(This is a little exercise in game planning archaeology. Below in black are the notes, verbatim, that I wrote out for myself before the three session adventure started. Things that I clarified, added, or changed during the adventure are in red. See the previous post, A Limehouse Tale: GURPS Horror Noir in London's Chinatown, for an intro.)
A Limehouse Tale
A Limehouse Tale
Dramatis Personae
Beornsson, Captain
Jan – the captain and owner of the
steamer Loki, a tramp steamer that
frequents the Baltic, North Sea and English Channel area. (Who I ended up describing as a Swedish Captain Okita with a sing-songy voice.)
Carlise,
Constable Clarence – a foot constable
in the Metropolitan Police who works in the Limehouse district. (This poor man was forced to be the PCs lackey and was shanghaied into cleaning up all of the PCs' messes inside Limehouse. The PCs rewarded Constable Carlise by getting him reassigned to the Directorate of Esoteric Affairs so he could continue to be their lackey. It was almost impossible to NOT call him Constable Clitoris, but somehow I avoided it.)
Feng, Doctor
Cornelius – Father of Maximumus and
owner of the Golden Lotus Health Clinic. (This unassuming, kind man was the leader of the local tong, and single-handedly stopped the gang war that erupted while the PCs were busy fighting the undead.)
Feng,
Maximus – Dr. Cornelius Feng’s son
and assistant at the Golden Lotus Health Clinic. (Maximus was the boyfriend of the murder victim, Mei Ling, and later assassinated her uncle Henry Ling after she was found murderer, initiating the gang war.)
Jewel, Billy – Foreman of the Limehouse London Underground
construction crews. He’s staying at the
Rasmussen Hotel. (A wee, Irish, red haired Leprechaun of a man. I got SERIOUSLY called out on his name.)
Ling, Henry – Owner of the Green Plummage Tiger Nightclub and
head of the Broken Dog Triad in Limehouse.
He’s a fat man who likes cigars. (The PCs never got around talking to him before he was murdered. Some of them did hang out at his nightclub and saw him, though)
Ling, Jiang – Mother of Mei Ling.
She sells trinkets at the Ling Butcher shop. (The true villain of the story, I eventually came up with the nickname 'The Dragonlady' for her to obscure who she actually was from the PCs for a s long as possible.)
Ling, Mei – A sixteen year old Chinese girl living in the
Limehouse district of London. She had an
affinity for the French and Christianity. (Poor girl - murdered by a Chinese Zombie controlled by her mother before the story even started.)
Ling, Zane – Father of Mei Ling and owner of the Ling Butcher
Shop. ('THE BUTCHER OF LIMEHOUSE' was, or course, innocent of any crime.)
Rasmussen,
Ingrid – wife of the owner of the
Rasmussen Hotel, a run-down inn near the edge of Limehouse Chinatown. (This prime and proper old lady turned out to be a complete klepto, stealing anything from her customers that she could get her hands on, and even going so far as to steal evidence off a dead teenage girl.)
Salisbury,
Margaret – Commander Watson’s
secretary and chief contact for the player characters. (The group communicated to her only by TARDIS, er, I mean, big blue police box.)
Wang, Rufus – A Chinese monk who runs the Ashen Lion temple. (Rufus turned out to be the only Chinatown native that the PCs trusted, which was good, because he was a wealth of information on spooky things.)
Watson,
Commander Quentin – the player
character’s handler and an administrator in the Directorate of Esoteric
Affairs. (Completely absent from the game - just a name, really.)
Introduction – Gun Lane Traffic
The
characters get an assignment to investigate a murder in Limehouse from Commander Quentin Watson. Traffic holds up the characters, who have to
get out of the paddy wagon and walk a block, seeing the sights. It is a drizzly day, full of fog and smog,
with stalled traffic due to noisy construction of a new London Underground
line. Nearby they see a blue police box,
and beyond that, the Rasmussen Hotel. Constable Clarence Carlisle of the
Metropolitan Police is there to meet them, believing they are with the Special
Branch. (Again, the poor constable had no idea what he was getting into.)
First Stop - Rasmussen Hotel on Limehouse Corner
·
The front of the
hotel is blocked off due to construction, so the group must enter from the
alley. Constable Clarence Carlisle shows them to the room and explains
what he knows.
·
Inside room 114, Mei Ling, a 16 year old Chinese girl is
in bed, dead, with a horrified look on her face and a green, decaying hand
clenched around her throat. Rigor Mortis
has set in, and the top part of her body is pale.
