[@KahleenCuthald] [@Peridot] [@baranica] [@Pathfinder] Let's start by using Kaheleen's unanswered questions as our guide to start. I want this to be a team effort since it is more fun. [b]We have to be human, is that right?[/b] I feel like this could be up for debate. We could do hybrids or full non humans if you wanted. Humans can be so boring at times. I should know, I am one... [b]Would the characters meet in the beginning of the RP or already know each other for a short while?[/b] I like the idea of having them know each other or at least know of each other. Sometimes the most boring part of an RP is the "Getting to know you" but it does lead to some great character development. It is also could be fun for them to be a group of rookies and experts. [b]Do they have to be some sort of scientist?[/b] No because there is no fun in that. It would be a large group of diverse people. There needs to be someone to catch the creature or stop it. [b]What kind of jobs are acceptable for them to have?[/b] The sky is the limit for this one. You can do whatever you want. [b] Will they leave their normal lives (former jobs, family, friends) behind for their search for the truth? [/b] It would be interesting to have the normal lives still be there. One of the ideas for my guy is that he is fighting the monsters to try and keep his family safe from whatever creeping crawly is trying to destroy the world today. That is just one possibility. [b]Is their 'search' (as I call it now) a job, aka do they get paid, or is it a hobby?[/b] I would think that the organization would be government funded with all the trappings. The Foundation (name not final) is funded through the Black Budgets of the United States and her allies. They are either born into The Search (their family was part of the Foundation) or joined the group through their own skills. Just to have an example of how they could join. The people do not have to be only Americans since that is fun either. [b]Do they have 'special rights' that normal civilians don't have? (talking X Files - they're 'cops', they get into places, interrogate and have access to files and to medial supplies and the like. Do our characters have any of the like?)[/b] My idea would be for the Agents to be granted The Liberty. They are granted the power to get whatever they need so long as it is justified. It is worth it to remove privacy if some ancient brain slug is trying to subjugate a small town and they need the files on a local doctor to find the creature. However, they need approval to use these powers. They can enter and take over a crime scene with grumbling from the local police. They cannot kill with out approval and the power only works where they have allies. Is the story completely driven by the characters (the players) or is it GM / co-GM driven, so that things maybe happen 'unexpectedly'? Do you know what I mean? I was going to make a group effort and Gm driven at the same time. For example: [hider=The Mothman] [img]http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/monster/images/1/1c/Mothman.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090430172003[/img] The group is sent to Point Pleasant, West Virginia because the town's most famous resident has returned after 49 years. Mothman has returned to the town he first appeared in and this is not a good thing. Every time this thing shows up somewhere, disaster follows it. Or does it? Is Mothman the Prophet or the cause? Is he warning the people to flee or there to feast of the misery. Is Mothman really a creature? Witnesses described how the creature did not seem to fly like a bird but move like a plane. Is Mothman an alien in a suit attracted to these disasters? Why does the thing seem interested in only certain people to the point where it will chase cars for miles to look at them? Why does it seem to want to keep people out of dangerous areas? Our Agents must solve this mystery before Point Pleasant faces another disaster. Some research about the creature: [hider=Eye Witness Description] Mothman is described as a bipedal, winged humanoid. Despite his name which was given to him by newspapers, he is in no way moth-like. His coloration varies from Black, gray, to even brown, although its is usually the darker shades. He is often reported to be about 7 feet tall, with a wingspan of about 10 to 15 feet or more, plus the ability to fly over 100 mph. Sometimes hes described as not having a head with the two huge red eyes set in the chest. These eyes are reported to be glowing, or at least reflective. The details of his face and his feet have never been adequately described. One witness who saw the face clearly, could only say that the details were horrible and monstrous. She had terrible nightmares and nearly suffered a nervous breakdown. Anyone who gets a close look at the Mothman seems to suffer from extreme fear and psychological distress, sometimes lasting for months or years afterwards. In particular, people say that a sense of pure evil overcomes them when they see Mothman's eyes. [b]He can fold his wings and walk with a weird shuffle that many witnesses compare to a penguin. When he flies, he unfolds his wings and shoots straight up with great speed, then levels out to go wherever he wants to go. He is rarely observed flapping his wings except for on take off. Witnesses often described his flight pattern as "Straight up, like a helicopter". He can fly much faster than any bird should be able to fly, as measured by those victims who suffered from what seems to be Mothman's favorite activity: chasing cars. He'll fly in front of them and even sometimes hit at the roof.