RPGnet - User contributions [en]

Talk:Covenant:Survivors

2006-11-29T21:02:54Z

Jabonko:

Would it make sense to tie the Survivors into the Black Jack Tapes? Perhaps one of them is Black Jack? Or maybe they are what convinced Ricky Hawkins (and would convince outsiders) that the key to escape lies in the Strip Mine? --Jabonko

Talk:Covenant:McHugh

2006-11-28T14:23:36Z

Jabonko:

Some suggestions:

*I think the Cabal's logic should remain a mystery. It's all much more spooky if we have no idea why a group of lawmen would commit ritual suicide. The conspicuous date makes it a great device for Big Picture plots.

*Personally, I'd like the police force a lot more as an independent conspiracy, not something sanctioned by the townsfolk. They should be a group of people who still believe in secular law & order. When God's away, it'd make for excellent power plays between them and the religious zealots. Maybe they're strongest in certain neighborhoods?

As for high school, I don't know. Seems like home schoolin' would be the order of the day. Maybe, like the independent police, there's always been one or two teachers who insist on keeping the school open for those who want their children to attend. Every class would become a history class, what with the world havin' ended and all.

--Dan Bayn

:I had originally thought the Cabal would span the strata of the citizenry, rather than just being law-enforcers. The only thing I had intended for them to have in common was that they were born before the fall.

:Law enforcement as separate conspiracy sounds great. As does home schooling v the few teachers left. Opens the way for lots of conflicts and power struggles.
-Sam

Talk:Covenant:McHugh

2006-11-28T14:22:59Z

Jabonko:

Some suggestions:

*I think the Cabal's logic should remain a mystery. It's all much more spooky if we have no idea why a group of lawmen would commit ritual suicide. The conspicuous date makes it a great device for Big Picture plots.

*Personally, I'd like the police force a lot more as an independent conspiracy, not something sanctioned by the townsfolk. They should be a group of people who still believe in secular law & order. When God's away, it'd make for excellent power plays between them and the religious zealots. Maybe they're strongest in certain neighborhoods?

As for high school, I don't know. Seems like home schoolin' would be the order of the day. Maybe, like the independent police, there's always been one or two teachers who insist on keeping the school open for those who want their children to attend. Every class would become a history class, what with the world havin' ended and all.

--Dan Bayn

I had originally thought the Cabal would span the strata of the citizenry, rather than just being law-enforcers. The only thing I had intended for them to have in common was that they were born before the fall.

Law enforcement as separate conspiracy sounds great. As does home schooling v the few teachers left. Opens the way for lots of conflicts and power struggles.

Covenant:Cabal

2006-11-27T17:02:44Z

Jabonko:

A Cabal of twelve Men, all born before the Apocalypse, who committed ritual suicide in the basement of the police station on the fourtieth anniversary of The Fall (October 31, 1999). Members include:
*Captain Charles Higgs
*???

----
please add names, details re: beliefs, secrecy, goals, etc. They probably shouldn't be in operation in 2006 since their original twelve are dead. Unless they recruited?

Covenant:McHugh

2006-11-27T16:58:34Z

Jabonko: /* Prompts */

Police Sgt. Ethan McHugh's (b. 1977) position as [[#Head of Police|head of police]] in Covenant was inflicted on him on [[#The Fortieth Anniversay|October 31, 1999]].
= Sgt. Ethan McHugh =

== Career ==
Ethan McHugh served as one of the seven cops in Covenant since the day he graduated high school in 1995.

The town of Covenant had always been quiet and hadn't changed much from the way things were before the Apocalypse. Accordingly, the police department remained small. Only a handful of men called themselves officers. Ranks were fairly arbitrary and usually based on age. But Ethan McHugh worked hard and rose up the command chain.

Ethan had friends all over town. He stayed close with his high school pals, often having bonfires in his parents' back yard. Despite the interest of several girls, Ethan didn't date much. He preferred to spend his time tinkering with cars.

== The Fortieth Anniversary ==
The obituary from November 4, 1999
:"[[Covenant:Higgs|Higgs, Captain Charles M.]] "Chuck", age 60. Chuck's battle with dementia ended on October 31st, 1999. He was preceded in death by ..... He is survived by ..... Chuck grew up in xxxx, before the Fall. He was a devoted officer of the law who knew everyone and was a friend to all."

On October 31, 1999, a secret [[Covenant:Cabal|Cabal]] of a dozen men born Before the Fall gathered together in the basement of the police office to perform ritual suicide. Despite being unaware of such phenomenon as the "Millenium Bug" or "Y2k," these twelve men believed that the millenium meant the end of Covenant - the end of the world.

Their last chance for redemption, according to the cabal, was to sacrifice themselves on what would be the last anniversary of the Apocalypse. Captain Higgs, along with eleven of his peers, secretly entered the police station and began their rites. No one knows exactly what took place, but everyone knows the story of the first man on the scene.

Faced with the grisly scene before him when he arrived to work early Monday morning, Sgt. McHugh stood strong and kept his composure. The clues were plain to see and the evidence clear. Ethan called a town meeting and on the evening of November 2 gave the townsfolk closure on the greusome suicides. He did not tell them everything, but he made them feel like he had. His inner strength came out in his oratory and the crowd hung on his every word.

