Victoriana Dragon in the Smoke.pdf

BjØrkelo, Tuckey

Chmakova, Labus, Lolli, Vernon

The Dr agon

In The Smoke

A Penny dreadful for Victoriana

by Mr Kristian Bjorkelo

Illustrated &Engraved by Miss Svetlana Chmakova & Mr Matteo Lolli

Cover Engraving by Ms Ursula Vernon

Layout & Edit by Mr John Tuckey

Playtesters, thanks to: Christian Brandt-Hansen, Raymond A. Kristiansen, Kristine Jørgensen,

Frank Wisnes, Marius Blomkvist.

I ntroductIon 2

B ackground 3

a ct 1:M IssIng H eIrs 5

a ct II,s cene I: InvestIgatIon 11

a ct II,s cene II:r ansoM 29

a ct III:c onfrontatIons 39

t He e nd 48

a ppendIx :t He M artIal a rts 52

“This tale is dedicated to one who was lost to us. Rest in peace, Ingrid, you live still in our memories.”

Thanks to family and friends, to numerous to mention but I’m grateful yo you all. Thanks to ORK and

RegnCon for being my playgrounmds. Thanks to Eva Reme and the folklorists of Bergen.

All Artwork is the property of the artist and used with permission.

FUZION™ is the Fuzion Labs Group™ trademark for its Multigenre game system.

InTroDucTIon

been written with them in mind, it should play equally

well for more experienced characters. The adventure

probably works best with a mixed class group; a bunch

of ‘proles’ without any sense of etiquette might do well

in the nastier parts of town, but would have a dificult

time dealing with their upper class employers. A single

class group could however pull it off, it would just

make some of the social dealings more dificult - but

that’s the thing about a class based society isn’t it?

Whether you wish to start the game with an already

established group of friends or unrelated individuals

is entirely up to you. Hopefully the story’s beginning

serve both options equally well. They may ind it easier

to work together on the case if they already know each

other; however if they are perfect strangers thrown

together (perhaps crossing class divisions) the role-

playing opportunities could be far more interesting. If

this is the irst story in a campaign you should discuss

this with your players before beginning.

H ow to use tHIs

adventure .

The adventure you’re now holding in your hands is a

simple introduction to Victoriana and it deals irst and

foremost with some of the more social aspects of the

setting (as apart from the fantastic), though magic does

have it’s place even here – though very subtly so. It is

meant not only as an introductory adventure for the

players, but also as a tool for you as a GM to help you

start your campaign. This adventure introduces several

NPCs that may or may not have important information

regarding the investigation, but more importantly; the

majority of these characters are potential story hooks

themselves. They are there for you to use in leshing

out the future of your campaign, and we hope you

do so.

You should take your time to read

through the adventure at least once

before playing, and make sure you are

familiar with the different characters

and their motivation. You never

know what will happen during

play, and the better you prepare,

the better equipped you are to

deliver a great session to your

players.

Though the adventure’s

climax is quite

dificult for

beginning characters,

this adventure has

The dark and smog illed streets of London in the

Victorian age is an unwelcoming and treacherous

place, and not in the least bit safe for the unprepared

visitor. The following adventure revolves around two

upper class children that have sought adventure within

the East end of London and found it. The two have

been kidnapped by a group of thugs in the employ of a

Chinese Tong seeking retribution against the children’s

father, and it is left up to the players to locate them and

return them to their home. This will lead them through

the dangerous streets of London and bring them into

contact with different characters that might prove

helpful or hazardous, or both.

BackgrounD

In many ways the game starts ‘in media res’, in the

middle of the story, as a lot has happened before

the PCs are brought into the intrigues. Some of this

background will become known at the beginning of

the game, while much of it will only become known

through the player characters´ investigations. Some of

it might never be known by them.

what ‘help’ his money bought. Despite their desire for

secrecy the Tong delegates ind they have to intervene

directly.

The siblings

The Eldren adolescents Henrietta and Michael Doyle

have on frequent occasions snuck out of their secure

and sheltered upper class homes in the better parts

of London, to go adventuring in the dark and deadly

nightlife in the lower class districts of the city. They do

this inspired by the antics and stories of their second

cousin Robert. They have done this by forcing the

assistance of the house servant Carolyn, whom they

have blackmailed with their knowledge of her affair

with the ‘sleazy’ reporter, Mr. Shefield. With the aid

of Carolyn secured, the two siblings have ventured

into the night time and time again, and experienced

the world that Robert has introduced them to. Through

these activities they have gotten some attention from

a rather nasty crowd of people, among them a small

group of semi-independent thugs based in the dock

area (an Ogre, a Dwarf and a Ratman), currently

contracted by the aforementioned Chinese Tong. Mr.

Harrington, a Dwarven tough guy gained their trust

and lured them away with the promise of great fun

and adventures to be had, in the parts of London he

frequented. The children slowly bonded with the dwarf,

who then arranged for them to be kidnapped by his

companions.

