This material is published as shareware; if you find it useful you are asked to register; see the copyright page for information on why this is a good idea.

The Clockwork Heart

• Introduction
• Players' Information
• Referee's Information
  • At Home With Uncle George
  • Out And About
  • Hunt The Thimble
  • Stolen Heart
  • Characters
  • Rewards (and otherwise)
  • Further Adventures

THE Clockwork Heart is a city adventure for a group of children, preferably middle class and members of the same family or friends living in the same neighbourhood; a location in London is assumed, but any large city with public transport will do - just change things as needed to fit the city. The children of the Psammead trilogy would fit in very well. The children need no spells or magical equipment, but it won't be a problem if they have some. The Box (see Too Many Dragons) can be used if the children have it, and a few relevant clues can be pulled from it; see below. Arnold (see the worldbook) can be used, and may be able to provide a little help if asked. The setting is our world with occasional hidden magic, as in the Psammead stories. A map of London's underground railways is provided and can be printed if needed, but isn't essential. Three other plans should be printed for use by players, but should not be shown to them until they become relevant.

Note: Anyone with MAGIC [0] sees a bare chest, no brass plate or winding hole, hears nothing unusual, and somehow can't understand what's going on even if they are told by the other children!

Things to pull from The Box If the adventurers have The Box (see Too Many Dragons) they may think of trying to pull out clues. A few are available, with their relevance in italics below, but they should be mixed with some irrelevant items: A wedding cake model of a bride and groom. If anyone askes for a more detailed description they look normal but are turned away from each other. Suggests an unhappy marriage. A quill pen. Suggests some sort of writer. A broken heart-shaped wooden box. Suggests the heart may be in danger - not true, but it may motivate the children - or, if seen metaphorically, suggests that someone has a broken heart. A toy huntswoman riding side-saddle on a wooden horse. A pointer to Lady Templeton. Remember that objects from the box tend to stay around for several hours, so the children only have one or two chances to use this; they can get more by destroying the things they get, but total destruction needs fire, a big hammer, etc. and shouldn't be too easy. If they wait until they have zeroed in on Augustus Brown the clues can be more helpful, as described below. If Uncle George sees The Box in action he'll be fascinated, and want to try it for himself. Every time he tries he'll pull out a top hat containing a rabbit, more evidence that whatever strange power is behind The Box has a very odd sense of humour...

• He will die within five minutes; somehow no adult examining the body will notice the mechanical heart (he's used some very powerful spells) and the death will be recorded as a stroke. Even if the children mention it no adult will take them seriously or believe in the mechanical heart; even if they are looking right at it they will see an ordinary fleshy heart.
• At the moment of his death all of his magical equipment and books will vanish; there's a spell on them to ensure that they don't fall into dangerous hands.
• Have the children roll to see if they have lost MAGIC or Wizardry (as described in the worldbook). Ignore any result that shows an improvement! If anyone's MAGIC drops to zero they start to see an ordinary chest, as above.
• The adventure ends before it begins, and the children will never know what happened. They gain no Bonus points for their part in it.

The remainder of this adventure assumes that he does get rewound before it's too late!

The key will turn clockwise only, and is no harder to wind than any other clockwork mechanism. After a couple of turns the tick becomes faster and Uncle George reaches to take the key and continues turning for another twenty turns or so, saying "Phew, that's better," adjusts his clothing, and tries to stand. He staggers a little, and needs a child or two to support him. "Hmmm..." he says "shillings all round, I think," and starts to hand out coins.

The children probably have some questions. He'll try a few simple evasions at first ("you think you saw what???"), but he's still groggy, too weak to walk the few hundred yards home without help, and sooner or later he'll admit the truth if they keep pestering him. After all they're children, nobody will believe them if they start to gossip.

Remember that Uncle George doesn't know what's happened to his heart yet, he only knows it's missing, so all that he can tell them on the way home is that he took his heart out to rejuvenate it (he'll probably have to explain what that means), and must have mislaid it somewhere.

George _____ M.A. D.Phil F.R.S. Consultant By Appointment Only No Hawkers - No Tradesmen

Uncle George lives in a Georgian house which has been divided into flats. He owns the house and occupies the ground floor (which is actually raised about five feet above street level) and has exclusive use of the walled garden, where he grows flowers, vegetables, and certain herbs useful in his work. A small brass plate above the door-bell describes him as a "consultant". If anyone's curious, the other residents are colonel Horace Slocombe (Indian Army, retired) and his man-servant Ranjit on the first floor, Mr. Arthur Noakes (a director of the Great Western Railway) and his wife Ursula on the second, and four medical students (Horace Judd, Brian Russell, John White and Harry Carstairs) in the basement; the flats (apart from the basement) share a common entry hall and stairwell but are otherwise self-contained. None of the occupants of the other flats have anything to do with the loss of the heart, but the medical students can be a useful red herring; they have several specimens in their flat including a preserved heart in formaldehyde, which is just visible through one of the basement windows.

The marble-floored lobby contains stairs to the upper flats and a locked store-room shared by the three main flats. The store room contains nothing of interest, just empty trunks and other junk that is too big to conveniently store in any of the flats.

Uncle George's flat originally contained the reception rooms for the house, with servants in the basement and bedrooms upstairs, so all of the rooms are brightly lit with high ceilings. There's a bedroom, dining room, and lounge, and a study (Uncle George's magical workshop), built as a conservatory. The conversion to flats replaced another main room with a kitchen, pantry, bathroom, and WCs. There's access to the garden via a terrace outside the dining room, lounge, and study.

There are two servants, Mrs. Gillings the cook and Joan the parlour-maid. The children will have met both on previous visits to the house; both are kind to children, and Mrs. Gillings makes excellent cakes. Neither is aware that Uncle George is a magician; he has used a few minor spells to ensure that they have no curiosity about his work and stay out of the study. Even if they hear someone talking about magic they won't take it in, and will miss-hear it in whatever way does the least harm; for example:
 "Uncle George is a magician and he's lost his heart!"
 "Yes, I'm sure he's a very good mathematician dear, he'd need it for his science. His hat's on one of the coat-hooks, I think."

