Overview
Be Prepared: Camp Oostanaula
This is a setting for Grant Howitt’s Be Prepared (https://gshowitt.itch.io/be-prepared) one-page RPG. It was used for an OSMquest (https://www.osmcast.com/osmquest/) series.
It’s inspired by my own childhood, as a Boy Scout in the 90’s in east Tennessee. As Be Prepared can be driven by the players as much as the GM, there are a couple of possible plots you can seed depending on which way the players decide to explore.
by Dylan Wolf
Email: dylan.wolf@gmail.com
Mastodon: @dylan@osmcast.social
Bluesky: @dylanwolf.com
Overview
Opening
It’s well into October, the Friday before a long holiday weekend. The days are still sunny and warm, but splashes of gold and red are beginning to dot the trees and the evenings bring the first hints of the crispness of fall.
Your scout troop has rented Camp Oostanaula, one of the district’s camps, for the long weekend.
Fresh out of school for the day, your parents drop you off at the parking lot of the large brick Methodist church where the troop meets. Joe, the laid-back scoutmaster who looks a bit like John Denver, packs the gear into the back of the troop’s van. Fred, the lanky assistant scoutmaster who leads all the fun call-and-response campfire songs, tries to keep the scouts on-task so they can leave with enough daylight to make camp.
You load into the van and hit the highway, and soon you’ve left your small town behind for the wilder parts of east Tennessee. As the sun begins to set, you take an exit off onto a rough backroad. You pass several run-down houses and trailers, but they’re few and far between. A few more turns and you’re on a gravel road, careening around a ridge overlooking one of the man-made lakes created when the Tennessee Valley Authority built hydroelectric dams back in the 30’s.
You drive through the camp–past the ranger’s cabin, the swimming pool, the archery and shooting range, the meeting pavilion, the bathhouse. You arrive at the main campsite, a large, flat field surrounded by a low wooden fence. In the center of the field sits a large fire pit ringed by wooden benches, with a few picnic tables nearby.
Ask the players what they want the campsite to look like. Are there cabins, free-standing tents with cots, or do they need to set up their own tents?
Opening, continued
As you step out of the van, the coolness of night makes you glad you’re wearing your jacket.
Spreading out into the field, you feel a certain hard-to-describe pang of emotion. This far from the city, it’s eerily quiet. Focusing on how faint the sounds cars in the distance are or the occasional hum of a boat motor on the lake makes you realize the sheer depth of the silence. When no one is speaking, you almost feel lost within it. The camp is clearly designed to be big enough to host district-wide Camporees, but with your small-town band of scouts it feels unnaturally empty. Deserted. Lonely. Dead.
The edges of the field are surrounded by thick woods, which in the half-light of dusk light feel even more dark and deep. You’d swear that they go on forever. Only in the east is a patch of horizon visible, looking out onto the lake where the blue and purple clouds of sunset are reflected. The water level of the lake has already been lowered to its winter levels, exposing a steep, rocky shoreline that gives it a strange, otherworldly appearance. Further up on the shore, several canoes and rowboats are flipped up on their sides next to a rack where paddles are held.
Begin prompting the players on what they do:
- Where do you set up?
- When picking tents or cabins, who all is grouping up?
- What do you do with your first evening in camp once you set up?
Sites around camp
The stash
There’s an old hollow tree just along the treeline surrounding the scouts’ campsite. This is a good place for characters to find contraband left by other scouts–alcohol, fireworks, etc.
Ranger’s cabin
The ranger’s cabin is found at the entrance to the camp. It has electricity, running water, and the only working phone in the camp–basically, not much different than your typical 90’s home, right down to the wood paneling.
Outside, there’s a locked shed with a variety of tools. The players can find containers of gas and kerosene as well.
Sites around camp and possible plot points
Bath house
The bath house is a long concrete-block structure with a metal roof. It doesn’t offer much shelter aside from blocking rain and wind–there’s no heating or cooling. It’s split into men’s and women’s halves, with entrances on opposite ends of the building.
Swimming pool
It’s well into fall, so the outdoor Olympic-sized pool is empty.
Archery and shooting range
The range is a large field, with a pavilion on one end and targets on the far side. The bows, BB guns, and ammunition can be found in a locked shed on the side of the pavilion.
Meeting pavilion
The meeting pavilion is a large wooden pavilion open on three sides. On one end, there’s a concrete stage just about a foot above the floor. Behind the stage are some locked doors leading to a storage area. The rest of the pavilion consists of long benches, with an aisle running down the center.
The dock
The dock is a fairly standard wooden dock. Here, the players might find some rope and moorings to attach small boats.
Further up the shore, there are racks with canoes and paddles. The players are free to use these; however, it may take a little effort to actually get them into the water undamaged.
