Here's a little something to keep you occupied until the game starts. Every time I create something new for Longchester, be it a list or a map or something else entirely, I'll update this post with these informations.
I am currently working on a district map and info maps for Longchester. They are nearly finished and I'll post a link to them here once they are ready. I could of course post the maps here, but they are so big that it would be more practical I think if I wouldn't.
I have finished writing down information about Longchester legends. Vampires, Werewolves, Mages and what-not have their own views on these legends which are not posted here. I'll send those views to every player playing a character belonging to a certain group of supernaturals, so the players playing vampires will get the Vampires' views PMed to them etc. There are also more information about the people and places of Longchester. These information are known by any common man living in the town.
The district map.
The info maps:
Human/Ghost
Longchester is full of life (amazingly enough) and legends. Because Longchester’s legends play a big part in this game, players should know a little something about these legends.
Scarecrow is the most renowned and oldest legend in Longchester. He has disappeared and resurfaced again and again. The legend says that where the Fieldriver district is there was once a large corn field (hence the name Fieldriver) owned by a farmer. Although it was a very big field, only one scarecrow served the duty of holding the crows away and for unknown reasons that was all that took for the whole field. Some stories say that the farmer had killed his wife, chopped her up and hid in the scarecrow, while other say that the scarecrow was only dressed in the clothes the farmer’s brother was murdered in. When the farmer died the town bought the field and created the Fieldriver district on that very spot, in honor of the farmer some say. But from that day people have gone missing in the district, and few turned up with great cuts. Few who walked there by night say they have smelled decay and soil at the exact same moment as they have felt great chills through their spines. One version of the story says that the Scarecrow haunts the streets of the district because he knows that the town’s council poisoned the farmer to get the field to build on, while another says that the farmer’s wife animates the Scarecrow in search of her murderous husband.
The Fieldriver holds another legend, namely the legend of the
Fieldriver Lady. Not as big of a legend as the Scarecrow, but well known among the older generations. The Fieldriver Lady died in this district shortly after it was made. During the WWI, a woman fell in love with a soldier but her heart broke when she got news of his death. Being alone and heartbroken drove her mad for weeks before she finally took her own life in the river that runs by the district and gives it its name. Ever since, the Fieldriver Lady can be heard if you stand by the river. Some have even claimed to have seen her. It is said that if you are unlucky enough to see her, she will either seduce you to share her fate in the river or else drive you insane.
The Longchester Hospital for the Insane holds one legend. After it closed down it was inhabitated mostly by junkies and addicts who claim they saw a ghost of a doctor. For obvious reasons these stories were mostly dismissed, but the legend of the
Demon of Longchester Asylum lived on. He is said to have been an insane murderer who made needless operations on his patients. It is said that when they finally got the evidence to lock him up he suddenly burst into flames and died with a grin that haunted the dreams of every policeman at the scene until they were driven insane and committed suicide one by one. Since the Asylum reopened just recently due to overcrowding in the town's primary hospital, more and more of the patients have claimed to see “the unseen doctor”. One thing is for certain: not everybody is happy about that place being open again, legend or no legend.
The
Lonchester Beast is only just a recent legend. Handful of people have claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature standing up on its hind legs in the woods, and some say they have seen it in the alleys or even the streets. Since they have only seen glimpses of this creature, and it has never been captured, the stories have mostly been dismissed. Regardless, more citizens of Longchester have heard the beast’s howls in the middle of the night than have actually claimed to have seen it.
The is a story told by the children in the Havens (another district). The story has usually been told by a friend to a friend of a friend. No parent knows why this story hasn’t yet died out, since no grownup tells this story to another. The story is about the
Doll, a child-like thing made of wood and cloth. The story has its similarities with the story of Pinocchio, but with much darker tone. The most famous version of the story, that which most children know, is that a woman once wanted a child very bad so one night she kidnapped a child from her street. But the child did not want to stay with the woman, and when the wailing and the crying became too loud, the woman accidentally struck the child too hard. When the boy (sometimes it’s a girl) didn’t wake up again she didn’t know what to do except to make him into a doll. But before the doll could wake up, the police found out what she had done and arrested her. The doll woke up but his mother was not there. Time passed and his mother never came. New people moved into the house so he had to hide. And those people moved out and others moved in, but the doll hid and waited for the mother that never came. The children in the Havens say they can sometimes hear the doll call for his mother, but the grownups say they can’t hear it. They are just too afraid to admit it.
There are several people and places in Longchester that the PCs should know.
First, there is the mayor,
James Fairhaven. He boasts about being the last descendant of
Abraham Fairhaven, the “town’s greatest benefactor” who saw to it that most of the town was actually built, such as the Fieldriver district and the Longchester Hospital for the Insane. There are stories about him taking bribes and frequently visiting an unauthorized brothel in the Fieldriver district (which is the sole reason why that place has never been closed down).
Scarlett Hearts is said brothel. The place is run by an old woman who is named
Gwendolen Thatcher, also known as
Baba Yaga, although that nickname has never been an insult to her. Dirty officials can be found there, if anywhere. Baba Yaga knowns whom to bring to the brothel and the right discount to avoid being shut down. Baba’s girls will serve any man, woman and beast (metaphorically speaking... of course).
Longchester Hospital for the Insane, also called Longchester Asylum, has only just reopened thanks to Mayor Fairhaven (some say he did it through bribes). Although only recently reopened, it is now home to all the biggest looneys of town. Some say they have seen horrible monsters in the night, others suffer from severe insomnia. Some things that have been seen, unlikely as it may sound, hold more truth than others suspect. The new head-doctor of the Asylum is
Frederick Einhart, only just arrived after his predecessor hung himself in his office a week ago.
Longchester University is one of the proudest in England. The new dorms and the new south wing is only part of what the town’s expenses have been put into (while the Fieldriver district is as bad as ever). The Lonchester Uni’s greatest possession is the
Longchester Library which Chancellor
Samuel Holms has personally gathered most books for. Chancellor Holms prides his university for having some of the oldest books and tomes ever available in a British university, some with well over 1000 years old texts. Most of the original of the oldest books are only to be displayed and exhibitions are held occasionally. Most of the texts have been rewritten for better access by students, so they can read what the old tomes say without actually having to open the real tomes. Characters get a +3 bonus on any Mental Skill rolls while researching in this library.
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