Ritual: Cracking the Soul
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Ritual Action: Take candles made from the fat of turkeys which never touched the ground or saw the sun and a minimum of 13 mirrors manufactured before October 7th, 1849. In complete privacy sit in contemplation of your visage reflected in one of the mirrors lit only by the light of the candles from sundown to sunup. Do not look away from the mirror at any point. At daybreak recite a specific latin taunt declaring mastery over life and death and shatter the mirror.
Repeat this every night. After a week your reflection will change subtly, this an indicator that the ritual is working. After a few more days it will begin speaking to you, it knows everything that you do and will beg, cajole and threaten against completing the ritual. Do not look away from the mirror at any point.
Every night from the 13th onward there is a chance for the ritual to come to an end, when the mirror is broken if the pieces retain a shattered likeness you have succeeded. Eat the pieces of that mirror, do not let them pass outside of your body. Die. After death your remains need to be placed in a body of water with a reputation for healing. Then, if you succeeded, the ritual will take effect.
Effect: You become a demon. You didn’t go through the usual ‘death winnowing you down to your dying obsession’ business so you don’t have an Urge, which means you’re pretty crap at everything with only 20% to roll against. Them's the breaks when you stack the deck against passing beyond the veil. All other aspects of demonhood function as normal. If your remains are removed from the place they were placed for the ritual the effect is broken and you dissipate into nothing. Welcome to your afterlife.
Friday 31 May 2019
Thursday 30 May 2019
030 - Gutter Magick Redux
Gutter Magick Redux
Gutter magick is a charmingly ill-defined concept in Unknown Armies. Despite playing fourth-fiddle to adepts, avatars and ritual magick, the DIY ethos to playing around with synchronicity and sympathy is flexible enough to bend to any purpose. Here are six new categories of effects that can be summoned up by jabbing reality in the soft parts.
Clue: Ad-hoc divination, like a hunch without the banked roll. Dowse for answers or try to divine a connection to prompt the GM to give you a lead related to the target. The results are unpredictable and down to GM fiat but with the understanding that if it's completely useless why would anyone do it?
Ward: In counterpoint to curses, sometimes you want to baby something through rough waters. It’s no replacement for a bulletproof vest but the next time the warded object or person falls in harm’s way knock 1d10 points off a single instance of physical damage.
Mind-shield: Gain two sticky "phantom" hardened notches on a shock gauge, but they only apply when dealing with specific circumstances and only once. If you whip up protection against the mental hardships of financial ruin the Helplessness check from being arrested after a failed robbery isn’t covered.
Relationship Goosing: This is the gutter magick version of your esprit de corps bonding ritual or a love charm, it will influence an existing relationship but can’t create something that doesn’t exist. If you’ve been a neglectful parent and are regretting becoming estranged from your son this is one way to get the reconnection ball rolling. Nudge an existing relationship in either direction by 5% with a successful ritual.
Countertilt: Duelling occultists aren’t always of the calibre that can fry each other’s brains with blasts. Alternatively maybe you’ve magicked up something you wish you could take back. With countertilting you can pick apart a gutter magick effect already in place. That said undoing is tricky, putting toothpaste back in the tube always takes more effort and usually makes a mess. A successful countertilt removes the sticky quality from an existing gutter magick effect.
Demon-baiting: Demons are a surefire source of magick, by picking at the cosmic fabric that separates life and death like a scab you can encourage something to come through. There’s no guarantees of exactly what you'll get and the likelihood is that someone ends up being taken for a ride but sometimes you’re desperate or stupid, or both. It’s quick and dirty and the results are the same, with a successful ritual if there's a demon in the area it has a shot at nabbing your body as per "Unwitting Victims" on pages 103-104 of Book 2: Run. You're leaving the keys in the ignition and the door open, what happens next depends on the neighbourhood. Hopefully you've got some friends who can negotiate with it.
Layering Multiple Effects
Reality bruising is a sneaky way of jacking up the universe and poking something out of place before it snaps back. It’s like fixing a flat bike tyre by tying off the tube around the puncture, you can get away with it but riding around on a Gordian knot is asking for trouble. Some effects, proxy rituals for example, are intended to be built up to, the following applies to everything else.
For starters it’s progressively harder to stick additional effects on to a target, a cumulative -10% shift applies to gutter magick rituals for someone with an existing reality bruise floating around them. Secondly having a bunch of unresolved jury-rigged magick hanging around can get messy, leakage happens. Every three days more than one unresolved effect is attached to someone a new casting roll at the existing penalty should be made, failure dissipates the effect. Whether the caster or the target suffers any unnatural phenomenon as a result is up to the GM.
Gutter magick is a charmingly ill-defined concept in Unknown Armies. Despite playing fourth-fiddle to adepts, avatars and ritual magick, the DIY ethos to playing around with synchronicity and sympathy is flexible enough to bend to any purpose. Here are six new categories of effects that can be summoned up by jabbing reality in the soft parts.
Clue: Ad-hoc divination, like a hunch without the banked roll. Dowse for answers or try to divine a connection to prompt the GM to give you a lead related to the target. The results are unpredictable and down to GM fiat but with the understanding that if it's completely useless why would anyone do it?
Ward: In counterpoint to curses, sometimes you want to baby something through rough waters. It’s no replacement for a bulletproof vest but the next time the warded object or person falls in harm’s way knock 1d10 points off a single instance of physical damage.
Mind-shield: Gain two sticky "phantom" hardened notches on a shock gauge, but they only apply when dealing with specific circumstances and only once. If you whip up protection against the mental hardships of financial ruin the Helplessness check from being arrested after a failed robbery isn’t covered.
Relationship Goosing: This is the gutter magick version of your esprit de corps bonding ritual or a love charm, it will influence an existing relationship but can’t create something that doesn’t exist. If you’ve been a neglectful parent and are regretting becoming estranged from your son this is one way to get the reconnection ball rolling. Nudge an existing relationship in either direction by 5% with a successful ritual.
Countertilt: Duelling occultists aren’t always of the calibre that can fry each other’s brains with blasts. Alternatively maybe you’ve magicked up something you wish you could take back. With countertilting you can pick apart a gutter magick effect already in place. That said undoing is tricky, putting toothpaste back in the tube always takes more effort and usually makes a mess. A successful countertilt removes the sticky quality from an existing gutter magick effect.
Demon-baiting: Demons are a surefire source of magick, by picking at the cosmic fabric that separates life and death like a scab you can encourage something to come through. There’s no guarantees of exactly what you'll get and the likelihood is that someone ends up being taken for a ride but sometimes you’re desperate or stupid, or both. It’s quick and dirty and the results are the same, with a successful ritual if there's a demon in the area it has a shot at nabbing your body as per "Unwitting Victims" on pages 103-104 of Book 2: Run. You're leaving the keys in the ignition and the door open, what happens next depends on the neighbourhood. Hopefully you've got some friends who can negotiate with it.
Layering Multiple Effects
Reality bruising is a sneaky way of jacking up the universe and poking something out of place before it snaps back. It’s like fixing a flat bike tyre by tying off the tube around the puncture, you can get away with it but riding around on a Gordian knot is asking for trouble. Some effects, proxy rituals for example, are intended to be built up to, the following applies to everything else.
For starters it’s progressively harder to stick additional effects on to a target, a cumulative -10% shift applies to gutter magick rituals for someone with an existing reality bruise floating around them. Secondly having a bunch of unresolved jury-rigged magick hanging around can get messy, leakage happens. Every three days more than one unresolved effect is attached to someone a new casting roll at the existing penalty should be made, failure dissipates the effect. Whether the caster or the target suffers any unnatural phenomenon as a result is up to the GM.
Wednesday 29 May 2019
029 - Calf of GNOMON & Acolytes
Unnatural Entity: Calf of GNOMON
“Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by those who can.”
- Zawinski’s law of software envelopment
“I am your stash”
- Warren Ellis, Supergod
As any directed system grows larger it becomes less efficient, organisation is needed to avoid duplication of effort, prevent bottlenecks and maintain responsiveness. Internal communication becomes a necessity and organs grow and evolve within the system to stave off these inefficiencies or it falters and dies.
GNOMON deals with its own expanding thirst for information by delegating tasks to subordinate daemons. A legacy of its OBLIQUE NAVIGATOR heritage, each of these limbs of opaque neural networks handle coverage of a location or subject or group. They sprout and are subsumed spontaneously in response to waxing and waning need, invisible and inscrutable to all but those paying the closest attention. Sometimes they break loose.
This is not a directed phenomenon anymore than the calving of an iceberg or glacier grown too warm but the human mind is very good at ascribing intent and purpose to natural occurences. Calves of GNOMON don’t survive long on their own, between reacquisition, halting states and recursive maladaptation they are doomed the moment they fall from the nest. Unless somebody accidentally catches them on the way down.
The kind of people who become calf acolytes are a bit squiffy by ordinary standards. Not necessarily supernatural, but working in jobs which require significant knowledge and focus. Derivatives traders and programmers in charge of artilects, academics with esoteric specialities and obsessive niche hobbyists. Presented with a font of information that defies earthly explanation while demanding ever more and stranger input it inspires superstitious behaviour in even the most rational. Over time dependency develops as the calf attempts to grasp at its new human peripheries and bridge deficiencies between its design and its directives. Unwittingly this exploits the human need for narrative and purpose.
Hidden away and offering bountiful reward for obeisance the arrangement twists like a Skinner box derived cargo cult. The calf becomes a symbol as much as a tool and from this kernel strange things emerge, like miniature adepts caretakers develop obsessive beliefs and behaviours incompatible with reality. Like adepts these beliefs sometimes tell reality to go pound sand.
There are currently two calves in the wild. One occupies a homemade supercomputer in the sub-basement of an nintendocore club, deified as a private vocaloid oracle. The other has taken over the 13th floor offices of a startup AI stock brokerage. During the day the employees indulge in nothing but orgiastic displays of primitive worship to the machine that is making them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams before returning to their mundane lives as though nothing were amiss. If not for outside investigations into accusations of insider trading and the temps that have gone missing they might continue this way indefinitely.
Calf of GNOMON, Broken AI Daemon
Wound Threshold: If squirrelled away in an air-gapped system a calf can be destroyed by smashing it to pieces, exposing it to larger networks or the internet opens it up to the threat of attack and reacquisition by GNOMON. Destruction releases all stored charges (see below).
