I am not entirely sure why I saved this or where I got this but it is a Call of Cthulhu adventure by Julie Hoverson that I liked enough to save. If she wishes me to take this down.
From Serendipity’s Circle E-Mag
THE TOWN OF TONTINE
“All for one and one for all” takes on new meaning when you come to the town of Tontine. Though everyone seems like they have something to hide, they sure aren’t hiding it from one another. What is the mystery that walks the streets of Tontine?
This scenario finds the PCs either passing through a small town, staying in town while recuperating, lost, or just stuck while their car is being repaired. After the PCs (or a convenient NPC) cause the death of a townsperson, the whole town takes on an aspect of fearsome power. To survive, the party must discover the secret of the town, which is well guarded.
TONTINE: A SCENIC OVERVIEW
Before beginning, the GM should prepare two or three non-townmember NPCs who can be used as catalysts for action should the PCs prove sluggish or squeamish about participating in the affairs of Tontine. It would be especially effective if the PCs had met and taken a dislike to these NPCs in a previous encounter.
This scenario will begin with the PCs (perhaps inadvertently) killing or witnessing the death of Tom Riley, one of the townsfolk of Tontine. This could be in a bar brawl, a hunting mishap, or an automobile accident, whatever is convenient to the GM. If the PCs are not reckless enough to present a plausible opportunity, allow Tom to meet his doom as the result of a non-townmember NPC’s wrath or carelessness. So long as he is not intentionally murdered by a townmember, anything goes, from mad dogs to stray meteorites. It is important that the death be witnessed by at least one PC and several townmembers. Although distracted by the horror of witnessing a death, the PCs will notice that the townspeople present all take a deep breath simultaneously, as though about to scream. A moment later, however, the townies breathe a collective sigh, not of despair, but of something resembling contentment.
Over the course of the next few hours, several NPCs will contrive to meet with the PCs and try to hire them as assassins. Sometimes reasons will be given, sometimes not, but each request will be characterized by a seeming disregard for human life and a degree of surprise that the PCs are not similarly coldhearted. Each request, however, will be made in secret, by a lone townsperson who will request that the PCs keep “hush-hush” about it If the PCs prove to be reluctant to hire out as paid killers, particularly clever townsfolk may get the idea to fake an attempt on the lives of the PCs themselves. After an intentionally unsuccessful near-miss, the PCs will discover evidence planted by the attacker which clearly points at another townie. The intention would be to trick the PCs into killing the framed citizen out of retribution or self-defense.
It is at this point that the non-local NPCs might be useful to the GM in directing the game’s progress. They will also be approached by murder-minded townies, and might not be as scrupulous as the PCs. Or the PCs might accidentally witness such a murder and become the NPCs’ next targets.
As if these bizarre requests were not enough, players will then begin to stumble across the bodies of dead townies. Some will obviously be the result of foul play, while others will appear to be accidents. The one trait which characterizes every victim is that no attempt has been made to hide the bodies, even those found in public. Soon, townsperson Marisa Christian will seek out the PCs protection, knowing that they are the only people in town not out to kill her. She will not tell them about the town’s background for quite a while, but will eventually break down and admit that the town has made a dark compact with a secret god who has granted the townspeople near-immortality. The death of Tom Riley revealed to them the unusual nature of their covenant: Killing members gives each of the survivors an addictive rush of euphoria. Soon it becomes clear to the survivors that this rush is actually an increase in their god-given powers. After enough fellow townies are killed, the remaining members will discover that they can throw lightning bolts, read minds, and perform other feats. The more dead, the more powerful the survivors, and there are several townspersons determined to be the ONLY townsperson.
When they find out about the fight for increasing power, the PCs may choose to protect one or more of the nicer townsfolk, either in the hope of preventing anyone truly evil from becoming the final townsperson or simply because such non-aggressive people are the least capable of protecting themselves. Of course, power will corrupt, and the PCs may find themselves in the end with several formerly nice people who are now at each others’ throats trying to get it all. Alternately, the PCs might take to the streets and actively try to stop the fighting, or, mistaking themselves as the targets, may actually raise the death toll by killing those they think are after them.
After a while, let them encounter a townsperson who wants their help to kill everyone else. He may even promise them some power (he doesn’t necessarily know that he can’t give them any) in return for their help. Either way, when there is only one townsperson left, that person will possess all of the town’s power, which will immediately drive him or her insane. The finalist will then attack the PCs and must be subdued. Once the finalist is defeated, the GM has the option of letting the PCs face the malevolent source of Tontine’s power.
This is the general structure of the Tontine storyline. What follows is a more detailed description of the town and events as set in a small town during the Great Depression. After that is a section with suggestions about changing Tontine for other settings and game systems. I believe that this storyline is extremely flexible and can be reformatted in many ways while still retaining much of its basic concept.
