Ritual: Anachronism
Cost: 3 significant charges.
Ritual Action: Take all of your identity documents - birth certificate, driver’s licence, social security card, etc. - and burn them at night. Grind the ashes into a fine powder and put them inside a box, do not expose them to sunlight. Wrap yourself in a flag from a country that is not recognized by any other state and while wearing it only speak the native language of that country. Use the powdered ashes to block each entryway of the area to be effected with an unbroken line, if it’s outdoors draw a line around the whole thing.
Leave the area immediately, do not make eye contact with anyone for at least 33 minutes.
Effect: For the next 33 minutes anything that happens in the affected area will not accurately enter the historical record. At the GMs discretion the caster may have some control over this (most likely by incorporating gutter magick into the larger ritual) but the most lurid and sensational version of events is the more likely outcome. This does not change individual recollections of people who were there or obscure any recordings, it just ensures those things will never gain traction with the greater mindshare.
As a side effect the ritual is a magnet for Time Leeches (see Book 3: Reveal, page 89). If you violate the final clause of the ritual one will latch on to you. Likewise if anyone breaks one of the ash-powder barrier lines they too will be latched on to. Anyone they blank out of existence is retroactively remembered as being there by those present (just quiet and in the background), but dressed and speaking like they’re from another time period. Violating the ritual in this way ends the main effect, but more leeches can attach themselves to people for further breaches until the 33 minutes is up.
Sunday, 15 December 2019
Saturday, 14 December 2019
228 - Shoemaker's Bindings
Artifact: Shoemaker’s Bindings
Power: Significant.
Description: A set of tools, 50% normal size, wrapped in police tape from a crime scene and soaked in egg yolks over the winter solstice. Older versions have different wrappings, bandages from a dead man are the most common with antiques.
Effect: Leave it out overnight, unattended and unobserved with some incomplete minor physical labour and an offering of some kind (food, cash and narcotics all work). So long as you can stick to that it’ll be done by morning and the offering gone. If it matters the force who does the work has an effective rating of 30% in a relevant identity. Each set of bindings is keyed to a particular task and won’t do anything outside of it. Attempting to observe the work breaks the effect and the artifact. There aren’t any magickal elves.
Although the work isn’t done by demons, possession occurs in the area around a set of bindings with startling regularity. In game terms you’re looking at a cumulative 10% chance per week that someone nearby ends up with a demon riding around inside their head for a while.
Power: Significant.
Description: A set of tools, 50% normal size, wrapped in police tape from a crime scene and soaked in egg yolks over the winter solstice. Older versions have different wrappings, bandages from a dead man are the most common with antiques.
Effect: Leave it out overnight, unattended and unobserved with some incomplete minor physical labour and an offering of some kind (food, cash and narcotics all work). So long as you can stick to that it’ll be done by morning and the offering gone. If it matters the force who does the work has an effective rating of 30% in a relevant identity. Each set of bindings is keyed to a particular task and won’t do anything outside of it. Attempting to observe the work breaks the effect and the artifact. There aren’t any magickal elves.
Although the work isn’t done by demons, possession occurs in the area around a set of bindings with startling regularity. In game terms you’re looking at a cumulative 10% chance per week that someone nearby ends up with a demon riding around inside their head for a while.
Friday, 13 December 2019
227 - Claudia Kinsela, Paranoid Author
GMC: Claudia Kinsela, Paranoid Author
In 1998, when she was a college freshman Claudia Kinsela wrote a novel. It wasn’t a bestseller, won no critical acclaim, it wasn’t even very good. Fall Where They May was a book about a repressed young woman lashing out against social norms by permitting herself small trespasses, surrendering her decision-making to literal rolls of the dice. Over the course of the novel her behaviour becomes steadily more extreme and destructive as she seeks higher and higher stakes. Safe in the knowledge that it's not really her doing it, it's all the little plastic cube's decision. The book culminates in a double homicide, her fiance and the housemate he was indecent with, and an ambiguous final passage that implies some kind of ultimate escape which could be anything from suicide to a poorly veiled ascension. Written during the dull periods of a year long internship at a medical supply company, only 500 copies were ever printed. You can occasionally find one on eBay or Amazon.
