Dark History from early Ohio- how would you use it?

[Blake_Alexander]

On the southern shore of Lake Erie there stands the village of Huron, Ohio. Burried in it's past I recently discovered a bit of history that I think might work well as a MotRD Plot. Back in the Late 1700's when the area was first being settled, the village had a continuing problem with a local Native American tribe that would raid the village cemetery on a regular basis and make off with the valuables burried with the dead.

This evidently went on for several years and with the settlers getting more and more angry over the grave robbery. Eventually a sickness, swepted through the village leaving many of the citizens dead. It was the normal practice for the bodies of victims of a pestilence such as this to be burned, however, the leaders of the village came upon an idea to end the grave robbery problem. Instead of burning the bodies, they had the boddies burried, knowing full well that the local indian tribe would dig up the gaves and take the items burried in them.

As the leaders anticipated, the Indians robbed the bodies and were infected by the disease, however, it proved far more deadly to the Native American immune system and the entire tribe fell victim to the disease.

I'm interested, how would you use this little bit of dark history in your campaigns?

[Jasper]

You could have one of the villagers turn himself into a Zombie Lord due to grief over having his wife and childs graves disterbed.

Mad with grief he dug up his wife, child and several other members of his family and placed thier bodies in his home, proped up and placed in mockeries of thier former lives. As his madness spread the man would talk to the corpses like they were alive and going weeks without eating or bathing. Soon the Red Death took a liking to him and granted him his wish. His wife and child awoke from death as well as all the other corpses in his home. His now skeltal form began to wither even more and the stench and cloud of desease from his body became much much more deadly.

He now stalks the lake looking for the one Native American warrior the killed his family while spreading desease amoung the tribe.

[William Blackmoor]

Instead of "the evil indians" (who protected their homeland against invaders after all) I would paint a grim picture of the settlers themselves:
The indians didn't rob the graves at all. (The one time they opend a grave, it was to destroy a creature of darkness, maybe a vampire, who dwelled among the settlers, but preyed on the indians.)
The settlers (maybe seduced by the vampire's spawn or master, but more probably some normal greedy settler) wanted to get rid of the indians and claim their lands. They traded the clothes of diseased settlers with the unsuspecting indians, knowing the results. After the tribe died horribly, the settlers rewrote history and made up the story of the grave-robbings to "justify" their crime.
But the settlers were not to go unpunished. Their crime created a shadow hunter, who tracks down the descendants of the original settlers.
As quite some time has passed I would limit his ability to act to a certain time, once a year or decade until he has slain an adult descendant (he dosen't kill children, which prolongs the curse). Maybe he appears/first attacks on the date the last member of the tribe died (conveniantly chroniceled as a clue).
Maybe even one of the heros is related to the settlers and finds himself the next target of the shadow hunter? Now he must find a way to appease the spirits of the dead indians before it is to late.

[Jennifer]

Hi Blake,
I would use this story just as it is. The natives are robbing graves for some reason (greed, revenge on the interlopers, search for magic items, under the influence of some sort of magic, perhaps even a cultural aversion to burying people, away from the light).

The villagers become angry at the desacration of their graves and loved ones. They hatch this horrible plan to infect the natives with a disease. (definitely a powers check for the genius who thought it up).

The plan works, the natives all fall ill and die.

But the disease does not go away. There are several ways in which this could play out.
* the villagers also keep dying from the disease, just a lot slower, so there is time to have kids and raise them, but then you die. So a village full of very sick young people, hopelessly breeding against time.
* the natives rise again as undead to avenge their deaths, and to keep graverobbing, for some mysterious purpose.
* the diseased corpses rise again, attacking the villagers, disgusted at their former neighbours and friends for using them in such an unchristian manner after their death. (i know it would piss me off, if i was used as some sort of primitive weapon of mass destruction.)

Let me know if you ever use this story in some way.

Jennifer