Three Ports in a Storm — Podcast Hub

Latest Episode

Episode 4: No Clue, No Problem

Listen to the episode here!

The gang search the city for a Way into the Wanderer's Library. Eustace "borrows" a Library Card. Troy is mistaken for a Jehovah's Witness. Lacy knows what cocaine smells like.

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+ Mentioned in this Episode +

Mentioned or Appearing in Play

• The International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology (ICSUT) is a recurring Group of Interest throughout the Third Law Canon; the ICSUT Portlands campus first appears in Vital Signs, by GreenWolf.
• The Wanderer's Library is a major recurring location in the Foundationverse. It first appears in Third Law in Under Control, by TyGently, and also features in The Dedekind Infinite Demographic, by Taffeta.
• More Like Rainbow Crapitalism is a tale by ch00bakka and kinchtheknifeblade.
• SCP-2602, which used to be a library, by Communism will win.

Mentioned During the Break

• Everybody Look What's Going Down, by ch00bakka.
• Australian Rules Drag Racing, by ch00bakka.
• A Thorne Is Born, by GreenWolf.
• The Powers That Bark, by TyGently and A Random Day.

Introduction

It's 1996, and the dream of the 90s is already dead in Three Portlands.

With the new millennium only a few years away, the Golden Age of Normalcy is over. The paratech industry is in shambles, paracrime is on the rise, and Bill Clinton is President. Nowhere are these things more apparent than in Three Portlands – its economy is in ruins, racketeers have overrun the Docks District, and the city council is paralyzed by nonpartisan infighting.

Frustrated by the inaction of the city government, Alderman Stephen McClure has resorted to extralegal methods of resolving the numerous crises that threaten the city. Working in secret to bypass the deadlocked City Council, he has assembled a ragtag group of misfits and meddlers to help fix Portlands. Operating without official backing or authority, they will have to contend with the multitude of corporations, cults, cabals, conspiracies, and cartels that all have their own agendas for the city.

But bad things happen to those who attempt to tame the Weird City. And the storm is just getting started.

Episodes

Episode 1: The Alderman's Army

Listen to the episode here!

The gang are invited to a New Year's Eve party, where Stephen McClure asks for their help in forestalling an impending humanitarian disaster. Eustace does terrible things with a mouse. Troy punches a garbage bin. Lacy looks for quarters.

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+ Mentioned in this Episode +

Mentioned in the Intro

• The Third Law Canon is by various authors, with the hub and continuity maintained by GreenWolf
• Three Portlands first appeared in The Analog Kid, by GreenWolf, who also wrote the hub
• SCP-2206 - "Maximum League Baseball" - By GreenWolf
• MTF Tau-5 ("Samsara") was created during the 2016 Mobile Task Force Contest, by A Random Day, TyGently, GreenWolf, and sirpudding
• Eustace Rowe first appeared in Under Control and features prominently in Comedown Machine, both by TyGently
• SCP-2624 - "Laika's Sweetheart Space-Beacon" - By TyGently
• SCP-3900 - "The Internet of Things That Are Wolves" - By TyGently
• The Deer College Group of Interest was originally created by ch00bakka, first appearing in About Deer College

Mentioned or Appearing in Play

• Jordan Raybon first appeared in When Parallel Lines Diverge, by Jacob Conwell and GreenWolf
• The City of Doors first appeared in Preliminary Report of J.C. Randall, by GreenWolf

Episode 2: Plan C for Catapult

Listen to the episode here!

The gang investigate the Trolley Yards, where they meet the mysterious Cinnabar, who is not a raccoon. Eustace is recognized. Troy is overly optimistic. Lacy suggests a projectile solution.

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+ Mentioned in this Episode +

Mentioned or Appearing in Play

• The Serpent's Hand Group of Interest, by various authors. Notable appearances of the Serpent's Hand in Third Law include The Lord of Endowments by sirpudding, Barrels of Prose and Slugs of Pulp by NatVoltaic, and Unicorn Horn by GreenWolf.
• More information about Observers, Constructed Intelligences, and Elan-Vital Energy can be found in the Thaumatology Seminar series (Part One, Part Two, Part Three) from the GOC Casefiles, by DrClef. These provide much of the background on the magic system used in Third Law.

Episode 3: The Portrait in the Attic

Listen to the episode here!

The gang go to Golemancy United to open negotiations with the guild's enforcer. Eustace bluffs a rock. Troy hears a confession. Lacy steals a shoe.

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+ Mentioned in this Episode +

Mentioned or Appearing in Play

• Golemancy United first appeared in Under Control, by TyGently.
• The Third Law interpretation of Mr. Dark is presented in When Situations Degenerate, by ch00bakka.

Episode 4: No Clue, No Problem

Listen to the episode here!

The gang search the city for a Way into the Wanderer's Library. Eustace "borrows" a Library Card. Troy is mistaken for a Jehovah's Witness. Lacy knows what cocaine smells like.

---

+ Mentioned in this Episode +

Mentioned or Appearing in Play

• The International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology (ICSUT) is a recurring Group of Interest throughout the Third Law Canon; the ICSUT Portlands campus first appears in Vital Signs, by GreenWolf.
• The Wanderer's Library is a major recurring location in the Foundationverse. It first appears in Third Law in Under Control, by TyGently, and also features in The Dedekind Infinite Demographic, by Taffeta.
• More Like Rainbow Crapitalism is a tale by ch00bakka and kinchtheknifeblade.
• SCP-2602, which used to be a library, by Communism will win.

Mentioned During the Break

• Everybody Look What's Going Down, by ch00bakka.
• Australian Rules Drag Racing, by ch00bakka.
• A Thorne Is Born, by GreenWolf.
• The Powers That Bark, by TyGently and A Random Day.

