Death Mask 4 - the First Arc

This will be the last in this series. I may come back to it later; we'll see.

OK, we have Rome, we have the Building, we have a reasonable idea of the OPFOR. The next step is to decide on the opening arc of the campaign, on the assumption this is, at minimum, a 3-act structure.

Let's go over the basics.

A CORE CONCEPT tree bears CORE CONCEPT fruit. So, for example, a DAMNED tree always bears DAMNED fruit. This is a little like Rome, in that every road leads to the same terminus, but it's worth bearing in mind that, if you start with X, you always want to finish at X. Tone is critical. It should remain constant. 

Establish the setting, the characters and the overall mood of the game. Always remember that, while you may have a clear idea of what's happening and why, the players do not. Or, they may have an idea that is wholly at odds with yours. The first act is critical in that it nails down expectations and gives everyone notice as to the kind of game this is.

Put in this way. There are worlds of difference between this film:

The Mummy (1932)

This film:

The Mummy (1999)

And this one:

The Mummy (2017)

But they're all basically the same film. I've only seen two of these, incidentally. Guess which two.

What you, as Keeper, need to do is decide which of these, or some other variant, lives in your Building. Then you need to communicate that to the players. To a certain extent this will happen in session zero, but a lot of this will take place in-game.

The purpose of the first arc is to nail down those expectations so you can explore more complex ideas in the next arc(s). You'll spend a lot of time describing and expanding on starting locations, important NPCs, McGuffins.

The characters don't have to encounter the Mythos, or anything supernatural, in the opening act, so long as the opening act is true to the overall mood. This may seem counter-intuitive but it's actually very important. Your job here is to establish setting and mood. That will be difficult to do if something really flashy and eye-catching gets the players' attention. It's like jangling keys in front of a cat. Useful, if you want the cat to pay attention to the keys. Less useful, if you want anything else to happen.

There's nothing wrong with having things go bump in the night. Bumping is what things do. But if you want the characters to pay attention to the Building and put their own ideas in, that will be difficult if their attention is always being caught by this eye-catching thing over here.

You already know what the Building is, what it consists of. The first arc should include all the important rooms within that Building. If the smuggling route to Cyprus is going to be critical to your game, then there needs to be a mission to Cyprus to establish it as a location. To seed it with important NPCs. Possibly to include a smuggling ship (also an important part of the Building) which will become important in later sessions.

That way, when you return to these parts of the Building for important moments in Act Two, the players already have expectations and will lean on those expectations when they make their own plots.  

Most important of all, the first arc should include the core activities of the setting. If this were Bookhounds, say, then the first arc ought to include at least one important Auction. Buying and selling books is what that setting is all about. You need that moment when player interacts with the core mechanic to achieve plot results, and in Bookhounds that core mechanic is the auction.

What's the core mechanic in Tomb-Hounds?

From the text:

... real opportunities have opened up. Those who know enough Egyptology to know where to dig, and who know enough shady dealers to know how to sell what they dig up, can name their own price for a spectacular item. Of course, there’s always that little matter of a curse – but no true tomb-hound lets the possibility of a curse interfere with the certainty of a profit. Wonderful things await - all you need is a map and a bullwhip.

At its heart, this is a treasure hunt. Core Drives back this up: Adventure, Antiquarianism, Curiosity, Follower, Scholarship, Thirst for Knowledge, In the Blood, Sudden Shock, Greed. These all suggest risk-takers, delvers into the unknown, people who want to find things either for the knowledge they contain, the value that can be put on them, or the fame that comes with being the One Who Found It.

With that in mind, the first arc should start with the players having already found something relatively minor, which hints at something profoundly more interesting.

Let's start at a Dig Site. The players have been working on a site connected with a minor royal or someone connected to royalty - a high priest, say, or an important civil servant like an architect. Through this they have obtained valuables that they need to dispose of, but also through this they have gained clues, or hints, to the much more valuable thing.

