Campaign Introduction
It's June, 2000. The Iron wall is a thing of the past.
Wars and skirmishes occur beneath the notice of relatively happy
western civilization. Nuclear warheads continue to fall
into the wrong hands. Sony designs game systems that are
regulated for export by the Japanese government for fear of their
use in military applications. People continue to trade their
humanity for drugs, money, or the promise of either. Hubbard's
religious legacy churns on, selling enlightenment in tidy packages
and making a tidy profit. Surfing the web has become commonplace.
Carrying incredible computing power in your briefcase is mundane.
The average person strives to be a stock market tycoon.
Greed is no longer the rich man's hobby, everyone's acquiring
a taste.
Knowledge flows like water. It gushes through the golden
pipes of computers and through the glassy spigots of television
screens. Tiny pearls of wisdom awash in a sea of propaganda,
advertisement, and pretty pictures. People's minds are
going for a day at the beach and never returning. Higher
purpose has come to mean higher purchase and everybody wants
some. Altruism has become hip and fashionable, but the
masses sadly know not why they do what they do; perhaps they
will figure out why before some other fashion distracts them.
Recycling ebbs and flows; the Earth weeps as the plague of man
does far too little to atone for his depredations of the planet.
Hunger lives, squalor thrives, and the abuse of man by his
fellow man occurs all too often. "Fifty cents a day" has
done little to stop it. And beyond all of this rages a
quiet battle for the very humanity of man, the war with the
forces of the Unknown. Creatures of unspeakable power
and incomprehensible evil stalk the world of man. Just
outside the familiar glare of the TV screen and the comforting
glow of the computer monitor are things that most people would
dismiss because they don't want to believe it. Humanity
thinks of their knowledge as the ultimate alarm system, but
the creatures of the Unknown sold it to them and they have all
the codes. Even when the warning lights flash and their
soul screams "intruder" they don't listen.
Fortunately, someone does, The Society.
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The Society
(I didn't like S.A.V.E., the foundation in Chill, so I made up
a similar foundation.)
The Society has had many names throughout its history.
Most of its past is intentionally clouded and compartmentalized
so that if Creatures manage to take or infiltrate a given base,
the danger to other cells of The Society will be lessened.
In times past, their job was easier. They could safely
hunt down Creatures and their fellow man would endorse, praise,
and fund them readily.
In a nutshell, they almost put themselves out of business.
Their vigorous campaign against The Unknown was so successful
that sightings of Creatures became extremely rare. This
persisted for over a century, during which gunpowder had come
into widespread use. The Society's ranks shrank tremendously,
new candidates stopped seeking them out, and mankind began to
convince itself that there was nothing to fear but fear itself.
Most of the funding agencies felt their investments more soundly
placed in cannons and rifles, for surely such mighty capabilities
would protect them from dangers known and Unknown.
The Society was dealt a grievous blow when Torquemada, a Creature
of The Unknown, infiltrated the ranks of humanity and started
his gruesome inquisition. Many of the greatest masters
of the Art, the metaphysical/magical disciplines that the Society
used to greatest effect in battling The Unknown, were burned
as heretics and witches. The Society was forced to go
underground.
Many members of The Society went to the New World. Lacking
the structure, discipline and security they once enjoyed, many
of their members fell by the wayside, trying to use their powers
for personal gain and to evil ends. This prompted witch
hunts in which good and evil, magical and non-magical, perished
alike. It was a dark and frightening time.
There were two things that allowed humanity to make it through
this time. One, The Society had done their job very well
centuries before. Two, many Creatures of the Unknown were
killed as lunatics and wild animals and/or died of starvation,
unable to adapt to a rapidly evolving society that embraced
technology.
The Society pooled its resources and "went to ground" permanently.
No longer would they ride through town, swords held high, drinking
in the admiration of townsfolk elated at the sight of the slain
Creature on parade. No, from now on, they would have to
become covert agents, revealing only what is necessary to keep
up the fight.
They began to become dealers in information and, when something
unusual popped up, they would investigate it. When it
was a Creature, they would work quickly and quietly to take
it down. Then they would bring in the charismatic, "Salespeople"
to pick through the details and try to find new agents , supporters,
and/or funding among those that had been victimized and were
not willing to dismiss the horror of what they had seen.
Ever so slowly, The Society regained its strength. It
was a bigger world than before, but now they had high caliber
people, rapid transportation, and the gear to do more with less.
Unfortunately, there were still some powerful Creatures from
centuries before that had lingered on. Attacks on members
and cells of The Society began anew. The ranks of The
Unknown had swollen once again and many of them were a lot more
clever than there brethren from days of old.
Once more, unto the breech . . .
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The Physical Milieu
The team is based out of the United States, in the North Dallas
area of Texas. Their current base of operation is a Society
safe house in Plano, a city immediately adjacent to and north
of Dallas. Most of the players live in or near North Dallas,
either permanently or temporarily. Their primary operational
area will normally be The United States of America and Central
America. Because the team is composed of caucasians whose
first language is English, they can also expect to be called upon
for missions in Europe. Realistically, the team may be sent
anywhere for a number of reasons, such as:
1) The local team has suffered a loss, significant losses,
or been wiped out recently.
2) The local team has just finished a mission (The Society
tries not to task one team too often so as not to dramatically
conflict with their "normal" lives).
3) One of the team members has an exceptionally appropriate
skill.
However, operation within one thousand miles of Dallas is a
reasonable expectation.
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