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
|
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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