Humble1

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

We start by each of you declaring which PC you trust the least.

@Penny

Um, tricky.

Anders is a were, and so there will be times that they're a violent beast. "Even a man who is pure of heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf, when the wolfbane blooms, and the Autumn moon is bright." Still, Anders-the-human is stable and reliable. Even the beast is predictable, in its violent way.

January is a different thing. What can motivate a person who has watched whole civilizations rise and fall? He has outlived millions of people like me. What value could he place on one brief mortal life?

So January is the PC I'd trust least.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

@rush99999 Oops, mixed it up. Fixed it with Alliyah.

Again, let me know if the Alliyah debt is ok with you Humble :)

@POOHEAD189

Looks good, let's go with it.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

<Snipped quote by tokkiya>

@Humble1 What was this job?

@Penny

Someone had been breaking into the corner store owned by Aliyah's parents. They'd been stealing small amounts each time; low value things, but constant. The police didn't consider it a priority. Aliyah hired Anders to put his werewolf nose to the test and sniff out the culprit. In return, she would provide some medicines that would hopefully keep the wolf calm during transformations.

Unfortunately, things are always strange in Corvus Bay. The scents were confusing, and simply stopped ten paces outside the store. Anders hung around the store at night, but saw nothing. One night, on the edge of a full moon, Anders had some kind of confrontation with something in the shadows. The wolf has only vague memories of that night, but whatever it was tried to work some kind of magic, figured out quick that Anders was immune, and then got away. Wizard? Fae? Impossible to know.

The thefts have slowed down, but they still happen on occasion. Aliyah doesn't blame Anders, but it is frustrating.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

The Charleston area would be fine. There's a lot of history there that I could draw from for Aliyah's traditions.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

<Snipped quote by Humble1>

Why did you italicise garum?

@rush99999

Supposedly, you should italicize foreign words that may not be familiar to the average reader. At least according to the Chicago style manual I used in college.

In looking at the rule again, I see I only needed to italicize the first usage, so *shrug*.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

Od actually like everyone to post their open debts here that way we can brainstorm together. You light decide what debts you owe beach other or common npcs

@Penny

Here's what I've got so far. I've used Caber and January and created one NPC.

Aliyah's Debts

Someone is helping you keep your demons at bay. You owe them a Debt.

Sometimes coming from a magical family is a pain in the posterior. Sometimes it means you have to deal with intrusive relatives and their scrying spells, sometimes you have to deal with demons. Well, not literal hellish demons, although if you squint it's hard to tell.

Someone in my family - don't ask me who but not me - made a deal with Queen Mab herself from the Unseelie Court. I'm guessing whoever it was is long dead now, but the Unseelie don't have a tight grasp of human time. One of the courtiers decided it was time to collect and sent around their collections crew. Those are the guys who could pass for demons in any evangelist's nightmares. And apparently, the debt is one whole person. And I'm the lucky person.

Thank the Goddess that Caber stepped in. Between the two of us, we managed to get the Unseelie so turned around that they might as well have been back in the Underhill. So far, we've been able to keep them from tracking me down.

I hear that I'm obliged to marry someone in the Unseelie Court. My romantic prospects are pretty dismal, but I'm not that desperate.

Someone is your go-to when you get into trouble. You owe them 2 Debts.

Who else? My sister. Doctor Theresa Schilling. The white sheep of the family. The Schillings have practiced hoodoo since the days of slavery. So what does my rebellious older sister do? She runs off and becomes a skeptic, that's what. Oh, she's willing to admit that herbal remedies might work, but don't get her started on hexes and hands and juju.

Still, she's my sister. I can call her whenever there's a problem. And there's always a problem. Last month there was a local church where the preacher got it into his head to sermonize against traditional medicine as "witchcraft." OK, fine, but he started naming names, and wouldn't you know it but Schilling was one of those names. So my sister comes to town with her organization - Society for the Examination of the Supernatural, or something like that - and does an expose on some of the miracle claims that the preacher had made. Lo and behold, it also turned out that preacher man had been doing some "laying on of hands" with a couple of women in the congregation. When Theresa got that story out, the whole church shook.

So, she's effective, and she's smart, she's my sister, and I owe her. I just have to be careful not to let her meet any of my more exotic customers. That could get ugly fast.

You are helping someone keep a dangerous secret. They owe you a Debt.

There are only a few people in the world who know how to properly brew garum, the ancient Mediterranean condiment that the Romans put on everything. Great-grandma Moesy Schilling was one. Goddess only knows how she got the recipe. She passed the method down through the family.

So, one day I've got a barrel of garum brewing in my back garden. It involves fermenting fish juice, so it's a hard thing to miss from downwind. I turn around and there's this man standing there, trying to figure out where the smell is coming from. Imani - my cat - takes one look and nopes right out of there. Not even the frizzle chickens want to get close, and they love anything that smells like magic. So I chant a quick wisdom verse, and suddenly realize I've got an incredibly old vampire standing in my back garden looking wistful at a barrel of fish guts.

He introduces himself as January. Turns out he was an ancient Roman and hasn't smelled that ... distinctive fragrance in about 1700 years. We dicker a bit. I promise never to reveal his secret to any of the local churches - like any would listen to me - and he agrees not to try and drink from any of the Schillings. He also buys the entire batch of garum.

There are a few folks in the local magical community who would love some vampire fangs for elixirs. So far, I've been able to keep them from finding out about January.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

So what does everyone think of having the city this game takes place in named Corvus Bay?

@rush99999

That works. We could have a crow theme.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

@tokkiya

Agreed, the top one is actually easier on the eye.

