Things are speeding up now. The horrors, and heroics, start anew.

The Westminster Gazette,” 25 September.

A HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY.

The neighbourhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines as “The Kensington Horror,” or “The Stabbing Woman,” or “The Woman in Black.” During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a “bloofer lady.” It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighbourhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a “bloofer lady” had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favourite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the “bloofer lady” is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the “bloofer lady” should be the popular rôle at these al fresco performances. Our correspondent naïvely says that even Ellen Terry could not be so winningly attractive as some of these grubby-faced little children pretend—and even imagine themselves—to be.

There is, however, possibly a serious side to the question, for some of the children, indeed all who have been missed at night, have been slightly torn or wounded in the throat. The wounds seem such as might be made by a rat or a small dog, and although of not much importance individually, would tend to show that whatever animal inflicts them has a system or method of its own. The police of the division have been instructed to keep a sharp look-out for straying children, especially when very young, in and around Hampstead Heath, and for any stray dog which may be about.

“The Westminster Gazette,” 25 September.

Extra Special.

THE HAMPSTEAD HORROR.

ANOTHER CHILD INJURED.

The “Bloofer Lady.”

We have just received intelligence that another child, missed last night, was only discovered late in the morning under a furze bush at the Shooter’s Hill side of Hampstead Heath, which is, perhaps, less frequented than the other parts. It has the same tiny wound in the throat as has been noticed in other cases. It was terribly weak, and looked quite emaciated. It too, when partially restored, had the common story to tell of being lured away by the “bloofer lady.”

Telegram, Mrs. Harker to Van Helsing.

“25 September.—Come to-day by quarter-past ten train if you can catch it. Can see you any time you call.

“Wilhelmina Harker.”

MINA HARKER’S JOURNAL.

25 September.—I cannot help feeling terribly excited as the time draws near for the visit of Dr. Van Helsing, for somehow I expect that it will throw some light upon Jonathan’s sad experience; and as he attended poor dear Lucy in her last illness, he can tell me all about her. That is the reason of his coming; it is concerning Lucy and her sleep-walking, and not about Jonathan. Then I shall never know the real truth now! How silly I am. That awful journal gets hold of my imagination and tinges everything with something of its own colour. Of course it is about Lucy. That habit came back to the poor dear, and that awful night on the cliff must have made her ill. I had almost forgotten in my own affairs how ill she was afterwards. She must have told him of her sleep-walking adventure on the cliff, and that I knew all about it; and now he wants me to tell him what she knows, so that he may understand. I hope I did right in not saying anything of it to Mrs. Westenra; I should never forgive myself if any act of mine, were it even a negative one, brought harm on poor dear Lucy. I hope, too, Dr. Van Helsing will not blame me; I have had so much trouble and anxiety of late that I feel I cannot bear more just at present.

I suppose a cry does us all good at times—clears the air as other rain does. Perhaps it was reading the journal yesterday that upset me, and then Jonathan went away this morning to stay away from me a whole day and night, the first time we have been parted since our marriage. I do hope the dear fellow will take care of himself, and that nothing will occur to upset him. It is two o’clock, and the doctor will be here soon now. I shall say nothing of Jonathan’s journal unless he asks me. I am so glad I have type-written out my own journal, so that, in case he asks about Lucy, I can hand it to him; it will save much questioning.

 

Later.—He has come and gone. Oh, what a strange meeting, and how it all makes my head whirl round! I feel like one in a dream. Can it be all possible, or even a part of it? If I had not read Jonathan’s journal first, I should never have accepted even a possibility. Poor, poor, dear Jonathan! How he must have suffered. Please the good God, all this may not upset him again. I shall try to save him from it; but it may be even a consolation and a help to him—terrible though it be and awful in its consequences—to know for certain that his eyes and ears and brain did not deceive him, and that it is all true. It may be that it is the doubt which haunts him; that when the doubt is removed, no matter which—waking or dreaming—may prove the truth, he will be more satisfied and better able to bear the shock. Dr. Van Helsing must be a good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur’s friend and Dr. Seward’s, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after Lucy. I feel from having seen him that he is good and kind and of a noble nature. When he comes to-morrow I shall ask him about Jonathan; and then, please God, all this sorrow and anxiety may lead to a good end. I used to think I would like to practise interviewing; Jonathan’s friend on “The Exeter News” told him that memory was everything in such work—that you must be able to put down exactly almost every word spoken, even if you had to refine some of it afterwards. Here was a rare interview; I shall try to record it verbatim.

It was half-past two o’clock when the knock came. I took my courage à deux mains and waited. In a few minutes Mary opened the door, and announced “Dr. Van Helsing.”

I rose and bowed, and he came towards me; a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big, bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart; such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man’s moods. He said to me:—

“Mrs. Harker, is it not?” I bowed assent.

“That was Miss Mina Murray?” Again I assented.

“It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear child Lucy Westenra. Madam Mina, it is on account of the dead I come.”

“Sir,” I said, “you could have no better claim on me than that you were a friend and helper of Lucy Westenra.” And I held out my hand. He took it and said tenderly:—

“Oh, Madam Mina, I knew that the friend of that poor lily girl must be good, but I had yet to learn——” He finished his speech with a courtly bow. I asked him what it was that he wanted to see me about, so he at once began:—

“I have read your letters to Miss Lucy. Forgive me, but I had to begin to inquire somewhere, and there was none to ask. I know that you were with her at Whitby. She sometimes kept a diary—you need not look surprised, Madam Mina; it was begun after you had left, and was in imitation of you—and in that diary she traces by inference certain things to a sleep-walking in which she puts down that you saved her. In great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember.”

“I can tell you, I think, Dr. Van Helsing, all about it.”

“Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details? It is not always so with young ladies.”

“No, doctor, but I wrote it all down at the time. I can show it to you if you like.”

“Oh, Madam Mina, I will be grateful; you will do me much favour.” I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit—I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths—so I handed him the shorthand diary. He took it with a grateful bow, and said:—

“May I read it?”

“If you wish,” I answered as demurely as I could. He opened it, and for an instant his face fell. Then he stood up and bowed.

“Oh, you so clever woman!” he said. “I knew long that Mr. Jonathan was a man of much thankfulness; but see, his wife have all the good things. And will you not so much honour me and so help me as to read it for me? Alas! I know not the shorthand.” By this time my little joke was over, and I was almost ashamed; so I took the typewritten copy from my workbasket and handed it to him.

“Forgive me,” I said: “I could not help it; but I had been thinking that it was of dear Lucy that you wished to ask, and so that you might not have time to wait—not on my account, but because I know your time must be precious—I have written it out on the typewriter for you.”

He took it and his eyes glistened. “You are so good,” he said. “And may I read it now? I may want to ask you some things when I have read.”

“By all means,” I said, “read it over whilst I order lunch; and then you can ask me questions whilst we eat.” He bowed and settled himself in a chair with his back to the light, and became absorbed in the papers, whilst I went to see after lunch chiefly in order that he might not be disturbed. When I came back, I found him walking hurriedly up and down the room, his face all ablaze with excitement. He rushed up to me and took me by both hands.