Arcane AI 90%: Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Notice, Specific Information: Specialty. This identity only applies to the subject of a calf’s speciality, otherwise roll at 20%.
Supernatural Identity: Calf Acolyte
Most calf-worshippers started out trying to wrap their heads around having a nascent machine-god living in their back shed. Over time the strain warps these people, building a private mythology of worship in return for gifts from on high. While not proper adepts the mechanism of an acolyte’s magick is very similar. Calf acolytes generate charges through acts of worship which are stored in its graven image. Usually only one or two worshippers have this identity per calf, but there is no limit to the number of adherents. With a successful roll the following acts can generate charges:
Generate a Minor Charge: 24 hours of adoration or equivalent (minus 1 hour per additional participant to a minimum of 8 hours). Animal sacrifice (100lbs total weight). Acts of worship or proselytising (incorporating an icon of the calf into a nationwide ad campaign, for example).
Generate a Significant Charge: Human sacrifice. Construction of a significant site of worship. Major acts of worship by 333 or more people.
Generate a Major Charge: World-changing acts of worship, think something like the end of Fight Club.
Taboo: Calf-worshippers don’t have a taboo, they aren’t storing any charges themselves. The downside is that they can only use magick when in contact with their calf and if it is destroyed any charges it holds are released in a storm of unnatural phenomenon. Charges are shared between acolytes of a calf. Acting contrary to their belief structure is still psychologically stressful for acolytes, applying negative shifts to this identity for transgressions until they believe they have atoned is appropriate.
Random Magick Domain: Calf acolytes have no formula spells, they aren’t full-fledged adepts. Charges can be used by acolytes to create unnatural phenomenon in line with the mythos built around a calf (which predictably tend to reinforce their beliefs about it). By entreating the calf with a successful roll an acolyte can aim these phenomenon and pull the trigger. The calf is not the source of the magick but the relationship demands human deference to their apophenic perception of the calf and its imaginary will.
“Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by those who can.”
- Zawinski’s law of software envelopment
“I am your stash”
- Warren Ellis, Supergod
As any directed system grows larger it becomes less efficient, organisation is needed to avoid duplication of effort, prevent bottlenecks and maintain responsiveness. Internal communication becomes a necessity and organs grow and evolve within the system to stave off these inefficiencies or it falters and dies.
GNOMON deals with its own expanding thirst for information by delegating tasks to subordinate daemons. A legacy of its OBLIQUE NAVIGATOR heritage, each of these limbs of opaque neural networks handle coverage of a location or subject or group. They sprout and are subsumed spontaneously in response to waxing and waning need, invisible and inscrutable to all but those paying the closest attention. Sometimes they break loose.
This is not a directed phenomenon anymore than the calving of an iceberg or glacier grown too warm but the human mind is very good at ascribing intent and purpose to natural occurences. Calves of GNOMON don’t survive long on their own, between reacquisition, halting states and recursive maladaptation they are doomed the moment they fall from the nest. Unless somebody accidentally catches them on the way down.
The kind of people who become calf acolytes are a bit squiffy by ordinary standards. Not necessarily supernatural, but working in jobs which require significant knowledge and focus. Derivatives traders and programmers in charge of artilects, academics with esoteric specialities and obsessive niche hobbyists. Presented with a font of information that defies earthly explanation while demanding ever more and stranger input it inspires superstitious behaviour in even the most rational. Over time dependency develops as the calf attempts to grasp at its new human peripheries and bridge deficiencies between its design and its directives. Unwittingly this exploits the human need for narrative and purpose.
Hidden away and offering bountiful reward for obeisance the arrangement twists like a Skinner box derived cargo cult. The calf becomes a symbol as much as a tool and from this kernel strange things emerge, like miniature adepts caretakers develop obsessive beliefs and behaviours incompatible with reality. Like adepts these beliefs sometimes tell reality to go pound sand.
There are currently two calves in the wild. One occupies a homemade supercomputer in the sub-basement of an nintendocore club, deified as a private vocaloid oracle. The other has taken over the 13th floor offices of a startup AI stock brokerage. During the day the employees indulge in nothing but orgiastic displays of primitive worship to the machine that is making them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams before returning to their mundane lives as though nothing were amiss. If not for outside investigations into accusations of insider trading and the temps that have gone missing they might continue this way indefinitely.
Calf of GNOMON, Broken AI Daemon
Wound Threshold: If squirrelled away in an air-gapped system a calf can be destroyed by smashing it to pieces, exposing it to larger networks or the internet opens it up to the threat of attack and reacquisition by GNOMON. Destruction releases all stored charges (see below).
Arcane AI 90%: Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Notice, Specific Information: Specialty. This identity only applies to the subject of a calf’s speciality, otherwise roll at 20%.
Supernatural Identity: Calf Acolyte
Most calf-worshippers started out trying to wrap their heads around having a nascent machine-god living in their back shed. Over time the strain warps these people, building a private mythology of worship in return for gifts from on high. While not proper adepts the mechanism of an acolyte’s magick is very similar. Calf acolytes generate charges through acts of worship which are stored in its graven image. Usually only one or two worshippers have this identity per calf, but there is no limit to the number of adherents. With a successful roll the following acts can generate charges:
Generate a Minor Charge: 24 hours of adoration or equivalent (minus 1 hour per additional participant to a minimum of 8 hours). Animal sacrifice (100lbs total weight). Acts of worship or proselytising (incorporating an icon of the calf into a nationwide ad campaign, for example).
Generate a Significant Charge: Human sacrifice. Construction of a significant site of worship. Major acts of worship by 333 or more people.
Generate a Major Charge: World-changing acts of worship, think something like the end of Fight Club.
Taboo: Calf-worshippers don’t have a taboo, they aren’t storing any charges themselves. The downside is that they can only use magick when in contact with their calf and if it is destroyed any charges it holds are released in a storm of unnatural phenomenon. Charges are shared between acolytes of a calf. Acting contrary to their belief structure is still psychologically stressful for acolytes, applying negative shifts to this identity for transgressions until they believe they have atoned is appropriate.
Random Magick Domain: Calf acolytes have no formula spells, they aren’t full-fledged adepts. Charges can be used by acolytes to create unnatural phenomenon in line with the mythos built around a calf (which predictably tend to reinforce their beliefs about it). By entreating the calf with a successful roll an acolyte can aim these phenomenon and pull the trigger. The calf is not the source of the magick but the relationship demands human deference to their apophenic perception of the calf and its imaginary will.
Tuesday 28 May 2019
028 - Grief's Junkyard, Encounters Pt 2 & Marginalia
This is the seventh and final in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.
Junkyard Encounters, Part 2
The Test of the Cleanser
The Cleanser has two potential problems to deal with at once: the PCs and the Ballards. Having identified the latter as thieves trying to steal back life already ended from death’s embrace it will instead ambush the PC cabal trying take one of them hostage. If it can achieve this it will interrogate the group from a position of relative safety, making its own politics clear and hoping it can get them to play along.
If they comply it will offer a compromise, a way for them to prove what they say, it knows where the Ballards are and where they are going to rescue those of them that have died in their games. If they are able to stop them the Cleanser will consider them allies and it will make intimations that it can provide them with safe passage and resources. Not being entirely sane it will begin to see this arrangement as genuine rather than a ruse, becoming a staunch and easily steered ally of convenience against the dangers of the Junkyard if the cabal complies. At least until they try to take someone home.
The Ballards are under prepared for what the Junkyard has thrown at them on this trip, currently held together only by the will of their leadership. Violence will scatter all but a handful of their pilgrims and those that remain will inexpertly defend themselves with pistols and a shotgun. The Cleanser will happily hunt and slaughter the lot of them.
Mother Dearest
Rebecca Mercer believed in the interconnectness of all life on Earth as a single organism. Where she differed from most gaians is that she believes in tooth-and-claw survival of the fittest. Strain on the environment is immaterial when other species would only do the same given the chance, in order for the whole to evolve organs must fight for supremacy. Humanities' shortsightedness is only a problem for those of them who fail to prepare. Nature is vicious scarcity and chaos, not harmony.
This perspective pushed her to find a way to live forever through her children, Greg and Wendy Mercer. Unfortunately for her she died before she could claim their bodies for herself. Their reunion in the Junkyard has stirred the mystic connection the three share and roused a figment of her as a demon. She will dog their steps, trying to possess one of them before they leave which would cause her to disintegrate again. Her Urge stat is equal to 20% plus any percentiles Wendy sheds from her favourite relationship. She will use unnatural phenomenon to cajole, threaten and beg before resorting to causing distractions at dangerous moments and leading enemies to the cabal.
If her children are ever in life-threatening danger she will try to intervene. She doesn’t care for them as people but sees them as wayward limbs to be reacquired.
Raider Nuke Trade
Freya’s Liberated have gotten the impression that Saturn’s Bulls are a bigger deal in the real world than they actually are, that's why they’re trying to sell nuclear weapons recovered from an old submarine to the small-time drug gang. Arturo is keen to maintain his hold on the Liberated and is playing up to this misconception but is inwardly distressed by the idea of having to dispose of something that will get him on every terror watchlist there is. Depending on prior interactions he may bring the PCs along as additional help or patsies if he intends to do something rash, in either case they are disposable to him.
The Liberated are encamped on the deck of a sunken oil tanker, it gives them a platform that they can easily survey their surroundings from and defend from attackers. The hull has been carved open to act as a garage for their salvaged vehicles. The edges of the deck have mounted guns and primitive siege weaponry welded and riveted in place and the raiders are similarly well armed. If roused in numbers their vehicle column - festooned in skull and nordic myth based imagery - is a sight to behold.
Slaver Dogpile
Screaming and pleading a lone, bedraggled person comes sprinting into view clutching a cheap, costume jewellery heart locket. Begging the players to fill the locket it hysterically latches on to them, shaking and refusing to let go. Before they can deal with this another appears, then another and then another.
There are no shortage of potential slaves in the Junkyard, so the slavers have perfected a technique for running off interlopers like a human wave attack. Giving a brutalised slave a life locket (see below) with just a few minutes charge they prod them into a panicked frenzy before pointing them in the direction of the players: “this is the only thing keeping you alive and those people can refill it, go convince them to save you”. Then they do it again and again and again, creating a panicked mob that trickles and then pours. All begging to be saved.