Let's further say that the players were minor scholars on this particular dig, that their sponsor or sponsoring agency hoovered up the really good stuff, and what they got away with were the scraps. Again, think of Bookhounds. The Hounds in that setting are motivated by economic drivers. The Tomb-Hounds setting is very similar. The Hounds want that spectacular item which they can bargain away for colossal sums. For that to have spice, it's a good idea to dangle a little bit of that wealth in front of them, then take it away.

Indiana Jones

This has several advantages.

First, it starts with action. The opening scene can be that moment where the archaeologists hover at the door of the tomb, just before they crack it open revealing the treasures hidden inside. They interpret the hieroglyphs: is there a curse? Maybe ... well, nuts to it! Crash, bang, whallop, loot.

Then, it establishes an initial adversary: that scholar or scholarly group which swoops in and takes all the really good stuff for itself. This adversary may or may not have cult links. That's not important right now. What is important is that they have what the players want. They have the shiny valuables. The temporary alliance which existed up till now has been shattered. It's all about the dollars from this point forward, or the academic recognition, or whatever it may be.

Then, it posits the initial question which the characters need to resolve: what is this other dig site that the clues found at this dig site hint at? Is it more important than the dig site they're working on? What's hidden there? 

Can the characters get enough financing behind them to establish their own dig site at that location, to find the really good stuff?

From this point forward it's a combination treasure hunt and race against time. The treasure hunt is finding enough clues to determine the exact location of this new site. Those clues are scattered among other sites, at libraries, in museums, in the memories of occult scholars, and the characters need to gather enough of these clues to find the dig site. The race against time is doing this before someone else does it.

Who this someone else is can be established in play. The likely opposition is the players' former allies, the scholar or scholarly group who worked with them on the first dig. That doesn't have to be so. The new OPFOR can establish their credentials by, say, eliminating that scholar or scholarly group in some spectacular fashion. That puts the new OPFOR on the map and establishes stakes.

Through all this the players are, incidentally, establishing which rooms, in the Building, are important to them. If they find Cyprus boring, say, then fine; the Keeper doesn't need to waste time putting new backstory elements or plot points in there. It would be like lavishing expensive furniture on a room you'll never use. If, on the other hand, they become deeply invested in Cyprus then it's time to flesh out that location for future scenes. 

This is why establishing expectations happens as much in-game as it does off-set, behind the scenes. You can't anticipate what players will find interesting. Don't waste too much time trying. Put a little bait out there and, if they nibble, then you hook them with something nasty. 

All this is leading to that final dig site, and this is where all your tools come out of the box. This is the concluding portion of the first Act. If you're going to use elaborate maps at all, puzzles, traps, this is where you use them. If you let the players find the fancy key somewhere at that first dig site, then this is where they find the door that key fits. If you want them to navigate past improbable traps to get to where they're going, this is where those traps are used.

Indiana Jones Last Crusade

This is also where something supernatural definitely lies sleeping. It might be a mummy, a pack of ghouls, something else, but whatever it is, it's down there. 

Finally, this is where the McGuffin is. The thing that everyone's going to be chasing in Act Two. For purposes of plot, I'm going to assume that the McGuffin is Perseus' adamantine sickle, that peculiar khopesh the cult seeks so they can stop someone from using it on the elder masks. However, your game is your game. If you want that McGuffin to be something else, go for it.

At the end of the first Act the characters will have found that dig site, looted it, come up with a bunch of valuables and the fate of the McGuffin has been determined. It might be with the players. It might be somewhere else. Wherever it is, chasing after that McGuffin will be the focus of the second Act.  

With that, finita! I hope you enjoyed this digression. 

A quick housekeeping note: in a few weeks I shall be off-island and this blog will go silent while I'm in the UK. Not to worry! I'll be back online soon.

Ciao!

 

Death Mask 3 Exploring Rome

Rome: Masks, hidden identities, hidden agendas, Gorgons, the shadowy influence of Egypt's past, the Pharaohs of old returning to take their rightful place.  

Let's dig a little deeper. 

