TEXT: Blood of the Innocent 
                                                                 By Eric Avedissian 
   
  In London, the daughter of a member of Parliament, Reginald Stokes, is kidnapped and a 
  threatening letter written in blood is mailed to his office demanding a ransom of 2,000 pounds. If 
  Stokes doesn’t pay up in a week’s time, his daughter will be killed. 
  A jittery Stokes contacts Detective Inspector Richard Pruitt of Scotland Yard and the police begin 
  their investigation, which comes to a screeching halt when one of the investigators is found 
  decapitated and the words “No Coppers” carved across his severed head. 
  Stokes doesn’t know where to turn next, and asks the Amazing Zoltar and his magicians for 
  assistance. Zoltar claims he’s not much of a detective, but can put some intrepid heroes on the 
  case, and this sets Stokes’ mind at ease. 
  Zoltar contacts the heroes and asks if they’d be interested in investigating the disappearance of 
  Stokes’ daughter Lydia. 
   
  Background 
  Lydia Stokes is 22 years old and an accomplished musician. She’s played piano and sang at the 
  Royal Albert Hall many times, and her beauty won many admirers in London’s social circles. 
  Stokes is very protective of his daughter and hires bodyguards to watch over her. On the night 
  she was kidnapped, the bodyguards were found unconscious in the hallway outside her room. 
  Both men claim they were struck by an invisible force. 
  Reginald Stokes had a few enemies in Parliament, the chief one being Sir Lionel Nordaby of the 
  House of Lords, whose feuding with Stokes is legendary. Nordaby says he’d never stoop so low 
  as to kidnap Stokes’ daughter, and denied any involvement. 
  The dead police officer was Inspector John Reeves, a constable with Scotland Yard who traced 
  the bloody note to a flat in Salisbury rented by a Hobart Watson. 
  A conversation with the flat’s landlord reveals that Watson was a quiet, secretive bloke who kept 
  to himself. The landlord says Watson came from a village nearby, Natterty Bog. 
   
  Natterty Bog 
  The village is comprised of a dozen Tudor-style homes and thatched roof cottages. Rural and 
  remote, the village is far from bucolic splendor of the English countryside; there’s something not 
  quite right here, and the heroes have a sense of impending dread about the place. 
  Perhaps it’s because the village has no church, or that the graveyard seems a bit overgrown, or 
  that the locals appear to be gossiping when the heroes enter the village. 
  Whatever it is, the heroes get a sense they’re being watched. 
   
  Goat’s Head Pub 
  Built in 1730 on the sight of a pagan sacrifice, the Goat’s Head Pub is a dank, dark, mysterious 
  village tavern in Natterty Bog frequented by warlocks and witches. Crowley’s Golden Dawn 
  Society often holds informal meetings in the pub’s back room. 
  The pub’s owner, Selwyn Mulbury, a stocky gent with a beard, doesn’t know anything about a 
  Hobart Watson. A Notice roll indicates Mulbury is lying. Truth is, Mulbury knows Watson because 
  the two are secret adepts of the Golden Dawn Society. Mulbury is protecting Watson and 
  attempts to steer the heroes in the wrong direction. 
  
  It’ll take some doing to persuade Mulbury to tell where Watson is. Watson’s cottage is in the 
  village, a thatched roof home near the outskirts of town. 
   
  Nordaby Manor 
  Heroes making an Investigation or Streetwise roll can find another shocking secret about the 
  village. It is the ancestral home of Sir Lionel Nordaby’s family. According to records stored at town 
  hall, Nordaby’s family acquired the mansion from Sir Daniel Primrose, a leading 18th century 
  occultist who allegedly baptized his son Lucifer and who constructed an elaborate ritual room in 
  his mansion’s cellar. Village records state an “L. Primrose” was born in 1761 and died in 1832, 
  leaving the estate to his son, a “John Nordaby.” A Smarts roll reveals Primrose changed the 
  family’s last name to possibly avoid connections with his controversial father. This means Sir 
  Lionel Nordaby is a direct descendant of a family of wicked occultists! 
  Nordaby Manor, originally Primrose Manor, was built in 1720 and is a brick manor house with a 
  large English garden overlooking wide, open fields. The house is festooned with gargoyle statues 
  arranged in bizarre locations throughout the estate. On the inside, the manor house appears 
  comfy and cozy, but some of the portraits appear to be leering at the viewers and the library does 
  have too many volumes on witchcraft and magic and no family Bible or sacred texts. 
  If the heroes investigate Nordaby Manor, they are greeted at the door by a butler, Mr. 
  MacGregor?, who informs the heroes Sir Nordaby is not at home and is in fact in London. 
  If the heroes snoop around the manor anyway, they find a small cottage, inside of which a bed 
  equipped with restraints. Heroes making a Search roll find a woman’s ring on the floor near the 
  bed. The inscription in the ring reads, “To Lydia from Father.” 
  This is the ring Reginald Stokes gave his daughter Lydia for her birthday last year. 
   