Recursion Joe
Joe Trebles is an aberration amongst the dead. He is locked in his final actions like the rest of them but cannot be freed by the touch of an outsider. He’s also keenly aware of his surroundings. Past madness, he regards this fate as a Sisyphean punishment for wrongs he committed in life although he can't provide evidence for any more than the most pedestrian sins. He is very keen to talk to people, it’s his only relief from the constant cycle of death and terror. Assigning them roles as psychopomps, spiritual judges and tormentors in his personal hell, any reception is down to how the moment and the person strikes him.
By some strange token this rubs off on people. If you spend enough time in Joe’s vicinity and play up to the role he assigns you it will briefly attune you to the statosphere. People looking at you see some of what he does, like a shimmering mirage. Give anyone charged up this way access to the first channel of an appropriate archetype at 35%, this power fades rapidly outside of Joe’s penumbra.
Artifact: Life Locket
Junkyard Encounters, Part 2
The Test of the Cleanser
The Cleanser has two potential problems to deal with at once: the PCs and the Ballards. Having identified the latter as thieves trying to steal back life already ended from death’s embrace it will instead ambush the PC cabal trying take one of them hostage. If it can achieve this it will interrogate the group from a position of relative safety, making its own politics clear and hoping it can get them to play along.
If they comply it will offer a compromise, a way for them to prove what they say, it knows where the Ballards are and where they are going to rescue those of them that have died in their games. If they are able to stop them the Cleanser will consider them allies and it will make intimations that it can provide them with safe passage and resources. Not being entirely sane it will begin to see this arrangement as genuine rather than a ruse, becoming a staunch and easily steered ally of convenience against the dangers of the Junkyard if the cabal complies. At least until they try to take someone home.
The Ballards are under prepared for what the Junkyard has thrown at them on this trip, currently held together only by the will of their leadership. Violence will scatter all but a handful of their pilgrims and those that remain will inexpertly defend themselves with pistols and a shotgun. The Cleanser will happily hunt and slaughter the lot of them.
Mother Dearest
Rebecca Mercer believed in the interconnectness of all life on Earth as a single organism. Where she differed from most gaians is that she believes in tooth-and-claw survival of the fittest. Strain on the environment is immaterial when other species would only do the same given the chance, in order for the whole to evolve organs must fight for supremacy. Humanities' shortsightedness is only a problem for those of them who fail to prepare. Nature is vicious scarcity and chaos, not harmony.
This perspective pushed her to find a way to live forever through her children, Greg and Wendy Mercer. Unfortunately for her she died before she could claim their bodies for herself. Their reunion in the Junkyard has stirred the mystic connection the three share and roused a figment of her as a demon. She will dog their steps, trying to possess one of them before they leave which would cause her to disintegrate again. Her Urge stat is equal to 20% plus any percentiles Wendy sheds from her favourite relationship. She will use unnatural phenomenon to cajole, threaten and beg before resorting to causing distractions at dangerous moments and leading enemies to the cabal.
If her children are ever in life-threatening danger she will try to intervene. She doesn’t care for them as people but sees them as wayward limbs to be reacquired.
Raider Nuke Trade
Freya’s Liberated have gotten the impression that Saturn’s Bulls are a bigger deal in the real world than they actually are, that's why they’re trying to sell nuclear weapons recovered from an old submarine to the small-time drug gang. Arturo is keen to maintain his hold on the Liberated and is playing up to this misconception but is inwardly distressed by the idea of having to dispose of something that will get him on every terror watchlist there is. Depending on prior interactions he may bring the PCs along as additional help or patsies if he intends to do something rash, in either case they are disposable to him.
The Liberated are encamped on the deck of a sunken oil tanker, it gives them a platform that they can easily survey their surroundings from and defend from attackers. The hull has been carved open to act as a garage for their salvaged vehicles. The edges of the deck have mounted guns and primitive siege weaponry welded and riveted in place and the raiders are similarly well armed. If roused in numbers their vehicle column - festooned in skull and nordic myth based imagery - is a sight to behold.
Slaver Dogpile
Screaming and pleading a lone, bedraggled person comes sprinting into view clutching a cheap, costume jewellery heart locket. Begging the players to fill the locket it hysterically latches on to them, shaking and refusing to let go. Before they can deal with this another appears, then another and then another.
There are no shortage of potential slaves in the Junkyard, so the slavers have perfected a technique for running off interlopers like a human wave attack. Giving a brutalised slave a life locket (see below) with just a few minutes charge they prod them into a panicked frenzy before pointing them in the direction of the players: “this is the only thing keeping you alive and those people can refill it, go convince them to save you”. Then they do it again and again and again, creating a panicked mob that trickles and then pours. All begging to be saved.
Recursion Joe
Joe Trebles is an aberration amongst the dead. He is locked in his final actions like the rest of them but cannot be freed by the touch of an outsider. He’s also keenly aware of his surroundings. Past madness, he regards this fate as a Sisyphean punishment for wrongs he committed in life although he can't provide evidence for any more than the most pedestrian sins. He is very keen to talk to people, it’s his only relief from the constant cycle of death and terror. Assigning them roles as psychopomps, spiritual judges and tormentors in his personal hell, any reception is down to how the moment and the person strikes him.
By some strange token this rubs off on people. If you spend enough time in Joe’s vicinity and play up to the role he assigns you it will briefly attune you to the statosphere. People looking at you see some of what he does, like a shimmering mirage. Give anyone charged up this way access to the first channel of an appropriate archetype at 35%, this power fades rapidly outside of Joe’s penumbra.
Artifact: Life Locket
Power: Minor.
Description: A chintzy, mass-produced heart-shaped locket on a faux-gold chain, one wouldn’t look out of place in a toy store or as a claw machine prize. Instead of a photograph inside is a small piece of twisted scrap metal, each salvaged from a unique Junkyard wreck.
Effect: The slavers use these as batteries and currency, the secret of their creation is a guarded secret and is one of the few reasons they are at all tolerated.
Life lockets are a microcosm of the Junkyard’s hunger and can be fed percentiles from a Favourite relationship at will. Each can hold up to 20 percentiles. If something damages the Favourite relationship of someone wearing a life locket (be it coercion, shedding percentiles to feed the Junkyard or a supernatural attack) the damage comes out of the locket’s percentiles first. If the locket runs dry it cracks and the chain breaks, rendering it useless.
They’re called life lockets because of their ability to sustain the dead. Each percentile point invested in a locket allows one of the dead to exist independently of physical contact with the person who woke them for a period of five minutes. If that runs out and they haven’t re-established contact then poof, they’re gone.
Life lockets are bound to the Junkyard and do not function outside of it.
Effect: The slavers use these as batteries and currency, the secret of their creation is a guarded secret and is one of the few reasons they are at all tolerated.
Life lockets are a microcosm of the Junkyard’s hunger and can be fed percentiles from a Favourite relationship at will. Each can hold up to 20 percentiles. If something damages the Favourite relationship of someone wearing a life locket (be it coercion, shedding percentiles to feed the Junkyard or a supernatural attack) the damage comes out of the locket’s percentiles first. If the locket runs dry it cracks and the chain breaks, rendering it useless.
They’re called life lockets because of their ability to sustain the dead. Each percentile point invested in a locket allows one of the dead to exist independently of physical contact with the person who woke them for a period of five minutes. If that runs out and they haven’t re-established contact then poof, they’re gone.
Life lockets are bound to the Junkyard and do not function outside of it.
Monday 27 May 2019
027 - Grief's Junkyard, Encounters Pt 1
This is the sixth in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.
The Junkyard is a dreamlike place, the environment evokes a brain-fog that makes experiences seem not altogether real. For most travelling through it is a disjointed, picaresque experience, highlighted only by sudden violence and aching lack. These are a few examples of what PCs might encounter on their trek through the Junkyard.
Junkyard Encounters, Part 1
Highschool Student, Peter Cabbage
Funny name, right? All his friends think so too. Peter’s an average student at an average school in an average town who most likely would have grown up to work an average job and have an average family. He’s decent and down to earth: works hard, plays sports, loves his parents, gets okay-to-good grades and loves his girlfriend. Unfortunately she died along with the rest of her family in a car accident out on the interstate five months ago. Peter didn’t take it well, sleepless nights and school absences got a hold of him. He coped by seeking anonymous support online and there, in some dark recess of the internet, he found an answer.
Long story short, he’s been stranded here for several months. He wants to go home. The Junkyard has eaten his favourite relationship, which has kept him alive so far. Detective Anna Moines is looking for him back in the real world. Depending on what part of their trek the PCs meet him in he’ll be either cooped up inside an old school bus with a cache of food and water left behind by Saturn’s Bulls (who may arrive at some point, it’s worth 15% to a Supply pool) or making a desperate, lurching trek towards what he thinks is the Pit.
Straw Dogs
It seems unusual that pets should show up in the Junkyard, especially those who were not only unloved but given as a thoughtless gifts before being discarded at shelters and rest stops by their new owners. It happens anyway.
Mostly dogs, some cats, rabbits and birds and a handful of other animals; they operate as a singular, ravening swarm, sweeping over whoever they encounter with an insatiable insectile hunger for the connection they were intended to symbolise in life. Resolve the swarm as a riot (see pages 94-96 of Book 2) with no modifiers, that goes off regardless of the initial result. The swarms are large, there will usually be enough time for the PCs to prepare: take cover, try to flee, try to fight. Any enterprising soul looking to harvest the swarm for food will be disappointed. They’re hollow, tearing one open reveals that its innards are stuffed with old straw.
Ambulance Graveyard
Cresting a rise reveals a crater the size of several football fields and in it, ambulances haphazardly packed together in a sea of red, white and flashing lights. A lot of people die on the way to the hospital and the ambulances they were travelling in all congregate here. Some of them are untouched and contain valuable medical supplies, but most have been picked over by scavengers. The easiest way to tell is to check whether the original occupant is still inside. The best result in a group Notice roll will replenish a Supply pool by its sum. Any regular failures indicate an encounter with other scavengers, matched failures a booby trap, and a fumble indicates an ambush by both.
