"I trust that I am a humble and consistent Christian. I try to do what is right. I know it is my duty to 'pray for them that despitefully use me;' and therefore, hard as it is, I shall still try to pray for these fumigating, macaroni-stuffing organ grinders."
- Mark Twain, _The Innocents Abroad_

CHAPTER 8 - EMERALD MIRROR

Davide Mana
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 15:15:12 +0100
Subject: EH - Italy - Contenders and stuff

Greetings again.

As you've probably seen in my latest post to the list, I'm using as a working title for the Italian Chapter "Emerald Mirror".
A word of explanation on this is possibly in order, as it will introduce the structure I'm using for the scenario.

Emerald Mirror


The Emerald Mirror hands you back reality, inverting it and changing its color.
In the Emerald Mirror, nothing is what it seems.

I'm envisioning the Italian scenario as a game of mirrors, with Rome as a huge mirror house where everythng is presented again and again, always with a new twist, a new meaning or a new bias.
A non linear scenario.
Sounds mighty pretentious.
I hope, by this artifice, to allow for enough keeper (and designer!) freedom so that no matter what the outcome of the previous installments in the Campaign, Rome will be playable and balanced no matter what.
So I'll try and focus on background, history, organizations, key NPCs and "feel", while providing an outline that, apart from a few key scenes, will give keeper and player all the possible freedom.

So, after this self confident ramble, let's take a look at the main players in the Roman games. Refer back to the timeline.


Currently Running for the Gatto-Borghi Book:

- Libretto,

feat. DG cell (place your cell name here) members and assorted friendlies.
They have access to all the old OSS infos, plus any data gathered so far along the campaign. They have just a superficial idea of what they are looking for, and who they are dealing with.

Old friends in the form of ancient families (the almost extinct Caribiddi clan) can be brought in should the need arise to deploy some heavy firepower. More datails on Mafia as DG friendlies coming later.

this is the first Mirror - and double at that
Illegal Delta Green & Legit Interpol
Law Enforcement & the Mob

And yet, the three structures are old fashioned, dinosaurs in their fields. Delta Green cowboys have much in common with the "quaint but ineffective" Interpol tipes and the old fashioned "uomini d'onore" that place face above gain.

The St. Jerome Longa Manus

a two-men recon team of "friendlies" assembled to assess the situation and, should the need arise, act accordingly on short notice:
They have the original Gatto-Borghi diaries and stuff, plus a tenuous '80s lead on Luigi Fagotti through the aborted memorabilia sale .They know exactly what they are looking for.

another Mirror, and a seed for a few surprises
The fanatics and mystics of St. Jerome & the level-headed Longa Manus guys

They share the same general aims, but are separated by a different way of feeling. In the integrity of the two recon team members lies the greatest weapon of St. Gerome.

Stats for the ill-assorted duo, originally from a story I wrote many years ago, will be available soon

Propaganda

The missing link between P2 Lodge and Karotekia.
Grown fat and lazy on an overabundance of funds - the Mussolini "emergency Geneva funds" that the Communists so kindly handed to the organization in '45, plus the "Stay Behind" CIA money from the Red Scare of the 50s, plus everything their Socialist and Democratic Christian Government pawns were able to get together in the '80s - Propaganda will probably be slow in the uptake, and will try to compensate trough violence, using a small selected group of North Eastern Independentist Fanatics (the self-styled "Esercito di Liberazione Tridentino") led by sinister Federico Gasser.
Still practicing the Machiavellian principle of playing the two sides at the same time, Propaganda can also tap the "Assamai" integralist resources, a shadow army of radical Islamic Jihad fanatics; despite the heated debate about clandestine immigrants and Turkish nationalists currently monopolizing the Italian newspapers, the Assamai men are _not_ clandestines, but regularly integrated immigrants that took full advantage of the Propaganda sponsored "Legge Martelli" (yes, literally "Hammers Law") of the late '80s.
Should "Assamai" join the fight, racial intolerance, violence and mayhem, political chrisis and financial collapse are sure to ensue.

Propaganda does not have a complete picture of the game at the moment, courtesy of its crafty masters, so they almost certainly will overestimate Delta Green and underestimate the Longa Manus.
The Italian Bischofe (possibly called "Littore" - lictor - to emulate the old fascist standards) has his own personal plans for the Von Junst book.

But just to go and show you that Machiavellian can be played by two, the Dritte threesome are currently nurturing Gasser as possible Bischofe-grade material.

Mirrors galore - you find and count them
Foundamentally, the K. related groups are all one and the same, all reflection of the same face through years of evolution - ELT is what Assamai was, Assamai could turn ito a Propaganda lookalike, and Propaganda is the antechamber of the Karotekia (given time and resources).

[as a coincidence: in this exact mement - it's 15.10 here - the leader of the major Separatist party in Italy is advocating the violent expulsion of all non-italians from the country, the destructio of the national computer network and the amassing of troops on the Italy-Slovenia border.]
And yet they all want the same thing, they all think they are manipulating the others, they all scheme, and deal, and run headlong in the same directi on.
Which they do not know what it is.
They're all being used.


The above factions will face each other in the long Roman afternoons.
Stephen Alsiz will be present, of course, watching them run from a Roman terrace overlooking S.Peter's dome, and sipping italian spumante.
The variety of factions present will enable him to play the part of aryan catholic yankee-doodle-dandy middle-eastern mammasantissima and scholar depending on the company.
He will probably betray every group and will be killed by each.


And here I stop and wait for comments and input, if any.

More is coming, with a little patience (including, maybe, an appendix on in-jokes).

Take care.

Davide Mana
Torino, Italy
doctor.dee@iol.it