The Black Veil

This is a dark fantasy/action-ish RPG that takes place sometime during the 1700's (=no modern technology), and set in England. The plot is pretty open, so you all can really do what you want with it, but the only guideline to keep the story on track with is: Strange creatures whose origins are unknown have been murdering innocent people all over Europe, and several groups of trained hunters and assasins have been hired to find and kill them. This RPG is set around the group stationed in England. There is no set list of characters, but you can only be a certain type of character, and there is a limit to how many characters can join, as it gets confusing trying to keep up with thirty different characters. There should be no more than five characters in the group, and we'll need several imaginative people to play these mysterious murderers as well (no more than five please). As far as you personal characters appearance, feel free to use your imagination, and the only particular way the group members should dress is that they must have a black veil covering their face or tied around their neck.


My Character:

Name: Alexandria
Gender: Female
Age: Eighteen
Hair colour/length: Black and Chest Length
Eye colour: Sapphire Blue
Skin colour: Ivory
Personality: Tough and strong willed, and very stubborn. She can be kind and compassionate, but rarely shows it.
Appearance: About 5'7''. Wearing a black hat (think Van Helsing's) with a black veil covering her face, and a long black coat with black leather boots.


The eerie chill of night descended on the cold, deserted network of cobblestone pathways lining decaying houses and crumbling brick buildings that made up a tiny corner of London. A young woman hunched at the end of one such street looked up suddenly as a rattling sound echoed through the night. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized it was just a shutter banging against a broken window, and looked back down at the corpse lying akwardly in a ditch brfore her.
The body appeared to be a young girl, no more than ten or twelve at most. A restrained greif filled the woman's eyes. What kind of monster would do this to a child? She thought bitterly, running a gloved hand along the ragged wounds covering the girl's chest and arms. But now was not the time for such thoughts. She shook her head to clear her mind and directed her attention to the task at hand: Finding this murderer. The kill had occured less than an hour ago, and whatever had done it couldn't have gotten far. She adjusted the black veil concealing her pale, angular face and stood stiffly.
"Where are you?" she asked the darkness. As if in answer, a sharp bang sounded in the distance. The woman wheeled around and drew a silver pistol from the depths of her black wool coat. Narrowing her sapphire blue eyes, she crept noislessly through a narrow alley and into the next street. The bang echoed through the empty street again, this time just yards away from where the woman stood. She tiptoed toward a small home and pressed her back against the cool stone wall. She took a silent breath and prepared to face whatever lurked in the shadows beyond the wall. The bang sounded again and she leaped out of her hiding place, gun raised and ready to fire.

Name: Aethel
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Hair colour/length: Dark, short and uneven
Eye colour: Blue
Skin colour: Tan
Personality: Gets along fine with most, tends to do her own thing and only follows her own orders. Can be unpredictable.
Appearance: Average height, black veil around her neck, loose trousers/blouse.

*

What a stink. Stepping over the corpse, Aethel covered her nose. Sound of bangs had interupted her inspection of the man—stripped of his shirt and shoes.

She heard footsteps, and then a woman appeared, holding a gun.

"It wasn't me," she said.

Aethel breathed a sigh of relief when she regognized the woman. "Oh, it's just you Alexandria. Were you making that noise?"

Alex lowered her pistol, smiling wyrly. "No, I thought you were the creature." she cast a glance at the body Aethel had been examining. "So it got another one, eh?"

Aethel nodded sadly, drawing her own pistol, "And it's fresh, whatever did it is still around here. It should be easier to bring down with the two of us. I hope."

The noise sounded in the distance again, now faint and far to their right.

"It's moving." Alexandria whispered.

In a wordless agreement, the two women stepped carefully over the body and around the corner of the home into the next street. A thick fog had descended over the street, obscuring their vision. They felt their way toward the next line of houses and stopped, listening intently for anything that could hint the creature's position. For over a minute they heard nothing. Then came a curious slapping sound, followed by a faint rustling. Alex and Aethel couldn't discern exactly where the source came from, but it was growing closer by the second.

