A few years ago I was faced with an interesting challenge, to create a credible and mystery-filled conspiracy. Brought about by my players' prospectus votes for Corrupted Transmission, my players showed they wanted their characters to unravel layers of conspiracy. Thus my challenge: understand the thought process behind conspiracy theories and construct multiple conflicting ways to view the same phenomena.
The first part was so I could depict the characters already enmeshed in the conspiracy realistically, the crazy folk who had gone down the rabbit hole before the player characters. The later bit was mostly for myself. I wanted to ensure that I did not become locked into one version of the events and to preserve some wiggle room in case I needed to alter the reality of the conspiracy later. An important aspect I wanted to incorporate was that any given conspiracy theory is a view of world from outside of the conspiracy. Thus each should incorrect or incomplete in some way.
The two I recall finding most useful to me were Robert Anton Wilson's book Everything is Under Control for a skeptic's encyclopedic overview of conspiracy theory and Colin Wilson's book Alien Dawn for an insight into how a believer heads down the rabbit hole. I came across the second book through a mix of Ken Hite's recommendations and Amazon's helpfulness. Alien Dawn was helpful in helping me realize how the potential conspiracy theorist thinks, how they, in the process of collecting evidence to buttress their argument, fail to remove any tangential or just plain crazy connections from their growing narrative they are building.
Elements
Warning Spoilers!!In constructing my conspiracy theories I had a number of items I wanted to include, essentially my palette of locations and foes that I might use in my game. These were mostly drawn from the World of Darkness books:
Hillcrest Mental Health Center (WoD Asylum & WoD Mysterious Places) is my version of Bishopgate Asylum which also incorporates the Garden from the Hillcrest Center for Elder Living from Mysterious Places. In my campaign, this was the place one of the characters worked at and where an important NPC, Frank Brooks, was committed. The site of mysterious hauntings, the tunnels below the main building are the home of Bateman's children.
Bateman's children (WoD Asylum) is one of the major story ideas for Bishopgate Asylum. Essentially strange emaciated children born from the extracted madness and evil of the inmates of the asylum, they were a byproduct of Dr. Bateman's experiments. Now they exist to drive people mad and create more of their kind. There are some parallels with Richard Shaver's Dero to inject a stronger science fiction flavor into the game.
Ambrose Grant (WoD Asylum and WoD Second Sight) is another major story idea for Bishogate Asylum. A once famous psychic who became a paralyzed inmate of the comatose wing of the asylum, I wasn't entirely sure if I was going to use him initially. He exists as a possible source of the hauntings and weird events at the asylum.
Chieron Group (Hunter: the Vigil) is one of the major Conspiracies of the Hunter game and were always going to be important. Like many fictional evil corporations, Cheiron has its fingers in everything. I tied a version of the classic World of Darkness company Pentex in among their subsidiaries along with completely original companies like Verdant Technologies and Keystone Pharmaceuticals.
Telepathine Extract & the Wintergreen Process (WoD Slasher) are tools for inducing psychic powers and are part of the background of the Hunter Conspiracy VASCU. I wasn't sure if I would use them in my game but it was a possibility. With psychic powers already getting some interest it seemed to be a nice extra to throw in.
Groetnich (WoD Antagonists) are a prehistoric survival, an ancient species of fish that can grow to enormous size and even survive on land for a while. Combining something of our fear of invasive species and Lovecraftian horror it had been long on my list of monsters to use. Since the game was set in the damp lands of Seattle, I figure I would give this unloved monstrosity some limelight.
The Silent One is a Mnemovore (Night Horrors: the Wicked Dead), a memory devouring vampire and a counterweight to the depredations of Bateman's children. The Memnovores devour memories while the children are made from memories of madness. The Silent One also was also what I decided had caused Frank's condition.
With this set of ideas, I built three conflicting theories about what was going on in Seattle.
The Government Conspiracy
My first conspiracy I wrote used the well trod earth of the government conspiracy, the idea that those in charge were manipulating events for their own benefit and hiding the truth for their own ends. Combining psychic research during the Cold War with the weirdness at Hillcrest, it ties Wintergreen, Hillcrest, Grant, and barely veiled Cheiron Group together in a tale of unethical experiments and feuding conspiracies.It all began with the MKUltra experiments in the 50s. Building off of Nazi research, they happened upon a method to unlock the innate psychic abilities of the human brain. The process combined intense stress and isolation with a mixture of drugs such as dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and a Harmala alkaloid called "telepathine extract".
