Assignment: The Radio Ripper
General Summary
The Circle of Chaos & Ash investigates a brutal murder in Red Lamp. They uncovered a serial killer using a Grim Radio to listen to the screams of his victims as he mutilated them postmortem.
This assignment took place on Late Autumn 15, 1907, into the early morning hours of Late Autumn 16, 1907.
Hook
We enter on the streets of Red Lamp, so late into the night it is closer to morning. A crimson haze fills the air as the light from the eponymous lamps seeps into the fog slowly rolling in from the Stentorian River. Few souls can be found on the cobblestone streets at this hour, though there is plenty of liveliness just inside the doors of each establishment along the main road. Laughter and shouting alike echo from The Library, an ironically loud burlesque club and casino.
We turn our focus to The Delicate Touch, a well-established brothel that serves a fair clientele. Not so prolific as Faire Play, but well-maintained and comfortable for the more discerning pleasure seeker. We follow a woman as she exits from a side door, her lipstick smeared at the corners of her mouth and a slight wobble to her gait. Tonight was a good night, and her shift has ended.
She turns one corner and then the next, confidence in every step. A figure lurks only a short distance behind, a masculine silhouette in the shadows of the buildings. He times his steps with the woman, a careful dance in the night. Her heel catches in the cobbles and she stumbles. Only a moment, but just out of time. She hears a footstep behind her and turns.
A glint of metal in the red light.
A scream cut short.
Blood flows between the cobblestones, washed out by the glow of the lamps.
As we leave this gruesome scene, we can hear the man hum a nameless tune.
There is a brief static, and then the woman's voice screams again.
Arrival
The Circle of Chaos & Ash arrives in the early, pre-dawn light to Chapman St. and the scene of the terrible murder of Elizabeth Eddowes. Much of the area has been sectioned off by officers of the Periphery, and they are not allowing any un-uniformed person more than twenty feet to the body, currently hidden under a bloodstained cloth. A handful of citizens are in the area, most of whom are being question. The Circle does not currently see officers of the OUP, but Sylvia, their Lightkeeper, has sent them to investigate nonetheless.
"Something is off about this murder" was all she could say.
With Pierce Hunter unavailable due to a work assignment investigating a recent bank robbery, the Circle was left without their usual means of approach. Fortunately, Charlie recognized one of the officers as Elijah Mason, a Periphery officer who would take bribes from the McGrath family to look the other way in their dealings. She slipped him 20 bills to learn that the victim's name was Elizabeth Eddowes, there were two vicious murders like this last month, and there was a strange mark on her neck above the slashes that killed her. The marks looked like two small parallel lines, with a slight burn in the flesh. Charlie took this information back to the group, and Arthur instantly thought the marks might be related to electrical burns, but couldn't be sure without examining the body himself. He gave Charlie 2 bills with which to bribe the officer again, knowing that bribery was the name of the game but unknowing that the going rate was in fact much higher. Charlie did not have the heart to tell him, and she pocketed the 2 bills and replaced then with two 20 bill notes.
Charlie passed the money over to Officer Mason, along with forged documents and a verbal statement that she and her group had been asked to consult on this particular case. Elijah took the money and gave them access to the body so long as they "don't tamper with the crime scene."
Arthur lifted the sheet covering the body enough for the Circle to view the damage, but still keep her covered from onlookers. Elizabeth Eddowes had two deep slash marks in her throat that appeared to be the cause of death, with the strange parallel marks just above them. These marks looked as though the killer had plugged a power cord into the body postmortem. Her lower abdomen was terribly mutilated, including multiple deep stabbing and slash marks to her stomach and genitalia, and her uterus was crudely removed. Arthur was able to tell that all of the damage had been done by the same sharp instrument, likely a knife, but with no degree of precision. Additionally, there was an abnormally large pool of blood around her body, and her skin was almost completely white, as though every drop of her blood had been removed. Everyone in the group was inflicted with a Brain mark at the mental strain of seeing such carnage, but Arthur used smelling salts to help himself remain composed.
Cy Barret used his Bleed Detector to shine light over the crime scene, which emitted a faint orange glow around the "plug" marks on Elizabeth's throat and the pool of her blood. Whatever had exsanguinated her body had been the result of a phenomenon.
With this part of their investigation concluded, the Circle departed for The Newfaire Morgue in the Silverslip to learn more about the previous two victims.
