Hey fellow Loopers!
I want to document my online Roll20 game of Tales from the Loop here. I setting up the players now, we are nailing a date starting this month, and the plan is to have a game a month over the next few months. Ill be recording them and posting the links here, but I also want to share some of the background around the mystery the players will unravel.
Here is a bit of history of the major protagonist, Dr. Maya Sokolova: (I apologize in advance for any mistranslations from Russian)
Dr. Maya Sokolova is a neurologist that believes the Magnetrine effect is the key to a mutation that could eventually benefit mankind. It was her theory that prolonged exposure to the Magnetrine effect can alter the electrical current within the human body causing the neurons within the brain to “remap” itself with amazing side affects.
Maya began in Russia in 1970, documenting the workers on the original Project Осьминог (Os’minog? - Octopus), Magnetrine submersibles. Her findings showed that the workers with high exposure to Magnetrine engines complained of migraines and their vision clouded with темные щупальца (temnyye shchupal'tsa?) “dark tendrils”. Her research on the subjects found substantial growth of new neurons along the frontal lobe, a process that should have peaked around age 3. Before her eyes, the neurons were “remapping” themselves and formed nest like structures in their brains at a staggering rate.
While researching the nest phenomenon, Maya stumbled across a treatment that “activated” the nests, producing extraordinary results in 1% of the subjects. Three adults (one male, two female) subjects began to exhibit signs of Telekinesis, Telepathy, and ESP. Although the measure was almost negligible, the signs were there nonetheless. Maya took her findings to her superiors, seeing this as a way help fund research. The project however was flushed. Maya’s findings were not reproducible on large scale, and two of the subjects had died. The third adult subject had a psychotic breakdown and escaped the research facility. She In fear for her and her daughter's (Alyona) safety, Dr Maya Sokolova sold her family estate for a quarter of its worth and disappeared.
Maya resurfaced again in the Pacific Northwest four years later. She purchased a failing Lumber town (Hunter’s Mill - then with a population of less than 45), under the dummy corporation name of Tretcher Mill. Keeping a few of the management (smart enough and susceptible enough) to run the mill and rebuild the town, recruiting families from all over the Northwest. By the end of 1974, the town of Buckler Washington was born. In the ruins of the old mill, now hidden on ‘protected land’, Maya built what she calls a Magnetrine Resonance Generator (aka, the Mirror) based off the original Russian designs. She keeps it focused on the town, and posing as the town’s doctor, Maya monitors the results with her subjects.
Now, some of the children of Buckler are beginning to complain of migraines and clouded vision.