Page 208 - Chronicles of Darkness

GHOST MACHINE

The small towns of New England have a problem. Blueprints
Something is causing their machines to break down.
Stoplights and cellphones losing functionality complicate The God-Machine is running an experiment on these
little villages like this. But when boat engines start bleeding towns. As mentioned above, its reasons for the experi-
and gears scream, it’ll be up to you to fight the ghosts in the ment — what hypothesis it wishes to test or plan it wishes to
machines. advance — aren’t immediately important. One possibility is
Infrastructure that it prefers to have ghosts haunt physical, easily-portable
machines over them being anchored to people or places, and
it wants to see if this approach makes hauntings more or less
Along small coastal towns and riverside villages in the chaotic. Another option is that the God-Machine just needs
New England states, the God-Machine has begun an experi- the unquiet dead of these towns out of the way to make room
ment. It’s haunting the machinery human beings use every for something else (perhaps a region-wide Infrastructure). As
day. Why? Is it part of a plan to test our dependence on it? Storyteller, don’t make this decision unless you have to — the
Maybe to see how weak we’d be in the face of a worldwide characters probably won’t ever discover that truth anyway
cataclysm? It could be those things, or some plan impossible (unless you escalate the chronicle to the global or cosmic
to parse with a human mind, but it is an experiment and level, but by that time the characters should have enough of
for now, it’s being performed on a small scale. All of these an understanding of the scale of the God-Machine that “we’ll
low-population towns are near the coast. That may be a part never really understand” becomes a viable answer).
of the plan, but it isn’t a direct explanation of anything. The The God-Machine is churning up the souls of the dead
water is part of a pattern but not a solution. from wherever they might rest, and stuffing them into any-
Don’t get caught up in the “why” though, because the thing with a circuit board or moving parts. Many locals have
“what” is the issue for your characters. With their machinery their traditions and their superstitions, but this is different.
being overtaken by ghosts, it’ll be a long struggle before the The traditions of old sailors and other folk superstitions just
characters can even consider digging at the root of the prob- aren’t meant for this technological terror. As a result, without
lem. Right now, a few people scattered through these towns outside agents (like the characters), the locals won’t make the
are trying to take old folk remedies said to protect them from leaps of research and study necessary to resist. The machine
ghosts and apply them to the issue. The characters may get ghosts of the God-Machine terrorize the locals until it’s sat-
directly involved with the resistance, may spearhead it, or may isfied with the results — but that might leave the Northeast
try to avoid it while seeking other solutions. dotted with tiny ghost towns too dangerous to reclaim.
The Truth: The Infrastructure at work here is logistical,
overseen by the angel called Black Nathaniel. Black Nathaniel Linchpins
takes a more active role than many of the God-Machine’s
agents, calling up spirits of the dead and binding them to The spirits of the dead might reside in computers,
electronic and mechanical devices. watches, millstones, and even overhead lighting. All of the
Interchangeable Parts things we understand as complex machines are, in essence,
an extension of the massive cosmic entity that is the God-
Machine. And so a fisherman might turn on his television to
Characters that are able to travel a bit are ideal for this find the signal dead and faces of those he left behind in the
chronicle. While the characters won’t need to travel cross war screaming profanity at him. A husband that let his wife
country, they need to be able to cross state lines to hit all die rather than keep her on a ventilator may face her final
the locations where the machines are breaking down. Ties revenge when he cleans out the garbage disposal one night.
to those small communities are also a plus, as they can be Reapers and Sowers carry the ghosts, under the direction
insular. Professional fisherman, characters with family ties of Black Nathaniel (p.254). These angels are hard to catch,
through the region, even a Highway Patrol or Coast Guard and the average person never sees the Reapers and Sowers,
officer would have a reason to move around and yet belong only the ghosts they’ve bound. They work in pairs, of course,
in a way with various communities. the Reaper a tall, gaunt, mechanical man that smells like rust
Of course, being outsiders trying to solve the problem and motor oil carrying an old-fashioned lantern that glows an
may itself be an angle of approach when Storytelling this ugly green. That’s where he keeps the souls he’s reaped from
chronicle. Getting in and getting close to the people affected elsewhere. The Sower is a squat, womanish horror made of
by the God-Machine’s experiment.
moist leather patches from her duties sewing souls into the
workings of the God-Machine.

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Ghost Machine