"Goddammit Jones! How many times do I have to tell you that it's an OSHA violation to do that outside of the mining pit? Really didn't want to do this, but I'm going to have to write you up, and that means you get to have a chat with the safety coordinator. I am so sorry Jones, but you leave me no choice."
"Goddammit Jones! How many times do I have to tell you that it's an OSHA violation to do that outside of the mining pit? Really didn't want to do this, but I'm going to have to write you up, and that means you get to have a chat with the safety coordinator. I am so sorry Jones, but you leave me no choice."
"Honestly, all of you should be ashamed of yourselves! How are we going to continue being profitable if we keep on scaring all our customers away! Public relations is just as much the heart of a business as moving product! Tsk, tsk. Really, what are we going to do with you people? Bob! Yes, I know you were supposed to get this weekend off, but thanks to Jones we've got damage control to do! Yes, we need to bake Elder Cookies and perform community service!"
We are Black Goat Excavations Inc, a part of Stone Circle Group PLC.
The company was originally founded in 1922 by the Blackett family. Blackett Mining was a leader in innovative thinking outside the box and transcending boundaries. The company was noted for its loyal workforce and willingness to sacrifice everything to get the job done- traits we're proud to say we retain to this day.
As part of corporate restructuring in 1983, Blackett Mining floated as the Stone Circle Group PLC. Black Goat Excavations was formed out of the primary mining division of the new company, ensuring that the core business functionality could be maintained and would provide profitable foundations for our reach to the future. Despite our parent company's new focus on the medical business and advanced technology, we maintain the proud traditions that the Blackett family instilled in us.
With operations everywhere from New England to New Mexico, Black Goat Excavations has a national presence. In addition, with our purchase of a deep-sea oil extraction specialist firm and our partnership with a Chinese firm operating in Tibet, we're ready to face the challenges of the modern world and evolve and change to overcome them.
Black Goat Excavations believes corporate responsibility and civil partnership. That's why we're sure to maintain close links to local government. We have firm policies of non-discrimination with regards to skin colour or disabilities which date back to our founder, William Blackett, who suffered from several painful medical conditions and was known for his fascination with other cultures. His example set an example for us we try our utmost to continue. We invest in education and healthcare in towns where we maintain operations. A healthy, educated, happy workforce is a productive one. Black Goat Excavations is proud to say that we maintain close relations with several prominent universities and are more than willing to enhance the skills and provide training that ensure we exist in tip-top shape!
In our fiercely competitive marketplace, we are dynamic and ever-changing. As a strong employer we're always hiring and our admirable employee retention rate shows our successes in that field. Why not pick up our brochure today?
Logo Myth
Unfortunately certain disaffected individuals have claimed that our logo is in some way 'satanic' or linked to 'witchcraft'. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our logo was designed in 1983 by Jameson and Sons, a public relations firm. The abstract representation of a black goat was inspired by the family crest of the Blackett family, to honour our founders. It is not a reference to any mythological or fantastic beings.
Black Goat Excavations has no links to the Church of Satan. No evidence linking the company to any occult organisations has ever been presented or proven in court. In 1994, we successfully sued the New England Reformed Pentecostal Church for their libellous claim that the company was linked to Satanic belief. Black Goat Excavations will aggressively defend its image from slurs and slander.
The Conspiracy
Name: Black Goat Excavations, Inc
Goals: Current goals are to steer the company back on track, exceed the projected profits for the first 2016 quarterly meeting by over 20%, and perfect the process of turning the new Upper Management division into the grotesque perfection of all organic life, font of all tears, in which joy and sorrow are as one, this time without losing their business acumen.
Why Are You Here: Oakspring contains a vast underground complex of caves and networks at the bottom of which sits the Dream-Pool, connection to the Astral Plane and the Labyrinth of Flesh that is the guts of Pazu-Ken-Yokai, the Dreamer and the Sleepless Night, which produce 20% more efficient cognitive enhancements and only require normal drills and pickaxes to be harvested, none of that expensive diamond-edged stuff. Implants may induce vision of the All-Dream of the Shimmering Void, which are rated "pleasant" by 76.4% of recipients.
Special Asset: All Hail The New Flesh. Flesh-grafted minions and tame rubbery monsters and lab subjects, oh my.