== Head of Police ==
After the death of Captain Higgs, the townsfolk were quick to decide on the next head of police. Following his speech, it was an easy choice for the Indentured; Ethan McHugh had shown compassion, strength, and investigative ability. He was appointed Head of Police in a ceremony that immediately followed the funeral of Captain Higgs.

To this day, Ethan has never revealed any additional information about what took place in the basement. He never allowed anyone else to see the crime scene, taking the traumatic burden of recording and cleaning it up all on himself. No one else knows about the literature he found.

= Prompts =
*What's the name of the high school in covenant?
**Has it always been called that, or was the name changed after the Apocalypse?
*What really happened in the basement of the police office?
*What "literature" did McHugh find?
**A book? scroll? tome? other?
***What did it say? What sort of prophecies (if any) did it make?
*How has McHugh's age (29) affected his role as head of police?
**Are there older members of the force who might be jealous?
**Do the Indentured Chosen still trust in his abilities?
*Who else was in the Cabal?
**How long had the Cabal existed?
**Did they recruit or just coallesce?
*Why did Higgs' family refer to his dementia rather than his obsession with the end of the world?

----
Return to [[Covenant]]

Covenant

2006-11-27T16:53:13Z

Jabonko: /* People */

On October 31st, 1959, Hell came to West Virginia.

For one night, the Devil danced through the foggy, Appalachian hills. Those whose hearts were vulnerable to his influence set upon their neighbors, friends, and family like rabid hounds. Violence and chaos reigned.

God arrived with the dawn. He banished Satan from the city limits and revealed the Truth to those who had survived. The world was no more. The weight of Man's sin had finally tipped the scales and doomed the Earth to everlasting torment. Only this one town remained, but it would be the seed of a new Eden.

God's chosen people renamed their home Covenant, in honor of His faith in them.

***

The forgotten town of Covenant, West Virginia, is nestled deep in the Appalachian hills. Its residents believe that the world ended in 1959, when God himself came down from Heaven and saved them. Of course, that's far from the whole story.

The goal of this project is to create a hyper-historical setting in the style of Lost. Strange and terrible events have been piling up in Covenant for almost fifty years, though folk tales of colonial witches and Indian burial grounds could extend that range by several centuries. There is nothing supernatural going on, but appearances are sure as hell deceiving!

Covenant is meant to host games of horror and investigation. Ideally, players will take on the rolls of outsiders, people for whom the town is one, big mystery. They may be trying to expose the cover-up, following Alexander Dougal's money trail, hiking in the Virginia hills, or just trying to change a tire. In any case, they'll find that leaving Covenant is considerably more difficult than reaching it. (See the FAQ, below.)

If you'd like to contribute to Covenant, here's my advice: Think small. It's a tiny town, so there's not a lot of room for epic, globe-spanning plots. A single family's tragic past can spin off dozens of secrets, locations, and people. Conspiracies and conflicts should be small and/or short-lived, but their effects can ripple outward for years to come. Claim a house or neighborhood for yourself, but don't try to annex the town as a whole. Covenant may be tiny, but its sandbox is big.

=Secrets=
The events and conspiracies that have made Covenant what it is today.

*[[Covenant:ProjectBabel|Project Babel]] - The big, bad idea that started it all.
*[[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]] - Lunatics enforce Covenant's quarantine through brutality & terror.
*[[Covenant:CoalFire|The Coal Fire]] - A subterranean blaze is consuming Covenant from within.

=Places=
Please try to use existing locations before creating new ones.

*[[Covenant:StripMine|The Strip Mine]] - An environmental disaster of monumental proportions.
*[[Covenant:HouseOfGod|The House of God]] - Literally. When God is in Covenant, this is where He sleeps.

=People=
If you create new characters, make sure to give them each a write-up.

*[[Covenant:God|God]] - Alexader Dougal has convinced an entire town that he created the universe.
*[[Covenant:SamYaza|Sam Yaza]] - This devil thinks he's God's greatest servant.
*[[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] - Covenant's resident mechanic & black sheep.
*[[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins]] - A high school kid who got in over his head.
*[[Covenant:McHugh|Sgt. Ethan McHugh]] - The position of Head of Police was thrust upon him, but he has risen to the challenge.

=Plots=
Scenarios and player-characters belong in here.

*[[Covenant:Revenuers|The Revenuers]] - A team of U.S. Treasury investigators follows a trail of slush funds to Alexander Dougal's dirty secret.
*[[Covenant:Tapes|The Black Jack Tapes]] - The search for the copies of [[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins']] conversation with the mysterious voice known only as [[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]].

=FAQ=

What really happened on Oct. 31, 1959?

The United States government sprayed civilians with a cocktail of psychedelic drugs in order to study the effects of a chemical attack in a "live fire scenario." The results were more terrifying than they could have imagined. Most of the population descended into a sadistic frenzy of homicide and mutilation. (Some are still lost in its depths.)

The next morning, one of the low-level project directors tried to restore order. He fed the survivors a story that their drug-addled minds could accept... one that just happened to be relentlessly self-aggrandizing. The government sealed off the town and, over a period of many years, created the illusion that it had been abandoned since WWII. To this day, it lies at the center of a strict no-fly zone.

Why don't people just leave?

At first, a military special ops team prevented anyone (especially the lunatics) from escaping. Later on, local groups adopted the same role. They police the edges of town under the false belief that they're doing God's will, saving escapees from themselves, or protecting the town from some external threat.