·
The constable
indicates Ingrid Rasmussen, the wife
of the owner, as a witness. Ingrid heard
strange noises around 5:00 am that morning in the hall, but did not see
anything when she investigated. Mei Lei
was not discovered until it was time to check out, at 11:30 am. (This is a partial lie. Ingrid investigated around 5:15 am, found Mei dead, and stole her jade necklace.)
·
None of the rooms
around 114 were rented, as few are staying at the Hotel Rasmussen while all of
the construction is happening. (In fact, only the upper floors are really occupied, and they are occupied by longer term tenants, which are all Underground workers.)
·
There is mushy,
cooked rice around the doorway and on the floor near the window. A lot of it has been walked on and tracked
around. There is a paperboard oyster
pail of cold white rice on the nightstand.
On the Box is written ‘The Happy Eel.’
The Constable knows that it’s a restaurant on Ropemaker’s Field Street. (Mei asked Maximus for rice to protect her against her mother's evil magic, and he picked up some stemaed rice, not knowing it needed to be uncooked.)
·
On the nightstand
is a Gideon’s Bible. Two tickets mark a
page, and a passage, Zechariah 14:12, is underlined: ‘This will be the plague the Lord strikes all people with who warred
against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their
eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.’ (This freaked out the players more then anything else.)
·
The two tickets
are for passage on the Swedish steamer Loki, departing that evening. The Loki is at the Lime-Kiln Dock, off of
Lime House Corner Street and South of the Fore Street. (Rufus bought the tickets for the kids.)
·
An ashtray on a
table has two different cigarettes – the French Gauloises with lipstick stains,
and the luxury cigarette Dunhill without.
Near the ashtray is a pack of matches with an endorsement for the Green
Plumage Tiger Nightclub on Fore Street. (Mei was a Francophile, despite her mother's objections and desires for her to be a proper Chinese lady.)
·
Three suitcases
are under the bed, filled with clothes, cosmetics, French books, and two packs
of Gauloises, money to the value of about 100 dollars, and a passport for Mei
Ling, listing her address on Fore Street.
The books (by Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Gaston Leroux) are stamped
with the King George Book Shop inside each cover. There is a duffle bag with men’s clothes as
well. (These were pulled out by Ingrid and she had started to go through them, but she didn't get very far as other guests were beginning to wake up.)
Follow-Up Locations
1.
The Happy Eel – a Chinese restaurant of Ropermaker’s Street. Lady at the Happy Eels says that a man came
in an ordered the rice. She knows him as
Maximus Feng, Dr. Cornelius Feng’s
son. He bought the rice around 9:00pm. (The party never made it here.)
2.
The Loki – a Swedish steamer located at the Lime-Kiln dock. The Captain, Jan Beornsson, sold the tickets 3 days ago to a man known as Rufus Wang and has his address listed
in the records. While not spelled out on
the tickets, they are for passage to the port of Calais, France. (The party also met Erik Eriksson here, the first mate and keeper of THE BOOK OF RECORDS.)
3.
The Green
Plumage Tiger Nightclub – a Chinese
nightclub servicing sailors down of Fore Street. Mei
Ling works as a waitress there, and Maximus
Feng used to visit her there. The
place is owned by Mei’s uncle Henry Ling,
head of the Broken Dog Triad in Limehouse.
He knows that the two had been seeing each other, and he ran Maximus off
from her with triad violence. Mei did
not show up for work last night, and Henry is upset with her. (Only a few party members showed up here, and no real investigation happened. They did meet a flirtatious opium addict here named Eddie Chan. One of the women in the party lifted his wallet, and used his ID to latter frame Eddie for numerous crimes.)
4.
King George
Book Shop – This is a dusty old used
book store on Ropemaker’s Street. The
proprietress, and French woman, has known Mei Ling since she was a little girl
and helped her procure many books in French. (The party never came here.)
5.
Mei Ling’s
Address – Mei lives with her parents
at the Ling Butcher Shop in a small alley off of Fore Street. Her father is Zane Ling, and her mother is Jiang
Ling. Zane does not know that Mei is
dead , but knows from his brother that she had been seeing Maximus. (The party never actually went inside of this place, being distracted by the crumbling old opera house next door.)
Tertiary Locations
1.
