Campaign of the Month: February 2022
Dresden Files Accelerated: Emerald City: Requiem
Jack Youngblood
Description:
ASPECTS:
HIGH CONCEPT:
DISGRACED SPIRIT-TALKING WARDEN
INVOKE: Jack is still the Warden of Seattle and uses his innate connections to the local Spirits and his might as a Warden of the White Council to protect the region.
COMPEL: To be called to duty by the Council. Jack has just gotten his magic back and he is still getting used to it. This can cause a loss of control which is dangerous at his power levels. Because of his choice to save his half brother Portland fell to the Fomor and they gained a foothold in the region. Word of Jack’s betrayal has spread across the region throughout the supernatural world. Many feel he is directly responsible for everyone that has been harmed by the Fomor since.
TROUBLE:
DIVIDED BY FAMILY & DUTY
INVOKE: N/A
COMPEL: Jack is torn by his duties as a Warden of the White Council of Wizards in Seattle and his obligations to his wife, Abby, his child, Lillith Youngblood, his sister Caroline and his half brother Charlie. His drive to protect his family at all costs has led him to make questionable decisions such as saving his brother instead of stopping the Fomor from taking Portland. He is willing to do anything to protect his family. ANYTHING.
SPIRITUAL SAVANTE
INVOKE: Because of Jack’s unique bloodline, which includes the blood of a Fallen Angel, he has a unique connection to the spirit world. He can persuade spirits to aid him and has greater ability to control them.
COMPEL: Jack stands out to spirits. He is like a beacon in the long night. Spirits will seek him out to address their wrongs. He also finds it difficult to cloak his presence from them.
MISSPENT YOUTH
INVOKE: When doing something criminal or dealing with the criminal element supernatural or otherwise.
COMPEL: He has a bad rep for being a crook and a trouble maker in the Supernatural community and he has a rap sheet with mortal authorities. Some of his old associates might come calling on him.
EYES AND EARS OF SEATTLE
INVOKE: Jack has friends all over the Seattle area in both the mundane and supernatural worlds. His connections to the Spirit World and the ghosts that haunt Seattle is deep and he can often find out the most obscure facts through those connections.
COMPEL: Because of his connections Jack is often called upon to provide information by a variety of unsavory characters. Others might know of his deep connections and seek to eliminate someone who can shine a light on their activities.
APPROACHES: 16/16
Superb +5: Focus
Great + 4:
Good +3: Flair, Guile, Intellect
Fair +2:
Average +1: Force, Haste
MANTLE:
MAGICAL PRACTITIONER & SPIRIT TALKER (Supernatural Scale)
UNIQUE CONDITIONS:
Exhausted (sticky): [ ]
Check this condition to boost your magical power, as described by the Evocation stunt. When you are Exhausted, the GM has one boost to use against you in any scene in which your fatigue may be used against you. Clearing Exhausted, of course, requires an active effort to rest. The GM may allow this recovery to occur between any two scenes involving a sufficient time jump.
Burned Out (lasting): [ ]
Check this condition to further boost your magical power, as described by the Evocation stunt. If Burned Out, you cannot use magic, period, until fully recovered. Begin recovery by eating, meditating, or otherwise deliberately resting as per the Exhausted condition. Recover fully at the end of the following session.
The Third Eye (sticky): [ ]
Mark this condition when utilizing your magical Sight to view the mystical, true world overlaid on the material world. While the condition is marked checked, your memory is eidetic and the following are true:
- You view everything as a metaphorical expression of its true nature.
- The Sight ignores supernatural disguises or glamours and grants no guidance in interpretation of what is seen.
Spirit World (sticky): [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
This condition uses five boxes to represent your significant spiritual capital, which translates to a constant supply of local ghosts and spirits to help you. Mark a box when you draw on your spiritual resources for this mantle’s stunts. Recover this condition by waiting (one box per session) or by spending a scene to meet with local spirits and clear the track. During the meeting, however, your followers (via the GM) will inform you of a spiritual problem necessitating your attention.
Angry Spirits (sticky): [ ]
Violating the spirit’s trust marks this condition. While the Angry Spirit’s condition is marked you may no longer use the Spirit World condition. Recover Angry Spirits when you have made restitution with the spirits.
