[UA] Connected - Campaign Notes (longish)

[Daniel R. Lackey]

This one's loooooooooooong.

Here's some notes on the campaign I've been brewing for about a year and a
half.  With any luck, I should have it up and running by year's end.  (My
recent revival of Delta Green/Cthulhu activities, courtesy of my roommate,
may screw up this deadline somewhat.)  These are somewhat tenuous notes,
however, and a few holes remain.  I'm doing this primarily to get these
ideas sorted out in my head, but I don't have a conscience and have no
problem with dragging you all into my delusion.  If you feel the plot
doesn't have enough holes in it, feel free to poke some more.

I'm also really tired at this point, so please forgive overused or mixed
metaphors, crappy spelling or mechanics.

So, without further ado...

CONNECTED.  It's the name of the campaign, after the Stereo MC's
early-nineties hip-house classic.  In Kirkland, Wisconsin, everything's
connected.  The town has more of its share of avatars, adepts, and other
assorted occult freaks and geeks, and coincidence falls on your head like a
rain of live frogs.  The campaign is inspired by Jane Franklin and Scott
Josephus, who have entertained me for years with their stories of political
activism and bizarre personal habits in sleepy college towns.

THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE.  Haven't decided yet.  Most of my friends are
politically ambivalent; the Collective was concieved at a time when I was
considering moving from Chicagoland to Twin Citiesland (at the behest of an
Amoromancer, no less), and every gamer I know in Minneapolis is a liberal
activist.  (Actually, I don't know any of them, I only know of them.  But
that's the crowd I would have fallen in with.)  That idea got tanked, so the
Collective's importance may be downplayed somewhat.  I'm thinking the
Metaphysical Society might be a good structure for the group.  I'm also
considering TNI, but I think I want my players to be able to pick and choose
their alliances -- unless I drop the Barron/Abel angle, the TNI is going to
be pretty much opposed to the Collective.

MAJOR THEMES.  Change and Choice: Is human nature immutable, or can it be
altered?  Is humanity headed towards an ultimate destiny?  If so, is it good
or bad?  If it exists, can it be forced on a different path?  Which side are
you on?  Transcendence: When you have witnessed the evidence of things not
seen and not easily explained, how can you turn your back on it?  (I'm an
atheist, so this marks a SEVERE change in gaming ideology for me.) This
campaign will be significantly less dark than campaigns I've run in the
past: after nearly four-plus years of sporadic work on a Cthulhu campaign
which is specifically designed to have an unhappy ending, and seven years of
threatening to run a Sabbat Gehenna campaign for V:TM, I'd like to try
something with a lighter tone.  The horror aspect of the game is going to be
seriously downplayed when I do this.

Here are the two most important locales in the game:

KIRKLAND, WISCONSIN.  A small university town about sixty or so miles north
of Milwaukee (which would make it about a 3 to 4 hour drive north from
Chicago).  It's got 15,000 permanent residents, plus the 5,000 students at
St. Gregory's (see below).  A typical sleepy rural college town, or at least
it would be typical if it weren't a magnet for all manner of unnatural
weirdness.  Adepts and avatars gravitate towards the place; unnatural
phenomena occur several times a year (and those are the ones we hear about).
Over the town's 150-year history, at least four Godwalker showdowns have
occurred in Kirkland.  Coincidences are a way of life here: you might run
into the high school crush you haven't seen in ten years while here, or
maybe your worst enemy decided to go here on vacation the exact same time
you did.  Something's going on here, and a lot of people would like to know
what that something is.  (Including me.)

ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY.  It was a Catholic seminary until the early
1900's; despite its name, it severed its formal connection (the result of
some little-known scandal) to the church in the Fifties.  However, it
maintains covert, unpublicized ties to the church, and there's a chapel on
campus.  It's very well regarded for its liberal arts and social sciences
programs.