The Black of Night - Urban Shadows

Aliyah Schilling

Name: Aliyah Schilling Playbook: Wizard Age: 33 Look: African American Woman in Fancy Clothing Demeanor: Volatile Stats ---- Blood: -1 Heart: 0 Mind: 2 Spirit: 1 Factions ---- Mortality: 1 Night: -1 Power: 1 Wild: 1

Intro
Who are you?

Aliyah Schilling. Doctor Schilling, if you prefer.

How long have you been in the city?

All my life. How long has the city been in me? The same.

What keeps you up at night?

Very little, thanks to a sip of Ease of Mind. That's a tea from an herb in the Asteraceae family - that's the daisy family, for the record. Plus some other odds and ends. And the shot of whiskey doesn't hurt either. But if you mean what makes me resort to Ease of Mind ... my family, I suppose. My community. Same thing, in the end. I have responsibilities that weigh on my mind some nights. People place more faith in me than I deserve, and make more demands than I can handle, which is the fate of every competent woman.

What have you sacrificed for your power?

I have no power. Only knowledge. And I earned it - EARNED it, mind - the old fashioned way. I worked, studied, practiced. Oh, I'll grant you, coming from my family I had a leg up. But every step I took was my own. If I'm still single in my thirties - a fact that I assure you my mother and several aunts point out every day - and if I have few friends, and few hobbies, what of it?

What do you desperately need?

What does everyone need? Time. More money would be nice, I suppose, but it always seems to come with strings attached. But I have sachets to make up, and blessing to perform, and teas to brew and wounds to heal and minds to mend and more every day. Just give me time, and a nap.

Gear: A simple house with an herb garden and a sunroom. An old truck with the back full of flowerpots and soil. Cell phone.
Focus: Herbs, potions, powders and poultices.
Sanctum: Kitchen at home.
Weapon: Butcher Knife (3-harm hand messy)

Features:
An extremely knowledgeable assistant - Imani, a russet cat who sniffs every potion and always knows where every ingredient is.
A library of old tomes
Magical booby traps - Goofer dust around the foundation. Keeps away pest and other undesirables.
An apothecary

Flaws:
It contains many volatile substances
Its location is known by many

FOCUS
A satchel full of powders and concoctions.

SPELLS
Tracking
Memory Wipe
Hex

Debts

Someone is helping you keep your demons at bay. You owe them a Debt.

Sometimes coming from a magical family is a pain in the posterior. Sometimes it means you have to deal with intrusive relatives and their scrying spells, sometimes you have to deal with demons. Well, not literal hellish demons, although if you squint it's hard to tell.

Someone in my family - don't ask me who but not me - made a deal with Queen Mab herself from the Unseelie Court. I'm guessing whoever it was is long dead now, but the Unseelie don't have a tight grasp of human time. One of the courtiers decided it was time to collect and sent around their collections crew. Those are the guys who could pass for demons in any evangelist's nightmares. And apparently, the debt is one whole person. And I'm the lucky person.

Thank the Goddess that Caber stepped in. Between the two of us, we managed to get the Unseelie so turned around that they might as well have been back in the Underhill. So far, we've been able to keep them from tracking me down.

I hear that I'm obliged to marry someone in the Unseelie Court. My romantic prospects are pretty dismal, but I'm not that desperate.

Someone is your go-to when you get into trouble. You owe them 2 Debts.

Who else? My sister. Doctor Theresa Schilling. The white sheep of the family. The Schillings have practiced hoodoo since the days of slavery. So what does my rebellious older sister do? She runs off and becomes a skeptic, that's what. Oh, she's willing to admit that herbal remedies might work, but don't get her started on hexes and hands and juju.

Still, she's my sister. I can call her whenever there's a problem. And there's always a problem. Last month there was a local church where the preacher got it into his head to sermonize against traditional medicine as "witchcraft." OK, fine, but he started naming names, and wouldn't you know it but Schilling was one of those names. So my sister comes to town with her organization - Society for the Examination of the Supernatural, or something like that - and does an expose on some of the miracle claims that the preacher had made. Lo and behold, it also turned out that preacher man had been doing some "laying on of hands" with a couple of women in the congregation. When Theresa got that story out, the whole church shook.

So, she's effective, and she's smart, she's my sister, and I owe her. I just have to be careful not to let her meet any of my more exotic customers. That could get ugly fast.

You are helping someone keep a dangerous secret. They owe you a Debt.

There are only a few people in the world who know how to properly brew garum, the ancient Mediterranean condiment that the Romans put on everything. Great-grandma Moesy Schilling was one. Goddess only knows how she got the recipe. She passed the method down through the family.

So, one day I've got a barrel of garum brewing in my back garden. It involves fermenting fish juice, so it's a hard thing to miss from downwind. I turn around and there's this man standing there, trying to figure out where the smell is coming from. Imani - my cat - takes one look and nopes right out of there. Not even the frizzle chickens want to get close, and they love anything that smells like magic. So I chant a quick wisdom verse, and suddenly realize I've got an incredibly old vampire standing in my back garden looking wistful at a barrel of fish guts.

He introduces himself as January. Turns out he was an ancient Roman and hasn't smelled that ... distinctive fragrance in about 1700 years. We dicker a bit. I promise never to reveal his secret to any of the local churches - like any would listen to me - and he agrees not to try and drink from any of the Schillings. He also buys the entire batch of garum.

There are a few folks in the local magical community who would love some vampire fangs for elixirs. SO far, I've been able to keep them from finding out about January.

The Village At The End of the World (A Darkest Dungeon Inspired RP)

Interested.

The thing I remember most about Darkest Dungeon is how tense the combat is. It's a game where a few bad rolls can spell the end of a party no matter how careful the player. But this is in Casual rather than Dice. How are you planning to deal with the combat?