Inspiration Strikes and I Record It

[Leblanc4prez]

Mystirious sickness speads throughout the area.
The animals are slightly larger and much more intelligent than their usual conterparts.

[End Master]

Well, maybe the eruption at Mount St. Helens woke something up that was sleeping beneath the earth. Or possibly that was the first sign of it waking up.

[Leblanc4prez]

Transformers... Robots in disquise! heh heh heh... nah, nah, that is siriously good.

[Locke]

Demonic possession is always a good one.

Especially given that it's in the West, perhaps the town under American civilization really began as a haven for the lawless, thieves and murderers and such, before the territory was fully integrated into the US.

I suppose you could file it under "Odd Creatures," but definitely don't ignore the local flora and fauna; there's quite a lot of potential there. Particularly if you have your group begin outside of town, dangerous wildlife - even mostly "normal" wildlife - is a possibility; a history of damage and death caused by the natural world ought to fit nicely. Hallucinogenic plants, an unusual frequency of lightning strikes, etc.

Apparently, Indians and settlers both lived in the area; I guess an Indian shaman might've cursed the place before the tribe was inevitably driven off.

A nearby military test facility in the more recent past could make for some less typical horror. There's the nearby asylum/state prison route too, but those are possibly overused.

Phone lines and other avenues of communication were attempted to connect the area with the outside world, but strange happenings always stalled the projects. Otherworldly voices and random strange noise can occasionally be heard nonetheless on the disconnected devices.

Crops never grew well for whatever reason; what was harvested was often deformed and possibly harmful to ingest.

Equipping the area with a power plant or industry which catastrophically malfunctioned some time ago (leading, perhaps, to the recent presumed vacancy) or another very tall and ominous-looking building could work, and there's always that deranged nut setting traps all over the place in an effort to save himself.

The town's name suggests a fair-sized cliff nearby, prone, of course, to suicide jumpers and eerie sounds that resemble voices with the wind. A cliff can mean caves honeycombing the area, too; no reason not to throw some in.

Lights in the sky, mysterious wreckage littering the area.

Uwe Boll once considered the site for a film set, before ultimately discarding it and rendering the place in CGI instead.

[Dragavan]

Uwe Boll once considered the site for a film set, before ultimately discarding it and rendering the place in CGI instead.

HAHAHAHA

No, I can't use that one... I want this to be a horror game, but that's just too scary for most players. I simply Can't believe that guy keeps getting deals to make movies.

...

As for everything else. Thanks guys. Some of that will really fit in well with the story that's unfolding for the place... and there are all sorts of caves and things, but I like the touch about the wind blowing across them making sounds like people whispering.

Back in the early days there were miners digging in the hills, until a horrible disaster in the mines killed many of them.
In more recent times (like starting in the '50s) the town became more of a resort getaway. The more transient short term guests didn't have to see or deal with the weirdness as much so the "restructuring" of the town lasted longer.
The resort business started to falter through the '80s and the town was pretty much abandoned in the '90s.
The road into town was removed from maps and marked as blocked to through traffic with signs.
Place is now in total disrepair and the road is falling apart, plus rock-slides partially block it in places.
Nobody (sane) lives in or around it any more.

The players are drawn to the place though all sorts of means, mostly tied to their Guilts, Fears, Dreams, and possibly Careers. Once in the town or area (which is eerie, but seems "normal" in most respects for a ghost town) they are then sucked into the horror worlds of Mist and Darkness. The real world is not where any of the bad things really happen to the players... although it starts there with some of the odd and mystical things that draw them in.

[Leblanc4prez]

Finaly a game to unleash my new charecter I've been working on, LeBlanc the Lucid, He has Multiple personalitys, each one good at a certain task. But always the threat of his mind shattering each time he calls upon the abilitys of these personas of his.

[Dragavan]

Okay, the next blog post is up (Yes, two in the same week this time) and it covers more about how the rules and game mechanics work. Feel free to check it out if you are interested: Dragavan's Den Post.