Although it faded quickly from its author's consideration as a piece of embarassing juvenalia, Fall Where They May developed a cult following. People using it as an excuse to cut loose on their self-control, surrendering themselves to the will of the dice. For a lot of them it means casual drug use and group sex. For one small cabal it means something almost religious, a group of low-rent entropomancers calling themselves “Gamblers Synonymous” have made it their bible.
Using the book’s methods to gather charges and explore their magick they are utterly convinced Claudia is some kind of genius prophet, enough so that they decided to pay her a visit and see what other secrets she had. Until she encountered the Gamblers, Claudia had no idea about anything magickal, she'd gone on to live a normal, boring life and reacted appropriately. After a roll of the dice they shot her husband and pinned it on her to show just how serious they are.
The last six months have been a nightmare. Between being dogged across 4 states by the cabal, pursued by law enforcement and living like a fugitive, Claudia has done things she never thought she could or would. The only thing that keeps her going is the thought of her children, now living with her in-laws back home. The cabal think they can force an awakening in Claudia and that when she comes into her own that she will lead them to greater highs out of gratitude. The more likely outcome is a complete breakdown - she's on the verge - or that she uses the skills survival has taught her to end them all.
STATS
Personality: A bookish Sarah Connor, if you waffle between Terminators 1 & 2. The gritty reality of living on the lam is far from movie glamourous, Claudia is almost always exhausted, broke and justifiably afraid.
Rage: People who take their loved ones for granted.
Noble: Preventing collateral harm.
Fear: Being caught unprepared (Helplessness).
Obsession: Find a way to finally be free of these monsters.
Wound Threshold: 50.
One-Hit Writer 40% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Evaluates Helplessness, Evaluates Self.)
Clerical Worker 50% (Substitutes for Notice, Protects Isolation, Protects Helplessness.)
On The Run 30%* (Substitutes for Secrecy, Provides Firearm Attacks, Provides Initiative.)
Shock Gauges
In 1998, when she was a college freshman Claudia Kinsela wrote a novel. It wasn’t a bestseller, won no critical acclaim, it wasn’t even very good. Fall Where They May was a book about a repressed young woman lashing out against social norms by permitting herself small trespasses, surrendering her decision-making to literal rolls of the dice. Over the course of the novel her behaviour becomes steadily more extreme and destructive as she seeks higher and higher stakes. Safe in the knowledge that it's not really her doing it, it's all the little plastic cube's decision. The book culminates in a double homicide, her fiance and the housemate he was indecent with, and an ambiguous final passage that implies some kind of ultimate escape which could be anything from suicide to a poorly veiled ascension. Written during the dull periods of a year long internship at a medical supply company, only 500 copies were ever printed. You can occasionally find one on eBay or Amazon.
Although it faded quickly from its author's consideration as a piece of embarassing juvenalia, Fall Where They May developed a cult following. People using it as an excuse to cut loose on their self-control, surrendering themselves to the will of the dice. For a lot of them it means casual drug use and group sex. For one small cabal it means something almost religious, a group of low-rent entropomancers calling themselves “Gamblers Synonymous” have made it their bible.
Using the book’s methods to gather charges and explore their magick they are utterly convinced Claudia is some kind of genius prophet, enough so that they decided to pay her a visit and see what other secrets she had. Until she encountered the Gamblers, Claudia had no idea about anything magickal, she'd gone on to live a normal, boring life and reacted appropriately. After a roll of the dice they shot her husband and pinned it on her to show just how serious they are.
The last six months have been a nightmare. Between being dogged across 4 states by the cabal, pursued by law enforcement and living like a fugitive, Claudia has done things she never thought she could or would. The only thing that keeps her going is the thought of her children, now living with her in-laws back home. The cabal think they can force an awakening in Claudia and that when she comes into her own that she will lead them to greater highs out of gratitude. The more likely outcome is a complete breakdown - she's on the verge - or that she uses the skills survival has taught her to end them all.
STATS
Personality: A bookish Sarah Connor, if you waffle between Terminators 1 & 2. The gritty reality of living on the lam is far from movie glamourous, Claudia is almost always exhausted, broke and justifiably afraid.