You can tap your Special Assets whenever you can justify deploying them to boost a roll. The Special Asset adds four dice on top of your normal pool, but there's a teeny tiny complication with them. Which is to say, when you augment a roll with Special Assets, complications occur on a 1 or a 2 rather than just a 1. Pulling out the monsters means going loud.
Sites
Torpenhill Heights Quarry and Industrial Estate
Located just outside Oakspring, the Torpenhill Heights Quarry began production of the rare blue clays found only in this area back in the 60s. With the use of demolition, they quickly dug out a quarry. Sure, there were rumours of stranger things being found embedded in the clay - like strange icons - but the company carefully explained that the gold they sold was just the result of old river deposits
After an unfortunate industrial accident in the 90s where multiple workers died in a clay slip, the Torpenhill Mining Company was forced to shut down. Perhaps the company might have survived, but the way that the board of directors had gone crazy and killed each other sort of put a stopper to that. It was all very mysterious, and the local rumours hold that they were probably using the site to dump hazardous chemicals.
Actually, they were cultists of unspeakable gods from beyond space and time, which just goes to show that you can't trust local rumours.
Black Goat Excavations purchased the abandoned and partially flooded quarry a few years back after its Rare Books Division tracked down some of the purchases that the mining company had made and followed the money backwards. Since then it has restored and drained the mines, and - officially, at least - has begun subterranean mining for ecological reasons.
And that's right! It'd be pretty ecologically unsound to expose the raw flesh of Pazu-Ken-Yokai, the Dreamer and the Sleepless Night, to the outside world.
The Torpenhill Heights quarry looks like a normal operation to outside eyes. Black Goat have built an industrial estate on a large tract of cheap land by the quarry allowing the prompt processing for transport of extracted resources, and the whole place is fenced off and patrolled by security guards. After all, there's industrial machinery in there. No one wants some dumb kids breaking in. The trucks roll out from the depot, heading to long term storage locations or to other Stone Circle PLC companies. It is making a small profit at the moment, although it could do better.
It only has a few teeny tiny downsides. Firstly, everyone around here knows that Black Goat Excavations owns this site. Because, you know. It's literally on the sign outside. Moreover, there are certain… associated risks with mining the flesh of the dreaming outer gods. Now, of course, the modern security systems help contain incidents, but the occasional loss of a mining team when they accidentally wake a parasite which dwells inside the divine flesh of Pazu-Ken-Yokai, the Dreamer and the Sleepless Night is what might be deemed an occupational hazard.
Nevertheless, it has now been 17 days without a workplace accident! Progress!
Positive Traits: Place of Power, Money-Making Negative Traits: Poor Secrecy, Hazardous Workplace
Notable Figures
The Supreme Leader: Executive Delegate Andrew Marshall
The wealthy new entrepreneur (pronounce with thick French accent) who arrived in town and will resurrect its faltering employment rate with... Clay-mining? Really?
Flaw: He's beholden to a Board of Directors who may or may not be alive/sane/human and will do anything to keep their profit margin above expectations, no matter how short-sighted.
Management: Productive Employees Will Be Awarded Biotech Implants, Improductive Ones Will Be Fed To The Hundred Gnawing Maws 5
Combat: Dental Plan Comes With Biotech Implants, Executive Now 40% Monster From The Beyond 4
Free: I Have A Huge Forehead Because I Put Pieces Of Smart People's Brains In My Head 3
Conspirators
Many long term workers of Black Goat Excavations are somewhat… clammy, with discoloured eyes or slightly misshapen bodies. Others are just in it for the cash and haven't taken the long-serving employee benefits. Either way, though, most of the low-ranking staff are mostly human.
Typical Dicepool: 2-3
Influence
Local Civic Government - Total Control (6 dice)
The Mayor has been comfortably bribed and may or may not have a worm-like thing in his gut keeping him docile. In addition, several people on the Black Goat payroll have recently taken up positions under him. They help things go… well. And also ensure that Black Goat doesn't have any problems with planning permissions or the like.
The High School - Major Influence (4 dice)
The local high school has been fully pervaded with pamphlets and overly enthusiastic speakers convincing students that a successful carrier in clay-mining awaits them. In addition, Black Goat Excavations had funded the construction of a new swimming pool in the gymnasium and sponsors the high school football team.
