The object of Part Two is to gradually (or rapidly, if you wish) build suspicion in the minds of your characters. At the same time, you should also be reinforcing how valuable Dr. Frontinac is; not only does he provide Elgin with (possibly) the best medical care in the world, he also argues powerfully for stronger defense. Part Two should leave the players ambivalent; the doctor is obviously a good thing for the colony--but there should be a sense that he might be, less obviously, a bad thing as well.

If your characters are aligned with a colony, Dr. Frontinac should be welcomed enthusiastically. ("Yaaay! We don't have to amputate broken legs before they become gangrenous!") If they aren't, he'll tell them what he knows about Elgin (i.e., it's comfortable and safe) and encourage them to head in that direction.

Part two of this story assumes that the doctor and the characters are at least partly settled in a colony.

Dr. Frontinac isn't exactly a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, but with his skills he doesn't need to be. He quickly becomes established as a respected (but distant) figure. That's just how he likes it.

PCs are likely to favor Dr. Martin, and not just because he's a good bonesaw. If the characters have been through Atlanta or the Indian Lands, and know about the warlike world apart from Elgin, they are probably going to support Jesse Williams' attempts to get Elgin armed and prepared. They (and Jesse) will find an invaluable ally in Dr. Frontinac.

Not only does he offer his personal stories of Boston (in clinical detail) his demeanor and profession make him hard to dismiss as a paranoid hysteric. It will be hard to get Elgin off its ass, but people respect and listen to surgeons.

His "secret agenda" progresses, largely offstage. He begins by offering checkups to the denizens of Elgin. Naturally, 1400-odd checkups will take him quite a while--especially since he's taking a little extra time with the ladies to implant IUDs.

The IUD

IUD stands for Intrauterine Device. Basically, it's a small metal or plastic device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent conception. It can be inserted without incision. (Dr. Frontinac does it under local anaesthetic.) Once in, it prevents conception until removed.

It's not a flawless technology; they can perforate the uterine lining and enter the abdominal cavity, causing infection. They also increase the odds of entopic pregnancy. (If you really have to know, look it up.)

They are ideal for Dr. Martin's purposes, but they're rare, thus necessitating the scavenging trip to Chicago. The IUDs he's found contain copper, and really ought to be changed every three years.

Fade ito Background

If you wish, you can have Dr. Martin fade into the background; he could play the part of the icy calm but skilled surgeon for your characters when they get shot, cut, or bruised on other adventures. However, eventually the PCs should come to suspect that there's more to the good doctor than meets the eye. There are any number of ways this can happen.

• A character is poking around Dr. Martin's office for medical records about someone, or for some drugs, or just from curiosity. He or she stumbles across Dr. Martin's private appointment book, which has small red Xs next to many of the names. Close examination will reveal that only women have the Xs, and only on their first appointments.

  The women who never get Xs are either (1) quite old or (2) infertile for other reasons. (Finding that second linkage would take quite a bit of detective work.) If confronted, Dr. Martin has no immediate explanation, eventually coming up with some lame excuse. (Pick it yourself; make it something to make the characters suspicious.)

• Dr. Martin, along with Ben and Marjorie, want to make an expedition down to Chicago to scavenge "specialized medical equipment." He would appreciate anyone who wants to ride along to protect him. (If the Dregs weren't wiped out, they might still be around, and in any event, Dr. Martin knows about the ugly truths about the world better than most in Elgin do.)

  However Dr. Martin will discourage PCs from searching hospitals with him, or will send them off on their own to search for bottles labeled "Trigestomone." The PCs won't find it, and even those with knowledge of medicine or pharmaceutical won't have heard of it. That's because Dr. Martin made the word up.

  He's actually looking for more IUDs, or for injectable contraceptives, which inquisitive characters might find on the retum trip. If asked about them, the doctor and his pals will present their philosophy and explain that they have persuaded quite a few women in Elgin about the rightness of their cause. The Blues have made condoms unreliable, and the IUD is reversible for women who change their minds later.

• A registered nurse named Gwen Walters shows up and makes friends with the PCs. She tells them that there's something weird in Dr. Frontinac's office. He tries to hide it, and he makes up excuses, but she gets the feeling that sometimes he doesn't want her around when he's doing "routine checkups"--or even serious operations--on female patients. (Characters who investigate may find the book with the red marks.)

• The Dregs may come back for revenge (especially Vince). If killed, PCs may (again) notice the vasectomy scars. If captured, they may explain their motivations.

• Someone from Boston shows up (possibly Sally Snodgrass?); both she and Dr. Frontinac are very surprised to see each other. Her actions make the PCs think she's suspicious of Dr. Frontinac, but she doesn't have a chance to tell them anything before Dr. Frontinac doses her with a powerful hallucinogenic (specifically, LSD and ketamine).

  She freaks out, screaming denunciations of him. He explains to the PCs that he rebuffed her advances in Boston, and that she seemed unstable even then. (PCs in The End are rarely strangers to mental instability.) He'll take care of her, insisting that no one harm her; eventually she will be "released from his care" and she'll seem subdued. However, Dr. Frontinac has neither the training or the inclination to truly destroy a human mind.

  She'll recover from his crude (and frankly half-hearted) attempts to make her forget or doubt what she remembered about him from Boston. She'll seem perfectly sane and reasonable, except for her hatred of him and her insistence that he is conspiring to destroy the reproductive abilities of the colony.

• Dr. Frontinac himself makes no secret of his beliefs, though he does not prosleqze as actively as he did in Boston. He presents his beliefs as if he respects the opinions of others, he does so rarely, and only to those he thinks will listen. He would prefer for people to come around to his way of thinking naturally; but ultimately, he does not trust people to make their own reproductive choices.

For those of you with a thing for cruelty, keep Reverend Tommy Thrillkill in mind. If you want a red herring, have suspicion fall on the doctor for Tommy's crimes. If they accuse him once and get burned, it will make them think twice before turning him in at the climax in Part Three.

More Sin

Introduction
Meeting the Good Doctor
Frontinac's Secret Agenda
Climax and Confrontation

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