Lost Souls Campaign Advice: things that go bump... (Terraism OUT!)

Terraism, if you're reading this, STOP NOW.

NOW.

Thank you.
















Okay, I think he's gone.

I'm running a solo d20 Modern (over instant message no less) for my friend Terraism, and while I've got lots of ideas, I'm looking for some help piecing a few bits together, and some of your opinions.

The PC is Alex, a first level Smart hero, a graphic designer by trade. His story is that he lost his family to a car accident a few months back, and has moved from New York State (where Terra lives) to London (where I live - convenient) to get away from his past. On arriving in his new apartment in north London, he discovered the ghost of a girl trapped in his bathroom mirror.

The campaign plot as I see it goes a little something like this: A slightly crazed American guy (from Boston in fact) moved to London some years back. As well as being crazed, he's deeply into occult mysteries and very, very smart. For reasons of his own - which might mirror Alex's reasons for leaving the States, depending on how evil I'm feeling in the final confrontation - he's decided he wants to defeat death. Result: he's dabbling in dark sorcerous arts. One of the things that's helping him get near his goal is trapping the souls of the people he kills. This includes Anna (the ghost in his mirror), and the as-yet-unnamed ghost who he met at another address. (Long story short - Anna wrote the address, 7a Fairfax Road, on the inside of the mirror and Alex felt inclined to check it out.)

"Boston", as Alex has taken to calling him, is still occasionally using 7a as a hideout, which is why Alex found such things as an old spellbook and a drawer full of small change, bottle caps, and other circular pieces of metal. (I think these are material components for the trapping ritual.)

Last piece of the puzzle is the box Alex has found in his apartment: a music box, with some of Anna's things in it, including a gold pendant which has some minor magical power. (I'm thinking either a reduced protection from evil, or a +1 to Sense checks. No, I don't mean Spot and Listen - more on Sense checks later.)

I'm not stuck for things to do for the next few sessions as Alex has some researches to do regarding a symbol he memorized from the spellbook, and a few other bits and pieces. But the major question really is where am I going to get his next lead from? I want to lead him up a few garden paths, as any good DM should, if only to keep him from running into "Boston" just yet. There are mundane things related to this guy that he can try to combat - drug deals, trafficking, etc - but I'm not sure how to handle that really.

OK, so I'm looking for advice there, but also your opinions on something. Alex has an ability he's not aware of yet - it's psychic, but I'm treating it like a skill. It's called Sense, and it means he has a limited ability to detect presences and evil things, and I'm essentially going to give him an extra skill point a level to spend on psychic stuff. Although my current plan is to keep it hidden from him (spending the skill point for him) until he's aware of it, as a character. What do people think of that - good idea? Bad idea? How should I adjudicate when he's aware of it? (My current thinking is that when he tries to use it actively himself, rather than it passively activating, he's aware of it.)

Help?

Actually, I like what you've got listed so far. If I were you I'd use this early time to set up a half dozen different NPC's, none of which will be very important at this stage but some will be later. You'll also be able to spin one or two combat segments off from this. Try these on for size:

Elizabeth Amber Huntingdon - Widow of previous landlord of the building. Her husband died of mysterious circumstances a year ago and she recently sold the building. She comes back to pick up something that she left behind.

Carter MacFadden - Local thug. Sells cheap drugs at the nearby corner. Has an odd facial tick, which strikes the PC as odd. Likes to whistle, but stops when the PC approaches.

Anila Sharisa - College student. A student origianlly from India currently living in London. She has a cousin who is an actor who has had bit parts in several recent Bollywood productions. She will run into the PC at the local DVD store, where she will try to interest him in seeing her cousin's films. He will think she's flirting with him.

Sgt. Jeffrey K. Patriquen - Canadian Soldier. A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he is currently in England on a special anti-terrorist program available to other British Commonwealth nations. His specialty is munitions. He lives in the PC's building and is under orders to not reveal who he is and why he is there. The PC will bump into him several times in the building, and if played correctly may actually come to suspect that Patriquen is a foreign terrorist.