“Oh, Madam Mina,” he said, “how can I say what I owe to you? This paper is as sunshine. It opens the gate to me. I am daze, I am dazzle, with so much light, and yet clouds roll in behind the light every time. But that you do not, cannot, comprehend. Oh, but I am grateful to you, you so clever woman. Madam”—he said this very solemnly—“if ever Abraham Van Helsing can do anything for you or yours, I trust you will let me know. It will be pleasure and delight if I may serve you as a friend; as a friend, but all I have ever learned, all I can ever do, shall be for you and those you love. There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights. You will have happy life and good life, and your husband will be blessed in you.”

“But, doctor, you praise me too much, and—and you do not know me.”

“Not know you—I, who am old, and who have studied all my life men and women; I, who have made my specialty the brain and all that belongs to him and all that follow from him! And I have read your diary that you have so goodly written for me, and which breathes out truth in every line. I, who have read your so sweet letter to poor Lucy of your marriage and your trust, not know you! Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that angels can read; and we men who wish to know have in us something of angels’ eyes. Your husband is noble nature, and you are noble too, for you trust, and trust cannot be where there is mean nature. And your husband—tell me of him. Is he quite well? Is all that fever gone, and is he strong and hearty?” I saw here an opening to ask him about Jonathan, so I said:—

“He was almost recovered, but he has been greatly upset by Mr. Hawkins’s death.” He interrupted:—

“Oh, yes, I know, I know. I have read your last two letters.” I went on:—

“I suppose this upset him, for when we were in town on Thursday last he had a sort of shock.”

“A shock, and after brain fever so soon! That was not good. What kind of a shock was it?”

“He thought he saw some one who recalled something terrible, something which led to his brain fever.” And here the whole thing seemed to overwhelm me in a rush. The pity for Jonathan, the horror which he experienced, the whole fearful mystery of his diary, and the fear that has been brooding over me ever since, all came in a tumult. I suppose I was hysterical, for I threw myself on my knees and held up my hands to him, and implored him to make my husband well again. He took my hands and raised me up, and made me sit on the sofa, and sat by me; he held my hand in his, and said to me with, oh, such infinite sweetness:—

“My life is a barren and lonely one, and so full of work that I have not had much time for friendships; but since I have been summoned to here by my friend John Seward I have known so many good people and seen such nobility that I feel more than ever—and it has grown with my advancing years—the loneliness of my life. Believe, me, then, that I come here full of respect for you, and you have given me hope—hope, not in what I am seeking of, but that there are good women still left to make life happy—good women, whose lives and whose truths may make good lesson for the children that are to be. I am glad, glad, that I may here be of some use to you; for if your husband suffer, he suffer within the range of my study and experience. I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can—all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one. Now you must eat. You are overwrought and perhaps over-anxious. Husband Jonathan would not like to see you so pale; and what he like not where he love, is not to his good. Therefore for his sake you must eat and smile. You have told me all about Lucy, and so now we shall not speak of it, lest it distress. I shall stay in Exeter to-night, for I want to think much over what you have told me, and when I have thought I will ask you questions, if I may. And then, too, you will tell me of husband Jonathan’s trouble so far as you can, but not yet. You must eat now; afterwards you shall tell me all.”

After lunch, when we went back to the drawing-room, he said to me:—

“And now tell me all about him.” When it came to speaking to this great learned man, I began to fear that he would think me a weak fool, and Jonathan a madman—that journal is all so strange—and I hesitated to go on. But he was so sweet and kind, and he had promised to help, and I trusted him, so I said:—

“Dr. Van Helsing, what I have to tell you is so queer that you must not laugh at me or at my husband. I have been since yesterday in a sort of fever of doubt; you must be kind to me, and not think me foolish that I have even half believed some very strange things.” He reassured me by his manner as well as his words when he said:—

“Oh, my dear, if you only know how strange is the matter regarding which I am here, it is you who would laugh. I have learned not to think little of any one’s belief, no matter how strange it be. I have tried to keep an open mind; and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane.”

“Thank you, thank you, a thousand times! You have taken a weight off my mind. If you will let me, I shall give you a paper to read. It is long, but I have typewritten it out. It will tell you my trouble and Jonathan’s. It is the copy of his journal when abroad, and all that happened. I dare not say anything of it; you will read for yourself and judge. And then when I see you, perhaps, you will be very kind and tell me what you think.”

“I promise,” he said as I gave him the papers; “I shall in the morning, so soon as I can, come to see you and your husband, if I may.”

“Jonathan will be here at half-past eleven, and you must come to lunch with us and see him then; you could catch the quick 3:34 train, which will leave you at Paddington before eight.” He was surprised at my knowledge of the trains off-hand, but he does not know that I have made up all the trains to and from Exeter, so that I may help Jonathan in case he is in a hurry.

So he took the papers with him and went away, and I sit here thinking—thinking I don’t know what.

Letter (by hand), Van Helsing to Mrs. Harker.

“25 September, 6 o’clock.

“Dear Madam Mina,—

“I have read your husband’s so wonderful diary. You may sleep without doubt. Strange and terrible as it is, it is true! I will pledge my life on it. It may be worse for others; but for him and you there is no dread. He is a noble fellow; and let me tell you from experience of men, that one who would do as he did in going down that wall and to that room—ay, and going a second time—is not one to be injured in permanence by a shock. His brain and his heart are all right; this I swear, before I have even seen him; so be at rest. I shall have much to ask him of other things. I am blessed that to-day I come to see you, for I have learn all at once so much that again I am dazzle—dazzle more than ever, and I must think.

“Yours the most faithful,
“Abraham Van Helsing.”

Letter, Mrs. Harker to Van Helsing.

“25 September, 6:30 p. m.

“My dear Dr. Van Helsing,—

“A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which has taken a great weight off my mind. And yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really in London! I fear to think. I have this moment, whilst writing, had a wire from Jonathan, saying that he leaves by the 6:25 to-night from Launceston and will be here at 10:18, so that I shall have no fear to-night. Will you, therefore, instead of lunching with us, please come to breakfast at eight o’clock, if this be not too early for you? You can get away, if you are in a hurry, by the 10:30 train, which will bring you to Paddington by 2:35. Do not answer this, as I shall take it that, if I do not hear, you will come to breakfast.

“Believe me,
“Your faithful and grateful friend,
“Mina Harker.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Lots going on.

The remark about Ellen Terry could be called an Easter Egg, or even "Fan-service." Terry was undoubtedly known to Stoker through their mutual connection with Henry Irving.  I could go on a lot more here, but that is better left to others. Back to the horrors.

These two newspaper clippings about the "Bloofer Lady" or Beautiful Lady, are important because, as we will discover, it is none other than Lucy herself preying on these children in something like a horrible reverse of the motherhood role. Lucy, who never got to be a mother, now feeds on small children.

Mina sends Van Helsing a telegram inviting him to come over to talk. In terms of words per impact to the story you could hardly find a better ratio than these. Save for of course "because I know."

This all leads to Mina's Journal and letters back and forth between Mina and Van Helsing, who now call each other "faithful and grateful friend(s)."

We learn a lot here. 

I do want to point out the Mina states that Sept. 22, the day Jonathan saw Dracula, was a Thursday. This puts the year as 1892.  I have gone back and forth on this year for a bit, but this a good confirmation. Though this could put is as early as 1887, another date I am fond of.  I will chat more about this tomorrow.

We get more evidence of how industrious Mina is. Not only is she a fast typist (on a clunky manual typewriter!), she also has the train schedules memorized, in case Jonathan might need to know when a train was arriving or leaving.  

