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Werewolves 120: Adelaida’s Planet – Signups

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This is the story of a girl.

Long, long ago, in the distant land of Canada, a merchant captain named Ephraim Wimbiscus encountered strange beings in the Northumberland Strait. Emissaries from a dark and distant world, they told him fantastical stories of space.  They lived on a world called Iadolanth, in the Solar System’s recesses, but were originally from a lost planet many lightyears away. Earth’s surface was inhospitable to their physiology, but they saw great promise in its deep waters.

As a man of commerce, Ephraim made a deal with these beings. They would construct for him a lifeform, of their kind but human in shape, who could live on land and learn the ways of men. This being would be in the form of a girl, who would one day become a woman Ephraim could marry to his oldest son, Elias. And, for his trouble, he was given a great sum of gold and silver, coins of ancient empires salvaged from wrecks whose names are forgotten.

It is hard to say, now, what Ephraim hoped to gain from this dynastic union between the Wimbiscuses and the visitors from beyond the stars. The aliens found the smallness of his ambitions amusing, inasmuch as they could experience amusement.

With his fortune now made, Ephraim returned home to Neptune Shoals on Prince Edward Island, built himself a mansion from the timbers of his ship, and fell dead as he drove in the final nail. He left behind a grieving widow, Lettuce, and a vast brood of dysfunctional children. They never trusted Adelaida, the strange girl their father had found at sea. Only Elias was fond of her. He craved knowledge, and saw her as the embodiment of the unknown. This interest took the form of affection, of a sort.

In time, the Wimbiscuses came to feel cursed, and that their house was haunted. Is it worth anything to know when a curse is cast, or when a haunting begins?

It might be enough to say that Adelaida Wimbiscus was never given a fair impression of humanity.

Time passed. Adelaida and Elias fell in love, and then fall very much out of love. Adelaida began to wonder if maybe love wasn’t just a racket.

The 19th century became the 20th. From their outpost on Iadolanth, furthest of the Solar System’s planets, the aliens made new contacts on Earth. They allied themselves with the Central Powers during World War One, and successfully defeated the peaceful Mermarians of Mu in the fateful year of 191X. With their domination of the deep ocean complete, the Iadolantheans had a beachhead. With Adelaida, they had a spy.

She studied her own, unique physiology, and found that she could change her appearance. She never tired and never grew old. She was more than a thing made by aliens to seal a pact. She was more than a bride to the conceited Elias Wimbiscus.

Adelaida Wimbiscus was, in fact, quite a bit more than human. Elias lived long, but ended as yet another Wimbiscus to die under strange circumstances.

She traveled. Even as modernity swept the globe, she found pockets of strangeness, hidden away on wind-blasted mountaintops or in stagnant, malarial swamps. There were signs of visitors, from other worlds and other times. Earth, she realized, had old magic. What would happen if you connected the ancient power to the new machines?

In 1986, as a young business grad named Wendy Hovnatanian led a wrestling promotion to a failure for the ages, Adelaida enrolled in a computer class. In 1992, armed with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, she returned to the House of Wimbiscus, whose ghosts no longer scared her. Working at night to avoid the building’s caretaker, she began making updates to the observatory she’d built with Elias a century before.

In 2009, as the Great Recession bottomed out and a group of time travelers failed to save Sears, Adelaida made contact with Iadolanth. The surface of Earth was too hostile for them to leave the deep water. They instructed her, instead, to begin plans for a dominion on their behalf. She would work alone, but there were humans aiding the Iadolantheans as well. In 2017, the powerful necromancer/respected police officer Harry Hole defeated the rest of the Oslo police department and began his covert domination of Norway.

In 2018, Adelaida returned to the House of Wimbiscus. There, she triumphed handily over the crew of the reality TV program Dehaunters and the final living Wimbiscus, a meek personal aide named Sarah Plain. The House of Wimbiscus was swept into the sea, and Adelaida enriched herself on the forgotten tomes stored within its walls.

Her plan would take decades, but what is time to someone with a good book?

It is late March in the year 2020. The world has been rocked by the outbreak of a new disease. The World Health Organization, possibly aware that nobody wants to sail on the Ebola River, now discourages disease names based on locations. The new disease is called COVID-19, and the virus that causes it is called SARS-CoV-2. Many simply refer to both as “the coronavirus.”

People across the world are ordered or advised to remain in their homes, where they hoard toilet paper and post memes about hoarding toilet paper. Governments close businesses to prevent people from mingling, and unemployment applications across the United States skyrocket.

While browsing the internet in quarantine, some of you stumble across a strange offer. A company called Manitoba Cryonics is beginning human trials for suspended animation. The company offers participants $500 and the promise that they’ll be thawed out in a few months, when the economy restarts…

Welcome to Werewolves 120: Adelaida’s Planet. This and the previous nine werewolf games I’ve run over the past two and a half years are all set in a single continuity, the Rafto-Hovnatanian Extended Universe, or RHEU, which is named for the NPC handlers players were assigned in the first two games.

We’ve gone as far back as World War I (which ended in German victory) and deep into the 21st century (WW89: Space Freighter; see the LORE tab below). This game is for all the marbles. Will the aliens conquer Earth, or will humanity win out in the end?

This is nominally a game for 20 players, but I’ll scale it up to about ~35 if there’s a lot of interest. This is an advanced difficulty game; shit will get weird. I’m hoping all the players will have been in at least one of my previous games, but I won’t restrict sign-ups. If you’re confused, just ask me or the regular players for info.

Base factions:

Additional players:

There will be two additional mechanics:

I’ve loved building this world, but sooner or later every good story needs an ending. I’ve resurrected the more successful mechanics of past games, and you’ll be meeting familiar faces along the way. I hope you have fun.

[spoiler title=PLAYERS]

This game will TOTALLY have players.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=ROLES]

I’ll fill this in once I know how many people there are.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=RULES]

[spoiler title=LORE]

There are 10 games in the Rafto-Hovnatanian Cinematic Universe:

  1. WW44: The Snowman
  2. WW48: Heart of Darkness Pay-Per-View
  3. WW56: Zone Z
  4. WW64: Sears
  5. WW74: The House of Wimbiscus
  6. WW85: 191X
  7. WW89: Space Freighter
  8. WW98: Return to Zone Z
  9. WW110: Santa Fight
  10. WW120: Adelaida’s Planet

[/spoiler]

PLAYERS

  1. E-Dog
  2. Jake
  3. Owen
  4. Spooky
  5. Sic Humor
  6. Side Character
  7. Louie Blue
  8. DW
  9. Snugglewumps
  10. InnDEEEEED
  11. Wasp
  12. April LKD
  13. Robert Post’s Child
  14. Keldeo
  15. Grumproro
  16. Hohopossum
  17. Tiff Aching
  18. Lamb Dance
  19. Mayelbridwen
  20. The Hayes Code
  21. Sister Jude the Obscure
  22. Ralph
  23. Goat
  24. MSD
  25. Spiny Creature
  26. Emmelemm
  27. Mr. I’m My Own Grandfather
  28. Zecko
  29. BannerThief
  30. Tyrone
  31. Lord Stoneheart
  32. Mr. Glitch
  33. Jon Hamm’s John Ham
  34. Annanomally
  35. Cop on the Edge-ish
  36. Flubba

BACKUPS

  1. Tobias Morpheus
  2. Lutair
  3. Lovely Bones
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