Exploration
Upon arrival at The Newfaire Morgue, the Circle encountered Dr. Marley, a mortician who was very forthcoming with information. Arthur presented himself as a professor guiding students through a research project and requested the files of two murders a month ago, and described what he could remember from a newspaper article on the deaths. Dr. Marley provided him with the autopsy files on Annie Nichols and Mary Ann Kelly. After reviewing the files, the group was able to determine that all three women were fairly young (ranging from their late 20s go early 30s) and brunette, but little other physical resemblance. They also found that Annie and Mary Ann both worked at The Delicate Touch.
The Circle returned to Red Lamp district and entered The Delicate Touch. Charlie, completely at ease in her aunt's establishment, went directly upstairs towards Natalie Blanc's office. Eddy went to speak to the bartender on staff that morning to make sure Natalie was in today, while both Arthur and Cy were quite uncomfortable with being inside a brothel. Arthur had only had eyes for Betty, and often had a difficult time engaging with other people, and Cy was unused to speaking with beautiful women (besides Charlie) and therefore felt very out of place.
While upstairs, Charlie spoke with her aunt and learned that Elizabeth Eddowes was indeed one of the girls on her staff, and had only been hired two weeks prior. She also learned that the previous two murders had occurred one night after the other, and that Natalie had insisted on her staff not walking home alone. That had become lax as the weeks had gone without incident. Eddy, Arthur and Cy all entered the office shortly after and began discussing what happened with Natalie as well. She turned over the girls' log sheets of customers so the Circle could compare for commonalities, but they were unable to find any that all three girls had shared. Natalie was able to report that all three women had done light bondage work. While Eddy and Arthur were looking over the logs, Charlie tried to sneak out but was caught and Arthur suggested Cy go with her to help the other staff members with security details to better protect the establishment and workers. Charlie was able to locate one of her favorite ladies in the lobby, a charismatic redhead named Lilith, and pushed her towards Cy to keep him distracted with talk of security while she went to do her own business.
Charlie spotted Nilo Crawford, a scarlet runner who had recently come under her employ in the past month as she has started to enter the scarlet scene. Nilo was able to report to her that the shipment the night before went well. Charlie then went back upstairs to her own office, where she looked over her previous records. She found that a month ago, in Mid Autumn, she had a shipment of scarlet come in the same night that Eddy had a shipment of artifacts, one of which had gone missing. She also picked up a small, pretty stone from her desk and brought it with her.
Arthur and Eddy went to the room that Elizabeth had utilized the night before, though it had already been cleaned. Eddy took out his Bleed Detector, which operates like a compass, pointing in the direction of the nearest source of bleed. The compass was inert, indicating that there was no bleed to be detected in the room. Their searching uncovered various implements of the trade within a brothel, but little else.
Charlie returned to Cy and slipped the stone in his pocket for him to find later, as he was speaking very animatedly to Lilith about a recent excursion into Oldfaire he had done. Arthur and Eddy joined them after they had searched the rooms upstairs. With little to go on, the Circle split up to pursue different ideas. Arthur and Cy went back to the Chapter House together to attempt to research possible causes of the bleed and marks inflicted on Elizabeth's body, while Charlie and Eddy conversed over the overlapping shipments they had had.
Escalation
Charlie and Eddy called a meeting with Nilo Crawford and another scarlet runner named Chester Hansen. Both were on the scarlet run that Charlie had had the month prior. When the time came for the meeting, only Nilo showed up. The twins cut an intimidating presence, and he quickly revealed that he had only worked with Chester a handful of times prior, and that he had seen Chester take something from the other shipment, not realizing they were artifacts. He hadn't thought anything of the other man taking a "creep-ass radio", and therefore had not reported on it. The twins let Nilo go with a warning to report next time something goes missing, as well as a word of warning from Charlie about cutting his scarlet habit.
At the mention of the radio, Eddy was able to review his ledger and find that he had indeed not received the Grim Radio that he had ordered. He did not have information on what it did, and would need to reach out to the black market broker who had sold it to him, Beatrice Morton. Eddy gave her a call, during which she belittled him for purchasing goods he did not understand. With the exchange of information, she told him that the Grim Radio allows one to plug in to a dead body and hear the deceased voice. She told him, "If you're lucky, you get to ask it a question; if you're very lucky, you get three." In return, Eddy gave her the information she asked for regarding politician Alex Mbeki and their recent dealings with running scarlet into Hallowharbor.