This was quite the pivotable day in the lives of our hunters.

While I have been flirting with AD&D 2nd Ed and Realms for the last few months, it is time to dive in head first with the combination that defined Dungeons & Dragons for many in the early 90s. While I was away playing in the gothic-horror land of Ravenloft, most of the AD&D 2nd Edition fanbase was playing on Faerûn and in the Forgotten Realms, and this book was their entry point.

Forgotten Realms Adventures

1990. By Jeff Grubb and E Greenwood, cover art by Clyde Caldwell. Interior art by Stephen Fabian. Interior paintings by Clyde Caldwell, Ned Dameron, Jeff Easley, and Larry Elmore. Cartography by Dave "Diesel" LaForce. 148 pages.

This is a guide book not just to the Forgotten Realms but very specifically to the Forgotten Realms post "Time of Troubles" and to the AD&D 2nd Edition game. I want to delve into the Time of Troubles and discuss it not just in the Universe but how it was a very clever way to bridge the editions and rule changes.  However, I am not really qualified to do it any justice. I have not read the novels involved nor have I played the games, either tabletop or video games. But I can talk about what this book says, post Time of Troubles.

Before I get to the book proper, I want to discuss its position in terms of the "Adventures" hardcovers.

TSR's three main campaign worlds at the end of the 1980s were Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms. All got a special hardcover treatment that very much spanned the gap between 1st and 2nd Editions of AD&D.

Dragonlance featured ideas unique Krynn that would become part of the AD&D 2nd edition rules. The Greyhawk book was a hybrid of 1st and 2nd Ed rules, and finally the Forgotten Realms was solidly AD&D 2nd Edition with plenty of conversion notes for the very recently published Forgotten Realms boxed set.  A lot of what is in this book is both updates to the new rules and updates to the world post Time of Troubles. Elegant no? 

Reading this book now and knowing the directions both the Realms and AD&D/D&D were going to take, it seems that many of the rules for AD&D 2nd Ed were made to suit the Realms and vice versa. 

So what is in this book?

Chapter 1: The Forgotten Realms Post Avatar

This section is not large, but it packs a punch. In its dozen+ pages, we get the changes to the Realms Post-Avatar and adapting your game to the new AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Changes in character classes are covered, like what to do about those Cavaliers, Barbarians, and Assassins that no longer exist in the new rules. Psionics no longer exists (for now) and anyone who tells you they did are obviously mistaken. While AD&D 2nd Ed strongly adheres to a 20-level character maximum, there are plenty of NPCs that do not. So there are spell advancements for wizards and priests to 30th level. 

One of the newest additions are Magic-dead and Wild-magic zones. The Forgotten Realms always had more magic than either Dragonlance or Greyhawk, so these are a fun addition. 

Firearms are covered by the AD&D 2nd Ed rules, too, since they exist in the Forgotten Realms. 

Chapter 2: Gods and their Specialty Priests

Reading this, I can't tell you if specialty priests were created for AD&D 2nd and adapted well to the Realms or if they were created with the Realms in mind. In any case, we get all the (then) current Gods in their then-current forms and their specialty priests.  This is about two dozen pages and you can get a good feel on what the Time of Troubles was all about; at least this part of it.

Also as someone played a lot of clerics over the years this is a great set of examples of how to do the AD&D specialty priests. This also features the first instance I know of depicting the garb of the various priests together. 

Chapter 3: Magic and Mages of the Realms

Not to be under-represented, the various changes to magic are covered here along with what the Realms, or at least Ed Greenwood, is well known for; lots and lots of new spells. Honestly even if you never play in the Realms these two chapters are worth the price of the book alone. 

Chapter 4: Cities of the Heartlands

This covers the major cities of the heartland of the Realms, covering the West to East expanse of the continent. The cities are presented in alphabetical order. The material is similar to what we have seen before, updated for the post Time of Troubles and new rules.  Still I never get tires about reading about these cities and looking at the maps. Yes, I spent a lot of time looking over the map of Baldur's Gate after spending so much time there. 

Chapter 5: Secret Societies of the Heartlands

Covers the "Big Three," The Harpers, The Zhentarim, and The Red Wizards of Thay. I found the section on the Zhentarim to be better than what I have read so far. 

Chapter 6: Treasure

This covers special and unique treasures of the Realms. While it does feel like padding, it is still useful information.

We end with some Appendices; Treasure Tables, Wizard Spells by School and by Level, and Random Spell Lists. 

The most useful section, even if woefully out of date, is the published Forgotten Realms bibliography. At least to March 1990. If I was serious about reading about the Time of Troubles, then I would have my reading list right here. I am a little surprised about how much of this list I have read. I may know more than I am giving myself credit for. 

The book has the feel of all the books from this time. With the Clyde Caldwell cover and Stephen Fabian art, one could be excused into thinking this was a Ravenloft book (next month...) but the Elmore and Easley art quickly dismisses this notion. 

There is not enough in this book to really run or play in the Realms. You should have the boxed campaign set, but there is enough to provide adventure seeds. The book, though, holds more promise than crunch, and that is a good thing for me at this point in my exploration of the Realms. With these books, I could imagine taking a trip along the roads, moving east from the west to visit all these great cities and all the adventures in between. Finding strange sigils from other adventurers, Harpers, or even the Black Network. Sounds like a great adventure trek for Sinéad, Arnell, Rhiannon, and Nida. Especially since I last left them while talking about cities. I'll update their characters to AD&D 2nd Edition rules later on. This also reminds me that I want to have Nida end up in Ravenloft. Why? I have my reasons.

This book isn't why so many people associate the Realms so strongly with 2nd Edition AD&D, but it is the place to start.

Mina learns more, our main heroes are introduced. 

24 September.—I hadn’t the heart to write last night; that terrible record of Jonathan’s upset me so. Poor dear! How he must have suffered, whether it be true or only imagination. I wonder if there is any truth in it at all. Did he get his brain fever, and then write all those terrible things, or had he some cause for it all? I suppose I shall never know, for I dare not open the subject to him.... And yet that man we saw yesterday! He seemed quite certain of him.... Poor fellow! I suppose it was the funeral upset him and sent his mind back on some train of thought.... He believes it all himself. I remember how on our wedding-day he said: “Unless some solemn duty come upon me to go back to the bitter hours, asleep or awake, mad or sane.” There seems to be through it all some thread of continuity.... That fearful Count was coming to London.... If it should be, and he came to London, with his teeming millions.... There may be a solemn duty; and if it come we must not shrink from it.... I shall be prepared. I shall get my typewriter this very hour and begin transcribing. Then we shall be ready for other eyes if required. And if it be wanted; then, perhaps, if I am ready, poor Jonathan may not be upset, for I can speak for him and never let him be troubled or worried with it at all. If ever Jonathan quite gets over the nervousness he may want to tell me of it all, and I can ask him questions and find out things, and see how I may comfort him.

Letter, Van Helsing to Mrs. Harker.

