TEXT:  
   
  Gotham
  Gotham   
  Legion
  Legion   
  an adventure for Call of Cthulhu 
  by 
  Andrew Utech 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  2 
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
  Background Information 
  Two Challenges of Where and When 
  3 
  The “Villain” 
  4 
  The Forces Of Evil 
  4 
  Two Forces For Good 
  5 
  Timeline To Terror 
   
  7 
  The Fava Line 
  9 
  Anthony Fava 
  13 
  On Playing Fava 
  16 
  The Investigators 
  17
   
  The Investigation 
  Cinematic Structure 
  18 
  Act I, Scene 1: Opening Image 
  19 
  Act I, Scene 2: Background Check 
  19 
  Act I, Scene 3: Oration  
  21 
  Act I, Scene 4: Reception 
  29 
  Act I, Scene 5: Assassins! 
  29 
  Act I, Scene 6: Thieves! 
  31 
  Act I, Scene 7: Paparazzi 
  33 
  Act I, Scene 8: Ancient History 
  35 
  Act I, Scene 9: Tenement Trouble 
  36 
  Act I, Scene 10: Cult Research 
  38 
  Act II, Scene 1: Ceremony 
  43 
  Act II, Scene 2: Hot 
  47 
  Act II, Scene 3: Vacuum 
  50 
  Act II, Scene 4: Death In The Streets 
  51 
  Act II, Scene 5: Blasted Banker 
  52 
  Act II, Scene 6: Bloody Hell 
  55 
  Act II, Scene 7: Departures & Deputies 58 
  Act II, Scene 8: Public Hero 
  59 
  Act II, Scene 9: What In Blazes? 
  59 
  Act II, Scene 10: Requests For Help 
  62 
  Act III, Scene 1: Black Wind Bar 
  63 
  Act III, Scene 2: Tenement Tormentors 66 
  Act III, Scene 3: Night Lights 
  69 
  Act III, Scene 4: Ice Is Nice 
  70 
  Act III, Scene 5: MSG & Missing People 72 
  Act III, Scene 6: Finding Missing People 72 
  Act III, Scene 7: Burned Bridges 
  75 
  Act III, Scene 8: Vincento 
  78 
  Act III, Scene 9: Empty House 
  79 
  Act III, Scene 10: Firestorm Brewing 83 
  Epilogue: Crack Of Thunder 
  100 
  Just Rewards 
  101 
   
  Appendix 
  Handouts 
  101 
  Maps 
  113 
  Historical Notes 1890s 
  117 
  The Historica Nero 
  122
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  3 
  Copyright Notices: All photographs in this document are in the public domain and are 
  intended to provide a sense of the people and atmosphere of 1896 New York City.  The Cult 
  of the Bloody Tongue is a creation of Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis with Geoff Gillan, Kevin 
  A. Ross, et. al. for the Masks of Nyarlathotep adventure published by Chaosium.  This 
  document may be freely copied, used, edited, supplemented and distributed so long as 
  Andrew Utech is credited as the original creator of content.
   
  BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
   
  Two Challenges of 
  Where and When 
  otham Legion is a Call of 
  Cthulhu 
  adventure 
  taking 
  place in New York City just before 
  and during the heat wave of 1896.  
  The 10-day-long heat wave is a 
  historical event responsible for the 
  deaths of over 1,300 people.  This 
  adventure posits a Lovecraftian 
  explanation for the heat wave – 
  and for some of those deaths. 
  The primary challenge is surviving 
  the dangerous events set in motion 
  when young New York socialite 
  Anthony 
  Fava 
  comes 
  into 
  possession of a history of Emperor 
  Nero by the historian Fabius 
  Rusticus.  Cult assassins and  
  Mythos monsters lurk the city.  
  Fava’s 
  transformation 
  from 
  founder of an egalitarian social 
  club, The Gotham Legion, to 
  insane cultist occurs during the 
  investigation and culminates in an 
  attempt to summon Cthugha to 
  Central Park. 
  The 
  secondary 
  challenge 
  is 
  surviving the mean streets of 1896 
  New York City and the heat wave’s 
  relentless 
  heat. 
  Tenements 
  overflow 
  with 
  frustrated, 
  G 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  4 
  desperate 
  immigrants. 
   
  The 
  wealthy and established fear that 
  hiring immigrants and African 
  Americans to work in the factories 
  may be “race suicide.” An ice 
  baron’s 
  monopoly 
  puts 
  this 
  life-saving commodity out of the 
  hands of the poor – his thugs 
  answering 
  complaints 
  with 
  violence.  Government assistance 
  to the poor and desperate is a pipe 
  dream.  Memories of the Civil 
  War are fresh and raw.   
  It is possible to move the primary 
  challenge to another time or place.  
  The secondary 
  challenge, 
  however, 
  is 
  largely tied to 
  New 
  York 
  City in 1896. 
   
  The “Villain” 
  otham Legion may or may not 
  have a villain, depending on 
  your point of view.  Investigators 
  may 
  find 
  the 
  “villain” 
  looks 
  uncomfortably familiar.  Anthony 
  Fava is a dilettante whose interest 
  – some might say obsession – with 
  Ancient Rome brings him to the 
  brink 
  of 
  doom. 
   
  His 
  is 
  a 
  cautionary story for many an 
  investigator: best intentions might 
  end in vile incantations.  
  His story in short: Founds the 
  egalitarian 
  “Gotham 
  Legion.” 
  Travels to Rome where he acquires 
  the Historica Nero.  Returns to 
  New York.  Escapes cult assassins, 
  thieves, 
  and 
  kidnappers.  
  Discovers 
  Mythos 
  magic.  
  Foolishly uses it.  Starts the heat 
  wave.  Goes insane.  Tries to 
  summon Cthugha. 
   
  The Forces Of Evil 
  ire vampires figure centrally 
  in this adventure.  Keepers 
  are encouraged to study their 
  write-up carefully as fire vampires 
  can be extraordinarily difficult for 
  investigators to defeat or escape.  
  Fire vampires do not cause any 
  SAN loss when viewed, but after 
  players have encountered these 
  Mythos 
  creatures 
  keepers 
  can 
  drive players to distraction by 
  mentioning a shooting star, a 
  sputtering gas light, or a sudden 
  flare that might only be a match… 
  Gotham Legion members are not 
  dangerous cultists until the climax.  
  The club’s treasurer, however, has 
  an ambitious agenda to recast the 
  Gotham Legion and may be willing 
  G 
  F 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  5 
  to kill for it. 
  Rome’s Sleeping Spear cult sends 
  both assassins and thieves early in 
  the investigation.  Operating far 
  from home and unfamiliar with the 
  territory, they are easily spotted.  
  Tossing around Mythos magic, 
  they make a strong impression.  
  They may reappear in the climax 
  in greater numbers and/or with the 
  assistance of nightgaunts. 
  Members of the Cult of the Bloody 
  Tongue in Harlem conduct their 
  own investigation to find out who 
  else dares bring Mythos creatures 
  into 
  New 
  York 
  City. 
   
  They 
  attempt to kidnap Fava and may 
  appear in the climax with or 
  without the assistance of hunting 
  horrors. 
  Ice Baron Charles Morse has thugs 
  on his payroll.  The investigators 
  encounter 
  these 
  thugs 
  several 
  times during the investigation – 
  possibly in the company of police 
  commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.  
  The thugs are bullies motivated by 
  money and physical power over the 
  weak.  They enjoy beating people 
  up, but have no interest at all in 
  fighting.  If they appear in the 
  Central Park climax, they’ll be the 
  first to take to their heels. 
  Finally, the heat wave moves 
  already angry and desperate poor 
  immigrants 
  and 
  African 
  Americans to form mobs.  Though 
  not made up of evil people, these 
  mobs may do evil things – things 
  in which the investigators may be 
  caught up. The mobs (perhaps 
  pursued by New York City’s finest 
  policemen) may accidentally be in 
  attendance during the climax in 
  Central Park. 
   
  Two Forces For Good 
   great 
  hero 
  during 
  the 
  historical heat wave was the 
  commissioner of the Public Works 
  Department, Lloyd Collis.  Collis 
  had the Fire Department flush the 
  streets 
  with 
  water 
  to 
  lower 
  temperatures, 
  changed 
  the 
  working hours of city employees to 
  keep them out of the sun, and 
  ordered the free public baths to 
  stay open around the clock. 
  Since the investigators are the 
  protagonists of this adventure, 
  they 
  should 
  be 
  the 
  ones 
  responsible 
  for 
  the 
  life-saving 
  measures Collis takes.  The PCs 
  might take it upon themselves to 
  flood the streets or convince Collis 
  it’s the right thing to do. 
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  6 
  Another historical hero was one of 
  four men serving as New York City 
  Police Commissioners, Theodore 
  Roosevelt.  At the time of the heat 
  wave, 
  Roosevelt 
  was 
  already 
  concerned with the plight of the 
  poor and forming ideas and ideals 
  that make him a “trust buster” and 
  the President of the United States 
  who brokered the “square deal” 
  between business and labor. 
  Two more historical facts that may 
  bear 
  on 
  this 
  adventure: 
  1) 
  Roosevelt failed in a run for mayor 
  of New York City in 1886, and 2) 
  Photojournalist Jacob Riis and 
  Teddy 
  Roosevelt 
  became 
  good 
  friends after the latter read the 
  former’s How the Other Half Lives, 
  an expose of living conditions in 
  the tenements.  The complete text 
  of How the Other Half Lives is 
  available 
  at 
  no 
  cost 
  through 
  Wikipedia. 
  In the game, the events of this 
  adventure 
  may 
  be 
  partially 
  responsible for making him a 
  champion 
  of 
  the 
  poor 
  and 
  downtrodden – or a rough-riding 
  heck of a good shot.  Again, it is 
  important for the investigators to 
  be 
  the 
  protagonists 
  in 
  this 
  adventure.  Roosevelt can be a 
  strong and interesting ally, but he 
  should get most of his ideas from 
  the PCs.   
  Roosevelt can serve as a Swiss 
  Army knife NPC.  Born with a 
  silver 
  spoon 
  in 
  his 
  mouth, 
  Roosevelt 
  has 
  many 
  contacts 
  among the rich.  Concerned with 
  justice for the poor, he knows who 
  moves and shakes things in the 
  tenements.  As one of four Police 
  Commissioners he has the ability 
  to command the forces of law and 
  order.    
  Roosevelt 
  is 
  not, 
  however, 
  a 
  wish-granting genie.  The man is 
  wildly unpopular among the rich, 
  poor, and police.  The more he 
  uses his influence to help the 
  investigators, the less influence he 
  has.  He is also not an angel.  
  During the hottest days of the heat 
  wave, he leaves New York City to 
  cool off at his family home on Long 
  Island. 
   
  Theodore Roosevelt 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  7 
  Roosevelt 
  can 
  appear 
  in 
  the 
  Central Park climax – supporting 
  the PCs with swagger, bravado, 
  and a gun.  Should the keeper 
  desire, he might bring along police 
  officers and/or firefighters. 
   
  Timeline To Terror 
  his adventure begins Tuesday, 
  July 28 and ends on Thursday, 
  August 13.  Unless it doesn’t. 
  Keepers 
  should 
  lengthen 
  or 
  shorten the timeline as they see fit.  
  The historical heat wave of 1896 
  began on August 4 and ended on 
  August 13.  The timeline below 
  includes several days on which 
  nothing in particular happens.  
  Those days might be filled with 
  investigations, side adventures, 
  exploring the New York City of 
  1896, or simply eliminated from 
  game play. 
  Tuesday, July 28, 1896 
  Anthony Fava’s Gotham Legion 
  hosts an event at which he relates 
  a rather sensational tale of murder 
  following the discovery of an 
  ancient book in Rome.  Members 
  of Rome’s Sleeping Spear cult 
  make a play for the book – and for 
  Anthony’s life.   
  Wednesday, July 29, 1896 
  The many penny papers compete 
  to 
  sensationalize 
  the 
  attack. 
  Stories ranging from xenophobic 
  rants to extolling Fava’s valor to 
  skeptical 
  speculation 
  regarding   
  publicity for the Gotham Legion.   
  Thursday, July 30, 1896 – 
  Sunday, August 2 1896 
  A shaken Fava redoubles his 
  investigations into the Historica 
  Nero. 
  Charles Morse prices ice out of the 
  range of poor New Yorkers.  
  Monday, August 3, 1896  
  Fava convinces to of his fellow 
  Legionnaires to join him in a 
  ceremony 
  described 
  in 
  the 
  Historica Nero.  The resulting 
  contact 
  with 
  Cthugha 
  shakes 
  Fava’s sanity, hospitalizes his 
  friends, and starts the heat wave. 
  Tuesday, August 4, 1896 
  Members of the Cult of the Bloody 
  Tongue start hunting for the cause 
  of the Mythos magic permeating 
  the city. 
  Fava’s fragile state of mind calls 
  for institutionalization. 
  Seeking 
  relief 
  from 
  high 
  temperatures 
  that 
  stubbornly 
  refuse to drop at night, tenement 
  dwellers sleep on rooftops, fire 
  escapes, and piers.  Sleeping in 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  8 
  parks is prohibited. 
  Wednesday, August 5, 1896 – 
  Friday, August 7, 1896 
  Fava’s institutionalization causes 
  a power vacuum in the Gotham 
  Legion. 
   
  The 
  club’s 
  elitist 
  treasurer, 
  banker 
  Charles 
  Goodwyn, makes a play for control. 
  The heat claims lives. 
  Saturday, August 8, 1896 
  Fava returns to challenge Charles 
  Goodwyn.  Goodwyn learns a final 
  life lesson: Don’t bring a gun to a 
  Mythos magic fight. 
  Sunday, August 9, 1896 
  The Cult of the Bloody Tongue fails 
  to kidnap Fava.  He responds by 
  doing 
  what 
  many 
  a 
  badly 
  frightened, somewhat unhinged, 
  Mythos tome owner would do: he 
  casts a spell. He successfully 
  summons 
  fire 
  vampires 
  and 
  incorrectly 
  believes 
  that 
  he 
  successfully dismisses them as 
  well. 
  Death claims the old, the young, 
  the ill, and the equine. 
  Monday, August 10, 1896 
  Fava tracks down the Cult of the 
  Bloody Tongue to the Black Wind 
  Bar.  He summons more fire 
  vampires and sends them to wreak 
  fiery havoc. 
  Lloyd 
  Collis 
  orders 
  the 
  Fire 
  Department to flush the streets 
  with water to lower temperatures. 
  Desperate immigrants face off 
  against Morse’s thugs outside an 
  ice warehouse. 
  Tuesday, August 11, 1896 
  Fava begins to transform the 
  Gotham League from social club to 
  cult. 
  Roosevelt buys ice for the poor.  
  Lloyd Collis orders free public 
  baths to stay open around the 
  clock. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  9 
  Horse bodies bake in the streets.  
  Tenement dwellers are forced to 
  live with their dead. 
  Wednesday, August 12, 1896  
  Gotham Legionnaires disappear. 
  The 
  heat 
  and 
  stench 
  are 
  unrelenting. 
   
  Well 
  over 
  a 
  thousand people have died. 
  The police are tasked with security 
  for 
  William 
  Jennings 
  Bryan 
  instead of helping New Yorkers. 
  Thursday, August 13, 1896 
  Fava’s butler, Vincento, fears that 
  his employer has gone totally mad.  
  Strange sounds and smells come 
  from 
  behind 
  locked 
  doors.  
  Enquiries are met with shouted 
  threats. 
   
  The 
  gardens 
  are 
  blackened and burned.  Fava is 
  not to be found, but there is 
  abundant evidence of his delving 
  into “that which should not be.”  
  It all seems to be building up to a 
  great event that night in Central 
  Park: the summoning of Cthugha. 
   
  The Fava Line 
  Note: This history of Fava men will 
  help Keepers understand Anthony 
  Fava and better run the adventure.  
  First time readers, however, may 
  wish to skip over this section and 
  get to the meat of the adventure.   
  nthony Fava comes from a 
  long line of distinguished 
  Italian Americans.  Given their 
  accomplishments, it is perhaps not 
  difficult 
  to 
  understand 
  why 
  Anthony feels compelled to make a 
  lasting and important mark upon 
  the world. 
  Mario 
  Fava 
  (1763 – 1815) 
  immigrated to 
  the New World 
  as a single  
  young man in 1784 – just in time 
  for the American Revolutionary 
  War. 
   
  Mario 
  volunteered 
  for 
  service and was taken under the 
  wing of Filippo Mazzei, a Tuscan 
  physician who fought alongside 
  Thomas Jefferson and Patrick 
  Henry.  Mazzei inspired both 
  Thomas Jefferson and Mario Fava 
  when he wrote, “All men are by 
  nature 
  equally 
  free 
  and 
  independent.” 
  After the war, Fava returned to 
  Italy, 
  married his sweetheart, 
  Francesca, and brought her to New 
  York City to lay down roots as 
  citizens of the United States of 
  America. 
  Though a war hero, Mario Fava 
  had a great deal of difficulty 
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  10 
  finding employment in the public 
  sphere.  His foreign birth and 
  bride were simply unacceptable. 
  He 
  returned 
  to 
  the 
  more 
  egalitarian world of the military 
  and cultivated contacts among the 
  immigrants 
  and 
  other 
  undesirables. 
  Though not for lack of trying, 
  Mario 
  and 
  Francesca 
  were 
  childless until they were in their 
  thirties.  They had quite given up 
  on becoming parents when little 
  Alfredo came into their lives.  
  They doted upon that young man 
  until the day they died. 
  Alfredo 
  Fava 
  (1796 
  – 
  1850) 
  continued 
  the 
  family 
  tradition 
  of military service.  
  He joined the War 
  of 1812 first as a privateer and 
  later as an infantryman.  Injured 
  while 
  defending 
  against 
  the 
  British landing at North Point, 
  Alfredo lay injured throughout the 
  25-hour 
  bombardment 
  of 
  Fort 
  McHenry during which all of the 
  lights 
  in 
  Baltimore 
  were 
  extinguished. 
   
  The 
  exploding 
  shells illuminated the flag still 
  flying over the fort and inspired 
  Alfredo to crawl to a nearby road 
  where he fainted before seeing 
  anything by the dawn’s early light.  
  He woke to find himself under the 
  care of a young nurse named 
  Juliet. 
  Juliet 
  was 
  flattered 
  by 
  the 
  handsome young man’s instant 
  and insistent pleading of eternal 
  love and passionate plea to marry 
  him at once.  She resisted his 
  frankly inappropriate advances for 
  almost two weeks before relenting.  
  Juliet bore Alfredo six children, 
  four of whom died in childhood.  
  Only sickly Virginio and radiant 
  Eva survived to adulthood. 
  Eva was married off in a stellar 
  match to a Dutchman of excellent 
  character 
  and 
  better 
  business 
  acumen.  Willem and Eva stayed 
  in New York long enough to start a 
  family of their own and set up the 
  Fava’s with a series of investments 
  that ensured no Fava would ever 
  need to work again.  Willem and 
  Eva then sailed 
  to Amsterdam 
  to start a new 
  life and leave 
  the purview of 
  this adventure. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  11 
  Virginio 
  Fava 
  (1815 – 1876) was 
  a 
  small, 
  wan, 
  asthmatic 
  youth 
  destined never to 
  distinguish 
  himself as a physical entity, but 
  blessed with a mind as nimble and 
  powerful as his body was clumsy 
  and weak.  Tutored at home, 
  Virginio 
  became 
  a 
  polymath 
  scholar of note.  By penning 
  essays in fields as diverse as 
  astronomy, 
  botany, 
  classical 
  Roman architecture, and poetry, 
  Virginio 
  gained 
  the 
  nickname 
  “Virgil.”   
  Due to his physical shortcomings, 
  many were surprised when Virgil’s 
  involvement 
  with 
  the 
  United 
  States 
  Naval 
  Academy 
  in 
  Annapolis, Maryland led most 
  unexpectedly to a military rank 
  and a family.  While proudly 
  attending at his father’s deathbed, 
  Virgil began a polite discussion 
  with a visitor: head of the Bureau 
  of Ordinance and Hydrography. 
  Pleasantly 
  surprised 
  to 
  find 
  Alfredo’s sickly son full of facts and 
  theory, he at once issued Virgil an 
  invitation 
  to 
  lecture 
  at 
  the 
  reorganized academy. 
  Virgil quickly became a popular 
  guest lecturer and prized his 
  semi-annual 
  trips 
  and 
  the 
  opportunity to make a contribution 
  to the military – if ever so 
  indirectly. 
  During a faculty luncheon at the 
  dean’s quarters, Virgil met Rachel.  
  Rachel was the handsome, if not 
  beautiful, daughter of a lecturer 
  from Virginia.  Their essentially 
  practical match contained enough 
  passion to produce a pregnancy.  
  Tragedy cut short their marriage 
  when Rachel died in childbirth.  
  Their son, Henry survived. 
  Virgil turned over the raising of 
  his son to nurses and his mother, 
  Juliet, and took a full-time faculty 
  position at Annapolis. 
  When the Civil War turned out to 
  be considerably longer than the 90 
  days 
  President 
  Lincoln 
  had 
  predicted, 
  even 
  sickly, 
  slight, 
  academic Virgil found himself asea.  
  He continued to write, but only in 
  fragments 
  before 
  exhaustion 
  overtook 
  him. 
   
  Whether 
  his 
  father-in-law conspired to ensure 
  it so or no, Virgil never found 
  himself in a serious battle. 
  When the war finally ended, Virgil 
  did not return home.  Instead, he 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  12 
  went West.  The death he sought 
  finally found him at the Battle of 
  Little Bighorn. 
  Henry Fava’s 
  (1851 – 1894) 
  childhood was 
  both privileged 
  and 
  lonely.  
  Mother 
  dead, 
  father absent, 
  grandparents split along Union 
  and Separatist lines. 
  16-year-old Henry was determined 
  to be as good a man as his father 
  and saw his opportunity in the 
  Indian Wars.  Mind set and bag 
  ready, young Henry went to tell his 
  grandmother his intentions . . . 
  and found her dead. 
  Virgil did not return for his 
  mother’s funeral.  Instead, he 
  sent a telegram expressing his 
  grief and making it plain that he 
  expected Henry to take over the 
  Fava 
  home, 
  businesses, 
  and 
  fortune. 
  Henry did as bid.  He found a 
  fellow to manage the Fava family 
  assets 
  while 
  Henry 
  studied 
  business under the best tutors 
  available. 
   
  Swiftly 
  learning 
  enough to suspect the manager 
  he’d hired of cooking the books,  
  he gave the man a raise to keep 
  him on the hook than hired a 
  private investigator to make sure 
  the charge of embezzlement would 
  stick.  It did. 
  From his new business manager 
  on down, every person in the Fava 
  family employ quickly learned that 
  Henry Fava was not a man to be 
  trifled with.  He was a tough 
  young nut.  Tough, but fair.  A 
  progressive capitalist, Henry often 
  hired immigrant and black labor at 
  scandalous – even managerial! – 
  levels.  They’d work themselves to 
  the bone to prove themselves to 
  Henry.  And do it for less money 
  than their settled, white fellow 
  citizens. 
  Unable to contain a rash impulse, 
  Henry wooed and won the hand of 
  an actress named Susan.  Their 
  marriage was wild, scandalous, 
  and brief.  Susan agreed to a 
  quiet, 
  substantial 
  divorce 
  settlement and both were pleased 
  that their union had produced no 
  children. 
  At the age of 24, Henry married 
  again.  This time the match was 
  carefully considered and planned.  
  Maria Francelli was ten years his 
  junior and fresh off the boat from 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  13 
  Italy.  The Fava import/export 
  business 
  (now 
  renamed 
  Opportuno) gave the Francelli 
  family’s fortune in olive oil a new 
  market. 
   
  Maria’s 
  qualities 
  – 
  steeped in upper class living, 
  finishing school, exotic looks and 
  dress, exceptional elegance and 
  grace – ensured that the Fava’s 
  would be invited to the great 
  events of the upper class.  And 
  that they’d always be a curiosity: 
  the high-class wops. 
  Henry turned to politics.  He 
  became a player behind the scenes 
  through judicious donations to 
  libraries and the arts.  He won 
  the post of Police Commissioner 
  (one of four in the city of New York 
  City) and earned respect as a man 
  who could talk to both the cop on 
  the beat – often an immigrant – 
  and those WASPS buzzing the 
  corridors of power. 
  Their only child, Anthony, was 
  born a year after they married.  
  Henry and Maria doted on their 
  little man and spoiled him as only 
  the truly wealthy can afford to do.  
  The child grew up knowing he had 
  a mother and father who loved 
  him. 
  Henry Fava died in 1894 of 
  pneumonia.  Maria died of a 
  broken heart six months later. 
  Anthony Fava 
  nthony Fava (1876 - ) spent 
  his childhood enjoying the 
  very best a growing metropolis had 
  to offer.  A mansion.  Servants.  
  Indoor 
  plumbing. 
   A 
  library.  
  Tutors.   
  Anthony learned early that the 
  proud history of Fava men in 
  America 
  failed 
  to 
  erase 
  the 
  blemish of their ancestry.  Rather 
  than 
  run 
  from 
  their 
  Italian 
  heritage, the Favas ran toward it.  
  They spoke Italian in their home.  
  They 
  associated 
  with 
  Italian 
  immigrants.  They collected books 
  and art from Italy – donating some 
  of it with as much fanfare as they 
  could muster to New York City’s 
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  14 
  best museums and libraries.  At 
  every turn, they promoted the 
  greatness and contributions to 
  civilization of ancient Rome. 
  Anthony’s 
  interest 
  quickly 
  outstripped that of his parents.  
  He 
  peppered 
  his 
  tutors 
  with 
  questions, 
  poured 
  over 
  books, 
  copied great works of art, and 
  pestered his parents constantly to 
  fund trips to Italy so that he could 
  continue his studies and soak up 
  an atmosphere he was certain had 
  no parallel anywhere on Earth.  
  Henry and Maria indulged their 
  only son.  If the lad never took an 
  interest in his father’s business 
  and instead became something of 
  an eccentric, he’d also become a 
  status symbol: the dilettante son. 
  Upon coming of age, Anthony set 
  his mind, time, and a fair amount 
  of money to the creation of an 
  egalitarian 
  “secret 
  society” 
  – 
  actually more of a social club – 
  modeled on the Free Masons.  No 
  one 
  but 
  Anthony 
  takes 
  the 
  Gotham Legion’s vaguely Roman 
  theme seriously.  Legionnaires 
  generally come to pass the time, 
  share a drink, have a smoke, listen 
  to the lectures Anthony arranges, 
  make 
  quirky 
  connections, 
  and 
  enjoy the thrill of rubbing elbows 
  with other sorts. 
  The Gotham Legion now boasts 
  some wild child slumming wealthy 
  youth, Wall Street speculators, 
  factory 
  managers, 
  and 
  a 
  smattering of factory workers, 
  coachmen, 
  sailors, 
  stevedores, 
  seamstresses, 
  and 
  bootblacks.  
  Inside the Legion’s meeting room a 
  white man might pour a drink for a 
  black man or an immigrant woman 
  might raise her voice in strident 
  disagreement at a point made by a 
  bank manager whose ancestors 
  came over on the Mayflower. 
  Membership in the Gotham Legion 
  and the number of events the 
  Legion hosts waxes and wanes 
  with Anthony’s presence or lack 
  thereof in New York City.  Few 
  expect 
  the 
  Legion 
  to 
  survive 
  without Anthony’s full attention. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  15 
  But Anthony’s first and truest love 
  is not the Gotham Legion.  It is 
  Rome. 
  Rome is a city of stone built and 
  rebuilt again and again over 
  thousands of years.  Anthony has 
  always been fascinated by the 
  city’s figurative and literal rise 
  throughout history; new buildings 
  often built atop the old.  One 
  might enter a church, descend into 
  the crypt only to find another 
  church below and a third below 
  that and, possibly, a heathen 
  temple yet below.  Clearing the 
  ground for even the most humble 
  of 
  structures, 
  workmen 
  make 
  incredible archeological finds. 
  Anthony became known as a man 
  who would pay hard cash for news 
  of 
  such 
  finds, 
  so 
  when 
  an 
  abandoned stone well was found 
  deep under ground, two messages 
  were 
  sent. 
   
  One 
  message 
  summoned a team from Sapienza 
  University.  The other summoned 
  Anthony. 
   
  The 
  less-than- 
  spectacularly-excited team came to 
  take a look, grew more interested 
  when they determined that the 
  shaft had been both hidden and 
  blocked 
  thousands 
  of 
  years 
  previously, and then exploded into 
  shouts of excitement when they 
  discovered 
  the 
  remains 
  of 
  a 
  lock-box – and the crumbling tome 
  entombed therein.  When the 
  incredible discovery was hauled in 
  a bucket to street level, Anthony 
  was there.  There and suddenly 
  overwhelmed with the feeling that 
  destiny had risen from darkness to 
  seize his young American heart. 
  The book should have been taken 
  immediately 
  to 
  Sapienza 
  University for study.  Instead, 
  money 
  changed 
  hands 
  and 
  Anthony left with his prize – 
  promising to return it within the 
  month. 
  Anthony kept that promise, but 
  not before commissioning a man to 
  most carefully copy the text.  
  Word for word.  Curious diagram 
  for curious diagram.  Fabius 
  Rusticus’ 
  history 
  of 
  Emperor 
  Nero’s unseemly reign brought out 
  of the shadows of time. 
  Anthony holed himself up in his 
  little Roman room and dedicated 
  himself to the study of that text.  
  Days and nights spent tracing the 
  letters followed by hasty trips to 
  libraries and universities for cross 
  referencing, 
  and 
  pestering 
  linguistic 
  experts. 
   