The whole point behind the cult is that it's run by masks, whose main purpose in life is to make more masks, to extend their already lengthy existence. These masks derive their motivating force and their purpose from the old Gorgon cult, which fled to Egypt when the original cult bases in Greece were smashed. Now the cult promotes a return of the old Pharaonic ways, mainly to encourage new Egyptian recruits to join, but at its heart it's the same Gorgon cult it was many centuries ago.

It's probably worth remembering that when Perseus allegedly slew Medusa he did it using flying sandals, a cap of Hades that made him invisible, and an adamantine sickle. Those sound like useful cult-bashing relics to me. Some or all of these might have found their way to Egypt over the years and are now hidden in some tomb or other, or perhaps on the back shelf of one of the many, many curio shops in Cairo or Alexandria. 

What if, for instance, that adamantine sickle is in fact a khopesh?  Ceremonial versions of those were found with Tutankhamun; if King Tut can have them then there's no reason why Perseus' old blade can't have found its way into some priest's tomb. What if those battered sandals are hanging up with the stock in some souk or other? 

The cap of night found its way into several different hands; Hermes had it, Athena had it, there's no telling where else it might have gone after Perseus used it. He may have dropped it in Mycenae, where he was King. If so, then the archaeologist Schliemann might have found it while digging for Trojan loot, in the later 1870s. If that happened then the cap would be in Berlin at the time of the campaign, but then the Great Museums of the world are part of the Building so there's no reason not to have a side trip off to Berlin. Nor, for that matter, is there a compelling reason why a German archaeologist might not sneak the thing away in their bags and baggage for a trip to Egypt. For ... research purposes. Not because they're a cult member seeking promotion. Or because they're a cult opponent trying to smash the new Pharaoh. Possibilities ... 

OK, so we have some Banes and possibly also treasures to be sought for in the first arc of the campaign. Fine. So who's the OPFOR?

Remember, all OPFOR have:

• Power, appropriate to their function within the narrative.
• Goals.
• Assets, to be used to achieve their goals.

What does the cult have?

Power: far-reaching political, social and quasi-military authority and influence within Egypt. Their spies and enforcers are everywhere. They can have people killed. They can deploy assassins, peculiar occult magics, ancient mummies - all within Egypt proper. Outside Egypt, their influence drops off dramatically. They can send agents to do their bidding, but they can't just snap their metaphorical fingers and have a man in, say, Berlin, drop dead that same moment. 

However, this power is basically illicit. They have no actual civil or legal authority. They exist behind the scenes. Everyone fears them, but it's not as if they have an office building, a flag, a government post. 

For the purposes of plot, it can be assumed that their power extends as far as Egypt extends. Which means, among other things, that it extends to all those museums and other places where Egypt mania is all the rage. Where the mysteries of Egypt - and, by extension, the cult - influence art and architecture.

Do the civil authorities in Egypt - at this point in time, the British military occupying forces and the Egyptian civil government - know about the cult? Probably. Inasmuch as the cult is active and does things, the authorities will know about those things. They may not have connected the dots and realized that this peculiar murder, or the rise of that politician, are all connected to a power-hungry pro-Pharaoh movement. They know something's up, but not what. Further, there will be some within the civil authority who have connected dots, who suspect much, and are either opposed to the cult or who seek alliance with it for their own ends.

That rival Power opposes the cult's own, and the cult will constantly be aware of it. This limits the cult's overt activities. It cannot expect to do whatever it wants whenever it wants, not without consequences. It can have a man killed, but if that killing is very troublesome for the civil authorities then the cult had better have someone to take the blame, go to trial and perhaps get executed. Otherwise, the political fallout from the killing may upset the cult's plans. 

Of course, all this is before the new Pharaoh steps forward and takes their rightful place on the throne temporarily occupied by Fuad I. The cult will probably be paying very close attention to the career of Mohammed Ali Tewfik, the heir presumptive, but he spends most of his life outside Egypt. Why? Who can say? But he does have a magnificent Cairo palace full of artefacts and practically swimming in history. It's very private, of course; it won't become a museum until after his death. But I'm sure that can be worked into the first story arc. Perhaps that's where the cap of night is now, or perhaps the person who has it seeks an audience with Mohammed Ali so they can sell it to the heir presumptive. Sounds like a job for some plausible go-betweens ...  