The Players

• GreenWolf (Matt) as The Game Master — Long-time SCP Wiki author, veteran of several roleplaying campaigns, one of the founders of Third Law and the creator of Three Portlands, Matt has assumed the mantle of the Game Master for this misadventure. It's his job to write and run each scenario, make and manage all of the non-player characters, and prepare and produce the podcast episodes. Accepts tips and bribes.
• TyGently ("Ty") as Eustace Rowe — A 106-year-old necromancer and technocrat, Eustace spent the better part of a century working with Prometheus Labs to sell magic's most forbidden secrets for the greater good (and a profit). Having just escaped Prometheus' sinking ship, Eustace seeks to mold Three Portlands to his will, years before the birth of his son and decades before he would become the city's most notorious hermit.
• ch00bakka ("choo") as Destroy-The-Cities-And-Dignities-Of-Man "Troy" Diaz — The product of a failed ritual to birth the Antichrist, Troy renounced his parents' Satanism for Unitarian Universalism in an act of teenage rebellion. Now he works as an exorcist-for-hire, specializing in those tricky edge cases that more limited faiths can't or won't deal with.
• tawny0 (Tawny) as Lacy — A black lab who can shapeshift into human form, after a Deerie's science experiment gone horribly right. Lacy has become a headache for municipal authorities, both because of her tendency for mischief, and because most of the city's laws don't apply to dogs.

The Campaign

The Setting

Short Version: Three Portlands and the mid-90s

Long Version: Based in and on the continuity of the Third Law Canon, for the most part the game takes place in Three Portlands during 1996, a tumultous time in the city's history. The end of the Golden Age of Normalcy just a few years prior has devastated the global paratech industry and shattered the local economy, resulting in a massive rise in unemployment, homelessness, crime and poverty for the city's residents.

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Prometheus Plaza, once the thriving heart of an industrial downtown, now lies silent and nearly empty; even its namesake tenant, Prometheus Labs, the undisputed titan of paratech and a major power behind the Veil, has been forced to cut-back and scale-down its operations just to survive. With golems taking up nearly all roles in construction, basic manufacturing, and menial labor, the loss of the skilled employment provided by Prometheus Labs and the cottage industries it supported has left much of the city's workforce unemployed and unemployable.

With the close of the Cold War bringing budget cuts and manpower reductions for nearly all paranormal agencies, paracrime has been allowed to grow unchecked; in Three Portlands, the Lighthouse Mafia rules the back alleys and black markets, exercising power and influence not seen since the days of the Chicago Spirit. Marshall, Carter and Dark have dispensed with any pretense of decency or restraint, and are taking advantage of the crisis to loot the city's treasures and exploit its parahuman inhabitants — even when the rest of the economy has stalled, there's still a profit to be made from suffering and scarcity.

The gradual outward movement of the city's buildings and geography, normally considered an essential aspect of its culture and character, has suddenly become a threat to its very existence; new construction and development in the fresh rings near the city core has ground to a standstill among the ruins of the economy, and with each passing day more and more buildings cross into the Outer Peripherary and are deconceptualized without replacement. While a slow and distant doom, it has exacerbated the housing crisis already plaguing Portlands.

As the paranormal world rapidly deteroriates, the integrity of the Veil has been placed in jeopardy for the first time in half a century. Hoping to convince the major powers to confront the crisis in a unified front, the Undersecretary-General of the UN's Global Occult Coalition has called for a 4th Convention on the Veil Accords — to be held in the neutral city of Three Portlands. Even with the Convention still several months off, government dignitaries and occult ambassadors have already begun to gather in the city, presenting an attractive target for enemies of the Veil. If an attack upon the Convention were to occur, it's doubtful that even the Hoover Mandate would be able to protect the city from the inevitable retribution.

Caught in the middle of these conflicting groups and interests are the people of Three Portlands. The city is wracked by crises, and the municipal government is unable — or unwilling — to provide solutions. The average citizen is angry and disenfranchised, and that collective anger is searching for an outlet. With protests and anti-establishment demonstrations increasing in size and frequency, it is clear that the city is nearing a breaking point. One spark is all it will take to ignite the powder keg, and the longer the detonation is delayed, the worse it will be.

The System

Short Version: Fate 3.0

Long Version: The campaign primarily uses the mechanics of the Dresden Files RPG, which is itself an extension of the Fate 3.0 system. A few adjustments and tweaks have been made, such as the elimination of templates and the second guest star phase for character creation, using the physical stress track to power spellcasting instead of the mental stress track, and the addition of systems for psionics and reality bending. We're also using our own modified skill list, and a custom elements system for evocation.

The game itself is run over Discord, and Google Sheets is used for keeping track of character sheets. We use a dicebot for rolling, but if you absolutely must get the sound of cubes hitting the table, you can just roll four six-sided dice at home.

Useful Links

• RedCircle Page — Our page over at our podcast host, RedCircle.
  • Also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Radio Public
• Three Portlands Location Dossier — Learn more about Three Portlands and its history, or find other stories that take place in the Weird City.
• Third Law Canon — Learn more about the Third Law universe, or read more stories in the same continuity as the podcast.
• GreenWolf's Author Page & Matt's Website — Find more works from your GM.
• TyGently's Author Page — Find more works from TyGently.
• ch00bakka's Author Page — Find more works from ch00bakka.
• First Royce Music — YouTube channel for First Royce Music, creator of the song used for the intro and outro.

‡ Licensing / Citation

Cite this page as:

"Three Ports in a Storm — Podcast Hub" by GreenWolf, from the SCP Wiki. Source: https://scpwiki.com/tpias-hub. Licensed under CC-BY-SA.

For information on how to use this component, see the License Box component. To read about licensing policy, see the Licensing Guide.