  Taking 
  a 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  16 
  break in a café one day, he glanced 
  at a paper and learned that the 
  original Fabius Rusticus book had 
  been stolen from the university.  
  A guard had been killed and a 
  sudden fire had threatened many 
  other important volumes. 
  Concerned, Anthony went to the 
  university to see if he could be of 
  any assistance.  A long interview 
  with Professor Juan Maceli led to a 
  confession.  Professor Maceli was 
  both 
  angered 
  to 
  learn 
  that 
  Anthony had copied that precious 
  text, and thrilled to know that the 
  ancient knowledge had not been 
  lost.  The professor extracted a 
  promise from Anthony to allow the 
  university to copy his copy. 
  The professor did not live to see 
  the promise fulfilled. 
  The following night, two members 
  of the Sleeping Spear cult broke 
  into Juan Maceli’s apartment.  
  Next they broke into Juan Maceli.  
  They 
  tortured 
  the 
  luckless 
  professor who was not made of 
  stern stuff.  Before dying he told 
  his murderers about Anthony Fava 
  and his copy of the Historica Nero. 
  Had 
  the 
  cultists 
  regrouped, 
  scouted 
  their 
  location, 
  and 
  attacked the following night they 
  most surely would have captured 
  the copy and killed Anthony.  
  Insane 
  bloodlust 
  ensured 
  the 
  cultists 
  would 
  not 
  be 
  so 
  circumspect.  Racing immediately 
  to Anthony’s hotel, they attempted 
  to cut a bloody swath to and 
  through their target. 
  The hotel staff refused to go 
  quietly into that good night and 
  fought their attackers long enough 
  for the police to be summoned.  
  Sunrise found the cultists shot 
  dead, 
  several 
  hotel 
  staffers 
  bandaged, and the hotel residents 
  packing their bags. 
  Anthony Fava, precious copy safely 
  tucked into his traveling trunk, 
  found passage on one of his own 
  ships 
  that 
  afternoon. 
   
  Three 
  weeks later, he was again at home 
  in New York City.  The book fully 
  read – though not fully understood.  
  A burning desire to bring the 
  Gotham Legionnaires together to 
  hear his tale. 
  On Playing Fava 
  The investigators will interact 
  with Anthony Fava many times 
  during 
  this 
  adventure. 
   
  The 
  following notes are intended to 
  serve as character notes to assist 
  the Keeper in those interactions. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  17 
  Anthony is only 20 years old.  He 
  has the normal interests and 
  appetites of a healthy, wealthy, 
  reasonably strapping young man of 
  the 1890s. 
  He 
  has 
  traveled 
  many 
  times 
  between New York City and Rome, 
  but is otherwise not well traveled. 
  He had the benefit of excellent 
  tutors in his youth.  Consider him 
  well educated. 
  He inherited a great deal of wealth 
  and 
  is 
  a 
  reasonably 
  good 
  businessman. 
   
  He 
  heads 
  Opportuno, 
  an 
  import/export 
  business. 
  Anthony is rich and powerful 
  enough to be in the inner circle of 
  the upper crust of New York 
  society, but he is not.  His close 
  family ties with Italy and Italian 
  immigrants repels the loci of New 
  York “aristocracy”. 
  Anthony is obsessed with all 
  things that are both ancient and 
  Roman.  Obsessed enough to start 
  the Gotham Legion social club 
  modeled after the Free Masons, 
  but ancient Roman in theme. 
  There is a long tradition of great 
  Fava military men.  When the 
  opportunity 
  to 
  challenge 
  the 
  cultists arises, he sees that as a 
  way for him to follow in his 
  ancestors’ boot-steps. 
  Anthony 
  is 
  extremely 
  excited 
  about his copy of the Fabius 
  Rusticus book found in Rome.  He 
  is sure that he’s got something 
  really important and is loathe to 
  dole out information about (and 
  from within) the book. 
   
  The Investigators 
  hough 
  central 
  to 
  this 
  investigation, Anthony Fava 
  is not the protagonist.  He is the 
  problem.  More specifically, he is 
  the investigators’ problem. 
  The investigators shape this story.  
  They drive it forward.  They act 
  more than they react. 
  All 
  of 
  the 
  information 
  about 
  Anthony Fava, timelines, cults, 
  Mythos magic and monsters – all 
  of it exists to be placed before the 
  investigators as obstacles.  The 
  struggle 
  to 
  overcome 
  those 
  obstacles should be initiated by the 
  players.  The game is not about 
  success or failure, though.  It is 
  about the struggle. 
  It is essential that all investigators 
  have reason to care about the 
  obstacles and the skills and/or 
  temperament necessary to make 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  18 
  the struggle fun.  Naturally, it is 
  also desirable for the investigators 
  to have those two qualities that 
  most clearly mark (and often 
  doom) Lovecraftian heroes: an 
  insatiable curiosity and unhealthy 
  doggedness. 
  Because Fava’s Gotham Legion is 
  open to both men and women, all 
  ethnicities, all religions, and all 
  social classes, it is possible for the 
  PCs to be of just about any 
  background the Players might 
  choose to play.  The investigators 
  may know each other before the 
  adventure begins or meet for the 
  first time in Act I, Scene 1.  They 
  may be Legionnaires, Anthony’s 
  childhood 
  friends, 
  temporary 
  kitchen staff hired for Anthony’s 
  speech, or someone who first hears 
  about Anthony Fava through a 
  notice in the newspaper.  The only 
  real 
  essential 
  is 
  that 
  the 
  investigators be in New York City 
  on Tuesday, July 28, 1896. 
  Especially appropriate professions 
  for 
  PC 
  investigators 
  in 
  this 
  adventure include: archeologists, 
  book binders/collectors, historians, 
  laborers, occultists, socialites, law 
  enforcement 
  workers, 
  medical 
  workers, or reporters.
   
  THE INVESTIGATION 
   
  Cinematic Structure 
  his section is organized in 
  much 
  the 
  same 
  way 
  a 
  screenplay is organized.  You’ll 
  find 30 Scenes divided among 
  three Acts.  Act I introduces the 
  main characters and sets out a 
  thesis in which Anthony Fava is 
  the target of mysterious violence in 
  a normal world.  Act II turns the 
  world upside down with the start 
  of a heat wave, casts Anthony 
  Fava into a new role – one far less 
  innocent – and introduces B-plot 
  characters and situations that 
  allow 
  our 
  heroes 
  (the 
  investigators) to struggle and learn.  
  In Act III the worlds of Acts I and 
  II are synthesized into a new world 
  for the investigators, the bad guys 
  close in, and we build to a grand 
  finale. 
  There is, however, absolutely no 
  need to play every scene in this 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  19 
  adventure, to play them in order, 
  or to play them as written.  
  Keepers are encouraged to select 
  from among those that best suit 
  their players and play style. 
   
  Act I, Scene 1:  
  Opening Image 
   he story opens with a tight 
  shot on a poster inviting all 
  and sundry to an event at the 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  hall 
  (opening 
  handout).  The investigators learn 
  that Anthony Fava, scion of a 
  wealthy New York City family and 
  founder of the Gotham Legion 
  social club, will be the night’s 
  orator. 
  Investigators may learn of Fava’s 
  speech 
  from 
  many 
  different 
  sources.  If they are members of 
  Fava’s Gotham Legion, they’ll be 
  contacted about the event by post 
  or hear about it from other 
  Legionnaires.  Fava places a 
  small advertisement in several of 
  the penny newspapers (handout 1).  
  The same advertisement – rather 
  larger – appears on handbills (the 
  opening handout) passed out near 
  the Gotham Legion Hall and 
  posted on poles and boards in the 
  area. 
  Investigators 
  friendly 
  with 
  Anthony Fava may have received a 
  personal note about the event 
  (handout 
  2). 
   
  Finally, 
  the 
  investigators 
  may 
  hear 
  about 
  Fava’s speech from any number of 
  New Yorker’s gossiping on the 
  city’s 
  latest: 
  taxi 
  drivers, 
  bootblacks, socialites, bartenders, 
  etc. 
  It is up to the Keeper and players 
  to find logical and dramatically 
  appropriate reasons for the PCs to 
  attend the speech.  The most 
  Lovecraftian 
  motivation 
  is 
  insatiable curiosity, but PCs may 
  also attend because they want to 
  rub elbows with the upper class or 
  even because they’ve been hired to 
  serve drinks there. 
   
  Act I, Scene 2: 
  Background Check 
  nvestigators may wish to do a 
  little research on Anthony Fava, 
  the expected contents of his speech, 
  or the Gotham Legion.  This may 
  happen before the PCs attend 
  Fava’s speech at the Gotham 
  Legion or afterward. 
  It is up to the Keeper to determine 
  just how much information, both 
  accurate and otherwise, to dole out.  
  T 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  20 
  Some guidelines follow. 
  Investigators with connections to 
  the upper class can learn the 
  Fava family is both wealthy and 
  respected.  It is well known that 
  Fava men served in the military 
  since the Revolutionary War – 
  though the precise nature and 
  extent of that service is not well 
  known.  Though they have the 
  proper 
  history, 
  money, 
  philanthropic 
  efforts, 
  and 
  education, 
  however, 
  the 
  Fava 
  family is not a member of the inner 
  circle of high society.  Members of 
  New York’s elite both dislike and 
  mistrust the Fava family’s Italian 
  heritage and close ties to that 
  country. Thoughtful investigators 
  will 
  conclude 
  that 
  massive 
  immigration 
  from 
  Italy 
  and 
  Eastern European countries in the 
  last decade has done nothing to 
  help the Fava image.  Worse, the 
  Fava’s often employ these aliens – 
  even in managerial capacity! – in 
  Opportuno, 
  their 
  import/export 
  business. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  business 
  connections 
  can 
  learn 
  that 
  Opportuno is considered a major 
  player in the import/export trade – 
  especially between New York City 
  and various Italian ports.  The 
  company employs a surprising 
  number of immigrants and former 
  slaves. 
   
  This 
  eyebrow-raising 
  employment policy may not be 
  altogether altruistic; such people 
  are often desperate and willing to 
  work for far less than their 
  “all-American” counterparts.  It is 
  taken as a given that Opportuno is 
  involved in smuggling of all sorts. 
  Investigators with connections to 
  the arts, New York universities, 
  and/or libraries can learn that 
  the Fava family is known for their 
  philanthropy.  They give often to 
  the arts, education, and libraries.  
  In 
  particular, 
  they 
  support 
  anything related to Italy. 
  Investigators with connections to 
  immigrants 
  and/or 
  African 
  Americans can learn that the 
  Favas employ many of their peers; 
  that the Favas are tough but fair 
  employers; and that the Favas are 
  tight with money but far more 
  willing to hand out high-level 
  positions to immigrants and/or 
  African Americans than other, 
  similar companies. 
  Investigators with connections in 
  the 
  media 
  (especially 
  to 
  newspaper morgues) can learn 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  21 
  that the Favas are a wealthy, 
  generally 
  well-regarded 
  family.  
  They may also surmise that the 
  Favas are not especially popular 
  among their peers and suspect it 
  has something to do with their 
  Italian heritage.  They may find 
  press 
  clippings 
  about 
  Gotham 
  Legion events. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  police 
  connections can learn that Henry 
  Fava was one of four police 
  commissioners.  Henry Fava was 
  known to be particularly kind to 
  and 
  friendly 
  with 
  immigrant 
  members of the force. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  access 
  to 
  military records can look up the 
  Fava name and learn a bit about 
  the Favas who served in various 
  wars.  This information does not 
  extend much beyond dates, places, 
  promotions, and the occasional 
  fitness report. 
  It is unlikely that a day of 
  investigation will suffice to provide 
  a team of investigators with a 
  general history of the Fava family 
  or a complete history of Anthony 
  Fava.  Keep in mind that in the 
  1890s 
  there 
  are 
  few 
  written 
  sources of information to use as 
  research 
  about 
  the 
  Favas.  
  Investigators will learn the most 
  by talking to people. 
  On the other hand, keepers should 
  take care not to mislead players 
  into thinking there are deep, dark 
  secrets to uncover in the Fava 
  family history.  (Should players 
  insist on leaping to that conclusion 
  unaided, however, that’s their look 
  out.)  Background investigations 
  should be played out for the 
  roleplaying 
  opportunities 
  they 
  afford.  Players can learn a lot 
  about the New York City of 1896 
  by just chatting with the locals. 
   
  Act I, Scene 3: 
  Or atio n 
  Keeper’s reminder: Background 
  information about the Gotham 
  Legion can be found in the section 
  on Anthony Fava. 
  nthony Fava’s speech at the 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  Hall 
  is 
  scheduled to begin at 8 PM.  
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  22 
  Gotham Legionnaires are welcome 
  to enter the Hall any time after the 
  staff 
  arrives 
  at 
  9 
  AM.  
  Legionnaires are allowed to bring 
  one guest with them.  Doors open 
  to the public at 6 PM. 
  Outside the Legion Hall: 
  The Gotham Legion Hall is a 
  Georgian Style brick building on 
  State Street between Pearl and 
  Whitehall Streets. The columns 
  that set off the building’s façade 
  may be a failed attempt to make 
  the 
  building 
  look 
  ancient 
  or 
  Roman.  The overall effect is 
  somewhat disconcerting.  The 
  building’s peculiar angles are 
  impossible to miss. 
  Legionnaires and their guests are 
  welcome to make use of the 
  Legion’s library, smoking room, 
  billiard’s 
  parlor, 
  and 
  limited 
  kitchen.  The auditorium is rarely 
  used when Fava is out of town; it 
  hosts guest lectures on things 
  ancient and Roman when Fava is 
  in town.  The top floor of the 
  Legion Hall contains apartments 
  for Legionnaires to use for short 
  stays. 
  The Gotham Legion staff includes 
  a doorman, bartender, cook, waiter, 
  hat/coat-check girl and several 
  butlers. 
   
  Maid 
  service 
  is 
  contracted out once a week. 
  Inside the Legion Hall: 
  A 
  liveried 
  African 
  American 
  doorman enquires after the club 
  membership 
  status 
  of 
  each 
  visitor; welcoming both members 
  and non-members alike with an 
  open face, a polite smile, and a 
  kind word. 
  Beyond 
  the 
  door 
  is 
  a 
  high-ceilinged 
  entryway. 
   
  A 
  hat-check girl of Eastern European 
  cast and color stands ready and 
  eager to provide safekeeping for 
  one’s headwear.  Windows high 
  on the walls have been thrown 
  wide open to conduct any whisper 
  of passing breeze (as well as the 
  sounds and smells of the street 
  outside) into the Gotham Legion 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  23 
  Hall. 
  Carpets, furniture, knick-knacks, 
  and ornamentation all appear to 
  have come from Italy.  Copies of 
  ancient Roman busts and a pair of 
  statues sit proudly on prominent 
  display. 
  Anthony’s 
  speech 
  draws 
  an 
  overflow 
  crowd 
  of 
  Gotham 
  Legionnaires and curious visitors.  
  This is a perfect setting for 
  investigators who do not know 
  each other to meet.  Keepers may 
  also want to have NPCs of various 
  ethnicities, colors, and/or class 
  interact with the PCs. 
  In particular, keepers may wish to 
  introduce Charles Goodwyn, the 
  club’s treasurer who’d rather have 
  the Gotham Legion serve only men 
  of means.  Charles is likely to 
  mention the “foreign threat” to 
  anyone of a race and class he 
  approves of.  He’s likely to snub 
  and otherwise make clear that he 
  disapproves of anyone who is not 
  an upper class white Anglo-Saxon 
  Protestant. 
  Another possibility is to have a PC 
  chat with one of the club’s servants 
  – one who might later contact the 
  PC for help when events at the 
  club turn deadly.  The club’s 
  servants are likely to grumble 
  about their low wages, but still 
  project a positive image of their 
  employer. 
  The Auditorium: 
  An Irish butler conducts people 
  through a door from the reception 
  hall and into the auditorium for 
  the speech.  The auditorium is a 
  large space with finely wrought tin 
  ceiling and exquisite gas fixtures.  
  Faux 
  Roman 
  Legion 
  banners 
  frame a low stage on which waits a 
  fine, wooden lectern emblazoned 
  with the Gotham Legion shield.  
  The Hall’s motto is written in 
  Latin: Belua Multorum Es Capitum. 
  Speech 
  attendees 
  have 
  their 
  choice of seating on 50 or so 
  straight-backed wooden chairs.  
  The audience is a curious mixture 
  of men and women of various 
  ethnicities and background.  In 
  the Gotham Legion rich and poor, 
  black and white, immigrant and 
  “native” 
  rub 
  elbows 
  in 
  an 
  extraordinarily familiar way.  All 
  fan themselves and wait with as 
  much patience as the heat allows 
  in anticipation of Anthony Fava’s 
  speech. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  24 
  Note: The Gotham Legion’s motto 
  translates as “The people are a 
  many-headed beast.” 
  Investigators 
  who 
  talk 
  with 
  Gotham Legionnaires may learn 
  that no one but Anthony takes the 
  Legion’s Roman theme seriously.  
  Despite 
  that, 
  Legionnaires 
  genuinely like Fava and are glad 
  that he created and continues to 
  run this club.  They may mention 
  that Fava just returned from 
  Rome. 
  The Speech: 
  Charles Goodwyn, the well-heeled 
  and 
  rather 
  aristocratic 
  club 
  treasurer calls for and receives the 
  attention of all present.  He 
  smoothly welcomes all present, 
  plugs 
  the 
  advantages 
  of 
  membership 
  in 
  the 
  Gotham 
  Legion, 
  and 
  deftly 
  asks 
  for 
  donations though the event is free.  
  He earns a chuckle with a quick 
  joke about the Yellow Kid comic 
  appearing in not one but two 
  dueling 
  New 
  York 
  City 
  newspapers, and on that note 
  introduces the featured speaker 
  and 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  founder: 
  Anthony Fava. 
  To 
  polite 
  applause 
  Anthony 
  emerges from a side door and 
  walks to the podium.  He looks 
  older than his 20 years, small, 
  slight, and charming even as he 
  fumbles a trifle with a pair of pince 
  nez.  He thanks everyone for 
  coming and launches into his 
  speech. 
  “Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my 
  great pleasure to be with you this 
  evening.  A great pleasure for all 
  those reasons you might expect, of 
  course, but also because I quite 
  honestly feared I might not have the 
  ability to take pleasure in anything 
  at all.  That is to say, my friends – 
  Legionnaire and guest alike – that 
  on my recent trip to Rome I was 
  given good reason to fear for my 
  very life.” 
  Having 
  set 
  the 
  stage 
  for 
  a 
  rip-roaring 
  good 
  story, 
  Fava 
  switches gears and tells his tale in 
  the 
  time-honored 
  tradition 
  of 
  beginning, middle, end.  It begins 
  months ago when he traveled first 
  class on a luxury liner to Europe. 
  “I tell you this not to brag, my 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  25 
  friends,” he foreshadows, “but so 
  that you can compare it with my 
  rather different return trip!” 
  Fava went to the independent 
  state of Rome – under Papal 
  control, of course – to study all 
  things ancient and Roman.  He 
  offered a small bounty for news of 
  significant archeological finds. 
  “This 
  was 
  a 
  strategy 
  I 
  often 
  regretted, I can tell you, because of 
  how often I was disturbed at the 
  library, or in the middle of a meal.  
  The great city of Rome is always 
  under construction, of course, and 
  the clearing of a new lot often 
  results 
  in 
  the 
  discovery 
  of 
  archeological curiosities the finders 
  are not in any real position to judge 
  for historical value.  Daily they 
  called for me in hopes of receiving a 
  few notes.” 
  It surprises no one in the audience 
  to learn that Fava’s bounty paid 
  off 
  handsomely 
  in 
  the 
  end.  
  Apparently 
  some 
  workmen 
  discovered a well of exceptional 
  age; 
  a 
  well 
  curiously 
  sealed 
  hundreds upon hundreds of years 
  ago.  Fava and a small team of 
  junior 
  archeologists 
  from 
  Sapienza University observed as 
  the well’s seal was broken and a 
  small vessel – also sealed – was 
  removed from therein. 
  “Perhaps, my friends, you are aware 
  of those Russian nesting dolls now 
  found among the curio shops of our 
  own fair city?  A larger doll is 
  hollowed out so as to fit around a 
  small doll – also hollowed out – fit 
  around yet a smaller doll and so on 
  until one discovers at the doll’s core 
  a treasured final item.  Perhaps my 
  knowledge of this clever trinket 
  preyed upon my mind because I, 
  and it seemed only I, was filled with 
  tremulous anticipation.  The bored 
  workmen broke the small vessels’ 
  seal and from within withdrew a 
  book.  A book of singular age and 
  curious 
  design.  
  A book, 
  my 
  friends, that resides – in some 
  capacity, at least – in the library of 
  the Gotham Legion at this very 
  moment!” 
  Fava glosses over how the book 
  came to be in his possession 
  rather than taken to the university 
  by the team of archeologists.  He 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  26 
  explains that he hired a young, 
  talented artist to copy the ancient 
  book’s strange words, diagrams, 
  and 
  formulae 
  onto 
  modern 
  parchment.  Only after the book 
  was fully and completely copied 
  did Fava turn it over to where it 
  rightly belonged – the Sapienza 
  University 
  Department 
  of 
  Antiquities. 
  Which – Fava’s continued story 
  leads one to reflect – may not have 
  been a good place for the book to 
  go. 
  Anthony 
  describes 
  weeks 
  of 
  fevered study.  He pored over the 
  pages, 
  pumped 
  linguists 
  for 
  information, 
  ran 
  librarians 
  to 
  ragged distraction…  In short, he 
  did everything but talk to the real 
  experts at Sapienza University; 
  the people who would have the 
  most to tell him. 
  “It was in early April that, despairing 
  of making any real progress on my 
  copy of that frustratingly dense 
  script and its elusively suggestive 
  ephemera, I took a break in a little 
  café.  I had hoped that the 
  restorative power of a cappuccino 
  might give me the strength to grasp 
  the hand of that writer reaching out 
  to me from antiquity.  It was while 
  waiting for the coffee to brew that 
  my gaze fell upon a local paper and 
  I learned of the tragic fire that swept 
  through the university.  I learned 
  that a guard had been killed.  And 
  it seemed to suggest that the book – 
  my book as I’d come to think of it – 
  had been stolen.” 
  Fava went to the university and 
  found a distraught professor, Juan 
  Maceli, eager to talk about all that 
  had happened.  Maceli, it seems 
  had made considerably more 
  progress 
  translating 
  and 
  understanding the text than Fava.  
  The guard’s death and the loss of 
  that irreplaceable book weighed 
  heavily on the professor. 
  “I confessed that I had in my 
  possession a copy of that very book.  
  Professori Maceli expressed both 
  his fury and everlasting thanks that I 
  had arranged for a copy to be made 
  – and had done so without his 
  knowledge.  In two words – a name 
  – 
  all 
  was 
  clear. 
   
  I 
  had 
  in 
  possession, he told me, the only 
  known copy of a work nearly two 
  thousand years old.  A lost history 
  of the reign of Emperor Nero written 
  by 
  none 
  other 
  than 
  Fabius 
  Rusticus.” 
  This particular bit of drama seems 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  27 
  to go over the head of nearly all 
  present.  Fabius Rusticus?  Who 
  is that?  But it clearly means a 
  great deal to Fava. 
  Professor 
  Maceli 
  secured 
  a 
  promise from Anthony Fava to 
  turn 
  over 
  his 
  copy 
  to 
  the 
  university. 
   
  In 
  return, 
  the 
  professor would go through the 
  translated words with Fava. 
  “It pains me greatly to tell you, my 
  friends, that Professori Maceli did 
  not live to see me keep my promise.  
  The following night, thugs broke 
  into his apartment, tortured, and 
  brutally killed him.  I can only 
  presume they were after my copy of 
  Fabius Rusticus’ Historica Nero – 
  as I have come to call it.  From the 
  professori’s apartment they traveled 
  immediately 
  to 
  my 
  hotel 
  and 
  attacked the staff!” 
  Everyone is leaning in now – no 
  one wants to miss a word.  
  Anthony Fava is not a born orator, 
  but he’s doing a fine job of it. 
  “I 
  have 
  spoken 
  often 
  of 
  the 
  outstanding honor and character of 
  the Roman people – my friends, you 
  know this.  I can honestly report to 
  you that the hotel staff bravely 
  fought these thugs.  A nearby 
  policeman arrived and shot the 
  invaders dead.” 
  Fava concluded that he was not 
  safe in Rome any longer.  He felt 
  the 
  desperate 
  need 
  to 
  run.  
  Fortunately for him… 
  “Providence conspired to position 
  me at the head of an import/export 
  business; and this was not for 
  nothing my friends.  I was able to 
  flee 
  Rome 
  within 
  hours 
  as 
  a 
  nameless passenger on one of our 
  very own freighters.  The trip was 
  long and difficult.  But here I am.  
  Alive, 
  well, 
  rested, 
  and 
  in 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  28 
  possession of both the Historica 
  Nero and a basic knowledge of how 
  to read it.” 
  Fava wraps up the speech with a 
  few tantalizing hints that the 
  Historica Nero might somehow 
  figure into the Gotham Legion’s 
  future.  With that, he closes up 
  his notes.  Accepts a round of 
  applause.  And is gone. 
  Fava 
  takes 
  no 
  questions 
  immediately after his speech but 
  all attendees are welcome to move 
  to the next room for a reception. 
   
  The Protagonists: 
  It is essential to ensure that the investigators are taking action – not just 
  listening to a speech.  Take care to insert little opportunities for the 
  investigators to show what they are made of. 
  If a character is a detective, make sure he can detect something!  If a 
  character is an antiquarian esthete, give him old works of art to judge 
  and an audience to impress with his knowledge.  If a character is a 
  head-turning, wise-cracking, hard-driving songbird, make sure there’s 
  an easily-overlooked, mild-mannered, over-cautious homebody for her to 
  contrast with! 
  In short, let the heroes shine. 
  And while the heroes are shining, they should also have the opportunity 
  to showcase tics and gaps in their life.  These are the facets that make 
  the PC shine interesting to look upon. 
  A few rolls to get the role playing juices flowing: 
  A successful Spot Hidden roll is sufficient for investigators to note four 
  men who arrive late to the speech.  Due to the overflow crowd, the four 
  are kept to the back of the room.  Paranoid players who want a second 
  Spot Hidden roll to see if the men are armed should be congratulated for 
  starting the adventure off on the proper note.  If successful – and it is 
  appropriate to their character – they can tell that the men have knives 
  hidden on their persons. 
  A successful Psychology roll at + 30% (this isn’t hard to work out once 
  investigators have spotted the four men) makes it clear that the four are 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  29 
  fixated on Anthony Fava and are frustrated at their inability to approach 
  him. 
  A successful Credit Rating roll at -20% allows an investigator to identify 
  the men’s dress as Italian.  A critical success allows an investigator to 
  identify the dress as Roman. 
  Any investigators who are close enough to the men to overhear their 
  muttered conversation might be able to identify the language they speak 
  as Italian.  Keepers should determine for themselves what sort of 
  character background or skills are appropriate but certainly the Italian 
  language, some sort of Linguistics skill, or – at a stretch – Latin might 
  suffice.  It might even be possible to identify the men’s accent as Roman. 
   
  Act I, Scene 4: 
  Reception 
  nthony Fava and most of the 
  audience exit through doors 
  at the front and rear of the 
  auditorium.  They move to the 
  reception room to mingle, network, 
  and drink. 
  Investigators are free to attend the 
  reception, look around the building, 
  or split up and do both.  It’s not at 
  all difficult to slip away without 
  attracting a great deal of attention.  
  Fava’s copy of the Historica Nero is 
  currently in a glass case on a stand 
  in the library.  The room is 
  unlocked. 
  Investigators who go into the 
  reception 
  should 
  have 
  the 
  opportunity 
  to 
  meet 
  NPCs.  
  Anthony Fava is a busy man, but 
  he’ll definitely make a little time 
  for investigator questions.  He’ll 
  be very open about his past and 
  what happened to him in Rome.  
  He’ll be somewhat guarded about 
  the Historica Nero, but won’t out 
  and 
  out 
  refuse 
  to 
  answer 
  questions. 
  If the investigators have spotted 
  the four mysterious men, they’ll 
  probably want to keep an eye on 
  them.  Two of the men slip out of 
  the reception.  The other two go to 
  a quiet corner… 
   
  Act I, Scene 5: 
  Assassins! 
  he four mysterious Romans 
  are members of the Sleeping 
  A 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  30 
  Spear 
  cult. 
   
  They’ve 
  been 
  dispatched to New York City with 
  two missions: 1) Kill Anthony Fava, 
  2) Recover or destroy Fava’s copy 
  of the Historica Nero.  Naturally, 
  the 
  investigators 
  will 
  have 
  something to say about that. 
  Keepers may wish to run Act I, 
  Scenes 6 and 7 more or less 
  simultaneously – running a bit of 
  one until it reaches a cliffhanger 
  and then switching to the other.  
  If 
  there 
  are 
  not 
  enough 
  investigators to run both scenes 
  simultaneously, 
  the 
  two 
  can 
  certainly be run one after the 
  other; 
  investigators 
  foil 
  the 
  assassination and then run after 
  the thieves or stop the thieves 
  before rushing into the reception 
  room to confront the assassins. 
  The four men split up the missions 
  equally among them.  PCs may 
  note two of the men returning to 
  the 
  auditorium. 
   
