(In)Dependent Income- Obligated into Adventure!

Right now my group is playing a party of High Class adventurers, which is easily the most fun we’ve had in Victoriana. The ability to do almost anything using power and prestige hasn’t broken the game at all. Both the Lower Classes and the Upper Classes have disadvantages. For the Lower Class it’s what they don’t have access too, for the Upper Classes it’s who has access to them.

Upper Class income is entirely dependent on the family’s willingness to fund the player character’s life of adventure. When the purse strings are threateningly tightened, what will it take to get the money flowing?

Keep in mind ninety percent of my high class playing advice is inspired by/stolen from the Wooster and Jeeves stories of P.G. Wodehouse. Hopefully this means this advice will be urbane, witty and well plotted.

Once every few adventures, the gamemaster could call on a PC’s familial loyalty to make the situation a little more stressful. When the family calls in time of need, it’s time for the PC to do his part or risk his monthly allowance.

-Aunt Mercy needs someone to keep her dog for a few days. Be a dear.

- Great uncle Harold keeps seeing his dead wife walking the halls. Make the problem stop.

-Dear cousin Claudia is spending too much time at the racetrack. It’s unseemly. 

-The man trying to court your sister Emily is not suitable at all. Discourage him.

If the PCs manage to solve their loved one’s problem their funds are no longer in danger. They may even earn a small reward like a fate point, the use of the family coach for an evening, or a simple thank you note from a potential future contact.

Here’s a random chart to help if you just a need a quick bit of familial interference:

Random Obligation Generator (1D6)

Your family wants you to…

1.”Volunteer” to help a worthy cause

                -Hand out Prizes at school

                -Deliver a lecture at a luncheon society

                -Help solicit donations or contribute yourself

2. Be a good host

                -Take a family friend out for an evening’s entertainment

                -Give an out-of-towner a tour of the city’s sights

                - Put up a visitor for a few days

3. Run an errand for families business interests

                -Keep an eye on a load of cash until the bank reopens.

                -Find applicants to fill job vacancies

                -Find out why production slowed in the factory/ tenant farms

4. Protect the Family’s Honor

                -Talk a family member out of rash action

                -Cover up a scandal

                -Solve a crime without involving the authorities

5. Participate in High Society

                -Attend a presentation ball

                -Don’t pester a suspect at dinner tonight

                -Befriend someone useful

6. Give up adventuring and live respectably (or at least appear to)

                -Stay out of the Rookery

                -Stop meeting unseemly contacts

                -Quit their current endeavor

Family Obligation doesn’t have to pull away from the adventure. It can also put the party in the adventure’s way. Is the ancestral manor haunted? Do the daring thieves plan to disrupt great aunt Azalea’s party? Family obligation could pull the party to the right place at the right time.

 Gamemasters intending to use family obligation in an adventure should keep an eye on their player’s character sheets. Certain Privileges (Blackguard, Hero, Higher Station, Peer) could affect how often the family asks the Player Character for help, and the type of help expected. A particular Asset (Independent Income) negates family obligation entirely.

19 Tons of Mummified Cats- A Fertile Source of Adventure

While the Victorians were zealous to discover and explore the world around them, their ability to preserve history was negligible. Thousands of relics and pieces of art vanished during the 1800s from over eager archeologists, uncaring curators, well meaning collectors, and pragmatic businessmen. That last category provides us with this week’s post.
In 1888, an Egyptian farmer discovered a massive burial ground filled with over 200,000 mummified dogs, foxes and, most numerous, cats. This incredible find was quickly plundered. The most valuable gold and bronze treasures quickly stolen and the best specimens bought by tourists, the rest of the mummies were sold at auctions, for manure. One winning bidder paid £5 17s 6d a ton.
Nineteen tons of mummified cats were ground up in Liverpool and used as fertilizer in fields all over the British Isles. In the 1800s Mummies had been used as manure for awhile, but this is the most outrageous example of this type of historical misuse. This tragedy of lost history and greed is an inspirational goldmine for a Victoriana adventure.

The Egyptians mummified cats to preserve their bodies for the afterlife. Part of the mummy’s soul, called the ba, must return to the body at night to rise again in the morning and be rejoined to another part of the soul called ka. All those ancient cat spirits floating over the fields of England could have any number of effects.

Adventure ideas
The hundreds of cat souls gathered around a field might seek out new bodies causing all the local dead to rise again possessed. Recently buried corpses, slaughtered animals, even caught mice, all reanimate with the cruel and playful attitudes of a cat.

