#RPGaDAY2026: Day 7 Mercy

Mercy is the hardest magic for a witch to learn.

Any witch can curse. Any witch can hex. Any witch can call down fire, rot, silence, madness, or whatever else the old books and older powers are willing to teach her.

Mercy is different.

Teenaged Larina is powerful, loyal, brilliant, and brave. But she is not famous for her impulse control or her anger control. Sometimes she sees the cruelty, the monster, the threat to someone she loves, and her first instinct is simple enough.

Burn it all down. Burn fucking everything.

And sometimes, that is the right call.

But mercy asks something harder of her. It asks her to stop. To breathe. To decide whether justice really needs fire this time.

For a witch, mercy is not weakness.

Often, it is choosing not to become the next thing people need saving from. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect.  It's Friday, and Friday's Child is "Loving & Giving." 

Mara Ashcroft.  Mara is a librarian at St. Michael's Catholic School who quietly places the right forbidden book in the right frightened student’s hands. She likes most students, and more to the point, she knows which books NOT to give to which students.

Miss Ashcroft is not a "witch," at least that is what she tells herself. She says she is like her gran; a woman who knew how to "see around corners" and who always knew who was sneaking cookies from her drawer in the kitchen. Miss Ashcroft likes to think that she knows which books to give to which students because she is a good judge of character. And she is. It's just she often has the book in hand before the student even enters the library.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 6 Reach

Learning and dealing with occult magic is all about reach.

It reaches across the veil, into dreams, through mirrors, down bloodlines, into old books, forgotten places, and the spaces between worlds. It is not always about power. Sometimes it is about contact.

That is what makes it dangerous.

The Witch Queen Larina of West Haven knows this better than most. The white streak in her otherwise red hair is not just cosmetic. It is a reminder. A mark. Proof that sometimes her reach goes farther than her grasp. It is also something that Teen Larina of Jackson, IL has yet to learn. 

And really, that is the risk every witch takes.

To be a witch is to reach for something beyond the safe and ordinary world, knowing that sometimes something reaches back.

Iriandor NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Today is Thursday, and that is "Far to Go." Today's NPC is from Iriandor, my Daggerheart setting. Neris of the South Road. They are an Iriandor mapmaker who believes the world changes when no one is looking. Given the flux that Iriandor is in, they might be on to something.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 5 Burden

It is Witchcraft Wednesday, so let's make today witch-focused. 

Every witch carries a burden.

For some it is knowledge, either learned through books or experience. For many it is power. And for others still it is the terrible understanding that the world is larger, older, stranger, and crueler than most people will ever know.

Larina carries the burden of knowing what is really out there. Faye carries the burden of what was done to her. Rowan carries the pain of others. The witches of the Threefold Goddess carry faith, mystery, and contradiction. The High Order carries secrets. The Scaled Sisterhood carries ancient blood and older obligations.

That is part of what makes witches different from other magic-users.

A wizard learns spells. A cleric serves a god. But a witch inherits something. Often it is a terrible inheritance. A promise. A scar. A duty. A curse. A family. A coven. A town. Often all of them at once.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Today is Wednesday, Full of Woe, which is why Wednesday Addams has the name she does. 

Lots of students at Jackson Public High School and St. Michaels know what is going on. David Cross is one such student. A Jackson Public student who keeps dreaming true things and writing them down before they happen. Sadly, it is likely he will come to the attention of the PCs when his diary shows up, and he predicts his own death. And others. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 4 Charm

Today we move over to Rowan's boyfriend, Andy. Anderson Thompson has Charm. 

Not in the slick, silver-tongued way one usually associates with the elites. Andy's charm is quieter. Maybe because of who his family is, he has developed his own way of dealing with people. He does this by raising others up. He is the kind of person who makes others want to be better because they are sure that is what Andy already thinks of them. 

That is powerful.

He doesn't bully, guilt, or cajole people into doing the right thing. He doesn't shame them. He just looks at them with his strong, steady confidence and enthusiasm, and suddenly they want to be whatever it is Andy sees in them. And when they do it, Andy is there saying, "Yeah! I knew you could do it!"

That is a different use of Charisma/Persona that what Stephanie has. No seduction, no manipulation. But rather trust. Andy already knows you can do it; you just need a little encouragement.

Jackson, IL and Carbon Vale, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect, and Tuesday is Full of Grace. Today I reach into TWO campaigns. This character is part of my Carbon Vale, alt-universe setting, but she also makes appearances in Jackson due to her connection to Lars Nichols.   

Professor Étaín Ní Mhaoláin: A Carbon Vale folklore professor whose lectures feel almost like rituals. An Irish national in Illinois on a scholar's visa. Larina is obsessed with her research. 

