The World

History

In this alternative version of Britain, the UK did not enter into an agreement with America to assist in the rebuilding of the country post WWII, leaving the British peoples to repair the damage from the Blitz and reduced imports as best it could. Poverty was common, particularly in the north, rationing continued with no sign of stopping, and railways, roads and shipyards struggled to function. Fear slowly increased of another war on the horizon; tensions were rising between America and the Soviets, with Britain stuck in the middle.

Then in 1948, Prime Minister Atlee announced an alternative donor, who would henceforth be providing the country with funding and raw materials to begin rebuilding its infrastructure. A surprising proclamation, but surprise turned to panic when the citizens of England, Scotland and Wales awoke the next morning to discover an impenetrable, opaque barrier surrounding the main island of the United Kingdom, cutting off all contact with, and travel to, the outside world.

Public panic ensued, and after a run on the Houses of Parliament the government was forced to announce that said donor was an entity from another world, who had entered into a deal with UK. Magic, it seemed, existed, and would henceforth be used for the good of the British peoples. ‘The Pact’ had been sealed.

A prolonged period of turbulence ensued that became known as the ‘Teething Troubles’ as the citizens of Britain struggled to adjust to this new normal. Rumors swirled of ghost sightings, devils, and other supernatural entities, but one thing was quickly confirmed; magic truly was something humans could now access and use. Research into the occult, previously the domain of quacks and eccentrics, was now a prominent area of study - and a source of previously unknown power.

Along with study came knowledge and security; worlds alongside our own existed, and contained denizens that could be communicated with, traded with, and for some, worshipped. Some of these denizens chose to enter the UK and become citizens. As the decades passed an equilibrium, uneasy, uncertain, but present and peaceful, was found.

It is now 1970, and in the last few years this equilibrium has become threatened. Magic has become increasingly restricted, and magic performed by non-registered practitioners is illegal. The number of Incursions, where other worlds pierce the Veil and spew forth creatures and magics that threaten life and property, have begun to increase beyond the ability of government agencies to respond. Requests have been sent out by the Ministry to the cities hit hardest, for community minded citizens to join the Citizens Defense Initiative, to aid in the protection of their homes, and perhaps, in finding the source of the increased Incursions.

Cambridge has been hit especially hard by recent events. Like most major cities, magic has become commonplace, and the city hosts a thriving community of devils in its colleges and businesses. University scholars study the Veil, occultists perform rituals atop alleged ley lines and bind troublesome spirits, but now ‘Magical Exclusion Zones’ appear and disappear weekly, some farcical, some deadly.

The patrons of the Basilica de San Cerveza, bar and occult hot spot, have decided to answer the Ministry’s call, and form the Cambridge Branch of the CDI. You are one of the people who have elected to assist, to support your fellow citizens when the Veil has been pierced, and to try and discover the source of the Incursions. And now that it has official permission to dabble in the occult, the bar has announced the launch of its “murder mystery night”...

Outworlds & Incursions

Outworlds are other realms that contain non-human entities, and operate using their own sets of physical laws. Outworlds are separated from each other, and from earth, via the Veil, and crossing between them physically is extremely difficult.

It is unknown how many Outworlds exist, waiting to be contacted, but two are widely known; the Outworld that hosts the Minister, and the Bureaucracy of Hell, which willingly made contact during the Teething Troubles.

Incursions occur when the Veil between worlds fractures, and the worlds begin to leak into each other. This can manifest in many ways; the unexpected arrival of occult entities, strange magical effects, or other unnatural phenomena. It is currently near-impossible to predict where incursions will take place, and the threat level of an incursion can be anything from ‘mild inconvenience’ to ‘zone of inevitable death’. Equally, the length of an incursion can be anything from a few minutes to several months, suddenly closing as quickly as they opened, and leaving anything that had crossed over trapped.

Whilst incursions have occurred since the Pact was formed, they were typically rare or small in scale, easy enough for the Government to keep on top of. This is no longer the case, where the number of incursions, and their severity, has increased steadily over the past two years.

Technology & Magic

With the discovery of magic, most technological innovations took a backseat, particularly in warfare; ranged weapons and gunpowder are no longer used, replaced by long range spellcasting. As such, most weapons are melee; swords, spears, axes, with some returning to shields for defense. Further complicating matters of technology, the lack of imports has meant gunpowder itself is near-impossible to come by.

However, magic has also changed the world in other ways.

Tales of deals, both productive and unfortunate, made with occult entities are as old as the world, only now they are more than stories. In 1951, after consultation with the Minister and the newly arrived Queen of Hell, the system of occult deals was codified. Now, Occult practitioners commonly carry Writs, detailing the value of the items or services being offered, which can be traded with others and ultimately used to form binding contracts. Despite attempts by special interest groups to form laws outlining what can and cannot be traded, these have not yet gained traction, and newspapers thrive on stories of those who have sold their immortal souls unwisely.

Similarly, encounters and communication with outworld entities has revealed that rituals are a highly effective way of creating long term magical effects - if done correctly. By applying magically empowered runes in the correct order, consistent effects to empower individuals and objects can be created - whilst research is still in its infancy, and is restricted via Ministry oversight, work is ongoing to expand the effects that can be created via the ritual system.

‘Out of Place Artefacts’, or OOPAs, were first discovered (supposedly) in 1949 when Alice Kilton of York discovered that her grandmother’s tea set would shoot boiling jets of tea whenever she used the wrong silverware. Subsequent investigation discovered that not only had her teapot had become haunted by the spirit of her fastidious mother, but, more interestingly, that the ‘core’, her mother’s spirit, could be removed from the tea-set, and placed in other items for different, if still fiery, effects. Many subsequent artefacts were discovered, and moving ‘cores’ from one housing to another to modify the core’s effects into something more useful is now a specialist trade.

And finally, Astral Projection, an art that is less definitive, and more dangerous. Certain individuals can release their minds into the Astral Plane, divorced from their bodies, over which they can travel great distances, and sometimes in even stranger ways. Via this method it is possible to view events from afar, though it is only possible to envision events involving sufficient magical resonance. As such, it is typically used as a scouting tool for incursions, to find magical artefacts, or where magical crime is suspected.

Frogsimile Machines

In 1964 newly minted cryptobiologist Stephen Erwinne recorded an encounter with a highly intelligent species of frog that appeared able to communicate with other members of its species regardless of physical distance.

Further investigation indicated that they communicated across the Astral Plane. Together with an occult technology conglomerate, a subspecies of frog was subsequently bred that could convert written messages into ‘astral communication’, forming a robust communication network. This network is still in use today, and is referred to as the ‘Frogsimile Network’. They are simple to care for and thus widely available - the Basilica has one available for patrons to use.