Widows of the Mad Mole

(This is vapourware for a game I will probably never run based on the 'Into the Odd' ruleset. I couldn't stop fiddling with it so I'm dumping it here. This is kind of like ripping off a scab.)

Its 1840, and its Liverpool. Joseph Williamson the ‘Mad Mole’ of Edge Hill has died.

This eccentric and wealthy merchant is famous for employing large numbers of unemployed men to excavate a series of tunnels underneath his properties in Edge Hill. Though some of these are thought to have a practical use (one is said to lead from his house to the church so he can walk there privately) most are arranged in a seemingly mad and functionless way.

Original here

Williamson always claimed that these were built to employ the large numbers of men left without work after the Napoleonic war, although that doesn’t quite explain why he had them building functionless tunnel systems instead of anything else.

Williamson was renowned for his odd character, strange disappearances and his poor relationship with his wife. On his death a range of unusual people are called to the vaulted ‘Banqueting Hall’ beneath his house.

All those called are Ladies, or at least, women. Some might be family members or household staff, some could be people Williamson had encountered on the street or in church, or simply people he had read about. Some of those present could be friends or servants of those called.

Regardless, as the will is read, all the women present is given access to Williamsons private tunnel system and ‘a share of the discoveries thereof’.

And as the players explore this tunnel system, they find portals. Each portal leads to a different reality, to Carcosa, Yoon-Suin, Vornheim, Vovoidia, Quelong, Marlinkio, Arthurian England, Mouse-Guard World, Al Quadim, action-movie 80’s Hong Kong and others. Maybe even the Imperium of Man and the Federation. Williamson had a junction to the multiverse beneath his house.

Char-Gen is a hack of ‘Into The Odd’ so who you are depends on how many Hit Points you roll and how big your highest stat is.

Its 3d6 down the line; STR, DEX and WILL, swap two if you want to and then roll a d6 for Hit Points.

There is very little equipment on this list because you are a Victorian Lady. You would’t be expected to have any. You will have to buy it or find it.

	1HP	2HP	3HP	4HP	5HP	6HP
9 or less	Duchess Castlereagh, 13th in Line To The Throne.	Experienced  Medical Doctoress.	Independently Wealthy & Uniquely Beautiful with an Unquestioned Reputation.	Experienced Aristocratic Poisoner (with Poison)	Colonels Widow (Could re-fight Waterloo & win)	Sea Captains Widow (Could circum-navigate the earth)
10	Widow of famed explorer. Speaks five languages.	Lady, enthusiastic horsewoman, houndswoman and huntress.	Lady  kleptomaniac. Can Pick Pockets on a whim.	Delusional sailors daughter brilliantly faking nobility.	Circus-Woman with rope. Costume & juggling sticks.	Irish Maid and Experienced Thief. (has lock picks)
11	Lady and Doctor of  Chemistry	Lady with Gigantic Hound and pistol in her skirts.	Unmarried debutante with famously ‘fine figure’. Climbs like an ape.	Common Poisoner. Five dead husbands.	Gypsy Girl with functional Tarot Deck. Can Dance.	Bakers Wife, gave birth 5 times, immune to fear.
12	Beautiful, seems harmless. 12 years old.	Extremely Beautiful Pre-Raphaelites model. Near destitute.	Former Nun. Pyromaniac, (has matches hidden)	Enthusiastic Methodist. Immune to madness if singing.	Alcoholic Barmaid. Iron constitution.	Put-Upon Shop girl (Rolling Pin hidden)
13	Lady, and experienced boxing fan. (Can ‘read’ Hit Dice)	Lady and Renowned Artist. Exceptional Hair.	Lady and Much-Appreciated authoress. Severe melancholic.	Floozy.	Merchants Wife. Can calculate interest in a jiffy.	Butchers Wife (has cleaver and pig).
14	90 Years Old. Remembers American Rebellion.	Extremely silly young girl.	Husband a wretch. Numerous debts. ide	Pregnant Housemaid. (Married).	Sarcastic Jewess armed with long pin.	Fishwife with One Eye and Plentiful Hooks.
15	Dowager obsessed with her small and useless dog.	Divorced ‘Entertainer’ and Fake Medium.	Dressmaker with abusive husband. Has a knife.	Plain Housemaid with Sapphic Drives.	Housemaid with Husband in gaol.	Serving Girl who weeps too much.
16	Educated Laudanum addict.	Pipe-smoking Beggar-woman.	Half-Chinese Former Prostitute	Insurrectionist Irish Washerwoman	Serving girl with a Hook Hand	Pursued by Violent Husband
17	Escaped Prisoner & experienced cross-dresser.	Spinster. Former Bedlamite. Sees Things.	Current Prostitute & Quadroon.	Old, with Wooden Leg and a shameful dog.	One month pregnant. Unmarried.	Black. Five children to support.
18	Faints Under Stress.	In Staggering Debt.	Obsessive Abolitionist and Hysteric.	Back-street Abortionist ‘Given to the Bottle’.	Hideous Tobacco-Chewing Crone.	Pregnant, Homeless, Black and Mad.