The Curious Case of Bare-Knuckle Bill is the first of two Cthulhu by Gaslight scenarios. The investigators get an earnest plea for assistance from an urchin who fears his pugilist friend, William Hawthorne, aka 'Bare Knuckle Bill', has been waylaid and may be dying in a ditch somewhere. The case soon reveals itself to be more than a mere missing person case as Fenians, Ruffians, and a mysterious woman all begin to hamper the Investigators inquiries.