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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

New Salem : Renaissance and the Syndicate Structure

Now that we have all the Syndicate members created (as well as a few on the bottommost tier of disconnected villains), here's how the pyramid looks. The arrows mark lines of control, with Reverend Green having direct control of Doctor Black and Miss Wight, and the two of them sharing control of Raidy, the Dutchman, and Strega. 

After that, we start seeing less direct control. Strega (and by extension the Mafia) oversee the Havana Mob, who then oversee people who used to report directly to the Mafia. There are several possible problems here, and they all have to do with Sevite needing to be there to keep Sawshark focused. It's Sevite and Strega's relationship that keeps the Havana Mob quietly in the Syndicate, and Sawshark has is just a little too misogynistic, a little too vengeful and too constantly striving to handle it without peer support.

This shows itself in his placing Calypso over the Cormorant, leading to the latters discontent discontent and the former's feeling slighted by being a goad to the old man (who she doesn't like, but that's not the issue. It shows itself in Handicap's inability to take FAGAN seriously extending to Sawshark: a different line of command and maybe FAGAN might not be turnable due to her irritation with Handicap patronizing her. And it shows itself with Sawshark not making Calypso pull her weight with Paper Doll, putting extra work on Hustler. With Sevite alive the plates all keep spinning, and Strega lets her freind handle it. But if he dies, she may just eliminate the Havana Mob altogether if Sawshark doesn't follow orders. That would be a bloodbath. 

The Dutchman oversees Edward Bear due to their tech affinity, who in turn oversee the Enormity and Aces O'rEights, who have very different uses for the organization. In theory Aces should oversee the Enormity but everyone in the chain, her especially, knows its a bad idea. The Enormity has a growing need to jump the chain to get control over Aces, and yes, that means what you think it means, and it will NOT go as well as he thinks. But he plots. 

Raidy with his time in Asia during "the war" has the best relationship of respect you can have with the Talon - even if they do see him as lacking finesse. They in turn control Coyote, who they see as a brutal, violent, but effective thug... which is the best the Talon can home for from  most occidentals. And to be fair, he is a brutal violent thug. 

Coyote oversees and provides support for Loupe (who he thinks is another brutal, violent thug) and the Enormity. That dual lines of command is a problem with the Enormity, who is already trying to game the system to work that to his advantage and promotion, knowing that when two people are in charge no one is in charge. This opens a real question - the Enormity is a cancer in the lowest tier of the Syndicate who if the PCs heroes leave alone will start to damage them. But he's also utterly vile and the most deserving of getting his teeth kicked in. 

There's another dual line of command, in theory, between Calypso and the Hustler over Paper Doll. Calypso doesn't give one damn about that reporting relationship and Hustler, who finds Paper Doll creepy, handles all of it, with resentment. Still, a possible lever. Paper Doll just wants to be left to his own creepy devices, pay his cut and get his protection, so he doesn't care who he reports to. 





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