Don't portray either of them as spell-bound zombies; they are entirely normal, except that they have this one blind spot in their minds. The children will also find it difficult to enter the study until Uncle George invites them in; something seems to make them lose interest unless their MAGIC plus Wizardry can overcome Difficulty 6. Unlike the adults they will somehow know that something is keeping them out.

Uncle George's first idea is to search the flat again; the children can help. They won't find anything, of course, just comfortable well-made furnishings, a few paintings and sculptures, and all of the usual fittings of a well-appointed home.

Meanwhile Uncle George stays in his study, slumped in a chair, and seems to be exhausted. It's a fascinating room smelling of bee's wax, eucalyptus, and strange chemicals, which bubble and hiss in strange apparatus on two laboratory benches. The walls are lined with shelves, cupboards, and drawers below high bottle-glass windows. The sloping roof is made of translucent green glass supported on ornate wrought-iron beams. From the beams hang several gas mantles and a stuffed crocodile. The floor is a polished marble mosaic inlaid with an intricate pattern of metal strips forming various arcane symbols, which won't be recognised by anyone without considerable knowledge of the Golden Dawn and other Western magical societies. In the unlikely event that one of the children has such knowledge, they'll know that the symbols are used to protect the participants in ritual magic. They must be activated by another spell to to be effective.

The furnishings include a mahogany desk, two laboratory-style benches with gas and water supplies and racks of china, earthenware, and blue glass bottles and jars labelled with Latin names, some ornate floor-standing candle sticks about five foot high (the candles are white and have a sweet smell of honey and beeswax, which is reassuring if anyone is looking for signs that he is a black magician), a full-length mirror mounted to swivel on all three axes, a tripod-mounted brass astronomical telescope and a large brass brazier and cauldron on a wheeled stand. There are dozens of huge leather-bound books - most are just volumes of Punch and other magazines with the names obliterated to make it look like they are magical texts, which helps to impress Uncle George's more ignorant customers, but there are a few genuinely magical tomes. Most are in Greek, German, or Latin, the only one in (old) English is a learned treatise "On thee use of thee horn of thee Unicorne"; while it describes genuine magic, all of the spells require a unicorn's horn and Uncle George doesn't have one. A glass-fronted case contains an astrolabe, an expensive-looking wooden plate camera, a stereoscope, a big brass microscope, and a large Wimshurst static electricity generator with green glass and brass Leyden jars. These are again mainly impressive props, although Uncle George does occasionally need them for his scientific work.

The children will probably be especially interested in the tanks and cages on one side of the room; they contain rats, mice, salamanders, small bat-like scuttling creatures and purple lizards that don't appear in any zoology text book, snakes, huge green beetles, crabs, giant centipedes (or possibly millipedes), a small octopus that seems to watch the children with malevolent eyes through the side of its heavily padlocked tank, brightly luminous fish, an elephant about the size of a rabbit, and some hamsters. Uncle George won't let the children play with any of them apart from the elephant, which is extremely friendly and sulks when put back in its cage.

Uncle George last saw his heart on one of the shelves behind his desk. He's already checked the shelves and the drawers of his desk several times, but once he's made sure his wand is safely out of the way he'll let the children search again. There's nothing helpful to find, just an endless assortment of oddities such as playing cards with suites on both sides, unconventional geometrical instruments, postcards and stereoscope pictures from strange places such as Lhasa, Peking, the Plateau of Leng, Boston, Boca del Infierno California, and Havana, and peculiar dice with eight, ten, and even twenty sides.

Eventually everyone should agree that the heart is missing, and even if the search is extended to the garden (extensive lawns, some nice flowers, and a small magically-protected herb bed containing some very unusual plants) it won't be found. Extending the search to the basement and upper stories shouldn't be too easy, but there is at least one person in each flat, and if someone comes up with a good excuse (such as a missing kitten or a smell of gas) it ought to be possible to take a look. Nothing will be found, apart from the medical specimen mentioned above.

Sooner or later someone should think of asking Uncle George two obvious questions; has he any magical way of finding the heart, and has anyone had an opportunity to steal it? If nobody asks, Uncle George will eventually think of these things for himself:

• There's a problem with magical methods of finding the heart; the spells that stop most people noticing the clockwork heart would have also affected the real one, so it is protected against magical detection - any spell would have a maximum range of twenty or thirty feet, and wouldn't be directional. You'd know if the heart was somewhere nearby, but that's all it could do. The children should soon realise that this will at least let them rule out the house and garden; once this is pointed out, Uncle George can quickly create a magical heart detector, a marble enchanted to glow green if they are within range of it. The spell is undramatic; he mixes a few chemicals and some drops of his own blood, warms them over a burner, says a few Latin words, then drops a marble into the beaker, waits for the mixture to cool, and fishes it out, rinses it, and hands it to the children.