I'm wondering why a female character is wearing a trenchcoat in the 1700's?
Name: Cassandra (Cassie)
Sex: Female
Age: Sixteen
Hair color/length: golden blonde, shoulder-length
Eye color: Blazing green (think emerald)
Skin color: Tan
Personality: caring, compassionate, but tough beneath it, shows her mean streak to those who deserve it, cannot stand cruelty, will hapily feed stray dogs, but abhors pidgeons, and eats meat. usually very bubbly, almost annoyingly so.
Appearance: 5'8" Her veil is attached by a headband of the same color, even the thickest of veils can't hide the sparkle of her eyes, she dresses in the style of the period, so as not to attract attention, but avoids overly tight corsets, wears sensible shoes, good for running, hidden under her long skirts. uses the corset and other unexpected palces to hide various weapons, pistol in the corset, knives in the headband and up the sleeves, etc.

Cassie froze, silent, not daring to peer any further aroound the corner. She eased a hand up to the neckline of her dress, slid a pistol from its hiding place. Poking its nose ever-so-carefully in front of her, she continued in her search of...the thing. Whatever it was. She listened closely, and heard an odd snuffling noise. Hoping she'd caught it, she whipped around the corner, fast as lightening, fierce as a tiger, ready to face the-
Dog. Dammit. Sighing, she walked towards it with a crust of bread in her hand, the poor thing looked half-starved. What was that thing it was sniffing? She walked more cautiously now, looking around her for signs of an attacker.
The sun was beginning to come up now, as the light reached tentatively over the city, she could clearly see the body of a small boy, practically ripped to shreds. Horror overtook her for a moment, and she closed her eyes in prayer for a moment.
Then she snapped out of it, tossing the crust of bread for the dog to fetch, and holding her pistol in front of her once more. She heard footsteps, turned, and dropped her arms in relief.
"Alex, Aethel," she said, her voice betraying none of her grief. "I found another one."

"This one smells worse than the others," Aethel said.

Cassie and Alex stared at her.

"I'm not being rude, all right? I just—"

Scraping of metal grinding interupted her. The three women stood close to the wall. Aethel, being the eldest, thought it was up to her to check past the corner but Cassie was ahead of her.

"I don't see anything,"

"Open your eyes," Aethel said.

"I still don't see anything. It could be a dog."

Aethel snorted. "Yeah?"

"Sun's up. I heard there Things don't like sunlight," Alex said.

(I'm interested...but I'm just going to watch this for a little while.)

I changed the maximum number of characters to ten, just so you know. And thanks for catching the trenchcoat thing chocolatechipmuffin, it slipped my mind that they didn't have those at that time.

"Alex is right," Cassie agreed, "We lost our chance. This thing, or things, never stays in one place for more than a night. We can ask some of the local residents to search the abandoned buildings, but I doubt they'll find anything. Our best hope is to get back to headquarters and see if they've been able to track it's path."

Alexandria leaned against the wall and wiped sweat from her forehead. "We may at least get some idea of where it'll strike next." She didn't like the idea, and from the looks on Aethel's and Cassie's faces they didn't either, but it was their best bet.
* * *

Some time that afternoon, Alex was leaning over a small oak table at headquarters, staring intently at a map of England. A tiny red dot marked every city the mysterious killers had murdered in, with the date of the kill beside it. The dates seemed to have no pattern, but what frustrated Alex even more was that the murders occured often over a hundred miles apart from day to day, an imossible journey to make in a matter of hours, even in the fastest horse-drawn carrige. With an exasperated sigh, Alex pushed her chair out violently and began pacing the room, her black leather boots clicking rythmically against the brick floor.

The door opened and Aethel strode in. "No luck?" she asked, bending over the map. Alex didn't answer, and continued to pace the room. "I didn't think so. Cassie and I helped search the neighborhood, nothing there either."

Alexandria groaned and sunk into an over-stuffed leather chair near the far wall. "There has to be some kind of pattern. There just has to be."

Aethel was the one pacing now, "Maybe that's the genius of it, that ther is no pattern." She accidently knocked into the desk, scattering papers across the floor. "Sorry," she gasped, clutching her hip.

"It's fine," Alex replied, bending down to pick up the papers. She gathered them together quickly and set them back on the table. She was about to turn away, but something caught her eye, and she carefully lifted a constellation chart off the top of the stack. Her eyes flitted first to the chart, then the map several times before handing it to Aethel. "What does those dots look like to you, Aethel?"