How can they think they're the last people on Earth?

There are no television or radio broadcast towers within range, and the government destroyed the few ham radios in town. The phone lines have been cut. No aircraft has flown over Covenant in fifty years. The only people who remember the outside world are now in their sixties, and they're the ones who bought into the lie in the first place.

Anyone who wants to prove them wrong has a long, steep climb ahead.

Why can't anything be supernatural?

In a shared-world project, mythology can get confusing really fast. The best defense is to start with a stable, well-understood universe. In this case: reality. The people of Covenant can get as weird as you want, but their actions must stay mired in reality. The appearance of impossible things is strongly encouraged, however. Getting from the first (usually supernatural) explanation to the actual truth should drive most Covenant adventures.

Now, before anyone tries to tell me that ghosts and magic are part of reality, let me just say this: shut up.

Without vampires/werewolves/ghosts/whatever, the setting will suck!

You suck. Go start your own shared-world project... with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the shared-world project!

Covenant:McHugh

2006-11-27T16:51:53Z

Jabonko:

Covenant:McHugh

2006-11-27T16:51:08Z

Jabonko:

Covenant:Tapes

2006-11-27T06:15:16Z

Jabonko:

Search for the recordings of [[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins]]' conversation with [[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]]

Covenant:RickyHawkins

2006-11-26T02:07:33Z

Jabonko:

= Richard "Ricky" Hawkins =

== The Headlines ==
<Blockquote>
::“'''Family prays for safe return of rebellious child'''”

:Friday, June 14th – [[Covenant:Hawkins|Jasper and Bernadette Hawkins]] will hold a candle light vigil Sunday night, June 16th, at the gateway to the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] where their son Richard was last seen three days ago. On Tuesday night, Richard and some friends were playing around near the strip mine when the young man crossed the barricade and enter the mine.

:“We dared him to do it, but we never thought he actually would!” said [[Covenant:FSchmidt|Franky Schmidt]], a friend of Richard since childhood. “We all knew we weren’t supposed to go in.”

:The Hawkins phoned police on Wednesday morning to report their son missing. “He’s stayed over at friends’ houses before without telling us, but when he didn’t come home the next day we knew something terrible happened.” Said Mrs. Hawkins.

:[[Covenant:McHugh|Police Sargent Ethan McHugh]] asked any citizens with information about Richard to contact the Covenant police department. McHugh strongly urged the Indentured to stay away from the mine.

:“I can not stress this enough: the Strip Mine is a dangerous place. It is simply not safe for anyone and the barricade must be respected. We have no reason to believe Ricky is hurt. We think he is simply lost in the maze.” Sgt. McHugh had no comment when asked whether a police search team had been dispatched into the mine.

:The candle light vigil will be held at Sunset at the first gate of the Strip Mine barricade. All in attendance are invited to bring photos of loved ones lost during The Apocalypse.</Blockquote>

== What Happened ==

One of the Indentured Chosen (the citizens of Covenant) – Richard Hawkins – disappeared into the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] on Tuesday night, June 11th. Ricky had, for some time, wanted to go into the mine. The dare his friends made was just the excuse he was looking for. Ricky was seen as a bit of a trouble-maker in town. He could often be found at or near the scene of various vandalism, pranks, and rough-housing, as a young man is expected to commit. After all, he was only 16. Despite his regular truancy and no-goodnik status, he was beloved by many and was a whiz at science: small mechanics and electronics and such.

Ricky wasn't an anarchist or in any way interested in disproving the all-pervasive belief that Covenant is the last and only town on Earth. He's just rebelious in that misdirected teenager sort of way. The worst thing he ever did to anyone was ruining Mrs. Weaver's mailbox. Going into the mine wasn't an act of rebellion against the beliefs of the townsfolk. Rather, it was the act of an overly curious boy who wanted to know what was beyond the barriers and gates.

== The Science Fair Debacle ==
Ricky was suspended from school for a month last year following the Science Fair. After reading about psychic mediums and occult figures like Alister Crowley and others, the young boy decided to build a device to commune with the spirits of those who died in Armageddon. His aptitude for basic electronics combined with a book he borrowed from [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] helped him build such a device. In truth it was a small CB Radio that could reach as far as Chicago.

At the science fair, Ricky's table featured a poster which illustrated some, but not all, of the steps in the construction of his "Spirit Medium Box." It also displayed "research" from occultists and other psuedo-scientists and theologists. Ricky was on his way to a bad grade due simply to poor research and a hokey Spirit Medium act, but he was barred from participation when the science teacher heard the boy start playing a cassette tape of a recorded conversation.

Ricky and his infernal contraption were sent to the principal’s office before he could even finish introducing his taped conversation with "[[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]]." The device and the recording Ricky brought to school were confiscated and destroyed. No one bothered to listen to [[Covenant:Tapes|the tapes]]. That is, except for Ricky’s friend and confidant, [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]]. Caleb may or may not still have copies of those tapes.

At first Ricky thought he was communing with the spirit of one of the unfortunate souls who perished on that fateful Halloween. But soon he became convinced that the story about the world ending really was just a fairy tale told to keep people in line. There was something Black Jack said about the strip mine that rang true, but at the same time contradicted everything Ricky knew about the Armageddon. That’s why he went in when dared. It gave him an excuse and a plausible cover story. If he came back and was questioned about why he ignored the barrier he could say it was all just part of a prank or a dare.