• Uncle George took his heart out last Saturday afternoon, and isn't sure he's seen it since. Since then the only visitors to the room have been customers; his appointment book lists four, and he has cards for two others who arrived without prior arrangement:
  • Sir Waldo Pascoe is an old customer, a City magnate who regularly buys spells; over the years Uncle George has sold him shrinking spells, spells to keep him from losing his temper, spells to block clairvoyance and other magical eavesdropping (he's far from the only financier to use magic!), the next day's Times - "Not that it did him much good, of course, as soon as he started to try to use what he read he began to change how things would come out!" - and spells to make people keep their word. On Tuesday he called in for a regular renewal of the anti-clairvoyance spell.
  • Miss Eva McDonald, a teacher, called without an appointment on Wednesday at lunch time. She wanted a spell to compel people to listen to her voice, regardless of distractions. She is an old customer (who has previously bought spells to stop chalk from squeaking and drive out cockroaches) and lives nearby. All of the children will recognise her name, she teaches at their school. At least one child should be in her class, and will remember that there was a near-riot in one of her lessons on Wednesday morning.
  • Lewis Henderson owns Henderson's Emporium, one of London's largest departmental stores, and was referred by another customer. He visited for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, looking for a spell to deter thieves; Uncle George doesn't have a suitable spell ready for immediate use, although the spell he uses to keep people out of the study might be modified, but he has taken a retainer to develop one. Meanwhile the store will continue to use private detectives. Henderson gave the address of his store in Oxford Street, Who's Who lists him as living in a mansion on Holland Park.
  • Augustus Brown Esq. was another unannounced customer who visited on Thursday morning. Uncle George is a little embarassed as he explains about his inability to remove a love spell that has already worn off. Brown's card gives the address of Lady Agatha's town house on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea; he hasn't been home since his visit, but of course neither Uncle George or the children know that yet.
  • Finally, The Amazing Alexander bought a potion of strength yesterday morning; he's an aging professional strong man who occasionally needs a "tonic" before performing his feats. He lives on the Harrow Road in Paddington, one of the poorest areas of London. Uncle George considers him a charity customer and only charges a few pence for the tonic, just enough to avoid hurting his pride and less than it costs to make.

Uncle George doesn't remember any of these visitors having a chance to steal the heart, but it should be obvious that he's wrong. Optionally the telephone rings while he's discussing it with the children, and he goes out to take the call. It's a wrong number, but it does suggest one way that someone could have been left in the room unattended. If this is pointed out to Uncle George he thinks a bit then slowly remembers that he was interrupted that way; he just can't remember which one, except that he's reasonably sure the client was a man.

While he's discussing this he pales and has to sit down again quickly, checks his pocket watch, says "I really ought to have put my real heart in by now, it's getting quite late," and taps his chest with his wand. There's a brief sparkle but he doesn't seem to feel much relief, and asks one of the children to hand him a jar of large green pills, swallowing three with considerable effort. "I think I'd better not move too far for a while... blast, how can I find my heart if I can't even get out of this chair. Hmmm... children, how would you like to help your old uncle...?"

Once again, it's assumed that the children want to help - if not, it's going to be a short adventure! If they don't help give a Bonus point to anyone who suggested making a heart detector or checking the visitors, but don't award any others. Uncle George thanks the children, sends them away, takes more pills,and sets out to find the heart on his own. He eventually succeeds, but by the time he recovers it he's extremely unwell, looking much nearer his real age, and goes abroad to convalesce, then spends some time studying in foreign parts. In all it will be more than a year before they see him again.

The remainder of the adventure assumes that the children decide to help him; they don't have much else to do on a Saturday, and there's magic to spur them into action!

THE aim of this section is for the children to glimpse a magical underside to London that they have previously overlooked and make some new friends, eventually finding the heart.

Uncle George gets out tram and underground railway maps, checks addresses and routes, and gives each child a stack of pennies for fares. Miss McDonald is local, of course, any of the other clients can be reached in about thirty minutes, and it takes about the same time to get from one client to the next. The map shows underground lines (the term is actually a misnomer; many of these lines run above ground, sometimes on embankments or bridges, for much of their length) in use or near completion in 1904, and is probably a little anachronistic in a campaign with an earlier date, but don't let this stop you using it! If the children live in Camden Town (as in the Psammead stories) the nearest station is Camden Road, and there are tram routes to all of the other locations. The sites can be visited in any order, but some sort of circular route probably makes the most sense. Don't worry about precise geography or the minutiae of street names, routes, etc., the aim here should be a quick sprint around the metropolis. A few transport details are provided below, but shouldn't be used unless people particularly ask for them.

If anyone worries about missing lunch, parents, etc. Uncle George promises to look after things, and will contact their home and say that he's asked the children to run some errands for him. If nobody mentions this Uncle George won't think of it, and the children will eventually be in trouble when their worried parents get hold of them...

Uncle George also gives the children some of his business cards, with a note on the back; "Please help the bearer of this card". He hopes that his clients will cooperate. He warns them not to be too specific about the item they're looking for; in the wrong hands a magician's heart could be very dangerous. The cards give his name, address, and telephone number (2458). While there are few public telephones in London in this period, the children may want to get in touch; most hotels have a telephone, but it will take some persuasion, and probably payment in advance, for a child to get permission to use one. Three of the clients listed below have telephones, but Uncle George doesn't have the numbers; he tries to avoid discussing magic on the phone since operators often eavesdrop on conversations.

Uncle George won't think of giving the children any additional magical equipment apart from the marbles described above. He doesn't have much prepared, and most of what he does have ready are things like love potions which aren't much use for the current situation. He can try to provide other items on request, but as he gets weaker he will be unable to devote much energy to his spells. Some examples of things he might provide are described at various points below.

Miss Eva McDonald doesn't work on Saturdays; she'll probably be at home or somewhere in the neighbourhood. Her home is within walking distance; it's likely that the children will start there, since it's the most convenient place to begin.

Her home is a boarding house; she isn't at home, and the landlady (a formidable woman called Mrs. Gibbs) has no idea where she is or when she'll be back. Needless to say she won't let the children in, even if they show one of the cards! The heart detector doesn't glow, but the house looks big enough that the upper stories and back might be out of range. There's access to the rear of the house from a back alley, but getting close enough to check would be trespassing - there's also a large mongrel dog roaming the back yard, which doesn't look friendly. There's no easy way to get near the upper floors without entering the house.