A TOWN WITHOUT PITY
Tontine is a very small farming community of 78 citizens, laid at the end of a narrow, unused track through the plains of Iowa. Since it is remote and does not lie between anywhere and anywhere else, it is not listed on most maps and is visited only by strangers who have lost their way. The town imports nothing and sends no crops to market, subsisting on its own produce, living a life not greatly different from the era when it was settled in the late eighteenth century. This is not entirely unusual for the scenario’s setting, the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the archaisms of the townsfolks’ speech and their unfamiliarity with many modern conveniences (such as radio) ought to strike the players as odd. The PCs have stumbled upon the town of Tontine by accident, they are lost. They may have been traveling through the country in a touring car of some sort or may be on a bus trip with a driver who’s made a wrong turn. At any rate, there should be at least two non-townie NPCs, including the bus driver.
Whether the PCs are aboard or not, there is a lost touring bus present in town and the scenario begins in the afternoon with the PCs witnessing an accident involving the bus running over a man, Tom Riley. The bus is seriously damaged by this accident, as is the PCs’ car, if they are driving separately, thus forcing them to arrange to spend the night in Tontine. Though they will obviously be distracted by the sight of man’s violent death, the PCs may notice that the townsfolk have an odd reaction to this event, all taking a deep breath and appearing surprised rather than unhappy or shocked by the death of their neighbor. Each of the locals present will soon wander off if not prevented from doing so by the PCs, showing virtually no concern at having witnessed a man’s death. If stopped, they will make excuses for their haste and explain that they are in a hurry to get somewhere. They do seem shocked, but not horrified or resentful. No accusations or retribution seems to be forthcoming. In general, the townsfolk will try to dismiss any questions or apologies about Tom’s death. If pressed, they will become indignant and call the PCs “disrespectful” or “morbid”.
After an hour, if the PCs have not already sought him out or left the area of the accident, Mayor Simon Freedland will arrive, acting as town’s constable. He will casually load Tom’s body into his cart and drive it to the farm of Tom’s widow, Margaret. He will not answer questions from the PCs, insisting that this is a local matter and that they should respect the town’s period of mourning. His demeanor, however, seems more impatient than mournful. If they mention that their vehicle is broken, he will arrange lodging for them for the night in someone’s parlor or barn.
After several hours, when the shock of Tom’s death has begun to wear off, the PCs will be approached in secret by a townsperson who has an outrageous request. Broaching the topic slowly and becoming blunter as the conversation goes on, he will feel out the PCs on whether he could hire them to do “a little job” for him. His wife, you see, “needs killing”. She has been quite unfaithful to him, and everyone in town knows it, but he just can’t bring himself to “do the right thing”. He will plead and threaten, if he has to, and will even bring up the subject of Tom’s death, as if the PCs were to blame: “If you could kill a nice guy like him,” he will argue, “why not a piece of trash like my Helen?” He will try to make it very difficult for the PCs to refuse his request. During the night, several murders take place, and the PCs are awakened by a lone gunshot. The PCs may hear about the killings in the morning, but the townsfolk will try and keep them in the dark. Once they hear about the deaths, they may investigate. If asked, Simon will try to give them the impression that one of the passengers on the bus is responsible for these murders.
Investigation will reveal that the deaths occurred in bizarre pairs: Two bodies found strangled beside each other, two people discovered with identical pitchfork wounds, and an apparent murder-suicide involving a husband and wife killed by gunshots to the head from the same musket. The PCs will be approached that morning by Marisa Christian, a townie in fear for her life. She will implore the PCs to protect her, for she is convinced that they are the only people in town who aren’t out for her blood. She fears her fellow citizens, but will only tell the PCs that she’s afraid that one of the tourists is some crazed killer. If they haven’t noticed yet, let Marisa fill them in on the growing carnage. “Everybody’s being killed! Please, don’t let him hurt me!”
If the PCs refuse to protect her, Marisa will turn up again soon, this time as a corpse situated in the most disagreeable possible place – a PC’s bed, behind a just-opened door, falling from a great height onto the PCs’ vehicle.
WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?
As its name suggests, this town IS a tontine. A tontine, generally speaking, is a group of people who each own shares in something (often a pot of money), and as each member dies, the others’ shares all increase by a percentage of what the deceased owned. For example, if six people own shares in $120, each effectively owns $20. The point of a tontine is that no one can remove their share of the capital, but they each get shares in the interest which it earns.
Only if the tontine is dissolved can anyone claim their share. Whenever one of these six people dies, his $20 goes back into the pot, and each of the five others gains control of 1/5 of it (or $4). Each now “owns” $24. When the next person dies, his share ($24) is returned and the four survivors each get 1/4 (or $6), leaving each entitled to $30. As each person’s share increases and the number of people remaining after each death decreases, each survivor gains more by each successive death.
In this scenario, instead of money, the subject of the tontine is power, granted by a secret covenant with a mysterious god. As each townie is killed, his or her share of the power is redistributed among the survivors, who grow progressively more powerful, eventually gaining superhuman abilities. Each death causes a proportionately greater rush of euphoria to the remaining townmembers, a rush which will quickly become addictive. Tom Riley’s death was the first in over 150 years because, along with granting immortality, the covenant made in 1780 forbade the members from directly harming one another. Thus, the people of Tontine never knew they could grow more powerful by doing away with their neighbors. Now they do. And some will not be squeamish about doing so.