== Unanswered Questions ==
*What is it about Ricky’s story that an Outsider would find so compelling and believable?
**What about it would make them think that the secret to escaping from Covenant is hidden in that mine?
**What does Caleb have to say about the tapes?
***What connection does he have to Ricky’s [[#The Science Fair Debacle|science fair project]]?
****or is he simply blamed for having filled Ricky’s head with mechanical nonsense?

*Could Ricky have unknowingly passed the first test to become one of [[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]]?
::The voice on the tape actually belongs to the recruiter for The Watchers. The mine is laden with booby traps and tests of skill and strength. Someone who manages to get past all the tricks and traps discovers the lair of The Watchers and is worthy of joining them. Not only that, but the spook-show they witness on their descent serves to warp their mind and make them suitable for conditioning once they reach The Watchers’ compound.

*Does Ricky ever return to Covenant from the mine?
**If so, how has he changed?
**what has he seen in the mine?
**What are his beliefs about Armageddon now?
***Is he more skeptical or has he regained his faith?

----

Return to [[Covenant|Covenant]]

Covenant:Tapes

2006-11-26T02:05:59Z

Jabonko:

Recordings of [[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins]]' conversation with [[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]]

Covenant

2006-11-26T02:04:38Z

Jabonko: /* Plots */ added Tapes

On October 31st, 1959, Hell came to West Virginia.

For one night, the Devil danced through the foggy, Appalachian hills. Those whose hearts were vulnerable to his influence set upon their neighbors, friends, and family like rabid hounds. Violence and chaos reigned.

God arrived with the dawn. He banished Satan from the city limits and revealed the Truth to those who had survived. The world was no more. The weight of Man's sin had finally tipped the scales and doomed the Earth to everlasting torment. Only this one town remained, but it would be the seed of a new Eden.

God's chosen people renamed their home Covenant, in honor of His faith in them.

***

The forgotten town of Covenant, West Virginia, is nestled deep in the Appalachian hills. Its residents believe that the world ended in 1959, when God himself came down from Heaven and saved them. Of course, that's far from the whole story.

The goal of this project is to create a hyper-historical setting in the style of Lost. Strange and terrible events have been piling up in Covenant for almost fifty years, though folk tales of colonial witches and Indian burial grounds could extend that range by several centuries. There is nothing supernatural going on, but appearances are sure as hell deceiving!

Covenant is meant to host games of horror and investigation. Ideally, players will take on the rolls of outsiders, people for whom the town is one, big mystery. They may be trying to expose the cover-up, following Alexander Dougal's money trail, hiking in the Virginia hills, or just trying to change a tire. In any case, they'll find that leaving Covenant is considerably more difficult than reaching it. (See the FAQ, below.)

If you'd like to contribute to Covenant, here's my advice: Think small. It's a tiny town, so there's not a lot of room for epic, globe-spanning plots. A single family's tragic past can spin off dozens of secrets, locations, and people. Conspiracies and conflicts should be small and/or short-lived, but their effects can ripple outward for years to come. Claim a house or neighborhood for yourself, but don't try to annex the town as a whole. Covenant may be tiny, but its sandbox is big.

=Secrets=
The events and conspiracies that have made Covenant what it is today.

*[[Covenant:ProjectBabel|Project Babel]] - The big, bad idea that started it all.
*[[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]] - Lunatics enforce Covenant's quarantine through brutality & terror.
*[[Covenant:CoalFire|The Coal Fire]] - A subterranean blaze is consuming Covenant from within.

=Places=
Please try to use existing locations before creating new ones.

*[[Covenant:StripMine|The Strip Mine]] - An environmental disaster of monumental proportions.
*[[Covenant:HouseOfGod|The House of God]] - Literally. When God is in Covenant, this is where He sleeps.

=People=
If you create new characters, make sure to give them each a write-up.

*[[Covenant:God|God]] - Alexader Dougal has convinced an entire town that he created the universe.
*[[Covenant:SamYaza|Sam Yaza]] - This devil thinks he's God's greatest servant.
*[[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] - Covenant's resident mechanic & black sheep.
*[[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins]] - A high school kid who got in over his head.

=Plots=
Scenarios and player-characters belong in here.

*[[Covenant:Revenuers|The Revenuers]] - A team of U.S. Treasury investigators follows a trail of slush funds to Alexander Dougal's dirty secret.
*[[Covenant:Tapes|The Black Jack Tapes]] - The search for the copies of [[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins']] conversation with the mysterious voice known only as [[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]].

=FAQ=

What really happened on Oct. 31, 1959?

The United States government sprayed civilians with a cocktail of psychedelic drugs in order to study the effects of a chemical attack in a "live fire scenario." The results were more terrifying than they could have imagined. Most of the population descended into a sadistic frenzy of homicide and mutilation. (Some are still lost in its depths.)

The next morning, one of the low-level project directors tried to restore order. He fed the survivors a story that their drug-addled minds could accept... one that just happened to be relentlessly self-aggrandizing. The government sealed off the town and, over a period of many years, created the illusion that it had been abandoned since WWII. To this day, it lies at the center of a strict no-fly zone.

Why don't people just leave?