Aethel studied the chart in comparison to the map for a few seconds, then pointed to a diagram of Orion. "That," she said slowly, "But it's not complete. You think these things are deciding the locations of their murders by picking a constellation and following it's pattern?"

Alex bit her lower lip. "I don't know, but it's all we've got. Maybe we can get some idea of where the next murder will occur." She dipped a quill in a jar of ink and began connecting the red dots according to the constellation. When she came to the last dot, she stopped and looked back to the chart. After nearly a minute, she lowered the quill to the map and drew a line, than another over it to form an x. She leaned back and examined the map for a moment, then picked it up and pushed her chair back so suddenly it fell over, and headed toward the door.

Aethel, who had been standing at the table watching curiously, followed her out. "Where are you going?" she called after her.

"To get Cassie," Alex replied breathlessly, "I know where they'll be tonight."

"What?" Cassie was shocked. "No, it can't be!
"It is, Cassie, I checked it several times. I know it's horrible, but that's the way it is. This is where they will be."
Cassie sank weakly into a chair, narrowly avoiding the puppy who'd been napping there. She knew Alex was right, but it was hard to admit that horrible things were coming to her hometown. She wondered who it might be, images of her family and friends running through her head.
"We have to leave. Now." She grabbed her coat, shoved a pistol down her shirt, and strapped on various knives. Not a one of them made an outline on her clothes, and Cassie made no noise while walking.
Chuckling, the two older girls followed her out to their waiting carriage.

Staring listlessly out the window of the carriage, Cassie pondered what Alex had told her. How could those things move so fast? Getting from one place to another so quickly-it was mind-boggling. And mimicking the position of a constellation was just too wierd for words. Especially Orion, the Hunter. She shivered. It sounded like the work of a cult. They'd delt with cults before, and nothing had ever gotten to her quite like the Cult of the Dead Cockroach.
Thinking about cults and hunters, she remembered a newspaper article from years ago. It was about a man who'd won some sort of award for...what was it? He was a hunter, but what was his award for? She remembered the picture-more like a doodle, really, the newspaper artist wasn't a very talented one-a man in a long black cloak, hunched over, his backbone pointing up in an unnatural way. His eyes had shown up in the picture, but everything else was shadowed by the hood. He'd said something odd, too, what was it?
Cassie smacked her forehead against the window, trying to remember.
"Cassie!" Aethel grabbed her shoulders, holding her head away from the window.
"Quit! I'm trying to remember!" Aethel released her, but watched her closley for signs of self-destruction.
Cassie smacked her forehead again, and remembered what the award was for. There'd been some kind of tracking competition, they'd tied a red flag to the leg of an animal, though she couldn't remember what kind. It was supposed to take all day, the animal had a three-hour head start before the dogs were given a cloth with the animal's scent on it.
The man had found the animal-a rabbit, perhaps-in less than an hour. With no dogs.
And then he'd been interviewed, and he'd said
"We are the Hunters of the unworthy."

(got room for one more? I love roleplaying)

Name: Elizabeth, who is called Lissie though she doesn't really like it
Age: somewhere between thirteen and sixteen (she isn't sure herself)
Hair color/length: short raven-black locks, chin length, she tucks it up into a hat so she appears to be male a lot of the time.
Eye color: gray (it changes sometimes from light gray to dark gray)
Skin color: rather pale, a little sickly looking
Personality: quiet, observant, thoughtful, and a little mysterious. Prefers to roam alone. Always willing to help a friend. Motives for joining the (group) are unknown to all but the head. Her only skittish side is being in a girl-boy relationship. Has a talent for being silent, swift and able to fade easily into a background.
Appearance: 4'9 in height, pale, wears male style of the period to blend in easily and move around without the bustles of skirts. Uses daggers hidden in multiple places and a bow and arrow, sometimes disguising herself as a lad going hunting.


They stopped at a secret safehouse. It appeared to be deserted, though a kitten mewed in the corner of the darkened room, only lit by Cassie's lantern. A glazed expression was plastered on her face as Alex walked around, shooting shrewd glances.
"Yes. Empty. Of traps or people." Aethel plopped down on a sofa and moved some stray hair away from her forehead. Cassie stared at the kitten, which had come over to her to rub up against her skirt. Light flooded the room as Alex lit a small stove. Cassie automatically went over to the windows and lowered a reed curtain to block the light. It wouldn't do to have visitors.

