Haynesville: the City

[Hermit]

The oft inspirational Lord Liaden mentioned that he had used Haynesville's location for Millennium City in his campaign. I am fine with MC being post Detroit myself, it's worked well.... but since you can never have enough cities... I've been thinking of doing something similar.

 

I'm wondering... what if Haynesville had become a city instead of the town it is listed as in the CU book?

 

Clearly, one catalyst (if not THE catalyst) might be Captain Patriot himself. He retired in California, but what if instead he went home, back to Haynesville, and began to use his influence (And the wealth of his wife... daughter of a well to do fellow if I recall) to help the good town grow and prosper, trying to bring business and industry to it? That might become quite a growth spurt for the young town. So let's say that happened.

 

Naturally, after the McCarthy situation, the public would grow disenchanted with Captain Patriot. This, coupled with the fact that it seemed Haynesville had little else to draw people to it (after the railroad went through other towns in the 19th century) halted that growth to a crawl. Indeed, during recessions, Haynesville was hit especially hard.

 

Of course, there was Ft. McLaughlin and the Haynesville project. Before it was officially closed down after WW2, the drawing of some of the most brilliant scientific minds there of the time also funneled (indirectly) wealth and change into the town as well. For example, a strong academic renewal occured, and Randall University is even now quite respected. This in turn drew more youth to attend, and some lingered in the town helping it grow still more.

 

Of course, Project Haynesville was 'closed' (or so the public thought) and for a time the reduction in military base income really hurt the town. There was an increasing amount of flight from those disatisfied with either Haynesville still being too small, or those who thought it had changed too much. For a time, the town could barely support itself.

 

In 1982, Captain Patriot died, and was buried on a hill outside his old home, a costly memorial and mueseum was set up. It turned out to be a good investment for the city. A wave of nostalgia for Captain Patriot renewed the town once more, and it stablized. That at least was something.

 

In 1992, Detroit fell to Dr.Destroyer, and any attention Haynesville might have gotten seemed to vanish in a puff of smoke as the grand rebuilding, the grand vision for a newer better city of tommorrow instead went to what would become known as "Millennium City."

 

Odd thing is, those years of tragedy turned out to be good ones for Haynesville. Haynesville announced open doors and open hearts to the many made homeless by Detroit's fall, even going as far as to provide some land at incredibly low rates (Funded in some part by charity organizations set up by the late great captain). Given the distance between Michagin and Kansas, few took this offer, but enough did to give a new influx of professionals and raw talent alike to Haynesville. The government even made a deal with railcompanies to build new lines to Haynesville to aid in this. While the age of the train being king was long over, it still gave the city a shot in the arm and it was no longer "that place, south of Witchita".

 

Rather than attempting to high tech everything as Millennium City was doing, Haynesville (always a touch conservative anyways) prefered more traditional archeticture and designs. Skyscrappers were fine, but nothing too fancy or weird really made it past the review board. Haynesville had at last become a city. Not the largest, not the most populous, but certainly bigger than most thought it ever could be. It looked like God was smiling down on this once small town.

 

God had little to do with it. Project Haynesville, now under a different name, secretly continued. The destruction of Detroit had made things very clear to the council running that project and others backing it.

 

1. When whole cities were wiped out by "Superhumans" , it was no longer a mere curiousity to learn more about them, it was a key to survival!

 

2. While cities are often the prime targets for supervillains, they are also the prime areas for super heroes. Indeed, it seems most super heroes have urban origins, power wise, if not true birth. Technology and , of course, greater population surely played a part.

 

3. No one knew nearly enough about superhumans, and few super heroes were willing to be put under a microscope and be studied. Other organizations that did study them were either rivals, advesaries, or at the least, not very forth coming. The registration act was a vague success at best.

 

What they needed, the project decided, was a huge lab where they could observe super humans without seeming to observe them: A lab the size of a city. Pulling strings, and playing a bit fast with the books and marking much down as 'research expenditures', the Project artificially stimulated the growth of Haynesville. It arranged for new businesses to move into town, and pushed the import of the most skilled Detroit refugees it could, making what was a mere gesture (Kind hearted though it was) into a real possiblity.

 

Greater city area + Greater Population should equal a greater chance for random superhuman creation. Especially when some of the imports were believed to be low level mutants who might have more powerful children if the genetic lotto could be influenced. Still, to further add to the probabitilies, the 'type' of things funded was taken into account. A new astronomy lab was set up, one that studied such rare metorites as Kelvarite and other alien materials landed on Earth. The designs of the new streets being built were constructed based on old runic patterns not unlike those used in some occult workings (The scientists may not trust or even believe fully in 'magic' but they were exploring all avenues). There were even some blind eyes encouraged when it came to corporate projects that might ... ignore a few safety regulations. The Haynesville Alternative Energy Plant (Sounds much better than "Nuclear Reactor" ) was kicked into high gear.

