At the edge of the marina, where the piers rot and the water sits black and still, you’ll find the Sheriff’s Department. From the outside, it looks like a bastion of order, a defense against the lawless nature of the swamp. That is an illusion. This office is not a sanctuary; it is the den of the wolves who guard the flock for a much larger predator.
If you want to understand the truth of this place, you need only look for the man who runs it. The NPC, Sheriff Clayton Morrows, rarely sits behind his desk. You’ll find him standing at the base of the pier by the old sheriff tower, a permanent sneer carved on his face as he watches the desperate and the hopeful come and go. That sneer tells you everything: if you have come to Port Laveau looking for help, you have come to the wrong place.
While the Sheriff is the unapproachable embodiment of the Syndicate’s will, his deputies—all players like you—are the ones who walk the streets. And the badge they wear is not a symbol of justice. It is a mask for the most powerful, and most pressured, faction in the Backwaters.
The Mandate of the Department
Deputies in the Backwaters operate under a threefold mandate from the Syndicate, a purpose designed to maintain a very specific kind of corrupt order.
- To Manage the Chaos: Their primary goal is not to stop crime, but to ensure it never gets loud enough to draw outside attention. They cultivate an atmosphere of manageable violence and fear, which keeps the populace compliant.
- To Collect the Tribute: Their most visible job is to act as the Syndicate’s tax collector, ensuring the flow of resources from the various crews and businesses continues uninterrupted.
- To Keep Port Laveau Hidden: They are the wall that maintains the Backwaters’ isolation, ensuring that official reports never reach the outside world and that troublesome outsiders are dealt with quietly.
The Pressure of the Badge
While the department serves the Syndicate, the player deputies are in a constant struggle for their own power and reputation. They are a faction, just like any other crew, and they must project strength to survive.
Running to Sheriff Morrows or the Syndicate to tattle on a faction that missed a tribute payment is a sign of weakness. It shows they can’t handle their own territory and invites dangerous scrutiny from their masters. Therefore, deputies are expected to handle problems themselves. This creates a tense, adversarial relationship with the other factions. If a crew steps out of line, the deputies will use the power of the badge to harass, intimidate, and disrupt that crew’s operations until the problem is solved. Their methods are their own, but their results are what keeps them at the top of the food chain.
This means that while deputies hold immense authority, they are not invincible. They must walk a tightrope, asserting their dominance over the other factions without creating so much chaos that it draws the unwanted attention of the Sheriff. Every deputy is a player in the same deadly game, just with a different set of rules.
For the citizens and sinners of Port Laveau, the Sheriff’s Department is the most dangerous faction of all. They are the ever-present proof that in the Backwaters, the law is not here to protect you from the monsters; it’s here to make sure you pay them on time.