Goals: The cult has a hidden goal and an up-front goal.

The up-front is to restore Pharaonic rule. There will be a new golden age of such and so forth. Egypt will once more become the yadda yadda. This is the goal that all the cult members know about. It's the carrot that brings in new members. It's the lure that keeps radicals, Nationalists, Communists and the Muslim Brother hood on board. Work with us, and we'll help you get what you want. Those groups may not have everything in common with the cult but they have one common enemy: the British occupying forces. So long as the cult keeps playing the public game, and drumming up hatred for the British, the more likely it is the cult will get what it wants from those other groups.

There is another way to play this which could be just as interesting. Have the cult ally itself with the British. All the other groups - Communists, Radicals, Nationalists, Muslims - are against it now, but so long as it can keep them fighting each other they'll lack the resources to come at the cult direct. It does mean that player characters cooperating with the British will never know if the policeman, say, or the Colonel they ally themselves with is, in fact, a cult member. Or even a cult leader. 

That's the up-front. The hidden goal is simply this: survival.

The cult remembers all too well the bad old days after the initial collapse, when it was on the run, fearing for its existence. There were a number of times when it might have vanished altogether. Its final shrines vandalized, the last masks smashed or burnt. It has been surviving in the shadows in Egypt for centuries, eating scraps, gathering strength. The oldest among them remember the bad old days and want no more of that, thank you. They would sacrifice every single Pharaonic cult member, every dollar in its coffers, if that meant the cult would survive another day. It knows how to relocate and start fresh. It's done that before. 

That's the old guard, of course. The ancient among them. The newer masks? They quite like luxuries. They like ruling over men. The shadows are comforting, but also an irritant. Wouldn't it be grand to show off their true power? To take center stage? These are masks, after all; they don't feel they truly exist if they're not performing. These are the cult members who will take risks, who will execute the grand plays and come up with power schemes. They don't care as much about survival. They've been fed scraps for too long. Now they want what's on the center table. 

This is a bit different from the average cult in a Cthulhu-esque game. In the typical setting cult members are just a means. Everyone gets fed into the cosmic woodchipper in the end. In the meantime, they work to bring about the return of [insert squid-faced monstrosity here.] This cult is nothing like that. It exists to exist. If there ever was some deeper meaning in its rituals, that meaning is long forgotten. 

Except, perhaps, by the most ancient among them. 

Can you say gerontocracy? Bet you know what that feels like. The old guard might have believed in something once, when they first started out. Now they just believe in holding on to power, for as long as their cold, dead hands can grip.

Assets: at the street level, hundreds if not thousands of willing servants. Everyone from that knife-grinder in the souk to the policeman, the museum curator, the archaeologist, and more. 

They all have their reasons. Some buy into the return of the Pharaoh shtick. Some just like the idea of sticking it to the British (or, alternatively, to the King, the Muslims, the Communists, or whoever). Some join forces for professional advancement or knowledge. After all, who better to know where the best dig sites are than the cult which has been around since forever and who probably built most of those dig sites in the first place? Some just want loot. Whatever the desire, the cult can provide. 

At the not-quite-street level, the youngest of the masks and the mask-makers. The ones who look like Venetian carnival masks, or just Halloween fun times masks. These are the center of any immediate cult activity. If there's a bunch of cult members centered around the local dig workers, then there will be a mask at the heart of it, probably worn by the reis. If the museum curators are in league with the cult, then one of them will be wearing a Harlequin mask. If the staff at Shepheard's are being blackmailed into doing the cult's bidding, then the blackmailer will be wearing a mask.

These masks give some power to the persons wearing them. Think of these as Renfields, if this were a Night's Black Agents game. So long as the mask is on, the wearer gets that power. However, there is a price to be paid. The wearer either has to make a blood sacrifice to keep going, or to give up some of their own life energy to go on. This can mean the wearer dies with their mask on, in particularly dire circumstances. 

