03-09-2019, 07:04 PM | #181 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Lovecraftian Dreamland Creatures and Immunity to Metabolic Hazards
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Well, at least the Kadavergehorsamer don't really need it, though powerful runecasters might also be able to allow living men to survive for some time without air. But living men, even ardent Nazis and/or dutiful elite soldiers, would just as soon let the terrifying stormtroopers on their side handle the deeper tunnels and just go on the occasional patrol to check that the traps, alarms, mines and SS-Kampfgruppe Totenkopf guard posts are all in their right places. The living would rather stay in heated stone quarters with good insulation than in tunnels of shifting ice that are cold enough to kill even people in heavy cold-weather gear in a matter of hours. Besides, the Kadavergehorsamer, with their heat vision, hive mentality and ability to sense the living, are far better guards in these lightless depths than any human could be. The stormtroopers just need the right weapons to handle ghouls by the hundreds, if the critters try a mad rush. Hence, the occasional patrols of Waffen-SS Gebirgsjäger and Pionere to enure that there are mines in the right places, traps and kill zones. You know, the kind of things that make players sad if PCs blunder into them.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 03-10-2019 at 01:37 PM. |
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03-10-2019, 04:56 PM | #182 | |||||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Houston and Galveston
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The players let themselves get seduced by the 'plan' of the Impulsive, On the Edge, Overconfident PC and are inside the dreams of a Ms. Delvano, a sorceress belonging to an apocalyptic cult and possessed by Something out of this reality, her mind represented by the icy Plateau of Leng from Howard P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, and their Quest by a Monster at the End of the Dream, something like Cthulhu's frozen cousin. While time passes very differently in the Dreamlands, in the real world, the PCs only have until midnight to finish their quest, save Ms. Delvano's sanity and close the metaphorical gate between Earth and the Outer Void of the Lords of the Last Waste. What happens at midnight? Well, that's the time Jean-Michel Alexandre estimates he can delay the police from boarding and demanding the return of Ms. Delvano if the mysterious South American people who are surrounding the Penemue make good on their threat to report her as kidnapped. That is, of course, if 'Consortium' represented by the man who only introduced himself as Raul want to do everything legally. The fact that Raul seems to be shadowed by a number of hard-looking men who might be armed and that there might be a sniper hide across Offatts Bayou in the Moody Gardens argues that the Consortium might just have a different solution in mind than due process. Quote:
Can you get from Lake Anahuac to the waters of Galveston Bay? And are there rules forbidding private citizens from boating around the harbour areas, due to heavy commercial traffic? Quote:
While the Penemue is there, which route would Ms. Talbot generally drive to visit it and what are times she'd want to schedule her commutes? At what times does she absolutely wish to avoid having to make the drive down? Quote:
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The PCs don't have much reason to meet or even know about people who collect information on Kessler's behalf, however, as those don't live on the Penemue or know anything about how the information is used. Quote:
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 03-10-2019 at 05:45 PM. |
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03-10-2019, 05:40 PM | #183 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Yucca Valley, CA
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Re: Houston and Galveston
>>>there might be a sniper hide across Offatts Bayou in the Moody Gardens... AND Can you get from Lake Anahuac to the waters of Galveston Bay? ... Alice Talbot (PC), lives in the Rice Graduate Apartments.
