beaten a interesting set piece. Here are some possible compli-
man near to death, he ran before it could be traced cations and encounters to work into the battle:
back to him. Instead, the machine escaped detection, • The tight confines of the tenement prevent
aided by Lovelace’s fear of bad press, and created the more than one or two Automechanicals from
Decks, and started spreading them. directly attacking the characters at once, so some
If asked if he could reverse it, he looks thoughtful, stand back and throw things at them, anything that
then cunning. He says “Oh, yes—if you got me a comes to hand.
taste of Soma, and my visualizer, I reckon I could • Crumbling stairs collapse during a mad dash
work up a counterdeck…” If the PCs have any way up or down them.
of knowing, he believes he is telling the truth. • Automechanicals crash through plastered walls
Marley is a mess. Any threat, intimidation or rather than running for doors.
atempt to remove him against his will sends him • Mechanical hands punch through the floor-
into hysterics, and that sends the Automechanicals boards, grabbing at feet.
into mad killcrazy mode. Any interference by Speak • As more walls are smashed out, the building
or McGannon will do the same. Really, it’s just a starts to list and groan, shifting and threatening to
question of what sets the Automechanicals off—the come down.
players or their opponents. • Fire starts at some point, adding the growing
threat of smoke and flames to the already complex
scene.

Links • Observation of the Automechanicals’ tactics

reveals a salient point: They never stray far from
Marley, and they attempt to intercede between the
• The Warehouse, page 290. player characters and Marley, as if protecting him.
• Black Deck Mob. • Escaping with Marley involves a mad chase,
with mechanical men pelting down the cobblestone
streets in pursuit, perhaps leaping to catch hold of
the madly-fleeing coach and climb up. If you can

Black Deck Mob possibly manage it, run this fight scene atop a coach
crashing down the Strand in the middle of the
afternoon, scattering pedestrians and threatening
Marley; a dozen or more Automechanicals; possibly to smash into a fashionable shop. Remember the
McGannon’s men and Speak’s men. Unrest rules (page 204).
For the Mechanicals’ stats, see page 269. They all
If Marley gets spooked, or if someone tries to get are Extras.
rough with him (or with any of his Automechanical Once the Mechanicals can be defeated, driven
protectors), this trips the Black Deck in them like off, or evaded, one thing should be clear: The Black
falling dominos. This is a bad thing. The mechanical Deck is a deadly threat. If he survives, Marley will
men become like merciless killers, robbers and rapists. be convinced he needs to create the counter to it.
They do horrible things to anyone they can beat into Members of Speak’s gang who escape
submission. An unrestrained Automechanical is a can be followed to their warehouse.
dangerous foe, and these are very much unrestrained.
289
 Adventure

Links men, armed with single-barrel shotguns 12/24/48

1-3d6, +2 at short range, 1 round to reload). If the
player characters barge in, they’re menaced by the
• The Warehouse. same shotgun-wielding thugs. If the standoff isn’t
broken by someone reasonable, then violence will
result when someone’s trigger finger gets itchy.
If they make their way inside, they see

The Warehouse Speak issuing orders, kicking the captured

Automechanicals, and generally being horrible.
Until he reveals his powers, he seems like a big
D.I. Kent; Mr. Speak and his men; McGannon and his hunchbacked man with an evil temper.
men; a dozen partially-disabled Automechanicals; and If a fight breaks out, in the chaos the captured
an equal number of brand-new ones. Automechanicals are released, and they alternately
attack and flee the violence. All are fairly heavily
The Warehouse is one street back behind Limehouse, damaged (missing a couple of limbs, and down by
and is in as thoroughly disreputable a district as any at least half their damage boxes on their remaining
in London’s East End. The Warehouse has large locations). At least one escapes, and can be followed
doors which allow a carriage to drive right into the to Marley’s bolt-hole.
building, and this is just what Mr. Speak’s big four- When Speak joins the fight, things get much
wheeler does. worse. He’s a tough and dangerous opponent—and
The player characters can barge right in within a few rounds of his engaging, officers of
or sneak in. If they sneak in, they have Special Branch barge in, and they and Speak’s men
to evade the men guarding the get into a gunfight. Chaos results. Burn down the
290 outside of the building (Speak’s Warehouse if you think it will be fun. Forgotten
 Adventure

barrels of pitch in the corner begin to erupt like

volcanos. Can the blaze be contained before it
spreads? Do the Kerberans have time to worry about
that?
The Final Sequence
The ill-fortuned Detective Inspector Kent D.I. Kent; Marley, McGannon and his men; Mr.
stumbles into the fight, and all the blowing on a Speak and his men; dozens of Black Deck-driven
whistle in the world won’t bring any help—Special Automechanicals bent on murder.
Branch has warned off the local Peelers, so they stay
away for the worst of it, coming in only to catalog When you’re ready, steer the PCs in the direction of
the damage when Special Branch gives the all clear. Marley. They’ll need to score some of the Somatonum
If the players haven’t yet been to Marley’s drug and then get him (along with a Deck-infected
bolt-hole, some of the damaged Automechanicals Automechanical) back to his apartment and his
escape and can be followed there. Visualizer. There he can ride the needle into the
machine’s brain and puzzle out how to create a
counterdeck to cleanse the Black and White.