  The 
  two 
  assassins go to a corner, pull out 
  hidden cult daggers, then head on 
  a 
  round-about 
  path for 
  their 
  target. 
  Investigators might intercept the 
  assassins when they pull out their 
  weapons, while the assassins stalk 
  Fava, or when the assassins try to 
  kill 
  Fava. 
   
  Even 
  cowardly 
  investigators should be able to 
  shout a warning and/or call for 
  help.  An active roll for the 
  investigators is essential. 
  Moreover, it is essential that 
  Anthony Fava survive. 
  The Assassins: 
  There are two foreigners in the 
  reception room.  Their thick 
  black 
  hair, 
  slightly 
  swarthy 
  complexions, and strong Roman 
  noses 
  could 
  mean 
  they 
  are 
  immigrants. 
   
  But 
  their 
  odd 
  European dress and something 
  about the way they cast their eyes 
  around the room, the way they 
  walk, the way they move . . . 
  something marks them as foreign. 
  Though they glance this way and 
  that, they always return their gaze 
  to Anthony Fava.  Something in 
  those 
  deep 
  brown 
  eyes.  
  Something more than unfriendly. 
  And then there are the daggers…  
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  31 
  Each of them is holding – as 
  un-obviously as they can manage 
  – a dagger.  The daggers are 
  short and compact; broad at the 
  hilt but swiftly tapering down so 
  that their last inch extends as little 
  more than a needle. 
  It does not take a great deal of 
  imagination to picture that needle 
  piercing a body.  The dagger 
  continuing to thrust forward.  The 
  broadening blade taking the tip’s 
  tiny wound and ripping it open 
  into a gaping, dripping maw… 
  They swiftly weave through the 
  reception.  Aimed straight at 
  Anthony 
  Fava.  The daggers 
  come up…
   
  SLEEPING SPEAR CULTIST #1 
  STR 12 CON 9 SIZ 11 INT 8 
  DEX 11 APP 10 EDU 8 POW 7 HP 11 
  Weapons: 
  Dagger 45% (1D6) 
  Fist/Punch 55% (1D3) 
  Head Butt 50% (1D4) 
  Kick 50% (1D6) 
  Skills: Bargain 30%, Climb 60%, Conceal 50%, Cthulhu Mythos 06%, Dodge 
  55%, English 15%, Hide 60%, Jump 50%, Listen 70%, Sneak 60% 
   
  SLEEPING SPEAR CULTIST #2 
  STR 16 CON 12 SIZ 13 INT 9 
  DEX 17 APP 11 EDU 5 POW 7 HP 13 
  Weapons:  
  Dagger 65% (1D6+1D4) 
  Fist/Punch 80% (1D3+1D4) 
  Head Butt 70% (2D4) 
  Kick 70% (1D6+1D4) 
  Skills: Bargain 25%, Climb 55%, Conceal 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 04%, Dodge 
  60%, English 1%, Hide 50%, Jump 55%, Listen 40%, Sneak 35% 
   
  Act I, Scene 6: 
  Thieves! 
  hile the assassination plot 
  is being foiled, the other  
  pair of cultists is searching for the 
  Historica 
  Nero. 
   
  Investigators 
  may have gotten the same idea 
  and already started to work their 
  way through the Gotham Legion 
  Hall.  Alternatively, investigators 
  may have spotted the thieves 
  leaving the reception and decide to 
  follow them.  It is most dramatic 
  for 
  the 
  PCs 
  to 
  confront 
  the 
  Sleeping Spear cultists in the 
  library. 
  W 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  32 
  The cultists will first try to open 
  the glass case and snatch the book.  
  They’ll try to discourage moderate 
  resistance 
  with 
  their 
  knives.  
  Serious resistance will be met with 
  Shrivelling spells from the thief 
  who knows that spell.  If worse 
  comes to worst for the cultists, 
  pyrrhic victory will look appealing. 
  Spark spells are just the thing. 
  SAN 
  loss 
  for 
  witnessing 
  a 
  Shrivelling or Spark spell is 1/1d4. 
  The Thieves: 
  They are a strange pair; one tall 
  and broad the other small and 
  compact.  Like the assassins in 
  the reception room, these men 
  look and move like foreigners. 
  They are clearly unfamiliar with 
  the Gotham Legion Hall.  It is 
  also clear that they are looking for 
  a particular room.  Soon they find 
  it.  The library. 
  The library is in another wing of 
  the building.  Directly under – of 
  all things – the kitchen.  The 
  bookshelves that line the walls of 
  this room are lovely, well-made 
  pieces, 
  though 
  not 
  made 
  (aesthetically or otherwise) for 
  this particular room.  The tin 
  ceiling is fancifully shaped.  The 
  few chairs are large and inviting.  
  The gas lights are turned low. 
  In the center of the library is a fine 
  stand.  On the stand is a glass 
  box.  Within the box is Anthony 
  Fava’s copy of the Historica Nero. 
  The odd pair of men fixate on that 
  book as soon as they spot it.  In a 
  trifle 
  they 
  have 
  covered 
  the 
  distance to the case and start 
  trying to work the mechanism.  
  The larger man looks frustrated – 
  ready to smash his way to the 
  prize he desires.  The smaller 
  man – no less frustrated – seems 
  to have something else in mind… 
   
  SLEEPING SPEAR CULTIST #3 
  STR 14 CON 12 SIZ 13 INT 10 DEX 11 APP 10 EDU 7 POW 4 HP 13 
  Damage Bonus: +1D4 
  Weapons:  
  Dagger 30% (1D6+1D4) 
  Fist/Punch 35% (1D3+1D4) 
  Head Butt 50% (2D4) 
  Kick 35% (1D6+1D4) 
  Skills: Bargain 15%, Climb 50%, Conceal 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 02%, Dodge 
  50%, English 2%, Hide 40%, Jump 30%, Listen 45%, Sneak 30% 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  33 
   
  SLEEPING SPEAR CULTIST #4 
  STR 8 
  CON 13 SIZ 8 
  INT 14 DEX 9 APP 9 
  EDU 10 POW 16 HP 12 
  Weapons:  
  Dagger 15% (1D6) 
  Fist/Punch 35% (1D3) 
  Head Butt 40% (1D4) 
  Kick 20% (1D6) 
  Spells: Shrivelling, Spark* 
  Skills: Bargain 55%, Climb 15%, Conceal 60%, Cthulhu Mythos 11%, Dodge 
  20%, English 30%, Hide 40%, Jump 20%, Listen 60%, Sneak 25% 
  * New Spell: Spark 
  This simple spell enables the caster to create flame with the snap of their 
  fingers.  At a cost of 10 SAN, the caster creates a spark sufficient to light a 
  cigarette.  For every point of POW invested in the spell, Spark adds the 
  sudden and explosive power of roughly one cup of gasoline.  Unfortunately, 
  the caster is by no means protected by the flame and heat suddenly produced 
  at their fingertips… 
   
  Act I, Scene 7: 
  Paparazzi 
  n the aftermath of attempted 
  assassination, 
  thievery, 
  and 
  (possibly) arson attempts at the 
  Gotham Legion it is likely that the 
  assassins and thieves will be 
  arrested. 
   
  This 
  may 
  link 
  investigators to the New York 
  Police Department and/or Police 
  Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. 
  The Sleeping Spear cultists are, of 
  course, insane.  They can no more 
  provide rational explanations as to 
  why they wanted to kill Anthony 
  Fava and steal or destroy the 
  Historica Nero than they can 
  explain why they think the Great 
  Old Ones should be brought back 
  to rule the world in bloody horror.  
  They are not exactly fonts of 
  actionable intelligence.  They are, 
  however, quite willing to own up to 
  the fact that they came to the 
  Gotham Legion Hall with the 
  express purpose of killing Anthony 
  Fava and stealing a book. 
  The press is all over this. 
  New York City in 1896 is a town of 
  many, many newspapers.  Most 
  serious newspapers are sold by 
  subscription and can be quite 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  34 
  expensive.  The vast majority of 
  newspapers 
  are 
  penny 
  papers 
  costing, of course, one penny and 
  hawked 
  at 
  high 
  volume 
  by 
  paperboys (and –ladies) on street 
  corners.  The penny papers love 
  thrilling 
  stories 
  and 
  certainly 
  won’t let the truth get in the way of 
  increased sales. 
  Keepers may wish to place a 
  newspaper reporter or two in the 
  audience of Fava’s speech and/or at 
  the reception.  Regardless, a few 
  morning papers will carry news of 
  the attempted violence.  Nearly 
  all the afternoon papers will jump 
  on the bandwagon. 
  Anthony Fava and the Gotham 
  Legion 
  are 
  surrounded 
  by 
  paparazzi.  Anthony does not sit 
  for 
  a 
  photograph, 
  but 
  an 
  enterprising young reporter takes 
  a plate of the outside of the 
  Gotham Legion Hall. 
  The 
  newspapers 
  instinctively 
  stake out opposite positions on 
  what happened.  Some assert that 
  the whole event was concocted by 
  Anthony to gin up publicity for the 
  Gotham Legion.  Some believe 
  Anthony is an upstanding citizen 
  lucky 
  to 
  be 
  alive 
  after 
  an 
  unprovoked 
  attack 
  by 
  wild, 
  unpredictable foreigners.  A few 
  reporters go after the occult angle.  
  A few suggest that the Romans 
  were bumbling idiots upset with 
  Fava – perhaps because the young 
  man had engaged in some . . . 
  inappropriate behavior with a 
  sister or cousin..?  In short, they 
  do all they can to use the events at 
  the Gotham Legion Hall to sell 
  newspapers. 
  Fava gives one interview (handout 
  3). 
  Keepers should encourage debate 
  among 
  the 
  investigators. 
   
  Is 
  Anthony Fava on the up and up?  
  Is he a charlatan?  Is he a cultist?  
  What should be done about him 
  and his Historica Nero?  Give 
  players 
  the 
  opportunity 
  to 
  showcase how their characters 
  respond to an extreme situation.  
  PC strengths, weaknesses, quirks, 
  pet 
  peeves, 
  morals, 
  prejudices 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  35 
  and . . . well all those things that 
  make them both interesting and 
  distinct should be spotlighted.  
  Debate should continue through 
  the action in Act I Scenes 9 and 10.  
  Any investigators who witnessed 
  actual 
  magic 
  being 
  used 
  (particularly if they were the 
  target of a Shrivelling spell!) might 
  exhibit a touch of paranoia and/or 
  extreme caution – quirks that can 
  help to fuel a good debate among 
  PCs as to what they witnessed, 
  what they suspect is going on, and 
  what they ought to do about it. 
  Any investigators who interacted 
  with Anthony Fava are likely to 
  have a positive view of the young 
  man.  He certainly didn’t exhibit 
  any sinister tendencies.  Fava’s 
  curiosity, attraction to things old 
  and cryptic, and position at the 
  center of sudden danger should 
  rather remind investigators of 
  themselves. 
   
  Act I, Scene 8: 
  Ancient History 
  nvestigators have several days 
  before 
  anything 
  really 
  important happens.  They may 
  investigate as they please.  This 
  scene offers some information to 
  bookish investigators. 
  Note: 
  For 
  more 
  pulpy, 
  action-oriented 
  games, 
  keepers 
  could compress this time to a 
  single day – or even a single hour. 
  Investigators who keep tabs on 
  Anthony Fava – perhaps by 
  getting close to him or the people 
  close to him – will find the young 
  dillitant feverishly seeking out 
  expert opinion on the Historica 
  Nero.  He is trying to learn what 
  exactly it says and what it all 
  means.  He takes his copy to book 
  binders, linguists, and occultists in 
  New 
  York 
  City, 
  Boston, 
  and 
  Arkham.  Investigators may be 
  intimately 
  involved 
  in 
  Fava’s 
  investigations, or utterly removed 
  from them. 
  Book 
  binders 
  have 
  nothing 
  interesting to say about Fava’s 
  modern and hastily bound copy of 
  the Historica Nero. 
  His description of the original 
  codex, however, raises eyebrows.  
  Book binders with a historical bent 
  (difficult to find) are certain that 
  Fava’s description matches what 
  they know about book making 
  during the reign of Nero.  No one 
  quite believes that he found such 
  an old book intact. 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  36 
  Scholars familiar with ancient 
  Roman texts tell Fava that his 
  copy of the Historica Nero is 
  written in the shorthand Latin 
  favored by historians like Fabius 
  Rusticus.  Since no other Fabius 
  Rusticus texts survive, however, 
  it’s 
  impossible 
  to 
  determine 
  whether or not Fava’s copy is 
  actually the work of that ancient – 
  and 
  famously 
  theatrical 
  – 
  historian. 
  Occultists smell a fake, but are 
  very interested in what a real 
  Fabius Rusticus text might contain.  
  All try to convince Fava to leave 
  his copy of the Historica Nero with 
  them.  Fava’s refusals convince 
  most of the occultists that he is not 
  on the up and up. 
  Investigators may also wish to look 
  into the Emperor Nero and/or 
  Fabius Rusticus.  Keepers may 
  also wish to do a little research on 
  these two historical figures.  A 
  successful Library Use roll and 
  appropriate role playing may lead 
  investigators to the information in 
  the (handouts 4 and 5).  Likely 
  places for investigators to learn 
  this sort of information include: 
  ! 
  New York University 
  ! 
  Columbia University 
  ! 
  The New York City Public 
  Library 
   
  Act I, Scene 9: 
  Tenement Trouble 
  Investigators looking for cultists or 
  trouble 
  or 
  pulpy 
  two-fisted 
  excitement might decide to poke 
  around the tenements.  If the 
  investigators 
  know 
  Police 
  Commissioner Roosevelt, he might 
  invite investigators to visit the 
  tenements 
  with 
  him. 
   
  If 
  investigators have no reason to 
  know 
  Roosevelt, 
  they 
  might 
  encounter him there. 
  The Tenements: 
  New York City’s Lower East Side is 
  an overflowing anthill of humanity 
  in every shade, sense, sensibility, 
  and scent.  The much-maligned 
  tenements are everywhere and 
  nearly everywhere they are lovely; 
  conceived, built, and adorned by 
  men of real aesthetics.  Ah, but 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  37 
  they 
  are 
  filled 
  – 
  overfilled, 
  actually, 
  though 
  that 
  word 
  scarcely suffices to describe the 
  families piled atop each other in 
  rooms meant for one person and 
  sitting in the dark stairwells and 
  camped out on the stoops and 
  dangling legs from fire escapes 
  and massed on rooftops and 
  wandering 
  everywhere 
  in 
  the 
  streets in a fruitless search for 
  space – yes they are filled with the 
  latest crop of immigrants. 
  It is summer.  It is hot.  The men 
  work from morning until night in 
  factories or on the docks or 
  laboring 
  in 
  construction 
  or 
  otherwise by the sweat of their 
  brow, back, neck, and all.  The 
  women cook and clean and watch 
  the children and take in sewing 
  and piece-work.  The children 
  who can work do.  The children 
  who cannot yet work for coin work 
  for their mothers cleaning and 
  shopping and hauling water from 
  the common tap on the ground 
  floor up and up the stairs so that 
  dinner might be made – so that, 
  perhaps, a bit of a sponge bath 
  might be possible. 
  The faces here – rarely brightly 
  smiling – are especially dour now.  
  Why might that be? 
  After a bit of sight-seeing and 
  some 
  encounters 
  with 
  representative NPCs… 
  The Ice Man Gougeth: 
  The 
  investigators 
  spot 
  a 
  horse-drawn ice cart coming down 
  the street.  Many people eye the 
  cart with open-faced desire and 
  anger.  One old woman stands in 
  front of the cart and forces the 
  driver to stop. 
  A large bruiser of a man steps off 
  the back of the cart and demands 
  to know what the old woman is 
  about.  She wants ice for her 
  grandchildren and she wants it at 
  the same price she paid last year.  
  The ice man sneers and pushes her 
  down in the street. 
  No 
  self-respecting 
  investigator 
  should be able to ignore this. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  38 
  The ice man will happily tell 
  anybody who asks that ice costs 
  twice what it did last year because 
  “the boss” says it does.  He owns 
  the ice.  If somebody wants it, 
  they gotta pay for it. 
  The old woman is uninjured, but 
  her pride has taken a real beating.  
  She’s very upset about the high 
  price of ice and worried about what 
  might happen if the summer gets 
  any hotter… 
  The 
  average 
  policeman 
  won’t 
  arrest the ice man but might give 
  him a bit of a warning.  Roosevelt 
  will try to arrest the ice man for 
  assault but when the old woman 
  refuses to press charges (afraid 
  that she’ll lose all access to ice) 
  Roosevelt lets the man go with a 
  stern warning. 
  Information about New York City’s 
  tenements in the 1890s can be 
  found in the appendix.  A great 
  deal of additional information can 
  be found on the Internet. 
   
  Act I, Scene 10: 
  Cult Research 
  nother topic for discussion 
  and 
  debate 
  is 
  the 
  cult 
  connection. 
   
  Fava 
  will 
  not 
  immediately 
  associate 
  the 
  assassins and thieves with cults. 
  Investigators should. 
  The distinctive Sleeping Spear cult 
  daggers and the magic cast by the 
  thieves are good avenues for the 
  investigators to explore.  Should 
  investigators wish to check on the 
  men who came after Fava in Rome, 
  they’ll eventually be able to learn 
  that they used the same sort of 
  daggers.  Possible sources of this 
  information include international 
  newspapers 
  or 
  a 
  request 
  for 
  information from the NYPD. 
  Occultism and Spiritualism are 
  very popular in 1896 New York 
  City.  It will not be difficult for 
  investigators to find occultists or 
  spiritualists 
  to 
  consult 
  with.  
  Investigators should learn that 
  dangerous cults most certainly do 
  exist throughout the world – and 
  are, in fact, rumored to exist in 
  New York.  One possible avenue 
  of 
  research 
  and 
  information 
  follows: 
  Theosophical Society: 
  Note: The Theosophical Society is 
  a real organization.  A great deal 
  of information about the group is 
  available on the Internet.  The 
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  39 
  appearance of the Society and two 
  of its prominent members in this 
  adventure is in no way meant to 
  belittle their good works.  
  In 1895 the occult Theosophical 
  Society split into two factions.  
  Investigators may want to visit 
  both.  A little discretion is in 
  order as the two do not get along at 
  all. 
  Hardly a shadowy organization, 
  the Theosophical Society is both 
  well known and well respected.  
  They place a heavy emphasis on 
  reincarnation and have extremely 
  complex theories about human 
  history and magic. 
  Annie Besant 
  represents the 
  original 
  Theosophical 
  society. 
   
  A 
  women’s rights 
  activist, orator, 
  and writer, her 
  great interest in India will take 
  her there in 1898 to establish the 
  Central Hindu College.  In 1902 
  she will establish the International 
  Order 
  of 
  Co-Freemasonry 
  in 
  England.  At the time of this 
  adventure she is most famous for 
  having presented Theosophy at the 
  Chicago World’s Fair in 1983. 
  Annie is an attentive listener.  
  She honestly admits that she 
  knows little about Italian cults.  
  Despite 
  that, 
  she 
  absolutely 
  believes investigator stories of 
  inane men and magic spells.  She 
  would 
  very 
  much 
  like 
  the 
  investigators 
  to 
  join 
  the 
  Theosophical Society so that they 
  can learn more about Eastern 
  Spiritualism. 
  The Old Power: 
  I can assure you that cults exist the 
  world 
  over. 
   
  That 
  there 
  are 
  similarities among these cults – in 
  what 
  they 
  believe, 
  how 
  they 
  practice their beliefs, and the magic 
  they employ – is beyond dispute.  
  You should not dismiss the old 
  power.  It does not dismiss you. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  40 
  The Theosophical Society does not 
  trade in unwholesome activities or 
  deal with those who the cultists 
  worship.  I deeply regret that I can 
  offer you no information or power 
  you 
  might 
  employ 
  to 
  defend 
  yourselves and your friends – and 
  perhaps existence itself – from such 
  as these. 
  I encourage you to learn from these 
  cultists.  In the end, all may 
  depend on your ability to fight power 
  with 
  power. 
   
  Like 
  with 
  like.  
  Darkness overpowering darkness to 
  find the light. 
  I have hear rumors of an African cult 
  somewhere in the city.  Perhaps 
  you could find them.  Perhaps they 
  will find you…  
  William 
  Quan Judge 
  is 
  a 
  lawyer 
  and leader of 
  the breakaway 
  faction of the 
  Theosophical 
  Society.  
  Annie Besant accused him of 
  borrowing money and then failing 
  to repay it.  Whether or not this is 
  true is in dispute.  The fact that 
  most of the members of the 
  original 
  Theosophical 
  Society 
  decided 
  to 
  leave 
  with 
  Judge 
  suggests that they have great faith 
  in him. 
  Judge 
  wrote 
  The 
  Ocean 
  of 
  Theosophy in 1893 and several 
  other 
  articles 
  for 
  theosophical 
  magazines.  He will listen to the 
  investigators and then explain 
  what they have seen: 
  The Roots Of The Matter: 
  I congratulate you!  You have 
  undoubtedly had an encounter with 
  members of the fourth root race – 
  the 
  Atlanteans! 
   
  By 
  their 
  coloration, of course, they could not 
  be members of the pure white 
  Atlanteans.  Still, their use of the 
  black magic of 850,000 BC – which 
  led to the destruction of that race – 
  and their generally selfish nature…  
  These things make it clear that you 
  were faced not with men as we 
  know them – Aryans of the fifth root 
  race – but something older and far 
  more dangerous.  You are, indeed, 
  fortunate that they did not conjure 
  human-animal chimeras to fight 
  you.  Perhaps they were using their 
  chimeras as sex slaves. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  41 
  Judge is very excited to hear about 
  Fava’s book and may become a 
  recurring 
  character 
  – 
  always 
  turning up and asking what Fava 
  or the investigators have learned.  
  Aside from confirming that there 
  are many cults spread all over the 
  world, 
  he 
  has 
  no 
  practical 
  knowledge that can help the 
  investigators, but he might be 
  turned to practical use. 
  Note: Some of Judge’s work is 
  freely available on the Internet. 
  Investigators who prefer a more 
  academic line of research into cults 
  might try: 
  Columbia University: 
  This institution has gone by many 
  names.  In 1896, it took the name 
  “Columbia University” and moved 
  into the Bloomingdale Lunatic 
  Asylum in Morningside Heights.  
  The Low Library is a neo-classical, 
  domed 
  building 
  incorporating 
  many 
  elements 
  of 
  Rome’s 
  Pantheon, the shape of a Greek 
  Cross, and elements of the Baths of 
  Diocletian. 
  Bronze busts of Zeus and Apollo 
  watch 
  investigators 
  enter 
  the 
  building.  Pallas Athena gazes at 
  them from the foyer where she is 
  surrounded by the twelve signs of 
  the zodiac.  Augustus Ceasar 
  stares down from the rotunda to 
  mark his realm of study: Theology.  
  The 
  other 
  three 
  wings 
  (law, 
  philosophy, 
  and 
  medicine) 
  are 
  similarly watched by their patrons. 
  In short, this place has all the 
  atmosphere a keeper might want 
  to convince investigators that they 
  are on the right track. 
  Successful Library Use rolls will 
  help 
  investigators 
  learn 
  more 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  42 
  about cults around the world.  
  Especially persistent investigators, 
  those who role play encounters 
  with librarians well, or those who 
  achieve critical success with their 
  Library Use roll should be allowed 
  to uncover a copy of Nameless 
  Cults. 
  This octavo was published in 1845 
  and seems to have been carelessly 
  tucked behind some other volume 
  on a high, dusty shelf.  The book 
  is a mess.  Pages are missing.  
  Odd 
  stains 
  make 
  it 
  nearly 
  impossible to read some of the 
  existing pages.  And a strange 
  hole pierces the entire volume – 
  perhaps made by a bullet or sword. 
  Among 
  the 
  various 
  psyche-scalding 
  revelations 
  in 
  Nameless Cults is that an ancient 
  Roman 
  cult 
  worshipped 
  a 
  malevolent living flame.  
  SAN loss is 1d8/2d8.  Cthulhu 
  Mythos is +12%.  The book once 
  contained three spells but now has 
  just one with a spell multiplier of 
  X3: Deflect Harm. 
  Less successful Library Use rolls 
  or less impressive work on the part 
  of investigators, might result in 
  their finding The Golden Bough by 
  Sir George Fraser in 1890.  This 
  is a three volume set of thick books 
  (later 
  expanded 
  to 
  twelve 
  volumes!) filled with dense text.  
  It contains a bit of comparative 
  anthropology that suggests that 
  cults 
  are 
  indeed 
  magically 
  powerful and spread all over the 
  world. 
   
  The 
  extraordinary 
  patience and effort required to 
  read this book suggests why cults 
  have not yet succeeded in world 
  domination.  SAN loss is 0/1.  
  Occult skill can be increased by 
  3%. 
  No matter how successful they 
  have been, investigators should get 
  the sense that they are up against 
  a dark underworld of strange rites 
  and rituals.  Most of it seems 
  laughable.  Until you’ve seen real 
  magic… 
  Keepers 
  should 
  encourage 
  discussion and debate about what 
  to do about the cult connection.  
  NPCs can be used to introduce 
  some of these possibilities: 
  ! 
  infiltrate the cults 
  ! 
  destroy the cults 
  ! 
  ignore the cults 
  ! 
  co-opt the cults 
  ! 
  learn from the cults 
  ! 
  use cult magic to oppose cults 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  43 
  Act II, Scene 1: 
  Ceremony 
  etermined 
  to 
  plumb 
  the 
  depths of mystery contained 
  in his copy of the Historica Nero, 
  Anthony Fava invites two of his 
  inner circle of friends within the 
  Gotham Legion to participate in 
  the recreation of a ceremony 
  described in the book.  If any 
  investigator background suggests 
  he or she should be among those 
  Fava 
  invites 
  or 
  should 
  an 
  investigator 
  be 
  keeping 
  Fava 
  under observation, the keeper will 
  have to ensure that he or she is 
  unable to attend.  A flat tire or 
  mugging might be in order. 
  From spheres beyond, Cthugha 
  burns a baleful gaze at the Gotham 
  Legionnaires.  In stark, nameless 
  terror the ceremony is abandoned 
  but not before the Great Old One is 
  licks out across unforgiving time 
  and space.  Cthugha’s blazing 
  caress leaves Roasalind Hind and 
  Benjamin Quarters traumatized, 
  hospitalized, and fighting for their 
  very 
  lives. 
   
  Anthony 
  Fava, 
  meanwhile, 
  is 
  physically 
  unharmed though now possessed 
  of a spark of dreadful knowledge 
  smoldering in his mind.   
  Investigators should learn about 
  some of the ceremony’s fallout.  
  They might happen to visit the 
  Legion hall that night or the 
  following morning.  They might 
  be contacted by servants at the 
  hall, police officers, a reporter, or a 
  paperboy.  At any rate some or all 
  of the following is uncovered: 
  Two Gotham Legion members, 
  Rosalind Hind and Benjamin 
  “Ben” Quarters are hospitalized 
  with strange wounds and burns.  
  They are unable to be interviewed 
  at this time.  They are expected, 
  however, to recover enough to be 
  interviewed in the next few days. 
  The Gotham Legion auditorium 
  is badly scorched.  Furniture is 
  broken.  A window was exploded 
  outward into the street. 
  Gotham Legion servants were 
  dismissed by Fava early last night.  
  They were pleased to have the 
  night off.  When they returned 
  the next morning they found the 
  front 
  door 
  unlocked 
  and 
  the 
  auditorium badly damaged. 
  Gotham Legion residents were 
  asked by Fava to vacate the 
  building last night.  They were 
  told that exterminators would be 
  in to deal with rats and other 
  D 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  44 
  vermin.  One resident, however, 
  was sleeping off a drunk and – 
  alarmed by screaming – stumbled 
  downstairs 
  to 
  find 
  Hind 
  and 
  Quarters severely burned and 
  Fava evidently in shock. 
  The police didn’t interrogate him 
  very much – they’re not the heroes 
  of this adventure.  A bit of 
  persuasion (and perhaps a Fast 
  Talk roll or the offer of a drink or 
  some fine role paying) is all that’s 
  necessary 
  to 
  convince 
  Sean 
  O’Malley to tell the investigators 
  all he saw.  His testimony likely 
  raises more questions than it 
  answers. 
  What The Witness Witnessed: 
  His name is Sean O’Malley.  He’s 
  a sailor.  He’s a drunk.  He’s the 
  man 
  who 
  took 
  charge 
  when 
  something very bad happened in 
  the Gotham Legion Hall. 
  Ay, I kin tell ye what happened – so 
  much as I know that is to say.  I 
  take no pride in tellin’ ye I was too 
  far gone to know anything about 
  anything until a horrible screamin’ 
  drove me out of a dream.  T’was a 
  sound terrible to hear, I kin tell ye.  
  A banshee wail I thought. 
  Down the stairs I rushed and 
  tumbled. 
   