If I still ived there, I'd go exploring on your behalf, but was in the Cypress-Fairbanks area (Northwest). Sorry, I can only help with local color. Where I lived, I could bicycle to a nearby Wal-Mart faster than I could drive, except in the middle of night, and I reckon the area around Rice is even more congested. Alice would want to commute to the yacht or back between the hours of 11p and 5a, preferably, or between 10a and 2p, next best. It'd double the time in traffic if she didn't. Motorcycles can't legally drive between the lanes as they can in California, if I recall correctly. >>>One PC, 'Nonc' Morel, is from Louisiana, but has (Cajun) family in Houston. That's hardly uncommon. You can get great Cajun food in Houston. Actually, you can get great anything, and Houston residents eat out on average FOUR nights per week. >>>And are there rules forbidding private citizens from boating around the harbour areas, due to heavy commercial traffic? I don't think so, but the people I knew who could afford recreational vessels never had any time to spend on them, and every invitation I got fell through. >>>>And, of course, there are Hispanic Tejanos who were living there before all these English-speaking Anglo immigrants came along. In places, sure, but Houston has grown so much, so fast, that the families that have a long history in the area don't seem much in evidence. On one hand, people are people, but on the other, Houston just seemed less part of Texas to me than Dallas, San Antonio, or even Austin. Heck, in Houston, a thick Texas drawal is just as uncommon as a foreign accent. That's kind of a hard thing to describe, but it came to me when Houston got a new NFL team and named it the Texans. I'm an Okie myself, so I din't have a stake, but the Texans I knew seemed to experience some cognitive dissonance at being thought of as mascot material. When I lived in Houston, I worked as a sales engineer, and I'd show up to a client meeting wearing a cowboy hat. (No, I'm not a cowboy, but a straw hat is practical in hot and bright places.) It wasn't considered inappropriate, but in Houston, it was unusual enough to make me memorable, which worked to my advantage when the prospective client got proposals from my competitors. In San Antone, it wouldn't have made me memorable at all. Probably the main thing I'm getting at is a sense of identity wrapped up in a place. A Houston resident might say he likes it or doesn't like living there; even if he's never lived anywhere else he has a real sense of the alternatives. Most non-transplanted Texans I've met are proud of it without having thought much about living anywhere else, even if they travel. And they still think of it as home even if they've been away for years; that affects me to seem degree and I wasn't even born there. Last edited by Gef; 03-10-2019 at 05:44 PM. |
03-10-2019, 06:21 PM | #184 | ||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Houston and Galveston
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The other PCs think Alice might be Kessler's biological grand-daughter, which, given that he's a childless billionaire who might die at any moment, certainly explains why someone might try to kidnap her. Which they did, as part of the very first adventure. Though if Alice is closely related to the old man, she's hardly drawing on the fact, as she drives an ordinary used Status 0 vehicle (model undetermined, but unremarkable) and lives in fairly economical student housing. She doesn't seem to be getting any more financial assistance than an average student from a middle class family who can afford a good college for their kid. Sure, someone, probably Kessler, is paying her tuition and cost of living, but she's actually working part-time to have some extra money. Seems like if she was really the old billionaire's beloved grandchild and potential heir, she ought to have a luxury apartment, a stipend generous enough never to need to work and a fancy car and driver. *She's not an orphan or an angsty loner with a backstory of abuse. Her parents are fine. She's just avoiding them to prevent them being dragged into some player character stuff involving Destiny, Prophecies and Unspeakable Cults. Quote:
If it wasn't for his far-flung family, Morel would probably never leave his cabin in the Atchafalaya Basin. Quote:
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The crew of the Penemue is maybe a third Texan, a third Caribbean and another third from all over. The captain, Gus Starr, is from Houston. So is at least one other person, Dale Johnson, the crew cook, a former Navy SEAL who lost both legs in Afghanistan.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 03-11-2019 at 12:57 AM. |
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03-10-2019, 06:35 PM | #185 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Yucca Valley, CA
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Re: Houston and Galveston
>>>>Alice Talbot is from the Bay Area in California.