“24 September.
(Confidence)

“Dear Madam,—

“I pray you to pardon my writing, in that I am so far friend as that I sent to you sad news of Miss Lucy Westenra’s death. By the kindness of Lord Godalming, I am empowered to read her letters and papers, for I am deeply concerned about certain matters vitally important. In them I find some letters from you, which show how great friends you were and how you love her. Oh, Madam Mina, by that love, I implore you, help me. It is for others’ good that I ask—to redress great wrong, and to lift much and terrible troubles—that may be more great than you can know. May it be that I see you? You can trust me. I am friend of Dr. John Seward and of Lord Godalming (that was Arthur of Miss Lucy). I must keep it private for the present from all. I should come to Exeter to see you at once if you tell me I am privilege to come, and where and when. I implore your pardon, madam. I have read your letters to poor Lucy, and know how good you are and how your husband suffer; so I pray you, if it may be, enlighten him not, lest it may harm. Again your pardon, and forgive me.

“Van Helsing.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Lets take a moment here and refelct on what this means.

Mina, reading Jonathan's journal not only believes him, but she is pulling out her typewriter and transcribes the whole thing so others could make benefit of it. That is some Nancy Drew/Louis Lane level shit right there. 

Make no mistake. Mina Harker is the hero of Dracula. Had it not been for her, Van Helsing would have no idea where to start. Without Van Helsing and his connections vis-à-vis Holmwood, Morris, and Seward, they would have never gotten to Dracula.

Van Helsing does have the forethought to reach out to Mina. Mina has the forethought to record all of Jonathan's journals. 

This is where the hunted become the hunters.

 Who is Bruno? What is his Earth? Is there a Bruno's Mars? Why am I searching for it? These questions...are not likely to get fully answered, but I will give it a try in this segment of "In Search Of..."

So I found this curiosity on Amazon a while back. Two books, super cheap called "Bruno's Earth Game Book" and "Bruno's Earth Creature Manual."

Here is a quote from the Amazon page.

This is an expansion to the game that fills in the holes and gets rid of the obscure contradictory rules. It is more consitent and more detailed, yet easier to play. The games on the shelves these days are so complex and have so many volumes of rules, a dozen lawyers couldn't sort it out. Bruno's Earth goes back to the beginning and rebuilds from scratch, enhancing all aspects that make the game fun to play and fizes all the problems that made it hard to play. Bruno's Earth is a trim, detailed, cohesive game system that is fun to play and easy to learn.

I mean, this is no different than hundreds of forgotten Fantasy Heartbreakers out there. What makes this one special, or more to point, notorious? 

Here are some bold claims on the back covers.

The author is listed as "Jim Patrick Guyer."  Now there is Jim Patrick Guyer, who is an author and invented a game called Diamond Chess (old, inactive URL: http://diamondchess.net/) who passed away in 2021. I can't confim that this is the one and only Jim Patrick Guyer. Goodreads seems to think so, but that does not mean a lot.  He does have a hotmail email address, so that at least gives some evidence this is old. 

BrunosEarth.com listed in the Game Book was first indexed back in 2011. A coming soon page was up for a while, then it went blank.

A thread on ENWorld claims that it is from 1986. An ISBN search for Bruno's Earth Game Book does list Jan 14, 1986, as the publication date. This is likely for the 10-digit ISBN and not the newer 13-digit one.

An ISBN search for Bruno's Earth Creature Manual says it was registered in 2012. I am not sure why there is a 26-year gap when the books are obviously contemporaneous. Though that could just be in their current forms/format. Further searches only bring up the Amazon pages.

In truth, outside of the ISBN registration, I can't see much else for these books. 

There are no threads on RPG.net for it. Same with Dragonsfoot

I tried searching the Usenet, but all the search engines I used to use are behind paywalls now.

That is just the foundational searching. What about the books themselves?

Bruno's Earth

These books are the pretense of a game. Despite the author's claim these are not what AD&D Second Ed should have been. Not even close.

The game book is 136 pages, and the monster book is 92 pages.

Bruno's Earth Game Book

Ok, I really have no idea what this is about. 10 pages for a Table of Contents (that's about 8% of the whole book). I am not sure what bugs me more. The only original art (that I can tell) is bad, the ComicSans font, or the text on the page. 

What do I mean? Well out of the gate one of our player races is an Albino. Yikes. We also get Hobbits. So lets just get everyone to sue us all at once. 

Of note, the art here includes some gray-scale, descaled versions of D&D 3rd Edition art.  

Characters have 8 Ability scores, the normal 6 plus Memory and Comeliness, and are generated using 3d6, 3d20, and 4d24.  How?? Don't ask me.

I could go on, but reading the rules are giving me a headache. That or the ComicSans font.  I was hoping there were some ideas here I could mine, but no. Not really.

Brunos's Earth Creature Manual

Again, I do love monster books. But this one is testing my patience. 

The monsters are divided up into broad categories (Natural, Super-Natural, Elemental, Undead), then alphabetically. These are largely copied from the AD&D 1st Monster Manual, with some from theFiend Folio and Monster Manual II.  There are no demons or devils.

There are some new monsters. Skrags, a type of undead, some new dragons. There is one, an Orinthopter. It is listed with the Golems under Elementals. The image looks like a crudely drawn glider or kite. There needs to be a description on what this is supposed to be. Is it a construct? An object? It has a Wisdom score, so is it alive?

Look, I could keep on going, but I won't. The author is not around anymore and there is no need for me to be a dick here.

I am not sure how this thing got onto my radar but I have it and no idea what to do with it.

As I said before, it is notable due to its mystery, availability on Amazon, and the author. There might be a story here, but I need help to dig up. I have been researching this since December 2023 and working on this post since June 2024.

In this case, my deep dive gives us nothing.

A quick word from Mina as we begin Chapter 14.

CHAPTER XIV
MINA HARKER’S JOURNAL

23 September.—Jonathan is better after a bad night. I am so glad that he has plenty of work to do, for that keeps his mind off the terrible things; and oh, I am rejoiced that he is not now weighed down with the responsibility of his new position. I knew he would be true to himself, and now how proud I am to see my Jonathan rising to the height of his advancement and keeping pace in all ways with the duties that come upon him. He will be away all day till late, for he said he could not lunch at home. My household work is done, so I shall take his foreign journal, and lock myself up in my room and read it....

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

A short, but profound, entry today. Jonathan is at work (and not contributing to the plot) so Mina secludes herself by reading Jonathan's journal. This event is every bit as important, if not more so, than Van Helsing proclamation yesterday. 

Van Helsing might "know," but Mina is about to figure it all out on her own. 

While I am not trying to put a lot of stock in the various moon phases and times of year, I can't help but draw the parallels of Lucy dying during a new (dark) moon and Mina and Van Helsing having their revelations during the waxing, or brightening, of the moon. 

 It is that time of year again! Ok, that's lie, it is always that time of year for me. But it is that time of year when I start talking about it. And by "it" I mean my October Horror Movie Challenge. 

The goal is basically the same every year: Watch 31 Horror movies, with at least 20 of them as first-time views.  I often throw in a little twist to the theme. One year, it was all Vampire movies; another movie just before 1973 when The Exorcist came out.  This year, we will have a theme as well. 

The Monster Movie Marathon

To celebrate 50 Years of Dungeons & Dragons, I am going back to watch a bunch of classic (say pre-1977) movies featuring monsters from the AD&D 1st Edition Monster Manual.

This all works out great for me.

"Monster Movies," as my Dad and I used to call them, were a big influence on my childhood and primed me for when Dungeons & Dragons came into my life. 

