56 Campaign Concepts & Starts

We finish the series, at least for the moment, about kicking off your campaign in interesting
ways, with examples from RPT readers and GMMastery Yahoo! Group members. There is a nice
mix here of action and roleplaying starts, so there should be something for every GM.
Last campaign I played in had an interesting start. We were just normal people with stat
bloat, hungry for fame and fortune. My character was 50 years old and on the run from
the mob, whom he had double-crossed in the south. He thought hanging around some
country bumpkins would be good cover. Suddenly, he was tossed into a party salad with
an eight- year-old psion, a barbarian cannibal, and a priest with a Russian accent who
seemed to have a raging thirst for holy water he kept in a silver flask.

It began with three of us converging as strangers on a village about to burn the fourth PC
- the psion - at the stake for being a witch. After a round of duck jokes, we smacked a few
villagers, freed the girl and fled with the whole village chasing us. My character was
thrilled he had kept his low profile for so long. Ah well.

With this common experience behind us, we heard a story from the psion about her
parents being turned inside out by demons, and began to get a "strange feeling of being
drawn together and that we are somehow psychically connected." We headed for the hills
looking for answers.

We found a strange barrow where we learned a villain had infused us all with the blood of
various creatures to create strong minions that would help him take over the world with
his demonic weekly poker group.

Though we were created at different times, our demon daddy was just activating our
bloodlines now and drew us to this place to fully unlock our heritage. As a group we
agreed this was not cool, and we bonded and banded together to stop this demonic plot.
The PCs were prisoners, marching in a chain gang between cities, when the slavers had a
wandering monster encounter. The PCs took advantage of the chaos to slip their bonds,
get a jab or two in, and then escape into the wilderness.
The PCs were condemned to death by hanging. At the hanging, their ropes snapped and they
fell through the platform into a secret room where they were recruited by an
entrepreneurial mercenary captain. Illusion was used to make it look like the PCs were
successfully killed.
This idea comes from the good old N4 Treasure Hunt module for AD&D. The PCs were
strangers shipwrecked on an island. They were 0 level characters and their actions
eventually won them first level and determined their character class. Treasure Hunt
(module)
The PCs were friends and regulars at a tavern that had rooms for rent and a chef famous for
using monster parts as ingredients. One of the PCs learns he has just inherited the tavern.
 The PCs spend the campaign fetching monster parts for the demanding chef, follow plot
hooks dropped by various room renters, and get mixed up in neighborhood politics.
The PCs are random folks who hire on to a sailing ship in 1765. The ship is a Baltimore
clipper type: fast, small and maneuverable.

The point of the campaign is to sail around the world of the 18th century grubbing for
gold, encountering problems and having ethical dilemmas to figure out, and give
opportunities for GMs to rape and pillage Wikipedia for historical and semi-fantastic plot
ideas.
This idea requires players willing to put a lot of trust in the GM. The characters awaken in a
state of confusion. Hand the players blank character sheets and tell them their characters
have total amnesia.

As they awake, they are in what looks like an oversized living room where everything is
covered in blood. In each character's hand is a different improvised weapon: a
candlestick, a kitchen knife, etc. The weapons from "Clue" work well.

One by one, take them aside and tell them that, as they awaken, they see bloodied people
(the other PCs, but they don't need to know that) rising from behind various pieces of
furniture. Allow them to state one action, then it's off to the next PC.

When everyone has stated their actions, each is then resolved with all present. Let it
develop from there. The idea was they had to try to discover their abilities while figuring
out who they were and what they were doing there.

In my game it was Ravenloft, and they were in an insane asylum where the doctors were
experimenting on patients. The gore was from the patient revolt, and the PCs are the only
survivors. The PCs were put there by foreign agents seeking to keep them out of the way
while they tried to pry info out of the party using magic, truth serum and torture.
Vista City Police Dept. The PCs are detectives and uniformed police officers assigned to the
VCPD's "Special Investigations Squad" - a squad designed to warehouse weirdos, work
cold cases, handle weird cases no other squad wants and be political scapegoats
protecting the Chief Of Police from controversy.