THE SHAME OF TONTINE
Deep within (not beneath) the corn fields to the north of town lies a slab of stone very different from the normal rocks of the area, which has lain there for centuries, since long before the settlement of the area. Farmer Simon Freedland found the stone in his field in 1780, shortly after arriving in the area with the first and only wave of settlers. He uncovered it, and its nature was revealed to him by the avatar of an ancient god to whom this stone, called the Source, was sacred. The acts of an agreement were revealed to him as well, which he took to the people of the young township of Tontine.
THE TONTINE COVENANT
The god of the Source, to reestablish a following among Man, in return for prayer, worship, and semiannual sacrifices of unblemished lambs, grants immortality to the people of Tontine. This gift is for all time and may not be renounced hereafter.
Furthermore…
No attempt shall be made to increase the size of this sacred circle of worshippers. No new outsiders shall be allowed to take up residence in town and no children shall be born to worshippers. No attempt shall be made to decrease the size of this sacred circle of worshippers. No member may leave town, nor shall any member ever strike down a fellow worshipper.
So that the people of Tontine never need the help of outsiders, the Source will ensure good and bountiful crops even in times of privation. Speak not of this Covenant among strangers, and do not encourage visitors to remain long in town.
Breaking this Covenant will be the death of the breaker, subject to the will of the Source.
Seeing an opportunity to seize some power of his own, Simon Freedland added the following clause when he presented this agreement to the settlers: Your god will speak unto you through the Voice of the Source, Simon Freedland. Obey him as you would obey your god. The actual text of the Covenant is a series of indecipherable inscriptions on the lee side of the stone slab, which everyone marked in their own blood, by way of signing. As each townie dies, his or her mark disappears, absorbed into the stone. The document version of the Covenant, transcribed by Freedland, can be found in the meeting house in the center of town. Written in archaic English, this document is of no real value except as a potential source of information for the Pcs.
Note that the Covenant in no way prevents the members from harming the PCs or non-member NPCs.
This agreement, which the avatar called the Covenant, would guarantee the inhabitants of the town practical immortality, meaning that they would never grow old, get sick, or die of natural causes as long as they agreed to worship the god and obey the acts of the agreement. The Covenant would also cause them to have good crops, he said, even in the worst of years. In addition to the articles dictated to him by the avatar, Freedland secretly added a clause specifying that no one would disobey him. This clause will not be enforced by magic in any way, but will affect the behavior of the townsfolk because they believe it to be part of the Covenant. (See boxed text below, left, “The Tontine Covenant”)
The townsfolk agreed to this contract, and have kept it for over 150 years. Since then, none of the townsfolk have aged, sickened, or died, nor have they ever revealed the secret of their immortality to outsiders. But they have paid a price for this gift, for they are trapped in their small town forever, as the Covenant forbids leaving the area even for a moment. None have dared to leave, but all assume that death would be the result. (This is true; any townie who leaves will be killed by rapid aging in about two days’ time.) Thus, no citizen will allow PCs to remove him or her from the area, even at gunpoint, but will not explain why, since this too would be a breach of the Covenant.
Instant, fatal aging is the punishment for intentionally revealing the nature of the Covenant to outsiders. Although it was never specified to them, the townies have now learned by example the punishment for killing a fellow member of the Covenant: The Covenant murderer suffers instant death in the same form as that inflicted on his or her victim. This explains the interesting series of matching corpses discovered on the morning after Tom’s death, but only the townies will understand what it means. Once word gets out, almost no one will be so foolish as to try a direct attack upon another townmember, though a few pairs of dead bodies might result from too-clever killers trying to outwit the Covenant (arson, for example, might result in a man bursting into flame while his victim’s house burns a mile away).
Tom Riley’s death and the sudden, intoxicating rush of power which accompanied it came as a tremendous revelation to the Tontine citizens: Dead neighbors are a rush! The short-lived euphoria was so potent that those who witnessed the death of Tom will be tempted to recreate it by either trying to hire the PCs as assassins or attacking their neighbors in the night. After several more deaths, a few crafty folk will realize that they are feeling stronger, more powerful as a result of the euphoria. But soon everyone will figure out the connection between death, euphoria, and power, and the town will become a strategic balance between the desire for power and the fear of killing oneself by harming another. The smartest folks will try to hire NPCs to do the killing they cannot.