So I am going to watch a bunch of horror movies, mostly from before the Monster Manual was printed in 1977, featuring monsters that would later appear in those pages. 

I am not making any claims that these movies inspired these monsters, but certainly, they would have been known by the authors and artists of D&D at the time. They WERE certainly an inspiration to me at the time. The challenge here will be finding 20 I have never seen.

I have been reviewing my lists of monsters and comparing them to the book "The Classics of the Horror Film" I mentioned about a month ago. Along with other books, that for me, were the pillars of my love of monsters and ultimately D&D.

I'll watch the movie and talk about their Monster Manual counterparts. 

Should be great! So join me all month long next month.

I am also hosting the The RPG Blog Carnival for October. My theme is "Horror and Fantasy." Many of the monsters I'll be talking about have a toe, or tentacle in both. Monsters like the vampire, Medusa, and the mummy are featured in both genres. Creatures like the ogre and goblin began as horror monsters (of the time) and became more fantasy. Greek Myth for example has a lot of fantasy creatures that would later appear in horror.

So I have my work cut out for me to be sure! So join me in talking about Horror and Fantasy in your games and I'll link to you in future posts.

Seward updates Van Helsing

Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam.

“5 September.—Patient greatly improved. Good appetite; sleeps naturally; good spirits; colour coming back.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

This one is short because things are about to go south for Lucy very quickly.

 Been a bit since I have done one of these. Looking at my notes I started this in June and just getting around to finishing it. Ah. Well, I have been kinda busy with real life stuff. So lets go back in time, not to an ancient land or a galaxy far, far away, but to the end of the 1980s. June 1989 to be exact. Let's see I had just ended my second year at University. I had settled in on my majors and was getting straight As. I picked up the new AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook three month prior and had just grabbed the AD&D 2n Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Likely I saw this issue on the stands.  "Rock On" by Michael Damian, cover of the Glam Rock hit by David Essex was number one on the airwaves. In the theaters we were in for a treat, our movie choices were Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Trek: The Final Frontier (who I saw with my best friend who I would later marry in just 6 years), Batman, and Ghostbusters II. And on our shelves along with the new AD&D 2nd Edition was Issue #146 of This Old Dragon.

My issue is missing the cover, but I do want to talk about it. The cover lets us know this is the 13th year of Dragon Magazine! Rather nice milestone. If Dragon had continued we would have celebrated its 48th year.  Our cover is by none other than Keith Parkinson himself.

Since this is the anniversary issue and it the late 80s early 90s we can expect a themed issue about dragons, and that is exactly what we get. 

This is that odd in-between time of Dragon were both AD&D 1st Ed and 2nd Ed are supported. Leading many of us at the time to just treat them as the same game despite some differences. 

Up first, big ad for the Science Fiction book club. I still have a lot of those books. 

This is followed by a big two-page spread ad for the SSI AD&D Computer games.  This is important later one. BTW you can still get these game cheap on Steam and Gog. 

Following that in the Editorial, Roger Moore asks if traditional Pencil & Paper RPGs are dead due to advancements in computer games. The editorial ends with the question "Will computer RPGs eventually replace 'paper' RPGs?" And then adds, "The future will tell. And DRAGON Magazine will be around to find out."  Well...the answer is a lot more complicated than "yes" or "no." The successes of D&DF 5e and Baldur's Gate 3 (note at the time of writing Baldur's Gate 1 was still 10 years away) seems to show that there is not just room for both, but both are welcomed now by a lot of the same people. Sadly Dragon was not around to address BG3 but future issues did cover a lot of video games.

Letters asks for some new features like tech items in Bazaar of the Bizarre and requests to send fan mail to artists. Forum wants to know if the glory days of D&D are now in the past. 

Sage Advice now has to differentiate between 1st and 2nd Edition books. Where discrepancies occur, 2nd Edition takes precedence. 

Wings of Doom begins our featured section on Dragons.

David E. Cates is up first with Dragons are Wizards' Best Friends, a guide to new small dragons to be used as familiars. These fall under the sub group of dragons known as drakes. We ware even treated to a Crystal Drake art by the late Jennell Jaquays. We get Crystal, Demon, Faerie, and Shadow Drakes. These are al 1st Edition stats.

The Dragon's Bestiary has many new dragons, also in 1st Ed versions. These are the Cobra Dragon, the Obsidian Dragon, Gray Dragon, Rainbow Dragon, Draken, and Minidragon.

Jean Rabe and Skip Williams are up with The New Ecology of Dragons. This is designed for the AD&D 2nd Edition game. 

All three articles are a must read for anyone that love dragons (like my son) and plays AD&D.

The Hatching Magazine by A.D. Young is a look back at the predecessor to Dragon, The Strategic Review. Now like many I knew about the Strategic Review and its place in TSR/D&D history, but I had never seen any copies. That would not be until 10 years later when Wizards of the Coast released the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM with scanned PDFs of the everything. 

It was a wonderful insight to an age right before the time I started playing and only knew a little about.

The Ever-After is our short story from eluki bes shahar. Yes that is how it is spelled and it the original name of Rosemary Edghill. I do love how many successful authors and artists got their start with Dragon and TSR.

The centerfold is giant Buck Rogers poster. No need to go over how that went for TSR.

TSR Previews tell us what is hot for the late Spring of 1989. Among the choices, lots of Forgotten Realms, AD&D 2nd Ed DMG and the "All New Dungeon! Family Game."

Marvel-Phile covers some "Sage Advice" like questions for the Marvel Super Heroes game.

Not to be out done, there is an add for the DC Heroes 2nd Edition game, focusing mostly on Batman. Batmania is in full force.

Gamma World is not forgotten, well, at least not yet with Dan Salas' Dangerous Terrain. It looks like it could work for any version of Gamma World.

The Lessers are back (Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk) with the Role of Computers.  Chuck Yeager's A.F.T. 2.0 is featured. I had a roommate that played all the flight simulator games on his DAK 386. That was the shit for the time. This article also shows off the differences between the IMB-PC compatibles and the Amiga. I always low-key liked the Amiga. The girl-friend I had at the time had one and I thought it was really great.

Ad for West End Game's Star Wars. Despite my love for Star Wars, I never played this one.

Arrows of the East gives us some new arrows for the Oriental Adventures book. David Kloba gives us a new selection of arrows including how to find them. 

Gamers Guide small ads are up. Many old favorites are here with more about computers and computer RPG help.

Kevin Murphy has a fun article on wishes in If You Wish Upon a Star... AD&D focused, but could be used with any FRPG. It is a pretty comprehensive article. 

Convention Calendar for June to September 1989 is next. There are some local to me ones that sadly no longer are running. 

Dragonsmirth has our comics including Yamara. One day I need to make good on my promise to read those all in order.

So. If you love dragons then this is a good issue to find. It is also typical of the issue for the next year or so until the Powers that Be focus completely on AD&D 2nd Ed; even to exclusion of the BECMI line.

Seward checks in on Renfield. 

Dr. Seward’s Diary.