This is a light urban fantasy - murder mysteries mixed with occasional supernatural
encounters.
Vista Point. In the 1870s the PCs are residents of Vista Point, a Western town. Besides having
day jobs, they are part-time deputy sheriffs and posse members.
Omega Squad. The PCs are meta humans recruited by the United Nations for a special
peacekeeping force. (Basically a rip-off of GURPS IST.) Also a dumping ground for
troublesome metas.
Discrete Investigations Internationale. The PCs are private detectives and bodyguards who
 work for a franchised detective agency, run by a retired European adventurer (Named
Monsieur Treville, for the captain of the Musketeers in The Three Musketeers). PCs
could wind up visiting foreign offices of DII to investigate other cases.

This scenario also included urban fantasy elements. Besides fighting government
conspiracies, evil overlords and master criminals, the DII detectives also encountered
supernatural incidents and creatures.
Green Jack's Salvage (Star Wars). The PCs are down-on- their-luck adventurers who hire on
as mechanics and salvagers for a semi-retired adventurer, Green Jack. Using beat-up
ships and well-used tools, the PCs hunt for treasure and lucrative salvage, as well as
engage in some investigation, security and leg-breaking work for Green Jack's friends
and customers.

As employees and hired hands, supposedly the better they grubbed for money, the better
off they'd all be. This was an attempt to get away from the "All the PCs have badges and
obligations to do the right thing" campaigns I tend to default to.

However, the PCs quickly ran afoul of the Empire (amazing how quickly a bunch of well
armed, money grubbing outsiders will find a way to annoy the secret police) and became
semi- voluntary pawns of the Rebellion.
Macton Patrol (Star Wars). Macton is an obscure frontier world. The Macton Patrol Doubles
as the local police and national guard. The local government wants law and order to
promote business, but especially wants to avoid any controversy. The Emperor has a
tendency to respond to controversy on imperial worlds by mass executing civil
government people and installing a military governor.

The PCs are hired as pilots for Macton's second rate fighters to ward off pirate attacks
and as back up street patrol officers. Basically, this is the Vista City Police Department
Game with added fighter planes, set on a backwater Star Wars planet. Interestingly
enough, it was a very successful game until the PCs separated in a loud huff to pursue
separate destinies.
The Quest for the keys of La-Arial (Dungeons and Dragons). The PCs were residents of the
Kingdom of Gala, summoned as 1st level characters to report to the capital to serve a
mandatory term of service in the Galadrian Army.
Dinosaurs and six-guns! The PCs are a random collection of characters living in and moving
through an Old West town in 1875. During the night, a huge storm slams into the town
with blinding rain, hail thunder and lightning.

The morning finds the town has been transported to a fantasy world. The town is along
the flanks of a valley, a no-mans land filled with dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures.

The town must regroup and adapt to survive in their new home.
The Crusaders. A diverse group of military personnel are recruited into a secret special ops
 squad. They operate as deniable hitters, bodyguards, spies and problem solvers for the
government, while supposedly fulfilling mundane jobs at a large naval air station near the
campaign's central city.

My first adventure for this campaign featured the PCs being sent to a South American
country to bodyguard an honest but anti-American left-wing judge, while local drug lords
tried to assassinate and bomb him.
Eye on L.A. From 1980 to 1987 this sort of news/human interest/reality show produced
weekly 1/2 hour shows featuring supposedly interesting places, people and things - the
more touristy and loopy, the better.

What more perfect cover for an undercover group of spies, monster hunters or other
problem solvers? The PCs are an RV full of producers, directors, camera men, sound
men, technicians and talent who travel the country desperately seeking the entertaining
and the stupid to film for their weekly TV show, while stomping monsters, foiling spy
rings, defeating crime lords and other wise adventuring.
I have considered running a low level fantasy game where the PCs are members of the local
town guard, defending the town from loopy adventurers and bandits, undertaking special
missions for the local lord and generally making the world safe for Feudalism.
Players began with zero level characters. The system was Iron Heroes plus the SRD sanity
system. The setting was Eberron in the ancient Dhakaani Empire (goblinoids) when the
denizens of Xoriat (plane of madness, mostly aberrations) invaded.

They chose ability scores, race (goblin, hobgoblin or bugbear) and traits. They had a few
skill points, bonus languages and two feats they could choose immediately or keep until
first level. They also had ten tokens with which to activate special class abilities.

The session started with them working in the fields when monsters attack. As they fought,
the PCs saw their village burning and more creatures stalking about, so they decided to
flee while they could after killing their attackers.