Kirkland is populated with people of my own invention:

DUKES.  Rybread Celsius is the town's prestigious pothead, and a very
bizarre Avatar indeed: he's the True King of Stoners.  He's universally
hated by the local cops; the town's Chief of Police, Arthur Sandifer, is
also the local True King of Cops.  (An Avatar war is imminent.)  Brother Jim
Trepkos preaches evangelical Christianity in the parks, and some of his
sympathizers claim he can work miracles.  A Cliomancer teaches history at
St. Gregory's, and one of the school's administrative staff is a Necessary
Servant.

THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY.  A social club operating out of St. Gregory's (a
few townies belong to it, though).  Ostensibly the group exists to "explore
metaphysical truths".  In practice, however, it's mainly an excuse for
disaffected Goths to sit around, smoke clove cigarettes, listen to Sisters
of Mercy and bitch about how much Christianity sucks.  A few of them are on
to something, however.  Their nominal leader, Jeremy "Nine Inch" Sayles, is
an adept of some sort -- possibly a Dipsomancer, or maybe an Irascimancer of
even an old-school Thaumaturgist.  Sayles is the only geniune adept in the
bunch, though, although several others can work quirky effects or use
psychic abilities.

THE PROGRESSIVE COLLECTIVE.  A blanket organization coordinating the
activities of several of St. Gregory's left-wing political-action groups.
Founded by sociology Prof. Christopher Fabricant, the Collective has a
secret agenda, which is to attempt to ensure ascensions of positive
archetypes by "improving" political awareness.  Many potent Avatars are
amongst the Collective's leadership.  Fabricant himself is an Avatar,
perhaps of the Demagogue or Rebel, or maybe even the True King.

THE ANARCHIST ROLLER DERBY.  Now defunct.  A liberal-politically oriented
punk/hip-hop band (think Rage Against the Machine crossed with Rancid) that
were actually based in Milwaukee.  Their guitarist-songwriter, Chas Barron,
is from upstate Wisconsin and attended St. Gregory's, and was involved with
the Collective.  Barron himself was a potent avatar (98%!) of the Rebel; the
band's vocalist, Ben Rubenstein, was an Amoromancer.  (Rubenstein's
ex-girlfriend is in fact Torie Sutton, a GMC I wrote up about six months
ago; her info is available at the UArchive.)  The band broke up after
Barron's murder a year ago -- but nobody seems to know who killed him, or
even how.  He didn't live in Kirkland, but visited often, and his body was
actually found in town.  I haven't decided who killed Barron and why, but
here's some ideas:
* The Rebel Godwalker got him.  After all, Barron was 98% and might have
been considering going for the gold.  Alternately, a rival Rebel might have
got him, or maybe even an avatar of a different (but rival) Archetype.
* The TNI (or the Sleepers, or St. Cecil) got him.  He was flamboyant and
knew a lot more than he should have.
* The Circle (described later) got him.  Maybe he was a threat to the
integrity of the Invisible Clergy -- whatever the hell that means.
* Le Comte got him.  Hey, it could happen.  (I've always wanted to do a
scenario that was a murder mystery in which the murderer was le Comte.  How
would you go about bringing him to justice?  You can't kill him, and he'll
just escape from prison anyway...)
* TOSG got him.  They hate everybody.  Well, not really, but it's not that
impossible.
* On top of all that, Barron was charismatic, a born leader, and arguably he
was a very GOOD person... but it's possible that he might have been GOOD
without being NICE.  (I have a friend who describes one of her exes as being
like that; he had good intentions and wanted to make the world a better
place.  His problem was that he was so concerned with the big picture that
he rarely paid attention to individuals.)  Barron pissed a lot of people
off -- and not just by being a political activist.  The murder itself may
not have had anything directly to do with the Underground... but in
Kirkland, everything's connected.

THE BOOK OF LIES.  Another band.  This one's actually from Chicago but has a
cult following amongst St. Gregory's students, and they play the area
frequently.  Each member of the band has some sort of occult connection.
Keyboardist Stephen DYN9 Craig is an Oneiromancer; vocalist Rachel Frisch is
on retainer for the Sect of the Naked Goddess; guitarist Torie Sutton (see
the UArchive) can cause stress checks in listeners by playing (the
unfortunate side effect of being the victim of a screw-and-run gone weird,
courtesy Ben Rubenstein); and bassist Jonathan Diehl is an unwitting and
low-grade avatar of the Unrequited Lover.  They're managed by former
Anarchist Roller Derby bassist Zachary Blaine.

