Bookhounds of London: Customers

So who's trip-trapping on your bridge?

I'm running Bookhounds again, and the Dragon's Eye is the latest bookstore to open up on the edges of Soho. I'm drawing on some old Victorian scenarios for inspiration, on the grounds that whoever was knocking around in 1890 is probably still knocking around in 1930, only with longer beards and greyer hair. Those old favorites The Golden Dawn (Pagan Publishing) and Dark Designs are getting an airing, because the players want Arabesque with a hint of Arthurian lore, and both those books have that in spades.

So far the player with the Bad Luck drive is being very accommodating … I may have to design some kind of Keeper's Award for Most Willing to Cripple Self.

As is often the case, I have some notes I intend to recycle for the campaign, and while I'm not about to post anything the players might get an advantage from were they to see it, I thought you might find these customer notes useful. None of these are intended to be campaign-altering NPCs, but they may be handy if, like me, you need someone to step in on the fly.

Stuart Phillips-Rouse

Category: Client

Physical: Neat, trim build, with the proportions of a trained dancer. He always wears a suit and a Regimental Guards tie. He smokes French cigarettes, a habit that he says he picked up in the War. He may be in his forties, but it’s a very well preserved forties. He is clean shaven, dark haired, with no scars or distinguishing features.

Location: His London offices are at Tottenham Court. He has a ‘place out in the country’, a cottage in Metro-land. He works as an independent financial advisor, and has a reasonable (if not luxurious) income from a number of middle-class clients. He has two staff, Evelyn Smythe (office manager) and Parker Noyes (clerk and general dogsbody). He wears no wedding ring.

Interests: Spiritualism and ghosts. He can be sold almost anything on those topics, and seems to be an indiscriminating client. However he has recently become very interested in getting a copy of the King In Yellow, a text that he has heard about from a fellow collector.

Credit Rating: 4

Richard Middlemark

Physical: Tall, imposing, with a shock of thick white hair. He has a fondness for Victoriana, and this extends to his dress sense. He is rarely without his cane, a thick (reinforced metal) mahogany stick with a faun’s head carved into the grip. He wears glasses most of the time, though he only needs them for reading. He has a neat, short beard, which covers over a two inch scar on his chin and neck.

Location: He works as a curator for the National Portrait Gallery; his knowledge of pre-Raphaelite painters is unparalleled.  His home is in Greenwich.

Interests: He is particularly keen on Golden Dawn ephemera, and will be interested in anything to do with Enochian magic.

Credit Rating: 4

Theodora Eks

Physical: Short, red hair, clipped close and slicked down. She has pale porcelain skin and bright blue eyes. She usually wears trousers and men’s open collar shirts. She always wears a wedding ring (though she never talks about her husband) and a peculiar gold necklace with an odd Oriental pendant (Mythos: an emblem of the Lloligor). She has been a painter’s model in her time, and still has a graceful, full-bodied figure.

Location: No-one has seen her home, but she can usually be found in Soho, especially at night.

Interests: She is fascinated by pagan Gods and rituals, particularly river Gods, and is a knowledgeable medievalist. She will be interested in anything to do with ‘the dragon-gods of the ancients’ [lloligor]. She keeps a ritual temple in the basement of an otherwise ‘abandoned’ house in North London, where she conducts magic ceremonies and sacrifices.

Credit Rating: 6

Patricia Li

Physical: Medium height, thick bodied, with ink-black hair. She usually wears far too much makeup, which makes her appear as though she’s ten years older than she is. She often wears Parisian fashions, of the very latest type, and, though they look dreadful on her, her taste is impeccable. She keeps a poodle, Alphonse, who travels with her everywhere. Though she neither smokes nor drinks, she does take laudanum (on the quiet).

Location: She owns two counting-houses in Chinatown, and is a very well known moneylender in Chinese circles. Her father was as well; she inherited the business. According to gossip, it was Patricia’s mother who actually ran the counting-houses, while the father was a figurehead. When not at either of her businesses, she can usually be found in a gambling club. She is often away, in Paris. Rumor has it that she is connected to the Tongs in some way, but it seems unlikely on the face of it that the Tongs would tolerate a woman in a position of authority. However she does have a number of well-bred young men on her payroll with a peculiar talent for violence.

Interests: She is fascinated by the life and works of von Juntz, and will consider purchasing anything by that author. She collects anything to do with von Juntz – clothing, scraps of hair, portraits, furniture he used to own – and is undiscriminating. She has a room in her house entirely devoted to von Juntz.

Credit Rating: 8

Any of these characters could become important to a scenario, either as the main antagonist or as some kind of patron/source of information. Theodora and Patricia are both fabulously wealthy, the kind of client any Bookstore would want to cultivate, but the characters may want to proceed with caution. Do they really want to get too close to Lloligor-loving Theodora? Is Patricia all that she seems?

Given that my campaign is likely to involve the remnants of the Golden Dawn in some way, Richard Middlemark will be my go-to, at least to start with. After that, who knows where the future may lead?

Enjoy!