[Dragavan]

The following is something I wrote to give some background on the old town, before it was abandoned. This will be just one of several things that I will be including in the section about the town, all of which will be "real world" clipping and items like this. It's only the stuff for the other worlds where I will write in a more direct descriptive format. I figured since the real world will not used much in the game, other than to figure out how the characters ended up being called to the town, this kind of creative background information would be more fun and useful than a direct description of the place. Enough build up, here is the first excerpt. Let me know what you think.

---

Excerpt about Whispering Bluff from
"Mountain Towns of the Pacific Northwest" (1983 PNC Press)

The lovely resort community of Whispering Bluff has a long and fascinating history, spanning all the way back to the early settlers staking claims in the wild northwest, and before. Although troubled in the early years, it has grown into a very popular getaway for families and lovers, with several locations built right on the shores of beautiful Lake Larimore. Where did this pristine lowland mountain resort town get its start? That's a complex story, with several strange twists along the way. Here's the short version.

The mountain valley that now holds the town of Whispering Bluff was created by a meteorite that fell to earth and struck the mountains somewhere around 300AD. They say it hit with enough force to actually cause the complete destruction of hundreds of square mile and damaging thousands more, caving out the steep cliffs and deep valley in one enormous blast. As the vegetation and animal life returned, the valley became very lush and rich with native vegetation. The ancient Indians of the region actually referred to this as a great god falling from the sky and scorching the land. They thought the land was cursed by the gods and refused to set foot in it. Eventually they returned to the general area, although the valley was only used as a ritual burial ground. Even as the settlers started to move into and through the area the natives refused to stay in the valley. This lead to problems with some early missionaries who saw the place as a perfect location to build their mission, which was eventually abandoned under undetermined circumstances.

Years later, as the western expansion grew and the miners started to flood the west coast, the area was again settled. This time it was several small mining groups that took over the valley and started to tunnel into its hills. Within five years of the first mine opening an entire mining town had sprung up on the shores of the lake to support them, which they called Larimore City, after the founder of the town – Jacob Larimore. Although the town worked well as a hub for the mining deals and exchange, crops never seemed to grow well in the valley so most food and supplies had to be shipped in. A series of accidents and disasters eventually drove out all but the most hearty miners out of the region and there wasn't enough left to support the town, so it was all but abandoned.

It wasn't until around 1904 that things started to grow in the valley again, as the few who moved into and lived in the valley incorporated their land into the town they named Whispering Bluff. In the early days it remained relatively small, mostly just families pulling together for support of each other. Slowly the town grew, mostly as those with similar religious views moved into the area, but it was always a relatively poor community, especially since crops still couldn't be grown well there. Several large churches were built to support the growing religious community – which can still be found on the historic streets of old town – but this also lead to some troubles between the sects as they started to divide wider without anything else to focus on.

Whispering Bluff was nearing implosion, with the equivalent of a holy war on the horizon, when the town's popularity really started to take off in the early 1940s as a classy getaway for the rich. It appeared that a few travel magazines talked about the beautiful lake and forest around Whispering Bluff as a great place to get away to. Slowly the locals saw the real benefit of this and started to cater to the visitors instead of just arguing with each other. By the late 1940s it was a thriving vacation spot, at first for rich outdoorsmen and hunters and then for wealthy couples and families. By the late 1050s they even started to see the middle class coming to the valley for vacations in the summer and the locals completely became dependant on them, putting their religious differences behind them.

If you go to Whispering Bluff today you will see a large main street full of hotels, theaters, restaurants, and other great businesses to cater to your every whim. The large lake front resorts and inns, as well as the other sites worth seeing, make this a great place to visit, where the whole family will find something they enjoy. The classic buildings and lush parks of old town make for a great scenic walk. Most reviews have been positive and the community lives off the money brought in by the tourists, so they are very helpful and friendly. Make sure to check out the area museums for more information on the valley and town's rich history, which we were only able to scratch the surface of here.

[Locke]

It's basically good. I might prefer something with a little more "western noir" or "southern gothic" atmosphere to it, especially something that alludes more to the history of evil in the place, but then again, particularly if you are putting together a true game book, a blurb in this spirit might be the perfect thing to lead off with. At intervals in the book, though, I'd add some supplemental material, probably purporting to be actually written by the townsfolk - "Correspondence found on the body of so-and-so" or writing "discovered on the wall of the Kilman home" or "report received by ranger's station such and such x hours before loss of contact" or something similar, possibly found by those who searched the town for investigative/historical reasons (and later came down with mysterious physical and psychological symptoms) after it was abandoned; such would set the mood in a game book rather well and build up excitement for the game in addition to effortlessly fleshing out some of the backstory and expanding on the area's "evil" effect.

[Dragavan]

Locke, that's the plan. This was just the first of many excerpts, and it happens to be from a Light Historical book that talks about hundreds of little towns found throughout the mountains of the North-West. It would not do more than lightly elude to the darker side of things. I also plan to have excerpts from "Ghost Hunter" type magazines, official papers, transcripts of conversations with elders of the area, or other such things.

For instance, I wrote this tonight. It's supposedly part of an interview with an old Native American chief telling of the stories passed down through generations. This was not included in the book, but we found the original notes and present them here. They talk about the valley that now contains Whispering Bluff long before the town even existed.

(By the way, I am only sharing these on this forum at the moment, since this is a place about writing and not game design.)

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Transcription of an Interview with Chief Broken Claw of the Kawalanish Tribe
Originally recorded in 1979 for Book on Local Indian Legends & Stories

The old stories tell of an ancient tribe that once lived in the valley of the dead. They were known as Death Walkers. They would perform all sorts of bloody rituals and sacrifices in honor of and directly to the dark gods. It was dangerous for any other tribes of the area to allow their people to wander alone or even in small groups, like hunting parties, because they could be taken by the Death Walkers and used in the rituals. Most who were taken would never be seen again, but the few who escaped came back greatly injured and deformed, rarely living very long anyway. Most of the tribes had to keep moving farther away in order to stay outside of the range of the Death Walker hunters. My people went west, down the river and towards the ocean.

It is then said that the great gods finally learned of their dark dealings and had enough of evil ways. One of them reached down from the sky and punched their valley so hard that it could be felt for miles beyond the mountains. The Death Walkers were wiped from the land and the valley was cursed that none but the dead would be allowed to reside there. It was many years before anything, even our brother animals, would dare wander into the valley again, but eventually life returned there. Our tribe moved back to our homeland, at the gates of the valley, and became protectors of the path. We did not allow others to pas into the cursed land for anything other than burial of the dead.

The land was cursed and even the animals that lived in the valley were not safe to hunt or eat. Hunting was even banned by the tribe after several of our best hunters went missing within the valley. The stories tell of many strange things being seen and heard in the valley. That the dead buried there would talk to those who visit the land, almost calling them to join them on the other side. We believe that those who did not return listened to them and followed them into the afterlife. Eventually the tribe stopped allowing the dead to be buried in the valley, to protect the living who would have to take them there. This was the way my people lived for many generations, gatekeepers to the valley of the dead and protectors of the path.

It wasn't until the white man came that anyone tried to spend any time in the valley again. They did not believe in the great gods or our tribe's stories. They only saw the beauty on the surface of the valley and not the dangers beneath it. They then angered the great gods by trying to push their gods onto our people, by creating a missionary in the cursed valley. The stories say that after many years of warnings to leave, which were ignored by the settlers, the gods once again reached out to stop them, but the dark ones had regained power by then and fought back. The settlers were caught in the middle and destroyed.

Soon after than time, however, more white men moved into these parts and we were eventually driven from our land and could no longer guard the passage into the valley of the dead. They did not heed the warnings and even though many of them died over and over again they kept moving back into the valley. We couldn't protect them. Our time had passed and our gods no longer had the power they once had. It was a new world and they had no place within it. I still follow the old ways, but there are relatively few of us left.

The evil of the dark gods still resides in the valley and I still refuse to go there, but it is impossible to stop others any longer. The place will fall again, as it always has, and nothing can stop that.

[Leblanc4prez]

Very er.. for want of a better word... WOW! I really want to see more back story! I love it, i do, I do, I do! This is gunna be awesome. I definately sense the Cu'thulu influence. Man I love COC.

[Dragavan]

Okay, you want more... Here is another snippet I made up. This time it's from a group that tried to get more info after the town was abandoned (which happened in the mid '90s). Don't trust everything these kooks say, they aren't that strict on fact checking if the "facts" fit their beliefs... and they want to believe... and I want to sleep... so I am going to leave you with this and go get some shut eye.

---

Clipping from the May 1997 release of the "US Parapsychologist" newsletter

This report comes in from the now empty town of Whispering Bluff on Lake Larimore, which was a thriving resort community only a few scant years ago. The locals are doing their best to keep things quiet about the place, spreading some rumors about unsafe structures and wild animals to try and keep people from going into the area. We've discovered that these are just lies perpetrated by the authorities to hide the truth about what happened there to make it go from flourishing tourist trap to ghost town in just under four years.

They claim the town was in decline since the mid 80s, but we can find no proof of such claims. They conveniently say that the courthouse, where the records were kept, suffered a fire that destroyed most of the records. This same fire is said to have destroyed the local records about the citizens of the community, so no accurate accounting of how many lived in the town at the time of its supposed decline can be found either. Although they claim that all records do show that everyone had moved out by the end of 1994. How can this be if the records showing the names and number of residents have been destroyed?

Our own research shows that, according to US Census counts, the number of people they claim to have moved out of the town in the last two years of its existence is far below the numbers the town is said to have had during the last accounting only four years prior. Even if you give a good steady decline of the population in the interim, there is no way these numbers can match up. Something happened up there to cause its sudden decline and these numbers prove that whatever it was also caused the deaths or disappearances of numerous members of the community. Yet they refuse to even listen to our claims and answer our questions when we confronted them with them.

We sent a small team up there to investigate the town, equipped with the latest in parapsychology and meta-tracking equipment, to look into the place and see if our suspicions were correct. Professor James Rebaldi was in charge of the team and said they arrived early on March 28th, during a rather nasty rainstorm. They didn't check in with the local authorities before heading up there, in case they would be blocked or watched, and headed right into town. The following is his own account of what happened up there.

"Upon first entering the town we passed the old graveyard, which looked eerie in the driving rain and cloudy darkness of the morning, but it wasn't until we entered the town proper that we felt the presence of something. The town definitely had some kind of life within it, so we set up our first test equipment right there on Main Street. It was a good thing we did too, because no less than fifteen minutes passed before the county Sheriff and one of his deputies pulled into town to ask us to leave. They were insistent, even though I knew we were in the right legally. We had no choice to pack up our things and leave."

They had planned on looping around and going back once they lost the Sheriff, but he had his deputy follow them all the way back to the county line and then set up a checkpoint on the only road into the valley. They were serious about keeping whatever secrets reside within the town. What kind of event are they covering up? Professor's reading from their limited time there were "off the charts", as he put it. But without more testing and research on location, it is all still inconclusive at best. Whatever is alive up there in Whispering Bluff is well protected, but can't stay secret forever.

You know our motto here: The truth always wins out in the end.

[Dragavan]

Here is one of these things (a new clipping I wrote) in something that more resembles the graphic form I will be presenting them in the PDF Book. This is a clipping from the "Whispering Bluff Gazette" Newspaper from November 12th 1986 (while the town was still active, but nearing it's end of days). The final version will be much higher resolution and most likely played with a bit more (adding a few wrinkles or folds perhaps).

[Dragavan]

Here is another image I made today. This is the front of an old 1950s Brochure for the Larimore Inn in Whispering Bluff. This is just one of those fun things that can help set the theme. This Is supposed to be very old, so it looks worn and aged. I used a couple other 1940s and 1950s brochures I found images of to get the kind of layout and look that was common back then (which is bland and crappy compared to what was done in later years). I enjoy making these kinds of things.

[Leblanc4prez]

I am overwhelmed. I... i feel like I need to cry tears of joy now...