The Whitechapel Golem - Part I

[N.B.: The creature behind this story is one that needs to be discovered by the investigators. Therefore, selling it to your players as "The Whitechapel Golem" will kill the mystery before it's even started. Re-name it as something innocuous for your team, something like "The Whitechapel Slayings", which will make them tend to think of Jack the Ripper instead.]

This is a Gaslight Cthulhu story, based in London, which will suit a party of Investigators who have built up a reputation as explorers into the Unknown. A feature of golem stories is that they are based upon underlying motivations and unexpressed feelings within a community: the creature’s presence and actions are reflexive and difficult to anticipate, and so this is not just another one-on-one smack-down against a gnarly monster. The party will be up against the manifested force of a community’s sentiment, against which the “monster” is also fighting for its own free will, knowing itself to be an abomination of nature. Tough call.

A feature of all good golem stories is that the creature is undetectable. It appears as a member of the community which it has been created to protect. It thus appears “plausible”, without being “actual”; those amongst whom it moves will know it to be unusual without being something other: the power of the golem is that it is invisible to those whom it has been brought into being to defend. Gustav Meyrink described the golem as like a “lump of fat” within the brain of the community: part of, and yet alien; of, and yet not. This is the kind of strangeness that this story should evoke in the players.

Hooking the Investigators in to this adventure is largely up to the initiative of the Keeper. Here are some rough ideas:

The characters are visiting the store of their tailor, Myron de Witt, to have some clothes made, repaired, or altered. While there, some confusion occurs amongst the staff upon hearing a dreadful piece of news: a fellow tailor by the name of Abraham van der Vat has been discovered murdered horribly in his office, the doors and windows to which were bolted securely from the inside. Two policemen had to break down the door to gain access. Some of the junior staff mutter vaguely about someone they call “The Ghost” and lay the blame by inference at its door;

Or:

The Investigators, who have some reputation as Delvers into the Unknown, are approached by a contingent of tailors, led by Simeon Goldschmitt, who bear strange tidings. A colleague of theirs, they say, has been killed under terrible and mysterious circumstances and they would like the Investigators to look into the matter. The youngest members of the contingent reveal that there is a strange, lurking presence in Whitechapel and that this would seem to be a manifestation of its power;

Or:

One, or all, of the Investigators, witnesses a heated confrontation between an associate of theirs – Lord Henry Batwick – and an argumentative fellow of Jewish persuasion as the Peer tries to enter a hansom cab.

Choosing one of these options requires the taking into consideration of the party’s social status and notoriety, so the Keeper will have to finesse things accordingly.

In the first two instances, the strange tidings and dreadful news are one and the same: Abraham van der Vat, a respected tailor in the East End of London, has been horribly killed while behind locked doors in a room to which there are no other entrances or windows. Of course the peculiarity of such a demise should pique the Investigators’ interests and they will be brought straight into the investigation.

In the third instance the confrontation between the Rabbi and Lord Batwick needs to be resolved. The Rabbi accuses the peer of trying to break the faith of the East End Jews by creating intolerable working conditions for them; Lord Henry insists that his decisions are based purely on economic necessity and that he sees no need to change them because certain customers disagree with them: he insists that he will accommodate his clients up to a point but, if they disapprove, they are free to go elsewhere.

Questioning the two will reveal the depth of the divide between them: Lord Henry becomes more stolid and intractable as the Rabbi becomes more heated and vituperative. The nature of their dispute is that Batwick is using his wool mills in London’s north to process linen, imported from his holdings in Ireland; according to the Talmud, these two fabrics are considered spiritually unclean if combined in any way, and the Rabbi is convinced that Lord Henry is not doing all he can to prevent contamination of his product under the new regime. The Rabbi demands reversion to the old business model; Lord Henry stands his ground.