 

The project has become rife not with typical corruption, but an zealousnes that has blinded it to the consequences of using a city as a giant rat maze. If this ever becomes public, there will surely be hell to pay.

 

Of course, no one organization is so competent as to have everything go 100% according to plan. Other groups of more fell intent (Perhaps ARGENT or DEMON) are trying to spread their influence into beautific Haynesville. Nor have the old enemies and allies (or descendents of same) of captain Patriot forgotten Haynesville's role in the golden age of heroing. For good or ill, they have their own plans for it.

 

The maze is set, cheese and poison in equal quanties laid about, shocks and rewards abound. Time to see what mice surface to stumble around in it....

Should be fascinating...

 

Welcome to Haynesville.

[Hermit]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Sorry for the looong post up there, but I got on an insominiatic roll.

 

Any suggestions for expanding/improving on the idea are most welcome.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Well, since I'm indirectly responsible for this bout of creativity, I guess I'm morally obligated to input something. Herm, you seem interested in keeping the history and layout of Haynesville essentially as given in the book up until the time of Captain Patriot, making him the catalyst for change.

 

As I indicated in my own description of Haynesville, one potential resource for economic growth would be scientists from the Haynesville Project settling in the town and starting their own companies. Quite a few small communities benefited tremendously from the industrial/technology boom of the postwar years. If Captain Patriot had used his influence to try to encourage growth in Haynesville, that might have made it more attractive for those scientists to stay in the town.

 

The new technologies did not require the same resource base and infrastructure as "heavy" industries of the past: small laboratories were set up in a number of nonindustrial communities, especially those with an institute of higher learning that they could be connected with. Electronics, pharmaceuticals, and later on telecommunications and biotechnologies, started small but often grew to become significant direct and indirect employers. With good high-paying jobs available, fewer young people would leave and more would immigrate to the city, encouraging all manner of construction and necessitating improved road and rail access.

 

Note that with more science-related activities going on in the area, you have more that could be of interest to governments or criminals... not to mention more possibilities for origins.

 

Of course, my own rewrite of Haynesville changed a couple of its basic premises: the Cottonwood Stream became the Cottonwood River, tributary to the Arkansas, allowing for easier transportation of goods; and the railroad was indeed built through Haynesville. With those kinds of benefits the town could have easily grown much larger by Captain Patriot's day, and been even more attractive for development and investment postwar.

[lemming]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Perhaps to merge the two, the street plan with the mystic area. Perhaps some sort of water source was drawn forth making the cottonwood swell to river size?

[Hermit]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Thanks guys...Interesting idea lemming... maybe some TVA llike project to prevent flooding in Arakansas could have redirected more water to the Cottonwood. I'm definitely going with the more scientists ideas ala Liaden if I do this.

 

Side Note:

I didn't see anything in Captain Patriot's description regarding this, but it seems unlikely for him NOT to have offspring, so I think there must be descendents about the city and elsewhere. This frees them up for possible PCs/NPCs. If the magic is in the blood now, you've got something going.

[Hermit]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Other plans...

It's a major manufacturer and distributor for Nar Cola.

It is possible that Frank L. Baum's story of tornado's whisking people away to mystical lands is based on a real incident involving an early american dimensional crossing.

Captain Patriot had a sidekick, who also settled down in the area. Most of history has forgotten him.

Takofanes arose in Oklahoma. Perhaps some ancient ruin underground lays in Kansas.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Other plans...

It's a major manufacturer and distributor for Nar Cola.

It is possible that Frank L. Baum's story of tornado's whisking people away to mystical lands is based on a real incident involving an early american dimensional crossing.

Captain Patriot had a sidekick, who also settled down in the area. Most of history has forgotten him.

Takofanes arose in Oklahoma. Perhaps some ancient ruin underground lays in Kansas.

 

Ruins are an interesting option; you'd just need a motivation for digging down to discover them. And there is one, which I'm kicking myself for not having remembered earlier, because it could make a huge difference to the growth of an alternate Haynesville.

 

Kansas has (or at least had) large reserves of oil. In 1915 they discovered it in the region of Wichita - which is 50 miles from Haynesville.

[Hermit]

Re: Haynesville: the City

 

Ruins are an interesting option; you'd just need a motivation for digging down to discover them. And there is one, which I'm kicking myself for not having remembered earlier, because it could make a huge difference to the growth of an alternate Haynesville.

 

Kansas has (or at least had) large reserves of oil. In 1915 they discovered it in the region of Wichita - which is 50 miles from Haynesville.

 

 

Economic BOOM Baby!

 

Nice.... suddenly we're cooking with gas, or at least petrol Thanks LL.