At first, a military special ops team prevented anyone (especially the lunatics) from escaping. Later on, local groups adopted the same role. They police the edges of town under the false belief that they're doing God's will, saving escapees from themselves, or protecting the town from some external threat.

How can they think they're the last people on Earth?

There are no television or radio broadcast towers within range, and the government destroyed the few ham radios in town. The phone lines have been cut. No aircraft has flown over Covenant in fifty years. The only people who remember the outside world are now in their sixties, and they're the ones who bought into the lie in the first place.

Anyone who wants to prove them wrong has a long, steep climb ahead.

Why can't anything be supernatural?

In a shared-world project, mythology can get confusing really fast. The best defense is to start with a stable, well-understood universe. In this case: reality. The people of Covenant can get as weird as you want, but their actions must stay mired in reality. The appearance of impossible things is strongly encouraged, however. Getting from the first (usually supernatural) explanation to the actual truth should drive most Covenant adventures.

Now, before anyone tries to tell me that ghosts and magic are part of reality, let me just say this: shut up.

Without vampires/werewolves/ghosts/whatever, the setting will suck!

You suck. Go start your own shared-world project... with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the shared-world project!

Covenant:RickyHawkins

2006-11-26T02:01:36Z

Jabonko: /* The Science Fair Debacle */ link for Tapes

Covenant:RickyHawkins

2006-11-26T01:57:14Z

Jabonko:

= Richard "Ricky" Hawkins =

== The Headlines ==
<Blockquote>
::“'''Family prays for safe return of rebellious child'''”

:Friday, June 14th – [[Covenant:Hawkins|Jasper and Bernadette Hawkins]] will hold a candle light vigil Sunday night, June 16th, at the gateway to the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] where their son Richard was last seen three days ago. On Tuesday night, Richard and some friends were playing around near the strip mine when the young man crossed the barricade and enter the mine.

:“We dared him to do it, but we never thought he actually would!” said [[Covenant:FSchmidt|Franky Schmidt]], a friend of Richard since childhood. “We all knew we weren’t supposed to go in.”

:The Hawkins phoned police on Wednesday morning to report their son missing. “He’s stayed over at friends’ houses before without telling us, but when he didn’t come home the next day we knew something terrible happened.” Said Mrs. Hawkins.

:[[Covenant:McHugh|Police Sargent Ethan McHugh]] asked any citizens with information about Richard to contact the Covenant police department. McHugh strongly urged the Indentured to stay away from the mine.

:“I can not stress this enough: the Strip Mine is a dangerous place. It is simply not safe for anyone and the barricade must be respected. We have no reason to believe Ricky is hurt. We think he is simply lost in the maze.” Sgt. McHugh had no comment when asked whether a police search team had been dispatched into the mine.

:The candle light vigil will be held at Sunset at the first gate of the Strip Mine barricade. All in attendance are invited to bring photos of loved ones lost during The Apocalypse.</Blockquote>

== What Happened ==

One of the Indentured Chosen (the citizens of Covenant) – Richard Hawkins – disappeared into the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] on Tuesday night, June 11th. Ricky had, for some time, wanted to go into the mine. The dare his friends made was just the excuse he was looking for. Ricky was seen as a bit of a trouble-maker in town. He could often be found at or near the scene of various vandalism, pranks, and rough-housing, as a young man is expected to commit. After all, he was only 16. Despite his regular truancy and no-goodnik status, he was beloved by many and was a whiz at science: small mechanics and electronics and such.

Ricky wasn't an anarchist or in any way interested in disproving the all-pervasive belief that Covenant is the last and only town on Earth. He's just rebelious in that misdirected teenager sort of way. The worst thing he ever did to anyone was ruining Mrs. Weaver's mailbox. Going into the mine wasn't an act of rebellion against the beliefs of the townsfolk. Rather, it was the act of an overly curious boy who wanted to know what was beyond the barriers and gates.

== The Science Fair Debacle ==
Ricky was suspended from school for a month last year following the Science Fair. After reading about psychic mediums and occult figures like Alister Crowley and others, the young boy decided to build a device to commune with the spirits of those who died in Armageddon. His aptitude for basic electronics combined with a book he borrowed from [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] helped him build such a device. In truth it was a small CB Radio that could reach as far as Chicago.

At the science fair, Ricky's table featured a poster which illustrated some, but not all, of the steps in the construction of his "Spirit Medium Box." It also displayed "research" from occultists and other psuedo-scientists and theologists. Ricky was on his way to a bad grade due simply to poor research and a hokey Spirit Medium act, but he was barred from participation when the science teacher heard the boy start playing a cassette tape of a recorded conversation.

Ricky and his infernal contraption were sent to the principal’s office before he could even finish introducing his taped conversation with "[[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]]." The device and the recording Ricky brought to school were confiscated and destroyed. No one bothered to listen to the tapes. That is, except for Ricky’s friend and confidant, [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]]. Caleb may or may not still have copies of those tapes.

At first Ricky thought he was communing with the spirit of one of the unfortunate souls who perished on that fateful Halloween. But soon he became convinced that the story about the world ending really was just a fairy tale told to keep people in line. There was something Black Jack said about the strip mine that rang true, but at the same time contradicted everything Ricky knew about the Armageddon. That’s why he went in when dared. It gave him an excuse and a plausible cover story. If he came back and was questioned about why he ignored the barrier he could say it was all just part of a prank or a dare.

