David Moffat

David Moffat
<...character sheet coming soon...>

Background
This is Common Knowledge -- a simple success on a Common Knowledge roll would reveal any one of the following in random order...
 * David Moffat is a Denver, Colorado financier, industrialist, and railroad magnate.  As the transcontinental railroad race escalated, he was one of several businessmen who formed the Denver Pacific Railroad [DPRR], hoping to insure Denver City's** place on the transcontinental route.
 * Though his true love is railroading, and he is now on the board of several other railroads, Moffat had built his fortune in banking and mining, before railroading.  He is president of the First National Bank of Denver.  He owns mining claims in silver, gold, iron ore, and coal.
 * David Moffat is a pillar of the Denver community and lives with his wife and children in the family mansion [at 8th Avenue and Grand] in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood.  The Moffat family hosts frequent fund-raisers and social events.  Most recently Moffat has been actively promoting Denver's Union Station, and fund-raising for a zoological garden for Denver.

** Denver was founded in 1858 as "Denver City''". It was shortened to "Denver" in 1867, when it was named the capital of the new Colorado Territory''.

Obscure Background
This is Obscure Knowledge -- a raise on a Common Knowledge roll is required to reveal the next item, in sequential order...
 * 1) Due to Moffat's love of railroads and belief in their future role, when controlling interest in the DPRR was wrested from Denver City investors by Clifton Robards [of Smith & Robards Catalog fame], Moffat stayed on as President and General Manager.  Day-to-day operations of the railroad were left entirely to Moffat, but Robards did deliver two demands: 1) Build a route from Denver to the S&R factory in Salt Lake City, and; 2) Connect to railroads east and west to broaden S&R's access to customers.
 * 2) Moffat's first move was a strategic one.  Rrather than follow Robards' orders explicitly, he instead began securing right-of-way to lay a route from Denver to Cheyenne, Wyoming.  This was a blocking maneuver against any railroad [especially the Wasatch] planning a route north of Denver across the Rockies.  This blocked competitors from progressing west thru the Front Range, by robbing them of revenue service anywhere along the Front Range.  The strategy allowed Moffet time for his next move.
 * 3) Due to the ruggedness of the Rockies, there was no ideal route from Denver to Salt Lake City.  Moffat considered using the Denver-to-Cheyenne-to-Salt-Lake route, but he and Robards agreed that the additional distance would drive both operational expenses and delivery delays too high.  Moffat was forced to settle on the "Moffat Road", a route up and over Rollins Pass, and on to Salt Lake City.  The climb up Rollins pass, west out of Denver, is a 23 mile serpentine crawl up a constant 4% grade, and requires 2 to 4 GR-Mallet class locomotives [ghost-rock-fired, articulated locomotives] to haul trains up and over.  Without the Mallets, operating as "helpers" for both climbing the ascent, and braking during the descent, train payloads would be too limited.  In addition, from September to May, each train must be lead up the pass by a [GR-powered] rotary snow plow.  The Moffat Road cannot be operated profitably, and is only kept open with Smith and Robards' subsidies.
 * 4) Once the connection to Salt Lake City was completed, Moffat focused on connections and expansion.  On his eastern front, Moffat shrewdly negotiated away the rights to lay track east of Denver [the precise boundary was 27.0 degrees longitude west of Washington DC.], in exchange for non-compete contracts west of the Rockies.  This guaranteed the DPRR would carry all rail traffic from the Black River Railroad, the Wasatch, and the Union Blue, west of the Rockies.  Moffat even helped eastern railroads secure right-of-way and trackage rights into Denver, and in 1877 began construction on Denver's Union Station to provide a central connection for all railways.  Darius Hellstromme [Wasatch RR] has since violated the terms of their contract, securing right-of-way to build a rail line all the way from northern Colorado to Lost Angels.
 * 5) As the east was being secured, DP rails were driven west, even before the right-of-way into Shan Fan had been settled.  Moffat was confident he could negotiate his way into Kang's den of thieves.  DPRR now serves Salt Lake City and communities surrounding the Salt Lake, however, as construction proceeded into Nevada, Paiute and Shoshoni india attacks prevented completion of the Shan Fan leg.  The DPRR west route ends somewhere in the middle of Nevada.
 * 6) Moffat is greatly concerned by Darius Hellstromme's plan to tunnel under the continental divide at Camp Hades, and thus undermine the Moffat Road as the only central railroad route through the Rockies.
 * 7) Outside of his home, Moffat is never alone.  He is always accompanied by a CDA Captain and 1 to 6 CDA agents, depending on the situation.  Two CDA agents patrol the Moffat Mansion, 24/7.
 * 8) Moffat's mining claims are extensive. His [partial] claims in silver include the Caribou, Creede, and White Hills mines; in gold, the Cripple Creek and Victor mines; and in iron ore, the Breece, Maid, Henrriette, Resurrection, and Little Pittsburg Consolidated mines. His regional coal mine holdings show promise as future ghost rock producers.

Extremely Obscure Background
This information should only be revealed to players as supported by the story arc and situation (e.g. a player just got a letter from his cousin working on a DPRR track crew). Information is presented in threads, and each thread entry should be realed in sequential order.

Thread A: The Route West

 * A1) From Salt Lake City, the DPRR route was pressed north around the Great Salt Lake, to access sufficient revenue service, rather than south, then west along the shorter route across the barren salt flats.