The Rabbi produces a pamphlet advertising a meeting of Jewish tailors of the East End, at which time they will discuss the new arrangements and what can be done about them; he declares this to be proof of the seeds of dissent that Batwick is sowing. Batwick by now has reached a point where he has had enough of the other gentleman and chooses to say nothing in rebuttal; however if pressed by the Investigators, he will state quite bluntly that his own people are also attending the meeting to discuss the issue and its resolution, and thus the Rabbi is simply spouting hot air to no good effect, and in order – in the Lord’s opinion – to cause a deplorable scene. The Rabbi becomes even more livid at this remark and storms off, declaring that Lord Batwick “will pay for his high-handedness!”.

The Investigators, left with Lord Henry, may offer to help in some way; if so, the Lord asks them to attend the meeting to make sure that “the old religious fellow” doesn’t cause any trouble. If the party doesn’t offer assistance, Lord Henry will use their old connexion to ask for help as outlined.

Meeting in Whitechapel

Having thus hooked the party, the next step is to attend the meeting of the tailors down in Whitechapel. If the players have been brought in by the tailors directly, equip them with the pamphlet and provide them with such information as they might need about the nature of the gathering; if the players are working for Lord Henry, then they will show up at the meeting-place ready to monitor the proceedings. The only difference between the two stagings is that in one instance, the party will know already about the death of Abraham van der Vat before attending, while they will discover this fact at the meeting itself in the latter case.

The meeting takes place at a hall next door to the Pavilion Theatre and Restaurant. The doors are open and light streams out from within, while flaming brands on either side of the entranceway illuminate the street outside. Be-hatted and bearded men of all ages stand around with expressions of concern on their faces.

Inside, the speaker’s podium is vacant and men stand around in huddled conversation. There is an air of tense expectation. In the centre of the room a young man in shirtsleeves wearing a yarmulke is talking to a moustachioed larger man in a bowler hat: both men have obvious associates listening in. If the party have seen the pamphlet already, they will recognise the young man as David Cohen, the leader of the tailors’ group; the men to whom he is speaking are easily identified as non-Jewish by means of an Occult Roll. For those who haven’t seen the pamphlet by now, a poster version of the document is pasted on a sign out on the street, and they will be able to make the connexion with a Spot Hidden Roll at +20%.

If the party approaches this group, they will be introduced to Thomas Bamford who, it transpires, is Lord Henry’s foreman at the wool mills. They will soon discover that a death has occurred under mysterious circumstances (if they don’t know already) and that the body of the deceased tailor has been removed by the police to the nearby police station. Because of this, the meeting has been postponed indefinitely until the murder can be investigated. Psychology Rolls by the Investigators will reveal that there is no rancour or recrimination between the factions gathered here: both parties have concerns about Lord Henry’s sweeping changes, but are keen to find a way forward and to discover a way of working together. Cohen and Bamford seem to be on respectful and almost friendly terms.

As things become clear to the party, a loud yelling starts to make itself heard from outside: in the street, a group of people have gathered and are voicing loud opposition to the changes made by the mills: the preponderance of beards, hats, and headscarves makes it clear to everyone that these are members of the local Jewish community. Their objections are nebulous but strident and seem to be directed not just at the changes to the mills and at their owner, but also at David Cohen’s desire to find a way to work with the new arrangement. Listen Rolls will hear the word “shatnez” used repeatedly. Fists are shaken and Tom Bamford is spat upon by some of the women. When David Cohen steps forward to ask for calm, a cobblestone hits him squarely in the forehead and he collapses, unconscious, into the street.

At this point, a cry rings out and a woman leaps forward from the darkness, but demonstrably not from within the mob. She rushes to David’s aid and shields him from further attack with her body. This is Ruth Maylott who will become an important player later on. She asks the party for assistance (if they haven’t leapt into action by now) and beseeches their help to take David to the local police station.

The Cop Shop

The police station is quite close and the party will make their way there fairly quickly. Upon entering they will see a sergeant at the front desk in raised conversation with the Rabbi who they may have encountered earlier. He will break off from his tirade to stare, aghast, at Ruth and the unconscious David Cohen. It is at this point that the party discovers that Ruth is the Rabbi’s daughter. Rabbi Maylott is arguing for the release of the dead tailor’s body: according to Jewish law, interment needs to take place with expedition, and the Rabbi believes that the police are dragging their feet out of disrespect for his faith.