  Still 
  not 
  awake 
  proper-like but movin’ anyways.  
  A-comin’ down that second set o’ 
  stairs the smell hit me straight 
  square in the eyes – if a smell kin be 
  said to hit.  Nearly drove me back, 
  it did.  All a-burnin’ hair and skin… 
  Well, I didn’t know that then o’ 
  course.  How could I?  But I had 
  maybe 
  something 
  like 
  a 
  premonition. 
  The doors to the auditorium were 
  closed.  I reached out to open one 
  and it was hot – like to burn my 
  hand.  But I opened it and – saints 
  forgive me for a sinner – there they 
  were.  All the little fires and smoke 
  and ashes.  And poor Mr. Quarters 
  and Miss Hind…  Mr. Fava was 
  there, too.  He musta been just as 
  far gone as meself.  Just stood 
  there with his eyes starin’ and not 
  seein’ nothin’.  Just a-lookin and 
  a-starin’. 
  Well I musta yelled somethin’ fierce 
  ‘cause he turned to me.  I pointed 
  at Mr. Quarters and Miss Hind and 
  he just opened his mouth.  Said 
  somethin’ like “Oh” and stood there 
  some more.  Well I ran for the 
  curtains what wasn’t a-burnin’ and I 
  patted out what fire as I could.  Oh 
  it was horrible.  The smell and that 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  45 
  blackened skin and the way it-  The 
  way 
  it 
  stuck 
  to 
  the 
  blanket 
  sometimes… 
  No.  I cannae think on it too clear.  
  I mustn’t.  Well.  The police 
  arrived not too much after that.  
  And then the ambulance cart. 
  Mr. Fava?  No.  He just wandered 
  away, I guess.  I don’t think he was 
  there when the police arrived. 
  They talked to me, they did.  But 
  not in no bad way.  They could see 
  whatever happened in there wasn’t 
  on account o’ me. 
  No.  There were candles all over 
  the room.  And some kind o’ design 
  on the floor.  They was doin’ 
  something, they were – Mr. Fava 
  and Mr. Quarters and Miss Hind.  I 
  reckon they tipped a candle or a 
  lantern maybe.  Got some oil on 
  them and it burned them somethin’ 
  horrible. 
  But I couldn’t tell ye more than I 
  have.  That’s all I saw.  And I’m 
  damn glad I saw no more. 
  Police investigated reports of loud 
  screaming in the area last night.  
  They entered the Legion Hall, 
  found the severely burned Hind 
  and Quarters and interviewed 
  O’Malley. 
  Members of the Cult of the 
  Bloody Tongue start hunting for 
  the cause of the Mythos magic 
  permeating the city. 
  The 
  clearest 
  indication 
  that 
  something 
  terribly 
  wrong 
  has 
  occurred 
  is 
  quite 
  direct: 
  The 
  morning 
  after 
  the 
  ceremony, 
  Anthony 
  Fava 
  desperately 
  summons the investigators to help 
  him.  This summons can be by 
  post or messenger. 
  After a night spent thrashing his 
  way through fevered nightmares, 
  Fava awoke desperate to find help.  
  Remembering the investigators, he 
  desperately leapt to the conclusion 
  they might be able to help him.  
  He dashed off a note with shaking 
  hands.  (handout 6) 
  The Fava family home is in the 
  New Utrecht portion of the city of 
  Brooklyn.  Brooklyn will not be 
  annexed by New York City until 
  1898.   It can be reached via the 
  Thirty-Ninth Street Ferry and 
  Eighty-Sixth Street Nassau Line 
  in 45 minutes.  Alternatively, 
  investigators can make a longer 
  journey by carriage across the 
  Brooklyn Bridge – the longest 
  suspension bridge in the world. 
  Fava offers to send his carriage to 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  46 
  meet investigators at the train 
  station should the investigators so 
  request 
  by 
  return 
  message.  
  Return post will reach Fava soon 
  after noon. 
  The Fava family home was built on 
  land 
  acquired 
  soon 
  after 
  the 
  Revolutionary War at the top of a 
  hill with a fine view of the river.  
  New 
  Utrecht’s 
  original 
  Dutch 
  settlers 
  were 
  joined 
  by 
  some 
  former British colonialists but 
  houses have always been sparse 
  and 
  the 
  countryside 
  largely 
  untamed.  The Fava home, built 
  in 1807, is essentially neighborless.  
  The 
  nearest 
  house is 
  at 
  least 
  twenty 
  minutes 
  of 
  hard 
  walking 
  away.  
  The 
  house is 
  a square 
  Greek 
  Revival 
  mansion 
  set on a 
  large 
  parcel 
  of 
  beautifully 
  landscaped 
  land. 
   
  Carriages 
  discharge 
  passengers 
  at 
  the 
  pillared entrance before driving 
  away or to settle in a carriage 
  house large enough to house a 
  dozen tenement families.  Ducks 
  swim 
  in 
  a 
  pond 
  fed 
  by 
  pitcher-toting, unclothed paragons 
  of statuesque perfection. 
  A tall, almost painfully thin butler 
  is waiting at the door to receive the 
  investigators.  Worry lines look 
  entirely out of place on the man’s 
  visage – crossing as they do in so 
  many places the deep-rutted laugh 
  lines that would normally be the 
  first thing noticed.  He introduces 
  himself as Vincento, takes hats, 
  and quickly ushers investigators 
  into the parlor. 
  Fava’s Parlor: 
  Vincento excuses himself with an 
  admonition to “Make yourselves 
  comfortable.” 
   
  The 
  parlor 
  is 
  well-appointed with a comfortable 
  sofa and chairs set, antique end 
  tables, 
  a 
  grandfather 
  clock, 
  elegant prints and floral displays, 
  and a set of glass doors thrown 
  wide open to admit the slightest 
  breeze 
  from 
  a 
  back 
  yard 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  47 
  stretching as far as the eye can 
  see in manicured splendor.  A 
  pitcher of iced water sweats 
  invitingly 
  on 
  an 
  end 
  table.  
  Glasses at the ready. 
  Anthony Fava enters the room still 
  in 
  his 
  dressing 
  gown.  
  Disheveled.  Pale.  Unrested.  
  Casting about constantly to all 
  corners of the room. 
  Fava tells investigators that he 
  fears something has gone horribly 
  wrong.  He babbles about a 
  terrible mistake he made at the 
  Gotham Legion Hall last night.  
  Something about old knowledge he 
  should have let molder. 
  Keepers should definitely allow 
  investigators to make a bit of 
  progress getting information out of 
  Anthony through clever roleplay.  
  In a pinch, a Psychology, Fast Talk 
  or similar roll might suffice to 
  learn 
  something. 
   
  It 
  should, 
  however, be obvious that he’s not 
  in his right mind and needs to be 
  institutionalized. 
  The one thing Fava absolutely 
  refuses to do is divulge the location 
  of his copy of the Historica Nero.  
  If pressed, he claims it was stolen.  
  In truth, Fava is afraid of the book 
  and does not want to expose 
  anyone else to the dangers it 
  contains. 
  Before the investigators leave, 
  Fava tries to extract a promise 
  from them to make sure the 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  and 
  all 
  the 
  Legionnaires are safe.  He is 
  convinced that a cult is at work… 
  Vincento 
  will 
  usher 
  the 
  investigators out – asking them in 
  a concerned voice what they think 
  should be done about his employer.  
  If they suggest (as they should) 
  that 
  the 
  man 
  needs 
  to 
  be 
  institutionalized, 
  Vincento 
  will 
  sadly nod his head in agreement 
  and promise to call Fava’s doctor 
  immediately. 
   
  Act II, Scene 2: 
  H o t  
  he heat wave has begun and 
  will worsen for the rest of this 
  adventure.  The brick tenement 
  buildings are ovens in which the 
  poor begin to bake.  Nightfall 
  provides no relief as temperatures 
  refused to drop.  People begin to 
  sleep on rooftops, fire escapes, and 
  piers.  It is illegal to sleep in 
  parks.
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  48 
  Humans In Heat 
  Sweat: The human body breaks down in persistent, excessive heat.  
  Temperature is regulated primarily through perspiration and evaporation.  
  When it is hot people sweat.  When it is very hot people sweat a lot. 
  Dehydration: At temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit humans simply 
  sitting in direct sunlight can lose half a gallon of water in ten minutes; 
  should they be working hard (as many laborers are during this adventure), 
  they can lose considerably more water.  Replacing lost fluids is essential. 
  Making things worse: Sunburned humans face additional danger since 
  their condition reduces the skin’s ability to shed heat. 
  Alcohol, caffeine, many medications, and old age can all inhibit cooling. 
  Tight, layered clothing – such as that worn during this adventure – greatly 
  inhibits the evaporation of perspiration. 
  Temperatures inside buildings – especially brick tenements – can be many 
  degrees higher than temperatures outside. 
  Bad to worse: Keepers should give plenty of warning signs before letting 
  the heat kill off an investigator.  A good way to do that is to show NPCs 
  dealing with different levels of danger.  From least to most dangerous: 
  SUNBURN is caused by prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.  At low 
  exposure this is merely red and painful.  At high exposure skin can crack 
  and ooze; the body’s ability to regulate temperature is greatly inhibited and 
  without medical intervention you can expect to move quickly down this list. 
  DEHYDRATION is a result of excessive sweating.  Thirst is not a reliable sign 
  of danger.  Dark urine is.  Dehydration can render a human listless and 
  severely inhibit decision-making capability.  Poor decisions include not to 
  drink, to stay in hot places, and to continue wearing heavy clothing. 
  HEAT CRAMPS are painful spasms – usually in the legs and abdomen and 
  usually accompanied by heavy sweating.  Heat cramps indicate that the 
  body is reaching temperatures it cannot deal with.  The pain and spasms 
  can make it impossible for the afflicted human to care for himself. 
  HEAT EXHAUSTION is the result of the body has redirecting blood flow from 
  vital organs to the skin; the resulting cold, pale, clammy skin can be 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  49 
  misinterpreted as an indication that the patient is improving.  Weakness 
  accompanied by a thready pulse, fainting, and/or nausea signals the danger. 
  HEAT STROKE is the name for what happens when the body’s internal 
  thermostat fails utterly.  Sweating ceases.  Loss of consciousness is likely.  
  Body temperature can rise to more than 106 degrees Fahrenheit and stay 
  there – literally baking the brain.  Brain damage or death can occur in less 
  then ten minutes. 
  Making things better: Hydration is essential.  Drinking water is the 
  simplest solution for people in early stages but victims of heat exhaustion 
  and heat stroke may be too nauseous to drink.  Hydrating with water alone 
  is also dangerous.  Water replaces liquid lost to sweat and urination but 
  does not replace salt lost to those body functions.  Lack of salt leads to 
  hyponatremia which can result in heart attack. 
  Moving into a cool area helps a great deal.  Shade is recommended, but 
  inside temperatures may be as high or higher than those outside.  
  Temperatures at street level are probably hotter than those higher up and 
  away from the baking streets. 
  Loosening and/or removing clothing allows perspiration and evaporation to 
  work properly.  Clothing styles and social morays of 1890s New York City 
  may override common sense.  Women in particular will find it hard to dress 
  appropriately.  Wearing wet clothing can feel good at first, but the water 
  eventually acts as insulation. 
  Moving air assists the perspiration and evaporation process.  Fanning is 
  helpful.  Finding a breeze is more so.  Travel on a horse, boat, or in a 
  carriage or train provides a little relief. 
  Cold compresses – especially to the torso, head, neck, and groin – swiftly 
  lower temperatures.  Ice is an essential component of these compresses. 
  Immersion in cool water can save the life of someone suffering from heat 
  exhaustion or heat stroke.  This may require the efforts of four or more 
  people if the victim is unconscious, spasming or otherwise unable to assist.  
  Immersion in very cold water constricts blood vessels in the skin and 
  prevents the body’s core from cooling.  Note that few of the tenements have 
  the facilities on hand for immersion.  Poor victims need to be brought to a 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  50 
  public bath, a hospital, or – in a pinch – to a park or river. 
  Roll playing heat: Keepers looking for rolls to inject chance into roleplay 
  can follow these guidelines: 
  Investigators working in the heat without taking proper precautions should 
  pit their CON against the appropriate heat-related danger on the Resistance 
  Table.  Taking precautions or reckless behavior should decrease or increase 
  the level of danger respectively. 
  ! 
  Sunburn 10 
  ! 
  Dehydration 12 
  ! 
  Heat cramps 14 
  ! 
  Heat exhaustion 16 
  ! 
  Heat stroke 18 
  Failure indicates that the investigator suffers the appropriate symptoms.  
  First Aid rolls stabilize a patient and offer some relief but do not stop the 
  symptoms.  Medicine rolls both stabilize a patient and – with time! – 
  remove symptoms. 
  An investigator with sunburn will have it for the remainder of this 
  adventure.  Keepers should penalize any physical skills according to how 
  sunburned the investigator has become – anywhere from -5% to -90%. 
  An investigator with dehydration, leg cramps, or heat exhaustion can 
  recover in a matter of hours or days.  Keepers should penalize both physical 
  and mental skills according to the severity of the investigator’s case – 
  anywhere from -5% to -90%. 
  An investigator with heat stroke will probably be hospitalized for the 
  remainder of this adventure.  Or dead.  Live investigators will find 
  themselves physically unhelpful but be able to contribute their thoughts and 
  ideas (with a penalty of at least -50%) to their fellow investigators. 
   
  Act II, Scene 3: 
  Vac uum 
  he next several days – the 
  time 
  in 
  which 
  Fava 
  is 
  institutionalized 
  – 
  are 
  unstructured.  Investigators are 
  free to investigate what and how 
  they wish as the heat grows ever 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  51 
  worse. 
  Fava’s institutionalization causes 
  a power vacuum in the Gotham 
  Legion.  The club’s treasurer, 
  banker 
  Charles 
  Goodwyn, 
  makes a play for control.  His 
  agenda includes tossing all the 
  riff-raff 
  out 
  and 
  focusing 
  on 
  making the Gotham Legion a 
  political force to be reckoned with – 
  starting with finding a way to give 
  Roosevelt the sack. 
  Keepers will have to decide how 
  best 
  to 
  introduce 
  Goodwyn’s 
  actions to the investigators.  He 
  might 
  invite 
  an 
  appropriately 
  white Anglo-Saxon Protestant to 
  join him.  He might warn an 
  “undesirable” investigator that the 
  time will soon him when “his kind” 
  are no longer welcome in the 
  Gotham Legion.  And, of course, 
  investigators 
  might 
  witness 
  Goodwyn showing great favor and 
  disfavor to NPCs. 
  Investigators who wish to do 
  something to stop Goodwyn should 
  meet with some amount of success.  
  Nearly any reasonable plan they 
  come 
  up 
  with 
  might 
  work.  
  Goodwyn could be embarrassed, 
  blackmailed, 
  threatened, 
  or 
  framed, but the simplest way to 
  put a stop to Goodwyn’s treachery 
  is to get Fava out of the hospital. 
  Eventually, 
  whether 
  the 
  investigators have a hand in it or 
  no, Fava hears about what Charles 
  Goodwhyn is up to and gets 
  himself 
  released 
  from 
  the 
  institution. 
  Act II, Scene 4: 
  Death In The Streets 
  he first human deaths from 
  the heat are reported during 
  this time.  It is unlikely that 
  investigators 
  will 
  directly 
  encounter dead people, but they 
  are quite likely to encounter dead 
  horses.  And angry people.  The 
  encounter might go something like 
  this: 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  52 
  One Corpse-Power Carriage: 
  As investigators travel from one 
  part of the city to another in a 
  carriage, they become aware that 
  their conveyance is especially slow.  
  The 
  heat 
  is 
  awful 
  and 
  the 
  investigators had looked forward 
  to a bit of moving air.  The driver 
  loudly curses his horse. 
  And then the animal simply drops 
  to the ground.  Dead. 
  It occurs to the investigators that 
  they have seen more dead horses 
  in the streets than usual lately.  
  Their driver unhooks the carriage 
  and pushes it to the side of the 
  street.  The dead animal will be 
  left in the street until someone can 
  come by to pick it up. 
  There are thousands – perhaps 
  hundreds of thousands – of horses 
  working the streets in the terrible 
  heat.  They die every day.  If the 
  heat persists, though, the number 
  of stinking, rotting horse corpses 
  littering the city streets is sure to 
  increase… 
  As 
  the 
  investigators 
  look 
  for 
  another carriage to continue their 
  journey, they spot a fight brewing.  
  Two small knots of men have 
  formed and are facing off.  Close 
  inspection shows that one is a 
  group of Irishmen while the other 
  is a group of Germans.  They are 
  hot and overworked and underpaid 
  and frustrated and on the verge of 
  coming to blows. 
  If investigators step in to stop the 
  violence, Keepers should keep the 
  tension 
  high 
  but 
  allow 
  the 
  investigators to succeed.  If the 
  investigators decide to watch, the 
  two groups shout and shove a bit – 
  putting off a real confrontation 
  until some unnamed later date.  If 
  the investigators go for police, 
  they’ll arrive as the men are 
  breaking up and going their own 
  ways. 
   
  Act II, Scene 5: 
  Blasted Banker 
  nvestigators should be present 
  when Anthony Fava turns up at 
  the 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  Hall.  
  Investigators might just happen to 
  be there or have been informed 
  that Fava will show up.  Gotham 
  Legion servants, Vincento, Fava’s 
  doctor, or Fava himself might be 
  the source of that information. 
  Anthony’s plan is to confront 
  Goodwyn and kick the Legion’s 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  53 
  treasurer out on his thick wallet.  
  Fava 
  is 
  pleased 
  to 
  see 
  the 
  investigators – believing they will 
  back him up. 
  The Smoking Room: 
  The 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  Hall’s 
  smoking room is on the second 
  floor.  Women are technically 
  welcome anywhere in the club, of 
  course, but the smoking room is 
  generally the domain of men.  
  The 
  chairs 
  are 
  large 
  and 
  overstuffed.  The paneling is rich, 
  if not opulent.  The room utterly 
  suffused 
  with 
  the 
  ghosts 
  of 
  tobacco past. 
  The generous windows are thrown 
  wide.  The doors to the dining 
  room propped open with door 
  stops wedged into the thick 
  carpeting.  All a vain attempt to 
  lure a breeze. 
  Collar loosened and coat off, 
  Charles Goodwyn holds court.  
  He 
  mops 
  his 
  brow 
  with 
  a 
  handkerchief then draws heavily 
  on the remains of an expensive 
  cigar.  A small crowd of bankers, 
  investors, telegraph moguls, and 
  other upper-crustaceans clings to 
  Goodwyn’s vision for the Gotham 
  Legion. 
  And then a shadow seems to fall 
  across the room. 
  Goodwyn winds down.  Frowns.  
  Everyone turns. 
  Anthony Fava enters the room. 
  Keepers 
  may 
  wish 
  to 
  have 
  investigators 
  meet 
  with 
  Fava 
  before he goes up to the smoking 
  room, be in the smoking room 
  when Fava arrives, or arrive late.  
  Should they spot him before the 
  confrontation they will note that 
  he is acting very oddly indeed.  He 
  is 
  wide-eyed, 
  course, 
  and 
  distracted.  In any case, the 
  investigators should be a part of 
  this moment: 
  Shrivel: 
  Anthony Fava angrily confronts 
  Charles Goodwyn.  They argue at 
  high volume with Fava insisting 
  that Goodwyn leave the Legion 
  and Goodwyn questioning Fava’s 
  sanity.  Things spin out of hand. 
  Adroit 
  investigators 
  may 
  see 
  warning signs.  Goodwyn is hot.  
  He’s overinflated.  He’s being 
  embarrassed in front of the men he 
  was trying to impress.  He’s being 
  upstaged by an upstart young 
  worthless 
  fool 
  with 
  primitive 
  leanings and substandard lineage. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  54 
  Other investigators may not be 
  aware that this is anything more 
  than an argument until Goodwyn 
  produces a gun.  Some of the 
  people present run for the door.  
  Others try to defuse the situation.  
  Goodwyn rants and raves and 
  threatens. 
  Keepers should give investigators 
  the opportunity to take action.  If 
  they can talk Goodwyn down or 
  knock him down or otherwise 
  handle 
  things, 
  they 
  should.  
  Whether they do something heroic 
  or just watch what happens, 
  though, Fava isn’t finished. 
  Fava seems to spasm.  A complex 
  muttering and groaning.  Wild 
  eyes.  Goodwyn takes this as 
  evidence that Fava is truly mad. 
  And then Fava points at Goodwyn 
  and casts a Shrivelling spell.  
  Goodwyn’s face smokes and cracks; 
  he collapses in a heap. 
  Fava is stunned at what he has 
  done. 
  SAN loss for witnessing Fava’s 
  attack is 1/1d4.  Keepers should 
  decide whether Goodwyn is dead, 
  mutilated, or just needs a few 
  months to recover.  Different play 
  groups will be more comfortable 
  with 
  different 
  results. 
   
  A 
  particularly 
  grizzly 
  death 
  or 
  mutilation 
  might 
  warrant 
  an 
  additional SAN loss of 0/1D2. 
  Fava at this moment is quite 
  amenable to pretty much any 
  investigator advice.  He’s ready to 
  turn himself into police, return to 
  the institution, go home, book 
  passage on a ship . . . pretty much 
  anything.  He’ll admit that he 
  learned this spell from his copy of 
  the 
  Historica 
  Nero 
  but 
  he 
  absolutely 
  will 
  not 
  let 
  the 
  investigators have the book. 
  Should the police be called, they’ll 
  disregard any mention of magic.  
  They won’t be able to explain 
  Goodwyn’s face, but they also 
  won’t be able to connect it with any 
  known method of attack.  Should 
  the 
  press 
  get 
  wind 
  of 
  what 
  happened, they’ll settle on an 
  “exploding 
  cigar” 
  theory 
  guaranteed to sell more papers 
  than “Fava is a witch”. 
  It is unlikely that investigators 
  have the contacts to let them know 
  this 
  information, 
  but 
  Fava’s 
  Shrivelling spell is all the Cult of 
  the Bloody Tongue needs to locate 
  Fava. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  55 
  The Arc Bends Skyward: 
  Keepers should use this mid-point of the adventure to take stock of all of 
  the investigators.  Has every investigator had the opportunity to shine?  
  Have their distinctive gifts and tics come into play in a way that makes 
  the players glad to be a part of the game?  If not, keepers should study 
  the remaining scenes for opportunities. 
  Keepers should also consider each investigator’s arc.  In the course of 
  this adventure every investigator should be changed.  If any 
  investigators seem too static, keepers might consider talking it over with 
  the players.  What sort of story most interests them? 
  With a clear idea of where each investigator might be headed, it’s easier 
  for keepers to serve up opportunities to make the journey exciting.  This 
  is not to say that keepers should mollycoddle their players.  If the 
  journey is fun and exciting, most players won’t mind if their investigators 
  fail to reach Act III alive, intact, and/or sane. 
   
  Act II, Scene 6: 
  Bloody Hell 
  hat same evening, the Cult of 
  the Bloody Tongue tries to 
  capture Fava.  They plan to 
  question him, learn the source of 
  his power, and either turn him to 
  the worship of Nyarlahotep or turn 
  him into a zombie. 
  Investigators should be present 
  when 
  the 
  cult’s 
  would-be 
  kidnappers arrive.  Should it be 
  necessary, Keepers can have Fava 
  ask investigators to stay with him.  
  The kidnapping attempt can be 
  staged at the Gotham Legion Hall, 
  Fava’s 
  mansion, 
  the 
  mental 
  institution, or nearly any other 
  place the investigators might wish 
  to be.  The following scenario, 
  however, has the Cult of the 
  Bloody Tongue trying to stop 
  Fava’s carriage and kidnap him 
  right on the streets of New York. 
  Bloody Tongues: 
  Fava’s carriage rumbles through 
  the streets of New York.  Despite 
  the dust, the windows are opened 
  wide – the moving air of travel 
  welcome 
  beyond 
  belief. 
   
  The 
  liveried driver swings the vehicle 
  through every shred of shade that 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  56 
  can be found. 
  Five members of the Cult of the 
  Bloody Tongue run shrieking out 
  of an alley.  All are wearing 
  distinctive 
  headgear 
  meant 
  to 
  suggest a great bloody tongue 
  extending from each member’s 
  cranium.  Two women go after the 
  driver, grabbing him and pulling 
  him off of the carriage.  (Kind 
  Keepers will leave the man bruised 
  and stunned in the street.  Less 
  kind Keepers will allow the women 
  to tear the driver’s throat out with 
  their teeth.)  The remaining three 
  men pull open the carriage doors 
  and leap inside. 
  None of the cult members are 
  armed.  They rely on surprise, 
  shock, and brute force to get their 
  way.  Keepers might call for 
  skittish investigators to make a 
  SAN check.  SAN loss is 0/1. 
  The 
  cult 
  members 
  have 
  not 
  counted 
  on 
  investigator 
  interference.  Keepers should play 
  up the cultist’s frustrated disbelief 
  at 
  being 
  opposed. 
   
  Their 
  frustration quickly changes to 
  rage. 
  Pulp-loving groups may want to 
  spend time on two-fisted action.  
  Consider having an investigator 
  (or cultist!) leap to the driver’s seat 
  and start racing the carriage 
  through the streets while PCs and 
  NPCs alike deal with suddenly 
  opening doors on sharp turns, 
  impact 
  with 
  fruit 
  carts, 
  or 
  what-have-you. 
  Captured cultists are found to be 
  insane but may well happily 
  babble on about Great Old Ones, a 
  beast in the cellar, blood, sacrifice, 
  and the living dead.  Keepers who 
  wish to send the investigators to 
  Cult 
  of 
  the 
  Bloody 
  Tongue 
  headquarters at the Black Wind 
  Bar 
  will 
  have 
  to 
  decide 
  for 
  themselves just what happens 
  there. 
  More 
  traditionally 
  Lovecraftian 
  groups will probably want to focus 
  on 
  running 
  away. 
   
  Consider 
  having the investigators running 
  down the street – dragging Fava 
  with them – pursued by screaming 
  cultists.  The desperate situation 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  57 
  should seem inescapable until the 
  investigators spot a refuge – 
  perhaps a house of worship or 
  policeman on foot patrol.  The 
  cultists melt away; leaving the 
  investigators with a healthy dose 
  of paranoia. 
  Fava is terrified.  And convinced 
  that someone needs to stand up to 
  the 
  cultists. 
   
  Privately, 
  he 
  wonders how much Mythos power 
  one might wield without going 
  mad. 
   
  FIVE CULT OF THE BLOODY TONGUE ASSASSINS 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  STR 
  12 
  16 
  15 
  7 
  11 
  CON 
  10 
  13 
  6 
  10 
  12 
  SIZ 
  17 
  12 
  11 
  12 
  13 
  EDU 
  9 
  10 
  10 
  7 
  7 
  APP 
  8 
  9 
  12 
  9 
  14 
  INT 
  6 
  16 
  11 
  11 
  7 
  DEX 
  8 
  13 
  13 
  10 
  10 
  POW 
  10 
  13 
  13 
  17 
  11 
  HP 
  14 
  13 
  9 
  11 
  13 
  DB 
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  Punch: 50% 
  55% 
  60% 
  60% 
  50% 
  (1D3) 
  Kick: 
  25% 
  30% 
  35% 
  35% 
  25% 
  (1D6) 
  Butt: 
  10% 
  15% 
  20% 
  20% 
  10% 
  (1D4
  Fava Flips Out: 
  Anthony Fava looks wildly about.  
  When he speaks, his voice is 
  broken and his words disjointed. 
  “Something has to be-  Did you see 
  that?  They’re after me.  Really 
  after me.  My god. 
  “You’ve got to get away.  Not safe 
  to be with me.  They’ll come again 
  and again.  It’s the book they want.  
  Just stories I thought at first . . . how 
  foolish!  You saw what I did.  What 
  can be done.  More than can be 
  dreamt in your philosophy.  More.” 
  With that, Anthony Fava will 
  separate 
  himself 
  from 
  the 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  58 
  investigators.  It’s not that he is 
  not thankful for their assistance – 
  he is – but primal terror prevents 
  him from thinking clearly. 
  Already he is planning to repeat 
  the ceremony.  To fight fire with 
  fire.  Not at the Gotham Legion 
  Hall, 
  though. 
   
  Too 
  public.  
  Perhaps at home… 
   
  Act II, Scene 7: 
  Departures & Deputies 
  nvestigators 
  who 
  know 
  Roosevelt well – or who have 
  grown to like him – may be 
  disappointed to find that he has 
  retired to Sagamore Hill, his new 
  home on Long Island, to escape the 
  worst of the heat.  The poor 
  desperately need a sympathetic 
  man – such as Roosevelt – in a 
  position of power – such as 
  Roosevelt’s – to help them. 
  And they do need help.  The death 
  toll from the heat wave expands 
  exponentially.  Horses drop in the 
  street by dozens.  They are 
  everywhere.  Everywhere, they 
  suggest a darker story of deaths 
  in-doors. 
  By New York City law, no one is 
  allowed to move a dead body until 
  someone from the coroner’s office 
  can write up a death certificate.  
  With so many people dying and the 
  oppressive 
  heat 
  making 
  the 
  city-criss-crossing job ever more 
  difficult, the coroner’s office is 
  unable to keep up with the demand 
  for their services.  As a result, 
  dead bodies are left to do what 
  comes naturally to dead bodies in 
  oppressive, relentless heat… 
  Deputies Of Death: 
  Investigators 
  with 
  a 
  medical 
  background might be pressed into 
  service as deputy coroners – racing 
  from one scene of death to the 
  other. 
  This is an opportunity to focus on 
  heat-related maladies of all sorts.  
  It should be quite clear to the 
  investigators that thousands will 
  die unless they can find some way 
  to beat the heat. 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  59 
  While the weather kills off the 
  young, the sick, and the old, 
  healthy New Yorkers are not 
  inactive.  Mobs take to the street 
  in the tenements.  The police and 
  fire departments are stretched 
  thin. 
  Deputies Of Law: 
  Investigators with a police or 
  fire-fighting background might be 
  pressed into service as deputy 
  patrolmen or fire-fighters – racing 
  from one scene of mob violence to 
  another. 
  This is an opportunity to introduce 
  NPCs who might appear in the 
  climactic 
  Central 
  Park 
  fight.  
  Investigators 
  might 
  also 
  meet 
  and/or inspire the public hero of 
  the following scene. 
   