Let the children make at least one abortive attempt to check out the house (preferably ending in a near escape from an extremely fierce dog) before Miss McDonald returns home. She won't be particularly surprised to see the children, since the school is so close, although she doesn't usually encourage children to visit. Once they show her the card, and she realises that they are related to Uncle George, she will invite them inside. As she talks the children should realise that there is something peculiarly penetrating about her voice, an odd quality which seems to compel them to pay attention. In game terms the children must use their MAGIC plus MIND versus Difficulty 5 to interrupt her. As she takes the children upstairs she makes a remark about setting extra homework, to explain their presence to Mrs. Gibbs. She'll help the children to the best of her ability; unfortunately she doesn't remember if she saw the heart or not. Needless to say the heart detector doesn't show anything about her person or in her room. Before the children go she makes them promise not to say anything about her use of magic at school; she doesn't think the educational authorities would quite understand. Children who think of this as a blackmail opportunity should be encouraged to come to a sticky end; they have no evidence whatever that she has been using magic (and Uncle George won't back up any claim if they make it - he respects his customers' privacy), most adults won't take such claims seriously, and Miss McDonald wields a painful cane if provoked.

Sir Waldo Pascoe lives in a leased apartment in the Station Hotel by Liverpool Street Station. Uncle George has no idea what he might do on a Saturday, since the Stock Exchange is closed. The station is accessible by tram, the underground railway (it's the unnamed station on the map East of Moorgate), and omnibus.

The hotel is an imposing building overlooking the station. Clientele ranges from travelling salesmen to the rich, and the decor is imposing throughout. Needless to say a group of unaccompanied children won't just be allowed to walk in and see one of the residents. The doorman will reluctantly conduct them to the desk, where a clerk sends a page boy to take their card up to Sir Waldo. A few minutes later he returns and ushers them to the gleaming brass lift, which takes them up five floors to Sir Waldo's apartment.

Sir Waldo is building what he intends will eventually be the largest 3" gauge model railway in Europe. It runs on wide benches around three walls of the largest room, with multiple tracks and an assortment of steam locomotives, model buildings, figures, animals, bridges, tunnels, etc. When the children arrive Sir Waldo is fuelling one of the locomotives with paraffin, and preparing to send it around the track. As soon as they explain their business he is anxious to help - he vaguely remembers seeing a jar that might have been the heart on the shelves behind Uncle George's desk, but isn't a hundred percent sure.

Before the children leave steam starts to hiss from the engine, and he says "Would you like to see how she goes?" Before the children have a chance to reply he taps the engine with a shiny silver ring he's wearing, which contains Uncle George's shrinking spell. Suddenly all of the childen and Sir Waldo are standing in the cab of the model engine, and the table has grown to a vast plain. He says "Help me heave on this", pointing to a huge lever, and starts to pull it, while jerking a chain dangling through a hole in the ceiling of the cab. There's a shrill whistle, and as the lever is pulled the engine rattles forward at what seems like twenty or thirty miles an hour, lurching heavily from side to side and bouncing up and down as it clatters over joints in the track and points. The noise is deafening, and anyone who is Sickly starts to feel somewhat unwell.

He shouts "I've set the track to take us once round the layout - should take about five minutes! I always wanted to be an engine driver, isn't this fun! I'm going to have to do something about levelling the tracks though."

The engine clatters into a long tunnel, and to one side the children glimpse the gleam of two huge red eyes. "Blast - we've got rats again! Hope none of them get on the line, that'd be a nuisance."

As the train comes out into the open air something huge looms overhead... the face of a gigantic cat, as big as the Sphinx to children reduced to 3" scale. It watches the engine pass then seems to focus on the tiny figures in the cab and starts to chase the engine, covering tens of yards (on the children's scale) with each pace. As the steam runs low and the engine coasts to a stop it howls, and reaches towards the cab with razor-sharp claws. It swats the engine, which lurches to one side as the rear wheels are derailed. Sir Waldo shouts "Quick - get out of the cab, I can't get us back to full size in here." He shoos the children towards the side of the engine away from the cat, tooting the whistle to keep the cat back as they climb down and run; optionally it is Difficulty 3 to get down without bruises or minor burns, since the toy engine wasn't really designed to allow people to climb in and out. Once the children are clear Sir Waldo leaps out to make his own getaway. He gets ten or fifteen (scale) yards before the cat scoops him up in one of its paws and starts to sniff at him. Somehow he gets an arm free and throws the ring towards the children, but seems to be too winded to tell them how to use it.

• If the children bash the ring down on the table they will suddenly find themselves standing next to the bench. The cat (now normally sized) is perched on top of Sir Waldo, now also full-sized and lying on the bench, and after peering into his face nonchalantly strolls off to sniff at the mouth of the tunnel.
• If the children delay Sir Waldo is eventually thrown clear by the cat, which wants to play with him, and staggers towards them shouting "use the ring!" The cat circles round towards the children, and will eventually pounce on someone if they don't get things right. Again, the results should be bruises or minor flesh wounds, not serious injury. Keep this up until the cat gets bored (it isn't actually hungry) and wanders off to check out the tunnel, with Sir Waldo continually trying to get hold of the ring to use it. Children who can Communicate with cats can try to persuade the cat to leave them alone, and it will be so surprised that it will probably agree if they ask nicely. This is a good opportunity for children to acquire this magical power, by trying to talk to the cat and succeeding. If any of the characters are cats they can automatically talk to it, and out of courtesy it will agree to leave them alone.

Hopefully this ends with the children shaken but more or less unhurt, and Sir Waldo extremely winded and wearing badly torn clothing. He wheezes "Gosh, what an adventure!" as he dusts himself off, and invites the children to come back another time to play with the trains "..but I'll make sure that the cat's locked out!"

Lewis Henderson owns Henderson's Emporium, a large department store in Oxford Street, and lives in a mansion on Holland Park. Since the store is open on Saturdays Uncle George suspects that he'll be there, but it's possible that he'll stay at home. The store is near Oxford Circus station and is on numerous tram routes. His home is near Notting Hill Gate station and tram lines, but Uncle George is right; he's at the store, supervising (or as most of his employees put it, "being a bloody nuisance"). Henderson is an obsessive micro-manager, who tries to oversee every detail of the company's operations from financial policy to the manners of staff. The store is a magical place to any child (especially its toy department), and the infrastructure of pneumatic tubes (used to move papers, bank notes, cheques, and receipts around the store), lifts, ventilation ducts and electric lights is endlessly fascinating.

