The Imperial Age Victorian Monstrosities, Podreczniki RPG, The Imperial Age
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INTRODUCTION
The literature of the Victorian era has generated, reined, and fostered a great number of
monstrosities that have endured to this very day. Who hasn’t heard of Count Dracula or
Frankenstein’s Monster? What of the Martian invasion or the exploits of the Invisible Man?
And who could forget the ultimate in personality disorders in the form of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde?
There are a number of lesser known but just as fearsome literary Victorian monstrosities.
Count Dracula did not appear on the printed page until 1897; however, the Victorian
vampire myth was alive and well in the forms of Lord Ruthven, Varney, and Carmilla.
Other monstrosities in the same mould included Brunhilda and Lady Ducayne. Pharos
had a different spin on the mummy, while the Great God Pan destroyed the lives of
mortals.
And all of these literary creations paled in comparison to the factual and all-too-human
Victorian monstrosity, the anonymous and uncaught serial killer known as Jack
the Ripper, as well as the urban legend of Spring-heeled Jack.
While most of the monstrosities collected herein are from the
Imperial Age or the overall Victorian era, exceptions have been
made where the author has felt that the monstrosity would it
i n
well within the context of an Imperial Age campaign. Also, while
care has been made to ensure that each monstrosity adheres to
its
source material as closely as possible slight changes have been
made for artistic license and compatibility with the core
rules.
The Victorian Monstrosities follow
the standard monster format.
Each entry has a brief
section describing the
nature and attributes
of the monstrosity,
followed by its stat
block.
Imperial
Age:
Victorian
Monstrosities
by
Walt
Ciechanowski
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ACTION POINTS
Due to their experiences, all monstrosities have half (rounded up) their total action points remaining. You may adjust this up and down
as you wish.
POSSESSIONS AND WEALTH
Wealth bonuses in the SRD presume an egalitarian society based on the acquisition of wealth (i.e. money separates rich from poor, and
the poor can become “upper class” if they happen into a fortune). In the Imperial Age, this is not the case in aristocratic societies. In Great
Britain, for example, society is divided between noble and commoner. No matter how much money a commoner makes, he can never
become a noble (absent extraordinary circumstances). Commoners are further divided between the middle and lower classes. While still
“common,” the middle class has accumulated enough wealth to begin to imitate upper class society.
For
Victorian Monstrosities
, two descriptors are given for wealth in general terms. A monstrosity is either “noble” or “common.”
Nobility entitles the monstrosity to certain beneits unattainable by any amount of wealth. This is followed by “rich,” “comfortable” or
“poor.” This describes the monstrosity’s property in general terms. For example, a monstrosity described as “noble poor” indicates a
titled nobleman relying on his title to gain assistance from other nobles or patrons.
Speciic possessions are only noted where important (weapons, trademark attire or equipment).
HORROR RATING
Each monstrosity has a Horror rating. This is only to be used in conjunction with the Horror rules in the appendix. This lists the type(s)
of Horror save a character must make just by looking at the monstrosity. If you are not using the Horror rules, ignore this stat.
The Horror ratings are appropriate for occult campaigns, where monstrosities are scary creatures that most people refuse to believe
exist. In a fantasy campaign, you may wish to lower DCs by 5 or 10. You may also wish to adjust the DC based on what is believable
within your particular campaign. An intelligent locomotive
is frightening in the real Victorian age; in a steampunk
campaign with intelligent automata an intelligent
locomotive on rails might be considered quaint.
CAMPAIGN VARIATIONS
In many cases, notes are provided to adapt the monstrosity
to another type of campaign (the default should be obvious).
Categories include historical (no F/X), occult (secret or
dangerous magickal F/X), fantasy (lots of magickal F/X),
and scientiic (super technology).
TEMPLATE CHANGES
Some monstrosities use altered templates from the core
book. While the Special Qualities section of the stat block
notes the major changes, all other changes are noted in a
“template changes” section.
ORIGINAL CREATIONS
Most entries have an original monstrosity attached to them.
This original creation is inspired by the entry monster and
designed to give the Game Master more options. In some
cases, the original creation follows its inspiration pretty
closely, while in others the original creation takes the entry
into a different direction.
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By H.B. Marriott-Watson (1893)
riding across the sunken levels like ghosts in a churchyard. Though I had set forth in a mood of wild delight,
I had sobered in the lonely ride across the moor and was now uneasily alert. As my horse jerked down
the grassy slopes that fell away to the jaws of the swamp I could see thin streams of mist rise slowly, hover like
wraiths above the long rushes, and then, turning gradually more material, go blowing heavily away across the
lat. The appearance of the place at this desolate hour, so remote from human society and so darkly signiicant of
evil presences, struck me with a certain wonder that she should have chosen this spot for our meeting. She was
a familiar of the moors, where I had invariably encountered her; but it was like her arrogant caprice to test my
devotion by some such dreary assignation. The wide and horrid prospect depressed me beyond reason, but the
fact of her neighbourhood drew me on, and my spirits mounted at the thought that at last she was to put me in
possession of herself. Tethering my horse upon the verge of the swamp, I soon discovered the path that crossed
it, and entering struck out boldly for the heart. The track could have been little used, for the reeds, which stood
high above the level of my eyes upon either side, straggled everywhere across in low arches, through which I
dodged, and broke my way with some inconvenience and much impatience. A full half hour I was solitary in that
wilderness, and when at last a sound other than my own footsteps broke the silence the dusk had fallen.