  Act II, Scene 8: 
  Public Hero 
  he fabric of New York life 
  appears to be unraveling.  A 
  hero steps up to hold things 
  together: 
  Lloyd 
  Collis, 
  the 
  commissioner of the Public Works 
  Department, 
  shortens 
  city 
  employees’ hours and reschedules 
  them around the hottest parts of 
  the 
  day. 
   
  This 
  simple 
  announcement has a cooling effect 
  on the mob’s ire. 
  Public Works: 
  Keepers 
  may 
  want 
  to 
  have 
  investigators actually meet and 
  speak with Collis – he might even 
  get his idea from an investigator.  
  Investigators with a press or 
  city-worker 
  background 
  might 
  learn of Collis’ plans before they 
  are announced.   
  Otherwise, investigators will hear 
  about Collis’ plans the same way 
  nearly 
  everyone 
  else 
  does 
  – 
  through the loud cries of paperboys 
  hawking penny papers.  Keepers 
  may 
  wish 
  to 
  have 
  an 
  investigator-newsy 
  interaction.  
  Another possibility is to have 
  investigators 
  see 
  an 
  angry 
  proto-mob break up when they get 
  the good news that somebody 
  cares. 
   
  Act II, Scene 9: 
  What In Blazes? 
  etermined 
  to 
  use 
  the 
  Historica 
  Nero 
  for 
  good, 
  Anthony 
  Fava 
  tries 
  another  
  ceremony. 
   
  Not 
  wanting 
  to 
  endanger others, Fava performs 
  this summoning alone in his 
  T 
  D 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  60 
  backyard.  No one witnesses the 
  summons, but Vincento hears his 
  employer shouting and sees lights 
  in the sky. 
  Anthony 
  summons 
  four 
  fire 
  vampires who dance and spin 
  before him as Cthugha reaches 
  once more flickeringly into Fava’s 
  mind.  Ending the ceremony, 
  Fava 
  believes 
  that 
  he 
  has 
  successfully 
  dismissed 
  the 
  vampires.  He has not.  They 
  race through the night.  Killing. 
  Investigators should encounter a 
  fire 
  vampire 
  or 
  two. 
   
  An 
  encounter in the tenements might 
  work something like this… 
  Fire’s Edge: 
  That 
  night, 
  investigators 
  are 
  passing through the tenements of 
  the Lower East Side.  Perhaps 
  they are on their way to some 
  other location.  Perhaps they are 
  still at work – helping city officials 
  keep up with death, fire, and angry 
  mobs.  Perhaps they have been 
  alerted that Charles Morse is 
  planning to redouble the cost of ice 
  overnight. 
  In any case, the investigators are 
  there to see what pitiful relief the 
  night has brought.  Night owls 
  talk outside public baths shuttered 
  for the night.  Workers and other 
  exhausted folk have rolled out 
  their bedding on fire escapes and 
  rooftops – desperate for any scrap 
  of cool air.  Some look longingly 
  through the bars of locked gates at 
  the grounds of public parks. 
  Idea rolls suggest that keeping the 
  public baths open 24 hours and/or 
  allowing people to sleep in the 
  public parks might save lives.  
  Both Lloyd Collis and Roosevelt 
  would be open to these ideas. 
  And then… 
  Crashing To Earth: 
  A flaming body falls from the sky 
  and crashes to earth just in front 
  of you.  No chunk of space 
  debris, this, but quite literally a 
  flaming body.  A man if his 
  clothing is to be believed. 
  If the terrible orange and red 
  flames had not killed him, the 
  bone-crunching fall most certainly 
  did.  There is an awful moment of 
  silence 
  broken 
  only 
  by 
  the 
  crackling human bonfire.  Plenty 
  of time for a long, hard, clear look. 
  A child screams.  You look up 
  and spot the tot on a fourth floor 
  fire escape. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  61 
  In front of the youngster is a . . . 
  a . . . thing.  A suggestion of a 
  thing.  A suggestion of a mass of 
  dripping maws.  Gore-encrusted 
  claws.  A writhing-ness.  And yet 
  it is nothing but tongues of flame.  
  Just hanging there.  Above your 
  heads.  And beyond the thing of 
  tongues 
  – 
  seen 
  through 
  the 
  tongues – the stars shine cold and 
  distant and uncaring. 
  Next to the child, a woman shouts 
  something guttural – perhaps a 
  foreign 
  language; 
  perhaps 
  a 
  primitive cry of alarm – before 
  bursting into a brilliant green 
  inferno. 
  SAN loss for seeing the crashed 
  body is 1/1d4.  Normally there is 
  no SAN loss for seeing a fire 
  vampire, but this one is worth 1/2.  
  SAN 
  loss 
  for 
  witnessing 
  the 
  woman become a torch is 1/1D2 
  (the investigators are pretty jaded 
  by this point). 
  The investigators can rush up to 
  try to help by 1) entering the 
  building, racing up the stairs, 
  locating the correct apartment, 
  shoving their way in, and making 
  their way to the window, or 2) 
  leaping up (Jump roll), grabbing 
  the fire escape and climbing right 
  up below the thing.  Stats for the 
  fire vampire are below.  Keepers 
  are 
  encouraged 
  to 
  read 
  the 
  complete 
  description 
  of 
  fire 
  vampires in the rulebook before 
  playing this encounter. 
  Kind Keepers might determine 
  that the fire vampire has fed 
  enough this night.  Though it 
  menaces the child (surely the 
  origin 
  story 
  of 
  a 
  future 
  investigator/cultist), it does not kill 
  her.  The greatest danger to the 
  youngster 
  is 
  her 
  burning, 
  thrashing mother. 
  Mysterious keepers might have the 
  fire vampire take interest in the 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  62 
  investigators, come down to take a 
  look at them, and then leave them 
  alone.  Perhaps it has some sense 
  that they are working with Fava.  
  Perhaps it has its own unknowable 
  and mad reasons for leaving them 
  alive. 
  Keepers looking for a high body 
  count should have the fire vampire 
  kill the girl and then come after 
  the investigators full-force.  It’s 
  damn hard to kill or drive the fire 
  vampire 
  off 
  with 
  what 
  the 
  investigators likely have to hand.  
  Of course if the investigators seem 
  overly 
  competent, 
  bloodthirsty 
  Keepers 
  can 
  have 
  the 
  star 
  vampire’s buddies show up… 
  At any rate, the girl’s mother is 
  definitely dead.  The suddenly 
  orphaned 
  Annie 
  should 
  be 
  someone the investigators can 
  help.  Allow investigators to make 
  use 
  of 
  First 
  Aid, 
  Medicine, 
  Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Fast 
  Talk, or what-have-you. 
  FIRE VAMPIRE 
  CON 7 SIZ 1 
  INT 11 DEX 16 
  POW 13 HP 7 
  Move 11 flying 
  Weapons: Touch 85% 
  (2D6 burn + magic point drain) 
  Armor: Immune to harm from all 
  material weapons.  Water does 
  one 
  hit 
  point 
  damage 
  per 
  half-gallon.  A fire extinguisher 
  does 1D6 hit points of damage.  A 
  bucket of sand does 1D3 hit points 
  of damage. 
  SAN Loss: none 
   
  Act II, Scene 10: 
  Requests For Help 
  he 
  following 
  morning, 
  Anthony Fava sends word to 
  the investigators that he wants 
  them to track down the Cult of the 
  Bloody Tongue.  (handout 7)  He 
  is, of course, willing to pay for their 
  time and expenses. (Keepers may 
  wish to add to or alter the handout 
  to reflect important investigator 
  actions to this point.) 
  The postman is earning his keep 
  this day.  Along with Fava’s letter 
  is 
  a 
  letter 
  from 
  Roosevelt.  
  (handout 8)  Roosevelt wants the 
  investigators to assist in the 
  tenements – afraid that they might 
  explode into violence if this heat 
  continues. 
   
  He 
  asks 
  the 
  investigators to let him know how 
  things are going. 
  Keepers should allow investigators 
  to conduct their investigation as 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  63 
  they see fit, of course.  Some 
  investigators may wish to look for 
  the Cult of the Bloody Tongue in 
  Harlem.  Others will head to the 
  tenements on the Lower East Side 
  and look for Mythos-less trouble.  
  Still others may have some other 
  scheme they wish to pursue.  The 
  following 
  two 
  scenes 
  contain 
  possible encounters. 
   
  Act III, Scene 1: 
  Black Wind Bar 
  nly the most ill-considered 
  plans should be allowed to 
  yield no results should at least 
  some of the investigators decide to 
  track down the Cult of the Bloody 
  Tongue.  Any number of NPCs 
  might 
  be 
  able 
  to 
  direct 
  investigators to odd happenings in 
  Harlem.  A police officer, private 
  detective, occultist, professor of 
  African studies . . . players are 
  bound to come up with someone to 
  contact. 
   
  That 
  person 
  sends 
  investigators to Harlem. 
  Harlem: 
  Investigations into the cultists who 
  attempted to kidnap Anthony Fava 
  lead to Harlem.  Investigators can 
  take the elevated railway (the el) 
  right into the heart of Harlem.  
  Apartments, 
  townhouses, 
  and 
  tenements 
  are 
  springing 
  up 
  everywhere – an opera house is in 
  the planning stages.  1896 is an 
  up-and-coming, 
  upscale 
  white 
  neighborhood. 
  There are black people in Harlem, 
  but 
  they’re 
  not 
  immediately 
  obvious. 
   
  Any 
  of 
  the 
  white 
  residents or builders can direct 
  investigators 
  to 
  the 
  “Negro 
  tenements” on West 130th Street.  
  These are mainly pioneers of the 
  Great Migration – southern blacks 
  moving to northern cities in search 
  of a better life. 
  A better life, however, is easier 
  sought than found.  In New York 
  City, former slaves find themselves 
  allowed to sit next to whites on the 
  bus, but considered only for menial 
  jobs.  Some will band together 
  and create a city within a city – 
  creating black hospitals, schools, 
  O 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  64 
  churches, 
  and 
  stores 
  where 
  industrious black men and women 
  have more freedom to achieve.  
  Others will become disheartened.  
  Disenchanted.  And some of them 
  will become members of the Cult of 
  the Bloody Tongue. 
  Black Harlem residents will be 
  politely uncooperative with most 
  investigators.  Questions about 
  cults or cultists will be met with 
  protestations of ignorance coupled 
  to proud (and real!) assertions of a 
  Christian community.  Should 
  investigators hang around for a 
  while, though, they’ll spot some 
  residents 
  that 
  look 
  and 
  act 
  peculiarly.  Residents shunned by 
  the 
  good 
  Christians 
  the 
  investigators first interviewed… 
  These Cult of the Bloody Tongue 
  members 
  have 
  taken 
  over 
  a 
  basement bar, renamed it “Black 
  Wind Bar”, and made it their 
  headquarters.  (The organized 
  cult and underground chamber 
  described in Masks of Nyarlahotep 
  will not come into being for a 
  couple of decades yet.)  Patient 
  and persistent investigators will be 
  able to spot the bar and the cult 
  lookout standing watch outside. 
  The lookout can be overpowered, 
  distracted, or simply spoken to.  
  He’s not happy about allowing the 
  investigators into the bar, but he 
  can’t 
  refuse 
  to 
  take 
  white 
  investigators in if they ask. 
  The Black Wind Bar is filled with 
  African 
  art 
  celebrating 
  Nyarlahoptep in his bloody tongue 
  aspect – a horrible bipedal or 
  tripedal beast with a vast red 
  tongue-like appendage where it’s 
  head ought to be. 
  Just looking at the art in the bar 
  requires a SAN check at 0/1.  A 
  successful Cthulhu Mythos skill 
  roll lets investigators identify the 
  artwork as Mythos inspired and 
  having to do with Nyarlahoptep. 
  The bar’s patrons are all cult 
  members, of course.  Most are 
  Kenyan 
  immigrants, 
  but 
  investigators can only guess that 
  by their accented speech. 
  All 
  Black 
  Wind 
  Bar 
  patrons 
  (anywhere from 2 to 6 cultists) will 
  be very suspicious if their lookout 
  hasn’t warned them of the visitors 
  but will in any case greet the 
  investigators with silence and cold 
  stares.  The bartender will tend 
  bar if asked to. 
  Nosy investigators will probably be 
  attacked.  The cult members 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  65 
  present lack the sanity needed to 
  think through what such an attack 
  might lead to.  The NYPD will 
  definitely come down on the place 
  like 
  a 
  ton 
  of 
  bricks 
  if 
  the 
  investigators come in with reports 
  of dangerous black people jumping 
  them in a bar.  Of course, if all the 
  investigators 
  are 
  killed, 
  the 
  cultists won’t have much to fear 
  from the law… 
  Keepers should send out all the 
  signals needed to let players know 
  their investigators have found the 
  Cult of the Bloody Tongue.  In 
  addition, they should send out all 
  the signals needed to let players 
  know it is very dangerous to start 
  a fight.  Pulp-loving groups may 
  want to go the fisticuffs route, of 
  course.  If so, it’s important to 
  note that the Cult’s key players are 
  not present at this time.  They are 
  free to reenter the story later. 
  Should 
  investigators 
  somehow 
  capture a cultist, he or she will 
  freely admit the cult is looking for 
  Anthony Fava and plan to kill him. 
   
  SIX BLACK WIND BAR PATRONS and a LOOKOUT: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6    Lookout 
  STR 
  6 
  13 
  12 
  8 
  7 
  11 
  10 
  CON 
  12 
  8 
  12 
  12 
  7 
  9 
  10 
  SIZ 
  11 
  17 
  17 
  17 
  15 
  14 
  17 
  EDU 
  8 
  7 
  6 
  9 
  11 
  13 
  15 
  APP 
  6 
  13 
  11 
  13 
  4 
  10 
  11 
  INT 
  14 
  15 
  14 
  6 
  9 
  7 
  11 
  DEX 
  5 
  8 
  11 
  14 
  11 
  12 
  15 
  POW 
  15 
  9 
  9 
  12 
  14 
  16 
  15 
  HP 
  12 
  13 
  15 
  15 
  11 
  12 
  14 
  DB 
   
  1D4 
  1D4 
  1D4 
   
  1D4 
  1D4 
  Knife:  40% 
  50% 
  45% 
  35% 
  15% 
  45% 
  55%  
  (1D4) 
  Punch: 50% 
  60% 
  55% 
  45% 
  40% 
  50% 
  65% 
  (1D3) 
  Bottle: 35% 
  55% 
  50% 
  40% 
  60% 
  35% 
  35% 
  (1D6) 
  Note: Broken bottles become knives for this group.  Bottles break on 10% of 
  hits, 15% of misses, and 40% of parried attacks. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  66 
  Act III, Scene 2: 
  Tenement Tormentors 
  hould at least some of the 
  investigators decide to assist 
  the 
  New 
  York 
  City 
  Police 
  Department and Fire Department 
  with trouble in the tenements, 
  they ought to find some success.  
  Only the most bumbling sort of 
  volunteer work should be allowed 
  to yield no results. 
  Any number of NPCs might be 
  able to direct investigators to 
  trouble spots on the Lower East 
  Side.  A police officer, fireman, 
  reporter, carriage driver, bath 
  house attendant . . . players are 
  bound to come up with someone to 
  contact. 
   
  That 
  person 
  sends 
  investigators to one of Charles 
  Morse’s ice warehouses. 
  Alternatively, investigators might 
  just happen upon the following 
  scene: 
  Warehouse Bound: 
  The tenements look worse than 
  ever.  The already frayed social 
  fabric is pulling apart in a dozen 
  places.  Neighbors don’t talk, 
  they snap at each other.  A friend 
  in 
  need 
  is 
  a 
  friend 
  too 
  troublesome 
  to 
  bother 
  with.  
  Cutting into line for water from the 
  common tap is asking for a punch 
  in the nose.  Or worse. 
  Rotting horse carcasses can be 
  found on every street.  The 
  removal 
  service 
  clearly 
  isn’t 
  making it down here.  Worse are 
  the sheet-covered shapes next to 
  buildings.  Did they fall in the 
  night?  Did they cross the wrong 
  person?  Did they meet one of 
  those flickering creatures in the 
  night? 
  Up ahead you see sanitation 
  workers in their brilliant white 
  uniforms tending to the garbage.  
  That’s something.  Better, a crew 
  of fire fighters steps away from a 
  cart holding their hoses and 
  equipment and approaches a fire 
  hydrant.  A big wrench.  A sharp 
  twist.  Water pours into the 
  street.  Children run out to play in 
  the flow.  Almost immediately, 
  S 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  67 
  the temperature on the street 
  seems to drop a degree or two.  
  It’s doubtful that any of these 
  people have even heard of Lloyd 
  Collis, the commissioner of the 
  Public Works Department, but he 
  has just become their hero. 
  Things are just starting to look up 
  when angry shouts catch your 
  attention.  You hustle around a 
  corner and find two groups.  On 
  one side of the street are perhaps 
  forty angry men shouting in a 
  variety of languages.  They are 
  shouting at a group of what might 
  be thirty hardened thugs.  The 
  thugs 
  stand 
  in 
  front 
  of 
  a 
  warehouse. 
   
  Charles 
  Morse’s 
  warehouse.  A warehouse filled 
  with ice. 
  Riot: 
  Investigators make it to Charles 
  Morse’s ice warehouse just before a 
  riot breaks out.  Angry tenement 
  residents have come out in force.  
  This is a motley assortment of 
  frustrated men shouting in a 
  variety 
  of 
  languages; 
  English, 
  German, Italian, Russian, and 
  Polish among them.  Many of 
  these men are armed with boards, 
  pipes, or razors. 
  In front of the warehouse stand 
  their opponents: at least thirty 
  thugs on Charles Morse’s payroll 
  chosen for their size, fearlessness, 
  and indifference to pain – whether 
  on the giving or receiving end 
  thereof.  Gripping their own clubs 
  and chains or rubbing their brass 
  knuckles, 
  they 
  snarl 
  at 
  the 
  shouting men opposite them. 
  Any investigator familiar with 
  violence can tell right away that 
  blows are about to be exchanged.  
  All it will take is for the angry 
  tenement residents to step into the 
  street.  That’s probably about 
  twenty seconds away. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  68 
  Keepers might allow just about 
  any reasonable investigator plan 
  to work.  Perhaps the most 
  entertaining option is to have one 
  or more investigators run back for 
  a fire hose and use it to flood the 
  street or knock down one side or 
  the other.  Since there is not 
  enough time to run back, get the  
  hose, and pull it around the corner, 
  the 
  investigators 
  need 
  to 
  do 
  something to delay the fighting.  
  A big speech, a show of force, even 
  a rousing display of juggling . . . 
  this is an opportunity for an 
  investigator to draw on a special 
  skill in a very unusual situation. 
  If investigators don’t interfere, a 
  massive, bloody free-for-all takes 
  place.  Morse’s thugs rout the 
  angry tenement dwellers.  Bodies 
  are left in the street. 
  This 
  is 
  an 
  opportunity 
  for 
  investigators to meet NPCs who 
  might turn up in the Central Park 
  climax.  
   
  FOUR ANGRY MEN and FOUR UNCARING THUGS 
   
  AM1 
  AM2 
  AM3 
  AM4 
  T1 
  T2 
  T3 
  T4 
  STR 
  17 
  11 
  10 
  9 
  14 
  7 
  15 
  14 
  CON 
  16 
  10 
  10 
  10 
  4 
  14 
  15 
  12 
  SIZ 
  17 
  13 
  13 
  15 
  17 
  11 
  10 
  15 
  EDU 
  10 
  11 
  7 
  12 
  11 
  10 
  13 
  7 
  APP 
  8 
  7 
  11 
  6 
  12 
  12 
  15 
  12 
  INT 
  7 
  13 
  11 
  10 
  8 
  15 
  13 
  12 
  DEX 
  13 
  11 
  10 
  10 
  15 
  16 
  6 
  9 
  SAN 
  70 
  60 
  60 
  65 
  45 
  65 
  55 
  70 
  POW 
  14 
  12 
  12 
  13 
  9 
  13 
  11 
  14 
  HP 
  17 
  12 
  12 
  13 
  11 
  13 
  13 
  14 
  DB 
  +1D6 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  +1D6 
  Knife:  Angry Men all at 25%, Thugs all at 35% (1D4) 
  Club: 
  Angry Men all at 25%, Thugs all at 35% (1D6) 
  Chain: Angry Men all at 15%, Thugs all at 30% (1D3, Grapple or Strangle) 
  Punch: Angry Men all at 50%, Thugs all at 60% (1D3) 
  Note: Keepers should decide which weapon (if any) each man is holding. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  69 
   
  Act III, Scene 3: 
  Night Lights 
  he night Fava learns about 
  the 
  Black 
  Wind 
  Bar, 
  he 
  summons 
  more 
  fire 
  vampires, 
  attempts 
  to 
  bind 
  them, 
  and 
  demands that they pay a visit to 
  the Cult of the Bloody Tongue.  
  Though the fire vampires are not, 
  in fact, bound, they have their own 
  unknowable reasons for following 
  his command. 
  The Black Wind Bar goes up in 
  flames.  The blaze doesn’t contain 
  itself to the bar, of course.  The 
  resulting tenement fire kills a 
  couple dozen men, women, and 
  children. 
  Returning 
  from 
  their 
  deadly 
  mission, the fire vampires pause to 
  feed on more hapless New Yorkers.  
  At least five people on rooftops 
  seem to spontaneously combust.  
  The fire vampires take drained 
  magic points back to Anthony Fava 
  and give them to him. 
  The sudden rush of power totally 
  unhinges the young man.  From 
  this moment until the end of this 
  adventure (at 
  least), 
  Fava 
  is 
  thoroughly insane. 
  Investigators may hear about all 
  this in a variety of ways: 
  Investigators with connections to 
  the fire department or (possibly) 
  the police department may be 
  called in to assist in fire fighting. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  a 
  medical 
  background may be called in to 
  treat the many injuries in the 
  tenement fire or some of the 
  “spontaneous combustion” cases. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  press 
  connections may be tipped off 
  about the fire or “spontaneous 
  combustion” cases.  This might 
  happen at the time of the bar fire 
  or hours later. 
  Investigators might happen upon 
  attacks in progress. 
  The following day, Fava rebuffs all 
  attempts to contact him.  Should 
  investigators go to his mansion, 
  they’ll be turned away at the door 
  by 
  a 
  very 
  worried-looking 
  Vincento. 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  70 
  Act III, Scene 4: 
  Ice Is Nice 
  t should be abundantly clear 
  that if something is not done 
  right 
  away, 
  the 
  poor 
  and 
  downtrodden are going to explode 
  into violence.  They are hot.  
  Dying.  Living with their dead.  
  Falling off of rooftops and fire 
  escapes. 
   
  And 
  spontaneously 
  combusting. 
  They need some relief. 
  The 
  following 
  describes 
  the 
  situation as investigators attempt 
  to hire a carriage: 
  Eddie Would Go: 
  Street traffic has dropped over the 
  past few days of unbearable heat.  
  Finding a carriage to flag down 
  takes both effort and luck – 
  neither easy to summon up in the 
  baking streets of Manhattan. 
  At least you’ve found a spot of 
  relatively clean air.  Relatively 
  free of the stench of human and 
  animal waste, sweat, desperation, 
  and death. 
  At last you spot a sorry horse 
  plodding along with a black 
  carriage behind it.  The driver – 
  perched high on his seat – has 
  badly wilted.  He perks up on 
  seeing you flagging him down. 
  “Where are you headed?” he asks.  
  You tell him.  He shakes his head.  
  “I’m sorry.  That can’t be done.  
  Streets are blocked.  Ol’ Betsy here 
  is on her last legs.  I heard there’s 
  another mob forming…  I’d like to 
  help you, I surely would.  But I 
  can’t.”  He considers.  “Eddie 
  would go.  But he’s not here.  I 
  got to tell you, I don’t know where 
  you’re going to find a carriage 
  today.  Or tomorrow if the heat 
  holds.  Something needs to be 
  done and quick, there’s no doubt of 
  that.  But just you try to get some 
  relief…  No.  It’s every man for 
  himself.  Is there anywhere else I 
  might 
  be 
  able 
  to 
  take 
  you?  
  Somewhere near by.  It’s just that 
  my little girl is suffering so.  It’s ice 
  she needs and that takes money.” 
  While the driver has no contacts 
  among 
  the 
  powerful, 
  the 
  investigators may.  If players 
  don’t think of Roosevelt or Collis 
  on their own, an Idea roll will 
  implant 
  the 
  notion. 
   
  If 
  the 
  investigators 
  have 
  not 
  met 
  Roosevelt or Collis, they could seek 
  out an introduction through their 
  own 
  contacts 
  or 
  through 
  the 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  71 
  Gotham Legion. 
  Keepers should encourage players 
  to come up with their own relief 
  plans, of course.  Should that 
  prove difficult, Idea rolls can 
  suggest ice distribution and 
  keeping the free public baths 
  open longer. 
  Police 
  Commissioner 
  Theodore 
  Roosevelt is still out on Long 
  Island.  Investigators could travel 
  to visit him or contact him by post 
  or telegraph. 
  Roosevelt doesn’t want anyone to 
  riot.  He certainly doesn’t think 
  it’s right for poor people to drop 
  dead and be left to rot because ice 
  is too expensive and coroners are 
  overworked. 
   
  With 
  some 
  investigator-induced 
  motivation, 
  he’ll 
  return 
  to 
  the 
  city 
  and 
  convince the powers that be to let 
  him buy ice for the poor. 
  Lloyd Collis is easier to get hold of.  
  He may be in his office or 
  wandering the streets checking on 
  the firemen he has ordered to flood 
  streets 
  with 
  water. 
   
  When 
  investigators push him to think 
  more creatively, he orders the free 
  public baths to stay open around 
  the clock. 
  If investigators are able to get ice 
  to the poor and the free public 
  baths open 24 hours a day, they’ll 
  have saved a great many lives.  
  Kind Keepers may wish to award 
  the investigators with 1D6 Sanity 
  for their good deeds – assuming 
  the investigators are aware of 
  what they’ve accomplished. 
  Another Idea roll might suggest 
  the very good idea of allowing 
  people to sleep in public parks.  
  These would be much, much cooler 
  than sleeping in their homes or on 
  the 
  roofs 
  and 
  fire 
  escapes.  
  Historically, the New York City 
  Council refused to allow this.  
  Keepers can decide for themselves 
  how they wish their game to 
  progress.  Note that if the public 
  are allowed to sleep in Central 
  Park, the final confrontation with 
  Fava will be among hundreds (if 
  not thousands) of desperate New 
  Yorkers… 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  72 
  Act III, Scene 5: 
  MSG and Missing People 
  espite 
  the 
  investigators’ 
  best 
  efforts, 
  thousands 
  have 
  died 
  and 
  thousands 
  more 
  will.  
  Investigators 
  looking 
  for 
  additional reports of nocturnal 
  spontaneous combustion can find 
  them buried deep in the papers.  
  Front page news is devoted to Mr. 
  Bryan. (handout 9) 
  Anthony Fava spends his nights 
  summoning fire vampires and 
  chatting with Cthugha.  Fava is 
  convinced that he has it all under 
  control. 
  The fire vampires spread out into 
  the night killing New Yorkers and 
  returning magic points to Fava in 
  order to power him up enough to 
  summon Cthugha to Central Park. 
  Investigators will find rebuffed all 
  attempts to contact Fava.  More 
  alarmingly, 
  members 
  of 
  the 
  Gotham Legion inner circle have 
  disappeared.  (handout 10) 
  With the police focused on the 
  William 
  Jennings 
  Bryan 
  acceptance 
  speech 
  in 
  Madison 
  Square Garden, few are free to 
  look 
  into 
  Fava 
  or 
  the 
  disappearance 
  of 
  Gotham 
  Legionnaires.  The investigators, 
  however, are free to act. 
  At some point during this day of 
  investigation, the Keeper may 
  wish to arrange a scene with an 
  NPC 
  during 
  which 
  the 
  investigators 
  can 
  be 
  informed 
  about the utter failure of the 
  William Jennings Bryan event.  
  His 
  speech 
  to 
  accept 
  the 
  Democratic Party’s presidential 
  nomination was meant to be a 
  great popular event.  Indeed, it 
  drew a great cross section of 
  populace 
  to 
  Madison 
  Square 
  Garden.  Which was an oven. 
  Bryan’s dry acceptance speech had 
  none of the promises the people 
  had expected.  So they left.  In 
  droves.  The speech was an utter 
  failure.  Bryan is disgraced. 
   
  Act III, Scene 6: 
  Finding Missing People 
  nvestigators may or may not be 
  interested in following up on 
  the missing Legionnaires.  Should 
  they express an interest in finding 
  them, this scene covers three likely 
  avenues of investigation: Fava’s 
  D 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  73 
  home, The Gotham Legion, and the 
  families of the missing people. 
  Scorched Earth: 
  Investigators who decide to look 
  for the missing Legionnaires at the 
  Fava home will find rebuffed any 
  request 
  to 
  visit. 
   