To achieve first level they had two goals, one in-character and one metagame. They had
to reach the nearest city, and then they had to find mentors in the classes they wished to
enter. By providing the second goal in a metagame way, it left the method to achieving it
open.

Start in medias res with one PC being chased by the others. During the chase, flash back
to the events leading up to it. When I played this it was pretty fun and interesting, but it
also instilled a little bit of distrust between the characters.
These are inspired from Treasure Tables
As part of character creation, ask for a reason why each character is at the starting location.
Tie the reasons into the plot as you build the scenarios.
Have a common threat bind the characters together. They're all in the same town/tavern, or
on the same wagon/caravan, and they have to help out.
Borrow from Spirit of the Century, and during the making of the backstory, have each person
hand someone else their character; that person tells a story that involves both characters.
Repeat.
Require each person to share a common thread or history with at least two other members of
the group. It need not be the same thread with both (in Firefly, Zoe fought alongside Mal,
but is married to Wash.), and multiple members can use the same threads (everyone is
part of Mal's crew).
Start in a jail where each character was somehow targeted by the same group or are disparate
groups involved in the same caper. The plot then naturally gravitates towards unraveling
that caper.
And then there's one of my favorites: Crucify Elminster.

Take a well-known fact or central NPC figure and drastically alter it. This single action
clearly states, "This is MY campaign, and what you think you know from reading all
those books will only serve to confuse you." And it gives a great mystery to investigate.
Start the campaign by having the PCs crawl out of a vat and become conscripts for demons in
the Blood War. The last thing they remember is dying on their first adventure.
The characters find themselves in a room with about 340 other NPCs. They have no memory
of their past lives. All they know are their class abilities, spells and skills. All they have is
one suit of armor and one weapon.

Suddenly, the room starts filling with water. Four doors appear and a voice says, "Leave
and work together to survive, or stay and drown." So the PCs join together and have to
overcome whatever problem they find beyond the door they pick.
In one of my most recent campaigns, I ran GURPS Fantasy/Cliffhangers. The PCs started out
bound and gagged in the back of a horse-drawn carriage. There's no driver and the
carriage is heading straight towards a blind cliff edge. Each PC could feel a lump on his
head where he had been knocked out. The captors had done a quick search and removed
any obvious items or weapons.

If the player specified at character creation that he had something hidden, I left it there, as
well as any armor he might have been wearing, as the captors didn't take time to remove
it.

I didn't tell any of the players what I was planning ahead of time, just that it was a generic
fantasy world. I also wrote down any gear the captors had removed and had it placed in a
chest on the back of the carriage so that there was a chance at them salvaging any starting
equipment.
I had an empire-wide contest to become a state- sanctioned treasure seeker. Every PC had to
 be a citizen and a desire to travel and adventure. To qualify for the contest they had to
display some feat. The players roleplayed this out so they could be introduced to each
PC's skill a little bit.

All the people who arrive for the contest are randomly put into groups of 10. Each group
goes gets subjected to certain tests of skill, endurance and knowledge (all the PCs end up
in the same group, of course).

I made sure to have one NPC in the group everyone was sure to hate (a snotty aristocrat
know-it-all cheater) and one NPC everyone could laugh at (a club-footed-cleft-palated-
idiot with a good heart).

In the middle of a contest, the audience rioted against the authorities. This gave the PCs a
chance to come to the aid of the authorities and work together because all of the other
NPCs ran away. They teamed up and demonstrated a little valor. They all succeed in
becoming a state sanctioned treasure seeker, and for their actions during the riots they all
receive a reward from the authorities at the same time.

I had plenty of options from that point. The PCs could be hired by the authorities to
investigate the cause of the riot and the riot's instigator could become a common enemy
of the PCs. A new NPC could express interest in the group after having seen their work at
the adventurer contest and offer to hire them. Or a PC leader could toss out his or her own
adventure hook and invite the others to join in the quest.
The PCs are summoned to the capitol for a blood, magic or purity test. No one tells them why
the test is necessary, why they've been chosen or what will happen if they test positive.
Two competing gods use player characters as pawns in a private bet:

"I bet you can't make anyone I choose into your champions, and use them to start a new
era of divine reverence of yourself."

"Alright, sister, you're on, but at least one of them has to believe in me to start with."

