Mibe Town and the Deep Ones
edogawa.jpg This article was created with material from the abandoned Kurotokage sourcebook project. That material is in the public domain since 2003. The unfinished original content is archived.

Mibe Town, actually a small island (Map) is located roughly west of Kagoshima. Located at about 30N 28E, officially part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Land area: 4.80 square kilometers. Population: 1691. Abandoned coal mines, with abandoned apartment buildings once used by coal miners. Max. elevation: 124 meters, little flat land. Mostly sandy soil, relatively infertile. Balmy climate, annual average 16.3 degrees C (61 degrees F). Relatively low precipitation, about 1800 mm year, and under 3 cm of snow. It was a minor coal-mining region in Taisho and until the end of WW2, but the coal mines were closed due to frequent flooding and unpleasant rumors.

It is located fairly close to Gray Dragon Island mentioned in Masks of Nyarlathotep, which means fairly close to the DO city in the Sea of China.

Several factors which could come into play here:

  • Smuggling. This would include guns, drugs, illegal immigration from China to Japan and perhaps illegal immigration of prostitutes to Japan from the rest of E Asia and SE Asia.
  • Arguments over fishing rights. These waters are heavily fished, and while the island means they are territorial waters of Japan, I would imagine fishing boats from other nations would poach, which means JSDF presence.

Standard dilapidated, Innsmouth-type place, but with a few extras:

  • Buddhist temple
  • Shinto shrine
  • Coal mines, half-flooded

First scenario

From a DG perspective the scenario begins with a triple homocide - the victims being a noted authority on genetic disorders and two Japanese nationals (a father and his daughter). The two Japanese entered the US just a few days previous, and a DG friendly autopsy of the girl shows she was in the latter stages of transformation into a DO. Clearly, she or her father realised this and were in the States to seek help - help someone didn't want them to find. A DG cell is dispatched to the pair's home town in Japan to investigate. This, of course, is Mibe Town.

But there's more. The two Japanese were indeed seeking help for the daughter's condition, and the noted authority on genetic disorders was keen to help; especially after examining a blood sample from her. All three murders were carried out by Kurotokage agents that followed the pair from Japan, seeking to prevent the knowledge of the existence of the DOs from 'getting out'. Kurotokage don't have the scorched earth policy towards the DOs that Delta Green does - they're aware of the DO infestation on Mibe, and have been for some time. As long as the DOs there don't get too organised, Kurotokage would rather not start a war with the China Sea colony, and they're happy to let this relatively minor pocket of mythos activity fester in the shadows.

The arrival of the cowboy Americans, of course, throws this detente of sorts into jeopardy. The Kurotokage PCs have to stop the DG agents from completing their mission - preferably without calling too much attention to themselves or souring future relations with DG - and perhaps deal with the growing numbers of islanders who are starting to feel a bit, well, shafted.

General Introduction

Mibe Town has always been at the periphery of Japanese culture, located in the China Sea southwest of Kyushu Island, Japan. This is relatively near to Gray Dragon Island, and the Deep One colony. It is not clear exactly when the island was settled, but references to it have been found in ancient Japanese historical texts including the Nihongi.

It is administered as a township within Kagoshima Prefecture, and while various prefectural authorities have attempted over the years to provide it with various infrastructural improvements, they have been, in general, poorly received. There is a small public school on the island teaching all 12 grades in the same building, and teaching staff is provided by the local town government rather than the prefecture. Since the island does not complain and demand new facilities, they are generally ignored and forgotten by the prefectural government.

Other facilities brought in from the outside include the Kyushu Electric Power generating plant, an NTT telephone satellite link, and a marine/air radio navigational beacon. All three of these facilities are constructed outside the built-up area and relatively isolated. It is unclear whether the siting decisions were made by the township or the companies building the facilities, but the result is that islanders rarely, if ever, encounter any of the maintenance personnel who come to visit these sites. All three facilities are built in the same region, utilizing a simple wharf facility originally built for the Imperial Japanese Navy prior to WW2, making it possible for maintenance personnel to service the equipment using their own ships, without relying on infrequent ferry transport.