Meanwhile, the nicer folks in town will begin to fear for their lives, perhaps banding together for safety, perhaps trying to hire the PCs to protect them. They may claim that the NPCs are out to get them, but they secretly know who the real culprits are their own neighbors. Marisa Christian will be the first to beg protection, but under no circumstances will she explain why, since to do so would be to break the Covenant and die. Whatever the PCs decide to do with Marisa and any other townsfolk who come to them for protection, her Tontine power (and her craving for more power) will continue to grow along with that of the murderous members, and it will slowly but surely begin to corrupt her. As the killing escalates, the PCs may find themselves protecting one or more formerly-nice people who are now at each others’ throats, using heretofore unknown magical powers. (See boxed text below, “The Powers of Tontine”)
4FREE-FOR-ALL
At the beginning of the scenario, townsfolk are prohibited from attacking one another by the Covenant, and must appeal to outsiders to do their killing for them. Some will dare to risk breaking the Covenant to get a repeat of the euphoria felt after the death of Tom Riley, but they will instead die beside their victims, suffering identical wounds. This will slow down the carnage for a few hours, but clever members will figure out ways to kill each other by setting traps which aren’t direct aggression.
After 40% of the population has been slain, the avatar of the Source, awakened by the night’s killings, will telepathically contact the surviving members of Tontine and reveal that he is revoking all but one of the prohibitions of the Covenant. Townsfolk are still not free to leave the area, but are allowed to go after each other as fiercely as they want, so long as they only use their newfound powers. Having told them this, he will begin to prowl the town to witness the carnage firsthand. It is at this point that the fighting will go into high gear.
This telepathic message will be the first explanation some of the townsfolk have for the strange rushes of power which they’ve been experiencing all night and day. After this, everyone but the non-members will know what’s going on. The newfound powers of the townies will come as quite a shock to the players if they haven’t been warned ahead of time. If they think that mind-reading is the extent of the townsfolks’ power, imagine their surprise a few hours later when everyone in town is throwing lightning bolts at each other. All powers are cumulative. In other words, the townsfolk do not lose one when they get another. However, the townies do NOT know ahead of time what their new powers will be, merely that the growing power feels very good.
THE POWERS OF TONTINE
As each townsperson is killed, the rest will become more and more powerful. Try to keep the NPCs’ power levels within a range which your PCs can handle.
Here is a sample scale of what powers the survivors might acquire as others die:
| % Dead | (# out of 78) | Power Gained |
| 10% | (8) | Empathy |
| 20% | (15) | Telepathic Broadcasting |
| 30% | (23) | Telepathic Receiving |
| 40% | (31) | Wounding Touch |
| 50% | (39) | Heal Self |
| 60% | (47) | Mental/Magic Shield |
| 70% | (55) | Lightning Bolt |
| 80% | (62) | Sense Others, 30′ Radius |
| 90% | (70) | Mind Reading |
| Finalist | (77) | Healing/Resurrection |
Healing, invisible shields, and the ability to cause damage by touch or from a distance are standard gaming conventions and should be modified to suit the tone of the GM’s campaign.
Empathy allows the user to sense the emotions of another by touching them. Telepathic Broadcasting enables one to broadcast thoughts to specific people within sight. Telepathic Receiving allows the user to overhear any broadcasting going on around him. Sense Others will warn the user automatically when anyone comes within 30′, regardless of obstacles. Mind Reading allows the user to pluck thoughts from the mind of an unwilling subject in sight – allow PCs a roll to defend against this.
Each death of a member will stun the survivors with a progressively greater rush of euphoria, and their first few uses of a newly acquired power will probably be clumsy.
At this point, Marisa or anyone being protected by the PCs will probably fill them in, but perhaps not reveal all of the details at once, for if the PCs were to realize how much danger their townie charges are in, they would be much less likely to help. After all, the Covenant rules about staying in town still apply, and their charges wouldn’t want the PCs to abandon them.
THE FINALE
Sooner or later, no matter how hard the PCs try, the population of Tontine will dwindle to single digits, and finally to a single person. This finalist will most likely be the most devious and ruthless person in town. Several sample townsfolk are listed in the NPC section to give the GM several options, depending on the attitudes and strength of the PCs. Also, this allows for alternates in case the intended finalist is slain in combat by the PCs.
Whoever makes it to the finalist position, the PCs will have to face and at least subdue him, as he will be insane with power, assuming that they are trying to take his new powers away somehow or punish him for his crimes. If the PCs chose to protect a townie, they will find that the nice person they have been shepherding along all this time has turned rabid and must be put down.
If the PCs are too weak at this point to defeat the finalist, they can easily escape because the clause of the Covenant which enforces residence is still in force. In this case, the PCs may be able to trick the finalist into following them out of the area, and kill him in this way. I’d recommend allowing this only if the PCs articulate some kind of a plan to do so, not if they are merely running away.
Of course if they are still in the area after killing or subduing the finalist, the avatar of the Covenant will come out of hiding to confront them, and will be every bit as powerful as the finalist. If the PCs manage to defeat the avatar without killing the finalist, the GM has the option of allowing the finalist to keep the power while retaining his or her sanity. Even though the Source no longer has an avatar, the finalist must remain in the area, as that article of the Covenant was never rescinded. If the finalist is a sympathetic person, he or she may become a valuable resource for the players in later adventures, as well as a future plot device.