THE CIRCLE.  Actually, the Circle is based out of Lake Geneva, but they send
their agents wherever they feel Statosphere upheaval is immenent: places
such as Kirkland, perhaps.  Less than two dozen nearly-immortal cabalists
(constantly reincarnating demons, kinda like the Grail Knights) oversee an
organization that is apparently charged with "protecting the integrity of
the Invisible Clergy" by preventing anyone from ascending as Karmic
Reincarnation before le Comte does.  However, when you've been alive for at
least two thousand years you tend to forget things, and someone stole their
records several centuries ago, so they're not really sure how anyone would
ascend as Karmic Reincarnation before le Comte.  So they just blunder
around, send their agents to places where the Invisible Clergy are exerting
undue influence, and hope for the best.  They believe that le Comte founded
their cabal and led it for a long time, but they've been unable to locate
him for the last century.  Oh, yeah, and they have a Major Ritual on their
hands, which steals the immortality from one of their immortal members.  The
Major Ritual that actually grants the immortality, however, has been lost,
surprise surprise surprise.

No UA campaign would be complete without fivescore batallions of canon
characters crawling out of the woodwork like a bunch of things that live in
wood.  Let's mention:

NAKED GODDESS SECT.  Pagan Video, the Sect's video-releasing arm, is based
in Milwaukee.  Also, Christopher Fabricant is a staunch ideological foe of
the Sect, as he sees the Goddess' ascension as the product of a debased
culture.  However, neither the Sect nor the Collective have yet to make any
concrete move against the other -- nor are they really likely to.

NEW INQUISITION.  A couple of years back, one of Axel Abel's companies
established a chemical-processing plant just outside Kirkland.  Several
protests were enacted, and the Collective was involved.  Specifically, Chas
Barron showed up waving a sign with Abel's picture on it.  However, this was
supposed to have been one of those companies that nobody knew Abel owned.
Abel wanted to know why some punk guitarist he'd never even heard of knew
about it.  TNI have had an interest in the Collective ever since, and have
one of their teams (the facetiously named Grinning Evil Death) keeping tabs
on the Collective.

TRUE ORDER OF SAINT-GERMAIN.  TOSG has a survivalist commune situated about
ten miles west of Kirkland, but they don't on the whole bother anybody.
This may change.

MAK ATTAX.  Jane Lowdendowski ("Heaven17" on the mailing list) is a college
student and freshly minted adept doing her job at the local mall.  She's an
Amoromancer, which means she meets all sorts of people when she goes
charge-hunting.  She discreetly keeps tabs on occult goings-on in the town
and passes them along to Derek Jackson (who happens to be acquainted with
the Collective's leadership - his mentor, Janet Kumyar, was an associate of
Fabricant).  Jackson hasn't ordered any overt activity to be taken yet.

SLEEPERS.  The Sleepers have long been aware of the weirdness that goes on
in Kirkland, and have an agent (Kyle Downing, a Cliomancer and former pupil
of Angela Forsythe) monitoring the situation.  Downing's not an enforcer,
but he can call a bunch in if he needs to.

ORDER OF ST. CECIL.  St. Gregory's is no longer a purely religious
institution, but they can still call upon God's Special Forces if they need
to.

101. One of the members of Book of Lies (Stephen DYN9 Craig, the
keyboardist) worked with them during a band hiatus and managed to pick up
Oneiromancy.

Finally, we have:

UNNATURAL CREATURES.  They tend to gravitate to Kirkland.  For example, the
county has never been without a golem for more than a week at any time
during the last 150 years.  Nobody's figured that one out, though.

(smashes bottle of champagne against monitor) Okay, I officially declare
this one Open to the Peanut Gallery.  Comments, anyone?

-- DRL

DRLackey at mindless.com -- http://home.earthlink.net/~jmdreyfuss/
The Finger Pointing Society: http://listen.to/finger-pointing-society/



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