Golden Lotus
Health Clinic – A nice, clean health clinic along Ropemaker’s
Street. It’s run by Dr. Cornelius Feng and his son Maximus. Dr. Cornelius went to medical school in
Edinborough, but is also well versed in traditional Chinese medicine. He has made an agreement with Billy Jewel to collect any Chinese
coffins discovered during the excavations, lock them up in a safe place, and
let the Doctor and Mr Rufus Wang know so he can arrange their
transport back to China. He knows that
Maximus had been seeing Mei Ling, but forbade the relationship as the Ling
family was mixed up in organized crime and black magic. Maximus acts as assistant and secretary at
the clinic. Maximus is there and he has
the remnants of a black eye, around a week old. (Actually, the players arrived here somewhat late, so they never got to see Maximus - who had left for the Loki after work. They did talk to Cornelius and two party members were treated by him for wounds they received in an alley by Triad Blue Lanterns, but Cornelius didn't like the group very much and they did little to warm him up to them.)
2.
Ashen Lion
Temple – a small temple on
Ropemaker’s Street run by Mr. Rufus Wang.
Mr. Wang mixes Buddhism, traditional Tao philosophies, and Christianity
in his teachings. He bought the tickets
to Calais for Maximus and Mei, as he thinks that Mei’s parents
are dangerous to her and supports and elopement. He is a good friend of Dr. Cornelius, but feels that helping the kids is the right thing
to do. He also has been working with Dr. Cornelius and Billy Jewel to prepare and transport Chinese corpses back to the
homeland so that they can rest in peace.
He has coffins in the back of the temple. He knows some magic and can create paper
scroll spells to stop Jiangshi from moving. (The players really liked Rufus and were respectful of the temple, and in turn he was very kind and eventually spilled the beans about everything. He allowed them access to his library and made a scroll for them - but only one - since it took two hours to produce.)
3.
London
Underground Construction Site – The
main entrance to this site is near the Rasmussen Hotel. Billy
Jewel, the Foreman, is staying at the hotel, but has some underground work
areas as well. He shows the PCs to a
room where he has been storing dead Chinese bodies, but the bodies are gone and
the locks have been broken. (The players made it here with Billy and found a Qin dynasty burial hat in the foot of water that had been accumulating in the tunnels.)
4.
Ancient
Catacombs – these old tunnels are
underneath the Ling Butcher Shop, and can be gotten through the trap door underneath
Jiang Ling’s Trinket stand. The tunnels
lead all the way to Hotel Rasmussen and the construction site. Jiang
Ling stole several old Chinese corpses from the construction site to create
her Jiangshi, in order to kill her daughter who she knew was about to embarrass
the family. (The Ancient Catacombs never went into play - mainly because I decided early on to avoid a D&D dungeon crawl feel, and instead have the grande finale elsewhere - namely the Limehouse Opera House.)
5. The Limehouse Opera House – I decided early on that I wanted a bigger ending, so whipped up the old, decaying, boarded-up Limehouse Opera House right next to the Ling Butcher Shop. Jiang Ling and some of her Triad Lackeys had set up shop there, keeping their five Jiangshi in a freshly dug out pit - dug out in the old orchestra pit. This set up enabled them to release the Jiangshi through the underground tunnels to kill people that upset the Dragonlady - namely her daughter. The final showdown happened here, with the PCs killing of the Jiangshi and the Triad members, and capturing the Dragonlady, Jiang Ling. I named her Jiang as it sounded just like part of the zombie name, Jiangshi. The boy actually noticed and commented on that - which made me proud.
5. The Limehouse Opera House – I decided early on that I wanted a bigger ending, so whipped up the old, decaying, boarded-up Limehouse Opera House right next to the Ling Butcher Shop. Jiang Ling and some of her Triad Lackeys had set up shop there, keeping their five Jiangshi in a freshly dug out pit - dug out in the old orchestra pit. This set up enabled them to release the Jiangshi through the underground tunnels to kill people that upset the Dragonlady - namely her daughter. The final showdown happened here, with the PCs killing of the Jiangshi and the Triad members, and capturing the Dragonlady, Jiang Ling. I named her Jiang as it sounded just like part of the zombie name, Jiangshi. The boy actually noticed and commented on that - which made me proud.
In the end, the party didn't piece together the real motive, which was that the Dragonlady hated her brother-in-law, so she killed her own daughter, convinced Maximus that Henry had done it, and then convinced Maximus to kill Henry in revenge. The story did eventually come out in post-game interrogations of Jiang and Maximus. But they got very close and solved the crime and destroyed the evil by burning down the Opera House. Yay fire!
Dangerous Things
Blue Lanterns
Dangerous Things
Blue Lanterns
"Blue Lanterns" are
uninitiated members of a Triad, equivalent to Mafia associates and, as such; do
not have a designation in the Triad numbering system. They are also known as “Blue Paper Lanterns.”
30 points.
ST 10; DX 10; IQ 10; HT 10.
