Campaign of the Month: February 2022
Dresden Files Accelerated: Emerald City: Requiem
Charles Samuel Kress
Description:
ASPECTS:
HIGH CONCEPT: PARANET TRAINED WIZARD
Having access to the Paranet’s information and contacts gives Charlie perspective on the bigger picture as well as providing a place for him to learn new rituals and evocations. Being a member of the net means he could be called on at any time to assist a member of the community.
- Invoke: Access to paranet resources and contacts, to do magic.
- Compel: Assist/teach other netters. Defend those in need.
TROUBLE: DARK FAMILY HISTORY
“Charlie has been on the run all his life whether he knew it or not. Some dark shadow from his parents past haunts his every step. This can make it difficult for him to form friendships and alliances with those wary of being involved with his shadowy demons. But also makes him adept at doing things discreetly, and escaping when he is being chased.”
- Invoke: Going unnoticed/blending in. Escaping from pursuit.
- Compel: Slow to trust. Paranoid. Actually hunted by some unknown entity.
ASPECT: SHARP-WITTED BUT MOODY TEENAGER
Charlie is bright, but his recent loss and general angst tend to make him difficult to be around. His age means people he needs to deal with are not always likely to take him seriously. He also has not had a great deal of time to experience much of what there is to know about the world, supernatural and mortal alike.
- Invoke: Resilient. Open minded. Given a modicum of leniency.
- Compel: Lack of experience. Easily influenced. Legally a minor. Not taken seriously.
ASPECT: DELINQUENT DETECTIVE
Having to operate on the fringes of mortal society Charlie is no stranger to using less than legal means to accomplish his goals.This has led to a few run-ins with law enforcement of both the mundane and supernatural sort.
- Invoke: Deceiving. Gaining access to secured places. Finding hidden things.
- Compel: Known troublemaker and usual suspect. Follows EVERY clue. Distracted by the unexplained.
ASPECT: BLOOD OF ANGELS
Charlie shares the same divine blood as Jack and Caroline. This provides reserves of power and intuition he never knew he had and gives him a strong sense of connection and sense of duty to them. He is also determined of purpose, and it can be difficult to change his mind about things. Dark powers and those seeking to take advantage of this holy heritage make them constant targets of sinister plans.
- Invoke: Divine inspiration. Not easily dissuaded.
- Compel: Familial obligation. Do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
APPROACHES:
Good +3: Intellect
Fair +2: Focus, Haste
Average +1: Guile, Flair
Mediocre +0: Force
MANTLE
MAGICAL PRACTITIONER (Supernatural Scale)
CORE STUNTS:
Evocation:
As a wizard, you can cast magical spells comprising the five elements: fire, air, earth, water, and spirit. In game terms, you may perform any of the four basic actions with spectacular magical effects such as defending with a shield of ice or creating an advantage by shifting earth beneath the opponent’s feet. Your actions may have scale (page 182) at the GM’s discretion. If desired, push yourself to increase the spell’s effect as follows:
- Mark a stress box for +1 or two boxes for +2 on any one magical action. You may mark only two boxes at a time.
- Mark Exhausted to add +4 to any single magical action or to attack multiple targets magically without dividing your roll (page 190).
- Mark Burned Out to gain +2 to all magical actions for the rest of the scene or, if Exhausted is already marked, to attack multiple targets with magic without having to divide your roll.
These benefits are cumulative: if you mark two stress boxes and both conditions, you could do a single magical action at +8, and then have +2 to all magical actions for the rest of the scene.
Thaumaturgy:
You excel at ritual magic (page 168). Add +2 to the preparation roll for any ritual.
Soulgaze:
When looking someone directly in the eye for more than a few seconds, you peer into their soul and they likewise see into yours. The exchange manifests itself as a cryptic vision. Make a Focus roll, opposed by their Focus roll; the winner learns one concrete, useful piece of information about the other individual, or two things if the winner succeeds with style. On a tie, each person learns something. These things can be advantages with a free invoke at the GM’s discretion.
ADDITIONAL STUNTS:
Paranetter:
You are an active participant in the Paranet (page 54), a collection of low-level talents and clued-in mortals communicating over the World Wide Web. Once per session, you may contact the Paranet to request assistance. Te GM determines what aid the Paranet is able to provide, typically helpful information; extraordinary circumstances may dictate in-person aid or even Warden intervention.
Psychometry:
You have a talent for catching glimpses of the past when you touch an object. When spending a scene to meditate on thee object you may roll Focus against an oppositions set by the GM. For every shift generated the GM reveals one aspect of the items recent or significant past. This check is affected by Scale.
