A complete story arc for City of Mist with ten legendary cases of crime and magic.
This City is going to hell. Here, ordinary people have the power of legends and no-one on the streets even knows. Everyone is hustling. Gods fight for their next paycheck while monsters control the drug trade. Why do we keep hurting ourselves? Do the stories inside us push us to kill? Or is it just our old wounds, buried out of sight and out of mind? The people who once tried to heal this City are now haunting it, drinking the misery of millions. All these wounded souls are stealing, backstabbing, killing, their pain glowing like neon in the night. That’s the way this City is. These are the Nights of Payne Town.
It is a time of turmoil in the City. The police are helpless against a new wave of crime, powered by forces they neither see nor understand. Ancient legends that were scheming in the shadows for decades are now finally enacting their insidious plans, raining chaos and suffering on the streets. The only ones who can stop this mayhem are nameless individuals, anti-heroes like your crew, caught in this mess unwillingly or all too willingly...
Behind it all lies a sordid truth and a malignant power that has been feeding on the misery of the City since its early days. But, even there, in the heart of darkness, there is hope... Can you find it?
What's in this book:
Nights of Payne Town is a story arc book, a collection of ten cases (adventures) that can be run individually or as an ongoing series (campaign), following the insidious operation of an all-powerful Avatar.
Each case contains everything you need to run a game of City of Mist, including a teaser for your players, the backstory, locations, clues, NPCs, Danger descriptions and maps.
Nights of Payne Town cases break down into three "veins", or sub-plots:
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The Criminal Vein, cases involving the rise of an unstoppable crime baron, a violent self-proclaimed monarch, and the struggle for power over the City streets.
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The Mystical Vein, cases following a magical arms race, where a mystery collector will stop at nothing to gather every form of magical object and being in the City; and
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The Personal Vein, cases trailing the personal tragedy of the victims of a scheme to slowly and painfully destroy the very fabric of society in the City.
At the culmination of the story arc, these three veins combine into a single super-plot.
Among the modern-day legends featured are Hansel & Gretel, the Wendigo, Goldilocks, the Snow Queen, a slew of characters from Arthurian legend, the Philosopher's Stone, King David, Paul Bunyan, spirits of Haitian Voodoo, and many more.