Page 198 - Chronicles of Darkness

THE 300 BLOCK

The block that holds the teaching hospital — the 300 Also, they all have a personal tie with the most recent
block, as locals call it — isn’t ritzy, but it’s home. How long disappearance. As a part of character creation, the players
have you lived here and never noticed that people just… should also build the person who has recently disappeared
vanish? (for a good method for doing this, see Chapter Three). For
Infrastructure good or for ill, the missing person is someone all the charac-
ters are invested in. That’s not to say all the characters know
each other, but they all feel the effects of this one person
In a large city, people find safe subcultures to cling to, going missing, and the sting (or satisfaction) of a police
like a shared ethnicity, income level, or occupation. For the force that won’t help. They may be drawn to find out what
families and friends of the 300 block, the tie is proximity. happened out of love, a sense of justice, or simply to make
They share a city block, about a mile square. City planners sure this person doesn’t come back and ruin the good thing
had set this block off as housing for the young student doctors they’ve got going now (or to assure they aren’t blamed for
and nurses — as well as the lower-income hospital staff — of the disappearance).
a nearby teaching hospital. A number of lovely, turn of the
century apartment buildings sit in the middle of the block. Blueprints
This creates a sort of town within a city. Locals get their
morning caffeine fix in the independent coffee shop on one When the city founders planned out the 300 block, they
corner. The couple in B4 runs the book store on the ground worked out a deal with a unique and highly-praised architect
floor. Local inhabitants even have a bodega that handles most named Hans Hoffmann. He promised to work cheaply and
of the basic grocery needs. efficiently, and assured them that the nearby hospital would
Property owners still adhere to many of the regulations produce miracles. The block would experience no crime or
put on the block at its founding and, as a result, the popula- signs of poverty, so long as the property owners served the
tion is about 70 percent medical students and other hospital God-Machine. He arranged for a few coding regulations, a
staff. The rest are largely retirees on fixed incomes and low- few allowances. Mostly, he needed a promise that whatever
income families. Despite this, the buildings remain pristine. happened on the block would stay, more or less, on the block,
The neighborhood is safe. The inhabitants are happy. That and that city officials as well as the police didn’t get involved.
makes the disappearances that much stranger. So far, this agreement has been honored.
Once every six months, someone goes missing on the Hoffmann went a step further. He spoke to the initial
300 block. Sometimes it’s a local, sometimes folks simply landlords, once the buildings were built, and made them
hear a rumor that the guy who operated the hot dog cart better promises yet. Riches. Comfort. Long life. Peaceful ten-
left town. Sometimes strangers to the neighborhood hang ants. Economic security. All he needed in return was blood.
flyers on telephone poles saying someone was last seen on Not theirs, of course. Rather, once every six months,
the block. No bodies mean no crimes, according to the the landlords were expected to find someone in the area,
local cops, overburdened as they are with more dangerous bring him to the boiler room under the shared city park,
stretches of the city. and murder him. Worse still, they were expected to paint
The Truth: The 300 block is an intricate form of defense the machinery there with as much of the victims’ blood as
Infrastructure. As explained shortly, the disappearances on possible. The machines needed the blood to run. If they
the block are due to regular human sacrifice. The death of a refused, the results would be horrific.
human being releases a great deal of spiritual energy, and the They agreed, and the 300 block has been prosperous and
God-Machine harvests that energy and stores it for later use. comfortable ever since. Of course, Hoffmann isn’t human
Interchangeable Parts — he is an angel in service to the God-Machine. While Hans
Hoffmann officially died of natural causes years ago (a fact
the characters can verify if they wish, though if they take the
The characters all live on the 300 block. If they are extraordinary step of digging him up they find his coffin
doctors, they may have recently moved here as a part of a contains only rust and bloodstains), the angel is capable of
residency. Maybe they moved in with an elderly relative to returning to defend the block.
take advantage of the rent control. Maybe they grew up with
a struggling, but happy, family on the block. But whether Linchpins
new arrival or long-time inhabitant, all the characters must
be familiar with, and take up residence on, the block. They Of course, the God-Machine can be seen in the peace and
need to be invested in that way. tranquility falsely handed to the block. Children and students

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The 300 Block