== Unanswered Questions ==
*What is it about Ricky’s story that an Outsider would find so compelling and believable?
**What about it would make them think that the secret to escaping from Covenant is hidden in that mine?
**What does Caleb have to say about the tapes?
***What connection does he have to Ricky’s [[#The Science Fair Debacle|science fair project]]?
****or is he simply blamed for having filled Ricky’s head with mechanical nonsense?

*Could Ricky have unknowingly passed the first test to become one of [[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]]?
::The voice on the tape actually belongs to the recruiter for The Watchers. The mine is laden with booby traps and tests of skill and strength. Someone who manages to get past all the tricks and traps discovers the lair of The Watchers and is worthy of joining them. Not only that, but the spook-show they witness on their descent serves to warp their mind and make them suitable for conditioning once they reach The Watchers’ compound.

*Does Ricky ever return to Covenant from the mine?
**If so, how has he changed?
**what has he seen in the mine?
**What are his beliefs about Armageddon now?
***Is he more skeptical or has he regained his faith?

Covenant:RickyHawkins

2006-11-26T01:55:20Z

Jabonko:

= Richard "Ricky" Hawkins =

== The Headlines ==
<Blockquote>
::“'''Family prays for safe return of rebellious child'''”

:Friday, June 14th – [[Covenant:Hawkins|Jasper and Bernadette Hawkins]] will hold a candle light vigil Sunday night, June 16th, at the gateway to the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] where their son Richard was last seen three days ago. On Tuesday night, Richard and some friends were playing around near the strip mine when the young man crossed the barricade and enter the mine.

:“We dared him to do it, but we never thought he actually would!” said [[Covenant:FSchmidt|Franky Schmidt]], a friend of Richard since childhood. “We all knew we weren’t supposed to go in.”

:The Hawkins phoned police on Wednesday morning to report their son missing. “He’s stayed over at friends’ houses before without telling us, but when he didn’t come home the next day we knew something terrible happened.” Said Mrs. Hawkins.

:[[Covenant:McHugh|Police Sargent Ethan McHugh]] asked any citizens with information about Richard to contact the Covenant police department. McHugh strongly urged the Indentured to stay away from the mine.

:“I can not stress this enough: the Strip Mine is a dangerous place. It is simply not safe for anyone and the barricade must be respected. We have no reason to believe Ricky is hurt. We think he is simply lost in the maze.” Sgt. McHugh had no comment when asked whether a police search team had been dispatched into the mine.

:The candle light vigil will be held at Sunset at the first gate of the Strip Mine barricade. All in attendance are invited to bring photos of loved ones lost during The Apocalypse.</Blockquote>

== What Happened ==

One of the Indentured Chosen (the citizens of Covenant) – Richard Hawkins – disappeared into the [[Covenant:StripMine|Strip Mine]] on Tuesday night, June 11th. Ricky had, for some time, wanted to go into the mine. The dare his friends made was just the excuse he was looking for. Ricky was seen as a bit of a trouble-maker in town. He could often be found at or near the scene of various vandalism, pranks, and rough-housing, as a young man is expected to commit. After all, he was only 16. Despite his regular truancy and no-goodnik status, he was beloved by many and was a whiz at science: small mechanics and electronics and such.

Ricky wasn't an anarchist or in any way interested in disproving the all-pervasive belief that Covenant is the last and only town on Earth. He's just rebelious in that misdirected teenager sort of way. The worst thing he ever did to anyone was ruining Mrs. Weaver's mailbox. Going into the mine wasn't an act of rebellion against the beliefs of the townsfolk. Rather, it was the act of an overly curious boy who wanted to know what was beyond the barriers and gates.

== The Science Fair Debacle ==
Ricky was suspended from school for a month last year following the Science Fair. After reading about psychic mediums and occult figures like Alister Crowley and others, the young boy decided to build a device to commune with the spirits of those who died in Armageddon. His aptitude for basic electronics combined with a book he borrowed from [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] helped him build such a device. In truth it was a small CB Radio that could reach as far as Chicago.

At the science fair, Ricky's table featured a poster which illustrated some, but not all, of the steps in the construction of his "Spirit Medium Box." It also displayed "research" from occultists and other psuedo-scientists and theologists. Ricky was on his way to a bad grade due simply to poor research and a hokey Spirit Medium act, but he was barred from participation when the science teacher heard the boy start playing a cassette tape of a recorded conversation.

Ricky and his infernal contraption were sent to the principal’s office before he could even finish introducing his taped conversation with "[[Covenant:BlackJack|Black Jack]]." The device and the recording Ricky brought to school were confiscated and destroyed. No one bothered to listen to the tapes. That is, except for Ricky’s friend and confidant, [[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]]. Caleb may or may not still have copies of those tapes.

At first Ricky thought he was communing with the spirit of one of the unfortunate souls who perished on that fateful Halloween. But soon he became convinced that the story about the world ending really was just a fairy tale told to keep people in line. There was something Black Jack said about the strip mine that rang true, but at the same time contradicted everything Ricky knew about the Armageddon. That’s why he went in when dared. It gave him an excuse and a plausible cover story. If he came back and was questioned about why he ignored the barrier he could say it was all just part of a prank or a dare.