Above the street level are the advanced members. The ones who know what's really going on (or who think they do). The ones who are working to bring about the new Pharaonic dynasty. These are highly placed persons and high-powered masks. The masks themselves are probably quite old, if not ancient. At least a century's worth of experience. They might be original Commedia; they certainly date from that period. They were made in the time when the cult was just beginning to reinvigorate itself, to draw on new membership. They don't remember the bad old days, at least not first-hand, but they've heard the old stories time and time and time again. Their loyalty wavers. Perhaps, they mutter among themselves, the time has come for a new direction. 

The oldest among them, the original Gorgons, are ancient indeed. They remember the old days first-hand. These are the ones obsessed with recovering the artefacts that Perseus (whoever that may have been) used to destroy the cult the first time. They realize how fragile life can be. They exist in the shadows. So long as the cult keeps bringing them people to eat, they're happy. These are the only masks with the ability to annihilate a person just by looking at them - the turn-to-stone ability. If there is a whisper of some peculiar theatrical troupe that performs once every so often, for a select audience, this group of masks is at the heart of that rumor. The ancient Roman or Greek theatre, reborn. Except the audience never gets to go home ... 

This final group is the one with real power. They can kill; they have access to ancient knowledge; they can summon up spirits or command mummies to rise. They have in their possession the ancient texts sought after by so many occultists and Tombhounds. They know where the real dig sites are. All they want is to continue to exist. For that to happen, they need to get the relics of Perseus. For that matter, they also need anything else that might pose a threat to them. If it should turn out that some modern artefact, say, has the same potential as Perseus' adamantine sickle then they will want it in their possession, toot sweet. For that reason, they may be very interested in any surplus Great War weapons or sinister death rays that some mad scientist left lying around. If you want to turn the game towards a kind of superhero (or at least super-science) direction, that's the way to do it.  

So! Rome. This is where it's all heading. This cult with its desire to just keep on existing, who plays with making men into Gods. 

Next time, let's talk the first arc.

Death Mask 2 - Exploring the Building

The Building: Egypt in general, Cairo in particular, various dig sites scattered across the desert, Cyprus, smuggling ships, and the Museums of the World with a focus on the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Museo Egizio of Turin.

Let’s populate the Building.

All kinds of people and events might be in any Building. Some are plot relevant. Some are there to be there, and some are there because they have to be there.

Plot relevant is an obvious descriptor, and I shan’t go into detail about that group. I trust you to work that out for yourself.

What about the ones who are there to be there, and there because they have to be there?

Let’s say this is the opening scene of Casablanca. 

Casablanca sourced from Film Clips

In that scene we’re introduced to many people, almost none of whom are plot relevant. One or two of them have function within the narrative. They do things. They have lines. The majority are there to be seen.

These are the ones who are there to be there.

The street juggler, the hawkers, the foreigners being swept up (the usual suspects) the man with the Free France leaflets; they perform a necessary service, just by being seen. They set the stage for what’s to come. The pickpocket has a recurring role, has lines of dialogue, and draws the eye. He introduces the setting and gives the audience a taste of what’s on offer. The young couple seen briefly will appear later at Rick’s and provide what amounts to a side quest.

They exist within the narrative because someone has to. In any given scene, there will be people in the background. If this scene takes place in a bar, there will be other people in that bar. If in a market, then other people will be buying, other people will be selling. Any setting – any society – cannot exist without someone in there participating in the scene.

However, because player characters expect to be able to tinker with the bits and pieces of any scene, you as Keeper need to be able to pluck any of these otherwise faceless personalities out of the toybox and make them do things.

What makes them different from the ones who are there because they have to be there? 

Plot function.

The ones who are there to be there have no plot function. They might become plot relevant, through accident rather than design, but there’s nothing about them which makes them plot functional. They exist to be seen, not to do something nor to provide something.

However, there’s a class of character who’s there because they have to be there, and for that example in Casablanca’s opening scene, I point you to the French police.

