Victoriana The Hounds of Hate.pdf

Hounds

Hate

A Penny Dreadful for Victoriana by Chad Bowser

The

The hounds

of hate

A Penny dreadful for Victoriana

by Mr Chad Bowser

Illustrated &Engraved by Mr Fufu Frauenwhal

Cover Engraving by Mr Fufu Frauenwhal

Layout & Edit by Mr John Tuckey

All Artwork is the property of the artist and used with permission.

FUZION™ is the Fuzion Labs Group™ trademark for its Multigenre game system.

“...an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire

burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hack-

les and dewlap were outlined in ﬂickering ﬂame. Never in the delerious dream of a disor-

dered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than

that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog”

Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

What has Come Before

Ten years ago, Victor Johanssen was a young surgeon

just beginning his career and looking for a quick journey

to the top. Unfortunately, his journey resulted in several

murders. At the time, he thought nothing of it, because

his ‘practice cases,’ as he referred to them, were from the

lower class and science had a right to know how the body

worked. If they went missing, he reasoned, nobody impor-

tant would miss them. Now, however, one of his practice

cases is back for revenge, in the form of a skriker. Start-

ing tonight, the skriker is going to make Johanssen regret

his earlier moral ﬂexibility when it came to his patients.

Ironically, Johanssen has become a Bolshevik sympathizer

and champion of healthcare for the unfortunate. He be-

lieves he has atoned for his patients’ deaths by providing

free healthcare for the poor and donations to charities.

medical aid and they hit it off; they belong to some of

the same revolutionary circles; or they saved his life

at some point and to repay the players, he offers to in-

troduce them to his circle of inﬂuential friends.

Other than the characters, there will be a few other

people present; Johanssen wanted this to be an in-

timate party. Major players are detailed below, but

the GM should feel free to introduce as many as he

wants to make the party seem bustling, but still pri-

vate. By the time the party is over, the characters

should know all the partygoers detailed below.

Scene 1: A Glorious Career

An unnatural portender of death, the skriker appears to

be a large black spaniel with saucer shaped eyes. As the

skriker approaches its victim, all that the victim can hear

is sound of dripping and splattering mud – the sound of

charnel ground sloughing off the skriker’s legs and paws.

The party opens with Dr. Johanssen toasting his ca-

reer and guests, thanking them for their support

throughout the years. He then encourages the guests to

mingle and enjoy the various food courses laid out.

The skriker has been watching Johanssen for several

weeks, and has determined how it will best strike fear

into his heart. All of Johanssen’s closest friends and

acquaintances will be attending his 32 nd birthday cel-

ebration tonight, and the skriker plans on eliminating

the guests after they trickle away for the evening. To

achieve the ultimate terror, the skriker will kill several

guests per night over the course of the following week,

leaving Johanssen for last. Each death will bring the

skriker one step closer to Johanssen, and revenge.

Integrating the Players

The Partygoers: Listed below are each of the party go-

ers and what’s foremost on their thoughts. Rather than

provide the exact words of each partygoer in a conversa-

tion with the characters, the GM should use the info be-

low as a cue and tailor the language for the characters.

Dr. Victor Johanssen. An athletic man going prema-

turely bald, Johanssen will talk to the characters about

any subject they want. If given the chance to steer the

conversation, he will tell the players about the new

clinic he’s opening in a month. He hopes to be able to

serve over two hundred patients a month. Johanssen

will not charge for his services, but will ask for dona-

tions. While he and his backers provide the majority

of the money necessary to keep the clinic open, any

little bit will help, and he’s no longer too proud to ask.

The adventure begins innocently enough at a dinner

party at the residence of Dr. Victor Johanssen, a Bol-

shevik sympathizer. Given his political leanings, it’s

a matter of course for him to have members from all

strata of society present, and should be no problem

getting each character invited. The players are good

friends of Johanssen. Perhaps they’ve visited him for

Vivian Glazier. An attractive older dwarven woman,

Vivian is one of Johanssen’s primary backers, but she

doesn’t like to make that fact public. Glazier’s fam-

ily earned its money the dwarf way – mining. As a

child, Glazier saw how many of the poor min-

ers died early, violent deaths, and hopes to pre-

vent other unnecessary deaths by supporting

Johanssen’s clinic. She is a very pleasant dinner

companion, and when drunk may slyly inti-

mate to a male character that she is a widow.

Peter and Stephanie Tillinghast. Bol-

sheviks through and through, the Till-

inghast twins want nothing more than

total revolution. These fraternal human

twins arrive at the party dressed in

worker’s clothes and spend the entire

party urging everyone to join their cause

and overthrow the oppressive regime.

They were treated by Johanssen af-

ter a failed bombing, and introduced

him to the world of Bolshevism.