== Unanswered Questions ==
*What is it about Ricky’s story that an Outsider would find so compelling and believable?
**What about it would make them think that the secret to escaping from Covenant is hidden in that mine?
**What does Caleb have to say about the tapes?
***What connection does he have to Ricky’s [[#The Science Fair Debacle|science fair project]]?
****or is he simply blamed for having filled Ricky’s head with mechanical nonsense?

*Could Ricky have unknowingly passed the first test to become one of [[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]]?
::The voice on the tape actually belongs to the recruiter for The Watchers. The mine is laden with booby traps and tests of skill and strength. Someone who manages to get past all the tricks and traps discovers the lair of The Watchers and is worthy of joining them. Not only that, but the spook-show they witness on their descent serves to warp their mind and make them suitable for conditioning once they reach The Watchers’ compound.

*Does Ricky ever return to Covenant from the mine?
**If so, how has he changed?
**what has he seen in the mine?
**What are his beliefs about Armageddon now?
***Is he more skeptical or has he regained his faith?

[[User:Jabonko|Jabonko]]

Covenant:RickyHawkins

2006-11-26T00:54:51Z

Jabonko:

The headlines read ...
<Blockquote>
::“Family prays for safe return of rebellious child”

:Friday, June 14th – Jasper and Bernadette Hawkins will hold a candle light vigil Sunday night, June 16th, at the gateway to the Strip Mine where their son Richard was last seen three days ago. On Tuesday night, Richard and some friends were playing around near the strip mine when the young man crossed the barricade and enter the mine.

:“We dared him to do it, but we never thought he actually would!” said Franky Schmidt, a friend of Richard since childhood. “We all knew we weren’t supposed to go in.”

:The Hawkins phoned police on Wednesday morning to report their son missing. “He’s stayed over at friends’ houses before without telling us, but when he didn’t come home the next day we knew something terrible happened.” Said Mrs. Hawkins.

:Police Sargent Ethan McHugh asked any citizens with information about Richard to contact the Covenant police department. McHugh strongly urged the Indentured to stay away from the mine.

:“I can not stress this enough: the Strip Mine is a dangerous place. It is simply not safe for anyone and the barricade must be respected. We have no reason to believe Ricky is hurt. We think he is simply lost in the maze.” Sgt. McHugh had no comment when asked whether a police search team had been dispatched into the mine.

:The candle light vigil will be held at Sunset at the first gate of the Strip Mine barricade. All in attendance are invited to bring photos of loved ones lost during The Apocalypse.</Blockquote>

One of the Indentured Chosen (the citizens of Covenant) – Richard Hawkins – disappeared into the Strip Mine on Tuesday night, June 11th. He had been seen as a bit of a trouble-maker in the town. He could often be found at or near the scene of various vandalism, pranks, and rough-housing, as a young man is expected to commit. After all, he is only 16. Despite his regular truancy and no-goodnik status, he is beloved by many and is a whiz at science: small mechanics and electronics and such.

He was suspended from school last year following the Science Fair Debacle. Ricky claimed he could commune with the spirits of the damned and had created a box to do so. His project featured research from the town library into occult scientists such as Alister Crowley, Hildred Castaigne, and others. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was his device: a homemade CB radio capable of reaching people as far out as Chicago.

Ricky was given an F. He and his infernal contraption were sent to the principal’s office before he could get could finish introducing his taped conversation with “Black Jack.” The device and the recording Ricky brought to school were confiscated and destroyed. No one bothered to listen to the tapes. That is, except for Ricky’s friend and confidant, Caleb Lynch.

At first Ricky thought he was communing with the spirit of one of the unfortunate souls who perished on that fateful Halloween. But soon he became convinced that the story about the world ending really was just a fairy tale told to keep people in line.

What convinced Ricky that the Armageddon was fictional? Something about the strip mine. That’s why he went in when dared. It gave him an excuse and a plausible cover story. If he came back he could say it was all just part of a prank or a dare.

What is it about Ricky’s story that an outsider would find so believable? What about it would make them think that the secret to escaping from Covenant is hidden in that mine? What does Caleb have to say about this? What connection does he have to Ricky’s science fair project (or is he simply blamed for having filled Ricky’s head with mechanical nonsense)?

Could Ricky have unknowingly passed the first test to become one of The Watchers? The voice on the tape actually belongs to the recruiter for The Watchers. The mine is laden with booby traps and tests of skill and strength. Someone who manages to get past all the tricks and traps discovers the lair of The Watchers and is worthy of joining them. Not only that, but the spook-show they witness on their descent serves to warp their mind and make them suitable for conditioning once they reach The Watchers’ compound.

Does Ricky ever return to Covenant from the mine? If so, how has he changed? If we don’t go with The Watchers story line, what has he seen? Does he still believe the Armageddon was merely a bedtime story? Or is he now convinced there is nothing beyond the town?

How could we make the strip mine more than just a simple ‘dungeon crawl’? Are there people in there? What are they like? Why doesn’t the town know about them? Where did they come from?

Perhaps (if there are people in the mine) the people came from somewhere outside of Covenant. Like other outsiders, once they reach the town, they can not leave. However, the difference is that in passing through the winding and twisting caves their minds have been warped. Now they believe that the world they left behind was some apocalyptic wasteland. Their sense of time is distorted. When the Indentured Chosen of Covenant welcome the new arrival, both sets of beliefs are confirmed. On the one hand, the arrival’s talk of apocalyptic wastelands confirms the townsfolk belief that they are all that remains after the end of the world. The townsfolk’s explanation of the Armageddon helps the arrival make sense of their confused thoughts; they now think they suffered through some strange purgatory to arrive at salvation.

