Location: New Awlins

There are several reasons why I ended up with New Orleans as the location for the 1930s part of this adventure. I have always been fascinated with the Crescent City and it is actually my intention to visit NOLA later this year. Therefore, I already have several guide books in my bookshelf ready to serve as inspiration and reference. Also, I own Chaosium's Secrets of New Orleans, which, although maybe a bit thin on the inspiration side, gives very good insight on what the city was like at the time. So, with these books at hand I have a good starting point.

New Orleans is an interesting mix of different cultures and influences and has that intriguing air of mystery to it with all the voodoo priests, Louisiana wetlands, smoky jazz clubs, colorful history  etc. And let's not forget about Mardi Gras. I guess it borders on being a cliche but I actually chose to set the adventure at the beginning of the festivities. The reason for this is that it allows me to use a decorated festival locations (imagine a ballroom decorated as the bottom of the ocean...) as well as NPCs and masses of people wearing colorful masks, which might come in handy later on. The festival also gives the adventure a kind of natural timeline building up towards its climax and a background tone of mounting excitement and tension - as the festival progresses so too does the PCs' investigation towards the inevitable confrontation with the Mythos creatures.

When it comes to New Orleans, there is also the obvious fact that the city is featured in The Call of Cthulhu. As Cthulhu is featured prominently on the mask, and I haven't actually used the Cthulhu cult in my games before, the Great Old One and his cult will figure to feature in this mystery. The mossy darkness and the winged beasts from the swamp mentioned in the story make for good potential enemies, and Inspector Legrasse's investigations into the Cthulhu Cult can be a good source of clues for the investigators. As a matter of fact, I have already decided that his task force had the Unnamed Mask brought in from Miskatonic University as part of the investigation. That is how our Mister X eventually got his hands on it.

There is one more reason why the Crescent City suits my purposes - hurricanes. Threatening the city, and by extension the investigators, with such a terrible force of nature would serve a few dramatic purposes (Disclaimer: I am very aware of the human tragedy involved with such natural disasters and it is not my intent to make light of these things. This is, however, just a game, and such things will be used here for a dramatic effect ). First of all, isolation, whether actual physical isolation or a mental kind, is an important ingredient of horror stories. So, when a hurricane warning is issued, the investigators find themselves isolated in the city in more ways than one. Suddenly, they cannot leave the city and, later on, they cannot even leave the house they are in. Furthermore, the authorities have their hands full all of a sudden and are not available to assist the PCs. Most NPCs will be less willing to leave the safety of their homes to assist them. With a hurricane approaching, very few people are willing to stop and listen to some wild theories about "creatures from the stars". Secondly, the hurricane is such a large phenomenon that it can easily either "conceal" or be created by a huge Mythos creature/phenomenon. Lastly, I can use the approaching hurricane to build tension and emphasize a sense of impending doom. 

At this point, however, I must say I am not sure whether I will use the hurricane or not. It feels that using both the festivities and the hurricane would be a bit redundant. 

It is impossible to say much about any other locations we will visit during the flashbacks as these will be determined during play and influenced heavily by player input. However, I will probably prepare a location or two for the first flashback at least. More on that later.