Singer Lake is a beautiful Colorado college town, situated in the wooded hills surrounding the eponymous lake and surrounded by idyllic countryside. It is the home of a University of Colorado campus, the rapidly growing Legend biotech corp, and the headquarters of Life & Family Ministries, an international Christian organization.
The town also has secrets—gears are turning unseen beneath the bustling, modern facade of Singer Lake, and a plan centuries in the making is about to come to fruition.
This adventure was originally written to be the start of a campaign with one Storyteller and only one player, playing a human character who starts out with no awareness of the World of Darkness. It should be fairly easy to adapt it to a party of player characters, and with a little tweaking, it will allow for PCs who represent other World of Darkness archetypes.
(As usual, this is a fan-made module, and I am in no way associated with Onyx Path Publishing, White Wolf Games, or the creators of World of Darkness or the Chronicles of Darkness storytelling system. Content notes for this chapter: murder, occult imagery, horror, police.)
Jimmy Thiess, a student at Singer Technical College and a member of the Hounds of God, a local motorcycle club, has been found murdered on his college’s quad. A circle has been spray painted around his body in red, and a pentagram has been carved into his chest. The college’s prayer group, meeting on the quad early Friday morning before classes began for the day, discovered him and immediately called the police. The area is now taped off, waiting for the detective to arrive. There is a pervasive sense of fear in the air, a panicked nervousness that can almost be explained away as a natural reaction to the terrible scene.
The PCs should know Jimmy, at least in passing–he could be a classmate, a relative, a neighbor, a friend. (When I ran this game, the PC was a teacher at the college, and Jimmy was one of his students). This is an easy way to get them involved in the plot, and coming together at the crime scene is a good way to introduce them to one another if they don’t know each other already.
Jimmy was a quiet kid, twenty years old, built like a linebacker and known for being helpful. He was taking several remedial courses at the technical school in addition to pursuing an apprenticeship as an auto mechanic. He worked part-time at Samson’s Auto Body, on the south side of town near where he lived with his uncle. His motorcycle, a custom job, was left untouched, parked a block away.
Give the PCs some time to meet each other and, if they want, look for clues. They can find:
- Jimmy’s backpack, hastily stuffed into a nearby trash receptacle. Inside are several crumpled school assignments and a badly frayed spiral-bound notebook, which contains several sketches of wolves, the moon, and the mountains as seen from the lake, as well as grotesque monsters and the Hounds of God logo (a running white wolf against a background of black mountains over a red sun); notes from his classes, copied directly from the board; and a list of locations.
- The list reads:
YOUTH HOUSING
UNIVERSITY + 12TH
MOUNTAIN DR
COLLEGE QUAD
THOMPSON PARK
- A pamphlet from the Youth Housing Ministry, titled “God’s Plan for Your Life.” It discusses the necessity of growing up in a stable environment that promotes faith and church attendance, illustrated with pictures of smiling young people in soft focus. The flyer was published by Life & Family Ministries, and their logo is on the back, with the address to their headquarters: 1 Family Drive, Silver Lake, CO.
Once these objects are found, the detective will arrive, and she will question everyone present, including the PCs.
Samara Rezai, detective with a secret
Virtue: Just Vice: Cold
Intelligence 2
Wits 3
Resolve 3
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 2
Presence 2
Manipulation 2
Composure 2
Skills:
Computer 2
Investigation (crime scenes) 4
Medicine 1
Occult (supernatural beings) 3
Science 1
Athletics 2
Drive 1
Firearms (handgun) 3
Larceny 1
Intimidation 1
Persuasion 1
Streetwise 2
Merits: Eye for the Strange 2, Trained Observer 1, Closed Book 2, Safe Place (apartment) 2
Size 5
Health 7
Speed 10
Willpower 5
Defense 5
Integrity 5
Armor 1/3
Initiative Mod 5
Samara is a second-generation Persian-American and a recent arrival in Singer Lake, having previously served as a police officer in a one-Starbucks town fifty miles away. She will ask everyone present the same questions: when did they arrive, how do they know the victim, do they know of anyone who would wish him harm? Observant PCs will notice that her eyes keep moving toward the center of the circle in the quad, even after the coroner arrives and takes the body away.
Her interviews done, she will give the PCs her card. This brief contact is enough for our protagonists to see two things: first, Samara has what looks like an antique coin strung on a length of paracord around her wrist; and second, touching her hand makes a gaping hole in the center of the quad visible for a fraction of a second. The spray-painted circle, instead of enclosing a stretch of grass, opens into black nothingness. Worse, there is a flash of movement, as something amorphous and gray climbs out of the hole.
As soon as contact is broken with Samara, the vision is gone, and the grass returns. There is no sign of the moving thing. The detective observes the PCs’ reactions but does not give anything away herself, and she returns to her work.
The PCs can turn over the objects they found if they wish, or they can keep them hidden from the police.
Just a short chapter today, to get the introduction taken care of. Thanks for reading!
Edited September 15, 2021 to change Jimmy’s last name from Rainier to Thiess.
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