Covenant

2006-11-26T00:25:34Z

Jabonko: added Ricky Hawkins

On October 31st, 1959, Hell came to West Virginia.

For one night, the Devil danced through the foggy, Appalachian hills. Those whose hearts were vulnerable to his influence set upon their neighbors, friends, and family like rabid hounds. Violence and chaos reigned.

God arrived with the dawn. He banished Satan from the city limits and revealed the Truth to those who had survived. The world was no more. The weight of Man's sin had finally tipped the scales and doomed the Earth to everlasting torment. Only this one town remained, but it would be the seed of a new Eden.

God's chosen people renamed their home Covenant, in honor of His faith in them.

***

The forgotten town of Covenant, West Virginia, is nestled deep in the Appalachian hills. Its residents believe that the world ended in 1959, when God himself came down from Heaven and saved them. Of course, that's far from the whole story.

The goal of this project is to create a hyper-historical setting in the style of Lost. Strange and terrible events have been piling up in Covenant for almost fifty years, though folk tales of colonial witches and Indian burial grounds could extend that range by several centuries. There is nothing supernatural going on, but appearances are sure as hell deceiving!

Covenant is meant to host games of horror and investigation. Ideally, players will take on the rolls of outsiders, people for whom the town is one, big mystery. They may be trying to expose the cover-up, following Alexander Dougal's money trail, hiking in the Virginia hills, or just trying to change a tire. In any case, they'll find that leaving Covenant is considerably more difficult than reaching it. (See the FAQ, below.)

If you'd like to contribute to Covenant, here's my advice: Think small. It's a tiny town, so there's not a lot of room for epic, globe-spanning plots. A single family's tragic past can spin off dozens of secrets, locations, and people. Conspiracies and conflicts should be small and/or short-lived, but their effects can ripple outward for years to come. Claim a house or neighborhood for yourself, but don't try to annex the town as a whole. Covenant may be tiny, but its sandbox is big.

=Secrets=
The events and conspiracies that have made Covenant what it is today.

*[[Covenant:ProjectBabel|Project Babel]] - The big, bad idea that started it all.
*[[Covenant:TheWatchers|The Watchers]] - Lunatics enforce Covenant's quarantine through brutality & terror.
*[[Covenant:CoalFire|The Coal Fire]] - A subterranean blaze is consuming Covenant from within.

=Places=
Please try to use existing locations before creating new ones.

*[[Covenant:StripMine|The Strip Mine]] - An environmental disaster of monumental proportions.
*[[Covenant:HouseOfGod|The House of God]] - Literally. When God is in Covenant, this is where He sleeps.

=People=
If you create new characters, make sure to give them each a write-up.

*[[Covenant:God|God]] - Alexader Dougal has convinced an entire town that he created the universe.
*[[Covenant:SamYaza|Sam Yaza]] - This devil thinks he's God's greatest servant.
*[[Covenant:CaleLynch|Caleb Lynch]] - Covenant's resident mechanic & black sheep.
*[[Covenant:RickyHawkins|Ricky Hawkins]] - A high school kid who got in over his head.

=Plots=
Scenarios and player-characters belong in here.

*[[Covenant:Revenuers|The Revenuers]] - A team of U.S. Treasury investigators follows a trail of slush funds to Alexander Dougal's dirty secret.

=FAQ=

What really happened on Oct. 31, 1959?

The United States government sprayed civilians with a cocktail of psychedelic drugs in order to study the effects of a chemical attack in a "live fire scenario." The results were more terrifying than they could have imagined. Most of the population descended into a sadistic frenzy of homicide and mutilation. (Some are still lost in its depths.)

The next morning, one of the low-level project directors tried to restore order. He fed the survivors a story that their drug-addled minds could accept... one that just happened to be relentlessly self-aggrandizing. The government sealed off the town and, over a period of many years, created the illusion that it had been abandoned since WWII. To this day, it lies at the center of a strict no-fly zone.

Why don't people just leave?

At first, a military special ops team prevented anyone (especially the lunatics) from escaping. Later on, local groups adopted the same role. They police the edges of town under the false belief that they're doing God's will, saving escapees from themselves, or protecting the town from some external threat.

How can they think they're the last people on Earth?

There are no television or radio broadcast towers within range, and the government destroyed the few ham radios in town. The phone lines have been cut. No aircraft has flown over Covenant in fifty years. The only people who remember the outside world are now in their sixties, and they're the ones who bought into the lie in the first place.

Anyone who wants to prove them wrong has a long, steep climb ahead.

Why can't anything be supernatural?

In a shared-world project, mythology can get confusing really fast. The best defense is to start with a stable, well-understood universe. In this case: reality. The people of Covenant can get as weird as you want, but their actions must stay mired in reality. The appearance of impossible things is strongly encouraged, however. Getting from the first (usually supernatural) explanation to the actual truth should drive most Covenant adventures.

Now, before anyone tries to tell me that ghosts and magic are part of reality, let me just say this: shut up.

Without vampires/werewolves/ghosts/whatever, the setting will suck!

You suck. Go start your own shared-world project... with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the shared-world project!