Plot device: natural treasure on the Eastern Seaboard

[Rebar]

(Ra-Chett, if you follow the Pulp Forum, stop reading!  )

 

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I'm thinking about moving the locale of my campaign's first adventure from the Louisiana bayous to the Eastern Seaboard.

 

The heroes' base is aboard a steamer, so locales are close to rivers, lakes and oceans.

 

The premise of the adventure is a seaside town in 1932 whose canneries have closed, putting much of the town out of work. Our subvillian (just a guy) has stumbled upon a family diary that mentions a treasure that will "make our family rich for generations to come" (i.e, enough to be a motivation for murder!).

 

It will come to a climax with an explosive chase through underground caves where a dropped stick of dynamite takes out the villain and exposes the treasure. The villain was assuming the diary referred something straightforward like a pile of gold, (which is why he's never found it) but it turns out to be an oil field.

 

Trouble is, in moving the locale, I've removed the treasure. There are no oil fields on the East Coast.

 

I'm looking for a plausible substitute for a "treasure" that could be exposed (ideally in spectacular fashion: "it's raining crude! The town is saved!").

 

Any ideas of some natural resource that I could substitute? Gotta be within a mile or so of the shore.

 

I suppose, if nothing else, a rock fall could expose an ancient treasure-filled shipwreck holed up in an underground cavern, but I was looking for something with more of a broader take on "treasure". In fact, for an even broader take, any maguffin might do.

 

Ideas?

[Steve]

Well, in a pulp story, you could still make it an oil field. Why limit yourself to real world geology?

 

You could have it be an Atlantean artifact of some kind.

 

Maybe it's a lost bit of knowledge, like one of Leonardo da Vinci's lost notebooks.

[Rebar]

 

Well, in a pulp story, you could still make it an oil field. Why limit yourself to real world geology?

You could have it be an Atlantean artifact of some kind.

Maybe it's a lost bit of knowledge, like one of Leonardo da Vinci's lost notebooks.

 

This is the first adventure so I'm hoping for the weirdness to build over time. Atlantis is a bit too big a jump. (though they will get to Atlantis once their entourage make its way around the Caribbean).

 

I will seed the plots with artifacts whose significance doesn't reveal itself for many adventures. The "Collector of Curios" PC will certainly pick up anything weird she finds - but that should be a subplot.

 

 

 

My wife's helping me too.

 

- peat bog with major dinosaur find

- underground river that can be tapped for a new hydro dam (very 30s-ish),

- or the dam that was about to be built in valley X - unless the river is suddenly rerouted to valley Y

- maybe the caves themselves are the motivator - if the area is unstable, they can't build their new interstate highway through the area - or they mae have to go around it - across other parcels of land

 

All good, though all but the first one will change my scenario significantly

[sinanju]

Ponce De Leon was looking for the fountain of youth in Florida. He never found it (or so history reports, anyhow), but that doesn't mean it's not there. In true Clasic Pulp fashion, your heroes could discover it only to see it destroyed by some catastrophe (either natural or manmade) before they can do anything with it, or maybe just after they do (a la Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail). Or it might be overrated, or it might do what it is reported to do, but only under the right circumstances, or at some cost.

[IndianaJoe3]

(I'm looking for a plausible substitute for a "treasure" that could be exposed (ideally in spectacular fashion: "it's raining crude! The town is saved!").

 

Any ideas of some natural resource that I could substitute? Gotta be within a mile or so of the shore.

 

According to tradition, the gold in the Connecticut governor's official ring was mined in-state. However, the location of the mine had been lost, although it was believed to be in the village of Cobalt (part of the town of East Hampton). The town is on the navigable part of the Connecticut River. The location of the mine could be the maguffin.

 

Oh, while researching this post, I found an article indicating the rumors are probably true.

[Rebar]

Those are great ideas. thinking...

[Rebar]

I kinda like the idea of a natural underground spring with healing powers. I'll make its potency dependent on location, so the town benefits but the heroes don't get any funny ideas about filling 50 gallon drums...