Psychology Rolls reveal that the Rabbi has little time for Cohen and that he dislikes the concern that Ruth is displaying for him; a successful roll also reveals that the police sergeant is not unused to being berated by the cleric. Rabbi Maylott calls Cohen a “troublemaker”, a “collaborator”, and considers him untrue to his faith. Ruth retaliates stridently against these charges and that Psychology Roll will indicate, also, that she harbours some strong affection for the tailor.

The invective of the Rabbi can be cut short by the intervention of the police medic who appears to take Cohen to the infirmary. If the party is still carrying the unconscious man, or assisting in some other way, they will enter a room lined with white tiles and fitted out with two autopsy slabs, on one of which is the body of a man curled into a foetal position and lying on its side. This is the body of the mysteriously-killed Abraham van der Vat.

The doctor in charge here will not appreciate anybody examining the victim without first asking his permission; however, he will be amenable to polite inquiries, especially from any party members who have medical or judicial backgrounds. While he treats Cohen’s injury, he will invite such characters to “make an assessment of the corpse”.

Making Medical or First Aid Rolls, the investigating characters will quickly spot that the body is in the late stages of rigor mortis and that the general rigidity of the limbs is starting to wear off. The arms and legs can be moved slightly but are still reasonably fixed. The body is still clothed, as the balled-up position of the victim hasn’t allowed the clothes to be removed. The legs are curled up tightly to the chest with the left arm folded across the torso behind the thighs; the other arm is lifted upwards to protect the head. Examination reveals that the right wrist has been completely dislocated. The victim’s eyes are protuberant and heavily bloodshot; his neck has been broken, seemingly as if dragged downwards and forward with steady pressure. Further examination will reveal crushed ribs, a dislocated jaw, and broken ankles, the feet folded-up cruelly beneath the buttocks. With an Idea Roll, a character will reach a conclusion that the tailor was crushed to death, by pressure brought to bear inwards from all directions. Ligature marks criss-cross the corpse giving a clue to some process involved that could achieve this grisly end, but no immediate method will present itself to the Investigators’ minds.

While the players bat this information around, David Cohen will regain consciousness and occupy their attention once more.

Faith and Fabric

In the Bible, Cain and Abel both make sacrifices to Yahweh, from the bounty of their farming endeavours: Cain offers a sacrifice of grain; Abel sacrifices a sheep. Yahweh approves of Abel’s offering but not Cain’s, leading the jealous farmer to kill his brother. This story, which is common to both the Christian and Jewish faiths, is said to be the reason for the ban on combining wool and linen fabric into the one garment – woven animal and vegetable fabrics don’t mix, according to Leviticus 19:19. There are subtle refinements to this, but this combination of material is at the heart of the drama unfolding here.

Fabric which combines linen and wool is called “shatnez” and is prohibited under Hebrew Law. The Rabbi’s concern is that, if Lord Henry weaves both linen and wool on the same looms in his mills, contamination will occur and the tailors who work with such fabric will be brought into spiritual danger. Rabbi Maylott has, as the spiritual leader of a community of tailors, trained many young men from the yeshiva in the process of identifying shatnez material; he is willing to use these experts to force Lord Henry’s production process to a standstill, by rejecting every bolt which emerges from his looms as being spiritually impure.

David Cohen would rather work with Lord Henry and his men, perhaps identifying particular looms for use only with linen and only with wool, or adopting some kind of cleaning regimen after use. He thinks that the Rabbi is determined to make some kind of political mileage out of the situation against Lord Batwick, but David thinks that this will only be more harmful to the Whitechapel community in the long term. If Ruth is out of earshot, he will quietly state that he thinks the Rabbi is trying to extort fees out of the mills by insisting that his experts examine each bolt of fabric made there and charge for the privilege. This reveals that he perceives a level of greed backing the Rabbi’s actions but he certainly will not express such sentiments while Maylott’s daughter might overhear.

