Mort’s Landing derived its name, not unsurprisingly from Mort, not Morte as in Dead Landing as you may have first thought. Mort never actually stepped foot in the small trading station in South East Asia that bore his name, he never, ever intended to visit the place and as he’s been dead over 40 years he never will.
Charles Ray Mortimer won the station playing five card stud in a smoky backroom in San Francisco’s China Town. The story goes that he won it from a close associate and confidant, one Professor Winslow but as with most of the stories about Mort this is only partly true. Indeed it’s mostly untrue but that’s a story for another day…..hopefully!
Similarly the myths about Carlotta Wynn, his lover, confidante, and confederate in crime, finding the legendary tomb of Qui Chi Men in the wilderness between Wuhan and Xi'an has never been substantiated. Although if Qui Chi Men, was actually Qin Shi Huang pronounced "Chin Shi Huang", he was certainly a historical figure, the first emperor of a unified China and many had searched for his tomb, said to exist deep within the Yangzi Jungle but none has claimed success.
The link between Mort, Carlotta and the infamous Mabel Street Mob is a strange and tenuous one, more myth and fantasy than Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
That’s the reason for me building Morts Landing in the first
place and hopefully one day I’ll recount it, but not today.
Today is about Becky Beaumont and her search for the Red Jade Buddha.
This search goes back quite a long way and when I looked for the last game/episode in the series I posted it on the blog in 2019, you will appreciate I’m not the fastest horse in the stable.
The story behind Mort’s Landing though has some relevance, because after a long and arduous journey Becky has finally reached the Landing in an old decrepit river boat, captained by Jonathan Hawke, an old and decrepit river boat captain.
She needs to find a guide who will be able, and willing to take her on the next step of her journey, this is to the Buddhist Monastery at Banteay Chhmar.
Banteay Chhmar is mostly a ruin, inhabited by a few resolute monks and has been the subject of repeated attacks by tomb raiders over the centuries. It’s their most precious artefact that Becky has been tasked by her missing father to recover and return to the Monks at Banteay Chhmar, the famous Red Jade Budhha.
Becky is not the only one trying to recover this artefact, but she is the only one who is intending to return it to its rightful owners.
On this stage of her journey she is accompanied by the world famous news hound Katie Monk. Katie normally travels with her camera man Donald Tranji and her two faithful bodyguards Gasper and Big Freddie.
I say accompanied but that is too finer point. Becky would be far happier travelling without Katie and indeed has persuaded Hawke not to take her as a paying passenger on his decrepit river boat but Katie is a hard woman to shake and she has hired another down and out, one Torvald Karlsenn, to ship her upstream alongside Becky.
The residents of Morts Landing were already well aware of the two boats making their way upstream and the White Hyacinth Tong had a reception committee waiting on the dock.
I shall play the game solo using my normal set of rules in which each character has 15 different characteristics. Decisions are made using dice rolls to give an outcome. So for example when Becky meets Mei-Ling the leader of the reception committee she will use her Charisma to persuade Mei-Ling to allow her ashore. Mei-Ling will oppose this request using her Brains characteristic. There will be a mini ‘fight’ and depending on the result one or the other will win the ‘argument’ and the magnitude of the win will determine to outcome.
There is an uneasy alliance in Morts Landing between the three main groupings of crooked gangsters. The Chinese, the Japanese and rather surprisingly the Americans. You shouldn't think this is based on nationality, alliances are fluid and short term.
The Japanese arrived in the early 30’s, they were a mean and vicious bunch of thugs and their descendants are much the same. Amori Mizuke is the chief enforcer for the local Yakuza clan who are unusual in so much as they allow female working members of the clan.
As part of the Inagawa-gumi their interests have expanded outside of Japan and in Morts Landing their prime interest is Heroin. The dried opium is brought into the Landing by the Chinese but it is the Japanese who have the facility to turn this into prime Heroin and strangely their main market is Russia.
As a side-line to this trade they have developed a small but lucrative market for modern day slave trading. As I said they are a mean and vicious bunch, not to be trusted or tangled with.
Charlene represents the current incarnation of the 20’s gangsters that we are all familiar with from the Philip Marlow and Sam Spade novels. She represents a mix of legal and illegal racketeering. A conduit for opium but mainly heroin, going back to the States as well as lucrative goods arriving from the West Coast of California, ones that are hard to find in SE Asia.
She operates out of a large warehouse that was originally in the ownership of the long dead Charles Ray Mortimer
This is Little Nippon and the area of Morts Landing that sees the opium turned into heroin.
It’s surprisingly easy to conduct this transformation, not
dissimilar to producing Bath Tub Gin. Not that I’d know anything about either
process.
With so many people making their dishonest crust here and with plenty to attract less dishonest people, the market place is where there’s much activity to ensure this trade is serviced satisfactorily, as well as at a nice profit.
Security and discretion are of paramount importance to the citizens of Morts Landing and the whole place is ringed with chain link fencing. The gate is guarded by two of the most unsavoury characters in the Station. Xiao Hui and Yang Ting Kai.
This is the rear of Charlene’s warehouse. Bulk goods come in by river but are transhipped into the interior by truck. In some cases mule trains are still needed for the more inaccessible clients in those hard to reach locations.
The head quarters of the White Hyacinthe Tong, who could indeed really be called the White Hyacinthe Triad they are so heavily into criminal activity. The head of the Tong likes to think of himself as the benevolent ruler of Morts Landing, overseeing things in a fair but firm manner.
Most of the citizens might not recognise that description of him, but it’s all a question of perspective I suppose.
There are two doors on the river frontage and depending on which door you are invited into the building will give you some indication of the reception you might encounter inside.
Speaking of the benevolent despot ruling Morts Landing here is the man himself, Zuou Jie, on his left is Hai Wan Jun, otherwise known as The Iron Fist and on his right is Fu Qing Sung Lee. Jun’s job is fairly obvious but Sung Lee’s role is a little more, shall we say….undefined.
If you have read some of Becky’s previous adventures on her journey to Morts Landing and can remember them you will have come across Count Jaques Sparkk, if not, suffice to say the Count is a competitor for the Red Jade Buddha last seen in India I believe but I may be wrong. Its a while since I read them myself.
Anyway that’s the background to Morts Landing and some of the main characters who reside and work there.
I’ve been building Morts Landing slowly over this last year with a view to trying to play some games set in the 1920’s/30’s here. I’m hoping to try and do this in some form of collaborative way with the man who originally brought Carlotta Wynn and Charles Ray Mortimer to life a good few years ago. I’ve still no clear idea how I might bring this about but as they say….watch this space.