The original experiments were done at the Hillcrest Mental Health Center under the supervision of Dr. Jeremiah Moorcock and his assistant Dr. Barbara Wintergreen. The project was cut short when Russian agents lobotomized Moorcock in an effort to hinder U.S. research into paranormal abilities. Certain patients from those days remain at Hillcrest. They still exhibit psychic abilities and these contribute to the haunted nature of the facility.
Moorcock's assistant was relocated by the CIA to a secretive department in the FBI called SCIU. The SCIU served as lab rats for Wintergreen's experiments, who were eventually reorganized in the organization known as VASCU. VASCU now deploys psychic agents to handle cases involving serial killers both human and inhuman as well as psychic threats. Dr. Wintergreen vanished from the organization in 1978 when her CIA handlers retrieved her and her research. The CIA has their own chemically enhanced psychics and carefully watch VASCU, executing agents who "see" too much.
One of the CIA's more flamboyant agents was the famed psychic Ambrose Grant, whose stage performances were a cover for espionage work in Europe and Latin America. His boating accident in 1983 was a hit by the Illuminatti who sought to cover up secrets Ambrose had unearth in a recent trip to Boston. Through their corporate proxy Keystone Pharmaceuticals, they had the now comatose Ambrose kept alive so that they could extract his secrets.
But Ambrose's potent mind cannot be contained and he haunts Yessler Terrace and Harborview Medical Center where he was last seen. The Illuminatti keep his preserved brain in the depths of the hospital's subbasements.
Angels and Demons
Next I decided to take a more mystical view of the world, combining Atlantean-style mythology with some real world racist theories attempting to claim that the Native Americans were not first inhabitants of the Americas (I tried to find a "neutral" link on the subject but haven't had much luck). The somewhat addled theory here combines the Groetnich, Bateman's children, Hillcrest Center, Cheiron Group, and a very deluded view of the Silent One in a tale of Good verse Evil.It all began with the Native Americans. Not the Duwamish, but the first Americans, the survivors of Atlantis. They sacrificed human beings to ancient demonic fish born of the first waters of the world, the Groetnich. For this they were gifted evil magics and raised mighty cities across western coast of North America. For their sinful ways God punished them with a series of volcanic eruptions. Their cities and gods burned and the survivors were reduced to a primitive existence. Their rites are still practiced by degenerate cults that worship the few surviving creatures.
But some of their magic remains. Beneath a mound in Seattle is an imprisoned demon served by the darkest parts of the human soul. Resembling dark child-like versions of their former hosts, these Ids were extracted from madmen by Dr. Thomas Bateman while he was director of the Hillcrest Center. Though he sought to remove evil and cure ills, the dark magic he used tainted him, driving him mad.
The creatures have escaped the confines of the asylum and wander the city like innocent children, seeking to drive more people to evil that they might siphon that darkness from them and create more of their kind.
But there is hope. God has sent an angel to the city who protects those in Central District from this product of human arrogance. This Silent One bring soothing comfort those plagued by the dark Ids. It can remove the stain of these foul children.
But others seek the secret of these creatures. The servants of Cheiron believe in their Pride that they can cage Angels and Demons. Using false agents of authority they seek to trample the righteous and thwart God's plan. They shall not prevail.
Demon Fish (Mythos Explanation)
My final tale is the one I actually used in my game handouts. The theory of an anthropology student turned monster hunter, it proceeds from the idea that the first monster he encounters, the Groetnich, is the source of all the other threats. As he encounters Bateman's Children and the Silent One he attempts to tie them into his growing mythology. Like a man clutching at straws his theories are full of holes and subject to misinterpreted data. The case files the PCs recovered formed the initial basis of their knowledge of the horrors within Seattle, one they had to discard and reinvent as they learned new "truths".Case #1: Groetnich Cults
I believe the indigenous people of Washington State once worshiped an ancient fertility deity much like Assyro-Babylonian Dagon or Egyptian Heqet, in the form of a fish. The species, called Goetnich (GROAT-nick), is a variant of the Asian Snake Head but endemic to North America. The indigenous peoples seem to placate their god with human sacrifice, a trait perhaps inherited from Mesoamerican invaders.These rites were performed in secret. In conversations with local Dunwamish tribes, I found few who know of the cult. Those who did seem terrified of the religion, ascribing to it magical powers and claiming they were a secret society within the tribes. My research has found that the cult continues in secret, having moved from the purely tribal association into the Caucasian population of Seattle.