Then she'd have a lot of company. Texas seems to be the top destination for Californians frustrated with state government, especially corporate taxes. |
03-11-2019, 02:41 AM | #186 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Houston and Galveston
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With Low Self-Image and Shyness, Alice does not easily make friends or seek out company, but she has all the normal needs for affection, companionship and friendship, so she'd not rebuff anyone who was 'aggressively' welcoming. Someone shy in Reykjavík (or New York for that matter) would probably be left alone and not have much of a social circle, because my experience is that it's regarded as impolite for someone to pursue acquaintanceship or even just seek to be friendly neighbors if the other party does not explicitly make it clear that such advances are acceptable. Is it different in Houston? At least from movies and television, Southern hospitality seems to be a lot more 'aggressive' than would be acceptable here in Reykajvík. Would Alice's neighbors in the Rice Graduate Apartments* have visited her during her 18 months in Houston? Enough to cultivate some sort of relationship, even if Alice didn't take any initiative in getting to know them? What about people she meets in the course of an ordinary day? Wait staff at restaurants? Cashiers at markets? Do they know her name and greet her personally, like in TV shows set in the South, or are they more 'normal' and don't really notice anything except the amount changing hands? Basically, aside from the people Alice's player spent points on as Allies or Patrons, whose name might she know in Houston? What are typical people that shy college students in a city far from home might come to know? *Of course, I expect people from all over live there, perhaps with people from Houston in a minority, if only because they already have homes available without commuting distance from Rice University. Still, I expect that with most universities, in-state students are fairly common.
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03-11-2019, 09:11 AM | #187 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: Houston and Galveston
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She might also hang out with other Californians or west coast (best coast!) people if she or they have a strong regional identity. Outside of college, if she's a regular at certain establishments - always picks up a bagel at the same coffee shop on the way to work, always has lunch at the same diner, etc. - then the staff there will know her name and regular orders, even if she's not entirely sure on their names... This is much more likely to occur at small local places instead of chain outlets. Then there's the category of familiar strangers - the people she sees every day in passing, who ride the same bus or stop at the same coffee shop at the same time, etc. Odd behavior in those people is a good place to drop clues about supernatural weirdness or whatnot in her daily life, btw. ("Huh. That old guy who gets on at 50th and Stark every morning stopped reading the spy thrillers he always carries, and now he's reading a paperback Necronomicon...") |
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03-13-2019, 04:41 AM | #188 | |||||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Houston and Galveston
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Ms. Talbot was already in a graduate program at Berkeley when she transferred and a year ago she finished an MA at Rice in what she had been studying there, which was 'The Concept of Evil in European Folklore'. And given that Alice has always been bookish and academically over-achieving to the point of ridiculousness, she's working on a degree in Library Science along with her PhD in Anthropology, just to keep from being bored. Quote:
And, well, in as much as any modern library has a section on forbidden manuscripts and occult lore, Alice would have been a frequent visitor and she'd have checked out enough esoteric tomes on inter-library loans to get her on every supernatural watchlist. Alice reads medieval French and German, as well as Vulgate Latin and Koine Greek, a bit of Ancient Egyptian and a smattering of Aramaic and Hebrew. If there is any place within driving or sailing distance from Houston where she could read original manuscripts about occult matters, she has likely spent some time there if there was any way to justify it. The librarians at Rice University are probably either extremely worried about her or they take a proprietorial interest. Possibly both. *That is, she's a connoisseur of the physical media and can recognize rare books, first editions, etc. She also has Connoisseur (Literature), but that's an entirely separate skill. Quote:
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Alice is Attractive and Pitiable, but she doesn't have Charisma or any other trait which makes her popular or sought-after. Her most important Reaction modifier is probably the +4 that her Occultist 4 Talent gives her from students of the arcane, gullible college students and monster-hunters. Which, now that I consider it, should probably lead to not only some librarians with occult leanings taking a proprietary interest in young Alice, but also some fellow students who've witnessed her encyclopedic knowledge about various beliefs related to magic and the supernatural and want her to teach them magic. Which, considering Alice's background in Berkeley, would probably terrify her. Quote:
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*Granted, mostly whims related to staying up all night studying something recondite and esoteric or reading a manuscript that she knows well enough that she really, really shouldn't read. Quote:
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03-13-2019, 06:55 AM | #189 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: [MH] Caribbean by Night
This might be a useful article for background. https://www.chron.com/local/history/...s-10098734.php
Temples of the gods: Houston's religious diversity reflects community |
03-13-2019, 07:05 AM | #190 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Religion in Houston
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In a prior campaign set in the same world, a secret order of defenders of humanity was established as connected to the Yazidi religion. In that context, it's very interesting that there are Yazidi immigrants in Houston.
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caribbean, ken hite, monster hunters, suppressed transmission, vile vortices |
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