[/b] [/hider] [hider=First Known Sighting: Point Pleasant , West Virginia 1966] Note how the creature is after chemicals and bombs in the TNT area. Why is this so obsessed with explosions? On November 12, 1966, five men who were digging a grave at a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia, claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over their heads.[5] This is often identified as the first known sighting of what became known as the Mothman. Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they saw a large black creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "large flying man with ten-foot wings", following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as "the TNT area", the site of a former World War II munitions plant. During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.[8] Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route. This particular crane was unrecognized at first because it was not native to this region. After the December 15, 1967, collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, the incident gave rise to the legend and connected the Mothman sightings to the bridge collapse. The Silver Bridge collapses and the creature vanishes to never return to Point Pleasant. [/hider] [hider= Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union April 1986] Beginning in early April of 1986, the people in and around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began to experience a series of strange events revolving around sightings of a mysterious creature described as a large, dark, and mutated man with gigantic wings and piercing red eyes. People affected by this phenomena experienced horrific nightmares, threatening phone calls and first hand encounters with the winged beast which became known as the Blackbird of Chernobyl. Note how the reports claim psychological damage like the Point Pleasant report. We must look into this. Reports of these strange happening continued to increase until the morning of April 26, 1986, when at 1:23 am, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, which caused a series of additional explosions followed by a nuclear meltdown. The power plant, located near Pripyat, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, spewed a plume of radioactive fallout which drifted over parts of the Western Soviet Union, Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, Ireland and eastern North America. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. The Chernobyl Disaster, as the incident was dubbed, is considered the worst accident ever in the history of nuclear power. Following the meltdown, and subsequent explosions and fires, Soviet helicopters were dispatched to the scene, equipped with special fire fighting gear, these helicopters circled the plant dropping clay, sand, lead and other extinguishing chemicals on to the burning facility. Most of the fire was put out by 5 am with the fire burning with in reactor 4 continuing to blaze for several hours after. The firefighters who responded were unaware of the nature of the fire, assuming that it was simply an electrical fire, and received massive overdoses of radiation leading to many of their deaths. The workers who survived the initial blast and fire, that would later die of radiation poisoning, claimed to have witnessed what has been described as [b]a large black, bird like creature, with a 20 foot wingspan, gliding through the swirling plumes of irradiated smoke pouring from the reactor[/b]. No further sightings of the Blackbird of Chernobyl were reported after the Chernobyl Disaster, leaving researchers to speculate just what was haunted the workers of the plant during the days leading up to the disaster. There the creature is again at one of the most famous disasters in history. Where else would it show up? [/hider] [hider=New York City, United States of America September 11, 2001] Not much of this picture is know however it has yet to be proven as a fraud. The creature's obsession with death seems to match its modus operandi. [img]https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/cryptidz/images/2/28/Image-1419023105.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141219210505[/img] [/hider] [hider= Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan March 11, 2011] This is the eye witness account of a man at the area before the disaster. Notice how the creature circled the reactor like it did at Chernobyl before the eruption. It moves the same but why is it in Japan? Did it cause the reactor meltdown to get worse than it should have been? I’m not sure if this is the appropriate time to come forward with this story seeing that the recent events in Japan are still fresh in every ones memory. I have been a follower of your website from pretty much the start; I have read your reports and have heard you online before. Naturally your site was the one I thought of first when this incident happened and I decided to write in and tell you what happened that night in early February. I was in Japan on business and had emailed a lifelong friend who was living in Japan and teaching English at a local school. He had insisted on my staying with him for the duration of my stay, saying it would help save me money and make my expense report look better when I turned it in. My friend (I will call him Tim for the sake of his reputation and career) was a lifelong bachelor and had a fairly large apartment all to himself and his cat. After several days of day long meetings and group seminars, we had decided to go out to get a bite to eat and take in the town. After a fairly large meal and hopping from one night spot to another we decided to go toward the ocean and check out the moonlight reflecting off the waves. My friend stated that he wanted to check on a biology station that some of his graduate students had set up near a large power plant. As we approached the