Whilst the Chaotic Good god of Time, Hafrin, was up for the bet, his sister, Besellem, the
Chaotic Evil goddess of Shadows, was more than happy to ensure she won it by
arranging for minions to kill the PCs. This leaves the characters on the run, in fear of their
lives and not sure why Hafrin was so interested in them in the first place. Given Hafrin's
motto is "Do what you think is right at the time," divine guidance hasn't been all it could
have been....

A variant could be applied to other settings using powerful nobility, dragons, world
leaders and so on.
At the start of the campaign, have the players answer two questions for their characters: What
were you doing between the equivalent ages of 6 to 10, and how did you die? All the
characters begin newly raised from the dead, trying to find out who brought them back
 and why.
For a modern or horror setting:

The light changes and you begin to cross the street surrounded by a large crowd as is the
norm for this part of town. The same is happening across the street. As you near the
middle of the street, you can see the corner ahead is clear of people. You glance away for
a moment and when you look at the corner again, you see a few people running away. No
surprise, there's always someone in a rush to be somewhere, but you also notice a small
boy with yellow- white hair, cream colored t-shirt and white pants. He's holding
something with a red splotch over his little chest. You notice this for only a split second
before you realize he's staring at you.

As you reach the corner, the boy stretches out both his arms to you, handing you
something - an envelope of heavy cotton paper. "For you, Mr. Jacobson," he says. You
turn the envelope over to look at the red splotch, a red wax seal. You look back at the boy
to ask him who he is and who sent the envelope but the boy is nowhere to be seen. He
must have run away into the crowd.

Each of the characters received such an envelope from this enigmatic boy. The envelope
contained an invitation to a dinner with a somewhat eccentric fellow who had an
unnerving amount of information about each of them (dropped as hints, inside jokes and
innuendo throughout the meal). The characters were then hired to retrieve an artifact
before a rival group could acquire it. This same messenger boy has been employed a
couple of times since.

When I ran this, two of the players were quite sure the red splotch was blood, and all of
them have expressed different levels of creepy coming off this innocent little boy.
Village friends. Something happens in a backwater village and several friends work to solve
the problem, encounter more interesting things and start to adventure. In this case, a
farmer's wife was taken by ogres. They got her back, but while out in the woods they
discovered more things they wanted to explore.

Use circle development. At first, set adventures very close to your starting locale and
develop outward, building plot hooks into the descriptions. You'll be able to develop the
region as you go, right down to the personalities of important or colorful NPCs.
A retired adventurer has set up an adventure club in a remote or dangerous location. In
exchange for one share of the take and a choice among the magic taken, the club offers a
comfortable base, researches possible adventures and supplies healing and recovery for
the party.
This was for four characters starting at first level who did not know each other at the
beginning of the campaign.

The characters responded to an advertisement looking for adventurers for hire. Upon
arriving at the warehouse location they were instructed with along with everyone else to
 form a single line and lots would be drawn. Each lot would either be blank or have one of
four symbols on it - drawing a blank would send you home.

I had the players actually pull lots for this at the table, and as "luck" would have it, they
all pulled lots with the same symbol on it. In addition to the PCs, twelve others were
selected and all sixteen were then seated at four tables - each table matching the symbol
on the lot they pulled.

I next had a simple puzzle box challenge for the group to figure out. The players had to
do this with a just little direction based on some knowledge rolls. They were told that
only three teams would move onto the next challenge and they just managed to come in
third.

After the puzzle box, the remaining teams had to negotiate a maze. There were four doors
that could be used as an exit, all locked and each needing a different key. It was a
condition that they use a key - no lockpicking! They were also informed that only two
teams would move on from this challenge. In this case the PCs were first out.

The final challenge was a cross country race to the potential employer's home - a tower
about a day's march. Along the way, there were two small encounters where the PCs had
to use steel and spells to get through. Once at the tower the PCs were introduced to their
potential employer and we moved on from there.

What was nice about this was that everyone was able to get into their characters and
interact with each other. There was some nice role-playing involved, not just between the
PCs but also with the other contestants (more than one enemy was made during this). It
also gave everyone a chance to showcase a bit of their characters and build team unity
among them.
I once ran a Champions campaign where superpowers had been declared outlawed by
international agreement. This was following a massive war among super villains that left
huge chunks of civilization in ruins, and most heroes and villains dead.

