Their Finest Hour- Dogfights

Two years ago, I wrote a series speculating on an alternate setting for Victoriana moving the timeline ahead 90 years into World War II. I’ve always wanted to return to it, and since those posts consistently generate the most views out of anything in Skullduggery in the Smoke’s history I assume some of you might also like some more.

The Battle of Britain’s front lines were the English skies. After overrunning Western Europe, the German military sat on the continent across the English’s channel and sent wave after wave of fighters and bombers to force Great Britain into signing a peace agreement and accepting the Nazi domination of Europe. The pilots of the Royal Air Force armed with Hurricanes and Spitfires flew to protect their homes from or to avenge their homes on the aerial invaders.

For any game set during the Battle of Britain, these dogfights are a crucial part of that setting. As suggested by its name, the scale of World War II is massive, much larger than a standard combat in Victoriana could satisfyingly replicate. I’ve written Dogfighting rules to enable larger battles and to emulate the incredibly fast incredibly deadly atmosphere of a sortie between entire squadrons of combatants. Optional rules further expand the possibilities and dangers, and I’ve worked out stats for aircraft belonging to both sides. For the next few weeks, I’ll present my Dogfighting rules. At the end, I’ll compile them all (and a few extras) in a pdf for the Blog’s Resources page. This is by far the most mechanically complex project I’ve ever written and feedback is certainly welcome.

Here’s a taste of what’s to come:

A Handful of Yokai- East and West

While this blog’s monster hunting in Japan caught bucket-loads of adventures and encounters, London remains the undisputed champion setting of Victoriana. It’s time to bring our fire babies, snail ladies, and visually acute privates back home to the streets of 1850s London through the examination of Japanese-English relations.

At first glance, there is very little historic room for Japanese/English cultural exchange before the 1860s, let alone a bunch of crazy Japanese monsters. Fearful of western imperialism and the growing wealth of Japanese merchants, the Tokugawa shogunate restricted all international trade in Japan and banned its population from traveling abroad in the early 1600s.  The Japanese government exclusively traded with Dutch and Chinese ships and restricted these ships to dock only at the port of Nagasaki. Japan’s isolation lasted until July 8, 1853, when a fleet of modern American warships sent by President Millard Fillmore arrived at Edo bay threatening to either open trade relations with Japan or burn their capital city of Edo to the ground. Japan and America signed “the Treaty of Peace and Amity” in 1854 forcibly opening the island nation to American diplomacy and trade.

A mere month, after the American fleet arrived, a Russian fleet arrived in Nagasaki with a similar plan. Alarmed that their foe in the Crimean War could gain a peaceful toehold in Japan, the British government sent its own fleet led by Vice Admiral James Stirling to attack the Russian Fleet and to prevent the Japanese from aiding the Russians in the war. Stirling’s negotiations with the Shogunate bore unexpected fruit: not only did Japan remain neutral, but Stirling also opened up the country for British trade. The combination of the threatening sight of Stirling’s fleet, the hope of British forces deterring Russian advances into Japanese territory, memories of the American fleet’s recent demands, and near-constant miscommunication between translators led to the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty of 1854. The treaty opened Nagasaki and Hakodate to British ships and gave citizens of the British Empire the same rights as the Chinese or Dutch in Japan. The first British consulate to Japan opened in 1858. However, Stirling never got around to seeking and destroying the Russian fleet.

Japan took its biggest step in European relations in 1862 when the shogunate sent the First Japanese Embassy to Europe. This diplomatic mission consisted of forty bureaucrats, negotiators, and young samurai traveling through Europe on a mission to learn about the western world and delay unwanted clauses in certain treaties. These men explored all the major cities of Europe, watching Europeans in all strata of society with unquenchable curiosity. In London, the mission visited an opium den, noticing with pride it was full of English and Chinese addicts.

Now exposed to Japanese culture, Europe hungered for Japanese craftsmanship, and style. Creators of fashion, furniture, and art mingled their designs with Japanese simplicity and strength. The craze in England culminated in the Japanese Village Exhibition of 1885, wherein an entire Japanese village, complete with 100 Japanese men and women employed to populate the village, was replicated and displayed in London. In return, European technology and scientific advancements trickled into Japan through the late 1800s.

Adventure Ideas:

Japan and Russia have a mutual tradition tension over their respective nation's territories. Perhaps a secret diplomatic mission visited London to discuss the possibility of opening a new front against Russia in the East. A faction in the Japanese government sends Yokai to sabotage the proposed alliance.

Legends fill the waters surrounding Japan with numerous insidious Yokai. Whether they defend their nation or rampage through the waves, the foreign fleets seeking parley in the shogunate’s harbors brave these terrors or perhaps risk bringing something back to their home waters.

For 200 years, the Dutch formed the bottleneck between Japan and Europe. Once accidental English diplomacy opens up trade, greedy Dutch merchants seek the help of dangerous Yokai to make London shipping magnates think twice about intruding on their business. 

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.