White Shadows of Lima
City: Lima, Ohio
Population: 13,500/90,000
Controls: Northwest Ohio
Government: Machine
Problem: Cultists (Klan)
Heroic Opportunity: Technology
City Aspect: Imperialistic and Corrupt
Lima, Ohio is poised for greatness, or at least conquest. It made it through the Serpentfall with an ‘Emergency Committee’ that largely now operates as feudal overlords for their territories; the Committee members have so far managed to avoid internal squabbling via the judicious use of conquest. It’s the smallest serious Mayorality in Ohio, but it’s got the most advanced forces. Lima has both a battalion’s worth of actual Pershing tanks (from the Army Tank Plant in town) and what passes for a strategic reserve to operate them (the region had extensive oil wells, and the Committee moved early to secure them). This has been enough for the Mayorality to consolidate control over a reasonable amount of Northwest Ohio. The Committee is careful to avoid butting heads with Cleveland to the east, and has negotiated with both Cincinnati and Dayton to secure its southern border. The Committee believes in patience: there will be plenty of time later to ‘re-establish control over the State of Ohio,’ a policy which is genuinely popular with the subjects of Lima.
But, of course, Lima has a hidden problem (specifically, a renegade cult of Klansmen called the White Legion). Its leader Virgil Clays has sat on the Committee from the very beginning, and he’s used his position to protect his fellow cultists as they insinuate, smuggle, kidnap, connive, and run slaves from Detroit to Cincinnati. The goal, of course, is to create a ‘Northern Konfederacy’ to first rival, and then supplant, Birmingham’s: the White Legion does not take orders from either Imperial Wizard Green or High Kleagle Connor. The ‘true’ Konfederacy does not appreciate this independence, and (correctly) suspects that the White Legion is susceptible to drifting into actual Serpent worship. Probably some of its smaller cells already have.
Note that the reach and strength of the White Legion can and should also be a concern for ordinary, decent human beings. Also note that attempting to make common cause with Birmingham agents attempting to rectify the situation will only work up to the point where it becomes clear that the Konfederacy has a different definition of ‘rectify.’ After all, from Birmingham’s point of view Clays’s great sin is in not subordinating himself to the ‘true’ Konfederacy.
Then again, from the players’ point of view this sudden, yet inevitable betrayal will just simply allow them to shoot all the Klansmen with a clear conscience. Assuming that they didn’t already have a clear conscience about it to begin with.