Twenty years later, the PCs were high-powered characters, all hiding their powers and
trying to lead normal lives. They were virtually the only people in the world who
recognized a supernatural uber-threat to all mankind. They had to continually battle and
hide from the UN superpower police (S.P.U.N.-the players named that group), and battle
the various warlocks and critter-type agents of the uber- demon.

I started it with one of the group members being chased by SPUN. The PCs were all
strangers to each other, and the others joined the fray at a major intersection. Each PC
had their own reason for being there, but was shocked at seeing another super, and moved
to help him escape. A major fracas ensued, and only got more chaotic with the release of
the first minor extra-dimensional minions. At the end of the fight, I let them see a few
warlocks escaping, just to let them know there was an organized threat. They banded
together and the campaign was on.
In the last campaign I ran, an NPC antagonist was involved directly or indirectly with the
background stories of all the PCs. He had stolen a holy text from a temple and the cleric
PC was sent to recover it. The ninja PC was sent to bring back his head, as he was a
renegade ninja from the PC's clan. The Sumo PC had visions of the end of the world
involving this NPC.

The PCs were all on the same ship in hot pursuit of the NPC when it shipwrecked on an
island. That night they discovered tiny tracks leading into and out of the beach. The PCs
had to work together first to survive, then in search of their common foe.
I started a D&D campaign in a bar where weapons were not permitted and I would not allow
the PCs to talk to each other. I had the players roll five d20s, write down the results and
give them to me. I then started a fight and got them involved, using the results of the d20
rolls and a percentage chance of actually hitting the other PCs. The fight went five rounds
before the city patrol came into the bar and threw them all in the same jail cell where they
became friends and banded together to fight evil.
A friend of mine once started an Amber campaign like this:

Every PC has a secret the GM gives him. "Corwin is my father, but everyone thinks it is
Eric. Never let anyone find out that Corwin is really my dad." "When you were little and
playing in the corridors of Castle Amber, you saw Dworkin walk through a secret door.
Dworkin made you promise to never tell anyone of these secret passageways."

All the PCs are told separately they need to keep an eye on one of the other PCs just in
case they are insane.

They are all invited to the Amber Fall Ball in one week.

It set up intrigue from the very beginning. It was a great campaign.

The PCs discover that there is a monster inside one of them, but don't know which one. Give
PCs clues as to who and where while keeping them on their toes. They need to keep each
other in sight lest the monster burst from one of them. This works as a great glue
especially at low levels.
We had a London-based Shadowrun game where summoned spirits were actually demons
breaking through, trying to destroy the world. The PCs were the chosen ones there to stop
them, complete with an old man who was inheritor of prophecy and by awareness of the
future had become immensely rich and influential to finance our fight against the
demons.

As the plot gained speed and steam, we discovered what was going on (shocked
Shadowrunners), learned the prophecy (incredulous Shadowrunners), found out the
demons had three power centres - Stonehenge, a volcano in Hawaii, and the Pyramids, all
three of which had to be active in order for them to take over the world - and we had to
destroy one (hysterically incredulous and planning to be drunk Shadowrunners).
 Our mentor asked us, "Which do you want to assault first and what do you need to do it?"

"What have you got?"

"Well, I have contacts in the British Army, Navy and RAF, Government and Secret
Service - whatever you need basically."

"Okay, well tell you what, launch a cruise missile strike on Stonehenge and get a
destroyer to bombard the pyramids to dust just to cover our bases. We're going down the
pub."

"But that would cause an international incident!"

"It's saving the world. By the way, we quit your employ, Mr Johnson. Don't call us."

