[DitV] Delta Green town - Alexandria (long)

[WJ MacGuffin]

Hi folks! I'm running a Delta Green/Dogs in the Vineyard crossover game in a few weeks and wanted to know what y'all thought of my town. It was a little difficult marrying the Faith to mythos, but I think it works. Here it goes!

Alexandria

A small town in the Pennsylvania rust belt relatively isolated in the Allegheny Mountains. (The next nearest town is a good 30 miles away.) It was a steel town; almost everyone worked for Amalgamated Metal's steel mill. In 1976, with the recession in full swing, Amalgamated Metals announced it would be closing the mill. The townsfolk began to panic, and the town's Chamber of Commerce held an emergency meeting.

1.A.: PRIDE:

• Mayor Tommy Palmer could have convinced AM to keep the mill open but that would have required some serious begging and bribing, something Palmer was too good for. He does not want this known by the city. 
  Mrs. Mary Cassatt Palmer enjoyed being the center of gossip and attention as the Mayor's wife. She did not want her husband to lose his job over the closing or she'd lose the perks that came along with it.
  Pastor Edward Hanford believed in the "good people of Alexandria" much more than God and did not want "his" people to suffer.
  Union Chief Stewart Calder loved the power and extra pay from being head of the local steel workers union and did not want to lose either.

At the Chamber of Commerce meeting, everyone was shouting and accusing each other of dropping the ball when a tall man entered the meeting hall. He called himself Mr. Schwartzmann and claimed to be a union representative from the East Coast. He had a surefire plan to keep the mill open, if the town wanted it. It was unusual, even drastic, but the situation was equally drastic, wasn't it? The Chamber voted unanimously to accept Schwartzmann's plan before they even heard it.

1.B.: INJUSTICE:

The plan called for kidnapping the daughter of AM's president, blackmailing him to keep the mill open. Mayor Palmer, Mrs. Palmer, and Chief Calder agreed quickly, and eventually Pastor Hanford agreed it would be best for "his" people. The kidnapping went smoothly; the blackmail worked; and the mill stayed open.

But Schwartzmann was not done. He told them this was a temporary fix and the mill could still close in a few years—such was the way of things in the 1970s. He offered another plan, one that would keep the mill open forever and allow the four of them to satisfy their needs for decades to come. Schwartzmann easily manipulated the four with dire warnings of losing their positions in Alexandria and promises of more power, all covered with a thin veneer of "doing what is best for the fine people of Alexandria". All that was required, said Schwartzmann, was a small sacrifice.

2.A.: SIN

The sacrifice was literal--and human. The four leaders, convinced this was all for the good of their community (and themselves, of course), kidnapped a drifter and, under the direction of Schwartzmann, executed him at night by Lake Tamarak, a large lake on the outskirts of town. All four were disgusted by the ritual, especially Pastor Hanford, but Schwartzmann kept reminding them of the benefits for the town. 

When the ritual was finished, the moonlit waters of the lake surged and churned until a slick tentacle snaked out of the water and presented the four with a rusted metal box. Inside the box were ten metallic shards along with a scroll depicting some ancient priests putting the shards in the necks of bound victims. These victims quickly died but were controlled by the priests' minds.

The Chamber of Commerce invited John Paul Mortimer, owner of Amalgamated Metals, to Alexandria for a summit on the future of the steel mill. Once Mortimer was in town, the four assaulted him and shoved a metallic shard in his neck. At once, Mortimer died but became the thrall of the four—the mill would never be closed now. Mortimer "moved" to Alexandria and Schwartzmann collected a fee from the Chamber before leaving.

2:B.: DEMONIC ATTACKS

Schwartzmann is really Nyarlothotep, one of the Outer Gods. He delights in corrupting mankind and saw a wonderful opportunity to corrupt an entire town when he found Alexandria. The creature in the lake is Glaaki, a Great Old One called by the ritual at the lake's edge. The shards are part of his body and allow Glaaki to control any victim with an implanted shard. (Glaaki allows the four leaders to control his servants simply because its part of the plan.)

A few months after the four leaders took control of the mill's owner, Glaaki secretly ordered Mortimor to set fire to the mill. Mortimor died in the process but the townsfolk panicked, wondering how they would live with the mill gone. Of course, Schwartzmann soon appeared, being "... just in the neighborhood and wanting to drop by to see how my friends in Alexandria were doing." The four leaders quickly dragged him into a private room and begged for help.

Not a problem, he said. In fact, he recently purchased an old book that would help. It would only require a small sacrifice. Well, maybe not that small ....

3.A.: FALSE DOCTRINE

Schwartzmann (Nyarlathotep) shared Cultes de Goules with the four leaders, a French tome of black magic. By now, the four leaders were somewhat insane and, perhaps more importantly, eager to ensure their power and position by any means. Under Schwartzmann's guidance, the four selected a ritual that would grant themselves immortality. The price was one human sacrifice each year, a price the four were willing to pay. They didn't realize until after the sacrifice that they had to eat the corpse but that didn't stop them.

The four now believed in sacrificing one of their residents each year so the town can continue to benefit from their leadership forever. After the ritual was complete, the four found they didn't need food or water—they were immortal. Schwartzmann encouraged them to try other rituals from the Cultes des Goules and left.

3.B.: CORRUPT WORSHIP

A few years passed and the four leaders realized they couldn't keep making people disappear without getting caught, so they slowly began recruiting members of the Chamber of Commerce into their group. Those who refused were either sacrificed or had a shard of Glaaki shoved in their neck. Soon enough, the town was dominated behind the scenes by a Chamber of Commerce worshipping the Great Old Ones, using the Cultes des Goules as their Bible.