Details Unless the Kerberans have their own sources

for the drug (not impossible), they need an apoth-
ecary, and the one they find seems unwilling to help.
The warehouse stinks of rotted cabbages and badly- If pressed, he gestures to the fist-sized hole in his
tanned leather. The cage is full of pathetic, broken counter and says a hunched man ‘explained’ how he
Automechanicals. They creak, groan and support was not to sell the drug to anyone, and was to send
each other. It’s a pantomime scene from a concen- a note to a particular address by runner if anyone
tration camp played out with broken, man-shaped asked for it. The hunched man (obviously Speaks
machines. The air crackles when Speak unleashes from the description) drove his fist, filled with
his deadly right arm. The crack-crack of gunfire is wadded banknotes, through the counter to provide
painfully loud in the enclosed space. both positive and negative inducement towards
cooperation. It will take a Charm or Command
Skill roll to get the apothecary to supply the drug.

Links When given the drug, Marley becomes quite

willing to attempt the operation, and the formu-
lation of the counter-programme. Eager, almost.
• Marley’s Bolt-Hole, page 288. But here’s the thing: He can’t do it. He tries. He
• Offices of Babbage Computational, page 282. tries everything. It fails. Unless . . .
But even before he can try and fail, the player
characters have to get Marley from his Bolt-Hole (or
wherever he ends up after an earlier encounter with
him) back to his apartment—with Speak, Special
Branch, D.I. Kent, and dozens of rogue mechanical
men trying to prevent it.
Kent comes around pretty quickly.
If the players have had a scene
or two to get used to him, you
291
 Adventure

can sacrifice him if you need to demonstrate how Marley has no idea how to create that “sleep”
serious the threat is. This would be a good time to programme in the traditional way. But he has an
run a carriage chase across moonlit London: three idea for it using his Visualizer. A terrible, sobering
big carriages, with men firing guns and leaping from idea. He hesitates to mention it—except that the
one to the other, while the Automechanicals run alternative, letting the things continue to run wild,
and leap at them like fleas onto a passing dog. seems so much worse.
At Marley’s apartment, the machines will be The Black and White decks were created when
ripping the building apart to get inside and recover he inadvertently infected the mechanical men with
Marley. The Special Branch men and Speak might his humanity. To expunge it, they must in a sense be
team up, and try and kill Marley together. infected with the mortality that is even more essen-
If the player characters are the sorts, this could tially human.
be a massive, building-destroying fight. If they’re Marley tells his friends and protectors that
not, it’s a terrifying scene with the Automechanicals someone must be plugged into a the Visualizer at
crashing through the walls and floor, gunfire tearing the same time as an Automechanical, plunging them
through the building from the street, and Marley into the thing’s brain—and then must die. This will
shuddering, drooling, and soiling himself as he imprint the experience of death upon the machine,
plunges his addled mind into the dream-quest the closest equivalent to the “sleep” programme,
which might yet save the city. essentially slaying the humanity which has infected
them and leaving nothing but the cold mechanism
behind.
It never occurs to Marley that he is the most

Conclusion natural, immediate choice for such a victim. If the

Kerberans suddenly give each other grim, knowing
looks, it might dawn on him. And then he’ll run for
During the chaos, as Marley fails to expunge the it and accept the Automechanical Men’s protection
programme, he comes to an awful realization. willingly.
The Automechanicals must be made to shut If the player characters can imprint a human
down. In the Babbage factories, there’s a simple death on their captured Automechanical, then it
programme that causes an Automechanical to enter will spread this to its fellows.
a “sleep” mode. In that mode its body, head and limbs The imprinted Automechanical slumps with its
assume a very particular posture, and when another arms and legs at a slight angle, each different, and its
Automechanical sees its fellow in that posture, it, too head tilted just so; not a pose that it would assume
enters “sleep” mode and assumes the same posture; by accident or in the normal course of things. The
the response is built in to every Automechanical. It first Automechanical to come within eyesight of
is like a contagious kind of unconsciousness. In this the “dead” one does exactly the same. As does the
way a single technician can induce an entire factory next Automechanical to see either one of them. And
full of Automechanicals to “sleep” in preparation for so on, until the last rampaging Automechanical is
receiving a new programme. Naturally, the existence destroyed or “dead.” And that will be the end of the
of this programme is an extraordinarily important Adventure of the Black and White Decks.
trade secret, one that Ada Lovelace might If the players fail, things carry on according to
do anything to keep. Marley puts the end of the Timeline on page 279.
292 himself at great risk divulging it.
 Adventure

chance for a more traditional supers-on-supers

One Last Thing fight, then introduce the Tower Gang (page 239)
into the mix.
The Gang might have stolen an Automechanical
If in the aftermath of all this the player characters go of their own only to find it acting weird and violent.
to confront Ada Lovelace, they are refused admit- They have issued a blackmail demand to Babbage
tance. If they force the matter, they are allowed up Computational. They are also seeking the source
to her office in time to see her concluding some of the Decks, seeing them as even greater leverage
business with the Secretary of State for War, with on the company, and they have a lead on Marley’s
McGannon (if he’s alive, or another man from location.
Special Branch if not) at his elbow. If this variation is used, then D.I. Kent is dead
Lovelace thanks the Kerberans for preserving and The Face is using his identity to get close to
her creations, for now they will serve the Empire in the Kerberans as they investigate. The Tower Gang
its armies, and the enemies of Britain will tremble follows the player characters to Marley.
before them. In this moment, Madame Lovelace is During the final chaos, with the Automechanicals
every inch the Stranger. wholly unleashed, the Gang might agree to team up
with the Kerberans in defeating them—especially if
Ben Bell is still conscious and alive. Ben is nothing
if not pragmatic. If Ben is unconscious or dead, then

Variations the likelihood of a team-up is significantly reduced.

If you want the situation to become even more

chaotic and dangerous, as well as giving you the
293
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