Plants grown in a field fertilized by mummy manure may be mystically affected. Perhaps the lost souls cause new bodies to be formed covered in leaves like a mummy in its wrappings. A legion of cat corpse shaped ambulatory plants would make great weird minions.

All the mummified cats undoubtedly attract the attention of the Egyptian goddess of cats, Bastet. Many of the cats were mummified in her honor, and she would keep an eye on their treatment. Perhaps the use of the cats was allowed by her to bring an ancient hidden cult of Bastet to power in the British countryside.

Bastet was often depicted fighting the evil serpent of the underworld Apep. The use of the cats as fertilizer could drive all the snakes from the farmland to hide in houses. This could anger Renenet the cobra headed goddess of the harvest, bringing her into conflict with Bast.

Of course, food grown in fields fertilized by mummies will have strange effects on anyone consuming it. Mutation, madness, and mind control could turn a quiet village into a new cult of cat worship.

Easiest of all, tons of mummified cats could have been switched before being shipped to a fertilizer factory and are now in the hands of an evil conspiracy. Thousands of mummified cats could have any number of sinister uses.

While this adventure seed is very rural, it’ll work just fine in a city based campaign. Small gardens crop up in any available bit of soil, costermongers sell produce from fields just beyond the city limits, and some eccentric consumers might pay extra for mummy fertilized food.

The Language of Flowers- An Alternate Alphabet for Sigil Magic

One of the richest wells of Role-playing Game inspiration is the Podcast “Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff”. The witty discussions between these Writers and Game Designers (and Game Designers and Writers) greatly influence this blog. You can find their entire back catalog here: http://www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/

Last Friday, Ken and Robin gamified the Victorian hobby of Floral Language. I’ve wanted to do something with this weird little topic for a while but I couldn’t think of a good way to pull in something so… genteelly bizarre. During their discussion, Robin compared Floral symbolism to Runes in Gloriantha. His comment popped all the pieces into place for me. Why not make an alphabet of Flower symbols and meanings for Sigil magic?

Floriography
Floral Language (or floriography) is another example of the Victorian need to categorize. Various flowers and plants were assigned meanings and sentiments, so when arranged in bouquets the recipient could decipher a message from the sender. Victorian authors wrote hundreds of contradictory floral dictionaries, detailing a flowers use in history, literature, and society along with their interpretation of its symbolism
While young lovers used flowers to express their secret affections in a repressive society, I think the language of flowers could be used in a more arcane way in the world of Victoriana. Sigil Magic uses alphabets of symbols focusing the casters will to produce magic. A Floriography Dictionary could be used in the exact same way.

The Floriographical Alphabet

Acanthus- The fine arts, Artifice, Success
Anemone (Meadow) – Sickness, Forsaken, Withered hopes
Angelica- Inspiration or Magic, Ideas,
Balm of Gilead – Cure, Relief, Friendship
Belladonna- Silence
Clover, Red- Industry, Promise
Cress- Stability, Power
Cypress- Death, Mourning
Dianthus- Make haste, Intention,
Enchanters' Nightshade- Witchcraft, Sorcery,
Fig- Argument, Obstacle, Exchange
Golden Rod- Precaution
Hawkweed- Quick-sightedness
Holly- Foresight, Longevity
Jasmine, Yellow- Grace and elegance
Juniper- Protection, Walls, Ward off evil
Lavender- Distrust, Snakes, Hidden danger
Lotus- Eloquence
Manchineal Tree – Falsehood, Duplicity, Consequences
Meadow Lychnis- Wit
Night Convolvulus- Night
Oak Leaves- Bravery, Strength, Hospitality
Pennyroyal- Flee away.
Pine, Spruce- Hope in adversity, Daring, Elevation
Salvia, Blue- Wisdom
Southernwood- Jest, Bantering
Sycamore- Curiosity, Reserve, Secrets
Tamarisk- Crime
Thistle, Scotch- Retaliation, Sternness, Independence
Thorn, Branch of- Severity
Venice Sumach- Intellectual excellence, Splendor
Walnut- Intellect, Stratagem
Wheat Stalk – Riches, Abundance, Quality
Wormwood- Absence, Bitterness

All Flowers Symbols can be inverted for opposite effect.

As cool as it is to be a Sigil magician armed with a bouquet of flowers (or better a Tussie-Mussie), only pictures of or symbols representing the flowers are necessary for Sigil Magic to work. However flowers can be enchanted as Sigils provided the magic matches the flower's symbolism. A Walnut sprig can’t be a symbol for Holly no matter how hard you try.