Local Bars - Some Influence (2 dice)
Most of the local bars have at least a few informants seeded, or bribed bartenders, to make sure people don't speak too loudly and too much when drinking away their exhaustion
Indeed. Having to explain to family that their spouse/child/parent (delete as appropriate) was eaten by a monstrous parasite while mining the flesh of an elder god is always awkward. Also, those compensation packages cost money.
Indeed. Having to explain to family that their spouse/child/parent (delete as appropriate) was eaten by a monstrous parasite while mining the flesh of an elder god is always awkward. Also, those compensation packages cost money.
They're also bad for public relations! Success depends on keeping everyone happy! Happy families and happy towns means less pitchforks and torches, and far less government investigations! Not to mention beneficially affecting profits! We're not in that silly world-ending business, after all! Our continuing payroll depends on at least having a better image than some silly billionaire running for president, as an outward appearance of ethically sourced --erhem-- 'blue clay' does wonders. Certainly, showing the townsfolk the wonders made possible through elder gods--uh, darn. PR is so hard when you're dealing with elder gods. Darn you, Lovecraft!
when you think about it it's not really supplying teens with performance enhancing substances so much as a radical training program with vitamin supplements all natural shit y'know? it's good for you
and yeah okay technically it's not like natural-natural like earth natural but other planets are natural too right? and like, what's an alternate dimension but a weird planet? other dimensions totally still count, don't make this a big deal
because like, when you think about it doesn't that just make it double natural? it's so real it's realer than real. it's natural squared man. like, do you have any idea how much protein's in those shakes? it came from, like, an entire dimension of protein
no i don't know why the swim team's growing fins stop asking stupid questions do you want us to loose to hunter's grove high the fuck's the matter with you? show some school spirit. christ.
when you think about it it's not really supplying teens with performance enhancing substances so much as a radical training program with vitamin supplements all natural shit y'know? it's good for you
and yeah okay technically it's not like natural-natural like earth natural but other planets are natural too right? and like, what's an alternate dimension but a weird planet? other dimensions totally still count, don't make this a big deal
because like, when you think about it doesn't that just make it double natural? it's so real it's realer than real. it's natural squared man. like, do you have any idea how much protein's in those shakes? it came from, like, an entire dimension of protein
no i don't know why the swim team's growing fins stop asking stupid questions do you want us to loose to hunter's grove high the fuck's the matter with you? show some school spirit. christ.
Pamphlet, found tacked on a corkboard at Oaksprings High:
Black Goat Excavations - Gouge The Flesh Of The World With Us
Black Goat Excavations may seem like a simple business, but our ranks swell with every shade and hue of flesh - some armed with shovels and backhoes, some armed with straightedge and drafting paper, some merely extremely armed! While some positions are in flux, confidential, or comprise memetic hazards so severe that even the knowledge of them induces migraines and spontaneous implosion, rest assured that employment is never out of reach in Oakspring. Recommended courses and extracurriculars at school include Shop, Spanish, Chanting Club, Geometry (Non-Euclidean stream), Caving Club, Healthcare, and Biology. We promise that all members and dismembers of Oaksprings High Alumni Association will find some purpose within our ranks! Go, children, and grow tall and healthy - we await you here at Black Goat Excavations!
Do they have a programmeable dreamscape (given the location) that has been fused with regular computers and will be used for the inevitable 'trapped in a videogame' episode?
Ah, but think about how high quality its actual fleshy bits must be if its literal shit is 20% better than the other guys! And it'd probably be pretty pure** stuff too, with all of the parasites being filtered out of its body*.
*And into its poo.
**The parasites are gone, yay! On the other hand, its immune system is sort of a bitch. Woops.
Episode 0 (Pilot) - Greetings from Oakspring
0-1: Tutorial on Plots
The sky is dark overhead. A full moon hangs heavy in the cloudless sky. Outside the yellow pools of light from the sodium lights and away from the bright signs of the nearly abandoned shops, everything is dark.
The parking lot outside the 7-11 is mostly empty, which means the bulky SUV that pulls into it has no problems finding a space. Despite that, the car is parked sloppily and takes up three spaces. A woman climbs out, almost dropping the book that she's clutching to her. Apparently the reason she was driving poorly was that she was reading in the car. She certainly looks the sort. She has frizzy, somewhat unkempt brown hair and large round spectacles.