4 September.—Zoöphagous patient still keeps up our interest in him. He had only one outburst and that was yesterday at an unusual time. Just before the stroke of noon he began to grow restless. The attendant knew the symptoms, and at once summoned aid. Fortunately the men came at a run, and were just in time, for at the stroke of noon he became so violent that it took all their strength to hold him. In about five minutes, however, he began to get more and more quiet, and finally sank into a sort of melancholy, in which state he has remained up to now. The attendant tells me that his screams whilst in the paroxysm were really appalling; I found my hands full when I got in, attending to some of the other patients who were frightened by him. Indeed, I can quite understand the effect, for the sounds disturbed even me, though I was some distance away. It is now after the dinner-hour of the asylum, and as yet my patient sits in a corner brooding, with a dull, sullen, woe-begone look in his face, which seems rather to indicate than to show something directly. I cannot quite understand it.

 

Later.—Another change in my patient. At five o’clock I looked in on him, and found him seemingly as happy and contented as he used to be. He was catching flies and eating them, and was keeping note of his capture by making nail-marks on the edge of the door between the ridges of padding. When he saw me, he came over and apologised for his bad conduct, and asked me in a very humble, cringing way to be led back to his own room and to have his note-book again. I thought it well to humour him: so he is back in his room with the window open. He has the sugar of his tea spread out on the window-sill, and is reaping quite a harvest of flies. He is not now eating them, but putting them into a box, as of old, and is already examining the corners of his room to find a spider. I tried to get him to talk about the past few days, for any clue to his thoughts would be of immense help to me; but he would not rise. For a moment or two he looked very sad, and said in a sort of far-away voice, as though saying it rather to himself than to me:—

“All over! all over! He has deserted me. No hope for me now unless I do it for myself!” Then suddenly turning to me in a resolute way, he said: “Doctor, won’t you be very good to me and let me have a little more sugar? I think it would be good for me.”

“And the flies?” I said.

“Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies; therefore I like it.” And there are people who know so little as to think that madmen do not argue. I procured him a double supply, and left him as happy a man as, I suppose, any in the world. I wish I could fathom his mind.

 

Midnight.—Another change in him. I had been to see Miss Westenra, whom I found much better, and had just returned, and was standing at our own gate looking at the sunset, when once more I heard him yelling. As his room is on this side of the house, I could hear it better than in the morning. It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realise all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it all. I reached him just as the sun was going down, and from his window saw the red disc sink. As it sank he became less and less frenzied; and just as it dipped he slid from the hands that held him, an inert mass, on the floor. It is wonderful, however, what intellectual recuperative power lunatics have, for within a few minutes he stood up quite calmly and looked around him. I signalled to the attendants not to hold him, for I was anxious to see what he would do. He went straight over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugar; then he took his fly-box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the box; then he shut the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bed. All this surprised me, so I asked him: “Are you not going to keep flies any more?”

“No,” said he; “I am sick of all that rubbish!” He certainly is a wonderfully interesting study. I wish I could get some glimpse of his mind or of the cause of his sudden passion. Stop; there may be a clue after all, if we can find why to-day his paroxysms came on at high noon and at sunset. Can it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures—as at times the moon does others? We shall see.

Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam.

“4 September.—Patient still better to-day.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Renfield's moods line up with the ebb and flow of Dracula's own power. He rages when Dracula is at his lowest power.  We will compare this to Van Helsing's later discussion on the powers of the vampire (30 Sept, Mina Harker's Journal).

There is a long held belief that the at times of the full moon people will act crazier. It is the root of the word Lunatic. A belief that persists to this very day. I know back when I was working as a QMHP with a group of schizophrenics and working a suicide hotline that this was the belief. But there is no evidence to really support it.  Still though, I do keep reporting the moon phase.

Stoker is putting up a red herring for our good Doctor here. It's not the moon or the sun that change Renfield, it is their effect on Dracula and Dracula's influence on Renfield. 

 A very special Mail Call on a Wednesday today. A book I have been eagerly anticipating. Djinn Unboxed!

This art book from my very good friend Djinn just landed on my shores this morning all the way from her home in Italy. At 330+ pages it is crammed full of her wonderful, often D&D-inspired, art. 

And there is not a lot I can show you here either! Djinn's art tends toward the risqué and sometime pornographic, but always tastefully so if not outright fun. 

Much of the art features her D&D character, the witch Solaine, and some of it is also her alter-ego Djinn.  

But there is an entire feature on my little witch Larina!

There is a lot more than that, but these are the ones I feel safest sharing. Besides, want to see more? Buy the book!

Djinn's D&D world is a fun place where Solaine battles seas monsters on a pirate ship, accidentally summons amorous demons, and libraries are anything but quiet. 

Not sure when this book will go on general sale, I know she is working on getting copies out to her Kickstarter backers now. But I hope to see a lot more.

Links

• Linktree, https://linktr.ee/djinnintheshade
• Website, https://www.djinnintheshade.com/
• Pateron, https://www.patreon.com/djinnintheshade/posts
• Twitter/X, https://x.com/Djinninthebox
• Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/djinnintheshade/
• Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/djinnintheshade

More updates on Lucy's condition. Van Helsing has seen Lucy.

Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood.

“3 September.

“My dear Art,—

“Van Helsing has come and gone. He came on with me to Hillingham, and found that, by Lucy’s discretion, her mother was lunching out, so that we were alone with her. Van Helsing made a very careful examination of the patient. He is to report to me, and I shall advise you, for of course I was not present all the time. He is, I fear, much concerned, but says he must think. When I told him of our friendship and how you trust to me in the matter, he said: ‘You must tell him all you think. Tell him what I think, if you can guess it, if you will. Nay, I am not jesting. This is no jest, but life and death, perhaps more.’ I asked what he meant by that, for he was very serious. This was when we had come back to town, and he was having a cup of tea before starting on his return to Amsterdam. He would not give me any further clue. You must not be angry with me, Art, because his very reticence means that all his brains are working for her good. He will speak plainly enough when the time comes, be sure. So I told him I would simply write an account of our visit, just as if I were doing a descriptive special article for The Daily Telegraph. He seemed not to notice, but remarked that the smuts in London were not quite so bad as they used to be when he was a student here. I am to get his report to-morrow if he can possibly make it. In any case I am to have a letter.

“Well, as to the visit. Lucy was more cheerful than on the day I first saw her, and certainly looked better. She had lost something of the ghastly look that so upset you, and her breathing was normal. She was very sweet to the professor (as she always is), and tried to make him feel at ease; though I could see that the poor girl was making a hard struggle for it. I believe Van Helsing saw it, too, for I saw the quick look under his bushy brows that I knew of old. Then he began to chat of all things except ourselves and diseases and with such an infinite geniality that I could see poor Lucy’s pretense of animation merge into reality. Then, without any seeming change, he brought the conversation gently round to his visit, and suavely said:—

“‘My dear young miss, I have the so great pleasure because you are so much beloved. That is much, my dear, ever were there that which I do not see. They told me you were down in the spirit, and that you were of a ghastly pale. To them I say: “Pouf!”’ And he snapped his fingers at me and went on: ‘But you and I shall show them how wrong they are. How can he’—and he pointed at me with the same look and gesture as that with which once he pointed me out to his class, on, or rather after, a particular occasion which he never fails to remind me of—‘know anything of a young ladies? He has his madmans to play with, and to bring them back to happiness, and to those that love them. It is much to do, and, oh, but there are rewards, in that we can bestow such happiness. But the young ladies! He has no wife nor daughter, and the young do not tell themselves to the young, but to the old, like me, who have known so many sorrows and the causes of them. So, my dear, we will send him away to smoke the cigarette in the garden, whiles you and I have little talk all to ourselves.’ I took the hint, and strolled about, and presently the professor came to the window and called me in. He looked grave, but said: ‘I have made careful examination, but there is no functional cause. With you I agree that there has been much blood lost; it has been, but is not. But the conditions of her are in no way anæmic. I have asked her to send me her maid, that I may ask just one or two question, that so I may not chance to miss nothing. I know well what she will say. And yet there is cause; there is always cause for everything. I must go back home and think. You must send to me the telegram every day; and if there be cause I shall come again. The disease—for not to be all well is a disease—interest me, and the sweet young dear, she interest me too. She charm me, and for her, if not for you or disease, I come.’

