A Handful of Yokai- The Shirime

 

While all Yokai follow the strange rules and rituals of Japanese folktales, none surpass the Shirime in bizarre yet pointless behavior or in absurd bodily features. During dark nights in Japan, a lone figure dressed in a kimono approaches fellow travelers in the street. It asks for a moment of their time. Before the accosted travelers can answer yes or no, the stranger steps out of its kimono, turns around, and drops to its hands and feet. The horrified travelers recoil in fear and revulsion, not at exposed privates, but from a large glowing eye staring back at them from between the stranger’s buttocks.

 

The Shirime (literally meaning “butt eye”) simply wants to scare unsuspecting travelers. This simple mischievous desire makes them less dangerous than some other yokai, but that bizarre and unsettling prank more than makes up for it. While all Shirime posses the hidden eye and a humanoid form, how effectively they pass for a human varies in the telling. Some say the Shirime looks like a normal person. In other tales, it has a head but no face. In either case, the Shirime blends in well enough to stalk city streets at night searching for unwary pedestrians to shock.

 

For all its shocking bodily horrors, no story records the Shirime’s origins. In the earliest recorded story from the Edo period, before even the Shirime received its own name, the Yokai was compared to a Noppera-bo, a creepy faceless shapeshifter. Without more details, the Shirime could be anything from a ghost damned by a misdeed, a human cursed to an exhibitionist existence, purely a monster, or a trouble-making badger spirit.

 

Shirime (Mischevious humanoid with a rectal eye)

Initiative: 8

Physical: 6

Mental: 6

Social: 7

Health Pips: 10

Special Traits:

Startling Exposure- The sight of a Shirime’s rectal eye is so horrifying anyone viewing it must pass a Resolve test with 6 black dice. If passed, they suffer no further penalty. If failed, they suffer 3 black dice to any actions performed while the eye is in sight and 6 black dice to attacks against the Shirime.

Damage: Well aimed kicks (7)

Adventure Ideas

To make the Shirime even weirder, what if when it stands up like a human it’s actually upside down? So it’s “legs” are really its forepaws, and it’s “arms” are hind legs. It normally moves forward in a disturbingly fast “backwards” crawl with its eye open to avoid tripping or bumping into walls. Try fighting that.

The social season lies in ruin thanks to a Shirime’s rampage in London. It infiltrates the best parties, grabs everyone’s attention, and then exposes its eye. No young lady of breeding dares be seen socially until the Yokai is caught or appeased.

A fully human-seeming Yokai could have an entirely normal life aside from its nocturnal exposure. Anyone could be the Shirime, but nobody really wants to check the suspects.

The Shirime could be a symbol of repression. The act of seeing the Shirime’s eye could shock its victims out of closely held inhibitions. A plague of bawdy, irresponsible behavior all centers on that one city block with all the nocturnal obscene exposure cases.

 

The Shirime could also represent the ugliness behind polite society being pulled into the light. A Shirime masquerades as a street reporter exposing the hard truths of child labor, prison reform, and colonialism to an unsuspecting public. Their disruptive pranks and shocking articles offend as many readers as they enlighten.

A Handful of Yokai- Sazae Oni

In many Yokai tales, if an animal or object lives long enough, it transforms into a bizarre supernatural version of its old mundane self. For example, the Sazae (or Turban Snail) is a large sea snail living in Japanese coastal waters.  According to folk tales when a Sazae reaches thirty years of age (or possibly one-hundred) it turns into a Sazae Oni, literally a “Turban Snail Demon”. It reaches the size of a human and grows hands covered in suckers, arms, and a long torso from its spiny, crusty shell. The operculum (a tough door which seals the opening of snail’s shell) sits atop the torso like a bizarre conical head with bulging eyes. Worse, the Sazae Oni is a shapeshifter and often pokes its upper half above the water disguised a beautiful maiden dancing or drowning. If someone paddles or swims out to it, the Sazae Oni eats them. A Sazae Oni is as dangerous on land as on the water. One Sazae travels along the seaside disguised a young lady. She stops at every inn on the road to spend the night and to devour the innkeeper.