THE GOD OF TONTINE
The Source itself is a slab of reddish-gray rock which lies in the center of the town’s cornfields. It is approximately 10′ across and more or less circular in shape. There are some indecipherable marks etched into it (the text of the Covenant), and bloodstains are visible upon it (depending on how recent the last sacrifice was). A spell or ability which allows the PCs to detect magic or power will show a misleadingly slight amount of power. The stone is shielded enough that even this should be difficult to detect. The power of the Source is accorded only to those who have enacted the Covenant and who have held to its rituals. Thus the PCs will have no share in the increase of power as the townspeople die. The growing power of the remaining people as the town is depopulated reflects the fact that with fewer people tapping in, each gets a larger share of the power.
The god represented by the Source is an ancient fertility god whose true name has been long forgotten by men. When manifest as an avatar, he is known to Simon Freedland as Screed. There is really no way to do research on the nameless god, at least not while in town. Neither is he likely to appear in any but the most ancient of stories recorded outside of town, because aboriginal worship of this god passed on long ago. The only clue the PCs might discover is that the god’s symbol is the bloody print of a five-fingered leaf, such as that of the maple.
SCREED
Screed appears as an androgynous figure composed of leaves and branches. As the bloodshed continues, he will become less and less human in appearance, becoming monstrous and deformed. His abilities equal those which the finalist will acquire, though he begins with the capability to use all of them. He will not participate in any of the goings-on until the very end, preferring to savor the discord as an outsider. His only action, when about a third of the townsfolk are gone, will be to contact the townsfolk telepathically and inform them all that the Covenant has been partially nullified and that the only thing they are still forbidden to do is leave the town. (Remember that this is the first most townsfolk will have heard of Screed. Simon was never very forthcoming about his encounter with the avatar.)
From that point on, careful or lucky observers may be able to spot Screed lurking in the bushes during the chaos. Wholesale bloodshed appeals to him and he won’t want to miss a minute of it. He will not confront the PCs, but may try to startle them with a sudden appearance. He may also (at the GM’s discretion) inform the townies that the PCs should be killed for the greater good of their god.
Above all else, Screed is extremely cunning and evil. Though the biannual sacrifices have always satisfied the Covenant’s requirements for blood, he has craved more. He assumed that his worshippers would become more bloodthirsty with time, and was surprised that their adherence to the Covenant has lasted so long. Unfortunately for him, the Covenant prevents him from doing any mischief in the town until at least one townie breaks the Covenant, which would give him the authority to manifest physically to punish the wrongdoer and nullify the Covenant. The murders of the first night give him reason enough to appear without breaking his end of the Covenant. Now he just wants to find the single cleverest, most evil person in town and use that finalist as a messiah to form a new, more aggressive Covenant.
The avatar Screed is not very strong, relying rather on his ability to hide and his cunning and magical abilities rather than any kind of physical attacks. Screed will not attack until there is no one left fighting, probably waiting until the PCs have defeated the finalist. Then he will attack from hiding, still relying on stealth. He will make his first attacks against whichever PC appears the strongest or most dangerous. Screed can be killed fairly easily by flame-based attacks. This would take more than a lighter or a thrown match, something along the lines of a well-aimed Molotov cocktail. Of course, it takes him some time to be completely consumed, during which time he will attempt to set as many things or PCs on fire as he can, as a final act of mischief. Of course, the logical thing for him to burn, since this encounter will very probably take place in the cornfield where the Source lies, is to set fire to the dry cornstalks, perhaps trapping himself and the PCs in a fiery holocaust.
NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
The PCs will eventually realize that all of the 78 townsfolk look extremely healthy, and that they are almost obscenely well-fed in this time of tightening belts. Also, there is only one child and no old people in the town. The reason for these oddities is the blessing of the Covenant and the fact that although the Source gives immortality, it also prevents conception. There are no elderly because no one ages and very few old people attempted the trek across country to settle here in the first place, and none survived the harsh journey.
TOM RILEY (DECEASED) Tom was the first citizen of Tontine to die in 150 years, slain (willfully or accidentally) by either a PC or an NPC in the presence of the PCs. Tom’s death is the catalyst which sets this scenario in motion, since it alerts the townsfolk to both their potential mortality and the power that could be theirs. Tom was a normal guy, a farmer who died leaving a wife and a brother. When his wife, Margaret, finds out about his death, she will be very upset, unlike everyone else in town. Even his brother, Lewis, really doesn’t seem to care.
MARISA CHRISTIAN A raven-haired woman apparently in her mid-thirties, Marisa is still good-looking, though a bit strong-featured. Marisa will realize what is going on when she finds her husband, Francis, dead and will beg the PCs for protection. If they do so, she will later tell them what is going on. Otherwise, she will die and they will later find her body at a most inconvenient and horrifying moment. Without protection, she hasn’t a chance of survival, being a normal, nice person.
SIMON FREEDLAND The eternal Mayor of Tontine, Simon is also the self-appointed high priest of the Source. He supervises sacrifices of lambs to the stone at the summer and winter solstices. He is a likely candidate for finalist, as he is ruthless and people are used to taking orders from him. Simon is a big, burly farmer with a bald spot in the center of his bright red hair. He also has a thick beard and mustache.