“As I tell you, he would not say a word more, even when we were alone. And so now, Art, you know all I know. I shall keep stern watch. I trust your poor father is rallying. It must be a terrible thing to you, my dear old fellow, to be placed in such a position between two people who are both so dear to you. I know your idea of duty to your father, and you are right to stick to it; but, if need be, I shall send you word to come at once to Lucy; so do not be over-anxious unless you hear from me.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

We get some of Van Helsing's abrasive and no-nonsense personality here. He says he never jests here and later on, but he can be a whimsical character. I think Stoker is trying to portray his genius as something us normal folk just can't understand. 

He is also something of a flirt with the young women. We will learn more about his married life later on.

 It is Tuesday and my FLGS opened at midnight so we could get the new D&D 5.5 Player's Handbook. So here it is!

It is a beast of a book really. 384 Pages vs. the 320 of the 2014 5.0 edition. Most of this though is given over to new art and introductions to the game.  This book is trying to set the stage for new players to D&D.

Rules are covered in the first 30 or so pages which works out nicely. You are eased into it. Sure, I like starting with character creation, but sometimes it is nice to know a bit more about what is going on.

Bloodied is back. It is not exactly the same, but it is there. 

Creating a character is just 14 or so pages. This includes the mechanics of rolling the dice. 

Character classes cover the bulk, about 130 pages. There are the same 12 classes from D&D 5.0 (2014) with their subclasses. Most get four subclasses, some get five. There are a lot of little changes to classes. Fighters get a psychic variant, rangers feel nerfed, warlocks are a little cooler. I'll post more when I have had a chance to get into the details. 

There are backgrounds, like 5.0 though these seem to be a bit better defined.

Race is now Species and that is fine with me. We get Aasimar, Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goliath, Halfling, Human, Orc, and Tiefling. No half-elf or half-orcs, though I will admit they might be taking the Pathfinder route here and folding them into the elf and orc respectively with some mods. This doesn't bother me. If I want to play a half-elf in 5.5 I can use the elf rules. Easy.

There are some feats from Tasha's here that I love, like Telepathic and Telekinetic. 

About 20 pages for equipment with great illustrations.

Spells take up the next bulk at over 100 pages. Spells are better explained and if is summons a creature that stat block is included with the spell.

Appendix A covers the multiverse. There are no changes here from 1st Ed.

Appendix B has some creature stat blocks related to class, ie Druid Wild Shape and the like. And YES monsters still have alignment. For example Imps are (still) Lawful Evil and Quasits are (still) Chaotic Evil. 

The changes here are less than the changes found between 1st and 2nd Edition. They are more akin to the changes between 3.0 and 3.5. I am going to keep calling this edition 5.5.

Visually speaking, they are closer together than some of the books of the AD&D 2nd Ed era were to each other.

I picked this up just a hour or so ago. So I really have not gone into it in detail. Save to check on the Rangers and Warlocks. They are classes I have heard the most about getting worse and better respectively.

The art is generally better, with some "names" popping up among the nameless NPCs and characters. So that will be fun on a deeper read through.

Overall there is "less flipping" one would need to do through this book while playing. 

I am looking for some character sheets so I can make a new version of Johan for this game; Johan VII for the win!

My 2014 PHB is falling apart and I am not 100% sure how much I will play this edition, but I am glad to have it.

Seward updates Arthur on Lucy's condition. Van Helsing enters our tale.

Letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood.

“2 September.

“My dear old fellow,—

“With regard to Miss Westenra’s health I hasten to let you know at once that in my opinion there is not any functional disturbance or any malady that I know of. At the same time, I am not by any means satisfied with her appearance; she is woefully different from what she was when I saw her last. Of course you must bear in mind that I did not have full opportunity of examination such as I should wish; our very friendship makes a little difficulty which not even medical science or custom can bridge over. I had better tell you exactly what happened, leaving you to draw, in a measure, your own conclusions. I shall then say what I have done and propose doing.

“I found Miss Westenra in seemingly gay spirits. Her mother was present, and in a few seconds I made up my mind that she was trying all she knew to mislead her mother and prevent her from being anxious. I have no doubt she guesses, if she does not know, what need of caution there is. We lunched alone, and as we all exerted ourselves to be cheerful, we got, as some kind of reward for our labours, some real cheerfulness amongst us. Then Mrs. Westenra went to lie down, and Lucy was left with me. We went into her boudoir, and till we got there her gaiety remained, for the servants were coming and going. As soon as the door was closed, however, the mask fell from her face, and she sank down into a chair with a great sigh, and hid her eyes with her hand. When I saw that her high spirits had failed, I at once took advantage of her reaction to make a diagnosis. She said to me very sweetly:—

“‘I cannot tell you how I loathe talking about myself.’ I reminded her that a doctor’s confidence was sacred, but that you were grievously anxious about her. She caught on to my meaning at once, and settled that matter in a word. ‘Tell Arthur everything you choose. I do not care for myself, but all for him!’ So I am quite free.

“I could easily see that she is somewhat bloodless, but I could not see the usual anæmic signs, and by a chance I was actually able to test the quality of her blood, for in opening a window which was stiff a cord gave way, and she cut her hand slightly with broken glass. It was a slight matter in itself, but it gave me an evident chance, and I secured a few drops of the blood and have analysed them. The qualitative analysis gives a quite normal condition, and shows, I should infer, in itself a vigorous state of health. In other physical matters I was quite satisfied that there is no need for anxiety; but as there must be a cause somewhere, I have come to the conclusion that it must be something mental. She complains of difficulty in breathing satisfactorily at times, and of heavy, lethargic sleep, with dreams that frighten her, but regarding which she can remember nothing. She says that as a child she used to walk in her sleep, and that when in Whitby the habit came back, and that once she walked out in the night and went to East Cliff, where Miss Murray found her; but she assures me that of late the habit has not returned. I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of; I have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world. I have asked him to come over, and as you told me that all things were to be at your charge, I have mentioned to him who you are and your relations to Miss Westenra. This, my dear fellow, is in obedience to your wishes, for I am only too proud and happy to do anything I can for her. Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, so, no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his wishes. He is a seemingly arbitrary man, but this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day; and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, an indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats—these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind—work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. I tell you these facts that you may know why I have such confidence in him. I have asked him to come at once. I shall see Miss Westenra to-morrow again. She is to meet me at the Stores, so that I may not alarm her mother by too early a repetition of my call.

“Yours always,
“John Seward.”

Letter, Abraham Van Helsing, M. D., D. Ph., D. Lit., etc., etc., to Dr. Seward.

“2 September.

