Wendigo Cults, Need background and tips for a run. Options

[bibliophile20]

Had an idea for a run to send my PCs on, so I'm doing my homework first. So, what can people tell me about Wendigo cannibal cults? How they work, how to run them in the game, tips, tricks and so forth.

Idea went as follows: since all of my PCs are either metahuman, changelings or technomancers (with one exception), they've been opposing Humanis and embracing some of the metahuman causes, and I'd like to give them a moral quandary. Let's start with an ork "community leader". Like all community leaders in the Sixth World, he has some objectionable habits, his originally centering around human children. And then someone went and turned him into a wendigo. He managed to cover that up (illusion magic and Masking FTW!) and now his objectionable habits have... expanded, and he's recruited a cult (hence the questions on how to run it).

As for the lead-in to the run itself, one of my PCs is an occult investigator, so I'm gonna have a contact cash in a favor on behalf of a (human) friend; their kid's gone missing. Eventually, I want to give the PCs a choice; expose and/or kill the "community leader", and watch Humanis milk the incident for all its worth, or let a monster continue snacking on kids... but the metahuman causes they've been backing won't have to suddenly deal with this sort of public relations nightmare.

So... help with fleshing this out would be appreciated; I've got some notes and ideas on how to handle this (including basing the "community leader" out of the Ork Underground, and/or making him a minor executive that donates heavily to MOM and ORC), but I'd really rather not have to reinvent the wheel.

[fistandantilus4....]

I've ran similar ideas out before, and my first suggestion is to let it come as a slow realization, leading to dawning horror. The run starting out somewhere entirely different, and then leading into it (like a Simpsons episode) is a great way to go, so that they get it from left field. Even better if they can meet said "community leader" a few times and find him affable. Not in the "oh he's just a gu with a bad turn of luck that makes him eat babies" sort of way. More charismatic, energetic. Play up those roles, make him clearly a person that is well respected, that everyone in the area knows. And as they discover more and more about him, they find that more and more people already know, and have done nothing. Let them wonder why.

In the mean time, there could be dozens of reasons why people would go in for the rarest of meats. Maybe he recruits heavily from those at the very bottom, and gets them "food". Maybe he happens to know a few very sick fraggers such as a Reaper type toxic mage, some sort of shadow spirit, or a very twisted sociopath. Maybe his "fundraisers" include the most elite of guests, flown in from all over, looking for a taste of "something very special, and he uses the funds to help the community.

But make sure that at his core, he's very twisted, and make sure they get to see that side some time. If you're looking for a moral quandry, might as well really make them see both sides fully, rather than playing on their sympathies. Just make sure that while they're looking through it all, make sure that all the people in his/it's cult are complicit, not controlled. That will make it much more disturbing.

Also, wendigo can be nasty in a fight. Anything that can throw spells and regenerate is going to be a brutal fight. Just make sure that at some point they get into a scrap in a kitchen. Use knives and cleavers to good effect. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Glyph]

I would recommend that you keep yourself open to how the players react, which may not be what you expect. Go with the flow! Set everything up, but don't get stuck in storytelling/GM fiat mode. What I mean is, you might see this as a moral quandry, but the PCs might not. Maybe they take the guy out and to hell with the consequences, and don't give it a second thought, and slap the taste out the mouth of any of their contacts that think to give them any flak about it. Or maybe they shrug and go "Meh, so a few kids get eaten. No biggie." Or maybe they will pick a third option, such as killing him and making it look like Humanis did it, making him a martyr.

[kzt]

Or maybe they will pick a third option, such as killing him and making it look like Humanis did it, making him a martyr.

Humanis members killing a Wendigo isn't going to be something that Humanis is ashamed of.

[Raiki]

Humanis members killing a Wendigo isn't going to be something that Humanis is ashamed of.

No, but neither can they use it as an example of "A non-human group of murdering thugs killing even their own kind without regard for the consequences" or "ORKS EATING BABIES! OH MY GAWD!"


~R~

[Bearclaw]

I don't get where "kill the evil bastard" and "everyone finds out he's a wendigo" meet. These are shadowrunners right? If they decide to take him out, he should just disappear.

[Daddy's Litt...]

Drop a few hints that something else is causing the children's loss. Maybe Humanis is setting it up to blame orks. It might amuse a twisted wendigo to stand side by side with caring, trusting humans as they find the clue's he dropped for them to find. So when the truth comes out-maybe as they are abusing a Humanis goon who'se been set up for it, they will feel even worse.

I think that might be a way to go-suddenly humanis is not always wrong, not always bad guys because they are hunting for the monster too. Once he is unmasked it should be no problem for the group to destroy him and hide the body-if any-to prevent a pr nightmare.

Then again, if he escapes he could become a reoccurring villain.