After all, someone had to round up the usual suspects. Someone had to shoot that Free French fifth columnist with the leaflets. Someone had to provide tension within the narrative. If the police didn’t exist someone would have to invent them, because without their presence there’s nothing keeping the narrative together.

In any game setting there will be a class of characters within the Building who exist because without them the Building could not exist. They serve a vital plot function by making sure the whole shebang makes sense. They might be police, or government officials, or religious authorities, local politicians, street cleaners, bartenders, antique dealers – whatever makes best sense within your Building.

This is a specific Building, don’t forget. It involves smuggling, antiquities, occultism. That means the people who are there because they have to be there are probably smugglers, antique dealers, occultists. Some of them may even become plot relevant, but they don’t have to start that way.

They must exist because, without them, the whole conceit of the narrative falls apart.

How much detail need you lavish on these folks?

Well, probably not much, but you do need something more than a lick and a promise. For example:

• Merchant tall, always bends lower to appear shorter than they are, rapid talker, has four sons to assist them in their work, believes God will provide but, in the meantime, he must provide for himself. No combat skills, but the sons are combatative.
• Merchant A born gossip, this one lives for scandal and is always on the lookout for the latest news. They deal exclusively in expensive small things (eg. coins) and carry their wares with them in a leather bag. The merchant is an experienced knife fighter, for all their apparent helplessness.
• Merchant: A skilled tradesman, perhaps a stonecarver or a jeweler, or even a forger, who only deals with people that he knows. He has no time for riffraff or people who wander in off the street. He is very influential with the local authorities and can bring that influence to bear against people he dislikes.
• Merchant: This one sells supplies to expeditions and always has what an expedition needs to get going. He has been on several adventures himself as a young man and is more than willing to talk about his exciting past. Have you time for a coffee? Good! Now, this happened long ago ...

That’s the people, but why are they there? Partly for background, sure, but the players are going to want to interact with some of them and when that happens the players will want something in return. Clues, possibly. Stuff. Adventure hooks. 

These shouldn’t be specific to the NPC, whether they’re there to be there or there because they have to be. If you attach a specific clue to a specific character the only thing you achieve is an increased chance that the players will lose track of the plot, because they didn’t speak to X about The Thing. 

These are non-plot related, at least conceptually. None of them attach directly to any given scenario or plot seed. But there’s no reason why any of them shouldn’t attach to a scenario or plot seed. Let the players make that choice. If they want to follow up on that peculiar scarab they picked up from dear old so-and-so, then it makes not a scrap of difference whether that scarab was intended to lead to Rome. Now it definitely does.  

You probably don’t need too many of these, at least up-front. There are only so many shiny things any player can concentrate on at any one time. But you do need some, like so: 

• This character has a 1-point clue that leads to a Dig Site. 
• This character has a 1-point clue that leads to the location of a minor relic. 
• This character has a 1-point clue that can be developed into an important NPC relationship. 
• This character works with the Gorgon Cult and can be persuaded to turn against them. 
• This character has a minor relic (scarab, papyrus, mummy) that they’re prepared to sell. 
• This character has a fake relic that they’re prepared to sell. 
• This character works with a criminal organization and can make an introduction to that organization. 
• This character is actually undead and will lead the players into an ambush if given the opportunity. 

List of potential minor relics: 

• Granite stone inscribed with text. 
• Small amulet of a winged lion. 
• Small amulet of a cat. 
• Badly damaged mummy. 
• Incense burners with the head of Horus. 
• Bust of an important official, possibly Roman or Greek. 
• Papyrus with religious text. 
• Lapis Lazuli scarab. 

Again, you don’t want a lot of these but you need to have just enough on hand to be able to fling them out, when you need fresh meat for the lions.  

Now, remember what I also said about the Building:

When designing a setting, think about how people live and what they have to do in order to live well. Not just the big stuff, like which Camarilla faction holds political sway after dark, or whether ghosts are secretly controlling the police force. I mean the small stuff. What do people do for fun? How do they get their food? Do they have light when night falls, and if so how is that managed? What happens when it's hot? What happens in the rainy season? What happens when it snows? What happens to all the shit - literally, the shit - that your average city produces every day?

