023 - Grief's Junkyard, The Bereft of Flight OA515

This is the second in a series of posts intended the outline the framework for a game in the same vein as the official Campaign Starter Kits.

Player Cabal: The Bereft of Flight OA515

Most of you lost someone aboard the recent airplane crash of flight OA515. Those who haven’t are employed by someone who did. Each of you has your own grief but you are bound by a common purpose: work together to bring your loved ones back from the dead.

Objective: Rescue our (and other’s) loved ones from the Junkyard.

Aisha Cannon is an unscrupulous British/Pakistani motumancer. She believes that magickal power is rooted in worship and that only the most deserving are able to wield it. Her typical tactic is to invade MLM groups and convert them into cults of personality before whipping her followers into a frenzy of self destruction. Employed by a wealthy patron to rescue his wife, she has never been into the Junkyard herself but knows about it. Aisha has recruited the rest of the cabal from bereavement support groups. Aside from the money, her motivation is to use the Junkyard’s hunger to shed an unexpected and unwelcome favourite relationship with a rival sociomancer adept that is threatening her magick. The GM is encouraged to play up the conflict between the cabal’s activities and her taboo.

STATS
Personality: Feigned magnanimity. Aisha is more than a little bit of a narcissist, being able to perform miracles in return for encouraging one-sided devotion will do that to a person.
Rage: Being magickally upstaged.
Noble: A better world through magick (for those who can use it).
Fear: Mobs (Violence).
Obsession: Adoration as worship is the closest human beings can come to being deified.
Wound Threshold: 50.

Motumancer 40%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Opportunist 50% (Substitutes for Notice, Substitutes for Secrecy, Provides Initiative)
Well Travelled 30% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Protects Isolation, Unique - Can Navigate Other Cultures and Languages)

Shock Gauges

Notches	Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
Hardened	2	5	2	1	3
Failed	0	1	0	0	2

Dimitri Andrade is a former Marine and fiance of flight attendant Fatima Yijifil who was aboard OA515. An only child who was doted upon by a large extended family and excelled in the environment of the small town where he grew up, Dimitri considers himself naturally above other people. He guards this self-image from interference by embracing an idealised fairytale role for himself which has so far diverted the worst of life's slings and arrows.

STATS
Personality: Overly gregarious and glad handing, Dimitri comes off a bit forced (and he is aware of it). He's learned to wallpaper over that with sustained bluff and bluster. Most people who know him accept that's just how he is.
Rage: Phonies (ironically).
Noble: Getting people to meet their potential.
Fear: Failing to live up to his idealised image (Self).
Obsession: A Disney-fied version of himself.
Wound Threshold: 50.

Marine 60% (Substitutes for Fitness, Provides Firearm Attacks, Protects Violence)
Prince Charming 60%* (Substitutes for Status, Protects Isolation, Protects Self)

Shock Gauges

Notches	Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
Hardened	4	2	2	1	2
Failed	0	0	0	2	1

John Ferguson is one of three survivors of the crash (moderately injured), he was on board with his young daughter Camille who was not so lucky. His dramatic survival has put him on the path of The Survivor archetype although this will likely fade without reinforcement. A quiet, middle-aged photocopier salesman with a serious mean streak underneath, he’s done terrible things that he regrets but will only do again if pushed. And he’ll always find a way to feel pushed.

STATS
Personality: Quiet and obliging, it’s only when someone gets to know him that they’ll realise that John has an iron backbone. He’ll go along with people just fine until they rub him the wrong way (or he thinks they will).
Rage: Fair weather social darwinists. John thinks it's only natural for people to maximise their own benefit, just don't be two-faced about it if it doesn't go your way.
Noble: Taking care of his own.
Fear: Do unto others before they can do unto you (Helplessness).
Obsession: If you let people take advantage, they’ll always push you around.
Wound Threshold: 50 (currently sitting on 14 points of damage).

Dangerous 60%* (Substitutes for Struggle, Coerces Violence, Provides Initiative)
Photocopier Salesman 40% (Substitutes for Connect, Substitutes for Status, Evaluates Isolation)
Avatar: The Survivor 20% (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)

Shock Gauges

Notches	Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
Hardened	4	2	1	2	3
Failed	0	0	1	0	2

Wendy Mercer is a service animal trainer, her twin-brother Greg was aboard the flight. She lives a stone's throw from a major city in her own rural retreat where she avoids as many of the hazards of modern living as she can. She and her brother have always shared a close bond, with a chaotic upbringing being shuffled through the foster system that meant they often only had each other. She has never told anyone but she remembers the day of the crash and how she knew about it before anyone told her, it’s not the first time she’s felt things about Greg at a distance. Unknown to her, her birth mother - a reprobate Gaian mystic - conceived the pair as part of a powerful proxy ritual and immortality gambit which has transcended the barrier of death.

STATS
Personality: Pragmatic flower child. Wendy would be a lot more carefree if she hadn’t experienced firsthand how rough life is, she values the gentler things while realizing how fragile they can be.
Rage: People who hurt kids or animals.
Noble: Leave things better than you found them.
Fear: Losing her twin brother Greg (Isolation).
Obsession: Everybody should feel capable.
Wound Threshold: 50.

Service Animal Trainer 50%* (Substitutes for Connect, Substitutes for Dodge, Substitutes for Fitness)
Twinning 40% (Specific Information: Her Brother, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick)
Self Sufficient 30% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Medical, Unique: Can Make and Fix Things)

Shock Gauges

Notches	Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
Hardened	2	3	3	2	1
Failed	0	0	1	2	0

Setup
At the outset there are a few things to address about how the group fits together, have the players collaborate on these to help establish their characters and their connections:

• You’ve all spent time in support groups together. What things have you shared in this environment? (Optionally, play out this encounter as an icebreaker for the group).
• What did it take for Aisha to convince the others? Not only that she was telling the truth but that they should join her. Did she do this as a group or come to everyone individually? Did she use magick?
• Why did Aisha pick the others? What about them impressed her enough she thought they would make a good fit for a trek through a magickal wasteland?
• How do you get along with the others? Everyone has their Favourite defined by their reason for participating, but what else? Attach at least one other relationship to one of your cabalmates (or all of them as a group). If the players prefer they may defer this for a session or three to allow connections to develop naturally before saying “after having to take care of him so much I want to make Dimitri my Responsibility.”