I think most of you who read these posts should know the drill by now, but for anyone new coming in, this is an ongoing series of short adventure hooks you can drop into just about any 1879 campaign to fill gaps and create an adventure. If you missed it, check out the last one here.
41. While in transit on a long train ride, there are a series of murders committed under mysterious circumstances. The train is locked down and investigations are under way, but to complicate things, evidence that would implicate the players keeps ending up in their possessions. Clearly someone is trying to frame them – can they get to the bottom of it and clear their names before they end up in custody?
42. An eccentric but reportedly capable Lovelace has made an announcement that they have developed an Engine program that is able to use ‘astrological science’ to calculate and predict events in the future. At first these were simply dismissed as another form of tabloid horoscopes, but the longer the program runs, the more specific its predictions have gotten, and have turned out to be correct in some shape or form, and it has started delving into deeper philosophical questions that are beginning to tread into religious territory. The popularity of the machine has gotten out of hand, and an agent of the Anglican Church comes to the party and hires them to put a stop to this machine – by sabotage or discredit – before it gets people blaspheming on matters of existence, the world, and the creation of all things.
43. A mysterious new disease has started making the rounds in the poorer areas of London, mild cases having symptoms of blotched and painful skin patches in the limbs, with severe cases leading to withering of the affected limbs and eventually tissue necrosis. The mechanism behind it has alluded doctors, though one botanist claims it appears to function similar to anthracnose, though how a disease that affects trees could transfer to people is beyond them. Despite the illegality, less reputable bakeries have been known to add small amounts of saw dust to their bread dough to stretch out the volume and line their pockets a bit more – that may be a place to start.
44. Many buildings feature gargoyles, grotesques, and decorative statues as part of their architecture, and for the most part they’ve become so common with old infrastructure that they tend to go ignored. However, since the opening of the Rabbit Hole, more and more people have claimed to have noticed that the figures on buildings are in different poses from day to day. Recently, Scotland Yard has noticed a pattern of mysterious disappearances – all from people who have claimed at some point to have noticed one of these figures in a different pose.
45. The players are approached by a Mr. Fagin representing a private security firm. The contract for one of their larger clients is coming up for renewal, and the client has expressed doubts about the need to continue with their services, so they’re looking to stage a fake break in attempt to encourage them. When the players go to perform the break in, however, none of the guards seem to be aware this is supposed to be staged – they’ll use lethal force and send the peelers after the party at any opportunity.
46. The morning after a particularly thick night fog rolls through London, a barge pulls into one of the south side docks on the Thames. There’s no crew, no signs of damage or struggle, and no record of the ship’s registry. The barge is loaded almost to the point of sinking with heavy wooden crates – all filled with gold.
47. The party awakens one morning outdoors in an unfamiliar location. There are no clues how they got there, and the most any of them can remember is a vague recollection of having gone out to dinner and feeling woozy afterward. Their equipment is gone, and they’re left with a small box with some basic tools and a note congratulating them and explaining that they have been selected to be hunted.
48. A scientist had made arrangements for a live specimen of a carnivorous dinosaur that has an active camouflage trait be brought through the Rabbit Hole taken for study at their lab in Essex. Unfortunately, while in transit, the train derailed, and the cage containing the specimen broke, and it is now running loose. Can the players catch this predator before it harms anyone, and if at all possible, capture it alive?
49. A new monument was discovered in Egypt, at first seeming to be a pyramid, though upon further study it does not appear to have been built as a tomb. It looks to be some sort of shrine, and has a central chamber with a large platform and a massive but crumbling stone ring. Along the walls, the discoverers have found some hieroglyphics that have not been encountered before, and one of them claims a few of them look an awful lot like some of the drawings and notes seen in the background of photos of Professor Grosvenor’s experiment that were released to the public. The British government are trying to keep the discovery under wraps, and need to hire someone off of the official books to go and investigate.
50. While the party is traveling in an airship, they travel through a strange cloud that gives them all coughing fits. Something was present in the cloud that reacts with the reagents in the kipp, setting off a chain reaction that is pumping more and more hydrogen into the gas bag, and the ship’s engineer can’t stop it. The ship is rising steadily, and if it goes too high the air will become thin and the bag will exceed its tolerance and burst – assuming anyone on board is able to remain conscious that far up. Can the players figure out a way to get down safely?