Over the years, the cult expanded until almost everyone in town is a member, either voluntarily or as Servants of Glaaki. They worship the Great Old Ones every Sunday at St. John's Church and at Lake Tamarak once a month. The four leaders have shared the ritual that granted them immortality to all cultists, and they all partake of a ritual feast of human flesh yearly to maintain their immortality. They don't need jobs anymore, so the mill remains a charred hulk.

4.A.: FALSE PRIESTHOOD

Pastor Hanford is leader of the cult; Mayor Palmer and Mrs. Palmer run the town government; and Chief Calder maintains security and secrecy. However, the four meet regularly and share duties more often than not. All four are quite insane but powerful. They're immortality has corrupted them physically. Chief Calder is barely human now; Pastor Hanford can appear normal if wearing his vestments; and the Palmers are mostly normal.

4.B.: SORCERY

The four uses the Cultes des Goules like a textbook on how to run a town. When there is a problem such as someone looking to move to Alexandria or a natural disaster, they first turn to the book for a spell to fix the problem. They have also used the book to summon a pair of byankhee and some rat-things.

5.A.: HATE & MURDER

By 2010, the cult is beginning to get worried. They used to run a lottery to select who would be sacrificed and eaten each year, but the townsfolk are beginning to rebel against that. What's the point of immortality if you have to worry about being killed each year? Residents began to go out and kidnap their own sacrificial victims despite the worries of the four leaders. The cult is close to in-fighting over the issue.

Worse, these kidnappings are not going unnoticed. This is what sends the Delta Green agents to Alexandia.

[Paul T]

This sounds like it would be very... different... from Dogs play.

What are going for with this? Do you have experience running Dogs?

I, for one, worry that you've left out the most important part: what do the NPCs want from the Dogs?

But maybe that's not what you're looking to get from the game at all, I don't know.

Tell us more about what kind of play you're aiming to achieve with this game!

[WJ MacGuffin]

Thanks for the post, Paul. I'm the kinda guy who can't seem to grok a game until I start writing about it. Looking back, I'm not happy with it--no good guys in the town and the bad guys are too aligned. I'll fix that shortly.

As for what the NPCs want from the dogs, I just haven't gotten to that yet.

The kind of play I want? The fun kind, of course! I want to start as a standard Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green adventure but then bring in some moral ambiguity, where the dogs start off damn sure where the town is wrong and they're right, only to be much less sure the more they learn. That's not coming through in the town creation, so let me edit it.

And I've played twice but never GMed. Like I said, still trying to grok the game, so feel free to point out anything you feel is wrong or mistaken. I'd appreciate that!

[WJ MacGuffin]

There. Is this better?

PRIDE
-   Mayor Tommy Palmer has been mayor of Alexandria for 16 years and believes the office belongs to him forever.
-   Mrs. Mary Palmer is jealous of the perks and prestige her husband gets and wants to take his place as mayor. 
-   Pastor Hanford believes he knows what the people need better than anyone, especially Mayor Palmer.

INJUSTICE
-   Mrs. Palmer secretly meets with Hanford to plan her husband's electoral loss. Hanford runs a smear-filled campaign for mayor, filled with lies from Mrs. Palmer.
-   Mayor Palmer, facing his first electoral loss, has the town's sheriff arrest Pastor Hanford on false allegations of sexual abuse. This causes Hanford to lose the election to Mayor Palmer.

SIN
-   Faithlessness: Pastor Hanford loses his faith in God because God allowed his loss and humiliation. His sermons are more about him and less about God.
-   Sex: When Hanford is released a few days later, he and Mrs. Palmer commiserate over Palmer's win and begin an affair.
-   Faithlessness: Nyarlathotep offers his help in turning the town against Mayor Palmer. Hanford and Mrs. Palmer agree.

DEMONIC ATTACKS
-   Hanford and Mrs. Palmer use black magic to cause problems in town attributed to Mayor Palmer's policies. Everything the Mayor does seems to end badly.
-   Hanford sacrifices some of his most trusting and ardent supporters with Nyarlothotep's help. They become undead servants. 

FALSE DOCTRINE
-   God does not exist. Laws do not exist. They only thing that exists is strength. Those who are strong should dominate the weak.

CORRUPT PRACTICES
-   Hanford and Mrs. Palmer worship the Great Old Ones because they can give the two power and strength to defeat Mayor Palmer.

FALSE PRIESTHOOD
-   Hanford and Mrs. Palmer carefully recruit select townsfolk to join the cult. Those that disagree are turned into undead servants.
-   Hanford is the sorcerer, but Mrs. Palmer starts preparing to kill Hanford and take over the cult and has become a sorcerer in her own right.
-   The cult is targeting locals who support Mayor Palmer. There are nighttime attacks by undead servants and mythos creatures summoned by Hanford. These are usually not fatal but are still dangerous.

HATE & MURDER
-   The Sheriff was recently murdered by the cult because of his support for Mayor Palmer.
-   The Mayor is blaming Hanford for the attacks and is whipping the town into an angry, paranoid mob. However, many feel the Mayor is somehow to blame and are preparing their own hateful mob.


What the NPCs want from the Dogs:
-   Mayor Tommy Palmer wants the dogs to determine what's behind the attacks and death of his Sheriff. He does not want the dogs to see how he rigged the mayoral election.
-   Pastor Hanford is having second thoughts about abandoning Christianity and wants the dogs to give him an excuse and the impetus to leave the mythos and return to God.
-   Mrs. Mary Palmer wants the dogs to kill her husband (Mayor Palmer) and her lover (Pastor Hanford) so she can run for mayor.