"Are you quite well, Cassandra?" said a voice, suddenly from the darkest corner of the room. Cassie involuntarily jumped.

"Lissie, you really have got to stop doing that." sighed Aethel as Elizabeth emerged from a corner of the room, gray eyes peering out from under a hat. "How long have you been there?"

"Longer then you have. Don't call me Lissie." Elizabeth's soft alto voice seemed a little hoarse tonight. Alex noticed that.

"Sore throat?" she asked. Elizabeth turned her strange gaze on Alex. Her eyes were gray, though they changed from light to dark as often as the day itself.

"Rather. Some locals were rather suspicious of my hanging around a pub, and I had to keep my voice from giving away my position. And you still have not answered my question."

"So what are you doing here, anyway?" asked Cassie, accepting a cup of coffee from Alex.

"I was to give you this and say that the next slaughter has already occurred." Elizabeth held out a sealed scroll. [/b]

Cassie choked on the coffe, remembering as the bitter drink burned her throat that she'd never liked it anyway. Her eyes watered, and she gasped for air, eyes bulging like a fish.
Aethel and Alex looked mildly alarmed, coming over to offer help, but Lissie fell off her chair, laughing like a maniac. Cassie recovered, and restrained herself, with difficulty, from pouring the coffee over Lissie's head.
"Twerp," she muttered to herself. Then, she remembered why she'd choked.
"It's happened? Where? Who?" An image of her sister, mutilated like the others had been, came to her head.
"Read the scroll," Lissie said, rolling her strange eyes. Cassie glared-What had Lissie acting so oddly? They usually got along perfectly-and looked for the scroll. Aethel was scanning it, eyes blurred by the speed of her reading.
"It's not your family, Cassie. Someone named...Andrew...Lissie, who wrote this? it's barely legible. Andrew...Tailor! Tailor."
Cassie swallowed hard. The schoolteacher. Her borthers had disliked him, calling him a ladies' man. He certainly was, she remembered, always tipping his hat, bowing low, and he was a great dancer.
"We have to go see. Alex, bring your star-charts." Cassie left without another word, pulling out the ever-present pistol and cockingit, though she knew she wouldn't run into the murderer. She was actually more worried about her father seeing her with a gun.

They arrived at the scene of the murder, and looked around for differences. Alex found one right away.
"A message. In blood." All four women wrinkled their noses, even though they were used to such atrosities.
"It's so sloppy!"
"Aethel, have you ever tried writing with your finger? In someone else's blood? I doubt your handwriting would be very neat," Cassie said, bending to examine the writing.
"That first line says 'This is not,'" Lissie informed them, squinting in the light of the lantern.
"The second line says...the end. 'This is not the end.'" Cassie was afraid, but she swallowed it.
"Let's go. We have work to do."

"I can cover more ground on my own," Aethel said. She smoothed her hands, looking in all directions.

"No," Alex said.

"Look, I'm the eldest, I've been doing my job long before you lot came along. We split up for half an hour or so and report back our findings. If we come across anything we whistle, like the old way." She demonstrated.

Alex and Cassie followed suit. Only Elizabeth remained silent.

"Lis—Elizabeth?"

The girl frowned and tried to whistle. "I can't do it,"

"Go along with Cassie."

The group split. Aethel headed for the woodland area just behind the safehouse. She had been meaning to be alone for a while, to think, to work the way she had always done before—alone.

She could hear Cassie and Elizabeth's voices, but ignored it to concentrate on the rocky ground before her. Steading her pace, she strode towards the wood, counting numbers and trying to get the image of blood out of her head.

*

"I didn't mean to laugh before, all right?" Elizabeth tugged Cassie's arm.

"Forget it. This Thing is what we should be worrying about."

They walked in silence, observing the darkening environment. Lanterns in the distance glowed, flickering circles of light that offered the warmth they were not feeling.

"I've heard stories about this place. They say it isn't safe to walk alone, not here."

"I'm surprised Aethel or Alex didn't say any—"

A scream cut through the air.

Elizabeth spun around, drawing an arrow and nocking it in the blink of an eye.

"Cassandra." she hissed, eyes narrowing. "Blow out that blasted lantern. It's giving us away."

"Not all of us are part-cat, you know." Elizabeth almost jumped.