Rage: People who take their loved ones for granted.
Noble: Preventing collateral harm.
Fear: Being caught unprepared (Helplessness).
Obsession: Find a way to finally be free of these monsters.
Wound Threshold: 50.
One-Hit Writer 40% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Evaluates Helplessness, Evaluates Self.)
Clerical Worker 50% (Substitutes for Notice, Protects Isolation, Protects Helplessness.)
On The Run 30%* (Substitutes for Secrecy, Provides Firearm Attacks, Provides Initiative.)
Shock Gauges
Thursday, 12 December 2019
226 - Dawson Prince, Riding the TNI Gravy Train
GMC: Dawson Prince, Riding the TNI Gravy Train
Trying to fleece the New Inquisition would have been a bad idea in the good old days of freely flowing expense accounts and benefits for those who could prove their mettle. In the new security-minded cult that TNI has become it’s practically a deathwish. So why does Dawson risk literal life and limb pulling the wool over Abel’s eyes when he could go be a successful white-collar criminal anywhere else?
In a word: fixation.
Dawson is a part of the old guard from the original organisation, it’s a factor he has used to evade scrutiny on more than one occasion. Coming up through the ranks as a fresh MBA graduate in the company of hardened killers and criminals took a lot of bluff and guts. It taught him the value of less tangible kinds of power better than any classroom given that the consequences of failing to outmaneuver his contemporaries could have been fatal. Subtle webs of interdependent blackmail and deals protected him better than a gun ever could. It also freed him up to find a way to rob the organisation blind.
Then the Whisper War came and someone stole that pie off the windowsill before he could. Sure he could have emptied a few bank accounts then cut and run, but it was the principle. The score had been his and someone had trampled all over it. His hesitation mistaken for loyalty, Dawson found himself grandfathered into a position of seniority.
Now he maintains his position using the same tools as before for higher risk and less pay-off. Careful blackmail, leverage and owed favours carefully balanced against each other in a house of cards that threatens to take more than just him with it. His latest scheme involves manufacturing occult incidents from whole cloth and pretending to investigate them while skimming funds. The fallout from failing to produce results is starting to wear thin though and Alex Abel’s attention is now fixed on Dawson. Desperate, he’ll take any legitimising win at this point. If that means destroying a PC cabal’s goals he won’t think twice. Anything to keep his dream of one day rorting TNI down to the bones alive.
STATS
Personality: Excitable and arrogant. Dawson does his best to come across as a little spacey, all the better for people to underestimate him. Even those who know the truth about him find themselves believing it at times and leaving themselves open.
Rage: Having one of his schemes reversed on to him.
Noble: Younger versions of himself, although it’s generally hard for him to avoid trying to take advantage that’s the one situation he’ll reliably grow morals over.
Fear: Torture (Violence).
Obsession: Taking TNI for all he can get.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Sublime Con Artist 65%* (Substitutes for Lie, Coerces Self, Unique - Once per session expend a relevant passion to retroactively reveal a prepared contingency with a successful roll.)
TNI (Mis)management 55% (Substitutes for Status, Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Self.)
Shock Gauges
Trying to fleece the New Inquisition would have been a bad idea in the good old days of freely flowing expense accounts and benefits for those who could prove their mettle. In the new security-minded cult that TNI has become it’s practically a deathwish. So why does Dawson risk literal life and limb pulling the wool over Abel’s eyes when he could go be a successful white-collar criminal anywhere else?
In a word: fixation.
Dawson is a part of the old guard from the original organisation, it’s a factor he has used to evade scrutiny on more than one occasion. Coming up through the ranks as a fresh MBA graduate in the company of hardened killers and criminals took a lot of bluff and guts. It taught him the value of less tangible kinds of power better than any classroom given that the consequences of failing to outmaneuver his contemporaries could have been fatal. Subtle webs of interdependent blackmail and deals protected him better than a gun ever could. It also freed him up to find a way to rob the organisation blind.
Then the Whisper War came and someone stole that pie off the windowsill before he could. Sure he could have emptied a few bank accounts then cut and run, but it was the principle. The score had been his and someone had trampled all over it. His hesitation mistaken for loyalty, Dawson found himself grandfathered into a position of seniority.