Floral designs dominate the opulently romantic aesthetic of the Victorians. A clever sigil magician will be able to hide his symbols in plain sight. In a world full of floral wallpaper, prints, furnishings, and fashion, who notices an extra flower or two?

Example Sigil Descriptions:
A canvas needlepoint of a Sycamore blossom- +2 Dice to Lock Picking while trespassing
A coat button with a delicately carved Lotus bud- -3 Black Dice while talking in front of a crowd
A small stick figure of a Cypress tree drawn on an anatomist's chalk board- +1 Dice to finding clues on nearby dead bodies
A crude Juniper bush carved into the side of a carriage -2 Black Dice to Driving while being chased

My sample The Floriographical Alphabet contains just a few of the plants from the available Dictionaries. The Internet Archive has some great books, but my favorite one is The Language of Flowers by Robert Tyras from 1869. If you want to find more Floriographical symbols to use you’ll find a lot of fodder here: https://archive.org/details/languageofflower00tyas

Georgina Eagle- The Mysterious Lady

Sometimes while researching a post, I find a historic figure with the exact right mix of a few interesting facts, and lots of crazy hearsay, surrounded by tons of blank space ready to be filled in. This makes the perfect mix for an NPC.

Georgina Eagle was born sometime in the mid 1830s, possibly 1834. Her father, George Bernardo “Barny” Eagle, worked as a stage magician and was often billed as “The Royal Wizard of the South”. Barny Eagle was a middling magician at best, but a master of self promotion. His daughter joined his act as a child, billed “The Mysterious Lady”. Georgina performed as a hypnotist, and magicians assistant, but she was most often remembered for her acts of clairvoyance while blindfolded. She continued to perform with her father into the 1850s. Barny died onstage in 1858, leaving all his tricks and equipment to Georgina.

Georgina Eagle is most famous because of pocket watch known as Vicky’s Ticker. The watch bears a strange inscription:
“Presented by Her Majesty to Miss Georgiana Eagle for her Meritorious and Extraordinary Clairvoyance produced at Osborn House, Isle of Wight, July 15th, 1846”

It's rumored Georgina performed a séance for Queen Victoria, and later acted as a medium for her dead husband Prince Albert. Rumor has Georgina becoming a sort of Court Magician to Queen Victoria. However in the inscription Osbourne is misspelled and Albert hadn’t died yet in 1846. Barny Eagle may have had the watch inscribed himself to promote the abilities of his 11 year old daughter. While the watch might be a fake, it’s far too cool to ignore especially in the world of Victoriana. Entertainer, Medium, or Huckster, Georgina Eagle would make a great NPC.  

Georgina in Victoriana
Georgina Eagle could be a Magnetist with Clairvoylant or Spiritualist abilities. As a girl her abilities enhanced her father’s stage show. During a performance in Portsmouth, Georgina entered a trance state where she caught a glimpse of an assassination plot to kill the Queen at Osbourne House. She intervened and saved Victoria’s life. In addition to the gifted watch, Georgina became an advisor to the queen in aetheric matters, and a close friend.
Georgina’s magnetic abilities and practiced charisma helped her navigate the tangles of politics and investigate events of the Queen’s interest. After Prince Albert’s death, her mediumistic abilities gave great consolation to the monarch.

Alternatively, Georgina could be a skillful huckster, using her training in prestidigitation and empathy to fake clairvoyance. Her intelligence and perception stopped the attempt on Queen Victoria’s life, but because she was blindfolded (and a woman) everyone assumed it was magic. She’s been a great help to the Queen, and the police in numerous cases. She’s the most famous “Magnetist” in London.

So far she has overcome all debunkers, but how long can she stay an advisor to the Queen and a high ranking member of the Mages Guild without being caught?

The event for which Georgina was given the pocket watch could be anything fitting your campaign. An invasion of sea monsters at the beach near Osborne house, an angry ghost in the rebuild Swiss chalet on the grounds, or a group of foreign assassins dropped off by a submarine are all equally plausible problems for Georgina to solve.

Stats: 
Georgina Eagle (Magician and Hypnotist)
Physical: 5 Initiative: 7
Mental: 7 Health: 10
Social: 8 Quintessence: 30
AV: 2 (lined corset)
Damage: Fist (3), Flash powder (Resolve/Fortitude roll or 6 black dice for duration fight)

Possible Special Traits:
Order or Entropy 3,
Any Four Clairvoyant or Spiritualist Magnetists abilities
Mysterious Lady +2, Stage presence +2, The Queen’s Medium +3, Misdirection +2
Pocket Watch (May be a disguised marvel such as: Clockwork Puppet Hand, Grappling Gun, or Mirror of Magic Detection)