There's a harassed expression on her face. Maybe it's just the look of someone who's having to dash out to the nearby supermarket to grab something for dinner. But then again, maybe it's something else.
Because another, smaller car pulls into the parking lot as she heads in towards the 7-11. It's following her, and it's been following her for a while. Its windows are tinted. A man gets out, and lights up a cigarette. He takes a long drag, and exhales, blowing a cloud of smoke into the night's sky.
His eyes aren't quite healthy and his skin almost looks jaundiced. But maybe that's just the yellow sodium streetlights. Right?
He swallows the cigarette. Smoke comes out of his nose and ears for just a moment.
No. Wrong.
He taps on the glass of the tinted car. The window rolls open and he says something to his compatriots. And then he heads into the 7-11. Following the woman.
The woman heading into the supermarket is Anna Hemmerton, who runs a bookstore in town. And there is something malevolent and wicked lurking outside.
You know that, because it's there at your orders. Because you already have a plot.
Plots
There are a few broad categories of plot. This is not a definitive list and not all actions are Plots - they are specifically broad overarching schemes. The idea is that your Plot exists to structure your actions in an episode
The general categories are as follows:
Eliminations exist to remove an enemy or an asset from play. It doesn't necessarily involve killing them - it might also entail getting them to move away from Oakspring, discrediting them, or getting a business shut down for totally legitimate health and safety violations that you weren't responsible for one bit, oh no. Eliminations are often the easiest way to get rid of an obstacle, but the complications they produce can be messy. Black Goat Excavations Inc is an official sinister conspiracy and so corporate policy has no problems with murder, but sometimes it's cleaner to get someone fired. But then again, the flesh pits always need new test subjects.
Mergers and Acquisitions are there to recruit underlings or increase your influence over the town. Say someone catches your eye as being useful for your goals. You can devise acquisition plots to recruit them to work for Black Goat Excavations. Or you can use acquisitions to increase your influence over a bit of the town - for example, bringing some local doctors under your sway through free samples of your product. It gets increasingly harder to get high level control - for example, it's easy to get a little bit of control over the local hospital by paying off a nurse or two, but to take over the entire location will be a large-scale multi-episode Plot.
Investigations and Espionage reveal information about sites, assets, and the plots of anyone who might be trying to thwart your ultimate aims - as well as being something that wretched do-gooders will do to get in your way. These kinds of plots will tend to make later plots easier, remove barriers to success, and provide you with hooks for new Plots.
Protections and Fortifications are there to defend your existing assets or locations. Say a group of inquisitive journalists are sniffing around your base. A protection plot might be to give them a guided tour of the site having made sure there's nothing incriminating around. Protection plots. They make it harder for other people to hurt your assets or take out your agents. They won't win your goals for you, but they'll stop you from losing. You can also use them to reinforce assets that have already been attacked by enemies, 'healing' them and restoring them to full use
At the moment, your current means you'll be using for your Plot is decided for you. In later Episodes, you'll have to agree among yourselves as to the means that Black Goat Excavations Inc will be using. Different Plots will require different kinds of assets. For example, it's probably best to not use a fleshspawned monster for something which requires delicate negotiations with human beings, but instead to use a lawyer on the payroll.
So. What is your Plot?
Remember, votes that do not come with at least a sentence of explanation or justification will have their voting weight halved.
[ ] Elimination: She knows too much. She's identified the old ruins on the hillside above the quarry. She needs to die. Make sure she has an… accident before she gets home. Asset: Several toughs (3 dice)
[ ] Acquisition: She's a sham with no knowledge of the occult. On the other hand, her bookshop is built above a mystical leyline that Black Goat Excavations wants. Beat her so she's hospitalised, and we can purchase the site when she's forced to sell it off to pay her medical bills. Asset: Several toughs who've been told not to kill her (3 dice)
[ ] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book. Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
[ ] Protection: Ms Hemmington is a… contractor, shall we say? Unfortunately, it seems that a roaming evangelical preacher has somehow found out about the way that the animals in her neighbourhood go missing and is blaming her for sacrificing them to dark gods. He's entirely right, but this coming out would inconvenience the company. Make sure she stays safe. Asset: Several toughs who've had it made very clear to them that she's not meant to come to harm (3 dice)
The very best thing about Contractors is that you can pass work off to them for sums of money instead of having to invest and train up a person with that specific skill set. The second best thing about Contractors is that if things go bad you can hang them out to dry.