Now he maintains his position using the same tools as before for higher risk and less pay-off. Careful blackmail, leverage and owed favours carefully balanced against each other in a house of cards that threatens to take more than just him with it. His latest scheme involves manufacturing occult incidents from whole cloth and pretending to investigate them while skimming funds. The fallout from failing to produce results is starting to wear thin though and Alex Abel’s attention is now fixed on Dawson. Desperate, he’ll take any legitimising win at this point. If that means destroying a PC cabal’s goals he won’t think twice. Anything to keep his dream of one day rorting TNI down to the bones alive.
STATS
Personality: Excitable and arrogant. Dawson does his best to come across as a little spacey, all the better for people to underestimate him. Even those who know the truth about him find themselves believing it at times and leaving themselves open.
Rage: Having one of his schemes reversed on to him.
Noble: Younger versions of himself, although it’s generally hard for him to avoid trying to take advantage that’s the one situation he’ll reliably grow morals over.
Fear: Torture (Violence).
Obsession: Taking TNI for all he can get.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Sublime Con Artist 65%* (Substitutes for Lie, Coerces Self, Unique - Once per session expend a relevant passion to retroactively reveal a prepared contingency with a successful roll.)
TNI (Mis)management 55% (Substitutes for Status, Substitutes for Secrecy, Evaluates Self.)
Shock Gauges
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
225 - Somsak “Book” Onurang, Protean Moralist
GMC: Somsak “Book” Onurang, Protean Moralist
Codes and beliefs, be they conveyed by tradition, philosophy, or creed, are anchors by which we measure our actions and guard against trespass. They form lasting communal bulwarks, a measure of shared identity that provide meaning and a sense of permanence against our transitory existences. Buddhism does this by embracing the impermanence of all while ironically, to Somsak’s (Book to most who know him) thinking, relying on institutional practices to perpetuate itself.
As quibbles go it’s not the most compelling reason to lose faith, but for Book it was a crack and exposure to the existence of other belief systems in adolescence tilted his worldview. Having accepted Buddhism as a tacit fact of life based on his isolated upbringing in rural Thailand, the revelation that it may only be one path of many was life changing. His wasn’t an instantaneous, rebellious departure, there was still the weight of community and binding poverty keeping him from exploring, but not for long. He was ordained at a monastery as a youngster and parlayed his talent and dedication into education at a university in India where he obtained a doctorate in theology in his 20s.
Writing several popular books on the subject of religious relativism gave Book the opportunity to leave his old life behind and he took it. He travelled extensively, immersed himself in the beliefs of others and, after firsthand experience with the religious delusion of Jerusalem syndrome, came to a conclusion: all systems of belief are shared parasites of the self. Fully repudiating his upbringing, Book sees religions, philosophies and political positions as tools to define and understand who we are, not ends in their own right. Adopting and discarding them as the situation warrants, he seeks to refine his personal identity into something metaphysically pure and platonic, not discard it. His resulting slide into adepthood was practically seamless and his powers have only bolstered his academic career.
Book is only vaguely aware that something like the occult underground exists. He believes his adept powers are simply an indication that he is absolutely right and would be shocked to find that there are others who draw magickal power from completely alien worldviews out there. It would be his childhood discovery all over again.
STATS
Personality: Book’s personality is mutable with the changing seasons of his morality, but always with a sanguine undercurrent. He is usually eager to share his latest insights but will not force them on anybody (unless his current code dictates).
Rage: Filial obligation. Book is ashamed of abandoning his family, who would never understand what he is, and channels that shame into anger at the idea of owing one’s parents.
Noble: Fostering self-knowledge. If Book can help someone learn something about themselves he’ll stop and take the time.
Fear: That his obsession is a false path (Self).
Obsession: Hone the self by exposure to new moralities and ideas.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Religious Scholar 60% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Protects Self, Protects Unnatural.)
Sociomancer 60%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Codes and beliefs, be they conveyed by tradition, philosophy, or creed, are anchors by which we measure our actions and guard against trespass. They form lasting communal bulwarks, a measure of shared identity that provide meaning and a sense of permanence against our transitory existences. Buddhism does this by embracing the impermanence of all while ironically, to Somsak’s (Book to most who know him) thinking, relying on institutional practices to perpetuate itself.