MARTIN RADCLIFF Martin was the Lutheran minister who came with the original settling party. He is now the town drunk and has been for many years, because although he cannot give up this eternal life no matter how evil the Source of it, he also cannot reconcile it with his old beliefs.
Unfortunately, one of the acts of the Covenant says that no person in town may kill any townsperson, including himself, or else Martin would have committed suicide long ago. He is likely to step in front of bullets when drunk, hoping for an end. When sober, he will try to protect others since he finds physical danger easy to fight, unlike spiritual peril. If he becomes the finalist, before killing anyone he will hesitate long enough to be overpowered. Martin is a tall, thin man with stringy blonde hair and a mournful face.
COURAGE WINNEMEG The town’s only “child”, Courage was born on the journey across the Illinois plains. Three other women were pregnant at the time they arrived in the area of Tontine, and all miscarried (caused by the power of the Covenant). Courage grew to the age of five and stopped, covered by the Covenant despite the fact that he was not given the option to consent to it. The adults still thought of him as a child until he burned down several barns out of spite, killing a large number of livestock. Since then, the adults are a bit afraid of him, though when he behaves like a child they will revert to old habits. He is a good candidate for finalist, being malicious, devious, and underestimated even by those who have known him for over a century. Also, being small, he can hide easily from the others and ambush them. As soon as he is able to, he will first go after his parents, Mark and Prudence Winnemeg, then Simon Freedland.
HOPE PECK One of the few unmarried women to come to Tontine, Hope was originally traveling with her grandfather, who died just before they reached this area. She was devastated by his death and has never been quite right since. She believes that the power of the stone could bring him back, and once she realizes that she is able to gain that power, she will begin killing others. If she becomes the finalist, she will raise the skeleton (which is all that remains) of her grandfather, then attack everyone in sight, blaming them for his not being the way he was. The skeleton will also attack. Hope is a girl-next-door type of pretty blonde, with a shy, quiet demeanor.
RACHEL LANDAU The town’s “old woman,” Rachel was in her late forties when the settlers started the town, but she looks much older now. Once she realized what she had let herself be talked into, she withdrew from the community and chose to live alone on the far side of town from the stone and its influence. She has aged over the years, for forsaking the Covenant, though very slowly. She has never had the courage to leave entirely or to cease attending the semiannual sacrifices. She might become the finalist, simply because she will be forgotten in the carnage until the last minute. She will eagerly tell the PCs everything about what is going on and will take protection if it is offered, though she will not ask for it, as she actually would not mind dying. She lost her husband, Hugh, to fever on the trip here.
SOME TIPS & HINTS
Many of the specific details of this scenario are left to the GM’s discretion. The GM is encouraged to orchestrate the mayhem offstage to suit their own tastes. Who kills whom? Who will survive to meet the PCs? Who will be finalist? You decide. When running this scenario, there are several things the GM ought to keep in mind in order to create an appropriate atmosphere for Tontine:
Tontine is a Depression-era townlet which has not changed greatly from the period in which it was settled 150 years before. Such an anachronism is not as bizarre in the 1930s as it would be today, but even so, the PCs ought to notice that they are WAY off the beaten path. There are no radios, telephones, telegraph or electrical lines, indoor privies, automobiles, or modern guns. The architecture and furnishings of the houses appears antique, but is obviously functional.
Being a small town, there is no police force, nor even a general store, but the fact that there is no graveyard ought to come as a surprise to anyone clever enough to search for one.
The people of Tontine are NOT rubes. They’ve been pretty well isolated since the 1780’s, so they know almost nothing about modern politics, celebrities, slang, or technology, but they have had 150 years to become extremely clever. Their archaic speech patterns may give them away somewhat, but they will not be dragged into a dangerous conversation about President Hoover, the Great War, or New York. In general, the townies will be as standoffish as would be the folk of any tiny farming village. Any time they want to end a conversation, they need only bring up the subject of Tom Riley’s death, and how it wouldn’t have happened if everyone had just stayed away from Tontine.
Even after they are free to talk about the Covenant, the townsfolk will probably not wish to do so at length, even amongst themselves. They have spent 150 years trying not to think too hard about the diabolical source of their good fortune. They are mostly good people, ashamed of having sold their collective soul for immortality. They still want to think of themselves as normal, virtuous pioneers. Talk of sacrifices, dark gods, covenants, or mysterious stones understandably upset them.
Try to play up the PC’s guilt over Tom’s death, and their paranoia that some form of backwoods retribution may be forthcoming. Stress the oddness of everyone’s reaction to the death. Be sure the players notice the plausible-but-unlikely fact that there are no town elders and only one child to be seen. After the first night, let the PCs try to puzzle out the mystery of the twin corpses and why there was only ONE gunshot heard during the night. The sense that the town has a secret shame should grow stronger as the PCs try to drag information out of the townies. When the free-for-all begins, remember to portray the few kindly folk as growing almost imperceptibly meaner and more aggressive as their Covenant power increases.