If the children ask for Henderson, show Uncle George's card, and explain what they want, they will eventually be conducted to an unobtrusive entrance in the furniture department, past some offices, then up a flight of steps to his suite. The plan shows its layout, which may be important later in the adventure; for now it should not be shown to players. There's an outer office with a (male) secretary busy typing letters, where the children are kept waiting for a few minutes before being allowed in to see Henderson. The office is a large room dominated by Henderson's severely functional desk. Behind it is a large black-laquered safe with gilded hinges and a huge brass lock. A table holds a stock market ticker, a telephone, and a hatch for pneumatic capsules. There's also a bedroom and bathroom which Henderson often uses if he stays late at the store, although this won't be visible to casual visitors. The decor of the room includes an ugly oil painting of Henderson, several small (and mediocre) marble statues of ladies who seem to have forgotten most of their clothes apart from strategically-draped sheets, and shelves of bound ledgers going back to the beginning of Henderson's business nearly thirty years earlier.

Pneumatic Tubes Pneumatic tubes are often used to move messages, bank notes, and receipts around the store quickly. The brass capsules are two inches wide and eight inches long, with a leather ring (1) at each end to make an airtight seal inside the polished pneumatic tube. If the ends are twisted an oval hatch is revealed or covered (2). A dial (3) at one end is set to indicate the ultimate destination. While it is possible to design an automatic switching system for them, in Henderson's Emporium all lead to the accounts office (which expects to receive most of the capsules); those which aren't intended for this office are re-routed into the appropriate tube by a bored clerk.

Henderson is warily cooperative, pumping the children for as much information as possible while answering their questions. Several times pneumatic capsules arrive, containing messages from his managers, or he interrupts the conversation to pick up the telephone and bark out an order to one or another underling, usually on the lines of "Tell Peters in carpets to tidy the sales desk, it's a disgusting mess" or "Give Miss Jenkins her notice, I'll not tolerate rudeness to customers". While talking he scribbles a note and pops it into a brass capsule which goes into the pneumatic tube system; although the children won't read it, it's addressed to Michael Piper, one of the less scrupulous store detectives, and reads "Follow the children I'm talking to; if they pick up a package get it and bring it back to me". By the time the conversation is over Piper and three of his lackeys are lurking and ready to follow them.

Henderson doesn't remember seeing any particular jar; he didn't pay much attention to the study, he was concentrating on his conversation with Uncle George. Once he has extracted as much information as possible from the children he dissmisses them with an indifferent "Afraid I can't help," and has one of his underlings escort them from the premises.

Once they leave the store Piper and his lackeys try to lurk and follow the children unobtrusively; every time they leave a building or get on or off a train or tram give one randomly-selected child a chance to spot Piper, by noticing some feature (such as a stain on his trousers or the chain of his pocket watch) that doesn't change despite his disguises. The lackeys stay further back and should be harder to spot. If the children challenge him he'll deny that he's following them, and attempt to conceal whatever feature they have spotted (if they say what it is) when he next changes his disguise. If they try to report him to the police he'll show the investigating constable a card that identifies him as a retired policeman, and say that the children are mistaken. The police won't doubt his word. Once spotted he should be a constant lurking presence, try as the children might to evade him. Even if they think they have succeeded, one or more of the lackeys will manage to stay on their trail. The children should have no idea who he represents or what he's after.

TroubleshootingIf the children never see Henderson, his lackeys have been watching Uncle George and his associates all along, since Henderson wants to steal the secrets of magic. Piper and his colleagues guess that the children have been sent out on some magical errand and decide to intercept whatever they are carrying. It's a flimsy excuse to involve Piper in the adventure (apologies that I couldn't come up with anything better), but it ought to satisfy a child.

The children may also visit Henderson's home. It's an ugly modern red-brick building on the edge of Holland Park, a few minutes walk from Notting Hill Gate station. It's a little larger than Uncle George's house and isn't split into flats. There are various servants present including a butler, housekeeper, maids, and a cook; none of them are prepared to let the children in, even if they show Uncle George's card, and the house is too big to be checked properly from outside. If anyone tries to get in without permission the servants will catch the intruder and telephone the police; if they claim to be on business for Henderson the butler will check with him before calling the police, but even if he knows that they are on Uncle George's business, Henderson will not allow them into his house, although he won't have them arrested. There's nothing there in any case.

Augustus Brown Esq. lives on Cheyne Walk, part of the Chelsea Embankment of the Thames; Uncle George knows nothing about him, except that he is a poet, and is married to Agatha, Lady Templeton. The nearest station is Sloane Square, about half a mile away, there are nearby tram and omnibus stops.

Lady Templeton is at home when the children arrive, Mr. Brown is not. Since she's a customer of Uncle George she will have the children admitted as soon as they show his card. It should soon become obvious (through her tears) that her husband hasn't been home since Thursday; she has no idea where he is, and has already contacted the police, hospitals, etc. Needless to say there is nothing useful to be found in the house, and no sign of the heart. It's suggestive, since Brown may have gone to ground somewhere if he has the heart, but doesn't actually prove anything. There are numerous photographs of Mr. Brown around the room, he's handsome and somehow looks like a poet, and she gives the children one of the prints.

If the children decide to look for Brown and ask about his former home (the Chelsea house belongs to the Templeton family) she'll tell them that he used to live in a studio apartment near Baker Street station, but he sold it when they married. When last seen he was wearing a grey suit. If they say they are going to look for him she entreats them to tell him that she loves him and is sorry that she didn't trust him to return her affection; this may need explaining to the children, who will probably regard it as mushy grown-up stuff. She can provide his former address, of course, but has already checked and he isn't there.