With that in mind, some events & locations:

• A funeral procession passes, the emaciated corpse on an open bier, carried by their friends and servants, only covered by a hastily flung shawl. Professional mourners follow behind, howling and bawling. The actual mourners, the spouse and children, are more restrained, but weep real tears. 
• A group of people argue over the acts of an efrit that supposedly haunts a nearby building. The efrit, they say, inhabits the bath, because a servant was murdered in that bath. There is much argument over what to do about it.  
• A group of locals and merchants discuss the Nile floods, and whether this years’ will be as bountiful as the one before. If it is too high a flood, they say, plague will surely follow. 
• The heat today is almost unbearable, making every surface and piece of furniture a furnace. It is almost impossible to move in the streets; even a stroll of a few hundred meters feels like an eternity in a hot griddle.  
• The call to prayer sings out from nearby minarets, bidding the faithful to worship. It is such a melody as would gladden the heart, but tonight there is a tinge of melancholy. Why? Who can say? 
• The flies today are particularly annoying. You cannot wipe them away fast enough; they return again and again, drinking your sweat.  
• A brightly colored lizard perches on a nearby windowsill. Its scales are the most magnificent; a little pharaoh on its throne. It has the most beatific expression, like a bishop welcoming guests into his home. 
• A darb, or by-street, about six or eight feet wide, a thoroughfare, with, at each end, a gateway, with a large wooden door, which is always closed at night. This darb is entirely shops, small recesses at the grand floor of a modest house.
• A hárat, or quarter, a district consisting of one or more streets or lanes with private houses, and but one entrance, with a wooden gate, which, like that of a darb, is closed at night.
• A Sook, or market, a short street, or short portions of streets, having shops on either side. These sooks are covered overhead by matting, extended upon rafters.

You may notice I nicked some of that direct from Gutenberg, with what is probably idiosyncratic spelling. When you're going to be reading it aloud anyway, spelling can slide. 

There's a lot more I could put in this Building. I still haven't mentioned what people do for fun, or whether there's street lighting and if so who manages it, who the civil authority is, who the street-level authority is, and a host of other factors. The point here isn't to be exhaustive. This is meant to point in the right direction for further detail later.

After all, any one of these could occupy a whole evening of play, in theory.  The born gossip with the 1-point clue that leads to a relic directs the characters towards that group arguing over the efrit in the bath, and it's off to the races. The players could practically invent the scenario on their own, by their reactions to those prompts.

Remember, this all sprang from that group of Building occupants who are there to be there. I never delved deep into that group who are there because they have to be there. I leave that to your imagination, except to say that in this situation there are probably two types: the first being the occultists and other esoteric experts who the players may turn to for guidance, and second, the ordinary cultists themselves, the ones not deeply involved in the Gorgon cult but who are cult-aware, and can be trusted to aid the cult when needed.

That's it for this week!

Death Mask 1 - Rome and the Building (Campaign Design)

OK, I have support for an expansion of a Gorgon masks idea first posited here, and for Tombhounds of Egypt.

Why not combine the two? 

Let's begin by talking about two core game concepts, Rome and the Building. 

Rome, as you may recall, is the endpoint, where all roads lead. This is where the game is ultimately heading, and elements of Rome need to be present wherever the characters go to reinforce that concept. 

The Building is that part of the game world where you, the Keeper/Director/Idiot Who Agreed To Write Something expect action to happen. It is where people meet the players, creating plot. After all, if your game world is this world then the characters might, theoretically, go to Chicago, say. But if the game is Tombhounds, why would they be in Chicago? No, your Building is ultimately smaller than that, but you need to have a firm grasp of its scale and what's in it.

Why start here? Because these are the foundational building blocks of the narrative. You need to know where the campaign is going. You need to know where the action is set. Once you have those two things, you can build with confidence.