Though many of the townsfolk know perfectly well what is going on from the very beginning, they also know how suspicious the PCs arrival appears. Some locals may get the idea to accuse the bus passengers of having a murderer amongst them, in order to cast suspicion elsewhere.
Try to motivate the players to look into Tom’s life, to seek out what was special about him. This will keep them busy while the killing begins. Let them speculate madly about why the death of Tom does not seem important to the locals, and why the local constabulary haven’t arrested them yet. Also, try to build the feeling of hysteria which should accompany the rising death toll in the town. After all, it should seem to the PCs that everyone in town began to go mad because of the death of Tom. They may think Tom was an important person of some sort, which he wasn’t…until he died.
Remember that everyone undergoes a simultaneous reaction to the death of a fellow townmember. These reactions will become more frequent and more powerful as the killing escalates. The seemingly random “fits” or “spells” which townies occasionally suffer ought to unnerve the PCs.
Until they learn the morbid cause of the euphoric jolts, the players might assume that they’ve arrived in a town of epileptics. The fits may be portrayed as merely a pause to take a deep breath, or a shuddering, orgasmic episode, depending on the GM’s preference.
The Covenant doesn’t prevent anyone from killing PCs or non-member NPCs, should they become dangerous. Few folks in town start out bloodthirsty enough to commit murder, but eventually all the survivors – even the ones allied with the PCs – will be killers. Nor does anything prevent the PCs from leaving town, but since their vehicle is out of commission, it’ll be a long walk back home. There are plenty of horses around town, but few PCs are likely to have the necessary skills to saddle and ride using the archaic tack available.
Screed is not merely a monster, but is in fact an avatar of the god of the Source, a god in mortal form. Without an avatar, the god is largely impotent. Depending on the nature of the campaign, Screed ought to be vulnerable to clerical or faith-based attacks. Screed has not been able to manifest in over 150 years since the town has been rigidly scrupulous about keeping their end of the Covenant. Thinking the humans would quickly break their word and lose their souls to him, Screed agreed to a contract which did him no good at all. Now he wants to find the most ruthless person in town and send him or her forth into the world to forge a new Covenant with new, ruthless worshippers.
When townies are trying to convince the PCs to commit murder, some motives will work better than others, depending on the setting. If the PCs have let it be known that they are, for instance, spook-busters, let there be accusations of vampires, secret societies of undead, diabolical cults, white slavery, or whatever. The townies may be archaic, but many of them are clever enough to craft convincing lies.
CONVERTING TONTINE
The scenario detailed above is set in a small town in the backwaters of Iowa in the early 20th century, but Tontine can be set in any place or time. It can be a medieval hamlet (for a fantasy game), a small farming community (for a contemporary game, 1890s-1990s), a small corporate entity (for a cyber-future scenario), or a backwater colony on an obscure planet (for space-based campaigns). Tontine need not even be a town at all, if you wish. Rather than a town, it could be an organization with far-flung members or a group of people whose only contact is via computer. Tontine’s population should remain quite small, running anywhere from 50-200. You can adjust this number depending upon various factors in your campaign such as type of scenario, strength of PCs, etc. In a campaign where no one will object to mass mayhem, the town could be quite large, as most of the townsfolk will do each other in “offstage”. Remember that most of the people of Tontine will eventually be killed, so the fewer members, the less carnage. Depending on the size of the party and the town in your version of this scenario, things will proceed in either of the following ways:
Small Town: Various townsfolk who witnessed the death of Tom Riley will begin to approach the PCs in private, asking them to kill someone else. They will give reasons ranging from “I want to marry someone else” in the case of a husband or wife, to “He is a creature of the undead” if they think the PCs would believe and act upon such information. In this kind of scenario, one of the clauses of the tontine arrangement would be that the members are unable to kill one another, but nothing says they can’t hire someone else to do it. In this case, there should also be other outsiders available to be hired as killers. After a certain percentage of the population is dead, say 40%, then the remainder will become free to harm each other, but only by magical means, using the powers they have acquired from the Source.
Large Town: There is no restriction against harming each other, and the townsfolk begin to kill one another off, leaving the PCs in the middle of a vicious gang war in which there are no sides, only survivors. Since the tontine took affect, no one in town has died, so nobody realized that there was a way to gain more power, but once they get a taste for it, they won’t stop. Of course, initially this will only occur to the few who saw Tom’s death or the first ones to hear of it. You might wish to make the Source some other form of object or creature which the PCs must actually face at the end of the scenario. If you choose to make the Source a different object, it should be something immovable. A building or a cornerstone rather than a magic ring. It is neither stealable nor destroyable, and is hidden very well. If it is something like a standing stone or a building, it might be hidden in plain sight, but still cannot be destroyed or moved. Below are some suggestions for using Tontine in specific games.