REFRESH: 2
Spent Refresh :1
Bio:
Charles Samuel Kress’s 3×3×3
BACKGROUND
Charlie lived the first seven years of his life with little incident and about as much care as any young child does. Always the outsider he didn’t make friends easily and wasn’t into all the ‘cool’ things other kids were into. His parents were overprotective and he spent a lot of time reading instead of outside playing. But all that takes a turn when Charlie is drawn to a box in the attic where he finds his biological mother’s belongings, learning that he is adopted. In his shocked state Charlie unknowingly activates his Sight, and overwhelmed by the residual magic of his mother’s belongings and wards placed on the house he falls into a comatose state for two weeks.
His magical abilities awakened upon finding the items Charlie realizes he can perform actual magic and begins to practice in the woods near his house after school. Shortly after his eighth birthday while practicing in the woods Charlie becomes surrounded by and lost in a thick impenetrable fog. This lasts for two days, but only feels like a few hours to Charlie. Becoming extremely protective of him after this, Charlie’s parents now choose to home-school him.
RISING CONFLICT
It has been more than a year since the incident when Charlie and his Mother return home from shopping to find their home has been ransacked. Getting a sickening feeling Charlie runs to his room where he has kept his mother’s things only to find them missing from their hiding spot. His parents fearing they and he may be in actual danger now let Charlie in on the secret they have kept from him. They tell him his mother was in terrible danger when she had him and had to keep running, placing Charlie in their care because they could protect him from being found hopefully long enough for her to come back for him. Knowing that their ability to protect him is severely limited they all decide that it’s best of Charlie begins to actually learn magic under a proper mentor.
While Charlie is at first excited about the proposition, he soon becomes disenchanted with his tutors, far surpassing their ability to teach him and spending more and more of his time searching for clues about who his parents are and why people are after him. A year later he is finally passed to the head of the network, Elaine Malory. He spends the next two years under her indirect tutelage growing quickly into a full-fledged Sorcerer, but this isn’t what intrigues her the most. It’s Charlies ability to use Psychometry instinctively rather than as a ritual. She uses this ability a few times during their brief time together and tasked him with verifying information for Netters in the meantime. Charlie becomes adept with the less glamorous side of investigation during this stage of his training, breaking into places to get evidence and barely staying out of trouble with the law.
THE STORY
STORY TITLE: AN UNGODLY AFFAIR
GUEST STARRING:
Charlie’s new guardian FELIX KLEIN wouldn’t be called a saint on a good day. But the artifact he was in possession of, or that was in possession of him, was a whole different matter. With the weakening of the barrier between the Nevernever and Seattle it was much easier to summon demons and one was summoned temporarily into an idol disguised as an occult artifact and given to Klein to study. It only took a few days before the demon had wormed his way into Klein’s head and had taken control of the man. Knowing he had to be careful and smart about doing anything while Charlie was around it could not overlook a great opportunity to collect souls directly from the living in the wake of BLACK MONDAY.
Noticing the odd change in behavior Charlie began watching Klein’s comings and goings and began to tie them to disappearances of people in the city. After talking with his former colleagues in the net the only conclusion was that he had become the victim of demonic possession. Knowing he needed help to pull this demon out of a man who had cared for him since his parent’s deaths, Charlie began looking for someone capable of performing an exorcism. He also began researching Klein’s life around the time he noticed the change in order to figure out how the demon managed to possess him. Whatever possessed Klein had gone to ground, but there were signs of demonic activity in the city.
With his research complete and a capable exorcist in tow, the hunt for Klein began. It didn’t take long to find him, having devolved into a hungering beast they stumbled across him one night standing over his most recent victim in one of the abandoned warehouses on the waterfront. In the ensuing battle, that Klein left crippled and paralyzed from the waist down, the demon was successfully banished back to the Nevernever.
GUEST STAR
STORY TITLE: BLOOD OF THE FALLEN
STARRING: JACK YOUNGBLOOD
Before moving to Seattle, Charlie lived in Portland with his adopted parents. Just coming into his own and with the backing of the Paranet he was preparing for the coming of the Fomor when his parents were taken. Used as bait by Azael who came to find that Charlie possessed angelic blood, he was being lured into a trap and watched them die. He would have been next if not for having been saved by the intervention of Jack Youngblood whom he would find was his half brother. Will Jacks protection be enough to save him from Azael’s machinations, and will Charlie ever be able to redeem Jack for his sacrifices?
GUEST STAR REDUX
STORY TITLE: ANCIENT CLAY
STARRING: DAVID CLAY
When David was asked to look into a series of suspect foreclosures he didn’t expect it to lead back to an ancient Mesopotamian artifact. Charlie first met David when he came calling on Dr. Klein to look into the history of the object, it was then that he sensed something special about the lawyer. Knowing he would need more than just an archeologists opinion on the matter Charlie started looking for information from the Paranet about what this artifact could be. Finally figuring out the toxic nature of the item, he made the journey to the strange attorney’s office only to find Jack Youngblood there, apparently a friend of the man. Together the organized a plan of action and successfully subdued the evil spirit.