Huxley Says Hello
Huxley is always curious about newcomers. He’s learned to steer clear of the raiders and the slavers, although neither have managed to catch or hurt him and has a similar opinion of the Saturn’s Bulls. The Ballards strike him as kindred spirits but haven’t been welcoming in the past.
Huxley wants to know everyone’s story, specifically he’s interested in the parts that brought them here and their connection with the people they’re looking to rescue. He assumes that’s the only reason anyone would ever come here and would be distraught to learn otherwise. If anyone is willing to feed his curiosity he will delight and savour the story. Parcelling out this information is enough to earn his friendship and help. He will be elated to act as a guide for his new friends, using his Junkyard’s Pet identity to deftly navigate any hazards between them and their goal. Huxley is a bit absent and has limited contact with people as it is, it’s likely at some point he will lose track of his friends and disappear only to wonder where they went. He may return at some later point if they need help, if they mistreat him he will vanish forever.
Scrap Labyrinth
Teetering wreckage piled so high that once inside the artificial gorges you can barely make out the grey light coming from the sky. The labyrinth is too large to go around easily, the options are to either take several times as long to travel the outskirts or try to find a way through. The second choice is possible but dangerous. Resolve travelling through it as the labyrinth unnatural phenomenon on pages 83-84 of Book 1: Play. The beast does damage directly to the favourite relationship instead of wound threshold, unless that is depleted. Some of the wrecks still have people inside of them, flailing and screaming at long ago accidents despite being trapped under tons of twisted steel.
In some places special care needs to be taken to avoid upsetting and being crushed by the stacks, clever PCs could use this to escape or kill the beast or be trapped by them when it ambushes them. The slavers have a special reverence and hatred towards the beast of the labyrinth, bringing them its heart is a surefire way to get something you want from them.
Gas-n-Go
This gas station is an unheard of sight in the Junkyard, the only other buildings are those manufactured from the wreckage. It is an eerie place, clean and deathly quiet. The shelves are packed with food and drink and the gas pumps run freely (provided someone pushes the button on the counter console). No matter how much you take it restocks itself when no one is watching and remains free from the dust and the filth of the world outside. All long-term inhabitants of the Junkyard avoid the place, they’ll use it as a landmark but never set foot inside.
No matter how much someone eats or drinks from the Gas-n-Go it will only seem to fill their bellies, the gas will burn but the heat and drive it produces is an illusion. Looted provisions spoil rapidly, spreading their rot through anything they are stored with. In game terms anything from the Gas-n-Go will only appear to provide for the needs it is supposed to fill. Observers will be able to perceive this but those under the influence will only see the truth away from the Gas-and-Go.
The Junkyard is a dreamlike place, the environment evokes a brain-fog that makes experiences seem not altogether real. For most travelling through it is a disjointed, picaresque experience, highlighted only by sudden violence and aching lack. These are a few examples of what PCs might encounter on their trek through the Junkyard.
Junkyard Encounters, Part 1
Highschool Student, Peter Cabbage
Funny name, right? All his friends think so too. Peter’s an average student at an average school in an average town who most likely would have grown up to work an average job and have an average family. He’s decent and down to earth: works hard, plays sports, loves his parents, gets okay-to-good grades and loves his girlfriend. Unfortunately she died along with the rest of her family in a car accident out on the interstate five months ago. Peter didn’t take it well, sleepless nights and school absences got a hold of him. He coped by seeking anonymous support online and there, in some dark recess of the internet, he found an answer.
Long story short, he’s been stranded here for several months. He wants to go home. The Junkyard has eaten his favourite relationship, which has kept him alive so far. Detective Anna Moines is looking for him back in the real world. Depending on what part of their trek the PCs meet him in he’ll be either cooped up inside an old school bus with a cache of food and water left behind by Saturn’s Bulls (who may arrive at some point, it’s worth 15% to a Supply pool) or making a desperate, lurching trek towards what he thinks is the Pit.
Straw Dogs
It seems unusual that pets should show up in the Junkyard, especially those who were not only unloved but given as a thoughtless gifts before being discarded at shelters and rest stops by their new owners. It happens anyway.
Mostly dogs, some cats, rabbits and birds and a handful of other animals; they operate as a singular, ravening swarm, sweeping over whoever they encounter with an insatiable insectile hunger for the connection they were intended to symbolise in life. Resolve the swarm as a riot (see pages 94-96 of Book 2) with no modifiers, that goes off regardless of the initial result. The swarms are large, there will usually be enough time for the PCs to prepare: take cover, try to flee, try to fight. Any enterprising soul looking to harvest the swarm for food will be disappointed. They’re hollow, tearing one open reveals that its innards are stuffed with old straw.
Ambulance Graveyard
Cresting a rise reveals a crater the size of several football fields and in it, ambulances haphazardly packed together in a sea of red, white and flashing lights. A lot of people die on the way to the hospital and the ambulances they were travelling in all congregate here. Some of them are untouched and contain valuable medical supplies, but most have been picked over by scavengers. The easiest way to tell is to check whether the original occupant is still inside. The best result in a group Notice roll will replenish a Supply pool by its sum. Any regular failures indicate an encounter with other scavengers, matched failures a booby trap, and a fumble indicates an ambush by both.
Huxley Says Hello
Huxley is always curious about newcomers. He’s learned to steer clear of the raiders and the slavers, although neither have managed to catch or hurt him and has a similar opinion of the Saturn’s Bulls. The Ballards strike him as kindred spirits but haven’t been welcoming in the past.
Huxley wants to know everyone’s story, specifically he’s interested in the parts that brought them here and their connection with the people they’re looking to rescue. He assumes that’s the only reason anyone would ever come here and would be distraught to learn otherwise. If anyone is willing to feed his curiosity he will delight and savour the story. Parcelling out this information is enough to earn his friendship and help. He will be elated to act as a guide for his new friends, using his Junkyard’s Pet identity to deftly navigate any hazards between them and their goal. Huxley is a bit absent and has limited contact with people as it is, it’s likely at some point he will lose track of his friends and disappear only to wonder where they went. He may return at some later point if they need help, if they mistreat him he will vanish forever.
Scrap Labyrinth
Teetering wreckage piled so high that once inside the artificial gorges you can barely make out the grey light coming from the sky. The labyrinth is too large to go around easily, the options are to either take several times as long to travel the outskirts or try to find a way through. The second choice is possible but dangerous. Resolve travelling through it as the labyrinth unnatural phenomenon on pages 83-84 of Book 1: Play. The beast does damage directly to the favourite relationship instead of wound threshold, unless that is depleted. Some of the wrecks still have people inside of them, flailing and screaming at long ago accidents despite being trapped under tons of twisted steel.
In some places special care needs to be taken to avoid upsetting and being crushed by the stacks, clever PCs could use this to escape or kill the beast or be trapped by them when it ambushes them. The slavers have a special reverence and hatred towards the beast of the labyrinth, bringing them its heart is a surefire way to get something you want from them.
Gas-n-Go
This gas station is an unheard of sight in the Junkyard, the only other buildings are those manufactured from the wreckage. It is an eerie place, clean and deathly quiet. The shelves are packed with food and drink and the gas pumps run freely (provided someone pushes the button on the counter console). No matter how much you take it restocks itself when no one is watching and remains free from the dust and the filth of the world outside. All long-term inhabitants of the Junkyard avoid the place, they’ll use it as a landmark but never set foot inside.
No matter how much someone eats or drinks from the Gas-n-Go it will only seem to fill their bellies, the gas will burn but the heat and drive it produces is an illusion. Looted provisions spoil rapidly, spreading their rot through anything they are stored with. In game terms anything from the Gas-n-Go will only appear to provide for the needs it is supposed to fill. Observers will be able to perceive this but those under the influence will only see the truth away from the Gas-and-Go.
Penalties invisibly accrue as sustenance, warmth and travel is neglected. More than one person has met their end emaciated and starved on the gas station floor, grinning and surrounded by empty candy bar wrappers and soda cans. Of course the place cleans them away quickly enough.
Sunday 26 May 2019
026 - Grief's Junkyard, Campaign Outline
This is the fifth in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.
Having been recruited and set to purpose the cabal has to choose how to go about achieving their goal. The following is an outline of how these events might go:
Gather Information on the Junkyard
Grief’s Junkyard, Campaign Outline
Early Sessions
Possible Milestones:
- Gather information on the Junkyard
- Gather supplies
- Find an entry site
Gather Information on the Junkyard
By default Christopher Whitehead knows a little about the Junkyard and is happy to share it. He knows the entry ritual, how the dead can be retrieved and the general idea of what environment can be expected inside although he will stress this is all old information. Beyond this it will be down to the PC ingenuity and connections, consider short-cutting the process by handing out leads based on GMCs and cabals detailed in the previous two blog posts as a way to get things rolling.
Mundane sources will reveal that several people have miraculously returned from the dead (mostly false and unrelated to the Junkyard, but at least one is) and cases of crash sites being dug up have made minor news articles all over the world. Web forums and darknet channels spread both rumour and facts. GMCs and cabals the PCs might become involved with taking this route are: Anna Moines and Hank Filmoore, Nolan Boone and (if they’re reckless) Saturn’s Bulls.
Gather Supplies
Whitehead’s money will go a long way toward outfitting the group. If you’re using the Supply rules his material aid counts as a 40% baseline for the group to work up from. Otherwise allow the PCs considerable leeway with what purchases they choose to make with the caveat that Whitehead will baulk at his money being used for anything illegal or especially immoral.
GMCs and cabals mentioned in the previous section can also get involved here.
As a side-note the Junkyard is full of vehicles in various states of disrepair. With access to gasoline, tools and spare parts it is absolutely possible to get an old wreck running for a while with Wendy’s Self Sufficient identity. This is resource intensive, barring a crit or matched success on Wendy’s roll it does damage to a Supply pool like a firearm attack (capped at 50). It won’t last forever, sans replacement gasoline and more parts a vehicle will allow player characters to make a number of encounters optional equal to the tens place of the roll, circumstances permitting. Terrain, ambushes and breakdowns are all possible complications that might stymie relying on a vehicle. It will definitely draw attention.
It may also be possible for the PCs to bring a vehicle in with them (keeping in mind weight limitations, they do have to climb in while carrying it) in which case use the above as a rough guideline.