  The Ancient Rite 
  Hobart Watson does not expect to see the heroes if they come calling. He denies everything and 
  threatens to call the village constable. If threatened, he uses his magic to stun the heroes and 
  make his escape. 
  Watson, a member of the Golden Dawn Society, kidnapped Lydia Stokes and is holding her 
  ransom under orders from Nordaby, who is also a Golden Dawn Society member. Nordaby’s 
  goals come from Aleister Crowley himself. 
  The plan is to sacrifice Lydia Stokes in a cruel blood ritual at Stonehenge. The ritual, designed to 
  boost the orders’ magical abilities, will also claim the life of the daughter of Nordaby’s political 
  rival. With Stokes a broken man, he will pose less of a threat in Parliament, clearing the way for 
  Nordaby to introduce aggressive legislation to ban all magic practices, beginning with Zoltar’s 
  academy. Crowley hopes to ensnare Zoltar in a political chess game, one Zoltar and his followers 
  would be destined to lose. 
   
  Stonehenge 
  Built between 3,000 B.C. and 1,500 B.C. by ancient tribes, Stonehenge is a circle of concentric 
  rings comprised of stone megaliths. The exact origins are unknown, but the Golden Dawn Society 
  uses it for magic rituals. 
  Lydia Stokes is held in a small cottage not far from Stonehenge. When the time is right, she will 
  be clothed in white and brought to Stonehenge, where Nordaby and the rest of the Golden Dawn 
  Society will be cloaked in black and waiting. Crowley doesn’t participate in the ritual, leaving the 
  details to his able associate, Nordaby. Crowley is several miles away, monitoring the event 
  
  through magical means. He wouldn’t risk his safety out in public just yet. 
  The ritual involves reading from a magic book, lighting a few candles, chanting a few chants and 
  sacrificing a human and disposing of the remains in a bonfire. When Lydia is brought to 
  Stonehenge, a roaring bonfire illuminates the faces standing in the ring of stones. 
  How the heroes want to approach this is up to them. There are 20 cultists plus Nordaby. Lydia is 
  bound and on the stone altar with the bonfire roaring nearby. If the heroes are spotted, Nordaby 
  orders his men to attack. They are armed with daggers and black magic spells. 
   
  Aftermath 
  If Nordaby is killed, the cultists flee Stonehenge. Obviously, there’s some explaining to do as to 
  how a Member of Parliament is found dead wearing a black robe at Stonehenge. 
  If Lydia is killed in the ritual, Crowley has won the day. The shock of losing a daughter pushes 
  Reginald Stokes over the edge and he resigns. If Nordaby survives, once he returns to London, 
  he introduces legislation banning magic from England. Zoltar’s academy closes and Zoltar pushes 
  his movement underground just like Crowley’s. A stealth magic war rages throughout England. 
  If Lydia is rescued, Reginald Stokes is overjoyed and the heroes are greeted with fanfare and 
  praise. A gala ball is held in their honor and they meet the king and other royal dignitaries. If 
  Nordaby survives as well as Lydia, he is brought to trial for kidnapping and attempted murder and 
  eventually sentenced to prison. Crowley loses one strong ally and the heroes’ actions are 
  watched by a brooding Crowley hungry for revenge. 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Savage Worlds System (SWADE) [multi]/Ravaged Earth/Savage Worlds - Ravaged Earth - Adv - Blood of the Innocent.pdf