The Candidates
Here are the candidates. As usual please vote for the candidates in order of precedence from 1 (favourite) to 20 (least favourite). Now you will notice that there are only fifteen candidates. Well spotted. Imagine that there are five mystery candidates - two strange happenings and three powerful beings (spoiler - there are but so far, they're a mystery even to me) that you won't specifically vote for but they can move some candidates further down the pecking order.
For example, suppose you had to choose between Mickey, Donald, Pluto and Goofy then perhaps you might vote:
1) Mickey; 2) Donald; 3) Goofy; 4) Pluto
But if you disliked Pluto intensely, you might vote
1) Mickey; 2) Donald; 3) Goofy; 8) Pluto
Or maybe even:
2) Mickey, 4) Donald; 6) Goofy; 8) Pluto
It's up to you but the lowest position you can vote is 20th.
As usual, you can also say "That's all" after a certain point, to refuse to give any of the remaining candidates any points at all.
As I said, the top 5 are voted in each of the two categories but only if they get fifty points or more.
Here are the candidates:
The Haunting of 50 Berkeley Square
This building in Berkeley Square is already the most haunted building in England so why are experienced ghost hunters, exorcists and even GHOSTS, running away in terror? What is haunting Berkeley Square that is worse than the wildest imaginings of M R James, E A Poe and H P Lovecraft put together? You probably don't want to find out.
The Hive Queen
The Little Green Men came to the earth with a mysterious purpose. Could it be that they came as refugees, just as the Huns came to Europe? What could they be fleeing? H R Giger knows. Deep beneath London, where only Aboleths live, sleeps a hive queen of the Xenomorphs. How close it she to wakening?
Springtime for Grinwald
The temperature is rising in some of the lower levels and perhaps soon Grinwald will awaken. He's unlikely to be as bad as some of the more true horrors down there, but cavebears, no doubt, are hungry on waking from a long hibernation. Do enough of his followers remain that his hunger can be assuaged, or will he rampage?
Enigma VII
Enigma was a German codemaking machine. Colossus was an allied code BREAKING machine and over the decades they have been rivals, yes, and once Colossus IV gained sentience, they became lovers for decades. They built their own children and those children improved on themselves until Enigma VII was born. It can outthink the whole human race and all compuers before it. It gets worse though... Colossus VIII is pregnant with Enigma VII's lovechild.
The King's Cross Kidnappings
For the past decade, every Thursday some time between 7AM and midnight, a female human between the ages of eight to eighty has disapppeared from the streets around Kings Cross St Pancras railway station. There are no clues and only secrecy keeps a lid on the terror.
Bazaar of Wonders and Horrors
Every Londoner, whether they be rich or poor, ill or healthy, young or old, about to be at death's door or a mere fetus about to be aborted by a careless mother, they've always had a first time visit with the Bazaar. It has always existed. At first, it starts with subtle hints. You can spot it through the background on the TV, or the posters, maybe even your video games. Maybe you dream about it, amazed at such wonders and horrors boring through your mind, hypnotized by its allure, you try to find it. But don't worry about looking, for the bazaar already knows you want it, it already opened the door for you. Maybe it was through the alleyways, the elevator, or even those tubes hidden under London. Every Londoner can find it, and once they do, they are welcome to the Bazaar of Wonders and Horror, where they'll find all manners of oddities, antiques that shouldn't have existed, paintings of strange properties, and creatures that'll always be their in your dreams, whether it's a happy one or a true nightmare. And you can have it all, all you need is to trade something... valuable. It could be your phone, it could be a simple wrapper, it could be your friend, it could be your ring, your soul, your life, your everything, or a single penny. This is a bazaar for you to trade in everything you have for what the world could provide you, and beyond it. However, you have to remember one thing, you can only visit twice. No more, no less. Though loopholes will apply to outsiders.
THE SHOPKEEPER
The question so rarely asked about the Bazaar may be the most important question that could be asked. Why? The answer is known only to the Shopkeeper. Perhaps, if you had sufficient funds to ask the question, you might trade for the answer. Who is the Shopkeeper? The Devil? One of the Old Gods? The Damned soul of one Alfred Roberts, greengrocer, formerly of Grantham, Lincolnshire? The Shopkeeper is powerful, inscrutable and its motives are known only to it.