Back To The Streets...

There’s a lot of technical and interpersonal stuff for the party to mull over as they depart the police station. There is more, however:

As they leave the building into the foggy night, have them all make Spot Hidden Rolls: those who are successful, will see a large burly figure standing in the shadows, watching them as they leave. A particularly successful roll will see the shadowy face of this figure seem to move and writhe in a rather nasty fashion. If they draw David or Ruth’s attention to this shadowy presence, neither of them (along with any Jewish party members or NPCs) will be able to see it at all – they see just a bunch of pea-soup fog drifting by. Once spotted however, the figure bolts into the night.

If the party sets off in pursuit (and what kind of party would not?), the figure lumbers away into the night, arms flailing and coat flapping. It tries to keep to the shadows and seems remarkably familiar with the terrain. Have the party make Spot Hidden rolls: the heavily-moving figure makes almost no sound as it runs, certainly not the amount of noise one would expect booted feet to make on cobbled streets. If any party member chooses to shoot at the fleeing watcher, let them try: even a highly successful shot will not appear to have any effect.

The figure runs up Thomas Street, off Whitechapel Road towards the workhouse at the far end. The party may be delighted to see that the gates of the workhouse are chained shut for the night and that there doesn’t appear to be anywhere that their quarry could effectively hide. However, the figure doesn’t slow down and, when it seems as though it must slam heavily into the barred gates, it simply passes straight through...like a ghost!

Examination of the gates proves that they are well bolted and chained with a secure padlock; logic would suggest that, even if they weren’t fastened shut when the figure passed through, they are too physically heavy to have been swung open and then forcibly closed without making noise and slowing the creature down. It’s a mystery!

“The Ghost”

If at any time the party questions various NPCs about references to “The Ghost”, they receive various garbled theories and statements about it. It hangs around peoples’ houses, they say, peering in windows; it has been known to follow people in the streets at night; some have heard that it breaks into peoples’ homes somehow and moves their furniture or possessions; many just say that there is a “weird feeling” in Whitechapel, which started a few days ago. Investigators will notice – with an Idea Roll, say – that only the young people in the district seem to be noticing these events, and that no-one has actually seen anything of consequence.

*****

Lord Henry Batwick

Lord Henry has extensive landholdings both in Ireland and England. Lord Henry’s fortune resides in textiles: cotton from India; linen from Ireland and English wool. He is keen to utilise any opportunity to move his product and has welcomed the approach of the Jewish rag-traders in Whitechapel to market his cloth. Their religious peccadilloes bother him not at all, as long as they keep up the demand. How this turnover should be conducted, he leaves to his foreman, Tom Bamford – Lord Henry is not a ‘details man’.

Lord of Linen

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	11	POW	15	Age	63
CON	12	DEX	9	HP	13
SIZ	14	APP	10	Magic Points	15
INT	15	EDU	18	SAN	75

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon:       Walking Cane: 25%

Armour:        None

Skills:             Accountancy 85%; Credit Rating 105%; Law 85%

Spells             None

SAN Loss       It costs no SAN to see Lord Batwick

Rabbi Yeshua Maylott

The rabbi is a devout man and borders on extreme orthodoxy. He has very strong opinions about his religion and the culture from which it stems: he cannot abide women going bareheaded for example, whether they are Jewish or not. He fervently believes that the world should be segregated to separate men and women and he will not discuss business or education with women. This makes him very difficult to talk to. Rabbi Yeshua is also extremely proud of his roots and chafes against the British establishment and the fact that it will not recognise his family’s high-class European origins, no matter the state to which he has been reduced at present.

Recently, the rabbi has become aware that the looms at several mills owned by Jewish consortiums in Whitechapel are being used to weave linen as well as wool and cotton. He has become incensed by this and demands that the practise be abolished: as far as he is concerned weaving wool and linen on the same looms is tantamount to making shatnez and he will not tolerate it. He has trained many students at the yeshiva in the methods of detecting shatnez fabric and he intends to use their skills to impede the flow of material from Lord Henry’s mills into Whitechapel, and thus force a reconciliation in his favour. There is a pecuniary side to this as well: if Lord Henry is willing – or is forced - to pay to have his fabric examined before being placed on sale, that works for the rabbi also; if he can score points off the British peerage, he’s all for it.

