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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scud-O" data-source="post: 443891" data-attributes="member: 6041">another possible way to handle the "nursing staff" issue:Dr. Smith was not a "good" man per se.  An effective doctor to be sure, but not an effective husband.  His affair with his chief surgical assistant, Nancy Hargrove, was common, if not well-publicized, knowledge.   Dr. Smith was also known as a bit of a lush.  Mever on the job, mind you, but pretty much at all other times.The first of the "worm removals" happened late one night under emergency conditions, when Dr. Smith discovered local streetperson Stan "Stinky" McGee writhin in pain outside the entrance to the town's small hospital.  Dr. Smith performed the operation himself and more than a little drunk.  Fearing that he wouldn't be believed, he kept quiet about it.  Several days later, he and Nancy performed another emergency procedure, this time on a young girl who had been complaining of ever-increasing abdominal pain and had begun seizing in the examination room, vomiting blood.  Dr. Smith recognized the symptoms from McGee's case, but allowed himself the luxury of disbelieving his own experiences of a few nights prior.  When he and Nancy discovered the parasite, they agreed to keep it quiet until they could examine it further.At this point, Sarah Smith has been infected.Over the next few days, a handful of further cases come through the small town's infirmary.  Dr. Smith and Nancy keep them quiet if they can, but news of two of the failed operations make the rounds in the local watering holes and such.  In public, Dr. Smith starts warning people about a nasty flu bug going around.Nancy and Dr. Smith finally connect the spring and the worms.  They hatch a plan to blackmail Thomas Edwards and his partners.In a celebratory mood, Nancy and Dr. Smith retire to the Smith's house for a little of the old wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am.  While Dr. Smith cleans up in the upstairs bathroom, Nancy goes about making the den ready for their afternoon activities, pouring drinks, dimming lights, and so forth.  Sarah Smith emerges from the basement with an ax and chops Nancy into several pieces.  Her screams bring Dr. Smith downstairs, where he struggles with his possessed wife.  The worms grant more than human strength, and in the end, Dr. Smith is forced to kill Sarah in order to survive.  But, who will believe him?  His wife and mistress found dead, his fingerprints everywhere, and people are starting to ask questions about the deaths, about his drinking.  He goes to ground.Thomas Edwards likes money.  He is a failed Wall Street businessman who moved to this small town in order to buy cheap real estate and find some way to exploit the surrounding natural resources to rebuild his lost fortune.  Then he found the spring.  Naturally, he was scared out of his mind by the worms when he first found out about them.  But then he started thinking about them.  Wouldn't being able to control your buying public be the perfect marketing solution.  the worms have a biological imperative to create more puppets and as such, those infected will atempt to infect others...with his SPRING WATER.   He does research and finds out about John Fitzgerald and his run-in with these creatures.  Fitzgerald shows no signs of ever having been infected, so Edwards incorrectly surmises there must be a way to control the things, some artifact or ritual or something that grants dominance over the hive-mind of the worm.  His partners in the Spring Water venture are unaware of the worms, and will become victims if they find out and threaten to blow the whistle.  In fact, having one of them turn up dead mid-adventure and having Edwards blame Dr. Smith would be a good red herring.perhaps think about a way to control the behavior of the worms actually existing.  Perhaps a ritual, one in which a sacrifice is needed.  perhaps Edwards plans on using Dr. Smith as the victim, then claiming self-defense.  having this happen in game would completely confuse the PCs.  or maybe there's a "worm-king" and allowing yourself to be possessed by it gives you control over the worm-thralls, or something.  anyway, adds that insane cultist angle that CoC loves.i am rambling now, forgive me.  but please, let us know how things go and what worked didn't work.  i'm always interested in running a better CoC game.--Eric</blockquote>

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