Bright-Lit Tupelo – Google Docs
Bright-Lit Tupelo
City: Tupelo, Mississippi
Population: 4,000/27,000
Controls: Itawamba, Lee, Pontotoc Counties, Mississippi
Government: Strongman
Problem: Hostile City
Heroic Opportunity: Technology (Electricity)
City Aspect: Covert and Militaristic
Tupelo is in surprisingly good shape for a city in the Poisoned Lands. The city’s elevation and location allowed it to survive the Serpentfall tsunami, and it helps maintain the garrison at Wilson Dam in Alabama that keeps at least some of the prewar TVA power grid up and running. There’s even a couple of scout planes operating out of the regional airport, pretty explicitly to keep an eye on the Konfederacy over in Birmingham. Tupelo is also very racially integrated for the region, which includes having a fully integrated militia. Certainly George McLean’s Daily Journal (which now also operates its own low-wattage radio station) is vehemently anti-Klan enough to have been attacked by saboteurs at least twice.
The leadership of the Konfederacy is convinced that McLean is working hand-in-glove with the Free Colored Army; the leadership, for once, is entirely correct. McLean works with newly ”elected” Mayor Jack Reed, Jr to provide resources, intelligence (thanks to what remains of Reed’s Signal Corps contacts), and refuge to the FCA in exchange for quiet protection. They’re also doing what they can to prepare the area for Birmingham’s inevitable expansion into Mississippi.
The Konfederacy is aware of at least some of this, but currently it cannot move on Tupelo until it resolves the problems of its border with Huntsville. In the meantime, the Konfederacy has been trying to infiltrate the town itself. Unfortunately for the Konfederacy, the Klan agent has already been ‘made’ by a local group of Scouts (which includes a thirteen-year-old E.A. Presley). Possibly unfortunately for the Scouts, the Klan agent won’t scruple to shoot a kid if he gets caught. No doubt the sudden appearance of a group of adventurers will precipitate a resolution of that situation, though. It typically does.