Mary Ayrshire - Teenage girl, originally from Scotland. She attends a local dancing school that may or may not have something to do with Anna. He will run into her when trying to find out more information about Anna.

Rashi Handann - Teenage boy of Jamacian descent. Has some superficial knowledge of the occult, but will play that up if he thinks he can get some money out of the PC.

Wow - thanks SM! Those NPCs are fantastic, and they give a real "London flavour" to the game. I'm going to change a few bits, though...

Elizabeth Huntingdon
Used to live in Alex's apartment way back when. A little history: the building Alex lived in used to be a council block which was then sold off piecemeal to tenants during the 1980s and 1990s - common practise back then. The Huntingdons moved up North and sold the flat eight years ago; it stood empty for some years, during which a series of squatters occupied it, including the people who trafficked Anna. A year and a half ago, a developer bought the entire block and several near it from the tenants, redeveloped it, and is now letting out the flats through an agent. Alex is currently trying to get hold of his landlord because of the ghost deal, but will have a hard time because the whole reason the landlord employs an agent is to avoid being bothered by his tenants. Elizabeth's husband did die, up north, perhaps indeed in mysterious circumstances, though not connected to "Boston". She's moving back into the area because her daughters live nearby, and stops by the flat for old time's sake.

Sean McFadden
The name is all that's going to change: people just aren't called Carter over here.

Anila Sharisa
I have a better place for him to meet her: the library, which is where he's going soon to research a symbol he turned up while at 7a.

Sgt. Jeffrey K. Patriquen
He's staying exactly as he is.

Mary Ayrshire
Anna's been dead for five years, so she'll have to be a bit older. Just the dancing thing, though, gives me an insight into Anna's history: she wanted to be a dancer. She managed to run away from the traffickers initially, and lived with Mary for a few weeks while she was auditioning for dancing schools. Mary may now teach at that local dancing school.

Rashi Handann
Ooh, I like him. Working him in is going to be tough, though... the question is how would he meet/find out about Alex?

randomling said:

Wow - thanks SM! Those NPCs are fantastic, and they give a real "London flavour" to the game. I'm going to change a few bits, though.

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Help yourself and feel free to change whatever you like. Colorful NPC's add alot of flavour to any campaign. (My recent Western campaign would have gone in a different direction if Gary Gygax hadn't made a few reader's suggestions of some colorful NPC's).

randomling said:

Rashi Handann Ooh, I like him. Working him in is going to be tough, though... the question is how would he meet/find out about Alex?

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Where? Simple, they're both on the same car together in the London Subway (I believe you call it the Underground). One will notice something the other is reading and begin a conversation

I like the idea of the Sense check, and I think you can certainly get away with it simply being something you use as and when you see fit. Don't forget that the most important thing about this is that it's a good story and it's interesting, so if you want him to notice something do so! You've got an in-game reasoning for it, so don't worry too much about the mechanics.

And of course, don't forget to steal real people you know for the game.

Another possible NPC:

Madame Luludja Gypsy fortune teller. Alex might pass her shop-front every day, or instead, he might keep finding her business cards in odd places. On the tube, at the laundry, wedged into a booth cushion at a restaurant. She is part charlatan/part actual medium. Perhaps Rashi even works for her doing odd jobs. Or maybe there was some sort of mystery/evil spirit thingie in Rashi's life, and she helped him. Or, maybe they just live in the same building. Regardless, Madame Luludja uses tarot cards, tea leaves, a crystal ball, and all sorts of other stuff. Here is a link with some images from the Rider-Waite deck, if you want to incorporate tarot cards into the story.

Randomling, I love where you're going with this. It looks like great fun!

Tallarn said:

I like the idea of the Sense check, and I think you can certainly get away with it simply being something you use as and when you see fit. Don't forget that the most important thing about this is that it's a good story and it's interesting, so if you want him to notice something do so! You've got an in-game reasoning for it, so don't worry too much about the mechanics.