As quibbles go it’s not the most compelling reason to lose faith, but for Book it was a crack and exposure to the existence of other belief systems in adolescence tilted his worldview. Having accepted Buddhism as a tacit fact of life based on his isolated upbringing in rural Thailand, the revelation that it may only be one path of many was life changing. His wasn’t an instantaneous, rebellious departure, there was still the weight of community and binding poverty keeping him from exploring, but not for long. He was ordained at a monastery as a youngster and parlayed his talent and dedication into education at a university in India where he obtained a doctorate in theology in his 20s.
Writing several popular books on the subject of religious relativism gave Book the opportunity to leave his old life behind and he took it. He travelled extensively, immersed himself in the beliefs of others and, after firsthand experience with the religious delusion of Jerusalem syndrome, came to a conclusion: all systems of belief are shared parasites of the self. Fully repudiating his upbringing, Book sees religions, philosophies and political positions as tools to define and understand who we are, not ends in their own right. Adopting and discarding them as the situation warrants, he seeks to refine his personal identity into something metaphysically pure and platonic, not discard it. His resulting slide into adepthood was practically seamless and his powers have only bolstered his academic career.
Book is only vaguely aware that something like the occult underground exists. He believes his adept powers are simply an indication that he is absolutely right and would be shocked to find that there are others who draw magickal power from completely alien worldviews out there. It would be his childhood discovery all over again.
STATS
Personality: Book’s personality is mutable with the changing seasons of his morality, but always with a sanguine undercurrent. He is usually eager to share his latest insights but will not force them on anybody (unless his current code dictates).
Rage: Filial obligation. Book is ashamed of abandoning his family, who would never understand what he is, and channels that shame into anger at the idea of owing one’s parents.
Noble: Fostering self-knowledge. If Book can help someone learn something about themselves he’ll stop and take the time.
Fear: That his obsession is a false path (Self).
Obsession: Hone the self by exposure to new moralities and ideas.
Wound Threshold: 50.
Religious Scholar 60% (Substitutes for Knowledge, Protects Self, Protects Unnatural.)
Sociomancer 60%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Tuesday, 10 December 2019
224 - Harriet Steck, Mandelbrot Messenger
GMC: Harriet Steck, Mandelbrot Messenger
Once upon a time a man tried to unseat the Messenger with a new archetype grounded in uncertainty and personal interpretation. Inimical to the idea that truth can ever be truly known, it is ironically unclear whether he succeeded. On the one hand the old archetype still seems to exist, with active practitioners championing its existence by the very merit of their powers. On the other the collapse of truth in reporting might be all the counter-proof you need. There’s no telling whether the first lot are really agents of the second unwittingly pushing their own views as fact anyway.
In light of this Harriet’s belief isn’t that the Heisenberg Messenger is correct. It’s that the actions of Dermott Arkane don’t go far enough. We aren’t just isolated by interpretation and bias, we’re fundamentally alone in a way language and culture struggle futilely to address. Nothing can truly cross the invisible gulf separating our perspectives. No matter how close we may seem to be our idiosyncrasies strand us on an infinite fractal shoreline. No matter how close we may seem to be scrutiny reveals just how impossible it is to really see eye to eye. As an avatar of what she calls the Mandelbrot Messenger, Harriet sees it as her duty to seek ascension and unseat the incumbent archetype (whatever it might be) the same way her father did.
It’s an extreme but understandable departure from the cult doctrine she was raised by especially now that it has dissolved. Out of all of Arkane’s proxied byblows her actions ironically makes her closer to her father's vision than any of the others. Only by reconciling the impossibility of communicating our individual truths can we give it value. Thanks to her magickal prowess and the gravitas of her lineage a growing number of disillusioned believers agree.
STATS
Personality: Incisive but frazzled, Harriet can seem like she knows your darkest fears and secrets one second and forget where she parked the next. She uses a lot of handwritten notes and little reminders to keep her on track.
Rage: Abandonment.
Noble: Building strength through adversity.