I was moving very slowly at the time, with a mind half disposed to turn from the melancholy expedition, which
it seemed to me now must surely be a cruel jest she had played upon me. While some such reluctance held me, I
was suddenly arrested by a hoarse croaking which broke out upon my left, sounding somewhere from the reeds
in the black mire. A little further it came again from close at hand, and when I had passed on a few more steps in
wonder and perplexity, I heard it for the third time. I stopped and listened, but the marsh was as a grave, and so
taking the noise for the signal of some raucous frog, I resumed my way. But in a little the croaking was repeated,
and coming quickly to a stand I pushed the reeds aside and peered into the darkness. I could see nothing, but at
the immediate moment of my pause I thought I detected the sound of some body trailing through the rushes. My
distaste for the adventure grew with this suspicion, and had it not been for my delirious infatuation I had assuredly
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I
t was nigh upon dusk when I drew close to the Great Marsh, and already the white vapours were about,
turned back and ridden home. The ghastly sound pursued me at intervals along the track, until at last, irritated
beyond endurance by the sense of this persistent and invisible company, I broke into a sort of run. This, it seemed,
the creature (whatever it was) could not achieve, for I heard no more of it, and continued my way in peace. My
path at length ran out from among the reeds upon the smooth lat of which she had spoken, and here my heart
quickened, and the gloom of the dreadful place lifted. The lat lay in the very centre of the marsh, and here and
there in it a gaunt bush or withered tree rose like a spectre against the white mists. At the further end I fancied
some kind of building loomed up; but the fog which had been gathering ever since my entrance upon the passage
sailed down upon me at that moment and the prospect went out with suddenness. As I stood waiting for the clouds
to pass, a voice cried to me out of its centre, and I saw her next second with bands of mist swirling about her body,
come rushing to me from the darkness. She put her long arms about me, and, drawing her close, I looked into her
deep eyes. Far down in them, it seemed to me, I could discern a mystic laughter dancing in the wells of light, and
I had that ecstatic sense of nearness to some spirit of ire which was wont to possess me at her contact.
“At last,” she said, “at last, my beloved!” I caressed her.
“Why,” said I, tingling at the nerves, “why have you put this dolorous journey between us? And what mad freak
is your presence in this swamp?” She uttered her silver laugh, and nestled to me again.
“I am the creature of this place,” she answered. “This is my home. I have sworn you should behold me in my
native sin ere you ravished me away.”
“Come, then,” said I; “I have seen; let there be an end of this. I know you, what you are. This marsh chokes up
my heart. God forbid you should spend more of your days here. Come.”
“You are in haste,” she cried. “There is yet much to learn. Look, my friend,” she said, “you who know me, what
I am. This is my prison, and I have inherited its properties. Have you no fear?”
For answer I pulled her to me, and her warm lips drove out the horrid humours of the night; but the swift
passage of a lickering mockery over her eyes struck me as a lash of lightning, and I grew chill again.
“I have the marsh in my blood,” she whispered: “the marsh and the fog of it. Think ere you vow to me, for I
am the cloud in a starry night.”
A lithe and lovely creature, palpable of warm lesh, she lifted her magic face to mine and besought me plaintively
with these words. The dews of the nightfall hung on her lashes, and seemed to plead with me for her forlorn and
solitary plight.
“Behold!” I cried, “witch or devil of the marsh, you shall come with me! I have known you on the moors, a
roving apparition of beauty; nothing more I know, nothing more I ask. I care not what this dismal haunt means;
not what these strange and mystic eyes. You have powers and senses above me; your sphere and habits are as
mysterious and incomprehensible as your beauty. But that,” I said, “is mine, and the world that is mine shall be
yours also.”
She moved her head nearer to me with an antic gesture, and her gleaming eyes glanced up at me with a sudden
lash, the similitude (great heavens!) of a hooded snake. Starting, I fell away, but at that moment she turned her
face and set it fast towards the fog that came rolling in thick volumes over the lat. Noiselessly the great cloud
crept down upon us, and all dazed and troubled I watched her watching it in silence. It was as if she awaited some
omen of horror, and I too trembled in the fear of its coming.
Then suddenly out of the night issued the hoarse and hideous croaking I had heard upon my passage. I
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