The opium Wars

The Opium Wars are some of the most despicable acts

in the history of Western imperialism, rivalling even

the atrocities committed in later days. The short of it

is that in the mid 19 th century two wars (1839-1846

and 1856-1867+) were waged by the western empires

(spearheaded by Britain) against the eastern empire of

China. The result of the irst war was a crushing defeat

for China, and with the added complication of the

Taiping Rebellion the second war looks to be heading

the same way. The purpose of the war was to allow

western traders to export their goods to China, most

importantly the drug Opium that was illegal in China.

The wars left China and it’s people humiliated by the

barbarians, and the ports forced open to trade by the

war have become criminal havens where drugs and

prostitution are the norm, and where British citizens

and their associates are exempt from Chinese Law.

In real life history (understandably) the resentment

about this lingered on for years, one might say that the

real Opium Wars did not in fact end until 1997 when

Hong Kong was returned to the Chinese.

These thugs are heavily involved in all sorts of illegal

import and export businesses, and now the children are

under lock and key, Mr Harrington is already planning

a double cross of his secretive employers. He believes

the two children, with their pale clean skin and Eldren

features will fetch a high price on the overseas lesh

market, especially in the East. The thugs were ordered

by their Tong ‘employers’ to kidnap the children,

and although it would be the Tong’s intent to return

the children once the dragon artefact was returned,

Harrington and his thugs now have other plans.

The Tong

The Chinese Tongs are often confused with the Triads,

and were frequent bad guys in historical British Pulp.

In reality Tongs, apart from being a family name,

refers to brotherhoods or secret societies. Some may be

criminal, some political and some both. Some Tongs

may even be afiliated with the Triads.

The Tong active in this little tale is an ancient and

secret religious organisation with political aspirations.

Normally quite insular and monastic, they have been

spurred to action by the theft of one of their most

guarded treasures (and responsibilities) by the agents

of Mr Doyle.

The tong sent delegates immediately to retrieve the

artefact, and sent instructions ahead for the hiring

of indigenous local thugs to kidnap any children that

Doyle may have. The Mandarin in charge of the Tong’s

delegation considered the hiring of local criminals a

necessity to delect attention away from his society and

his countrymen residing in London, but it’s a decision

he regrets when he inally arrives and inds out just

The sins of the father

Mr. Henry Michael Doyle is a man of many talents,

and most of them within the realm of inance and

politics; as becomes a man of the lower aristocracy.

Wisely he has invested much of the family funds into

the import-export business, speciically the eastern

spice trade. This way he has secured the family

fortune, and contributed to the economic welfare of the

British Empire. As a businessman Henry is ruthless,

his shrewd inancial sense and willingness to sacriice

others for his own gain have secured an enviable family

fortune. If Henry has one true weakness it is for exotic

art. The importing of cultural treasures

and art from around the world is a true

pleasure for Henry, and he frequently

loans pieces to the Museums of London,

securing him a reputation as a

scholar as well as a gentleman

among society circles.

the owner. Doyle acquired the statue

through his Chinese agents and

allies. Unbeknownst to Doyle,

the dragon statuette has a

history and legacy of its own

far beyond its value as a piece

of art.

Nonetheless Henry’s

fortunes are made in

the eastern spice trade,

which is simply a polite

term for running opium

from India to China.

Among his business

associates are several

Chinese Triads, who have

helped acquire much of these

treasures he so loves, and in

return he has helped them

build distribution networks

to sell his Opium. Recently

Mr. Doyle came across

references to a Dragon

statuette purported

to grant immortality to

The Dragon Statuette

Standing two feet high, this

green jade statuette is of a

Chinese dragon, coiled upon

itself and clutching a green jade

orb. Its value as a historical object

of art is priceless, and the detail of

the sculpture is breathtaking, a

close observer might even swear

that the eyes of the dragon truly do

lash with an inner ire.

Not all is as it seems, the reason

for the startling realism of the

sculpture is that the artefact is

not a sculpture – it is a dragon!

J ade d r agon

Observant readers may have noticed that there are

no dragons in Victoriana, but we did say that they

appeared in legends before the dark ages. The truth

is that Dragons existed before the time of Rome,

and they were rapacious destroyers, sworn enemies

of all living things. Across the globe in isolated and

separate fronts a running battle took place against

the devouring beasts. Most were destroyed or cast

out into the planes, the last few inally hunted down

in the middle ages (giving us our Dragon slayer

legends), but in China one dragon existed whose

power was beyond the abilities of the greatest hero

to slay or dispel.

years preparing their sorcery, and eventually they

were successful, and the mighty dragon was trapped

in a prison of Jade. However the sorcerers found

that although they had captured the beast’s physical

form its own mastery of sorcery allowed it to reach

out to those around it and inluence the minds of

men, ever trying to fool unsuspecting mortals into

performing the rituals needed to release it from its

prison. Knowing the statue could not be destroyed

without releasing the beast the Mandarins hid the

statue in a remote monastery, and founded a Tong to

be responsible for guarding it from the unsuspecting

world.

Eventually a small group of Mandarins came

together with a plan, if they could not slay the beast,

then perhaps they could imprison it. They spent

Now, several millennia later, an ignorant Mr Doyle

has stolen the statue for its artistic value, and it has

started to twist his mind…

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: