Everybody already
knows about bigfoot. Of course they are real- one was dissected in
Harvard over a hundred years ago. Mothman? Jersey Devil? They're real
too of course, so are ghosts and witches and satanic cults in the
woods. But they tend not to mess with people too much, people feeding
deer and making them lose their fear of humans is a much bigger
problem. Magic? Of course that's real. It's just not a great field to
go into, welding is much more practical. Satanic Spellbooks are
confiscated by schools all the time, where as mana crystals are sold
in specialty shops. Many people still have bits and pieces that fell
off the Roswell UFO. Government never tried to keep it a secret; the
“visitors” haven't come back a second time yet. America still
turns.
The players are
kids; teenagers. You're bored and need something to do in a small
town. You pick up your baseball bat and old aprons to fashion some
armor and go off into the uncharted places, dealing with ghosts and
imps and supernatural curses and magic. You find magic spellbooks
written in the margins of old diaries, trying to decode them while
you pretend to pay attention in math class. There's an older guy in
the town named Martin. He lives in a motor home and owns a gun.
He knows more about monsters then any of you do, and makes his income
driving state to state so he can get enough for the next full fuel
tank and go adventuring some more. He's cool. But none of your
parents think so. That's the feeling this game is supposed to evoke-
because Martin is a total fucking loser. Why are you wasting
time chasing spooks when you should be studying for your SATs. You
should be trying to find a good job, or a good husband, not wasting
your time doing dangerous shit. If we had a giant insect problem we'd
call animal control, not a bunch of kids trying to hawk the carapaces
so they can try to get college kids to buy them beer.
Welcome to
Whitetail Pines.
The Weal Deal
This is Whitetail
Pine's primer pawn shop. It's run by a kindly old man named Mr.
Sandson. Mr. Sandson is a collector and antiquarian, and is known not
to ask questions. As the only pawn shop in town, he's probably
ripping you off, but you've got no where else to turn. He's still
probably the only way you'll ever make a profit off that wendigo
skull you risked life and limb for.
On top of buying
artifacts, he sells them too. Sandson's only got a few; the old skull
of a mesmerist that supposed to grant the powers of hypnotism, a few
tarot cards loaded with spells by the town's old up-and-coming
magician girl (she moved away to college in another state- few
employment opportunities for wizards out here.), a few rusted swords.
Minors going around with swords and axes and bows and arrows isn't
considered that odd, adventurers are looked at like greasers. Tough
guys, tolerated but given the stink eye. Guns are a no no though,
unless you're on an actual hunting trip with your dad- Hunting deer,
not bagging another Sasquatch. They're endangered now.
The Trailer Park
Filled up with
freaks and weirdos; it's the best. Most of the tough kids hang here,
but not all the residents here are normal, or even “human”. The
people in this town have it as an open secret, don't ask don't tell
about the vampires and troglodytes that live in the trailers. This is
a great place to find the latest information about monster infested
places or portals to hell opening up; the residents here are the
closest to that kind of thing. But don't ask them to join you, they
are trying to be more accepted into human society- the kids were born
humans and they're trying to get out to the fringe. They don't
appreciate what they have.
Beyond
information, you can also get some magic. Back ally magic, oldschool
magic, not that crap they teach in the special boarding schools with
“elements” and “efficiency testing”. At least four witches
live in the trailer parks (they're part of the vegetarian craze- they
don't eat kids anymore), and they can brew up a mean love potion. Or
more commonly, a potion of strength or fire resistance that a young
troublemaker will want to sip before entering the salamander's cave
out by dead man's gulch.
The Highschool
When the kids
aren't on break or on the weekends, they spend every day here as
normal. Boring math, history, science, religious studies. About
actual religious gods, not prayer in schools or anything like that.
That would be against the Constitution, as we are all aware. The dean
is almost certainly a werewolf, and the chains under his desk are
only jokingly said to be used on the students. (He really uses them
on himself, and he knows he'll lose his tenure if anything happens).
Health class teaches the genetic history of super-powered
individuals, and the unfortunate crushing reality that nobody in your
town has any chance of developing any powers into puberty or after-
at least you highly doubt you're the one in ninty-thousand with the
potential.
There is one ray
of hope here though; Rooster. The metal, car, and woodshop teacher.
He used to hunt vampires to pay his rent and loves to regale stories
of it; but that was back when vampires and hunting them was much more
common, and much more profitable. While he's not supposed to, he
always keeps a couple of good oak stakes in his woodshop supply, none
of that composite crap.
The Outskirts
This is the good
stuff. Outside the town, in the woods or badlands, down the old
highway, in old man Henassay's barn. These are the places were
monsters and spooks may dwell. All around Whitetail are abandoned
places, old condemned buildings, mysterious structures in the woods.
You want a place to explore? No grown ups, just you and the
mysterious forces out there.
Whitetail Pines Exploration Table –
1d8
[1]
Ancient Sanitarium. Ghosts of the nurses are said to haunt this
place, don't come without a conductive weapon- made of metal. Learned
that in science class. If you manage to get a full set of antique
plague-doctor trading cards Sandson will give you $220 dollars for
it.
[2]
Badlands. Cragy rocks nearby the hills, used as a dump for old
chemicals in the 1950s. An old rusted plane is out here, the pilot is
a zombie now. The navigation compass is possibly cursed, and
certainly full of old magic. You can get $60 bucks for it.
[3]
Witch's House. She's not always here, but her presence still makes
this place scary; plus there's a few curses as traps and her
familiars on the grounds. There's old jewelry in the attic, kept
around real human hair wigs. Probably get $150 for a handful. Don't
come if there's new chimes up around the house, that means she is
home.
[4]
Swamp Relics. Old underwater cold-war laboratory is still here, with
a few experiments that roam around and eat trash from the garbage
bins along the lake. The MREs inside are still good, and are one of
the few things you can eat that demons can't cause you to throw up or
turn rancid in your stomach; worth 10$ each. Don't come in autumn,
else the spirits here may try to freeze the lake and trap you under
there, leaving you stuck without hope of escape until spring.
[5]
Old Drive-In Movie Theater. Was a pretty busy, fun place until
someone cast a spell to make one of the characters real. He's become
a serial killer. While he acts reasonable to sneak up on people, you
can always tell its him because his skin is still black and white (he
changed his clothes). Bust up the old ticket machines and parking
meter things and get handfuls of antique coins and cash.
[6]
The Old Wax Museum. The upper floor has been converted into the
ice-cream stop in the town, and the owner is quite adamant about no
one going downstairs to the lower floors. He keeps the place nice and
cool, and as such the living wax figures don't bother anyone. However
the old cowboys and indians sculptures down there wear authentic
costumes that might be worth $20 each as long as their clothes aren't
damaged too much from knife holes or burn marks, and the few real
golden nuggets that were once on display could be worth a couple
hundred dollars each if you could only get them out.
[7]
Chalk Cave. The entrance to the cave has been marked by hundreds of
young people over the years, little doodles, initials in hearts, and
a few skulls and warnings. The cave itself is home to a family of
mangy, diseased, and inbred wolves. The wolves can speak English and
try to lure people into their jaws in the darkness, but have
hilariously out of date language and are way too obvious. You could
enter the cave to steal some of the old comic books the wolves grew
up reading; the collector items could go for upwards of $150. Usually
the animals are too weak and cowardly to attack, but if they are
hungry enough they could be dangerous.
[8]
Motel Room 4. At the old (and only) motel in town. Proudly advertises
its color television as complimentary. While it is still a barely
functioning small business, the 4th
room is condemned, having boarded up windows and a well locked door.
Still, kids manage to break in and explore the sinkhole in the closet
that leads to a hidden realm. Watch out for mushroom men, and bring a
breathing mask, lest you never be able to leave that place. Drag back
the safe, the last guest in that room was a lawyer. Nobody knows what
he could have left in there before running out screaming.
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