"You think... I'm part cat? " she asked, not taking her eyes away from the deep darkness the scream had echoed from.
Cassie rolled her eyes.
"No. I was just commenting on the fact you can see almost perfectly in darkne-" Elizabeth clapped a hand over Cassie's mouth and pulled her with surprising strength for such a little girl over to a tree, making motions to climb it. She herself scrambled up it with practiced agility, and offered a hand to Cassie, who was having a hard time with her skirt.
"....SKIRTS." hissed Cassie as she somehow made it to the branch and pulled out a gun. Elizabeth smiled a tiny smile.
"You think we're going to stay put, don't you?" Cassie blanched at her. "No. We've got to keep going."

"But-" Cassie said, getting a little frustrated. "What about the ground?" Elizabeth stared at her, with one eyebrow raised. Cassie groaned.

"The ground is where the people were attacked from. UNDERground." she added.

"How would you know?"
"The ground vibrated very faintly before the scream happened. You didn't notice?"

"Let's just go." she was going to go back to Alex, demand to be paired with someone else and then go kick arse. Elizabeth nodded and began to run over the branches, the trees so close together Cassie didn't have to jump.
Suddenly, she raised a hand to halt. Cassie almost fell onto Elizabeth, who was almost a foot shorter then herself.
"We're too late." she breathed, gray eyes taking in the scene below them.

Aethel stepped over fallen trees. She bent, examining scratches in the bark, using her own fingers to see how deep the cuts were.

"Sharp claws," she said.

Moving off, she continued until a faint scream disturbed her peace. I said to whistle, she thought, heading back quickly.

Leaves rustled behind her, she heard heavy breathing and turned to look back. She rammed against a thick tree.

Aethel groaned. My head.

*

"Too late," Cassie echoed.

A child lay on the ground, blood trickling from gushes and eyes frozen, staring upwards.

Alex ran towards them. "What happened?"

The two girls pointed to the dead child.

"Another? Where is Aethel? She should be here!"

"We don't know," Elizabeth said. "You should try whistling."

Suddenly, Elizabeth lay flat against the ground with her ear against it.

"They're moving.... south-southeast, at an incredible speed."

"How deep?" asked Alex, doing likewise.
"A meter through two. Get out the map." Cassie quickly unrolled a map, and Elizabeth stared at it, eyes taking in the possible towns. Alex marked the site of the child's death.
"Ladies...I think we've started a new constellation." Cassie swore under her breath.

"I'm going to go look for Aethel." Elizabeth slipped beyond the reach of lantern-light before Alex could stop her.

"If anyone can fly solo through here, it's Lissie." sighed Alex, brushing some stray hair behind her ear and studying the map. "Well...there's no way to predict where they're going to strike next. Underground." she wrinkled her brow, making some quick calculations. "That changes the entire context."
"How so?" asked Cassie. "And next time we have to do pairs, I do not want to get stuck with Lissie." Alex shrugged.

"Not everybody is good with people. Some feel very awkward and act in odd ways to cover it. Besides that, Lissie's been through a lot. Fine. You stay with me."
+
Elizabeth ran, light-footed, through the trees,wind whipping the locks of hair that had strayed from her hat.
Suddenly, she stopped. A strong scent had reached her nostrils. It wasn't blood, and it wasn't anything nice-smelling, either.
"Crap." thought Elizabeth, covering her nose with a gloved hand and casting wary looks around. "They're trying to block off senses of smell, so they can't be tracked by dogs." she made a quick calculation. "The source of the incense is in the east, and a wind is blowing it around. Next to that," she glanced up at the sky. "I can feel rain coming. Feels like a rainstorm. Have to find Aethel before that."

Disorientated, Aethel sat on a tree stump. She had been walking for ages, at least it seemed that way, and she was nowhere near the edge. The forest was thicker than she had thought.

She didn't want to whistle, it would show weakness, failure. Somewhere far off she heard a dog barking. "Yeah, yeah,"

Getting to her feet, Aethel trudged on, looking back several times for familiar territory.

*

Elizabeth was gaining speed, jumping easily over trees. She practiced what the others called 'whistling', a low sound escaped her lips.

"Bother this,"

She saw a dark figure sitting by a tree, humming to a song she did not know. "Aethel?"

"What took so long?"

She sighed. "Seems to me you're still alive!"