Re: [HOE] Ship in Bottle Adventure (Long)

["Jeff Shoffner" <shoffner@esper.com>]

Nice idea.  I think the ship's name was spelled "Eldritch" in the movie.

Jeff S


-----Original Message-----
From: C M Hylton <cmhylton@earthlink.net>
To: hoe@gamerz.net <hoe@gamerz.net>
Date: Thursday, August 08, 2002 12:59 AM
Subject: [HOE] Ship in Bottle Adventure (Long)


I recently ran an adventure aboard a more modern ghost ship.  I used the USS
Eldridge (aka The Philadelphia Experiment).  I figured if a ship that can
disappear from Philly and reappear in Norfolk then disappear/reappear in
Philly definately would have the Reckoner's attention.

Brief History:  In 1943, The USS Eldridge (DE 173) was allegedly used, with
is skeleton crew, in an experiment to test "Electronic Camoflage."  This
caused the ship to be teleported.  The problems were however, severe.
Radiation sickness, burns, (allegedly) men fused to the bulkhead, and others
becoming visable/invisable.  The project was called "Rainbow."  The fate of
this ship was that it was, after a tenure in the Greek Navy, scrapped.

Now, lets infuse this with Deadlands history:
It was reported that Einstein was used briefly on the project because of his
"Unified Theory of Matter."  With the help of Hellstrome, the US Navy was
able to add a few "Phase Modulators," an earlier use of the current "Spirit
Fetter," to several parts of the bulk head.   These modulators were used
with ghost rock generators that were housed in the engine room.  The ship,
when the device was activated, vanished in an eerie green glowing cloud and
appeared in the Confed Shipyards in Norfolk.  (You can imagine the questions
about that)  It quickly reappeared in Philly.  However, since the ship was
in the Hunting Grounds, manitous appeared and started to terrorize the
ship's crew.  With the ship being "phased, " ie: not quite part of the
Hunting Grounds but not quite part of the "real" world, all the manitous
could do was scare the crew.  But it was enough to send people into heart
attacks, cause fires from shorting equipment, cause ghost rock fever from
severed pipes, and even make people take cover and somehow fuse with what
they were hiding from.   The manitous, however, weren't lucky to leave.  The
modulators fused them with the ship's hull.  An unlucky seaman, Ensign Clyde
Carmicheal, ducked a manitou and found himself fused into the bulkhead under
the main power coupling.  His head was fused directly with a modulator.
This caused him to be the "Spirit Fetter" for the ship.  The mess was
cleaned up and those with side-effects were quickly hushed away.
Carmicheal's head however, was left in the bulkhead forever fused with the
hull, the modulator, and manitous.

How did it get to HOE?  Well, I just summized that a ship like this would
find its way back to the Hunting Grounds when the Ghost Rock bombs dropped.
As for evading the scuttle, well it "disappeared" through the old true
method of "red tape."
Description:
Using the USS Slater E-tour, I was able to get a detail layout of each deck.
On the outside, its a fully metal, intact ship.  The "crew" consists of
ghosts that continue their jobs as if the day never ended.
When entering the Hunting Ground, think Event Horizon and Cthulu.  The
Ghosts "materialize" into actual walking dead that seem to disappear
randomly.  I used the fears of my posse to push them in the right way.  And
to help them out, Carmicheal (disembodied head and body carrying it) would
point the way.

Result:  Well, i used a Glom of the former crew to be the main "boss."  Also
added Stone because one of the posse feared him.  Suggested that this was
"Stone's Love Boat" just to make them fear the ship even more.  They ended
up finding the head and actually severing it from the wires.  This caused
the ship to reappear in "real time" and let them off as it fell into rusted
scrap (The Manitous were keeping the ship together after all that time).  My
highlight was sending them, temperarily, to Denver and to fight one Raptor.
The Black Hat (had to get them on board somehow and used a Black Hat
patrol.) that was working with them turned on them.  The Syker was able to
pop the chip with detonate and even cause damage to to Raptor with Detonate
on a missle.  So, now the Templar in the mission is carrying around a head
that wants to be "put down" so it can rest.  Imaging 150+ years of watching
WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, and the Apocolypse while having Manitous
running amouk through your noggin?