Case # 4: Ella Mae (Witch of Lake City) [Resolved]
Tracked down what I believe is a deviant branch of the Groetnich cult. The group, evidenced by Ella Mae of 13565 Pine Street, has transposed their worship from the Groetnich to felines. Possible Egyptian connections (Heqet to Bastet)?As with earlier work, the cult believes it gains magical powers from sacrificing people to these animals. In conversation Ella Mae believed the sacrifices allowed her to take on the forms of the victims for a short time. Basis for lycanthropy myth?
The cultist, though seeming to be a frail octogenarian, was responsible directly or indirectly for the deaths of at least two people: Sue Riordan (killed while jogging from cat bites) and Flora Lawhorn (missing but physical evidence of her presence found inside the house).
Ben decided to eliminate the threat on his own. Though I would have loved to track the source of Ella's mythology, she was too great a danger. Death was accomplished via rat poison and evidence covered up via arson. Unfortunately we were unable to collect any samples from the cats.
Case #6: Underground Children
I have noticed seemingly homeless children on a number of occasions while exploring Seattle's underground. I believe them to be the unfortunate result of the cult’s fertility rites, discarded and left below the city. Despite my attempt to reach out to them they seem hostile to any kindness. Though not feral, they do not seem to want to join society. They call themselves baitman’s children, perhaps in reference to some ceremonial position in the cult.Baitman might simply refer to a position of luring the Groetnich into a central area for a sacrifice. There is perhaps a darker meaning though. Urban dictionary defines's baitman as
"Usually a male friend who is used to lure women through his good looks, but lacks the mental capacity to charm the opposite sex (that's where the "Primary" and the "Wingman" step in to steal the catch). The "Baitman" doesn't discriminate when it comes to getting laid - whether she's short, tall, big, or small it's all game for the "Baitman"."
It could be that they are pulling unsuspecting women into the their clutches to be used in their fertility rites.
As for the children, continuing the vicious circle, these children in turn seem prey on the homeless and helpless. I have seen on two occasions, these children torment a person until they snap. They seem to delight in this activity.
My friends on the street tell me they sometimes kidnap people. Perhaps to continue the sacrifices of their parents.
In one conversation I had with these children, a callow youth I have dubbed James, he indicated that they feared something in the southern part of the city, beyond the canal and lakes that divide Seattle. This bogeyman was only named in the language of children’s songs, Mr. Sandman.
Case #8: Mr. Sandman
Mr. Sandman must be a reference to another cult leader, perhaps one using children as sacrificial victims. That would explain the fears of the underground children. I have noticed few of these children south of the canal suggesting he lives somewhere in the Central or Southern part of the city. However there is precious little I can find on this cult leader. Some of my street contacts have heard the name but can’t explain why they fear it.I have a new lead, though I don’t trust the source. Keystone Pharmaceuticals has approached us with new information. They are also offering us $20,000 for a retrieval of Mr. Sandman. Much as it pains me, this would help our current finances greatly.
I’m skeptical of the utility of the drugs they gave us. I've seen some of the unusual capabilities of these cultists but nothing to suggest they can affect the mind.
We are heading to-
Other Explanations
There were a few more ideas I came up with in my initial brain storm of possibilities.The most complete of these was be a theory focused on aliens. Starting with Bateman's children as tunnel dwelling Deros and UFO sightings near Mt. Rainier, it would initially focus on the strange tale of Fred Crisman, one of the supposed individuals on the grassy knoll on the day of the JFK assassination and supposed victim of Deros (as well as having encountered a UFO). In this theory we will suppose he did kill the president on orders from the Greys as favor for the CIA and Trilateral Commission. This lets us include Men in Black who might be trading with the Dero/Greys for memory erasure technology (or Mnemovores). At the same time the Men in Black or their minions at Keystone Pharmaceuticals are running experiments on the local homeless (or Deros) using confiscated alien technology.
Bibliography and Resources
Here are some resources for getting your juices flowing:- Alien Dawn by Colin Wilson (Llewellyn Publications, ISBN 978-0-7387-1969-6)
- Everything is Under Control by Robert Anton Wilson (HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-06-179168-0)
- Suppressed Transmission: The First Broadcast by Kenneth Hite (Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-423-6)
- Suppressed Transmission 2: The Second Broadcast by Kenneth Hite (Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-445-7)
- Suppressed Transmissions (G+ community dedicated to collecting conspiratorial goodness for gaming purposes)
No comments:
Post a Comment