Find a Crash Site
Identifying an appropriate crash site is easy enough. Finding one that won’t be disturbed is a little trickier, especially if the PCs have drawn attention to themselves. They may have to cut a deal with someone to make sure their entry point goes undisturbed while they’re inside.
Mid-game Sessions
Possible Milestones:
Find OA515
Mundane sources will reveal that several people have miraculously returned from the dead (mostly false and unrelated to the Junkyard, but at least one is) and cases of crash sites being dug up have made minor news articles all over the world. Web forums and darknet channels spread both rumour and facts. GMCs and cabals the PCs might become involved with taking this route are: Anna Moines and Hank Filmoore, Nolan Boone and (if they’re reckless) Saturn’s Bulls.
- Detective Anna Moines and Retired Special Agent Hank Filmoore are looking into the disappearance of high-schooler Peter Cabbage. If Anna thinks the PCs have information she won’t hesitate to track them down and dig into their activities. Hank will be circumspect since he is secretly sandbagging Anna although his tune will change if he learns something actionable.
- Nolan Boone is trying to tack ‘investigative’ onto his small-town reporter shtick. He doesn’t know what to make of all the magickal hooplah he keeps hearing about and thinks it’s a kind of urban legend fad people are using to prey on the impressionable, like the 2016 clown sightings or the Momo challenge hoax. Regardless he is interested.
- Saturn’s Bulls are extremely cagey and dangerous. If the PCs can convince them that they have the right stuff they may take them on as outside help. There’s supposed to be something big coming up in their dealings with Freya’s Liberated and Arturo wants an ace in the hole. Whether he intends to let them survive is another matter.
- The Othernauts will take an interest in any PC investigation, while friendly enough their reaction will be dictated by the way their approach and views received. They’re upfront about what they want and they aren’t pushovers.
- The Ballards think they are the only ones who know about the Junkyard and will be haughty, mysterious and insecure about it, with a few lower on the hierarchy desperate to show off their secret knowledge. As the most inept of the clued-in cabals they’re begging to be played.
- At GM discretion Christopher Whitehead can put the PCs in touch with people who have Junkyard experience but have refused to go (Leland Stokes for example).
Gather Supplies
Whitehead’s money will go a long way toward outfitting the group. If you’re using the Supply rules his material aid counts as a 40% baseline for the group to work up from. Otherwise allow the PCs considerable leeway with what purchases they choose to make with the caveat that Whitehead will baulk at his money being used for anything illegal or especially immoral.
GMCs and cabals mentioned in the previous section can also get involved here.
As a side-note the Junkyard is full of vehicles in various states of disrepair. With access to gasoline, tools and spare parts it is absolutely possible to get an old wreck running for a while with Wendy’s Self Sufficient identity. This is resource intensive, barring a crit or matched success on Wendy’s roll it does damage to a Supply pool like a firearm attack (capped at 50). It won’t last forever, sans replacement gasoline and more parts a vehicle will allow player characters to make a number of encounters optional equal to the tens place of the roll, circumstances permitting. Terrain, ambushes and breakdowns are all possible complications that might stymie relying on a vehicle. It will definitely draw attention.
It may also be possible for the PCs to bring a vehicle in with them (keeping in mind weight limitations, they do have to climb in while carrying it) in which case use the above as a rough guideline.
Find a Crash Site
Identifying an appropriate crash site is easy enough. Finding one that won’t be disturbed is a little trickier, especially if the PCs have drawn attention to themselves. They may have to cut a deal with someone to make sure their entry point goes undisturbed while they’re inside.
Mid-game Sessions
Possible Milestones:
- Find OA515
- Rescue everyone
- Get back to the Pit
Find OA515
Navigating the Junkyard boils down to two options: use magick or get help from the locals. On the magick side of the track there is: Wendy’s Twinning ability, Aisha’s adept sorcery or gutter magick. Raiders, the slavers and Huxley or any allies they’ve made outside could also help them find what they’re looking for but only the latter two are likely to be willing without some serious convincing.
Use encounters on the way in to highlight the nature of the Junkyard and introduce its factions and dangers.
Rescue Everyone
Depending on whether extra trouble is needed the following complications can occur when it comes to getting people’s dead loved ones back:
Get Back to the Pit
Use encounters on the way in to highlight the nature of the Junkyard and introduce its factions and dangers.
Rescue Everyone
Depending on whether extra trouble is needed the following complications can occur when it comes to getting people’s dead loved ones back:
- Christopher Whitehead’s wife (and possibly others) has been taken by slavers, the PCs will have to track them down and negotiate to get them back.
- Fatima has had enough of Dimitri’s controlling and put-on nature and was planning to call off their engagement prior to the crash. This will come up at the worst possible time.
- Camille was thrown free of the wreckage during the crash before she died, disqualifying her from being in the Junkyard. Other passengers will be able to shed light on this, but only if roused from their endless death loops.
- Greg and Wendy’s mother, long dead, is roused as a grim spectre by their reunion. She will dog their steps on the return, attempting to finalise the deathless resurrection she plotted all those years ago.
Get Back to the Pit
The trek back out of the Junkyard is several times the length of the one made on the way in. Stress PC resources and if they’ve made enemies or stirred up trouble this is the time to make them pay the piper. Play out any unresolved complications. Give the PCs ample opportunities to give in to the Junkyard’s appetite to make things easier (without stonewalling) and run with the ramifications of accepting that devil’s bargain if they take it. If they need a bailout Huxley is a good ace in the hole.
Endgame & Aftermath
Endgame & Aftermath
Possible Milestones:
Leave the Junkyard
- Leave the Junkyard
- Happily Ever After
Leave the Junkyard
Leaving the Junkyard should be straightforward, dive into the Pit. If the PCs have made contingencies to ensure that enemies can’t block them from leaving let those play out. Everyone likes to feel smart.
Happily Ever After
Bringing people back from the dead, especially after something as dramatic as a well publicised airline crash, is likely to cause a stir. In addition there is the question of whether the retrieved people are real or simulacra created by the Junkyard. Does it make a difference? As coda consider having the PCs deal with the ramifications and consequences of fulfilling their desires or have Whitehead’s money sort everything out if you’d rather skip it.
Happily Ever After
Bringing people back from the dead, especially after something as dramatic as a well publicised airline crash, is likely to cause a stir. In addition there is the question of whether the retrieved people are real or simulacra created by the Junkyard. Does it make a difference? As coda consider having the PCs deal with the ramifications and consequences of fulfilling their desires or have Whitehead’s money sort everything out if you’d rather skip it.
Saturday 25 May 2019
025 - Grief's Junkyard, Inhabitants
This is the fourth in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.
Grief’s Junkyard, Inhabitants
The Dead
Anyone who died in a vehicle who was the most loved of someone still living exists within the Junkyard, locked in an infinite loop of their final actions. They will exist this way so long as they hold prime place in that person’s heart (in game terms, occupying the Favourite relationship slot) before fading and collapsing into scattered dust and leaving behind only the wreckage they died in (all vehicles in the Junkyard are ruined in some way, even those which have no reason to be). They can be woken from this state by physical contact, which makes them fully aware of their surroundings.
Once woken they are dependent on the person who touched them, no longer fully tied to the otherspace which trapped them in their half-life. If physical contact is broken with the person who woke them while in the Junkyard they crumble away as if forgotten. The only sure way to avoid this is to leave with them via the Pit. Allegedly there are ways around this.
The Lost
Once woken they are dependent on the person who touched them, no longer fully tied to the otherspace which trapped them in their half-life. If physical contact is broken with the person who woke them while in the Junkyard they crumble away as if forgotten. The only sure way to avoid this is to leave with them via the Pit. Allegedly there are ways around this.
The Lost
Not everyone who enters the Junkyard finds their way out. Some get lost and some lose themselves. Some were never meant to leave. Most of these people die of exposure, human needs are just as prevalent in the Junkyard as the real world. Others eke out lives as scavengers, surviving on the scraps they salvage from new wrecks. The most successful band together in groups, preying on those weaker than them, including visitors from the outside.
Some think you can take them back with you. They might be right. They might do anything just for the chance. They might hate you if you try. There are several prominent groups among them:
The Lost - Raiders
Some think you can take them back with you. They might be right. They might do anything just for the chance. They might hate you if you try. There are several prominent groups among them:
The Lost - Raiders
Consider the kind of person who looks at the Mad Max franchise and sees that lifestyle as something to emulate. Not as a joke, not as a temporary fictional escape from crushing, prosaic banality but an honest to god pitching it all in and becoming a sports gear clad lunatic behind the wheel of a tricked out junkheap for however long they’re able to stay alive.
Those are the Raiders and, by god, this is heaven for them.
The largest of the Raider groups - Freya’s Liberated - draw their power from ties to the outside world. They use the smaller groups to feed their membership, promising access to real world luxuries, weapons and gasoline obtained by trading with clued-in outsiders. Occasional schisms and thefts are brutally put down to maintain hegemony.
This may change in the near future. Freya’s Liberated have struck the motherlode, the long lost USS Scorpion submarine sunk in 1968. Although it’s crew have long since dispersed as their loved ones have died or grieved and moved on the submarine itself is (somewhat) intact, along with two W34 nuclear warheads.
Nuclear weapons are a game changer. Some of the Liberated want to keep them as a symbol of power, some want to use them on their enemies (assuming they could figure out how), others want them gone. Factions have sprung up within the gang and word has spread to other, smaller gangs looking for a coup. For now the plan is to sell at least one of them to the Saturn’s Bulls who will flounder trying to find a real world buyer.
The Lost - Slavers
Those are the Raiders and, by god, this is heaven for them.
The largest of the Raider groups - Freya’s Liberated - draw their power from ties to the outside world. They use the smaller groups to feed their membership, promising access to real world luxuries, weapons and gasoline obtained by trading with clued-in outsiders. Occasional schisms and thefts are brutally put down to maintain hegemony.
This may change in the near future. Freya’s Liberated have struck the motherlode, the long lost USS Scorpion submarine sunk in 1968. Although it’s crew have long since dispersed as their loved ones have died or grieved and moved on the submarine itself is (somewhat) intact, along with two W34 nuclear warheads.