 

But I wonder how to get some of it into one of the heroes for some cool (though possibly temporary) effects. They won't  discover the caves until ep 3 - too late for healing effect to be a clue.

 

And I haven't yet thought of a way they'd encounter it at their big top circus set up.

Maybe an attack of biting cave bats, disturbed into swarming by the tent posts they'd been pounding into the ground? (kinda bad for the town's future business op - and a bit contrived)

Maybe they hit a small spring? (Nah, don't want to play the underground labrynth card too early)

Fall down a hole into a pool? (Nah, same thing).

I can't have one of the villains just hand them a vial of it. (1] It won't keep its potency, and 2] they won't drink it)

 

Man, I lay awake till 2AM last night beating this one up.

[Captain Obvious]

Pennsylvania, at least, had oilfields in the pulp era...

[Rebar]

Pennsylvania, at least, had oilfields in the pulp era...

Really? Huh. Thanks.

 

But it looks like it doesn't extend anywhere near the coast. While altering reality is not going to be a problem in this campaign, that seems a little contrived.

[IndianaJoe3]

Really? Huh. Thanks.

 

But it looks like it doesn't extend anywhere near the coast. While altering reality is not going to be a problem in this campaign, that seems a little contrived.

 

Some look pretty close to Lake Erie, although they might not be close enough for you.

[Lucius]

You're planning to take your players to Atlantis, but slightly relocating the Pennsylvania oilfields is too contrived?

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

A herd of wild palindromedaries in southern New Jersey, now THAT would be contrived

[Cancer]

Long Island is a big glacial moraine, so it's just lots of stuff the ice sheet pushed along until the glaciers started to retreat. Could have a few glacial erratics there of interesting composition ... say gold-bearing schist boulders pushed down from much further north, for example. A vein or two on the surface could be the visible hint leading to a few ounces inside.

[Lawnmower Boy]

The east coast of the United States faces the Atlantic Rift, and is therefore subject to compressive stresses. This produces a "syncline-anticline" form, which you can see inland in the "hill and valley" province of the Adirondack-Appalachian system. At a certain point, however, the syncline slumps below sea level, and has been infilled with erosion outflow. This the "fall line," basically, a line of rapids ("falls") some miles inland of the coast along the entire East Coast of the United States. Above the fall line, basement crystalline rock is readily accessible. Below it, it's sediment or, as Cancer says, glacial morane all the way down to the bottom of the syncline.

 

Result: the coast is swampy or fertile and hard to mine due to a high water table. On the other hand, it has rich water power resources and lots of trees. (Important if you're thinking about establishing fishing plantations there.) The hill-and-valley country has significant mineral wealth, but I think the only significant potential mineral play below the fall line is deep oil.

 

Pearls or fossil amber are the only thing I can think of, off hand unless you really want to vary the geology of the area and have a craton embedded in the North American plate somewhere in Georgia. 

[Rebar]

You're planning to take your players to Atlantis, but slightly relocating the Pennsylvania oilfields is too contrived?

 

 

Yep! There's no evidence that Atlantis doesn't exist, so having it exist does not alter established knowledge of the world.

 

 

 

Result: the coast is swampy or fertile and hard to mine due to a high water table. On the other hand, it has rich water power resources and lots of trees. (Important if you're thinking about establishing fishing plantations there.) The hill-and-valley country has significant mineral wealth, but I think the only significant potential mineral play below the fall line is deep oil.

 

Pearls or fossil amber are the only thing I can think of, off hand unless you really want to vary the geology of the area and have a craton embedded in the North American plate somewhere in Georgia. 

Yeah, I was thinking of a power dam. Very 30's-era.

 

I've managed to insert an adventure ahead of this one, so I've got a little more time to play around.

 

(:rollseyes: Originally, I wanted the campaign's Adventure Number One to just jump with both feet into a brawl. Then I got so caught up in adding clues and plot threads that it's grown to three episodes long, and needs a little setup for the payoff. So now I've gone back and created an Adventure Number Zero, just so they can have a good brawl before plot. Now I'm struggling to stop myself from adding clues and plot thread to Adventure Zero. I'll have to invent Adventure Minus One! )