Damage 1d-2/1d;
BL 20 lbs.; HP 10; Will 10; Per 10; FP 10.
Basic Speed 5.00;
Basic Move 5; Dodge 8.
Cultural Familiarity: Chinatown (Native) [0].
Language:
Mandarin (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4].
Wealth: Poor
[-15].
Advantages: No
Other.
Disadvantages: No
Other.
Skills:
Area
Knowledge (London)-12 [3]; Brawling-12 [4]; Carousing-10 [1];
Filch-10
[2]; Holdout-10 [2]; Intimidation-12 [8];
Melee
Weapon (Knife)-12 [4]; Melee Weapon (Shortsword)-12 [8]; Running-10 [2];
Stealth-10 [2]; Streetwise-10 [2];
Thrown
Weapon (Knife)-10 [1]; Urban Survival-10 [2].
DR 0.
Parry:
Brawling
9 (6 vs weapons other than thrusting);
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife) 8;
Melee
Weapon (Baton) 9.
Attack/Damage:
Brawling
(Punch) 12/1d-2 cr;
Brawling
(Kick) 10/1d-1 cr;
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife Swinging) 12/1d-1 cut;
Melee
Weapon (Baton Swinging) 12/1d cr;
Melee
Weapon (Baton Swinging) 12/1d cr;
Thrown
Weapon (Dagger) 10/1d-3 imp.
49ers
A "49er" is a soldier or
rank-and-file member in a Triad. These
soldiers have sworn an oath to protect the triad and its members with their
lives.
50 points.
ST 10; DX 11 [20]; IQ 10; HT 10.
Damage 1d-2/1d;
BL 20 lbs.; HP 10; Will 10; Per 10; FP 10.
Basic Speed 5.25;
Basic Move 5; Dodge 8.
Cultural Familiarity: Chinatown (Native) [0].
Language:
Mandarin (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4].
Wealth: Struggling
[-10].
Advantages: No
Other.
Disadvantages:
Code
of Honor (36 Oaths) [-5]; Social Stigma (Criminal Record) [-5];
Quirks
[-5].
Skills:
Area
Knowledge (London)-12 [3]; Carousing-10 [1];
Driving/TL6
(Automobile)-10 [1]; Fast-Talk-10 [1]; Filch-10 [1];
Holdout-10
[2]; Intimidation-12 [8]; Karate-13 [8];
Melee
Weapon (Knife)-12 [2]; Melee Weapon (Shortsword)-13 [8]; Observation-10 [2];
Running-10 [2]; Shadowing-10 [2]; Stealth-11 [2]; Streetwise-11 [4]; Thrown
Weapon.(Knife)-12 [2]; Urban Survival-10 [2].
DR 1
(cloth/leather, except head).
Parry:
Karate
9;
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife) 8;
Melee
Weapon (Baton) 9.
Attack/Damage:
Karate
Punch 13/1d cr;
Karate
Kick 11/1d+1 cr;
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife Swinging) 12/1d-1 cut;
Melee
Weapon (Baton Swinging) 13/1d cr;
Thrown
Weapon (Dagger) 12/1d-3 imp.
Red Pole
"426" refers to an enforcer or
military commander in a Triad, also known as a "Red Pole.” They are charged with overseeing defensive
and offensive operations that Blue lanterns and 49ers carry out.
88 points.
ST 11 [10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [10].
Damage 1d-1/1d+1;
BL 24 lbs.; HP 14 [6]; Will 11; Per 12 [5]; FP 11.
Basic Speed 5.50;
Basic Move 5; Dodge 8.
Cultural Familiarity: Chinatown (Native) [0].
Language:
Mandarin (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4].
Wealth: Average
[0].
Advantages: No
Other.
Disadvantages:
Code
of Honor (36 Oaths) [-5]; Social Stigma (Criminal Record) [-5];
Enemy
(Police, Watcher, Fairly Often) [-5]; Other Disadvantages [-29].
Skills:
Area
Knowledge (London)-12 [1]; Carousing-11 [1];
Driving/TL6
(Automobile)-11 [2]; Fast-Draw (Pistol)-11 [1]; Fast-Talk-12 [4]; Guns/TL6
(Pistol)-13 [4]; Interrogation-12 [4]; Intimidation-13 [8];
Karate-13
[12]; Leadership-11 [2]; Melee Weapon (Knife)-12 [2];
Melee
Weapon (Shortsword)-13 [8]; Running-14 [2]; Stealth-11 [2]; Streetwise-12 [4].
DR 1
(cloth/leather, except head).
Parry:
Karate
9;
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife) 8;
Melee
Weapon (Baton) 9.
