It is just before Christmas break in Jackson, but the supernatural does not rest. The Jackson Public School Football team is headed to the playoffs. Star players and the team co-Captains (despite only being Juniors), Andy Thompson and Valentino "Val" Moreno, promise to take the team all the way to state. But a freak snow storm, and even freakier hoof prints spell more than trouble; they are an old curse coming home.
I have been waiting for a good adventure to feature my "it" couple, Andy and Rowan. I have talked a little bit about them already, and they have been in the background. Andy Thompson is the son of the "first family" of Jackson. His father owns the local stables and horse track, where horse racing is held every weekend over the summer. Andy's father worked to bring betting to the track and turned his already rich family even richer. Rowan is the sweet horse girl who was all awkward knees and elbows and braces in Junior High and came back gorgeous in High School.
Yes. I am embracing every cliché I can. But only the ones that serve the game.
Andy and Rowan are important to me and to these adventures. And I wanted to introduce them the right way.
Andy and Rowan
Larina: "Who are those two?"
Faye: "Oh. Andy and Rowan. They were born dating."
Stephanie: "I hear Hallmark follows them around for ideas."
Faye: "They came out of their mother's wombs and were holding hands when they left the hospital."
Stephanie: "Yeah, I have seen the pictures."
Andy and Rowan began as The Couple. You know, they were always together, never apart, only had eyes for each other. If this were a John Cougar song, they would be "Jack and Diane." But for me, I wanted a couple that had staying power, ones you could actually see growing old together. Why? Because with all the crazy shit going on in the game, I wanted them to be true. Trouble is, Rowan is a Spirit Rider, and Andy...well, Andy changed on me, and he became a better version of himself.
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| Rowan and Andy (and Tempest). Aren't they adorable? |
Rowan McGowan
"Some people learn magic. Some people are chosen by it. And a very few… belong to a place so completely that the place answers back. We call those people 'guardians' or 'protectors.' The old name is 'maor fearainna,' but folks also call them Spirit Rider."
- Malcolm "Mac" McGowan
Rowan in my games is many things. Witch. Protector. Guardian. Witch Knight. And I have worked her up in many different ways:
Here in Jackson, she is not quite all of that. At least not yet. Here, she is just a sweet "horse girl" who loves her grandpa Mac, doesn't remember her mom or dad (who both died when she was a baby), loves her horse "Tempest" (even if he hates everyone else but her), loves getting up before dawn to feed the horses, but most of all, she loves Anderson Thompson.
She has no idea that she is secretly Jackson, IL's Spirit Rider, and it is because of her love for everything that she has unconsciously built a supernatural wall to keep everything else out. Until the night of the Bell. Now the Hollow King is doing everything he can to erode her will so he can finally break through to Jackson and feed. Even if she knows what is happening, she doesn't yet know how to fight it. So she is not the protector right now; she is the one who needs protecting. She needs the PCs' help. That is, until she accepts her power.
Which is saying something, because she is up before sunrise to get all her work done so she can enjoy her coffee in peace before school. The PCs have their work cut out for them.
1st level Spirit Rider, Human
Background: Farm Kid
Base Abilities
Strength: 14 (+1)
Agility: 13 (+1)
Toughness: 14 (+1) n
Intelligence: 13 (+1)
Wits: 16 (+2) V
Persona: 15 (+4) n
Vit: 5 (1d4)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6
Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0 Ranged bonus: +0
Languages: English, Spanish
Skills: Horse Riding, Animal Handling (Farm kid)
Saves: +1 to Wits and Persona-based saves, +1 to Tougness-based (Farm Kid)
Spirit Rider Abilities
Innate Magic, Arcana, Arcane Powers, Commune with Spirit of the Land, Power Limitation (100 miles) Magic Battery
Innate Magic & Arcane Powers
Innate: Speak with Animals
Arcane: Precognition, Empathy
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'5"
Archetype: The "Horse Girl" / The Protector
Quote: "I trust horses more than most people."
Quirks: Dresses for comfort and work. Drinks coffee so strong that even Faye is impressed.
Theme song: "Wildfire" - Michael Martin Murphey. She is a country girl at heart.
Her "Farm Kid" background gives her an "Animal Handling" skill and +1 on Toughness-based saves. All that clean living I guess. Technically, she doesn't live on a farm; she lives on a small ranch near stables, which are still within the city limits. But like I said, that is a technicality. Rowan is a farm girl deep in her bones.
One thing I have decided about this NPC. She never swears. She will say "shoot" and "gosh darn it." Or maybe when she is really, really mad, she will let a "Hell" escape her lips. But never anything worse. She isn't religious, and this has nothing to do with blasphemy or anything like that. She had been taught that a "lady doesn't use those words." Rowan gets up before dawn so she can feed and water the horses, muck out the stalls, lift bales of hay that weigh 100lbs, and do all of this before her classmates even wake up. She doesn't think of herself as a "lady." She just thinks those words are impolite.
Trust me. That is the hardest part about playing her!
Anderson "Andy" Thompson
I had different plans for Andy. But while sitting there working on his backstory for the game, I discovered a few things. Andy and Valentino have been best friends since they were 4 years old, when Val brought a Nerf football to preschool. That image of these two little guys running up and down the playground with that blue-and-orange foam-rubber football was so vivid that all my original plans for Andy were scrapped.
See, originally Andy was the son of Arawn, the God of Death (and played in my mind by Giancarlo Esposito, because the man was born to play the God of Death!). Rowan was supposed to die in the car crash that killed her parents, and Arawn had been looking for her, but she was protected by her grandfather Mac, a Witch Knight/Spirit Rider. Andy was supposed to collect her soul, but fell in love instead.