plant from the west, we walked along some paths and came to a simple metal box bolted into the ground, from this box there were a myriad of weather vanes, and other meteorological devices. My friend stated the schools science class students had a theory that just like the water being used and discharged by the power plant was warmed by the production of electricity; the air around the plant was also being warmed and thus affecting weather and tidal patterns in the surrounding eco-system. It all sounded too complex and in my slightly tipsy and tired state was only able to grasp the bare bones of the complex theory he laid out. He finished up and changed the subject to something more jovial when all of a sudden we heard a loud and distinct “WHOOSH” at first my mind thought it might be the sound of the distant waves crashing ashore when we heard it again, followed by a ear pitching screech that shook me down to the bone and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. We looked around for the cause of the noise, when we heard the sound again. The best way I can describe it is a city buses brakes when they are in need of service, Loud and ear splitting. We both continued to look around when my friend’s attention was drawn toward the plant by another nearby couple. A younger couple, out for a walk were staring toward the plant, arms outstretched and the obvious fear in their voice showing itself. I looked toward the plant, and against the lights of the plant I thought I saw a figure silhouetted against the moonlit sky. The figure was large and black, from the distance I was at it looked to be sitting on top of one of the squared shape buildings. It sat there for about 5 seconds then it unfurled a large set of what I could only describe as large, black wings. The only reference I can compare them too are from the old John Travolta movie “Michael” where the main character unfurls his wings and spreads them out to their full length. To say that this creature was large was an understatement. The creature then took flight and circled the plant at least 4-5 times, some circuits he took at a fast pace, some he seemed to slow down, all the while he kept his attention on the row of square shaped buildings that I later found out housed the reactors. The creature then came toward us, flying at least 25-30 feet off the ground. The younger couple who had noticed the creature first were now screaming and cowering, the man shielding the woman while shielding his head with a jacket. My friend and I looked in awe as this creature flew over us. That’s when I noticed the two large red eyes; they seemed to glow from within and with a blood red hue. They were unblinking in the 3-4 seconds we saw them, we knew they were looking straight at us, we knew this creature knew we could see it and it made no attempt to disguise itself. The sick, intense and overwhelming feeling of dread came over us. A feeling that we shouldn’t be there was to say the least, overwhelming. As quickly as it came, it flew away, back toward the town, eventually melting into the black night sky and as it flew away from us a loud whoosh was heard again and then...silence. This lasted a second or two before I heard the sound of a shutter and turned to see my friend trying to take pictures with his cell phone, but all he got was dark, night time sky. We went straight home and my friend bolted the door and drew all the blinds, he was shaking and saying that he could not believe what he saw, could it have been a large, unknown species of bird? He kept mumbling to himself until I was able to calm him down and get him to relax and talk about what we had seen. Eventually we both agreed that it must have been some sort of large bird, or maybe an optical illusion caused by the lights given off by the plant on a regular, known species of bird. We talked about it late into the night, till we both fell asleep on the couches and awoke the next morning to stiff necks and backs. My friend and I spent the last two days out and about and enjoying each other’s company, till he drove me to the airport and we bid each other farewell and I came home. We spoke about it only once more in an email about a week before he was due to come to the U.S. for his sister’s wedding. When I brought it up at the wedding rehearsal dinner, he was convinced that it had been an optical illusion. That was until the day before the wedding when he woke me out of a deep sleep with a frantic phone call telling me to turn on the TV. There came the images of the devastation of the Japanese earthquake and the near total destruction of the city of the town of Okuma, where my friend was living and working. The day of the wedding the news came of the explosions at the local nuclear power plant and as CNN broadcast the report, we were both a gasp as the same power plant where we had seen the strange bird-like object was not being shown on the television set. The Fukushima Daiich was the exact same plant we had seen the strange bird like creature circling. Was it pure coincidence or was it the mythical Moth-Man doing his strange work of predicting disasters? I may never know and may go to the grave wondering that, but one thing is certain for sure, I don’t think that neither of us is going to forget this event, no matter how long we live. [/hider] [/hider] The scary thing is all that "research" is IRL info I found looking online. The idea is that it can go anyway. Is Mothman an Alien or a cryptid attracted to death? Does it cause the disaster cause it needs something? The creature seems obsessed with nuclear power. Do the characters find out what is the creature's goal? [hr] I have so many other ideas for this and I want this to be a group effort with us all. So if you have any ideas do speak up.