Nuclear weapons are a game changer. Some of the Liberated want to keep them as a symbol of power, some want to use them on their enemies (assuming they could figure out how), others want them gone. Factions have sprung up within the gang and word has spread to other, smaller gangs looking for a coup. For now the plan is to sell at least one of them to the Saturn’s Bulls who will flounder trying to find a real world buyer.
The Lost - Slavers
Being completely dependent upon another person for survival can produce unhealthy dynamics, especially in a resource scarce environment. Some people seek out this kind of dynamic, either because they’re sick or they’re malicious. It doesn’t make much difference which, in the Junkyard these people wind up being the slavers who prey on the dead.
Being able to kill someone by not touching them anymore is some pretty insane leverage. It limits what they can do for you, sure, but most of the slavers don’t mind. Plus there is evidence that those further up the hierarchy have discovered methods which allow them to circumvent the hard limitations on handling the dead: being able to rouse several at a time and give them the ability to survive independently for short periods.
Whatever the truth, it is locked away inside the slaver vaults. Hand dug, underground moleman-style settlements they use to hide the dark practices they indulge in, emerging only to collect more human chattel.
The Lost - Independents
Being able to kill someone by not touching them anymore is some pretty insane leverage. It limits what they can do for you, sure, but most of the slavers don’t mind. Plus there is evidence that those further up the hierarchy have discovered methods which allow them to circumvent the hard limitations on handling the dead: being able to rouse several at a time and give them the ability to survive independently for short periods.
Whatever the truth, it is locked away inside the slaver vaults. Hand dug, underground moleman-style settlements they use to hide the dark practices they indulge in, emerging only to collect more human chattel.
The Lost - Independents
It takes a real freak to survive alone in the Junkyard’s environment, but it’s not like the Occult Underground has any shortage of those. Otherwise loners tend to be those who’ve only just entered or fragmented remainders of a larger group, neither last long:
The Cleanser
The Cleanser
No one should be allowed to play god. The Junkyard is a mistake and a temptation that humanity is not equipped to handle. The Cleanser understands this and works to thwart the weak wills of people who would try to take advantage of the Junkyard’s dubious fruits. It lays the dead to rest.
To the other Junkyarders the Cleanser is a boogeyman. The gaskmasked lunatic won’t bother with raiders preying on each other but has no problem skulking up and waylaying a pack of slavers while they’re resting with a machete and molotovs. No one has seen its face and when it does speak its voice is a hollow rumbling.
The Cleanser needs no Favourite.
STATS
Personality: A cross between the titular character from The Book of Eli and Doomguy. Despite the fact it isn’t religious the Cleanser sees itself as a holy warrior fighting its way through hell for humanities’ salvation.
Rage: Violations of natural order. The Cleanser especially hates adepts.
Noble: Risking itself for humankind.
Fear: “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth” (Unnatural).
Obsession: The dead stay dead.
Wound Threshold: 70.
The Cleanser 70%* (Substitutes for Struggle, Provides Wound Threshold, Provides Initiative)
Avatar: The Martyr 70% (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Shock Gauges
Disorder: Obsession - Cleanse the Junkyard.
Huxley
To the other Junkyarders the Cleanser is a boogeyman. The gaskmasked lunatic won’t bother with raiders preying on each other but has no problem skulking up and waylaying a pack of slavers while they’re resting with a machete and molotovs. No one has seen its face and when it does speak its voice is a hollow rumbling.
The Cleanser needs no Favourite.
STATS
Personality: A cross between the titular character from The Book of Eli and Doomguy. Despite the fact it isn’t religious the Cleanser sees itself as a holy warrior fighting its way through hell for humanities’ salvation.
Rage: Violations of natural order. The Cleanser especially hates adepts.
Noble: Risking itself for humankind.
Fear: “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth” (Unnatural).
Obsession: The dead stay dead.
Wound Threshold: 70.
The Cleanser 70%* (Substitutes for Struggle, Provides Wound Threshold, Provides Initiative)
Avatar: The Martyr 70% (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Shock Gauges
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
5
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
1
|
Failed
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Disorder: Obsession - Cleanse the Junkyard.
Huxley
Huxley is a bit dim but he probably would have still turned out okay if it weren’t for the way he was raised. No one ever loved Huxley or if they did they never showed it: indifferent and disappointed parents who instead doted on his older, smarter sister, peer groups who he never fit in with, a community in which he was invisible. There was no bitter resentment at being excluded from these experiences in Huxley, purely mild acceptance and cow-eyed curiosity.
The idea of love fascinates Huxley, even if he isn’t quite sure what it is.
This unanchored preoccupation defined Huxley, forming a tiny core around which turned all his waking thoughts. He had no other life: no friends and distant family, he never finished school, worked a series of dead-end jobs and lived alone. He found joy in studying the cultural detritus of familial and romantic affection, comparing it to the staggering collection of real-life observations and photographs and stories he hoarded in his trailer. Huxley never loved anyone, but fancied that he loved everyone.
He couldn’t tell you how he ended up in the Junkyard but it feels like home. Something about Huxley short circuits this place, his liminal, yearning grasp on the sensation of attachment without experiencing it allows him to slip freely through and live carelessly in the Junkyard’s confines. It would be entirely plausible for him to play petty god here except he has no leash or desire but his overriding obsession.
You’re all Huxley’s Favourite.
STATS
Personality: Gormless and starry-eyed like Dondi Snayheever from Last Call or a combination of Sy Parrish from One Hour Photo and the Trashcan Man from The Stand.
Rage: Huxley has no Rage passion, he’s capable of terrible things but doesn’t have a drop of malice in him.
Noble: Huxley is extremely protective of all kinds of love and will do whatever he can to preserve it, often to the detriment of those experiencing it.
Fear: Physical abuse. Huxley’s father wasn’t a rough man but on a few occasions in Huxley’s formative years he completely lost his temper and Huxley carries that deep down (Violence).
Obsession: Human connection.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Damaged 30% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Coerces Self, Protects Isolation)
Junkyard’s Pet 90%* (Unique - Substitutes for Favourite in the Junkyard, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Shock Gauges
The idea of love fascinates Huxley, even if he isn’t quite sure what it is.
This unanchored preoccupation defined Huxley, forming a tiny core around which turned all his waking thoughts. He had no other life: no friends and distant family, he never finished school, worked a series of dead-end jobs and lived alone. He found joy in studying the cultural detritus of familial and romantic affection, comparing it to the staggering collection of real-life observations and photographs and stories he hoarded in his trailer. Huxley never loved anyone, but fancied that he loved everyone.
He couldn’t tell you how he ended up in the Junkyard but it feels like home. Something about Huxley short circuits this place, his liminal, yearning grasp on the sensation of attachment without experiencing it allows him to slip freely through and live carelessly in the Junkyard’s confines. It would be entirely plausible for him to play petty god here except he has no leash or desire but his overriding obsession.
You’re all Huxley’s Favourite.
STATS
Personality: Gormless and starry-eyed like Dondi Snayheever from Last Call or a combination of Sy Parrish from One Hour Photo and the Trashcan Man from The Stand.
Rage: Huxley has no Rage passion, he’s capable of terrible things but doesn’t have a drop of malice in him.
Noble: Huxley is extremely protective of all kinds of love and will do whatever he can to preserve it, often to the detriment of those experiencing it.
Fear: Physical abuse. Huxley’s father wasn’t a rough man but on a few occasions in Huxley’s formative years he completely lost his temper and Huxley carries that deep down (Violence).
Obsession: Human connection.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Damaged 30% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Coerces Self, Protects Isolation)
Junkyard’s Pet 90%* (Unique - Substitutes for Favourite in the Junkyard, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Shock Gauges
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
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Hardened
|
2
|
6
|
4
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5
|
4
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Failed
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2
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3
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1
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3
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1
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Friday 24 May 2019
024 - Grief's Junkyard, Interested Parties
This is the third in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.
There are a number of GMCs and cabals who have taken an interest in Grief’s Junkyard. As much as the PCs may take an interest in them, they’re likely to take an interest right back.
Grief's Junkyard, Interested Parties - Individuals
Detective Anna Moines & Retired Special Agent Hank Filmoore
Two months ago a high school student went missing following the death of his girlfriend and her family in a car accident three months prior. A missing persons report was filed with the police, people were questioned, search parties dispatched. The family held out hope but most suspected that a body would turn up sooner or later.
It didn’t and Detective Moines turned up a bunch of oddities in her investigation of the missing teen’s last movements. Messages on his computer, purchases from a hardware store and a deep, ragged pit dug at the site of the accident. She suspected foul play. Her superiors shrugged it off but she pointed out the scandal if it turned out she were right and they hadn’t followed up. She got limited assent, anything she decided to keep doing would have to come second to her mounting caseload.
Part of her investigation led her to similar occurrences in different parts of the country which in turn led her to retired FBI agent Hank Filmoore, who had made investigating the phenomenon the twilight of a lacklustre career. A fading avatar of the Hunter, Filmoore understands enough about the occult to be cagey about exposing a no-nonsense bureaucrat like Detective Moines. That’s how he lost his old partner and subsequently torpedoed his job.
He knows he can’t shake her dogged fixation. He knows she’s already seen too much to be easily dissuaded. He knows that the depression and guilt that he’s been carrying around in his dotage has gotten a lot worse since talking to her. So he expressed interest, fed her some useful bullshit he’d learned, bonded over shared on the job experiences and inserted himself into her investigation. He knows how bureaucracies work and thinks he can run out the clock on whatever time she can give it. He’s torn between that and wanting to learn the truth.
While fond of each other neither of them has a favourite.
STATS - Detective Anna Moines
Personality: Married to her job, Anna is shrewd and highly professional investigator who has no intention of climbing the career ladder any further than she already has. She’s regarded as a bit bloodless by her colleagues and family, which hides a degree of sentimentality she’d never admit, and fervently dedicated to the law. Anna likes Hank, having always found it difficult to form healthy relationships she’s discovered a friendship she thinks she could come to really value in the old man.
Rage: Sexism. Anna has had to mute and mold her personality in order to be more effective at her job because of her gender and it grates.
Noble: Single Parents. It’s a ton of responsibility on top of a raw deal, Anna doesn’t want kids herself but admires those who take it seriously and are hard done by.
Fear: Losing her job. Anna is living the only life she can imagine for herself, she doesn’t know what she’d do if that weren’t possible (Helplessness).
