Lamplight in the Dark

An adventure set in Victorian London. I’m gonna use Old Skulling’s adventure design schema (https://oldskulling.blogspot.com/2020/07/sharp-swords-sinister-spells-2nd_9.html) to outline this one. It’s system and setting neutral- I was gonna run it with the Doctor Who RPG, but you can do any system, game, or assumed setting you see fit, just so long as there’s space for a multidimensional psychic entity that seeks to dominate the cosmos.

WHO?

    The Vast, an intangible psychic entity that wishes to enter our reality. It can’t manifest a physical form (yet?), but it can project psychic manifestations so strong they are perceived with and interacted with as physical beings. These entities are called the Whisper Men, looking like identically-dressed, faceless, paper-skinned morticians.

    Phillip Zachary Menlo, a down-on-his-luck “medium” who’s actually using the superstition of the times to profit off of his charlatan abilities. He’s just trying to get by day by day, and he’s oh so tired. His “crystal ball” is actually a focal point for the Vast’s dimensional incursion.

    Colonel Hubbinsley, the foreman of Hubbinsley Coalworks. A pompous and rich bastard who cares for nothing and nobody else. The Vast has shattered his mind, and he seeks to build it a body.

WHAT?

    Phillip Zachary Menlo is being watched, guarded by Whisper Men. He knows they’re there, he knows they’re unnatural, but he doesn’t know why they’re watching him.

    Workers are dying, their overexerted bodied being unceremoniously disfigured beyond recognition and being dumped into the garbage. They were all previous employees of Hubbinsley Coalworks.

    The Whisper Men attack anyone who gets too close to the heart of the Vast’s conspiracy. That includes picking up PZM’s crystal ball, investigating one of the worker corpses, or entering the basement vault of the Coalworks...

WHERE?

    PZM’s grungy flat, the streets of London, the floor of Hubbinsley Coalworks, the Colonel’s office, the secret vaults below...

WHY?

    If the Vast is not sent away to its home dimension, in 3 days, the Colonel will finish its new body. The massive flesh-mech will shudder and rise. The living will become as the Whisper Men, and the Vast will conquer this world as it had conquered its home world. Perhaps if the PCs fail, there is still some hope to destroy the titanic body before it rampages on a conversion-crusade.

HOW?

    The Vast can be sent home with any particularly ingenious or appropriate plan. Perhaps it can be stopped by shattering the crystal ball against its proto-body. Perhaps it can be stopped with the betrayal of the Whisper Men. Perhaps it can be taught the nature of love, or perhaps it fears kindness. Perhaps Colonel Hubbinsley is the key, and if he can be redeemed, the Vast’s foothold crumbles.

    Any way you slice it, the crystal ball is the key. If the crystal ball is intact, the Vast has some hope of returning to conquer this dimension again…

THE PCs ENTER THE ADVENTURE…

… after getting contacted by PZM, telling of the Whisper men

… as workers at Hubbinsley’s Coalworks

… as private investigators looking into the murders and disfigurations

…coming together. They’ve all been hunted by the Whisper Men. Why?

Also, my two cents on adventure design: always think about what might happen if the apparent enemy actually has some hidden beneficial component to them. They’re an ally who can’t communicate, they’re keeping something else that’s very much worse in check, they are in charge of a trade network that keeps the economy afloat, something that might make the PCs regret treating them as straight enemies. Even doing this once or twice in a campaign will make the PCs wary, always seeking more information about who is ACTUALLY an enemy and vaping consequences a lot more.