  Pushy 
  investigators won’t let that stop 
  them, of course. 
  When they arrive at the Fava 
  mansion, they see that things have 
  changed. 
   
  The 
  beautifully 
  landscaped grounds in the front of 
  the house are dry and show other 
  signs of being poorly tended to.  
  The duck pond is drained.  The 
  doors to the carriage house stand 
  open and the yawning space within 
  boasts not a single carriage giving 
  truth to name. 
  The grounds around back are far 
  worse.  Large areas of grass have 
  been blackened.  Shrubs have 
  been badly burned – apparently at 
  random. 
  Should Vincento be summoned to 
  the door, he looks drawn, haggard, 
  and exhausted.  He tells curious 
  investigators 
  that 
  he 
  knows 
  nothing 
  abou 
  the 
  missing 
  Legionnaires, that Anthony Fava 
  is not at home and that the terrible 
  state of the grounds is due to freak 
  strikes of heat lightning.  The 
  same heat lightning scared off the 
  rest of the staff.  Only the loyal 
  Vincento remains. 
  Loyal and obviously lying. 
  Investigators 
  desperate 
  for 
  information might try to befriend, 
  berate, 
  or 
  threaten 
  Vincento.  
  Should the conversation go well, 
  Vincento will admit that some of 
  the missing men and women 
  visited the house and that they left 
  with Anthony.  He honestly does 
  not know where they are. 
  Vincento resist requests to look at 
  Fava’s 
  rooms. 
   
  Should 
  investigators somehow get into 
  Fava’s rooms, the keeper might 
  want to skip straight to Act III, 
  Scene 9. 
   
  Legion Hall: 
  A visit to the Gotham Legion Hall 
  reveals a club in crisis.  The 
  doorman, hat-check girl, maids, 
  butlers, cooks, and launderers 
  work with downcast eyes; respond 
  to questions with a touch of 
  desperation; and move as though a 
  step behind the world.  Few club 
  members can be found inside; all of 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  74 
  them members of the middle or 
  working class. 
  The badly damaged auditorium is 
  still in a state of disarray.  Fava 
  has 
  taken 
  no 
  interest 
  in 
  reconstruction. 
   
  The 
  Legion’s 
  treasurer is dead.  Most anybody 
  with power is not around to 
  exercise it. 
  Staff can tell the investigators that 
  telegrams sent by Fava have been 
  delivered here at the Gotham 
  Legion Hall.  The telegrams have 
  gone to members of Fava’s inner 
  circle. 
   
  Some 
  of 
  those 
  are 
  mentioned in the previous day’s 
  penny 
  paper, 
  but 
  others 
  are 
  members of the lower classes – 
  evidently not interesting enough to 
  merit a few lines in a newspaper 
  story. 
   
  A 
  search 
  of 
  the 
  wastebaskets reveals one of the 
  telegrams.  (handout 11) 
  Staff suspect that some inner circle 
  members did go to see Fava.  
  Other inner circle members seem 
  to have left the city entirely.  
  Probably to get away from the 
  heat.  But also, in part, to get 
  away from Fava. 
   
  The Families: 
  Investigators who decide to visit 
  the families of missing Gotham 
  Legionnaires reported in the penny 
  papers will find themselves going 
  to some very fine addresses in the 
  city and its suburbs.  Should they 
  include 
  members 
  the 
  Gotham 
  Legion Hall staff might mention, 
  they’ll be all over the New York 
  City map. 
  In all cases, the investigators find 
  that the missing members are, in 
  fact, missing.  Family members 
  and/or neighbors agree that the 
  missing person has not been seen 
  in a day or two.  In all cases, 
  witnesses agree that the missing 
  person left of their own accord.  
  No one is sure that a missing 
  person was kidnapped from home 
  or office.  It is possible that 
  someone will mention that the 
  missing person received a telegram 
  before leaving.  Keepers should 
  feel free to hand out the telegram 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  75 
  from the Gotham Legion Hall 
  (handout 11) if it has not already 
  been found. 
  Keepers may wish to arrange for 
  tear-filled 
  scenes 
  of 
  family 
  members begging the investigators 
  to bring their loved ones home.  A 
  couple of wide-eyed innocent waifs 
  tugging at investigator pant-legs 
  can be a great motivation. 
   
  Act III, Scene 7: 
  Burned Bridges 
  nvestigators 
  who 
  tried 
  to 
  interview Rosalind and Ben 
  before may be notified that the two 
  are conscious and able to answer 
  questions 
  now. 
   
  Investigators 
  with a medical background may 
  receive that information from a 
  contact even if they haven’t tried to 
  interview the two before. 
  If keepers need some other reason 
  to get the investigators into this 
  scene, an Idea roll suggests going 
  to Bellevue Hospital to interview 
  the two Legionnaires. 
  The Burned: 
  Investigators who decide to visit 
  Rosalind 
  Hind 
  and/or 
  Ben 
  Quarters in Bellevue hospital will 
  find the two awake and aware.  
  But not necessarily talkative. 
  The two were badly burned (both 
  literally and figuratively) by their 
  participation in Fava’s ceremony a 
  few days ago – the ceremony that 
  ushered in the heat wave.  The 
  investigators will need to work to 
  get 
  information 
  out 
  of 
  them.  
  Keepers are encouraged to let 
  players take the lead in this.  
  They might try to soothe the two; 
  badger them; bribe them; promise 
  security; 
  torture 
  them 
  with 
  guilt . . . just about anything. 
  It is probably most interesting and 
  dramatic if drastically different 
  approaches 
  are 
  eventually 
  successful for the two.  For 
  example, Keepers might decide 
  that Rosalind had a crush on Fava 
  and fears for his safety while Ben 
  is out for revenge and will respond 
  best if investigators indicate their 
  intention to bring Fava down.  
  Should role play need some roll 
  play 
  bolstering, 
  Fast 
  Talk, 
  Psychology, 
  Psychoanalysis, 
  Occult, Credit Rating, or even a 
  really good Idea roll might loosen 
  tongues.  Unethical investigators 
  might use alcohol or morphine to 
  dull judgment… 
  I 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  76 
  What Rosalind Says: 
  The once-beautiful Rosalind Hind 
  looks at you from behind a mask 
  of bandages.  She raises a 
  swathed hand – a sort of sad white 
  mitten.  A lurching cry escapes 
  her throat.  Burned tear ducts 
  render her unable to weep. 
  Perhaps most disorienting is her 
  beautiful voice. 
  You have to do something to stop 
  him.  Promise me that.  You’ll do 
  something, won’t you? 
  It was that book.  That beast 
  Rusticus wrote too well.  Too well.  
  He described Nero’s ceremonies in 
  dramatic detail.  Made it all sound 
  so exciting.  What was Anthony to 
  do?  You’ve met him… 
  Of course he tried to reproduce a 
  ceremony.  Of course he did. 
  He summoned Ben and me to the 
  Gotham Legion Hall.  All the staff 
  were dismissed.  Everything was 
  arranged.  It all seemed like a lark. 
  You know those occult societies?  
  The Theological Society?  The 
  Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn – 
  or whatever?  The Masons?  The 
  Crawley things?  You know them?  
  Or of them? 
  I think Anthony wanted the Gotham 
  Legion to be more like them.  Inner 
  circles.  Levels of understanding.  
  ‘Maybe based on the elements’ he 
  said.  ‘Maybe on colors or shapes.’  
  It all seemed like a lark.  Wouldn’t 
  it? 
  He told us where to stand and what 
  to say.  It was hot.  He looked out 
  the window at the stars.  He said 
  that the time had to be right.  And 
  then he started chanting. 
  It was all in fun. 
  And then something happened.  I 
  can’t-  I can’t explain it.  I can’t 
  even 
  describe… 
   
  Something.  
  Some things.  Like lights.  Like 
  embers.  Floating in the air… 
  I thought it was a trick.  So did Ben.  
  He laughed. 
  And then he screamed.  How he 
  screamed! 
   
  And 
  then 
  I 
  was 
  screaming, too.  One of them…  
  One-  It was in my hair!  In my 
  hair!  Have you ever smelled-? 
  It’s the book.  The book, I tell you. 
  Rusticus made it sound like a joke.  
  Like it would all be good fun.  
  Forgotten in the morning.  But look 
  at me.  Look at me.  They won’t 
  give me a mirror, you know?  I think 
  they’re afraid I might kill myself. 
  But I’ve seen something I can’t 
  forget.  Something.  Something 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  77 
  came out of the void and it reached 
  out with flickering tongues of flame 
  and it curled itself around Anthony 
  and left him whole and unharmed.  
  I can’t-  I can’t help wondering if 
  maybe I-  Maybe I wasn’t worthy.  
  It had so-  So much… 
   
  What Benjamin Says: 
  There’s really no nice way to say 
  it.  Ben Hind stinks.  He stinks of 
  a desperate combination of herbs 
  and 
  powders 
  and 
  snake 
  oil 
  liberally applied to his midriff.  
  He stinks of a floundering, failing 
  digestive tract.  He stinks the 
  stink of a fat man whose fat has 
  been rendered on his bones. 
  It is impossible not to wonder if he 
  can smell his own stink.  Perhaps 
  he has grown accustomed to it.  
  Perhaps his perfect nose in his 
  perfect face is forced to accept his 
  own pungency every second of 
  every hour of every day. 
  Someone must have come in to 
  trim his beard.  From the neck 
  up, he remains his distinguished 
  self. 
   
  Distinguished. 
   
  With 
  murder in his eyes. 
  That bastard.  That bastard. 
  What he did to me?  To Rosalind??? 
  You want to know what he did, I’ll 
  tell you what he did.  He sent me a 
  note saying come play naughty 
  games with me in my playhouse.  
  And – fool! – I went. 
  He takes out his damn book and 
  lights the candles and the incense 
  is burning and there are little bells 
  and all that crap.  And he chants a 
  little.  Tells me what to say and I 
  say it.  Tells Rosalind what to say 
  and she says it and we’re a damn 
  bunch of stupid fools in there 
  jabbering away when the gates to 
  Hell swing open right in front of my 
  eyes. 
  Do you want to know what Hell looks 
  like?  I’ll tell you. 
  Hell looks like stars.  Stars. 
  All this time I thought it was 
  somewhere under my feet and 
  where is it?  Above my fool head. 
  Stars 
  dancing 
  around 
  in 
  the 
  blackness.  Burning white or red or 
  yellow or blue or green.  Dancing.  
  Dancing right over the threshold 
  and I tried!  I tried!  I tried to swat 
  it away and what use is that? 
  Took me right in the belly. 
  I screamed 
  I screamed until my soul was raw. 
  And then I saw Fava in the flames.  
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  78 
  Like a halo.  Hell’s halo.  His eyes 
  rolled back.  Stammering.  But not 
  a lily-white inch of him burned 
  black.  Not an inch.  Not an inch. 
  That bastard. 
  He’s got to be stopped, you know.  
  Child of Hell.  That’s what he is 
  now.  Child of Hell. 
   
  Act III, Scene 8: 
  Vincento 
  incento has been pushed to 
  the 
  breaking 
  point 
  and 
  beyond. 
   
  He 
  finds 
  the 
  investigators 
  and 
  desperately 
  pleads for their help. 
  (Keepers who would rather not use 
  Vincento certainly don’t need to, of 
  course.  Other servants from 
  Fava’s house or from the Gotham 
  Legion would serve just as well.) 
  What Vincento Says: 
  This may be difficult to believe, but I 
  am afraid that my employer has 
  gone totally mad. 
  He has locked himself into his 
  rooms during the daylight hours.  
  He roams the grounds at night.  He 
  has dismissed all of the staff 
  excepting only myself. 
  When I tell you that strange sounds 
  and smells come from behind 
  locked doors in a house I have 
  known for many years but now feels 
  strange to me…  When I tell you 
  this, you must, I fear, stretch your 
  imagination beyond the limits of 
  reason to encompass the definition 
  of the word “strange” as I use it. 
  I am a butler.  I know my place.  It 
  is not my place to make enquiries 
  where enquiries are not desired or 
  desirable.  Yet such is my concern 
  for Anthony that I begged some 
  word of explanation from him.  His 
  only response was shouted.  A 
  threat I shall not repeat. 
  The gardens are blackened and 
  burned.  Strangely moving lights 
  have appeared outside my window 
  at night. 
  I beg your indulgence.  I beg you to 
  believe 
  an 
  unbelievable 
  story.  
  More, I beg you to take action. 
  Won’t you return to the Fava home 
  with me?  Won’t you do so at once? 
  V 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  79 
  No 
  Lovecraftian 
  investigator 
  worthy of the name could turn 
  down such a request. 
  The trip to Brooklyn is swift and 
  uneventful, 
  though 
  the 
  investigator should feel free to 
  pepper descriptions of the latest 
  damage wrought by the heat wave.  
  Whatever relief the ice and free 
  public baths have provided is in 
  danger of being overwhelmed by 
  an angry, desperate populace. 
  Many police officers have failed to 
  report for duty.  Perhaps they, too, 
  are falling prey to the heat – their 
  uniforms 
  certainly 
  are 
  inappropriate heat wave attire.  
  Perhaps they are frustrated that 
  so many of their political masters 
  have flown the city for cooler coops.  
  Perhaps they see the writing on 
  the wall and don’t want to be there 
  when the mobs return with a thirst 
  for violence that refuses to be 
  quenched by ice or baths or 
  inspiring words or a brandished 
  nightstick… 
  Whatever the reason, the city as 
  the investigators and Vincento 
  pass through it is quiet.  Too 
  quiet. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  police 
  connections 
  (or 
  a 
  close 
  relationship 
  with 
  Roosevelt) 
  might hear that Roosevelt plans to 
  return to New York City this 
  afternoon. 
  Investigators who have some way 
  to keep up with the goings on in 
  the Cult of the Bloody Tongue 
  might hear that they have licked 
  their wounds, gathered their forces, 
  and seem ready for . . . something. 
  Investigators 
  who 
  have 
  good 
  connections with the Gotham 
  Legion Hall staff might learn that 
  a large group (at least a half dozen) 
  of foreigners rather similar to 
  those who tried to assassinate 
  Anthony and steal his copy of the 
  Historica Nero come into the club 
  that morning and nose around.  
  They 
  don’t 
  actually 
  threaten 
  anyone, but there is an air of 
  violence about them. 
  Investigators 
  with 
  criminal 
  connections 
  may 
  learn 
  that 
  Charles Morse’s thugs are spoiling 
  for a fight. 
   
  Act III, Scene 9: 
  Empty House 
  nthony Fava cannot be found 
  at his home.  No one is able 
  to say when he left or where he 
  might have gone.  Fortunately for 
  A 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  80 
  our 
  investigators, 
  however, 
  Anthony 
  has 
  left 
  some 
  clues 
  behind him. 
  And why wouldn’t he?  He’s 
  insane.  And he thinks that his 
  ceremony tonight is going to bring 
  him great power to fight evil cults 
  everywhere.  What has he got to 
  hide? 
  Vincento is cautious when entering 
  the Fava home and asks for 
  similar 
  caution 
  from 
  the 
  investigators.  Anthony’s suite of 
  rooms is on the second floor.  
  Vincento leads the way to a door 
  and knocks on it.  No response.  
  He knocks again and calls.  No 
  response.  He tries it and is quite 
  surprised 
  to 
  find 
  that 
  it 
  is 
  unlocked. 
  Keepers 
  should 
  describe 
  the 
  condition 
  of 
  the 
  rooms 
  in 
  Anthony’s 
  suite 
  in 
  as 
  much 
  suggestively macabre detail as 
  their group enjoys.  The visuals 
  are important, of course, but don’t 
  ignore 
  the 
  other 
  senses. 
   A 
  bare-bones description follows. 
  Fava’s Rooms: 
  A puff of dead air.  Tomb air.  
  Fetid.  Fecal.  Used up.  Ill.  
  Ancient.  And burned – singed – 
  around the edges of that first 
  tasted intake of breath with a hint 
  of sweetness.  The honey-floral 
  buzz of decay. 
  Anthony’s suite is a disaster area.  
  Carpets have been rolled up and 
  shoved against the walls.  The 
  floors and walls are gouged, 
  pitted, and burned.  The wax 
  from 
  many 
  candles 
  mars 
  tabletops and nightstands and 
  mirror frames and bedposts… 
  Your shoes crunch down on 
  charred unidentifiables.  Scuff 
  across raked scratches.  Cast up 
  clouds of dusty ash that gathers at 
  your 
  ankles 
  – 
  that 
  with 
  a 
  persistence 
  nearly 
  malevolent, 
  holds its shape there for seconds 
  too long.  Too long. 
  A spray of something darkly red 
  stains a wall. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  81 
  And 
  everywhere, 
  everywhere 
  scraps of paper and bottles of ink.  
  Of wine.  An unsavory number of 
  tremor-hand messages dropped 
  here and there.  Half-burned.  
  Balled up. 
  For an instant, turning to look 
  around a symbol-scrawled room 
  from all sides, it’s impossible to 
  know up from down.  Vertigo 
  overtakes you.  Stumble.  Fall.  
  Recover. 
   
  Stand 
  again 
  and 
  fruitlessly 
  brush 
  at 
  the 
  inexpugnable 
  stains 
  on 
  your 
  hands and knees. 
  In short, Fava’s suite is full of 
  evidence of his delving into that 
  which should not be.  If players 
  are not already diving for their 
  dice to make Spot Hidden rolls, 
  Occult rolls, Cthulhu Mythos rolls, 
  and every-other-which rolls . . . 
  shame on them.  It would be 
  wrong to disappoint them. 
  The following clues can be found in 
  Fava’s suite of rooms: 
  Scrawled Notes  Four scraps of 
  paper scattered among the rooms.  
  Each can be found with a Spot 
  Hidden roll or, if the Keeper is 
  feeling generous, by performing a 
  thorough search.  (handouts 12, 
  13, 14, and 15) 
  Occult 
  Diagrams  Some of 
  Fava’s occult diagrams are also on 
  scraps of paper while some are 
  carved and/or painted on the floors 
  and walls.  Spot Hidden rolls can 
  find two diagrams.  No rolls are 
  needed to find the others.  Occult 
  rolls are needed to understand 
  what is being seen.  (handouts 16, 
  17, 18, and 19)  With a successful 
  Occult roll, give players the entire 
  handout.  If the Occult roll fails, 
  cut off the explanation before 
  giving out the handout.  No occult 
  master; Fava was dabbling. 
  Burn 
  Marks  Curious burn 
  marks can be found in many places.  
  Many can be found inside occult 
  diagrams carved and painted on 
  the floors.  More burn marks can 
  be found around the windows.  An 
  Idea roll (or similar) suggests the 
  burn marks do not correspond to 
  the placement of candles or wax 
  drippings. 
  Disquieting 
  Stains   
  The 
  most 
  disquieting 
  stain 
  is 
  the 
  spray of red 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  82 
  across 
  one 
  wall. 
   Additional, 
  strange stains can also be found on 
  the bundled-up bed-sheets and 
  around 
  the 
  wash-basin.  
  Investigators 
  with 
  the 
  proper 
  backgrounds can identify the wall 
  stain as nothing but red wine.  
  The bed-sheets stain is blood – 
  though not human blood.  The 
  wash-basin stains appear to the be 
  the result of corrosive acid. 
  A Curiously Marked-Up Map  
  This map of a portion of Central 
  Park 
  is 
  essential 
  to 
  this 
  adventure’s 
  climax. 
   
  Keepers 
  should feel free to appropriate any 
  successful Spot Hidden rolls and 
  apply them to the map.  The map 
  can be found rolled up and tucked 
  inside 
  the 
  tangled 
  bed-sheets.  
  Some of the blood on the sheets 
  may well have seeped onto the 
  map.  (handout 20).   
  Candles Of Marvelous Color  
  The candle remnants around the 
  room are easily found without the 
  need for a Spot Hidden roll.  If a 
  player make a point of having their 
  investigator check the candles, 
  however, 
  reward 
  them 
  with 
  handout 21.  The candles are 
  enchanted and give a +20% to any 
  Contact, Summon, and/or Bind 
  spell rolls. 
  Gnawed Bones  A Spot Hidden 
  roll or a request to look into the 
  clothes 
  hamper 
  reveals 
  the 
  presence of hundreds of bones.  
  Medicine, Anthropology, Biology, 
  or Zoology rolls reveal that the 
  bones are from at least two sets of 
  skeletons – one of which is not 
  human and does not seem to 
  correspond to any known creature.  
  The bones are, in fact, those of a 
  ghoul. 
   
  The Arc Bends Earthward: 
  Keepers should take stock of all of the investigators before the story’s 
  climax climaxes.  Certainly every PC should have had the opportunity to 
  shine by now.  (If not, get on it!)  At this moment it is most important to 
  be sure that all PCs have arced. 
  Where was each investigator when this adventure started?  What 
  changes have been wrought by the events they experienced?  What have 
  the investigators learned – not about the Mythos and things Lovecraftian, 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  83 
  but about themselves. 
  If a dramatic endpoint to each investigator’s journey is not obvious, 
  keepers might consider talking it over with the players.  Where do they 
  see the story going?  What would make them happiest as players? 
  Whether hardline followers of die rolls; throwers of every deadly item – 
  including a bloody kitchen sink; gentle ego inflators; or what-have-you, 
  keepers should be focused now on providing a good ending tailored to 
  their players.  For some players that will mean their investigator 
  achieves unmitigated triumph.  Others will be just has happy if their 
  investigators end in unrecognizable chunks. 
   
  Act III, Scene 10: 
  Firestorm Brewing 
  his adventure reaches its 
  climax in Central Park that 
  night.  After all the investigators 
  have been through to this point – 
  and after all the clues they’ve 
  discovered 
  in 
  Anthony 
  Fava’s 
  home – they should know that 
  something very bad is going to 
  happen.  How they discover just 
  where and when it will happen is 
  something for keepers to decide. 
  Keepers 
  should 
  arrange 
  the 
  timeline for this day in a way that 
  best suits their play group. 
  Some groups enjoy a “ticking clock” 
  scenario that has them racing 
  across the city and arriving in the 
  nick of time.  In this case, tossing 
  in a few crazed Gotham Legion 
  members (who need to be taken 
  care of), cult members (who need to 
  be taken care of in another sense of 
  the word), and/or Mythos beasties 
  (who may need to be escaped from) 
  may be an exciting way to raise the 
  stakes 
  by 
  eating 
  away 
  at 
  investigator time. 
  Some 
  groups 
  enjoy 
  planning, 
  plotting, and setting up traps or 
  ambushes.  In this case, Keepers 
  should give them plenty of time to 
  do a little shopping, talk to 
  important 
  people 
  (perhaps 
  a 
  professor, 
  Theological 
  Society 
  member, politician, or gunsmith), 
  and set up what they will in 
  Central Park before Fava and his 
  followers appear. 
  Some groups are looking for as 
  much mayhem as possible.  In  
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  84 
  this case, Keepers should make  
  sure that investigators have some 
  way to get in touch with cultists, 
  thugs, mobs of angry immigrants, 
  the police, occultists, the press, fire 
  fighters, and/or – heck, why not? – 
  newsies and convince them to 
  show up at the right time. 
  If all went according to plan, 
  Anthony Fava and five members of 
  the Gotham Legion would arrive in 
  Central Park at about 11:30 PM.  
  They would proceed to cut the 
  chain on a gate on the Warriors 
  Gate at Seventh Avenue and make 
  their way South- and Westward to 
  The Great Hill. 
  Note that a map of the Central 
  Park of about 1896 is available in 
  the Appendix.  Note, also, that 
  after 
  studying 
  the 
  map 
  and 
  considering 
  their 
  play 
  group, 
  keepers may wish to move the 
  Gotham Legion’s summoning to 
  another location inside Central 
  Park. 
  Four fire vampires would then 
  sweep down out of the sky and – at 
  Fava’s 
  command 
  – 
  burn 
  a 
  pentagram into the ground.  The 
  five Legionnaires would take their 
  places 
  at 
  the 
  points 
  of 
  the 
  pentagram. 
   
  Immediately 
  thereafter, Fava would begin to 
  chant eldritch words in a hollow, 
  booming voice.  The five hapless 
  Legionnaires would then burst into 
  flames and after a few minutes, a 
  gateway would open and Cthugha 
  would burst forth to scorch and 
  burn and dance his mad way 
  through the heart of New York 
  City. 
  But, of course, all will not go 
  according 
  to 
  plan. 
   
  The 
  investigators will certainly try to 
  prevent the appearance of a Great 
  Old One in Central Park.  Some 
  things they might try and the most 
  likely results follow: 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  85 
  Talking it over with Anthony won’t 
  work because he’s insane.  Not 
  that he needs to be standoffish.  
  Keepers can – by all means! – 
  allow investigators to have a nice 
  conversation with Fava.  He may 
  even 
  try 
  to 
  recruit 
  them 
  to 
  participate in his ceremony. 
  Trying to convince the Gotham 
  Legionnaires 
  to 
  leave 
  the 
  ceremony might start to work.  
  They’re 
  all 
  suffering 
  from 
  short-term insanity at the moment 
  and hard to reason with, but clever 
  players should be rewarded with 
  results 
  for 
  good 
  roleplaying.  
  Naturally, Anthony Fava and his 
  fire vampires aren’t happy about 
  losing a Legionnaire.  They will 
  certainly attack the investigators 
  and try to get the Legionnaire back 
  at his point in the pentagram so 
  that 
  the 
  summoning 
  can 
  commence. 
  Attacking Anthony will certainly 
  prevent 
  him 
  from 
  correctly 
  performing the required ceremony.  
  He’ll 
  fight 
  back, 
  of 
  course.  
  Moreover, his fire vampires will 
  rush into battle – trying to kill the 
  investigators and free up Fava to 
  summon 
  their 
  true 
  master, 
  Cthugha. 
  Attacking a Legionnaire does not 
  help the investigators much.  The 
  ceremony 
  calls 
  for 
  the 
  Legionnaires to be sacrificed – it 
  doesn’t require them to be in 
  perfect health before they burst 
  into flames. 
  Disrupting the pentagram will 
  require it to be redrawn.  That’s 
  easily done by the fire vampires, 
  but while they are redrawing, they 
  can’t be attacking the investigators.  
  Clever investigators might use this 
  to their advantage. 
  But, of course, all will not go 
  according to whatever plan the 
  investigators 
  come 
  up 
  with.  
  Other 
  groups 
  are 
  likely 
  to 
  converge on the summoning that 
  night.  Keepers should pick and 
  choose from among the groups that 
  follow – or prepare for a massive 
  pulpy melee involving all of them.  
  Some groups that might appear 
  and their relevant stats follow: 
  Fava Support 
  Keepers may think that Fava 
  needs some more support.  That 
  support can come in the form of 
  additional 
  Gotham 
  Legion 
  members, 
  more 
  fire 
  vampires, 
  and/or a minor Mythos creature: 
  the moeteri.  Stats for all can be 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  86 
  found later in this scene. 
  Fava’s supporters can be as avid as 
  the Keeper wishes.  They might 
  break and run at the first sign of 
  the 
  investigators 
  or 
  drive 
  themselves into a bloodthirsty 
  frenzy – a frenzy that can only be 
  sated 
  by 
  ripping 
  through 
  investigator flesh to access the 
  warm red fluid therein.  Fava’s 
  fire vampires (and any other 
  servitors he might have on his 
  side) are not bound to him.  Their 
  interest is in summoning Cthugha; 
  if that goal can be accomplished 
  without Fava (say, by a Sleeping 
  Spear cultist, a Bloody Tongue 
  cultist, or even a Mythos savvy 
  investigator…) 
  then 
  Fava 
  is 
  disposable. 
  The Sleeping Spear 
  The Sleeping Spear cult still wants 
  Fava’s copy of the Historica Nero 
  and they still prefer Fava dead.  
  Should any of the assassins or 
  thieves have survived Act I Scenes 
  6 and 7, they certainly might have 
  broken out of prison and made 
  their way to Central Park.  Their 
  stats from Act I are reprinted 
  below. 
  In 
  addition 
  to 
  the 
  men 
  the 
  investigators encountered earlier, 
  Sleeping Spear cultists may have 
  had travel trouble and have just 
  arrived in New York City.  Stats 
  for these men and women can be 
  found below. 
  Finally, if keepers would like a 
  little additional Sleeping Spear 
  action, 
  they 
  can 
  toss 
  in 
  a 
  summoned and bound nightgaunt 
  or two.  The nightgaunts would be 
  charged with killing Fava and 
  stealing the Historica Nero – they 
  won’t 
  necessarily 
  protect 
  the 
  Sleeping 
  Spear 
  cultists.  
  Unfortunately for the cultists (and 
  fortunately 
  for 
  Fava) 
  the 
  nightgaunts are not very bright.  
  They 
  do 
  not 
  immediately 
  understand who to attack and 
  what to retrieve.  Stats for two 
  nightgaunts can be found below. 
  Investigators who get between the 
  Gotham 
  Legionnaires 
  and 
  the 
  Sleeping Spear cultists are likely 
  to be attacked by both sides.  
  Investigators who stay out of the 
  way can let the two sides batter 
  each other for a while before 
  joining the fray. 
  The Bloody Tongue 
  The Cult of the Bloody Tongue 
  wants their revenge on Fava and 
  his fire vampires for burning down 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  87 
  the Black Wind Bar – in the 
  process 
  killing 
  several 
  cult 
  members. 
   