 

In the most famous encounter with a Sazae Oni, a ship full of plundering pirates discovered a woman struggling to stay above the waves in the open ocean. Seeing her beauty, the pirates pulled her from the water. When the pirates pressed her for gratitude expressed through carnal acts, she surprised the crew by eagerly agreeing to their wishes. That night she pleased each man on the ship, but in the morning every pirate discovered his testicles were missing. The beautiful woman was really a Sazae Oni, and she slunk through the ship biting off every pirate’s privates as they slept. The monster offered an exchange to the crew: the restoration of their testicles for all the ship’s plunder. The crew agreed.

 

Sazae Oni (Shape Shifting Sea Snail Demon)

Initiative: 4

Physical: 5

Mental: 5

Social: 8

Health Pips: 8 AV: 4

Special Traits:

Alluring Façade- The Sazae Oni can make itself appear as a beautiful woman. Changing to and from this form takes a combat round. Anyone suspicious enough to examine the disguise for monstrous traces may attempt a test of a relevant skill (Perception, Medicine, Lore, etc) with 9 black dice or 6 black dice if they previously encountered a Sazae Oni. If successful they notice details such as a sucker on the palm of the hand, a patch of slimy skin, or bit of shell sticking out under her hair.

Anatomical Theft- If the Sazae Oni’s bite attack does 9 or more damage to an opponent after applying Armor Value, the Sazae Oni may choose to do no damage at all. Instead, they cleanly and painlessly bite off a part of the opponent’s anatomy. The wound heals instantly, but the victim suffers -2 to a relevant attribute until the Sazae Oni restores the stolen body part.

Damage: Bite (12)

 

Adventure Ideas:
While the original tale of testicle taking might be too spicy for most tables, the idea of a monster stealing body parts off a living being for ransom is terrifically creepy. For a blackmailing monster, there’s no downside. Either they get paid or they put the purloined anatomical parts to sinister uses. There must be someone with money looking for healthy body parts somewhere.

While the Sazae Oni holds its own in combat, it’s a monster with a blackmailing brain making it a perfect menace to high society. Who is the mysterious lady making her way through this social season’s crop of eligible bachelors and why do her old flames limp and refuse to talk about her?

Japanese gourmets prize Sazae as a tasty delicacy. The demand might be even higher for the rare and dangerous flesh of the Sazae Oni or the flesh harvested by the Sazae Oni.

The idea of a sea monster turning into a desirable woman on land to hunt men is almost an inversion of the selkie, a sea creature turning into a desirable woman on land captured by a man and forced to marry. Is the Sazae Oni an agent of the sea’s revenge coming to reclaim its children imprisoned on land?

A Handful of Yokai- Abura Akago

As stated earlier, the term Yokai encompasses any strange phenomenon. Their legends comingle the seemingly disparate lore of ghosts, trickster spirits, creepy children, and even unexplained lights in the heavens. In one tale, strange fireballs drift through the night sky over Japanese towns. One descends, hovering over houses like a bird scanning a field for tasty worms.  The burning light picks a home and floats inside. Instead of igniting the flammable wooden wall, the light extinguishes. In its place, an adorable human infant scurries across the floor in search of oil lamps. It finds its prey in the bedroom, and while the residents soundly sleep, the infant eagerly opens the lamp and laps up all the oil.  Once sated, it leaves the home a floating fireball once more. In the morning, the residents discover the empty lamps and know an Abura Akago visited their home.

All Abura Akago were once humans. In life, they stole lamp oil from their neighbors and friends to make a profit from selling the ill-gotten oil. Their thefts doomed them to commit this same crime for eternity as Abura Akago.

Abura Akago (Oil lapping infant)

Initiative: 6

Physical: 3

Mental: 8

Social: 6

Health Pips: 6

Special Traits:

Shapeshifter - Floating Fireball (see page 294 of the Victoriana 3^rd edition Rulebook)

Infuriating innocence- Only the most desperate or heartless would try to hurt a defenseless child. Before attacking an Abura Akago for the first time, the attack must pass a Resolve test with 3 black dice. If passed they may attack, if failed they flinch and may not attack that round.

