Wicked Transformation

Okay, so the mansion layout is just about set.  The last major obstacle is to explain the changes that have taken the mansion.  Baron Larksley runs his smuggling operation smoothly for some time, building dangerous traps in the vain belief that his mansion will one day have to frustrate officers of the law into attacking him in order to clear his name.  This could go badly for him, so he should have heirs for whom he is concerned, a cause for which he fights beyond his own comfort.

It also fully possible that he could end up sampling the merchandise himself.  This story element becomes critical to transforming the Baron from a carefully scheming planner into a Hyde, a corrupt little brute who will throw caution to the winds and attack the PCs on site.   By the time the PCs shut down his operation, records should turn up indicating how far flung the trade is.  They should despair, knowing that this crop of merchandise has now spread all over Britain.

The next question is “what is it?”  It needs to be portable and exotic, nothing familiar to Britain.  It should play on all of those Victorian fears of eroding society and the loss of the British identity.  Drugs jumped to mind originally, reflecting the opium dens of the British cities and slums.  The reach of this drug came even to Sherlock Holmes, with thousands of otherwise intelligent people opening their veins for it.  Certainly Dr. Jekyll found he was losing himself to the Hyde formula, and it is suggested in D20 Past that he was not the only one to find this formula.

I don’t recall if the formula was ever hinted at, even in passing or by the use of ingredients.  The novella is short enough, if I but had time, I should read it again for a hint.  As it stands, it is a slight rewrite of my own to make a certain crop of Opium more odious than the standard, and one that strains credibility just a little bit.  Baron Larksley could always be a chemist or alchemist, searching for ways to unlock powerful new potions as Dr. Jekyll had done.  Maybe, more credibly, the Baron had a chemist on staff, sleeping in the guest quarters where he would be comfortable.

Splitting the personalities up now works a little better as there are people, genuine human beings, conversing, and leaving records of conversations, journals, and remnants of power struggles between them.  A little taste of Umbrella, that’s what it is.  But we will want to keep the character apart and different; the conflict for the PCs to truly fear will be the criminal organization that is in the background, and will not admit to their misconduct easily.

But through it all, there is a chemical extract from the opium drug, and it was used in the Larksley Manor to turn all of the residents into Hydes.  But should it be all of the residents, including the servants?

Another idea is percolating, that the Hyde drug was only the start, and that more powerful extracts are still possible.  As the manor is taken over by hateful little brutes of pure evil, the servants are exposed to still more dangerous.  

More tomorrow (I hope).