With the water at its low winter level, the shoreline is steep and stony. Carrying a canoe down is a time-consuming operation that requires at least two people. If the players try to rush this, or if they attempt to do it solo, they risk dropping the canoe or falling.
Possible Plot Points
Because players can take control of the plot in Be Prepared, you should have a couple of options ready depending on what they decide to explore. Here are two possibilities based on local folklore.
Old Green Eyes
Old Green Eyes is said to be a strange creature that inhabits the Chickamauga Civil War battlefield, near Chattanooga, TN. In some stories, nothing is seen but a pair of glowing green eyes. This plot reimagines it as an elemental that lives in the water.
When to use this plot
If the players decide to explore the lake shore, or swim or canoe out into the lake, this is a good option. The creature is based on an island; players may discover it while crossing the lake, or they may see a pair of glowing lights across the water in the evening or nighttime.
Exploring the island
The island turns out to have been a settlement on the river, set up long before it was dammed into a lake. The settlement was the site of multiple skirmishes over its history. If the players search, they will find normal items (farming equipment, pots, pans, etc.) but also things like musket balls and bayonets.
The creature
All of the death and chaos surrounding the settlement has created an elemental–a green-eyed monstrosity formed of tree bark, which has slept half-buried under the water for a century. Reawakened, it is driven to patrol and defend the area just like the people who gave it life.
The terror can travel along the floor of the lake, so it can show up at the camp once reawakened. It retreats to a hollowed-out thicket near the settlement; its weakness is fire.
Possible plot points
The Witch
This plot is based on the Bell Witch, the story of a cave in middle Tennessee that was supposedly haunted by an invisible creature.
When to use this plot
If the players decide to stay inland and explore the forests around the camp, they will come up on an old abandoned farmhouse with a cave out back. The cave connects to the cellar of the house, and inside the cellar there is an entity trapped by magical means.
Players will happen upon the traps first, and those who are familiar with folklore might recognize that something is amiss. Entering the house or cave begins to disturb these barriers, allow the creature to grow strong by feeding on the characters’ energy, and finally escape.
Exploring the forest
If the players venture out into the forest, they will happen on an old, unmarked trail. There are no signs or blaze on the trees. It’s a bit grown up, but still worn enough to think it gets occasional use. The trail leads to the cave; the farmhouse is just beyond a small rise.
Exploring the cave
The cave has a wide opening leading into a large main chamber. This part of the cave has clearly been used as a hangout by scouts or counselors who sneak off from the camp. There’s an old couch, some chairs, an old fire pit, and various bits of trash.
There’s a narrow, muddy passage in the back wall of this chamber. (It’s tricky to traverse, and may require a roll to get through successfully.) On the other side of the passage is a smaller chamber, one side of which is made up of old concrete blocks.
An old wooden door is built into this block wall. This door leads into the cellar of the house; if players take time to search it, they will notice a line of salt across the threshold and cryptic symbols carved and chiseled around it.
Opening the door will break the salt line, allowing the creature to escape. However, just by being in this chamber, they are allowing the creature to grow stronger and potentially escape on its own.
Exploring the house
This is a fairly nondescript farmhouse that has been here for quite some time. An old gravel road leads into the forest in the direction of the nearest road, but it’s grown up and not in any shape to drive.
Players will find a living room, bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The water and electricity do not work.
Most of the belongings–clothes, tools, books, etc.–can still be found in the house, as if the inhabitants just left rather than moved out. They may also happen upon things that can be used to weaken the creature, such as pine sap, camphor, and empty glass bottles.
In the kitchen, there’s a door to the cellar. Like the door in the cave, it has salt along its threshold and cryptic symbols carved into the doorframe. Opening the door will break the salt line, allowing the creature to escape. Just by being in the house, the players are allowing the creature to grow stronger and potentially escape on its own.
The cellar of the house is full of old rusty farming equipment and furniture. One wall is covered in shelves of canned vegetables in mason jars.
The creature
The creature has been trapped since the early 1900’s, so it is angry and looking for sustenance–and the camp is the perfect target.
As the players get closer to the creature, they will feel cold, hear bumps and scrapes, and see things shake. If they make it into the cellar, the mason jars will begin shaking and fly off of the shelves at the players.
The creature’s weakness is folkloric remedies: burning sage (which can be found in the forest), pine sap/camphor (which can be found in the house), bottle trees (a plethora of glass bottles can conspicuously be found in the house, as the previous owner attempted to trap the creature this way). If it can be weakened before it kills again, the players might just be able to destroy it.
It’s also possible for the players to kill the creature by setting fire to the house, but they need to set a fire big enough to surround and consume the creature before it can escape.