And of course, don't forget to steal real people you know for the game.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. I'm already part-decided that Rashi is going to be partly based off you and partly based off the kids we work with! I'm also fairly convinced that Rashi is going to be more important than I originally though, possibly in tandem with Madame Luludja, who I like already. I think Rashi's 15 and he's already dropped out of school. While the PC's special talent is sensing spirits and presences, Rashi's talent is sensing other people with special talents. He may have already seen Alex, and is now following him around, having told Madame Luludja about him. They might want him for something else entirely... a scam?... but Rashi may get involved with Alex's quest for 'Boston'.

Speaking of which, more on my supervillain.

Professor Nicholas Landau hails from Boston. He's big and strong as well as smart; back at Yale, where he taught for a decade, he was a professor of psychology who dabbled in the occult in his spare time. When his wife and child died in an accident, he moved to London, much like my PC, who did the same when his parents and sister were killed in a car crash. That was ten years ago. Landau got involved in crime right around the time he started looking deeper into sorcery. His ultimate aim is to beat death; ultimately, he wants his wife and child back, and to cross the divide he needs to trap a certain number of souls here. The number is 91 - seven times thirteen - and he's started using Seven Thirteens as a code name and internet name. He's obsessed with it...

i'm getting *chills* as I read this right now.

For Terraism's PC: Since he's not actively developing the skill I'd make it random and something he can't control. He should have flashes, "bad feelings", wake up in the middle of the night feeling he's being watched, etc. Various side effects of a psychic sense that's not being controlled should be both terrifying and exhilirating. The NPCs that don't tap into such sides of their life will be confused or not understand (or even believe) his inuitions; the NPCs who share this skill potential with him will understand and be empathetic.
Try to evoke the skill and the world's reaction to it as close to the real world as possible; which may be a bit sad, so throw in the "game" aspects and that should add more joy to it.
The more stressful/dangerous of a situation, the more strongly the Sense should provide information to him. Not always coherent though.
If he tells you at one point that he wants to develop it, ask him how he wants to pursue doing so. If he chooses books, meditation, etc. (whatever form you think the skill should develop through) then have him make some progress and "meet" others who are drawn to him. If he has no idea how to proceed then possibly interject one of the other NPCs who has more control (they know they are putting skill points into it) show up during an adventure to offer friendship and guidance. When the student is ready, the master will appear.

Rashi: As a Spotter (real-world term) Rashi is an ideal canidate for further adventures, he'll be drawn to people and places that "buzz" and draw them to himself as well. One side effect to being a Spotter is that people who are Gifted usually inherently trust a Spotter, even if they are "villian types" (such as the Professor), unless they are developing paranoid tendencies. He could start up a convo with Alex on the pre-text of what Alex is reading but Rashi really doesn't care; he knows what Alex is, and getting to "know" more about Alex is the real goal of course.

Adventures: hehheh, easy. Life for those who are Gifted usually turns from one adventure to another. Adventures are all about information; knowing X which leads you to Y. Those who are Gifted (such as Alex, and Rashi) tend to get drawn into adventures whether they like it or not.
For an Empath gifted the way Alex is (i.e. can read/see beings which are incorporeal) he will get a lot of attention; the Dead know who can see or feel them, and they have alot to say.
One track is to go with a strong-Barrier where the adventures are closer to what happens to Bruce Willis's character in "Unbreakable";the hero gets flashes or glimpses of info and then acts on them as best as he can with the skills he has being somewhat mortal still. Or go with a weak-Barrier where more *impossible* things seem to occur as in "Bullet-proof Monk" either due to training or innate talent.

anyway, thats enough for now.

Malcolm: nice. Thank you! The word Spotter, which I didn't know, is helpful.

