Poisoned Springfield
City: Springfield, Illinois
Population: 20,000/135,000
Controls: Sangamon County and surroundings
Government: Despotism
Problem: Serpent Cultists
Heroic Opportunity: Arcana
City Aspect: Militaristic and Cultist
Theoretically, Dwight Green is the legitimate governor of Illinois. The last time he tried to enforce that, though, he came back to Springfield with a burned face and barely enough troops to enforce order. He’s gotten more troops since, though. The Mad Wight always does.
Governor Green wasn’t always mad, though: he was certainly sane enough to successfully organize at least Springfield in the wake of the Serpentfall, although Chicago slipped from his fingers early and even gleefully. And Green might have still been able to keep Illinois in one piece, politically speaking. He was popular, and the state was never actually inundated by the Serpentfall, after all.
Unfortunately, it did get thoroughly corrupted with Serpent venom and tainted rain, and Dwight Green was one of the earlier victims. Springfield was one of the first Mayoralities to experiment with ‘purifying’ tainted crops, and by the time it turned out that people couldn’t purify them the governor (among many others) was thoroughly Snakebit. But as Green’s madness has mostly manifested as a burning desire to conquer (or possibly set aflame) Chicago, not all that many untainted inhabitants of Springfield have really noticed.
The governor rules with an iron fist, but he’s not incompetent: his subjects are reasonably secure and not overtly threatened by monsters. Of course, that’s because in Springfield the Serpent Cults are all hidden inside the city government, but their depredations are kept under control, and very much out of sight. Springfield is a bad place to be a troublemaker or convicted criminal, and it’s an even worse one to be somebody with Chicago connections. Even the traders know better than to bring the subject up.
Currently, Green is trying to put together an alliance of other Mayoralities to ‘restore order to Illinois’ (which would, of course, require the conquest of Chicago). It’s slow going, but he has a couple of hole cards. The first is that Green has access to a genuine force (roughly forty of so) of modified M6 High-Speed Tractors from the local Allis Chalmers production plant. These are military tractors, armored, armed with .50 caliber machine guns, and able to tow enough Illinois National Guard artillery to shell Chicago itself. Chicago doesn’t have enough tanks to counter that effectively; and even if it did, it doesn’t have enough gasoline for an extended campaign.
But Mad Wight Green does. Or, rather, he has a supposedly reliable supply of ophethanol, just now coming into production. As soon as the M6s are converted — and enough allies enlisted, whether fair or foul — Green can lead his forces onwards, towards a glorious cleansing of Chicago. And then, Illinois.
And after that? Well, who knows? Clearly the Mayoralities could use a strong hand on the wheel. Or, perhaps, its collective neck.
Never actually done anything in the Serpentfall universe, however .. for someone who wants to make use of Poisoned Springfield .. I strongly recommend studying up on Route 66 .. because the mother road runs right through the place!
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I’ll also note that although Illinois is north of the Mason-Dixon line, that didn’t stop segregation .. but The (late, lamented) Fleetwood restaurant, despite being on the wrong side of town, always had the best music and tastiest food .. something that’s likely continued, serpents be dammed.
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I’ll also note that unless the mayor is unusually open-minded – for a mayor of the period, not for a cultist – there’s a ready-built collection of saboteurs and informants, all mixed in with some delicious pork barbecue and blues.
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Mew