I kept the only parts that mattered. Malcolm "Mac" McGowan stayed a witch knight, her parents were still dead, and Andy and Rowan were still in love. And that little kid playing football and pretending to be in the Chicago Bears with the other little kid became his brother in all but blood. I mean, I just couldn't see either of those little guys as evil.
So now Andy 2.0 is still the star football player, but now he is also just this really nice guy. I wanted to at least avoid the 80s stereotype that the football player meant "dumb jerk."
Andy moves through the school with ease. He knows everyone's name; an artifact from his "Son of the God of Death" origin, now just because he pays attention (Sage's Lore ability). He asks them about their family, and if they have a game, science fair, band competition, or anything like that, he is the first and loudest to wish the best of luck. He will high-five the baseball team while still giving them grief about their last game, and then he will fist-bump the debate team on their way to state. He is just a good kid.
During halftime of the football games, he runs out onto the field to join the marching band on trumpet. Coach Zimmerman always complains that his captain is out "being a cheerleader," but he knows nothing gets the crowd going more, and a loud crowd works wonders on the players. And the Coach actually thinks it's kind of fun. Andy will be the first to admit he's not the best trumpet player, but everyone loves seeing him out there to enegize the crowd.
Yeah, his dad can still be a jerk, but he is no longer the God of Death. They are still super rich and owns the stables and track. And most of the buildings are on the growing west end of town.
It was working one summer on the track (his dad called it character building) when Andy first really saw Rowan. The awkward, somewhat geeky "horse girl" was out riding, and Andy's heart stopped. He saw past all his teen nonsense to the woman she would become underneath all braids, braces, acne, and too-thick glasses. Rowan did not trust, or even like, Andy at first, but he spent the summer proving himself to her and to her Grandfather. They began "dating" their freshman year, and no one got it. When they came back their sophomore year, Rowan had grown into herself and was gorgeous.
When the others finally saw her, Andy just asked, "What took you all so long?"
I also wanted a super stable couple. Because why not?
The next problem became Andy's class. As the son of the God of the Dead, I had some flexibility. But now he is just a regular human kid. He is well-liked, offers an encouraging word to everyone, and is the model student-athlete.
What he is is a Bard. Not the horny kind (well...), but he does play a horn. He really is the "face" character, the one who talks to the adults and convinces them that 10-ft tall monster was really just part of an elaborate prank they are playing on the St. Michaels Catholic High School on the East side of town. Of course, they believe him. He is a Thompson after all.
Sages can cover Bards well and even get some skills to help round him out. I do want to make his Aspect (or Primary) stat to be Persona rather than Intelligence.
2nd level Bard (Sage), Human
Background: Jock
Base Abilities
Strength: 16 (+2)
Agility: 17 (+2) n
Toughness: 16 (+2)
Intelligence: 14 (+1) n
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 18 (+3) A
Vit: 8 (1d6)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6
Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0 Ranged bonus: +1
Languages: English, Spanish, French
Skills: Read Music, Play instruments (trumpet, trombone, saxophone)
Saves: +3 to spells and magic-based saves, +1 to Strength and Toughness-based (Jock)
Sage Abilities
Survivor Skills, Mesmerize ("Fast Talk"), Lore, Languages, Spells
Survivor Skills
Open Locks: 15%
Bypass Traps: 10%
Sleight of Hand: 20%
Move Silently: 20%
Hide in Shadows: 10%
Spells
First-level: Bless ("Rally")
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'11"
Archetype: The Popular Kid
Quote: "I’m just saying, maybe let’s not make the worst possible decision first." or "Ok! Let's Go! We can do this!" (in about every situation.)
Quirks: Remembers everyone's name and something about them. Wants to be liked for being a good person, not for his family's money.
Theme song: "Boys of Summer" - Don Henley. But during the "Season Finale" against the Hollow King, Andy will be belting out "The Final Countdown" on his trumpet.
The thing to remember about Andy is that he is a good kid deep down. He is the guy cheering you on, telling you that you can do it because he believes you can. And you end up believing him as well.
Neither characters are powerhouses. They have low Vitality (hit points) and not a lot in the way of powers. In fact, they don't think what they do is magic at all. Andy's "Bless" spell is just his natural enthusiasm for everything. People *do* better with around because they think he is in their corner. And they are right. Rowan calls her empathy and precognition "just good old 'horse sense'." She calls her ability to speak to animals just knowing how to listen. They are the least pretentious non-player characters in the entire game.
I have an adventure that features them coming up. A headless horseman tied to Rowan's past, but we did not get to it this past weekend, so all I did was introduce them.
Spoilers
Rowan and Andy get married right out of high school. His father is mad and threatens to disown him, but his grandmother intervenes. Instead of U of I, he goes to Illinois Beecher College in town, plays on the football team, and gets his degree in Education to return to JPHS to teach and coach, eventually replacing the retiring Coach Zimmerman. Rowan, now the Spirit Rider of Jackson, runs the stables (Andy bought them from his dad with his college savings) and has turned part of them into a hippotherapy center for children. Rowan also attended Illinois Beecher College and earned her degree in psychology and occupational therapy.
Adult Rowan's wards around Jackson are described by witches as "formidable" and by supernatural threats as...well, they don't describe them at all; Rowan usually dispatches them long before they ever get the chance. Rowan would rather calm a frightened horse or help a child learn to ride, but when it comes to defending Jackson, she is brutal and efficient. It is just another chore to be done, like mucking out a stall.
In truth, I love these two and wish them a ton of happiness.
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