Climax
The Circle reconvened at The Delicate Touch, where the twins shared with Arthur and Cy what they learned about the radio and Chester Hansen, though they carefully omitted their own involvement. With the knowledge that the artifact was a radio, Arthur was able to create a makeshift radio frequency detector, operated by hand crank, that would allow them to track where the radio might be once it comes into range. They waited outside the side door of The Delicate Touch well into the night, until the shift ended near one in the morning and some of the women began leaving. Two brunettes, Catherine Stride and Kelly Tabram, exited at the same time and walked together for a ways, but then split off in opposite directions, disregarding Natalie Blanc's instructions to stay together.
The Circle followed Catherine, as the radio frequency detector gave a signal in her direction. She turned another corner, out of their sight for only a moment, but it was long enough to hear her scream. They all ran after her, but by the time they turned the corner, she was dead in the street, and Chester Hansen was just plugging the Grim Radio into her throat. Static began emitting from the radio, but before he could tune it to Catherine's voice, Cy rushed at him, brass knuckles brandished, and clocked him in the side of the head. Chester hit the ground as Eddy ran up to kick him, but was able to roll away and get back on his feet before Eddy's shoe made contact. As he stood, they were able to see tiny, red, whispy creatures fluttering around Chester, as though drawn to him like moths to a flame. Charlie threw herself at Chester, hands around his throat to hold him in a grapple where he stood. He clawed at her fingers as the Whispers fluttered around her and one touched her cheek. She felt her control slipping as her rage intensified, and took a mark of Bleed.
Arthur unplugged the radio from Catherine's body and the static stopped, and all the blood rushed from her body. He stood and drew his pistol, loaded with rubber bullets, and took aim at Chester Hansen's head with the intent to knock him unconscious with a well-placed shot. The bullet connected, and Hansen went limp in Charlie's hands. The Whispers tried to convince her to kill him with her bare hands, but Arthur appealed to her better nature, and she let him go. The Whispers took a final parting shot at Charlie, calling her worthless and inflicted a Bleed mark on her again, but this time she had the presence of mind to use her Obsidian Ward to soak the damage.
Cy picked up the radio from the ground to claim it for Candela Obscura, and then went to check on the mark Charlie had received on her cheek.
Resolution
The circle dragged Chester Hansen's unconscious body to the Chapter House to turn him over for questioning by Candela Obscura, at Arthur's insistence. Cy also turned the Grim Radio over to Sylvia, and it became a resource they could have access to should the need arise in the course of a future investigation.
While in their Chapter House, after Cy and Eddy had left, Arthur approached Charlie and had an emotional conversation in which he revealed his involvement in The Electric Event that ended The Last Great War, as well as the death of Betty. He again appealed to her better nature to keep her good heart with good intentions, and to not let her anger get the better of her.
After Chester was released from Candela Obscura, Charlie had him picked up by one of her most trusted men, and brought to one of her hideouts in Hallowharbor. There, she spent days torturing and interrogating him to find out who he worked for and why he went after the women working at The Delicate Touch. All she learned was that he had hatred towards women and sex workers specifically, and that he was working alone. He revealed that the Whispers told him how to use the Grim Radio, but it was clear that they could only augment the negative emotions of a person, not create them. At the end of the interrogation, Charlie ensured Chester Hansen would never be seen or heard from again.
Circle Resources Used
- Arthur: Train & Refresh
- Eddy: Refresh (unable to spend time deciphering notes from Charlie)
- Charlie: Stitch
- Cy: Train & Stitch
Rewards Granted
- Grim Radio (Circle Gear)
Character(s) interacted with
- Elijah Mason (an officer of the Periphery who takes bribes from the McGrath family)
- Marley (a mortician in The Newfaire Morgue)
- Natalie Blanc (owner of The Delicate Touch brothel; Charlie and Eddy's aunt on their father's side)
- Nilo Crawford (a scarlet runner, newly contracted with Charlie)
- Lilith (one of the working girls in The Delicate Touch; a charismatic redhead)
- Beatrice Morton (black market artifact broker)
Copyright: This product was created using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. The Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document is owned and copyrighted by Darrington Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
Attribution: This product is based on the following Public Game Content created and owned by Darrington Press: Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document, Darrington Press, LLC, 2023, available at https://darringtonpress.com.
License: The Public Game Content identified above is licensed via the Darrington Press Community Gaming License available at https://darringtonpress.com.
Modification: The Public Game Content has not been modified by the author.
