And then...I had an epiphany. To quote Mr. Smee from Hook, Lightning struck my brain...
I am a huge (one might even say rabid) Doctor Who fan. That golden dinosaur of British science fiction, so recently resurrected with such verve and success. But strip off that sci-fi veneer, and the underpinnings of Doctor Who are very Gothic Horror indeed. Monsters? Check. Frequently claustrophobic, scary settings? Check. Heroes armed (albeit frequently by choice, and/or because, well, there's an awful lot of bullet proof nasties in the universe, it seems...) with only their brains and courage? Check. Scary-hide-behind-the-couch moments? Check...
As I got to thinking about it, I realized what a rich source there is for us Gothic Earth fans here. "The Talons of Weng Chiang", a classic Who serial from the 70s, is a brilliant piece of Victorian Gothic horror with only a very, very light veneer of sci-fi over it. (I'll get to summaries for those who have never seen Doctor Who/never seen that particular episode presently.) "Blink", from the third season (or series, if you're British) of the New Series is easily one of the scariest bits of film I've ever watched, hands down--and I ain't a girl who scares easily. (Except for Thief: The Dark Project. That game scares the bejeebies out of me. I love it.) "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances", from the first season of the New series is also friggin' scary, and "Midnight", from the fourth series of the same, is nearly as frightening as "Blink." Or "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead" ... (In fact, all of the above mentioned, with the exception of "Midnight" and "Talons of Weng Chiang" were written by the extremely brilliant Stephen Moffat, who has a remarkable gift for taking perfectly ordinary, innocent things and making them damn terrifying!) And then there is the well-written and extremely entertaining radio plays, which until the new series was launched were the mainstay of keeping Doctor Who alive...
But I'm not here to sell you on Doctor Who. (Well, okay, I am, but only 'cause it's one of the best shows EVER.) I'm here to share some of the great adventure ideas I've gotten from Who that will work beautifully in Gothic Earth.
(These are Gothic Earth-ized adventure hooks drawn from the original plots. Obviously, the sci fi elements have been removed.)
"The Talons of Weng Chiang" (4th Doctor, Tom Baker, Classic Who): Something nasty is stalking the low-brow theatrical district of London, and young women are disappearing. Are the sightings of something very like a monstrous rat and the discovery of a strangely chewed-upon corpse linked to the vanishings? And what does the enigmatic Chinese magician Weng Chiang have to do with all of this?
"Blink" (New Series, 3rd Season): People are disappearing from an old, abandoned house. An enigmatic message scrawled on the wall warns visitors to "Watch out for the angels." And there seem to be a number of large stone angels scattered about the overgrown estate--weeping angels, their faces covered by their stony hands. Don't turn around, don't look away, don't even blink...
"Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead"(New Series, 4th Season): No one seems to know just what happened at the huge old library all those years ago, when ten people died under extremely mysterious circumstances and the sole survivor driven completely insane. No one but the original investigators ever got a good look at the bodies, and they aren't talking. And the only thing the survivor ever says coherently is "The shadows...Stay out of the shadows...Run! For God's sake, run!" But then again, there's supposed to be something very, very valuable locked inside that library...
"Phantasmagoria" (Big Finish Audio Productions, Peter Davison, 5th Doctor): Mathemeticians, architects, and professional gamblers seem to be disappearing. There's talk of ghostly wails on the streets at night, and all the activity, from ghostly noises to disappearances, seems to be centered around a prestigious gaming hell. Just who is the mysterious scientist calling himself "Dr. Valentine" anyway? He seems to be the last fellow the missing men played cards with before they disappeared...
"Whispers of Terror": Something very strange is going on at a local university, where a small group of scientists is studying sound waves and other sound-related phenomena. One of the scientists committed suicide recently, and for no apparent reason. Now one of the research team has gone mad, and the students say that strange whispers stalk the lab and the halls...(My solution for this is that the "suicide" was in fact a murder, and the dead man's ghost has been trapped in sound waves and is now seeking vengeance by driving his murderers mad, along with anyone else who gets in his way...This is fairly close to the original plot, though the sound equipment was higher tech and it all took place on a different planet.
)"The Spectre of Lanyon Moor": A village on the lonely Cornish moors is being stalked by strange happenings. A partially eaten corpse has turned up, and local legends say that the ancient fogou (Celtic tunnels) is where a faerie prince lies imprisoned, seething with a thirst for vengeance against his brother, who betrayed him long ago. Are the recent bouts of deaths and madness related to this, or is there a more down-to-earth explanation to be found in the strange baronet of Penhallow Hall, who seems to be hauling in a lot of strange equipment for his mysterious 'experiments'....?
That's all for now, though there is certainly more to come as inspiration (and time to listen/watch/read) comes to me.
And please, if anyone else has adaptations of their own, do share!!
The PC's are hired by the artist to hunt down the 'demons' haunting his dreams...
