The Traditions of Death- The Mourning Gloves

The Victorians had a number of superstitions and rituals around the death of a loved one. In a world where necromancers can raise the dead, magnetists can talk to the departed, and magicians can see ghosts, these taboos and procedures are doubly interesting. Here is a ghoulish tradition followed by a macabre scenario seed.

In the 1700’s, invitations to a funeral were sometimes accompanied with gifts such as rings, black scarves, or black gloves to be worn during the mourning period. The quality of the materials used in these gifts depended on the wealth of the bereaved. Rings could be made of silver and engraved with skulls or caskets. Gloves could be made of calf skin, satin, lace, or cotton. Sometimes only one glove was sent to lower the cost of the funeral.
The tradition of wearing black gloves to a funeral continued into the Victorian age, but only some of the longer lived subraces, such as gnomes or elves, might remember to send a gift to announce the death of a loved one.  

The Mourning Gloves
In life, James “Jack” Hollip was a crude, bellowing, blaggard of an ogre. His success in diamond brokering is due only to the raw aggression that helped him muscled into a full partnership with timid men, and the rumored strangulations in South Africa that brought him back to London with a bag full of uncut diamonds.
In death, he was just another body in Highgate cemetery. Relieved at his passing, his partners claimed ownership of the diamonds over the objection of his widow and relieved their spite by the petty revenge of leaving her penniless.
A few weeks later, two of Hollip’s former partners were found strangled to death in their beds. No clues have been found, aside from the fact that a black pair of gloves was found at the scene of both crimes. The gloves seem to be made out of the same material: white sheet dyed black. Doors and windows were locked on the inside at both tragedies. Mutterings of the similar, but over- looked death of a grave robber can be heard in the rookery.
The remaining partners are scared. One tried to pay off the Widow Hollip, but she laughed in his face and told him to dress warmly.

Announcement
Today’s post is shorter than usual because I am working on another larger project for the blog. I am writing out the adventure “A Man of His Word” as a full scenario to be posted here. I have learned a lot but it is time consuming and I can’t just write about role-playing games all the time, can I?