Café de Nuit

I have been kicking around the idea of running a Masque adventure revolving around the assasination of Abraham Lincoln.
I am trying to determine a good possesing entity to use to direct John Wilkes Booth into motion. Any suggestions or ideas?
I would like to leave the adventure open to maybe delve into further adventures rather than having this be a one-shot game.
Also, I am aware that a traditional Masque game takes place in the 1890's, but I would rather run this in the more old west fashion post Civil War angle, so the adventure would be taking place around the events of April 1865.

As far as possessing entity are you looking for something ghostlike, and a story to go with it, or something of a different sort? Does anything in you storyline thus far give you wany indication of the direction you want to go?

I think the idea of running a MotRD game in a pre 1890's time frame is a perfectly good idea. In fact, with the rich history of Gothic Earth it easily lends itself to such. If I remember right, there was even a Dragon Magazine that dealt with just that...thought it dealt more with earlier time periods than the one that you are speaking of, if memory serves me well.

Well, the obvious would be some southern general killed during the war. Nothing wrong with that, just a bit predictable. For an unexpected twist, what about Stephen Douglas? He lost the presidential election to Lincoln in 1860 and died in 1861. Maybe he resents that Lincoln became the hero that he should've been?

For a more unexpected twist, perhaps have it be the ghost of some rabid northern abolitionist? A lot of abolitionists were angry at Lincoln (and later at Andrew Johnson) for being very soft on the confederates, letting most of them rejoin the USA rather painlessly. Perhaps the ghost feels that the southerners should suffer for their 'treason' and thus kills Lincoln.

It would be a nice turnabout for people who traditionally think of abolitionists as 'good guys', especially if the ghost has some particularly genocidal aims towards the South. (Remember, the traditional punishment for treason is death).

If you want something older and more malevolent, perhaps there's a demonic entity that wants people to be enslaved and thus tries to destroy Lincoln (you could reason that Booth was the first *successful* attempt). For age, try connecting it to Moses and Captivity in Egypt thematically. (Perhaps the spirit is the ancient ghost of the Pharaoh?)

If you want to go back that far, the Pharoah connection isn't a bad one, really.

Otherwise you could consider that the American Indians supposedly placed a curse on the US for stealing their land and it is a manifestation of that curse which has seen the attempt on the lives of so many presidents. (this is, supposedly, a real theory)

Or, perhaps Lincoln isn't what he appears to be ... it is possible he has been replaced with, or been something more sinister all along, and Booth was actually trying to save the US; or thought he was.

Perhaps Lincoln found out something he wasn't supposed to; he may have even faked his own death in order to escape those really coming after him.

Otherwise, I'd use an Odem ... I've always liked the monster and fealt they made great return villains.

John Brown?