Besides which a roaming preacher? Sounds like an homeless man whose in need of some serious mental care, because really people sacrificing animals to dark gods, ha! (Quick find out how this schmuck got the facts right)
[X] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
You can never have too many books. Not even if they are all address books.
It will turn out that this sham is the favoured aunt of our teenage antagonist group's comic relief thereby ensuring that this pilot gets great ratings. Let's hope we got good-looking actors or that we have a famous director on our show's payroll, otherwise we might not make it past the pilot.
The very best thing about Contractors is that you can pass work off to them for sums of money instead of having to invest and train up a person with that specific skill set. The second best thing about Contractors is that if things go bad you can hang them out to dry.
Besides which a roaming preacher? Sounds like an homeless man whose in need of some serious mental care, because really people sacrificing animals to dark gods, ha! (Quick find out how this schmuck got the facts right)
Hmm, I think the thing about Protection and Elimination is that we've just started the game. Probably we'll start to see threats and enemies popping up very soon and then we'll need to start smacking down problems and shoring up defences, but for right now I would prefer our first move be an offensive one. So either Acquisition or Espionage--Acquisition is just expanding our power base, while Espionage would serve as a good springboard for whatever our next few plots are going to be.
Probably espionage would be better because it gives us a bunch of plot hooks, and we don't really have any yet, so...
[X] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
It will turn out that this sham is the favoured aunt of our teenage antagonist group's comic relief thereby ensuring that this pilot gets great ratings. Let's hope we got good-looking actors or that we have a famous director on our show's payroll, otherwise we might not make it past the pilot.
...Actually, I would be totally okay if the hospitalisation/sudden and violent death of Ms Hemmington is the catalyst that draws the teenage antagonist group (who are obviously going to be our primary enemies) into discovering the conspiracy in the first place, because one of them is a relative of hers and they start poking their noses into what happened to her (because they're a bunch of nosy teenagers) and discover that her beating/death was ordered by an evil conspiracy of eldritch worshipping corporate executives.
Keeping someone safe is always harder than harming them, so I'm not fond of protection. Also, thugs. Not the best professionals for goals more complex than "hurt this person". Getting hold of a neat bookstore site seems like fun, but I think getting information that we can use to drive our first arc plot sounds better. Especially since this means that the protagonist will have been working in the bookstore for her as a part-time job, and will come into work tomorrow afternoon to find that they've been robbed - shock, horror!
If we are very lucky, the annoying little punk will get blamed for it. Hah.
[ ] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
The state of government subsidised mental healthcare in this nation is shameful. Facilities across the nation in general and in [INSERT PITIFUL COMMUNITY HERE] in particular are understaffed, overstretched, and underbudgeted to the point where many Americans such as [INSERT OPPONENT HERE] are left without the support that they so clearly need and deserve. The fact that the state and federal governments have allowed the situation to deteriorate to this point is nothing less than a failure of humanity and basic human decent on their part.
That said, we here at Black Goat Excavating Inc. must praise the quick thinking and brave actions of the local community members who rushed to the aid of [INSERT USEFUL ASSET HERE] when they witnessed the assault take place. People like them; people with honesty, integrity, bravery, and a sense of justice and fairness are the beating heart of towns like Oakspring, and it's towns like Oakspring that make America the greatest nation on Earth.
[X] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
Leaning towards either Acquisition or Espionage - both sound like they could be useful but between "acquire ley line" and "acquire potential plot hook to grab eldritch tomes which man should have not wrote nor read", well...
[X] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
[X] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
[ ] Espionage: Corporate believes that Ms Hemmington has certain rare book sellers as her contacts which may be useful to the company. By stealing her keys, we can get into her shop and get our hands on her address book.
Asset: 'Lefty', an ex-con petty thief on the payroll (he's also quite tough) (3 dice)
Hmmm. Corporate better have given us the right information or, well, I dunno what we can do to them but the fleshpits yearn for flesh!
On the other hand, couldn't we use some other, less human-dependent means to get those contacts? Wiretaps or something...