The ferry runs once a week, on the weekend. It is an old and decrepit ship, built shortly after WW2 and still somehow remaining in service through "spit and baling wire." Fuel is purchased in Makurazaki, a rural city on the southwest corner of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is the only port of call for the ferry, under subsidy from the prefectural government. It has a capacity of one vehicle (up to a 5-ton truck) and about 30 people, and a one-way trip takes about 14 hours (varies with the weather, and may be cancelled entirely). It departs Mibe Island at 7:00 am Saturday morning, and departs Makurazaki at 7:00 am the following Sunday morning. Crew normally sleeps on-board at Makurazaki.

History

Mibe Town has always been a fishing community, with essentially all catch going to local needs. In the Meiji Era coal was discovered here, and a Mitsuboshi mine was opened and operated with modest success from 1902 to 1942. It was closed officially in 1945 by GHQ order, although in fact it had ceased operation in the early years of WW2 because of massive flooding which killed not only the Japanese engineers sent there by the national government, but also over 1200 Korean enforced laborers transported from the mainland.

The mines were never reopened after this accident, and there is considerable rumor that it was not an accident but a planned event. It is unknown who would want to close the mine or kill over 1200 people. The mine shaft and related buildings still stand, as do the dormitories constructed to house the miners. All of the buildings are collapsing and extremely unsafe (those that still stand).

In 1913 Nippon Marine Products constructed a canning plant here in hopes of locally canning fish caught in the local seas, but they encountered severe problems in keeping a work force. Laborers transported from the mainland often quit and fled the island, refusing to return even at the threat of being fired or fined. In 1917 the plant was abandoned, and its collapsed buildings still remain due west of the town center.

Other than these two events, the township appears to have no history whatsoever, and has ignored and been ignored by Japan proper for centuries.

Local Sites of Interest

Temple: Need details. To Amaterasu? Maybe good guys here?

Shrine: Maybe a Taininhodo watchpost. Maybe run by DO-friendlies. Deserted and a source for artifacts?

Roads, phones, power

Primitive. A few roads around the port area and the mining area are paved, although the pavement is cracked and potholed. The road linking the built-up region to the mining region originally ran over a bridge over the inlet directly to the west of the town, but this collapsed in 1952 and was never rebuilt. Other roads, including the roundabout connection replacing the collapsed bridge, are packed dirt with scattered gravel in places. The connecting road, as can be seen on the map, passes to the extreme west of the island to avoid the swamps south of the mine.

There are only a handful of telephones on the island, all in the town center. There are no public telephones, and the only way to get hold of one is to ask permission of the person whose house it is installed in. The connection itself is quite good, as it goes out an NTT satellite link. If you can connect your laptop to bare wires, modem communication at speeds up to 28.8 kbps are possible; above that point noise becomes a problem.

Power is generally available in the town center, and at many larger homes and buildings throughout the island. Isolated houses usually do not have power. Even the home equipped with power, however, tend to use it sparingly if at all.

Emergency services. There is one volunteer fire brigade in the town center, with a single firetruck provided with a diesel-drive pump for seawater, and a variety of ladders and similar equipment. The firetruck usually starts, but it can take 20 to 30 minutes for the volunteer fire brigade to assemble because of the lack of phones. The fire station does have a siren, which is used to alert brigade personnel.

There is no hospital, but a private clinic offers emergency services. The doctor runs the clinic out of his home. He is an NPC (have to explain why a doctor would be on this godforsaken island in the first place…).

The People

The populace of the island are extremely poor, and basically have no choice but to live here. A few families have, at one time or another, elected to flee the island and live elsewhere, but those remaining are generally stuck here forever. Most are not DO-tainted, however, but merely extremely insular, fearing everyone and everything. The children, for the most part, act like children, but are aware that "something dark" happens when they grow up, something that scares them and their parents and is never spoken of. For some of them, it means beginning the transformation into a DO; for others, it means discovering that your family or friends may be monsters. In any case, everyone on the island (with the exception of the very few visitors or short-term residents) can be considered abnormal from a psychological point of view. Many people are abnormal physically, too.

Map Numbers

Mibe Town

(click image for larger resolution)

  1. NTT satellite link, diesel generator, radio beacon
  2. Temple
  3. Abandoned mine apartments
  4. Abandoned mine shaft, buildings
  5. Warehouses
  6. Abandoned cannery
  7. Shrine
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