Obsession: Public good. Anna has seen a lot of people ground up in a system that doesn’t care, often the realities of her job force her to concede but she’ll fight the good fight whenever and wherever she can.
Wound Threshold: 60.
Detective 60% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Notice, Provides Firearm Attacks)
Dogged 60%* (Substitutes for Fitness, Protects Helplessness, Provides Wound Threshold)
There are a number of GMCs and cabals who have taken an interest in Grief’s Junkyard. As much as the PCs may take an interest in them, they’re likely to take an interest right back.
Grief's Junkyard, Interested Parties - Individuals
Detective Anna Moines & Retired Special Agent Hank Filmoore
Two months ago a high school student went missing following the death of his girlfriend and her family in a car accident three months prior. A missing persons report was filed with the police, people were questioned, search parties dispatched. The family held out hope but most suspected that a body would turn up sooner or later.
It didn’t and Detective Moines turned up a bunch of oddities in her investigation of the missing teen’s last movements. Messages on his computer, purchases from a hardware store and a deep, ragged pit dug at the site of the accident. She suspected foul play. Her superiors shrugged it off but she pointed out the scandal if it turned out she were right and they hadn’t followed up. She got limited assent, anything she decided to keep doing would have to come second to her mounting caseload.
Part of her investigation led her to similar occurrences in different parts of the country which in turn led her to retired FBI agent Hank Filmoore, who had made investigating the phenomenon the twilight of a lacklustre career. A fading avatar of the Hunter, Filmoore understands enough about the occult to be cagey about exposing a no-nonsense bureaucrat like Detective Moines. That’s how he lost his old partner and subsequently torpedoed his job.
He knows he can’t shake her dogged fixation. He knows she’s already seen too much to be easily dissuaded. He knows that the depression and guilt that he’s been carrying around in his dotage has gotten a lot worse since talking to her. So he expressed interest, fed her some useful bullshit he’d learned, bonded over shared on the job experiences and inserted himself into her investigation. He knows how bureaucracies work and thinks he can run out the clock on whatever time she can give it. He’s torn between that and wanting to learn the truth.
While fond of each other neither of them has a favourite.
STATS - Detective Anna Moines
Personality: Married to her job, Anna is shrewd and highly professional investigator who has no intention of climbing the career ladder any further than she already has. She’s regarded as a bit bloodless by her colleagues and family, which hides a degree of sentimentality she’d never admit, and fervently dedicated to the law. Anna likes Hank, having always found it difficult to form healthy relationships she’s discovered a friendship she thinks she could come to really value in the old man.
Rage: Sexism. Anna has had to mute and mold her personality in order to be more effective at her job because of her gender and it grates.
Noble: Single Parents. It’s a ton of responsibility on top of a raw deal, Anna doesn’t want kids herself but admires those who take it seriously and are hard done by.
Fear: Losing her job. Anna is living the only life she can imagine for herself, she doesn’t know what she’d do if that weren’t possible (Helplessness).
Obsession: Public good. Anna has seen a lot of people ground up in a system that doesn’t care, often the realities of her job force her to concede but she’ll fight the good fight whenever and wherever she can.
Wound Threshold: 60.
Detective 60% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Notice, Provides Firearm Attacks)
Dogged 60%* (Substitutes for Fitness, Protects Helplessness, Provides Wound Threshold)
Shock Gauges
Rage: Ingratitude. People who ask for the world and then take the delivery for granted.
Noble: Toughing it out: self-sufficiency and keeping your own counsel.
Fear: Doing more harm than good (Self).
Obsession: Redemption. Hank has spent most of his retirement trying to forget the loss of his partner. He feels like he might be able to protect someone this time.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Retired FBI 50% (Substitutes for Status, Substitutes for Knowledge, Provides Firearm Attacks)
Keeping It Together 45% (Substitutes for Lie, Protects Self, Protects Isolation)
Avatar: The Hunter 25%* (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Notches
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Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
Failed
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
STATS - Retired Special Agent Hank Filmoore
Personality: Hank gets a lot of mileage out of being warm and grandfatherly these days so he mostly sticks with that. Underneath that he’s two people: the rugged all-American FBI agent he started out as and the quiet, guilt-ridden alcoholic that drove his family away. If people see past the facade he tries to make sure they see the former. He admires Anna’s tenacity, it reminds him of better times. People tell him he looks a lot like John Malkovich.Rage: Ingratitude. People who ask for the world and then take the delivery for granted.
Noble: Toughing it out: self-sufficiency and keeping your own counsel.
Fear: Doing more harm than good (Self).
Obsession: Redemption. Hank has spent most of his retirement trying to forget the loss of his partner. He feels like he might be able to protect someone this time.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Retired FBI 50% (Substitutes for Status, Substitutes for Knowledge, Provides Firearm Attacks)
Keeping It Together 45% (Substitutes for Lie, Protects Self, Protects Isolation)
Avatar: The Hunter 25%* (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Shock Gauges
Both avatars share a very similar first channel, taboo and concept. Name a target, roll the avatar identity and if you succeed you may flip-flop all rolls in pursuit of that target. Giving up (not temporarily failing) the chase nixes your connection to the archetype. The difference between the two is that the Hunter is focused on concrete targets while the Pilgrim is all about more abstract journeys.
Christopher Whitehead
Wealthy, eccentric, private. Christopher Whitehead would seem the archetypical mysterious millionaire recluse but scratch the surface and his mundanity shines through. He made his fortune through ownership of a nationally franchised tyre sales and repair chain, which he sold to a Dutch multinational and retired. He also suffers from terrible anxiety and lifelong germophobia which limits his sociability.
The actual hidden oddity about Christopher is that he comes from a magickal lineage. He doesn’t have a sorcerous bone in his body but he is better schooled on the practical aspect of the occult than many adepts. His great-aunt Ophelia was the last in a family line of mechanomancers (he still owns a tiny mechanical horse of her’s which runs around and eats any plant matter you give it) and it is because of her that he is familiar with the Junkyard.
Imagine the mouthwatering bounty the opportunity to double-dip on all of history's’ greatest vehicular disasters would offer someone like her: the Hindenburg, the Titanic, the Tenerife Airport disaster. A mechanomancer callous enough to gorcrow over these events would be at an unparalleled magickal advantage. You’d just need the wherewithal to go in after the prize.
Or have someone else do it for you.
When she died three years ago part of aunt Ophelia’s bequeathed effects were the numerous notes she used to make sense of her then patchwork memories. This included information on who owed her favours and who she had sent into the Junkyard to work them off by scavenging in the past. So when Christopher’s wife was aboard OA515 when it crashed he knew where to start.
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
Failed
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
Avatars - The Hunter & The Pilgrim
Hank’s bond with the Hunter is getting dim these days. Depending on how things shake out he could rekindle it, transition into an avatar of the Pilgrim or lose his connection to the statosphere entirely.Both avatars share a very similar first channel, taboo and concept. Name a target, roll the avatar identity and if you succeed you may flip-flop all rolls in pursuit of that target. Giving up (not temporarily failing) the chase nixes your connection to the archetype. The difference between the two is that the Hunter is focused on concrete targets while the Pilgrim is all about more abstract journeys.
Christopher Whitehead
Wealthy, eccentric, private. Christopher Whitehead would seem the archetypical mysterious millionaire recluse but scratch the surface and his mundanity shines through. He made his fortune through ownership of a nationally franchised tyre sales and repair chain, which he sold to a Dutch multinational and retired. He also suffers from terrible anxiety and lifelong germophobia which limits his sociability.
The actual hidden oddity about Christopher is that he comes from a magickal lineage. He doesn’t have a sorcerous bone in his body but he is better schooled on the practical aspect of the occult than many adepts. His great-aunt Ophelia was the last in a family line of mechanomancers (he still owns a tiny mechanical horse of her’s which runs around and eats any plant matter you give it) and it is because of her that he is familiar with the Junkyard.
Imagine the mouthwatering bounty the opportunity to double-dip on all of history's’ greatest vehicular disasters would offer someone like her: the Hindenburg, the Titanic, the Tenerife Airport disaster. A mechanomancer callous enough to gorcrow over these events would be at an unparalleled magickal advantage. You’d just need the wherewithal to go in after the prize.
Or have someone else do it for you.
When she died three years ago part of aunt Ophelia’s bequeathed effects were the numerous notes she used to make sense of her then patchwork memories. This included information on who owed her favours and who she had sent into the Junkyard to work them off by scavenging in the past. So when Christopher’s wife was aboard OA515 when it crashed he knew where to start.
Christopher’s favourite is Cynthia Whitehead, his wife of 26 years who he adores and relies on to navigate the parts of his life he is too squeamish to manage.
STATS
Personality: Fussy and fastidious, Christopher is a pain in the neck to deal with in person. He understands this and usually hires people to act as intermediaries which fulfills the extra objectives of shielding him from social anxiety and the risk of catching something.
Rage: Being cheated in a struck deal. It’s disorderly.
Noble: Stewardship. When in charge of an enterprise Christopher sees himself as responsible for the people who depend upon it.
Fear: Illness. Christopher spent his youth around sick family and would do just about anything to avoid the same fate (Helplessness).
Obsession: Control by money. Christopher uses his fortune to smooth over the chaos of the world for the benefit of himself (and those he cares about).
Wound Threshold: 50.
Wealthy Retired Businessman 70%* (Substitutes for Status, Protects Helplessness, Unique: Gobs of Money)
Magickal Heir 50% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Unnatural, Unique: Has a Few Artifacts and a Old Rolodex Full of Magickal Weirdos)
STATS
Personality: Fussy and fastidious, Christopher is a pain in the neck to deal with in person. He understands this and usually hires people to act as intermediaries which fulfills the extra objectives of shielding him from social anxiety and the risk of catching something.
Rage: Being cheated in a struck deal. It’s disorderly.
Noble: Stewardship. When in charge of an enterprise Christopher sees himself as responsible for the people who depend upon it.
Fear: Illness. Christopher spent his youth around sick family and would do just about anything to avoid the same fate (Helplessness).
Obsession: Control by money. Christopher uses his fortune to smooth over the chaos of the world for the benefit of himself (and those he cares about).
Wound Threshold: 50.
