[UA] Starting out... (Don't read this if you're in my upcoming game)

[Rich Ranallo]

We're making characters for my fledgling UA campaign this week, and I'm
making mental sketches about how the game is going to go, from beginning to
end. I thought some feedback would be helpful.

The PCs will be playing a Mak Attax franchise crew based out of Westmont,
Illinois, a rusty little suburb of Chicago. In real life, I've experienced
more weirdness in one day of lingering in downtown Westmont than a year
spent anywhere else.

Right now, I've got a few good plot points going, but I'm having a little
trouble linking them up.

First, an old man--a Special Order recipient--gets hit and killed by a train
right after leaving the restaurant, before any unnatural phenomena manifest
around him. A list member will conveniently suggest (if the group doesn't
decide this on their own) that they follow the body from his wake to his
funeral and burial, to see if any weirdness goes on there; they might be
able to get some valuable information about the nature of charges and how
they're passed on this way.

Here's my first problem; I'm hoping that the group decides to crash the
guy's funeral. It shouldn't be tough to convince my players that this is the
best course of action, of course, but if they don't, things are kinda stuck.
Once in the funeral, they find out that the family is pretty troubled by the
fact that they couldn't get the deceased's tuxedo back from the dry cleaner
that had been storing it. The guy had always wanted to be buried in it,
since he wore it to his wedding, but he had to go to his coffin in a cheap
suit because the dry cleaner was being an ass about giving the tux up.

Point number two: I want the group to start looking into the dry cleaners'
itself, but this seems like a little tenuous of a hold. I'm betting on the
Philanthropic Principle and a general feeling that the group might actually
be responsible for the guy's death leading them to a bit of obligation to
the family.

Once they start looking into the cleaners, and its owner in particular, the
plot is pretty simple: the owner is an occultist with a severe Egypt fetish.
He's discovered a ritual that allows him to travel to the land of the dead
(or so he thinks), but this requires the clothing from a recently-deceased
wealthy person. By wearing the clothes, he can fool the dead into thinking
that he belongs there...until he gets to the front of the line and has to
present his heart to Anubis for judgment. Being a living human, he can't
rightly tear his own heart out and expect to ever return to the land of the
living, but he's obsessed with doing just that. He steals clothes from his
dead clients to travel there and back for reconnaissance, but he needs a
human heart in order to go all the way. The heart of a young, idealistic
occult revolutionary would do nicely (mechanics-wise, the heart will have to
come from someone with no hardened or failed madness notches, which at least
one PC will have).

Of course, in realty, it's not the afterlife that the cleaner has gotten
access to; just an Otherspace that strongly reflects Egyptian mythology.
This fact will come as little consolation to any poor Attaxer that gets his
heart ripped out in the attempt, though.

>From Whom It May Concern,
Rich Ranallo

"I don't have any problem with any of the ghosts. Remember, I'm perfect."
- Billy Mitchell, world Pac-Man champion