In this instance, Rome is the Gorgon masks cult. This campaign takes as its central premise this truth from Joseph Cambell, as follows:

The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that "the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines" and "stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks", the latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane. That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth ... 

Fine. At one point there was a Gorgon masks cult in the Hellenic world, and that cult was overthrown in the 13th Century BC. What happened next? Well, in this timeline whatever parts of the cult survived ended up in Egypt, finding safe haven far away from the heroes who destroyed the cult the first go-round. This is about the same time as the 13th Dynasty, as Ramases II, as the battles with the Hittites. It's a time of prosperity and conflict, with the Sea Peoples in the wings waiting to eat everything alive. 

Sourced from Extra History

So: in an Egypt that's at the height of its power and about to go downhill, a death cult based around Gorgon masks settles in for the long haul. It's one of many cults in Egypt. So many cults. But this one has a Mythos tinge to it, a touch of madness that will infect the body politic and eventually play a part in bringing it down.

According to myth there were three Gorgons, including the human Medusa changed by Athene into a Gorgon for her impiety. Perseus slew Medusa, in the process creating the horse Pegasus and Chrysaor of the golden sword from her blood. This, in the campaign setting, is the cult overthrow that drove the remnants to Egypt.

That left two Gorgons standing, brother and sister duo Phorcys and Ceto. Tales vary as to whether Phorcys and Ceto were Gorgons or the parents of Gorgons. For purpose of this story, they're Gorgons. 

Brother and Sister. You know who else were brother and sister ruling together? The Pharaohs. Marriage between siblings was relatively common. Probably the most famous paring was Cleopatra and her brother. Sibling marriage wasn't accepted outside Egypt, but within its ruling classes it was the standard.

So, to Rome: the Masks of Death, whose self-appointed task is reconstituting the Hellenistic Pharaonic dynasties within Egypt, themselves a relic of the Gorgon cult. The idea of recreating the Pharaohs may simply be a means to an end, the end being the recruitment of willing Egyptians. The Gorgon cult doesn't need Egypt particularly, but it does need people to keep its traditions alive and to make more masks, so it tolerates the Pharaonic delusion to keep the masses happy.

All led by Phorcys and Ceto, brother and sister, the Horus, the Sedge and Bee (nswt-bjtj), and the Two Ladies or Nebty (nbtj). Interesting fact about the Horus: it is associated with gold. Much like that golden sword of Chrysaor ... 

Rome: Masks, hidden identities, hidden agendas, Gorgons, the shadowy influence of Egypt's past, the Pharaohs of old returning to take their rightful place.  

What of the Building?

Well, there are a couple obvious candidates. Cairo, for starters. Dig sites, and for purposes of the Building it doesn't matter what those dig sites are or where; they're dig sites, and that's what matters. However, this is as much about smuggling as it is archaeology, so it's reasonable to assume that the Building also includes smuggling routes. Let's include Cyprus within the Building as a minor but not unimportant adjunct. Also, smuggling ships of various kinds, sail and steam. Finally, since this is about antiquities, let's assume the Museums of the World are involved to some degree. Include the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Museo Egizio of Turin as rooms within the Building proper. None of these will ever be crucial to plot, but they make excellent background shots for plot reveals.   

Also, Patrons. Let's not forget those useful, money-rich patrons. 

Which begs a question: do I want to use the Icons system that Pelgrane's developed? Possibly. I should want some time to think about that. 

The Building: Egypt in general, Cairo in particular, various dig sites scattered across the desert, Cyprus, smuggling ships, and the Museums of the World with a focus on the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Museo Egizio of Turin. This is where I expect action to happen. 

Which isn't to say that action outside the Building is verboten. Just that I don't include a developed version of 'outside the Building.' I've got enough to do with the Building's interior without worrying about detours. The best way to deal with unexpected detours is to have a sketch developed of whatever I want the initial detour to look like, and then Quo Fata Ferunt the rest.

Quo Fata Ferunt, by the way, is Bermuda's motto. I've always found it useful. 

Whither the Fates Carry [Us]. 

That's it for this week! Enjoy!