Damage:  Bite and struggle (1)

Abura Akago (Floating Fireball)

Initiative: 10

Physical: 9

Mental: 6

Social: 2

Health Pips: 14 AV: 3

Special Traits:

Shapeshifter- Oil Lapping Infant (see page 294 of the Victoriana 3^rd edition Rulebook)

Damaging Body- 7 damage dice, physical contact only (see page 293 of the Victoriana 3^rd edition Rulebook)

Float- While a fireball, the Abura Akago flies through the air. Movement: 10

Damage:
Recklessly plow into its attackers (8)

Adventure Ideas

Depending on the nature of the Abura Akago’s diet, the proliferation of gaslight through London in the latter half of the 1800s is either a boon or a bane. If it just needs fuel, the presence of endless combustible gas piped all through a house could grow an Abura Akago into a massive floating inferno. If it can only lap up oil, the Abura Akago would be forced to search for food among neighborhoods of London too poor for gaslight.

A slew of robberies match the methods and targets of a recently executed thief. Is it the thief’s apprentice, the thief’s ghost, or someone using the dead thief’s reputations to hide the true motives for their crime?

Both the English and the Japanese used oil harvested from the blubber of whales to light lamps. A clever Abura Akago forgoes sneaking into houses to lap up lampfulls of oil in favor of feasting on an unending source of sustenance in the warehouse belonging to a whale oil seller. If it’s binging continues, the oil-seller is ruined. Alternatively, some whaling ships, processed the blubber into oil while at sea to maximize their efficiency. Perhaps an Abura Akago haunts the casks stored in the ships hold.

A Handful of Yokai- Hanzaki

The streams and rivers of Japan hide monsters. Beneath fast-flowing water, the lumpy brown and black skin of the Hanzaki (also known as Ōsanshōuo or "Japanese giant salamander”) hides the predator as it stalks for fish and frogs. This camouflages works incredibly well considering the Hanzaki’s great size. While only the second largest salamander species in the world, an adult Hanzaki measures almost five feet from the tip of its tail to its wide mouth. Japanese folklore teaches Hanzaki continue growing until the day they die. As the centuries pass, venerable Hanzaki mature into truly monstrous Yokai, able to swallow livestock or a human with a single gargantuan gulp.

In the most famous legend of a rampaging Hanzaki, a young man named Miura no Hikoshiro stepped forward to save his village from the monster’s predation. Immediately after Miura dove into the deep lake sheltering the Hanzaki, the Yokai swallowed the villager’s defender whole. Fortunately, the villager kept his wits enough to slice the gigantic salamander in two with his sword from inside its belly.

 

Soon after the villager’s finished celebrating Miura’s victory, strange noises disturbed the hero’s household. Something unseen slammed on the door and cried out at night. Then the entire Miura family died. The villagers assumed the ghost of the Hanzaki cursed the family and sought the monster’s forgiveness. They erected a shrine to the Yokai and worshiped it as a god. Appeased, the Hanzaki’s ghost ended its vengeance. Strangely, Hanzaki means “cut in half” from the belief that if a salamander were bisected the two pieces would grow two new Hanzaki. Miura sliced his foe in two. Perhaps he was haunted by two ghostly salamanders.

 

Hanzaki (Gigantic 30 foot-long river salamander)

Initiative:

Physical: 8

Mental: 2

Social: 2

Health Pips: 22 AV: 4

Special Traits:

Gulp- The Hanzaki grapples by gulping down its opponents. If the target of the grapple wins the test, they escape. If the Hanzaki wins, their opponent slides down the monster's throat. The Hanzaki may perform a free crush action (damage 7) each round on swallowed opponents. The Hanzaki may also have more than one opponent trapped in its throat at a time. 

To escape the Hanzaki’s grapple, the opponent must fight their way out by making 3 successful unopposed attacks with 3 black dice to every attack. They may attempt all three attacks in one round by performing multiple actions as normal.

Damage: Stomp (10)

Adventure Ideas

Killing a monster is not the end of the fight if it can come back as a ghost and haunt a hero's family. It can’t be killed again, so some sort of truce or arrangement may be the only option. Are there lawyer-mediums brokering cursing contracts between the living and the dead? The ghost can only stalk certain members of the family on certain days of the week. An offering of sheep or gold buys off purposefully malignant misfortune for a day or two.