Dr. Gregory Hollingsworth. At 2’4”,

Hollingsworth is short for gnome, and

probably older than any gnome has a

right to be. He was Johanssen’s men-

tor when Johanssen was learning the

medical trade. He knows of Johanssen’s

earlier murders, and is still disgusted

by them. He’s never forgiven Johanssen for the

deaths, but game tonight to support the clinic, which

he’s serving at. If the characters talk to Hollingsworth,

they’ll ﬁnd a cantankerous gnome who speaks highly

of the clinic. If they ask about Johanssen’s early career,

Hollingsworth will pull no punches and explain about

the murders in the name of science. He feels Johanssen

should have gone to prison, but the two police who inves-

tigated were not interested in pursuing the matter at the

time, largely from the inﬂuence of Johanssen’s money.

laundering it. No one at the party is aware of his true

purposes. He pretends be a great supporter of the

poor and is friendly towards everyone at the party.

Scene 2: Entertainment

Throughout the party, the GM should sprinkle the

following events. The characters should be allowed

to overhear or witness these events. These are de-

signed to make the players suspicious of everyone.

Andre Montena: A French Eldren ex-patriot, Andre

is another ﬁnancial backer who wants to help Holling-

sworth, but believes Johanssen to be a pretentious snob

who is acting benevolent toward the poor to appear

inline with Bolshevik thought, but has no real love of

the masses. He will laud Hollingsworth, but talk deri-

sively about anyone else at the party. He feels Glazier

is a rich snob who should be removed from her wealth

and the wealth redistributed among the poor. The Till-

inghast twins, according to Montena, are a joke who

couldn’t carry out a revolution without a guidebook.

Sebastian arrives at the party and rapidly becomes

drunk. He hits on any female characters in the party,

as well as Stephanie Tillinghast and Vivian Gla-

zier. The characters overhear Tillinghast telling Caul

to bugger off and see Caul grab her by the shoulders

and tell her she’ll be sorry, but he still thinks she’d be

better than any woman at the Fox. At this point, Pe-

ter walks over and shoves Caul back, calling him an

aristocratic fop who’ll regret angering the proletariat.

At that Caul moves off and takes another drink.

Sebastian Caul: Sebastian is the third backer of the

clinic. While his family made most its money through

shipping, Sebastian has mastered the art of marry-

ing well and then surreptitiously becoming a widower.

He’s providing the money to the clinic as a means of

The players overhear Johanssen telling Hollingsworth

to keep quiet and not tell anybody about that. If

the players approach Johanssen, he’ll laugh and say

that the old gnome found out that Johanssen has his

eye on Stephanie. If they approach Hollingsworth,

embarrassed by the turn of events and sin-

cerely apologizes to each of the guests

as they collect their coats and leave.

When the characters leave, they ﬁnd the

London fog even thicker tonight than normal.

They’re only able to see a few feet in front of

them, but sounds echo clearly through the fog.

They can hear the shouts of people,

the clatter of hooves and carriage

wheels and the baying of hounds.

As they fumble their way through

the streets, have them make Listen

checks against a DV 18. Successful

characters will hear the sounds of

water dripping and mud slurp-

ing from the next street over,

as though someone were wad-

ing through deep, wet mud

he’ll tell them about Johanssen’s early mistakes.

If they investigate, they ﬁnd

little piles of mud that seem-

ingly stop in the middle of

the street. Now, have them

make Listen checks against a DV 18 . Those

who succeed hear the same noises, com-

ing from the street they were originally on.

At some point, Peter will saunter up to the play-

ers, open his coat and show them a large bottle. “It’s

ether, chaps, and it’s for the rich bastards here. We’ll

take ‘em down and rob ‘em blind.” He then claps

a player on the back, stumbles over to a divan and

slumps down, falling asleep in a matter of minutes

If they investigate, they ﬁnd more little piles of

mud that pick up on this street at coordinates

that coincide with where the drops left off on the

other street. The drops continue for a few hun-

dred yards and seemingly stop in the middle

of the street. By this point, the fog is rolling in

even thicker, limiting their vision even further.

This event should be the last one the players witness:

The players overhear loud shouting in the foyer and wit-

ness Montena and Glazier shaking ﬁsts at each other.

Montena tells Glazier she needs to give up her riches

to the poor, or she’ll fall under the feet of the prole-

tariat. Glazier responds with rising on her tip-toes and

informing Montena in a matter of fact voice that he’s a

hypocrite. If he’s going to rile the dogs, he’d better be

prepared to lay with them. To which Montena responds

that he’ll sick his dogs on her and that’ll be the end of it.

After they continue for a few more minutes, have

them make a third Listen check against a DV

18 . If a character succeeds at the check hear the

slurping/dripping noises coming from right be-

hind them. When they whirl around, there are

more droplets of mud that stop about two feet

behind the characters. If they follow the drop-

lets back down the street, the trail only contin-

ues for about thirty feet before it disappears.

At this point, Glazier storms into the room, of-

fers her apologies to Johanssen and says she’s

leaving. She then storms out of the house.

Scene 3: Fond Adieus

Any sensate medium character who makes a suc-

cessful Sense the Supernatural check against

a DV of 14 feels a deep, penetrating sense of

foreboding doom. Any channeling medium

character who makes a successful See the Su-

pernatural check against a DV of 14 cannot

see the skriker, because it’s already teleported

Glazier’s leaving deﬂates the mood for the party and

the remaining guests quickly trickle out. Johanssen’s

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