The Theatre of Death
Garrie Hall

	It has long been known that Chinese immigrants living and 
working in London's docklands have imported their own brand of 
organized crime.
	The Tongs control most Chinese businesses in London and the 
police have identified at least four different Tongs controlling 
everything from petty crime to prostitution. They believe that drugs, 
particularly opium, are directly controlled by the Tong known as the 
Rising Dragon, its leader the mysterious Doctor Cheng.
	However, the police are far from making any arrests and have 
yet to identify Doctor Cheng. While his activities remain confined to 
the Chinese community they are not persuing their investigations that 
zealously.

	Dr Cheng is a woman, a nite club illusionist called Lin May 
and her hold over her Tong comes from her skills as a necromancer.
	Lin May is extremely beautiful and twice as deadly. Cold and 
cunning she is the perfect femme fatale. She demands absolute loyalty 
of her companions but in return will help them any way she can. To her 
enemies, and those that break her loyalty, she is death.
	While leaving the mundane world of criminal activities to the 
other Tong leaders Doctor Cheng offers a highly specialized service to 
the decadent rich in the shape of her Theatre of Death. To thrill 
hungry little rich kids, the Theatre is the ultimate decadence. A 
place of excitement and death not available anywhere else. Once a 
month a huge warehouse is turned into a great theatre to which the 
cream of Europe's elite flock. The only way in is by invitation, and 
invitations are both scarce and expensive. Once there, guests 
participate in all manners of death, violence and sexual perversion.
	The main attraction is Doctor Cheng's illusory performance, 
but the audience is 'warmed up' first by a vicious display of fighting 
between newly dead celebrity zombies. The zombies are newly reanimated 
by Cheng, and the more famous the better. Cheng has connections in 
very high (and very low) places that supply her with corpses.
	After Doctor Cheng's performance there are other delights to 
amuse the guests, including a bizarre game involving taking vagrants 
from the street and offering them three boxes. In two are death, the 
other riches. Each box has a glass back so that the audience can 
ghoulishly watch the poor tramp make his choice.
	In other, curtained, sections guests participate in perverse 
sexual practices both with each other and the staff. Opium taking is 
commonplace, Doctor Cheng presides over it all. Her guests arrive 
loaded with money, most of which is spent during the night.
	All the staff are dead. Some are almost fresh and barely 
marked, others are rotting heaps of flesh. All wear simple white 
aprons and many serve drinks or opium. Necrophilia is common in the 
Theatre of Death.
	Doctor Cheng herself is constantly flanked by two bodyguards. 
Zombie fighters dressed in ancient, ornate armour in the manner of her 
ancestors. They protect here against her guests, for occasionally in 
their opium induced haze they forget themselves. Cheng has no real 
need for the guards, but it helps to impress her guests.
	The guests themselves will discourage investigation into the 
place. All of them have much to lose should it be discovered that they 
frequent such a place. Curious individuals can make themselves many 
very powerful enemies in a matter of minutes. The police will never 
raid the place, Doctor Cheng's guests will see to that. Several 
Scotland Yard Inspectors and prominent members of Parliament will 
crush any investigation before it starts. The remains of corpses, 
those that cannot be re-used, are dumped into the Thames and never 
seen again.

Possibilities
1       Lin May is the head of a small sect of The Corpse Eating Cult 
of Leng. After the Theatre of Death has finished she, and her cult, 
fall upon the zombies and feed on them. They chant and worship their 
foul god for many hours before the Theatre of Death is truly over.
	None of the 'normal' clientele know of the cult and none would 
do anything about it. After what they have been doing, are the cult 
rites that much worse?

2       Lin May's necromantic and illusory skills have their origins 
in Chinese black magic. She is aware of the power of the Great Old 
Ones and their followers but provided they do not intrude on her 
territory she takes no action. Her arcane arts are more than a match 
for most cults and if recruited she would make a powerful ally against 
the forces of darkness. However, making her acquaintance (let alone 
recruiting her) is not easy.

3       Doctor Cheng worships Nyarlathotep. During her illusory act 
she works her audience into such a frenzy that the Outer God is 
summoned to the Theatre of Death. From the moment he appears the 
Crawling Chaos -in the form of the black man- sits by her side. Her 
dream is to become Nyarlathotep's bride, something which the god has 
promised many times. He has yet to deliver, but Lin May continues 
holding the Theatre of Death in his name. Perhaps soon he will make 
her dream come true.

Copyright (c) 1990 Garrie Hall