Attack/Damage:
Karate
Punch 13/1d+1 cr;
Karate
Kick 11/1d+2 cr;
Guns/TL6
(Revolver, .38) 13/2d-1 pi Rcl 2;
Melee
Weapon (Large Knife Swinging) 12/1d cut;
Melee
Weapon (Baton Swinging) 13/1d+1 cr.
Limehouse Jiangshi
A hopping vampire or zombie of Chinese
folklore.
99 points.
ST 20 [100];
DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 10 [0].
Damage 2d-1/3d+2;
BL 80 lbs.; HP 14 [8]; Will 10; Per 13 [15]; FP 10.
Basic Speed 5;
Basic Move 4 [-5]; Dodge 8.
Cultural Familiarity: Chinatown (Native) [0].
Language:
Mandarin (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4].
Wealth: Average
[0]
Advantages:
Claws
(Talons) [8]; Detect (Breath) [10]; Doesn’t
Breathe [20];
Extra
Arms (Tongue, Extra-Flexible) [15];
Immunity
to Metabolic Hazards [30];
Injury
Tolerance (Unliving) [20] pg 380;
Night
Vision 5 [5]; Unaging [15];
Unkillable
2 (Achilles’ Heel: Fire and Virgin Male Urine, -50%) [50];
Vampiric
Bite [30].
Disadvantages:
Compulsive
Behavior (6) (Count small objects) [-10],
Dependency
(Coffin with soil of homeland; Daily) [-60];
Draining
(Human Chi; Illegal) [-5];
Dread
(Consecrated Incense) [-5]; Dread (Salt) [-5];
Nocturnal
[-20]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15];
Supernatural
Features (No Body Heat*, Pallor*) [-10];
Uncontrollable
Appetite (12) (Human Blood) [-15];
Unhealing
(Partial) [-20];
Unnatural
Features (Greenish-white hair; Long fingernails) [-2];
Weakness
(Sunlight; 1d/minute) [-60].
Skills: Brawling-10
[1].
DR 0.
Parry: Brawling
8
Attack:
Brawling Claw 10/2d-1 cut/imp.
Jiangshi Lore
(The players discovered the following information in Rufus' library, although some of it is inaccurate to the actual jiangshi that they encountered.)
Lore: Like Western
folklore of vampires, Jiang Shi can arise when a person dies from suicide or
through a violent death, such as murder. Also, if the proper burial rituals
aren't performed then the deceased may arise as a Jiang Shi as well.
A Jiang Shi hunts by
hopping with its arms outstretched due to the stiffness of being dead. Because
of such, Jiang Shi have been given the nickname of 'hopping corpses'.
The longer a Jiang Shi
lives, the more powerful it becomes. The Jiang Shi also goes through a form of
metamorphoses in which in its final form appears covered in white hair, gains
the powers of flight and shape-shifting, and has incredible strength.
Powers: Jiang Shi possess
supernatural strength, virtual immortality, and in its final metamorphoses can
fly and shape-shift.
Defense Against Jiang Shi:
Jiang Shi are blind and track their prey by their breath. Holding one's breath
may provide protection from a Jiang Shi. Also, Jiang Shi cannot cross running
water. Since Jiang Shi are nocturnal creatures, travel by night is best
avoided. Garlic and salt repel the creature. Sprinkling magnetic sand, rice, or
red beans will prevent a barrier in which they cannot cross. A broom can also
be used to drive the monster away. The urine of a male virgin will burn the
vampire as if it was acid, much akin to the Western use of holy water to repel
vampires. Taoist & Buddhist priests can also provide protection by the
creation of talismans which will prevent a Jiang Shi from entering a home as
well performing exorcism rituals to destroy the vampire. Jiang Shi can be
killed by a nearby clap of thunder, by shooting them with a gun, or by burning
the corpse.
(Final notes: The jiangshi were attracted to certain amulets and items that the Dragonlady had cursed and given to her intended victims. The players bought some from a vendor in the employ of the Dragonlady, which attracted the undead creatures. Also, the players loaded up shotgun shells with salt and virgin male urine to use against the jiangshi - which actually worked quite well. Whodathunkit?)
- Ark
(Final notes: The jiangshi were attracted to certain amulets and items that the Dragonlady had cursed and given to her intended victims. The players bought some from a vendor in the employ of the Dragonlady, which attracted the undead creatures. Also, the players loaded up shotgun shells with salt and virgin male urine to use against the jiangshi - which actually worked quite well. Whodathunkit?)
- Ark