Only slightly bettered by the demolitions expert's proposal to walk out of the building
and say, "Oh, I've left my briefcase behind....prophecy this." *activate detonator* which
wasn't done in the end because the GM was staring at him in disbelief.
Have the characters spend one game session as younger versions of themselves. They start
off as teenagers who all belong to the same clique. Present them as outsiders who share
common antagonists such as the school bully, the popular group, abusive authorities, etc.
Show how, by sticking together, they can overcome these obstacles. Then, flash forward
ten years or so, or whenever you want your campaign to begin. Even if they have lost
touch, there is still that bond.
In my current game, set in a dark version of my hometown of Mobile, AL, I was dealing with
very diverse socio- economic characters. Some fabulously wealthy, some living in
trailers, with all the life experiences such backgrounds entail. Normally, these characters
would never hang around together. What I did was insert a similar tragedy into each of
their backgrounds: the mysterious murder of a loved one. Then I had them meet each
other at a group grief counseling session. The bonds were formed over a mutual tragedy
that could allow each character to empathize with and like his or her peers.
The characters are all beneficiaries named in the will of a dead rich adventurer. One of the
things he left them were maps to adventure sites he never visited. Sure, it's a bit trite, but
it worked well.
Make the PCs all part of the same organization. I had created the Dragonslayers. All
characters were taken from their homes around 10-15 years old (they were dwarves), to
be taken to the Dragonslayers' home. In that world, I had decided that the number 5 was
important, so all groups were five people. I had four players, and I teamed them up with a
fifth character who was their teleport specialist.
The family reunion. All the characters had the same unknown father and all had decided to
look for him. In following clues, they had ended up in the same place. This is handy if
you have an often-changing group of players, as new characters can be easily introduced
when necessary. We never did find out what was up with dear ol' dad, but we had no race
 restrictions either....
The game started in the winter season. All the characters were travelling separately in the
same area and suddenly it began to snow much harder than normal. The snow came down
harder and harder, until the weather conditions were so bad they had to look for shelter.

The only place were they could shelter was an old crumbled tower.

So all of the characters made a run for the tower, and once inside they saw other people
(the other characters) who were also taking shelter from the blizzard. And at a point when
all of them were inside and were introduced to each other, the only entrance collapsed.

The only way to get out was to work together, because they had to go through a mini-
dungeon I worked out, where each character had a chance to stand in the spotlight and
show to the rest of the party how useful they were.
Overwhelmed hiring NPC. This idea can work well whether the PCs know each other or not.
If they don't, they get to learn about each other; if they do, they can sometimes relive past
accomplishments to help convince the NPC.

Have the PCs participate in a group interview. Each has their own reasons for
interviewing for a job: competition, to be part of a caravan, or whatever the event is.

However, due to overwhelming response, the hiring NPC decides to conduct group
interviews. The characters just happen to be selected to all interview together. They
quickly realize this has turned into a full group interview, and if even one of the people in
the room with them right now isn't satisfactory they will all miss out on the opportunity.

It is always fun to see the party members touting each others skills and abilities, and even
showing off or lying to get the position they want. Sometimes, they may even find that
what they say is actually something they believe.
Choose your party. This idea can take a little longer to get going, but ultimately the players
will feel it was their choice to travel and meet challenges together. It can also help them
to appreciate why each of them is needed.

Present one PC with a challenge. When attempted, the PC should realize they are going to
need help. They then start searching out the right type of people who can and will help
them.

This start can take a little longer, but it permits an opportunity for role playing and non-
combat teamwork. It also presents a few places to place plot hooks for future events (the
challenge itself, rumors heard while searching for other adventurers, and my personal
favorite, snubbed NPCs).
Bumping into each other. Another strategy I use is that most player's characters will be
traveling at some point, for some reason. They all happen to be near an area at about the
same time, and an event occurs, such as smoke in the distance at a burning wayside inn, a
 young woman traveling alone is attacked nearby or a farmer's wagon breaks down in the
road. Just come up with an event that you think all of your players would interrupt their
travels for, and place it smack in the middle of all of them.
The PCs are all kids from the same small town and same age going to adventure when a
mutual friend disappears.
The PCs are all in the same mess: they find themselves in the same ruins with no memory of
the past, or traveling in the same area when a geological or weather-based crisis strikes
and they're forced to take shelter together.
You're in the army now: There's a large scale war and the characters have been enrolled.
However, their special abilities mark them for a special investigation unit as evil cults are
growing now that most of the weapon wielders are away from home.
The PCs dream of each other, perhaps because each has a special item that relates. In my
campaign, the PCs all found a odd shaped stone bearing a rune. Those stones provided
special abilities (e.g. fire rune -> protection vs. fire) and gave dreams showing the
possessors or the location of the other stones. All the stones formed a jigsaw puzzle. This
had a long introduction. It took four sessions to get everyone together.
An evil cult in a small Massachusetts town wants to grow tourism to provide more victims
with less hassle. They use the town council to create a Historical Development
Committee, which is run by the cultists. The PCs are members of a team from the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, brought in as contractors.
***