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:
- Check a stress box for +1 or two boxes for +2 on any one magical action. You may check 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 checked, 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 an Intellect roll, opposed by their Intellect roll; the winner learns one concrete, useful piece of information about the other individual, or two things if they succeed 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:
White Council Membership:
As a member wizard in good standing, once per session, you may contact the White Council to request assistance. The GM determines what aid, if any, is given and the cost thereof. If the favor is great, the GM may impose the Indebted condition with multiple boxes checked; you must recover from the condition before again using the White Council Membership stunt.
Warden (requires White Council Membership):
You have the mandate and authority to track down and mete out lethal justice to those who violate the Laws of Magic (page 78).
- Gain +2 to attacks against anyone designated a sorcerer by said violation(s).
Enchanted Item:
You always possess a number of useful items—potions or other magical gadgets. Once per session, describe one of these items and create an ad hoc stunt effect related to its function, which you may use for the rest of the scene. Work with the GM to determine the specifics according to the guidelines on page 114. If the effect you desire is powerful, the GM may charge a fate point for its use, at her discretion. You may lend your item to another character, allowing them to use this stunt in your stead. You may take this stunt more than once; each time grants an additional use per session.
Spirit Talker:
Spirit Talkers perceive the presence of spirits and ghosts. If they are deliberately trying to conceal themselves Roll Focus (or Intellect) vs. Guile. Spirits get a +2 when trying to perceive or locate you. Spirit Talkers speak and otherwise communicate directly with ghosts and other invisible or incorporeal spirits, without any need to perform thaumaturgy. They may seek out information and specific individuals among the dead.
Possession:
Check a box of Spirit World to allow a minor spirit to possess you for a scene allowing you access to either an aspect or a +2 bonus in something they’re skilled at (see the NPC creation rules on page 212). Check multiple boxes to grant multiple aspects and multiple areas of competence, with a maximum of +2 in any one area. Use your fate points to invoke these aspects on your behalf.
CONDITIONS:
In Peril (sticky): [ 4 ]
You may mark the In Peril condition whenever you are hit by an attack. Negate up to four shifts of damage from the attack and then create an aspect that describes how the attack causes damage not easily shaken off (such as a Broken Leg or Shattered Reputation). Whoever inflicted the condition is awarded a free invoke on that aspect. Recover from In Peril when you act deliberately to resolve the peril: medical attention for an injury, a bribe to erase the slight on your reputation. This typically entails overcoming an obstacle against an opposition of Great (+4) or higher.
Doomed (lasting): [ 6 ]
You may mark the Doomed condition whenever you are hit by an attack. Negate up to six shifts of damage from the attack and then create an aspect that describes how the attack has rendered you almost helpless, such as Bleeding Out or Ready to Embrace the Dark Side. Whoever inflicted the condition is awarded a free invoke on that aspect. Recover from Doomed when you act deliberately to resolve the doom: emergency medical attention, the intervention of a White Council healer skilled in mental magic, or something similar. This typically entails overcoming an obstacle against an opposition of Great (+4) or higher. Clear out Doomed at the end of the next session after you’ve started recovery. If Doomed is checked and you are taken out (page 189), death is one of the possible outcomes.
Indebted to Odianna of Winter (sticky): [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ ]
Indebted to Railita (sticky): [ X ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
Jack owes Odianna for preventing Abi’s cancer from killing her. It won’t hold forever but he is very much in her debt.
This condition has five boxes. Mark one or more boxes when you have accrued a debt to a powerful group, person, or entity. The number of boxes you mark depends on the magnitude of the favor done for you; the GM has final say. Recover boxes of Indebted by doing favors for the lender in return, on their terms. Typically, a fairly safe but challenging task recovers one box, a dangerous task recovers two boxes, and a task that puts you in mortal danger or could otherwise permanently impact you recovers all boxes.
REFRESH: 1
Spent Refresh: 5
STRESS: [ 1 ][ 1 ][ 1 ][ 1 ][ 1 ][ 1 ]
Bio:
DOB: December 21, 1987
BACKGROUND
Jack Youngblood was a young wizard with the potential to be one of the most powerful of his generation. His father, a Warden of great renown, relentlessly pushed his young son to realize that potential. Jack resented his father’s strict discipline and overbearing attitude and rebelled against him at every turn. He was involved in many petty crimes and associated with gangs, disreputable Fae and many other uncouth characters in both the mundane and supernatural worlds. Despite using his great power irresponsibly he was a good kid at heart who enjoyed causing mischief and driving his father to distraction. That all ended when his antics led to the love of his life, Abigail Youngblood being possessed by the Denarion Demon, Azael who put his father in a coma leaving Jack to care for his younger sister Caroline Youngblood. Seeking redemption Jack swore on his fallen father’s Warden sword he would become a Warden worthy of his family name.