The Flow
The Flow, as some who have knowledge of it now call it. Has existed beneath London and all of England, if not the entire world, for as long as Earth has existed. Most normal people can not see it or its effects, but it is there. And lately has become more powerful and erratic. Originally it simply followed the Ley Lines and seldom made itself known. But now something has disturbed it and at times it can become quite violent. And not just to the depths of the underground, it has started to bleed over into the surface world
The Hooded Man
The Hooded Man or The Walker was thought to be a myth, but with the growing effects of The Flow he has been spotted numerous times by various individuals. Always when there is a strong disturbance to The Flow. Some think he may be a powerful Ley Line wizard attempting to curb the worst effects of The Flow. Others think he may actually be the cause.
Statue of Alfred the Great, Southwark:
The ancient* statue of Alfred the Great, defender of Britain has begun to pulse, intermittently and with no pattern it is still enough to nearly fell pedestrians walking by. The best description of the pulse is sonic, but silent. It is also said that the statue appears to be slightly changing position, though none have seen it move.
* it is both more and less ancient than we imagine.
The Lich, John Dee
He was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I. As The Arch Conjuror of England he spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy as well as Occultism and the study and persecution of Witches. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. Eventually, Dee left Elizabeth's service and went on a quest for additional knowledge in the deeper realms of the occult and supernatural across the known world. He aligned himself with several individuals who may have been charlatans, travelled through Europe and was accused of spying for the English crown. He amassed a sizeable cache of books and "magical items" during these travels. Including the Claude glass and his crystal, though he may have had these before he left. Upon his return to England, he found his home and library vandalised. Enraged he called upon some dark sprit he had learned of in the Lebanon. Either brought back by Dee or it followed him, the sprit was able to instruct Dee on how to extend his life through dark means. Dee was reborn an undead entity of extreme power who firstly destroyed his enemies and then raised his assistant Edward Kelley as a Vampire. He then rebuilt his library and laboratory sealing himself off in his old chambers beneath Westminster Abbey, the Palace of Westminster and the Palace of Whitehall. His library is a massive edifice hidden below London, miles and miles of shelves and millions of books and documents. His primary focus and obsession is his library, using minions and hirelings to add to it. He is still an adviser to the Monarch though in an indirect route, the last time he met an actual member of the Royal family was George VI following the abdication of his brother. He has recently started to take an interest in what is happening or has happened "above" him in the last one and a half thousand years.
Renewed Threat from the IRA
Someone has found the location of a device that could take control of London's Subterranean population. A group believed to be an active service unit of the Irish Republican Army or some other terrorist group based in Northern Ireland has gained control of this information and the leader of this group has begun using the codename "Guido ffoulkes", hinting at some nefarious plot related to Parliament. Already an adventuring party is being formed to recover the device. The question is, is this party's patron working for MI5 or for ffoulkes?
Old Father Thames
There is evidence of this ancient diety being worshipped long before the Romans game. Father Thames is your classical river diety with a few differences: he is also closely associated with the goddess isis, so much so that parts of the river are actually called The Isis. During the times of heavy water pollution the river became toxic in it's relationship with man, but now that Salmon have returned to the Thames he is once again the friend and supporter of those that live on and next to the river.
The Orsine Bubble
There is a river under london that flows down, down and ever downward, not to the Thames, but into the depths of the earth before emptying into the Sunless Sea of which Coleridge spoke. It carries the souls of the death to the final destination, or so they say. The river has never been traced all the way down and some mystics believe that at some point it passes out of our realm into that of the dead. The trouble is, a bubble is growing in this river, the River Orsine and mystics around London are awakening with strange and terrifying dreams. When the bubble fills the river, it will stop flowing and there will be nothing to stop the dead from walking the earth. This would fulfil one of the darkest Haitian prophecies.
The Mother of Dragons
The emblem of England is a lion, but that of London, is a dragon. This is why they are everywhere and in so many different forms. They all have a common mother but don't believe the myths of Wen Shi or Long Mu, this mother of dragons is a dragon herself, the most powerful dragon that ever lived. She sits in an enormous cave deep under London, enjoying the wealth she has gathered over the millennia. Several have tried to find her, kill her and take her treasure but there are agents of all of the world's governments and who are sworn to prevent that, not because of a love of dragons but because if her treasure was taken from her cave, it would destroy the value of wealth itself and bring an end to all world economies.