  They 
  are 
  not 
  necessarily opposed to summoning 
  Cthugha to Central Park, but 
  would 
  much 
  rather 
  summon 
  Nyarlahotep. 
  Stats for eight especially big and 
  angry Cult of the Bloody Tongue 
  members are given below.  If 
  keepers are looking for more 
  Mythos on Mythos blood sport, the 
  cultists may have summoned and 
  bound one or two hunting horrors.  
  Stats for two hunting horrors can 
  be found below. 
  Depending on previous events, the 
  Cult of the Bloody Tongue may or 
  may not consider the investigators 
  to be important targets.  It is even 
  possible that they will attack the 
  investigators 
  before 
  attacking 
  Fava and his Gotham Legionnaires.  
  Investigators may be able to stay 
  out of the way – or remain hidden 
  – while the Cult of the Bloody 
  Tongue 
  and 
  the 
  Legionnaires 
  soften each other up. 
  Morse’s Men 
  Ice Baron Charles Morse has 
  ordered his thugs to keep an eye on 
  the public parks at night.  He 
  wants the poor to stay desperate 
  and in need of his ice.  He doesn’t 
  want them breaking into parks for 
  a comfortable night’s sleep. 
  Keepers may decide that some of 
  Morse’s men spot Fava and his 
  Legionnaires 
  (or 
  perhaps 
  the 
  investigators?) forcing their way 
  into Central Park.  They send for 
  reinforcements and appear just 
  when they are really not wanted. 
  Morse’s men are bullies.  They 
  enjoy beating people up, but have 
  no interest at all in fighting.  
  They probably won’t recognize the 
  fire vampires as threats (until it’s 
  too late), but will turn on their 
  heels and run from any other 
  Mythos creatures they encounter.  
  Stats for eight thugs are found 
  below. 
  Depending 
  on 
  how 
  earlier 
  encounters with the investigators 
  played out, Morse’s men might be 
  holding a grudge.  They’ll be 
  interested 
  in 
  threatening 
  Legionnaires, 
  pushing 
  around 
  Sleeping Spear cultists (who they 
  mistake for new immigrants) and 
  beating up Bloody Tongue cultists 
  (who they consider to be easy 
  marks since blacks have such little 
  power in society).  Adding Morse’s 
  men to the encounter probably 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  88 
  adds a lot of mayhem without 
  adding a great deal of additional 
  danger. 
  Mobs 
  Morse’s men may not be the only 
  ones interested in people who 
  break into public parks.  There 
  are plenty of angry, frustrated, 
  desperate New Yorkers who very 
  much want to snatch a bit of relief 
  from the relentless heat.  When 
  people 
  (Legionnaires, 
  cultists, 
  thugs, 
  the 
  investigators, 
  or 
  whoever) are seen in Central Park, 
  the people might well be inspired 
  to disobey the law and break in. 
  Stats for ten immigrants and ten 
  African Americans are given below.  
  None of them are looking for a 
  fight, but all of them are stressed 
  out and easily moved to violence.  
  They’ll almost certainly flee from 
  Mythos creatures or obvious magic, 
  but physical threats may just fuel 
  their anger. 
  New York City’s Finest 
  Whether they show up because the 
  investigators have asked them 
  (perhaps using Roosevelt as a 
  contact) or they’re just enforcing 
  Central Park’s hours, the police 
  can certainly make an appearance. 
  Their first priority is to disperse 
  groups of people and send them on 
  their way.  Threatening people 
  (whether with a gun, stick, or 
  leadership position in a mob) will 
  be targets for arrest.  Police 
  officers of 1896 may be quick to 
  draw their Billy clubs, but are 
  unlikely to draw a pistol unless 
  they feel very threatened. 
  Obvious Mythos monsters are very 
  threatening. 
  Stats for ten police officers and 
  Theodore 
  Roosevelt 
  are 
  given 
  below. 
  Firemen 
  Finally, 
  forward-thinking 
  investigators may enlist the aid of 
  the city’s firemen.  Roosevelt has 
  very limited pull with the firemen, 
  but kind keepers might give him 
  the power to call out some firemen.  
  Lloyd Collis has been working 
  closely with the fire department 
  for a few days now and would have 
  any easier time convincing some to 
  show up in Central Park in the 
  middle of the night.  Of course, 
  investigators could also just send a 
  frantic messenger to report a fire 
  in Central Park – whether one has 
  been lit yet or no. 
  The firemen fear very little and 
  will 
  definitely 
  make 
  it 
  their 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  89 
  business to extinguish any flames 
  they see.  They may set up a 
  bucket brigade or hustle a pump 
  and hose to a nearby body of water 
  – either plan will take them a little 
  time to organize and put into 
  action.  Fire vampires are most 
  likely to go after the firemen 
  themselves, but the keeper might 
  want to have one go after a fire 
  hose if that would be dramatically 
  appropriate. 
  Stats for six firemen and a little 
  information about fire fighting can 
  be found below.  With their 
  bravery, expertise, and equipment 
  (hoses! axes!), firemen can be 
  extremely powerful investigator 
  allies.  Keepers will have to take 
  care to use firemen in dramatic 
  fashion 
  without 
  having 
  the 
  firemen 
  overshadow 
  the 
  investigators. 
  Park As Place: 
  A map of Central Park as it was in 
  the 1890s can be found at the end 
  of this text.  There is very little 
  water near The Great Hill where 
  Fava plans to have his ceremony.  
  Quick-thinking 
  investigators 
  might 
  try 
  to 
  draw 
  the 
  fire 
  vampires to The Pool, The Loch, 
  Harlem Lake, or the water by The 
  Cliff where the vampire is much 
  easier to defeat. 
  Keepers can find a great many 
  recent 
  pictures 
  and 
  maps 
  of 
  Central Park on the Internet 
  which may be useful in describing 
  and making use of Central Park’s  
  famously winding paths, roads, 
  hills, and bridges.  The park is 
  filled with trees and bushes.  Due 
  to the heat wave, these are dry and 
  ripe for burning.  Keepers must  
  decide whether or not to place the 
  final battle in an inferno. 
  Central Park is surrounded by a 
  high iron fence.  The gates are 
  kept locked at night.  It is difficult 
  to enter or exit the park in a hurry.  
  If the investigators have convinced 
  the authorities let people sleep in 
  the parks, there may be hundreds 
  or thousands of innocents at hand.  
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  90 
  ANTHONY FAVA, accidental cult leader and Cthugha catspaw 
  STR 13 
  CON 24 
  SIZ 11 
  INT 13 
  POW 30 
   
  DEX 15 
  APP 15 
  EDU 16 
  SAN 0 
  HP 20 
  Weapons: Punch 40% (1D3), Kick 35% (1D6) 
  Spells: Contact Cthugha, Summon Fire Vampire, Shrivel, Create Moeteri* 
  Skills: Credit Rating 95%, Cthulhu Mythos 19%, Dodge 30%, Occult 30%, 
  Italian 80%, Spot Hidden 50%  
  * New Spell: Create Moeteri 
  Turns a living human victim into a Moeteri.  The spell requires a complex 
  ritual and at least one fire vampire in attendance.  The fire vampire enters 
  the victim through any available orifice (usually the mouth) and takes up 
  residence.  The caster must expend one point of POW and, should the victim 
  be unwilling and able to resist, the caster and fire vampire must combine 
  their POW to overcome the victim’s POW on the resistance table.  A failed 
  roll indicates that the fire vampire turns on and attempts to enter the caster.  
  If the fire vampire fails to overcome the caster’s POW on the resistance table, 
  no Moeteri is created.  What the fire vampire does next is entirely up to the 
  fire vampire. 
  FOUR FIRE VAMPIRES: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  CON 
  7 
  6 
  8 
  9 
  SIZ 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  1 
  INT 
  12 
  11 
  13 
  10 
  DEX 
  16 
  17 
  23 
  15 
  POW 
  14 
  12 
  12 
  13 
  HP 
  7 
  6 
  8 
  9 
  Note: Fire vampires are not particularly scary Mythos creatures.  Most 
  NPCs will not recognize them as dangerous until it is too late.  Since 
  Anthony Fava incorrectly believes the fire vampires have been bound to his 
  will, keepers may wish to include a moment where Fava demands the fire 
  vampires do something and they do not. 
   
  Weapons: Touch 85%, damage 2D6 burn 
  + magic point drain. 
  Armor: Most weapons do no harm.  
  Water does one hit point per half-gallon 
  poured over it, a typical hand-held fire 
  extinguisher does 1D6 damage to it and a 
  bucket of sand costs it 1D3. 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  91 
  MOETERI, Servitor Race.  “He stumbled toward us nude and smiling; 
  spasmodically lurching from foot to foot while his eyes tipped toward us and 
  away without seeming to see anything.  I produced my revolver and pulled 
  the trigger again and again.  Great holes appeared in his chest and arms.  
  Out of those holes – god! – tongues of flame emerged to lick the cool night air.  
  I stepped back and fumbled for bullets with which to reload my weapon but 
  primal terror immobilized my companion.  ‘Run, James!’ I screamed – too 
  late.  The thing that seemed to be a man but was in truth merely wearing a 
  human skin as you or I might shrug into a favorite jacket grabbed James, 
  embraced him . . . and then kissed him.  Fire poured from mouth to 
  mouth . . . a foul inferno finding ready tinder and spreading itself.  James 
  tried to scream but could not.  I screamed.  I cried.  And when James 
  reeled in my direction, I cursed and once more raised my revolver…” 
  Moeteri are large fire vampires wearing a human body.  They are able to 
  run and fight like a human being though their movements are always jerky 
  and irregular while their eyes freely drift about.  The fire vampire within a 
  Moeteri is driven out by destroying the human body.  It can voluntarily 
  leave the body at any time. 
  With a successful Grapple roll, a Moeteri can attempt to spread to a second 
  victim.  With a successful POW vs POW roll on the Resistance Table, the 
  second victim becomes a Moeteri.  Moeteri rarely attempt to spread until 
  their body has lost at least half of its hit points. 
  Crushing blows do only half damage to the Moeteri.  Piercing weapons and 
  bullets cannot impale.  Slashing weapons such as a swung sword or axe do 
  their damage normally and can impale.  Fire can be seen through any large 
  wounds to the flesh. 
  The physical characteristics and damage bonus of a Moeteri are the same as 
  the human body it wears.  INT and POW are those of a fire vampire. 
  MOETERI, the Central Park Predator 
  STR 10 
  CON 13 
  SIZ 12 
  INT 11 
  POW 17 
  DEX 10 HP 13 
  Weapons: Punch 50% (1D3), Kick 40% (1D6), Club 40% (1D6) 
  Spells: Shrivel, Spark 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  92 
  THE FIRE VAMPIRE WITHIN 
  CON 8 
  SIZ 2  
  INT 11  
  POW 17  
  DEX 17  
  HP 8 
  Weapons: Touch 85%, damage 2D6 burn + magic point drain. 
  Armor: Most material weapons do no harm.  Water does one hit point per half-gallon 
  poured over it, a typical hand-held fire extinguisher does 1D6 damage to it and a bucket of 
  sand costs it 1D3. 
  Spells: Shrivel, Spark 
  Note: Keepers may wish to “hide” the moeteri among the Legionnaires and let his true 
  Mythos nature be a surprise.  Alternatively, the keeper might wish to set up a situation 
  similar to the quoted passage above – with a fat, naked man walking toward the 
  investigators with oddly wandering eyes…  The moeteri can be used to kill off thugs or cult 
  members if that helps raise the tension and excitement.  Additionally, the moeteri might 
  spread to two or three victims if the climactic battle seems to be going too easily for the PCs.  
  SIX GOTHAM LEGIONNAIRES: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  STR 
  10 
  13 
  5 
  14 
  11 
  8 
  CON 
  12 
  10 
  16 
  12 
  15 
  12 
  SIZ 
  12 
  11 
  13 
  11 
  14 
  12 
  APP 
  6 
  9 
  9 
  10 
  11 
  15 
  INT 
  9 
  8 
  12 
  15 
  9 
  10 
  DEX 
  12 
  9 
  9 
  14 
  7 
  12 
  SAN 
  10 
  23 
  18 
  18 
  20 
  23 
  POW 
  4 
  11 
  7 
  7 
  8 
  11 
  HP 
  12 
  11 
  15 
  12 
  15 
  12 
  DB 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  Blade:  
  all 25% 
  (1D4) 
  Rock: 
  all 25% 
  (1D6) thrown Central Park rocks 
  Punch: 
  all 50%  (1D3) 
  Note: These men and women are not yet totally insane, but they’re all definitely suffering 
  from temporary insanity.  Their erratic behavior may cause them to attack wildly, scream 
  incoherently, curl into balls, or otherwise confuse the investigators. 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  93 
  TWO NIGHTGAUNTS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  STR 
  13 
  11 
  CON 
  11 
  12 
  SIZ 
  17 
  18 
  INT 
  2 
  5 
  DEX 
  10 
  15 
  POW 
  12 
  11 
  HP 
  25 
  28 
  Note: Should nightgaunts be included in the climactic battle, keepers may wish to have 
  them sneak out of nowhere, immobilize a target and take away their weapons.  Should a 
  nightgaunt be injured, however, there is a 20% chance the two will work together to pick up 
  the offending human and bring him back to Nodens.  Probably a one-way journey. 
  EIGHT SLEEPING SPEAR CULTISTS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  STR 
  12 
  16 
  14 
  8 
  8 
  11 
  13 
  11 
  CON 
  9 
  12 
  12 
  13 
  12 
  7 
  9 
  13 
  SIZ 
  11 
  13 
  13 
  8 
  17 
  11 
  13 
  18 
  APP 
  19 
  11 
  10 
  9 
  10 
  8 
  9 
  6 
  INT 
  8 
  9 
  10 
  14 
  13 
  8 
  6 
  7 
  DEX 
  11 
  17 
  11 
  9 
  12 
  7 
  13 
  10 
  POW 
  7 
  7 
  4 
  16 
  13 
  9 
  17 
  14 
  HP 
  11 
  13 
  13 
  12 
  15 
  9 
  11 
  16 
  DB 
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  Dagger:  45% 
  65% 
  30% 
  15% 
  all at 40% (1D6) 
  Punch: 
  55% 
  80% 
  35% 
  35% 
  all at 50% (1D3) 
  Kick: 
  50% 
  70% 
  35% 
  20% 
  all at 30% (1D6) 
  Butt: 
  50% 
  70% 
  50% 
  40% 
  all at 40% (1D4) 
  Note: Cultists #4 and #7 know the spells Shrivelling and Spark. 
   
   
  Weapons: Grapple 30%, damage held for tickling; 
  Tickle 30%, immobilized 1D6+1 rounds. 
  Armor: 2-point skin. 
  Skills: Hide 90%, Sneak 90% 
  Sanity Points: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see a 
  nightgaunt. 
   
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  94 
  TWO HUNTING HORRORS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  STR 
  28 
  33 
  CON 
  10 
  11 
  SIZ 
  39 
  42 
  INT 
  16 
  14 
  DEX 
  13 
  13 
  POW 
  18 
  22 
  HP 
  25 
  28 
  Note: Should hunting horrors be included in the climactic battle, keepers may wish to have 
  them swoop out of the sky, snatch up victims and disappear into the night.  They can 
  return every few rounds to terrify those who remain.  It is unlikely that even pulpy 
  investigators can go toe-to-claw with a hunting horror in these circumstances and survive. 
  EIGHT BLOODY TONGUE CULTISTS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  STR 
  11 
  8 
  9 
  13 
  15 
  15 
  5 
  11 
  CON 
  8 
  12 
  14 
  9 
  7 
  6 
  5 
  14 
  SIZ 
  14 
  11 
  12 
  11 
  14 
  13 
  16 
  14 
  APP 
  12 
  12 
  9 
  11 
  8 
  12 
  12 
  12 
  INT 
  12 
  9 
  11 
  9 
  12 
  8 
  6 
  14 
  DEX 
  13 
  9 
  3 
  5 
  13 
  14 
  10 
  4 
  POW 
  7 
  10 
  14 
  8 
  3 
  7 
  7 
  14 
  HP 
  11 
  12 
  13 
  10 
  11 
  10 
  11 
  14 
  DB 
  +1D4 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  Cult Dagger:  
  all at 40% (1D6) 
  Punch: 
   
  all at 50% (1D3) 
  Kick: 
   
  all at 30% (1D6) 
  Bite: 
   
  all at 5% (1D3) + SAN check 0/1 
  Note: The Bloody Tongue cultists are all insane due to exposure to Mythos creatures, 
  rituals, and knowledge.  They will not be frightened by Mythos creatures or magic – indeed 
  they may rush forward in suicidal frenzy to embrace them…  The cultists are able to pass 
  as simply “strange” or “creepy” in their everyday lives; here, they’re full-on crazy. 
  Weapons: Bite 65% / 85% if grappled (1D6), Tail 
  90% Grapple 
  Armor: 9-point skin; cannot be impaled by bullets 
  Spells: Curse of the Stone, Death Spell, Enthrall 
  Victim, Implant Fear, Send Dreams*, Wither Limb* 
  *Horror 1 only 
  Sanity Points: 0/1D10 Sanity points to see a 
  hunting horror 
   
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  95 
   
  EIGHT MORSE THUGS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  STR 
  10 
  12 
  10 
  13 
  7 
  14 
  12 
  14 
  CON 
  14 
  13 
  9 
  10 
  12 
  11 
  15 
  5 
  SIZ 
  10 
  12 
  13 
  12 
  12 
  14 
  14 
  18 
  APP 
  11 
  14 
  10 
  7 
  11 
  16 
  9 
  11 
  INT 
  7 
  16 
  5 
  5 
  12 
  10 
  8 
  15 
  DEX 
  12 
  10 
  12 
  12 
  10 
  7 
  10 
  9 
  SAN 
  40 
  45 
  25 
  60 
  50 
  55 
  45 
  55 
  POW 
  8 
  9 
  5 
  12 
  10 
  11 
  9 
  11 
  HP 
  12 
  13 
  11 
  11 
  12 
  13 
  15 
  12 
  DB 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  Club: 
  all at 55% (1D6) 
  Chain: 
  all at 35% (1D6) 
  Punch: 
  all at 60% (1D3) brass knuckles add another 1D3 
  Note: Morse’s thugs are true bullies; they hate fighting and love beating people up.  Their 
  confident belligerence is a brittle thing.  Though they hold up well in the face of violence, 
  real danger reduces them to craven cowards.  Should they make an appearance in the 
  climactic battle, Morse’s thugs can be a nasty threat before the fighting starts, dangerous for 
  a couple of rounds, and excellent targets for a Moeteri or other Mythos creature – upon 
  whose appearance, the thugs will turn on their heels and run. 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  96 
  TEN IMMIGRANTS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  9 
  10 
  STR 
  12 
  12 
  10 
  10 
  14 
  14 
  13 
  11 
  9 
  16 
  CON 
  12 
  11 
  11 
  11 
  12 
  10 
  10 
  7 
  7 
  8 
  SIZ 
  12 
  14 
  10 
  10 
  16 
  17 
  11 
  16 
  12 
  10 
  APP 
  13 
  12 
  8 
  10 
  4 
  14 
  11 
  6 
  10 
  9 
  INT 
  14 
  11 
  15 
  11 
  11 
  11 
  8 
  12 
  11 
  11 
  DEX 
  11 
  12 
  14 
  6 
  12 
  10 
  12 
  12 
  6 
  12 
  SAN 
  70 
  45 
  30 
  55 
  60 
  45 
  45 
  40 
  35 
  70 
  POW 
  14 
  9 
  6 
  11 
  12 
  9 
  9 
  8 
  7 
  14 
  HP 
  12 
  13 
  11 
  11 
  14 
  14 
  11 
  12 
  10 
  9 
  DB 
   
  +1D4 
   
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  Rock: 
  all 25% 
  (1D6) thrown Central Park rocks 
  Punch: 
  all 50%  (1D3) 
  Note: The immigrants are angry, frustrated, and desperate.  Should they appear in the 
  climactic battle, these innocents at risk make fine trouble for caring investigators.  The 
  immigrants do not necessarily want to fight and provide an opportunity for brainy 
  investigators to contribute to the climactic battle by leading the immigrants away from 
  danger and to safety.  Keepers whose propensity for sweetness has been exhausted may 
  prefer to use the immigrants as tragic cannon fodder. 
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  97 
  TEN AFRICAN AMERICANS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  9 
  10 
  STR 
  14 
  13 
  10 
  8 
  11 
  8 
  11 
  12 
  12 
  13 
  CON 
  10 
  8 
  6 
  13 
  8 
  9 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  14 
  SIZ 
  13 
  11 
  11 
  14 
  16 
  14 
  15 
  14 
  12 
  9 
  APP 
  13 
  15 
  12 
  14 
  7 
  9 
  11 
  14 
  13 
  13 
  INT 
  6 
  11 
  11 
  16 
  13 
  8 
  12 
  9 
  8 
  12 
  DEX 
  14 
  15 
  9 
  9 
  10 
  12 
  17 
  10 
  8 
  15 
  SAN 
  65 
  50 
  50 
  15 
  50 
  55 
  65 
  55 
  60 
  25 
  POW 
  13 
  10 
  10 
  3 
  10 
  11 
  13 
  11 
  12 
  5 
  HP 
  12 
  10 
  9 
  14 
  12 
  12 
  11 
  11 
  10 
  12 
  DB 
  +1D4 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
  Rock: 
  all 25% 
  (1D6) thrown Central Park rocks 
  Punch: 
  all 50%  (1D3) 
  Note: The African Americans are in about the same state as the immigrants.  There is, 
  however, no love lost between the groups.  The African Americans tend not to like the 
  immigrants because the immigrants are taking jobs the African Americans thought they’d 
  earned after the Civil War.  The African Americans are even less well-inclined toward the 
  Bloody Tongue cultists.  The cultists appear to be even more recent immigrants.  Should 
  they appear in the climactic battle, the African Americans are likely to get into an 
  altercation and will stick with it longer than other groups.  In the end, of course, they’ll 
  run. 
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  98 
  TEN POLICE OFFICERS: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  7 
  8 
  9 
  10 
  STR 
  12 
  9 
  9 
  11 
  14 
  8 
  7 
  12 
  11 
  11 
  CON 
  13 
  12 
  5 
  9 
  9 
  11 
  8 
  10 
  7 
  6 
  SIZ 
  16 
  10 
  12 
  14 
  16 
  16 
  14 
  12 
  11 
  11 
  APP 
  8 
  12 
  16 
  8 
  6 
  10 
  7 
  12 
  13 
  7 
  INT 
  12 
  16 
  7 
  9 
  8 
  11 
  6 
  15 
  13 
  11 
  DEX 
  9 
  13 
  11 
  12 
  4 
  16 
  15 
  9 
  12 
  14 
  SAN 
  40 
  40 
  70 
  50 
  40 
  45 
  50 
  60 
  35 
  20 
  POW 
  8 
  8 
  14 
  10 
  8 
  9 
  10 
  12 
  7 
  4 
  HP 
  15 
  11 
  9 
  12 
  13 
  14 
  11 
  11 
  9 
  9 
  DB 
  +1D4 
   
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
   
   
   
   
  Nightstick: 
  all 40% (1D6) 
  .41 Revolver: 
  all 30% (1D10) 
  Punch: 
   
  all 50% (1D3) 
  Note: The police officers are exhausted.  They’ve been working hard while wearing heavy, 
  layered uniforms throughout the heat wave.  They are accustomed to giving orders and 
  having those orders obeyed if not respected.  Should they appear in the climactic battle, 
  they’ll display some real bravery and their revolvers will be a great help against human 
  adversaries.  In the face of overwhelming danger, they’ll try to make an organized retreat 
  and summon more police officers to the battle.  The reinforcements can arrive too late to do 
  any good or provide keepers with a convenient deus ex machina. 
  THEODORE ROOSEVELT, future President and roughrider 
  STR 15 
  CON 16 
  SIZ 12 
  INT 13 
  POW 15 
   
  DEX 13 
  APP 12 
  EDU 17 
  SAN 65 
  HP 14 
  Damage Bonus: +1D4 
  Weapons: Punch 60% (1D3), Kick 45% (1D6), .41 Revolver 70% (1D10) 
  Skills: Credit Rating 80%, Dodge 26%, Fast Talk 25%, First Aid 40%, Spot Hidden 45% 
  Notes: These incomplete stats are for a young Theodore Roosevelt.  Should he appear in the 
  climactic battle, he will show himself a great leader of men.  It is essential, however, that 
  Roosevelt not overshadow the PCs.  The investigators are the heroes of the story so 
  Roosevelt will lead only NPCs and will happily follow PC suggestions. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  99 
   
  SIX FIREMEN: 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  STR 
  8 
  10 
  11 
  14 
  15 
  12 
  CON 
  14 
  11 
  16 
  17 
  15 
  10 
  SIZ 
  15 
  11 
  12 
  14 
  15 
  13 
  APP 
  14 
  15 
  3 
  10 
  8 
  14 
  INT 
  11 
  13 
  11 
  7 
  6 
  7 
  DEX 
  8 
  12 
  10 
  13 
  8 
  9 
  SAN 
  55 
  70 
  45 
  65 
  40 
  40 
  POW 
  11 
  14 
  9 
  13 
  8 
  8 
  HP 
  15 
  11 
  14 
  16 
  15 
  12 
  DB 
   
   
   
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  +1D4 
  Axe:  
  all 35% 
  (1D8+2) 
  Punch: 
  all 50% 
  (1D3) 
  Hose:  
  all 35% (1D3 – 2D6 against fire vampires) 
  Notes: Should the firefighters make an appearance in the climactic battle, they will be of 
  great help fighting any fires started by the fire vampires and/or Moeteri.  Their axes are 
  quite powerful weapons, though none of the fire fighters is really trained in using them to 
  attack.  The fire fighters make very good investigator allies because of their tremendous 
  bravery.  These are men accustomed to the threat of immanent death.  Keepers may wish 
  to give them a bonus to any SAN checks they might need to make. 
  On Firefighting: There are no fire trucks in 1896 New York City, of course.  The firefighters 
  arrive in horse-drawn carts that also carry buckets, hoses, and hand-powered pumps.  Kind 
  keepers will put a moderately pressurized fire hydrant close at hand.  Less kind keepers 
  will require the firefighters to lay hose to a distant hydrant.  Cruel keepers will require the 
  firefighters to lay hose to a lake or river and hand-pump the water.  Investigators who are 
  too timid, weak, or mad to directly confront Fava, other cultists, or Mythos creatures might 
  redeem themselves by taking an active roll in firefighting.  Even if an investigator is simply 
  helpless as a firefighter, he or she might provide essential aid by preventing the bad guys 
  from cutting the hoses.  
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  100 
   
  Epilogue: 
  Crack Of Thunder 
  hough 
  the historical heat 
  wave of 1896 did not end in a 
  sudden 
  dramatic 
  downpour 
  of 
  water from the heavens, this 
  adventure does.  With Central 
  Park burned and bloodied; with a 
  once-well-meaning Anthony Fava 
  defeated or dead; with Cthugha 
  denied entry to our world – for the 
  time being – a great crack of 
  thunder signals a downpour.  And 
  the end of the heat wave. 
  (Of course if the investigators have 
  somehow failed, Cthugha does go 
  ahead and burn a blazing path 
  through the heart of New York 
  City.  No rain.  No relief.  No 
  pity.) 
  Keepers might want to end things 
  with a grateful Roosevelt clasping 
  their hands, thanking them for all 
  they’ve done, and encouraging 
  them to keep it up. 
  What Teddy Says: 
  Theodore turns his head to the 
  heavens, doffs his hat and lets the 
  rain pour down upon him.  After 
  several deep, cleansing breaths he 
  turns to face you.  He wears a 
  deadly serious expression, but 
  there’s a tiny gleam in his eye 
  of . . . something else. 
  It’s damn hard to believe this really 
  happened. 
   
  That 
  it 
  happened 
  here… 
  That this city could hold within it a 
  terrible secret.  Like a great shiny 
  apple unwillingly used as safe 
  harbor for a worm of terrible decay.  
  I doubt one man in a thousand 
  would believe it. 
  Yet there it is. 
  Cause to make a man wonder, don’t 
  you think?  What else might an 
  intrepid 
  group 
  of 
  roughriders 
  discover lurking at the core of this 
  city?  This big apple of a city. 
  I pray you’ll stay the course, 
  gentlemen.  Adventure awaits. 
  There’s that gleam again. 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  101 
  Just Rewards 
  If investigators have prevented 
  Fava 
  summoning 
  Cthugha 
  to 
  Central Park and realize what 
  they’ve done, they gain 1D20 SAN. 
  Every 
  fire 
  vampire 
  destroyed 
  during this adventure gains the 
  investigators 1D3 SAN. 
  The destruction of other Mythos 
  creatures should also be worth 
  around 1D3 SAN. 
  Investigators gain 1 SAN for each 
  known cultist killed. 
  Investigators lose 1D2 SAN for 
  each civilian killed – or those the  
  investigators 
  believe 
  were 
  civilians. 
  Capturing 
  Fava 
  gains 
  investigators 1D6 SAN.  Killing 
  him loses investigators 1D6 SAN.  
  A P P E N D I X  
  Handouts
  Opening Image 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  102 
  2 
  1 
   
  AN ORATION OF ADVENTURE: Inquisitive persons possessing interest in matters 
  historical, Roman, antique, occult, mysterious, and fearfully dangerous are 
  invited to attend a lecture at the Gotham Legion Hall the evening of this 
  Wednesday, July 29.  Gotham Legion founder Anthony Fava will present to 
  those in attendance a true story of his recent activities in Rome, what he 
  found there, and that mortal menace that very nearly found him.  Doors open 
  to non-members at 6 PM.  Speech to begin at 8 PM.  Light refreshments 
  provided.  No charge. 
   