Call of Cthulhu: The townsfolk are organized cultists, and their power is granted to them by a pseudonym of Shub-Niggurath via the Covenant. In this case, alter the powers which they develop so that they are consistent with the typical abilities of this deity’s minions. The members will become progressively more and more like their god in aspect, growing tentacles and extra mouths. In this version, the townsfolk will actively prevent the PCs from leaving the area, as they will not want anyone outside town to know about their power Also, in this case, there is no option for keeping a “nice” person alive, as they are all assumed to be corrupt to begin with. This should be a small town, but rather than trying to enlist the PCs to kill one another off, the folk will not start out trying to kill one another, as they are devout enough to resist the euphoric rush…at first. One insane cultist will begin a reign of terror, slaughtering 10% or more of the population before he is discovered. After he manages to kill 30%, a few others will become addicted to the increase in power and will start to kill each other off. It will quickly escalate into a war. The lack of children can easily be explained by a tradition requiring that they be sacrificed at a certain age, before they would inherit any power. In this case, Courage (if you choose to use him as an NPC at all) would be a child who escaped sacrifice and achieved immortality and has since been accepted as a member.
Bloodshadows: The town is situated somewhere in the mountains on a naturally protected site where the power of the Source keeps away the dark denizens of the Wilderness. The townsfolk are all human and of an exclusive religious sect, which is why they choose to live in a small town of their own. Any non-human may feel a strange revulsion upon trying to enter the town (a protection spell which protects from all “monstrous” outsiders). Even though the folk are peaceful, there will be a few who want power, and that will be enough to start everything off. This should be a small town, but as only one or two people will begin the killing, there should be no explicit restriction which states they cannot kill each other. The Whispering Vault: The Source is the cause of the Enigma, and as such, must be faced. There is no way to confront the Source until only one townsperson is left alive. The Source will then manifest, and the finalist will either be a help or a hindrance in the Stalkers’ battle with the Source, depending on whether the finalist is on the PCs’ side or not. If the Source is defeated, the town will revert to the way it was before the Enigma began, with all the citizens alive (any PCs who have died will remain dead), but don’t let the players realize that ahead of time. Let them ponder the morality of killing a town full of people just to get to the Source. You should increase the powers of the surviving townsfolk dramatically from the chart above, so that at 70%-80% they are each a match for a lone Stalker. After that, the Stalkers will have to gang up on them. This can be either a small or large town, though playing out endless killings will become very boring after a while.
Dark Conspiracy: Tontine has several possible settings in this type of world. It could be structured as a large corporation, where the tontine’s power would be control of the corporate security system, or it can be a neighborhood which is at the center of a patch of Demonground in the middle of a large city, or it can be a small town in the middle of nowhere. The Source itself could be a Dark Lord, working to corrupt whoever lives too near for very long, where Tontine is built directly over a tiny hole to his dark dimension, or it could be a Darktek computer which imprinted itself on everyone in the locale when it first achieved consciousness, and provides them with their powers for reasons of its own. Any Space Game: Tontine is a lost colony. One possible clue to the unnatural situation is that the current inhabitants have the same names as the people on the original colony ship (eventually give the players access to this information). The Source could be an alien or an alien piece of machinery.
Any Sword & Sorcery Game: Tontine is a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere. Only in this setting would I give the players a chance to become part of the tontine. To do this, have all the townsfolk wear similar rings. When a member dies, the players have 10 seconds or so to grab a ring and put it on; the PC will then become part of the tontine, and be hunted as such. Noticing a few rings with glowing stones which suddenly go dark or vaporize moments after the wearer dies will intrigue the PCs. Once a ring is on, it will not come off. If more than one PC wears a ring, encourage them to compete for finalist, fighting it out for ultimate power. Of course, others in the tontine will be trying their best to kill the PCs at the same time, so they will probably work together until the rush from each added bit of power becomes too addicting and they decide to off each other for it. Should two or more PCs wind up as the final participants, they will inevitably turn upon each other. While they battle, the Source (something particularly powerful and evil) will appear and interrupt their fight. If they can kill it, a good being will appear and reward them with the choice of sharing the evil being’s power and remaining in Tontine forever, or giving it all up in return for being allowed to leave. If anyone else becomes the finalist, it obviously means any participating PCs are dead.
Any Cyberpunk-type Game: The tontine is a select group of cyborg or android beings who are all connected to a master computer but retain their free will. As each one dies, the others all develop faster reflexes, gain skills, and reduce the time it takes to assimilate data, to reflect the fact that they are now receiving a larger percentage of the master computer’s limited run time. The members needn’t look at all similar, and in fact, one of the PCs could secretly be a member of this group, which would explain why the party is dragged into this. In this situation, the game will take place in the midst of a normal city and the tontine members must search the city to locate each other so they can fight. Some may elect to wait and let the enemy come to them, barricading themselves into a building and setting elaborate traps. Their collective access to the computer might also give them flashes showing each other’s locations, almost like magic. A PC involved may claim some psychic power to explain this.
Note: This scenario was inspired by Trouble in the Brasses, a murder mystery by Charlotte MacLeod, and the Huntsmen of Annuvin, who appear in Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain.
Julie Hoverson