A small, remote village worships a monster as a god to avoid further destruction. Over time, the worship outwardly devolves into annual festivals and folksy traditions but devout followers practice the old ways indoors. The religion’s roots run through the village, reinforced by certain boons brought by the monster’s blessings. When a brave warrior disappears after riding out to save the village from the false god’s tyranny, it may be the work of the monster’s disciples, not the monster.

Even the most monstrous Hanzaki sticks close to water. For salamanders of a more incendiary nature, see this previous monster post.

A Handful of Yokai- The Sakabashira

Followers of Animism believe spirits live in all things living and unliving. If true, even the most humble objects close at hand harbor vengeful resentment towards its owner for constant misuse. When spirits avenge their owner’s treasonous neglect, they are a Yokai.

 

Occasionally while constructing a home, builders erect a wooden pillar opposite to its orientation as a tree. Planting its wood upside down pains and angers the spirit of the tree from which the wood was cut.  Late at night,  the personification of the tree’s leaves, the Sakabashira, manifest to disturb the sleeping household. They cause loud groans and creaks, awakening the occupants throughout the quiet night. The sounds of cracking wood may even form words and sentences complaining of the pillar’s bodily pain. These small spirits work together, violently shaking entire buildings and breaking treasured possessions. The reach of the Sakabashira extends beyond the afflicted home, cursing the occupants to bring bad luck. Those afflicted lose fortunes, loved ones, or even their houses.

 

Strangely, some Japanese builders purposefully construct homes with one upside down pillar to ensure good luck. Superstition says a once a home is finished it begins to fall apart, so they leave a roof with a few tiles missing or purposefully flip a pillar wrong way up. A homeowner has to wonder how much bad luck is good luck worth?

 

Mob of Sakabashira (Small trouble-causing leaf spirits)

Initiative: 8

Physical: 4

Mental: 3

Social: 3

Health Pips: 10

Special Traits:

Unlucky- During each round of combat, every living opponent of the Sakabashira takes 1 point of damage every round, regardless of armor, from stubbed toes, banged foreheads, doors slammed into faces, and other assorted “accidents”. They may avoid this damage by carefully watching for wrinkled carpets, ball bearings, or other sources of “accidents”. This requires no roll but does count as an action.

Damage: Miniscule fists and handy obstacles (3)

Adventure Ideas

Famous trees fill the forests of the British Isles, such as Old Knobbley (rumored to have been a hiding place of accused witches), the gnarled oak trees of Wistman’s Wood (where dishonest tin miners were forced to swallow a tablespoon of molten metal) or The Royal Oak (King Charles II hid from Parliamentary troops beneath its branches during the English Civil War). Magic and history already stain the wood of these trees. Improperly using these trees for ignominious purposes could bring all sorts of bad luck.

 

Once the investigators correctly identify the Sakabashira, the next problem is identifying the offensive and offended pillar. Next comes a magical sweep of the house. A magnetist or other gifted individual could sense through the home like a metal detector. If worse comes to worst, every pillar gets flipped until the problem stops. Of course, turning the wrong pillar could cause even more Sakabashira.

If a pillar in a house doesn’t excite terror, the Sakabashira could be caused by some other wood shaped into a helpful tool such as a tobacco pipe, ship’s mast, or a rifle stock.

The concept of a Sakabashira rhymes nicely with my version of gargoyles being magically connected to buildings. A faulty gargoyle could cause all sorts of disturbances to its home such as strange thumps, quakes the foundation, or structural damage much like this Yokai. If it’s as simple as accidentally turning its base material upside down before carving, it’s a wonder any work properly. You can read more about my gargoyles here.

A Handful of Yokai- An Introduction to the Monstrous

Aside from a pleasant peak at Constantinople, this blog keeps its eyes focused on the British Isles to discover interesting fodder for Victoriana adventures. Understandable but adventures lie in every corner of the world. We’re spinning the globe towards the Far East to bite into Japanese Yokai.

Simply, Yokai are monsters and spirits of Japanese folklore, however, the word yokai also encompasses any spooky unexplained phenomena such as lights in the sky or mystifying nocturnal noises. The first recorded use of the word from the first century simply describes a general feeling of unease pervading the imperial court. Even just looking at the category of the overtly monstrous Yokai, an incredible variety of bizarre origins, horrifying habits, and deviant details presents rich possibilities for plots and encounters.