  My Friend, 
  Perhaps you have taken note of my absence over the past few months and 
  wondered with what I might be occupying my time.  You will no doubt be 
  unsurprised to learn that I have been in that ancient state of Rome.  It is 
  unlikely in the extreme, however, that you could guess what terrifying and thrilling 
  adventure caught me up whilst I indulged my well-known passion.  Might I not 
  tempt you to be in attendance when I lay those events before the public at 8 PM, 
  Wednesday, July 29 in the Gotham Legion Hall auditorium?  I would be greatly 
  honored by your presence and unreservedly assure you that your time will have been 
  well spent. 
  Yours Most Cordially, 
  Anthony Fava 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  103 
  3 
  ASSASSINS WARNED 
  An Interview With a Defiant Anthony Fava 
  New York City, July 30. – The Evening Times was fortunate to secure an exclusive 
  interview with prominent New York City businessman Anthony Fava who readers will 
  remember was the target of an assassination attempt last night.  Mr. Fava was generous 
  with his time and provided this reporter with extraordinary access and candor.  Edited 
  only for space, the interview follows: 
  The Evening Times: The police say you are lucky to be alive. 
  Anthony Fava: We are all lucky to be alive, are we not? 
  ET: Not all of us are targeted by foreign assassins. 
  AF: Who can understand a madman? 
  ET: Or four? 
  AF: Or four.  I think the police are just as astonished as I. 
  ET: You often travel to Rome, don’t you?  I suppose many immigrants would like to return 
  to their home country. 
  AF: Both on business and for pleasure.  But I am all American. 
  ET: Of course you are.  Italian American.  Nothing to be ashamed of. 
  AF: That’s right.  I am not an immigrant – I was born here – but I know that most 
  immigrants are fine upstanding members of society. 
  ET: Yes.  You employ many of them, do you not?  In your import business. 
  AF: I do.  As do many businesses and factories in New York City. 
  ET: Of course.  And you welcome them to your Gotham Legion.  What is the Gotham 
  Legion?  A resettlement house?  Some sort of charity? 
  AF: The Gotham Legion is much like the Stone Masons.  A group of civic-minded people 
  working together for the betterment of all.  Combating dark forces that threaten us. 
  ET: Dark forces.  But you employ negroes as well, don’t you? 
  AF: Yes.  All men being created equal, I choose to give them equal opportunity. 
  ET: Well, I thank you for your time and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that I’m so 
  glad you escaped from your encounter with those fanatics unscathed. 
  There you have it.  Dark forces beware: Anthony Fava is ready for you! 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  104 
  4 It is important to note that no historical sources survived that were contemporary with Nero.  
  What we know of Nero was written no less than 50 years after his death.  Pliny the Elder 
  mentions Nero in his Natural Histories only as an “enemy of mankind”. 
  Described by Suetonius in his Life of Nero as “about the average height, his body marked with 
  spots and malodorous, his hair light blond, his features regular rather than attractive, his eyes 
  blue and somewhat weak, his neck over thick, his belly prominent, and his legs very slender”, 
  Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus (born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and commonly 
  known as Nero) was Emperor of Rome from 54 to 68 A.D.  He was set upon the throne at the 
  age of 16 after his mother, Agrippina, poisoned Emperor Claudius. 
  Known for his diplomacy, devotion to trade, the construction of theaters, and a love of 
  gladiatorial combats.  Equally reputed to be a cruel and extravagant tyrant who executed any 
  who opposed him – including his mother, stepbrother, ex-wife, and pregnant wife whom he 
  reportedly kicked to death.  Reported to have been the arsonist responsible for the five-day 
  Great Fire of Rome which destroyed much of the city in 64 A.D.  Nero committed suicide to 
  avoid assassination. 
  It is widely believed that Nero was quite mad by the end of his life.  Aside from his penchant for 
  executions, he is known to have 
  ! 
  ordered the marshes of Ostia filled with rubble from the Great Fire 
  ! 
  built a palace complex of up to 300 acres in size that included lush vegetation and a 30 
  meter statue of himself (the Colossus of Nero) 
  ! 
  spent an enormous sum on a failed attempt to dig a canal at the Isthmus of Corinth 
  ! 
  launched a failed expedition to discover the source of the Nile River. 
  According to the Talmud, Nero went to Jerusalem in 66 A.D. and converted to Judaism.  No 
  other sources mention that he became a member of a religion widely considered at that time to 
  be barbaric and immoral. 
  In the apocryphal Acts of Peter (c. 200), the Apostle Peter is said to have been crucified 
  upside-down in Rome during Nero’s reign. 
  The Bishop of Eusebius of Caesarea wrote some two hundred years after Nero’s death that the 
  Apostle Paul was beheaded in Rome during Nero’s reign. 
  The Ascension of Isaiah, Sibylline Oracles, and the writings of Augustine of Hippo suggest Nero 
  was the Antichrist.  Many Biblical scholars state that when Nero’s name is treated according to 
  Hebrew numbers, the letters add up to 666 – the number of the beast. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  105 
  Written here in English translated into ogham script is the following: 
  “Cthugha the life in flames”.  Ogham script is from 5th century Ireland. 
  18 
  7 
  My Friends, 
   
  First, please do allow me to apologize for my last dispatch.  It was written 
  in haste and while I was not wholly in command of my nerves.  I am both 
  embarrassed by that letter and appalled at my unmanly reaction to strain. 
  I am mindful of my ancestors.  How would the Fava men who have come 
  before me have dealt with the shock of men armed against them?  Would that I 
  could find some question as to their resolve and determination.  But how could I?  
  Their heroic actions in every important American war lays bare my cowardice. 
  I who have before this year been confronted with no danger more fearful than a 
  paper cut inflicted by an old and musty tome have, I think, found a cause in which 
  my talents shall at last stand in service becoming my lineage.  It is evident, is it 
  not, that that the group of people who attacked my carriage are members of an evil 
  and bloody cult?  Further, is it not evident that the men who came with murderous 
  evil intent to the Gotham Legion Hall this past Wednesday the 29th were also 
  members of an evil cult? 
  My course is clear.  As these villains would stand against me and mine and 
  all good people, so must I stand against them.  I beg your assistance in this new 
  endeavor.  Won’t you please agree to find the source of this dark-skinned cult in 
  New York City?  I will, of course, pay for your time and expenses. 
  I await and anticipate your positive reply. 
   
  Yours Most Cordially, 
  Anthony Fava 
   
   
   
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  106 
  8 
  My Dear Ones, 
   
  I think of you now and would be particularly glad if you could be of service.  I distrust men of 
  hysterical temperament and count you not among them. 
  I am much concerned of the strains physical and mental these hot days have wrought upon the 
  citizens of New York City.  While one man buckles in shuddering horror at his condition, a 
  hundred find the beast side of their natures strengthened and intensified.  There are communities 
  where self-raising is very hard; some through no fault of their own; others through lack of intelligence 
  or character. 
  Such people and such communities can now be found in the tenements. 
  I have determined myself to help these people and others like them and am even now studying how 
  best that might be accomplished.  I ask that you might be of aid during this crisis of heat by serving 
  as my eyes, ears, and hands among the poor tenement dwellers.  In particular, the police, fire 
  services, and coroner’s offices are strained to breaking. 
  I shall return to the city in short order, have no fear.  In the meantime, I beg your acquiescence 
  to my peculiar, though heartfelt, request. 
   
  Yours Sincerely, 
  Theodore Roosevelt 
   
  6 
   
  Friends, 
  I am yo Come at 
  once! 
   
  What 
  have 
  I 
  done?  
  Without  I am 
  lost. 
   
  Come.  
  Please Come. 
  Anthony Fava 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  107 
  Rusticus reaching out from 
  Rome  Oscar Wilde so clever  
  droll  you slash away at Nero 
  with your pen instead of 
  drawing 
  me 
  a 
  portrait  
  details 
  damn 
  you 
   
  Why 
  couldn’t you be Rembrandt?  
  Nothing for it  but what does 
  he mean here?  The servan’ts 
  testimony – must remember 
  those words  is it really as 
  simple as that? 
  I call  they come  what would Nero care for the robes and laurel and trappings of state?  Rusticus you old fool  
  you never guessed his true empire did you?  Never knew what legions he commanded 
  11 
  come to my home at once stop do not delay stop your 
  assistance required stop make legion a power for good stop 
  a fava 
   
  12 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  14 
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  108 
  My fears relieved!  Thought I lacked the inner spark – fortitude! – to use this power  felt my spine crack like a 
  whip I was afraid but pressed on and now it is like anything like running or swimming maybe so difficult for the 
  rank amateur and then your endurance builds and your body knows the motions and it is all so simple  I could  do 
  it again and again  there is strain, yes  but I will overcome that too 
  The magical circle is an essential element in 
  medieval 
  and 
  Renaissance 
  ceremonial 
  magic.  
  Words and symbols are intended to be a barrier 
  against hostile spirits and forces.  This circle has 
  roots in Arabic magic. 
  Around the circle are these symbols: 
  N: Caput Dracoics, geomancy symbol meaning 
  “head of the dragon” 
  NE/SW: Ansuz, futhorc rune “god” contains the 
  ideas of consciousness and communication 
  E/W: Cen, futhorc rune “torch” meaning unknown 
  SE/NW: Calc, futhorc rune “cup” meaning unknown 
  S: Cauda Draconis, geomancy “tail of the dragon” 
  13 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
   
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  109 
  CP  this call a compulsion in my mind smouldering he licks my soul how could I deny him?  Why would i?  why 
  not let him come?  Hire him here  CP is he not a god?  I am summoned summoned to summoned summon my 
  sommoners to summon my summoner and summer some summer will be  CP  summon my summoners to 
  summon my summoner… 
  21 
  15 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The candles in Fava’s rooms are like none you’ve ever seen before.  Their color 
  seems to lack permanence.  A trick of their material construction, no doubt, 
  plays with light to give them the appearance of being yellow or orange or red in 
  turns.  Truly remarkable. 
  Their scent is likewise difficult to pin down.  At first cloyingly pungent then 
  aromatically cinnamon and cloves then musky, dusty and old.  What strange 
  substances must have been mixed with their wax?  A master craftsman.  Or a 
  mad one. 
  Finally, a mystery of sorts.  Each candle has been burned down to one degree 
  or another.  But none – not one – shows any sign of the flame having been 
  disturbed in the slightest.  It is as though each flame burned steadily vertical so 
  long as each wick was lit.  As though untouched by a breeze or draft of any 
  kind.  It seems unlikely in the extreme that the air in Fava’s rooms could have 
  remained so perfectly still. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  110 
  Purported to be the script of angels – Coelestrial writing – these occult symbols spell out something that is not 
  English.  The first and last “letters” are in subscript.  From left to right, the symbols translate to the letters: 
  CYOGSOTOTK.  The letters can also be translated to geomancy symbols; the first and last of these are the Caput 
  Dracoics, the head of the dragon, and the Cauda Draconis, the tail of the dragon. 
  This is a map of the Great Hill potion of Central Park seen from an imaginative perspective – as though the person 
  who produced the sketch has been aloft above the park. Though this map may not immediately ring a bell with PCs, 
  the notes in the upper left corner can help. “CPW” stands for Central Park West.  “W105” stands for West 105th 
  Street.  With this information it should be very easy to identify the central location as the Great Hill. 
  The writing in the middle can be translated as “The torch is known to every living man by its pale, bright flam / 
  It always burns where princes sit within.” It is a portion of an Anglo-Saxon rune poem.  The futhorc rune Cen 
  (meaning “torch” is the last symbol. 
  17 
  20 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  111 
  A fairly recent symbol known 
  as 
  the 
  Goat 
  of 
  Mendes.  
  Generally 
  associated 
  with 
  Satanism, the Goat of Mendes 
  is more likely an invention of 
  the 
  Knights 
  Templar 
  in 
  reference to the Muslim faith.  
  Though 
  popular 
  among 
  Spiritualists and Occultists in 
  pre-Civil War days, the Goat of 
  Mendes in recent years is most 
  popular 
  among 
  amateur 
  magicians and charlatans.  
  5 
  The writings of historian Fabius Rusticus have been lost to history.  Both 
  quoted and admonished by Tacitus, Rusticus was one of the primary sources for 
  Tacitus’ Annals.  No dry, objective academic, Rusticus is reported to have 
  written graphic, eloquent accounts of politics, war, and scandals with an eye for 
  the titillating and outrageous. 
  An outspoken critic of Emperor Nero, Rusticus described Nero as first 
  wishing to sleep with his mother and later to kill her.  He implicated Nero in 
  Senaca’s suicide, the extraordinarily cruel tormenting of Christians, and in a 
  mad plot to burn Rome – the Great Fire of Rome.  Rusticus is supported by 
  Suetonius and Cassius Dio in reports that Nero sang the “Sack of Ilium” in stage 
  costume while the city burned. 
  It should be noted that Tacitus places Nero in Antium – not Rome – at the 
  time of the fire.  Tacitus reports in his Annals, however, that Nero blamed 
  Christians for the fire and “Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by 
  dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and 
  burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” 
  19 
   
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  112 
  9 
  10 
  From the New-York Tribune.  The complete story takes up half of page 1 and is continued on page 4. 
  MR. BRYAN ARRIVES 
  SUPPORTIVE CROWDS GREET HIM 
  William Jennings Bryan arrived with his wife and entourage in Jersey City late 
  yesterday.  Their long day of travel included the Pennsylvania Railroad, a ferry across the 
  river, and carriage to the home of a National Committee member in part responsible for 
  making Mr. Bryan the Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America.  
  Mr. Bryan and Mr. Sewall, the Vice-Presidential candidate, will receive their official 
  nominations at a ceremony this evening at Madison Square Garden. 
  The police are expected to focus their energies on protecting and supporting Mr. Bryan.  
  The sold out MSG event will draw thousands of cheering New Yorkers hoping to hear a 
  speech as uplifting and invigorating as the “Cross of Gold” speech that brought Mr. Bryan so 
  much attention earlier this year in Chicago.  It is widely hoped this event will provide 
  some much-needed relief to the poor and disadvantaged struggling so terribly with the 
  unrelenting heat of the past many days. 
  Last night a large contingent of police officers was nearly overwhelmed by a crowd of 
  supporters.  It was all the police could do to keep the sidewalk clear.  One supporter 
  waited with his coat and collar off but his eagerness to vote for Mr. Bryan unwilted by the 
  weather.   Many passers-by stopped to see if the heat had prostrated yet another New 
  Yorker – or had brought tempers to a boil resulting in fisticuffs. 
   
  From page 6 of the New York Times. 
  MISSING GOTHAMITES - Families Concerned 
  The implacable sun has driven much of Gotham’s businessmen to the breaking point.  Some 
  scoffed when meetings were postponed to await more favorable weather, but those cautious 
  souls may have been the wiser.  A tragic case in point is a large number of influential 
  members of the Gotham Legion social club who apparently chose to meet despite the heat.  
  Families report at least eight missing members and it is feared that they may number 
  among the hundreds of anonymous New Yorkers prostrated.  No one wishes to voice the 
  horrible suspicion that some or, indeed, all of them may be counted among the heatstroke 
  victims awaiting the overburdened coroner’s office.  This newspaper counts 181 dead and 
  405 prostrated in the past 24 hours. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  113 
  Gotham Legion Hall
  Gotham Legion Hall
  Main Floor 
  Club Floor 
  Apartments 
  Reception 
  Auditorium 
  Library 
  WC 
  Kitchen 
  Dining Room 
  Smoking 
  Room 
  Billiards 
  WC 
  WC 
  Bath 
  
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  114 
  Attic 
  Upper Floor 
  Lower Floor 
  The Fava Family Home 
   
   
  Storage 
  Anthony’s 
  Bedroom 
  Bath Suite 
  Closet 
  Balcony 
  Closet WC 
  WC 
  Unused 
  Bedroom 
  Vincento’s 
  Bedroom 
  Porch 
  Sitting 
  Room 
  Kitchen 
  Library 
  Parlor 
  Dining Room 
  WC 
  Closets 
  Pantry 
  Porch 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  115 
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  116 
  Manhattan circa 1890 
  Lower East Side Tenements 
  Harlem 
  Gotham Legion Hall 
  Central Park 
  Brooklyn Bridge 
  (not pictured) 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  117 
  New York City, 1896 
   
  A Short History of NYC 
  ew Amsterdam became New 
  York City in 1855.  It was 
  not a quiet place.  The state 
  militia was required to put down 
  the two-day Dead Rabbits Riot 
  between two gangs in 1857 – a riot 
  that left 100 dead. 
  The years leading up to the Civil 
  War (starting in 1861) further split 
  the city as citizens lined up along 
  Union or Separatist lines.  A 
  proposal 
  for 
  New 
  York 
  City 
  secession as a neutral sovereign 
  city-state called “Tri-Insula” was 
  narrowly put down.  Opponents of 
  conscription began another five 
  days of rioting in 1863 – the worst 
  riots in American History. 
  After the Civil War, New York City 
  became a center of culture and 
  corruption.  Institutions including 
  the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
  the 
  Metropolitan 
  Opera, 
  the 
  American Museum of Natural 
  History and the Brooklyn Museum 
  were all founded in the post-war 
  period. 
   
  New 
  York 
  City 
  newspapers 
  became 
  important 
  sources of news across the United 
  States with James Gordon Bennett, 
  Joseph 
  Pulitzer, 
  and 
  William 
  Randolph Hearst competing for 
  readership. 
  In 1874, New York City annexed 
  the Bronx.  In 1883, the Brooklyn 
  Bridge tied New York City to 
  Brooklyn. 
   Already the third 
  most-populous city in America, 
  Brooklyn annexed the remainder 
  of Kings County in 1896.  Many 
  anticipate the consolidation of New 
  York City, Brooklyn, Queens and 
  Staten Island – an event that will 
  occur in 1898. 
   
  Gaslit Gotham 
  ew York City in 1896 is a 
  magnet for immigrants.  A 
  rapidly 
  expanding 
  industrial 
  engine clamors for cheap labor and 
  over 
  the 
  next 
  three 
  decades 
  millions of people dreaming of a 
  better life heed the call. 
  Oppressive, unsafe conditions in 
  the factories spark violent labor 
  uprisings.  Desperate immigrants 
  have 
  driven 
  down 
  wages 
  far 
  enough 
  to 
  depress 
  the 
  city’s 
  economy.  The immigrants are 
  N 
  N 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  118 
  left with no option but to live in 
  overcrowded tenements seething 
  with hatred and prejudice.  Jacob 
  Riis’ photo documentary How The 
  Other Half Lives published in 1890 
  shone a light on ghetto conditions 
  and sparked national debates over 
  immigration, 
  living 
  conditions, 
  child labor, and the government’s 
  role in helping the poor. 
  Nativist 
  movements 
  have 
  middle-class residents terrified of 
  committing “race suicide”.  The 
  establishment of the Immigration 
  Restriction League in 1894 is going 
  strong 
  while 
  nearly 
  a 
  dozen 
  settlement houses in 1896 strive to 
  help immigrants adapt to life in 
  the U.S.  Everything from the 
  city’s inability to keep up with 
  basic sanitation to the rise of 
  unions to vice and corruption 
  increases the tension. 
  In 1890, over 640,000 of the 
  1,515,000 people living in New 
  York City were born in Europe.  
  Most came from Germany and 
  Ireland with lesser populations of 
  Russians, 
  Italians, 
  Germans, 
  Austria-Hungarians, 
  and 
  Irish.  
  In 1896, the immigration trends 
  are 
  shifting. 
   
  By 
  1910, 
  the 
  number of New Yorkers born in 
  Europe reaches 1,944,000 with 
  most coming from Russia and Italy 
  and lesser populations of Germans, 
  Austria-Hungarians, and Irish. 
  Transportation around New York 
  City is primarily on foot, by 
  horse-drawn carriage or on the 
  new-fangled electrified streetcars 
  introduced in 1894.  Streetcar 
  drivers are frustrated by new 
  expectations 
  that 
  they 
  will 
  actually keep to some sort of 
  schedule. 
  Gas streetlights are the norm.  
  Telegraph wires from at least a 
  dozen competing wire services 
  criss-cross the streets from pole to 
  pole.  Most people get their 
  information from newspapers – 
  especially 
  the 
  penny 
  papers 
  hawked by legions of paperboys 
  (some as young as 6) and –ladies 
  (some 
  old 
  enough 
  to 
  be 
  grandmothers). 
  Child labor laws are unknown.  
  Suffragettes have not won the 
  right to vote but are testing their 
  power with a powerful temperance 
  movement.  Most men work all 
  day six days a week.  Immigrant 
  women take in extra work at home 
  while middle and upper class 
  ladies take it as a matter of pride 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  119 
  to do no work at all.  Although the 
  Civil War is long over and slavery 
  has been abolished, discrimination 
  and exploitation of all sorts is both 
  widespread and accepted. 
  No New Yorker – man, woman, or 
  child – would be seen out of doors 
  without a hat.  Clothing is layered, 
  buttoned up, and generally ill 
  suited for workers to wear – 
  especially during a heat wave.  
  Most tenement dwellers share a 
  single water tap and an outhouse 
  with the other people living in 
  their building; with whole families 
  living in single rooms privacy is a 
  coveted luxury. 
  A typical 1863 tenement layout: 
  L = room with natural light 
  D = room with no natural light 
   
  1895-1896 Highlights 
  he following information is 
  given for general background 
  information.  Keepers can draw 
  from it to provide atmosphere and 
  topics 
  for 
  NPC 
  conversations.  
  Players 
  might 
  find 
  character 
  inspiration.  Entries in italics are 
  not directly related to New York 
  City.  The remainder of entries 
  take place at least partly in NYC. 
  1895 
  Jan 31: Jose Marti leads an 
  invasion force from New 
  York City bound for 
  Spanish Cuba.  
  Feb 24: Cuban war for 
  independence begins. 
  Mar 18: 200 African Americans 
  leave Savannah, Georgia 
  for Liberia. 
  Apr 5: Oscar Wilde, accused of 
  homosexual practices, 
  loses libel case against 
  Marquess of Queensberry. 
  April 17: Treaty of Shimonoseki 
  ends first Sino-Japanese 
  War. 
  May 8: China cedes Taiwan to 
  Japan under Treaty of 
  Shimonoseki. 
  May 20: 153 Broadway, New York 
  City hosts the first ever 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  120 
  commercial movie 
  performance. 
  May 25: Oscar Wilde sentenced to 
  two years hard labor for 
  being a sodomite. 
  June 11: Charles E. Duryea 
  patents a gas-driven 
  automobile. 
  June 17: The U.S. Ship Canal at 
  West 225th Street in the 
  Bronx is completed; 
  Marble Hill is cut off from 
  Manhattan. 
  Aug 31: Quarterback John 
  Brallier is paid $10 in the 
  first professional football 
  game in the U.S. 
  Sep 18: Booker T. Washington 
  delivers his “Atlanta 
  Compromise” address 
  calling on African 
  Americans to work and 
  work hard, and on white 
  Americans to hire African 
  Americans over 
  immigrants. 
  Sep 21: Duryea Motor Wagon 
  Company, the world’s first 
  manufacturer of 
  automobiles opens. 
  Oct 2: The first carton comic strip, 
  The Yellow Kid, is printed 
  in a New York newspaper. 
  Nov 5: Utah accepts female 
  suffrage. 
  Nov 27: Alfred Nobel establishes 
  the Nobel Prize. 
  Nov 28: America’s first auto race 
  starts with six cars racing 
  55 miles with the winner 
  averaging seven miles per 
  hour. 
  Dec 28: The world’s first movie 
  theatre opens in Paris. 
  1896  
  Jan 1: Wilhelm Rontgen 
  announces his discovery of 
  X-rays. 
  Jan 4: Utah becomes the 45th 
  State in the United States 
  of America after the 
  Mormon Church abandons 
  polygamy. 
  Jan 6: The first U.S. women’s 
  sex-day bicycle race starts 
  in Madison Square Garden, 
  New York City. 
  Jan 18: First demonstration of an 
  X-ray machine in the U.S. 
  in New York City. 
  Feb 23: Leo Hirshfield introduces 
  the Tootsie Roll. 
  Mar 8: The Volunteers of America 
  forms in New York City. 
  Mar 20: Marines land in 
  Nicaragua to protect U.S. 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  121 
  citizens. 
  Mar 31: Whitcomb Judson of 
  Chicago patents the 
  zipper. 
  Apr 4: Announcement of gold 
  found in the Yukon. 
  Apr 6: American James Connolly 
  wins the first Olympic gold 
  medal at the first modern 
  Olympic Games in Athens, 
  Greece. 
  Apr 19: Herzl’s The Jewish State 
  calling for the 
  establishment of a Jewish 
  homeland is published. 
  Apr 20: The first public film 
  showing in the U.S. – John 
  Philip Sousa’s El Capitan 
  premieres in New York 
  City. 
  Apr 23: Koster and Bial’s Music 
  Hall in New York City 
  premiers motion pictures 
  using the vitascope 
  system. 
  May 18: The U.S. Supreme Court 
  case of Plessy vs. Ferguson 
  affirms race separation in 
  private businesses – 
  “separate but equal”. 
  May 26: Dow Jones starts an 
  index of 12 industrial 
  stocks which closes at 
  40.94. 
  May 30: The first automobile 
  accident occurs when 
  Henry Wells hits a 
  bicyclist in New York City. 
  June 2: Guglielmo Marconi 
  patents the radio. 
  June 6 and 7: First George 
  Samuelson and later G. 
  Harpo and F. Samuelson 
  leave New York harbor to 
  row across the Atlantic 
  Ocean.  G. Harpo and F. 
  Samuelson take 54 days to 
  complete the journey. 
  Jul 8: William Jennings Bryant’s 
  “Cross of Gold” speech 
  calling for a move off of the 
  gold standard rocks the 
  Democratic Convention in 
  Chicago. 
  Aug 1: George Samuelson reaches 
  England. 
  Aug 11: Harvey Hubbell patents 
  the electric light bulb 
  socket with a pull chain. 
    
   
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  122 
  The Historica Nero 
  he Historica Nero by Fabius 
  Rusticus is a Mythos-related 
  tome considerably older than the 
  Necronomicon but by no means as 
  important to Call of Cthulhu 
  investigators as that storied tome 
  by the mad Arab, Abd al-Azrad.  
  The Historica Nero is a history of 
  Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus 
  Germanicus 
  written 
  after 
  his 
  death in 68 A.D.  The book begins 
  as a somewhat florid account of 
  Nero’s early reign.  The writing 
  and the accounts it conveys take a 
  decidedly darker tone about a 
  quarter of the way in from the 
  beginning. 
  Rusticus provides a great deal of  
  circumstantial evidence and rumor 
  that suggests Nero’s involvement 
  in a bizarre fire cult.  The cult 
  was neither Roman nor Greek, but 
  of an age so great as to be beyond 
  the borders of any known country, 
  culture, or people. It is Nero’s 
  involvement in this cult and his 
  rise within its ranks that Rusticus 
  cites as primarily responsible for 
  the 
  Emperor’s 
  creeping 
  bloodthirsty madness. 
  Rusticus 
  reports 
  on 
  secret 
  ceremonies Nero attended or led 
  after 
  nightfall 
  in 
  the 
  palace 
  gardens and in other remote places.  
  Though 
  possessing 
  no 
  eye-witnesses to the ceremonies 
  themselves, the Historica Nero 
  does contain the words of unnamed 
  men 
  and 
  women 
  (probably 
  servants) who describe strange 
  lights 
  in 
  the 
  sky, 
  rhythmic 
  drumming, the playing of ill-tuned 
  lyres and flutes, inhuman chanting, 
  and horrible screams. 
  Rusticus faithfully records the odd 
  syllables his sources remembered 
  hearing.  In addition, Rusticus 
  reproduces certain symbols and 
  diagrams said to have been spotted 
  among 
  Nero’s 
  papers 
  and 
  apparently burned into the earth 
  after some of his ceremonies.  
  Much space in the book is taken up 
  with speculation as what it all 
  might mean. 
  The original Historica Nero was 
  written on leaves of papyrus bound 
  together in a large codex in about 
  69 A.D.  It was stolen from the 
  office of Professor Juan Maceli at 
  Sapienza University.  It’s current 
  whereabouts are unknown. 
  T 
  
  Gotham Legion 
   
   
  123 
  Anthony 
  Fava’s 
  copy 
  of 
  the 
  Historica Nero is a smaller, bound 
  manuscript 
  on 
  modern 
  paper.  
  And a very imperfect source of 
  Mythos knowledge.  The original 
  author was copying down the 
  reported memories of second-hand 
  witnesses to Nero’s ceremonies.  
  Fava’s copy was hastily made and 
  contains additional errors. 
  Sanity loss 1D8/3D6 Sanity points; 
  Cthulhu 
  Mythos 
  +8%; 
  spell 
  multiplier x3. 
  Spells contained: 
  Contact Cthugha; Summon Fire 
  Vampire (note that the “Bind” 
  portion of this spell does not work; 
  Create Moeteri; Shrivelling 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/Adventures/1920s/CoC - 1920s - Adv - Gotham Legion (.pdf