The Amazing Alexander lives on the Harrow Road in Paddington, on Saturdays he can usually be found in one or another of the local street markets, where he performs feats of strength for the crowd. The main markets are Church Street and Bell Street, both near Praed Street station, and the Portobello Road near Notting Hill Gate station. There is a tram route serving all three markets and his home.

The children should run into him soon after reaching the area; he's lifting a cart when they notice him. His dog Rags carries a bowl around the crowd, who drop in pennies and ha'pennies. A sign on a luggage trolley holding dumbbells and other equipment identifies him as The Amazing Alexander.

Alexander isn't very bright (largely because of a brain injury many years earlier) and has trouble with long words, but once he understands that they have been sent by Uncle George he will do anything he can to help them. He doesn't have the heart, but wants to help them look for it; in fact he insists on it. He is sure that the heart wasn't there when he saw Uncle George, and can haltingly describe the contents of the shelves in photographic detail. He leaves his equipment with a friendly publican at a nearby pub and joins the search. He doesn't appear to have much to offer except strength, and the support of a somewhat dishevelled adult and moderately fierce dog if they need them, but he is very strong and will instantly spot Piper's face regardless of disguise once he has seen him.

• If the children try to find a clue in The Box they might pull out a filthy page from Thursday's Evening Chronicle with a half-dozen advertisements crossed off, all for rooms to let around Baker Street and Regents Park. The next lodging in this area which has not been crossed off is Brown's new home.

• If the children have Arnold with them they might ask Him. It'll take some persuasion, but eventually He'll agree to ask every child He knows in London; twenty minutes later He tells the children that there's a new tenant moved into rooms in Baker Street who matches their description of Brown. He's a little fuzzy (sorry!) on the precise address since His informant is only four. Once in Baker Street Arnold can give more precise directions (such as "A house with a blue door") but still won't know the precise address. Sooner or later the children should track it down as he gives them more clues, but it should take some trial and error. Eventually they will see a small boy with a Teddy bear sitting on the front steps of a house that has a blue door; he shyly points to the top bell-pull, newly labelled

• If the children have spotted Piper they may guess that he has something to do with the missing heart, and find a way to question him; this is relatively easy with the help of Alexander, more difficult if they don't have any assistance. If they take this step, it "just happens" that Piper has had his eye on Uncle George for some time (see the Troubleshooting note above) and has been tracking his clients; he does know where Brown is hiding, and will give him away if the children release him. Piper then pretends to give up his pursuit, but his assistants (who are much less obvious) stay on the childrens' trail, and Piper will pop up again when he's in a position to steal the heart.

• If the children can Communicate with animals they might ask birds, cats, or dogs for help; birds will say that they can't recognise photographs because they don't show the top of people's heads, dogs will say that they can't recognise them because they don't show the smell, but a cat will take one look then bound off, returning a few minutes later to say that a cat that lives near Regents Park thinks she saw someone like that two days ago. From there a trail of cats lead the children to Baker Street. Note that if any of the children have ever been cruel to cats they will get no help from this source! If any of the adventurers are cats they will naturally be able to tap into this information source; they just need to ask the nearest cats, who will in turn contact others then relay the answer back. Again, the result will be approximate, not a precise address, until the children are near the house.

• It's possible that the children will decide to return to Uncle George (or telephone him) and see if he can do anything magically; alternatively, if they don't seem to be coming up with a better plan, he makes a call to the nearest telephone (it doesn't matter that he doesn't know where they are; he's a magician, he's good at that sort of thing) and someone will find them instead. For example, as they pass a pub the barman looks out of the door and says "Oi! Yer Uncle's on the phone for you!". The person called won't be able to explain how he instantly knew who they were or why he is so eager to help, but it wouldn't be fun if everything was explained...

  When the children return they'll find him looking a little better; he's been resting and taking various potions to keep him "ticking over" until his real heart can be found, but doesn't have much energy to spare for magic. He has one idea which the children can help him with; dowsing for Brown using maps of London. Needless to say he can't do this to find the heart, it's still concealed by the protective spell. He has Brown's business card, the children may have a photograph, and their day out has "sensitised" them to the layout of London.

  Since Brown is only a few miles away dowsing this way (treated as a Clairvoyance spell, or an example of extra-sensory perception using the Medium skill) should only be Difficulty 1, but things aren't quite that simple since the children have little or no idea of his location. Make this Difficulty 3 if Wizardry is used, Difficulty 4 if Medium is used.

  Uncle George's method is to blindfold the child with the strongest MAGIC and have them play "pin the tail on the donkey" with the photograph or card held in one hand and a silver hat pin in the other, and the train map of central London pinned to a wall. Each succesful result puts the pin into the area around Baker Street; on a 2 the pin goes precisely into Baker Street station. A failure puts the mark further from Baker Street, on a 12 the location is five miles or more away. Several tries should strongly suggest that the location is around Baker Street; moving to a larger scale map, it should be pinned down somewhere in the north end of Baker Street, near Regents Park. From there it's a matter of checking thirty or forty buildings to find the house described above.

• Once the children realise that they are looking for Brown around Baker Street they may think of going to Sherlock Holmes for help. Whether he exists in this world is left to the discretion of the referee; whether or not he does, the children will find him at 221B Baker Street, right in the middle of the search area - if he didn't exist, the children have just created him by their belief in him! Don't explain this or try to justify it using the magic rules in the Worldbook, it's a freak occurrence and can probably never be duplicated deliberately. As is often the case Holmes is lamenting the lack of interesting cases when the children arrive. How he reacts obviously depends on how much they tell him:
  • If they mention magic he won't take them seriously; the supernatural simply doesn't exist in his world-view, and he won't even be able to see some examples of magical power, such as the clockwork heart. He'll give them sixpence each and send them on their way.
  • If they tell him it's a matter of life and death, but refuse to explain more, he'll realise that they believe what they are saying and help them; the Baker Street Irregulars (all of whom are too "mature" to believe in magic) can soon track down the few new tenants in the area and locate Brown, only a few doors away. However, Holmes will then follow the children to find out what's really going on.
  • If they say that Brown has stolen a medical specimen from their uncle, or give some other excuse involving stolen goods, Holmes will offer to accompany them and help recover the goods. Some explanations may be needed when he sees the heart in its glowing jar!
  • If they claim to be sent by Brown's wife he will refuse to help; he doesn't do marital work.
  If the children did create him magically he (and his infrastructure of Irregulars, Dr. Watson, Mrs. Hudson, etc.) disappear again soon after the adventure ends, and the house is replaced by a shop and offices.