Fear: Exposure of her past. She thinks it will undermine her message (Isolation).
Obsession: The bridges of communication are all mirages, we’re all alone.
Wound Threshold: 50.
The Apple That Didn't Fall Far From The Tree 55% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Coerces Isolation, Coerces Self.)
Motumancer 40%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Avatar: The Messenger 70% (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Once upon a time a man tried to unseat the Messenger with a new archetype grounded in uncertainty and personal interpretation. Inimical to the idea that truth can ever be truly known, it is ironically unclear whether he succeeded. On the one hand the old archetype still seems to exist, with active practitioners championing its existence by the very merit of their powers. On the other the collapse of truth in reporting might be all the counter-proof you need. There’s no telling whether the first lot are really agents of the second unwittingly pushing their own views as fact anyway.
In light of this Harriet’s belief isn’t that the Heisenberg Messenger is correct. It’s that the actions of Dermott Arkane don’t go far enough. We aren’t just isolated by interpretation and bias, we’re fundamentally alone in a way language and culture struggle futilely to address. Nothing can truly cross the invisible gulf separating our perspectives. No matter how close we may seem to be our idiosyncrasies strand us on an infinite fractal shoreline. No matter how close we may seem to be scrutiny reveals just how impossible it is to really see eye to eye. As an avatar of what she calls the Mandelbrot Messenger, Harriet sees it as her duty to seek ascension and unseat the incumbent archetype (whatever it might be) the same way her father did.
It’s an extreme but understandable departure from the cult doctrine she was raised by especially now that it has dissolved. Out of all of Arkane’s proxied byblows her actions ironically makes her closer to her father's vision than any of the others. Only by reconciling the impossibility of communicating our individual truths can we give it value. Thanks to her magickal prowess and the gravitas of her lineage a growing number of disillusioned believers agree.
STATS
Personality: Incisive but frazzled, Harriet can seem like she knows your darkest fears and secrets one second and forget where she parked the next. She uses a lot of handwritten notes and little reminders to keep her on track.
Rage: Abandonment.
Noble: Building strength through adversity.
Fear: Exposure of her past. She thinks it will undermine her message (Isolation).
Obsession: The bridges of communication are all mirages, we’re all alone.
Wound Threshold: 50.
The Apple That Didn't Fall Far From The Tree 55% (Substitutes for Secrecy, Coerces Isolation, Coerces Self.)
Motumancer 40%* (Adept, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Avatar: The Messenger 70% (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Monday, 9 December 2019
223 - The Bostick Independent Filmmakers Guild
Cabal: The Bostick Independent Filmmakers Guild
Located in a small city which has successfully managed the uneasy transition from industrial- to knowledge-based economy, the Bostick Independent Filmmakers Guild is the kind of organisation that could only thrive in an economy with ample room for diversion. Or that would be the case if the cabal weren’t a bunch of self-obsessed, talentless hacks.
A trio of cinemancers motivated less by the love of their art than the power it promises them, they’ve banded together against an entire subculture of indie movie makers that despise them. If it weren't for their magickal power they'd be laughably ineffective. Instead as a group they work clumsily towards expanding the boundaries of cinema to in turn expand the influence of their powers. When all is cinema then nothing will be beyond their grasp.
Their current objectives are:
Michael Marx is a local trust fund kid whose parents own the Bostick Regent Theatre, a crumbling edifice that has seen better days. Access to a historic landmark and a semi-bottomless pit of resources allows him the opportunity to do the one thing he’s best known for: using other people’s money as a replacement for having anything to say.
A well-dressed, wide-featured man with a harelip, Michael wants the glamour movies hold as implicit, easy promise. He wants to not have to work for anything and if he can expand the influence of the thing he holds sway over he won't have to. The others know he is loath to share this primacy but they are unaware of how far he is willing to go to avoid sharing the spotlight.
Luz Richard is technically brilliant but creatively bankrupt, having made her name in filmmaking circles by facilitating other people’s work in a bevvy of roles. Films have swept Cannes, Sundance and Sitges based on the quality of her work, others have sunk into unworkable quagmires because she reached too far trying to leave her mark on them. Relegated to carefully managed supporting roles by canny filmmakers, she obnoxiously destroyed her career in a public meltdown.