Étaín Ní Mhaoláin is, of course, the modern horror version/echo/shard of Étaín Moonshadow. She is also based on a Classics professor I really liked.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 3 Poise

Rowan Abigail McGowan has Poise.

Not the finishing school kind. Far from it. Not the "walk with a book balanced on your head" kind. Rowan has more skill balancing a saddle and a sack full of feed while avoiding the usual hazards of a horse barn. No, Rowan's poise is the kind you get when the dead are restless, the living are scared, and someone has to ride into the middle of all of it. 

As a Spirit Rider, Rowan feels the connections more than most people. Pain, fear, grief, rage- all of it presses down on her. But she doesn't not break, despite only being a teen. She breathes, steadies herself, and keeps on going.

For a horror setting like Jackson, that is poise.

Not looking calm because nothing is wrong, but staying steady because everything is wrong and someone still has to do something about it. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is the start of Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Monday is "Fair of Face." That goes for a few of my characters, really. 

Alicia Wrenfield: A West Haven witch-scholar whose beauty makes people underestimate how ruthless her research can be. She is in her early 30s and is a former MacAlister student who still lives in town. She is an accountant at Gilbert & Todd Bank downtown by day, and an astute researcher at night. Her online fights with "The Wizard" on the local "Weird Jackson" Dial up BBSes are legendary.  

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 2 Stature

 Stephanie Wren Vale is 5'5" tall.

Not short, but not exactly physically imposing either. 

Yet when Stephanie walks into a room, everyone notices. More importantly, they relax. She has the sort of presence that fills the room beyond her 5 feet 5 inches, and she makes people feel, "Ok, good, Stephanie is here." 

That is her stature. 

It's not just height, it is how she holds herself. It's not power in an obvious sense, but Stephanie knows how to wield it like power.

She takes control of a situation because she understands people and their relationships. She can calm a room, redirect panic, shut down doubt and make people feel like there is a plan. Even if she is just making it up as she goes along.

In my Jackson, IL setting, Larina knows how the occult works. Faye knows survival. Roawn knows connection and community. Stephanie knows how to make people follow her because they want to.

And that is her special brand of magic.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 1 according to the schedule, and the topic is Drive. Today is Sunday, and the word is Blessed. Sister Margaret Doyle is a retired St. Michael’s teacher in Jackson who seems to know exactly which student needs help before they ask. She can often be found at Jackson's Public Library reading newspapers from all over the area. She always leaves them more organized than when she found them.

Sister Doyle has a couple of levels of Psychic; she is an empath and will talk to any character, especially teens, to help comfort them. She is a pleasant old woman whoes only secrets are the ones given to her by others. Can be helpful to connect characters to important NPCs.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 1 Discipline

 Today's prompt is Discipline.

The daily discipline of writing mirrors the witch’s discipline of spellcraft, where one missed word can turn a charm into a curse.

I try to write every day. I often take the weekend off, but I still do a lot of writing. I honestly just can't stop. I see the same quality in the witches in my games, namely they have to keep practicing their magic.

Take one of my favorite characters: Zatanna. This is her day after all; Zatannurday.

Zatanna rather famously does her magic by speaking backward. It isn't that she speaks the words backward and the magic happens; she has to focus on saying the words backward because that is the intent of the spell. It gives her the focus she needs to make what she wants happen.

That is one of the reasons I am still a fan of Vancian magic for AD&D even though there have been scores of other systems that can work for it. It is the discipline, both for the character and the player, to make the magic count.

Jackson, IL NPC

According to the prompts, this is Week 1, and since today is Saturday, the prompt is Works Hard and Drive.

Greg Armstrong. Greg is a senior at Jackson Public High School. You won't see his name on the honor roll, nor on one of the athletic teams, but where you will find Greg most afternoons and every weekend is Armstrong's Body Shop. No one at JPHS knows car repair like Greg. His pride and joy (and justifiably so) is his 1982 Chevy Camaro painted cherry red. He bought it as a junker and has spent the last couple of years rebuilding it on his own, on his own dime. Since he has completed it, his popularity among the girls has gone way up. He is not a bad kid, but he understands cars a lot better than he understands people.

Graduating in the class of 1986. No. He does not like the song Bitchin' Camaro.

Jackson Soundtrack

Every day, I am also going to pick a song that matches the daily theme. In my Jackson setting, much like any Midwest town in the 1980s, music was important. Who and what you listened to was nearly as important as what you wore and who you hung out with. Music was a personality shorthand. but since this is a "Jackson, IL" soundtrack (though it would work for Carbon Vale, IL too) I am limiting the music to the years 1980 to 1986.

Up first, Elvis Costello and "Everyday I Write the Book."  Fairly appropriate, I think. 

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