Sooner or later the children will catch up with Augustus Brown; after all, he's not really hiding as such, and he's rented rooms in his own name, he just hasn't given anyone his new address. As they approach the door of the house the heart detector lights up. Brown isn't expecting visitors, and will be horribly surprised when a group of children arrive at his door, especially if they are accompanied by a strong man and/or Sherlock Holmes!

While the children probably can't force him to give up the heart (unless Holmes or Alexander is helping them) their appearance and the implication of magical resources at their disposal are a good start towards persuading him to give it up. Some arguments that ought to help:

• Uncle George will die without it. Although Brown doesn't like what was done to him, he doesn't want to kill anyone.
• Uncle George will use his powers to extract horrible revenge if he doesn't get it back.
• The children will use their powers etc. (probably a bluff, but it might just work).
• Alexander will hit him (Alexander picks him up in one hand or bends a convenient poker to show it isn't an idle threat).
• Holmes will have him arrested (only useful if Holmes is with the children).
• Loud sobs and tears (always good for softening the hard-hearted).
• "I'll scream and scream and SCREAM if I don't get it". Another potent threat, Brown's aesthetic sensibilities will be badly bruised by a noisy scene.
• The children break in and try to steal it back - Brown will chase them around the apartment, but a speedy child should out-run a tired poet.
• Arguments about Brown's wife won't work; he's still badly hurt by the revelation of her magical hold on him. Nevertheless kind-hearted children may mention that she is really sorry that she did it, and wants his forgiveness. This paves the way for an eventual reconciliation.
• Once the children know Brown's location they may think of getting his wife to go there and do the negotiating for them. Getting her there will take at least an hour. Once she arrives there is an angry argument, followed by a sudden reconciliation. They unite in a long kiss (embarrassing the children) then shoo them out of the apartment; Brown gives them the heart almost as an after-thought.

Role-play as much of this as possible, and don't make things too easy for the children; Brown really wants to keep the heart, he has written more poetry in the last few hours than in the last several months, although most of it is more romantic than he would like. One answer might be to suggest a compromise; Uncle George could let Brown work near the heart when he isn't using it. The children probably won't think of this for themselves, but Uncle George might if consulted. Eventually this scene ought to end with the children in possession of the heart and preparing to return to Uncle George.

Piper's plan of part of the staff area at Henderson's Emporium is accurate, but doesn't show that there are telephones and pneumatic tube terminals in the Accounts office and the Security office, that the entrance to the corridor from the furniture department is a closed door marked "staff only" and manned by a store detective, and that there is a small ventilation grille (much too small for an adult) between a store room and the cell. Piper (or one of the other detectives) has taken the heart to Henderson's office, a floor above, and is there trying to explain why he has just involved the store in kidnapping. If the children don't interrogate Piper they will have to blunder around without a map. Henderson's office is on the floor immediately above the accounts office, and a heart detector will glow in this office, the corridor outside, or the store detectives' office.

What happens next depends on the children and their resourcefulness. Rescue should be difficult but possible if they use their ingenuity; if necessary, change details to match the resources available to the children. For example:

• If the police have been convinced, a small squad will be sent to the store and will arrest the "detectives" and release the child. Henderson will deny all knowledge of the kidnapping, of course, and his lackeys will refuse to talk since any admission will only make matters worse, giving the police no excuse to arrest Henderson or search his office. The kidnapee will be rescued but the heart won't be found; however, the detector shows that it is still in the store, a good first step to recovering it.
• If the children are trying to organise an unaided rescue, they need to find some way to get into this corridor. There is no easy access to the loading bay or the stairs (although fire doors allow their use as an escape route after a rescue), so it will have to be from the furniture department. If the adventurers include small children they could pretend that one badly needs a lavatory; the customers lavatories are on another floor at the other end of the building, and it's plausible that a small child can't wait that long. A small child could also claim to have lost his or her mother, and will be taken to the canteen for a soothing glass of milk while the mother is found. They could use diversionary tactics (such as having someone bounce on one of the beds in the furniture department to lure the guard away from the door) or set off a fire alarm. Alexander could simply hit the guard, knocking him out for a while.

  Whatever tactics they use, anything plausible should succeed. The cell can be opened from the security office (although a major diversion will be needed to get all of the store detectives out of the way), or a cunning child could unscrew the grille between the cell and the store room and escape that way. As mentioned above, the heart is no longer in this area.

• If Uncle George has been contacted, he will give the children a small bottle containing a chemical that fills the corridor (and large areas of the store) with a blinding mist, and special magical spectacles that let them see through the mist as though it isn't there. There is ample time for a rescue before the gas dissipates. He only has one bottle prepared.
• If Sir Waldo has been contacted he will go to the store with his ring (if possible collecting the children along the way), shrink, make his way under doors and through ventilators to the kidnapee, grow, shrink again (taking the kidnapee with him), and escape. Alternatively, the children may think of asking Uncle George for the same sort of shrinking spell and use it without Sir Waldo's help.
• If Lady Templeton is contacted she'll arrive with three grooms and nine fierce-looking dogs and threaten to horse-whip Henderson if he doesn't release "that poor child"; Henderson denies all knowledge but has an underling investigate - to Henderson's "surprise" there is a child in the detention cell. He will order an immediate release, with profound apologies.
• If parents are involved they will arrive with the police in tow as above. They will then want to know exactly what has been going on, and won't listen to any stories about magic. The natural assumption is that the children have somehow caused the situation. Time for a swift journey home and straight to bed with no tea! This again leaves the heart in Henderson's hands.