Some Yokai spring from superstitions passed on through stories explaining bad luck or mysterious noises. Others started as village deities fallen out of religious practice and into children’s nightmares. Scholars recorded these folktales and myths in compendiums. During the exploding popularity of printed books in the 1700s, Japanese authors then fabricated brand new Yokai to meet the ravenous demand for new ghost stories. They created their Yokai with puns, parody, and satire, which, although initially humorous, made these later Yokai even more bizarre and sinister when viewed outside 18^th century Japanese culture. By the 1850s, strange legends leaked out of Japan from Dutch trade or orientalist travel narratives, bizarre anecdotes of shape-shifting animals and regular everyday objects brought to life. Yokai stories bring to the table everything I look for in a great ghost story, and, as we know on this blog, nothing is more Victorian than that.

Even the most prolific sources of stories only gave their Yokai a few lines of description or reported a couple anecdotal encounters. These sketchy fragments burn two or three interesting details into the reader’s imagination while leaving huge blanks ready for our purposes. I’ll present a Yokai each week along with stats and special rules for the Victoriana role-playing game. Each post concludes with a slew of adventure ideas ready for scenarios set in late Edo Japan or mid-Victorian London. Finally, in the last post of the series, I’ll discuss some possible rationales and excuses derived from history for getting these Japanese monsters into Victorian Britain.

Adventure Ideas

In a campaign of Yokai hunting, short specific descriptions in a scholarly Yokai compendium could provide exactly the right amount of information to recognize a Yokai without giving spectacularly helpful on how to tackle it. The more playful and parodic compendiums could give desperately needed answers if you can solve the puzzles and satirical elements. The Yokai hunters just have to figure out which book they have to pull out in the middle of a fight.

Similar to the satirical Yokai, any number of Victorian magazines and periodicals use allegorical creatures in their political cartoons to represent governments, countries, or concepts. If one achieved physical form, a rampaging caricature or symbol would physically, morally and politically endanger the masses.

Life in the Bones- Bad Bones

Just as Necromancy stains the body of its practitioners so too does necromancy stain the materials used in its rituals. The remains of a failed nocturnal experiment, the corpse of an undead put to rest, surgical tools long used to join dead and living tissues all potentially host the taint of dark magic.

If this foulness settles in a bone used in a ritual and left long enough without disturbance or interruption, the necromantic stain infects other bones around it forming a “Bad Bones”. These dark energies manifest as inky ectoplasmic tendons connecting and articulating the bones into a shambling, whirling mess. The tendons also act as sense organs giving bad bones a remarkable ability to perceive and react to stimuli in any direction. No intelligence directs its reconstruction, making each bad bone a random conglomeration of ribs, phalanges, and skulls. Bad bones incorporate new skeletal members with surprising speed and range. More than one monster hunter has been surprised to find himself attacked on two fronts: the bad bones before him, and the remains of his lunch in his pocket!

Bad bones only want one thing: to harvest more bones from dead bodies so it can grow. Most of the bad bones in London are small accumulations of rat and poultry skeletons skulking in dark sewers, basements, and alleys waiting to harvest a dead vertebrate or to kill a living one. Larger bad bones incorporate the skeletons of draft animals, livestock and humans.

Bad bones serve only their desire to survive and grow, but a necromancer can subjugate their magical stain with a Necromancy roll against 9 black dice. If successful the bad bones follows commands until the necromancer’s or its death. Respectable bone mills carefully check incoming material with sigils to avoid bad bones sprouting in a dark corner surrounded by an endless supply of new limbs. Most workers prefer to take care of any problems themselves. The guild offers a 5 pound bounty for proof of a bad bone’s destruction and charge 6 pounds to exterminate one. An adequate amount of fire or acid disrupts the necromantic magics animating a bad bones and dissolves the abomination into a foul-smelling pool. The animating force can also be disrupted by removing the original “Bad Bone” from the skeleton, although discovering the right bone won’t be easy, and there could be multiple members fueled by necromantic magic. If these tools are not to hand, slashing or bashing apart enough of its skeleton puts a bad bones to rest long enough to deal with its remains. If left alone and forgotten, the process of corruption begins again.