The PC: I'm already providing him with dreams. The first one was reasonably coherent, because he has a strong, strong link with Anna, but later dreams are going to be less coherent and more disturbing. We also had a wonderful moment where he was house-breaking. He saw a dark shape on a mattress and felt prickles on the back of his neck, and said something along the lines of "If you're going to scare the hell out of me, just do it". He almost jumped out of his skin when the ghost got up and said "Are you talking to me?"

So far, he hasn't told anyone (living) that he can "see dead people". I'd imagine the reaction of people who aren't Spotters would be skeptical at best.

I think Rashi and Madame Luludja are going to try to draw Alex into some side adventures. Especially once he finds out what he can do. See, there's a talent that Alex has that he hasn't used yet, one that he'll find much easier to use once he tries it once. He can not only see ghosts - he can let them free. That's the ultimate aim with Anna and 7-13's other prisoners; he draws a good deal of power from the trapped ghosts.

I'm not sure quite how he frees the ghosts, though. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate them!

you're welcome Randomling.
"Spotter" is a term I made up for my writing on psychic experiences. Many other belief systems and other people have come up with similiar themes but no one that I know of before me listed "Spotting others 'gifts'" as a skill or ability. Until you. So I figured I owed it to you to out myself on the topic.

As for dealing with ghosts/spirits/energy beings/outsiders, the best I can give you are the two primary real-world examples and let you translate from there. Both of these approaches work with sentient beings and for cleaning memory engrams (places that store mental imagery such as the Tower of London)..

<<note: under no circumstances should it be thought that I endorse folks "doing" the two following rituals if they think they are seeing ghosts. Ever.>>

1.) Dismissal via Repulsion: this ranges from your standard (heh) Exorcism to the drum beat ceremonies of some Tibetan shamans. This is a very active form of power using things which are distasteful or harmful to the ontological nature (rough trans: mental/spiritual paradigm) of the being. Usually this is just for physical manifestations (i.e. garlic for vampires) but works equally well against spirits.
This is a piting of will vs. will usually (Cha or Will based skill/roll just like Turning in 3E) but can also be just using the correct formula (the Dismissal spell is a gaming example). Its very physically exhausting and the more participants the better. Its also very "noisy" from what people describe psychically; practitioners of Chi-focusing also notice the "heat" from such rituals.

2.) Dismissal via Release: this is the more dangerous and rarer forms of getting ghosts or spirits to move beyond or disincorporate etheraly. This is a passive use of power, in that the psychic/shaman, etc. focuses on the connection between themselves and the being, and on the connection between their life force and the world and the connection between the being and the world. Using empathic projection techniques (i.e. funneling large amounts of emotional energy) with the being the psychic would then attempt to parallell the beings state of emotion with their own. Once this is achieved the psychic must then call up their own feelings of anger, loss, sorrow, hatred, those things which keep us attached to things in the real world, and begin to let go of such feelings. There are various methods of doing this, whatever works best for the person is always the best method to use.
- - Another way to do this, especially in the case of fully sentient roamings (i.e. ghosts that are aware of themselves and can move from place to place) is to "Lead by example". What this means is for the psychic to simply let the spirit follow them around and show them (the being) how they (psychic) lets go of the day to day anger in their lives and that negative feelings are not what makes up life. This takes longer but is safer when one is dealing with beings that are not inherently dangerous, just clinging (usually through fear of the unknown or sorrow) to life.

In both cases the practitioner will be severly drained (even those who are older/more experienced) both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Side effects afterward typically: small lapses of short-term and long-term memory loss, dissassociative disorder, stress, and irregular cycadic dreaming; physicals include: shaking, clumsiness, hyperness or sluggishness, etc. Some even report an intense feeling of calm. Basically the same reactions folks have after being in car accidents, or very traumatic experiences.
In either case the best thing to do after each is some sort of "cleansing" ritual, once again this should be done by a person who the practitioner feels comfy with and trusts and in a way that the practitioner feels their experience is "over".

Closure in all things is important.