By the time a rescue party arrives Henderson will have locked the heart in the safe in his office; while it looks impressive, it's simply a locked steel cupboard, BODY 7, with a lock that is Difficulty 8 to pick, Difficulty 6 to break. A trained safebreaker could have it open in minutes - in seconds if he checks Henderson's desk first and finds the key in the bottom drawer! Alexander could also open the safe quickly; with a couple of doses of his "tonic" and a dumb-bell in his hand he is more than a match for the lock. The safe also contains the real accounts for the business - the ones that the tax-man doesn't see - and forty pounds in notes and coins, Henderson's personal money.

Remember that Henderson has no idea of the heart's importance; he thinks it's simply something Uncle George uses to perform spells, not a matter of life and death. If he finds out the truth he'll try to hold the heart for a "ransom" of magical power. One answer to the problem might be to pretend to give in, make it clear that Uncle George can't perform any magic without the heart, get it back, then cast a spell on Henderson that will keep him from being a nuisance in the future. Uncle George won't think of this for himself - he learned most of his magic in traditions in which it is important to keep your word, and will be reluctant to break any promises he has to make - but the children may have some creative ideas in this department. Using Uncle George's shrinking spell on him is one possibility, the children can undoubtedly think of others. Uncle George won't let the children do anything too harsh, assuming that he knows about it; if any child does anything too vicious it should be considered a drift towards evil, with consequences possibly ranging from nightmares to seduction by the forces of Darkness and eventual damnation.

If the children don't want to risk a frontal assault, there is access to Henderson's office through ventilation ducts which are just large enough for a small child, or someone could be shrunk and sent through the pneumatic tube system (although getting out of the capsule before returning to full size would be a problem). To put any of these ideas into effect the children will have to avoid the store detectives.

There are many other possibilities; for example, if the children befriended dragons in the first adventure they may be able to call on them for help. The Empress Idris can easily burn out the lock, and all adult dragons have ample strength to rip the safe open. If they have one of the dimensional keys described as an example in the magical rules they might be able to use it to unlock the safe door, step through to another world, and step back to find the safe still open. If they are learning magic, or have begun to master spells without formal tuition, they may think of other answers. If they have visited Sherlock Holmes, or magically created him, his apparent absence is an illusion; he's around somewhere in disguise (you didn't really believe he had another appointment, did you?) and will save the day. If they created him, he vanishes once they have the heart.

Whatever happens, Henderson will not be the first to involve the police and other authorities; he has a guilty conscience about the heart and some other illegalities such as his crooked accounts. If the heart is recovered and he escapes without serious consequences he will think about making another attempt to steal the secrets of magic, which can be a good excuse to run another adventure, but his tactics will probably be very different.

Unless the children are unusually unenterprising this should end with the recovery of the heart and its safe return to Uncle George.

Troubleshooting If nothing is done, or the children fail to locate the heart and abductee, Henderson orders his goons to give the victim a strong dose of laudanum (a powerful opium-based sedative) then dump them well away from the store. The victim eventually regains consciousness in a back alley a few blocks from home. They may know where the heart is, but hours will have been wasted. Uncle George is very weak; all he can do is suggest that the children try again (and check the suspects again if they don't know who has the heart, since something they said or did must have caused the theft). He breaks open a vial of glowing blue liquid and swallows it, saying "This will preserve me - when you have the heart, touch it to my chest.", lies back on his couch, and stops breathing, his skin glowing with the same eerie light as the potion. With these delays it will be evening and the children will be expected at home; they can't do anything until the following day. Fortunately Henderson will leave the heart in his office for several days, trying to work out what to do with it, and once in his trance Uncle George won't suffer further damage. In that time the children should be able to find an answer.

All that remains is to get the heart back to Uncle George with the minimum of delay. If Henderson has been deterred this won't be a problem, but it's a lot more fun to have a posse of store detectives pursuing the children across London. They will be clumsy bunglers, of course, and should run into as many accidents as the children can arrange (see e.g. the Home Alone films) without ever getting close to the heart.

When Uncle George is given the heart, or someone touches the jar to his chest, the golden glow of the liquid becomes blindingly bright for a few seconds, fading to reveal a heart-shaped clockwork heart in the liquid, and Uncle George yawning and stretching, almost instantly revitalised as it works its restorative magic.

For now the adventure is over. If the children have done well they won't even be late for tea, otherwise Uncle George escorts them home and helps them make their excuses.

Sherlock Holmes (The Great Detective)
BODY [6], MIND [7], SOUL [5], MAGIC [0], Actor (disguise) [10], Detective [10], Marksman [8], Martial Arts [9], Scientist [8], Stealth [10], Melee Weapons [8], Thief [9], Wizardry [0]
Spells: None
Equipment: Magnifying glass, laboratory, small revolver.
Quote: "I see that your shoes were repaired in Aberystwyth..."
Notes: The Great Detective, optionally assisted by Dr. Watson and the Baker Street Irregulars. He doesn't believe in magic, but given sufficient evidence may change his mind. He doesn't do divorce work.
If Holmes has been created magically his supporting cast still exists, and any Scotland Yard Bunglers encountered will still treat him as the genuine article; the spell has altered reality in a big way. Once his contact with the childen ends he and his home will disappear, replaced by a shop and offices on the site, and grown-ups will forget that he was ever there.

Finally, if they have done really well Uncle George will give them some training in magic. Bear in mind that he'll try to avoid teaching them anything dangerous or harmful to others; his spells will tend to emphasise self-improvement and helpiing others. His help means that the children who train with him may always try to improve their Wizardry skill if they have enough Bonus points.