“My good Friend,—

“When I have received your letter I am already coming to you. By good fortune I can leave just at once, without wrong to any of those who have trusted me. Were fortune other, then it were bad for those who have trusted, for I come to my friend when he call me to aid those he holds dear. Tell your friend that when that time you suck from my wound so swiftly the poison of the gangrene from that knife that our other friend, too nervous, let slip, you did more for him when he wants my aids and you call for them than all his great fortune could do. But it is pleasure added to do for him, your friend; it is to you that I come. Have then rooms for me at the Great Eastern Hotel, so that I may be near to hand, and please it so arrange that we may see the young lady not too late on to-morrow, for it is likely that I may have to return here that night. But if need be I shall come again in three days, and stay longer if it must. Till then good-bye, my friend John.

“Van Helsing.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

A couple of very important letters.

First we have Seward's letter ot Holmwood describing Lucy's condition.  Though we get some Victorian medical sleight of hand here. Lucy's blood would not have held to the any sort of analysis if she had major blood loss. But that is applying scientific logic to vampirism. 

More importantly, Lucy's condition stumps Seward so he is obliged to call in his old mentor Prof. Abraham Van Helsing.

 Van Helsing's letter establishes first that he is an expert, he is a "Mud-Phud," a Poly-glot, and shares the same name as our author. He is a medical doctor, a Ph.D. and a Doctor of Literature. 

Stoker had said in the past that Van Helsing was based on a real person. In "Powers of Darkness" it is also stated that "Van Helsing" is a pseudonym used in the book. 

--

Every Moriarty needs a Holmes, every Lex Luthor needs a Superman and Dracula needs his Van Helsing. It is one of the great hero-villain dynamics in all of literature and they share surprising little time together in the novel. Again a good example of this in the movies is FFC's "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

So great is the rivalry that Hammer Studios capitalized on it, and on the friendship of the two actors Peter Cushing (Van Helsing) and Christopher Lee (Dracula) that they made it a central focus of all their Dracula films and even into their non-Dracula horror movies.

Now that Van Helsing has entered the scene things move along in the novel. 

 I *may* have convinced my Favorite Local Game Store to open up at Midnight to sell the D&D 5.5 Player's Handbook.

They went back and forth a bit over this past weekend, and I woke up to this this morning.

I'll be picking up the new D & D 5.5 in about 14 hours.

If you want yours and you live in the Chicagoland area then head on out to Games Plus to get your pre-order.

Expect a mini-review after I pick it up!

Arthur has urgent business with his father.

Telegram, Arthur Holmwood to Seward.

“1 September.

“Am summoned to see my father, who is worse. Am writing. Write me fully by to-night’s post to Ring. Wire me if necessary.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Arthur is called away to his father. There is no plot point here; I don't suspect Dracula is feeding on the senior Lord Godalming. This is keep him away so Seward can tell Arthur, and us, about Lucy's condition via a letter.

It is also to make Arthur the new Lord Godalming when his father dies. Being a Lord in this novel will have certain advantages.

Arthur calls on an old friend.

Letter, Arthur Holmwood to Dr. Seward.

“Albemarle Hotel, 31 August.

“My dear Jack,—

“I want you to do me a favour. Lucy is ill; that is, she has no special disease, but she looks awful, and is getting worse every day. I have asked her if there is any cause; I do not dare to ask her mother, for to disturb the poor lady’s mind about her daughter in her present state of health would be fatal. Mrs. Westenra has confided to me that her doom is spoken—disease of the heart—though poor Lucy does not know it yet. I am sure that there is something preying on my dear girl’s mind. I am almost distracted when I think of her; to look at her gives me a pang. I told her I should ask you to see her, and though she demurred at first—I know why, old fellow—she finally consented. It will be a painful task for you, I know, old friend, but it is for her sake, and I must not hesitate to ask, or you to act. You are to come to lunch at Hillingham to-morrow, two o’clock, so as not to arouse any suspicion in Mrs. Westenra, and after lunch Lucy will take an opportunity of being alone with you. I shall come in for tea, and we can go away together; I am filled with anxiety, and want to consult with you alone as soon as I can after you have seen her. Do not fail!

“Arthur.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

More insight into the background of our three Victorian gentlemen. Even though Seward was once Lucy's suitor, Holmwood trusts him enough to have him look in on her. Alone with her no less.

Good thing too, this is the start of the sequence of events that brings in Van Helsing to our tale.

 This one is very easy, and hard. In fact I am sitting here drinking a Mt. Dew (though now a Zero sugar one) in his honor.

My friend and old DM Michael Grenda, died last year. It was a rather sudden and unexpected death. We had not talked in years (jobs, marriages, kids), but we had met up about this time last year, and we fell right into old patterns. 

I was very happy that his life had turned out happy. Maybe not exactly like we used to talk about in High School, but really who can say that.  I still feel sorrow for his wife and daughter.

I have been working on an adventure that I want to get out dedicated to him and based on his version of the "Mad Archmage" archetype. No, it's not a mega-dungeon, but it's certainly closer to a funhouse dungeon.  He, his wife, and his daughter all used to work at this haunted house, one of the largest in the state of Illinois. I was comforted in seeing that there were so many of these "Boo Crew" folks at his funeral. It seems right that the adventure should be a large haunted house-like deal.

Me and Grenda at Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket on Rt. 66 in July 2023

Yeah. I wore that Radio Shack shirt on purpose. We bonded over our love of the TRS-80 Color Computer.  I still have his old computer.

It was his birthday a couple of days ago. To be perfectly honest I am still coming to terms with the fact that he is gone. Weird. 

--

And that is all for Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August, 2024!

 I have not done one of these in a while. While the new 5e D&D (5.5 I am now calling it) is on the horizon, we must not forget there are other games, some really good ones, out there.

Here is one that looks promising and it from Roderic Waibel and Izegrim Creations who has given us some great content in the past.

GEAS Role Playing System

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/izegrim-creations/geas-role-playing-system?ref=theotherside

From the campaign:

"GEAS is a high fantasy role-playing game designed with a core mechanic that's easy to learn yet offers tremendous flexibility and options and fosters player agency. Best yet, the core rules will be Creative Commons so YOU have control over your creations."

Ok that doesn't tell us a lot, but there are some good things here.

For starters you grab the GEAS Quickstart Guide for free and this gives you a much better feel for the game.  It is fantasy, but not D&D.

Emphasis is on ease of play and giving the players plenty of options to explore their characters.

I like this bit to be honest and I think that is one of the (many) reasons why D&D 5 has been so successful. 

On the design side, the art looks great and Roderic Waibel is making a No AI art pledge here. That's good. It is also being released into the Creative Commons, also a nice touch.

The game *reads* well, but the proof is in the playing. So I am looking forward to trying it out and will certainly feature it sometime next year. Though if I know Roderic, the game is already done and he is working on the final layout now.

 Hmm. That is an interesting one. I am not entirely sure, to be honest.

I do think playing a game where Matt Mercer DMing would be fun. I would also would love to sit in on a session with Todd Stashwick or Deborah Ann Woll because they just always look like they are having an absolute blast when they play.

But in truth I'd rather just play a game with some of the guys I used to game with. More on that one tomorrow.

--

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

 Ok, this one is a bit of a cheat, but I enjoy the Google dice roller app.

I can be anywhere and have access to all sorts of dice. It is not as nice as real dice and really only pseudorandom, but it works in a pinch.

--

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August.