Rabbi Maylott has a daughter named Ruth who is in love with David Cohen, a tailor in the district. This fellow has vested interests in the weaving business and hopes to resolve any conflicts with the mills. Unfortunately, the rabbi dislikes the notion of anyone trying to work with Lord Batwick, and will certainly impede any romantic notions which Ruth may harbour.

Rabid Rabbi

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	12	POW	15	Age	62
CON	12	DEX	12	HP	13
SIZ	13	APP	11	Magic Points	15
INT	17	EDU	20	SAN	50

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon:       Fists

Armour:        None

Skills:             Talmudic Law 90%;

Spells             None

SAN Loss       It costs no SAN to see the Rabbi

David Cohen – Whitechapel tailor

David is dedicated to his trade and seeks to improve his lot, and that of his fellow tailors. He has invested heavily in the Batwick Mills and works closely with Tom Bamford to access the high quality fabrics which the mills manufacture. David is not a union man, but he does see the benefits of the entire Whitechapel tailoring community sharing the benefits of organisation while minimising the negatives of being a sole trader.

David is fairly hard-nosed in terms of conducting business, but he is also altruistic and willing to extend a helping hand to those in need: a life lived in Whitechapel has made him well-aware of the sorts of hardship and injustice which the streets can generate. In this regard, he has a fellow traveller in Ruth Maylott, the rabbi’s oldest daughter, and he is determined to make a good impression on her father in order to ask for her hand in marriage.

The Guy

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	13	POW	13	Age	29
CON	13	DEX	15	HP	12
SIZ	10	APP	13	Magic Points	13
INT	14	EDU	17	SAN	65

Damage Bonus: +/-0

Weapon:       Fist

Armour:        None

Skills:             Accountancy 65%; Bargain 70%; Sew 85%

Spells             None

SAN Loss       It costs no SAN to see David (unless he’s been horribly murdered)

Ruth Maylott [Rabbi’s Daughter]

Strong-willed and determined, Ruth often finds herself at loggerheads with her father, in whom she sees a willingness to adhere to the letter, rather than to the spirit, of the Hebrew laws. Ruth embraces a less orthodox worldview and bridles beneath her father’s tyranny.

Ruth dreams of marrying David Cohen and winning free of her father, but she is aware that she needs to tread carefully in order to win his approval.

The Girl

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	11	POW	15	Age	23
CON	13	DEX	12	HP	12
SIZ	10	APP	13	Magic Points	15
INT	15	EDU	18	SAN	75

Damage Bonus: +/-0

Weapon:       Fist

Armour:        None

Skills:             Bargain 65%; First Aid 55%; Sew 75%

Spells             None

SAN Loss       It costs no SAN to see Ruth

Thomas Bamford [Factory Foreman]

Tom Bamford knows mills and millworkers; as well, he knows tailors and drapers, and works to integrate his customers into the smooth-working, well-oiled machine of his factories. Tom is stolid and unimaginative, but open-minded and fair in his dealings: he doesn’t understand the Jewish worldview and its restrictions, but is willing to hear of any problems and work to resolve them. However, his first loyalty is to Lord Henry and he won’t countenance his master’s needs falling by the wayside...

Hapless Foreman

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	17	POW	14	Age	38
CON	17	DEX	10	HP	17
SIZ	16	APP	9	Magic Points	14
INT	15	EDU	10	SAN	70

Damage Bonus: +1d6

Weapon:       Club: 50%; Fist: 70%; Kick: 60%; Head Butt: 45%

Armour:        None

Skills:             Accountancy 75%; Bargain 75%; Mechanical Repair 85%

Spells             None

SAN Loss       It costs no SAN to see Tom Bamford

*****