Wealthy Retired Businessman 70%* (Substitutes for Status, Protects Helplessness, Unique: Gobs of Money)
Magickal Heir 50% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Unnatural, Unique: Has a Few Artifacts and a Old Rolodex Full of Magickal Weirdos)
Shock Gauges
He also runs a vehicle safety blog, makes a pest of himself at local and state government meetings on the subjects of road laws and upkeep, campaigns for awareness and secretly keeps what most people would think of as a shrine in his den closet, covered in clippings and print outs on vehicle fatalities.
There was no great trauma that caused Nolan to fixate this way and he refuses to examine what is most likely a mid-life crisis with an opportunistic outlet. Besides he thinks he’s uncovered something that might make people sit up and take notice, some sort of mass vandalism taking place at crash sites all over the country. If he can figure out what is going on or who is causing it and spin it the right way he might be able to finally say something that matters.
Nolan is nursing a nascent romantic relationship with Darla Higgins, a motel owner/operator halfway over to the next town who lost her husband last year, and makes sure to get out that way on business whenever he can. His favourite relationship with her is at half base value.
STATS
Personality: Cynical idealist with a weird bent. Nolan is pessimistic but wants to save the world from his chosen issue.
Rage: Deliberate ignorance. Nolan is fine with a lack of knowledge but purposely avoiding learning gets his goat.
Noble: Giving a voice to the ignored.
Fear: Nolan is afraid of not making an impact (Isolation).
Obsession: Road fatalities. They’re the leading cause of accidental death but they don’t have to be.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Newspaper Reporter 50% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Connect, Evaluates Self)
Road Safety Expert 40%* (Substitutes for Notice, Protects Helplessness, Coerces Helplessness)
Town Screwball 30% (Substitutes for Status, Protects Isolation, Evaluates Isolation)
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
Failed
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
Nolan Boone
A middle-aged newspaper writer from a small, quiet town, Nolan works the crime beat for his rag. He also covers civic events, obits and most of the sports section. It’s a pretty small town, so there’s not a deep bench. Mostly he’s fascinated by auto-wrecks. He’s been known to cross four counties on his own time and money to get photos and interview people involved with them and half these stories don’t even make it to print.He also runs a vehicle safety blog, makes a pest of himself at local and state government meetings on the subjects of road laws and upkeep, campaigns for awareness and secretly keeps what most people would think of as a shrine in his den closet, covered in clippings and print outs on vehicle fatalities.
There was no great trauma that caused Nolan to fixate this way and he refuses to examine what is most likely a mid-life crisis with an opportunistic outlet. Besides he thinks he’s uncovered something that might make people sit up and take notice, some sort of mass vandalism taking place at crash sites all over the country. If he can figure out what is going on or who is causing it and spin it the right way he might be able to finally say something that matters.
Nolan is nursing a nascent romantic relationship with Darla Higgins, a motel owner/operator halfway over to the next town who lost her husband last year, and makes sure to get out that way on business whenever he can. His favourite relationship with her is at half base value.
STATS
Personality: Cynical idealist with a weird bent. Nolan is pessimistic but wants to save the world from his chosen issue.
Rage: Deliberate ignorance. Nolan is fine with a lack of knowledge but purposely avoiding learning gets his goat.
Noble: Giving a voice to the ignored.
Fear: Nolan is afraid of not making an impact (Isolation).
Obsession: Road fatalities. They’re the leading cause of accidental death but they don’t have to be.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Newspaper Reporter 50% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Substitutes for Connect, Evaluates Self)
Road Safety Expert 40%* (Substitutes for Notice, Protects Helplessness, Coerces Helplessness)
Town Screwball 30% (Substitutes for Status, Protects Isolation, Evaluates Isolation)
Shock Gauges
The Ballards
Crash by J.G Ballard wasn’t intended as a guidebook, that absurd fusion of vehicular mayhem and sexual gratification, but it’s hard to put limits on human perversity. The Ballards began as a mundane sex club who progressively pushed the boundaries of propriety in pursuit of greater and greater thrills before straying into esoteric deviancies out of a combination of one-upmanship and trying to outrun the spectre of desensitisation.
Playing along with the novel started out as a joke. A self aware jab at how far they’d already pushed things and how distant initial pleasures seemed to their jaded palates. Rather than seeing the book as confrontation they embraced it. By the time it was on the table the people who were left were the kind to eagerly take to being egged on anyway. Dangerous driving, injury and pleasure blurred into thrilling synonymity. Nobody died but it would only have been a matter of time.
Then one of them discovered the Junkyard. Magick had darted across the periphery of the group before, one former member claimed the ability to see an object’s past and another has unknowingly brought along narco-alchemical goodies on a handful of occasions, but this was something substantial. A surreal place where the highest risk, the greatest rush could finally be realised with the added sting of unhealthy emotional attachment. Do you love me? Do you really? Prove it and try to save me.
Los Toros de Saturno (Saturn’s Bulls)
A place that can be accessed from the site of any vehicle fatality in the world? That can be used to transport things across borders with zero chance of interception? That no one in their right mind would believe actually exists? To Arturo Flores, the leader of a low-level feeder gang to the Sinaloa drug cartel, the application is obvious. The Junkyard was meant to help him smuggle cocaine and methamphetamine.
Saturn’s Bulls are unsteadily treading a fine line trying to keep things quiet while raking in as much cash as possible. Their method is appallingly effective but control over it is based on managing exposure. Only a handful of Arturo’s people understand what the Junkyard is and how to access it but they are by necessity spread out across multiple jurisdictions. If anyone were to scrutinize their activities the entire setup would grind to a halt, or worse, be uncovered and stepped on. It is only a matter of time until this happens.
So far Arturo has been able to keep his people in line with fraternal loyalty, violence and threats of the same. Understanding that this is not enough he has courted the inhabitants of the Junkyard. Brutal and adapted to a hostile environment they are delighted at the prospect of being able to trade access to their world for real world luxuries they can use to climb to the top of the local food chain.
The Othernauts
A pair of disgraced physicists, a thrillseeking strygomancer and a gas station clerk with a talent for astral projection and an eidetic memory are an unlikely bunch. Together they investigate and catalogue otherspaces, trying to unlock the secrets of the universe by reading them like the output from smashed atoms in a particle accelerator.
Their current interest is in how the Junkyard bleeds over into the real world (usually via bringing people back). The cabal is split on whether an otherspace “polluting” the real world is an issue they should do something about so their current course of action is to gather more information and identify people travelling there. They’ve identified three confirmed cases of resurrection they are keeping tabs on (only one of these is Junkyard related) and are also trawling online where information on the Junkyard has been shared in the past. They’ve also rubbed up against Saturn’s Bulls in their investigation but backed off before things could turn hostile. The Othernauts will be guardedly curious about any groups looking to explore the Junkyard and will offer assistance in return for helping fulfill their agenda.
The two physicists are lifelong friends and each other's favourite, the strygomancer and the clerk don’t have one.
Notches
|
Violence
|
Unnatural
|
Helplessness
|
Isolation
|
Self
|
Hardened
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
Failed
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
Grief's Junkyard, Interested Parties - Cabals
The Ballards
Crash by J.G Ballard wasn’t intended as a guidebook, that absurd fusion of vehicular mayhem and sexual gratification, but it’s hard to put limits on human perversity. The Ballards began as a mundane sex club who progressively pushed the boundaries of propriety in pursuit of greater and greater thrills before straying into esoteric deviancies out of a combination of one-upmanship and trying to outrun the spectre of desensitisation.
Playing along with the novel started out as a joke. A self aware jab at how far they’d already pushed things and how distant initial pleasures seemed to their jaded palates. Rather than seeing the book as confrontation they embraced it. By the time it was on the table the people who were left were the kind to eagerly take to being egged on anyway. Dangerous driving, injury and pleasure blurred into thrilling synonymity. Nobody died but it would only have been a matter of time.
Then one of them discovered the Junkyard. Magick had darted across the periphery of the group before, one former member claimed the ability to see an object’s past and another has unknowingly brought along narco-alchemical goodies on a handful of occasions, but this was something substantial. A surreal place where the highest risk, the greatest rush could finally be realised with the added sting of unhealthy emotional attachment. Do you love me? Do you really? Prove it and try to save me.
Los Toros de Saturno (Saturn’s Bulls)
A place that can be accessed from the site of any vehicle fatality in the world? That can be used to transport things across borders with zero chance of interception? That no one in their right mind would believe actually exists? To Arturo Flores, the leader of a low-level feeder gang to the Sinaloa drug cartel, the application is obvious. The Junkyard was meant to help him smuggle cocaine and methamphetamine.
Saturn’s Bulls are unsteadily treading a fine line trying to keep things quiet while raking in as much cash as possible. Their method is appallingly effective but control over it is based on managing exposure. Only a handful of Arturo’s people understand what the Junkyard is and how to access it but they are by necessity spread out across multiple jurisdictions. If anyone were to scrutinize their activities the entire setup would grind to a halt, or worse, be uncovered and stepped on. It is only a matter of time until this happens.
So far Arturo has been able to keep his people in line with fraternal loyalty, violence and threats of the same. Understanding that this is not enough he has courted the inhabitants of the Junkyard. Brutal and adapted to a hostile environment they are delighted at the prospect of being able to trade access to their world for real world luxuries they can use to climb to the top of the local food chain.
The Othernauts
A pair of disgraced physicists, a thrillseeking strygomancer and a gas station clerk with a talent for astral projection and an eidetic memory are an unlikely bunch. Together they investigate and catalogue otherspaces, trying to unlock the secrets of the universe by reading them like the output from smashed atoms in a particle accelerator.
Their current interest is in how the Junkyard bleeds over into the real world (usually via bringing people back). The cabal is split on whether an otherspace “polluting” the real world is an issue they should do something about so their current course of action is to gather more information and identify people travelling there. They’ve identified three confirmed cases of resurrection they are keeping tabs on (only one of these is Junkyard related) and are also trawling online where information on the Junkyard has been shared in the past. They’ve also rubbed up against Saturn’s Bulls in their investigation but backed off before things could turn hostile. The Othernauts will be guardedly curious about any groups looking to explore the Junkyard and will offer assistance in return for helping fulfill their agenda.
The two physicists are lifelong friends and each other's favourite, the strygomancer and the clerk don’t have one.
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