Bad Bones

Physical: 8           Initiative: 8

Mental: 4             Health: 18

Armor Value: 2

Special Traits:

Regenerate- 4 (as long as there are bones nearby),-see page 294 of the Victoriana 3rd Edition rulebook

Chaotic Mass- Any opponents attempting to grapple, avoid a grapple, or escape a grapple suffer 6 black dice to their rolls. Bad Bones may also maintain one grapple each combat round without suffering the penalty for taking multiple actions.

Dark Incorporation- instead of regenerating, bad bones may create a lesser bad bones as long as there are bones nearby. This does not require an action.

Complications:

Fire Vulnerability- whenever a bad bones is damaged by fire or acid , it suffers +3 damage

Damage: Skeletal Claws and Jaws (6),

Lesser Bad Bones

Physical: 6           Initiative: 5

Mental: 4             Health: 4

Armor Value: 0

Special Traits:
Regenerate- 2 (as long as there are bones nearby),-see page 294 of the Victoriana 3rd Edition rulebook

Chaotic Mass- Any opponents attempting to grapple, avoid a grapple, or escape a grapple suffer 3 black dice to their rolls.

Complications:

Fire Vulnerability- whenever a bad bones is damaged by fire or acid, it suffers +5 damage

Damage: Skeletal Claws and Jaws (4),

Nourish and Extinguish- Salamanders in Victoriana

Victoriana is as much fantasy as it is rooted in 1850s history, so as I wrote about chimney sweeps my mind wandered into more fantastic waters. Fire elementals and medieval bestiaries kept popping up, but I didn’t have room for them in my previous posts. So now, here are some ideas and rules for Salamanders in Victoriana.

While many cold-blooded creatures thrive in heat, the salamander is truly Pyrophillious.  Unlike the amphibian of the same name, salamanders rest in blazing flames without burning or bother. Fire warms their blood, cleans their skin, and serves as a sanctuary for eggs about to hatch. Should a fire grow too hot for the salamander’s tastes, glands in its skin sweat a milky flame-quenching liquid, a teaspoon of which dripped into a fireplace quickly extinguishes all flames leaving only lukewarm ash and smoke. Salamanders wander into camps and homes in search of unattended hearths or open flames. Modern industry attracted salamanders out of marshes and forests into the cities of Europe and Asia in search of a nice warm fire.

A fully grown salamander spans 2-4 feet from their blunt nose to their thick tail and weighs between 30 to 70 pounds. Their four legs terminate with curiously human-like hands. Moist pitch-black skin mottled with bright yellow stripes or spots covers their long chubby bodies. Strangely, the temperature of the fire surrounding their egg when they hatch drastically affects their coloration and demeanor. If their fire grows too warm, orange or even red hues creep into the yellow patches and their ferocity grows to the point of attacking with little provocation. If the fire dies before they hatch, their pigmentation dulls to a dark brown and they have a more docile temperament.

A deadly poison covers a salamander’s skin, causing irritation, hair loss, and convulsions upon contact.  Prolonged exposure or ingestion brings death in minutes. Some medieval legends describe predatory salamanders killing a full grown man by leaping on his head, and rubbing their belly on his face. Paradoxically, the salamander’s excretions and skin save countless lives every year. Tanned salamander hide loses little of its inherent flame-retardant qualities. Salamander skin gloves protect engineers and craftsman attached to prestigious firms and the most successful chimney sweeps wear full suits of salamander skin when battling chimney fires, although many only claim to own a salamander suit in order to raise their credibility.  Salamander farms collect their excretions for fighting fires and a host of industrial applications.

Salamanders are not native to the British Isles. The nearest native population of Salamanders slither in the French countryside across the channel, despite the efforts of local hunters to rid their home of such a dangerous creature.

Salamander

Initiative: 8

Physical: 8

Mental: 3

Health Pips: 4

Special Traits:

Pyrophillious- Salamander’s bodies are adapted to heat and possess Armor Value 8 against any fire damage. A salamander may spend an action to extinguish flames touching its body.

Regeneration x3- (See page 294 in Victoriana 3rd Edition Rulebook) In addition to quickly regaining hit points, Salamanders can regrow lost legs or a lost tail a few days after their loss. A Salamander’s body loses its regenerative abilities at death.

