Section 1- Overview
The world of Steamrun borrows heavily from S.M. Peters' Whitechapel Gods, but the author of this game (using FASA's third-edition Shadowrun as a base) has taken great liberties with history, the story, and the game world in general, thus assuring that anyone who has read the book will still find plenty of surprises waiting for them amid the fog. Given that information, it should be apparent that this "alpha version" of the game centers on the Whitechapel district of London, as ruled by Grandfather Clock and Mama Engine.
A Stately March to the Apocalypse
In 1838, a scant year after beginning her reign, Queen Victoria funded an expedition to parts of Africa previously unknown. At the behest of Her Majesty's advisors, the expedition crew consisted of five hundred of the Empire's finest soldiers (including a number of decorated heroes); several dozen assorted biologists, botanists, physicians, geologists, and other scientific types; and, among the scores of servants accompanying the more valuable individuals, an unprecedented failure of an architect by the name of Atlas Hume. The purpose of the expedition was to explore a finite area of the uncharted African region and send back a full report after one year. To the surprise of some and in line with the predictions of many, the expedition failed to send their report- all evidence indicated that they had met their end on the Dark Continent. A small force was dispatched to confirm one way or the other the fate of the expedition, but they found no evidence that their quarry had even ever arrived on Africa's shores. Befuddled and slightly depressed, the seekers returned home and informed Her Majesty of the bad news. That seemed to be the end of it.
But, of course, things would not be how they are now were that the end of the story. Atlas Hume returned to London in 1840 leading a bloodied and battered contingent of a hundred soldiers and a few servants, the survivors of the expedition. The others, Hume reported, had all been killed, though none of them could say for certain what had done it. The scientists, mysteriously, were dead to a man.
A mere month after the expedition's less-than-triumphant homecoming (with, I might add, a shoddy report), the first Boiler Men appeared in Whitechapel, Atlas Hume's hometown. Standing twice as tall as a normal man and encased in thick armor of cast iron, their only discernible feature two pits of smoldering embers where eyes should be, they marched in and immediately began shutting Whitechapel down. Within a week citizens were confined to their homes after dark and all the might of the British Empire combined could not stop them from erecting their massive wall.
The Whitechapel Wall: nearly a kilometer and a half high and a hundred meters thick, formed of metal from an indeterminate source- and completely cutting off Whitechapel from the outside world, save for the occasional German airships the city's new ruler allowed to deliver supplies. Yes, the city's new ruler: "Baron" Hume. With his army of Boiler Men and those who willingly came to his side, Hume dominated Whitechapel unquestioned.
Within weeks of the Whitechapel Wall's completion, the towers began to sprout from the ground. Seemingly at random, entire buildings grew from the ground, some extending as much as a kilometer above the Wall. Quickly the lower levels became unlivable and the entire population was forced to move upward, dividing Whitechapel into the Upstreets and the Downstreets. More on that later. In some places, in addition to the towers, girders pushed through the ground and the sides of buildings, creating "forests" of iron and steel. Things got really bad when machinery appeared from nowhere, creating factories and impossibly large clockwork things that showed up overnight. All over the city fell a thick fog, thicker than London's with twice as many negative side effects. Whitechapel's near-total isolation was complete.
The Uprising
A year passed with Hume in complete and utter control. Attempts to overthrow the Baron and destroy his army resulted in failure. For all intents and purposes, Baron Hume was invincible. Out of the dozens- scores, even -of revolts, only one bears mentioning. It happened this way:
On a nameless street somewhere in the city (no one can agree exactly where), the Boiler Men appeared and began closing down the neighborhood. The reason, explained an official accompanying the monsters, was that the Baron suspected a rebel group to be based out of one of the street's many businesses. A number of workmen confronted the official, informing him that there were no revolutionaries in the area and demanding that he leave immediately. The Boiler Men gunned down the workmen an instant later. Someone shot the official through the head from an alleyway. In the resulting chaos, the Boiler Men retreated rather than slaughter every civilian on the street. By the end of the week, more than a hundred people had taken up arms and reclaimed half a district. Rumor has it they made their headquarters in a section of sewer unknown even to Hume.
Again, though, the situation would not be what it is if the Uprising had been successful. Despite their best efforts to drive out the Baron and keep their location a secret, the Boiler Men found an entrance to the rebels' hideout, intent on capturing who they could. When they couldn't find the men, they killed the women and children instead. The screams, it was said, could be heard from the streets above. One night was all it took to clear the base, and the Uprising was over.