RISING CONFLICT
For several years Jack Youngblood worked alongside his mentor and fellow Warden, Zebidiah Einar and his close friends, Bruno Walsh and Leif Wotensen and loyal allies such as hero cop Roy Mullenix and the ex-SEAL Mathew Riley to protect the city of Seattle from any and all threats. They faced many terrible foes but somehow they were always able to keep the people of Seattle safe. Jack was finally reunited with Abigail when the demon Azael abandoned her body because she had developed cancer. The demon now inhabits Jack’s father’s body.
Abigail, finally free of the Fallen Angel after years of possession, realized that she and Jack had a child and that the demon had hidden it from her. Fearing their time was short because of her illness Jack and Abigail married shortly after her liberation. Jack focused his entire being on finding his lost child and curing his new wife of the cancer that was devouring her from the inside. Perhaps that distraction was why he was completely unprepared and faced The Un-man alone. Jack arrogantly believed his potent magic would be more than a match for a young protege of his hated enemy, the two bit warlock, Barry Goldman. It was a careless mistake and it nearly cost him his life. The Un-man, a powerful Outsider that had possessed Troy Wilkerson’s body, ripped the magic from Jack draining him almost completely dry. He only survived the encounter because of the efforts of two of Seattle PD’s finest who managed to bring the monster down in a hail of gunfire. Jack was bereft of the bulk of his power and still needed to find a cure for his wife and the location of his daughter. His situation could not have been more desperate.
THE STORY
STORY TITLE: BLOOD OF THE FALLEN
GUEST STARRING: Charles Kress
Despite his failing magic Jack Youngblood’s duties as a Warden are clear. He must stop the Fomor invasion before they gain a foothold in nearby Portland. However, when Jack discovers that Azael, the demon who knows the location of his missing child, is also in the Rose City and wants to possess his newly discovered half brother, Charles Kress, he is forced to make a terrible choice. Take up the fight and defend the city or save his half brother from damnation and confront Azael about the location of his lost child. Can Jack save Charles from the demon? More importantly can Charles save Jack from himself?
GUEST STAR
STORY TITLE: ANCIENT CLAY
STARRING: David Clay
Rabbi Shulman was not suspicious when Radcliffe financial foreclosed on his house while his son was sick, but talking to other parents found similar problems, so he went to the lawyer who lived in his basement for help. Tracing the financial web lead to a strange link with a Ancient Mesopotamian artifact dug up by a Radcliffe sponsored dig on display at the local community center, and an ancient disease spirit haunting its halls. Only a man of clay could survive its toxic touch to save the children. Once they were safe the young Warden, Jack Youngblood, aided the Golem in binding the spirit back into the artifact preventing the disease from spreading.
GUEST STAR REDUX
STORY TITLE: Legacy of the Un-man
STARRING: Fergus Mac Cormaic
Fergus Mac Cormaic had walked away from his faerie bloodline choosing to be a mortal and live with his pregnant fiance, Anna Maria Avila. However, his grandfather, a powerful troll, died in his arms passing on the mantle of the Guardian of the Seventh Gate to the reluctant ex-changeling. Confronted by a Winter Fae lady accusing him of failing his duty and outed as a supernatural to Anna he must now learn what his new responsibilities entail. The only one who can help him repair the failing Seventh Gate is the disgraced Warden Jack Youngblood, who is on a quest to repair his own damaged mystical power.
GUEST STAR REDUX
STORY TITLE: A TOUCH OF DEATH
STARRING: Hiroko Noshimuri
While on the trail of a mysterious killer, Hiroko Nishimuri consulted with the Buddhist monk, Reverend Charlie. The kindly monk had little to offer her in her quest but did suggest that if she wanted to find someone in the Emerald City she should seek out Seattle’s Warden, Jack Youngblood.
Hiroko heeded the wise man’s suggestion and, at first found herself unimpressed with the wizard. He was younger than she would have suspected, and he was far too casual and irreverent for her tastes. However, she was forced to revisit her opinion of him once she saw his magic in action. The impudent young wizard helped her track down the killer with an impressive display of magic allowing her to confront the Penanggalan and stop it from harming anyone else. A bond based on mutual respect developed between the wizard and the warrior as a result.