Poisonous Skin- Any character touching a salamander with their bare skin must pass a Fortitude test against the poison’s potency of 8. Whether they pass or fail, the character’s skin exposed to the poison turns bright red and stings causing -1 to the character’s Dexterity.

On a failure, the character suffers -2 health per round and an additional -1 to their Dexterity. These effects continue until the character passes a Fortitude test (5 black dice), another character passes a Medicine test with 5 black dice, or the character’s death.  

Damage: Bite (2)

It was pretty nice to just come up with a monster this week after wallowing in horrid squalor, however we will return to the worst jobs of Victorian England next week with a look at Rat-Catchers. I hope you enjoy.

Their Finest Hour- Dragons in the Blitz

Today, we’re wrapping up our examination of Victoriana during World War II with an example of the monstrous magical forces attacking Great Britain. What better way to end the series than combining the most iconic villains of the century with the most iconic monster?

Lindworms

After 1939, new terrors fly over Europe, bringing flaming death to the Allied forces. Tightening the Luftwaffe’s grip on the skies are the lindworms, massive 30-50 foot reptiles with strong leathery wings holding their limbless slithering bodies aloft . Thick scales deflect small arms fire and teeth big enough to take bites out of fighter planes fill their mouths.

Although more might exist, Allied intelligence identified three distinct lindworms and designated each with codenames: “Manny”, “Moe”, and “Black Jack”. “Black Jack” remains in Berlin as symbol of the Reich and as a defender of the Capital, “Manny” and his rider remind Frenchmen in Paris of Germany's might, and “Moe” is a part of Luftflotte 2, the Luftwaffe air fleet tasked with bombing southern England.

Each lindworm wears a small armored platform in front of its wings for its rider and some sort of radio communication device wrapped around its head. Allied intelligence does not know whether they controlled by their rider’s commands through the radio, how smart the lindworms are, or if they willingly follow orders.

Moe’s rider is Hanna Reitsch a former test pilot for the Luftwaffe. Her death-defying daring and incredible flying skill made the 27 year old aviatrix a perfect match for the lindworm’s power and aggression. The Luftwaffe deployed Moe and Hanna to the Battle of Britain as a weapon against the moral of the British people. Moe’s fiery breath and sharp teeth bring nightly devastation to the RAF fighters and civilians below.

Speculation surrounds the awakening of the lindworms. A Belgian refuge claims the restorations at Wewelsburg castle uncovered the creatures, intercepted radio messages suggest the Thule Society brought them back to life from a glacier in Norway, and a captured German spy seems convinced the Lost Ring of Solomon controls the lindworms.

Hanna Reitsch (Test pilot and lindworm rider)

Physical: 8            Initiative: 8

Mental: 6               Health: 14

Social: 7                 Quintessence: 18

AV: Flight Suite (2)

Damage: Pistol (10), Punch (3)

Possible Special Traits:

Fearless Aviatrix+4, Fanatically Devoted to Hitler+3,

Hanna is a small enthusiastic blond woman with blues eyes and pleasant features. Sometimes her singing can be heard above the cacophony of engines, explosions, and gunfire.

Moe (Serpentine death from the sky)

Physical: 20          Initiative: 12

Mental: 9               Health:   42

AV: 8

Damage:

Bite (14, Armor Pierce 4), Fire Breath (11, Intensity 8), Smashing or Squeezing Serpentine Coils (17)

Qualities:

 Flight- (see page 292 of Victoriana 3^rd Edition)

Regeneration- (see page 293 of Victoriana 3^rd Edition)

Greedy- If an immediate chance arises to eat gold or a fresh corpse; either the lindworm or its rider must pass a Mental test with 6 black dice or the lindworm spend a round gorging.

Huge 5- (Health and Physical modifiers are already reflected by stats, for other effects see page 293 of Victoriana 3^rd Edition)

That wraps up this eleven week series. I hope you’ve enjoyed this examination of Victoriana in a more modern setting. I know I’ve had a lot of fun writing it. This won’t be the last post about Their Finest Hour, but next Friday we return to the welcome waters of the 1850s with a very simple silly post about names.