 * A2) The obvious route across Nevada's Great Basin was to follow the Humboldt River from northeast of Elko, Nevada to Virgina City near Nevada-California border.  The route was successfully scouted and surveyed.  However, as track crews began laying rail, they were plagued by indian guerilla attacks -- rails and ties were pulled up, spikes and fishplates thrown into the river, water towers and the windmills to fill them were set afire.  Eventually these assaults escalated to outright attacks against the crews themselves.  Moffat lobbied the Nevada governor for help, but Nevada had not yet organized an effective state police force.


 * A3) When seven members of a track crew were killed, Moffat ordered Caldwell Detective Agents into the region to restore order.  Dozens of indians were killed in CDA retaliatory actions, but if anything, indian assaults only escalated further.  Moffat then lobbied Washington for assistance, but no troops could be spared.


 * A4) CDA agents were able to determine that the conflict was with several bands of Paiutes (including the Sawawaktödö and the Makuhadökadö), who considered most of the Humboldt River [Baáa Nanissáanah - "waters of the ghost dance", to the Paiute] to be sacred.  The Paiutes claim the river "... dances the ghost dance as it flows to the land of the dead."  [The Humboldt river is endorheic -- its waters never make it to the sea, they evaporate into the desert.]


 * A5) The Paiutes had also convinced a band of militant Shoshoni to join their cause; it was the Shoshoni who were responsible for the most violent attacks.


 * A6) Moffat sent the DPRR's Vice President of Right-of-Way to negotiate a solution.  Negotiations remained at a standstill, until the Union government agreed to award a contract to the DPRR to connect to their Fort 51 facility.  Immediately, the route south to Fort 51 was scouted and surveyed, and track crews focused on connecting to Fort 51 as quickly as possible -- a contract bonus was offed for connecting ahead of schedule.  The DPRR  Humboldt River route was abandoned, and the planned DPRR route on to Shan Fan was shifted south, well away from the Humboldt River valley.  By shifting the Shan Fan line south, and utilizing a potion of the Fort 51 route to connect the Shan Fan, Moffat was able to manipulate the Union government into paying for 25% of the Shan Fan route.


 * A7) DPRR scouts and surveyors are investigating possible routes from the railhead at Fort 51, into Lost Angels.



Thread B: The Steel Road

 * B1) A significant amount of DPRR rolling stock is seen on the Denver & Rio Grande [D&RG] route between Denver and Pueblo, Colorado.  The D&RG is a newly formed railroad -- a minor regional player planning to connect mining communities in southern Colorado to Denver.


 * B2) DPRR locomotives have been observed on the D&RG route between Denver and Pueblo, Colorado.


 * B3) Smith & Robards have acquired the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, which operates the only steel mill west of the Mississippi, in Pueblo.  S&R is now no longer dependent on eastern suppliers for steel, or railroads [other than the DPRR] for steel deliveries.


 * B4) The CF&I steel mill is being refitted to produce ghost steel.


 * B5) David Moffat has purchased trackage rights from Denver to Pueblo on the D&RG.  These trackage rights insure a Moffat-controlled rail route from Smith & Robard's newly acquired Colorado Fuel & Iron steel mill in Pueblo, all the way to their factories in Salt Lake City.



Thread C: The Underground Railroad

 * C1) The DPRR is digging the "Moffat Tunnel" under the "Moffat Road".  When open, the tunnel will allow the rail traffic to travel under Rollins Pass, rather than over it.  The "Moffat Road" will then operate quite profitably.


 * C2) The pilot bore for the Moffat Tunnel was a smaller tunnel driven parallel to the planned route of the main railroad tunnel.  The pilot tunnel is already holed-thru, and being used to service construction of the main tunnel.  Once the main tunnel is holed thru, the pilot tunnel will be converted to an aquaduct, allowing Denver to steal water from the west side of the continental divide.


 * C3) David Moffat is the majority shareholder of the Denver City Water Company, and the primary beneficiary of the Moffat Tunnel aquaduct.


 * C4) The Moffat Tunnel (the railroad portion) will open long before Hellstromme's tunnel at Camp Hades.

Thread D: Securing Railroad Security

 * D1) David Moffat hired agent Emerson Caldwell away the Pinkerton Agency shorty after Caldwell made front-page news by foiling a bank robbery attempt in Denver, using a S&R gattling pistol.  Caldwell was appointed President and Chief Enforcement Officer of Moffat's private detective agency, previously known as the Denver City Detective Agency.  The agency was renamed to the Caldwell Detective Agency, and the CDA became the exclusive provider of security and investigations on all Moffat-controlled properties (railways, mines, factories, etc.).


 * D2) Moffat keeps his hands clean.  Emerson Caldwell and David Moffat meet daily, and it is the CDA which performs any required dirty work.  While Moffat remains a pillar of the community, Caldwell is the enforcer; Moffat organizes corporations and community fund-raisers, while Caldwell organizes corporate spies, strike-breakers, and goon squads.

Thread E: Life in Denver is a Zoo

 * E1) Though few have been invited to see it, the sub-basement of the neoclassical Moffat mansion is rumored to host a small menagerie.


 * E2) David Moffat is amassing a collection of critters of the Weird West.  Expeditions of CDA agents are periodically sent west to gather "zoological specimens".


 * E3) Zoological specimens are housed in sub-basement of the Moffat Mansion.


 * E4) Moffat is planning to house the specimens in the future Denver Zoological Garden.