A tall, tomboyish woman with an athletic build who is always sporting some scrape or another, Luz chewing around the edges of other people’s work is her toying with the poison of her creative touch. If she can nail it down she can excise it and become what she sees as a success, not just what other people do.
Leslie Sheffield is a walking movie encyclopedia, if it has touched film Leslie has seen it. He mistakes his knowledge as equivalent to understanding how movies are made and it shows. Stubborn naivety, turned toxic by an inability to let go of the same thing that powers his magick undermines Leslie’s ability to do more than consume the thing that he loves. He works both the ticket and projectionist's booth at Michael's parent's theatre and sleeps in a little room upstairs.
A round, spectacled man who is sensitive about his lisp, Leslie is often overcome with excitement at the prospect of sharing his opinions and knowledge with other seekers and fans. He sees his quest as anything but selfish, he thinks he doesn’t crave power but merely wants to share (impose) his refined vision on movies (the world).
Located in a small city which has successfully managed the uneasy transition from industrial- to knowledge-based economy, the Bostick Independent Filmmakers Guild is the kind of organisation that could only thrive in an economy with ample room for diversion. Or that would be the case if the cabal weren’t a bunch of self-obsessed, talentless hacks.
A trio of cinemancers motivated less by the love of their art than the power it promises them, they’ve banded together against an entire subculture of indie movie makers that despise them. If it weren't for their magickal power they'd be laughably ineffective. Instead as a group they work clumsily towards expanding the boundaries of cinema to in turn expand the influence of their powers. When all is cinema then nothing will be beyond their grasp.
Their current objectives are:
- Expand the realm of cinema with a new movie. There are some creative differences as to how this should be achieved but finding a way to reconcile them is just a part of the process. This is their objective and currently sits at 14%.
- Find out who broke into the Regent and stole several canisters of antique films from Leslie’s collection. He swears they held the key to the next stage of their objective. He says that about a lot of things.
- Capture the elusive celluloid nightmare, a shapeshifting mockery of 1970s and 1980s movie monsters unleashed by Luz’s tampering. Not only will getting ahold of it free the local area from the scourge they’ve created, as a potent magickal symbol its sacrifice holds the potential to help make their dreams a reality.
Michael Marx is a local trust fund kid whose parents own the Bostick Regent Theatre, a crumbling edifice that has seen better days. Access to a historic landmark and a semi-bottomless pit of resources allows him the opportunity to do the one thing he’s best known for: using other people’s money as a replacement for having anything to say.
A well-dressed, wide-featured man with a harelip, Michael wants the glamour movies hold as implicit, easy promise. He wants to not have to work for anything and if he can expand the influence of the thing he holds sway over he won't have to. The others know he is loath to share this primacy but they are unaware of how far he is willing to go to avoid sharing the spotlight.
Luz Richard is technically brilliant but creatively bankrupt, having made her name in filmmaking circles by facilitating other people’s work in a bevvy of roles. Films have swept Cannes, Sundance and Sitges based on the quality of her work, others have sunk into unworkable quagmires because she reached too far trying to leave her mark on them. Relegated to carefully managed supporting roles by canny filmmakers, she obnoxiously destroyed her career in a public meltdown.
A tall, tomboyish woman with an athletic build who is always sporting some scrape or another, Luz chewing around the edges of other people’s work is her toying with the poison of her creative touch. If she can nail it down she can excise it and become what she sees as a success, not just what other people do.
Leslie Sheffield is a walking movie encyclopedia, if it has touched film Leslie has seen it. He mistakes his knowledge as equivalent to understanding how movies are made and it shows. Stubborn naivety, turned toxic by an inability to let go of the same thing that powers his magick undermines Leslie’s ability to do more than consume the thing that he loves. He works both the ticket and projectionist's booth at Michael's parent's theatre and sleeps in a little room upstairs.
A round, spectacled man who is sensitive about his lisp, Leslie is often overcome with excitement at the prospect of sharing his opinions and knowledge with other seekers and fans. He sees his quest as anything but selfish, he thinks he doesn’t crave power but merely wants to share (impose) his refined vision on movies (the world).
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